Post by mhbruin on May 17, 2022 8:30:43 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 581 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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Alaskan Eye Doctors are Optical Aleutians.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
It's a Good Bet He's Still Got a Lot of the Money
A 24-year-old man who was mistakenly paid millions of Japanese yen has already lost the money through online gambling, his lawyer says.
The man received 46.3m yen ($357,400; £287,000) in his bank account - money from a Covid relief fund that was supposed to be shared among 463 people.
He initially said he would co-operate with officials, but has since vanished.
The southern town of Abu in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture is suing the man and also considering criminal action.
The blunder happened when the 463 low-income households were meant to receive 100,000 yen ($770; £620) each as part of a government scheme to ease financial strain caused by the pandemic.
But on 8 April, all of the funding - 46.3m yen - was accidentally deposited into the man's personal bank account.
An investigation has since found that he withdrew 600,000 yen every day for about two weeks, local media reports.
When authorities finally contacted him, he said he no longer had the money.
"I've already moved the money. It can't be returned," he is quoted as saying. "It cannot be undone any more. I will not run. I will pay for my crime."
However he has now disappeared.
We Nominate the QOP and the Pollsters
Morning Consult asked people to compare their fears over something that definitely does exist, with something that definitely does not. There are exactly zero politicians and zero policies designed to promote the conspiracy theory that Morning Consult pushed at people in their poll.
You might as well ask in a poll, “Are you more concerned about being hit by a bus, or by that massive killer asteroid now screaming toward Earth at a million miles an hour which will snuff out all life forever?” There’s a good chance the asteroid will rack up a lot of votes. That doesn’t make it an actual threat.
One of Putin's Favorite Americans
As news of the mass shooting by a white suspect who had posted a racist screed on the internet and driven about 200 miles to a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, Rogers [posted on Telegram] "Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo."
OJ Is Still Looking for the Real Killer and Laura is Looking for the Real Accomplices
Laura Ingraham on Monday ridiculously claimed that the non-right wing media were the “real accomplices” in the Buffalo, New York, mass shooting that left 10 people dead over the weekend.
The Fox News host blasted Democratic efforts to restrict hate speech that incites the kind of violence perpetrated by the white suspected gunman who left a racist online manifesto before his attack on a supermarket.
She pointed to a Rolling Stone headline that read, “The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t A ‘Lone Wolf.’ He’s A Mainstream Republican.” The article explained how the accused killer embraced “the great replacement theory” that has become more common among conservatives (including Tucker Carlson at Fox News and top House Republican Elise Stefanik) and took the propaganda to its violently “logical conclusion.”
“The gonzo journalists at Rolling Stone say no, no, no, no, no, there are accomplices here: The Republicans,” Ingraham said indignantly. “It’s so weak, I don’t even want to talk about it tonight because it’s so predictable. It’s so lame, because the real accomplices are in the media. The media that are propping up an administration that has brought this country to its knees with policies making American families poorer every single day. And they’ve tried this tack so many times.”
Oy Veh!
The US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the squad” of progressive members of congress who have been critical of Israel.
But it is funneled through a group, the United Democracy Project (UDP), that avoids mention of its creation by Aipac and seeks to decide elections by funding campaign messages about issues other than Israel.
The UDP has thrown $2.3m in to Tuesday’s Democratic primary race for an open congressional seat in Pennsylvania – one of a handful of contests targeted by the group where a leading candidate is overtly sympathetic to the Palestinians.
The money has mostly been spent in support of a former Republican congressional staffer turned Democrat, Steve Irwin, in an attempt to block a progressive state representative, Summer Lee, who is leading in opinion polls in the solidly Democratic district which includes Pittsburgh.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Yes, Ma'am
Amy Bauernschmidt is the rarest of the rare.
The 51-year-old is in a select group of United States Navy officers: The commanders of the 11 aircraft carriers in the US fleet.
Capt. Bauernschmidt is the only woman in that group. In fact, she’s the only woman ever to command a US aircraft carrier, the largest and among the most powerful warships afloat.
“(It’s) easily one of the most incredible jobs in the world,” she told CNN.
Most people would consider that an understatement.
