Post by mhbruin on Apr 13, 2022 9:27:00 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 566 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday April 12)
There is some rain and snow in Northern California this week.
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I Sued the Airline for Losing My Luggage. I Lost My Case.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Ride the highway west, baby. The west is the best The west is the best. Get here, and we'll do the rest.
Theirs is a world of private jets, posh Parisian apartments, Austrian ski vacations and schooling at elite universities in London and New York.
Their parents own prime real estate on the most exclusive avenues of Europe's capitals. Their social media profiles are filled with designer dresses and red-carpet events. One young woman posted photos of her 22nd birthday, poolside at the Adriatic Sea villa of one of Putin's oligarchs.
Meet the kids of the Kremlin.
While their parents publicly rail against the West, their kids grow up in the very countries whose societies they claim to reject.
"It is obviously extreme hypocrisy," said Daniel Treisman, a professor specializing in Russian politics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"They may not even see a contradiction," Treisman said. "They believe that there's this competition between the US and Russia, but why should that affect their daughter's educational plans? Or where they have their chateaus?"
The QOP Wants This Guy to Have Lots of Guns
The man identified Wednesday as a suspect in the New York subway shooting had talked about violence and mass shootings in videos posted on YouTube -- including one uploaded Monday.
"I've been through a lot of s**t, where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my f**king face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don't want to go to no f**king prison."
Many of the videos that James uploaded included references to violence, including at a set group of people he believed had maligned him, in addition to broad societal and racial groups that he appeared to hate.
In one video posted online in February, James criticized a plan by New York City Mayor Eric Adams' administration to address safety and homelessness in the subway in part through an expanded presence of mental health professionals.
In that racist and rambling recording, James said the new effort was "doomed to fail" and described his own negative experience with city health workers during a "crisis of mental health back in the '90s '80s and '70s."
In a video posted last week, James, who is Black, rants about abuse in churches and racism in the workplace, using misogynistic and racist language.
After talking about community violence, James says, "We need to see more mass shootings. Yeah. ... We need to see more, there has to be more mass shootings to make a n***er understand. ... It's not about the shooter; it's about the environment in which he is, he has to exist."
That speech was a common theme throughout James' videos, in which he repeatedly espoused hatred toward African Americans.
In another video posted last month to the same channel, James said that he had post-traumatic stress. In that video, James said he left his home in Milwaukee on March 20. During the trip eastward, he said he was heading to the "danger zone."
"You know, it's triggering a lot of negative thoughts of course," he said in the video. "I do have a severe case of post-traumatic stress."
Georgia Joins the Push to Arm More Crazy People
On a day that we’re lucky if there is only one mass shooting and on which congressional Democrats introduced a modest package of gun violence-related legislation, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 319 Tuesday. This makes Georgia the 25th state to adopt a law allowing anyone who can legally own a firearm to carry it concealed without a permit or training. The signing was done, naturally, at a gun store in Douglas County and takes effect July 1. In the past two months, Republican governors in Alabama, Ohio, and Indiana have also signed such so-called “constitutional carry” laws. In the past 16 months, 10 states have enacted such laws.
Meanwhile TucKKKer Seeks the Worst Possible Reaction
Tucker Carlson made the stupefying claim that the media will minimize coverage of Tuesday’s New York City subway mass shooting because the person of interest is Black.
Frank James was being sought by police for questioning in a gunman’s attack on a crowded Brooklyn subway car. Ten people were shot and more than a dozen others were injured in the ensuing chaos.
“We do know he was not a white supremacist, so we’re betting the media are not going to dwell on this,” the prime time Fox News host said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Tuesday. “There’s nothing to gain from covering this particular atrocity. Just another mass shooting in the big city. It’s all so sad.”
Two of the Dumbest Things in the World. Crypto and Previous Guy. Could Anything Go Wrong?
A class-action lawsuit has been announced after a pro-Donald Trump crypto-currency was launched, leaving investors broke.
Those suing purchased a digital currency named after the right-wing slogan "Let's Go, Brandon." Now they're saying that they were the victims of a pump-and-dump scheme by the insiders.
The slogan "Let's Go, Brandon," is a phrase that is supposed to mean, "F*ck Joe Biden." It has never been clear why Trump supporters have censored themselves from saying the phrase, but it has become a major slogan in Trumpworld. The popularity of the meme expanded to such a degree the cryptocurrency was named after it: LGB.
According to those waging the class action lawsuit, however, the value of the digital currency sank like a stone. The start of the coin was purchased by Donald Trump's most loyal fans, but it died. It was then relaunched in Feb. 2022 to considerable fanfare only to plummet again. Trump loyalists lost everything they'd invested. Note: Where have we seen this before in Trumpworld? Trump University, perhaps? Truth Social, perhaps?
The 79-page lawsuit filed in Florida says that the currency's leaders “cynically marketed the LGB Tokens to investors so that they could sell off their portion…for a profit.” Selloffs of the coin caused the value to fall considerably.
Apparently Foolproof Means Proof Only Fools Would Believe In Previous Guy World
Trump's persistence in this lost cause continued Tuesday with a post by his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill, Liz Harrington. The tweet made some emphatic declarations regarding his insistence that the election was rife with voter fraud. He said that...
