Post by mhbruin on May 13, 2022 9:13:42 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 581 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday May 10)
We had some rain up north this week.
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I Scream. You Scream. The Police Come. It's Awkward.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Just Two Days Ago I Wrote: "The Dollars Are Coming! The Dollars Are Coming! (Until Some Jerk QOP Senator Finds a Rule to Delay Things.)"
It's not that I am a genius. It's just so predictable.
As Predicted, a QOP Senator Steps Up to Kill Ukrainians
United States Senator Rand Paul has single-handedly delayed the passage of a $40bn aid package for Ukraine.
The allocation of funds has bipartisan support in the Senate and it was passed in the US House of Representatives earlier this week. It is also supported by President Joe Biden, with his administration warning the remaining authorised funds for Ukraine would run out by May 19.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Democrat, accused Paul of making “reckless demands”. “The package is ready to go, the vast majority of senators on both sides of the aisle want it,” he said.
For his part, Paul has demanded the legislation be altered to include an inspector general to oversee spending on Ukraine. He denied an offer to hold a vote on the amendment, which was all but assured to fail, but instead refused to support swiftly bringing the aid package to a final vote.
Under Senate rules, unanimous consent among legislators is required to bypass lengthy procedural steps that can delay the passage of legislation.
Is Erdogan Learning About Blocking Things From Rand Paul?
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said it is not possible for NATO-member Turkey to support Sweden and Finland joining the transatlantic military alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, signalling a possible blockade to their anticipated ascension bids.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Friday, Erdogan said Ankara did not have “positive views” on the Scandinavian countries’ expected moves to seek membership, accusing them of being “guesthouses for terrorist organisations”.
“They are even members of the parliament in some countries. It is not possible for us to be in favour,” he said, without providing any further details.
Turkey has repeatedly criticised Sweden and other Western European countries for its handling of organisations deemed to be “terrorists” by Ankara, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as well as the followers of the United States-based Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen.
Ankara has said Gulenists carried out a coup attempt in 2016. Gulen and his supporters deny the accusation.
TikTok-ed to Death
The mother of a 10-year-old girl alleged to have died after taking part in a viral social media challenge last December has launched a wrongful death lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance.
Tawainna Anderson's daughter, Nylah, died in December after taking part in the "Blackout Challenge," which encourages social media users to try to hold their breath until they pass out, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday.
Anderson had found her daughter passed out on Dec. 7 and rushed her to a hospital, where she spent days in a pediatric intensive care unit before succumbing to her injuries on Dec. 12, the lawsuit said.
Anderson has accused TikTok and its parent company of negligence and having a "defective design," blaming the platform's algorithms for exposing a young child to a dangerous challenge. TikTok's interface automatically suggests video to users as they scroll the app's main feed, known as its "For You Page."
"The viral and deadly TikTok Blackout Challenge was thrust in front of Nylah on her TikTok For You Page ... as a result of TikTok’s algorithm," the lawsuit said.
Remember when the GOP Complained About Frivolous Lawsuits? Before They Became the QOP?
Texas residents can now sue Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for allegedly censoring their content after a federal appeals court sided Wednesday with the state’s law restricting how social media sites can moderate their platforms.
The 15-word ruling allowing the law, which had been blocked last year, to take effect has significant potential consequences. Most immediately, it creates new legal risks for the tech giants, and opens them up to a possible wave of litigation that legal experts say would be costly and difficult to defend.
Texas’s law makes it illegal for any social media platform with 50 million or more US monthly users to “block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.”
The law creates enormous uncertainty about how social media will actually function in Texas, according to legal experts, and raises questions about what users’ online spaces may look like and what content they may find there, if the companies are even able to run their services at all.
The ruling also sets the stage for what could be a Supreme Court showdown over First Amendment rights and, possibly, a dramatic reinterpretation of those rights that affects not just the tech industry but all Americans — and decades of established precedent.
More Voter Fraud, and Again, It's the QOP
After two years of unrelenting rhetoric about the dangers of voting by mail—a completely unfounded assault on voting rights, led by former President Trump and his MAGA acolytes—two Pennsylvania GOP officials were fired Tuesday for involvement in a “ballot harvesting” operation.
Ballot harvesting is a political maneuver where operatives collect absentee ballots from voters and deliver them to a polling place or election office. In this case, more than three dozen mail-in ballot applications were found to have been delivered to a P.O. Box in South Philadelphia instead of the homes of voters.
According to Penn Live, the two fired were Shamus O’Donnell, 27, and C.J. Parker, 24. O’Donnell worked with the Republican Registration Coalition as the former treasurer and was a GOP ward leader in the political action committee (PAC) in Northeast Philadelphia. Parker was also a GOP ward leader in the Northeast Philadelphia PAC and is a former aide to Lawrence Tabas, a state party chair.
As initially reported by The Philidelphia Inquirer, many of the voters whose ballots were misdirected told the Inquirer they never applied to vote for mail, although dozens of Republican ballots for the May 17 primary had been redirected to the P.O. box registered to the Republican Registration Coalition.
