Tues - It's a Toss-Up for the Senate

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

Eat more donuts.  It's hole food.
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Highland Park, Illinois.  It Can Happen Anywhere.

It is often portrayed as the perfect suburb.  It has been the setting for Risky Business, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, and Home Alone.  It's a very peaceful, wealthy community.





My wife grew up in Glencoe, which is the next town over.  Her childhood home is around 2.5 miles from the massacre site.





In an average year, gun violence in America kills nearly 40,000 people, injures more than twice as many, and costs our nation $280 billion. This staggering figure is higher than the entire US Department of Veterans Affairs’ annual budget. Without a doubt, the human cost of gun violence—the people who are taken from us and the survivors whose lives are forever altered—is the most devastating. But examining the serious economic consequences of gun violence is paramount to understanding just how extensive and expensive this crisis is. And during these times of unprecedented economic uncertainty and stretched-thin health care resources from the coronavirus pandemic, these vast funds could be directed elsewhere if many of these shooting tragedies were prevented from occurring in the first place.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Fewer Thoughts and Prayers.  More Insulin.

Twelve members of a religious group have been arrested over the death of an eight-year-old girl in Australia.

Elizabeth Struhs died on 7 January at a home south of Brisbane, after the type one diabetic was allegedly denied insulin for almost a week.

Earlier this year, her parents were charged with murder, torture and failing to provide necessities of life.

Police now say they will charge another 12 people - aged between 19 and 64 - over the girl's death.

The group had been aware of Elizabeth's deteriorating medical condition, but did not seek help, Queensland Police said in a statement.

Her parents - Jason and Kerrie Struhs - are members of a small, tight-knit religious group in the city of Toowoomba that is not associated with any mainstream church, according to local media.

Police allege the pair and others prayed for Elizabeth's recovery as she became gravely ill, the news outlets said.

Authorities weren't called until a day after the child died.

At Least In England, These Kids Won't Be Able to Buy AK-47's When They Turn 18

From the BBC:

Some cinemas have banned young people wearing suits from screenings of Minions: The Rise of Gru over rowdy behaviour fuelled by a TikTok trend.

Teenagers following the #gentleminions trend have been accused of making noise and throwing things during screenings.

A staff member at one venue told the BBC they wanted to ensure the experience was not spoiled for younger children on their first cinema trip.

Some cinemas said they have had to give huge numbers of refunds.

Videos showing young people dressing up in suits to watch the movie in large groups and cheering loudly during the screening have gone viral on TikTok, racking up millions of views in some cases.

The teenagers filmed themselves copying the characteristic steepled fingers of the movie's supervillain Felonious Gru and celebrated that "the five year wait is over" - referring to the time since the franchise's last instalment, Despicable Me 3.

Movie studio Universal Pictures endorsed the trend, saying on Twitter: "to everyone showing up to @minions in suits: we see you and we love you".

But cinemas have been less appreciative, with several complaining about the behaviour of the young fans drawn to the movie by TikTok.

Guernsey's only cinema had to cancel further screenings of the movie, blaming "stunningly bad behaviour", including vandalism, throwing objects and abusing staff.

Mallard Cinema manager Daniel Phillips-Smith said: "It's been absolutely heartbreaking. We've had families who won't even go back into the screen when we've tried to sort it out, families leaving before the film has even started, and of course the children have been in tears."

The cinema had suffered a "massive" financial impact from all the refunds for customers' whose viewing of the film had been disturbed, he said.

The Data Was Shanghaied

A hacker has claimed to have procured a trove of personal information from the Shanghai police on 1 billion Chinese citizens, which tech experts say, if true, would be one of the biggest data breaches in history.

The anonymous internet user, identified as “ChinaDan,” posted on the hacker forum Breach Forums last week offering to sell the more than 23 terabytes (TB) of data for 10 bitcoin, equivalent to about $200,000.

“In 2022, the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database was leaked. This database contains many TB of data and information on Billions of Chinese citizen,” the post said.

“Databases contain information on 1 Billion Chinese national residents and several billion case records, including: name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details.”

Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the post.

Colorado vs. Denmark

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) seized on the recent mall shooting in Copenhagen as evidence that strict gun control laws don’t work. However, she failed to point out that it was Denmark’s first mass shooting in seven years.



The U.S. has had more mass shootings this past weekend.















It Took Him a Year to Come Up With This Terrible Verdict

A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit that accused them of causing a health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in one West Virginia county ravaged by opioid addiction.

The verdict came nearly a year after closing arguments in a bench trial in the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington against AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.

