Sat: Wanna Get Away From Global Warming By Moving North?

Some People Can't Catch a Break

Cyclone Mocha: People pack shelters as storm menaces refugee camp

About half a million people are being evacuated to safer areas in south-eastern Bangladesh, ahead of a cyclone that could be extremely dangerous.

Mocha is predicted to make landfall on Sunday, with 170kph (106mph) winds and storm surges of up to 3.6m (12ft).

There are concerns the cyclone could hit the world's largest refugee camp, Cox's Bazar, where close to a million people live in makeshift homes.

Rains are already falling on the camp and red warning flags have been raised.

Cyclone Mocha could be the most powerful storm seen in Bangladesh in nearly two decades.

As the weather system heads towards the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast, nearby airports have been shut, fishermen have been told to suspend their work and 1,500 shelters have been set up, as people from vulnerable areas are moved to safety.

This Doomsday Cult Isn't the QOP

An Idaho mother in a doomsday cult has been found guilty of murdering her two children and her husband's former wife, in a case that shocked the US.

Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, were charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the killings.

The 49-year-old beautician now faces up to life in prison.

The bodies of Joshua "JJ" Vallow, seven, and Tylee Ryan, 16, were found buried at Mr Daybell's home in 2020.

Vallow, flanked by her lawyers, sat impassively as the jury returned its verdict, finding her guilty on all six counts of murder, conspiracy and grand theft.

Tearful relatives inside court sat arm-in-arm as the judge closed the nearly five-week trial.

Prosecutors produced 60 witnesses over the course of the trial and detailed at times gruesome evidence of how the children were killed and their remains discovered.

Vallow's defence lawyers did not produce witnesses and she did not testify in her own defence.

Chad Daybell's trial is still months away.

Mr Daybell is an author who has written several apocalyptic novels loosely based on Mormon religious teachings.

The couple are thought to have met through their involvement in a movement that promoted preparing for the end of the world.

How Does a Paranoid Leader Hurt the Russian Military?

One technique Russia uses for internal security is to keep any power center from becoming too strong, that’s why the Russian army has plenty of boom but little brain. It’s also why there’s and army, a separate national guard, a separate presidential guard force, Wagner and other PMC, etc. Russia plays their forces against one another, different organizations and different unit loyalties, and of course have different command structures. Military operations are complex so coordination is always a problem. But on defense, the lack of coordinated action can rapidly accelerate out of control.

Anytime two different units link together to defend a position, (i.e. Wagner gets the built up area of Bakhmut, then one army unit protects the line North and a different Russian unit guards the line going South), there’s a weakness. As we just heard about in Bakhmut, one unit (evidently) started pulling back while the adjacent unit remained in place. Even if both units were following a coordinated plan they were not doing it in coordination. Different units pass their word from HQ to the trenches differently, so there can be a time gap between when one unit gets word to move, and the other unit hears the same word through its official channels. This can cause panic if one guy asks his platoon leader if they’re leaving, hears no, but is watching the guys to his right grab their packs and haul ass. That’s what’s called an ‘exposed flank’ or a ‘gap in the line’ in military jargon.

What’s this all mean? It means if you’re going on offense, the best place to do it is where two different units link up. And not only does Russia like to put different units next to each other on the line, it doesn’t have any choice...too short of manpower. That means at select points along the entire line of contact, Russia has put units with different command structures next to each other. There is virtually zero chance for units with different command structures to coordinate a defense involving breaches. Induced panic is inevitable, and will spread. In fact, we’re already hearing indication of panic starting to spread. Russia has placed units under different commands, who don’t trust each other, next to each other, and Ukraine is going to exploit this during the counteroffensive.

Individual units can still fight effectively , but only after re-establishing a continuous perimeter. When there’s a gap between one unit’s new perimeter and the other units’, that gap will fill with a flow of Ukrainian forces. And if they’re fast and aggressive, they can be deep in Russian occupied territories ambushing units along their withdrawal routes, deeping the sense of being cut off and isolated.

This is where Russia’s dog-eat-dog culture destroys them. It will become a free-for-all, each man for themselves. Not only will the Russian occupation of Ukraine potentially end, completely, but the Russian Federation itself may splinter.

You Can Be Paranoid at the Same Time They ARE Out to Get You.

