Post by mhbruin on Feb 19, 2022 8:34:43 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 550 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 15)
January had NO rain or snow. February looks the same.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
El Chapo, Then El Mencho . Is Narcos Mexico (A Great Show) Already Working on the Story?
The Mexican army has taken control of the hometown of a powerful drug lord in the state of Michoacán, west Mexico.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes - known as "El Mencho" - was born in the town of Naranjo de Chila, Aguililla, and is wanted in Mexico and the US.
Landmines planted by rival gangs in the surrounding area killed one person and injured others in recent weeks.
Army vehicles and landmine detection teams are patrolling the town.
"El Mencho", who leads the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), has been on the run for years.
His gang is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico is believed to be behind attacks on Mexican security forces, such as a 2015 ambush in Jalisco which left 15 officers dead and the attempted assassination of Mexico City's police chief in 2020.
The Couple That Spies Together, We Despise Together
A US Navy engineer's wife has pleaded guilty to helping her husband try to sell secrets about nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign country.
Diana Toebbe, 46, acted as a lookout while her husband left information at a "dead drop" spot, once hiding a data card inside a peanut butter sandwich.
A former teacher, she will go to prison for up to three years under her plea deal with federal prosecutors.
Her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this week.
Under his plea deal, he will receive a sentence of about 12-17 years.
Both of the Toebbes pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to conspiring to communicate restricted data.
A Bad Week for a Bad Man. That's a Good Week For Us.
Former President Donald Trump was 0-3 in three high-profile legal battles this week, with new rulings that boosted significant cases his opponents have brought against him.
Perhaps the most significant of all the courtroom defeats suffered recently by Trump was a judge's refusal Friday to dismiss several civil lawsuits filed against him for his alleged role in the January 6 US Capitol attack.
In the 112-page opinion, US District Judge Amit Mehta said that Trump could face trial for his conduct around last year's insurrection.
The ruling was a kicker to a week when attorneys general in Washington, DC, and New York secured victories in their efforts to gather evidence as to whether his businesses broke the law. While Trump continues to wield significant political loyalty and could well be the Republicans' 2024 presidential nominee, the legal turmoil surrounding him shows no signs of slowing.
Exposure for his business
Trump's case for his 2020 election rested on the image created around his supposed business savvy. Now his company is a major source of the legal problems facing the former President.
The week started with a DC Superior Court judge reinstating the Trump Organization as a defendant in DC Attorney General Karl Racine's lawsuit alleging that funds for the 2017 inauguration were misused. After reversing on Monday a prior decision that had dismissed the company from the case, Judge Yvonne Williams also said on Thursday that Racine's office could question the company's ex-Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg in a limited deposition.
Racine alleges that inaugural funds were used to pay off a debt incurred by a hotel room block reserved for Trump Organization employees. He is seeking to recover the nearly $1.1 million that he claims was improperly spent during the inauguration, in violation of DC non-profit law.
Ordered to testify in New York AG's investigation
As Williams was setting a September trial date in Racine's case, a judge more than 200 miles away was hearing Trump's arguments for why he should quash subpoenas in New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization's business practices, arguments the judge would ultimately reject.
James is investigating whether Trump's company misled insurers, lenders and others who relied on its financial statements. Hours after a contentious hearing on Thursday morning, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump, as well as his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to sit for testimony in her civil probe.
Dumped by accountant
In the lead-up to Thursday's hearing, James also revealed, via a Monday evening court filing, that Trump's accounting firm had recently told him that the last 10 years of financial statements the firm prepared for him could no longer be relied upon.
The firm put Trump on notice that other parties that have been relying on the financial materials assembled by Mazars should be made aware that those financial statements are not reliable.
"This is about as calamitous a thing that could happen to a business that you can imagine -- other than getting indicted or going bankrupt," George Conway, conservative lawyer and outspoken Trump critic, told CNN's "AC360" on Monday evening. "And this could lead to going bankrupt."
Liability for January 6
Trump is no stranger to litigation around his business. But Friday's ruling allowing three January 6 civil lawsuits filed against him to move forward said his remarks ahead of the assault presented a "one-of-a-kind" case, the judge said, where the First Amendment would not shield him from liability.
