Post by mhbruin on Apr 18, 2022 9:59:18 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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If You Have to Wear Both Mask and Glasses, You Are Entitled to Some Condensation.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
We Have Reached the Point Where Treason Isn't News
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee was up to his eyeballs in the conspiracy committed to overturning the 2020 presidential election—the same Lee who sits on the Senate Judiciary committee and lectures much smarter, much more patriotic people on how the Constitution works.
Lee is also a liar. A liar smart enough to know that his “14 hours a day” spent trying to figure out how to overthrow the government and keep Trump installed in the White House was did not look good for him after the events of Jan. 6, so he lied about it. The newly revealed text messages between the senator and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows prove that Lee had been pushing the plot by John Eastman to get Republican state legislators to toss their election results and appoint their own pro-Trump electors since Nov. 23, 2020.
”If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path,” Lee texted Meadows on Nov. 23, when the counting had all been done. When Joe Biden had secured the office. But that’s not what he told Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their recent book about the events leading up to Jan. 6. He told Woodward and Costa that the first he’d ever heard about “alternate electors” plot was on Jan. 2 and that “he was shocked.” That fact, interestingly enough, was picked up and tweeted extensively by former Texas Sen. Ted Cruz communications official Amanda Carpenter, who apparently has a bone to pick with the former Cruz sidekick.
Wow, a sitting senator who plotted for weeks to overthrow the will of the people, fueling the insurrection and then lying about it? Big news, right? Not at all. “[N]ot one of the five major Sunday talk shows mentioned one word about Lee,” writes the Washington Post’s James Downie. “Will the media let Sen. Mike Lee go unquestioned?” Downie asks. Why yes, yes they will.
Treason, Treason Everywhere, I Need to Have a Drink
Does the QOP Want to End Public Education?
They Won't Confuse Us With Any Evidence
Florida’s education department has rejected 54 mathematics textbooks from next year’s school curriculum, citing alleged references to critical race theory among a range of reasoning for some of the rejections, officials announced.
The department said in a news release Friday that some of the books had been rejected for failure to comply with the state’s content standards, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking [Best], but that 21% of the books were disallowed “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”.
Department officials disapproved an additional 11 books “because they do not properly align to Best Standards and incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”.
The release does not list the titles of the books or provide any extracts to offer reasons why the books were removed.
It Takes One To Know One
Alex Jones Won't Show Them the Money
Three companies owned by far-right conspirator and multimillionaire Alex Jones have filed for bankruptcy as Jones seeks to duck damages for his Sandy Hook lies.
The Chapter 11 filing on Sunday, which lists up to $10 million in liabilities, would allow Jones to continue operating his businesses and would snarl legal judgments against him. Bloomberg earlier reported on Jones’ bankruptcy plans, citing a source with knowledge of the plot.
A court filing earlier this month by parents suing Jones for defamation also claimed that he has diverted millions of dollars to an “alphabet soup” of shell companies to dodge damages by squirreling away his assets. The suit claims that he drew $18 million from his companies after the first suit was filed in 2018.
Shareholders: Musk Mucks Up the Works.
As Twitter investors are sizing up Elon Musk’s takeover offer, Tesla stockholders who are suing him over another matter have asked a judge to stop Musk from commenting on their case.
Tesla shareholders filed a fraud lawsuit against Musk in 2018 after he posted 218 tweets about taking the company private, which he didn’t do.
A federal judge determined last week that Musk’s claims that he had secured funding to take Tesla private were false and misleading. The judge also found that Musk made the false statements recklessly and with full awareness of the facts that he misrepresented.
Musk’s behavior in the Tesla case is particularly pertinent now as he angles to purchase Twitter, which he has promoted as a way to bolster free speech. Twitter rejected his hostile bid, but Musk hinted over the weekend that it’s not over.
Despite the judge’s ruling in the Tesla case, Musk repeated the exact same claim — that he had secured funding to take the carmaker private — at last week’s TED 2022 Conference in Vancouver, Canada.
“So I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully,” he said of Securities and Exchange Commission regulators, according to Reuters. “Those bastards.”
“I was forced to admit that I lied to save Tesla’s life and that’s the only reason,” Musk added.
After Musk’s TED comments, Tesla stockholders asked U.S. District Judge Edward Chen to shut down Musk’s “public campaign to present a contradictory and false narrative” about his 2018 tweets.
Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in civil fines after the Tesla tweets, and Musk stepped down as Tesla’s chair to settle SEC claims that he had defrauded investors with his false messages.
Musk “had no real planning” when he tried to take Tesla private, New York Times columnist James Stewart said on CNBC last week. “It was all just something [Musk] did on impulse.”
Referring to Musk’s Twitter offer, Stewart asked: “Now are we dealing with a situation like that again?”
When News Stories Collide
A shoe store owner aiming at would-be shoplifters opened fire in a California mall but struck a 9-year-old girl waiting in line to see the Easter Bunny, police said.