“This is 100% conclusive and determinative evidence. When will the Republicans finally act. Not only was the 2020 Election Rigged, but they’ll do it again. Leadership, for once, must step up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park. This is your chance. The people, who are disgusted with your weakness and indifference, are waiting. Schumer and Pelosi would never stand for this if it were the other way around. This is 'foolproof,' on video tape for everyone to see. Do something!"
Not surprisingly, what Trump is describing as "100% conclusive and determinative evidence" is neither conclusive nor determinative. It isn't even evidence. Trump is regurgitating the results of a thoroughly disreputable pack of prevaricators known deceitfully as "True the Vote." These election truthers put together a video collage of what they claimed were people committing felony voter fraud by depositing multiple absentee ballots in drop boxes in Georgia.
The only problem with that accusation is that everything seen on the videos was perfectly legal. According to Georgia law...
"...mailing or delivery [of absentee ballots] may be made by the elector's mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, spouse, son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, or an individual residing in the household of such elector."
Additional authorized persons include caretakers for the disabled and employees of hospitals and prisons for voters thus confined. Nothing in Trump's so-called "evidence" indicated that anyone depositing the ballots was not legally permitted to do so. What's more, there was no way of knowing who the votes were for on those ballots. So even if the persons depositing them in the drop boxes were unauthorized, they may have been Trump voters who were in violation of the law. Which, more often than not, is the case.
The Devil Previous Guy Made Me Do It Pleading the 45th.
Mentions of Donald Trump have been rare at the first few trials for people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol, but that has changed: The latest Capitol riot defendant to go on trial is blaming his actions on the former president and his false claims about a stolen election.
Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man charged with stealing a coat rack from the Capitol, doesn’t deny that he joined the mob on Jan. 6, 2021. But his lawyer vowed Tuesday to show that Trump abused his power to “authorize” the attack.
Describing Trump as a man without scruples or integrity, defense attorney Samuel Shamansky said the former president engaged in a “sinister” plot to encourage Thompson and other supporters to “do his dirty work.”
“It’s Donald Trump himself spewing the lies and using his position to authorize this assault,” Shamansky told jurors Tuesday during the trial’s opening statements.
I Want to Keep People From Mississippi and Alabama Out.
Groceries Costing Too Much. Blame Ab-Butt
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's truck inspection policies at the Mexico border are disrupting supply chains and leading to higher prices for goods, the White House said on Wednesday.
"Governor Abbott’s unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs, and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Mexican truck drivers blockaded bridges at the U.S. border for a second day on Tuesday to protest an order by Abbott that has snarled traffic and led business groups to warn of supply chain disruptions.
The slowdowns began after the Republican governor ordered officials last week to conduct vehicle safety inspections at entry ports to uncover smuggling of people and contraband.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Tuesday the long waits were due to "additional and unnecessary inspections" ordered by Abbott and were causing "critical impacts to an already-strained supply chain."
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Yes, You Can Search for Abortion Clinics on Yelp.
Yelp Inc. said on Tuesday it will cover expenses for its employees and their dependents who need to travel to another state for abortion services starting next month, making it the latest U.S. company to offer similar benefits to its workers.
The crowd-sourced review platform for restaurants and other businesses will provide travel benefits to its U.S. employees who need to travel out of states like Texas and Oklahoma that have restricted access to abortion services.
“As a remote-first company with a distributed workforce, this new benefit allows our U.S. employees and their dependents to have equitable access to reproductive care, regardless of where they live,” Miriam Warren, Yelp’s chief diversity officer, said in a statement.
Other companies have pledged to offer similar support to their Texas-based employees.
Citigroup Inc. in March started covering travel expenses for employees who go out of state for abortions, becoming the first major U.S. bank to make that commitment.
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Today's Weirdest Person in the World
A woman protesting the mass killing of chickens tried to glue herself to a basketball court Tuesday during a play-in game between the host Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers. (Watch the video below.)
While TNT announcers Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller tried to figure out what was going on as personnel surrounded the protester near the baseline, sideline reporter Allie LaForce said the interloper tried to glue herself to the floor and was resisting security. The protester left a white handprint on the hardwood, one photo showed.
The animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere confirmed the motive in a news release, identifying the activist as Alicia Santurio.
Santurio wore a T-shirt saying “Glen Taylor Roasts Animals Alive” to protest the mass killing of chickens amid an avian flu outbreak on Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s Iowa egg farm, according to the release. The group alleged the suffocation method used to kill the birds was inhumane and against state law.
twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1514074205498740742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1514074205498740742%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fgluegirl-nba-timberwolves-clippers_n_6256aa81e4b052d2bd5c5904
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Invasions Have Consequences
Command, Control, Logistics, Communications. A Little History Lesson .
