Also, it's going to be hard to keep Russians from finding out the truth about what's happening when they do this:
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Oh-ho!
Can't wait to see what SCOTUS does when it gets there. Hopefully they won't send it through the shadow docket, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE 5/6: Didn't have to get to SCOTUS.
Do you want cheaper gas or not?
I'm not crazy about pumping more oil. We should have been prepared a long time ago to cut our reliance on oil anywhere. But that's another story. This one is: They have no regard for the truth.
Pathetic.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
This must make Olaf Scholz feel bad
Bing's search page for "German chancellor"
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Stop this man
And we have seen that up close here in the person of Donald Trump.Almost exactly eight years ago, my op-ed on Putin was titled ”Stop this man.” Putin was not stopped and, as I’ve often said of dictators, they do not stop until they are stopped.
Garry Kasparov @ NY Daily News
Sure. Just let Trump have his little fit after losing the election. He'll then settle down and go away.We are now one month into his all-out war on Ukraine, an invasion and bombardment of a sovereign European nation of 44 million people.
Now that’s probably closer to 40 million, as millions of refugees, mostly women and children, try to escape the destruction of their homes and lives.
[...]
The smoking ruins and fleeing civilians are reminiscent of Putin’s other wars in Syria and Chechnya. Murdering thousands of innocents and bombing schools and hospitals with modern weapons is not “indiscriminate,” by the way. It’s an intentional strategy designed to demoralize and terrify the target population into capitulating.
Putin’s initial goal was to take Kyiv quickly, behead its leadership — perhaps literally — and install a puppet regime as he did in occupied Eastern Ukraine in 2014. Based on initial responses, it seems that the U.S. and other powers were equally confident that this would happen in a matter of days. Instead of preparing Ukraine for the invasion with weapons and sanctions, they prepared for negotiations and a quick return to their comfort zone of useless diplomacy.
[...]
Putin’s instincts about Western spinelessness were once again accurate. Following his old formula, previously employed in Eastern Ukraine as well as in the Republic of Georgia and Syria, he would use force to gain territory and concessions and the West would rush to accommodate him with diplomacy.
Someone forgot to tell the Ukrainians. As the Russian joke going around puts it, “We are now one month into the two-day operation to capture Kyiv.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to flee, reportedly responding to American offers to evacuate him with, “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.”
[...]
The media documented the unfolding horror in real time, with no doubt who the villain was. The exception being Tucker Carlson and some of his Fox News colleagues, who are so adept at parroting Kremlin propaganda that they should be paid in crackers.
[...]
The Ukrainian military has fought well and hard, with the passion of a people defending their country. Meanwhile, Russia’s forces have proven inept and uncoordinated, rotted through with corruption. Russian soldiers’ morale is as low as the morals of their leader.
[...]
Despite its surprising resilience, Ukraine is still badly overmatched. Putin has been building up his war machine for a decade, investing the hundreds of billions in profits from the Russian oil and gas the free world lined up to buy despite his crimes. (And many are still buying it, by the way.) Unable to defeat the Ukrainian military, Putin has continued with his usual modus operandi of turning on easier targets: civilians and infrastructure.
[...]
Sanctions will slowly eat away at Putin’s ability to fund his war and at Russians’ support of it, but thousands more Ukrainians will die without more immediate protection. Lack of food and electricity is affecting more major population centers by the day, a situation that will grow worse regardless of the short-term military balance.
[...]
It would repeat the mistakes of 2014 to allow Russia to continue to occupy an inch of Ukrainian territory, to let Putin claim victory and transition back to holding fake negotiations in nice hotels while he rearms and reloads to prepare for his next assault.
[...]
Zelensky is pleading with NATO and its member nations for more direct assistance, including a no-fly zone over the country. They have refused because such a step could lead to the direct engagement of Russian forces — as if NATO was created to issue memos instead of fighting to defend democracy.
[...]
