It’s unusual to achieve something on your first try. But Claus Falsby’s successful first go at metal detecting was more than just unusual—it was nothing short of extraordinary.
The rookie metal detectorist discovered 2,500-year-old Late Bronze Age artifacts in a bog in the Danish municipality of Egedal, including a ritually bent sword and a rare necklace. The exceptional findings, announced in a statement by the Danish museum ROMU, highlight Northern Europe’s crucial transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
Falsby alerted the ROMU as soon as he realized he’d (literally) hit the jackpot, according to the statement. The museum immediately sent archaeologists to investigate, who confirmed that the artifacts were part of what’s known as a “depot”—a divine or sacrificial offering. They unearthed a ritually bent sword, two small bronze axes, “ankle rings,” and a fragment of a possible clothing pin, among other things.
Believe it or not, Falsby’s second outing proved just as lucky. A few days later, he found another impressive sacrificial artifact less than 231 feet (70 meters) away from the first discovery: a large decorated bronze necklace, only the second of its kind ever unearthed in Denmark. The ROMU archaeologists dated all the artifacts, dubbed the Egedal find, to around 500 BCE, marking the region’s transition period between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age…
The sword—bronze with iron rivets—is an especially pertinent representation of this transition. In fact, its rivets might be the earliest known iron discovered in Denmark, according to the archaeologists. It was bent into an S-shape before being offered, allegedly for ritualistic reasons, and the researchers concluded from its design that the sword had been imported from the militant Hallstatt culture that lived just north of the Alps… Struve and his colleagues speculated that the bronze necklace also came from abroad, specifically from the Polish coast…
…
If you’ve been online over the past few weeks, I’m sure you’ve seen dozens of posts where people excitedly cover their cars in festive lights. This morning alone, I saw clips of Corvettes and Ford trucks getting into the festive spirit and while it’s fun the first one or two times, it’s getting a little old. What’s more, the trend has damaged some cars. Who would have thought? As it turns out, the tiny glass bulbs resting on your paintwork have a habit of flapping about in the wind while you’re driving, covering some cars in tiny scratches.
In addition to damaging your precious paint, it turns out that lighting up your car could actually be illegal in some states, reports CarScoops. Adding lights on your car can be distracting, and some states even ban red or blue lights as it could constitute impersonating a police officer, as the site explains: …
Macron is still pretending he won the legislative assembly elections. The fascist leader, Le Pen, has said she won’t immediately back a no confidence motion against Bayrou, while the left intend to put one forward, saying Macron should appoint someone acceptable to them as they won most seats (but far short of a majority). This will confirm that Bayrou serves at the pleasure of Le Pen.
Now with 25 million users, Bluesky is facing a test that will determine whether or not its platform will still be seen as a safe space and place of refuge from the toxicity of X. In recent days, a large number of users on Bluesky have been urging the company to ban one newcomer for his opinions and works shared both on and off the platform.
Writer and podcast host Jesse Singal joined Bluesky 12 days ago to the horror of much of the Bluesky community. Singal has been cataloged by GLAAD’s Accountability Project for his writings on transgender issues and other matters. The GLAAD project “catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence, and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.”
He is now the most blocked user on the social network, and user outrage over his participation on the platform is growing. People are demanding that Bluesky take a stand: it’s either a place that promises it won’t host bad actors like this, or it’s a place that promises not to inflate the reach of such bad actors thanks to its various moderation tools.
StevoR @ comment 499 in the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread: No. And No Again. Do not do that.
On The Infinite Thread we do not do that. You should not fantasize about violence when posting in The Infinite Thread, nor should you propose that others do violence. The rule holds even if you are speaking metaphorically or jokingly. The rule holds even if you are being sarcastic
Reginald Selkirksays
@457 Lynna OM: “Facebook CEO gives Trump a million ‘Zuck bucks’ for inauguration”
Thousands of sites running WordPress remain unpatched against a critical security flaw in a widely used plugin that was being actively exploited in attacks that allow for unauthenticated execution of malicious code, security researchers said.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-11972, is found in Hunk Companion, a plugin that runs on 10,000 sites that use the WordPress content management system. The vulnerability, which carries a severity rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10, was patched earlier this week. At the time this post went live on Ars, figures provided on the Hunk Companion page indicated that less than 12 percent of users had installed the patch, meaning nearly 9,000 sites could be next to be targeted…
“Have you spoken to Vladimir Putin since your election?” Time magazine asked Donald Trump during its latest interview. It seemed like a simple, straightforward question about an issue that’s come up repeatedly in recent weeks. All the president-elect had to do was say yes or no.
The Republican did neither. “I can’t tell you,” Trump replied. “I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate.”
At that point, the interview moved on, but given the larger context, it’s probably best not to brush past this too quickly.
If Trump’s refusal to talk about this sounds at all familiar, it’s because he’s adopted this posture before. In fact, as regular readers might recall, it was in early May 2016, as political observers just started to consider questions about Trump and his relationship with the Russian leader, when the then-candidate was asked whether he’d spoken to Putin. “I don’t want to say,” the Republican replied.
A day later, Trump sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier, who followed up on the question. “Yeah, I have no comment on that,” the future president replied. “No comment.”
The Fox host, apparently surprised, said one of the things people liked about Trump was his willingness “to answer any question.” The candidate didn’t seem to care. “Yeah, but I don’t want to comment,” he added.
It was an early indication that Trump’s relationship with his benefactor in Moscow was, to understate matters, problematic. After all, the Republican hardly ever said, “No comment” in response to any question on any subject. He loved, and continues to love, commenting — even when he has no idea what he’s talking about. But asked about whether he’d had direct interactions with Putin, the then-candidate suddenly had nothing to say.
Matters did not improve in the years that followed. In fact, The Washington Post reported in 2019 that Trump and the Russian leader had a series of undisclosed chats during the Republican’s first term in the White House. […]
More recently, Bob Woodward’s latest book, citing a senior Trump aide, alleged that Trump and Putin had direct conversations “as many as seven times” after he left office following his 2020 defeat. (The account is credited to a single anonymous aide and provides no further details. Neither NBC News nor MSNBC independently confirmed the reporting.) The Kremlin denied the accuracy of the claim, as did Trump initially, though in October — just a few weeks before Election Day 2024 — the Republican boasted that it’d be “a smart thing” if he had secret communications with the Russian autocrat.
Two months later, Trump said he “can’t” say whether he had private chats with Putin, adding that it’d be “inappropriate” to discuss it.
Whether [Trump] understands this or not, that’s a bizarre answer. Since he won a second term, Trump hasn’t been shy about touting his interactions with foreign leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, among others.
[Trump] has bragged about the conversations, touted them on his social media platform, and referenced the interactions publicly. Trump hasn’t expressed the slightest reservations about promoting his discussions with foreign leaders — and by all appearances, he’s proud of them, using the chats as proof of his importance.
And yet, while he’s perfectly eager to talk about these chats with foreign leaders, Trump apparently believes he has to remain silent when it comes to Putin.
For those concerned about Trump’s relationship with his friend in Moscow, this isn’t going to help.
“Despite the vice president-elect’s claims, the Justice Department’s inspector general just shredded a key Jan. 6 conspiracy theory.”
[…] Many GOP officials were heavily invested in Alexander Smirnov’s dubious claims about President Joe Biden, but the profiteer has since admitted that he made up the allegations.
In case that weren’t enough to ruin Republican conspiracy theorists’ day, the developments in Smirnov’s criminal case coincided with an important inspector general’s report. The New York Times reported:
More than two dozen F.B.I. informants were in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, but contrary to widespread conspiracy theories, bureau officials did not order anyone to break the law as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol that day, according to a report by a Justice Department watchdog released on Thursday. After a nearly four-year investigation, the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, also determined that the F.B.I. had not stationed any undercover agents in the crowd that gathered at the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory over Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election.
Horowitz’s full, 88-page report was published online and is available to the public.
It’s important to emphasize that the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office did not limit its lengthy investigation to this one line of inquiry. On the contrary, the bulk of the report focused on the FBI and its missteps ahead of the Jan. 6 riot.
But in terms of the larger political conversation, the investigation’s findings related to FBI informants are reverberating the loudest.
Those who don’t follow far-right rhetoric closely might not appreciate the degree to which many Republicans and their allies have spent nearly four years pushing the idea that federal law enforcement instigated the insurrectionist assault. The absurd claims grew so common that they were given a name: The “fedsurrection“ narrative was rooted in the idea that it was the FBI, and not Trump’s rabid followers, that was responsible for the violence at the U.S. Capitol.
We already knew — from congressional investigations and multiple federal court cases — that the conspiracy theory was baseless. But in case there were still any lingering doubts, the Justice Department’s inspector general erased them in unambiguous detail.
It was against this backdrop that Vice President-elect JD Vance decided to tweak the theory, apparently hoping no one would notice.
By way of social media, JD Vance highlighted an item noting that the Jan. 6 crowd included FBI informants. “For those keeping score at home, this was labeled a dangerous conspiracy theory months ago,” Vance wrote online.
I’m not in a position to say whether the senator was genuinely confused or cynically trying to pull one over on the public, but either way, Vance’s missive was fundamentally unserious.
The far-right conspiracy theory wasn’t that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants. We already knew this. Some even testified during Jan. 6 criminal cases.
Rather, as Vance really ought to know, the conspiracy theory is that the FBI was somehow responsible for instigating the attack and entrapping Trump’s poor, unsuspecting supporters.
Horowitz’s findings shred these claims. Not only did the IG conclude that the FBI informants weren’t authorized or encouraged to break the law, but the same findings made clear that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, either.
If Republican conspiracy theorists want to apologize right about now, that’d be great. If they want to enjoy a little quiet time, that’d be understandable. But for Vance to suggest that the inspector general’s findings somehow bolster Republican conspiracy theories is ridiculous.
Since the election, I’ve emphasized to our reporters that we want to focus less on what Trump might do or is threatening to do, and more on what he is actually doing. The main reason for this is to try to break free of the chaos that Trump sets off with each threat, declaration, feint, and emission and focus instead on concrete and tangible actions. But there’s another salutary reason for directing our finite resources to what is actually happening as opposed to what might happen: It is already happening.
Trump II is unfolding before our eyes exactly as Trump promised it would and as experts warned. As you peruse the news items below, you’ll already see plain evidence of the erosion of the rule of law, of governing norms, and of protections against tyrannical rule. I don’t say that for dramatic effect. It’s just a fact that the damage is already being done now, before Trump is even inaugurated and will of course continue after Jan. 20.
Let me try to put it another way.
Forcing out the FBI director and trying to install the likes of Kash Patel is itself destructive. Whatever Patel ends up doing if he is confirmed as FBI director will be next level stuff, icing on the MAGA cake. The same goes for the damage caused by casting his administration like a reality TV show. Putting charlatans in charge is the point. Whatever they do or fail to do is gravy. It’s not as simple as his appointees being unqualified. It’s that their own lack of seriousness mirrors the contempt and lack of regard they have for the institutions they are set to lead. It’s all part of the destructive impulse.
The descent towards a less democratic America isn’t a cliff’s edge we fall over but a steepening slope. We’ve already come down a considerable distance and the speed of the descent is quickening. This is what it looks like. Right now.
Trump’s Corruption Of The FBI
Garrett M. Graff:
The only reason Trump wants to change FBI directors is he doesn’t think he can boss, bend and break Wray to his will sufficiently, that Wray would not be personally loyal to him in the way that he has wanted his FBI directors to be — and which, institutionally, they’re explicitly not supposed to be. Every single part of that is a dire warning sign about what’s to come under Trump II and what he and Patel intend to do with the bureau
We’re Not Going To Be Out The Woods For A Long Time
New polling shows many Republicans are okay with Trump ignoring the law to target his enemies.
FAA Chief Resigns
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, barely a year into his five-year term, is resigning before Trump takes office.
If the presidential appointees whose terms are longer than the president’s – precisely in order to make them more independent and less susceptible to political interference – keep resigning at the end of the president’s term, then they’re basically turning these positions into the same as those held by any other administration appointee.
‘Personalist Rule’
NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat was on MSNBC the other night talking about FBI Director Chris Wray’s resignation and the broader authoritarian context in which it is happening:
“The core definition of authoritarianism is that the executive overwhelms the other branches of government and all checks on power and the situation of the president, or head of state, are removed,” she said.
“This is actually something called personalist rule. It’s a type of authoritarian where you have a very strong one person […] and the purpose of the party and ultimately government is to solve the legal and financial and other problems of the leader. And so everybody becomes a personal tool to the leader and that’s what is happening now. Everybody is folding to his will,” she said.
[…] The Destruction And Corruption Are Inextricable
WSJ:
The Trump transition team has started to explore pathways to dramatically shrink, consolidate or even eliminate the top bank watchdogs in Washington.
In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether he could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said.
Just to be clear: Abolishing the FDIC, which insures bank deposits, would be insane for the banks, too.
Oligarchy Watch
– WSJ: Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Plans to Donate $1 Million to Trump’s Inauguration
– The LAT’s billionaire publisher has effectively spiked another editorial, this one critical of Trump considering bypassing the Senate’s confirmation process for nominees.
– The junior senator from Connecticut, no less: [video at the link]
Oligarch Wannabe?
In an amazing story on Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, whom her dad picked as his new White House adviser on the Middle East, the NYT suggests he’s not a billionaire as advertised or a lawyer as claimed or even involved in his wife’s family’s company, which had been seen as the source of his wealth.
[…] Mr. Boulos has been profiled as a tycoon by the world’s media, telling a reporter in October that his company is worth billions. Mr. Trump called him a “highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the international scene.”
The president-elect even lavished what may be his highest praise: a “dealmaker.”
In fact, records show that Mr. Boulos has spent the past two decades selling trucks and heavy machinery in Nigeria for a company his father-in-law controls. He is chief executive of the company, SCOA Nigeria PLC, which made a profit of less than $66,000 last year, corporate filings show.
There is no indication in corporate documents that Mr. Boulos, a Lebanese-American whose son is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Tiffany, is a man of significant wealth as a result of his businesses. The truck dealership is valued at about $865,000 at its current share price. Mr. Boulos’s stake, according to securities filings, is worth $1.53.
As for Boulos Enterprises, the company that has been called his family business in The Financial Times and elsewhere, a company officer there said it is owned by an unrelated Boulos family.
Mr. Boulos will advise on one of the world’s most complicated and conflict-wracked regions — a region that Mr. Boulos said this week that he has not visited in years. The advisory position does not require Senate approval.
[…] He confirmed that he has no relationship with Boulos Enterprises. Asked why he had never corrected the record, he said that he made a practice of not commenting on his business.
Mr. Boulos has a history of small business ventures. Corporate records in Nigeria tie him to a restaurant, some inactive construction companies and to Tantra Beverages, a now-defunct company that was set up to sell an “erotic drink” that “gives men and women the ultimate stimulating push,” according to its manufacturer. […]
A new HDMI standard is set to launch at CES 2025 in January. According to a report, the HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. (HDMI LA) has already notified media outlets about a significant announcement scheduled during the trade fair in Las Vegas. The new standard, rumored to be named HDMI 2.2, is expected to deliver higher bandwidths and resolutions than its predecessor…
The announcement also hints at the need for a new cable to harness these advancements, marking a critical update for content producers and consumers alike…
Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 84, was hospitalized while abroad with a congressional delegation, her office said on Friday.
“While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” her spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement…
The newly elected North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and current Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit against the GOP-controlled state legislature’s leadership on Thursday evening, over a recently implemented piece of legislation designed to strip power from incoming state level Democrats.
In the final days of its veto-proof supermajority, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a sweeping bill known as SB382, which was presented as a hurricane relief bill that included provisions to water down the authority of both Stein as well as newly-elected Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson. The bill also radically reconfigures the way that elections are run throughout the state, making it harder for election officials to carry out their responsibilities in future elections.
[…] In the lawsuit, which was filed in Wake County Superior Court, plaintiffs claim that the law violates the North Carolina Constitution’s “foundational guarantee of separation of powers” and asks the court to block the law. The lawsuit focuses specifically on a section of the law that permits the state legislature to deny Stein’s choice for commander of the State Highway Patrol. As it stands now, Highway Patrol is under the authority of the Department of Public Safety, the leader of which is chosen by the governor. The new law would make the Highway Patrol an independent department. The lawsuit focuses on this specific element of the new law, as an illustration of the many safety issues this power grab presents.
[…] “Incredibly, Senate Bill 382 prohibits the Governor or anyone else from removing the legislatively appointed Commander for any reason—even if he were to commit serious criminal misconduct,” the lawsuit reads. […]
The new law also gives the newly-elected Republican state auditor, Dave Boliek, power over the state’s five-member state election board — a responsibility that is typically granted to the governor. Additionally, the law prohibits the attorney general from taking positions that are contrary to the general assembly.
In terms of election changes, SB382 shortens the window for the counting of provisional ballots from a 10-day time period, to a three-day window. The legislation also shortens the amount of time voters have to cure ballots, and compresses the timeframe administrators have to count absentee ballots.
[…] Earlier this month, Cooper vetoed the bill, which he called a “sham” and as “playing politics.”
In response, however, the Senate, while it still holds a supermajority, voted to override Cooper’s veto. And on Wednesday, the House followed suit, also voting along party lines to override Cooper’s veto.
[…] Additional lawsuits focused on different parts of the legislation are expected in coming days.
Glad to see that the elected Democrats are fighting this in court.
Massad Boulos, Donald Trump’s family hire who was appointed Middle East adviser, has built his nonexistent wealth on a mountain of lies.
The New York Times released a damning report Thursday detailing the sham empire of Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law. Despite being painted as a billionaire mogul overseeing a business empire with the same name, Boulos’ relation to Boulos Enterprises is only by his wife’s family success.
Boulos’ resume boasts a position selling truck and heavy machinery for one of his father-in-law’s companies, SCOA Nigeria PLC. However, this company made a profit of less than $66,000 last year—a far cry from the seven- or eight-figure wealth once tied to Boulos’ branding.
[…] As for Boulos’ alleged law degree from the University of Houston, the university denies having any record of that. Instead, the University of Houston-Downtown shows Boulos graduating in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
[…] Boulos and Trump pushed this successful business narrative onto reporters, and the media ran with it. Across outlets, Boulos has been titled an automotive tycoon behind a multibillion-dollar enterprise. [Sheesh. Misinformation is being widely distributed.]
[…] As for where the real money is, Boulos concedes that the big dollars all come from the family of his wife, Sarah Fadoul Boulos.
Boulos makes the second family member appointed to Trump’s second Cabinet whose hands are undoubtedly dirty.
As previously reported, Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, was sentenced to two years after pleading guilty to filing false tax returns, lying to the Federal Election Commission, and retaliating against a witness.
Notably, Kushner’s messy idea of retaliation was to hire a sex worker to seduce his sister’s husband and film him having sex—all as a means to intimidate him into not testifying in a federal investigation.
In December 2020, Trump pardoned Kushner, and last month, Trump nominated him to be the U.S. ambassador to France.
Marital ties aside, these two men fit right into the Trump circus of creeps, drunks, and unqualified (actual) billionaires.
Aaron Siri, an attorney for failed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., filed a petition to get the federal government to rescind its approval for the polio vaccine, despite decades of the medicine being administered to prevent the spread of the disease.
Donald Trump has nominated Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Siri is now assisting Kennedy in vetting health officials.
The New York Times reported that Siri submitted his petition to the government in 2022 and has sought to prevent the government from distributing 13 additional vaccines. Siri has also filed lawsuits to oppose mandates for vaccines used to fight the COVID-19 virus and has brought in vaccine scientists for hostile depositions in cases opposing the use of vaccines. The majority of the petitions he has filed have been on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a major anti-vax nonprofit, run by a close ally of Kennedy’s.
In the 1940s and ’50s, before a polio vaccine was available, the United States suffered through multiple polio epidemics. Children were particularly vulnerable to polio, which can cause permanent paralysis and death in the most extreme cases. Many who suffered from polio were forced into confinement in a restrictive iron lung.
[…] After the vaccine became available in the ’50s the nation and most of the world adopted a policy of frequent and widespread vaccination. Polio infections in the U.S. went from 16,000 cases per year to zero in 2020.
Rescinding the vaccine would likely lead to new polio outbreaks, experts say. Many who are carrying the virus do not demonstrate symptoms and could easily transmit the infection to others which would not be noticed until paralysis began.
Kennedy has promoted vaccine conspiracies for years, most notably the false claim that there is a connection between autism and vaccination. Despite his unscientific claims—or perhaps because of them—Trump has chosen to put him in charge of public health for millions of people, and opened the door to fringe figures like Siri influencing domestic and global health.
The Wall Street Journal reports that officials from the organization created by Donald Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency, are asking potential bank regulators if they would be open to abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
FDIC insures bank deposits in the case of a bank closure, protecting consumers’ funds that would otherwise disappear. The agency was created during the Great Depression via legislation signed by President Franklin Roosevelt after a series of devastating bank collapses led to the loss of millions of dollars for thousands of Americans. FDIC was created to protect consumers and to secure the foundations of the domestic and global economy.
Trump created DOGE, which has no official power over policy (a real government department has to be created by an act of Congress), at the behest of multibillionaire Elon Musk. Musk heads DOGE along with failed presidential candidate and fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
According to the WSJ, representatives from DOGE have been asking interviewees for positions to lead bank regulatory agencies if they believe Trump could abolish FDIC and absorb deposit insurance powers within the Treasury Department.
Musk has also expressed opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In November he wrote on X, “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.” The bureau was created in 2011 under President Barack Obama in response to systemic abuses of the financial system by banks and other businesses that led to the Great Recession.
The agency advocates on behalf of consumers, creating and enforcing federal rules for financial institutions and providing reports on the practices of banks, credit card companies, and other related businesses. The CFPB has provided over $21 billion in consumer relief since its creation.
[snipped details about Musk’s charitable foundations, which have been found to be violating federal rules]
[Musk’s] universe of companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and X have government contracts and are subject to government regulation that he is now working to undermine. […]
“Last year’s toll: 263 million cases and almost 600,000 dead.”
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Malaria killed almost 600,000 people in 2023, as cases rose for the fifth consecutive year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Biological threats such as rising resistance to drugs and insecticides, and climate and humanitarian disasters continue to hamper control efforts, world health leaders warned.
[…] Officials said a $4.3 billion annual funding shortfall was among further challenges, which also include the spread of a new insecticide-resistant species of mosquito, genetic mutations in the malaria parasite that stop tests from working, and the emergence of a new type of malaria parasite in southeast Asia.
[…] About $4 billion went into fighting malaria globally last year, less than half of the $8.3 billion that official control plans consider necessary. That has meant gaps in the provision of tools such as medicines and insecticide-treated bed nets, with the most vulnerable groups often missing out, said the report.
Only half of those at risk of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa slept under insecticide-treated nets, and only 45 percent of pregnant women in the region had the recommended three doses of preventive malaria therapy. About 80 million people in countries where malaria is found are refugees or internally displaced, making it harder for them to access prevention and treatment services.
Meanwhile, the climate crisis is increasing rates of extreme weather events that cause flooding, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disrupting access to healthcare in countries such as Pakistan and Madagascar, the report said.
Earlier this month British health officials warned that they were seeing rising numbers of malaria cases in travelers returning to the UK. […]
A separate report published last month by the Malaria Atlas Project and Boston Consulting Group, with funding from the Gates Foundation, predicts that Africa will see more than 550,000 additional deaths from malaria in Africa between 2030 and 2049 due to extreme weather events such as floods and cyclones.
Resistance to drugs that have been the gold-standard treatment for malaria is spreading, the report said, and mosquitoes are increasingly resistant to the insecticides used to treat bed nets.
However, the report included grounds for optimism, including the introduction in 17 countries so far of malaria vaccines for young children that have cut death rates by 13 percent. And the development of new bed nets made more effective by using more than one type of insecticide to combat resistance accounted for 78 percent of nets delivered to sub-Saharan Africa last year.
The WHO has certified 44 countries and one territory to be free of malaria, including Egypt in October. There are 83 countries where malaria is considered endemic and 25 of those now report fewer than 10 cases a year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-elect Trump’s inaugural fund, joining various other tech leaders who have made similar contributions this week.
“President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman said in a statement Friday shared by his spokesperson.
The planned donation was first reported by Fox News.
While contributions to presidential inaugural funds are not new, some observers have seen the moves as part of broader efforts by the tech industry to court Trump ahead of his second term, especially in the wake of his emerging relationship with tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The $1 million donation will come from Altman’s funds rather than from the ChatGPT maker itself, his spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. This differs from his industry competitors, including Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, which each made $1 million contributions as companies. […]
“Trump’s new Energy guy, a fracking CEO, is soaking in it!”
We all knew that the second Trump administration would be a disastrous setback for the fight against climate change, given his pledge to leave the Paris climate agreement again and roll back as much of Joe Biden’s climate accomplishments as he possibly can. (Keep in mind, however, that the energy transition is going to keep moving forward anyway, because clean energy is just plain cheaper and more efficient.)
And as is typical of Trump, he may be a fucking idiot when it comes to policy, but he has a knack for appointing people who know how to get terrible things done, at least when they’re not too busy lining their own pockets. [True, unfortunately.]
For yet another example, see this jaw-dropping New York Times article [embedded link available at the main link] about Chris Wright, Trump’s pick to be secretary of Energy. Wright is the founder and CEO of “Liberty Energy,” a fracking services company that has its sludgy fingers in a lot of filthy pies. The main thing most reports about him point out is that he made a stunt video in which he and several employees each drank about a shot glass’s worth of fracking fluid, or at least a fresh-blended mix that included several of its components. Know what he didn’t do? Have the shit pumped into petroleum deposits near wells he relied on for his home drinking water for years.
Wright says he accepts the reality of climate change, but of course he doesn’t really. He simply shunts the question off to the side, insisting against all the evidence that the climate effects of burning fossil fuels are still a long way off, so in the meantime we should keep using them, because fossil fuels bring prosperity to everyone, and why do you radicals want to deny poor people in developing countries the benefits of modern life, you monsters? Never mind that, as the Times points out, poor nations are already suffering the effects of extreme weather, drought, heat waves, and sea level rise, with death tolls already in the tens of thousands.
[…] Let’s Truth Sandwich this dumb thing we’re about to quote, OK? Wind, solar, and storage are in fact becoming more affordable, and capable of bringing energy to more people, more quickly, in more places, than fossil fuels, making it possible for developing nations to leapfrog past the obsolete technology of coal, gas, and oil. But Wright falsely insists that it’s fossil fuels or nothing, because he is lying:
“It’s just, I think, naïve or evil, or some combination of the two, to believe they should never have washing machines, they should never have access to electricity, they should never have modern medicine,” Mr. Wright said on the “Mission Zero” podcast last year. “We don’t want that to happen. And we simply don’t have meaningful substitutes for oil, gas and coal today.”
That’s flat out bullshit, or, as Jody Freeman of Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law program puts it more decorously for the Times, it’s “not an intellectually serious argument. […] It’s about creating a permission structure for not pursuing a more responsible energy policy.”
If you only remember one thing from the Times article (go read the whole thing with the gift link, you!) it should be these information-rich paragraphs, which are perhaps criminally placed about halfway into the story:
The World Bank has found that solar mini grids could provide basic electricity to 380 million people in Africa by 2030 who do not currently have access to power. A Rockefeller Foundation study in 2021 found that investing in distributed renewable energy like rooftop solar panels, small-scale wind turbines and home battery storage systems could create 25 million jobs by the end of the decade in Asia and Africa. That is about 30 times the number of jobs that would be created by investments in oil, gas or coal in that period, the study found.
Daniel M. Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley, who has worked on energy access throughout Africa and Asia, said coal was responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths around the world annually.
Oh, yes, there’s a lot more, like the fact that building great big fossil fuel plants in poor nations primarily benefits the fossil fuel companies, and often the corrupt governments that invite them in, rather than ordinary people. Solar minigrids, rooftop solar, and small wind generators with battery backup are more localized than huge power plants, without the need for thousands of miles of transmission lines or pipelines, both of which have their own environmental consequences.
[snipped details relevant to Nigeria]
[…] Like most of its climate reporting, the Times profile of Wright offers plenty of context to make clear that he’s lying, although the article also suffers from the same sort of careful equivocation that so much of its journalism does, starting with the headline, which proclaims Wright “says fossil fuels are virtuous.” That’s followed by a subhed that only gingerly hints at the bullshit to be found in the article itself, noting that Wright “says oil, gas and coal are key to solving global poverty. Some call that misleading.” […]
No, it’s not merely misleading, it’s oil industry propaganda, as the article explains in quite a bit of detail, noting that “oil is a friend to the poors” is one one the oldest dodges in the oil misinformation playbook, as the story demonstrates with examples going back decades.
[snipped some details]
[…] Here, enjoy last night’s Chris Hayes segment with current Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm [embedded link available at the main link], who points out that thanks largely to Joe Biden, we’re building out America’s clean energy supply chains and industries, and even Republicans know it.
Feel-good takeaway: Near the end, Hayes asks Granholm how optimistic she is that the clean energy transition will survive Trump, on a scale of one to ten. She noted that because there are so many jobs being created, especially in red states, she’s very optimistic that despite GOP rhetoric, progress toward clean energy is “inexorable […] That is not going to turn back.” The program ran out of time, but as Hayes handed off to Alex Wagner for her show, she said that Granholm’s optimism sounded like a good solid “six and a half, maybe seven.” Now off-camera but on mic, Granholm added, “Yeah, I would say even an eight.”
So there’s your reason to stay in the fight, kids.
“Ohio Senate Wants To Force Hospitals To Give Patients Their Horse Dewormer On Demand”
“Still? Still, we’re doing this?”
This week, the Ohio state Senate passed a bill that will require hospitals to administer Ivermectin and other “requested” treatments to patients whether their doctors think that’s a good idea or not.
This is because, despite all available evidence to the contrary, many conservatives maintain a sincerely held belief that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine treat or cure COVID-19, despite the fact that all available evidence says they do not.
As bad as that sounds, it’s actually an improvement upon the previous version of the bill — it allows exceptions for pharmacists who have “moral, ethical, religious, or science-backed objections” or situations where the patients have a history of allergies or contraindications like epilepsy, meningitis, or trypanosomiasis.
If no one at the hospital will administer it, the hospital will be required to give “admitting privileges” to another doctor who will. It’s not clear what they should do if they can’t find a doctor who is shady enough to do it.
Testifying in favor of the bill were non-doctors who were convinced that their loved ones died because they were not given Ivermectin, and testifying against were, you know, actual doctors, medical groups, and pharmacists. It does not appear as though any medical experts testified in favor of it. [Yeah. As expected.]
All Democrats and a few Republicans voted against the bill, but it ended up passing and now heads back to the state House.
[…] the problem, really, is what it could ultimately lead to — which is patients being able to demand treatments and medicines they don’t need and that their doctor recommends against. Given the amount of health woo out there and the tendency of people to self-diagnose themselves through Dr. Google, sometimes with diseases that do not even actually exist, this could end poorly. [understatement]
Case in point! Reality star Brandi Glanville (no, you don’t need to know who she is) announced this week that she has spent $70,000 and lost several teeth trying to get rid of a parasite she claims lives in her face and moves around all the time. In an interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” she said she’s been treated with weeks of antibiotics, Ivermectin, and (you guessed it!) Hydroxychloroquine, but to no avail! The problem is … that’s not really a thing. Plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow of “Botched” and also of being married to Heather Dubrow said that it’s most likely a microorganism from all of the injections she’s had and that she needs to get it taken care of right away, possibly by him!
Why am I telling you about Brandi Glanville’s face parasite that you were probably very happy not knowing anything about? Because while people should be free to be stupid, doctors should not be allowed to take advantage of that by prescribing them meds or operations that they don’t need and that could actually be harmful. […].
“Russia packing up military equipment in Syria, satellite imagery shows.” Washington Post link
Images released by Maxar on Friday show cargo planes at a Russian airfield in Syria with their nose cones opened to receive heavy equipment, along with helicopters being dismantled and likely prepared for transport.
Russian S-400 air defense systems in Syria have also been moved.
[…] Travis Timmerman, a missing U.S. citizen freed from Syrian government detention as Assad’s regime toppled this week, has been safely passed to the American government. The handover, mediated by the U.S. based Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), was one of the first visible instances of indirect coordination between the rebels and U.S. personnel since they took power earlier this week. Two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, confirmed the evacuation by helicopter. […]
[…] Let’s not forget that Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, his party’s outgoing leader in the chamber, is a polio survivor. It’s hard not to wonder whether the senator’s life experiences will shape his opinion of Kennedy’s prospective cabinet nomination, especially in light of the latest reporting on the man Kennedy has partnered with on scrutinizing possible HHS personnel.
[…] Trump’s transition team recently recommended that he scrap a crash-reporting requirement for self-driving cars—which probably has nothing to do with the fact that Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, is a close ally of Trump.
In an internal document obtained by Reuters, Trump’s team described the reporting condition as a mandate for “excessive” data collection and suggested eliminating it. Relatedly, the team also recommended that the incoming Trump administration “liberalize” regulations on automatic vehicles and enact “basic regulations” that would empower more development in the industry.
Supporters of the crash-reporting rule have argued that axing it could hamstring the federal government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of automated driving systems. But Tesla and other automakers have long opposed the rule. Musk, for his part, has suggested that the requirement unfairly targets his company’s vehicles. According to sources who spoke with Reuters, Tesla’s executives have discussed with Musk the need to push for scrapping the crash-reporting requirement.
Of course, if Trump’s administration kills this requirement, Tesla would be the new policy’s largest beneficiary. Since June 2021, there have been more than 2,700 crashes among vehicles equipped with self-automated systems, and of those, more than half (1,570) were reported by Tesla, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Moreover, a Reuters analysis of data from the NHTSA found that Tesla’s crash data accounted for 40 out of the 45 fatal crashes reported to the agency through Oct. 15.
[snipped some details]
[…] Without the data, the NHTSA will struggle to detect crash patterns, the former employees said.
Reuters could not assess Musk’s role in drafting this recommendation, if he had one at all. But it’s suspicious timing considering he spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump and other Republicans get elected in November […]
It has turned out to be one of those stories which is at once Happy news and sad news. Or depending on one’s perspective better late than never. News reports and analysts indicate that since the approval of the use by Ukraine of U.S. ATACMS and other long fires on Russian territory proper, the rate of Russian FAB/KAB bombs fired on Ukrainian front lines has fallen sharply. This is sad because so many Ukrainian lives could have been saved. And Russia’s current rampage in Donetsk and elsewhere could have been stanched earlier.
Russian attacks against Ukraine with guided aerial bombs have fallen over 50% since Western partners allowed Kyiv to target Russia with long-range missiles, the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo reported on Dec. 12, citing reports from the General Staff.
[…] Why? Because ever since the approval came recently, Ukraine has since been relentlessly hitting the Russian munitions storage depots for those infernal glide bombs, as well as the associated aviation facilities. […] Those constant rain of huge bombs which cleared the way for Russia’s Avdiivka to Vuhledar/Selydove onslaught have now become less so. Consequently, the Ukrainians are standing their ground and chewing up the oncoming Russian “meat assault” waves now numbering well over 100 each day.
[…] the recent noises about “peace talks” emanating from Peskov and other high placed “Kremlinati”(is that even a word?) may be foretelling a change in the Russian sphere about coming events … preparing the Russian people for the news that Putin’s erstwhile 3-day “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine which is now entering its 4th year at a horrendous cost to both sides has achieved all of its goals and is coming to end. […]
An ancient relic said to have been worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion has returned to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, five years after it was saved from a fire that devastated the church.
The Crown of Thorns – comprised of a circle of rushes encased in a crystal and gold tube – was brought back to the cathedral in a ceremony overseen by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich.
The crown was acquired by King Louis IX of France in Constantinople in 1239 for 135,000 livres – nearly half France’s annual expenditure at the time…
At 2 a.m. one morning in December, Mariah Gladstone asked herself: “Did I really just make a little gory buffalo butcher scene out of Sour Patch Kids and fruit leather?”
She did.
In fact, Gladstone, who is Blackfeet and Cherokee, spent hours making her own interpretation of a traditional buffalo jump out of gingerbread.
Gladstone, who is also the owner of Indigikitchen, a cooking website, says a business just outside of the Blackfeet reservation in Montana was holding a gingerbread decorating contest last week so she signed up.
She told her mom about her idea.
“She said, ‘That sounds really elaborate and hard. Maybe you should just make a gingerbread teepee village,'” Gladstone said.
Her mother may have been right since it took about 11 hours for Gladstone to finish her scene.
There’s a cliff for the jump with a village below. It even features a collection of Sour Patch Kids harvesting meat from a fallen buffalo.
She says she tried to incorporate as many accurate details as possible…
A sophisticated and ongoing supply-chain attack operating for the past year has been stealing sensitive login credentials from both malicious and benevolent security personnel by infecting them with Trojanized versions of open source software from GitHub and NPM, researchers said.
The campaign, first reported three weeks ago by security firm Checkmarx and again on Friday by Datadog Security Labs, uses multiple avenues to infect the devices of researchers in security and other technical fields. One is through packages that have been available on open source repositories for over a year. They install a professionally developed backdoor that takes pains to conceal its presence. The unknown threat actors behind the campaign have also employed spear phishing that targets thousands of researchers who publish papers on the arXiv platform…
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes the CIA had a role in assassinating his uncle, President John F. Kennedy — part of RFK Jr.’s motivation for pushing his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, for deputy CIA director, Axios has learned…
Residents in the Maine town of Rumsford are being asked to avoid touching or ingesting any “brown” snow that fell over the area this week.
The town was treated to the not-so-white snowfall on Tuesday. Local officials have since determined the cause to be a malfunction at a paper mill, explaining that the mill had released a paper-making byproduct called “black liquor” into the area, resulting in “precipitation of brown or tan colored snow,” according to a Facebook post from the Town of Rumsford…
During an ADC ArcheoProjecten excavation near the town’s Raadhuisplein—translated as Town Hall Square—a team of archaeologists found what initially looked to be a cellar. But after further exploration, they found it was rife with bronze pieces, pottery, terra sigillata bowls and plates, and, most significantly, cremated remains—not exactly something you store in a cellar.
They realized they had stumbled upon an ancient tomb, and it didn’t take long to figure out whose.
The clay bowls held a key clue, as the abbreviation “FLAC” was engraved onto their sides, according to a statement from the town of Heerlen. The abbreviation serves as a nickname for Flaccus. Along with the bowl, the archaeologists found a personal bronze skin scraper and four different plates. The pottery, which comes from Italy, confirmed that Flaccus was a Roman soldier. “It is a unique find because it is not only the oldest Roman grave in Heerlen, but also because no name was known there before,” the statement reads.
The find was dated to the year 0 and is the “most unique evidence of Roman habitation at this location.” Researchers had not previously found a Roman grave for this period accompanied by a name in the region…
Two Fox News hosts and at least one other journalist have captured and shared their own photos and videos of the mysterious drones flying with increasing intensity around New Jersey and elsewhere in the past few weeks, with one saying he saw a craft that was as big as a school bus hovering 100 feet off the ground in Montclair…
Video at the link, 2:05
After watching the first 10 seconds, I can tell you that one of the “drones” appears to be a commercial aircraft. The red and green navigation lights are clearly visible. And the craft is obsucred by clouds, so it is clearly not down at 100 feet altitude. Since the red light is at the top, the aircraft is headed toward the left of the video frame. Also, the landing lights are on.
I watched the whole thing, they kept reshowing the same clip of a few seconds so I guess they don’t have any video that is better.
In October 2020, NBC News’ Kristen Welker moderated a presidential debate and asked the candidates whether they’d support raising the minimum wage. President Joe Biden didn’t hesitate, endorsing a significant increase over the status quo. The Republican incumbent was far more circumspect.
Donald Trump initially responded by saying that raising the minimum wage “should be a state option” — a curious stance, given that it’s always been a state option — before adding that he’d “consider” an increase “to an extent.”
[…] Four years later, [Trump] is returning to the White House and facing the issue anew. In fact, Welker reminded Trump of their debate exchange during his latest “Meet the Press” appearance, noted that the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 for more than 15 years and asked once again whether he’s prepared to raise it.
“It’s a very low number,” the incoming president conceded, referring to the status quo. “I will agree, it’s a very low number.” After some back and forth on the issue — he claimed restaurants in California are “going out of business all over the place” as a result of a wage hike — the host asked, “Is this something you’re going to look at?” Trump replied:
I would consider it. I’d want to speak to the governors. And the other thing that is very complicated about minimum wage is, places are so different. Mississippi and Alabama and great places are very different than New York or California, I mean in terms of the cost of living and other things. So it would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn’t work because you have places where it’s very inexpensive to live, where a minimum wage which is at $8 or $9 might be, you know, might have very little effect because the cost of living in certain places is really low.
For the most part, this is a familiar line from GOP officials who are opposed to minimum wage increases, but what stood out for me was a point the president-elect made in passing: “[I]t would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn’t work.”
That’s not an argument against raising the minimum wage; that’s an argument against having a minimum wage.
In other words, Trump, based on his on-air comments, believes that the federal minimum wage law, created by FDR and congressional Democrats nearly nine decades ago, shouldn’t exist at all.
[…]Trump’s position on the minimum wage has been so erratic for so long that there’s no reason to believe his views won’t change again soon.
Let’s not forget, for example, that during the GOP presidential primaries in 2016, candidate Trump opposed a wage increase, complaining that American wages were already too high. After winning his party’s nomination, he changed his mind, denounced the status quo and boasted that his willingness to entertain a wage increase showed he was “very different from most Republicans.”
In one Fox News interview in July 2016, Trump declared, “I’m the one Republican that said in some cases we have to go more than minimum wage.” Pressed for specific number, he replied, “I would say $10,” up from $7.25.
The rhetoric, however, has always come with fine print: Trump wanted to be seen as taking the popular position, but he also made clear that he expected states to do the work.
As president, Trump continued to play rhetorical games along these lines. In fact, in July 2020, during a Fox Business Network interview, the president said, “I’m going to have a statement on minimum wage. I feel differently than a lot of people on minimum wage, some people in my own party. But I will have a statement over the next two weeks on minimum wage.”
That was 232 weeks ago. We’re still waiting for that “statement.”
Where does that leave us? I suppose it’s possible that the incoming president — the one who acknowledged the obvious fact that $7.25 an hour is “a very low number” — will take action on the issue he ignored during his first term. But given his apparent hostility toward the existence of a federal minimum wage, I’d recommend keeping expectations low.
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday tapped François Bayrou, a veteran centrist politician and one of his top allies, as the new prime minister, a move that few expect would stabilize France’s roiling politics. Mr. Bayrou becomes the country’s fourth prime minister this year — an ominous record.
The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others on Friday rejected an attempt by former Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro to invalidate his guilty plea.
The IRS on Thursday said it has sweated an additional $1.3 billion from wealthy tax cheats, thanks to enhanced reviews and audits paid for by the budget-climate law President Biden signed two years ago. The tax agency said criminal investigations and civil cases have earned an additional $3.4 billion for Uncle Sam, for a total increased haul of $4.7 billion.
People with missing teeth may be able to grow new ones, say Japanese dentists testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants.
Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth.
But hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, according to Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka.
His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental medicine to adult test subjects that they say has the potential to jumpstart the growth of these concealed teeth…
Election denier and MyPIllow CEO Mike Lindell is suing a New York City-based cash advance company, saying he was tricked into borrowing $1.6 million at a 409% annual interest rate. In the filing, Lindell claims he, and other business entities tied to him, borrowed more than $1.5 million “with daily payments of $45,225.82, which yields a total amount to be paid of $2,261,290.76,” from Cobalt Funding Solutions.
The filing also alleges that Cobalt added an upfront cost of $124,760 (and 87 cents) “origination fee.” According to Law & Crime, the filing is “almost an exact replica” of the lawsuit Lindell filed in October against two other New York-based lenders, Lifetime Funding and CapSpot Financial.
In both lawsuits, Lindell describes the lending and borrowing system as “predatory,” arguing that the companies’ manipulated the contracts to bypass statutory maximum interest rate laws. “[D]espite the disclaimers in the Agreement and the incorporated guaranty, no actual sale of receipts ever took place, and the form Agreement is merely a sham intended to evade the applicable usury law.”
Coincidentally, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has spent a good deal of her career trying to gain support from the more conservative members of Congress to go after payday lenders, which generally offer short-term, high-cost loans to poor Americans. And from the Leopards Eat My Face files, it was Donald Trump’s pick as the interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney, who put a pause on a rule that would restrict payday lenders and the kinds of high-interest-rate loans Lindell is decrying now.
Lindell, a Trump-supporting election denier who once boasted of spending money to defend people like convicted former Colorado election clerk and recorder Tina Peters, has been reeling from financial issues since the 2020 election. Most of his issues, like fellow election-denier Rudy Giuliani, stem from mounting legal fees in connection to his election denialism.
Last year, Lindell said he borrowed $10 million to keep his businesses afloat. Lindell was then ordered to pay $5 million to computer forensics expert Robert Zeidman, who disproved Lindell’s claims that his election data showed interference by China in the 2020 election.
In October, Lindell said he was broke. His lawyers filed a motion saying that they were owed “millions of dollars” from Lindell, and could no longer work for free.
It would be great if Lindell got his buddy Trump to go after predatory loan practices, but he won’t. Instead, Trump will likely funnel taxpayer money to Lindell the way he did last time—giving him money for saying he would do a thing that he didn’t actually do.
The day after the press conference/infomercial for MyPillow, Lindell announced that his company would begin making medical masks. Unfortunately, Mr. Pillow could only produce cloth masks, and so he needed to contract out, and his promises of 50,000 masks by the end of the week came to a halt. But never you fear, Politico is reporting that the Department of Veterans Affairs is ponying up $75,000 to help Lindell along. And the delay? Well, “the order has not been filled yet because the company has yet to find a subcontractor to actually make the masks, since the VA wants KN95 and disposable masks and MyPillow only makes cloth masks.”
So, let’s be clear: instead of the government paying a company that can and does produce the required masks, they are going to pay a guy who cannot produce the masks and will now act as a go-between to contract a company that will produce the masks. No matter how you cut that, this is inefficient, wasteful, and so silly it’s hard to not shake with anger while typing. […]
Japan’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a high court ruled Friday, the latest victory for the LGBTQ+ community to add pressure on the reluctant government.
Friday’s decision by the Fukuoka High Court in southern Japan marks the eighth victory out of nine rulings since the first group of plaintiffs filed lawsuits in 2019. Here is what to know about the lawsuits, what’s next and what it means to the LGBTQ+ community.
A. In Friday’s ruling, presiding Judge Takeshi Okada noted that the current civil law provisions barring the marriage of same-sex couples violates their fundamental right to the pursuit of happiness guaranteed under Article 13 of the Japanese Constitution.
The court also said the ongoing ban violates sections in the Constitution that guarantee equality, individual dignity and the essential equality of both sexes. The judge said there is no longer any reason to not legally recognize same-sex marriage…
Texas has sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, launching one of the first challenges in the U.S. to shield laws that Democrat-controlled states passed to protect physicians after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit on Thursday in Collin County, and it was announced Friday.
[…] Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, said a challenge to shield laws, which blue states started adopting in 2023, has been anticipated.
And it could have a chilling effect on prescriptions.
“Will doctors be more afraid to mail pills into Texas, even if they might be protected by shield laws because they don’t know if they’re protected by shield laws?” she said in an interview Friday.
The lawsuit accuses New York Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter of violating Texas law by providing the drugs to a Texas patient and seeks up to $250,000. No criminal charges are involved. […]
States’ Rights means that one state’s jurisdiction ends at its border … A state has no right whatsoever to try and enforce its laws on persons who aren’t within its physical borders … A state also has no jurisdiction over the US mail
———————-
Home managed abortions are not counted, only the ones supervised by doctors and reported to the state. Since many people have pills on hand just in case the real numbers are not known.
[…] Just hours ago, Russia launched one of its largest waves of missile & drone strikes against Ukraine of this war, launching 94 missiles & 193 suicide drones.
Ukraine shot down 81 missiles & 185 drones, many with the help of its F-16 jets.
Russia spent $1 billion on the attack
[…] Russia lost more tanks near Pokrovsk than any other European country has in its army.
[…] 🇨🇿🇺🇦 Czech company AKM Group-CZ has delivered a batch of various types of ammunition to the Ukrainian Defense Forces, – Militarnyi
The list included:
▪️82mm and 120mm mortar shells;
▪️cartridges;
▪️S-8 aviation missiles;
▪️F-1 grenades.
[…] The fact that Ukraine has to build new schools underground to protect them from Russia is just one of many daily atrocities in Ukraine that no longer get much attention in the West.
[…] Imagine going to war and having to depend on taxis to evacuate your wounded. Russian milbloggers say that the army’s ban on using personal vehicles at the front threatens “riots or the collapse of the front”, while taxi drivers – on whom wounded Russian soldiers now depend for evacuation – are charging extortionate fares. […]
Followup to Lynna in the last set of 500 comments.
Biden pardoned 39 people convicted of non-violent federal crimes and commuted the remaining sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were let out of prison to reduce crowding during the COVID pandemic and were […] on home confinement. A White House fact sheet said that the folks whose sentences were commuted had all “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities”
Conahan, 72, a former Luzerne County judge, [had been sentenced] to 17½ years in a federal prison for his role in the scandal. Conahan has lived under house arrest since June 2020 […] amid the COVID-19 pandemic because of concerns about his health.
[…]
Conahan and […] Judge Mark Ciavarella took part in a conspiracy that netted them $2.8 million, according to their federal indictment. They facilitated the construction of juvenile detention centers and expansion of another by agreeing to send convicted juveniles to them in exchange for the cash
[…]
Ciavarella, 76, was [sentenced] to 28 years […] He remains in a medium-security prison
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JMsays
@35 birgerjohansson: Musk isn’t entirely wrong, he is just jumping the gun to say that the F35 project can be canceled right now. Even some military planners have said that the F35 may be the last fighter with a pilot in the plane.
The Air Force is not planning to buy a lot of F35s. Most of the duty filled by F15s will be filled by the latest version of the F15, not F35s. Unless they really need the stealth, the military thinks the F35 is more trouble then it’s worth. The F35 project will not be canceled though, a good portion of congress is in Lockheed Martin’s pocket and the project is structured to make it almost impossible to stop. I hope Musk and Trump go after the F35 because they will waste a lot of time and energy and most likely fail.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Another followup to that mass pardoning.
Biden commutes sentence for former Dixon, Illinois Comptroller Rita Crundwell, who embezzled over $53M
Crundwell was sentenced to 19 years and seven months […] which would have kept her in prison until Oct. 20, 2029. But she ended up being released more than eight years early on Aug. 4, 2021 [to] home confinement
[…]
in December 1990, Crundwell opened a bank account for the city of Dixon, which she alone controlled. Over the next 22 years, she used her position as city comptroller to transfer funds from a city money market account into other city bank accounts, and then into the account she controlled. […] She also created fake invoices from the state of Illinois to show auditors
[…]
“Supposedly, these are labeled as nonviolent criminals. If you rob a town of $54 million, and then you think there’s less violence that it doesn’t impact public safety, you’re wrong. There absolutely is more crime when you steal 10 to 20% of a city’s budget, absolutely.” […] Dixon put off infrastructure projects when Crundwell, the comptroller, said the city didn’t have the money. Those fixes have only become more expensive
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Heidi Li Feldman, Law professor at Georgetown University
In January, 2020, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was ratified, per the procedures specified in Article V of the U.S. Constitution. […] when Virginia became the thirty-eighth state to ratify […] it became part of the U.S. Constitution. Where was the fanfare?
[…]
Bill Barr had the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), an advisory department within the Department of Justice (DOJ), issue a lengthy opinion claiming that […] the ERA would not be part of the U.S. Constitution. As a subsequent 2022 OLC opinion made clear, the earlier opinion binds no one. If the President or Congress agrees that the ERA has been fully ratified, they should implement it. Ditto for federal courts and state governments.
[…]
Many people think the ERA did include a time limit for its own ratification. This mistaken impression stems from language in the Congressional joint resolution proposing the ERA. Before stating the text of the ERA, this resolution included what is called a “proposing clause,” […] With this clause, Congress gave later opponents of the ERA a toehold for spurious arguments […] But the states who ratified ratified the ERA itself, not the joint resolution and not its proposing clause. Moreover, because the U.S. Constitution itself specifies the procedure for amending the Constitution, Congress cannot modify that procedure via ordinary legislation.
[…]
There is a defined legal process for making it utterly clear that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution has occurred. This is publication in the Federal Register. […] Publication is not a necessary step for ratification. But it is the way the executive branch of the federal government officially alerts the public, Congress, the federal judiciary, and the states
[…]
Today, the effort to have Joe Biden direct the National Archivist to publish the ERA is in full swing. […] there is stark need to make it clear that the ERA affords American women full equality under the law.
The final paragraph’s link is a petition and phone script for the White House.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said in a statement that its decision to backpedal resulted from “significant widespread misinformation” about the policy.
[…]
In mid-November, the American Society for Anesthesiologists called on Anthem to “reverse the proposal immediately,” […] People across the country registered their concerns and complaints on social media, and encouraged people in affected states to call their legislators. [The Connecticut comptroller and New York Gov contacted the company.]
[…]
The insurance giant’s policy change came one day after the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, another major insurance company, was shot and killed
KGsays
South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol impeached over attempt to impose martial law. A few of Yoon’s own party must have voted for the impeachment, as the opposition parties only held 192 seats, 200 were needed (a 2/3 majority of all members, not just of those voting), and the vote was 204:85. Yoon’s powers are now suspended, with the Prime Minister Han Duck-soo – who leads the President’s conservative party – stepping in; there have been calls from within the party for him to resign the party leadership. The Constitutional Court has 180 days to either oust Yoon, or reinstate his powers; if they oust him, a new presidential election must follow within 60 days, with Democratic Party leader, Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the last election and who led the response to Yoon’s declaration of martial law, in a strong position. But 6 Constitutional Court judges must vote for the impeachment for this to happen, and as of now, there are 3 vacancies on the 9-judge bench, so all would need to back it. They will, however, be under strong public pressure to do so.
Yoon has said: “Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt. I will never give up,” So it looks like the arrogant arsehole is still hoping to regain power – and if he does, there’s no reason to think he won’t try to promote himself to dictator again.
KGsays
Oddly, the Grauniad’s current headline on its live thread on South says Yoon “vows to step aside”. He doesn’t actually have any choice, as I understand it: the impeachment vote immediately suspended his powers, so he can’t even have another go at imposing martial law with any colour of legality, and I doubt the army would obey him.
KGsays
Yoon is the second conservative president of South Korea in a row to be impeached: in 2017 Park Geun-hye, daughter of assasinated dictator Park Chung-hee was impeached and convicted of corruption – ironically, Yoon was the lead prosecutor in the case. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the South Korean people to stop electing conservatives as president.
It would be a good idea for every nation to stop electing conservatives to anything.
birgerjohanssonsays
I was reminded of the apochrypal child Jesus gospel by a Swedish article: Jesus as an evil little brat that kills other children. And early Christians saw him as the good guy.
.
Prayer does not work. No asteroid has hit Mar-a-Lago. If I fix the problem, do you think you will miss DC? (The town, not the publishing house)
Texas has sued a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a Dallas-area woman, launching the first known legal challenge of its kind, which will test what happens when two states’ abortion laws conflict.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit accuses Dr Margaret Daley Carpenter of New York of posting the medication to the 20-year-old woman.
It is alleged she took the pills when she was nine-weeks pregnant, violating Texas’s ban on nearly all abortions.
But Dr Carpenter, who could not be reached for comment, may be protected by New York’s so-called shield laws, which aim to legally safeguard doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in other states.
The legislation means New York will not co-operate with any other state’s effort to prosecute, or otherwise penalise a doctor for providing abortion pills, as long as the doctor complies with New York law.
New York is one of eight Democratic-led states with shield laws…
As she prepared to leave for winter vacation, Tracey Pauline Albert, a master’s student at Columbia University originally from India, took no chances with her return plans. Her flight back to the U.S. was carefully scheduled to land well before Jan. 20.
Columbia is one of a handful of U.S. colleges and universities that have been cautioning their international student bodies to return to campus early to avoid any travel delays. Some schools are specifically advising students to arrive before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The University of Southern California, Cornell University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the schools that have advised concerned students to return to campus early…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether charities run by religious groups have to pay unemployment taxes that cover their employees.
Most, but not all, states generally exempt religious groups from having to pay into the state’s unemployment tax system. Federal law does exempt religious schools from having to participate in the federal-state program. But the court has never ruled on the question of participation by charitable organizations run by religious groups. Now the court has agreed to tackle the question in a case brought by Catholic Charities against the state of Wisconsin.
The Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese Superior, Wisconsin, a non-profit corporation, is the social ministry arm of the Catholic Church. Its mission is to “carry on the redeeming work of our Lord by reflecting gospel values and the moral teaching of the church,” and it carries out that mission by “providing services to the poor and disadvantaged” without making distinctions “by race, sex, or religion.” The organization hires staff without regard to religion, instructs that the charity should be exercised “in an impartial manner towards members of other religions,” and operates “dozens of programs in service to the elderly, the disabled, the poor, and those in need of disaster relief.” In addition, the charity avowedly does not proselytize.
In light of all that, Catholic Charities applied to the state for an exemption from paying unemployment taxes for its employees. But the state labor commission refused the application, on grounds that the charitable group was engaging in activities that “are not religious, per se,” and thus are not entitled to be exempt from paying unemployment taxes.
In March, a closely divided state Supreme Court agreed, citing what it called objective criteria. The state court said that the charity’s activities were mostly secular, noting that the organization does not “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith, nor supply any religious materials.” The state court also observed that the charity “did not proselytize, did not conduct worship services, religious outreach, or religious education.” Therefore, the state court concluded, the charity is not qualified to be exempt from state unemployment taxes as a religious institution.
Catholic Charities promptly appealed to the Supreme Court, asserting that the Wisconsin decision violates the First Amendment guarantee to the free exercise of religion, as well as the separation between church and state.
The court will hear arguments in the case after the first of the year, with a decision expected by late June.
If I reads that right, religious charities are being given tax breaks not offered to secular charities.
And the headline is messed up.
he was convicted of violating the Public Official Election Act by falsely denying his connection with Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corporation, during his 2022 presidential campaign. He received a one-year suspended prison sentence, a decision he says was politically motivated.
A number of other investigations into alleged corruption are also listed. Lee’s policies seem to be an odd mixture, possibly opportunistic.
Georgian lawmakers voted in a far-right former soccer star as the country’s next president on Saturday, deepening tensions between the pro-Russian government and pro-Western opposition amid mounting popular anger over the former’s decision to halt European Union accession talks.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, 53, is a former MP for the ruling Georgian Dream party and played for the English soccer team Manchester City during the 1990s. He was the only candidate in the running.
For the first time, the president was chosen not by a national election, but in parliament by a direct ballot of a 300-member electoral college made up of MPs and representatives of local government. Because the four main opposition groups have boycotted parliament since October’s disputed election, Kavelashvili was a shoo-in to win…
The industrial-scale drug lab sat just up a hill from a main road on the western edge of Damascus, the city that was the seat of power for the Assad family which long denied any links to the narcotics trade.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria was accused by Washington and others of profiteering from the production and sale of the addictive amphetamine-like stimulant commonly known as captagon which became entrenched across the Middle East, from front lines of wars to construction sites and high-end parties.
The annual trade in captagon is worth billions of dollars a year, experts say, and Western governments have linked the illicit trade in Syria to Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, and the Fourth Division of the Syrian army he commanded…
Famed British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who became a household name after performing at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, has said he had to cancel a concert in Canada after the country’s largest airline denied his pre-booked seat for his cello.
Kanneh-Mason is currently on a winter tour in North America with his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, and the pair were scheduled to perform in Toronto on Wednesday…
According to his website, Kanneh-Mason’s cello, which is on indefinite loan to him, was made in 1700 by famed Venetian luthier Matteo Goffriller. It is worth €3 million ($3.15 million), according to a short film about the instrument.
“… Whilst Air Canada has now at least refunded all the tickets, we have yet to receive any form of apology for their error which led to over a thousand people having their concert tickets cancelled that evening,” it added…
Fox News host Laura Ingraham called on international pop star Taylor Swift to consider performing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January as a way for the country to come together after the divisive 2024 campaign…
I don’t see that happening.
KGsays
Reginald Selkirk@68,
They refused to give the cello a seat – do you really think they’d have given one to a harmonica??
“It’s committing children at higher rates than other states.”
On Wednesday, the nonprofit organization Disability Rights Florida sued the Florida Department of Children and Families, claiming that the state agency failed to collect data and compile comprehensive annual reports on the people it’s involuntarily committing.
Florida’s Baker Act, which first passed in 1971, has required specific data—including the length of commitments and the diagnoses of those committed—to be collected since 2007. But it hasn’t been doing that, according to Disability Rights Florida. What available data does show, however, is that children with alleged mental health issues in Florida are involuntarily committed at higher rates than children in other states under similar laws. From 2020 to 2021, around one in five people involuntarily committed under Florida’s Baker Act was 18 or younger. In 2020, Florida involuntarily committed a 6-year-old with ADHD, a case that made national news.
To be committed under the Florida’s Baker Act, which is officially known as the Florida Mental Health Act, three criteria need to be met: a person must refuse a voluntary exam, be believed to have a mental illness, and be deemed a threat to themselves or others. After an initial hold of up to 72 hours, the person can be forced to continue to have involuntary inpatient or outpatient treatment by a judge for up to six months, and this can be extended again at the judge’s discretion.
[…] While the issues that Disability Rights Florida is alleging with data collection did not start under Governor Ron DeSantis, changes to the Baker Act have happened under him. DeSantis approved legislation this past June that would make it easier for police officers to put people on an involuntary psychiatric hold.
DeSantis has previously claimed that involuntary commitments would stop mass shootings. However, research largely suggests that some mass shooters’ having a mental health diagnosis is more often coincidental than a contributing factor to such violence.
A 2021 SPLC report found that the use of the Baker Act has outpaced the increase of mental health diagnoses in the state, especially for children. […] SPLC highlighted that at Palm Beach schools during the 2019-2020 school year, 40 percent of students involuntarily committed were Black, despite making up 28 percent of the student population.
Involuntary commitments may also play a role in how forthcoming people may be about their mental health. One small 2019 study, for instance, found that people were less likely to want to disclose concerning psychiatric symptoms, such as suicidal ideations, to a mental health provider after an involuntary commitment. […]
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was hospitalized during a trip to Luxembourg, underwent hip surgery early Saturday, according to a spokesperson.
“Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,” Ian Krager, a spokesperson for the lawmaker, said in a statement. “Speaker Pelosi is grateful to U.S. military staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl Army Base and medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for their excellent care and kindness.”
“Speaker Pelosi is enjoying the overwhelming outpouring of prayers and well wishes and is ever determined to ensure access to quality health care for all Americans,” he added.
The news comes after Pelosi, 84, sustained an injury Friday while on a trip to the nation in Western Europe with a congressional delegation. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), who was also on the trip, disclosed in a post online that she fell on a flight of stairs. […]
The family of the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO had reported him missing last month, and his mother told police her son could be the person seen in surveillance photos one day before his arrest, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
The family of Luigi Mangione, the man police believe killed CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, reported him missing to San Francisco police on Nov. 18, around two weeks before the Dec. 4 ambush shooting, a missing persons flyer shows.
Mangione’s mother said she last spoke to her son on July 1 and that he had been working in San Francisco, the flyer says.
Mangione, 26, has been charged with murder in New York in Thompson’s killing, which police say was targeted and may have been motivated because of Thompson’s position with the health insurance company.
The killing sparked a large manhunt that included the wide distribution of surveillance photos of a person of interest and a $60,000 reward.
After the killing, a San Francisco police officer thought the images of the person of interest had similarities to the image of Mangione from the missing person report, multiple law enforcement officials said.
San Francisco police contacted the FBI about the possible identity of the man in that photo, the FBI said. [Screengrab of Missing Person report]
The tip from San Francisco police came on Dec. 6, and police contacted Mangione’s mother two days later, on Sunday, two law enforcement sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. She told investigators the man in the image could be Mangione, they said.
The next day, Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after he was recognized at a McDonald’s restaurant […]
Months before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death on a Manhattan sidewalk, suspect Luigi Mangione went dark and loved ones desperately tried to find him.
They reached out to former classmates and posted pleas on social media for any word on his whereabouts. Rumors about his disappearance began circulating among his former classmates.
After months of silence and growing worry from his family and friends, Mangione finally resurfaced Monday when he was captured by police in Pennsylvania as the suspect in Thompson’s killing. Authorities said he was carrying a backpack containing a ghost gun, fake IDs, and a notebook and other writings detailing his grievances with the health care system.
Until he disappeared, the high-achieving young man from a prominent Baltimore family had led what many would consider a charmed life, finishing as valedictorian at an elite Maryland high school and traveling the world after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.Friends and family described Mangione, who is being held without bail in a Pennsylvania correctional facility, as a kind and intelligent computer science graduate who enjoyed traveling and reading.
“He was the kind of person that you would know was going to do great things,” said his friend R.J. Martin, owner of Surfbreak, a co-living space in Honolulu, where Mangione lived for six months in 2022.
“It’s just utterly heartbreaking to think that he could have been an assassin, and heartbreaking to know that his life is essentially forever over or altered in unimaginable ways.”
[…] “When my spondy went bad on me last year (23M) it was completely devastating as a young athletic person,” “Mister_Cactus” wrote in a separate post in August 2023, referring to himself as a 23-year-old male with spondylolisthesis.
These descriptions are consistent with information Mangione shared with Martin, his friend in Hawaii. The two last texted about nine months ago, when Martin reached out to ask Mangione whether he had undergone spinal surgery. Mangione replied with images showing screws in his back, Martin said.
“You wouldn’t know he’s in pain until afterwards he might say, ‘Oh, sorry. I couldn’t get out of bed for a couple days.’ And that’s kind of the beginning and end of it,” Martin said.
[…] Like others, George described Mangione as bright and friendly.
“He was really excited about the club, wanting to see how else he could get involved to connect with other Penn alums,” George said. “Everything was really pleasant — there were no signs to make us think otherwise.”
Freddie Leatherbury, one of Mangione’s former classmates at the Gilman School in Maryland, said he received messages from friends on Oct. 1, asking if he had spoken to Mangione. They were never close and it had been years since the two crossed paths. Leatherbury said he was dismayed to learn Mangione was missing.
“He was an impressive but unassuming kid,” Leatherbury remembered. “I didn’t even know how smart he was until he was named valedictorian. It kind of just speaks to how humble and passive he was. He just went about his thing, did it quietly and did it very well.” […]
Even before “Wicked” opened, the movie’s signature green and pink colors were turning up everywhere, from drinks topped with matcha foam at Starbucks to aisles lined with merch at Target. This cultural bludgeoning was, of course, orchestrated. Today, not even large marketing budgets can achieve such ubiquity without help.
Attention has become fractured. Audiences, siloed in their social-media feeds and choose-your-own-adventure streaming sites, are ever harder to reach. Only by partnering up, like “Barbie” did by collaborating with 165 brands last year, can a promotional campaign become truly inescapable. “Wicked” went even bigger, teaming up with over 400 brands to ensure a saturation that would be, in the words of Universal Pictures’ chief marketing officer Michael Moses, “just short of obnoxious.”
It’s just the latest example of how the culture industry has come to rely on collaborations. Brands pair up with other brands in endless permutations. Fashion companies and visual artists routinely partner, as in the case of Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami, whose landmark collaboration will soon relaunch. Around a third of Billboard’s Hot 100 songs involve a guest feature or collab (compared to under 10 percent a generation ago). […].
This frisson of newness has often been enough to capture media attention and entice consumers. But as commercial alliances have proliferated, their effect has diminished. Fatigue is setting in. “Wicked” participated in more than twice as many collaborations as “Barbie,” yet brought in only half its opening-weekend box-office take worldwide. [Maybe. Or Barbie was just a better vehicle?]
[…] the formula plays well to the algorithms that power social media and dictate what we see online. [True.] Designed to anticipate what we want, these algorithms favor content with a proven history — the safe and familiar over the experimental and untested. New content composed of pre-existing elements, like mash-ups of established artists and brands, hits the sweet spot. This preference has only amplified the incentives leading culture away from the lone visionary and toward joint authorship for decades.
