Post by mhbruin on Feb 13, 2022 9:44:44 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 547 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 9f)
January had NO rain or snow. February looks the same.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
It's OK to Burn Books In Texas, But ...
A mob has killed a man for allegedly burning pages of the Koran in central Pakistan, police say, in the latest case of blasphemy-related violence in the country.
Police say they have arrested more than 80 people in connection with the killing on Saturday in the district of Khanewal in Punjab province.
Reports said the man was in police custody before a crowd snatched him.
Being Funny in India is No Joke
This time last year Nalin Yadav was detained in an Indian prison, not knowing when he would be let out.
"I didn't understand how or why this happened to me," said the 26-year-old stand-up comedian, who spent almost two months behind bars. "I couldn't sleep or eat. I had anxiety attacks. My mind wouldn't stop racing."
His alleged crime? Organizing and opening a show for a comic he says he had met just five minutes earlier -- a Muslim comedian accused of telling jokes that insulted the Hindu faith.
He and four others have pleaded not guilty over allegedly hurting and outraging religious sentiment during a comedy show last January. They are still awaiting trial for the charges and face three years in prison if convicted.
While comedy can be polarizing all over the world, in India telling jokes about Hinduism or being associated with someone who insults the majority faith can be enough to prompt legal action.
Experts say India's colonial-era laws are being used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to quash criticism and encourage self-censorship.
...
In November last year, Hindu comedian Vir Das' powerful monologue addressing India's rape crisis and the year-long farmers' protests against agricultural laws polarized the country.
Right-wing activists called for his arrest, while supporters rallied to his defense.
Ashutosh Dubey, a legal adviser to the BJP, accused Das of "defaming" India and filed a complaint with the Mumbai police over Das' "inflammatory" comments, according to a post he wrote on Twitter.
Fake Truckers Are No Joke, Either
Wherever this “freedom movement” manifests, a similar cast of characters emerges. Light-in-the-eyes zealots holler conspiracy theories. Grifters solicit to camera like a roll of tabloid clickbait. Burly, closed-mouth types appear to be handling secretive logistics. Around them are impassioned, often inarticulate – and poorly-costumed – clowns.
The street-level participants of these protests don’t have to be slick, admirable or coherent to be useful to this movement – just credulous, unquestioning and willing to be mobilised. Where the protest presence grows, so do arson attacks and warnings of escalating violence.
While You Are Sipping, They Will Be Slipping --- the Money Into Their Own Pockets
Officials have launched an “inquiry” into an upcoming Florida fundraiser featuring Melania Trump for a charity that isn’t registered in the state, as is required by law, The New York Times reported Saturday, and it isn’t clear whether the charity even exists.
Tickets are being sold to an “exclusive high tea” April 9 featuring the former first lady in Naples, Florida.
According to information from Trump’s office, the tea will raise money for the charity Fostering the Future, which is described as an initiative of Be Best, the anti-bullying mission launched by Trump when she was living in the White House. Money is supposed to fund computer science scholarships to young people who have been in foster care, according to the ticket sales site.
Tickets for a VIP table sponsor cost $50,000. Patron tickets are going for $3,000.
But no such charity is registered in Florida, the Times reported. Nor does it appear to exist anywhere else.
Speaking of Flushing Money Down the Toilet, ...
A Canadian judge has issued an injunction blocking money for the anti-vaccine trucker protesters in Ottawa collected by the right-wing U.S. Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo.
The Ontario government petitioned for the order from Canada’s Superior Court of Justice, which was issued Thursday. It prohibits “any and all parties with possession or control over these donations” from distributing the money.
The criminal code allows for such an action against any “offense-related property,” meaning assets collected as part of or supporting illegal activity, according to a spokesperson for Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
GiveSendGo defiantly declared in response to the court order: “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo.”
GiveSendGo has raised some $9 million for the “Freedom Convoy” and via the site’s “Adopt a Trucker” program. The site also encourages “prayers” for the controversial trucker “warriors” in their third week of protesting against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 precautions at the U.S.-Canadian border.
GiveSendGo has raised money for several far-right causes, and even for violent organizations, including the extremist Proud Boys, which is classified as a “terrorist” organization in Canada.
