;)
March 9, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Vadim Ghirda & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "A Russian attack severely damaged a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine said Wednesday, and citizens trying to escape shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv streamed toward the capital amid warnings from the West that Moscow's invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter that there were 'people, children under the wreckage' of the hospital and called the strike an 'atrocity.' Authorities said they were trying to establish how many people had been killed or wounded. Video shared by Zelenskyy showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal and room after room with blown-out windows. Floors were covered in wreckage. Outside, a small fire burned, and debris covered the ground." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Do Putin & his military strategists think that slaughtering Ukrainian newborns, women in labor and healthcare workers is a good way to win the hearts and minds of Ukrainians?
Tucker Reals of CBS News: "The power supply was cut to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said, blaming Russia's invading forces for the blackout and warning that it could lead to 'nuclear discharge.' The U.N.-backed global nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, downplayed concerns of an imminent radioactive release, but a Ukrainian national emergency services agency said if power to the plant's cooling systems -- which keep spent nuclear fuel safely surrounded by water -- is not ensured, it could create a 'radioactive cloud' to blow over 'other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Europe.'"
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In the final years of Donald J. Trump's presidency, Republicans portrayed Ukraine as an Eastern European Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs and unlawful politicians, a bad actor that sought to tamper in American elections and channel millions of dollars to Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son. 'We're talking Ukraine,' thundered Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, in 2019, describing the country as 'one of the three most corrupt countries on the planet.'... Now such voices are fading, as the bulk of the Republican Party tries to get on the right side of history amid a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republicans are among the most vociferous champions for the United States to amp up its military response, and are competing to issue the strongest expressions of solidarity with Ukraine's leaders." Read on. ~~~
~~~ Marie: To the extent that Ukraine was a "Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs," the country was aided & abetted in those illicit endeavors by Americans like Republican operative & short-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was collecting bags full of cash from crooked, pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians. Then Vice President Joe Biden, on the other hand, was pressuring Ukraine's corrupt leaders to straighten up & fly right. Funny how that worked, innit? ~~~
~~~ To Wit. Aw, Shucks, a Dilimma for Shady Lobbyists, Lawyers & Super-Wealth Managers. Matthew Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "... a constellation of American and European advisers -- including some of the world's largest law firms -- ... have long helped Russian oligarchs navigate the Western financial, legal, political and media landscapes. Now..., lawyers and investment advisers are coming under intense scrutiny for work that weeks earlier was occurring almost entirely below the public radar.... Some firms parted ways with Russian clients whose praises they had been singing in the days leading up to the invasion."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday finalized a roughly $1.5 trillion measure that would provision massive funding increases for key federal health, science, education and defense programs, setting in motion a bipartisan push to stave off a looming government shutdown set to occur at the end of the week. The release of the sweeping spending package, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, put to end a tumultuous few months of bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill. It opened the door for the House to vote as soon as Wednesday on the measure, which lawmakers have used as the vehicle to advance roughly $14 billion in new humanitarian, military and economic assistance for Ukraine. But the chamber's attempts to take swift action ran into an unexpected snag, after a group of Democrats objected to the way that the bill sought to source roughly $15 billion in new coronavirus aid from an existing stimulus fund set aside for state governments."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "New York Supreme Court Judge David B. Cohen has now ruled that voting-machine company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and Rudolph W. Giuliani can proceed. The case involved numerous false and baseless claims made on Fox about voter fraud involving the company's voting machines.... The ruling ... says that claims made by Giuliani, Fox host Maria Bartiromo and now-former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs could meet the legal standard of claims being 'so inherently improbable that only a reckless person would have put [them] in circulation.'... The judge noted that the company must prove Fox met the standard of acting with 'actual malice.'... And on that count, the judge says the best evidence that it did is [Tucker] Carlson. That's because ... Carlson said ... that [Trump lawyer Sidney] Powell ... had yet to substantiate [her claims about Smartmatic, even though he had asked her to provide evidence of the company's wrongdoing].... 'Therefore,' [the judge noted,] 'there are sufficient allegations that Fox News knew, or should have known, that Powell's claim was false, and purposefully ignored the efforts of its most prominent anchor to obtain substantiation of claims of wrongdoing by [Smartmatic]." ~~~
~~~ Marie: And you thought TuKKKer wasn't a journalist!