[…] collaborations gave rise to our hype culture. But hype culture also left its imprint on collaborations, transforming them, above all, into media events and stripping away the pretense of creative dialogue. [Overstatement? Surely there is still some form of creative dialogue.]
Today’s collaborations are publicity machines, churning out attention regardless of their quality or uniqueness. The medium — the collaboration as brute fact — is the message.
[…] Social media requires that artists be at once promoters and entrepreneurs. [True.] Rather than making a cultural work and then marketing it, they are encouraged to bring their understanding of online virality, merchandising, and cross-promotion into the creative process. And, indeed, promotion becomes intrinsic to the work itself. Do we care if we’re watching a feature-length advertisement (like “Barbie”) or listening to a song that appears tailor-made for an ad campaign (like “Levii’s Jeans”)? Bombarded and sometimes weary, we hardly have the time or inclination to ask. The collaborators are counting on it.
What if you are just not there … not your eyes nor your ears … to soak up the mass marketing. That’s me for the most part. The marketing of “Wicked” simply flew past me without me noticing. That probably would not have been the case if I had young children in the house.
A woman who found a giant 5kg (11lb) mushroom on a country walk said the vegetable fed her family for a whole week.
Alissimon Minnitt, 27, was walking with her father in a field in North Marston, near Winslow in Buckinghamshire, when they spotted the enormous fungus in the grass.
“It fed my family for a week… I’ve been eating it ever since. I still have three slices left in my freezer. I’ll be honest – I’m a little bit sick of it,” she said…
Winter traditions abound in Quebec City, but few are as thrilling as sliding on a wooden board down a hill of ice at 70 kilometres an hour.
For 140 years, visitors and locals have flocked up the hill on Dufferin Terrace towering 83 metres above the St. Lawrence River, climbed onto wooden toboggans without being tied to anything and flown down the hill on the toboggans.
“We get calls from people saying, ‘We want to make sure the slide is going to be open before booking our plane tickets,'” said Marc Duchesne, co-owner of Au 1884, the company that has managed the toboggan slide since 2014.
In those 11 years, though, Duchesne said he’s seen the number of days the slide can be open shrink due to climate change. Last year, the company had to close the slide for 32 out of its target 95 days of operation because of the weather, about a third of the season.
So the company is investing $400,000 to refrigerate the slide, thanks to financial help from Tourisme Québec for winter infrastructure…
Roughly 70,000 gallons (264,978 litres) of oil from a pipeline spilled into the ground in Wisconsin, officials said.
The problem was discovered Nov. 11 in Jefferson County, 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) west of Milwaukee, by an Enbridge Energy technician, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, citing a federal accident report.
Enbridge said the spill on the company’s Line 6 was caused by a faulty connection on a pump transfer pipe at the Enbridge Cambridge Station. It was an estimated 1,650 barrels, which is equivalent to about 70,000 gallons…
You’ve been informed of the rule multiple times yourself and have been around while others were told. There’s no specific letter of the law which would allow you to add veils until you find the line to dance on while violating the spirit.
ABC News has agreed to pay $15m (£12m) to US President-elect Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor falsely said he had been found “liable for rape”.
George Stephanopoulos made the statements repeatedly during an interview on 10 March this year while challenging a congresswoman about her support for Trump.
A jury in a civil case last year determined Trump was liable for “sexual abuse”, which has a specific definition under New York law.
As part of Saturday’s settlement, ABC will also publish a statement expressing its “regret” for the statements by Stephanopoulos…
A new movie about the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, is sparking debate among viewers and religious scholars alike.
“Mary,” a Biblical epic streaming now on Netflix, tells the story of the Nativity through the eyes of Mary of Nazareth (Noa Cohen). The film follows Mary, Joseph (Ido Tako) and the newborn Jesus as they escape persecution from King Herod (Anthony Hopkins).
“Mary is the most extraordinary woman ever to walk this earth, yet her story remains largely unknown beyond a few passages in the Bible,” director D.J. Caruso told Netflix’s Tudum blog…
While some viewers are praising the film, which has been in Netflix’s Top 10 for much of the time since its debut on the streaming platform Dec. 6, others have objected to what they views as the movie’s Biblical and historical inaccuracies. Others have objected to the casting.
Religious scholars have had mixed reactions to “Mary,” as they debate perceived inaccuracies in the portrayal…
Bekenstein Boundsays
If I were Swift, my response to Ingraham would be to suggest that she perform some anatomically improbable feat with herself.
birgerjohanssonsays
RFK Jr and Jordan Peterson create weird questionnaire for job applicants in the White House
The Rachel Maddow Show 12/14/2024
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CTt6XgO-wr0
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Donald Trump walked back his campaign promise to lower grocery prices.
“Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard,” Trump told Time, admitting to what many of us knew months ago.
On Thursday, Trump offered up a perplexing story about “an old woman” buying three apples at a grocery store and taking “one of the apples back to the refrigerator” because the price was too high. (Apples are not usually stocked in refrigerators.) [video at the link]
The only thing that’s clear in Trump’s incoherent story is that he hasn’t spent much time in a supermarket in a long while.
This past Sunday, during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said, “I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost—you know, who uses the word? I started using the word—the groceries. … I won an election based on that.”
Just days before the election, Trump asked his audience at a campaign rally, “People say ‘groceries,’ right? I haven’t used that—it’s such a sort of an old term.” [video snippets at the link]
In September, Trump waddled into a Pennsylvania grocery store for a bizarre photo op, which involved him sort of throwing a $100 bill at a lady while she was at checkout. Germs, I guess?
When speaking at the Detroit Economic Club in October, Trump defined the word groceries (maybe for himself?), saying, “The word grocery. It’s a sort of simple word, but it sort of means everything you eat. The stomach is speaking, it always does. I have more complaints about bacon and things going up—double, triple, quadruple.” [video at the link]
Before that, it seems Trump might not have known what groceries were.
In September, during a town hall in Michigan, Trump was asked how he would bring down grocery prices, and he responded with a word salad, bouncing from the topic of donuts to windmills and China. [X post at the link]
And at an August press conference, Trump was flanked by tables stacked with groceries while he ranted about—what else?—windmills. [video at the link]
Trump’s strange relationship to the concept of groceries goes back to at least his first term. In 2019, Trump claimed buying groceries was harder than voting.
“You know, if you want to go out and buy groceries, you need identification. If you want to do almost anything, you need identification,” Trump told a Louisiana crowd. “The only thing you don’t need identification for is to vote, the most important single thing you’re doing—to vote.”
Okaaaay …
What is happening now to Trump’s promise to bring down grocery prices? He has walked that back … multiple times. He “can’t promise,” “it would be hard to do,” etc. Incoherent doofus.
And then there are Trump’s promised tariffs, which will certainly raise a lot of prices, especially vegetables that are imported from Mexico.
Followup to comment 87.
Rex Huppke of USA Today notes that Trump is already backsliding on his promises to reduce grocery prices.
Well, get ready for this bit of news. In a new interview with Time magazine for its Person of the Year edition – I’m assuming he was named Person of the Year for coming up with the word “groceries” – Trump was asked about his promise to bring down food prices.
“Look, they got them up, I’d like to bring them down,” he said, blaming the Biden administration. “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.” […]
Hold up. This same man told me just weeks ago he’s going to bring down food prices and “we’re going to do it very simply.” Now he’s saying it’s hard. “Hard” and “simply” are two totally different things! […]
It appears the man who promised that Mexico would pay for the border wall (it didn’t) and promised he’d release a “beautiful” health care plan to replace Obamacare (he didn’t) and promised to release his tax returns (he didn’t) and promised his tax cuts would “give the typical American household around a $4,000 pay raise” (they didn’t) and said on the campaign trail that his tariffs “are not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country” (he was lying and admitted as much in a recent NBC News interview, saying “I can’t guarantee anything” when asked if his tariffs would cause prices to rise) … well, it appears he may have been pulling our leg on the whole grocery prices thing.
The independent Russian media outlet Meduza looks at Russian alternatives to their military bases in Syria which are vital in order for Russia to maintain their operations in Africa.
According to Meduza’s expert, before the full-scale war in Ukraine, Syria was unquestionably Russia’s main jumping-off point for operations in Africa. Although this role diminished slightly after Turkey closed the Bosphorus Strait to warships following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, cutting off the “Syrian Express” — a key route for transporting military cargo via the Black Sea — these bases remain indispensable to Russia’s current modus operandi in Africa.
Russia expert Mark Galeotti told Al Jazeera that Syria provides Moscow a vital staging ground, allowing it to sidestep Turkey’s restrictions. “[W]ithout the Russian base at [Tartus], the only way of projecting naval power into the Mediterranean is through the Baltic, which is hardly ideal,” he said. “Likewise, without the [Khmeimim Air Base], providing air support to operations in Africa would also depend upon Turkey’s goodwill, which is something unlikely to sit well with the Kremlin,” he added. […]
With the fall of the Russian-backed Assad regime, Moscow is at risk of losing its bases in Syria — and it appears as though there aren’t many good alternatives in the region. One potential option is Libya, where Russia already has bases, but as researcher John Lechner points out, they’re “on loan” from Khalifa Haftar, the unpredictable commander of the Libyan National Army, who only controls part of the country. Meduza’s expert notes that a permanent base would require a formal agreement, something Haftar likely doesn’t have the legal authority to provide. Establishing a permanent Russian base would also increase pressure on Haftar from Western powers.
[…] Now, after backlash against public health interventions culminated in President-elect Donald Trump’s nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the country’s best-known anti-vaccine activist, as its top health official, infectious disease and public health experts and vaccine advocates say a confluence of factors could cause renewed, deadly epidemics of measles, whooping cough, and meningitis, or even polio.
[…] State legislators who question vaccine safety are poised to introduce bills to weaken school-entry vaccine requirements or do away with them altogether, said Northe Saunders, who tracks vaccine-related legislation for the SAFE Communities Coalition, a group supporting pro-vaccine legislation and lawmakers.
Even states that keep existing requirements will be vulnerable to decisions made by a Republican-controlled Congress as well as by Kennedy and former House member Dave Weldon, should they be confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, respectively.
Both men—Kennedy as an activist, Weldon as a medical doctor and congressman from 1995 to 2009—have endorsed debunked theories blaming vaccines for autism and other chronic diseases. (Weldon has been featured in anti-vaccine films in the years since he left Congress.) Both have accused the CDC of covering up evidence this was so, despite dozens of reputable scientific studies to the contrary.
[….] It’s unclear how far the administration would go to discourage vaccination, but if levels drop enough, vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths might soar.
[…] “It is a fantasy to think we can lower vaccination rates and herd immunity in the U.S. and not suffer recurrence of these diseases,” said Gregory Poland, co-director of the Atria Academy of Science & Medicine. “One in 3,000 kids who gets measles is going to die. There’s no treatment for it. They are going to die.”
During a November 2019 measles epidemic that killed 80 children in Samoa, Kennedy wrote to the country’s prime minister falsely claiming that the measles vaccine was probably causing the deaths.
[…] Kennedy’s nomination validates and enshrines public mistrust of government health programs, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“The notion that he’d even be considered for that position makes people think he knows what he’s talking about,” Offit said. “He appeals to lessened trust, the idea that ‘There are things you don’t see, data they don’t present, that I’m going to find out so you can really make an informed decision.’” [Yep. That’s the dynamic I’m seeing.]
[…] Hodge has compiled a list of 20 actions the administration could take to weaken national vaccination programs, from spreading misinformation to delaying FDA vaccine approvals to dropping Department of Justice support for vaccine laws challenged by groups like Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy founded and led before campaigning for president.
Kennedy could also cripple the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which Congress created in 1986 to take care of children believed harmed by vaccines—while partially protecting vaccine makers from lawsuits.
[…] Kennedy could abolish the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, whose recommendation for using a vaccine determines whether the government pays for it through the 30-year-old Vaccines for Children program, which makes free immunizations available to more than half the children in the United States. Alternatively, Kennedy could stack the committee with allies who oppose new vaccines, and could, in theory at least, withdraw recommendations for vaccines like the 53-year-old measles-mumps-rubella shot, a favorite target of the anti-vaccine movement.
[…] The H5N1 virus, or bird flu, that has spread through cattle herds and infected at least 55 people could erupt in a new pandemic, and other threats like mosquito-borne dengue fever are rising in the U.S.
Traditional childhood diseases are also making their presence felt, in part because of neglected vaccination. The U.S. has seen 16 measles outbreaks this year—89% of cases are in unvaccinated people—and a whooping cough epidemic is the worst since 2012.
[…] Vaccine advocates, with less money on hand than the better-funded anti-vaccine advocates, see an uphill battle to defend vaccination in courts, legislatures, and the public square. People are rarely inclined to celebrate the absence of a conquered illness, making vaccines a hard sell even when they are working well.
While many wealthy people, including potion and supplement peddlers, have funded the anti-vaccine movement, “there hasn’t been an appetite from science-friendly people to give that kind of money to our side,” said Karen Ernst, director of Voices for Vaccines.
[…] On Oct. 22, when an Idaho health board voted to stop providing COVID vaccines in six counties, there were no vaccine advocates at the meeting. “We didn’t even know it was on the agenda,” Ernst said. “Mobilization on our side is always lagging. But I’m not giving up.”
[…] In the last full school year, more than 100,000 Texas public school students were exempted from one or more vaccinations, she said, and many of the 600,000 homeschooled Texas kids are also thought to be unvaccinated.
[…] In Louisiana, the state surgeon general distributed a form letter to hospitals exempting medical professionals from flu vaccination, claiming the vaccine is unlikely to work and has “real and well established” risks. Research on flu vaccination refutes both claims.
[…] “We’re already having outbreaks. It would take years before enough children died before people said, ‘I guess measles is a bad thing,’” she [Ernst of Voices for Vaccines] said. “One kid won’t be enough. The story they’ll tell is, ‘There was something wrong with that kid. It can’t happen to my kid.’”
” ‘Like maple syrup, Canada’s evil oozes over the United States’ ”
He’s still rolling with it.
Two weeks after inviting the Canadian prime minister to dinner at his wretched hive of scum and villainy in West Palm Beach and threatening to turn America’s largest trading partner into the 51st state if Justin Trudeau doesn’t give him all his lunch money, Donald J. Trump continues to float the idea of annexing the country and recently posted the following on his dollar store version of Twitter:
It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!
“The other night” is doing some heavy lifting as it took him eleven days to come up with this zinger. […]
But Old Treasonballs is clearly trolling with his latest, especially coming only days after an unhinged interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” where he made similar claims following yet another dumb post featuring an AI image of him standing atop a mountain with the Canadian flag while gazing towards Switzerland’s Matterhorn.
No explanation was given for what he might’ve been up to in the Swiss Alps but trying to capture the von Trapp family would certainly be on-brand.
This is all just Trump being Trump throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks of course, and beefing with Canada is probably a better distraction from his plans to devastate the North American economy by bringing in a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a way to have the daily news cycle be about anything other than his disastrous cabinet picks.
Speaking of disastrous cabinet picks, boasting about discussing international relations in a dinner meeting that included three of his stooges — Howard Lutnick (Commerce), Mike Waltz (National Security) and Doug Burgum (Interior) — was certainly a choice given it’s a clear violation of the Logan Act that prohibits private citizens from chatting up foreign governments without Uncle Sam’s permission. Like it was this past summer when he hung out and talked shop with fellow bloodthirsty bullies Viktor Orbán and Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s not as if anyone expects the guy with the Get Out of Jail Free card to suddenly start obeying the law NOW but it’s worth mentioning that the Logan Act — which nobody has ever been convicted of violating — was trotted out as the reason the president-elect was unable to meet with Japanese leader Shigeru Ishiba prior to next month’s scheduled inauguration. More likely he didn’t want to risk hurting the feefees of North Korean love interest Kim Jung Un.
Not that Trump is even eligible to visit the country, let alone rule it with a short-fingered fist, given his multiple felony convictions that have yet to be stricken with the stroke of a Sharpie. Canada is currently just another place he is no longer welcome — like Melania’s bedroom, his Scottish golf course or Miss Teen USA changing rooms — which is going to make planning the upcoming G7 meeting in Alberta tricky.
He’s surely also pissed that the lame duck Trudeau isn’t simply obeying in advance. While the embattled PM has promised to put more helicopters and drones along the border as appeasement, Trudeau also said he’ll respond with punishing tariffs of his own if necessary like he did the last time Trump pulled this crap. Like some sort of reverse quid pro quo, as the great Hannibal Lecter might say.
“We will, of course, as we did eight years ago, respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways and we’re still looking at the right ways to respond,” Trudeau said last week, referring to Canada’s retaliation to previous new taxes slapped on steel and aluminum goods by successfully targeting seemingly random imports — booze, orange juice, toilet paper, even Dear Leader’s beloved ketchup — that would cause financial pain specifically in districts held by Republicans and their donors. “[…] when we are challenged as a country, we step up.”
There’s been a lot of references to Mike Judge’s cult sci-fi classic Idiocracy in recent years as we grapple with the scorched-earth dumbification of the Trump era, but a better fit here is Michael Moore’s underappreciated 1995 comedy Canadian Bacon about a US president who needed a new foreign adversary to help boost his sagging poll numbers. […]
so far the only thing missing from the New Dark Ages is a Monty Pythonesque spanish inquisition that takes itself seriously and is funded by billionaires.
The USPS predates the founding of this country. It is a vital service for the public, NOT a business or a ‘profit center’. dejoy and tRUMP are both greedy thugs that have never cared about anything other than their own huge diseased egos and bank accounts. biden and congress have, for years, been sitting there, like the useless imbeciles they are, with their thumbs up their asses and not confirmed the three honest postal commission candidates. https://mockpaperscissors.com/2024/12/14/time-to-save-the-usps-again/
Time To Save The USPS, Again! the orange sphincter is talking about privatizing the USPS again. WTF
[…] If you thought that Bill Burr was too tentative in the “S.N.L.” monologue he performed the weekend after the presidential election, you won’t have that same criticism about Chris Rock. In his standup set, Rock, an “S.N.L.” alumnus and this weekend’s host, did not mince words as he commented on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s return to office and other recent events.
Among his notable riffs, Rock addressed the capture of Luigi Mangione:
Everybody’s fixated on how good-looking this guy looks. If he looked like Jonah Hill, no one would care. They’d already given him the chair, already. He’d be dead, OK? But he actually killed a man, a man with a family, a family, kids, man. I mean, I have condolences. I have real condolences for the health-care C.E.O. I mean, this is a real person. But you also got to go, you know, sometimes drug dealers get shot.
Trump’s re-election:
Trump had a good year, man. Trump survived an assassination attempt. Survived assassination attempt. Won the presidency again by winning the popular vote. Was just named Time Man of the Year. You know, it could happen to a nicer guy.
People are like, he’s going to be so undignified. It’s the presidency of the United States. Dude. It’s the United States presidency. Come on. We’ve had some presidents in the United States. Come on, man, this is not the most dignified job in the world. We’ve had presidents show up to the inauguration with pregnant slaves, OK? And I’m just talking about Bill Clinton.
I mean, you know what country we live in. You know the history of this country. You know how many rapists are in my wallet right now? A cup of coffee in America costs seven rapists. But Trump’s going to get it down to three.
Trump’s embrace of Elon Musk:
He’s working with the No. 1 African American in the world. The richest African American in the world, Elon Musk. That’s right, he is African American. Elon got more kids than the Cleveland Browns. Nobody knows how to get rid of people like a South African. Oh, he’s serious. Trump is not playing. He’s got Elon, they’re going to put them in a rocket ship. Call it SpaceMex. J. Lo’s going to marry Ben again, just so she can stay in the country. I know she’s not Mexican, but Trump don’t know that.
And President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter Biden:
I got to hand it to Joe, man. He don’t move as fast as he used to. He don’t talk as fast as he used to. But that middle finger still works, boy.
Video at the link.
Weekend Update jokes of the week
Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors, Colin Jost and Michael Che, riffed on Luigi Mangione and a series of unexplained drone sightings in New Jersey.
Jost began with a picture of Mangione on his screen:
This week, America continued the delicate, sensitive debate over who will play this guy in the Netflix mini-series. After police arrested suspected C.E.O. shooter Luigi Mangione, they found a note on him expressing anger at corporate America. Yet he went to Starbucks before the shooting and then was caught at McDonald’s. So perhaps his greatest crime was hypocrisy. The McDonald’s where the shooter got caught has been getting one-star Yelp reviews to punish them for snitching. First of all, who looks at Yelp reviews of McDonald’s? The only Yelp review of McDonald’s should be, “Was open. Five stars.” Everyone who went to high school with the alleged shooter said they were shocked that he could become an assassin. Whereas everyone I went to high school with was shocked I didn’t. [His screen showed a picture of Jost as a nerdy high-school student.]
Che continued:
Tensions over mysterious drones flying above New Jersey continue to rise after a drone crashed into a person’s backyard. But at least now we know whoever’s flying them is a frigging woman, right? [Audience groans and boos.]
“The arrest warrants, issued by the International Criminal Court, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which Israel denies.”
Israel has appealed the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as the official death toll in Gaza nears 45,000, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The enclave was pushed closer to the grim milestone by Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 26 people Sunday, including 16 at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza.
Oren Marmorstein, a spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed to NBC News on Sunday that Israel had filed the appeal against the ICC arrest warrants.
The warrants were related to “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October, 2023 until at least 20 May 2024,” including “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
[…] The Irish government said last week it would ask the International Court of Justice to broaden its definition of genocide, after claiming Israel has engaged in the “collective punishment” of people in Gaza.
While the closure represents another step in Israel’s growing isolation from the international community, Netanyahu’s spokesperson Omer Dostri has confirmed that Netanyahu spoke with President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, about regional developments in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the threat posted by Iran.
Netanyahu’s office said Sunday his government has approved plans to expand settlements in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, allocating over $11 million to a plan aimed at “doubling” its population, currently around 20,000. In 2019, Trump signed an order recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the area, which was seized from Syria in 1967.
Meanwhile in Gaza, Israel bombed clusters of houses and set some ablaze in three towns, also attacking Khalil Aweida, a school-turned-shelter, before storming it and ordering displaced families to head towards Gaza City, according to Reuters, citing medics and residents.
Mohammed Abu Afash, director of Palestinian Medical Relief, an non-government organization, warned on Sunday of an “environmental disaster” in the north due to the accumulation of bodies in the streets and “their devouring by stray dogs and cats,” adding that the World Health Organization had delivered limited fuel and medical supplies amid the ongoing siege. […]
“Lawmakers in Iraq are proposing amendments to the country’s Personal Status Law that could allow marriage for girls as young as 9.”
She was just 11 when she was sold into wedlock with a man 36 years her senior. In the nine years since, she said she has been raped, beaten, divorced and returned to her family, who hid her away out of shame and forced her into servitude.
Today she is a sex worker in the Iraqi city of Erbil having moved there recently from the capital, Baghdad.
Batta said her husband raped her on their wedding night and regularly beat her before he sent her back to her family three years after they were married. Instead of offering sympathy, they treated her as a pariah, she said. NBC News does not normally identify alleged victims of sexual assault and agreed to not use her real name and to only use the first names of her parents.
Now she fears other young girls will be subjected to similar ordeals if lawmakers pass proposed amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law that could allow marriage for girls as young as 9 as well as give religious authorities the power to decide on family affairs including marriage, divorce and the care of children.
“Changing the law will give parents the right to sell their young daughters,” Batta said in a telephone interview last month. “I don’t want to call it marriage, because when a girl gets married at the age of 9 or 10, it means her family has sold her. It also allows men to exploit the poverty that many Iraqi families are experiencing.” […]
Batta is by far not the only child in Iraq to have been married at a young age.
UNICEF reported in April 2023 that 28% of girls are married before the legal age of 18, although under Iraqi law, girls as young as 15 can be married with the consent of a judge and their parents.
The potential consequences of child marriage were laid bare in a separate 2016 report by the United Nations Population Fund on the effects of child marriage in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, which said it “usually comes with unhealthy and ill-informed sexual relations that may include unwanted and forced sex, domestic rape, vulnerability to domestic violence and genderbased violence and adultery.” […]
More at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
Alien Super Show
Trump’s 100 Day Plan…and Matt Gaetz Does WHAT?! | (Ft. John Hodgman)
I presume Quaoar may have more to say about this, but I wanted to highlight a developing environmental disaster for the Black Sea/Sea of Azov. From ABCnews:
Two Russian tankers believed to be carrying thousands of tons of oil were damaged off the coast of Crimea in the early hours of Sunday amid stormy weather, Russian emergency services and media reported.
The Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 vessels were both damaged while transiting the Kerch Strait waterway separating the occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia’s western Krasnodar Krai region, the country’s Emergencies Ministry reported on Telegram.
The ministry cited “bad weather in the Kerch Strait” for the damage, the extent of which is not yet clear. The state-owned Tass news agency cited an unnamed ministry source in its report that the ship’s bow was torn off. The vessel was around 5 miles from shore when it was damaged, the agency said.
An Emergency Ministry Mi-8 helicopter and a rescue boat were dispatched to the Volgoneft 212 vessel, which had 13 people aboard, the ministry wrote. “The crew requested assistance,” it said. The ministry later said that one sailor died and the remaining 12 evacuated alive. […]
The Emergency Ministry later said the Volgoneft 212 “was damaged and ran aground.”
The Volgoneft 239 had 14 people on board and was also carrying oil, the Emergency Ministry said.
The ministry reported that the vessel was drifting after sustaining damage.
As can be seen from the AP photo, I wouldn’t exactly say that it was just “drifting after sustaining damage” (cue the Monty Python memes). While these incidents are being attributed to the weather (high winds/high seas), and Ukraine thus far hasn’t indicated they were involved at all, it seems the real culprit (once again) was sheer Russian incompetence. From the New Voice of Ukraine:
According to Russian outlet Mash, Volgoneft 212 was built 55 years ago. Originally designed as a standard tanker, it was shortened in the 1990s to fit the “river-sea” standard. This process involved cutting out the vessel’s midsection and welding the bow and stern together. Initial information suggests that powerful waves struck along this welded seam, causing it to split.
Later, another Russian outlet, Shot, reported that a second Russian ship, Volgoneft 239, was similarly damaged in the Kerch Strait, with waves puncturing both vessels. Crews from both ships have remained on deck for about four hours, awaiting rescue.
Not sure whether these are part of Russia’s “ghost fleet” of oil tankers designed to circumvent Western sanctions (I would guess not if they are actually registered as Russian), but the environmental damage from all that oil spilling into the Black Sea and/or Sea of Azov is going to be considerable. […]
The conspiracy nuts on Project Blue Beam are spawning insanity like this post on xhitter:
Roseanne Barr
@therealroseanne
·
Follow
Now you see why I mention Project Blue Beam every week on my podcast…..
9:39 AM · Dec 14, 2024
Here is the info on what it is: https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/15/project-blue-beam/
Project Blue Beam
Published by digby on December 15, 2024
That should be all you need to know but just in case you’re curious:
1. Project Blue Beam is a conspiracy theory that alleges a secret plan by entities like NASA and the United Nations to establish a new world order through advanced technological manipulation. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what the theory claims:
2. Objective:
The primary goal is to implement a new global religion that would serve as the ideological foundation for a totalitarian world government. The theory suggests this new religion would use a simulated second coming of a religious figure or an alien invasion to discredit existing religions and unify humanity under a single belief system
3. Steps:
Step 1: Breakdown of Archaeological Knowledge – This involves staging events like earthquakes at specific locations to uncover “new” archaeological findings that would contradict traditional religious doctrines, aiming to destabilize faith in existing religions.
Step 2: Gigantic Space Show – Utilizing technology like satellites with laser projections, holograms would be displayed in the sky, creating spectacular visions of religious figures or alien invasions visible to people globally. This would be done to manipulate people into accepting the new religion.
Step 3: Electronic Telepathy – The theory suggests the use of technologies like extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves to simulate telepathic communication, making individuals believe they are receiving messages directly from a divine source or an alien entity.
Step 4: Supernatural Manifestations – This step involves creating scenarios where supernatural or paranormal events are faked, potentially leading to mass hysteria or acceptance of a new world order out of fear or awe.
4. Controversies and Criticism:
The theory was popularized by Canadian journalist Serge Monast in the 1990s, who later died under circumstances some conspiracy theorists claim were suspicious. However, there’s no credible evidence supporting the existence of such a project.
Critics argue that the logistics of such an operation would be nearly impossible to execute on a global scale without detection, and the technology described often exceeds current capabilities or understanding.
It’s often cited in discussions around UFO sightings or other unexplained aerial phenomena, with some believing these are “tests” or “early stages” of Project Blue Beam. However, these claims remain speculative and unsupported by concrete evidence.
Cultural Impact:
Project Blue Beam has gained traction in various conspiracy theory circles, often mentioned alongside other New World Order theories. It has appeared in various forms of media, from books to podcasts, reflecting a cultural fascination with grand conspiracy narratives.
The theory has been widely debunked by experts, with no substantial evidence found to support its claims.
People are starting to shoot at airplanes thinking they’re alien drones. I’m not kidding.
We are living in very, very strange times. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“If You’re Not Buying Memecoins Of Droopy Balls, Are You Even Alive?”
“It’s the next going-broke sensation that’s sweeping the nation!”
Gambling on sports parleys on an app not risky enough for ya? Attention span too short for day trading? Time to get into memecoins! They’re not regulated by the financial industry or the gambling industry. They’re sort of like buying stock, except that there’s no actual company that you’re investing in, there’s no stockbroker or broker’s license involved, and you don’t even have to be 18 to do it!
Heck, why not make your own memecoin? It’s easy to do!
First you need a meme, and a snappy symbol for the exchange platform. Make it memorable and cutesy, like Wonkcoin, or $WNK! Next, pick a blockchain to slap your brand on top of, like Ethereum, Solara, or Binance. Then, make your token. No programming skills necessary, you can punch the details into a token generator, like this one. Figure out what your supply of tokens should be. We suggest lots of zeros, because extra zeros mean extra fun! And fun is all you can sell, do not call it an “investment,” or you risk those party poopers at the SEC sniffing around.
Next, tie your coins to a digital wallet, like on Coinbase or wherever. Select the platform you’d like to use to sell your fun, a decentralized exchange, aka DEX: Uniswap, Kraken, or PancakeSwap, say. And you will need a liquidity pool, a token or two of your own. Then launch that $WNK, and, most important, hype it to your suckers friends! This thing’s going to the moon, baby! We’re all gonna be rich!! Welcome to decentralized finance, or call it DeFi if you want everyone to think you are in some kind of know.
If baking up your own artisanal memecoin is too much work, check out pump dot fun, (warning, nauseating graphics), the fastest-growing crypto app ever, which has brought in more than 300 million actual US dollars, mostly from coins with market caps under $10,000.
The low, low barrier to entry is one reason why all the memecoins in the world were worth about $20 billion in the beginning of the year and are now worth $118 billion, almost half of an entire Bezos. Dogecoin, the original memecoin, has a market cap of about $58 billion, bigger than Ford, Delta Airlines, or General Mills.
Marvel at all the meme-y things you can not-invest in! There’s a Saint Luigi coin! Horny Frog! About 100 memecoins that involve hairy, droopy balls (type “balls” in the search bar)! And so, so many Pepes, Trumps, and Elons. Eeeek, some are super racist, anti-Semitic, and/or downright gross. The place definitely attracts a type. [screengrab at the link]
Pump.fun is so easy a young teenager in California made $30,000 in 10 literal minutes on a Tuesday night last month, releasing 1 billion memecoins, buying $350 of tokens of them, then cashing out to the screams of suckers on a livestream, who then doxxed and harassed his confused parents with nonstop phone calls.
The cashout, the dump part of pump-and-dumping, is called a rug pull, and there is nothing illegal about it in itself, though it will sure make some people exploding-head-angry emoji 🤯 enough to threaten your mom! In an actual stock market, that would be insider trading, but in the memecoin-o-verse, getting financially Kevin McAllistered by someone not old enough to drive yet is just part of the thrills.
Still, some dumbshits are currently mad and complaining to the SEC about Hailey Welch, aka the Hawk Tuah girl. She christened a memecoin of her own, $HAWK, and it rapidly tumesced then shriveled. Sobbed a sucker on Xitter, [Post at the link]
$HAWK was indeed an eruptive launch, exploding to a market cap of $490 million, before withering to $60 million in just 20 minutes. But it’s not clear yet if Welch did anything illegal, or even owned any of her own coins. It could also be that the chumps who’d pumped simply abruptly decided to dump of their own accord. Apparently 96 percent of the $HAWK coin was held by 10 addresses, but there’s no evidence those were connected to Welch or her team, wallets being anonymous and all. The blockchain analysis company Chainalysis says that 54 percent of Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens show patterns of pumpy dumpy schemes, because, like, DUH.
Claimed Welch on Xitter:
Team hasn’t sold one token and not 1 KOL [key opinion leader] was given 1 free token We tried to stop snipers [people or bots who buy as soon as liquidity is added] as best we could through high fee’s (sic) in the start of launch …
There are some things that you can do with your memecoins that will attract the attention of the SEC. You can’t pretend like you’re selling crypto assets as some kind of investment. You can’t compensate celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Logan Paul or Hailey Welch to promote your invisible electric magic beans without being transparent up front that they are getting paid to do that. Don’t do what Justin Sun done did! And you can’t intentionally defraud people who buy your droopy balls coin or $HAWK coin by promising them bonuses they never get, or claiming their money is safe when it isn’t, like saying that the coins are locked away when they actually are funding a fleet of McLarens instead. You can’t conspire to pump and dump with the intention of fraud. Otherwise, that’s about it, though New York and California and a few other states now have some rules if you want to run an entire crypto exchange or platform, and New York doesn’t allow tokens with circulating supply less than 35 percent of its total supply, aka “Sam Coins,” after Bankman-Fried, who created tokens then used them to move customer assets to his own hedge fund.
Memecoin, it’s like stocks without the stocks, or sports betting without the sports. Makes playing blackjack in Reno look like a safe retirement plan! At least in Reno you’d get some free rail drinks, and the company of some lonely truckers, if you’re lucky.
“Israel’s foreign minister denounced Ireland for “extreme anti-Israel policies” in a move that follows Dublin’s recognition of Palestinian statehood and its accusations of genocide in Gaza.”
Israel is closing its embassy in Dublin in protest against Ireland’s decisions to recognize Palestinian statehood and to accuse the Israelis of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who confirmed the embassy closure in a statement Sunday, condemned Ireland for what he called its “extreme anti-Israel policies.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris — who recently said his country would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in Ireland — called Israel’s move “deeply regrettable” and rejected its criticisms.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin — who is widely expected to succeed Harris as prime minister once post-election negotiations on forming a new coalition government conclude — said Ireland would maintain its own embassy in Israel to ensure that diplomatic channels stay open.
“The continuation of the war in Gaza and the loss of innocent lives is simply unacceptable and contravenes international law. It represents the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Martin said.
Israel’s move follows a steady downward spiral in relations with Ireland, which has a history of expressing sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Ireland was the last member of the European Union to open an embassy in Israel, in 1996, the same year that Israel opened its embassy in Dublin.
Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, left the country in May after the Irish joined Norway and Spain in formally recognizing Palestine as a state. Last month, the Palestinian Authority’s mission in Dublin received full embassy status as Ireland appointed its first ambassador to Palestine.
Tensions also have risen over Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon as part of its assault on Hezbollah, an operation that has threatened United Nations peacekeepers there, among them an Irish army battalion.
The final straw for Israel appears to have been the Irish Cabinet’s decision last week to get more involved in South Africa’s year-old case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Following that Cabinet meeting, Martin said Ireland would ask the court “to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state. We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized.”
In Israel, Sa’ar sparred on social media with the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, over the wisdom of the move to shut the Dublin embassy.
“The decision to close the Israeli embassy in Ireland is a victory for anti-Semitism and anti-Israel organizations,” Lapid argued. “The way to deal with criticism is not to run away, but to stay and fight!”
Israel also said it is opening a new embassy in Chișinău, Moldova.
Lupus, doctors like to say, affects no two patients the same. The disease causes the immune system to go rogue in a way that can strike virtually any organ in the body, but when and where is maddeningly elusive…
Two years ago, however, a study came out of Germany that rocked all of these assumptions. Five patients with uncontrolled lupus went into complete remission after undergoing a repurposed cancer treatment called CAR-T-cell therapy, which largely wiped out their rogue immune cells. The first treated patient has had no symptoms for almost four years now. “We never dared to think about the cure for our disease,” says Anca Askanase, a rheumatologist at Columbia University’s medical center who specializes in lupus. But these stunning results—remission in every patient—have fueled a new wave of optimism. More than 40 people with lupus worldwide have now undergone CAR-T-cell therapy, and most have gone into drug-free remission. It is too early to declare any of these patients cured for life, but that now seems within the realm of possibility.
Two people have been arrested after allegedly conducting a “hazardous drone operation” near the airspace of the US city of Boston’s main airport, police said.
Robert Duffy, 42, and Jeremy Folcik, 32, were arrested on Long Island, part of the Boston Harbor Islands, on Saturday night.
They were charged with trespassing and police said they may face further charges and fines over the drones, which were “dangerously close” to Logan International Airport, said police…
When officers arrived on the scene, police said three people attempted to flee, two of whom – Mr Duffy and Mr Folcik, were apprehended. A drone was discovered in a backpack carried by Mr Duffy, police said.
The third suspect is believed to have fled the island in a small vessel and has not so far been found…
The mention of a backpack tells you something about the size of the drone.
With an ongoing panic about drones, expect vigorous prosecution.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an apology Thursday for printing a personalized license plate that appeared to mock the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, though the family of the car owner has disputed that interpretation.
A photo of the license plate reading “LOLOCT7” was published by the X account StopAntisemitism which claimed the license plate, affixed to a Tesla Cybertruck, was photographed at a major intersection in Culver City near Los Angeles.
The account demanded the California DMV recall the plates saying it “celebrates the October 7th terrorist attack” and calling it a “vile mockery.”
The son of the car’s owner told ABC affiliate KABC Friday that the account was misinterpreting a Tagalog word on the license plate.
The son, who the station did not identify, said that the plate should be read as “LOLO-CT-7,” referencing the Tagalog word for grandfather, the model of the car and the number of grandchildren the owner has. The son told the station that the explanation was given to the DMV when the application for the license plate was submitted…
first seen in May during a major solar event […] best remembered for creating auroral displays in the northern hemisphere at latitudes much further south than normal. The storm also increased atmospheric density at low Earth orbit altitudes […] said William Parker of [MIT]. That increased density results in more drag, affecting satellite orbits.
[…]
The first problem was the low accuracy of forecasts of the timing, magnitude and duration of the storm. “As a result of this low skill in our forecasts, SpaceX saw 20 kilometers of position error in their one-day computations” of the orbits of Starlink satellites, he said. “If we’re uncertain in where our spacecraft are by 20 kilometers, then you can throw collision avoidance out the window.”
The problem was compounded by a lack of knowledge of just how inaccurate the forecasts were at the time. […] “Being confident in the wrong answer fundamentally changes the decisions that we’re making whether or not to maneuver the spacecraft.”
The second issue came shortly after the peak of the storm. The increased drag caused satellites’ orbits to decay to the point where they performed maneuvers, often automated, to raise their orbits to the altitudes they were at before the storm. […] In one day after the storm, nearly 5,000 satellites, nearly all Starlink, performed orbit-raising maneuvers, far higher than the baseline of about 300 satellites a day. “This is half of all active satellites deciding to maneuver at one time,”
[…]
That record, he added, was broken in October after another geomagnetic storm with a slightly higher number […] the difference being the addition of hundreds of Starlink satellites launched in the months between the two events.
Those mass maneuvers further complicate collision avoidance efforts […] “Then we have no idea when a collision is going to happen. We lose that capability for days at a time,”
A person was arrested after attempting to climb a temporary fence near the White House this morning, according to a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson.
The Secret Service said the person was “quickly taken into custody and arrested for Unlawful Entry.”
The incident happened around 11 a.m. on Saturday…
The president is at the White House this weekend, the Secret Service said, but it noted that the person “did not breach the fence and there was no impact to any protectees.”
The Secret Service added that the person has been transported to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia for processing.
Bekenstein Boundsays
So, Trump breaks promise to lower grocery prices after only -36 days in office. Yep, that is MINUS thirty-six days in office. Must be a new record for politician promise-breaking speed!
“Trump’s allies are preparing for a TOTAL TAKEOVER”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-pZJuAmBJHY
No, no, those who say the MAGA leaders are fascists are totally exaggerating…
A smart, sensible person like Rogan is concerned, maybe I should be too.
/s
Joe Rogan has said that the mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey and parts of the Empire State have left him “genuinely concerned.” The podcast king made the remarks on Sunday, December 15, after watching a video floating an unverified claim that the unmanned devices were sniffing out harmful substances.
A drawn-out TikTok video shows John Ferguson, the CEO of a remote aircraft system company in Kansas, saying the drones are attempting to “smell” either a gas leak, “radioactive material,” or some other thing on the ground. “The only reason why you would ever fly an unmanned aircraft at night is if you’re looking for something,” Ferguson said in the clip, adding that he does not think the drones are nefarious…
Here’s another reason he apparently didn’t think of: Maybe someone flies a drone in their free hours, and they have a day job. Boom! Mr. professional drone guy didn’t think of that.
Reports of widespread damage are emerging from Mayotte after a 100-year cyclone ripped across the French archipelago Saturday, inflicting devastation that one resident likened to an atomic bomb, with hundreds and possibly even thousands of feared victims…
Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, just west of Madagascar. Made up of two main islands, its land area is about twice the size of Washington DC.
Cyclone Chido, a category 4 storm, tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service. It was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, Meteo-France said.
Chido then continued into northern Mozambique where it continued to cause damage, though the storm has now weakened…
Assad clarified that his departure from Syria was unplanned and did not occur during the “final hours of the battles.” He explained that he had traveled to Latakia, a Russian military base in Syria, to “oversee combat operations” when Moscow arranged for his evacuation to Russia.
It’s actually possible. The Russians may have decided it was better to evacuate him then let him die. It looks slightly better for Russia and Russian evacuation is slightly easier if Assad can’t object. More importantly, Assad does have a lot of important contacts in Syria that will be useful down the road. If the rebel groups can’t form a stable government it’s remotely possible he could even return.
I deeply suspect though that he is not being entirely honest.
Field tests of the British Army’s newest drone-destroying mobile laser weapon have reportedly enjoyed great success. The Wolfhound high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS) is an armored troop-carrying vehicle with an integrated laser, leveraging “advanced sensors and tracking systems” to target and knock out drones with surprising speed…
The laser-toting Wolfhound was tested recently at the Radnor Range in mid-Wales. Its operation relies on accurately concentrating a high-power laser on an in-flight drone until it malfunctions and drops from the sky. This is why the advanced sensors and tracking are essential, but from the video above it looks like skilled human operators play an important part, too…
“Every engagement we’ve done has removed a drone from the sky. While we’ve been testing a variety of distances, speeds, and altitudes, one thing has remained – how quick a drone can be taken out,” enthused Warrant Officer Matthew Anderson, the trials manager for the British Army’s Mounted Close Combat Trials and Development Group…
On January 1, 2025, thousands of copyrighted works from 1929 will enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1924. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon.[2] 2025 marks a milestone: all of the books, films, songs, and art published in the 1920s will now be public domain. The literary highlights from 1929 include The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. In film, Mickey Mouse speaks his first words, the Marx Brothers star in their first feature film, and legendary directors from Alfred Hitchcock to John Ford made their first sound films. From comic strips, the original Popeye and Tintin characters will enter the public domain. Among the newly public domain compositions are Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Ravel’s Bolero, Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, and the musical number Singin’ in the Rain. Below is just a handful of the works that will be in the US public domain in 2025.[3] To find more material from 1929, you can visit the Catalogue of Copyright Entries…
Canada Post said operations will resume at the national postal service on Tuesday after the nearly monthlong work stoppage.
Workers went on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with the primary postal operator in Canada over key issues, including wages, job security, and how to staff a proposed expansion into weekend delivery.
The federal government moved Friday to end the stoppage after Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon announced referring the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, an independent administrative tribunal that focuses on resolving workplace disputes.
However, the board determined late Sunday that negotiations are at an impasse after two days of hearings and ordered the nearly 55,000 workers to return to work. This will also extend the current collective agreement until May 22, 2025.
Canada Post said it has agreed with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to implement a 5% wage increase retroactive to the day after the collective agreement expired…
“Remember Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories related to Hurricane Helene, FEMA and devastated communities in North Carolina? The effects still linger.”
It might be tempting to think Donald Trump’s endless stream of conspiracy theories are annoying but ultimately meaningless. Those who put their misplaced trust in the president-elect end up misinformed and confused, the argument goes, but the real-world effects just aren’t that significant.
Those assumptions are, and have always been, wrong. Many of the Republican’s more trivial theories have become the background noise of our civic lives, but some have come with real consequences.
His racist conspiracy theories about people in Springfield, Ohio, for example, led to threats of violence and a community ravaged by fear and division. Trump’s conspiracy theories about his 2020 election defeat, meanwhile, led to an insurrectionist riot targeting the U.S. Capitol.
As for his conspiracy theories related to Hurricane Helene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and devastated communities in North Carolina, The Washington Post reported on the “unusual elements” surrounding the deadly storm’s aftermath.
Only about 15 percent of households in the affected region have applied to the agency for individual and household assistance, according to a Post analysis of months of FEMA data up to the second week of December. It’s a low number, three independent experts and a FEMA official said, given how many people are in need.
As for why more locals chose not to apply for the assistance to which they were (and are) entitled, it appears the president-elect bears a fair amount of responsibility.
[…] rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories about FEMA “inflamed a long-existing skepticism about government here.”
[…] to ignore Trump’s role is to overlook highly relevant details. In early October, for example, the then-candidate publicly — and falsely — declared that the Biden administration couldn’t finance post-hurricane relief efforts because officials “stole the FEMA money … so they could give it to their illegal immigrants.” The Republican’s allies quickly echoed the lie.
“Around that time,” the Post’s report added, “applications fell and never bounced back as officials had hoped.”
There was no great mystery as to why the Republican peddled these conspiracy theories: Trump and his campaign team were worried about winning the Tar Heel State, so he peddled an ugly lie.
It served its intended purpose — the GOP ticket narrowly carried North Carolina in this year’s election — but it also came with a related, unintended consequence: Many people living in devastated areas ended up needlessly suffering, at least in part because the president-elect peddled baseless nonsense.
[snipped some of the backstory and details concerning the findings by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz four-year investigation, which concluded that while there were FBI informants at the Capitol, no FBI officials were responsible for instigating the attack.]
[…] To hear Trump tell it, the fact that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants is evidence of a “disgrace.” But that’s preposterous: The far-right conspiracy theory wasn’t that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants. We already knew this. Some even testified during Jan. 6 criminal cases.
Rather, the conspiracy theory was that the FBI was somehow responsible for instigating the attack and entrapping Trump’s poor, unsuspecting supporters. Horowitz’s report — the one the president-elect seemed so excited about — discredited the bizarre idea. Not only did the IG conclude that the FBI informants weren’t authorized or encouraged to break the law, but the same findings made clear that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, either.
Nevertheless, the incoming president is very likely to reference last week’s revelations when he prepares pardons for Jan. 6 criminals. In fact, as part of Time magazine’s latest cover story on Trump, published last week, the Republican not only said he intends to issue these pardons, he added that he hopes to do so “maybe” within “the first nine minutes” of his second term.
I’m not quite sure how that would work — perhaps he’ll interrupt his own inaugural address? — but time will tell.
As for the nature of Trump’s plan, NBC News reported that the president-elect has expressed confusion about key elements — he’s said, for example, that he thinks most or all Jan. 6 defendants were being held in a Washington, D.C., jail, for example, when in fact only a handful of defendants are still being held pretrial — and even some of the Republican’s allies have expressed concern about his “level of awareness of the details.”
What The Hell?
A day after a judge ordered Donald Trump and ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos to sit for four-hour depositions this week, the Disney-owned TV network settled Trump’s defamation case against it by agreeing to pay him $1 million for his attorney fees and to make a $15 million charitable contribution to a not-for-profit that will build his presidential library.
Trump had claimed that Stephanopoulos defamed him in a March episode of “This Week” by saying during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC): “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It’s been affirmed by a judge.” Among the issues in the case was whether the civil jury’s finding that Trump was liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll amounted to a finding of rape or whether Stephanopoulos had gone too far in calling it “rape.”
The trial judge in the Carroll case wrote of the jury verdict last year:
The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.
Given the trial judge’s conclusion and the nature of Carroll’s allegations, ABC News was expected to continue to fight Trump’s claim, especially given Trump’s pattern of threatening and often losing defamation claims, as well as the strong legal protections afforded the press.
As part of the settlement, ABC News is not retracting Stephanopoulos’ comments. Rather, it agreed to append this vague editor’s note to the story: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”
Over the weekend, House Republicans once again failed to secure a deal to fund the federal government. The deadline for approving a spending bill is Dec. 20 and without its passage there could be another shutdown, which has happened before on the GOP’s watch.
Speaker Mike Johnson has been unable to get members of his own party representing farm districts to back the legislation currently being negotiated. […] now leadership may reach out to Democrats for help.
Advocacy groups and lobbyists representing farming interests have been pushing Congress to include farm relief in the funding bill.
“Our country will suffer the consequences if Congress takes farmers & our food supply for granted. I call on members of Congress who represent ag to stand with farmers by insisting the supplemental spending bill include economic aid for farmers and voting it down if it doesn’t,” Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation wrote.
Ironically, one reason farms are seeking relief is that they are still dealing with the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war, which led to decreased sales of U.S. farm products on the international market. Trump has proposed similar trade policies, including tariffs, for his second term despite the economic risk to millions of consumers.
While the House fumbled this key deadline, Johnson was not at the Capitol. On Saturday he instead attended the Army-Navy football game along with Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Trump benefactor Elon Musk. [Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard were also there.]
Since taking the House in the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans have governed in a state of almost perennial chaos. […] they have had to rely on Democratic votes to pass key legislation keeping the nation funded. Even after Republicans held on to the House in the 2024 election, the margin of the party’s control will be virtually unchanged from two years ago.
The incoming administration hopes to implement many of the unpopular ideas in Project 2025 (despite Trump’s claims that he had no connection to the conservative agenda), but the party’s track record of legislative incompetence may show another path forward.
[…] The future, even with Republicans in control of the House, Senate, and White House, does not look bright for Johnson and his party in Congress.
Drinking raw, unpasteurized milk was once mainly touted by a small group of people on the left, often those skeptical of corporate farming. But now, as concerns increase about the possibility that avian flu might be transmittable to humans via consumption of raw milk, MAGA conservatives have taken up the cause.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn against consuming unpasteurized milk. Pasteurization kills pathogens in milk, and when that process is skipped, the milk may contain dangerous germs, such as salmonella, E. coli, listeria, and others.
The CDC has recorded 202 outbreaks involving raw milk between 1998 and 2018, resulting in over 2,600 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations.
Since 2020, several Republican-led states have passed legislation or changed regulations allowing the sale of raw milk, despite these health concerns. The states include Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
At the same time, MAGA influencers have started promoting raw milk. Alex Clark, a podcast host for the far-right students group Turning Point USA, has extolled the virtues of raw milk for pregnant women, despite that the FDA has specifically warned that pregnancies can be harmed through the consumption of raw milk. Undeterred by science, Turning Point USA has sold T-shirts and glass straws with pro-raw-milk slogans.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is a raw-milk advocate as well. Speaking before a pro-raw-milk group in 2022, Kennedy said it is the only type of milk he consumes. He has also advocated for eliminating federal regulations governing raw milk and has complained about the “aggressive suppression” of raw milk.
Kennedy frequently promotes misinformation about science, particularly the debunked claim that there is a connection between childhood vaccination and autism.
Conservatism has historically been motivated by mistrust of the scientific establishment and the scientific process, along with a desire to “trigger” liberals with disturbing behavior.
In recent history, this drive was demonstrated by conservative complaints and protests about masking during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as public health officials advocated for masking to stop the spread of the virus. Conservatives also railed against mandatory vaccination policies, though these policies were a key weapon in the fight against infection.
Data has shown that these beliefs were such a large part of conservatism that areas with large conservative populations showed a higher rate of deaths related to COVID than other areas.
The rise of avian flu in milk supplies, along with existing germs in raw milk, make consuming the risky product even more of a gamble. But conservatives, driven by the distrust inherent in their belief system as well as an urge to make liberals mad, appear dead set on pushing raw-milk consumption.
“The leader of a Southern California white supremacist group has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for inciting violence at California political rallies in 2017”
The leader of a Southern California white supremacist group was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison for inciting violence at California political rallies in 2017.
Robert Paul Rundo, 34, pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Riot Act, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said.
“Hate and violence are antithetical to American values and tear at our community. It is therefore critical that we protect the civil and constitutional rights of our community against those who promote divisiveness,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
[…] Prosecutors say Rundo co-founded the Rise Above Movement, which they describe as “a combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement.” He and two others were accused of planning and engaging in violence at gatherings in Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino in 2017.
Rundo was arrested in 2018 for inciting violence at California protests and at a deadly riot in Charlottesville, Virginia. A federal court dismissed the charges in 2019, but they were reinstated by a federal appeals court in 2021.
Rundo had left the United States after the charges were dismissed and was extradited last year from Romania when they were reinstated.
Bad news that Rundo existed and thrived for a time in California, but good news that he now will go to prison.
[…] Just a little reminder that if you have a flexible spending account as part of your health insurance plan, it’s likely that you’ll lose whatever money you have socked away if you don’t spend it within the next 15 days. Some things that are usually eligible: birth control, smoking cessation, cold remedies (NyQuil: humankind’s greatest gift to itself), contact lens solution…stuff like that. But if your remaining balance is sizable enough, we’d advise you to buy something that’ll deliver the most bang for your pre-tax buck: senators. […]
[…] CHEERS to the brotherhood of boneheads. Senator Ted Cruz and his conjoined Utah twin, Mike Lee, forced the senate to stay open through the weekend so they could have more time to bloviate and stomp their feet in a meaningless gesture of…something something something that ended up getting voted down 22-75. But their short-sighted shenanigans benefitted Team Democrat, as they allowed Democrats to slip in 24 judicial and executive-branch nominations (including long-blocked Surgeon General Vivek Murthy) for approval that otherwise would’ve gotten sidelined by lack of time on the clock. […]
The situation is undoubtedly tense and fluid all along the battle trace in Ukraine. Nowhere easy. Russia is throwing at Ukraine everything including the proverbial kitchen sink and reportedly using barely armed North Koreans as reconnaissance-in-force cannon fodder. In other words Kim Jung Un’s much heralded soldiers are being sent into icy snow bound fields to absorb Ukrainian bullets so that the Russians can scope out Ukrainian positions and strength. This is what the North Koreans agreed to? And they are going to send upwards of 100,000 more for this? At this rate the folks in Seoul need not fret too much about North Koreans returning home to Pyongyang having gained much vaunted Russian modern infantry fighting skills.
Many observers doubted and could not understand why Ukraine made their August 2024 advance into Russia’s Kursk oblast. In certain quarters that disdain continues. […] But as I said here earlier, to the dismay of some, it is not as if the Ukrainians have no idea what to do or are gonna just sit there and watch the Russians roll all over them and take Pokrovsk.
The Ukrainian men and women in the cold frozen defensive lines, such as the very experienced 35th Marine Brigade( famous for being among the units to make the earliest breakthroughs in the Russian Surovikin lines and capturing Robotyne in the 2023 counter-offensive) are holding and exacting a huge toll for every inch the Russians gain and bleeding the waves of “meat assault” forces in front of them. Much like the froth about Pokrovsk falling in a few days earlier this summer, the current hoopla is about the Russians encircling the Ukrainian force at Uspenivka on the Kurakhove-Pokrovsk line. The ever optimist me says … just like at Vuhledar and Selydove, when the time is right the Ukrainians will once again execute one of the most difficult military maneuvers … a fighting retrograde to the next defensive line while bleeding the Russians as much as possible:
Every day we hold the crowd, every day we make it weaker. The defense forces are destroying the enemy across the front.… General Syrskyi, Ukrainian Armed Forces CinC
Similarly in Kursk, contrary to what some argued would be quick defeat of the Ukrainians once Russian artillery arrives on the scene, the Ukrainians are managing to hold at bay an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Russians and North Koreans including some of Russia’s vaunted VDV airborne troop formations. At Kursk, the Russians are fighting in their own backyard.[…]
“We are holding back large reserves there” – SBU Colonel Kostenko on Kursk sector. —global.espreso.tv/…
Where would those large Russian reserves be were they not engaged in Kursk? Your guess is as good as mine. […] Syrski is strategically using all his pieces … all across the board… defense in depth. And he is no arm chair HQ general. He is constantly on the move visiting his troopers all along the battle trace, especially where the action is hottest.
The incoming Trump administration has even more plans to delay electric vehicle adoption than previously thought. According to Reuters, which has seen transition team documents, the Trump team wants to abolish EV subsidies, claw back federal funding meant for EV charging infrastructure, block EV battery imports on national security grounds, and prevent the federal government and the US military from purchasing more EVs…
Instead, the new regime will be far more friendly to gas guzzling, as it intends to roll back EPA fuel efficiency standards to those in effect in 2019. This would increase the allowable level of emissions from cars by about 25 percent relative to the current rule set. US new vehicle efficiency stalled between 2008 and 2019, and it was only once the Biden administration began in 2021 that the EPA started instituting stricter rules on allowable limits of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from vehicle tailpipes…
As with the first Trump administration, we can expect a sustained attack on California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions regulations and any attempts by other states to use those regs…
Trade tariffs will evidently be a major weapon of the next Trump administration, particularly when deployed to block EV manufacturing. Even the current administration has been wary enough of China dumping cheap EVs that it instituted singeing tariffs on Chinese-made EVs and batteries, with bipartisan support from Congress.
The Biden tariffs were justified on economic grounds as a way of defending US industry against an unfair level of state support from China toward its own automakers. The Trump team plans to use national security as the justification for its own barriers to EV imports, using section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.
But according to the documents seen by Reuters, the tariffs on battery materials will be applied globally, something that should significantly increase the cost of a new EV. The transition team plans to allow individual countries to try to negotiate exemptions to the tariffs, Reuters wrote…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-oil-tankers-sink-off-142354966.html
Russian oil tankers sink off coast of Crimea – Yahoo
1 day ago Russia mounted a rescue effort Sunday after two oil tankers were wrecked in rough seas off Moscow-annexed Crimea and one broke apart, killing at least one sailor and causing an oil spill.
Apparently 4,300 tons of oil spilled in the Black Sea. Examples of superior russian technology?
Donald Trump vowed to file additional lawsuits against media outlets and media figures, just days after he settled his lawsuit against ABC in which the network agreed to contribute $15 million to his presidential foundation and library.
“We have to straighten out our press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections,” Trump told reporters today in a press conference.
Trump suggested that he would file a lawsuit against Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register, which published her poll, just days before the election, that showed Kamala Harris with a three-percentage point lead in the state. As it turned out, Trump won the state by more than 13 percentage points.
Trump claimed that the poll was “fraud” and “election interference.” “We’ll probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow,” he said…
Mainstream media organizations are continuing to capitulate to Donald Trump and the Republican Party […] giving in to legal threats […]
The First Amendment offers broad protections of speech, particularly the right to a free press, but the Trump team has adopted the tactic of using defamation lawsuits to combat reporting. Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer for Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to be secretary of defense, has threatened lawsuits against The New Yorker and Vanity Fair for articles about Hegseth and allegations of assault.
Similarly, Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to be FBI director, has threatened suits against journalists for reporting accurate information about Trump.
ABC News is the latest news organization to buckle to Trump’s legal threats. The news organization, which is owned by Disney, announced on Saturday that it would pay out $15 million in a donation to Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation suit brought against it by Trump.
Trump alleged that ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos defamed him when he said that “judges and two separate juries have found Trump liable for rape.” The jury found Trump was liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.
However, Judge Lewis Kaplan later expanded on the finding. Here’s Mother Jones:
That the jurors did not find that Carroll had proven rape, Kaplan explained, “does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’” “Indeed,” he continued, “as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
Experts on media law told The New York Times that traditionally media outlets fight suits harder than ABC had chosen to do. By settling, Trump also avoids having to sit for a deposition, which was planned for this week.
[snipped Nancy Mace’s comments]
Other news outlets are caving in. [Snipped details about the L.A. Times, The Washington Post, and Joe Scarborough (a host on MSNBC)]
[…] Media and tech moguls like Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and X’s Elon Musk have publicly praised Trump’s win (Musk also spent millions to help engineer it), raising serious concerns about the impartiality of the platforms the men own.
For his part, Trump appears to love the new hands-off approach.
“The media’s tamed down a little bit,” Trump said Thursday while appearing at the New York Stock Exchange. “They like us much better now, I think.”
At a press conference on Monday, Trump threatened future defamation lawsuits against the media. Among his targets are The Des Moines Register, “60 Minutes,” reporter Bob Woodward, and the Pulitzer Prizes in retaliation for reporting by The Washington Post and New York on Russia’s role in attempting to influence the 2016 election. [video at the link]
“It should have been the Justice Department or somebody else, but I have to do it. It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press,” Trump said. “Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections.”
birgerjohanssonsays
German chancellor Ola Scholz gets voted out in the Bundestag.
birgerjohanssonsays
Reginald Selkirk @ 138
When.A B C caved, they taught Trump what he can get away with.
Suggestion: boycott the collaborator companies.
[…] Ed Weisbart, a veteran medical doctor, now retired, serves as national board secretary for Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a nonpartisan organization of some 25,000 doctors founded in 1987 to advocate for a public health insurance program. […]
So long as you’re healthy, he told me, it is in your insurer’s best interest to keep you happy by delivering on small claims. It’s only when it looks as though you’re going to cost them lots of money that the denials start coming—and maybe by then you’re too sick to fight. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
What compelled you to join PNHP?
I was a practicing physician for decades and got fed up with seeing patients unable to afford health care—not in the broad, abstract way, but in the very real, nitty-gritty way. The Type 1 diabetic who has uncontrolled disease, and I prescribe insulin for him, and it would make a huge difference in his life expectancy, but he comes back a month later and his blood sugars are no better. And I ask him why, and he would say, “Well, because I’m taking my insulin every other day. It’s all I can afford.” I know he’s barreling toward dialysis.
A patient with end-stage emphysema came into the office without her oxygen, huffing and puffing, unable to breathe. She’s had portable oxygen at home and we know this because she had it previous visits. And I said, “Where’s your oxygen? Why are you so short of breath?” She says, “Oh, I can’t afford my oxygen anymore.”
We’re living in a country where we have people who literally can’t afford to breathe. I’ve got hundreds if not thousands of stories like that. It just drives me crazy, realizing you have to advocate for patients outside of the exam room as well, and then understanding that the reason it’s like this is because of the profiteers just leeching the blood and soul of everyday human beings so they can have the best returns on Wall Street. [Strong statement, but true.]
What did you make of the reaction to the Brian Thompson killing?
It’s obviously a tragedy and a very wrongheaded move. I was aghast. And yet it was also not hard to understand the dynamics, when there are tens of thousands of people dying because of the profiteering—people constantly running into having some bureaucrat say they can’t get the lifesaving care they need. […] [Graph showing insurance profits outpacing health care spending.]
What do you consider the biggest flaws of our health system?
As a medical director at various places, I’d say the biggest problem is that the system is designed to return profits rather than to improve health. And the programs that you would want to design to improve health are contrary to the business model of the people that could put those programs in place.
Related to that is the fragmentation of the system. That’s a consequence of the first problem. It means comprehensive solutions can’t be put in place. It means people are thrust into gaps in between care. So it creates its own set of expenses and driving up the cost.
The third piece is our inability to negotiate prices on behalf of Americans, which other countries do. Those costs are borne all across the system in ways that are obvious, like the overhead of the insurance industry—13 percent to 18 percent depending on where you look. But then they hide more than that by transferring some of the overhead onto hospitals, hospital infrastructure, and medical practices. Milliman estimated the average physician pays $100,000 for office staff to deal with the insurance industry, and where does that money come from? It comes from jacking up prices. All the fee schedules have to be adjusted so physicians can afford to pay this overhead.
This is unique to America. […]
I’m also curious about situations in which a patient gets a crazy bill, just totally unrealistic, and they kick up a fuss and the insurer suddenly reduces the cost or even wipes it out entirely. Is the whole system premised on people giving up and not fighting claim denials?
Yes. There’s data about this for Medicare. If Medicare denies a claim, it’s usually because the claim is for something that’s legally not a covered benefit. It’s extraordinary for it to be any reason other than that, and so when Medicare denies claims—which they almost never do—and someone appeals, there’s about a 1 percent chance that appeal will get reversed.
Now, with Medicare Advantage, which is the for-profit, typically proprietary, insurance industry version of Medicare, its the exact opposite. If somebody appeals a denial, I think around 80 to 85 percent of those denials get reversed, because when Medicare Advantage does a denial it’s because it wasn’t in the company’s business interest to pay for it. But nobody appeals it because they don’t know that they can—or that it would work. [Graph showing percentages of Americans with medical debt.]
Fascinating. So it’s actually easy—well, not easy, because it’s a total headache—but you can get these things reversed if you persist. I wouldn’t call it easy by any means. The patient has to spend significant time collecting things and going through the process. And you need a physician who’s willing to help, and who’s going to pay the physician for that? That’s a chunk of the physician’s time that is not reimbursed. Plus, most people in a situation where they need to do that are sick. They’re not at their best to begin with. It’s really hard, really time-consuming. And there’s a long delay from when you do the appeal to when you get a favorable decision.
Tell me more about the for-profit model, and how delaying and denying claims plays into it.
The commercial insurance industry collects a premium. So that’s a prepayment. The Medicare Advantage industry is prepaid by the government. That’s money in their pocket, and every time they pay a claim, that’s money that they’re spending.
They have this term, “medical loss ratio,” which is a carryover from the fire loss ratio and property loss ratio, but they call it a loss when they pay. So, they don’t want to pay, and it manifests in a couple of ways. First, if they don’t pay the claim, that’s money they can retain. Secondly, even if they just delay the care, they have sophisticated systems managing how they invest the money they’re not paying.
I once worked in a part of the insurance world where they did exactly that. They had contracts that required them to pay their bills within a certain timeframe, and if they paid long after they were contractually obliged to, there was a penalty, and they had sophisticated systems to analyze the return on their investments in the market vs. how big the penalties are for delaying the payment for care. And they would delay until they hit the right point on the curve where it was more sensible financially to pay the claim than to keep investing it in the market.
So basically you collect a big pile of money and invest it and then avoid paying claims so you can keep that money invested as long as possible to maximize your returns in the market?
That’s exactly right.
[…] How does the cost of a public insurance bureaucracy compare with the cost of a private one?
The commercial insurance industry has a roughly 15 percent overhead. Traditional Medicare, parts A and B, operates with a roughly 2 percent overhead.
[…] Do you think for-profit insurers play any positive role in our system, or would you like to see them go away entirely?
I would like to see them go away entirely. […] I just don’t want people dying like they are today.
More at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
Oh my gawd.
God Awful Movies has taken on “The Gospel According To Scrooge”.
It should be on Youtube in a day or two.
birgerjohanssonsays
When Hossenfelder sticks to physics I find her podcasts helpful. There is a lot of BS out there but I lack the expertise to judge what seems plausible and what is rubbish.
[…] It’s not realistic to expect any news organization to be meaningfully independent in a Trump context if they’re owned by a company that is heavily involved in government contracting (Amazon) or in a business heavily exposed to government regulation (Amazon, Comcast, WBD, and all the rest).
The history here is important to consider. For most of our history newspapers were the dominant driver of news. Running a newspaper meant operating in a relatively unregulated space (no broadcast licenses, O&O’s, spectrum regulation) and just as importantly the rich families who owned them tended to have their economic roots and power in particular cities or regions. They mostly weren’t national. We can get into the complexities. But the particular overlap of political and regulatory power and news production that we’re describing here is fairly novel. Obviously, the game changer is a president ready and eager to abuse his power. But the ability to abuse it is also much greater.