Crypto For Killers
Pink and green grenades covered in Bitcoin logos. Conference attendees decked out in either Hawaiian florals or camouflage, posing on ranges and bedrooms with their creations. “Print Guns Not Money” T-shirts, available for just $32.
Welcome to the Instagram feed of Guns N’ Bitcoin, a community for the growing movement to ensure an endless source of untraceable firearms.
The group, founded in 2019, promotes new ways to develop and purchase so-called “ghost guns” — guns that are 80% complete gun and are often sold with a kit of the materials needed to finish building the firearm. Another increasingly popular option is building ghost guns out of entirely 3D-printed parts. While legal, these guns have no serial number and don’t require background checks; their documented rise poses serious obstacles to law enforcement’s ability to track sales and distribution. These kits account for a growing number of guns used in crimes, and have led to a flurry of stories in recent months.
Less documented, however, is the growing popularity of these weapons among far-right and anti-government movements.
Drop Boxes Are Great for White People. Where Minorities Live, They Have Cooties
Immediately after a top Nevada Republican and “Big Lie” proponent was caught delivering conflicting messages about election integrity to urban and rural voters, he did it again — this time talking about mail-in ballots.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, the state’s leading Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told voters from a Las Vegas suburb last Friday that mail-in ballots and ballot drop boxes aren’t secure, echoing the false claim made frequently by former President Donald Trump.
“Those are not safe methods of voting, and for saying just that — and those are uncontroversial statements — I’m on “Morning Joe” this morning, and they’re attacking me,” he said, according to media reports out of Clark County, a Democratic part of the state that Laxalt has pinpointed as an alleged hotspot for voter fraud. “I’m on MSNBC last night.”
He told voters at that event that he wanted to repeal voting by mail and drop boxes.
Then later that day — and some 70 miles away — Laxalt did an about-face, encouraging voters at Nevada Treasure RV Resort in rural Nye County to get their neighbors to vote by mail against his opponent, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
“Because they do have mail-in balloting, even though it’s not the best system, if you have a neighbor that may vote with a mail ballot, you can reach that, reach that neighbor and go convince them to be involved,” he said in a new audio recording of a campaign event in Pahrump, Nevada, shared with HuffPost.
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Dueling Headlines
"Canada bridge protesters cleared by police after a week of disruption" (BBC)
"Is Trudeau losing his fight against truckers?" (Also BBC)
'Zero tolerance': Police towing trucks away, arresting protesters from US-Canadian bridge
"Blockades on Canada-U.S. border continue as protests swell"
"Police Arrest Protesters That Remained At U.S.-Canada Bridge"
Let Me Get This Straight. The Protesters Don't Want Restrictions that Disrupt People's Lives. So They Are Disrupting People's Lives.
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Friends Was Too Friendly for Them
Several Chinese streaming platforms have been accused of censoring LGBT plotlines from hit US sitcom Friends.
The show was re-released in China earlier this week on Tencent, Bilibili, Sohu, iQiyi and Alibaba's Youku.
But Chinese fans have complained of scenes being deleted, including those that reference a lesbian character, and another featuring a same-sex kiss.
It is unclear why the scenes have been removed, and none of the platforms have responded publicly to the accusations.
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Barry Manilow in a Cage Match With Twisted Sister. It Would Be Must-See TV.
New Zealand has employed an unusual tactic to disperse "Freedom Convoy" protesters on Sunday -- playing the hit songs of Barry Manilow and James Blunt, as well as the Spanish dance track "Macarena" by the band Los del Río.
The so-called "Freedom Convoy" rallies in several parts of the globe follow a movement in Canada which has seen truckers protesting against vaccine mandates, Covid-19 restrictions and the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In New Zealand's capital of Wellington, demonstrators have set up camp on the grounds of the country's parliament and have gathered on the streets to protest Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's vaccine mandate, according to CNN affiliate Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
RNZ reported that the protesters responded to the music with jeers and by playing back the 1984 song "We're Not Gonna Take It" by American band Twisted Sister, which has already been somewhat adopted as an anthem by the Canadian truckers.