Bauernschmidt commands the USS Abraham Lincoln, a 97,000-ton, 1,092-foot Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. With around 5,000 people aboard, it’s the equivalent of a small city at sea.
A Formula for Success
Nestle SA is flying baby formula supplies to the United States from the Netherlands and Switzerland to alleviate the shortage in U.S. supermarkets, the company said on Tuesday.
Nestle is moving Gerber baby food formula to the United States from the Netherlands and Alfamino baby formula from Switzerland to the U.S., it said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
“We prioritized these products because they serve a critical medical purpose as they are for babies with cow’s milk protein allergies,” the company said. “Both products were already being imported but we moved shipments up and rushed via air to help fill immediate needs.”
Baby formula aisles at U.S. supermarkets have been emptied by panicked parents since top U.S. manufacturer Abbott Laboratories in February recalled dozens of types of its Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas.
Reckitt Benckiser is boosting baby formula production by about 30 percent and making more frequent deliveries to stores as it looks to counter a nationwide shortage in U.S. supermarkets, an executive told Reuters on Tuesday.
He's No Fan of Stefanik
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) may have to look for a new domain name come midterms.
A former “South Park” writer’s viral tweet revealed his ownership of a website named after Stefanik, who is expected to run for reelection in the fall.
The website, elisestefanik2022.com, mocks the candidate’s controversial Facebook ads touching on the “great replacement theory.” The conspiracy theory promotes a racist ideology about how white people are being replaced by minorities and immigrants.
This Might Give You Nightmares. Maybe He Need to Tell Us He Is Not a Witch, Too.
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz drew mockery for his final appeal to voters ahead of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
The Donald Trump-endorsed Oz, facing stiff competition from right-wing commentator Kathy Barnette and retired hedge fund billionaire David McCormick to represent the GOP in November’s pivotal Senate election, imagined lying next to voters in bed.
“So, when you go to bed at night, put your head on that soft pillow, you’ll know Oz will be doing exactly what you want him to do if you were there next to him,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday.
Havana, ooh na-na. It's Easier to Go To Havana, ooh na-na. You Can Get There From East Atlanta, na-na-na, ah
The Biden administration announced Monday that it will expand flights to Cuba, take steps to loosen restrictions on U.S. travelers to the island, and lift Trump-era restrictions on remittances that immigrants can send to people on the island.
The State Department said in a statement that it will remove the current $1,000-per-quarter limit on family remittances and will allow non-family remittance, which will support independent Cuban entrepreneurs. The U.S. will also allow scheduled and charter flights to locations beyond Havana, according to the State Department.
The administration said it will also move to reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which has a backlog of more than 20,000 applications, and increase consular services and visa processing.
Apparently DeathSentence Doesn't Believe in that Free Speech Thing
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday that will make protesting outside of a person's home illegal. The law follows a rise in protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after a draft opinion was leaked indicating that the court was planning to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case.
HB 1571 intends to prevent both picketing and protests outside people’s homes. According to the law, protests “with the intent to harass or disturb that person in his or her dwelling” are illegal.
Under the state bill, those who are found in violation could face second-degree misdemeanor charges.
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Invasions Have Consequences
Day 83
Fighting
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to Russian-held territories, and efforts to rescue the remaining ones are continuing, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said.
Explosions rocked the western city of Lviv and a Russian attack hit a military base close to Poland’s border, Ukrainian officials said. The country’s air defence shot down three cruise missiles in the Lviv region, the air force said.
Twenty civilians were killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force.
A village in Russia’s western province of Kursk bordering Ukraine came under Ukrainian fire, regional governor Roman Starovoit said. No injuries were reported but three houses and a school were hit.
Regional police in the Bucha region north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, said the bodies of three more civilians were found near a village. Ukraine has accused Russian forces of killing hundreds of civilians as they retreated from the area more than two months ago. Russia denies the allegations.
Ukrainian troops shelled a residential area in the Petrovsky district, according to the Russian-backed administration of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
A Russian missile attack struck “civilian targets” in the city of Okhtyrka, wounding at least five people, the governor of the Sumy region said.
