Kindly remember Pope Francis made children and the crosses they bear a focus this Easter.
Thank you and good night.
Sunday, April 04, 2021
This is RADIOACTIVE WASTE. How long does DeSantis PLAN to have Manatee County a dead zone?
No one can afford to sit by and let physics and gravity have it's way. That is the CHEAP Republican answer. The Governor of Florida needs to PUMP THE LOUSY WASTE POND DRY and transport the radioactive liquid to a safe deposit area. That all has to be coordinated through the President of the USA and the US Army Corps.
I also want to know how many violations this place has accumulated and why under Trump NOTHING WAS DONE about it?
What does the Florida EPA have on record and why weren't they screaming at the top of their lungs. The US EPA needs to have it's offices throughout the country report in on more of these "death pools," including and especially in coal country.
There have been and are crimes being committed here. It did not get this bad because people were doing their jobs and the right thing for the people.
By Ryan Callahan and Ryan Ballogg
Manatee County remained under a state of emergency (click here) Sunday as federal, state and local leaders worked to contain a leak at a former phosphate processing plant that threatens to contaminate the area with millions of gallons of polluted water.
A worst-case scenario could send 20 feet of contaminated water flooding from the site, Acting Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said Sunday during a news briefing with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A total breach that spurts out uncontrolled water could also destabilize gypsum stacks containing radioactive material.
Crews on Friday found a breach in the site’s largest pond, which originally contained about 480 million gallons of water. Because of potential flooding, an emergency evacuation order was ordered in the area, and it has been expanded to more than 300 homes. U.S. 41 remains closed to traffic to Moccasin Wallow Road.
“The models for less than an hour could be a 20-foot wall of water,” Hopes said. “If you’re in an evacuation area and you have not heeded that, you need to think twice.”...
Noah Green is a home grown terrorist.
His methods of killing are straight out of the playbook in the UK. Trapping police between a car and some kind of barrier and then wielding a knife. If he had a gun he would have done far more damage than he did.
My complete sympathies to the family of the dead officer, but, this guy is a homegrown terrorist.
To the left Noah Green. Great American kid until he gets pissed off. Now, how much is Farrakhan involved in the anger that set this guy off?
Washington D.C. —The suspect who killed a Capitol Police officer (click here) and injured another has been identified as Noah Green—a self-proclaimed “Follower of Farrakhan”—and not “a White male” as MSNBC falsely reported, or a “white supremacist” as many mistakenly presumed.
Green, who posted several Facebook posts as a proud follower of the Nation of Islam, rammed a car into the barricade at the U.S. Capitol, striking two Capitol Police officers. Green then got out of the car and attempted to attack other officers with a knife before he was shot and killed during the rampage.
Within the past few weeks, Green posted several concerning social media posts—before Facebook took down Green’s profile, as the NY Post reported....
Americans no longer have to send their daughters to Aruba to find the most dangerous beaches in the world.
By Monica Galarza
Christine Englehardt left her home in Buck County, Pennsylvania, to travel to Miami’s spring break, an annual liquor-fueled street and beach party.
Two North Carolina men (click here) have been arrested and accused of drugging and raping a woman who later died in a room at the Albion Hotel on Miami Beach, police say.
The men, 21-year-old Evoire Collier and 24-year-old Dorian Taylor, also stand accused of stealing the victim's credit cards and cash and using them during their trip to South Beach....
By Jessie O'Neill
A vigil has been planned (click here) for the 24-year-old Pennsylvania woman who police said was drugged and raped before being found dead in her Miami Beach hotel last week.
Christine Englehardt will be remembered at the Albion Hotel in Miami Beach on Friday evening at an event that is expected to be attended by local officials and activists, according to NBC’s South Florida affiliate.
The event will also feature a performance from a gospel singer, the report said....
“We cannot allow her death to be in vain,” a news release announcing the vigil reportedly said. “We must show that this type of behavior will cease to happen in Miami Beach.”...
DeSantis doesn't deserve a medal for any of this governance. It was and is horrible. I would think a governor would LEARN SOMETHING about governance with Spring Break 2020, but, no, not Ron DeSantis. The super spreading events are his specialty.
March 27, 2021
By Chris Persaud
Only a week or two (click here) after widely shared videos showed crowds of teens and twentysomethings partying on South Florida's beaches, health officials are finding a surge of coronavirus infections in younger people.
Half of COVID-19 cases dated March 1 were found in people 39 or younger, but that median age has since dropped to 35.
Florida remains the nation's hot spot for the more infectious mutations of the viral pathogen, federal data shows. Health care workers have found 1,075 as of Friday — 1,042 of which are the so-called British strain — according to the latest data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And that is an undercount, as many such cases go unreported because they go untested....
People in government and running for office simply can't make up stories for their own purposes.
Every company in the USA has a right to have it's dignity and REPUTATION intact at the end of any election cycle. Allegations being made by demented politicians should never be rewarded. Here again, a decent American company is taking on the corruption within the USA government and making it easier to be an American.