~~~~~~~~~~
Putin's War, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Wednesday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia's Central Bank limited withdrawals of foreign currency, hoping to shore up the plunging ruble as Western economic penalties take a serious toll. In Ukraine, efforts to evacuate civilians from battered cities resumed, but many remain trapped in the areas of heaviest fighting."
The Washington Post's live updates of Wednesday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Attempts to evacuate civilians continued on Wednesday, as both sides announced routes to allow people to leave hard-hit cities. But Ukraine said it remained skeptical of Russia's new commitments to temporary cease-fires -- after accusing ... Vladimir Putin's forces of shelling the escape routes four days in a row.... China on Wednesday restated that it considers the United States and NATO responsible for pushing tensions between Russia and Ukraine to a breaking point, as Beijing steps up support for the Kremlin even while claiming it is not taking sides in the war."
Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The United States will ban imports of oil and natural gas from Russia, President Biden announced Tuesday, a decision reached after days of behind-the-scenes talks that revolved around protecting the global economy from an energy shock. The move represents one of America's most far-reaching actions to penalize Moscow since the beginning of its invasion into Ukraine. It would carry enormous geopolitical consequences, as the price of oil has already skyrocketed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, creating huge new costs for businesses and consumers.... Europe, which is far more dependent on Russian energy than the United States, announced Tuesday a plan to cut gas imports from Russia by two-thirds this year. If successful, this move would sharply reduce but does not completely sever energy ties to Moscow.... Russian oil accounts for about a quarter of the European Union's oil imports, but just 3 percent of the United States' imports." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "The de-facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have declined to arrange calls with US president Joe Biden in recent weeks as the US and it allies have sought to contain a surge in energy prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing Middle East and US officials, both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan have been unavailable to Biden after US requests were made for discussions.... Last week, OPEC+, which includes Russia, declined to increase oil production despite western entreaties.... Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have chilled during the Biden administration over American policy in the Gulf region." MB: Okay, I'll admit this would not have happened if Trump were president*.
Zelensky Is No Hamlet. Mark Landler & Marc Santora of the New York Times: "In a dramatic video address to Britain's Parliament, clad in his now-famous military fatigue T-shirt, [Ukraine's President Volodymyr] Zelensky echoed Winston Churchill's famous words of no surrender to the same chamber at the dawn of World War II as Britain faced a looming onslaught from Nazi Germany. 'We will fight till the end, at sea, in the air,' Mr. Zelensky said with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag draped behind him. 'We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.' The speech, the first ever by a foreign leader to the House of Commons, was the climax of Mr. Zelensky's darkest-hour messaging to fellow Ukrainians and the world in what has become a typical 20-hour day for him in Kyiv, the besieged capital.... To Shakespeare's elemental question, 'to be or not to be,' he said, Ukrainians had decided 'to be.'"
Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: "The Pentagon on Tuesday evening dismissed Poland's proposal floated hours earlier to transfer its MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States for delivery to Ukraine. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement that the Pentagon did not believe Poland's proposal was 'tenable,' just hours after Polish officials released a statement saying the government was ready to deploy all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to US Air Force's Rammstein Air Base in Germany so they could then be provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.... The idea as laid out by Poland was too risky, Kirby said, as the US and NATO seek to avoid an outright conflict between the alliance and Russia." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Alexander Vindman, appearing on MSNBC, said the way this proposal & rejection rolled out in public was the result of the Biden administration's mishandling of the matter. Vindman said that, in general, the Biden administration was not very nimble in its reactions to fast-changing circumstances. Even though the Pentagon had done a good job of getting massive amounts of weapons & related materiel to Ukraine, those transfers were pre-planned. MB: When you also consider the Afghanistan pull-out catastrophe, it's kind of hard to argue with Vindman. There appears to be some kind of serious breakdown among the White House, the National Security Council, the Pentagon & State.
Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Top U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday that ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had been surprised and unsettled by the problems that have hampered his military in Ukraine, issues that will make it more difficult for Russian forces to control the country. But Mr. Putin is determined to succeed in Ukraine, and will try to double down and use ever more brutal tactics, the officials said during an appearance before the House Intelligence Committee. America's intelligence agencies, which before the attack released information on Russia's troop buildup and war plans, will work to highlight Russian atrocities and crimes, a continuation of the information war that helped rally the West to impose tough sanctions on Ukraine, the officials said.... Given the problems the Russian military has faced, and the rising will of Ukraine to fight, intelligence officials predicted the war would intensify. William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director [MB:and former ambassador to Russia], is anticipating an 'ugly next few weeks.'" ~~~
~~~ Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the two-week invasion of Ukraine -- possibly more than the number of Americans killed in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said during a worldwide threats hearing before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning that analysts give the estimate low confidence.... The estimate underscores the steep price Russia is already paying for a conflict that Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, in the same hearing, called 'a shock to the geopolitical order with implications for the future that we are only beginning to understand.'"
Sahil Kapur & Scott Wong of NBC News: "Congressional Republicans are championing President Joe Biden's decision to ban Russian oil imports to the U.S., a highly anticipated move that could continue to push gas prices to record highs. But in the same breath, GOP leaders ... are trying to capitalize by blaming Biden and his energy policies for Americans' having to pay more at the pump. Republicans argue that Biden could have it both ways -- sanction Russian oil but also keep U.S. prices down by allowing a rampant increase in domestic production, which they argue Biden isn't doing in furtherance of liberal environment goals. But oil production isn't a spigot that can just be flipped on, and the domestic market has been suppressed not just by federal rules, but also by an international market that depressed the price and made drilling unprofitable. Democrats point to the thousands of wells that have been approved but aren't being drilled." See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of today's thread.
U.K. Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "The UK will phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of 2022 and is exploring options to ending gas imports, the energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has confirmed. The decision ... came as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to address the House of Commons. The day after Boris Johnson said western nations would need a 'step-by-step transition period' away from Russian hydrocarbons, Kwarteng warned businesses they should 'use this year to ensure a smooth transition so that consumers will not be affected'." (Also linked yesterday.)
Paka Paka, Big Mak. Social Media Boycott Campaigns Worked. Julie Creswell of the New York Times: "Amid mounting pressure to act, McDonald's announced on Tuesday that it was temporarily closing its nearly 850 locations in Russia and halting operations in the country. Soon after the McDonald's announcement, other prominent food companies and restaurants followed. Starbucks said it, too, was closing all of its locations in Russia, where they are owned and operated by the Kuwaiti conglomerate Alshaya Group. Coca-Cola said it was halting sales there. And PepsiCo, whose products have been in Russia since the early 1970s, said it would no longer sell Pepsi and 7-Up there but would continue to produce dairy and baby food products in the country as a 'humanitarian' effort and to keep tens of thousands manufacturing and farm workers employed.... Yum, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said on Tuesday that it was suspending operations at 70 company-owned KFCs and all 50 franchise-owned Pizza Huts in Russia. (The vast majority of the 1,000 KFCs in Russia are franchise-owned and, at this time, not part of these suspensions.)" A CNBC story is here.
Mark Thompson of CNN: "Shell (RDSA) said Tuesday it was breaking completely with Russia's giant energy industry, halting all purchases of Russian crude oil immediately and shutting its service stations in the country. The UK-based company, which last week announced it was dumping its investments in Russia, said its decision to abandon all trade in Russian fossils fuels was 'aligned with new government guidance.'... Shell will also immediately begin to shut down its service stations, aviation fuels and lubricants operations in Russia in 'the safest way' possible, and begin a phased withdrawal from Russian petroleum products, pipeline gas and liquified natural gas." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The New York Times said on Tuesday that it was temporarily removing its journalists from Russia in the wake of harsh new legislation that effectively outlaws independent reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 'Russia's new legislation seeks to criminalize independent, accurate news reporting about the war against Ukraine. For the safety and security of our editorial staff working in the region, we are moving them out of the country for now,' a spokeswoman for The Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday.)