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Judge Decides Environmentalists Were Not Crying "Wolf"
A federal judge reversed a Trump administration decision that removed the gray wolf from the endangered species list in the continental United States after a coalition of wildlife organizations argued the move seriously threatened the animal's population.
On Thursday, US District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Northern California ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States and other wildlife organizations against the US Department of the Interior in January 2021.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) "failed to adequately analyze and consider the impacts of partial delisting and of historical range loss on the already-listed species," White wrote in his decision, which restored gray wolf protections in 45 states.
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Splunk? That's the Best Name They Could Come Up With?
Network gear maker Cisco (CSCO) Systems has made a takeover offer worth more than $20 billion for software maker Splunk (SPLK), The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Just Because Hunger Is Out of the Headlines, Doesn't Mean It has Gone Away
Food pantries across the country are suffering from the supply shortage
Food pantries and food banks, which supply products to pantries, had already been seeing a profound increase in demand since the start of the pandemic. According to Victoria Lasavath at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, distribution was 145% more in April 2020 than it was before the pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, the food bank would serve about 300,000 families in a month, and now they serve 900,000 a month, almost 10% of the Los Angeles County population.
Meredith says they first started noticing a food shortage in Alabama 18 to 20 months ago. To ensure they don’t run out of food, they are trying to anticipate what they will need 10 to 12 weeks in advance. This is in stark contrast to their usual ordering pattern, when they ordered four to six weeks ahead. Most of their supply comes from the USDA, and 40% comes from bulk supply stores like Sam’s Club or Costco, but many of those wholesalers are also struggling to get product. He says canned vegetables have been particularly difficult to source.
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Why Is Molasses Merrick Taking So Long?
This guy explains in great detail what goes through a federal prosecutors mind while deciding whether to exercise federal jurisdiction in any particular case, and what a proactive grand jury investigation entails.
Spoiler alert, he thinks Merrick Garland and the DOJ will bring federal charges to (as he put it) Trump & Company.
"So friends, let’s finish with this. That process of federal investigations that I just described with the long exhaustive proactive investigations with no deadlines… That is ingrained in the DOJ culture and practice and psyche. And I fear that that might be part of the reason we’ve no timely indictments of Trump & Company.
"Let’s end on a positive note, because I do believe that ultimately there will be federal prosecutions of Trump & Company. There are too many good people at the Department of Justice for there not to be, and as others before me have said, “We don’t have the luxury of despair.” So, we fight on because justice matters.
The Longer It Looks Like Previous Guy Got Away With It, The More It Encourages Others.
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Who Won the Week?
The 100+ students at Huntington (WV) High School who staged a walkout to protest a mandatory evangelical assembly during which they were told to praise Jesus or they'd go to Hell
The journalists who won a court victory against the Minnesota State Patrol after officers attacked them during protests over the police killings of George Floyd & Daunte Wright
Vice President Kamala Harris, for releasing 70 new recommendations from her task force on strengthening workers' organizing rights in the federal government
The House, for passing (342-92) the Postal Service Reform Act to fix delivery delays and stop that stupid pension pre-funding bullcrap
Chantale Wong, who becomes the first openly lesbian Senate-confirmed ambassador as U.S. Director of the Asian Development Bank
The woman in the Safeway store who told Virginia's unmasked GOP governor: "Governor, where is your mask? Look around you, you’re in Alexandria. Read the room buddy!”
Dolly Parton, whose Dollywood Park will start covering 100% of tuition, fees & books for employees pursuing higher education starting on day 1 of their employment
The Missouri Supreme Court, for indefinitely suspending the law licenses of Mark & Patricia McCloskey, who waved loaded guns at Black Lives Matter protesters
President Biden: Announces $5 Billion national EV charging network; keeps Putin guessing; jobs, jobs, jobs; stays the course in the face of total media blackout on good news
The Gazpacho Police, for haunting Marjorie Taylor-Greene's nightmares
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This Would Be Handy If There Is Another Shortage of Toilet Paper
Now every potential best-seller needs some promotion and recommendations. So here’s what Trump's publishing house promised — basically a revisionist history of the one-term Trump presidency.
“President Donald J. Trump's first official book since leaving the White House. This photo book captures the greatness of the last four years unlike anything else that has been published. Every photograph has been handpicked by President Donald J. Trump, every caption written by him, some in his own handwriting!”
