Post by mhbruin on Mar 13, 2022 10:11:21 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 556 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
First time we have been below 50,000 cases since July 22nd.
↓ 46.8% Cases, two-week change
↓ 29.9% Deaths, two-week change
972,109 Total confirmed deaths
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday March 8)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
--------------
That COVID Death Rate is Stubbornly High
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Today's Worst Sports Fan in the World.
A heckler shouting at Naomi Osaka during a tournament in California made the tennis star cry on Saturday.
Osaka was playing against Veronika Kudermetova at the Indian Wells Masters in Indian Wells, California, when a woman yelled out, "Naomi, you suck!"
The crowd jeered the heckler after the comment was shouted.
Shortly after the heckler's comment, Osaka asked the umpire if she could use their microphone to address the crowd.
Apparently She Has Found the Eleventh Commandment. Thou Shalt Not Call a Person "They" or "It". How Could They Have Missed It For 3,000 Years?
A Kansas teacher is suing her school district superintendent, board members and principal after being suspended for not using a student's preferred name.
Pamela Ricard, who teaches math at Fort Riley Middle School, says she refuses to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender and nonbinary students because it violates her religious beliefs.
After being disciplined multiple times for refusing to use a student's preferred name, Ricard filed a federal lawsuit against the Geary County Schools Unified School District on Monday.
In the lawsuit, she argues that denying requests to allow her to ignore students' preferred names and pronouns "deprived her of due process and equal protection of law" and violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and exercise of religion. Ricard also accused the defendants of breaching their contract with her.
Meet Putin's Favorite Philosopher - Vlad's Nietche
Little known in the West and largely forgotten in Russia until the early 2000s, Ilyin (1883-1954) had actually been expelled by the Bolshevik state shortly after the Revolution. His early writings, relying on a novel interpretation of the Biblical creation myth, demonstrated antipathy to secular human society and held that all efforts by mankind to impose a pluralistic political order were simply deepening man’s estrangement from God, and that this estrangement could only be corrected by the intervention of a unifying political leader. The means such a leader employed to “unify” the sinful, impure secular world were beside the point, as the end goal (generally speaking) was reunification with the original Divine plan. Since nothing could possibly be more important than that, any means to achieve it were permissible (including, presumably, violence, murder, and genocide).
In the 1920s Ilyin began to embrace fascism in the personage of Benito Mussolini, gradually adopting and embracing violent upheaval and reordering of society in the furtherance of such “divine” political ends. Given this messianic, nationalistic imperative, the arbitrary and brutal accumulation and use of power was simply a manifestation of “law” in Ilyin’s view. For Ilyin, the “consciousness” of the Russian people was best suited to this task. As observed by Timothy Snyder for the New York Review of Books, Ilyin’s writings can be fairly characterized as eclectic, if not wholly incoherent, but one singular aspect of his writing “is his metaphysical and moral justification for political totalitarianism, which he expressed in practical outlines for a fascist state.”
I Want to See His Pants Burning
If DeathSentence Wants to See REAL Child Abuse, Here's An Example
Notorious far-right rancher and independent Idaho gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy was arrested Saturday protesting the police seizure of a severely “malnourished” 10-month-old baby at risk of death, local law enforcement reported.
Bundy and a supporter were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing when they refused to leave the grounds of St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center where the baby was being treated, Meridian police said in a statement.
A Bundy campaign statement called it an “ambush arrest with no legal grounds.”
Bundy and supporters famously engaged in an armed standoff with law enforcement in 2016 when they seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon to demand ranchers be allowed to occupy federal lands. An Oregon jury later acquitted Bundy of crimes linked to the occupation.
Bundy claimed on Twitter that the baby was “kidnapped” by police, and called it “medical tyranny.” A blog site linked to Bundy’s campaign said the baby is a grandson of a prominent right-wing pastor in the state.
Police, who did not identify the baby, said in a statement that the child had initially been admitted to the hospital March 1 for “severe malnourishment.” The baby was released to its parents after treatment.