Venezuela. Ana Herrero & Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "The Venezuelan government has released at least two Americans detained in the country for years, according to five people with knowledge of the situation, days after a U.S. delegation made a rare trip to the socialist state. Among those released on Tuesday was Gustavo Cárdenas, one of the six executives of Citgo Petroleum Corp. who were arrested during a business trip to Caracas in November 2017 and later charged with corruption. The other was Jorge Alberto Fernández, a tourist who was detained and accused of terrorism for flying a drone early last year, according to a human rights defender in Venezuela.... The release comes after a group of senior U.S. officials traveled to Caracas on Saturday for a meeting with President Nicolás Maduro to discuss the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports as the Biden administration weighed banning imports of Russian oil." ~~~
~~~ President Biden's statement is here, via the White House.
Sonia Moghe of CNN: "A dual Russian-American citizen has been charged with acting as a spy in the US, according to court filings that say she ran organizations that 'sought to spread Russian propaganda.' Elena Branson was charged Tuesday with acting and conspiring to act in the US illegally as an agent of the Russian government, willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiring to commit visa fraud and making false statements to the FBI, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint alleges that Branson fled to Russia in 2020."
The Good News. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress gave final approval on Tuesday to the most sprawling overhaul of the Postal Service in nearly two decades, sending President Biden legislation intended to return the beleaguered agency to solvency and address pandemic-era mail delays. The Senate voted 79 to 19 to approve the measure, which passed the House last month with overwhelming bipartisan support. Mr. Biden was expected to sign the bill, which the agency's leadership and an array of interest groups support." ~~~
~~~ The Bad News. Marie: No doubt there will be a signing ceremony in the Oval Office or thereabouts, and it's likely that Fat Bastard Louis DeJoy will shove his way to a prominent spot next to the President for the photo-op.
Jacob Kornbluh of the Forward: "Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday blocked a vote on the nomination of Deborah E. Lipstadt as the Biden administration;s antisemitism envoy. Instead Johnson met with a group of truckers in Washington, D.C., in protest of the COVID-19 mandates and to support those imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Jewish groups expressed outrage at the holdup, with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt calling Johnson's behavior 'disgraceful.' The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to vote to advance Lipstadt's confirmation, one of about a dozen nominations, following a long-delayed and contentious hearing last month."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Tuesday laid out its theory for potential criminal charges against ... Donald J. Trump, arguing before a federal judge that he and the conservative lawyer John C. Eastman were involved in a conspiracy to perpetrate a fraud on the American public as part of a plan to overturn the 2020 election. The allegations, which the committee first leveled against the men last week in response to a lawsuit filed by Mr. Eastman, could determine just how deeply the panel can dig into emails, correspondence and other documents of lawyers close to Mr. Trump who have argued that such material should be shielded from scrutiny because of attorney-client privilege.... The House committee's argument is a risky one. If Judge [David] Carter were to reject its claims, the inquiry's legal team would be less likely to win support for a criminal prosecution unless investigators unearthed new evidence."
Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House Jan. 6 committee has ... [been attempting to trace] every dollar that was raised and spent on false claims that the election was stolen.... The [scrutiny] is part of an effort by the committee's 'green team' to scrutinize whether the Trump campaign, its affiliated super PACs, the Republican National Committee and protest organizers knowingly used false claims that the election was stolen to dupe donors and raise large sums of cash.... The primary objective is to determine whether email solicitations spreading false claims of election fraud served as a powerful source of misinformation, prompting the need to make proposals for strengthening campaign finance laws. The committee will also consider if any laws were broken and refer those to the Justice Department...."
** Guilty, Guilty, Guilty. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A Texas man who helped lead a pro-Trump mob in an advance on the police at the Capitol last year was convicted on Tuesday of obstructing congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election, bringing an end to the first criminal trial to stem from the violent assault. The guilty verdict against the defendant, Guy Wesley Reffitt, came only about three hours into the first day of jury deliberations and after a weeklong trial that included testimony from police officers, a Secret Service agent, one of Mr. Reffitt's compatriots in the Texas Three Percenters militia group and Mr. Reffitt's son. The jury also convicted Mr. Reffitt of wearing an illegal pistol on his hip during the attack and of later threatening his teenage son and daughter to keep them from turning him in to the authorities. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the obstruction count alone." (Also linked yesterday.)
