For those who haven’t been paying attention, the Infinite Thread is for all the non sequiturs and random thoughts you might have that don’t belong elsewhere, and also for serious conversation about topics introduced by Lynna and others.
Thanks, PZ, for giving the Infinite Thread a new lease on life. (For those that may be unaware, threads on freethoughtblogs expire after a certain time, so PZ has to manually resuscitate the Infinite Thread occasionally. In addition, comments are limited to 500 per “chapter” of the Infinite Thread, so the thread automatically rolls over to a new chapter when it hits 500 comments … usually.)
In other news, this is from Wonkette: “Hello! I’m Joe Manchin And I’m Once Again Screwing Everyone For No Reason!”
Hi folks! Joe Manchin here. Just thought I’d stop by and explain to you why I’ve decided to [destroy life for] your grandchildren.
If you don’t mind, though, I’m trying to order dinner at this fancy restaurant, so I may get distracted here and there.
[…] S’ok, back to all your grandchildren. They’re nice kids, I’m sure. Friendly, bright, love to play in the yard and crawl into tiny spaces deep underground that full-grown adults can’t fit into in order to scrape at a rich coal seam. I got grandkids myself. Sometimes I have ‘em all over to the houseboat for a sleepover. What the heck, they might all need to live on that boat in a couple decades.
[…] I feel a bit bad about fucking your grandkids in exchange for campaign donations from my fellow coal barons. But think of how important it is now to help out when their parents need you to drive ‘em to their swimming lessons. That’s gonna be more useful than starting a college fund.
[…] Now I know this has been a bit of a painful process for everyone. First I was on board with a big legacy-defining deal for President Biden. Then I wasn’t. Then I was on board with a smaller deal. Then I wasn’t. Then I was again. Then the Democrats tried to soothe my worries over costs by offering to sunset a whole bunch of programs after a couple of years, including extensions of the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Well, that seemed ridiculous. We need to pay for programs for 10 years, even those subsidies, so they’ll be more or less permanent, as I told my Democratic friends awhile back. Which is why in my latest offer I told Schumer I’ll only vote to reauthorize those subsidies for two years. You follow me?
And it’s all gotta be paid for. But not by tax increases. Well, maybe by tax increases. But no.
[…] We need to save money until prices come down, so we can then not help people pay for stuff on the basis of prices having come down.
[…] Where was I? Oh yeah, painful process. I get it. You should see the looks I get in caucus lunches. That old Liz Warren starts vibrating like a cheap blender when I walk into the room […]. The only person who will sit with me is Kyrsten Sinema, and they always put our table towards the back of the room and make us sit with Cory Booker. […]
[…] Honestly, I don’t know what everyone’s [complaining] about. I told Schumer and Biden I’d give ‘em two more years of ACA subsidies and do something to lower prescription drug prices, and I intend to honor that vow right up to the moment I start getting calls from lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies.
Sure, Biden will yammer on about his legacy for a bit and Schumer will give me a disapproving look over his reading glasses like he’s a rabbi annoyed at some kid for not practicing his Torah portion. And maybe some kids will yell at me one time when I’m trying to walk to my Maserati, because they don’t get how the Senate works. I’ll have to tell ‘em, kids, we run on backslaps and handshakes, and if any of you little bastards tries to give me one of those I’ll have you arrested. Then I’ll tell Biden and Schumer that even this minimal deal is off because everyone’s blaming me for calling off all the other deals just because that’s exactly what I did, and it really hurts my feelings that people noticed.
[…] Here’s the thing: I am not a very smart man. But I am really, really good at changing my mind. Which is a kind of smart, if you think about it. […].
As much as we love to talk about how we have “abolished” slavery in these here United States, there is an exception to the 13th Amendment — involuntary servitude is still legal if it’s being used as punishment for a crime. In Arizona, as in many states, prisoners are required to work 40 hours a week for at little as 10 cents an hour, unless their health does not allow it (which is a very big possibility considering a federal judge just found the state’s prison healthcare system to be “plainly grossly inadequate” and “unconstitutional”).
Giving testimony on Thursday before the state Legislature’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee about “a Request For Proposal for a contract to run the Florence West prison,” Arizona Department of Corrections Director David Shinn explained that many Arizona communities would “collapse” without prison labor.
Via Arizona Central:
“These are low-level worker inmates that work in the communities around the county itself, I would imagine?” Gowan asked.
“Yes. The department does more than just incarcerate folks,” Shinn replied. “There are services that this department provides to city, county, local jurisdictions, that simply can’t be quantified at a rate that most jurisdictions could ever afford. If you were to remove these folks from that equation, things would collapse in many of your counties, for your constituents.”
In other words, he is arguing that if everyone in Arizona were to be a wonderful, law abiding citizen, counties would fall apart because they can’t pay a fair wage for the labor that prisoners do, that the state literally needs people to commit crimes in order to function economically. Whether or not that is actually true is unclear. As the ACLU has noted, Arizona taxpayers spend $1.3 billion a year on prisons, which is more than they spend on higher education.
But it is part of the basis of Shinn’s argument for why the states should have more prisons than they actually need.
Defending the choice to keep state and private prisons open despite dwindling populations, Shinn told the legislators “while it doesn’t necessarily serve the department in the best interest to have these places open, we have to do it to support Arizona.”
“Without the ability to have these folks at far flung places like Apache, like Globe, like Fort Grant, even like Florence West, communities wouldn’t have access to these resources or services, and literally would have to spend more to be able to provide that to their constituents,” Shinn said.
Though Arizona traditionally has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, that number is dwindling. When the state contracts out to private prisons, it has to guarantee at least a 90 percent occupancy rate or pay for a 90 percent occupancy regardless of how many prisoners are in there. At Florence West, they are paying a per diem rate for 675 prisoners despite the fact that there are only 457 prisoners currently housed there. [Oh, look! Another incentive to lock people up for drug possession or other non-violent crimes.]
At issue is the fact that while Florence West is a private prison owned by the GEO Group, the state had bought the prison back with the intention of taking it over this year. Shinn says that the state is in no shape to take over the prison and wants the private prison to continue running it, citing the 1,891 current corrections officer vacancies in the state.
The gist here is that Shinn believes that it is necessary to keep Florence West so that the community surrounding the prison can benefit from the forced labor and that the state should continue paying the GEO Group for 200 beds they are not providing, because they won’t be able to properly run it themselves.
After more questioning from [Democratic Rep. Kelli] Butler, Shinn confirmed there were currently more than 5,000 empty beds in the Arizona prison system state-wide.
“So we do have the option of switching these inmates out of this facility and into other facilities and save a lot of money for the taxpayer,” Butler said. “So I’m less concerned about whether or not this private prison company makes the profits that they want to make and more concerned about the taxpayer of Arizona.” [Democratic Party voice of reason.]
When Butler asked “Why aren’t we closing more prisons?” her line of questioning was halted by committee leadership for being outside the scope of discussion.
“Outside the scope of the discussion?! WTF?]
Was it though? Seems like that might be the exact discussion they should be having. Arizona has the fifth highest incarceration rate in the country and still cannot fill its prisons.
According to the ACLU, “charging misdemeanors as felonies, throwing thousands of people behind bars instead of offering drug treatment or diversion services, and abusing prosecutorial power to secure guilty pleas are just some of the tactics used that have led to Arizona’s exceedingly high rate of incarceration.”
These things are all connected. They have to pay the private prisons, they have to fill the private prisons, they have to provide slave labor and in order to do that, they have to send a lot of people to prison for a very long time. The first private prisons started in Texas in 1985 and prison populations have since skyrocketed. That’s not a coincidence.
Chart showing skyrocketing rate of incarceration [chart available at the link]
How can anyone trust the system when […] it is all about money?
Let me just interject here to say that ICE makes use of, or operates directly, many for-profit prisons (via Homeland Security contracts).
Following years of pressure, [Years! It takes years of pressure before action is taken], Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials finally stopped detaining immigrants at the abusive Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia last fall. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) termination of Irwin’s contract came after immigrant women stepped forward to reveal rampant medical abuses by a disgraced gynecologist.
But rather than releasing women from Irwin, which immigration officials have every ability to do any day of the week, ICE transferred them to another privately operated facility in the state. The administrative complaint filed by a host of human, civil, and immigrant rights organizations this week reveals that women were getting abused at the Stewart Detention Center, too.
“The complaint, which details abuse that took place from July 2021 to January 2022, includes reports from women who say a male nurse sexually assaulted them while they sought medical care at the facility,” said a release from Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of the organizations that sued on behalf of the four women.
“While in detention, two of the incarcerated immigrant women notified Stewart officials of the nurse’s behavior,” which included the nurse placing his penis in the hand of one of the victims. All the women were groped, and at least three were led to believe by the nurse that he was a doctor. But when the women complained about the assaults, they “were repeatedly threatened with retaliation, legal action, prison time and prolonged detention. Officers also withheld food from one woman to discourage participation during internal investigations.”
The nurse continues to work at the CoreCivic-operated private prison, said Project South, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), El Refugio, the Georgia Human Rights Clinic, Owings MacNorlinLLC, and SPLC.
[…] “It has the highest reported number of deaths due to COVID-19 of any ICE facility, as well as the highest reported numbers of COVID-19 cases among ICE detention centers.” Stewart, like Irwin, should have been shut down to immigrants. But instead officials moved women there knowing full well abuses were also occurring under that roof. This is not an accident: Retaliation by officials against immigrants who have spoken out about abuses is well documented. [tweet and documentation available at the link]
[…] ”The human rights groups and the complainants are calling for a thorough investigation of the allegations, the immediate closure of Stewart, the release of people currently in detention, reparation and a path to immigration relief in the United States,” groups said. But Georgia’s Stewart isn’t the only abusive facility that should be shuttered. In numerous states across the nation, immigration facilities continue to remain open despite detaining fewer people due to pandemic-related court orders. Shut them down.
“[…] How many more women must be victims of this corrupt center? All I want is for justice to be done and for this man to never abuse more women.”
[…] transcript of Steve Bannon’s pre-election day forecast of Trump’s plan for election night: to simply “declare himself the winner” — no matter where the election counting actually stood at the time.
[Steve Bannon]: “What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”
Leaked Audio [Oct 31, 2020]:
Before Election Day 2020, Bannon Said Trump Planned to Falsely Claim Victory.
[Excerpt 1, Steve Bannon]: “The Democrats — more of our people vote early that count — their vote is in the mail. And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage, and Trump’s going to take advantage of it — that’s our strategy. Trump’s gonna declare himself a winner.“
“So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm. You’re going to have antifa, crazy. The media, crazy. The courts are crazy. and Trump’s gonna be sitting there mocking, tweeting shit out, ‘You lose. I’m the winner. I’m the king.’” [Audience laughter.]
[…] “Then it doesn’t matter. Here’s the thing: After then, Trump never has to go to a voter again.”
[…] “Because he’s never going to — he’s done his last election. Oh, he’s going to be off the chain — he’s gonna be crazy.” [Audience laughter.]
[Excerpt 2, Steve Bannon]: “Also if Trump is losing by 10 or 11 o’clock, it’s going to be even crazier.” [cross-talk] “No, because he’s gonna sit right there and say ‘They stole it. I’m directing the Attorney General, to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states.'”
“It’s going to be no, he’s not going out easy. If Biden’s winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit.” […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Russia escalating attacks on civilians, says top Ukrainian official
A top Ukrainian official has accused Russia of deliberately escalating its deadly attacks on civilian targets, after recent missile strikes including this week’s targeting of the crowded city centre of Vinnytsia, which killed 23 people, including three children.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, told the Guardian that monitoring of Russian strikes suggested an increased emphasis in recent weeks on terrorising Ukraine’s civilian population.
“We have a system to monitor and track all airstrikes and other attacks in our country and what we have noticed recently is a tendency to destroy more and more civilian targets. They have decided to terrorise civilian population. That’s not my emotions but what our monitoring is telling us.”
While Russia has been accused of targeting civilians throughout its invasion of Ukraine, missile strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure appear to have increasingly become a distinct tactic with a string of deadly attacks over the past month.
An attack on a shopping mall at Kremenchuk, a small city on the Dnieper river, at the end of June killed 18 people and injured 59. An apartment block and beach hotel in Serhiivka, 50km south of Odesa, was hit on 1 July, killing 21 people and injuring 35.
Two apartment buildings in Chasiv Yar, near the frontline in Donetsk oblast, were hit on 9 July: 48 people are believed to have been killed, making it one of the deadliest single attacks in the entire five-month long war. Vinnytsia, a central city far from the frontlines, was struck on Thursday, five days later.
Danilov suggested that some attacks – including during a visit by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to Kyiv – appeared designed to deliver a message of defiance. Thursday’s attack in Vinnytsia took place as European ministers sat down in The Hague to discuss how to hold Russia accountable for atrocities committed during its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said the first M270 multiple rocket launch systems have arrived in the country.
And here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Of the five candidates who will be appearing in the Channel 4 debate tonight, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat are the two under the most pressure to step aside to streamline the contest before Conservative MPs vote again next week. Given that they are currently guaranteed a spot in tonight’s debate, and again on ITV on Sunday, it seems unlikely they would do so….
The former clerk and recorder for Mesa County, Colorado, became a star of the Stop the Steal campaign last year after appearing at Mike Lindell’s cyber fraud hootenanny hoedown claiming to have evidence of vote rigging in her county, which Trump won by 28 points.[Brilliant. Just brilliant.]
Since then she’s been indicted and charged in connection with a bizarre plot to create a real government ID for a man named Gerry Woods, then giving said ID to a former surfer named Conan Hayes. Hayes then used the ID to attend an in-person update of the Dominion voting machines, during which time he surreptitiously copied them and FaceTimed Patrick Byrne, the Overstock weirdo who has bankrolled much of the Big Lie movement and who used to bump bits with Russian agent Maria Butina. [LOL and raised eyebrows]
Since then, the county had to replace the compromised machines, Tina Peters got removed from office, and she lost her bid to become the Republican nominee for secretary of state.
OR DID SHE?
Yes, she did, coming in third place with only 25 percent of the vote. But she’s been screaming bloody murder about the election being stolen for almost a month now, which is extremely on brand. [Sigh.]
Denver’s ABC affiliate got the details, and was kind enough to post all the court documents. Local news, FTW!
While she was a political candidate, the conditions of Peters’s bond allowed her to travel out of state. But on Monday, July 11, prosecutors filed a motion to force her to clear all travel with the court since the defendant is no longer a candidate. Judge Matthew Barrett, who is overseeing the case, agreed, signing an order imposing an immediate obligation to get permission from the court to leave the state.
Whether Peters was aware of the order is unclear. But this week she traveled to Las Vegas to spread the good word about the Big Lie at the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.[!!!] We do not get paid enough to watch that woman’s speech, but according to the New York Times, Peters repeated claims that Rep. Lauren Boebert was in on the plot to illegally copy election data from the Dominion machines. Boebert denies the claims, and honestly, between the two of them who the hell even knows?
While she was in Nevada, Peters also penned a request for a recount of her race. It is completely batshit, in all the ways you’d expect, and you can read it yourself after you watch that video. And then you can check yourself into the loony bin!
Here’s a fun little sample, in which she proves that her race was #Rigged by citing the New York Times’s vote tabulation. Cool y-axis! [chart available at the link]
Whatever. The point is that this wackass letter was notarized in Nevada, because that’s where Peters was when she signed it. Which is pretty good evidence that she left the state of Colorado in violation of the court’s order.
Prosecutors moved to revoke her bond, since she violated its terms, and the court issued a bench warrant to pick her up. Surely Tina Peters will be cooperative with the cops, as is her habit. [video of Peters resisting arrest is available at the link]
[…]
Always a good day when a dunderheaded criminal is arrested.
Brazilian political leaders called for calm this week after the killing of a Workers’ party member prompted fears that political violence in the polarised nation will erupt in the run-up to October’s presidential election.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftwing former president and Workers’ party leader who is currently leading the polls for the ballot on 2 October, sent his condolences to the family of the dead man, who belonged to his party, and called for “dialogue, tolerance and peace”.
Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent far-right president who may be ejected from office in the election, said he did not want the backing of violent supporters but posted a series of tweets attacking the left for what he called its “undeniable history of violent episodes”.
Bolsonaro has a history of truculence and his supporters are behind a string of recent attacks that culminated last weekend in the murder of the Workers’ party treasurer in the western city of Foz de Iguaçu.
Marcelo de Arruda was killed at his own 50th birthday party on Sunday morning when a Bolsonaro supporter invaded the event and shot him three times. Arruda, a municipal guard who had organised a Lula-themed party, returned fire before his death, leaving his assailant in a serious condition in hospital.
The attack came just two days after another Bolsonaro supporter threw a crude home-made device containing faeces into the crowd at a Lula campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro. In another incident in Minas Gerais state three weeks previously, a drone dropped what was reported to be raw sewage on a pro-Lula gathering.
The attacks are in keeping with a polarisation in Brazilian politics that gathered speed in 2016…
What has changed since then, according to experts, is the growing sense, especially from the right, that political differences cannot be resolved through debate.
“This far-right group, a lot of whom, including the president, have fascist ideas, doesn’t want to recognise institutions and the established rules of the game,” said Darci Frigo, president of Brazil’s National Human Rights Council. “Bolsonaro has made a decision to eliminate the left and he has allowed his supporters to use violence to do that, to divide and hate.
“What happened in Foz de Iguaçu is not an isolated case, it was encouraged by the president’s rhetoric.”
Bolsonaro trails Lula by double figures in most polls and the prospect of defeat is behind much of his inflammatory language, experts said.
…
His rhetoric has not softened in office and his disappointing poll numbers are leading him to embrace ever more extreme positions designed to energise his hard-core base and frighten opposition campaigners off the streets, said Felipe Borba, the coordinator of a political violence thinktank at Rio’s Unirio university.
“The use of violence against rivals is stimulated as part of an electoral strategy … especially by President Jair Bolsonaro against the supporters of ex-President Lula,” Borba said. “He is also doing it to shift focus away from the country’s real problems.”
Borba said the increase in violence comes at the start of what are expected to be a tense few months of campaigning, not just for president but also for Congress and 27 state governors.
A study carried out by his office showed the number of politically motivated attacks so far in 2022 is higher than in the same period two years ago, ahead of municipal elections. The data is particularly serious given there are more candidates and races in municipal elections than national ones.
Even more worrying is the president’s possible endgame.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly cast doubt on the reliability of the electronic ballot boxes used in Brazil, even though there is little or no evidence they are vulnerable, and he has openly warned he might refuse to leave office if the result does not go his way.
“If Bolsonaro loses the election and you put that together with his intolerance and the perception that he was cheated, we could have violence on a grand scale after the elections, something close to what we saw in the United States with the invasion of the Capitol,” said Borba.
ITV have a story this evening, which they are labelling an exclusive, in which they say they have seen a document outlining a plan “to create 39 new Tory-supporting lords as a matter of urgency, to push through contentious legislation.”
It doesn’t originate from within government however, but from Sir Lynton Crosby’s lobbying group, which ITV describes as “the most influential political lobby group that advises the prime minister.”
Given that he is the outgoing prime minister, it may not be that big a deal, but there was one eye-catching line. The report says analysis shows “if there had been around 40 additional committed Tory supporters in the Lords, Boris Johnson would have avoided more than half of the defeats he suffered in the second chamber since becoming prime minister.”
With nearly 800 members in the House of Lords already [!!!], any expansion would push the UK even closer to being the largest legislature on earth. Currently only China – population 1.4bn – has more lawmakers than there are in London.
“Ty Cobb represented Donald Trump during the Russia scandal. He now sees the former president as ‘a disaster for the Republican Party.’ ”
Well, that’s an understatement. We should remember that Trump has done so much more than turning the Republican Party into a toxic dumpster fire.
Among the amazing things about Donald Trump’s presidency is the number of prominent officials from his team who’ve ended up denouncing him. These were key members of the administration who worked closely with Trump, saw how he made decisions, learned how he processed information, and ultimately concluded they didn’t want to have anything to do with the former president.
But it’s not just former White House officials and cabinet secretaries: Some of Trump’s former attorneys have denounced him, too.
Michael Cohen, of course, is the most prominent example. The lawyer served as Trump’s fixer and an executive at the Trump Organization, before ultimately rejecting the former president and describing himself as a “fool“ for having trusted his former client.
But let’s not forget about Ty Cobb, who helped defend Trump during the investigation into the Russia scandal. NBC News asked the attorney yesterday about the prospect of his former client running another national campaign. Cobb responded by describing the former president as “a disaster for the Republican Party.”
“The Big Lie has been good only for Trump and has brought him millions in donations, which some evidence suggests may have been mishandled. The Big Lie, and the related violence, election interference and other perceived misconduct, was and is an affront to this nation and its first principles. It has permanently soiled the history pages and deepened the abyss that divides our country and continues to expand due to the delusions and lack of accountability of politicians in both parties.”
Oh, FFS. Don’t apply both-sides-ism to Trumpism.
Cobb’s statement added, “It should be disqualifying for Trump and his political acolytes, and would have been at any other time in our history. To modify a well-known Seinfeld quote — SANITY NOW!”
Shortly before the lawyer left Trump’s team, the then-president published a tweet that read, “I have full confidence in Ty Cobb.”
Evidently, the feeling is not mutual.
In recent years, there’s been ample discussion about what, if anything, it might take for those caught up in Trumpism to conclude that they’ve been scammed. Who, if anyone, will they listen to?
Clearly, these voters will not be persuaded by pundits. Or lawmakers. Or historians. Or prosecutors. Or committee reports. Or special council investigations.
But perhaps they’ll consider listening to those who worked side by side with Trump, and who are now warning the public that he’s a menace?
(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) HB 1878 was signed by Governor Parsons just over three weeks ago, but concerns for voter accessibility continue to grow.
The bill introduced many procedure changes for Missouri elections that will go into effect as early as August 28th.
The elimination of mail-in ballots in just one of these changes that could prevent eligible Missouri voters from doing their civic duty of participating in elections.
“I’m moving abroad in less than two months now…but I will have pretty much no say in what goes on in state elections in Missouri even though my family is still here and I’m still paying taxes to the United States,” says Missouri Western economics pre-law graduate Hannah Berry.
Despite being a permanent Missouri resident, Berry will not be able to vote during her time abroad once HB 1878 takes effect.
Along with the elimination of mail-in ballots, another area of concern within the bill in regards to accessibility is the addition of a photo ID requirement.
“In the November general election, you will have to present a government-issued photo ID instead of [something like] a bank statement or utility bill, or just your voter ID card. You actually now have a specific voter photo ID.” says Luke Campbell, Associate Professor of Political Science at NWMSU.
While these changes may not appear to have great implications, there are many different groups of people aside from those living abroad who will feel the affects.
“These laws clearly and overwhelmingly disadvantage minority groups. They clearly and overwhelmingly disadvantage older people as well,” informs Campbell.
“Generally it also tends to fall hard on people who, for example, don’t already have a driver’s license because they don’t own a vehicle and don’t drive…
Another affected populations would be those with a disability who cannot easily obtain the necessary materials for an absentee ballot, or in other cases, can’t get into the polls due to lack of accessibility.
Berry recalls her trip to a general polling station that offers ballots for residents of different counties:
“The last voting center I went to wasn’t even ADA accessible, so we couldn’t even have people getting in and out of the building. If somebody who has limited mobility does make an effort, financially and physically, to get to a polling station, and then they can’t even access the poll station, it’s just things from the physical limitations all through bills like this that are just really enraging,” says Berry.
[…]
Other changes to Missouri elections outlined in the bill include the elimination of the presidential primary as well as requiring voters to register their political affiliation.
It’s not unconstitutional to refuse an organ transplant to a woman who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine, an Edmonton judge has ruled.
Annette Lewis went to court seeking to preserve her spot on an Edmonton-based transplant program’s wait-list after doctors told her she would not be eligible because she is not immunized against COVID-19.
In a decision filed Tuesday, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Belzil dismissed Lewis’s argument that her charter rights had been violated.
He ruled the charter has no application to clinical treatment decisions and, in particular, has no application to doctors establishing criteria for organ transplantation….
…
Beginning in 2020, she was advised to get a series of vaccinations, including childhood vaccinations, as her immunization history could not be located. She agreed and got all the vaccines.
But in March 2021, when she was told that she required a COVID-19 vaccine in order to receive the transplant, she refused. [Idiot.]
“Taking this vaccine offends my conscience,” Lewis wrote in an affidavit filed with the court.
“I ought to have the choice about what goes into my body and a life-saving treatment cannot be denied to me because I chose not to take an experimental treatment for a condition — COVID-19 — which I do not have and which I may never have.”
In response, Alberta Health Services and the doctors and hospital involved in Lewis’s case filed evidence about how the transplant program works, how patients are chosen, the risks of COVID-19 infection to a transplant recipient and evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
…
Decisions to add a patient to the transplant list are made by a committee of medical experts who consider the recipients’ severity of need and likelihood of survival.
Court heard that because these organ donors are scarce, one in five people on the Edmonton wait-list die before getting a transplant.
A patient can be rejected if the transplant would unacceptably increase the patient’s risk of death without a meaningful chance of improving the quality and duration of life.
Once the COVID-19 vaccine became available, specialists with the transplant program determined it was in the best interest of pre-transplant candidates to be vaccinated because of the significant risk COVID-19 presents to highly immunocompromised transplant recipients.
Court heard that during the fourth wave of the pandemic between September and November 2021, nearly 40 per cent of similar transplant recipients in Edmonton who were infected with COVID-19 ended up dying.
In his reasons for decision, Belzil agreed that it was “beyond dispute” that Lewis is the sole decision-maker about what goes into her body and that she is entitled to her beliefs about vaccines.
“I do not accept however, that her beliefs and desire to protect her bodily integrity entitle her to impact the rights of other patients or the integrity of the [transplant program] generally,” the judge said. “No one has a right to receive [organ] transplants and no one is forced to undergo transplantation surgery.”
Belzil also found that if Lewis’s application were successful, it would have significant negative public policy implications, be unfair to other patients and disrupt the transplant program.
“The proposition that treating physicians exercising clinical judgment would be subject to the charter would result in medical chaos with patients seeking endless judicial review of clinical treatment decisions,” Belzil said.
(Speaking of Canadian antivaxxers, is Rocco Galati dead? I haven’t been able to find an update about him since February or March.)
It’s been a big week in politics with revelations galore from the Jan. 6 House committee. Former President Donald Trump’s attempts at stopping the peaceful transfer of power has been the talk of the town and this week’s admissions at the committee are a “pretty big deal”, notes Molly Jong-Fast on this episode of The New Abnormal podcast. But it’s not all bad news. Speaking with Jong-Fast, former presidential candidate and independent candidate for the Utah Senate, Evan McMullin, reveals that he is seeing “a weakening in Trump support across the country”. Then, Mary Trump, host of the Mary Trump show and the author of Too Much and Never Enough, revealed she found the revelations surrounding the “vast web of people” covering for her Uncle….”at times difficult to process”.
SC @12: OMG, we have noted this before, but really, sheesh, Bolsonaro is such a clone of Trump. I suppose Trump’s cult followers will now start throwing faeces bombs at liberal protestors, not wanting to be outdone by Bolsonaro’s thugs.
shermanj @9: I’m glad you find the Infinite Thread useful.
In other news, Josh Marshall comments on the improving chances of Democrats holding the Senate:
[…] even the insider sheets in DC are starting to take notice of the fact that Democrats holding the Senate or even possibly expanding their Senate majority is not some partisan pipe dream. It’s a very real possibility.
Some of this is abortion politics and to a much lesser extent firearms politics. But a big, big part of the equation is that Donald Trump was able to more or less singlehandedly pick the nominees in a number of critical states and shape the choices in a number of others.
There’s simply no way absent Donald Trump’s intervention that Mehmet Oz or Herschel Walker would be the nominees in Pennsylvania and Georgia. They are both uniquely bad candidates. They might slip through in a wave election. But they’re giving Democrats big, big opportunities. [Josh Marshall discusses other Republican candidates.] Blake Masters in Arizona and possibly even disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens in Missouri could extend this pattern. Given recent trends, Missouri shouldn’t even be in contention this year. But Greitens’ mix of campaign ad snuff films and rep for sexual violence could put it there.
It won’t be easy to hold the Senate and it certainly won’t be easy to expand the Democratic majority. But both are looking more plausible to me than they did even seven or eight weeks ago.
With all this possibly positive news, some might say, why all the focus on the Senate? If the goal is to pass a Roe law in January 2023, holding the House is likely the biggest challenge. That’s quite possibly true. But paradoxically those Senate pledges are as important for holding the House as they are for the Senate. It’s the surety of a pledge of 48 senators to tackle Roe and the filibuster if Dems hold the House and add two Senate seats that puts a clear post-election Roe bill outcome on the table in House elections around the country.
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza liveblog. From there:
Russia bans Bellingcat and The Insider: The Russian Attorney General’s Office has outlawed another four foreign-registered NGOs as “undesirable organizations,” banning the investigative news outlets Bellingcat and The Insider, which have collaborated numerous times to uncover the actions of Russian spy agencies. Anyone in Russia convicted of aiding either publication could now face felony charges. (As of July 15, 2022, the Russian authorities have banned 56 “undesirable organizations,” including other investigative projects like Proekt, iStories, and OCCRP.)
It’s not just coffee — it’s [rebranding pending]: A deal to sell off the 130 Starbucks coffee shops in Russia is nearly complete, according to the news outlets Forbes and Vedomosti. The new owners will reportedly be restaurateur Anton Pinsky, rapper Timati (Timur Yunusov), and Senator Arsen Kanokov’s Sindika holding company. The sale reportedly stipulates that the buyers cannot use Starbucks’s products or technologies and must rebrand before reopening.
Moody’s declares Belarus in default: Minsk’s repayment of foreign-currency-denominated state debt with rubles “constitutes a default,” the Moody’s financial services company announced on July 14. The $22.9 million coupon payment miss was the result of “sanctions that effectively cut off both [Belarus and Russia] from international financial markets,” explained Bloomberg.
Ukraine to keep military death toll under wraps: Kyiv will not officially disclose its total number of military casualties until the end of the war, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a statement on Thursday. According to Maliar, this is due to concerns that Russian forces could use casualty numbers in their analysis and planning. In an interview with BBC Ukraine published on Friday, Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov said that Ukraine’s combat losses peaked in May, with up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers killed and another 300–400 wounded per day.
Four years for “undesirable” collaboration: A court in Krasnodar has sentenced activist Andrey Pivovarov to four years in prison for collaborating with an “undesirable organization.” The ex-executive director of Open Russia (an anti-Kremlin movement sponsored by the former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky) has already been jailed for more than a year for posting messages on social media endorsing various opposition candidates and causes. Open Russia dissolved a few days before Pivovarov’s arrest last year, hoping to protect workers against felony liability for working with an “undesirable organization.”
British citizen dies in DNR captivity: Paul Urey, a British citizen who served as an aid worker alongside Ukrainian troops, has died in captivity, according to Darya Morozova, a representative of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic.” Morozova reported that Urey was captured by DNR forces in April 2022, during an attempt to pass through a DNR checkpoint. “During his first medical examination, Paul Urey was determined to have a number of chronic illnesses, including Type 1 diabetes, damage to his respiratory system and kidneys, and multiple cardiovascular diseases,” she said.
The British Interior Ministry reported on Friday that it was “urgently seeking clarification” from the Russian government about Urey’s death. Urey’s family has accused Russia and the DNR of causing his death, saying they are certain that Urey had the medical supplies he needed to survive at the time of his capture.
Rogozin out at Roscosmos: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov has replaced Dmitry Rogozin as head of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos. Rogozin will be given a new position “in due time,” according to Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Sources close to the Kremlin recently told Meduza that the Russian authorities have plans for Rogozin to join the presidential administration in the near future, possibly as Putin’s chief of staff.
The Financial Times editorial board have come out with a piece in the last half hour saying that “The UK’s prime minister will be chosen based on fantasies”. They write:
The Conservative party’s contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister has an air of fantasy. Listening to the candidates, you would not know that spiralling energy costs are causing misery to households, and inflation is now broadening to most goods and services. Or that simmering disputes over pay and conditions promise a prolonged period of industrial unrest. You certainly would hear little about the UK’s longer term challenge of sluggish growth, made worse by poor planning regulations and the exit from the EU. Instead, the candidates are competing largely on a single issue of if and when they will cut taxes.
t’s a foregone conclusion that the Democrats’ bill to restore abortion rights will fail in the Senate in the coming days, just as it failed in May and in February before that. The Women’s Health Protection Act, which guarantees the right to seek and provide an abortion before fetal viability, wouldn’t just undo the blanket abortion bans now taking effect across the country. Were it to become law, the Women’s Health Protection Act would, in fact, erase years of work by the “pro-life” movement’s symbiotic Republican state legislators.
That immense power comes from the constitutional principle of “preemption”: When federal and state laws conflict, federal laws win. Preemption is why no state can allow employers to pay less than $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage. And it’s the key to any Biden administration plan to fight state abortion restrictions.
On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services invoked the principle of preemption when it issued guidance putting hospitals on notice that they’d be violating a federal law, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), if they declined to provide abortions to patients who needed them to resolve a medical emergency, like an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage with severe complications.
That move was in response to states enacting criminal abortion bans that allow exceptions to save a pregnant person’s life—but fail to clarify just how close to death a pregnant patient must be before a doctor is allowed to give them a medically necessary abortion. The ambiguity in Wisconsin’s state abortion ban, for instance, has left doctors like Abigail Cutler, an OBGYN in Wisconsin, in an impossible bind. Wisconsin’s law, written in 1849, allows abortions to “save the life of the mother.” “Where’s that line?” Cutler asks. “How close does a patient need to be? On the brink of death for me to step in and intervene? What if I wait too long and she dies in front of me? Or what if in the eyes of some prosecutor who’s not a doctor, not at the bedside, not staring at the patient bleeding or infected in front of them—to them, what if I intervene too soon, and I’m charged and risk going to prison?”
EMTALA, passed in 1986, offers doctors a clearer-cut answer. The law was written to address the problem of “patient-dumping“: private hospitals turning away poor and uninsured people or sending them on dangerous transfers to public hospitals for treatment. With EMTALA, Congress requires hospitals to screen incoming patients for “emergency medical conditions”—including labor—and care for them until their condition is stable. If they don’t, they risk a government fine, a patient lawsuit, or being cut out of the Medicare program. That makes EMTALA a potentially heavy hammer—and a powerful tool to shape hospitals’ patient care policies.
Crucially, EMTALA establishes the definition of an “emergency medical condition” as one that manifests in “acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in placing the health of the individual… or her unborn child in serious jeopardy, serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of bodily organs.”
Monday’s HHS guidance is a reminder to hospitals (and state legislators) that EMTALA preempts state law. “If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment,” the federal guidance stated. “When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person—or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition—that state law is preempted.” […]
The guidance was welcome news to Greer Donley, associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh law school, and Kimberly Chernoby, an emergency room doctor and reproductive rights lawyer who teaches at the GW School of Medicine and Health Services. The pair wrote in the Atlantic last month that the Biden administration should use EMTALA in this way to “save lives and reduce unnecessary carnage” after the fall of Roe. […] last fall, after Texas passed a law imposing civil penalties on doctors who perform abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, the two hospitals in the study changed their approach: Rather than giving patients the option to induce labor, they waited for the women’s condition to deteriorate. Fifty-seven percent developed severe medical complications, compared to 33 percent of patients with similar symptoms who were able to end their pregnancies in other states. [Yep. Republicans, in league with anti-abortion nutters, made it more likely that women will die.]
[…] As many as 26 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage (a lesser proportion require emergency medical treatment). Between 1 and 2 percent of pregnancies are ectopic. In those cases, “with the restrictive state laws, some physicians wouldn’t be able to intervene until either the cardiac activity had ceased or until the pregnancy had ruptured and the pregnant person was hemorrhaging,” […] In the Texas study, the patients had to wait an average of nine days before they developed infection, went into labor, or the fetus died—at which point doctors could act. Nine of the patients hemorrhaged. Just one fetus survived.
[…] On Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Becerra, alleging that the new EMTALA guidance creates an “abortion mandate” and would “transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.” This is obviously hyperbole. […]
Paxton’s lawsuit appears to believe EMTALA goes further than the state law definition, “allowing abortions when the life of the mother is not in danger,” as his complaint alleges. […]
Now, while a federal judge in Lubbock, Texas, weighs whether to grant Paxton an injunction to block the so-called “abortion mandate”—it’s unclear whether this would involve blocking EMTALA entirely—doctors are once again in a precarious position. “With this new guidance, the hope was that physicians would feel like they have some legal protection in providing the care that is indicated, and for providing life-saving care for patients who present with these emergency medical conditions,” […]
“So by introducing this litigation [in Texas], you go back to square one, where we’ve been seeing physicians who are transferring patients across state lines to get life-saving care because they don’t feel like they are able to provide the care that’s indicated.”
I am going to be honest, and say that I am a little baffled that we are about to watch ninety minutes of five candidates for the leadership of the party that has been in power for twelve years argue with each other that only they personally can provide the clean start and refresh that the country desperately needs.
After they’ve been in power for twelve years.
Most of them actually in government personally as ministers for at least some of that time.
Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a bill that would have protected the right of Americans to travel from states where abortion is banned to states where it remains legal. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, sponsored by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), would have prohibited individuals or government officials from preventing or punishing travel across state lines “to receive or provide reproductive health care that is legal in that State,” and would also made it illegal for states to pass laws prohibiting travel outside their state to get an abortion. The proposal seems particularly apt this week as we’ve seen how necessary interstate access to legal abortion is for residents of abortion-restricting states.
Haha, remember when we never gave any serious consideration to the idea that states could restrict our travel around the country for any reason? […]
Cortez Masto had argued that the bill was necessary to make sure anti-abortion Republican state legislatures can’t “reach across state lines to control not just what happens in their states, but what happens in every state across this country, and to punish women for exercising their fundamental rights.”
[…] Among those objecting to the bill was Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana), who explained that guaranteeing the right to interstate travel, […] was “very, very extreme,” and would even allow guerilla abortion attacks on peaceful residents of red states. [WTF?!]
“This bill would give fly-in abortionists free rein to commit abortions on demand up to the moment of birth,” Daines said. “This bill also protects the greed, frankly, of woke corporations who see it’s cheaper to pay for an abortion, an abortion tourism, than maternity leave for their employees.”
[…] After the bill was blocked, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), a co-sponsor of the bill, tweeted that Republicans appear to be dead set on turning states into individual Republics of Gilead, complete with border guards, and on “trying to hold women captive in their own states rather than defending the right to travel within our country.” […]
But gosh, don’t these ladies understand? Once their rights have been democratically removed by their elected representatives, they should have no expectation of going elsewhere where women do have rights, because that would turn them into foreigners.
Besides, as Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) made clear in a press release that also invoked the specter of “abortion tourism,” Democrats are simultaneously raising unnecessary fears, since “Currently, no state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion,” but also, it’s very important to make sure that once a state has declared women to be baby containers, women can’t go thinking they can make decisions about their shipping options:
The conversation today is not just about women. There are two people in this conversation—a child with ten fingers and ten toes and a beating heart […] This is a child in this conversation as well. […]
Does that child in the womb have the right to travel in their future?
So remember, there’s no need to worry about states banning travel for abortion, although if travel for abortion isn’t banned, then we’ll have an “abortion tourism” industry and also, he said, there probably should be some laws to “protect individuals that are being trafficked to go to other states to get an abortion,” […]
In conclusion, at least the House will be passing its version of the bill today, sponsored by Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), for all the good it will do. As NBC News points out, it seems unlikely there are 10 votes for it in the Senate, even with libertarians like Rand Paul, who told NBC that “No state has the right to prohibit travel” — although that might just as well be an excuse to oppose the bill, since after all, the right to travel means any such bill would be superfluous.
In conclusion, we think somebody should get to work on an Abortion Dirigible soon.
“After all the scandals, shame and sleaze” – [debate host] Krishnan Guru-Murthy not mincing his words in the introduction here.
lumipunasays
At 181 on the last page of the previous thread, I wrote about recovering passenger traffic across the Finnish-Russian border:
Russia is planning to scrap most of its covid-related foreign travel restrictions on 15 July. Finland, meanwhile, scrapped the last restrictions for people entering from non-EU/Schengen countries at the end of June.
Until now, non-Finns entering Finland from Russia have needed a demonstrable serious reason for their travel, unless they have a Western-approved covid vaccination (which Russians usually don’t have). Non-Russians entering Russia have needed a similar reason, and also a negative PCR test. In practice, most people who traveled back and forth during the pandemic were either dual citizens, or had citizenship in one country and residence/family in the other. It seems (this is somewhat unclear) that Russia will still require the PCR test after 15 July, but that’s it.
I forgot to mention that Russia also required a reason for its own citizens to leave the country, presumably because they’d have to be allowed back later regardless of covid risk.
These restrictions were reportedly dropped last night for air and sea travel, except apparently (?) the PCR test requirement. For some reason, separate orders were needed for the land borders, which took several hours this morning after the custom stations opened. There was some confusion during this time, with individual cars from from both sides turned back by Russian border authorities.
Finnish media, border authorities and businesses expected a substantial return of Russian shoppers in the southeastern border towns. In this area, the pandemic caused huge difficulties for local economy, which had grown increasingly reliant on wealthy and middle-class tourists from St. Petersburg area. At least on the first day, there was less traffic than expected.
Right now, Russians are not expected to buy certain luxury goods, as those are illegal to export under EU sanctions. Instead, many ordinary Western brand products are free game and currently unavailable in Russia due to business boycotts. Finnish cheese has long been a hot commodity in Russia, but it fell already under the food trade sanctions after Crimean invasion in 2014.
Shopping is difficult due to the new banking restrictions. Russians visiting Finland have to rely on euro cash they brought from home, as roubles cannot be exchanged here and Russian bank accounts can’t be accessed. Finns visiting Russia have to take cash and the exhange it to roubles before they can pay anything. Reportedly, Western currency is now relatively cheap in Russia (ie. rouble has grown stronger since the slump at the start of the Ukraine war) because oil and gas payments are still coming in euros and dollars, and it’s difficult for Russia to spend that currency on anything. However, I do wonder what happens if/when Russia runs out of printed euro and dollar cash.
In the current circumstances, nobody really minds Russians spending money in Finland. Instead, what is currently highly controversial on Finnish social media is Finnish people dropping across the border to buy cheap gasoline. Thus far it’s unclear how many are currently planning to continue this pre-pandemic shopping tradition, despite widespread condemnation.
This will surprise only people who haven’t paid even cursory attention to the last year of Democratic politics, but Sen. Joe Manchin III may have just killed any hopes for a resuscitated version of the Democratic agenda.
The West Virginia Democrat reportedly told party leaders late Thursday that he won’t support any new incentives to combat climate change or any new tax hikes on corporations or the wealthy. […] in private talks, Manchin appeared close to a deal, only to renege at the last minute.
Yet as ludicrous as this turnaround is on its face, there are still more hidden absurdities behind the situation that show what a farce it has truly become. They turn on the specifics of what Manchin appeared to reject, and his inflation-related excuse for doing so, which amount to a display of towering bad faith.
First, a caveat: After those stories broke, Manchin claimed on Friday that he’s still open to a deal and wants to see July’s inflation numbers before deciding. […] given all we’ve seen, let’s inaugurate the Manchin Rule: Until the senator actually shows he’s operating in good faith, we’ll presume otherwise.
The deal would have raised around $1 trillion in revenue from rolling back some of the 2017 GOP tax cuts. Half of that revenue would have gone to deficit reduction, and the other half would have gone mostly to funding the transition to green energy.
Also in the mix were provisions empowering Medicare to negotiate down prescription drug prices, which would produce substantial savings. Those could be used to continue funding expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire after originally passing in last year’s covid-19 rescue package.
But Manchin has rejected the tax hikes and the climate provisions. For now, he is open only to some kind of deal in which savings from the prescription drugs provisions fund expanded ACA subsidies.
By the way, the subsidies highlight another problem with Manchin’s position. Even if he does just want to delay another month, extending the subsidies this month is critical, because states will soon have to assume they’ll expire and send out notices of premium increases. [And the delay may, therefore, negatively affect the chances of Democratic Party candidates winning in the upcoming midterm elections. Sounds like a Republican-backed tactic to me.]
[Manchin] has long supported tax reforms such as those being debated, yet he seemingly backed away from them, including a measure to close a loophole enjoyed by the very wealthy […].
What’s more, Manchin is still reportedly telling people he wants to secure a few hundred billion dollars in deficit reduction. How he would do this without raising high-end taxes is unclear. [Manchin is being illogical and stupid again … and he is pulling politically-advantageous comments out of his ass.]
It gets worse. A Democrat briefed on the conversations says Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) sought to meet Manchin’s concerns about the climate provisions head-on.
This included reducing spending on green energy tax incentives to $375 billion, the Democrat says. It also included nixing incentives for electric vehicles, which Manchin had objected to as well.
And a Democratic aide tells me much of the legislative text on green tax incentives had been written, and haggling was down to minor points. Manchin’s turnaround floored those working on that text, given what had been happening only hours earlier.
[…] the dropping of incentives for electric vehicles represents a big concession toward Manchin’s values. After all, a transition away from gas-powered vehicles is an essential piece of cutting emissions at the pace necessary to minimize long-term risk.
Indeed, the package of climate incentives that still remains plainly falls within the parameters of the balanced approach he wants. That is, if Manchin — who has personally grown rich off the coal industry — means what he says. [Ha! Fuck no.]
Nor does Manchin’s own explanation make much sense. His spokesperson insists we must “adjust to the economic realities the country faces” and avoid “steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”
But climate change is also a reality, and without something like this agenda, it may be impossible to come close to hitting climate targets scientists say are necessary to avoid disaster.
And how much would the package offered to Manchin actually increase inflation? Economist Dean Baker notes that half would go to deficit reduction, which Manchin wants, and the nixing of incentives for electrical vehicles removes another spending piece.
What’s more, Baker says, spending on ACA subsidies would be offset by less spending on prescription drugs. “It’s basically impossible to see how that would be inflationary,” Baker tells me.
Manchin is free to disagree with that, but he hasn’t offered a serious case that something like this package would disastrously fuel inflation. Nor has he meaningfully explained why whatever inflation it would allegedly produce is worse for the country than the climate future he’s consigning us to.
Instead, he’s betting the word “inflation” will simply turn off our critical faculties. We shouldn’t let that happen. The absurdities behind his position should be mercilessly exposed.
sabai456says
On Tuesday I euthanized my dog. She was 15 – 16 years old. She was ready.
Today my partner tested positive for Covid. She’s 35. She wasn’t ready.
lumipunasays
In other news from Finland, a live walrus was sighted yesterday and today in Hamina, on the southern coast near Russian border. I understand it’s the first ever walrus sighted in Finland; it’s probably the same badly lost animal that was seen in Ireland earlier this year (“Wally the walrus”), and a week ago in southern Baltic Sea. It has now gone back to sea and disappeared from sight.
The Indiana AG has been threatening to do something horrible to the doctor who provided medical care to the 10 year old rape victim. Something horrible for reasons he hasn’t even bothered to make up yet. She is threatening to sue the Attorney General back and certainly has the far better case here. Brave doctor.
The fundie xians never take responsibility for their own actions.
The first thing they did was deny that this 10 year pregnant rape victim even existed. Despite a lot of evidence that she did. They didn’t even bother to check, just started lying.
The second thing was to go after the OB-GYN who actually provided the medical care. What they refuse to deal with is how cruel, ugly, and unworkable they and their anti-abortion laws are. .
Doctor who gave abortion to 10-year-old rape victim threatens to sue Indiana AG who told Fox she might have broken the law
Tom Porter Fri, July 15, 2022
A doctor who provided a 10-year-old rape victim with an abortion became a focus of GOP attacks.
The doctor’s attorney said she might sue Indiana attorney general Todd Rokita over a Fox interview.
Rokita suggested she broke rules on reporting the procedure to state officials. She did not.
The doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped may sue Indiana’s attorney general for questioning whether broke state laws, her attorney said.
In a Fox News interview on Thursday, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, suggested that the doctor, Caitlin Bernard, may not have complied with state laws requiring doctors to report each abortion.
The case of the 10-year-old gained huge attention in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
The ruling brought into effect a ban on abortions in Ohio after six weeks, prompting her to travel to Indiana.
Under Indiana’s rules, abortion is permitted in the first 22 weeks of pregnancy. Procedures involving rape victims must be reported to state authorities within a strict three-day timeframe.
The state is moving to introduce more laws restricting access to abortion.
After Rokita suggested Bernard may have broke the rules, The Washington Post obtained evidence that she had in fact made a correct referral.
The doctor’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, said in a statement to the Post said that Bernard was “considering legal action against those who have smeared [her], including Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.”
“My client, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law and both her medical and ethical training as a physician,” DeLaney said.
“She followed all relevant policies, procedures, and regulations in this case, just as she does every day to provide the best possible care for her patients.”
In a statement to Insider, Kelly R. Stevenson, a spokesperson for the Indiana attorney general, said the office was continuing to collect evidence on the allegations.
“As we stated, we are gathering evidence from multiple sources and agencies related to these allegations. Our legal review of it remains open,” said Stevenson.
Bernard brought the girl’s story to attention by telling the Indianapolis Star newspaper about it, and the story was cited by President Joe Biden.
Conservative lawmakers and media outlets poured scorn on the story, claiming it was likely to be false and attacking media outlets who reported it only on Bernard’s say-so.
But on Wednesday corroboration arrived when The Columbus Dispatch reported that police had charged a man, Gerson Fuentes, with raping the child.
The new information prompted The Wall Street Journal to issue a correction to an editorial disputing the story, and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan to delete without explanation a tweet saying the story was untrue.
I’m sure the AG’s investigation will quietly disappear very soon.
Rocket strikes launched by Ukrainian forces have destroyed more than 30 Russian military logistics centres in recent weeks and significantly reduced Russia’s attacking potential, Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
The official, Oleksandr Motuzianyk, emphasized the role played by American HIMARS rocket systems, one of several types of long-range weapon supplied by the West to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russian forces.
“In the last weeks, over 30 of the enemy’s military logistical facilities have been destroyed, as a result of which the attacking potential of Russian forces has been significantly reduced,” Motuzianyk said on national television.
In addition, Motuzianyk told Reuters that the 30 targets were destroyed by multiple launch rocket systems, including HIMARS.
If confirmed, the comments would indicate the impact of Western weapons on the battlefield and signal a shift in the war’s dynamic after five months since the Russian invasion.
Motuzianyk also said that only 30% of Russian strikes were hitting military targets, with the rest landing on civilian sites. Reuters has not been able to verify the claim….
Badenoch, Mordaunt and Truss are now being pressed about “What is a woman”. Badenoch appears to be heckling “Tell the truth Liz”. All three of them seem to be saying that trans woman are vulnerable people who can live their lives as they want, and legally can be considered women, but aren’t biologically women. Trans rights has been perceived as a wedge issue that Conservatives can make Labour uncomfortable on, but the apparent contradictions in positions that Mordaunt appears to have held have made it uncomfortable for her too.
It’s disgusting that this is an uncomfortable issue for Labour. It’s not even an uncomfortable issue for Democrats.
Kemi Badenoch has just said “magic money tree”. If this was the Eurovision song contest live blog, I would tell you to have a swig.
johnson catmansays
re raven @31:
I’m sure the AG’s investigation will quietly disappear very soon.
Let’s hope that Bernard’s suit doesn’t go away so quietly.
BREAKING: An attorney for Indiana Dr. Caitlin Bernard has sent a cease and desist letter to Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, after he suggested without evidence that she’d failed to report an abortion provided to a 10yo rape victim. Documents confirm she did report it.
The letter reads in part, “Please cease and desist from making false and misleading statements about alleged misconduct by Dr. Bernard in her profession, which constitute defamation per se.”
Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman is getting some help from reality-T.V. star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi to take digs at his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, for living in New Jersey before announcing his run in Pennsylvania.
“Hey Mehmet! This is Nicole ‘Snooki’ and I’m from ‘Jersey Shore.’ I don’t know if you’ve seen of it before, but I’m a hot mess on a reality show, basically, and I enjoy life,” Polizzi said in a video posted by Fetterman on Twitter.
[Video at the link.]
Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, shared the video and wrote, “Hey @DrOz JERSEY loves you + will not forget you!!!” with a smiling heart emoji.
Polizzi continued by saying she heard that Oz moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to “look for a new job.”
“And personally, I don’t know why anyone would want to leave Jersey because it’s, like, the best place ever,” she said. “And we’re all hot messes. But I want to say best of luck to you. I know you’re away from home and you’re in a new place, but Jersey will not forget you. I just want to let you know I will not forget you.”
She concluded by saying, “Don’t worry because you’ll be back home in Jersey soon. This is only temporary, so good luck.”
Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke he suffered in May right before he won the Democratic primary, has made a point of taking aim at the celebrity doctor’s decision to run in Pennsylvania after living in New Jersey for many years….
…
When Oz launched his campaign in November 2021, he had lived in New Jersey as recently as 2020 and, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, registered to vote in Pennsylvania that year at the home of his in-laws….
Oz also voted in the 2018 presidential election in Turkey.
Looks like the Indiana AG is 0/2 on his witchhunt against the OB-GYN.
He will have to prosecute her for…doing her job and following the laws.
(He is claiming that this OB-GYN has a history of failing to report. This is a lie and he knows it. If she did and he knew it, he would have already prosecuted her for it.)
It’s typical that all the Ohio and Indiana GOP officials are concerned with everything but the 10 year pregnant rape victim. They aren’t even pretending to be so called pro lifers anymore. It is all about cruelty and control.
Indiana doctor who shared 10-year-old’s abortion story did not violate HIPAA, officials say
Shari Rudavsky USA TODAY July 15, 2022
The Indiana University Health physician who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old child who was raped did not violate privacy laws when she shared the anecdote with a news outlet, university officials said Friday.
The claim: Earlier this week, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita questioned whether Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, had broken any HIPAA laws. He did not provide evidence.
What Indiana University Health says: “IU Health conducted an investigation with the full cooperation of Dr. Bernard and other IU Health team members. IU Health’s investigation found Dr. Bernard in compliance with privacy laws,” officials said in an email. They also said that the university “routinely initiate reviews” on privacy and compliance.
What to know about this case: Earlier this month, the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, published a story about a 10-year-old child from Ohio who was raped and traveled to Indiana to get an abortion. The account became a talking point for abortion rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, and some opponents and news outlets criticized the story as unproven. A man was arrested and charged this week with the rape.
Why did a 10-year-old have to leave Ohio to get an abortion?The state’s law is unclear.
What does HIPAA say?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed in 1996 aims to protects the privacy of patient information.
Experts in HIPAA compliance say the law exists to prevent the release of identifiable information. Bernard provided the IndyStar only with the age of the girl and the state of her residence.
The question then becomes what the threshold is for identifiable information, said John Howard, director of the HIPAA Privacy Program at the University of Arizona, speaking in general terms about the law and not this specific instance.
“Often the trick here is determining when health information will still be considered identifiable,” Howard said in an email. “A good rule of thumb is if the information can reasonably be linked back to an individual, and the past, present or future provision of health care to that individual, it is identifiable.”
Although the law enumerates different potential identifiers that must be removed, such as name, date of birth and address, there’s a final “catch all” category that includes any unique identifier, he added. This category requires providers to ensure that the information can not be reasonably linked back to the patient.
Can HIPAA protect you from anti-abortion laws? What to know about medical privacy rights.
Bernard also reported the procedure, despite claims
Rokita, the Indiana attorney general, has also called into question whether Bernard had properly reported the disturbing case, saying she had “a history of failing to report” in his roughly two-minute appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox News.
Rokita did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. Despite the newly disclosed form, Rokita said Thursday he plans to forge ahead with his investigation.
“As we stated, we are gathering evidence from multiple sources and agencies related to these allegations,” he said in an emailed statement. “Our legal review of it remains open.”
State court data shows no criminal charges have been filed against Bernard. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said it had not received any allegations that she failed to report the case of the 10-year-old.
But a pregnancy termination report released Thursday showed Bernard filed with the Indiana Department of Health and Department of Child Services in accordance with state laws, confirming the information that the doctor provided.
The records, obtained by the IndyStar through a public records request, show that Bernard reported the abortion before the state’s reporting deadline and that she disclosed the child had suffered abuse.
The reich wing’s cynical creation and exploitation of abortion and the role Paul Weyrich played.
Susan Montgomerysays
Is there any reason to put Trump and co. in prison? Oh, we most definitely should try (and damn all the devils in hell, ought to succeed in doing so), but look at how many revolutionaries in history have been in and out of jail their whole lives yet still manage to succeed.
Rich Woodssays
@Susan #44:
I’ve no idea what the penalty is for inciting violence and planning an insurrection, but it seems likely that four years or more in a bog-standard shitty federal prison would be the end of Trump. Four years in a country club with barbed wire might be survivable, but the shit food and conditions of a normal prison is not likely to align with his continued good (cough) health. He’d become a martyr to a few, but then he’s already the Second Coming to a large slice of delusional fuckwits so there’s no avoiding that. Even if he lives a long, free life and passes away peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by his loving (cough) family, there’ll still be some gimboid claiming that Fauci’s 5G finally got through the Secret Service’s special defences.
Pierce R. Butlersays
SC … @ # 16: … is Rocco Galati dead?
The most recent story I could find dates from June 4 of this year. Looks like after his January ICU-ization and coma, he got no further news coverage except from Canadian hard-right media.
Manchin sucks, and yet the party and country are way, way better off with him then without him. His value-over-replacement-Senator is astronomical (to the Democrats). WV is about as red as states get, but we’ve got a Senator who votes for the Democratic party leader, and occasionally actually votes for Democratic priorities! That’s pretty major.
On the other hand, Sinema is pretty worthless. We could actually get a better Democrat in Arizona, unlike WV. Hopefully she’s primaried into oblivion and Gallego or someone like him replaces her.
North Sweden got a period of nice, cool air.
Meanwhile Spain and Portugal suffer under genuinely dangerous heat, well over 40°C.
And England is in turn, the “amber” zone starts just South of Edinburgh and the “red” zone covers most of England!
This is the new normal.
.
Remember to thank the PR/propaganda companies and the politicians paid by the fossil fuel lobby.
When your grandma dies of heatstroke they could not be more responsible if they had shot her in the face with a sawn-off shotgun.
Ivana Trump passes away at the age of 73; Donald Trump attempts to fundraise off the announcement.
Ivana Trump, first wife of Donald Trump and mother of Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump, passed away at the age of 73. Multiple news outlets report that the disgraced former president confirmed on Thursday that she passed away at her home in New York City. […]
Ivana married Donald in 1977 and the two were frequently written up in the gossip pages of East Coast newspapers throughout the 1980s. Their marriage came to an end in 1992. This happened after it was publicly revealed that Donald was having an extramarital affair with Marla Maples. Maples became Trump’s second wife and gave birth to daughter Tiffany; Trump divorced Maples four years later.
It was through Donald Trump’s marriages that most New Yorkers growing up in the 1980s and 1990s learned about the legal practice of prenuptial agreements. Trump’s prenuptial agreement was reportedly handled by famed lawyer and terrible person Roy Cohn. Donald’s stinginess with money lead to a very acrimonious divorce that included allegations that Donald “verbally abused” Ivana and had “demeaned” her during their relationship. […]
According to NBC chief Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Donald Trump is fundraising off of the announcement of his first wife’s death. […]
By now I think everyone is tired of looking at maps of the Kherson area in which few things seem to change from day to day. So you may be excited to see that the map has changed today. Until you see that none of those changes is for the good. [map at the link]
It’s not that Russia has conducted a major offensive, or even that a number of past calls turned out to be wrong. Mostly the changes in the map are the result of area that has been marked as “in dispute” being reverted back to areas of Russian control.
We’re around three weeks into this latest round of “Ukraine launches a counteroffensive in Kherson oblast!” With every Ukrainian victory, and especially early in this action, there was a tendency to immediately assume that Ukraine liberating one village or town automatically put every neighboring location into a gray zone. After all, Ukraine was driving for Kherson! If one town gets freed, it’s surely and indicator that the next few down the road are going to go like dominoes. Right?
But as any signs of obvious progress have slowed, the folks associated with @OSINTechnical, and a host of interested individuals […] who have ridiculous skills at using videos and individual images to put a geolocation on posts, have had time to go through what’s being seen on both Twitter and Telegram. Those results suggests that Russian forces are still comfortably in place in a number of areas that were marked as disputed. That’s especially true in that bulge of Russian-controlled territory that juts out between Kyselivka and Snihurivka. […] One thing to consider is that few of these towns or villages have anything like an actual occupying force. There is a lot of open space and empty fields in this area, and people drive around between villages that are all but empty. So video-from-area doesn’t necessarily mean in-control-of-area. But the wide range of Russian forces here certainly suggests that Ukraine is a lot further from that next major highway leading to Kherson than it may have seemed a few days ago.
Also on the map today are some major hotspots from NASA’s FIRMS data. […] In general, the hot spots seem to be of two types: First, there is a whole line of activity along what likely represents the position of Ukrainian artillery and forces facing off with Russian troops along the line south of Kyselivka. This makes sense, as this area contains by far the highest level of Russian chatter on Telegram and other platforms. Russian forces are heavily concentrated in the area immediately west of Kherson. Two more battalion tactical groups were reportedly added to the area in the last two days. Everyone on both sides understands that this is the short route into the city, and most of the heavy action is here.
The other areas of Russian fire are about where you would expect them. Everywhere that Ukrainian forces are pressing the line, Russia is firing into the backfield, searching out artillery, supply lines, command and control … that stuff. None of this particularly looks like Russia softening up the lines for their own offensive. It’s just what’s been going on for months now. Holding ground.
Then there’s a line of Ukrainian fire that ranges further back into Russian controlled territory. They are around 15-25 kilometres back from the edge of the red zone, and at first glance they don’t seem to be targeting anything. A close look reveals a field. And a field. And another field. And a … you guessed it.
These are likely counterbattery fire. Those clusters of Russian fire close to the front lines are probably originating from guns placed back here. Ukrainian guns are searching for them. In some cases, Ukraine may not have great satellite or drone-supported intelligence on the position of those Russian guns, because at least a couple of these locations show a grid of hotspots. Like artillery working its way through a field, trying to cover all the ground.
None of these locations are likely to be HIMARS. They’re not even necessarily M777s, especially not with any kind of extended or GPS-targeted shell. It’s just guns battering away at each other. The one thing in the area that may well be a HIMARS hit is that hotspot on the east side of the river, about halfway between Kherson and Nova Kakhovka. It was in Nova Kakhovka that HIMARS lit up a massive ammunition depot, generating a spectacular explosion that was still cooking off shells two days later. […] There are also reports of HIMARS being deployed against “anti-air and troop concentrations near Kherson.” That may be true, but it’s not obvious in the FIRMS data.
I wish there were better news. I’d love to report that all that “Ukraine has Kherson surrounded!” chatter on Wednesday night was more than wishful thinking.
However, when looking at those Russian videos, there’s a great caveat: Never believe what they’re saying. Even if they’re showing the signs of the towns they’re purporting to be in. [tweet and video at the link]
One thing that the guys doing the geolocations have seen almost continually, and are seeing now over and over east of Siversk, is Russian forces claiming to be several towns and dozens of kilometers from where the video is actually shot. It can even include Russian forces all located in the same place, pretending to be in multiple towns. [I’ll say again that Russians are not good at lying. Their lies are o obvious that anyone can debunk them.]
Russia’s actual advances in the east seem to be back to the crawling stage. Meanwhile, Russia continues its campaign of the one thing it does so well: maximizing deaths among civilians. [tweet and video at the link: "Russia struck 2 universities in Mykolaiv today with more than 10 cruise missiles. Yesterday's massacre in Vinnytsia wasn't enough for them."]
Additional tweets and videos available at the link, including a category called “Russians Blowing Up Russians.”
Wonkette: “Secret Service Says It Accidentally Deleted Jan 6 Texts. Or Never Deleted Them. Or …”
Do we like to read about the Secret Service wilding out when they’re supposed to be protecting the leader of the free world? We do not! Particularly when it sure as hell looks like they’re destroying records to protect Donald freakin’ Trump.
As The Intercept was first to report, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General informed the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees yesterday that the Secret Service had deleted relevant texts regarding the events surrounding the Capitol Riot.
“First, the Department notified us that many US Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, were erased as part of a device-replacement program. The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6,” DHS IG Joseph Cuffari wrote in a letter obtained by CNN.
“Second, DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys,” Cuffari went on, detailing apparent obstruction (colloquially, if not legally) of his investigation.
The Secret Service has been in the news since Mark Meadows’s former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Tony Ornato, the Secret Service guy who was at that time the deputy chief of staff for operations at the White House, told her about Trump physically attacking his driver for refusing to take him to the Capitol during the riot. [video at the link]
It would be mighty fuckin’ convenient if the agents involved in this event were magically unable to produce their text messages.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, responded in a furious public statement. “The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) in every respect,” he insisted indignantly.
In his telling, the Secret Service began migrating agents to new devices in January, before the DHS OIG made any request, and the agency “confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration.”
There appears to be previous bad blood between the IG and the Secret Service.
“DHS OIG has previously alleged that its employees were not granted appropriate and timely access to materials due to attorney review,” Guglielmi grumbled. “DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIG’s last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again.”
And the Washington Post’s coverage of the story certainly indicates that the DHS IG has some enemies in Washington:
Cuffari, nominated by Trump in 2019 and confirmed by the Senate, has faced significant criticism since he took over the office. His first-year audits plummeted to historic lows, he clashed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the veracity of an inspection of a detention center, and he blocked investigations into the Secret Service’s handling of protests in Lafayette Square, following the murder of George Floyd, and the spread of the coronavirus in the agency’s ranks, documents show.
The OIG’s office is under investigation by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an independent entity in the executive branch, for undisclosed allegations of misconduct, according to an internal email circulated to the office in January.
So, what the hell is actually going on here? Well, we could do the normal Democrat thing and reserve judgment until the facts are in, waiting patiently for someone to tell us that everything is fine. Or we can act like Republicans and scream bloody murder about a DEEP STATE COVER UP and call for heads to roll.
It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure game. Only with the future of democracy on the line. No pressure!
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the biggest and most powerful space telescope ever built, is now roughly a million miles from Earth, pivoting from one patch of the heavens to the other as it studies the target-rich environment that is our universe. The first handful of images were made public this week.
They’re stunning. They’re also loaded with information about the universe, the interplay of galaxies and the birth and death of stars.
Still, these images can be enigmatic to the average observer lacking a degree in astrophysics. What exactly are we looking at?
Let’s take a closer look.
The Deep Field
There are a lot of galaxies out there. This was the first image made public, demonstrating the power of the telescope to pick up extraordinarily faint, infrared light emitted within the first billion years of the universe. The image is centered on a galaxy cluster more than 4 billion light-years away, meaning its light was emitted roughly when the sun and Earth were formed. The galaxies in the cluster appear as creamy white blobs.
These galaxies collectively create a powerful gravitational warp in space that acts as a lens, magnifying and distorting more distant objects. That results in funhouse-mirror galaxies like the one on the upper right of the image that NASA astronomer Jane Rigby refers to as the Laffy Taffy.
In another part of the image, the lensing has turned a single galaxy into two mirror-image galaxies.
Light comes in many wavelengths along what is called the electromagnetic spectrum. Humans see in a narrow band known as the “optical” portion of the spectrum. The Webb telescope gathers light emitted in the infrared — long wavelengths that are largely inaccessible to the Hubble telescope and completely invisible to us. [Electromagnetic Spectrum graph at the link]
The Webb team scanned dozens of the reddest — most distant — galaxies in this image, and determined that one of them — a tiny, pixelated blob — emitted its light about 13.1 billion years ago, just 700 million years after the big bang. […]
Lots more at the link. Images are presented next to explanatory text. Portions of the images are highlighted with text and/or other explanatory graphics.
HIMARS O’clock Theater has become a fan favorite with those backing Ukraine against Russia […] There’s very little more satisfying than seeing Russia’s weapons of death and destruction go up in fire and smoke, deep inside their lines. [Deep inside their lines, yes, but still in Ukraine … just inside Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine. Russia claims that attacks are inside Russia itself are propaganda.]
Meanwhile, after long dismissing the potential of HIMARS to significantly affect the trajectory of the war, there is now fear, outrage, and grudging respect from Russian bloggers covering the war. Let’s take a look:
Military Informant, a Russian milblogger with over 400,000 followers on Telegram, uses the word “panic.”
If the information about the supply of tactical missiles with a range of up to 300 km to Ukraine is correct, and is not a “canard” of American publications, then this is not just a reason for panic, this is a reason to radically reconsider the entire approach to current hostilities. Air defense and missile defense, of course, in theory can hit these ammunition, however, what do we have now? Daily combined attacks on Russian bases and warehouses using GMLRS and Tochka-U missiles to a depth of 80-120 km, which are often not reflected. For starters, the existing problem with long-range enemy weapons has not been resolved in the Russian army, and new missiles will only expand the range of targets hit by the enemy, as was rightly said, up to the capitals of the border regions.
Relying on air defense and missile defense in this situation is initially a losing tactic. First, as we are already seeing, even at a depth of 120 km, far from all missiles are shot down, which cause significant damage to the logistical capabilities of the army. Secondly, for a real threat relief, it is necessary to find and destroy launchers, and not try to draw water with a sieve, catching missiles already fired on their own. […]
Guided MLRS rockets have much shorter air time (around 90 seconds at max distance) than ATACMS would (around six minutes at range). Few air defenses will properly protect against regular MLRS rockets. But ATACMS should be vulnerable, not just because of air time, but because only 1-2 can be launched per vehicle (depending on whether it’s HIMARS or M270 MLRS), and each rocket is a much bigger target. (Remember, one pod carries either six GMLRS, or one ATACMS.)
That said, Russia has shown zero ability to hunt and destroy HIMARS. Ukraine operates them at night, when Russia’s crappy drones are blind. And the launchers are long gone before counter-battery can find and target them. […]
We hear from Yanina, says the Russian army is run by morons, the same as the country’s civilian leadership.
Amazing.
[…] in Stakhanov, last night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine covered another warehouse of artillery ammunition of the RF Armed Forces. What is the account there? Sixth or seventh after the Red Ray? As it began to burst at two in the morning without a trifle, it burst until everything exploded around four in the morning. […]
Despite the absence of any military secrecy around the supply of modern foreign long-range artillery and MLRS to Ukraine, continue to concentrate artillery ammunition on large, unsuitable for their storage, industrial facilities in the zone of confident reach of enemy missiles and artillery. Lose one by one all these warehouses. As a result – to lose the opportunity to attack normally, at least in the way that they attacked before. […] the enemy had just received and mastered new foreign artillery systems and MLRS.
Outcome. I know that our army is led by a bunch of untrained morons. Stupidly vile, miserable, vindictive, petty, thieving, herdish, gathering in big “army mafias”, bringing “tithe” of their income to the very top. Just stupid stupid thieves. Like the civilian leadership of the country, the difference is small.
Reading this, you might think, “how the hell is this Russian blogger not thrown off a balcony”? Dmitri of War Translated suggests it’s because their “critique becomes an alternative to the victorious propaganda which can be fed to the TV-watching zombies but doesn’t work for the layers of the Russian society that are resistant to it.” In other words, the milbloggers’ critiques are a sort of pressure valve for Russians who can use the internet and see the “special operation” isn’t going so well. A group of milbloggers actually met with Vladimir Putin himself recently. They serve a role. […]
Here is Russian “military expert” Khatylyev cited by Russian news outlet RIA Novosti, on the HIMARS strike on Nova Kakhova:
According to Khatylev, it is still too early to draw conclusions, but one thing is possible to say for sure: the strike was prepared in advance. Three days before this a group of American satellites was discovered over Nova Kakhovka, which recorded “the coordinates of the troops, their condition and other parameters.” “We don’t know if HIMARS was used there or not. Today it is possible only to say that the strike was carried out multidimensionally, and was prepared in advance, ”- military expert said […]
“UAF will not fire like this anymore, and we will be 100% ready for this. […]
So first of all, no, three American satellites didn’t hover over Nova Kakhova to look for Russian troops. That’s not how Satellites work. They orbit. Second of all, there was no need for satellites, as other milbloggers point out, Russia didn’t bother concealing these depots, thinking them safe. They’re located close to railheads, and drones can track back supply trucks to and from their supply sources. Finally, Kherson Oblast has an active partisan and sympathetic civilian base to track such matters. There is literally a phone app civilians can use to report troop movements and locations. And thirdly, there have been more attacks like this since. This wasn’t a one-off, despite the fanciful claims by this “analyst.”
Of all the HIMARS attacks, the Nova Kakhova one generated real angst.
[…] Military Observer, again, says “good luck” to dispersing command posts, warehouses, and other logistical infrastructure:
It is simply impossible to “disperse” headquarters while having a highly centralised command system with archaic communications. The dispersal of the caches is possible, but for this the loading-unloading of ammunitions must be simplified enormously and automated, which we have already spoken about, but the process is still based on manual labour and basic wooden boxes.
Therefore, a whole range of preparatory measures must be made in advance, which in current conditions will take years, months at best, so it’s too late now.
The physical destruction of such rockets demands an advanced reconnaissance system, primarily aviation, but also control over the battlefield at least a few dozen kilometers deep, which is impossible without a high number of AWACS aircraft which we don’t have, which allows just 4-8 systems to freely manoeuvre from Kharkiv to Kherson and conduct successful fire pressure.
A lot could be said, but in the current situation we will not see a universal and fast solution to this problem.
AWACS are “airborne warning and control system,” which is a staple of Western military doctrine. In fact, there are several NATO (and Swedish) AWACS planes flying around Ukraine at all times, listening in to Russian communications and using fancy gear to pinpoint the location of high value targets—like say, the location of command posts, or the Moskva before it was sunk.
Crazy that Russia doesn’t have AWACS capability. China certainly does, as do small countries like Finland. But Russia, self-styler global superpower, has no way to keep an electronic eye over the battlefield. Also unfathomable that Russia doesn’t have air superiority over Ukraine. Russia is supposed to have over 4,000 combat aircraft, yet perhaps we’ve seen a few dozen. […]
@59 The most surprising thing about that is that Daily KOS is publishing an article that’s somewhat Pro-Ukraine. Since DKOS has always been the headquarters of limo liberal sociology students with Gestapo-envy, I’d have expected some serious love for the further east.
The Indianapolis doctor who helped a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim obtain an abortion was forced to stop offering services at a clinic in 2020 after she was alerted of a kidnapping threat against her daughter.
And she is currently listed as a “threat” on an antiabortion website that was linked to Amy Coney Barrett before she was nominated to the Supreme Court and helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
Before the story went viral and an Ohio man was charged with rape in a case that has captured international attention, Caitlin Bernard, an OB/GYN, was forced to stop providing abortion services at a clinic in South Bend, Ind., in 2020 after Planned Parenthood alerted her about a kidnapping threat made against the doctor’s daughter that was passed along by the FBI.
“I felt it would be best for me to limit my travel and exposure during that time,” Bernard said in sworn testimony last year, according to the Guardian, the first to report the news. “I was concerned that there may be people who would be able to identify me during that travel, as well as it’s a very small clinic without any privacy for the people who are driving in and out, and so therefore, people could directly see me.”
[…]
Jackie Appleman, executive director of Right to Life Michiana, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. Appleman told the Guardian earlier this year that listing Bernard and the other doctors on the group’s website was based on “publicly available information.”
[…]
Right to Life Michiana takes a hard-line antiabortion stance, and Appleman has previously noted that the group supports the criminalization of doctors who perform abortions. The group promotes misinformation about pregnancy and abortion on its website, including the false claim that medical abortions can be “reversed.” Right to Life Michiana touts several sponsors on its website, including the University of Notre Dame, which is in South Bend, and the organization is promoting a fall event with conservative firebrand Ben Shapiro as the keynote speaker.
But the antiabortion group is perhaps best known for a 2006 newspaper advertisement opposing “abortion on demand” that was signed by Barrett when she was a law professor at Notre Dame — an endorsement that appeared to be her first direct public expression regarding her views on abortion.
[…]
birgerjohanssonsays
I recommend you read KG @ 60 to appreciate the scale of Johnson corruption, and the indifference by the British media.
A blogger that likes to talk about British politics mentioned be had fifty degrees in one of his rooms (Britain is using Celsius) so it must be approaching 40° outdoors. They rarely have real heat so AC is not as common as in USA.
.
This latest heat wave will probably lead to excess mortality in the affected countries- at least it makes it harder to deny the climate change.
The applause for Vice President Kamala Harris was thunderous as she walked onto the stage of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida on Thursday. The 13,000-plus Black women gathered—and another 12,000 or so watching virtually—were expressing their joy at seeing “one of their own,” who had risen to the height of vice president of the United States. Yet Harris is also a woman they know as their sorority sister.
The joyful women are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA), the oldest of the Black sororities. Founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the AKAs have a long history of political activism and community service, forming part of a membership of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. (NPHC), a group of nine Black fraternal and sororal organizations often referred to as “The Divine Nine,” who in total number about four million members—a constituency unto themselves.
Harris’ appearance comes at a time when our freedom is in the balance. Black women have long been an integral part of the backbone of the Democratic Party, and mobilizing the resources of this network will play no small part in confronting the challenges we face in midterms, and beyond.
Harris was not simply there to celebrate the 70th Boule, the term for the AKAs’ governing body. She was there to deliver a message about abortion rights, gun violence, and voter suppression—and to urge her sorority sisters to answer her call to activism. She also held a roundtable discussion on reproductive rights with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Florida’s Democratic elected officials, and representatives from Planned Parenthood. […]
Video snippets are available at the link.
Also, descriptions of the importance of “Black Greek” fraternal and sororal organizations, with photos, are available at the link.
There’s lots of speculation about what may be causing today’s terrible inflation to continue to rise. Is it rebound demand from Covid? Too much “quantitative easing” stimulus from the Fed? Chinese botched-Covid supply chain issues? Saudi Arabia withholding oil from world markets? Russia’s terrorist campaign against Ukraine?
Obviously, all are contributing factors. But the price of oil is now below $95 and our economy is on the verge of recession, both major factors that should be cutting inflation. Yet inflation continues, nonetheless, to rise here in the US (9.1% this month) while, Bloomberg reported yesterday, the EU is down to 7.1% inflation and predicting 4% for next year.
How is it possible that the rest of the world is recovering from the Covid/Oil/War inflation bump, but things are getting worse here in the USA?
The one variable nobody seems to be positing — but I’m going to go there — is that it’s political, at least in part.
That is, inflation that started out as a demand/supply-chain rebound from the end of Covid is continuing to rise in America as part of an intentional effort to damage Democratic prospects in this Fall’s election and heading into 2024.
Lest you think I’ve gone totally paranoid, please read on. [Yep, sounds a bit paranoid.]
Inflation always hurts the party in power. […] When the economy sucks, enough voters swing to “the other guy” to change the nation’s political power dynamics, pretty much regardless of who the other guy is.
As the headline in today’s New York Times reads: “Democrats Face Deepening Peril as Republicans Seize on Inflation Fears.” [True!]
[…] So how did we get here?
Prices in America used to be regulated by something called competition.
If one company raises prices above a reasonable level, another company will offer products at a lower price and take away their customers. As long as there are multiple companies in every market sector, and new businesses can easily enter the marketplace to compete with larger companies that have gotten lazy or greedy, competition regulates prices very efficiently.
What blows this up is when companies get large enough that they can use their size and market dominance to keep competitors out of the marketplace.
John D Rockefeller, for example, used to buy up all the available railroad contracts for shipping oil to prevent smaller competitors from getting their product to market. Once they were in trouble financially, he’d give them “an offer they couldn’t refuse” and buy them out, making his large company even larger.
Andrew Carnegie did this with steel and JP Morgan did it with banking; there were trusts and monopolies in fields as disparate as manufacturing matches, refining and selling sugar, and building railroad cars.
By the late 19th century the situation had become so intolerable that Congress put into place the first anti-trust laws.
Before the Reagan Revolution, those anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws — dating all the way back to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 — were largely enforced and kept big corporations in check.
[…] Even the Supreme Court, back in the day, agreed that giant corporations dominating markets was bad for the economy and our political system.
[…] All of that anti-trust activity came to an end in 1982 when President Reagan appointed William C. Miller III, his former executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, to take over the FTC. Miller was the first pro-corporate leader in the nation’s history to corrupt the agency that was supposed to regulate corporate misbehavior.
That year (as it had been since the 1930s) most of this nation’s business activity was centered in the cash registers of our small- and medium-sized companies. The total value of America’s largest corporations — those listed on stock exchanges — was equal to just 39.4% of the entire nation’s economic activity or GDP in 1981.
Miller, however, declined to continue enforcing our anti-trust laws and in 1983 Reagan instructed the DOJ to, essentially, stop prosecuting companies that were violating those laws through mergers and acquisitions, and to only go after the most egregious and flagrant acts of corporate collusion and price-fixing.
As a result, large companies became behemoths, and pretty much every industry in America is today dominated by a small handful of companies that carefully monitor each other to function, essentially, as cartels. [snipped example]
Which is why today the total value of America’s exchange-listed corporations is 194.9% of GDP, elbowing out most small- and medium-sized companies.
[…] fully 90% of the beer that Americans drink is controlled by two companies. Air travel is mostly controlled by four companies, and over half of the nation’s banking is done by five banks.
In multiple states there are only one or two health insurance companies, high-speed internet is in a near-monopoly state virtually everywhere in America (75% of us can “choose” only one company), and three companies control around three-quarters of the entire pesticide and seed markets.
The vast majority of radio and TV stations in the country are owned by a small handful of companies […]
This has handed enormous power to the CEOs and senior managers of America’s largest companies, all of them multi-multi-millionaires and many billionaires.
These are not people who want to pay more in taxes. Nor do they want unions or to have their industries regulated in any meaningful way; they’d like things to stay the way they’ve been since the Reagan Revolution.
But President Joe Biden has been working with Senator Bernie Sanders (Chair of the powerful Budget Committee) to create a whole plethora of progressive legislation that would raise corporate and billionaire taxes and increase corporate regulation. Not to mention Democrats’ advocacy of those hated unions.
And this fall, if all goes well, Democrats might even expand their control of the House and Senate […]
Is there any doubt in your mind that most of these titans of industry don’t want monopoly breakups, unions, regulation, and higher taxes? […] So, is it really possible that our largest corporations and their leaders are ripping us all off and jacking up inflation on an ongoing basis just to stick it to the Democrats and hand the GOP the reins of power in 2022 and 2024?
If political power was the only thing they got out of it, the answer is “possibly.”
But when you realize that they also get massively larger profits at the same time, and billions of that will flow down to CEO compensation, that twofer raises it to “probably.”
Big business trying to overthrow progressive Democratic leadership of this country is not a new thing. [snipped examples]
The republic was saved and businessmen went back to just doing business until the 1980s, when they found their savior in Ronald Reagan. Which brings us to today.
Simply raising prices (and profits) is a hell of a lot less dangerous way to turn Democrats out of office than paying a retired general to kidnap a president. […]
As Barrons reported last month in an article titled Exxon May Be Making ‘More Than God’:
“Exxon Mobil (Ticker: XOM) is expected to generate about $41 billion of net income in 2022, up from $23 billion last year.”
Similarly, Tom Perkins reports for The Guardian:
“The analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings for 100 US corporations found net profits up by a median of 49%, and in one case by as much as 111,000%. Those increases came as companies saddled customers with higher prices and all but ten executed massive stock buyback programs or bumped dividends to enrich investors. …
“The Guardian’s findings are in line with recent US commerce department data that shows corporate profits rose 35% during the last year and are at their highest level since 1950.”
The Guardian’s analysis found:
“Chevron’s 240% profit spike was part of ‘the best two quarters the company has ever seen’… Steel Dynamics profits increased 809% … Fertilizer giant Nutrien’s profits shot up by about $1.2bn … [and] Nike’s 53% profit increase driven by higher prices was only ‘partially offset’ by supply chain and inflationary cost increases.”
The article concludes that much of the explosion in corporate profits is made possible by market consolidation: giant companies no longer subject to the pressures of competition.
I’d add that there’s a big reward down the road for all those CEOs if they can help America dump the pesky Democrats who want to tax those windfall profits and replace them with Republicans who are again demanding more tax cuts for the morbidly rich.
Last Tuesday, Nobel Prize-winning economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a particularly fascinating op-ed wondering out loud why the economic data for the United States doesn’t make sense any more. If the economy is in trouble, so should be American companies; if the economy is doing well, so should the American consumers.
But the companies are doing great while consumers are getting screwed.
“Let’s talk about the numbers, and how they don’t add up,” Krugman noted.
He then laid out the numbers, showing that while inflation is raging, wages are actually declining, among other paradoxes.
“Are you confused?” Krugman writes. “You should be. I’ve been in this business a long time, and I can’t remember any period when economic numbers were telling such different stories.”
Former Labor Secretary and economist Robert Reich writes at his brilliant Substack newsletter this week, after noting the global issues also contributing to American inflation:
“Big corporations continue to jack up prices, using inflation as a cover. Big Oil is the worst culprit. Gas prices are up about 60 percent from the year before. They contributed almost half the rise in inflation in June, although pump prices have dropped a bit since then. Big Oil is scoring record profits and using them to reward investors by buying back shares of stock. Shell is expecting profits to nearly triple, adding $1 billion to the bottom line. BP reports its largest quarterly profit in a decade.”
[…] In an earlier post, Reich notes how some of America’s largest companies are enthusiastically funding some of America’s most seditious politicians.