Thanks to Molasses Merrick, They Will Ignore the Subpoenas.
Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas 5 Republican Representatives
The leaders of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack said they were demanding testimony from Kevin McCarthy of California and four of his colleagues.
The panel said it was demanding testimony from Mr. McCarthy, of California, who engaged in a heated phone call with President Donald J. Trump during the Capitol violence; Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general after he resisted Mr. Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud; Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who was deeply involved in the effort to fight the election results; Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, the former leader of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus; and Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, who has said Mr. Trump has continued to seek an unlawful reinstatement to office for more than a year.
It's Almost As If Mitch Designed the Rules ... What? He Did?
The Senate’s current rules are tailored almost perfectly to McConnell’s needs. (This is no coincidence, since McConnell had a big hand in shaping these rules.) First, the things McConnell most wants to pass can pass with 50 votes: tax cuts and spending cuts, both of which can pass through budget reconciliation rules, and confirming judges.
Second, the rules make it easy to block the things McConnell most wants to block: New regulations, such as pollution or campaign finance, and the enactment of most new social programs all require 60 votes. Obamacare took 60 votes to pass and would have been destroyed with 50 (though Republicans only mustered 49).
Third, the remaining filibuster also prevents Republicans from passing radical measures McConnell would, for the most part, prefer not to pass. A national abortion ban is the ultimate example of something Republicans want to be stopped from passing.
The party’s reluctance to pass a national abortion ban has been glaringly evident from the moment news broke that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe. The Republican obsession first with the mechanics of the leak, and then with the protests against the ruling, represent nothing so much as fanatic message discipline in service of a shared goal of keeping an abortion ban off the table.
He Used a Tweet to Tank Twitter Stock
You Aren't Choosing Who Governs When You Vote. You are Advising.
An openly pro-coup Trumpist could become Pennsylvania’s next governor
This basic situation is reflected in some media coverage of Mastriano’s surge. But there’s something more nefarious about Mastriano than those basic facts convey when it comes to the true threat to democracy he poses.
Mastriano didn’t just try to help Trump overturn the election. At the time, he also essentially declared his support for the notion that the popular vote can be treated as non-binding when it comes to the certification of presidential electors.
Imagine There's No Cawthorn. It's Easy If You Try
"It Breaks My Heart That Some of You Won't Go to Heaven Because You Aren't Donating Enough Money to This Ministry" - Televangelist Gene Scott
Infowars host Alex Jones has resorted to screaming at his viewers to buy his products and telling them they support “the enemy” if they don’t.
During a recent episode of his podcast, the infamous conspiracy theorist told his viewers that there was a “war against you and your family of inflation and collapse” and that nameless forces were working to “silence the leaders.”
“So when you keep us in the fight, you keep yourself in the fight, and this is life and death,” he shouted. “So go to InfowarsStore.com and get amazing products. ... Make a donation at the top.”
“If you don’t support us, you’re helping the enemy,” he added.
WTF Is Molasses Merrick Doing?
The US justice department secretly issued a subpoena to gain access to details of the phone account of a Guardian reporter as part of an aggressive leak investigation into media stories about an official inquiry into the Trump administration’s child separation policy at the southern border.
Leak investigators issued the subpoena to obtain the phone number of Stephanie Kirchgaessner, the Guardian’s investigations correspondent in Washington. The move was carried out without notifying the newspaper or its reporter, as part of an attempt to ferret out the source of media articles about a review into family separation conducted by the Department of Justice’s inspector general Michael Horowitz.
It is highly unusual for US government officials to obtain a journalist’s phone details in this way, especially when no national security or classified information is involved. The move was all the more surprising in that it came from the DoJ’s inspector general’s office – the watchdog responsible for ethical oversight and whistleblower protections.
Katharine Viner, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, decried the action as “an egregious example of infringement on press freedom and public interest journalism by the US Department of Justice”.
She added: “We will be asking the DoJ urgently for an explanation for why and how this could have occurred, and for an apology. We will also be seeking assurances that our reporter’s details will be erased from DoJ systems and will not be used for any further infringements of press freedom.”
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
None
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Invasions Have Consequences
Day 79
Fighting
The families and supporters of the Ukrainian fighters holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant are pleading for more help for them to be rescued.
Russian forces have likely taken control of all Rubizhne and Voevodivka in the Luhansk region, the Institute for the Study of War has said.
Shelling in Luhansk has killed two people and destroyed more than 50 homes, the region’s governor has said.
Russian military targeted villages in the east near Donetsk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv, the Ukrainian military has claimed.
Increasing military support from the West to Ukraine risks sparking a war between Russia and NATO, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies has declared.
Rocket attacks intensified on Ukraine’s central Poltava region, “perhaps the most intense for the duration of the war”, the regional governor has said.
Ukraine has said forces damaged a Russian navy ship in the Black Sea with satellite images showing a probable strike.
More than six million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, United Nations refugee agency data showed.
Human rights
The UN Human Rights Council has approved an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine.