"The President's January 6 Rally Speech can reasonably be viewed as a call for collective action," Mehta wrote in his 112-page opinion, adding that the statements were "the essence of civil conspiracy"
A Las Vegas woman who admitted to pushing an elderly man off a public transit bus in 2019 was sentenced to prison Friday as part of a plea bargain.
To Top Off Previous Guy's Bad Week
The National Archives and Records Administration confirmed on Friday that it found classified material among the boxes of White House documents that former President Donald Trump improperly took to Mar-a-Lago.
"NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes" that have been returned to the agency from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, Archivist David S. Ferriero acknowledged in a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Not the Way to Treat Us Old People, No Matter How Grouchy We Are
Cadesha Bishop, who was 25 years old at the time of the crime, received a sentence of eight to 20 years for abuse of an older person resulting in death.
On March 21, 2019, Bishop was captured on bus surveillance video arguing with Serge Fournier, 74. When the vehicle stopped and Fournier turned his back to exit the bus, Bishop was seen pushing him, causing him to fall onto the sidewalk below.
Fournier was hospitalized later that day and died more than a month later of complications from blunt force trauma to the torso, according to the Clark County Coroner-Medical Examiner. Officials then ruled his death a homicide.
Book Burning, Now Stopping Academic Freedom. Sounds Fascist to Me.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has vowed to end tenure for new hires at public universities and colleges in an attempt to stop the teaching of critical race theory.
Patrick spoke at a press conference Friday where he responded to a resolution by the Faculty Council at the University of Texas this week that affirmed the "fundamental rights of faculty to academic freedom," including the teaching of race and gender theory.
"Hiding behind this academic freedom argument just doesn't work," Patrick said. "We believe in academic freedom, but everyone has guidelines in mind. Everyone has barriers, everyone has boundaries, everyone's held accountable to someone."
Critical race theory is an academic concept which acknowledges that racism is systemic and institutional in American society, and it examines the beliefs that allow it to flourish.
How Fascist Does This Sound?
In 2021, there were at least 153 bills in 35 state legislatures aimed at limiting the state courts’ ability to rule in elections, their independence, and to make them more partisan. According to the Brennan Center’s court, in 14 states at least 19 of the those bills became law, and there were another 53 that advanced. Some of the new laws specifically restrict what judges will be allowed to do: ensuring access to polls, extending polling hours because of long lines, or even ordering changes or suspending state election laws. Other new laws change the very process for selecting state judges, try to limit state courts from hearing election cases, and make it easier to target and remove judges for decisions the Republican majority doesn’t like.
Case in point: Texas. Legislation there “would have changed the judges that hear certain election-related disputes” or created a new “state elections tribunal” to hear such cases. Those bills didn’t make it out of committee, but that hasn’t stopped Republican officials from going on offense, quite literally.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is calling for MAGA-type voters to harass and intimidate the judges in Texas’ highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals. In December, that court ruled 8-1 that a law giving Paxton power to unilaterally prosecute election cases violated the state constitution’s separation of powers clause, and tossed it. Paxton since has gone on LindellTV, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s conservative broadcast platform, and Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast calling for his supporters to harass the judges. “Call them out by name. I mean, you can look them up. There’s eight of them that voted the wrong way. Call them, send mail, send email.”
26% of Americans Like Fascism
A June, 2021 Morning Consult poll found that about 26 percent of Americans now embrace authoritarian leanings, about twice the proportion found in other democratic nations. The reason, I believe, is that Donald Trump has socially encouraged and authorized their behavior, resulting in a nationwide acceptance and amplification of antisocial activities.
Stealing From Granny
Grandparent scams typically work something like this: The victim gets a call from someone posing as his or her grandchild. This person explains, in a frantic-sounding voice, that he or she is in trouble: There’s been an accident, or an arrest, or a robbery. To up the drama and urgency, the caller might claim to be hospitalized or stuck in a foreign country; to make the impersonation more convincing, he or she will throw in a few family particulars, gleaned from the actual grandchild’s social media activity.
The impostor offers just enough detail about where and how the emergency happened to make it seem plausible and perhaps turns the phone over to another scammer who pretends to be a doctor, police officer or lawyer and backs up the story. The “grandchild” implores the target to wire money immediately, adding an anxious plea: “Don’t tell Mom and Dad!”
I Wonder What Coal Joe Thinks
Senate Republicans launched a scorch-earth attack this week on Sarah Bloom Raskin, the White House’s nominee to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chair of supervision, painting her as a radical for her widely shared view that climate change threatens the global economy.