The lies of the 2020 elections and their reverberation through the media is due to right-wing extremism that learned the truth is not as motivating as lies intended to make Americans fear their government. In all honesty, this sounds like a strategy carved out by Putin. He would love to be able to control the voting machines in this country. Everything being said by desperate politicians sounds as though they have a corrupt Russian teacher.
That is the real trick with the minions of Trump. They are definitely liars and seek to control the government to their own advantage. A different example of this is Ron DeSantis. He is touting how he minimized the impact on Florida's economy while only achieving half the cases and deaths than some states in the USA. Really? Florida has been a HUB OF THE INFECTION THROUGHOUT THE USA since Spring Break 2020. Does he actually think he will get away with pretending he didn't cause the spread of the virus throughout the country through young people that are unwitting to his lack of leadership?
By Craig Mauger
Lansing — Dominion Voting Systems (click here) is demanding that Patrick Colbeck, a former Michigan lawmaker, retract "false claims" he's been making about the company in PowerPoint presentations.
Dominion sent Colbeck, who's from Canton, a letter on Friday, according to a document obtained by The Detroit News. The company says Colbeck is waging a "disinformation campaign" while touring Michigan to give presentations entitled "Case for MI Decertification," which blames Dominion for "stealing the election" from former President Donald Trump.
"You are knowingly sowing discord in our democracy, all the while soliciting exorbitant amounts of money — totaling over $1 million so far — from your audiences paid directly to your personal business," says the letter signed by attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier....
The Florida COVID-19 data isn't even accurate. One of the reasons the researchers (click here) decided to look at Florida statistics is because it was the first to lift the sanctions to PREVENT the spread of the virus. How convenient that DeSantis was able to manipulate the statistical reporting to make Trump's pronouncements seem real and the best way forward; Economic returns while Americans all over the country died due to "The Florida Super Spreader Events."
By Deidre McPhillips
...Their research found (click here) that "the impact of COVID-19 on mortality is significantly greater than the official COVID-19 data suggest." Nearly 5,000 excess deaths in Florida between March and September 2020 are "unexplained," according to the study.
However, a CNN analysis of excess mortality data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that's another data point in which Florida is just about average....
I think Major League Baseball is absolutely correct in their actions against racism in government.
The only way to end racism and oppression, especially when Americans make their choices who will lead this country at any level of government, is to stand together. The fans of MLB should not only stand with organizations and PLAYERS, they should support these brave efforts.
I congratulate the MLB. More organizations should join the ranks of those that want to end racism and oppression in the USA.
I am proud of them. They aren't just in it for the money for a stronger America. I think oppression and racism are very dangerous for our society. The stronger the fabric of the American flag the better a country we have.
The corruption of the Trump White House was downright scary and nearly robbed the people of freedom. This is the correct thing to do for the MLB and it is not going unnoticed. Oppression and racism as institutionalized in Georgia voting laws are a threat to everyone. The power of the many is far better than the power of the one. We witnessed that with the Trump White House and now we have to defend our country at every turn. The MLB just made it easier.
By Shi Davidi
Rob Manfred (click here) has focused intensely on the business of MLB. How he's going about it is a study in some of his earliest moves as commissioner of the league.
Toronto - The discourse is too easily hijacked (click here) in these disquieting culture-war days, distilling complicated issues into a rhetorical jingoism that prevents rational conversation and nuanced arguments.
Predictably, Major League Baseball landed in the woke-versus-MAGA fray with its decision Friday to pull the all-star game from Atlanta, in protest of Georgia’s new election bill that places several restrictions around the state’s voting process. Media proxies spent Saturday dutifully howling into the echo chambers of their respective audiences, the usual bluster replacing anything that might resemble productive debate.
Rather than falling down the rabbit hole, let’s emphasize that any election reform that wins approval on a strict party-line vote, rather than bi-partisan support, is designed to give someone the shaft. In the wake of Stacey Abrams’ loss to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018 by less than 55,000 seats, after Democrats flipped a pair of senate seats in last year’s election, with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of widescale voting fraud debunked, the Georgia law is a blatant attack on the voters – often Black – who fuelled those gains....
Predictably, Major League Baseball landed in the woke-versus-MAGA fray with its decision Friday to pull the all-star game from Atlanta, in protest of Georgia’s new election bill that places several restrictions around the state’s voting process. Media proxies spent Saturday dutifully howling into the echo chambers of their respective audiences, the usual bluster replacing anything that might resemble productive debate.
Rather than falling down the rabbit hole, let’s emphasize that any election reform that wins approval on a strict party-line vote, rather than bi-partisan support, is designed to give someone the shaft. In the wake of Stacey Abrams’ loss to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018 by less than 55,000 seats, after Democrats flipped a pair of senate seats in last year’s election, with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of widescale voting fraud debunked, the Georgia law is a blatant attack on the voters – often Black – who fuelled those gains....