A Russian soldier accused of shooting a 62-year-old man is set to stand trial in Ukraine for war crimes.
Diplomacy and aid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is prepared for talks with Putin to find mutual agreement but says Ukraine will never recognise Crimea as part of Russia.
During a G7 meeting, British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss said it is essential to maintain the pressure on Russia by providing more weapons to Ukraine.
United States Republican Senator Rand Paul has single-handedly delayed the passage of a $40bn aid bill to provide support to Ukraine after the US House approved it on Wednesday.
The head of Zelenskyy’s office said Ukraine must “become part of a united Europe as soon as possible. This is a matter of mutual security”.
European Commission President von der Leyen called Russia the “most direct threat” to the international order and said it has waged “barbaric war”.
A Russian diplomat warned Finland and Sweden that they could become “a target” after Finnish officials announced the country must join NATO military alliance “without delay”.
Economy
Ukraine spent 245.1 billion hryvnia ($8.3bn) on the war instead of development since the start of Russia’s invasion on February 24, the finance minister said.
Putin blamed the West for triggering a global economic crisis and inflation due to severe sanctions imposed on Russia.
Europe is facing gas supply disruption and pressure for alternatives after Russia imposed sanctions on European subsidiaries of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom energy giant and Ukraine halted gas flow, leading to higher prices.
The European Commission said it would help Ukraine export millions of tonnes of grain blocked by the Russian navy in Ukraine’s ports.
Three Strikes on Pontoon Bridges, and They Are Out!
Russian troops made three unsuccessful attempts to build bridges across a river in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk's regional governor says
Images from the scene show dozens of burnt-out tanks after Ukrainian forces shelled the temporary structures
Big Guns and Small Drones. A Match Made in Heaven... Or Is It a Match Made in Hell?
They were developed more than a century apart, but an unusual combination of decades-old and cutting edge technology — heavy artillery and remote-controlled drones — is helping Ukraine’s army make inroads into Russia’s eastern occupation.
The cannons, howitzers and other heavy guns provided by NATO members and allies are similar to the weapons that have been battlefield staples since World War I, lobbing explosive shells farther than the eye can see. They are being used to great effect to suppress Russian positions and allow Ukrainian infantry counterattacks in the Donbas region.
Heavy artillery is typically deployed against enemy infantry and equipment. It uses an “adjusted fire” approach, meaning small changes to trajectory are made between each salvo until a target is hit. For decades, that meant armies sending personnel to the front lines and radioing instructions to the gunners several miles back.
The importance of artillery is underscored by international efforts to ship more guns and ammunition to Ukraine, with many NATO members contributing some of the newest and most advanced versions of these weapons.
But experts say Ukrainian forces are going one better by harnessing widely available drone technology to provide real-time surveillance data on Russian targets and fire their heavy weapons with unprecedented accuracy.
“Each drone provides the opportunity to destroy enemy troops,” said Valerii Iakovenko, founder of DroneUA, a Ukrainian tech firm that advises the government on drone use.
Iakovenko said the Ukrainian military was using more than 6,000 drones, largely manufactured in China. Although varying according to model, most of the unmanned aerial vehicles are commercially available multirotor craft typically used in the media, agriculture and engineering sectors. They can operate for up to 30 minutes and as far as 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) into enemy territory.
“This is the first time ever where we see such a level of robotics used during conflict,” Iakovenko said.
Do They Really Want to Die for Vlad the Invader?
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be seeing serious dissension in his military's ranks, if reports about officer insubordination and low troop morale in Ukraine are any indication.
On Monday, a senior official from the U.S. Defense Department said the agency had received anecdotal reports about officers in Russia's military refusing to follow orders in Ukraine. The statement came after numerous reports have surfaced since the beginning of the war about Russia's forces suffering from low morale.
The Pentagon official said the reports, which could not be independently confirmed, concerned officers in midgrade positions, including some at the battalion level. The claim about officers disobeying orders followed numerous reports like the one from a March 1 New York Times story that cited a Pentagon official who said entire Russian units had laid down their weapons rather than fight Ukraine's forces. Some Russian troops had even sabotaged their own vehicles, according to the official. More recently, the Ukrainian government said last month it had learned of Russian troops who had refused to fight.
"There are good reasons for low morale on the Russian side. The war isn't going well. Its purpose is unclear, and fighting a war against a neighbor—with whom it's easy to communicate—is psychologically burdensome to soldiers," said Michael Kimmage, a Catholic University history professor and former member of the secretary's policy planning staff at the State Department.
While Kimmage told Newsweek he has not seen any evidence to suggest a widespread rebellion among Putin's troops, he noted it is "possible that there are mutinous movements within the Russian army and not all of them on the lower levels."
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I Predict the Pub Will Last Longer than the Magazine
A village pub in Cornwall has had a letter from one of the world's largest fashion magazines asking it to change its name.
The Star Inn at Vogue, thought to be at least 150 years old, is in the small village of Vogue, near Redruth.
