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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 7:58:18 GMT -8
Most people are shocked when they find out how incompetent I am as an electrician.
Previous Guy is a Target. Like Ukraine, His Counteroffensive has Begun
Donald Trump hurled bribery allegations at an unnamed prosecutor with the Department of Justice in a late-night, all-caps rant.
The former president has reportedly been notified that he's a target of an ongoing criminal investigation into his handling of classified documents, but Trump accused the DOJ prosecutor of offering a judgeship to a lawyer representing one of the witnesses in the case.
"Shocking! One of the top prosecutors at the department of injustice was reportedly so obsessed with 'getting Trump' that he tried to bribe & intimidate a lawyer representing someone being targeted & harassed to falsely accuse & fabricate a story about president Donald J. Trump & a crime that doesn't exist," the ex-president raged in all-caps on Truth Social. "This criminal & salacious act within the DOJ has brought shame & embarrassment to this once great & respected institution. Because of this, there is now extreme turmoil inside the DOJ."
Right-wing reporter John Solomon, whose work played a key role in the Ukraine extortion scheme that got Trump impeached the first time, reported on his Just the News website that the DOJ declined to delay an indictment to investigate claims by the ex-president's lawyers that a senior prosecutor on the case discussed a federal judgeship with the lawyer for a witness.
The sources directly familiar with the case told Just the News that DOJ declined to delay the planned indictment of Trump to investigate allegations that a senior prosecutor working on the case tried to influence a key witness by discussing a federal judgeship with the witness’ lawyer.
"The lawyer was already in line for consideration by the Biden White House for a judgeship when the prosecutor allegedly raised the nomination while trying to get additional testimony from the lawyer’s client, according to sources familiar with the allegation," Solomon reported.
I Call Him a Tarjay
A former federal prosecutor said news that Donald Trump is a target of a criminal investigation means two very specific things.
And neither are good news for the former president, who was reportedly told he’s the target of the probe into his handling of classified documents.
Target is a “term of art” used by the Justice Department, Glenn Kirschner, who was a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, said on MSNBC on Wednesday night.
“It’s a two-part test,” he explained:
“One, a target is a person for whom prosecutors have substantial evidence linking them to the commission of a crime. And part two, it’s somebody that the prosecutors view as a, quote, putative defendant. In other words, it’s somebody that the prosectors intend to indict.”
“The fact that Trump fulfills both prongs of the target test is a pretty sure sign that we’re about to see Donald Trump indicted,” he added.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:04:10 GMT -8
"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" is a Movie. How to Lose a Job in 2 Days Is a News Story
'Martin Looter King': Racist posts get cop fired 2 days after being sworn in
Racist social media posts by a former Marion Police officer in Grant County led to his swift firing Wednesday.
On Tuesday, social media posts Chaz Foy allegedly shared on his personal Facebook account were brought to the attention of the Marion Police Department, according to a news release. Marion Chief of Police Angela Haley personally reviewed the posts and called them “racist” and said they were not keeping with the standards of their department.
“I do not condone this type of behavior and will not tolerate it,” Haley said in a news release.
Foy, who had been sworn for duty as a Marion Police Department officer on Monday, was terminated that Wednesday.
The racist social media posts Foy shared on his Facebook account were made before he joined the Marion Police Department, according to Channel 27 News and Entertainment for Grant County.
On June 1, 2022, a post allegedly made by Foy read: “With gas hitting 4.89 and climbing, let’s all take a moment to appreciate better times.” The image beneath the text showed former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd.
Chauvin, 45, was found guilty of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd.
A second image on Foy’s Facebook account posted April 13, 2021 depicted a cartoon image of a Black man titled “Martin Looter King.”