Rather than voting no at Tuesday’s planned vote on whether to advance Raskin and two other Fed nominees to the full Senate, the 12 Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee staged a boycott, denying the panel’s Democratic majority the quorum needed to take that procedural step.
On Wednesday, 10 more GOP senators called on the White House to withdraw Raskin’s nomination, describing her as an “activist” bent on “manipulating markets” in ways that “will harm all Americans” in a letter, a copy of which HuffPost obtained.
If confirmed, Raskin, 60, would become one of the world’s most powerful bank regulators. The role was created after the Great Recession to guard against future financial meltdowns, and though the financial industry largely welcomed the nomination of a seasoned and familiar regulator who previously served as deputy treasury secretary and on the Fed’s board of governors, it’s the oil and gas industry that’s fueling the Republican assault.
Raskin, who is married to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), entered the industry’s crosshairs in March 2020, when, in testimony before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, she called for new federal rules requiring investors to disclose the risk that climate change poses to assets. She then urged U.S. regulators to carry out the kind of climate “stress tests” ― models to determine how a financial institution’s assets gain or lose value if, for example, a natural disaster upends supply chains or a government policy to cut emissions renders fossil fuel reserves worthless ― that the Bank of England and European Central Bank were already performing.
Can TucKKKer Get Even Weirder?
In one of the weirdest attacks by Tucker Carlson in recent memory, he bashed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday as an “rich, entitled white lady.”
AOC, as everyone — including the Fox News host — knows, is of Puerto Rican heritage.
She underscored that with a Spanish insult, saying Carlson’s attack is what someone says whose “name starts with ‘p’ and ends with ‘dejo,’” meaning he’s a pendejo — a stupid asshole. She also called him a “creep” for his obsession with her.
Another Really Fine Person
A man accused in the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old in a Utah park last July told police he figured he was already on the FBI’s radar — for flashing a gun during the Capitol riot.
“I was in the D.C. riots. You can look me up, OK?” Salt Lake City police said John Emanuel Banuelos told them seven months ago, after he was arrested in Liberty Park after the July 4 killing. “I’m the one in the video with the gun right here,” he said, according to police, his description of the video appearing to match a viral Vice News footage that showed a man flashing a weapon in his waistband while outside the U.S. Capitol.
How Much Do You Have to Pay To Get Away With Mass Murder? How Much of Their $11 Billion?
The Sackler family owners of Purdue Pharma LP have proposed a new and larger settlement worth up to $6 billion to resolve allegations that the OxyContin maker and its owners contributed to the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic, a mediator's report showed on Friday.
The mediator, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman, has been overseeing talks between Sackler family members and eight states and the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in December blocked an earlier $4.33 billion proposed settlement that would have legally shielded the family members, a decision that threatened to upend Purdue's bankruptcy reorganization.
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Looking for Workers? Here's Where to Find a Million of Them
The labor shortage has been a defining feature of the pandemic job market and it's not getting better any time soon. But there is a whole group of workers who are being overlooked even though they could be part of the solution.
Criminal records are keeping certain workers from finding good jobs. This is particularly true of men in their 30s.
More than half of that group has a history of criminal conviction or arrest that keeps them from fully participating in the labor market, a study from nonprofit research group RAND Corporation released Friday found. As of January, just over one million men between the ages of 24 and 35 were counted as unemployed, the biggest group of jobless males, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By 35, some 64% of unemployed men have been arrested, and about 46% have been convicted of a crime, according to the study. Nearly a third of American adults have been arrested at least once, a far higher level than in comparable Western European countries.
This surprising solution to the 'Great Resignation' is right in front of us
This surprising solution to the 'Great Resignation' is right in front of us
"Employers need to understand that one big reason they cannot find the workers they need is too often they exclude those who have had involvement with the criminal justice system," said Shawn Bushway, the study's lead author and a senior policy researcher at RAND.
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Another Win For the Good Guys
Thank you, Sandy Hook families, for taking on the gunmakers
“Sandy Hook families win ‘unwinnable’ case.”
Yes, this was the best headline heralding the victory Tuesday of nine families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims in their lawsuit against the now-bankrupt Remington Arms Co. The gunmaker manufactured the AR-15-style weapon used to murder 20 first-graders and six adults on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Conn.
