Fri -Telling Her to Man-Up and Kill Patients

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

I saw a baguette at the zoo.  It was bread in captivity.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Several Member Of SCOTUS Committed Perjury in Their Confirmation Hearings

As a result more Americans will die.



In a concurring opinion with the Supreme Court's Friday ruling to overturn the precedent set in Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should reconsider rulings that protect access to contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage.

Telling Her to Man-Up and Kill Patients

In January, Sonali Patel, an emergency department doctor at a big Houston hospital, became ill while on duty. After testing positive for Covid, she said she told her boss she had the coronavirus and was going home.

“He insisted I stay and finish the shift,” she recalled in an interview with NBC News and in a recent lawsuit. “I told him it’s not the safe thing to do. We have a ton of immunocompromised patients and we were putting them at risk.”

By requesting time off from work while sick with Covid, Patel breached an unofficial policy promoted by officials at the hospital staffing company she works for — American Physician Partners — according to the lawsuit filed against the company by her and seven physician colleagues.

Those doctors say American Physician Partners' officials pressed them to work while ill, even if they contracted Covid and could spread it to patients and colleagues, according to the suit filed in Harris County, Texas, district court in March. Physicians who worked while sick were celebrated, while those who stayed home with Covid had their pay docked, the lawsuit says.

One American Physician Partners medical director had a name for the unwritten policy about working while having Covid symptoms, the lawsuit says. It was “the 4 M’s,” which stood for “Motrin, mask, man-up and must not test.” When a physician raised concerns about this practice, he was told by a superior that “that’s just the culture” at the company, according to the suit.

American Physician Partners, founded in 2015 and based in Brentwood, Tennessee, provides emergency department staffing in more than 150 facilities in 18 states, its website says. Eighteen are hospitals in the Houston Methodist system, according to the doctors’ lawsuit. The company is backed by BBH Capital Partners, the private equity unit of Brown Brothers Harriman, a New York investment firm.

Doctor Evil



This is Going to Be HUGE!











As the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, Katyal just told Melber today, this FBI raid means AG Garland has an active investigation opened on Donald Trump.

When asked what the FBI agents (employees of the DOJ) could have been looking for in Clark’s residence, Katyal replied: The private communications between Clark and Trump; the communications between Clark and other coup plotters, like Giuliani and Eastman and others.

Why the timing today, before the Hearing that focused on Clark: to grab the evidence, before Clark found out what he had to delete or burn, from the revelations in today’s Hearing.

If Katyal’s expert conjectures are true, then the Clark raid is very good to see — it is the most visible signal to date, that the DOJ has the illegal crimes committed by Trump and his Lieutenants, directly in their accountability sights.

How Do You Prove Intent?



Note to QOP:  Don't Tweet About the Crimes You Commit



Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, were among key Republicans in at least five states who were served with subpoenas from federal agents in the Justice Department’s expanding investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection.

QANON Ron Contradicts QANON Ron



Actual Malice

Fox News’s parent company can be sued by a voting-machine maker because Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch may have acted with “actual malice” in directing the network to broadcast conspiracy theories alleging the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis on Tuesday denied Fox Corp.’s motion to dismiss the suit, saying Dominion Voting Systems had shown that the Murdochs may have been on notice that the conspiracy theory that rigged voting machines tilted the vote was false but let Fox News broadcast it anyway. Dominion cited in its suit a report that Rupert Murdoch spoke with Trump a few days after the election “and informed him that he had lost,” the judge noted.MANZA, Albania (AP) — Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday denounced the Iranian regime for “brutality” and urged the Biden administration not to renew a nuclear deal with Tehran, saying it would embolden Iran’s leadership.

Pence is In Albania.  Why?

Pence flew 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from his home in Indiana to Albania to visit the Ashraf-3 camp that is home to some 3,000 Iranian dissidents from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, best known as MEK.

Speaking at the camp near a small hill town 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Albania’s capital, Tirana, Pence harshly denounced Tehran for brutality, poverty and corruption.

Apparently Albania hosts a large contingent of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, which at various times has been allied to Khomeini and Saddam Hussein and has carried out assassinations and attacks in opposition to the current Iranian regime.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq began as a Marxist group opposing the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon had a falling out with Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and turned against his clerical government, carrying out a series of assassinations and bombings in the Islamic Republic.

The MEK later fled into Iraq and backed dictator Saddam Hussein during his bloody eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, leading many people in Iran to oppose the group. Although now largely based in Albania, the group claims to operate a network inside Iran.