“To state the question in historical terms,” he summarizes, “how different is their behavior from the wealthy European industrialists who quietly backed the fascists in the 1920s and 1930s? These billionaire and corporate funders are as complicit as are the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in threatening American democracy.”
Indeed. And if they can kick American consumers in the shins hard enough to get them to “vote out the bums” currently running Washington DC — the Democrats — while adding an epic pile of cash to their money bins, all the better.
Hard to believe? Immoral? Remember, these are companies that continue to fund Republicans associated with Trump’s attempt to end our democracy. And if we still had competition in the American economic landscape, even imagining a scenario like I’ve laid out would be impossible.
Time will tell if my analysis is accurate, a paranoid fantasy, or (most likely) a bit of both. But it’s certainly worth Democrats in Congress calling a hearing to check it out.
He entered to rapturous applause, flattered his hosts shamelessly, told them about his political vision and sold them merchandise bearing his name.
Tucker Carlson’s appearance in Iowa on Friday looked like a presidential run, walked like a presidential run and quacked like a presidential run but was most certainly not a presidential run, at least as far as anyone knows.
The Fox News host was the keynote speaker at the Family Leadership Summit, a gathering of more than 1,800 religious conservatives in Des Moines, Iowa, which every four years is the first state to have a say in picking the Republican presidential nominee.
It was at the same forum in the same state seven years ago that businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump told the audience that Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, was “not a war hero” – instantly dooming his candidacy, or so everyone thought.
Carlson, 53, another political neophyte and media celebrity, has been touted as a potential Trump heir who might launch a bid for the White House by stoking the same flames of populism, white identity politics and hunger for a man who says what he thinks – the more outrageous the better.
The New York Times has described Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News as “what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news”. It is also the most highly rated in prime time.
Carlson describes white supremacy as a “hoax” but has become a prominent conduit for its talking points, suggesting that diversity is America’s biggest existential threat. He has notoriously promoted the far right “great replacement” theory, which holds that western elites are importing immigrant voters to usurp white people.
Yet while he has embraced the nativist and liberal-taunting strains of the “Make America great again” movement, Carlson had been careful to keep some daylight between himself and Trump – leading some to speculate that he is carving out his own lane.
“He could be a good president for sure,” said Kent Proudfit, 70, attending Friday’s Family Leadership Summit. “I don’t know if he would run but he’s pretty popular. He’s got the biggest cable show in America right now. I’d definitely vote for him.”
Proudfit, a retired hospital courier driver wearing a “Trump 2024 revenge tour” cap that he got for free, said he was untroubled by Carlson’s lack of political experience.
“You don’t always need to have somebody that’s a politician; maybe somebody that’s in business just like Trump was,” Proudfit said. “We need a businessman and he’s done pretty good in business so that’s where I would lean.”
At the conference, Carlson’s warm-up acts were Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s governor, and Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving US senator in Iowa history, both of whom lauded the supreme court’s decision to end the constitutional right to abortion.
Taking the stage in a dark blue jacket, blue checkered shirt, blue-and-yellow striped tie and grey slacks, Carlson gave a 42-minute speech that ticked some of the boxes of a typical would-be candidate.
There was personal biography (“I was super unpopular in sixth grade because I had exactly the same views that I have now.”), compliments to the hosts (“Think I’ve been to all 99 of your counties.”) and swipes at the Democrats (“The other side is so menacing and so scary at this point.”).
Carlson also sought to clean up past comments that could be used against him. He has been widely condemned for voicing support for Russia in its war on Ukraine as well as for Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán.
“I’m not a Putin defender, despite what you may have heard,” he said. “I don’t care one way or the other because he’s not my president. He doesn’t preside over my country and what he does in Ukraine, while I think historically significant, certainly significant to Ukrainians, is not more significant to me than what gas costs. In fact it’s not even in the same universe.”
There was a ripple of applause. Carlson continued: “The rising price of fossil fuels is not an inconvenience. It’s the whole story. … Cheap energy, cheap fossil fuels make the difference between living in the Central African Republic and Des Moines.”
He also bore some stylistic similarities to Trump in digressive, meandering remarks, sometimes with flashes of sardonic humour, that were more evocative of a man venting in a bar late at night than a politician reading from a teleprompter. Noting how Iowans have long been besieged by eager candidates, Carlson quipped: “I cannot even imagine being in my boxer shorts and, like, bumping into Beto O’Rourke.”
But he admitted that he is “no Bible scholar” and gave no hint of joining that throng as he expressed surprise at being invited to address the conference, saying: “Then I thought, no, actually, I’m the perfect person to come up here because I can give you advice for how to assess the sweaty people begging for your vote. Because if there’s one group I know well, it’s politicians.”
He argued that Republicans should choose a candidate who pays attention to voters’ core concerns, such as the welfare of their children, and who does not care what the New York Times thinks. Carlson’s speech went in esoteric directions, including reactionary gripes about modern architecture and an encounter with an underground bees’ nest.
The TV host took familiar potshots at women who have abortions and transgender athletes before concluding: “Twitter isn’t real, OK? It’s the domain of super unhappy people with empty personal lives and creepy political agendas. What matters to you is what matters to you and you have every right, in fact you have a constitutional duty, to tell your representative to represent you on those issues.”
The room erupted in whoops and applause from the conservative, overwhelmingly white audience that included many regular viewers of Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Jim Hawkins, 77, retired from a career in education, said: “He is probably one of the more fearless people to expose many of the false truths. It’s very obvious that our press has a bias that leans toward liberalism.”
At first Hawkins was skeptical about Carlson running for president but then appeared to warm to the idea, saying, “He would certainly outshine many of the people who would run against him through his intellect, his exposure to a variety of things. I could get behind that but he would leave a void in what he’s doing now.”
Kyle Danilson, 16, wearing a white “Tucker Carlson” cap on sale in the lobby for $30, alongside water bottles for $20, said he had been watching Carlson’s show since he was 14. “He’s probably the number one reporter in conservative media,” Danilson remarked. “I agree with 75% of everything he says.
“If he wanted to run for president he’d have the platform but I don’t think he should or would. He’s more one to promote somebody else instead of promoting himself.”
Mary Jane Kolars, 71, watches Carlson’s show – widely condemned by fact checkers for spreading false conspiracy theories – every night.
“I like that he’s honest,” she said. “He’s exposing a lot of corruption in our country and he’s not afraid to talk about what’s really going on behind the scenes.”
More at the link.
StevoRsays
On TV right now – for Adelaide, SA anyhow – and on ABC iView if folks can access that :
pgCCAudio Described (AD) Repeat | Repeated on Sunday 24 Jul at 11:00 AM, ABC TV
Julie Peters is a legend in the trans community in Australia and was the first person to transition at the ABC. Over the years she’s collected one of the most comprehensive trans archives in the country.
Source : ABC online TV Guide.
StevoRsays
To quote from meme just seen :
Mark Jacob : Rather than trying to read the minds of white slave-owning men who have been dead for two centuries, maybe we should just do the right thing for people who are alive today.
Or two :
Mac @GoodPolitic Guy : Reminder that Thomas Jefferson who helped write the Declaration of Independence also said we should rewrite the Constitution every 20 years so that dead people wouldn’t rukle over modern society.
Or three :
They are counting on you to stop talkin about the truth. They are counting on you being too tired, too hurt, too stressed, too distracted , too busy, etc. They are counting on you giving up. Don’t stop. No matter how long it takes.
No author or source provided for that last one sorry.
StevoRsays
A protest to mark a grim anniversary of a horrendous disgraceful policy here :
To see haze and cloudy skies on an exoplanet (WASP 96b) one thousand one hundred and twenty light years away and brushing the surface of its sun is just absolutely staggering when you think about it!
@59 The most surprising thing about that is that Daily KOS is publishing an article that’s somewhat Pro-Ukraine. Since DKOS has always been the headquarters of limo liberal sociology students with Gestapo-envy, I’d have expected some serious love for the further east. – Susan montgomery@59
All that demonstrates is how weirdly distorted your views of other people’s politics are. Daily Kos commenters have been uniformly pro-Ukraine (and in fact often distinctly over-optimistic about the military position, and keen to skate over the less edifying aspects of Ukranian nationalism) throughout and indeed before Putin’s invasion.
ravensays
The Russians are trying to absorb the population in their conquered territories. Or at least, the people who are left. Many or most of them have either been killed, fled as refugees, or been deported to Russia.
They are “offering” Russian citizenship to them.
Very few want that Russian citizenship. “In the March-April poll for IRI, 92 percent said their opinion of Russia had “worsened a lot or somewhat worsened” since the February invasion.”
You know that the next step, already taken is to just force all the people they have trapped to become Russian citizens.
This is what genocide looks like.
Latest Kremlin Fantasy: ‘Very Many Ukrainians Want Russian Citizenship’ (False)
July 15, 2022 Leonid Martynyuk Polygraph.info edited for length
Dmitry Peskov
Spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin
“The special military operation is not against the Ukrainians. It’s against the regime, while at the same time, very many Ukrainians actually want to become citizens of the Russian Federation.”
False
Peskov’s comments came in reference to a new decree that his boss, President Vladimir Putin, issued on July 11, simplifying procedures for Ukrainian citizens to obtain Russian citizenship.
Zelenskyy’s public approval rating reached record heights following Russia’s invasion, with more than 90% of the Ukrainians polled by the Ratings Sociological Group in late February expressing support for him.
Another poll by the Ratings Sociological Group, conducted between March 30-April 2 for the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research (CISR) in Ukraine, found that 94 percent of Ukrainians strongly approved or somewhat approved of Zelenskyy’s job performance. (The IRI is a nonpartisan pro-democracy group in Washington, D.C.)
A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from May 2-11 found that 85% of Ukrainians trusted Zelenskyy, and 97% trusted Ukraine’s armed forces.
On July 7, Putin said, “We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading toward this.”
In the March-April poll for IRI, 92 percent said their opinion of Russia had “worsened a lot or somewhat worsened” since the February invasion.
Ukrainians in the occupied territories are not flocking to obtain Russian citizenship. When, on June 11, Moscow launched a campaign to distribute Russian passports in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson, only 23 people took up the offer, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Russian occupation authorities claimed more than 10,000 applied. On June 16, occupation authorities in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions announced that all children born after February 24 would automatically become citizens of the Russian Federation.
Yury Sobolevsky, first deputy head of the Kherson Regional Council, called the move “criminal and legally null and void.”
ravensays
From the article cited above.
On July 7, Putin said, “We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading toward this.”
Yeah, that is what the West is doing.
We are spending huge amounts of money and weapons on Ukraine. No big deal. It’s just money.
The Ukrainians are spending the lives of their children and are taking heavy casualties. They don’t really announce their dead numbers but it is a lot.
Money comes and goes but when you are dead, you are dead forever.
Also, in that statement is another Putin threat to kill all the Ukrainians. He claims he doesn’t have a problem fighting to the last Ukrainian. Believe him.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reports 11,544 civilian casualties – 5,024 killed and 6,520 injured – in Ukraine between February 24 and July 11. The real toll could be much higher, given that the U.N. data only includes verified casualties.
More than 9 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, two-thirds of them departing to other countries. The Russian military has shelled Ukrainian evacuation corridors and hubs that are part of the international humanitarian effort to aid Ukrainian refugees.
Russian strikes on Kramatorsk and Mariupol killed dozens of fleeing Ukrainians, including children.
As of July, the Ukrainian government estimated that 1.6 million Ukrainian civilians, including more than 260,000 children, had been forcibly relocated from Ukraine to Russia.
“Some of these children have reportedly been abducted by Russian authorities from Ukraine’s orphanages and transferred to Russia for adoption by Russian families,” said Courtney Austrian, deputy chief of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The toll of the war on the Ukrainian people is immense.
.1. At least 9 million refugees.
.2. The latest estimates are 1.9 million deported to Russia, 300,000 of these are children.
The fate of these people is unknown but well, this is Russia, it is going to be another horror.
.3. The number of dead civilians is unknown since most of the occupied territories are still under Russian control.
It’s in the tens of thousands at least and could be much higher.
I’ve seen photos of some of the new mass cemeteries. They are very large, thousands of new graves.
Susan Montgomerysays
@73 Fair enough. I don’t stop by DKOS very often, so I’m likely being unfair out of ignorance. My view of them has always been that it’s poverty porn for Ivy League Noam Chomsky readers and perhaps I should reevaluate that.
Pierce R. Butler @ #46, thanks! I’m hesitant to follow their links – do they show or discuss Galati actually appearing in court or speaking about the case in the present, or are they just talking about a case he filed originally? It’s strange that his (organization’s) Twitter account hasn’t tweeted anything since March.
SteveoR @72, I visited Lake Mead about ten years ago. Even then the place looked threatened by drought. Now it looks apocalyptic. The link you posted leads to a startling photo.
tuatara @69, OMG, Tucker Carlson is such a dunderhead. He scares me because, in some ways, he is a more deliberate dunderhead than Trump. From text you quoted:
“I’m not a Putin defender, despite what you may have heard,” he [Tucker Carlson] said. “I don’t care one way or the other because he’s not my president. He doesn’t preside over my country and what he does in Ukraine, while I think historically significant, certainly significant to Ukrainians, is not more significant to me than what gas costs. In fact it’s not even in the same universe.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
An Orthodox priest burst into tears when it came time to bury four-year-old Liza, but told her weeping friends and family that “evil cannot win”. Her father, Artem Dmytriev, tears flowing down his face, cradled her still figure, taking care not to disturb her crown of white flowers.
The Associated Press has a report from the funeral of Liza, one of the three children killed in a Russian missile attack last week in Vinnytsia, whose photos have gone viral as the latest images from the brutal war in Ukraine to horrify the world. In total, 24 people were killed and more than 200 wounded, including Liza’s mother, who remained in an intensive care unit in a grave condition. The family didn’t tell her that her daughter was being buried on Sunday, fearing it could affect her condition.
…
When the war started, Liza’s family fled Kyiv for Vinnytsia, a city 270km (167 miles) to the south-west, which until Thursday was considered relatively safe.
Shortly before the attack, her mother had posted a video on social media showing Liza in a denim jacket and white pants, straining to reach the handlebars to push her own stroller, happily toddling through Vinnytsia. The next image of Liza shared with the world was one shared by Ukraine’s emergency services showing her lifeless body on the ground next to her blood-stained stroller.
“It’s suffering and despair. There is no forgiveness for them,” said Ilona, a family friend.
In just five months, Ukraine has become one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Their most recent summary:
Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said there was no immediate information about casualties.
The European Union is to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
Russia has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness, says Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff for the UK, and 50,000 Russian soldiers have either died or been injured in this conflict.
All eight crew members who died onboard a cargo aircraft transporting munitions that crashed and exploded in a ball of flames in northern Greece were Ukrainian.
…
Today marked the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard. With the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s anniversary has hit the international community even harder. Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight. Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, issued a strong statement calling for international action against Russia.
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military official, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed at least 40 people in the past three days.
Firefighters in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and Morocco are battling forest fires raging across tens of thousands of hectares as this week’s heatwave continues to bring extreme temperatures and cause hundreds of deaths across south-western Europe.
The second heatwave of the summer – with temperatures hitting 47C (116F) in Portugal and 45C in Spain – has triggered wildfires that have forced the evacuation of thousands of people….
Hyperbolic headline, but it does point to a significant heatwave and the deaths that result.
“What do you call it when a heatwave engulfs most of a planet? A mega-heatwave, maybe, just like now, we have mega-storms and mega-fires.”—Umair Haque
It boggles the mind that as a deadly heatwave expanding from the Sahara to continental Europe and into England today and peaking on Tuesday or Wednesday, the Tories are flirting with dumping all climate protection goals. But they are. No leadership contender even bothered to attend a ‘game-changing’ climate briefing. And Boris? He partied instead.
In the states, there is not one GOP contender for 2024 that even believes in climate change, let alone intends to act on it. Perhaps that will begin to change after this week and this summer. I’m not holding my breath.
Heatwaves are sweeping the globe […]
China’s financial hub, Shanghai ( population of 25 million), recently issued its third code red heat emergency for the summer. 90 other cities in China have done the same. The declaration halts all construction, and other outside works, except for coronavirus workers in hazmat suits and citizens waiting in scorching lines to be tested.
In China, the earlier flooding and the heatwaves come as China fights multiple crises at once. Omicron is still a significant threat, and climate impacts devastate the nation’s agriculture, and the heat kills fish, livestock, and wildlife. The current heatwave threatens crops, particularly rice, after wheat was decimated earlier by heat and flooding. Coal-dependent power grids are threatened, though the government denies that they are. The world economy is threatened as it is dependent on China.
The New York Times:
HONG KONG — As dozens of cities in eastern and southern China issued heat alerts on Tuesday, with some temperature forecasts exceeding 104 degrees over the next 24 hours, health workers conducted outdoor coronavirus tests with packets of frozen snacks strapped to their white hazmat suits. Roofs melted, roads cracked and some residents sought relief in underground air-raid shelters.
The heat wave is forecast to persist for at least two weeks.
The scorching heat reflects a global trend of increasingly frequent episodes of extreme weather driven by climate change. In June, weeks of heat waves plagued northern China, at the same time that floods displaced millions of people in the central and southwestern parts of the country.
A museum in Chongqing displaying imperial relics from the Palace Museum closed for repairs after sections of its tiled roof melted, according to a notice on Monday. In a town in southern Jiangxi Province, state TV showed a heat-damaged section of a road arched up at least six inches, according to the Reuters news service.
[Tweet and video available at the link.]
Some media outlets attempt to hoodwink the UK public that the heatwave is comparable to a heatwave from 1976. [Tweet showing global maps comparing June 1976 to June 2022… Yikes!]
From Accuweather:
The heat wave impacting Spain for several consecutive days has killed at least 360 people, according to La Vanguardia. On Friday alone, 123 deaths in the country were attributed to the record-breaking heat.
Of the 360 deaths reported, the community of Madrid reported 22 deaths, while one 60-year-old municipal cleaning worker died Saturday during work.
In Europe, agriculture is succumbing to heat; drought has finished off northern Italy’s desiccated crops while Austria lost theirs due to hail storms.
From NBC News:
Wildfires blazed across the Iberian Peninsula and half of Portugal has been placed on an extreme weather alert as a searing heat wave oppressed Western Europe on Thursday.
Meanwhile, continuous dry weather has also contributed to Sardinia’s worst locust invasion in three decades.
The heat wave caused temperatures in Spain and Portugal to soar to 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, nearing record levels. The hottest day ever to be recorded for Portugal was 117 degrees Fahrenheit in 2003.
Over 20 wildfires burned in Portugal and Spain, and around half of Portugal was placed under a red, or extreme, weather alert. Meanwhile, Spain’s meteorological agency warned Thursday is expected to be the hottest day in the current wave.
Thousands of firefighters across Portugal, Spain and southern France fought to control the flames this week, which have destroyed thousands of acres of land and forced thousands to be evacuated from their homes.
The United States suffers as well. [Tweet and map showing the exceptional hot and dry conditions available at the link.]
We are in a planetary climate emergency. Extreme temperatures in South America have killed over one million since January. There is no reason to think the toll will be any less in other parts of the world. [Tweet and heatwave map available at the link]
[…]
Thousands of people protested in Budapest on Saturday for a fifth day against Viktor Orbán’s government as anger deepens over tax changes that critics say will hurt small businesses.
Hungarians have taken to the streets since the parliament approved a law change on Tuesday that will affect hundreds of thousands of small-sized business owners.
The protests are the first since Orbán, the prime minister, won a consecutive fourth term by a landslide in April.
Several thousand people marched through downtown Budapest on Saturday chanting “Orbán get lost”.
“It’s crazy what they [the government] have done,” one protester, 37-year-old lawyer Ilona Pusztai, said. “This will not lead to more income for the budget.”
Another protester, Zoltan Gemesi, a 68-year-old teacher, said: “The government is currently planning such austerity measures [but] people cannot tolerate them any more.”
Addressing the rally, Peter Marki-Zay, who headed a united opposition but lost against Orbán in April, said the nationalist premier’s campaign promises had been “proven to be lies”.
…
Despite price caps on essentials, the central European country faces soaring inflation and a plunging local currency amid talks with Brussels over held-up European Union funding….
[…] Bilohorivka. Twitter OSINT expert Def Mon, who always brings receipts, has decided to place Bilohorivka back under Ukrainian control based on geolocated combat videos. [Tweet and videos at the link]
We were also discussing Sivers’k and Russia’s inability to capture it. This isn’t a big town like Severodonetsk or Lysychansk. It’s a village, pre-war population 11,000. Yet for whatever reason, Russia is stuck. But don’t worry, they now have an excuse: [Tweet, translated text and map available at the link]
The Russian Telegram account Operation Z: Military commissars of the Russian Spring, with nearly 900,000 subscribers, claims Russia has given up on a direct assault on Sivers’k, opting instead to “create another cauldron for Ukrainian militants. There is still a lot of work to complete the encirclement, but already there is a strong artillery preparation in order to close the cauldron around the city.”
“Another cauldron”? This is hilarious. Russia keeps announcing cauldrons that will allow the capture of thousands of Ukrainian defenders, and Russian Telegram and Twitter dutiful trumpet fake successes in doing so. Yet if they couldn’t close cauldrons with far better conditions north of Popasna, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk, what makes them think they can do it here? Let’s zoom in: [map at the link]
Remember, there’s a very good chance Russia doesn’t even have control of Bilohorivka and Hryhorivka. But even if they do, surrounding Sivers’k will … it’ll take a long f’n time given Russia’s glacial pace of advance. Their inability to cross the Donetsk river to the north compounds their misery. That Telegram post betrays Russian failure—they simply can’t storm this dinky town.
Now, Russia will almost assuredly take Sivers’k at some point in the future, but with Ukraine nipping at Russia’s southern front, the invaders have tough choices to make over the deployment of their limited troops. And the longer Slovians’k Sivers’k (and Bakhmut to the south) hold, the better it is for the Sloviansk/Kramatorsk defense.
Additional tweets and maps are available at the link. “Russian forces removing train offload points out of HIMARS range […] they need twice the amount of trucks to be able to keep up the rate of delivery.” Russia doesn’t have twice the trucks. This is devastating to their war effort.
In Episode 132 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes that deputy Duma speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, one of the most bellicose supporters of Putin’s Ukraine war, is a direct descendent of Leo Tolstoy—and recently invoked his great-great-grandfather’s “slaughter” of British and French troops during the Crimean War as a warning to the West. This is, of course, an utterly perverse irony given that the literary giant’s anarcho-pacifist beliefs were antithetical to everything that his descendant Pyotr stands for. Indeed, it was Leo Tolstoy’s experiences in the Crimean War that turned him into a committed pacifist. His final novel, Hadji Murat, vivdly depicts the brutality of Russia’s counterinsurgency campaign in Chechnya in the 1850s—a history that repeated itself in Chechnya in the 1990s. This is bitterly recalled by the Chechen volunteers fighting for Ukraine, where this history is now repeating itself yet again….
Houseplants are having a moment right now. In 2020, 66% of people in the US owned at least one plant, and sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Instagram accounts like House Plant Club have a million followers. Over the past decade there has been a steady stream of think pieces offering explanations for the emergence of this new obsession. But while millennials may have perfected the art of plant parenting, this is not the first time people have gotten completely obsessed with houseplants. Journalist Anne Helen Petersen digs into the history of domesticated plants in a series of articles on her Substack, Culture Study, and joins us to talk about what she’s found….
Pierce R. Butlersays
SC… @ # 77: … his (organization’s) Twitter account hasn’t tweeted anything since March.
I rarely play videos, but the caption for this news clip says it shows a live news conference on July 3, 2022.
Most of the other recent items in my little search discuss court filings, and I couldn’t tell from same whether Galati did them in person or just had his name on the paperwork.
KG @ #60, you didn’t exaggerate when you called it extraordinary!
From that piece:
In 2018, the Kremlin ordered two military intelligence officers to use a prohibited chemical weapon on a British street.
Their discarded bottle of novichok killed a British citizen – Dawn Sturgess. But it was only chance, pure luck, that it wasn’t more. As President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Fiona Hill, said this year: “There was enough nerve agent in that bottle to kill several thousand people.”
Ukraine repels Russian offensives near Sloviansk, Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.
According to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, the Russian army tried storming villages near the cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmut but was forced to retreat with heavy losses.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday became the latest Republican to voice opposition to the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, saying on an episode of his podcast “The Cloakroom” with conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler that the ruling was “clearly wrong.”
[…]
“Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history. Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states,” Cruz said.
“We saw states before Obergefell that were moving — some states were moving to allow gay marriage. Other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting and had the court not ruled in Obergefell, the democratic process would have continued to operate.”
“In Obergefell, the court said ‘no, we know better than you guys do,’” he said. “Now every state must sanction and permit gay marriage.”
“I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided. It was the court overreaching.”
[…]
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters in May that he also believed that Obergefell was “wrongly decided” …..
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) earlier this year went so far as to say that Obergefell created a right “not even mentioned in the Constitution” and therefore called the court’s “independence and the legitimacy…into question,” …
Some Republicans, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have sought to downplay the likelihood that the Supreme Court would reconsider other precedents in the wake of the overturning of Roe.
Congressional Democrats are preparing legislation to codify nationwide contraceptive access, LGBTQ marriage and parenting rights — and even potentially long-settled precedent on interracial marriage…
When asked where they stood on such efforts, more than 20 Senate Republicans — including several seen as moderates or bipartisan dealmakers — declined to commit to a position.
According to a Gallup poll released last month, a record high of 71% of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage.
StevoRsays
@my 72. I really should have put something like : “Meanwhile in other palate-cleansing better news .. “ after that second link. Oh well.
@ 78. Lynna, OM : Thanks. Yes. The world is increasingly looking and trending like that and it is a serious worry. We’re not – as a species and as Western nations especially – doing anywhere remotely enough or taking Global Overheating remotely seriously enough. It really grieves and frustrates me and I know its worse than I think and experience so .. yes.
StevoRsays
@ 89. tomh : Truth – and most Americans support abortion rights* and miosthelathcar e and somany other “left-wing” poliuicies.
The USA is really so much more progressive in the main than the gerrymandered, warped , kakisto-gerontocratic Murdochcracy that misgoverns it makes it seem.
In the interest of providing some quick statements to clarify information about Russia’s War in Ukraine, without continuing to amplify terrible takes, please consider this simple thread to help.
1. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not because of NATO. Putin has made this clear repeatedly. He wants to take control of Ukraine. There were plans to build a Greater Russia. This is a neo-colonial war. The West didn’t force Ukraine to be anti-Russian either.
2. Ukrainians would love the war to end. But to suggest their rolling over and accepting Russian rule is the best case simply is ignorant of the facts. Ukrainians are fighting for their lives.
3. Diplomatic solutions would be lovely. However, Russia has, repeatedly, shown it will not follow through with solutions. Diplomacy is a two-way street. Until Russia is forced to comply, through potential security guarantees of Ukr. or otherwise, diplo will not be successful.
4. Russia is engaged in war crimes. They have purposefully hit civilian targets repeatedly. They have deported millions. There are reports of filtration camps, torture, and other illegal acts. They also target educational and cultural establishments.
a. Side note – if you wish to known more, I wrote for the Conversation, highlighting how the Post-WW2 period may be inspiring Russia’s actions today: [link at the (Twitter) link]
5. Ukrainian defeat means Ukrainians living under a regime that has openly stated its intention to destroy Ukraine in all its forms: cultural, national, linguistic, etc. To Russia, Ukraine is not a real country.
6. Suffering will continue under Russian control. Those calling for peace must realize this. It’s not just a matter of ending the war, it’s considering what will happen those forced to remain under occupation. Peace will be complicated; consider also justice for war crimes.
7. Always consider the audience of Russian state TV, but especially Russian leaders. They know we are listening. They desire fear to bring an end to the consensus of help that is allowing Ukraine to continue to fight effectively. Support for Ukr. remains crucial for Ukr. victory
8. Listen to experts in the fields of Russian and Ukrainian history, politics, culture, society, media, etc. Following tweet has some suggestions.
a. Here is a *very* small sampling of those I follow and trust. See who else they amplify. Build your network: [several suggestions at the (Twitter) link]
StevoRsays
@ ^ ___________________ and most healthcare & so many other..
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
We are now just about an hour away from the second Conservative leadership debate. All five candidates – Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat – will be on ITV One at 7pm.
The debate is slightly shorter than Channel 4’s 90 minute event on Friday – the leadership hopefuls will be grilled by Julie Etchingham for an hour.
As well as broadcasting live on television, ITV say the debate will also be streamed live on the ITV Hub, on the ITV News website, and via their YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter, so you’ve absolutely no excuse not to watch.
Plenty of good reasons not to watch, but they’ll be liveblogging it in any case.
Meanwhile on Russian state TV: Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechen detachment “Akhmat,” tells state TV host Olga Skabeeva that Russian forces in Ukraine are fighting “holy war” against the LGBT & the Antichrist. He hopes Russia will soon face off with NATO.
On Russian state TV, referring to the worldwide effect of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Apti Alaudinov said that those who are “cold and hungry” will be warmed up by God… “in hell, on judgment day.” State TV host laughed & agreed.
Subtitled video, which I recommend watching in full, at the (Twitter) link.
Pierce R. Butlersays
SC… @ # 85 – Oops, you’re right about that tweet – my bad.
And I broke down and watched the first bit of that “press conference” video – the man who identified himself as Rocco G spoke of a court action having occurred “in August of this year”, so that basically rules out 2022.
This Action4Canada promo pushes a July 20, 2022 Zoom event in which “… Tanya Gaw … once again welcomes Rocco Galati…”, so if really curious you can sign up to watch next Wednesday.
This Action4Canada promo pushes a July 20, 2022 Zoom event in which “… Tanya Gaw … once again welcomes Rocco Galati…”, so if really curious you can sign up to watch next Wednesday.
Thank you! That’s the first evidence I’ve seen – assuming it’s actually live (which they don’t…quite say?) and does in fact happen – to suggest that he’s living and not comatose. They link to his organization’s site, on which the latest update is still the one I saw in early February:
I hope everybody is doing well in their struggles towards regaining our constitutional rights and freedoms. At the moment, I would like to say the following:
(1) the vicious, vile, and fascist rumours of my premature death are somewhat exaggerated.
(2) I am currently recuperating from a ten (10) day coma. [I admit I still find these two lines pretty funny.]
(3) I will be in contact again when I am fully recovered. God willing.
It seems strange that he’d be doing an interview now after four months with no updates or tweets (and with a group that posted about a lawsuit being filed as if to imply it was a current event when it happened last year, which makes me suspicious), but I guess we’ll see. Thanks for looking into it.
1,346 civilians have been found dead in the Kyiv oblast after the retreat of Russian forces, according to the region’s police chief.
In a new Kyiv Independent report, Andriy Nebytov is cited saying that about 300 individuals are still missing, adding that 700 of those killed were shot with small arms such as a handgun.
Bernie Sanders talks directly and bluntly about Joe Manchin sabotaging part of the Democratic Party agenda:
[…]
“[Manchin] has sabotaged the president’s agenda,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said on ABC’s “This Week.”
[…]
Manchin’s reluctance to pass the [Democrats’ party-line spending] bill after months of negotiations has infuriated Democrats who contend the spending bill is desperately needed to fight climate change.
Sanders on Sunday did not hold back his frustration, claiming that “people like Manchin” are “intentionally sabotaging the president’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want.”
“The problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious; he was not,” Sanders said. “This is a guy who’s a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy who has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires.”
Welp, that didn’t take too long. On June 24th, the Catholic Republicans of SCOTUS banded together to dismiss the medical concerns of over half the US citizenry by tossing abortion laws back to the States. Those of us hollering loudly that we would soon see bills passed that included zero exceptions for the life of the mommy-to-be were also dismissed as a bunch of cranky-pants Liberal hysterics. We can thank the Republican men (yes, it was largely a white male fest) of Idaho for proving that the Crankypants Contingent know Republican men well […]
On Saturday, July 18th, (24 days ago!) Idaho Republicans gathered together for a Convention, not in a dark cave more in keeping with their primitive thinking, but in brightly lit rooms on the green, leafy campus of The College of Southern Idaho to put together their newest party platform.
Scott Herndon, candidate for Senate, wasn’t satisfied that his party is not doing more to insure that the pregnant ladies stay pregnant – even if it kills them, and the fetus they are carrying. He was joined by his fellow Republicans in a four-to-one margin that rejected an amendment to their State Constitution allowing for an exception to save the life of the mother. Yes, Lady Golden Eagles, you read that correctly – if your guy gets you pregnant, and you have a pregnancy complication that will kill you, he’ll have to let you just…..die.
Gentlewomen of Idaho, we know you have better things to do today, but please, take a moment and sit down with your husbands, boyfriends, fiancés, or whatever man you are currently allowing to have sex with you, and ask this question: Will You Let Me Die?
Scott Herndon resembles a bearded Tom Hanks, and there’s a lovely family photo on his campaign website featuring six women. Six possible future corpses, if Herndon has his way. […] He, and his fellow Republicans, will let every woman in the town you inhabit die through simple inaction if their pregnancies go wrong. […] it’s up to you to ask Scott some version of ‘WTF are you thinking, dude?’
Idahoan Republican men like to think they are the heroes of their own story – self-reliant, independent guys who protect their womenfolk. They have now shown us who they are, and they are not protectors, they are homicidal. If they can’t have that fetus, then why bother with either of these people? The mother dies, the future baby dies, and the man washes his hands clean of both of them, going on to find his next victim. Yes, victim. Because this is a very one-sided affair. Men always emerge from these incidents alive. No man ever dies from pregnancy complications. Not. One. In. All. Of. History.
Perhaps that is what makes these Republican death-bringers so unsympathetic, they need never fear dying from pregnancy. It’s just not their problem. And that level of contempt for their women should be the ultimate lady-boner killer. There’s a reason that romance novels don’t have their hero knocking up women and abandoning them to death when stuff goes sideways – it isn’t sexy. Idaho Republican men are now at an alarming level of Not Sexy – a level that includes people like serial killers, and child porn content creators. Well played, Republican men!
[…] Other states will follow, because if there’s one thing we know about Republican men, they never met a law controlling women that they didn’t like, and they’re like lemmings. When one goes over the cliff, the rest swiftly fling themselves off the heights. Kristi Noem is likely wondering why she didn’t propose it first, and the Republican political men in Tennessee are congratulating their fellows in Idaho and rushing to the office to draft their version of this cruel, murderous platform plank.
The good news is that this only a piece of the platform, not a Law. But, we see where they’re headed, thanks to Scott Herndon who bravely stood up to declare that his wife, and other assorted female relatives, are as disposable as chewed gum wrapped in a used tissue. As for Mrs. Herndon, who married this man who would let her die, their future baby die, and then waltz off to find his next willing victim….you have some difficult conversations to have, if you are willing. We hope you are, for all of our sakes. Ask Scott if you can count on him to protect you, and the women of your community, by not murdering them with medical neglect. You’ll then have a true measure of your value in his life. Because from where we sit, it looks like your husband has already declared that you are a disposable wad of gum.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that France under the Vichy regime “extinguished the Enlightenment” [oh, good grief] during a speech at the former train station in Pithiviers from which more 8,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz. Macron’s speech was part of France’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Vél d’Hiv roundup, during which nearly 13,000 Jews were taken from their homes in Paris and its suburbs and sent to concentration camps….
– On July 16 and 17, 1942, some 13,000 Jews were taken from their homes in Paris and surrounding suburbs by authorities working on orders from Nazi Germany. The roundup was named after the Vélodrome d’Hiver stadium in Paris where Jewish families were gathered and held before being sent east to concentration camps.
– Events to mark the anniversary on Sunday included wreath-laying ceremonies at the site in Paris where the velodrome used to stand and at Pithiviers train station 100km south of Paris, from which eight trains departed carrying French Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
– Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne pledged to fight anti-Semitism in France “wherever it is found” in a speech on Sunday morning at a remembrance ceremony in Paris. She told the survivors she met at the event that “your stories will never leave us. Your words are engraved on the spirits of the youth who hear those horrible testimonies.”
– Survivor Arlette Testyler said it was “painful” to speak at the event and shed tears as she shared her story of being part of the Vél d’Hiv roundup at the age of eight. “We should forget nothing”, she said. “To remember is a duty and we owe that duty to history.”
– President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech in Pithiviers Sunday afternoon expressing his concern over the enduring threat posed by anti-Semitism and the ongoing effort to deny the culpability of France’s wartime Vichy regime in the arrest and deportation of Jews.
One of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir.
Mike Rinder’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology center when he was five years old. After high school, he signed a billion-year contract…
Missouri law states that a petition for divorce must provide eight pieces of information, things like the residence of each party, the date of separation, and, notably, “whether the wife is pregnant.” If the answer is yes, Drake says, “What that practically does is put your case on hold.”
There is a lot of disagreement online about whether pregnant Missouri women can get divorced. The RFT spoke to multiple lawyers who handle divorce proceedings and they all agreed that in Missouri a divorce can’t be finalized if either the petitioner (the person who files for divorce) or the respondent (the other party in the divorce) is pregnant.
Dan Mizell, an attorney in Lebanon, Missouri, who has been practicing law since 1997, says that certain aspects of the divorce can proceed, but everything having to do with custody of the unborn child is frozen in place until birth or a pregnancy-ending event like a miscarriage. The court can issue temporary orders related to things like dividing up property, Mizell says. “But they can’t do a final decree of divorce until she delivers the baby.”
…
ravensays
Zelensky fired two key officials in his government, the head of the State Security Bureau and their Attorney General.
All is not right in Ukraine in a lot of ways.
.1. These officials are not accused of being Russian agents.
.2. Some of their staff are Russian agents though.
They betrayed Ukraine to Russia when Russia invaded.
.3. Apparently they weren’t doing their jobs well enough, not too surprising since these people weren’t actually professionals but friends of Zelensky from his previous life.
He appointed them because he didn’t know who to trust. He probably still doesn’t.
Zelensky suspends top officials over staffers’ ‘collaboration’ with Russia
By CNN’s Tim Lister and Mariya Knight
Updated 7:59 AM ET, Mon July 18, 2022
(CNN)Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended two important figures in his government, questioning their leadership qualities and accusing many of their subordinates of treason and collaborating with Russia.
The two high-ranking officials — Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and State Security Service (SBU) head Ivan Bakanov, a long-time associate of the President — are now subject to an investigation and have been temporarily replaced.
“For a long enough time, we have been waiting for more concrete and sufficiently radical results from the leaders of these two departments, to clean these two departments of collaborators and state traitors,” the deputy dead of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Smyrnov, told Ukrainian television on Monday.
“However, in the sixth month of the war, we continue to find … packs of these people, in each of these departments,” Smyrnov said.
In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky appeared to suggest that the pair had been fired. “Today I made a decision to remove the Prosecutor General from office and to dismiss the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that many officials within both departments were suspected of treason.
But Smyrnov said Monday that the pair have been suspended to ensure they did not interfere with the investigations. Zelensky will decide whether or not to submit a motion to dismiss them to Ukraine’s parliament, depending on the results of the probe.
“As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding treason and collaboration activities of employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies,” Zelensky told Ukrainians on Sunday evening.
“In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state.
“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state and the connections detected between the employees of the security forces of Ukraine and the special services of Russia pose very serious questions to the relevant leadership. Each of these questions will receive a proper answer,” he said.
Zelensky named two temporary replacements for the suspended pair on Monday: Vasyl Maliuk will lead the SBU and Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general, Oleksii Symonenko, will head the Prosecutor’s Office.
The former head of the Main Directorate of the Security Service in Crimea has also been detained on suspicion of treason, according to Zelensky’s Sunday address.
“Everyone who together with him was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable. It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with the Russian special services,” he said.
Senior officials in the SBU in southern Ukraine have been blamed for the ease with which Russian forces were able to capture large areas of the south within a week of the invasion.
Zelensky also said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal would be tasked with intensifying the search for a new head of the National Anticorruption Bureau.
ravensays
The Russian Ukrainian war seems to be a stalemate right now.
Neither side is really advancing and it is a war of attrition.
The Russians don’t seem to have the military leadership to mount large scale, coordinated attacks.
Neither does the Ukrainian military leadership. Or so it is claimed by some self described military experts.
Both armed forces were trained in the Soviet Union and its aftermath.
The claim about the Ukrainian leadership is from social media websites about the Ukraine and its war.
I’m not going to give sources since it is of unknown quality and not meant for public transmission anyway.
It’s clear that the Ukrainian armed forces are highly motivated, very brave, good at tactics, and taking high casualties. The Russians are poorly trained conscripts and morale is low.
Thanks to NATO, the Ukrainians have the better weapons.
They should be able to roll over the Russians but that isn’t happening anywhere.
Not sure why, but it could be that their generals just don’t know how to come up with good strategic plans.
Just a possibility since I’m absolutely as far away from a trained military expert as can be.
PS I’ll add here that the Russians can win this war by just not losing. They hold most of the Black Sea coast of Ukraine including ports like Mariupol. This is Ukraine’s economic lifeline to the world where they export their grain, steel, and other products. Without Black Sea ports, their economy takes a permanent big hit.
ravensays
One more point that is obvious and IMO, should happen eventually.
Ukraine has to join NATO some day.
It is ironic that Putin made this unwanted event into something that will likely happen.
I don’t believe he cares about NATO or Ukraine joining NATO anyway. This invasion is simply a war of conquest because Russia has an army and they can.
No matter how this current war goes, there will always be another war of Russian expansion until they are stopped. Part of Ukraine now. More later. Repeat.
If Ukraine loses, Moldova and Georgia are next and they are gone.
Armenia is already gone. Probably next would be the central Asian countries with resources and small populations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenstan, etc..
NATO has 948 million people to Russia’s 144 million. They aren’t going to attack a NATO country.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
EU foreign ministers are discussing a ban on Russian gold imports, the most significant measure in a limited plan by the bloc to further curb funding for the Kremlin’s war machine.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, said the ban on Russian gold was “the most important” measure of the latest plan, which is focused largely on “improving the implementation of the already existing sanctions”.
The EU has passed six rounds of sanctions against Russia, but agreeing the last package – an incomplete ban on oil agreed in May – was a bruising experience that revealed stark differences of opinion on how far the bloc should go.
The latest measures have been dubbed the “six-and-a-half package”, in a sign of the limited appetite for further sanctions against Russia.
Turkey will freeze Finland and Sweden’s Nato membership bids if the Nordic countries do not keep promises on counter-terrorism made last month, president Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, adding he believed Sweden was “not showing a good image” for now.
Finland and Sweden applied for membership of the defence alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but were met with opposition from Turkey, which accused the Nordic countries of supporting groups it deems terrorists.
The three countries signed an accord at the Nato summit in Madrid last month to lift Ankara’s veto in exchange for pledges on counter-terrorism and arms exports.
Turkey has said it will closely monitor the implementation of the accord to ratify their membership bids, Reuters said.
The Taliban have asked women working at Afghanistan’s finance ministry to send a male relative to do their job a year after female public-sector workers were barred from government work and told to stay at home.
Women who worked in government positions were sent home from their jobs shortly after the Taliban took power in August 2021, and have been paid heavily reduced salaries to do nothing.
But several women told the Guardian they had received similar calls from Taliban officials requesting they recommend male relatives in their place, because the “workload in the office has increased and they need to hire a man instead of us”, according to one woman who did not wish her identity to be revealed.
Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, said in May: “Current restrictions on women’s employment have been estimated to result in an immediate economic loss of up to $1bn – or up to 5% of Afghanistan’s GDP.
“There is almost universal poverty in the country,” she added. “An entire generation is threatened by food insecurity and malnutrition.”
…
Maryam and her colleagues are mobilising to protest against Taliban policy. “We do not accept their order and we will try to get them to change it,” she said.
“We have created a group of female employees of the ministry. We are negotiating now, and we will demonstrate if they don’t hear us,” she added, urging the international community to extend support and solidarity.
The country is in the grip of a severe economic and humanitarian crisis. According to the UN, 20 million people now face acute hunger, more than 9 million have been displaced since the Taliban took power, and severe drought has affected farming.
(CN) — Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Kansas voters will have the chance to decide the fate of abortion rights in the state on Aug. 2, portending the fight to come in other states as well.
“It’s very much a bellwether of what’s to come,” said Bob Beatty, professor and chair of the political science department at Washburn University.
Kansans will vote on a constitutional amendment called the Value Them Both amendment that states abortion is not a right under the Kansas Constitution. The vote comes after a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in 2019 found that abortion procedures were guaranteed under the state Constitution as part of personal autonomy, “which includes the ability to control one’s own body.”
The amendment would allow the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass new laws restricting or even banning abortions.
“It takes the abortion issue out of the Constitution and courts and into the legislature,” Beatty said.
Kentucky voters will vote on a similar amendment in November.
The vote was originally planned by GOP lawmakers to take place during the primary when fewer voters turn out to the polls. Richard Levy, professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said the timing of the U.S. Supreme Court decision might galvanize abortion rights voters, but typically they are less single issue voters than anti-abortion voters, who are more likely to vote in primary elections.
“It’s the first example of a post-Dobbs election in which abortion is on the ballot,” Levy said. In Kansas, if it’s even close, it would show that pro choice voters have momentum.”
While unaffiliated voters are usually not allowed to vote in the primary, they are allowed to vote on the ballot question.
Money has poured into the campaigns of both supporters and opponents of the amendment. Supporters of the amendment include the Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America organization, which donated $1.3 million, the Archdiocese in Kansas City, Kansas, which donated $500,000 and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita which contributed $250,000.
While churches are usually not allowed to promote or campaign for political candidates, they are allowed to contribute to ballot questions under federal law without losing their status as a charitable entity.
[…]
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza news feed. From there:
Childfree extremism: Russian lawmakers have drafted legislation that would equate both “denying family values” and “promoting non-traditional sexual relations” to “inciting ethnic hatred and propagating pornography.” In the bill’s explanatory note, the authors argue that the “childfree” lifestyle and “popularization of non-traditional sexual relations” are as dangerous to the development of Russian society as the promotion of suicide, drugs, extremism, and other forms of illegal behavior. Lawmakers specifically raised demographic concerns and stressed that their legislation would add additional restrictions on Russia’s film industry. (The draft legislation doesn’t specify penalties for violations.)
Bloomberg: Putin says sanctions cause ‘colossal’ problems in Russian tech industry.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin told officials during a video conference on strategic development goals that Russia is facing “colossal problems” in the high-tech sector due to sanctions.
Putin said Russia will not allow its economy to fall back decades and will look for solutions by relying on domestic resources, Bloomberg reports.
By one count, there were a half-dozen anti-election memos circulating among members of Team Trump in the post-election period.
Spend enough time online, and it quickly becomes obvious that there are plenty of folks pitching all kinds of provocative ideas. The vast majority of them will not have access to the president of the United States.
A couple of years ago, however, conditions in the White House were quite different. The New York Times reported over the weekend:
Around 5 in the afternoon on Christmas Day in 2020, as many Americans were celebrating with family, President Donald J. Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla., on the phone with a little-known conservative lawyer who was encouraging his attempts to overturn the election, according to a memo the lawyer later wrote documenting the call. The lawyer, William J. Olson, was promoting several extreme ideas to the president.
How extreme? Olson wrote in his memo to the Republican, “Our little band of lawyers is working on a memorandum that explains exactly what you can do.” The lawyer conceded that part of his plan could be regarded as tantamount to declaring “martial law,” though he said such criticisms should be dismissed as “fake news.”
The five-page document, which the Times published in its entirety, was titled “Preserving Constitutional Order.”
Olson’s memo went on to say, “It is no understatement to say that the very existence of our Constitutional Republic is slipping away — that which was entrusted to our generation by the Founders and each succeeding generation — unless you act, and act promptly.”
To be sure, Americans are free to make radical recommendations. What makes these circumstances so provocative, however, is the fact that the lawyer making radical recommendations was given an audience with the sitting president, who was apparently listening.
In fact, according to Olson’s document, he was also in touch with then-acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen, at Trump’s suggestion.
[…] As the Times’ report summarized, “The involvement of a person like Mr. Olson, who now represents the conspiracy theorist and MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, underscores how the system that would normally insulate a president from rogue actors operating outside of official channels had broken down within weeks after the 2020 election.”
But I’m also struck by the extraordinary number of anti-election memos circulating among members of Team Trump in the post-election period.
[…] there was, of course, John Eastman, who wrote an outrageous memo, which was effectively a blueprint Republican officials could follow to reject the results of the election and keep the losing candidate in power. Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, also used his office to sketch out a map for Republican legislators to follow in which they could try to overturn the will of voters.
But there’s no reason to stop there. Less than a week before the Jan. 6 attack, John McEntee, a White House aide, prepared his own anti-election memo, complete with unfortunate historical inaccuracies. Jenna Ellis, one of Trump’s campaign lawyers, ended up drafting two memos on overturning the election.
Evidently, there’s yet another document to add to the list.
Update on bill to protect interstate abortion travel:
[…] The Democratic majority was unanimous in its support for the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, […] they were joined by a trio of GOP representatives — two of whom, Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger and Michigan’s Fred Upton, are retiring at the end of this term. The third was Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, who’s running for re-election in a competitive district just north of Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, 205 Republicans voted against it.
The standard GOP line remains the same: As things stand, there are no laws limiting Americans’ ability to travel across state lines for reproductive care, so there’s no need to pass federal legislation to address a problem that doesn’t exist. [but will exist soon!]
[…] as The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie noted in his latest column, while the Supreme Court “has recognized a right to travel between states on multiple occasions in cases stretching back to the 19th century,” it’s also true that “some Republican-led states want to take the law” in a radical new direction.
Missouri lawmakers have introduced a “bounty” bill similar to the one now in operation in Texas, which would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident obtain an abortion out of state. Another bill would apply Missouri’s laws to abortions that occur in other states.
The Texas Tribune reported in May, meanwhile, that some GOP legislators also want to approve measures that would “prevent pregnant Texans from seeking legal abortions in other states.”
The Washington Post reported late last month, “Several national anti-abortion groups and their allies in Republican-led state legislatures are advancing plans to stop people in states where abortion is banned from seeking the procedure elsewhere.”
[…] The bill now heads to the Senate, where a related measure has already been blocked once. The odds of the legislation overcoming a Republican filibuster are effectively zero, though the larger debate on this issue is just getting started.
…as The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie noted in his latest column, while the Supreme Court “has recognized a right to travel between states on multiple occasions in cases stretching back to the 19th century,”
AFAICT, limiting one group’s right to travel wherever they want to is pure slavery.
What other groups have limited travel rights?
Accused criminals with probable cause in jail and convicted criminals in jail or on probation.
Military members under some conditions. The latter is by consent, when you join the military, you agree to follow their rules and regulations. You can also leave the military and everyone eventually does so.
Then again, female slavery isn’t going to be a problem for this Supreme court.
Best I can say is that it is all but unenforceable. Who knows when a girl or woman crosses state lines that 1. she is pregnant, and 2. intends to get an abortion.
Lots of pregnant women travel for many reasons.
Russia’s Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of ‘extraordinary’ circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Dated July 14, the letter from the Russian state gas monopoly, said it was declaring force majeure on supplies, starting from June 14, Reuters reported.
Known as an ‘act of God’ clause, force majeure is standard in business contracts and spells out extreme circumstances that excuse a party from their legal obligations.
European Union foreign ministers have agreed another 500 million euros ($424 million) of EU funding to supply arms to Ukraine, taking the bloc’s security support to 2.5 billion euros since February.
“Today at the EU foreign ministers meeting, a political agreement was reached on the fifth tranche of military assistance to Ukraine,” Sweden’s foreign minister Ann Linde said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.
The money should help the EU continue to jointly buy equipment and supplies for the Ukrainian military, including lethal weaponry, which the bloc has said should be used for defensive purposes.
EU rules normally prevent the bloc from using its seven-year budget to fund military operations, but the European Peace Facility, which has a limit of five billion euros, is off-budget and can be used to provide military aid.
birgerjohanssonsays
(Purrs like Tom contemplating a horrible fate for Jerry)
“Tories too toxic for themselves as debate cancelled” https://youtu.be/T3tg_u3RX9o
Lying scum tearing each other apart in public- this is something American TV needs.
Since the 2020 election, Iowa has enacted one new felony and two new misdemeanor offenses targeting election officials.
The state’s omnibus election law, passed in 2021, criminalizes election officials who fail to perform their duties, don’t adequately maintain voter lists, or interfere with other people performing their duties in or near a polling place. The first offense carries a potential five years in prison.
Roxanna Moritz, formerly the chief election officer in Scott County, Iowa, cited the law as one of the main reasons she decided to retire early, despite winning reelection in November 2020 for her fourth term.
“When they signed that new law, I was done,” she said. “It’s too much anymore, the constant out to get us.”
Roxanna Moritz says a new Iowa law exacerbates an already toxic environment for election officials who are subject to threats and harassment.
Iowa is one of 12 states that have enacted 35 new criminal penalties targeting election officials since 2020, according to an analysis by States Newsroom….
The new penalties are part of a larger effort to criminalize people involved in the election process. Since the 2020 election, 26 states have enacted, expanded, or increased the severity of 120 election-related criminal penalties….
Of those new penalties, 102 of them — the vast majority — were enacted in 18 Republican-controlled states….
[…]
States Newsroom analyzed every voting-related bill passed by state legislatures since the 2020 election, creating a database of every new criminal offense codified into law. In total, states enacted more than 60 new felonies and more than 50 new misdemeanors.
The new offenses criminalize actions taken by everyone involved in an election, including voters, people who assist voters, and election officials. The criminal penalties range from low-level misdemeanors to felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
[…]
David Becker, the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, which works with election officials of both parties to make elections more secure and accessible, said there’s no need for the new criminal penalties.
“These are coming out now in complete defiance of reality,” he said, describing the 2020 election as a great achievement of American democracy.
“Instead of throwing a parade for these people and thanking them for their service, they’re being targeted with these new criminal penalties and new police forces focused on their efforts, because of a lie.”
Becker described election officials as exhausted and questioning if the job is worth it. “We’re going to see the potential of losing an entire generation of professional election officials, which is bad in and of itself because we rely on them to run smooth elections, but who replaces them?”
[…]
In Arizona, county recorders and other election officials are subject to a felony prosecution if they knowingly deliver or mail an early ballot to a person who has not requested one for that election.
They’re also subject to felony prosecution if they knowingly fail to reject an application for registration when it’s not accompanied by a proof of citizenship, despite how state law currently conflicts with federal law on the legality of proof of citizenship requirements.
[Many more examples at the link]
[…]
In Texas, Isabel Longoria, the former lead election administrator in Houston, filed a lawsuit against the state over the provision in the state’s new election law that makes it a crime for election officials to encourage voters to vote by mail, according to the complaint, and imposes severe penalties and harsh fines as punishment.
[…]
Like voter fraud, criminal misconduct by election officials is exceedingly rare and when it does occur, it has been caught by laws already in place before 2020.
Many of the new laws target people who assist voters, including nonprofit groups that do voter registration and friends and neighbors who may help a voter by bringing their mail-in ballot to a drop box for them.
Five states (Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas and South Carolina) enacted bans on ballot harvesting, or having one person gather and deliver other voters’ mail-in ballots. Arkansas, Iowa, Florida and Oklahoma elevated or expanded their already existing laws.
Voting advocates say that the laws have a discriminatory effect and particularly harm rural voters and voters who may live far from a drop box or post office, like Native Americans.
“It’s just the case that in the regular course of their lives, Native Americans pick up and drop off mail for each other,” Jacqueline De León, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, told the Washington Post in 2020.
In Yuma County, Arizona, Guillermina Fuentes, a 66-year-old Latina woman, pleaded guilty in early June to a felony for collecting four early ballots from voters who were not family members and depositing them into a ballot box on primary Election Day in August 2020.
She’s scheduled to be sentenced in September and prosecutors are seeking a one-year prison sentence….
Georgia’s ban on line relief efforts is especially harmful for Black voters, who on average wait longer to cast a ballot than non-white voters.
“You’re seeing the criminal justice system being used as an apparatus to deter rightful voting,” said John Cusick, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who is suing Georgia over the line relief ban. “It’s putting more burden on folks when the state should be encouraging record turnout and making it easier and more accessible.”
The new criminal laws come as states are giving law enforcement and other government officials expanded powers to investigate and prosecute election crimes.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in April creating the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud. Lawmakers appropriated more than $2.6 million and 25 positions for the new agency and additional investigators to work in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
A handful of other states also empowered new agencies or government officials to investigate, prosecute, or report voter fraud.
[…]
Experts warn that the new enforcement power, along with the more than 100 new or elevated election crimes codified into law across the country, will serve to chill voters who may not want to risk violating the law in order to cast a ballot.
Info summarized from a New York Times article: Beto O’Rourke’s Democratic campaign in Texas raised $27.6 million over four months. That’s a Lone Star State record, and it is comparable to a fundraising amount in a competitive presidential campaign. O’Rourke is campaigning for Governor of Texas … going against Greg Abbott.
The expanded use of drop boxes for mailed ballots during the 2020 election did not lead to any widespread problems, according to an Associated Press survey of state election officials across the U.S. that revealed no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft that could have affected the results. The findings from both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states run contrary to claims made by former President Donald Trump and his allies who have intensely criticized their use and falsely claimed they were a target for fraud.
Donald Trump:
[Ballot drop boxes are] corrupt and scandal-ridden Scam Boxes.
A new court filing reveals that Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis subpoenaed Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) last month to appear before a special grand jury in the Fulton County investigation into former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the battleground state.
Attached to the new filing is Hice’s subpoena, which instructs him to appear before the grand jury on this coming Tuesday morning. Hice’s request, filed on Monday morning in Fulton County Superior Court, says the GOP congressman seeks to move the proceedings from state court to federal court because he is a member of Congress.
The grand jury’s probe led by Willis focuses on the former president’s efforts to subvert the election results in Georgia, particularly Trump’s infamous phone call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger in which he urged the Georgia official to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Hice was among a group of Trump allies who pushed the Big Lie of a stolen election and voted to overturn the election results hours after the deadly Capitol insurrection. Witnesses testified to the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Hice attended a Dec. 21, 2020 meeting at the White House with other members of the House Freedom Caucus as they planned to challenge the election results on the day of the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. […]
I wish Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis every success in prosecuting those dunderheads.
Ukraine: Russian Ammunition warehouses near Nova Kakhovka light up
In the continuing saga of things going boom, several warehouses in and around Russian occupied Nova Kakhovka have lit up the sky in spectacular fashion. […]
BoJo could not be arsed to attend an energency COBRA meeting about the potentially deadly heat wave. Instead he went to Chequers. https://youtu.be/ymb4uDmUJR8
Scorching heat in Britain led officials to shut down runways at a U.K. air base and a commercial airport in London on Monday.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) halted flights to its Brize Norton Base, located about 75 miles northwest of London in Oxfordshire, while London Luton Airport also announced it would also temporarily suspend flights.
[…] Temperatures were forecasted to reach 41 degrees Celsius, or 106 degrees Fahrenheit, in parts of the country, which would break a 2019 record. British officials issued a “red extreme” heat warning for the first time in a large part of England. […]
Fake news speaks many languages, but it’s particularly fond of Spanish. An epidemic of Spanish-language right-wing disinformation that spiked around the 2020 election on social media platforms, and in some big-city AM radio stations, is revving up again ahead of the fall midterms.
Two years ago, before the 2020 presidential election, Spanish-language videos and news stories smeared Joe Biden as a communist. After the election, disinformation campaigns accused Black Lives Matter of spurring the Jan. 6 insurrection and bolstered the lie that Biden stole the election. Mixed in with all this were warnings that coronavirus vaccines were dangerous.
The false narratives jumped quickly from screen to screen, metastasizing through WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Now, as the midterm elections loom, social media researchers and Democratic political strategists tell me far-right disinformation is snowballing again, with fresh falsehoods spreading on the usual platforms but also on newer platforms, including TikTok, Signal and Telegram.
Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, chief strategy officer for We Are Más, a consulting firm focused on Hispanic and diaspora communications, told me that the texting platform Telegram, in particular, “has become a rabbit hole for QAnon channels in Spanish.”
This is bad news — not just for Democrats and Latino voters, but also for democracy.
[…] there is little doubt, Pérez-Verdía said, that the steady drumbeat of bogus facts and false narratives, buttressed by incendiary, authentic-looking videos, played an outsize role, especially in Florida and South Texas.
Pérez-Verdía, who monitors Spanish-language social media, said, “The lies work, and continue to work.”
Conspiracy theories, easily debunked false narratives and outrageous lies spread quickly and take hold among Spanish-language users for several reasons. For starters, social media sites, including Facebook, do little fact-checking on foreign-language pages, including ones in Spanish. This is a longtime problem that is only now slowly beginning to get their attention.
[…] video showing a brutal shootout in Bolivia that killed several people. Its clear intent was to bludgeon Bolivia’s leftist government. In fact, Gamarra said, the video was of a gang shooting in Puerto Rico from two years ago.
[…] Latino Media Network — a new bipartisan group, but led largely by Democrats — announced last month it was buying 18 major Spanish-language radio stations across the country from TelevisaUnivision. The stations include Miami’s popular Radio Mambí. One of LMN’s main goals: helping Spanish-language audiences “navigate the ocean of information that exists in our society.”
[…] The sale set off a firestorm, in part because a firm linked to George Soros, a boogeyman to the far right, is one of LMN’s investors.
One Mambí host, Lourdes Ubieta, has already quit. She told the Miami Herald, “The purchase of Mambí is not to fight against disinformation but to silence conservative voices.” Unfortunately, for too long on Spanish-language Miami radio, conservative voices and disinformation have been almost indistinguishable.
An epidemic of Spanish-language Cuban-exile right-wing disinformation that spiked around the 2020 election on social media platforms, and in some big-city AM radio stations, is revving up again ahead of the fall midterms.
FTFY. When are the Dems going to grow a spine and tell them that Batista isn’t coming returning from the grave nor are they getting their sugar mills and slaves back?
Akira MacKenziesays
Sorry, that first paragraph should have blockquoted.
Supporters of Liz Truss have said her key rival, Penny Mordaunt, has “topped out” of backers, as the foreign secretary gained ground in the fight for second place in the Conservative leadership contest.
Mordaunt lost a vote in the latest ballot of Tory MPs’ – a key sign her campaign had stalled after a weekend of bruising attacks – but remained behind frontrunner Rishi Sunak.
But the pressure is still on Truss, who gained just seven MP backers, less than the fourth-placed Kemi Badenoch, who received nine new supporters. Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, was knocked out of the race.
…
The remaining leadership hopefuls will now be hoping to pick off Tugendhat’s 31 supporters….
The Russian TV station Dozhd, which was blocked in March as the government cracked down on independent media outlets following the invasion of Ukraine, has begun broadcasting from abroad.
At 1700 GMT on Monday, the station began broadcasting via its YouTube channel with a news programme hosted by Tikhon Dzyadko, the station’s editor-in-chief and top presenter.
Dozhd suspended its operations after authorities blocked its broadcasts, which contained critical coverage of the conflict.
Like several other media outlets, Dozhd decided to base itself in Latvia. It said it has a licence to broadcast in the European Union and that it also has studios in Amsterdam, Paris and Tbilisi.
“During the four and a half months that Dozhd wasn’t operating, a bloody and senseless war waged by Russian leaders against Ukraine has continued and people died and lives were destroyed,” the TV station said in a statement.
“Today, more than ever, Russian citizens should have access to independent information,” it said, adding that the conflict “destroys Ukrainian cities and the future of Russia”.
It said it would gradually increase its operations and broadcast through social media and television.
Launched in 2008, TV Dozhd has actively covered Russia’s opposition and protest movements. In 2021, Russian authorities labelled it as a “foreign agent”, a status that placed it under heavy administrative constraints and put it at risk of heavy fines and being banned.
Meteorologists have warned of a “heat apocalypse” in western France as more than 8,500 further people fled their homes to escape a large wildfire sparked by a searing southern European heatwave that has already caused hundreds of deaths.
Nearly 25,000 people have been forced to abandon homes, holiday rentals and campsites for emergency shelters in the Gironde département west of Bordeaux, while blazes in Spain, Portugal and Greece have forced thousands more to flee.
Temperatures across southern Europe showed some sign of abating on Monday as the heatwave, during which temperatures have surpassed 40C (104F) across much of the region, moved north, including towards Britain, which was set for its hottest day on record.
“It never stops,” said David Brunner, one of 1,500 firefighters battling to control the Gironde blaze, which since Tuesday has destroyed 14,000 hectares of pine forest near the Dune du Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune and a summer tourism hotspot. “In 30 years of firefighting I have never seen a fire like this.”
“We’re climate change refugees,” Théo Dayan, 26, told Le Monde after fleeing his home near the village of La Teste-de-Buch. Jean-Luc Gleyze, the head of the local fire service, said: “We’re not reaching out and touching global heating – it’s hitting us full in the face.”
France’s interior ministry announced it would send an extra three firefighting planes, 200 firefighters and more trucks. “In some south-western areas it will be a heat apocalypse,” the meteorologist François Gourand told Agence France-Presse….
Reporting on Spain, Portugal, the UK, and Germany at the link.
After a complaint from former president Donald Trump, the Pulitzer Prize board took the unusual step of reviewing stories from The Washington Post and the New York Times — deciding they were indeed worthy of their 2018 prizes.
On three occasions, including last year, Trump requested to rescind the 2018 prizes awarded to The Post and the Times for their reporting about his campaign and administration’s connections to Russian election interference.
Trump argued that the articles were based on “false reporting of a non-existent link between the Kremlin and the Trump Campaign.”
He went on to call the stories “no more than a politically motivated farce which attempted to spin a false narrative … .”
The Pulitzer board commissioned two separate independent reviews, which both concluded “that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
Russia’s top woman tennis player comes out: Daria Kasatkina, currently Russia’s top tennis player in women’s singles, is gay. She revealed this in an interview released on July 18 to videoblogger Vita Kravchenko. Kravchenko [they mean Kasatkina] admitted that she was nervous to go public about her sexual orientation, aware that “so much” is now prohibited in Russia. She also praised Russian soccer player Nadezhda Karpova for recently identifying herself as a lesbian. (As Meduza has reported over the past several weeks, Russian lawmakers are busy drafting legislation that would outlaw all positive displays of homosexuality as illegal “gay propaganda.”)
KGsays
With the elimination of Tom Tugendhat, all the remaining four contenders for the UK Tory leadership (Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch) were serving in Johnson’s government until days before he announced he would step down. Two (Truss and Mordaunt) are still doing so. All are fully complicit in his corruption and lies, which they defended right up to the moment they decided it would be more in their self-interest not to. In the latest round of voting Sunak had 115 votes from Tory MPs, Mordaunt 82, Truss 71 and Badenoch 58; Tugendat had 31. It seems almost certain Sunak will be one of the final two, at which point the decision passes to the party membership – 200,000 overwhelmingly (97%) white, and mostly middle-aged or older men. Which of the three women join him still seems quite open: Mordaunt hopes to pick up most of the votes that went to Tugendhat, but all of them would only take her to 113, less than the combined vote of the two rabid right candidates, Truss and Badenoch – but if Truss holds a lead over Badenoch in the next round, due tomorrow (few of Tugendhat’s votes are expected to go to Badenoch, so she would need some of Truss’s votes to come over to beat her), some of Badenoch’s supporters may balk at supporting Truss, who voted Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, although she has since become a born-again Brexiteer. Also, Sunak is said to prefer to face Mordaunt than either of the others, so could connive at some of his supporters voting for her rather than him, as long as he’s confident he will get at least 121 in the final round – enough to be in the top two as there arer 360 Tory MPs in total.
Zelensky tonight has two messages. First, with the help of Western weapons, Ukraine’s military is inflicting “significant logistical losses on the Russian invaders. It is increasingly difficult for the Russian army to hold positions on the captured territory.”
Zelensky continued: “And one more important piece of news regarding the Security Service of Ukraine — an audit of the agency is under way. The dismissal of 28 officials at various levels is being considered. But the grounds are the same: unsatisfactory job performance.”
The Justice Department declared Friday that the Jan. 6 select committee has adequately justified its subpoena for testimony and documents from Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff in Donald Trump’s White House.
That conclusion came as part of a landmark filing taking a position for the first time that former advisers to presidents who have left office are not “absolutely immune” from congressional subpoenas.
DOJ filed the brief Friday evening in a civil suit Meadows filed in December against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the committee’s members in a bid to quash subpoenas the former Trump aide received from the House panel. […]
The new Justice Department filing does not mention or explain prosecutors’ decision not to pursue criminal charges against Meadows, but that move could signal that department lawyers believe the validity of his claims about executive privilege are subject to reasonable diverging views. […]
The Kansans for Life, Kansas churches, and others have worked hard at funding their anti-choice campaign, with Kansas Catholic churches alone kicking in more than $750,000. The message they send through their TV ads lately has been simple and acknowledges the problem they face. People are not in favor of outright bans on abortion if the issue is put to them at the ballot box. How to get around that problem? Confuse the issue. In recent ads, the Value Them Both anti-abortion ads have focused on the concept that no, this really isn’t about ending abortion in Kansas, and anyone who says that is just fearmongering. [bullshit, gaslighting]
This shift clearly comes after the United States Supreme Court ruling has made this a top-of-mind issue for many voters walking to the ballot box. Republicans may not be following the message being sent over the airwaves.
The Kansas Reflector was able to find an audio address to the Reno County Republican Party. What happened? Speaking to the committee, a regional director for the Value Them Both coalition, Lori Chrisman, pointed out that they already have a piece of legislation, HB 2746, from the current session that would be reintroduced, effectively banning abortion. The legislation was originally put forward by Fort Scott Republican Trevor Jacobs and would ban abortion from fertilization to birth under all circumstances. The legislation does allow for stillbirths, ectopic pregnancies, and completion of a miscarriage; however, the legislation provides absolutely no exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
The ad war in Kansas remains fierce, with over $10 million total going into the ad campaign. While anti-choice campaigns seem to offer fairly, ahem, strange claims, they cannot deny the claims make it clear what they really want. […] legislators behind the constitutional amendment have exactly one goal: banning abortion access in Kansas.
[…] The more we learn about Kansas Amendment 2, the easier it is to see through the smokescreen.
Matthew Pottinger, who served on former President Donald Trump’s National Security Council before resigning in the immediate aftermath of January 6, 2021, is expected to testify publicly at Thursday’s prime-time hearing held by the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.
Pottinger is slated to appear alongside former Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews.
CNN previously reported that Matthews, who resigned from her post on January 6, was expected to testify publicly.
Committee members have said Thursday’s hearing will examine Trump’s inaction for 187 minutes while the US Capitol riot was unfolding….
On Friday, the January 6 Select Committee spent more than seven hours interviewing former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne […]
Byrne bankrolled much of the Stop the Steal goon squad, including funding the Arizona fraudit, and he showed up in the infamous December 18, 2020, Oval Office meeting where he, Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn, and Rudy Giuliani tried to get the president to seize the voting machines and possibly re-run the election.
Even as a CEO, Byrne was kind of a wacko, convinced that the company’s woes were the result of hedge funds shorting its stock, rather than Amazon and Wayfair eating its lunch. During a 2005 conference call with shareholders, he referred to one accused short seller as a “Sith Lord” (likely SAC Capital founder Steve Cohen), a move that caused his own father to threaten to step down from the board if he didn’t rein that shit in.
In the most predictable turn of events possible, he became obsessed with blockchain, convinced it would save the world. In a less predictable turn, he embarked on an affair with Russian agent Maria Butina, which he says he conducted at the behest of the FBI. As one does. [LOL]
[…] So awesome that this fuckin’ weirdo was able to sneak into the Oval Office. And BTW, he continued to send Butina cash “gifts” even after she returned to Russia and James Comey was out of power at the FBI, which just goes to show the power of the Deep State! [LOL]
Details of the Oval Office conflagration appeared online within weeks. […]
Axios depicts Byrne scarfing down plate after plate of cocktail meatballs, while shouting that the White House lawyers were “quitters.”
“I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation,” he blurted out, attempting to underline his own expertise in the face of lawyers insisting that their plan was entirely illegal and also batshit insane.
“What the hell are you talking about?” shot back Eric Herschmann. “Why would you say something like that?”
In contrast, Byrne describes the White House lawyers, particularly Pat Cipollone, losing their shit, while Donald Trump, the wise, old owl, “measured, gracious, and even soft-spoken,” chuckled quietly to himself, and philosophically considered each point presented. [OMFG]
The points presented by Powell and her team of weirdos revolved around a pair of executive orders that supposedly empowered the president to sanction foreign governments for interfering in our elections. As Chris Krebs, who was fired as head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for saying there was no major electoral fraud, notes, these orders have nothing to do with the president seizing the apparatus of American elections.
And yet, here was Byrne’s plan, in his own words:
In brief: there was a quick way to resolve this national crisis because he had power to act in ways he was not understanding. Under an Executive Order that he had signed in 2018, and another Executive Order that President [Barack] Obama had signed in 2015, he could “find” that there was adequate evidence of foreign interference with the election, and while doing so would give him authority to do a number of big things, all he had to do was one small thing: direct a federal force (we suggested US Marshall Service + National Guard) to go to the six counties in question (the Problematic 6), and re-count (on livestream TV) the paper ballots that were held as fail-safe back-up. It would only take a few days. Even more conclusive would be if they imaged the hard-drives and those images could be examined forensically (which would make the project last no more than a week, as we had already cracked the Antrim County machines and knew precisely what to do going forward). In either case, if there was no mischief found, then President Trump would concede the election. But if (as we suspected) evidence of hundreds of thousands of improper votes was found in each of the six counties in question, then he would have a wide variety of options. He might have those six states re-counted. Or he might have 50 states recounted on livestream TV by federal forces, and America would finally have its answer to, “How much election fraud does our nation suffer?” Or he might skip that and have the National Guard re-run the elections in those six states.
How the hell do you call for deploying the National Guard and claim you didn’t advocate for martial law? And aside from that, if it was so easily done, why didn’t the White House or campaign lawyers think of it themselves?
Well, our Pat has an answer for that:
“We think there is a much shorter route through all of this than your team is pursuing,” I closed saying, “But Sir, entrepreneur to entrepreneur, I feel I must mention something. As you may know, I have been swimming around the outside of your administration for a couple months now, and I must tell you, I do not think you are being well-served by many people in the White House. I can bring in young staffers who will tell you that some of your senior leadership don’t want you to win. They want you to concede.”
The President raised his eyebrows at my frankness. Then, like a man who knew the answer, he asked quietly, “Why?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, “but I hear people are getting signals that if they’re good boys and get you out the door, there will be jobs waiting for them. But if they don’t, they won’t be getting offers from the right law firms, they won’t be getting invitations from the right country clubs, they won’t be getting invited to the socialite parties on Manhattan…” Trump grimaced, and we moved on.
In the wake of his testimony, Byrne sat down with the Epoch Times to explain that, if only Rudy Giuliani hadn’t talked Trump out of this cool and easy plan to send in the National Guard to seize the machines by insisting that they’d all wind up in jail if they went through with it, there would have been no Capitol riot.
[…] “When we left Rudy had his time, and he convinced the president to back out of our plan. And that’s why, after that was all done, an hour later, then president went on and [sent the infamous ‘wild protest’ tweet] — see, our plan, this would all have been over in a few days, it wasn’t about J6 and there was no mention of J6 or anything about a rally,” he tut-tuts.
See, it was all Rudy’s fault. If only he’d let them implement NOT martial law and seize the voting machines, there would have been no violence. Bad Rudy!
Anyway, after Byrne leaves the SCIF, this dude can go right to a rubber room. Or he can continue to spend money destroying democracy.
18 Republicans vote against Support For Finland And Sweden Applying To NATO
List at the (Twitter) link. The absolute dregs.
ravensays
Finally some information we can use.
The university said the study found that current mRNA vaccines, which are Pfizer and Moderna, offer the “greatest duration of protection, nearly three times as long as that of natural infection and the Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.”
and
However, “to convey the same benefit, those fully vaccinated with either mRNA vaccine and no other exposure should receive a booster within a year, those fully vaccinated with Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) should receive a booster by 4.5 (months), and those fully vaccinated with ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca), should receive a booster within 5 months, the study said.
They are recommending boosters once a year for those who took the mRNA vaccines. I can live with that. I had been planning on a booster every six months anyway.
Since the virus is evolving, the next boosters will be updated for the newest RNA sequences.
Yale study: Vaccine protection against COVID-19 short-lived, booster shots important
Staff, Hartford Courant
Mon, July 18, 2022, 11:52 AM
A team of scientists led by faculty at Yale School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte have found an answer to question of how long the protection of COVID-19 vaccines lasts, according to the university.
The answer? A strong “protection following vaccination is short-lived.”
According to the university, the study is the “first to quantify the likelihood of future infection following natural infection or vaccination by the Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.”
The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The risk of breakthrough infections, in which a person becomes infected despite being vaccinated, depends on the vaccine type, the study found, according to the university.
The university said the study found that current mRNA vaccines, which are Pfizer and Moderna, offer the “greatest duration of protection, nearly three times as long as that of natural infection and the Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.”
“The mRNA vaccines produce the highest levels of antibody response and in our analysis confer more durable protection than other vaccines or exposures,” Jeffrey Townsend, the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health and the study’s lead author said, in a university statement.
“However, it is important to remember that natural immunity and vaccination are not mutually exclusive,” Townsend said. “Many people will have partial immunity from multiple sources, so understanding the relative durability is key to deciding when to provide a boost to your immune system.”
The researchers also found that “dependable protection against reinfection requires up-to-date boosting with vaccines that are adapted to address changes in the virus that occur as part of its natural evolution over time,” the university statement said.
The study further said that the findings “provide guidance on the timing of vaccination following natural infection” to minimize risk of reinfection and on “provision of booster doses to individuals who have been vaccinated with mRNA or viral vector vaccines to prevent breakthrough infections.”
To allow no more than a “5% probability of future infection as a consequence of waning immunity, vaccination of those whose only exposure was a natural infection should occur within” 5 months, the study said.
However, “to convey the same benefit, those fully vaccinated with either mRNA vaccine and no other exposure should receive a booster within a year, those fully vaccinated with Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) should receive a booster by 4.5 (months), and those fully vaccinated with ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca), should receive a booster within 5 months, the study said.
Alex Dornburg, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who led the study with Townsend, said, also in the statement, “We tend to forget that we are in an arms race with this virus, and that it will evolve ways to evade both our natural and any vaccine-derived immune response.
“As we have seen with the Omicron variant, vaccines against early virus strains become less effective at combating new strains of the virus,” he said.
The researchers took advantage of “striking similarities of reinfection probabilities between endemic coronaviruses (which cause “common colds”) and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” according to the university.
“SARS-CoV-2 mirrors other endemic coronaviruses that also evolve and reinfect us despite natural immunity to earlier strains,” Townsend said. “Continual updating of our vaccinations and booster shots is critical to our fight against SARS-CoV-2.”
The study notes: “These first estimates of the durability of immunity following vaccination provide essential knowledge to policy decision-making that can curb transmission long term, mitigating morbidity and mortality consequent to SARS-CoV-2 infection”
Funding for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation, according to the university.
StevoRsays
Further on today’s release of the true, scarily woeful state of our environment :
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
The European Union is set to add Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank and the head of giant zinc and copper firm UMMC to its black list of individuals and companies accused of supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. A new list of 48 officials and nine entities to be blacklisted, prepared by the EU foreign affairs service, also includes leaders of the Night Wolves motorcycle club, actors, politicians, the deputy head of a Russian security service, family members of sanctioned oligarchs and military people.
Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will discuss the export of Ukrainian grain at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday.
Russian forces shelled a town in eastern Ukraine, killing six people, according to Ukrainian officials. “Early in the morning, the town of Toretsk was shelled. A two-storey building with people inside was destroyed,” Ukraine’s state emergency services said. “Rescuers found and recovered the bodies of five dead people in total. Three people were rescued from the rubble and one of them died in hospital.”
Russia has struggled to sustain effective offensive combat power and the problem is likely becoming increasingly acute, according to British military intelligence. It says “As well as dealing with severe under-manning, Russian planners face a dilemma between deploying reserves to the Donbas or defending against Ukrainian counterattacks in the south-western Kherson sector.”
There are currently unverified reports that there are explosions in occupied Kherson. Video clips being circulated on social media appear to suggest that the targets may have been the Kherson International Airport at Chornobaivka and one of the bridges that cross the Dnipro river.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appointed a new security official as acting head of the domestic security agency after two top officials were fired over claims of failure to counter Russian infiltration. Zelenskiy’s childhood friend, Ivan Bakanov, will be replaced by Vasyl Maliuk, a former first deputy head of the SBU who led the anti-corruption and organised crime unit of the agency’s central directorate.
…
North Korea could send workers to two Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s ambassador in Pyongyang. His comments come days after North Korea became one of only a few countries to recognise the two territories, accusing the Ukrainian government of being part of Washington’s “hostile” stance towards Pyongyang.
Several towns and cities in France have recorded their highest-ever temperatures as nearly 2,000 firefighters continued to battle huge blazes in the south-west and a searing heatwave gripping much of western Europe moved north and east.
Nantes, near the Atlantic coast, recorded 42C on Monday, beating a previous high of 40.3C set in 1949, while Brest, in Brittany, hit 39.9C, more than four degrees higher than its 2002 record of 35.1C.
Night-time temperature records were also set, including at La Hague in Normandy where 32.8C was recorded at 3am on Tuesday. Officials said France’s entire west coast, from Landes in the south to Finistère in the north, was affected.
Records were expected to be smashed again on Tuesday, meteorologists said, as the mass of hot air, the second to engulf large parts of the continent in recent weeks, moved north and east into eastern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Britain was also set to record its highest ever temperature.
The Dutch KNMI weather service said temperatures could top 38C on Tuesday, issuing a code orange extreme weather warning of risk to life in the centre and south of the country, while officials in Belgium warned of 40C-plus temperatures.
As the European Commission announced that drought warnings were in place in 46% of the bloc’s territory, with 11% at alert level, wildfires in France, Spain and Portugal continued to ravage bone-dry forest and heathland.
The worst of the fires were in south-west France in the Gironde department near Bordeaux, where firefighters were struggling to contain two week-old blazes at La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras and a third, at Vensac, that broke out on Monday night.
Officials said on Tuesday the night had been “extremely difficult”, with a changeable, gusting wind hampering firefighting efforts. A total of 19,000 hectares of mainly pine forest have been burned and 37,000 people have been evacuated from the region.
…
Spanish authorities have reported about 20 wildfires still raging from the south to Galicia in the far north-west, where blazes have destroyed about 4,500 hectares of land, while in Portugal, 1,000 firefighters were battling 10 wildfires in the north.
…
In the UK, temperatures nudged 38C in southern England on Monday and are forecast to hit a record-breaking 40C (104 F) on Tuesday, according to the Met Office. Train companies cancelled services and some schools closed.
Forecasters in the UK have for days said the national record of 38.7C, registered in 2019, would be broken on Tuesday. The night of Monday to Tuesday was the country’s warmest ever, with temperatures remaining above 25C in most places.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK-politics liveblog. From there:
Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, is now all but certain to be one of the two candidates on the final ballot for Conservative party members. He is now on 115 votes and once a candidate gets 120 (just over a third of the total), it is mathematically impossible for two other candidates to get more votes. Sunak is also particularly well placed to pick up many of the 31 Tom Tugendhat votes now up for grab; Sunak, like Tugendhat, presents as a mainstream pragmatist, not an ideological rightwinger.
Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt are now the two strongest candidates in the contest to be the second person on the final ballot. One recent survey suggested both would beat Sunak in the final poll, but Truss more comfortably than Mordaunt. Almost certainly, Sunak’s chances would be better against Mordaunt; her lack of experience means the risk of her campaign imploding under scrutiny remains high (over the last week her popularity has already fallen significantly), and Truss, unlike Mordaunt, would be guaranteed the support of the Tory right en masse.
Kemi Badenoch looks likely to be eliminated this afternoon. It is not inevitable – she has defied expectations already – but she remains 13 votes behind Truss, and may struggle to get much of the Tugendhat vote. If she does fall out, her votes will be for grabs tomorrow – and would decide whether Sunak faces Truss or Mordaunt, which could in turn determine who gets elected as the next PM….
SC@106, I’m Ok — well, melting, perhaps, but Ok. It’s not that hot locally, mid-30℃’s (guessing), but there’s no breeze, so it feels much hotter. As far as I am aware, there are no fires locally (if there were, I’d probably be hearing / seeing the Canadair water bombers scooping water up from the bay). There haven’t been any Canadair practice runs either, suggesting the local-ish based squadron is elsewhere (presumably fire-fighting).
I’m still currently sans mobile, but in perhaps two hours time that should be fixed — the replacement battery (see previous thread) has arrived and is awaiting my collection!
And I’m learning how to use the food processor to make smoothies and similar fruit-based cool / cold (low-to-no-alcohol) drinks. Still having trouble getting the viciousness, I mean viscosity, right, this morning’s banana-avocado had the consistency of guacamole at first… hum, it should be cooled down by now… (a few moments later) not bad, could perhaps use a touch more vanilla, and the viscosity has changed back towards guacamole.
Lunch was a rather haphazard attempt at that great British Indian dish, Chicken tikka masala. The chicken was very non-cooperative, and kept refusing to jump into the wok. Made rather a mess, but tasted Ok (unsurprisingly, the restaurant version is better; they probably know how to convince the chicken to nest in the wok).
Daria Kasatkina, Russia’s highest-ranked female tennis player, has come out as gay in a video interview posted online on Monday.
The current world No 12 told Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko that she is in a relationship with a woman and found “living in the closet” impossible. Kasatkina, who is not currently based in Russia, also posted pictures on Instagram with her girlfriend, the figure skater Natalia Zabiiako.
