Fri - Is SCOTUS Coming For Social Security & Medicare?

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

My friend was explaining electricity, and I was like watt?
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It's Back!

Covid infections are rising again across the UK, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

An estimated 2.3 million people or one in 30 has the virus - a rise of 32% on the week before.

The rise is being driven by two new fast-spreading sub-variants of Omicron - called BA.4 and BA.5.

People can be infected even if they've had Covid before, but jabs are helping to protect against serious illness.

Health officials are urging anyone over 75 who has not had a vaccine or booster in the past six months, to get one.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Cryptoqueen is Not an ABBA Song

Ruja Ignatova, also known as the "missing Cryptoqueen", has been placed on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list.

The Bulgarian woman, believed to be in her 40s, is wanted for her alleged role in running a cryptocurrency scam known as OneCoin.

Federal investigators accuse the fugitive of using the scheme to defraud victims out of more than $4bn (£3.2bn).

She has been missing since 2017 when US officials signed an arrest warrant and investigators began closing in on her.

In 2014, OneCoin, a self-described cryptocurrency, began offering buyers commission if they sold the currency on to more people.

But FBI agents say OneCoin was worthless and was never safeguarded by the blockchain technology used by other cryptocurrencies.

According to allegations made by federal prosecutors, it was essentially a Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency.  (Aren't all cryptocurrencies Ponzi schemes?)

Tesla Sure Makes It Hard to Feel Good About Buying Their Cars

Fifteen Black former or current employees at Tesla filed a lawsuit against the electric car maker on Thursday, alleging they were subjected to racial abuse and harassment at its factories.

The workers said they were subjected to offensive racist comments and behavior by colleagues, managers, and human resources employees on a regular basis, according to the lawsuit filed in a California state court.

The harassment, which occurred mostly at Tesla’s Fremont, California factory, included using the terms “nigger”, “slavery” or “plantation” or making sexual comments such as “likes booty,” the lawsuit said, adding that the automaker’s “standard operating procedures include blatant, open and unmitigated race discrimination”.

Some of the plaintiffs were assigned to the most physically demanding posts in Tesla or passed over for promotion, according to the lawsuit.

I Thought Hitler Was Previous Guy's Hero

A White House aide's stunning testimony proves Donald Trump was eager to recreate Mussolini's March on Rome, and raises a lot of 'what ifs.'

The nation’s right wing — swelled by disgruntled military veterans and those with a penchant for violence — had grown increasingly restless that fall, with occasional street clashes between these reactionaries and anti-fascists on the left. Finally, the leader of the right bloc — a big man who strutted on stage, sometimes buffoonishly — massed his followers and urged them to march on the capital and fight for their country, even though in the end he didn’t march with them.

Instead, Benito Mussolini would get in a car and drive to Rome in October 1922, where he again met up with the throng of as many as 60,000 who’d marched there after the future dictator’s speech to them in Naples. This was the-now notorious March on Rome, and the intimidation of Italy’s ruling elites by this large, angry mob and its “strongman” leader worked beyond anyone’s wildest dream. By month’s end, King Victor Emmanuel III had ceded all political power to Mussolini and the fascists, who would not relinquish it for two decades.

Believe Him Ornato


Generally speaking, Secret Service agents aren’t supposed to be in the news. But Cassidy Hutchinson’s explosive testimony on Tuesday has thrust them into it again. An agent who also served as Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Anthony M. Ornato, reportedly disputes Hutchinson’s testimony.

The dispute has set up the unusual prospect of Secret Service agents testifying to the Jan. 6 committee. It also could create one of the biggest factual disputes of the Jan. 6 committee’s work, with two (or more) witnesses testifying to something completely different under oath.

And, very notably, this is hardly the first time Ornato has denied an account of a key White House conversation. It’s now happened in at least three high-profile occasions. And that calls his denials into question, say former Trump aides who stand by Hutchinson. One of them flat-out said Ornato lied in one of his previous denials. But another top White House aide involved in a previously disputed conversation is vouching for Ornato.