NATO
Sweden has joined neighbouring Finland in formally deciding to apply for NATO membership, a move that ends the country’s more than 200 years of military non-alignment.
Turkey “cannot say ‘yes’” to Finland and Sweden’s NATO bid, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, reversing previous statements, said Russia has no issue with Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.
Japan’s chief government spokesman said his country respected Sweden’s “serious decision” to apply for NATO membership.
Diplomacy and aid
The US Senate has backed sending an additional $40bn to Ukraine as aid assistance. A possible vote on the bill is expected later this week.
Red Cross head Francesco Rocca accused Europe of “double standards”, referring to countries swiftly accepting Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion but not welcoming people escaping violence in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called on members of a Russian-led military alliance to unite and accused the West of supporting Nazi ideas and prolonging the conflict in Ukraine.
European Union foreign ministers failed in their effort to pressure Hungary to lift its veto of a proposed oil embargo on Russia.
Germany is open to the idea of seizing Russian state assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said.
Economy
Poland’s agriculture minister suggested Ukraine’s grain exports that are stuck at Black Sea ports to be routed through Poland.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will unveil an action plan on achieving global food security after the war in Ukraine interrupted the supply of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other staples and raised already high global food prices.
The EU gave companies the green light to buy gas from Russia without breaching sanctions, demonstrating a softened stance in a standoff with Moscow over energy supplies.
McDonald’s announced the sale of its business in Russia, saying the country “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values”. The company has 850 restaurants and 62,000 employees in Russia.
Not Much Donets News With Your Morning Donuts
There has been no further updates on the big news of the day—reports by Russian sources that Ukraine had crossed to the east of the Donets River, directly threatening Russian supply lines at Vovchansk. Ukraine doesn’t announce liberated towns until days after the fact. Russia doesn’t know what half its troops are doing at any given time, why give them a head’s up? It also prevents the embarrassment of losing territory after announcing a liberation. One more reason: Ukraine doesn’t want people prematurely streaming back to their homes until the area is clear of invaders, mines, booby traps, dead bodies, and other dangers.
There are two supposed crossings over the Donets, east of Kharkiv. The first is at Staryi Saltiv, where a long bridge was expeditiously repaired, and the second was further north at Rubizhne, where Ukraine reportedly laid a pontoon bridge. This tells us that only the Staryi Saltiv crossing is seeing action large enough to be picked up by satellite heat sensors.
In the Lyman-Severodonetsk axis, Russia continued to edge closer to those two cities.
It's Hard to Believe They Let This Guy Come on Russian TV
You may also remember Khodaryonok as the author of a prescient February 2 article in a Russian military publication warning against the war, “Some representatives of the Russian political class today claim that Russia is able to inflict a crushing defeat on Ukraine in a few hours (called shorter terms) if a military conflict begins. Let's see how such statements correspond to reality.” His predictions were controversial in Russia—that “[n]o one will meet the Russian army with bread, salt and flowers in Ukraine,” and warned that even Russian-speaking Ukrainians would resist. He mocked the idea of a blitzkrieg that would take out Ukrainian defenses in hours. He reminded readers of the “open shock” of Russian aircraft losses to Ukrainian defenses in the 2014 war, and how air superiority didn’t help Russian in the First Chechen war or Afghanistan anyway.
He predicted that “There is no doubt that some reincarnation of Lend-Lease modeled and likeness of World War II will begin on the part of the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance countries,” and that “There may be an influx of volunteers from the West, of whom there may be a lot.” And to those who scoffed at the quality of Ukraine’s military, he had a sage warning, “If until 2014 the Armed Forces of Ukraine were a fragment of the Soviet army, over the past seven years a qualitatively different army has been created in Ukraine, on a completely different ideological basis and largely on NATO standards. And today very modern weapons and equipment are coming and continue to arrive in Ukraine from many countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.”
He concluded, “In general, there will be no Ukrainian blitzkrieg. Statements of some experts such as ‘The Russian army will defeat most of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 30-40 minutes’, ‘Russia is able to defeat Ukraine in 10 minutes in case of a full-scale war’, ‘Russia will defeat Ukraine in eight minutes’ have no serious reason.”
