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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:09:03 GMT -8
I found a rock yesterday which measured 1760 yards in length. Must be some kind of milestone. Six Defenses That Previous Guy Might Try(1) "The special counsel engaged in prosecutorial misconduct" (2) "The notes taken by Trump's lawyers cannot be used against him" (3) "Trump is immune from prosecution to the extent the indictment covers actions while Trump was president" (4) "My staff did it" (5) "No harm, no foul" (6) "whataboutism and selective prosecution." Six Defenses Trump’s Lawyers Might Try |
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:11:17 GMT -8
The Biggest Loser Gets Rejected
Former President Donald Trump will appear in court with two of his existing lawyers after struggling to find a local Florida lawyer who would be willing to join his defense team.
The former president will be arraigned Tuesday with former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche and former Florida solicitor general Chris Kise, according to sources familiar with the matter, and his co-defendant and valet Walt Nauta will be represented by attorney Stanley Woodward, reported The Guardian.
Trump and his legal team spent Monday interviewing potential lawyers at the Trump Doral resort but did not bring on any additional defense attorneys before the 3 p.m. court appearance.
Instead, and he will be represented by Kise, who will serve as local counsel admitted to the southern district of Florida as a one-off, and Blanche.
No national security specialists who would be eligible to obtain a security clearance appeared to be willing to sign on to Trump's legal team, and he was turned down by attorneys Howard Srebnick, David Markus, Benedict Kuehn, William Barzee and Bruce Zimet.
Why Would they Turn Him Down?
When former President Donald Trump appears in federal court Tuesday, he will be joined at the defense table by a man well-practiced in standing by his side: his valet turned alleged co-conspirator, Walt Nauta.
Nauta, a Navy veteran who fetched Trump’s Diet Cokes as his valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, now finds himself in legal jeopardy alongside the former president. He is accused of moving boxes from the White House at Trump’s direction and then lying about it to investigators.
Nauta is the latest in a series of Trump loyalists to face potential jail time after his work for the former president. Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer and attorney, spent more than 13 months in prison over payouts he helped arrange during the 2016 presidential race to keep women from going public about alleged sexual encounters with Trump. Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, just finished serving three months at Rikers Island after pleading guilty to receiving $1.7 million in unreported job perks.
“Loyalty to Donald Trump is like First Avenue in Manhattan: one way. History has shown time and again that Donald cares for no one other than himself,” said Cohen, who has since turned on Trump and eventually tried to win leniency by cooperating with prosecutors.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:15:24 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:18:04 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:20:19 GMT -8
Oops!
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:25:25 GMT -8
It's Melting! It's Melting!As of June 10, 2023, worldwide data showed the remarkable concurrence of three dramatic climate events. The first WTF is in the Antarctic, where sea-ice extent is setting record lows daily, now fully over 2 million kilometers below the 1991-2020 mean. This is not some one-off event. A decline like this has long been predicted. The impact is that there is a lot more open ocean than normal for this time of year. Open ocean means the ability to absorb incoming solar radiation, and that means further heating in a well-known feedback loop. Using JAXA data, I prepared an image to illustrate just how crazy this moment is. The way you read the image below is that each horizontal blue wavy line is a year’s worth of measured sea-ice extent. Starting with the average extent over the period 1991-2020, I simply compare each day’s extent with that average and plot that point on the year’s blue line. The years shown in this image are 1991-2023, with 2023 in red to highlight just how unusual it is. For those of you with keen eyes, the dip at the lower right corresponds to the year 2016, the year after that last El Niño, and a harbinger of what may lie ahead.  WTF is Happening? An OverviewThe second WTF regards global 2-meter surface temperatures – where on June 10, for the third consecutive day temperatures breached the 1.5°C barrier (above the 1850-1900 IPCC baseline). And the third WTF is perhaps the furthest from any notion of normalcy. WTF is happening to the world’s oceans, and in particular the North Atlantic? Ocean temperatures have been setting unprecedented daily records, spiking to highs that are shocking climate scientists, as they look for possible reasons. 