Let’s break down what happened in each case.

It’s Hard to Overstate the Danger of the Voting Case the Supreme Court Just Agreed to Hear

The issue presented in this case has been a recurring one in recent years. Two parts of the Constitution, Article I, Section 4 as to congressional elections and Article II as to presidential elections, give state “legislatures” the power to set certain rules (in the Art. I, section 4 context, subject to congressional override). In cases such as Smiley v. Holm, the Supreme Court has long understood the use of the term legislature here to broadly encompass a state’s legislative process, such as the need for a governor’s signature on legislative action (or veto override) about congressional elections. As recently as 2015, in Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission v. Arizona Legislature, the Supreme Court held that the voters in Arizona could use the initiative process to create an independent redistricting commission to draw congressional districts even when the state legislature objected. The majority saw voters passing legislation via initiative as part of that legislative process.

But that latter case was 5-4 with a strong dissent by Chief Justice John Roberts, who believed the legislature could not be cut out of the process. Most of the justices in the majority in that case are now off the court.

There’s a more radical version of the idea that the legislature has power, standing on its own as a body and not part of the general structure of state government, in the independent state legislature theory.

Legislatures LOVE Power

The Wisconsin Supreme Court endorsed a blatant power grab by the Republican-controlled state Senate on Wednesday, using a case focused on technical bureaucratic matters to endorse a scheme to seize control of state boards and commissions by declining to confirm appointments from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

In a 4-3 decision, the court’s conservative justices ruled that Fred Prehn, a GOP member of the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board, could remain in his position despite the fact that his term ended more than a year ago, simply because the state Senate has not yet confirmed the replacement appointed by Evers.

Prehn refused to leave the role at the scheduled end of his term in May 2021, arguing that it is not technically vacant until his replacement is confirmed. The Republican-controlled legislature, meanwhile, is not confirming many of Evers’ appointments, creating an inescapable Catch-22 that effectively robs the Democratic governor of his appointment power.

The Hole Truth


Uncle Thomas Is Part of Team Crazy


They Can't Protect Us Unless They Protect Themselves

About 43,600 national guard members face possible penalties for not receiving a Covid-19 vaccine before a federal deadline.

Approximately 10% of national guard troops have not provided documentation that they have received a Covid-19 vaccination, violating a direct order to get vaccinated, the New York Times said.

Some have refused a vaccination. About 7,000 have claimed religious or medical exemptions.

Senior military officials said unvaccinated national guard members could still receive pay and benefits.

“We’re going to give every soldier every opportunity to get vaccinated and continue their military career,” Lt Gen Jon A Jensen, director of the army national guard, told the Associated Press. “We’re not giving up on anybody until the separation paperwork is signed and completed.”

Note to Ab-butt.  Ignore This At Your Own Peril.



Is SCOTUS Coming For Your Medicare?

But here’s the most important thing the court might take away, at least from a messaging and political standpoint: Social Security and Medicare. Conservatives hate, I repeat *hate* these programs. They have been trying to get rid of them since they were created. Why? Because they’re very popular, and there’s nothing conservatives hate more than a government that helps people. Government is always bad, always inefficient, always ineffective. Social Security and Medicare undercut these core beliefs, but because they’re so popular, Republicans haven’t been able to destroy them through legislation. But now they have an unaccountable court who can do it for them with a stroke of Alito’s pen.

The Worst Denial Possible.  He Says He Asked, and Only Says She Wasn't There.

"The January 6 Witch Hunt Cabal has now exceeded even its prior fraudulent," Rudy Giuliani  said. "The last witness was a reckless liar. Contrary to her false testimony she was never present when I asked for a pardon."