“During a follow up appointment earlier this week it was determined the child had again lost a significant amount of weight. Then the parents canceled the next follow-up appointment and could not be located,” noted the police statement. “Meridian Police were contacted and advised this child’s condition could lead to severe injury or even death if not treated.”
When the parents stopped cooperating, police, armed with a warrant, went to the family home to collect the baby for treatment, the statement said.
The baby was finally taken into custody when the parents, who had fled with the child, were pulled over in a traffic stop, according to police.
Welcome to the New Normal
A newly installed “mayor” of the Ukrainian southern port city of Melitopol seized by Russia has introduced herself in a disturbing televised local statement after Russian troops reportedly kidnapped the actual mayor.
Elected Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was seen on video Friday with a hood over his head, being led away from a government building by armed men. The Russian-backed Luhansk regional prosecutor claimed that Fedorov had committed terrorism offenses and was under investigation.
Newly installed unelected mayor Galina Danilchenko said in her televised statement that her “main task is to take all necessary steps to get the city back to normal,” CNN reported.
I Guess Iran Was Jealous of All the Bad Press Russia Is Getting
Iran claimed responsibility Sunday for a barrage of ballistic missiles that hit northern Iraq just after midnight, striking several kilometers from a U.S. compound and drawing sharp condemnation from the Iraqi and U.S. capitals.
The semiofficial Fars news agency said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched “powerful missiles” in response for what it described as “recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime,” an apparent reference to the killing of two of its members last week in Syria, which it has blamed on Israel.
The attack appeared to mark a significant escalation in proxy and political conflicts on Iraqi soil as talks between Iran and the United States over the future of a 2015 nuclear deal shattered by President Donald Trump falter.
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Chris Tweets A Little Truth About Oil
Today We Nominate the American People
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
A One-Way Ticket to Istanbul - The Russian Brain Drain
Outside Georgia's parliament, Yevgeny Lyamin heaves boxes of clothes and food parcels on to a waiting truck bound for Ukraine.
He is one of more than 25,000 Russians to have arrived in Georgia since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russians have been struggling to find affordable accommodation in all the major cities. Many can be seen wandering around the capital, Tbilisi, with their suitcases and often even their pets.
A blue-and-yellow ribbon is attached to the lapel of Yevgeny's trench-coat - the colours of the Ukrainian flag. It was these ribbons that got him arrested at an anti-war protest in Russia, a day after it launched its war on Ukraine.
"I understood the best way to act against Putin's regime would be my emigration from Russia," says the 23-year old politics graduate. "It's my responsibility to do anything I can to help the Ukrainians."
The exodus does not stop at Georgia. The EU, US, UK and Canada have closed their airspace to Russian flights, so they are heading for countries where flights are still permitted and where visas are not required, such as Turkey, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Many have fled to Armenia.
According to one estimate by a Russian economist, as many as 200,000 Russians have left their country since the start of the war.
Belarusians are on the move too, fleeing repression and the Western sanctions imposed on authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko's government for collaborating with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
That has prompted prices to surge on last-minute flights and rental accommodation in the main host cities, such as Istanbul and Armenia's capital, Yerevan.
"A one-way flight to Istanbul cost me and my husband more than our combined monthly income," said Anya, who did not want to give her surname.
What's Life Like For Those Who Stay?
Consumer prices jumped 2.2% in the first week of the invasion, with food among the biggest rises • Some shops are restricting the sale of staples, after reports of hoarding • Sales of medicines are not subject to sanctions, but with major shipping companies suspending services, supplies could be hit
The price of some consumer goods has drastically increased • The cost of smartphones and televisions has increased by more than 10% and an average vacation to Turkey has increased by 29% • Major brands like Apple, Ikea and Nike no longer sell their products in Russia
Russian banks removed from Swift international payment system • Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple and Google Pay limit their services in Russia • Russian central bank says economy could shrink by up to 8%
New law threatens to jail anyone deemed to have spread "fake" news on the invasion • Independent and international media subject of severe restrictions • More than 13,000 people arrested in anti-war protests
--------------
Oy Vey! Did the Rabbi Lie?