Three names come to mind, Trump, Bannon and Putin, not necessarily in that order.
We have witnessed Donald John Trump move a prince from the fringe in Saudi Arabia to the next ruler of the country. A vicious killer ruler as well.
We know for a fact Bannon is engaged in destabilizing The West. He has created a toxic conservative movement in nearly every country the USA calls an ally. The fact of the matter is Bannon and Trump are allies of Putin. So, I would not be surprised if somewhere along the way Crown Prince Hussein didn't mentoring from any three of them.
King Abdullah (click here) is young and healthy, but it’s never too early to introduce the country’s next ruler, Crown Prince Hussein, to key U.S. officials.
Amman - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Yousef Huneiti (click here) on Saturday night denied reports that HRH Prince Hamzeh had been arrested but said the prince was asked to “cease all activities or movements exploited to target Jordan's security and stability” as part of comprehensive investigations conducted by security authorities.
He said Sharif Hassan Bin Zeid and former minister Bassem Awadallah, and others, were arrested as part of it.
The army chief added that investigations are ongoing and that results will be revealed in “a transparent and clear manner”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The procedures that have been taken are in line with the law and came after thorough investigations, Huneiti said.
He stressed that “no one is above the law and that Jordan's stability and security are above all considerations”.
Earlier in the day, a security source said that Sharif Hassan Bin Zeid and former minister Bassem Awadallah, among others, were arrested for “security reasons” .
Investigations are underway into the issue, Petra, reported....
The US State Department said that His Majesty King Abdullah is a “key partner” of the US.
The procedures that have been taken are in line with the law and came after thorough investigations, Huneiti said.
He stressed that “no one is above the law and that Jordan's stability and security are above all considerations”.
Earlier in the day, a security source said that Sharif Hassan Bin Zeid and former minister Bassem Awadallah, among others, were arrested for “security reasons” .
Investigations are underway into the issue, Petra, reported....
The US State Department said that His Majesty King Abdullah is a “key partner” of the US.
Saturday, April 03, 2021
GET VACCINATED! IT WORKS!
I had all the apprehensions everyone else does. But, it went fine. I had two doses of the Moderna vaccine. It was fine.
Get vaccinated.
By Karen Weintraub
Six months after getting a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (click here) as part of a 46,000-person clinical trial, volunteers remained more than 90% protected against symptomatic COVID-19 and even better protected against severe disease, a new company study found.
Out of 927 trial participants who fell ill with COVID-19 more than a week after their second dose, only 77 had received the active vaccine, compared with 850 who got a placebo.
There were no serious safety concerns among the 12,000 volunteers who are at least six months past their second dose, according to the newly released findings. Many, however, did have typical, short-term side effects such as fatigue and sore arms.
The study also showed that the vaccine is effective against a virus variant called B.1.351, first identified in South Africa....
This is Holy Week and while Pope Francis had a glorious ceremony for children on Good Friday...
...the right-wing wackos in the USA are killing people. I do not want to hear how the right-wing has god on their side. It is a huge lie. Even Northern Ireland wasn't this disregarding of God. Perhaps we need to start peace talks with the idiots of the right. Ask Tony Blair to begin. He was successful with the radicals in Ireland.
April 2, 2021
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis (click here) presides at the Way of the Cross, in a near-empty St Peter’s Square: a poignant symbol of the solitude and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic imbued by the hope provided by the reflections prepared by children....
This holy season Pope Francis wants all to concentrate on the crosses children carry. In a country where parents are dying in hails of gunfire it is easy to say American children definitely are bearing their own crosses.
April 2, 2021
By Emily Cochrane, Nicholas Fandos, and Ben Decker
Washington - The band of razor wire-topped fencing (click here) around the Capitol had recently come down. The heavy National Guard presence had begun to thin.
But on Friday, not quite three months after the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, a car came careening midday onto the Capitol grounds, slamming into two Capitol Police officers and leaving one of them dead and the other injured.
This time, the source of the violence was not an angry pro-Trump mob, but a lone driver, armed with a knife, who had recently told friends he had left his job and had “afflictions.” After crashing his car and menacing officers, he was shot and killed.
“It is with a very, very heavy heart that I announce one of our officers has succumbed to his injuries,” Yogananda D. Pittman, the acting Capitol Police chief, said during a news conference near the scene. “This has been an extremely difficult time for U.S. Capitol Police, after the events of Jan. 6 and now the events that have occurred here today.”...
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis (click here) presides at the Way of the Cross, in a near-empty St Peter’s Square: a poignant symbol of the solitude and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic imbued by the hope provided by the reflections prepared by children....
March 31, 2021
By Jordan Culver
Four people, including a child, (click here) are dead after a suspect opened fire at an office building in Southern California, according to police.