The takeaway is pretty simple. We will have to rely on news organizations that are owned by companies that are really in the news business, and mostly not in other ones. I also think this will likely accelerate the decline of a decent amount of legacy media. That’s not because the great majority of news consumers are going to stampede away from ABC or CBS or CNN or any of the others for not standing up to Trump. But it will be brand damaging over time. And they’re in serious decline in the first place. If there’s a future for the cable networks and other legacy media entities it will probably be as more independent entities anyway. Not because of some resistancy turn in their editorial outlook. It’s simply because it’s very, very hard to imagine any big corporation wanting to buy a news organization in the current climate — both the economic climate and also the political one.
The outgoing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel condemned President-elect Trump’s threat to punish broadcast networks that he says are not fair to him.
“The FCC has no business threatening to take away broadcast licenses because the president does not like the content or coverage on a network,” Rosenworcel said on the most recent POLITICO Tech podcast. “And that same First Amendment duty applies to what is out there online.”
[…] Rosenworcel said that it is not the FCC’s place to carry out Trump’s threats against the media.
“We make decisions about communications based on the record, based on the facts, and based on the law,” she said. “And not based on the whims coming out of the White House or the grievances of the president.”
[…] “As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Rosenworcel said back in October in a statement to The Hill. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
The All-Star lineup that is Donald Trump’s second presidential administration continues to take shape. And by All-Star lineup, we mean this chucklefuck collection so odious, so repellent, so loathsome, that we will need all the bleach in the known universe to disinfect Washington DC after they eventually abscond with every dollar from the nation’s treasury […]
Over the weekend, Sweet Potato Suharto added to this harem of monstrosities his ambassador to Germany from his first administration, who was such an asshole that the Germans openly cheered when he left. Then Trump followed up by adding a doofus former congressman who once sued a pretend cow for being mean to him. Like we said, all-stars.
We will say this, though. The jobs that Ric Grenell and Devin Nunes signed on for at least sound as if the two men are being shunted off to the edges of the administration, as opposed to being brought in toward any center of power. […]
Let’s start with Nunes. His list of sins is too long to summarize concisely. We do remember his laughingly ironic chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee during the early days of the investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia, when he spent weeks and months trying to undermine the inquiry by leaking to the press that he had information from whistleblowers that the Obama administration had illegally conspired to frame Trump. Needless to say, this was bullshit.
Nunes’ efforts included a secret meeting at the White House to meet with the alleged whistleblowers, who were actually Trump toadies, in a weird nighttime dash around Washington that was so inept, none other than Lindsey Graham compared him to Inspector Clouseau.
[…] Nunes sued Ryan Lizza and Esquire for publishing an accurate story about his family moving its dairy farm from California to Iowa, a suit that was eventually dismissed in its entirety. He also sued CNN for defamation for $435,000,000. Unsurprisingly, that one was also dismissed in its entirety. Nunes does love filing frivolous lawsuits that judges kick into the ionosphere.
Nunes eventually resigned from Congress to become CEO of the Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Trump’s vanity social media product and Nazi safe space, Truth Social. He will soon be taking on an additional gig, as chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board: [Screenshot of Trump’s announcement on social media.]
So he’s taking this position while continuing to run one of Trump’s private businesses? Boy, that doesn’t sound at all like a massive conflict of interest waiting to happen.
According to the White House website, the PIAB exists to provide the President “with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the nation’s intelligence needs.” This means that Nunes, according to Barbara McQuade of MSNBC, will have access to all of America’s massive trove of intelligence. Which, given Nunes’s past efforts to manipulate classified information to look favorable to Trump, feels like a recipe for disaster.
On the plus side, this is an advisory board and a position deemed not important enough for Senate confirmation. It’s not as if Trump is trying to make Nunes the Director of National Intelligence. Frankly, we’d be shocked if Nunes has the smarts to impress even the Senate enough to confirm him, and the Senate’s Republican caucus includes the likes of Tommy Tuberville and Ron Johnson.
Speaking of the DNI, we might have Tulsi Gabbard overseeing America’s entire intelligence community and Devin Nunes, a man his hometown paper once called “Trump’s yes-man,” running an advisory board telling Trump whether she’s doing a good job or not. This is either the setup for a horrific disaster movie or history’s dumbest romcom.
Then we come to Richard Grenell, […]
Grenell served as the ambassador to Germany during part of Trump’s first administration. He took over the job in May of 2018. By the following January, as Our Liz once noted, German politicians were calling for his expulsion.
Grenell’s sins, in addition to general galactic assholery, were fairly numerous. We suppose you could sum them up as his trying to export Trumpism to one of America’s biggest European allies. Given that Trumpism is just warmed-over bullying by dotards, this went over about as well as one could expect.
For example, within one day of taking office, Grenell was threatening German companies that did any business with Iran. He publicly suggested on Tucker Carlson’s show, which was still on Fox, that Germany needed a change in leadership. As Liz noted:
Advocating for leadership change in a diplomat’s host country is very NOT ON, not to mention being a violation of Article 41 of the Vienna Convention, which requires overseas diplomats “not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.” So Grenell was off to a cracking good start!
Grenell also spent time cozying up to Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right nationalist political party. [!!!] Hey, when has coddling a far-right nationalist political party in Germany ever backfired on the planet? And yet these were the people Grenell found most comfortable being around […]
Is it any wonder that Der Spiegel reported that of the more than 30 sources it interviewed for a profile on Grenell, the majority described him as a “vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely handle criticism”? Just like his boss!
And this was just Grenell’s ambassadorship. We won’t even get into his involvement with the Stop the Steal movement in 2020, except to say that he admitted to GOP operatives in Nevada that the whole thing was bullshit.
It’s always neat when people openly put their own desperate need for power above American democracy. […]
Even before the 2024 election, Grenell was openly campaigning to be Secretary of State in the next Trump Reich. After the election, he was even more craven and pathetic about it, according to Politico, which reported recently on efforts by conservatives to convince Trump to name Grenell to the job:
Around the same time, an associate of Grenell had approached conservative social media influencers, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, offering paid contracts of as much as five figures to post favorably about Grenell.
Listen, if you have to pay people to say nice things about you, maybe the job of America’s chief diplomat is not a good fit. Nonetheless, Grenell supposedly told people in Trump’s orbit that he would accept nothing less than secretary of State.
Then the State gig went to Marco Rubio, and suddenly Grenell would accept whatever scraps the Trump people tossed his way: [Screengrab of Trump’s post announcing Grenell as “our Presidential Envoy for Special Missions.”]
“Presidential Envoy for Special Missions” sounds like the sort of make-work consolation prize you give to someone who didn’t get the job he wanted, and also who you would like to keep out of the White House and the country as much as possible.
So congrats to Grenell on his participation trophy. And Devin Nunes on his participation trophy. You’re both doing great.
Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest conspiracy theory just dropped.
Mysterious drones have been spotted across the eastern U.S. over the past month, sparking concerns from citizens and drawing the attention of the FBI. And while the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have said the drones do not pose “a national security or public safety threat,” Greene has taken that information and spun it into a new conspiracy.
“The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on,” the Georgia congresswoman wrote on X this past Saturday. “It really is that bad.”
Greene is one of many officials to join this conspiracy squawking. Donald Trump also pointed fingers at the current administration, urging citizens to “shoot them down.”
However, before you point your guns at the sky, one expert is urging people to reconsider.
Rob D’Amico, the former chief of the FBI’s counter-drone unit, told MSNBC that shooting at these unidentified aircrafts would be “irresponsible” and would be “the same legally as shooting at a manned aircraft.”
Despite the obvious danger of shooting into the sky, other government officials have joined in on the squawking, including Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew, both of New Jersey.
Government officials also confirmed that many of the reported drone sightings were “actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully,” according to one National Security Council official.
[…] Greene’s fear-mongering statement is one of many conspiracy theories the congresswoman has made in recent years. […]
Hackers trying to extort the Rhode Island government infiltrated the state’s public benefits system, causing state officials to shut down online services that let residents apply for Medicaid and other assistance programs.
“As part of this investigation today, we discovered that within the Rhode Island Bridges system, a cybercriminal had installed dangerous malware that constituted an urgent threat,” Governor Dan McKee said at a Friday night press conference, according to The Providence Journal. “That is why tonight we have shut down the system. That means customers will temporarily not be able to access any customer portal related to the services on Rhode Island Bridges.”
The vendor “Deloitte confirmed that there is a high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information from RIBridges,” McKee’s office said in a press release. Rhode Island has “proactively taken the system offline so that the State and Deloitte can work to address the threat and restore the system as quickly as possible.” …
WordPress co-founder and CEO of Automattic Matt Mullenweg is trolling contributors and users of the WordPress open-source project by requiring them to check a box that says “Pineapple is delicious on pizza.” From a report: …
The EU has signed a deal for its IRIS² constellation of 290 communication satellites that will operate in both medium and low-earth orbit. The Starlink rival will provide secure connectivity to governmental users as well as private companies and European citizens, and bring high-speed internet to dead-zones. The public-private deal valued at €10.6 billion (about $11 billion), according to The Financial Times, is expected to come online by 2030.
SpaceRISE — a consortium led by European satellite network operators SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat, and supported by European satcom subcontractors like Airbus and Deutsche Telekom — has been given a 12-year concession contract to develop, deploy, and operate the IRIS² constellation. IRIS² is an acronym for Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite…
Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from her post, citing disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on how to respond to incoming President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.
She announced her resignation in a letter to Trudeau on Monday, in which she said the two have been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada”, and pointed to the “grave challenge” posed by Trump’s policy of “aggressive economic nationalism”.
Freeland said the decision comes after Trudeau informed her last week that he no longer wanted her to be his government’s top economic adviser.
Her resignation came hours before she was due to provide an annual fiscal government update in parliament.
In recent days, the two have also reportedly been in a dispute over a policy that would have delivered a C$250 ($175; £139) cheque to every eligible Canadian…
…
Five years later, the law known as Bill 21, which bars many public servants from wearing religious symbols while on the job, is facing a Supreme Court challenge, with opponents arguing it disproportionately affects religious minorities such as Muslim women.
The premier, who described the ban as “moderate” in that video, now says it doesn’t go far enough and recently indicated he wants to ban prayers in public.
All of this raises questions about what was actually accomplished with Bill 21, whether there’s even a need to strengthen the law and where the political conversation around religion in Quebec is heading. ..
Ukraine possesses a laser weapon capable of shooting down airborne targets at an altitude of more than 2 kilometres (1.2 miles), the country’s drone forces commander said on Monday. The military official, Vadym Sukharevskyi, did not provide any more details in his first official remarks about the existence of the weapon. Reuters was unable to verify his statement.
“Today we can already shoot down aircraft at an altitude of over 2 km with this laser,” he was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Sukharevskyi said the laser was named the Tryzub – the Ukrainian word for a “trident”, which is a symbol used on the national coat of arms – suggesting it was domestically produced.
In April, former British Defence Minister Grant Shapps said that Britain’s DragonFire laser, which is expected to go into service in 2027, could potentially be used in Ukraine to counter Russian drones.
Steve Bannon is pushing Donald Trump to consider a third presidential term in 2028.
The controversial political strategist suggested the two-term limit on U.S. presidents doesn’t count in Trump’s case because his terms in office were not consecutive…
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea that he could run a fourth time, even though the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1951, clearly states that “no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice.” …
Sunday night offered a sneak preview of what life might be like in […] Trump’s second term at the annual black tie gala of Manhattan’s most MAGA political club. It’s a world where fringe media outlets are ascendant, a new wave of religious leaders are mixing politics and prayer, the global right-wing is rejoicing, and more established press are being subjected to a new level of restrictions and derision.
The New York Young Republicans Club is an organization that’s over a century old. These days, the group embodies the new GOP with a leadership that unapologetically embraces Trump, strident culture war politics, and a bare-knuckled approach to it all. According to the club’s leaders, this strategy has led to an eightfold surge in membership. […]
Trump, who attended the gala last year, was unable to make it this time around. However, in taped remarks from Mar-a-Lago, he credited the club with helping him win last month’s election.
“I attribute a lot of it to the people in the room tonight, so I just hope you’re having a fantastic time,” Trump said. “I wish I could be with you, but I’m doing a couple of other things. You probably heard about that, but I’ll be with you, most likely, next year.”
The celebratory crowd included figures from both the American and global far right. Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, mingled in the room ahead of the speeches. He wouldn’t speak with TPM.
A contingent wearing U.S.-Germany flag pins was (slightly) more talkative. One of them introduced himself as Markus, and declined to give his last name. When asked if they were members of the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), a far-right German political party whose founder once called for a “180 degree change in their politics of commemoration” while referring to Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, they said yes.
“We are not here on AfD’s behalf,” Markus said, before the conversation ended.
In another conversation, TPM spoke with Marco Spina, an Italian who introduced himself as national secretary of the youth wing of the country’s Republican Party. That was less expected: the Italian Republicans lean towards the center, though Spina became extremely exercised after TPM asked about the country’s current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. She had made a big mistake in bowing down to Biden, Spina said. At another point, TPM spotted Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) posing for a photo along with Miklos Szantho, director-general of Hungary’s Center for Fundamental Rights, a nonprofit that is a strong supporter of the country’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán. Gosar and Szantho, who also delivered remarks on stage, later appeared on Instagram posing together.
The event even featured a representative from a country that does not exist: the New Federal State of China, a supposed Chinese government-in-exile formed by Trump adviser Steve Bannon and indicted billionaire Guo Wengui. Forrest Zhou, the ersatz government’s secretary general, introduced himself to TPM as a friend of Bannon’s, and said he had come to help gin up support for the movement.
The audience also included some of the unconventional internet broadcasters who have been seen as a major driver of Trump’s political momentum. Elijah Schaffer is a podcaster who has worked with multiple right-wing news organizations including Gateway Pundit, which is infamous for publishing what CNN has described as “baseless right-wing conspiracy theories.” TPM asked Schaffer about a recent report that a top aide who serves as a “gatekeeper” for information that reaches the president-elect considers Gateway Pundit “one of her go-to news sources.” As he settled in at a table near the stage, Schaffer said he feels the site is clearly having an influence on Trump.
“I think the most important part is that, like, whether or not he talks about it or not, you can hear our original reporting in some of the speeches,” Schaffer said. “So, his speech writers are reading us.”
Schaffer’s past use of slurs and mockery of minority groups has led some to brand him a “racist.” It’s a label he doesn’t necessarily shy away from.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Schaffer said. “I mean, racism in and of itself is not inherently bad. Like discrimination and racism are just, there are ways that you can view the world to judge entire groups of people by the common patterns that they exhibit.”
Indeed, many of the guests and speakers at the gala described Trump’s win as evidence that the norms that have governed modern society are changing. Father Josiah Trenham, an Orthodox Christian priest, stood near the stage in a long black robe before the evening’s program began. In a brief conversation with TPM, he attributed growing interest in Orthodox Christianity to a “massive cultural shift … that was provoked by the tyranny of COVID.” Trenham went on to deliver a prayer from the gala stage.
“Lord God, as we partake of this meal and this evening together, bless our food and drink and grant to us the ultimate MAGA,” Trenham said.
The evening’s master of ceremonies was Raheem Kassam, editor of The National Pulse site and co-founder of Bannon’s “War Room” broadcast. Kassam also mockingly flirted with the “racist” label as he teased NYYRC recording secretary Alexander Zhik, who is Jewish.
“I want to go back to my good buddy Alex Zhik … Shmuley as I call him for explicitly racist reasons,” Kassam said.
Kassam continued his riff on Zhik’s religion with a reference to one of the night’s big themes, the Daniel Penny case.
“Shmuley is the one guy I know who as a lawyer was not interested in the Daniel Penny case until he heard his surname,” Kassam said.
Apparently, even in this new era, there are some limits. Kassam’s remark drew a smattering of boos. Soon thereafter, he described Natalie Winters, a co-host of Steve Bannon’s podcast, as “Nazi barbie.”
While pro-Trump media outlets were taking the stage and enjoying the catered meal, the rest of the press was given a rather different reception. Lucian Wintrich, who served as a White House correspondent for Gateway Pundit during Trump’s first term, is the NYYRC’s “press chairman.” He sent an email with guidelines for the event to TPM and others who signed up to cover the proceedings. In that message, Wintrich indicated some of the media contingent would receive minders from the club.
“Without naming names, it was noted that a few press applicants have previously written stories schizophrenically calling modern Conservatives and ‘Trump supporters’ a number of unfounded names followed by fake news coverage. In spite of that, and in the spirit of an open press and access, we have decided to admit those ‘journalists’ for coverage,” Wintrich wrote. “Such being said, the most egregious offenders will receive the Christmas gift of their own personal ‘elf’ (NYYRC Gala volunteer) escort to make certain they will neither harass nor misquote attendees. Should this be witnessed and reported, credentials will be revoked.”
When TPM arrived at the venue we learned that one of our reporters, Hunter Walker, was on this list. Wintrich informed us he was “one of four” to receive an escort. [That must have been amusing for Hunter Walker.]
“You’re particularly shitty and egregious,” Wintrich explained, adding, “My god. It’s a paint-by-the-numbers liberal way of reporting that I’m sure you’re aware of.”
Walker was accompanied by an NYYRC volunteer named Ryan throughout the evening. Ryan was incredibly thorough. Ryan switched his cellphone wallpaper to a photo of Walker’s face to help him keep tabs. He even escorted Walker to the bathroom.
“That was my first time watching a reporter pee,” Ryan said after one trip.
NYYRC volunteers also downloaded the social media platform Bluesky so they could keep tabs on TPM’s live coverage of the event.
The night’s final keynote speaker was Bannon, the combative Trump adviser, who noted what the media might expect over the president-elect’s term.
“We want retribution and we’re going to get retribution,” Bannon said, adding, “They never in a million years thought we’d be back in power and they need to learn what populous nationalist power is on the receiving end. I mean, investigations, trials, and then incarceration — and I’m just talking about the media.”
TPM’s minder, Ryan, apparently wanted to make sure we got Bannon’s message.
“That’s you!” Ryan said. “You’re going to get locked up.”
“Trump Presser A Gauzy, Nostalgic Harbinger Of The Next Four Years Of Suck”
“Meet the new buffoon, same as the old buffoon.”
Convicted felon Donald Trump, soon to be known as “convicted felon President Donald Trump,” held one of his classic press conferences on Monday. And we have to tell you, we felt this weird nostalgia bubble up from the fetid depths of our blackened, cynical hearts.
It was so, so very Trumpian, circa 2017. There he was at his dollar store Monticello in Florida, face more orange than an old Denver Broncos jersey, standing in front of two giant American flags one might easily imagine were physically recoiling from fear that he might at any moment grope them. There were the cheesy gold-plated wall sconces and the spooky leftover prop candelabra that looked like something Gary Sinise carried through dark hallway sets in Dracula. There was a wizened foreign CEO — in this case, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son — sucking up to Hairball Hitler by announcing a $100 billion investment in “artificial intelligence and related infrastructure,” whatever the fuck that looks like.
The SoftBank deal will also allegedly create 100,000 jobs in the United States. Sure thing. Anyone know how SoftBank’s $50 billion investment that was supposed to create 50,000 jobs that the same CEO announced after Trump’s victory in 2016 ever did? Oh, they lost $16 billion of it investing in WeWork? Neat. [Reality!!]
That was the first five minutes of the press conference, and was followed by a solid hour of Trump taking questions from the press and responding with lie after lie after lie, while the reporters dutifully wrote it all down with little to no pushback. The answers were his characteristic mixture of vague to the point of meaninglessness and flat-out falsehoods on every topic — vaccines, immigration, all the money he thinks Mexico and Canada are stealing.
He accused the Biden administration of covering up the truth behind all the recent drone sightings on the East Coast. He claimed he won the youth vote in this election by 34 points. (In reality, Kamala Harris won the youth vote by 12 points.) He defended secretary of Defense nominee and reported drunk Pete Hegseth, who he claimed was in line to make a ton of money at Fox but gave it all up to work in Trump’s Cabinet. (Why Hegseth can’t go back to Fox and make a pile of money if his nomination gets rejected remained unexplained, of course.)
It was all such a throwback to the first Trump term that CNN even had Daniel Dale on to fact-check him while blinking the words GOD HELP ME in Morse code: [video at the link]
Perhaps most egregiously, considering the assembled crowd, he threatened defamation suits against media outlets that have displeased him. […]
Oh, and he talked about suing “Pulitzer” for awarding its journalism prizes to The New York Times and The Washington Post over their reporting on Russia instead of to the likes of Sean Hannity and Judge Jeanine, who he said actually got the story right, that it was a giant hoax. […]
[…] A few people online have been yelling Thanks a pantsload, ABC, over the network’s grotesque capitulation to Trump’s lawsuit against the network, which is only partially correct. The man sues just to sue, whether he has a case or not, and we strongly, strongly doubt that a protracted fight with ABC, or even an immediate dismissal of the lawsuit, would have discouraged him.
But it is possible that ABC’s ridiculous $15 million settlement will embolden him even further and make him think he’s doing the right thing, and he’ll start going after smaller outlets that don’t have the means to fight. Outlets like The Des Moines Register, to take just one example off the top of our head for no reason. [See comments 138 and 139]
Which brings us back to our original thought as we watched the media let Trump steamroll over it as he has for a decade. And that is how absurd it is that reporters still, still, after all this time, troop into these rooms with Trump like a bunch of lemmings, knowing they will be lied to, knowing they will be berated and threatened and insulted, and dutifully write it all down without standing up for themselves and their profession.
[…] We watched four years of such scenes during Trump’s first term, and we find it unreal that we will be watching the same sorts of spectacles for another four. We can’t believe we get another four years of White House reporters scribbling down Trump’s rambling horseshit without noting that Trump has always rambled through every press conference and interview, and that 95 percent of the stuff he promises never happens.
We just found it all very depressing for a minute. Because it is.
The whole sorry spectacle is right here, in case anyone wants to also crack a jar of Hooper’s eggnog at 4:20 in the afternoon. [video at the link]
Donald Trump’s felony conviction in the New York hush money case should not be tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Judge Juan Merchan ruled Monday.
Merchan’s decision rejected one of several avenues that Trump’s lawyers have taken to try to dismiss Trump’s May guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The judge did not, however, rule on a motion from Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the conviction because Trump has now been elected president.
Instead, his 41-page decision focused on the question of presidential immunity.
Merchan wrote the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump should receive broad immunity for official acts during his time in office did not mean the conviction should be dismissed, ruling that the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was not related to Trump’s official conduct as president.
The evidence contested by Trump’s lawyers, the judge wrote, related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and should receive no immunity protections…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: birgerjohansson @144:
When Hossenfelder sticks to physics I find her podcasts helpful. There is a lot of BS out there but I lack the expertise to judge
From her behavior on other subjects, you know that Sabine’s a lying opportunist who merrily endangers her audience and encourages her audience to harm others (which is what happens when one defends hate groups). She lies about physics, even her own specific field.
Here’s a video called “This is why physics is dying”, and a frustrated Sabine is on the thumbnail exclaiming “Still the same crap.”
It’s exactly the same crap as with string theory, and supersymmetry, and inflation, and dark sectors, and many other research bubbles in the foundations of physics. It’s mathematical fiction. It’s nothing to do with reality anymore. I don’t understand why people get paid for doing this.
Sabine is sounding like [a crank] again complaining about how physicists get paid to do math. […] This whole “physics hasn’t done anything new in 50 years” song and dance is totally meritless. […] When figures like Sabine […] rail against string theory, it’s just a scapegoat for their anti-academia rhetoric. […] Sabine has two audiences. She attracts science enthusiasts who want to learn about science. She also attracts science deniers who look for reasons to disparage and deny science. It’s rather remarkable, but Sabine has managed to tap into both audiences.
The problem is that the latter audience is much much larger. Therefore she gets a tremendous amount of positive feedback from that audience, and I feel it has polarized her content in that direction. […] Look at the disparity in view count with the other content […] between 100k-200k views in 6 months when Sabine talks about energy storage or quantum cognition; ‘academia sucks’ gets over 3 million.
[…]
Sabine’s antics in this regard are not limited to YouTube. She has written several articles for The Guardian […] slipping into legitimate dishonesty and abject falsehood […] complaining about the status of particle physics [likening it to] zoologists inventing new animals out of thin air […] Sabine is abusing this term [particle zoo] to baselessly mock particle physicists, which is particularly frustrating as she used to be a particle physicist. She goes on to mock the entire field, saying they don’t believe in what they do, and likening them to an army of typewriting monkeys, essentially just lying to get grant money.
[…]
Science communicators should not be sounding like the science deniers they are ideally there to neutralize. They should not be writing entire books like [Sabine’s Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray] […] any particle physicist I’ve come across that is aware of it speaks emphatically and with specificity to the dishonesty within. […] If you are sacrificing your integrity and poisoning society to achieve those views […] are you any longer a trusted voice in science communication?
* *groan* At 28:43, Professor Dave showed Vaush and Destiny thumbnails on-screen as he referred to knowledgeable critics who ‘do work’ in trans areas. And credited Vaush, of all people, for correcting him on Dave’s own trans video (which both-sidesed transphobia, condemned trans athletes, and defended Chapelle!?) to follow up in another trans video (doubling down and yet not caring about athletes).
He at least recognizes the greater threat is from the right, and as an object lesson according to the description on that followup trans video, had to shut down comments after receiving waves of malice he’d not conceived possible and permanently altered his outlook on the state of the country.
Reporters are expensive meatbags, and they complain a lot. What if you could just replace them with robots? That’s the brilliant idea media company BuzzFeed’s CEO Jonah Peretti has, anyway. […]
Three years ago, BuzzFeed paid $300 million for Complex Networks and First We Feast, owners of that “Hot Ones” YouTube show where celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal, John Stamos and Lorde get interviewed by an affable guy named Sean Evans, while they eat progressively spicier chicken wings, and the celebrity proclaims that the wings are indeed spicy. People like it! The show has somehow been around for an entire decade, and has 12.6 million subscribers.
Then earlier this year BuzzFeed sold some of the Complex business to ecommerce company Ntwrk for around $109 million, and laid off about 16 percent of its remaining workforce. And then last week it sold First We Feast for $82.5 million to an affiliate of Soros Fund Management. Quite the big fat loss! But it’s part of a strategy, you see, to get rid of “lower-margin content products” in favor of “high-margin, tech-enabled revenue lines.”
Or as the BuzzFeed CEO put it, in business-speak: “In the coming years, we will continue to invest in our most scalable and tech enabled services, launching new AI-powered interactive experiences, and delivering for our loyal audience and business partners.” Translation, robots won’t demand severance pay or file for unemployment, and the audience won’t mind.
In the worst kind of timing, the next day the BBC’s Apple AI sent out a news alert falsely notifying “Apple Intelligence”-enabled iOS 18.1 iPhones that shooting suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself. (He had not.) You would think AI would at least be able to summarize existing news stories without completely making things up, but the technology, it seems, is not there yet. […]
Red Ventures’s technology website CNET already tried robot reporters, and what they got was plagiarism and stories full of errors. AI can’t tell if the information it’s scraping is fact or fiction. It has no ability to verify information […] can’t decide what’s newsworthy and what is not […]! All it can do is generate some text based on the patterns it was trained on. And then there’s the plagiarism problem: AI steals and regurgitates what humans have written, that’s what it does. So if AI requires an editor to insert quotes, check facts, vet a story for any plagiarism and put in the dick jokes, at what point is any of this saving time and money over just hiring a reporter to write things in the first place? [Good point!]
But, BuzzFeed is a public company, and it’s gotta do something to try to keep itself alive for its last remaining shareholders. The stock has been steadily sinking, down more than 35 percent since it went public in 2021. And shareholders demand public companies constantly churn out increasing profits. The only way to do that is to make more stuff, faster, at a lower cost. In BuzzFeed’s case, the “stuff” is newsy listicles and quizzes: 40 gifts parents will love! Take a food quiz to see if you’re a You’re a Glinda or an Elphaba! Or there’s “43 Things That’ll Make Laundry Day Run A Little More Smoothly.” (Really, 43? And people are spending a whole day on laundry?) You don’t need the second coming of Ida B. Wells to churn out this slop, and calling it “reporting” is generous. […]
And what a sad state of affairs! The web site once known for publishing the Steele dossier, Trump Tower documents and even won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for a series on the mass detention of Uyghur Muslims by China degraded to this. It shut down its actual news division in 2023, after rounds of buyouts and layoffs, and there they are.
So now instead of Pulitzers or Hot Wing Shows it shall make AI slop, as if the world didn’t already have enough. The slop has taken over Facebook feeds with generated pictures of Jesuses, salads, and Pope Francis in a puffer coat. And Xitter, obviously, where porn bots and crypto bots and scam bots demand attention. The slop is even oozing into publishing, where acquisition editors are being swarmed by submissions from people who typed “ChatGPT, write a 500-page romance novel” or “ChatGPT, write a book about fibromyalgia.” The slop can now even call people on the phone, pretending to be a loved one in distress, asking for money.
It’s scary shit, and sad, but what can you do? Definitely get a code word to use with family, in case some scammer calls with a fake kidnapping. Maybe stay off of the social media, or at least if you see the pope in a puffer jacket, or Trump in hip waders, consider that that’s not him.
And of course donate to Wonkette, which is still tappedty-tapped by real humans, flawed and expensive as they may be, no robots allowed!
Subscribe to, or donate to, whichever media sources (including your local newspaper?) that still serve real news thoughtfully produced by real journalists.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Donald Trump, Following ABC Settlement, Says He’ll File More Lawsuits Against Media, Including Iowa Pollster: “We Have To Straighten Out The Press”
Goddamned idiots. I warned them. I warned everyone not to appease the Führer. No good ever comes of it. His type don’t compromise; give them an inch and they take a mile. They have to be firmly opposed. Anything else is seen as weakness, and when predators sense weakness, they pounce.
She attracts science enthusiasts who want to learn about science. She also attracts science deniers who look for reasons to disparage and deny science. It’s rather remarkable, but Sabine has managed to tap into both audiences. The problem is that the latter audience is much much larger. Therefore she gets a tremendous amount of positive feedback from that audience, and I feel it has polarized her content in that direction.
By “positive feedback”, read “$$$$$”. The rightward radicalization of Youtube is a predictable consequence of its increasing commercialization. There is a real world thing that’s a bit like the Midas touch: everything money touches turns to shit. From pro sports to the US “health” “care” “system” to, well, Youtube now that everyone on it is chasing sponsor dollars rather than just doing their thing and sharing it with whomever’s interested, as soon as people think they can get rich doing something, whatever that something is gets utterly and irredeemably ruined. It’s a corrupting influence. If there was an original sin other than thinking up the idea of turning women into sexbots and baby factories it was inventing goddamned money … and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same asshole who did both.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Reporters are expensive meatbags, and they complain a lot. What if you could just replace them with robots? That’s the brilliant idea media company BuzzFeed’s CEO Jonah Peretti has, anyway.
CEOs are really expensive meatbags (each one costing over 300x what one reporter costs), and they complain a lot (especially about what various things are costing the company). What if you could just replace them with robots?
The All-Star lineup that is Donald Trump’s second presidential administration continues to take shape. And by All-Star lineup, we mean this chucklefuck collection so odious, so repellent, so loathsome, that we will need all the bleach in the known universe to disinfect Washington DC after they eventually abscond with every dollar from the nation’s treasury.
Bleach? Bleach? You’ve got to be kidding me. I say we sound an evacuation, then take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
If there was an original sin other than thinking up the idea of turning women into sexbots and baby factories it was inventing goddamned money… and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same asshole who did both.
An interesting rabbit hole.
Trade is VERY old, long-distance trade of pigments and tools predated our species. Important objects for barter, like shells or grain, easily shifted into becoming typical units of exchange: commodity money.
Tally sticks are also old, part of the history of plain counting, number systems, and writing—incrementally refined ideas with practical benefits that were entangled in commerce, among other things.
This carved bone is about 22,000 years old […] puzzled researchers since its discovery […] Without access to a time machine, there’s no way of knowing who made the Ishango Bone, or why. However, it took thirty years for a mundane hypothesis, looking at the most simple reason someone might want to count a pattern of around thirty days, to emerge. —Vagina Museum, a thread
Untraded bundles of tokens simplified tracking inventory (miniaturized 1-to-1 correspondence), coinciding with the rise of agriculture in the Near East. Such tokens go back to 7500 BCE: still oral preliterate cultures. Similar objects were found in Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and Mesoamerica. The Near East later evolved them into written number systems, by labelling the bundles then ditching the tokens for the abstract label itself.
Commodity money and record keeping sufficed for exploitation. Debt, lending with interest, rent and rented land, temple soliciting, tribute/taxation, irregular shiny metal exchange, standard units of weight (like the Egyptian deben ~3000 BCE or Mesopotamian shekel 2150 BCE), debt relief. Inscribed coins were late: 1200–800 BCE for Chinese spade money, 640 BCE for Greek electrum coins.
I’ve read many cuneiform tablets that record how people […] often went into debt to meet living expenses. They might mortgage their property to keep a roof over their heads, only to find that ever-accruing interest made it impossible to pay off the principal. […] People lacking sufficient property to secure their debts would have to pledge their dependents or even their own selves to their creditors.
[…]
The earliest recorded instances of [debt amnesty] come from ancient Sumer […] Urukagina, ruler of the city of Lagash around 2400 B.C., decreed a debt amnesty […] releasing people living in debt bondage […] Urukagina was not the first to issue such a decree, and it may already have become traditional by his time.
[…]
Financiers would therefore prepare for this eventuality to avoid taking losses whenever debts were abruptly remitted and their collection prohibited. […] They developed legal fictions to disguise mortgage loans, debt bondage, and the like as contracts of other kinds, avoiding their cancellation by decree. The decree of Ammi-ṣaduqa, a king of Babylon in the 17th century B.C., explicitly prohibits such subterfuge, but regulation was a step behind entrepreneurs.
[…]
People would still need to go into debt to survive, pay their taxes and keep a roof over their heads. […] Sporadic debt cancellation did not eliminate chronic indebtedness, nor was it meant to. Instead, the function of such decrees was to restore socioeconomic balance—and the tax base—enough that the cycle of borrowing to survive could start over. In a sense, debt amnesty actually served to restore society to its ideal state of inequity, so that it would always need the same remedy again.
New York state is considering creating a special hotline exclusively for CEOs to report perceived threats, CNN reported
[…]
New York Governor Kathy Hochul told MSNBC […] about her plans to hold a “proactive” meeting on Tuesday with 175 corporate representatives as well as Homeland Security and counterterrorism officials to discuss how to share intelligence with corporate security […] The meeting is one of several signs that officials are trying to elevate the murder to a matter of domestic terrorism.
birgerjohanssonsays
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @ 169
Somehow I doubt New York State takes a similar proactive attitude regarding women threathened by their spouses.
.
Heavy metal… I just found ‘Deny, Defend, Depose” (Official Music Video) at Youtube. – I won’t link to it because of graphic content. I just want to mention it as yet another example of the widespread hate against health insurance companies.
birgerjohanssonsays
REPUBLICAN SENATOR GOES PUBLIC About Donald Trump’s Threats Against Them!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2RG-OkRUF_c
I loathe the Republicans but it is good not all are completely spineless.
A top Russian general accused of using chemical weapons on the battlefields in Ukraine was killed after a bomb went off in Moscow early Tuesday, Russian investigators said, in an attack swiftly claimed by Kyiv.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s radiological, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electric scooter outside an apartment building some 7 kilometers (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The blast came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors sentenced Kirillov in absentia for Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons during its invasion. A source with knowledge of the operation later told CNN that Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, was behind the attack…
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center confirmed hackers accessed the personal and sensitive health data of over 1.4 million individuals during a September cyberattack.
The cyberattack, which also affected TTUHSC’s El Paso campus, saw attackers steal information including Social Security numbers, financial account information, government-issued ID details, and health information — including medical records numbers, billing data, and diagnosis and treatment information the medical school said in a notice on a dedicated website. At the time of writing, the TTUHSC’s security incident website contains “noindex” code, which tells search engines to ignore the page, making it more difficult for affected individuals to find the website in search results…
birgerjohanssonsays
“Poll Shows Public Has Already Lost All Faith In Donald Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZpIk48yGxJ4
Maybe this will give some Republican senators the courage to go against Trump re. the appointments.
But I am not holding my breath.
BB @165, no. Don’t do this: “I say we sound an evacuation, then take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Do not post fantasies about killing human beings. On The Infinite Thread, that is not allowed.
You should not fantasize about violence when posting in The Infinite Thread, nor should you propose that others do violence. The rule holds even if you are speaking metaphorically, sarcastically, or jokingly.
[…]I want to be clear up front that the “wins,” such as they are, in the coming months are likely to be small, incremental, and not very dramatic. Morning Memo is going to refrain from pumping them up into more than they are. But ignoring them entirely would be a disservice to the folks grinding to preserve the rule of law, fight off MAGA’s destructive impulses, expose Trump corruption, and otherwise hold the line against further erosion.
Which brings us to a long-awaited ruling yesterday in the Trump’s hush money case.
Judge Juan Merchan didn’t just deny Trump’s move to overturn his conviction […] Merchan eviscerated Trump’s arguments and ruled in such a way that makes Trump’s expected appeal quite a bit more difficult.
In his 41-page opinion, the judge foreclosed every manner and form of argument that Trump had made. Merchan ruled that Trump had failed to preserve most of his arguments by not raising them in a timely fashion, but the judge considered those arguments anyway – then rejected all of them as not meeting the Supreme Court’s standard for official conduct. Merchan then went a step further and concluded that even if Trump’s argument satisfied the standard for official conduct, prosecutors had not intruded on the function and authority of the presidency and thus sidestepped the Supreme Court’s immunity protections.
As a final flourish, Merchan concluded that even if he was wrong on all of the above, the introduction of the challenged evidence was a harmless error in light of the “overwhelming evidence” of Trump’s guilt.
It was a belt-and-suspenders-and-garter-and-braces decision by Merchan, shoring up every angle of attack that Trump might launch on appeal.
Will it matter in the end?
Merchan is still considering a separate Trump motion that the case should be dismissed since he won re-election. Sentencing is forestalled for now. It still seems unlikely that this case ever produces any meaningful punishment for Trump. But let the record show Merchan is still holding the line where he can.
“Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.”
In 2017, the drug industry middleman Express Scripts announced that it was taking decisive steps to curb abuse of the prescription painkillers that had fueled America’s overdose crisis. The company said it was “putting the brakes on the opioid epidemic” by making it harder to get potentially dangerous amounts of the drugs.
The announcement, which came after pressure from federal health regulators, was followed by similar declarations from the other two companies that control access to prescription drugs for most Americans.
The self-congratulatory statements, however, didn’t address an important question: Why hadn’t the middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, acted sooner to address a crisis that had been building for decades?
One reason, a New York Times investigation found: Drugmakers had been paying them not to.
For years, the benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, took payments from opioid manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, in return for not restricting the flow of pills. As tens of thousands of Americans overdosed and died from prescription painkillers, the middlemen collected billions of dollars in payments. [Making money, killing people.]
The details of these backroom deals — laid out in hundreds of documents, some previously confidential, reviewed by The Times — expose a mostly untold chapter of the opioid epidemic and provide a rare look at the modus operandi of the companies at the heart of the prescription drug supply chain.
The P.B.M.s [pharmacy benefit managers] exert extraordinary control over what drugs people can receive and at what price. The three dominant companies — Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and Optum Rx — oversee prescriptions for more than 200 million people and are part of health care conglomerates that sit near the top of the Fortune 500 list.
The P.B.M.s are hired by insurers and employers to control their drug costs by negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical manufacturers. But a Times investigation this year found that they often pursue their own financial interests in ways that increase costs for patients, employers and government programs, while driving independent pharmacies out of business. [True!]
[…] The P.B.M.s’ power lies in their role as gatekeepers. They largely control the lists of drugs that insurance plans will cover, and drugmakers compete for position on those lists by offering rebates. [Corrupt system!]
The drug lists, known as formularies, frequently include restrictions meant to save money by steering patients to cheaper drugs. But for some drugs, such as opioids, restrictions can serve a medical purpose — minimizing the risk of overdose and addiction and limiting the number of pills that could be diverted to the illicit market.
[…] the P.B.M.s bargained away safeguards in exchange for rebates.
Purdue’s strategy to ensure broad access to its blockbuster painkiller OxyContin was explicit: “Offer rebates to remove payer restriction,” according to an internal presentation. The company didn’t want doctors to have to provide additional justification for prescribing a powerful narcotic, and it didn’t want strict limits on the number of pills that could be dispensed.
[…] Even as the epidemic worsened, the P.B.M.s collected ever-growing sums. The largest of the middlemen bought competitors and used their increasing leverage not to insist on safeguards but to extract more rebates and fees. From 2003 to 2012, for example, the amount Purdue was paying P.B.M.s in rebates roughly doubled to about $400 million a year, almost all of it for OxyContin.
The documents reviewed by The Times — including contracts, invoices, emails, memos and financial data — span more than two decades, beginning with the debut of OxyContin in 1996. Many came from a public repository of records unearthed during court cases and investigations. The Times also obtained more than 200 previously confidential documents from plaintiffs in litigation against drugmakers, P.B.M.s and others.
In the public assignment of blame for the opioid epidemic, the P.B.M.s have largely escaped notice. Drugmakers, distributors, pharmacies and doctors have paid billions of dollars to resolve lawsuits and investigations. But more recently, the largest P.B.M.s have been in the legal cross hairs.
In statements, the P.B.M.s said they had long worked to prevent opioid abuse […] They said that for years they had offered their clients — employers, insurers and state and federal programs like Medicaid — the option to impose restrictions on opioids.
[…] But this often presented the clients with a fraught choice: If they added restrictions, they could lose the rebates that helped make coverage affordable.
[…] “Our work behind the scenes is paying off!” one Purdue executive emailed a colleague in 2003, recounting how she had worked with P.B.M.s that later became part of CVS Caremark and Express Scripts to persuade insurers to lift restrictions on OxyContin.
The opioid manufacturer Mallinckrodt similarly credited its collaboration with P.B.M.s with preventing two large insurance companies from imposing restrictions in 2015. “This is a best practice of how to reverse a negative decision,” a Mallinckrodt executive emailed colleagues. […]
In response to rising costs and news coverage about addiction and abuse, some insurers began restricting access to the drug, requiring doctors to seek authorization before they could write some prescriptions or limiting the number of pills that could be prescribed to a patient each month.
For Purdue, this posed a serious threat. The restrictions, the company noted in an internal planning document, will “create barriers to OxyContin being able to achieve significant growth.”
[…] Purdue forged what executives described internally as a “partnership” with Express Scripts and a “special arrangement” with Merck-Medco, one of the nation’s largest P.B.M.s at the time. Together, the drugmaker and the middlemen disseminated purportedly independent guidance on pain management, including a mailing to doctors from Express Scripts that was meant to, in Purdue’s words, “squelch the anti-OxyContin pushback.”
In 1999, when Purdue struck a similar deal with AdvancePCS, the third of the big P.B.M.s at the time, a Purdue sales executive, James Lang, celebrated: “We want to make OxyContin a billion-dollar drug in two years. This will help.”
[…] Because the P.B.M.s often shared a portion of the rebates with the insurers and employers that hired them, these clients had a financial incentive not to impose restrictions. Purdue and the P.B.M.s sometimes reminded clients of this when they considered limiting access.
[…] For help, Purdue turned to Merck-Medco, the P.B.M. that UnitedHealthcare had hired to handle prescription drug benefits for its customers. The effort culminated in a meeting at UnitedHealth Group’s offices. A Merck-Medco official delivered a presentation on the “potential loss of rebates” to the insurer if it went forward with the limit, an executive for the P.B.M. reported to Purdue. “That information convinced the UHG team to change,” he wrote.
[…] Purdue argued that P.B.M.s should allow patients to get at least 320 milligrams of OxyContin per day. That was four times the level that some states recommended and more than double the limit that P.B.M.s, under federal pressure, would later impose. A 2015 study found that patients who received even half that amount were far more likely to die than those prescribed lower doses.
The 320-milligram threshold was nonetheless enshrined in numerous rebate contracts between Purdue and the P.B.M.s. CVS Caremark negotiated an option that allowed clients to set a lower limit, but if they did, the rebate that they received from Purdue would be cut roughly in half.
[…] After Mallinckrodt signed a contract with Express Scripts in 2014, for example, a sales manager relayed the good news to his team: “Make sure you let all your physicians know” that “they are free to write” prescriptions without insurance obstacles.
[…] Optum Rx largely controlled access to patients with a Medicare drug plan run by the insurer UnitedHealthcare — a population that generated roughly $200 million in annual sales for Purdue. (UnitedHealth Group owns both the insurer and Optum Rx.) To keep OxyContin on the list of approved drugs, Purdue was already shelling out about 23 percent of every sale in the form of rebates, totaling nearly $50 million in 2012, documents show.
[…] Mallinckrodt, too, agreed to pay ever-growing sums to keep its drugs available without restrictions. For some Medicare plans, the drugmaker by 2015 was paying Optum Rx about 70 percent of every sale. […]
More at the link.
I see a consistent pattern. Drug companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers focus on making money at the expense of people’s health. They are opting to kill people.
Two people were killed and others were injured Monday in a shooting at a private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin. Police said a student who opened fire, identified as a 15-year-old girl, was also dead.
The girl also wounded six others in the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.
Here’s the latest:
Why did the shooter do it?
Police are trying to determine what led to the shooting. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said officers were talking with the shooter’s father and other family members, who were cooperating, and searching the shooter’s home.
Barnes said officials don’t yet know if the victims were targeted.
Where did the gun come from and will the parents be charged?
Speaking on CNN, Barnes said they’re trying to put together a timeline of the shooter’s last hours before she went to the school.
Barnes said they’ve asked the ATF to expedite determining the origin of the gun used in the shooting and how the 15-year-old got her hands on it. He said he’s not certain if the weapon was owned or possessed by her parents.
Asked if her parents could be charged with a crime, Barnes said they were voluntarily giving information, but he also wanted to look at whether the parents were negligent. But at this time, he said that doesn’t appear to be the case.
[…] How many school shootings have happened this year?
The website for the anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety shows that there have been at least 202 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 56 deaths and 147 injuries, in 2024. That data doesn’t include the latest shooting in Madison.
The deadliest school shooting in 2024 happened in September at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
Last year, 45 people died in 158 school shootings, the Everytown for Gun Safety website shows. Sixty-seven people died in 181 school shootings in 2022, according to the data.
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
Have religious schools been targeted elsewhere?
The shooting comes less than two weeks after a gunman critically wounded two kindergartners at a tiny religious school in Northern California and then killed himself. Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said the shooter was mentally ill and believed that by targeting children on Dec. 4 that he was carrying out “counter-measures” in response to America’s involvement in Middle East violence. […]
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna , OM @ 176
My revenge fantasies are more about finding a bug that induces Tourette’s syndrome. It will be hard for evangelicals to endorse candidates that keep swearing on TV, letting their language mirror their inner nature . As for distribution, it is not my fault they refuse to wear face masks at CPAC meetings.
My other alternative was spraying them with a truth serum, but it will not work on people that lack the concept of truth.
When Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 had surpassed 400,000, businesses were closing at a staggering rate, the American economy was in a grim place, and outgoing President Donald Trump had just incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Four years later, Biden will leave the White House as a single-term president, while Trump, now the president-elect, is ready to replace Biden on Jan. 20—and assume control of a country whose economy has been reignited. […]
“As president, I fought to write a new economic playbook that builds the economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down,” he wrote. “I fought to make smart investments in America’s future that put us in the lead globally. I fought to create good jobs that give working families and the middle class a fair shot and the chance to get ahead. I fought to lower costs for consumers and give smaller businesses a fair chance to compete.”
Biden emphasized his key priorities: revitalizing struggling communities, creating well-paying jobs, and strengthening U.S. economic leadership around the world. He highlighted the success of significant legislation like his bipartisan infrastructure law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, which “together mark the most significant investment in the United States since the New Deal.”
[…] Biden is [now] focusing on four primary areas, according to Bloomberg: artificial intelligence, clemency, student loan forgiveness, and land protection.
[…] Biden will sign new commutations and pardons, which the White House has previously said will focus on people whom the Trump administration might persecute.
[…] the memo explained how Biden would further protect lands and water.
Climate change is one of the big policy topics that the Trump administration is said to be significantly threatened by. And Biden will “continue taking action to protect our lands and waters and continue our climate ambition alongside state, local, and tribal and business leaders,” according to the memo.
[…] “A presidency is not measured just in weeks, months, or four-year terms alone—rather its impact is evaluated for years and decades to come,” LaBolt [White House communications director Ben LaBolt] wrote. “The seeds President Biden and Vice President Harris planted over the past four years are beginning to sprout and their potential will be fully unleashed long into the future.”
[…] Democrats like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and outgoing Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri spent the past month advocating for Biden to permit the national archivist to sign the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution, enshrining protections for women and LGBTQ+ individuals, each of whom will face threat under the incoming Trump administration.
Meanwhile, Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill has prioritized confirming judges.
Biden, however, flexed his executive muscle by insisting he’d use his veto power not to sign the JUDGES Act, should it pass the House and land on his desk. This bill, if passed and signed by the president, would give Trump power over 22 new judicial appointments.
[…] CHEERS to the schadenfreude of the gods. Remember when Very Bad Man (my chosen moniker for our next so-called president) said that climate change was fabulous because it would result in “more beachfront property”? Apparently Miami’s super-rich are about to discover that what he means is “more deluxe saltwater swimming opportunities”:
A new study from the University of Miami shows dozens of luxury, beachfront condos and hotels, all along the southeast coast of Florida, are sinking into the ground at unexpected rates. […]
Affected buildings include the iconic Surf Club Towers, Trump Tower III, Trump International Beach Resorts and the Ritz-Carlton Residence. In fact, nearly 70 percent of the buildings in northern and central Sunny Isles are affected, according to the study. … “It’s probably a much larger problem than we know,” Paul Chinowsky, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Herald.
In response, Governor Ron DeSantis declared all sinking buildings “woke” and filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Ocean. (If he makes it all the way to the Supreme Court, I’m told he has a six-in-nine chance of winning.)
@177 Lynna, OM
I want to be clear up front that the “wins,” such as they are, in the coming months are likely to be small, incremental, and not very dramatic…
Even if the Congress and courts stood up for once, and we somehow got Trump to resign or be impeached, that would not cure our problems. The U.S. system of governance offers no way out this election cycle. If Trump went down, his VP Vance would take over. If he went down too, the Speaker of the House, who is currently a MAGA Republican, would take over.
When the USA engages in “nation-building,” the form of democracy we try to set up in other countries differs from our own. There are reasons for that.
Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz, of Indiana, said Monday that she will focus her time in next year’s Congress on furthering Elon Musk’s mission to slash trillions of dollars in government spending and will not caucus with Republicans or sit on any committees.
In her announcement, which was posted to social media, Spartz made clear that she’s still a member of the GOP but is taking these steps to avoid the “circuses” of her party.
“I will stay as a registered Republican but will not sit on committees or participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing,” Spartz said.
“I do not need to be involved in circuses. I would rather spend more of my time helping @DOGE and @RepThomasMassie to save our Republic, as was mandated by the American people,” she added, referring to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. The Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency caucus will allegedly work in tandem with the toothless DOGE led by mega-billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Spartz’s decision confused some of her colleagues. But sources told Politico that her seemingly sudden announcement came after Spartz was passed over for a sought-after post on the House Ways and Means Committee.
[…] she said that she will spend her time focusing on Musk and Ramaswamy’s efforts to take a chainsaw to federal spending. But it’s unclear what effect, if any, she’ll have in the accompanying congressional caucus—especially because DOGE will have a subcommittee of its own, chaired by onetime 9/11 denialist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Despite no one understanding how the DOGE caucus will work, many Republicans (and some Democratic legislators) are foaming at the mouth for the chance to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s planned advisory committee. Trump, for his part, has said that the Musk-led group will advise him on how to slash public expenditures, while Musk has pledged to find as much as $2 trillion in spending to be cut. But again, as DOGE is a commission and not a government agency or department, it does not actually have any power.
So it’s clear that Spartz’s decision to buck Republicans has less to do with her being willing to prioritize the health of the country and more to do with her petty quibbles with leadership.
Don’t be misled: Spartz is a tried-and-true conservative. On Monday, she aligned herself with the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus and said that she supported the group’s proposal to crack down on immigration and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
[…] Spartz, for her part, may want to spend some of her newfound free time figuring out how to retain her office staff. According to the congressional database Legistorm, the congresswoman has a turnover rate of 3.5 times the 2024 House average. Earlier this year, she also reportedly threw furniture at terrified staffers.
“Which State Is Torturing Trans Prisoners Today? Is It Florida?”
“SPOILER: It is Florida.”
[…] Florida is using its recent law banning public funds’ use to provide or promote trans health care as an excuse to go much, much further. In its latest expression, the state is torturing trans prisoners in its state “corrections” system.
The Marshall Project, named after Thurgood Marshall and a consistently great source of news on prisons, prisoners, and criminal justice, published a piece that is absolutely chilling to anyone trans or who has had to stand up for their right to express the deep and important parts of themselves that people in power would prefer stay hidden. Their first paragraph is too powerful not to repeat in full:
Earlier this fall, Florida officials ordered transgender women in the state’s prisons to submit to breast exams. As part of a new policy for people with gender dysphoria, prison medical staff ranked the women’s breast size using a scale designed for adolescents. Those whose breasts were deemed big enough were allowed to keep their bras. Everyone else had to surrender theirs, along with anything else considered “female,” such as women’s underwear and toiletry items.
[Petty. Fuckery designed to humiliate transgender people.]
Somehow, prison officials have decided, soap scented with hibiscus and lavender is a grave security threat in men’s prisons but not women’s.
While the state of Florida and prisons around the US have long and horrifying histories of mistreatment of trans prisoners, this latest crackdown on harmless personal belongings is part of a new approach to punishing trans prisoners that somehow goes even further than the new health policy directive that supposedly requires it.
The directive is, and it’s hard to overstate here, bad. It requires anyone in the prisons to undergo a year of psychotherapy whose intent is to “resolve” gender dysphoria before “variances” like prescribing hormones can be considered. This is mandatory even if they’ve received more than a year of psychotherapy previously, even if they have medical records going back decades and, shockingly, even if those medical records are the prison’s own. That’s right, as implemented, the diagnosis of a prisoner by the prison health system combined with a history of psychotherapy and positive response to hormones is insufficient to even consider continued prescribing.
But wait! It gets worse!
All identified medical and psychiatric co-morbidities must first be addressed. As appropriate, psychiatric comorbidities should be addressed through psychotherapy, psychotropic medication, or other appropriate medically accepted interventions. Once these medical and psychiatric comorbidities are resolved and ruled out as the potential cause of the Gender Dysphoria, further treatment for Gender Dysphoria may proceed.
Co-morbidities, for those not in the know, have multiple definitions, but the concern here is that the most common definition is simply any conditions that co-occur with any other conditions. […] Considering that and noting that the policy above says co-morbidities must be resolved and ruled out as a cause of dysphoria (rather than “or” ruled out), the policy here is pretty clear that if you have a bruise on your foot you can’t be treated for gender dysphoria — other than mandatory psychotherapy — until the bruise is resolved.
This may seem an insane interpretation of the document, but the document itself is that extreme. Although it contemplates “variances” from the standard treatment regimen of psychotherapy, it also specifically bans granting variances except as necessary “to comply with the Constitution or a court order.” In other words, the state won’t even do the work to consider whether hormones *might* be prescribed until forced to do so. So to get hormones requires a year of therapy, then a lawsuit and appeals, then an evaluation — likely negative — and then a new suit over any negative evaluation. It’s not exaggerating to say this might take a decade.
As for the therapy required, while the UN has identified conversion therapy as torture, Florida has identified it as required treatment. The directive itself isn’t as plainly written as to say that the required psychotherapy is conversion therapy, but every indication in the document and in the actions documented by The Marshall Project is clear: The state intends to stop people being trans.
Transgender women who attended the meetings said they were told by officials that everyone identifying as transgender would be “re-evaluated” to assess whether they can have continued access to the care and accommodations they had been receiving, such as permission to grow their hair long. […]
Since then, more than a dozen transgender people said corrections officers ordered them to cut their hair. Mariko Sundwall told The Marshall Project that she was given a disciplinary infraction and spent 10 days in solitary confinement for refusing to cut her hair before officers put her in handcuffs and led her to the prison barber where her hair was cropped short.
[…] Fights for trans rights frequently end up protecting everyone with a gender. The abuses in Florida are particularly nasty, and will require a particularly fierce fight to end. The ACLU filed Keohane v Dixon on October 25. Let’s hope for all our sakes that they win.
Reginald Selkirksays
@183 Lynna, OM
Spartz wants to avoid the circus, so she’s teaming up with alpha clown Musk?
WTF indeed.
he Supreme Court yesterday rejected the broadband industry’s challenge to a New York law that requires Internet providers to offer $15- or $20-per-month service to people with low incomes.
In August, six trade groups representing the cable, telecom, mobile, and satellite industries filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that upheld the state law. But the Supreme Court won’t take up the case. The high court denied the telecom groups’ petition without comment in a list of orders released yesterday.
Although a US District Court judge blocked the law in 2021, that judge’s ruling was reversed by the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in April 2024. The Supreme Court’s denial of the industry petition leaves the 2nd Circuit ruling in place.
The appeals court ruling is an important one for the broader question of how states can regulate broadband providers when the Federal Communications Commission isn’t doing so. Trade groups claimed the state law is preempted by former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s repeal of net neutrality rules, which ended Title II common-carrier regulation of ISPs.
In a 2-1 opinion, a panel of 2nd Circuit appeals court judges said the Pai-era FCC “order stripped the agency of its authority to regulate the rates charged for broadband Internet, and a federal agency cannot exclude states from regulating in an area where the agency itself lacks regulatory authority.”…
Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan are in talks to merge to better compete with electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, BYD, and others. As reported by Nikkei Asia, the two have discussed signing a memorandum of understanding that outlines plans to split equity into a new holding company from which both will do business, according to anonymous sources.
Both Honda and Nissan are also discussing a plan to pull Mitsubishi into the party, which would be akin to how various Japanese electronics brands banded together — such as Konica Minolta, JVCKenwood, and others. Honda and Nissan were already working together to develop EV technology and software and had invited Mitsubishi to that party as well.
Of the two companies, it’s Nissan that’s really in trouble and reportedly will only survive another year unless another company (Honda) swoops in to buy Nissan shares. According the Reuters, Nissan’s net earnings in the middle of 2024 were down more than 90 percent year over year, and it had to cut its annual operating profit forecast by nearly 70 percent. Nissan and Honda relased statements to Reuters saying: …
The president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents over 200,000 active and retired postal workers, has slammed a plan floated by Donald Trump to privatize the U.S. Postal Service.
“There is talk about the Postal Service being taken private, you do know that—not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Trump said at a press conference on Monday. “It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. We’re looking at that.”
In response to Trump, Mark Dimondstein, president of the union, said in a statement privatization would “end universal service.” Universal service is the obligation under U.S. federal law providing for mail delivery throughout the United States, even in hard-to-reach locations.
“Universal service is especially important to rural America. Privatization also would lead to price-gouging by private companies,” Dimondstein added.
Multibillionaire Elon Musk, who spent millions to help Trump win this year’s election, has endorsed the privatization idea. Extremely wealthy individuals like Musk and Trump would be unlikely to experience the service disruptions associated with privatizing the mail service. Trump has surrounded himself with millionaires and billionaires who have a distant understanding of the trials and travails of most Americans, particularly those in the working class.
Most Americans have expressed extremely positive sentiments about the postal service. In a Pew Research Center poll conducted in July, the agency was ranked as the second-most popular agency, with 72% of Americans having a positive view of the service. (The National Park Service came in first, with 76% support.) Even 68% of Republicans backed the USPS, close to its support among Democrats (76%).
Trump has been down this road before. In 2018, his presidential administration proposed a plan to privatize part of the mail service. The plan also hinted at possible pay cuts for hundreds of thousands of postal workers, calling for negotiations with unions that would “reduce costs.”
The idea was opposed by unions like the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union. Ultimately, the plan was scrapped, but Trump’s [recent] comments mean that yet another unpopular conservative proposal could come back to life.
“Drones Full Of Vaccines! Vaccines Full Of Drones!”
[…] Donald Trump is still a convicted felon, as the judge has refused to throw out his 34 felonies. Again, that’s Trump, still a convicted felon. [New York Times]
There was a mass shooting at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, yesterday. That is a thing that happens all the time in this country, and Republicans don’t give a fuck about it. What else can we say? [CNN live updates]
Surprise, y’all, the Trump transition team wants to get rid of a rule where car companies have to report to the feds when their self-driving autos kill people. Guess which company’s self-driving autos kill the most people. NO GUESS! [Reuters] [Rachel Maddow also covered this. Tesla autos kill the most people.]
It’s weird how Pete Hegseth always takes the side of soldiers (white men) who have been accused of violent crimes. Wait no it isn’t. It’s exactly what we expect from a scumbag like him. Just another one of his sick patterns, we guess. Anyway, learn about the security guard who escorted Hegseth to Capitol Hill, and the violent thing a military jury found him guilty of doing before he left the Army. [New York Times]
Remember old Mister Pigbabble James Comer and his Oversight Committee investigation into Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian penis? Comer’s SMOKING GUN witness pleaded guilty yesterday to making up all his SMOKING GUN lies to the FBI. [NBC News]
This past Friday at my other place, I had to deal with the latest sick garbage from Pete Hegseth — his opinions on gays in the military, yay! — but I’m tired of his loser ass so I also wrote about the Texas Dildo Police (they’re back!) and some hilarious right-wingers having hilarious right-wing reactions to the Wicked movie. Hit that subscribe button if you haven’t! [The Moral High Ground / audio version]
It is impossible to overstate how breathlessly stupid Marjorie Taylor Greene is. Anyway, she definitely believes vaccines cause autism. Why wouldn’t she? [RawStory]
All these Democrat-appointed judges keep rescinding their retirements rather than letting Trump appoint their successors, and oh boy, Republicans are mad! [CNN]
Yes, make the loubia I mentioned last week, it’s delicious. (It’s like a yummy Moroccan comfort food stew. Vegetarian, if you’re curious. Vegan even!) I ordered Camellia’s beans on the internet (it’s a New Orleans brand), so if you want to go the dry beans route and can’t find cannellinis/white kidney beans in your town, you can do that, and I recommend. [New York Times]
A stowaway who allegedly flew from New York to Paris without a ticket last month has been arrested again for trying to escape by bus from the US to Canada.
Svetlana Dali made the attempt after cutting off an ankle monitor that she had been given to wear after the earlier offence, US media reported…
She was arrested in Buffalo, New York, on Monday, and is due to appear in court Tuesday afternoon. ..
After her arrest, Ms Dali unsuccessfully attempted to claim asylum in France, a source familiar with the matter told CBS…
I will be very much surprised if her bail is not revoked.
It’s a question that dates back to the start of the epidemic in the 1980s. With 1.3 million new infections a year, the epidemic continues … and the world is not on track to meet the ambitious U.N. goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030.
But 2024 has fueled increasing optimism among leading infectious disease experts after the results of two groundbreaking clinical trial results for a drug called lenacapavir showed it to be capable of virtually eliminating new HIV infections through sex.
The emerging data surrounding lenacapavir is so astonishing that the drug’s development has been heralded as the 2024 Breakthrough of the Year by the journal Science, which described it as representing “a pivotal step toward diminishing HIV/AIDS as a global health crisis.” …
In particular, lenacapavir, which is administered via a twice-yearly injection, represents a dramatic new alternative to the current standard of care for HIV prevention: taking a pill called Truvada every day…
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #190…
I read one article about her latest antic and it quoted her lawyer saying (before she cut off her ankle monitor and tried to get into Canada) the he didn’t think she’d see jail time “unless she did something stupid.” I think she’s done something stupid. I agree with you that she’ll probably have her bail revoked and the judge will now agree with the prosecution that she’s a flight risk.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow warned Americans on Monday not to become too distracted by the crass drama of Donald Trump’s incoming regime.
“There is a way to look upon the oligarch-ization of the American government as drama, as a kind of theater of greed, and maybe there’ll be some good stories there,” Maddow said, later adding, “But for most of us, what’s more important than what they do for themselves is what it does to everyone else.”
Maddow highlighted Elon Musk, co-chair of a planned advisory commission on slashing the federal budget. His car company, Tesla, has been under federal investigation due to a high number of crashes from cars using its automated driving system. However, now Trump’s transition team has recommended scrapping the crash-reporting requirement, which is key to monitoring the safety of those driving systems.
“I mean, they can’t just say, well, you know, ‘This guy paid for the presidential election,’” Maddow says. “You can’t really just say that, ‘Hey, you kids getting off school buses, watch yourself. Unless and until you can start paying for your own president, you’re fair game on the side of the road.’”
There is also investment banker Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to be commerce secretary. Lutnick is also co-chair of the Trump transition team and a big cryptocurrency backer. His brokerage firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, manages the assets of shady crypto outfit Tether, according to The Wall Street Journal.
And as Maddow explained, Tether has “[allleged] links to the terrorist group Hamas, Russian arms dealers, the North Korean nuclear weapons program, Mexican drug cartels, and, for good measure, Chinese manufacturers of chemicals used to make fentanyl. So maybe car crashes aren’t your thing. Are any of those things any of your concerns?”
She points to the ill-advised nominations of Donald Trump Jr.’s (maybe former) fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle and son-in-law’s felon father, Charles Kushner, to ambassadorships.
“It can sound like interesting drama to watch, right? Like ‘Succession’ style,” Maddow said. “Really rich people fighting and maneuvering among themselves to see who comes out on top, to see who gets to control what piece of the pie.”
Maddow then interviewed Timothy Snyder, a Yale University professor who has written books about the rise of oligarchies around the world.
Snyder says the Democratic Party needs to look forward and resist Trump’s oligarchy by offering up alternatives on how the government can work for the American people. There needs to be coordinated messaging by Democratic lawmakers “whose job it is to talk to the press every day. Not just about what’s wrong, but actually about, hey, what the government could do,” Snyder said.
“It’s that lack of imagination, when things get terrible, we’re going to think, okay, terrible, let’s have less terrible, but we should be thinking about, ‘Hey, we actually have great people in this country, and we could have had a much better version of all of this, and we can get to that.’”
Republicans released a report Tuesday reviewing the “failures and politicization” of the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee, capping their investigation by recommending a criminal investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
The 128-page interim report forwards many of the claims circulated by the GOP since the committee was organized, complaining the Jan. 6 select committee was improperly constituted and unfairly pinned blame on President-elect Trump.
“Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi’s multimillion-dollar Select Committee was a political weapon with a singular focus to deceive the public into blaming President Trump for the violence on January 6 and to tarnish the legacy of his first Presidency,” the report states.
The report’s conclusion also calls for an FBI investigation into Cheney, accusing her of witness tampering by being in touch with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide.
It’s a claim that if pursued would likely face significant roadblocks but that nonetheless comes as Trump has suggested members of the Jan. 6 panel should “go to jail” for their work.
The suggestion and the panel’s report at large was excoriated by Cheney.
“January 6th showed Donald Trump for who is really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave,” Cheney said in a statement noting the numerous Republican witnesses who testified before the panel.
“Chairman [Barry] Loudermilk’s (R-Ga.) ‘Interim Report’ intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.”
[I agree with Cheney’s statement.]
At the core of the report’s assertions are Cheney’s contacts with Hutchinson, who was previously represented by another lawyer before changing representation and ultimately agreeing to testify before the panel in a blockbuster hearing.
Hutchinson’s initial lawyer, Stefan Passantino, was accused of encouraging her to say she remembered little about the day and said she would be able to get a good job in Trump World. [Now that sounds like actual witness tampering!]
The interim report shows texts between Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah Griffin, another former White House aide, and accuses Farah Griffin of acting as a backchannel between the two women.
[…] the lawmaker [Cheney] in her own book noted that she advised the aide to seek an attorney as “every witness deserves an attorney who will represent their interests exclusively.” [True. And that’s not witness tampering.]
[…] Cheney would likely assert that any actions she took through her work on the panel are protected by the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects lawmakers from court action related to their work.