IndyStar reached out to the city of Marion for more information about Foy but did not receive an immediate response.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:08:32 GMT -8
In Today's Espisode of "Men Are Pigs"Women who are groped on trains in East Asia face the further threat of their assault being filmed and uploaded for sale online. In a year-long investigation, the BBC World Service's investigative unit, BBC Eye, has gone undercover to unmask the men cashing in on sexual violence. Short presentational grey line It was the morning rush hour in Tokyo. The train was packed and rocky. Takako (not her real name) was on her way to school. The 15-year-old tried to hold on to a grab bar. Suddenly, she felt a hand pressing on her behind. She thought someone had accidentally bumped into her. But the hand started to grope her. "That's when I finally realised - it was molestation," Takako recalls. The hand quickly disappeared in the crowd. "I couldn't do anything about it." She arrived at school in tears that day. That was her first time being sexually assaulted on public transport, but Takako was molested almost daily for more than a year on her commute. On countless nights, she went to bed crying. "I felt like there was no hope in my life," she says. Many women like Takako are targeted in public by sexual predators. In some cases, they face another violation - the attack is filmed and the videos are sold online. Most videos follow the same pattern - a man secretly films a woman from behind and follows her on to a train. Seconds later, he sexually abuses her. The men act discreetly, and their victims can seem totally unaware. These graphic videos are then listed on the websites for sale. In a year-long investigation, we traced the men behind three websites which sell and produce thousands of these sexual assault videos. Catching the men who sell subway groping videos
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:12:04 GMT -8
A Border Wall and More Border Partol Won't Keep Out El Niño?A natural weather event known as El Niño has begun in the Pacific Ocean, likely adding heat to a planet already warming under climate change. US scientists confirmed that El Niño had started. Experts say it will likely make 2024 the world's hottest year. They fear it will help push the world past a key 1.5C warming milestone. It will also affect world weather, potentially bringing drought to Australia, more rain to the southern US, and weakening India's monsoon. The event will likely last until next spring, after which its impacts will recede. For months, researchers have been increasingly confident that an El Niño event was set to emerge in the Pacific Ocean. "It's ramping up now, there have been signs in our predictions for several months, but it's really looking like it will peak at the end of this year in terms of its intensity," said Adam Scaife, head of long-range predictions at the UK Met Office. "A new record for global temperature next year is definitely plausible. It depends how big the El Niño turns out to be - a big El Niño at the end of this year, gives a high chance that we will have a new record, global temperature in 2024." This natural phenomenon is the most powerful fluctuation in the climate system anywhere on Earth. The El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, as it is properly called, has three different phases: Hot, cold or neutral. El Niño planet-warming weather phase has begunAn early bird El Nino has officially formed, likely to be strong, warp weather worldwide and give an already warming Earth an extra kick of natural heat, meteorologists announced. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Thursday issued an El Nino advisory, announcing the arrival of the climatic condition. It may not quite be like the others. It formed a month or two earlier than most El Ninos do, which “gives it room to grow,” and there’s a 56% chance it will be considered strong and a 25% chance it reaches supersized levels, said climate scientist Michelle L’Heureux, head of NOAA’s El Nino/La Nina forecast office. “If this El Nino tips into the largest class of events ... it will be the shortest recurrence time in the historical record,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University. Such a short gap between El Ninos leaves communities with less time to recover from damages to infrastructure, agriculture, and ecosystems like coral reefs. Usually, an El Nino mutes hurricane activity in the Atlantic, giving relief to coastal areas in states from Texas to New England, Central America and the Caribbean, weary from recent record busy years. But this time, forecasters don’t see that happening, because of record hot Atlantic temperatures that would counteract the El Nino winds that normally decapitate many storms.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:16:53 GMT -8
Brown Haze is In My Brain. Don't Know If I'll Ever Be the Same The shroud above the Northeast prompted public health authorities to convene emergency meetings, hospitals to prepare for a possible uptick in patients and lawmakers to again call for legislation to tamp down the risks of a warming world. The acute public health threat posed by the fumes, which carry dangerous gases and fine particles that can embed in people’s lungs and bloodstream, coupled with the transformation of major cities’ skylines punctured many Americans’ sense of invulnerability. “Climate change is real. It is here. The extreme weather and disasters like these wildfires, thousands of miles away, land right here in our great city and impact our health,” New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said at a news conference Wednesday morning, urging residents to stay indoors, wear masks if needed outdoors and take other precautions. City officials said the air was the worst in more than 50 years — with an Air Quality Index score Wednesday that at one point reached 484, signifying “hazardous” conditions — and would likely last several days. Wildfire smoke has posed a growing health risk in the United States for years, with Western states repeatedly reeling from fires and residents attempting to cope by purchasing personal air filters, staying indoors and adopting other ad hoc solutions. In interviews on Wednesday, federal experts touted guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to stay safe. But the smoke enveloping the East Coast arrives at a moment when many Americans have tuned out warnings from public health officials in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Many people in affected areas continued their usual routines despite the intense haze, scratchy throats and other manifestations of the smoky conditions.  'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky |
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:19:22 GMT -8
What Does the Public Think? (Not That Congress Cares)
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:21:34 GMT -8
Stop-And-Frisk is Back
When Mayor Eric Adams announced last year that he would revive the NYPD’s anti-crime units, critics were concerned because of the units’ history of brutality. They had been disbanded in 2020 following weeks of protests after the murder of George Floyd, as they were frequently subject to complaints of racial profiling and aggressive tactics.
