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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:22:30 GMT -8
Relationships are a lot like algebra. Have you ever looked at your X and wondered Y?
One Less Piece of Scum
Notorious Russian army captain and mercenary Igor Mangushev has died in hospital, days after he was shot in the head at close range in occupied Ukraine, his friends have said.
Mangushev's wife Tatyana described his killing as an execution.
He commanded an anti-drone unit in occupied Luhansk, but had also been one of the founders of a mercenary group fighting Ukrainian forces in 2014.
He took to a stage last summer holding a man's skull.
In a video posted on social media in August, Mangushev was filmed saying the skull belonged to a Ukrainian fighter killed defending the Azovstal steel works in the southern port of Mariupol.
An extreme nationalist, Mangushev said Russia was not at war with people, but with an idea of Ukraine as an "anti-Russian state", and it did not matter how many Ukrainians died.
Mangushev emerged from a neo-Nazi movement to co-found private mercenary group Yenot (raccoon).
He was later known to have collaborated with Russia's most notorious mercenary boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a political strategist.
The shooting has prompted widespread speculation about who might have carried out the attack at a checkpoint in the occupied Ukrainian town of Kadiivka, some distance from the frontline.
Russian reports said he had been shot at close range with a 9mm bullet fired into the top of his head at an angle of 45 degrees. Russian authorities are investigating the killing and have so far said nothing about the circumstances.
The bullet had reportedly lodged in his brain. Before he died, pictures showed him lying in a hospital bed.
Another extreme Russian nationalist, Pavel Gubarev, said everyone knew who was behind the shooting and observed that Prigozhin had for the moment gone quiet.
The 11-month war in Ukraine has energised the murky world of extremists in Russia and sparked rivalries between them.
After the attack, Russia expert Mark Galeotti said it demonstrated that Russia was sliding back towards aspects of the 1990s, "when murder was a business tactic, and the lines between politics, business, crime and war became near-meaningless".
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:25:44 GMT -8
Sorry Charlie. This Isn't Funny.
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has sparked outrage on social media after it published a cartoon appearing to make light of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed thousands in Turkey and Syria.
The drawing by artist Pierrick Juin showed teetering buildings amid heaps of rubble with the caption: “No need to send tanks.”
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:27:16 GMT -8
Great News! No New Variants
Analysis of Covid-19 cases in Beijing suggests that no new variants emerged from China’s recent outbreak, according to a study published Wednesday.
Facing rare mass unrest after nearly three years of strict “zero-Covid” policies, the Chinese government dropped most restrictions on Dec. 7. The sudden change unleashed the coronavirus over the winter on a population of 1.4 billion people who had barely been exposed to it, raising fears that the outbreak could produce a new variant of concern and leading dozens of countries, including the United States, to impose testing and other curbs on travelers from China.
But the Chinese-funded study, which was published in The Lancet, found that of 413 sampled infections in Beijing, all belonged to existing Covid variants. The most common were omicron subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7, which together accounted for more than 90% of local infections.
The samples were randomly selected for genomic sequencing from a larger group of 2,881 high-quality samples collected in Beijing from Nov. 14 to Dec. 20, 2022.
Still No Cure for QOP.24
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:29:30 GMT -8
Breaking News: The World's Biggest War Criminal May Have Committed Another War Crime
An international team of investigators said Wednesday it found “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of heavy anti-aircraft weapons to Ukrainian separatists who shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 with a Russian missile.
However, members of the Joint Investigation Team said they had insufficient evidence to prosecute Putin or any other suspects and they suspended their 8½-year inquiry into the shooting down that killed all 298 people on board the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the downing of the flight over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, and refused to cooperate with the international investigation.
Dutch prosecutors said that “there are strong indications that the Russian president decided on supplying” a Buk missile system — the weapon that downed MH17 — to Ukrainian separatists.
“Although we speak of strong indications, the high bar of complete and conclusive evidence is not reached,” Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer said, adding that without Russian cooperation, “the investigation has now reached its limit. All leads have been exhausted.”
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:33:56 GMT -8
Here's to the Land You've Torn Out the Heart Of. Mississippi Find Yourself a New Country to Be Part Of.
After hours of debate, an all-white Mississippi House voted to create a new district in Jackson, “the Blackest city in America,” with a separate court system and police force for Black and white residents—crewed by people appointed by the state’s all-white officials.
Mississippi Today reports that if House Bill 1020 becomes law, the new district would have two judges appointed (not elected as in every other county in the state) by the white chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court. Additionally, a white state attorney general would appoint four prosecutors, a court clerk, and four public defenders, and the white state public safety commissioner would oversee a newly expanded police force run by (you guessed it) a white police chief.
“Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this … where we say solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people,” Rep. Ed Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton, Mississippi, said during the debate.
RELATED STORY: Biden acknowledging in State of the Union that ‘the talk’ didn’t apply to his kids was significant
Jackson, Mississippi’s capital city, is 80% Black, and yet white Republicans dominate the state’s legislature. For the last 30 years, according to Mississippi Today, districts in Jackson have been redrawn to make sure that any bill can pass without having to worry about Democratic opposition.
The latest vote passed 76-38 along party lines.
In late January, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba blasted the state’s Republican lawmakers and the ongoing efforts to maintain control of the majority Black city.