Vogue magazine publisher Condé Nast told the pub its name might "cause problems".
The publisher has since said after "further research" it "did not need to send such a letter on this occasion".
Pub landlord Mark Graham said he found the letter "hilariously funny".
He said: "I did think they were being a little heavy-handed, so I thought I'd send them a letter back - being heavy-handed too."
The company's letter, seen by the BBC, said "We are concerned that the name you are using is going to cause problems because, as far as the general public is concerned, a connection between your business and ours is likely to be inferred.
"Please would you kindly let us know what field of business your company is trading/intending to trade, and whether you will change your company's name in order to avoid problems arising."
Mark Graham, who has been landlord with his wife Rachel for 17 years, wrote back, saying: "Whilst I found your letter interesting on the one hand, I also found it hilariously funny on the other."
Mr Graham told the BBC: "At first glance I thought it was one of the locals having a laugh, but apparently it is real.
"I explained to them that the village has been here for 200 years, the pub slightly less than that. We chose the name of the pub to be the name of the village."
He said he was had considered countering their claim over the use of the word because "we were there first".
Raise a Glass to Mark and Rachel
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When California Does Stupid, We Don't Mess Around
As California battles a historic drought and a water crisis looms, the state’s coastline protection agency on Thursday unanimously rejected the development of a $1.4 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach that would have converted ocean water into municipal water for Orange County residents.
Eleven members of the California Coastal Commission voted against the facility, which water treatment developer Poseidon Water has been trying to build for decades.
Poseidon said the plant would be capable of producing up to 50 million gallons of drinking water a day, helping to make the region more drought resilient.
Desalination opponents argue less expensive and less harmful conservation tactics should be the first resort.
How About Conservation AND Desalination?
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What Did They Want to "Lock Her Up" Over?
Federal investigators have subpoenaed the National Archives and Records Administration for classified documents shipped to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after he left the White House.
The subpoena is part of a grand jury investigation into how those documents were handled, according to The New York Times. The National Archives in February asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Trump violated the law after discovering 15 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago.
Investigators are trying to determine how the documents were shipped to Florida and whether those involved knew about the sensitive content. To answer those questions, they also are seeking to question Trump officials present at the White House in the last days of his presidency.
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I Can't Figure Out If This is Disgusting or Brilliant
A man impersonating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday disrupted the Australian election campaign when he burst into an event that Prime Minister Scott Morrison was attending with lawmaker Gladys Liu.
The impersonator, who later identified himself by the stage name Howard X, started talking to the gathered media.
“Thank you very much. Gladys Liu is the communist candidate for Australia,” he said, before he was interrupted by an aide to Morrison.
“Excuse me, you are going to have to leave. This is the most offensive thing I have ever seen in a campaign,” said the aide, Nick Creevey.
The impersonator responded: “Excuse me, you don’t tell the supreme leader what to do. I support Gladys Liu.”
The impersonator left the Melbourne venue soon after.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Liu said she was focused on delivering outcomes for the Melbourne communities she represents.
“I will not be distracted by my opponents and their grubby tactics,” she said.
Liu was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Australia for more than 30 years.
The disruption appeared to have been orchestrated in part by longshot Queensland State senate candidate Drew Pavlou, who said on social media that he was good friends with Howard X and it was “one of the best things we have ever managed.”
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Deal or No Deal? The Mullahs Say "No Deal".
After weeks of optimism around the prospect of restoring the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year, the fate of the agreement appears to be in limbo again with no further talks on the calendar and Washington’s attention focused on Ukraine.
The push to revive the deal seems to have stalled over the US designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “foreign terrorist organization”, with American officials reluctant to meet Tehran’s demand to remove the group from the blacklist to seal the deal.