And it came with glowing recommendations from Sen. Rand Paul, Don Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Ivanka Trump.
As the Washington Post reviewer Charles wrote:
”Images are the perfect lexicon for Trump to articulate a fantastical revision of his four chaotic years in office. Freed from the complexities of language or the context of history, the former president spins a dreamscape of adulation and triumph.
“It’s remarkable how effectively this presentation captures Trump’s wandering mind and self-sabotaging bitterness.”
__ A photo of Trump meeting with in the Oval Office with John and Cindy McCain is captioned: “John McCain visited me in the White House, asking for a job for his wife. I am smiling, but I didn’t like him even a little bit.”
__ A photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, shown negotiating in a conference room is captioned: f---ing CRAZY — hence the name Crazy Nancy!” That caption was written with a Sharpie and placed over an image of the presidential seal.
“In short, this is a memoir spun from the thin gruel of musty propaganda and cherished grudges. Turning these pages is like watching an old man dust his Hummel figurines and whine about the neighbors.”
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Hillary Has a Comment on the Document Dump
Donald Trump was so “mind-numbingly incompetent” about protecting classified information that White House staffers were “legitimately scared” about ever turning it over to him, a former Trump administration official said on MSNBC’s “Deadline White House” Friday.
“It’s not just that he criticized [Hillary] Clinton and then did something similar. He did something vastly worse on multiple occasions, so much so that we were scared — legitimately scared — to take sensitive classified information into the Oval Office and tell the president of the United States about it,” said Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“That’s how bad it was,” he said. “We would talk about it before we would go in when we got certain briefs — ‘Can we talk to the president about this?’ — because there was a worry he would leak information to the public, to foreign adversaries.”
At one point, as Trump sat among a group of reporters, “he had classified information on his desk, and he grabbed it and held it up and waved it in the air to brag about how he gets really important information,” Taylor recalled. “I mean, our jaws hit the floor.”
Can "Gazpacho Police" Hats Be Far Behind?
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CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around holidays.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People 2 or More Doses | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Feb 13 | 555,669 | 252,054,215 | 213,869,678 | ||
| Feb 12 | 486,374 | 251,926,344 | 213,734,419 | ||
| Feb 11 | 568,820 | 251,755,851 | 213,563,173 | 175,395 | 2,241 |
| Feb 10 | 580,896 | 251,655,172 | 213,430,434 | 190,401 | 2,305 |
| Feb 9 | 591,786 | 251,467,303 | 213,246,140 | 215,418 | 2,313 |
| Feb 8 | 602,606 | 251,312,470 | 213,061,117 | 230,602 | 2,303 |
| Feb 7 | 611,742 | 251,176,199 | 212,920,278 | 247,319 | 2,404 |
| Feb 6 | 627,161 | 251,070,439 | 212,806,521 | 291,471 | 2,294 |
| Feb 5 | 655,591 | 250,915,858 | 212,657,682 | 298,890 | 2,331 |
| Feb 4 | 680,135 | 250,731,754 | 212,481,465 | 313,117 | 2,404 |
| Feb 3 | 719,986 | 250,593,665 | 212,336,183 | 343,563 | 2,371 |
| Feb 2 | 494,092 | 250,378,993 | 212,130,684 | 378,015 | 2,403 |
| Feb 1 | 510,477 | 250,184,240 | 211,954,555 | 415,552 | 2,369 |
| Jan 31 | 575,732 | 250,029,773 | 211,818,885 | 446,355 | 2,287 |
| Jan 30 | 603,030 | 249,892,470 | 211,695,131 | 497,296 | 2,234 |
| Jan 29 | 595,871 | 249,695,301 | 211,533,229 | 522,626 | 2,261 |
| Jan 28 | 626,946 | 249,473,925 | 211,343,818 | 543,016 | 2,265 |
| Jan 27 | 643,725 | 249,267,851 (I don't know why) | 211,162,083 | 577,748 | 2,300 |
| Jan 26 | 962,958 | 251,518,114 | 210,850,212 | 596,859 | 2,288 |
| Jan 25 | 1,011,603 | 251,289,667 | 210,682,471 | 627,294 | 2,246 |
| Jan 24 | 1,201,186 | 250,964,433 | 210,459,963 | 692,359 | 2,166 |
| Jan 23 | 1,101,405 | 250,763,600 | 210,358,008 | 663,908 | 1,936 |