I Am Sure They Would Rather Have Their Kids
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Somebody Deserves a Different Kind of Medal
lism-gets-a-closer-look
And Somebody Else Doesn't
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Is Buffy Retiring?
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Is Putin Russian Into War?
Tensions continued to mount in the east of Ukraine on Saturday after reports of increased shelling in the region overnight. Russia said it was opening an investigation into Russian media reports that a Ukrainian shell exploded near its border, amid U.S. warnings that the Kremlin could stage a violent incident as a pretext for invasion.
Russian-backed separatist leaders declared a full military mobilization in the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk and ordered the evacuation of civilians to Russia. They accused Ukraine of planning an invasion of rebel-held territory, which the Ukrainian government denied.
Ukraine's military said one of its soldiers was killed Saturday in the government-held part of the Donetsk region, and that separatists were trying to provoke a response.
Here's Part of What Is Waiting.
Moscow would have its access to financial markets and high-tech goods limited under Western sanctions being prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine, one of the European Union's top officials said Saturday.
The comments from Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU's executive commission, came as tensions over Russia's intentions toward Ukraine intensified. U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he was convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade the neighboring country.
“In case that Russia strikes, we will limit the access to financial markets for the Russian economy and (impose) export controls that will stop the possibility for Russia to modernize and diversify its economy,” she added. “And we have a lot of high-tech goods where we have a global dominance, and that are absolutely necessary for Russia and cannot be replaced easily.”
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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 19 | 473,537 | 252,791,817 | 214,745,073 | ||
| Feb 18 | 491,120 | 252,650,507 | 214,602,856 | 103,462 | 1,920 |
| Feb 17 | 493,892 | 252,539,755 | 214,474,721 | 112,653 | 1,998 |
| Feb 16 | 516,988 | 252,400,057 | 214,218,580 | 121,664 | 2,020 |
| Feb 15 | 544,184 | 252,277,758 | 214,104,148 | 134,468 | 2,100 |
| Feb 14 | 546,667 | 252,144,326 | 213,962,983 | 146,921 | 2,208 |
| Feb 13 | 555,669 | 252,054,215 | 213,869,678 | 161,197 | 2,196 |
| Feb 12 | 486,374 | 251,926,344 | 213,734,419 | 168,881 | 2,197 |
| 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 |
| 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 | 76.1% | 64.7% | 43.2% |
| % of Population 5+ | 80.9% | 68.8% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 85.9% | 73.2% | 44.7% |
| % of Population 18+ | 87.7% | 74.8% | 46.5% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.7% | 65.9% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 15)
January had NO rain or snow. February looks the same.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 7 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 99% (59%) | 105% (59% of average for full season) | 113% | 124% | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 86% (51%) | 92% (51%) | 99% | 110% | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 79% (46%) | 84% (46%) | 91% | 101% | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 68% (53%) | 80% (58%) | 89% | 134% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 75% (57%) | 80% (57%) | 89% | 148% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 74% (54%) | 81% (57%) | 92% | 158% |
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
El Chapo, Then El Mencho . Is Narcos Mexico (A Great Show) Already Working on the Story?
The Mexican army has taken control of the hometown of a powerful drug lord in the state of Michoacán, west Mexico.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes - known as "El Mencho" - was born in the town of Naranjo de Chila, Aguililla, and is wanted in Mexico and the US.
Landmines planted by rival gangs in the surrounding area killed one person and injured others in recent weeks.
Army vehicles and landmine detection teams are patrolling the town.
"El Mencho", who leads the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), has been on the run for years.
His gang is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico is believed to be behind attacks on Mexican security forces, such as a 2015 ambush in Jalisco which left 15 officers dead and the attempted assassination of Mexico City's police chief in 2020.
The Couple That Spies Together, We Despise Together
A US Navy engineer's wife has pleaded guilty to helping her husband try to sell secrets about nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign country.
Diana Toebbe, 46, acted as a lookout while her husband left information at a "dead drop" spot, once hiding a data card inside a peanut butter sandwich.
A former teacher, she will go to prison for up to three years under her plea deal with federal prosecutors.
Her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this week.
Under his plea deal, he will receive a sentence of about 12-17 years.
Both of the Toebbes pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to conspiring to communicate restricted data.
A Bad Week for a Bad Man. That's a Good Week For Us.
