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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 9:51:01 GMT -8
  It Was the Best of Brains. It Was the Worst of Brains.According to psychologist Dr. John Gartner, formerly of Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Donald Trump's slurring and inability to sometimes formulate complete sentences appears to be a sign of growing dementia and possibly early stages of Alzheimer’s. In an interview with Salon's Chauncey DeVega, Gartner bluntly stated the former president is "showing gross signs of dementia" and fellow experts are not pointing out the warning signs nearly enough. Gartner, who has been warning about Trump's diminishing mental capacity since contributing to the 2017 book, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President," asserted the former president is becoming more dangerous by the day and the closer he gets to returning to the Oval Office. After telling Salon's DeVega, "There is also this focus on [President Joe] Biden's gaffes or other things that are well within the normal limits of aging. By comparison, Trump appears to be showing gross signs of dementia. This is a tale of two brains. Biden's brain is aging. Trump's brain is dementing," he was asked for evidence. |
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 9:52:40 GMT -8
Are the New Election Directors a Bunch of Election Deniers?
As the presidential election approaches, Pennsylvania is facing a deficit of experienced election directors, increasing the risk of errors that could cause difficulties for voters, disenfranchise their votes, and ignite disputes over results.
In total, 58 officials who served during the November 2019 election have left. Compared with experience levels during the 2019 election, the state has lost a combined 293 years of experience among the top county election officials as of this publishing date, according to a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis of county data. The state currently has 21% fewer years of experience than it did for the November 2019 election.
Recent ballot printing and administration errors in Greene and Luzerne counties, among others, show that having less-experienced county administrators can result in more problems occurring in an election. One of Greene County’s errors last year was an incorrect instruction telling voters to vote for up to three candidates in a commissioner race that allowed only two selections, which would have invalided their votes if they had done so.
“I think the loss of experienced election directors at the county level is one of the biggest dangers we face,” Secretary of State Al Schmidt said at a recent event in Lebanon County. “That turnover creates an environment where it’s more likely for mistakes to be made.”
The Department of State is hoping training programs and guidance on the highly technical aspects of running an election will help smooth the transition for new directors.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 9:59:41 GMT -8
Not so Sweet Carolina
A few exit poll findings stand out.
One is that 31 percent of voters said Trump wouldn’t be fit to serve as president if he’s convicted of a crime. South Carolina becomes the third early state to show that at least 3 in 10 voters said a convicted Trump wouldn’t be fit. (We don’t have data for Nevada.)
Just because these voters say he wouldn’t be fit doesn’t mean they wouldn’t vote for him, but it would surely be a hurdle for at least some voters to get over. And 5 percent of voters voted for Trump but said he would be unfit if convicted. [...]
The NORC analysis showed that 35 percent of voters said they would be dissatisfied with Trump as the nominee, and 21 percent said they wouldn’t vote for him in the general election.
At least 20 percent of voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have now said they will not vote for Trump in November.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:03:41 GMT -8
They Knew He Was Going to Win, But They Sill Showed Up to Vote Against Him
The networks announced Donald Trump’s victory tonight in South Carolina shortly after the polls closed. The headlines speak of a decisive victory. The Times reported Trump “trounced” Haley, landing a “crushing blow,” a “big win” over Haley who “lost decisively.” But as I write 87% of the vote is in and Donald Trump has 60% of the vote to Nikki Haley’s 39.4%.
I come at all of this from a somewhat different perspective, I guess. Because there wasn’t a moment throughout 2023, or late 2022 for that matter, when I wasn’t certain Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee. We knew that after Iowa and New Hampshire and we know it now. In a presidential election or even a contested Senate race 60-40 is pretty decisive. It’s plenty to make Trump the nominee. But I think we have to be honest and say that 40% of the electorate in a deeply Trumpy state like South Carolina voting against Trump is a huge showing of opposition precisely because the nomination race is effectively over.