Leo's Dark Money Slush Fund

Group Tied to Influential Conservative Activist Spent $183 Million in a Year
The activist, Leonard Leo, has been instrumental in pushing the federal judiciary to the right. A new tax filing offers a glimpse of the deep pool of money flowing into conservative causes.

A deep-pocketed nonprofit organization founded by the conservative activist Leonard A. Leo gave away $182.7 million in a year’s time, a new tax filing shows, demonstrating how aggressively it has worked behind the scenes to prop up other groups and causes on the right.

The organization, Marble Freedom Trust, was formed in 2020 and was funded by a gift of more than $1.6 billion — an extraordinary windfall that resulted from a single donor’s contribution of 100 percent of a company’s shares before the company was sold, leaving Marble with the proceeds of the sale, The New York Times reported last year.

Mr. Leo, a lawyer and former executive at the Federalist Society, has been instrumental in conservatives’ yearslong effort to push the federal judiciary to the right, both through his direct guidance to Republican leaders and by financing conservative causes. In recent years, he has built an opaque, far-reaching network of organizations — many of which have funding sources that are not required to be disclosed — that can influence elections and other matters, including education policy, abortion and campus free speech issues.

Marble Freedom Trust, a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization, is a centerpiece of Mr. Leo’s network. The group’s stated mission is to “maintain and expand human freedom consistent with the values and ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

It was not immediately clear from the group’s record of contributions how Marble was realizing that mission. The recent filing for Marble — a tax record for the year ending on April 30, 2022, that was obtained by the liberal transparency group Accountable.US — does not reveal much about the ultimate destination of the $182.7 million.

In the year ending last April, according to the filing, Marble gave $153.8 million to the Schwab Charitable Fund, a manager of donor-advised funds, which allow people and entities to direct their deposits over time into charitable organizations, including some politically inclined groups and institutions.

Another $28.9 million went to the Concord Fund, a conservative advocacy organization. Formerly known as the Judicial Crisis Network, the group has acted as a funding hub in the past, giving tens of millions of dollars in grants to allied nonprofit groups and supporting in-house projects, including opposition to Democrats’ attempts to expand voting access.

From those two organizations, it is impossible to directly trace where the Marble money went.

During that approximate time period, according to Schwab Charitable’s tax filings, Schwab Charitable gave $141.5 million to another group linked to Mr. Leo, the 85 Fund — a nonprofit organization that says its mission is “to educate the public and support activities that highlight the relationship between structural limits on government power and the protection of our dignity and our freedom.”

The 85 Fund backs the Honest Elections Project, a conservative group founded in 2020 that has worked in states across the country to restrict voting access.

Some of the money that flows through Mr. Leo’s network of nonprofit groups goes to for-profit companies he controls. In 2021, the 85 Fund paid $21.75 million to CRC Advisors, a consulting firm run by Mr. Leo, according to the 85 Fund’s tax filings.

Several other entities in Mr. Leo’s network, including the Concord Fund, have also paid CRC Advisors millions of dollars in the last two years, tax records show.

“Marble Freedom Trust is Leonard Leo’s billion-dollar slush fund to erode democracy,” said Kyle Herrig, the president of Accountable.US. “With all this money under his control, Leo can push his extreme agenda by influencing conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill, deploying state attorneys general to do his bidding and moving extreme bills in state legislatures.”


Since the $1.6 billion windfall — which came from Barre Seid, an electronics manufacturing mogul — Marble has received no contributions or grants, but it did report $26.6 million in investment income last year. As of about a year ago, Marble still had $1.2 billion to spend.

Marble’s tax filing also shows that Mr. Leo’s salary for his part-time role at the company increased to $400,000 from $350,000.

Mr. Leo’s work, and his longtime relationship with Justice Clarence Thomas, have come under new scrutiny recently. The Washington Post reported last week that Mr. Leo had arranged for Justice Thomas’s wife, the conservative activist Ginni Thomas, to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work, and had urged to keep her name off the paperwork.

Another Dark Money Slush Funds. Does the QOP Have More Slushees Than 7/11?

