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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:19:43 GMT -8
My best mates and I played a game of hiding and seek. It went on for hours... Well, good friends are hard to find.
It's a Grand Old Flag ... But It's Not Ours
On Tuesday, the Republican Party's official Twitter account posted to mark the Fourth of July, writing, "247 years ago, our forefathers told Ol' King George to get lost! Happy Independence Day from the GOP!"
There was just one problem: the flags they used in the graphic were not the American flag. They were the Liberian flag.
Liberia is a West African nation that was established as a colony for free and formerly enslaved Black Americans, in an era when the citizenship of even free Black Americans was questioned. It was a time that many who opposed slavery weren't sure if they could ever have full equal rights and participation in American society.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:23:15 GMT -8
And the Money Keeps Rolling In, But Not to the State QOP
Real estate mogul Ron Weiser has been one of the biggest donors to the Michigan Republican Party, giving $4.5 million in the recent midterm election cycle. But no more. Weiser, former chair of the party, has halted his funding, citing concerns about the organization's stewardship. He says he doesn't agree with Republicans who promote falsehoods about election results and insists it's "ludicrous" to claim Donald Trump, who lost Michigan by 154,000 votes in 2020, carried the state. "I question whether the state party has the necessary expertise to spend the money well," he said. The withdrawal of bankrollers like Weiser reflects the high price Republicans in the battleground states of Michigan and Arizona are paying for their full-throated support of former President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The two parties have hemorrhaged money in recent years, undermining Republican efforts to win back the ultra-competitive states that could determine who wins the White House and control of the U.S. Congress in next November's elections, according to a Reuters review of financial filings, plus interviews with six major donors and three election campaign experts. Arizona's Republican Party had less than $50,000 in cash reserves in its state and federal bank accounts as of March 31 to spend on overheads such as rent, payroll and political campaign operations, the filings show. At the same point four years ago, it had nearly $770,000. The Michigan party's federal account had about $116,000 on March 31, a drop from nearly $867,000 two years ago. It has yet to disclose updated financial information for its state account this year. Swing state Republicans bleed donors and cash over Trump's false election claims
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:26:08 GMT -8
Previous Guy Wanted a Private Army. He Probably Still Does.Donald Trump’s affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin has been well documented. He hailed the man as “strong,” “tough,” and “very smart.” Less well known is the ex-president’s envy of private armies, like Putin’s wayward Wagner Group. Trump Envied Putin’s Private Army. Would He Want His Own?He Would Probably Have Michael Flynn Head It Up
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:36:13 GMT -8
Another Reason to Stay Out of Florida
A US woman was killed by an alligator while walking her dog near a lagoon bordering a golf course, police said, adding the animal guarded her body and kept rescuers back.
The 69-year-old resident of Hilton Head Island in South Carolina was found Tuesday at the edge of the lagoon, the Beaufort County sheriff's office said.
"Rescue efforts were made and an alligator appeared and was guarding the woman, interrupting emergency efforts," the office said in a statement.
It said it was the second fatal alligator attack in the county in less than a year.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:39:44 GMT -8
Can't People Just Stick to Spilling Beer on the People Near Them?Bracelets, phones and sweets - they're just some of the items that have been thrown at artists on stage recently. Now Adele is the latest to speak out about the trend, joking with a Las Vegas audience she would "kill" anyone who tried to chuck something at her. In a widely shared clip, where the musician is holding a T-shirt gun, she told the crowd people have forgotten "show etiquette". "Dare you to throw something at me," she said in a sweary joke. Adele is known for throwing shirts into the crowd during her Vegas residency, but her comments are in response to string of incidents where fans have hurled things on stage. Last month popstar Bebe Rexha was injured and taken to hospital after being hit by a phone while performing. And Lil Nas X seemed amused when a sex toy landed on stage while he was performing in Sweden on Saturday.  Harry Styles was hit in the eye with a sweet at a gig in November and more recently Pink looked uncomfortable when a bag of human ashes was thrown on stage. Ava Max has also been slapped on stage and someone threw a bracelet at country singer Kelsea Ballerini in June. Charlie Puth has also asked people to stop, writing on Twitter that "the trend... must come to an end" and that it's "disrespectful and very dangerous".
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:43:20 GMT -8
This Would Never Work in the US. Kids Need Their Phones When the Shooter Attacks Their School
Devices including mobile phones are set to be banned from classrooms to stop them from disrupting learning, the Dutch government has announced.
The initiative is being introduced in collaboration with schools and is to take effect at the start of next year.
