Post by mhbruin on Apr 6, 2022 9:33:05 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 562 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday April 5)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
SCOTUS Doesn't Seem to Understand What An Emergency Is.
A 5-4 Supreme Court reinstated a Trump-era rule Wednesday that restricts the authority of states to reject federal permits under the Clean Water Act in another ruling putting the court's emergency docket in the spotlight.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberal justices in dissent, arguing that the court's majority had "gone astray" by granting an unwarranted request on its emergency docket.
"That renders the Court's emergency docket not for emergencies at all," Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the four dissenters. She said that the Republican-led states and others that had petitioned the court for emergency relief had not shown they would suffer the necessary irreparable harm to make their case.
Another Day, Another QOP'er Committed Voter Fraud
The latest member of the GOP mired in voter fraud accusations is former President Trump’s aide Matt Mowers, who held a senior role in the State Department and is now running for Congress in New Hampshire. Mowers took it upon himself to vote in two states during the 2016 presidential primaries.
According to the Associated Press, during the time Mowers worked as director of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, he voted via absentee ballot in New Hampshire. But just a few months later, after Christie’s run began to stall, Mowers re-registered in New Jersey using his parents’ East Brunswick home address.
The QOP Keeps Helping Putin
Senate Republicans are still balking at revoking Russia’s permanent normal trade relations status with the U.S. The sanctions language Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) demanded be included hasn’t been settled, and other unnamed but most likely Republican senators are demanding other changes. It’s looking more and more unlikely that this agreement will be reached before the Senate’s recess. As Sen. Wyden told reporters, “every day of delay” puts “more money into Putin’s hands.”
Republicans are so intent on preventing President Biden from having any kind of win at all, they are presenting a divided government face to the rest of the world—and to Vladimir Putin. That’s terrible for the U.S., but indescribably bad for Ukraine, giving Putin more license to indiscriminately slaughter Ukrainian citizens.
The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution expressing support for NATO on Tuesday.
The resolution passed 362-63, with support from 143 Republicans and 219 Democrats.
Sixty-three members of the GOP caucus voted against the measure.
If You Are Not Married to Thom Tillis, You Are Not a Woman
Republicans mocked Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson last month for refusing to define the word “woman” during her Senate confirmation hearing.
But it turns out those same Republicans on the Judiciary Committee don’t agree on how to define a woman, and some wouldn’t ― or couldn’t ― give a definition when HuffPost asked Tuesday.
“I don’t have anything for you on that,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).
“I’m not going to indulge you,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) dodged the question three times in a row, citing her policy of not talking to reporters in Senate hallways ― even though it was Blackburn who made this an issue with Jackson in the first place.
Thirteen hours into the first day of Jackson’s hearing last month, the Tennessee Republican tossed out the question: “Can you define the word ‘woman’?”
“Can I provide a definition?” Jackson said, appearing confused. “No, I can’t. I’m not a biologist.”
After some back and forth, Blackburn concluded: “The fact that you can’t give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.”
The next day, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) laid into Jackson too, telling her: “I think you are the only Supreme Court nominee in history who has been unable to answer the question ‘What is a woman?’”
The real aim of Blackburn’s question was almost certainly to try to corner Jackson on the issue of transgender women participating in women’s sports ― part of a broader, ugly GOP attack on LGBTQ people heading into the 2022 elections. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is pushing for child abuse investigations of parents whose children seek gender-affirming medical care. Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law prevents teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity to students younger than fourth graders. The Human Rights Campaign, meanwhile, is tracking more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills across the country.
In a follow-up email to HuffPost, a spokesperson for Blackburn said her definition of a woman is “Two X chromosomes.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Blackburn considers women born with only one X chromosome to be women, or if she considers men born with two X chromosomes to be women.
In a written statement, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered the same definition as Blackburn: “A woman is born with two X-chromosomes.”
“I have more of a traditional view of what a woman is,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
What is that?
“My wife.”
101Dalmatians Emails
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has obtained 101 emails from a former Trump lawyer as part of its ongoing probe into the attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The emails from attorney John Eastman date from between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, the days abutting the deadly insurrection.
Eastman had attempted to shield the missives from lawmakers, claiming they were protected under attorney-client privilege. The House panel argued that there was an exception for any ongoing or future crimes and a judge agreed.
“Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President [Donald] Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote last month.
Carter went on to say he believed the pair “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history.”
MLK? Really? Where Were You During the BLM Protests, Josh?
When Will They Ever Learn? When Will They Ever Learn?
Police in Pennsylvania say a 4-year-old girl is dead after her younger brother apparently shot her by accident inside a car parked at at a gas station. Chester Police said a 2-year-old boy was "handling a gun inside of a vehicle" when it discharged.
Last month, a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother to death as the family was sitting in their car in a suburban Chicago supermarket parking lot.
According to data analyzed by advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, so far this year there have been at least 51 unintentional shootings by children in the U.S., resulting in 17 deaths and 38 injuries.