As for escalation, Putin will do that anyway and it’s more likely the more confident he is the West will not intervene. Dictators like Putin don’t require provocation to escalate.
[...]
Putin has survived this long because he keeps raising the stakes and his opponents keep offering him lifelines. It’s time to pull up the rope. It’s time to live up to the ideals Ukrainians are dying for.
[...]
Putin is capable of anything, but he and his commanders are not suicidal. He blusters about nuclear weapons because he knows the effect it has. We must be resolute and do everything possible for Ukraine to achieve victory. If you’re so afraid of what a dictator will do if he loses that you’re helping him win, you should reevaluate your strategy and your character.
History you probably missed in school
Abraham Lincoln was involved in a duel. It has all the elements of cancel culture and political violence.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Speaking of Trump and burner phones
According to Rolling Stone, Jan. 6 planners were ordered to use cash to purchase burner phones that were used to communicate directly with the Trump family and White House officials. The request reportedly came from Kylie Kremer from the “March for Trump” group that helped plan the D.C. rally that later turned into the Capitol riot. According to the report, the phones were used to talk to figures including Donald Trump’s son Eric, his wife Lara Trump, and Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff.
Daily Beast
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.According to the three sources, some of the most crucial planning conversations between top rally organizers and Trump’s inner circle took place on those burner phones. “They were planning all kinds of stuff, marches and rallies. Any conversation she had with the White House or Trump family took place on those phones,” the team member says of Kylie Kremer.
[...]
Burner phones — cheap, prepaid cells designed for temporary usage — do not require users to have an account. This makes them hard to trace and ideal for those who are seeking anonymity — particularly if they are purchased with cash. The use of burner phones could make it more difficult for congressional investigators to find evidence of coordination between Trump’s team and rally planners.
[...]
Kylie and Amy Kremer helped lead the nationwide March for Trump bus tour, where speakers promoted false conspiracy theories about last November’s election and called for the results to be overturned. That tour culminated on Jan. 6, with the large “Save America” rally on the White House Ellipse, which took place as Trump’s loss was being certified at the U.S. Capitol. The Kremers also lead an organization called Women for America First, which obtained the permit for the Ellipse rally.
Rolling Stone
"Peace talks" fail
And yet, they want Ukraine to discuss letting them have the Donbas region.
Are we going to just watch a slow-motion Russian take-over? Give Ukraine the planes. Give them whatever they need.
UPDATE:
Ahem
I'd suggest McCarthy do it sooner than later before House Dems open an investigation, but the likelihood that Cawthorn was in the presence of Republicans when these things allegedly happened does not preclude the likelihood that Dems would find some fingers being pointed at them as well. Unless some good investigative journalists dig into the issue, I think Cawthorn, et al., are safe.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE:
In a word, no.Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who chairs the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus to which Cawthorn belongs, said he plans to speak to the North Carolina Republican one-on-one about the incendiary comment. Perry further indicated that Cawthorn should identify the individuals he alleges engaged in that behavior.
[...]
Cawthorn’s claims caused an internal uproar at Tuesday’s conference meeting. But as aggravated as Cawthorn’s colleagues may be by his salacious tales, they also know that digging more deeply into his stories may cause them more political problems.
[...]
When asked whether they would reconsider Cawthorn’s membership in the group if he didn’t make clear whom he has evidence of taking part in group sex and drug use, Perry wouldn’t say either way: “We will discuss that when we get to it,” he replied.
Politico
Sorry I missed that.Cawthorn first raised observing “sexual perversion” since he came to Washington during a podcast interview in which he was asked whether the TV show “House of Cards” — which features an ambitious, corrupt congressman trying to rise to power — is “fictitious” or more like a “documentary.”
It was a realistic depiction, Cawthorn suggested to the interviewer, claiming he had gotten sexually pursued and observed cocaine use since his election in 2020.
[...]
[S]ome members point[ed] to how he has faced media reports detailing sexual misconduct allegations against him before he was elected to Congress.