There will be some exceptions, including for students with medical needs or a disability, and for classes focused on digital skills.
The ban is not legally enforceable but may become so in the future.
"Even though mobile phones are almost intertwined with our lives, they do not belong in the classroom," said Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf.
"Students must be able to concentrate there and be given every opportunity to learn well. We know from scientific research that mobile phones disrupt this."
Various studies have found limiting children's screen time is linked to improved cognition and concentration.
Other tech including tablets and smartwatches are also included in the Dutch ban.
The government said it would be up to individual schools to agree the exact rules with teachers, parents and pupils - including whether they wanted to completely ban devices from schools.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:45:23 GMT -8
The Heat is On
Monday was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
The average global temperature reached 17.01C (62.62F), surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92C (62.46F) as heatwaves sizzled around the world.
The southern US has been suffering under an intense heat dome in recent weeks. In China, an enduring heatwave continued with temperatures above 35C (95F). North Africa has seen temperatures near 50C (122F).
Even Antarctica, currently in its winter, registered anomalously high temperatures. Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in the white continent’s Argentine Islands recently broke its July temperature record with 8.7C (47.6F).
“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” said climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.
“It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”
Scientists said climate change combined with an emerging El Nino pattern was to blame.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:48:33 GMT -8
WTF?
A Maryland man was charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stealing a forklift from a Lowe’s Home Improvement store and then running over a woman with it in the nearby parking lot of a Home Depot, authorities said Monday.
Officers responded to a report of a burglary and theft in progress at a Lowe’s at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Facebook.
The suspect, Bryce Caleb Timothy Brown, 20, of Waldorf, “broke into the business, stole a forklift and rammed it through the rear gates,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Brown then drove the forklift to a Home Depot, which is about half a mile northeast of the Lowe’s, where he rammed a vehicle in the store’s parking lot. Inside that vehicle, the sheriff’s office said, was a sleeping Gloristine Pinkney, 73, of Waldorf, whom Brown did not know.
Pinkney woke up, got out of the car and began running away, the sheriff's office said.
“Brown followed her, struck her with the forklift and ran over her, and then stole the victim’s car and fled,” according to the sheriff's office. “Officers who were investigating the initial burglary at Lowe’s canvassed the area and observed the forklift in the Home Depot parking lot. They subsequently discovered the victim underneath of the forklift; she was pronounced deceased on the scene.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:50:50 GMT -8
The Running Man Total Botches a Tweet. Sen. Josh Hawley went looking for some patriotic and unmistakably right-wing sentiment to tweet out on the Fourth of July, and came up with a stirring quote from Patrick Henry, of “give me liberty or give me death” fame, about the centrality of Christianity in the founding of the United States. Or anyway, Hawley attributed the quote to Henry. That was false. In reality, the words came from a 1956 article about Henry in “The Virginian,” a white nationalist publication. Hawley is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School who clerked on the Supreme Court and in general has a reputation as one of the Republican Party’s most brilliant minds. One way or another, he’s telling on himself with this.  
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:52:40 GMT -8
I Don't Think This is What the Founding Fathers Envisioned
Seeing the erosion of our freedoms makes it hard to celebrate this Fourth of July
The Supreme Court, conservative governors and gerrymandered state legislatures are racing to shrink our fundamental rights and freedoms.
In a 16-year span, George W. Bush and Donald Trump lost the popular vote but won the presidency. That is a system failure. It is not fair or democratic, and it led directly to today’s unbalanced Supreme Court. Five of the six conservative justices were appointed by these two presidents. Getting rid of the Electoral College would take a constitutional amendment, which is always a hard sell. But think of the arguments you could make to both parties. There are over 5 million registered Republicans in California whose votes would finally count. Wyoming’s nearly 23,000 Democrats would also factor in.
Red and blue states are not monolithic. Therefore, we should stop pretending, for example, that there are no injured parties when red states ban abortion or make it easy for teenagers and careless people to buy whatever weapons they want — no permits or instruction required. We should also stop pretending that we are 50 walled-off states, each deciding how many freedoms we should enjoy or how many it gets to restrict. Guns cross state lines. People who need abortions cross state lines. We are in this together, and Congress and the courts should be protecting our rights — not encouraging a free-for-all that leaves some states with far less democracy than others and some Americans feeling far less equal than others.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:55:11 GMT -8
There Are More Wack-Job Judges Out There
Federal Judge Limits Biden Officials’ Contacts With Social Media Sites
The order came in a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who claim the administration is trying to silence its critics.