Witness tampering could also prove a difficult route in court, as such charges typically relate to encouraging a witness to lie or shift their story — allegations Hutchinson originally leveled at Passantino. [Yep]
While the report likewise suggests some aspects of Hutchinson’s testimony were inaccurate — including her relaying a story told to her by others claiming to have witnessed Trump lunge at his driver — it does not make any recommendations regarding her.
“It is unusual—and potentially unethical—for a Member of Congress conducting an investigation to contact a witness if the Member knows that the individual is represented by legal counsel,” the interim report states.
Loudermilk, chair of the subcommittee that assembled the report, was previously scrutinized by the disbanded House panel after he gave tours of the Capitol to two men who later participated in the march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. [!!!]
He’s also accused the panel of deleting evidence it collected, a claim countered by members of the panel who say they retained everything they were legally required to, which has since been publicly posted on a government website.
“The January 6th Committee’s hearings and report featured scores of Republican witnesses, including many of the most senior officials from Trump’s own White House, campaign and Administration,” Cheney said. […]
If you were caught up in last month’s panic over black kitchen cooking utensils, you now have a reason to breathe easier. The concern over the common kitchen tools appears to have been overblown, all because of a mistake in the scientific study.
The study, published last month in the journal Chemosphere, tested 203 household products made of black plastic. The researchers found 85% of them contained high concentrations of flame retardant.
The findings went viral, spreading concern that people cooking with black plastic utensils were inadvertently contaminating their food with cancer-causing chemicals. But how much of those chemicals are making their way into our food (and therefore our bodies) may be much smaller than originally thought.
The study’s authors have issued a correction, saying a typo led them to overstate the threat level posed by the flame retardant.
Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, told the National Post he noticed the error. He was taking a close look at the math when he spotted an extra zero.
The study estimated the black kitchen utensils could cause a median intake of 34,700 nanograms per day of the chemical compound in question. That’s scarily close to the suggested safe limit for a 130-pound adult, which they wrote as 42,000 nanograms per day.
The problem? The Environmental Protection Agency’s suggested exposure limit for an adult of that size isn’t 42,000 nanograms per day. It’s 420,000 nanograms per day.
An intake of 34,700 nanograms would therefore be less than one-tenth of the exposure limit set by the EPA.
[…] TVs and computers are treated with flame retardant so they don’t cause a house fire, the Atlantic reports, but the problem arises when the e-waste is later used to make new household items that don’t need and shouldn’t have flame retardant.
[…] Those concerned about exposure to the chemicals can swap their plastic spatulas with silicone, metal or wooden options.
Many major health care stocks have fallen sharply since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed this month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is hitting the skids, weighed down in large part by UnitedHealth Group since one of its top executives was killed.
The Dow fell 267 points Tuesday, closing 0.6% lower after nine straight days of declines — its longest losing streak since 1978. The downturn has coincided with a steep drop in the shares of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company since CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in New York City on Dec. 4. UnitedHealth Group’s stock has tumbled nearly 20% since then, while the index itself has slipped 3.4% over the period.
The stock prices of America’s largest health insurance providers — including Aetna owner CVS Health, Cigna and Humana — have also tumbled recently. As of Tuesday’s closing bell, the Dow had fallen 1,564 points since Dec. 4, with UnitedHealth Group accounting for 804 of those points.
UnitedHealth Group is also the worst performer in the 30-stock index this month, with losses more than double those of the second-worst performer, Goldman Sachs. Other major firms whose shares trade on the Dow, such as Nvidia, Sherwin-Williams and Travelers, have also contributed to the index’s slide.
By comparison, the S&P 500 is hovering around break-even for the month, and the Nasdaq Composite has soared by more than 4.5% in December. Both are near all-time highs.
Because the Dow is a price-per-share-weighted average, whereas the S&P and Nasdaq are weighted by market value, UnitedHealth Group’s fall has had a greater impact on it — where it’s the only health insurer. The stock, at $485 per share, is the second-priciest on the index, but in terms of market value it’s only the 17th-largest stock in the S&P 500.
UnitedHealth Group has lost more than $110 billion in market value since the attack on Thompson. Its peers have also experienced steep losses. CVS has plummeted more than 25%, wiping out more than $19 billion in value; Cigna has dropped 20%, erasing nearly $20 billion; and Humana has fallen 19%, shedding almost $7 billion.
[…] The downturns largely reflect investors’ reactions to public outrage at the health care system in the wake of the killing, which some industry executives have sought to address.
In a New York Times opinion article last week, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty denounced “the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats” but acknowledged that “the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it.”
[…] Since the early 1980s, medical care costs have risen faster than overall inflation, while health insurers have grown ever larger. UnitedHealth Group reported revenue exceeding $371 billion last year alone, far ahead of its rivals. Fellow insurers Cigna reported $195 billion, and Humana had revenue of $106 billion last year.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to “knock out” pharmacy benefit managers, the third parties that run drug programs on behalf of major insurers. [See comment 178] Those businesses have drawn widespread criticism in part because many of the biggest insurance providers, including UnitedHealth Group, Cigna and CVS, also own some of the largest such companies.
Trump told reporters Monday that he wants to get costs “down at levels that nobody has ever seen before,” without providing details. “I don’t know who these middlemen are, but they are rich,” he said.
I would not take Trump’s word on that. He is too ignorant, too incoherent, and too susceptible to bribery to be effective. Doubly so when the issue is health care.
A Christian Bible school in Riverside County was ordered to cease operations after a recent state hearing into multiple allegations over failures to properly educate and maintain records.
Amid student accusations of forced and unpaid labor at Olivet University, which is headquartered in the high-desert town of Anza, Calif., school leaders tried to protect the university’s fate against state regulators’ attempts to revoke its license.
Presiding Judge Debra Nye-Perkins, who presided over the Office of Administrative Hearings, ordered the school to halt the enrollment of new students and help current students figure out a plan to finish their degrees elsewhere…
A new investigation from The New York Times suggests that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has not been reporting his travel activities and other information to the Department of Defense as required by his top-secret clearance.
According to the newspaper, concerns about Musk’s reporting practices have led to reviews by three different bodies within the military; the Air Force, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and the Defense Department Office of Inspector General.
However, none of the federal agencies cited in the Times article has accused Musk of disclosing classified material.
The Times reports that Musk had a mid-level security clearance until 2018, at which point SpaceX applied for a top-secret clearance for its chief executive. SpaceX performs a number of functions for the US government, both civil and military branches. Among its most secretive activities are launching classified satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office and providing encrypted communications and observational activities with its Starshield satellites…
President-elect Donald Trump fired another salvo in his long-running effort to have his New York criminal conviction tossed, with his attorneys alleging earlier this month that there was juror misconduct during his trial.
In a previously undisclosed Dec. 3 letter to Justice Juan Merchan that was made public Tuesday, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote that there was “grave juror misconduct” in the proceedings in a Manhattan courtroom earlier this year.
However, heavy redactions in the letter and subsequent exchanges with prosecutors obscured almost all information about the accusations themselves.
“The jury in this case was not anywhere near fair and impartial,” they wrote.
Merchan on Tuesday directed Trump to make the redacted letter public, and instructed prosecutors to publish their own redacted responses. The judge also criticized Trump’s lawyers for making such serious allegations without sworn statements.
Prosecutors called the allegations “vague accusations of juror misconduct” in one of their responses. They claimed Trump’s attorneys did not want to have the allegations subject to investigation or a public hearing.
“Notwithstanding the import of their allegations, counsel do not request and in fact oppose a hearing at which their allegations could be fully examined, referring to such a hearing as ‘invasive fact-finding,'” wrote a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg…
Re: birgerjohansson @ #206….
“DIE KRUPPS” is ambiguous…is the “die” a German article (since the Krupp family and company were/are German) or is a wish for the demise of the Krupp family/company?
Bekenstein Boundsays
Poll Shows Public Has Already Lost All Faith In Donald Trump
Dow tumbles more than 260 points for 9-day losing streak, its longest since 1978
So, a mere minus thirty-four days into his term, and already the honeymoon is over and he’s lost the confidence of both the general public and the moneybags types?
Talk about sucking like a Hoover …
birgerjohanssonsays
The orange one likes to stack adjectives on top of each other.
A British court has ruled that police can seize more than 2 million pounds ($4 million) to cover years of unpaid taxes from “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan. The Devon and Cornwall Police force went to court to claim the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the Tates and a woman identified only as “J”.
U.S. authorities are investigating Chinese router manufacturer TP-Link over national security risks and considering banning its devices, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The Commerce, Defense and Justice departments have launched separate probes into the company, which controls approximately 65% of the U.S. home and small business router market.
Microsoft reported in October that Chinese hackers had compromised thousands of TP-Link routers to launch cyberattacks against Western targets, including government organizations and Defense Department suppliers. The company’s routers are widely used across federal agencies, including the Defense Department and NASA. The Justice Department is also examining whether TP-Link’s significantly lower pricing violates federal anti-monopoly laws, the report said.
The term “pig butchering” has successfully raised public awareness of online scams that can drain people of their savings and financial livelihood. Unfortunately, the term has failed to get people to come forward and report these crimes, in part because no victim wants to be called a “pig,” according to Interpol…
In place of pig butchering, which has become a big umbrella term, Interpol recommends using more specific language that focuses on the actions of the criminal actors rather than the victims. For example, terms like “investment scam” or “romance baiting” more accurately define the fraud being committed and don’t place additional stigma on the people who are being preyed upon…
A new rolling robot has been sent into the field in China. The spherical crime fighting device is a lot more sinister than New York’s failed attempt at robot policing and comes armed with net-throwing guns, tear gas and can pursue suspects at up to 22 miles per hour.
If all that sounds like your idea of a sci-fi nightmare, then you might want to look away now. Police in the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province rolled out these monsters last week, reports Futurism. Called the Rotunbot, they consist of a huge rubber tire that fits around a sphere that’s about two feet high.
Within sphere is all the tech that powers the robot, including the motors to spin its one wheel, the computers to power the systems that will allow it to run autonomously and its weapons, as Futurism reports: …
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 203
Considering that Mittens and all other conservatives (yes, ALL) helped create the political culture that inevitably led to Trump, HE is in no position to talk.
The House Ethics Committee secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.
The report is now expected to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year as lawmakers leave Washington for the holidays, those sources said.
This is all rumor and the committee could in theory hold another secret vote and reverse course again. If it gets released it will be something of an embarrassment for Trump. It may shut down Gaetz’s budding show hosting job and might trigger another criminal investigation.
It will be nice that it came out but it’s so far behind events that it probably won’t really matter a whole lot.
JMsays
@213 Reginald Selkirk: Routers and certain other key communication gear should either be open standards for hardware and software, or they should not be bought from another country. With modern technology and the deep stack of hardware and software on even small devices it’s just too easy to hide some monitoring or leave some back doors.
“Republicans’ spectacular debacle came to an embarrassing close on Monday — except nothing is ever really closed for these guys, is it?” By Rachel Maddow
On Monday, in a courtroom in Los Angeles, one of the most spectacular debacles of the current Congress came to an embarrassing and pitiful conclusion. You may or may not have been following every twist and turn of it, but Republicans really did spend over a year attempting to impeach President Joe Biden.
At the heart of this impeachment effort was a star witness, a man Republicans claimed was their smoking gun: Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant who supposedly had the evidence that Biden had taken bribes and that a Ukrainian energy company had paid millions of dollars to the president and his son.
But problem No. 1 for the Republicans happened when that guy, their star witness against Biden, was arrested on charges that he lied to the FBI about those bribery allegations.Then came problem two for the Republicans. According to the indictment, Smirnov claimed that some of the information he passed on was information he got from Russian intelligence officials.
On Monday, problem three arrived when Smirnov pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme. He likely faces four to six years in prison.
And yet, you won’t be shocked to learn that this story isn’t getting a lot of play in the right-wing media, which helped hype the Biden bribery allegations for over a year. You also won’t be shocked to learn that Republican lawmakers don’t appear at all chastened by this outcome. Just last week, the incoming Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, was still citing Smirnov’s nonsense allegations. [head/desk]
It’s a spectacular debacle for Republicans that has finally come to an embarrassing close — except nothing is ever really closed for these guys.
As we inch toward the holidays and the news slows, I wanted to step back and offer a bit more context on the slew of absurdist Trump nominations. The sheer number of unqualified miscreants that Trump has chosen to cast for his second season is overwhelming to the mind and to the mechanisms in place to screen out the worst and dimmest. [True.]
“The volume of controversial nominees will force senators to prioritize their battles, allowing some to advance simply due to limited time and attention,” law professor Alan Z. Rozenshtein writes at Lawfare.
I highly recommend Rozenshtein’s piece. It places Trump’s approach to nominations in a broader historical and political context. Here’s a sampling:
Trump’s nominations represent an unprecedented triple assault on constitutional appointment norms: First, many are unqualified or hostile to their agencies’ missions. Second, rather than making a few controversial picks, Trump has flooded the zone, nominating an entire slate of problematic candidates that burdens the Senate’s capacity for proper vetting. And third, Trump has signaled willingness to circumvent the confirmation process through legally dubious tactics such as forced Senate adjournment. Together, these moves threaten to transform the appointments process from a constitutional safeguard into a vehicle for installing loyalists regardless of competence.
As Rozenshtein points out, the constitutional structure was intended to give considerable latitude to the president on appointments with the idea that he would be directly politically accountable to the electorate if he stocked his administration with grifters and clowns. Perhaps Trump’s 2020 defeat validates that structural approach, but his re-election has put the whole edifice under considerable strain.
More details from a different section at the same link:
Remember North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R)?
His failed campaign as the Republican nominee for governor was disrupted by, among other things, a CNN report that more than a decade ago he called himself a “black NAZI!” and a “perv” in frequent posts on a porn website using the alias “minisoldr.” He denied the allegations. But now WRAL is reporting that Robinson logged in to state virtual meeting last week about Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein’s inauguration using the “minisoldr” handle.
Related: Trump selects Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas. New York Times link
[…] Trump selected Herschel Walker on Tuesday to be the U.S. ambassador to the small Caribbean nation of the Bahamas, turning to a longtime ally and former football star who generated national headlines in his failed run for a Senate seat in Georgia in 2022.
In a statement on social media, Mr. Trump highlighted Mr. Walker’s athletic record as qualifying him for the position, in addition to a role in the first Trump administration as a co-chairman of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and speaking appearances discussing mental health issues.
[…] Mr. Walker rose to the national political stage in 2022 after he was handpicked by Mr. Trump to challenge Senator Raphael Warnock for his Senate seat in Georgia. […] Mr. Walker ran a campaign shadowed by incendiary statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career. Mr. Warnock ultimately defeated Mr. Walker even as Republicans won every other statewide race.
[…] Mr. Walker has no previous diplomatic experience, and no obvious ties to the Bahamas, an island nation of about 400,000 people just off the coast of Florida. […]
The announcement also caps a run of potential appointments for Republicans who lost recent Senate races in Georgia. Former Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was unseated by Mr. Warnock, was picked to run the Small Business Administration. And former Senator David Perdue, who lost his seat to Senator Jon Ossoff, was selected to be ambassador to China.
The United States has not had a permanent ambassador to the Bahamas in over a decade […]
Elon Musk has been carving out his own “utopia” in Texas for years.
From Brownsville to Bastrop, the world’s richest and most unserious man has laid his claim on the Lone Star State—and now, he is petitioning the local government for the right to make it official.
On Dec. 12, Musk’s team sent a letter to local legislators requesting a vote to turn Starbase—a SpaceX worksite within Brownsville where the aerospace company launches rockets—into its own city.
“To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community. That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley,” Kathryn Lueders, the general manager of Starbase, wrote in a letter to the county.
But Brownsville, a town speckled with pro-Musk murals and plagued with gaping income disparity, has already been labeled by some as Musk’s first “company town,” or a city where a single company owns or controls just about everything. [“I owe my soul to the company store.” That’s from “Sixteen Tons,” a song written by Merle Travis. The line from the lyrics is sometimes recorded as “sold my soul to the company store.”]
About 350 miles north of Starbase lies the Musk-named Snailbrook—a township also filled with Musk’s meddling that mimics the controversial company towns littered throughout American history.
One of Musk’s Bastrop corporations is Boring Co., which is a tunneling company known for ghosting on its promises and wreaking ecological havoc.
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, relocated to Bastrop after Musk threw a fit over California’s bureaucratic red tape, joining his Starlink, Neuralink, and SpaceX facilities there.
Surrounding this collection of workers is Hyperloop Plaza, which boasts businesses exclusively for Musk’s workforce. A cafe and medical office joined the plaza earlier this month.
More recently, Musk has made headway on his long-awaited Montessori school, Ad Astra. Last month, per Bloomberg, the tech mogul received an initial permit to launch the preschool with as many as 21 pupils.
The school is a piece of Musk’s long-term plan to also incorporate a university, according to Business Insider. Musk notably conversed with hip hop artist Kanye West (whose own school drew controversy for questionable treatment of children) about his town and school plans, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When tied neatly together and observed from afar, experts have linked Musk’s many ventures in Texas to the historic—and controversial—company towns in the U.S.
Company towns were most popular in mining areas, where corporations would bring workers and their families to live in towns near the mines. To convince them to relocate, companies provided workers with housing, grocery stores, schools, and other necessities—not far off from Musk’s own modern creations.
Because of these towns, companies could keep production at a steady rate. To some, this sort of living was later called “slavery by another name.”
More recently, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has turned toward company towns as a solution for his company’s treatment of workers as well.
Hardy Green, author of “The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy,” told Daily Kos he agrees that Musk’s actions are one and the same.
“This is definitely a company town,” Green asserted. The author said he is skeptical that Musk can succeed in making a company town work for him in modern times. […]
Historically, Green explained, company towns worked because they filled a need for workers that they weren’t currently getting.
But if Musk is looking to hire engineers and other highly educated people (who he has a track record of abusing and losing), he may have some trouble convincing them to move without offering major perks.
In 2023, Musk’s Bastrop community offered housing to employees for around $800 a month, a drop from the median $2,200 rent in the area, The Wall Street Journal reported.
But if employees left or got fired, they would have to leave their rented home within 30 days.
“These company towns are often sort of vanity projects,” Green told Daily Kos.
While Musk has displayed plenty of vanity, the exact motivation behind the erratic billionaire’s new utopian push remains unclear.
A U.S. federal judge was found culpable of misconduct for questioning the ethics of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
A complaint was filed against U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor after he criticized Alito’s apparent decision to fly flags associated with election denialism and the far-right at his Virginia and New Jersey homes. Ponsor argued that Alito violated the public’s trust in allegedly doing so.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Chief Judge Albert Diaz of the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, was assigned to the complaint and found Ponsor to have broken the public’s trust.
This past May, Ponsor wrote a New York Times op-ed about Alito titled “A Federal Judge Wonders: How Could Alito Have Been So Foolish?” In the piece, Ponsor questioned the thinking behind flying an upside-down American flag—a “stop the steal” symbol—and a far-right “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside Alito’s houses.
“The fact is that, regardless of its legality, displaying the flag in that way, at that time, shouldn’t have happened,” Ponsor wrote. “To put it bluntly, any judge with reasonable ethical instincts would have realized immediately that flying the flag then and in that way was improper. And dumb.”
In his decision, Diaz wrote that Ponsor’s indiscretions included breaking rules against making a “public comment on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court,” and in favor of “act[ing] at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary.” The matter, according to Diaz, was closed as Ponsor acknowledged violating the rules, apologized for his actions, and said he would seek ethics advice before writing for the public again.
Gallup released polling on Tuesday showing that Americans’ confidence in our judiciary has dropped to 35%. According to the analytics and polling company, it is one of the steepest declines in public confidence they have ever measured. […]
However, the complaint against Ponsor won’t do much to change the public’s low regard for a radicalized Supreme Court that has rolled back human rights.
Congressional leaders have unveiled a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.
The measure would prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight Friday. It would kick final decisions on this budget year’s spending levels to a new Republican-led Congress and President-elect Donald Trump. The continuing resolution generally continues current spending levels for agencies.
Passage of the measure is one of the final actions that lawmakers will consider this week before adjourning for the holidays and making way for the next Congress. It’s the second short-term funding measure the lawmakers have taken up this fall as they struggled to pass the dozen annual appropriations bills before the new fiscal year began Oct. 1, as they typically do.
[…] Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the agreement was “free of cuts and poison pills,” and would provide money for Democratic priorities like child care, workforce training and job placement.
[…] President Joe Biden has sought about $114 billion in disaster aid, submitting a $99 billion request in November, telling lawmakers the funding was “urgently needed.” The administration subsequently updated its request to include funding to repair federal facilities damaged due to natural disasters.
The largest share of the money, about $29 billion, will go to the main disaster relief fund at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The fund helps with debris removal, repairing public infrastructure and providing financial assistance to survivors. About $21 billion goes to help farmers who have experienced crop or livestock losses.
Another $8 billion will go to help rebuild and repair highways and bridges in more than 40 states and territories. And some $12 billion would go toward helping communities recover through block grants administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. About $2.2 billion would go to low-interest loans for businesses, nonprofits and homeowners trying to rebuild after a disaster.
[…] Congress is expected to pass the measure just before another shutdown deadline. House Republicans generally give lawmakers 72 hours to review text of the legislation, which would push a vote on final passage to Friday if they follow through on that rule. […]
Since the bill is the last must-pass legislation of the current Congress, lawmakers have worked to get certain priorities included. On the health care front, the legislation seeks to extend coverage of telehealth appointments for Medicare enrollees and rein in how much money pharmacy benefits managers — the companies that negotiate how and what drugs are covered by insurance plans — make off those deals.
The bill also includes provisions focused on countering China, including expanding on a Biden executive order that seeks to restrict investments into countries that pose a national security threat to the United States. Blocking China’s high-tech ambitions is one of the few issues that enjoys broad support in Washington from both Republicans and Democrats.
[…] The legislation also provides full federal funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed when struck by a cargo ship that reported losing power just before the crash. Federal taxpayers will be reimbursed through proceeds from insurance payments and litigation.
[…] “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who is leading an advisory commission to cut government spending, posted on X, the social media platform he owns.
Musk posted several additional messages on the platform criticizing specific provisions in the legislation, saying the bill “should not pass” and asking if followers had ever “seen a bigger piece of pork?”
Vivek Ramaswamy, who was tapped by Trump to co-lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) alongside Musk, also posted a lengthy message criticizing the size and scope of the funding bill
.
“We’re grateful for DOGE’s warm reception on Capitol Hill. Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words,” Ramaswamy wrote on X. “This is an early test. The bill should fail.”
Steve Bannon, Trump’s onetime chief White House strategist, said on his “War Room” podcast Wednesday that the bill should fail and suggested Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) should not continue as leader of the GOP conference. […]
For the last century or so, many Christians have chosen to spend the run-up to their lord and savior’s birthday condemning those who don’t practice their religion for not celebrating it hard enough; for daring to say “Happy Holidays” to strangers instead of presuming that they are Christian; for not wanting to mix tax money, state property and public schools up with religion; and, of course, for having insufficiently festive cups.
This, they claimed, was a War on Christmas.
According to one history, it started (as it so often does) with Henry Ford claiming that Jewish people were trying to destroy Christmas. “People sometimes ask why 3,000,000 Jews can control the affairs of 100,000,000 Americans. In the same way that ten Jewish students can abolish the mention of Christmas and Easter out of schools containing 3,000 Christian pupils,” he wrote in his famously batshit newsletter, The International Jew.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider it a bad thing that we live in a country where a majority is not supposed to be allowed to impose their religion on a minority, but I tend to be a pretty big fan of freedom.
It was later picked up in the 1960s by the famously paranoid John Birch Society, which claimed there was an ongoing “assault” on Christmas. “UN fanatics…What they now want to put over on the American people is simply this: Department stores throughout the country are to utilize UN symbols and emblems as Christmas decorations.”
That really doesn’t seem like it actually happened.
This year, however, a YouGov survey found that there has been a sharp drop over the last two years in the number of Americans who actually believe there is a war on Christmas. In 2022, 39 percent of Americans believed in the War on Christmas. This year, only 23 percent do. The numbers have even fallen among Republicans, who have gone from 59 percent to 36 percent.
So what happened? Did we all roll over and accept Christian nationalism? Did we start saying “Merry Christmas” to people regardless of their personal beliefs? I didn’t, doesn’t seem like anyone else did, either. Did the Satanic Temple stop putting statues of Baphomet near nativity scenes on public property? Nope, they definitely did not. Did Starbucks’s holiday cups feature anything specifically Christmassy, apart from being red and green? Not really. Also, they are red, green and light pink, which is not generally considered a Christmas color.
It seems like the only real difference between this year and every other year I have been alive is that Fox News and the Right in general are not freaking out over every single thing they consider remotely “too secular” this year. The One Million Moms have been far too busy fighting the War on Wicked (which they are mad about because witches and sorcery and LGBTQ+ subtext and actors being in the movie, which they also erroneously believe is a “children’s movie”) to bother.
Some have even decided that since they haven’t heard much about it, that it is time to declare victory, even though literally nothing has changed. [Social media posts are available at the link. They all give credit to Trump for saving Christmas.]
Now, keep in mind, Target has always had Christmas shit. They just also had other items and signage that said things like “Happy Holidays!” or “Season’s Greetings!” or “Happy Hanukkah!” or “Happy Kwanzaa!”, which they also still have. Disingenuous people, however, would take pictures of those signs and not the “Merry Christmas” ones to convince relatively daft people that they were under attack. And it worked. Now, they’re showing things as they always have been and declaring “victory.”
Really, it’s all about the constant mindfuck. [Yep]
Lately, the Right has had far more luck having quick moral panics in endless succession and ending them the moment it becomes clear that they are bullshit [LOL. True.], usually in favor of another hysterical narrative that is also bullshit. I mean, who can even remember a few months ago when their big cause was “Haitians eating cats?”
And how could they even be bothered to care about Coca-Cola putting polar bears on their cans instead of Santa when they had to spend this whole week claiming, erroneously, that the Wisconsin school shooter was transgender and, also erroneously, that all recent shooters have been transgender?
When you’re provoking outrage about things that are not especially reality-based or that make no sense, it’s usually best to move on quickly before people start to catch on too much. I’m not saying they’re all that swift, but just look at this person coming very close to realizing that saying “Happy Holidays” was actually always just about having good manners and not assuming what religion people are? [Social media post is available at the link.]
I do, however, wonder how long the “Victory at last!” tactic can work for them, when so much of the Right’s success has been linked to the “You are the Real Americans and you have to take your country back!” narrative. If they already believe they have their country back, they might just calm down to the point where the next hysteria might not even register — and then where would they be?
@226 Lynna, OM
Musk posted several additional messages on the platform criticizing specific provisions in the legislation, saying the bill “should not pass” and asking if followers had ever “seen a bigger piece of pork?”
The so-called “murder hornet” has been eradicated from the United States, five years after the invasive species was first discovered in Washington state, officials declared Wednesday.
There have been no confirmed detections of the northern giant hornet — the hornet’s official name — for the past three years, the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said…
…
In support of its goals, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 percentage point to 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 percent. In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. The Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage‑backed securities. The Committee is strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2 percent objective…
At the dawn of the new year, Pornhub will leave Florida. Thanks to a harsh new age verification law that takes effect on January 1, the porn giant will no longer do business in the sunshine state. The law mirrors similar laws passed in other Republican led states where Pornhub has stopped doing business…
It’s a frustratingly familiar experience for many a fair-goer: just as the coveted plushie makes its way towards the chute of a claw machine, the claw slackens, letting go of the prize.
But now one city has had enough. On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog announced it was mulling regulations on claw machines after rising complaints…
“I was communicating with Elon last night. Elon and Vivek [Ramaswamy] and I are on a text chain together, and I was explaining to them the background of this,” Johnson [Speaker of the House Mike Johnson] explained. Musk and Ramaswamy have been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, and the pair of billionaires have pledged to cut $2 trillion in spending despite the fact that it’s not an official department and they have no authority.
The speaker went on to say he was on the phone until “almost midnight” explaining what he had done and why.
Johnson said passage of the current bill is necessary as part of “clearing the decks” for the upcoming Trump presidency and the “America First agenda.”
Musk, who spent over $250 million to elect Trump and has vowed to bankroll campaigns against Republicans who don’t vote in lockstep with the MAGA agenda, does not appear to have been satisfied. Following Johnson’s Fox News appearance, he continued to make posts complaining about the bill’s contents.
Johnson’s attempts to mollify Musk not only give off the appearance of subservience to the richest man in the world, but also raise questions about how much power Trump truly has. After all, it is Trump who over the years has shaped and molded Republican Party policy via his social media posts.
Previous reports have indicated that sources close to Trump are already upset at the level of influence Musk wields, with some describing him as a “co-president.” If Musk is now dictating the House agenda on his own, is he now the shadow speaker as well? […]
The so-called “murder hornet” has been eradicated from the United States
Soon: In an unprecedented show of concern for wildlife—or life of any kind—Trump announced the creation of a strategic murder hornet reserve.
“The US just run out of hornets! My country used to have so many hornets. What those people did—you know who I’m talking about—it’s a disgrace. We’re gonna have so many beautiful murders. And they’re gonna be overseen by top men.”
[…] On Monday, Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a longtime Trump ally, shared a post to social media that included a screenshot of a large-looking metal object sitting on a trailer in the back of a car. Above the photo was the caption, “Breaking News: Crashed drone in Orange Beach retrieved from water, and taken to undisclosed location for further investigation.”
“It is inconceivable that the federal government has no answers nor has taken any action to get to the bottom of the unidentified drones,” Mastriano posted. “Such should be viewed as a threat to our nation and citizens and action is long overdue.”
[FFS] There was just one problem with his post, though: The object in the photo was not a drone. In reality, it was a prop spaceship from the “Star Wars” film franchise. [Social media post, with photo, is available at the link.]
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, also said on a recent podcast appearance that the mysterious drones may be “a craft from outer space.”
“I think that has to be on the table,” she said. “It has to be an option.”
With these comments, Mace and Mastriano join fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in promoting so far baseless conspiracy theories about the drones. On Saturday, the onetime 9/11 denier suggested that the federal government summoned the drones to descend upon the states.
“The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It really is that bad.”
Of course, the panic over the apparent drone sightings isn’t just happening on the far right. Last week, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan boldly claimed that he “personally witnessed” what he thought were drones flying above his Maryland residence. The former elected official’s post included a nearly two-minute video of the night sky, in which a few small lights are visible.
“The public is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with the complete lack of transparency and the dismissive attitude of the federal government,” Hogan said. (A meteorologist replied to Hogan’s tweet with an important fact-check, noting that the lights he saw looked a lot like Orion’s Belt.) [social media posts available at the link]
[…] Even if this is all false and the drones are just airplanes, the seeming rise of conspiratorial thinking is interesting because it’s a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA movement. With him readying for his second term in the White House, he’ll likely help feed a new class of grifters to prey on Americans’ fears.
Many people inside ABC News are unhappy about its decision to settle a defamation lawsuit with Donald Trump. The news outlet, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company, agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library, as well as apologize for on-air comments made by host George Stephanopoulos.
While many legal experts considered ABC’s case strong, Disney executives worried that their defense was “flawed,” according to The New York Times. The media giant’s legal counsel was reportedly also worried that the company was at a disadvantage because they were facing the lawsuit in Florida, a state where Trump has received dubiously advantageous judicial considerations.
In July, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, in the Southern District of Florida, denied Disney’s attempts to dismiss the case, writing, “a reasonable jury could conclude Plaintiff was defamed and, as a result, dismissal is inappropriate.”
Disney reportedly determined that the worst-case scenario would see the case go to the Supreme Court and lead to the overturning of New York Times v. Sullivan. That landmark decision in 1964 upheld First Amendment protections for media outlets by narrowing the scope of what public officials could sue over.
The Wall Street Journal reports that all of those considerations do not change the fact that “many rank and file journalists and producers at ABC News are frustrated by the company’s decision to resolve the suit.” And legal experts like Sonja R. West, a law professor at University of Georgia School of Law, told the Journal that she believed the media outlet had a strong case.
“It’s really surprising and honestly perplexing that ABC decided to settle at this time and for this amount,” she said.
ABC News is just the latest major media outlet to surrender to Trump’s bullying. Billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, killed his paper’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. A very similar thing happened at the Los Angeles Times too. And Bezos, along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, later kissed Trump’s ring, donating big sums to Trump’s inauguration.
Not every newspaper is giving up its freedom of speech without a fight, though.
Trump, somehow sore over winning the election, is suing the Des Moines Register and well-respected pollster Ann Selzer for publishing an inaccurate preelection poll. The Register has responded defiantly. “We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit,” a spokesperson told CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs.
Trump has promised to pursue further legal attacks against the press, as has his nominee to run the FBI, Kash Patel. During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, Trump addressed his ongoing lawsuits against the media.
“You need a fair press,” Trump said. “I’m doing this not because I want to. I’m doing this because I feel I have an obligation.”
By “fair,” Trump means “nothing but praise for the Dear Leader,” … and he means that the press should adopt and promote a view of Trump that Trump has of himself.
“Authorities said they had arrested an Uzbek national born in 1995 for working with Ukrainian special services to plant a bomb on a scooter outside general’s residence.”
A man has been arrested in connection with the assassination of the head of Russia’s chemical, radiological and biological weapons unit, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, authorities in the country said Wednesday.
“During the interrogation, he explained that he was recruited by the Ukrainian special services,” Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
“On their instructions, he arrived in Moscow and received a homemade explosive device. He placed it on an electric scooter, which he parked at the entrance to the residential building where Igor Kirillov lived,” she added. [video at the link]
Tuesday’s assassination marks the latest in a long line of acts of sabotage and covert killings to hit Russia as its war in Ukraine grinds on.
At the site of the explosion on Wednesday bent metal and bricks blown from the walls could be seen and blood in the snow all remained at the scene. As people and cars passed by on the busy street where Kirillov lived, some left red roses.
The suspect rented a car and “installed a video surveillance camera,” so he could broadcast the footage online, Petrenko said, adding that he was from Uzbekistan and in his twenties.
The suspect, who authorities did not name, was identified by state media citing footage from the FSB — Russia’s domestic intelligence agency — as Akhmad Kurbanov.
Petrenko said he was was guaranteed $100,000 and European residence as payment for the attack, which also killed Kirillov’s assistant Ilya Polikarpov.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had already claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday, although national security adviser Jake Sullivan told MSNBC that the U.S. was not aware of the operation ahead of time and was not involved.
“We do support and enable Ukraine to defend itself and to take the fight to Russian forces on the battlefield. But not operations like this,” Sullivan said.
Video published on Telegram by Russia’s Investigative Committee on Tuesday showed emergency responders parked outside an apartment building where one entrance could be seen visibly damaged.
Kirillov was killed the day after he was charged by Ukrainian security services with the use of banned chemical weapons during Russia’s invasion of the country, which in February 2022. Russian authorities have denied those allegations. […]
Last month, the SBU claimed they had assassinated Valery Trankovsky, a Russian naval captain in charge of a brigade missile ships in the Black Sea, after his car was blown up.
Citing Ukrainian media, the Associated Press also reported that Sergei Yevsyukov — the former head of a prison housing Ukrainian POWs — was killed by a car bomb in Russian-occupied Donetsk earlier this month.
For its part, Russia was accused of sending two incendiary devices to DHL logistics hubs in Germany and the United Kingdom in July as part of a wider sabotage campaign to possibly start fires aboard aircraft bound for North America. […]
Kirillov had also been sanctioned by Britain in October, with U.K. authorities punishing the general and Russia’s nuclear protection forces for the use of riot control agents and reports of the use of chloropicrin, a chemical choking agent, on the battlefield.
In a statement at the time, the British government said Kirillov was “responsible for helping deploy these barbaric weapons” and had also been “a significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation, spreading lies to mask Russia’s shameful and dangerous behavior.”
[…] Ukrainian special forces said Tuesday they had killed 50 North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region, marking the first such casualties since the secretive communist state sent soldiers to eastern Europe.
Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Patrick Ryder said Monday that North Korean military personnel have been killed and wounded in combat operations in the area but did not specify how many casualties they had suffered.
“I hate Judaism but love Jews and wish them a very pleasant conversion to Christianity.”
For a brief moment in November, the TheoBros, a network of militant Christian nationalist influencers, made news when Donald Trump nominated one of their allies, former Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, to lead the Department of Defense. Hegseth attends a church that is affiliated with the TheoBro movement, and he has cited TheoBro patriarch Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, as someone who has had a major influence on him. While the controversies surrounding Hegseth’s alleged alcohol abuse and mismanagement of funds meant for veterans continue to make the news, the TheoBros have receded into the background.
But as it turns out, they are embroiled in a major controversy of their own. A simmering divide over how Christians should regard Judaism has ignited into a conflagration. The resulting rift has left two factions of TheoBros retreating into their separate camps—one of which is doubling down on antisemitic rhetoric to a widening audience.
The backstory—as much of it as I’ve been able to piece together—goes something like this: An undercurrent of antisemitism, which has long rippled through the TheoBros’ social media spheres, has intensified over the last year. In May, Samuel Holden, a pro-Hitler content creator, released a video that he called “White Boy Summer,” a nod to an earlier song and meme popularized by white nationalist influencers, including head Groyper Nick Fuentes. Holden’s video combined hyper-masculine and Christian nationalist content with pro-Nazi imagery. Wilson, the TheoBro patriarch, condemned the video, calling it “Nazi triumphalism.”
But Wilson’s acolytes seemed titillated by “White Boy Summer”—or maybe they were just flattered. In the video, Holden tagged several younger TheoBros, including Texas pastor Joel Webbon, Utah pastors Eric Conn and Brian Sauvé, and Stephen Wolfe, author of the 2022 book The Case for Christian Nationalism. Shortly after Holden released the video, Conn reposted it on X, commenting, “By God we shall have our home again,” a white nationalist slogan. The following month, Sauvé posted, “Pride month is canceled. Welcome to White Boy Summer.” Wolfe, meanwhile, criticized Wilson for disavowing it. “A better tactic would be friendliness to these young rightwing guys,” he said. […]
Webbon, one of the most outspoken of the TheoBros, praised the video in a June podcast. […] the video’s message fit in nicely with some of the sentiments he had been expressing earlier in the spring. “You thought Christian nationalism was scary,” he posted on X in May. “Enjoy Jewish nationalism.” The same day, he posted: “America has long had a separation of Church and State. Perhaps one day we might also have a separation of Synagogue and State.”
The disagreement over the video simmered for a few months. Then, this past fall, a skirmish erupted on X and in various podcasts over an accusation by German TheoBro Tobias Riemenschneider that Webbon had failed to adequately address the problem of a young man in his church who had allegedly been sharing pro-Nazi memes. Wilson sided with Riemenschneider, agreeing that allowing such hatred to go unchecked was dangerous for a church community.
In November, Wilson issued a statement he called the Antioch Declaration, a rambling document that eventually condemns “the racial and antisemitic theories of Adolf Hitler and neo-pagan doctrines of the Nazi cult.” Several prominent TheoBros signed on, and some wrote statements of their own. Wilson’s sidekick Toby Sumpter, a pastor in Wilson’s church, for example, endorsed his friend’s argument, adding in a blog post that a church that tolerated antisemitism was just as bad as one that tolerated homosexuality. In the same post, Sumpter called the “White Boy Summer” video “as gay as socks on a rooster.” Hegseth hasn’t signed the declaration, but his views on Judaism seem to align with those of the Wilson camp: He is strongly pro-Israel and posted on Instagram that he believes antisemitism “is running rampant on ‘elite’ university campuses.”
Webbon, meanwhile, has dug in his heels. In the last few weeks, virtually all of his posts on X have focused on the TheoBro rift. For him, the problem with Judaism, at least theologically, appears to be the Talmud—a sacred text of ancient rabbinical teachings in Judaism that, he argued in an October blog post, not only rejects the notion of Jesus as the son of God, but also “effectively corrupts and totally undermines all of the Old Testament.” In early November, he posted on X, “I hate Judaism but love Jews and wish them a very pleasant conversion to Christianity.”
Later in November, in his podcast episode after Wilson released the Antioch Declaration, Webbon said that in his version of a Christian nationalist America, “No practicing Jew who hasn’t converted to Christianity will be able to serve in public office.” He called Judaism a “parasitical” religion in the subsequent episode. […] Shields posted a clip to his 800,000 X followers in which Webbon argues that ever since the Allies triumphed over Hitler’s Germany in World War II, Christianity has been diminished in the West. In an email to Mother Jones, Webbon said he stands by “everything I’ve said about Judaism. It is a pernicious evil.”
[…] there is some evidence that the antisemitism he and other TheoBros espouse may be breaking into the MAGA mainstream. [snipped details]
And then there is William Wolfe, a TheoBro who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon in the first Trump administration. He has posted phrases that are widely recognized as antisemitic dog whistles [snipped details]
The TheoBros’ attitudes toward Judaism differ starkly from those of adherents to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a rapidly growing charismatic movement that calls Christians to take over the government. As I wrote a few months ago, many NAR believers are fervently pro-Israel because they are convinced it will play a crucial role in ushering in the return of the Messiah just before the End Times. […]
The TheoBros’ fixation on Judaism, however, is […] an example of a broader shift […] extremists have become emboldened to use more explicitly antisemitic memes and rhetoric. One prominent example of this is former bounty hunter-turned-livestreamer Stew Peters, who since October 7 has transformed from a garden-variety anti-vaccine activist into a full-on Nazi sympathizer. (At the time of this writing, his most recent post on X was: “Putting a television set in your living room is like inviting a jew into your house. Using AI is like inviting a jew into your brain.”) […]
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is weighing an alternative plan to fund the government before the shutdown deadline on Friday after Republicans inside and outside the Capitol slammed the spending package.
The House on Tuesday released a 1,500-page spending package negotiated by congressional leaders that included disaster aid and economic assistance for farmers.
But late Wednesday afternoon, President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance slammed the bipartisan bill and called for a “streamlined” spending stopgap combined with an increase in the debt ceiling.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Trump and Vance said in a statement. “Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
They added, “Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
Elon Musk, who has spent considerable time with Trump since his election, wrote on X that any lawmaker “who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
Now Johnson is considering a “clean” continuing resolution, two sources told The Hill. The Speaker’s office declined to comment.
“Elon Musk joined a wave of right-wing fury against a bill to keep the government open. Now, the president-elect says he wants big changes, too, before this weekend’s deadline.”
[…] The bill would have kept the government open until March 14. A shutdown will occur this Saturday at 12:01 a.m. without action from Congress. There is currently no fallback plan. […]
In a shocking twist, Trump also demanded that the legislation include a debt ceiling increase, which neither party had even been considering. […]
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., warned that if Republicans abandon the deal they’ll own a government shutdown.
“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government,” Jeffries wrote on X. “And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”
[…] Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said a government shutdown would be “unfortunate” as it “puts a lot of people at risk,” particularly those who need the disaster aid attached to it.
She also questioned if Trump was getting rolled by Musk.
“You have to ask Donald Trump — if Elon Musk is making the decisions,” Shaheen said Wednesday.
Some Republicans are blaming the mess on Johnson.
“Johnson really f—ed this up. He put out a really bad bill,” said one Senate GOP leadership aide familiar with discussions.
Asked if the bill was dead, the aide replied: “We’ll see … but looks very bad.”
Immigration officials confirmed Wednesday that they had deported from Texas the mother of two relatively newborn U.S.-citizens.
An attorney for the woman’s husband and children’s father said the mother, twins and two other children were arrested and sent to Mexico after the mother missed a hearing while recovering from delivering the infants by emergency C-section.
The twins were born in September. Media reports said the mother, the infant twins and two more children had been deported. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC News that it deported only the mother, whom it identified as Cristina Geraldyn Salazar-Hinojosa, 23, and that ICE does not deport U.S. citizens.
“ICE does not deport U.S. citizens. Any decision for minors with U.S. citizenship to depart the U.S. with their parents is up to the parents,” an ICE spokesperson said.
The children’s father, Federico Arellano, is a U.S. citizen.
The mother was scheduled for an immigration hearing but had to postpone it because of the emergency C-section, WOAI in San Antonio reported.
ICE alleged Salazar-Hinojosa entered the U.S. illegally on June 28 through the Rio Grande Valley area. The spokesperson said she was released June 29 under the Alternatives to Detention program, pending her immigration proceedings.
The spokesperson said Salazar-Hinojosa failed to show up to an Oct. 9 hearing and was ordered removed by a judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
Isaias Torres, an attorney for Salazar-Hinojosa’s husband, told WOAI that “this case shouldn’t have gone to this extreme. There were options, legal options that were available and he was not given that opportunity.”
[…] The attorney told KHOU in Houston that Salazar-Hinojosa missed the hearing because she was told by doctors to recover at home. He also said the family called the court to inform them and was told the hearing would be rescheduled. They were told in a later phone call to report to a Houston-area location to discuss their case but were arrested when they showed up […]
Arellano tried to explain but ICE agents prevented him, attorneys told KHOU.
“They were shocked and surprised that they were separated,” Torres said. […]
Reginald Selkirksays
@239 Lynna, OM
If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Trump and Vance said in a statement.
Are they unaware Republicans will be in the majority in both the House and the Senate next year?
When a mysterious flesh-rotting disease broke out in Europe in 1495, two years after Christopher Columbus returned from the Americas, suspicion fell on his crew.
Syphilis was soon rampant across the Continent and beyond, but its origins continued to be fiercely debated, with some historians claiming it was actually home-grown.
Now, scientists have carried out genetic testing on the bones of infected people from Chile, Peru, Mexico and Argentina, who lived between the 13th and 15th centuries and died before Columbus arrived.
They found that ancestral forms of syphilis were present in the New World before it was discovered by Europeans, suggesting the bacterium did indeed hitch a lift back with the explorers…
Reginald @242, yeah, those doofuses are not making any sense.
Though, of course on some legislation the Republicans in the House fight with each other. They always have members who do not cooperate. That’s why they have to resort to getting some Democratic Party support to get anything passed.
Trump weighing in at the last minute regarding the debt ceiling is confusing. My bet is that Elon Musk said something to him, and the result was more chaos.
Also, I’ve noticed that it is members of the Democratic Party who serve on committees who do most of the work.
Spanish police have uncovered a major clue in the year-long investigation of a missing Cuban man, JLPO, after Google Street View images showed a man loading a body-shaped package into a car and pushing a wheelbarrow with a large white package. These images led to the discovery of the victim’s dismembered remains in a cemetery and the arrest of two suspects, including the victim’s wife and a bar worker. The Independent reports: …
A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted today, following years of campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. The paper was pulled because of ethical concerns and methodological problems, according to a retraction notice.
The paper in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (IJAA), led by Philippe Gautret of the Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection (IHU), claimed that treatment with hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, reduced virus levels in samples from COVID-19 patients, and that the drug was even more effective if used alongside the antibiotic azithromycin. Then–IHU Director Didier Raoult, the paper’s senior author, enthused about the promise of the drug on social media and TV, leading to a wave of hype, including from then–U.S. President Donald Trump.
But scientists immediately raised concerns about the paper, noting the sample size of only 36 patients and the unusually short peer-review time: The paper was submitted on 16 March 2020 and published 4 days later. On 24 March, scientific integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik noted on her blog that six patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine had been dropped from the study—one of whom had died, and three of whom had transferred to intensive care—which potentially skewed the results in the drug’s favor. Larger, more rigorous trials carried out later in 2020 showed hydroxychloroquine did not benefit COVID-19 patients.
Critics of Raoult’s paper have pointed out more damning problems since…
The U.S. Mint has revealed the five historical female figures who will appear on the reverse sides of quarters for 2025, the last year it will issue American Women Quarters Program coins featuring iconic American women.
The trailblazing women to be featured on the tail side of coins include Ida B. Wells, Juliette Gordon Low, Dr. Vera Rubin, Stacey Park Milbern and Althea Gibson, the U.S. Mint, part of the U.S. Treasury, said Wednesday…
Well, the “infallible” Pope just “infallibly” changed his mind again.. This time on something they actually arguably got right the first time (albeit probly not in terms of historical accuracy but metaphorically speaking) :
A nativity scene at the Vatican depicting baby Jesus wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh has been removed after sparking backlash. Pope Francis unveiled the display last Saturday as part of the annual exhibition at the Paul VI Hall, designed by Bethlehem-based artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi from Dar al-Kalima University. The scene featured a carved olive wood depiction of the Holy Family and a Bethlehem Star inscribed in Latin and Arabic with the message: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to all people.” The use of the keffiyeh – a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance against Israeli occupation – drew swift criticism, with some accusing the display of being a “blasphemous political stunt”.
Seems they caved to the backlash there. Of course it takes them so much longer when it comes to child molesting priests, the helicoentric theory and bruning scientists at the stake for or jailing and torturing them for advocating it, etc ..
Bekenstein Boundsays
ABC News employees are pissed Disney caved to Trump’s bullying
The US no longer has freedom of the press.
A dark day indeed.
StevoRsays
Also from The New Arab and also on a symbolic display this time at a pub :
A local Muslim resident of a town in England is taking a pub to court over what he considers to be the establishment’s “racist” sign, according to various reports in the UK media. Khalid Baqa is suing the Saracen’s Head Inn in Chesham, Buckinghamshire for compensation due to the “racist” depiction of “a bearded Arab/Turk” on the pub’s sign, which Baqa claimed was “xenophobic” and “incites violence”, according to UK tabloid The Daily Mail.
… (Snip)…
(Pub owner Robbie -ed) Hayes claimed that Baqa was simply “chancing his arm” and had denied that the name of the pub or its sign was racist, claiming it had been called that for over 500 years. “It’s a complete joke. This pub has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years,” Hayes said as reported by LBC. “He’s just chancing his hand. Of course, it worries me — you never know with people like this.”
People like who and what exactly huh Robbie? Nope, no sign of racism there eh? (Not. sarc tag unnecessary yeah?)
A Tasmanian marine research project has handed “one of the world’s rarest fish” a lifeline.
More than 200 of the critically endangered red handfish are now “thriving” in a captive breeding program, which is in the safe hands of scientists at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).
Andrew Trotter, research and co-lead on the project, said the program’s success was vital to safeguarding the fish’s future.
If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world’s first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
CFS, one of the largest and most-hyped nuclear fusion companies, will make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. When operational, the plant will be able to plug into the grid and produce 400 megawatts, enough to power around 150,000 homes, said its CEO Bob Mumgaard…
The plant would represent a new stage in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process which powers the stars. But the path toward it is unlikely to be smooth, not least because the technology has not yet been proved viable. ..
It is “deep into” building a tokamak able to demonstrate net fusion energy: meaning a reaction that produces more energy than it consumes. It hopes to produce its first plasma – the superheated cloud of charged gas in which fusion reactions happen – in 2026 and achieve net fusion energy shortly afterward…
Cart. Horse.
StevoRsays
So this PBS interview covers so very much more than just the title / intro suggests :
pair of NASA astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station since June will have to wait a little longer to come back to Earth. NASA says astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams won’t return now until late March or even April, which means they will have lived and worked in orbit for more than nine months. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports.
MIT scientists have released a powerful, open-source AI model, called Boltz-1, that could significantly accelerate biomedical research and drug development.
Developed by a team of researchers in the MIT Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, Boltz-1 is the first fully open-source model that achieves state-of-the-art performance at the level of AlphaFold3, the model from Google DeepMind that predicts the 3D structures of proteins and other biological molecules…
The guilty plea marked a significant development in U.S. efforts to curb foreign interference as China is suspected of running covert police outposts across North America, Europe and other regions with significant Chinese diaspora communities.
While China has dismissed these allegations, claiming the facilities are merely service centers assisting citizens with tasks like renewing driver’s licenses, critics and officials argue the operations serve a more sinister purpose.
This is a real issue. Large countries have extensions of their embassies scattered across other countries that provide services. These are publicly declared and provide a limited set of social services.
China is running undeclared police stations that are leaning on Chinese people in other countries. Not just citizens of China, police are a part of the security state in China. These police stations are used to attack dissidents and protestors, recruit spies and gather information.
“We don’ remember this being covered in Schoolhouse Rock.”
Nearly the entire freaking US government is set to shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday if Congress doesn’t pass a bill to temporarily fund the government in time for President Joe Biden to sign it. And in fact, Congress was well on its way to doing that Wednesday, reaching a bipartisan agreement on a bill that would have funded the government though March 15 of next year. The bill had been scheduled for votes today.
But then America’s new de facto ruler, the richest man in the world, figured that since he’d bought the government, he could also break it if he wanted. Elon Musk posted more than 100 tweets against the bill all day Wednesday, many of them full of outright lies, and singlehandedly scared Republicans into withdrawing their support for the funding deal. Donald Trump, following the lead of his most recent purchaser, came out against funding the government as well, and within a few hours after Musk started lying about it, the agreement was dead.
No, there isn’t anything to replace it. Musk at one point called for the government to remain shuttered until Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20, although that is unlikely to happen. We think. If you had asked us yesterday morning if Musk could have forced Republicans to the brink of a government shutdown, we might have said that seemed a stretch even for him, but here we are.
It’s really pretty impressive, in a sick-making way, to see so much power wielded by an oligarch who was never elected to any office, and who is in fact ineligible to even run for president because he was born in South Africa. But his money was crucial to Trump’s election victory, and he’s effectively more important than Trump now, so Republicans heard Elon loud and clear when he threatened yesterday that “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” [Sigh. That’s so depressing.]
The usual rightwing House Freedom Caucus types were already preparing to oppose the bill, because in addition to funding the government at current levels instead of slashing funding, the bill included $110 billion in assistance for disaster victims, including help for their own Republican states hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton, and another $10 billion in help for farmers. In addition, it included provisions to transfer control of RFK Stadium from the federal government to Washington DC, funds for rebuilding that bridge in Baltimore after the ship hit the span, and a small cost of living increase in congressional pay. Those changes were enough that even before Musk’s shitfit, a number of rightwing Republicans were already talking about ousting Mike Johnson as speaker.
[There are aways a few rightwing whackos who will oppose funding bills, but without Elon Musk in the picture there are ways to work around those whackos.]
NBC News outlines some of Musk’s contributions to the grand pageant of American democracy yesterday:
Musk posted to X about the funding bill more than 100 times over the course of the day. He repeatedly called the bill “criminal” and asked his followers to call their representatives, but he also posted memes, including one of him taking a sword to the bill and another referring to the “Kill Bill” films from director Quentin Tarantino. Later in the day, the phrase “Kill Bill” was on X’s list of trending topics in the United States. [FFS]
[Musk’s propaganda machine at work. Putin must be loving this.]
While he was at it, Musk lied flagrantly about the contents of the bill, reposting lies posted by others on Twitter as if they were gospel truth, because that’s what free speech is all about. He claimed that the congressional pay raise would be 40 percent, when in fact the maximum automatic cost of living increase allowed by law is $3.8 percent, or $6,600, the first time Congress has taken a COLA since freezing the automatic increase in every other spending bill in 2009. [Wow. Musk’s lie was BIG.]
Musk also repeated a lie involving the transfer of RFK Stadium to the local DC government, claiming it would come with $3 billion to build a new stadium for the Washington NFL team. As Politico explains, nope, no federal money for that:
The bill transfers control of the site of the existing RFK Stadium to the D.C. local government for redevelopment, which could potentially include a stadium. No federal funds are changing hands as part of the transaction.
Somewhere down the road, DC taxpayers might have to pay for some of the stadium development costs, but that would only be ripping them off for sportsball, not the federal government.
In a classic example of Twitter Stupid, Musk also passed along a SHOCKING DISCOVERY from serial liar Chaya Raichik at Libs of Tiktok, claiming that the bill included funding for “BIOWEAPON LABS”!!!!!! But nah, the funding actually would have gone to pandemic preparation by establishing regional “biocontainment labs” to help with research on any new nasty viruses or bacteria or microscopic South African billionaires threatening Americans’ health.
Nobody knows where this is headed now; Donald Trump took advantage of the confusion to demand that a new government funding bill include only minimal continuing funding and nothing Democrats want.
As for Democrats, despite their chronic addiction to being the adults in the room, it’s not looking like they’re in any mood to help Republicans clean up their self-inflicted mess this time. The best advice we’ve seen on what they oughta do comes from journalist Brian Beutler, who suggested on Bluesky that
All Dems have to do is concede nothing. They can offer votes for real Republican concessions—abolition of the debt limit, congressional tariff review, DREAM Act etc., no GOP riders—but not a single vote for GOP-only bills simply to save Republicans from themselves.
Whether that will actually be possible with so many weirdly accommodating congressional Democrats in both houses, we don’t know. But the smart thing for now is to let Republicans own this, and to help Republicans own it by introducing bills demanding concessions from them for once. We especially like the debt limit idea — it’s a stupid leftover from WWI — yes really! — that has never once limited spending in over a century, so getting rid of it altogether would remove a constant pain in the ass that periodically threatens the economy whenever a Democrat is president. Trump wants to increase the debt limit as Joe Biden is heading out the door? Fine. Let’s raise it to $999 quadrillion and remove it from our politics for good.
Summarized from an NBC News article by Steve Benen:
David Hogg announced this week that he’s running to become a vice chair of the DNC. Hogg, who’s 24 years old, is perhaps best known to national audiences as an anti-violence activist who survived a mass shooting at a Florida high school in 2018.
Let’s hope the Democrats don’t treat Hogg like they did AOC. See PZ’s post.
A year ago this week, CNBC published a report noting that psychology experts have identified the techniques successful liars use to get people to believe them. It noted that successful liars, for example, make a habit of “adding details in an attempt to sound convincing.” [True.]
The more Donald Trump talks about his electoral “mandate,” the more that CNBC report comes to mind.
When [Trump] sat down with Time magazine late last month, he was predictably eager to brag about his victory. “[T]he beauty is that we won by so much,” the Republican boasted. “The mandate was massive. Somebody had 129 years in terms of the overall mandate. That’s a lot of years.”
The specificity of the claim might’ve led some people to believe it. That would be unfortunate.
I won’t pretend to know the identity of the “somebody” whom Trump referenced, but the claim was demonstrably ridiculous: He won a second term fair and square, but he clearly did not win by a margin unseen in “129 years.” In terms of the Electoral College, just in recent memory, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan easily outpaced the 316 electoral votes Trump won this year.
As for the popular vote, according to the latest tally from the Cook Political Report, the president-elect won 49.8% of the vote, a margin of 1.47% over Vice President Kamala Harris. (The Democratic nominee, interestingly enough, came up short while winning a higher percentage of the popular vote than Trump received in 2016 or 2020.) [video at the link]
The New York Times recently published a compelling analysis along these lines, explaining that the Republican’s victory “was neither unprecedented nor a landslide.” It added, “In fact, he prevailed with one of the smallest margins of victory in the popular vote since the 19th century and generated little of the coattails of a true landslide.”
In the Time magazine interview, however, Trump suggested he was quoting someone else — a common rhetorical game he likes to play, giving him an out when his bogus claim is exposed as false. (He’ll often say something along the lines of, “I was just saying what I heard from others.”)
This week, he dropped the pretense, publishing an item to his social media platform in which he simply asserted, “I won the biggest mandate in 129 years.”
The problem is not just that Trump is peddling made-up, easy-to-disprove nonsense. The problem is made worse by his motivations for doing so.
The Republican, his team and its allies are apparently feeling a bit insecure about Trump’s underwhelming win […] The incoming president and his sycophants, meanwhile, want at least to try to claim that he’s the one true voice of the nation and that policymakers have no choice but to obey the American Electoral Colossus.
Left with little choice, in other words, members of Team Trump are lying because the truth is too inconvenient to leave intact.
Whether Republicans like it or not, using the word “mandate” over and over again will not change the outcome or the vote tallies.
MAGA Republicans led by Elon Musk and under pressure from Donald Trump are now poised to ruin Christmas with a government shutdown and New Year’s with an internecine fight over whether Mike Johnson will be re-elected as speaker of the House.
[…] The details of the CR [continuing resolution] itself barely matter because this isn’t about legislation or compromise or striking a deal. It’s about creating a public spectacle, and nothing made that more clear than Trump’s last-minute demand that Congress raise the debt ceiling before he even takes office.
[…] years of GOP brinksmanship, chronic self-ownage, disarray, and dysfunction […]
Republicans created this debacle on purpose. They own it. They are the only ones who can stop it. Elected Democrats can’t save Republicans from themselves, aren’t to blame for this folly, and are merely bystanders like the rest of us to performative hijinks that are divorced from the reality of governance.
Real people will be hurt or will have to endure another round of living under the threat of harm. It’s a colossal waste of public resources […]
The Public Menace Of Elon Musk
Driving the right-wing backlash against House Republicans over the now-abandoned continuing resolution to fund the federal government through mid-March was the erratic and impetuous richest man in the world, posting furiously on the social media platform he owns:
– WSJ: “With a 4:15 a.m. ET social-media post on Wednesday, Elon Musk declared that a must-do spending bill ‘should not pass.’ By early evening, the bill was dead, leaving the government barreling toward a weekend shutdown just before Christmas.”
– WaPo: “Over the ensuing 12 hours, Musk went on a prolific tirade against the bill — with more than 60 updates, some of which boosted false claims — that stood out even for a chronic poster who has commanded an audience of more than 200 million followers by broadcasting his largely uninhibited views on the site he owns.”
– Politico: “Among the 100-plus tweets Musk sent as part of his campaign were a number of misleading or outright false claims — a possible preview of the mogul’s new role as co-leader of a Trump-blessed effort to slash government funding.”
– TPM’s Josh Marshall: “Trump has sewn himself into a sack with Elon Musk, a few billion dollars, a cat and a snake, and had the sack tossed into the Tiber. That’s the story here. And it will go on for a while.”
[…]
“Trump — who attacked his then-opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server for official business during his first presidential run — is overseeing a fully privatized transition that communicates from an array of @transition47.com, @trumpvancetransition.com and @djtfp24.com accounts rather than anything ending in .gov, and uses private servers, laptops and cell phones instead of government-issued devices.”
JMsays
Youtube: MeidasTouch
Trump’s motion to dismiss based on jury misconduct is absurd. Trump’s lawyers are claiming that the court must dismiss because there are grounds for Trump to file a motion to dismiss, but at the same time Trump isn’t going to file the motion and the court should not investigate the claim of misconduct. It’s literally there is evidence of misconduct behind the curtain but you can’t look behind the curtain. The judge was not impressed.
In other news, “Claims that Liz Cheney broke the law are even thinner than you think.’ Washington Post link
“A report produced by allies of Donald Trump recommended suggested that the former congresswoman face criminal charges. It appears to derive from Trump’s similar suggestion.”
As his former attorney Michael Cohen once explained, Donald Trump often doesn’t need to tell his loyalists precisely what he expects them to do. He hints at it, nudges them and expects that they understand what is intended.
In March, for example, he said that former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) should “go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee” — a reference to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Cheney served as vice chair of the panel.
He was responding to a preliminary report compiled by the House Administration oversight subcommittee, which Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) leads. That report, a review of the Capitol riot investigation, suggested that the select committee had withheld evidence. […]
Loudermilk is a Trump ally whose subsequent claims that the select committee had also failed to adequately preserve evidence evolved into a Trumpworld insistence that evidence had been destroyed. This has been debunked, but Trump nonetheless referred to that idea during an interview with NBC News this month in which he again suggested that Cheney should “go to jail.”
“They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony,” he falsely claimed, referring to the select committee. “I think those people committed a major crime.” [Trump pumps up the lie.]
On Tuesday, the final report from Loudermilk’s subcommittee was made public. In it, the subcommittee does recommend criminal charges against Cheney, as Trump had repeatedly demanded. But — probably in recognition that the “destroyed evidence” claim was a canard — the recommendation centers on Cheney’s alleged “tampering” with one of the committee’s key witnesses.
The report’s conclusion summarizes the claim:
“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge. This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates 18 U.S.C. 1512. Such action is outside the due functioning of the legislative process and therefore not protected by the Speech and Debate clause.”
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury.”
Trump, predictably, celebrated this determination, paraphrasing the vaguest snippet of that allegation on social media: “Numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.”
It’s an endorsement of a fishing expedition, a demand from Loudermilk and Trump that the FBI use this pretext to find something to pin to Cheney. But it sits alongside two actual allegations — both of them flimsy to the point of transparency.
At issue is the testimony of Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s last chief of staff when he previously served as president, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson, you will probably recall, offered shocking testimony at a June 28, 2022, hearing about Trump’s behavior on the day of the riot, including allegations about his dismissiveness about the threat posed by the crowd at his speech outside the White House that morning, Trump’s insistence on driving to the Capitol after the speech and how he responded to reports about the threat posed to Vice President Mike Pence.
That testimony, though, came about only after Hutchinson went through an internal struggle described in her 2023 book “Enough.” Hutchinson was a loyal Trump supporter and, as such, was provided by Trump’s team with an attorney, Stefan Passantino, when the select committee first subpoenaed her in January 2022.
She sat for two depositions with committee staffers in February and March of that year. Following Passantino’s advice, she didn’t volunteer information that would cast Trump in a negative light. But she began to have qualms about this approach, later reaching out to her former colleague Alyssa Farah for advice on how to proceed. Farah helped orchestrate a third deposition, in May 2022, during which Hutchinson was able to speak more freely. Her attorney was not pleased, and neither was Trumpworld.
In early June, Passantino recommended that Hutchinson stop complying with the committee’s efforts, including an anticipated fourth interview. In her book, she writes that she expected but “dreaded” Passantino forcing the issue, worried that she would be putting herself at risk of contempt charges. So, soon after, she contacted Cheney directly. Two months ago, Loudermilk’s subcommittee released some information about this communication, framing it in ethical, not legal, terms.
In a phone conversation with Cheney recounted in Hutchinson’s book, Hutchinson indicated that she intended to represent herself moving forward. Cheney recommended against doing so. When Hutchinson indicated that she’d previously had trouble identifying and affording counsel, Cheney said she would consult with her colleagues and get back to her. The next day she did, offering “contact information for multiple attorneys.” Hutchinson spoke with a number of them, ultimately deciding on attorneys Jody Hunt and Bill Jordan. [There is no witness tampering in that sequence of events.]
Later that month, she sat for another deposition. Freed from the constraints Passantino had encouraged, she offered much more detail on what she’d seen and, more explosively, what she’d been told about Jan. 6, 2021. The select committee quickly scheduled the aforementioned public hearing for June 28. Hutchinson would sit for recorded interviews twice more in September 2022.
The report from Loudermilk’s subcommittee twists Cheney’s role into criminal activity in two ways. The first is that her interactions with Hutchinson are described as “tampering,” citing federal witness-tampering statutes. But those are focused on inhibiting testimony (particularly through force), not on enabling it. What’s more, the report’s important claim that Hutchinson retained Hunt and Jordan “at the recommendation of Representative Cheney” ignores the nuances of the interactions both women describe in their respective books. [Yep. Trumpworld sycophants are good at ignoring nuances.]
Much of Loudermilk’s report centers on discrepancies between Hutchinson’s testimony and the testimony of others, discrepancies that are often in part because (as Hutchinson always represented) her testimony included secondhand information. But because the subcommittee presents Hutchinson’s testimony as intentionally false, the second recommended charge against Cheney proposes that she intentionally orchestrated Hutchinson’s testimony so that the witness could provide that false information. [That’s a lie.]
In a statement offered in response to the Loudermilk report, Cheney wrote that “[n]o reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take [the allegations] seriously.” And that’s probably true. But the report’s recommendation for an FBI probe will most probably be taken seriously by the incoming head of the FBI — if not Trump first choice, fervent loyalist Kash Patel, then whoever ends up being confirmed by the Senate. [Yikes. True. Liz Cheney will have a fight on her hands.]
Trump sent his Capitol Hill allies an unsubtle signal: Cheney must pay, even beyond her Trump-orchestrated ouster from the House. Loudermilk and his subcommittee were no doubt cognizant of that signal when they upgraded their allegations against Cheney from ethical to legal ones. And now Trump’s incoming FBI director has a trivial predicate, in case he even sought one, to start the fishing expedition that Loudermilk and Trump endorse.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is, for now, off the Trump election interference RICO case after the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that a conflict of interest disqualified her.
Willis’ office could still appeal the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court. […] But the decision is the latest significant blow to Willis’ sprawling RICO case against Trump, who will be inaugurated as president in one month.