The 25-year-old also spoke out against attitudes towards homosexuality and restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights in Russia. “So many subjects are taboo in Russia,” Kasatkina said. “This notion of someone wanting to be gay or becoming [gay] is ridiculous. I think there is nothing easier in this world than being straight.”
“Seriously, if there is a choice, no one would choose being gay. Why make your life harder, especially in Russia? What’s the point?” she added. Russia’s existing “gay propaganda” law, passed in 2013, has been used to stop gay pride marches and detain gay rights activists.
There is currently an effort by Russian lawmakers to broaden this law with a complete ban on “promotion” of LGBTQ+ relationships in a positive or neutral light, to adults as well as minors, and on showing LBGTQ+ content in cinemas.
In her interview, which was filmed in Barcelona, Kasatkina expressed fears that she would “never” be able to hold her girlfriend’s hand in Russia. “Living in the closet is impossible. It is too hard, it is pointless,” she added. “Living in peace with yourself is the only thing that matters, and fuck everyone else.”
Kasatkina added she was inspired to come out after the Russian footballer Nadya Karpova revealed she was gay last month….
…
Kasatkina’s Instagram pictures with Zabiiako, who was born in Estonia but now competes for Canada in figure skating, drew a positive response. “I’m so PROUD! @kasatkina you go giiiiirl!!!” wrote Karpova in response, while US tennis player Amanda Anisimova also posted her support.
In the interview, Kasatkina also called for an end to fighting in Ukraine. “For the war to end,” she said when asked what she wants most in life, describing the conflict as a “complete nightmare.” Kasatkina is then shown crying in the video, when asked if she fears she may not be able to return to Russia after the interview.
World 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had to fix her wig halfway through her women’s 200m heat as she suffered a surprise defeat to Niger’s Aminatou Seyni.
The incident occurred as the Jamaican flew around the bend and felt her electric turquoise wig slipping – forcing her to reach her right arm upwards and take a second or so to adjust it. However she still finished in 22.26sec as she qualified easily for Tuesday’s semi-final.
Afterwards Fraser-Pryce explained that it was one of 10 wigs she has packed in a bag to Eugene. “I had my hair done, coloured from home, and I packed them,” she said. “I had different hair stylists here install them for me. This one I actually did myself.”…
I haven’t played a video game since like…Pong, but I thought this one in development a few months ago called Stray sounded fascinating. It’s now been released. Here’s one of many positive reviews, from something called Eurogamer: “Stray review – fantastic cat exploration through a dystopian cybercity.”
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss pulled out of a planned TV debate, leading to it being cancelled, after senior Tories took the view that the ITV debate on Sunday night was a PR disaster for the party.
Quite how right they were is shown by this Labour party video, which is little more than a round-up of edited highlights from the debate.
Badenoch is eliminated. Most of her votes seem likely to go to Truss in the final Tory MPs’ ballot tomorrow, which would mean party members get to choose between Sunak and Truss. A YouGov poll indicates Truss would win easily – as would either of the others against Sunak, while Badenoch (who is more of a swivel-eyed loon even than Truss) would probably have beaten any of the others. Rumour has it that Labour are hoping for Truss to win.
J6 committee chair Bennie Thompson has tested positive for COVID and has “mild symptoms.” The spokesperson for the committee has told reporters that Thursday’s night’s hearing will still go on.
More genocidal rhetoric on Russian state TV: hosts and pundits repeatedly assert that Ukraine no longer exists, Ukrainians who refuse to see themselves as Russians and fight back against the invasion are described as Nazis and compared to insects (bugs, worms). Here’s an example: [subtitled clip at the (Twitter) link]
The US Department of Justice is seeking broader authority from Congress to seize Russian oligarchs’ assets as a means to pressure Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, a top prosecutor said on Tuesday.
In testimony to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Andrew Adams, who leads the department’s KleptoCapture task force, said Congress should let prosecutors seek forfeitures of assets used to evade US sanctions, not just proceeds of sanctions evasions.
Adams also said statutes of limitations for some financial crimes, such as money laundering, should be doubled to 10 years to give prosecutors “time to follow the money”, Reuters reported.
Adams’ testimony comes as Congress considers legislation to allow proceeds from seized assets to help the people of Ukraine.
SC @161, I depend on cooler nighttime temperatures to get relief from the hot weather. Then I read in text you quoted:
Night-time temperature records were also set, including at La Hague in Normandy where 32.8C was recorded at 3am on Tuesday. Officials said France’s entire west coast, from Landes in the south to Finistère in the north, was affected.
That’s just over 91 degrees Fahrenheit. At 3:00am, which should be the coolest part of the night. Boggles the mind. Horrible.
blfsays
SC@166, Thank you.
I just got back from collecting my replacement mobile battery — now installed and working fine (let’s hear it for user-reparable equipment!) — and a bit of shopping (e.g., more fresh fruit for my smoothie experiments, some raspberries, oranges, and limes). I was wrong-ish about the temperature; today it is in the low-30℃’s (but certainly feels hotter), tomorrow is forecast to be the mid-30℃’s, and Thursday is when the roads start melting, forecast high-30℃’s (but less than 40℃). My mobile is full of Yellow Warnings for Extreme Heat, and apparently the local(?) authorities have activated their relevant plans (which I think includes cooling-off centres, especially for the most vulnerable).
With my mobile back working, it’s much easier to check on the Covid situation here in France (both nationally and locally). The track-and-trace app is reporting the R value, which had zoomed up rather high a few weeks ago but was showing signs of leveling-off and possibly declining when my battery decided it was time to start turning into a small explosive device, has since declined significantly. It’s still above 1, but not by so much. Yea!
Tom Cotton is convinced that the Biden administration has “let Iran rush forward with a nuclear weapon.” That’s demonstrably ridiculous.
It was about a week ago when President Joe Biden sat down with an Israeli news outlet and took aim at one of his predecessor’s most important failures: Donald Trump, the Democrat said, made a “gigantic mistake“ withdrawing the United States from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, which pushed our adversary closer to acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas offered a very different perspective on Fox News over the weekend.
“[Biden] and other Democrats like him always blame America first, and they side with so many of the resistance nations in the world they think are standing up to American power. That is why Barack Obama and Joe Biden have conciliating with Iran for the last 15 years even as under both Barack Obama’s watch and now Joe Biden’s watch, they’ve let Iran rush forward with a nuclear weapon,” Cotton added.
First, the whole “blame America first” line is a stale and tiresome slander, which Cotton happens to be getting backwards.
Second, given the open letter to Iran that the GOP senator helped organize seven years ago, in which he appeared eager to sabotage his own country’s foreign policy, this is a topic the Arkansan should probably try to avoid.
But even putting these relevant details aside, it’s striking to see the ambitious Republican make the case that the incumbent American president has “let Iran rush forward with a nuclear weapon” — a claim that turns reality on its head.
[…] I’ve been banging my head against this wall for a long while, but as Iran appears to accumulate enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb, it’s important to appreciate the extent to which we’re dealing with the consequences of Trump’s “gigantic mistake.”
It was Joe Cirincione, whose expertise in international nuclear diplomacy has few rivals, who wrote a piece for NBC News last year explaining that the international community has been tasked with trying to “undo the damage Donald Trump caused when he left an agreement that had effectively shrunk Iran’s [nuclear] program, froze it for a generation and put it under lock and camera.”
[…] the Iran deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (or JCPOA) — did exactly what it set out to do: The agreement dramatically curtailed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and established a rigorous system of monitoring and verification. Once the policy took effect, each of the parties agreed that the participants were holding up their end of the bargain, and Iran’s nuclear program was, at the time, on indefinite hold.
And then Trump took office and got to work abandoning the policy for reasons he was never able to explain.
One of my favorite stories about the Iran deal came a few months into Trump’s term in the White House, when the then-president held a lengthy meeting with top members of his team: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford. Each of the officials told Trump the same thing: it was in the United States’ interest to preserve the existing JCPOA policy.
[Trump] expected his team to tell him how to get out of the international agreement, not how to stick with it. When his own foreign policy and national security advisers told him the policy was working, Trump “had a bit of a meltdown.”
Soon after, he abandoned the JCPOA anyway, not because it was failing, but because Trump was indifferent to its success.
As a result, the West lost verification access to Tehran’s program, and Iran almost immediately became more dangerous by starting up advanced centrifuges and ending its commitment to limit enrichment of uranium.
What’s more, Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May that after Trump’s decision, Iranian attacks on U.S. personnel in the region got worse, Iranian support for regional proxies got worse, and the pace of the Iranians’ nuclear research program got “much worse.”
Soon after, the International Atomic Energy Agency told the world that Iran’s nuclear program — the one that was “frozen for a generation” and “put under lock and camera” as part of the Obama/Biden administration’s breakthrough success — has reached a new, dangerous level.
The Biden administration has tried to undo Trump’s mistake and strike a new international agreement, though those talks have faltered in recent months, and a breakthrough now appears unlikely.
For Cotton to look at these circumstances and conclude that Biden has “let Iran rush forward with a nuclear weapon” is demonstrably ridiculous.
I’m not going to forget. Doug Mastriano can remove videos in which he said really ridiculous stuff about climate change. I will remember he said that stuff.
[…] Doug Mastriano told his supporters he wanted to pull the state out of a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, calling it “nonsense” that human activity could significantly alter the earth’s climate.
A connection between burning fossil fuels and global warming? Merely a “theory,” Mastriano said, based on “pop science.”
“Heck, the weatherman can’t get the weather right 24 hours out,” he said.
Dagestan’s “deserters”: Early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 300 soldiers defied orders, laying down their weapons and returning to base in Dagestan, two human rights activists told The Moscow Times. The men could now face felony charges for absence without official leave for abandoning their positions in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. The soldiers say they weren’t equipped with proper uniforms and weapons, resulting in some men suffering frostbite in the early spring. Back in Buynaksk, locals reportedly criticized the returning soldiers for desertion. Some of the men have since left the military while others “under pressure from relatives and the local authorities” returned to Ukraine.
One of the notable things happening in the background of Dobbs decision shockwave is the furious effort of abortion rights opponents to play down the impact of the decision (odd when you’ve worked so long and hard) and explain why any efforts to reverse or overrule the decision are hopeless, insane, unconstitutional or just generally not worth thinking about.
From the moment Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973, the best argument against it has been that the whole question of abortion is best left to the democratic process. That may not be the right argument or one you agree with. But in a democratic society its one that comes with a strong presumption in its favor.
So if the Court has thrown out Roe, fine, let’s pass a federal law. That should be doable since a large majority of Americans (almost always 60% or more) support the Roe status quo. But now we’re told that doing so is not at all acceptable and really not even necessary. There is a concerted effort to play down the impact of abortion restrictions. If you care so much about abortion, you’re probably from a free state, the argument goes. If not, move to one. In a pinch you can always travel. But the most notable and likely most important argument that passing a Roe law is simply that it’s not possible. All those anti-judicial activism commentators who said for decades that this is the province of legislatures not courts? Well, that’s no longer operative.
It’s no secret that a renegade Court that overturned Roe is likely to manufacture a new set of originalist principles that says any Roe law is unconstitutional — more corrupt fruit of the corrupt tree. But it’s interesting to see this all laid out in so many words. This morning I was looking at the morning RCP newsletter and noticed this article by Frank Miele on this topic. Miele explains that the constitution is very clear on allowing the federal government to do just a few things — make treaties, mint currency, raise armies and a few others; and that’s it.
And yet somehow now the Congress of the United States has the power to establish a massive bureaucracy to sell and regulate health insurance, control pollution, intimidate business, spend billions of dollars on something called COVID relief, send billions more dollars to Ukraine and other nations around the world, and of course if Democrats have their way, assume total and complete control over how elections are run. These are just a few examples of an out-of-control Congress that hasn’t obeyed the limitations of the Constitution for well over a hundred years, probably more.
And there we have it.
Cranks, gold bugs, hyper-libertarians and various other misfits have been around forever. A few years ago we could have set this aside as just obscure ranting. But the reality is that someone like this does speak for at least four members of the current Court and on many fronts as many as six. So we’re not allowed to legislate about abortion now. And well, it turns out the entire 20th century state is on the chopping block too.
Hopes by the Jan. 6 committee that the Secret Service would turn over text messages the agency deleted from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 were dashed on Tuesday [today].
The Washington Post was first to report that a senior official familiar with the matter said the Secret Service has “no new texts to provide” related to the Jan. 6 probe and that any other messages shared between its agents during the same period were also “purged.”
The National Archives confirmed to Daily Kos that it sent a letter to Damian Kokinda, the records officer for the Department of Homeland Security, ordering the Secret Service to look into the matter and determine if the messages were improperly deleted. The Secret Service must file a report within 30 days that itemizes what led up to the deletion, notates precisely what records were affected, and offers a plan for how the agency intends to “safeguard” its data in the future.
Jan. 6 investigators and Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Zoe Lofgren said this past weekend they expected to receive the recovered texts by Tuesday. Lofgren and Kinzinger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the source who was interviewed by the Post:
“The agency, which made this determination after reviewing its communication databases over the past four days, will provide thousands of records, but nearly all of them have been shared previously with an agency watchdog and congressional committees, the senior official said. None is expected to shed new light on the key matters the committee is probing, including whether Trump attacked a Secret Service agent, an account a senior White House aide described to the Jan. 6 committee.
The committee issued a subpoena for the messages last week after Department of Homeland Security i”Inspector General Joseph Cuffari informed them the records were missing. They were deleted as part of an agency-wide overhaul of staff phones that were being migrated to new devices. […]
The radical-right takeover of Idaho’s Republican Party was completed last weekend at the GOP’s annual state convention in a clean sweep: Every incumbent member of the party’s leadership was defeated and replaced by far-right activists. In particular, party chair Tom Luna was ousted by “Patriot”-friendly legislator Dorothy Moon of Stanley, who has a long and deep record of extremism.
Moon marked the occasion by indulging in the threatening rhetoric that’s become endemic to American far-right politics. “We have to make sure with the Democrats coming at us with full force that we have our barriers up, our guns loaded and ready to keep this state free,” Moon crowed after she won the seat. [Oh FFS]
Idaho is far from alone in experiencing this kind of takeover. It’s happening to state and local GOP parties across the nation, reflected by the 100-plus far-right candidates currently running for office as Republicans, and in the polls that show not just an embrace of extremist ideologies and conspiracism but of the fondness for violence and intimidation that always accompanies them. A similar takeover has already occurred in Oregon.
But Moon’s elevation to party chair by a wide 434-287 margin at the convention in Twin Falls on Saturday offers a window into how radicalized the Republican Party has become in Idaho—which is to say, it’s become indistinguishable from previous […] the John Birch Society.
Indeed, Moon’s husband Darr serves on the John Birch Society’s national board. But that is hardly her only connection to the radical right.
[…] the state has the third-highest percentage of extremist legislators (22.86%) in the nation.
The IREHR study found that Moon belonged to six far-right Facebook groups, including COVID denialist groups like Restore Liberty in Idaho, as well as militia/Patriot groups like U.S. Militia Northern Command and Idaho Freedom Alliance. […]
In addition to her hyper-conservative voting record, Moon is known for her embrace of extremist figures like Ammon Bundy […]
Moon hosted extremist Arizona legislator Wendy Rogers at a rally that focused primarily on promoting Donald Trump’s election “Big Lie.”
[…] “The primaries are over, and my heart is strong,” Moon told the crowd after her victory. “And I’m committed to seeing Republicans up and down the ticket get elected in November.”
Unsurprisingly, the GOP platform that emerged from the convention was extreme, […] “We affirm that abortion is murder from the moment of fertilization,” the platform reads. “All children should be protected regardless of the circumstances of conception, including persons conceived in rape and incest.” The platform supports criminalizing abortion and strengthening Idaho’s constitution to protect “preborn children.”
[…] Some Republicans have begun fighting back against the extremist tide in Idaho. Their organization Take Back Idaho issued a statement voicing their dismay with Moon’s ascension in the Idaho GOP.
“Dorothy Moon’s election to Idaho GOP leadership is absolutely disturbing. Moon’s dangerous gallery of associations— including militant Ammon Bundy, militia leader Eric Parker, convicted rapist Aaron von Ehlinger, and white nationalists like Wendy Rogers — should be disqualifying for state party leadership,” the statement said. “But, fresh from their rightful rejection by Idaho voters just eight weeks ago [Moon lost a primary race], Moon and her powerful cronies are doing what they do best: changing the rules, courting extremists, and demanding allegiance to their dark vision for Idaho. With Dorothy Moon’s election to leadership, the Idaho Republican Party has firmly lost all touch with the average Idahoan.”
[…] the politics of intimidation showed up at the convention as well to silence any dissenters. A small group of protesters showed up outside the convention hall on the College of Southern Idaho campus, and reported being threatened and harassed—by, among others, Eric Parker.
Twin Falls resident Bailey Blake, who participated in the protest, reported that Parker—who is nationally notorious as the man photographed aiming a sniper rifle at federal agents at the Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014—particularly targeted an elderly veteran. Video also showed him physically shoving the man with his torso. When a group of women tried to intervene, he reportedly shoved their signs, hitting the women in their faces: [snipped details of the encounter, which included Eric Parker hitting one woman in the face with his phone, breaking her glasses.]
After the convention, Moon issued a statement seemingly at odds with her bloodthirsty war cry to the audience. “I promised my fellow Republicans that I will lead our party with civility and conviction,” it read. [LOL, LOL, what bullshit]
A Republican commenter on Facebook, however, refused to forget the earlier—and overriding—message of the convention. “Screw ‘Civility.’ We are at a War to the Death with Leftist/Communist Democrats. Get tough.”
birgerjohanssonsays
“Skepricrat #178 Tory book ending edition”
Skeptics Noah Lugeons, Heath Enwright, Eli Bosnick and British visitor Mike Marshall. https://youtu.be/7kT7AOawu94
“Eli won’t let Marsh leave until he understands how prime ministers are chosen … so he is pretty much a resident now”.
johnson catmansays
re SC @167: I have been looking forward to Stray for months. I purchased it early and was able to download it today. I have played it for a couple of hours so far, and I love it! Highly recommended. Lots of exploration and some pretty easy puzzles so far. Much different from the shooters that I am used to playing. (I play shooters because they are usually the best games for story and exploration.)
More than a dozen House Democrats were arrested outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday during a demonstration that involved blocking the street to protest the high court’s June decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Capitol Police said they made 35 arrests, including 17 lawmakers.
[…] Among those arrested were Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Carolyn Maloney of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Cori Bush of Missouri, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Jackie Speier and Barbara Lee of California and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. The lawmakers said they were engaging in an act of civil disobedience.
Ocasio-Cortez and Omar tweeted videos of their arrests. “Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court. I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights!” Omar wrote.
Pressley spokesperson Ricardo A. Sánchez said the congresswoman had “joined her colleagues and grassroots advocates for a non-violent civil disobedience to protest the Supreme Court’s cruel and callous decision.” […]
Maloney said, “I have the privilege of representing a state where reproductive rights are respected and protected — the least I can do is put my body on the line for the 33 million women at risk of losing their rights.” […]
The U.S. average retail gasoline price fell to $4.495 a gallon on Tuesday, slipping below $4.50 for the first time in nine weeks, data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) showed.
Sometimes there is an article built on such an Everest-like mountain of bullshit that it requires a specific, emergency takedown and rebuttal just to set everything right in the world. And thus here I am at your service. This morning Politico published this article: “Democrats boosted a MAGA longshot in the Pa. gov’s race. Now he’s got a real shot at winning.” It follows a storyline Republicans and even some Democrats are increasingly pushing on reporters nationwide: cynical Democrats who claim democracy is in danger are helping far right Trumpers win primaries and now a lot of those far right crazies are going to win. All thanks to Democrats! Here’s one GOP operative who jumped on the article shortly after it was published. [Tweet available at the link]
Republicans, providing due diligence for Democratic donors!
The storyline amounts to a duet between Republican blame-shifters on the one hand and Democratic doom-scrollers on the other. Democrats are going to get hit and hit bad. Democracy is going to end on their watch and wouldn’t you know it: they brought it all on themselves! Democrats are simultaneously feckless incompetents winning their own campaigns and ingenious villains orchestrating the results of Republican primaries.
That’s not how any of this works.
Politico has been pushing this line for months. After Mastriano won the nomination in mid-May Politico’s Holly Otterbein — the author of today’s piece — said matter of factly that “Democrats helped engineer Mastriano’s win.” “Shapiro and the state Democratic Party sent out mailers boosting him … helping him rise above other GOP candidates … For a party that claims to care about the fragile state of democracy, this is a risky strategy.”
A simple look at the race itself tells you — actually screams at you — that none of this is true. Politico refers to Mastriano as a “longshot candidate” who later “pulled out a win”, presumably with all the help from Democrat Josh Shapiro pulling him over the line. But look at the results of the primary. Mastriano won 44% of the vote in a nine person primary. The closest runner-up — himself a hardcore Trumper named Lou Barletta — was fully 24 points behind! That is an overwhelming win. When a candidate gets almost 50% of the vote in a crowded, contested field that means only one thing: he was absolutely the choice of that party’s voters. And there’s nothing the opposition party could do to affect that outcome either way. To read Otterbein’s account you’d think Mastriano was a nobody who Shapiro managed to pull across the finish line rather than a runaway favorite who positively crushed all his opponents. Needless to say this reportage has been picked up by rightwing outlets happy to pronounce that Democrats whining about democracy in danger is all so much rubbish. And Republicans can wash their hands of being part of a party organized around supporting the Big Lie. [Right. Republicans are organized around support of the Big Lie, and Mastriano won the votes of the Republican base by repeating the Big Lie.]
Okay, so maybe Mastriano was the overwhelming favorite of Pennsylvania Republicans. But even if that’s true, why were Democrats spending money to get him the nomination? Isn’t that reckless? Hypocritical? Bad?
Let’s start by noting that every campaign since forever wants the candidate who they think they’re most likely to beat. Sometimes they do little things on the margins to help those apparently weak candidates out. In some extreme cases they actually spend money to help them, even going as far as setting up bogus groups or campaigns to boost them. The point of campaigns is to win. So saying that it is outrageous for Democrats to do that when the stakes are highest is no more than another example of holding Democrats to standards to which no one else is held. Democrats must not only win every time. They must also win by a good government manual of purity. They must not only win every election because democracy is on the line. They must also work to make sure that if they do lose it’s to the most presentable MAGA-backed candidate who would be just as likely to decertify election results in a hypothetical 2024 race.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you there’s one liberal columnist in Pennsylvania who is making a version of these arguments. That’s Will Bunch, columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. If you’re expecting me to say he’s a hack you’ll be very disappointed. He’s one of the very best. He’s just wrong in this case. One of the points Will makes is a standard one: didn’t the Democrats learn with Trump. The crazy you think you can beat might win. A lot of Democrats did think that about Trump. They were wrong. But they’re not what got Trump nominated.
And the same is true for Doug Mastriano. The claim that the campaign of Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro was spending money to get Mastriano the nomination is based on thin evidence at best. Late in the primary campaign Shapiro spent almost a million dollars on ads and mailers which essentially took it for granted that Mastriano would be his general election opponent. Today’s Politico articles frames the ads this way. “Mastriano was initially seen as such a long shot that Shapiro ran a commercial during the primary that appeared to boost him.” But wait a second. Polls have put Mastriano in at least a tie for that lead back into last fall. . He’s been surging since the beginning of 2022. The ad most frequently pointed to as the Shapiro ad that turned the race for Mastriano came out in the first week of May — about ten days before the primary. He wasn’t some long shot candidate Shapiro propped up. Virtually every poll showed him with a big lead. [Correct!]
Shapiro’s campaign says they were running the ads because it was clear Mastriano was going to win the race. As a factual matter, it’s pretty obvious that that was clear. Mastriano was a runaway favorite since March this year at the latest, two months before the primary. The claim that Shapiro’s ads engineered Mastriano’s victory is based on the idea that it is wrong for Democrats to run ads against Republicans in which they are attacked as dangerous extremists with far right views shared by only a small minority of Pennsylvanians because this is music to the ears of Republican primary voters and they will definitely vote for that person. Again, that asks too much.
Early in the invasion of Ukraine, those interested in following the war discovered that they had some friends in high places—places anywhere from 200 to 800 miles above the ground. Not only has intelligence been available in terms of satellite imagery (some of it from free sources), but NASA’s FIRMS Fire Map has become a staple in tracking what’s happening on the front lines and behind the front lines. However, at this point, the value of FIRMS has plummeted and the possibility of misreading this data has reached an all-time high.
The FIRMS Fire Map, which is created from two types of instruments spread across multiple satellites, is intended for tracking exactly what the name implies: fires. Technically, it spots “thermal anomalies” or “hot spots.” The hot spots located by FIRMS infrared tools are points that stand out, temperature-wise, from the background, and have been literal life savers when it comes to tracking wildfires in both the U.S. and around the world. That the FIRMS data also turned out to be aces at picking up flashes from artillery and the explosions of missiles was a happy accident—“happy” only in the sense that it provided much-needed support for people engaged in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), not for anything actually happening on the ground.
But at this moment, using FIRMS data as an indicator of anything happening in Ukraine takes a good deal more scrutiny and expertise than it did a month ago. Here’s why.
First, take a look at this map of the area in eastern Ukraine. [map at the link]
At first glance this aligns pretty well with what we know is happening when it comes to conflict. Russian forces are trying to get to Bakhmut, near the center of this image, so it makes sense they would be bombarding Ukrainian forces in the area. Ukrainian forces are surely trying to take out Russian artillery. So they’re probably shooting up the backfield. Except … that cluster of shots over near Alchevesk is a good 40km into Russian-held territory. The spots south of Krasnyi Luch are even farther in the red zone. So … High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) seeking out artillery stockpiles?
Before you answer, take a look at this war-torn battlefield. [map at the link]
This looks pretty bad. However, a quick glance at some of the names on this map will show that this is actually on the Romania/Bulgaria border. It’s an area where, so far as anyone knows, Russian artillery is not engaged in shelling towns and not a single HIMARS is firing missiles. Why is the map so spotted with hot spots? Because … hot spots.
First of all, it’s summer. FIRMS is not immune to being thrown off by a reflective surface or toasty bit of asphalt (though the system keeps a list of known/fixed hot spots and filters them out, so sure false spots are transient). Second, it’s dry. So there are actual fires. Some of those hot spots are FIRMS doing its duty and reporting places where trees are ablaze. […]
Most of that winter wheat that was greening up Ukraine back in April was harvested in May or June. Farmers like to burn off those fields in the summer to kill off weeds, prevent the spread of diseases, and drive out pests. Burning also helps put some of the nutrients from last year’s crop back into the soil for the next year. In any case, fields in many areas are burned in the summer in preparation for planting in the fall. Take a close-up look at these hot spots, whether in Romania or Ukraine, and the great majority are out in a patchwork of farm fields. And yes, Ukrainian farmers are still farming right through all this mess. Those guys who were towing tanks with their tractors are not going to get intimidated now.
This doesn’t mean that FIRMS is useless. However, it does mean that a casual glance at the FIRMS Fire map is a dangerous way to spot military activity at this time.
[…] A careful filtering of the data can help to exclude actual forest fires, burning fields, and trash fires that are springing up around the battlefield area. […]
Some of those OSINT folks have become very good at picking out the war signal from the fire background. They’ll scan hundreds of hotspots, removing many of them based on data, and sometimes reviewing satellite imagery to remove or confirm still more candidates. The final set of data they produce is still extremely valuable for outside observers trying to sense the ebb and flow of the invasion.
[…] Fun fact: If you scan around on the FIRMS map, you can usually find a few hot spots indicated in the middle of the South Atlantic. These don’t represent warships ablaze or undersea volcanoes erupting. They’re due to the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly allowing the satellites to get a blast of radiation from space. [Interesting. I did not know that.]
THE NOT-SO-MIGHTY RUSSIAN BLACK SEA FLEET GOES INTO HIDING
For a nation that had to steal a couple of ice-free ports, Russia has always been inordinately proud of its naval prowess. However, as the current home of the fleet’s flagship, Moskva, indicates, the actual quality of that navy, and its equipment, seems to be completely on par with the rest of the corruption-plagued, poorly maintained, and entirely overestimated Russian military.
The Moskva was reportedly sunk by a pair of Ukrainian-made R-360 Neptune missiles with a range up to 280 km. Since that sinking, Ukraine has also gained a number of Harpoon missile systems. The Harpoons have about half the range, somewhere under 150km, but are much better able to evade defensive systems … not that the Russian flagship seemed to put up much resistance on that basis.
[…] Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Gavrylov has made it clear that one of Ukraine’s goals in this war is sinking the Black Sea Fleet. Gavrylov indicated that Ukraine has some even longer-range weapons on the way that would allow it to clear the ships that are blocking Ukrainian ports and holding back shipments of Ukrainian grain.
Which makes this bit of intelligence very interesting. [map at the link]
Not only was the port in Sevastopol under threat from anti-ship missiles, indications that Ukraine is about to receive longer range missiles for use with the HIMARS system mean that the Russian Navy’s biggest warm-water port is under threat from a number of points along the coast. That threat only increases should Ukraine retake the area around Kherson. So getting those ships the hell outta Dodge makes a lot of sense.
That smaller facility over at Novorossiysk might also need to prepare for some additional residents. The recent missile attack on Vinnytsia, which killed at least 23 people including three children, was reportedly launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea. The Black Sea Fleet includes six submarines, all of the 636 ‘Varshavyanka’ class. Compared to the things moving around on land, these are relatively new systems, with the earliest dating back to 1997. However, they are diesel-electric subs, not nuclear subs, and at 20+ years old, they need considerable time and maintenance on the surface between each 45 day cruise.
The submarine that fired those missiles into Vinnytsia is going to be sitting on the surface at a dock soon. Ukraine is really hoping that dock is at Sevastopol. […]
IS UKRAINE’S SILENCE IN KHERSON HIDING A SIGNIFICANT ADVANCE?
For a solid month now, Ukraine has been insisting that a counteroffensive is underway in the area around Kherson. It’s also insisted that strict operational silence is in place, and the daily briefings from the Ukrainian military have rarely shed any light on developments.
We’ve seen some flashpoints of that offensive: the crossing of the Inhulets River south of Davydiv Brid and occupation of several villages; the push along the southern section of the line that has brought Ukrainian forces close enough to shell Russian control centers and equipment just outside the city; and continuous fighting around a number of towns where Russian forces have constructed hardened positions.
But some detailed geolocation of images and video from one of the many online sources following this invasion closely shows that most of those looking at the area may have missed something big. [Tweet and images at the link]
His conclusion is that Ukraine is actually much closer to Nova Kakhovka, and that northern bridge across the Dnipro, than any public report has acknowledged. That’s an attractive thought, especially considering how Ukraine recently blew the holy hell out of a huge ammunition depot at Nova Kakhovka and has fired on other targets near the city.
However, there is a problem with this theory. Much of it based on fields being on fire to the southeast of Nova Kakhovka at a distance that would require Ukrainian forces to be much closer to the city than anyone has reported. And even the satellite data used to support this shows a very regular pattern of burning that confirms neatly to the boundaries of an area under cultivation.
What’s really at work here is likely to be the same thing confounding many of those currently looking at FIRMS data—the deliberate burning of fields where spring crops have already been harvested. It’s not just satellites who can get fooled when a new factor enters into the dataset.
On the other hand … maybe he’s right. I hope he’s right. […]
IF THE THREE STOOGES OWNED A TANK …
The old saw that “Russian tanks are fueled by vodka” appears to still be operative. [Tweet and video at the link]
VLADIMIR PUTIN’S GIFT LIST
Republicans in the House on Monday made it easy for Vladimir Putin to do his Christmas shopping: 18 of them actually voted to exclude Sweden and Finland from NATO, because … who cares? I’m sure Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Matt Gaetz can provide you with a reason.
Thankfully, these pro-Russian jackasses’ votes don’t mean spit.
Tel Aviv’s booming science and technology industry, bolstered [that’s one word for it] by graduates of elite state intelligence units, has earned Israel the nickname “start-up nation”.
Yet in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox suburb just a few miles east of Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers, a vicious fight is unfolding over whether smartphones are compatible with traditional Jewish law – and who should have the power to decide on internet access.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, population, has grown to make up 12% of the country; according to one study, one in four Israelis will be ultra-Orthodox by 2050. [No link or citation for or information about this study or who did it. Sounds highly doubtful.]
Much of the community still shuns television and other mass media, which is viewed as a threat to their way of life. The first wave of mobile phones was dealt with by creating kosher handsets, which could only make and receive calls from other blessed numbers, identifiable by the prefix 05331, and did not have cameras or internet capability.
The rise of the smartphone, however, is making it harder for the community to get by without using the internet. In Israel, as in many high income countries, municipal service provision, filing taxes and accessing bank accounts has mostly moved online.
The Haredim’s solution so far has been to continue with “dumb” phones, or to allow smartphones that come with content blocking filters preinstalled: the only apps on a typical kosher smartphone’s home screen are a clock, calculator, and navigation software.
Only one body – the Rabbinical Committee for Communications – has the power to issue kosher certificates for Israel’s estimated 500,000 kosher mobile phones. It is an opaque and influential operation which can screen numbers, content and the flow of information as it pleases.
“The rabbis used to say: ‘Stay away from Allenby Street in the middle of Tel Aviv, it’s sinful.’ But now anyone can go to Allenby Street on their phone. The idea originally was to keep the community safe from impure culture,” said Israel Cohen, a prominent Haredi political commentator.
“It is rare for the Haredi community to agree on anything but many people think the committee is out of touch.”
Members have alleged that blocked numbers include news and public transport hotlines still widely used by Haredim, and even numbers for medical and domestic violence services. Kosher numbers also cannot be transferred to non-kosher providers, severely limiting competition.
…
Lawsuits challenging the monopoly, which Israeli media has estimated is worth upwards of 75m shekels (£18m) a year, have had limited success. Late last year, Israel’s communications ministry tried to hold hearings on abolishing the system, based on a legal opinion from the state competition authority, but was met with fury from some community leaders. Those proposals have now been stymied by the collapse of the short-lived coalition government last month.
Ultimately, however, the Rabbinical Committee for Communications may be fighting a losing battle. Recent research by the Israel Democracy Institute found that members of the ultra-Orthodox community are gradually integrating the online world into their lifestyles, with two-thirds using the internet for basic needs such as email, work, accessing government services, banking and information searches. About half of those who are online are also using social media networks.
For Uriel Diament, who runs a small phone shop on the main shopping street in Bnei Brak, change can’t come quickly enough. His kosher certificate was suspended earlier this year after he spoke out against the monopoly; his business and staff have been attacked several times, and the windows and door broken by crowds of angry young men he says were whipped into a frenzy by their rabbis.
“The strategy is to go shop to shop and intimidate the sellers. The [demonstrators] are lied to, they tell them I’m selling iPhones with internet access to 13-year-olds, but that’s not true. It’s not about serving God; they’re a mafia,” the 39-year-old said.
During the Guardian’s visit to Diament’s shop, a middle-aged man entered and shouted at the staff, calling them “collaborators who are disobedient to the rabbis”.
“The times have changed,” Diament said after the man had left. “They can’t put their heads in the sand forever.”
From the closing summary of today’s Guardian liveblog:
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, won the endorsement of the Iranian supreme leader for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a visit to Tehran on Tuesday. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Putin: “War is a harsh and difficult issue, and Iran is not at all pleased that ordinary people suffer from it, but in the case of Ukraine if you had not taken the initiative, the other side would have caused the war with its own initiative … If the road is open to Nato, it knows no boundaries and if it was not stopped in Ukraine they would start the same war some time later under the pretext of Crimea.”
Khamenei sdded that Tehran and Moscow needed to stay vigilant against “western deception”, calling for long-term cooperation between Iran and Russia. “Iran and Russia’s long-term cooperation is greatly, deeply beneficial to both countries,” he said.
…
The EU is set to add Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank and the head of giant zinc and copper firm UMMC to its black list of individuals and companies. A new list of 48 officials and nine entities to be blacklisted, prepared by the EU foreign affairs service, also includes leaders of the Night Wolves motorcycle club, actors, politicians, the deputy head of a Russian security service, family members of sanctioned oligarchs and military people.
…
Another six French-made Caesar artillery guns are “on their way” to Ukraine, France’s foreign minister has confirmed. Twelve of the guns, prized for their accuracy and mobility, have already been delivered to Ukraine and “the six others are on their way,” Catherine Colonna told a Senate commission.
The United States will announce a new weapons package for Ukraine in the coming days, a government official said. It is expected to include mobile rocket launchers knows as Himars, and various artillery munitions, Reuters reports.
US senators have backed Sweden and Finland in their bid to join Nato. The foreign relations committee of the US Senate unanimously approving a resolution to ratify their membership on Tuesday….
Re #98, I see at their site that Galati did allegedly (according to Gaw) appear in court – via video – on May 31st of this year:
Rocco meticulously provided case law, both Canadian and International, to defend our position as well as facts supported by evidence, to counter the defense’s accusation that the case was founded on “conspiracy theories.” Mr. Galati advised Justice Ross that the case is not based on conspiracy theories but rather facts, and that he can provide the evidence proving that Bill Gates funds GAVI and the WHO; Bonnie Henry has ties to Bill Gates and the WHO; Teresa Tam is tied to the WHO; Justin Trudeau paid a billion dollars to Bill Gates; and many more important points.
If there’s been a ruling in this case, I haven’t been able to find it.
Also, the interview tomorrow is being billed as “LIVE WED 4pm!”
On July 20th – 21st July Australian time – back in 1969, Humanity landed on another world in person for the first time. They came in peace for everyone, winning the Cold War Space Race and beating the Russians. They saw Earth with every other human that has ever lived and died on hanging high in the black daytime sky, able to be blotted out by an outstretched thumb. They returned five more times – the last in 1972. We have not been back or ventured further since then at least as living beings – only via our robotic surrogates. An extraordinary milestone and accomplishment of our species. Worth reflecting onand worth maybe making a public holiday I’d suggest.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The UK’s regular military intelligence update suggests that the Antonovskiy bridge, which was allegedly shelled again this morning after initial strikes on Tuesday, is a key vulnerability for Russian troops in Kherson.
The briefing further notes:
– The Antonovskiy bridge is important because it is one of only two crossing points over the Dnieper river which enable Russia to supply to or withdraw forces from territory occupied to the west.
– Control of the Dnieper crossings is likely to become a key factor in further fighting.
– The city of Kherson is politically and symbolically important for Russia.
– Russia continues to make minimal gains in its Donbas offensive, where Ukrainian forces are holding the line.
Key bridge badly damaged in Kherson, Russia-installed authorities say
Ukrainian shelling badly damaged the crucial Antonivskiy bridge in the Russia-controlled Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Moscow-installed regional authorities have said.
Reuters reports:
The bridge – one of only two crossing points for Russian forces to territory they have occupied on the western bank of the vast Dnipro river in southern Ukraine – has been a key target for Ukrainian forces in recent days, with Kyiv using high-precision US-supplied rockets to try to destroy it.
The Russian-backed head of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, closed the bridge to cargo traffic on Wednesday morning in what he called a “temporary restriction” to allow repair works.
Passenger cars were still able to use the bridge, which is more than a kilometre long [!], Saldo said in an “urgent appeal” published on social media.
Local officials told the RIA news agency that Ukraine hit the bridge at around 4am with 12 shells from the newly arrived high-mobility artillery rocket systems [(Himars)], a US supplied long-range artillery weapon which Kyiv hopes will turn the tide of the war.
“If the strikes continue, the bridge might collapse,” the Tass news agency quoted the deputy head of the Russian-installed administration as saying.
Good news if true; I don’t trust anything coming from the Russians.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Sunak’s pledge to maintain ban on new onshore windfarms ‘economic illiteracy’, says Labour
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, has described Rishi Sunak’s promise to maintain the ban on new onshore windfarms as “economic illiteracy”. He said:
As Britain boils in an unprecedented heatwave, it is economic illiteracy and unilateral economic disarmament in the fight against the climate crisis that Rishi Sunak wants to keep the ban on onshore wind.
Anyone with such dangerous views is not a serious candidate for high office. But this is the reality: a Conservative leadership race in which candidates have engaged in fantasy climate denial that will lead to higher energy bills, damage our security and burdens future generations with extreme weather events.
Rishi Sunak, the frontrunner for the Conservative leadership, was the director of a free school with close links to rightwing libertarian founders, which was found to have multiple financial and safeguarding failings years after his departure.
Labour said there were questions to answer about Sunak’s time as a director of the The East London Science school (ELSS), where the former chancellor served from its founding in 2013 until he ran for office in 2015.
A number of founders and original directors of the school were members of the now-dissolved Revolutionary Communist party.
Despite the leftist origins of the group, many of these former members are now most closely associated with the libertarian right wing, including the controversialist website Spiked….
Alan Dershowitz became one of the most famous lawyers in America by representing high-profile clients such as Jeffrey Epstein, Mike Tyson, and O. J. Simpson, and enmeshing himself in political debates on subjects such as torture and the Israeli occupation. (He has defended both.) In recent years, however, his career has taken even more controversial turns, notably his public campaign against the Mueller investigation and his decision to join President Trump’s legal team. In 2019, Connie Bruck profiled Dershowitz for The New Yorker, and looked into allegations that he had sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein. (Dershowitz denies the accusations.)
Dershowitz has lately been going on television and Twitter to discuss cancel culture, specifically how he has been shunned on Martha’s Vineyard, his longtime summer getaway. He even released the text of what he said was an e-mail from someone who had been beaten up on the beach for reading one of his books. I recently spoke by phone with Dershowitz, an emeritus professor of law at Harvard and the author of the new book “The Price of Principle: Why Integrity Is Worth the Consequences.” It was released last week and happens to be about the very subject of the e-mail he received: cancel culture, and an unwillingness to hear differing opinions. (He describes the book as “the story of my cancellation.”) During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed what has happened to his social life since he defended Donald Trump, his fallout with Larry David, and why he compared the January 6th committee to McCarthyism….
The European Union has set out emergency plans to reduce its gas use amid fears Russia could cut off its supply in winter.
It has proposed a voluntary target for countries to restrict its usage by 15% from August until March, accusing the Kremlin of weaponising gas exports.
“Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a news conference.
“And therefore, in any event, whether it’s a partial, major cut-off of Russian gas or a total cut-off of Russian gas, Europe needs to be ready.”
She warned that almost half of member states were already affected by the reduced gas flow from Russia, which has fallen below 30% of the 2016-2021 average.
Under the plans, the EU would be able to make the cut back a mandatory if it seems a substantial risk of severe gas shortages.
The proposal needs to be approved by a majority of EU countries, with its diplomats set to discuss the proposal on Friday.
As recently as last week, Donald Trump was still lobbying Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker about undoing his 2020 election defeat.
It was a couple of weeks ago when the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a deeply disappointing ruling: The conservative majority dramatically curtailed the use of ballot drop boxes, despite the total absence of problems with Badger State voters using the boxes.
This, evidently, gave Donald Trump a ridiculous idea: Shortly after the ruling was issued, the former president argued that if drop boxes can’t be used in future elections, then they shouldn’t have been used in past elections. And if they shouldn’t have been used in 2020, the Republican surmised, then many Wisconsin ballots from the last election cycle should now be deemed invalid.
I see the squirrels in Trump’s brain are still active.
And if many Wisconsin ballots from the last election cycle are deemed invalid, Trump concluded, then he secretly won the state he actually lost.
That was the former president’s utterly bonkers public case. In private, things were even stranger. CNBC reported:
Former President Donald Trump this month called Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and urged him to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in that state, Vos said in a new interview Tuesday. “It’s very consistent. He makes his case, which I respect,” Vos told WISN-TV 12 News in Milwaukee. “He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained that it’s not allowed under the Constitution,” Vos said. “He has a different opinion.”
Consider the timeline of events. Trump learned of the state Supreme Court ruling on ballot drop boxes, which led him to call the Republican state Assembly Speaker and pitch — which is to say, re-pitch — the idea of decertifying the 2020 results. When Vos once again explained that this would legally impossible, the former president turned to his Twitter-like platform to whine.
“Looks like Speaker Robin Vos, a long time professional RINO always looking to guard his flank, will be doing nothing about the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision,” Trump wrote. “The Democrats would like to sincerely thank Robin, and all of his fellow RINOs, for letting them get away with ‘murder.’”
It was a foolish and juvenile response, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: 20 months after Election Day, the former president is still, as recently as last week, looking for allies whose arms he can twist in order to undo his own defeat.
[…] it was this past September when the former president insisted, “Arizona must immediately decertify their 2020 Presidential Election Results.” Two months later, the Republican went further, demanding that Georgia also “start the process of decertifying the 2020 Election.” This came on the heels of related rhetoric in which he talked up the idea of undoing his defeat and returning to the presidency.
Let’s also not forget that Trump isn’t the only one peddling this nonsense. Christina Bobb, a former OAN host who’s now working for the former president, raised the prospect earlier this month of states decertifying their 2020 votes after the 2022 midterm elections.
As recently as April, The New York Times reported, “In statehouses and courtrooms across the country, as well as on right-wing news outlets, allies of Mr. Trump — including the lawyer John Eastman — are pressing for states to pass resolutions rescinding Electoral College votes for President Biden and to bring lawsuits that seek to prove baseless claims of large-scale voter fraud. Some of those allies are casting their work as a precursor to reinstating the former president.”
As a legal and procedural matter, all of this is simply stark raving mad. There is no scenario in which a state can undo election results for no reason. But as Trump’s online missives made clear, he either doesn’t know that or doesn’t care.
Uber has transformed how we travel around cities – what do newly leaked documents tell us about its meteoric rise? The explosive ‘Uber Files’ give an insight into the tactics the taxi giant used to become a household name. Justin Quirk unpacks what these reveal with lecturer Dr. Jimena Valdez, who is working on the project Über-State: The Political Economy of Platform Capitalism.
“The three most striking things are: the utter disregard for the law, the connections to political power, and the very little value they attach to drivers – that they call them ‘supply’.”
Ancient galaxies carpeting the sky like jewels on black velvet. Fledgling stars shining out from deep within cumulus clouds of interstellar dust. Hints of water vapor in the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet.
This week, NASA released new images captured from a point in space one million miles from Earth.
Today, we discuss the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s most powerful space observatory, its journey to launch and what it can teach us about the universe.
Guest: Kenneth Chang, a science reporter for The New York Times.
The European Union has agreed on a new round of sanctions against Russia, this time targeting its gold exports, as well as individuals and entities.
The move, which was agreed by world leaders at the recent G7 Summit, marks the seventh package of penalties following a ban on most Russian oil imports in June.
New sanctions will also see assets at Russia’s largest bank Sberbank frozen, with several more names added to the blacklist.
The EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the measures would help enforce earlier sanctions more effectively, and extend them until January 2023.
She added: “Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression.”
Ukraine’s first lady has made an emotional plea at the Capitol for more weapons to use in the war against Russia.
In a face-to-face address, Olena Zelenska called on lawmakers to provide Ukraine with more anti-air defence systems to defend against Russian missiles, according to AP.
“We want no more airstrikes. No more missile strikes. Is this too much to ask for?” she said.
“We want every father and every mother to be able to tell their child: ‘Go to sleep peacefully, there will be no more airstrikes, no more missile strikes’.
“This is what I’m asking for and what my husband is asking for, as parents.”
Zelenska’s speech followed an announcement from US defence secretary Lloyd Austin that Washington would send four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine.
Let’s start at the beginning and get right into what is currently going on with these deleted Secret Service text messages from the eve of the insurrection on Jan. 5 and the day of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Jan. 6 committee was alerted on July 13 by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari that a series of United States Secret Service (USSS) text messages spanning Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 were erased. Cuffari informed the committee that messages were lost during a migration of data to new devices for Secret Service personnel. A spokesperson for the Secret Service initially said the messages were not lost permanently, and aggressively defended against accusations that messages were erased maliciously.
So, the select committee responded by issuing a subpoena to the Secret Service for the Jan. 5-6 texts. Committee members were briefed privately by Cuffari in person on July 15, and Cuffari reportedly told them that the Secret Service did not conduct its own after-action review regarding Jan. 6, choosing instead to rely on whatever might turn up in Cuffari’s pending inspector general report on the security failures of Jan. 6.
At the briefing with members of the select committee, Cuffari said he didn’t feel the Secret Service was “fully cooperating” with him, according to Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson. The DHS inspector general reportedly said he ran those concerns about the missing messages up the ladder to DHS Secretary Alexander Mayorkas though not to much avail. Mayorkas, CNN reported, only told him to keep pushing for the information from the agency.
Members of the Jan. 6 committee hit the weekend talk show circuit after issuing the subpoena. Investigators like Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Kinzinger said they expected the Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 texts would be turned over by Tuesday.
More questions mounted in the press. By Tuesday afternoon, the National Archives ordered Damian Kokinda, the records officer for the Department of Homeland Security, to have the Secret Service investigate exactly how the messages were deleted and then produce a report on their findings within a month.
But then, another wrinkle emerged.
CNN reported late Tuesday night that it obtained a letter sent to the Jan. 6 committee stating the Secret Service was only able to provide a single text exchange to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general from the requested Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 time period.
According to Secret Service assistant director Ronald Rowe:
“The Secret Service submitted the responsive records it identified, namely, a text message conversation from former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to former Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Thomas Sullivan requesting assistance on January 6, 2021, and advised the agency did not have any further records responsive to the DHS OIG’s request for text messages.”
Rowe’s letter also reportedly revealed that Cuffari asked for the texts in question (as well as others spanning Dec. 7, 2020, to Jan. 8, 2021) in June 2021.
This is an important distinction because, to start, the Secret Service was first asked by congress to preserve its records and produce other documents just 10 days after the Capitol attack on Jan. 16. Then, three months later, in March, a smattering of congressional committees asked the Secret Service again to preserve and produce records, but narrowed their requests to only those records sent and received between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, 2021.
Though CNN did not publish the letter the committee received from Rowe on Tuesday, the outlet said Rowe did write that it was “up to employees to conduct the necessary preservation of records from their phones” and that Secret Service staff were given explicit, “step-by-step” instructions on how to preserve phone data before a pre-planned device migration that was set to begin on Jan. 27, 2021.
“It went on to explain that ‘all Secret Service employees are responsible for appropriately preserving government records that may be created via text messaging,’” the letter stated.
Rowe said too that the agency would keep looking into “whether any relevant text messages sent or received by 24 individuals identified by the DHS OIG were lost due to the Intune migration and, if so, whether such texts are recoverable.”
The Secret Service is expected to review metadata too and interview the 24 personnel flagged by Cuffari in order “to determine if messages were stored in locations that were not already searched by the Secret Service.”
[…] Government watchdog groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) are following the details closely.
The group’s chief counsel Donald Sherman urged the Department of Justice to investigate immediately because the Secret Service very likely violated the Federal Records Act, he said.
“It is especially distressing to see such behavior from a federal agency that had such critical duties during the attack on the Capitol and had a front row seat to former President Trump’s behavior that day. The Justice Department must take this apparent violation of federal law seriously,” Sherman said. […]
The role of the Secret Service around key moments leading up to the insurrection has taken on greater import in the wake of the select committee’s public hearings.
When former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified under oath, she recounted many shocking details of that day and chief among them were her accounts that 1) Trump knew the mob was heavily armed and encouraged them to speed past security measures and magnetometers anyway and 2) members of the Trump’s Secret Service detail had plans to take Trump to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse for an “off-the-record” movement despite warnings of violence deluging security agencies all over Washington, including the U.S. Secret Service.
In one email obtained by the committee and aired publicly during a recent hearing, the Secret Service Intelligence Division is shown explicitly highlighting the threats it saw growing. One forwarded warning read: “We need to flood the Capital Building and show America and the senators and representatives inside voting that we won’t stand for election fraud.”
Committee vicechair Liz Cheney noted how caveats like these were sent often and regularly to key security staff at the White House like, specifically, Tony Ornato, then the deputy White House chief of staff for operations.
Hutchinson’s testimony about Ornato and her testimony that Trump lunged at Secret Service agent Bobby Engel’s neck when he refused to drive Trump to the Capitol after his speech on Jan. 6, prompted the Secret Service to refute Hutchinson’s sworn statements publicly.
USSS spokesperson Anthony Gugliemi said both Ornato and Engel would be willing to testify under oath. Other unnamed sources told NBC that neither Ornato nor Engel denied that Trump was irate or that he demanded to be taken to the Capitol. Trump, this past April in an interview with The Washington Post aired his still lingering frustrations about not being taken to the Capitol.
“Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump said. […]
The historic closeness of certain agents to Trump has cast doubt over the agency’s official positions and credibility.
Tony Ornato, for example, left his role heading up Trump’s Secret Service security detail to take on the political appointment of deputy White House chief of staff or operations. This was done to much controversy, and in the end, it gave Ornato the power to oversee the Secret Service and its relationship with the White House. Today, Ornato has returned to the civil service and works as the assistant director at the Secret Service’s Office of Training.
Renowned investigative journalist Carol Leonnig, who has spent years studying the machinations of the U.S. Secret Service, appeared on MSNBC last month and said to her knowledge, many in Trump’s security detail were “aligned” with the former president politically and appeared to support the actions of the mob. […]
Video of Carol Leonnig speaking is available at the link.
This is just beyond insane. The psychopaths who run the gun manufacturer Sig Sauer are about to release the MCX-SPEAR, which is the civilian version of the US Army’s new NGSW-R (Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle) onto American streets, as if the AR-15 wasn’t bad enough.
The Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program is a United States military program created in 2017 to replace the M4 carbine and M249 SAW light machine gun (both 5.56mm ammunition) and the 7.62mm M240 machine gun, with a common system with 6.8mm cartridges; and to develop small arms fire control systems for the new weapons. […]
“This is a weapon that could defeat any body armor, any planned body armor that we know of in the future,” then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the Army Times in 2019. “This is a weapon that can go out at ranges that are unknown today.” […]
“It’ll shoot through almost all of the bulletproof vests that are worn by law enforcement in the country right now,” said Ryan Busse, a former firearms company executive who is now a senior policy analyst with the Giffords Law Center and author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America.
[…] This is a LITERAL WAR WEAPON that Sig Sauer is unleashing upon America. It’s ONLY purpose is to defeat body armor and turn gun victims into red mist.
The site quoted SIG Sauer President & CEO Ron Cohen saying the civilian weapon was a “near match” to what would become the military’s new standard infantry weapon.
“This is a rare opportunity for passionate consumers to own a piece of history,” Cohen said. “This first production run MCX-SPEAR, and all of the revolutionary technology behind its development, is being offered to the commercial market in a configuration that is a near match to our NGSW-R submission.”
One of the “elite” dealers estimated this week that SIG Sauer had sent out between 2,500 and 5,000 of the weapons—and that they were an instant hit despite the price.
“What’s out there is already bought out,” he reported.
Just in case you didn’t think gun violence in America could get any worse. Sig Sauer couldn’t wait to make civilian versions of this next-generation infantry battle rifle and get them out onto America’s streets in order to maximize the carnage. Sig Sauer’s ENTIRE advertising campaign revolves around putting military weapons into civilian hands.
[…] Thankfully the eye-watering $8000 price tag will probably keep it out of the hands of your average school shooter, but an older shooter like Stephen Paddock could certainly afford such a weapon.
What is it going to take to get these weapons of warfare off our streets? This is SHEER INSANITY. America is truly broken.
It’s one thing for Republicans to make the case against legislation. It’s much weirder when they make the case against legislating.
As the House prepared to consider the Respect For Marriage Act, which would codify marriage equality in federal law, Republican leaders had a message for their members: The GOP would not “whip” this vote.
In other words, while party leaders routinely give their members directives, urging them to vote one way or another on a given piece of legislation, GOP lawmakers were free to simply vote their consciences on this one, without partisan pressure. (Soon after, 47 House Republicans voted with the Democratic majority.)
But while party leaders decided not to twist any arms on marriage equality, Politico reported that one prominent GOP member took it upon himself to do some intra-party lobbying.
House GOP leadership didn’t whip its members one way or another on a Democrat-led bill to protect same-sex marriage. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and its members, urged their GOP colleagues to vote against the bill.
Much of the Ohioan’s case was predictable and uninteresting. Jordan argued, for example, that the legislation is “unnecessary” since the Supreme Court isn’t yet prepared to undo its Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. He also said the entire Democratic effort was part of some kind of distraction scheme.
But Jordan also argued that the Respect For Marriage Act is proof that Democrats want to “delegitimize the Supreme Court.”
The congressman didn’t just include this in his memo to GOP members, Jordan repeated the line on the House floor during the legislative debate: “This bill is simply the latest installment of the Democrats’ campaign to delegitimize and attempt to intimidate the United States Supreme Court.”
By any fair measure, this is an odd argument for a member of Congress to make.
Let’s review the basics. Democrats support marriage equality. Fearing possible efforts to roll back these civil rights, the governing majority decided to engage in routine legislating, codifying marriage equality in federal law.
If Jordan were opposed to equal marriage rights, he was welcome to explain why. If the Republican believed the legislation should be amended in some meaningful way, he had an opportunity to present those arguments on this, too.
But Jordan instead argued that the legislative branch shouldn’t legislate on the matter at all — because for Congress to pass a federal law enshrining an existing right is to “delegitimize and attempt to intimidate” the Supreme Court.
In other words, this was a rare example of a federal lawmaker arguing that other federal lawmakers shouldn’t pursue a legislative priority through federal lawmaking. […]
12 News, (in Arizona): Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers was formally censured by his fellow Republicans as retribution for his cooperation with the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation. The state GOP chair said that Bowers, (“a lifelong conservative Republican,” as Steve Benen pointed out) who’s done nothing wrong, “is no longer a Republican in good standing.”
Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican representing Florida, appeared on Fox News recently. He said that the network helps Republicans get the party’s message out “without having to pay for it.” Saying the quiet part out loud? Yes, Fox News is a Republican propaganda network.
Eloy, Arizona, declared a state of emergency this week after storm damage left approximately 90% of the city without power amid heat that is expected to hit a high of 112 degrees later this week. “On July 18, cooling stations and an ice pick-up location at Eloy’s city hall were packed with desperate residents looking for a way to cool down,” Fox 10 Phoenix reported. Officials at one point had to bring in ice from a neighboring area, after Eloy’s had run out.
But not all people in the area had a chance for a respite from the heat. Arizona Republic reports that the storms also knocked out main power at two private prisons operated by notorious jailer CoreCivic. Officials said Monday evening that while a generator was operating at the Red Rock Correctional Center, one was not yet running at the La Palma Correctional Center. Arizona Republic said that detained people were reporting “stifling” conditions.
“A prisoner at the La Palma prison said the facility had been without kitchen services, laundry and hot water since Sunday evening,” Arizona Republic reported. “’They won’t crack our doors for airflow, and they are keeping us locked in the stifling cells,’ he said.” One man at the Red Rock facility said that the power outage had cut off the few tools detained people have to communicate with loved ones and others outside.
“We have no phone calls, no TV, can’t cook basically just sitting ducks,” the man said in the report. “We been on lock down since last night. They are saying that it will be three days before they get power back on.” The report said that “[a]nother prisoner at Red Rock said it was so humid the floor of their cell was sweating.”
Both private prisons have a history of abusive behavior, including directed at staffers. In 2019, a Black guard at Red Rock filed a lawsuit alleging he was shot with a riot-control weapon by a coworker in a racist attack. In 2021, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) watchdog said that guards at La Palma violently deployed chemical agents at detained people who had been protesting lack of pandemic-related protective gear. One photo released by the inspector general showed a dozen officers in riot gear surrounding a group of men crouching for cover on the floor.
CoreCivic won a contract worth more than $420 million from Arizona to jail people at La Palma, following the closure of a state prison in Florence, Arizona Republic reported in January. At that time, more than 2,700 people were expected to be transferred from the state prison to CoreCivic’s facility. The report said that Arizona also considered going with another private prison profiteer, GEO Group, but went with CoreCivic because GEO Group would have moved detained people out of the state.
“The state will pay CoreCivic $85.12 per prisoner, per day for the contract, with the state guaranteeing a minimum 90% occupancy rate,” the report said at the time. “But that cost could increase.” […]
CoreCivic is getting lucrative state and federal contracts to abuse detained people and facing horrific allegations of sexual abuse […]
Remember that CoreCivic was formerly Corrections Corporation of America, but in 2016 changed its name as part of a public relations stunt. New name, same inhumane conditions.
I really think that this needs to be appreciated: The leaders of psychiatry have recognized now for several years that their diagnoses lack validity and that the chemical imbalance idea is bullshit, but have lately claimed that the notion of the chemical imbalance was an invention of their critics and that “patients” who claimed their doctors or therapists told them they had a chemical imbalance were lying.
There has to be accountability, but more importantly we have to move beyond this model in understanding and addressing the causes of psychological distress.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Turkey, Finland and Sweden to meet in August to assess progress on Nato membership veto
Officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden will meet in August to evaluate the progress made in fulfilling Ankara’s counter-terrorism demands from the Nordic countries to lift its veto on their Nato membership bid, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, has said.
Reuters reports that, speaking to state broadcaster TRT Haber, Çavuşoğlu said the meeting would be the first of a monitoring committee formed under an accord the three countries signed last month. He repeated that Turkey would block the Nordic countries’ memberships if they did not keep their promises.
(There’s a bit too much transcribing for autocrats there in recent days. From the past several posts: “The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) claims that…”; “Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational briefing. In it, it claims that…”; “Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova gave her regular weekly press briefing this morning, and according to Reuters she said that…”; “Earlier we reported that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said…” They do usually note that fact claims haven’t been independently verified, and I do think it’s information that should be recorded, but there has to be a better way to present the propaganda of regimes known for constant lying than simply repeating it.)
The international target to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population against Covid by mid-2022 was missed because poorer countries were at the “back of the queue” when vaccines were rolled out, say campaigners.
The latest figures from Our World in Data show huge inequalities in vaccination rates around the world, with just one in seven people in low-income countries fully vaccinated. By comparison, nearly three in four people in high-income nations have been vaccinated for around a year.
Activists are calling for a renewed push to increase vaccine take-up globally to slow the spread of the virus and prevent future variants. Their call comes as the World Health Organization said this week that Covid infections in Europe tripled and hospitalisations doubled in the past six weeks, with deaths totalling 3,000 a week.
“Unless we achieve equitable action in addressing this pandemic, it will always remain with us in the world,” said Kavengo Matundu, Africa coordinator for Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), who has been working with frontline groups on the Covid response. “It has shown that it is capable of mutating into anything, and can become something more dangerous than the original.”
As the first vaccines were rolled out across the world in 2020, low-income countries had to wait months to receive doses through the Covax vaccine-sharing system or from other donors. Wealthy countries had bought the lion’s share of available vaccines.
When they did arrive, vaccine doses were sometimes close to their expiry date, or insufficient to meet the demands of health centres. This, said Maaza Seyoum, Global South convenor of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, left people frustrated and reluctant to return to vaccination centres.
…
According to Our World in Data figures, as of 10 July only 15.8% of people in low-income countries were fully vaccinated, compared with 55% in lower-middle income countries, 73.5% in high-income countries and 78.7% in upper-middle income countries.
Africa has the lowest number of vaccinated people. Excluding Eritrea and North Korea, which have yet to start vaccination programmes, seven of the 10 countries with the world’s lowest rates of full-vaccination are in Africa. The other three countries are Papua New Guinea, Haiti and Yemen. The UK’s booster vaccination rate is already far higher than these countries’ standard vaccination rates.
Seyoum said that Covax was “a beautiful idea built out of solidarity”, but had failed “because of greed and poor planning”.
The latest data from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, which covers the period up to 9 June, shows that Canada, Australia and the UK have bought enough vaccine doses to vaccinate their populations several times over: 11.1, 9.9 and 7.6 doses per person, respectively.
In contrast, South Africa was able to buy the equivalent of 0.5 doses per person. The African Union’s purchase of 330m doses of Moderna and Janssen vaccines equated to just 0.2 doses a person across the bloc.
The AU and Covax have turned down opportunities to buy doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has a short shelf-life, and Moderna, which should be kept in very cold temperatures. Neither are suitable for countries without decent transport and cold chain infrastructure.
Covax said the “ad hoc” delivery of vaccines last year made it difficult for poorer countries to plan their vaccine rollouts. With more vaccines now available, it called for deliveries to match the timings required for lower-income countries to plan their immunisation campaigns.
Dr Fifa Rahman, a civil society representative on the WHO Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator, said more people from low-income countries should be included in discussions on vaccine rollout.
She said the rollout was “almost negligently late, because you’ve got a bunch of New Yorkers in a room making decisions about Africa.”
The Vaccine Delivery Partnership – an inter-agency organisation to accelerate vaccination coverage – was, she added, “doing a great job, but it was extremely late”.
Seyoum said: “Rich countries keep thinking that if they just protect themselves, they’re going to get out of the pandemic, but that is, on a public health front, completely ridiculous. It sounds trite, but as the head of WHO said last year: none of us is safe until we’re all safe.”
According to Politico’s sources, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and warned him that otherwise, Congress will do so.”
a lot of people get that eating less meat is good for the climate. but many don’t realise *how good*
for 50g of protein (recommended daily amount), here are average greenhouse gas emissions
– beef: 25 kg
– cheese: 4 kg
– chicken: 2 kg
– peas: **0.2 kg**
the difference is huge!
or take how much land is required, which really matters to stop both climate change and the loss of wild animals.
for 2,000 calories (RDA for women), here is the land used:
– lamb: 233 m²
– cheese: 50 m²
– pork: 15 m²
– peas: *4.3 m²*
– tofu: **2.6 m²**
an order of magnitude!…
Data visualizations at the (Twitter) link. Also at the link, pea puns: “We need a world peas strategy,” “peas in our time,” “Give peas a chance,”… (I think nuts should be getting more love, since the figure shows that “Many nut producers are carbon negative” – “Yes Pe Can”?)
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi submitted his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday, plunging the European Union’s third-largest economy into fresh political turmoil.
Draghi’s resignation comes after several key parties in his coalition — the powerful 5-Star movement, the largest party in the country’s coalition government, center-right Forza Italia and the far-right League — boycotted a confidence vote in the government Wednesday night.
Mattarella, who accepted the resignation, is scheduled to meet with the speakers of Parliament on Thursday afternoon, the presidential palace said in a statement. The next step is to call for a snap election….
KGsays
SC@221,
The 5-Star movement has actually lost most of its support according to polls. The likely result of a snap election is a far right regime led by the “Brothers of Italy”, who openly hark back to Mussolini.
New EU sanctions hitting Russian gold, a major bank, a nationalist motorcycle club known as the Nightwolves and actors backing Vladimir Putin have been dismissed as insufficient by Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Approval of the EU’s seventh wave of economic sanctions by the 27 member states on Thursday morning has been lauded by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as a “strong signal”.
The “reinforced, prolonged EU sanctions against the Kremlin” send “a strong signal to Moscow: we will keep the pressure high for as long as it takes”, Von der Leyen tweeted.
In Kyiv, however, Ukraine’s president was withering about the incremental moves by the EU, where the central concern for politicians and officials in recent days has been the Russian threat to gas supply this winter.
Perhaps not that surprising really & you know he’ll get the best care – & unlike Trump not do some pointlessly dangerously counter-productive things likely to make things worse plus is actually vaccinated and doing the right stuff – but slightly worrying still.
StevoRsays
Meanwhile who knows what the truth is here? I certainly don’t and pretty sure we cannot take Putin or the Russian govts word for it :
“A system incapable of smart military commanders, a rusty infrastructure that would break if general mobilization were attempted, and ammo running out. [Novaya Gazeta military analyst] Pavel Luzin paints a grim picture for Russia’s long-term military prospects….”
Recruiting violent criminals: Investigators and researchers have discovered that representatives of the Wagner Group private military company and officers in Russia’s Federal Penitentiary and Federal Security services have recruited roughly 200 inmates at 15 different prisons to fight in Ukraine. Journalists at iStories and activists at Russia Behind Bars say they are still trying to determine on what legal grounds prisoners are moved from their facilities. In the Komi Republic, for example, men in uniform reportedly arrived at a local penitentiary on July 17 and “rounded up everyone, except for the Ukrainians and those convicted of terrorism or sexual offenses.” “The delegation’s head said he’s been decorated as a Hero of Russia, that they’re ‘grabbing the land and hacking off ears,’ and that he needs ‘volunteers for dirty work: killing on command, no questions asked,’” a source told Russia Behind Bars.
Russia seeks to dissolve Jewish repatriation organization: Russia’s Justice Ministry has called for the liquidation of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization that helps Jewish people repatriate to Israel and the world’s largest Jewish non-profit. Officials from Moscow’s Basmanny Court told Interfax that the request will be considered on July 28 and was made in response to the organization’s violations of Russian law.
The Jerusalem Post reported in early July that the Russian authorities had sent a letter to the Jewish Agency for Israel demanding that it cease its operations in Russia. Representatives from the organization itself, however, told reporters that they had received no such letter and that they would continue working.
Abramovich companies have supplied Russian military for years: Subsidiaries of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s company Evraz have supplied materials to the Russia military for over a decade, according to a new report by OCCRP. By analyzing information from Russia’s public procurement website, OCCRP investigators determined that Evraz companies worked with the Russian National Guard as well as with factories that produce explosives and tanks used by the military.
Evraz was included on a British sanctions list in May after officials suspected the company was providing steel for Russian tank production. At the time, Evraz representatives claimed that the company only provides materials for projects intended for civilian use.
“Boris Johnson has tabled a written parliamentary statement hailing his own achievements, and setting out, ‘why the millions of people who voted Conservative in 2019, many for the first time, were right to place their trust in me’.”
BREAKING: @ChiefMI6 Richard Moore says he believes Russia is “about to run out of steam” in Ukraine. He tells @AspenSecurity the Russians will “hope to pause in some way” and says the Ukrainians will “strike back”
On Vladimir Putin’s state of health, the MI6 chief says “there is no evidence that Putin is suffering from serious ill health”
The head of MI6 says Putin has suffered an “epic fail” in Ukraine though he says “it’s obviously not over”. Richard Moore lists Russia’s 3 initial war aims – topple @ZelenskyyUa, capture Kyiv & sow division within #NATO – all of which have failed
“A system incapable of smart military commanders, a rusty infrastructure that would break if general mobilization were attempted, and ammo running out…”
Gee, maybe they shoulda thought of that BEFORE they sold all those AK-47s on the black market…I suppose they can buy some of ’em back, cheap at thrice the price…
“The delegation’s head said he’s been decorated as a Hero of Russia, that they’re ‘grabbing the land and hacking off ears,’ and that he needs ‘volunteers for dirty work: killing on command, no questions asked,’” a source told Russia Behind Bars.
I’m sure those hardened criminals have no trouble killing on command. Getting them to STOP killing, or not kill noncombatants, or function as a cohesive unit in any other way…that could be more of a problem…and finding places for them after the killing is over, that’s yet another problem…
as of 10 July only 15.8% of people in low-income countries were fully vaccinated, compared with 55% in lower-middle income countries, 73.5% in high-income countries and 78.7% in upper-middle income countries.
Arrrrggghhh. Such terrible statistics, especially that 15.8% of people in low-income countries.
On an unrelated subject, starting tomorrow I will be absent from the Infinite Thread for a few days. All of the regular commenters know what to do. Carry on.
From the beginning, Ukraine has claimed any real counteroffensive to liberate Russian-held territory will start around late August into September. The rationale is simple, and comes in three parts:
1. Western equipment has been flowing in, and Ukraine has been busy standing up entire new armor brigades. Training and equipping such units takes time.
2. Winter is coming, and Ukraine doesn’t trust Western resolve in the face of a Russia gas shut-off. People lost their shit over a strip of cloth during a deadly global pandemic; having to use extra blankets might cause European politicians headaches they don’t want to deal with. If Ukraine’s partners force a cease fire and freeze the conflict in place (no pun intended), then Ukraine needs to make sure Russia has as little new territory under its control as possible.
3. Russia isn’t just depleting itself with its plodding advances (in both material and personnel), but thanks to HIMARS, an already precarious logistical system is on the verge of collapse. Indeed, Ukraine’s intelligence chief has been talking about this coming moment since May: ”The breaking point will be in the second part of August.”
We are now about a month from this long-running timeframe, and of course everyone wants to know, where and when will Ukraine strike?
When going on the offensive, an army will do what’s called “shaping the battlefield.” You may have heard the term before, but if you haven’t, you’ve been reading about it for months. Russia “shapes the battlefield” by leveling a town, sending troops in to see if anything is left alive to defend the rubble. If no, then great! It has captured territory. If those troops get killed, no problem! They start the process over. Rinse, lather, repeat until nothing is left standing. In other words, you create the conditions that maximize your chances of success, based on your doctrine and strengths.
American/NATO doctrine is to focus first on all air defenses and air fields in order to gain air superiority. Then they use that air superiority to support ground forces in any advance or defense. […]
Ukraine, for obvious reasons, has no interest in replicating the Russian model. It wants Kherson and its people intact and alive. It cannot replicate the U.S./NATO model because it lacks air superiority or the means to achieve it. So what’s left? You’ve been seeing it in action: Deny Russia its supply lines, starving both the advancing forces as well as those entrenched in defensive positions.
Yesterday, Mark wrote a great update on the bridges in Kherson Oblast.
What if someone took out the bridge east of Kherson, and Russian forces found their only lifeline back to the remainder of their forces, and their only source of supplies, was a bridge 50km to the north, at a position that’s much less well defended? Russia has a dozen BTGs clustered around Kherson. They have dug-in and fortified positions. They have forces in the city itself, where Ukraine definitely doesn’t want to employ heavy weapons. That’s a big obstacle.
Given Ukraine’s limits in heavy armor and a real desire to minimize casualties, head-to-head assaults against well-defended and well-supplied Russian positions could be prohibitively costly. Remember the old adage that an attacking force in an urban environment needs a 3-1 to 5-1 advantage in manpower. So the trick is to avoid as much direct combat as possible, forcing either a surrender or retreat of those 12 BTGs (which could be anywhere from 5-12,000 troops depending on their strength levels).
As Mark said, cutting the bridges would be a huge problem for Russian forces in Kherson and north of it. But what if Ukraine could cut off supplies not just from the south, but also from the east? There are indications that Russia, having flooded reinforcements to Kherson, have hollowed out their defenses in the southern Donbas and Zaporizhzhia fronts. And Ukraine has been making advances in the area.
Check out this map of southeastern Ukraine: [map at the link]
You all know Mariupol, the site of heroic resistance by a besieged Ukrainian resistance at the Azovstal plant. Berdyansk is the second major Black Sea port under Russian control, the site of the sinking of a massive troop landing ship earlier during the war. Both of these are critically important economically to Ukraine, more so than Kherson.
Melitopol is the third-largest city captured by Russia during this war after Mariupol and Kherson, the site of an active partisan movement. Nova Kakhovka hosts one of two remaining bridges over the Dnipro river in the region, a major Russian “filtration” camp (read: concentration camp), and is the source of the Crimean peninsula’s water supply. Kherson is around 80 kilometers west of Nova Kakhovka.
Tokmak and Polohy are less well known, but that will change over the coming months. Of the two, Tokmak is the most important and might be among the most strategic spots on the map for Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Those green lines on the map are rail lines, and we all know how critically important those are to Russia’s logistics. They can’t function far from a railhead, lacking the trucks to move supplies and ammo and the systems to make loading and unloading fast and efficient (such as cranes and pallets).
Follow those green lines from the bottom left of the map to the bottom right, and what do you see?
There is just one rail line connecting both sides.
There is a highway that runs along that southern coast, but again, trucks aren’t helpful to Russia, not over those hundreds of kilometers. Their main way to move supplies—rail lines—all converge at Tokmak (pop. 32,000 pre-war).
From the south, there is a single rail line from Crimea to Kherson: [map at the link]
So we have a single rail line connecting Crimea to Kherson, and at Kherson, there is a single bridge left standing—the one Mark wrote about yesterday, Antonovsky Bridge. Ukraine has started shelling it, rendering large parts of the bridge unusable. It can be repaired, so Ukraine will need to keep hitting it, but it has shown an ability to do so at will. [tweets and videos at the link]
If Ukraine takes that bridge out, Russia will be forced to move supplies from that Crimea-to-Kherson railhead 80 kilometers out to Nova Kakhovka, across the bridge there (which is also subject to attack), and back to supply Kherson. Meanwhile, if Ukraine cuts off Tokmak … you see where this is going? All Russian forces between Tokmak and Kherson will be effectively cut off. Trucks can only carry a fraction of rail capacity, and the roads will be swarming with Ukrainian partisans and special forces, exactly like they did early in the war around Sumy: [map at the link]
Russian milbloggers are starting to see the danger. Voennyi Osvedomitel (military informer) on Telegram, with 450,000 followers, sees the danger to Russian forces in the region if they’re cut off:
The (temporary) closure of the Antonovsky Bridge for the passage of freight transport promises serious logistical problems for the right-bank grouping of the RF Armed Forces in Kherson in the future.
Despite the fact that at the moment it is possible to redirect transport columns through the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, this will already affect the delivery, and given the recent attacks on warehouses in the Kherson region, the problem is becoming more acute.
It is obvious that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not stop at just minor damage to one bridge, and in the coming days we should expect a repetition of missile strikes both on the Antonovsky bridge, and on the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power station and other possible crossings.
If this problem is not resolved in the near future, this will create enormous risks of cutting off Russian troops in Kherson from permanent supply communications with the left bank, which, in the event of a possible offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, may result in another gesture of goodwill.
If you didn’t catch the sarcasm, “gesture of goodwill” is what Russia calls its humiliating retreats, whether from Kyiv or Snake Island. Without supplies, Kherson and Melitopol could certainly follow that pattern.
Ukraine is also pushing toward Polohy, another railway hub and one that has been hit pretty hard in recent weeks. This supply and ammo depot was on the main railway, because these things always are. [video at the link]
Without Polohy, Russia’s efforts to push north from southern Donbas will be dead, not that they’ve been going anywhere the last few months anyway. More importantly, it will prevent Russia from easily reinforcing any effort to outflank from the east Ukraine’s push toward Tokmak.
A Russian withdrawal from Kherson-Melitopol-Enerhodar (where that one nuclear power plant is located) wouldn’t just be a crushing Russian defeat akin to their Kyiv debacle, but would allow Ukraine to focus the bulk of its energy on retaking the economically critical port cities of Berdyansk and Mariupol. At that point, any frozen conflict would effectively reset the status quo to the pre-invasion lines. Russia would have more Luhansk territory, but it would have little reason to stick around Izyum area—that pile of rubble only exists to support Russia’s push toward the twin fortress cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
But better yet, serious Ukraine progress in liberating its territory could very well stiffen Western resolve. Everyone loves a winner, and the morale effect on Russian and proxy forces could be devastating, leading to mass desertion and surrender.
It should be clear that I don’t have particular insight into Ukrainian war planning, but this is an educated guess on what Ukraine is doing in shaping the battlefield. […] Ukraine is shaping the battlefield to precipitate a Russian withdrawal from Kherson to avoid being cut off from its supplies.
And just last night: [video at the link]
The U.S. has announced four more HIMARS to Ukraine in the latest upcoming aid tranche. The Pentagon said it was monitoring Ukraine’s ammo usage as that is the bottleneck with HIMARS, not the launchers themselves. […]
It’s amazing how many people still don’t get this, demanding the U.S. send “100 HIMARS!” to Ukraine, as if they’ll be using the launchers to ram into Ukrainian defenses. Given that each launcher can go through hundreds of rockets per day if properly supplied, imagine trying to feed 100 launchers. […]
As promised, Scientology filed its petition to the US Supreme Court yesterday, asking it to overturn a stunning January ruling by a California appeals court that dealt a serious blow to the church’s use of arbitration clauses in membership contracts as a way to derail lawsuits by former members.
The January ruling restored a lawsuit filed by Danny Masterson’s rape accusers, who are suing Scientology for what they say has been years of harassment since they came forward to the LAPD in 2016 with their allegations against the That 70’s Show actor and Scientology celebrity.
First filed in August 2019, the lawsuit was derailed when a lower court judge agreed with Scientology that contracts the plaintiffs had signed while they were Scientology members obliged them not to sue the church and to take their dispute to the church’s own internal “religious arbitration.”
But the appeals court ruled that because the harm the Masterson accusers were alleging — the stalking and harassment and hacking of their phones — occurred after they had left the church, the contracts no longer applied.
Now, Scientology is asking the highest court in the land to intervene in the case and reverse that appellate decision. But the US Supreme Court is under no obligation to get involved, and in fact it accepts very few of the hundreds of petitions that are submitted to it each year.
So, in order to get the court’s attention and convince it to take up the matter of Scientology’s “arbitration,” its attorneys are trying to speak this strongly conservative court’s language. The appeals court ruling “weaponizes the First Amendment against religious freedom,” Scientology’s petition says, after first explaining that Scientology is just like other religions that have their own internal justice procedures.
The 36-page document is soaked in religious language, which is a favorite Scientology tactic in litigation. Not once in the lengthy document, however, is the distinction made that the California appeals court considered so important: Not only that these former Scientologists had left the organization, but that the harm they claimed they were suffering was inflicted on them by Scientology after they had departed.
Scientology in its petition instead portrays the California appeals court as a rogue actor creating a frightening threat to all religions:…
Much more at the link. I’m not sure I understand why this isn’t also a criminal matter – it sounds like harassment, stalking, witness intimidation, and, if he’s found guilty, potentially being accessories to his crimes.
Researchers at Harvard University who conducted the largest study yet of what motivated Jan. 6 rioters say the data is clear: The most common responses focused on former President Donald Trump and his lies about the election.
The study, which was shared with NBC News ahead of its publication, logged and analyzed the motives of 417 Capitol rioters, all of whom have been charged in relation to Jan. 6. The motives were derived from 469 documents filed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, including charging documents and sentencing memoranda.
The researchers from the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University wrote that the documents make clear that Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., “was mostly correct in her assessment” that “Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.”
“Far and away, we find that the two most commonly-cited reasons for breaching the US Capitol were a desire to support Trump on January 6th in DC and concerns about election integrity,” the report reads.
The report adds to evidence from thousands of court documents in the more than 840 cases brought forward so far that many of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol and committed violent acts were motivated by their support for Trump and their belief in lies about the 2020 election….
lumipunasays
Update to my comment at 30 (walrus sighting in Finland last week):
The walrus died a couple days ago, after several days of massive media attention.
Turns out it wasn’t Wally from Ireland, or the same animal that was recently spotted in Norway, but there had been several sightings of the same animal wandering around the Baltic Sea during June and early July. Over the weekend, it languished in the coastal waters in Hamina and repeatedly crawled ashore. It was sickly and very skinny and undernourished, probably too weak to swim much anywhere. Authorities tried to usher it back into the sea, while keeping the gawkers some distance away. While in the water, the animal was once rescued from a fish trap. Eventually, the walrus was tranquilized and taken into zoo custody to help it recover, but it sadly died during transport.
Ten Florida men with felony convictions have been charged with voter fraud because prosecutors say they registered and voted illegally. Critics say the punishments are unfair.
His last night as a prisoner in North Florida, Kelvin Bolton couldn’t sleep. Fifty-five years old, with a wispy goatee the same color as the gray flecks in his hair, he was about to get out after serving a 2 1/2-year sentence for theft and battery. The last time he’d seen his brothers and sisters at a big family gathering, he’d marched onto the dance floor ostentatiously, turned away and wrapped his arms around himself to caress his own back. As he swayed goofily to the music, everybody laughed.
Now Bolton was so close to being free and seeing his family again. The next morning, a bright Wednesday in April, he was already dressed in his street clothes and cleared to go when the woman processing his paperwork stopped him.
“The lady said, ‘Hold on, you can’t go anywhere,’” Bolton remembered in a recent phone call.
Confused, he asked her what was going on, he recalled. There was a warrant out for his arrest for incidents in 2020, she explained gruffly. But that was impossible. He’d been in jail at the time, awaiting his prison stint.
Guards loaded Bolton into a van, then drove an hour and a half south to deposit him in Alachua County Jail.
There, he found out what he’d done wrong.
He’d voted.
In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, in a historic ballot initiative that restored the right to vote to most state residents with felony convictions. Until then, Florida had been one of only four states — the others were Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia — where people who had committed felonies needed to petition the governor to have their voting rights restored. It was a grim legacy of 19th-century laws passed after the 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote.
Supporters applauded the law as restoring voting rights to what experts estimate is over 1 million people in Florida, about 5% of the population of the state.
But the state’s dominant Republican lawmakers quickly installed a financial hurdle to those new rights. The following year, they passed a law to clarify that people convicted of felonies could only vote if they first paid off any money they owed for committing their crimes. The penalty for registering or voting without doing so: a felony charge for voter fraud.
On the surface, the mandate seemed reasonable: Even advocates for Amendment 4 agreed that requiring paying off fines and restitution to victims was just. In Florida, however, that task proved a sometimes insurmountable challenge — one that disproportionately hit Black people. Florida has no centralized database to allow people to figure out what legal financial obligations they owe to the state. Instead, its 67 counties and various state agencies each maintain their own databases. The state also does not track information for federal or out-of-state convictions, which people are also required to pay off before voting.
On top of the fines and restitution, Florida layers on court fees that can run into the hundreds of dollars. Together, a voter’s debt can run into the thousands, a financial hole that some may never climb out of.
[…] voting fraud remains so rare in Florida that it hasn’t come close to altering election outcomes. The Florida Department of State in 2020 received 262 election fraud complaints, just 75 of which were referred to law enforcement or prosecuting authorities, according to the agency.
“Florida is an outlier, because the intentional targeting of citizens with felony convictions as a way to undermine democracy has been a throughline in that state,” said Nicole Porter, senior director of advocacy for the Sentencing Project. “And the attempt to address that, by popular vote, has been undermined by the legislature.”
