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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 9:48:05 GMT -8
I was visiting my daughter last night when I asked if I could borrow a newspaper. "This is the 21st Century," she said. "We don't waste money on newspapers. Here. Us my IPad."
I can tell you this...That fly never knew what hit him.
Today's Weird Headlines, Both From the BBC
"Could a fungal pandemic turn us all into zombies?"
"Man crushed by telescopic urinal dies"
A man died after he was crushed and trapped underneath a telescopic public urinal while working on the device in central London.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at Cambridge Circus during a rescue effort at the junction between Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road.
Pop-up toilets are stored underground and raised hydraulically to street level at night for people to use.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 9:51:13 GMT -8
I Am Happy About the Rapid Response to the Tyre Nichols Killing
Two of the five former Memphis police officers arrested in the killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols had been on the job for a couple of years, and the others no more than six years. And some of the officers had been part of a new anti-violence unit called Scorpion, which stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, prosecutors confirmed.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were fired on Jan. 20 after an administrative investigation found they had violated department policy on the use of force. They were charged Thursday with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official oppression and one count of aggravated assault.
Like Nichols, all five former officers were Black.
I'd Be Happier to See that Same Kind of Rapid Response When the Officers Are White
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 9:56:41 GMT -8
What's the Status on the Ground in Ukraine?
A quick visit to Kreminna this morning. After Ukraine liberated Izyum in September, Russian forces fell back to Kreminna and Svatove. Recognizing that this area was critical to protecting supply lines running 50km further east through Starobilsk, Russia made this area one of the largest sites of deployment for freshly mobilized forces, dropping tens of thousands of poorly trained troops in Ukraine’s way. Even so, Ukraine made good progress over the next month, closing to within a few kilometers of both cities, liberating dozens of small towns and villages, and clearing out Russian ambushes to solidify control over main highways.
But even as Ukrainian forces reached a position where an assault on either city seemed possible, weather conditions turned every field and every dirt road into the region into an impassable swamp. At Svatove, Ukraine can bring forces down the highway from Kupyansk, but those forces remain under artillery fire from Russian forces over the ridge to the east. Attempts to move toward Svatove from the west have resulting in a series of back and forth battles that have served only to level those locations while leaving neither side with a notable tactical advantage.
At Kreminna, Ukrainian forces worked for some time to secure Dibrova and Kuzmyne, but attempts to advance from Kuzmyne are reportedly hampered by a sea of mud. Tanks and other tracked vehicles can make progress, but only so slowly that they are subject to pounding by artillery and RPGs. Plus it’s difficult for infantry or wheeled vehicles to move at all.
On the south, Ukrainian forces have been able to work their way through the more solid ground in the dense forests and even reach the outer streets of Kreminna. But the nature of this area means that it’s difficult to maintain unit cohesion, that ambushes are a constant threat, and that bringing up armor in force is nearly impossible. North of the city, Ukraine still holds the highway near Chervonopopivka, may have pushed Russia out of Holykove, and can prevent Russia from moving troops between the Svatove area and Kreminna area without a long detour. But it’s simply not enough.
The reason for all this mess can be neatly summed up in the Kreminna forecast.
The Rain in Urkaine Falls Daily on the Plain
Every night, the temperature dips slightly below freezing. Every day it’s back above freezing again. It’s been this way for weeks. The mixture of snow, rain, sun and middling temperatures is a recipe for a miserable half-frozen soup that simply makes it impossible to conduct travel off paved highways.
In a lot of ways, the extremely warm winter across Europe is a very good thing. It’s not just making it easier for most of Europe to eliminate the need for Russian natural gas and destroying Vladimir Putin’s economy, the warm weather is greatly reducing the misery caused by Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. But right now, getting Ukrainian forces into Kreminna means either forcing them down a narrow highway from the north (not good), sending them through the woods in small numbers (not good), or making them swim for it from the west (not good). Which makes sitting still for the moment frustrating, but just about the only answer that doesn’t involve watching Ukrainian forces suffer the kind of disaster Russia just had at Vuhledar.
Ned Stark Has a Message For Russia: Summer is Coming
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:01:31 GMT -8
That's Some Damned Good Shooting. Hitting a Tank at a Range of 6,000 MilesRussian Telegram last night was extremely excited to share the first images of a M1 Abrams tank destroyed in Bakhmut.  There were at least two “confirmed pictures” of Abrams destroyed in Ukraine before the U.S. announced that it was sending the tank, so this isn’t really first. It’s not even the only “Abrams killed at Bakhmut” picture circulated on Saturday. There’s another one going around that includes a palm tree.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:13:33 GMT -8
That Was Old-Testament God.