Russia is Looking for Some Liars for Hire
Russia is reportedly offering to provide financial compensation to residents of the besieged city of Mariupol if they blame President Volodymyr Zelensky's military for destroyed housing or family deaths, an adviser to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Monday.
In Petro Andryushchenko's Telegram post, which he marked as a "warning" to the city at the top, he said Mariupol residents seeking the compensation must submit written statements saying Ukraine is responsible for the property destruction or the deaths of their family members. Residents of the city who leave out or refuse to include these statements will not receive any compensation, he said.
Russian Military Tactics in Action
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Things Could be Worse. You Could Live in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's new prime minister says the country is down to its last day of petrol as it faces its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years.
In a televised address, Ranil Wickremesinghe said the nation urgently needs $75m (£60.8m) of foreign currency in the next few days to pay for essential imports.
He said the central bank would have to print money to pay government wages.
Mr Wickremesinghe also said state-owned Sri Lankan Airlines may be privatised.
The island nation's economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, rising energy prices, and populist tax cuts. A chronic shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation had led to a severe shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials.
You Could Also Need to Know How to Spell "Wickremesinghe"
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Russia Is Attacking the UK Where It Hurts.
The United Kingdom’s fish-and-chip shops are under severe strain as the prices of key ingredients — including cod and cooking oil — soar as a result of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
As many as a third of the country’s roughly 10,000 fish-and-chip restaurants could close in the next nine months, said Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers. The crisis is the worst he’s seen, he told CNN Business.
The trade group represents 1,200 fish-and-chip businesses, and has been running for more than a century.
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Previous Guy Promised a Beautiful Wall. We Got a Little Bit of Crappy Wall and An Impressive Tunnel
U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running about the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the U.S.
The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities said. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been found in the last two decades.
U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of drugs, if any, got through undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds of cocaine, 165 pounds of meth and 3.5 pounds of heroin in connection with the investigation.
Six people, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.
The tunnel is in one of the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border walls. While considered effective against small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | New Hospitalizations 7-Day Average | |
| May 16 | 94,199 | 274 | |
| May 15 | 90,337 | 263 | 3,013 |
| May 14 | 88,187 | 265 | 2,698 |
| May 13 | 87,831 | 266 | 2,798 |
| May 12 | 87,382 | 272 | 2,731 |
| 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% |
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Alaskan Eye Doctors are Optical Aleutians.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
It's a Good Bet He's Still Got a Lot of the Money
A 24-year-old man who was mistakenly paid millions of Japanese yen has already lost the money through online gambling, his lawyer says.
The man received 46.3m yen ($357,400; £287,000) in his bank account - money from a Covid relief fund that was supposed to be shared among 463 people.
He initially said he would co-operate with officials, but has since vanished.
The southern town of Abu in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture is suing the man and also considering criminal action.
The blunder happened when the 463 low-income households were meant to receive 100,000 yen ($770; £620) each as part of a government scheme to ease financial strain caused by the pandemic.
But on 8 April, all of the funding - 46.3m yen - was accidentally deposited into the man's personal bank account.
An investigation has since found that he withdrew 600,000 yen every day for about two weeks, local media reports.
When authorities finally contacted him, he said he no longer had the money.
"I've already moved the money. It can't be returned," he is quoted as saying. "It cannot be undone any more. I will not run. I will pay for my crime."
However he has now disappeared.
We Nominate the QOP and the Pollsters
Morning Consult asked people to compare their fears over something that definitely does exist, with something that definitely does not. There are exactly zero politicians and zero policies designed to promote the conspiracy theory that Morning Consult pushed at people in their poll.
You might as well ask in a poll, “Are you more concerned about being hit by a bus, or by that massive killer asteroid now screaming toward Earth at a million miles an hour which will snuff out all life forever?” There’s a good chance the asteroid will rack up a lot of votes. That doesn’t make it an actual threat.
One of Putin's Favorite Americans
As news of the mass shooting by a white suspect who had posted a racist screed on the internet and driven about 200 miles to a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, Rogers [posted on Telegram] "Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo."
