Weds - Do Russian Crazies Make American Crazies Look Sane?

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

Silence is golden.  Duct tape is silver.


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Marburg Is Not a Beautiful Old European City

What is the Marburg virus disease (MVD)?

According to the CDC, the Marburg virus disease is a severe hemorrhagic fever that is caused by the Marburg virus.

First identified in 1967 in Germany and what was then Yugoslavia after research on imported African green monkeys, the Marburg virus is from the same family as Ebola.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infection with the virus disease “initially results from prolonged exposure to mines or caves inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies.”

Once an individual is infected, the disease can spread through human-to-human transmission, and this can happen through direct contact with the blood, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected people and through surfaces and materials that are already contaminated with these fluids.

What are the symptoms?

The illness caused by the virus begins abruptly, and according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), after an incubation period of two to 21 days, symptoms are marked by:

Fever
Chills
Muscle aches and pain
The CDC said that a rash most prominent on the chest, back and stomach may occur after the onset of symptoms.
Nausea
Vomiting
Chest pain
Sore throat
Abdominal pain
And diarrhoea may appear as well.

The WHO says patients might develop severe haemorrhagic manifestations within seven days, and fatal cases usually have bleeding, often from multiple areas.

During the severe phase, patients show sustained high fevers. The patient might also show confusion, irritability and aggression.

In fatal cases, death can happen between 8 and 9 days after onset, usually preceded by severe blood loss and shock, the WHO has said.

Fatality rates have varied from 24 to 88 percent in past outbreaks depending on the virus strain and case management.

The virus is also known to persist in some people who have recovered, and it can be found in the testicles and inside of the eye. In women who might have been infected while pregnant, the virus may persist in the placenta and fetus.

How can it be treated?

According to the WHO, there is no proven cure available for MVD. However, there is supportive care and treatment of specific symptoms.

The supportive care includes rehydration with oral and intravenous fluids, and a range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies, are currently being evaluated.

Samples collected from patients are considered an “extreme biohazard risk” and laboratory testing “needs to be conducted under maximum biological containment conditions.”

Is there a way of preventing the infection?

According to GAVI, to prevent the infection, extremely “stringent infection control measures are needed” to avoid people being in contact with each other.

Avoiding eating or handling bush meat is also important to avoid the spread from animals, and raising awareness in communities and among healthcare workers is critical since that can lead to better precautions against the spread.

The WHO also advises male survivors to practice safe sex and hygiene for 12 months from the onset of symptoms or until the semen tests negative for the virus.

And for health workers, the WHO recommends they wear gloves and appropriate personal protective equipment when taking care of patients.

The WHO has also recommended precautionary measures in pig farms to avoid them from becoming infected through contact with fruit bats. The UN agency said they can be potential amplifier hosts during the outbreaks.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees


Here's Hoping He Shows Up Sober

A New York judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to testify next month as a witness before the Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury that’s investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the 2020 election.

Giuliani, who is Trump’s former lawyer, was subpoenaed earlier this month. The order to appear on August 9 came after Giuliani failed to appear at a hearing in New York about blocking the subpoena.

Is Laxalt a Mixture of Laxative and Salt?

The new communications director for the Republican Senate nominee in Nevada – a key state that could determine control in Washington – marched to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, with two members of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers including one who was later charged with sedition and another with breaking into the Capitol and at least two others who were charged for illegally entering the building, according to videos reviewed by CNN’s KFile.

Courtney Holland, a Nevada-based political activist who does not appear to have entered the Capitol building herself and has not been charged with crimes related to January 6, was named Adam Laxalt’s top spokeswoman in early July. Laxalt is running against Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and the race is considered a toss up.

Following Trump’s rally, Holland was part of a group that now-included four other scheduled speakers for the second rally that made their way toward the Capitol guided by three Oath Keepers

The Capital Police Find a Crowd They Can Control.  No Oath Keepers Were Present.

Reps. Alma Adams, Cori Bush, Katherine Clark, Veronica Escobar, Andy Levin, Carolyn Maloney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Jackie Speier, Rashida Tlaib, and Bonnie Watson Coleman were detained on Tuesday at a march for abortion rights from the Capitol to the Supreme Court.

Capitol police arrested 35 demonstrators, allegedly for blocking a street. The detainees included 17 members of Congress, police said in a news release. “Demonstrators are starting to block First Street, NE,” Capitol police tweeted just before 1:20 PM ET. “It is against the law to block traffic, so officers are going to give our standard three warnings before they start making arrests.”



Joe Rogan Has a Solution for the Homeless Crisis

Tom Segura: When you see stuff like that on the streets, at least in Los Angeles or California, that’s protected property. Like by law. That’s that’s person’s property by law.

Joe Rogan: Oh, a homeless person’s property is protected?

Segura: Absolutely. If you were to try to move that or take that—

Rogan: You’d get arrested. Hilarious. But they wouldn’t arrest you if you shot somebody. Maybe you should just go shoot the homeless people.

Segura: I like your ideas.