The Capital Police Rise to the Defense of an Intersection

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) was arrested Thursday for participating in an abortion rights protest outside the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Chu was among 181 people the Capitol Police arrested for “for blocking the intersection of Constitution Avenue, NE and First Street, NE,” which is also near the Supreme Court.

Mitch Continues to Attack America

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t support a bipartisan domestic manufacturing bill if Democrats try to lower prescription drug prices and tax the rich, the Kentucky Republican announced Thursday.

Bipartisan negotiators from the House and Senate have been hammering out a compromise of a bill boosting the semiconductor chip industry after each chamber passed its own version. The Senate’s bill was called the United States Innovation and Competitiveness Act, or USICA.

“Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill,” McConnell tweeted on Thursday.

McConnell’s threat comes just as Democrats have made progress on a new budget reconciliation bill to replace the stalled Big Back Better Act. The centerpiece of the legislation would be a provision giving Medicare more power to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers for lower prescription drug prices.

WTF?  Involuntary What?

Public schools in Texas would describe slavery to second graders as “involuntary relocation” under new social studies standards proposed to the state’s education board.

A group of nine educators submitted the idea to the State Board of Education as part of Texas’ efforts to develop new social studies curriculum, according to the Texas Tribune. The once-a-decade process updates what children learn in the state’s nearly 8,900 public schools.

The board is considering curriculum changes one year after Texas passed a law to eliminate topics from schools that make students “feel discomfort.”

This Sounds Like a Terrible Idea.  The Drug has Side Effects and Some Terrible Drug Interactions.

Select mobile COVID-19 testing centers in New York City will offer antiviral treatments, including Paxlovid, to those who receive a positive result under the nation’s first “Test to Treat” program.

The initiative, launched Thursday, will be rolled out at three mobile testing sites with the goal of expanding to 30 locations in the city by the end of July. Each participating center will have a clinician on site able to prescribe antivirals free of cost to eligible New Yorkers, according to the mayor’s office.

Who's Worse?  The Scammers or the Authorities Who Won't Arrest Them?

Federal agents in Florida had been seeking to question Evan Edwards, a pastor, and his family for days when their Mercedes SUV was spotted speeding on I-75 north of Gainesville.

The Edwardses were Christian missionaries from Canada who lived in Turkey for many years and moved to Florida in 2019. On paper they ran a faith-based charity with a high-minded mission: to “communicate Christian love in doctrine and service to the poor.”

But by the fall of 2020, the family of four — dad Evan; mom Mary Jane; daughter Joy, 36; and son Josh, 30 — were suspected of pulling off a multimillion-dollar fraud that targeted the government’s Covid relief program for small businesses and nonprofits.

The Edwardses received more than $8 million after Josh filed paperwork falsely claiming that their ministry, ASLAN International Ministry, had 486 employees and a monthly payroll of $2.7 million, according to a federal forfeiture complaint.

A federal investigation raised serious red flags. Among them: The accountant who purportedly signed off on the loan allegedly had dementia and hadn’t done any work for the organization since 2017.

Now, just after 8:49 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2020, the Edwardses’ beige Mercedes was being pulled over by three Florida Highway Patrol cars. All four family members were inside the vehicle.

Evan Edwards told the officers they were headed to a conference in Texas, but he could not provide any specifics, according to the complaint.

Federal agents arrived on the scene and began searching the 2020 Mercedes. What they found indicated this was not a typical road trip.

Edwards, seated in the front passenger seat, had a laser printer on his lap. In a rear passenger seat, next to his wife and daughter, were two clear garbage bags full of shredded documents, according to the complaint.

The family’s personal electronic devices were stuffed into a so-called Faraday bag, which blocks radio frequencies to keep from being tracked, the complaint says.

There were also suitcases full of financial records, two other Faraday bags with laptops and tablets inside, a document shredder, and multiple backpacks containing external hard drives and USB drives, according to the complaint.

“Other electronic documents located in the search include a 49-page research manual published by the Bureau of Justice related to ‘Tracing Money Flows Through Financial Institutions,’” the federal complaint says.