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, has been charged with conspiring with other top lieutenants of the far-right nationalist group to attack the Capitol last year, according to an indictment set to be released on Tuesday by federal prosecutors.... Mr. Tarrio was not in Washington on Jan. 6, having been arrested two days earlier for having vandalized a Black Lives Matter banner at a Black church in the city after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020. Mr. Tarrio, who was also charged at the time with carrying two high-capacity rifle magazines, was ordered to leave Washington by a local judge as part of his release agreement. But prosecutors say that he issued orders before the attack on the Capitol for members of the group to be dressed 'incognito' when they arrived in Washington on Jan. 6. He also took part in a private Telegram group chat as several leaders and members of the Proud Boys stormed the Capitol." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Julianne McShane of the Washington Post: Ali "Fensome, a [Manchester, England,] software developer, built ... a bot, writing code that leads it to perform the function listed in its Twitter bio: 'Employers, if you tweet about International Women's Day, I'll retweet your gender pay gap,' it warns. By the end of the day on Tuesday, @PayGapApp had gone viral, with more than 120,000 followers. It had also sent out hundreds of tweets calling out companies with information about their hourly median gender pay gaps.... [In the U.K. in 2020,] women earned about 85 percent of what men did on average.... In the United States in 2020, women on average earned 83 percent of what men earned, according to the American Association of University Women. The disparities are starker along racial lines, with Black women being paid 64 percent of what White, non-Hispanic men did in 2020 and Latinas being paid 57 percent of what White men made that year, according to AAUW. Native American women typically earn only 60 percent of what White men earn, according to the National Women's Law Center, which also notes that the wage gap typically stands at 85 percent for Asian American and Pacific Islander women."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
David Fahrenthold of the New York Times: The F.B.I. has carried out a series of raids of supposed non-profit organizations around Minneapolis that claimed to be feeding thousands of children with federal pandemic relief funds administered by the state of Minnesota but was actually a "'massive fraud scheme' among groups that Feeding Our Future was supposed to oversee, saying they siphoned off tens of millions of dollars by charging taxpayers for nonexistent meals.... 'Almost none of this money was used to feed children,' the government wrote in one filing. 'Instead, conspirators misappropriated the money and used it to purchase real estate, cars and other items.'... In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden said that 'billions' in pandemic aid had been stolen, and that he would soon name a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud."
Congratulations, People! We All Own a Rare Pokémon Card. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: The federal government now owns, and will auction off, a Pokémon trading card a Georgia man bought with Small Business Administration funds intended for coronavirus relief. "The man, Vinath Oudomsine, 31, of Dublin, Ga., was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Friday.... Prosecutors said that he had claimed [to own a business that] had 10 employees and gross revenues of $235,000 during the 12 months before the coronavirus pandemic.... Prosecutors said there was no such business. The fraud scheme came amid a booming market for older cards and Pokémon Trading Card Game packs. Some veteran collectors said that has somewhat cooled off compared with earlier in the pandemic."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Mask mandates have disappeared rapidly in the last few weeks in the United States as Omicron cases have receded. But some school districts, cities and one state are holding out, and some teachers, parents and students fear that dropping mask mandates in schools is premature. As of Monday, Hawaii remains the only U.S. state that is not lifting its statewide indoor mask mandate. About a third of the school districts in the United States still require masks, according to the school tracking site Burbio...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Covid-19 may cause greater loss of gray matter and tissue damage in the brain than naturally occurs in people who have not been infected with the virus, a large new study found. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature, is believed to be the first involving people who underwent brain scans both before they contracted Covid and months after. Neurological experts who were not involved in the research said it was valuable and unique, but they cautioned that the implications of the changes were unclear and did not necessarily suggest that people might have lasting damage or that the changes might profoundly affect thinking, memory or other functions." MB: And I'd like to add that this is no excuse for Donald Trump, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul & all the other Republicans who contracted Covid, often because they were careless. They were dopes three years ago, and they would be dopes today if they'd never had Covid. (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Michigan. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "A Republican candidate favored to win a seat in the Michigan House said he tells his daughters to 'just lie back and enjoy it' if raped, as he attempted to make an analogy about abandoning efforts to decertify the results of the 2020 election. Robert Regan, who is running to represent Michigan's District 74 in the state legislature, made the comments during a Facebook live stream Sunday."