| Jan 22 | 1,002,322 | 250,568,431 | 210,229,586 | 686,715 | 1,939 |
| Jan 21 | 1,035,111 | 250,262,153 | 210,021,766 | 716,829 | 1,974 |
| Jan 20 | 1,094,988 | 250,028,635 | 209,842,610 | 726,870 | 1,843 |
| Jan 19 | 1,135,453 | 249,702,939 | 209,509,297 | 744,615 | 1,749 |
| Jan 18 | 1,158,537 | 249,393,487 | 209,312,770 | 755,095 | 1,669 |
| Jan 17 | No Data | 736,350 | 1,746 | ||
| Jan 16 | No Data | 771,131 | 1,851 | ||
| Jan 15 | 1,268,202 | 248,707,432 | 208,995,438 | 788,628 | 1,858 |
| Jan 14 | 1,286,773 | 248,338,448 | 208,791,862 | 798,335 | 1,784 |
| Jan 13 | 1,291,013 | 247,987,225 | 208,564,894 | 794,587 | 1,730 |
| Jan 12 | 1,234,672 | 247,695,845 | 208,182,657 | 782,765 | 1,729 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 75.9% | 64.4% | 42.8% |
| % of Population 5+ | 80.7% | 68.4% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 85.6% | 73.0% | 44.2% |
| % of Population 18+ | 87.4% | 74.5% | 46.0% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.5% | 65.5% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 9f)
January had NO rain or snow. February looks the same.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 4 Weeks ago | 5 Weeks ago | 6 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 105% (59% of average for full season) | 113% | 124% | 134% | 149% | 158% | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 92% (51%) | 99% | 110% | 121% | 138% | 156% | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 84% (46%) | 91% | 101% | 112% | 127% | 145% | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 80% (58%) | 89% | 117% | 128% | 135% | 134% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 80% (57%) | 89% | 114% | 129% | 148% | 148% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 81% (57%) | 92% | 121% | 135% | 160% | 158% |
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
It's OK to Burn Books In Texas, But ...
A mob has killed a man for allegedly burning pages of the Koran in central Pakistan, police say, in the latest case of blasphemy-related violence in the country.
Police say they have arrested more than 80 people in connection with the killing on Saturday in the district of Khanewal in Punjab province.
Reports said the man was in police custody before a crowd snatched him.
Being Funny in India is No Joke
This time last year Nalin Yadav was detained in an Indian prison, not knowing when he would be let out.
"I didn't understand how or why this happened to me," said the 26-year-old stand-up comedian, who spent almost two months behind bars. "I couldn't sleep or eat. I had anxiety attacks. My mind wouldn't stop racing."
His alleged crime? Organizing and opening a show for a comic he says he had met just five minutes earlier -- a Muslim comedian accused of telling jokes that insulted the Hindu faith.
He and four others have pleaded not guilty over allegedly hurting and outraging religious sentiment during a comedy show last January. They are still awaiting trial for the charges and face three years in prison if convicted.
While comedy can be polarizing all over the world, in India telling jokes about Hinduism or being associated with someone who insults the majority faith can be enough to prompt legal action.
Experts say India's colonial-era laws are being used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to quash criticism and encourage self-censorship.
...
In November last year, Hindu comedian Vir Das' powerful monologue addressing India's rape crisis and the year-long farmers' protests against agricultural laws polarized the country.
Right-wing activists called for his arrest, while supporters rallied to his defense.
Ashutosh Dubey, a legal adviser to the BJP, accused Das of "defaming" India and filed a complaint with the Mumbai police over Das' "inflammatory" comments, according to a post he wrote on Twitter.
Fake Truckers Are No Joke, Either
Wherever this “freedom movement” manifests, a similar cast of characters emerges. Light-in-the-eyes zealots holler conspiracy theories. Grifters solicit to camera like a roll of tabloid clickbait. Burly, closed-mouth types appear to be handling secretive logistics. Around them are impassioned, often inarticulate – and poorly-costumed – clowns.