On August 7, 1942, a massive U.S. fleet approached the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands. There the fleet successfully landed Marines, captured two airfields under construction, annihilated a small Japanese base, and drove construction workers into the jungle. After two days of hard fighting, U.S. forces stepped down from high alert on the evening of August 8. They had control of the islands, two large naval forces standing in the strait between Guadalcanal and Tulagi, a screen of destroyers guarding the entrance to the area, a carrier fleet providing air cover, and reconnaissance planes making loops to warn of any Japanese approach. The admiral in charge even expressed a wish that someone would attack, showing confidence in their position.
That night, a much smaller Japanese fleet sailed into the area under cover of darkness, opened fire on the southern half of the fleet, and either sunk or sent into flight every major ship. Then it turned to the north, did the same to the northern fleet, and escaped beyond small Savo Island after taking only light damage. On the U.S. side, four heavy cruisers were utterly lost. Another was seriously damaged and left adrift. Two destroyers were also left with serious damage, unable to continue the fight. 1,077 men were killed—almost as many as the Marines would lose on Guadalcanal over the course of that whole infamously terrible campaign. And all those troops onshore would be left without air cover, without cover from the sea, and short on supplies, setting up everything that was to come.
What went wrong? What didn’t. A U.S. spotting plane had seen the Japanese fleet—in fact, two planes spotted them while approaching. But those planes were under a different command. Since the naval operations were secret, the planes didn’t know the U.S. ships were off to their east and weren’t all that concerned about the course the Japanese fleet was taking. It took more than 8 hours for the first message to reach the U.S. ships. Even when it did, everyone misinterpreted what the spotting planes had seen.
It wasn’t just the planes that were under a different command. The naval fleet was actually split up among different admirals, and after the landing, the commander of the carrier fleet unexpectedly announced he was taking his ships and leaving the area. Surprised, the overall commander of the landing fleet called in his next in command for a conference. That next in command failed to put anyone in charge of the southern fleet, where he had been stationed, and no one bothered to notify the northern fleet of what was happening. In fact, no one bothered to notify the northern fleet that anything was wrong even after the Japanese sailed into the strait and attacked the southern fleet. The Japanese got to stage two separate surprise attacks because no one on the U.S. side thought to pick up a radio. And all during the fight, the two guys really in charge were somewhere else, complaining about the other admiral and the carrier fleet. They didn’t even see the action.
Command, control, logistics, communications … they failed every test. And the result may have added a year to the war in the space of just minutes.
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
More logistics attacks inside Russia by Ukrainian forces? Here is a railway bridge between Belgorod [Russia] at the Ukraine border near Kharkiv that definitely looks intentionally damaged (explosions pushing upwards). Exactly the targets Ukraine should be prioritising.
I Hope This Was Tweeted Long After the Train Left
Russian Yacht! Go Fuck Yourself!
We Could Never Shut Down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Vlad Can't Shut This Down.
Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia’s initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine’s contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express.
The U.S. numbers alone are mounting: more than 12,000 weapons designed to defeat armored vehicles, some 1,400 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to shoot down aircraft and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition, among many other things. Dozens of other nations are adding to the totals.
The Biden administration is preparing yet another, more diverse, package of military support possibly totaling $750 million to be announced in the coming days, a senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans not yet publicly announced. The additional aid is a sign that the administration intends to continue expanding its support for Ukraine’s war effort.
These armaments have helped an under-gunned Ukrainian military defy predictions that it would be quickly overrun by Russia. They explain in part why Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army gave up, at least for now, its attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital, and has narrowed its focus to battling for eastern and southern Ukraine.
U.S. officials and analysts offer numerous explanations for why the Russians have had so little success interdicting Western arms moving overland from neighboring countries, including Poland. Among the likely reasons: Russia’s failure to win full control of Ukraine’s skies has limited its use of air power. Also, the Russians have struggled to deliver weapons and supplies to their own troops in Ukraine.
Some say Moscow’s problem begins at home.
“The short answer to the question is that they are an epically incompetent army badly led from the very top,” said James Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who was the top NATO commander in Europe from 2009 to 2013.
The Russians also face practical obstacles. Robert G. Bell, a longtime NATO official and now a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech University, said the shipments lend themselves to being hidden or disguised in ways that can make them elusive to the Russians — “short of having a network of espionage on the scene” to pinpoint the convoys’ movements.
“It’s not as easy to stop this assistance flow as it might seem,” said Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. “Things like ammunition and shoulder-fired missiles can be transported in trucks that look just like any other commercial truck. And the trucks carrying the munitions the Russians want to interdict are just a small part of a much larger flow of goods and commerce moving around in Poland and Ukraine and across the border.
“So the Russians have to find the needle in this very big haystack to destroy the weapons and ammo they’re after and not waste scarce munitions on trucks full of printer paper or baby diapers or who knows what.”
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He Spent Half the Money on Women and Booze. He Wasted the Other Half.
The former head of a Swiss bank has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail for charges including fraud.
The court in Zurich heard that Pierin Vincenz, 65, had used his company credit card to pay for strip clubs, Tinder dates, holidays and dinners.
Public interest in the case was such that the trial was moved from a Zurich courthouse to a concert hall.
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This is Probably the First Time You Ever Thought About Koala Sperm
Researchers in Australia say freezing koala sperm could help protect the endangered marsupials from extinction.