In 2020, a representative of the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections conducted a series of outreach efforts at the local county jail to let inmates know of their new rights and offer to help them add their names to the voter rolls.
During three visits to the jail, the official helped sign up at least 10 inmates, including John Boyd Rivers, Dedrick Baldwin and Bolton.
[…] No one told him anything about needing to pay off his financial obligations before registering to vote, Rivers said, and the jail didn’t give him an accounting of those debts when he was later released.
Back at home, Rivers was excited when his voter registration card arrived in the mail. He’d lost his right to vote at 18, he said, after voting just once. Now he could vote in a presidential election. He and his wife went to their polling place, and he cast his vote for Donald Trump.
Bolton, too, was excited to sign up. He also said no one told him he’d need to pay off his debts before casting his ballot. Although he registered as a Republican, he said he decided to vote for Biden.
In all, 10 of the men who the official helped register to vote have been charged with voter fraud on the grounds they were ineligible.
Their alleged illegal voting was first spotted by a citizen who analyzed Florida’s voting rolls and then shared the information with the state. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement subsequently launched an eight-month investigation, after which it identified the 10 inmates. […]
Four of the 10 have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to between 364 days and three years in prison. Bolton and three others have vowed to go to trial, while the remaining two await arraignment. They face charges that carry a penalty of up to five years in prison, five years of probation or $5,000 in fines. Eight of the men are Black, and two are white.
Critics say the charges are unjust and, at a bare minimum, excessive. […] In April, two white men living in The Villages in Sumter County, an overwhelmingly white county in central Florida, pleaded guilty to each casting two ballots for Donald Trump during the 2020 election. Rather than face prosecution, they entered a pretrial intervention program, under which they must serve 50 hours of community service and attend an adult civics class, among other requirements. Because the men in Alachua County have prior felony convictions, they are ineligible for pretrial intervention and face harsher sentences.
[…] “We were flat out tricked into voting.”
The voter fraud charges were especially bitter for Rivers. By the time they were filed, Rivers said, he had already used part of his federal stimulus check to pay off more than $3,000 in costs related to his criminal record so he could reinstate his driver’s license and return to work.
[…] Florida’s history of felon disenfranchisement dates back to 1838, when the state’s first constitution prohibited people convicted of bribery or assorted “high crimes and misdemeanors” from voting. After the Civil War, faced with the prospect of formerly enslaved Black men voting, the state expanded the law so that anyone convicted of a felony lost the franchise. But in 2018, 64% of Florida voters approved Amendment 4, allowing people convicted of felonies, except for murder or sexual offense convictions, to vote.
This embrace of new voters became more complicated the following year when the state legislature passed its law. It required that people convicted of felonies must determine their own eligibility before registering to vote. The Florida Department of Corrections and county detention facilities are required to provide notice to inmates at the time of their release of their outstanding financial obligations.
[…] Florida charges those convicted of crimes with an array of fines and fees, some of which statutorily cannot be eliminated or reduced. Defendants facing felony charges are assessed $100 to use a public defender, as well as a $100 prosecution fee. At least one person already sentenced in the Alachua County cases has been charged an additional $671 for his voting fraud charges on top of the financial obligations he already owed. [WTF?]
Finding out what someone owes is time-consuming and expensive. An analysis led by Traci Burch, a political science professor at Northwestern University, tried to determine the legal financial obligations owed by a random sample of 153 Florida residents convicted of felonies and found consistent information for only three of them. Counties often keep poor records, have cumbersome websites and employ unhelpful clerks.
[…] it can cost money merely to find out how much money you owe. Four in 10 Florida counties charged either a payment or processing fee to look at their databases, and 15% charged a fee to access certain records, according to Burch’s research.
[…] The state legislature immediately disqualified about 750,000 people from being able to vote when it passed its law requiring people convicted of felonies to pay their debts first […] And the new law’s impact was felt much more harshly by Black people, who faced greater fines and fees […]
In May 2020, a district court judge ruled that parts of the law were unconstitutional and that the law had established a pay-to-vote system. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling the following September, saying it was in the state’s power to require the payoffs and the law didn’t violate people’s rights. The state Supreme Court has also issued an advisory opinion that deemed the law legitimate.
[…] Kelvin Bolton has been sitting in the Alachua Council Jail since April, waiting for his case to proceed.
He’s been in and out of the system since he was 16, piling up a long record of mostly nonviolent crimes, most recently for stealing a car, groping a woman in a store and taking cigarettes from a Dollar General.
He aims this time to keep a vow he made to his family and himself to stay straight. He said he is frustrated that the prosecutor subsequently created a program for people convicted of felonies to check their voting eligibility while he and the others are still facing charges.
“Why would they want to keep charging us for something that they’re in the wrong for?” he said. “The state is in the wrong for what they did to us.”
In a 228-195 vote, the House voted Thursday morning to enshrine federal protection of access to contraceptives without government restrictions into law, with just eight Republicans voting “yes” and two cowardly Republicans voting “present.” Yes, 195 lawmakers believe that the federal government should not guarantee that Americans have the basic right to plan their families. Put another way, 195 Republicans believe that a state government should be able to deny you that right.
One. Hundred. And. Ninety. Five.
That needs to be shouted out repeatedly. And the vote needs to be held in the Senate, were we can see again that Republicans think they need to be smack dab in the middle of controlling your private life.
The Right to Contraception Act (a very good read, by the way) would statutorily protect access to and use of contraceptives, as well as health care providers’ right to provide contraception and information about how to use it. It would allow the Justice Department as well as individuals and entities harmed by state restriction to birth control access and provision to seek enforcement of those rights in court.
“The right to contraception is a fundamental right, central to a person’s privacy, health, wellbeing, dignity, liberty, equality, and ability to participate in the social and economic life of the nation,” the lawmakers state in the findings section of the bill, pointing out that the “Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized the constitutional right to contraception.” They also point out that Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurrence in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning abortion rights, wrote that the court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell” and that the court has “a duty to correct the error established in those precedents” by overruling them.
“The right to make personal decisions about contraceptive use is important for all Americans, and is especially critical for historically marginalized groups, including Black, indigenous, and other people of color; immigrants; LGBTQ people; people with disabilities; people with low incomes; and people living in rural and underserved areas,” the legislation states. “Many people who are part of these marginalized groups already face barriers—exacerbated by social, political, economic, and environmental inequities—to comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care, that reduce their ability to make decisions about their health, families, and lives.”
Which are all of the reasons why Republicans voted against affirming this right: These are all the people they want to punish, down to what happens in their bedrooms. If they can force them to be pregnant and to secure the “domestic supply of infants,” as Justice Samuel Alito so terrifyingly described their intent, so much the better.
Senate Democrats have to make their Republicans counterparts vote on this. Those Republicans are already tying themselves up in knots trying to justify why they think the state should be getting in bed with all of us.
[…] They need to be forced to explain why they don’t think we should be able to use whatever birth control is safe and effective for us. They also need to be forced to explain why they think it’s just about women, when there are an awfully lot of sexually active men out there with partners who could become pregnant […]
If that means the Senate doesn’t get to have the whole of August recess off in order to get this done, fine. It’s far more important that Democrats show the country that they will not let the country slide even further into a dystopia that we all hoped would remain the stuff of fiction.
If you didn’t catch the sarcasm, “gesture of goodwill” is what Russia calls its humiliating retreats, whether from Kyiv or Snake Island. Without supplies, Kherson and Melitopol could certainly follow that pattern.
IMP.: US welcomes news of #Russia – #Ukraine Grain Deal brokered by #Turkey, set to allow Ukrainian supply to leave its ports. US says key will be implementation
Deal is expected to signed in Turkey tomorrow, Ankara said. UN Sec Gen. Guterres is en route to Istanbul now.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Secret Service text messages that may have been relevant to inquiries about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The results of the investigation could be referred to federal prosecutors, the sources said, depending on the results.
The DHS Inspector General informed the Secret Service on Wednesday evening that the investigation is now criminal and that it should halt all internal investigations on the missing text messages, according to a letter detailed to NBC News.
“To ensure the integrity of our investigation, the USSS must not engage in any further investigative activities regarding the collection and preservation of the evidence referenced above,” DHS Deputy Inspector General Gladys Ayala wrote in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray on Wednesday evening. “This includes immediately refraining from interviewing potential witnesses, collecting devices or taking any other action that would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation.”…
Re: 236 Harvard study about insurrectionist posting.
Posted to the nextdoor politics board with “Where can I charge Donald Trump for the rent in my head? He always seems to have a good reason to be there”.
THREAD Let’s start a long thread about how Russian book market prepared Russians for a full-scale war against Ukraine, NATO, the West, and promoted stalinism and nazism, and how this was ignored by the West. Keep seat belts fasten, you will see a lot of nasty things here….
This weekend marks five brutal months since Russia invaded Ukraine — with no end in sight. And in Russia, support for the war has remained high. 77% approve of Putin’s actions in Ukraine, according to a survey conducted in late May by the Levada Center, Russia’s only remaining independent pollster. The war, at least in its neatly repackaged, Kremlin-approved form, is somewhat popular amongst Russians. On March 4th, Putin signed a “fake news” law, which threatens imprisonment for any journalist who deviates from the Kremlin’s depiction of the war in Ukraine, shielding the operation of a durable and effective propaganda machine — which has been turning its gears for decades.
Independent journalist Anastasiia Carrier was born and raised in Russia. She’s spent the last few years in the US working as a reporter, and actively wrenching herself away from the propaganda she grew up believing about Russia’s unequal prominence. In this episode of On the Media, Carrier talks about breaking away from her past as a Putin supporter.
In all of our reporting on Gov. Ron DeSantis, one thing has remained the status quo, and that’s his penchant for fascist rule. From his book banning to his “Don’t Say Gay” bill to the ban on teaching Black American history—under the guise of protecting kids from learning “CRT”—DeSantis is an old-school brownshirt tyrant. His latest dictate focuses on attacking the press in Florida.
Thomas Kennedy, an activist-journalist and Miami-based Democratic National Committee (DNC) member, is just one of three activist-journalists Daily Kos spoke with about being ejected from press conferences, kept off of press lists, and charged or arrested for trying to do their jobs and cover the governor.
Kennedy says that as much as he detests the previous governor, Rick Scott, at least he was accessible. On the contrary, DeSantis “moves with a presidential level of security of detail,” he says. “It’s ridiculous.”
Kennedy says DeSantis is “always being taken through back doors, and there’s a perimeter established as soon as he enters a place. … He doesn’t really meet people. You can tell the guy really likes to be in control of the situation.”
But the worst of it for Kennedy began when he confronted the Republican governor in July 2020 about his abysmal handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not long after, Kennedy was stopped by police while parking in a public parking lot to enter a DeSantis press conference. He was made to get out of his car, detained for about 30 minutes, issued a trespassing warning, and was told “they don’t want you here.” He was then escorted out. [video at the link]
He said he began then to suspect that police had his vehicle information. So Kennedy asked Grant Stern, the executive editor of Occupy Democrats, who has also been famously ejected from a joint press conference in Florida, to do some investigating for him and pull any records he could find.
Stern uncovered an 83-page surveillance dossier on Kennedy compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). As Kennedy writes in an op-ed for Latino Rebels, the file “opened a criminal intelligence case against me without a criminal predicate. That’s when they started surveilling my social media while sharing my name, photo, and vehicle information with other police agencies in the state, in addition to other personal information.”
The document, highlighted in Kennedy’s lawsuit against DeSantis, makes note that Kennedy has “no history of violence.”
There’s no evidence that points directly to DeSantis’ team for directing the FDLE to create the file on Kennedy, but the governor’s office has blocked Kennedy from the press mailing list, and recently both he and Stern were ejected from a DeSantis press conference at Miami Dade College before it began.
In August 2021, Stern was violently pushed out of a DeSantis press conference in Miami after asking attempting to ask Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy a question about his support for the Jan. 6 House select committee.
Stern says he’s suffered a painful knee injury, requiring 26 doctor appointments over a six-month period, after security guards pushed him out of the room.
“I feel like there’s a fear factor there that these people know that I’m going to dig up something really damaging about them or just with my questions cause their frail narratives to fall apart. Which is true, by the way,” Stern says. [video at the link]
Both Stern and Kennedy implied they were disappointed that no mainstream media journalists have stood up for them.
“They’re afraid that they’re going to lose their jobs if they stand up for somebody like me. It’s 100% not even in question. I talk to them. They don’t say that, but I know these people. I’ve known these people for years. Some of these people are in the room alongside us. … I mean, it should be front-page news when a journalist gets kicked out. Look at [Univision anchor] Jorge Ramos. Is this anything different than when Jorge Ramos wanted to ask Donald Trump questions?” Stern says.
Veteran journalist, community organizer, and member of the National Association of Black Journalists Ben Frazier was also ejected from a DeSantis press event held in Jacksonville, Florida.
Frazier, 71, tells Daily Kos that, the day he was asked to leave the event and later arrested, he knew DeSantis would be attending and wanted to ask him questions about his COVID-19 policies as they related to Black Floridians.
“I wanted to confront him and I knew it would be acrimonious, but so be it. That’s what happens with regards to elected officials of the people and the Fourth Estate, the press. That’s the way it’s supposed to happen. I didn’t think that they would stop me from asking questions, but apparently, as soon as I came through the door, they started trying to stop me,” Frazier says.
Frazier, who uses a wheelchair, explains that DeSantis’ officials asked for his press credentials, and when he didn’t provide them, the police arrested and then detained him for about 40 minutes. He was never charged. [video at the link]
“I’ve covered countless news conferences all of my life. When I say all of my life, I mean I’ve been doing this since 1970. And nowhere in the United States of America have I received this kind of treatment. … I mean, come on. I worked in Washington, D.C. during Watergate, and Richard Nixon didn’t kick people out,” Frazier says.
Last week’s January 6 hearing focused on a meeting at the White House on December 18, 2020, where Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Patrick Byrne (the Overstock weirdo) presented their insane plan for President Donald Trump to appoint Powell special counsel so she could order the National Guard to seize voting machines and investigate non-existent vote fraud in the swing states. These goons had no appointment to see the president that fateful evening, but by the end of the Trump administration, the White House was staffed exclusively by broken toys. So a low-level staffer for Peter Navarro, Trump’s anti-China crank, snuck the Derp Squad in.
That staffer is named Garrett Ziegler, and boy does that kid have our number. [tweet and video at the link]
“They’re Bolsheviks, so they probably do hate the American founders and most white people in general,” the Boy Wonder posted yesterday on Telegram after being interviewed by the House January 6 Select Committee. “This is a Bolshevistic anti-white campaign. If you can’t see that, your eyes are freaking closed.”
BREAKING: Rep. Liz Cheney hates white people! Must credit some weenus who used to work for a guy who was too stupid to avoid a contempt of Congress charge despite working in the White House on January 6, 2021.
“They see me as a young Christian who they can try to basically scare, right?” he continued.
First of all, Ziegler’s new “gig” is a website exposing Hunter Biden for the gross sleazeball that he is — like that’s news to anyone on Planet Earth — with posts on such super-Christian topics as “Tales of a Biden’s Perineum at the Fairview Inn: A Selfie Stick from Hell (and Why You Won’t Use a Bic Razor Ever Again).” Do you want to see stolen photos of Hunter Biden’s asshole? This good Christian can oblige!
Second of all, who is “they”? Would that be (((they))) as in Reps. Raskin, Luria, and Schiff? Very subtle, kid, if entirely unoriginal. [Poster for Nazi Party speech on Jewish Bolshevik threat, as displayed in the U.S. Holocaust museum]
Ziegler went on to explain that he’d spent much of his deposition “invoking my right to silence under executive privilege in the Fifth Amendment.” Which is not a thing, you raging dipshit.
Perhaps realizing that he’d let the hood slip, Ziegler insisted that he was the “least racist person that you’ve ever met.” As one often feels the need to do when one is not remotely racist. “I have no bigotry,” he insisted, “I just try to see the world as it is.”
“They’re not even going after any other young people in the White House,” he whined, adding that “The other young people in the White House are total hoes and thots like Cassidy Hutchinson and this Alyssa Farah hoebag, who are just terrible.”
Try to contain your shock, kids, that this whinging manbaby can think of no better insult for his female coworkers than to call them whores. For those of you not down with the incel lingo, “thot” is an acronym for “that ho over there.” And while Ziegler scoffs that they “have no clue what they’re saying,” let’s be clear that Hutchinson’s CV is a whole lot more impressive than his, with stints working for Rep. Steve Scalise, Senator Ted Cruz, and the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, before becoming Mark Meadows’s chief aide and a Special Assistant to the President. There’s a reason that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called Hutchinson, not Ziegler, to ensure that Trump wouldn’t accompany the mob as it descended on the Capitol. And that reason is that only one was competent enough to be close to the seat of power.
As for Farah, well, Your Wonkette is no fan, but come the fuck on, dude. She was press secretary to the Department of Defense and the vice president, and now she’s a paid commentator for CNN. She may have traded her integrity for money in the Trump White House, but she’s not actually a sex worker, and her career is far more impressive than Ziegler’s.
Of course Ziegler doesn’t think these women are literally prostitutes, any more than he believes that the committee members are members of the Russian Bolshevik Party. What he means by “Bolshevik” is “anyone whose political views are different from mine.” And by “hoebags” he means “anyone with a vagina whom I don’t like.” It’s pathetic, and as soon as we finish this post, we will forget about this bratty loser forever.
But before that, let’s just point out that this is who Republicans are. The entire party has been colonized by a bunch of brain-poisoned edge lords who think that pumping memes into the ass end of the internet is actual policy work. And the longer they spend wanking in their chat rooms about Hunter Biden, the better off we’ll all be.
Join us tonight at 8 p.m. eastern for more House January 6 Select Committee hijinks, presumably not including this young man’s face.
“He looks at me with his innocent and beautiful eyes. He is asking me to take him out for a walk, but I don’t dare. We will get arrested.”
Mahsa, who has a dog, is referring to a new wave of arrests of pet owners and seizures of their animals in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Police there recently announced that walking dogs in parks was a crime. The ban was justified as a measure to “protect the safety of the public”.
At the same, the Iranian parliament could soon approve the Protection of the Public’s Rights Against Animals bill, which would restrict pet ownership across the board.
Symbols of ‘Westernisation’
According to the proposed legislation, pet ownership would be subject to a permit issued by a special committee. There would also be a minimum fine of around $800 (790 euros; £670) for the “import, purchase and sale, transportation and keeping” of a range of animals, including common pets such as cats, turtles and rabbits.
“Debates around this bill started more than a decade ago, when a group of Iranian MPs tried to promote a law to confiscate all dogs and give them to zoos or leave them in deserts,” Dr Payam Mohebi, the president of the Iran Veterinary Association and an opponent of the bill, told the BBC. [!!!]
“Over the years, they have changed this a couple of times and even discussed corporal punishment for dog owners. But their plan didn’t get anywhere.”
Keeping dogs has always been common in Iran’s rural areas, but the animals also became a symbol of urban life in the 20th Century.
Iran was one of the first countries in the Middle East to pass animal welfare laws, in 1948, and the government funded the first institution to enhance animal rights. Even the country’s royal family had dogs as pets.
But the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi overthrown, changed many aspects of life for Iranians and their dogs.
The animals are considered impure in Islamic tradition. In the eyes of the new regime dogs also became a symbol of the “Westernisation” that it sought to curb.
“There has not been a solid regulation around owning dogs,” Dr Ashkan Shemirani, a Tehran-based veterinarian, told the BBC.
“Police forces arrest people for walking their dogs or even carrying them in their cars based on their interpretation of what could be seen as symbols of Westernisation.”
Dr Shemirani said the authorities even created a “prison” for the seized pets.
“We heard loads of horror stories from that place,” he added.
“The animals were kept for many days in open areas without proper food or water while the dog owners were going through all kinds of legal trouble.”
Iran’s economic woes following years of Western sanctions have also played a part in the new bill. Authorities have banned imports of pet food for more than three years as part of a push to preserve the country’s foreign currency reserves.
In a landscape dominated by foreign brands, that meant a spike in local prices, especially after the establishment of an underground market.
“We are highly dependent on people who smuggle in food secretly,” the owner of a veterinary clinic in the city of Mashhad told the BBC.
“The prices are now five times what they were just a few months ago.”
The owner claimed that the locally produced pet food was not up to standard.
“The quality is very poor. Factories use cheap meat or fish, even expired ingredients,” they said.
Feline trouble
But the new legislation is not only aimed at dogs. Cats are also included on a list of animals – even crocodiles are mentioned.
That is despite Iran being the birthplace of Persian cats, one of the world’s most famous breeds.
“Can you believe that now Persian cats are not safe in their homeland?” a Tehran-based vet told the BBC.
“There is no logic behind this law. The hardliners want to show their iron fists to people.”
Dr Mohebi, the Iranian Veterinary Association’s president, called the proposed law “embarrassing”.
“If parliament passes the bill, the next generations will remember us as people who banned dogs because they are dogs and cats because they are cats.”
People like Masha are genuinely worried about their pets’ futures.
“I won’t dare to apply for permission for my ‘son’,” she said.
“What if they refuse my application? I cannot leave him on the street.”
Russian proxies in the Russian-occupied territory of Donbas have been confiscating documents from forcibly mobilized troops, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russian proxies have been stripping personal documents from residents in Donbas in attempts to force them to fight against Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities added that Russian proxies are trying to make it impossible for forcibly mobilized troops to desert or identify those that have been killed in the fighting.
@Lynna, OM
Are you personally inserting the “[video at the link]” bits? If so, thumbs up for post formatting! They really help with deciding whether to actually load the full page or not.
StevoRsays
Live Jan 6th Congress hearings via Aussie ABC here :
Reminder – The Adelaide Refugee Vigil for Manus and Nauru (& others) is on as usual tonight at 5 pm in Rundle Mall near the metal pigeon sculpture – everyone welcome. Just in case any Pharyngulites in Adelaide see this in time & ar einterested in coming. Every Friday night still.
Event by Adelaide vigil for Manus and Nauru
Duration: 1 hr 15 min
Public · Anyone on or off Facebook
Adelaide Vigil members invite you to join us for this week’s vigil, in RUNDLE MALL, at the intersection with Gawler Place, near the giant silver pigeon.
Late last year the Australian Government announced its plan to abandon the 110 refugee men remaining in Papua New Guinea, having detained them there, illegally, since 2013. That has now been in effect since January 1st, and continues to cause much anxiety.
A new Memorandum Of Understanding was signed with Nauru, enabling the continuation of Australia’s offshore human warehousing to continue there, into the future.
Although most of the Manus and Nauru refugees medevacced to Australia have at last been released into “community detention”, the government’s own figures record 6 as remaining in closed detention in Australia. 216 remain without resettlement in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
Please help us to keep a spotlight on this wrong, perpetrated in our name, and join us in standing for the freedom, safety and human rights of the refugees the Australian government wants us to forget. Over 200 still being held in inhumane conditions after almost 9 years of punishment on #Manus, #Nauru and now also Port Moresby PNG and Australian Immigration Detention.
The only laws that have been broken in their seeking of asylum are those which Australia itself has an international obligation to uphold, through its signing of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
SC@256, Before even visiting that thread, I predicted two, Brave Sir Robin Ran Away (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), and Yakety Sax (used as a theme tune by The Benny Hill Show). I was not disappointed.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The US believes that Russia’s military is sustaining hundreds of casualties a day in its war in Ukraine, and has lost thousands of lieutenants and captains in total, a senior US defence official said on Friday.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the US also believed Ukraine had destroyed more than 100 “high-value” Russian targets inside Ukraine, including command posts, ammunition depots and air-defence sites.
The US estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached about 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA director William Burns said on Wednesday, adding that Ukraine has also endured significant casualties.
The Kyiv Independent claimed on Friday that Russia had so far lost approximately 39,000 troops since it invaded Ukraine, citing “indicative estimates of Ukraine’s armed forces”.
Russia treats military deaths as state secrets and has not updated its official casualty figures frequently during the war. On 25 March, it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
EU launches new legal proceedings against UK over its failure to implement Northern Ireland protocol
The European Union has launched fresh legal action against the UK for failing to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.
In a statement, the European Commission says it is launching four new infringement procedures because the UK is ignoring obligations it has to the EU under the protocol, which imposes customs rules for goods going between Britain and Northern Ireland to avoid the need for checks at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
The commission says:
In a spirit of constructive cooperation, the commission refrained from launching certain infringement procedures for over a year to create the space to look for joint solutions with the UK. However, the UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion since last February and the continued passage of the Northern Ireland protocol bill through the UK parliament go directly against this spirit.
The aim of these infringement procedures is to secure compliance with the protocol in a number of key areas. This compliance is essential for Northern Ireland to continue to benefit from its privileged access to the European single market, and is necessary to protect the health, security and safety of EU citizens as well as the integrity of the single market.
Formal infringement procedures start with the commission writing to the UK and demanding remedial action. If the UK does not comply within two months, the commission could take the issues to the European court of justice, which could fine the UK. The commission has also not ruled out imposing trade sanctions on the UK as retaliation.
The four complaints are that the UK failed to comply with: 1) customs requirements, supervision requirements and risk controls on the movement of goods from Northern Ireland to Great Britain; 2) the transposition of EU legislation laying down general EU rules on excise duties; 3) the transposition of EU rules on excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages; and 4) EU rules on Value Added Tax (VAT) for e-commerce, namely the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS).
Last month the commission launched infringement proceedings in relation to a different aspect of the protocol, where it also said the UK was ignoring its obligations.
…This Liverpool food bank – and thousands more like it – are at the sharpest edge of a deepening economic crisis that has its roots in the Covid pandemic and in the corridors of power from Westminster to Moscow.
As prices continued to rise at their fastest rate for more than 40 years, the Guardian spent two weeks on the frontline of Britain’s cost-of-living crisis and listened to those struggling to survive the biggest fall in living standards since the mid-1950s. It heard of families stockpiling cheap disposable barbecues to cook during winter, others hoarding candles to light their homes, and some rationing sheets of toilet paper.
Among those relying on emergency handouts were a recently retired NHS receptionist, a self-employed father of two who said he would need to steal from supermarkets to feed his children, and a recently arrived Ukrainian family surviving on food parcels, in part due to delays in the UK’s welfare system.
…
It is a nightmare that goes far beyond Liverpool. The global economy is grappling with higher food and fuel prices in the wake of Covid, a supply chain crisis and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The UK, which has the highest inflation in the G7, has been particularly exposed to the shock due to disruption related to Brexit – such as worker shortages and paperwork delays – and as a net importer of energy.
But charities say that a combination of the long squeeze on welfare payments, the two-child benefit cap, stagnant public sector pay, the bedroom tax, and the removal of the £20 universal credit uplift last October have helped lead vastly more people to food banks.
There are other structural factors that leave the poorest most exposed to rising inflation. Millions of Britain’s most deprived families rely on top-up prepayment meters for their gas and electricity, at rates often hundreds of pounds a year more expensive than monthly tariffs. They also tend to live in so-called “food deserts” – areas without easy access to a supermarket – so generally pay more for less nutritious food often from corner shops.
…
Food banks in Liverpool face an additional pressure, says Dr Naomi Maynard of Feeding Liverpool, because the city is the dispersal centre for asylum seekers in north-west England. Lengthy delays in the application process mean many end up stuck in Liverpool for months or years. About two-thirds of the people who use Micah’s food banks are asylum seekers.
“We have had people literally shaking with nerves because of the trauma of coming in here,” says Sue Mannings, a retired teacher who registers everyone who uses the St Vincent’s food bank for the first time. Her spreadsheet is like an A-Z of the world’s conflict zones: Sudan, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Congo – and, recently, Ukraine.
…
Barely a mile from Liverpool’s historic waterfront are some of the most deprived streets in Britain. Nearly 60% of the city’s children live in wards that are defined as among the poorest 10% in England. Almost 22,000 children – one in four of Liverpool’s total – are classed as living in poverty and 30% are eligible for free school meals, higher than England’s average of 20%.
A survey by Feeding Liverpool of 52 food bank users last month found that low income was a key reason for their use. In a city where the average household income is £33,476, nearly £8,000 below the national average, it is little wonder that so many are seeking help….
Jane Corbett, the council’s deputy mayor and its lead on fighting poverty, says the projections are “absolutely terrifying” and worse is yet to come. Officials estimate that a staggering 78% of Liverpool residents – nearly 172,000 households – will fall into fuel poverty if the energy price cap rises to £3,000 as forecast in October.
There will be real victims, says Corbett. “Yes, people will die – absolutely. The protection around people to keep them safe, as citizens of this country, is in rags. It’s in tatters.”…
[Carlson] had Yale School of Public Health epidemiologist Harvey Risch on the show to tout ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as far more effective defenses against Covid – despite considerable medical assertions to the contrary. “Doctors are more afraid of what happens if they go outside the permitted messaging,” Risch said.
“Oh man, I feel like we’re losing a lot right now,” Carlson replied. “Thank you for your bravery and your commitment to actual science.”
Ukraine and Russia sign UN-backed deal to restart grain exports
Ukraine and Russia have signed a UN-backed deal to allow the export of millions of tonnes of grain from blockaded Black Sea ports, potentially averting the threat of a catastrophic global food crisis.
A signing ceremony at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul was attended by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, who had played a key role during months of tense negotiations.
Guterres said in remarks after the deal would open up grain exports from Ukraine and the UN would work to ensure its success.
It is hoped the agreement will secure the passage of grain and essential goods such as sunflower oil from three Ukrainian ports including Odesa, even as the war continues to rage elsewhere in the country. The UN had warned that the war risked mass malnutrition, hunger and famine.
The deal is also aimed at ensuring the safe passage of Russian-made fertiliser products, essential for ensuring future high yields on crops, amid efforts to ease a global food crisis provoked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
UN officials said they hoped preliminary shipments could begin as soon as Saturday, with the hope of reaching prewar levels of export from the three Ukrainian ports – a rate of 5m metric tonnes of grain a month – within weeks.
According to UN officials, under the agreement struck between Kyiv and Moscow:
– A coalition of Turkish, Ukrainian and UN staff will monitor the loading of grain on to vessels in Ukrainian ports before navigating a pre-planned route through the Black Sea, which remains heavily mined by Ukrainian and Russian forces.
– Ukrainian pilot vessels will guide commercial vessels transporting the grain in order to navigate the mined areas around the coastline using a map of safe channels provided by the Ukrainian side.
– The vessels will then cross the Black Sea towards Turkey’s Bosphorus strait while being closely monitored by a joint coordination centre in Istanbul, containing representatives from the UN, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.
– Ships entering Ukraine will be inspected under the supervision of the same joint coordination centre to ensure they are not carrying weapons or items that could be used to attack the Ukrainian side.
– The Russian and Ukrainian sides have agreed to withhold attacks on any of the commercial vessels or ports engaged in the initiative to transport vital grain, while UN and Turkish monitors will be present in Ukrainian ports in order to demarcate areas protected by the accord.
Novosibirsk politician charged with talking smack about the military: On Thursday, police officers in Novosibirsk arrested and charged local city councilwoman Helga Pirogova with “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces (a misdemeanor in Russia). She was ultimately released from custody and will face trial later. According to fellow councilmember Anton Kartavin, Pirogova is four months pregnant. Officers detained her immediately after she helped organize a charity auction to raise money for activists who owe fines for joining opposition protests in 2021.
Russia’s objectors, hidden in a basement: Journalists at Verstka[dot]media estimate that 1,793 soldiers from 22 regions across Russia have refused to fight in Ukraine since the start of the February 2022 invasion. More than 230 of these men are reportedly being held against their will in the town of Brianka in the self-declared “Luhansk People’s Republic.” The soldiers are allegedly being held in basements under armed guard (sometimes by mercenaries) until they agree to join the war. (There have been numerous reports of soldiers from cities across Russia returning to base after refusing to fight. Journalist Mikhail Afanasiev currently faces felony charges for reporting one of these instances in the Republic of Khakassia.)
…You were the first to introduce the term “sexual and gender dissidents,” and this usage was widely criticized when the book came out.
I feel like the reviewers of the English edition didn’t like the term (“sexual dissidents”). I’ve actually addressed this in the preface to the new translation [of the Russian edition]. They thought the term should be reserved for political dissidents. The term “dissidents” is obviously an important keyword in Soviet studies. We all knew about Andrey Sakharov; we all knew about the heroes of the Soviet dissident movement who fought for human rights and made great sacrifices to insist that the state actually respected some Constitution. And those people are obviously heroes.
My motivation for picking up the word was, first of all, to point to the fact that sexual and gender variation and diversity almost automatically require of the person who’s experiencing it to become a dissident — to love differently, to do gender differently. And that was not an option for people who felt that way. Short of self-destruction, people had to find ways to express their sexual desire, or their sense of gender. And I argue that in the book.
Because I didn’t have much material about the interior world of these gay men or lesbians, I couldn’t illustrate that point as well as I should have done. But what do the Russians say? “The first fry is bound to be a flop.”
It wasn’t a perfect book. But a lot of work of younger scholars that’s come out since my book has gone down that road and looked at the interior worlds of queers. And they have found very often that these people, yes, did feel “other” from society. They did feel a sense of dissidence (about their sexuality). I think I’ve been justified for picking up the term. What’s interesting is that a lot of these younger scholars are using the term (“dissidents”). The term has become current in LGBTQ Russian and Soviet studies.
The other thing I like about the term is that it’s a bridge-builder. It shows allies, or potential allies, that they have common cause with LGBT people. That LGBT people are not some strange biological subset of the population that civilized liberals tolerate, yet do not understand, but [that we] actually have a lot in common. We have people who oppose different kinds of regimes. So, that’s what the word “dissent” gives us.
There was a big debate in Western LGBT studies about essentialism versus social constructionism — these two opposing ideas of homosexuality, one being a kind of inherent thing that’s there in the individual, “born this way,” sort of biological explanation [of homosexuality] versus the social construction vision of homosexuality, which is something that changes over time, that is understood differently in different cultures, and that manifests itself in different ways in different cultures.
Social constructionism doesn’t deny that there is some biological desire going on, but it adds the superstructure of social and cultural layers to it. I always felt that moving from simply talking about sexuality to talking about dissent was a productive political move. That it actually showed how queer people in the past had been not merely expressing a biological urge but doing something more important than that. Doing something that was political….
Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions tell Axios.
The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say.
During his presidency, Trump often complained about what he called “the deep state.”
The heart of the plan is derived from an executive order known as “Schedule F,” developed and refined in secret over most of the second half of Trump’s term and launched 13 days before the 2020 election.
The reporting for this series draws on extensive interviews over a period of more than three months with more than two dozen people close to the former president, and others who have firsthand knowledge of the work underway to prepare for a potential second term. Most spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive planning and avoid Trump’s ire.
As Trump publicly flirts with a 2024 comeback campaign, this planning is quietly flourishing from Mar-a-Lago to Washington — with his blessing but without the knowledge of some people in his orbit.
Trump remains distracted by his obsession with contesting the 2020 election results. But he has endorsed the work of several groups to prime an administration-in-waiting. Personnel and action plans would be executed in the first 100 days of a second term starting on Jan. 20, 2025.
Their work could accelerate controversial policy and enforcement changes, but also enable revenge tours against real or perceived enemies, and potentially insulate the president and allies from investigation or prosecution.
They intend to stack thousands of mid-level staff jobs. Well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system — in line with Trump’s long-running obsession with draining “the swamp.” This includes building extensive databases of people vetted as being committed to Trump and his agenda.
The preparations are far more advanced and ambitious than previously reported. What is happening now is an inversion of the slapdash and virtually non-existent infrastructure surrounding Trump ahead of his 2017 presidential transition.
These groups are operating on multiple fronts: shaping policies, identifying top lieutenants, curating an alternative labor force of unprecedented scale, and preparing for legal challenges and defenses that might go before Trump-friendly judges, all the way to a 6-3 Supreme Court.
The centerpiece
Trump signed an executive order, “Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service,” in October 2020, which established a new employment category for federal employees. It received wide media coverage for a short period, then was largely forgotten in the mayhem and aftermath of Jan. 6 — and quickly was rescinded by President Biden.
Sources close to Trump say that if he were elected to a second term, he would immediately reimpose it.
Tens of thousands of civil servants who serve in roles deemed to have some influence over policy would be reassigned as “Schedule F” employees. Upon reassignment, they would lose their employment protections.
New presidents typically get to replace more than 4,000 so-called “political” appointees to oversee the running of their administrations. But below this rotating layer of political appointees sits a mass of government workers who enjoy strong employment protections — and typically continue their service from one administration to the next, regardless of the president’s party affiliation.
An initial estimate by the Trump official who came up with Schedule F found it could apply to as many as 50,000 federal workers — a fraction of a workforce of more than 2 million, but a segment with a profound role in shaping American life.
Trump, in theory, could fire tens of thousands of career government officials with no recourse for appeals. He could replace them with people he believes are more loyal to him and to his “America First” agenda.
Even if Trump did not deploy Schedule F to this extent, the very fact that such power exists could create a significant chilling effect on government employees.
It would effectively upend the modern civil service, triggering a shock wave across the bureaucracy. The next president might then move to gut those pro-Trump ranks — and face the question of whether to replace them with her or his own loyalists, or revert to a traditional bureaucracy.
Such pendulum swings and politicization could threaten the continuity and quality of service to taxpayers, the regulatory protections, the checks on executive power, and other aspects of American democracy.
Trump’s allies claim such pendulum swings will not happen because they will not have to fire anything close to 50,000 federal workers to achieve the result, as one source put it, of “behavior change.” Firing a smaller segment of “bad apples” among the career officials at each agency would have the desired chilling effect on others tempted to obstruct Trump’s orders.
…
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who chairs the subcommittee that oversees the federal civil service, is among a small group of lawmakers who never stopped worrying about Schedule F, even after Biden rescinded the order. Connolly has been so alarmed that he attached an amendment to this year’s defense bill to prevent a future president from resurrecting Schedule F. The House passed Connolly’s amendment but Republicans hope to block it in the Senate.
Machine-in-waiting
No operation of this scale is possible without the machinery to implement it. To that end, Trump has blessed a string of conservative organizations linked to advisers he currently trusts and calls on. Most of these conservative groups host senior figures from the Trump administration on their payroll, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
…
The advocacy groups who have effectively become extensions of the Trump infrastructure include the CRA, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), and the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI).
Other groups — while not formally connected to Trump’s operation — have hired key lieutenants and are effectively serving his ends. The Heritage Foundation, the legacy conservative group, has moved closer to Trump under its new president, Kevin Roberts, and is building links to other parts of the “America First” movement.
Sources who spoke to Axios paint a vivid picture of how the backroom plans are taking shape, starting with a series of interactions in Florida earlier this year, on April 28.
…
Sources close to the former president said that he will — as a matter of top priority — go after the national security apparatus, “clean house” in the intelligence community and the State Department, target the “woke generals” at the Defense Department, and remove the top layers of the Justice Department and FBI.
…
Trump saved his kindest words that night for two individuals: Mark Meadows and Russ Vought. He praised their organizations and the important work they were doing.
During the past year, Vought’s group has been developing plans that would benefit from Schedule F. And while the power rests largely on the fear factor to stifle civil service opposition to Trump, sources close to the former president said they still anticipate needing an alternate labor force of unprecedented scale — of perhaps as many as 10,000 vetted personnel — to give them the capacity to quickly replace “obstructionist” government officials with people committed to Trump and his “America First” agenda.
In other words, a new army of political partisans planted throughout the federal bureaucracy.
…
CPI’s immediate priority is preparing to put its vetted people in new GOP congressional offices at the start of 2023. Over the past five years since CPI’s founding, the group has been adding personnel to a database that now contains thousands of names.
The CPI team is reckoning on Republicans likely winning back the House and possibly the Senate in the November midterms. That would deliver a tremendous staffing opportunity. These anticipated victories could open hundreds of new staff jobs on Capitol Hill next year — from congressional offices to key committees.
CPI’s goal is to have at least 300 fully vetted “America First” staffers to supply GOP congressional offices after the midterms. These new staffers would theoretically gain valuable experience to use on Capitol Hill but also incubate for a Trump administration in 2025.
…
Startups including American Moment have sprung up to develop lists of thousands of younger “America First” personnel for the next GOP administration. Founded by Saurabh Sharma, the 24-year-old former head of the Young Conservatives of Texas, American Moment is dedicated to the idea of restaffing the government. Trump-endorsed Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance serves on its board.
Sharma said in an interview that he and his team have dozens of informal talent scouts on college campuses — from “certain Ivies with reactionary subcultures” to “normal conservative schools” like Hillsdale College to “religiously affiliated liberal arts schools.”
They have plugged into the younger staff populating hard-right offices on Capitol Hill and seek to attract a steady flow of young ideologues through events and a podcast.
American Moment says it has, so far, around 700 “fully vetted” personnel to potentially serve in the next administration. Sharma’s goal is to have 2,000 to 3,000 “America First” would-be government staffers in his database by the summer of 2024….
Much more at the link, which is the first in a new series from Axios.
“Justifying terrorism” charges opened against Navalny’s righthand man: The Russian authorities have opened another felony case against Leonid Volkov (one of imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s closest associates), charging him with “justifying terrorism” for writing on social media, “Putin is the number one terrorist in the world, and you need to deal with him accordingly.” Volkov (who now lives abroad in exile) says he believes this is the eighth criminal case launched against him. He’s also being investigated for allegedly defaming tycoon Evgeny Prigozhin, recruiting minors for political protests, financing “extremist” organizations, and creating an organization that infringes on privacy rights. Volkov currently oversees Team Navalny’s latest expansion: the Anti-Corruption Foundation International.
…Let’s be clear: There is no scenario in which Russia can or will make a serious effort against Odesa, just like it couldn’t manage to do so when it was at the height of its “shock and awe” phase of the war, all its shiny toys intact and troops still alive. Given Russia’s inability to sustain supply lines more than a few dozen kilometers from the nearest railhead, why would anyone pretend that Russia would suddenly be able to extend hundreds or thousands of kilometers to reach Odesa with a Ukraine now armed with both modern Western tube and rocket artillery and a full complement of anti-ship missiles like Harpoons?
This is like early in the war, where you’d see “Western intelligence officials” say that Russia was on the verge of an amphibious assault on Odesa, and I’d be like, “LOL no.” Then they’d be like “Belarus will invade!” and I’d write, “LOL no.” And there was even the time that Russia was supposedly going to push toward Dnipro city hundreds of kilometers west of Izyum, and that one was extra stupid.
I mean sure, of course we can assume that Russia could target Odesa next year. But no, it won’t.
Will Russia ever move again? The exhaustion from their effort to take Severodonetsk plus HIMARS’ decimation of Russia’s ammunition storage depots has ground their progress to a halt. Per War Mapper on Twitter, there was no notable change on the ground on July21, July 20, July 19, July 18, July 17, July 16, July 15, July 14, July 13, July 12, July 11, July 10, July 8, and July 7. You may have noticed July 9 missing. This was the entry for that day:
[tweet suggesting Russia had captured Hryhorivka at the link]
That update was based on Russian claims that they controlled Hryhorivka. Ukraine never bothered to deny them. Turns out, they never captured it. Funny. So really, you have to go back to July 6 to find any notable Russian advance. (No Ukrainian advances have been recorded in that time, either. Ukrainian General Staff has clamped down on any information about its activities at the front.)
Russia has now stalled for over two weeks, with dwindling sign of life. Is this the culmination we’ve all been waiting for, the point when Russia runs out of steam and is forced to shift from offensive to defensive operations? We won’t know for sure for a few more weeks, but it sure does look that way.
Combat exhaustion and HIMARS are factors, obviously. Maybe the Severodonetsk defense was worth the cost and broke the Russian advance. But it’s hard to ignore the very factor that makes the Odesa story above so damn ludicrous: logistics. Look at the map above, with the arrows pushing toward Sivers’k. What do they all have in common? They are pushing away from their supply depots. Even without HIMARS, they’d be just as stuck as the Popasna advance toward Bakhmut, and the Izyum advance toward Sloviansk. Izyum was captured April 1 and Popasna on May 7, well before the arrival of HIMARS or other Western artillery. Both those advances are dead in the water.
(Funny aside, remember Russia trying to cut off the main highway from Bakhmut to Lysychansk in an effort to cut off supplies to both that city and Severodonetsk? Look at the map above: Russia still hasn’t captured that highway.)
Speaking of artillery …
[tweet about low fire evidence in the Donbas at the link]
Ukrainian soldiers on the Donbas front have been quoted in various news articles marveling at the sudden quiet as Russian guns go silent. We talked about “shaping the battlefield” yesterday—the act of preparing the battlefield to benefit an army’s greatest strengths. For Russia, they shape the battlefield by turning it to rubble, but that’s hard to do when their artillery guns are out of ammo, fuel, and spare parts.
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analyst DefMon on Twitter shows most action happening on the Russian side of the front lines:
[fire map from yesterday at the link]
It is eerie just how quiet the Donbas front has gotten, particularly on that approach toward Sivers’k. For now, most of the action is happening down in Kherson area, and a great deal of it behind the front lines. Mark wrote recently about false positives on FIRMS fire data, particularly now that farmers are burning off harvest stubble to prepare for the fall seeding. DefMon filters those out, cross-referencing fires with other satellite imagery to confirm they are militarily related. He removed 48 such nonmilitary fires in today’s map. Still, no one is perfect. So either he missed some agricultural fires, or Ukraine is utterly decimating Russian supply and command and control deep in enemy territory.
Yesterday I speculated Ukraine was shaping the battlefield by cutting Russian supplies to the swath of territory between Kherson-Melitopol-Tokmak, forcing them to retreat lest they end up besieged. This map certainly supports that assertion….
Adam Kinzinger tweeted: “Worth remembering: Josh Hawley was the first senator to say he would object to the electoral college, causing a cascade of Ted Cruz-es. There would not have been as much oxygen to trumps coup plan without Fistpump McRunpants.”
More re #263 – RFE/RL tweeted a video about some Russian soldiers who mutineed and are allegedly being held in a cellar.
ravensays
Effectiveness of 2, 3, and 4 COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Doses Among Immunocompetent Adults During Periods when SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.2/BA.2.12.1 Sublineages Predominated — VISION Network, 10 States, December 2021–June 2022
CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly / July 22, 2022 / 71(29);931–939
On July 15, 2022, this report was posted online as an MMWR Early Release.
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
Little is known about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) during the Omicron variant BA.2/BA.2.12.2–predominant period or VE of a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose in persons aged ≥50 years.
What is added by this report?
VE during the BA.2/BA.2.12.2 period was lower than that during the BA.1 period. A third vaccine dose provided additional protection against moderate and severe COVID-19–associated illness in all age groups, and a fourth dose provided additional protection in eligible adults aged ≥50 years.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Immunocompetent persons should receive recommended COVID-19 booster doses to prevent moderate to severe COVID-19, including a first booster dose for all eligible persons and second dose for adults aged ≥50 years at least 4 months after an initial booster dose. Booster doses should be obtained immediately when persons become eligible.
More good news about the Covid-19 virus vaccines.
They still worked against the BA.2/BA.2.12.2 viruses.
A third booster dose worked better than the first two doses.
A fourth booster dose worked better than three doses.
Basically, the CDC says to keep up with the recommendations from the FDA.
It is now looking like we will be recommended to get Covid-19 virus boosters at least once a year.
The jury found Steve Bannon guilty on both counts of contempt of congress.
Tethyssays
@273
Well done jury! I hope many more guilty verdicts are to come for every single one of these despicable asshats, including the ones who currently hold any elected office.
Documenting the whole rotten scheme is the point of the panel, referrals to the justice department for the criminal charges are step two.
75% of the people already consider tfg and his base criminal scum without having all the details documented. That’s why they chose Biden.
Paul Ksays
SC#270: JFC! The peer review model of science is seriously fucked up! This article brings terrible news that everyone should know about, but is only one of a seemingly endless number of cases where our entire scientific self-correction infrastructure is shown to be ineffectual and downright corrupt. How can we blame anyone for not trusting science when shit like this keeps happening?
I love science, but I no longer trust much of it myself, especially in the medical and biological fields. I’ve known for some time about the weakness of mouse studies, for example. But the crookedness of actual researchers, and their continued acceptance within the field really stinks. And the trepidation and hesitancy of folks to go after them because of what? Respect? Fear for career advancement? Worry about the loss of funding? This is making some folks/corporations tons of money, so I guess it will only get worse. But, damn….
Readers of the Daily Mail were in no doubt as to what the newspaper thought about Monday’s hot weather: it was little more than a “sunny day” where “snowflake Britain had a meltdown”. There was criticism that public services had pre-emptively closed down – and praise for Prince Charles continuing to wear a suit and tie in the heat. [That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve read in some time.]
Inside the newspaper, the columnist Stephen Robinson bemoaned how weather maps had dispensed with jolly symbols and instead used deep red colours to show high temperatures. He claimed the Met Office – in cahoots with the BBC – has become an “all-singing, all-dancing amen choir for the climate alarmist ‘Blob’”.
He said other parts of the world coped with extreme heat, adding: “In Africa, real men would wear shorts and safari jackets and hydrate by ordering another few beers.”
The paper’s editorial went further and suggested the reaction was a sign of weakness in the national character: “Listening to apocalyptic climate change pundits and the BBC, you’d think Britain was about to spontaneously combust.”
By Tuesday, after temperatures in the UK hit a record 40.3C, the same newspaper gravely described the “nightmare of wildfires” that had indeed combusted suburban homes of the type occupied by many of its readers.
The extreme nature of this week’s weather has been a reckoning for parts of the UK media, showing the extent to which public coverage around the climate crisis has changed in the last decade.
“Things have changed massively,” said Richard Black, a former BBC environment correspondent who wrote a book on the rise and fall of climate change sceptics in the UK. “I don’t think there’s any more outright climate denial, it’s just not credible any more.”
…
It wasn’t always the case that British newspapers – and rightwing campaigners and media outlets allied with the Conservative party – were instinctively sceptical about climate science. David Cameron built his rebrand of the Tories around the issue and there appeared to be a cross-party political consensus on the need for action.
A key change took place in the late 2000s with the rise of a small group of climate sceptics including the former chancellor Nigel Lawson and his Global Warming Policy Foundation. The group, one of a number of opaque organisations including the Taxpayers’ Alliance that share an office at 55 Tufton Street in Westminster, quickly found an audience in the national media for its message that the call for radical action was overblown….
During this period the BBC would often provide a platform to climate deniers in the name of impartiality and giving a hearing to both sides of a debate, something the broadcaster has since accepted was wrong.
On Monday Extinction Rebellion protesters smashed windows at the London headquarters of Rupert Murdoch’s media company in protest against his outlets’ environment coverage.
In a sign of changing attitudes, journalists at the Times then fell over themselves to tweet about how they had reported on the link between the climate crisis and extreme heat. Yet the Sun, its tabloid stablemate, initially focussed on pictures of people at the beach under the words “super scorchio” .
A new softer form of climate denialism appears to be emerging in rightwing newspapers – one that portrays complaints about extreme heat as part of a wider narrative about the spread of supposed “wokeness”. The Daily Express declared: “It’s not the end of the world! Just stay cool and carry on … ” – while the Daily Telegraph’s leader column acknowledged that the “climate is unquestionably changing” but urged society to simply adapt to the new reality.
Black said this approach ignored the fundamental infrastructure challenges of extreme heat: “If your housing is not built to withstand these impacts you’re going to suffer – it’s not about being a snowflake.”
Ukraine ‘has $10bn of grain to sell’, says Zelenskiy
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Friday that Ukraine has around $10bn worth of grain available for sale in the wake of a deal signed with Russia earlier today to unblock supplies.
“This is another demonstration that Ukraine can withstand the war,” he said in a late-night address, Reuters reports. He said that Ukraine will also have a chance to sell the current harvest.
He went on to add that approximately 20m tonnes of last year’s harvest will be exported after the conclusion of what he called an important deal.
The US is exploring whether it can send American-made fighter jets to Ukraine, a White House spokesperson announced on Friday.
Although President Joe Biden’s administration has started making explorations into the possibility of providing the jets to Ukraine, the move is not something that would be done immediately, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing.
“It’s not something that would be executed in the near-term,” Kirby said, Reuters reports.
Such a move would be a major increase in U.S. support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia. So far the United States has provided $8.2 billion in security aid for Ukraine.
Earlier today, the White House signed off on the provision of four additional HIMARS to Ukraine, bringing the total number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems provided to Ukraine up to 20.
Tethyssays
Real men disregard the dangers of heatstroke and wildfires!? At what point might they realize that toxic masculinity is toxic? Go right ahead and wear your suit in tropical heatwaves, the woke have no problem with idiots dying of heatstroke because they lack sense.
…Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, said that ALA stands firm in opposing any effort to suppress access to information about abortion — whether as a medical procedure or as a matter of public concern and individual liberty.
“Access to information in a library is a First Amendment-protected activity and ALA will defend that right and work with libraries, library workers, and library users to protect it, as well as support and defend library workers whose positions are jeopardized because of their defense of their users’ right to freely access information,” Caldwell-Stone told Motherboard….
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on July 20 released a report holding the ruling Taliban regime responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and inhumane punishments in the first 10 months since they seized power. In total, UNAMA found that Taliban forces engaged in 239 extrajudicial killings, 313 arbitrary arrests and detentions, 46 cases of incommunicado detention, and 73 instances of torture. Most of the incidents targeted former Afghan National Defense & Security Forces (ANDSF) soldiers, officials from the previous government, ISIL-KP members, or National Resistance Front fighters. UNAMA also identified an additional 217 instances of degrading punishments and 118 uses of excessive force against civilians. Finally, Taliban forces also engaged in at least 163 rights violations targeting journalists and 64 targeting human rights defenders.
UNAMA additionally documented an additional 2,106 civilian casualties (700 killed, 1406 wounded), most of which were caused by improvised explosive device attacks attributed to ISIL-KP and unexploded ordnances from the multitude of past conflicts in the country. [Horrific.] UNAMA also found that of six journalists who were killed during the last ten months at least five of them were killed by self-identified ISIL-KP members.
The report also focused on the rights of women and girls, and the restriction of fundamental freedoms. It states that the decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education. At the same time, access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been limited by the dissolution of dedicated reporting pathways, justice mechanisms and shelters….
ravensays
This article doesn’t say much that we didn’t know but at least it is simple and well written.
This is also going to be the future of the Red states, children raped and then giving birth to children.
.1. Girls under the age of 15 aren’t medically ready to be pregnant and give birth.
Both maternal morbidity and mortality in that age group is far higher than in older women.
.2. The children these children give birth to also have high mortality and very often life long medical conditions. “When babies from very young mothers do survive, they typically have a very low birth weight, preterm deliveries, and severe neonatal conditions, according to WHO.”
When Girls Under 15 Experience Childbirth, the Consequences to Their Bodies Can Be Devastating
Vanessa Etienne Fri, July 22, 2022
Earlier this month, an OB-GYN revealed that she terminated a pregnancy for a 10-year-old victim of sexual assault who was forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wade, sparking a national debate on whether a child should have to carry out a pregnancy.
Many health experts have detailed the possible traumatic consequences that can occur to a young girl’s body if they have to experience childbirth.
Adolescent mothers reportedly face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than older women, and babies of adolescent mothers face higher risks of low birth weight, preterm delivery and severe neonatal conditions.
Dr. Ashok Dyalchand, who has worked heavily with pregnant adolescent girls for 40 years, told The New York Times that pregnant girls typically “have long labor, obstructed labor, the fetus bears down on the bladder and on the urethra,” which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease or the rupture of tissue between the vagina and the bladder and rectum.
At least 777,000 girls under the age of 15 give birth each year in developing regions, according to the World Health Organization.
“It is a pathetic state particularly for girls who are less than 15 years of age,” said Dyalchand, head of the Institute of Health Management Pachod, a public health organization serving marginalized communities in central India. “The complications, the morbidity and the mortality are much higher in girls under 15 than girls 16 to 19 although 16 to 19 has a mortality twice as high as women 20 and above.”
One critical health issue these young mothers face is that their pelvis is too small to birth even a small fetus.
Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a board-certified OB/GYN at Yale University School of Medicine, and a member of PEOPLE’s Health Squad, tells PEOPLE that there are multiple physical and psychological issues that can arise.
“Physically she is nowhere near reaching adulthood — the pelvis is not fully grown and the incidence of requiring a Cesarean section is significantly higher in the very young women,” she explains, noting that typically the baby is too big to get out. “And then she may need future Cesarean sections.”
“You have a child herself dealing with a pregnancy. Her own body, which had been experiencing all sorts of changes, is now experiencing even more changes and she is nowhere near emotionally competent to deal with the psychological issues of normal adolescence on top of all the new issues of pregnancy,” Minkin adds. “Pregnancy can be tough to deal with for a 24 or 34-year-old woman, let alone a 10-year-old child.”
Another major complication seen in very young women with their first child is a high incidence of preeclampsia, Minkin adds, which is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the U.S. and around the world.
Preeclampsia, also known as toxemia, is a pregnancy condition that can cause serious complications and is characterized by high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, most often the liver and kidneys. When preeclampsia isn’t controlled, the mother can seize and the fetus can die, Minkin says.
Dr. Shershah Syed, a gynecologist and expert on maternal mortality in Pakistan, told the Times that the “mental torture she will go through” is immeasurable.
“In normal physiology a 10-year-old child is not supposed to be pregnant. The point is, she’s a child and the child cannot deliver a child, she’s not ready,” Syed told the outlet. “They go to labor for three days, four days, five days, and after that labor, usually the baby is dead.”
When babies from very young mothers do survive, they typically have a very low birth weight, preterm deliveries, and severe neonatal conditions, according to WHO.
ravensays
Ohio man charged in rape of 10-year-old that led to Indiana abortion
Tony Cook, Bethany Bruner, Monroe Trombly and Dayeon Eom, Indianapolis Star
July 13, 2022·5 min read
In 2020 there were 52 abortions in children 15 or younger in Ohio, accounting for .3% of the 20,605 abortions performed that year, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Data from the health department shows there were 63 such procedures in 2019, 54 in 2018, 61 in 2017 and 76 in 2016.
In Indiana, 67 of the 8,414 people who obtained abortions in 2021 were 16 or younger, according to the Indiana Department of Health’s annual report.
I tried to find out how many children under age 15 are going to be forced to risk their life being pregnant in the Red states.
The data to figure this out is scattered and sometimes doesn’t even exist.
Based on the number of abortions of 15s and under, in the USA it would be around 750 in the Red states.
Some of those girls and their fetuses are going to die.
A rehomed 3 year old one from online – a mixture of maltese-Juack Russell & Staffy. First night in he new home with me tonight but she’s really sweet, clever and settling in well already.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Odesa attack threatens landmark grain deal – Kyiv
Ukraine continues to prepare to restart grain exports from its Black Sea ports despite a Russian missile strike that hit the port of Odesa on Saturday, the Ukrainian infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said.
Reuters reports:
Russian missiles hit the southern port of Odesa, the Ukrainian military said, threatening a landmark deal signed just the day before to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease global food shortages caused by the war.
“We continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports,” Kubrakov wrote on Facebook.
Ukrainian forces struck a bridge in the occupied Black Sea region of Kherson, targeting a Russian supply route as Kyiv prepares for a major counteroffensive, a Ukrainian regional official has said.
The strike hit the Daryivskyi Bridge, which crosses the Inhulets River and is used for supplies by Russian troops, days after a key bridge over the nearby Dnieper River was hit, said an adviser to the region’s governor who is on Ukrainian-held territory, Reuters reported.
“Every bridge is a weak point for logistics and our armed forces are skilfully destroying the enemy system. This is not yet the liberation of Kherson but a serious preparatory step in that direction,” the official, Serhiy Khlan, wrote on Facebook.
The deputy head of the Russian-installed regional authority said the bridge had been hit by seven rockets from western-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars), but that the bridge was still functioning, Russia’s Tass news agency reported.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
‘France not responsible for Brexit’, UK told over border queues
The French transport minister, Clément Beaune, has hit back at the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who had demanded France fix the “avoidable and unacceptable” situation at Dover.
In a tweet, Beaune said on Saturday afternoon:
The French authorities are mobilised to control our borders and facilitate the traffic as much as possible. I discussed this constructively with my counterpart [Grant Shapps]. But France is not responsible for Brexit.
The global monkeypox outbreak has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) – the strongest call to action the agency can make.
It is the seventh time such a declaration has been made since 2009, the most recent being for Covid-19, which was given the same label by the WHO in 2020, and follows a meeting of a committee of experts on Thursday.
A public health emergency of international concern – or PHEIC – is defined by the WHO’s international health regulations as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”.
The UN health agency said the term implies the situation is serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected, that it carries implications for public health beyond national borders, and that it may require immediate international attention.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director general, said at a press conference that the committee met on Thursday to review the latest data, but that they were unable to reach a consensus. However, he has since decided to break the deadlock by declaring a PHEIC.
“In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations,” he said. “For all of these reasons I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency of international concern.”
While he said the risk of monkeypox was “moderate” globally, it was “high” in Europe and there was “a clear risk of further international spread”.
Globally, there have so far been 16,016 monkeypox cases – 4,132 of which were in the past week, according to WHO data. It is now in 75 countries and territories and there have been five deaths.
The European region has the highest number of total cases, at 11,865, and the highest increase in the last seven days, with 2,705.
…
The WHO said the outbreak was largely among men who have sex with men who had reported having sex recently with new or multiple partners. However, experts have stressed that anyone can get monkeypox as it is spread by close or intimate contact, with the UN having warned that some media portrayals of Africans and LGBTQ+ people “reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma”.
Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO emergencies programme, said: “We all know how difficult it has been historically to deal with issues like this because of stigma.”
“If nothing else this is about enlightened self-interest,” he added, as well as “solidarity” with those affected.
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban Saturday called for US-Russian peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, lashing out at the European Union’s strategy on the conflict.
Agence France-Presse reports:
In a speech in Romania, the 59-year-old ultra-conservative leader also defended his vision of an “unmixed Hungarian race” as he criticised mixing with “non-Europeans.” Orban has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, but maintains an ambiguous position on the conflict.
Before Moscow sent in troops, he had sought close ties with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. And last week, he said Europe had “shot itself in the lungs” by imposing sanctions against Moscow over the military operation.
“We’re sitting in a car with four flat tyres”, he said on Saturday, of efforts to stem the bloodshed. He went on to add, “A new strategy is needed, which should focus on peace negotiations instead of trying to win the war.”
Orban said “only Russian-US talks can put an end to the conflict because Russia wants security guarantees” only Washington can give. The EU, he added, “should not side with the Ukrainians, but position itself” between both sides.
The sanctions “will not change the situation” and “the Ukrainians will not come out victorious”, he said, adding, “The more the West sends powerful weapons, the more the war drags on.”
Orban claimed the “war would never have broken out if Donald Trump were still head of the United States and Angela Merkel were the German Chancellor.”
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (CN) — Taking shots at Texas and the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of also protecting Californians, Governor Gavin Newsom signed several gun safety bills into law Friday.
Newsom championed Senate Bill 1327 after Texas passed Senate Bill 8 — which allows individuals to sue anyone who provides or helps in the procurement of abortion services for up to $10,000. SB 1327 authors, state Senators Robert Hertzberg of Ventura and Anthony Portintino of San Fernando, modeled their bill after SB 8, which Newsom believes will help it survive any legal challenges up to the nation’s highest court.
SB 1327 focuses on firearms that are already illegal in California and allows individuals to sue gun dealers or manufacturers that sold, transferred or made an illegal weapon used to commit a crime.
“…. While the Supreme Court rolls back reasonable gun safety measures, California continues adding new ways to protect the lives of our kids. California will use every tool at its disposal to save lives, especially in the face of an increasingly extreme Supreme Court,” Newsom said at a bill-signing event.
Newsom said the Supreme Court opened the door when it allowed SB 8 to stand and California will use the opportunity to protect its’ citizens. The high court has delegated more authority to the states and Newsom said it could not in principle strike down SB 1327 if it allows SB 8 to stand.
[…]
“With these new laws, California is protecting life, safety, and freedom. We have the strongest gun safety laws in the nation, and one of the lowest firearm mortality rates. This is not a coincidence. More guns do not make us safer — laws like these do,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Law professors across California believe there is an excellent chance SB 1327 could stand up to a legal challenges. They said the law itself does not take away any constitutional rights as SB 8 did before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
[…]
“I am sick and tired of being on the defensive,” said Newsom. “Look at the roll back of civil rights over the past couple of years by red states. It is now time to be on the offense.”
Other gun safety bills of note signed by Newsom on Friday include SB 906, which would require school districts to report any threat or perceived threat of a homicidal act to law enforcement. SB 915 bans gun shows from county fairgrounds and other state property.
Pierce R. Butlersays
raven @ # 284: … how many children under age 15 are going to be forced to risk their life being pregnant in the Red states.
Couldn’t find that either, but I did find:
Adolescents made up 12% of abortion patients in 2014: Those aged 18–19 accounted for 8% of all abortions, 15–17-year-olds for 3% and those younger than 15 for 0.2%
In 2020, there were 930,160 abortions in the United States
which divides out to 1,860 procedures for patients under 15.
I recall seeing somewhere, though I can’t find it now, that about 40% of the US population live in states now or imminently banning abortion, so that puts 744 under-15s at immediate risk per year, or around two each day. That’s an underestimate: how many others needed but could not get abortions in that 2014 baseline period? Yargh…
Tethyssays
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban Saturday called for US-Russian peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, lashing out at the European Union’s strategy on the conflict.
Good grief, fascism must rot your brain. Russia has to engage with Ukraine on any peace talks. Russia could declare a cease fire immediately, and the US and European Union would happily support peace instead of defending against Russian terrorism.
Germany has delayed defense weapon delivery to Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The outlet, sourcing German media organization German Welt, cites that anonymous Ukrainian officials have reported that Ukraine’s application for eleven IRIS-T air missile defense systems is currently being held up by Germany’s Federal Security Council.
The council is led by German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who in recent weeks defended his country’s record of delivering weapons to Ukraine, saying that Germany began sending weapons to Ukraine as soon as the war began in February.
Germany’s ministry of economy had previously approved of Ukraine’s application for the defense systems and passed the decision onto the Federal Security Council, German Welt reported.
The former deputy secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council has been suspected of high treason, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to a report released on Saturday by the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations, Volodymyr Sivkovych is suspected of collaborating with Russian intelligence services and managing a network of agents in Ukraine that spied on behalf of Russia.
The outlet also reported the bureau saying that Ukraine’s former deputy head of security service in Crimea, Oleh Kulinich, was detained due to him allegedly being part of the same network of spies.
Video footage has emerged [examples at the link] of a powerful explosion that took place in the Russian-occupied territory of Horlivka on Saturday in the Donetsk Oblast, Euromaidan reports.
Emerging reports from outlets have been claiming that Ukrainian armed forces have hit a Russian ammunition depot.
Soviet Russia could access BBC, Voice of America, German TV
Today Americans are not permitted to hear what Russians are saying
The US has imposed constraints on access to info beyond Soviets”
Video at the (Twitter) link. This is insane. People who care about him should get him to stop doing interviews. It’s funny that I was just complaining @ #217 above about the endless “Lavrov said…,” “Putin said…,” “a Russian military spokesperson said…” at the Guardian.
These are the Women, of the YPG, the ones who kicked ISIS’ butt so that our troops did not have to. These are the women written about in Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s NY Times best-seller, The Daughter’s of Kobani: a story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice, the book Hillary and Chelsea Clinton purchased the option to make into a TV series. These are the people Wes Enzinna wrote about in a cover story for the NY Times Magazine Section back in 2015, titled, A Dream of a Secular Utopia in ISIS’ Backyard.”
These are the people that I wrote about right here, shortly after reading Enzinna’s article, in a post titled, “The Most Important Ideas You Never heard of: Kurdish Rojava & Egalitarian, Ecological Revolution.”
These are the women who were attacked by a Turkish drone in their car, on a major highway, after presenting at this conference described here.
This morning, I received a text with the following tragic news:
Incredible-yesterday turkey killed with a drone attack 3 YPJ members, including commander Jiyan Tolhildan, who were presenters and participants at the women’s conference and were leaving the event in their vehicle in the evening. The attack took place right outside Qamisio city on a major road.
…
Right now, our focus is on Ukraine.
Ukraine is a tragic story. And while we are all horrified by the war crimes inflicted by Russia, Turkey is massacring civilians in Syria. Turkey is ethnically cleansing Kurdish and Yazidi people in Syria, while no one is looking.
On July 21st, the Syrian Democratic Council put out this statement on the recent massacre of Zakho, in which “at least nine civilians including women and children were martyred….”
Because Turkey is a member of NATO, they have leverage. Recently, A major concession Turkey demanded before adding Sweden to NATO was to have it stop granting asylum to Kurds from this area.
Yet, Turkey is using ISiS veteran fighters to massacre Kurds, Arabs and Yazidis to ethnically cleanse North East Syria.
And NATO, because we are fighting the good fight in Ukraine, has decided it necessary to throw Kurds and Yazidis under the bus.
I have written many times here that “The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend.” The United States supported the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) while it was convenient, while they were taking down the Islamic State. But even Fox News — Fox News!!! — published an article today that recognizes that Turkey President “Erdogan’s threats of invading Syria could lead to Islamic State resurgence.”
…
Ever since The Former Guy gave Erdogan the green light, Turkey has repeatedly invaded and occupied Syria to massacre, terrorize and ethnically cleanse North East Syria, using ISiS troops that escaped into Turkey to avoid capture.
Now they are so confident that no one is watching and that no one cares, they even used a drone to kill presenters and participants of a conference, on a major road. This is clearly an act of war and an act of terror, just one of many in the area.
Because we either are looking elsewhere, or just don’t care.
Ukraine’s national anthem begins, “Ukraine is not yet dead….” It is a defiant beginning to an anthem. ‘Not yet…” is an ominous phrase, and it’s a poignant acknowledgement of a history.
If Rojava ever decides on an anthem, I hope it is able to defiantly proclaim the same.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Ukraine warned that grain exports would not restart as hoped after the signing of a landmark deal aimed at easing the food crisis if a Russian airstrike on a key port on Saturday was a sign of things to come. The attack on Odesa, which the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, denounced as “barbarism” [alas] and a sign that Moscow could not be trusted to implement the freshly inked deal, drew international condemnation. Turkey, which helped broker the accord allowing exports to resume, said immediately after the double cruise missile hits on the strategic southern port that it had received assurances from Moscow that Russian forces were not responsible.
Contradicting the claim that Russia had not been responsible, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied that cruise missile strikes on Odesa would have any impact on the export of grain. He told the media: “These strikes are connected exclusively with military infrastructure. They are in no way related to infrastructure that is used for the export of grain. This should not affect – and will not affect – the beginning of shipments.”
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has embarked on a four-day tour of several countries in Africa. On his first stop in Egypt he sought to reassure his counterpart Sameh Shoukry that Russian grain supplies would continue and met with the secretary general of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, where he spoke of deepening cooperation between Russia and the Arab League….
Ukrainian military officials have claimed a “turning point” in the battle to retake the southern region of Kherson, saying they will use western weapons to liberate by September the first major city captured by Russian forces. Sergiy Khlan, an aide to the administrative head of the Kherson region, said in an interview with Ukrainian television on Sunday: “We can say that a turning point has occurred on the battlefield. We are switching from defensive to counteroffensive actions.”
Ukraine will continue doing all it can to inflict as much damage on Russian forces as possible and will not be cowed, Zelenskiy has vowed. “Even the occupiers admit we will win,” he said in his nightly video address on Sunday. “We do everything to inflict the highest possible damage on the enemy … we will celebrate against all odds. Because Ukrainians won’t be cowed.”
…
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its daily intelligence breifing that “inconclusive fighting continues in both the Donbas and Kherson sectors. Russian commanders continue to face a dilemma; whether to resource the offensive in the east, or to bolster the defence in the west.”…
Also from there:
Ukrainian forces have destroyed 50 Russian ammunition depots using US-supplied Himars rocket systems in the war with Russia, Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Monday.
“This cuts their [Russian] logistical chains and takes away their ability to conduct active fighting and cover our armed forces with heavy shelling,” he said in televised comments.
Reuters could not independently verify Reznikov’s remarks about the use of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars).
Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners including a former politician and a veteran activist, drawing shock and revulsion at the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.
Junta-controlled media reported on Monday that four men, including Phyo Zeya Thaw, a rapper and former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, and the prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as Jimmy, had been executed. They were accused of conspiring to commit terror acts and were sentenced to death in January in closed trials.
Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister in Myanmar’s national unity government (NUG), which was formed in exile by elected politicians, ethnic minority representatives and activists, said he was extremely saddened to hear of the executions. “What else do we need to prove how cruel the murderous Myanmar’s military is?” he said.
Following reports of the executions, a banner was hung on a bridge in Yangon bearing a warning that the junta should “be ready to pay for the blood debt”. Text underneath read: “RIP Zeyar Thaw, Jimmy, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura.”
Local media reported that the families of the men had travelled to Insein prison in Yangon demanding to see their loved ones’ bodies.
A source close to the family of Kyaw Min Yu said they had received confirmation from the deputy prison chief of Insein prison that the death penalty had been carried out. No information was provided about when the execution took place. Prison officials refused to hand the body over to relatives, they said, despite prison regulations stating it must do so unless there is a special reason.
Myanmar’s military junta seized power in a coup in February 2021, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, and has since unleashed a campaign of brutal violence to suppress opposition.
A total of 14,847 people have been arrested since the coup, while 11,759 remain in detention, according to the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) Burma, which monitors arrests and killings.
According to AAPP Burma, 76 prisoners have been sentenced to death since the coup, including two children. A further 41 people have been sentenced to death in absentia. Before the executions on Monday, Myanmar had not carried out capital punishment in more than 30 years, according to the UN.
Many in Myanmar turned their social media profile pictures black and red in a show of mourning. Others posted lines from the men’s lyrics and speeches including the line “nothing’s gonna happen if we are all united” from one of Phyo Zeya Thaw’s rap songs.
…
The four men had tried to appeal but their sentence was upheld in June. They were reportedly denied access to legal counsel during their appeal, in violation of international human rights law.
…
Yee Mon, the NUG’s defence minister, wrote on Facebook: “This revolution isn’t over until we bring justice against [junta chief] Min Aung Hlaing. He won’t have an inch of earth to run for, [we] will chase him down until the end of the world.”
…This normalised dishonesty about how much of your success is down to the stability, networks and affluence of your family is not a harmless national quirk. It is a class disavowal that props up the entire corrosive myth of meritocracy – the belief in which enables and absolves cruel governance and mean citizenry. On a political level, rightwingers fetishise hard work and careful saving to bolster their belief that the state should not support those who cannot work hard or save because, well, it’s their own fault. On a personal level, we are less inclined to vote for politicians who want to share resources more equitably if we convince ourselves that our wealth is a result of good graft rather than good fortune. Note how Britons celebrate lower-class backgrounds – real or imagined – in the most individualistic way. British folktales about class mobility – of the types Sunak and Truss are pedlling – become then not a call to marshal attention and capital towards mitigating the difficult conditions that made rising upwards such hard work for others, but a glorification of the individual who made it out, and then, a stick with which to beat those who didn’t….
This week, Grace speaks to Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality: Social Change and the Weight of the Past. They discuss the renewed focus on inequality in social science and politics more generally, different forms of inequality and how they’re linked, and different theoretical approaches to understanding inequality and social class, from Marx to Bourdieu.
…Even though Russia spent much of last week floating claims that they were going to take more and more and more of Ukraine, the truth seems to be that Putin’s offensive in the Donbas has stalled out short of objectives. While there continues to be fierce exchanges at many points along the front line, and Russia continues to launch attacks toward positions like Bakhmut and Bohorodychne, there are no confirmed reports of a significant gain by Russian forces in over two weeks. In that same period, a number of villages either returned to Ukraine or been thrown into dispute as Ukraine has refused to give Russian forces a chance to catch their breath.
At this point, the Ukrainian ministry of defense estimates the Russians have suffered 39,000 killed in action over the course of the invasion. U.S. intelligence estimates that 85% of the Russian military is already actively engaged in Ukraine. When Russia discovered it could not quickly take all of Ukraine, it withdrew and refocused on capturing a much smaller area. Months later, it hasn’t managed to accomplish even that.
Vysokopillya area is effectively cut off from other Russian forces.
The biggest signal of a big change in the conflict continues to be in the west. That’s where Ukraine is demonstrating to a suddenly terrified Russia just who is in control of the situation. Ukrainian forces have isolated what’s reported to be over 1,000 Russian troops in the town of Vysokopillya. Ukraine has planted neat patterns of craters on both the Antonovskyi Bridge outside Kherson and the Kakhova Bridge 50km to the north, both to limit the utility of those bridges and to make it clear to Russia that they can close those bridges whenever they want. And Ukraine has taken down a series of bridges across the Inhulets River, showing that they can isolate Russian forces inside Kherson oblast, making it extremely difficult for Russia to move to points of conflict, or to get supplies to their troops in forward positions.
Russia seems to be responding by attempting to build a series of pontoon bridges to cross the wide Dnipro River near Kherson, a tactic that cannot hope to keep the area adequately supplied, even if they make it work. Pontoon bridges are easy to take out. So are vehicles queuing to get onto a pontoon bridge, something Russia might remember from a place called Bilohorivka.
There are now more reports of abandoned Russian positions, and of positions in the city of Kherson that have been handed on inexperienced troops and Russian sympathizers, as the experienced Russian forces have apparently gone out to powder their nose.
[link to a Twitter thread which includes “I have been in contact some local sources who painted a picture of every growing chaos & fear among [Russian] troops & collaborators inside the city. “]
That thread also reports Russian soldiers shedding their uniforms, and Russian troops looting in the high end areas of the city. There are also reports of more explosions on the bridge and just outside the city. In essence, Vysokopillya is just a miniature version of Kherson. Or Kherson is a larger version of Vysokopillya. In both cases, they my not yet be physically surrounded, but the range and precision of Ukrainian weapons mean they are effectively surrounded….
Last Tuesday, Republican primary voters in Maryland picked two radical extremists as their nominees in November’s race for governor and attorney general. In electing Dan Cox as their gubernatorial candidate and Michael Peroutka as their nominee for attorney general, Maryland Republicans showed not just that they prefer the Trumpier brand of the GOP. They showed that a long campaign by radical right theocrats to take over the party has borne more fruit in the age of Trump than ever before, coalescing in a toxic merger of white Christian nationalism and the stolen election lie.
Cox, a 47-year-old one-term representative in the Maryland House of Delegates, is a relative newcomer to Maryland’s fringe politics compared to Peroutka, 70, a longtime activist operating at the intersection of right-wing Christian and neo-Confederate politics. Although Peroutka has been elected to county-level office, serving one term on the Anne Arundel County Council from 2014 through 2018, and ran in 2004 for president on the far-right Constitution Party ticket, the nod from the Republican Party’s statewide base is by far his biggest political success. It also shows how even blue states like Maryland, which Joe Biden won by more than 30 points, will have to contend with a state Republican Party bent on perpetuating election fraud lies ad infinitum.
Both Cox and Peroutka have appeared alongside Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial candidate and coup enthusiast Doug Mastriano, at an event back in April featuring the interplay of QAnon, Christian nationalism, and wild and false election fraud conspiracy theories….
…
Peroutka’s twin pledges to “prosecute unlawful officials” and “bring God back” to state government emerge from Christian Reconstruction, a far-right theology and political ideology that has left a profound imprint on the Christian right. Christian Reconstruction holds that God granted extremely limited authority to government, chiefly law enforcement, and that government officials have an obligation to impose “biblical law.” [These seem a bit contradictory.] So when Peroutka threatens to use his power as attorney general to prosecute “unlawful officials,” he’s referring to government officials he maintains have exceeded the authority God granted them. Among the government activities Peroutka considers illegal are entitlement and health care programs, enforcement of any environmental regulations, gun control, and the very existence of public schools.
Guns, unsurprisingly, loom large here. A central tenet of this ideology is that guns are an essential tool for citizens to rise up against a “tyrannical” (i.e., secular) government. In a May 2021 interview with a radio program called Gun Freedom Radio, Peroutka said “enemies” of America have tried to “use various methods and methodologies to try to undermine a system of government that is based on a biblical worldview.” He claimed the goal of public schools, which he also called “Pharaoh’s schools” and “Hitler’s schools,” was to “de-Christianize America.” Under Peroutka’s radical ideology, he is a victim of secular government, obligated to respond with force if necessary. “If the government wants to control us and enslave us, they need to first of all get rid of the idea of God,” he said. “They have to get rid of guns, because guns are a practical way, obviously a practical way, the citizenry can fight back.”
…
Cox has not spent decades publicly promoting the imposition of biblical law, but he’s no wallflower when it comes to subverting democracy. At 3:21 p.m. on January 6, 2021, well after the violent armed mob stormed into the Capitol, Cox, who had chartered three buses for constituents to travel to Washington with him, tweeted: “Pence is a traitor.” Cox later deleted the tweet and has said he did not enter the Capitol that day. But he remains an unrepentant promoter of Trump’s stolen election and election fraud lies. His campaign website features a glossy video that portrays him as a hometown family man who just loves freedom, but his list of trumpeted endorsements reveals someone at the fringe of even Trump’s radicalized GOP….
…
In a state where Democrats hold a 2-to-1 edge over Republicans in voter registration, both these candidates seem like long shots in November—although if the Trump era taught us anything, it is not to take anything for granted. After all, the state’s popular Republican governor and Trump critic, Larry Hogan, had endorsed Cox’s opponent, Kelly Schulz. But the state’s GOP base had other ideas, a sign of the fever gripping Republican voters in 2022.
Many of the January 6 rioters may have been energized by Trump himself, but the groundwork for waving a Bible at an insurrection was in place long before Trump entered politics. The convergence of God, guns, and rising up against secular authority considered religiously illegitimate predated Trump—and, perilously for our democracy, will outlast him.
StevoRsays
When it comes to Jovian rings – computer says no :
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was optimistic about a UN-brokered deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports but warned the agreement alone will not solve the global food crisis even if it is implemented effectively.
Russia, Ukraine, the United Nations and Turkey signed a deal on Friday aimed at allowing safe passage for ships going in and out of three Ukrainian Black Sea ports that have been blocked by Russia since Moscow’s invasion.
Ukraine and Russia are major grains exporters and the port blockade has trapped tens of millions of tonnes of grain in the country, Reuters reported. Along with Western sanctions on Russia, it has sent energy and food prices soaring, sparking protests in developing countries that depend on Black Sea grains.
“We’re optimistic the deal could lead to improvements in global food prices. Countries dependent on grain supplies from the Black Sea would likely be the first to feel a positive impact,” a WFP spokesperson told Reuters.
Ukraine has said it hopes to start exporting grain from its ports this week, despite Russia’s attack on Odesa only 12 hours after Moscow agreed to allow Kyiv safe passage for the commodity.
The international community’s relations with Russia hit a new low on Saturday after the missile attack which came shortly after Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, signed an export agreement in Istanbul.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said on Saturday that Ukraine would continue preparations to export grain and food, starting with Chornomorsk port, then the ports in Odesa and
Pivdennyi along its southwestern coast, which it still controls.
Ukraine signed the agreement with the United Nations and Turkey and requested Russia sign the same, but separate agreement.
…Trump goads his TPUSA audience into booing the assembled media, which is a bit of a self-own since the only media outlets paying attention to his speeches these days are the furthest right of the furthest right
Trump’s audience sits in silence as he tells a rambling, never ending Sir story about Air Force One
…
“That’s right, I will not come to your defense” — Trump claims that he once told NATO countries he wouldn’t come to their defense if they were attacked by Russia
…
“We have to defeat the climate crisis hoax. It’s a hoax.” — Trump
Trump’s ignorance about climate science would be hilarious if it wasn’t so horrifying
misgendering trans people and goading people into booing them is now a staple of Trump’s speeches
…
Trump suggests he is the most persecuted person in American history as his audience sits in silence. Suffice it to say this was not a speech that will get TPUSA people pumped up….
Russia’s Gazprom is set to cut supplies further through its single biggest gas link to Germany, crushing hopes a deal over grain supplies would lessen the economic impact of the Ukraine war.
The European Union has accused Russia of resorting to energy blackmail, while the Kremlin says the gas disruption is the result of maintenance issues and Western sanctions, Reuters reported.
Citing the instructions of an industry watchdog, Gazprom on Monday said flows through Nord Stream 1 would fall to 33 million cubic metres per day from 4am UK time on Wednesday. That is half of the current flows, which are already only 40% of normal capacity.
Germany said it saw no technical reason for the latest reduction.
In case you come across a Westerner claiming that Russia wants to negotiate a peaceful resolution of their invasion and we just don’t know about it, here is the head of Russia’s biggest state media group and a head of State Duma’s Defense Committee to tell you otherwise. #Chomsky
Video at the (Twitter) link. The Duma thug says “Now Putin is using food, heat, lighting, gas as a weapon. We’ll probably start using children’s toys that way, too…” See you in the Hague.
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza news feed. From there:
Russia’s disappearing booze: Russian restaurants’ supply of foreign hard alcohol could run out by the fall, restaurateurs told journalists at the news website 1prime. Industry representatives say they hope to avoid shortages by making more liquor domestically and turning to “parallel imports” (importing products without the manufacturer’s consent). The various labels will likely remain available in Russia, but prices will spike, said a source.
Another opposition politician flees Russia to escape “disinfo” charges: Helga Pirogova, the opposition municipal deputy in Novosibirsk who was recently charged with the felony offense of spreading “disinformation” about Russia’s military, has fled the country. She’s now in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Pirogova’s supposed crime was a now-deleted tweet about Russian volunteer soldiers killed in Ukraine.) If tried and convicted, she would have faced up to three years in prison.