A Pence for Our Thoughts
As pharmaceutical companies raced in 2020 to produce vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, two former House colleagues of then-Vice President Mike Pence hoped to sell him on an all-natural pandemic prevention compound involving extracts from green tea, turmeric root and cruciferous vegetables.
That ultimately unsuccessful effort to influence the head of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force was a small volley in the barrage of lobbying efforts aimed at Pence’s office during the last administration.
No vice president in the past 24 years has been lobbied as heavily as Pence was during his four years as President Donald Trump’s second in command, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosure reports by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit watchdog group.
A manufacturing firm hurt by U.S. tariffs. An oil company wanting to build a drilling platform in arctic waters. A cheese company concerned about the definition of "natural" cheese. A host of businesses, special interests and non-profits saw in Pence a sympathetic, politically wired and effective figure they thought they could approach in an often chaotic and unconventional administration. And they frequently did.
Interest in Pence continued through the final days of the Trump administration when those beating a path to his office included lobbyists seeking a pardon for a businesswoman who pleaded guilty to not disclosing she was lobbying the administration on behalf of a foreign government.
But after the change in administrations, the number of lobbying clients interested in the vice president’s office – which reached a peak under Pence since contacts first had to be disclosed in the current form in 1998 – plummeted by nearly two-thirds while staying about the same for the executive office of the president, according to OpenSecrets.
We Don't Want Them to See the Light.
The number of reported laser strikes jumped by 41 percent last year, to more than 9,700; that's more than one an hour, with California, Texas and Florida leading the nation in incidents.
The rise prompted an FAA alert, and a plea for people to stop aiming handheld laser pointers at airplanes. Pilots tell CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave it literally can be a matter of life and death.
Forty-seven pilots reported injures from the strikes last year. The lasers can cause temporary blindness.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
This is a Blunt Ad
Gary Chambers Jr. said he is tired of his home state of Louisiana being ranked poorly — when it comes to health, education, infrastructure and the economy, the Baton Rouge native knows his home state can and should perform better.
“When I look at this state and its people, we are so much greater than our state’s ranking,” Chambers said. “And it’s in part because of the leaders that we’ve had who make decisions that are against the people of this state.”
Chambers’ bombastic style as an activist and now a Democratic challenger for the state’s U.S. Senate seat, has him going viral in a bid to change Louisiana’s standing. Chambers, 36, had been known for viral posts on social media, calling out local politicians and fighting for communities of color. Now Chambers is gaining attention for smoking marijuana and burning the Confederate flag in his campaign ads.
And He Raises a Burning Issue
If You Are Watching John Oliver, You Probably Already Know This. Or If You Ever Watched Law & Order
John Oliver Reveals Why You Should Never, Ever Talk To The Cops Without A Lawyer
No Irony Here. Just American Iron.
The Biden administration is taking a key step toward ensuring that federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing — issuing requirements for how projects funded by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package source their construction material.
New guidance issued Monday requires that the material purchased — whether it's for a bridge, a highway, a water pipe or broadband internet — be produced in the U.S. However, the rules also set up a process to waive those requirements in case there are not enough domestic producers or the material costs too much, with the goal of issuing fewer waivers over time as U.S. manufacturing capacity increases.
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Invasions Have Consequences
The Best Surprise is No Surprise
The upcoming Battle of the Donbas: where we might be when looking at both the most predictable but also one of the strangest battles in modern war. As everyone seems to guess, after losing the Battle of Kyiv, this battle is now Russia's great priority.
Now the weirdness---there is no surprise at all! Think about that. Its like preparing for a major, crucial engagement that might decide the war, and everyone knows exactly where it will happen, indeed Russian units are being tracked closely as they get into position.
The Ukrainians in their most recent update are basically describing Russian attempts to prepare for the Battle of the Donbas. Ukrainian forces are being prepared to meet an attack that they know practically the exact location.
Interesting Twitter Thread on the Battle of Donbas
The Prophet. Can I Get This Guy to Pick Some Lottery Numbers?
No Tanks to You
Beyond financial sanctions: How to cripple the Russian death machine for good.
How Big is the Ukraine Navy?
The head of Ukraine’s Navy has received a promotion following the sinking of Russia's Moskva warship last week in what officials are hailing as a "brilliant operation."
He's Leading His Flock To Hell.
He leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers. His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.
“Let this image inspire young soldiers who take the oath, who embark on the path of defending the fatherland,” Kirill intoned as he gave a gilded icon to Gen. Viktor Zolotov during a service at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in mid-March. The precious gift, the general responded, would protect the troops in their battles against Ukrainian “Nazis.”
“Any war has to have guns and ideas,” said Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm. “In this war the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.”
In the process, Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support. Even dozens of lower-ranking clergy in Russia have broken with the 75-year-old patriarch, adding their signatures to an open letter decrying the invasion.
A backlash has also erupted in numerous parishes outside Russia that the Moscow patriarch oversees. One Russian Orthodox church in Amsterdam severed its ties last month and is seeking to join the branch of Orthodoxy based in Istanbul.