Scientists at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales have suggested setting up a biolab of collected sperm.
This could then be used as part of a breeding programme to future-proof the species and improve its genetic diversity, they say.
Bushfires in recent years have killed tens of thousands of koalas.
Conservation scientist Dr Ryan Witt said the proposals were a cost-effective way to prevent inbreeding, and therefore help preserve the genetic diversity of koalas beyond small colonies of captive animals:
"Currently... we have no insurance policy against natural disasters like the 2019-2020 bushfires that threaten to wipe out large numbers of animals at the one time," he said.
This is Probably the First Time You Ever Thought About Koalas and Chlamydia, Too.
Despite being (possibly) the world's cuddliest creature (NO!), the super-sweet koala is also one of the unluckiest animals on the planet.
Australia's most famous tree hugger has been ravaged by sexually transmitted disease, attacks from dogs, being hit by cars and habitat loss.
Chlamydia has spread fast in koalas, causing infertility and blindness. More than half of Australia’s koala population is riddled with a painful and lethal form of chlamydia—and the infection can be transmitted to humans exposed to their urine.
But scientists say decoding the genome should lead to an effective vaccine for the STD.
In fact, researchers say they've been amazed by the information that's been hidden in the marsupial's DNA.
Koala Are NOT Cuddly
Koalas have sharp teeth and claws, and know how to use them. (Or, to put it more kindly, they can be startled into self-defense behaviors if approached by someone who isn’t a trained keeper.)
In 2006, four boneheads tried to steal a koala from a Queensland zoo so they could sell it for drug money. The koala proved so vicious that the thieves changed plans and dragged off a four-foot-long crocodile instead!
And in 2014, a South Australian dog-walker had to pry a koala’s jaws off her ankle when it got spooked by her dogs. She limped the mile-plus home bleeding profusely, and eventually needed twelve stitches. “People should keep their distance if they spot a koala out in the wild,” newspaper accounts quoted experts.
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China Can't Handle Gay Wizards
References to a gay relationship in the new Fantastic Beasts movie were removed by Warner Bros for Chinese audiences.
Six seconds of the third instalment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, which alluded to the romantic past between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, were cut.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling said Dumbledore was gay in 2007, but the movies had never explicitly referenced his sexuality until now.
The producers, Warner Bros, said the "spirit of the film remains".
How Dumb-ledore is That?
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Want To Buy A Little Green Cheese?
Samples of moon dust collected by Neil Armstrong during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969 will go up for auction Wednesday in New York City.
The auction item, which includes five samples of lunar dust, is a rare piece of space history and could be worth up to $1.2 million, according to Bonhams, the auction house handling the sale. The dust samples had a wild and controversial journey to sale and will be the only known samples of lunar dust sold legally after being authenticated by NASA.
"There's never been a verified Apollo lunar sample offered at auction, so we're just so pleased and honored to offer this," said Adam Stackhouse, a specialist at Bonhams who is overseeing its Space History sale.
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Some People Are Dying to Leave the US
2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad.
The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.
The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020′s record-setting total.
Early last year, some experts were optimistic that 2021 would not be as bad as the first year of the pandemic — partly because effective COVID-19 vaccines had finally become available.
“We were wrong, unfortunately,” said Noreen Goldman, a Princeton University researcher.
COVID-19 deaths rose in 2021 — to more than 415,000, up from 351,000 the year before — as new coronavirus variants emerged and an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans refused to get vaccinated or were hesitant to wear masks, experts said.
The coronavirus is not solely to blame. Preliminary CDC data also shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, and rates continued to increase for diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke.
Drug overdose deaths also continued to rise. The CDC does not yet have a tally for 2021 overdose deaths, because it can take weeks of lab work and investigation to identify them. But provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at least 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021 — up from 93,000 the year before.
New research released Tuesday showed a particularly large jump in overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.
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Is a Mask Too Much to Ask?
The Biden administration is planning to extend the mask mandate for travelers on airplanes, trains and other transit systems, according to two administration sources and two airline sources familiar with an ongoing internal debate.
A final determination about the length of the extension has not yet been settled, the sources said, but the expectation was that it would be at least two weeks.
The current requirement that all travelers wear face coverings is set to expire on April 18 — meaning a two-week extension would stretch until May 2.
Nope!
Less than a month after mask mandates were lifted across the county, the city of Philadelphia announced Monday that it would reinstate a mandate next week amid a 50% increase in reported COVID-19 cases in the past 10 days
“It’s good that they’re being proactive," said Abby Rudolph, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Temple University in Philadelphia. "A lot of people are testing at home, and we’re not capturing all the cases. When we do see an increase, it’s likely that the increase is a little bit higher than what’s reported.”