A rabbi who helped Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich obtain his Portuguese citizenship has been told he cannot leave Portugal and must present himself to authorities when required.
Daniel Litvak was detained on Thursday as part of an investigation into how citizenship had been granted.
The naturalisation process of several Jewish people is being investigated.
On Friday, Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Abramovich, 55, is the owner of Chelsea FC and he is one of seven oligarchs to be hit with fresh sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans.
The Premier League has disqualified him as a director of the club.
Mr Abramovich was granted Portuguese citizenship in April 2021 under a law that offered naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jews, who were expelled from the Iberian peninsula more than 400 years ago during the Inquisition.
Applicants for Portuguese citizenship via this route are assessed by experts at one of Portugal's Jewish communities in either Lisbon or Porto. Mr Litvak is the rabbi for the community in Porto (northern Portugal) and was responsible for assessing Mr Abramovich's application.
Mr Litvak was detained by authorities as he was preparing to travel to Israel. He was asked to hand over his passport and will have to periodically present himself to authorities.
--------------
From Chemistry to Kalashnikovs in Three Days
Just over a week ago I met a group of young men who had volunteered at a centre in Kyiv to fight for Ukraine.
Most of them were in their late teens, not long out of school. They told me that after three days' basic training they would head for the front line - or very close to it.
Maksym Lutsyk, a 19-year-old biology student, told me he wasn't fazed about trying to become a soldier after less than a week of instruction. He'd manage, after five years in the Scouts, not just learning backwoods skills, but also some weapons training. He was 10 when Ukraine's long war with separatists sponsored by Moscow started in 2014.
Maksym had gone to join up with his friend Dmytro Kisilenko, 18, who was studying economics at the same university.
The recruits were like any bunch of young lads who had decided they were no longer boys, laughing too loudly when someone told jokes to hide their nerves, or trying a bit of bravado.
Some of them were wearing knee pads that looked too small, as if they had come with skateboards on their 12th birthdays. A few had sleeping bags. One had a yoga mat. When they waited outside for the bus that was going to be taking them to the training base, they looked like friends on the way to a festival - apart from the guns. Each had been given custody of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
--------------
Where to Hide $1 Trillion? Such An Annoying Problem
Tracking the wealth of Russia's ruling class is not a simple thing. It is tied in with major businesses, institutions and pieces of land scattered across the globe. A look at the spread shows the challenges that will come with attempts to disentangle it.
Even getting a full accounting of the foreign investments of Russia's oligarch is difficult, but forensic accounting and analyses offer some insights.
The Atlantic Council estimates there is $1 trillion in Russian "dark money" hidden in various countries and enterprises around the globe. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that 60 percent of the wealth of Russia’s richest households is parked outside of the country's borders.
The figures are all estimates because exact numbers are hard to gather. The money of Russia’s oligarchs is invested in varied ways and the amounts are staggering. Still, looking back over the last few decades, there's a long list of examples that show just how widespread the money is, from sports to tourism to tech.
--------------
Who Won the Week?
NY Supreme Court Justice David Cohen, for ruling that voting-machine maker Smartmatic can go after Giuliani and various Fox News nitwits for defamation to the tune of $2.7 billion
The U.S. Postal Service, as Congress removes Bush-era pension pre-funding requirement that was bankrupting it, and guarantees 6-day delivery
The wheels of justice, as a jury finds Jan. 6 insurrectionist Guy Reffitt guilty on felony charges, likely sending him to prison for a long time
Fair House district voting maps in PA and NC, as the Supreme Court denies challenges by gerrymander-obsessed Republicans
President Biden: Boffo jobs report; bans Russian oil imports; maintains tight NATO unity; EO addresses cryptocurrency standards; approval numbers rising
Ukraine's leadership, military, and civilians, for continuing to make Putin's insane invasion a living hell even in the face of Russian atrocities against them
Congress, for finally passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, and renewing the Violence Against Women Act
The federal agents who arrested Proud Boys terrorist leader Enrique Tarrio in his underwear before indicting him on Jan. 6-related conspiracy charges
Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, for fearlessly and directly debunking Russia/Ukraine-related disinformation being spread on her own network
--------------
Fed Up With High Gas Prices?