Last year, there were at least 379 unintentional shootings by children nationwide, resulting in 154 deaths and 244 injuries, the group said.
Why Do Fools Vote for Corporate Criminals?
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has consistently missed deadlines in recent months to pay the U.S. government the millions of dollars he owes in penalties for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines, according to federal court documents.
The Republican governor — who owns dozens of companies and has been called the most wealthy man in all of West Virginia — was ordered to pay $5.1 million by a federal judge in April 2020.
That was after the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration brought a lawsuit against 23 of his companies, saying he failed to pay fees associated with hundreds of mine safety penalties between 2014 and 2019.
Since at least December, Justice has been late on payments, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Virginia. Payments have been made only after reminders and notices filed in court by the U.S. government.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
"What rank are you?" "Well, I'm not a rank - I'm a guitarist." "What are you doing on the bridge?" "Well, there's nobody else here."
If you don't know this story, it is worth a read.
Snopes Says "Nope" to Fake News
Check out the whole thread here
Zelensky is Winning Hearts and Minds
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a graphic video to the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Tuesday that appeared to show the horrors of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
The video, which was aired after his speech to the council, began by showing what appeared to be dead bodies buried in mass graves. As the video continued, dozens of more bodies were shown in several cities, including Motyzhyn, Irpin, Dymerka, Mariupol and Bucha. As the video came to an end, the hashtag "#StopRussianAggression" was shown on the screen.
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Invasions Have Consequences
The Sins of the Father Are Visited on the Daughters.
The US is taking additional actions to increase economic pressure on Russia and President Vladimir Putin following horrific images from the Ukrainian city of Bucha, announcing new sanctions Wednesday on Russian financial institutions, as well as some people, including Putin’s adult daughters and the wife and daughter of his foreign minister.
“Today we’re dramatically escalating the financial shock by imposing full blocking sanctions on Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, and its largest private bank, Alfa Bank,” a senior administration official briefing reporters said.
Sberbank holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets, the official noted, adding that the US has now fully blocked “more than two-thirds of the Russian banking sector.”
Second, the senior official announced, “In alignment with the G7 and the EU, we’re announcing a ban on new investment in Russia.” That will be implemented with an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden.
The administration is also putting full blocking sanctions on a new set of Russian elites and their family members, including Putin’s adult daughters Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The US has already sanctioned more than 140 oligarchs and their family members and over 400 Russian government officials, the senior official said.
The US will also apply full blocking sanctions on critical major Russian state-owned enterprises, which will be announced by the Department of Treasury on Thursday. The official also noted Tuesday’s announcement that the Department of Treasury has blocked Russia from making debt payments with dollars stockpiled at US banks.
The senior official noted the crippling effect of US measures on the Russian economy since its invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia’s GDP is projected to shrink by double digits this year… It’s not in the process of being isolated as a pariah state. The economic shock this year alone is projected by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to wipe out the past 15 years of economic gains,” the official said.
The ‘next pivotal battle’ in Ukraine? Sloviansk, military analysts say.
Russian success in capturing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — two areas where there has been intense fighting between Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatists since 2014 — may hinge on its ability to capture Sloviansk, a city of 111,000 about 400 miles east of the capital, Kyiv.
Germany Didn't Lose WWII on D-Day. They Lost in the Battle of Kursk.
Reflections on the state of the war, attrition, atrocity and why Russia is heading for an even greater disaster than expected (and I wrote from the start I didnt see how they could win this war)--all compounded by their own choices which are speeding up their army's dissolution.
With not all the losses of the last few days listed, the Russian minimum losses are 391 Tanks, 255 Armored Fighting Vehicles, 375 infantry fighting vehicles, 81 Armoured Personnel carriers, etc.
So the Russians have almost lost the tanks equivalent to one-third of the best fighting formations in just over a month. This is a catastrophic loss rate--which is why the original Russian invasion force is close to being finished as a combat force without complete rest.
In comparison Russian losses of tanks so far are far higher than German losses in the Battle of Kursk in 1943, or indeed all German losses on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1943. (Germans lost 11% of their annual tank production on the EF in the summer of 1943)
We hear now that the Russians are putting together 10 more BTGs to try and help in the Donbas. Even if we cut Russian loss rates in half, that force will be chewed up in 3 weeks or so.
A very interesting discussion of how bad it is for Russia
As Bad As It Already Is For the Russian Army, the Javelins Are Coming.
The United States will send an additional $100 million in security assistance to Ukraine for Javelin anti-armor systems as part of efforts to bolster the country's defenses against Russia, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.
Vlad the Invader Isn't Winning Hearts and Minds in Ukraine
Vlad the Invader IS Winning Hearts and Minds in Russia
Russia Is Being Invaded ... By Hackers
Emma Best is used to dealing with leaked files from American organizations.