More tensions with Jewish groups: Russia’s Justice Ministry has reportedly threatened to designate several local Jewish organizations as “foreign agents,” according to The Jerusalem Post. Earlier this month, ministry officials requested the dissolution of the Jewish Agency (an organization that processes the immigration of Jews to Israel) because of unspecified legal violations. A hearing is scheduled for July 28.
It took more than 24 hours for President Trump to address the nation again after his Rose Garden video on January 6th in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace.
Aftershock directors Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt talk to Molly Jong-Fast about why Black women are more likely to die than their white counterparts after giving birth.
Brad is joined by Dr. Charlie McCrary, postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University and author of the new book, Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers. They discuss how SCOTUS determines what counts as religion, and thus what is deserving of protection under the 1st Amendment. Their conversation focuses on the “sincerity test” of religious belief, which has become a cornerstone of US jurisprudence, framing what counts as legitimate grounds for First Amendment claims in the eyes of the law. McCrary provides an original account of how sincerely held religious belief became the primary standard for determining what legally counts as authentic religion.
ravensays
More on the Russian genocide of Ukraine and war crimes.
.1. They’ve been removing the native population and replacing them with Russians.
” According to figures released this week by the ministry, 2,795,965 Ukrainians have been “evacuated” to Russia, including 444,018 children.” That is a lot.
.2. …that it said was working to stop “Ukrainian nationalists from infiltrating Russia disguised as refugees so they could avoid punishment.”
It is now illegal to be a Ukrainian nationalist in Ukraine.
.3. These are concentration camps.
.4. A lot of those 2.8 million Ukrainians deported will be disappeared or die one way or another.
This is terrorism.
A U.S. intelligence report finds that Russia’s use of ‘filtration centers’ to detain and deport Ukrainians has intensified.
By Marc Santora July 25, 2022 NYTimes
Surviving Russia’s ‘Filtration Camps’
Thousands of refugees from Ukraine have been sent to so-called filtration camps, where they have been interrogated and then forced to resettle in Russia. Some Ukrainians escaped to Estonia. They told us their stories.CreditCredit…Alessandro Pavone
Russia is using more than a dozen so-called filtration centers in eastern Ukraine and western Russia to detain and deport thousands of Ukrainians, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence assessment.
Adding to a growing body of evidence related to the filtration centers — which were set up to temporarily detain and screen Ukrainians and identify anyone perceived to pose a threat to Russia’s occupation efforts — the analysis by the National Intelligence Council, dated June 15, said those efforts had intensified as Ukrainian resistance in occupied territories has grown.
It identified “18 possible locations in eastern Ukraine and western Russia,” noting there are likely more that have yet to be identified.
“The filtration process includes temporary detention, data collection, interrogation, and in some cases abuse of detainees, and takes place in a variety of temporary processing centers — often in parallel with internally displaced persons and refugee processing,” according to the assessment.
The analysis outlined three possible fates for those who pass through the centers.
“Those who are deemed nonthreatening may be issued documentation and permitted to remain in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, or in some cases forcefully deported to Russia,” the agency reported. “Others deemed less threatening, but still potentially resistant to Russian occupation, face forcible deportation to Russia and are subject to additional screening. Those deemed most threatening during the filtration process, particularly anyone with affiliation to the military or security services, probably are detained in prisons in eastern Ukraine and Russia, though little is known about their fates.”
The New York Times interviewed some of the people who were processed through the centers and managed to escape to Estonia. They described the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that went along with being forced from their homes by war and then being pressured to accept Russian citizenship.
A report released earlier this month by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe warned of abuses at the detention centers, including executions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said this month that “tens of thousands of people” were being held in the centers. “Young women disappear there,” he said. “I think you all understand what is happening with them there.”
Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, called on Russia to close the centers earlier this month, saying “the unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime.”
“Eyewitnesses and survivors of ‘filtration’ operations, detentions and forced deportations report frequent threats, harassment and incidents of torture by Russian security forces,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement.
The exiled mayor of the southern port city of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said last week that there were at least four filtration centers there holding more than 2,000 local people.
He said that witnesses had described grim conditions, and that with “no doctors there to save lives, so many of our Mariupol residents have already died in those prisons.”
A report in the Russian state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in March noted the existence of one center in Bezimenne, a village in eastern Ukraine, that it said was working to stop “Ukrainian nationalists from infiltrating Russia disguised as refugees so they could avoid punishment.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense has framed the deportation of millions of Ukrainians as part of a humanitarian relief effort. According to figures released this week by the ministry, 2,795,965 Ukrainians have been “evacuated” to Russia, including 444,018 children.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said today that Europe should respond to Russia’s “gas war” by boosting its sanctions against Moscow, reports AFP.
“Today we heard new gas threats to Europe… This is an open gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe,” Zelensky said, responding to Gazprom’s announcement of a new reduction in gas deliveries to Europe.
Russia’s state-owned energy giant said it would further cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline to 33 million cubic metres a day, about 20 percent of the pipeline’s capacity. The reduction in gas deliveries will start on Wednesday.
During a daily video message, Zelenskiy added: “They don’t care what will happen to the people, how they will suffer – from hunger due to blocked ports, from winter cold and poverty… or the occupation. These are just different forms of terror”.
“That is why you have to hit back. Do not think about how to bring back the turbine, but strengthen the sanctions,” Zelenskiy said further.
German group Siemens Energy, which is charged with maintaining the turbine referred to in Russia’s explanation for planned gas cuts to Europe, is disputing the reason given that Gazprom is halting one of the last two operating turbines in the Nord Stream pipeline due to the “technical condition of the engine.”
Siemens energy said in a statement to Agence France Presse that it saw “no link between the turbine and the gas cuts that have been implemented or announced”.
AFP added that Germany – which is heavily reliant on Russian gas but has looked to wean itself off gradually following Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine – had said there was no technical justification for the cut announced by Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy company.
The Russian announcement came on the same day that Ukraine announced receiving the first of an expected 15 Gepard anti-aircraft systems and tens of thousands of shells from Germany.
Aftershock directors Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt talk to Molly Jong-Fast about why Black women are more likely to die than their white counterparts after giving birth.
Brad is joined by Dr. Charlie McCrary, postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University and author of the new book, Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers. They discuss how SCOTUS determines what counts as religion, and thus what is deserving of protection under the 1st Amendment. Their conversation focuses on the “sincerity test” of religious belief, which has become a cornerstone of US jurisprudence, framing what counts as legitimate grounds for First Amendment claims in the eyes of the law. McCrary provides an original account of how sincerely held religious belief became the primary standard for determining what legally counts as authentic religion.
Well, if they’d just scrap all those “religious exemptions,” stop letting religious bigots and zealots ignore any laws they don’t like, and go back to “equal justice under law,” maybe they wouldn’t have to spend so much time quibbling over “sincerity tests.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff appeared Friday before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack, a source familiar with his testimony told NBC News.
Marc Short, who testified before the House committee back in January, was with Pence at the U.S. Capitol during the siege. He would be the highest-ranking former Trump administration official known to have testified before the federal grand jury.
Short’s grand jury appearance is an indication that the Justice Department’s investigation into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, has expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol and those involved in the so-called fake elector schemes. News of Short’s grand jury testimony was first reported by ABC News.
NBC News cameras stationed Friday outside the federal courthouse in Washington for the trial of Steve Bannon captured Short and his attorney Emmet Flood leaving the courthouse where the grand jury meets….
The day before Jan. 6, Short warned the Secret Service about the risk Pence faced if Trump turned on him, according to The New York Times….
Millions could die due to “food crisis” caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Guatemalan president
Millions around the world could die due to the “food crisis” caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, said during a visit to Ukraine on Monday, Agence France Presse reports.
Giammattei, who was invited to Ukraine by counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy to view the damage caused by Russia’s invasion, hit out at the war’s global impact.
An irrefutable proof of the consequences of this war are the global economic effects that have generated inflation, increased the cost of living and produced more poverty,” he said in a joint statement with Zelenskiy published by the Guatemalan presidency.
And he warned of what could come from the conflict soon:
[A] food crisis that could mean the death of millions of people.”
Central America has been badly affected by the war as it imports all of its grain from the conflict zone.
Ukraine has been unable to export grain since the beginning of Russia’s invasion due to a blockade of its Black Sea ports by Kremlin forces.
“The whole world is suffering the serious consequences of the Russian aggression such as the food crisis and price destabilization. The cost of living is unfairly rising and only together can we protect the world and international legal order,” said Zelenskiy.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
Russian forces have targeted the Odesa region, striking private buildings in coastal villages in the early hours of this morning, local officials are reporting.
Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv has also been reported this morning. The head of the city council, Olexander Senkevich, said “A massive missile strike was launched in the south of Ukraine from the direction of the Black Sea, including with the use of aviation.”
A residential area in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv has also reportedly been hit this morning. Kharkiv mayor, Igor Terekhov, said the attack by Russian forces was made on the city centre.
Russia is moving convoys of military equipment to Kherson, Ukraine’s military claims. In an operation update posted to the armed forces of Ukraine’s Telegram on Monday evening, the military said convoys of military equipment were seen moving through Melitopol, in the direction of Kherson.
A major fire broke out at an oil depot in the Budyonnovsky district of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine after Ukrainian troops shelled the province, according to local media reports. No casualties or injuries have been reported so far, but the occupying forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic issued photographs which showed train tank cars on fire.
The Russian state-controlled energy company Gazprom has announced a drastic cut to gas deliveries through its main pipeline to Europe from Wednesday….
Russian gas giant Gazprom has also sharply increased pressure in the pipeline that delivers Russian gas to Europe without prior notice, the Ukrainian state pipeline operator company has said. Such pressure spikes could lead to emergencies including pipeline ruptures, and pipeline operators are obliged to inform each other about them in advance, the operator of gas transmission systems of Ukraine (OGTSU) said.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its intelligence briefing on the situation in Ukraine for the day, in which it disputes Russia’s account of Sunday’s missile attack on Odesa, saying “The Russian MoD claimed to have hit a Ukrainian warship and a stockpile of anti-ship missiles. There is no indication that such targets were at the location the missiles hit.”…
Ukraine says it hopes to start exporting grain from its ports this week with the first ships potentially moving from its Black Sea ports within a few days. Details of the procedures will soon be published by a joint coordination centre that is liaising with the shipping industry, deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said….
Also from there:
EU renews Russian sanctions until January 2023
The European Union has decided to renew its sanctions against Russia for a further six months, until the end of January 2023.
The decision, a formality taken by EU energy ministers, refers to sanctions that were first introduced in 2014 and significantly expanded after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year.
Ministers approved a draft European law meant to lower demand for gas by 15% from August through to March.
The new legislation entails voluntary national steps to reduce gas consumption and, if they yield insufficient savings, a trigger for mandatory moves in the 27-member bloc.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the move, saying that “the EU has taken a decisive step to face down the threat of a full gas disruption by [Russian president Vladimir] Putin”.
ТРУХА⚡️English
@TpyxaNews
·
Follow
Kazakhstan is preparing an army to defend against Russia, a sharp $918 million military budget, and expanding cooperation with China and NATO, fearful of becoming next on the Kremlin’s list of geopolitical ambitions
Kazakhstan can see the writing on the wall.
If Ukraine goes, Georgia and Moldova are gone, history.
Next would be Kazakhstan. A large country with a small population and a lot of oil, gas, and uranium. Followed by the other Central Asian states.
Kazakhstan has a long border with Russia. It also has a long border with China.
I don’t see the Chinese being too happy if Russia invades Kazakhstan.
poland to buy himars from http://www.defensenews.com
May 27, 2022 — The Polish Ministry of National Defence said the first HIMARS contract was worth about $414 million. Deliveries under this deal are scheduled to …
HIMARS are High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. These are the large vehicles that fire 6 rockets at once. These rockets are guided and can hit within a meter or two. One load of ammo runs around $1 million.
Poland is clearly very alert and wary of Russia.
They are now going on a shopping spree and buying huge quantities of modern weapons.
500 HIMARS is a lot. I’m not sure that number even exists in the world right now.
I’ve seen enough from Polish people to say that they are scared, angry, and are saying, “never again.” Poland has a long history of being invaded and massacred by the Russians, notably when TFGermanG and Stalin divided the country up when WW II started.
ravensays
July 22, 2022 Reuters Poland to buy jets, tanks and howitzers from South Korea, says minister
WARSAW, July 22 (Reuters) – Poland will buy 48 FA-50 fighter jets, a first installment of 180 K2 Black Panther tanks and howitzers from South Korea, Warsaw’s defence minister was quoted as saying on Friday, as the country strengthens its army because of the war in Ukraine.
Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anna Koper; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Poland just put in a huge order for fighter jets, tanks, and howitzers from South Korea.
They clearly aren’t taking any chances with Russia.
I’m sure it is like this every where around Russia right now.
No one wants to be a slave nation occupied by the Russians any more.
GOP Rep. Glenn Thompson attended his gay son’s wedding last week, three days after opposing a bill in the US House that would enshrine protections for same-sex marriage into federal law, CNN has confirmed…
blfsays
@323, “500 HIMARS is a lot. I’m not sure that number even exists in the world right now.”
I concur. That’s a massive number of launchers, suggesting one or more of (1) Mis-statement by Poland; (2) Mis-reporting; (3) Poland hasn’t done their research (seems unlikely (barring corruption)); or (4) Poland has some cunning plan. I could not find any clarity with an admittedly simple Generalissimo Google™ search, but am inclined towards a mix of the first two — credulous reporting of a mis-statement.
As many others have pointed out (e.g., DailyKos), it’s the “pods” that contain the rocket-ammo which is the critical factor. A launcher can fire an entire pod very quickly, move to a different location almost immediately (avoiding simple-minded counter-fire aimed at the launch location), reload a new pod fairly quickly, repeat… and with the basic six-rocket pod having a range of c.80km, just a handful of launchers, provided they are adequately supplied with pods, is devastating (remembering even the basic rockets are GPS precision-guided to within a metre or so of the target). So the reported 500 launchers seems rather off — especially as I haven’t seen any mention of pods — 500 pods and perhaps 6–12 launchers would be my speculative guess, barring corruption or a cunning plan. (I do note several reports claim Poland wants to make its own rockets.)
And I also concur, the current entire world-wide inventory of HIMARS launchers is rather smaller, roughly, somewhere around 100 (from unreliable memory!). I had thought that — excepting Ukraine — the only two countries with launchers were the States and Romania. However, Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge also lists Singapore, UAE, and Jordan, but its unclear if any have yet been delivered.
Also, the amount of money seems to not add up: Each launcher is something like $5m, so 500 would be $2500m ($2.5bn), not the quoted $414m. However, each six-rocket basic pod is a bit less than $1m (c.$800k as I recall), with does compute-out to roughly the quoted sum leaving enough for 3–4 launchers, then take into account (presumed) volume discounts, etc., and you get my previously-speculated six(-ish) launchers with 500(-ish) pods. (They also need spare parts, etc., so these are all very fuzzy figures.)
Ergo, I suspect credulous reporting of a confusing(?) mis-statement.
Also, apparently Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania are thinking of putting in their own joint order.
In this episode, Jack is joined by special guest Rob from The Right Podcast, creator of intimidatingly detailed yet somehow also accessible and enjoyable shows covering subjects from US domestic right-wing extremism to Russian right-wing extremism, Russia and Ukraine, National Bolshevism, etc.
We have a chat about the populist US ‘People’s Party’ – presidential candidate: Jimmy Dore – and their composition, actual politics, and internal scandals, including their recent disgraceful tweet thread of rape apologia.
The conversation ranges over Dore and Caleb Maupin (and his tendency) to Putin and Russia, Greenwald, the ‘alt-imperialist’ left, the theories of Dugin and their influence, and misinformation, including Oliver Stone’s disinfo ‘documentary Ukraine on Fire….
Rachel Maddow looks at the racist, antisemitic roots of “Christian nationalism” as advocated by American politician Gerald L.K. Smith in the 1950s, and the renewed embrace of the tenets of that disgraced movement by supporters of Donald Trump like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor Doug Mastriano.
A British citizen who video blogs pro-Kremlin material from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine has been added to a UK government sanctions list.
Graham Phillips, who has been accused of being a conduit for pro-Russian propaganda, is one of 42 new designations added to the UK’s Russia sanctions list.
Phillips – the first UK citizen to be added to the growing sanctions list – has long been a controversial figure, receiving medals from the Russian state for his reporting. He has consistently toed the Russian line on the war, suggesting in recent weeks that Ukraine is run by Nazis and that the massacre of Ukrainians in Bucha was staged.
In April Phillips drew condemnation from Boris Johnson and others when he interviewed Aiden Aslin, a British member of the Ukrainian armed forces who had been captured by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol. Aslin is facing the death penalty.
Aslin’s local MP, Robert Jenrick, said Phillips’ video showed his constituent “handcuffed, physically injured and being interviewed under duress for propaganda purposes”. Jenrick said the video was a breach of the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and that “the interviewer Graham Phillips is in danger of prosecution for war crimes”.
SC @329, that phrase, “As far as I am aware …” made me laugh. Of course Boris Johnson’s awareness of all things, (including self-awareness), is questionable. What an untrustworthy dunderhead.
The U.S. has announced four more HIMARS to Ukraine in the latest upcoming aid tranche. The Pentagon said it was monitoring Ukraine’s ammo usage as that is the bottleneck with HIMARS, not the launchers themselves. […]
It’s amazing how many people still don’t get this, demanding the U.S. send “100 HIMARS!” to Ukraine, as if they’ll be using the launchers to ram into Ukrainian defenses. Given that each launcher can go through hundreds of rockets per day if properly supplied, imagine trying to feed 100 launchers. […]
[quoting a tweet from Steven Pinker] A bold idea: NATO offers to withdraw nukes from Europe (militarily useless, ineffective deterrents as we’ve just seen, & recklessly dangerous) in return for ending the invasion. Putin gets a “win” which costs us nothing worth having.
Steve Pinker is a cognitive scientist at Harvard, which clearly means he’s smart [I disagree]. So why is this one of the dumbest tweets written? We’ll get into this click-bait dumpster fire article in a bit, but even before we do so, nuclear weapons are “militarily useless, ineffective deterrents”?
Imagine tweeting that knowing that 1) Russia would’ve never invaded Ukraine had it kept its Soviet-era nukes, and 2) watching NATO and Joe Biden bend over backwards to avoid escalating the conflict to a point that might trigger a nuclear confrontation? Nothing says “I’m not actually paying attention to this thing I’m talking about” than that tweet, holy crap.
Alright, taking a deep breath as I click on the bait, written by former Costa Rican president and Nobel laureate Oscar Arias and Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute.
It is time for bolder efforts to make peace in Ukraine.
[…] Better put everything you were working aside and get to it, like delivering the weapons that will actually stop Russia’s armies and create the conditions for real peace negotiations. That wasn’t bold enough.
War, like fire, can spread out of control, and as President Putin keeps reminding us, this particular conflagration has the potential to start a nuclear war.
Why does that potential exist, I wonder. Is it because Russia is using the threat of nuclear war as a deterrent to keep NATO from engaging more directly in the conflict? Couldn’t be, though. Nuclear weapons aren’t effective deterrents. [/sarcasm]
At a recent joint news conference with the President of Belarus, Putin announced that Russia would transfer Iskander M missiles to Belarus. Those missiles can carry nuclear warheads, and the move is apparently intended to mirror nuclear sharing arrangements the United States has with five NATO allies — Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Turkey.
There is no way in hell Vladimir Putin ever gives nuclear weapons to Belarus. I know people are freaking out about it, but there is no way that ever happens. Why would Putin give Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko the one means to protect his country from future Russian aggression? Belarus wants a deterrent, Russia sure as hell won’t play ball.
Note that Iskanders aren’t inherently nuclear missiles. While they can carry nuclear warheads, their regular use is conventional</b?. Indeed, Russia is lobbing hundreds of them at civilian targets, and sometimes at themselves. [video at the link]
Moving on.
The world is as close to the nuclear abyss today as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In fact, contemporary nuclear risks may actually be worse. Whereas Cuban Missile Crisis lasted just 13 days, the fighting in Ukraine will likely continue and tempt fate for many months to come.
We are objectively not as close to nuclear war as we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was literally a nuclear standoff. During the Cuban Missile Crisis we were at DEFCON 2: “Next step to nuclear war.”
Ukraine is a conventional war with a non-nuclear state, supported by outside nuclear states. There’s a reason those outside nuclear states aren’t engaging more directly or offering Ukraine longer-range rockets—because Russia has nuclear weapons. You know, those outside powers are being deterred.
We are currently at DEFCON 3: “Increase in force readiness above that required for normal readiness.” The only other time we’ve been at DEFCON 2 was the first few days of the Gulf War, when Dick Cheney and Colin Powell convinced too many people that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Negotiations are therefore essential to defuse nuclear tensions. Even though it has no direct role in the Ukraine war, it’s appropriate for NATO to have a role in encouraging negotiations to end it.
Since NATO is an enormously strong military force — stronger even than Putin’s Russia — and since President Putin has said that the war in Ukraine is in part a response to NATO’s actions, NATO calling for peace negotiations would be fitting and carry some weight.
Ah, now I’m seeing the problem. the authors believe Putin. Sadly, it’s an all-too-common mistake. They must also believe that there are Nazis in Ukraine, because Putin would never lie about that. And when Russia denied hitting Odesa’s grain facilities at their main port, just a day after signing an agreement allowing safe export of that grain, that was totally believable too. And the next day, when Russia suddenly reversed course and claimed they had simply hit military facilities, that was also the truth.
Right?
So are we really going to pretend this was about NATO’s actions? Which ones? Ukraine wasn’t on a path to membership, so what exactly were those actions that gave Putin little choice but to invade? When Sweden and Finland decided to join NATO, Russia must’ve been livid, right? Because if it was about NATO expansion, then Finland would really be a problem, huh?
Yet this is what Putin had to say about that: “We do not have such problems with Sweden and Finland … we have nothing that could bother us from the point of view of Finland’s or Sweden’s membership in NATO.” Weird, huh?
In truth, Putin has told us exactly why he invaded Ukraine. He wrote an entire 5,000-word essay about it. In those 5,000 meandering words, Putin mentions NATO once in a throwaway paragraph, spending the bulk of the words ranting against Ukraine’s westward orientation. But wait, Finland also looked west. So what makes Ukraine different than Finland?
History. Or better put, Putin’s weird view of it. As one historian put it at the time, “It is a masterclass in disinformation – and one step short of a declaration of war.”
Putin spends lots of time complaining about how “modern Ukraine is entirely the product of the Soviet era,” a fake country without historical foundation. He concludes that “Russia was robbed” by “Bolshevik leaders who were chopping the country [Russia] into pieces.” He further claims that the West cheered the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 because it kept Russia weak. In the end, he concludes that “I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.”
Imagine that, “true sovereignty,” the ability for Ukraine to govern itself, can only exist in Putin’s mind if Ukraine surrendered that sovereignty in service to Russia</b?. Is it any wonder that all of Russia’s neighbors are arming themselves to the teeth? Even Belarus—why do you think Lukashenko is asking for nuclear weapons? (Deterrence!)
NATO was and is irrelevant to Russia’s colonial designs against Ukraine, a throwaway excuse (along with the Nazi nonsense) to justify his naked aggression to a wider public. The Tankies for sure love that fiction, as it feeds their anti-American worldview, but no honest observer should be giving it more than a passing thought. All anyone has to do is listen to Putin himself, the words that come out of his mouth.
Putin’s war is one of colonialism and conquest. That’s why, comparing himself to the expansionist Peter the Great, Putin said, “Apparently, it is also our lot to return [what is Russia’s] and strengthen [the country].” He believes Ukraine belongs to Russia, and it is his “lot” to return it. He doesn’t care about NATO. NATO doesn’t threaten him. Ask Finland.
Bringing both sides back into dialogue will require a dramatic gesture. Therefore, we propose NATO plan and prepare for withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear warheads from Europe and Turkey, preliminary to negotiations. Withdrawal would be carried out once peace terms are agreed between Ukraine and Russia. Such a proposal would get Putin’s attention and might bring him to the negotiating table.
NATO PLEASE UNILATERALLY DISARM AND PUTIN MIGHT NEGOTIATE.
“Might.”
Please don’t ever hire these these guys to negotiate on your behalf. If you’re lucky, they’ll be sitting opposite of you on the negotiating table. “Here, have everything. Can we talk?” they’ll say.
Removing U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe and Turkey would not weaken NATO militarily, since nuclear weapons have little or no actual usefulness on the battlefield. If they are truly weapons of last resort, there is no need to deploy them so close to Russia’s border. Under this proposal, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States would retain their national nuclear arsenals, and if the worst happened, they could still use them on NATO’s behalf.
Those “tactical” nukes aren’t really meant for battlefield advantages, they’re meant as a tripwire toward more devastating “strategic” nukes, the kinds that destroy cities and deliver nuclear winters. The cost of their use is so high, that it deters others from taking actions that might escalate conflict. Removing them from Europe would absolutely weaken NATO, lowering the potential cost of Russian aggression against member states.
To be clear, I’d welcome a treaty banning all tactical nuclear weapons, but deterrence only works if the aggressor state also follows suit. […]
NATO’s nuclear arsenal failed to deter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has almost no utility as a weapon of war. But NATO’s nuclear weapons can still be put to good use, not by threatening to launch them and escalate the war, but by withdrawing them to make room for new negotiations and eventual peace.
Why would NATO’s nuclear arsenal deter Russia’s invasion of a non-nuclear, non-NATO Ukraine? Did you hear how NATO’s nuclear arsenal failed to deter Ethiopia’s brutal civil war? Why won’t NATO deter Israel and Syria shooting at each other? It’s so weird how NATO doesn’t protect non-NATO territory!
There’s a reason Ukraine wanted into NATO so desperately, to get the same kind of protections Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland get. Don’t think Russia would be leaving them alone otherwise. That’s why those four are Ukraine’s fiercest allies. They know what it’s like to be part of Russia’s murderous ambitions.
The authors aren‘t even saying “offer denuclearization as part of negotiations.” That’s what’s most mind-blowing. They literally think surrendering to Putin’s aggression—giving him something he hasn’t even asked for—would somehow “make room for new negotiations and eventual peace.” Meanwhile, this is the Russian side: [video at the link, showing Russian state TV raging about world war three, citizens being primed to believe that even the worst outcome is a good thing because "those dying for the Motherland will skyrocket to paradise," as Julia Davis puts it.]
Here’s the bottom line—Putin doesn’t fear NATO or NATO tactical nuclear weapons because he knows full well the alliance is defensive. It poses no threat as long as Russia doesn’t prove it first.
Would getting rid of NATO nukes stop Ukraine from receiving HIMARS, 155mm artillery shells, and Javelins? No? Then Putin doesn’t give two shits.
He wants Ukraine subjugated, its lands within Russia’s borders. It’s his historical destiny, and his legacy depends on it. He is Putin the Great goddammit […]
Ironically, the Global Security Institute, the organization one of the authors (Jonathan Granoff) heads, had an unambiguously great statement following Russia’s invasion.
The Russian invasion dishonors the Russian people, is an affront to the security of the entire world, is illegal, and should not be tolerated. It requires a united engagement from all peoples and nations that value world security, human security, and peace.
…It is hard to feel sorry for extremely awful, obscenely rich people – particularly in the middle of a cost of living crisis – but I found myself feeling weirdly sad for the Trumps this weekend, after reading about Ivana’s opulent but miserable send-off. Donald Trump’s first wife, who was found dead at the bottom of her stairs this month, had a gold-hued coffin (of course), but the speeches were the real centrepiece. Her kids and a former nanny all gave eulogies that were bizarre and tragic in equal measure….
…It is hard to feel sorry for extremely awful, obscenely rich people – particularly in the middle of a cost of living crisis – but I found myself feeling weirdly sad for the Trumps this weekend, after reading about Ivana’s opulent but miserable send-off. Donald Trump’s first wife, who was found dead at the bottom of her stairs this month, had a gold-hued coffin (of course), but the speeches were the real centrepiece. Her kids and a former nanny all gave eulogies that were bizarre and tragic in equal measure….
A longstanding adviser to Viktor Orbán has resigned in protest at “a pure Nazi speech” the Hungarian prime minister gave that was “worthy of Goebbels”.
Zsuzsa Hegedüs, one of Orbán’s longest-serving advisers, has known the prime minister since 2002 and described her relations with him as friendly. However, in her resignation letter – published by the Hungarian news outlet hvg[dot]hu on Tuesday – she said she had become increasingly uncomfortable with Orbán’s “illiberal turn” in recent years.
Orbán has made anti-migration rhetoric a key part of his political platform since 2015, and frequently uses far-right language, but his speech on Saturday – in which he spoke out against “race mixing” – was extreme even by his standards.
In the speech, Orbán said mixing between Europeans was acceptable, but Europeans mixing with non-Europeans created “mixed race” people.
“We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” said Orbán. He added that countries where this was seen as acceptable are “no longer nations”.
Hegedüs said she had long defended the prime minister against accusations of antisemitism, but believed his latest speech to be indefensible….
…
Orbán’s speech, given at an event in Băile Tuşnad, Romania, where he traditionally makes an annual keynote address, prompted an immediate backlash inside Hungary and abroad.
Such criticism is nothing new, and Orbán thrives on his portrayal as a fighter against so-called political correctness and European liberal elites. However, resignations on matters of principle from his inner circle are extremely rare, and show that even among some parts of the right there is unease at how his rhetoric on race is developing.
Next week Orbán is due to travel to Dallas, where he will open CPAC Texas, a gathering of US conservatives. Orbán counts the former US president Donald Trump among his many admirers on the American right.
StevoRsays
Huge news for the ISS and future of humans in space here :
In the Russian-occupied region of Kherson in southern Ukraine, there are multiple, yet unconfirmed, reports of Ukrainian forces conducting new strikes on the strategic Antonivskiy bridge across the Dnieper River.
“Explosions in the Antonivskiy Bridge area,” Ukraine’s armed forces said in a Telegram update just before midnight alongside a video purportedly showing the strikes.
Kviv Independent defence reporter, Illia Ponomarenko, tweeted late Tuesday night: “Reportedly, we have another heavy Ukrainian strike upon the Antonivsky Bridge, the key Russian supply line in occupied Kherson.”
The Antonivskiy Bridge is the main supply route for Russian troops and if damaged, Moscow’s forces would potentially be trapped in Kherson with little ammunition and little supplies – part of Ukraine’s plan to re-take the city….
The Oak Fire was 10% contained Monday as firefighters traversed steep terrain in sweltering temperatures and low humidity.
A rapidly expanding wildfire near Yosemite National Park, California’s largest of the season, at 17,000 acres, prompted thousands of evacuations Monday and sent smoke to the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.
The Oak Fire, which erupted Friday, was 10% contained Monday as firefighters traversed steep terrain in sweltering temperatures and low humidity.
Ten structures were destroyed, seven were damaged and more than 3,200 were threatened as firefighters worked to prevent the blaze from encroaching on the national park. […]
The Kentucky Republican’s own party leaders have called for the Senate to pass the measure quickly.
[…] Sen. Rand Paul is pushing to amend the Senate’s treaty approving Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO, delaying the measure despite his own party leader’s desire to pass it swiftly.
The Kentucky Republican wants the Senate to vote on an amendment stating that the U.S. Constitution trumps Article 5 of the NATO charter when it comes to a declaration of war. Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all, and the entire alliance will militarily defend that territory.
In English: Paul’s amendment would mean Congress still has to approve declarations of war, even ones triggered by the NATO treaty.
A similar amendment Paul introduced was already overwhelmingly rejected at the committee level. It would likely have a similar fate on the Senate floor.
GOP in a bind: Paul’s posture is rankling GOP leaders, all of whom support the two countries’ swift admission into the alliance. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been particularly vocal on the subject, telling POLITICO last week that the Senate should finish the process before leaving town for the August recess in less than two weeks. But the only way to fast-track the bill is to get buy-in from all 100 senators.
All Democrats have consented to a quick vote on the NATO treaty, according to Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). “You would hope Sen. McConnell would talk to his members,” Menendez said in a brief interview.
Time crunch: Paul’s maneuver makes things a lot harder for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who’s trying to shepherd a herd of bills through the chamber before the summer recess. […]
StevoRsays
I’ve had an issue yesterday (25th July) commenting on the ‘Which fantasy is hurting America’ more thread -tried to post some links and info on some Christianists – incl. Paula White, Trump’s former advisor, Rev Greg Lowe and Perry Stone – who have said demons are real and Democrats are possessed by them and stuff – which haven’t gone through. Not sure what happened. Tried a couple of times and then tried a comment noting that without any links in it and that didn’t go through either which had me worried.
Is there a 5 link maximum here or something or was there somnething wrong with the links or something? Really not sure and wondering about what was up with that..
StevoRsays
@290. SC (Salty Current) : ‘Congratulations on the new dog, StevoR! How exciting!’
It sure is! She’s a real sweetheart and really great little girl. Very sweet natured and happy and well behaved. So happy with her – although my cat is still frightened of her and staying in her outdoor enclosure.
PS. Had trouble commenting yesterday on the “which fantasy is hurting America more” thread for some reason. Not sure why and just tried posting a comment on this Infinite thread too which didn’t go through. Odd.
blfsays
Some more on this Polish “500 HIMARS” puzzle (see, e.g., @326).
The Pentagon announced on July 15 that the US State Department had signed off on a potential sale to Estonia of six M142 HIMARS and related equipment worth an estimated $500 million.
Six launchers plus (an unspecified am0iunt of rocket-ammo (“pods”), spare parts, etc.) for $500m, which is almost an exact match for the reported Polish $414m with its speculated six(-ish) launchers and perhaps 500 pods.
However, that “$414m” may not refer to the current “500 somethings” plan. An excerpt from a 2019 annoucement at the Polish MoD site, HIMARS system for the Polish Army:
The contract value is $414 million net. The purchase was carried out in the form of Foreing [sic] Military Sales, by concluding an agreement between the governments of the Republic of Poland and the United States of America. The contract was implemented as part of the modernization task “Homar”.
The subject of the contract is the delivery of the first squadron, which will include 18 combat launchers and two training launchers along with the GMLRS and ATACMS missile ammunition as well as the LCRR training ammunition. Command vehicles, ammunition wagons and evacuation tractors will also be provided. The contract also includes logistic, technical and training support. The first squadron of the system will be acquired in a configuration as close as possible to those in the US equipment. Deliveries of system components will be implemented successively until 2023.
I have no idea how much of this 2019 order for 20 launchers, rocket-ammo pods, etc., has been delivered to-date. But it does mean the @329 money-calculation does not apply to the recent 2022 request.
In @329 I vaguely remembered the entire world-wide inventory of HIMARS launchers was around 100; this seems to be wrong, an excerpt from Forbes a month ago, How HIMARS Rockets Can Help Turn The Tide In Ukraine:
Lockheed Martin has assembled over 500 HIMARS units at its plant in Camden, Arkansas, so there is no shortage of systems that might be supplied to Ukraine if the administration decides it wants to send a more powerful signal.
So the world-wide inventory is somewhere around 500 launchers, albeit I have no idea how many are combat units and how many are training units. The States presumably has almost all of the units; excepting Ukraine, only Romania is known for certain to have some units, albeit as per the 2019 announcement above, Poland may also now have a few.
[…]
A man who attacked police officers with poles during the riot at the US Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than five years in prison, matching the longest term of imprisonment so far among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions.
Mark Ponder […] said he got caught up in the chaos that erupted on January 6, 2021, and didn’t mean for any of this to happen.
NO, Mr Ponder did not get caught up in the attempted insurrection (see, e.g., the judge’s comments below), albeit it perhaps is true he didn’t intend to be arrested, tried and found guilty, with a five-year sentence (an interpretation which is probably not what he meant by his burbling).
[…] US District Judge Tanya Chutkan […] sentenced him to five years and three months in prison.
That was three months longer than the prison sentence requested by prosecutors. And it is the same sentence that Chutkan gave Robert Palmer, a Florida man who also pleaded guilty to assaulting police at the Capitol.
More than 200 other Capitol riot defendants have been sentenced so far. None received a longer prison sentence than Ponder or Palmer.
Chutkan said Ponder was “leading the charge” against police officers trying to hold off the mob that disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
“This is not ‘caught up’, Mr Ponder,” she said. “He was intent on attacking and injuring police officers. This was not a protest.”
[…]
Ponder swung a pole at a Capitol police officer on the Capitol’s West Plaza, breaking it against the officer’s shield. After retreating into the crowd, Ponder grabbed a sturdier pole […]. He used it to assault two other officers, hitting one of them in the left shoulder, before police detained and handcuffed him.
Outnumbered officers released Ponder because they could not get a police vehicle to transport him. They told him to leave the Capitol, but Ponder stayed and joined a mob of rioters clashing with police at a tunnel.
Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, one of the officers assaulted by Ponder, said the force of Ponder’s blow shattered his shield.
[…]
Ponder has a substantial criminal record spanning three decades, including a 2008 conviction for bank robbery, according to prosecutors.
[…]
The prison sentences for Ponder and Palmer may not be the lengthiest for much longer. Prosecutors are seeking a 15-year prison sentence for Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun. US District Judge Dabney Friedrich is scheduled to sentence Reffitt on Monday [August 1st].
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
A key Russian-held bridge into the occupied southern city of Kherson has been hit with a barrage of rocket fire by Ukrainian forces, who appeared to be stepping up operations to isolate the city. Video and witness accounts showed up to 18 detonations on the Antonivskiy Bridge over the Dnieper river, one of the main Russian resupply routes into Kherson, with Russian anti-missile air defences apparently failing to intercept the strikes. There were also reports that a railway bridge was targeted.
Self-appointed authorities in the occupied Kherson region have closed the bridge to traffic, but said it was structurally sound and that repairs would begin shortly. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-imposed administration, said “There are hits on the bridge, the bridge has not been destroyed. More holes have been added”….
[Another post notes that “The Ukrainian side is saying it took care to damage the bridge so that it was unusable for heavy goods and military machinery, but not to destroy it.”]
…
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said “Russian private military company Wagner has likely succeeded in making tactical advances in the Donbas around the Vuhlehirska power plant and the nearby village of Novoluhanske. Some Ukrainian forces have likely withdrawn from the area.”
Russian forces continued to strike civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the surrounding region in the country’s northeast. Regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said the strikes on the city resumed around dawn Tuesday. “The Russians deliberately target civilian infrastructure objects hospitals, schools, movie theatres. Everything is being fired at, even queues for humanitarian aid,” Syniehubov told Ukrainian television.
…
The headquarters overseeing exports of Ukrainian grain is set to be unveiled in Istanbul today, and a senior Turkish official said the first ship is likely to depart Black Sea ports in a few days. The joint coordination centre (JCC) in Istanbul will oversee departures from three Ukrainian ports in which ships must circumvent mines, and will conduct inspections of incoming ships for weapons. All vessels pass through Turkish waters.
The Russian deputy foreign minister, Andrei Rudenko, has said a Turkish-brokered deal to unblock Ukrainian grain exports on the Black Sea could collapse if obstacles to Russia’s agricultural exports are not promptly removed.
The first train with sanctioned goods has arrived from Russia to Kaliningrad via Lithuania in the first such trip since the European Union said Lithuania must allow Russian goods across its territory, according to the regional governor. The train reportedly consisted of 60 freight cars with cement.
On the latest episode of Fever Dreams, host Will Sommer and guest host Anthony Fisher discuss Alex Jones’ upcoming trial and John Rich’s No.1 hit, “Progress,” along with the problems surrounding the title.
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation announced Monday that it had compiled a list of American citizens who have been “promoting Russian propaganda.”
The center, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky created in 2021, named Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), journalist Glenn Greenwald, retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor, academic John Mearsheimer, and military historian Edward Luttwak.
Gabbard and Greenwald have endorsed the theory — which Russia promotes and Ukraine denies — that there are dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine. [Good grief, this whole sentence.] In the early days of the invasion, MacGregor told Fox News that Zelensky was a “puppet” and was “putting huge numbers of his own population at unnecessary risk” by refusing to cave to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands.
Mearsheimer delivered a lecture in 2015 with the title “Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault?” in which he argued that NATO and the EU had driven Ukraine into conflict with Russia by teasing the possibility of membership without ever intending to grant it. Paul made similar statements and has voted against military aid for Ukraine. In April, Luttwak called for a peace deal that would allow disputed territories in the Donbas to hold referendums on whether to join with Russia or remain part of Ukraine.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a frequent critic of Zelensky’s government, said Monday night that “Ukraine is not a democracy in any recognizable sense” and accused Zelensky of attempting to “impose censorship in our country.”
Illegal emojis: A judge in Barnaul fined a local philosophy teacher 30,000 rubles (about $500) for reactions to two posts on the social network Odnoklassniki: a “frowny face” response to news about someone being fined for “discrediting” the Russian military, and a “cool!” response to a post with an antiwar message. Alexey Argunov was convicted of the misdemeanor offense of “discrediting” Russia’s army for sharing these reactions online. (Police officers who pursued the case utilized the fact that Odnoklassniki publishes dedicated lists showing every user’s emoji reactions.)
Russia is now a world leader in VPN use: Second only to India, Russia is now one of the world’s biggest users of VPN (Virtual Private Network) services (technology essential for circumventing Internet censorship). Statistics collected by AppMagic, as reported by RBC, show that VPN services were downloaded to mobile devices in Russia more than 12 million times in the first three weeks of July. In January 2022, before the militarization of censorship laws, Russians downloaded VPN apps just 2 million times, ranking 16th in the world.
Missing soldiers’ families demand that Putin locate their husbands and sons: The families of 106 Russian soldiers reported missing while fighting in Ukraine have appealed directly to Vladimir Putin, demanding that the military locate these men. The letter to the president recounts stories from wives and parents about how the Russian authorities have given them conflicting information about the missing soldiers. (For example, one mother was told that her son is currently alive on the front, taken hostage by Ukraine, and killed in action.)
Russia’s Defense Ministry hasn’t commented on troop losses in Ukraine since late March when it acknowledged the deaths of 1,351 soldiers. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, claim that the Russian military has lost almost 40,000 men.
Putin seeking Bayraktars: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reported that Vladimir Putin has expressed interest in partnering with the Turkish company Baykar, which manufactures Bayraktar drones. According to CNN Turk, Erdoğan mentioned Putin’s comments at a meeting of the Turkish ruling party’s central executive committee.
Ukrainian forces have used Bayraktar drones to do significant damage to Russia’s military in recent months. The Russian government regularly reports on the destruction of Ukrainian Bayraktars; in fact, as of June, Russia’s Defense Ministry had reported destroying 20 more Bayraktars than Ukraine ever had.
According to American officials, the Russian government is planning to purchase weapons-capable drones from Iran. Russian and Iranian leaders have denied the reports.
Once regarded as the sole democracy to have emerged from the mass protests of the Arab Spring in 2011, Tunisia on Tuesday passed a newly minted constitution that analysts fear could be the final nail in the coffin of its democratic era.
With no minimum voter threshold, only 30.5% of eligible voters took part in Monday’s poll, according to the latest figures by the electoral commission, with approximately 95% of those who participated voting ‘yes.’
Analysts say that a new constitution would be the final blow to the social and political gains made by the North African country since the Arab Spring, setting the country on a path that will be difficult to return from.
…
A series of protests and strikes took place in the capital Tunis ahead of Monday’s referendum….
Typical Russian stages of accepting in Kherson:
1) “Your HIMARS now suck, haha”
2) “All Ukrainian rockets have been intercepted, the bridge is intact”
3) “The bridge is closed to all traffic”
4) “We have lots of pontoons anyway”
5) “It was done by American operators, not Ukraine”
“Strong 1938 Austrian Anschluss vibes here. New Russian billboards in occupied Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine: ‘Russians and Ukrainians are one people, one whole’, ‘Russia is here forever!'”
Understanding how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in 2019 is critical to preventing zoonotic outbreaks before they become the next pandemic. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, was identified as a likely source of cases in early reports but later this conclusion became controversial. We show the earliest known COVID-19 cases from December 2019, including those without reported direct links, were geographically centered on this market. We report that live SARS-CoV-2 susceptible mammals were sold at the market in late 2019 and, within the market, SARS-CoV-2-positive environmental samples were spatially associated with vendors selling live mammals. While there is insufficient evidence to define upstream events, and exact circumstances remain obscure, our analyses indicate that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 occurred via the live wildlife trade in China, and show that the Huanan market was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the key findings of our study is that ‘unlinked’ early COVID-19 patients, those who neither worked at the market or knew someone who did, nor had recently visited the market, resided significantly closer to the market than patients with a direct link to the market. The observation that a substantial proportion of early cases had no known epidemiological link had previously been used as an argument against a Huanan market epicenter of the pandemic. However, this group of cases resided significantly closer to the market than those who worked there, indicating that they had been exposed to the virus at, or near, the Huanan market. For market workers, the exposure risk was their place of work not their residential locations, which were significantly further afield than those cases not formally linked to the market.
The pattern of COVID-19 cases reported for the Huanan market, with the earliest cases in the same part of the market as the wildlife sales and evidence of at least two introductions (38), resembles the multiple cross-species transmissions of SARS-CoV-2 subsequently observed during the pandemic from animals to humans on mink farms (46), and from infected hamsters to humans in the pet trade (47). There was an extensive network of wildlife farms in western Hubei province, including hundreds of thousands of raccoon dogs on farms in Enshi prefecture, which supplied the Huanan market (48). This region of Hubei contains extensive cave complexes housing Rhinolophus bats, which carry SARSr-CoVs (49). SARS-CoV-1 was recovered from farmed masked palm civets from Hubei in 2003 and 2004 (20).
In response to the attack on the Antonivskiy Bridge, Russian military bloggers, some of whom have become more critical of the Kremlin’s conduct of the war, underlined the problems facing Russian forces in the Kherson area.
Among them was the Voennyi Osvedomitel (military informant) Telegram channel, which has a following of 450,000 people.
“The repeated attacks by the armed forces of Ukraine have led to – so far – a temporary failure of the Antonivskiy Bridge, forcing the construction of ferry and pontoon crossings as an alternative.
“There are exactly two problems here. First, the consequences of shelling the bridge have a cumulative effect, that is, each subsequent one does more damage than the previous one … The second is that alternatives in the form of pontoons / ferries are much more vulnerable to enemy fire.
“We are forced to conclude that the problem with the ongoing attempts of the armed forces of Ukraine to cut off the right-bank grouping of [Russian forces] from supplies is not being resolved.”
The bridge has come under repeated attack in the past week as Ukraine has tried to cut off the handful of routes Russia can use to move heavy weapons in and around Kherson, including a road over the dam at nearby Nova Kakhovka.
It’s interesting how much criticism these military bloggers are able to get away with while people are arrested for emojis or blank signs.
Russia cannot be trusted to honour an agreement to allow the export of Ukrainian grain from Odesa, the Polish prime minister said on Wednesday, after Moscow launched a missile strike on the Black Sea port.
“The day after the signing [of the agreement], the Russian armed forces … attacked Odesa,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.
“It follows that such agreements cannot be considered fully credible, because unfortunately that is what Russia is like.”
President Joe Biden said Wednesday he’s “feeling great” and is back to working in person after isolating in the White House and recovering from what has been described as a mild case of Covid-19.
The President, addressing the nation from the Rose Garden, credited the vaccines, booster shots and the Paxlovid antiviral treatment he was prescribed for averting a severe case of the virus. Biden, 79, is at high risk for a severe case of Covid-19 due to his age.
“I got through it with no fear,” Biden said. “A very mild discomfort because of these essentials, lifesaving tools. And guess what, I want to remind everybody: They are free. They are convenient, and they are safe, and they work.”
…
The President will wear a well-fitting mask for 10 days to prevent the spread of the virus, and he will increase the frequency with which he is tested to detect for any possible resurgence of the virus.
O’Connor cited the potential for the President to experience a “rebound” of his Covid-19 infection after Biden received the antiviral Paxlovid in explaining the more frequent testing. O’Connor noted there have been a small percentage of patients who have been treated with Paxlovid who experienced a rebound in their infection.
Biden on Wednesday continued to urge Americans to receive their vaccinations and booster shots and to “take advantage of these lifesaving tools,” as the BA.5 subvariant, another offshoot of the Omicron variant, spreads within the United States. He called on Congress to continue allocating funding to make the tools widely available.
“The reality is that BA.5 means many of us are still going to get Covid even if we take the precautions,” Biden said. “That doesn’t mean we’re doing anything wrong. Unfortunately, this Covid is still with us as it has been for two-and-a-half years. But our fight against Covid is making a huge difference. What’s different now is our ability to protect ourselves from serious illness due to Covid.”
Biden tweeted a photo of his negative Covid-19 test on Wednesday morning and wrote, “Back to the Oval. Thanks to Doc for the good care, and to all of you for your support.”…
Russia has “definitively” lost the initiative in the battle for the Donbas in Ukraine, according to western officials.
Moscow will not take the eastern industrial heartland in the “immediate future”, one official said, but “they are not just going to give up and go home”.
They said there has been “wax and wane” in the war in Ukraine, and Russia has the capacity to “adapt and adjust what they are doing”, according to a Press Association report.
Earlier this month, western officials said the sustainability of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine was “challenging”, with Moscow making “genuine headway” on the objective it claimed was the rationale for the invasion – the supposed liberation of the Donbas.
But a western official said on Wednesday that Russia has “definitively lost the initiative” in the battle for the region.
They said it is believed that securing the full extent of Donetsk Oblast remains the “minimum political objective of the Donbas campaign”, but it looks “increasingly unlikely” that Russia will achieve this in the next several months.
Ding dong, the bridge is dead. The Antonivskyi Bridge east of Kherson was hit by a fresh volley of rockets overnight, and while the previous shots on the bridge were spaced out in a neat pattern to demonstrate to Russia just how much precision Ukrainian forces had when hitting that critical link, this time Ukraine took a very different approach. They picked one point and cut straight across. While the shots didn’t bring down a span of the bridge, they have certainly made it impassable without major repairs.
Since Ukraine first reached out and touched these bridges last week, the whole tenor of the war in Kherson Oblast has taken a radical shift. By demonstrating that they could cut off Russia’s access to resupply and reinforcement at any time, Ukraine sent a strong signal that if Russia wanted its forces to leave Kherson anywhere near intact, it was time to move. Since then, Ukraine has liberated several villages on the fringe of Russian control in the area and began a series of attacks against other bridges along the Inhulets River with the intention of further isolating Russian forces.
The overnight strike on the Antonivskyi Bridge cuts off the major line of supply for Russian forces which have occupied the city of Kherson since the second week of the invasion. There is another bridge over the wide Dnipro River, the Kakhovka Bridge west of Nova Kakhovka, but Ukraine has hit bridges on the Inhulets River between Kherson and Nova Kakhovka. It’s not clear at the moment whether supplies brought through Nova Kakhovka can reach Kherson. And the Kakhovka Bridge is already carrying its own set of pockmarks, a reminder that it could also be closed at any moment. There is also a railroad bridge across the dam at Kakhovka, but Ukraine has so far restricted their actions to a single blast taking out the tracks. Neither side wants to see that dam go down … but Ukraine is making it clear this is also a possibility.
Whatever forces Russia still has in Kherson are likely to be what they’re going to have. And now they have no choice but to wait as Ukraine drives its counteroffensive toward the city.
A close up look at some of the damage on the bridge shows that this is not going to be remedied quickly with a little patching. There is daylight visible through these holes. It is still possible to move foot traffic across the bridge, and may be possible to guide light vehicles across carefully, but it’s certainly not a path that allows heavy equipment. Also … there’s no guarantee that Ukraine won’t send along another pod of missiles if there are signs Russia is still able to make use of this bridge.
There are already reports of some serious panic going on among the Russian forces left in the city, with rumors that Ukrainian forces are already coming their way are leading to some extremely serious nerves. And there are reports of the kind of mistakes soldiers make when they are waiting, and terrified.
[tweets with such reports at the link]
For some days now, the FIRMS data in the areas surrounding the city of Kherson have been wild enough that it’s hard to say just how much artillery is being lobbed into the area. It’s clearly a lot….
…
The big question for the moment is … what is Russia doing? On Monday, there were multiple reports of units leaving the area of Melitopol and heading west in the direction of Kherson Oblast. However there doesn’t seem to be a clear sighting of those forces moving into the city or across the bridge at Nova Kakhovka. Russia has also attempted to replace some of the bridges over the Inhulets River with hastily erected pontoon bridges, but at least one of these seems incapable of carrying heavy trucks or armor and any of these bridges is subject to rapid reduction by artillery. The most critical position, at Daryivka, appears to still be closed to any movement of armor or supply trucks, though the pontoon bridge there is being used by civilian cars and soldiers on foot. Russia was working on this bridge again on Wednesday.
Inside Kherson, attacks on Russian collaborators are reported to be increasing. Not just in the form of bullets coming out of the darkness, but of bombs.
It’s unclear just how many Russian forces are on the west bank of the Dnipro River at the moment, but it could be as high as 15,000 including the forces occupying Kherson and those scattered across the front. Many of these entered the oblast only in the last three weeks as Russia took recruits from the Donbas region and sent them to bolster the ranks in Kherson. What was called an “endless convoy” carried conscripts from the east through Melitopol to Kherson on July 13. [Sure they’re thrilled to be there.]
If more forces are coming in now, they’re having to cross the Kakhovka Bridge, and may find it difficult to make their way down to Kherson. It’s that stretch of highway, between the two bridges, rather than the city itself, that many analysts expect Ukraine to target as it begins an attempt to retake Kherson.
Ukraine may lay siege to the city, trapping Russian forces between the Ukrainian military knocking them off from the outside (and dropping nightly missiles into any place they try to make into a base) and a hostile populace inside the city that outnumbers the Russian forces 25 to 1. Like Stalingrad … if everyone in Stalingrad hated the soldiers.
What may be most astounding about what’s happening now in Kherson isn’t the precision of those HIMARS strikes or any of the villages Ukraine has freed from Russian occupation. It’s just how quickly Ukraine has reversed the narrative. They are in control of what happens next in Kherson. Russia can only react. As the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense says …
[Tweet at the link: “Successful missile strikes on bridges over the Dnipro River by #UAarmy create an impossible dilemma for russian occupiers in #Kherson: retreat or be annihilated by #UAarmy. The choice is theirs.”]
Right now, Russian forces could still turn east and march out of the city across that pockmarked bridge. They may even be able to get some equipment out.
Neither of these things is guaranteed for tomorrow.
As always, there are several illustrative tweets, maps, and videos at the link.
blfsays
Teh raping children cult has a meltdown about a priest trying to keep teens safe, and uses its powers to drag in the local authorities… the “offense”? Holding outdoors mass in the relative cool of the Mediterranean Sea when no shade could be found, Imprudent priest uses inflatable mattress as altar during mass in sea:
[…]
A priest who celebrated mass in the sea using an inflatable mattress as an altar has been placed under investigation by Italian authorities.
Father Mattia Bernasconi […] said he had planned to hold Sunday’s ceremony among the trees by the beach in Crotone, southern Italy, after he had been helping with a week-long summer camp for high school students organised by Libera, an anti-mafia organisation.
However, having failed to find shade from the searing heat, Bernasconi said a nearby family offered the use of the inflatable mattress and the priest took to the water, conducting the service with everyone — himself included — in swimsuits.
After photos went viral this week, the local Catholic archdiocese called for liturgical decorum and respect.
[…]
In an interview with the Italian national newspaper la Repubblica, Giuseppe Capoccia, the chief prosecutor of the city of Crotone, said the priest was being investigated for offence to a religious confession.
[…]
Not a peep (as reported) about keeping people safe (a far better use of the police’s time), only about using mythical mumble-jumbo in the approved made-up fashion.
lumipunasays
Since Russia scrapped its covid-related foreign travel restrictions a couple weeks ago, wealthy and middle-class Russians have been more free to travel abroad, even just for fun. Traffic on Finland’s eastern border isn’t quite up to pre-pandemic levels, but it’s still substantial. Some Finns go to buy cheap gas from Russia, despite widespread judgement, while many Russians visit Finland for shopping, family visits or checking their summer homes (which have been mostly empty since 2019). Since there are no flights from Russia to Europe, some Russians cross the land border to Finland on a bus or taxi and take a flight from Helsinki on their way to Paris, Milan and so on. It’s cheaper than connecting flights in Middle east.
Now, there’s a growing resentment in Finland and elsewhere about visa system that allows Russians to visit Schengen area. Other than Finland, several EU/Schengen countries (esp. ones with land border to Russia) have already severely restricted visa approvals for Russian citizens. Finland might not restrict new visa approvals for Russians, unless the EU orders so (Poland is currently lobbying for this). Even then, many Russians have long-term tourist visas to Finland and it’d be tricky to revoke those before they expire. Russian shoppers are economically important in certain areas of Finland, where businesses struggled badly through the pandemic.
I see increasingly heated arguments on whether it’s appropriate to allow Russian tourism in Finland during the Ukraine war. Some argue that punishing ordinary Russians (ie. other than sanctioned individuals) and isolating them from the outside world isn’t helpful for Ukraine or the Western community. Others argue that denying foreign holidays to relatively well-off Russians would potentially shake them out of a sense of normality and put more pressure on Putin’s regime. Then there’s raw appeals to people’s irrational sense of justice, like something must be done to prevent Russians from having fun or showing up in our country, when their government is murdering civilians in Ukraine.
Predicting that “their case is about to fall apart,” Donald J. Trump claimed that the Department of Justice has “zero proof” that he ever acted as a President.
“This is the greatest witch hunt of all time,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “Merrick Garland and the D.O.J. will never, ever find evidence of me doing something a President would do.”
“This is like accusing Rudy Giuliani of being a lawyer,” he added.
As for the White House aides who have been called before a grand jury, Trump said, “If any of them come up with even one example of me being a President, they’re lying.”
Calling the D.O.J.’s investigation of him a “disgrace,” he warned, “If I can be accused of being a President, then anyone can. This should never be allowed to happen in our country.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin on Wednesday announced a deal on an energy and health care bill, representing a breakthrough after more than a year of negotiations that have collapsed time and again.
But it will face furious GOP opposition.
The deal is a major reversal for Manchin, and the health and climate bill stands a serious chance of becoming law as soon as August — assuming Democrats can pass the bill in the House and that it passes muster with the Senate parliamentarian to allow it to be approved along straight party lines in the budget process.
While Manchin scuttled President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill, the final deal includes a number of provisions the moderate from West Virginia had privately scoffed at, representing a significant reversal from earlier this month. That includes provisions addressing the climate crisis.
The agreement contains a number of Democrats’ goals. While many details have not been disclosed, the measure would invest $369 billion into energy and climate change programs, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, according to a one-page fact sheet. For the first time, Medicare would be empowered to negotiate the prices of certain medications, and it would cap out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 for those enrolled in Medicare drug plans. It would also extend expiring enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage for three years.
The announcement comes at a crucial time for Congress, as the Senate is a little over a week away from starting a monthlong recess, when many Democrats will campaign for reelection. The news also came several hours after the Senate passed a separate bill to invest $52 billion in US manufacturing of semiconductors, sending it to the House to consider as soon as this week.
Notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had previously vowed to try to halt passage of the semiconductor bill if Democrats continued to pursue their party-line bill on climate and drug prices….
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
A barrage of 25 missiles has been fired by Russian forces at northern regions of Ukraine from neighbouring Belarus. The early morning wave of missile strikes launched from the territory of Russia’s key ally hit targets in the Chernihiv region, including an apartment block, as well as locations outside Kyiv and around the city of Zhytomyr, according to Ukrainian officials and Belarusian opposition figures.
The Chernihiv regional governor, Viacheslav Chaus, said nine missiles had struck close to the village of Honcharivska with some falling in the forest nearby. Activists who track Russian military moves in Belarus said the missile launches came from Ziabrauka airfield near Gomel, prompting calls for increased sanctions against Belarus.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, said: “On the morning of 28 July, a massive rocket attack was launched on Mykolaiv. It is known that as a result of three rocket strikes, the building of the secondary school in Korabelny district was almost completely destroyed. One person was injured.”
The strikes came as Ukraine celebrated Statehood Day for the first time. In a national message, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “Restless morning. Again – missile terror. We will not give up. We will not give up. Do not intimidate us. Ukraine is an independent, free, indivisible state. And it will always be like that.”
Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kherson is gathering momentum, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. In an intelligence report issued this morning, the ministry said: “Their forces have highly likely established a bridgehead south of the Ingulets River, which forms the northern boundary of Russian-occupied Kherson. Ukraine has used its new long range artillery to damage at least three of the bridges across the Dnipro River which Russia relies upon to supply the areas under its control.”
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration in the occupied Kherson region has posted to Telegram to say that “all stories about successful ‘Ukronazi’ counteroffensives in the Kherson region are sheer lies.”
Russian forces are undertaking a “massive redeployment” of troops to three southern regions of Ukraine in what appears to be a change of tactics by Moscow, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy said on Wednesday. Oleksiy Arestovych said Russia was sending troops to the Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia regions and Kherson, signalling a change in tactics to strategic defence from offence.
Russian forces have also reportedly taken over Ukraine’s second biggest power plant in eastern Ukraine, an adviser to Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, after an earlier claim by Russian-backed forces to have captured it intact. “They achieved a tiny tactical advantage – they captured Vuhlehirsk,” Oleksiy Arestovych said. Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show fighters from Russia’s Wagner private military company posing in front of the plant.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine would rebuild the Antonivskyi Bridge and other crossings in the region after Ukrainian forces struck the strategic Russian supply route in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region. “We are doing everything to ensure that the occupying forces do not have any logistical opportunities in our country,” he added….
Spain’s equality ministry has launched a creative summer campaign encouraging women of all shapes and sizes to hit the beach, with the slogan: “Summer is ours too.”
The colourful campaign’s promotional image features five women of different body types, ages and ethnicities enjoying a day in the sun. “Summer is ours too,” it says. “Enjoy it how, where and with whomever you want.” The campaign also features a woman who has had a mastectomy topless.
“All bodies are beach bodies,” Ione Belarra, the leader of Podemos who serves as social rights minister in Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government, said. “All bodies are valid and we have the right to enjoy life as we are, without guilt or shame. Summer is for everyone!”
Antonia Morillas, head of the Spanish women’s institute and the organisation behind the initiative, said physical expectations affected women’s self-esteem and denied them their rights.
“Diverse bodies, free of gender stereotypes, occupying all spaces. Summer also belongs to us. Free, equal and diverse,” she tweeted on Wednesday alongside an image from the campaign.
The women’s institute said: “Today we toast a summer for all, without stereotypes and aesthetic violence against our bodies.”
When left-wing leader Cayo Lara said the campaign was absurd and trying to “create a problem where it doesn’t exist”, Podemos hit back in a tweet with: “If bodies bother you, you can stay home tweeting.”
The water truck parks on a block, a 10-minute walk uphill from Rocio Vega Morales’ house, for 15 minutes at most. She has no clue what time the pipa will arrive in her neighbourhood, delivering the water she and her four children need to bathe, wash dishes and flush the toilet. It could be while she is at work, or in the middle of the night.
The drought in North Mexico means taps are dry in the city of Monterrey so pipas, primarily run by the city authority, are the only way to deliver water to homes and businesses. As people who cannot afford bottled water are drinking the brackish water from the trucks, anger is growing here that beverage companies with bottling plants here, including Coca Cola and Heineken, are extracting billions of litres of water from public reservoirs.
Several brewers and soft drinks companies have factories in the city, and these use about 60 times the amount consumed by the city’s population, nearly 90bn litres a year in total, and over half of that – nearly 50bn litres a year (or 50m cubic metres) – is water from public reservoirs.
Vega Morales lives in a low-income area in Monterrey; one of Mexico’s largest cities, in the state of Nuevo León, it has a population of more than five million. There has been no running water in homes for over a month.
Most trucks do not carry drinking water – sometimes it is brown or has insects in it. Vega Morales has two 20-litre buckets to fill daily, and uses most of it in the bathroom. “I don’t want to get to the point where we can’t flush the toilets. That’s where I would start to feel really gross,” she says. “The kids don’t understand – it is hardest on them.”
This summer is tough for the family: they have to buy drinking water in shops, and the price has tripled in the past two months. Monterrey is facing a “sanitary crisis” as those who cannot afford bottled water drink unclean water from the pipas.
Mexico is facing its worst water crisis in 30 years as reservoirs serving about 23 million people dry up. The climate crisis has caused consistently hotter summers, and this year’s La Niña weather patterns created the perfect conditions for severe drought.
Several cities have now reached “day zero” – the point of critical water scarcity when supplies run out.
More than half of Mexico is suffering from drought, and the national water authority, Conagua, declared a state of emergency in four northern states.…
But the drought has not halted the water use of companies including Coca-Cola and Heineken use private wells to continue extracting groundwater for their production lines.
On 18 July, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked [!] the drinks companies to stop production and give their water to the public. Heineken said it would allocate 20% of its supply for public use; Coca-Cola invited the public to collect free water from its Topo-Chico mineral water factory, but it is too far away for most residents.
In recent weeks, activists have popularised the phrase: “No es sequía, es saqueo” (“It’s not drought, it’s plunder”).
Jaime Noyola, director of the Alliance of Users of Public Services, says his organisation predicted the crisis four months ago. The public-interest group regularly protests outside government buildings. They allege that local leaders, including the governor of Nuevo León state, Samuel García, are directly profiting from drinks companies’ water use.
…
The alliance is calling for the removal of Monterrey’s director of water and drainage, Juan Ignacio Barragán, due to conflicts of interest. Barragán’s family – which is among Mexico’s wealthiest – founded one of Coca-Cola’s bottlers, Arca Continental.
…
“How do you assign a price to water? It’s a human right,” says Noyola. “But these companies, namely Coca-Cola, in selling bottled water as the only potable water source, have made their product obligatory. Now water costs nearly as much as gasoline.”
…
The water crisis has sparked protests and violence along class lines, as wealthier areas are given higher water quotas than poorer areas, and still have tap water for up to 12 hours a day. On 16 July, residents of two impoverished Monterrey suburbs learned that a portion of the remaining water from a nearby reservoir would be diverted to the city. In response, they blocked a highway with a barricade of cars, tyres, rocks and tree branches, stalling traffic for two days. Then they burned the water pipes.
“I won’t be surprised if people get together and start hijacking the pipas,” Noyola says. And Vega Morales concludes: “If it gets any worse, I don’t know how we’ll live like this till September.”
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date on which humanity has consumed all the resources that the Earth can sustainably produce in one year. For 2022, this day falls on Thursday, July 28. The date has been steadily coming earlier — barring the occasional exception — since 1970.
From today onwards, humanity is living on credit. Every year, Overshoot Day – the date by which humanity has consumed all the resources that Earth can sustainably produce in one year – arrives earlier. In 1970, it fell on December 29, in 1990 on October 11, and this year on July 28 […]
The date is mainly symbolic and is considered useful by NGOs to measure the ecological impact of human activity, although the index is still little used in policymaking.
“The deficit is getting bigger and bigger, and yet there has been no real jolt to the political system,” says Véronique Andrieux, director of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in France. “And any delays in the yearly date have been incidental, not intentional,” she observes. “We observed an improvement during oil shocks, the pandemic and financial crises.”
[…]
The indicator varies considerably from one country to another. According to a list drawn up by the Global Footprint Network think tank, the worst performer for this year is Qatar, which had already reached its annual resource limit on February 10, followed closely by Luxembourg on February 14.
France reached this day on May 5. The date could be pushed forward by 25 days within just one presidential term if the French government were to implement more “ecological planning”, according to the WWF.
At the global level, pushing forward Earth Overshoot Day by six days every year would allow us to reach the date of December 31 by 2050, explains the Global Footprint Network [who “has been calculating Overshoot Day since 1971 based on data from UN reports by cross-referencing the ecological footprint per person (the amount of surface area required for food, transportation, housing, etc.) with the world’s biocapacity (the capacity of ecosystems to renew themselves) per person”].
[…]
At present, however, few nations are using this indicator to guide policy. Only a few countries, such as Montenegro, base their sustainable development strategies on their ecological footprint. Some municipalities have also opted for this calculation method, including some 20 cities in Portugal.
Even though the Overshoot Day index has still not yet been widely adopted at the state governance level, this tool has proven its worth in raising public awareness for environmental issues. Bettina Laville, the honourary president of Comité 21, a French network made up of sustainable development actors, calls it “an extraordinary and extremely meaningful awareness-raising tool, which succeeds in making people aware in a concrete way of something that may seem abstract”.
I have no recollection of ever hearing of EOD before, despite being involved at one level or another in closely-related matters since essentially the time of its invention. I hope Comité 21’s Laville is correct in that it (greatly) helps people’s understanding in a concrete manner, but have my doubts, in part because of an incident that happened to me last millennium (which I vaguely recall mentioning before somewhere here at FtB (Ed Brayton?)): I was trying to point out to a relative the States was consuming a disproportionate amount of the planet’s resources. From (possibly faulty) memory, at the time, the States had c.5% of the world’s population and consumed c.20% of the world’s resources (the disproportionality has since gotten worse, now c.4% consuming c.30% (figures not verified)). My relative’s response, paraphrasing from memory, They [people in poor countries] shouldn’t have so many babies.
My only criticism would be that it presents Chile as a singular instance, when this has been happening in other countries in the region (and beyond) for a while. Bolivia wrote a new constitution in 2009 (which includes this wonderful wording: “El Estado respeta y garantiza la libertad de religión y de creencias espirituales, de acuerdo con sus cosmovisiones”), and I won’t even go into how the 2009 coup in Honduras was a reaction [ahem] to the attempt to hold a non-binding referendum about convening a constituent assembly to rewrite the country’s 1982 constitution.
Adler recognizes these forces amassing in the case of Chile:
…But the campaign to de-legitimate Chile’s constitution is already under way. Even before the convention had taken its seat, commentators at the Wall Street Journal had labeled it a “suicide mission”. Since then, a relentless “digital war” has been waged to discredit the new constitution by spreading lies and disinformation about its contents. One sitting Chilean senator falsely claimed that the constitution would change the country’s name, flag and national anthem, in a video that went viral across the country. Gender parity is mocked as “woke”. Worker rights are “divisive”. And Indigenous sovereignty is the path to an “Indigenous monarchy”. In its editorial instructing Chileans to vote against the new constitution, the Economist put the new text on a roll of toilet paper. The goal of the attacks is simple: to scare Chileans into a defense of an indefensible status quo.
But Chileans are undeterred. After all, the Economist praised the “rapid success” of the Pinochet coup back in 1973, and most of the parties that presently call to reject the new constitution are the same ones that voted to keep Pinochet in power in the 1988 plebiscite that ended his rule. More than a month before the September vote, the coalition to support the new constitution is growing around the world…
A former state TV journalist charged with discrediting Russia’s armed forces by protesting against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine told a court on Thursday that the charge against her was absurd.
Marina Ovsyannikova defiantly repeated her protest, refused to retract her words and said she did not understand why she was there and what she was being judged for, Reuters reports.
“What’s going on here is absurd,” Ovsyannikova told the court. “War is horror, blood and shame.”
Ovsyannikova interruption of a live Russian state TV news broadcast in March made international headlines.
The journalist, who was employed at the broadcaster at the time, was fined for flouting protest laws, but is now being tried over subsequent social media posts in which she wrote that those responsible for Russia’s actions in Ukraine would find themselves in the dock before an international tribunal.
She faces up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces under a law passed in March, soon after president Vladimir Putin launched what he calls his “special military operation” against Ukraine.
“The purpose of the trial is to intimidate all the people who oppose the war in the Russian Federation,” Ovsyannikova told the court.
She described Russia as an aggressor country, saying: “The beginning of this war is the biggest crime of our government.”
A lawyer for Ovsyannikova said she had the right to speak out under Article 29 of the Russian constitution which protects the right to freedom of expression.
Mario Draghi was a popular prime minister with the Italian public, a safe pair of hands who could steer Italy’s recovery from Covid through to elections next year. Leaders across Europe saw him as serious, credible, and a strong partner on the Ukraine crisis. But last week he announced his resignation as his coalition collapsed.
It was a moment that shocked Italy and leaders around the EU, Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida tells Michael Safi. Now there are fears that September’s election could usher into power a grouping of far-right political parties for the first time since the second world war.
With military circles abuzz that Ukraine might be preparing to launch a counter-offensive against Russian-held Kherson, Michael Kofman of CNA’s Russia team helps us parse the facts. What has been happening on the battlefield since our last episode? How are the two forces faring as they struggle with various problems in mobilizing manpower and equipment to the front? What are the four means by which Russia is trying to squeeze more military power out of its population short of a total mobilization? What of the Turkish-brokered grain export deal? If you want to know the answers to these questions and more, listen to this episode.
It’s Shark Week. This year’s Discovery programs boast flashy titles like Stranger Sharks, Air Jaws, Great White Serial Killer, and Rise of the Monster Hammerheads, and feature sharks writhing through murky water, their jaws clenching on dead fish bait, sharp teeth snapping at divers.
Sharks first splashed into Hollywood — and widespread infamy — with the 1975 blockbuster Jaws. It’s the type of horror film that sticks with you, especially when you’re on a swim at the beach and think, what’s out there? Over the last few decades, beachgoers have encountered a slight uptick in shark sightings and incidents. This summer is no exception.
But even as these predators shut down beaches, many marine biologists have waged a counter PR campaign for sharks, arguing that popular media have far overstated their danger. Chris Pepin-Neff is a senior lecturer of Public Policy at the University of Sydney, and author of the book Flaws: Shark Bites and Emotional Public Policymaking. They say that the maligning of these fish harms not only sharks — but humans as well.
StevoRsays
A multiple times F1 chanpion anounces he’s retriing from the sport in part atleats becyuaes of Climate Change :
Vettel, who has become increasingly outspoken on a range of topics from the environment to LGBTQ+ rights, said Formula One was increasingly in conflict with his personal life.
“My goals have shifted from winning races and fighting for championships to seeing my children grow, passing on my values, helping them up when they fall, listening to them when they need me, not having to say goodbye and, most importantly, being able to learn from them and let them inspire me,” he said. … snip … Vettel said in May that climate change made him question his job as a racing driver.
Asked then whether his position on the environment and global warming made him a hypocrite, considering he was part of a “gas-guzzling” sport in a team sponsored by Saudi oil giant Aramco, he conceded that it did.
“There’s questions I ask myself every day and I’m not a saint,” he said then.
The Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has condemned the latest escalation in the war on Ukraine launched from Belarus.
“Horrified to see how Russia continues to use Belarus to attack Ukraine,” she tweeted. “At least 25 missiles were launched from Belarus targeting Kyiv, Chernihiv and other cities this morning. Lukashenka can’t fool anyone. He is guilty of crimes against Belarusians and Ukrainians and must be held accountable.”
The German government’s tough stance towards Russia since the war in Ukraine began [um…] is coming under pressure at home, as worries about the resulting energy crisis and possible gas shortages intensify.
Until now, all mainstream parties from across the political spectrum had backed the strict sanctions imposed on Russia.
In recent weeks though, some German conservative leaders have voiced scepticism about the West’s strategy, as opinion polls indicate that around half of the German population thinks the sanctions are hurting Germany more than Russia.
Overall however, polls show that more than two thirds of Germans still back sanctions, Reuters reports.
Around half of German households rely on gas for heating, as does around a third of the country’s industrial energy consumption.
Germany recorded its first monthly trade deficit since 1991 in May, partly due to inflation running at around 8%.
Michael Kretschmer, conservative leader of the eastern Saxony region, told Die Zeit newspaper in an interview printed on Thursday:
Our entire economic system is in danger of collapsing. If we are not careful, Germany could become de-industrialised. [FFS]
If we realise that we cannot for now give up on Russian gas, then it is bitter but it is the reality, and we must act accordingly.
Concerns about government policy on Ukraine are particularly widespread in the former communist East, which has stronger ties to Moscow and stands to be more affected by the looming economic downturn as it is already worse off, Reuters reports.
Kretschmer, whose state has a population of around 4 million, is calling for the war in Ukraine to be “frozen” and for Europe to push for peace talks.
Kretschmer says this would boost trade of fossil fuels and grains, and prevent German economic collapse and famine in Africa, but critics fear this would legitimise Russia’s territorial gains and allow the Kreml[in] to regroup before further military offensives could be mounted.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration in the occupied Kherson region has posted to Telegram to say that “all stories about successful ‘Ukronazi’ counteroffensives in the Kherson region are sheer lies.”
That made me laugh. No one is going to fall for Russia’s clumsy propaganda. And the use of “Ukronazi” reminds me of Trump’s infantile insults. Pitiful. Laughable.
From what I can see the Ukrainian counteroffensive seems to be proceeding carefully, step by step. This may take awhile, but it looks likely to succeed.
As for all those Russian missiles being fired from Belarus … that’s so frustrating. I agree that Belarus should be subject to even more sanctions, though I don’t know what kind of choices Belarus has. They are still under Russia’s thumb.
The top controversies upending both the sporting world and international relations are coming together this week at Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf club, with the former President stepping right in the middle of the drama.
Starting Friday, Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster will host the third event for LIV Golf, the new Saudi-backed professional circuit that has rocked the sport’s main professional organizer, the PGA Tour, by pulling away big-name golfers with larger, guaranteed paydays.
In the run-up to this weekend’s tournament, Trump has promoted the event in interviews and public statements, encouraging golfers to join LIV Golf and disparaging the PGA Tour.
“Just arrived in Bedminster for the big LIV Tour Golf Tournament,” he posted Wednesday on Truth Social, the social media site he created. “Record money to winners, great excitement. Come on out on Friday, Saturday or Sunday to watch the great play by the best players!”
Trump is benefitting from his professional relationship with LIV Golf, especially after officials at PGA of America pulled the 2022 PGA Championship from Bedminster following the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. In October, LIV Golf will hold its final competition of the year at another Trump property, Trump National Doral in South Florida.
But while activists, media outlets and others have expressed concerns that LIV Golf provides international legitimacy to the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of human rights violations for years, Trump has brushed aside such criticisms.
During an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, he spoke approvingly about how the golf tour, which is financed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has already improved the kingdom’s reputation.
“I think LIV has been a great thing for Saudi Arabia, for the image of Saudi Arabia,” Trump told the Journal….
A 9/11 survivors’ group has said it is “appalled” by the “offensive, disrespectful and hurtful” Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour as the event prepares to stage its next competition about 50 miles (80km) from the site of the deadly terror attack.
Speaking on Tuesday at a press conference near Bedminster, New Jersey, Terry Strada, chair of 9/11 Families United — a coalition of families and survivors of the 2001 terror attacks — said that playing such a tournament so close to the venue of the worst terrorist attack in American history is wrong.
…
“On September 11, after nearly three hours of unprecedented terror by 19 Saudi-funded terrorists, Bedminster and surrounding towns came together in extraordinary ways,” said Strada, who lost her husband in the attacks.
“750 innocent people from New Jersey were brutally murdered, leaving over 1,000 children in our towns without a parent, including my three. Friends, neighbors and strangers embraced our suffering and helped us move through our devastation and pain.”
…
Fronted by former world No. 1 Greg Norman, the team-based LIV series is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia — and has pledged to award $250 million in total prize money.
Tournaments are held over 54 holes, rather than the PGA Tour’s 72 holes, and there are no players cut during tournament play.
The huge sums of money up for grabs, and less demanding requirements, spurred a number of golfers — many in the twilight of their careers — to break away from the PGA Tour and join LIV, including [rich, greedy assholes] six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, four-time major champion Brooks Koepka and former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson. [And now Bubba Watson, because of course.]
Strada went on to criticize the participation of the players, in particular the American ones, saying they were willing pawns in Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing — a term used to describe corrupt or authoritarian regimes using sport and sports events to whitewash their image internationally.
“LIV Golf is not about sports or good competition among worthy competitors, it is a multibillion-dollar public relations stunt bought and paid for by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By joining LIV, players have shamelessly partnered with the very country that U.S. intelligence reports prove had numerous connections to the attacks on September 11th,” she said….
Kevin McCarthy offered a peek at his party’s “No. 1 bill,” and it was unintentionally amusing.
With only about 100 days remaining before the midterm elections, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy seemed awfully optimistic during his appearance this week at the America First Policy Institute’s first annual summit. The California Republican spoke as if it was a foregone conclusion that his GOP would soon take control of the U.S. House and make him Speaker.
What’s more, after criticizing Democrats for making voting rights a legislative priority as 2021 got underway, McCarthy offered a hint about what voters should expect a House Republican majority to prioritize in the next Congress:
“We are going to roll out the Commitment to America and we’re going to let America make a decision about which direction they want: America last or America first…. Our No. 1 bill is going to be about protecting the American people, making us energy independent, lowering the gas price, making your streets safe, securing your border, and holding Washington accountable. That will be a breath of fresh air.”
And we’ll all get puppies. And free ice cream. And there will be rainbows for us to enjoy in every direction.
All joking aside, I don’t blame McCarthy for feeling optimistic, since Republicans are well positioned to take back the House. I don’t even blame him for talking up the idea of presenting an alternative vision for voters to consider before they cast ballots in the fall.
But the idea that the GOP’s top legislative priority will be a bill that protects Americans, and makes us energy independent, and lowers gas prices, and reduces crime, and secures the border is more than a little silly.
Indeed, if McCarthy has solutions to all of these issues, and can package them together in one magical Super Bill, he’s welcome to unveil it right now. Why wait until January? If Republicans can create a domestic utopia through legislation, why not share their wisdom immediately and offer policymakers an opportunity to vote on it?
Is it because McCarthy doesn’t actually have an agenda that can do all of these things?
[…] it was at roughly this point two years ago when Republican officials were supposed to be working on their party platform. That didn’t go well: The GOP decided to go without a party platform in 2020 for the first time since 1854.
As far as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is concerned, Republicans would keep that going this year and hide their legislative intentions until after Americans have voted.
[…] McCarthy appears to have been working on his Commitment to America since at least September 2020. I can appreciate the fact that crafting a governing blueprint can take time, especially for a party that hasn’t exercised its policymaking muscles in many years, but I’d love to hear an explanation from GOP leaders as to why, after nearly two years, the plan still doesn’t appear to exist in any meaningful way.
What’s more, in the event that the Commitment to America ever sees the light of day, it’s unlikely to be impressive. As recent events have reinforced, the Republican Party remains a post-policy party that remains indifferent to the substance of governing.
But perhaps most important is the fact is the nagging detail McCarthy doesn’t want to talk about. […] McCarthy & Co. may very well unveil something resembling an anodyne plan, but it will almost certainly obscure the GOP’s actual goals.
After all, the Republican Party’s true priorities include tax breaks for the wealthy, abortion bans, weaker social-insurance programs that families depend on, weaker gun laws, and a systemic effort to roll back the clock on voting rights, civil rights, and environmental protections.
And that’s a tough sell for a party that wants to win.
“‘We’ll set the world on fire. We’ll put an end to the existence of the old world and start a new era, a new phase, headed by Russia.’
…
Follow Russia-watcher @JuliaDavisNews if you want to read the writing on the wall….”
Amazing subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. They’re just letting it all hang out.
Twenty Republicans on Wednesday voted against legislation that would reauthorize programs to combat human trafficking. The bill, called the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022, passed the House by a tally of 401-20.
Here is a list of the Republicans who voted against the bill:
Brian Babin of Texas
Andy Biggs of Arizona
Lauren Boebert of Colorado
Mo Brooks of Alabama
Ken Buck of Colorado
Andrew Clyde of Georgia
Matt Gaetz of Florida
Louie Gohmert of Texas
Paul Gosar of Arizona
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
Andy Harris of Maryland
Jody Hice of Georgia
Thomas Massie of Kentucky
Tom McClintock of California
Mary Miller of Illinois
Troy Nehls of Texas
Ralph Norman of South Carolina
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
Chip Roy of Texas
Van Taylor of Texas
Gaetz is under investigation (reportedly) for alleged sex trafficking.
I guess he’ll have to come for the rest of us, too.
Donald Trump said today that he plans to sue CNN for defamation, claiming the network and digital news outlet has been defaming him since the 2016 election. And he takes specific and particular issue with use of the term “Big Lie,” a phrase which nearly every mainstream news outlet in America has used as short hand for his attempted coup since the 2020 election.
Trump put out a statement through his Save America PAC today, saying he’s “notified CNN” of his “intent to file a lawsuit over their repeated defamatory statements against me.” He also said he does, in fact, plan to go after other media outlets.
“I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election. I will never stop fighting for the truth and for the future of our Country!”
Which, okay. Best of luck.
In a 282-page letter [282 pages!!] that Trump’s lawyers sent to CNN executives on July 21, the ex-president’s attorneys warned the network to retract or correct a bunch of online articles and comments made on live television. The lawyers detailed dozens and dozens of statements and published pieces they deemed defamatory, taking issue with the use of phrases like “lies,” “Big Lie,” “false narratives” and “baseless theories” to describe Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The letter would actually be kind of comical if it weren’t so cartoonish. Taking a page from the handbooks of literal fifth graders first learning to write an essay, Trump’s lawyers outline the “Webster’s Dictionary” definition of a “lie” to argue that Trump’s “comments are not lies” because “he subjectively believes that the results of the 2020 presidential election turned on fraudulent voting activity in several key states.”
You can read the full letter yourself here if you’re a masochist, but it essentially just repeats the same thing over and over as it outlines all the times in the past two years CNN has used the word “lie.”
CNN hasn’t responded to the threat yet. We’ll keep a half-eye on this.