Just an all-around swell guy.McCarthy met with Cawthorn for about 30 minutes Wednesday morning, and later told reporters the 26-year-old freshman congressman needs to make life choices to "turn himself around."
McCarthy added Cawthorn admitted his allegations were exaggerated, saying Cawthorn drew his conclusion about cocaine use, for example, because he "thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage maybe 100 yards away" potentially consuming an unknown substance.
[...]
[McCarthy]did not rule out stripping Cawthorn of committee assignments when asked about the issue.
[...]
McCarthy earlier this month denounced Cawthorn after a video surfaced in which he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "thug" in charge of an "incredibly evil" government. Cawthorn has also faced numerous allegations of sexual harassment and was widely condemned for a 201Cawthorn is a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, and the ex-president has spoken admiringly of the congressman, whom he endorsed in 2020.
[...]
Cawthorn was also a prominent speaker at Trump's rally on January 6, 2021, before the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.7 post on his Instagram account celebrating his visit to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s retreat in the German Alps.
Forbes
The never-ending virus
New Covid strains: BA.2 and 3.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
We're next, no doubt.The BA.2 subvariant is thought to be about 30 percent more transmissible than the original BA.1 strain of omicron, which itself was already more contagious than earlier forms of the virus.
Scientists believe that part of BA.2's high level of transmissibility is caused by its unique mutations. BA.2 has eight mutations not found in BA.1, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
Just as with the other omicron variants, vaccines are less effective against BA.2 than they are against the original strain of the coronavirus, and protection wanes over time. However, a booster shot restores protection against the virus, especially when it comes to preventing severe cases that lead to hospitalization and death, according to data from the United Kingdom Health Security Agency.
[...]
A missing gene in BA.1 meant it could be tracked through a regular PCR test, whereas BA.2 can be identified only through genomic sequencing, according to Reuters. The same is true for BA.3, which is increasing in various places but at relatively low rates.
Despite the subvariant's high level of transmissibility, evidence so far shows that BA.2 does not cause severe disease.
[...]
The rise in cases in Europe due to BA.2 — which has hit Germany and the United Kingdom particularly hard — has also been driven by the loosening of coronavirus safety measures across the continent.
Ralf Reintjes, professor of epidemiology at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, told CNBC that the combination “of everyone thinking and expecting somehow that the pandemic is over now” and the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions gives the subvariant “a really good chance to spread extremely wild in many parts of Europe.”
The Hill
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE: Well, that was quick.
Susan Collins finally steps up
Since the vote hasn't happened yet, I hope I didn't jinx it.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Russia to pull back
Don't be fooled. It will be for two reasons:
1) To make a case later that they were willing to negotiate but Ukraine wasn't;
2) They need to conserve men and machinery, because they're losing too much.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Ted Cruz has got to go
He's not merely despicable.
Maybe he and Trump can share a cell.Sen. Ted Cruz was dining near the Capitol on the evening of Dec. 8, 2020, when he received an urgent call from President Donald Trump. A lawsuit had just been filed at the Supreme Court designed to overturn the election Trump had lost, and the president wanted help from the Texas Republican.
“Would you be willing to argue the case?” Trump asked Cruz, as the senator later recalled it.
“Sure, I’d be happy to” if the court granted a hearing, Cruz said he responded.
[...]
By Cruz’s own account, he was “leading the charge” to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as president.
WaPo
When did Ted Cruz ever have any principles?As Cruz went to extraordinary lengths to court Trump’s base and lay the groundwork for his own potential 2024 presidential bid, he also alienated close allies and longtime friends who accused him of abandoning his principles.
Oh, gee. You think?Cruz’s efforts are of interest to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in particular whether Cruz was in contact with Trump lawyer John Eastman, a conservative attorney who has been his friend for decades and who wrote key legal memos aimed at denying Biden’s victory.