Best’s organization, Distributed Denial of Secrets, is best known for curating, publishing and promoting giant caches of files from a variety of sources, including U.S. police departments, the conservative social media platform Gab and the far-right Oathkeepers, a prominent group involved in the Jan. 6 riot.
But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Best and her colleagues have been inundated with files that hacktivists say they’ve stolen from Russian banks, energy companies, government agencies and media companies. For weeks, the group has scrambled to translate, verify, format and upload files that they can assess are legitimate and new, with the caveat that they usually haven’t gone through every single file to assess if it hasn’t been altered or planted with malicious software.
“Frankly, we’ve never seen this much data out of Russia before,” Best said. “Russia has never really been a target like this before” by hacktivists.
The consequences may not be fully known for years as experts sift through the files.
“The hackers went for Russian state companies where they could inflict the most pain for the Kremlin,” said Agnia Grigas, a Russia and energy industry expert at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.
NBC News has not verified the contents of the leaks, many of which contain dozens of gigabytes worth of data. None of the organizations, including the state-controlled energy companies Transneft and Rosatom, government censor Roskomnadzor, the Central Bank of Russia, and state-owned media giant VGTRK, responded to email inquiries requesting comment. But there’s little doubt among people who study Russia and cybersecurity that they’re largely authentic.
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Saved by Pepperoni, But No Anchovies
A man has been arrested after a woman fearing for her safety called 999 and asked if she could order a pizza.
North Yorkshire Police said the call handler immediately asked the woman if she was in trouble and she replied "yes".
The operator was able to establish the woman was on a bus, which was located and stopped in the York area.
The force said a 40-year-old man, from Leeds, was arrested and remained in custody.
The call came into the force on Tuesday evening and the operator established the woman could only answer "yes" or "no".
They worked out the woman was at risk of harm from a man travelling with her and keeping the phone line open the operator was able to text her for more information.
The bus she was on was identified through an online tracker.
No One Has Ever Been Saved by an Anchovy
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BA.2 Is Everywhere, But Cases Are Still Falling.
Maybe BA.2 really is the "stealth variant."
The Omicron subvariant caused as many as 3 in 4 cases of Covid-19 in the United States last week, according to the latest genomic surveillance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but so far, there are no signs of a looming surge in the US.
Even as BA.2 has become dominant, overall numbers of cases are still decreasing, says Dr. Jessica Justman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
"This is a clear example of how these two trends are not necessarily tied together," she says.
If things stay quiet, as some models predict, it will mark the first time a viral strain has taken over in the US without causing an increase in Covid-19 cases.
That's different from what's happening in the UK, some European countries and parts of Canada, where the arrival of BA.2 coincided with a new wave of cases and hospitalizations.
Andy Pekosz, who studies viruses at Johns Hopkins University, says the new wave of cases in Europe may have more to do with timing than any features of BA.2.
"What you're seeing in Europe may be resulting from the fact that they lifted their restrictions early, not so much that it's BA.2 that's there," he says.
Pekosz says many European countries dropped some precautions when there was already lot of virus circulating. He says cases in the US were coming down faster and fell farther before BA.2 outgrew its Omicron cousin here.
"When you start at a low place, it takes a lot longer to build up a high number of cases," he says.
It also suggests that the US may not be entirely out of the woods with BA.2 since Spring Break and the Easter and Passover holidays will mean more travel and more mixing of people from different parts of the country.
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Where Do You Go to Get Fetuses. The Mystery Deepens.
Two anti-abortion activists made new claims Tuesday about the five fetuses police found in one of their apartments last week, attesting that a medical waste worker had allowed them to seize 115 fetuses from outside a Washington, D.C., clinic last month.
Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac made their claims at a press conference days after D.C. police confirmed that officers had found fetuses in an apartment belonging to Handy, whom the FBI arrested that same day on charges of blocking access to an abortion clinic in 2020. She was later released.
Handy and Bukovinac, who both hold leadership positions at a group called Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, told reporters Tuesday that they had actually obtained 115 fetuses, not just five, from outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic, where they’d gone to protest on March 25.
They claim they had approached and taken the fetuses from a driver for Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services who was loading boxes into a vehicle.
“We asked him if he knew what was in the boxes, and after he said no, we told him: dead babies,” Bukovinac said Tuesday. “The driver was visibly shaken. After he confirmed the boxes were from Washington Surgi, I asked him, ‘Would you get in trouble if we took one of these boxes?’”
Bukovinac said the driver willingly handed the box over after she and Handy told him they wanted to give the contents “a proper burial and a funeral.”
Curtis Bay denies this account.
“On March 25, a Curtis Bay employee took custody of three packages from the Washington Surgery Center (Washington Surgi-Clinic) and delivered all of them to Curtis Bay’s incineration facility,” the company said in a statement to The New York Times, adding that the worker did not give away any of the boxes. “Any allegations made otherwise are false.”