Ukraine has launched long-range artillery or HIMARS rockets into the Antonivskyi Bridge east of Kherson for a third night in a row, causing additional damage and closing the bridge to any kind of vehicular traffic. At Darivka, east of Kherson, the bridge across the Inhulets River that connects the city to traffic coming across the Kakhovka Bridge is also down, and the pontoon bridge which Russia had constructed there appears to be completely gone. […] [tweet and photos at the link]
Russia is constructing an elaborate concoction of pontoons and barges, meant to span the 1km wide Dnipro River near the damaged Antonivskyi Bridge, but the idea that it will ever serve as a means of passage for significant levels of equipment or supplies seems laughable—not to mention that the entire effort seems like an open invitation to test the accuracy of Ukraine’s latest weapons. Russia still doesn’t seem to have gotten the message that, with GPS-guided shells and HIMARS rockets, Ukraine can actually hit whatever they aim for, rather than just spraying shells around a field.
The impassability of the Kakhovka Bridge can be seen in the extraordinary efforts Russia is taking to bring equipment across at that location. Russia has built a makeshift floating structure using segments of pontoon bridging, which is being towed across the river as an ersatz ferry. But each crossing of the river takes well over two hours, plus the time necessary to load or unload the “ferry” at each end.
Note civilian vehicles are also on the ferry as human shields.
[…] military blogger Def Mon did the math on just what it will take for Russian forces on the west side of the Dnipro to stay in the game now that they’ve been effectively cut off from resupply. The answer comes out to around 225 supply trucks’ worth of ammunition, parts, and military expendables each day—and that’s assuming that the Russians are able to locate food and other personal needs without having it shipped across the river.
If Russia wants to keep these troops supplied without the major bridges, they’ll need to have at least four barges running around the clock. Targeting those barges in transit might be a challenge, even for HIMARS—but then, they don’t have to. Russia will have to locate landing sites on both sides of the river that give them access to unload trucks and vehicles. There are not a lot of these places. And those landing spots would instantly become locations for long queues of vehicles—and subject to the kind of bombardment that turned Russia’s attempted river crossing at Bilohorkivka into such a massive disaster. Right now, the only place Russia is even attempting to float equipment across is at Kakhovka, and that still leaves everything some 50km away from Kherson, with another downed bridge in between.
Even that assumption that Russian forces on the west side of the Dnipro River will also take care of their own food and other supplies is important because, while yes, these forces are located in towns and cities where they can find all they need, at least in the short term, armies in the field which do not have a steady stream of supplies headed their way are forced to devote a good percentage of their manpower and time to foraging. Even when that means taking over the local grocery store rather than dragging livestock out of fields, it’s just another logistical challenge for an army that is logistically challenged just rolling down the street. [yep]
Russia might also try to airlift supplies to its forces in Kherson oblast, but that’s likely to be limited to what can be ferried across the river in helicopters. The large airport at Kherson long ago came in range of Ukrainian guns, forcing Russia to relocate all aircraft out of the area, and the runway there is in no condition to allow the landing of a large plane.
If Ukraine can keep the bridges across the Dnipro inoperable—and there’s no reason to think they can’t—Russia will be going into each day of the conflict in Kherson oblast with less than the day before. Less equipment. Less materiel. Fewer troops. But even as Russia attempts to get extra equipment into Kherson in anticipation of a coming onslaught, there’s another big advantage Ukraine gains by taking down those bridges: Russian forces also have a hard time getting out of Kherson.
[…] With the closing of those bridges, whatever force Russia manages to get into Kherson, is not easily, or quickly, coming out. They can’t load those troops onto trains and use them to bolster a new attack in the Donbas, or even run that equipment back into Zaporizhia oblast to hold back a Ukrainian counteroffensive on that front.
By cutting off the bridges over the Dnipro, Ukraine can now attack forces in Kherson oblast and know that they will be getting very limited resupply. Or Ukraine can attack somewhere else in southern Ukraine and know that the forces in Kherson are safely off the table.
Meanwhile, Ukraine controls multiple bridges over the Dnipro River, including one that runs right through Zaporizhzhia. They can effectively move their forces to either side of the river. Russia can’t.
Taking out those bridges didn’t just put what happens next in Kherson under Ukraine’s control; it gives them options for how the whole next phase of the war is prosecuted. And that phase may not be in Kherson. For instance, either Melitopol or Mariupol is less than 70km away from current front-line positions. Ukraine could move in those directions, threatening not just Russia’s “southern land bridge” but the control of Crimea.
Let Russia move more forces into Kherson. Then let them try to get them out.
This video of a near miss by a Russian drone attacking a Ukrainian vehicle that started circulating this week has been geolocated and compared to images of the area, showing that it actually dates from several months ago, probably around the end of April. So when they’re looking for video to show off their drones, Russia comes up with what appears to be a successful strike. Three months ago. [video at the link]
If you’ve become a philatelist during the invasion of Ukraine (and hey, that’s nothing to be ashamed of), it’s time to fight Ukraine’s frequently overwhelmed online shop for a new series of stamps celebrating the 101st Fighting Farmers and their legion of tank-towing tractors. If you’re in Kyiv … get in line because people are already standing in long queues to buy this one.
New postage stamp “Good evening, we are from Ukraine” is already on sale
As Ukrposhta previously reported, the stamp is dedicated to the Ukrainian “tractor troops”.
The stamp has been issued with a circulation of 5 million copies, and there are restrictions on its sale.
The stamp shows a Ukrainian tractor flying the Ukrainian flag as it tows a Russian tank. A sunset sky is reflected in shallow water near the tractor’s route.
Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin was building a network of secret agents to smooth its path. A Reuters investigation shows the infiltration went far deeper than has been acknowledged….
The delivery of Western precision rocket systems to Ukraine has changed the dynamic of the war, slowing Russia’s advance and lowering Ukrainian casualties along the frontlines. But Russia has increasingly resorted to using its own long-range missiles to wreak havoc on cities deep inside Ukrainian-controlled territory. Simon Ostrovsky and videographer Yegor Troyanovsky report from southern Ukraine.
…Russia’s shortcut to victory, and perhaps its only route to victory, is in convincing us that Ukraine cannot win (or that the war is somehow Ukraine’s fault, and that it would somehow stop if we turned away).
Our job is incomparably easier than the Ukrainians’. The Ukrainians have to demonstrate resolution of every kind. All we have to do to see things as they are, show some patience, and support the democracy that is under attack — with the right attitude, and the right weapons. The outcome of the war might well depend upon our capacity to do that. I hope this post has helped.
At least 75,000 Russians killed or injured, US officials say
US officials estimate that the number of Russian fatalities in the war has long been in the tens of thousands.
“We were informed that more than 75,000 Russians were either killed or injured, which is enormous,” Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic House Representative who previously attended a secret US government briefing told CNN.
Dmitry Peskov, president Putin’s press secretary, rejected the figures as “fake”, and claimed these were media reports, not US government media reports.
There is no current information from the official authorities in Russia on the number of deaths, with the most recent official death toll still standing at 1351.
The CIA recently estimated that 15,000 people had died on the Russian side.
Losses on the Ukrainian side are also unclear. Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych put the losses at “up to 10,000” in early June, dpa reports.
Last week, Richard Moore, the head of MI6, said he believes the Russian invasion will begin to lose steam in coming weeks because its troops have been significantly diminished.
Italian anti-immigrant leader Matteo Salvini’s ties with Russia were again under scrutiny on Thursday following questions about the collapse of prime minister Mario Draghi’s government.
The La Stampa newspaper reported that a diplomat at the Russian embassy met one of Salvini’s aides in late May in Rome, and asked if any of the ministers from Salvini’s far-right League party intended to resign from Draghi’s coalition.
The meeting was said to have taken place at the same time as Salvini drew criticism for conducting parallel diplomacy with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
In 2019, Salvini, described Russian president Vladimir Putin as “the best statesman currently on earth”, while the pro-Putin tendencies of the Italian right has been a subject of concern in other parts of the EU for some time.
The League resigned from the government coalition last week, alongside Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the populist Five Star Movement, causing Draghi to resign and triggering new elections in September.
Salvini had planned a trip to Moscow ostensibly for peace talks – with flights bought by the Russian embassy, an arrangement his team insists was only done due to difficulties circumventing EU sanctions.
They said they reimbursed the embassy and the trip in the end never happened.
Foreign minister Luigi di Maio on Thursday condemned “this attempt by the Russian side to have the League minister withdraw from Draghi’s government”, AFP reports.
Salvini “must explain the relations he has with Russia”, Di Maio said, who, like Draghi is a strong supporter of western unity and support for Kyiv in response to Russia’s aggression.
Enrico Letta, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, also said the ties between Salvini and Russia were “concerning”.
Salvini described the accusations as “fake news” aimed at discrediting him in the run up to the next general election.
Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin was building a network of secret agents to smooth its path. A Reuters investigation shows the infiltration went far deeper than has been acknowledged …
I thought so. I mean, think of what the Russians did with Paul Manafort acting against Ukrainian interests; and Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration in the occupied Kherson region, whom you mentioned in comment 365, has probably been in place as a Russian agent for years. Russian agents are plentiful in Ukraine. I don’t envy Zelensky as he tries to get rid of them.
The Supreme Court and Republicans may not have planned for the end of Roe v. Wade to deny many people the medications they need for serious health conditions, but they sure didn’t care enough to change that outcome. It has taken just a few short weeks for a flood of stories to emerge about pharmacies refusing to fill prescriptions—in addition to the flood of stories about miscarriages turning into health emergencies because doctors refuse to treat them.
Both CVS and Walgreens, the top two pharmacy chains in the country, have instructed pharmacists in states with abortion bans to refuse to fill prescriptions for certain medications—methotrexate, misoprostol, and mifepristone—until they’ve confirmed that the medications will not be used for abortion. That creates a new burden in getting medical treatment for anyone a pharmacist might look at and assume to have “child-bearing potential,” as CVS put it.
This is having a dramatic impact on the lives of people with conditions like Crohn’s disease, stomach ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, and more. Specifically, women and people perceived as women under the age of 60. It’s a gross invasion of the privacy and right to medical care of the people affected, and a reduction, once again, of bodies to potential incubators, the mere possibility of a viable fetus placed above a pregnant person’s health and well-being.
A CVS pharmacist in Tennessee refused to fill a prescription for methotrexate until one woman’s doctor called in to say it wasn’t for abortion. “By Tuesday morning, putting my pants on, my pain was like a 10,” Jennifer Crow told The New Republic’s Laura Weiss. The kicker is that Crow has had a hysterectomy, highlighting that pharmacists cannot look at a person and correctly assess her “child-bearing potential.”
[…] A Texas woman who spoke to Weiss won’t be fighting with pharmacists to get her methotrexate, because her doctor changed her treatment for Crohn’s—increasing her risks from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases by increasing her dosage of immunosuppressive drugs. [Sheesh]
An Arizona Walgreens employee told Weiss, “[I] just think it’s ridiculous that pharmacists have to jump through all these hoops to treat their patients. I understand pharmacists sometimes have to deny medications/clarify with doctors due to drug interactions or incorrect dosing, but this just feels invasive. Especially since it’s only for women. Men with autoimmune diseases who take these medications won’t have to deal with the same issues.”
[…] Proponents of these abortion bans will claim that there’s nothing in the law to prevent a pharmacist from filling a prescription for cancer or rheumatoid arthritis treatments. But that’s not actually true. The laws are so broad and so scary that of course pharmacists—and doctors—will hesitate to give care that could open them up to legal penalties.
[…] Banning abortion was intended to force people to carry unwanted pregnancies to term—at whatever cost to life, health, or financial stability. That’s bad enough. Now Republicans compound that by showing that they are comfortable in making people—women and anyone else of “child-bearing potential,” specifically—suffer when their needed medications are blocked. Or when their wanted pregnancy turns into a complicated miscarriage. Or when they have ectopic pregnancy. The more different impacts of abortion bans we see, the more clearly we can see how little Republicans care for human life.
[…] Before they were made, the Trump Tax Cuts were predicted to eventually lead to out of control inflation. The media are mostly blaming Biden. But why can’t Democratic campaigns get the message right? Must we all go along with this ridiculous collective amnesia.
Dan Michelsen’s Economic Primer 101
1. What is the purpose of an Economy? To meet Human needs!
2. There is no such thing as a “Free Market” because total freedom is anarchy, therefore
3. All Markets must have rules to function efficiently. Which Begs #4
4. Who writes the rules? (Why did THEY get to write the rules?)
5. Who do the rules favor and why?
This is all so obvious I can’t even begin to comprehend why all economics texts don’t start this way.
So, let’s answer the questions for our current economy.
The rules are written largely by the elected representatives that the wealthy have purchased with a small pittance from their ill-gotten gains. They are written to favor those who already own great wealth, so that the pittance will continue to flow to the politicians.
WE do mental gymnastics in order to try to justify bending human behavior to fit the economy, rather than forging an economy which meets human needs.
Wonkette: “Indiana AG Still ‘Investigating’ Doc Who Helped 10-Year-Old, God Knows Why”
The article is accompanied by a screen shot of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Fox News. The chyron reads: “WILL INDIANA ABORTION DOC BE CHARGED?”
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the Indianapolis OB-GYN who helped a 10-year-old rape victim get an abortion after the girl was unable to in her home state of Ohio, received notice yesterday that she’s under investigation by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, although what the hell he’s investigating is anyone’s guess. Bernard, who practices medicine at Indiana University Health and is an assistant professor in the medical school, has been the subject of rightwing media attacks ever since the story started getting national attention earlier this month, when she told the Indianapolis Star that a colleague in Ohio had referred a 10-year-old patient to her once Ohio’s abortion ban went into effect. The Ohio law has no exceptions for rape or incest.
First the wingnuts accused Bernard of making the story up to make abortion bans seem bad. Then, when the arrest of a suspect in the rape was announced, they baselessly accused her of not properly reporting the abortion as required by Indiana law. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita went on Fox News and vowed to investigate whether Dr. Bernard had properly reported the abortion to state medical and child welfare officials, while Fox host Jesse Watters accused her of helping the rapist by not immediately reporting the abortion. Watters also prominently featured Bernard’s photo so antiabortion crazies could know exactly what she looked like.
The very next day, copies of the paperwork emerged, showing that Bernard had indeed reported the abortion two days after the procedure, well within the three days required by law. So if Bernard’s paperwork was all in order, what the hell is Rokita supposedly investigating? We know, silly question: Rokita has an entire state law enforcement apparatus to deploy. He doesn’t need a reason to use it.
Dr. Bernard’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, told CNN that a notice from the AG’s office arrived Tuesday, and that “We are in the process of reviewing this information. It’s unclear to us what is the nature of the investigation and what authority he has to investigate Dr. Bernard.” As if keeping her name in the spotlight and gunsights of the antiabortion Right weren’t plenty.
In the vaguest possible statement, Rokita’s office explained nothing to CNN, saying, “As we stated, we are gathering evidence from multiple sources and agencies related to these allegations. Our legal review of it remains open.” What allegations would those be? You know, the allegations of doing very bad things. On Fox News, Rokita had called Bernard an “abortion activist acting as a doctor,” so clearly, there must be something to pin on her.
In addition to the quickly disproved speculation that Bernard hadn’t properly reported the girl’s abortion, Rokita also repeated a thinly sourced claim made by Watters that Bernard somehow had a “history” of failing to report abortions performed for underage patients. The accusation came from a 2018 news release from Indiana Right To Life that listed Bernard as one of nine Indiana abortion providers who’d allegedly failed to report abortions in 2017 and 2018, according to “consumer complaints.” The news release offered no specific accusations against Bernard, but the Washington Post largely debunked the accusations earlier this month, noting that they wer
based on 48 instances where the doctors reported abortions on minors to the Department of Health but left blank a field asking for the date when the cases were reported to the Department of Child Services, according to a 2018 story in the South Bend Tribune.
Indiana Right to Life filed complaints against the physicians with the state health department and the attorney general’s office. The outcome of the state’s investigation into the complaints is unclear. A spokeswoman for the organization said “the State did look into it,” but when asked to share related documents, she referred The Post to the attorney general’s office, which did not address an inquiry about them.
Maybe Rokita is trying to dredge that up again, although as the Post pointed out, there’s no record of any disciplinary actions against Bernard or the other doctors named by Indiana Right to Life. If she has a clean record, that must surely be suspicious.
Is Being Targeted Fun? Not So Much.
In an interview with NPR’s Sarah McCammon, Dr. Bernard said that having been the focus of all this rightwing attention has made her worry about her own safety and her family’s safety, and that Rokita’s continued suggestions that she’s done something wrong amount to “harassment.”
She also warned that if the Indiana Legislature passes its own abortion ban,
We’re going to see women dying. We’re going to see not only abortion care affected, but care for miscarriages, care for complications of pregnancy, infertility care, contraception. Really, the list is endless […] We’re going to see physicians harassed, persecuted. We’re going to see patients being forced to continue unsafe pregnancies and die because of those pregnancies.
While she wouldn’t discuss the case of the 10-year-old she helped, or any other specific patients, Bernard said, “Every OB-GYN can tell you the youngest patient that they have taken care of, whether that’s providing abortion care or delivering their baby.”
Brave Attorney General Vows Not To Let His Target Scare Him
Last week Delaney, Bernard’s attorney, filed a “tort claim notice” against Rokita, which would be the first step in a possible defamation lawsuit against the attorney general and his office. The letter noted Bernard’s clean disciplinary record with the state, and alleged that Rokita had “failed to ascertain whether the statements about Dr. Bernard’s licensure were true or false before making them.” Further, the letter said,
Statements that Dr. Bernard has a “history of failing to report,” which Mr. Rokita indicated would constitute a crime, made in the absence of reasonable investigation, serve no legitimate law enforcement purpose. Given the current political atmosphere in the United States, Mr. Rokita’s comments were intended to heighten public condemnation of Dr. Bernard, who legally provided legitimate medical care.
In a statement to NPR Tuesday, Rokita got real tough, criticizing Bernard again for bringing the 10-year-old’s case to the attention of the media, vowing to continue the investigation “to the end,” and stating that Rokita — again, the chief law enforcement officer for an entire state — wasn’t about to be bullied by some evil abortion activist lady doctor, no SIR:
“The recent tort claim is not just an attempt to distract, but it’s also an attempt to intimidate, obstruct, and stop my office’s monumental progress to save lives,” Rokita said. “It will take a lot more than that to intimidate us.” [LOL, sheesh]
Bernard told NPR she hadn’t yet decided whether to go ahead with a defamation suit, but added,
One of us is the state attorney general, and one of us is a physician — and it’s very clear who is being intimidated in this situation. […] I will continue to provide access to safe legal care to the best of my ability, and I can’t say what he will do.
We suppose we should set the DVR to record “The Jesse Waters Target-a-Doctor Dance Party and Defamation Review” tonight to see what happens next in this horrible situation; we can only hope it ends with a nice fat defamation settlement going to Dr. Bernard.
Campaign news tidbits, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* With nearly 100 days remaining before the midterm elections, a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll found Democrats leading Republicans on the congressional generic ballot, 44 percent to 40 percent. A month ago, the same pollster found the parties tied. [Good news. Democrats will need an even bigger lead to overcome gerrymandering, voter suppression, and other Republican shenanigans.]
[…] * A SurveyUSA poll for the NBC affiliate in Atlanta found incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock with a surprisingly big lead over Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia, 48 percent to 39 percent. [Hooray!]
* The same poll showed a much more competitive gubernatorial race, with incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp with the narrowest of advantages over Democrat Stacey Abrams, 45 percent to 44 percent. [I’m cheering for Stacey Abrams!]
* Speaking of the Peachtree State, a new analysis from NPR, WABE in Atlanta, and Georgia Public Broadcasting took a closer look at sweeping changes to the state’s election laws, and found restricted access to ballot drop boxes “in counties that used them the most, which also have the highest number of voters of color and Democrats.”
[…] * And in third-party news, former Republican Rep. David Jolly, former Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, and failed Democratic candidate Andrew Yang have apparently linked arms and formed something called the Forward Party. It doesn’t yet have a platform, but its organizers are apparently planning a national convention next summer.
Republican leaders who worry that Donald Trump could hurt their midterm chances by announcing a presidential run too soon are hoping he’ll be dissuaded from doing so by the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payments, according to an RNC official.
Since October 2021, the Republican National Committee has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing Trump as part of his defense against personal litigation and government investigations.
But an RNC official told ABC News that as soon as Trump would announce he is running for president, the payments would stop because the party has a “neutrality policy” that prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary.
Too funny! It’s also not the first time they’ve used this tactic…
ABC News
In an angry conversation on his final day as president, Donald Trump told the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee he was leaving the GOP and creating his own political party — and that he didn’t care if the move would destroy the Republican Party, according to a new book by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
Trump only backed down when Republican leaders threatened to take actions that would have cost Trump millions of dollars, Karl writes his upcoming book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.” (snip)
According to the book, “McDaniel and her leadership team made it clear that if Trump left, the party would immediately stop paying legal bills incurred during post-election challenges.”
There’s a chance the following might have a little something to do with their position…
The New York Times
Online fund-raising has slowed across much of the Republican Party in recent months, an unusual pullback of small donors that has set off a mad rush among Republican political operatives to understand why — and reverse the sudden decline before it damages the party’s chances this fall.
Small-dollar donations typically increase as an election nears. But just the opposite has happened in recent months across a wide range of Republican entities, including every major party committee and former President Donald J. Trump’s political operation.
The total amount donated online fell by more than 12 percent across all federal Republican campaigns and committees in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, according to an analysis of federal records from WinRed, the main online Republican donation-processing portal.
More alarming for Republicans: Democratic contributions surged at the same time. Total federal donations on ActBlue, the Democratic counterpart, jumped by more than 21 percent.
So what’s Trump gonna do… Run to dodge prosecution, or sit tight on RNC welfare?
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is such sad news that the Republican Party is having trouble raising money.
johnson catmansays
re Lynna @381:
CNN hasn’t responded to the threat yet. We’ll keep a half-eye on this.
I hope they respond in a similar fashion as Private Eye in Arkell v. Pressdram:
Dear Sirs,
We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr. J. Arkell.
We note that Mr Arkell’s attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.
Yours,
Private Eye
Rob Grigjanissays
Euro 2022: Semi-final England 4 Sweden 0. England plays Germany in the final on Sunday.
England’s third goal in the semi was a thing of rare beauty (between the goalie’s legs), scored by Alessia Russo.
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a long-awaited bill aimed at boosting US semiconductor production in a bid to increase American competitiveness, a bipartisan achievement that will send tens of billions of dollars into American manufacturing and scientific research.
The final vote was 243-187 with one Democrat, Rep. Sara Jacobs of California, whose family founded the Qualcomm telecom company, voting present. Twenty-four Republicans crossed over to join Democrats in backing the bill, despite House GOP leadership whipping against the package.
The bill passed the Senate on Wednesday with broad bipartisan support, meaning it now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
The vote was closer than originally anticipated. Following Senate Democrats’ announcement of a deal on Wednesday evening for a separate economic package, Republican sources told CNN that House GOP leaders would whip against the semiconductor legislation, reversing their earlier stance.
The legislation is aimed at addressing a semiconductor chip shortage and making the US less reliant on other countries such as China for manufacturing. Supporters say the measure is important not only for US technological innovation, but for national security as well.
There had been some concern among Democratic leaders that some progressives might oppose the bill, following opposition from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Wednesday she hadn’t whipped her members over the legislation, but highlighted discussions with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, whose been the Biden administration’s chief advocate for the package, as a sign that progressives will likely back it. Raimondo met again with members of the Progressive Caucus just a few hours before the vote.
In the end, progressives joined the rest of the party in supporting the bill.
The semiconductor bill sets up incentives for domestic semiconductor manufacturing as well as research and development and includes more than $50 billion in funding for that aim.
The legislation also includes a number of provisions aimed at bolstering scientific research, including authorizing billions of dollars for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“Some people in Moscow have been taking down plaques memorialising residents executed/imprisoned in the 1930s, saying the names are of ‘enemies of the people’, according to the Doxa media outlet. You couldn’t get a starker symbol ..”
Video (no subtitles) and photos at the (Twitter) link.
“Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would provide benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, killing a procedural vote to end debate 55-42.”
blfsays
On SC@396, I read somewhere earlier today (now cannot recall where) that — this isn’t quite how the source I read put it — teh thugs were surprised two of the wrenches they’d tried to insert into the gears didn’t work; namely, Manchin agreed to a environmental deal, and the semiconductor bill passed (on the same day!); hence, in a desperate attempt to insert a wrench into the wheels of what’s necessary and claim they did something today, they wrecked the veteran’s healthcare bill.
Someone at the HCA subreddit posted the first table here and linked to the source. It’s horrifying and depressing and provides a vivid picture of what’s happening in the US: “Top Causes of Death in U.S. for 2021 by Age Group.”
Accusing the West Virginia senator of “collaborating with the enemy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell angrily announced Joe Manchin’s expulsion from the Republican Party.
“Joe Manchin’s behavior during the past twenty-four hours has shocked and dismayed his fellow-Republicans,” McConnell told reporters. “He has gone over to the dark side.”
McConnell said that Manchin had “traitorously” broken with the G.O.P. leadership by “consorting with Democrats.”
“If Joe Manchin thinks his party will forgive him for this betrayal, he is sorely mistaken,” he said.
The party leader said that “what hurts the most” is that Manchin agreed to a deal that mitigates climate change and lowers health-care costs. “He no longer deserves to call himself a Republican,” he said bitterly.
For those who may not remember, Senator Joe Manchin is a Democrat, but he represents a red state. 70% of West Virginians voted for Trump. Manchin is in a tough spot, but his obstruction of the Democratic Party agenda went way too far … way too often. Today he partially redeems himself.
The chief executives of two leading gun manufacturers said mass shootings are ‘local problems’ that cannot be blamed on ‘inanimate’ firearms when a House panel asked them Wednesday whether they accept responsibility for selling the assault-style rifles used in most of the recent massacres.
When Republicans and conservative outlets dismissed the story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who couldn’t get an abortion, three Indianapolis Star journalists got to work to get the public the truth. The story about their work is fascinating.
Washington Post: “How local journalists proved a 10-year-old’s abortion wasn’t a hoax.”
It felt like half the country doubted the case existed. The Indianapolis Star had published a story July 1 about a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who was forced to travel to Indiana for an abortion because of new restrictions in her home state. An indignant President Biden cited the story a week later as an example of extreme abortion laws, and his political opponents pounced. They suggested it was a lie or a hoax. A national newspaper’s editorial board concluded it was “too good to confirm.” Even Ohio’s attorney general called it a “fabrication.”
Bethany Bruner paid that all little mind. Instead, she went looking.
The Columbus Dispatch public safety reporter and her colleagues spent days studying public records and calling sources, painstakingly narrowing their search for the girl’s attacker to central Ohio. Then Bruner spotted an entry on the July 13 local court docket and learned a man would be arraigned that morning for the rape of a 10-year-old. She quickly hoofed the half-mile from her office to the courthouse.
Inside the courtroom, Bruner kept glancing at the door, expecting to see another reporter enter. None did as the judge called up the case. “I guess it’s going to be me,” Bruner thought. “I guess I’m going to be the one.”
Within hours, the Dispatch and its sister paper, the Star, had locked down one of the first major stories of the post-Roe v. Wade era: Contra the talking heads, police had indeed investigated and charged an Ohio man with impregnating a 10-year-old girl, who had to cross state lines for an abortion after the Supreme Court’s ruling allowed new Ohio restrictions to take effect. Their reporting demonstrated that the girl’s horrifying situation was not as rare as many had assumed. It also showed why the public rarely hears of such abortion stories — and why they will need local journalists to inform them of the impacts of Roe’s demise.
“We weren’t thinking of it as a political football that people like to toss back and forth,” said Bro Krift, executive editor of the Star. “We were just trying to tell a story to make people understand. To report the news, to make people understand the consequences.
[…] “We have to make this real,” Krift thought. “This just can’t be a number.”
Their first story — by Shari Rudavsky, a Star health reporter of 17 years, and Rachel Fradette — included an anecdote from a trusted source: Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Caitlin Bernard said she had just performed an abortion for a 10-year-old girl who had to travel from Ohio, where a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy became law soon after the Roe decision. The girl was a few days over that limit.
Eight days after the story was published, President Biden highlighted the girl’s situation as he decried state abortion restrictions. “This isn’t some imagined horror,” he said from the White House. “Imagine being that little girl.”
His mention kicked off a frenzied reaction. Some outlets expressed skepticism of the Star’s account because it relied entirely on one doctor, Bernard, who would not share more details about the anonymous girl. “This is a very difficult story to check,” wrote The Post’s Fact Checker. Snopes.com said it had “not been able to independently corroborate the abortion claim.”
Others went much further. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson said the “story was not true.” Jesse Watters devoted an entire segment to whether it was a hoax, saying his staff had found no evidence of the case’s existence. “Shame on the Indianapolis paper that ran this thing on a single source who has an obvious ax to grind,” Dave Yost, the Ohio attorney general, told USA Today. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial titled “An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm.” Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, tweeting a skeptical article, wrote, “Another lie. Anyone surprised?”
Meanwhile, local journalists kept digging.
[…] Star investigations editor Tim Evans started searching Ohio’s public records to see if he could find the related assault case. Evans had experience on stories like this — in 2016, he helped expose Larry Nassar’s abuse of young gymnasts — and he quickly turned up five Ohio cases involving sexual assault of children.
The Star didn’t doubt the veracity of its initial story — Bernard had spoken on the record — but it wanted to learn more. By Monday, journalists there had turned to their sister paper in Ohio, the Dispatch. Both newsrooms belong to Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the country, which has more than 100 daily publications, including USA Today. Gannett papers often collaborate because the news doesn’t always abide by strict geographic boundaries, said Amalie Nash, the company’s senior vice president of local news. “We’re configured that way,” she said. “It was very easy for our newsrooms who already know each other to mobilize quickly.”
As the team dug in, it experienced firsthand the difficulty of reporting on abortion. By definition, such stories involve a medical procedure, and physicians are bound by the law to protect patient privacy. Moreover, this one involved a child victim, meaning agencies such as child services have restrictions on what they can share publicly. “It’s going to be a very sensitive case where not a lot of people are going to have access to it, including people in the police department,” Krift said.
The Star’s journalists nevertheless managed to find public documents showing that 50 reports of sex abuse involving girls under 15 had been filed to Columbus police since May 9. They didn’t find the 10-year-old victim among them, but suspected there were more out there because confidentiality restrictions keep certain complaints off public databases. After a long process of scouring files, they started to zero in on central Ohio.
That’s when Bruner was asked to start making calls.
The 32-year-old had learned to navigate court systems during a decade reporting on police and crime. She starts every day by checking the Franklin County Municipal Court docket around 7:30 a.m. “You want to talk about shoe-leather journalism,” Krift said. “That girl is hooked up, and has relationships, and knows how to work [sparse] documents to figure out things.”
Bruner tried her law enforcement contacts all over Franklin County as she searched for which agency might be investigating the rape. “And what I was getting was a lot of is, ‘It’s not us,’ ” she said. “That process of elimination, we were getting down to just a few that I hadn’t heard back from when I saw the arraignment list on Wednesday morning.”
That list was 49 pages long. About halfway down, Bruner spotted an entry for an arrestee — Gerson Fuentes, 27, of Ohio. And a charge: “Rape — under 13.”
Bruner called the court clerk, who scanned the affidavit and emailed it to her. The victim was 10. Bruner figured, this might be it. […]
“From my experience, these cases, detectives like to play them very close to the vest,” Bruner said. “They want to protect these children just as much as anybody else does in terms of making sure their identity is kept private.”
“And she’s 10, you know,” Bruner added. “I think that gets lost sometimes in the shuffle, that she’s 10.”
On July 13 — the same morning the Journal published its “too good to confirm” editorial — Bruner arrived at the Franklin County courtroom a few minutes before the doors opened. The judge was running late.
She found the courtroom partially filled with attorneys, detectives and spectators for the long list of cases that day. Bruner was shocked she was the only reporter in the room. She sat through an hour of arraignments before the one that brought her there was called.
[…] While talking heads and politicians continued to question the case’s existence, Bruner listened as police confirmed everything. Back in the newsroom, Krift took about 30 seconds to mentally process her messages.
“Holy crap,” he thought. “She’s got it.”
[…] Krift worries that doctors will become more reluctant to speak to journalists in light of what happened to Bernard, the Indianapolis doctor who first brought the girl’s story to the public. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is investigating whether Bernard failed to report the abortion to state officials, as required, despite public records showing she notified relevant state agencies and her employer concluding she did not violate privacy laws. The physician has taken a legal step toward suing Rokita for defamation.
Meanwhile, the nation’s local press corps is dwindling. “People only know this happened and that this is one of the outcomes of what the Supreme Court decision was because of the reporting and the fact that someone was on the ground,” said Nash, the Gannett head of local news. But one-third of American newspapers that existed two decades ago will be out of business by 2025, one study found. Many remaining papers have a fraction of the staff they once did. […]
The modern GOP’s sheer level of political cynicism is simply remarkable. I noted this morning that in retaliation for Dems outwitting Mitch McConnell with their climate bill House Republicans voted against the semiconductors bill most of them actually support. In the event, 24 House Republicans bucked their leadership and voted for the bill. All Democrats voted for the bill save for one who voted “present.” Now we hear from Susan Collins that Dems’ legislative coup now likely means Republicans won’t allow a vote on the bill to protect same sex marriage rights. […]
Certainly it’s not unknown to condition support for one piece of legislation on the passage or blockage of another. But same sex married couples in the United States should either have protections or they shouldn’t. In the most brass tacks sense Democrats have what they want here. They managed to pass the CHIPS bill which actually has deep bipartisan support. They are also on their way to passing a health care and climate bill, though I would not consider it a done deal until it’s actually a done deal. Killing the marriage bill doesn’t undo either. The Schumer-Manchin compromise may still come apart. But it won’t be because Senate Republicans decided to stick it to same sex couples to make a point. If anything, it is likely a marginal political advantage for Democrats to be able to take the issue to the voters in November. […]
There is a revealing assumption in our current politics, widespread and bipartisan though not often stated in so many words, that it is up to Democrats to handle things that are in the normal course of decency or responsibility. Republicans need to get something in return. [Yuck! That is cynical.]
That, after all, was what so many legislative hostage takings and debt ceiling dramas have been about. This sounds on its face like the kind of overheated partisan rhetoric one often hears from both sides of the political aisle about the other. But this one is really true. Not a few Republicans really believe that same sex marriages are wrong or at least shouldn’t be put on an equal par by the state with opposite sex marriages. But clearly at least ten Republicans don’t believe that and would have been fine with allowing this bill to pass. But now that may be off because of this climate bill. The CHIPS bill itself is hardly something that excited progressive partisans. It’s more about macroeconomics and reducing US dependency on China, both in economic and national security terms. But Republicans were ready to scuttle it unless Democrats agreed not to pass completely unrelated legislation with their own votes. […]
Update to #194!: Galati’s organization a few hours ago tweeted a link to the interview Pierce R. Butler found. He is indeed alive (and still a sour jerk – no appreciation for the work of the medical professionals who kept him alive). He was in “acute care” until late March, and admits that he’s still not 100%, which is evident from his speech and breathing in the few minutes I watched.
After Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it wasn’t just Americans who were outraged. Several international allies — and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron — were quick to express their public disappointment with the ruling and their support for reproductive rights.
Earlier this month, the European Union’s parliament went so far as to formally condemn the end of constitutional protections for abortion in the United States.
As Politico reported, the reactions did not escape the attention of the man who wrote the ruling.
Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the Supreme Court’s earth-shaking decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade, is mocking foreign leaders who lamented his opinion doing away with a half-century of federal constitutional protection for abortion rights in the U.S. During a surprise appearance as a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome last week, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame, Alito poked fun at the torrent of international criticism of his opinion for the five-justice court majority.
“I had the honor this term of writing, I think, the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders, who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” Alito complained. “One of these was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson — but he paid the price.”
The justice, sounding very much like a Republican trying to impress social conservatives, proceeded to whine that people aren’t sufficiently religious by his standards.
He lamented the “growing hostility to religion, or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors.”
Watching a video excerpt of Alito’s remarks, it was difficult not to notice that the conservative jurist seemed indifferent to appearances. There was no pretense. Alito apparently didn’t see the need to come across as a dispassionate and fair-minded justice.
Rather, his audience saw a politician giving a political speech, deriding other politicians who dared to disagree with him, and patting himself on the back for having succeeded on a political goal.
Complicating matters is the familiarity of these circumstances. As regular readers may recall, it was less than two years ago when Alito delivered surprisingly political remarks at a Federalist Society event, at which the conservative complained about public-safety restrictions during the pandemic, before directing his frustrations at marriage equality, reproductive rights, and five sitting U.S. senators, each of whom happened to be Democrats.
“This speech is like I woke up from a vampire dream,” University of Baltimore law professor and former federal prosecutor Kim Wehle wrote soon after. “Unscrupulously biased, political, and even angry. I can’t imagine why Alito did this publicly. Totally inappropriate and damaging to the Supreme Court.”
Last fall, the same justice did it again, delivering pointed — and at times, factually dubious — remarks at Notre Dame Law School, which included criticisms of American journalists.
It led Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, to respond, “Judges turning into political actors, giving speeches attacking journalists, is terrible for the court and terrible for democracy.”
Through his rulings, Alito has already undermined the high court’s credibility. Through his speeches, the justices does further damage to the public’s confidence in the institution.
Two Democratic Senate leaders, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin, jolted the political world this week with an unexpected announcement: They’d reached a landmark agreement on an ambitious climate/taxes/health care package. It’s not yet clear if the bill will pass, but it could prove to be one of the most important legislative breakthroughs in recent memory.
Republicans aren’t handling the developments especially well.
To hear GOP lawmakers tell it, Democrats unveiled the compromise deal after a bipartisan vote on an unrelated measure — a bill Republicans intended to hold hostage until they were convinced the reconciliation package was dead. When they helped pass the other legislation, only to learn soon after that the dead bill was alive after all, they felt suckered.
But congressional Republicans aren’t just licking their wounds, they’re also lashing out wildly. […] GOP senators rejected a burn pits bill for sick veterans — legislation dozens of those same senators recently voted for — as part of an apparent tantrum. House Republican leaders threw a related fit.
HuffPost reported that the party’s list of targets appears likely to grow.
Sen. Susan Collins, one of a handful of GOP senators working to garner support in her party for a bill to codify gay marriage, said the Democrats’ surprise embrace of a tax and climate change bill made her job much harder. “I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” the Maine senator told HuffPost Thursday.
The Maine Republican added, “After we just had worked together successfully on gun safety legislation, on the CHIPS bill, it was a very unfortunate move that destroys the many bipartisan efforts that are under way.”
In other words, because Democrats are trying to advance their popular agenda in a way the GOP doesn’t like, Republicans are prepared to punish veterans and possibly reject marriage protections for American families.
In fact, as yesterday progressed, GOP rhetoric grew increasingly hysterical. The conservative Washington Times, for example, quoted Sen. John Cornyn saying, “I can only speak for this senator when I say this betrayal is an absolute declaration of political warfare. To look you in the eye and tell you one thing and to do another is absolutely unforgivable.” [kinda funny when you think about it]
But there was no deal to break. No handshake agreement. No one lied. No one abandoned their word. No one ignored any rules or violated any institutional norms.
To hysterically describe two Democratic leaders reaching a compromise agreement on their own party’s agenda as “an absolute declaration of political warfare” isn’t wrong, it’s bizarre.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, meanwhile, added on Fox News, “Well, it was obviously a double-cross by Joe Manchin. Just two weeks ago he said he wasn’t gonna support a bill like this. He’s been saying for months that he wouldn’t support so many of the provisions in this bill, he called them gimmicks or smoke and mirrors budgeting, but now he’s going to apparently support all of them.”
The logical progression of the Arkansan’s argument was amazing:
1. Manchin said he planned to oppose a bill like this.
2. Then he negotiated the terms of the bill he could support.
3. Republicans didn’t know he might do that, so now they’re really mad.
As for the idea that Democrats should’ve announced the agreement before the vote on the unrelated CHIPS and Science Act, this isn’t much of an argument, either. In effect, GOP senators are arguing, “What you should’ve done is announce the deal sooner, so we could’ve derailed an unrelated and worthwhile bill that both parties support.” [LOL]
If Republicans want to argue that Democrats pulled a fast one by outmaneuvering the GOP’s obstructionist plans, fine. Parties sometimes get outmaneuvered. It stings a bit, but this is standard legislative strategy.
It’s not a “betrayal.” Or a “double-cross.” It didn’t “destroy” anything. And for goodness’ sake, it’s certainly not “an absolute declaration of political warfare.” […]
After a flurry of activity the last few days, things have settled down, if by “settled down” we mean “back to HIMARS systematically degrading Russia’s ability to wage its war.” Last night, the Russian-occupied cities of Ilovaisk, Nova Kakhovka, Brylivka, and Kherson all enjoyed dramatic fireworks displays at the expense of a great deal of Russian ammunition. [Ukrainian forces used HIMARs to blow up Russian ammunition stored in those cities.]
Illovaisk is a valuable railway hub for Russian logistics in Donetsk oblast, about 40 kilometers from the front lines. [map at the link]
This ammo dump might’ve been feeding Russian artillery currently pounding Avdiivka, north west of Donetsk on the this map. Too bad, for Russia, they’re going to have to push out those ammo dumps even further away from the front lines.
Ilovaisk was also the location of the bloodiest day in Ukraine’s 2014 war, where treacherous Russians offered surrounded Ukrainian troops a “green corridor” to withdraw, then opened fire.
Negotiations were going on and a humanitarian corridor was being prepared for them to leave, they were told, and yet their withdrawal was repeatedly postponed.
Then, on the morning of 29 August 2014, came the command to gather and leave Ilovaisk in two columns […]
They began to move, they passed the first ring of encirclement smoothly but within a few kilometres their column came under fire.
“It was just a shooting range and we were the targets,” he said […]
According to official Ukrainian data, 366 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the Ilovaisk battle.
The true figure may be at least 400, when you include soldiers registered missing or unidentified by their relatives.
The other three targets were all in Kherson Oblast, where Ukraine continues to shape the battlefield in preparation for a promised offensive that some say has already begun. Ukrainian presidential advisor Aleksey Arestovych clearly laid out the strategy:
There won’t be a single day, when you will be able to tell, that it had started. In a way – it already has started. It will be accurate destruction of Russian forces top-down, starting from operational, then operational-tactical, then tactical levels. Decisive forces – artillery (guided 155mm shells) , rocket artillery (HIMARS), aviation.
Ukraine will not throw solders in one large assault, they will first make sure Russia has no fuel, no ammo, no command, only then approach with infantry. Of course, there will be manoeuvres, forcing Russia to respond and deploy defence. This is not yet NATO level, when most damage can be done remotely, but close to that. Most emphasis is on remote fire, isolation of battlefields, and incremental destruction.
Ukrainian objective is for its infantry to encounter weakened Russian forces without supplies, fuel, ammo, command.
Russia shapes the battlefield by leveling everything in its path with artillery. The United States and NATO do so using aircraft to establish air superiority, then supporting infantry by surgically targeting and suppressing defenses from the air.
Ukraine doesn’t have the aircraft, and has no interest in leveling its own cities and killing civilians. So this is their version—using HIMARS and 155mm precision guided munitions to eliminate Russia’s ammo, fuel, supplies, and commanders, then denying them the ability to either resupply or retreat. Civilian partisans inside Kherson city and other defensive zones will feed target coordinates to Ukrainian artillery, allowing the erosion of those defenses from afar. Russia’s response will be their usual “spray it” style of artillery … until they run out of shells. No barge can keep hungry howitzers fed for long, and given the daily reports out of Kherson oblast, that Russian artillery is still blasting away. [snipped details of targets of Russian shelling]
That’s a lot of shelling. No one’s told them the bridges are out? Hopefully they burn through their entire ammo supply ASAP. Ukrainian infantry won’t be able to push forward until Russian guns run empty. When that happens, Russian defenders will have three choices—swim across a river in retreat, leaving equipment behind, surrender, or die for the dumbest stupid reason. Either option A or B will start looking really good before long.
None of this is breaking news, but Ukraine needs Kherson. It was the first real city to fall, the only regional capital in Russian hands since the start of this phase of the war. It was captured through treachery and treason. And while Russia isn’t pushing through to Odesa and Transnistria (in Moldova) anytime soon, its control and current efforts to annex the region feeds into Putin’s grand delusions.
Militarily, taking Kherson would pull this entire chunk of territory out of the war, allowing Ukraine to reposition forces in Zaporizhzhia oblast: [map at the link]
It would further cut off a major supply route from Crimea, leaving Russians between Nova Kakhovka and Melitopol reliant on a single route from Crimea (which Ukraine will sever) and from a single rail line from the east which Ukraine can cut at Tokmak. [map at the link]
Taking Kherson would crush Putin’s grand delusions about Novorossiya (New Russia) stripping Ukraine of its entire Black Sea coast (and thus its main economic connection to the world). Crimea itself would be in danger of once again losing its water supply at Nova Kakhovka.
Ukraine would earn the ultimate propaganda victory, one that might break Russian support for the war. Arestovych noted that “Russian public opinions are going insane, seems like everyone got permission to write bad news.” Pro-Russian military bloggers are certainly voicing fierce criticisms of the war effort, and are themselves mocking Russian claims of “diversions” and “good will gestures” to explain away humiliating retreats.
“The first Ukrainian victory will be hard, but when it happens (and it will happen), the fall of Russia will be terrible,” Arestovych further predicted. “All Russian [morale] holds on them being able to exert pressure, when it stops, Russians would start questioning – why did we lost 50k solders, if land can be lost like that?”
Russia’s is gasping out a few last efforts in Donbas, but they are struggling to take small hamlets en route to more heavily fortified towns and cities. It won’t be long before their efforts “culminate,” that is, they run out of energy for offensive operations and dig in to defend what they’ve taken.
Russia’s best bet is to hunker down, defend their territory at all cost, and then sue for “peace,” a cease-fire that would lock their gains indefinitely into place. Then they’d hope for one of two things—Ukraine’s own counteroffensive efforts sputter, and both sides stalemate, exhausted and depleted, or Russia holds out into the winter when energy extortion might push skittish Europeans to demand a cease fire. […] Republicans are hoping that $5 gas is enough to win them the midterm elections. We are not a resilient people.
As for Ukraine, it has already functionally surrounded Kherson. It’s now a matter of how much punishment the Russian garrison will suffer before waving the white flag.
This is four updates in a row in which I used photos of female Ukrainian soldiers to illustrate the update, while taking care not to gender the caption. Ukraine claims around 40,000 women bravely serving in combat roles in the war effort, and I want the focus on their service.
I find it particularly salient given American conservative hostility toward women serving in our military. People like Ted Cruz praising the supposed manliness of the Russian army, while claiming ours is weak because of “woke culture.” Ukraine puts that bullshit to bed, not just with the women serving in its ranks, but with gay soldiers very publicly sewing unicorn patches on their uniforms to denote their pride.
To hell with any conservatives who impugn anyone’s service as somehow less effective or honorable than white straight men.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
My colleague Isobel Koshiw is in Odesa and has just sent this report on the situation surrounding the possible resumption of grain exports from the Black Sea port:
Ukraine has said it is ready for grain ships to travel through its waters but is waiting for the go-ahead from the United Nations, which it hopes it will receive later on Friday.
An announcement from the Lloyd’s of London insurer Ascot and broker Marsh that it had launched marine cargo and war insurance for grain and food products moving from the Black Sea ports, removing a hurdle to getting shipments under way.
“We hope to receive approval today from the UN confirming the corridors we have proposed the ships take in the Black Sea,” said Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, standing in Odesa next to a ship that has been stranded since the invasion and is now ready to set sail.
“After [receiving approval] we are ready to begin […] we hope that by the end of this week the first ship will leave our ports,” he said. Ukraine’s media earlier reported that the shipments would start on Friday.
Under the grain agreement, the UN and Turkey have guaranteed the safe passage of ships carrying much needed grain from Ukraine. Russian forces blockaded Ukraine’s ports in February as part of Moscow’s attempt to capture the country, causing a worldwide grain shortage that has pushed some countries towards famine.
“#Russia has again shelled #Mykolayiv this morning. Coward attack against innocent civilians at the bus station claimed lives of at least 5 people. #russiaisateroriststate and it will be held accountable for all the crimes it commits.
#StandWithUkraine”
Tethyssays
@413
To look you in the eye and tell you one thing and to do another is absolutely unforgivable.” [kinda funny when you think about it]
I agree that lying to congress is a criminal offense, so it’s great that this GOP member agrees that they should be impeaching those lying lawyers that they appointed to SCOTUS.
The US treasury department said on Friday it had imposed sanctions on two individuals and four entities that support the Kreml’s [the liveblog has been using “Kreml” for a couple of days now – not sure what’s causing it] global malign influence and election interference operations, including in the US and Ukraine.
“The individuals and entities designated today played various roles in Russia’s attempts to manipulate and destabilise the United States and its allies and partners, including Ukraine,” the treasury said in a statement, naming the individuals as Russian citizens Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov and Natalya Valeryevna Burlinova, Reuters reports.
The affected entities are the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), Ionov Transkontinental, STOP-Imperialism and the Center for Support and Development of Public Initiative Creative Diplomacy (PICREADI).
The treasury accused Ionov of having “provided support, usually in the form of monetary donations, to organisations that he and Russia’s intelligence services believed would create socio-political disturbances in the United States”.
Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian operative who was subjected to US sanctions on Friday, has been charged with using political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the US justice department said on Friday.
Ionov is charged in federal court in Florida with conspiring to have US citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf, the Associated Press reports.
“Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning US political groups and US citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen, the head of the justice department’s national security division, said in a statement.
The case is part of a much broader justice department crackdown on foreign influence operations aimed at shaping public opinion in the US.
In 2018, the justice department charged 12 Russian nationals with participating in a huge but hidden social media campaign aimed at sowing discord during the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it has charged a Russian man with orchestrating a multi-year effort to use political groups in Florida, Georgia and California to sow discord, spread Russian propaganda or interfere in American elections.
Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Moscow resident, was accused of conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government, according to a department statement. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
Acting on behalf of the FSB Russian intelligence agency, the department said Ionov financially supported the groups, ordered them to publish pro-Russian propaganda and coordinated actions by them intended to further Russian interests.
The department also said Ionov used his control over a U.S. political group in Florida to interfere in local elections, supporting the St. Petersburg, Florida political campaigns of two people in 2017 and 2019. It listed the group and individuals as “unindicted co-conspirators” but did not name them.
From at least December 2014 to March 2022, the department said, Ionov, with at least three Russian officials, engaged in a malign foreign influence campaign targeting the United States….
Text messages for acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to a Washington Post story released last night:
The Department of Homeland Security notified the agency’s inspector general in late February that Wolf’s and Cuccinelli’s texts were lost in a “reset” of their government phones when they left their jobs in January 2021 in preparation for the new Biden administration, according to an internal record obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and shared with The Washington Post.
The office of the department’s undersecretary of management also told the government watchdog that the text messages for its boss, undersecretary Randolph “Tex” Alles, the former Secret Service director, were also no longer available due to a previously planned phone reset.
The office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari did not press the department leadership at that time to explain why they did not preserve these records, nor seek ways to recover the lost data, according to the four people briefed on the watchdog’s actions. Cuffari also failed to alert Congress to the potential destruction of government records.
Cuffari was a reliable Trump lackey who helped cover up several stories that would make the Trump adminstration look bad, and of course we all know Chad Wolf and Ken Cucinelli are weasels, so there you go.
Moscow’s former chief rabbi now living in exile in Israel warned Thursday of “dark clouds on the horizon” for Russian Jews, as ties between the two countries deteriorate over the Ukraine war.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, who left Russia in March over opposition to the conflict, told reporters that “the Jewish community was pressured…to openly support the war. Our community did not support the war.”
“The situation is worrying” and there are “many dark clouds on the horizon” for Russian Jews, he said, adding that their “security and future…is dependent on Israel-Russia relations.”
Israel has been trying to walk a cautious line in order to maintain ties with Moscow — seen as crucial to preserving the Jewish state’s ability to carry out air strikes in neighboring Syria where Russian forces are present.
“Right now, it would be impossible for me to return,” the Swiss-born rabbi told an online briefing, adding: “If I would have [remained] the chief rabbi of Moscow, I wouldn’t be able to speak out openly without endangering my community.”
“I decided to stay in exile until the political situation will change.”
Following the February 24 invasion, then Israeli premier Naftali Bennett withheld criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions and stressed the need for close ties with Moscow.
But Bennett’s successor Yair Lapid has condemned the Russian invasion.
Analysts say Lapid’s rhetoric has partly driven Moscow’s move to close the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, which processes the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to Israel.
…
According to the Jewish Agency, 16,000 Russian Jews have immigrated to Israel since the invasion began.
‘Fear of rising anti-Semitism’
Goldschmidt estimated that more than 30,000 other dual passport holders had left Russia for Israel since February 24.
Jews were leaving Russia in high numbers partly over fears of a new “Iron Curtain — that one day [it] will be impossible to leave,” the rabbi said, articulating what he described as a concern among Jews that Putin’s government could ban outbound travel.
He said Moscow’s moves against the Jewish Agency, among other incidents, had fostered “fear of rising anti-Semitism.”
Some experts have attributed Russia’s threats against the agency as part of an attempt to slow mass emigration.
“If Russia wants to stop the brain drain of its best scientists and creative class, the best way to do this is not by closing the Jewish Agency, but by stopping this war,” Goldschmidt said.
…
More than one million of Israel’s 9.4 million residents today have roots in the former Soviet Union.
Foreign Minister Kuleba said that ‘Russia has committed another petrifying war crime by shelling a facility in the occupied Olenivka where (the Kremlin) held Ukrainian POWs’.”
I can’t link to the reports of the other atrocity involving a POW. I just can’t.
SC @426, I have seen speculation that Russia was trying to cover up the fact that it has been torturing Ukrainian POWS … so it just blew them up with artillery shells. I will look for more information.
Over and over again, when it comes to Jan. 6, Missouri’s Josh Hawley seems to have been preoccupied with one thing: money.
Over the last week or so, Sen. Josh Hawley has received quite a bit of attention, in large part because of the footage aired during last week’s Jan. 6 committee hearing. For the first time, the public saw the Missouri Republican running away during the attack on the Capitol, fleeing the same radicals for whom he’d previously signaled support.
But that wasn’t the only relevant revelation. During last week’s hearing we also learned that, according to a Capitol police officer who served on Jan. 6, when Hawley raised his fist in solidarity with the radicals, it had the effect of helping fuel the crowd of rioters.
As Rep. Elaine Luria explained, it bothered the Capitol officer “greatly” because the senator “was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers.” But when the barriers fell and many officers were overrun and beaten, it was Hawley who turned tail.
As the Republican is derided as a “laughingstock,” what does he have to say for himself? A CNN reporter caught up with Hawley a couple of days ago and asked the senator about the Capitol police officer’s concerns. He responded:
“I don’t regret anything that I did on that day. It’s a privilege to be attacked by the Jan. 6 committee. And I want to thank — say thank you for all the help with my fundraising. It’s been tremendous.”
[arrogant asshole]
As for the video of him running away, the GOP lawmaker, looking quite pleased with himself, added, “This is just an attempt to troll. Listen, I don’t regret anything I did on that day. And the reason I’m being attacked by the Jan. 6 committee is because I’m in their way.”
Right off the bat, let’s note that Hawley is not, in reality, in the way of the Jan. 6 committee. Investigators don’t appear to need him at all, and their work continues irrespective of his apathy.
What’s more, the fact that the Missourian keeps emphasizing how few regrets he has says a great deal about his character. We are, after all, talking about a senator who took a series of deliberate steps to undermine his own country’s democracy — earning the scorn of his colleagues.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said last year, for example, in reference to Hawley, “Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.” Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said Hawley would be “haunted” by his actions.
He seems able to take pride in his misdeeds, but it’s tough not to wonder whether he has to avoid making eye contact with Capitol police when he’s on the Hill.
But let’s not brush past the fact that when asked about his Jan. 6 antics, one of Hawley’s first instincts was to focus on one thing: money.
A pattern of behavior is coming into focus. As we recently discussed, a week before the Jan. 6 attack, as Senate Republican leaders implored their members not to object to the results of the 2020 presidential election, Hawley ignored the pleas and announced he’d do it anyway.
It was literally the next day when the Missouri Republican — you guessed it — started raising money off his anti-election scheme, encouraging donors to reward his hostility for democracy.
Shortly before the insurrectionist violence began in earnest, Hawley raised his fist — and then sent out another fundraising appeal, seeking more financial rewards for his antipathy toward democracy.
This week, asked about having earned the ire of Capitol police, Hawley responded with indifference toward propriety — before quickly expressing great interest in his “tremendous” fundraising related to his dishonorable behavior.
All of which leaves us with an awkward question: Just how much of the Republican’s misconduct is directly tied to his interest in collecting more money?
The latest Fox News poll in Pennsylvania shows Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman with a double-digit advantage over Republican Mehmet Oz in their U.S. Senate race, 47 percent to 36 percent.
[…] the same Fox News poll found Pennsylvania’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro leading right-wing state Sen. Doug Mastriano, 50 percent to 40 percent.
This picture says a thousand words. Recall how Trump mocked Biden’s age in 2020?
Ana Navarro’s tweet includes this pic of Trump at his Bedminster Golf Club yesterday.
Trump likes to portray himself as a manly man but couldn’t walk a golf course.
Joe Biden bikes, exercises, and is in good health. Trump couldn’t ride one if he tried.
No ageism intended here. Just recalling Trump’s hypocrisy in mocking Biden’s age two years ago when Trump was nearly Biden’s age […] while Trump was wearing spray tan [and orange makeup] and hair dye and carefully tailored suits. Let’s see YOU ride a bike, dotard.
I agree that it is Trump’s own obvious vanity, his bragging about his hair, etc. that makes it not ageism, but karma when photos of him looking more like a dotard go viral.
Marco Rubio is incompetent. Chuck Grassley is very old. Donald Trump is incredibly greedy. Put it all together and what do you get: a call to end the email spam filter so that every single campaign email that comes your way ends up at the top of your inbox. Because Republicans really think you’re not seeing enough campaign emails. Especially their emails.
As The Washington Post reports, Republicans got together at a recent luncheon and began whining that the campaign emails they were sending out just didn’t seem to get through to people. Why, they could send out five, 10, a dozen or more in a day, and they were lucky if just one showed up in someone’s inbox. And then they discovered that these emails were ending up in the spam box. Just because they were sending millions of them to people across the nation, outside their state or district, completely unsolicited. Which made Grassley very, very angry.
Grassley declared that sending emails to spam was the equivalent of the Post Office refusing to carry his campaign mail. “If you mail a letter, you expect it to be delivered,” said a reportedly “red-faced” Grassley. And because Republicans are Republicans, they immediately decided that Google was filtering out their stuff, because it’s a left-wing conspiracy.
So now Republicans are going to war with Google to remove Americans spam filters.
As it happens, the amount of campaign cash Republicans are raising through email is down. And they can’t understand it, because the number of emails they are sending it up, up, up. A single Trump-controlled PAC sends out a dozen a day. But somehow Republican fundraising is down 11% while Democratic fundraising is up by 21%. And Republican fundraising site WinRed continues to be trounced by Democratic site ActBlue.
It doesn’t seem to occur to Republicans that quantity of emails doesn’t guarantee success. It also doesn’t seem to have occur to them that after a season in which they’ve celebrated the triumph of removing the right to an abortion after 50 years, defended forcing a 10-year-old rape victim to carry her rapist’s child, invited people to sue teachers for daring to either recommend a classic book or accurately explain American history, and declared that the only thing that can be done about kids being shot in school is handing out more guns … maybe it’s just that no one wants to talk to them.
Never mind that. Republicans have introduced legislation in both chambers to strip away spam filters so that the full flood of their campaign emails can rain down on American’s inboxes just as God—and Chuck Grassley, who is older than God—intended.
The horrible thing is it’s already working. The barrage of complaints sent toward Google specifically actually has the biggest provider of email services talking to the Federal Election Commission about a program that would exempt campaign emails from spam filters.
If you would like to have an idea what it would be like, go to your spam filter right now and open it. Check how many campaign emails are in there. How many, many campaign emails.
And get out your hip waders. Because Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Chuck Grassley, and every other candidate for any office anywhere has a few hundred, or thousand, emails to send you.
Days after Moscow launched its bloody war on Ukraine, a Russian cargo plane stood on a Khartoum runway, a strip of tarmac surrounded by red-orange sand. The aircraft’s manifest stated it was loaded with cookies. Sudan rarely, if ever, exports cookies.
A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country’s increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had been stopped. Ultimately, however, the officials decided to board the plane.
Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies stretched out before them. Hidden just beneath were wooden crates of Sudan’s most precious resource. Gold. Roughly one ton of it.
This incident in February — recounted by multiple official Sudanese sources to CNN — is one of at least 16 known Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan, Africa’s third largest producer of the precious metal, over the last year and a half.
Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials and troves of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian scheme to plunder Sudan’s riches in a bid to fortify Russia against increasingly robust Western sanctions and to buttress Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
The evidence also suggests that Russia has colluded with Sudan’s beleaguered military leadership, enabling billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and to deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in state revenue.
In exchange, Russia has lent powerful political and military backing to Sudan’s increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently quashes the country’s pro-democracy movement.
Former and current US officials told CNN that Russia actively supported Sudan’s 2021 military coup which overthrew a transitional civilian government, dealing a devastating blow to the Sudanese pro-democracy movement that had toppled President Omar al-Bashir two years earlier.
…
At the heart of this quid pro quo between Moscow and Sudan’s military junta is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and key ally of President Vladimir Putin.
…
CNN, in collaboration with the Dossier Center, can also reveal that at least one high-level Wagner operative — Alexander Sergeyevich Kuznetsov — has overseen operations in Sudan’s key gold mining, processing and transit sites in recent years.
…
Most of CNN’s insider sources claim that around 90% of Sudan’s gold production is being smuggled out. If true, that would amount to roughly $13.4 billion worth of gold that has circumvented customs and regulations, with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars lost in government revenue. CNN cannot independently verify those figures.
…
“Russia is a parasite,” the former official told CNN. “It pillaged Sudan. And it has exacted a very large political penalty by terminating a democratic project that could have turned Sudan into a great nation.”
…
Wagner operatives deploy to Sudan on a rotational basis, the Dossier Center told CNN, and Kuznetsov may be one of several Wagner men in the country. These are strategically dispatched to protect Russia’s smuggling scheme that has grown in importance since Russia launched its war on Ukraine.
Those Wagner operatives appear to be part of a growing climate of fear as Moscow tightens its grip on Sudan’s gold pipeline, sources say.
Several local journalism networks whose work CNN has drawn on for this report — such as Mujo Press, al-Bahshoum and activist journalist Hisham Ali’s Facebook page — have been targeted in recent months, driven into exile under the threat of assassination. Ten protesters were gunned down in demonstrations in June alone, three of whom were prominent pro-democracy activists. CNN security sources believe they were deliberately targeted….
Much more at the link.
johnson catmansays
re Lynna @430:
“If you mail a letter, you expect it to be delivered,” said a reportedly “red-faced” Grassley.”
Spam is the equivalent of junk mail, not “a letter”. Of course, he has read EVERY piece of junk mail that he has ever received, and NEVER thrown any of it away. Do I need to say again that I HATE REPUBLICANS!!!?
Former president Donald Trump was spotted using the presidential seal on multiple items during the LIV Golf tournament at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course.
The seal was plastered on towels, golf carts and other items as the former president participated at the pro-am of the Saudi-sponsored tournament Thursday…
President Biden is nominating Julie Rikelman, the attorney who represented the abortion clinic in the Supreme Court case that resulted in the overturning Roe v. Wade, to serve as judge in the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Rikelman currently works as the senior director of U.S. litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights organization that is behind several active lawsuits challenging state abortion bans.
The clinic that Rikelman represented in the Dobbs case — Jackson Women’s Health Organization — has shut down, leaving Mississippi with no abortion clinics.
Mississippi currently bans nearly all abortions. The state’s trigger law took effect shortly after the fall of Roe.
Rikelman, who was born in Ukraine, received her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
StevoRsays
Live blog PM Albanese giving a speech for a referendum for an Indigenous Voice to the Aussie Parlt here :
I just found an interesting phenomena.
One of the ways of measuring how well a society works is average life span.
Ukraine’s is 71.8 years in 2019. This isn’t all that good for a European country.
It is 77 years for women.
It is 67 years for men.
This is a gender difference of 10 years. The gender difference in the USA is 5 years.
The World Bank:
A factor contributing to the relatively high death rate is a high mortality rate among working-age males from preventable causes such as alcohol poisoning and smoking.[18]
It seems to be a number of factors but alcohol use is an important one. The men drink a lot of the local vodka, called horilka.
ravensays
Another war crime by the Russians. They shelled one of their POW camps, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners.
This is complicated because the Russians are blaming it on the Ukrainians and there isn’t any independent assessment available, now or forever most likely.
I’m inclined to believe the Ukrainians because war crimes are what Russia does every day. This in fact, isn’t even the only war crime by them today, that other one being the video of them castrating a Ukrainian POW.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says prison attack ‘deliberate war crime by the Russians,’ as Russia blames Ukraine
By Tim Lister, Julia Kesaieva and Josh Pennington, CNN Updated 8:07 PM ET, Fri July 29, 2022
Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN)Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday the attack on a prison in separatist-held eastern Ukraine, which resulted in the deaths of at least 40 prisoners, was “a deliberate war crime by the Russians.”
Russia, meanwhile, blamed Ukraine for the attack.
The Olenivka prison near Donetsk has been used to house many of the Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol several months ago.
CNN could not independently verify the allegations of either side.
“The occupiers’ attack on Olenivka is a deliberate war crime by the Russians, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Zelensky said in a statement.
“There should be a clear legal recognition of Russia as a terrorist state. Russia has proven with numerous terrorist attacks that it is the biggest source of terrorism in today’s world,” The Ukrainian president added.
Video aired on Russian networks and shared on social media channels in Donetsk show extensive destruction to a building and several bodies. CNN was able to geolocate footage of the strike to an industrial area about two miles outside the frontline town of Olenivka.
The Ukrainian military said the explosion took place on the territory of the industrial zone, in a newly-constructed building specially equipped to hold prisoners taken out of Azovstal.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the Olenivka strike. In a statement, it said pretrial preliminary data shows “the occupying state struck the territory of penal colony No. 120 in the temporarily occupied Olenivka village of Volnovakha district of Donetsk region.”
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement “the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not launch missile and artillery strikes in the area of Olenivka settlement” and accused Russian forces of carrying out “a targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held.”
ravensays
News
UN called on ‘all parties’ to avoid torture after Russian soldiers appear to cut off body parts of Ukrainian POW. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission said it was “appalled” by the latest video, apparently showing castration and shooting of a captured Ukrainian soldier.
mobile.twitter.com/KyivIn…
I haven’t watched the video.
I have no intention of ever watching the video.
People who have watched the video have some concise advice. Don’t.
How much more of these atrocities are we going to watch until we do enough to stop them?
This is a rhetorical question with no clear answer, of course.
We are now fighting this war to the last Ukrainian.
How moral and ethical is that anyway?
PS A few weeks ago, I met up with some of my old anti-Vietnam war protester-workers from the early 1970’s. The ones that are left anyway, some have died of age related causes. This is the peace monger- New Left viewpoint.
We all agreed that Russia is way in the wrong here and that the USA and NATO should be doing a whole lot more on the side of Ukraine.
We might be anti-war but we are also…anti-genocide.
Some of the most powerful and moving and thought-provoking songs I’ve ever heard and a good human being. He will be well remembered and his music will live on. But a huge loss and sad news and died too soon.
Two of his best :
‘Took the Children Away’
‘Down City Streets’
Among so many more.
NB. Permission has apparently been granted from his family to continue using his name & showing his image from what I’ve read / heard.
StevoRsays
Apologies. Forgot to put those in the anti-embedding code thingy. Mea culpa.
The Biden administration now expects to begin a Covid-19 booster campaign with retooled vaccines in September because Pfizer and Moderna have promised that they can deliver doses by then, according to people familiar with the deliberations. With updated formulations apparently close at hand, federal officials have decided against expanding eligibility for second boosters of the existing vaccines this summer.
I will definitely get that booster as soon as it is available in September.
Oil companies swam in record profits over the last few months at a time when Americans struggled to pay for gasoline, food and other basic necessities. On Friday, Exxon Mobil booked an unprecedented $17.85 billion profit for the second quarter and Chevron made a record $11.62 billion. The sky-high profits come one day after the U.K.’s Shell shattered its own profit record.
Mississippi embodies a national pattern: States that have banned abortion, or are expected to, have among the nation’s weakest social services for women and children, and have higher rates of death for infants and mothers.
The top three Western oil companies made $46 billion last quarter.
The three largest Western oil companies—Chevron, Exxon, and Shell—made a record $46 billion in total profits last quarter, the Wall Street Journal reports. Exxon alone recorded an all-time high of $17.9 billion in profits during the second quarter, which was more than four times as much as it made during the same period last year.
The news comes after gas prices reached a record high of more than $5 per gallon in mid-June as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, although the national average has since declined to $4.25 per gallon. Oil companies are banking record profits because of high oil prices, not because they’re producing far more oil and gas. As the Journal explains:
Exxon’s oil and gas production was up about 4% from the same period last year. Chevron’s oil-and-gas production declined globally about 7.4% compared with the same period a year ago, largely due to the end of projects in Thailand and Indonesia, though its production rose in the U.S. by about 3.2%.
President Joe Biden has accused oil companies of profiteering. As he wrote in a letter to oil executives last month, “At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable.” […]
Followup to my comment 332, and to SC’s comment 426.
Ukrainian foreign minister warns against accepting ‘unfavorable cease-fire’ with Russia
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba urged the international community against accepting “unfavorable cease-fire proposals or peace deals” with Moscow, warning that Russia has reneged on previous agreements and contradicted itself on its positions.
“No one wanted this war other than Russia, and no country in the world craves peace more than Ukraine,” he wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times published on Friday.
“But a lasting, durable peace — rather than the time bomb of a frozen conflict — is possible only after Russia suffers a major battleground defeat. That’s why Ukraine must win. Only then will Mr. Putin seek peace, not war.”
Kuleba pointed to different statements and positions that Russia made throughout the conflict in which officials indicated they were willing to negotiate with Ukraine at one moment and in another, trying persuading Ukraine to surrender.
“It’s hard to know what to think — other than that Russia is not serious about ending the conflict,” he said. [Understatement, and correct!]
“Ukraine, the United States and our European allies need to speak to Mr. Putin in his language: the language of force,” the top Ukrainian official added.
He urged international allies to increase sanctions against Russia and speed up the delivery of critical military equipment. He also argued that supporting Ukraine would bolster Europe’s security in the long run. [Correct.]
Live tracking on the falling Chinese rocket stage here on youtube stream here (currently 5 hours and 1 mins away with this discussed on space dot com here :
Thanks to Space X and was the biggest chunk of space debris to land on my continent since Skylab.. theyfined NASA then, wodner if they’ll fine Elon now?
Wonkette: “Christofascist Matt Walsh Knows Who Has Orgies, Okay?”
Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh […] is very concerned with other people’s genitals. He thinks about them all of the time. What those genitals are, what people are doing with them, who they’re doing it with, what kind of medical procedures they’re getting, and why no one besides him seems to think this is any of his business.
He is also very concerned about monkeypox, but not for the normal reasons. Jumping on the information that the virus has hit gay and bisexual men the hardest (that part is true, but also it’s not sexually transmitted), Walsh has been on a tear recently about how men must stop having sex with each other in order to stop the spread. Also so that he can just have just one good night’s sleep without having to think about all of the men out there having sex with one another without his consent.
“Still waiting for gay men who are having random sex with strangers during the Monkeypox outbreak to get lectured and scolded by public health authorities the way that the rest of us did for going to grocery stores and restaurants during COVID,” he tweeted earlier this month, adding, “If we could be expected to give up our regular lives for a year, and our kids were expected to give up their education, can’t we expect gay men to stop having orgies for a few months? Isn’t that a reasonable sacrifice to ask of them?”
Again, monkeypox is not transmitted by sex. It is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact with a person who has it. Gender and sexual orientation do not figure into this even remotely. Additionally, while monkeypox is certainly a serious concern and can cause other health issues, people are not dropping like flies because of it or taking up entire hospitals to the point where no one else can be taken care of for anything and the healthcare system is overwhelmed. That’s not happening. Should that happen, everyone will likely be told to stop touching other people for a while.
Following that tweet, many people helpfully pointed these things out to Walsh, along with the fact it’s not only gay men who have orgies, it’s not being exclusively translated through “orgies,” all gay men are not out there having orgies all of the time, and maybe he should just calm down and stop thinking about other people having orgies so much.
And he did not like that one bit. So in his most recent show, Walsh lashed out and explained that “by definition” straight people do not participate in orgies. [video at the link]
He said:
Now, it’s true that anyone who attends orgies or has sex with a bunch of strangers is vulnerable. But the other fact that even fewer people want to say is that this kind of behavior is more common in the gay community than it is among straight people. It just is. Ok?
Straight people aren’t going to orgies. They’re not! I’ve never known, I’ve never encountered a heterosexual person who’s been to an orgy.
And you know why? It’s almost by definition. If you’re straight then you don’t want to be sexually involved with a group of people that will inevitably include other men. So by definition if you’re a straight person, you’re not going to orgies. That’s same for straight women.
But here’s the thing. If you want to pretend that gay and straight people are equally as likely to attend orgies and equally likely to have sex with multiple strangers in the same day. If you wanna pretend — and you are pretending — but let’s pretend for a moment.
Fine, actually! Then can we agree just to condemn all such behavior? By all people? I’m fine with that compromise.
Of course he is. Matt Walsh would never turn down an opportunity to condemn people for having sex. Never! It is his favorite activity. How many takers he will have with his offer to “condemn all such behavior,” however, we cannot say. Most normal people don’t really think it is their business to condemn anyone else’s consensual sexual behavior. How many people will stop having orgies because Matt Walsh “condemns” them? We can probably assume zero. Zero would be the right number there.
It is also very believable that Matt Walsh has never encountered a heterosexual person who told him about their big orgy habit, given how dreadfully upset he gets over the idea of anyone having any kind of sex for non-procreative reasons. We all remember how confused and traumatized he was last year over Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP. […].
The uptick in homophobic (and sexphobic) bullshit surrounding monkeypox doesn’t actually have anything to do with monkeypox. Matt Walsh does not give two flying shits about monkeypox. Walsh and people like him are just over the moon feeling like they have an opportunity to be homophobic dickwads with some kind of “Oh actually I just care about monkeypox” cover. It’s all they’ve ever wanted and Walsh is so desperate to have it that he is literally out here trying to negotiate sex condemnations. He’s literally bargaining like he’s at some kind of social mores flea market. It’s a little pathetic, frankly.
At some point Matt Walsh is going to have to accept that he does not get to live in a world where he gets to tell everyone what to do with their genitalia. It’s going to be tough for him, but given how very holy he is, surely Jesus can help him through this one.
Wonkette: “Yee-haw! I’m Governor Greg Abbott, And I Say Covid’s Over! And Also Not Over!”
[…] So listen, y’all probably didn’t hear ‘cause at this point it’s as routine as the Cowboys missin’ the playoffs, but last week I renewed the COVID disaster declaration I first signed in early 2020. That declaration had given me all sorts of emergency powers to shut down schools, institute mask mandates and the like. Which is what the CDC and all sortsa disease experts said to do.
But there was one drawback, in that all them mitigation steps really, really, really pissed off the rightwingers I need to win re-election this fall and then run for president in 2024. They all kicked up a fuss harder than a mule kickin’ over a feed bucket, and well, I’m nothin’ if not thirsty for advancin’ my career.
So I eventually backed off all them restrictions and such.
Now y’all may be asking yourselves, “Guv’nor Abbott, I get that. But why would you keep extending the COVID disaster declaration while at the same time not doing anything to stop the outbreaks that keep makin’ it necessary? COVID hospitalizations are up 37 percent in Texas this month alone! Don’t that make about as much sense as teachin’ a hog to play Nintendo?”
[…] But see, the thing about disaster declarations is that they give a governor a lot of power. So ‘cause of these declarations, I can order local municipalities to not take any steps to mitigate any COVID outbreaks. Or I can override orders from local health authorities or school boards that might want to order mask mandates or school closures to shut down a outbreak. Or keep locals from doing anything at all that might cost me votes with the base. Ain’t that doin somethin’, in a way?
Yeah, I know how it sounds. But like I said, when I first was puttin’ in such orders on a statewide level, them rightwingers blew up harder ‘n the engine in a ’58 Chevy runnin’ up to Amarillo with no water in its radiator.
These declarations are like having a functioning electrical grid, but for concentrating power in one state office instead of somewhere useful, like in your house’s heating and cooling system. And the only thing I like more than advancin’ my career is havin’ an excuse to exercise power!
Listen, if it weren’t for that power, I couldn’t pair my COVID declaration with my disaster declaration for the southern border, so’s I can run the National Guard down there on the pretense of keeping COVID-riddled illegals from crossing into America. Even if all [the National Guard is] doin’ down there is wastin’ state money and getting depressed and desperate enough to commit suicide.
An’ I certainly couldn’t appropriate federal COVID relief money and use it to charter buses to send illegals up to Washington DC and dumpin’ them suckers right on Congress’s doorstep.
Which we totally ain’t doing, by the way, ’cause then the feds might stop sending money. So we ain’t doin’ it. But even if we are, we ain’t.
So to sum up this whole shebang, I keep extending the COVID disaster declaration so’s I can stop people from doing anything to stop the COVID outbreaks that are the reason the declaration exists in the first place. Don’t that beat all!
As the weather clears temporarily in flood-stricken areas of the state, rescuers are still searching for victims. Officials expect the death toll to rise.
The response to some of the worst flooding in Kentucky’s history was entering a pivotal phase on Saturday morning, with the confirmed death toll at 25 and the search for victims poised to accelerate over a battered stretch of central Appalachia.
A cold front is expected to bring clearer weather to flood-stricken areas on Saturday, giving rescue personnel one less obstacle to contend with as they work to pluck more residents off rooftops. Nearly 300 people have been rescued in Kentucky so far, about 100 of them by aircraft, Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters on Friday.
But state officials expect the death toll to keep growing, possibly for weeks, as rescue efforts continue across rugged hills and valleys that remain hard to reach. And with rain in the forecast for Sunday, they feel urgency to make more progress before water levels have a chance to rise again.
[…] Further flooding is also possible. Some Kentucky creeks and rivers were still rising on Friday, and even as a flood warning in a pocket of eastern Kentucky with more than 46,000 residents expired at 10 p.m., a similar number of residents in that part of the state were under flood warnings or advisories through at least Saturday afternoon.
(Linking climate change to a single flood event requires extensive scientific analysis, but the phenomenon is already causing heavier rainfall in many storms. Researchers also expect that, as the climate warms, flash floods will become “flashier”: shorter in timing, greater in magnitude.) […]
Walking alongside Donald Trump as he plays golf is a lot like watching his presidency: He tells you how well he’s doing, mistakes are disregarded and the one constant is an endless stream of group photos with Trump blithely flashing a toothy grin and a thumbs up. […]
On Thursday, Trump was a contestant in the pro-am tournament on the eve of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf event he is hosting this weekend at the lavish golf course he built in northwestern New Jersey. The intent of the outing was to team some celebrities and everyday golfers with the professionals, and Trump was, naturally, in the featured first grouping of the day.
[…] nearly 50 media members credentialed for the tournament — as well as some event officials — would accompany Trump on foot for 18 holes.
[…] About 15 minutes late for his 10 a.m. tee time, Trump stepped onto the first tee dressed in a white shirt and black pants and sweating profusely under his signature MAGA hat. He looked pale. To be fair, at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, which has little shade, no one walking the grounds on a humid day with temperatures in the mid-90s was comfortable.
Stepping onto the tee, Trump quickly became the focal point of more than a handful of photos. He would organize the lineup of the people in the picture, often giving instructions on who should stand where, like a concierge of photo ops.
Finally, it was time to start the round, and Trump’s opening drive bounded into the left rough. But it was a respectable distance from the tee for a 76-year-old, roughly 220 yards.
The format for the pro-am was that each group would select the best tee shot and then play their second shots from that spot. For the rest of the hole, they were expected to play their own ball, wherever it came to rest. It often made it impossible to assign exact scores for any player, but on the par-4 first hole, Trump needed five strokes to get his ball in the hole for a bogey.
But on the second hole, a telling rhythm for the day’s journey was set by Trump, and it defied the polite golf protocol of waiting your turn.
After hitting his second shot to the green, Trump ignored other players in his group who had yet to hit and jumped into his cart and roared ahead. He parked within a few feet of the putting surface (also a no-no since it can damage the delicate short grass in that area). Standing in the fairway half a hole behind Trump, Johnson yelled ahead since he had yet to play his second shot and could have beaned the former president near the green.
Trump put his cart in reverse and moved out of range. But his barge-ahead style of play continued for much of the round. Often, Trump had putted out on a hole while his playing companions were still 125 yards away in the fairway.
[…] By that point, Trump had registered, at best, one par. He had also not finished a hole after his blast from a bunker had failed to reach the green and was nestled in some nasty rough. Instead, he had his caddie pick up the ball and march to the next tee. On another hole, when a birdie putt rolled nearly six feet past the hole, he casually scooped the ball up to end the hole, apparently conceding himself a par. Try that this weekend in your match with your usual foursome. Or any foursome.
At other times, a Trump mis-hit would simply be ignored. As if understanding the drill, his caddie would retrieve the golf ball from the sand or deep rough and walk forward. […]
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was both illegal and unprovoked. Every life lost in this conflict, both Ukrainian and Russian, is a murder that belongs to Russia alone, and specifically to dictator Vladimir Putin, who personally made the decision to begin this needless slaughter. This doesn’t just apply to the tens of thousands who have died in the invasion that began on Feb. 24, 2022, but to the victims of the Russian invasion in 2014, and to all those who have lost their lives in the Russian-supported violence that happened over the last eight years.
But aside from the day to day toll of war, the dozens or hundreds of soldiers lost on the front line, Russia has darkened this already dark affair with repeated events for which “atrocity” is the only applicable word.
In the past two days, Russia has—apparently quite deliberately—slaughtered at least 50 Ukrainian POWs by blowing up a prison in Russian-occupied Olenivka where they were being held. That event came on the same day a video was widely circulated showing a Russian soldier torturing and castrating a bound Ukrainian prisoner. Follow-up reports claim that the Ukrainian prisoner was later shot and his body dragged along the streets behind a vehicle.
The same impulse that drove that man who wielded the knife was far too evident in the streets of Bucha, where dozens of Ukrainian civilians were left to rot in the rubble-choked streets while thousands more were tossed into mass graves. That impulse guided the trigger finger of the pilot at Mariupol, who sent a massive bomb into a theater being used as a shelter, in spite of a sign visible from the air which told that pilot there were children inside. It was there in the bombing of a maternity hospital that struck women dead in the midst of giving birth—and in over 200 deliberate attacks on hospitals and medical facilities that have come later. It was there in Vinnytsia, where Russian missiles killed a special-needs child on her way to the doctor, along with dozens of others. It was there at Kramatorsk, where Russia targeted civilians trying to escape the area. And at Kremenchuk, where Russia waited until a shopping mall was at its busiest, before turning it into an inferno.
Every day of this war, Russia fires missiles and artillery into civilian areas, with the absolute intent of destroying homes, ending lives, creating grief, and spreading fear. And every one is an unforgivable act of terrorism.
All of these things must be documented and investigated, but there seems absolutely no reason why Russia should not be on the list of state-sponsors of terrorism. And no reason why the Russian mercenaries known as “Wagner Group” should not be on the list of terrorist organizations, right beside ISIS. So far, the U.S. State Department has resisted calls to place these labels on Russia, in spite of a unanimous vote of the Senate and overwhelming support in the House. Sec. of State Anthony Blinken is reported to be concerned that placing this label on Russia would require the U.S. to extend sanctions to those who do business with Russia and place limits on diplomatic contact with Putin’s personal empire.
But, honestly, there should only be one thing to say to Russia.
[Paul Massaro tweeted] The cheapest course of action is to help Ukraine win. Anything less will me much more expensive
johnson catmansays
re Lynna @450:I would wager that tfg has never played an honest round of golf ever.
ravensays
Today’s Russian atrocity is just another threat to nuclear bomb someone.
This time it is Berlin.
At least it is something different. Usually it is me and my cat in the USA, London, or Poland.
General of the Russian Armed Forces and member of the State Duma Gurulyov suggests bombing Berlin
North of Kherson, Ukrainian forces have reportedly taken another village in the area south of Vysokopillya, further isolating the town and what are reported to be roughly 1,000 Russian forces still located there. The latest moves also help complete the encirclement of Arkhanhelske. On Friday, there were some reports that Ukrainian forces had taken Vysokopillya, but this does not seem to be the case. However, Ukrainian troops do seem to be in control of some part of the town. [map at the link]
Further south, Ukraine has maintained and expanded the bridgehead across the Inhulets River, reportedly retaking the village of Bilohirka, just south of Davydiv Brid. This location has apparently changed hands several times over the last month. Ukrainian forces are now attacking in three directions from this bridgehead, in spite of heavy artillery fire directed at a temporary bridge.
At the south end of the line, Russia has been pushing back. They’ve once again flipped control of Olexsandrivka and some reports indicate they’ve pushed back the line to Kyselivka.