In 2017, only about 115,000 purely electric vehicles were sold in the United States. In 2021, Americans bought 657,000, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
While that still represents a little less than 4% of all new car sales, the number sold last year was double that of 2020. Today dealers are selling out every EV they can deliver, and any used ones they can get their hands on, said Gross.
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First time we have been below 50,000 cases since July 22nd.
↓ 46.8% Cases, two-week change
↓ 29.9% Deaths, two-week change
972,109 Total confirmed deaths
New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Mar 11 | 34,805 | 1,198 |
| Mar 10 | 35,269 | 1,197 |
| Mar 9 | 37,146 | 1,179 |
| Mar 8 | 37,879 | 1,161 |
| Mar 7 | 40,433 | 1,208 |
| Mar 6 | 42,204 | 1,259 |
| Mar 5 | 43,665 | 1,281 |
| Mar 4 | 45,555 | 1,319 |
| Mar 3 | 49,888 | 1,413 |
| Mar 2 | 53,016 | 1,558 |
| Mar 1 | 56,253 | 1,674 |
| Feb 28 | 68,480 | 1,832 |
| Feb 27 | 62,556 | 1,686 |
| Feb 26 | 66,053 | 1,719 |
| Feb 25 | 69,203 | 1,751 |
| Feb 24 | 72,111 | 1,720 |
| Feb 23 | 75,208 | 1,674 |
| Feb 22 | 79,539 | 1,602 |
| Feb 21 | 78,306 | 1,872 |
| Feb 20 | 98,012 | 1,872 |
| Feb 19 | 100,129 | 1,890 |
| Feb 18 | 103,462 | 1,920 |
| Feb 17 | 112,653 | 1,998 |
| Feb 16 | 121,664 | 2,020 |
| Feb 15 | 134,468 | 2,100 |
| Feb 14 | 146,921 | 2,208 |
| Feb 13 | 161,197 | 2,196 |
| Feb 12 | 168,881 | 2,197 |
| Feb 11 | 175,395 | 2,241 |
| Feb 10 | 190,401 | 2,305 |
| Feb 9 | 215,418 | 2,313 |
| Feb 8 | 230,602 | 2,303 |
| Feb 7 | 247,319 | 2,404 |
| Feb 6 | 291,471 | 2,294 |
| Feb 5 | 298,890 | 2,331 |
| Feb 4 | 313,117 | 2,404 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 76.6% | 65.2% | 44.2% |
| % of Population 5+ | 81.4% | 69.3% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 86.3% | 73.6% | 45.8% |
| % of Population 18+ | 88.1% | 75.2% | 47.6% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.9% | 66.7% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday March 8)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 9 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 84% (61% of full season average) | 87% (60%) | 93% (60%) | 99% (59%) | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 74% (53%) | 76% (51%) | 80% (51%) | 86% (51%) | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 71% (51%) | 70% (48%) | 75% (47%) | 79% (46%) | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 55% (52%) | 59% (53%) | 61% (52%) | 68% (53%) | 134% |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 59% (64%) | 58% (66%) | 71% (59%) | 75% (57%) | 148% |
| Snow Water Content - South | 60% (66%) | 54% (63%) | 67% (54%) | 74% (54%) | 158% |
That COVID Death Rate is Stubbornly High
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Today's Worst Sports Fan in the World.
A heckler shouting at Naomi Osaka during a tournament in California made the tennis star cry on Saturday.
Osaka was playing against Veronika Kudermetova at the Indian Wells Masters in Indian Wells, California, when a woman yelled out, "Naomi, you suck!"
The crowd jeered the heckler after the comment was shouted.