While covering a “March for Life” rally of some kind, one of The Good Liars, Jason Selvig, touched base with a fellow who was holding up a rather large “God is Pro-Life” sign. He decided to ask the man about his sign: “What does that mean?” The man answered pretty matter-of-factly: “God is pro-life. That’s just what it means. Yes. God created life.” Fair enough.
Selvig had a simple follow-up question: “Didn’t God kill everybody on earth except for Noah and some farm animals on an ark?”
If God Is Pro-Life, Why Do We All Die? Why Aren't We Immortal?
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:17:12 GMT -8
George Santos Claus: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Where did the rest of Santos’ funding actually come from? Because Mother Jones is reporting that a look into Santos’ supposed donor list has found them even more of a fraud than George Santos. Some of the money reported on Santos’ donor list came from people who have stepped forward to say they never sent him a dime. Other reported payments came from people who appear to be entirely fictional, living at addresses that don’t exist. This follows an earlier report in which the listed treasurer of Santos’ campaign denied ever holding that position.
.................
Il Bacco, the same Queens Italian restaurant where his campaign went on to spend $199.99 eight times, features as a place Santos brought a potential investor to woo him [into investing in Harbor City Capitol].
That $199.99 amount is one penny beneath the limit where the FEC requires campaign expenses to be reported. Astounding that Santos should manage to spend exactly that much, with a variety of people present, eight times.
Everybody Wants a Piece of Santo Claus
The Department of Justice has told the Federal Election Commission to hold off on any enforcement action against Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in the DOJ’s clearest signal yet that it’s conducting its own criminal investigation into Santos’ campaign finances, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The Justice Department also asked the FEC to provide any relevant documents for an investigation, sources told the Post.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:23:01 GMT -8
A Little-Noticed Executive Order
On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed one of the most sweeping changes to domestic policy since FDR. It was not legislation: His signature climate and health law would take another year to gestate. This was a request that the government get into the business of fostering competition in the U.S. economy again. Flanked by Cabinet officials and agency heads, Biden condemned Robert Bork’s pro-corporate legal revolution in the 1980s, which destroyed antitrust, leading to concentrated markets, raised prices, suppressed wages, stifled innovation, weakened growth, and robbing citizens of the liberty to pursue their talents. Competition policy, Biden said, “is how we ensure that our economy isn’t about people working for capitalism; it’s about capitalism working for people.” The executive order outlines a whopping 72 different actions, but with a coherent objective. It seeks to revert government’s role back to that of the Progressive and New Deal eras. Breaking up monopolies was a priority then, complemented by numerous other initiatives—smarter military procurement, common-carrier requirements, banking regulations, public options—that centered competition as a counterweight to the industrial leviathan. It’s been a year and a half since Biden signed the executive order; its architect, Tim Wu, has since rotated out of government. Not all of the 72 actions have been completed, though many have. Some were instituted rapidly; others have been agonizing. Some agencies have taken the president’s urging to heart; others haven’t. But the new mindset is apparent. A Pitched Battle on Corporate Power
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:26:09 GMT -8
Vlad the Destroyer
Putin destroyed in a year an energy business that took three generations to build. As it turns out, Russia needed Europe far more than Europe needed Russia.
When the policy was first floated, late last spring, it seemed internally contradictory: why would a country cooperate with a scheme like this, producing oil at prices that were designed to keep it from profiting off of what is under its soil? Moreover, how would such a price cap even be enforced? And who would enforce it? And what would the price cap be?
Well, after much negotiation and haggling—the price cap was set at $60 per barrel for Russia’s unique Urals crude—the measure was rolled out on December 5. The mechanism was that companies from G7 or E.U. countries (plus Australia) were forbidden from providing services—like insurance, say, or marketing, or logistics—to any entity selling Russian crude or oil from a Russian tanker, or from one leaving a Russian port, unless they abide by the price cap.
Vladimir Putin immediately slammed the measure, saying that Russia would never sell to any country or company that cooperated. But given the sheer economic magnitude of the G7 plus the E.U., and the vagueness of the punishment, as well as falling energy prices this winter, the price cap has so far been successful, largely to everyone’s surprise. “It’s worked much better than would have been expected,” Daniel Yergin, the world’s preeminent expert on Russian oil and author of The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations, told me. “What was originally a topic for an economics graduate seminar has turned into a rather clever piece of statecraft.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:28:57 GMT -8
Biden Is So Evil. [How Evil Is He?] He is So Evil That Lowered Gas Prices.
"President Biden abused his power to sell our oil, reduce gas prices, so that the midterm elections would swing Democrats' way. It's a shame to trick the American people just to win an election. No president should be able to use their emergency powers for politics."
Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu responded to Greene's griping saying that...