Now, a new report issued by the department’s federal monitor suggests that critics’ fears have been validated. In her report, released on Monday, Mylan Denerstein writes that officers with the Neighborhood Safety Teams are stopping, frisking, and searching members of the public at an “unsatisfactory level of compliance,” adding that the department’s oversight of these tactics is “inadequate at all levels.”
Denerstein’s team audited reports and recordings of stops made by the units for six months of 2022 and found Neighborhood Safety Team officers had “reasonable suspicion” for 76 percent of stops, meaning nearly a quarter of stops had been made unlawfully. The report also determined that illegal stops were made at a rate “nine percentage points higher” than the 2020 rate for the department as a whole. Of the people stopped by police in these encounters, more than 97 percent were Black or Hispanic.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:23:29 GMT -8
No Dam Means No Damn Water
The agriculture ministry on Wednesday predicted that fields in southern Ukraine could "turn into deserts as early as next year", as vital irrigation systems, which depend on the vast Kakhovka reservoir, cease to function.
The reservoir is fast disappearing, sending an estimated 4.4 cubic miles of water roaring down the Dnipro River towards the Black Sea.
Before the war, the ministry says, 31 irrigation systems provided water for 584,000 hectares (more than 2,200 sq miles) of farmland.
"The dam was the only source of water for irrigation," First Deputy Minister Taras Vysotsky told me.
The Kherson region is among Ukraine's most fertile and productive.
Apart from its famous watermelons, the rich farmland either side of the Dnipro River produces a host of different crops, from onions and tomatoes to sunflowers, soybeans and wheat. Dairy farms are also likely to be affected.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:27:27 GMT -8
Stephanie Ruhles!
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:29:22 GMT -8
WTF? SCOTUS Does the Right Thing?
In a surprise decision, the Supreme Court agreed that Alabama violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the Black vote when it drew new congressional maps following the 2020 census.
The 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts found that Alabama Republicans improperly denied Black communities a second congressional district by packing them into one district and splitting them into other majority white districts. The decision was joined by liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson and conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The decision in Allen v. Milligan comes as a shock as the court’s conservatives have repeatedly gutted the Voting Rights Act in cases over the past decade including Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee.
Alabama will now be required to redraw its congressional district map to provide for a second majority-Black district. The decision will have extended consequences too as both plaintiffs in Louisiana and Georgia claimed similar racial discrimination in redistricting in cases that were pending at the Supreme Court. This could lead to the creation of one new Black-majority district in each state.
Oops! They Did It Again
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday preserved the ability of people to sue for civil rights violations under an 1871 law as it rejected a bid to prevent an Indiana nursing home resident's family from suing over his care at a government-run facility.
The justices upheld a lower court's ruling that allowed the wife of Gorgi Talevski, a nursing home resident diagnosed with dementia, to sue Indiana municipal corporation Health and Hospital Corp of Marion County over claims it violated his rights.
The lawsuit stemmed from Talevski's admission in 2016 to Valparaiso Care and Rehabilitation, a nursing home operated by the Health and Hospital Corp after his family determined his dementia needed professional care.