Shortly after the heckler's comment, Osaka asked the umpire if she could use their microphone to address the crowd.
Apparently She Has Found the Eleventh Commandment. Thou Shalt Not Call a Person "They" or "It". How Could They Have Missed It For 3,000 Years?
A Kansas teacher is suing her school district superintendent, board members and principal after being suspended for not using a student's preferred name.
Pamela Ricard, who teaches math at Fort Riley Middle School, says she refuses to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender and nonbinary students because it violates her religious beliefs.
After being disciplined multiple times for refusing to use a student's preferred name, Ricard filed a federal lawsuit against the Geary County Schools Unified School District on Monday.
In the lawsuit, she argues that denying requests to allow her to ignore students' preferred names and pronouns "deprived her of due process and equal protection of law" and violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and exercise of religion. Ricard also accused the defendants of breaching their contract with her.
Meet Putin's Favorite Philosopher - Vlad's Nietche
Little known in the West and largely forgotten in Russia until the early 2000s, Ilyin (1883-1954) had actually been expelled by the Bolshevik state shortly after the Revolution. His early writings, relying on a novel interpretation of the Biblical creation myth, demonstrated antipathy to secular human society and held that all efforts by mankind to impose a pluralistic political order were simply deepening man’s estrangement from God, and that this estrangement could only be corrected by the intervention of a unifying political leader. The means such a leader employed to “unify” the sinful, impure secular world were beside the point, as the end goal (generally speaking) was reunification with the original Divine plan. Since nothing could possibly be more important than that, any means to achieve it were permissible (including, presumably, violence, murder, and genocide).
In the 1920s Ilyin began to embrace fascism in the personage of Benito Mussolini, gradually adopting and embracing violent upheaval and reordering of society in the furtherance of such “divine” political ends. Given this messianic, nationalistic imperative, the arbitrary and brutal accumulation and use of power was simply a manifestation of “law” in Ilyin’s view. For Ilyin, the “consciousness” of the Russian people was best suited to this task. As observed by Timothy Snyder for the New York Review of Books, Ilyin’s writings can be fairly characterized as eclectic, if not wholly incoherent, but one singular aspect of his writing “is his metaphysical and moral justification for political totalitarianism, which he expressed in practical outlines for a fascist state.”
I Want to See His Pants Burning
If DeathSentence Wants to See REAL Child Abuse, Here's An Example
Notorious far-right rancher and independent Idaho gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy was arrested Saturday protesting the police seizure of a severely “malnourished” 10-month-old baby at risk of death, local law enforcement reported.
Bundy and a supporter were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing when they refused to leave the grounds of St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center where the baby was being treated, Meridian police said in a statement.
A Bundy campaign statement called it an “ambush arrest with no legal grounds.”
Bundy and supporters famously engaged in an armed standoff with law enforcement in 2016 when they seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon to demand ranchers be allowed to occupy federal lands. An Oregon jury later acquitted Bundy of crimes linked to the occupation.
Bundy claimed on Twitter that the baby was “kidnapped” by police, and called it “medical tyranny.” A blog site linked to Bundy’s campaign said the baby is a grandson of a prominent right-wing pastor in the state.
Police, who did not identify the baby, said in a statement that the child had initially been admitted to the hospital March 1 for “severe malnourishment.” The baby was released to its parents after treatment.
“During a follow up appointment earlier this week it was determined the child had again lost a significant amount of weight. Then the parents canceled the next follow-up appointment and could not be located,” noted the police statement. “Meridian Police were contacted and advised this child’s condition could lead to severe injury or even death if not treated.”
When the parents stopped cooperating, police, armed with a warrant, went to the family home to collect the baby for treatment, the statement said.
The baby was finally taken into custody when the parents, who had fled with the child, were pulled over in a traffic stop, according to police.
Welcome to the New Normal
A newly installed “mayor” of the Ukrainian southern port city of Melitopol seized by Russia has introduced herself in a disturbing televised local statement after Russian troops reportedly kidnapped the actual mayor.
