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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 9:37:05 GMT -8
Fired guillotine operator sues employer. Wins severance package.
One Thing Leads to Another: First This...
A Florida Judge sanctioned former President Donald Trump and one of his attorneys Thursday, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million for filing what he said was a bogus lawsuit against Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and others.
In a blistering filing, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks accused Trump of a “pattern of abuse of the courts" for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which he said "undermines the rule of law" and “amounts to obstruction of justice.”
“Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose," he wrote.
Citing Trump's recent legal action against the Pulitzer Prize board, New York Attorney General Letitia James, big tech companies and CNN, he described Trump as “a prolific and sophisticated litigant” who uses the courts “to seek revenge on political adversaries.”
“He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process,” he wrote.
The ruling required Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $938,000 to the defendants in the case.
Then This...
Less than a day after receiving a warning from a federal judge, former President Donald Trump has withdrawn his lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The withdrawal came in a brief document filed Friday morning with U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who late Thursday warned Trump's legal team that the lawsuit appeared to verge on frivolous.
"Plaintiff, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, by and through his undersigned counsel and pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i), hereby voluntarily dismisses his claims in this action against Defendant, LETITIA JAMES, without prejudice," the letter said.
Trump's lawsuit against the AG had sought to shield Trump's revocable trust from James, who has an ongoing $250 million civil suit that alleges fraudulent conduct at the Trump Organization. James has accused Trump and his family members of "grossly" inflating the former president's net worth by billions of dollars and of cheating lenders and others with false and misleading financial statements.
Trump, who has denied the allegations, has called the investigation by James, who is black, a politically motivated "witch hunt" by an attorney general he has called "racist."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 9:39:01 GMT -8
First "Don't Say Gay". Now "Don't Say Black".
Florida officials have blocked the introduction of a new advanced-level high school course that teaches African American history.
Governor Ron DeSantis' administration said the proposed course "lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law".
The course is being rolled out in a pilot programme by the US College Board to 60 high schools across the country.
Officials did not specify what law the course breaks.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 9:42:31 GMT -8
Keep Your Filthy Russian Hands Off Of Our Serbians
A Russian news video claiming to show Serbian volunteers training to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine has prompted outrage in Serbia, exposing its complex relationship with Moscow.
Russia's Wagner mercenary group made the Serbian-language videos to encourage recruitment for the war.
Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, reacted angrily on national TV.
"Why do you, from Wagner, call anyone from Serbia when you know that it is against our rules?" he said.
Critics frequently accuse Serbia of prioritising its long-standing friendship with Russia over its ambition to join the EU. But what has emerged in recent days in Belgrade shows that the picture is not so black and white.
Hinting at less-than-rosy relations with Moscow, President Vucic said that not only was Serbia "neutral" regarding the war in Ukraine, but that he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin for "many months".
The number of Serbian recruits involved does not appear be significant. Some did fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014, but not with any sort of official endorsement.
It is illegal for Serbians to take part in conflicts abroad.
In fact, Serbian courts convicted more than two dozen people for taking part in "fighting on foreign battlefronts".
On Thursday, a Belgrade-based lawyer and anti-war groups filed criminal complaints against the Russian ambassador as well as the head of Serbia's state security and information agency (BIA) for allegedly recruiting Serbians for the Wagner group.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 9:43:41 GMT -8
Do The Smugglers Have Shell Corporations?
How do you like your eggs? Whatever your preference, avoid the ones smuggled across the border.
Attempts to smuggle eggs from Mexico or Canada can result in fines of up to $10,000 (£8,140), officials warn.
And yet, soaring egg prices in the US have tempted many to cross the border, where they can be bought for half the price, to bring back the delicate cargo,
Seizures at border posts have spiked by more than 100%.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 9:54:17 GMT -8
A Spoonful of Hydrogen Helps the Emissions Go Down
It's a new hydrogen-diesel hybrid engine affectionately known as "baby number two" that could help to decarbonise some of Australia's heaviest industries.
The test rig is large - it has its own room adjoining a lab and looks at first glance like many other large motors, but beneath its metallic skin could lie game-changing technology.
Engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) say they have successfully modified a conventional diesel engine to use a mix of hydrogen and a small amount of diesel, claiming their patented technology has cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than 85%.
It's the work of Prof Shawn Kook and his team at the university's School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.
"The interest in converting an existing diesel engine into a clean-burning hydrogen engine is extremely high," Prof Kook tells the BBC at his laboratory in Sydney. Enquiries have come from Germany, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and China.
"We mount the hydrogen direct injection system into existing diesel engines, which can be applied to any conventional engine," he adds.
