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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:19:05 GMT -8
My grandfather invented the cold air balloon but it never really took off.
Want Some Fake News?
CLAIM: It is a double standard that former President Donald Trump may be indicted over alleged hush money payments to a woman who accused him of sexual encounters, while former President Bill Clinton faced no criminal charges for paying a sexual harassment accuser $850,000.
CLAIM: The gay dating app Grindr says if Florida doesn’t stop passing homophobic and transphobic laws, it will reveal every Republican legislator and party official who secretly uses the app.
CLAIM: Australia is seeing its sharpest rise in deaths in 80 years because of the coronavirus vaccine.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:21:06 GMT -8
There's a Big Election Next Month
The election to fill the swing seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court has already shattered spending records for a judicial race. Candidates and outside groups have spent more than $20 million in the run-up to the April 4 contest. Outside spending for right-wing candidate Daniel Kelly, a staunch abortion opponent who consulted with the state party on the phony 2020 elector scheme, is outpacing spending for progressive, pro-choice Judge Janet Protasiewicz by $4.2 million.
There is no better example of the way in which the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade continues to reverberate through our politics — and will continue right through the 2024 election.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:24:02 GMT -8
It's Old and Poor Vs. Young and Well-Off
Democrats, who led the legislative efforts to create Social Security under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Medicare under Lyndon B. Johnson, have long thought of themselves as the party of seniors. But today, Republicans represent 141 of the 215 House districts where adults aged 65 and older exceed their 16 percent share of the national population, while Democrats hold a clear majority of seats in districts with fewer seniors than average, according to the Equity Research Institute analysis.
Republicans now also control most of the House seats in which the median income trails the national level of nearly $65,000 annually. Republicans hold 152 of the 237 seats in that category. Democrats, in turn, hold 128 of the 198 seats where the median income exceeds the national level.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Republicans hold a clear majority of the districts where the share of residents who lack health insurance exceeds the national level of 9 percent. The GOP now holds 110 of those 185 highly uninsured seats. Democrats control 138 of the 250 seats with fewer uninsured than the nation overall.
Equally revealing is to examine what share of each party’s total strength in the House these seats represent. From that angle, the parties offer almost mirror-image profiles. About two-thirds of House Republicans represent districts with more seniors than the national level, while about two-thirds of Democrats represent districts with fewer of them. Roughly two-thirds of House Republicans represent districts where the median income lags the national level, while three-fifths of Democrats hold seats where incomes surpass it. Almost exactly half of Republicans, compared with only about one-third of Democrats, represent districts with an unusually high concentration of people lacking health insurance.
Who Represents Young, Dumb, and Broke?
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:27:07 GMT -8
Who's Reponsible? Duh!
On “The Last Word” on MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell directly accused George W Bush and the Republican Congress of being fully responsible for the deaths of 21 people at Robb Elementary School in the Uvalde, TX school massacre on May 24, 2022.
Recent stories about the police response have emphasized that the police knew the Uvalde shooter had an AR-15 assault rifle and so they were reluctant to enter the classroom. O’Donnell commented that their fears were well justified, given the extraordinary damage that the AR can do to the human body. As a result of their hesitation, it took more than an hour before police stormed into the occupied classroom and killed the shooter. The deaths of the students and teachers could have been mitigated or avoided if the shooter had not had such a powerful weapon and the police had been able to enter sooner.
O’Donnell noted that the assault weapon ban passed by Congress in 1994 prohibited ownership of the AR-15. Mass shootings immediately declined in the US after that date, presumably because of the restrictions on gun ownership. Then in 2004, after an intense lobbying effort by the NRA, Bush and the Republican Congress allowed the assault weapon ban to expire. The first occurrence of an assault weapon in a mass shooting was in 2007. Before that date, there had never been an assault rifle used in a mass shooting. Since that date, assault rifles have been used in 67 percent of mass shootings .
O’Donnell therefore concluded that the assault weapon ban was very effective in saving lives. Had it not been for the inaction of Bush and the Congress in 2004, many or most of the Uvalde deaths could have been avoided.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:28:13 GMT -8
Who Won the Week?