OJ Is Still Looking for the Real Killer and Laura is Looking for the Real Accomplices
Laura Ingraham on Monday ridiculously claimed that the non-right wing media were the “real accomplices” in the Buffalo, New York, mass shooting that left 10 people dead over the weekend.
The Fox News host blasted Democratic efforts to restrict hate speech that incites the kind of violence perpetrated by the white suspected gunman who left a racist online manifesto before his attack on a supermarket.
She pointed to a Rolling Stone headline that read, “The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t A ‘Lone Wolf.’ He’s A Mainstream Republican.” The article explained how the accused killer embraced “the great replacement theory” that has become more common among conservatives (including Tucker Carlson at Fox News and top House Republican Elise Stefanik) and took the propaganda to its violently “logical conclusion.”
“The gonzo journalists at Rolling Stone say no, no, no, no, no, there are accomplices here: The Republicans,” Ingraham said indignantly. “It’s so weak, I don’t even want to talk about it tonight because it’s so predictable. It’s so lame, because the real accomplices are in the media. The media that are propping up an administration that has brought this country to its knees with policies making American families poorer every single day. And they’ve tried this tack so many times.”
Oy Veh!
The US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the squad” of progressive members of congress who have been critical of Israel.
But it is funneled through a group, the United Democracy Project (UDP), that avoids mention of its creation by Aipac and seeks to decide elections by funding campaign messages about issues other than Israel.
The UDP has thrown $2.3m in to Tuesday’s Democratic primary race for an open congressional seat in Pennsylvania – one of a handful of contests targeted by the group where a leading candidate is overtly sympathetic to the Palestinians.
The money has mostly been spent in support of a former Republican congressional staffer turned Democrat, Steve Irwin, in an attempt to block a progressive state representative, Summer Lee, who is leading in opinion polls in the solidly Democratic district which includes Pittsburgh.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Yes, Ma'am
Amy Bauernschmidt is the rarest of the rare.
The 51-year-old is in a select group of United States Navy officers: The commanders of the 11 aircraft carriers in the US fleet.
Capt. Bauernschmidt is the only woman in that group. In fact, she’s the only woman ever to command a US aircraft carrier, the largest and among the most powerful warships afloat.
“(It’s) easily one of the most incredible jobs in the world,” she told CNN.
Most people would consider that an understatement.
Bauernschmidt commands the USS Abraham Lincoln, a 97,000-ton, 1,092-foot Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. With around 5,000 people aboard, it’s the equivalent of a small city at sea.
A Formula for Success
Nestle SA is flying baby formula supplies to the United States from the Netherlands and Switzerland to alleviate the shortage in U.S. supermarkets, the company said on Tuesday.
Nestle is moving Gerber baby food formula to the United States from the Netherlands and Alfamino baby formula from Switzerland to the U.S., it said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
“We prioritized these products because they serve a critical medical purpose as they are for babies with cow’s milk protein allergies,” the company said. “Both products were already being imported but we moved shipments up and rushed via air to help fill immediate needs.”
Baby formula aisles at U.S. supermarkets have been emptied by panicked parents since top U.S. manufacturer Abbott Laboratories in February recalled dozens of types of its Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas.
Reckitt Benckiser is boosting baby formula production by about 30 percent and making more frequent deliveries to stores as it looks to counter a nationwide shortage in U.S. supermarkets, an executive told Reuters on Tuesday.
He's No Fan of Stefanik
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) may have to look for a new domain name come midterms.
A former “South Park” writer’s viral tweet revealed his ownership of a website named after Stefanik, who is expected to run for reelection in the fall.
The website, elisestefanik2022.com, mocks the candidate’s controversial Facebook ads touching on the “great replacement theory.” The conspiracy theory promotes a racist ideology about how white people are being replaced by minorities and immigrants.
This Might Give You Nightmares. Maybe He Need to Tell Us He Is Not a Witch, Too.
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz drew mockery for his final appeal to voters ahead of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
The Donald Trump-endorsed Oz, facing stiff competition from right-wing commentator Kathy Barnette and retired hedge fund billionaire David McCormick to represent the GOP in November’s pivotal Senate election, imagined lying next to voters in bed.
“So, when you go to bed at night, put your head on that soft pillow, you’ll know Oz will be doing exactly what you want him to do if you were there next to him,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday.