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Apr 12 | 29,401 | 452 |
| Apr 11 | 30,208 | 483 |
| Apr 10 | 28,927 | 500 |
| Apr 9 | 28,339 | 509 |
| Apr 8 | 28,169 | 516 |
| Apr 7 | 26,286 | 471 |
| Apr 6 | 26,595 | 496 |
| Apr 5 | 26,845 | 533 |
| 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 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 77.2% | 65.8% | 45.3% |
| % of Population 5+ | 82.1% | 70.0% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 86.9% | 74.2% | 47.0% |
| % of Population 18+ | 88.6% | 75.7% | 48.2% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 89.5% | 67.2% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday April 12)
There is some rain and snow in Northern California this week.
| Percent of Average for this Date | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 73% (63% of full season average) |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 65% (57%) |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 61% (53%) |
| Snow Water Content - North | 15% |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 27% |
| Snow Water Content - South | 24% |
I Sued the Airline for Losing My Luggage. I Lost My Case.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Ride the highway west, baby. The west is the best The west is the best. Get here, and we'll do the rest.
Theirs is a world of private jets, posh Parisian apartments, Austrian ski vacations and schooling at elite universities in London and New York.
Their parents own prime real estate on the most exclusive avenues of Europe's capitals. Their social media profiles are filled with designer dresses and red-carpet events. One young woman posted photos of her 22nd birthday, poolside at the Adriatic Sea villa of one of Putin's oligarchs.
Meet the kids of the Kremlin.
While their parents publicly rail against the West, their kids grow up in the very countries whose societies they claim to reject.
"It is obviously extreme hypocrisy," said Daniel Treisman, a professor specializing in Russian politics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"They may not even see a contradiction," Treisman said. "They believe that there's this competition between the US and Russia, but why should that affect their daughter's educational plans? Or where they have their chateaus?"
The QOP Wants This Guy to Have Lots of Guns
The man identified Wednesday as a suspect in the New York subway shooting had talked about violence and mass shootings in videos posted on YouTube -- including one uploaded Monday.
"I've been through a lot of s**t, where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my f**king face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don't want to go to no f**king prison."
Many of the videos that James uploaded included references to violence, including at a set group of people he believed had maligned him, in addition to broad societal and racial groups that he appeared to hate.
In one video posted online in February, James criticized a plan by New York City Mayor Eric Adams' administration to address safety and homelessness in the subway in part through an expanded presence of mental health professionals.
In that racist and rambling recording, James said the new effort was "doomed to fail" and described his own negative experience with city health workers during a "crisis of mental health back in the '90s '80s and '70s."
In a video posted last week, James, who is Black, rants about abuse in churches and racism in the workplace, using misogynistic and racist language.
After talking about community violence, James says, "We need to see more mass shootings. Yeah. ... We need to see more, there has to be more mass shootings to make a n***er understand. ... It's not about the shooter; it's about the environment in which he is, he has to exist."
That speech was a common theme throughout James' videos, in which he repeatedly espoused hatred toward African Americans.
In another video posted last month to the same channel, James said that he had post-traumatic stress. In that video, James said he left his home in Milwaukee on March 20. During the trip eastward, he said he was heading to the "danger zone."
"You know, it's triggering a lot of negative thoughts of course," he said in the video. "I do have a severe case of post-traumatic stress."
Georgia Joins the Push to Arm More Crazy People
On a day that we’re lucky if there is only one mass shooting and on which congressional Democrats introduced a modest package of gun violence-related legislation, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 319 Tuesday. This makes Georgia the 25th state to adopt a law allowing anyone who can legally own a firearm to carry it concealed without a permit or training. The signing was done, naturally, at a gun store in Douglas County and takes effect July 1. In the past two months, Republican governors in Alabama, Ohio, and Indiana have also signed such so-called “constitutional carry” laws. In the past 16 months, 10 states have enacted such laws.
Meanwhile TucKKKer Seeks the Worst Possible Reaction
Tucker Carlson made the stupefying claim that the media will minimize coverage of Tuesday’s New York City subway mass shooting because the person of interest is Black.
Frank James was being sought by police for questioning in a gunman’s attack on a crowded Brooklyn subway car. Ten people were shot and more than a dozen others were injured in the ensuing chaos.
“We do know he was not a white supremacist, so we’re betting the media are not going to dwell on this,” the prime time Fox News host said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Tuesday. “There’s nothing to gain from covering this particular atrocity. Just another mass shooting in the big city. It’s all so sad.”
Two of the Dumbest Things in the World. Crypto and Previous Guy. Could Anything Go Wrong?
A class-action lawsuit has been announced after a pro-Donald Trump crypto-currency was launched, leaving investors broke.
Those suing purchased a digital currency named after the right-wing slogan "Let's Go, Brandon." Now they're saying that they were the victims of a pump-and-dump scheme by the insiders.
The slogan "Let's Go, Brandon," is a phrase that is supposed to mean, "F*ck Joe Biden." It has never been clear why Trump supporters have censored themselves from saying the phrase, but it has become a major slogan in Trumpworld. The popularity of the meme expanded to such a degree the cryptocurrency was named after it: LGB.
According to those waging the class action lawsuit, however, the value of the digital currency sank like a stone. The start of the coin was purchased by Donald Trump's most loyal fans, but it died. It was then relaunched in Feb. 2022 to considerable fanfare only to plummet again. Trump loyalists lost everything they'd invested. Note: Where have we seen this before in Trumpworld? Trump University, perhaps? Truth Social, perhaps?