Former President Donald Trump was 0-3 in three high-profile legal battles this week, with new rulings that boosted significant cases his opponents have brought against him.
Perhaps the most significant of all the courtroom defeats suffered recently by Trump was a judge's refusal Friday to dismiss several civil lawsuits filed against him for his alleged role in the January 6 US Capitol attack.
In the 112-page opinion, US District Judge Amit Mehta said that Trump could face trial for his conduct around last year's insurrection.
The ruling was a kicker to a week when attorneys general in Washington, DC, and New York secured victories in their efforts to gather evidence as to whether his businesses broke the law. While Trump continues to wield significant political loyalty and could well be the Republicans' 2024 presidential nominee, the legal turmoil surrounding him shows no signs of slowing.
Exposure for his business
Trump's case for his 2020 election rested on the image created around his supposed business savvy. Now his company is a major source of the legal problems facing the former President.
The week started with a DC Superior Court judge reinstating the Trump Organization as a defendant in DC Attorney General Karl Racine's lawsuit alleging that funds for the 2017 inauguration were misused. After reversing on Monday a prior decision that had dismissed the company from the case, Judge Yvonne Williams also said on Thursday that Racine's office could question the company's ex-Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg in a limited deposition.
Racine alleges that inaugural funds were used to pay off a debt incurred by a hotel room block reserved for Trump Organization employees. He is seeking to recover the nearly $1.1 million that he claims was improperly spent during the inauguration, in violation of DC non-profit law.
Ordered to testify in New York AG's investigation
As Williams was setting a September trial date in Racine's case, a judge more than 200 miles away was hearing Trump's arguments for why he should quash subpoenas in New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization's business practices, arguments the judge would ultimately reject.
James is investigating whether Trump's company misled insurers, lenders and others who relied on its financial statements. Hours after a contentious hearing on Thursday morning, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump, as well as his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to sit for testimony in her civil probe.
Dumped by accountant
In the lead-up to Thursday's hearing, James also revealed, via a Monday evening court filing, that Trump's accounting firm had recently told him that the last 10 years of financial statements the firm prepared for him could no longer be relied upon.
The firm put Trump on notice that other parties that have been relying on the financial materials assembled by Mazars should be made aware that those financial statements are not reliable.
"This is about as calamitous a thing that could happen to a business that you can imagine -- other than getting indicted or going bankrupt," George Conway, conservative lawyer and outspoken Trump critic, told CNN's "AC360" on Monday evening. "And this could lead to going bankrupt."
Liability for January 6
Trump is no stranger to litigation around his business. But Friday's ruling allowing three January 6 civil lawsuits filed against him to move forward said his remarks ahead of the assault presented a "one-of-a-kind" case, the judge said, where the First Amendment would not shield him from liability.
"The President's January 6 Rally Speech can reasonably be viewed as a call for collective action," Mehta wrote in his 112-page opinion, adding that the statements were "the essence of civil conspiracy"
A Las Vegas woman who admitted to pushing an elderly man off a public transit bus in 2019 was sentenced to prison Friday as part of a plea bargain.
To Top Off Previous Guy's Bad Week
The National Archives and Records Administration confirmed on Friday that it found classified material among the boxes of White House documents that former President Donald Trump improperly took to Mar-a-Lago.
"NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes" that have been returned to the agency from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, Archivist David S. Ferriero acknowledged in a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Not the Way to Treat Us Old People, No Matter How Grouchy We Are
Cadesha Bishop, who was 25 years old at the time of the crime, received a sentence of eight to 20 years for abuse of an older person resulting in death.
On March 21, 2019, Bishop was captured on bus surveillance video arguing with Serge Fournier, 74. When the vehicle stopped and Fournier turned his back to exit the bus, Bishop was seen pushing him, causing him to fall onto the sidewalk below.
Fournier was hospitalized later that day and died more than a month later of complications from blunt force trauma to the torso, according to the Clark County Coroner-Medical Examiner. Officials then ruled his death a homicide.
Book Burning, Now Stopping Academic Freedom. Sounds Fascist to Me.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has vowed to end tenure for new hires at public universities and colleges in an attempt to stop the teaching of critical race theory.
Patrick spoke at a press conference Friday where he responded to a resolution by the Faculty Council at the University of Texas this week that affirmed the "fundamental rights of faculty to academic freedom," including the teaching of race and gender theory.