Bukovinac said they brought a box back to Handy’s apartment to unpack it and eventually buried 110 fetuses they believe were aborted during the first trimester of pregnancy. The other five she described as “late-term” or “nearly full-term” and the victims of possible federal crimes, so the women began seeking out a doctor to confirm the fetuses’ gestational ages.
When they failed to find a medical professional for that purpose, Bukovinac and Handy “coordinated with attorneys to alert the D.C. homicide unit of the location of the five larger babies and requested an investigation into their deaths” on March 29, Bukovinac said.
“The patterns of their wounds suggest violent federal crime,” Handy claimed on Tuesday, shortly before displaying graphic images of the fetuses they collected.
But before D.C. police arrived the next day and found the fetuses in Handy’s apartment, the FBI arrested and charged her and eight others with federal civil rights offenses. According to prosecutors, they violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in October 2020 when they used their bodies, furniture, ropes and chains to block the doors of an abortion-providing clinic in the capital.
D.C. police say they have not found “anything criminal in nature” regarding the five abortions the activists wanted investigated. The city does not ban the procedure at any stage of pregnancy and leaves the decision up to patients in consultation with their doctors.
Nationwide, around just 1% of abortions are performed 21 or more weeks into a pregnancy, and physicians typically provide them at that stage because of severe fetal anomalies or threats to the mother’s life.
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Fox News Isn't Always Fake News
A female red fox suspected of biting people near the U.S. Capitol building was captured by animal control officers Tuesday — and she may be killed for rabies testing under Washington, D.C., law.
Capitol Police announced the fox’s capture on Twitter alongside several photos of the animal. The announcement came hours after the department tweeted it had “received several reports of aggressive fox encounters on or near the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.”
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Is It OK to Be a Sexual Predator If You Can Rush the Passer?
A small public university in southwest Virginia has become the nation's second school to adopt the most comprehensive serious misconduct policy in college sports.
University of Virginia's College at Wise on Tuesday formally adopted the Tracy Rule, which requires thorough background checks for athletes and bans those found responsible in a Title IX hearing or court for sexual or violent offenses from playing on varsity sports teams.
Title IX is the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
"For us, it's kind of a natural next step in continuing to develop our campus culture," UVA Wise athletic director Kendall Rainey said in an interview with USA TODAY. "It's about continuing to educate our college constituents on how we can just be better, and just be the best us we can be."
The NCAA in April 2020 announced a new policy requiring NCAA athletes to annually disclose to their schools any allegations of sexual violence against them that resulted in an investigation, discipline through a Title IX proceeding or a criminal conviction. The policy also covers dating and domestic violence and other forms of violence that result in serious body injury or involve deadly weapons.
In addition, the NCAA directed all 1,100 member schools to adopt written policies instructing staff to gather that information from the previous schools of recruits and transfer athletes. Aimed at preventing troubled athletes from slipping through the cracks without the schools' knowledge, the policy was supposed to take effect before the 2021-22 school year, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the NCAA to delay it until fall 2022.
The NCAA's Board of Governors adopted the policy four months after a four-part USA TODAY investigation called "Predator Pipeline" that detailed how dozens of college athletes seamlessly transferred to NCAA schools and continued their playing careers after being found responsible in a Title IX case or in court for sexual offenses.
At the time, six of the NCAA’s 33 Division I conferences – the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big 12, Pac-12, Big Sky, Southern Conference, and Mid-American Conference (MAC) – had adopted policies or procedures requiring vetting of prospective athletes for violent conduct. But their definitions of culpability varied, and most relied on the honor system – not actual record checks – to verify recruits. USA TODAY's investigation found some problematic athletes slipped through the cracks.
The Tracy Rule builds on and closes loopholes in those conferences' policies. Like the Big Sky policy, it requires athletes to self-report pending and closed investigations in an annual questionnaire. It expands the list of disqualifying offenses to include sexual harassment, incest, hate crimes, manslaughter and murder. Crucially, it also requires the Title IX coordinator from each transfer-athlete’s previous school to state whether that athlete was involved in any Title IX investigations at that school.
Remember Lawrence Phillips of Nebraska?
He was dismissed from the team after brutally assaulting his girlfriend, but he was allowed back on the team by Tom Osborne.
