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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:43:50 GMT -8
I bought a dictionary and when I got home I realized all the pages were blank; I have no words for how angry I am.
It's Not Nice to Fool With Judge McBurney
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney not only rejected Donald Trump's bid to block Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting him -- he also took shots at the former president for making money off his legal woes.
As Politico reports, McBurney's opinion included a reference to the Trump campaign's habit of using his criminal indictments to make fundraising pitches to supporters.
"For some, being the subject of criminal investigation can, a la Rumpelstiltskin, be turned into golden political capital, making it seem more providential than problematic," he wrote.
Elsewhere in the ruling, McBurney chided Trump for trying to get Willis barred from prosecuting him before she had even filed a single criminal charge against him and he said it would not be appropriate for the courts to take action based on mere speculation.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:47:14 GMT -8
Maybe They Should Make Them Slaves, So They Can Learn Valuable Skills
Before President Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 into law, the drinking age varied from state to state in the U.S. Some states allowed minors to legally purchase alcohol at 18, but Reagan and members of Congress agreed that 21 should become the national standard.
What still varies from state to state is how old one needs to be legally serve alcohol. Some states allow minors to serve alcohol in restaurants even though they can't legally purchase it.
The Guardian's Wilfred Chan reports that some GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin favor lowering the age for legally serving alcohol to 14.
"Wisconsin is just one of a growing number of states where predominantly Republican lawmakers are making quiet moves to roll back the alcohol service age, so that kids who can't legally buy alcohol — or in Wisconsin’s case, even drive a car — would be allowed to serve hard drinks to customers at bars and restaurants," Chan reports. "In addition to alleviating the labor shortage, lawmakers behind the bills argue letting kids serve alcohol would give them valuable work experience."
If a Server is Going to Spill a Drink on Me, I Want Then to Be At Least 18.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:49:31 GMT -8
Ohio amendment to curb ‘out-of-state special interests’ gets nearly all its funding from them
Roughly $35 million has flowed to political groups aiming to influence Ohio’s August special election. That includes money for campaigns for or against the ballot measure raising the threshold for constitutional amendments, as well as several closely aligned organizations. On both sides — those opposing Issue 1, those supporting it, and those technically fighting November’s reproductive rights amendment — the vast majority of funding came from out of state. Issue 1’s proponents have consistently argued a higher threshold for passing state constitutional amendments will act as a deterrent. “This is about empowering the people of Ohio to protect their constitution from out of state special interests that want to try to buy their way into our state’s founding document,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose insisted in a televised statewide debate last week. “I’m here to say the Ohio constitution is not for sale.” Opponents have repeatedly argued back that nothing in the proposal actually limits out-of-state influence. The yes campaign committee, Protect Our Constitution, raised a little more than $4.85 million according to its filing. Nearly all of it came from a single individual who lives out of state. Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein donated a total of $4 million to the committee. The right-wing megadonor owns the Uline shipping and office supply company, and his grandfather and great-grandfather ran Schlitz brewing. The largest contributions aside from Uihlein were $100,000 each from a PAC solely funded by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and another connected with Ohio nursing homes. Other substantial contributions came in from Washington, D.C., Georgia and Tennessee. But less than $700,000, or just 14% of the total, came from Ohio donors Issue 1’s opponents are fundraising through a committee called One Person One Vote. The campaign raised a total of $14.8 million, about 16% of it coming from Ohio donors. The filing doesn’t show anyone giving quite as much as Uihlein did in terms of dollar amount or percentage of the total. Still, the campaign did attract some pretty big fish. Karla Jurvetson, a Silicon Valley psychiatrist and philanthropist, cut checks totaling about $1.1 million.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:51:37 GMT -8
Shouldn't a Political Action Committee Be Taking Political Actions?
Donald Trump's Save America PAC, which has been paying the crushing legal bills the twice-indicted former president and close aides have racked up due to multiple investigations, might be in the throes of a cash crunch reports the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher.
With the Washington Post reporting that the PAC is expected to report on Tuesday spending over $40 million in legal fees for the past quarter, the Times now notes that the PAC made a $60 million donation to an affiliated PAC and then sought to claw it back.
According to the Times, "The political action committee that former President Donald J. Trump is using to pay his legal bills faced such staggering costs this year that it requested a refund on a $60 million contribution it made to another group supporting the Republican front-runner, according to two people familiar with the matter."
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:53:21 GMT -8
Another Taliban Ban
The Taliban have burned musical instruments in Afghanistan, claiming music "causes moral corruption".
Thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment went up in smoke on a bonfire on Saturday in western Herat province.
Here's An Actual Taliban Guitar Burning Ritual
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:54:52 GMT -8
Remember ISIS, or ISIL, or IS?
ISIL claims responsibility for Pakistan bombing that killed 54 people
Funerals held for the victims of Sunday’s suicide attack, which also wounded nearly 200 people.
The death toll from a suicide bombing that targeted an election rally in the border district of Bajaur, Pakistan, has risen to 54 as funerals are held and the government promises to hunt down those behind the attack.