The head of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania, which is part of the Moscow Patriarchate, issued a bold statement against the war and said that Lithuanian believers would seek “greater church independence.”
“We strongly condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine and pray to God for its speedy end,” Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilna and Lithuania said in a statement. “As you have probably already noticed, Patriarch Kirill and I have different political views and perceptions of current events. His political statements about the war in Ukraine are his personal opinion.”
These ruptures are almost certain to grow if Kirill continues to defend the fighting. Many in the church will be listening for his words on April 24 as Orthodox Easter is celebrated.
Don't Expect to See Their Pictures on Milk Cartons
The relatives of "missing" crew members of Russia's sunken missile cruiser Moskva have taken to social media to challenge Moscow's narrative on the fate of the Black Sea fleet vessel and its hundreds of personnel.
The Moskva missile cruiser, Russia's flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, sank hours after Ukraine claimed to have dealt significant damage to the vessel with a missile strike. Russia denied the claims, saying that any damage was caused by fire on board that led to some ammunition detonating.
The Kremlin claimed the Soviet-era vessel's roughly 500 personnel were successfully evacuated to other ships before being returned to the port of Sevastopol in Crimea on Friday.
Moscow has not publicly announced any possible casualties among the Moskva's crew members, but authorities have informed Russians that their relatives are "missing in action," according to social media posts on Russian social networking platform VKontakte.
Dmitry Shkrebets wrote on the social media website that his son Yegor Shkrebets was stationed on the vessel when it sunk. He said his son was added to the list of "missing people" after Moskva was destroyed.
"My son was a conscript. The direct commanders of the cruiser 'Moskva' told me that he is not listed among the dead or injured, and he is listed as missing. Guys, he went missing on the open sea?!" wrote Shkrebets, Latvia-based Russian language independent news outlet Meduza first reported.
Russian TV Says , "That's the Ticket!"
Dmitry Drobnitsky, an omnipresent “Americanist” on Soloviev’s show, suggested that Tulsi Gabbard should be invited along with Trump. Dudakov agreed: “Tulsi Gabbard would also be great. Maybe Trump will take her as his vice-president?” Gabbard has recently become a fixture of state television for her pro-Russian talking points, and has even been described as a “Russian agent” by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.
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Today's Most Useless "Achievement" in the World
A Florida man may be Marvel’s greatest fan.
Ramiro Alanis just reclaimed a Guinness World Record after resisting bathroom breaks long enough to watch “Spider-Man: No Way Home” 292 times.
He previously broke the record for “most cinema productions attended of the same film” in 2019, after watching “Avengers: Endgame” 191 times. However, in 2021, Arnaud Klein overturned Alanis’ achievement by watching “Kaamelott: First Installment” 204 times, according to a news release from Guinness World Records.
Ramiro Alanis estimates he spent around $3,400 on tickets to set the record.
“From those to whom little is given, little is expected.”
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Did He Get Run Over By a Crappy Purple Scion?
A man was killed inside a Southern California car wash after he got out of his vehicle and got pinned against machinery, officials said.
The fatal accident unfolded late Friday at a self-service car wash in the 2100 block of East Valley Parkway in Escondido, which is about 35 miles north of downtown San Diego and 110 miles south of central Los Angeles, police said.
That's where the unidentified man, 56, became "trapped between a 2014 Scion XB and a part of the car wash machinery," according to a police statement.
"The preliminary investigation indicated that the man drove into the car wash and for an unknown reason, tried to exit his vehicle," the statement continued.
How Could She Leave on Yom Kippur?
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The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowing in the Wind
Wind power is slowly but surely cementing its importance to the energy grid. Last month marked a particular milestone for wind power generation, with turbines generating 2,017 gigawatts in the lower 48 on March 29—the first day in recorded history that wind surpassed both coal and nuclear, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Wind power accounted for 19% of power generation on that day, while nuclear was just a fraction under. Coal power generation stood at 17%. March 29 certainly offered the right conditions for wind power to flex its might: According to the EIA, wind power generation generally hits its high point in the spring.
Nuclear and coal power facilities also tend to undergo maintenance during the season due to lower overall power demand. The EIA noted another moment in which, for an hour during last month, wind accounted for the most substantial power source in the lower 48. The agency does not believe wind will give coal and nuclear power a run for its money just yet. According to the EIA, it is improbable that wind will surpass both in a given month in 2022 or 2023. Still, developments in wind power have certainly been encouraging.
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We Have Seen the Future, and It Is In India and Pakistan
For days at a time in early April, people and animals across large swathes of India and Pakistan lay gasping in whatever shade they could find as the temperature exceeded 43 degrees Celsius and dry wind from the desert seared the plains of Indus and Ganga river basins. As Delhi recorded a maximum of 42.6C on 11 April, 7C above average for this day of the year, there was just one topic of conversation when people ventured out after dusk: nobody could remember such an early heatwave. Few could remember 40-plus days before May or June when such temperatures would be expected.
Meanwhile, across Central Asia, people used to far cooler weather suffered as the thermometer reached the 30s.