Havana, ooh na-na. It's Easier to Go To Havana, ooh na-na. You Can Get There From East Atlanta, na-na-na, ah
The Biden administration announced Monday that it will expand flights to Cuba, take steps to loosen restrictions on U.S. travelers to the island, and lift Trump-era restrictions on remittances that immigrants can send to people on the island.
The State Department said in a statement that it will remove the current $1,000-per-quarter limit on family remittances and will allow non-family remittance, which will support independent Cuban entrepreneurs. The U.S. will also allow scheduled and charter flights to locations beyond Havana, according to the State Department.
The administration said it will also move to reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which has a backlog of more than 20,000 applications, and increase consular services and visa processing.
Apparently DeathSentence Doesn't Believe in that Free Speech Thing
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday that will make protesting outside of a person's home illegal. The law follows a rise in protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after a draft opinion was leaked indicating that the court was planning to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case.
HB 1571 intends to prevent both picketing and protests outside people’s homes. According to the law, protests “with the intent to harass or disturb that person in his or her dwelling” are illegal.
Under the state bill, those who are found in violation could face second-degree misdemeanor charges.
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
Day 83
Fighting
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to Russian-held territories, and efforts to rescue the remaining ones are continuing, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said.
Explosions rocked the western city of Lviv and a Russian attack hit a military base close to Poland’s border, Ukrainian officials said. The country’s air defence shot down three cruise missiles in the Lviv region, the air force said.
Twenty civilians were killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force.
A village in Russia’s western province of Kursk bordering Ukraine came under Ukrainian fire, regional governor Roman Starovoit said. No injuries were reported but three houses and a school were hit.
Regional police in the Bucha region north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, said the bodies of three more civilians were found near a village. Ukraine has accused Russian forces of killing hundreds of civilians as they retreated from the area more than two months ago. Russia denies the allegations.
Ukrainian troops shelled a residential area in the Petrovsky district, according to the Russian-backed administration of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
A Russian missile attack struck “civilian targets” in the city of Okhtyrka, wounding at least five people, the governor of the Sumy region said.
NATO
Sweden has joined neighbouring Finland in formally deciding to apply for NATO membership, a move that ends the country’s more than 200 years of military non-alignment.
Turkey “cannot say ‘yes’” to Finland and Sweden’s NATO bid, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, reversing previous statements, said Russia has no issue with Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.
Japan’s chief government spokesman said his country respected Sweden’s “serious decision” to apply for NATO membership.
Diplomacy and aid
The US Senate has backed sending an additional $40bn to Ukraine as aid assistance. A possible vote on the bill is expected later this week.
Red Cross head Francesco Rocca accused Europe of “double standards”, referring to countries swiftly accepting Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion but not welcoming people escaping violence in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called on members of a Russian-led military alliance to unite and accused the West of supporting Nazi ideas and prolonging the conflict in Ukraine.
European Union foreign ministers failed in their effort to pressure Hungary to lift its veto of a proposed oil embargo on Russia.
Germany is open to the idea of seizing Russian state assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said.
Economy
Poland’s agriculture minister suggested Ukraine’s grain exports that are stuck at Black Sea ports to be routed through Poland.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will unveil an action plan on achieving global food security after the war in Ukraine interrupted the supply of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other staples and raised already high global food prices.
The EU gave companies the green light to buy gas from Russia without breaching sanctions, demonstrating a softened stance in a standoff with Moscow over energy supplies.
McDonald’s announced the sale of its business in Russia, saying the country “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values”. The company has 850 restaurants and 62,000 employees in Russia.
Not Much Donets News With Your Morning Donuts
There has been no further updates on the big news of the day—reports by Russian sources that Ukraine had crossed to the east of the Donets River, directly threatening Russian supply lines at Vovchansk. Ukraine doesn’t announce liberated towns until days after the fact. Russia doesn’t know what half its troops are doing at any given time, why give them a head’s up? It also prevents the embarrassment of losing territory after announcing a liberation. One more reason: Ukraine doesn’t want people prematurely streaming back to their homes until the area is clear of invaders, mines, booby traps, dead bodies, and other dangers.