Attorneys for Michael Roman moved to disqualify Willis in January with a simple allegation: Willis had had an affair with a prosecutor on the Trump case. She had brought the attorney, Nathan Wade, in from outside practice to work on the case, and they had allegedly used funds from the case to take lavish trips together, generating a conflict of interest. [Lies. Willis paid her own way on any trips the two took. Ditto for Wade.]
The allegations were the subject of a dramatic, multi-day hearing during which Willis tried to parry accusations about the affair with complaints of her own about the process, and attorneys for Roman at times struggled to get their witnesses to substantiate the evidence they said they had. The trial judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, rebuked Willis several times during the hearing. Afterwards, he wrote that there was an “odor of mendacity” around the story that she and Wade had offered at the hearing.
McAfee gave Willis a choice: she could recuse from the case, or Wade could leave. They took the latter option, with Wade leaving and then giving multiple interviews to national news media.
The defendants appealed, and the Georgia appeals court ruled that McAfee made an error in the remedy he ordered after finding a “significant appearance of impropriety.” Instead, the appeals court said, McAfee’s remedy was improper, and that a “significant” appearance of impropriety should lead to Willis’ disqualification.
The appeals judges pointed out that Willis’ team did not appeal McAfee’s finding of an “appearance of impropriety.” Whether evidence presented at the hearing supported that finding, the appeals court said, was therefore not before it to review.
The Trump indictment survived, but who knows what will happen now without Willis there to guide subsequent prosecution.
Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump met for dinner at Mar-a-Lago, joined by Elon Musk Washington Post link
President-elect Donald Trump had dinner Wednesday with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (who owns The Washington Post) at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and the two were joined by billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump transition team spokesperson confirmed.
The meeting marks the latest trek by tech executives to Trump’s home in South Florida to appeal to the incoming administration, including Silicon Valley titans who spurned Trump in his last term. Musk has been a frequent presence at Trump’s side, advising the president-elect on federal spending and tech policies.
After feuds during Trump’s first term, Trump and Bezos have both noted their recent evolving relationship. Trump told reporters Monday that he has noticed that tech executives are friendlier to him.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai also recently visited Trump’s West Palm Beach home.
[…] Musk wrote on X Wednesday night that “it was a great conversation” with Trump and Bezos, who also owns Blue Origin, a rival rocket company to Musk’s SpaceX. The two billionaires have clashed over business. Last month, Musk accused Bezos of telling people that Trump would lose and to sell stocks of Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX. Bezos denied the allegations.
During his first term as president, Trump complained bitterly about Bezos to his advisers and sought to punish Bezos’s companies out of anger about Post journalism, The Post has reported. Trump accused Amazon of swindling the U.S. Postal Service, tried to get the government to cancel subscriptions to The Post and accused Amazon of not paying enough taxes.
Now, as Trump is preparing to return to the White House, Bezos has offered him more public support. […]
“He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation, and if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him,” Bezos said. “We do have too much regulation in this country.”
A video circulating on social media from Trump’s Palm Beach resort club showed Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, walking with Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez.
Anchor Neil Cavuto is leaving Fox News after almost three decades at the right-wing media outlet. Thursday will mark Cavuto’s final appearance at the helm of his “Your World” show.
[…] Cavuto has been one of the only Fox News hosts willing to at least mildly criticize Donald Trump. Cavutos has even promoted a few facts amid his network’s otherwise unrelenting spew of misinformation.
Cavuto, who has multiple sclerosis and survived cancer, made headlines after contracting COVID-19 and releasing a statement supporting vaccination, saying it saved his life. Upon his return from the illness, he continued this break with the right-wing by promoting vaccinations on his show.
For this public service, Cavuto received hate mail from Fox News viewers, which was then read on air.
“It’s clear you’ve lost some weight with all this stuff. Good for you,” one viewer wrote to Cavuto. “But I’m not happy with less of you. I want ‘none’ of you. I want you gone. Dead.
In the proceeding years, Cavuto has broken with his network a handful of other times. After Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy made racist remarks about Mexico, Cavuto challenged him to explain himself during an interview.
Over the past election cycle, Cavuto may have been the only on-air Fox personality willing to publicly poke holes in some of the many false right-wing narratives about President Joe Biden’s performance in office.
And while the bar is very low at Fox, at least Cavuto doesn’t seem to have been an utter creep, which can’t be said of others at the network.
Some holly jolly recent economic headlines I rounded up to to hang from the tree…
– The economy is finally stable
– Fed expected to cut interest rates
– Retail sales increased 0.7% in November
– Hidden ticket fees and vacation rental charges banned in America
– Holiday hiring up
– BlueSky is taking off—a Mainer helped design it
– Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions
– U.S. auto sales next year expected to be best since 2019
– Biden backs California’s plan to Trump-proof its EV plans
[…]
And some lumps of coal for the stockings…
– Housing starts decreased in November
– Inflation grew in November
– Poland is selling its frozen butter reserves to curb soaring prices
– Coal use hitting record in 2024
“IDEA! What If We DIDN’T Purity-Test Left/Liberal Media Out Of Existence Now Of All F*cking Times”
You guys, this is so infuriating and I am SO MAD.
You are reading this on Substack right now. Substack is run by some mostly nice libertarianish dudes who have bad taste in a lot of writers. They succor the anti-trans opinionists. They have (and monetize!) Actual Nazis. They just made Bari Weiss a shiny new deluxe website. (They also built Wonkette’s for us last year, for free.) Bari Weiss’s website was always on Substack, but they built her a newer and shinier one (with advances in their tech that they’ll soon start to push out to everyone), and that’s causing a new round of “cancel your subscriptions to sites using Substack so your money doesn’t go to support Substack, which is bad.” Right now, in the Year of Our Trump December 2024, and a week before Christmas, people are convincing other people to stop supporting independent liberal media if it uses a bad tech stack. [Over reaction. Not helpful.]
I don’t mean bad like it spies on you. I don’t mean bad like it sells your info or shows you ads. It doesn’t do any of those things. It’s actually super fucking ethical, for a tech-stack, if I am even using the term tech stack correctly! I mean bad like it makes money off bad people as well as good people.
The people pounding this campaign think it’s very easy to leave Substack, and so if somebody doesn’t, you can help them understand the gravity of the situation by punishing them for someone else’s actions [yep, not good], a thing I believe we decided is also bad.
At the risk of SO BORING YOU, not everybody on Substack is a newsletter with a year’s worth of posts and a subscriber list, which would be easy to move to the elusive perfectly pure and moral capitalist tech company that definitely exists. [Good use of sarcasm.]
Some people on Substack (ME! I AM TALKING ABOUT ME!) are literally 20-(almost 21!)-year-old websites with millions of posts, hundreds of authors, and it isn’t in fact as easy as “just call Ghost which by the way also has fascists.”
[…] Last time we moved platforms (before Substack), it cost me $40,000 to have our new website built. If I had a spare $40,000 lying around, I would hire half a new writer! (We just finally hired Marcie full-time this month! But there’s another spiffy lady I’ve got my eye on, and I’m hoping to be Mr. Big Spender again soon!) Substack built our website for free in about six months. Again, before that and after the previous forty-thousand-dollar adventure, we hired developers who took a year and still didn’t have a website for us but at least with that one we got our money back.
It’s not just fucking “easy.”
Literally right now, people are encouraging other people to stop supporting left/liberal independent media — NOW! when the regular media is FUCKING BROKEN and we need every left of center voice we can fucking get — because it exists in a society in which bad people with shitty opinions also exist. [Correct, unfortunately.]
And today I’ve got dozens — dozens! — of people cancelling their Wonkette subscriptions so they won’t have to get dirty giving 10 percent of their monthly subscription money of $8 or $10 (or more!) to the bad tech bros who take that 10 percent to host us, keep the site up and secure from hackers and attacks, genially and patiently answer your support questions when you can’t log in, and share our content to new readers — some of whom might before have had shitty opinions about trans people and other living things, and might even begin to rethink them!
Might as well cancel Wonkette because we pay taxes to the US government which also does war and live in American which just elected Donald Trump to put all the liberal media in jail. Oh wait, THAT’S ME TOO. Well fuck!
I am so fucking angry right now I almost can’t breathe. What stupid purity-politics shooting ourselves in the face BULLSHIT. [I agree.]
Wonkette is hosted on Substack. We’re not leaving anytime soon, but more importantly I’m not even conflicted about it. If you want to cancel, you don’t owe us anything, and you are certainly allowed. I won’t even write you a nastygram like I did to people this morning after I got their (well, his; the other people were collateral damage and I already apologized) hectoring and condescending messages about how they just can’t support us but they’ll be happy to when I just do this very simple thing that they know FUCK ALL ABOUT FUCK.
Anyhoo! I think that’s out of my system.
Also, here is an alternate way to pay us, one-time or monthly and in any amount of your choosing, and guess what they’re bad too. But they take a smaller cut anyway. [Button available at the link.]
LOL I feel better now, for real, love you, we’ll all be fine, sorry again to the people I yelled at this morning, bye.
The wrong kind of purity purge.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Neil Degrasse Tyson & The Trans Athlete Issue”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xNRmNF55320
Sabine Hossenfelder reacts against the hate directed at Neil DeGrasse Tyson and trans athletes.
The part in question is called Honda Rodent Tape and it’s been designed to try and stop animals like rats and mice from chewing through all the electrical wires in your car. To do this, the adhesive on the tape has been treated with capsaicin, which is one of the active components that gives chili peppers their spice…
birgerjohanssonsays
Non-Merican here.
Can someone explain just what Musk and Trump will gain by having a government shutdown???
A drone and firework show in China went disastrously wrong when around 2,000 of the quad-copters went haywire and started falling from the sky, reports Australia’s ABC News. The show in the mainland city of Quanzhou was hosted by artist Cai Guo-Qiang and was supposed to show off the history, culture and women of the region.
To do this, Guo-Qiang paired a fleet of thousands of flying drones with a firework display and lights, which attracted huge crowds to watch. Things got off to a promising start, but went off the rails when the wind started picking up.
Footage shared online of the show appears to show hundreds of the drones crashing into one another and falling to the ground. The falling drones splashed into lakes in the area and left craters in the dust when they hit the ground…
Two weeks ago, as speculation intensified about President Joe Biden protecting potential GOP targets with pre-emptive pardons, Republican Rep. Dan Meuser appeared on Newsmax and derided the discussion as “nonsense.” The Pennsylvanian quickly explained why such pardons would entirely unnecessary.
“Nobody’s going to be going after Liz Cheney,” Meuser said, referring to the former House Republican Conference chair who helped lead the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee. He made the comment in such a way as to suggest the very idea was absurd.
Two weeks later, as NBC News reported, one of Meuser’s colleagues declared that the FBI should investigate Cheney as a result of her work on the Jan. 6 panel: [See comment 268]
Before we dig in on this, let’s briefly review how we arrived at this unusually ludicrous point.
As 2023 got underway, and the new Republican majority in the House got to work, among the earliest priorities for the party was a new, GOP-friendly investigation into the Jan. 6 attack. The endeavor would be led by Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk, in his capacity as the chair of the House Administration’s subcommittee on oversight, who faced some awkward questions about a controversial Capitol tour the day before the riot.
After launching his own Jan. 6 probe, among the Georgia Republican’s first steps was exonerating himself.
In the months that followed, Loudermilk said he intended to determine “what really happened” on Jan. 6, indifferent to the fact that we already know what really happened.
This seemed to come to a head nine months ago, when Loudermilk released his findings, and it landed with a thud: The GOP congressman and his oversight subcommittee colleagues made a handful of underwhelming claims, and by any fair measure, there was no there there.
Those same House Republicans nevertheless kept going — and this week concluded that Cheney “likely” broke “numerous” laws.
That is not a claim to be taken seriously. The Washington Post published an analysis that explained why the allegations “are even thinner than you think” — and they’re largely a rehash of unimportant information that we already knew. [See comment 268]
And yet, Donald Trump nevertheless seized on Loudermilk’s findings, celebrated the Georgian’s report, and declared by way of his social media platform that Cheney “could be in a lot of trouble.” The online missive came on the heels of Trump’s appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in which the president-elect said Cheney and her colleagues on the Jan. 6 panel “should go to jail.”
And that’s ultimately what makes this story so notable. […] We’ll soon have a new president hellbent on retaliating against his perceived enemies, and the former Wyoming congresswoman is a foe Trump seems to enjoy hating. This is the same president-elect, of course, who not only spent his first term trying to weaponize federal law enforcement, but who also intends to put sycophantic partisans in charge of the Justice Department and the FBI.
The New York Times published a related analysis following Loudermilk’s claims, adding, “For years, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made it known that people he believes to be his enemies should be prosecuted. This week, his allies in Congress laid out a template for how to go after one of them in particular: Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming representative who has been a focus of Mr. Trump’s anger.”
So much for “nobody’s going to be going after Liz Cheney.”
For her part, the former House GOP Conference chair responded to the allegations in a statement that said Loudermilk’s report “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did.” Cheney added, “Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.”
As for Hutchinson, her lawyer, William H. Jordan, said in a statement that the allegations that Hutchinson colluded with Cheney “are preposterous.”
He’s right, though it’s an open question whether that would matter to Trump-aligned law enforcement officials in 2025.
birger @277, I don’t really know how to answer that question. What Republicans are doing does not really make sense. However, to the base of rightwing whackos just looking for Trump and Elon Musk to juice them up with more transgressive actions, or with more “own the libs” bluster, it feels good.
Also, I think there is a not-insignificant amount of ignorance at play here. Musk does not know how to govern. He does know how to make oligarchical pronouncements. Trump knows how to make dictatorial pronouncements (and he reminds depressingly ignorant as well). Both men as just into dominance. Doesn’t matter who gets hurt.
House Democratic leaders strongly criticized Republicans on Thursday for falling in line with billionaire Elon Musk’s demand to scrap legislation that will fund the federal government. […] [video at the link]
“That bipartisan agreement has now been detonated because House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt the very working-class Americans that many of them pretend to want to help,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a press conference. […]
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark castigated Republicans for how their actions will affect middle-class families and business owners. [video at the link]
“What’s really hard is you are already struggling to pay your bills, and all of a sudden the aid for your small business that you thought was coming is going to not come because Elon Musk and Donald Trump decided to inject this chaos and hardship into your life,” Clark said.
Even as Democrats slam Musk and Trump for their disruptive actions, members of the Republican caucus are voicing support for the South African multibillionaire and chaos agent.
During an interview on Fox Business, Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky was asked if Musk is exerting undue influence over Congress from his unelected position. [video at the link] “[…] I think this is exactly what the American people voted for.” […]
Posted by readers of the article:
The motherfuckers are destroying the government before they even take office. That is their entire goal. Without government the very rich are literally all powerful. [my emphasis]
Furthermore because of the way they are doing it technically it is happening under the Biden administration so they can justify whatever radical actions they want under the guise of “Dealing with the crisis they inherited”.
—————————–
House Democrats are appropriately refusing to reward the MAGA caucus’s reneging on an agreed-upon funding bill by providing the votes needed to stave off a government shutdown. It’s true that many of us, especially federal workers and those of us who depend on government assistance (including disaster relief) may suffer to some degree. But the resulting public firestorm against the political nihilists in charge of the House will likely dissuade them from pulling this stunt again. It will also enhance the Dems’ chances to flip both Houses of Congress in 2026.
To quote the late Napoleon Bonaparte, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
—————————–
For those who voted for Harris and other Democrats that will be adversely affected by a government shutdown (eg., some Federal Employees), I feel real sympathy. You didn’t ask for, nor do you deserve the personal hardship you will suffer during a shutdown.
For those who wanted to blow up the government and voted for Trump and other Republicans, and who now are surprised to find themselves within the blast zone, all I have for you is FAFO!
It is hard to match the reach that Musk has on Xitter. That’s another potent aspect of this anti-reality world in which Trump cult followers live.
[…] Trump on Thursday backed a new spending deal brokered by House Republicans to avert a shutdown after an initial proposal was torpedoed amid opposition from Trump and several of his allies.
The plan now includes a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling in what became an unexpected sticking point by Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance in the negotiations in the last 24 hours.
“All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!“ Trump posted on Truth Social.
In a break from that package, however, language that would provide lawmakers with a pay raise was removed. The legislation also will not contain the E15 ethanol provision. It will, however, including $100 billion for disaster aid $10 billion in farmer economic assistance. […]
Okay. WTF? I’ll believe it when I see Republicans actually vote. The vote is scheduled for tonight.
[….] it remains unclear whether it will pass both chambers. Some House Republicans have balked at raising the debt ceiling, and Democrats hold a majority in the Senate.
Sounds to me like Trump had just the tiniest inkling of what shutting the government down would mean in terms of bad press for him, so he backed down.
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna, OM @ 280
Thank you.
I am beginning to think the only way to let voters see through this insane gang is to let the evil clowns do to USA what Boris Johnson and the tories did to Britain. It will be awful. It will cause permanent damage. But as one of Bertold Brecht’s characters said: “Night has 12 hours. And then comes the day.”
As his time in office winds down, President Joe Biden is taking a number of steps on climate that are likely to be ignored or reversed by the incoming Musk administration and its figurehead president, a man who used to host a game show.
But even if they don’t remain official policy, Biden’s moves also aren’t merely symbolic, either. They set markers for future action — not only by a saner post-MuskTrump federal government, assuming there is one, but also for states and for the rest of the world, where we hear several countries remain not entirely whackadoo. Plus, there’s the added benefit of at least potentially slowing the damage that can be done, since Donald Musk and his minions will at least need to formally reverse the decisions. Just this week, the Biden administration took these steps:
– Tuesday, the Energy Department issued a report finding that the US doesn’t need to boost exports of fossil gas, because (besides that the extra exports would severely impact the climate) our allies’ needs will be met by export terminals already approved or under construction, and because higher imports would make domestic energy prices go up sharply. The report could help with lawsuits against approving new export terminals that Trump wants.
– Wednesday, the EPA approved California’s proposal to set emissions rules that would ban the sale of new fossil-fueled vehicles starting in 2035. In his first term, Trump tried to eliminate California’s ability under the Clean Air Act to set stricter emissions requirements than the federal government, and he’ll doubtless reverse this rule as well. But again, it’ll need to go through the normal federal rulemaking process, which could take months and would be subject to lawsuits from California.
– Thursday, Biden announced that the US now has a more ambitious target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as part of its commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement. The country should now aim to cut total emissions by at least 61 percent of 2005 levels by 2035 (and ideally, by up to 66 percent), a far more aggressive target than the 50 to 52 percent reductions Biden pledged at the beginning of his administration.
Let’s keep in mind that several things can be true at once: For starters, the US isn’t currently on track to meet the earlier 50 percent goal by 2035, but if all of Biden’s climate policies were fully enacted — including a full 10 years of clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, EPA limits on emissions from vehicles power plants, and oil production — we would be well on the way. [Reflects serious work done by the Biden administration.]
[…] How badly Trump manages to bollix up the climate remains unknown; it’s why we have to fight every last rollback tooth and nail.
[…] The rest of the planet is still watching the US, and we need to start thinking now about where we’ll take the climate fight after Trump, assuming there’s still a US to set climate policies. By the time we return to sane climate policy, we’ll be in a deeper climate hole, though how deep depends on how successfully we resist the greedheads currently in power, starting right now.
@birgerjohansson 277
If I had to guess Trump and Elon have a mix of zero-sum game, needing to look tough, and believing at least some of their bullshit. Politics does require compromise in some places but maybe they also want to look tough now.
I have no idea if they know or care about how that affects people and rapidly becomes unpopular based on past occasions. Their cabinet picks are awful and we can expect slightly less awful at best and they’ll still whine about the “unfairness” or “unconstitutionalness” or whatever is designed to just get what they want.
Trump and Elon want to see total capitulation, from the Rs and government agencies (Elon pressuring Congress should get mockery at the least). They believe a shut down will make them look tough to the Rs as a group maybe. Opposing the Ds is already implied.
The final vote for the Republican spending bill was 174 to 235 with 1 lawmaker voting present. It failed to pass even a majority vote, but the bill required a two-thirds super majority.
At least 38 House Republicans joined Democrats in tanking the bill.
This is the sudden Republican attempt to appease the people pulling strings, not the bipartisan version worked out over several months. Even if the House had passed it, there is no guarantee the Senate nor President would approve it. I.e., it is a distraction.
A computer scientist has been found to have committed contempt of court for falsely and persistently claiming to be the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In March, the High Court ruled Craig Wright was not Satoshi, and ordered him to stop claiming he was.
However, he continued to launch legal cases asserting he had intellectual property rights to Bitcoin, including a claim he was owed $1.2 trillion (£911 billion).
A judge said that amounted to a “flagrant breach” of the original court order and sentenced him to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.
It means if Wright – who is from Australia but lives in the UK – continues to claim he invented the cryptocurrency he will face being jailed…
Bekenstein Boundsays
@birgerjohansson:
Non-Merican here.
Can someone explain just what Musk and Trump will gain by having a government shutdown???
Ego boosts.
I am beginning to think the only way to let voters see through this insane gang is to let the evil clowns do to USA what Boris Johnson and the tories did to Britain. It will be awful. It will cause permanent damage. But as one of Bertold Brecht’s characters said: “Night has 12 hours. And then comes the day.”
Bertold Brecht obviously never spent a winter in the high Arctic.
Time to bundle up and stockpile.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: birgerjohansson @275:
Sabine Hossenfelder reacts against the hate directed at Neil DeGrasse Tyson and trans athletes.
“whether transgender women should be allowed to compete with women”
Transphobic six seconds in.
Trans athletes don’t disproportionately win. There’s only a ginned up moral panic on occasions when they win at all—even for setting records by default in categories or regions lacking in competitors. Fairness is a non-problem. And even if they did have biological advantages, star athletes are lauded for being overwhelmingly more successful than peers… if they’re cis (a word conspicuously absent in transphobic coverage). The panic over “a male top athlete who decides he’d rather be a woman” (Sabine’s words) is the bathroom intruder propaganda rehashed.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Whatever shall we do about women competing with women in the women’s category? A woman might win. How unfair! Gosh, it’s all so complicated, we’d better scrap the whole category instead of accepting them as women, cuz that might facilitate *gasp* societal acceptance.
KGsays
birgejohansson@275,
Why the constant links to Sabine Hossenfelder? It’s not really a problem, as you identify them as such, so I know not to follow them – I’m just curious.
birgerjohanssonsays
Seth Meyers:
“Trump, Biden and Bernie React to Drone Hysteria, Mace Says It Could Be Aliens”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=55pyJLyycYk
“It is as the prophecy foretold; when the Apocalypse comes it will begin in New Jersey.
The book of Revelations: And I looked and I beheld a pale horse and the name that sat on it was Tony, the lazy fuck, he was on the garden state parkway near exit 114 and he said “whoa, what’s with all the friggin drones??”
Teenagers using Meta’s virtual reality headsets to cheat at the popular game Gorilla Tag are unknowingly selling access to their home internet connections to potential cybercriminals, cybersecurity researchers found. The players have been side-loading Big Mama VPN, a free Android app, onto their VR headsets to create lag that makes it easier to win the tag-based game. However, the app simultaneously operates as a residential proxy service, selling access to users’ IP addresses on a marketplace frequented by cybercriminals.
Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro discovered VR headsets were the third most common devices using Big Mama VPN, after Samsung and Xiaomi devices. The company’s proxy services have been promoted on cybercrime forums and were linked to at least one cyberattack, according to research from security firms Trend Micro and Kela.
Earlier this year, scientists stumbled upon a potential new treatment for hereditary-patterned baldness, the most common cause of hair loss in both men and women worldwide.
It all started with research on a sugar that naturally occurs in the body and helps form DNA: the ‘deoxyribose’ part of deoxyribonucleic acid.
While studying how these sugars heal the wounds of mice when applied topically, scientists at the University of Sheffield and COMSATS University in Pakistan noticed that the fur around the lesions was growing back faster than in untreated mice.
Intrigued, the team decided to investigate further.
In a study published in June, they took male mice with testosterone-driven hair loss and removed the fur from their backs. Each day, researchers smeared a small dose of deoxyribose sugar gel on the exposed skin, and within weeks, the fur in this region showed ‘robust’ regrowth, sprouting long, thick individual hairs.
The deoxyribose gel was so effective, the team found it worked just as well as minoxidil, a topical treatment for hair loss commonly known by the brand name Rogaine.
“Our research suggests that the answer to treating hair loss might be as simple as using a naturally occurring deoxyribose sugar to boost the blood supply to the hair follicles to encourage hair growth,” said tissue engineer Sheila MacNeil from the University of Sheffield…
Of all the rules in (American) football, Jim Harbaugh considers the obscure fair-catch kick to be his favorite.
The Los Angeles Chargers coach had the opportunity to try one Thursday night for only the second time in his career.
This time, his kicker got three points from one of the most unusual plays in the sport.
Cameron Dicker made the first successful fair-catch kick in the NFL since 1976, connecting from 57 yards right before halftime against the Denver Broncos…
The seldom-used rule allows a team that has just made a fair catch to try a free kick for three points. The kick is attempted from the line of scrimmage, and the defenders all must stand 10 yards away.
The play hardly ever happens because teams almost never find themselves in circumstances to make such a kick feasible. Only five NFL teams had previously tried the kick in the 21st century, and nobody had successfully executed it since Ray Wersching did it for the San Diego Chargers 48 years ago…
“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued.
When House Speaker Mike Johnson reached a bipartisan agreement to prevent a government shutdown, the Louisiana Republican signed off on a variety of measures to be included in the year-end bill. This wasn’t much of a surprise: Not only did he need to get Democratic support for the bill, but many lawmakers in both parties saw the spending package as their last opportunity to advance key priorities before the end of the Congress.
The day after the bill was unveiled, GOP officials abandoned the bipartisan deal and got to work on a Republican-only alternative. Not surprisingly, they omitted Democratic priorities that Johnson had already agreed to.
But it’s worth appreciating what that means in practical terms.
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein, an MSNBC contributor, took a closer look at the list of provisions “left in the dust heap,” and it was not short. Included among the GOP’s cuts were all kinds of consumer protections, a bill to curtail deepfake pornography, restrictions on outbound U.S. investment in China [that favors Elon Musk], and a bill to secure semiconductor supply chains.
But some of the most notable provisions struck from the Republicans’ bill related to medical research. Stein’s report specifically referenced funding, scrapped from the GOP package, that was supposed to go towards combatting pediatric cancer. From The Bulwark’s report:
The slimmed-down version was stripped of language that would have allowed children with relapsed cancer to undergo treatments with a combination of cancer drugs and therapies. … The bill also didn’t include an extension of a program that gave financial lifelines, in the form of vouchers, to small pharmaceutical companies working on rare pediatric diseases. It was also missing earlier provisions that would have allowed for kids on Medicaid or CHIP—that is, poor children—to access medically complex care across state lines.
If this wasn’t quite enough, Stein’s report added that there was also funding for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Program — named after a 10-year-old Virginia girl who died from an inoperable brain tumor in 2013 — that helped to fund pediatric cancer research. It used to enjoy bipartisan support, and since it was up for reauthorization this year, no one was especially surprised when it was included in the continuing resolution earlier this week, ensuring that the program would continue for another decade.
When Republicans took out their editing pens, however, the program was removed. Stein talked to Nancy Goodman, the founder and executive director of Kids v. Cancer, who called it “a completely heart-wrenching outcome.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a message published to Bluesky, “Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer. That is why our country is on the brink of a government shutdown.”
The New York Democrat concluded, “Welcome back to the MAGA swamp.”
[…] what often goes overlooked is that when it comes to events on Capitol Hill, the incoming president likes to bark orders, but GOP members don’t always follow them. That’s in part because Trump still has no idea how to persuade policymakers and in part because some lawmakers have ideological preferences that eclipse Trump’s demands.
This happens more often than some in the party like to admit, especially in the wake of Trump’s 2020 defeat. Earlier this year, for example, Congress weighed how and whether to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Trump intervened in the hopes of derailing the effort, directing Republicans to “KILL FISA” because of a misguided conspiracy theory.
Trump failed: Congress reauthorized FISA with ample support from GOP lawmakers who felt comfortable ignoring his orders.
A day later, as the Republican-led House prepared to take up U.S. security aid for Ukraine, Trump didn’t explicitly denounce the legislation, though he wasn’t especially subtle about his opposition. GOP leaders brought the bill to the floor anyway, and it passed with over 300 bipartisan votes.
These are not isolated incidents. Trump told House Republicans to elect Rep. Jim Jordan as House speaker, and that didn’t happen. Trump told Republicans to shut down the government in September 2023, and that didn’t happen. Trump told Republicans to use the debt ceiling to default on the country’s obligations, and that didn’t happen.
As regular readers might recall, Trump also told Senate Republicans to replace Mitch McConnell as the Senate minority leader, and they didn’t. Trump told Republicans to derail a bipartisan infrastructure package, and they didn’t. Trump seemed especially eager for GOP lawmakers to kill an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act, and they didn’t do that, either.
There’s a myth in some circles that Trump can call the shots and watch GOP lawmakers link arms and obediently follow his instructions.
In several notable instances, that’s just not the case.
We Are In the Dumbest Timeline
The GOP chaos on the Hill isn’t about policy disputes or even strictly ideological differences. That makes covering which version of which bill contains which provisions a bit of a fool’s errand. This isn’t about spending or budget priorities or the debt limit or any of the other ostensible negotiating points that Republicans themselves can’t agree on or resolve amongst themselves in any meaningful way.
[…] The only arm-twisting going on is the kind you see in pro wrestling, which is probably the best parallel for what the GOP’s performative politics amounts to. Spending bills, speakership elections, and other real and pressing matters of government put the GOP’s kayfabe under extreme duress. When that happens, we get eruptions like this one that periodically pull the curtain back on what is really up.
We’re more than a decade now into the GOP’s performative politics of destruction. It gains power by touting its aim to break stuff and then runs into a brick wall when it’s forced to make the hard choices that come with holding power. Any GOP effort to govern at least temporarily is susceptible to being undermined by its many bombthrowers, who can exert leverage by striking a purer “blow it all up” posture.
It’s why the details of the negotiations, such as they are, barely matter. It’s why what’s on or off the table isn’t very illuminating about the underlying politics. I’d call it a disaster for Republicans, but they’ve done this over and over for more than decade and not paid nearly the political price you’d expect.
Does This Really Convey What Is Happening?
[…] observe some of the headlines over the last day or two about the GOP chaos on the Hill. Do these really accurately describe what is happening, especially in a world in which the GOP has spent decades invested in making the broader public think government is inept, unreliable, and incompetent?
– WaPo: Government shutdown looms as House rejects GOP funding bill
– Politico: Shutdown blame game engulfs Capitol as hopes to avert shutdown fade
– WSJ: House Rejects GOP Plan Backed by Trump as Government Barrels Toward Shutdown
– NYT: Government Lurches Toward Shutdown After House Tanks Trump’s Spending Plan
Those are literally true, but they fail to capture the true dynamic. Not all headlines were this opaque, and other stories from the same outlets had sharper headlines that reflected what is actually happening. The worst of all though was this laugher: “Biden is AWOL as Washington spirals into shutdown chaos”
Trump Insists He’s Still BMOC
Elon Musk’s outsized role in bullying the House GOP into abandoning the bipartisan deal on CR had Trump scrambling Thursday to assert that he’s still in charge. Trump himself did hastily scheduled phone interviews with reporters at ABC, CBS and NBC. The pushback was not subtle […]
Trump’s own spokesperson issued a clunky statement that belied Trump’s strength: “As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.” […]
Republicans cannot decide who to blame for the government shutdown they may soon cause.
The Democratic-controlled Senate and the GOP-run House had a deal to fund the government for the next three months. The spending bill included disaster relief and farm assistance, and allocated funding to things like childhood cancer research, 9/11 first responders, and money for early detection for cervical and breast cancer, among other things.
But just as the bill was set to come up for a vote in the House, […] Elon Musk jettisoned the legislation with lies about what the bill does and threats to spend money in primaries against Republicans who voted for it.
Trump, seeing that Musk is now in control of the Republican Party, got mad and took credit for blowing up the deal himself, claiming he gave Musk permission to trash the funding agreement […]
But when it became clear that the media and anyone with eyeballs and a brain know that it will be Republicans’ fault if the government shuts down—thereby likely forcing military members and other essential personnel to go unpaid over Christmas—Republicans are now pointing fingers in all directions and trying to shirk responsibility for the colossal mess they could soon create.
On Friday morning, hours before the possible shutdown, Trump said it would be President Joe Biden’s fault—even though it is Trump who helped blow up the deal. […] “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”
His comment is akin to an arsonist standing in front of a burning building with a box of matches in hand while pointing at a bystander and blaming them for the blaze. […]
Similarly, Musk, who started this whole idiotic brouhaha, is blaming Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries, even though Jeffries had made a deal and it was Republicans who reneged at the 11th hour.
“Objectively, the vast majority of Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did,” Musk wrote on X, referring to the plan-B bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson put up for a vote but that failed because 38 Republicans voted against it. “Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of [Jeffries] and the Democratic Party. Plain & simple.”
Vice President-elect JD Vance also made a ridiculous comment on Thursday, telling reporters on Capitol Hill that Democrats “asked for a shutdown and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to get”—even though, again, Democrats had a deal to fund the government and Republicans blew it up. […]
the media doesn’t appear to be falling for the Trump-Musk spin.
“The world’s richest man [is] right now holding the country hostage,” CNN’s Erin Burnett said Thursday night on her show. “It’s all him calling the shots, it seems.” […]
Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the bill after Donald Trump followed Musk’s lead and opposed the legislation.
Trump backed a new, pared down spending bill that ultimately failed to pass on Thursday, leading to humiliation for Republicans who are now in disarray despite a majority.
The new bill created at the behest of the richest man in the world (Musk is worth over $439 billion) is notable for the cuts it makes to funding and programs meant to help millions of working-class Americans.
Perhaps most startling is the decision by Republican lawmakers to scrap a bipartisan provision that extended funding for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Program. The program, created in memory of a 10-year-old girl who died from a brain tumor, funds research on treatment for pediatric cancer.
Nancy Goodman, founder and executive director of Kids v. Cancer told The Bulwark, “How can it be that our society is not thinking about the most vulnerable children and doing everything they can to help them? How can we cut this out in the name of efficiency? How does that make sense?”
The Musk-focused bill also cuts funding meant to extend the World Trade Center Health Program, which assists 9/11 first responders and survivors.
“’Never forget’ aren’t just words in New York. They’re a promise. One the @HouseGOP broke tonight when they cut health care for 9/11 first responders from the government funding bill,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote. “Get back into the Capitol and do. Your. Job.”
The revised bill also cut several other provisions that were in the first bill, including a program for research on Down syndrome, funding for detection of breast and cervical cancer, funds for research on sickle cell disease, and provisions meant to combat deepfake porn.
The legislation also removed funding to combat opioid abuse and regulation meant to put guardrails on the pharmacy benefit manager industry—giving a win to companies like UnitedHealth Group.
[…] House Republican leadership is set to propose a third bill on Friday to avoid a government shutdown at midnight. Johnson has said he has a plan C and a vote will happen Friday morning, but with Musk watching, the outcome is anyone’s guess.
Lynna, OM @ 304
At this point… yes, a shutdown will be very destructive. But with the current evil clown posse, passing a bill just lets them do more harm spread out over a longer period.
.
A government shutdown will hurt their popularity (and re-election chances) so much that a few of the spineless @#%* will finally begin to reconsider being the catamites for Trump and Musk.
With the narrow majority, just a couple will be enough to block Maga Mike.
In a stark acknowledgment of the increasing seriousness of bird flu’s spread, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared on Wednesday that the outbreak of infections among the state’s dairy cattle constituted an emergency. The announcement followed news earlier in the day that an individual in Louisiana had been hospitalized with bird flu, the first infected American to become severely ill.
Consumers are one step closer to saying goodbye to more hidden junk fees for good. The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it had finalized a rule that requires businesses to disclose the total price, including fees, for any live event tickets or short-term lodging they offer consumers. The ruling is meant to prevent bait-and-switch pricing that omits mandatory fees and additional charges from advertised prices, which the agency called “deceptive.”
[…] It’s a record that got clouded by Kyrsten Sinema’s repeated breaks with her former party. She voted just last week to block President Joe Biden’s reappointment of a top labor board nominee and shrugged off the resulting criticism from the left in typical fashion: “Don’t give a shit.” […]
Right-wing media outlets are downplaying the devastating effects of government shutdowns, despite the massive negative impact previous shutdowns have made on the U.S. economy. […]
[video at the link]
“I think it’s a misnomer that a government shutdown is the worst thing in the world. We survived a 30-plus day shut down in 2019,” Hannity said during his broadcast on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, Fox anchor Bret Baier echoed the sentiment, noting, “if you get a government shutdown, there’s a lot of people in America that say, ‘You know, it’s okay, isn’t it, for a couple days?’” [video at the link]
On Newsmax, host Greg Kelly specifically advocated for a shutdown.
“Go ahead and shut it down. What’s the big deal? They talk about it like it would be the Armageddon. Shut it down. The government shuts down every weekend. No problem. Shut it down,” Kelly said.
His fellow Newsmax host Chris Plante said, “I love a good government shutdown. I always enjoy a government shutdown no matter the time of year, but Christmas makes it especially nice, I think.”
The pro-Trump media outlets share the same sentiment as Donald Trump himself, who wrote on his social media account, “If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP.’”
[…] There were two government shutdowns under Trump in his first term, including the longest one in American history lasting for 35 days. The Congressional Budget Office later assessed the damage the shutdown that spanned from December 2018 to January 2019 caused and estimated that it reduced the GDP of the U.S. by $3 billion.
Not only did the shutdown cause a financial hit, but “nonessential” services like the National Parks were closed. Those closures led to massive pileups of garbage and feces at some of the premiere attractions that have been a point of pride for American culture.
Shutdowns lead to furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers who do not receive paychecks until the shutdown is resolved. Workers at the TSA are required to work without pay, and in the past they have called in sick—leading to travel delays.
Republicans may ultimately find a way to avoid a shutdown—if they can please “co-presidents” Trump and Musk—but Republicans will continue to operate with extremely narrow margins in Congress that they must please. Defections can lead to similar legislation being stalled and may trigger future shutdowns, which despite the protests of right-wing media, are in fact a “big deal.”
whheydtsays
Re: birgerjohansson @ #305…
Unfortunately…it probably won’t hurt re-election chances very much. The American electorate seems to have a memory that runs no longer than a couple of months.
Elon Musk is backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), triggering an outcry in Berlin in the run-up to a critical snap election.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” the billionaire X owner wrote on the platform on Friday in the latest of a series of endorsements of European far-right parties.
Musk has recently supported European populist-right politicians in increasingly clear terms, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Earlier this week, Farage boasted that Musk is “right behind” him — and raised the prospect that the tech tycoon would financially back his Reform UK party.
[…] Friedrich Merz, the conservative candidate leading the race to become next chancellor, has portrayed himself as leader who’d be able to make “deals” with Trump despite European fears the president elect will start a trade war and withdraw American military support for Ukraine.
AfD leaders, of course, were pleased by Musk’s endorsement.
“Yes! You are perfectly right!” Alice Weidel, the AfD’s chancellor candidate, posted on X shortly after Musk’s missive. Weidel then plugged a recent interview she gave on, as she put it, how “socialist [Angela] Merkel ruined our country” and how “the Soviet European Union” was destroying Germany.
Among mainstream political leaders in Germany, however, the post prompted a backlash.
[…] The AfD is surging despite its growing radicalism and persistent warnings from mainstream leaders that it is an extremist, even Nazi, party. Growing support for the far right comes despite state-level domestic intelligence authorities classifying some local branches of the party as extremist organizations aiming to undermine German democracy.
Musk lent his support to the AfD while reposting a video by Naomi Seibt, a German right-wing influencer known for her closeness to the AfD and for denying climate change caused by humans. German media have dubbed her the “anti-Greta,” in reference to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and in the video reposted by Musk, she described the German Greens’ environmental policies as “eco-socialist national suicide.”
[…] Musk, a U.S. citizen — who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect Trump — is considering donating up to $100 million to support Farage’s right-wing party in the U.K., according to media reports.
He wouldn’t be able to support the AfD in the same way. Non-EU foreigners are only allowed to donate up to a maximum of €1,000, according to German law.
Louisiana’s health department has been barred from advertising or promoting vaccines for flu, COVID-19, and mpox, according to reporting by NPR, KFF Health News, and New Orleans Public Radio WWNO.
Their investigative report—based on interviews with multiple health department employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation—revealed that employees were told of the startling policy change in meetings in October and November and that the policy would be implemented quietly and not put into writing…
There are “clear signs of ethnic cleansing” by Israel as it wages war in Gaza, according to a new report from Doctors Without Borders, which became the second group in a week to condemn the country’s conduct in the besieged enclave.
“Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” the aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in the report published Thursday.
“In the north of the Strip in particular, the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area,” it said.
“While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment — are undeniable,” it added.
NBC News has asked the Israel Defense forces for comment on the report. It has strongly rejected accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the past, while insisting that it does everything possible to limit the loss of human life.
Human Rights Watch, in a separate report also released Thursday, accused Israeli authorities of intentionally depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation.
“Water is essential for human life, yet for over a year the Israeli government has deliberately denied Palestinians in Gaza the bare minimum they need to survive,” Tirana Hassan, the group’s executive director, said in a statement released alongside the report, “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water.”
“This isn’t just negligence; it is a calculated policy of deprivation that has led to the deaths of thousands,” she added.
An IDF spokesperson said that it “firmly rejects allegations asserting it has deliberately targeted water infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,” adding that its strikes in Gaza are carried out in accordance with international law and with “all feasible efforts … taken to mitigate harm to civilians.”
The spokesperson added that the military was working to reactivate a desalination plant in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, among other projects that include repairing damaged pipes.
But the reports add to a chorus of criticism from aid and rights groups. Amnesty International became the first major nonprofit group to accuse Israel of acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip in a report this month, echoing similar claims from numerous United Nations agencies.
[…] “Certainly in part of the Gaza Strip in the north, I would concur with the observation that the intent there is no longer to fight Hamas because there isn’t much resistance left anyway, but it’s the intent of ethnic cleansing and depriving the local population of their livelihood, which is water, electricity, which then has an effect of intentionally killing people,” Krieg said.
The Israeli military has insisted that it does everything possible to limit the loss of human life. But many of its actions in Gaza would be “permissible, acceptable under any circumstance within a Western military,” Krieg told NBC News Friday, adding that it was important to make the legal distinction between genocide and acts of genocide.
“We always think about genocide being some sort of coherent strategy, like in Rwanda, for example, where the government was clearly giving permission to people to kill a particular group of people, and then it’s orchestrated more or less with central supervision,” he said. “That’s obviously not the case here, but the fact is that the IDF has been given an extremely permissive environment.”
The president of a Michigan-based manufacturer was stabbed by one of the company’s employees during a staff meeting, police said.
Nathan Joseph Mahoney, 31, has been charged with assault with intent to murder and fleeing and eluding a police officer in connection to the stabbing of Erik Denslow, the president of Anderson Express Inc., according to the Fruitport Township Police Department and Michigan court records…
More than 10 years after its disappearance, the search is set to resume for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Malaysia Minister of Transport Anthony Loke announced on Friday that Malaysia has agreed to resume its search for wreckage of the missing flight, multiple outlets including Reuters reported…
Malaysia will work with robotics company Ocean Infinity for the search. Ocean Infinity, based in Austin, Texas and the United Kingdom, last searched for the plane’s wreckage in 2018. If the partnership transpires, a contract would cover an 18-month period and Ocean Infinity would be paid $70 million, only if substantial wreckage was found, Reuters reported…
“There is a lot of anger,” one local activist said. “It’s much larger than the issue of rape. It’s a question of listening to what women have to say.”
When France’s landmark mass rape trial began Sept. 2, the woman at its center appeared to shrink as she arrived at the stark courthouse in Avignon, her face hidden behind dark sunglasses and surrounded by a cordon of lawyers and loved ones.
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, eventually found her voice, bringing into the light not only the inconceivable abuse orchestrated by her husband, who was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years for drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious, but a culture that many activists have called sexist, tolerant of violence toward women and resistant to change.
Another 46 other men were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault. They ranged in age from 26 to 74 and were handed sentences from three to 13 years.
Many here say France will never be the same. How could it be, they ask, after so many supposedly ordinary men — among them a firefighter, a nurse, a journalist and a retired sports coach — were recorded committing unspeakable acts on a snoring grandmother.
“It brings us back to the idea of who we are as a society, for normal men to commit acts that are totally transgressive and criminal,” said feminist, lawyer and author Anne Bouillon. With domestic violence complaints in France doubling since 2016, she said, the Pelicot case highlights the fact that women are most at risk at home, threatened by partners.
For Blandine Deverlanges, a high school teacher and founder of the feminist group Les Amazones d’Avignon and a steady presence at the courthouse, the case has tapped a vein.
“There is a lot of anger,” she said. “It’s much larger than the issue of rape. It’s a question of listening to what women have to say.”
[…] France has a history of defending bold-faced men who act badly, such as exiled film director Roman Polanski. Famous French women like the actress Catherine Deneuve didn’t help the cause by signing a letter that denounced sexual “puritanism” and defended men’s “freedom to pester” women.
But women say the climate feels different this time. Last week, in another closely watched trial seen as France’s first major #MeToo case, Christophe Ruggia, a little-known film director, was charged with isolating and repeatedly sexually assaulting rising star Adèle Haenel, beginning when she was 12 and he was 36. Haenel, now 35, eventually left the industry and denounced adults who failed to help her. He denies the charges; a verdict is expected in February.
[…] a society in which 75% of women say they are not treated equally, according to a 2024 government study.
[…] Last year, 230,000 women reported they had been victims of sexual violence.
[…] Much of the discussion has focused on the wording of France’s rape law, which some feminist lawyers say is vague, particularly in cases in which a victim is intoxicated or, like Pelicot, subjected to being drugged, known as “chemical submission.”
Dominique Pelicot has admitted crushing large doses of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication into his wife’s food and drink. She would discover the truth only in November 2020, weeks after police arrested her husband after he was caught recording up the skirts of women in a supermarket.
Rape is defined under French law as an “act of sexual penetration” committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” Defense lawyers have insisted that their clients did not intend to commit rape because Dominique Pelicot invited them into the family home, and gave them careful instructions on what he wanted them to do to his wife.
“This is not American law. In France, you don’t need to have obtained the victim’s consent necessarily to ensure that it’s not rape,” said lawyer Guillaume de Palma, who represents several of the defendants.
[…] Opposing camps do agree on one point: France must overhaul a system that makes it difficult to report sexual violence. From making a police report to following up with a timely medical exam, they agree that it is often a luck of the draw whether a police officer will follow proper procedure or a hospital or an emergency room nurse will agree to take essential DNA samples.
Aurore Hendrickx, 26, a Paris event planner, said she has a few friends who have been sexually assaulted and tried without success to file reports with the police.
[…] If police give victims the brush-off, it is often no better at hospitals, where traumatized women are often turned away, advocates say.
Filmmaker Linda Bendali, who has researched cases of chemical submission — sometimes called date rape — said a friend’s 23-year-old daughter woke up naked in a strange man’s bed last March with no idea how she got there. Her last memory was sipping a drink in a Paris bar.
“I called the hospital and told them they could see her now. They said, ‘No, come back tomorrow,’” Bendali said, fuming, adding that she “pushed hard” to demand they take timely blood and hair samples, essential to prove whether the victim had ingested drugs.
[…] Only 6% of rape complaints are investigated in France. After that, a trial is conducted behind closed doors — a process that feminist historian Christelle Taraud called “truly horrible for the victim,” who is often treated badly by the defense lawyers, with no public accountability.
Taraud called it an “electric shock” when a judge reluctantly approved Pelicot’s demand to keep her trial open, even when intimate videos of her were aired. Finally, Taraud said, the public got to hear and see evidence of the horrific violence inflicted on Pelicot, whose show of strength has made her an international icon.
[…] In testimony that left many spectators speechless, some of the men appeared to be acting out porn film fantasies. […]
The defendants […] told the five-judge panel that they believed the prone woman was a willing participant. Though her lolling head would seem to indicate otherwise, they called the petite woman, often dressed in lingerie, a swinger acting out a “Sleeping Beauty” fantasy.
[…] In her final statement to the court, Pelicot made it clear that she is hoping her humiliation won’t be in vain.
“It’s time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivializes rape changes,” she said.
[…] In a phenomenon that must be deeply satisfying to the woman who wanted “shame to change sides,” activists say women who hadn’t dared speak about domestic violence and sexual assault credit Pelicot with giving them courage to share their stories. […]
Federal officials say they’re worried about sharing documents via email with Donald Trump’s transition team because the incoming officials are eschewing government devices, email addresses and cybersecurity support, raising fears that they could potentially expose sensitive government data. The private emails have agency employees considering insisting on in-person meetings and document exchanges that they otherwise would have conducted electronically, according to two federal officials granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. Their anxiety is particularly high in light of recent hacking attempts from China and Iran that targeted Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and other top officials. […]
Commentary:
[…] Michael Daniel, a former White House cyber coordinator who now leads the nonprofit online security organization Cyber Threat Alliance, told Politico, “I can assure you that the transition teams are targets for foreign intelligence collection. There are a lot of countries out there that want to know: What are the policy plans for the incoming administration?”
You probably know what I’m going to write next. I’m going to write it anyway.
Younger readers might not fully appreciate the degree to which the 2016 presidential election focused on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email protocols. Voters were told in no uncertain terms that this was one of the defining political issues of our time.
As Election Day 2016 approached, and the United States faced the prospect of having a television personality elected to the nation’s highest office, “email” was the one thing voters heard most about the more capable and more qualified candidate.
The fact that Clinton did not rely entirely on her state.gov address, the electorate was told, was evidence of her recklessness. She put the United States at risk, the argument went, by mishandling classified materials. For some, it might even have been literally criminal — culminating in “Lock her up” chants at Trump rallies.
During the presidential campaign, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan went so far as to formally request that Clinton be denied intelligence briefings — insisting that her email practices were proof that she mishandled classified information and therefore couldn’t be trusted.
When various observers — including me — said this was an outrageously foolish controversy, we received pushback from those who argued with great sincerity that this deserved to be an issue that dictated the outcome of one of the most important national elections in modern history.
Clinton, of course, narrowly lost to Trump, who was later credibly accused by federal prosecutors of improperly taking classified materials to his glorified country club in Florida, before relying on the kind of private email servers that sparked anti-Clinton hysteria eight years ago.
[…] It’s not that Trump and his party have changed their minds about the importance of email security and the hazards associated with eschewing official government accounts. The truth is simpler: They never actually cared about Clinton’s tech practices in the first place.
It was simply a convenient line of attack, which has since outlived its usefulness.
[…] The 2025 session of the Idaho Legislature begins in just 16 days, and the old saying is as true as ever: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” […]
Several Idaho legislators are planning to propose a bill that would entirely eliminate Idaho’s Medicaid Expansion—a program established after Reclaim Idaho spearheaded a successful ballot-initiative campaign in 2018. Elimination of Medicaid Expansion would strip healthcare coverage from 85,000 Idahoans.*
Meanwhile, 2025 threatens to be the year when the Idaho Legislature finally enacts a school voucher program. Without a doubt, legislators will attempt to present “compromise” voucher proposals in the form of “tax credits,” “education savings accounts,” etc. But we know very well from the experiences of other states that all voucher programs have the same disastrous impacts: they are fiscally reckless, harmful to students, and a drain on the budgets of public schools everywhere—especially in rural communities.**
Finally, special interest groups and their allies in the legislature are plotting an attack on Idaho’s ballot-initiative process. Last month, the President of the Idaho Freedom Foundation issued a call to action to the Idaho Legislature, demanding that legislators “reform or eliminate this phony initiative process.”
Of course, there’s nothing “phony” about the right of Idaho citizens to participate in lawmaking through the initiative process. In the landmark case Reclaim Idaho v. Denney, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the ballot initiative is a “fundamental right” of every Idaho voter. […]
“Elon Musk and SpaceX are being investigated by three U.S. military departments for allegedly failing to disclose meetings with foreign leaders. The reviews highlight concerns over Musk’s security protocol adherence, crucial for SpaceX’s role in U.S. military operations.”
Elon Musk and SpaceX are currently under scrutiny by three US military departments, as reported by The New York Times. The investigations focus on Musk and SpaceX’s alleged failure to disclose meetings with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, since 2021.
The reviews were initiated by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Air Force, and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. Concerns have been raised over Musk’s adherence to security protocols, as he holds top-security clearance at SpaceX, granting him access to classified U.S. military information. He is required to disclose details regarding his personal life, travel plans, and certain behaviours.
Some SpaceX employees allege that Musk and his company have repeatedly failed to comply with these reporting rules, such as not providing full itineraries of meetings with foreign leaders and possibly omitting mandatory disclosures about personal habits, including drug use. The Air Force reportedly denied Musk a higher level of security clearance due to potential risks linked to his handling of classified information.
The concerns are not limited to the U.S. Nine other countries, including some in Europe and the Middle East, have also expressed apprehensions about Musk’s involvement in meetings with U.S. defence officials over the past three years. These nations are reportedly concerned about his ability to protect sensitive information.
Some SpaceX employees aware of the alleged non-compliance voiced their concerns to The New York Times and criticised Musk’s openness about sensitive meetings on his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter). However, many hesitated to report these issues through official channels due to fear of professional retaliation.
The allegations come at a time when SpaceX plays a crucial role in US military operations, including satellite deployments and missile defence projects. Any lapses in security protocols could pose serious risks both domestically and internationally. The investigations are ongoing, and neither Musk nor SpaceX has commented publicly on the matter.
And right now Elon Musk wants to shut down the government that is investigating him.
Akira MacKenziesays
@319
“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
I would point out to the author that the anti-government attitudes within that quote is why we are in the shit we are in now.
U.S. prosecutors in New Jersey on Friday publicly announced charges against Rostislav Panev, 51, a dual Russian-Israeli national accused of being a key developer in the LockBit ransomware gang. Panev is currently in Israeli custody and faces extradition to the United States.
LockBit is one of the most prolific ransomware gangs, accused of launching crippling data-stealing cyberattacks at thousands of companies around the world, including the U.S., and thought to be responsible for at least $500 million in ransom payments alone. Authorities identified and seized LockBit’s infrastructure in a February takedown operation, but LockBit briefly bounced back as its leader, named by U.K. and U.S. authorities as Dmitry Khoroshev, remains at large…
“How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.”
Everyone needs to eat somewhere, and in New York City that place is often a restaurant. New York is a city of long hours, tiny kitchens, cramped apartments—and dining out, a lot. […]
The majority of diners log on to a restaurant’s Web site at 10:59 a.m., two weeks before they want to eat out, then wait, click, and pray. Pete Wells, who gave Sailor a three-star review in the Times, wrote that although the bar and two booths in front are set aside for walk-ins, reservations “disappear within minutes of being offered.” Locals are politely quoted a three-hour wait. […]
To sidestep the reservation scrum, particularly at a hundred and fifty of the city’s buzziest restaurants, a new squad of businesses, tech impresarios, and digital legmen has sprung up, offering to help diners cut through the reservation red tape, for a price. In the new world order, desirable reservations are like currency; booking confirmations for 4 Charles Prime Rib, a clubby West Village steakhouse, have recently been spotted on Hinge and Tinder profiles.
A certain kind of fat cat has always had someone else—a secretary, a concierge, the butler—make reservations. For regular people, though, booking a table at all but the most exclusive restaurants—Le Pavillon in the fifties, the Four Seasons in the sixties, Sign of the Dove in the seventies, Le Cirque in the eighties, Per Se in the two-thousands—required only a telephone.
“My whole career, that’s what you did,” Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, who worked as a maître d’ in the eighties and nineties, told me. Reservationists were trained to pick up the phone within three rings; they’d write the name in a log, underlining V.I.P.s twice. “And you damn well knew every customer,” he said. If a regular or a celebrity showed up without a reservation, Cecchi-Azzolina usually squeezed them in. […]
In 2024, plenty of diners are willing to part with six hundred bucks for a table, too, but they are likely paying it to a stranger, via an app.
Ben Leventhal, who co-founded the reservation site Resy, in 2014, agreed to meet me for dinner to fill me in on the new restaurant-booking landscape. […] Earlier, he’d told me, “The average diner in New York City is massively disadvantaged, and they don’t even know it. It’s as if they’re bringing a knife to a gunfight.” He’d suggested we meet at Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bar, on East Fifty-fifth Street—one of the most sought-after tables in town. (He booked it.) I found him, wearing a trim blue suit and sitting at a table by a fireplace in the equestrian-themed bar. (You also need a reservation to get a drink; I watched as a hostess in a camel-hair coat gently turned away a well-dressed couple who looked unaccustomed to being disappointed.) Leventhal ordered a tequila and jumped right in, “mapping the reservations ecosystem,” as he called it, on a cocktail napkin.
His list of possible approaches went like this: phone call, e-mail, Instagram D.M., in-person (“Before you leave a place, you could make another reservation. It’s a great way to get one”), texting someone you know (the maître d’, a chef, even servers and line cooks), hotel concierges (some residential buildings—432 Park Avenue, 15 Hudson Yards—have their own), élite credit-card partners (“Chase has tables, Amex has tables”), membership reservation clubs like Dorsia, new apps (TableOne claims to show every available publicly listed reservation at the most in-demand restaurants, in real time), secondary marketplaces (in the manner of ticket scalpers, Web sites like Cita Marketplace and Appointment Trader will sell you a reservation, often procured by a bot, usually made in someone else’s name), the restaurant’s Web site, and online-reservation systems (OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Yelp). Leventhal described this last category, by far the most common way to book a table, as “the land of democracy, the land of first come, first served.” Then he smirked and said, “In theory.”
[…] Downstairs in the dining room, the maître d’, Nelly Moudime, greeted Leventhal warmly and asked him where he wanted to sit. When Resy started, the app sold reservations for about ten per cent of a diner’s average check. (The Times called it “the next step in the devolution of New York hospitality.”) After public outcry, Resy changed its model: restaurants pay a small monthly fee; diners don’t pay for reservations. “But we now have a customer who fundamentally believes there’s a price for everything,” Leventhal said, frowning. “Not everything should be purchasable—which makes people’s heads explode. You can’t call up Polo Bar and say, ‘How much will it cost to get in?’ ”
You can, however, call up Polo Bar, wait fifty minutes on hold, make a reservation, and then resell it online. (Before meeting me for dinner, Leventhal texted me a screenshot of a Cita page, where a five-o’clock table at Polo Bar was listed for four hundred dollars.)
[…] In May, 2021, a thirty-three-year-old software engineer named Jonas Frey couldn’t get a reservation to renew his driver’s license at the Nevada D.M.V., so he built a Web site to solve the problem. “I thought, ‘How is it possible that I can’t pay for a spot in line?’ ” he told me. […] Frey launched Appointment Trader, an online marketplace for people to buy and sell reservations—everything from private shopping experiences (the Hermès store in Paris), doctors’ appointments (a hot commodity in Miami and Beverly Hills), and tables at restaurants all over the world.
The Web site resembles an artifact from the early days of the Internet: with its flashy banners and simple menus, it almost looks like eBay circa 1995. “We get a lot of smack for it being ugly,” Frey said, adding that it hasn’t hurt business. Appointment Trader cleared almost six million dollars in reservation sales during the past twelve months, a more than twofold increase from last year. […] Frey takes a twenty- to thirty-per-cent commission.
Prospective buyers browse a list of restaurants organized by locale. Frey designed an algorithm that determines the most popular places based on reservation requests […]
The afternoon before I met Leventhal at Polo Bar, I logged in to Appointment Trader, which recommended that I place a “bid” of at least three hundred and fifty-five dollars for a two-top there. I started by offering a couple hundred: “🥱 Your bid price is below average,” the site shot back. Then I upped the bid to the recommended amount: “🤖 Did we say warmed up? Now you got those mercenaries, bots and hustlers on 🔥🔥🔥.”
[…] Some are people who sit with OpenTable or Resy pulled up on their laptops every morning, amassing reservations in various names. Some are kids who borrow their parents’ Amex black cards, telephone Amex’s Centurion concierge, and book hard-to-get tables that are set aside for card users. […]
Alex Eisler, a sophomore at Brown University who studies applied math and computer science, regularly uses fake phone numbers and e-mail addresses to make reservations. When he calls Polo Bar, he told me, “Sometimes they recognize my voice, so I have to do different accents. I have to act like a girl sometimes.” He switched into a bad falsetto: “I’m, like, ‘Hiiii, is it possible to book a reservation?’ I have a few Resy accounts that have female names.” His recent sales on Appointment Trader, where his screen name is GloriousSeed75, include a lunch table at Maison Close, which he sold for eight hundred and fifty-five dollars, and a reservation at Carbone, the Village red-sauce place frequented by the Rolex-and-Hermès crowd, which fetched a thousand and fifty dollars. Last year, he made seventy thousand dollars reselling reservations.
[…] Some resellers use bots—basically, computers that are faster at hitting the refresh button than you are. Several bots might be simultaneously checking the app, ten or even a hundred times per second, twenty-four hours a day, until one finds the eight-o’clock table at Bangkok Supper Club that it’s been programmed to grab. Instead of using a keyboard or mouse, the bot programmatically executes the reservation app’s underlying code. Some resellers subscribe to such sites as Resy Sniper (fifty bucks a month), which uses custom-built bots to snag tough reservations; some use open-source code posted on GitHub or write their own.
[…] The first reservation I spotted was an eight-o’clock Saturday two-top at Carbone; there was also a slew of prime-time tables at Le Gratin, one of Daniel Boulud’s offshoots. Then I read the fine print: the table at Carbone would cost me a thousand dollars—not as a booking fee but as a prepayment for the meal. For two of us to get our money’s worth, we’d have to down three plates of Calamari Marco, three orders of lobster ravioli, two veal Marsalas, a funghi trifolati, and two bottles of Barolo Gramolere. […] several restaurateurs who have opted out told me that they find the colossal-prepay concept unseemly, in part because it encourages binge eating. “It’s psychotic,” one owner said. “We don’t want to put people in that situation.”
[…] According to the market-research firm IBISWorld, over the last decade, profit margins at American restaurants have languished at around four per cent. Gitnux, another research firm, reported that high-end restaurants may only see margins of two per cent. Ripert laughed and said, “Clients shouldn’t know we have slim margins. They should come here, have an experience, and leave very happy.” Other restaurateurs told me they wished their diners understood that every minute a restaurant is open is money earned or money lost; four out of five restaurants close within five years. “We’re constantly bleeding money,” Jenn Saesue, of the perennially booked Bangkok Supper Club, told me. “I basically have a small army,” she said, of her hundred and twenty-eight employees. “These people are relying on us.”
When resellers offer reservations online, they’re gambling that people will buy them: three hundred and twenty dollars for a four-o’clock Monday table at Via Carota (risky); four hundred and eighty bucks for a table at Semma on a Friday night (an almost sure bet). When the reservations go unsold, it’s the restaurant that loses.
Appointment Trader’s Jonas Frey told me that he penalizes resellers when they have unsold listings by withholding access to the site. A nightmare reseller, he said, could be a “script kiddie,” who uses an army of bots to “book a thousand reservations with the hopes of selling fifty of them.” […]
[…] President Joe Biden’s administration announced on Friday that it has approved $4.28 billion in additional student loan relief for 54,900 borrowers who work in public service. This includes teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants.
This brings the total loan forgiveness from the Biden-Harris administration to around $180 billion for nearly 5 million Americans.
[…] The PSLF [Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program] program was created to help those who dedicate their careers to public service by canceling a portion of their federal student loan debt after they make 10 years of qualifying payments. […] The Biden administration worked to streamline the process, making it less bureaucratic and giving relief to those who need it most.
This comes after a long battle with the federal courts during his administration’s effort to cancel student loan debt. Americans owe about $1.6 trillion, yes trillion, as of June 2024—which is 42% more than what they owed a decade earlier.
[…] Led by six Republican-led state courts in October, a federal judge in Missouri put his decision on hold on the Biden administration’s plan to bring student loan forgiveness for Americans. A few months earlier, when Biden announced another round of student debt forgiveness for millions of borrowers in July, federal appeals court judges also blocked his Saving on a Valuable Education plan.
And even before that, when Biden initially announced his plan to cancel a sweeping $400 billion in student loan debt, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court rejected it, arguing that the administration needed Congress’s endorsement before undertaking such a costly program.
[…] As the administration moves forward with its debt relief plans, the hope is that this ongoing effort will lead to lasting reform in the student loan system. This system has long been criticized for its lack of transparency and fairness and for preventing Americans from moving up financially.
Biden’s latest approval of $4.28 billion in loan forgiveness signals that, despite the legal hurdles, the administration is committed to ensuring that public servants receive the relief they deserve.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: a bigoted industrialist who owns a giant car company has endorsed a far-right German political party full of Nazis that aims to purify Europe by casting out groups of people it considers to be its lessers, if not downright subhuman. Ha ha, no, it’s not Henry Ford, but we sure fooled you.
We are of course speaking of Elon Musk, […] currently cosplaying as America’s shadow president. Musk’s politics have never been particularly mysterious, unless you are a political reporter for The New York Times. He’s a right-winger who grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, and one of his first actions when he bought Twitter two years ago was to let tons of racists and bigots the previous ownership had banned back onto the platform […]
So, we hate to engage in hyperbole or cause a scene, but we think it is maybe bad that Musk on Friday endorsed a far-right party full of neo-Nazis to take over Germany. Not to be too alarmist, but historically such takeovers have gone poorly not only for Germany and all of Europe, but also for the rest of the planet: [Musk’s post is available at the link]
Save Germany from what, exactly? Oh, you know, immigrant hordes, Jews, socialism, environmental activism, America, the EU, Target celebrating Pride Month, and whatever else terrifies white people like Elon Musk […]
The woman in the video Musk retweeted is Naomi Seibt, a 24-year-old far-right influencer with an unfortunate – or we suppose fortunate, depending on your point of view – physical resemblance to the Gaede twins of Prussian Blue fame. She is very upset that no one wants to form a coalition government with her party full of Nazi enthusiasts, telling her audience that AfD’s possible exclusion would mean the continuation of Germany’s “eco-socialist national suicide.” […]
We have written about Seibt before, back when she was being touted as the “anti-Greta Thunberg” by the Heartland Institute as it campaigned to convince Americans that global warming is a hoax. Seibt’s mother, it turned out, was a lawyer for Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right party of neo-Nazis that Elon Musk is so enthusiastic about.
The endorsement falls neatly in line with the support the AfD has received from other people in Donald Trump’s orbit, who share the party’s virulent anti-immigrant views. Trump’s ambassador to Germany in his first term, Richard Grenell, famously pissed off the German government by cozying up to the AfD, even though the nation’s own domestic intelligence agencies have classified the party as an extremist organization and a threat.
And Steve Bannon has a history with AfD, having tried to recruit the party into his plan to unite all the far-right national populist parties in Europe to form a sort of “supergroup” in the European Union Parliament a few years ago.
Musk’s recognition would be a much bigger boost for a party that has earned seats in state parliaments and is expected to get around 19% of the vote in Germany’s upcoming federal elections. Also a party that just saw several of its local office-holders arrested for participating in a plot to take over regions in the eastern part of Germany, establish Nazi-inspired regimes, and carry out ethnic cleansing. Neat.
The AfD sucks so hard that after one of its representatives in the European Parliament claimed that not everyone who ever joined the SS was a criminal, Marine Le Pen announced that her party would end its association with them. Imagine being such a Nazi German bigot that the Nazi French bigots want nothing to do with you.
Imagine if Henry Ford had been Herbert Hoover’s closest advisor in 1931, at the same time the Nazis were on the rise. That would have been bad, right? Well, somehow that’s what America is getting. […]
Truly frivolous. I cannot even imagine spending several hundred dollars just to get a reservation. My wife and I recently spent almost $130 (including tip) for our anniversary dinner. We don’t eat out often because of the cost, but having to dole out such large sums just to get a table would preclude us from going out at all.
Scientists have discovered that an “alien plant” first found near a Utah ghost town 55 years ago doesn’t appear to be related to any currently living family or genus.