At Kherson, Ukraine made additional attacks on the railroad bridge clearly making it difficult for Russia to repair — or trust — for the movement of heavy equipment. Additional rockets or artillery were also reportedly sent into the Antonivsky Bridge with the regional administrator in Odesa calling the bridge “destroyed.”
However, the bridge west of Nova Kakhovka has been patched enough to open to vehicular traffic on Saturday. [tweet and video at the link]
In general, Ukraine seems to be keeping the pressure up, even as it concentrates on keeping the bridges under threat. More than one pundit has suggested that Ukraine is engaged in a high risk / high reward strategy to goad Russia into sending more and more forces into Kherson oblast, weakening Russia’s ability to react elsewhere. Ukraine can then slam the door on those Russian forces and face Russian troops in Kherson who are saddled with dwindling supplies while blocking those troops from moving to reinforce any other area. […]
According to our entire press corps, the price of gas is a political story. Not a story of world-bending pandemic instabilities, or one of the few sacrifices toward maintaining democracy that the vast majority of Americans will ever unwillingly make, or a story about record profits during troubled times. No, it’s a story about politics. What will this world event “mean” in battles between ambitious political shouters and other ambitious political shouters? What narrative will win the day?
This is because political reporting is almost entirely fact-neutral. The only expertise required is the ability to ask professional politicians to say opinions at you, which may be torturous, to be sure, but doesn’t require knowing about the intricacies of international energy markets, or how long it takes to raise production at a given refinery, or the effects of Chinese lockdowns on the delivery of enormous steel pollywaggles. It is, therefore, the default frame of reference for all national stories. Gas prices, climate change, pandemic policies, interest rates, infrastructure needs; all of it.
Currently, Greenland’s ice sheet is slow-rolling itself into the sea, and that means the state of Florida is going to, for the most part, disappear. On the other hand, the ridiculously large vehicle you just bought because you liked the height and ability to transport several market hogs at once, if you ever found yourself in a position where you absolutely needed to transport several market hogs without taking two trips, costs a fortune to fill with gasoline because world markets are currently reeling from several uncertainties at once, and that’s quite upsetting! Very upsetting! Will the party of the violent attempted coup be able to capitalize on this consumer irritation? Now there’s a story!
Sigh. All right, fine. Let’s do this. […]
When The Washington Post or The New York Times pipes up with the same thing week after week, it’s hackish because one does not necessarily expect those larger outlets with far broader theoretical public duties to incessantly focus on political spinnery at the expense of actual research into causes and, if desired, solutions. But as far as I’m concerned, any outlet that’s already humiliated itself into asserting that they’ll only be looking for the political spin, and only be talking to political hacks and lobbyists to get it, has already put the warning label on the package.
[The premise of some mainstream media articles is straightforward]: Oh no! Gas prices were high, but now they are going down again! For the party of violent coup attempts (ongoing), this upends one of the most effective political strategies available to distract from two years of hoax-fueled treason!
“It appears that gasoline prices may have peaked too soon to remain the lethal campaign weapon for Republicans that they seemed to be a month ago,” says Politico.
“‘If the market continues to respond as it has and gets back to year-ago prices, that will definitely blunt the criticism’ over inflation,” a professional political hack grumbles.
[…] individual administrations have a hell of a lot less control over inflation and recession and the prices of consumer goods than those attempting blame or gushing praise think.
[…] The last few Republican administrations appear to have shown us that while good governance can mostly just tinker at the margins of such problems, bad governance can foul things up quite quickly and effectively! Slap on a new round of steel tariffs or make smug faces through a million-plus pandemic deaths, and by golly, it turns out those things can really turn an economy on its head. [correct]
Think of it this way: If you want to make your house more resistant to fire, there are a lot of little things you can do, but very few of them, short of a complete concrete rebuild, will truly assure complete safety. But if you want to burn your house to the ground, that’s easy. Call in Donald Trump and ask him to make you a cheese sandwich.
All right, I may be getting punchy here, so we should probably cut things short. Gas prices are now down more than 70 cents a gallon compared to their previous highs, and unless something new happens to foul the markets yet again, are expected to be back to roughly normal before the midterms. The question of the day is whether your average Americans will remain so resentful over pandemic-and-war-fueled fuel spikes that they will vote for those running on party-approved sedition, a radical curtailing of all(!) civil rights, and fascist dystopia.
[…] Do they love their sport utility vehicles more than they love, say, no-questions health care for their own daughters? It probably depends on the state.[…]
Uh-oh, Trump’s golf event may have flopped, sort of. Small crowds!
[…]In “At a LIV Golf Event, Thin Crowds and a Tense Start”, the New York Time’s Bill Pennington writes:
… thunderous cheering, the typical soundtrack of most professional golf tournaments, was nonexistent. The crowds at the event, LIV Golf’s third tournament, were too sparse to hear any ovations wafting around the course…. LIV Golf officials did not announce an attendance figure.
[…] The relatively few attendees, if they had a mind to, could have visited the late Ivana Trump’s grave below the backside of the first tee. With so little crowd noise they could have paid their respects in peace.
Trump’s M.O. for this sort of thing is to hire actors to fill out his sparse audience, so if you’re near Bedminster, New Jersey and need a few bucks, you might look for a casting call today or tomorrow. With the Saudis backing him Trump should have enough money to throw $50 your way.
Militia groups are using forest fires and other emergency situations as opportunities to recruit new members:
The parking lot of H&L Lumber in Mariposa, California, was host to a flurry of activity as members of a local militia sporting military-style fatigues handed out pancakes and steak sandwiches to evacuees of the Oak Fire raging nearby. Along with breakfast, they doled out business cards with QR codes and directions to join their militia.
[…] “They had their whole setup with military-style trucks, and they were in their fatigues and whatnot,” said Rain Winchester, a manager at Mariposa’s nearby Monarch Inn. “I’m fine with them helping out with relief efforts as long as they don’t start to set up roadblocks or do any security work. I don’t want them doing the work of the sheriff’s office.”
The militia is becoming a consistent presence in rural Mariposa County southeast of Sacramento with a population of 17,131 scattered across 14 towns, according to the 2010 U.S. census.
Providing immediate assistance in military-style garb during an emergency is a recruiting tactic used by militias nationwide, and not confined to Mariposa County. As climate change creates more wildfires and adverse weather events, further straining local law enforcement and fire services, militias around the nation have seized on the disasters as opportunities to entangle themselves into the politics and emergency services of small communities.
[…] Joshua James, an Oath Keeper who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, met and joined the militia during relief efforts for Hurricane Irma in 2017.
[…] Serving as de facto aid organizations is a common recruitment and community ingratiation tactic used in rural areas to win support and acceptance during emergencies, said Rachel Goldwasser, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Although help is always needed in difficult times, it is incredibly important to remember that militias are providing it with an agenda,” she said.
“That agenda is to recruit members of the community, including victims into their organizations, legitimize them, and radicalize people into holding grievances against the government they may very well express through intimidation or violence.”
Echo Company is one of hundreds of active militias across the U.S., according to a 2016 tally by the Southern Poverty Law Center, numbers that have climbed steadily in recent years. Experts have warned that militia groups have been emboldened by former President Donald Trump and other leaders of the Republican Party.
It was not immediately clear how many members Echo Company has. In times where there are no disasters, it’s most commonly known for holding training sessions for its members and attending protests, common practices for U.S. militias.
Echo Company is, however, well known among California militias.
It was ousted from the larger California State Militia organization in 2020 for capitalizing on larger, fictitious fears of antifa looters and “for behavior that was interpreted as potentially inciteful and militant.”
[…] there are signs its efforts to provide services have worked. […] The sheriff’s office then added it did “appreciate” the militia’s efforts.
“We had received multiple notifications inquiring why we had ‘activated that militia’ [and] this post was intended to clarify that we have not activated them, they are acting on their own courteous accord,” the post reads. “We appreciate their efforts and any [of] the efforts of other private groups or entities helping our community.”
[…] Wildfires have been a particularly active time for militias, including Echo Company, often due to misinformation that antifa or groups of looters were coming to take advantage of their communities. In 2020, law enforcement in California and the Pacific Northwest struggled to contain false rumors that antifa was intentionally setting wildfires so that “antifa buses” could surge into towns and loot local businesses.
[…] The QR code handed out to Mariposa locals directed those who scanned it to a cloned California State Militia, 2nd Infantry website that is unaffiliated with Hernandez’s larger group.
[…] Before the regiment was banned from Facebook, Echo Company posted a logo of the Three Percenters, an extremist movement that advocates for a second American Civil War.
Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the California Office of Emergency Services, said there is no circumstance in which California would “activate” a militia.
“California has a National Guard. We have a military. We do not have a state militia,” he said. “This is something we take very seriously. This is in no way related to the state and it is not something we condone.”
Goldwasser said that while militias may provide assistance in the moment, there is danger in allowing them to take over for official aid organizations after emergencies.
“There is no easy way to regulate how militias carry out their volunteerism during or after natural disasters,” she said. “Since they are not invited to participate and are not managed by a legitimate agency, they may be discriminatory in who they choose to help or worse, discriminate against victims whose ideologies or skin colors are different from their own.”
On Facebook, comments continued to pour in supporting Echo Company, thanking the group for pancakes, with many insisting it was “good to stop looters.”
“Thank you for your service. The police can’t be everywhere they have few enough in our areas. Don’t loot and we won’t shoot!!” a top comment reads, quoting a Facebook post from Trump from May 2020.
Others responding to the sheriff’s office’s post insisted their community didn’t need the militia’s help.
“There is a wide open park with a shade filled pavilion. Completely empty. You would figure that would be the perfect area for evacuees to eat and unwind, but no, they chose a couple parking lots in the middle of town, highly visible, so they could advertise,” a commenter responded.
“They have no authority. They are in costume and they want attention. That is all. Otherwise they would move their charade to a place that makes sense.”
Wonkette: “Pharma Groups Hope To Scare Americans Into Letting Them Make Fools Of Us Forever”
[…] the ad I see is one talking about how the part of the reconciliation bill would (finally) allow the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on the price of drugs instead of literally just accepting whatever price they want to charge … would somehow be bad for people who are not the CEOs and stockholders of pharmaceutical companies.
Of course I’d heard about these ads, people have been talking about them for weeks. But I’d never seen one organically, and the fact that it came on during an episode of Murder She Wrote made it pretty clear who the ad was targeting, and it probably wasn’t the small cohort of elder millennials like me who are super into Murder She Wrote.
The ad was centered on the ridiculous claim that negotiating drug prices would strip $300 billion from Medicaid — when in fact it would save Medicaid almost $300 billion, because of how much we are overpaying for drugs. [video available at the link]
It was the same dark money funded ad, or close to the same ad, that Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was rightfully raging about earlier this week on the senate floor.
I was shocked when last week, hundreds of Nevadans began calling my office. They were anxious and alarmed over a deliberately misleading ad that is running on TV, on Facebook, and via a text campaign. In Reno this past weekend, Nevadans came up to me because they were concerned about these false accusations. This ad incorrectly claims that I support a bill that would strip $300 billion dollars from Medicare. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
What I do know is that the ad is a deliberate lie. And it’s being funded by a dark money group called American Prosperity Alliance. This is exactly the kind of group I’ve been raising the alarm about for years.
Because here’s the truth, here are the facts: I’m standing up for Medicare, just like I always have. I am pushing legislation to lower prescription drug costs for Nevadans and save Medicare and seniors across the country almost $300 billion dollars.
What a goddamned slimy thing to do.
Groups like this mysterious American Prosperity Alliance (which just launched their website in late June), Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and National Association of Manufacturers have been going all in, dropping millions of dollars on deceptive ads aimed at getting people to oppose drug price negotiation. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to frame it as “socialist price controls!,” for reasons of “follow the money.”
“I don’t think socializing prices that is putting the government in charge of this is the way to continue the kind of healthy effective pharmaceutical industry that has saved the lives of millions of Americans,” Mitch McConnell said earlier this month.
[…] Polls have shown for years that huge majorities of the country want the government to do far more about the price of pharmaceutical drugs than just letting Medicare negotiate prices. [chart available at the link]
Too many people have to buy overpriced insulin, Epipens, and too many people remember the time Medicare paid “$172 million between 2006 and 2011, about twice as much as the consumer would have paid at the retail level” for penis pumps for this to be an easy thing to pull off.
Many of them have even heard that the government could have saved $3.6 billion by buying Medicare pharmaceuticals from an online pharmacy. Additionally, with inflation being what it is, it’s not gonna be all that easy to get people riled up about “socialist price controls.” When the other option is “getting completely screwed and paying out the nose” for things, “socialist price controls” just don’t sound that menacing.
Of course, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices is not “socialist price controls” anyway, anymore than private insurance companies negotiating prices is “socialist price controls.” In fact, for all intents and purposes, health insurance is a form of collective bargaining. The insurance companies say “We have this many customers, you can sell your drug to our group but only if you charge this much.” That’s why people in countries that have socialized health care pay less for their drugs. Because their whole country is one giant insurance group, which gives them leverage. This is what Medicare should be, but it’s not, because pharmaceutical companies prefer a system where they get to tell the US government how much it is going to pay for drugs and the US government has to pay that amount, regardless of how ridiculous it is. [correct]
[…] these groups and Big Pharma-backed politicians are doing all they can to keep this from happening. They’re lying to people, they’re throwing out every scare word they can possibly come up with, they’re trying to intimidate the easily intimidated Joe Manchin into backing down and pulling the football away on this one. They’re trying to claim it will “stifle innovation” and make it difficult for them to develop new drugs to help people — but we already pay for pharmaceutical research and development with our taxes. Our tax dollars have funded the research and development of every new drug in the last decade, and that does not even account for the money Medicare has paid to these companies.
So we fund this R&D, with our tax dollars, and the savings get passed on to every other country on earth but us, because no other country is as much of a sucker as we are.
And on top of that, drug companies get to deduct all of the money they spend on advertising from their taxes, meaning that we subsidize their entire advertising budgets. We are literally paying drug companies to advertise to us. […]
We should be offended by all of this. It is an insult. These dark money groups and these Republicans want us to continue to be suckers forever, want pharmaceutical companies to continue screwing us forever and passing the savings on to people in other countries. They are right to be scared because if this one thing changes, it is possible that Americans will see that they don’t have to be suckers in other ways as well. We just have to hope now that they won’t succeed […].
Supply chain problems could get much, much worse in September if 115,000 railroad workers go on strike. The workers have gone more than two years without a contract, dealing with one cut after another, including job cuts that have led to serious understaffing. The rail companies have been very profitable as they’ve put these and other cuts into place, but they’ve continued to squeeze workers—and they’re making moves that could harm a lot of people beyond their own workers. In fact, many observers say the rail companies have contributed to supply chain problems as they’ve tried to cut costs to the bone.
The rail industry has consolidated enormously over a period of decades, David Dayen reported at The American Prospect, and the companies have “intentionally gutted their own spare capacity, which meant the surge in goods production during the pandemic has produced skyrocketing freight prices—and then record profits—instead of more deliveries.” Now two of the remaining seven Class I railroads in the country want to merge, which would worsen the situation.
Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Sen. Dick Durbin have expressed varying levels of concern about that merger, with Porter saying it posed “a grave threat to competition in the domestic rail industry” that would result in “job losses, harm to other industries reliant on railroads, and more fragility in American supply chain infrastructure.”
The merger could also worsen problems already being created by the railroad companies running longer trains to cut labor costs. “Trains can be up to three miles long, which many tracks were not designed to handle,” Dayen reported. “Such enormous trains can not only block intersections but also crowd out passenger rail that often moves along the same tracks. Metra, the Chicago commuter rail system, has estimated that the Canadian Pacific/Kansas City Southern merger could cause a ‘1,200 percent increase in delays.’”
Greedy companies don’t just hurt their own workers. But the railroad workers have faced grueling work hours and extended periods on call in which they can be called in to work at any time, and the rail companies have offered just a 3% raise during contract negotiations.
“The truth is the three biggest railroads at the negotiating table don’t want to part with any of their record profits, nor do they wish to reward the workers who have busted their asses for the last three years without a raise, to get them those record profits,” Jeremy Ferguson, president of one of the rail unions, said in a statement.
Earlier in the month, the workers voted to authorize a strike with more than 99% support, but for railroad workers specifically, the path to striking is a complicated one. The strike vote came after mediation failed, leading to a legally mandated 30-day “cooling off” period. Late in that 30 days, after the strike authorization, President Joe Biden created a Presidential Emergency Board, which has 30 days to come up with recommendations to settle the dispute and avert a strike. After that 30 days is up in mid-August, there’s another 30-day cooling off period. After that, if the workers don’t have a contract they can accept, the Railway Labor Act allows them to strike—if Congress doesn’t step in. [sheesh! convoluted much?]
The authors of the Railway Labor Act really wanted to make it difficult for these workers to strike, in other words. But a 99% strike authorization vote shows just how fired up the workers are.
[…] “When [National Grain and Feed Association] members cannot load a train because a crew is out with COVID, they will be charged demurrage by the rail line, and if they cannot unload a train due to COVID, they will pay demurrage and face the risk of penalties or loss of contracts with their own customer,” Mike Seyfert, president and CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association, said in April testimony to the Surface Transportation Board.
“However, if the railroad cannot deliver or move a train due to COVID—or any other reason—NGFA members cannot charge and are not entitled to any demurrage from the railroad,” Seyfert continued.
Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, pointed directly to job cuts in testimony at the same hearing, saying, “Despite the claims made by the Class I carriers, it is simply impossible to provide an equivalent level of service after eliminating a third of the workforce in less than a decade. These cuts have guaranteed that adequate crews will be unavailable, that equipment and infrastructure will not be adequately maintained and that critical inspections will be deferred. […]
“While the elimination of jobs across all crafts of the freight rail network has undoubtedly contributed to operational breakdowns and service degradation, TTD notes that a number of shippers have specifically cited a lack of available crews as a major component of reduced service quality,” Regan added. “Railroads have long engaged in a concerted effort to cut headcount to the absolute bone. They have created a degraded safety culture that has driven away long-time employees, and in many cases second or third-generation railroaders, who have chosen to walk away from what were ‘jobs for life’ in previous generations.”
The Biden administration can start fixing these problems by blocking the Canadian Pacific/Kansas City Southern merger. But if the companies won’t come to a fair deal with the workers and their unions, the administration and Congress should allow a strike to go forward so the workers can have their say, rather than protecting the companies from the consequences of their cost-cutting and abuses.
Right now, Ukraine seems to be involved in a combination counteroffensive giant trap in the Kherson oblast. By simultaneously attacking Russia’s points of access in the bridges at Kherson and Nova Kakhovka, as well as a series of bridges over the Inhulets River in the middle of the oblast, Ukraine seems to be forcing Russia to scramble to come up with ways to maintain supply lines, while simultaneously encouraging Russia to reinforce their westernmost flank. And if the intent was to bring in more Russian forces, it seems to be working. Some reports now have the number of battalion tactic groups in Kherson at 25, up from 15 a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the rest of the front still stretches to Kharkiv and beyond, and while neither Russia nor Ukraine seems to have made huge gains in the last week, that doesn’t mean things have been quiet. Far from it. Right now, Ukraine is reportedly advancing at multiple points east of Zaporzhzhia, Russia is making yet another push in the sliver of land east of Bakhmut, there’s action from both sides around Kharkiv, and … weirdness in some areas. Not only are there reports that Russia has pulled out of the towns of Yaremivka and Studenok near Izyum, there are now reports that Russia has withdrawn from a pair of towns in the south. [map at the link]
[…] Speaking of Bilohorivka, it appears to be under Russian control again after changing hands multiple times. Further south, Russia has reportedly taken control of Berestove after a prolonged period of fighting. And at the southern end of this map, Russia has also advanced to Vershyna, southeast of Bakhmut. […]
Some of Ukraine’s advances are off the southern edge of this map, where they’ve taken control of a reported half-dozen formerly disputed towns and villages. But the more important area may be the one in the northwest corner of this map, where Russian forces have withdrawn from occupied towns on both sides of the river and apparently abandoned their fight to gain full control of Bohorodychne. Both Bohorodychne and Dolyna are now back in Ukrainian control, and Ukraine’s forces there have reportedly repelled a pair of Russian attempts to get back into the area from the west.
Unless the situation in the west changes quickly, it seems to represent a collapse of Russia’s effort to encircle the Slovyansk and Kramatorsk area. Russia is continuing to push toward that Siversk / Bakhmut line on the east, but that seems to be the only place they’re moving aggressively. [map at the link]
The clearest, and oddest, of Russia’s change in direction is the apparent abandonment of positions at Yaremivka and Studenok. The pontoon bridge that had earlier been erected across the Silveskyy Donets at this location has now apparently been completely removed, leaving the next intact bridge a dozen kilometers to the north, below the dam at Oskil.
Ukraine is now fully in possession of Bohorodychne, a location that Russia struggled for weeks to take — and the site of some major equipment losses. Ukrainian forces are moving to occupy the surrendered area, rolling back months of slow advances on the part of Russia.
Ukraine has also gained ground to the west at Brazhkivka, liberating that town along with a smaller village. […]
On the southern lines between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine continues to press in a pair of areas, while Russia is also making offensive moves. This is also the scene of the second location where Russian forces seem to have gone inexplicably missing. [map at the link]
Ukrainian forces are reportedly pressing southward in the area south of Hulyaipole, and in the pocket south of Pavlivka. Meanwhile, Russia is most active on the eastern edge of the map, especially in pressing into the fortified suburbs around Donetsk and attempting to break the Ukrainian line near Pisky.
But the strange report on Sunday is that Russian forces at the southern end of this map, around Tokmak and Chernihivka, have gone the way of forces in Studenok. These were previously the scene of significant Russian occupations, which now seem to have gone completely missing. These forces may have been hustled to Kherson, repositioned to address the attempted counteroffensives in the area, or it may mean that Russia simply felt these areas were far enough behind the lines that they didn’t need troops to keep them under control as, unlike the area across the river from Studenok, these towns aren’t in close proximity to current fighting.
An optimistic view takes this as a sign that Russia’s occupied areas have been hollowed out in the effort to back up Kherson while maintaining the fight for the remainder of the Donbas. If Russia’s control really is as fragile as a Fabergé egg, that should soon become apparent.
[chart at the link shows Russian industrial production data by sub-industry] Following up on a discussion in the comments of yesterday’s Ukraine update, this diary contains links, intro, and main points from a July 2022 study of the Russian Economy by a group of authors from the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute; the authors are mostly associated with the the business management and economics departments of Yale, Penn, and the Warsaw School of Economics.
Disclaimer, I’m not necessarily vouching for this group’s impartiality, they seem to have a solidly pro-Ukraine approach (I approve!), but I haven’t further studied whether there has been academic pushback on their conclusions. That said, the results certainly look thoroughly gathered and reasonable to this old economist.
Main paper: “Business Retreats and Sanctions Are Crippling the Russian Economy” (100+ pages, includes slide deck at the end).
Slides only: yale.app.box.com/…
Foreign Policy article: Actually, the Russian Economy Is Imploding, Nine Myths about the Effects of Sanctions and Business Retreats, Debunked.
[…] Here’s the introduction (with the authors’ links and my emphasis in bold):
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters into its fifth month, a common narrative has emerged that the unity of the world in standing up to Russia has somehow devolved into a “war of economic attrition which is taking its toll on the west”, given the supposed “resilience” and even “prosperity” of the Russian economy. This is simply untrue – and a reflection of widely held but factually incorrect misunderstandings over how the Russian economy is actually holding up amidst the exodus of over 1,000 global companies and international sanctions.
That these misunderstandings persist is not surprising. Since the invasion, the Kremlin’s economic releases have become increasingly cherry-picked, selectively tossing out unfavorable metrics while releasing only those that are more favorable. These Putin-selected statistics are then carelessly trumpeted across media and used by reams of well-meaning but careless experts in building out forecasts which are excessively, unrealistically favorable to the Kremlin – which we explain further in Section I of this paper.
Our team of experts, using Russian language and unconventional data sources including high frequency consumer data, cross-channel checks, releases from Russia’s international trade partners, and data mining of complex shipping data, have released one of the first comprehensive economic analyses measuring Russian current economic activity five months into the invasion, and assessing Russia’s economic outlook.
From our analysis, it becomes clear: business retreats and sanctions are crippling the Russian economy, in the short-term, and the long-term. We tackle a wide range of common misperceptions – and shed light on what is actually going on inside Russia […]
Russia’s strategic positioning as a commodities exporter has irrevocably deteriorated,as it now deals from a position of weakness with the loss of its erstwhile main markets, and faces steep challenges executing a “pivot to Asia” with non-fungible exports such as piped gas […]
– Despite some lingering supply chain leakiness, Russian imports have largely collapsed, and the country faces stark challenges securing crucial inputs, parts, and technology from hesitant trade partners, leading to widespread supply shortages within its domestic economy […]
– Despite Putin’s delusions of self-sufficiency and import substitution, Russian domestic production has come to a complete standstill with no capacity to replace lost businesses, products and talent; the hollowing out of Russia’s domestic innovation and production base has led to soaring prices and consumer angst […]
– As a result of the business retreat, Russia has lost companies representing ~40% of its GDP, reversing nearly all of three decades’ worth of foreign investment and buttressing unprecedented simultaneous capital and population flight in a mass exodus of Russia’s economic base […]
– Putin is resorting to patently unsustainable, dramatic fiscal and monetary intervention to smooth over these structural economic weaknesses, which has already sent his government budget into deficit for the first time in years and drained his foreign reserves even with high energy prices – and Kremlin finances are in much, much more dire straits than conventionally understood – as we explain further in Section VI of this paper.
– Russian domestic financial markets, as an indicator of both present conditions and future outlook, are the worst performing markets in the entire world this year despite strict capital controls, and have priced in sustained, persistent weakness within the economy with liquidity and credit contracting – in addition to Russia being substantively cut off from international financial markets, limiting its ability to tap into pools of capital needed for the revitalization of its crippled economy – as we explain further in Section VII of this paper.
– Looking ahead, there is no path out of economic oblivion for Russia as long as the allied countries remain unified in maintaining and increasing sanctions pressure against Russia – as we explain further in Section VIII of this paper.
The authors’ conclusions:
1. Russia can’t “pivot” natural gas and oil exports to Asia sufficiently to prevent a large drop in export revenue.
2. Russian imports have collapsed, greatly hampering production.
3. The collapse of production, combined with expansive government subsidies to targeted groups of people and companies, is likely to cause extreme inflation in Russia.
4. The value of the ruble is not very meaningful, since it can’t really be traded any more.
5. Russian financial markets, including the quasi governmental oil and gas companies, are way down, indicating very low confidence in the future.
A Matt Gaetz supporter from Shalimar, Florida is currently wanted by the FBI for threatening to kill Gaetz’ opponent, Rebekah Jones, and her family in a chilling voicemail left on her cell phone last week.
“I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill your whole family. You’re going to die motherfucker,” the caller said.
Listen to the voicemail on Instagram here. [link available at the main link above]
The man harassed the personal cell phone of Jones and her husband over a period of three days last week. He did not block or hide his number.
The threats came about the same time that Matt Gaetz became embroiled in yet another controversy concerning sexually inappropriate behavior, this time with comments he made at a conservative convention about women and reproductive freedom – themes evident in the wanted-man’s texts to Jones.
“Plus women don’t belong as Governors or anyone like that bc y’all have too many personalities and too emotional to handle big decisions in life!” one of the messages read.
The FBI began searching for the man in cooperation with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department Thursday, July 21, 2022. As of July 30, he is still at-large.
Jones announced the FBI search at a women’s rights rally in Tampa Saturday […]
“I’ve gotten a lot of threats,” Jones said at the rally. “That’s what happens when you take on a corrupt governor and then a corrupt congressman. But this one was serious. This one scared me.”
Jones has been the subject of a targeted harassment campaign online since May 2020, led principally by Christina Pushaw, Ron DeSantis’ Nazi-connected press secretary, who notably was hired after a court in Maryland issued a restraining on Jones’ behalf and Pushaw was later criminally charged with violating it.
More recently, Pushaw and a Democratic spoiler candidate from another part of the state have been cooperating online in a smear campaign targeting Jones, rape-shaming, slut-shaming and making sexually-charged comments about Jones online. Jones’ cell phone number was recently released by the sham candidate in a court filing by the sham candidate requesting an emergency injunction to kick Jones off the ballot – a motion that was denied by the court.
[…] The failing campaign of former New York City cooperate attorney Margaret “Peggy” Schiller has been exposed as a sham campaign working on behalf of Ron DeSantis, who has been obsessed with Rebekah Jones for more than two years […]
Jones, who is heavily favored to win both her primary election in August and the general election against Matt Gaetz in November, maintains her status as a legally protected whistleblower after exposing COVID_19 data manipulation by Ron DeSantis’ administration in 2020. [Bravery, and she was brave over a long time … years.]
[…] A call for Gaetz to make a public statement condemning the threats has gone unanswered, even though Jones issued such a statement in 2021 when Matt Gaetz was receiving threats.
Wonkette: “Let’s All Be Shocked And Surprised By This Matt Gaetz/Roger Stone Hot Mic Situation”
Picture it: The year is 2019. Matt Gaetz and Roger Stone are huddled together, backstage at a Trump event of some sort, and they’re talking about crime. Which crime? Is it the one where Matt Gaetz was maybe doing some sex trafficking of an underage girl? No, not that crime. Roger Stone’s crimes, the ones for which he was later pardoned for by Donald Trump — classic hits like “witness tampering,” “making false statements,” and “obstructing an official proceeding,” in relation to the Mueller investigation.
Caught on a hot mic by Danish filmmakers who were making a documentary about stone and published by the Washington Post on Saturday, Gaetz and Stone can be heard whispering to one another about the crimes and Stone’s chances in court, with Gaetz assuring him that he would likely get a pardon from Donald Trump and promising to do all he could to make that happen … which it did. Although Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison for his many crimes, he did not serve a day because he got a big ol pardon from Donald Trump. [video with sound track is available at the link]
During the conversation, Gaetz and Stone repeatedly referred to Trump as “The Big Guy” and “The Boss,” making them sound not entirely unlike the dopey henchmen of a 1980s cartoon villain. [yuck, makes me queasy]
“I may have to appeal to the big man, because I’ve got … it’s the District of Columbia. We surveyed 120 jurors. Ninety of them know who I am, and they hate my guts,” Stone can be heard saying.
Via The Washington Post:
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) predicted that Stone would be found guilty at his trial in Washington the following month but would not “do a day” in prison. […]
“The boss still has a very favorable view of you,” said Gaetz, stressing that the president had “said it directly.” He also said, “I don’t think the big guy can let you go down for this.”
Gaetz at one point told Stone he was working on getting him a pardon but was hesitant to say more backstage at the event, in which speakers were being filmed for online broadcast. “Since there are many, many recording devices around right now, I do not feel in a position to speak freely about the work I’ve already done on that subject,” Gaetz said.
Wonkette: “Congress Votes To Ban Guns That Can Kill A Classroom Full Of Kids In Under A Minute”
On Friday, the House passed a ban on many of the semi-automatic weapons favored by America’s worst school shooters, despite nearly all Republicans voting against it. That would be the nice thing about having a majority in Congress.
The ban is similar to the assault weapons ban that used to exist before Republicans sold out our nation’s children to the gun lobby, the one we had before mass shootings tripled. The one we had in the years where we didn’t have to hear about these horrific tragedies every other week.
President Biden is now asking the Senate to “move quickly to get this bill to my desk.” Because hey! Wouldn’t it be great if we could save some lives? If kids didn’t have to go to school every day knowing that someone can just walk in with a gun that can fire 45 rounds per minute? That seems pretty great to me. It’s certainly a better and more sensible alternative to arming teachers and outfitting every classroom across the country with bulletproof safety pods.
House Democrats made compelling cases for the legislation, focusing on balancing rights and protecting our children.
Via The Washington Post:
Democrats argued that the ban on the weapons makes sense, portraying Republicans as extreme and out of step with Americans.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the weapons ban is not about taking away Americans’ Second Amendment rights but ensuring that children also have the right “to not get shot in school.”
Pelosi displayed a poster of a gun company’s advertisement for children’s weapons, smaller versions that resemble the popular AR-15 rifles and are marketed with cartoon-like characters. “Disgusting,” she said.
In one exchange, two Ohio lawmakers squared off. “Your freedom stops where mine begins, and that of my constituents begins,” Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur told Republican Rep. Jim Jordan. “Schools, shopping malls, grocery stores, Independence Day parades shouldn’t be scenes of mass carnage and bloodshed.”
You think?
[…] It’s expected to stall in the Senate with the filibuster in play — and you know what? That’s okay. It’s not okay that we’ve still got to deal with the filibuster, but it is also okay if it doesn’t pass. It’s okay if it’s not “feasible.”
We need to get ourselves okay with the idea of continually trying to pass bills on our most important issues, whether or not they are “feasible” — both in the House when we can and in state legislatures. Why? Because It’s PR. Because the House passed this bill, people like me get to write about it, readers get to hear from politicians why the ban is so important, and Republicans have to explain why they think we should keep having to live this way. We get to keep these issues at the front of people’s minds, so that they are discussing and advocating for these policies regardless of what is going on with the legislature, so that they feel passionately about it and also feel that ultimately, we will win.
[…] Support for an assault weapons ban is at an “all-time low” following Uvalde (I don’t get it either) and it’s still 50 percent. That is a significantly larger percentage than have ever supported making all abortions illegal. If we want this done, if we want anything done, we have to keep it up, and keep getting up each time we fall. Especially in a case like this, when what’s on the line are children’s lives.
A trio of conservative states with so-called “trigger bans” on the books have moved closer to enacting a new set of abortion restrictions as a result of the circuitous domino effect that began with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade.
In Texas, Tennessee and Idaho, the justices’ decision was not the relevant event springing the new limits to life. Rather, the landmark ruling was only the first falling domino, followed by the court’s issuance Tuesday of its formal judgment in the case, followed next by a 30-day period before the laws take effect.
The elaborate procedural circuitry has added an additional layer of complexity to the already confusing patchwork of state laws — and lawsuits — that emerged soon after the court upended the nearly 50-year constitutional right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
“Right now, there’s a lot of confusion,” said David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University. […] “The more uncertainty, the more difficult it is for patients to navigate the process and get the care they need.”
Abortion is now banned in at least eight states, following the Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn Roe and hand states virtually free rein to regulate the procedure.
Thirteen states had trigger bans on the books, three of which were set to take effect immediately upon Roe’s toppling. Trigger laws in seven other states required some additional action by officials before the bans kicked in. And three states — Texas, Tennessee and Idaho — had laws with a 30-day clock that started upon the Supreme Court’s formal judgment being issued.
Idaho’s trigger law is one such example, with the law set to kick in on Aug. 25. The new rule will make nearly all abortion illegal, with exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
Several Idaho abortion restrictions are tied up in legal challenges. Planned Parenthood has sued over the abortion ban, saying it violates the Idaho Constitution. The group has a separate pending lawsuit that takes aim at Idaho’s Texas-like civil enforcement abortion ban.
Given the flood of litigation across the states, experts cautioned that these new trigger bans — once they take effect — could still get hung up in court fights.[…]
In mid-August, Tennessee’s trigger ban, known as the Human Life Protection Act, is set to take effect.
When it does, it will take precedence over a statewide abortion ban that kicks in around six weeks, when fetal cardiac activity can typically be detected. Tennessee’s new trigger ban will go even further, outlawing abortion at the time of fertilization, with only narrow exemptions. [madness]
In Texas, the state legislature in 2021 passed two major bills limiting abortion. The first law, known as Senate Bill 8, gained national attention for its novel enforcement mechanism that lets private citizens bring lawsuits for $10,000 or more for violations of the six-week abortion ban. […]
There are tiny things.
So easily overlooked.
Underappreciated. Understudied. Unknown.
Forgettable.
Insects.
Seem so numerous.
Base of the food chain.
Pollinators.
Prey.
Camouflaged flutters away.
Gone.
Going.
We lose.
We do not know what.
Until we do.
Because.
Consequences.
ravensays
This is something I’ve noticed long ago and others as well.
Most of the christofascist GOP laws are designed to be cruel.
The whole point is to inflict suffering and misery on other people, especially if they are part of some already marginalized group.
Because being cruel shows you are in control.
Opinion: Flamboyant cruelty is the current Republican ethos
Pat Brothwell Sun, July 31, 2022 at 2:00 AM·4 min read
op ed Ashville Citizen-times
In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturning, you’ve undoubtedly seen the headline about a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim who had to travel to Indiana to obtain a legal abortion. Madison Cawthorn did.
On July 14, Cawthorn introduced a bill to “prohibit the use of Federal funds for travel expenses of any individual traveling across State lines for purposes of having an abortion, and for other purposes.” It’s obviously just a publicity grab, as, per reporting by the Citizen-Times. In a statement announcing the bill, Cawthorn did not address the already existing federal rule, the Hyde Amendment, that has prevented the use of federal funds for abortions for three decades, or say why additional restrictions were needed.
You might be thinking, Pat, why are you giving attention and space to a lame duck congressperson who thrives on attention? It’s a good question, but I have an answer. I was, and hope more of you will be, disgusted and appalled by this attention-grab. Can you imagine the startling lack of empathy it takes to publicize the trauma of a 10-year-old rape victim for your political gain?
Cawthorn’s actions brought to mind a tweet I saw from television writer Rai Sanni on June 30 that reads, “The only way to describe this series of Supreme Court decisions is flamboyant cruelty.” On first reading, I thought maybe I’d replace “flamboyant” with “abject” or “flagrant,” but Sanni is an Emmy-nominated writer for a reason. Merriam-Webster defines flamboyant as “marked by or given to strikingly elaborate or colorful display or behavior.”
I’m giving Cawthorn my attention and space because this callous display of cruelty, used for nothing more than to generate attention — an elaborate display if you will — is, much like much of Cawthorn’s more boorish behavior, emblematic of the ethos of the current Republican Party. Cawthorn’s been turned into the party’s scapegoat because of his youth and indiscretionary behavior, but make no mistake, he’s no different than his fellow right-wing politicians who prioritize non-contextual, headline-grabbing, king-building antics over anything substantive. They all use flamboyant cruelty to further their political careers, pander to their bases, and inflict pain and suffering onto others (which, of course, they wrap in the guise of Christianity, or worse … family values).
How can we forget the recent flamboyant cruelty of our own North Carolina state Republican senators, Phil Berger, Deanna Ballard, and Michael Lee, who decided to hold a press conference to introduce their “Parental Bill of Rights” (NC’s version of Florida’s hotly contested, and flamboyantly cruel “Don’t Say Gay” bill) just hours after two teachers and 19 children were murdered in Uvalde, Texas? This is flamboyant because it was a display, a publicity stunt they knew Gov. Cooper would veto. It was cruel because of the timing. Wouldn’t you assume people who wear their pro-life stance on their sleeves would give the nation a collective minute to catch their breaths and process a massacre? On paper, sure, but individuals who care about people, who aren’t cruel, would never propose that bill in the first place.
LGBTQ+ students already face uphill battles. According to the Trevor Project, 45% of LGBTQ+ youth have seriously considered suicide this past year. If you care about people, that should rattle you. A study from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago found that LGBTQ+ youth have a 120% higher risk of homelessness than their straight counterparts, with family rejection being the most frequently cited reason. The proposed Parental Bill of Rights targets this already vulnerable minority — according to 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, only 10.4% of North Carolina teens identify as LGBTQ+. Imagine the cruelty it takes to potentially increase the suicidality and homelessness of children?
At this risk of citing a pop-culture reference that’s a little too on the nose, it all calls to mind a line from the 1999 film Cruel Intentions, when the movie’s antagonist, Kathryn Merteuil, says to her stepbrother, “You’re just a toy Sebastian; a toy I like to play with.” That’s exactly what that 10-year-old rape victim and North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ youth are to Cawthorn, Berger, Ballard, and Lee: toys whose lives don’t matter as much as virtue signaling to potential voters.
Meriam-Webster defines cruel as “disposed to inflict pain and suffer.” I’d ask anyone reading to interrogate your own penchant for cruelty. I’d ask you to examine the current Republican agenda and tell me how it isn’t flamboyantly cruel. I challenge you to explain how at its base, it isn’t about anything but inflicting pain and suffering.
A record crowd of 87,192 were in attendance at Wembley Stadium for the Women’s European Championship final between England and Germany, beating the highest total recorded in either the men’s or women’s editions of the tournament….
raven @468, “flamboyant” is also appropriate because the Republicans mentioned in that article are proud of their cruelty. They advertise it. They glory in it.
Trump was always a scumbag for cheating on Ivana and leaving her for Marla Maples; whom he cheated on and left for Melania; whom he cheated on with Stormy Daniels while she was pregnant with Barron. Tragically, Ivana died at 73. She suffered blunt impact injuries from a fall down the stairs inside of her apartment in New York City. The state’s medical chief examiner has ruled it an accident.
At the very least, since Donald Trump loves to be flashy and gaudy, I thought he would have at least splurged a little bit on Ivana’s final resting spot. After all, this is the woman who gave him Ivanka. That didn’t happen. The grave has been called “sad,” “bare,” “pauper,” and “disrespectful.” The grave is next to the first hole on her ex-husband’s New Jersey Bedminster golf course.
I’ll let you decide. I’m just saying, my family pet has a much nicer grave. It even has an upright marker with an inscription. Considering the funeral supposedly cost Ivana’s estate upwards of $150,000, I’m wondering why her final resting spot is so…. bare. Surely Trump wouldn’t grift on his first wife’s grave, would he? [photos at the link]
But in writing this, I discovered that’s not the worst of it. Not even close.
Why the hell did Trump bury his wife on a golf course to begin with? It might have something to do with this.
Dartmouth sociology professor and tax researcher Brooke Harrington:
As a tax researcher, I was skeptical of rumors Trump buried his ex-wife in that sad little plot of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks.
So I checked the NJ tax code & folks…it’s a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated.
[more tweets and photos are available at the link]
The Daily Mail also looked into this.
They concurred. In New Jersey, cemeteries are exempt from income, property and sales tax. Also, according to NJ law, there is no minimum number of human remains that need to be buried on the land to qualify for the tax break.
By the way, if you think Trump is above doing something like this, I will inform you that he has already claimed the golf course as “farm land” to get a super tax break, but a cemetery would be even better. […]
The kids are as morally bankrupt and criminal as their father, who let him do this. They don’t speak up because that would put them on the outs, so they just let this happen.
It’s bad enough Trump this week already spit on the graves of every 9/11 victim by claiming “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11” in a very sad attempt to deflect criticism for hosting the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour at his club. But honestly, damn, even I never thought he’d be this bad. I never thought his kids would let Donald treat their mother like this. I really did underestimate them. [more tweets and photos at the link]
Trump found a way to cheat on Ivana even after her death. I can’t tell you how much I hate this f’ing family. Ivana may not have been perfect, but she deserved a hell of a lot better than this.
With abortion banned, a crisis pregnancy center plots a $10 million waterfront expansion for the post-Roe era.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. — Jana Pinson leaned over the table at the architect’s office, craning for a better look at the textures and patterns that would bring her post-Roe dreams to life.
At a meeting in mid-July, three weeks after the Supreme Court retracted the constitutional right to abortion, Pinson was plotting a new-age makeover for her crisis pregnancy center, an organization designed to persuade people to carry their pregnancies to term. She ran her fingers across samples of porcelain tile and beechwood-stained cabinets. The walls of her new building would be varying shades of green and gray, splashed with abstract pictures of trees, each detail designed to evoke, as she’d requested, the feeling of a “coastal spa.”
The executive director of the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend had recently overseen the purchase of what she sees as the most “strategic” plot of land in Corpus Christi, a city of 300,000 people on the South Texas coast. Right next to the local Texas A&M campus, looking out over the Oso Bay, Pinson’s $10 million crisis pregnancy center will be built to attract female undergraduates, with a coffee shop and a thrift store visible from the road, and a patio where students can sip their caffè lattes.
[…] Over the past 50 years of legal abortion in America, crisis pregnancy centers have been one of the top tools of the antiabortion movement, and a target for intense criticism from abortion rights advocates. With more than 2,500 locations across the United States, these centers deploy what critics decry as overly aggressive — even deceptive — tactics to talk women out of abortions. Often religiously affiliated, they typically offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, sometimes initially presenting themselves as abortion clinics or objective sources of “abortion information.”
Now that abortion is banned across much of the South and Midwest, including Texas, many crisis pregnancy centers in these regions are preparing to assume a larger role, stepping into a void left by shuttered abortion clinics as the go-to place for ultrasound exams and pregnancy resources, despite the fact that they are not licensed medical facilities. The goal is to intercept women before they can access abortion some other way — through an online pharmacy or across state lines — and convince them that they’ll have support.
[…] Pinson, 60, has emerged as a prominent champion of transforming these centers — often mom-and-pop shops that operate as small storefronts — into large-scale professional operations. In addition to directing the rise of her own organization, she has taken on the role of evangelist, training other center directors in the tools and tactics required for a new era.
In Texas, that means tapping into what has become a reliable stream of public money. The legislature approved $100 million for crisis pregnancy centers in 2021, to be doled out over two years, while simultaneously banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Pinson says the new building will be financed largely by state money — funding that is distributed with little government oversight. Records show the center received $776,000 last year.
[…] “They want to camouflage what their mission really is with iced coffee and a thrift shop,” said Molly Davis, a sophomore at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi, who leads Islander Feminists, an abortion rights group that plans to protest Pinson’s new building.
[…] Pinson took to Google, paying thousands of dollars to bid on key search terms. Now, whenever someone in Corpus Christi searches for phrases like “need an abortion” or “abortion cost Texas,” the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend is regularly the first item on the list.
[…] Patients who visit the center’s homepage today can click on “I Want An Abortion,” which directs to a page that says: “CONFIDENTIAL ABORTION CONSULTATION — NO COST TO YOU.” There are detailed descriptions of both surgical and medication abortions, estimated costs and several buttons that allow you to schedule an appointment. [Deceptive!]
Looking at the center’s website, even antiabortion donors are confused. Occasionally, Pinson said, she’ll get angry phone calls from conservative members of the community, demanding to know why the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend is talking about abortion.
[…] Eighteen-year-old Brooke Alexander — whose story was depicted in a Washington Post article in June — was one of the hundreds of abortion-minded women who found herself at Pinson’s pregnancy center in 2021. Like every client who arrives seeking an abortion, Alexander was advised on what a counselor told her were the potential risks of the procedure, including infertility, breast cancer and death. Those claims are widely disputed by leading medical organizations. [More than “widely disputed,” they have been debunked.]
Even after leaving the pregnancy center — and deciding to continue her pregnancy — Alexander had no idea the organization had an antiabortion mission.
[…] In almost all cases, these centers have no doctors on staff, said Andrea Swartzendruber, a professor at the University of Georgia College of Public Health who studies crisis pregnancy centers.
On the website for the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend, a disclaimer appears at the bottom that reads, “Information is provided as an educational service and should not be relied on as a substitute for professional and/or medical advice.”
The bulk of the medical offerings are administered by seven registered nurses, a nurse practitioner and two diagnostic medical sonographers, […]
Even without a doctor on-site, Pinson said she feels “phenomenally confident” that they will catch any serious complications.
Leading medical organizations see it differently.
“These places are incredibly dangerous for our patients,” said Nisha Verma, an OB/GYN and a spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
ACOG has voiced concern about the medicalization of crisis pregnancy centers, arguing that the trappings of health care lead patients to believe that center staffers are fully trained to identify potential complications. Because pregnancy centers aren’t licensed medical facilities, Verma said, they are exempt from the laws and statutes that govern medical clinics — putting them in the extraordinary position of providing unregulated medical services.
[…] Pinson also plans to expand their “abortion reversal” offerings over the next few years, as more women in South Texas take abortion pills obtained illegally or in Mexico. The practice — denounced by ACOG as potentially dangerous but widely embraced by the antiabortion movement — involves administering the hormone progesterone to a patient soon after they take the first of two abortion pills, in an attempt to “reverse” the abortion
.
A clinical trial for abortion reversal ended abruptly in 2019, after several patients started hemorrhaging so severely that they had to be rushed to the hospital.
[…] “It is very frustrating that the legislature has continued to pour funds into a program where there is practically no transparency, no accountability and basically no metrics to the tune of $100 million without any medical or health services being provided,” said state Rep. Donna Howard (D), a member of the appropriations committee. “Half of what they do is give out pamphlets.” [A chart showing that Texas has dramatically increased support for crisis pregnancy centers is available at the link.]
[…] “We have staff that are committed to share Christ with every girl that walks through that door,” Pinson said in a 2019 promotional video […]
[…] If they can get an “abortion-minded” woman to have a conversation, Pinson feels confident that the center’s staff can change her mind. In their counseling sessions, Pinson says, they “pour into girls,” persuading them that, no matter the obstacles in their lives, they can become successful mothers.
Pinson welcomes even the most devastating cases.
“I’ve seen a lot of 13-year-olds do phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a negative thing.” [OMFG]
[…]
More at the link.
johnson catmansays
re Lynna @465:
If kids didn’t have to go to school every day knowing that someone can just walk in with a gun that can fire 45 rounds per minute?
This seems like an underestimate unless you count reloading time. A semi-auto rifle like the AR-15 can fire one round per trigger pull, and you can pull the trigger a lot faster than once per second, so you can empty a 30-round clip in much less than 30 seconds.
[…]
Twitter accounts that have promoted QAnon and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are switching focus and increasingly spreading disinformation about the global food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a new study.
The research by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), found that conspiracy theorist social media accounts started pushing the idea that western countries are responsible for the interruption of wheat, barley and maize exports from Ukraine.
The Russian government has made the same claims in recent weeks, blaming western sanctions for a slowdown in grain exports. […]
The NCRI, which tracks misinformation and manipulation on social media, found that conspiracy communities and influencers linked to QAnon […] are shifting from conspiracy theories around Covid-19 to food crisis disinformation.
According to NCRI, the accounts frequently link rising food insecurity to a “cabal of shadowy, and often Jewish elites, for bringing about the New World Order”, rather than to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
[… A]n antisemitic QAnon social media influencer who has declared Covid fake, wrote on Telegram: Never believe for one moment there’s a shortage of anything. Food. Water. Oil. They create and manufacture these shortages. These aren’t naturally occurring whatsoever.
The they, the NCRI said, referred to Jewish people.
“There is a significant overlap between QAnon and other anti-vax and online conspiracy communities,” said Alex Goldenberg, lead intelligence analyst at the NCRI and a research fellow at the Rutgers Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience.
“Some of the more colorful food-mandate conspiracies intermingle with anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.” [sadly, no examples of such “colorful” conspiracy lunacies were given in the article …]
“If food insecurity continues to rise, we anticipate that disinformation actors ranging from Russian state media to online conspiracy communities on Telegram will exploit the situation to seed narratives intended to sow distrust in target audiences’ political systems and institutions,” Goldenberg said.
“We saw the same disinformation actors engage in this activity at the advent of the pandemic, which fueled real-world mobilizations and, at times, extremist activity.”
[…]
Has hair furor blathered this nonsense yet? I wouldn’t be surprised if he has, and won’t be surprised if he does so (again?) — or teh thugs in general, and especially the more Putin-kowtowing ones, e.g., those who voted against Finland and Sweden joining Nato.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of corn, has left the port of Odesa, destined for Lebanon. It is the first such departure since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry. “Ukraine together with our partners has taken another step today in preventing world hunger,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said in a statement on Monday. Kubrakov stressed that Ukraine had done “everything” to restore the ports and said the lifting of the blockade would give Ukraine’s economy $1bn in foreign exchange revenue.
…
Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south in preparation for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence. “They are increasing their troop numbers, preparing for our counteroffensive [in Ukraine’s south] and perhaps preparing to launch an offensive of their own,” Vadym Skibitsky said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was relocating some of its troops from their positions in the east to the south in order to push towards Kherson’s regional capital as well as the Zaporizhzhia region.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been urged to evacuate the frontline eastern Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military. More than 50,000 children are still in the region, according to local officials. “They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,” Kyiv’s ministry of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories said in a statement.
Russia claims five people were injured after a Ukrainian drone strike on its Black Sea fleet headquarters, prompting officials to cancel festivities planned for Navy Day. “Early this morning, [Ukraine] decided to spoil our Navy Day,” said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the head of the local Russian administration in Sevastopol in Crimea. “An unidentified object flew into the yard of the fleet headquarters. According to preliminary data, it was a drone. Five people were injured.”
Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early on Sunday, wounding three people and damaging homes and schools, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. Zelenskiy described the strikes as “probably the most brutal” on the city and region of the entire war….
Also from there:
Ukraine has received a batch of four more US-made high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars), Ukraine’s defence minister said on Monday.
Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter that he was grateful for the help strengthening the Ukraine army….
Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 40 settlements in the key southern region of Kherson, as Kyiv looks to drive back Russian troops in a counteroffensive, the local governor said Monday.
Moscow seized almost all the territory of the economically and strategically important region bordering the annexed Crimea peninsula during the first days of its invasion, Reuters reports.
But in recent weeks the Ukrainian army, bolstered by deliveries of western-supplied long-range artillery, has sought to stage a counteroffensive in the area.
Kyiv’s forces have been carrying out strikes on Russian military warehouses and positions behind the frontline and hit bridges acting as crucial supply routes for Moscow’s troops in the city of Kherson.
“Today, 46 settlements have already been de-occupied in the Kherson region,” Dmytro Butriy, the head of the Ukrainian regional administration, told national TV.
Butriy added that the majority of the regained villages lie in the northern part of the region, while some others are located in its southern part, close to the Black Sea and the heavily bombarded Mykolaiv region.
The governor said some of the recaptured villages “have been 90% destroyed and today are still under constant fire”.
Butriy said the humanitarian situation in the region was “critical” and he reiterated authorities’ call to those who remain in the area “to evacuate to safer regions”.
…“We have a duty to tell the science and show why it matters. What we know, what we’ve seen [in such a short timescale], what we are saying isn’t being alarmist – what we are seeing is alarming. It’s not scaremongering – the truth scares people but the reality is scary.”…
…Three weeks on from Abe’s death, details have emerged showing that the church’s ties to politicians extend well beyond Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, angering voters and raising questions about its influence on the ruling Liberal Democratic party’s policies on gender equality and sexual diversity.
Daily revelations that ruling and opposition party MPs have courted the church – from attending events to enlisting its members in campaigns – in return for mobilising voters have jolted the current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and his party just weeks after their comfortable victory in upper house elections.
…
“Abe’s assassination is shedding a light on the Unification church,” said Koichi Nakano, a politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo. “The church’s relationship with the LDP’s rightwing factions and its ultra-rightwing policies could come under close scrutiny.”
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza news feed. From there:
Chubais recovering in European hospital from sudden illness
Multiple sources familiar with his condition say Anatoly Chubais is recovering at a hospital (reportedly on the Italian island of Sardinia) after being diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome over the weekend. On July 31, journalist and celebrity Ksenia Sobchak reported that Chubais had been hospitalized in unstable condition after his extremities went numb.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has wished Chubais a speedy recovery and said the Putin administration has no additional information about his hospitalization.
Anatoly Chubais served as the head of Rusnano nanotechnology state corporation until December 2020, when President Putin appointed him his special representative for relations with international organizations. Chubais resigned in March 2013, reportedly in protest against the invasion of Ukraine. After he quit and left the country, federal officials began investigating Chubais and some of his former colleagues on corruption allegations, sources told the news agency TASS.
More foreign fighters to stand trial in ‘DNR’
A Swedish soldier, a Croatian soldier, and three British soldiers who were captured by Russian forces in Mariupol will face trial in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic for fighting with the Ukrainian army. According to Russian state news agency TASS, the case will be heard by the “DNR Supreme Court.” No court date has been set for the men.
Back in June, two British citizens and a Moroccan citizen who fought alongside Ukraine were illegally sentenced to death by another court in the “DNR.” One of the men, Aiden Aslin, has appealed the sentence.
Treason charges for collaborating in Bucha
A Ukrainian man stands accused of treason for revealing the addresses of Ukrainian soldiers in Bucha to Russian occupiers. According to Ukrainian investigators, in March 2022, when the Kyiv region was occupied by the Russian army, the defendant gave the Russian military information about the whereabouts of Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the Donbas, as well as information about other locals who had weapons and were thus “capable of fighting back” against Russian forces.
“Having that information, Russian soldiers used torture on one participant of the ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation, or the war against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine],” reported the Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office. The defendant also allegedly tried to join the Ukrainian military “with the aim of cooperating further with the enemy and obtaining information.”
Adoption bans still part of Russia’s foreign policy arsenal
Russian legislators have proposed a new bill that would ban citizens of “unfriendly countries” from adopting Russian orphans. The bill’s authors include Leonid Slutsky, leader of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Russia; Nina Ostanina, the Communist Party deputy who leads the Duma’s Committee on Family Issues; and actor Dmitry Pevtsov, who represents the New People party.
Russia’s list of “unfriendly countries” was created in 2021 and currently contains 49 countries. In 2012, in response to the U.S. Magnitsky Act, Russia passed the “Dima Yakovlev law,” which prohibits U.S. citizens from adopting Russian orphans, among other things.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
We start the week off with Joe Biden in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 again and the House in recess – and Senate Democrats moving forward with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, aka, the reconciliation bill.
This is the $740bn legislative package that Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin have agreed upon. The hefty bill seeks to enact deficit reduction to fight inflation, lower energy costs, reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030 and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, among other things.
The process of reconciliation is essentially a way for Congress to enact legislation on taxes, spending and the debt limit with only a majority in the Senate. It’s a way to avoid the threat of a filibuster, a tactic requiring a 60-vote majority that Senate Republicans in this particular Congress have used time and time again to stymy the Biden legislative agenda.
Reconciliation is not without its own difficulties, however. This week, Senate Democrats must meet with the Senate parliamentarian, who will parse through the text of the bill to make sure it meets all the rules of what’s allowed within the scope of reconciliation.
Politico is also reporting that it’s unclear if the Democrats may even have everyone on board when it comes to a majority vote. Kyrsten Sinema, the other moderate Democratic senator who has been complicating matters for the White House, was purportedly caught unaware by the announcement of the bill….
Also up in the senate this week: a possible vote early this week on the Honoring our Pact Act, bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from burn pits used to get rid of military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan….
The sentencing is underway for Guy Reffitt, the first of the horde of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 to be convicted.
The Texas Three Percenter faces up to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the US Capitol attack. Reffitt’s wife, said in a letter submitted to the judge her family “needs Guy home to fully heal”. The justice department is seeking the longest sentence for Reffitt possible, using a terrorism enhancement….
Amid increasingly hostile threats from China, news outlets are reporting that Nancy Pelosi will go ahead with a visit to Taiwan despite efforts from the Biden administration to warn her off the stop.
Tingting Liu, a foreign affairs correspondent with the Taiwanese news channel TVBS, reported that sources had told her Pelosi will be arriving in the capital Taipei on Tuesday night. CNN also reported that the visit is expected to go ahead, citing a senior Taiwanese government official and a US official.
Taiwan’s government has not publicly commented on the reports.
Should Pelosi include Taiwan in her tour of Asia, it would be the first visit of a US House speaker in a quarter of a century. Beijing, which claims the self-governing island as its own province, has made clear it would see such a move as an unacceptable provocation….
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, has just declared a local state of emergency due to monkeypox.
The city now has more than 1,200 reported cases. The declaration of a state of emergency will allow the mayor to “suspend local laws, and enact rules, as necessary, to protect the well-being and health of all New Yorkers”, his office said.
New York now joins San Francisco, whose mayor, London Breed, declared a state of emergency over monkeypox last week. According to the Centers for Disease Contol, there are 5,189 reported cases so far in the US.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson covered quite a bit of ground during her appearance at a Jan. 6 committee hearing in late June, including sharing insights into conversations she had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. According to her sworn testimony, the chamber’s top Republican had quite a bit to say ahead of the insurrectionist riot.
Cassidy said that she was with her colleagues at Donald Trump’s pre-riot rally, but she couldn’t hear everything the then-president was saying. During Trump’s remarks, when he said he’d join with his mob and go to Capitol Hill, McCarthy called and sounded “frustrated and angry.”
“You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here,” McCarthy told Hutchinson, according to her version of events. “Why would you lie to me?” She responded that, as far as she knew, they weren’t going to the Capitol. At that point, McCarthy added, “Well, he just said it on stage, Cassidy. Figure it out. Don’t come up here.”
Sounds like McCarthy talked to her several times during the preceding week. We should get details of those conversations. It also sounds like McCarthy is bullying Cassidy Hutchinson.
That testimony was five weeks ago tomorrow. In that time, the House minority leader has said very little about Hutchinson’s description of the Jan. 6 conversation — though as HuffPost noted, that changed late last week.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claimed Friday that he doesn’t remember calling White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as a mob surrounded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “I don’t recall talking to her that day,” McCarthy told reporters at a press conference…. “If I talked to [Hutchinson], I don’t remember it,” he said. “I don’t think I wanted a lot of people coming up to the Capitol. But I don’t remember the conversation.”
At the same press conference, the California Republican insisted that he didn’t watch Trump’s pre-riot speech. [Unlikely.] “I don’t remember having any conversations with her about coming to the Capitol ― the president coming to the Capitol,” McCarthy added. “I just — I don’t recall any of that.”
I’m not in a position to say with any confidence what the minority leader does or does not recall, but this would be quite a conversation to forget. Indeed, McCarthy said he remembered calling other White House officials on Jan. 6, but not Hutchinson.
It’s also unclear why it took nearly five weeks for the GOP leader to challenge key elements of Hutchinson’s sworn testimony. If McCarthy didn’t watch Trump’s speech, and by his version of events, couldn’t have called a White House aide about the then-president’s comments, why not say so in the immediate aftermath of the dramatic June 28 hearing?
For his part, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the Republicans on the House select committee, told CNN on Friday night, in reference to the Capitol press conference earlier in the day, “I mean, look, I don’t trust a thing Kevin McCarthy says, I’ll be honest with you.”
The retiring Illinois congressman added, “Sometime about a year or two ago, [McCarthy] made the decision that his only goal was to become Speaker of the House. And he’ll do whatever he has to do, and he thinks that siding with the insurrectionists is the way to get there.”
They begin by the calls by Mike Pence and others for a national abortion ban. Dan puts this in the context of the “culture of life” many Christian conservatives tout as their reasons for implementing inhumane reproductive rights policies. Dan zeroes in on the slogan, “Save the Babies, Save America” as a nationalistic straw man with tragic consequences.
In the second segment, the hosts discuss the Turning Point USA conference, which is a vehicle for radicalizing young conservatives. Dr. Moslener shares her personal run-ins with the organization and the scary tactics they use to threaten and harass professors and teachers.
In the final segment, the hosts dig into the CNN article that claims Christian nationalism is “imposter Christianity.” They argue that Christianity is what Christians do- and so CN is Christianity, even if it’s violent, inhumane, and down right bad for the world.
Chances are you’ve seen this storyline play out on either a big or small screen: An FBI agent investigates a prominent labor leader. Or maybe a union boss orders a hit on a recalcitrant member of the rank-and-file. Or perhaps a union president skims money off a pension fund to make an illegal loan.
Plotlines like these derive from one of Hollywood’s longstanding and most favored tropes: the corrupt, mobbed up union, and more specifically, the corrupt union boss. It lends itself to countless stories: The rise and fall of a Mafia-backed labor head, the rebellion of rank-and-file workers against their tyrannical leadership, the precarious union on the verge of implosion. Accordingly, over and over again, we’ve seen stories of labor unions entangled with extortion, bribery, blackmail, theft and murder. But, even if union bosses can make compelling characters, why is it that they must all be corrupt mafiosi? Why is it that heroism in pop culture is overwhelmingly the domain of police, attorneys and doctors and hardly ever people fighting for labor rights and the collective power of their co-workers and communities? Why, instead of highlighting the courage of labor organizers and the life-changing protections won, must Hollywood repeatedly emphasize only unions’ historical ties to organized crime and a seamy underbelly of corruption, murder and intrigue?
On this show, part one of a two-part episode on labor depictions in Hollywood, we explore organized labor and unions in film and television, how these pop depictions inform broader public sentiment about unions. And next week, we’ll discuss some of the more positive portrayals of labor and unionism in film and television.
Timeline shifting, manifestation, secret codes and escaping the matrix. Gen Z is entertaining all kinds of new ideas on “spiritual” or “new age” TikTok. Liv creates a fresh account, feeds it a single weird video, and sees where it takes her. We all suffer as a result.
Documentary filmmaker Gloria Pancrazi and Michael Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s join us this week for a conversation about the recent film, Coextinction. We discuss the stars of the film: the Southern Resident Orcas of the Pacific Northwest who are currently facing extinction and the salmon, whose brutal exploitation is contributing to the to the starvation of the orca and other wildlife. As this film, and its title, make clear, the disappearance of the orca isn’t an isolated issue; it’s one facet of a complex, crumbling interconnected system linking ecosystem collapse, injustice against Indigenous peoples, and the most urgent environmental threats of our time. Plus, Michael explains why Dr. Bronner’s felt that Coextinction was such an important film to fund and describes his role in the project and in the wider world of animal activism. The pair also discuss why it is so important to emphasize the critical role that Indigenous people play in teaching the rest of us how to live in harmony with the Earth.
As Sunak and Truss trade blows in a classic blue-on-blue bout, we ask if we’ve really seen the end of the Johnson era. Plus, we unpack the crises either candidate will face should they win. Growing NHS waiting lists, queues in Dover and an ever-deepening cost of living crisis. Do either of them have a plan? This week’s guest is New Statesman deputy political editor Rachel Wearmouth….
Mick Mulvaney, once the Trump White House acting chief of staff, was getting frustrated.
It was the week following the 2020 presidential election and, on a phone call with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and others, she “casually mentioned that we had lost Arizona,” he recalled in an interview Friday with NBC News.
That was “shocking” to him, he said, because after studying Arizona voting patterns he’d gone on television to assert that then-President Donald Trump still had a shot at winning the closely-contested swing state. Now he was learning Trumpworld believed Arizona was lost.
“I was concerned that I was saying one thing, while the campaign was saying something else,” Mulvaney said.
So, he sent a text message to McDaniel and others in the Trump campaign asking them for guidance.
“I’m getting this sinking feeling that everyone other than me thinks we have lost this election,” reads the text, which was reviewed by NBC News. “I am out there telling everyone we haven’t. If people know something I do not, I would appreciate it if you would let me know. It is better for me not to do TV, and to keep my mouth shut, than to do TV and say we have a chance when the people in the know know that we do not.”
Mulvaney was asked about the text message during his closed-door appearance Thursday before the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. He said he hadn’t given it to the committee; they had gotten hold of it elsewhere….
Mulvaney said he did not get a reply to his text….
By that late point in Trump’s term, he was special envoy to Northern Ireland, having been replaced as chief of staff eight months earlier by Mark Meadows. Mulvaney said he copied the text to Meadows, but also did not get a response.
“So, as you can imagine, this was of interest to the committee because it goes to that whole issue of who knew that the election was lost and what they were telling people publicly versus what did they know privately,” Mulvaney said.
The RNC, and a lawyer for Meadows, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his approximately two-hour appearance before House investigators, Mulvaney said the committee also asked him about the workings of the West Wing. Specifically, they wanted to know how people got in to see the president. He surmised that the panel wanted more detail about how it was that people pushing the idea of widespread election fraud got in earshot of Trump.
“They were asking specifically how hard it was to keep people out,” Mulvaney said. “And the answer that I gave them is it was very difficult to keep people out.”…
[…] many U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan were exposed to toxic smoke from burn pits, which incinerated hazardous materials, including jet fuel and medical waste. Many of the servicemen and women who breathed in fumes from these burn pits returned home and experienced serious symptoms. There are concerns that prolonged exposure to burn pits might even be responsible for giving some veterans cancer.
The point of the PACT Act is simple: It would expand treatment eligibility and ensure these veterans receive proper medical care.
The bill […] was supposed to clear the Senate last week. It did not. On a procedural vote that needed 60 senators, the PACT fell four votes short, due entirely to Republican opposition.
After the bill was blocked, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was seen on the Senate floor, congratulating his colleagues with fist-bumps. The question, of course, is why in the world they did this. The Texas Republican briefly spoke to TMZ the other day and tried to explain himself. After saying he “supports” the legislation he helped derail, Cruz added:
“[W]hat the dispute is about is, the Democrats played a budgetary trick, which is, they took $400 billion in discretionary spending and they shifted it to mandatory. The reason they did that is, they want to spend $400 billion more discretionary funds on completely unrelated matters. So, it’s just part of the out-of-control spending from the left.”
He added that if the “budgetary trick” were removed, the bill would likely pass “with 80 or 90 votes.”
Let’s briefly pause to note that, according to Cruz, even if this budgetary provision were addressed, a significant number of Senate Republicans — 10 to 20 — would apparently vote against it anyway.
But I digress. The budgetary question surrounding reclassifying V.A. spending from discretionary to mandatory accounts is admittedly complex, and for Republicans like Sen. Pat Toomey, it’s been the principal reason to oppose the PACT Act.
But there’s one thing that Cruz has conveniently skipped right past: The provision he calls a “budgetary trick” was in the bill when he voted for it.
As The Military Times explained, “Several Republican senators who objected last week have justified their flip in recent days by insisting that Democrats only recently inserted the problematic issues into the bill, but the discretionary spending language provisions are the same as June, when the measure easily passed the Senate.”
Quite right. It’s not a matter of opinion. The CBO report shows that this provision was in the bill when it passed, 84 to 14, on June 16. Changes to the legislative text are readily available and unambiguous.
[…] last week, 25 Senate Republicans changed their minds and used a procedural vote to block the bill.
The question they haven’t yet answered is why they reversed course and rejected the legislation they’d already voted for. […]
Let’s make this plain: If Cruz was so worried about the discretionary-to-mandatory provision, why did he vote for the PACT Act in the first place, only to reverse course? Might it have been part of a partisan tantrum after Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin struck a deal on an unrelated package?
[…] senators will soon get another chance to aid the veterans who’ve been exposed to these dangerous toxins: Democratic leaders have announced plans to bring the measure back to the floor this week, perhaps as early as today. […]
Every time I see an anecdote like this, I marvel how it equally applies to MAGA:
I’m in Paris today. Many Russians here enjoying shopping, cafes. Brutal, rudeness, a new condescension as they feel a “winning”. It’s palpable.
West still has no idea what Russia is or what’s coming.
————–
That may be true, but it’s also true that Russians have no idea how bad their own situation is, as Putin is using temporary revenues to paper over the cracks. [https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1553697534182293504 ]
No wonder MAGA loves Russia and vice a versa. They both love living in a media cocoon that protects them from reality, as the rest of the world watches in horror. Reminds me of this: [QAnon posts showing anti-vac bluster, followed by hospitalization for COVID—posts are available at the link]
Don’t worry, she lived and is still a despicable deplorable despite suffering from long COVID symptoms. Those Russians acting like they’re god’s gift to the world will have their comeuppance as well. Or maybe they’ll just move permanently to Paris as Russia burns to the ground. Russian oligarchs play by different rules. But rank and file Russians? Serious trouble is brewing.
Vladimir Putin may have a corrupt and incompetent armed forces, but his economic team is some of the best. They propped up the ruble by forcing domestic companies to convert foreign currencies to the Russian currency. Record prices have proven a bonanza to Russia’s massive energy industry, and buyers are forced to pay in rubles. All of this increases demand for the currency. Yet Russians can’t convert their rubles to foreign currencies, and they have less to buy with those rubles because of sanctions. That means conversion is a one-way street: Russia is forcing key sectors to buy rubles, and no one can sell them. Hence, price goes up.
Putin loves his record-high ruble, equating a “strong” ruble with a “strong” Russia. The reality, however, is that all those backroom economic manipulations can’t hold back calamity forever. Yale’s School of Management has tracked over 1,000 companies leaving Russia, and those companies represent 40% of it’s GDP. [See comment 462]
– Despite Putin’s delusions of self-sufficiency and import substitution, Russian domestic production has come to a complete standstill with no capacity to replace lost businesses, products and talent; the hollowing out of Russia’s domestic innovation and production base has led to soaring prices and consumer angst
– As a result of the business retreat, Russia has lost companies representing ~40% of its GDP, reversing nearly all of three decades’ worth of foreign investment and buttressing unprecedented simultaneous capital and population flight in a mass exodus of Russia’s economic base
[…] Kremlin finances are in much, much more dire straits than conventionally understood
The authors concluded that “Looking ahead, there is no path out of economic oblivion for Russia as long as the allied countries remain unified in maintaining and increasing sanctions pressure against Russia,.” Meanwhile, energy prices are dropping on weak factory demand in China and Japan as global recession looms, and Europe is working furiously to wean itself from Russian energy. It’s not happening overnight, but within the next 24 months, Russia will be forced to sell elsewhere. Already, China and India are benefiting from big discounts on Russian oil. There’s little price leverage when the world’s wealthiest nations won’t buy your energy.
We have confirmation the main bridge into Kherson from the south is still unusable. Russia’s “ferry” service in and out of Kherson is two pontoon segments lashed together.
If you watch the video, the focus is on civilians and their vehicles. We all know undoubtedly that the service (which reportedly consists of four such ferries/barges) is also being used for military purposes, whether at night, or simply when the camera isn’t recording. Thus, when Ukraine sinks these barges, as is inevitable, Russia can scream about Ukraine attacking civilian targets. Like conservatives, everything Russia says is projection. [video available at this link, scroll down]
We’re lucky that Russia’s efforts are so transparent and stupid. [tweets with video proof available at the link, including claim that Russia hit those Ukrainian POWs with a themobaric weapon!]
[…] We’ve had a full-on insurgency in Kherson and Melitopol for months, but there was a tight lid on reporting their activities. That is now lifting as Ukraine is ramping up its psyops to erode Russian morale: roadside bombs (IEDs), targeted assassinations, threatening flyers, and “propaganda shells”—fliers urging surrender delivered via artillery. As Ukraine tightens the supply noose around the region, it’s giving Russians the opportunity to consider whether it’s truly worth dying for Putin’s ambitions.
Meanwhile, down in Sevastopol, the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at the very bottom tip of Crimea, stuff is happening. [tweet available at the link] If Russia says five were wounded, does that mean than in reality, 20+ were killed? Why would they cancel their big Navy Day festivities over a supposedly minor breach? It’s very interesting either way, since Sevastopol is about 160 kilometers from Ukrainian-held territory. So some drone just lazily flew into what is one of the most heavily protected places in all of Russia, and actually scored a direct hit into the fleet’s command and control center?
[…] this was happening in Sevastopol last night: [tweet at the link showing Russia trying to intercept Ukrainian artillery ... maybe; also, a tweet confirming that Russia has lost 5000+ vehicles and other pieces of heavy equipment since February 24, visually confirmed losses, actual losses probably higher.]
I get most excited about “captured.” Russia is Ukraine’s best weapon’s supplier.
Texas’ racist, multibillion dollar border scheme illegally jailing Black and brown migrants without any state charges has also resulted in the deaths of at least 30 people, civil rights organizations said in a new complaint filed with the Justice Department.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) said that state Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers have racially profiled drivers under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star scheme, with some of this harassment turning into unnecessary high-speed chases. They say at least 30 people have been killed as a result, including five bystanders who had nothing to do with the stops.
Both groups are among the coalition of organizations that filed a Title VI discrimination complaint last year, pointing to ample evidence of racial profiling and biased policing. “Federal civil rights investigation and intervention is urgently needed,” the two organizations say in their new complaint.
“DPS’s saturation presence in South Texas has deadly consequences,” the complaint states. “Because DPS has historically disproportionately targeted Latinx drivers for traffic stops and because OLS itself has indicia of bias-based policing, these vehicle pursuits likely disproportionately kill Latinx drivers and passengers. DPS has to our knowledge made no effort to remedy this problem of deadly consequences to its vehicle pursuits.
“Contrary to law enforcement best practices, DPS leaves pursuit decisions up to the discretion of the individual officer,” the complaint continues. “The agency also provides no meaningful policy guidance as to when to deploy different intervention tactics. The consequence is deadly crashes that are entirely foreseeable.” Border Patrol’s unnecessary car chases similarly resulted in nearly two dozen deaths last year.
[…] The complaint last year noted how one county sheriff eagerly partnered with a Jan. 6 insurrectionist for a ride-along. The insurrectionist, Women Fighting for America leader Christie Hutcherson, boasted that she was working “hand in hand” with Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe to “help facilitate closing down our borders.’” Kinney County also recently boasted of “sending undocumented individuals back to Mexico,” which is very illegal. Following criticism, the sheriff’s office claimed it wasn’t a “formal deportation.” [Yikes!!]
Legal advocates said as recently as March that Abbott and Operation Lone Star continued to violate state law by detaining Black and Latino migrants for weeks and months at a time without any formal charges. In July, The Texas Tribune reported that a federal investigation into the border scheme has been ongoing since at least May.
[…] “Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star is harassing Hispanic communities and creating an intolerable police state in border towns,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro. “The incidents described in today’s complaint are horrifying, but they are not surprising to those who have been monitoring the trail of abuses linked to Operation Lone Star. I have long asked the Department of Justice to intervene in Operation Lone Star, and I hope this complaint will push the Department to take legal action to protect civil rights in Texas.”
John Fetterman may still be recuperating from a stroke, but that doesn’t mean he can’t campaign. The current lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania is running for the state’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, and while he’s on the mend, he’s been able to attack his opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, online. Fetterman is very good at social media. Oz is not. Not only has the former TV star been repeatedly humiliated, sometimes by celebrity guests, but he’s also trailing in the polls. And that’s got the GOP is worried.
Sources tell Puck that Donald Trump, who enraged some of his base by supporting Oz, is now complaining to his Fox News bud Sean Hannity about his poor performance. Hannity was the one who coaxed Trump to endorse him in the first place, and throw in the fact that Hannity hasn’t had Trump on his show since April, he must be hopping mad.
Trump’s not the only one pissed. After Oz went abroad instead of campaigning, a number of people in the GOP were aghast. “No one can believe that he took a damn vacation at the end of June, after only coming back to the state on June 10,” a Republican strategist told Puck. “He screwed up with that video that was from his New Jersey house instead of Pennsylvania house. It’s really bad.”
Oz keeps getting dumped on royally by practically everyone. Especially from John Oliver:
John Oliver mocked Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Mehmet Oz with surgical precision on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight.” [video at the link]
In a segment on mental health, the host rolled a retro black-and-white clip of nurses being instructed to apply cosmetics on female patients to “swing the balance between despair and recovery.”
Oliver was aghast. “I don’t know what is more alarming there, nurses being forced to take on the skills of a Sephora brand ambassador or the fact that “Can Makeup Cure Sad?” sounds like an episode that Dr. Oz definitely did.”
Other media outlets, like The Daily Beast, highlighted Oz’s track record of being a snake oil salesman.
Donald Trump has spoken out on Russia’s wrongful detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner, and because he’s racist garbage, he’s taken the side of a hostile foreign power over an American citizen. Griner isn’t a Trump supporter, and Trump only pretends to care for his most loyal cult members. Joe Biden is an actual president and human being, so he wouldn’t demand a citizen support him politically before making an effort to free them from Vladimir Putin’s gulags.
During a conversation with radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton at his tacky golf club, Trump trashed reports that the White House plans to release convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan. Former President Klan Robe specifically smeared Griner, a Black gay woman who’s been in Russian custody without a trial for more than five months.
Mediaite provided a transcript:
POS RACIST TRAITOR: She went in there loaded up with drugs into a hostile territory where they’re very vigilant about drugs. They don’t like drugs. And she got caught. And now we’re supposed to get her out — and she makes, you know, a lot of money, I guess.
Griner does not make, you know, a lot of money. She earned the WNBA maximum salary of $227,000 her last season with the Phoenix Mercury. That’s why she had a side hustle in Russia in the first place.
This malignant growth who passed himself off as commander-in-chief seems put out at the notion that the US government has any obligation to free a citizen held under intolerable conditions. Russian jails aren’t spas or even the real-life Shawshank Redemption horror shows we have in the states.
Trump obviously has a record of believing Putin more than he believes the American government, but Russia regularly commits human rights abuses under the pretense of fighting illicit drug use. Putin himself was accused of running a drug smuggling and money laundering ring back in the 1990s.
Trump assumes Griner’s guilt, which is reflexive racist behavior, but also makes him look like a dolt who’s oblivious to what actually goes on in Russia. Drugs are often planted on people for either political reasons or simple blackmail.
POS RACIST TRAITOR: We’re supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms dealers in the world. Killed many Americans. Killed many people. And he’s gonna get a free card and we’re gonna get her.
This fool doesn’t understand the basics of prisoner swaps, especially with a corrupt nation. America is less likely to lock up Russian citizens for BS reasons. […]
POS RACIST TRAITOR: She knew you don’t go in there loaded up with drugs, and she admitted it. I assume she admitted it without too much force because it is what it is, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a very good trade, does it? He’s absolutely one of the worst in the world, and he’s gonna be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into Russia loaded up with drugs.
Griner was not “loaded up with drugs,” asshole. Even Russian authorities claim she was caught with just 0.7 grams of cannabis oil (about $15 worth). Trump makes it sound like she could’ve opened a pharmaceutical house from inside her suitcase. Cannabis oil is believed to reduce pain and inflammation.
Meanwhile, “law and order” Trump has repeatedly defended insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, who a police officer fatally shot when she was breaking into the Capitol on January 6. He even recorded a posthumous birthday video for her. Trump is racist scum, and I wish we could swap him for Griner.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, the Infinite Thread is for all the non sequiturs and random thoughts you might have that don’t belong elsewhere, and also for serious conversation about topics introduced by Lynna and others.
Evil on the rise: Requests for exorcism reportedly booming as culture dabbles in occult
The Top 10 Strangest Catholic Relics, Including Our Lady’s Breastmilk
Thanks, PZ, for giving the Infinite Thread a new lease on life. (For those that may be unaware, threads on freethoughtblogs expire after a certain time, so PZ has to manually resuscitate the Infinite Thread occasionally. In addition, comments are limited to 500 per “chapter” of the Infinite Thread, so the thread automatically rolls over to a new chapter when it hits 500 comments … usually.)
In other news, this is from Wonkette: “Hello! I’m Joe Manchin And I’m Once Again Screwing Everyone For No Reason!”
Arizona Can’t Function Without Forced Labor, Is That Bad?
“Outside the scope of the discussion?! WTF?]
Immigrants allege sexual assault, retaliation at ICE prison
Let me just interject here to say that ICE makes use of, or operates directly, many for-profit prisons (via Homeland Security contracts).
Links back to discussions in the previous chapter of this thread:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2022/04/15/infinite-thread-xxiii/comment-page-6/#comment-2141799
Climate Change update:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2022/04/15/infinite-thread-xxiii/comment-page-6/#comment-2141792
“Faced with the now provably true case of a 10-year-old child having to travel out of Republican-held Ohio to receive an abortion after she was raped, Foster simply lied her faux-Christian ass off rather than acknowledging the plain facts of the case.”
There are Tapes. Bannon spilled the beans about Trump’s PLANNED Take-over, BEFORE it happened.
Audio available at the link.
Lynna, OM, thanks for your work on these threads.
I try to avoid anything from criminal G00GLE, but this is >> a spider related safe jpg. << please get PZ to view it.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_hC_3ab4iL9NI1SsNzx2Px15Gc9i8KipVQ0CxKcIx052sUub_zpPKJl1QUr35g3upes3I7IGzfdGeCOH2lZUCwy6BNuzrB5x3pDbMHotunXLf8BEpvDWo3Dz0QH2uMBS6A_2r7G9zs84WSd22SI29TL-fS1OOdNvdom0qWntEHPUAshTlf-QDLpOu/s568/293834172_7707606782646962_715515338665028825_n.jpg
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
And here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Colorado Election Truther/Clerk Tina Peters In The Hoosegow Just For Violating Bail!
Always a good day when a dunderheaded criminal is arrested.
Guardian – “Brazil: killing of Lula’s party treasurer raises fears of violent run-up to election”:
Guardian liveblog:
Another Trump lawyer publicly turns against his former client
“Ty Cobb represented Donald Trump during the Russia scandal. He now sees the former president as ‘a disaster for the Republican Party.’ ”
Well, that’s an understatement. We should remember that Trump has done so much more than turning the Republican Party into a toxic dumpster fire.
Oh, FFS. Don’t apply both-sides-ism to Trumpism.
From kq2.com/news
Changes to Missouri elections leads to accessibility concerns
Jul 14, 2022
CBC – “Charter not violated in denying transplant to patient who refused COVID-19 vaccine, court rules”:
(Speaking of Canadian antivaxxers, is Rocco Galati dead? I haven’t been able to find an update about him since February or March.)
New New Abnormal – “Just Imagine What It’s Like to Be Anywhere Near Trump Right Now”:
SC @12: OMG, we have noted this before, but really, sheesh, Bolsonaro is such a clone of Trump. I suppose Trump’s cult followers will now start throwing faeces bombs at liberal protestors, not wanting to be outdone by Bolsonaro’s thugs.
shermanj @9: I’m glad you find the Infinite Thread useful.
In other news, Josh Marshall comments on the improving chances of Democrats holding the Senate:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/senate-chances-improving
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza liveblog. From there:
Guardian liveblog:
How Close to Death Does a Person Have to Be to Qualify for an Abortion Ban Exemption?
Guardian liveblog – LOL:
Wonkette link
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2022/04/15/infinite-thread-xxiii/comment-page-6/#comment-2140512
Seeking an abortion? Here’s how to avoid leaving a digital trail.
Guardian liveblog:
At 181 on the last page of the previous thread, I wrote about recovering passenger traffic across the Finnish-Russian border:
I forgot to mention that Russia also required a reason for its own citizens to leave the country, presumably because they’d have to be allowed back later regardless of covid risk.