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | New Hospitalizations 7-Day Average | |
| May 12 | 87,382 | 272 | |
| May 11 | 84,778 | 272 | 2,652 |
| May 10 | 78,236 | 326 | 2,629 |
| May 9 | 74,712 | 323 | 2,597 |
| May 8 | 66,564 | 323 | 2,510 |
| May 7 | 67,561 | 335 | 2,310 |
| May 6 | 68,807 | 340 | 2,396 |
| May 5 | 67,263 | 341 | 2.363 |
| May 4 | 64,780 | 334 | 2,267 |
| May 3 | 61,712 | 325 | 2,219 |
| May 2 | 60,410 | 318 | 2.214 |
| May 1 | 57,020 | 307 | 2,072 |
| Apr 30 | 56,581 | 310 | 1,882 |
| Apr 29 | 56,166 | 308 | 1,946 |
| Apr 28 | 54,696 | 311 | 1,955 |
| Apr 27 | 53,133 | 334 | 1,941 |
| Apr 26 | 48,692 | 299 | 1,889 |
| Apr 25 | 47,407 | 330 | 1,840 |
| Apr 24 | 44,416 | 314 | 1,779 |
| Apr 23 | 45,413 | 315 | 1,629 |
| Apr 22 | 44,308 | 311 | 1,642 |
| Apr 21 | 40,744 | 346 | 1,647 |
| Apr 20 | 42,604 | 375 | 1,609 |
| Apr 19 | 40,985 | 385 | 1,582 |
| Apr 18 | 37,132 | 380 | 1,564 |
| Apr 17 | 35,212 | 373 | 1,542 |
| Apr 16 | 34,972 | 379 | 1,532 |
| Apr 15 | 34,778 | 399 | 1,510 |
| Apr 14 | 35,475 | 446 | 1,490 |
| Apr 13 | 31,391 | 409 | 1,477 |
| Apr 12 | 29,401 | 452 | 1,463 |
| Apr 11 | 30,208 | 483 | 1.447 |
| Apr 10 | 28,927 | 500 | 1,443 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 77.7% | 66.3% | 45.9% |
| % of Population 5+ | 82.6% | 70.4% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 87.4% | 74.7% | 47.7% |
| % of Population 18+ | 89.1% | 76.2% | 49.5% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 90.4% | 68.8% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday May 10)
We had some rain up north this week.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks Ago | 4 Weeks Ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 80% (75%) | 80% (74%) | 81% (74%) | 73% (63% of full season average) |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 65% (61%) | 66% (61%) | 67% (61%) | 65% (57%) |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 61% (57%) | 61% (57%) | 62% (57%) | 61% (53%) |
| Snow Water Content - North | 29% | |||
| Snow Water Content - Central | 26% | |||
| Snow Water Content - South | 9% |
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I Scream. You Scream. The Police Come. It's Awkward.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Just Two Days Ago I Wrote: "The Dollars Are Coming! The Dollars Are Coming! (Until Some Jerk QOP Senator Finds a Rule to Delay Things.)"
It's not that I am a genius. It's just so predictable.
As Predicted, a QOP Senator Steps Up to Kill Ukrainians
United States Senator Rand Paul has single-handedly delayed the passage of a $40bn aid package for Ukraine.
The allocation of funds has bipartisan support in the Senate and it was passed in the US House of Representatives earlier this week. It is also supported by President Joe Biden, with his administration warning the remaining authorised funds for Ukraine would run out by May 19.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Democrat, accused Paul of making “reckless demands”. “The package is ready to go, the vast majority of senators on both sides of the aisle want it,” he said.
For his part, Paul has demanded the legislation be altered to include an inspector general to oversee spending on Ukraine. He denied an offer to hold a vote on the amendment, which was all but assured to fail, but instead refused to support swiftly bringing the aid package to a final vote.
Under Senate rules, unanimous consent among legislators is required to bypass lengthy procedural steps that can delay the passage of legislation.
Is Erdogan Learning About Blocking Things From Rand Paul?
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said it is not possible for NATO-member Turkey to support Sweden and Finland joining the transatlantic military alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, signalling a possible blockade to their anticipated ascension bids.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Friday, Erdogan said Ankara did not have “positive views” on the Scandinavian countries’ expected moves to seek membership, accusing them of being “guesthouses for terrorist organisations”.
“They are even members of the parliament in some countries. It is not possible for us to be in favour,” he said, without providing any further details.
Turkey has repeatedly criticised Sweden and other Western European countries for its handling of organisations deemed to be “terrorists” by Ankara, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as well as the followers of the United States-based Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen.
Ankara has said Gulenists carried out a coup attempt in 2016. Gulen and his supporters deny the accusation.
TikTok-ed to Death
The mother of a 10-year-old girl alleged to have died after taking part in a viral social media challenge last December has launched a wrongful death lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance.
Tawainna Anderson's daughter, Nylah, died in December after taking part in the "Blackout Challenge," which encourages social media users to try to hold their breath until they pass out, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday.
Anderson had found her daughter passed out on Dec. 7 and rushed her to a hospital, where she spent days in a pediatric intensive care unit before succumbing to her injuries on Dec. 12, the lawsuit said.
Anderson has accused TikTok and its parent company of negligence and having a "defective design," blaming the platform's algorithms for exposing a young child to a dangerous challenge. TikTok's interface automatically suggests video to users as they scroll the app's main feed, known as its "For You Page."
"The viral and deadly TikTok Blackout Challenge was thrust in front of Nylah on her TikTok For You Page ... as a result of TikTok’s algorithm," the lawsuit said.
Remember when the GOP Complained About Frivolous Lawsuits? Before They Became the QOP?
Texas residents can now sue Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for allegedly censoring their content after a federal appeals court sided Wednesday with the state’s law restricting how social media sites can moderate their platforms.
The 15-word ruling allowing the law, which had been blocked last year, to take effect has significant potential consequences. Most immediately, it creates new legal risks for the tech giants, and opens them up to a possible wave of litigation that legal experts say would be costly and difficult to defend.
Texas’s law makes it illegal for any social media platform with 50 million or more US monthly users to “block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.”
The law creates enormous uncertainty about how social media will actually function in Texas, according to legal experts, and raises questions about what users’ online spaces may look like and what content they may find there, if the companies are even able to run their services at all.