The 79-page lawsuit filed in Florida says that the currency's leaders “cynically marketed the LGB Tokens to investors so that they could sell off their portion…for a profit.” Selloffs of the coin caused the value to fall considerably.
Apparently Foolproof Means Proof Only Fools Would Believe In Previous Guy World
Trump's persistence in this lost cause continued Tuesday with a post by his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill, Liz Harrington. The tweet made some emphatic declarations regarding his insistence that the election was rife with voter fraud. He said that...
“This is 100% conclusive and determinative evidence. When will the Republicans finally act. Not only was the 2020 Election Rigged, but they’ll do it again. Leadership, for once, must step up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park. This is your chance. The people, who are disgusted with your weakness and indifference, are waiting. Schumer and Pelosi would never stand for this if it were the other way around. This is 'foolproof,' on video tape for everyone to see. Do something!"
Not surprisingly, what Trump is describing as "100% conclusive and determinative evidence" is neither conclusive nor determinative. It isn't even evidence. Trump is regurgitating the results of a thoroughly disreputable pack of prevaricators known deceitfully as "True the Vote." These election truthers put together a video collage of what they claimed were people committing felony voter fraud by depositing multiple absentee ballots in drop boxes in Georgia.
The only problem with that accusation is that everything seen on the videos was perfectly legal. According to Georgia law...
"...mailing or delivery [of absentee ballots] may be made by the elector's mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, spouse, son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, or an individual residing in the household of such elector."
Additional authorized persons include caretakers for the disabled and employees of hospitals and prisons for voters thus confined. Nothing in Trump's so-called "evidence" indicated that anyone depositing the ballots was not legally permitted to do so. What's more, there was no way of knowing who the votes were for on those ballots. So even if the persons depositing them in the drop boxes were unauthorized, they may have been Trump voters who were in violation of the law. Which, more often than not, is the case.
The
Mentions of Donald Trump have been rare at the first few trials for people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol, but that has changed: The latest Capitol riot defendant to go on trial is blaming his actions on the former president and his false claims about a stolen election.
Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man charged with stealing a coat rack from the Capitol, doesn’t deny that he joined the mob on Jan. 6, 2021. But his lawyer vowed Tuesday to show that Trump abused his power to “authorize” the attack.
Describing Trump as a man without scruples or integrity, defense attorney Samuel Shamansky said the former president engaged in a “sinister” plot to encourage Thompson and other supporters to “do his dirty work.”
“It’s Donald Trump himself spewing the lies and using his position to authorize this assault,” Shamansky told jurors Tuesday during the trial’s opening statements.
I Want to Keep People From Mississippi and Alabama Out.
Groceries Costing Too Much. Blame Ab-Butt
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's truck inspection policies at the Mexico border are disrupting supply chains and leading to higher prices for goods, the White House said on Wednesday.
"Governor Abbott’s unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs, and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Mexican truck drivers blockaded bridges at the U.S. border for a second day on Tuesday to protest an order by Abbott that has snarled traffic and led business groups to warn of supply chain disruptions.
The slowdowns began after the Republican governor ordered officials last week to conduct vehicle safety inspections at entry ports to uncover smuggling of people and contraband.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Tuesday the long waits were due to "additional and unnecessary inspections" ordered by Abbott and were causing "critical impacts to an already-strained supply chain."
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Yes, You Can Search for Abortion Clinics on Yelp.
Yelp Inc. said on Tuesday it will cover expenses for its employees and their dependents who need to travel to another state for abortion services starting next month, making it the latest U.S. company to offer similar benefits to its workers.
The crowd-sourced review platform for restaurants and other businesses will provide travel benefits to its U.S. employees who need to travel out of states like Texas and Oklahoma that have restricted access to abortion services.
“As a remote-first company with a distributed workforce, this new benefit allows our U.S. employees and their dependents to have equitable access to reproductive care, regardless of where they live,” Miriam Warren, Yelp’s chief diversity officer, said in a statement.
Other companies have pledged to offer similar support to their Texas-based employees.
Citigroup Inc. in March started covering travel expenses for employees who go out of state for abortions, becoming the first major U.S. bank to make that commitment.
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Today's Weirdest Person in the World
A woman protesting the mass killing of chickens tried to glue herself to a basketball court Tuesday during a play-in game between the host Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers. (Watch the video below.)
While TNT announcers Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller tried to figure out what was going on as personnel surrounded the protester near the baseline, sideline reporter Allie LaForce said the interloper tried to glue herself to the floor and was resisting security. The protester left a white handprint on the hardwood, one photo showed.
The animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere confirmed the motive in a news release, identifying the activist as Alicia Santurio.
Santurio wore a T-shirt saying “Glen Taylor Roasts Animals Alive” to protest the mass killing of chickens amid an avian flu outbreak on Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s Iowa egg farm, according to the release. The group alleged the suffocation method used to kill the birds was inhumane and against state law.
twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1514074205498740742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1514074205498740742%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fgluegirl-nba-timberwolves-clippers_n_6256aa81e4b052d2bd5c5904
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Invasions Have Consequences
Command, Control, Logistics, Communications. A Little History Lesson .