Missouri. Caroline Kitchener of the Washington Post: "... a prominent antiabortion lawmaker in Missouri, from where thousands of residents have traveled to next-door Illinois to receive abortions since Missouri passed one of the country's strictest abortion laws in 2019, believes she has found a solution. An unusual new provision, introduced by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R), would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy behind the restrictive law in Texas that since September has banned abortions in that state after six weeks of pregnancy. Coleman has attached the measure as an amendment to several abortion-related bills that have made it through committee and are waiting to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.... The measure would target anyone even tangentially involved in an abortion performed on a Missouri resident.... [The] amendment also would make it illegal to manufacture, transport, possess or distribute abortion pills in Missouri."
Pennsylvania. Possession of AR-15 Is 9/10ths of the Law. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that a 72-year-old former lawyer from Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to a plot to travel to D.C. and attack Senate Democrats. 'Kenelm Shirk III, 72, was arrested less than two weeks after the riot at the Capitol when his wife contacted authorities to say he had threatened her life during an argument over the 2020 presidential election,' reported A.J. MacDougall. 'Shirk had also told her he was planning to attack a number of unnamed federal lawmakers, according to police. State police stationed along an interstate subsequently spotted Shirk's car at a gas station and arrested him. In his car, officers found an AR-15 rifle, two handguns, and a box of ammunition.'" The Daily Beast story, which is firewalled, is here.
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Reader Comments (12)
Just wondering…
Party of Traitor, um, traitors, having had their dictator loving fee-fees bruised after it became clear that Putin was bombing residential areas and cutting power to places like hospitals, are attempting to wipe the blood off their faces, putting up a fierce, if phony, anti-Putin front (but what about those posters they have all over their bedrooms of a bare chested Putin on horseback waving around automatic weapons?) by screeching for Biden to cut off purchases of Russian oil.
So, class, a question…
How long after Biden pulls the plug on Rooskie oil, will these same screechers attack him for higher gas prices?
You see, in a crisis, typically, decent, honorable people don’t take advantage of the situation for personal and political gain. I mean, that would be gold medal, galaxy class asshole material, right?
But we are talking about Republicans here, correct?
So, gold medal galaxy class assholes it is!
Of COURSE they’ll attack Biden for doing what they demand he do. Then they’ll release TV ads telling voters that the war, higher prices at the pump, and rainy days and Mondays are all the fault of Joe Biden.
The best overhaul of the postal service would be to stamp “Return to Sender” on DeJoy’s fat ass and mail him back to Trump. He probably thinks that $100 billion approved by the Senate is for him. Trump salted the federal government with scores of greedy, incompetent frauds (just like himself) to fuck up the various departments and agencies. DeJoy is not quite as incompetent as some, but he’s expert at the fucking up part.
More snakes in the shithole…
So…more R scandals, more proof of (illegal) Russian help to get the Fat Fascist into the White House.
Here we have this guy, a scammer and creep, Jesse Benton, who has worked on the staffs of Moscow Mitch, Li’l Randy, and Randy’s whackadoodle daddy, Ron. Oh, he’s also related by marriage to both the Paul pills. Anyways, while toiling for Whack Job Ron, ol’ Jesse was convicted of “campaign finance crimes”, back in 2012. But he got a nice little Stay Out of Jail pardon for those crimes from Fatty.
Guess why? He illegaled some more finances for him! Yippers. During Trump’s Putin assisted theft of the presidency in 2016, Jesse worked out a deal to have a Russian national funnel a packet of dough to the Trumpskyev campaign. Super illegal, natch, cuz that’s how all these dickheads roll.
But it gets better. This Russian guy transferred $100,000 to ol’ Jesse so’s he could pass it on, illegal-like, to Fatty, which he did. Sort of. Benton sent along $25,000 and pocketed the rest for himself! Hahaha. Bet Trump didn’t know that. Otherwise, President* Transaction-Man would never have forked over the pardon. Or maybe he’d have given him just 1/4 of a pardon.
But that’s real snake-in-the-shithole material right there, ain’t it? Lessee, here’s a gift to the Trump campaign from one of Putin’s pals. Wicked illegal! What should I do? I know! One for you, three for me!
A true R grifter.
And a big part of the campaigns of Li’l Randy, daddy Ron, Moscow Mitch, and Pee-Pee Tape Trump.
What a fucking nest of crooks and vipers.