Very, FFS. And this is why:[Cruz] proposed objecting to the results in six swing states and delaying accepting the electoral college results on Jan. 6 in favor of a 10-day “audit” — thus potentially enabling GOP state legislatures to overturn the result. Ten other senators backed his proposal, which Cruz continued to advocate on the day rioters attacked the Capitol.
[...]
Cruz and Eastman have known each other since they clerked together 27 years ago for then-U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig. Cruz’s proposal ran on a parallel track to Eastman’s memos.
[...]
“It was a very dangerous proposal, and, you know, could very easily have put us into territory where we got to the inauguration and there was not a president,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a Jan. 6 committee member, said earlier this year on the podcast “Honestly.” “And I think that Senator Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. I think that Senator Cruz is somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside.”
[...]
The committee has not announced the subpoena of any member of Congress as it deliberates how aggressively to pursue that line of inquiry.
He'll do it again if he isn't held accountable.As Cruz fought to keep Trump in the White House, he frequently noted that this was not the first time he had played a leading role in trying to turn a contested election in favor of the Republican presidential candidate. Indeed, he had laid the groundwork 20 years earlier.
Shortly after the 2000 presidential contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, Cruz — then a 29-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School — received an urgent request: There was going to be a recount of the Florida vote and Bush’s campaign wanted his help.
Cruz rushed to Tallahassee and arrived that afternoon, and he said he believed that after a “quick, perfunctory legal proceeding,” Bush would be declared the winner. But there were serious questions about who had received the most votes in Florida. By Cruz’s account, he played a pivotal role, rewriting briefs and sleeping for “a total of seven hours” in his first six days in Florida.
Quite simply and accurately put.Carly Fiorina, who Cruz said he would have picked as his 2016 running mate, tweeted on Jan. 8, 2021, that “we must hold people to account,” not just those who stormed the Capitol, but also “those who actively enabled this clearly unacceptable behavior like Senators,” including Cruz.
Asked in an interview with Washington Post Live in May 2021 why she thought Cruz had spread unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, Fiorina said of Cruz and others who aided Trump, “My only explanation is they’re focused on short-term political gain, political expediency and clinging to power.”
Can't read a room.Cruz, meanwhile, is making all the moves of a likely 2024 presidential candidate appealing to the Trump base.
He went on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to apologize for calling Jan. 6 “a violent terrorist attack,” saying his “frankly dumb” language referred only to those who attacked police officers, not “peaceful protesters supporting Donald Trump.” He played up claims that the government was somehow involved in the attack on the Capitol, asking an FBI official at a Senate hearing, “How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?”
Last month, he visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and tweeted a photo of the meeting. He rode shotgun in the lead vehicle in a trucker convoy protesting pandemic-related mandates in a March 10 event. He posed a series of confrontational questions to Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson regarding her views on anti-racism.
Asked recently by an online site called the Truth Gazette whether he is considering seeking the presidency again, he responded: “Absolutely, in a heartbeat.”
Russian journalists interview with Volodymyr Zelensky
If you can find the time, I recommend watching this.
This man was our PRESIDENT!
So probably it did happen, but JFC, the evidence of mental issues is that he put out a "Statement by ...45th President..." detailing it.
Still, I prefer him bragging about golfing rather than having the power of the presidency.
FFS.The shot was not filmed, but Trump shared a video of himself retrieving the ball from the hole as his companions clapped.
Yahoo
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Remember, DeSantis wants to be president
You think he won't be any worse than Trump? I'm not sure.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Defending parental rights until parents want to support their children's transgender identities.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday signed the state’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill — known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — into law. It will take effect July 1.
DeSantis during a signing ceremony at Classical Preparatory School in Spring Hill, Fla., said he's seen "classroom materials about sexuality and woke gender ideology" and "libraries with clearly inappropriate, pornographic mature materials for very young kids."
The governor, standing behind a podium reading "Protect Children" and "Support Parents," also claimed to have found at least six school districts in Florida had policies to "cut parents out of decisions regarding their child's well being."