On August 7, 1942, a massive U.S. fleet approached the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands. There the fleet successfully landed Marines, captured two airfields under construction, annihilated a small Japanese base, and drove construction workers into the jungle. After two days of hard fighting, U.S. forces stepped down from high alert on the evening of August 8. They had control of the islands, two large naval forces standing in the strait between Guadalcanal and Tulagi, a screen of destroyers guarding the entrance to the area, a carrier fleet providing air cover, and reconnaissance planes making loops to warn of any Japanese approach. The admiral in charge even expressed a wish that someone would attack, showing confidence in their position.
That night, a much smaller Japanese fleet sailed into the area under cover of darkness, opened fire on the southern half of the fleet, and either sunk or sent into flight every major ship. Then it turned to the north, did the same to the northern fleet, and escaped beyond small Savo Island after taking only light damage. On the U.S. side, four heavy cruisers were utterly lost. Another was seriously damaged and left adrift. Two destroyers were also left with serious damage, unable to continue the fight. 1,077 men were killed—almost as many as the Marines would lose on Guadalcanal over the course of that whole infamously terrible campaign. And all those troops onshore would be left without air cover, without cover from the sea, and short on supplies, setting up everything that was to come.
What went wrong? What didn’t. A U.S. spotting plane had seen the Japanese fleet—in fact, two planes spotted them while approaching. But those planes were under a different command. Since the naval operations were secret, the planes didn’t know the U.S. ships were off to their east and weren’t all that concerned about the course the Japanese fleet was taking. It took more than 8 hours for the first message to reach the U.S. ships. Even when it did, everyone misinterpreted what the spotting planes had seen.
It wasn’t just the planes that were under a different command. The naval fleet was actually split up among different admirals, and after the landing, the commander of the carrier fleet unexpectedly announced he was taking his ships and leaving the area. Surprised, the overall commander of the landing fleet called in his next in command for a conference. That next in command failed to put anyone in charge of the southern fleet, where he had been stationed, and no one bothered to notify the northern fleet of what was happening. In fact, no one bothered to notify the northern fleet that anything was wrong even after the Japanese sailed into the strait and attacked the southern fleet. The Japanese got to stage two separate surprise attacks because no one on the U.S. side thought to pick up a radio. And all during the fight, the two guys really in charge were somewhere else, complaining about the other admiral and the carrier fleet. They didn’t even see the action.
Command, control, logistics, communications … they failed every test. And the result may have added a year to the war in the space of just minutes.
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
More logistics attacks inside Russia by Ukrainian forces? Here is a railway bridge between Belgorod [Russia] at the Ukraine border near Kharkiv that definitely looks intentionally damaged (explosions pushing upwards). Exactly the targets Ukraine should be prioritising.
I Hope This Was Tweeted Long After the Train Left
Russian Yacht! Go Fuck Yourself!
We Could Never Shut Down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Vlad Can't Shut This Down.
Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia’s initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine’s contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express.
The U.S. numbers alone are mounting: more than 12,000 weapons designed to defeat armored vehicles, some 1,400 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to shoot down aircraft and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition, among many other things. Dozens of other nations are adding to the totals.
The Biden administration is preparing yet another, more diverse, package of military support possibly totaling $750 million to be announced in the coming days, a senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans not yet publicly announced. The additional aid is a sign that the administration intends to continue expanding its support for Ukraine’s war effort.
These armaments have helped an under-gunned Ukrainian military defy predictions that it would be quickly overrun by Russia. They explain in part why Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army gave up, at least for now, its attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital, and has narrowed its focus to battling for eastern and southern Ukraine.
U.S. officials and analysts offer numerous explanations for why the Russians have had so little success interdicting Western arms moving overland from neighboring countries, including Poland. Among the likely reasons: Russia’s failure to win full control of Ukraine’s skies has limited its use of air power. Also, the Russians have struggled to deliver weapons and supplies to their own troops in Ukraine.
Some say Moscow’s problem begins at home.
“The short answer to the question is that they are an epically incompetent army badly led from the very top,” said James Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who was the top NATO commander in Europe from 2009 to 2013.
The Russians also face practical obstacles. Robert G. Bell, a longtime NATO official and now a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech University, said the shipments lend themselves to being hidden or disguised in ways that can make them elusive to the Russians — “short of having a network of espionage on the scene” to pinpoint the convoys’ movements.
“It’s not as easy to stop this assistance flow as it might seem,” said Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. “Things like ammunition and shoulder-fired missiles can be transported in trucks that look just like any other commercial truck. And the trucks carrying the munitions the Russians want to interdict are just a small part of a much larger flow of goods and commerce moving around in Poland and Ukraine and across the border.
“So the Russians have to find the needle in this very big haystack to destroy the weapons and ammo they’re after and not waste scarce munitions on trucks full of printer paper or baby diapers or who knows what.”
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He Spent Half the Money on Women and Booze. He Wasted the Other Half.
The former head of a Swiss bank has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail for charges including fraud.