There are two supposed crossings over the Donets, east of Kharkiv. The first is at Staryi Saltiv, where a long bridge was expeditiously repaired, and the second was further north at Rubizhne, where Ukraine reportedly laid a pontoon bridge. This tells us that only the Staryi Saltiv crossing is seeing action large enough to be picked up by satellite heat sensors.
In the Lyman-Severodonetsk axis, Russia continued to edge closer to those two cities.
It's Hard to Believe They Let This Guy Come on Russian TV
You may also remember Khodaryonok as the author of a prescient February 2 article in a Russian military publication warning against the war, “Some representatives of the Russian political class today claim that Russia is able to inflict a crushing defeat on Ukraine in a few hours (called shorter terms) if a military conflict begins. Let's see how such statements correspond to reality.” His predictions were controversial in Russia—that “[n]o one will meet the Russian army with bread, salt and flowers in Ukraine,” and warned that even Russian-speaking Ukrainians would resist. He mocked the idea of a blitzkrieg that would take out Ukrainian defenses in hours. He reminded readers of the “open shock” of Russian aircraft losses to Ukrainian defenses in the 2014 war, and how air superiority didn’t help Russian in the First Chechen war or Afghanistan anyway.
He predicted that “There is no doubt that some reincarnation of Lend-Lease modeled and likeness of World War II will begin on the part of the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance countries,” and that “There may be an influx of volunteers from the West, of whom there may be a lot.” And to those who scoffed at the quality of Ukraine’s military, he had a sage warning, “If until 2014 the Armed Forces of Ukraine were a fragment of the Soviet army, over the past seven years a qualitatively different army has been created in Ukraine, on a completely different ideological basis and largely on NATO standards. And today very modern weapons and equipment are coming and continue to arrive in Ukraine from many countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.”
He concluded, “In general, there will be no Ukrainian blitzkrieg. Statements of some experts such as ‘The Russian army will defeat most of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 30-40 minutes’, ‘Russia is able to defeat Ukraine in 10 minutes in case of a full-scale war’, ‘Russia will defeat Ukraine in eight minutes’ have no serious reason.”
Russia is Looking for Some Liars for Hire
Russia is reportedly offering to provide financial compensation to residents of the besieged city of Mariupol if they blame President Volodymyr Zelensky's military for destroyed housing or family deaths, an adviser to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Monday.
In Petro Andryushchenko's Telegram post, which he marked as a "warning" to the city at the top, he said Mariupol residents seeking the compensation must submit written statements saying Ukraine is responsible for the property destruction or the deaths of their family members. Residents of the city who leave out or refuse to include these statements will not receive any compensation, he said.
Russian Military Tactics in Action
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Things Could be Worse. You Could Live in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's new prime minister says the country is down to its last day of petrol as it faces its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years.
In a televised address, Ranil Wickremesinghe said the nation urgently needs $75m (£60.8m) of foreign currency in the next few days to pay for essential imports.
He said the central bank would have to print money to pay government wages.
Mr Wickremesinghe also said state-owned Sri Lankan Airlines may be privatised.
The island nation's economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, rising energy prices, and populist tax cuts. A chronic shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation had led to a severe shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials.
You Could Also Need to Know How to Spell "Wickremesinghe"
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Russia Is Attacking the UK Where It Hurts.
The United Kingdom’s fish-and-chip shops are under severe strain as the prices of key ingredients — including cod and cooking oil — soar as a result of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
As many as a third of the country’s roughly 10,000 fish-and-chip restaurants could close in the next nine months, said Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers. The crisis is the worst he’s seen, he told CNN Business.
The trade group represents 1,200 fish-and-chip businesses, and has been running for more than a century.
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Previous Guy Promised a Beautiful Wall. We Got a Little Bit of Crappy Wall and An Impressive Tunnel
U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running about the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the U.S.
The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities said. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been found in the last two decades.
U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of drugs, if any, got through undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds of cocaine, 165 pounds of meth and 3.5 pounds of heroin in connection with the investigation.
Six people, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.
The tunnel is in one of the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border walls. While considered effective against small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.
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