Details were scarce late Wednesday regarding the incident in Orange, California, but Orange Police Department Lt. Jen Amat told reporters at the scene four people died and the suspect in the shooting was injured and taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition. Officers recovered one gun, she said.
One woman was injured and hospitalized in critical condition, Amat said. Both the woman and the suspect suffered gunshot wounds, Amat said. She added she didn't know if the suspect's wound "is self-inflicted or not."
There was no additional information about the suspect or the victims. Amat stressed there was no ongoing threat to the public and had no information about weapons found at the scene....
Get this straight.
There is absolutely no moral content to the killing by right-wing extremists. This is more than the security of the US Capitol. This is about guns and killing within the borders of the USA.
Why should the Capitol have to be secured at all? Before Trump's insurrection, it was never an issue.
By Emily Cochrane, Nicholas Fandos, and Ben Decker
Washington - The band of razor wire-topped fencing (click here) around the Capitol had recently come down. The heavy National Guard presence had begun to thin.
But on Friday, not quite three months after the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, a car came careening midday onto the Capitol grounds, slamming into two Capitol Police officers and leaving one of them dead and the other injured.
This time, the source of the violence was not an angry pro-Trump mob, but a lone driver, armed with a knife, who had recently told friends he had left his job and had “afflictions.” After crashing his car and menacing officers, he was shot and killed.
“It is with a very, very heavy heart that I announce one of our officers has succumbed to his injuries,” Yogananda D. Pittman, the acting Capitol Police chief, said during a news conference near the scene. “This has been an extremely difficult time for U.S. Capitol Police, after the events of Jan. 6 and now the events that have occurred here today.”...
Friday, April 02, 2021
Three Flint residents are challenging the attorney fees. I congratulate them.
April 2, 2021
By Lia Kamana & Caleb Holloway
That is what the McKenzie Patrice Croom Flint Community Lab is all about.
You first heard about the lab right here on Mid-Michigan Now back in 2020.
The community lab, like most things this past year, was impacted by the coronavirus, so they did have to put programming and water testing a bit on hold.
Now they are moving full steam ahead with a brand-new group of high school students in to make it all possible.
“People are happy to see us in the community. Sometimes you get some pushback, they don’t believe this is something that can help them, but primarily, by and large people want to know what is happening in their water so we are going to be providing that, trying to bring that trust back into the community.” - Michael Harris – Partner, Flint Development Center Community Water Lab...
The community lab, like most things this past year, was impacted by the coronavirus, so they did have to put programming and water testing a bit on hold.
Now they are moving full steam ahead with a brand-new group of high school students in to make it all possible.
“People are happy to see us in the community. Sometimes you get some pushback, they don’t believe this is something that can help them, but primarily, by and large people want to know what is happening in their water so we are going to be providing that, trying to bring that trust back into the community.” - Michael Harris – Partner, Flint Development Center Community Water Lab...
March 30, 2021
By Beth LaBlanc
A Washington D.C.-based law center (click here) representing three Flint residents is challenging the $202 million attorney fee request in the water crisis settlement, arguing the amount should be millions of dollars less.
Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute's Center for Class Action Fairness is challenging pro bono the proposed attorney fees, which would shift about 32% of the $641 million settlement away from Flint residents and to the lawyers who have represented them over the past several years. The residents are claiming damages for lead contamination of the drinking water and Legionnaires' disease cases linked to the water source shift.
The group is asking U.S. District Judge Judith Levy to demand more transparency regarding the attorney costs that merited the 32% request and allow Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to weigh in on the proposed attorney fees....
March 31, 2021
By Beth LaBlanc
About 45,400 people (click here) have registered to participate in a $641 million settlement to compensate individuals affected by the Flint water crisis, but it is not a final tally, according to a court filing released Wednesday.
Thousands of electronic and mailed registration forms are still being reviewed, although some of them appear to be redundant, case special master Deborah Greenspan said in the filing. The claims administrator expects to receive more registrations from Flint's roughly 95,000 residents with postmarks of March 29 or before.
The claims administrator "estimates that it will take at least a week to complete the review and additional time after that to determine the number of duplicative registrations," Greenspan said.
People who have submitted a registration will be contacted by the claims administrator....
Speaker Pelosi is responsible for the US House.
Less than a month ago a warning went out.
March 3, 2021By Mark Katkov
The House of Representatives (click here) has canceled its Thursday session after the U.S. Capitol Police said it is aware of a threat by an identified militia group to breach the Capitol complex that day.
The Senate plans to remain in session on Thursday to debate amendments to the COVID-19 relief bill.
March 4 is a significant date for far-right conspiracy theorists who believe that former President Donald Trump will return to power on that day. Presidents were inaugurated on March 4 until 1933, after which the 20th Amendment to the Constitution moved the date to Jan. 20....
Just a little over an hour ago this went out. Trump has to answer for this. He broke the law. The Presidential Records Act requires the preservation of all records in the White House by an exiting administration. If the records are gone, then they were destroyed. That is a crime.