“The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington. And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law,” U.S. District Judge David Faber wrote in the 184-page ruling. “In view of the court’s findings and conclusions, the court finds that judgment should be entered in defendants’ favor.”

Cabell County attorney Paul Farrell had argued the distributors should be held responsible for sending a “tsunami” of prescription pain pills into the community and that the defendants’ conduct was unreasonable, reckless and disregarded the public’s health and safety in an area ravaged by opioid addiction.

The companies blamed an increase in prescriptions written by doctors along with poor communication and pill quotas set by federal agents.

Lying Ornato?  Believe It Ornato?

The Trump White House official who is said to be disputing Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony last week has a history of lying for former President Donald Trump, two former White House aides said.

In her testimony to the select committee investigating the Capitol riot, Hutchinson, a former top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Trump became "irate" when his Secret Service detail refused to let him join his supporters marching on January 6, 2021.

Citing what she said was a conversation with Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff in charge of operations, Hutchinson said that Ornato told her that Trump tried to grab the wheel of the presidential SUV and lunged at the Secret Service agent Robert Engel.

According to Hutchinson, Ornato told her that Trump shouted: "I'm the effing president, take me to the Capitol now."

However, Ornato is said to be disputing that account, and plans to say as much in testimony to the January 6 committee, USA Today reported. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz also reported last week, citing an unnamed Secret Service official, that Ornato denied telling Hutchinson that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent or the steering wheel.

Ornato plans to say that it was true that Trump wanted to join those marching on the Capitol on January 6, but that he never lunged at Engel or tried to grab the steering wheel, USA Today reported.

Similarly, NBC News' Peter Alexander reported that Engel is prepared to testify under oath that he wasn't assaulted by Trump and that the former president never lunged for the steering wheel.

But the former White House officials Olivia Troye and Alyssa Farah Griffin criticized Ornato, saying he has a history of lying for Trump.

"There seems to be a pattern here of conversations that happen that are inconvenient conversations for Tony and then he comes back and says that they never happened," Troye, who served as a homeland security and counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Pence, told USA Today.

"That really speaks to Tony's character and credibility, and whether he has a history of doing [Trump's] bidding, and then denying it to protect him."

And Griffin, a former Trump White House communications director, tweeted on June 29: "Tony Ornato lied about me too. During the protests at Lafayette sq in 2020, I told Mark Meadows & Ornato they needed to warn press staged there before clearing the square. Meadows replied: 'we aren't doing that.'"

"Tony later lied & said the exchange never happened. He knows it did."  (The dumb thing about this, is that this is a tiny matter compared to sending armed people to the Capitol.)

The Parked Their Car In San Francisco - Stupid Use of a Law.

A San Francisco couple who parked their car for decades on a paved section of their property in front of their home has been banned from doing so in the future — and also fined more than $1,500.

KGO-TV reported Monday that city officials sent a letter to Judy and Ed Craine telling them they can't park on the pavement on their property on a hilly street even though they have been doing so for 36 years. With the letter came a notice of a $1,542 fine and the threat of a $250-a-day fee for continued parking on their property.

"To all of a sudden to be told you can't use something that we could use for years, it's startling," Ed Craine said.

Dan Sider, the city's planning chief, said a decades-old city code to preserve neighborhood aesthetics prohibits residents from amassing cars in their yards. Officials looked into the issue at the Craines' property after receiving an anonymous complaint.

"I recognize that the property owner is frustrated. I think I would feel the same way in their situation," Sider said.

The Planning Department told the couple they could potentially receive a waiver if they proved that the parking spot was historically located on their property.

"We could be grandfathered in. If we show them a historical photo that showed a car or a horse-drawn buggy in the carport," Judy Craine told KGO-TV.

The couple found a photo from 34 years ago that showed part of a car visible in the spot, but city officials told them the document wasn't old enough, KGO-TV reported. Next, the couple found a 1938 photo that appeared to show a car or a horse-and-buggy pulling into the parking spot, but the city said the image wasn't clear enough.

San Francisco ended up waiving the fines after the couple agreed to stop parking on the pavement. If the Craines build a cover for the paved property or a garage, officials said they can resume parking on it — in compliance with city code.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

Europe Leads the Way!

The European Parliament has adopted landmark laws that will improve internet consumer protection and supervision of online platforms.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) passed with 539 votes in favour, 54 votes against and 30 abstentions on Tuesday. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) was adopted with 588 in favour, 11 votes against and 31 abstentions.