"I can summarize this debate of the last two days into one sentence: Joe Biden lowered your gas prices and Republicans are upset about it. That's what this is about. Joe Biden lowered your gas prices and that makes Republicans mad. And how do we know? They said it out loud. The gentlewoman from Georgia earlier this morning just said that Joe Biden lowered your gas prices for political reasons. You know, I don't care why a president lowers your gas prices. If any president can lower your gas prices, we should support that president's action."
"There's another reason this Republican bill is so stupid. Because not only did Joe Biden lower your gas prices, the United States of America made a profit on it. Buy low, sell high. It was brilliant what Joe Biden did. He released the Strategic Petroleum Reserves when gas prices were high, and that helped lower the gas prices. And then he refilled it at the lower amount. The U.S. made $4 billion dollars on Joe Biden's actions. The Republicans always want to say 'Let's run government like a business.' Joe Biden did exactly that when he lowered your gas prices, and then made a $4 billion dollar profit for the United States of America."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:31:12 GMT -8
There Seems to Be a Lie Too Big For Fox Noise
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:34:02 GMT -8
It's Not a Letter to His Mummy
For the first time in over 100 years, a complete ancient Egyptian papyrus has been discovered.
The text of the 52-foot-long scroll is a version of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. It has been discovered in the Saqqara Necropolis site outside of Cairo. The document is believed to be more almost 3,000 years old and was discovered long enough ago that its announcement comes after conservation efforts were completed and it has moved into the phase of being translated into Arabic.
If God is Pro-Life, Why Is There a Book of the Dead?
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:43:24 GMT -8
A Nurse That is Worse Can Send You to a Hearse
Federal authorities in Florida have charged 25 people with participating in a wire fraud scheme that created an illegal shortcut for aspiring nurses to get licensed and find employment.
Recently unsealed federal grand jury indictments allege the defendants took part in a scam that sold more than 7,600 fraudulent nursing degree diplomas from three Florida-based nursing schools, federal officials said during a news conference in Miami on Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors said the scheme also involved transcripts from the nursing schools for people seeking licenses and jobs as registered nurses and licensed practical/vocational nurses. The defendants each face up to 20 years in prison.
“Not only is this a public safety concern, it also tarnishes the reputation of nurses who actually complete the demanding clinical and course work required to obtain their professional licenses and employment,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe.
Lapointe added that “a fraud scheme like this erodes public trust in our health care system.”
The fake diplomas and transcripts qualified those who purchased them to sit for the national nursing board exam. If they passed, they were able to obtain licenses and jobs in various states, prosecutors said.
The schools involved — Siena College, Palm Beach School of Nursing and Sacred Heart International Institute — are now closed.
Some of those who purchased degrees were from South Florida’s Haitian-American community, including some with legitimate LPN licenses who wanted to become registered nurses, the Miami Herald reported.
“Health care fraud is nothing new to South Florida, as many scammers see this as a way to earn easy, though illegal, money,“ acting Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough said Wednesday.
He said it’s particularly disturbing that more than 7,600 people around the country obtained fake credentials and were potentially in critical healthcare roles treating patients.
The selling and purchasing of nursing diplomas and transcripts to “willing but unqualified individuals” is a crime that “potentially endangers the health and safety of patients and insults the honorable profession of nursing,” said Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar. Pérez said investigators have not found, however, that any of the nurses caused harm to patients.
The students paid a total of $114 million for the fake degrees between 2016 and 2021, the newspaper reported. About 2,400 of the 7,600 students eventually passed their licensing exams — mainly in New York, federal officials said. Nurses certified in New York are allowed to practice in Florida and many other states.
Many of those people may lose their certification but likely won’t be criminally charged, federal officials said.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:48:26 GMT -8
It's Time to Play The Hypochrisy Game
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:51:30 GMT -8
Huh?
When author and environmental movement expert Will Potter saw the Atlanta police chief, Darin Schierbaum, tell a recent press conference “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or an attorney to tell you that breaking windows and setting fires is not protest – it’s terrorism”, he could not believe his ears.
It Doesn't Take an Einstein to Tell You, "It's not terrorism. It's Vandalism."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2023 10:53:16 GMT -8
Tom Hanks Is Not One of Them
Five Russian men who fled the country after Moscow’s military mobilization order last September have been stranded at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport for months after authorities refused to accept them.
Three of the men had arrived in October, with the remaining two in November, said their lawyer Lee Jong-chan.
Lee said that their applications for refugee status were denied by the South Korean Justice Ministry – leaving them stranded at the departure area for months while awaiting a ruling on their appeal. “They are provided with one meal a day, which is lunch,” Lee told CNN. “But for the rest of the day they live off bread and drinks.”
The men are able to shower but have to wash their clothes by hand and are unable to leave the departure and duty-free areas, he added.
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