February 28, 2021

Four more protesters fatally shot by the military in Myanmar, many more wounded. “Four people have reportedly been killed in the violence, including three men in the southern town of Dawei…. One man was also killed in Yangon…”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/28/myanmar-protesters-clash-police-grenades-democracy-junta-fires-outspoken-un-envoy

47 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists charged with subversion. “Those charged were among 53 people — many prominent former lawmakers, activists and district councilors — who were arrested last month for organizing, planning and participating in a primary election for the city’s democratic opposition last July.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/28/asia/hong-kong-lawmakers-charged-nsl-intl-hnk/index.html   “The charges now mean that every prominent, and even moderate, opposition voice in Hong Kong is either now in jail, or in exile…”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hong-kong-arrests-national-security-law/2021/02/28/7e6cd252-77ea-11eb-9489-8f7dacd51e75_story.html

Virginia becomes 16th state to legalize non-medicinal use of marijuana. “Only two other states — Illinois and Vermont — have passed legislation to legalize, tax and regulate recreational marijuana through the legislature.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/27/virginia-legalizes-marijuana-471840   In the other states, the law was changed through referendums.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem tells CPAC conservatives that the media is lying about her handling of the pandemic. “Noem has fought against mask mandates and encouraged a large motorcycle rally that saw hundreds of thousands of (mostly maskless) people attend. South Dakota at times has struggled to contain the pandemic, having seen the most cases and deaths per capita among states in the country, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/27/kristi-noem-anti-covid-shutdown-cpac-speech-471832

CPAC official denies accusations that their stage was shaped like a Nazi rune. “Matt Schlapp, the head of the American Conservative Union who organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference, is pushing back against those who said that the stage for the event that is taking place in Orlando is eerily reminiscent to a Nazi symbol. ‘Stage design conspiracies are outrageous and slanderous,’ Schlapp tweeted.”   https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/cpac-organizer-denies-stage-nazi-symbol-odal-rune.html

Security guard at Phoenix car dealership fatally shoots man who was blocking the company’s driveway. “During the confrontation, officers say Jones began to physically fight with a 51-year-old male security guard who allegedly shot him during the altercation.”   https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/man-fatally-shot-in-phoenix-near-23rd-ave-and-camelback-road

Thousands of mourners mark sixth anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s death. “Nemtsov was one of Russia’s most energetic and charismatic opposition figures, and his death was a blow to political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.”   https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russians-lay-flowers-mark-opposition-leaders-killing-76154303

Body camera video shows Louisiana State Troopers beating Ronald Greene before his death in custody in 2019. “The video shows troopers choking and beating the man, repeatedly jolting him with stun guns and dragging him face-down across the pavement, the attorney told AP. State police have repeatedly refused to publicly release the body camera footage…. and initially blamed the man’s fatal injuries on a car crash outside Monroe, Louisiana.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/27/louisiana-police-trooper-kicked-dragged-black-man-died-custody

Climate scientists say protecting old growth forests would be a great way to fight climate change. “In a recently published analysis of carbon storage in six national forests in Oregon, we showed why a strategic forest carbon reserve program should focus on mature and old forests. Big trees, with trunks more than 21 inches in diameter, make up just 3 percent of these forests but store 42 percent of the above-ground carbon. Globally, a 2018 study found that the largest-diameter 1 percent of trees hold half of all the carbon stored in the world’s forests.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2021/02/25/keeping-trees-in-the-ground/

February 27, 2021

Ben and Jerry’s founders take a stand against the use of excessive force by police officers. “In fighting against police brutality, the ice cream company co-founders have focused on ending a policy known as ‘qualified immunity’. And note that ending the policy would not be an ‘anti-police’ move, instead it is a ‘anti-bad police’ policy. ‘The only people it will hurt are bad cops,’ said (Jerry) Greenfield.”   https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/police-officers-need-to-be-held-accountable-ben-jerrys-founders-say-145811298.html   “The Supreme Court invented qualified immunity in 1967, describing it as a modest exception for public officials who had acted in ‘good faith’ and believed that their conduct was authorized by law. Fifteen years later, in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, the Court drastically expanded the defense. The protection afforded to public officials would no longer turn on whether the official acted in ‘good faith’. Instead, even officials who violate peoples’ rights maliciously will be immune unless the victim can show that his or her (specific) right (that was being violated) was ‘clearly established’…. To show that the law is ‘clearly established’, the Court has said, a victim must point to a previously decided case that involves the same ‘specific context’ and ‘particular conduct’.”   https://theappeal.org/the-lab/explainers/qualified-immunity-explained/#the-creation-of-qualified-immunity