Paleontologists first found fossilized leaf specimens of the plant in 1969 and named it Othniophyton elongatum, which translates to “alien plant.” At the time, they believed the extinct species could be related to ginseng…
Both fossil specimens were excavated from the Green River Formation in eastern Utah, near the former town of Rainbow. Around 47 million years ago, when the plants lived, the region was a huge lake ecosystem near active volcanoes…
Unlike the 1969 find, the specimen at UC Berkeley had leaves, flowers and fruits attached, which looked very different from those of plants related to ginseng. In fact, the researchers couldn’t match the fossils to any of the over 400 families of flowering plants living today, and extinct families…
Comparing these traits to extinct families didn’t result in any matches either, but this isn’t the only species from the Green River Formation that has stumped scientists. This region has previously produced other plant fossils, like Bonanzacarpum fruit and Palibinia leaves, that have surprised scientists and ultimately led to the discovery of extinct groups…
The Green River Formation is famous for fish fossils
Archaeologists unearthed a macabre, centuries-old DIY project during a routine building renovation in the Netherlands, Live Science reported.
Construction crews renovating a 17th-century building in the city’s red-light district summoned archaeologists after they came across a tile floor patched with slices of bones. Though the discovery was shocking for all involved, researchers determined after some work that the bones didn’t belong to humans. Instead, they are from dozens of different cows. The discovery was made in Alkmaar, an area of the Netherlands which is known for its cheese production and is home to the Dutch Cheese Museum…
JMsays
Youtube: Reporting from Ukraine
Combined North Korea and Russian assaults are not making much progress in Kursk. The weather is really turning bad and while this hurts both sides it’s worse on the attackers. Infantry assaults become slower and easier targets for defending drones and artillery.
Evans Revere, a senior advisor with Albright Stonebridge Group, said that while North Korean troops seemed “disciplined” and “tough,” their lack of experience in ground combat and unfamiliarity with drone warfare was taking its toll.
He said that the reported casualty numbers suggest that North Korean forces are in the “thick of heavy fighting” and that “if the North Koreans continue to suffer casualties at this rate, they will very soon require fresh forces.”
Reports on how the North Koreans are doing have been all over the place. It’s likely that the inexperienced troops vary widely from engagement to engagement, with them doing well in some and badly in others. The one thing they agree on is that North Korean casualties have been very high. The North Korean soldiers don’t have experience or training in modern combat beyond a few rushed weeks by the Russians.
How quickly they can adapt now becomes a big question. Is any of this information going to filter back to North Korea and will the officers there listen to any of it?
About 30% of people who get COVID-19 develop some long COVID-19 symptoms. Since older adults typically get sicker from a COVID-19 infection, scientists and physicians have thought that older adults may have worse long COVID-19 symptoms as well. But […]
The study found that 10 months after COVID-19 infection, younger adults (ages 18 to 44) and middle-aged adults (ages 45 to 64) had worse neurologic symptoms of long COVID compared to adults 65 and older. […] these neurologic symptoms […] affected younger adults regardless of whether they had experienced mild or severe COVID-19 infections initially.
Study:
Younger and middle-age individuals accounted for 142 of 200 (71%) of [post-hospitalization patients] and 995 of 1100 (90.5%) of [non-hospitalized] patients [who checked into the researchers’ Chcago Covid clinic from May 2020 to March 2023].
There is no world in which the copyright of a [t-shirt] watercolor painting of Luigi Mangione surveillance footage […] is owned by United Health Group as it quite literally has nothing to do with anything that the company owns. It is illegal to file a DMCA unless you have a “good faith” belief that you are the rights holder […] It is theoretically possible that another entity impersonated United Healthcare to request the removal because copyfraud in general is so common.
[…]
Not Just Fan Art. Over the weekend, a lawyer demanded that independent journalist Marisa Kabas take down an image of Luigi Mangione and his family that she posted to Bluesky, which was originally posted on the campaign website of Maryland assemblymember Nino Mangione.
[…]
the Mangione family or someone associated with it is using the prospect of a copyright lawsuit to threaten journalists for reporting on one of the most important stories of the year, which is particularly concerning in an atmosphere where journalists are increasingly being targeted by politicians and the powerful. But it’s also notable that the threat was sent directly to Kabas for something she posted on Bluesky, rather than being sent to Bluesky itself.
[…]
Copyright takedown processes under social media companies almost always err on the side of copyright holders, which is a problem. On the other hand, because social media companies are usually the ones receiving DMCAs or otherwise dealing with copyright, individual social media users do not usually have to deal directly with lawyers who are threatening them
The House voted Friday to avoid a prolonged government shutdown and approve tens of billions of dollars in disaster relief, with a bipartisan coalition embracing an agreement a few hours before a midnight deadline to extend funding.
The legislation passed by a vote of 366 in favor to 34 against and one member voting present, with more Democrats voting to support it than Republicans. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to sail through before heading to President Biden’s desk for his signature. This late in the day, and because of the process for sending over a bill, it won’t be until sometime this weekend that the president is able to sign it. But the effect on government functions should be minimal…
Senior U.S. officials arrived in Damascus on Friday for the first diplomatic mission to the Syrian capital since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad this month.
[…] Trump announced on Friday his plan to nominate Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote and a papal critic, as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. … Burch co-founded Catholic Vote, a lay advocacy group in 2005. The organization backed Trump in 2020 and 2024. Burch is the author of the 2020 book, “A New Catholic Moment: Donald Trump and the Politics of the Common Good.”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing America’s three largest banks, accusing the institutions of failing to protect customers from fraud on Zelle, the payment platform they co-own.
The CFPB is one of many government agencies that Elon Musk wants to eliminate.
A new Christmas-themed ad for a Donald-Trump-branded Bible is the newest way he’s using his political stature to make money. The ad, which aired on Fox News, shows Trump awkwardly holding a Bible surrounded by Christmas graphics showing tinsel, ornaments, and evergreen bushes.
“We love God, and we have to protect anything that is pro-God,” Trump tells viewers in an awkward sales pitch for the product as piano music plays in the background. Trump exhorts prospective buyers not to allow “the media or the left-wing groups” to silence conservative Christians—implying that purchasing this branded product will aid in that crusade. [video at the link]
[…] The same company also sells a “The Day God Intervened Edition Bible,” referencing the day a gunman shot and killed an attendee at Trump’s campaign rally in July.
[…] Trump filed a financial disclosure earlier in the year noting that he had received $300,000 from the company behind the Bible, in exchange for his endorsement.
Trump’s previous connections to the Bible don’t exactly scream “devoted Christian.”
[…] The Christmas ad campaign for the “God Bless The USA” Bible is occurring just a few weeks before Trump will be sworn in as president of the United States, highlighting his penchant for making millions from public office. […]
Hold on — Zambia still conducts literal witch hunts??
Stop the world, I want to get off …
JMsays
@338 Reginald Selkirk:
It does not address the debt ceiling, something Trump had demanded during the tumultuous back-and-forth over the course of the week. House Republicans instead vowed to address the issue in a future tax bill once Trump is in power.
This is an important bit. Trump wanted this lifted or removed probably so the debt he plans to run up later could be pinned on Biden. It will be very hard to do once Trump is in power because the Democrats will oppose it and there are enough Republican anti all government spending fanatics that it won’t be possible to line them up. This isn’t going to get any easier to do once Trump takes office.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Expanding on Lynna @302:
among the GOP’s cuts were […] restrictions on outbound U.S. investment in China [that favors Elon Musk], and a bill to secure semiconductor supply chains.
The original bill would have made it harder for Musk to build Tesla factories in Shanghai.
[…]
The measure at issue is known as the “outbound investment” provision. We have heard for years about the problem of manufacturing businesses shipping jobs overseas to China […] China typically forces businesses wanting to locate factories in its country to transfer their technology and intellectual property to Chinese firms, which can then use that to undercut competitors in global markets, with state support.
Congress […] finally came up with a way to deal with this […] either prohibit U.S. companies from investing in “sensitive technologies” in China, including semiconductors and artificial intelligence, or set up a broad notification regime […] it expands restrictions that the Treasury Department has already put forward in regulatory rules. Codifying those rules into statute means that they cannot be changed by successive administrations. […] a final outbound investment package made it into the year-end bill.
[…]
Funny story: Elon Musk’s car company has a significant amount of, well, outbound investment. […] maybe a quarter of the company’s revenue comes from China. Musk has endorsed building a second Tesla factory […] He is working with the Chinese government to bring “Full Self-Driving” technology to China, in other words, importing a technology that may be seen as sensitive. Musk has battery and solar panel factories that are not yet in China, but he may want them there […] And lo and behold, when the new funding bill emerged, the outbound investment feature was dropped. In fact, all traces of provisions related to China were removed from the bill.
whheydtsays
Happy Winter Solstice.
birgerjohanssonsays
Sea snakes regain advanced color vision, recovering a complex trait once lost to evolutionary time
.https://phys.org/news/2024-12-sea-snakes-regain-advanced-vision.html
This mirrors the path to color vision in primates.
Also, prior to the domination by dinosaurs proto-mammals shared cell-repair genes with other vertebrates that were lost, and then replaced in long-lived mammals.
birgerjohanssonsays
Ha! After 38 Republican representative rejected the Musk-Trump bill, the Demicrats won, and raised the debt ceiling.
😀❣️🦋🌻🌾🍾🎉
birgerjohanssonsays
Addendum/Clarification to @ 350
They did NOT raise the debt ceiling the way Trump wanted, but stopped a government shutdown. The Republicans are now pretending nothing weird happened.
And we now know GOP congressmen are less subservient than we feared.
Big loss of prestige for Musk/Trump.
-Will it help GOP senators to grow a spine and reject toxic appointees?
@350 birgerjohansson
-Will it help GOP senators to grow a spine and reject toxic appointees?
Bold prediction: Susan Collins will express serious reservations about at least one Trump appointee, but will give in and end up supporting them anyway.
NORTH BRANFORD (Connecticut, USA) — Chocolate sauce and jelly were among suspected substances that a U.S. Postal Service employee smeared on local mail boxes, according to an arrest warrant released Friday
Donna Sufyaan-Conyers, 62, faces charges of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, police said.
Police responded to an address on Reeds Gap Road at about 1:10 p.m. Nov. 27 to investigate a vandalism complaint. The resident said her mailbox, one of a group of boxes in a residential complex, had been vandalized several times, so she set up a solar-powered security camera to capture the area around her mailbox, the warrant says.
On Nov. 25, the woman said she noticed a sticky, brown substance on the inside and outside of the complex’s shared outgoing mailbox, the warrant said. Officer Anthony Perrotti inspected the box and found what he suspected was jelly and chocolate frosting smeared all over the box, according to the warrant.
Footage from the security camera on Nov. 25 showed Sufyaan-Conyers, wearing gloves, rubbing the interior and exterior of the mailbox in a manner consistent with smearing something, Perrotti wrote…
The resident who complained said that over the past 12 months, she had reported three separate issues with Sufyaan-Conyers, including suspected glue smeared on the woman’s mailbox, the warrant says.
There were no details in the warrant about a suspected motive for the alleged smearing…
Usually, articles like this end with a paragraph about the when the arrest was made, meth was also found.
A new year is upon us and Psychic Nikki, a clairvoyant who makes thousands of predictions ahead of each new year, has a scary prediction for Wisconsin.
Some of the predictions are pretty out there, with predictions about massive animals being found and UFOs beaming down in random places. (Okay, maybe that one isn’t that far fetched.)
For example, for 2025, she is predicting the largest turkey in the world will be found in Minnesota. (Okay, she might be on to something here.)
She also has predictions regarding celebrities, births, deaths and some pretty scary predictions that I gloss over because they are a bit concerning!
That is the case for her one sole prediction about Wisconsin. According to her predictions, something shocking will happen in Milwaukee.
Here’s what she had to say about it, amongst all her other predictions, about Wisconsin. This came in at prediction number 829, by the way.
A crane collapse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
…
So, like a mermaid? Psychic Nikki says a man will take a DNA test and find out he is half dolphin, half human…
This is one of the odder predictions made by Psychic Nikki. A compound will be found full of people over the age of 100. Once discovered, those that live there will share their secrets to life…
Psychic Nikki says a 38-pound baby will be born at some point this year. Ope…
After Republicans tried to blame everyone else for the crisis they created, it looks like House Speaker Mike Johnson was finally able to pass a spending bill Friday night to keep the government open through the end of the year and into the next administration.
Johnson emerged from the House floor to cheerlead and try to erase all memories of the GOP’s disastrous handling of the bill—and how shadow President Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump sabotaged an earlier version of it. When asked if he spoke to Musk or Trump about the final bill, Johnson’s response was interesting:
I was in constant contact with, with President Trump, throughout this process. Spoke with him most recently about 45 minutes ago. He knew exactly what we were doing and why. And, and this is a good outcome for the country. I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well. Elon Musk and I talked within about an hour ago.
[video at the link]
That sure makes it sound like Musk got to okay the deal before Trump did. This, of course, would contradict the Trump’s team’s insistence that Donald is totally in charge—and the world’s actual richest man is not the one who’s calling the shots.
THE HOUSE HAS PASSED a bill to avert a midnight shutdown.
THE BILL passed 366-34-1
170 Republicans voted yes, 196 Democrats voted yes. 34 Republicans voted no. A total of
ZERO Democrats voted no. Dems saved Republicans here.
NO DEBT CEILING — House Republicans weren’t at ALL moved by Trump’s demands to lift the borrowing cap. Trump effectively asked for one thing. he didnt get it.
“The Parker Solar Probe is expected to make a fiery dive close to the solar surface on Christmas Eve morning — a key milestone in its mission to study the sun’s outer atmosphere.”
NASA is preparing to “taste” the sun on Christmas Eve.
The agency’s Parker Solar Probe is days away from making its closest-ever approach to the sun on Tuesday, swooping nearer to our star than any other human-made object in history.
The spacecraft, which is about the size of a small car, is set to dive within 3.86 million miles of the solar surface at 6:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday. It will fly by at about 430,000 mph, according to NASA.
“If you can imagine, it’s like going 96% of the way there to the sun’s surface,” said Kelly Korreck, a program scientist in NASA’s heliophysics division.
Mission controllers won’t be able to communicate with the probe during the maneuver, so NASA will have to wait about three days to pick up a signal that the spacecraft survived its rendezvous with the sun.
After that, the first images from the close encounter will likely be beamed back to Earth sometime in January, the agency said.
As the Parker Solar Probe swoops close to the sun, it will likely fly through plumes of solar plasma and could even dive into active regions of the star, Korreck said.
The mission was designed to study the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, an ultrahot region known as the corona. Scientists are keen to observe the corona up close because researchers have long puzzled over why the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than the star’s surface.
Observing the corona will also help researchers study how storms that brew on the sun’s surface erupt into space. The probe will, for instance, be able to observe streams of the highest-energy solar particles as they are hurled from the sun, exploding into the cosmos at supersonic speeds.
“This is the birthplace of space weather,” Korreck said. “We’ve observed space weather from afar, but now Parker is living through it. Now we’ll be able to understand better how space weather forms, and when we see storms on the sun in our telescopes, we’ll be able to say what that means for us here on Earth.”
During periods of intense space weather, the sun can unleash giant solar flares and streams of charged particles, known as solar wind, directly at Earth. When these outbursts interact with our planet’s magnetic field, they can damage satellites and knock out power grids — along with supercharging the northern lights.
Korreck said the Parker Solar Probe mission will help researchers better forecast space weather and its potential consequences, similar to the work that meteorologists and atmospheric scientists do for weather on Earth.
The Parker probe launched into space in 2018 and has circled the sun more than 20 times since then. The Christmas Eve flyby will be the first of three final close swings planned for the mission. The spacecraft was named for Eugene Parker, a pioneering astrophysicist at the University of Chicago who first theorized the existence of solar wind. Parker died in 2022 at the age of 94.
Last month, the spacecraft flew by Venus in a maneuver that was designed to help slingshot the probe close to the sun. The upcoming close approach was timed to coincide with the most active period of the sun’s 11-year cycle of activity. This busy phase, which is typically characterized by a flurry of solar storms and high magnetic activity, is known as the solar maximum.
Scientists like Korreck are hoping the Parker Solar Probe will have a front-row seat if any storms are roiling on the surface of the sun on Christmas Eve.
Ukraine brought the war into the heart of Russia Saturday morning with drone attacks that local authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan region, over 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the front line.
The press service of Tatarstan’s governor, Rustam Minnikhanov, said that eight drones attacked the city. Six hit residential buildings, one hit an industrial facility and one was shot down over a river, the statement said.
A video posted on local Telegram news channel Astra, verified by The Associated Press, shows a drone flying into the upper floors of a high-rise building.
Local authorities said there were no casualties. Flights were halted at Kazan’s airport and all mass gatherings canceled on Saturday and Sunday.
[…] Moscow sent 113 drones into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 57 drones were shot down during the attacks. A further 56 drones were “lost,” likely having been electronically jammed.
The governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said eight people were wounded Friday night in drone attacks on the regional capital, also called Kharkiv.
In the city of Zaporizhzhia, four people were wounded when a nine-story residential building was damaged by falling drone debris on Friday night, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said. […]
CHAD PERGRAM (CORRESPONDENT): The other thing that’s important in this, Shannon, is whether or not Republicans carry most of the freight in this. House speaker Mike Johnson, he has been under serious fire about this handling of this interim spending bill over the past few weeks. And if you have more Democrats support this bill than Republicans, that is kind of part and parcel of what has happened on every single major fiscal vote this Congress, where Democrats have swooped in on, you know, other government funding bills, lifting the debt ceiling, and they have saved the day, even though Republicans are in the majority.
[…] Trump on Friday threatened tariffs in the European Union (EU) unless the bloc purchases large quantities of American oil and gas to make up for its growing deficit with the U.S.
“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas,” Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social.
“Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!”
However, the EU purchases the lion’s share of American oil and gas and no additional volumes are available unless the U.S. increases output or volumes are re-routed through Asia, Reuters reported, citing U.S. data.
The U.S. provides 47 percent of the EU gas imports, according to Reuters, which cited data from statistics office Eurostat, and oil imports from the U.S. represented 17 percent of its supply for the first quarter of 2024.
Reuters noted that the U.S. has a goods trade deficit with the EU of $161.9 billion in 2023 and in service, the U.S. had a surplus of $108 billion, Eurostat data show. […]
It’s an important milestone for Joe Biden as he tops his predecessor Donald Trump’s total number of judicial nominees confirmed before handing the White House back over to him.
The Democratic-led Senate confirmed the 235th federal judge nominated by President Joe Biden, marking a milestone for the outgoing occupant of the White House by giving him one more than former President Donald Trump secured.
The latest confirmation Friday could be Biden’s last, meaning he will leave office having secured one Supreme Court justice, 45 appeals court judges, 187 district court judges and two judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer heralded the vote as “historic” as the gavel fell to some applause in the Senate chamber.
“The majority has now confirmed more judges under President Biden than any majority has confirmed in decades. This is historic,” he said. “We have confirmed more judges than under the Trump administration, more judges than any administration in this century, more judges than any administration going back decades.”
“The number is very consequential,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Judiciary Committee member. “We’re very relieved.”
All will serve lifetime appointments, making them the safest part of a Biden legacy that will be partially unraveled by Trump as he returns to the White House and his party seizes control of the Senate next month.
“These men and women have the power to uphold basic rights or to roll them back,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “President Biden is proud of his record of appointments and grateful to the Senate for its partnership in reaching this historic achievement.”
Beyond the number, Biden is proudest of the types of judges he has chosen. The White House highlighted the “professional diversity” of his picks, including “more than 45 public defenders, more than 25 civil rights lawyers, and at least 10 who have represented workers,” as well as judges who have worked on “immigration law, municipal law, and plaintiffs’ side work.”
Biden’s picks have broken from the tradition of presidents of both parties who have leaned toward choosing prosecutors and corporate lawyers to be judges, an early goal for Biden’s White House in selecting nominees.
The White House also highlighted “demographic diversity” including the first Black woman on the Supreme Court — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, herself a former public defender, and a “record number of women, Black, Latino, AANHPI, Native American, Muslim-American, and LGBTQ judges.”
[…] Blumenthal said Democrats’ philosophy was that “every vacancy left open is the potential for an unqualified ideologue” picked by Trump and Republicans next year, who he said “will be there for decades.”
“I’m not ready to uncork the champagne, just because we’ve done some really good work over the last four years. We need to meet be prepared for the worst, hope for the best, and try to defeat nominees who are truly unqualified. We have our work cut out. So the prospects ahead are pretty sobering.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Stevo R @ 353
A far less optimistic scenario is found in the Jackpot novels by William Gibson.
Merry Kitzmas to all! Today* is the 19th anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, aka the Dover Panda Trial, held from September-November 2005, and decided on December 20, 2005.
Next year, 2025, will be the 20th anniversary of Kitzmiller, as well as the 100th anniversary of Tennessee v. Scopes, aka the Scopes Monkey Trial…
* Posted on Dec 19, 2024
birgerjohanssonsays
‘Murderbot’ is Hugely Popular Amongst Neurodivergent and LGBTQ Folks
Ha ha! Fermented herring is an aquired taste, but you should NEVER open a can indoors, as the juice sprays out at high pressure. The smell of the fermentation products is intense!
Hint: first time, wear a gas mask while opening a can.
Who is Taleb A., the suspect behind Magdeburg Christmas market attack?
Biographical details. AfD fan. Praised Musk. An ex-muslim atheist psychiatrist who’d fled Saudi Arabia 20 yrs ago and ran a website assisting asylum applicants. Thought Germany was granting asylum to “Syrian Jihadis” in a “secret project to Islamize Europe”. No explanation for attacking a Christmas Market.
In the Gisèle Pelicot trial, the husband who’d drugged her and 50 others were found guilty (20 more were yet unidentified). Cold cases have been reopened investigating the husband as the suspect, including a murder.
he first came to the attention of police a decade earlier […] After that arrest in 2010, police collected Dominique Pelicot’s DNA. When it was entered into a national database, it matched with a trace of blood found on a shoe […] in 1999. […] The 2010 DNA evidence […] did not make it into the case file at the time. It is unclear why.
[RFK Jr.] said Monday he’s “all for the polio vaccine” […] he did not respond to questions on issues like school vaccine mandates.
[…]
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed—they’re dangerous,” McConnell, a polio survivor, said […] “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”
Uninformed and dangerous have not been dealbreakers for the GOP. That’s often literally a requirement.
The reopening of a section of Interstate 40 in western North Carolina that collapsed during Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding has been delayed after more asphalt from eastbound lanes fell this week, the state Department of Transportation said on Friday.
The primary road connection between North Carolina and eastern Tennessee was severed in late September as flooding in the Pigeon River gorge washed away over 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of I-40’s eastbound lanes.
Transportation crews and contractors had focused initially on reopening the westbound lanes in Haywood County to two-way traffic during the first week of January. Now the new damage will keep it closed until engineers determine the area is safe enough for drivers in such a narrow pattern in the gorge, according to a state DOT news release…
regarding youth sports, there were a lot of attack ads […] And it was frustrating to see the Harris campaign failed to formulate a response […] there are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere, even if there were more, trans kids—like all kids—vary in athletic ability, and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness. It is very weird for you to be so focused on this subject, and finally, if you genuinely want to address the biggest concern […] you’d be less worried about this and more about the creepy assistant volleyball coach
[…much later…]
the website She Won, which keeps track of every single time a cis woman has ever lost to an alleged trans woman. […] They even have a section listing Jeopardy, the game show
[…]
Out of the now 1055 athletic ‘medals’ supposedly won by trans women between 2001 and 2024, 41 are listed as school level competitions. And those are just the ones listed as such due to the name of the competition including the name of the school. Interschool competitions are less likely to do so […] meaning this is almost certainly an undercount. So […] an unknown portion of these apparent ‘medals’ come not from professional level competition but school PE.
[…]
It also needs to be noted that said competitions include things such as poker (3 entries), Irish dance (5 entries), and darts (10 entries). Yet by far, the biggest nonsense entry is disc golf […] in which a stationary person throws a frisbee at a metal hoop, with over 206 entries. How trans women have a ‘biological advantage’ over cis women in stationary frisbee is not expanded upon […] It’s also worth noting that, whilst some cases do cite references, hundreds of them do not and are thus completely unsubstantiated.
[…]
Another thing you might notice is just how many of those ‘medals’ include cases in which the cis woman would have (in theory) come second or even third, meaning the supposed trans woman was beaten by at least one or more cis women. If we limit our search to just first place or first place ties, the ‘medal’ count plummets from 1055 to 388.
[…]
this is every first place ‘medal’ a supposed trans woman has won across 24 years, keeping in mind the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of first place medals that are awarded globally each year. Because, again, school PE competitions are included in these statistics. To call that a ‘small fraction’ is to be far too generous. These ratios make homeopathy look reasonable.
This is the source Rowling [is] referencing. […] As for the science, I am someone intimately familiar with it at this point, having produced dozens of fully referenced videos breaking it down, the most recent of which was the final video in a three part series [linked here] covering the history of trans participation in sports, dating all the way back to the start of the modern Olympic games. None of which even remotely supports the exclusion of either trans or intersex women and the removal of their rights, with the assumptions being invoked as justification to do so being just that, misogynistic assumptions institutionalized during the Red Scare.
And I keep mentioning intersex women for two reasons. First, they are typically impacted when society targets trans people, with one human rights report finding that anti-trans bigots deliberately conflated the two groups to make it seem like there were more trans people at the Olympics than there actually were in order to whip up a frenzy. […] Fact is, this goes beyond even just trans and intersex women. […] almost all the women challenged in sports are dark skinned or butch. The same goes for women with short hair, including those who suffer medical conditions such as alopecia […] every bigoted argument Rowling makes will come back to harm cis women… which is kind of the point. That’s why far-right groups support such efforts, they’re trying to make it dangerous for cis women to live outside the permits of ‘traditional gender norms’
Bekenstein Boundsays
For example, for 2025, she is predicting the largest turkey in the world will be found in Minnesota.
Wrong. In 2025, the largest turkey in the world will be found in the District of Columbia.
Behind the Resolute Desk, to be precise.
whheydtsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @ #383…
Only when he isn’t at a golf course… So, allowing for other activities, perhaps as much as 10% of the time, but probably more like 5%.
But in a post on X, she said she had removed herself from consideration “after an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many”…
She said she had a big announcement to share in January, without giving further details…
She has no shame nor decency, so I am guessing she got inside word that she was not going to be selected.
As for the January announcement, I offer a bold prediction: a divorce and ambassadorship.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
From the comments at 382: The “she won” website also includes withdraws and forfeits in protest.
This is a video of a debate/discussion between Alex O’Connor and Francis Collins on the existence of God. I’m not impressed with any of the points made by either side. Here’s the YouTube description…
(video 1:47:07)
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
387:
[Alex aka CosmicSkeptic’s YouTube channel] has featured intellectual heavyweights like Jordan Peterson, Richard Dawkins, William Lane Craig, and Sam Harris.
*snort*
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Francis Collins in 387:
[38:03]: I think God is a god of order, and that meant that […] God would choose to have matter and energy follow orderly laws. […] It’s constrained by the fact that God wants to love his creatures.
[54:20]: the laws of physics apply to our planet. Many of those were innocent people and animals, but they died anyway. […] It all comes with the package. Unless you want God to start intervening at every step along the way then it’s unavoidable. It must mean that God cared so much for the advent of people like us […] that it seemed in God’s judgment worth it [to run all life on the planet through a brutal meat grinder of suffering for billions of years to naturally select humans… just on the principle of ‘liking order’ thus not intervening to spare any of them or us].
Not a god that cares about mercy then. Yes those brackets really reflect the callousness of what he was knowingly conveying, based on the conversation.
[1:19:34]: you can see things in the Bible that we would now say are evil that were considered okay as part of that practice: the treatment of women, slaves, the caananites, and so on. […] I will be challenged to find any culture that didn’t agree there was such a thing as good and a thing that was evil, but they might disagree profoundly about what fits in each list. […] But they would still argue […] we’re supposed to do the good thing. And why is that? I found it difficult to explain that away on a purely on an evolutionary sociobiology kind of direction. That forced me into this recognition that there is a source there […] seems like it’s a holy source that cares about good […] a god of love and goodness
Cares about having a state of conflicting provincial norms of dichotimized relative preferences, but nothing in particular. Such mystery. Such good, much love.
And a good, loving god intervening would be… … bad apparently?
Well definitely if the above is what the god’s ‘love’ is.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
He literally argued the laudability of Bible genocide stories was compelling evidence to him that God was good, and he still settled on that book as the right description of the god and what ‘good’ means to him.
This “blob-headed” fish is a new discovery to science, but the Indigenous Awajún people who helped with the expedition were already aware of its existence.
Six critically endangered Mekong giant catfish—one of the largest and rarest freshwater fish in the world&mash;were caught and released recently in Cambodia, reviving hopes for the survival of the species. The underwater giants can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh up to 300 kilograms (661 pounds), or as heavy as a grand piano.
[…]
Few of the millions of people who depend on the Mekong for their livelihoods have ever seen a giant catfish. To find six of the giants, which were caught and released within 5 days, is unprecedented.
right whales can survive […] almost twice as long as previously understood.
Extreme longevity is a trait common to the right whales’ cousins, the bowheads. Scientists working with Indigenous subsistence hunters in Utqiaġvik used chemical analysis of harvested bowhead whales to show they can live more than 200 years. Corroborating the chemical evidence, hunters have recovered 19th-century harpoon tips from bowheads taken in modern hunts.
[…]
Southern right whales, once thought to live only 70 to 80 years, can exceed lifespans of 130 years, with some individuals possibly reaching 150 years. In contrast, the study found the average lifespan of the North Atlantic right whale is just 22 years, with very few individuals surviving past the age of 50.
[…]
“North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer […] They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand.”
[…]
“We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling, […] By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So we just assumed they didn’t live that long.”
[…]
“There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation […] Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones.
They […] studied voicings across multiple baby whales during certain behaviors such as nursing, playing and simply sitting idle. This allowed them to note patterns in the way the whales spoke to their mothers when they wanted different things, or when they were simply attempting to express themselves.
[…]
young whales tended to get noisy just before nursing in the morning […] likely forms of begging to be fed.
Reginald Selkirksays
@387 – 390
Francis Collins is muddle-headed, but unlike many apologists, he seems to be honest.
He is selected for these debates as a smart guy and a scientist, but the “evidence” he finds to support his position does not fall in his own field of expertise, which is genetics. He is not a cosmologist and he is not a neurobiologist. Within his own field, he has been a solid supporter of the theory of evolution, which is the atheist position.
His position on the “moral law” is ridiculous. I would claim that the need for a moral code is a necessity of living in large populations, and that most members of a species can agree on what is ‘good’ does not require supernatural intervention, it can be largely explained by shared evolutionary history. For example, is it ‘good’ to eat one’s mate after copulation in order to nourish one’s offspring? Humans almost universally say no, but praying mantises and spiders might consider it to be a debatable point.
Congrats on making it so far, I gave up after about 20 minutes of the video.
An American fighter jet has been shot down over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military has said.
Both crew from the US Navy F/A-18 Hornet ejected safely, with one suffering minor injuries, according to Central Command.
The incident came after the US carried out a series of air strikes against a missile storage site and command facilities in the Yemeni capital Sanaa operated by Iran-backed Houthi militants…
In late December 2024, TikTok users sounded off about a claim that Pope Francis would open the “Tomb of Lucifer,” allegedly located in the Vatican, on Christmas Eve.
The claim found its way to Reddit, with users speculating about where the claim came from. The original poster asked, “After some VERY slight (I still know absolutely nothing) research I’m sitting here thinking… where TF are they getting this?!?” …
KGsays
Reginald Selkirk@376,
By way of contrast, there’s been a change.org public petition to “Pit googly eyes oan the jobby” – the “jobby” (Scots vernacular for “turd”) being a bizarre decorative finish to a hotel in Edinburgh (visible at the link). Not sure whether the petition is still available for signing.
Kay Granger, a sitting member of the House of Representatives for Texas, is found living in an assisted living facility for dementia patients after she has reportedly been missing from her Washington, DC, office for the past six months.
Granger, 81, has been in Congress for 30 years but has missed every vote in the house since July.
A local Texas reporter for the Dallas Express newspaper, Carlos Turcios, tracks down her whereabouts after her constituents report that both her DC and local offices have not answered phone calls for months and that she was placed in a memory care facility after being found wandering.
Reporters visit the facility in Fort Worth, and employees confirm that Granger is a resident there.
Granger is set to retire from Congress in January…
There are plenty of GOP reps who should be in dementia care.
The former representative from Missouri, [Trump IRS pick Billy Long] who once pushed to abolish the IRS, has marketed himself as a certified tax and business advisor after attending only a three-day seminar.
by Jeremy Kohler and Alex Mierjeski, for ProPublica
[…] He advertises his credential as a certified tax and business advisor, and he adds CTBA to his name on his X profile. That profile encourages people to message him to “save 40% on your taxes.”
But tax experts told ProPublica that they have never heard of CTBA as a credential in the tax profession. The designation is offered by a small Florida firm, Excel Empire, which was established just two years ago and only requires attendance at a three-day seminar. That is in stark contrast to the 150 credit hours and the rigorous exams required to become a certified public accountant, a standard certification for tax accountants.
In most tax cases, only lawyers, CPAs and enrolled agents — federally authorized tax practitioners — can represent taxpayers at the IRS.
[…] [I snipped details about how much Excel Empire and other scammy companies charge for those seminars … it’s a lot, ($4,000 to $30,000 about).]
Tax experts said that Long’s years of experience as a real estate agent and as an auctioneer — before spending a dozen years in Congress — pales next to the deep experience in tax policy or management of the people who have held the job. […]
Long’s experience in the tax world has been more narrowly focused. In the two years since he left Congress, he worked to bring in customers for at least two firms that marketed the employee retention credit — a pandemic-era benefit designed to support businesses that kept workers despite revenue losses or disruptions caused by COVID-19.
The credit also attracted fraud, eventually landing on the IRS’ “worst of the worst” list for tax scams. […]
Worth up to $28,000 per employee, the credit was available for the 2020 and 2021 tax years and has been widely used by both for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations across the country. However, the IRS raised significant concerns about aggressive promoters pushing ineligible businesses to file questionable claims. Red flags included inflated payroll numbers, claims for all quarters without proper eligibility or citing minor government orders that did not directly impact business operations.
The IRS says it has recovered over $1 billion from businesses that voluntarily reported improper claims. And it has launched hundreds of criminal investigations to try to recoup what it says could be billions of dollars more.
[…] There is no evidence that either Excel Empire, Long or the firms that he worked for — Lifetime Advisors of Hudson, Wisconsin, and Commerce Terrace Consulting of Springfield, Missouri — engaged in wrongdoing. […]
If Long is confirmed and succeeds Werfel, he’ll have the power to influence how Americans pay their taxes and how the federal government collects revenue. Trump has promised to end IRS “overstepping,” while Republicans have said that they would slash billions of dollars in funding passed under the Biden administration to modernize the IRS and enhance tax enforcement. […]
During his time representing Southwest Missouri in Congress, Long pursued legislation to abolish the IRS and establish a national sales tax. Billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump advisor, recently asked on X if the agency’s budget should be “deleted.”
Roughly one million Canadians, mostly retirees, spend winter each year in the United States. That’s enough people that the country could be considered Canada’s de facto eleventh province although it’s uncertain how many snowbirds are finding themselves with cold feet about their regular annual migration due to gestures broadly at everything.
One in 10 choose Arizona for their warmer home away from home, and the latest to join their ranks is psychotic psychologist and conservative culture warrior Dr. Jordan Peterson, who announced on a recent episode of his daughter Mikhaila’s podcast that he has bid au revoir to his homeland in part over feuds with his profession’s governing body and Governor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. […] Peterson, a man known for his dual passions for beef and beefs, explained his reasons for taking off from the Great White North in a promo on Instagram:
There are decided advantages to being here. The issue with the College of Psychologists [of Ontario] is very annoying to say the least, and the new legislation the Liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63, I’ll be living in a totalitarian hellhole if that legislation passes, and it could well pass. The government in Canada at the federal level is incompetent beyond belief, and it’s become uncomfortable for me in my neighborhood in Toronto.
No further explanation is given for why Peterkins feels so ill at ease in one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities (nearly half of Torontonians are immigrants) but it’s possible he’ll feel more at home in his undisclosed location close to his daughter’s place in Scottsdale, which bills itself as “The West’s Most Western Town” and has a population that’s nearly 80 percent white.
[…] Bill C-63, also known as the Online Harms Act, is essentially a grab bag of proposals introduced earlier this year to crack down on digital hate speech and the sexual exploitation of children. Let’s give Peterson the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s the spreading hatred part that has him so concerned. […]
[…] Peterson also took aim at the PM directly for accusing him and fellow troll Tucker Carlson of being bankrolled by the Russian state-owned news outlet RT to boost anti-vax propaganda and other nonsense at the recent Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference:
I think Trudeau got confused because that’s his permanent state of being. Me and Tucker Carlson, Russian agents! The problem with Russians is they promise you the moon and then they never pay you.
Trudeau didn’t offer any evidence but the claim was made under oath, which could have something to do with why Peterson backed down from his threat to sue for defamation and fucked off to Arizona instead.
[…] The good doctor seemed uncomfortable talking about the big move and didn’t elaborate on his immigration status during the interview but — if he’s not here on some sort of work visa — officials may want to give the former Harvard professor a closer look given that the business address for his new online Peterson Academy is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming rather than somewhere north of the 49th parallel. […]
Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.
Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking at a meeting with teachers and parents, said TikTok “would be fully closed for all. … There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania.” Rama said the shutdown would begin sometime next year…
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Kyrsten Sinema party senator from Arizona, gave an “exit interview” to Semafor so she could explain that her single term in the Senate was in fact a nearly complete success, and if anyone thinks otherwise, that’s just like their opinion man.
She said that after this fall’s election, when Republicans won control of the Senate, she heard from a Democratic senator — whom she didn’t name, of course — who “reached out to me after the election and apologized — and said I was right.” It was the classic lotsa people agree with me in the comments but are too scared to say so dodge, and who knows, maybe it really happened. She added that “I was surprised about that one. I was very surprised. And I appreciate it.”
Then everyone applauded.
What Sinema was right about, according to Sinema, was her 2022 vote against an exception to the filibuster to preserve voting rights. That decision put an end to the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Enhancement Act, which would have protected Americans from Republican states’ ever-increasing efforts at voter suppression. So much for abolishing gerrymandering, reducing barriers to voter registration and voter list maintenance, and setting uniform rules for federal elections. But the filibuster was preserved, and Semafor somewhat naively proclaims that now that Democrats are in the minority, “her former party will now benefit from her and Sen. Joe Manchin’s refusal to vote to weaken the filibuster.”
At least until there’s something Republicans really wanna do and they eliminate it without a second thought about traditions, comity, bipartisanship, or any of the stuff that Sinema and Manchin insisted the filibuster magically promotes.
Sinema told Semafor that she considers her vote to (temporarily) preserve the filibuster was the “most important vote I’ve ever taken in my life.” Of course she does.
Sinema also had a few words for people who criticized her — as did Yr Wonkette! — for her final vote in the Senate a bit over a week back. As you may recall, she and Manchin got the Obstruction Gang back together for one last caper, refusing to confirm a second term for National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran.
That vote was especially jarring because Sinema hadn’t bothered even showing up for most votes in the Senate lately. Had Sinema simply stayed home as usual, the confirmation vote would have been tied at 49-49, since one Republican was out that day, and Kamala Harris was on hand to break the tie to confirm McFerran, ensuring a two-year Democratic majority on the body that plays a key role in enforcing labor law. But now, Donald Trump will be able to tip the balance to Republicans. Bummer, all you workers hoping for a fair shake!
Mind you, the Semafor piece doesn’t go into any kind of detail there, instead summarizing the issue so it can get right to Sinema’s money quote:
She voted just last week to block President Joe Biden’s reappointment of a top labor board nominee and shrugged off the resulting criticism from the left in typical fashion: “Don’t give a shit.”
Now there’s a fitting political epitaph if we ever heard one.
There’s more in the interview, like her assessment of her success as a mavericky dealmaker who worked with both sides of the aisle, especially when it came to preserving tax cuts for corporations and the rich, but also on some good things like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, protections for marriage equality (for now at least), and modest gun law reforms.
“Honestly, I feel like we got 40 years worth of work done in one term,” Sinema said. [She sounds some trumpian.] “I do wish we had gotten immigration done. We tried really hard, but everything else was just pretty freaking amazing.”
Sinema worked closely with Oklahoma Republican James Lankford and Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy on the border legislation that Donald Trump then told Republicans to kil […]
Also, we learn she enjoyed working with “moderate” Republicans like Rob Portman and Mitt Romney, although the piece glosses over that weird Ted Lasso cosplay she and Romney did for Halloween in 2021, and who can blame the editors for having slightly more concern for readers’ digestion than we do?
The piece does some very minimal, both-sidesy “what do her colleagues think” due diligence, pairing fellow Arizonan Mark Kelly’s politely positive comments about her being a reliably pro-Arizona vote with a far more critical assessment from Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who said both Sinema and Manchin will most likely, in the long view, be “remembered for the role they played in” first radically paring down and then killing Biden’s Build Back Better bill, with its wide ranging climate agenda and help for working families, paid for by rolling back many of the 2017 Republican tax cuts. That legislation, Sanders said, “could have been transformative to this country.”
As to whether she enjoyed being a senator, Sinema said, “I don’t know if enjoy is the right word. Did I feel like it was meaningful and worthwhile? Mostly. Were there times when I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this place’? Yeah, a lot.”
Yeah we’ll miss you too. But you have to go away first. Please fuck as far off as humanly possible, Bye.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.
This was a press conference with Russian press so Putin could say anything and is playing to the Russian population but it gives some insight into where Putin is going. Putin wants to negotiate with Trump, not Ukraine or the EU. Putin says he has no conditions and then starts laying out conditions. He talks about what he wants from Ukraine, that they remain weak and ready for another invasion. He says nothing about what Russia might offer Ukraine.
Wall Street financiers were a clear target of the tax, but some, on questionable legal grounds, have claimed their outsized profits were exempt, sometimes avoiding hundreds of millions in taxes. by Paul Kiel, for ProPublica
Fourteen years ago, Congress set out to remedy a basic unfairness in the tax code. The tax that funds Medicare, because it’s aimed mainly at wages, hits even the poorest American workers. But the wealthy could easily avoid paying their share. So lawmakers created a new type of Medicare tax to capture the kinds of income the rich often enjoy: interest, dividends and capital gains from investments.
A host of billionaires — sports team owners, oil barons, Wall Street traders and others — have managed to avoid paying it, ProPublica found.
To study who was actually paying the new tax, ProPublica analyzed its trove of IRS data containing information on thousands of the wealthiest Americans. We identified 17 people who, in the first six years of the law, 2013 through 2018, each shielded at least $1 billion in capital gains from the tax. Together, this small group, by collectively exempting more than $35 billion, saved about $1.3 billion in taxes.
Most members of the group were able to sidestep the tax because of a huge gap written into the law, which allows owners to exempt gains from the sale of their businesses. They include Donald Sterling, the disgraced former NBA team owner who avoided the tax when he sold the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion in 2014.
But others eluded the tax in ways that raise questions about how the law is being enforced.
One clear target of the new tax was investment professionals who rack up capital gains. Yet ProPublica found examples in the IRS data of financiers who claimed outsize profits but did not pay the tax. Tax experts contacted by ProPublica said they couldn’t think of a legitimate reason why those individuals were exempt.
Lynn Tilton, a hard-charging private equity manager, who has been dubbed the “diva” of distressed asset investing, is one example. The biggest avoider of the new tax in the data was Jeff Yass, the Republican megadonor who sits atop one of the most profitable trading firms in the world.
Both Medicare tax and its twin, the Net Investment Income Tax, as the new levy was called, are easily avoided by business owners. Last week, ProPublica revealed how some of Wall Street’s most powerful people use a loophole to avoid paying Medicare tax on their share of their firms’ profits. Eliminating these ways around the taxes, as House Democrats proposed to do in a 2021 bill, would raise an estimated $250 billion over 10 years. Medicare, the federal program that provides health care for some 68 million seniors, is projected to run short of money in 2036.
“It becomes a pretty glaring problem when you have ultra-rich individuals layering loopholes on top of loopholes to dodge both the NIIT and Medicare taxes,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee […]
The NIIT, together with its holes, entered the tax code as part of the Obama administration’s push to pass the Affordable Care Act. […] The aim was to level the playing field. All workers pay at least 2.9% in Medicare taxes on their wages, an amount usually deducted automatically from their paychecks. The NIIT, for high-income taxpayers (defined as $250,000 and up for a married couple), subjected investment income to a 3.8% rate. That mirrored the Medicare tax rate that workers earning over the same threshold paid under the new law.
[…] Behind closed doors, Democratic leaders hashed out a compromise that carved active business owners out of the tax.
The small-business owner is a hallowed figure on Capitol Hill, and an army of lobbyists and trade groups stand ready to mobilize against any bill that arguably disadvantages small businesses. The Democrats crafting the NIIT were wary of such a campaign. […]
The phrase “small business” conjures images of Main Street grocers, plumbers or garage-based startups, but the types of business that benefit from the carve-out range from small to enormous. There are millions of passthrough businesses, so called because the income earned and taxes owed pass through to the owner. Only a small number of such businesses are worth $100 million or more, yet the owners of the largest businesses are likely the prime beneficiaries of the exemption.
Owners of passthrough businesses with significant revenue already enjoy plenty of tax perks, as ProPublica showed in previous stories. The NIIT carve-out added to that list. The carve-out meant that when they sold their businesses, or portions of them, they’d be spared any extra charge beyond income tax on their capital gains. They’d pay a lower tax rate on those gains than on virtually any other form of investment. [!!]
[…] When Sterling sold the LA Clippers, virtually the entire $2 billion sale price was taxable capital gain, because he’d bought the team for $12.5 million in 1981. […]
It was the biggest payday of Sterling’s life by far. He paid substantial income tax on the capital gain from the sale, but the exemption from the NIIT saved him around $70 million. […]
In ProPublica’s database, most of the biggest winners from the NIIT carve-out were owners, like Sterling, selling their privately held businesses. Among those exempting gains of $1 billion or more were four moguls from the fossil fuel industry spared the extra tax when they sold off portions of their oil, natural gas or coal empires. The carve-out saved each of the four between $45 million and $87 million in taxes. [Fat cats getting fatter.]
The NIIT carve-out was huge and costly, but it didn’t apply to all business owners. Owners who are merely passive investors in a business, for instance, must pay the NIIT on that income. And Congress singled out securities traders as clearly subject to the tax. […]
Yass, a former professional poker player who thrives on taking well-calculated risks, amassed an army of traders at Susquehanna to outwit the market. They are hired to execute computer-driven strategies that seize on advantages at the microsecond level and search for situations that, through a cleverly executed arbitrage, they can exploit. The firm deals extensively in options as well as other securities. Susquehanna has been immensely profitable; Forbes estimates Yass’ fortune at $50 billion.
From 2013 through 2018, Yass reported a total of $9 billion in capital gains on his taxes, according to ProPublica’s IRS trove, but excluded $8.5 billion of those gains from the NIIT. That saved him more than $300 million in taxes during those years. Two of Yass’ Susquehanna partners, Arthur Dantchik and Joel Greenberg, also excluded billions in gains from the NIIT during that time: $2.1 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively. Together, they saved about $120 million.
[…] Tax experts contacted by ProPublica struggled to explain how Yass and his Susquehanna partners could justify excluding their firm’s gains from the NIIT.
“Although the principal here is active in the business, the business is trading in financial instruments,” said Andrew Needham, […] That means Yass’ gains should be subject to the NIIT, he said. “I don’t know what his theory is.”
In an earlier story, ProPublica detailed how Yass and Susquehanna engineered the firm’s investments to transform income normally taxed at the high, ordinary rate into income taxed at the 20% long-term capital gains rate. Those maneuvers saved Yass over $1 billion in taxes.
[…] In just the last year, the IRS began to regain some of its lost enforcement muscle, hiring thousands of new revenue agents with funds from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. However, it’s unclear how long that resurgence will last. Congressional Republicans have continually vowed to clawback the extra enforcement money. The incoming Trump administration has supported that goal while touting a new round of tax cuts, in particular for business owners.
According to Rashid, “For the second time since 2023, MAGA Republicans in South Carolina have introduced SC H3537, also known as The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act.” He pointed out that the bill “is one of the most extreme pieces of legislation we’ve seen… . [as] It proposes changing the legal definition of the word ‘person’ to include an unborn fetus. This means that a woman who gets an abortion could be charged with homicide, a crime punishable by the death penalty in South Carolina. To be clear: this bill would make it possible for the state to execute women for seeking an abortion.” […]
As with other examples of harsh anti-abortion measures popping up all over Red States, it doesn’t really matter if this particular piece of legislation becomes law at this time, because as Rashid noted, “its introduction has already accomplished the goal of moving the Overton Window towards acceptance. Ultimately, other right wing state legislatures will propose similar bills, in hopes that one such bill reaches the Supreme Court for their stamp of approval. The GOP used this strategy to ultimately overturn Roe, and is again using this strategy to enact this nightmare piece of legislation.”
American aid is pouring into Poland on its way to Ukraine.
7 more flights from the US have landed in Rzeszow, Poland since this post. This makes 11 747s that have arrived in the last 48 hours, which is a high tempo.
Assuming they’re packed to the gills, a 747 can carry 249k lbs of gear making this 2.74 million lbs of weapons/munitions transported over the last 2 days.
US senator Joe Manchin, a lifelong Democrat who left the party earlier this year to become an independent and is now stepping down from the Senate after 15 years, issued a series of warnings on Sunday to members of his former party.
“The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of – it’s just, it’s toxic,” Manchin told CNN, saying he had not been able to consider himself a Democrat “in the form of what Democratic party has turned itself into”.
Manchin, a wealthy coal tycoon, said the party’s approach had become censorious and dictatorial to ordinary Americans, and he blamed progressives for the shift…
A simple online video that compares how different AI systems handle the task of virtually slicing a steak has surprisingly gone viral. It provides a clear snapshot of the current state of AI video generation and reveals a distinct leader in the field…
The Washington Post has found more than three times as many deaths as the U.S. government documented in its investigation of Indian boarding schools.
Each figure on this page represents a child who died while they attended a school. [images at the link]
Bone by bone, two archaeologists lifted the 130-year-old skeletal remains of a Native American girl from the shallow grave in a roadside cemetery. A hand bone, a rib, a chunk of vertebrae and, finally, her skull.
Almeda Heavy Hair had been forcibly removed from her family and the Gros Ventre tribe when she was 12 and sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, one of hundreds of institutions operated by the U.S. government to eradicate Native Americans’ culture and assimilate them into White society.
[…] A year-long investigation by The Washington Post has documented that 3,104 students died at boarding schools between 1828 and 1970, three times as many deaths as reported by the U.S. Interior Department earlier this year. The Post found that more than 800 of those students are buried in cemeteries at or near the schools they attended, underscoring how, in many cases, children’s bodies were never sent home to their families or tribes.
The Post’s investigation found the deaths by drawing on hundreds of thousands of government documents that also revealed how children were beaten and harshly punished if they did not adhere to strict rules in the classroom — and in the fields, laundry rooms, kitchens or workshops where they often were forced to spend half their days.
“These were not schools,” said Judi Gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, whose relatives were sent to Indian boarding schools. “They were prison camps. They were work camps.”
The causes of death included infectious diseases, malnutrition and accidents, records show. Dozens died in suspicious circumstances, and in some instances the records provide indications of abuse or mistreatment that likely resulted in children’s deaths. A 10-year-old boy was fatally shot in 1912 at an Alaska school, a newspaper reported. A girl in Oregon “fell from a high window there & was brought home a corpse” in 1887, according to a teacher’s diary. […]
The schools were part of a sprawling system of more than 400 facilities created by the U.S. government, some in partnership with churches, religious orders and missionary groups, to target Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children. The Post reported in May that more than 1,000 children had been sexually abused by Catholic priests, sisters and brothers in multiple boarding schools.
The Biden administration has sought to bring attention to the legacy of boarding schools, though efforts in the United States lag far behind those in Canada, where at least 4,100 students at residential schools are believed by officials to have died or gone missing. There, school survivors have been paid billions in compensation, and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 declared the schools a form of “cultural genocide.” Legislation to establish a similar commission in the United States passed the Senate on Friday, but it did not reach the House for a floor vote. […]
Even as health conditions began to improve in the early 20th century for the overall U.S. population, the death rate for Native American children at boarding schools continued to surpass that of their White counterparts, said McBride, the Native American scholar.
“These institutions — where no measures were taken to disinfect tubercular sputum, where infected hand towels, drinking cups, schoolbooks and the mouthpieces of musical instruments passed freely among children, where the diet lacked nourishment, and where two or three students often were forced to sleep in a single bed — were hotbeds of contagion,” wrote David Wallace Adams, the author of “Education for Extinction,” a book about the boarding school era.
The simmering threat of bird flu may be inching closer to boiling over.
This year has been marked by a series of concerning developments in the virus’ spread. Since April, at least 64 people have tested positive for the virus — the first U.S. cases other than a single infection in 2022. Dairy cow herds in 16 states have been infected this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the country’s first severe bird flu infection on Wednesday, a critically ill patient in Louisiana. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency this week in response to rampant outbreaks in cows and poultry.
[…] scientists are increasingly worried, based on four key signals.
For one, the bird flu virus — known as H5N1 — has spread uncontrolled in animals, including cows frequently in contact with people. Additionally, detections in wastewater show the virus is leaving a wide-ranging imprint, and not just in farm animals.
Then there are several cases in humans where no source of infection has been identified, as well as research about the pathogen’s evolution, which has shown that the virus is evolving to better fit human receptors and that it will take fewer mutations to spread among people.
Together, experts say, these indicators suggest the virus has taken steps toward becoming the next pandemic.
[…] Widespread circulation creates new pathways to people
Since this avian flu outbreak began in 2022, the virus has become widespread in wild birds, commercial poultry and wild mammals like sea lions, foxes and black bears. More than 125 million poultry birds have died of infections or been culled in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
An unwelcome surprise arrived in March, when dairy cows began to fall ill, eat less feed and produce discolored milk.
Research showed the virus was spreading rapidly and efficiently between cows, likely through raw milk, since infected cows shed large amounts of the virus through their mammary glands. Raccoons and farm cats appeared to get sick by drinking raw milk, too.
The more animals get infected, the higher the chances of exposure for the humans who interact with them.
“The more people infected, the more possibility mutations could occur,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and the director of the Brown University School of Public Health’s Pandemic Center. “I don’t like giving the virus a runway to a pandemic.”
Until this year, cows hadn’t been a focus of influenza prevention efforts.
“We didn’t think dairy cattle were a host for flu, at least a meaningful host,” Andrew Bowman, a professor of veterinary preventive medicine at Ohio State University, told NBC News this summer.
But now, the virus has been detected in at least 865 herds of cows across at least 16 states, as well as in raw (unpasteurized) milk sold in California and in domestic cats who drank raw milk. […]
“Health care sharing ministries advertise reimbursements for members’ medical bills. But they are largely unregulated, and most have restrictions on maternity coverage.”
Rachel Kaplan was uninsured when she became pregnant last year. So her doctor suggested an alternative: a nonprofit called Sedera, which bills itself as a medical cost-sharing service.
Sedera members pay monthly fees that get pooled together, and the organization can use the collected funds to reimburse members for medical bills. The model is somewhat akin to health insurance, but Sedera isn’t subject to the same regulations.
“It seemed simple enough that we were like, ‘OK, this makes sense,’ only to find out when I tried to submit the bill from the hospital, we were denied,” Kaplan said.
She and her husband, Andrew Sheffield, reached out to Sedera for reimbursement after their son, Lucas, was born in August 2023. The delivery had involved an induction, 40 hours of labor and ultimately a cesarean section — the kinds of complications that can send hospital bills skyrocketing. But to the couple’s shock, they said, Sedera told them they were ineligible, citing a policy near the end of the group’s member guidelines: Within the first year of membership, medical bills for childbirth “are not shareable.”
“We basically gave Sedera our money and received nothing in return,” Kaplan said. “The rug was pulled out from underneath us.”
[…] Sedera is what’s known as a “health care sharing ministry,” one of more than 100 such groups in the U.S. Most are rooted in Christianity and emphasize their faith-based values. The model has grown in popularity and revenue in the last decade, as insurance premiums and claim denials have risen alongside soaring health care costs, fueling distrust of health insurance companies.
The Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, a trade association representing seven large ministries, said that last year, an estimated 1 million people in the U.S. were members of one of these groups. An analysis from the Colorado Division of Insurance put the total at around 1.5 million. That’s compared to fewer than 200,000 people before 2010.
[…] Among the key differences between ministry and health insurance plans are that the latter negotiate directly with medical providers, rather than reimbursing members. Most health insurance plans are also required by law to cover various services, including for pre-existing conditions, pregnancy and preventive care, whereas ministries can restrict coverage as they see fit and have no legal obligation to reimburse members. [It’s a scam. It’s a Christianity-based scam.]
The ministries operate in broad view of state and federal regulators and got a boost from the Affordable Care Act, which stipulated that people without insurance could avoid fines if they belonged to one of these groups. […] Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Dave Weldon, is a former president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries.
One service ministries commonly restrict is maternity care, for which many require a waiting period before a member is eligible to be reimbursed, according to a Government Accountability Office report. An NBC News analysis found that at least eight of the 10 largest ministries have such restrictions.
By contrast, under the Affordable Care Act, most health insurance plans are required to cover pregnancy and childbirth care as essential services, even if a member becomes pregnant before their coverage starts.
NBC News spoke to four families who said they were denied or struggled to get reimbursed by their health care sharing ministry for pregnancy or childbirth-related expenses. All felt they had been deceived and warned other expecting families not to join, saying that the model can be just as bad — if not worse — than the system they opted out of.
[…] Flexibility, but with few safeguards
Most health care sharing ministries follow a similar model: People pay a monthly membership fee, which varies by policy but can range from around $85 to $1,300. Members are responsible for an annual “unshareable amount” of their medical bills — somewhat akin to a deductible — before the ministry will chip in.
Members inform their doctor or hospital that they’re “cash pay” patients (which can result in discounted bills), then share copies of bills and proof of payment with their health care ministry.[…] Beyond restricting maternity coverage, many groups’ policies state that they won’t reimburse for prescriptions, routine doctor’s visits, contraceptives or mental health or substance use services. Coverage for medical conditions that predate someone’s membership is often excluded, as well. And health care sharing ministries aren’t required by law to limit out-of-pocket costs or maintain large cash reserves to cover members’ bills the way insurance companies are.
At least 30 states have laws that explicitly exempt health care sharing ministries from state insurance rules, too. [Why?]
[…] Another of the country’s largest health care sharing ministries, Liberty HealthShare, has been a target of member complaints and a lawsuit in recent years.
[…] Walborn said he was never reimbursed for his wife’s prenatal care or the delivery of their daughter Sophie in 2021.
Walborn said he submitted invoices within 180 days of medical service dates, per Liberty’s policy, but the company then requested itemized charges and additional documentation. That back-and-forth continued, he said, until the 180-day mark passed, after which point Liberty told him he was no longer eligible for reimbursement because of the time limit.
“I kept fastidious records of all of these codes and everything. It was never good enough for them,” he said.
[…] The American Hospital Association sent a warning about the ministries to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year. More than a dozen state insurance departments have issued consumer alerts about the ministries. And over the last five years, some state regulators and attorneys general have taken a range of legal actions against a few health care sharing ministries, accusing them of misrepresenting their plans.
On the federal level, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., reintroduced a bill last year that would require health care sharing ministries to submit annual financial disclosures to the IRS and other regulators, but the bill has stalled in committee. […]
The Vatican has taken the first main step to implement Pope Francis’ wish that Belgium’s late king be beatified for having abdicated for a day rather than approve legislation to legalize abortion.
The Holy See’s saint-making office on Dec. 17 established a historical commission, made up of experts in Belgian history and archives, to begin investigating the life and virtues of King Baudouin, the Vatican said in a communique Saturday.
Francis surprised and even enraged some Belgians when, during his September visit to Brussels, he prayed at Baudouin’s tomb, denounced Belgium’s abortion laws as “homicidal” and announced he wanted to beatify the late king.
Doubling down on the issue during his in-flight press conference en route home, Francis called doctors who perform abortions “hitmen.” …
He abdicated his throne for a day? What an incredible sacrifice. Not even as difficult as Jesus’ bad weekend.
Games Workshop has had more of its share of controversies this year, but now multiple stores say they are going no longer to carry Games Workshop or Warhammer 40K products because they’ve had enough of the company’s antics.
It’s hard to say how serious this is. Not only is it hard to tell how real this boycott is but it’s more important what the players are doing then what the stores are doing. Tabletop gaming is something where people still go to stores and buy stuff at stores more because you need to meet up someplace with other players. It’s also a small group given over to random short term fads as people take up a new game for a couple of months and then drop it, or get angry at a popular company but come back because that company’s game is still what people play.
Warhammer 40,000 came to national attention in April when Games Workshop introduced female Adeptus Custodes to the property in the most recent Codex: Adeptus Custodes with an excerpt stating,
This was a hugely stupid argument. Some of the purity of the lore bros acted like this was a huge and highly detrimental change. In reality the lore has changed many times over the years and there have always been some female characters. If GW wants to introduce a female character into a group previous presented as all male it isn’t a big deal.
Through this, Games Workshop has upset fans further by increasing the prices of its products and generally adopting a corporate attitude many consider anti-consumer. This has led many to quit the hobby or seek alternative games to play.
Now, multiple local game shops have said they’ve had enough as the tide seems to be turning against Games Workshop because of their business practices.
Games workshop has been hosing over their fans in real ways also. They have always had a policy that you had to use official painted Games Workshop models in official tournaments. So if Games Workshop stopped producing Space Marine version 1 and started making Space Marine version 2 you were supposed to replace all your space marines. In practice people didn’t get too picky as long as you mostly had real Games Workshop miniatures and Games Workshop itself would usually continue to make and sell the old versions. Lately they have gotten more rigid about that and been turning their miniature line over more quickly, making it expensive to follow the rules.
birgerjohanssonsays
Reginald Selkirk @ 415
Belgium has a poor record with kings. They had the genocidal colonialist a century ago, then they had one who was driving drunk and killed his queen in the resulting crash. And during WWII a king (the same one?) chose to stay in occupied Belgium instead of joining the armed forces in exile.
The A2RL (Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League) removes one of those elements from its vehicles but, in doing so, creates a whole new list of complexities. Say goodbye to the human driver and hello to 95 kilograms of computers and a whole suite of sensors. That setup was poised to be part of a demonstration “race” against former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat at Suzuka Circuit in Japan during the Super Formula season finale.
The computer car wiped out in a warm up lap when driving on a course other then it’s home track. A2RL is something new started 2024. It’s racing computer controlled F1 cars. More exotic circus for the masses then anything.
The speed continues to increase as the development progresses. Initially, the vehicles were three to five minutes slower than Kvyat around a lap; now, they are about eight seconds behind. That’s a lifetime in a real human-to-human race, but an impressive amount of development for vehicles with 90 kg of computer hardware crammed into the cockpit of a super formula car.
The cars used in the A2RL are not deep learning AIs, they are programmed driving systems, barely AI at all. They are getting better because the programmers are improving the driving programs. Still funny that it wiped out as soon as it was put on a different track.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Canada to Peterson: Don’t let the door hit ya where developmental biology split ya!
Meanwhile: what the fuck is up with this tin of Quality Street? The little crunchy orange octagons have been replaced with generic round crunchy orange, and the elongated hazelnut and caramel ones are half the size they were, no hazelnut, no caramel, just vaguely hazelnuttish flavor …
birgerjohanssonsays
Will Peterson stay in Arizona permanently or is he just escaping the winter?
US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates, switching their penalty to life in prison without parole.
The three excluded from the measure include the Boston Marathon bomber and the man who killed Jewish worshippers in 2018.
In a statement, Biden said he was “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level”. His measure does not include more than 2,000 people convicted to death by State authorities…
KGsays
birgerjohansson@421,
Don’t slit your arteries yet, it is still possible to save the world.
Maybe, but not by carbon capture and storage. It might possibly play a minor role, in relation to cement and steel production, where the CO2 produced is mostly not from fossil fuel burning; otherwise, it’s just a fossil fuel lobby scam, endlessly promised and never intended to be delivered.
StevoRsays
As of 8 months ago. it will be worse now. More devastated. More rubble, less standing. Fewer living human individuals.
Has anyone previously dealt with the fact that Gawd was an actual adulterer who din’t even give the “Virgin” Mary an orgasm – at least as reported from text – when he got her preggas and by the laws of the time they stechnically shoulda stoned Yahweh to death (or atleats tried too..) as well as her? Given y’know the archiac laws of that time. (Coming soon to USoA now thanks those who did NOT vote for Kamala Harris!)
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Monday filed a lawsuit against the House Ethics Committee in a last-minute attempt to block the panel from releasing its report on the Florida Republican.
“The Committee’s apparent intention to release its report after explicitly acknowledging it lacks jurisdiction over former members, its failure to follow constitutional notions of due process, and failure to adhere to its own procedural rules and precedent represents an unprecedented overreach that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s attorneys wrote.
This is a last gasp move, Gaetz is hoping that if he can clog up the procedure long enough congress will just drop it. It isn’t likely to work but Gaetz is fighting to survive. The report has already been leaked to multiple news sources but if he can keep it from being officially released he can continue to deny it contains anything important.
Also, it looks like Gaetz’s lawyers messed up the first attempt at filing and will have to rush in a second one.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday he will launch a new anti-drug advertising campaign to show the physical impact of taking drugs like fentanyl and repeated his threat to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
“We’re going to advertise how bad drugs are for you. They ruin your look, they ruin your face, they ruin your skin, they ruin your teeth,” Trump said at a conference of the conservative group Turning Point in Phoenix, Arizona.
Just say no 2.0. Does not achieve anything but it will look like the government is doing something and that is what Trump and his advisors are most concerned with.
On the plus side there will be some good jokes. This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, this is your brain on Trump tweets.
“One House Republican declared, ‘It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.’ The closer one looks, the worse the comment appears.”
If there were any doubts about Elon Musk’s political influence in the contemporary Republican Party, they were largely erased last week. After all, the world’s wealthiest individual managed to play a leading role in derailing a bipartisan spending bill negotiated by the GOP’s own elected congressional leaders.
What’s more, as the process unfolded, Republicans made no secret of the fact that they were in frequent communication with Musk — keeping him in the loop and updating him on the granular details, as if he were the president-elect — despite the fact that he’s heading up a powerless advisory panel that doesn’t have any real, statutory authority.
But as odd as it was to see the process unfold this way as actual policymakers raced to prevent a government shutdown, the GOP’s line on the controversial billionaire keeps getting stranger.
On Friday night, for example, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma appeared on CNN and boasted about Musk and Donald Trump “working together as a team” ahead of the shutdown deadline, as if the billionaire were somehow the vice president-elect.
Two days later, Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee also appeared on CNN and declared, in reference to the bipartisan spending bill that his party rejected a few days earlier, “Thank God Elon Musk bought Twitter, because that’s the only way we’d even know what’s in this bill.”
Perhaps the senator should’ve thought this through a bit more. For one thing, Musk didn’t help lawmakers “know what’s in this bill”; he effectively did the opposite by peddling misinformation about the legislation that fell apart under scrutiny. Even Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana publicly conceded, “Elon was saying things that frankly weren’t true.”
What’s more, the idea that false tweets from a billionaire were “the only way” for senators to know what was in the legislation is belied by the fact that senators and their aides could simply read the bill. Indeed, Hagerty is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The idea that he, of all people, was dependent on bogus claims from Musk suggests that the Tennessean and his office weren’t doing their jobs especially well ahead of an important deadline. [They never do their job well.]
But around the same time as Hagerty’s appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” another congressional Republican was going even further. NBC News reported:
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, on Sunday compared tech mogul Elon Musk to a “prime minister,” praising Musk for speaking out against an early version of a stopgap funding bill last week. “It’s kind of interesting,” Gonzales said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker. It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.”