The U.S. government’s rush to distribute aid money during the pandemic created a bonanza for fraudsters at home and abroad. Since 2020, the Justice Department has prosecuted more than 177 people for allegedly defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

A federal judge in Florida ultimately ordered the forfeiture of the $8 million the Edwards family had received after the government claimed that it was the proceeds from bank fraud and money laundering offenses.

But more than 18 months after the Florida traffic stop, authorities have yet to charge any member of the Edwards family with a crime.

The inaction is especially curious given that other suspected Covid-relief fraudsters have been hit with criminal charges despite being accused of stealing far less money.

NYPD Know a Crime When They See One.  No More Sax in the City.

First it was selling mangoes; now it’s playing saxophones. Under Mayor Eric Adams, New York City police have dramatically stepped up arrests of solo entrepreneurs trying to scrape a living in the city’s subways.

Last week police arrested John Ajilo, a beloved saxophonist who has been a fixture for more than five years in Herald Square, one of New York City’s largest subway stations. The talented busker is known for playing tunes that read “Dancing is Happiness” and surrounded by small robotic dancing cats, which often inspire passers by to start grooving as well.

That came to a violent halt last Thursday evening after the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates New York’s subway system, alleged to police that Ajilo’s dancing cats were impeding pedestrians’ paths. In a disturbing video of his arrest that Ajilo uploaded to social media, the saxophonist can be seen standing surrounded by five police officers in a tense discussion. Suddenly, an officer grabs Ajilo’s wrist as the other four officers join in wrestling him into submission. Ajilo repeatedly cries out for help. “What did I do wrong? I’m a musician,” he pleads as the cops pin his arms and then cuff him.

The sax player was issued four citations and jailed overnight. In a message uploaded to his Instagram, Ajilo said that police injured his wrist during the arrest, and damaged his instrument and dancing cats. “Am emotionally depressed, and my body hurts,” he wrote.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Adams lauded the cops for the crackdown. “I’m proud of those officers … That is how you do proper policing.”
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

Michigan Is Getting Closer to the 21st Century

Activists working to enshrine the right to an abortion into the Michigan state constitution announced Thursday that they'd collected a sufficient number of signatures to place the proposed amendment on the ballot for the November general election. A victory for the Reproductive Freedom for All amendment, which needs a majority of the vote to pass, would represent a huge win for abortion rights in a large swing state where the courts have yet to resolve whether a 91-year-old abortion ban remains in effect today.

You May Not Love Paying For This, But It Helps Protect the Health of All of Us in California

California on Thursday became the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, a move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year.
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 128

Fighting

A Russian missile struck a multi-storey apartment building near the Black Sea port of Odesa early on Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 30, Ukrainian officials have said. Ukraine said another missile hit two buildings in a recreational centre in the region, killing at least three people and wounding another.

Russia’s defence ministry announced its troops had withdrawn from Snake Island in the Black Sea. Russia said the move was a “gesture of goodwill” aimed at demonstrating Moscow’s support for restarting food exports from Ukraine’s ports, but Ukrainian officials said the country’s forces forced the withdrawal.

Moscow kept up its push to take control of Lysychansk on Thursday, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in eastern Luhansk province, with Russia’s separatist proxies claiming they had entered the city. Russian forces have captured part of the Lysychansk oil refinery, some 17km (10.5 miles) southwest of the city, the governor of Luhansk said.

A Ukrainian brigadier general estimated that Russia had hit 68 civilian sites in the second half of June.

Diplomacy

Plans by Finland and Sweden to join the NATO alliance send a clear signal to Russia that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategies are wrong and self-defeating, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Indonesia will continue cooperation with Russia, President Joko Widodo told reporters after meeting Putin in Moscow.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said a new “iron curtain” was descending between Russia and the West.