Rogan: And if nobody claims it. I mean nobody does anything about violent crime in LA anymore.


This Isn't a Fake Investigation

Prosecutors in Georgia told 16 Republicans who signed on as fake electors after the 2020 presidential election that they may be subject to criminal charges as part of a sweeping investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

The office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis revealed the dramatic uptick in the case in court filings on Tuesday, telling the group of Trump supporters they had been designated as “targets” in the investigation. The 16 Republicans had gathered at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign an “unofficial election certificate” that falsely declared Trump the winner of the state’s presidential vote.

Let's Just Have Happy News

British meteorologist John Hammond issued a warning about this week’s deadly heat wave in Europe during a GB News segment. But news anchor Bev Turner’s reaction was right out of “Don’t Look Up” as she noted what a nice day it was, downplayed the threat and then lobbed a bizarre accusation at his entire profession.

“I want us to be happy about the weather,” Turner said. “I don’t know whether something’s happened to meteorologists to make you all a bit fatalistic and harbingers of doom.”

She also complained that “every time I’ve turned on, anyone’s talking about the weather, they’re saying that there’s going to be tons of fatalities, but haven’t we always had hot weather?”



She's Not the Only One Having Happy Thoughts About the Weather

Some of the fastest-growing cities in the US are among those currently being roasted by record temperatures that are baking the more than 100 million Americans under some sort of extreme heat warning. More than a dozen wildfires are engulfing areas from Texas to California and Alaska, with electricity blackouts feared for places where the grid is coming under severe strain.

San Antonio, Texas, which added more to its population than any other US city in the year to July 2021, has already had more than a dozen days over 100F this summer and hit 104F on Tuesday.

Phoenix in Arizona, second on the population growth rankings compiled by the US census, also hit 104F on Tuesday and has suffered a record number of heat-related deaths this year. Meanwhile, Fort Worth, Texas, third on the population growth list, has a “red flag” warning in place amid temperatures that have reached 109F this week.

Cities that stretch across the “sun belt” of the southern and south-western US have in recent years enjoyed population booms, with people lured by the promise of cheap yet expansive properties, fine weather and plentiful jobs, with several large corporations shifting their bases to states with low taxes and cheaper cost of living.

Arrested for SLWB (Saving a Life While Black)

An upstate New York police investigator is on paid suspension (paid vacation) after handcuffing a Black EMT inside a hospital emergency room last week.

The encounter began when Monroe Ambulance EMT Lekia Smith hit a Rochester Police investigator’s car with her vehicle’s door while unloading a patient in the ambulance bay of Strong Memorial Hospital, WHEC-TV reported.

The investigator, who is white, asked for her ID, but Smith wanted to transport the patient inside the hospital first, sources told the news station.

Video shows Smith with the patient on a stretcher when the investigator handcuffs her and brings her outside:

Delay, Delay


Is This Incompetent or Criminal?  Can't It Be Both?

The Secret Service turned over just one text message to the House January 6 committee on Tuesday, in response to a subpoena compelling the production of all communications from the day before and the day of the US Capitol attack, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The Secret Service told the panel the single text was the only message responsive to the subpoena, the sources said, and while the agency vowed to conduct a forensic search for any other text or phone records, it indicated such messages were likely to prove irrecoverable.

House investigators also learned that the texts were seemingly lost as part of an agency-wide reset of phones on 27 January 2021, the sources said – 11 days after Congress first requested the communications and two days after agents were reminded to back up their phones.

The disclosures were worse than the committee had anticipated, the sources said. The panel had hoped to receive more than a single text and was dismayed to learn that the messages were lost even after they had been requested for congressional investigations.

It marked a damaging day for the Secret Service, which is required to preserve records like any other executive branch agency, and now finds itself in the crosshairs of the select committee examining its response with respect to the Capitol attack.

What Did Musk Do?

1. He offered to buy Twitter, without conducting discovery and waiving due diligence before writing down a number well above the market price (a number that contained, in typical Musk fashion, a marijuana joke).

2. Musk then proceeded to ask for internal company data. Then more data. Then more. Always while claiming he didn’t have enough.

3. During the period that he was supposed to be completing his acquisition of the company, Musk instead publicly derided Twitter, accused the company of being deceptive about facts related to its value.

4. Musk then declared that he was dropping the deal in a way that caused even more damage to Twitter.

If what Musk did was okay, then anyone who has enough money to mount a supposed acquisition could make an offer to buy, gain access to company data, then use this data to bring the company down. Imagine this scenario in terms of a tech CEO buying out a rival, or someone like Rupert Murdoch going after a rival network. In either case, the [Generic Rich Guy] knocks the stuffing out of [Target Acquisition] with next to no investment.

Iran Declares War on Dogs

Police there recently announced that walking dogs in parks was a crime. The ban was justified as a measure to "protect the safety of the public".

At the same, the Iranian parliament could soon approve the Protection of the Public's Rights Against Animals bill, which would restrict pet ownership across the board.