The street-level participants of these protests don’t have to be slick, admirable or coherent to be useful to this movement – just credulous, unquestioning and willing to be mobilised. Where the protest presence grows, so do arson attacks and warnings of escalating violence.
While You Are Sipping, They Will Be Slipping --- the Money Into Their Own Pockets
Officials have launched an “inquiry” into an upcoming Florida fundraiser featuring Melania Trump for a charity that isn’t registered in the state, as is required by law, The New York Times reported Saturday, and it isn’t clear whether the charity even exists.
Tickets are being sold to an “exclusive high tea” April 9 featuring the former first lady in Naples, Florida.
According to information from Trump’s office, the tea will raise money for the charity Fostering the Future, which is described as an initiative of Be Best, the anti-bullying mission launched by Trump when she was living in the White House. Money is supposed to fund computer science scholarships to young people who have been in foster care, according to the ticket sales site.
Tickets for a VIP table sponsor cost $50,000. Patron tickets are going for $3,000.
But no such charity is registered in Florida, the Times reported. Nor does it appear to exist anywhere else.
Speaking of Flushing Money Down the Toilet, ...
A Canadian judge has issued an injunction blocking money for the anti-vaccine trucker protesters in Ottawa collected by the right-wing U.S. Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo.
The Ontario government petitioned for the order from Canada’s Superior Court of Justice, which was issued Thursday. It prohibits “any and all parties with possession or control over these donations” from distributing the money.
The criminal code allows for such an action against any “offense-related property,” meaning assets collected as part of or supporting illegal activity, according to a spokesperson for Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
GiveSendGo defiantly declared in response to the court order: “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo.”
GiveSendGo has raised some $9 million for the “Freedom Convoy” and via the site’s “Adopt a Trucker” program. The site also encourages “prayers” for the controversial trucker “warriors” in their third week of protesting against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 precautions at the U.S.-Canadian border.
GiveSendGo has raised money for several far-right causes, and even for violent organizations, including the extremist Proud Boys, which is classified as a “terrorist” organization in Canada.
Crypto For Killers
Pink and green grenades covered in Bitcoin logos. Conference attendees decked out in either Hawaiian florals or camouflage, posing on ranges and bedrooms with their creations. “Print Guns Not Money” T-shirts, available for just $32.
Welcome to the Instagram feed of Guns N’ Bitcoin, a community for the growing movement to ensure an endless source of untraceable firearms.
The group, founded in 2019, promotes new ways to develop and purchase so-called “ghost guns” — guns that are 80% complete gun and are often sold with a kit of the materials needed to finish building the firearm. Another increasingly popular option is building ghost guns out of entirely 3D-printed parts. While legal, these guns have no serial number and don’t require background checks; their documented rise poses serious obstacles to law enforcement’s ability to track sales and distribution. These kits account for a growing number of guns used in crimes, and have led to a flurry of stories in recent months.
Less documented, however, is the growing popularity of these weapons among far-right and anti-government movements.
Drop Boxes Are Great for White People. Where Minorities Live, They Have Cooties
Immediately after a top Nevada Republican and “Big Lie” proponent was caught delivering conflicting messages about election integrity to urban and rural voters, he did it again — this time talking about mail-in ballots.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, the state’s leading Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told voters from a Las Vegas suburb last Friday that mail-in ballots and ballot drop boxes aren’t secure, echoing the false claim made frequently by former President Donald Trump.
“Those are not safe methods of voting, and for saying just that — and those are uncontroversial statements — I’m on “Morning Joe” this morning, and they’re attacking me,” he said, according to media reports out of Clark County, a Democratic part of the state that Laxalt has pinpointed as an alleged hotspot for voter fraud. “I’m on MSNBC last night.”
He told voters at that event that he wanted to repeal voting by mail and drop boxes.
Then later that day — and some 70 miles away — Laxalt did an about-face, encouraging voters at Nevada Treasure RV Resort in rural Nye County to get their neighbors to vote by mail against his opponent, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
“Because they do have mail-in balloting, even though it’s not the best system, if you have a neighbor that may vote with a mail ballot, you can reach that, reach that neighbor and go convince them to be involved,” he said in a new audio recording of a campaign event in Pahrump, Nevada, shared with HuffPost.