The early heatwave was particularly grueling for those fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – when the faithful do not even drink water between sunrise and sunset – and the Hindu holy period Navratra. Residents of urban slums fared the worst under tin or asbestos roofs.
Weather forecasts promised little relief, just more warnings of heatwaves across Punjab, Sindh, and Rajasthan on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, then eastwards across Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and beyond. A few rain-bearing clouds blowing from the Caspian Sea evaporated by the time they reached the Himalayan foothills.
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Forecast: Clear With a Chance of Showers
One of the oldest known meteor showers is gracing the night sky this week — coinciding with the celebration of our planet known as Earth Day. There hasn't been a meteor shower in months, and the Lyrid shower marks the end of the drought.
This year, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight on April 22. This shower has a narrower peak than others, meaning skywatchers won't have all month to spot shooting stars.
The Lyrid meteor shower lights up the night sky every year from around April 15 to 29, as particles shed from Comet 1861 G1 Thatcher. The comet last passed through the inner solar system in 1861 — and it will not return until 2276 due to its 415-year orbit.
This story will shower you with details
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They Aren't Leaving the Church. The Church is Leaving Them.
Jared Stacy had made the decision to leave his job as youth pastor at Spotswood Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, just a week before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Disillusioned with his church and the increasingly conservative and nationalist nature of the broader evangelical Christian community to which he had dedicated his life, he was prepared to move with his wife and three children 3,500 miles away to the weather-beaten northeast of Scotland for a new start.
With their bags packed, Stacy watched the riot unfold, recognizing some of the Christian and evangelical language and imagery wielded by some protesters. He said he saw it as further proof that then-President Donald Trump had taken on a saintly status among some evangelicals.
“When your God loses, you have to find a way to get him back on top,” he said. “The whole idea was his man was supposed to be in the White House. What do you do when your God loses?”
Stacy, 31, is one of a small but growing number of younger evangelical Christians who have left what they see as a religious community led astray from its faith by a fervent strain of Trump-based politics. He and other former evangelicals warn that in a post-Jan. 6 world, the movement faces a challenge in attracting and keeping young, progressive Christians alienated by its relationship with conservative politics.
A 2020 study of religion in the U.S. found 14 percent of people identified as white evangelical, a sharp drop from 23 percent in 2006. As few as 8 percent of white millennials identify as evangelical, according to a 2018 study, compared to 26 percent of white people older than 65.
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Shanghai Quarantine: 24-Hour Lights, No Hot Showers
Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.
Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine.
Residents show "no obvious symptoms," Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, told The Associated Press in an interview by video phone.
"There are people coughing," she said. "But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or omicron."
The convention center, with 50,000 beds, is one of more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in China's most populous city for those such as Beibei who test positive but have few or no symptoms. It's part of official efforts to contain China's biggest coronavirus outbreak since the 2-year-old pandemic began. But it's also testing patience of people increasingly fed up with China's harsh "zero-COVID" policy that aims to isolate every case.
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Quiz Time: Is It Biden or Previous Guy?
Who's behind this curtain?
“As we reflect today on Christ’s Resurrection, we are reminded that with faith, hope, and love — even death can be defeated. From our family to yours, we wish you hope, health, joy, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Happy Easter and may God bless and keep you.”
Who's behind Door #2?
“May New York attorney general Letitia James remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!” reads a message from Trump’s Save America political action committee, which also calls James a “racist.”
“Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are trying everything to destroy our country,” reads a second message . “May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy and well!”
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He Who Is First Shall Later Be Last
After a long, long period of knowing there was a problem but not doing much about it, the Democratic National Committee is finally allowing other states to challenge Iowa and New Hampshire for their "first in the nation" positions at the front of each presidential election's Democratic nomination campaign. On Wednesday the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee kicked off an "application" process inviting states to make their own cases for "first in the nation" status.
Up to five such states will be selected, up from the current four, and there's nothing here that says Iowa and New Hampshire won't be chosen to fill two of those slots. But they also aren't guaranteed those spots, which is a ground-shaking change and one that the two states have resisted with all their might and more than a little vitriol.
There are several reasons for the reform. The Iowa Democratic Party did itself no favors with some truly spectacular technical screw-ups during the last caucuses, and even without those disasters other Democratic-leaning states have long complained that the Iowa-New Hampshire lock on kicking off primary season is unfair and that at the least, those first slots should be rotated so that more state Democratic parties can benefit from the national political coverage those first contests bring in.
There's a far more pernicious problem with Iowa and New Hampshire's special status, however.
The two states are among the most white states in the Democratic camp, making them increasingly unrepresentative of the Democratic Party's national coalitions. That lack of diversity means the two states' positions as Democratic bellwethers are tenuous at best; Joe Biden was reduced to an also-ran in both states during the 2020 primaries, only to go on to dominate his opponents once the voting moved to more diverse southern states.