European Union internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, a champion of the regulations, praised the EU legislature on Twitter, hailing the vote as “historic”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the commission “will be the digital regulator for the biggest platforms”.

The DSA represents the biggest shake-up in EU law in this area in about 20 years and spells out the responsibilities of technology and internet companies.

It means companies must moderate their platforms for harmful content like COVID-19 disinformation and introduce protocols to block the spread of dangerous material during crises like the pandemic.

Companies must also increase transparency regarding interactions with users and simplify user agreements.

Furthermore, the DSA bans targeted advertising using sensitive personal data like sexual orientation or political and religious beliefs. Targeted advertising for minors is also banned.

The DMA focuses on market distortion risks and targets the biggest digital players – those platforms that act as so-called “gatekeepers” – to prevent them from abusing their dominant market position.

Once EU member states have adopted the legislation, which is regarded as a formality, a 15-month transitional period starts, after which it enters into force.

Dancing to Support Fornication

The cast of Netflix’s same-sex love story “Heartstopper” celebrated London Pride with a Whitney Houston dance party as they faced off with anti-LGBTQ protesters.

A viral video, with more than 220,000 likes on Twitter, shows the faceoff between actors from the show and anti-LGBTQ protesters at Saturday’s London Pride parade. British actors Kit Connor, Joe Locke, and Sebastian Croft dance and sing along to Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” in the video.







The popular show features a love story between two British teenagers, played by Locke and Connor. Locke places Charlie Spring, a recently outed schoolboy who falls in love with popular rugby player Nick Nelson, played by Connor. The show has been lauded for its complex portrayal of queer characters and has a rare 100% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Getting the Word Out

Hutchinson’s account of cleaning Trump-strewn ketchup off White House walls and pleading with her onetime boss, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, to get off his phone and help quell the Capitol riot was watched by more viewers than all but one of the NBA Finals games this year.
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1) When your friends say this committee isn’t fair, maybe remind them that those testifying are all republicans, appointed by trump. That Kevin McCarthy got a fair deal in a split commission, but then took his ball and went home. When the committee was then formed…

2) Kevin pulled his remaining three members after two, who foamented the insurrection, were not allowed to stay on. @gopleader COULD have then added two more, but Trump told him to pull his members…

3) he thought this “brilliant move” would pull the plug on the committee. But it didn’t. Cheney and I got on. This BIPARTISAN committee has been able to find out things that up until recently were denied by the Jan 6th truthers…

4) so they are left with trying to discredit a young woman with more courage than they could muster in a lifetime. Except… that isn’t working. Cassidy doesn’t seek the limelight, but she is compelled with honor. She didn’t even have to swear an oath to the constitution…

5) like Kevin, Elise, Kristi Noem and others did. But she volunteered to come under oath to tell what she knows. She is a better person than them all.

They’re all scared. They should be.

You Were a Good Man, Charles M Schultz




The Brits Celebrate the 4th







When the Victim Gets Punished, It's Time for a Pardon.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday pardoned Sara Kruzan, a victim of teen sex trafficking who spent nearly two decades in prison after killing her abuser and has since become a national advocate for prison reform.

Kruzan was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in September 1995 for killing George Gilbert Howard as he attempted to sexually assault her. Howard sex trafficked her for years, starting when she was a teenager.

Kruzan was tried as an adult at age 16.

In December 2010, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted Kruzan’s sentence to 25 years to life, according to Newsom’s pardon. By 2013, Kruzan was again resentenced to a total term of 19 years to life, and then-Gov. Jerry Brown released her after she had served 18 years in prison.

Newsom’s pardon says Kruzan has “transformed her life and dedicated herself to community service.”

“She has provided evidence that she is living an upright life and has demonstrated her fitness for restoration of civic rights and responsibilities,” the pardon says.

Although she hasn’t been behind bars for nearly a decade, Kruzan told the Los Angeles Times in May the conviction has continued to haunt her, creating difficulties applying for jobs or apartments. Although pardons do not erase a criminal conviction from someone’s record, Newsom’s office said in a press release they can remove “counterproductive barriers to employment and public service.”
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 132

Fighting

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his troops have “no alternative” but to “push back and destroy the offensive potential” of Russian forces, as the battle moves from Luhansk to nearby Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces that retreated from Lysychansk are now holding the line between Bakhmut and Sloviansk, preparing to fend off a further Russian advance, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said.

President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian troops on “liberating” the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

At least 345 children have died in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s invasion and 644 have been wounded, the prosecutor general’s office reported.