Elected Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was seen on video Friday with a hood over his head, being led away from a government building by armed men. The Russian-backed Luhansk regional prosecutor claimed that Fedorov had committed terrorism offenses and was under investigation.
Newly installed unelected mayor Galina Danilchenko said in her televised statement that her “main task is to take all necessary steps to get the city back to normal,” CNN reported.
I Guess Iran Was Jealous of All the Bad Press Russia Is Getting
Iran claimed responsibility Sunday for a barrage of ballistic missiles that hit northern Iraq just after midnight, striking several kilometers from a U.S. compound and drawing sharp condemnation from the Iraqi and U.S. capitals.
The semiofficial Fars news agency said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched “powerful missiles” in response for what it described as “recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime,” an apparent reference to the killing of two of its members last week in Syria, which it has blamed on Israel.
The attack appeared to mark a significant escalation in proxy and political conflicts on Iraqi soil as talks between Iran and the United States over the future of a 2015 nuclear deal shattered by President Donald Trump falter.
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Chris Tweets A Little Truth About Oil
Today We Nominate the American People
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
A One-Way Ticket to Istanbul - The Russian Brain Drain
Outside Georgia's parliament, Yevgeny Lyamin heaves boxes of clothes and food parcels on to a waiting truck bound for Ukraine.
He is one of more than 25,000 Russians to have arrived in Georgia since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russians have been struggling to find affordable accommodation in all the major cities. Many can be seen wandering around the capital, Tbilisi, with their suitcases and often even their pets.
A blue-and-yellow ribbon is attached to the lapel of Yevgeny's trench-coat - the colours of the Ukrainian flag. It was these ribbons that got him arrested at an anti-war protest in Russia, a day after it launched its war on Ukraine.
"I understood the best way to act against Putin's regime would be my emigration from Russia," says the 23-year old politics graduate. "It's my responsibility to do anything I can to help the Ukrainians."
The exodus does not stop at Georgia. The EU, US, UK and Canada have closed their airspace to Russian flights, so they are heading for countries where flights are still permitted and where visas are not required, such as Turkey, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Many have fled to Armenia.
According to one estimate by a Russian economist, as many as 200,000 Russians have left their country since the start of the war.
Belarusians are on the move too, fleeing repression and the Western sanctions imposed on authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko's government for collaborating with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
That has prompted prices to surge on last-minute flights and rental accommodation in the main host cities, such as Istanbul and Armenia's capital, Yerevan.
"A one-way flight to Istanbul cost me and my husband more than our combined monthly income," said Anya, who did not want to give her surname.
What's Life Like For Those Who Stay?
Consumer prices jumped 2.2% in the first week of the invasion, with food among the biggest rises • Some shops are restricting the sale of staples, after reports of hoarding • Sales of medicines are not subject to sanctions, but with major shipping companies suspending services, supplies could be hit
The price of some consumer goods has drastically increased • The cost of smartphones and televisions has increased by more than 10% and an average vacation to Turkey has increased by 29% • Major brands like Apple, Ikea and Nike no longer sell their products in Russia
Russian banks removed from Swift international payment system • Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple and Google Pay limit their services in Russia • Russian central bank says economy could shrink by up to 8%
New law threatens to jail anyone deemed to have spread "fake" news on the invasion • Independent and international media subject of severe restrictions • More than 13,000 people arrested in anti-war protests
--------------
Oy Vey! Did the Rabbi Lie?
A rabbi who helped Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich obtain his Portuguese citizenship has been told he cannot leave Portugal and must present himself to authorities when required.
Daniel Litvak was detained on Thursday as part of an investigation into how citizenship had been granted.
The naturalisation process of several Jewish people is being investigated.
On Friday, Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Abramovich, 55, is the owner of Chelsea FC and he is one of seven oligarchs to be hit with fresh sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans.
The Premier League has disqualified him as a director of the club.