What makes their system unique, according to Prof Kook, is the way it mixes the hydrogen and diesel and then introduces it to the engine cylinder for combustion.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 9:56:15 GMT -8
Got a Secret? Don't Tell It to the Marines
Arrests continue to be made as more information is revealed and investigations continue into the U.S. Capitol riot that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. Most recently, on Wednesday, three active-duty Marines were arrested for their participation in the insurrection, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. Identified as Micah Coomer, Joshua Abate, and Dodge Dale Hellonen, the three men were arrested on four charges each in relation to their participation in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol two years ago, Military.com reported.
Records provided to military.com indicate that all three work in jobs connected to the intelligence community, have been enlisted for more than four years, and have been awarded good conduct medals in the past.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:06:13 GMT -8
Genocide Most Foul
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:09:36 GMT -8
It's Legal. Why Not?
Biden should stop worrying and learn to love the platinum coin
It would be just as illegal to obey the debt ceiling as it would be to ignore it.
All this is why the famous platinum coin is Biden’s most legally defensible option, despite how silly it sounds. A 1997 law clearly grants the treasury secretary the ability to mint platinum coins of any denomination, in part with the intended purpose of making profit for the government through seignorage. If Congress says that the president must spend, cannot borrow, but can mint, then the way is clear for a legal stickler. Mint a trillion or two in platinum coins, deposit them at the Federal Reserve, and hey, presto, problem solved. Economically, it would be virtually identical to borrowing the money, and presumably at some point the ceiling could be raised and the coin spending replaced with normal debt.
The Platinum Coin is Dumb, But So Is Having a Debt Ceiling. What's Really Dumb Is Playing Chicken with the World's Economy.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:12:32 GMT -8
The QOP Seems to Like Things That Hurt People, and Hate Things (Like Vaccines) That Save People's Lives
Gas stoves can harm your health — and scientists have known that for decades
While the fierce political debate over gas stoves may be new, the science behind it is not.
One could be forgiven for thinking that this surge in attention stems from groundbreaking new research that shocked scientists and policymakers. But the truth is that air quality scientists have been documenting the dangers of gas stoves since the 1970s.
“It’s a pretty long-standing literature spanning at least 40 or 50 years,” said Jon Levy, an environmental health researcher at Boston University. “I think it starts from the intuitive sense that if you’re burning a fossil fuel inside your home, it can cause air pollution.”
They REALLY Hate Feeding Poor People
Iowa Republicans are gearing up to really punish those poor people for daring to be poor. A new bill that has nearly 40 Republican cosponsors would limit people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to using those benefits for foods already approved for WIC, a completely different program. That means no fresh meat, no nuts, only 100% whole wheat pasta.
SNAP recipients can currently use that program to get most grocery food items, not including food sold hot. WIC, on the other hand, is an extra supplementary program that sharply limits what its recipients—who are pregnant or have infants or young children—can get. It’s obnoxiously paternalistic as a program for new mothers and young children, but people often get WIC in addition to regular food stamps, so people have a way to get things like fresh meat or brands that haven’t made it onto the WIC-approved list. Iowa Republicans want to cut off those options for everyone who needs help with food.
This comes on top of the end of free school meals for kids and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds rejecting $30 million in federal childcare money. Great times for struggling families in Iowa and across the country.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:16:51 GMT -8
The Thwaiting Is the Hardest Part
Kris Van Steenbergen provides critical information on the seventy-mile-wide glacier front of the Thwaites Glacier.
As you know, Iceberg B22A recently floated off the sea mountain it was attached to and now flows in the highly vulnerable Amundsen Sea Embayment on its way to the open ocean.
The iceberg still provides some minimal blocking of southern ocean storm waves to the glacier front. Kris notes that once B22A enters the open ocean, warm water and powerful waves will likely remove the smaller iceberg B45 ( pinning point 9) from its sea mount and likely cause the collapse of the remaining ice tongue. A domino effect of the remaining pinning points is threatening reality.
The tweet below includes the entire conversation on the remaining pinning points and their threat to the stability of the Amundsen Sea Embayment.
The Thwaites Glacier Tongue, its debris & a few neighbouring features are losing grip. Pinning points (or anchor points if you want) like point 4, 6 & 8 are very important to monitor, because when the fast ice above them will melt a little more they'll be lost as buttress system.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:19:08 GMT -8
The Alphabet High-Tech Alphabet: "A is for ASCI, B is for Byte ... F is for Fired"
Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it plans to eliminate roughly 12,000 jobs, reducing its staff by 6% and marking the company’s largest-ever round of layoffs as it copes with a darkened economic outlook.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:21:48 GMT -8
Ringing the Fyre Alarms
Fresh off four years in prison, barred from ever serving as director of a public company, and buried beneath $26 million in victim paybacks, Billy McFarland, founder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, wants to make a comeback.