The ruling also sets the stage for what could be a Supreme Court showdown over First Amendment rights and, possibly, a dramatic reinterpretation of those rights that affects not just the tech industry but all Americans — and decades of established precedent.
More Voter Fraud, and Again, It's the QOP
After two years of unrelenting rhetoric about the dangers of voting by mail—a completely unfounded assault on voting rights, led by former President Trump and his MAGA acolytes—two Pennsylvania GOP officials were fired Tuesday for involvement in a “ballot harvesting” operation.
Ballot harvesting is a political maneuver where operatives collect absentee ballots from voters and deliver them to a polling place or election office. In this case, more than three dozen mail-in ballot applications were found to have been delivered to a P.O. Box in South Philadelphia instead of the homes of voters.
According to Penn Live, the two fired were Shamus O’Donnell, 27, and C.J. Parker, 24. O’Donnell worked with the Republican Registration Coalition as the former treasurer and was a GOP ward leader in the political action committee (PAC) in Northeast Philadelphia. Parker was also a GOP ward leader in the Northeast Philadelphia PAC and is a former aide to Lawrence Tabas, a state party chair.
As initially reported by The Philidelphia Inquirer, many of the voters whose ballots were misdirected told the Inquirer they never applied to vote for mail, although dozens of Republican ballots for the May 17 primary had been redirected to the P.O. box registered to the Republican Registration Coalition.
Thanks to Molasses Merrick, They Will Ignore the Subpoenas.
Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas 5 Republican Representatives
The leaders of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack said they were demanding testimony from Kevin McCarthy of California and four of his colleagues.
The panel said it was demanding testimony from Mr. McCarthy, of California, who engaged in a heated phone call with President Donald J. Trump during the Capitol violence; Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general after he resisted Mr. Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud; Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who was deeply involved in the effort to fight the election results; Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, the former leader of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus; and Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, who has said Mr. Trump has continued to seek an unlawful reinstatement to office for more than a year.
It's Almost As If Mitch Designed the Rules ... What? He Did?
The Senate’s current rules are tailored almost perfectly to McConnell’s needs. (This is no coincidence, since McConnell had a big hand in shaping these rules.) First, the things McConnell most wants to pass can pass with 50 votes: tax cuts and spending cuts, both of which can pass through budget reconciliation rules, and confirming judges.
Second, the rules make it easy to block the things McConnell most wants to block: New regulations, such as pollution or campaign finance, and the enactment of most new social programs all require 60 votes. Obamacare took 60 votes to pass and would have been destroyed with 50 (though Republicans only mustered 49).
Third, the remaining filibuster also prevents Republicans from passing radical measures McConnell would, for the most part, prefer not to pass. A national abortion ban is the ultimate example of something Republicans want to be stopped from passing.
The party’s reluctance to pass a national abortion ban has been glaringly evident from the moment news broke that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe. The Republican obsession first with the mechanics of the leak, and then with the protests against the ruling, represent nothing so much as fanatic message discipline in service of a shared goal of keeping an abortion ban off the table.
He Used a Tweet to Tank Twitter Stock
You Aren't Choosing Who Governs When You Vote. You are Advising.
An openly pro-coup Trumpist could become Pennsylvania’s next governor
This basic situation is reflected in some media coverage of Mastriano’s surge. But there’s something more nefarious about Mastriano than those basic facts convey when it comes to the true threat to democracy he poses.
Mastriano didn’t just try to help Trump overturn the election. At the time, he also essentially declared his support for the notion that the popular vote can be treated as non-binding when it comes to the certification of presidential electors.
Imagine There's No Cawthorn. It's Easy If You Try
"It Breaks My Heart That Some of You Won't Go to Heaven Because You Aren't Donating Enough Money to This Ministry" - Televangelist Gene Scott
Infowars host Alex Jones has resorted to screaming at his viewers to buy his products and telling them they support “the enemy” if they don’t.
During a recent episode of his podcast, the infamous conspiracy theorist told his viewers that there was a “war against you and your family of inflation and collapse” and that nameless forces were working to “silence the leaders.”
“So when you keep us in the fight, you keep yourself in the fight, and this is life and death,” he shouted. “So go to InfowarsStore.com and get amazing products. ... Make a donation at the top.”
“If you don’t support us, you’re helping the enemy,” he added.
WTF Is Molasses Merrick Doing?
The US justice department secretly issued a subpoena to gain access to details of the phone account of a Guardian reporter as part of an aggressive leak investigation into media stories about an official inquiry into the Trump administration’s child separation policy at the southern border.
Leak investigators issued the subpoena to obtain the phone number of Stephanie Kirchgaessner, the Guardian’s investigations correspondent in Washington. The move was carried out without notifying the newspaper or its reporter, as part of an attempt to ferret out the source of media articles about a review into family separation conducted by the Department of Justice’s inspector general Michael Horowitz.
It is highly unusual for US government officials to obtain a journalist’s phone details in this way, especially when no national security or classified information is involved. The move was all the more surprising in that it came from the DoJ’s inspector general’s office – the watchdog responsible for ethical oversight and whistleblower protections.