[Nope. Not true. Not logical. Not even close to reality.]
In context, as a video clip of the comments makes clear, Gonzales’ comments were not a complaint. Rather, the Texas Republican made the observation as if it were a positive development. The congressman added that he spoke with Musk “a couple of times” last week, amid the unexpected Capitol Hill drama.
When CBS News’ Margaret Brennan reminded the lawmaker that Musk isn’t an elected official, Gonzales, after suggesting that the billionaire is effectively “our prime minister,” went on to say that Musk’s voice is “a reflection of the voice of the people.”
So, a couple of things.
First, while parliamentary systems around the world vary, prime ministers invariably need to win some kind of election before claiming power. Being pals with a president-elect isn’t supposed to be enough to serve in a position of authority — in this country or any other.
Second, while Gonzales might see the world’s wealthiest individual as “the voice of the people,” there’s compelling evidence to the contrary. In fact, the latest public opinion research suggests that the American people aren’t altogether comfortable with an unelected billionaire exerting governmental influence.
The more Republican officials shrug their shoulders in response to such evidence, the more they invite a backlash.
“Trump intends to appoint Mark Burnett to serve as special envoy to the United Kingdom. That’s odd for a couple of reasons.”
It’s not a secret that Donald Trump, who hosted a television gameshow before launching a political career, is trying to staff his next administration with people who’ve spent a lot of time in front of a camera. Media Matters counted up the number of former hosts, contributors, and employees who worked under the Fox umbrella — including Fox News and Fox Business — who’ll soon join the Trump administration, and the list included 15 people.
[Trump] also has an apparent affinity for those who had behind-the-scenes roles in the television industry. NBC News reported:
[…] Trump on Saturday announced his intent to appoint his former producer from ‘The Apprentice’ to serve as special envoy to the United Kingdom. Mark Burnett has received three-dozen Emmy nominations […] Trump has previously praised Burnett during campaign trail appearances.
[…] At first glance, Trump’s online announcement about Burnett’s upcoming diplomatic role seemed rather anodyne: The Republican highlighted the TV producer’s “distinguished” private-sector career and awards, before concluding, “Mark will work to enhance diplomatic relations, focusing on areas of mutual interest, including trade, investment opportunities, and cultural exchanges.”
But just below the surface, there was a related question that might not have been immediately obvious. The Washington Post’s report on the announcement noted, “The scope of Burnett’s special envoy role was not immediately clear. Trump earlier in December said he would nominate billionaire donor Warren Stephens to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. Typically special envoys are appointed to countries where there are conflicts or no diplomatic relations, such as Iran.”
It’s the key detail that makes this story strange. Indeed, Burnett would not succeed the incumbent U.S. special envoy to the United Kingdom because there is no current U.S. special envoy to the United Kingdom. And the reason that there’s no one in that position now is that the United States does not need a special envoy to the U.K.
We have an embassy, an ambassador and a “special relationship” that covers a wide range of diplomatic, intelligence and cultural dimensions.
Special envoys are for areas facing international crises. Either the Republican president-elect isn’t fully aware of this, or he has concerns related to the United Kingdom that the public is not yet aware of.
[…] [Trump] chose to intervene, in the 11th hour, with an odd and unnecessary demand [any Republican who would be “so stupid” as to approve a spending bill without increasing the debt limit “should, and will, be Primaried.”], which Republicans rejected and left Democrats wondering aloud about his mental health.
If this were a rare setback in an otherwise flawless transition phase, it’d be easier to overlook. But the opposite is true: In the seven weeks since Election Day, Trump and his team have careened from one failure to another, as part of a pre-inaugural process that can only be described as shambolic. What’s more, by some measures, it’s getting worse, not better.
The apparent point of the president-elect’s fixation on his illusory “mandate” is to present himself as a powerful political titan, poised to arrive at the White House without a head of steam and the backing of the electorate. But as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes summarized on Friday night, “This does not seem like an unbeatable colossus at all. This seems like a pretty weak leader who is hemorrhaging political capital.”
[…] In sum, the Committee found substantial evidence of the following:
• From at least 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him.
• In 2017, Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl.
• During the period 2017 to 2019, Representative Gaetz used or possessed illegal
drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions.
• Representative Gaetz accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in
connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts.
• In 2018, Representative Gaetz arranged for his Chief of Staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating
to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent.
• Representative Gaetz knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the
Committee’s investigation of his conduct.
• Representative Gaetz has acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the
House. […]
A man suspected in the killings of three people in Illinois was fatally shot by police in west suburban Chicago while in the neighborhood of a far-right political influencer.
Nick Fuentes said on X that the man, wearing a motorcycle helmet, was outside his home in Berwyn with a gun and another weapon, rang the doorbell and said, “Yo, Nick.” Fuentes had video from a porch camera Wednesday night.
The man shot at Berwyn police during a subsequent foot chase and was killed when officers returned fire, Chief Michael Cimaglia said.
The man was identified as John Lyons, 24, of Westchester, a Chicago suburb.
The man earlier “parked his car in front of my house and approached my door with his pistol drawn and what appears to be a crossbow. I was livestreaming at the time,” Fuentes said on X, where he also posted the porch video…
The only two-sided state flag in the United States is the flag of Oregon while the only nation with a double-sided flag is Paraguay. The double-sided flags were very common in the past in the United States. However, with the cost of manufacturing them being quite high in most states, states other than Oregon replaced their flags with some simple banners. Oregon became the last state with a double-sided flag after Massachusetts changed its flag in 1971.
The flag of Oregon has a navy blue field with all the symbols and letters in gold. The flag’s colors (gold and navy blue) represent the state’s colors. The observing part of the flag features an escutcheon, similar to the one on the state’s seal. The reverse part has an image of a beaver (Oregon’s state animal)…
The current design of the flag of Paraguay was first adopted in 1842.[1] Its design, a red–white–blue triband, was inspired by the colours of the French Tricolour, believed to signify independence and liberty. The flag is unusual because it differs on its obverse and reverse sides: the obverse of the flag shows the national coat of arms, and the reverse shows the seal of the treasury. It is the only national flag worldwide that has a unique design on each side…
Flu season is ramping up across the US, but Louisiana—the state that has reportedly barred its health department from promoting flu shots, as well as COVID-19 and mpox vaccines—is leading the country with an early and strong surge.
Louisiana’s flu activity has reached the “Very High” category set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the latest data. The 13-category scale is based on the percentage of doctor’s visits that were for influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) in the previous week. Louisiana is at the first of three “Very High” levels. Oregon is the only other state to have reached this level…
Reginald @438, Sheesh. That’s bad. And that’s before Trump’s anti-vac nominees start running federal agencies related to health. Rightwing states are making their citizens sick.
The Prime Minister of Greenland has rejected a strange proposal from Donald Trump, who argued that the United States should take over the territory.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede said in a statement in response.
The rejection occurred after Trump announced the appointment of Ken Howery as ambassador to Denmark. Howery, who was a part of a group of wealthy former PayPal executives including Elon Musk, funded the pro-Trump super PAC America PAC that spent millions to elect Trump.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and has been making strides toward self-government over the last decade and a half. Most of the territory’s population of nearly 56,000 people is of Inuit descent.
Trump has been fixated on taking over Greenland for years despite it being an issue that most Americans have neither heard of nor thought about. According to multiple reports, Trump suggested to aides that the United States trade Puerto Rico for Greenland during his first term.
“I love maps. And I always said: ‘Look at the size of this. It’s massive. That should be part of the United States,’” Trump reportedly said, justifying his obsession.
The clash with Greenland’s government echoes acrimonious exchanges Trump has had with several other governments, including in Mexico, Canada, and Panama. In contrast, Trump has shown openness toward traditional U.S. adversaries like Russia and North Korea.
Even before being sworn in as president, Trump has been returning to his destructive brand of foreign policy after outgoing President Joe Biden worked to repair alliances.
[…] Here’s what happened with the government shutdown and the continuing resolution: Democrats saved millions of workers from getting furloughed right before Christmas, and after wise and good Elon Musk successfully demanded Congress cut funding for pediatric cancer research, Democrats got a unanimous “the fuck you say” bill passed funding it separately. […] [Good summary!]
“CNN confirmed on-air just now that top Trump aides are furiously calling journalists to insist that Elon Musk has been following the orders of Trump rather than the other way around. As predicted, Trump is horrified and enraged at the idea that Musk is now seen as the President of the United States.” — Scenes from President Musk’s shutdown. (Jeff Tiedrich)
This excellent piece about the people who pulled an Amber Heard on Blake Lively because she asked them not to harass her please. She filed a civil rights complaint and got all their text messages where their “crisis PR” person explained how terrible it would be if Lively got all their texts about how they were going to do an Amber Heard and “bury her.” Information warfare is real, and the bad guys are AMAZING at it. (New York Times gift link)
Josh Marshall thinks it should be pretty easy for a political party to make hay out of the other party being specifically, out loud, the party of billionaires. But like that would require people to use the brains in their heads, too, also, as well. (Talking Points Memo)
I know why people think the Democratic Party is “toxic,” Joe Manchin […] (CNN)
Ricky Henderson was a … baseball man? Anyway, FUCK THAT, CHANGE SOMEONE’S LIFE. This has been sports. (Reddit / Indignity)
The Bulwark wants you to stop shitting on things that are awesome, like It’s a Wonderful Life! (The Bulwark)
The real Santa Claus. (Modern Medieval)
It seems like The Body Keeps The Score might be bad! It might be a bad book! (Mother Jones)
It’s that time of year: The Haters’ Guide to the Williams Sonoma Catalog! It’s a terrible store! (Defector)
Do we want to look at my new kitchen? We DO? Okay! […]
[Embedded links and photos are available at the main link]
“Gangs are filling a power vacuum left by Israel in some parts of southern Gaza, hijacking desperately needed aid for Palestinian residents.”
Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver, was passing through the ruins of southern Gaza last month with a truckload of aid when armed looters ambushed his convoy.
One of the gunmen broke into his truck, forcing him to drive to a nearby field and unload thousands of pounds of flour intended for hungry Palestinians, he said by phone from Gaza. By the next morning, the gang had stripped virtually all of the supplies from the convoy of about 100 trucks of United Nations aid, enough to feed tens of thousands of people, in what the United Nations described as one of the worst such episodes of the war.
“It was terrifying,” said Mr. Isleem, 47, whom the looters held for 13 hours while they pillaged the flour. “But the worst part was we weren’t able to deliver the food to the people.”
Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza in response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack last year has unleashed a humanitarian crisis in the enclave, with more than 45,000 people dead, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hunger is widespread, and Israel has placed restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza and blocked movement of aid trucks between the north and south.
Though Hamas has been routed in much of the territory, Israel has not put an alternative government in place. In parts of southern Gaza, armed gangs have filled the resulting power vacuum, leaving aid groups unwilling to risk delivering supplies.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said this month that it would no longer deliver aid through Kerem Shalom, the main border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza, because of the breakdown in law and order.
Hundreds of truckloads of relief are piling up at the crossing in part because aid groups fear they will be looted.
What began as smaller-scale attempts to seize aid early in the year — often by hungry Gazans — has now become “systematic, tactical, armed, crime-syndicate looting” by organized groups, said Georgios Petropoulos, a senior U.N. official based in the southern city of Rafah. “This is just larceny writ large,” he said. […]
X is raising prices for its top-tier subscription service, Premium+, by 37.5% to $22 a month, marking the largest price increase since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022.
The price hike will first affect U.S. users, going up from $16, effective December 21, according to a statement. Annual subscriptions have also climbed to $229 from $168.
X said it was “adjusting” the prices to support the experience it offers. Existing subscribers will be grandfathered into current rates until January 20…
Whooping cough cases in the U.S. have reached the highest annual total in a decade, with as many cases tallied in the last 12 weeks as in the entire rest of the year.
As of mid-September, about 14,500 cases had been recorded nationwide since the beginning of the year. That number climbed to more than 32,000 as of Dec. 14, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s a six-fold increase from the same time in 2023, when more than 5,100 cases had been recorded. The total for 2022 was even lower, at roughly 3,000 cases. [Graph at the link]
Experts attribute the high case tally to a combination of factors. For one, whooping cough cases dropped to levels far lower than average during the Covid pandemic, so a jump back to pre-pandemic patterns was expected. However, this year’s total is significantly higher than 2019’s, likely due to waning vaccine protection, lower vaccination rates and improved testing, they said.
Also known as pertussis, whooping cough is a bacterial infection that affects the upper respiratory system. Its spread typically follows a seasonal pattern, with a peak in the fall or winter.
[…] “They don’t have time in between those coughs to take a breath,” said Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at University of California, Davis, Children’s Hospital. “Sometimes, if it’s so severe, the kids end up being intubated or on a ventilator so that they can get oxygen.”
Infants are the most vulnerable to whooping cough, with the highest risk of getting infected and of serious complications.
“It’s most severe in the youngest kids, so certainly those less than a year, and especially those less than 6 months of age,” Blumberg said. “I personally have seen a patient who’s died from pertussis this year, and I’ve seen several that have been in the ICU.”
He added that most of the whooping cough patients he’s seen have been unvaccinated and that he’s noticed a decline in vaccine coverage. […]
More details at the link, including recommendations for vaccination schedules, and including information about the effects of vaccination waning.
Re: Lynna, OM @ #440….
Trump’s remarks about maps and the size of Greenland show that he clearly doesn’t know much about maps, and–especially–that he doesn’t know how a Mercator projection affects the apparent size of areas at high latitude.
Officials were investigating Sunday what caused a crack in a Colorado ski lift that forced the evacuation of over 170 stranded skiers and snowboarders.
The gondola lift at Winter Park Resort, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Denver, automatically stopped when it detected the crack in a structural piece of the lift just after noon on Saturday, resort spokesperson Jen Miller said. People riding in the gondolas were lowered down by ropes over the course of about five hours, she said.
No injuries were reported during the rescues, which came at the start of the busy holiday ski season.
Ski patrolers entered the cabin of each gondola from above and lowered people’s equipment to the ground before using a rope equipped with a seat to lower each of the 174 passengers to the ground, Miller said…
The world’s largest transparent spherical detector started filling with ultrapure water Wednesday, signifying that the construction of the neutrino research facility has reached its last critical stage.
The ultrapure water, which has been filtered through multiple stages of the water purification system, is injected at a flow rate of 100 tonnes per hour into the detector pool of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), according to the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the project’s leading institution.
The core of JUNO is a liquid scintillator detector immersed in a 44-meter-deep cylindrical pool in the underground hall buried deep in a granite layer of a hill in Kaiping, Jiangmen City, in south China’s Guangdong Province. The detector is supported by a stainless steel mesh shell with a diameter of 41.1 meters, which holds an acrylic sphere with a diameter of 35.4 meters to be filled with 20,000 tonnes of liquid scintillator.
The detector is equipped with 20,000 photomultiplier tubes of 20 inches and 25,000 photomultiplier tubes of three inches, as well as cables, magnetic shielding coils, light baffles and other components…
The state’s utility board approved an 8 percent rate hike to increase energy production for data centers, while Navajo Nation residents live without electricity, writes The Washington Post:
But it rejected a plan to bring electricity to parts of the Navajo Nation land … because of “concerns about how the funds would be used,” adding that customers are not “responsible for extending electricity to all tribal areas of the state.” …
Russian scientists have unveiled the remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth found in thawing permafrost in the remote Yakutia region of Siberia during the summer.
They say “Yana” – who has been named after the river basin where she was discovered – is the world’s best-preserved mammoth carcass.
Weighing in at over 100kg (15st 10lb), and measuring 120cm (4ft) tall and 200cm long, Yana is estimated to have been only about one-year-old when she died.
Before this, there were only six similar discoveries in the world – five in Russia and one in Canada…
Chocolate maker Cadbury has been dropped from the list of royal warrants for the first time in 170 years.
The Birmingham-based chocolatier was awarded its first royal warrant as chocolate and cocoa manufacturers by Queen Victoria in 1854, but it has lost its royal endorsement under King Charles.
Cadbury’s US owners, Mondelez International, said it was disappointed to have been stripped of its warrant.
The King has granted royal warrants to 386 companies that previously held warrants from Queen Elizabeth II, including John Lewis, Heinz and Nestle.
Companies holding the Royal Warrant of Appointment, granted for up to five years, are recognised for providing goods or services to the monarchy.
Among the King’s new list of warrant holders are many firms selling food and drink, such as Moet and Chandon, Weetabix and chocolate makers Bendicks and Prestat Ltd.
Warrant holders are allowed to use the coat of arms of the royal they are associated with on packaging, as part of advertising or on stationery.
Earlier this year, the King was urged by campaign group B4Ukraine to withdraw warrants from companies “still operating in Russia” after the invasion of Ukraine, naming Mondelez and consumer goods firm Unilever, which has also been stripped of the endorsement…
Shane Lamond, the former head of the Metropolitan Police intelligence unit in Washington who was indicted last year for feeding information to a Proud Boys leader, was found guilty on Monday.
Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio is serving 22 years after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. Judge Amy Berman Jackson returned the verdict on Monday finding Lamond guilty of four counts, including obstruction of justice and three counts of lying to investigators, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The verdict followed a bench trial which featured contentious testimony from Tarrio, who insisted that he’d been contemporaneously lying to his fellow Proud Boys about receiving information from a source in the Metropolitan Police Department.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Lamond had become a “double agent” for the Proud Boys, saying he had tipped off Tarrio that there was a warrant out for his arrest in connection with the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner during Tarrio’s prior trip to Washington with the Proud Boys…
whheydt @448, yep. Trump is ignorant at all levels. Kind of amazing actually.
In other news:
When the billionaire [Elon Musk] called Rep. Rosa DeLauro an “awful creature,” it was a problem. When he called for the Democrat’s expulsion, it made the problem worse.
Video at the link.
After Elon Musk helped derail a bipartisan spending bill with misinformation, Rep. Richie Neal made no effort to hide his frustration. The Massachusetts Democrat — the ranking member on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee — asked, “Can you imagine what the next two years will be like if every time that Congress works its will, and then there’s a tweet, or from an individual who has no official portfolio, who threatens members on the Republican side with a primary, and they succumb?”
The billionaire apparently wasn’t pleased with the congressman’s comments, declaring soon after that he would soon “be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those who don’t represent them, like this jacka–.”
Whether Musk is aware of this or not, Neal is already widely seen as a moderate, and there’s no reason to believe a primary rival backed by the world’s wealthiest individual would fare any better against the longtime lawmaker.
But in the case of Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a primary challenge apparently isn’t good enough for the billionaire: Musk wants her to be kicked out of Congress altogether.
As CNBC reported, at the heart of the story is a change made to the stopgap spending bill designed to prevent a government shutdown last week.
House Democrats Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut say their Republican colleagues in Congress caved to the demands of Elon Musk, sinking a bipartisan government funding bill that would have regulated U.S. investments in China.
In the original, bipartisan spending agreement — the one that Musk helped kill — there was a provision designed to restrict U.S. investments in China, specifically related to investments in the artificial intelligence and technology sectors.
When the legislation was rewritten, Republicans took this provision out for reasons GOP officials haven’t fully explained. Ostensibly, the party was looking to make the bill cheaper, but this measure cost effectively nothing.
In a series of online items, McGovern complained that the removed provision “would have made it easier to keep cutting-edge AI and quantum computing tech — as well as jobs — in America.” The Massachusetts Democrat added, “But Elon had a problem.”
McGovern went on to write, “His bottom line depends on staying in China’s good graces. He [Musk] wants to build an AI data center there too — which could endanger U.S. security. He’s been bending over backwards to ingratiate himself with Chinese leaders.”
DeLauro went a bit further, writing a letter to congressional leaders questioning whether the change to the bill reflected some kind of behind-the-scenes corruption: Perhaps, the Connecticut Democrat alleged, the legislation was tweaked specifically to benefit Musk, who has, as DeLauro put it, “extensive” business interests in China.”
It was, to be sure, a provocative allegation. But the billionaire megadonor responded with an online item of his own, calling DeLauro an “awful creature” and saying that he believes the Democratic congresswoman “needs to be expelled from Congress!”
For the record, members of Congress are allowed to raise concerns about possible corruption, just as they’re able to make allegations regarding prominent public figures. Whether the congresswoman’s allegations have merit or not, to suggest that an elected lawmaker be kicked out of office for criticizing a billionaire in ways he doesn’t like is, to put it mildly, unsettling.
Well that’s was a demonstration of Elon Musk’s ignorance.
Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian fuel depot for the second time in just over a week on Sunday, according to a senior Russian regional official, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow’s military.
The strikes came days after Russia launched sweeping attacks on Ukraine’s already battered energy grid, threatening to plunge thousands of homes into darkness as winter tightens its grip over the region, and as Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor nears the three-year mark.
A fire broke out at the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal in Russia’s southern Oryol region, local Gov. Andrey Klychkov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding Russian forces downed 20 drones targeting “fuel and energy infrastructure” in the province…
[…] Donald Trump is threatening to bring back all sorts of imperialist bullshit that we have previously only read about […]
The latest shot across the bow came over the weekend, when President-elect Juice Box spoke at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2024, the latest in the long interminable line of conservative get-togethers that seem to happen every other weekend, where the same exact speakers do the same exact wanking off for the same exact crowds […]
The headline was Trump getting all jingoistic about the Panama Canal, threatening to take it back and excoriating Jimmy Carter for selling it back to Panama for one dollar in the first place. [Video at the link.]
While he was at it, the convicted felon promised to change the name of Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley, change the names of various military bases back to whichever Confederate traitors they used to be named for before Ol’ Woke Joe Biden got hold of them, get all the “woke” and “transgender” out of the military and college sports and elementary schools, and sign an executive order on Inauguration Day closing the border and kicking off mass deportations.
Basically, it was every campaign speech we’ve heard the last few years […]
Later, Trump took to his vanity social media site to double down on demanding Panama give back the Canal, or else they will be sorry:
….The United States has a vested interest in the secure, efficient, and reliable operation of the Panama Canal, and that was always understood. We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands! It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question. To the Officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly!
He followed that up with some more jabber about the cost in treasure and lives to America in the original building of the canal — which is not true, as most of the laborers who died digging the canal were natives of the British and French West Indies, and they worked in conditions so terrible at first that Americans didn’t want the jobs, which sounds familiar — and also criticizing Jimmy Carter for giving the Canal back to Panama, and so on, who knows, the Adderall-and-Diet-Coke cocktails must have been hitting hard.
The president of Panama pushed back, saying every inch of the canal belongs to Panama, to which Trump responded “We’ll see about that!” He followed that up by posting this picture [picture available at the link] with the comment “Welcome to the United States Canal!”
We have no idea what this is about. Maybe there is some sort of dispute about the fees the US pays for its naval ships and cargo carriers to transit the Canal, something that needs to be worked out diplomatically. Maybe he didn’t understand something from one of his briefings. Maybe somebody put the idea in his head and he can’t expel it without making a fool of himself.
But Trump being Trump, he’s handling it the same way he handled NATO members spending less of their GDP on their militaries than the US wanted. Which is to say, he’s leaning on a sovereign nation like it’s an Atlantic City zoning board.
As if that wasn’t enough imperialism for one weekend, Trump on Sunday also let us know he would still like to own Greenland. In a tweet or a truth or whatever the fuck we’re supposed to call them, he announced his nomination of venture capitalist Ken Howery as ambassador to Denmark, and added:
For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.
Ah, Greenland, object of his heart’s desire for thirty seconds during his first term. Remember when he actually canceled a state visit to Denmark in a snit because the nation’s Prime Minister told him No, that’s ours, you can look at it but you can’t play with it and Trump threw a hissy and ran all the way home screaming Mom, Tom Cotton said I could have Greenland but Denmark said I couldn’t have it just ‘cause it was theirs first and it’s not fair!
Needless to say, Greenland wants nothing to do with an imperialist nation led by a dementia-addled buffoon, and who can blame them:
Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said the island nation is “not for sale and will never be for sale,” after […] Trump suggested the U.S. should take it over. … “Greenland is ours,” Egede wrote. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Maybe Trump should try blackmailing Denmark: Nice, uh, fjords or whatever you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to them.
The chest-beating over territory comes on the heels of Trump also trying to troll Canada by suggesting it should become the United States’s 51st state, referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor,” and announcing he plans to slap tariffs of 25 percent on Canadian imports unless those French-fries-and-gravy-eating weirdos stopped all the tiny amount of all fentanyl (.08 percent of all of it in the US) coming across the northern border or presented Terrance and Phillip for execution or something.
Much like the picture of the American flag planted in the middle of the Panama Canal, remember there was also a dumb photoshop or AI something meant to imply Trump would conquer Canada by invading the Swiss Alps: [image at the link]
God, he’s embarrassing. [All too true!] He’s like a toddler running around a dinner party screaming and throwing food while everyone else gets irritated at his parents for just sitting there beaming and saying Oh, he’s got so much joie de vivre, isn’t he great?
This all comes on the heels of President-elect Binkie also threatening a “soft invasion” of Mexico to stop all the drugs he imagines are being humped across miles of open deserts by Venezuelan migrants. Next he’ll demand that Mexico renegotiate the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to give the US even more of its territory.
This is all the sort of “he’s joking but maybe he’s not joking” shtick that Trump’s fans love while normal people with a sense of humility and shame clutch their heads […]
What colonial possession should Trump order America to take back next? Will he demand Duterte hand back the Philippines? Maybe send the Rough Riders to invade Cuba again? Pull the Great White Fleet out of mothballs and point it towards Haiti?
We should probably stop talking before we give him more ideas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a bold announcement: Ukraine’s victory plan is ready. This comprehensive strategy aims to end the war, secure peace, and rebuild the nation. Presented to global leaders, including the U.S. and European allies, the plan outlines five key priorities, from NATO membership to economic recovery.
Not everything in the plan is public but the core of the plan has been released. This is Ukraine’s plan to achieve victory without negotiating with Russia.
1. Ukraine joins NATO – Won’t happen immediately but possible down the road. This will anger Russia no matter who is in control but part of the goal is to insure Russia can’t do anything about it.
2. Strengthen Ukraine’s military – Obvious but the details can get ugly. In particular Ukraine wants total control over long range systems. They have been hampered in this war because of this but other countries don’t want to provoke Russia. They also want a big tight air defense network for obvious reasons. This would be very expensive.
3. Ukraine gets a non-nuclear strategic deterrence force – Essentially a large collection of drones, artillery and missiles sufficient to keep Russia from starting a war. Obvious idea but the details of installing and using expensive advanced systems gets messy to negotiate. In particular Ukraine wants tomahawk missile, which have ranges beyond anything Ukraine currently has.
4. Ukraine wants to organize a joint repair and development project – Ukraine has a lot of resources that could be developed and that would do a lot to pay for rebuilding the country. The problems would be that Ukraine needs to rebuild before these can be developed. Plus this would be a huge finger to Russia, having big EU and US involvement right on the border is one of the things Russia wants to avoid. Doing this when there is no formal peace would be risky.
5. Ukraine wants to join the EU – This is likely long term no matter what but how long it takes depends on the situation. Even at the best Ukraine didn’t meet all of the requirements for joining the EU.
General assessment from other countries in public is that it’s more a set of goals then a tactical plan. At the same time it addresses a lot of the issues that must be dealt with. Under Trump I suspect that it’s likely to become a set of negotiating points at peace negotiations. How that goes is an open question.
More than 6,000 fall-run Chinook salmon have returned to the Klamath River and tributaries above the former Iron Gate Dam site since dam removal was completed this October, according to preliminary SONAR camera data released by conservation organization California Trout.
[…] As Karuk Tribe Vice Chairman Kenneth Brink said so well, “They said it was going to take 10 years for the salmon to return to the Upper Basin. Once the dams were out, it took 10 days.”
[…] It is a question that would have seemed batty for the GOP elite to consider before, even during Trump’s first term. But in the four years since, many within the mainstream Republican centers of power have come around to support Trump’s idea to bomb or attack Mexico.
Trump’s Cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense and secretary of state, have publicly supported the idea of potentially unleashing the U.S. military in Mexico. So has the man Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. So has the man Trump selected as his “border czar” to lead his immigration crackdowns. So have various Trump allies in Congress and in the media.
Trump, who has routinely (and falsely) promoted himself as the candidate who would stop “endless wars,” now wants to lead a new conflict just south of our nation’s border. But at this moment, it is, in the words of one Trump adviser, “unclear how far he’ll go on this one.” This source adds: “If things don’t change, the president still believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers.”
Another source close to Trump describes to Rolling Stone what they call a “soft invasion” of Mexico, in which American special forces — not a large theater deployment — would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders. Indeed, this is a preliminary plan that Trump himself warmed to in private conversations this year. […]
In September, at the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future, Member States adopted the Pact for the Future reconfirming their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Pact underscores the critical role of science, technology, and innovation (STI) and outlines several key action items — from increasing the use of science in policy making, to promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle complex global challenges, to supporting developing countries in harnessing STI for sustainable development.
If implemented, these measures will transform the global scientific community and science systems worldwide, requiring fundamental shifts in the organization, practice, and funding of science. …
Bekenstein Boundsays
Has anyone previously dealt with the fact that Gawd was an actual adulterer who din’t even give the “Virgin” Mary an orgasm
“Adulterer”? Try “rapist”. There’s no possibility of meaningful consent in the face of a power imbalance of that magnitude.
The core of JUNO is a liquid scintillator detector immersed in a 44-meter-deep cylindrical pool in the underground hall buried deep in a granite layer
Oops.
Granite emits radiation. That’s going to be a problem.
This does not seem like an unbeatable colossus at all. This seems like a pretty weak leader who is hemorrhaging political capital.
Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, Trump seems to be immune to the effects of hemmorhaging political capital. Actual capital too, for that matter. How many bankruptcies has he had at this point, again, without getting busted down to ordinary Joe? <sigh>
Sweden has accused China of denying a request for Swedish prosecutors to board a Chinese ship that has been linked to the cutting of two undersea cables in the Baltic despite Beijing pledging “cooperation” with regional authorities. From a report:
The Yi Peng 3 left the waters it had been anchored in since last month on Saturday — despite an ongoing investigation…
For more than a month afterwards it was anchored in the Kattegat strait between Sweden and Denmark where it was being observed by multiple countries and was boarded by Swedish police and other authorities last week. The ship tracking site VesselFinder showed the Yi Peng 3 heading north out of the strait on Saturday and on Monday China confirmed the ship had left in order to “ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of the crew.” The Swedish foreign minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said on Monday that China had not cooperated with Sweden’s request to allow Swedish prosecutors onboard.
Workers in China have set a new record by completing the task of building the world’s largest-diameter underwater shield tunnel.
The two mile section of the underwater shield segments is completed, as per reports. The section has a diameter of 55.8 feet (17 meters), and it has 500 pipe rings of underwater shielding.
Ninety-eight feet beneath the banks of the Yellow River, construction is still underway on the main section of the 3.6 mile tunnel that will run north-south along China’s Yellow River. The two-way tunnel will provide vehicles with three lanes in each direction and improve the region’s connectivity. It has a designed speed of 37.2 miles per hour (60 kmph)…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
A little more on @382, Rowling v John Oliver on trans athletes.
Update in description: “imported She Won’s data into a spreadsheet, almost half (471 of 1055) of the ‘medals’ were unreferenced.”
From the comments:
There are 750 people in the US hospitalized every year due to skunk bites. That’s almost double the amount of trans people performing (just performing, not winning or harming cis athletes) in sports worldwide.
—
For a woman who invented one of the most dangerous coed fictional sports, Rowling really isn’t taking responsibility for making girls think they can take on anyone.
—
I was going through the SheWon examples, and I’m not even sure we can trust them on who got first place “stolen.”
There was one entry that claimed first place was “stolen” in the CO2UT Desert Gravel Mountain Bike Race, Women’s 40-49, Fruita, Utah, 14 May competition. I looked it up and the person they’re claiming lost first place was 4th out of the women who were 40 to 49 years old. So unless the first 3 people were all trans, a trans person didn’t “steal” first from her.
There are also multiple entries for the same person and even the same event, just for different women.
Shocker that transphobes would lie about things, I know.
—
Ok, as a long time Last Week Tonight viewer, I have to say, attacking John Oliver is a… mistake. A bad one. The man fears no one. He took a coal mining consortium to court. With HBO’s money. He won. Then he hired a man dressed as a giant squirrel to tell the owner of said consortium to, “eat shit,” on air.
—
Rowling picking a fight with Oliver can only end well
JMsays
@426 StevoR: Your certainly not the first to notice the abuse of Mary but it’s not talked about a lot either. If you wedge an unstated approval from Mary into the story it’s easy for Christians to write the rest off as a miracle rather then adultery/rape. It’s easy for Christians to paste over doubts and for atheists bringing up issues to Christians there are a lot of better stories.
@459 Reginald Selkirk: At least when the evangelical Christians allied with Trump they mostly admitted Trump was not a good person. He was just running for the right party and they said god had chosen a bad person to do good things that god wanted done.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: StevoR @426:
Has anyone previously dealt with the fact that Gawd was an actual adulterer
at school he was subject to the teaching of narrow-minded and often violent nuns. He would pay them back in his comedy. […] From 1967 to 1994 he regularly had his own shows on ITV and BBC. […] His shows were subversive. He mocked and offended the Catholic Church, resulting in a ban by Irish TV and death threats from the IRA.
[…]
Allen was known for […] ending shows with the words “goodnight, thank you and may your God go with you”
a Jewish trial by ordeal administered by a priest in the tabernacle to a wife whose husband suspected her of adultery, but the husband had no witnesses to make a formal case. It is described in Numbers 5:11–31. […] This ritual is not to be confused with Deuteronomy 22:13–19, in which a man accuses his newlywed bride of pre-marital sex with someone else[: the stoning one].
[…]
Several commentaries on the Bible maintain that the ordeal is to be applied in the case of a woman who has become pregnant, allegedly by her extramarital lover. In this interpretation, the bitter potion could be an abortifacient […] If the fetus aborts as a result of the ordeal, this presumably confirms her guilt of adultery, otherwise her innocence is presumed if the fetus does not abort.
[…]
some early Christian legends, such as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, embroider the life of Mary, mother of Jesus with accounts including Mary and even Joseph undergoing a version of the ordeal.
there arose a great report that Mary was with child. And Joseph was seized by the officers of the temple, and brought along with Mary to the high priest. […] Why hast thou beguiled so great and so glorious a virgin, […] who never wished either to see or to have a man
[…]
when any one that had lied drank this water, and walked seven times round the altar, God used to show some sign in his face. […] Joseph had drunk in safety […] Mary said, stedfastly and without trembling: O Lord God, King over all, who knowest all secrets, if there be any pollution in me, or any sin, or any evil desires, or unchastity, expose me in the sight of all the people, and make me an example of punishment to all. Thus saying, she went up to the altar of the Lord boldly, and drank the water of drinking, and walked round the altar seven times, and no spot was found
[…]
some said that she was holy and unspotted, others that she was wicked [Mary said Nuh-uh!] Then they all began to kiss her feet and to embrace her knees, asking her to pardon them for their wicked suspicions.
The expectation of divine intervention kinda taints the trial when Yahweh’s the suspect. Though “Jesus should’ve been aborted,” is an intriguing take.
New research among hunter-gatherer societies is revealing that the social networks these populations create through mobility might be larger than ever expected. […] In the 21st century, hunter-gatherers continue to choose a life of almost-perpetual motion not only so they can find resources. They remain mobile so they can participate in large and complex societies distributed across territories that rival the size of Earth’s largest cities.
[…]
the adoption of agriculture was not a definitive, one-way transition. Many societies ‘experimented’ with agriculture without becoming fully reliant on it. In other cases, societies that were at one stage fully reliant on agriculture later returned to hunting and gathering. [In North America,] descendants of the original maize-cultivators in Mexico and the Southwestern United States, completely abandoned their agricultural lifestyle around 1,000 years ago. Not only that, but their abandonment of agriculture seems to have facilitated their rapid spread across the Colorado Plateau
[…]
Today, hunter-gatherers tend to live in temporary camps of 10 to 50 people that are scattered around the landscape. […] Yes, the [Congo] Mbendjele BaYaka do move camps when resources start becoming scarce, or when the season changes. They also routinely undertake long trips lasting multiple days and hundreds of kilometres to hunt or fish without changing their camp of residence. [They] search for spouses, establish friendships or participate in large commemoration ceremonies
[…]
[Elsewhere,] bead variations between eastern and southern Africa revealed a 50,000-year-old exchange network […] involving people travelling hundreds of kilometres […] Similar systems have also existed among […] Aboriginal Australians or the Wendat societies from North America.
[…]
the average Hadza or Aché adult learned tool-making techniques directly from around 300 role models throughout their lifetime. The large number [may explain] our incredible ability to innovate
American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday due to a technical issue just as the Christmas travel season kicks into high gear.
American flights were cleared to fly by federal regulators about one hour after a national ground stop order was issued by federal regulators.
Just before 7 a.m. Eastern time, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all American Airlines flights grounded in the U.S. at the airline’s request. American had reported a technical issue affecting its entire system with millions traveling for the holiday.
The ground stop, according to the time stamps on the FAA’s orders, lasted exactly one hour.
American has not expanded on what technical issue grounded the flights and the airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment…
A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian-born US citizen to 15 years in prison on espionage charges, Russian news agencies report.
Businessman Gene Spector was already serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence, having been originally arrested in 2020 on bribery charges.
Last year, he was also accused of spying. Details of the alleged offences have not been publicly released due to the secretive nature of the case, agencies report, and the trial took place behind closed doors…
The attorneys who unceremoniously quit representing Rudy Giuliani in his receivership case concerning the $148 million he owes for defaming two Georgia election workers told the court they were forced to part ways with the former New York City mayor after he informed them that he “would not participate” in discovery for the case. Monday’s ruling to unseal portions of the attorneys’ motions to withdraw was “necessary to protect the integrity of the court and its orders.
Giuliani had been saying it was his lawyers fault that he missed court deadlines. Turns out his lawyers told the court they had to withdraw because Giuliani had told them he wasn’t going to comply with discovery in the case. The situation probably would have just sat but Giuliani filed a letter with the court blaming his lawyers. This promoted the judge to take issue with the letter and make the papers the lawyers had submitted public.
There really needs to be a procedure for people who are just wasting the courts time. Giuliani likely new he was entering contradictory evidence and didn’t care. At this point he is just stalling the court as long as possible while he hides his money and transfers what he can to his kids. Creating another issue the court has to deal with works in Giuliani’s favor.
Donald Trump dismissed the “President Musk” jokes Sunday, and it was less than convincing.
During his address at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, the president-elect pushed back on claims that Musk planned to supplant him as president.
“No, he’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “And I’m safe, you know why? He can’t be, he wasn’t born in this country.” …
Oh, that’s precious. The man who wants to get rid of birthright citizenship is counting on the constitution to save him?
And also, the concern is not that Musk will assume the office of the president, but that he has assumed the powers of the president.
A group of banks and business groups are suing the Federal Reserve over the annual bank stress tests.
The Bank Policy Institute, which represents big banks like JPMorgan
, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs
, is joining the American Bankers Association, the Ohio Bankers League, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to file the suit, which they said aims to “resolve longstanding legal violations by subjecting the stress test process to public input as required by federal law.”
The groups said they don’t oppose stress testing, but that the current process falls short and “produces vacillating and unexplained requirements and restrictions on bank capital.” …
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @469, this is such a telling detail:
There was one entry that claimed first place was “stolen” in the CO2UT Desert Gravel Mountain Bike Race, Women’s 40-49, Fruita, Utah, 14 May competition. I looked it up and the person they’re claiming lost first place was 4th out of the women who were 40 to 49 years old. So unless the first 3 people were all trans, a trans person didn’t “steal” first from her.
Many thanks to everyone that posted information calling out the disinformation being promoted by transphobic people.
President Joe Biden on Monday vetoed a bill that would have allowed Donald Trump to stack federal district courts with dozens of new judges. It’s the latest move by the outgoing president to block Trump from imposing his ruinous will on the country.
The bill, titled the JUDGES Act of 2024, would have created 66 new judgeships over the next 10 years, with Trump getting as many as 25 of those new judicial seats to fill, according to Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat and the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.
In a statement, Biden said he vetoed the legislation because it is unclear “how the new judgeships are allocated.” Biden added that the bill would have rewarded the Republican senators who purposefully blocked his judicial nominations.
“Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now,” Biden wrote.
By vetoing the legislation, Biden ensures that Trump gets to install fewer right-wing judges. Trump’s appointees for his second term are likely to oppose abortion rights; support deregulation that lets corporations discriminate against workers, pollute the earth and aid in global warming; and allow Trump carte blanche with presidential immunity—among other things.
Despite Republicans’ attempts to block Biden’s judicial nominees, Biden was still able to put 235 judges on the federal bench—one more than the 234 Trump got confirmed in his first term. Biden also appointed more Black judges than any president in history‚ including the Supreme Court’s first Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. In just one term, Biden appointed 63 Black judges, outdoing both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who shared the previous record of 62 across two terms.
[…] In total, Trump executed 13 death row inmates in his four years in office. It was a massive killing spree, as just three prisoners had been executed in the 60 years prior to Trump, the Associated Press reported.
Last week, the Biden administration began pulling back pending regulations. The move ensures Trump can’t manipulate them for his own goals and enjoy the progress made by their original iterations. Instead, the AP notes, Trump will have to start at square one.
[…] Carter never “gave away” the Canal because the Canal never belonged to the United States, a point Carter explained in a February 1978 address to the nation.
“We have never had sovereignty over it,” Carter said. The United States never “bought” the Canal, but rather rented it and the surrounding Canal Zone from Panama, paying annually for the privilege. All the 1978 treaty did was cancel the lease while granting the United States the right to intervene militarily should any nation threaten the Canal’s neutrality—a neutrality under threat, the BBC’s Mark Wendling and Jake Horton pointed out this week, only from the United States itself. After Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, replied to Trump that “Every square meter of the Panama Canal … belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama,” Trump reposted it with the comment, “We’ll see about that!”
Panama charges ships $400,000 to traverse the canal. That’s hardly ruinous for the multibillion-dollar shippers and suppliers that use it. Transit slowed in recent years because drought lowered water levels in the Canal, in turn reducing the number of ships that could pass through. That in turn led to supply-chain-disrupting traffic jams; in August 2023 the number of vessels waiting to pass through reached 160, delaying passage by as much as 21 days. Panama started auctioning off rights to jump the queue, which doubled the cost of transit for shippers that availed themselves of this short cut. It wouldn’t astonish me to learn that the Central American nation has taken economic advantage of the situation, but Trump’s complaint is a bit rich coming from the guy who sells $60 “God Bless the USA” Bibles. (The “Inaugural Edition” will set you back $70.) In any event, Trump is bluffing. We aren’t going to invade. […]
Why would Trump even want Greenland? Our military already has a base there, so it can’t be for national defense.
The island is rich in natural resources, including a few rare-earth minerals of commercial importance and of course oil (though the United States has plenty of the latter already). The presence of these natural resources would put the price at $1.7 trillion, The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham estimated in 2019, which means buying Greenland would probably cost more than $2 trillion today. (That’s assuming Denmark were willing to sell, which, again, it is not.) No way would Congress appropriate $2 trillion to buy Greenland. Instead, we’d have to invade. That would mean waging war against NATO, since Denmark and Greenland are both member nations. […] In the unlikely event that human life survived this conflict, the United States would inherit not only Greenland’s natural resources but also Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants, most of them Inuit fishermen—a population sufficiently impoverished that Denmark must subsidize the country to the tune of more than $500 million annually.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has announced successful trials of a “game-changing weapon that can take down a swarm of drones using radio waves.” The new vehicle-mounted Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) can devastate a wave of drones from up to a kilometer away (about 1,094 yards) at a cost of only about 10p (13 cents) per downed device…
Last week, we covered the news that the British Army had successfully tested a Wolfhound high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS) (@119) . That drone elimination weapon leveraged a high-energy laser to sense and track enemy drones, concentrating a laser beam on them until they were destroyed. The HELWS was said to have been a great success in the trials.
Though the laser-based HELWS system was said to be 100% effective in trials, its description provoked questions about its drone-killing capacity. In other words, and as Tom’s Hardware readers highlighted, what if there’s a drone swarm to deal with? Hopefully, the RFDEW answers those real concerns with its completely different drone-neutralizing tech…
“Bill Clinton discharged after hospitalization for flu.”
Former President Clinton was discharged Tuesday morning after being hospitalized a day earlier for flu, according to his spokesperson.
“He and his family are deeply grateful for the exceptional care provided by the team at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and are touched by the kind messages and well wishes he received,” spokesperson Angel Ureña added in a Tuesday morning post on social platform X. “He sends his warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to all.”
Clinton was admitted Monday to the Washington hospital with a fever. […]
Residents in an Australian region engulfed by bushfires were given two hours to return home to collect their belongings before Christmas on Tuesday, as emergency crews try to contain the blaze.
Communities around the Grampians, in Victoria, have been evacuated amid warnings from authorities that conditions there in the days ahead could be the worst since Australia’s most severe fire season on record, the so-called “Black Summer” of 2019-20.
The bushfires have already burnt over 41,000 hectares (101,000 acres) of land in the past week, however there have been no deaths or loss of property…
Ukraine has turbo-charged its long-distance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), making “rocket-drones” to compete with cruise missiles or save the trouble of asking for more Western-made ranged weapons.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration has been showing off the latest results, with videos of the Peklo and Palianytsia missile-drones, which Ukrainian soldiers have begun deploying.
The “rocket-drone” project has become a key goal for Zelensky in 2025. In November, he told the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliamentary body, that he wanted to see Ukraine produce 30,000 long-distance drones, and 3,000 “cruise missiles or missile-drones” over the next year.
These “missile-drones” are a new genre of weapons that Ukraine is pioneering…
KGsays
No way would Congress appropriate $2 trillion to buy Greenland. Instead, we’d have to invade. That would mean waging war against NATO, since Denmark and Greenland are both member nations. – Timothy Noah of The New Republic quoted by Lynna, OM@482
It’s actually extremely unlikely that an American invasion of Greenland would be resisted by force. already having a military base there, the USA could quickly bring in enough forces to overwhelm the largely naval forces Denmark maintains there. If the USA was still a member of NATO, it’s unclear if Article 5 of the NATO Treaty applies if one NATO member attacks another; even if the USA had left the alliance, it’s very hard to see Denmark or anyone else doing more than breaking off diplomatic relations, if that. Of course the wider implications would be disastrous for the USA, since whatever Trump thinks, NATO acts as a huge enhancement of American power. But when has Trump shown either the intelligence or the patriotism to act in the country’s best interests?
Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and adolescents from the fundamentalist Jewish sect Lev Tahor in southeastern Guatemala on Friday following allegations of child abuse, including rape, prosecutors said.
The rescue operation in the agricultural municipality of Oratorio, 78 kilometers (48.47 miles) southeast of Guatemala City, highlights ongoing concerns over the controversial practices of the Lev Tahor sect, which has faced similar allegations in the past.
“Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors, such as forced marriage, abuse, and related crimes,” Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala’s Prosecutor’s Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a press conference.
The Lev Tahor community, founded in 1988 in Israel, practice an austere form of Judaism with interpretations of Jewish law that includes long prayer sessions and arranged marriages.
Lev Tahor (“Pure Heart” in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage and physical abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.
The community settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, a Mexican police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border rescued a group of children and adolescents from a Lev Tahor camp, whose members were arrested on suspicions of participating in abuses against minors…
Reginald Selkirksays
@484 Lynna, OM
“Bill Clinton discharged after hospitalization for flu.”
Interesting word choice. This is not the first time Clinton has been in the news for a discharge. (think ‘blue dress’)
“On The First Day Of Christmas Matt Gaetz Gave To Me $500 From His Adopted ‘Son’s’ Venmo”
“It’s even worse than you thought!”
At long last, the Gaetz report is here, and boy has former Congressman Florida Peen’s wangledonger been up to some unseemly activities!
Paying for underage sex AKA statutory rape! Drugs! Bahamian bonery that violated the gift rules! Holy blackmail material, Batman, you’re going to want to zip up into the hazmat suit for this one! In spite of Matt Gaetz running his Botoxed forehead into court Monday morning to sue the House Ethics Committee to try to block its release, as if a court could do something, whoomp, there it is. Gaetz stone-cold-busted with receipts and testimony from multiple people, corroborating his peening, paying, drug-doing ways. And UGH, so deeply sad and gross for these girls, one who was a junior in high school, who got roped into the most disgusting-sounding parties with lumpen 30-something men, feeling coerced because they needed the money, and then compelled to testify about the skeeviest episodes of their lives, over and over.
We’e got Gaetz asking for drugs, which is cringe-ly called “party favors,” “rolls” or “vitamins.” We’ve got witnesses saying they saw Gaetz take drugs, at least five times, and at least 20 times that he paid for sex and/or drugs.
And whoa, he didn’t spend just $10k: From 2017 to 2020, he made minor Venmo, PayPal and CashApp payments totaling $91,000 to 12 different women, often with cringe emojis, sometimes via his pal Joel Greenberg. For what? “Party!” or “Tuition” or “Nestor,” he wrote at the age of 35.
The report has got the receipts! A check to Joel Greenberg, which Greenberg said was reimbursement for a party pad. A text from a “Marissa,” fussing that she had not been paid. Texts from Gaetz directing Greenberg to pay the women. Texts from Gaetz’s then-girlfriend and party-girl payer trying to avoid paying: “the guys [Representative Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg] wanted me to share that they are a little limited in their cash flow this weekend . . . [M]att was like[,] if it can be more of a customer appreciation week.” A few months later, she noted that, “Btw Matt also mentioned he is going to be a bit generous cause of the ‘customer appreciation’ thing last time.”
PSA: If you aspire to get paid for sex, always get the money up front.
Gaetz claimed there was no expectation of cash, but there sure appeared to be an expectation of cash, and disappointment from his “friends” when said cash did not arrive as promised:
“Then I sent you some. Then I sent some to others. Then I sent you more,” presumably-Greenberg-or-girlfriend texted.
“So I’m not to be taken care of for last week?”
“I gave you $250 today.”
“Matt never paid me,” complained one girl to another in a different text. “How much did he pay you?”
“WTF .. he gave me $400”
“Ugh, I hope he remembers I don’t wanna have to ask”
“Don’t ask just say it to him on Friday”
“Ok”
“Like while you’re giving him a bj ask ahahahahahaha before you have sex with him for sure”
“Ok
Ugh”
Gaetz claimed he and the women were friends, they were not. One of them told the committee, “Matt Gaetz paid me for sex, that was the extent of our interaction.” Womp.
Actual friend, Chris Dorworth, remember him? Former lobbyist and former member of the Florida House, who sued Joel Greenberg, his parents and their dental practice for linking him to criminal activity and included witness statements in his suit, thereby bringing even more attention onto himself and his gross buddies? He is mentioned. [Screengrab of online conversation is available at the link.]
UGH INDEED.
“Mr. Dorworth testified to the Committee that he himself was not present for the July 15, 2017, party at his own home, despite Victim A’s assertions to the contrary. After the Committee’s interview, and after he settled his lawsuit against Victim A, Mr. Dorworth was deposed and confronted with cell phone records showing that he was in fact at his residence during the party.”
WHOOPS.
There’s a girl asking Joel Greenberg what his friend looks like, and Greenberg helpfully sending along a shot of his pal Gaetz.
There’s misusing official resources by getting his chief of staff to help one of his fuck-friends get a speedy passport, and lying to the Department of State that she was a constituent.
There was obstruction of Congress, which, they note, is a crime. And the sex and drugs are against Florida law. Why has nobody charged this asshole?
Yep, this is the guy who That Man wanted to be attorney general, a perfect choice if the goal is to discredit American institutions and turn them into a joke. Which sure does seem to be the goal.
We’ve got the Bahamas trip with Dr. Handjob McWeedPot, which Evan wrote about back in 2021. Much of this we already knew, thanks to the firsthand account of Gaetz’s party broski, that Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who is currently enjoying 11 years in Club Fed after pleading guilty to underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, identity theft, producing a fake ID card, and conspiring to defraud the US government.
Yep, this is the guy pious Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP were backing and protecting! Everybody except for at least one Republican on the House Ethics Committee, that is. Wonder which part made them change their mind? Maybe something to do with how even other Republicans hated him for the shit he pulled to get Kevin McCarthy ousted as speaker? Remember how Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., even had to be physically restrained after lunging at him? [video at the link]
Hey, whatever happened to that wacky sextortion plot that Gaetz was saying this all was, involving an Iranian hostage and father Gaetz being approached by Air Force intelligence, a $25 million payment, and Gaetz being exonerated as a hero? Oh well.
Gaetz is fuming, natch, and still on his line that the sex and the money was just a correlation, not a sex causation.
“Giving funds to someone you are dating – that they didn’t ask for – and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!? There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses,” Gaetz said Monday. “This is testimony from one of the alleged ‘prostitutes’ that you won’t see in the report!” Oh, so sealed testimony? [Screengrab at the link]
“A lot of times” not getting paid to be there would sure seem to imply there were other times that she was, but she didn’t call it sex work, and she wouldn’t say she was trafficked, so there! […]
As the report concludes: “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” However, “Although Representative Gaetz did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the Committee did not find evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the Committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion.” Well, that’s good.
Thus concludes our icky time with Matt Gaetz, who has now withdrawn his peen and returned it to the private sector. Though Gaetz is claiming he’s coming back January 3 to expose everybody sleeping with everybody on the Hill, because even scandal needs to take a holiday. […]
“Regulators warned that eating these eggs could bring ‘serious adverse health consequences or death.’ ”
Federal food regulators raised their alarm for recalled eggs sold from Costco stores over possible salmonella exposure, reclassifying the targeted product to their highest risk level.
The FDA had previously announced on Nov. 27 that about 10,800 retail units of organic, pasture-raised, 24-count eggs, sold under Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand, were being recalled by New York-Handsome Brook Farms.
But then in an updated notice issued on Friday, the FDA reclassified to recall to a Class I, which the agency calls a “reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.”
The targeted egg cartons were sold in 25 Costco stores in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee beginning Nov. 22.
The “Organic Pasture Raised” eggs, sold in sets of 24, have a Universal Product Code (UPC) of 9661910680 with a use-by date of Jan 5, 2025.
Customers with these eggs should return them to Costco for a full refund, the FDA said.
Reginald Selkirksays
@490 Lynna, OM
There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses,” Gaetz said
Do you remember the good old days, when “might not be found guilty in a court of law” wasn’t enough to hold a high office such as attorney general?
Companies are ripping off their diversity, equity, and inclusion masks and reaffirming the driving force behind their company-wide policies: profits above all.
Following the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020, many companies ramped up their diversity efforts in response to a majority of U.S. voices (i.e., consumers) expressing a desire for representation.
However, as some experts speculated, company changes to workplace environments appear to have been more of a temporary effort to appease disgruntled pocketbooks.
With felon-elect Donald Trump preparing to take the White House, some companies are leaning into Trump’s “anti-woke” and anti-DEI rhetoric and rolling back programs to make their workplaces more inclusive.
Additionally, following the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to strike down affirmative action in colleges, companies seemingly moved away from their diversity efforts in an apparent fear of legal repercussions.
Here are some of the companies who have dropped their DEI policies in the past year.
Walmart
Walmart—a company who employs over 2 million people worldwide—announced in November that it would end its DEI initiative.
The retail giant also said it would not renew the Center for Racial Equity, a program launched by Walmart’s chief executive Doug McMillon after the Floyd protests. At the time, the program promised to give out $100 million in grants over five years that would help to address systemic racism.
[…] The company will also halt the sale of certain LGBTQ+ items on their website and will terminate the use of words such as Latinx and DEI in official communications.
[…] “This is Walmart preparing for a Trump presidency and Justice Department,” Amber Madison, co-founder of DEI consultancy Peoplism, told The New York Times. “If Walmart’s assessment of the Trump administration is that it will protect his friends and go after its enemies, this is Walmart showing they’re a friend.”
Ford
In August, Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an email to employees that they were opting out of sharing information with the Humans Right Campaign. […]
Popular right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck took credit for this change—as well as Walmart’s change—and claimed that the company made the cuts after Starbuck shared he was investigating their policies.
[…] Responding to Ford’s decision at the time, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement, “Ford Motor Company’s shortsighted decisions will have long-term consequences.” […]
Lowe’s
In the same month as Ford, Lowe’s also detached itself from the Human Rights Campaign, opting out of sharing data with the advocacy program.
The company said in an internal memo shared with the Associated Press that they began “reviewing” their programs following the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action. […]
Lowe’s also decided to end any sponsorship with programs outside of its business market and to no longer participate in festivals or parades. […]
Toyota
In October, Toyota announced in a memo obtained by Bloomberg that the car company would “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness.” […] Toyota also decided to stop sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign. […]
Tractor Supply
In June, Tractor Supply cut ties with diversity and climate change efforts after receiving conservative backlash.
The Tennessee-based company also opted out of submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign, and chose to no longer participate in events—such as Pride—that don’t directly pertain to the company’s business. […]
Stanley Black & Decker
In September, the power-tool manufacturer quietly distanced itself from DEI efforts by removing any references to diversity or equality from their website.
[…] The tool company faced backlash for reportedly spending $280,000 on lobbying for passage of the Equality Act, as well as donating about $10.5 million to “racial equity” organizations as part of a “racial equity roadmap.”
———————-
Unfortunately, the list of companies who have backtracked their inclusion efforts continues to grow.
As right-wing ideologues and the Supreme Court take aim at race-based diversity programs, companies are looking out for what matters most to them—their bottom line.
[…] Trump’s outlandish threat to seize control of the Panama Canal was made as his companies face ongoing financial and legal troubles in the Central American nation.
During a Sunday speech and in subsequent posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump whined about Panama’s canal fees and suggested that the U.S. could take the Panama Canal back from the Central American nation.
However, an ongoing tax evasion lawsuit reveals the Trump Organization’s troubled history with Panama.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair. Especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama, I say very foolishly, by the United States,” Trump said at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Arizona.
He continued: “If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly, and without question.”
Not surprisingly, Panama’s president has already responded to Trump’s laughable comments. He essentially said that Panama’s canal is not for sale—which it’s not. Built at the turn of the 20th century, the canal was peacefully turned over to the Panamanians on Dec. 31, 1999, as a result of a 1979 treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter.
But the president-elect’s not-so-subtle threats could be yet another instance of him holding grudges and seeking retribution against his political and financial enemies. […]
Trump’s comments likely weren’t made in isolation. In 2019, ProPublica revealed that the owners of a hotel tower in Panama City that formerly operated under the Trump brand accused Trump Panama Hotel Management LLC and Trump International Hotels Management LLC of not paying the 12.5% required taxes to the local government. A legal filing at the time accused the companies of “intentionally evading taxes,” which left the hotel owners liable for millions of dollars.
“Had Trump been honest with Ithaca about its failure to pay taxes on the management fees it earned and its failure to properly report employee salaries to Panama’s social security agency, Ithaca would have never entered into the [licensing deal],” read an updated complaint filed in 2020, according to Newsweek.
While there’s no direct evidence linking Trump’s recent threat to the ongoing tax case, which is still pending in New York District Court, the timing of it all hasn’t escaped notice. Some prominent political commentators have suggested that Trump’s sudden interest in controlling the Panama Canal is derived from his companies’ outstanding tax issues.
This wouldn’t be shocking if proven true. Since Election Day, the president-elect has made thinly veiled threats against and trolled several foreign nations, including Canada and Greenland.
It’s entirely possible, then, that Panama is just the latest foreign nation to stoke Trump’s ire. The problem is that come January, the petty grudge-holder will have the power of the world’s most powerful military behind him.
[…] Trump’s inauguration is getting $1 million from Toyota Motor North America.
A spokesperson for Toyota confirmed the inauguration donation to The Hill on Tuesday.
Toyota joins Ford and a number of other companies in pledging significant donations to Trump’s inauguration. Ford is reportedly donating $1 million.
Meta and Amazon both handed over seven-figure donations of their own to the president-elect’s inaugural fund last week. Open AI CEO Sam Altman has also said he would give $1 million out of his personal wealth. […]
Reginald Selkirksays
@493 Lynna, OM
In October, Toyota announced in a memo obtained by Bloomberg that the car company would “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness.”
@495 Lynna, OM
Trump’s inauguration is getting $1 million from Toyota Motor North America.
A spokesperson for Toyota confirmed the inauguration donation to The Hill on Tuesday…
So; that wasn’t clear to me. Does Toyota consider Trump’s inauguration to be part of STEM education, or part of workforce readiness?
ASUS computer owners have been reporting widespread alarm after a Christmas-themed banner suddenly appeared on their Windows 11 screens, accompanied by a suspicious “Christmas.exe” process in Task Manager.
The promotional campaign, first reported by WindowsLatest, was delivered through ASUS’ pre-installed Armoury Crate software. It displays a large wreath banner that covers one-third of users’ screens. The unbranded holiday display, which can interrupt gaming sessions and occasionally crashes applications, has triggered security concerns among users who initially mistook it for malware.
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #497…
Sounds like it is malware, even if not malicious malware.
On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus begins his highly anticipated descent from the North Pole to our rooftops, delivering presents to millions of children across the globe. For those who can’t wait to see St. Nick’s magic on Christmas Day, here are ways to follow his travels.
…
Americans spend more years being unhealthy than people in any other country
We’re number one!
Rookie Metal Detectorist Unearths 2,500-Year-Old Sacrificial Artifacts, Including Bent Sword
Covering Your Car In Christmas Lights Is Dumb And Probably Illegal
Macron ally François Bayrou appointed new French prime minister.
Macron is still pretending he won the legislative assembly elections. The fascist leader, Le Pen, has said she won’t immediately back a no confidence motion against Bayrou, while the left intend to put one forward, saying Macron should appoint someone acceptable to them as they won most seats (but far short of a majority). This will confirm that Bayrou serves at the pleasure of Le Pen.
Bluesky at a crossroads as users petition to ban Jesse Singal over anti-trans views, harassment
StevoR @ comment 499 in the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread: No. And No Again. Do not do that.
On The Infinite Thread we do not do that. You should not fantasize about violence when posting in The Infinite Thread, nor should you propose that others do violence. The rule holds even if you are speaking metaphorically or jokingly. The rule holds even if you are being sarcastic
@457 Lynna OM: “Facebook CEO gives Trump a million ‘Zuck bucks’ for inauguration”
Amazon is donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
Billionaires suck. Large corporation suck.
Critical WordPress plugin vulnerability under active exploit threatens thousands
Asked about alleged Putin chats, Trump says, ‘I can’t tell you’
As another Jan. 6 conspiracy theory collapses, JD Vance pretends otherwise
“Despite the vice president-elect’s claims, the Justice Department’s inspector general just shredded a key Jan. 6 conspiracy theory.”
Link
Excerpt from The New York Times article:
Animarchy:
“The Horrible History of Russian Fighter Jets: Beginnings”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nLR15rFICQY
HDMI 2.2 is set to debut at CES 2025 — the new standard brings higher resolutions, refresh rates, and bandwidth
Nancy Pelosi hospitalized during a congressional delegation trip abroad, her office says
North Carolina Gov And Gov-Elect Take Republicans To Court Over Power Grab
Glad to see that the elected Democrats are fighting this in court.
Followup to comment 11.
Trump’s new Middle East adviser isn’t just family—he’s a fraud
We got rid of polio with vaccines. RFK’s lawyer wants to bring it back
Trump and Musk target agency created to avoid another Depression
Malaria Is Rising With a Vengeance, Killing Massive Numbers, Most in Africa
“Last year’s toll: 263 million cases and almost 600,000 dead.”
Followup to comment 7.
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/oil-and-fracking-our-misunderstood
“Oil And Fracking, Our Misunderstood Friends”
“Trump’s new Energy guy, a fracking CEO, is soaking in it!”
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ohio-senate-wants-to-force-hospitals
“Ohio Senate Wants To Force Hospitals To Give Patients Their Horse Dewormer On Demand”
“Still? Still, we’re doing this?”
“Russia packing up military equipment in Syria, satellite imagery shows.”
Washington Post link
Followup to comment 17.
Link
Link
Link
Crown of Thorns returns to Notre-Dame Cathedral after fire
Fakety fakety fake
‘Gory’ gingerbread buffalo jump celebrates Plains hunting culture
Yearlong supply-chain attack targeting security pros steals 390K credentials
Most Americans distrust Trump, RFK Jr. on health: Axios-Ipsos poll
Hmm, maybe they should have let that influence their voting behavior.
A Very Tempting Trump Era Fallacy
Exclusive: RFK Jr.’s secret push to prove CIA killed uncle
Brown snow falls over Maine town; officials warn against touching, eating it
Archaeologists Found the Tomb of an Actual Roman Soldier From Year Zero
New Jersey Mystery Drones Caught on Video by Journalists From Fox News and More: ‘The Size of a School Bus!’
Video at the link, 2:05
After watching the first 10 seconds, I can tell you that one of the “drones” appears to be a commercial aircraft. The red and green navigation lights are clearly visible. And the craft is obsucred by clouds, so it is clearly not down at 100 feet altitude. Since the red light is at the top, the aircraft is headed toward the left of the video frame. Also, the landing lights are on.
I watched the whole thing, they kept reshowing the same clip of a few seconds so I guess they don’t have any video that is better.
Trump didn’t make an argument against raising the federal minimum wage, so much as he made an argument against the existence of a federal minimum wage.
Watch what he does, not what he says.
New York Times:
Associated Press:
Washington Times:
Sounds like good news to me.
Japanese researchers test pioneering drug to regrow teeth
Mike Lindell keeps getting loans, and he keeps suing his lenders
That last sentence is a reference to this: Trump’s MyPillow buddy getting $75,000 to make masks he can’t produce. That’s a report from April 2020. Excerpt:
Japan’s ban on recognizing same-sex unions is unconstitutional, a court finds
Link
More at the link.
Posted by readers of the article:
Link
Bad movie:
Nazis at the Center of the Earth
(2012) IMDb 3.1/10
Here is the latest Brit version of HIGNFY. There is a US version, I haven’t found the latest one.
“Have I Got News for You S68 E10. Stephen Mangan. December 13, 2024”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=GxhJKp64Amc
Reginald Selkirk @ 45
…and here is a 1970s Blaxploitation movie about a family targeted by a Nigerian sex demon accidentally released by a related archaeologist.
“GAM 197 Abby – The Devil Is Her Lover Now”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=60coD_NLyfc
LazerPig:
“Elon Musk is wrong about the F-35”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxVsS9ZNUOU
Selkirk@8: Does FTB use that plugin?
Followup to Lynna in the last set of 500 comments.
Biden commuted the Pennsylvania kids-for-cash scandal judge, allowing him to go free 20 months early.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @49:
Unlikely.
@35 birgerjohansson: Musk isn’t entirely wrong, he is just jumping the gun to say that the F35 project can be canceled right now. Even some military planners have said that the F35 may be the last fighter with a pilot in the plane.
The Air Force is not planning to buy a lot of F35s. Most of the duty filled by F15s will be filled by the latest version of the F15, not F35s. Unless they really need the stealth, the military thinks the F35 is more trouble then it’s worth. The F35 project will not be canceled though, a good portion of congress is in Lockheed Martin’s pocket and the project is structured to make it almost impossible to stop. I hope Musk and Trump go after the F35 because they will waste a lot of time and energy and most likely fail.
Another followup to that mass pardoning.
Biden commutes sentence for former Dixon, Illinois Comptroller Rita Crundwell, who embezzled over $53M
Heidi Li Feldman, Law professor at Georgetown University
The Equal Rights Amendment is already part of the U.S. Constitution: Joe Biden can make that legally clear
The final paragraph’s link is a petition and phone script for the White House.
Anthem reverses decision to put a time limit on anesthesia
South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol impeached over attempt to impose martial law. A few of Yoon’s own party must have voted for the impeachment, as the opposition parties only held 192 seats, 200 were needed (a 2/3 majority of all members, not just of those voting), and the vote was 204:85. Yoon’s powers are now suspended, with the Prime Minister Han Duck-soo – who leads the President’s conservative party – stepping in; there have been calls from within the party for him to resign the party leadership. The Constitutional Court has 180 days to either oust Yoon, or reinstate his powers; if they oust him, a new presidential election must follow within 60 days, with Democratic Party leader, Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the last election and who led the response to Yoon’s declaration of martial law, in a strong position. But 6 Constitutional Court judges must vote for the impeachment for this to happen, and as of now, there are 3 vacancies on the 9-judge bench, so all would need to back it. They will, however, be under strong public pressure to do so.