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Dueling Headlines
"Canada bridge protesters cleared by police after a week of disruption" (BBC)
"Is Trudeau losing his fight against truckers?" (Also BBC)
'Zero tolerance': Police towing trucks away, arresting protesters from US-Canadian bridge
"Blockades on Canada-U.S. border continue as protests swell"
"Police Arrest Protesters That Remained At U.S.-Canada Bridge"
Let Me Get This Straight. The Protesters Don't Want Restrictions that Disrupt People's Lives. So They Are Disrupting People's Lives.
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Friends Was Too Friendly for Them
Several Chinese streaming platforms have been accused of censoring LGBT plotlines from hit US sitcom Friends.
The show was re-released in China earlier this week on Tencent, Bilibili, Sohu, iQiyi and Alibaba's Youku.
But Chinese fans have complained of scenes being deleted, including those that reference a lesbian character, and another featuring a same-sex kiss.
It is unclear why the scenes have been removed, and none of the platforms have responded publicly to the accusations.
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Barry Manilow in a Cage Match With Twisted Sister. It Would Be Must-See TV.
New Zealand has employed an unusual tactic to disperse "Freedom Convoy" protesters on Sunday -- playing the hit songs of Barry Manilow and James Blunt, as well as the Spanish dance track "Macarena" by the band Los del Río.
The so-called "Freedom Convoy" rallies in several parts of the globe follow a movement in Canada which has seen truckers protesting against vaccine mandates, Covid-19 restrictions and the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In New Zealand's capital of Wellington, demonstrators have set up camp on the grounds of the country's parliament and have gathered on the streets to protest Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's vaccine mandate, according to CNN affiliate Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
RNZ reported that the protesters responded to the music with jeers and by playing back the 1984 song "We're Not Gonna Take It" by American band Twisted Sister, which has already been somewhat adopted as an anthem by the Canadian truckers.
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Judge Decides Environmentalists Were Not Crying "Wolf"
A federal judge reversed a Trump administration decision that removed the gray wolf from the endangered species list in the continental United States after a coalition of wildlife organizations argued the move seriously threatened the animal's population.
On Thursday, US District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Northern California ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States and other wildlife organizations against the US Department of the Interior in January 2021.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) "failed to adequately analyze and consider the impacts of partial delisting and of historical range loss on the already-listed species," White wrote in his decision, which restored gray wolf protections in 45 states.
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Splunk? That's the Best Name They Could Come Up With?
Network gear maker Cisco (CSCO) Systems has made a takeover offer worth more than $20 billion for software maker Splunk (SPLK), The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Just Because Hunger Is Out of the Headlines, Doesn't Mean It has Gone Away
Food pantries across the country are suffering from the supply shortage
Food pantries and food banks, which supply products to pantries, had already been seeing a profound increase in demand since the start of the pandemic. According to Victoria Lasavath at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, distribution was 145% more in April 2020 than it was before the pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, the food bank would serve about 300,000 families in a month, and now they serve 900,000 a month, almost 10% of the Los Angeles County population.
Meredith says they first started noticing a food shortage in Alabama 18 to 20 months ago. To ensure they don’t run out of food, they are trying to anticipate what they will need 10 to 12 weeks in advance. This is in stark contrast to their usual ordering pattern, when they ordered four to six weeks ahead. Most of their supply comes from the USDA, and 40% comes from bulk supply stores like Sam’s Club or Costco, but many of those wholesalers are also struggling to get product. He says canned vegetables have been particularly difficult to source.
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Why Is Molasses Merrick Taking So Long?
This guy explains in great detail what goes through a federal prosecutors mind while deciding whether to exercise federal jurisdiction in any particular case, and what a proactive grand jury investigation entails.
Spoiler alert, he thinks Merrick Garland and the DOJ will bring federal charges to (as he put it) Trump & Company.
"So friends, let’s finish with this. That process of federal investigations that I just described with the long exhaustive proactive investigations with no deadlines… That is ingrained in the DOJ culture and practice and psyche. And I fear that that might be part of the reason we’ve no timely indictments of Trump & Company.