“It reminds me of Apartheid,” Lumumba said. “They are looking to colonize Jackson, not only in terms of them putting their military force over Jackson but also dictating who has province over decision-making… They put this military force over us, and we’re just supposed to pay taxes to the king.”
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:39:08 GMT -8
How Crazy Are the Russians?
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:40:51 GMT -8
Cruella da Greene
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:44:08 GMT -8
From One Sexaul Predator to Another
Trump posted a photo that has circulated before, allegedly showing a post-college DeSantis with a bunch of teenage girls at party. DeSantis did teach high school history for a year in Georgia, after he graduated from college. When the report first came out in 2021, it didn’t get much traction, as the sourcing was limited and inflammatory. About a year later, The New York Times published an article detailing DeSantis’ time teaching at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, that had these two anecdotes related to the photo.
Several students recalled that Mr. DeSantis was a frequent presence at parties with the seniors who lived in town. Most spoke about socializing with him on the condition of anonymity because they feared backlash for speaking publicly about it.
“As an 18-year-old, I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing here, dude?’” one former student said.
Two former students, both women, remembered him attending at least two parties where alcohol was served, but they said that the parties took place after graduation and that they were not bothered by his presence at the time, although they question it now. “It was his first job out of Yale, he was cute. We didn’t really think too much about it,” one of the former students said.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:46:58 GMT -8
You Didn't Hav the Time to Watch the State of the Union Address? Got Four Minutes?
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:51:50 GMT -8
King James, His Kids, and The Captain
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:56:23 GMT -8
"Trump Wanted to Nuke a Hurricane. You Guys Won't Even Throw a Dart at a Balloon?"
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:57:24 GMT -8
Anti-Semitism is OK in Texas, Not New York
NBA star Kyrie Irving deleted an apology he posted to Instagram after he promoted a film filled with conspiracy theories and antisemitism.
Irving, who was just traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Dallas Mavericks, told reporters on Tuesday that he deleted his apology because he deletes “things all the time.”
The Nets suspended the point guard in November for eight games after he shared the antisemitic video, which was filled with misinformation and hateful tropes about Jewish people as well as claims that the Holocaust didn’t happen.
Irving also lost his sponsorship deal with Nike and later apologized for sharing the film.
“To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize,” he wrote in the since-removed Instagram post.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 10:59:48 GMT -8
Guess Who's Running Pennsylvania? It's Not the QOP.
Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House in special elections Tuesday, wresting partial power from Republicans for the first time in a dozen years in the competitive swing state.
Democrats won all three vacant Pittsburgh-area House seats to claim a slim edge over Republicans, finally securing a majority they first appeared to have won in last November’s General Election. Republicans still hold the Senate, creating a political division that could make it difficult for lawmakers to send priority bills to new Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The special elections capped several months of electoral drama.
Republicans held a comfortable 113-90 House majority last year. But once-a-decade redistricting and strong performance in statewide races helped Democrats flip just enough seats in the fall election to win a 102-101 majority in the House. Or so it seemed. Three of those Democratic seats quickly became vacant, casting uncertainty over who actually controlled the chamber.
Rep. Tony DeLuca died of cancer in October, shortly before winning reelection, Rep. Summer Lee resigned after also winning a congressional election and Rep. Austin Davis quit before being sworn in as lieutenant governor.
That left Republicans with more people in the House than Democrats and led to a political impasse.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2023 11:03:06 GMT -8
A Ted Talk About EvilPerhaps you don’t like the song (about a husband and father committing infidelity — a type of unholiness with which many of your GOP colleagues past and present are all too familiar). But it is a performance and hardly “evil.” Here are a few actual examples of evil: Hundreds if not thousands of Russian war crimes as they target civilians in their effort to invade Ukraine — and which many of your GOP colleagues now appear unwilling to oppose with continued aid to support Ukraine as it fights for its freedom Separating children from their parents, caging them, and leaving no paper trail for reunifying them with parents in order to “punish” immigrants seeking asylum and a better life in the U.S., as the previous administration did with broad GOP support The murder of 20 people (and wounding of 26 more) through a mass shooting aimed at defending white supremacy against Hispanic “invasion”, which the GOP empowered through its refusal to limit availability of high-powered guns and promoted through its spread of anti-immigrant white supremacist rhetoric Ditto with the mass shooting targeted LGBT people in Colorado Springs, encouraged by GOP rhetoric about “groomers” The murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi under orders of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman — which the previous administration happily swept under the rug as the Saudi’s made some convenient investments benefiting the Trump crime family Banning age appropriate gender-affirming care for highly vulnerable transgender youth who are already at higher risk for depression and suicide — sacrificing those kids in order to score points with anti-LGBT extremists ahead of the 2024 primaries, as your GOP colleagues are doing Eliminating the expansion of a child tax credit that kept 3.7 million children out of poverty www.cwla.org/… because we couldn’t afford the price tag — while maintaining tax cuts for those who least need them that cost some three times as much; the GOP was plenty eager to consign children to poverty and hunger in order to further pad the pockets of those who already have the most White supremicist anti-Semites inciting violence including the murder by car of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville — while TFG continued to claim those who created the dynamics that led to that murder were “very fine people” Actually Ted, it seems like you just want to get some right-wing culture war cred with your attack on Sam Smith and Kim Petras, while in reality it is you and your party that make a habit of excusing and even promoting actual evil.
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