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Apr 6 | ||
| Apr 4 | 25,537 | 537 |
| Apr 3 | 25,074 | 572 |
| Apr 2 | 25,787 | 576 |
| Apr 1 | 26,106 | 584 |
| Mar 31 | 25,980 | 605 |
| Mar 30 | 25,732 | 626 |
| Mar 29 | 25,218 | 644 |
| Mar 28 | 26,190 | 700 |
| Mar 27 | 26,487 | 690 |
| Mar 26 | 26,593 | 697 |
| Mar 25 | 26,874 | 705 |
| Mar 24 | 27,235 | 732 |
| Mar 23 | 27,134 | 753 |
| Mar 22 | 27,545 | 787 |
| Mar 21 | 28,657 | 861 |
| Mar 20 | 27,786 | 901 |
| Mar 19 | 27,747 | 909 |
| Mar 18 | 28,274 | 972 |
| Mar 17 | 29,317 | 1,035 |
| Mar 16 | 30,040 | 1,052 |
| Mar 15 | 30,934 | 1,107 |
| Mar 14 | 32,458 | 1,186 |
| Mar 13 | 34,113 | 1,187 |
| Mar 12 | 34,253 | 1,210 |
| 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 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 76.9% | 65.5% | 44.8% |
| % of Population 5+ | 81.7% | 69.6% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 86.5% | 73.9% | 46.4% |
| % of Population 18+ | 88.3% | 75.4% | 48.2% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 89.0% | 67.2% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday April 5)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
| Percent of Average for this Date | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 74% (62% of full season average) |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 66% (55%) |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 62% (53%) |
| Snow Water Content - North | 46% |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 55% |
| Snow Water Content - South | 52% |
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
SCOTUS Doesn't Seem to Understand What An Emergency Is.
A 5-4 Supreme Court reinstated a Trump-era rule Wednesday that restricts the authority of states to reject federal permits under the Clean Water Act in another ruling putting the court's emergency docket in the spotlight.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberal justices in dissent, arguing that the court's majority had "gone astray" by granting an unwarranted request on its emergency docket.
"That renders the Court's emergency docket not for emergencies at all," Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the four dissenters. She said that the Republican-led states and others that had petitioned the court for emergency relief had not shown they would suffer the necessary irreparable harm to make their case.
Another Day, Another QOP'er Committed Voter Fraud
The latest member of the GOP mired in voter fraud accusations is former President Trump’s aide Matt Mowers, who held a senior role in the State Department and is now running for Congress in New Hampshire. Mowers took it upon himself to vote in two states during the 2016 presidential primaries.
According to the Associated Press, during the time Mowers worked as director of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, he voted via absentee ballot in New Hampshire. But just a few months later, after Christie’s run began to stall, Mowers re-registered in New Jersey using his parents’ East Brunswick home address.
The QOP Keeps Helping Putin
Senate Republicans are still balking at revoking Russia’s permanent normal trade relations status with the U.S. The sanctions language Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) demanded be included hasn’t been settled, and other unnamed but most likely Republican senators are demanding other changes. It’s looking more and more unlikely that this agreement will be reached before the Senate’s recess. As Sen. Wyden told reporters, “every day of delay” puts “more money into Putin’s hands.”
Republicans are so intent on preventing President Biden from having any kind of win at all, they are presenting a divided government face to the rest of the world—and to Vladimir Putin. That’s terrible for the U.S., but indescribably bad for Ukraine, giving Putin more license to indiscriminately slaughter Ukrainian citizens.
The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution expressing support for NATO on Tuesday.
The resolution passed 362-63, with support from 143 Republicans and 219 Democrats.
Sixty-three members of the GOP caucus voted against the measure.
If You Are Not Married to Thom Tillis, You Are Not a Woman
Republicans mocked Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson last month for refusing to define the word “woman” during her Senate confirmation hearing.
But it turns out those same Republicans on the Judiciary Committee don’t agree on how to define a woman, and some wouldn’t ― or couldn’t ― give a definition when HuffPost asked Tuesday.
“I don’t have anything for you on that,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).
“I’m not going to indulge you,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) dodged the question three times in a row, citing her policy of not talking to reporters in Senate hallways ― even though it was Blackburn who made this an issue with Jackson in the first place.
Thirteen hours into the first day of Jackson’s hearing last month, the Tennessee Republican tossed out the question: “Can you define the word ‘woman’?”
“Can I provide a definition?” Jackson said, appearing confused. “No, I can’t. I’m not a biologist.”
After some back and forth, Blackburn concluded: “The fact that you can’t give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.”
The next day, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) laid into Jackson too, telling her: “I think you are the only Supreme Court nominee in history who has been unable to answer the question ‘What is a woman?’”
The real aim of Blackburn’s question was almost certainly to try to corner Jackson on the issue of transgender women participating in women’s sports ― part of a broader, ugly GOP attack on LGBTQ people heading into the 2022 elections. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is pushing for child abuse investigations of parents whose children seek gender-affirming medical care. Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law prevents teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity to students younger than fourth graders. The Human Rights Campaign, meanwhile, is tracking more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills across the country.
In a follow-up email to HuffPost, a spokesperson for Blackburn said her definition of a woman is “Two X chromosomes.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Blackburn considers women born with only one X chromosome to be women, or if she considers men born with two X chromosomes to be women.
In a written statement, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered the same definition as Blackburn: “A woman is born with two X-chromosomes.”
“I have more of a traditional view of what a woman is,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
What is that?
“My wife.”
101
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has obtained 101 emails from a former Trump lawyer as part of its ongoing probe into the attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The emails from attorney John Eastman date from between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, the days abutting the deadly insurrection.