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-rand-paul-aide-charged-with-funneling-russian-money-into-election-2021-9
@AK: You hit the nail on the head. This morning, in the Lowe's parking lot in upstate NY, there was a vehicle with this inscription scrawled on its back window:
Gas ^ $7 / Gallon. Thanks, Joe!
First. Gas is $4.50 / gallon
Second. He should be thanking Vlad
Morons everywhere
AK: How I wished I could be a student in your class this morning and all mornings cuz we would have a blast. But following this virtual romp through the selling of false gods and shoddy goods I'll add a few more tasty morsels to even up the "fucking nest of crooks and vipers."
Apropos of your mentions of vipers: Some lame brain male tried to slither past the U.S. border in California with 52 lizards and snakes hidden in small packages in his clothing and groin area–-pity the poor creatures their perilous journey, all being endangered species.
But the zinger this morning in the U.S. of A. is a good ole boy by the name of Robert Regan, known, of course, as R.J.––them good ole boys like the sound of two letters. This guy, we are told, is running for state rep. in Michigan. ( story above) and sees nothing wrong by telling his three daughters that if they get raped to just "lie back and enjoy it." Lay, lady, lay––-and one of those daughters sent out a plea to voters to please NOT vote for my dad. This "dad" also is a big Putin fan and why not? goes with the territory.
So the fact that we are engulfed in Putin's war we continue to be bombarded in this country with the usual suspects––all those crooks and vipers–-- nicely hidden in the crotch.
Not political, but the end of a long--and genuinely heroic--story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/climate/endurance-wreck-found-shackleton.html?smid=em-share
And would recommend "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing to those who have not already encountered Shackleton's remarkable tale of survival.
While Shackleton and his crew were busy surviving, isolated from Armageddon, millions were dying in WWI, and they didn't know.
Would be much harder today to be that isolated...unless you watched only Faux News.
Here is a quote from the WaPo article today concerning that MI GOP a$$ who said to colleagues that he tells his daughters to lie back and enjoy rape:
"... Regan’s three daughters urged voters not to elect him to office in a viral tweet during his 2020 bid for the state House.
“If you’re in Michigan and 18+ pls for the love of god do not vote for my dad for state rep. Tell everyone,” Stephanie Regan wrote on Twitter."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/08/gop-candidate-rape-2020-election/
Republicans are right. Voter fraud is EVERYWHERE.
Here is another GOP voter fraud state rep and candidate-in-crime, who last week spoke at the Nick Fuentes wankfest. Another mobile home, another fraudulent registration:
"... Rogers and her husband own a 2,900-square-foot home with a pool in Tempe, according to public records. But since 2015, she has been registered to vote about 160 miles away in Flagstaff, where records show she owns a 700-square-foot mobile home.
“Anyone with practical logic, and an open mind, can see that [her] claim of a legitimate primary residency in Flagstaff is a scam,” wrote Gila County Republican Chairman Gary Morris in a news release during the 2020 campaign. At the time, a Rogers spokesman denounced the attack as a “smear” and said she lived in Flagstaff and only went to her other home to visit her grandchildren.
Absentee ballots for the primary and general elections that year were mailed to Rogers’s Tempe address, according to public records. State law requires candidates live in the county they represent for at least one year before election, but the rule is rarely enforced. ... "
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/03/08/wendy-rogers-arizona-nick-fuentes-censure/
Mike Luckovich of the AJC has a good comment on the terrible times we're going through with high priced gasoline: https://www.gocomics.com/mikeluckovich/2022/03/09
I wonder what the unfortunate person who had to read all of the many rambling, poorly worded applications for Trump's Nobel Peace Prize was thinking yesterday when they were reading about him trying to start a war between Russia and China by painting Chinese flags on them and saying "wasn't us".
RAS,
Worse, he thought it was funny and so did the snarky, snarling sycophants listening to his bellicose twaddle, ‘cause what’s funnier than a war between two nuclear powers, started as a joke by a clown who ran away when it was it was his turn to serve, but who sees death and destruction as just something else that makes him look “smart”?
Republicans moralists (and they are all moralists) are absolutely bonkers about controlling other people's bodies:
https://www.newsweek.com/idaho-house-passes-anti-trans-youth-treatment-bill-hb675-1686298
But lying about everything as a matter of course is just fine.