Katharine Viner, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, decried the action as “an egregious example of infringement on press freedom and public interest journalism by the US Department of Justice”.
She added: “We will be asking the DoJ urgently for an explanation for why and how this could have occurred, and for an apology. We will also be seeking assurances that our reporter’s details will be erased from DoJ systems and will not be used for any further infringements of press freedom.”
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
None
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Invasions Have Consequences
Day 79
Fighting
The families and supporters of the Ukrainian fighters holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant are pleading for more help for them to be rescued.
Russian forces have likely taken control of all Rubizhne and Voevodivka in the Luhansk region, the Institute for the Study of War has said.
Shelling in Luhansk has killed two people and destroyed more than 50 homes, the region’s governor has said.
Russian military targeted villages in the east near Donetsk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv, the Ukrainian military has claimed.
Increasing military support from the West to Ukraine risks sparking a war between Russia and NATO, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies has declared.
Rocket attacks intensified on Ukraine’s central Poltava region, “perhaps the most intense for the duration of the war”, the regional governor has said.
Ukraine has said forces damaged a Russian navy ship in the Black Sea with satellite images showing a probable strike.
More than six million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, United Nations refugee agency data showed.
Human rights
The UN Human Rights Council has approved an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine.
A Russian soldier accused of shooting a 62-year-old man is set to stand trial in Ukraine for war crimes.
Diplomacy and aid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is prepared for talks with Putin to find mutual agreement but says Ukraine will never recognise Crimea as part of Russia.
During a G7 meeting, British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss said it is essential to maintain the pressure on Russia by providing more weapons to Ukraine.
United States Republican Senator Rand Paul has single-handedly delayed the passage of a $40bn aid bill to provide support to Ukraine after the US House approved it on Wednesday.
The head of Zelenskyy’s office said Ukraine must “become part of a united Europe as soon as possible. This is a matter of mutual security”.
European Commission President von der Leyen called Russia the “most direct threat” to the international order and said it has waged “barbaric war”.
A Russian diplomat warned Finland and Sweden that they could become “a target” after Finnish officials announced the country must join NATO military alliance “without delay”.
Economy
Ukraine spent 245.1 billion hryvnia ($8.3bn) on the war instead of development since the start of Russia’s invasion on February 24, the finance minister said.
Putin blamed the West for triggering a global economic crisis and inflation due to severe sanctions imposed on Russia.
Europe is facing gas supply disruption and pressure for alternatives after Russia imposed sanctions on European subsidiaries of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom energy giant and Ukraine halted gas flow, leading to higher prices.
The European Commission said it would help Ukraine export millions of tonnes of grain blocked by the Russian navy in Ukraine’s ports.
Three Strikes on Pontoon Bridges, and They Are Out!
Russian troops made three unsuccessful attempts to build bridges across a river in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk's regional governor says
Images from the scene show dozens of burnt-out tanks after Ukrainian forces shelled the temporary structures
Big Guns and Small Drones. A Match Made in Heaven... Or Is It a Match Made in Hell?
They were developed more than a century apart, but an unusual combination of decades-old and cutting edge technology — heavy artillery and remote-controlled drones — is helping Ukraine’s army make inroads into Russia’s eastern occupation.
The cannons, howitzers and other heavy guns provided by NATO members and allies are similar to the weapons that have been battlefield staples since World War I, lobbing explosive shells farther than the eye can see. They are being used to great effect to suppress Russian positions and allow Ukrainian infantry counterattacks in the Donbas region.
Heavy artillery is typically deployed against enemy infantry and equipment. It uses an “adjusted fire” approach, meaning small changes to trajectory are made between each salvo until a target is hit. For decades, that meant armies sending personnel to the front lines and radioing instructions to the gunners several miles back.
The importance of artillery is underscored by international efforts to ship more guns and ammunition to Ukraine, with many NATO members contributing some of the newest and most advanced versions of these weapons.
But experts say Ukrainian forces are going one better by harnessing widely available drone technology to provide real-time surveillance data on Russian targets and fire their heavy weapons with unprecedented accuracy.
“Each drone provides the opportunity to destroy enemy troops,” said Valerii Iakovenko, founder of DroneUA, a Ukrainian tech firm that advises the government on drone use.
Iakovenko said the Ukrainian military was using more than 6,000 drones, largely manufactured in China. Although varying according to model, most of the unmanned aerial vehicles are commercially available multirotor craft typically used in the media, agriculture and engineering sectors. They can operate for up to 30 minutes and as far as 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) into enemy territory.
“This is the first time ever where we see such a level of robotics used during conflict,” Iakovenko said.
Do They Really Want to Die for Vlad the Invader?
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be seeing serious dissension in his military's ranks, if reports about officer insubordination and low troop morale in Ukraine are any indication.
On Monday, a senior official from the U.S. Defense Department said the agency had received anecdotal reports about officers in Russia's military refusing to follow orders in Ukraine. The statement came after numerous reports have surfaced since the beginning of the war about Russia's forces suffering from low morale.