Eastman had attempted to shield the missives from lawmakers, claiming they were protected under attorney-client privilege. The House panel argued that there was an exception for any ongoing or future crimes and a judge agreed.
“Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President [Donald] Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote last month.
Carter went on to say he believed the pair “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history.”
MLK? Really? Where Were You During the BLM Protests, Josh?
When Will They Ever Learn? When Will They Ever Learn?
Police in Pennsylvania say a 4-year-old girl is dead after her younger brother apparently shot her by accident inside a car parked at at a gas station. Chester Police said a 2-year-old boy was "handling a gun inside of a vehicle" when it discharged.
Last month, a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother to death as the family was sitting in their car in a suburban Chicago supermarket parking lot.
According to data analyzed by advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, so far this year there have been at least 51 unintentional shootings by children in the U.S., resulting in 17 deaths and 38 injuries.
Last year, there were at least 379 unintentional shootings by children nationwide, resulting in 154 deaths and 244 injuries, the group said.
Why Do Fools Vote for Corporate Criminals?
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has consistently missed deadlines in recent months to pay the U.S. government the millions of dollars he owes in penalties for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines, according to federal court documents.
The Republican governor — who owns dozens of companies and has been called the most wealthy man in all of West Virginia — was ordered to pay $5.1 million by a federal judge in April 2020.
That was after the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration brought a lawsuit against 23 of his companies, saying he failed to pay fees associated with hundreds of mine safety penalties between 2014 and 2019.
Since at least December, Justice has been late on payments, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Virginia. Payments have been made only after reminders and notices filed in court by the U.S. government.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
"What rank are you?" "Well, I'm not a rank - I'm a guitarist." "What are you doing on the bridge?" "Well, there's nobody else here."
If you don't know this story, it is worth a read.
Snopes Says "Nope" to Fake News
Check out the whole thread here
Zelensky is Winning Hearts and Minds
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a graphic video to the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Tuesday that appeared to show the horrors of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
The video, which was aired after his speech to the council, began by showing what appeared to be dead bodies buried in mass graves. As the video continued, dozens of more bodies were shown in several cities, including Motyzhyn, Irpin, Dymerka, Mariupol and Bucha. As the video came to an end, the hashtag "#StopRussianAggression" was shown on the screen.
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Invasions Have Consequences
The Sins of the Father Are Visited on the Daughters.
The US is taking additional actions to increase economic pressure on Russia and President Vladimir Putin following horrific images from the Ukrainian city of Bucha, announcing new sanctions Wednesday on Russian financial institutions, as well as some people, including Putin’s adult daughters and the wife and daughter of his foreign minister.
“Today we’re dramatically escalating the financial shock by imposing full blocking sanctions on Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, and its largest private bank, Alfa Bank,” a senior administration official briefing reporters said.
Sberbank holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets, the official noted, adding that the US has now fully blocked “more than two-thirds of the Russian banking sector.”
Second, the senior official announced, “In alignment with the G7 and the EU, we’re announcing a ban on new investment in Russia.” That will be implemented with an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden.
The administration is also putting full blocking sanctions on a new set of Russian elites and their family members, including Putin’s adult daughters Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The US has already sanctioned more than 140 oligarchs and their family members and over 400 Russian government officials, the senior official said.
The US will also apply full blocking sanctions on critical major Russian state-owned enterprises, which will be announced by the Department of Treasury on Thursday. The official also noted Tuesday’s announcement that the Department of Treasury has blocked Russia from making debt payments with dollars stockpiled at US banks.
The senior official noted the crippling effect of US measures on the Russian economy since its invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia’s GDP is projected to shrink by double digits this year… It’s not in the process of being isolated as a pariah state. The economic shock this year alone is projected by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to wipe out the past 15 years of economic gains,” the official said.
The ‘next pivotal battle’ in Ukraine? Sloviansk, military analysts say.
Russian success in capturing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — two areas where there has been intense fighting between Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatists since 2014 — may hinge on its ability to capture Sloviansk, a city of 111,000 about 400 miles east of the capital, Kyiv.
Germany Didn't Lose WWII on D-Day. They Lost in the Battle of Kursk.
Reflections on the state of the war, attrition, atrocity and why Russia is heading for an even greater disaster than expected (and I wrote from the start I didnt see how they could win this war)--all compounded by their own choices which are speeding up their army's dissolution.
With not all the losses of the last few days listed, the Russian minimum losses are 391 Tanks, 255 Armored Fighting Vehicles, 375 infantry fighting vehicles, 81 Armoured Personnel carriers, etc.
So the Russians have almost lost the tanks equivalent to one-third of the best fighting formations in just over a month. This is a catastrophic loss rate--which is why the original Russian invasion force is close to being finished as a combat force without complete rest.