It’s fair to say that this is Haley’s home state. She was two-term governor. That must figure into the equation. But 40% isn’t that different from the 43.2% she got in New Hampshire or the 40.3% Haley and Ron DeSantis got between them in Iowa.
I’m not going to speculate what it means for the general election. But this is a lot of persistent opposition for a candidate who has always been running as a de facto incumbent. Even if you set that de facto incumbency aside, it’s quite a lot for a candidate who is, whatever technicalities you want to get caught up in, the presumptive nominee. 40% of Republican primary voters are still showing up to say they don’t want Trump even when they know they’re definitely going to get him.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:05:05 GMT -8
Who Won the Week?
The Polk Award winners, including Reuters for reporting on Elon Musk's "nefarious" business practices, and Pro Publica for reporting on Clarence Thomas and his evil billionaire overlords
Judge Arthur Engoron: considers Trump's request for month-long delay in enforcement of $355 million in penalties from the fraud case he lost…and tells him to go pound sand
President Biden: forgives another 150k student loans; A+ response to Navalny murder; adds record $42 million to campaign coffers in Jan.; lands #14 spot on greatest presidents list as economy continues to hum
David Hogg of March For Our Lives, for buying ShopTrumpSneakers.com and other URLs related to Trump's latest grift…and directing them to an anti-gun violence site
Democracy in Wisconsin, as Gov. Tony Evers signs off on non-gerrymandered district maps, finally ending GOP's stranglehold on power in the state legislature
The U.S. space program, as NASA and Intuitive Machines successfully land spacecraft "Odysseus" on the moon---the 1st U.S. lunar landing in 50 years
The Washington state Senate, for voting overwhelmingly to make harassment of election workers a felony
Tribal sovereignty, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gives Native American reservations more power to reject hydropower projects on the water-scarce Navajo Nation
Empty chairs, as attendance at the mighty CPAC convention plummets amid leadership scandals, a ban on non-MAGA journalists, and speakers who call for an end to American democracy
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:10:33 GMT -8
A Rising Tide Doesn't Get Your Laundry Cleaner
Unless you’re unthinkably rich or lucky enough to have someone in your life who handles your household chores, you’re probably doing your laundry at least a few times a month. You’d think that would mean you know exactly what to do to ensure you’re getting your clothes as clean as possible — and maybe even saving some time, energy and money while you’re doing it.
Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you: You’re probably doing your laundry all wrong.
Not only did Richardson reveal that the only washing machine cycle we ever need to use (and he means ever) is the “express” cycle and that dryer sheets are our enemy, but he also informed us that we’re probably using our laundry detergent wrong too. More specifically: We’re using way too much.
“I think you only need about two tablespoons of detergent [for a load], so a bottle of laundry detergent might last you a year because you only need a couple of tablespoons for your clothes to come out clean,” Richardson, the host of HGTV’s “Laundry Guy,” told us.
He likened using too much laundry detergent to using too much salt when you’re cooking.
“When you’re cooking and the recipe says a half tablespoon of salt, and you put it in, it’s delicious,” Richardson said. “But if you’re like, ‘I love salt,’ and you put in a whole cup, it’s ruined, it’s not better. So that’s how to think about detergent: A little bit is really good, because it does what it’s supposed to do. If you add a whole lot more, you actually ruin it.”
There’s also a scientific explanation for why using too much detergent can mean you’re actually ending up with less clean clothes.
“The dirt and germs come off the clothes and go into the water,” Richardson, the author of the bestselling “Laundry Love,” explained. “They get trapped in the surfactant [compounds in detergent that lift dirt and stains from clothes] and then, when the rinse comes, the surfactant goes down the drain. If you use too much detergent, it can’t rinse out, so the surfactant actually resettles back in your clothes, and all of the dirt resettles back into your clothes with it. So more detergent means your clothes are actually dirty.”
