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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 9:51:53 GMT -8
If Americans switched from pounds to kilograms there would be mass confusion. Hamas Doesn't Really Want a Cease-Fire. They are winning.Hamas has rejected an Israeli proposal for a week-long truce in the Gaza Strip in return for the release of some 40 hostages, including all women and children the terror group still holds, according to a report Wednesday. Citing Egyptian officials, the Wall Street Journal reported that under the rejected proposal, Hamas would also free elderly male hostages who require urgent medical care. In exchange, Israel would halt air and ground operations in Gaza for a week and allow increased aid into the coastal territory. No Matter How Many Hamas Fighters Israel Kills, the Real Leaders Are Not in Gaza. Meanwhile, Respect for Israel Continues to Fall and Support for Hamas Rises.A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South GazaDuring the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians, according to an analysis of visual evidence by The New York Times. The video investigation focuses on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by U.S. forces in densely populated areas anymore. The War is Terrible for Palestinian Civilians. Hamas Doesn't Care. Every Day Video of Palestinian Tragedy Comes Out, and Helps Hamas. Israel's Strategy is Idiotic.Netanyahu's Gaza War Has Failed
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 9:54:27 GMT -8
Two Guys From Houston Claim to Know the Truth About Georgia Elextions
Activists Kevin Moncla and Joe Rossi previously filed a claim saying there were errors in Fulton County's recount of the 2020 election ballots. During a hearing Tuesday, the State Election Board delayed taking up the case, which angered the activists and supporters of Donald Trump.
“There are 19 people whose lives hang in the balance because they knew Georgia’s 2020 General Election and Senate run-off results were wrong. Those people were right. You can either properly investigate our complaints and verify the facts or I will show you publicly in the media," Moncla said.
He was referring to Trump and his codefendants who were arraigned on racketeering charges involving attempts to overturn the result of the election in the state.
Also read: Cops recover second sex video involving scandal-plagued Moms for Liberty leader: report
Moncla later sent an email to the Board.
“You may think that the Dog and Pony show yesterday concluded the matter — if so, you are sadly mistaken,” Moncla wrote.
“I urge you to contemplate and reconsider your responsibilities and position — for you are attorneys. I imagine that some of you would like to continue to be.” Moncla added: “We can address these matters privately or publicly but make no mistake — they will be addressed.”
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:00:30 GMT -8
A Bilionaire Wants His Employees to Work, Work, Work
As CNN reports, Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah sent a year-end message to workers extoling the virtues of both staying late at the office and of mixing work into their family lives.
"Winning requires hard work," said Shah in a message congratulating employees on a successful year for the company, first obtained by Business Insider. “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success."
While Shah may think that pushing employees to stay at the office longer is a winning strategy for future success, Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom told CNN that these sorts of messages are likely to backfire in the long term.
"If Wayfair wants to run a business where people work 80 hours a week, he’s going to have to put up their salaries by 50 percent to pay them for it," Bloom explained. “I don’t see this as being successful for the typical employee."
Bloom added that this is particularly true in the current American job market, where workers have many options to choose from if they are dissatisfied with their current jobs.
Video of Ideal Wayfair Workers
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:03:22 GMT -8
Actually, You Might Still Need a Lawyer If You Did Nothing Wrong. HOWEVER, Offering Something of Value to a Government Official in Exchange for an Action is Bribery.Donald Trump made a "staggering" admission of wrongdoing with a seemingly throwaway comment made on the bombshell recording of a call in which he apparently pressures Michigan canvassers to not certify the results of the 2020 election, a CNN analyst said Friday. Reporter Marshall Cohen highlighted a section of the recording, unearthed Thursday in a Detroit News report, in which Trump and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel are heard telling canvassers not to sign the certification of Michigan’s election result. “McDaniel said, ‘Do not sign it,’ referring to the certification papers. ‘We will get you attorneys,” Cohen reported.“Trump said, 'We will take care of that.’ Why do you need attorneys if you are not doing anything wrong? That's an incredibly staggering point.” In the recording, Trump is heard personally pressuring two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers to deny the result. On the Nov. 17, 2020 call, on which Trump is joined by McDaniel, he tells canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, “We’ve got to fight for our country. We can’t let these people take our country away from us.” He went on to say that “Everyone knows Detroit is crooked as hell.” Cohen called the call a massive piece of new evidence for special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is preparing to try Trump on federal election subversion charges. “If he doesn't have it, he definitely wants to get it,” Cohen said. “It could be a huge piece of additional evidence.” Here's a Good Summary of thie Story
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:07:22 GMT -8
Wait Until You Get a Whiff of this Vaccine
Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in 2020, the world has settled into an existence where the options are either constant vigilance against the SARS-CoV-2 virus or placing your health, and the health of everyone around you, at risk. Even those who have regularly updated their vaccinations have been forced to settle for a decreased risk of serious illness rather than the freedom to carry on without continuing precautions.