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Apr 17 | 35,212 | 373 |
| Apr 16 | 34,972 | 379 |
| Apr 15 | 34,778 | 399 |
| Apr 14 | 35,475 | 446 |
| Apr 13 | 31,391 | 409 |
| 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 |
| 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% |
If You Have to Wear Both Mask and Glasses, You Are Entitled to Some Condensation.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
We Have Reached the Point Where Treason Isn't News
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee was up to his eyeballs in the conspiracy committed to overturning the 2020 presidential election—the same Lee who sits on the Senate Judiciary committee and lectures much smarter, much more patriotic people on how the Constitution works.
Lee is also a liar. A liar smart enough to know that his “14 hours a day” spent trying to figure out how to overthrow the government and keep Trump installed in the White House was did not look good for him after the events of Jan. 6, so he lied about it. The newly revealed text messages between the senator and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows prove that Lee had been pushing the plot by John Eastman to get Republican state legislators to toss their election results and appoint their own pro-Trump electors since Nov. 23, 2020.
”If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path,” Lee texted Meadows on Nov. 23, when the counting had all been done. When Joe Biden had secured the office. But that’s not what he told Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their recent book about the events leading up to Jan. 6. He told Woodward and Costa that the first he’d ever heard about “alternate electors” plot was on Jan. 2 and that “he was shocked.” That fact, interestingly enough, was picked up and tweeted extensively by former Texas Sen. Ted Cruz communications official Amanda Carpenter, who apparently has a bone to pick with the former Cruz sidekick.
Wow, a sitting senator who plotted for weeks to overthrow the will of the people, fueling the insurrection and then lying about it? Big news, right? Not at all. “[N]ot one of the five major Sunday talk shows mentioned one word about Lee,” writes the Washington Post’s James Downie. “Will the media let Sen. Mike Lee go unquestioned?” Downie asks. Why yes, yes they will.
Treason, Treason Everywhere, I Need to Have a Drink
Does the QOP Want to End Public Education?
They Won't Confuse Us With Any Evidence
Florida’s education department has rejected 54 mathematics textbooks from next year’s school curriculum, citing alleged references to critical race theory among a range of reasoning for some of the rejections, officials announced.
The department said in a news release Friday that some of the books had been rejected for failure to comply with the state’s content standards, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking [Best], but that 21% of the books were disallowed “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”.
Department officials disapproved an additional 11 books “because they do not properly align to Best Standards and incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”.
The release does not list the titles of the books or provide any extracts to offer reasons why the books were removed.
It Takes One To Know One
Alex Jones Won't Show Them the Money
Three companies owned by far-right conspirator and multimillionaire Alex Jones have filed for bankruptcy as Jones seeks to duck damages for his Sandy Hook lies.
The Chapter 11 filing on Sunday, which lists up to $10 million in liabilities, would allow Jones to continue operating his businesses and would snarl legal judgments against him. Bloomberg earlier reported on Jones’ bankruptcy plans, citing a source with knowledge of the plot.
A court filing earlier this month by parents suing Jones for defamation also claimed that he has diverted millions of dollars to an “alphabet soup” of shell companies to dodge damages by squirreling away his assets. The suit claims that he drew $18 million from his companies after the first suit was filed in 2018.
Shareholders: Musk Mucks Up the Works.
As Twitter investors are sizing up Elon Musk’s takeover offer, Tesla stockholders who are suing him over another matter have asked a judge to stop Musk from commenting on their case.
Tesla shareholders filed a fraud lawsuit against Musk in 2018 after he posted 218 tweets about taking the company private, which he didn’t do.
A federal judge determined last week that Musk’s claims that he had secured funding to take Tesla private were false and misleading. The judge also found that Musk made the false statements recklessly and with full awareness of the facts that he misrepresented.
Musk’s behavior in the Tesla case is particularly pertinent now as he angles to purchase Twitter, which he has promoted as a way to bolster free speech. Twitter rejected his hostile bid, but Musk hinted over the weekend that it’s not over.
Despite the judge’s ruling in the Tesla case, Musk repeated the exact same claim — that he had secured funding to take the carmaker private — at last week’s TED 2022 Conference in Vancouver, Canada.
“So I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully,” he said of Securities and Exchange Commission regulators, according to Reuters. “Those bastards.”
“I was forced to admit that I lied to save Tesla’s life and that’s the only reason,” Musk added.
After Musk’s TED comments, Tesla stockholders asked U.S. District Judge Edward Chen to shut down Musk’s “public campaign to present a contradictory and false narrative” about his 2018 tweets.
Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in civil fines after the Tesla tweets, and Musk stepped down as Tesla’s chair to settle SEC claims that he had defrauded investors with his false messages.
Musk “had no real planning” when he tried to take Tesla private, New York Times columnist James Stewart said on CNBC last week. “It was all just something [Musk] did on impulse.”
Referring to Musk’s Twitter offer, Stewart asked: “Now are we dealing with a situation like that again?”
When News Stories Collide
A shoe store owner aiming at would-be shoplifters opened fire in a California mall but struck a 9-year-old girl waiting in line to see the Easter Bunny, police said.