A federal judge in Louisiana on Tuesday restricted the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms about broad swaths of content online, a ruling that could curtail efforts to combat false and misleading narratives about the coronavirus pandemic and other issues.
The order, which could have significant First Amendment implications, is a major development in a fierce legal fight over the boundaries and limits of speech online.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:57:15 GMT -8
Note to the QOP: Hunter Wasn't There
A U.S. Secret Service spokesman on Wednesday confirmed that testing shows it was cocaine found in the White House West Wing Sunday evening.
The investigation into how it got there is ongoing.
The white powder was found during a routine search, a source said.
A preliminary field test had showed the substance tested positive for cocaine, sources said.
Some visitors are able to tour parts of the West Wing, and tours typically take place on the weekends.
When asked if there were tours this past weekend, the Secret Service would not confirm that, saying: "These are details that are pertinent to our investigation and not something we can get into."
President Joe Biden and family members were at Camp David at the time.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 8:59:36 GMT -8
Somehow, He Keeps Finding Lawyers To Work For Him
Attorney Lin Wood, who filed legal challenges seeking to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, is relinquishing his law license, electing to retire from practicing rather than face possible disbarment. Multiple states have weighed disciplining him for pushing Trump's false claims that he defeated Democrat Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to “retire” his law license in light of “disciplinary proceedings pending against me.” In the request, made in a letter and posted on his Telegram account, Wood acknowledges that he is “prohibited from practicing law in this State and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 9:02:33 GMT -8
Teenagers Lives Are Hard Enough Without This
The confidential documents stolen from schools and dumped online by ransomware gangs are raw, intimate and graphic. They describe student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy — even suicide attempts.
“Please do something,” begged a student in one leaked file, recalling the trauma of continually bumping into an ex-abuser at a school in Minneapolis. Other victims talked about wetting the bed or crying themselves to sleep.
Complete sexual assault case folios containing these details were among more than 300,000 files dumped online in March after the 36,000-student Minneapolis Public Schools refused to pay a $1 million ransom. Other exposed data included medical records, discrimination complaints, Social Security numbers and contact information of district employees.
Rich in digitized data, the nation’s schools are prime targets for far-flung criminal hackers, who are assiduously locating and scooping up sensitive files that not long ago were committed to paper in locked cabinets. “In this case, everybody has a key,” said cybersecurity expert Ian Coldwater, whose son attends a Minneapolis high school.
Often strapped for cash, districts are grossly ill-equipped not just to defend themselves but to respond diligently and transparently when attacked, especially as they struggle to help kids catch up from the pandemic and grapple with shrinking budgets.
Months after the Minneapolis attack, administrators have not delivered on their promise to inform individual victims. Unlike for hospitals, no federal law exists to require this notification from schools.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 5, 2023 9:05:23 GMT -8
You Just Can't Find an Honest Lobbyist Anymore
More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal.
Lobbyists for oil, gas and coal interests are also employed by a vast sweep of institutions, ranging from the city governments of Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia; tech giants such as Apple and Google; more than 150 universities; some of the country’s leading environmental groups – and even ski resorts seeing their snow melted by global heating.
The breadth of fossil fuel lobbyists’ work for other clients is captured in a new database of their lobbying interests which was published online on Wednesday.
Related: State Farm stopped insuring California homes due to climate risks. But it shares lobbyists with big oil
It shows the reach of state-level fossil fuel lobbyists into almost every aspect of American life, spanning local governments, large corporations, cultural institutions such as museums and film festivals, and advocacy groups, grouping together clients with starkly contradictory aims.
For instance, State Farm, the insurance company that announced in May it would halt new homeowner policies in California due to the “catastrophic” risk of wildfires worsened by the climate crisis, employs lobbyists that also advocate for fossil fuel interests to lawmakers in 18 states.
Meanwhile, Baltimore, which is suing big oil firms for their role in causing climate-related damages, has shared a lobbyist with ExxonMobil, one of the named defendants in the case. Syracuse University, a pioneer in the fossil fuel divestment movement, has a lobbyist with 14 separate oil and gas clients.
"When you hire these insider lobbyists, you are basically working with double agents. They are guns for hire" --Timmons Roberts of Brown University
“It’s incredible that this has gone under the radar for so long, as these lobbyists help the fossil fuel industry wield extraordinary power,” said James Browning, a former Common Cause lobbyist who put together the database for a new venture called F Minus. “Many of these cities and counties face severe costs from climate change and yet elected officials are selling their residents out. It’s extraordinary.
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