Yoon has said: “Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt. I will never give up,” So it looks like the arrogant arsehole is still hoping to regain power – and if he does, there’s no reason to think he won’t try to promote himself to dictator again.
Oddly, the Grauniad’s current headline on its live thread on South says Yoon “vows to step aside”. He doesn’t actually have any choice, as I understand it: the impeachment vote immediately suspended his powers, so he can’t even have another go at imposing martial law with any colour of legality, and I doubt the army would obey him.
Yoon is the second conservative president of South Korea in a row to be impeached: in 2017 Park Geun-hye, daughter of assasinated dictator Park Chung-hee was impeached and convicted of corruption – ironically, Yoon was the lead prosecutor in the case. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the South Korean people to stop electing conservatives as president.
It would be a good idea for every nation to stop electing conservatives to anything.
I was reminded of the apochrypal child Jesus gospel by a Swedish article: Jesus as an evil little brat that kills other children. And early Christians saw him as the good guy.
.
Prayer does not work. No asteroid has hit Mar-a-Lago. If I fix the problem, do you think you will miss DC? (The town, not the publishing house)
Xmas related links.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal – Neural Network God
.https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/god-4
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal – The Proper Christmas Tradition
.https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/tradition
Jesus’ genome.
.https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dna
Texas sues New York doctor accused of posting abortion pills
Schools caution international students: Get back to campus before Trump’s inauguration
Supreme Court to consider whether Catholic group is exempt from religious taxes
If I reads that right, religious charities are being given tax breaks not offered to secular charities.
And the headline is messed up.
PZM@59,
Good point! But apparently opposition leader Lee Jae-myung also has legal problems. According to Wikipedia, last month:
A number of other investigations into alleged corruption are also listed. Lee’s policies seem to be an odd mixture, possibly opportunistic.
Georgia political crisis deepens as lawmakers vote in far-right ex-soccer player as president
Discovery of vast Syrian drug lab reveals secrets of illicit captagon trade
Top musician forced to cancel concert after Air Canada refused to give his priceless cello a seat on plane
Should have taken up the harmonica.
‘Ready for it?’: Laura Ingraham calls on Taylor Swift to perform at Trump inauguration
I don’t see that happening.
Reginald Selkirk@68,
They refused to give the cello a seat – do you really think they’d have given one to a harmonica??
Cartoon: C.E.O. safety with big business brain
Florida Made It Easier to Involuntarily Commit People. A New Lawsuit Says It’s Violating the Law.
“It’s committing children at higher rates than other states.”
Pelosi ‘on the mend’ after hip replacement surgery in Germany
Link
After his disappearance, Luigi Mangione re-emerged as the suspect in a high-profile killing. Those who knew him are dazed.
Link
Marketing …kind of scary:
New York Times link
More at the link.
What if you are just not there … not your eyes nor your ears … to soak up the mass marketing. That’s me for the most part. The marketing of “Wicked” simply flew past me without me noticing. That probably would not have been the case if I had young children in the house.
Johnny Cash on Sesame Street
(video 2:13)
Giant 5kg mushroom feeds family for a week
Could an Undersea Hyperloop Train Tunnel Offer One-Hour Trips From London to New York?
Did Betteridge formulate a law of headlines?
Quebec City toboggan slide to be refrigerated to counter effects of climate change
#TheMoment Taylor Swift surprised sick children with a hospital visit
Enbridge pipeline spills 70,000 gallons of oil in Wisconsin
Re: birgerjohansson @60: Another violent fantasy?
You’ve been informed of the rule multiple times yourself and have been around while others were told. There’s no specific letter of the law which would allow you to add veils until you find the line to dance on while violating the spirit.
Trump gets $15m in ABC News defamation case
This is a settlement, not a verdict.
Why is a movie about Mary of Nazareth causing controversy?
If I were Swift, my response to Ingraham would be to suggest that she perform some anatomically improbable feat with herself.
RFK Jr and Jordan Peterson create weird questionnaire for job applicants in the White House
The Rachel Maddow Show 12/14/2024
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CTt6XgO-wr0
Trump has no idea what groceries are—and he won’t shut up about it
What is happening now to Trump’s promise to bring down grocery prices? He has walked that back … multiple times. He “can’t promise,” “it would be hard to do,” etc. Incoherent doofus.
And then there are Trump’s promised tariffs, which will certainly raise a lot of prices, especially vegetables that are imported from Mexico.
Followup to comment 87.
Rex Huppke of USA Today notes that Trump is already backsliding on his promises to reduce grocery prices.
The independent Russian media outlet Meduza looks at Russian alternatives to their military bases in Syria which are vital in order for Russia to maintain their operations in Africa.
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/old-man-yells-at-country-next-door
“Old Man Yells at Country Next Door”
” ‘Like maple syrup, Canada’s evil oozes over the United States’ ”
texass sinks even deeper into the xtian terrorist swamp:
https://truthout.org/articles/christian-nationalists-are-reshaping-texass-public-school-curricula/
so far the only thing missing from the New Dark Ages is a Monty Pythonesque spanish inquisition that takes itself seriously and is funded by billionaires.
The USPS predates the founding of this country. It is a vital service for the public, NOT a business or a ‘profit center’. dejoy and tRUMP are both greedy thugs that have never cared about anything other than their own huge diseased egos and bank accounts. biden and congress have, for years, been sitting there, like the useless imbeciles they are, with their thumbs up their asses and not confirmed the three honest postal commission candidates.
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2024/12/14/time-to-save-the-usps-again/
Time To Save The USPS, Again! the orange sphincter is talking about privatizing the USPS again. WTF
New York Times link
Video at the link.
Israel appeals ICC arrest warrants; Gaza death toll nears 45,000
“The arrest warrants, issued by the International Criminal Court, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which Israel denies.”
Iraq could allow marriage for girls as young as 9. A survivor says it will fuel rape and child abuse.
“Lawmakers in Iraq are proposing amendments to the country’s Personal Status Law that could allow marriage for girls as young as 9.”
More at the link.
Alien Super Show
Trump’s 100 Day Plan…and Matt Gaetz Does WHAT?! | (Ft. John Hodgman)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=R5rbnbsB8qk
Link
The conspiracy nuts on Project Blue Beam are spawning insanity like this post on xhitter:
Roseanne Barr
@therealroseanne
·
Follow
Now you see why I mention Project Blue Beam every week on my podcast…..
9:39 AM · Dec 14, 2024
Here is the info on what it is:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/15/project-blue-beam/
Project Blue Beam
Published by digby on December 15, 2024
That should be all you need to know but just in case you’re curious:
1. Project Blue Beam is a conspiracy theory that alleges a secret plan by entities like NASA and the United Nations to establish a new world order through advanced technological manipulation. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what the theory claims:
2. Objective:
The primary goal is to implement a new global religion that would serve as the ideological foundation for a totalitarian world government. The theory suggests this new religion would use a simulated second coming of a religious figure or an alien invasion to discredit existing religions and unify humanity under a single belief system
3. Steps:
Step 1: Breakdown of Archaeological Knowledge – This involves staging events like earthquakes at specific locations to uncover “new” archaeological findings that would contradict traditional religious doctrines, aiming to destabilize faith in existing religions.
Step 2: Gigantic Space Show – Utilizing technology like satellites with laser projections, holograms would be displayed in the sky, creating spectacular visions of religious figures or alien invasions visible to people globally. This would be done to manipulate people into accepting the new religion.
Step 3: Electronic Telepathy – The theory suggests the use of technologies like extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves to simulate telepathic communication, making individuals believe they are receiving messages directly from a divine source or an alien entity.
Step 4: Supernatural Manifestations – This step involves creating scenarios where supernatural or paranormal events are faked, potentially leading to mass hysteria or acceptance of a new world order out of fear or awe.
4. Controversies and Criticism:
The theory was popularized by Canadian journalist Serge Monast in the 1990s, who later died under circumstances some conspiracy theorists claim were suspicious. However, there’s no credible evidence supporting the existence of such a project.
Critics argue that the logistics of such an operation would be nearly impossible to execute on a global scale without detection, and the technology described often exceeds current capabilities or understanding.
It’s often cited in discussions around UFO sightings or other unexplained aerial phenomena, with some believing these are “tests” or “early stages” of Project Blue Beam. However, these claims remain speculative and unsupported by concrete evidence.
Cultural Impact:
Project Blue Beam has gained traction in various conspiracy theory circles, often mentioned alongside other New World Order theories. It has appeared in various forms of media, from books to podcasts, reflecting a cultural fascination with grand conspiracy narratives.
The theory has been widely debunked by experts, with no substantial evidence found to support its claims.
People are starting to shoot at airplanes thinking they’re alien drones. I’m not kidding.
We are living in very, very strange times. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/if-youre-not-buying-memecoins-of
“If You’re Not Buying Memecoins Of Droopy Balls, Are You Even Alive?”
“It’s the next going-broke sensation that’s sweeping the nation!”
Israel shutting embassy in Ireland as relations plummet over Palestine
“Israel’s foreign minister denounced Ireland for “extreme anti-Israel policies” in a move that follows Dublin’s recognition of Palestinian statehood and its accusations of genocide in Gaza.”
Philosophical Dead Ends
A ‘Crazy’ Idea for Treating Autoimmune Diseases Might Actually Work
Two arrested after ‘hazardous drone operation’ near Boston airport
The mention of a backpack tells you something about the size of the drone.
With an ongoing panic about drones, expect vigorous prosecution.
Dartitis: The condition where you try to throw a dart – but can’t
It sounds somewhat akin to what in other sports is known as the yips
California DMV apologizes for license plate, car owner’s son says it’s ‘misunderstanding’
Geomagnetic storms cause “mass migrations” of satellites
Trump picks Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes to head intelligence advisory board
Moo.
Person arrested after trying to jump fence outside White House
So, Trump breaks promise to lower grocery prices after only -36 days in office. Yep, that is MINUS thirty-six days in office. Must be a new record for politician promise-breaking speed!
“Our State Border” — East German Film (1979)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=YgzCB–p5PQ
No problems in our country whatsoever! 🙂
Republican dirty tricks
“ANOTHER Dem switches party, Republicans get supermajority in Florida”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=phqjnwouZ5E
David Pakman:
“Trump’s allies are preparing for a TOTAL TAKEOVER”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-pZJuAmBJHY
No, no, those who say the MAGA leaders are fascists are totally exaggerating…
Joe Rogan worried about drone sightings after chilling new theory floats, ‘Genuinely concerned’
A smart, sensible person like Rogan is concerned, maybe I should be too.
/s
Here’s another reason he apparently didn’t think of: Maybe someone flies a drone in their free hours, and they have a day job. Boom! Mr. professional drone guy didn’t think of that.
Idiots guiding idiots.
‘It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte’: Widespread destruction after 100-year cyclone pummels French territory
Pupils ‘sob’ as vicar discusses existence of Santa
Apparently he didn’t realize that some people get upset when you question their imaginary friend.
Newsweek: Bashar al-Assad Claims Russians Forced His Evacuation from Syria
It’s actually possible. The Russians may have decided it was better to evacuate him then let him die. It looks slightly better for Russia and Russian evacuation is slightly easier if Assad can’t object. More importantly, Assad does have a lot of important contacts in Syria that will be useful down the road. If the rebel groups can’t form a stable government it’s remotely possible he could even return.
I deeply suspect though that he is not being entirely honest.
Jimmy Kimmel is doing what ordinary media should do..https://youtube.com/watch?v=dAIsTmOwy_I
UK’s Wolfhound mobile laser weapon exhibits 100% drone zapping success in field trials
January 1, 2025 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1929 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1924!
Canada Post says operations to resume after nearly a monthlong strike
In North Carolina, the consequences of Trump’s conspiracy theories still matter
“Remember Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories related to Hurricane Helene, FEMA and devastated communities in North Carolina? The effects still linger.”
Link
In An Ominous Sign, ABC News Rolls Over For Trump
Link
Cartoon: Our top story
Cartoon: MAGA Le Pew
Why is MAGA obsessed with drinking raw milk?
Cartoon: Comparative costs
Good news: Leader of California white supremacist group gets 2 years in prison
“The leader of a Southern California white supremacist group has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for inciting violence at California political rallies in 2017”
Bad news that Rundo existed and thrived for a time in California, but good news that he now will go to prison.
Link
Same link as in comment 131.
Today the world is celebrating Beethoven’s 254th birthday.
YouTube link to: Flashmob Flash Mob – Ode an die Freude ( Ode to Joy ) Beethoven Symphony No.9 classical music.
Ukraine:
Link
Trump to block the government and military from buying EVs
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-oil-tankers-sink-off-142354966.html
Russian oil tankers sink off coast of Crimea – Yahoo
1 day ago Russia mounted a rescue effort Sunday after two oil tankers were wrecked in rough seas off Moscow-annexed Crimea and one broke apart, killing at least one sailor and causing an oil spill.
Apparently 4,300 tons of oil spilled in the Black Sea. Examples of superior russian technology?
Abundant Life Christian School shooting: 4 killed, 5 hurt
Donald Trump, Following ABC Settlement, Says He’ll File More Lawsuits Against Media, Including Iowa Pollster: “We Have To Straighten Out The Press”
Reginald @138, Trump is spending donor money to pay lawyers to file those bogus lawsuits.
Related: ABC gives Trump what he wants—and he’s not going to stop
German chancellor Ola Scholz gets voted out in the Bundestag.
Reginald Selkirk @ 138
When.A B C caved, they taught Trump what he can get away with.
Suggestion: boycott the collaborator companies.
“I Can’t Afford My Oxygen”: The Human Toll of For-Profit Insurance
More at the link.
Oh my gawd.
God Awful Movies has taken on “The Gospel According To Scrooge”.
It should be on Youtube in a day or two.
When Hossenfelder sticks to physics I find her podcasts helpful. There is a lot of BS out there but I lack the expertise to judge what seems plausible and what is rubbish.
“Did Google’s Quantum Computer Find Evidence for the Multiverse?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=aFbbXJvNGY0
Ireland hits back at Israel after being accused of antisemitism
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxJEZqB3VmiNj0tbq5ixBjMw1DDjlQi99m
Followup to birger @141.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-great-fluffening-of-2024
More at the link.
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-makes-up-best-jobs-for-best
Link
When an obsolete American Fighter saved Finland from the Soviets
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2rAeb8rWf8
Hackers seek ransom after getting SSNs, banking info from state gov’t portal
To Log Into WordPress, You Now Have To Agree Pineapple on Pizza Is Good
Europe’s Starlink competitor is go
Canada’s finance minister quits over Trump tariff dispute with Trudeau
After religious symbols law, Quebec eyes ban on public prayer: Where the province is headed on secularism
Ukraine says it has laser weapon able to down targets flying at over 2km
Steve Bannon Is Already Claiming Trump Can Run Again in 2028
Skepticrat 238 Lame Duck Dynasty Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zvqXfzDGw78
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-presser-a-gauzy-nostalgic-harbinger
“Trump Presser A Gauzy, Nostalgic Harbinger Of The Next Four Years Of Suck”
“Meet the new buffoon, same as the old buffoon.”
Judge rules Trump does not have presidential immunity protections in hush money conviction
Re: birgerjohansson @144:
From her behavior on other subjects, you know that Sabine’s a lying opportunist who merrily endangers her audience and encourages her audience to harm others (which is what happens when one defends hate groups). She lies about physics, even her own specific field.
Professor Dave Explains – The Problem With Sabine Hossenfelder (35:03)
* *groan* At 28:43, Professor Dave showed Vaush and Destiny thumbnails on-screen as he referred to knowledgeable critics who ‘do work’ in trans areas. And credited Vaush, of all people, for correcting him on Dave’s own trans video (which both-sidesed transphobia, condemned trans athletes, and defended Chapelle!?) to follow up in another trans video (doubling down and yet not caring about athletes).
He at least recognizes the greater threat is from the right, and as an object lesson according to the description on that followup trans video, had to shut down comments after receiving waves of malice he’d not conceived possible and permanently altered his outlook on the state of the country.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/replace-reporters-with-ai-what-could
“Replace Reporters With AI? What Could Go Wrong?”
Subscribe to, or donate to, whichever media sources (including your local newspaper?) that still serve real news thoughtfully produced by real journalists.
Goddamned idiots. I warned them. I warned everyone not to appease the Führer. No good ever comes of it. His type don’t compromise; give them an inch and they take a mile. They have to be firmly opposed. Anything else is seen as weakness, and when predators sense weakness, they pounce.
By “positive feedback”, read “$$$$$”. The rightward radicalization of Youtube is a predictable consequence of its increasing commercialization. There is a real world thing that’s a bit like the Midas touch: everything money touches turns to shit. From pro sports to the US “health” “care” “system” to, well, Youtube now that everyone on it is chasing sponsor dollars rather than just doing their thing and sharing it with whomever’s interested, as soon as people think they can get rich doing something, whatever that something is gets utterly and irredeemably ruined. It’s a corrupting influence. If there was an original sin other than thinking up the idea of turning women into sexbots and baby factories it was inventing goddamned money … and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same asshole who did both.
CEOs are really expensive meatbags (each one costing over 300x what one reporter costs), and they complain a lot (especially about what various things are costing the company). What if you could just replace them with robots?
Bleach? Bleach? You’ve got to be kidding me. I say we sound an evacuation, then take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Beeaking: Judge issues surprise ruling against Trump in court
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=R_fqkGMvvvE
Re: Bekenstein Bound @164:
An interesting rabbit hole.
Trade is VERY old, long-distance trade of pigments and tools predated our species. Important objects for barter, like shells or grain, easily shifted into becoming typical units of exchange: commodity money.
Tally sticks are also old, part of the history of plain counting, number systems, and writing—incrementally refined ideas with practical benefits that were entangled in commerce, among other things.
* How Period Tracking Birthed the Calendar
Untraded bundles of tokens simplified tracking inventory (miniaturized 1-to-1 correspondence), coinciding with the rise of agriculture in the Near East. Such tokens go back to 7500 BCE: still oral preliterate cultures. Similar objects were found in Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and Mesoamerica. The Near East later evolved them into written number systems, by labelling the bundles then ditching the tokens for the abstract label itself.
Commodity money and record keeping sufficed for exploitation. Debt, lending with interest, rent and rented land, temple soliciting, tribute/taxation, irregular shiny metal exchange, standard units of weight (like the Egyptian deben ~3000 BCE or Mesopotamian shekel 2150 BCE), debt relief. Inscribed coins were late: 1200–800 BCE for Chinese spade money, 640 BCE for Greek electrum coins.
About that debt relief
Elon Musk Claims Homelessness Is A ‘Lie’ and ‘Propaganda’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=r7OKp4dXFmo
Yes. Those lazy moochers choose the homeless lifestyle rather than work.
(A British Tory politician literally called it a lifestyle)
New Crisis Hotline for CEOs?
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @ 169
Somehow I doubt New York State takes a similar proactive attitude regarding women threathened by their spouses.
.
Heavy metal… I just found ‘Deny, Defend, Depose” (Official Music Video) at Youtube. – I won’t link to it because of graphic content. I just want to mention it as yet another example of the widespread hate against health insurance companies.
REPUBLICAN SENATOR GOES PUBLIC About Donald Trump’s Threats Against Them!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2RG-OkRUF_c
I loathe the Republicans but it is good not all are completely spineless.
Key Russian general killed in Moscow bomb blast claimed by Ukraine
Mystery Drones Saga: Federal Agencies Say Sightings Are Mix Of Legal Drones, Aircraft And Stars
Texas medical school says hackers stole sensitive health data of 1.4 million individuals
“Poll Shows Public Has Already Lost All Faith In Donald Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZpIk48yGxJ4
Maybe this will give some Republican senators the courage to go against Trump re. the appointments.
But I am not holding my breath.
BB @165, no. Don’t do this: “I say we sound an evacuation, then take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Do not post fantasies about killing human beings. On The Infinite Thread, that is not allowed.
You should not fantasize about violence when posting in The Infinite Thread, nor should you propose that others do violence. The rule holds even if you are speaking metaphorically, sarcastically, or jokingly.
Thank you.
Followup to Reginald @161.
Judge Shuts Down Trump’s Latest Attempt To Skate On Hush Money Conviction
Giant Companies Took Secret Payments to Allow Free Flow of Opioids. That’s a New York Times link.
“Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.”
More at the link.
I see a consistent pattern. Drug companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers focus on making money at the expense of people’s health. They are opting to kill people.
Associated Press:
Lynna , OM @ 176
My revenge fantasies are more about finding a bug that induces Tourette’s syndrome. It will be hard for evangelicals to endorse candidates that keep swearing on TV, letting their language mirror their inner nature . As for distribution, it is not my fault they refuse to wear face masks at CPAC meetings.
My other alternative was spraying them with a truth serum, but it will not work on people that lack the concept of truth.
President Biden has ambitious agenda in his final days
I snipped a vague mention of dealing with AI.
Link
Even if the Congress and courts stood up for once, and we somehow got Trump to resign or be impeached, that would not cure our problems. The U.S. system of governance offers no way out this election cycle. If Trump went down, his VP Vance would take over. If he went down too, the Speaker of the House, who is currently a MAGA Republican, would take over.
When the USA engages in “nation-building,” the form of democracy we try to set up in other countries differs from our own. There are reasons for that.
WTF?
Link.
All the best people. At every level.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/which-state-is-torturing-trans-prisoners
“Which State Is Torturing Trans Prisoners Today? Is It Florida?”
“SPOILER: It is Florida.”
@183 Lynna, OM
Spartz wants to avoid the circus, so she’s teaming up with alpha clown Musk?
WTF indeed.
Big loss for ISPs as Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to $15 broadband law
Honda and Nissan explore merger to navigate uncertain EV future
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/drones-full-of-vaccines-vaccines
“Drones Full Of Vaccines! Vaccines Full Of Drones!”
Embedded links are available at the main link.
US aeroplane stowaway attempts fresh escape to Canada
I will be very much surprised if her bail is not revoked.
This drug is the ‘breakthrough of the year’ — and it could mean the end of the HIV epidemic
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #190…
I read one article about her latest antic and it quoted her lawyer saying (before she cut off her ankle monitor and tried to get into Canada) the he didn’t think she’d see jail time “unless she did something stupid.” I think she’s done something stupid. I agree with you that she’ll probably have her bail revoked and the judge will now agree with the prosecution that she’s a flight risk.
Dow tumbles more than 260 points for 9-day losing streak, its longest since 1978: Live updates
@192 whheydt
Law enforcement agencies should wonder why she is so eager to leave the USA, and investigate her as a possible foreign spy.
Putin accuses West of pushing Russia to its “red lines” forcing it to respond
Maybe he should stop drawing his red lines around other countries’ territory.
Nuclear bunker sales increase, despite expert warnings they aren’t going to provide protection
More evidence that too much money is accumulating in the hands of a few.
Maddow explains the rise of Trump’s oligarchy
Video at the link.
Oh FFS.
GOP report recommends Liz Cheney be criminally investigated over Jan. 6 work
Link
Followup to Reginald @193.
UnitedHealth is contributing to the Dow’s historic losing streak
Many major health care stocks have fallen sharply since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed this month.
I would not take Trump’s word on that. He is too ignorant, too incoherent, and too susceptible to bribery to be effective. Doubly so when the issue is health care.
Judge orders California Bible college to cease operations after state hearing
Report: Elon Musk failed to report movement required by security clearance
Trump lawyers allege juror misconduct in New York criminal case
Mitt Romney Warns Americans They Can’t Complain When Trump Destroys Everything.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hCR8E0hOwjo
From Mano Singham’s blog
Michael Moore responds to the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
.https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2024/12/17/michael-moore-responds-to-the-unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting/
Elon Musk being Elon Musk
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxE72i2XUKXay6Re7pHiQNRZe7PDHZz5Ii?si=qbaynb-NqPBoY-lZ
Donald Trump revisited
DIE KRUPPS – Fuck You (Official Fan-Video) [HD]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ETlcns6lU6s
No Humans Born In The 1800s Are Still Alive, But These 3 ‘Ultra Surviving’ Animals Are—Here’s Their Story
.
.https://www.forbes.com/sites/scotttravers/2024/12/15/no-humans-born-in-the-1800s-are-still-alive-but-these-3-ultra-surviving-animals-are-heres-their-story/
Re: birgerjohansson @ #206….
“DIE KRUPPS” is ambiguous…is the “die” a German article (since the Krupp family and company were/are German) or is a wish for the demise of the Krupp family/company?
So, a mere minus thirty-four days into his term, and already the honeymoon is over and he’s lost the confidence of both the general public and the moneybags types?
Talk about sucking like a Hoover …
The orange one likes to stack adjectives on top of each other.
“Trump LOSES HIS MIND over Immunity Order”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zbkERBds0tY
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-18/court-says-uk-can-seize-4m-from-andrew-tate/104744266
Good.
Owen Jones Nigel Farage Plots UK TAKEOVER With Elon Musk: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid just over 11 minutes.
Oz sure ain’t immune to this either nor Canada..
US Weighs Banning TP-Link Router Over National Security Concerns
Interpol Says People Aren’t Reporting Online Scams for Fear of Being Called Pigs
Rolling Robots Armed With Net-Flinging Guns Are The Latest Nightmare Fuel
@ 203
Considering that Mittens and all other conservatives (yes, ALL) helped create the political culture that inevitably led to Trump, HE is in no position to talk.
CNN: In reversal, key House panel votes to release Matt Gaetz ethics report
This is all rumor and the committee could in theory hold another secret vote and reverse course again. If it gets released it will be something of an embarrassment for Trump. It may shut down Gaetz’s budding show hosting job and might trigger another criminal investigation.
It will be nice that it came out but it’s so far behind events that it probably won’t really matter a whole lot.
@213 Reginald Selkirk: Routers and certain other key communication gear should either be open standards for hardware and software, or they should not be bought from another country. With modern technology and the deep stack of hardware and software on even small devices it’s just too easy to hide some monitoring or leave some back doors.
The GOP’s bogus Biden impeachment effort reaches its pitiful end
“Republicans’ spectacular debacle came to an embarrassing close on Monday — except nothing is ever really closed for these guys, is it?” By Rachel Maddow
The High Price Of Kakistocracy
Link.
More details from a different section at the same link:
Related: Trump selects Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas.
New York Times link
Inside Elon Musk’s creepy quest to build utopian ‘company towns’
YouTube link to Johnny Cash singing “Sixteen Tons.”
Family Guy – sitting on Santa’s lap
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTNkNCdoSbE
Why Musk Is Wrong About Mars
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8HNgIJqeyDw
In this case, Hossenfelder is 100% right. It makes more sense to invest resources in saving what is left of Earth’s biosphere.
Judge is dinged for misconduct after criticizing Samuel Alito
Ponsor was right.
Congress unveils last-minute funding deal, averts shutdown
Followup to comment 225:
Link
More at the link.
Do they want a government shutdown?
https://www.wonkette.com/p/war-on-christmas-over-if-you-want
They may have.
Judge clears way for Musk appeal to try to restore $56 billion Tesla pay
‘Murder hornet’ eradicated from US, officials declare
Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement
Pornhub Is Pulling Out of Florida
Gotta catch ’em all: Hong Kong targets ‘unfair’ claw machines
Followup to comment 226.
Link
Reginald Selkirk @229:
Soon: In an unprecedented show of concern for wildlife—or life of any kind—Trump announced the creation of a strategic murder hornet reserve.
“The US just run out of hornets! My country used to have so many hornets. What those people did—you know who I’m talking about—it’s a disgrace. We’re gonna have so many beautiful murders. And they’re gonna be overseen by top men.”
Link
More at the link.
ABC News employees are pissed Disney caved to Trump’s bullying
By “fair,” Trump means “nothing but praise for the Dear Leader,” … and he means that the press should adopt and promote a view of Trump that Trump has of himself.
Russia detains suspect in assassination of general sanctioned for chemical weapons use
“Authorities said they had arrested an Uzbek national born in 1995 for working with Ukrainian special services to plant a bomb on a scooter outside general’s residence.”
The Christian Nationalist “TheoBros” Have, Uh, Thoughts About Antisemitism
“I hate Judaism but love Jews and wish them a very pleasant conversion to Christianity.”
Followup to comments 225, 226 and 233
CR blows up on Johnson
Followup to comment 239.
Trump opposes funding bill, pushing government closer to a shutdown
“Elon Musk joined a wave of right-wing fury against a bill to keep the government open. Now, the president-elect says he wants big changes, too, before this weekend’s deadline.”
More at the link.
Texas new mom deported after missed immigration hearing following emergency C-section, family attorney says
Are they unaware Republicans will be in the majority in both the House and the Senate next year?
Columbus did not take syphilis to the Americas – he brought it back to Europe
Reginald @242, yeah, those doofuses are not making any sense.
Though, of course on some legislation the Republicans in the House fight with each other. They always have members who do not cooperate. That’s why they have to resort to getting some Democratic Party support to get anything passed.
Trump weighing in at the last minute regarding the debt ceiling is confusing. My bet is that Elon Musk said something to him, and the result was more chaos.
Also, I’ve noticed that it is members of the Democratic Party who serve on committees who do most of the work.
Murder Mystery Solved By Google Street View
Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted
Pope Francis: There is Faith in Humor
Could be a translation problem. I think he meant to say that religion is a joke.
U.S. Mint announces 5 women on new quarters for 2025. Here’s who will be on the coins.
Former Christians Are Sharing The Turning Points That Made Them Leave The Faith, And They Had A Lot To Say
…
Well, the “infallible” Pope just “infallibly” changed his mind again.. This time on something they actually arguably got right the first time (albeit probly not in terms of historical accuracy but metaphorically speaking) :
Source : https://www.newarab.com/news/vatican-removes-nativity-scene-showing-baby-jesus-keffiyeh
Seems they caved to the backlash there. Of course it takes them so much longer when it comes to child molesting priests, the helicoentric theory and bruning scientists at the stake for or jailing and torturing them for advocating it, etc ..
The US no longer has freedom of the press.
A dark day indeed.
Also from The New Arab and also on a symbolic display this time at a pub :
People like who and what exactly huh Robbie? Nope, no sign of racism there eh? (Not. sarc tag unnecessary yeah?)
Source : https://www.newarab.com/news/muslim-man-sues-uk-pub-over-sign-showing-beheaded-arab-figure
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-18/baby-red-handfish-hatch-in-captivity/104740222
Bernie Sanders blasts ‘President Elon Musk’ for derailing spending deal
Clever, goad Trump’s ego.
‘World’s first’ grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant announced in the US
Cart. Horse.
So this PBS interview covers so very much more than just the title / intro suggests :
Oh FFS sure I putr the / Blockquote there..
MIT researchers introduce Boltz-1, a fully open-source model for predicting biomolecular structures
Newsweek: Man Pleads Guilty to Operating Secret Chinese Police Station in NYC
This is a real issue. Large countries have extensions of their embassies scattered across other countries that provide services. These are publicly declared and provide a limited set of social services.
China is running undeclared police stations that are leaning on Chinese people in other countries. Not just citizens of China, police are a part of the security state in China. These police stations are used to attack dissidents and protestors, recruit spies and gather information.
An oldie but a goodie & can we ow? Please! Disturbed – Land Of Confusion [Official Music Video] nearluy 5 mins
@ 260
I prefer the original Genesis version with the Spitting Image puppets.
Unelected Billionaire Shtposter May Shut Down Government, Because Fck Us All Is Why
“We don’ remember this being covered in Schoolhouse Rock.”
Summarized from an NBC News article by Steve Benen:
Let’s hope the Democrats don’t treat Hogg like they did AOC. See PZ’s post.
Donald Trump keeps lying about the margin of his election victory because the truth is too inconvenient to leave intact.
Trump’s lie about his “mandate” is metastasizing.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/republicans-turn-eating-their-own-into-a-spectator-sport
Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein:
Youtube: MeidasTouch
Trump’s motion to dismiss based on jury misconduct is absurd. Trump’s lawyers are claiming that the court must dismiss because there are grounds for Trump to file a motion to dismiss, but at the same time Trump isn’t going to file the motion and the court should not investigate the claim of misconduct. It’s literally there is evidence of misconduct behind the curtain but you can’t look behind the curtain. The judge was not impressed.
JM, good summary. Thanks.
In other news, “Claims that Liz Cheney broke the law are even thinner than you think.’
Washington Post link
“A report produced by allies of Donald Trump recommended suggested that the former congresswoman face criminal charges. It appears to derive from Trump’s similar suggestion.”
Georgia Appeals Court Disqualifies Fani Willis From Trump RICO Case
The Trump indictment survived, but who knows what will happen now without Willis there to guide subsequent prosecution.
Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump met for dinner at Mar-a-Lago, joined by Elon Musk
Washington Post link
Last sane man to exit Fox News
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug presents ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’—updated for 2024
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/idea-what-if-we-didnt-purity-test
“IDEA! What If We DIDN’T Purity-Test Left/Liberal Media Out Of Existence Now Of All F*cking Times”
The wrong kind of purity purge.
“Neil Degrasse Tyson & The Trans Athlete Issue”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xNRmNF55320
Sabine Hossenfelder reacts against the hate directed at Neil DeGrasse Tyson and trans athletes.
Honda Sells Spicy Electrical Tape To Stop Rodents Eating Your Wiring
Non-Merican here.
Can someone explain just what Musk and Trump will gain by having a government shutdown???
2,000 Drones Fall From The Sky After Failing During Light Show
It’s less about baseless allegations of crimes and more about what Donald Trump and his team intend to do with the baseless allegations of crimes.
birger @277, I don’t really know how to answer that question. What Republicans are doing does not really make sense. However, to the base of rightwing whackos just looking for Trump and Elon Musk to juice them up with more transgressive actions, or with more “own the libs” bluster, it feels good.
Also, I think there is a not-insignificant amount of ignorance at play here. Musk does not know how to govern. He does know how to make oligarchical pronouncements. Trump knows how to make dictatorial pronouncements (and he reminds depressingly ignorant as well). Both men as just into dominance. Doesn’t matter who gets hurt.
Related: Democrats slam GOP for risking shutdown because Elon Musk says so
Posted by readers of the article:
It is hard to match the reach that Musk has on Xitter. That’s another potent aspect of this anti-reality world in which Trump cult followers live.
Followup to comment 280.
This just in:
Okay. WTF? I’ll believe it when I see Republicans actually vote. The vote is scheduled for tonight.
Sounds to me like Trump had just the tiniest inkling of what shutting the government down would mean in terms of bad press for him, so he backed down.
Lynna, OM @ 280
Thank you.
I am beginning to think the only way to let voters see through this insane gang is to let the evil clowns do to USA what Boris Johnson and the tories did to Britain. It will be awful. It will cause permanent damage. But as one of Bertold Brecht’s characters said: “Night has 12 hours. And then comes the day.”
Thinking about the future:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-clean-energy-transition-will
“Greedheads” is a good description.
Scientists just confirmed the largest bird-killing event in modern history
Um, are they forgetting about another episode?
Billions to none… the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon
When Krampus is our friend
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1N8t9x6GBh/
@birgerjohansson 277
If I had to guess Trump and Elon have a mix of zero-sum game, needing to look tough, and believing at least some of their bullshit. Politics does require compromise in some places but maybe they also want to look tough now.
I have no idea if they know or care about how that affects people and rapidly becomes unpopular based on past occasions. Their cabinet picks are awful and we can expect slightly less awful at best and they’ll still whine about the “unfairness” or “unconstitutionalness” or whatever is designed to just get what they want.
Trump and Elon want to see total capitulation, from the Rs and government agencies (Elon pressuring Congress should get mockery at the least). They believe a shut down will make them look tough to the Rs as a group maybe. Opposing the Ds is already implied.
Eat – Pray – Triangulon
Republicans fail to pass revised bill that would avert US government shutdown
This is the sudden Republican attempt to appease the people pulling strings, not the bipartisan version worked out over several months. Even if the House had passed it, there is no guarantee the Senate nor President would approve it. I.e., it is a distraction.
Man convicted for repeatedly lying about inventing Bitcoin
@birgerjohansson:
Ego boosts.
Bertold Brecht obviously never spent a winter in the high Arctic.
Time to bundle up and stockpile.
Re: birgerjohansson @275:
“whether transgender women should be allowed to compete with women”
Transphobic six seconds in.
Trans athletes don’t disproportionately win. There’s only a ginned up moral panic on occasions when they win at all—even for setting records by default in categories or regions lacking in competitors. Fairness is a non-problem. And even if they did have biological advantages, star athletes are lauded for being overwhelmingly more successful than peers… if they’re cis (a word conspicuously absent in transphobic coverage). The panic over “a male top athlete who decides he’d rather be a woman” (Sabine’s words) is the bathroom intruder propaganda rehashed.
Whatever shall we do about women competing with women in the women’s category? A woman might win. How unfair! Gosh, it’s all so complicated, we’d better scrap the whole category instead of accepting them as women, cuz that might facilitate *gasp* societal acceptance.
birgejohansson@275,
Why the constant links to Sabine Hossenfelder? It’s not really a problem, as you identify them as such, so I know not to follow them – I’m just curious.
Seth Meyers:
“Trump, Biden and Bernie React to Drone Hysteria, Mace Says It Could Be Aliens”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=55pyJLyycYk
“It is as the prophecy foretold; when the Apocalypse comes it will begin in New Jersey.
The book of Revelations: And I looked and I beheld a pale horse and the name that sat on it was Tony, the lazy fuck, he was on the garden state parkway near exit 114 and he said “whoa, what’s with all the friggin drones??”
This VPN Lets Anyone Use Your Internet Connection. What Could Go Wrong?
Surprise Hair Loss Breakthrough: A Sugar Gel Triggers Robust Regrowth
Taking advantage of an obscure rule, Chargers’ Dicker makes NFL’s first fair-catch kick in 48 years
Yet another reason Elon Musk needs his security clearances pulled. He’s endorsed the AfD in Germany.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-politicians-criticize-musk-backing-for-far-right-afd/a-71117414
Under GOP bill, funding for pediatric cancer research was cast aside
“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued.
Link
Why The GOP Debacle On The Hill Is Like Pro Wrestling
Link
Followup to comments 300, 301, 302 and 303.
Link
Lynna, OM @ 304
At this point… yes, a shutdown will be very destructive. But with the current evil clown posse, passing a bill just lets them do more harm spread out over a longer period.
.
A government shutdown will hurt their popularity (and re-election chances) so much that a few of the spineless @#%* will finally begin to reconsider being the catamites for Trump and Musk.
With the narrow majority, just a couple will be enough to block Maga Mike.
New York Times:
NBC News:
Link
Right-wing media ghouls cheer government shutdown
Re: birgerjohansson @ #305…
Unfortunately…it probably won’t hurt re-election chances very much. The American electorate seems to have a memory that runs no longer than a couple of months.
Followup to comments 159 and 301.
Link
Louisiana bars health dept. from promoting flu, COVID, mpox vaccines: Report
There are ‘clear signs’ of ethnic cleansing by Israel in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders says
President of Michigan company stabbed by employee during staff meeting, police say
Malaysia announces new search for aircraft MH370, missing for over 10 years
Gisèle Pelicot rape verdicts highlight a second wave of the #MeToo movement in France
“There is a lot of anger,” one local activist said. “It’s much larger than the issue of rape. It’s a question of listening to what women have to say.”
Politico:
Commentary:
Link
Reclaim Idaho:
https://www.reclaimidaho.org
Elon Musk, SpaceX under US Military investigation for not disclosing meetings with foreign leaders: Report
“Elon Musk and SpaceX are being investigated by three U.S. military departments for allegedly failing to disclose meetings with foreign leaders. The reviews highlight concerns over Musk’s security protocol adherence, crucial for SpaceX’s role in U.S. military operations.”
And right now Elon Musk wants to shut down the government that is investigating him.
@319
I would point out to the author that the anti-government attitudes within that quote is why we are in the shit we are in now.
Third member of LockBit ransomware gang has been arrested
Elon Musk downplayed his influence after Democrats started calling him ‘President Musk’
Trump team affirms he’s leader of GOP amid ‘President Musk’ barbs
Suspected ‘witchdoctors’ arrested over attempt to ‘bewitch’ Zambia’s president
“They’re always after me lucky charms!”
New Yorker link
“Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation”
“How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.”
More at the link.
Not the world in which I live.
“We Are Getting Lasered”: Nearly a Dozen Planes Lasered Last Night During New Jersey Drone Panic
Ring Of Fire/Farron Cousins:
‘Republicans In Danger Of LOSING Their House Majority’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-imAq5W82NY
Hilarious. When incompetence fuses with corruption.
Biden cuts billions in student loan debt after years of setbacks
Woman accused of crushing animals to death with feet for dark web videos denied bail
https://www.wonkette.com/p/elon-musk-boosting-german-fascists
re Lynna @325:
Truly frivolous. I cannot even imagine spending several hundred dollars just to get a reservation. My wife and I recently spent almost $130 (including tip) for our anniversary dinner. We don’t eat out often because of the cost, but having to dole out such large sums just to get a table would preclude us from going out at all.
‘Alien plant’ fossil discovered near Utah ghost town doesn’t belong to any known plant families, living or extinct
The Green River Formation is famous for fish fossils
Archaeologists Discover Grim Floor Paved With Bones During Dig
Youtube: Reporting from Ukraine
Combined North Korea and Russian assaults are not making much progress in Kursk. The weather is really turning bad and while this hurts both sides it’s worse on the attackers. Infantry assaults become slower and easier targets for defending drones and artillery.
Business Insider
Reports on how the North Koreans are doing have been all over the place. It’s likely that the inexperienced troops vary widely from engagement to engagement, with them doing well in some and badly in others. The one thing they agree on is that North Korean casualties have been very high. The North Korean soldiers don’t have experience or training in modern combat beyond a few rushed weeks by the Russians.
How quickly they can adapt now becomes a big question. Is any of this information going to filter back to North Korea and will the officers there listen to any of it?
Long COVID-19 Hits Young Adults Harder
Study:
Copyright abuse is getting Luigi Mangione merch removed from the internet
Is the NORAD Santa tracker safe from a government shutdown?
House overwhelmingly passes bill to avoid consequential government shutdown
NBC News:
Washington Post:
Sounds like another error in judgement.
NBC News:
The CFPB is one of many government agencies that Elon Musk wants to eliminate.
Oh my: Trump cashes in on Christmas with gaudy new Bible ad
Scam artist.
Followup to comment 342.
Watch that ad. JFC.
Hold on — Zambia still conducts literal witch hunts??
Stop the world, I want to get off …
@338 Reginald Selkirk:
This is an important bit. Trump wanted this lifted or removed probably so the debt he plans to run up later could be pinned on Biden. It will be very hard to do once Trump is in power because the Democrats will oppose it and there are enough Republican anti all government spending fanatics that it won’t be possible to line them up. This isn’t going to get any easier to do once Trump takes office.
Expanding on Lynna @302:
The government is shutting down because Elon Musk has factories in China
Happy Winter Solstice.
Sea snakes regain advanced color vision, recovering a complex trait once lost to evolutionary time
.https://phys.org/news/2024-12-sea-snakes-regain-advanced-vision.html
This mirrors the path to color vision in primates.
Also, prior to the domination by dinosaurs proto-mammals shared cell-repair genes with other vertebrates that were lost, and then replaced in long-lived mammals.
Ha! After 38 Republican representative rejected the Musk-Trump bill, the Demicrats won, and raised the debt ceiling.
😀❣️🦋🌻🌾🍾🎉
Addendum/Clarification to @ 350
They did NOT raise the debt ceiling the way Trump wanted, but stopped a government shutdown. The Republicans are now pretending nothing weird happened.
And we now know GOP congressmen are less subservient than we feared.
Big loss of prestige for Musk/Trump.
-Will it help GOP senators to grow a spine and reject toxic appointees?
Happy Solstice everyone!
2024 Through the Eyes of a Climate Scientist by Climate Adam ten mins long.
Kim Stanley Robinson: Remembering climate change … a message from the year 2071 | TED Countdown also ten mins long. A somewhat optimistic scenario pre-Trump’s election but here’s hoping & thought twas intresting. By the Mars trilogy SF author who does and puts an awful lot of research and thought into his works.
Bold prediction: Susan Collins will express serious reservations about at least one Trump appointee, but will give in and end up supporting them anyway.
USPS worker used chocolate sauce, jelly in North Branford mailbox vandalism, warrant says
Usually, articles like this end with a paragraph about the when the arrest was made, meth was also found.
Psychic Nikki Makes Scary 2025 Prediction For Wisconsin
Virginia hunter dies after a bear shot in a tree fell on him
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to crowds after Magdeburg Christmas Market Attack (5 dead so far)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VdcdzFUBxsI
House speaker spoke with man in charge—and Trump—ahead of spending bill vote
Jake Sherman:
NASA’s solar probe is about to fly closer to the sun than any human-made object ever
“The Parker Solar Probe is expected to make a fiery dive close to the solar surface on Christmas Eve morning — a key milestone in its mission to study the sun’s outer atmosphere.”
Link
Fox News correspondent: Democrats “saved the day” on “every single major fiscal vote this Congress” despite Republican House majority
Biden surpasses Trump on judicial confirmations with Senate’s approval of his 235th nominee
Biden signs stopgap bipartisan measure to fund government, avert shutdown
Oh FFS.
Link
More bluster, attempted bullying and profound ignorance from Trump.
Now I understand why Russians make suicidal charges against Ukrainans.
The Mistake: Eating a russian MRE
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=oD3fY1GLpEU
Senate confirms Biden’s 235th judge, beating Trump’s record
It’s an important milestone for Joe Biden as he tops his predecessor Donald Trump’s total number of judicial nominees confirmed before handing the White House back over to him.
Stevo R @ 353
A far less optimistic scenario is found in the Jackpot novels by William Gibson.
Merry Kitzmas! 2025 is the 20th anniversary of Kitzmiller v. Dover and the 100th of the Scopes Trial
* Posted on Dec 19, 2024
‘Murderbot’ is Hugely Popular Amongst Neurodivergent and LGBTQ Folks
.https://medium.com/@theautlaw/murderbot-is-hugely-popular-amongst-neurodivergent-and-lgbtqia-folks-a7638d3d62fe
The perpetrator of the deadly attack in Germany is NOT an islamist. He has even expressed support for AfD!
“Eating The Worst Tinned Food In The WORLD!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=XGH3B_6m1aM
Ha ha! Fermented herring is an aquired taste, but you should NEVER open a can indoors, as the juice sprays out at high pressure. The smell of the fermentation products is intense!
Hint: first time, wear a gas mask while opening a can.
Timeline: Deadly attacks on Christmas markets in Europe
Attacks have targeted Christmas markets in other cities in Germany and France since 2014, several of them vehicular.
Who is Taleb A., the suspect behind Magdeburg Christmas market attack?
Biographical details. AfD fan. Praised Musk. An ex-muslim atheist psychiatrist who’d fled Saudi Arabia 20 yrs ago and ran a website assisting asylum applicants. Thought Germany was granting asylum to “Syrian Jihadis” in a “secret project to Islamize Europe”. No explanation for attacking a Christmas Market.
Justice Thomas did not disclose additional trips, Democrats say
(NYT paywall)
In the Gisèle Pelicot trial, the husband who’d drugged her and 50 others were found guilty (20 more were yet unidentified). Cold cases have been reopened investigating the husband as the suspect, including a murder.
Oregon city asks locals to stop putting googly eyes on sculptures
American single malt becomes new U.S. whiskey category
The Best American Single Malt Whiskeys Of 2024
The founder of our organizations created a short, tranquil, mind-cleansing video that we want to share with you to help in these tempestuous times.
http://theartsinarizona.org/Contemplation_in_Apprehension_of_More_Devastation.mp4
Followup to Lynna @ 17, 24:
ABC
Uninformed and dangerous have not been dealbreakers for the GOP. That’s often literally a requirement.
We all know 20% is less than 4%.
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxHZSx1O1G1H6Sk3A41BcyFc9-40hIowcF
New damage delays I-40 reopening in North Carolina closed by Helene
J.K. Rowling lashes out at John Oliver over trans athletes (38:43)
Wrong. In 2025, the largest turkey in the world will be found in the District of Columbia.
Behind the Resolute Desk, to be precise.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @ #383…
Only when he isn’t at a golf course… So, allowing for other activities, perhaps as much as 10% of the time, but probably more like 5%.
Lara Trump withdraws name from consideration for US Senate
She has no shame nor decency, so I am guessing she got inside word that she was not going to be selected.
As for the January announcement, I offer a bold prediction: a divorce and ambassadorship.
From the comments at 382: The “she won” website also includes withdraws and forfeits in protest.
Francis Collins on the existence of God
387:
*snort*
Francis Collins in 387:
Not a god that cares about mercy then. Yes those brackets really reflect the callousness of what he was knowingly conveying, based on the conversation.
Cares about having a state of conflicting provincial norms of dichotimized relative preferences, but nothing in particular. Such mystery. Such good, much love.
And a good, loving god intervening would be… … bad apparently?
Well definitely if the above is what the god’s ‘love’ is.
He literally argued the laudability of Bible genocide stories was compelling evidence to him that God was good, and he still settled on that book as the right description of the god and what ‘good’ means to him.
Okay palate cleanser.
Swimming mouse among 27 new species discovered in Peru
Pics at the link.
Huge and rare Mekong catfish spotted in Cambodia
Study reveals right whales live 130 years—or more
Baby humpback whale recordings reveal vocalizations directed to their mothers
@387 – 390
Francis Collins is muddle-headed, but unlike many apologists, he seems to be honest.
He is selected for these debates as a smart guy and a scientist, but the “evidence” he finds to support his position does not fall in his own field of expertise, which is genetics. He is not a cosmologist and he is not a neurobiologist. Within his own field, he has been a solid supporter of the theory of evolution, which is the atheist position.
His position on the “moral law” is ridiculous. I would claim that the need for a moral code is a necessity of living in large populations, and that most members of a species can agree on what is ‘good’ does not require supernatural intervention, it can be largely explained by shared evolutionary history. For example, is it ‘good’ to eat one’s mate after copulation in order to nourish one’s offspring? Humans almost universally say no, but praying mantises and spiders might consider it to be a debatable point.
Congrats on making it so far, I gave up after about 20 minutes of the video.
US warplane shot down in Red Sea ‘friendly fire’ incident
Snopes:
No, Pope Francis Isn’t Opening ‘Tomb of Lucifer’ in Vatican on Christmas Eve
Reginald Selkirk@376,
By way of contrast, there’s been a change.org public petition to “Pit googly eyes oan the jobby” – the “jobby” (Scots vernacular for “turd”) being a bizarre decorative finish to a hotel in Edinburgh (visible at the link). Not sure whether the petition is still available for signing.
‘Missing’ US congresswoman found living at assisted living facility for dementia patients in Texas
There are plenty of GOP reps who should be in dementia care.
Nooooooo at least he’s going to Scottsdaleeeeeee!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jordan-peterson-flees-totalitarian
“Jordan Peterson Flees ‘Totalitarian Hellhole’ for Arizona”
Cartoon: Lady Liberty vs. Donald Trump
Link
From the link provided by Brony in comment 397:
A charming little bible verse.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19kLQ52HP3/
1) The Russians have never promised me anything. They must be having different conversations with Peterson.
2) That’s not actually a denial.
Waspy Mary and Joseph and the new savior, LOL
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2024/12/21/caturday-palate-cleanser-25/
Albania to close TikTok for a year blaming it for promoting violence among children
Reginald @402, good points.
Kyrsten Sinema […] ‘Don’t give a shit’ is a good summary of her Senate career.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kyrsten-sinema-a-dick-to-the-end
Reuters: Putin says Russia is ready to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war
This was a press conference with Russian press so Putin could say anything and is playing to the Russian population but it gives some insight into where Putin is going. Putin wants to negotiate with Trump, not Ukraine or the EU. Putin says he has no conditions and then starts laying out conditions. He talks about what he wants from Ukraine, that they remain weak and ready for another invasion. He says nothing about what Russia might offer Ukraine.
Link
More at the link.
South Carolina MAGA Legislators Reintroduce Bill Mandating Death Penalty For Women Seeking Abortion
A cartoon titled “A Brief Taxonomy of Pro Lifers!” and commentary are available at the link.
American aid is pouring into Poland on its way to Ukraine.
List at the link.
Link
Text above is an excerpt from a much longer presentation of events related to Ukraine and to Russia.
Joe Manchin warns Democratic party is ‘toxic’ as he steps down from US Senate
Viral AI Steak Slicing Video Comparison Shows How Far Ahead Google Is
“More than 3,100 students died at schools built to crush Native American cultures.”
Washington Post link
More at the link.
Link
More at the link.
Faith-based cost-sharing seemed like an alternative to health insurance, until the childbirth bills arrived
“Health care sharing ministries advertise reimbursements for members’ medical bills. But they are largely unregulated, and most have restrictions on maternity coverage.”
Vatican advances beatification process for Belgium’s king who abdicated rather than approve abortion
He abdicated his throne for a day? What an incredible sacrifice. Not even as difficult as Jesus’ bad weekend.
Fandom pulse: Multiple Stores Announce Their Discontinuation of Games Workshop and Warhammer 40,000 Products
It’s hard to say how serious this is. Not only is it hard to tell how real this boycott is but it’s more important what the players are doing then what the stores are doing. Tabletop gaming is something where people still go to stores and buy stuff at stores more because you need to meet up someplace with other players. It’s also a small group given over to random short term fads as people take up a new game for a couple of months and then drop it, or get angry at a popular company but come back because that company’s game is still what people play.
This was a hugely stupid argument. Some of the purity of the lore bros acted like this was a huge and highly detrimental change. In reality the lore has changed many times over the years and there have always been some female characters. If GW wants to introduce a female character into a group previous presented as all male it isn’t a big deal.
Games workshop has been hosing over their fans in real ways also. They have always had a policy that you had to use official painted Games Workshop models in official tournaments. So if Games Workshop stopped producing Space Marine version 1 and started making Space Marine version 2 you were supposed to replace all your space marines. In practice people didn’t get too picky as long as you mostly had real Games Workshop miniatures and Games Workshop itself would usually continue to make and sell the old versions. Lately they have gotten more rigid about that and been turning their miniature line over more quickly, making it expensive to follow the rules.
Reginald Selkirk @ 415
Belgium has a poor record with kings. They had the genocidal colonialist a century ago, then they had one who was driving drunk and killed his queen in the resulting crash. And during WWII a king (the same one?) chose to stay in occupied Belgium instead of joining the armed forces in exile.
Arstechnica: Human versus autonomous car race ends before it begins
The computer car wiped out in a warm up lap when driving on a course other then it’s home track. A2RL is something new started 2024. It’s racing computer controlled F1 cars. More exotic circus for the masses then anything.
The cars used in the A2RL are not deep learning AIs, they are programmed driving systems, barely AI at all. They are getting better because the programmers are improving the driving programs. Still funny that it wiped out as soon as it was put on a different track.
Canada to Peterson: Don’t let the door hit ya where developmental biology split ya!
Meanwhile: what the fuck is up with this tin of Quality Street? The little crunchy orange octagons have been replaced with generic round crunchy orange, and the elongated hazelnut and caramel ones are half the size they were, no hazelnut, no caramel, just vaguely hazelnuttish flavor …
Will Peterson stay in Arizona permanently or is he just escaping the winter?
Super-Enzyme (CA-KR1) Enhances Carbon Capture by 90%
.https://scitechdaily.com/super-enzyme-enhances-carbon-capture-by-90/
Don’t slit your arteries yet, it is still possible to save the world.
Honda and Nissan are considering a merger.
Biden commutes most federal death sentences
birgerjohansson@421,
Maybe, but not by carbon capture and storage. It might possibly play a minor role, in relation to cement and steel production, where the CO2 produced is mostly not from fossil fuel burning; otherwise, it’s just a fossil fuel lobby scam, endlessly promised and never intended to be delivered.
As of 8 months ago. it will be worse now. More devastated. More rubble, less standing. Fewer living human individuals.
Israel-Hamas war: Haunting drone footage shows before and after of Gaza following 6 months of war by Global News, 1 min 32 secs footage.
Has anyone previously dealt with the fact that Gawd was an actual adulterer who din’t even give the “Virgin” Mary an orgasm – at least as reported from text – when he got her preggas and by the laws of the time they stechnically shoulda stoned Yahweh to death (or atleats tried too..) as well as her? Given y’know the archiac laws of that time. (Coming soon to USoA now thanks those who did NOT vote for Kamala Harris!)
(I can’t be the first person to note this can I?)
The Hill: Gaetz sues Ethics Committee in last-minute bid to block release of report
This is a last gasp move, Gaetz is hoping that if he can clog up the procedure long enough congress will just drop it. It isn’t likely to work but Gaetz is fighting to survive. The report has already been leaked to multiple news sources but if he can keep it from being officially released he can continue to deny it contains anything important.
Also, it looks like Gaetz’s lawyers messed up the first attempt at filing and will have to rush in a second one.
USA Today
Just say no 2.0. Does not achieve anything but it will look like the government is doing something and that is what Trump and his advisors are most concerned with.
On the plus side there will be some good jokes. This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, this is your brain on Trump tweets.
With ‘prime minister’ talk, the GOP line on Elon Musk takes a weird turn
“One House Republican declared, ‘It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.’ The closer one looks, the worse the comment appears.”
The oddest part about Trump tapping ‘The Apprentice’ producer for a second term post [Video at the link]
“Trump intends to appoint Mark Burnett to serve as special envoy to the United Kingdom. That’s odd for a couple of reasons.”
Link
Video at the link.
Followup to comments 219, 275, and 427.
Link
The full report is available at the link.
Nick Fuentes arrested. Some good news.
https://lawandcrime.com/video/im-mexican-white-nationalist-combative-with-officer-before-arrest-for-pepper-spraying-woman-who-showed-up-to-his-home/
Cartoon: The exciting world of A.I.
@433
In other Fuentes news:
Suspect in 3 deaths was killed by police in far-right influencer’s Chicago-area neighborhood
Surveillance footage shows alleged ‘would-be assassin’ showing up at Nick Fuentes’ suburban Chicago home
What Is the Only Two-Sided State Flag?
Bonus
Flag of Paraguay
Jordan Peterson Is Apparently Behind RFK Jr.’s Job Application “Personality Survey,” Sex Questions and All | Vanity Fair
.https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/jordan-peterson-rfk-jr-personality-test-maha?srsltid=AfmBOor58IvY-7IJ_OvRxwAsQOTu-DFmtzgQuD1HnNPeaZqFaDrtEd4b
I will try an abbreviated link below
.https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/jordan-peterson-rfk-jr-personality-test-maha
@314, 413, etc.
Flu surges in Louisiana as health department barred from promoting flu shots
Reginald @438, Sheesh. That’s bad. And that’s before Trump’s anti-vac nominees start running federal agencies related to health. Rightwing states are making their citizens sick.
More on Trump trying to buy Greenland:
Link
If he cared about those things, his position on NATO and Ukraine would be very different. from what they are.
A perspective from Britain: Trump wants to invade four countries now.
“Trump Reveals Two New Invasion Targets”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=b4k0zvPQC9U
https://www.wonkette.com/p/fck-that-change-someones-life-tabs
Organized Looting Throws Gaza Deeper Into Chaos That’s a New York Times link.
“Gangs are filling a power vacuum left by Israel in some parts of southern Gaza, hijacking desperately needed aid for Palestinian residents.”
More at the link.
X jacks up Premium+ prices by 37.5%, hits some markets harder
Whooping cough cases reach highest level in a decade
More details at the link, including recommendations for vaccination schedules, and including information about the effects of vaccination waning.
Macron’s latest choice for PM, François Bayrou, has named his proposed cabinet, but the fascist leader, Le Pen, has been given a veto over who gets which posts in it (see the comment by Xavier Bertrand near the end).
Re: Lynna, OM @ #440….
Trump’s remarks about maps and the size of Greenland show that he clearly doesn’t know much about maps, and–especially–that he doesn’t know how a Mercator projection affects the apparent size of areas at high latitude.
174 Colorado skiers and snowboarders rescued after a lift cracks
World’s largest transparent spherical neutrino detector starts filling ultrapure water
Go read this report on Arizona data centers and those without power in the state.
Scientists unveil 50,000-year-old baby mammoth remains
Cadbury loses royal warrant after 170 years
Former D.C. police intel chief found guilty of tipping off Proud Boys leader ahead of Jan. 6 attack
whheydt @448, yep. Trump is ignorant at all levels. Kind of amazing actually.
In other news:
Video at the link.
Well that’s was a demonstration of Elon Musk’s ignorance.
Cartoon: Coming in hot
Ukrainian drones hit a Russian fuel depot for the second time this month
https://www.wonkette.com/p/all-trump-wants-for-christmas-is
Cardinal Dolan: Trump ‘takes his Christian faith seriously’
Dolan has at least two imaginary friends – God, and the person he imagines Trump to be.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31Gr6_82Fo"Youtube: The Military Show
Not everything in the plan is public but the core of the plan has been released. This is Ukraine’s plan to achieve victory without negotiating with Russia.
1. Ukraine joins NATO – Won’t happen immediately but possible down the road. This will anger Russia no matter who is in control but part of the goal is to insure Russia can’t do anything about it.
2. Strengthen Ukraine’s military – Obvious but the details can get ugly. In particular Ukraine wants total control over long range systems. They have been hampered in this war because of this but other countries don’t want to provoke Russia. They also want a big tight air defense network for obvious reasons. This would be very expensive.
3. Ukraine gets a non-nuclear strategic deterrence force – Essentially a large collection of drones, artillery and missiles sufficient to keep Russia from starting a war. Obvious idea but the details of installing and using expensive advanced systems gets messy to negotiate. In particular Ukraine wants tomahawk missile, which have ranges beyond anything Ukraine currently has.
4. Ukraine wants to organize a joint repair and development project – Ukraine has a lot of resources that could be developed and that would do a lot to pay for rebuilding the country. The problems would be that Ukraine needs to rebuild before these can be developed. Plus this would be a huge finger to Russia, having big EU and US involvement right on the border is one of the things Russia wants to avoid. Doing this when there is no formal peace would be risky.
5. Ukraine wants to join the EU – This is likely long term no matter what but how long it takes depends on the situation. Even at the best Ukraine didn’t meet all of the requirements for joining the EU.
General assessment from other countries in public is that it’s more a set of goals then a tactical plan. At the same time it addresses a lot of the issues that must be dealt with. Under Trump I suspect that it’s likely to become a set of negotiating points at peace negotiations. How that goes is an open question.
Youtube: The Military Show
Just noticed my quotes are off in the link.
More than 6,000 salmon return to Klamath River above former Iron Gate Dam site
Rolling Stone:
Link.
The link is to a Daily Kos page that show excerpts from the Rolling Stone article, photos, and excerpts from a vox.com article.
Bill Clinton is hospitalized for observation and testing after developing a fever
“A source close to the 42nd president told NBC News that the situation is ‘not urgent’ and that Clinton is ‘awake and alert.’ ”
Video at the link.
Transforming the Global Scientific System: Why Fundamental Shifts Are Desperately Needed
“Adulterer”? Try “rapist”. There’s no possibility of meaningful consent in the face of a power imbalance of that magnitude.
Oops.
Granite emits radiation. That’s going to be a problem.
Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, Trump seems to be immune to the effects of hemmorhaging political capital. Actual capital too, for that matter. How many bankruptcies has he had at this point, again, without getting busted down to ordinary Joe? <sigh>
Sweden Says China Denied Request For Prosecutors To Board Ship Linked To Severed Cables
China builds world’s largest diameter underwater shield tunnel at record-breaking speed
A little more on @382, Rowling v John Oliver on trans athletes.
Update in description: “imported She Won’s data into a spreadsheet, almost half (471 of 1055) of the ‘medals’ were unreferenced.”
From the comments:
@426 StevoR: Your certainly not the first to notice the abuse of Mary but it’s not talked about a lot either. If you wedge an unstated approval from Mary into the story it’s easy for Christians to write the rest off as a miracle rather then adultery/rape. It’s easy for Christians to paste over doubts and for atheists bringing up issues to Christians there are a lot of better stories.
@459 Reginald Selkirk: At least when the evangelical Christians allied with Trump they mostly admitted Trump was not a good person. He was just running for the right party and they said god had chosen a bad person to do good things that god wanted done.
Re: StevoR @426:
Comedian Dave Allen – Into the hole he goes (5:47)
A biopic review
Re: StevoR @426:
Wikipedia – Ordeal of the bitter water
The expectation of divine intervention kinda taints the trial when Yahweh’s the suspect. Though “Jesus should’ve been aborted,” is an intriguing take.
Societies of perpetual movement
American Airlines briefly halts flights nationwide after technical issue
Russian-born US citizen jailed in Moscow on espionage charges
Law and Crime: Judge unseals document exposing Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani had been saying it was his lawyers fault that he missed court deadlines. Turns out his lawyers told the court they had to withdraw because Giuliani had told them he wasn’t going to comply with discovery in the case. The situation probably would have just sat but Giuliani filed a letter with the court blaming his lawyers. This promoted the judge to take issue with the letter and make the papers the lawyers had submitted public.
There really needs to be a procedure for people who are just wasting the courts time. Giuliani likely new he was entering contradictory evidence and didn’t care. At this point he is just stalling the court as long as possible while he hides his money and transfers what he can to his kids. Creating another issue the court has to deal with works in Giuliani’s favor.
Trump Responds to “President Musk” Claims—and It’s Clear He’s Pissed
Oh, that’s precious. The man who wants to get rid of birthright citizenship is counting on the constitution to save him?
And also, the concern is not that Musk will assume the office of the president, but that he has assumed the powers of the president.
Biggest banks sue the Federal Reserve over annual stress tests
The Rachel Maddow Show “Public Servant Announcements” are available as videos here.
Those videos are also available on YouTube
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @469, this is such a telling detail:
Many thanks to everyone that posted information calling out the disinformation being promoted by transphobic people.
Link
Followup to comment 458.
Timothy Noah of The New Republic:
UK trials ‘game changing’ drone swarm killing weapon that costs 13 cents a shot — RFDEW uses radio waves to down drones
Followup to comment 464.
https://thehill.com
“Bill Clinton discharged after hospitalization for flu.”
Australian towns evacuated over Christmas as fires rage
How Ukraine’s new drone-missile hybrids are changing long-range weapon technology
It’s actually extremely unlikely that an American invasion of Greenland would be resisted by force. already having a military base there, the USA could quickly bring in enough forces to overwhelm the largely naval forces Denmark maintains there. If the USA was still a member of NATO, it’s unclear if Article 5 of the NATO Treaty applies if one NATO member attacks another; even if the USA had left the alliance, it’s very hard to see Denmark or anyone else doing more than breaking off diplomatic relations, if that. Of course the wider implications would be disastrous for the USA, since whatever Trump thinks, NATO acts as a huge enhancement of American power. But when has Trump shown either the intelligence or the patriotism to act in the country’s best interests?
Guatemalan authorities rescue 160 children from Jewish Lev Tahor sect
Interesting word choice. This is not the first time Clinton has been in the news for a discharge. (think ‘blue dress’)
https://www.wonkette.com/p/on-the-first-day-of-christmas-matt
“On The First Day Of Christmas Matt Gaetz Gave To Me $500 From His Adopted ‘Son’s’ Venmo”
“It’s even worse than you thought!”
FDA raises recall alert to highest level on Costco eggs over risk of severe illness or death due to salmonella
“Regulators warned that eating these eggs could bring ‘serious adverse health consequences or death.’ ”
Do you remember the good old days, when “might not be found guilty in a court of law” wasn’t enough to hold a high office such as attorney general?
So much for diversity: Companies kowtow to conservatives and ditch DEI
Trump’s sudden fixation on Panama may be tied to his shady business
Toyota to donate $1 million to Trump inauguration
So; that wasn’t clear to me. Does Toyota consider Trump’s inauguration to be part of STEM education, or part of workforce readiness?
ASUS Christmas Campaign Sparks Malware Panic Among Windows Users
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #497…
Sounds like it is malware, even if not malicious malware.
Santa tracker 2024 is live! From NORAD to apps, see when St. Nick is coming to town