Nearly 200 people were wounded in Sunday’s bombing, which the ISIL (ISIS) armed group claimed responsibility for on Monday.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:56:38 GMT -8
What Do You Do When Your Company is Tanking? You Sue Someone. It's the Silicon Valley Way.
X Corp., the parent company of the social media app formerly known as Twitter, sent a letter this month to a nonprofit organization that researches digital hate speech and misinformation, accusing the group of making a "series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically."
The Center for Countering Digital Hate uploaded screenshots of the letter to its website Monday under the heading, "Musk threatens CCDH with brazen attempt to silence honest criticism." In the three-page letter, dated July 20, Musk's lawyer described the organization's research as "false, misleading, or both" and argued that its methodologies were flawed.
Elon Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, cited one research report claiming that Twitter had failed to take action against 99% of the 100 posts flagged by CCDH staff members for "tweeting hate," including racist, homophobic and antisemitic content. Twitter Blue is the name of the subscription program for users who pay a monthly fee in exchange for account verification and other perks.
Spiro said the company was investigating whether the CCDH's "false and misleading claims about Twitter" were actionable under federal law. "Please be advised that Twitter will employ any and all legal tools at its disposal to prevent false or misleading claims from harming its users, platform, or business," Spiro said in closing.
In a response to Spiro, a lawyer for the CCDH defended the organization's research and blasted his assertions as "ridiculous."
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 8:59:16 GMT -8
Late and Over Budget. But No Carbon.
A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, becoming the first new American reactor built from scratch in decades.
Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has completed testing and is now sending power to the grid reliably.
At its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. Utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the electricity.
Nuclear power now makes up about 25% of the generation of Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co.
A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.
The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners to walk away from the project. That brings total spending to almost $35 billion.
The third reactor was supposed to start generating power in 2016 when construction began in 2009.
It Sounds Great, But We Still Have No Permanent Solution to Dealing with Nuclear Waste
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:07:49 GMT -8
Coal Hits a New Low. It is Still Way Too High The fossil fuels have come down under 60% for the first time in probably over 100 years when we mostly used hydro generated electricity. Nuclear and hydro are the low carbon sources that don’t see much change in share. wind and solar are at 13.7% and climbing. I expect this to increase as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act. (Black line is coal and natural gas.)  If Total Energy Use is Climbing, The Percentage of Coal Could Be Falling, But the Amount of Coal Being Burned Can Still Increase.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:09:06 GMT -8
I've Been "Ready to Go" For Two-and-a-Half Years
Fani Willis, the Fulton Country district attorney who opened a wide-ranging investigation into Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election result in Georgia, said she is on track to deliver a decision on charges by Sept. 1.
Willis initiated the probe in early 2021, following the disclosure of then-President Donald Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find 11,780 votes.”
“The work is accomplished,” Willis told Atlanta TV station 11Alive over the weekend. “We’ve been working for two-and-a-half years. We’re ready to go.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:10:15 GMT -8
She Must Only Know One American
Alina Habba, a legal spokesperson for Donald Trump, on Sunday called the former president “the most ethical American I know,” days after he was charged with additional federal crimes for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after departing the White House.
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Habba decried last week’s superseding indictment in the case being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith as “election interference.”
“This is what happens when you’re winning in the polls and the Democrats can’t win,” she said, echoing Trump’s persecution claims.
Smith last week brought three new felony charges against the former president in the classified documents probe, including an allegation that Trump ordered Mar-a-Lago surveillance video deleted “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”
But Habba disputed the charge.
“No tapes were deleted. He turned them over,” Habba said. “He cooperated as he always does.”
She continued: “If President Trump didn’t want something turned over I assure you that is something that could have been done. But he never would act like that. He’s the most ethical American I know.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:14:19 GMT -8
I'm Sorry, But Before I Go, I Go I Have to Talk About Ron DeathSentence
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:17:28 GMT -8
He Need to Stick With His Night Job
Ed Sheeran dropped by an iconic Chicago restaurant known for its foul-mouthed staff and served up hot dogs amid a sea of insults on Saturday.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter stepped behind the counter of The Wieners Circle, where he served fans before his concert at Soldier Field.
The video shows one worker hurling a string of expletives at the restaurant’s patrons while Sheeran laughs his way through the experience.
“This place is legendary [in] Chicago for serving hot dogs and insulting their customers. I loved it,” Sheeran wrote in the caption.
In its own social media post, the restaurant referred to Sheeran as its “favorite bloke” and insulted the hitmaker over his job performance.
“Our newest trainee [Ed Sheeran] has a lot to learn, he’s way too proper and friendly,” the restaurant wrote.
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:19:14 GMT -8
Why Do They Feel the Need to Take a Poll About This?
Compared with the devil, angels carry more credence in America.
Angels even get more credence than, well, hell. More than astrology, reincarnation, and the belief that physical things can have spiritual energies.
In fact, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe in angels, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Bit Dp Amgels Believe in Americans?
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Post by mhbruin on Jul 31, 2023 9:20:20 GMT -8
There Are a Lot of Basketball Players Who Should Do Less Traveling
Brittney Griner Won't Travel For Next 2 Games To Focus On Her Mental Health
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