A Pence for Our Thoughts
As pharmaceutical companies raced in 2020 to produce vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, two former House colleagues of then-Vice President Mike Pence hoped to sell him on an all-natural pandemic prevention compound involving extracts from green tea, turmeric root and cruciferous vegetables.
That ultimately unsuccessful effort to influence the head of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force was a small volley in the barrage of lobbying efforts aimed at Pence’s office during the last administration.
No vice president in the past 24 years has been lobbied as heavily as Pence was during his four years as President Donald Trump’s second in command, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosure reports by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit watchdog group.
A manufacturing firm hurt by U.S. tariffs. An oil company wanting to build a drilling platform in arctic waters. A cheese company concerned about the definition of "natural" cheese. A host of businesses, special interests and non-profits saw in Pence a sympathetic, politically wired and effective figure they thought they could approach in an often chaotic and unconventional administration. And they frequently did.
Interest in Pence continued through the final days of the Trump administration when those beating a path to his office included lobbyists seeking a pardon for a businesswoman who pleaded guilty to not disclosing she was lobbying the administration on behalf of a foreign government.
But after the change in administrations, the number of lobbying clients interested in the vice president’s office – which reached a peak under Pence since contacts first had to be disclosed in the current form in 1998 – plummeted by nearly two-thirds while staying about the same for the executive office of the president, according to OpenSecrets.
We Don't Want Them to See the Light.
The number of reported laser strikes jumped by 41 percent last year, to more than 9,700; that's more than one an hour, with California, Texas and Florida leading the nation in incidents.
The rise prompted an FAA alert, and a plea for people to stop aiming handheld laser pointers at airplanes. Pilots tell CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave it literally can be a matter of life and death.
Forty-seven pilots reported injures from the strikes last year. The lasers can cause temporary blindness.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
This is a Blunt Ad
Gary Chambers Jr. said he is tired of his home state of Louisiana being ranked poorly — when it comes to health, education, infrastructure and the economy, the Baton Rouge native knows his home state can and should perform better.
“When I look at this state and its people, we are so much greater than our state’s ranking,” Chambers said. “And it’s in part because of the leaders that we’ve had who make decisions that are against the people of this state.”
Chambers’ bombastic style as an activist and now a Democratic challenger for the state’s U.S. Senate seat, has him going viral in a bid to change Louisiana’s standing. Chambers, 36, had been known for viral posts on social media, calling out local politicians and fighting for communities of color. Now Chambers is gaining attention for smoking marijuana and burning the Confederate flag in his campaign ads.
And He Raises a Burning Issue
If You Are Watching John Oliver, You Probably Already Know This. Or If You Ever Watched Law & Order
John Oliver Reveals Why You Should Never, Ever Talk To The Cops Without A Lawyer
No Irony Here. Just American Iron.
The Biden administration is taking a key step toward ensuring that federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing — issuing requirements for how projects funded by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package source their construction material.
New guidance issued Monday requires that the material purchased — whether it's for a bridge, a highway, a water pipe or broadband internet — be produced in the U.S. However, the rules also set up a process to waive those requirements in case there are not enough domestic producers or the material costs too much, with the goal of issuing fewer waivers over time as U.S. manufacturing capacity increases.
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Invasions Have Consequences
The Best Surprise is No Surprise
The upcoming Battle of the Donbas: where we might be when looking at both the most predictable but also one of the strangest battles in modern war. As everyone seems to guess, after losing the Battle of Kyiv, this battle is now Russia's great priority.
Now the weirdness---there is no surprise at all! Think about that. Its like preparing for a major, crucial engagement that might decide the war, and everyone knows exactly where it will happen, indeed Russian units are being tracked closely as they get into position.
The Ukrainians in their most recent update are basically describing Russian attempts to prepare for the Battle of the Donbas. Ukrainian forces are being prepared to meet an attack that they know practically the exact location.
Interesting Twitter Thread on the Battle of Donbas
The Prophet. Can I Get This Guy to Pick Some Lottery Numbers?
No Tanks to You
Beyond financial sanctions: How to cripple the Russian death machine for good.
How Big is the Ukraine Navy?
The head of Ukraine’s Navy has received a promotion following the sinking of Russia's Moskva warship last week in what officials are hailing as a "brilliant operation."
He's Leading His Flock To Hell.
He leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers. His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.
“Let this image inspire young soldiers who take the oath, who embark on the path of defending the fatherland,” Kirill intoned as he gave a gilded icon to Gen. Viktor Zolotov during a service at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in mid-March. The precious gift, the general responded, would protect the troops in their battles against Ukrainian “Nazis.”
“Any war has to have guns and ideas,” said Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm. “In this war the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.”
In the process, Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support. Even dozens of lower-ranking clergy in Russia have broken with the 75-year-old patriarch, adding their signatures to an open letter decrying the invasion.
A backlash has also erupted in numerous parishes outside Russia that the Moscow patriarch oversees. One Russian Orthodox church in Amsterdam severed its ties last month and is seeking to join the branch of Orthodoxy based in Istanbul.