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:20:41 GMT -8
The Judge Was Just Trying to Do Something About Teenage Drinking
An Illinois judge who sparked outrage by reversing a man’s rape conviction involving a 16-year-old girl has been removed from the bench after a judicial oversight body found he circumvented the law and engaged in misconduct.
The Illinois Courts Commission removed Adams County Judge Robert Adrian from the bench Friday after it held a three-day hearing in Chicago in November on a compliant filed against Adrian.
Its decision says Adrian “engaged in multiple instances of misconduct" and “abused his position of power to indulge his own sense of justice while circumventing the law.”
The commission could have issued a reprimand, censure or suspension without pay, but its decision said it had “ample grounds” for immediately removing Adrian from the bench in western Illinois' Adams County.
In October 2021, Adrian had found then 18-year-old Drew Clinton of Taylor, Michigan, guilty of sexual assaulting a 16-year-old girl during a May 2021 graduation party.
The state Judicial Inquiry Board filed a complaint against Adrian after the judge threw out Clinton's conviction in January 2022, with the judge saying that the 148 days Clinton had spent in jail was punishment enough.
The complaint said Adrian had acknowledged he was supposed to impose the mandatory four-year sentence against Clinton, but that he would not send him to prison. “That is not just,” Adrian said at the sentencing hearing, according to court transcripts. “I will not do that.”
Clinton was accused of sexually assaulting Cameron Vaughan. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.
Vaughan told The Associated Press in November, when she was 18, that Adrian’s reversal of Clinton's verdict left her “completely shocked” but determined to oust the judge. She attended the November commission proceedings with family, friends and supporters.
After Adrian threw out Clinton's conviction, Vaughan said that the judge told the court “this is what happens whenever parents allow teenagers to drink alcohol, to swim in pools with their undergarments on,” she recounted in an account supported by a court transcript of the January 2022 hearing.
Can We Do the Same Thing With Clarence Thomas?
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:22:37 GMT -8
It's Not Just What is Happening at the Border. It is What is Happening on the Other Side.Criminal gangs behind the U.S. drug epidemic are seeing accelerated growth, commanding greater control over more territory in Mexico, where they are largely free to murder rivals, neuter police, seize property and strong-arm municipalities into giving them public contracts. Gangs affiliated with Mexico’s two largest drug cartels—battling to the death over market share—have grown in number and influence since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018. He eased up under a policy he called “hugs, not bullets.” Arrests by Mexico’s national guard, created under López Obrador to replace federal police, fell to 2,800 in 2022 from 21,700 in 2018, according to the national statistics agency. Mexico’s retreat from interdiction opened the door to an expansion of criminal enterprises by cartels whose most lucrative business remains the production and transport of fentanyl and methamphetamine to the U.S. Softening prices for cocaine and marijuana have squeezed profits, prompting cartels to broaden extortion rackets and pursue new moneymaking schemes. Under the threat of force, city mayors are appointing gang members to local treasury offices, said two former mayors in Mexico’s state of Guerrero. Those jobs effectively give cartels control over contracts for municipal construction, procurement and other public services. Killings of government officials, candidates and political party members rose to 355 in 2023 from 94 in 2018, said Sandra Ley, a security expert at the México Evalúa research center. “It’s not just violence,” she said. “It is political, social control.” The spread of cartel control and increasingly violent tactics have driven Mexican families to the U.S. in record numbers. Around 87,000 Mexicans traveling with children were apprehended on the Southwest U.S. border in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, nearly four times as many as in the previous year, according to Border Patrol data. In December, nearly 30,000 were detained. By diversifying into migrant smuggling, cartels profit even from people trying to escape their control. Mexico’s ‘Hugs, Not Bullets’ Crime Policy Spreads Grief, Murder and Extortion
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:27:53 GMT -8
I Know I Never Told You There Would Be Math, But ...