Journalist partially blinded by police projectile while covering George Floyd protest alleges officials of the city of Minneapolis conspired to target reporters with excessive force, federal judge thinks she may have a case. “In a February 22 order, US Judge John R. Tunheim wrote that what happened to (Linda) Tirado was not only ‘serious and troubling’, but seemed to be part of pattern… of institutional disregard for the US Constitution. ‘Although not every incident involved the use of foam bullets or projectiles,’ Tunheim wrote, ‘the alleged police misconduct toward journalists occurred under similar circumstances: journalists were identifiable as press, separated from protestors and at a distance from police, and were not engaging in any threatening or unlawful conduct.'”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/being-shot-face-while-covering-060017230.html

U.S. Secretary of State posts photo on Twitter about his ‘virtual visit’ to Mexico, with Mexican and U.S. flags displayed in the background. “The Mexican flag is upside down.”   https://twitter.com/arielmou/status/1365319523839209472

U.N. says Paris climate targets are way too low. “The UN said the combined effect of the targets, if achieved, would lead to a 1% drop in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. Yet a pathway to limiting long-term temperature rise to 1.5°C — the most ambitious goal of the deal — would require a roughly 45% cut by then.”   https://www.axios.com/paris-agreement-accords-climate-change-carbon-26837369-77e8-411d-b810-432bed5ffdd9.html

Another massacre reported in Tigray region of Ethiopia. “A group of Eritrean soldiers opened fire on Maryam Dengelat church while hundreds of congregants were celebrating mass, eyewitnesses say. People tried to flee on foot, scrambling up cliff paths to neighboring villages. The troops followed, spraying the mountainside with bullets…. The mayhem continued for three days, with soldiers slaughtering local residents, displaced people and pilgrims.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/26/africa/ethiopia-tigray-dengelat-massacre-intl/index.html  

Imprisoned blogger dies in Bangladesh. “Mushtaq Ahmed, 53, was arrested in Dhaka in May last year for making comments on social media that criticized the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.”   https://apnews.com/article/technology-dhaka-bangladesh-media-social-media-36ad7ab516647d8a21db0daa1d195c7b

Residents of affluent Florida community reportedly received no registration, no waiting covid vaccinations. “Grand Palm property owners and family members also were offered special access to the COVID-19 vaccine through a pop-up clinic in Charlotte County organized by Grand Palm developer Neal Communities, according to emails obtained by the Herald-Tribune…. Neal Communities owner Pat Neal is a politically connected developer and former state senator who has a long history in GOP politics, including extensive fundraising for candidates. He gave $25,000 to the governor’s political committee and served on his transition team.”   https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/24/grand-palm-community-venice-received-special-coronavirus-vaccine-access/4574349001/

Best Buy to lay off 5,000 retail workers. “Best Buy says that it has been closing about 20 stores per year over the last two years and expects to accelerate the process in the coming year (as the company shifts its focus to on-line sales)…. As it laid off 5,000 mostly full-time workers, Best Buy is planning to add 2,000 new part-time jobs.”   https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/best-buy-lays-off-5000-workers-as-it-shifts-focus-to-online-sales/

Second vaccination partner in Pennsylvania accused of letting employee relatives jump the line. “The University of Pennsylvania Health System said that its Chester County Hospital ran a ‘lottery system’ for family members of employees who otherwise met the state’s eligibility requirements.”   https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/pennsylvania/another-pennsylvania-health-network-vaccinates-employee-kin/article_c3edcbb0-7853-11eb-add4-876764a492b0.html

YouTube bans video refuting claims that 2020 presidential election was stolen, and exposing alleged voter suppression by Georgia Republicans. “It begins with a clip showing Trump supporters claiming voter fraud in the November election but after 1m19s goes on to refute that claim, reporting instead that voter suppression by Republicans had taken place in Georgia. It is literally impossible that anyone at YouTube could have watched even ten minutes of the video and come to their conclusion.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2021/02/26/youtube-rejects-consortium-news-appeal/   Article includes link to the video on Twitter.