"Hiding behind this academic freedom argument just doesn't work," Patrick said. "We believe in academic freedom, but everyone has guidelines in mind. Everyone has barriers, everyone has boundaries, everyone's held accountable to someone."
Critical race theory is an academic concept which acknowledges that racism is systemic and institutional in American society, and it examines the beliefs that allow it to flourish.
How Fascist Does This Sound?
In 2021, there were at least 153 bills in 35 state legislatures aimed at limiting the state courts’ ability to rule in elections, their independence, and to make them more partisan. According to the Brennan Center’s court, in 14 states at least 19 of the those bills became law, and there were another 53 that advanced. Some of the new laws specifically restrict what judges will be allowed to do: ensuring access to polls, extending polling hours because of long lines, or even ordering changes or suspending state election laws. Other new laws change the very process for selecting state judges, try to limit state courts from hearing election cases, and make it easier to target and remove judges for decisions the Republican majority doesn’t like.
Case in point: Texas. Legislation there “would have changed the judges that hear certain election-related disputes” or created a new “state elections tribunal” to hear such cases. Those bills didn’t make it out of committee, but that hasn’t stopped Republican officials from going on offense, quite literally.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is calling for MAGA-type voters to harass and intimidate the judges in Texas’ highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals. In December, that court ruled 8-1 that a law giving Paxton power to unilaterally prosecute election cases violated the state constitution’s separation of powers clause, and tossed it. Paxton since has gone on LindellTV, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s conservative broadcast platform, and Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast calling for his supporters to harass the judges. “Call them out by name. I mean, you can look them up. There’s eight of them that voted the wrong way. Call them, send mail, send email.”
26% of Americans Like Fascism
A June, 2021 Morning Consult poll found that about 26 percent of Americans now embrace authoritarian leanings, about twice the proportion found in other democratic nations. The reason, I believe, is that Donald Trump has socially encouraged and authorized their behavior, resulting in a nationwide acceptance and amplification of antisocial activities.
Stealing From Granny
Grandparent scams typically work something like this: The victim gets a call from someone posing as his or her grandchild. This person explains, in a frantic-sounding voice, that he or she is in trouble: There’s been an accident, or an arrest, or a robbery. To up the drama and urgency, the caller might claim to be hospitalized or stuck in a foreign country; to make the impersonation more convincing, he or she will throw in a few family particulars, gleaned from the actual grandchild’s social media activity.
The impostor offers just enough detail about where and how the emergency happened to make it seem plausible and perhaps turns the phone over to another scammer who pretends to be a doctor, police officer or lawyer and backs up the story. The “grandchild” implores the target to wire money immediately, adding an anxious plea: “Don’t tell Mom and Dad!”
I Wonder What Coal Joe Thinks
Senate Republicans launched a scorch-earth attack this week on Sarah Bloom Raskin, the White House’s nominee to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chair of supervision, painting her as a radical for her widely shared view that climate change threatens the global economy.
Rather than voting no at Tuesday’s planned vote on whether to advance Raskin and two other Fed nominees to the full Senate, the 12 Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee staged a boycott, denying the panel’s Democratic majority the quorum needed to take that procedural step.
On Wednesday, 10 more GOP senators called on the White House to withdraw Raskin’s nomination, describing her as an “activist” bent on “manipulating markets” in ways that “will harm all Americans” in a letter, a copy of which HuffPost obtained.
If confirmed, Raskin, 60, would become one of the world’s most powerful bank regulators. The role was created after the Great Recession to guard against future financial meltdowns, and though the financial industry largely welcomed the nomination of a seasoned and familiar regulator who previously served as deputy treasury secretary and on the Fed’s board of governors, it’s the oil and gas industry that’s fueling the Republican assault.
Raskin, who is married to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), entered the industry’s crosshairs in March 2020, when, in testimony before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, she called for new federal rules requiring investors to disclose the risk that climate change poses to assets. She then urged U.S. regulators to carry out the kind of climate “stress tests” ― models to determine how a financial institution’s assets gain or lose value if, for example, a natural disaster upends supply chains or a government policy to cut emissions renders fossil fuel reserves worthless ― that the Bank of England and European Central Bank were already performing.
Can TucKKKer Get Even Weirder?
In one of the weirdest attacks by Tucker Carlson in recent memory, he bashed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday as an “rich, entitled white lady.”