Russia summoned the British ambassador to voice a strong protest against “offensive” and “false” British statements, “in particular about alleged Russian “threats to use nuclear weapons”.

Economy

President Joe Biden says the US will soon announce a new $800m military aid package for Ukraine, bringing the total since he took office to nearly $7bn.

Ukraine received a 446.8 million euros ($467.8m) loan from the World Bank, with 424.6 million euros ($444.6m) of it guaranteed by the United Kingdom, the finance ministry said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the launching of power transmissions to Romania was the start of a process that could help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.

Greece is willing to provide ships to help export grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports that have been blocked by Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

Is Russia Losing the Borsch War?

The UN's cultural agency has added the cooking of borsch - a soup usually made with beetroot and potatoes - in Ukraine to its list of endangered intangible cultural heritage.

Unesco said the war in Ukraine had "threatened" the cooking of borsch.

"Victory in the war for borsch is ours!" Ukraine's Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said.

Russia's foreign ministry ridiculed the move stating that Russia's version of the dish has no need of safeguarding.

Borsch is a hearty soup, usually coloured red from beetroot - though green and white varieties also exist.

While Ukraine considers borsch to be its national dish, it is also widely consumed in Russia, other ex-Soviet countries and Poland. As a result, its origins are contentious.

It Sounds Like Shell Oil and Others Are Screwed. 

Russia has moved to take over a major oil and gas project in which Shell has a 27.5% stake.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday to take charge of the Sakhalin-2 project.

The move could force Shell and Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi to abandon their investments as the economic fallout of the Ukraine war spreads.

Oil giant Shell said: "We are aware of the decree and are assessing its implications."

The decree said a new firm would take over all rights and obligations of Sakhalin Energy Investment.

Shell said in February that it would to sell its Russian investments due to the conflict in Ukraine, including the flagship Sakhalin 2 facility in Russia's far east.

It said in April it would take a £3.8bn hit by leaving Russia.

The project, which supplies about 4% of the world's current liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, is 50% owned and operated by Gazprom.

According to the decree, Gazprom will keep its stake, but other shareholders must ask the Russian government for a stake in the new firm within one month.

The government will then decide whether to allow them to keep a stake.

Mattis is Not Impressed

Former US Defense Secretary James Mattis criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine, calling it “immoral” and “operationally stupid,” while speaking Friday at the Seoul Forum 2022.

“We have a saying in America, we say that nations with allies thrive, nations without allies wither and we’re watching Russia wither before our eyes right now," Mattis said.

When asked what military lessons could be taken from the war so far, the former US Marine said: “One is don’t have incompetent generals in charge of your operations.”

He also called Russia's military performance "pathetic" and decried "the immoral, the tactically incompetent, operationally stupid and strategically foolish effort" of its campaign in Ukraine.

Mattis spoke of previous US efforts to try and bring Russia into the “community of nations,” but said that was not possible with Vladimir Putin as leader.

“The tragedy of our time is that Putin is a creature straight out of Dostoevsky. He goes to bed every night angry, he goes to bed every night fearful, he goes to bed every night thinking that Russia is surrounded by nightmares and this has guided him,” he said.

Putin had removed anyone from his circle that would disagree with him, so he "probably thought that the Ukrainian people were going to welcome him," Mattis added.
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Today's Scariest Headline in the World

'Zoom firing': Are virtual layoffs the future?
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Hey Computer!  You're Blind!

FIFA has confirmed that a semi-automated offside system will be used at this year’s football World Cup in Qatar.

The new technology utilises a limb-tracking camera system to track player movements and a sensor in the ball.

It then quickly shows 3D images on stadium screens at the tournament to help fans understand the referee’s call.

It is the third World Cup in a dispute that will see FIFA introduce new technology to help referees.

The optical tracking system was trialled at the FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi earlier this year and had also been tested at the Arab Cup in Qatar last December.

Imagine John McEnroe Attacking a Camera
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Who Are You Getting Your Food From?