Mr Abramovich was granted Portuguese citizenship in April 2021 under a law that offered naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jews, who were expelled from the Iberian peninsula more than 400 years ago during the Inquisition.
Applicants for Portuguese citizenship via this route are assessed by experts at one of Portugal's Jewish communities in either Lisbon or Porto. Mr Litvak is the rabbi for the community in Porto (northern Portugal) and was responsible for assessing Mr Abramovich's application.
Mr Litvak was detained by authorities as he was preparing to travel to Israel. He was asked to hand over his passport and will have to periodically present himself to authorities.
--------------
From Chemistry to Kalashnikovs in Three Days
Just over a week ago I met a group of young men who had volunteered at a centre in Kyiv to fight for Ukraine.
Most of them were in their late teens, not long out of school. They told me that after three days' basic training they would head for the front line - or very close to it.
Maksym Lutsyk, a 19-year-old biology student, told me he wasn't fazed about trying to become a soldier after less than a week of instruction. He'd manage, after five years in the Scouts, not just learning backwoods skills, but also some weapons training. He was 10 when Ukraine's long war with separatists sponsored by Moscow started in 2014.
Maksym had gone to join up with his friend Dmytro Kisilenko, 18, who was studying economics at the same university.
The recruits were like any bunch of young lads who had decided they were no longer boys, laughing too loudly when someone told jokes to hide their nerves, or trying a bit of bravado.
Some of them were wearing knee pads that looked too small, as if they had come with skateboards on their 12th birthdays. A few had sleeping bags. One had a yoga mat. When they waited outside for the bus that was going to be taking them to the training base, they looked like friends on the way to a festival - apart from the guns. Each had been given custody of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
--------------
Where to Hide $1 Trillion? Such An Annoying Problem
Tracking the wealth of Russia's ruling class is not a simple thing. It is tied in with major businesses, institutions and pieces of land scattered across the globe. A look at the spread shows the challenges that will come with attempts to disentangle it.
Even getting a full accounting of the foreign investments of Russia's oligarch is difficult, but forensic accounting and analyses offer some insights.
The Atlantic Council estimates there is $1 trillion in Russian "dark money" hidden in various countries and enterprises around the globe. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that 60 percent of the wealth of Russia’s richest households is parked outside of the country's borders.
The figures are all estimates because exact numbers are hard to gather. The money of Russia’s oligarchs is invested in varied ways and the amounts are staggering. Still, looking back over the last few decades, there's a long list of examples that show just how widespread the money is, from sports to tourism to tech.
--------------
Who Won the Week?
NY Supreme Court Justice David Cohen, for ruling that voting-machine maker Smartmatic can go after Giuliani and various Fox News nitwits for defamation to the tune of $2.7 billion
The U.S. Postal Service, as Congress removes Bush-era pension pre-funding requirement that was bankrupting it, and guarantees 6-day delivery
The wheels of justice, as a jury finds Jan. 6 insurrectionist Guy Reffitt guilty on felony charges, likely sending him to prison for a long time
Fair House district voting maps in PA and NC, as the Supreme Court denies challenges by gerrymander-obsessed Republicans
President Biden: Boffo jobs report; bans Russian oil imports; maintains tight NATO unity; EO addresses cryptocurrency standards; approval numbers rising
Ukraine's leadership, military, and civilians, for continuing to make Putin's insane invasion a living hell even in the face of Russian atrocities against them
Congress, for finally passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, and renewing the Violence Against Women Act
The federal agents who arrested Proud Boys terrorist leader Enrique Tarrio in his underwear before indicting him on Jan. 6-related conspiracy charges
Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, for fearlessly and directly debunking Russia/Ukraine-related disinformation being spread on her own network
--------------
Fed Up With High Gas Prices?
In 2017, only about 115,000 purely electric vehicles were sold in the United States. In 2021, Americans bought 657,000, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
While that still represents a little less than 4% of all new car sales, the number sold last year was double that of 2020. Today dealers are selling out every EV they can deliver, and any used ones they can get their hands on, said Gross.
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