In a 2019 lawsuit, his wife, Ivanka Talevski, said Talevski was subjected to harmful psychotropic drugs and unlawfully transferred to an all-male facility. He died in 2021, while the litigation was pending.
The lawsuit was filed under a measure known as Section 1983 that was enacted as part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a law passed in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era to protect the rights of Black Americans. Section 1983 gives people the power to sue in federal court when state officials violate their constitutional or statutory rights.
A law called the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act places limits the use of physical or chemical restraints and on transferring patients. Talevski's wife contended her husband's rights under it were violated.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:32:07 GMT -8
Don't Rest in Peace. You Didn't Let Minoriteis Have Peace When You Were Alive
Pat Robertson, a conservative religious broadcaster and founder of the Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.
Robertson was one of the most prominent and influential Christian broadcasters in the U.S. He is largely credited with helping make religion central to Republican Party politics through his Christian Coalition.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:33:25 GMT -8
Of Course, Fox Noise Wants New Yorkers to Die
Fox News hosts on Wednesday made light of the public health warnings issued over the hazardous haze engulfing New York City, much like some of its personalities dismissed the risk of COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity all dismissed the city’s atrocious air quality — caused by wildfires in Canada — and mocked official advice to wear face masks amid the smoke that is expected to last for days.
“While Americans choke on the smoke, the far left smells an opportunity,” said “The Five” co-host Pirro, who turned the haze into an attack on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her signature Green New Deal.
Oscasio-Cortez “says that we must, quote, ‘Adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure, and health care to prepare for what’s to come,’” mocked Pirro. “Other Democrats are pumping up climate hysteria and bringing back, you guessed it, mask insanity.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:34:25 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:41:54 GMT -8
Can YOu Get Them at a Strip Mall?
Life-saving fentanyl test strips still illegal in some states under '70s-era war on drugs law
At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”
Owner Waverly Willis has given out strips for years at his barbershop, hoping to protect others from unwittingly being exposed to the highly potent synthetic opioid ravaging the U.S. and often secretly laced into other illegal drugs.
“When I put them out, they just fly out the door,” said Willis, who proudly hands out about 30 strips a week as part of The Urban Barber Association, a Cleveland organization that provides health education to the community via local barbershops.
Nearly 18 years into his own sobriety from drugs, Willis isn't shy about making the strips available. He figures he’d be dead if fentanyl were so widely prevalent when he was using.
Fentanyl has driven overdose deaths in the U.S. since 2016, and that isn't changing as the cheaper and deadlier synthetic opioid continues to be cut into the drug supply. Approximately 75,000 of the nearly 110,000 overdose deaths of 2022 could be linked to fentanyl, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Legalizing test strips could bring those numbers down, advocates say, saving lives by helping more people understand just how deadly their drugs could be.
Until this spring, use of the strips was technically illegal in Ohio. It has joined at least 20 other states whose lawmakers formally decriminalized the strips since Rhode Island became the first in 2018. Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Kentucky and Mississippi also followed suit this year.
The CDC recommends fentanyl test strips as a low-cost means of helping prevent drug overdoses. They can detect fentanyl in cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and many other drugs — whether in pills, powders or injectables.
Yet these small paper strips are still considered illegal in some states, outlawed under drug paraphernalia laws dating to the 1970s era war on drugs — long before fentanyl began seeping into the nation's drug supply. Every state but Alaska had an anti-paraphernalia law on the books by the mid-1980s, making materials used for testing and analyzing illicit substances illegal.
Increasingly, the strips are now being seen as a potentially life-saving.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 8, 2023 8:43:30 GMT -8
While they Are Rushin' to the Rescue, Russians Are Shooting
Russian forces have been shooting at Ukrainian rescuers trying to reach flooded areas in the Kherson region that are under Russian control, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.
Rescuers are trying to evacuate thousands of people in the flood zone of the Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka dam and hydro-electric power plant, which collapsed on Tuesday sending torrents of water gushing down the Dnipro River.
At least eight people have died in flooding in the region so far, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
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