But as sharply as things changed three years ago, they may be about to change again thanks to a new generation of vaccines that are in testing right now. Over the past three months, medical journals and preprint sites have published promising studies about COVID-19 vaccines that go in through the nose rather than a needle. None of these vaccines is likely to become available in the short term, but for those who got an updated jab this fall (and if you haven’t, do so now), there’s hope that the 2023 round may be the last such shot.
Rather than becoming an annual rite, as flu shots have been for decades, future COVID-19 protection may be provided with a sniff. Better still, some of the vaccines are promising to not just reduce the risk of serious illness but also protect against infections. Best of all, at least one of the vaccines has hinted at the COVID-19 Holy Grail: robust and durable immunity.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:10:39 GMT -8
A Little Sunshine
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:12:31 GMT -8
The Gorsuch Gotcha
How Gorsuch made the case for banning Trump from the ballot
Trump also tried to argue that he is not barred from running for office because he’s an insurrectionist but only from holding office as an insurrectionist. This is absurd on its face, and the Colorado Supreme Court was able to dispose of that argument thanks to Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Back in 2012, Gorsuch was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In that capacity, he wrote the panel opinion in Hassan v. Colorado. Hassan, a naturalized citizen, sued Colorado, arguing it was required to put him on the presidential ballot even though he was not a natural-born citizen and was therefore not constitutionally qualified to run for president. The Tenth Circuit ruled against him, with Gorsuch writing that states have “a legitimate interest in protecting the integrity and practical functioning of the political process” and that because of that, they can “exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office.” It’s that quote that makes its way into the Colorado Supreme Court opinion.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:14:44 GMT -8
Where is Nate Silver When We Need Him?
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:16:38 GMT -8
Hamas Keeps Winning
There is not sufficient public evidence to support Israel’s claims that a Gaza hospital the country raided had served as a Hamas command center, according to a Washington Post investigation published Thursday.
The Israeli raid on al-Shifa Hospital last month, which was preceded by an evacuation order aimed at thousands of people sheltering at the hospital and hundreds of sick patients, produced one of the grisliest scenes in the country’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip: a “death zone” that included a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and dozens of desperate patients inside, according to the World Health Organization, whose aid workers arrived at the facility on Nov. 18 as part of a humanitarian mission.
Forty patients, including four premature babies, died in the hospital due to a lack of electricity in the days surrounding the raid, hospital administrators told the United Nations.
Israel had asserted that the hospital was used to direct rocket attacks and command fighters, and that Hamas tunnels could be accessed from five specific hospital buildings. And a U.S. administration official told the Post last week, “We are absolutely confident in the intelligence ... that Hamas was using it as a command and control node.”
But in an analysis based on satellite imagery, open-source visual information and releases from the Israeli military, the Post found that available evidence didn’t support these claims, and that its reporting raised questions about the legitimacy of the raid under international law. Hamas has denied Israel’s assertions about how the hospital was used.
Israeli forces did uncover one underground tunnel on the northeastern corner of the hospital complex’s grounds, but the Post noted that no evidence had been presented that the tunnel was actually in use during the current war — nor that it was connected to the five buildings in the complex that the Israeli military had said were being used by Hamas.
Just to Be Clear, I Do NOT Celebrate Hamas Winning. I Rue Israel Using Such a Dumb, Cruel Strategy to Attack Hamas.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:22:43 GMT -8
Should We Start Calling Previous Guy "Stinky"?
Donald Trump’s team has responded after former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) suggested the former president has an intense smell.
In a viral post over the weekend, Kinzinger, a vocal Trump critic, wrote, “I’m genuinely surprised how people close to Trump haven’t talked about the odor.”
“It’s truly something to behold. Wear a mask if you can,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, reacted via a spokesperson.
“Adam Kinzinger farted on live TV and is an unemployed fraud,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Independent. “He has disgraced his country and disrespects everyone around him because he is a sad individual who is mad about how his miserable life has turned out.”
It’s not clear what televised fart the spokesperson was referring to, but in 2019, people of the internet lost the plot after hearing what sounded like a toot during a live MSNBC interview with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), in an incident quickly dubbed “Fartgate.”
Kinzinger retired from Congress this year and went on to join CNN as a senior political commentator. Prior to his departure, he was one of two Republicans to serve on the Jan. 6, 2021, committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
It’s not the first time Trump’s scent has come up recently. Last month, during an appearance on “The Mary Trump Show” podcast, comedian Kathy Griffin said the former president had a “distinct smell” when she worked briefly with him as a guest on his reality show, “The Apprentice.”