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) (click here) of 1978, 44 U.S.C. ß2201-2209, governs the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents that were created or received after January 20, 1981 (i.e., beginning with the Reagan Administration).
April 2, 2021
By Phil Mattingly
The White House (click here) says it no longer has custody of the documents House Democratic investigators sought to shed light on the inner workings of then President Donald Trump's top aides in the lead up to, and on the day of, the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
"It has been the longstanding practice for all White House records to be transferred to the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of each President's tenure," White House counsel Dana Remus wrote in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat.
"As a result, NARA is the appropriate entity to address your request, and should have any records responsive to your request; we do not have custody of such records at the White House," Remus wrote.
House Democratic committee chairs, on March 25, sent letters requesting documents and communications from before, during and after the attack on the Capitol, from a wide range of entities, including the White House, federal agencies, local law enforcement and the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms....
Here we go with a ton of misinformation. One report says officers at the Capitol were rammed with a vehicle and this one said there were gunshots. So, what is the actual report this time?
April 22, 2021
By Michael Balsamo
Police locked down the U.S. Capitol on Friday afternoon (click here) after a report of gunshots in the area.
U.S. Capitol Police say all Capitol buildings were being locked down “due to an external security threat” and staff members were told they could not enter or exit the buildings.
A law enforcement official says officers were responding to a report of a possible shooting on a street near the Capitol complex. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured.
The official could not discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity....
April 2, 2021
By Phil Mattingly
The White House (click here) says it no longer has custody of the documents House Democratic investigators sought to shed light on the inner workings of then President Donald Trump's top aides in the lead up to, and on the day of, the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
"It has been the longstanding practice for all White House records to be transferred to the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of each President's tenure," White House counsel Dana Remus wrote in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat.
"As a result, NARA is the appropriate entity to address your request, and should have any records responsive to your request; we do not have custody of such records at the White House," Remus wrote.
House Democratic committee chairs, on March 25, sent letters requesting documents and communications from before, during and after the attack on the Capitol, from a wide range of entities, including the White House, federal agencies, local law enforcement and the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms....
Here we go with a ton of misinformation. One report says officers at the Capitol were rammed with a vehicle and this one said there were gunshots. So, what is the actual report this time?
By Michael Balsamo
Police locked down the U.S. Capitol on Friday afternoon (click here) after a report of gunshots in the area.
U.S. Capitol Police say all Capitol buildings were being locked down “due to an external security threat” and staff members were told they could not enter or exit the buildings.
A law enforcement official says officers were responding to a report of a possible shooting on a street near the Capitol complex. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured.
The official could not discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity....
There is no doubt at all that Putin is attempting to end the life of Alexei Navalny.
Symbolism aside, Alexei needs holistic medical advice. While I understand his pain is great and he is feeling the loss of sensation and strength in his legs it may not be due to additional poisoning this time with arsenic, but, more his lack of sleep.
Pain in the human central nervous system is resolved by sleep. Pain will build to a frightening crescendo with a lack of profound sleep. Being awaken every hour is torture. There is nothing in his jail sentence that exposes him to such treatment. It is an enormous human rights violation at the very least by Putin to allow such hatred against Navalny by the prison guards. This is a leader of the Russian people and in that, all courtesy should be extended to him in his prison cell.
The suffering Alexei Navalny is being exposed to is more of the oppression of the Russian people to kill their hope. I doubt this round of cruelty by Putin and his minions will result in the death of the demand for freedom and an uncorrupt democratic process.
This lack of pure democratic practices is everywhere Putin places his footprint including Belarus. Putin's ideas of governance is dead. It is dead everywhere he looks and all he can do is attempt to wear a mask of success.
Putin needs to change his ideology ensconced by the communists and return to the man he was in the year 2000. He can no longer pretend to be the voice of "safety" he likes to carry as his mantel. Safety is no longer enough in communist countries. The people are demanding their rights, their human rights including the right to express suffering and oppression.
The unrest will continue and grow and it is all his doing.
Alexei Navalny must be provided enough sleep to combat his obvious pain and provided healthy food to end his hunger strike. He needs his own CHEF to prepare his meals and ensure the fact he will conclude his undeserved prison sentence in good health. This time his stay in prison must be overseen by a secure set of guards that see to his well-being, including food deserving of a leader of the Russian people.
It is over Vladimir. You no longer have friends that admire you for bringing Russia from the dark ages, but, only disillusion your return to oppressive communism brings. Navalny's death will be your noose.
Moscow - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (click here) declared a hunger strike on Wednesday in an attempt to force the prison holding him outside Moscow to provide him with proper medical care for what he said was acute pain in his back and both legs.
The fate of Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics, is in focus after he said last week that being woken up by a guard every hour during the night amounted to torture and that his appeals for treatment for acute back and leg pain had been ignored.