They Wanted a "Get Out Of Jail Free" Card



Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wanted his pardon to be a lot broader than his role in Trump’s election fraud, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

She told the committee that Gaetz had been pushing for a pardon since early December, according to Business Insider.

Former White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann told the committee that the “general tone” of the pardon request revolved around the idea that “We may get prosecuted because we were defensive of, you know, the president’s positions on these things.”

However, Herschmann noted that the pardon Gaetz was angling for may have been intended to also protect him from the sex trafficking investigation swirling around him.

“The pardon that he was discussing, requesting, was as broad as you could describe, from... the beginning of time up until today, for any and all things,” Herschmann told the committee.


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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

Jordan Klepper Has a Stronger Stomach Than I Do.


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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 121

Fighting

Ukrainian troops will “have to be withdrawn” from the mostly Russian-occupied battleground city of Severodonetsk, Luhansk regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, said on Friday.

Russian forces have taken the village of Mykolaivka, about 25km (15 miles) south of the key city of Lysychansk, Haidai said.

The Russian air force is likely struggling to support its Ukraine offensive with sufficient aircrew, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said, citing recent Ukrainian information about a captured pilot flying a Russian plane who confessed to being a contractor with the Wagner Group, Russian mercenary forces.

Authorities in Derhachi, to the northwest of Kharkiv, said heavy Russian shelling had knocked out most of the town’s electrical and natural gas supply.

Diplomacy

The European Union has approved Ukraine and Moldova’s applications for candidacy status. Ukraine said it will move quickly to take the necessary steps for accession talks to begin.

The United States is sending $450m more in military aid to Ukraine, including another four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia is carefully recording the use of each Western-supplied weapon to ensure Ukraine fulfils its promise of not launching an attack into Russia.

The EU should stop applying new sanctions on Russia and instead push for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations, a senior aide to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday.

Economy

Germany could sustain itself for two and a half months of average winter if its natural gas storage facilities were to be 100 percent full, the head of Germany’s network agency said, adding that Europe’s biggest economy needs additional suppliers and must save gas.

The UK is willing to assist with de-mining operations off Ukraine’s southern coast and is considering offering insurance to ships to move millions of tonnes of grain stuck in the country, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

Turkey said it was investigating claims that Ukrainian grain was stolen by Russia and shipped to countries, including Turkey, although no stolen shipments had been found so far. Russia has previously denied allegations of grain theft.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it would loan Moldova 300 million euros ($316m) to help it withstand energy supply disruptions compounded by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

What Does It All Mean Mr. Natural?

The loss of the southeastern town of Severodonetsk is far more significant and symbolic to Russia than to Ukraine, military analysts have told Al Jazeera.

On Friday, Ukrainian forces were abandoning the town in the Luhansk region, after weeks of fierce fighting.

“Keeping positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there doesn’t make sense,” regional governor Serhiy Haidai said in televised remarks.

Heavy Russian bombardment has destroyed almost every defence position of the Ukrainian forces in the area, but the fall of the nearly-destroyed town is insignificant, a top military expert said.

“It’s a minor loss, there’s still Lysychansk [the neighboring town controlled by Ukraine], and Severodonetsk has largely served its purpose,” Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces, told Al Jazeera.

The Kremlin is trumpeting the takeover of Severodonetsk because it remained one of the few Ukrainian-controlled towns in Luhansk, one of Ukraine’s smallest and poorest regions that was partially taken over by pro-Russian separatists in 2014.



Russian offensive operations in Ukraine are likely to stall in the coming weeks, regardless of whether Vladimir Putin's forces are able to capture the embattled twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, according to a Washington-based think tank.

The report, published by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Thursday, comes as Putin's troops are pushing to capture Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, doing so would place all of Luhansk under Russian control and grant Putin a form of military victory.

Russian forces have made consistent gains in the region in recent days. The ISW report said that if Ukraine were to lose the two cities, it "will not represent a major turning point in the war."

"Ukrainian forces have fundamentally accomplished their objective in the battle by slowing down and degrading Russian forces," the analysis said. "Russian offensive operations will likely stall in the coming weeks likely granting Ukrainian forces the opportunity to launch prudent counteroffensives."

The report said Russian forces have made significant gains in the Severodonetsk and Lysychansk area over the last several days, and Ukrainian troops continue to suffer high casualties.

Look!  Up in the SKy!  It's a Bird!  It's a Plane!  It's a Retired Pilot!

Russia's air force is struggling to support Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine because of combat losses, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said Friday.