In comparison Russian losses of tanks so far are far higher than German losses in the Battle of Kursk in 1943, or indeed all German losses on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1943. (Germans lost 11% of their annual tank production on the EF in the summer of 1943)
We hear now that the Russians are putting together 10 more BTGs to try and help in the Donbas. Even if we cut Russian loss rates in half, that force will be chewed up in 3 weeks or so.
A very interesting discussion of how bad it is for Russia
As Bad As It Already Is For the Russian Army, the Javelins Are Coming.
The United States will send an additional $100 million in security assistance to Ukraine for Javelin anti-armor systems as part of efforts to bolster the country's defenses against Russia, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.
Vlad the Invader Isn't Winning Hearts and Minds in Ukraine
Vlad the Invader IS Winning Hearts and Minds in Russia
Russia Is Being Invaded ... By Hackers
Emma Best is used to dealing with leaked files from American organizations.
Best’s organization, Distributed Denial of Secrets, is best known for curating, publishing and promoting giant caches of files from a variety of sources, including U.S. police departments, the conservative social media platform Gab and the far-right Oathkeepers, a prominent group involved in the Jan. 6 riot.
But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Best and her colleagues have been inundated with files that hacktivists say they’ve stolen from Russian banks, energy companies, government agencies and media companies. For weeks, the group has scrambled to translate, verify, format and upload files that they can assess are legitimate and new, with the caveat that they usually haven’t gone through every single file to assess if it hasn’t been altered or planted with malicious software.
“Frankly, we’ve never seen this much data out of Russia before,” Best said. “Russia has never really been a target like this before” by hacktivists.
The consequences may not be fully known for years as experts sift through the files.
“The hackers went for Russian state companies where they could inflict the most pain for the Kremlin,” said Agnia Grigas, a Russia and energy industry expert at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.
NBC News has not verified the contents of the leaks, many of which contain dozens of gigabytes worth of data. None of the organizations, including the state-controlled energy companies Transneft and Rosatom, government censor Roskomnadzor, the Central Bank of Russia, and state-owned media giant VGTRK, responded to email inquiries requesting comment. But there’s little doubt among people who study Russia and cybersecurity that they’re largely authentic.
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Saved by Pepperoni, But No Anchovies
A man has been arrested after a woman fearing for her safety called 999 and asked if she could order a pizza.
North Yorkshire Police said the call handler immediately asked the woman if she was in trouble and she replied "yes".
The operator was able to establish the woman was on a bus, which was located and stopped in the York area.
The force said a 40-year-old man, from Leeds, was arrested and remained in custody.
The call came into the force on Tuesday evening and the operator established the woman could only answer "yes" or "no".
They worked out the woman was at risk of harm from a man travelling with her and keeping the phone line open the operator was able to text her for more information.
The bus she was on was identified through an online tracker.
No One Has Ever Been Saved by an Anchovy
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BA.2 Is Everywhere, But Cases Are Still Falling.
Maybe BA.2 really is the "stealth variant."
The Omicron subvariant caused as many as 3 in 4 cases of Covid-19 in the United States last week, according to the latest genomic surveillance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but so far, there are no signs of a looming surge in the US.
Even as BA.2 has become dominant, overall numbers of cases are still decreasing, says Dr. Jessica Justman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
"This is a clear example of how these two trends are not necessarily tied together," she says.
If things stay quiet, as some models predict, it will mark the first time a viral strain has taken over in the US without causing an increase in Covid-19 cases.
That's different from what's happening in the UK, some European countries and parts of Canada, where the arrival of BA.2 coincided with a new wave of cases and hospitalizations.
Andy Pekosz, who studies viruses at Johns Hopkins University, says the new wave of cases in Europe may have more to do with timing than any features of BA.2.
"What you're seeing in Europe may be resulting from the fact that they lifted their restrictions early, not so much that it's BA.2 that's there," he says.
Pekosz says many European countries dropped some precautions when there was already lot of virus circulating. He says cases in the US were coming down faster and fell farther before BA.2 outgrew its Omicron cousin here.
"When you start at a low place, it takes a lot longer to build up a high number of cases," he says.
It also suggests that the US may not be entirely out of the woods with BA.2 since Spring Break and the Easter and Passover holidays will mean more travel and more mixing of people from different parts of the country.
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Where Do You Go to Get Fetuses. The Mystery Deepens.
Two anti-abortion activists made new claims Tuesday about the five fetuses police found in one of their apartments last week, attesting that a medical waste worker had allowed them to seize 115 fetuses from outside a Washington, D.C., clinic last month.
Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac made their claims at a press conference days after D.C. police confirmed that officers had found fetuses in an apartment belonging to Handy, whom the FBI arrested that same day on charges of blocking access to an abortion clinic in 2020. She was later released.
Handy and Bukovinac, who both hold leadership positions at a group called Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, told reporters Tuesday that they had actually obtained 115 fetuses, not just five, from outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic, where they’d gone to protest on March 25.
They claim they had approached and taken the fetuses from a driver for Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services who was loading boxes into a vehicle.