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), for signing a bill into law guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students in the state
The governments of Sweden and Finland, for completing the steps on their end to approve their membership in NATO
The counter-protesters in NYC and Portland Maine who hugely outnumbered brainwashed MAGA idiots trying to cause trouble at drag queen events. (They even made the Proud Boys cry.)
The Arizona state Supreme Court, for telling loser governor candidate Kari Lake to take her frivolous lawsuit and go pound sand in the Sonoran Desert at high noon
The government of Japan, as the Prime Minister Kishida makes a surprise visit to Kyiv and pledges $470 million in energy- and humanitarian-related aid
The Oklahoma state Supreme Court, for ruling that the state's total abortion ban must allow medical exceptions because women have a right to abortion when pregnancy risks their health
The as-yet-unnamed Utah parent fighting book ban hypocrisy by calling for The Bible to be removed from school libraries because it's definitively “one of the most sex-ridden books around”
Jen Psaki, as the former Biden White House press secretary debuts her new weekend MSNBC show to boffo ratings that beat Fox and doubled CNN's
The courts, for universally preventing the previous president from wriggling out of bogus legal escape hatches and allowing the cases against him to proceed without delay
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:29:44 GMT -8
Who Knew that the Branch Davidians Still Exist?
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:34:54 GMT -8
Want to Earn $68 For Running a Hundred Yards? Have I Got a Deal for You!
In what is widely seen as a build-up for a new mobilization drive by Russia to replace its heavy losses in Ukraine, Russian authorities are summoning civilians to enlistment offices, ostensibly to update and confirm contact and other information in personnel files. Particularly high numbers of summonses have been reported in outlying areas such as Siberia. Many of those summoned are not responding; of those who do respond, some are forced to sign papers that prevent them from leaving their recruiting region, and some are vanishing into the maw of the Russian war machine.
Summonses have mostly been directed to reservists and to university students who deferred service. It is common for a military officer to be present during graduation, and for students to receive diplomas only if they prove to the officer that they responded to the summons. (This leads me to speculate that Russian graduations this spring will be sparsely attended.)
According to reports by Bloomberg and other sources, the Kremlin now wants up to 400,000 contract soldiers, who (unlike conscripts) serve for three years and can be sent to the front lines.
This recruitment drive is boosted by incentives for contract soldiers. In “New Russian campaign tries to entice men to fight in Ukraine”, the Associated Press’s Dasha Litvinova reported today that recruiting advertisements have appeared on Russian government websites, and that one ad in Yaroslavl promised contractors the following:
-A $3800 signup bonus.
-Tax breaks.
-Loan repayment breaks.
-Preferential university admission for your children.
-Up to $2500/month salary if sent to Ukraine.
-An extra $100/day if involved in active offensive operations.
-$650 for each kilometer of advancement within assault teams.
-War veteran status if you survive; this carries many perks in Russia. (But do not call it a “war”! Putin says it is only a “special military operation”.)
-“Generous” death benefits to your family if you are killed in action.
That “$650” caught my eye and I did the math: $650 per kilometer is about 60¢ per yard advanced during an attack. So if you leap out of your trench and run 100 yards forward through withering Ukrainian fire, Putin promises to pay you or your survivors an extra $60.
Or maybe there are no fractional payments so you have to run the full kilometer, dodging bullets and artillery shells, before you get paid the $650. It’s not clear from the advertisement — maybe you should read the fine print before you sign the contract.
Oh, and most likely it’s your survivors who get any of the money, because most likely you’re not gonna make it.
Did I Mention That You Have to Run the 100 Yards Across a Battlefield?
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:37:42 GMT -8
How to Blow $24 Billion Without Really Trying
Elon Musk admitted that Twitter is now worth less than half what he paid in an email about stock grants to employees, reports say.
Zoë Schiffer, the managing editor of Platformer, tweeted Saturday that Musk told staff Twitter had been through a period of radical but necessary change because it'd been "about 4 months away from running out of money. Now, he says, the financial incentives of employees should align with the company."
She tweeted that the stock grants were based on a "$20b valuation." Musk paid $44 billion to take control of Twitter in late October.
Musk also told staff he saw a "clear but difficult path" to a $250 billion valuation, Schiffer tweeted.
What is Stock Worth in a Private Company? You Have No Way to Cash Out.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 26, 2023 8:48:25 GMT -8
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