These restrictions were reportedly dropped last night for air and sea travel, except apparently (?) the PCR test requirement. For some reason, separate orders were needed for the land borders, which took several hours this morning after the custom stations opened. There was some confusion during this time, with individual cars from from both sides turned back by Russian border authorities.
Finnish media, border authorities and businesses expected a substantial return of Russian shoppers in the southeastern border towns. In this area, the pandemic caused huge difficulties for local economy, which had grown increasingly reliant on wealthy and middle-class tourists from St. Petersburg area. At least on the first day, there was less traffic than expected.
Right now, Russians are not expected to buy certain luxury goods, as those are illegal to export under EU sanctions. Instead, many ordinary Western brand products are free game and currently unavailable in Russia due to business boycotts. Finnish cheese has long been a hot commodity in Russia, but it fell already under the food trade sanctions after Crimean invasion in 2014.
Shopping is difficult due to the new banking restrictions. Russians visiting Finland have to rely on euro cash they brought from home, as roubles cannot be exchanged here and Russian bank accounts can’t be accessed. Finns visiting Russia have to take cash and the exhange it to roubles before they can pay anything. Reportedly, Western currency is now relatively cheap in Russia (ie. rouble has grown stronger since the slump at the start of the Ukraine war) because oil and gas payments are still coming in euros and dollars, and it’s difficult for Russia to spend that currency on anything. However, I do wonder what happens if/when Russia runs out of printed euro and dollar cash.
In the current circumstances, nobody really minds Russians spending money in Finland. Instead, what is currently highly controversial on Finnish social media is Finnish people dropping across the border to buy cheap gasoline. Thus far it’s unclear how many are currently planning to continue this pre-pandemic shopping tradition, despite widespread condemnation.
“Kramatorsk, Russian shell impact in Peace Square”
Photo at the (Twitter) link.
“The hidden absurdities behind Joe Manchin’s ugly new reversal.”
Washington Post link
On Tuesday I euthanized my dog. She was 15 – 16 years old. She was ready.
Today my partner tested positive for Covid. She’s 35. She wasn’t ready.
In other news from Finland, a live walrus was sighted yesterday and today in Hamina, on the southern coast near Russian border. I understand it’s the first ever walrus sighted in Finland; it’s probably the same badly lost animal that was seen in Ireland earlier this year (“Wally the walrus”), and a week ago in southern Baltic Sea. It has now gone back to sea and disappeared from sight.
Some surreal photo and video here:
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12537847
The Indiana AG has been threatening to do something horrible to the doctor who provided medical care to the 10 year old rape victim. Something horrible for reasons he hasn’t even bothered to make up yet. She is threatening to sue the Attorney General back and certainly has the far better case here. Brave doctor.
The fundie xians never take responsibility for their own actions.
The first thing they did was deny that this 10 year pregnant rape victim even existed. Despite a lot of evidence that she did. They didn’t even bother to check, just started lying.
The second thing was to go after the OB-GYN who actually provided the medical care.
What they refuse to deal with is how cruel, ugly, and unworkable they and their anti-abortion laws are. .
I’m sure the AG’s investigation will quietly disappear very soon.
Condolences, sabai456, and best wishes to your partner.
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
It’s disgusting that this is an uncomfortable issue for Labour. It’s not even an uncomfortable issue for Democrats.
re raven @31:
Let’s hope that Bernard’s suit doesn’t go away so quietly.
Sarah McCammon, NPR:
Fulton county- consequences for Republicans?
https://youtu.be/vp_9QhoF5ww
NBC – “Pa. Senate candidate Fetterman turns to Snooki to mock opponent Dr. Oz for Jersey ties”:
Oz also voted in the 2018 presidential election in Turkey.
Tories getting their pitch wrong
https://youtu.be/TmStcYbSIau
The Infinite Thread does not go to a new chapter after 500 comments, it goes to a new page in the same chapter. This is a link to the last comment in the previous thread,
Infinite Thread 23, page 6.
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2022/04/15/infinite-thread-xxiii/comment-page-6/#comment-2141804
Trying again
https://youtu.be/TmStcYbSIaU
Looks like the Indiana AG is 0/2 on his witchhunt against the OB-GYN.
He will have to prosecute her for…doing her job and following the laws.
(He is claiming that this OB-GYN has a history of failing to report. This is a lie and he knows it. If she did and he knew it, he would have already prosecuted her for it.)
It’s typical that all the Ohio and Indiana GOP officials are concerned with everything but the 10 year pregnant rape victim. They aren’t even pretending to be so called pro lifers anymore.
It is all about cruelty and control.
Aussie ABC news analysis article here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/why-america-is-so-divided-on-abortion-and-the-men-who-planned-it/101188994
The reich wing’s cynical creation and exploitation of abortion and the role Paul Weyrich played.
Is there any reason to put Trump and co. in prison? Oh, we most definitely should try (and damn all the devils in hell, ought to succeed in doing so), but look at how many revolutionaries in history have been in and out of jail their whole lives yet still manage to succeed.
@Susan #44:
I’ve no idea what the penalty is for inciting violence and planning an insurrection, but it seems likely that four years or more in a bog-standard shitty federal prison would be the end of Trump. Four years in a country club with barbed wire might be survivable, but the shit food and conditions of a normal prison is not likely to align with his continued good (cough) health. He’d become a martyr to a few, but then he’s already the Second Coming to a large slice of delusional fuckwits so there’s no avoiding that. Even if he lives a long, free life and passes away peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by his loving (cough) family, there’ll still be some gimboid claiming that Fauci’s 5G finally got through the Secret Service’s special defences.
SC … @ # 16: … is Rocco Galati dead?
The most recent story I could find dates from June 4 of this year. Looks like after his January ICU-ization and coma, he got no further news coverage except from Canadian hard-right media.
Volokh Conspiracy at Reason (https://reason.com/volokh/2022/07/15/postmasters-libel-lawsuit-against-project-veritas-over-claims-of-voter-fraud-can-go-forward/)
Graphic illustration of the extra rain & consequent flooding Global Overhetaing ahs hit Sydney and Australia’s eastern coast with so far this year :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/nsw-queensland-sydney-weather-rain-flood-records/101238094
With a rare triple La Nina spounding quite likely.
^ sounding.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/why-does-this-winter-feel-so-cold/101241720
Manchin sucks, and yet the party and country are way, way better off with him then without him. His value-over-replacement-Senator is astronomical (to the Democrats). WV is about as red as states get, but we’ve got a Senator who votes for the Democratic party leader, and occasionally actually votes for Democratic priorities! That’s pretty major.
On the other hand, Sinema is pretty worthless. We could actually get a better Democrat in Arizona, unlike WV. Hopefully she’s primaried into oblivion and Gallego or someone like him replaces her.
The near future of the nasty party (a k a conservatives)
https://youtu.be/7aisbshzJ3k
North Sweden got a period of nice, cool air.
Meanwhile Spain and Portugal suffer under genuinely dangerous heat, well over 40°C.
And England is in turn, the “amber” zone starts just South of Edinburgh and the “red” zone covers most of England!
This is the new normal.
.
Remember to thank the PR/propaganda companies and the politicians paid by the fossil fuel lobby.
When your grandma dies of heatstroke they could not be more responsible if they had shot her in the face with a sawn-off shotgun.
Ivana Trump passes away at the age of 73; Donald Trump attempts to fundraise off the announcement.
Link
Ukraine update: Data shows Russia lying about advances in east, but Kherson situation looks worse
Additional tweets and videos available at the link, including a category called “Russians Blowing Up Russians.”
Wonkette: “Secret Service Says It Accidentally Deleted Jan 6 Texts. Or Never Deleted Them. Or …”
“Take a cosmic tour inside the images captured by NASA’s Webb telescope.”
Washington Post link
Lots more at the link. Images are presented next to explanatory text. Portions of the images are highlighted with text and/or other explanatory graphics.
Fun news from Texas: Shady Texas A G is in big trouble.
https://youtu.be/Iw4EB_uTMp8
Erratum. Here we go.
https://youtu.be/lw4EB_uTMp8
Ukraine Update: Russian sources aren’t loving HIMARS as much as we are
More at the link.
Extraordinary story by Carole Cadwallader about Johnson, the Lebedevs, and the BBC’s media editor.
I’m sure some of you will be familiar with actor Terrence Howard. But did you know he’s a supergenius? He claims to have made major breakthroughs in physics, including hydrogen power technology.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88qny5/terrence-howard-says-he-reinvented-physics-wants-to-give-uganda-new-forms-of-flight-defense
Admittedly this isn’t entirely news to me. Howard has been talking about this kind of stuff for several years now.
@59 The most surprising thing about that is that Daily KOS is publishing an article that’s somewhat Pro-Ukraine. Since DKOS has always been the headquarters of limo liberal sociology students with Gestapo-envy, I’d have expected some serious love for the further east.
WaPo:
Doctor in 10-year-old’s abortion case faced 2020 kidnapping threat against daughter
Caitlin Bernard is herself listed as a ‘threat’ by an Indiana-based antiabortion group with ties to Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett
Timothy Bella and Kim Bellware / July 16, 2022
I recommend you read KG @ 60 to appreciate the scale of Johnson corruption, and the indifference by the British media.
Islamic State destroys a Sikh temple after a Hindu (!) blasphemes Muhammed.
https://youtu.be/LY-Cte1iq2k
A blogger that likes to talk about British politics mentioned be had fifty degrees in one of his rooms (Britain is using Celsius) so it must be approaching 40° outdoors. They rarely have real heat so AC is not as common as in USA.
.
This latest heat wave will probably lead to excess mortality in the affected countries- at least it makes it harder to deny the climate change.
Watch 13,000+ Black women cheer VP Kamala Harris as she issues a call to activism in Orlando
Video snippets are available at the link.
Also, descriptions of the importance of “Black Greek” fraternal and sororal organizations, with photos, are available at the link.
Interesting discussion regarding inflation:
Link
Good grief, is Tucker Carlson going make a run at the US presidency?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/16/tucker-carlson-family-leadership-summit-president?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
More at the link.
On TV right now – for Adelaide, SA anyhow – and on ABC iView if folks can access that :
https://iview.abc.net.au/video/RN2111H018S00
Source : ABC online TV Guide.
To quote from meme just seen :
Or two :
Or three :
No author or source provided for that last one sorry.
A protest to mark a grim anniversary of a horrendous disgraceful policy here :
https://twitter.com/7NewsAdelaide/status/1548563652155949056?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Meanwhile ye-non-existent-gods, the damage we are doing this planet we share and depend upon :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-17/lake-mead-nevada-drought-water-levels-drop-further/101229988
To see haze and cloudy skies on an exoplanet (WASP 96b) one thousand one hundred and twenty light years away and brushing the surface of its sun is just absolutely staggering when you think about it!
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-alien-planet-clouds
All that demonstrates is how weirdly distorted your views of other people’s politics are. Daily Kos commenters have been uniformly pro-Ukraine (and in fact often distinctly over-optimistic about the military position, and keen to skate over the less edifying aspects of Ukranian nationalism) throughout and indeed before Putin’s invasion.
The Russians are trying to absorb the population in their conquered territories. Or at least, the people who are left. Many or most of them have either been killed, fled as refugees, or been deported to Russia.
They are “offering” Russian citizenship to them.
Very few want that Russian citizenship.
“In the March-April poll for IRI, 92 percent said their opinion of Russia had “worsened a lot or somewhat worsened” since the February invasion.”
You know that the next step, already taken is to just force all the people they have trapped to become Russian citizens.
This is what genocide looks like.
From the article cited above.
Yeah, that is what the West is doing.
We are spending huge amounts of money and weapons on Ukraine. No big deal. It’s just money.
The Ukrainians are spending the lives of their children and are taking heavy casualties. They don’t really announce their dead numbers but it is a lot.
Money comes and goes but when you are dead, you are dead forever.
Also, in that statement is another Putin threat to kill all the Ukrainians. He claims he doesn’t have a problem fighting to the last Ukrainian. Believe him.
The toll of the war on the Ukrainian people is immense.
.1. At least 9 million refugees.
.2. The latest estimates are 1.9 million deported to Russia, 300,000 of these are children.
The fate of these people is unknown but well, this is Russia, it is going to be another horror.
.3. The number of dead civilians is unknown since most of the occupied territories are still under Russian control.
It’s in the tens of thousands at least and could be much higher.
I’ve seen photos of some of the new mass cemeteries. They are very large, thousands of new graves.
@73 Fair enough. I don’t stop by DKOS very often, so I’m likely being unfair out of ignorance. My view of them has always been that it’s poverty porn for Ivy League Noam Chomsky readers and perhaps I should reevaluate that.
Pierce R. Butler @ #46, thanks! I’m hesitant to follow their links – do they show or discuss Galati actually appearing in court or speaking about the case in the present, or are they just talking about a case he filed originally? It’s strange that his (organization’s) Twitter account hasn’t tweeted anything since March.
SteveoR @72, I visited Lake Mead about ten years ago. Even then the place looked threatened by drought. Now it looks apocalyptic. The link you posted leads to a startling photo.
tuatara @69, OMG, Tucker Carlson is such a dunderhead. He scares me because, in some ways, he is a more deliberate dunderhead than Trump. From text you quoted:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Their most recent summary:
Guardian – “Forest fires rage across Europe as heatwave sends temperatures soaring”:
Much more at the link.
Nearly one billion Chinese suffer extreme humid temperatures. Bodies begin to pile up in Europe.
Hyperbolic headline, but it does point to a significant heatwave and the deaths that result.
Guardian – “Hungary protests continue for fifth day amid growing anger at Orbán tax changes”:
This article describes the tax changes.
Ukraine Update, (excerpts):
Link
Additional tweets and maps are available at the link. “Russian forces removing train offload points out of HIMARS range […] they need twice the amount of trucks to be able to keep up the rate of delivery.” Russia doesn’t have twice the trucks. This is devastating to their war effort.
Podcast episodes:
CounterVortex – “Podcast: Tolstoy would shit”:
99% Invisible – “Say Aloe to My Little Frond” [LOL]:
SC… @ # 77: … his (organization’s) Twitter account hasn’t tweeted anything since March.
Eh? https://twitter.com/roccogalatilaw/status/1281217990952960006 purports to come from RG in person on 7/9/22, though nominally from his law office.
I rarely play videos, but the caption for this news clip says it shows a live news conference on July 3, 2022.
Most of the other recent items in my little search discuss court filings, and I couldn’t tell from same whether Galati did them in person or just had his name on the paperwork.
KG @ #60, you didn’t exaggerate when you called it extraordinary!
From that piece:
I don’t think I knew that. Wow.
Pierce R. Butler @ #85, that tweet is from July 9, 2020. The filing seems to be from August of 2021.
Kyiv Independent:
Axios:
Ted Cruz latest Republican to push back against SCOTUS’ gay marriage ruling
Ivana Saric / July 17, 2022
@my 72. I really should have put something like : “Meanwhile in other palate-cleansing better news .. “ after that second link. Oh well.
@ 78. Lynna, OM : Thanks. Yes. The world is increasingly looking and trending like that and it is a serious worry. We’re not – as a species and as Western nations especially – doing anywhere remotely enough or taking Global Overheating remotely seriously enough. It really grieves and frustrates me and I know its worse than I think and experience so .. yes.
@ 89. tomh : Truth – and most Americans support abortion rights* and miosthelathcar e and somany other “left-wing” poliuicies.
The USA is really so much more progressive in the main than the gerrymandered, warped , kakisto-gerontocratic Murdochcracy that misgoverns it makes it seem.
.* See : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/383496/ apologies if posted here before.
Oleksa Drachewych:
@ ^ ___________________ and most healthcare & so many other..
There’s always one bloody word I stuff up. Sigh.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Plenty of good reasons not to watch, but they’ll be liveblogging it in any case.
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video, which I recommend watching in full, at the (Twitter) link.
SC… @ # 85 – Oops, you’re right about that tweet – my bad.
And I broke down and watched the first bit of that “press conference” video – the man who identified himself as Rocco G spoke of a court action having occurred “in August of this year”, so that basically rules out 2022.
This Action4Canada promo pushes a July 20, 2022 Zoom event in which “… Tanya Gaw … once again welcomes Rocco Galati…”, so if really curious you can sign up to watch next Wednesday.
Just because I love you all: Emmanuel!
Pierce R. Butler @ #96:
Thank you! That’s the first evidence I’ve seen – assuming it’s actually live (which they don’t…quite say?) and does in fact happen – to suggest that he’s living and not comatose. They link to his organization’s site, on which the latest update is still the one I saw in early February:
It seems strange that he’d be doing an interview now after four months with no updates or tweets (and with a group that posted about a lawsuit being filed as if to imply it was a current event when it happened last year, which makes me suspicious), but I guess we’ll see. Thanks for looking into it.
LykeX @ #97, I love that so much.
Guardian liveblog:
Followup to comments 4, 28 and 50.
Bernie Sanders talks directly and bluntly about Joe Manchin sabotaging part of the Democratic Party agenda:
Link
Women of Idaho – The men want you dead
France 24 – “France ‘betrayed itself’ with the Vél d’Hiv roundup, says President Macron”:
Liveblog with photos and videos at the link.
Some interesting articles (I have questions and comments) at MIA:
“July is Both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Happy Bastille Day!”
(Semi-related book recommendation: The Gallery of Miracles and Madness: Insanity, Modernism, and Hitler’s War on Art.)
“How Does Spiritual Voice Hearing Compare to Psychosis?”
(Semi-related podcast episode: QAA, “Episode 156: The Matthew Coleman Murders.”)
“Marx, Spinoza, and the Political Implications of Contemporary Psychiatry.”
Tony Ortega has a new podcast. Here’s the most recent episode to become available – “Episode 3: In court, it’s Scientology’s move”:
Just total bewilderment at how they’re able to get away with this shit.
In related news, Mike Rinder has a new book coming out – A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology:
See? WTF?!
blf, if you could check in and let us know you’re alright, that would be great.
“Franklin’s Tower.”
“Sugaree.”
“Fire on the Mountain.”
“Not Fade Away.” (Oklahoma!)
“Morning Dew.”
Pregnant Women Can’t Get Divorced in Missouri
Zelensky fired two key officials in his government, the head of the State Security Bureau and their Attorney General.
All is not right in Ukraine in a lot of ways.
.1. These officials are not accused of being Russian agents.
.2. Some of their staff are Russian agents though.
They betrayed Ukraine to Russia when Russia invaded.
.3. Apparently they weren’t doing their jobs well enough, not too surprising since these people weren’t actually professionals but friends of Zelensky from his previous life.
He appointed them because he didn’t know who to trust. He probably still doesn’t.
The Russian Ukrainian war seems to be a stalemate right now.
Neither side is really advancing and it is a war of attrition.
The Russians don’t seem to have the military leadership to mount large scale, coordinated attacks.
Neither does the Ukrainian military leadership. Or so it is claimed by some self described military experts.
Both armed forces were trained in the Soviet Union and its aftermath.
The claim about the Ukrainian leadership is from social media websites about the Ukraine and its war.
I’m not going to give sources since it is of unknown quality and not meant for public transmission anyway.
It’s clear that the Ukrainian armed forces are highly motivated, very brave, good at tactics, and taking high casualties. The Russians are poorly trained conscripts and morale is low.
Thanks to NATO, the Ukrainians have the better weapons.
They should be able to roll over the Russians but that isn’t happening anywhere.
Not sure why, but it could be that their generals just don’t know how to come up with good strategic plans.
Just a possibility since I’m absolutely as far away from a trained military expert as can be.
PS I’ll add here that the Russians can win this war by just not losing. They hold most of the Black Sea coast of Ukraine including ports like Mariupol. This is Ukraine’s economic lifeline to the world where they export their grain, steel, and other products. Without Black Sea ports, their economy takes a permanent big hit.
One more point that is obvious and IMO, should happen eventually.
Ukraine has to join NATO some day.
It is ironic that Putin made this unwanted event into something that will likely happen.
I don’t believe he cares about NATO or Ukraine joining NATO anyway. This invasion is simply a war of conquest because Russia has an army and they can.
No matter how this current war goes, there will always be another war of Russian expansion until they are stopped. Part of Ukraine now. More later. Repeat.
If Ukraine loses, Moldova and Georgia are next and they are gone.
Armenia is already gone. Probably next would be the central Asian countries with resources and small populations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenstan, etc..
NATO has 948 million people to Russia’s 144 million. They aren’t going to attack a NATO country.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “Send us a man to do your job so we can sack you, Taliban tell female officials”:
Kansans to decide fate of abortion rights in primary election
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a fundamental right under the state Constitution. A ballot question seeks to reverse that decision.
JON PARTON / July 17, 2022
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza news feed. From there:
Sanctions news:
LOL, good luck with that.
Just how many anti-election memos did Team Trump consider?
By one count, there were a half-dozen anti-election memos circulating among members of Team Trump in the post-election period.
Update on bill to protect interstate abortion travel:
Link
AFAICT, limiting one group’s right to travel wherever they want to is pure slavery.
What other groups have limited travel rights?
Accused criminals with probable cause in jail and convicted criminals in jail or on probation.
Military members under some conditions. The latter is by consent, when you join the military, you agree to follow their rules and regulations. You can also leave the military and everyone eventually does so.
Then again, female slavery isn’t going to be a problem for this Supreme court.
Best I can say is that it is all but unenforceable. Who knows when a girl or woman crosses state lines that 1. she is pregnant, and 2. intends to get an abortion.
Lots of pregnant women travel for many reasons.
Guardian liveblog:
An Abortion Is Not An Abortion If A 10-Year-Old Gets One, Says Anti-Abortion Leader
“NEW: Covid-19 hospitalizations are back to levels last seen in March, HHS data shows”
Francis Scarr:
Subtitled video clip at the (Twitter) link. That is bleak.
Guardian liveblog:
(Purrs like Tom contemplating a horrible fate for Jerry)
“Tories too toxic for themselves as debate cancelled”
https://youtu.be/T3tg_u3RX9o
Lying scum tearing each other apart in public- this is something American TV needs.
It’s not just gerrymandering anymore.
Kansas Reflector
Election officials risk criminal charges under 31 new GOP-imposed penalties
BY: KIRA LERNER – JULY 17, 2022
Info summarized from a New York Times article: Beto O’Rourke’s Democratic campaign in Texas raised $27.6 million over four months. That’s a Lone Star State record, and it is comparable to a fundraising amount in a competitive presidential campaign. O’Rourke is campaigning for Governor of Texas … going against Greg Abbott.
Associated Press:
Donald Trump:
Jody Hice Subpoenaed In Fulton County DA Probe Into Trump’s Election Steal Plot
I wish Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis every success in prosecuting those dunderheads.
Ukraine: Russian Ammunition warehouses near Nova Kakhovka light up
Link
Map and photos available at the link.
BoJo could not be arsed to attend an energency COBRA meeting about the potentially deadly heat wave. Instead he went to Chequers.
https://youtu.be/ymb4uDmUJR8
Flights halted out of UK air base after runway melts due to heat wave
Washington Post link
@ 137
An epidemic of
Spanish-languageCuban-exile right-wing disinformation that spiked around the 2020 election on social media platforms, and in some big-city AM radio stations, is revving up again ahead of the fall midterms.FTFY. When are the Dems going to grow a spine and tell them that Batista isn’t coming returning from the grave nor are they getting their sugar mills and slaves back?
Sorry, that first paragraph should have blockquoted.
Jeremy Corbyn dukes it out with BoJo.
https://youtu.be/iOdNIyMzi9Q
or
https://youtu.be/iOdNlyMzi9Q
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian – “‘Heat apocalypse’ warning in western France as thousands flee wildfire”:
Reporting on Spain, Portugal, the UK, and Germany at the link.
WaPo:
The Pulitzer board commissioned two separate independent reviews, which both concluded “that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
Meduza news feed:
With the elimination of Tom Tugendhat, all the remaining four contenders for the UK Tory leadership (Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch) were serving in Johnson’s government until days before he announced he would step down. Two (Truss and Mordaunt) are still doing so. All are fully complicit in his corruption and lies, which they defended right up to the moment they decided it would be more in their self-interest not to. In the latest round of voting Sunak had 115 votes from Tory MPs, Mordaunt 82, Truss 71 and Badenoch 58; Tugendat had 31. It seems almost certain Sunak will be one of the final two, at which point the decision passes to the party membership – 200,000 overwhelmingly (97%) white, and mostly middle-aged or older men. Which of the three women join him still seems quite open: Mordaunt hopes to pick up most of the votes that went to Tugendhat, but all of them would only take her to 113, less than the combined vote of the two rabid right candidates, Truss and Badenoch – but if Truss holds a lead over Badenoch in the next round, due tomorrow (few of Tugendhat’s votes are expected to go to Badenoch, so she would need some of Truss’s votes to come over to beat her), some of Badenoch’s supporters may balk at supporting Truss, who voted Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, although she has since become a born-again Brexiteer. Also, Sunak is said to prefer to face Mordaunt than either of the others, so could connive at some of his supporters voting for her rather than him, as long as he’s confident he will get at least 121 in the final round – enough to be in the top two as there arer 360 Tory MPs in total.
Christopher Miller:
Subtitled video with more at the (Twitter) link.
Not exactly great news to wake up to :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/state-of-australian-environment-report/101247794
On the state of Australia’s envuironment.
Not a bit surprised but worrying here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-03/misogyny-anti-women-terrorism-extremist-groups-online/100031678
Plus covid and the flu ar epushing our hosptals to the brink right now too :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-18/australia-record-breaking-infections-from-covid-19-and-flu/101247968
In better news :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-07-19/sand-battery-debuts-in-finland-world-first-heat-thermal-storage/101235514
Politico:
More at the link.
Followup to tom @118.
Kansas Republicans reveal what’s not so secret about Amendment 2: They want to ban abortion
Videos, (ads), available at the link.
SC @144 and 145, it’s so nice to see Trump’s ridiculous claims roundly denounced … and his demands were rejected.
But first, a lot of serious experts spent a lot of time researching and gathering facts. Shouldn’t have been necessary.
“First on CNN: Former Trump National Security Council official expected to testify at Thursday’s January 6 hearing”:
“Ukraine’s top general: We have managed to stabilize the front line. In many ways, thanks to U.S.-provided HIMARS.”
Overstock Weirdo Patrick Byrne Brings The Crazy To Jan. 6 Committee Testimony
Of course:
List at the (Twitter) link. The absolute dregs.
Finally some information we can use.
The university said the study found that current mRNA vaccines, which are Pfizer and Moderna, offer the “greatest duration of protection, nearly three times as long as that of natural infection and the Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.”
and
However, “to convey the same benefit, those fully vaccinated with either mRNA vaccine and no other exposure should receive a booster within a year, those fully vaccinated with Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) should receive a booster by 4.5 (months), and those fully vaccinated with ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca), should receive a booster within 5 months, the study said.
They are recommending boosters once a year for those who took the mRNA vaccines. I can live with that. I had been planning on a booster every six months anyway.
Since the virus is evolving, the next boosters will be updated for the newest RNA sequences.
Further on today’s release of the true, scarily woeful state of our environment :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/tanya-plibersek-state-of-environment-address-updates/101249626
Whilst on our abuse of refugees there’s another court case brewing :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/asylum-seeker-challenges-detention-federal-court/101250902
Meanwhile in great and intriguing astronomical news :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/scientists-find-exotic-black-hole-needle-haystack/101250366
From the Large Magellanic C;loud and with strong sugegstions that stars can collapse directly into Balck holes without going supernova.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
Guardian – “Death toll mounts in Europe as wildfires and heatwaves inflict havoc”:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK-politics liveblog. From there:
The fourth round of voting has begun.
SC@161,
The temperature at Heathrow in England was 40.2 degrees C at 12.50 UK time, and is expected to rise further. Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch, who supposedly committed to the target of UK net zero by 2050 yesterday (a target without any serious plan to reach it, naturally), has now uncommitted herself again.
SC@106, I’m Ok — well, melting, perhaps, but Ok. It’s not that hot locally, mid-30℃’s (guessing), but there’s no breeze, so it feels much hotter. As far as I am aware, there are no fires locally (if there were, I’d probably be hearing / seeing the Canadair water bombers scooping water up from the bay). There haven’t been any Canadair practice runs either, suggesting the local-ish based squadron is elsewhere (presumably fire-fighting).
I’m still currently sans mobile, but in perhaps two hours time that should be fixed — the replacement battery (see previous thread) has arrived and is awaiting my collection!
And I’m learning how to use the food processor to make smoothies and similar fruit-based cool / cold (low-to-no-alcohol) drinks. Still having trouble getting the viciousness, I mean viscosity, right, this morning’s banana-avocado had the consistency of guacamole at first… hum, it should be cooled down by now… (a few moments later) not bad, could perhaps use a touch more vanilla, and the viscosity has changed back towards guacamole.
Lunch was a rather haphazard attempt at that great British Indian dish, Chicken tikka masala. The chicken was very non-cooperative, and kept refusing to jump into the wok. Made rather a mess, but tasted Ok (unsurprisingly, the restaurant version is better; they probably know how to convince the chicken to nest in the wok).
Guardian:
More re #146 – “Daria Kasatkina comes out as gay and speaks out against Russian attitudes”:
Hee – “Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce fixes wig mid-race but still qualifies in worlds 200m”:
blf, I’m relieved to hear you’re OK!
I haven’t played a video game since like…Pong, but I thought this one in development a few months ago called Stray sounded fascinating. It’s now been released. Here’s one of many positive reviews, from something called Eurogamer: “Stray review – fantastic cat exploration through a dystopian cybercity.”
Guardian liveblog:
You can watch it at the liveblog, but here’s a direct link to the Labour tweet:
Guardian liveblog:
Results of the latest Tory leadership ballot:
Rishi Sunak – 118 (up 3)
Penny Mordaunt – 92 (up 10)
Liz Truss – 86 (up 15)
Kemi Badenoch – 59 (up 1)
Badenoch is eliminated. Most of her votes seem likely to go to Truss in the final Tory MPs’ ballot tomorrow, which would mean party members get to choose between Sunak and Truss. A YouGov poll indicates Truss would win easily – as would either of the others against Sunak, while Badenoch (who is more of a swivel-eyed loon even than Truss) would probably have beaten any of the others. Rumour has it that Labour are hoping for Truss to win.
J6 committee chair Bennie Thompson has tested positive for COVID and has “mild symptoms.” The spokesperson for the committee has told reporters that Thursday’s night’s hearing will still go on.
Julia Davis:
Guardian liveblog:
SC @161, I depend on cooler nighttime temperatures to get relief from the hot weather. Then I read in text you quoted:
That’s just over 91 degrees Fahrenheit. At 3:00am, which should be the coolest part of the night. Boggles the mind. Horrible.
SC@166, Thank you.
I just got back from collecting my replacement mobile battery — now installed and working fine (let’s hear it for user-reparable equipment!) — and a bit of shopping (e.g., more fresh fruit for my smoothie experiments, some raspberries, oranges, and limes). I was wrong-ish about the temperature; today it is in the low-30℃’s (but certainly feels hotter), tomorrow is forecast to be the mid-30℃’s, and Thursday is when the roads start melting, forecast high-30℃’s (but less than 40℃). My mobile is full of Yellow Warnings for Extreme Heat, and apparently the local(?) authorities have activated their relevant plans (which I think includes cooling-off centres, especially for the most vulnerable).
With my mobile back working, it’s much easier to check on the Covid situation here in France (both nationally and locally). The track-and-trace app is reporting the R value, which had zoomed up rather high a few weeks ago but was showing signs of leveling-off and possibly declining when my battery decided it was time to start turning into a small explosive device, has since declined significantly. It’s still above 1, but not by so much. Yea!
raven @158, that is indeed useful news. I was in need of that kind of information in order to plan what booster shots I should get.
Text quoted by SC @173:
Yes. Very good idea.
Tom Cotton blames the wrong president for Iranian threat
Tom Cotton is convinced that the Biden administration has “let Iran rush forward with a nuclear weapon.” That’s demonstrably ridiculous.
I’m not going to forget. Doug Mastriano can remove videos in which he said really ridiculous stuff about climate change. I will remember he said that stuff.
Philadelphia Inquirer link
Excerpt from one video:
Meduza news feed:
Josh Marshall:
Secret Service says no deleted texts to recover for Jan. 6 probe; Archives orders investigation
Ascension of far-right legislator to Idaho GOP chair opens window on how radicalization is occurring
“Skepricrat #178 Tory book ending edition”
Skeptics Noah Lugeons, Heath Enwright, Eli Bosnick and British visitor Mike Marshall.
https://youtu.be/7kT7AOawu94
“Eli won’t let Marsh leave until he understands how prime ministers are chosen … so he is pretty much a resident now”.
re SC @167: I have been looking forward to Stray for months. I purchased it early and was able to download it today. I have played it for a couple of hours so far, and I love it! Highly recommended. Lots of exploration and some pretty easy puzzles so far. Much different from the shooters that I am used to playing. (I play shooters because they are usually the best games for story and exploration.)
NBC News:
Reuters:
Josh Marshall:
Link
Ukraine update: Russian Navy bravely runs away [and other analysis]
Followup to comment 188.
More Ukraine update details:
The televised hearings return to prime time.
New Yorker cartoon
johnson catman @ #184, yay!
Guardian – “Kosher phone dispute grips ultra-Orthodox Tel Aviv suburb”:
From the closing summary of today’s Guardian liveblog:
Re #98, I see at their site that Galati did allegedly (according to Gaw) appear in court – via video – on May 31st of this year:
If there’s been a ruling in this case, I haven’t been able to find it.
Also, the interview tomorrow is being billed as “LIVE WED 4pm!”
A Brief History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore.
Examples going back to 1894!
On July 20th – 21st July Australian time – back in 1969, Humanity landed on another world in person for the first time. They came in peace for everyone, winning the Cold War Space Race and beating the Russians. They saw Earth with every other human that has ever lived and died on hanging high in the black daytime sky, able to be blotted out by an outstretched thumb. They returned five more times – the last in 1972. We have not been back or ventured further since then at least as living beings – only via our robotic surrogates. An extraordinary milestone and accomplishment of our species. Worth reflecting onand worth maybe making a public holiday I’d suggest.
See -amoing somany other places : https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Good news if true; I don’t trust anything coming from the Russians.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian – “Rishi Sunak’s ‘bizarre’ ties to rightwing libertarians highlighted by Labour”:
More at the link.
New Yorker – “Alan Dershowitz’s Martha’s Vineyard Cancellation”:
This needs to be an operetta.
Guardian liveblog:
From the Guardian liveblog: “Two MPs backing Rishi Sunak told the Guardina…”
:)
Sheesh.
Twenty months later, Trump isn’t done with decertification push
As recently as last week, Donald Trump was still lobbying Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker about undoing his 2020 election defeat.
I see the squirrels in Trump’s brain are still active.
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
Podcast episodes:
The Bunker – “Taken for a Ride: The Uber Files Explained”:
The Daily – “A View of the Beginning of Time”:
It’s just one poll, but still: CNN Poll: MAJOR Shift Toward the Democrats. Seniors move from +25R to +2D!!! Women +11D!!!
Guardian liveblog:
Let’s talk about what is going on with the deleted Secret Service texts and the Jan. 6 probe
Video of Carol Leonnig speaking is available at the link.
Link
“A clip from Don’t Look Up, and then a real TV interview that just happened…”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Jim Jordan makes odd case against the marriage equality bill
It’s one thing for Republicans to make the case against legislation. It’s much weirder when they make the case against legislating.
12 News, (in Arizona): Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers was formally censured by his fellow Republicans as retribution for his cooperation with the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation. The state GOP chair said that Bowers, (“a lifelong conservative Republican,” as Steve Benen pointed out) who’s done nothing wrong, “is no longer a Republican in good standing.”
Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican representing Florida, appeared on Fox News recently. He said that the network helps Republicans get the party’s message out “without having to pay for it.” Saying the quiet part out loud? Yes, Fox News is a Republican propaganda network.
Detained people say heat is so bad, floors are ‘sweating’ after power knocked out at private prisons
LOL, yeah – Guardian – “Little evidence that chemical imbalance causes depression, UCL scientists find”: “Researchers question use of antidepressants, prescribed to one in six UK adults.”
(PSA: Never stop taking any drug without consulting with a physician – this can be very dangerous.)
I really think that this needs to be appreciated: The leaders of psychiatry have recognized now for several years that their diagnoses lack validity and that the chemical imbalance idea is bullshit, but have lately claimed that the notion of the chemical imbalance was an invention of their critics and that “patients” who claimed their doctors or therapists told them they had a chemical imbalance were lying.
There has to be accountability, but more importantly we have to move beyond this model in understanding and addressing the causes of psychological distress.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
(There’s a bit too much transcribing for autocrats there in recent days. From the past several posts: “The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) claims that…”; “Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational briefing. In it, it claims that…”; “Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova gave her regular weekly press briefing this morning, and according to Reuters she said that…”; “Earlier we reported that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said…” They do usually note that fact claims haven’t been independently verified, and I do think it’s information that should be recorded, but there has to be a better way to present the propaganda of regimes known for constant lying than simply repeating it.)
Guardian – “Covid vaccine figures lay bare global inequality as global target missed”:
“Politico: Pelosi asks Blinken to label Russia as terrorist state.
According to Politico’s sources, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and warned him that otherwise, Congress will do so.”
Henry Mance:
Data visualizations at the (Twitter) link. Also at the link, pea puns: “We need a world peas strategy,” “peas in our time,” “Give peas a chance,”… (I think nuts should be getting more love, since the figure shows that “Many nut producers are carbon negative” – “Yes Pe Can”?)
CNN – “Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigns as coalition collapses”:
SC@221,
The 5-Star movement has actually lost most of its support according to polls. The likely result of a snap election is a far right regime led by the “Brothers of Italy”, who openly hark back to Mussolini.
President Biden has tested positive for COVID. He’s vaccinated and double-boosted, taking Paxlovid, and experiencing “very mild symptoms.”
Guardian liveblog:
Here’s the statement from the White House.
@223. & 225. SC (Salty Current) : Thanks. AJ has news of this here too :
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/21/joe-biden-tests-positive-for-covid-19-white-house
Perhaps not that surprising really & you know he’ll get the best care – & unlike Trump not do some pointlessly dangerously counter-productive things likely to make things worse plus is actually vaccinated and doing the right stuff – but slightly worrying still.
Meanwhile who knows what the truth is here? I certainly don’t and pretty sure we cannot take Putin or the Russian govts word for it :
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/21/kremlin-says-putin-healthy-dismisses-illness-rumours
“A system incapable of smart military commanders, a rusty infrastructure that would break if general mobilization were attempted, and ammo running out. [Novaya Gazeta military analyst] Pavel Luzin paints a grim picture for Russia’s long-term military prospects….”
Summary at the (Twitter) link.
From the Meduza news feed:
“Boris Johnson has tabled a written parliamentary statement hailing his own achievements, and setting out, ‘why the millions of people who voted Conservative in 2019, many for the first time, were right to place their trust in me’.”
Deborah Haynes, Sky News:
“A system incapable of smart military commanders, a rusty infrastructure that would break if general mobilization were attempted, and ammo running out…”
Gee, maybe they shoulda thought of that BEFORE they sold all those AK-47s on the black market…I suppose they can buy some of ’em back, cheap at thrice the price…
“The delegation’s head said he’s been decorated as a Hero of Russia, that they’re ‘grabbing the land and hacking off ears,’ and that he needs ‘volunteers for dirty work: killing on command, no questions asked,’” a source told Russia Behind Bars.
I’m sure those hardened criminals have no trouble killing on command. Getting them to STOP killing, or not kill noncombatants, or function as a cohesive unit in any other way…that could be more of a problem…and finding places for them after the killing is over, that’s yet another problem…
Text quoted by SC @218:
Arrrrggghhh. Such terrible statistics, especially that 15.8% of people in low-income countries.
On an unrelated subject, starting tomorrow I will be absent from the Infinite Thread for a few days. All of the regular commenters know what to do. Carry on.
Ukraine update: Ukraine’s upcoming strategy is starting to take shape, look to the southeast
Tony Ortega on Substack – “Scientology begs radical US Supreme Court to intervene and protect its ‘religious freedom’”:
Much more at the link. I’m not sure I understand why this isn’t also a criminal matter – it sounds like harassment, stalking, witness intimidation, and, if he’s found guilty, potentially being accessories to his crimes.
NBC – “In Harvard study of Jan. 6 rioters, top motivation is clear: Trump”:
Update to my comment at 30 (walrus sighting in Finland last week):
The walrus died a couple days ago, after several days of massive media attention.
Turns out it wasn’t Wally from Ireland, or the same animal that was recently spotted in Norway, but there had been several sightings of the same animal wandering around the Baltic Sea during June and early July. Over the weekend, it languished in the coastal waters in Hamina and repeatedly crawled ashore. It was sickly and very skinny and undernourished, probably too weak to swim much anywhere. Authorities tried to usher it back into the sea, while keeping the gawkers some distance away. While in the water, the animal was once rescued from a fish trap. Eventually, the walrus was tranquilized and taken into zoo custody to help it recover, but it sadly died during transport.
A Government Official Helped Them Register. Now They’ve Been Charged With Voter Fraud.
Ten Florida men with felony convictions have been charged with voter fraud because prosecutors say they registered and voted illegally. Critics say the punishments are unfair.
A followup of sorts to comment 211.
Here’s a wake-up call for the country: 195 House Republicans want to end right to birth control
Quoted in Lynna’s #234:
Heh.
Joyce Karam:
NBC – “DHS has launched criminal probe into destruction of Jan. 6 Secret Service text messages, sources say”:
Re: 236 Harvard study about insurrectionist posting.
Posted to the nextdoor politics board with “Where can I charge Donald Trump for the rent in my head? He always seems to have a good reason to be there”.
I had missed this back in June:
New On the Media – “Escaping the Kremlin’s Propaganda Machine”:
“ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York health officials report polio case, the first one in U.S. in nearly a decade.”
DeSantis’ fascism continues. Now his office is censoring the press
Wonkette: “Meet Garrett Ziegler, Gentleman/Brain-Genius/Jan. 6 Witness!”
BBC – “The country where having a pet could soon land you in jail”:
Guardian liveblog:
@Lynna, OM
Are you personally inserting the “[video at the link]” bits? If so, thumbs up for post formatting! They really help with deciding whether to actually load the full page or not.
Live Jan 6th Congress hearings via Aussie ABC here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/january-6-capitol-riot-insurrection-hearing-live-blog/101258746
Meanwhile, good that some people saved this polar bear but sad that it had to be done in the first palce :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/polar-bear-russia-can-stuck-in-mouth-rescue-/101259834
and how many aren’t found and saved?
Plus :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/nz-jacinda-ardern-covid-zero-destroyed-by-omicron/101246908
What Aotearoa / New Zealnd is doing covid~wise currently.
“The radio chatter from Pence’s Secret Service detail on Jan. 6, which National Security Council staff was listening to in real time: ‘If we lose any time, we may lose the ability to leave…If we are going to leave we need to do it now…'”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Reminder – The Adelaide Refugee Vigil for Manus and Nauru (& others) is on as usual tonight at 5 pm in Rundle Mall near the metal pigeon sculpture – everyone welcome. Just in case any Pharyngulites in Adelaide see this in time & ar einterested in coming. Every Friday night still.
Source : Vigil fb page.
“The committee reveals the outtakes from the Trump’s address to the nation on January 7th in never-before-seen raw footage.
‘I can’t say that…’
‘I don’t want to say the election’s over…'”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
A highlight. (Twitter link.)
This is one of the best threads ever compiled on Twitter: “Josh Hawley running away to a variety of soundtracks….”
SC@256, Before even visiting that thread, I predicted two, Brave Sir Robin Ran Away (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), and Yakety Sax (used as a theme tune by The Benny Hill Show). I was not disappointed.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “‘There’s nothing else to give them’: Liverpool food banks confront rising hunger”:
Much more at the link.
Also in the Guardian:
“Gilberto Gil at 80: ‘Bolsonaro has a retrograde worldview, an opposition to any advance’.” (I’ll note my objection to the use of terms like “decivilising” and “barbaric.” Sigh.)
“As the US watched the January 6 hearing, Fox News showed outrage – at Biden getting Covid.”
They continue to help kill people:
Guardian liveblog:
From the Meduza news feed:
Meduza – “‘People were dancing on the edge of a volcano’: Historian Dan Healey explains his research on ‘homosexual desire in revolutionary Russia’ and ‘sexual dissidents’ of the Soviet era”:
Much, much more at the link. Great piece. (Here’s a post discussing feminitives, which are mentioned in the article.)
“Biden physician reports his symptoms have improved, after first full day of Paxlovid. Fever down, has runny nose.”
Full memo from the physician at the (Twitter) link.
Axios – “A radical plan for Trump’s second term”:
Much more at the link, which is the first in a new series from Axios.
Meduza:
Daily Kos – “Ukraine Update: LOL no, Russia isn’t attacking Odesa. They’re already out of steam in the Donbas”:
Adam Kinzinger tweeted: “Worth remembering: Josh Hawley was the first senator to say he would object to the electoral college, causing a cascade of Ted Cruz-es. There would not have been as much oxygen to trumps coup plan without Fistpump McRunpants.”
Daily Kos – “Two decades of Alzheimer’s research may be based on deliberate fraud that has cost millions of lives.”
More re #263 – RFE/RL tweeted a video about some Russian soldiers who mutineed and are allegedly being held in a cellar.
More good news about the Covid-19 virus vaccines.
They still worked against the BA.2/BA.2.12.2 viruses.
A third booster dose worked better than the first two doses.
A fourth booster dose worked better than three doses.
Basically, the CDC says to keep up with the recommendations from the FDA.
It is now looking like we will be recommended to get Covid-19 virus boosters at least once a year.
The jury found Steve Bannon guilty on both counts of contempt of congress.
@273
Well done jury! I hope many more guilty verdicts are to come for every single one of these despicable asshats, including the ones who currently hold any elected office.
Documenting the whole rotten scheme is the point of the panel, referrals to the justice department for the criminal charges are step two.
75% of the people already consider tfg and his base criminal scum without having all the details documented. That’s why they chose Biden.
SC#270: JFC! The peer review model of science is seriously fucked up! This article brings terrible news that everyone should know about, but is only one of a seemingly endless number of cases where our entire scientific self-correction infrastructure is shown to be ineffectual and downright corrupt. How can we blame anyone for not trusting science when shit like this keeps happening?
I love science, but I no longer trust much of it myself, especially in the medical and biological fields. I’ve known for some time about the weakness of mouse studies, for example. But the crookedness of actual researchers, and their continued acceptance within the field really stinks. And the trepidation and hesitancy of folks to go after them because of what? Respect? Fear for career advancement? Worry about the loss of funding? This is making some folks/corporations tons of money, so I guess it will only get worse. But, damn….
Guardian – “‘Super scorchio!’: heat brings out new face of climate denial in UK press”:
Guardian liveblog:
Real men disregard the dangers of heatstroke and wildfires!? At what point might they realize that toxic masculinity is toxic? Go right ahead and wear your suit in tropical heatwaves, the woke have no problem with idiots dying of heatstroke because they lack sense.
“Western weapons supplies are beginning to have an effect in Donbas, Zelensky tells us. Ukrainian fatalities down to 30 a day from 100-200. Ukraine fired 1,000-2,000 shells to Russia’s 12,000 daily. Now it can fire 6,000 as Russia experiences shortages.”
WSJ link at the (Twitter) link.
Tethys @ #278, it’s stunningly stupid.
Vice – “Oklahoma Threatens Librarians: ‘Don’t Use the Word Abortion’”:
CounterVortex – “Afghanistan: UN report details Taliban abuses”:
This article doesn’t say much that we didn’t know but at least it is simple and well written.
This is also going to be the future of the Red states, children raped and then giving birth to children.
.1. Girls under the age of 15 aren’t medically ready to be pregnant and give birth.
Both maternal morbidity and mortality in that age group is far higher than in older women.
.2. The children these children give birth to also have high mortality and very often life long medical conditions. “When babies from very young mothers do survive, they typically have a very low birth weight, preterm deliveries, and severe neonatal conditions, according to WHO.”
I tried to find out how many children under age 15 are going to be forced to risk their life being pregnant in the Red states.
The data to figure this out is scattered and sometimes doesn’t even exist.
Based on the number of abortions of 15s and under, in the USA it would be around 750 in the Red states.
Some of those girls and their fetuses are going to die.
@270
That’s fucking huge. Following your link, I read a few more articles about it and it seems irrefutable. Karen Ashe is at University of Minnesota so it’s also a kind of a local story for PZ so I wonder if he will comment on it.
This article has some more info as well as some sample images of the fraud: https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease
The new best tech ever space telescope has a new image :
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-phantom-galaxy-image
And I have a new dog…
A rehomed 3 year old one from online – a mixture of maltese-Juack Russell & Staffy. First night in he new home with me tonight but she’s really sweet, clever and settling in well already.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog. From there:
Congratulations on the new dog, StevoR! How exciting!
Guardian – “Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as cases surge”:
Guardian – “Inside the remote California county where the far right took over: ‘Civility went out the window’.”
Guardian liveblog:
Fuck off.
California OKs private civil actions against gun makers and dealers
KEVIN WINTER / July 22, 2022
raven @ # 284: … how many children under age 15 are going to be forced to risk their life being pregnant in the Red states.
Couldn’t find that either, but I did find:
and
which divides out to 1,860 procedures for patients under 15.
I recall seeing somewhere, though I can’t find it now, that about 40% of the US population live in states now or imminently banning abortion, so that puts 744 under-15s at immediate risk per year, or around two each day. That’s an underestimate: how many others needed but could not get abortions in that 2014 baseline period? Yargh…
Good grief, fascism must rot your brain. Russia has to engage with Ukraine on any peace talks. Russia could declare a cease fire immediately, and the US and European Union would happily support peace instead of defending against Russian terrorism.
Guardian liveblog:
“Chomsky: The US is living under a totalitarian culture much worse than Soviet Union
Soviet Russia could access BBC, Voice of America, German TV
Today Americans are not permitted to hear what Russians are saying
The US has imposed constraints on access to info beyond Soviets”
Video at the (Twitter) link. This is insane. People who care about him should get him to stop doing interviews. It’s funny that I was just complaining @ #217 above about the endless “Lavrov said…,” “Putin said…,” “a Russian military spokesperson said…” at the Guardian.
The Russian MFA has a Twitter account with half a million followers. Anyone who wants to read their constant stream of lies can go there.
Daily Kos – “Turkey assassinates Presenters leaving forum on ‘Women’s Revolution of Rojava & NorthEast Syria'”:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
Guardian – “Myanmar junta executes democracy activists in first such killings in decades”:
Nesrine Malik in the Guardian – “What the absurd class cosplay of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss tells us about Britain”:
Somewhat related, the new episode of A World to Win – “Inequality Matters w/ Mike Savage”:
Daily Kos – “Ukraine update: ‘A picture of ever growing chaos and fear among Russian troops'”:
Sarah Posner in the New Republic – “How Did Maryland Republicans Nominate Two Extremist Screwballs for Statewide Office?”:
When it comes to Jovian rings – computer says no :
https://www.space.com/jupiters-puny-rings-maybe-because-moons
Guardian liveblog:
Aaron Rupar’s livetweeted thread (with video clips) of Trump’s speech to TPUSA the other night. From there:
Guardian liveblog:
Julia Davis:
Video at the (Twitter) link. The Duma thug says “Now Putin is using food, heat, lighting, gas as a weapon. We’ll probably start using children’s toys that way, too…” See you in the Hague.
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza news feed. From there:
Elaine Luria, J6 Committee:
Video with extra content at the (Twitter) link.
New podcast episodes:
The New Abnormal – “Inside the Maternal Morbidity Crisis Facing Black Women”:
SWAJ – “What Counts as Religion According to SCOTUS? Whose Religion is Protected? Whose Isn’t?”:
More on the Russian genocide of Ukraine and war crimes.
.1. They’ve been removing the native population and replacing them with Russians.
” According to figures released this week by the ministry, 2,795,965 Ukrainians have been “evacuated” to Russia, including 444,018 children.” That is a lot.
.2. …that it said was working to stop “Ukrainian nationalists from infiltrating Russia disguised as refugees so they could avoid punishment.”
It is now illegal to be a Ukrainian nationalist in Ukraine.
.3. These are concentration camps.
.4. A lot of those 2.8 million Ukrainians deported will be disappeared or die one way or another.
This is terrorism.
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
New New Abnormal – “Inside the Maternal Morbidity Crisis Facing Black Women”:
SWAJ – “What Counts as Religion According to SCOTUS? Whose Religion is Protected? Whose Isn’t?”:
Well, if they’d just scrap all those “religious exemptions,” stop letting religious bigots and zealots ignore any laws they don’t like, and go back to “equal justice under law,” maybe they wouldn’t have to spend so much time quibbling over “sincerity tests.”
Raging Bee @ #316, you might find the podcast interesting.
NBC – “Mike Pence’s former chief of staff appeared before a Jan. 6 federal grand jury”:
Guardian liveblog:
LOL.
Meme at the (Twitter) link.
Jackson Galaxy plays/reviews Stray.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
Also from there:
Guardian – “Can Ukrainian forces recapture Kherson from Russia?”
Kazakhstan can see the writing on the wall.
If Ukraine goes, Georgia and Moldova are gone, history.
Next would be Kazakhstan. A large country with a small population and a lot of oil, gas, and uranium. Followed by the other Central Asian states.
Kazakhstan has a long border with Russia. It also has a long border with China.
I don’t see the Chinese being too happy if Russia invades Kazakhstan.
HIMARS are High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. These are the large vehicles that fire 6 rockets at once. These rockets are guided and can hit within a meter or two. One load of ammo runs around $1 million.
Poland is clearly very alert and wary of Russia.
They are now going on a shopping spree and buying huge quantities of modern weapons.
500 HIMARS is a lot. I’m not sure that number even exists in the world right now.
I’ve seen enough from Polish people to say that they are scared, angry, and are saying, “never again.” Poland has a long history of being invaded and massacred by the Russians, notably when TFGermanG and Stalin divided the country up when WW II started.
Poland just put in a huge order for fighter jets, tanks, and howitzers from South Korea.
They clearly aren’t taking any chances with Russia.
I’m sure it is like this every where around Russia right now.
No one wants to be a slave nation occupied by the Russians any more.
GOP Rep. attends gay son’s wedding after opposing protections for same-sex marriage
@323, “500 HIMARS is a lot. I’m not sure that number even exists in the world right now.”
I concur. That’s a massive number of launchers, suggesting one or more of (1) Mis-statement by Poland; (2) Mis-reporting; (3) Poland hasn’t done their research (seems unlikely (barring corruption)); or (4) Poland has some cunning plan. I could not find any clarity with an admittedly simple Generalissimo Google™ search, but am inclined towards a mix of the first two — credulous reporting of a mis-statement.
As many others have pointed out (e.g., DailyKos), it’s the “pods” that contain the rocket-ammo which is the critical factor. A launcher can fire an entire pod very quickly, move to a different location almost immediately (avoiding simple-minded counter-fire aimed at the launch location), reload a new pod fairly quickly, repeat… and with the basic six-rocket pod having a range of c.80km, just a handful of launchers, provided they are adequately supplied with pods, is devastating (remembering even the basic rockets are GPS precision-guided to within a metre or so of the target). So the reported 500 launchers seems rather off — especially as I haven’t seen any mention of pods — 500 pods and perhaps 6–12 launchers would be my speculative guess, barring corruption or a cunning plan. (I do note several reports claim Poland wants to make its own rockets.)
And I also concur, the current entire world-wide inventory of HIMARS launchers is rather smaller, roughly, somewhere around 100 (from unreliable memory!). I had thought that — excepting Ukraine — the only two countries with launchers were the States and Romania. However, Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge also lists Singapore, UAE, and Jordan, but its unclear if any have yet been delivered.
Also, the amount of money seems to not add up: Each launcher is something like $5m, so 500 would be $2500m ($2.5bn), not the quoted $414m. However, each six-rocket basic pod is a bit less than $1m (c.$800k as I recall), with does compute-out to roughly the quoted sum leaving enough for 3–4 launchers, then take into account (presumed) volume discounts, etc., and you get my previously-speculated six(-ish) launchers with 500(-ish) pods. (They also need spare parts, etc., so these are all very fuzzy figures.)
Ergo, I suspect credulous reporting of a confusing(?) mis-statement.
Also, apparently Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania are thinking of putting in their own joint order.
New I Don’t Speak German – “113: The People’s Party etc, with Rob from The Right Podcast”:
New Maintenance Phase – “Pete Evans Part 2: COVID & Consequences”:
Maddow last night – “Christian Nationalism’s Racist Past Precludes Revival Except Among GOP’s Trumpiest”:
Guardian liveblog:
“NEW: Boris Johnson writes to liaison committee about 2018 meeting with ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev at Italian villa while he was Foreign Sec.
‘This was not a formal meeting, nor something that was pre-arranged… As far as I am aware, no Government business was discussed’.”
I mean, how aware does everyone want him to be? He was smashed!
SC @329, that phrase, “As far as I am aware …” made me laugh. Of course Boris Johnson’s awareness of all things, (including self-awareness), is questionable. What an untrustworthy dunderhead.
blf @326, I am in general agreement with you.
From comment 234:
Ukraine Update: The Tankies don’t have a monopoly on idiotic war takes
Arwa Mahdawi in the Guardian – “”:
Sorry – new & improved with title:
Arwa Mahdawi in the Guardian – “Why are the younger Trumps so awful? Did you hear the speeches at Ivana’s funeral?”:
Update to #293 – “Longstanding adviser to Viktor Orbán resigns over ‘pure Nazi speech’”:
Huge news for the ISS and future of humans in space here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-27/russia-and-the-international-space-station-history/101272242
I guess its foreseeable in hindsight since they threatened to do it & it has become awkward given Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but wow.
MSNBC: “WASH. POST: DOJ INVESTIGATING TRUMP’S ACTIONS IN JANUARY 6 CRIMINAL PROBE.”
Guardian liveblog:
These look like serious strikes on the bridge (Twitter link).
Vice – “‘I’m Aiming at the Russians’: The Tiny Country That Fears It’s Putin’s Next Target”: “A stretch of a tiny European nation has been dubbed ‘the most dangerous place on Earth’. VICE World News meets the paramilitary members vowing to defend Lithuania….”
Update on California fire: Wildfire near Yosemite National Park balloons to California’s largest this year
The Oak Fire was 10% contained Monday as firefighters traversed steep terrain in sweltering temperatures and low humidity.
Video at the link.
Rand Paul is blocking a quick vote on NATO admission for Finland and Sweden, adding to the Senate’s time crunch
The Kentucky Republican’s own party leaders have called for the Senate to pass the measure quickly.
I’ve had an issue yesterday (25th July) commenting on the ‘Which fantasy is hurting America’ more thread -tried to post some links and info on some Christianists – incl. Paula White, Trump’s former advisor, Rev Greg Lowe and Perry Stone – who have said demons are real and Democrats are possessed by them and stuff – which haven’t gone through. Not sure what happened. Tried a couple of times and then tried a comment noting that without any links in it and that didn’t go through either which had me worried.
Is there a 5 link maximum here or something or was there somnething wrong with the links or something? Really not sure and wondering about what was up with that..
@290. SC (Salty Current) : ‘Congratulations on the new dog, StevoR! How exciting!’
It sure is! She’s a real sweetheart and really great little girl. Very sweet natured and happy and well behaved. So happy with her – although my cat is still frightened of her and staying in her outdoor enclosure.
PS. Had trouble commenting yesterday on the “which fantasy is hurting America more” thread for some reason. Not sure why and just tried posting a comment on this Infinite thread too which didn’t go through. Odd.
Some more on this Polish “500 HIMARS” puzzle (see, e.g., @326).
An excerpt from Newsweek, Poland, Baltic States Now Looking at HIMARS for Protection Against Russia:
Six launchers plus (an unspecified am0iunt of rocket-ammo (“pods”), spare parts, etc.) for $500m, which is almost an exact match for the reported Polish $414m with its speculated six(-ish) launchers and perhaps 500 pods.
However, that “$414m” may not refer to the current “500 somethings” plan. An excerpt from a 2019 annoucement at the Polish MoD site, HIMARS system for the Polish Army:
I have no idea how much of this 2019 order for 20 launchers, rocket-ammo pods, etc., has been delivered to-date. But it does mean the @329 money-calculation does not apply to the recent 2022 request.
In @329 I vaguely remembered the entire world-wide inventory of HIMARS launchers was around 100; this seems to be wrong, an excerpt from Forbes a month ago, How HIMARS Rockets Can Help Turn The Tide In Ukraine:
So the world-wide inventory is somewhere around 500 launchers, albeit I have no idea how many are combat units and how many are training units. The States presumably has almost all of the units; excepting Ukraine, only Romania is known for certain to have some units, albeit as per the 2019 announcement above, Poland may also now have a few.
Still a puzzle…
More-than-5-year prison term matches longest for Capitol riot:
NO, Mr Ponder did not get in the attempted insurrection (see, e.g., the judge’s comments below), albeit it perhaps is true he didn’t intend to be arrested, tried and found guilty, with a five-year sentence (an interpretation which is probably not what he meant by his burbling).
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
New Fever Dreams – “Intellectual Dork Web w/Eiynah”:
VegNews – “Regular or Meat-Based? How Burger King Austria Is Making Vegan Whoppers the Norm”: “Burger King Austria asks its customers if they want ‘regular or meat-based’ Whoppers as part of an innovative campaign that makes plant-based meat the norm….”
Yahoo! News – “Ukraine accuses Tulsi Gabbard and Rand Paul of promoting ‘Russian propaganda'”:
From the Meduza news feed:
CNN – “The last ‘Arab Spring’ democracy is dangling by a thread”:
Much more at the link.
That’s a lot of damage to the bridge. (Twitter link.)
Illia Ponomarenko:
“Strong 1938 Austrian Anschluss vibes here. New Russian billboards in occupied Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine: ‘Russians and Ukrainians are one people, one whole’, ‘Russia is here forever!'”
Photos at the (Twitter) link.
Science – “The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
I haven’t read this yet. Here’s the abstract:
Interesting – from the article:
Guardian liveblog:
It’s interesting how much criticism these military bloggers are able to get away with while people are arrested for emojis or blank signs.
CNN – “Biden ‘feeling great’ and back to work in person after testing negative for Covid-19”:
Guardian liveblog:
Daily Kos – “Ukraine update: Antonivskyi Bridge is out, and now Russia awaits Ukraine’s next move”:
As always, there are several illustrative tweets, maps, and videos at the link.
Teh raping children cult has a meltdown about a priest trying to keep teens safe, and uses its powers to drag in the local authorities… the “offense”? Holding outdoors mass in the relative cool of the Mediterranean Sea when no shade could be found, priest uses inflatable mattress as altar during mass in sea:
Not a peep (as reported) about keeping people safe (a far better use of the police’s time), only about using mythical mumble-jumbo in the approved made-up fashion.
Since Russia scrapped its covid-related foreign travel restrictions a couple weeks ago, wealthy and middle-class Russians have been more free to travel abroad, even just for fun. Traffic on Finland’s eastern border isn’t quite up to pre-pandemic levels, but it’s still substantial. Some Finns go to buy cheap gas from Russia, despite widespread judgement, while many Russians visit Finland for shopping, family visits or checking their summer homes (which have been mostly empty since 2019). Since there are no flights from Russia to Europe, some Russians cross the land border to Finland on a bus or taxi and take a flight from Helsinki on their way to Paris, Milan and so on. It’s cheaper than connecting flights in Middle east.
Now, there’s a growing resentment in Finland and elsewhere about visa system that allows Russians to visit Schengen area. Other than Finland, several EU/Schengen countries (esp. ones with land border to Russia) have already severely restricted visa approvals for Russian citizens. Finland might not restrict new visa approvals for Russians, unless the EU orders so (Poland is currently lobbying for this). Even then, many Russians have long-term tourist visas to Finland and it’d be tricky to revoke those before they expire. Russian shoppers are economically important in certain areas of Finland, where businesses struggled badly through the pandemic.
I see increasingly heated arguments on whether it’s appropriate to allow Russian tourism in Finland during the Ukraine war. Some argue that punishing ordinary Russians (ie. other than sanctioned individuals) and isolating them from the outside world isn’t helpful for Ukraine or the Western community. Others argue that denying foreign holidays to relatively well-off Russians would potentially shake them out of a sense of normality and put more pressure on Putin’s regime. Then there’s raw appeals to people’s irrational sense of justice, like something must be done to prevent Russians from having fun or showing up in our country, when their government is murdering civilians in Ukraine.
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
CNN – “In a major boost to Democrats, Manchin and Schumer announce deal for energy and health care bill”:
More at the link.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
Guardian – “‘All bodies are beach bodies’: Spain’s equality ministry launches summer campaign”:
Related to #366, the Guardian’s “Best podcasts of the week” include Maintenance Phase (link to the latest episode @ #327 above).
Guardian – “‘It’s plunder’: Mexico desperate for water while drinks companies use billions of litres”:
‘Earth Overshoot Day’ comes earlier every year:
I have no recollection of ever hearing of EOD before, despite being involved at one level or another in closely-related matters since essentially the time of its invention. I hope Comité 21’s Laville is correct in that it (greatly) helps people’s understanding in a concrete manner, but have my doubts, in part because of an incident that happened to me last millennium (which I vaguely recall mentioning before somewhere here at FtB (Ed Brayton?)): I was trying to point out to a relative the States was consuming a disproportionate amount of the planet’s resources. From (possibly faulty) memory, at the time, the States had c.5% of the world’s population and consumed c.20% of the world’s resources (the disproportionality has since gotten worse, now c.4% consuming c.30% (figures not verified)). My relative’s response, paraphrasing from memory,
Excellent oped by David Adler in the Guardian – “Chile is updating its constitution for the 21st century. The US should follow its lead.”
My only criticism would be that it presents Chile as a singular instance, when this has been happening in other countries in the region (and beyond) for a while. Bolivia wrote a new constitution in 2009 (which includes this wonderful wording: “El Estado respeta y garantiza la libertad de religión y de creencias espirituales, de acuerdo con sus cosmovisiones”), and I won’t even go into how the 2009 coup in Honduras was a reaction [ahem] to the attempt to hold a non-binding referendum about convening a constituent assembly to rewrite the country’s 1982 constitution.
Adler recognizes these forces amassing in the case of Chile:
Guardian liveblog:
New podcast episodes:
Guardian – “Is Italy heading for its first far-right leader since Mussolini? “:
“Ukraine’s Window of Opportunity?”:
On the Media – “Great White Lies”:
A multiple times F1 chanpion anounces he’s retriing from the sport in part atleats becyuaes of Climate Change :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-28/vettel-announces-retirement-says-his-goals-have-shifted/101280462
Did not see coming. Respect. Hope folks here find this interesting – & hope this works.
Guardian liveblog:
Text quoted by SC in comment 365:
That made me laugh. No one is going to fall for Russia’s clumsy propaganda. And the use of “Ukronazi” reminds me of Trump’s infantile insults. Pitiful. Laughable.
From what I can see the Ukrainian counteroffensive seems to be proceeding carefully, step by step. This may take awhile, but it looks likely to succeed.
As for all those Russian missiles being fired from Belarus … that’s so frustrating. I agree that Belarus should be subject to even more sanctions, though I don’t know what kind of choices Belarus has. They are still under Russia’s thumb.
CNN – “Controversial Saudi-backed golf tournament to begin Friday at Trump golf course”:
More re #376 – CNN – “9/11 survivors’ group ‘appalled’ by ‘hurtful’ Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour ahead of event staged near Ground Zero”:
What would Republicans prioritize if given power?
Kevin McCarthy offered a peek at his party’s “No. 1 bill,” and it was unintentionally amusing.
“‘We’ll set the world on fire. We’ll put an end to the existence of the old world and start a new era, a new phase, headed by Russia.’
…
Follow Russia-watcher @JuliaDavisNews if you want to read the writing on the wall….”
Amazing subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. They’re just letting it all hang out.
USA Today:
Here is a list of the Republicans who voted against the bill:
Brian Babin of Texas
Andy Biggs of Arizona
Lauren Boebert of Colorado
Mo Brooks of Alabama
Ken Buck of Colorado
Andrew Clyde of Georgia
Matt Gaetz of Florida
Louie Gohmert of Texas
Paul Gosar of Arizona
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
Andy Harris of Maryland
Jody Hice of Georgia
Thomas Massie of Kentucky
Tom McClintock of California
Mary Miller of Illinois
Troy Nehls of Texas
Ralph Norman of South Carolina
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
Chip Roy of Texas
Van Taylor of Texas
Gaetz is under investigation (reportedly) for alleged sex trafficking.
LOL.
Trump Threatens To Sue Everyone For Calling His Big Lie A Big Lie
Ukraine update: Taking out the Dnipro River bridges creates opportunities that go way beyond Kherson
Philatelists take note:
Tweet with lovely photo:
The stamp shows a Ukrainian tractor flying the Ukrainian flag as it tows a Russian tank. A sunset sky is reflected in shallow water near the tractor’s route.
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1552621532379332608/photo/1
Some useful Ukraine-related reporting and analysis:
Reuters – “A Reuters Special Report: How Russia spread a secret web of agents across Ukraine”:
PBS NewsHour (YT link) – “Russia ramps up long-range strikes as Ukraine gets precision weapons from the West”:
Timothy Snyder on Substack – “The State of the Russo-Ukrainian War: The TELLMES tell us that Russia is losing”:
Guardian liveblog:
Text quoted by SC @384:
I thought so. I mean, think of what the Russians did with Paul Manafort acting against Ukrainian interests; and Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration in the occupied Kherson region, whom you mentioned in comment 365, has probably been in place as a Russian agent for years. Russian agents are plentiful in Ukraine. I don’t envy Zelensky as he tries to get rid of them.
Pharmacies reduce women to their ‘child-bearing potential’ in states with abortion bans
Inflation—tracing it back to Trump’s tax cuts:
Link
Wonkette: “Indiana AG Still ‘Investigating’ Doc Who Helped 10-Year-Old, God Knows Why”
The article is accompanied by a screen shot of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Fox News. The chyron reads: “WILL INDIANA ABORTION DOC BE CHARGED?”
Campaign news tidbits, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Link
Rut! Roh!… RNC Warns Trump That If He Runs For President Again They’ll Stop Paying His Legal Bills
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is such sad news that the Republican Party is having trouble raising money.
re Lynna @381:
I hope they respond in a similar fashion as Private Eye in Arkell v. Pressdram:
Euro 2022: Semi-final England 4 Sweden 0. England plays Germany in the final on Sunday.
England’s third goal in the semi was a thing of rare beauty (between the goalie’s legs), scored by Alessia Russo.
CNN – “Congress passes bill boosting US semiconductor production”:
LOL:
“Some people in Moscow have been taking down plaques memorialising residents executed/imprisoned in the 1930s, saying the names are of ‘enemies of the people’, according to the Doxa media outlet. You couldn’t get a starker symbol ..”
Video (no subtitles) and photos at the (Twitter) link.
“Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would provide benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, killing a procedural vote to end debate 55-42.”
On SC@396, I read somewhere earlier today (now cannot recall where) that — this isn’t quite how the source I read put it — teh thugs were surprised two of the wrenches they’d tried to insert into the gears didn’t work; namely, Manchin agreed to a environmental deal, and the semiconductor bill passed (on the same day!); hence, in a desperate attempt to insert a wrench into the wheels of what’s necessary and claim they did something today, they wrecked the veteran’s healthcare bill.
Someone at the HCA subreddit posted the first table here and linked to the source. It’s horrifying and depressing and provides a vivid picture of what’s happening in the US: “Top Causes of Death in U.S. for 2021 by Age Group.”
johnson catman @392: LOL
More humor, from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
For those who may not remember, Senator Joe Manchin is a Democrat, but he represents a red state. 70% of West Virginians voted for Trump. Manchin is in a tough spot, but his obstruction of the Democratic Party agenda went way too far … way too often. Today he partially redeems himself.
NBC News:
blf @ #397, that’s tragically plausible.
Steve Benen:
Washington Post: “How local journalists proved a 10-year-old’s abortion wasn’t a hoax.”
blf @397 and SC @401, Josh Marshall agrees:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/you-be-you
Update to #194!: Galati’s organization a few hours ago tweeted a link to the interview Pierce R. Butler found. He is indeed alive (and still a sour jerk – no appreciation for the work of the medical professionals who kept him alive). He was in “acute care” until late March, and admits that he’s still not 100%, which is evident from his speech and breathing in the few minutes I watched.
“‘Nobody’s really gotten to the bottom of 9/11′ says Trump in a disgusting lie to justify pocketing Saudi cash and hang with washed out and sold out golf celebrities….”
ESPN link at the link.
What a great picture! (Twitter link.)
“Both Sides Now from Joni Jam at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival.”
“Joni Mitchell ‘A Case of You’ with Brandi Carlile Live at Newport Folk Festival, July 24, 2022.”
“Joni Mitchell ‘Circle Game’ Live at Newport Folk Festival, Sunday, July 24, 2022.”
Three Aussie news stories of possible interest here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/simpsons-cartoon-characters-used-in-racist-episode-in-goolwa/101281604
& WARNING: Sexual assalut references :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/sexual-assaults-australia-record-high/101281802
& https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/dispute-over-whether-latest-covid-19-wave-in-sa-has-peaked/101281072
Eye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field
The problem is not just that Samuel Alito delivered a political speech. The problem is also that he keeps delivering political speeches
It’s tough to say whether Republicans are seriously outraged by the Manchin/Schumer deal or pretending to be hurt. Either way, their whining is incoherent.
Republican AGs Sue for Schools’ Right to Deny Free Lunches to Gay and Trans Kids
Ukraine Update: All eyes on Kherson as Ukraine tightens the noose
Followup to comment 415:
To view the photo, use the link in comment 415.
See also: https://twitter.com/WarInUkraine22/status/1552888143333965825
Good video.
Followup to comment 416.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
“#Russia has again shelled #Mykolayiv this morning. Coward attack against innocent civilians at the bus station claimed lives of at least 5 people. #russiaisateroriststate and it will be held accountable for all the crimes it commits.
#StandWithUkraine”
@413
I agree that lying to congress is a criminal offense, so it’s great that this GOP member agrees that they should be impeaching those lying lawyers that they appointed to SCOTUS.
Guardian liveblog:
Reuters – “U.S. accuses Russian of election interference campaign”:
Crooks & Liars – “OOPS! More Mysteriously Missing Texts From DHS Officials”:
“‘DO IT FOR THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY!’ a heckler yelled as Phil Mickelson prepared to hit his first shot at the LIV Golf event at Trump Bedminster. He had to step away from the ball.”
Well done, heckler.
Moscow Times – “Moscow’s Ex-Chief Rabbi Warns of ‘Dark Clouds’ for Russian Jews”:
“Kuleba urges the world to recognize Russia as a terrorist state after execution of Ukrainian POWs.
Foreign Minister Kuleba said that ‘Russia has committed another petrifying war crime by shelling a facility in the occupied Olenivka where (the Kremlin) held Ukrainian POWs’.”
I can’t link to the reports of the other atrocity involving a POW. I just can’t.
Tethys @420, good point.
SC @426, I have seen speculation that Russia was trying to cover up the fact that it has been torturing Ukrainian POWS … so it just blew them up with artillery shells. I will look for more information.
In other news: Asked about his Jan. 6 role, Josh Hawley touts his fundraising
Over and over again, when it comes to Jan. 6, Missouri’s Josh Hawley seems to have been preoccupied with one thing: money.
Good news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
YIKES! Makeup-free Trump. Navarro: “Tell me again about how Joe Biden is too old to run?”
I agree that it is Trump’s own obvious vanity, his bragging about his hair, etc. that makes it not ageism, but karma when photos of him looking more like a dotard go viral.
Republicans want to kill your spam filter, so every campaign email they send lands in your inbox
CNN – “Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine”:
Much more at the link.
re Lynna @430:
Spam is the equivalent of junk mail, not “a letter”. Of course, he has read EVERY piece of junk mail that he has ever received, and NEVER thrown any of it away. Do I need to say again that I HATE REPUBLICANS!!!?
Trump uses presidential seal at New Jersey golf club amid ethics complaints
Axios
Biden nominates abortion rights lawyer to be federal judge
Oriana Gonzalez / July 29,2022
Live blog PM Albanese giving a speech for a referendum for an Indigenous Voice to the Aussie Parlt here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-30/prime-minister-anthony-albanese-indigenous-voice-to-parliament/101276472
I just found an interesting phenomena.
One of the ways of measuring how well a society works is average life span.
Ukraine’s is 71.8 years in 2019. This isn’t all that good for a European country.
It is 77 years for women.
It is 67 years for men.
This is a gender difference of 10 years. The gender difference in the USA is 5 years.
It seems to be a number of factors but alcohol use is an important one. The men drink a lot of the local vodka, called horilka.
Another war crime by the Russians. They shelled one of their POW camps, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners.
This is complicated because the Russians are blaming it on the Ukrainians and there isn’t any independent assessment available, now or forever most likely.
I’m inclined to believe the Ukrainians because war crimes are what Russia does every day. This in fact, isn’t even the only war crime by them today, that other one being the video of them castrating a Ukrainian POW.
I haven’t watched the video.
I have no intention of ever watching the video.
People who have watched the video have some concise advice. Don’t.
How much more of these atrocities are we going to watch until we do enough to stop them?
This is a rhetorical question with no clear answer, of course.
We are now fighting this war to the last Ukrainian.
How moral and ethical is that anyway?
PS A few weeks ago, I met up with some of my old anti-Vietnam war protester-workers from the early 1970’s. The ones that are left anyway, some have died of age related causes. This is the peace monger- New Left viewpoint.
We all agreed that Russia is way in the wrong here and that the USA and NATO should be doing a whole lot more on the side of Ukraine.
We might be anti-war but we are also…anti-genocide.
Vale Archie Roach. Brilliant Indigenous singer, song-writer, legend :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-30/archie-roach-pioneering-indigenous-musician-dies/101285706
Some of the most powerful and moving and thought-provoking songs I’ve ever heard and a good human being. He will be well remembered and his music will live on. But a huge loss and sad news and died too soon.
Two of his best :
‘Took the Children Away’
‘Down City Streets’
Among so many more.
NB. Permission has apparently been granted from his family to continue using his name & showing his image from what I’ve read / heard.
Apologies. Forgot to put those in the anti-embedding code thingy. Mea culpa.
New York Times:
I will definitely get that booster as soon as it is available in September.
Associated Press:
New York Times:
While Americans Stare Down a Recession, Oil Companies Are Making Record Profits
The top three Western oil companies made $46 billion last quarter.
Followup to my comment 332, and to SC’s comment 426.
Ukrainian foreign minister warns against accepting ‘unfavorable cease-fire’ with Russia
Link
Live tracking on the falling Chinese rocket stage here on youtube stream here (currently 5 hours and 1 mins away with this discussed on space dot com here :
https://www.space.com/chinese-rocket-booster-third-uncontrolled-reentry
Whilst on the space junk theme this happened yesterday :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/space-junk-found-in-nsw-snowy-mountains-paddocks-/101277542
Thanks to Space X and was the biggest chunk of space debris to land on my continent since Skylab.. theyfined NASA then, wodner if they’ll fine Elon now?
Wonkette: “Christofascist Matt Walsh Knows Who Has Orgies, Okay?”
Wonkette: “Yee-haw! I’m Governor Greg Abbott, And I Say Covid’s Over! And Also Not Over!”
Search for Victims Continues in Kentucky After Floods Kill at Least 25
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/30/us/kentucky-flood-death-toll.html
As the weather clears temporarily in flood-stricken areas of the state, rescuers are still searching for victims. Officials expect the death toll to rise.
What is it like to play golf with Trump?
New York Times link
Ukraine update: Atrocity
re Lynna @450:I would wager that tfg has never played an honest round of golf ever.
Today’s Russian atrocity is just another threat to nuclear bomb someone.
This time it is Berlin.
At least it is something different. Usually it is me and my cat in the USA, London, or Poland.
This is a video with subtitles.
You can look at it yourself.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/wbxhze/general_of_the_russian_armed_forces_and_member_of/
I’m not quite sure why they want to bomb Berlin to dust.
They already did that once before.
johnson catman @452, right. TFG always cheats.
raven @253, yep. They are repeating themselves.
Followup to comment 451, with more updates from Ukraine:
Republican strategists are frustrated that gas prices are falling so quickly
Uh-oh, Trump’s golf event may have flopped, sort of. Small crowds!
Link
Militia groups are using forest fires and other emergency situations as opportunities to recruit new members:
Link
Wonkette: “Pharma Groups Hope To Scare Americans Into Letting Them Make Fools Of Us Forever”
Rail companies have been cutting costs to the bone, and workers are fed up
I agree with that last paragraph.
Ukraine update: Russia reportedly pulls forces from occupied towns to rush troops to Kherson
Followup to comment 460.
Ukraine update, additional details:
The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet was reportedly hit on Russia’s “Navy Day.”
Yale Study: “Actually, the Russian Economy is Imploding”
FBI manhunt for Gaetz supporter who left terrifying voicemail threatening to kill Rebekah Jones
Wonkette: “Let’s All Be Shocked And Surprised By This Matt Gaetz/Roger Stone Hot Mic Situation”
Wonkette: “Congress Votes To Ban Guns That Can Kill A Classroom Full Of Kids In Under A Minute”
Link
There are tiny things.
So easily overlooked.
Underappreciated. Understudied. Unknown.
Forgettable.
Insects.
Seem so numerous.
Base of the food chain.
Pollinators.
Prey.
Camouflaged flutters away.
Gone.
Going.
We lose.
We do not know what.
Until we do.
Because.
Consequences.
This is something I’ve noticed long ago and others as well.
Most of the christofascist GOP laws are designed to be cruel.
The whole point is to inflict suffering and misery on other people, especially if they are part of some already marginalized group.
Because being cruel shows you are in control.
CHLOE KELLY!!!!!!!
CONGRATULATIONS, ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It came home! Sweet Caroline, da da da…
Reuters – “Record crowd watches women’s Euro 2022 final at Wembley”:
Wonderful.
raven @468, “flamboyant” is also appropriate because the Republicans mentioned in that article are proud of their cruelty. They advertise it. They glory in it.
Twitter lights up Trump over Ivana’s “pauper” grave, but that’s definitely not the worst of it
OMFG.
A Texas blueprint for converting the ‘abortion-minded’: Lattes and a view.
Washington Post link
With abortion banned, a crisis pregnancy center plots a $10 million waterfront expansion for the post-Roe era.
More at the link.
re Lynna @465:
This seems like an underestimate unless you count reloading time. A semi-auto rifle like the AR-15 can fire one round per trigger pull, and you can pull the trigger a lot faster than once per second, so you can empty a 30-round clip in much less than 30 seconds.
Sweet Caroline
This company wants to pay you $100,000 a year to eat candy—here’s how to apply
Putin’s acolytes at it again, Anti-vax Twitter accounts pushing food crisis misinformation:
Has hair furor blathered this nonsense yet? I wouldn’t be surprised if he has, and won’t be surprised if he does so (again?) — or teh thugs in general, and especially the more Putin-kowtowing ones, e.g., those who voted against Finland and Sweden joining Nato.
Trial begins for Minnesota woman who sued after being denied morning-after pill
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
Also from there:
Sen. Josh Hawley published a piece this morning in the National Interest titled “Why I Won’t Vote to Add Sweden and Finland to NATO.”
I love that the Guardian has a continuing and still frequently updated liveblog about the Lionesses’ victory yesterday.
Also in the Guardian:
“‘Reality is scary’: climate culture war heats up for UK meteorologists”:
“Revelations since Shinzo Abe death shed light on Moonies’ influence”:
Here’s a link to this week’s Meduza news feed. From there:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US liveblog. From there:
Also, “China’s military ‘will not sit idly by’ if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan”:
Guardian liveblog:
The conveniently selective memory of Keven McCarthy: Hutchinson delivered sworn testimony about a dramatic Jan. 6 conversation she had with Kevin McCarthy. He claims to have no memory of that chat.
Sounds like McCarthy talked to her several times during the preceding week. We should get details of those conversations. It also sounds like McCarthy is bullying Cassidy Hutchinson.
Some recent podcast episodes:
SWAJ – “Weekly Roundup: Christian Nationalism is Not Imposter Christianity”:
Citations Needed – “Ep 164: Labor Union Depictions in Hollywood (Part I): From Demonized to Ignored or Mafia Plot Cliche”:
QAA – “Episode 197: New Age TikTok Rabbithole with Liv Agar”:
More podcast episodes:
Our Hen House – “Coextinction w/ Gloria Pancrazi & Michael Bronner”:
Oh god, what now? – “Posh Shoes vs Cheap Earrings”:
NBC – “Mulvaney says Jan. 6 committee asked about text message he sent to RNC chair Ronna McDaniel days after 2020 election”:
Ted Cruz shoots himself in the foot again:
Link
Ukraine Update: Russia has lost 40% of its GDP as foreign firms quit the country
More Ukraine update details:
At least 30 people have been killed as a result of Greg Abbott’s racist Operation Lone Star scheme
Sen. Cornyn has tested positive for COVID, so he’ll be in isolation this week, which improves the Dems’ chances of passing the reconciliation bill.
LOL
Trump Is Reportedly Whining To Sean Hannity About Dr. Oz Getting His Ass Handed To Him By John Fetterman
Oz keeps getting dumped on royally by practically everyone. Especially from John Oliver:
Other media outlets, like The Daily Beast, highlighted Oz’s track record of being a snake oil salesman.
Trump Pretty Sure US Should Let ‘Spoiled’ Brittney Griner Rot In Russian Prison
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657785200