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:33:40 GMT -8
From Russia Without LoveThere's one conclusion without any uncertainty whatsoever: a 2.5C global mean surface temperature rise is a disaster: 1.5C is not a target. I call it a physical limit. It's something that humanity has absolutely no evidence that we can cope with. It would actually exceed the warmest temperature on Earth over the past four million years. There would be a collapse of all the big biomes on planet Earth – the rainforest, many of the temperate forests – abrupt thawing of permafrost; we will have a complete collapse of marine biology, we will have a shift of large parts of the habitability on Earth: Johan Rockstrom, Director Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Temperatures across Siberia have soared over 100 F for weeks, and the heating continues unabated at the time of this posting. These temperatures thaw the enormous store of methane and CO2 that has been locked in the frozen soil of the northern tier of the planet for thousands of years. Permafrost covers 65% of Russia's land area. An estimated 1,500 gigatons of carbon is present in permafrost. That is twice the amount stored in the atmosphere. The carbon is the remains of plants, animals, and other sources that have never fully decomposed for thousands of years; the oldest deposit is over 700,000. Once permafrost thaw is initiated by heat waves, human activity, and wildfires, bacteria break the organic matter down the gases are released into the atmosphere. Once the methane and CO2 reach the atmosphere, it further heats the planet in a feedback that only thaws more permafrost. There are few permafrost sources in the southern hemisphere; most frozen soils are in Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Greenland, and the Tibetan plateau. Siberia also contains vast methane storage on the Arctic Ocean's continental shelf. Boiling seas of methane are observed offshore of Siberia. I Don't Imagine There is a Lot of Air Conditioning in SiberiaSiberia swelters in record-breaking temperatures amid its ‘worst heat wave in history’Underestimated Heat Storage
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:36:21 GMT -8
Previous Guy Tweeted Classified ImageJust when you think things can’t get any more—”unusual”— in the White House, the President has Tweeted an American spy satellite image as part of a juvenile jab at Iranian leadership. After some sleuthing, astronomers were able to figure out which satellite it came from: a (formerly) top-secret satellite called USA 224, an optical reconnaissance satellite. Trump’s tweet unwittingly revealed some of the capabilities of American satellite imagery. USA 224 has been kept top-secret for national security reasons, so the Intelligence Community is probably not very happy about this. Why reveal your intelligence-gathering capabilities to your adversaries, including Iran itself? It's OK. Previous Guy Thought About Granting Kid Rock a Security Clearance. Since He Has the Power to Do That By Thinking. Kid Rock Was ClearedIt appears that Trump was briefed with a print of this classified image, and that he took a picture with his phone and tweeted it. You can see the camera flash in the middle of the image. Immediately, people were concerned that he had revealed US surveillance capabilities. Footage has resurfaced online of Kid Rock claiming Donald Trump showed him secret maps and asked him what he thought “we should do about North Korea” – after the former president was indicted on 37 federal criminal charges for his handling of classified documents since leaving the White House. In a 2022 interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, the country rock star claims the former president asked his advice and showed him what he believed to be secret information during a visit to the White House in 2017. “We’re looking at maps and s***, and I’m like, ‘Am I supposed to be in on this s***?’” Rock says in the clip as Carlson bursts out laughing. Video resurfaces of Kid Rock claiming Trump showed him secret maps: ‘Am I supposed to be in on this?’
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:44:15 GMT -8
What Would He Say If He Got Personal?
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:46:50 GMT -8
Bad Inflation News: The Number of Inflated Egos Running for Office Keeps Increasing. However, In Economic News ...
Americans struggling with a two-year inflation run-up continue to get some relief from two of the biggest drivers -- at the gas pump and in grocery stores.
Other costs, especially rent, are still climbing.
Inflation slowed for an 11th straight month in May as grocery price increases eased again and gas more than reversed the previous month’s rise.
Overall, consumer prices increased 4% from a year earlier, down from 4.9% in April and a 40-year high of 9.1% last June, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index. That’s the smallest yearly increase since March 2021. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.1% following a 0.4% increase in April.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:50:08 GMT -8
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominee
Two children suffered “burn-like injuries” after acid was poured on three slides at a Massachusetts playground, authorities said.
Fire and police departments in Longmeadow, just south of Springfield, are searching for suspects after authorities responded to a call Sunday at 9:40 a.m. local time for a suspicious substance found on the slides at Bliss Park Playground, the Longmeadow Fire Department said in a news release Monday.
At the same time, Longmeadow EMS crews responded to a report of two children suffering burn-like injuries after leaving the park. Firefighters determined the material on the slides was "acidic in nature."
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The hazmat team determined that the chemical poured on the slides was muriatic acid, the fire department said.
“The (Massachusetts) State Police crime lab gathered several items of evidence,” the fire department said in the news release. “Additional evidence was gathered and has been sent to the crime lab for forensic analysis and fingerprinting.”
Nominees #2
A California newlywed on his honeymoon drowned at a popular snorkeling beach on Oahu, Hawaii, earlier this month. During his rescue, thieves stole his and his wife’s belongings and drove away with their rental car.
Steven Phan and his wife Brittany Myers Phan were snorkeling about 100 yards out at Kahe Point, also known as Electric Beach, on June 1 when a spearfisherman spotted Phan submerged underwater, according to John Titchen, Chief of Ocean Safety for Honolulu.
The spearfisherman and another person helped carry Phan back to the beach, where a 911 call was made.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 13, 2023 8:51:43 GMT -8
Duh!The ongoing intensification in forest fire activity in California has had a dramatic impact on human activities and ecosystems alike. While an increase in temperatures and dryness has been identified to be one of the major drivers of increased summer forest burned area (BA), the extent to which such changes are due to natural variability or anthropogenic climate change remains unresolved. Using the latest simulations for climate change attribution and detection studies and accounting for the uncertainties arising from the data-driven climate-fire model and climate models, we quantify the influence of anthropogenic climate change on recent changes in BA. We show that nearly all of the observed increase in BA over the past half-century is attributable to anthropogenic climate change. Anthropogenic climate change impacts exacerbate summer forest fires in California
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