The head of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania, which is part of the Moscow Patriarchate, issued a bold statement against the war and said that Lithuanian believers would seek “greater church independence.”
“We strongly condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine and pray to God for its speedy end,” Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilna and Lithuania said in a statement. “As you have probably already noticed, Patriarch Kirill and I have different political views and perceptions of current events. His political statements about the war in Ukraine are his personal opinion.”
These ruptures are almost certain to grow if Kirill continues to defend the fighting. Many in the church will be listening for his words on April 24 as Orthodox Easter is celebrated.
Don't Expect to See Their Pictures on Milk Cartons
The relatives of "missing" crew members of Russia's sunken missile cruiser Moskva have taken to social media to challenge Moscow's narrative on the fate of the Black Sea fleet vessel and its hundreds of personnel.
The Moskva missile cruiser, Russia's flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, sank hours after Ukraine claimed to have dealt significant damage to the vessel with a missile strike. Russia denied the claims, saying that any damage was caused by fire on board that led to some ammunition detonating.
The Kremlin claimed the Soviet-era vessel's roughly 500 personnel were successfully evacuated to other ships before being returned to the port of Sevastopol in Crimea on Friday.
Moscow has not publicly announced any possible casualties among the Moskva's crew members, but authorities have informed Russians that their relatives are "missing in action," according to social media posts on Russian social networking platform VKontakte.
Dmitry Shkrebets wrote on the social media website that his son Yegor Shkrebets was stationed on the vessel when it sunk. He said his son was added to the list of "missing people" after Moskva was destroyed.
"My son was a conscript. The direct commanders of the cruiser 'Moskva' told me that he is not listed among the dead or injured, and he is listed as missing. Guys, he went missing on the open sea?!" wrote Shkrebets, Latvia-based Russian language independent news outlet Meduza first reported.
Russian TV Says , "That's the Ticket!"
Dmitry Drobnitsky, an omnipresent “Americanist” on Soloviev’s show, suggested that Tulsi Gabbard should be invited along with Trump. Dudakov agreed: “Tulsi Gabbard would also be great. Maybe Trump will take her as his vice-president?” Gabbard has recently become a fixture of state television for her pro-Russian talking points, and has even been described as a “Russian agent” by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.
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Today's Most Useless "Achievement" in the World
A Florida man may be Marvel’s greatest fan.
Ramiro Alanis just reclaimed a Guinness World Record after resisting bathroom breaks long enough to watch “Spider-Man: No Way Home” 292 times.
He previously broke the record for “most cinema productions attended of the same film” in 2019, after watching “Avengers: Endgame” 191 times. However, in 2021, Arnaud Klein overturned Alanis’ achievement by watching “Kaamelott: First Installment” 204 times, according to a news release from Guinness World Records.
Ramiro Alanis estimates he spent around $3,400 on tickets to set the record.
“From those to whom little is given, little is expected.”
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Did He Get Run Over By a Crappy Purple Scion?
A man was killed inside a Southern California car wash after he got out of his vehicle and got pinned against machinery, officials said.
The fatal accident unfolded late Friday at a self-service car wash in the 2100 block of East Valley Parkway in Escondido, which is about 35 miles north of downtown San Diego and 110 miles south of central Los Angeles, police said.
That's where the unidentified man, 56, became "trapped between a 2014 Scion XB and a part of the car wash machinery," according to a police statement.
"The preliminary investigation indicated that the man drove into the car wash and for an unknown reason, tried to exit his vehicle," the statement continued.
How Could She Leave on Yom Kippur?
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The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowing in the Wind
Wind power is slowly but surely cementing its importance to the energy grid. Last month marked a particular milestone for wind power generation, with turbines generating 2,017 gigawatts in the lower 48 on March 29—the first day in recorded history that wind surpassed both coal and nuclear, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Wind power accounted for 19% of power generation on that day, while nuclear was just a fraction under. Coal power generation stood at 17%. March 29 certainly offered the right conditions for wind power to flex its might: According to the EIA, wind power generation generally hits its high point in the spring.
Nuclear and coal power facilities also tend to undergo maintenance during the season due to lower overall power demand. The EIA noted another moment in which, for an hour during last month, wind accounted for the most substantial power source in the lower 48. The agency does not believe wind will give coal and nuclear power a run for its money just yet. According to the EIA, it is improbable that wind will surpass both in a given month in 2022 or 2023. Still, developments in wind power have certainly been encouraging.
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We Have Seen the Future, and It Is In India and Pakistan
For days at a time in early April, people and animals across large swathes of India and Pakistan lay gasping in whatever shade they could find as the temperature exceeded 43 degrees Celsius and dry wind from the desert seared the plains of Indus and Ganga river basins. As Delhi recorded a maximum of 42.6C on 11 April, 7C above average for this day of the year, there was just one topic of conversation when people ventured out after dusk: nobody could remember such an early heatwave. Few could remember 40-plus days before May or June when such temperatures would be expected.