“It’s like body odor with kind of like a scented makeup products,” Griffin recalled. “But you can smell the hair products even outdoors.”
Stinky and E. Jean Carroll
Back in the Days When Stalking and Sexual Assault Was Featured in Kids Cartoons
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:24:14 GMT -8
The Economy is Tom Bradying
U.S. prices fell in November for the first in more than 3-1/2 years, pushing the annual increase in inflation further below 3%, and boosting financial market expectations of an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next March.
The report from the Commerce Department on Friday also showed underlying inflation pressures continuing to subside last month. Cooling inflation left more income at the disposal of households, helping to underpin consumer spending and the overall economy as the year winds down.
"(Fed) Chair (Jerome) Powell couldn't have asked for a better present this year," said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. "So far at least, the endgame is turning out better than the Fed or nearly anyone could have imagined at the start of the year. While the Fed won't rush into cutting rates, it's likely now just a matter of time."
Inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, fell 0.1% last month, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said. That was the first monthly decline in the PCE price index since April 2020 and followed an unchanged reading in October.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:25:45 GMT -8
Helping People Who Fell Through the Cracks
President Joe Biden announced Friday he was granting clemency to nearly a dozen people who have been serving long prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
The president also announced he was signing a proclamation to pardon certain marijuana offenses, building on action he took back in 2022 to pardon thousands of Americans who had been convicted of simple marijuana possession.
"America was founded on the principle of equal justice under law," Biden said in a statement. "Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect this core value that makes our communities safer and stronger. That is why today I am announcing additional steps I am taking to make the promise of equal justice a reality."
Of the 11 people who will have their sentences commuted, some were convicted to decades or even life in prison for crack cocaine-related offenses.
"All of them would have been eligible to receive significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offense today," Biden said in a statement.
According to a White House official, some individuals received sentences twice as long as they would likely receive now.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:27:17 GMT -8
Hydrogen Isn't Just a Bunch of Hot Air
The U.S. proposed rules on Friday for how energy companies can access billions of dollars in tax credits for producing low-carbon hydrogen using new clean energy sources but left thorny issues, such as how nuclear power could benefit, uncertain.
The credit will be based on the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from the power source used in hydrogen production, and ranges from 60 cents to $3 per kilogram, the Treasury Department said in the 128-page proposal.
"The 45V clean energy hydrogen production tax credit is an important part of our strategy to unlock private investment across sectors to build a clean energy economy and tackle the climate crisis," John Podesta, a White House climate adviser, told reporters in a call.
To get the credit, hydrogen producers would have to prove they have used clean electricity built within three years that a hydrogen plant went into service. The Biden administration is, however, seeking feedback over the next two months from the nuclear industry and other low-carbon power generators on how their existing plants could benefit.
The uncertainty has concerned nuclear power producers looking to produce hydrogen using their virtually emissions-free electricity. Existing nuclear power is featured in three of the seven hydrogen hubs the Energy Department is supporting with billions of dollars in public funding. But building new nuclear power is costly and fraught with delays.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:28:56 GMT -8
Sanctions on Trying to Get Around Sanctions. With There Be Sanctions on Those Who Try to Get Around These New Sanctions? Recursive Sanctions?
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will sign an executive order allowing Washington to impose sanctions on financial institutions that help Russia evade sanctions, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
The executive order, part of a wider U.S. crackdown on sanctions evasion, also gives Washington the ability to ban products originating in Russia but processed in third countries, such as seafood and diamonds, Yellen said in a statement.
"Today we are taking steps to level new and powerful tools against Russia’s war machine," Yellen said. "And we will not hesitate to use the new tools provided by this authority to take decisive and surgical action against financial institutions that facilitate the supply of Russia’s war machine.”
Senior administration officials said the new executive order would make clear to financial institutions that they must either stop allowing their companies to ship components and goods to the Russian defense sector, or face significant sanctions.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2023 10:29:50 GMT -8
Isn't This An Act of War?
Iran’s paramilitary forces are providing real-time intelligence to Yemen’s Houthis that the rebels are using to direct drones and missiles to target ships passing through the Red Sea, Western and regional security officials said.
Tracking information gathered by a surveillance vessel controlled by Iran’s paramilitary forces in the Red Sea is passed to the Houthis, who have used it to attack commercial vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb strait in recent days, according to the officials.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon unveiled plans for a multinational naval force to protect merchant vessels in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, many of the world’s biggest shipping lines, oil producers and other cargo owners have started diverting vessels from the region, prompting a rise in oil prices and insurance rates.
Many vessels sailing in the strait have been switching off their radios to avoid being tracked online, but an Iranian vessel stationed in the Red Sea is enabling the Houthi drones and missiles to accurately target the ships, the officials said.
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