According to the proposed legislation, pet ownership would be subject to a permit issued by a special committee. There would also be a minimum fine of around $800 (790 euros; £670) for the "import, purchase and sale, transportation and keeping" of a range of animals, including common pets such as cats, turtles and rabbits.

"Debates around this bill started more than a decade ago, when a group of Iranian MPs tried to promote a law to confiscate all dogs and give them to zoos or leave them in deserts," Dr Payam Mohebi, the president of the Iran Veterinary Association and an opponent of the bill, told the BBC.

The original focus of the legislation is dogs, which according to the BBC report are considered impure in Islamic tradition — and also a symbol of Westernization. However, cats and other pets are also being caught up by religious hardliners for… reasons.

While there were animal protection laws in the country first passed in 1948, the Islamic Revolution has overturned much of Iranian life. The current regime has been cracking down on pet ownership, including seizures, locking dogs up in ‘canine prisons’ under terrible conditions, and proposing beatings for dog owners.

Part of it is because of the sanctions imposed on the country; importing pet food uses up foreign currency reserves, and prices are skyrocketing. Iranian pet food is described as being really bad.

The article quotes a veterinarian as saying the real driving force behind the proposed ban and other restrictions is about the hardliners demonstrating the power they have as much as anything.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

CNN's Generic Ballot Poll

REGISTERED VOTERS:

May: 42 D, 49 R
July: 46 D, 46 R

WOMEN:

May 46 D - 44 R
July 51 D - 40 R (!)

INDEPENDENTS:

May 33 D - 41 R
July 36 D - 39 R

65 OR OLDER

May 37 D - 62 R
July 49 D - 47 R
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 147

Fighting

Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s Donbas region continues to make minimal gains as Ukrainian forces hold the line, British military intelligence said.

Russia is laying the groundwork for the annexation of Ukrainian territory, using the same tactics as it did in Crimea in 2014, according to the White House.

Ukraine’s general staff reported widespread shelling and attacks in various areas of the country.

At least one person was killed in a Russian missile strike on the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, authorities said.





Diplomacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei in Tehran, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the February invasion of Ukraine.

Putin said Moscow does not see any desire from Ukraine to fulfil the terms of what he described as a preliminary peace deal agreed to in March.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska will address the United States Congress at 11am local time (15:00 GMT), according to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Ukraine’s parliament dismissed the domestic security chief and prosecutor general two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended them for failing to root out Russian spies.

Ukraine joined the US-aligned International Energy Agency as an association country, the watchdog said, binding Kyiv closer to the mostly Western countries which oppose Russia’s invasion.

Economy

Alexander Matsegora, Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, suggested the country’s construction workers could be sent to occupied Donbas to help rebuild after North Korea last week recognised the Kremlin-backed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics as “independent”.

Portugal’s Sines port is ready to start the onward shipment of liquefied natural gas, which arrives in large tankers and will be transferred to smaller vessels to head to other European states, a government spokesperson has said.

Putin said it is the West’s own fault the flow of Russian natural gas to European Union customers has dwindled and warned that it could continue ebbing.

The Belarusian finance ministry said Western sanctions that have limited Minsk’s ability to deal in foreign currencies were pushing the country into default, despite Minsk being able to service its debts. 

A Map, Just for Miss South Carolina


And the Winner of the Ukraine Was I ... HIMARS!


The United States will send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday, in the latest military package to bolster Kyiv as it confronts heavy pounding by Russian forces.

Austin said the new package would also include rounds for Multiple Launch Rocket Systems as well as artillery munitions.

The latest package would bring the total number of HIMARS the United States has provided to Ukraine to 16.

Do Russian Crazies Make American Crazies Look Sane?  ...  Nah!


Then Again ...


Choke!


Not All Will Go Home on Foot.  Some Will Go Home in Body Bags


A few highlights:

“Ukraine is likely going to end in very Russian way. It’s starting to look like the armies of Vladimir Putin will go home on foot, leaving a lot of equipment behind. Why? They are facing a logistics collapse like that seen by the armies of the Tzar in 1917, after the Summer offensive.”...”

“General Budanov correctly predicted when the Russian invasion would happen when others in his government were publicly sceptical and now says he is confident about predicting its conclusion. ”The breaking point will be in the second part of August. ”Most of the active combat actions will have finished by the end of this year….”

“So, somebody within the Russian Ministry of Defense has confirmed how bad the logistics are. He has also told the world, or at least those of us who read certain Telegram channels, this is from Volyanedia, just how bad the Russian situation is. We already knew that troops were also refusing to fight. The number of refuseniks is growing...”

According to our sources in the army, difficulties have already begun with barrels for self-propelled guns, howitzers and heavy guns….

Barrels need to be changed regularly, or they will fail. When they fail, if lucky, you only get them to banana, as the explosive gasses breakthrough. If not, you get an explosion that injures and kills personnel...

Let’s just say these failures are terrible for morale. Artillerymen know the barrels need changing. They also know what happens and likely why when barrels fail...

These Russians Didn't Go Home on Foot


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