Days after meal-kit service Daily Harvest announced the voluntary recall of one of its products, the company has been hit with two lawsuits from individuals who said they had their gallbladders removed after consuming it.

Daily Harvest, a direct-to-consumer brand that relied on a network of online influencers to promote its products, announced earlier this month the voluntary recall of its French Lentil and Leek Crumbles after people who consumed it reported becoming ill. Several influencers told CNN Business last week that they spent time in the hospital with mysterious symptoms that puzzled doctors, including intense gastrointestinal pain and extremely elevated liver enzymes.

An image of Daily Harvest's rench Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal from their website. Daily Harvest issued a voluntary recall Sunday of a lentil-based product, after receiving customer reports of gastrointestinal issues linked to its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal.

'I've never experienced pain like that': Influencers recount harrowing experiences with Daily Harvest crumbles, blast company's handling of recall

On Wednesday, Luke Wesley Pearson, a content creator from Portland, filed a personal injury lawsuit against Daily Harvest in an Oregon court. The complaint states that Pearson was healthy and had no significant health problems prior to consuming the crumbles.

“After consuming the Daily Harvest Lentil Crumbles, plaintiff became violently ill, required hospitalization and endured the surgical removal of his gallbladder,” the complaint states. The suit also alleges Daily Harvest didn’t do enough to warn people about the dangers of its product, and “issued vaguely worded and insufficient warnings to its customers and influencers.”

Carol Ann Ready, a Daily Harvest customer, is also suing the company after she said she also was hospitalized and had her gallbladder removed after consuming the crumbles. The complaint recounts two emergency room visits in May after consuming the product twice. She described her pain as “a 9 or 10 out of 10,” the complaint states.

Does French Lentil and Leek Crumbles Sound Appetizing?
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The Alzheimer's Gene?  As If Women Don't Have Enough Troubles.

Scientists have identified a gene that appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s in women, providing a potential new clue as to why more women than men are diagnosed with the disease.

The gene, O6-Methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase, or MGMT, plays an important role in how the body repairs damage to DNA in both men and women. But researchers did not find an association between MGMT and Alzheimer’s in men.

“It’s a female-specific finding – perhaps one of the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s in women,” said senior study coauthor Lindsay Farrer, chief of biomedical genetics at Boston University School of Medicine.

Two-thirds of the 6.5 million Americans currently living with the devastating brain disease are women, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It’s a trend that holds true worldwide.

“Women, due to unique genetic risk factors like APOE ε4 and MGMT, and sex-specific risk factors like the sudden reduction in estrogen during the peri-menopause transition, may be in the fast-lane toward the disease, while men are sitting in traffic,” said Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

The APOE ε4 gene is considered the strongest risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer’s in people over the age of 65, which is “especially true for women, who are more impacted by APOE ε4 than men,” Isaacson said.

However, many women with APOE ε4 don’t develop Alzheimer’s, while women without the gene may still develop the disease.

“Perhaps MGMT is an important missing piece of the risk prediction puzzle for these women, but further studies are necessary,” Isaacson said.
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Someone Had 0.00016% Chance of Being Raped or Assaulted in an Uber in 2020.

Uber reported 141 incidents of rape and 998 incidents of sexual assault overall in 2020, even as the business was crippled by the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic and ridership plummeted, according the company’s 2019-2020 U.S. Safety Report released Thursday.

Uber received 3,824 reports of sexual assault and misconduct from 2019 to 2020, according to the report, the second of its kind.

That number is a 38% decrease compared to the 5,981 incidents reported from 2017-2018, according to company data released in 2019.

The decline came at the same time the nation locked down due to the coronavirus crisis and travel was limited to essential trips. According to Uber’s data, there were 1.4 billion U.S. trip reports in 2019, that number sunk to 650 million in 2020 under the backdrop of the pandemic.

Is That Higher Than Your Chances of Being Raped on the Street?
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