Diplomacy

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson met Ukraine’s president in Kyiv, with the two parties signing a joint statement on defence and energy cooperation.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will fly to Hanoi on Tuesday for a two-day visit to Vietnam before heading to a G20 meeting later this week in Indonesia, the Vietnamese government said.

Zelenskyy thanked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for supporting a ban on Russian teams and athletes competing in most Olympic sports.

Putin did not congratulate President Joe Biden on the United States’ Independence Day on July 4 due to “unfriendly” relations, the Kremlin said.

Economy

Ukraine needs $750bn for a recovery plan, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by Switzerland.

Ukraine is holding talks with Turkey and the United Nations to secure guarantees for grain exports from Ukrainian ports, Zelenskyy said.

Britain said it would on Tuesday introduce new economic, trade and transport sanctions on Belarus over its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and also sanctioned six Russians it said were spreading disinformation.

Belarus said it was freezing foreign shareholdings in 190 Belarusian companies, including the software engineering company EPAM Systems and Lukoil Belarus, in response to Western sanctions.

Putin Sends His Thanks

Europe’s energy woes escalated Tuesday as Norwegian oil and gas workers went on strike, shutting three fields in the North Sea and causing a spike in natural gas prices.

Norway’s state-owned energy company Equinor said it had shut the fields after some of its employees went on strike over a pay dispute.

The three fields produce the equivalent of about 89,000 barrels of oil a day, more than 30% of which is natural gas, Equinor said in a statement.

Norway was the second largest source of natural gas to Europe last year, after only Russia, according to Eurostat data. The disruption comes at a critical moment for the region.

Europe is trying to reduce its reliance on Russia’s exports, which are already being curtailed by Moscow. Any sustained drop in Norway’s output could deal a big blow to efforts to replenish gas stocks ahead of the winter, as well as raise the risk of a catastrophic energy shortage.

Germany, the region’s biggest economy, has already declared a “gas crisis” and warned it can’t rule out introducing rationing to get through the winter.

News of the strike helped push European natural gas futures prices up 5% to hit 172 euros ($177) per megawatt hour, data from the Intercontinental Exchange showed. That’s the highest price since early March in the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There could be worse to come.

On Wednesday, Norwegian workers are due to strike again, which will result in the shutdown of three additional fields, Equinor said. Those fields produce the equivalent of about 330,000 barrels of oil a day, of which almost 80% is natural gas.

$135,000 Per Bullet.  But If You Can Take Out a Supply Depot...

The ELINT News Twitter account plotted HIMAR strike locations on a map and learned that the HIMARS rocket artillery system has an actual range of around 85 kilometers, much longer than the 70 kilometers claimed on the system’s spec sheet.


This might explain Ukraine’s use of HIMARS almost exclusively at night, as it has been driving close to the front lines to hit targets well behind them. Now Russia will be forced to reassess the location of those supply depots, lengthening supply lines it already has a hard time maintaining.

The cost of GMLRS in 2000 was around $43,000 per rocket. But it’s 22 years later, and the latest contract with Lockheed Martin priced the rockets at $1.1 billion for 9,000 GMLRS rockets and 2,000 cheap practice rounds. Average price is $100,000 per rocket, but given the practice rounds are likely significantly cheaper, $135,000 per actual GMLRS makes sense. That means the bottleneck will continue to be hyper-expensive ammunition.

One of the wonders of HIMARS is that each rocket can be individually programmed to hit a different target. You can see the trajectory vary in these rocket launches:




It takes little time to reload a HIMARS, but given likely ammunition shortages and Russian desperation to take these systems out, it’s more important for HIMARS to stay mobile to increase its survivability. It likely won’t fire a second volley anywhere near a launch site.




Kherson

The Kherson front is starved of modern artillery, per local reports. No HIMARS for sure, but also no M777 howitzers. Despite that, Ukraine continues to advance on that front.




Snihurivka, that pointy red area in the center of the map, has seen fierce fighting the last week as Ukrainian forces have been trying to displace entrenched Russians on the northern edge of the village. Ukraine seems to be having more luck on that northwestern approach to Kherson and has also been rolling back Russians from the Kryvyi Rih approach, the top-right corner of this map.

Severdontesk

The only way defending Severodonetsk made sense is if Russia was suffering exponentially worse casualties, a number we simply don’t have. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych claims 7,000 Russians killed in the battle, which is ludicrous given that the Ministry of Defense claimed 5,000 Russians killed in all of Ukraine for the month of June.