In a handwritten letter addressed to the governor of his prison which was posted to social media by his team on Wednesday, Navalny said his daily requests for a doctor of his choice to examine him and for proper medicine for his problems to be provided had been ignored....
Thursday, April 01, 2021
We are going to need every penny of this to move into the future.
By Scott Detrow and Tamar Keith
President Biden (click here) on Wednesday will unveil a sprawling, ambitious infrastructure proposal that, if enacted, would overhaul how Americans get from Point A to Point B, how their electricity is generated, the speed of their Internet connections, the quality of their water and the physical makeup of their children's schools.
The measure, called the American Jobs Plan, includes big infrastructure fixes that both major parties — as well as a majority of Americans — consistently say they want to see, including upgrades to bridges, broadband and buildings....
We can begin the immediate movement to the future by ending oil subsidies.
continued....
I mean do we have to go down the list? It starts with Trump and his visits to teen beauty pagents.
So, the GOP has ANOTHER pedophile. Trump should start the parties therapy group. This is a party that values right-wing extremism that follows QAnon accusing Democrats of being pedophiles and eating children.
The QAnon mess is a cover-up for some real problems in the party. Mind you, the GOP leadership looks the other way. And interstate transport of a minor is a return to the Mann Act, am I correct? And when I say they look the other way, I mean they really do look the other way.
April 1, 2021
By Bill Bostock
The QAnon mess is a cover-up for some real problems in the party. Mind you, the GOP leadership looks the other way. And interstate transport of a minor is a return to the Mann Act, am I correct? And when I say they look the other way, I mean they really do look the other way.
April 1, 2021
By Bill Bostock
Former Attorney General Bill Barr (click here) actively avoided Rep. Matt Gaetz in public while the Justice Department was conducting a sex-trafficking investigation into the Florida representative, Politico reported.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the DOJ has been investigating whether Gaetz, 38, broke sex-trafficking laws by having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paying for her travel. Gaetz has since confirmed the existence of investigation.
The inquiry is part of a larger DOJ investigation into Joel Greenberg, a Florida tax collector, the Times reported. Greenberg was charged last year with a number of felony counts, including trafficking a minor between the ages of 14 and 17. Gaetz has not been charged with a crime....
This was not a GOP that said, "Oops, we missed one." This was a GOP under Trump that said, "Yeah, ah, don't worry Matt we looked at this whole thing and it isn't anything to worry about."
This was not a GOP that said, "Oops, we missed one." This was a GOP under Trump that said, "Yeah, ah, don't worry Matt we looked at this whole thing and it isn't anything to worry about."
...forced prostitution and "debauchery." Its official name is the White Slave Traffic Act, but it's better known as the Mann Act, named after its author, Rep. James R. Mann (R-IL)....
Trump. If Barr went down that road to convict Gaetz, he might even have to convict Trump for all the witnesses that could come forward.
Geroge W. Bush made human trafficking and prostitution a huge issue in his administration. Now, the GOP looks the other way with Trump as it's political leader. I never once heard Trump make a major speech on human trafficking. Now we know why.
Prostitution is legal in Russia. THEY PAY A FINE. That is as good as legal. It is treated as a traffic ticket, excuse the pun.
When does America see the GOP for the rotten to the core party it is. Corruption is their agenda and not the Rule of Law.
RESIGNATION! Did I hear the GOP and Trump screaming for Gaetz resignation?
HELL, NO!
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO HAVE THE COUNTRY WE WANT? NEVER?
GOP is CORE CORRUPTION!
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
No city in the country should have a gang data base.
Evidently, Chicago pledged to clean their “gang database” which has proven to be a tool of discrimination, at the very least. Gang databases need to be removed from law enforcement at the local level and quit possibly all law enforcement.
Either a person has a criminal record or not. Gangs don’t have Social Security Numbers and cannot commit infractions. Gangs are an understood group of people in most cases that can organize to commit crimes.
Criminal organization to commit crimes is racketeering. Either there is racketeering or not. Most so called gangs are usually compromised of young people affiliated for the sake of belonging. Crimes affiliated with gangs are random and exists in impoverished areas. There is no way a gang also is conducting racketeering. That is too sophisticated an operation.
There should be no gangland data base in Chicago or any place else. It is an unnecessary activity/classification that victimizes people and forces them into an identity rather than individuality.
Monday, March 29, 2021
George Floyd should still be alive. There is no doubt about it. This was murder.
George Floyd was respected in his community and considered an important person to many, many people.
George Floyd was unarmed. The police developed new techniques to kill given all the fuss in the country about gunning down unarmed black men. That is my opinion and I am not going to change it.
March 29, 2021
By Janelle Griffith
March 29, 2021
By Janelle Griffith
Minneapolis - The first witness in Derek Chauvin's murder trial, (click here) a 911 dispatcher, testified Monday that she alerted a police supervisor May 25 after she watched Minneapolis police officers pin George Floyd to the ground live in a security video.