Protect the Public’s Trust, a watchdog group run by a former Trump administration official, has become influential in right-wing circles over the last two years, making a name for itself by being a thorn in the side of the Biden administration.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization first surfaced in early 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden took office, and has portrayed itself as a “nonpartisan,” pro-transparency “nonprofit” dedicated to fighting government corruption and ensuring that federal officials play by the rules. It has filed a slew of Freedom of Information Act requests, ethics complaints and lawsuits targeting Biden Cabinet members and other high-ranking administration officials. It has at times succeeded in shining a light on conflicts of interest, and has even influenced questioning in congressional hearings.

But for all its talk of being a champion of transparency, PPT has been shady about its own precise nature, going as far as to misrepresent itself in public records requests.

In a FOIA request to the Department of Energy in May 2021, PPT described itself as a “501(c)(3) non-profit organization with supporters and members of the public who seek a transparent, ethical and impartial government that makes decisions in the best interests of all Americans, not former employers and special interests.”

A 501(c)(3) is a specific type of nonprofit designation awarded by the IRS to certain charitable, religious or educational organizations. These groups are exempt from federal taxes and allow for donors to write off contributions.

PPT, however, has never filed a Form 990 that is required of 501(c)(3) nonprofits, according to HuffPost’s review of the IRS’s nonprofit database and several other business and nonprofit search tools.

Over its two years as a group, PPT has repeatedly changed how it portrays itself.

By September 2021, it had dropped “501(c)(3)” from its description in public records requests, calling itself simply a “non-profit organization” — a state-level designation. In a lawsuit filed against the State Department in January 2022, the group called itself “an unincorporated association of retired and former public servants and concerned citizens that is dedicated to restoring public trust in government.” More recently, in January 2023, it labeled itself simply “a collection of individuals.”

PPT did not respond last week to HuffPost’s specific questions or provide a copy of a Form 990, which tax-exempt organizations are legally required to provide within 30 days of a written request.

“As we say on our website, PPT is a group of retired and former public servants with decades of experience in government,” Michael Chamberlain, the group’s director and a former Trump administration official, wrote in an email statement. “We have pursued our mission of exposing ethics conflicts and misconduct since we began and continue to do so. To this day, we remain an unincorporated association of individuals.”

Directly after HuffPost inquired about its nonprofit status last week, PPT changed the description at the top of its Facebook page from “nonprofit organization” to “Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).” It also updated its “About” section, which as of Monday identifies the group as a “Non-Governmental Organization (NGO),” a “Nonprofit Organization” and a “News & media website.”

HuffPost could find no business records for PPT on file with the District of Columbia or neighboring states, or in business libraries. PPT lists its address as 712 H Street NE, Suite 1682, Washington, D.C. — a storefront in Northeast D.C. that is home to Gold Spot Pack and Ship, a shipping, office supply and check cashing business.

The organization appears to be flush with resources, enough to file dozens of lawsuits, but Chamberlain has declined in previous interviews to disclose where its money comes from. He did not respond to HuffPost’s questions about the group’s funding and staff.

I AM What I AM, But Not Anymore



America’s love affair between the automobile and AM radio — a century-long romance that provided the soundtrack for lovers’ lanes, kept the lonely company with ballgames and chat shows, sparked family singalongs and defined road trips — is on the verge of collapse, a victim of galloping technological change and swiftly shifting consumer tastes.

The breakup is entirely one-sided, a move by major automakers to eliminate AM radios from new vehicles despite protests from station owners, listeners, first-responders and politicians from both major parties.

Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.

Some station owners and advertisers contend that losing access to the car dashboard will indeed be a death blow to many of the nation’s 4,185 AM stations — the possible demise of a core element of the nation’s delivery system for news, political talk (especially on the right), coverage of weather emergencies and foreign language programming.

Social Insecurity

With the odds of a U.S. debt default increasing, Social Security advocates warn beneficiaries they should be prepared in case their payments are interrupted.

Dan Adcock, director of government relations and policy for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said there is a "good chance" that in the event of a default, millions of Americans' benefits would be disrupted.

"Seniors should be prepared if they're financially able," Adcock said, adding they should consider putting off discretionary purchases "so they have enough to tide them over."

But millions of beneficiaries have no financial room to maneuver, Adcock said, noting that about 40% of Social Security recipients, which include Americans who are disabled and those who are widowed, receive 90% of their income from the safety net program. That equates to nearly 27 million people.