What we do know is that Russia wasn’t degraded to the point of combat ineffectiveness, but Ukraine apparently was. They lost not just Severodonetsk, as was always expected, but the far more defensible Lysychansk across the river as Ukrainian defenses in the town’s southern approach collapsed. A full accounting of this decision will someday be made, and I really hope we don’t learn that too many Ukrainians died in vain.




What Cost Victory?

After more than four months of ferocious fighting, Russia has claimed a key victory: full control over one of the two provinces in the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

But Moscow’s rout of the last bulwark of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk province came at a steep price. The critical question now is whether Russia can muster enough strength for a new offensive to complete its seizure of the Donbas and make gains elsewhere in Ukraine.

“Yes, the Russians have seized the Luhansk region, but at what price?” asked Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst in Ukraine, noting that some Russian units involved in the battle lost up to half their soldiers.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Monday that Russian troops involved in action in Luhansk need to “take some rest and beef up their combat capability.”

That raises doubts about whether Moscow's forces and their separatist allies are ready to quickly thrust deeper into Donetsk, the other province that makes up the Donbas. Observers estimated in recent weeks that Russia controlled about half of Donetsk, and battle lines have changed little since then.

What happens in the Donbas could determine the course of the war. If Russia succeeds there, it could free up its forces to grab even more land and dictate the terms of any peace agreement. If Ukraine, on the other hand, manages to pin the Russians down for a protracted period, it could build up the resources for a counteroffensive.
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The Quirks of Quarks

Scientists have found new ways in which quarks, the tiniest particles known to humankind, group together.

The new structures exist for just a hundred thousandth of a billionth of a billionth of a second but may explain how our Universe is formed.

Atoms contain smaller particles called neutrons and protons, which are made up of three quarks each.

"Exotic" matter discovered in recent years is made up of four and five quarks - tetraquarks and pentaquarks.

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have discovered one new pentaquark and two tetraquarks. This takes the total number discovered there to 21. Each is unique, but researchers are excited about the qualities of the three new finds.

The new pentaquark decays into particles that none of the others produce, while the two tetraquarks have the same mass, suggesting they may be the first known pair of exotic structures.

Perhaps even more importantly, though, the latest finds mean that there are now enough of these particles to begin grouping them together, like the chemical elements in the periodic table. That is an essential first step towards creating a theory and set of rules governing exotic mass.
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The Finnished a Battery Made Out of Sand

'Sand battery' could solve green energy's big problem

Finnish researchers have installed the world's first fully working "sand battery" which can store green power for months at a time.

The developers say this could solve the problem of year-round supply, a major issue for green energy.

Using low-grade sand, the device is charged up with heat made from cheap electricity from solar or wind.

The sand stores the heat at around 500C, which can then warm homes in winter when energy is more expensive.



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538:  It's a Toss-Up for the Senate

Check It Out

Harry Enten:

Here’s why Democrats could keep the Senate

Election Day 2022 is now four months away. Democrats are trying to hold on to slim majorities in both the House and Senate. They’re doing so against the backdrop of high inflation and an economy viewed in poor shape, which is the issue dominating voters’ minds.

I’ve generally been high on Republicans’ chances of taking control of the Senate and especially the House. You don’t normally see the party controlling the White House do well in midterms when the President’s approval rating is in the high 30s.

But can Democrats defy political gravity and retain power, even with an unpopular Joe Biden in office?

The answer in the House is likely not, but the answer in the currently evenly divided Senate is far less clear. And it’s in the upper chamber where we begin our look at the political news of the week.

Don’t write off the Senate Democrats just yet

Perhaps, the biggest polling shock this past week came from the state of Georgia. A Quinnipiac University poll found Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock with a 10-point lead over Republican Herschel Walker, 54% to 44%. The result was far better for Warnock than the long-term average for the race (which has either candidate up by a point or two, depending on how the average is calculated).

But even the average indicates that Warnock could win, despite Biden’s approval rating being well below 40% in the Peach State.

The Full Story

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics




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Wanna' Get Away?

If you’re an American visiting Italy, Greece or Spain this summer after a travel hiatus during the pandemic, you’re in luck: Meals, hotels and tours are more affordable in dollars than they’ve been in two decades.

What’s happening: The euro has slumped to about $1.03, plunging more than 8% against the US dollar year-to-date. It’s now trading at its lowest level since late 2002.

Most analysts don’t think it’s bottomed out yet. Predictions are flying around that it could even reach parity, in which one dollar can be swapped for one euro.

However, With Jet Fuel So Expensive, the Flight Won't Be Cheap.  Gas Will Cost Over $8 Per Gallon If You Drive.
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With Good Reason




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