AOC, as everyone — including the Fox News host — knows, is of Puerto Rican heritage.
She underscored that with a Spanish insult, saying Carlson’s attack is what someone says whose “name starts with ‘p’ and ends with ‘dejo,’” meaning he’s a pendejo — a stupid asshole. She also called him a “creep” for his obsession with her.
Another Really Fine Person
A man accused in the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old in a Utah park last July told police he figured he was already on the FBI’s radar — for flashing a gun during the Capitol riot.
“I was in the D.C. riots. You can look me up, OK?” Salt Lake City police said John Emanuel Banuelos told them seven months ago, after he was arrested in Liberty Park after the July 4 killing. “I’m the one in the video with the gun right here,” he said, according to police, his description of the video appearing to match a viral Vice News footage that showed a man flashing a weapon in his waistband while outside the U.S. Capitol.
How Much Do You Have to Pay To Get Away With Mass Murder? How Much of Their $11 Billion?
The Sackler family owners of Purdue Pharma LP have proposed a new and larger settlement worth up to $6 billion to resolve allegations that the OxyContin maker and its owners contributed to the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic, a mediator's report showed on Friday.
The mediator, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman, has been overseeing talks between Sackler family members and eight states and the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in December blocked an earlier $4.33 billion proposed settlement that would have legally shielded the family members, a decision that threatened to upend Purdue's bankruptcy reorganization.
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Looking for Workers? Here's Where to Find a Million of Them
The labor shortage has been a defining feature of the pandemic job market and it's not getting better any time soon. But there is a whole group of workers who are being overlooked even though they could be part of the solution.
Criminal records are keeping certain workers from finding good jobs. This is particularly true of men in their 30s.
More than half of that group has a history of criminal conviction or arrest that keeps them from fully participating in the labor market, a study from nonprofit research group RAND Corporation released Friday found. As of January, just over one million men between the ages of 24 and 35 were counted as unemployed, the biggest group of jobless males, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By 35, some 64% of unemployed men have been arrested, and about 46% have been convicted of a crime, according to the study. Nearly a third of American adults have been arrested at least once, a far higher level than in comparable Western European countries.
This surprising solution to the 'Great Resignation' is right in front of us
This surprising solution to the 'Great Resignation' is right in front of us
"Employers need to understand that one big reason they cannot find the workers they need is too often they exclude those who have had involvement with the criminal justice system," said Shawn Bushway, the study's lead author and a senior policy researcher at RAND.
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Another Win For the Good Guys
Thank you, Sandy Hook families, for taking on the gunmakers
“Sandy Hook families win ‘unwinnable’ case.”
Yes, this was the best headline heralding the victory Tuesday of nine families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims in their lawsuit against the now-bankrupt Remington Arms Co. The gunmaker manufactured the AR-15-style weapon used to murder 20 first-graders and six adults on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Conn.
I Am Sure They Would Rather Have Their Kids
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Somebody Deserves a Different Kind of Medal
lism-gets-a-closer-look
And Somebody Else Doesn't
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Is Buffy Retiring?
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Is Putin Russian Into War?
Tensions continued to mount in the east of Ukraine on Saturday after reports of increased shelling in the region overnight. Russia said it was opening an investigation into Russian media reports that a Ukrainian shell exploded near its border, amid U.S. warnings that the Kremlin could stage a violent incident as a pretext for invasion.
Russian-backed separatist leaders declared a full military mobilization in the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk and ordered the evacuation of civilians to Russia. They accused Ukraine of planning an invasion of rebel-held territory, which the Ukrainian government denied.
Ukraine's military said one of its soldiers was killed Saturday in the government-held part of the Donetsk region, and that separatists were trying to provoke a response.
Here's Part of What Is Waiting.
Moscow would have its access to financial markets and high-tech goods limited under Western sanctions being prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine, one of the European Union's top officials said Saturday.
The comments from Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU's executive commission, came as tensions over Russia's intentions toward Ukraine intensified. U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he was convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade the neighboring country.
“In case that Russia strikes, we will limit the access to financial markets for the Russian economy and (impose) export controls that will stop the possibility for Russia to modernize and diversify its economy,” she added. “And we have a lot of high-tech goods where we have a global dominance, and that are absolutely necessary for Russia and cannot be replaced easily.”
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