"Let’s end on a positive note, because I do believe that ultimately there will be federal prosecutions of Trump & Company. There are too many good people at the Department of Justice for there not to be, and as others before me have said, “We don’t have the luxury of despair.” So, we fight on because justice matters.
The Longer It Looks Like Previous Guy Got Away With It, The More It Encourages Others.
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Who Won the Week?
The 100+ students at Huntington (WV) High School who staged a walkout to protest a mandatory evangelical assembly during which they were told to praise Jesus or they'd go to Hell
The journalists who won a court victory against the Minnesota State Patrol after officers attacked them during protests over the police killings of George Floyd & Daunte Wright
Vice President Kamala Harris, for releasing 70 new recommendations from her task force on strengthening workers' organizing rights in the federal government
The House, for passing (342-92) the Postal Service Reform Act to fix delivery delays and stop that stupid pension pre-funding bullcrap
Chantale Wong, who becomes the first openly lesbian Senate-confirmed ambassador as U.S. Director of the Asian Development Bank
The woman in the Safeway store who told Virginia's unmasked GOP governor: "Governor, where is your mask? Look around you, you’re in Alexandria. Read the room buddy!”
Dolly Parton, whose Dollywood Park will start covering 100% of tuition, fees & books for employees pursuing higher education starting on day 1 of their employment
The Missouri Supreme Court, for indefinitely suspending the law licenses of Mark & Patricia McCloskey, who waved loaded guns at Black Lives Matter protesters
President Biden: Announces $5 Billion national EV charging network; keeps Putin guessing; jobs, jobs, jobs; stays the course in the face of total media blackout on good news
The Gazpacho Police, for haunting Marjorie Taylor-Greene's nightmares
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This Would Be Handy If There Is Another Shortage of Toilet Paper
Now every potential best-seller needs some promotion and recommendations. So here’s what Trump's publishing house promised — basically a revisionist history of the one-term Trump presidency.
“President Donald J. Trump's first official book since leaving the White House. This photo book captures the greatness of the last four years unlike anything else that has been published. Every photograph has been handpicked by President Donald J. Trump, every caption written by him, some in his own handwriting!”
And it came with glowing recommendations from Sen. Rand Paul, Don Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Ivanka Trump.
As the Washington Post reviewer Charles wrote:
”Images are the perfect lexicon for Trump to articulate a fantastical revision of his four chaotic years in office. Freed from the complexities of language or the context of history, the former president spins a dreamscape of adulation and triumph.
“It’s remarkable how effectively this presentation captures Trump’s wandering mind and self-sabotaging bitterness.”
__ A photo of Trump meeting with in the Oval Office with John and Cindy McCain is captioned: “John McCain visited me in the White House, asking for a job for his wife. I am smiling, but I didn’t like him even a little bit.”
__ A photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, shown negotiating in a conference room is captioned: f---ing CRAZY — hence the name Crazy Nancy!” That caption was written with a Sharpie and placed over an image of the presidential seal.
“In short, this is a memoir spun from the thin gruel of musty propaganda and cherished grudges. Turning these pages is like watching an old man dust his Hummel figurines and whine about the neighbors.”
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Hillary Has a Comment on the Document Dump
Donald Trump was so “mind-numbingly incompetent” about protecting classified information that White House staffers were “legitimately scared” about ever turning it over to him, a former Trump administration official said on MSNBC’s “Deadline White House” Friday.
“It’s not just that he criticized [Hillary] Clinton and then did something similar. He did something vastly worse on multiple occasions, so much so that we were scared — legitimately scared — to take sensitive classified information into the Oval Office and tell the president of the United States about it,” said Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“That’s how bad it was,” he said. “We would talk about it before we would go in when we got certain briefs — ‘Can we talk to the president about this?’ — because there was a worry he would leak information to the public, to foreign adversaries.”
At one point, as Trump sat among a group of reporters, “he had classified information on his desk, and he grabbed it and held it up and waved it in the air to brag about how he gets really important information,” Taylor recalled. “I mean, our jaws hit the floor.”
Can "Gazpacho Police" Hats Be Far Behind?
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