The Pentagon official said the reports, which could not be independently confirmed, concerned officers in midgrade positions, including some at the battalion level. The claim about officers disobeying orders followed numerous reports like the one from a March 1 New York Times story that cited a Pentagon official who said entire Russian units had laid down their weapons rather than fight Ukraine's forces. Some Russian troops had even sabotaged their own vehicles, according to the official. More recently, the Ukrainian government said last month it had learned of Russian troops who had refused to fight.
"There are good reasons for low morale on the Russian side. The war isn't going well. Its purpose is unclear, and fighting a war against a neighbor—with whom it's easy to communicate—is psychologically burdensome to soldiers," said Michael Kimmage, a Catholic University history professor and former member of the secretary's policy planning staff at the State Department.
While Kimmage told Newsweek he has not seen any evidence to suggest a widespread rebellion among Putin's troops, he noted it is "possible that there are mutinous movements within the Russian army and not all of them on the lower levels."
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I Predict the Pub Will Last Longer than the Magazine
A village pub in Cornwall has had a letter from one of the world's largest fashion magazines asking it to change its name.
The Star Inn at Vogue, thought to be at least 150 years old, is in the small village of Vogue, near Redruth.
Vogue magazine publisher Condé Nast told the pub its name might "cause problems".
The publisher has since said after "further research" it "did not need to send such a letter on this occasion".
Pub landlord Mark Graham said he found the letter "hilariously funny".
He said: "I did think they were being a little heavy-handed, so I thought I'd send them a letter back - being heavy-handed too."
The company's letter, seen by the BBC, said "We are concerned that the name you are using is going to cause problems because, as far as the general public is concerned, a connection between your business and ours is likely to be inferred.
"Please would you kindly let us know what field of business your company is trading/intending to trade, and whether you will change your company's name in order to avoid problems arising."
Mark Graham, who has been landlord with his wife Rachel for 17 years, wrote back, saying: "Whilst I found your letter interesting on the one hand, I also found it hilariously funny on the other."
Mr Graham told the BBC: "At first glance I thought it was one of the locals having a laugh, but apparently it is real.
"I explained to them that the village has been here for 200 years, the pub slightly less than that. We chose the name of the pub to be the name of the village."
He said he was had considered countering their claim over the use of the word because "we were there first".
Raise a Glass to Mark and Rachel
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When California Does Stupid, We Don't Mess Around
As California battles a historic drought and a water crisis looms, the state’s coastline protection agency on Thursday unanimously rejected the development of a $1.4 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach that would have converted ocean water into municipal water for Orange County residents.
Eleven members of the California Coastal Commission voted against the facility, which water treatment developer Poseidon Water has been trying to build for decades.
Poseidon said the plant would be capable of producing up to 50 million gallons of drinking water a day, helping to make the region more drought resilient.
Desalination opponents argue less expensive and less harmful conservation tactics should be the first resort.
How About Conservation AND Desalination?
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What Did They Want to "Lock Her Up" Over?
Federal investigators have subpoenaed the National Archives and Records Administration for classified documents shipped to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after he left the White House.
The subpoena is part of a grand jury investigation into how those documents were handled, according to The New York Times. The National Archives in February asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Trump violated the law after discovering 15 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago.
Investigators are trying to determine how the documents were shipped to Florida and whether those involved knew about the sensitive content. To answer those questions, they also are seeking to question Trump officials present at the White House in the last days of his presidency.
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I Can't Figure Out If This is Disgusting or Brilliant
A man impersonating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday disrupted the Australian election campaign when he burst into an event that Prime Minister Scott Morrison was attending with lawmaker Gladys Liu.
The impersonator, who later identified himself by the stage name Howard X, started talking to the gathered media.
“Thank you very much. Gladys Liu is the communist candidate for Australia,” he said, before he was interrupted by an aide to Morrison.
“Excuse me, you are going to have to leave. This is the most offensive thing I have ever seen in a campaign,” said the aide, Nick Creevey.
The impersonator responded: “Excuse me, you don’t tell the supreme leader what to do. I support Gladys Liu.”
The impersonator left the Melbourne venue soon after.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Liu said she was focused on delivering outcomes for the Melbourne communities she represents.
“I will not be distracted by my opponents and their grubby tactics,” she said.
Liu was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Australia for more than 30 years.
The disruption appeared to have been orchestrated in part by longshot Queensland State senate candidate Drew Pavlou, who said on social media that he was good friends with Howard X and it was “one of the best things we have ever managed.”
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Deal or No Deal? The Mullahs Say "No Deal".
After weeks of optimism around the prospect of restoring the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year, the fate of the agreement appears to be in limbo again with no further talks on the calendar and Washington’s attention focused on Ukraine.
The push to revive the deal seems to have stalled over the US designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “foreign terrorist organization”, with American officials reluctant to meet Tehran’s demand to remove the group from the blacklist to seal the deal.
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