The court in Zurich heard that Pierin Vincenz, 65, had used his company credit card to pay for strip clubs, Tinder dates, holidays and dinners.
Public interest in the case was such that the trial was moved from a Zurich courthouse to a concert hall.
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This is Probably the First Time You Ever Thought About Koala Sperm
Researchers in Australia say freezing koala sperm could help protect the endangered marsupials from extinction.
Scientists at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales have suggested setting up a biolab of collected sperm.
This could then be used as part of a breeding programme to future-proof the species and improve its genetic diversity, they say.
Bushfires in recent years have killed tens of thousands of koalas.
Conservation scientist Dr Ryan Witt said the proposals were a cost-effective way to prevent inbreeding, and therefore help preserve the genetic diversity of koalas beyond small colonies of captive animals:
"Currently... we have no insurance policy against natural disasters like the 2019-2020 bushfires that threaten to wipe out large numbers of animals at the one time," he said.
This is Probably the First Time You Ever Thought About Koalas and Chlamydia, Too.
Despite being (possibly) the world's cuddliest creature (NO!), the super-sweet koala is also one of the unluckiest animals on the planet.
Australia's most famous tree hugger has been ravaged by sexually transmitted disease, attacks from dogs, being hit by cars and habitat loss.
Chlamydia has spread fast in koalas, causing infertility and blindness. More than half of Australia’s koala population is riddled with a painful and lethal form of chlamydia—and the infection can be transmitted to humans exposed to their urine.
But scientists say decoding the genome should lead to an effective vaccine for the STD.
In fact, researchers say they've been amazed by the information that's been hidden in the marsupial's DNA.
Koala Are NOT Cuddly
Koalas have sharp teeth and claws, and know how to use them. (Or, to put it more kindly, they can be startled into self-defense behaviors if approached by someone who isn’t a trained keeper.)
In 2006, four boneheads tried to steal a koala from a Queensland zoo so they could sell it for drug money. The koala proved so vicious that the thieves changed plans and dragged off a four-foot-long crocodile instead!
And in 2014, a South Australian dog-walker had to pry a koala’s jaws off her ankle when it got spooked by her dogs. She limped the mile-plus home bleeding profusely, and eventually needed twelve stitches. “People should keep their distance if they spot a koala out in the wild,” newspaper accounts quoted experts.
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China Can't Handle Gay Wizards
References to a gay relationship in the new Fantastic Beasts movie were removed by Warner Bros for Chinese audiences.
Six seconds of the third instalment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, which alluded to the romantic past between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, were cut.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling said Dumbledore was gay in 2007, but the movies had never explicitly referenced his sexuality until now.
The producers, Warner Bros, said the "spirit of the film remains".
How Dumb-ledore is That?
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Want To Buy A Little Green Cheese?
Samples of moon dust collected by Neil Armstrong during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969 will go up for auction Wednesday in New York City.
The auction item, which includes five samples of lunar dust, is a rare piece of space history and could be worth up to $1.2 million, according to Bonhams, the auction house handling the sale. The dust samples had a wild and controversial journey to sale and will be the only known samples of lunar dust sold legally after being authenticated by NASA.
"There's never been a verified Apollo lunar sample offered at auction, so we're just so pleased and honored to offer this," said Adam Stackhouse, a specialist at Bonhams who is overseeing its Space History sale.
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Some People Are Dying to Leave the US
2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad.
The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.
The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020′s record-setting total.
Early last year, some experts were optimistic that 2021 would not be as bad as the first year of the pandemic — partly because effective COVID-19 vaccines had finally become available.
“We were wrong, unfortunately,” said Noreen Goldman, a Princeton University researcher.
COVID-19 deaths rose in 2021 — to more than 415,000, up from 351,000 the year before — as new coronavirus variants emerged and an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans refused to get vaccinated or were hesitant to wear masks, experts said.
The coronavirus is not solely to blame. Preliminary CDC data also shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, and rates continued to increase for diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke.
Drug overdose deaths also continued to rise. The CDC does not yet have a tally for 2021 overdose deaths, because it can take weeks of lab work and investigation to identify them. But provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at least 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021 — up from 93,000 the year before.
New research released Tuesday showed a particularly large jump in overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.
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Is a Mask Too Much to Ask?
The Biden administration is planning to extend the mask mandate for travelers on airplanes, trains and other transit systems, according to two administration sources and two airline sources familiar with an ongoing internal debate.
A final determination about the length of the extension has not yet been settled, the sources said, but the expectation was that it would be at least two weeks.
The current requirement that all travelers wear face coverings is set to expire on April 18 — meaning a two-week extension would stretch until May 2.
Nope!
Less than a month after mask mandates were lifted across the county, the city of Philadelphia announced Monday that it would reinstate a mandate next week amid a 50% increase in reported COVID-19 cases in the past 10 days
“It’s good that they’re being proactive," said Abby Rudolph, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Temple University in Philadelphia. "A lot of people are testing at home, and we’re not capturing all the cases. When we do see an increase, it’s likely that the increase is a little bit higher than what’s reported.”
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