“I was talking to somebody yesterday and they’re like, ‘You can crawl in a hole and die, or you can go and try to do something and just like not promise any results,’’’ McFarland said in a recent interview with NBC News.
It was, basically, the promises that got him last time. McFarland went from obscure New York City entrepreneur to world-renowned fraudster after the collapse of his festival became a cultural moment: an event promoted on social media by high-profile models and celebrities overpromising a Coachella for the Bahamas with luxury villas and decadent dishes. The festival instead imploded, leaving many attendees in FEMA tents and eating packaged sandwiches — and none of the promised entertainment. Attendees’ desperate posts went viral, and the disaster spawned two documentaries and dozens of podcasts.
In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud.
His new venture, PYRT (pronounced “Pirate”), launched on social media in October and is supposed to kick things off by hosting, yes, a remote island extravaganza — one that McFarland insists is not a festival. Featuring a slew of influencers and creators, the purported tropical experience will include virtual reality technology that the company says will allow users to participate and control what happens on the island in real time from home.
If that sounds familiar, some are already ringing the Fyre alarms. NBC News spoke to two of McFarland’s former associates who were wary that his new venture already shows similarities with his previous ones.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:23:08 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:25:09 GMT -8
He Got Fired. Then His Day Got Bad.
Workers at a pork processing plant in Oklahoma have condemned the calling of police by management that resulted in the killing of a worker who had just been fired.
A worker who filmed parts of the incident on his cellphone, and was later fired for doing so, requested to remain anonymous for fear of further retaliation. The worker claimed Mariar was fired from his job by a supervisor but was told by human resources to finish his shift.
The worker said the supervisor who fired him confronted Mariar on the shop floor after he was fired, and police arrived soon after to escort Mariar from the site. Seaboard Foods did not comment on but did not refute this characterization of the situation.
“I witnessed the entire thing, from when they started arguing with him until he was shot,” said the worker. “He had a company-issued band-cutter in his hand. When the police got to the plant, the guy was already working, minding his own business.”
The worker provided cellphone footage leading up to and following the incident, where Mariar can be seen with the band-cutter in his hand working around other employees and being confronted by officers on the shop floor.
“They made him out to be a danger when they said he had a knife in his hand, when it wasn’t. And that’s wrong on so many levels,” the worker said.
The worker claimed employees were told to keep working after the incident occurred.
“I worked in maintenance. All they had us do was cover the scene with plastic, and we proceeded to finish what was on the production line,” the worker added. “This company fired me for recording the truth they were trying to brush under the mat. They never asked me if I was OK. It was my first time seeing a guy get killed – and then I get fired.”
The worker also claimed they were asked to sign an incident report, despite not agreeing with what was pre-filled out on the report.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 20, 2023 10:29:13 GMT -8
"Tax the Rich. Feed the Poor." Nice Song Lyrics From Ten Years After. 50 Years After, Things Are Worse
More than 200 millionaires — many of them American — have presented a manifesto to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to “tax the ultra-rich” — including themselves.
The call, issued in an open letter Wednesday entitled “The Cost of Extreme Wealth,” comes just as the U.S. hit its $34.1 trillion debt limit.
The non-partisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office has linked the massive tax cuts granted during the Trump administration — mostly benefiting the wealthy and corporations — to a $1 trillion deficit in 2020 alone. Yet Republicans are now talking about shaving Social Security and Medicare to save money, not raising taxes on the rich.
“Tax the ultra rich and do it now,” ordered the letter to the Davos forum by the American and British Patriotic Millionaires organizations, TaxMeNow and Millionaires for Humanity.
Wealthy heir Abigail Disney blasted Davos in a statement as a “farce” for failing to address the issue.
“Extreme wealth is eating our world alive. It is undermining our democracies, destabilizing our economies, and destroying our climate,” she added. “But for all their talk about solving the world’s problems, the attendees of Davos refuse to discuss the only thing that can make a real impact — taxing the rich.”
Taxing the wealthy is “simple, common-sense economics,” said the letter. “It is an investment in our common good and a better future that we all deserve, and as millionaires we want to make that investment.”
The “history of the last five decades is a story of wealth flowing nowhere but upwards,” the letter noted. “In the last few years, this trend has greatly accelerated. In the first two years of the pandemic, the richest 10 men in the world doubled their wealth while 99% of people saw their incomes fall.”
Oxfam reported Monday that the world’s richest 1% accrued nearly two-thirds of all new global wealth created since 2020. An Oxfam representative derided the Davos gathering in an interview with Voice of America as a “festival of wealth.”
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