Meanwhile, across Central Asia, people used to far cooler weather suffered as the thermometer reached the 30s.
The early heatwave was particularly grueling for those fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – when the faithful do not even drink water between sunrise and sunset – and the Hindu holy period Navratra. Residents of urban slums fared the worst under tin or asbestos roofs.
Weather forecasts promised little relief, just more warnings of heatwaves across Punjab, Sindh, and Rajasthan on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, then eastwards across Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and beyond. A few rain-bearing clouds blowing from the Caspian Sea evaporated by the time they reached the Himalayan foothills.
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Forecast: Clear With a Chance of Showers
One of the oldest known meteor showers is gracing the night sky this week — coinciding with the celebration of our planet known as Earth Day. There hasn't been a meteor shower in months, and the Lyrid shower marks the end of the drought.
This year, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight on April 22. This shower has a narrower peak than others, meaning skywatchers won't have all month to spot shooting stars.
The Lyrid meteor shower lights up the night sky every year from around April 15 to 29, as particles shed from Comet 1861 G1 Thatcher. The comet last passed through the inner solar system in 1861 — and it will not return until 2276 due to its 415-year orbit.
This story will shower you with details
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They Aren't Leaving the Church. The Church is Leaving Them.
Jared Stacy had made the decision to leave his job as youth pastor at Spotswood Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, just a week before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Disillusioned with his church and the increasingly conservative and nationalist nature of the broader evangelical Christian community to which he had dedicated his life, he was prepared to move with his wife and three children 3,500 miles away to the weather-beaten northeast of Scotland for a new start.
With their bags packed, Stacy watched the riot unfold, recognizing some of the Christian and evangelical language and imagery wielded by some protesters. He said he saw it as further proof that then-President Donald Trump had taken on a saintly status among some evangelicals.
“When your God loses, you have to find a way to get him back on top,” he said. “The whole idea was his man was supposed to be in the White House. What do you do when your God loses?”
Stacy, 31, is one of a small but growing number of younger evangelical Christians who have left what they see as a religious community led astray from its faith by a fervent strain of Trump-based politics. He and other former evangelicals warn that in a post-Jan. 6 world, the movement faces a challenge in attracting and keeping young, progressive Christians alienated by its relationship with conservative politics.
A 2020 study of religion in the U.S. found 14 percent of people identified as white evangelical, a sharp drop from 23 percent in 2006. As few as 8 percent of white millennials identify as evangelical, according to a 2018 study, compared to 26 percent of white people older than 65.
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Shanghai Quarantine: 24-Hour Lights, No Hot Showers
Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.
Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine.
Residents show "no obvious symptoms," Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, told The Associated Press in an interview by video phone.
"There are people coughing," she said. "But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or omicron."
The convention center, with 50,000 beds, is one of more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in China's most populous city for those such as Beibei who test positive but have few or no symptoms. It's part of official efforts to contain China's biggest coronavirus outbreak since the 2-year-old pandemic began. But it's also testing patience of people increasingly fed up with China's harsh "zero-COVID" policy that aims to isolate every case.
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Quiz Time: Is It Biden or Previous Guy?
Who's behind this curtain?
“As we reflect today on Christ’s Resurrection, we are reminded that with faith, hope, and love — even death can be defeated. From our family to yours, we wish you hope, health, joy, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Happy Easter and may God bless and keep you.”
Who's behind Door #2?
“May New York attorney general Letitia James remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!” reads a message from Trump’s Save America political action committee, which also calls James a “racist.”
“Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are trying everything to destroy our country,” reads a second message . “May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy and well!”
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He Who Is First Shall Later Be Last
After a long, long period of knowing there was a problem but not doing much about it, the Democratic National Committee is finally allowing other states to challenge Iowa and New Hampshire for their "first in the nation" positions at the front of each presidential election's Democratic nomination campaign. On Wednesday the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee kicked off an "application" process inviting states to make their own cases for "first in the nation" status.
Up to five such states will be selected, up from the current four, and there's nothing here that says Iowa and New Hampshire won't be chosen to fill two of those slots. But they also aren't guaranteed those spots, which is a ground-shaking change and one that the two states have resisted with all their might and more than a little vitriol.
There are several reasons for the reform. The Iowa Democratic Party did itself no favors with some truly spectacular technical screw-ups during the last caucuses, and even without those disasters other Democratic-leaning states have long complained that the Iowa-New Hampshire lock on kicking off primary season is unfair and that at the least, those first slots should be rotated so that more state Democratic parties can benefit from the national political coverage those first contests bring in.
There's a far more pernicious problem with Iowa and New Hampshire's special status, however.
The two states are among the most white states in the Democratic camp, making them increasingly unrepresentative of the Democratic Party's national coalitions. That lack of diversity means the two states' positions as Democratic bellwethers are tenuous at best; Joe Biden was reduced to an also-ran in both states during the 2020 primaries, only to go on to dominate his opponents once the voting moved to more diverse southern states.
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