How Justice Engoron’s numbers add up for Trump’s penalty in the N.Y. fraud trial
For the Old Post Office, Engoron said Trump’s profits from the 2021 sale amounted to $126,828,600 and that the Trump family would not have gotten the lease and operational rights to that hotel, which hosted dignitaries and fundraisers during Trump’s presidency, had it not provided false information to the Government Services Administration in the bidding process. By presenting the federal agency with a steeply inflated picture of Trump’s finances, he unfairly obtained the lucrative contract ahead of other candidates, according to the New York attorney general. Trump also owes $168,040,168 to cover savings he obtained in reduced interest rates by committing fraud, and he owes another $60 million in profits for the sale of the lease and management rights to the Ferry Point golf course in New York City, another contract that Engoron found the Trump Organization obtained through deception. Trump and the other defendants have been found liable of deliberately using inconsistent and misleading tactics — like tripling the size of Trump’s Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment to report an increased value — to magnify the overall financial worth to outside parties who relied on it to assess the terms of loans and other business deals.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:29:30 GMT -8
Give a Man An Artillery Shell, You Let Him Kill Russians for a Moment. Teach a Man How to Make Artillery Shells ...
Ukraine tripled its weapons production last year and 500 companies are now working in the country's defence sector, Kyiv's strategic industries minister said on Sunday.
Kyiv is searching for ways to strengthen its defences against Moscow's two-year-old invasion, including by boosting domestic arms production and innovation.
Oleksandr Kamyshin said during a televised conference in Kyiv that 100 state and 400 private companies were involved the effort, and that Ukraine this year plans "to considerably increase ammunition production."
In a separate address, Ukraine's digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said 90% of the drones used on the battlefield against Russian forces were produced in Ukraine.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:31:24 GMT -8
9 super weird things Trump said to a super weird CPAC
“While weaponized law enforcement hunts for conservatives and people of faith, religious, Hamas and antifa will terrorize our streets while their brutal ideology—and it is brutal indeed, it is brutal and horrible like nobody’s ever seen before—takes over our schools. China will dominate us, not just economically but militarily, and that’s what they want and that’s where they’re heading, but they weren’t heading there with me.”
Hamas on Our Streets. Who Knew Except the Stable Genius?
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:33:46 GMT -8
American Horror Story
You can imagine the horror among party bigwigs when Trump didn’t just oust the admittedly ineffectual Ronna McDaniel as the RNC’s chair, but replaced her with the ultimate nepo hire: his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. That horror would be further justified when she announced, with zero awareness of the organization’s purpose, that the committee would spend “every single penny” on Trump, that it was the “number one and only” job of the committee to elect Trump, and that it was the committee’s job to pay for Donald Trump’s legal bills.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 25, 2024 10:36:01 GMT -8
The Fact That He Might Win the Election Makes It Harder to Borrow the Money
Former President Donald Trump is gearing up to fight a massive fine in the New York business fraud case that threatens to erase most of the cash he says he has on hand.
But first, he has to secure a bond — and that might not be so easy.
Trump on Friday was ordered to pay about $355 million in penalties, plus more than $98 million in interest after a judge found the former president liable for fraud for manipulating financial statements given to lenders. Every day, the accruing interest adds $87,502 to Trump’s bill.
Unless he wants to pay the entire penalty while his expected appeal is considered, Trump will need to post an appeal bond. This is typically up to 120% of the judgment plus the current interest.
At that rate, Trump’s original ruling with interest would indicate he will need to secure a bond worth more than $540 million. But it’s unlikely that the real estate baron will be able to use his properties as collateral.
It’s “not very attractive to take real estate as collateral,” said Neil Pedersen, owner of New York-based surety bond agency Pedersen & Sons.
Trump could have to liquidate some assets to secure a bond, said Pedersen. The bond company will also charge a fee that could total millions of dollars.
An appeal of Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling could take years to play out.
Another complicating factor: Trump’s status as a presidential front-runner.
It’s an “unprecedented” situation for a potential bond company to commit to, Pedersen said.
“No one’s ever had to enforce an indemnity agreement against what could very well be the next U.S. president,” he said.
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