In its daily intelligence update, the ministry said Russia is being forced to deploy retired pilots to operate warplanes because of high casualty numbers.

Russia has moved to using retired personnel who are now working as contractors for Wagner, a Russian private military company, to conduct close air support missions, the ministry said.

"Ukrainian forces have announced that the pilot of a Russian Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack aircraft shot down on 17 June was captured shortly afterwards," its latest update said.

"The pilot has confessed to being a former Russian air force Major, who had taken employment as a Wagner military contractor and had flown several missions during the conflict."

The ministry said that the use of retired personnel, now working as Wagner contractors, indicates that the Russian air force likely is struggling to support the invasion of Ukraine with sufficient aircrew, and that this is likely due to a combination of Russia's insufficient numbers of suitably trained personnel and its combat losses.

What's the Big Deal About Kaliningrad and Lithuania?

Last Saturday, Lithuania banned the transit of goods subjected to European Union sanctions through its territory to the Russian exclave Kaliningrad, which is on the Baltic Sea and about 1,300km (800 miles) from Moscow.

Lithuania said the move was in line with European sanctions. Infuriated, Moscow called it a “blockade” and promised to respond.

The banned goods include coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, which make up 50 percent of Kaliningrad imports, according to the region’s governor, Anton Alikhanov.

Russia has demanded the restrictions are lifted, slamming Lithuania’s actions as “openly hostile” against Kaliningrad.

Sandwiched between EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania, the region receives supplies from Russia via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania.

Kaliningrad was part of Germany until the end of the World War II, when it was given to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Russia’s westernmost state has roughly 1 million residents, mainly Russians but also a small number of Ukrainians, Polish and Lithuanians.

And critically, it viewed essentially as a Russian military base. The exact number of soldiers stationed there is unknown; estimates range from 9,000 to up to 200,000 military personnel.



Boom!

A senior official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region has been killed in an apparent assassination, the latest in a string of attacks against Russian-backed authorities.

Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the families, youth, and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration, was killed in a bomb blast on Friday.

More Guns on the Way

The U.S. has announced the next tranche of its weekly flow of military aid:

• Four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems;





• 36,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition;
• 18 tactical vehicles to tow 155mm artillery;
• 1,200 grenade launchers;
• 2,000 machine guns;
• 18 coastal and riverine patrol boats;
• Spare parts and other equipment.

If You Think We Are Sending a Lot of Arms Now, What If ?

A Russian lawmaker has reportedly said that the American embassy in Kyiv should be destroyed in retaliation for the U.S. supply of rocket systems to Ukraine.

The U.S. embassy in Kyiv pictured on May 18, 2022. Yury Shvytkin, deputy chairman of Russia's State Duma Committee on Defense has said that the mission should be a target for Russian forces because of an American delivery of weapons to Ukraine.

Yury Shvytkin, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament's defense committee, told the Russian news outlet Lenta.ru that delivery to Ukraine's forces of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) showed the U.S. was "moving step by step towards a Third World War."

Kyiv said on Thursday that the first batch of the systems had arrived and more multiple launch rocket systems are expected from Western allies.

Shvytkin said Moscow "must respond harshly" against all "those countries that supply weapons" to Ukrainian forces to fight Russia and that Moscow's troops should "not just destroy infrastructure".

"I think the main decision-making center is the U.S. Embassy. I think that sooner or later this will become a target for the Russian armed forces," he said, as well as for the Russian-backed troops of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

"My position is that it is necessary to destroy the government quarter in Kyiv," he said, "Yes, this work is being carried out by the Ministry of Defense, but more massive strikes need to be delivered."

Welcome to Ukraine



Welcome to the USA

So far, more than 15,000 Ukrainians have entered the country after being approved for sponsorship through the Uniting for Ukraine program, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data reported by NBC. Another 23,000 people have been approved but not yet made the journey; travel arrangements are down to the Ukrainians or their sponsors.

Since the program launched in April, sponsors – including friends, relatives, NGOs and church groups – have applied online to support more than 60,000 Ukrainians seeking to enter the country. There are about 1,400 new online applications to sponsor individual Ukrainians, according to a breakdown of figures by the Washington Post.

The US has become an increasingly hostile environment for many migrants and refugees in recent years, but Ukrainians have been largely welcomed without controversy.

At least 12 million Ukrainians have so far been displaced, according to the UN. Of those almost 5.3 million have sought refuge in countries across Europe including 1.8 million in the Russian Federation, 1.2 million in Poland, 780,000 in Germany and 120,000 in Spain. About 7 million Ukrainians are believed to be internally displaced.