Ther Hill
And who decides that?Educators of all grade levels are prohibited from engaging in instruction on those topics in a manner that is not “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for children.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Move over Rosemary Woods
LOLOL!White House logs that were given to the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol have a gap of more than seven hours in former President Trump’s phone records on Jan. 6, 2021, documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News reportedly show.
The news outlets reported that the gap in Trump’s communications stretches from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on the day of the attack, contradicting reports on several phone calls Trump had during that time period.
[...]
Phone conversations that reportedly occurred with Trump during the gap of 7 hours and 37 minutes gap include conversations with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), whom Trump called in order to get in touch with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), the Post noted.
[...]
A spokesperson for Trump stated the records were not controlled by Trump and the former president believed all his communications were logged that day, according to the news outlets.
"I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term,” Trump reportedly said in a statement Monday, referring to a disposable phone.
The Hill
...but hey, say what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE 3/30:
I don't know who believed Trump anyway. He insists he knows everything, except when he doesn't know anything. What a joke.John Bolton, the former national security adviser, has revealed that he heard Donald Trump use the term “burner phones” several times and that they discussed how the disposable devices were deployed by people as a way of avoiding scrutiny of their calls.
The Guardian
Also, John Bolton didn't need to tell him about the use of burner phones. The man has been tangled up with the Russian mob for decades. He understands burner phones.
I'm gonna need some clarification here.An official review found that the White House phone records for Jan. 6, 2021, are complete, CNN reported Thursday, citing a source familiar with the matter, following reports earlier in the week that the call logs given to the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol had a gap of more than seven hours that day.
The source told CNN that no pages were found to be missing from the six-page White House phone logs from Jan. 6.
The outlet also reported, citing multiple sources familiar, that the Jan. 6 phone records appear typical based on former President Trump’s habits. Trump often opted to have staff use landlines or cellphones to place calls for him while he was in the Oval Office, which would not be recorded in the White House switchboard records, sources told CNN.
The Hill
Let's check out that CNN report.
So maybe technically "complete", but it only makes it more of a problem if that's the way he normally did business. Who knows what sleeze, corruption and crime he was committing via phone calls outside the official record.In the seven hours during which White House records show no phone calls to or from then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, among the calls that are conspicuously absent is one Trump made to then-Vice President Mike Pence that morning from the Oval Office.
While the call is not specifically noted in the presidential diary or the presidential call log, its existence has been corroborated by multiple sources who were with Trump and Pence that day, including former aides who testified before the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack. And it's not the only call Trump is known to have made in that timeframe that is not reflected in the records.
[...]
According to multiple sources familiar with Trump's phone behavior and the White House switchboard records, the January 6 log reflects Trump's typical phone habits. He mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on January 6, 2021, from the Oval Office is not unusual, said the sources, because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log.
CNN
UPDATE 4/2: So maybe not even technically complete...
Putin: war criminal and monster
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Monday almost 5,000 people have been killed in the Ukrainian city since the Russian invasion began.
Among the dead are 210 children, according to the mayor, as hundreds of thousands have fled the city, Reuters reported.
The city estimates 150,000 fled Mariupol after Russia’s attack and another 140,000 left before the invasion began.
Boichenko said 170,000 individuals are still trapped in the city, which has been a central part of the humanitarian crisis.
Critical utilities and food have been cut off, and buildings from hospitals to schools have been shelled as Russia has focused its attack on the city due to its strategic importance.
The city has seen 40 percent of its buildings destroyed, and 90 percent damaged, according to Boichenko.
[...]
"People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe," he added. "We need to completely evacuate Mariupol."
If Russia is able to take Mariupol, they could create a land bridge to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
The Hill
Expand this
You can go beyond 1/100th and 20%.
And then hammer it from now till November that the Republicans, via Rick Scott of Florida, are offering a tax on middle and low-income families instead.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Monday, March 28, 2022
Concur
Emphasize: "Pursuing accountability for those responsible."
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
The 2000 election was the beginning of the end of US democracy
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)