“We asked him if he knew what was in the boxes, and after he said no, we told him: dead babies,” Bukovinac said Tuesday. “The driver was visibly shaken. After he confirmed the boxes were from Washington Surgi, I asked him, ‘Would you get in trouble if we took one of these boxes?’”
Bukovinac said the driver willingly handed the box over after she and Handy told him they wanted to give the contents “a proper burial and a funeral.”
Curtis Bay denies this account.
“On March 25, a Curtis Bay employee took custody of three packages from the Washington Surgery Center (Washington Surgi-Clinic) and delivered all of them to Curtis Bay’s incineration facility,” the company said in a statement to The New York Times, adding that the worker did not give away any of the boxes. “Any allegations made otherwise are false.”
Bukovinac said they brought a box back to Handy’s apartment to unpack it and eventually buried 110 fetuses they believe were aborted during the first trimester of pregnancy. The other five she described as “late-term” or “nearly full-term” and the victims of possible federal crimes, so the women began seeking out a doctor to confirm the fetuses’ gestational ages.
When they failed to find a medical professional for that purpose, Bukovinac and Handy “coordinated with attorneys to alert the D.C. homicide unit of the location of the five larger babies and requested an investigation into their deaths” on March 29, Bukovinac said.
“The patterns of their wounds suggest violent federal crime,” Handy claimed on Tuesday, shortly before displaying graphic images of the fetuses they collected.
But before D.C. police arrived the next day and found the fetuses in Handy’s apartment, the FBI arrested and charged her and eight others with federal civil rights offenses. According to prosecutors, they violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in October 2020 when they used their bodies, furniture, ropes and chains to block the doors of an abortion-providing clinic in the capital.
D.C. police say they have not found “anything criminal in nature” regarding the five abortions the activists wanted investigated. The city does not ban the procedure at any stage of pregnancy and leaves the decision up to patients in consultation with their doctors.
Nationwide, around just 1% of abortions are performed 21 or more weeks into a pregnancy, and physicians typically provide them at that stage because of severe fetal anomalies or threats to the mother’s life.
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Fox News Isn't Always Fake News
A female red fox suspected of biting people near the U.S. Capitol building was captured by animal control officers Tuesday — and she may be killed for rabies testing under Washington, D.C., law.
Capitol Police announced the fox’s capture on Twitter alongside several photos of the animal. The announcement came hours after the department tweeted it had “received several reports of aggressive fox encounters on or near the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.”
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Is It OK to Be a Sexual Predator If You Can Rush the Passer?
A small public university in southwest Virginia has become the nation's second school to adopt the most comprehensive serious misconduct policy in college sports.
University of Virginia's College at Wise on Tuesday formally adopted the Tracy Rule, which requires thorough background checks for athletes and bans those found responsible in a Title IX hearing or court for sexual or violent offenses from playing on varsity sports teams.
Title IX is the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
"For us, it's kind of a natural next step in continuing to develop our campus culture," UVA Wise athletic director Kendall Rainey said in an interview with USA TODAY. "It's about continuing to educate our college constituents on how we can just be better, and just be the best us we can be."
The NCAA in April 2020 announced a new policy requiring NCAA athletes to annually disclose to their schools any allegations of sexual violence against them that resulted in an investigation, discipline through a Title IX proceeding or a criminal conviction. The policy also covers dating and domestic violence and other forms of violence that result in serious body injury or involve deadly weapons.
In addition, the NCAA directed all 1,100 member schools to adopt written policies instructing staff to gather that information from the previous schools of recruits and transfer athletes. Aimed at preventing troubled athletes from slipping through the cracks without the schools' knowledge, the policy was supposed to take effect before the 2021-22 school year, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the NCAA to delay it until fall 2022.
The NCAA's Board of Governors adopted the policy four months after a four-part USA TODAY investigation called "Predator Pipeline" that detailed how dozens of college athletes seamlessly transferred to NCAA schools and continued their playing careers after being found responsible in a Title IX case or in court for sexual offenses.
At the time, six of the NCAA’s 33 Division I conferences – the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big 12, Pac-12, Big Sky, Southern Conference, and Mid-American Conference (MAC) – had adopted policies or procedures requiring vetting of prospective athletes for violent conduct. But their definitions of culpability varied, and most relied on the honor system – not actual record checks – to verify recruits. USA TODAY's investigation found some problematic athletes slipped through the cracks.
The Tracy Rule builds on and closes loopholes in those conferences' policies. Like the Big Sky policy, it requires athletes to self-report pending and closed investigations in an annual questionnaire. It expands the list of disqualifying offenses to include sexual harassment, incest, hate crimes, manslaughter and murder. Crucially, it also requires the Title IX coordinator from each transfer-athlete’s previous school to state whether that athlete was involved in any Title IX investigations at that school.
Remember Lawrence Phillips of Nebraska?
He was dismissed from the team after brutally assaulting his girlfriend, but he was allowed back on the team by Tom Osborne.
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