The dispatcher, Jena Scurry, said it was a "gut instinct" that led her to call a police sergeant who was a supervisor for the officers at the scene. She said she glanced up at wall-mounted dispatch screens between taking other calls and saw a police squad car moving back and forth outside Cup Foods, a convenience store. An employee at Cup Foods had called police alleging that Floyd had tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Scurry said that her job is primarily to listen and that it is rare for a dispatcher to witness an incident in which police are at a scene. She said she has observed police at a scene only three or four times in her seven-year career.
Scurry said the police officers restrained Floyd for so long that she asked someone whether her "screens had frozen because it hadn't changed" and "was told that it was not frozen."...
Here again the right wing is looking to see what sticks to the wall.
This is a non-news issue. The Flint Water Crisis should have received so much attention so early.
It is a great house. I would love to live in that house. It has real character. It is a magnificent mansion actually. But, the only problem with these houses is that they are OLD. It was built in 1893 and ANY renovation to these houses is complicated and lengthy. The Vice President has a right to be upset that it is taking this long, but, I am not surprised.
Humphry Davy invented the FIRST electric light bulb in 1800. The everyday use of electricity in homes didn't exist for some time. A house like this has antiquated infrastructure. So, anytime modern changes are made to these houses they are somewhat a major undertaking because it has to be brought up to SPECS. I think it is right to renovate it and bring modern electrical wiring and plumbing into the structure. It is the Vice President's house and there should be no doubt the house is absolutely safe from aged building components.
The house allows for a lot of FUNCTION because it has so many rooms, is near a space observatory, and is on government grounds which is safe from the extremists in the country. But, this is a non-issue. The news media doesn't have a story here.
I am sure there are government inspectors somewhere that can validate the renovations have to meet CODE. If the length is taking too long or there are reports of poor construction work then the contractors can be replaced. But, I am not surprised a kitchen renovation is taking longer than anticipated. The contractors should provide the Vice President with a timeline to completion so the family can decide how to proceed. I am sort of surprised the family has not been given more information about the renovation and a timeline.
March 27, 2021
Washington - It has been more than two months (click here) since Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president of the United States, a historic moment for the country, as Harris is the first woman and the first woman of color to hold the second-highest office in the land. Yet, Harris — along with her husband Georgetown Law professor Douglas Emhoff — is still, ostensibly, living out of suitcases, unable to move into the private residence reserved for the vice president because it is undergoing renovations....
The judge has it wrong. These groups practice and prepare for no reason at all, except their own fears of government.
"Bottom-up" organizations seeking to enforce the law with their own understanding. The actual Rule of Law has nothing to do with their purpose.
March 29, 2021
...According to The Detroit News, (click here) Judge Michael Klaeren of the 12th District Court in Jackson County, Michigan, dismissed the charges of false report and threat of terrorism against Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico.
“There has to be some form of intent here to incite mayhem,” said Klaeren.
Bellar, 21; Morrison 42; and Musico, 36, are among six men who have been charged in the plot to kidnap Whitmer: Shawn Fix, 38; Michael Null, 38; and William Null, 38. According to the FBI, the men planned to kidnap Whitmer at the governor’s vacation home prior to last Election Day....
'
While on the topic of domestic abuse.
March 20, 2021
By Carlotta Gall
March 21, 2021
Turkey’s sudden and unwarranted withdrawal (click here) from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is deeply disappointing. Around the world, we are seeing increases in the number of domestic violence incidents, including reports of rising femicide in Turkey, the first nation to sign the convention. Countries should be working to strengthen and renew their commitments to ending violence against women, not rejecting international treaties designed to protect women and hold abusers accountable. This is a disheartening step backward for the international movement to end violence against women globally.
Gender-based violence is a scourge that touches every nation in every corner of the world. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen too many examples of horrific and brutal assaults on women, including the tragic murders in Georgia. And we’ve seen the broader damage that living under the daily specter of gender-based violence does to women everywhere. It hurts all of us, and we all must do more to create societies where women are able to go about their lives free from violence.
March 20, 2021
By Carlotta Gall
Istanbul - In two surprise midnight decrees, (click here) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has withdrawn Turkey from an international treaty on preventing violence against women and removed the head of the central bank, moves likely to please his followers but further estrange him from Western partners.
Mr. Erdogan had floated the idea of withdrawing from the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention, for more than a year as he courted conservative and nationalist followers to shore up his flagging popularity. Women’s groups immediately announced a protest rally on Saturday afternoon.
The president, who has increasingly insisted on greater control over the Central Bank, appears to have opposed a raising of interest rates last week by the central bank chief, Naci Agbal.
Mr. Erdogan has steadily concentrated more authority into his own hands over his 18 years in power. His latest actions, overnight between Friday and Saturday, came amid a flurry of attacks on political opponents that seem intended to solidify his political base....