With such huge numbers of people fleeing and little sign of Putin’s war machine slowing down, the Biden administration will probably face pressure to lift the ceiling on Ukrainians permitted to enter the US.

While the number of Ukrainians arriving thanks to the citizen sponsorship scheme is rising, the majority who have made it into the US to date came using existing visas or by crossing the Mexico-US southern border.

At the southern border, almost 24,000 Ukrainians were fast-tracked into the US at land crossings like Tijuana from March through May, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
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Wanna Get Away?

For many, after-work drinks are a common way of relaxing after a busy week.

But one worker in Japan could be nursing a protracted hangover after he lost a USB memory stick following a night out with colleagues.

Why? It contained the personal details of nearly half a million people.

The unnamed man placed the memory stick in his bag before an evening of drinking in the city of Amagasaki, north-west of Osaka.

He spent several hours drinking in a local restaurant before eventually passing out on the the street, local media reported.

When he eventually came around, he realised that both his bag and the memory stick were missing.

The Japanese broadcaster NHK reports that the man, said to be in his 40s, works for a company tasked with providing benefits to tax-exempt households.

He had transferred the personal information of the entire city's residents onto the drive on Tuesday evening before meeting colleagues for a night on the town.

City officials said the memory stick included the names, birth dates, and addresses of all the city's residents. It also included more sensitive information, including tax details, bank account numbers and information on families receiving social security.

Luckily for the man, city officials said the data contained on the drive is encrypted and locked with a password. They added that there has been no sign that anyone has attempted to access the information so far.
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It Was More Heat Than He Could Bear

A black bear in Sevierville, Tennessee, died after it got into an unlocked car in search of food, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said Thursday in a news release.

Sevierville is about 30 miles from Knoxville in East Tennessee, just north of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The owner of a vehicle parked at a rental cabin found the bear inside the car around 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday; the car owner said they’d left the cabin in a different vehicle around 10 a.m. that morning.

Officials believe the bear was able to open the unlocked car with its teeth or paws and became trapped after the door shut. The bear seemed to be reaching for an empty soda can and a food wrapper on the floor, the release added.

“We believe that heat likely killed the bear as outside temperatures exceeded 95 degrees yesterday, meaning the vehicle’s interior possibly reached over 140 degrees,” the release said.

The agency said that people should lock their car doors, roll up windows “and never leave food or anything that smells like food inside!”

Bears have a sense of smell that’s seven times stronger than that of a bloodhound, the agency added.
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Today's Dumbest Person in the World Isn't In Congress

A 15-year-old boy is in critical condition after hitting his head while subway surfing on top of a New York City train Thursday evening, officials say.

Police responded to the 111th Street station at Roosevelt Avenue in Queens at 6:08 p.m. and found the teenager unconscious on top of a 7 train heading southbound, the New York City Police Department said.

The boy was believed to have been riding on top of the train car as it entered the station and struck his head on “an unknown object” and suffered “severe head trauma," according to police.

He was removed from the top of the train and transported to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition. As of early Friday morning, he remains in critical condition, police said.

Earlier this month, a video circulated on social media showing about eight people subway surfing, running and even dancing on top of a northbound J train as it passed over the Williamsburg Bridge. Those suspects have not been identified.

However, subway surfing is dangerous. In October 2021, a 32-year-old man died after falling on the tracks while subway surfing on a J train over the Williamsburg Bridge.
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"Next Time Bring Something Safe Like a Handgun" - Clarence Thomas

A New York man and his girlfriend each face a $500 fine after they brought a pet raccoon to an Erie County pet store for food, officials said.

The unidentified couple was charged for unlawfully possessing a wild animal, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release. The agency noted that it is not only illegal to have wild animals as pets but also dangerous.

"Rabies test results for the raccoon were negative. DEC urges the public to leave wild animals alone," the release states. "Once a rabies infection is established, there’s no effective treatment."The pair brought the animal to the store on June 2 so they could pick up food and supplies, according to the agency.
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This Is Not Par for the Course

SeaWorld staff on Thursday rescued a pregnant sea lion who was found on a California golf course and released her back into the Pacific Ocean.

A rescue team was called to the Omni La Costa Golf Course in Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of San Diego, and found a "very pregnant" sea lion, according to a statement from SeaWorld.

"We assume she traveled up the lagoon to get to the golf course and that the tide was high last night to get her there," officials said in the statement.

The team was able to get her on a rescue truck and over to Carlsbad State Beach to release her back into the ocean.
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