Mr. Erdogan had floated the idea of withdrawing from the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention, for more than a year as he courted conservative and nationalist followers to shore up his flagging popularity. Women’s groups immediately announced a protest rally on Saturday afternoon.
The president, who has increasingly insisted on greater control over the Central Bank, appears to have opposed a raising of interest rates last week by the central bank chief, Naci Agbal.
Mr. Erdogan has steadily concentrated more authority into his own hands over his 18 years in power. His latest actions, overnight between Friday and Saturday, came amid a flurry of attacks on political opponents that seem intended to solidify his political base....
President Biden has been involved in efforts to end domestic violence that includes the use of guns to kill women that have been abused by their husbands or significant other. Turkey is an ally through NATO. It is unthinkable that President Erdogan did this. Turkey in some ways is becoming a worry.
Turkey’s sudden and unwarranted withdrawal (click here) from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is deeply disappointing. Around the world, we are seeing increases in the number of domestic violence incidents, including reports of rising femicide in Turkey, the first nation to sign the convention. Countries should be working to strengthen and renew their commitments to ending violence against women, not rejecting international treaties designed to protect women and hold abusers accountable. This is a disheartening step backward for the international movement to end violence against women globally.
Gender-based violence is a scourge that touches every nation in every corner of the world. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen too many examples of horrific and brutal assaults on women, including the tragic murders in Georgia. And we’ve seen the broader damage that living under the daily specter of gender-based violence does to women everywhere. It hurts all of us, and we all must do more to create societies where women are able to go about their lives free from violence.
I am so proud of these women in Turkey. They are taking on the fight for their rights. Evidently, the color purple is growing to be a political issue. This effort proves the international convention was valued in Turkey by all the right people, women.
By Zeynep Bilginsoy
Istanbul - Turkey withdrew early Saturday (click here) from a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first country to sign 10 years ago and which bears the name of its largest city.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s overnight decree annulling Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence. Hundreds of women gathered at demonstrations across Turkey on Saturday to protest the move....
The Biden Administration is not hiding anything from Americans.
The Rooster
Okeydoke
There is a humanitarian crisis at the border and nothing more. There are no attacks coming across the border and if there are guns, then it is the drug cartels and there ain't anything new about that.
Ted Cruz is worried about his Senate seat and is trying to create a wedge issue for his particular politics. That will never be a wedge issue. The humanitarian crisis is real and it is ongoing because the climate crisis storms have devastated the Northern Triad and areas of Mexico. Where are all the Republican Senators touring the devastation of these people's homelands?
"Look," if there is no land capable of supporting housing because the mudslides have removed small towns from existence. If the coffee plants that were harvested and sold in small Non-GMO markets for a family's income are gone along with the topsoil, there isn't going to be any alternative but to move from that land.
That is what the people of the Northern Triad are facing. We saw in a previous post a graph illustrating that is the truth. The movement north escalated for very real reasons while Trump thought terrorizing and mistreating the migrants would work to stop the surge to the southern USA border. Well, it didn't. That is a fact and quite frankly they have nothing to go back to when they are returned to their countries because their status is illegal.
The issue with the children has been discussed here and evidently, Cruz and his minions are trying to make lies into the truth and won't stop and FOX News accommodates all that.
The federal Donna Facility that Cruz believes tells the entire story is in the reporting below at the website for ABC which includes video. Nothing is being hidden regardless of the lies and propaganda.
The reason the press is being told they cannot have free access is that in previous administrations the migrants and children were used for political purposes. President Biden doesn't want that to happen. Some of the migrants will have grounds for asylum and many may be women running away from abuse and enslavement. Everyone in the media should know that women in shelters are not photographed so their abusers can find them. Has anyone honestly seen women in shelters appearing in ads for fundraising? I never have. The same holds true here.
THE MIGRANTS ARE NOT ON DISPLAY FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS, including their own safety and security.
Asylum seekers with valid reasons need to be protected.
End of discussion.
March 23, 2021
Faced with mounting pressure (click here) over the public's limited access to federal facilities housing a record number of migrant children, the Biden administration has now released its first official images from inside two Texas detention centers, with ABC News receiving an exclusive first look at videos and photos produced in recent days by the U.S. government.
The videos -- shot last week and released Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- show living conditions inside a processing facility in El Paso, Texas, and a holding facility in Donna, Texas, where unaccompanied children and other migrants, including families, are being held while they await transfer to other federal agencies better suited to address their needs.
In the government-sanctioned photos and videos, children arriving at the Donna facility wear masks as they have their temperatures checked and receive health scans. One photo shows a child in a playpen, being watched over by a contracted caretaker.
The nearly four-minute video from Donna then depicts a crowded but orderly facility, with children packed into enclosures and sleeping on mats on floors. The video also shows shelves from inside the facility stocked with items including linens, diapers, food, water and hand sanitizer....
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