Protesters and security forces clash in southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya. “Among the (five) fatalities, most died from bullet wounds, a hospital source said, adding that about 120 protesters were wounded…. Protesters are demanding the removal of the governor and justice for protesters killed since 2019.”   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-protest-nassiriya/five-protesters-die-dozens-injured-in-clashes-in-iraqi-city-idUSKBN2AQ2TX

U.S. tests intercontinental ballistic missile. “An LGM-30G Minuteman III missile was fired from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California late Tuesday night and successfully hit its target 6,760km (4,200 miles) away on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the US Air Force announced.”   Apparently nuclear weapons delivery systems are not covered by the U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty.

No U.S. sanctions for Saudi crown prince accused of ordering Jamal Khashoggi hit. “… instead of punishing (Prince Mohammed bin Salman), the Biden administration announced sanctions on a top intelligence official and on the crown prince’s protective detail, known as the ‘Rapid Intervention Force’.”   https://theintercept.com/2021/02/26/biden-balks-at-sanctions-on-saudi-crown-prince-after-release-of-report-on-killing-of-jamal-khashoggi/

Myanmar security forces fatally shoot another female protester. “Protesters who attempted to gather for peaceful rallies on Saturday were met with an aggressive response by security forces in the two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, and in the central town of Monywa, where a woman was shot dead, according to local media reports.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/26/myanmar-envoy-urges-un-to-use-any-means-necessary-to-restore-democracy

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions priorities of New York City after it deploys robot surveillance dog in low income neighborhood. “Please ask yourself: when was the last time you saw next-generation, world class technology for education, healthcare, housing, etc consistently prioritized for underserved communities like this?”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/26/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-condemns-nypd-test-deployment-k-9-robot-bronx-home

 

 

 

 

February 26, 2021

2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein testifies at public hearing appealing results of FEC audit which claimed that campaign money spent on ballot access petitioning was not an authorized, election-related expense. “… the FEC is demanding Jill Stein personally repay $175,000 in public (presidential matching) funding spent on ballot access after the Green Party’s nominating convention in 2016. This ruling is patently unfair, striking a blow at independents and alternative parties that rely on public funding to gain access to the ballot. It also defies laws, logic, and precedent.”   https://www.gp.org/stein_vs_fec

U.S. air strikes target Iranian-backed militia in Syria in retaliation for rocket attack on U.S. forces in Erbil, Iraq. “The site was not specifically tied to the rocket attacks but Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he was ‘confident’ it was used by the same Iranian-backed Shia militias that had fired rockets at US and coalition forces.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/25/politics/us-iraq-iran/index.html   “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 22 fighters were killed when the strike hit three trucks loaded with munitions coming from Iraq near the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal. Militia border posts were also destroyed, the war monitor said.”   https://sg.news.yahoo.com/us-strikes-iranian-backed-militant-024708816.html

Senate parliamentarian claims including federal minimum wage increase in pandemic relief bill is against Senate rules. “I strongly disagree with tonight’s decision by the Senate Parliamentarian,” (Sen. Bernie) Sanders said in a statement Thursday evening. “The (Congressional Budget Office) made it absolutely clear that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour had a substantial budgetary impact and should be allowed under reconciliation. It is hard for me to understand how drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was considered to be consistent with the Byrd Rule, while increasing the minimum wage is not.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/25/politics/minimum-wage-covid-relief-senate-parliamentarian/index.html

Phone records show former Capitol Police chief requested additional manpower six times, starting shortly before 1 p.m., says acting chief. “(Acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda) Pittman based her assessment on phone records her agency obtained for then-Chief Steven Sund showing he reached out to the Capitol’s top security officials starting shortly before 1 p.m. in the first of six calls requesting the National Guard to respond…. Sund first reached out to (former House sergeant-at-arms Paul) Irving to request the National Guard at 12:58 p.m. on the day of the attack. She said Sund then called the Senate sergeant-at-arms at the time, Michael Stenger, at 1:05 p.m. She said Sund repeated his request in a call at 1:28 p.m. and then again at 1:34 p.m., 1:39 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. that day.”   https://www.npr.org/2021/02/25/971329984/capitol-police-chief-records-prove-immediate-calls-for-military-backup-on-jan-6

Chief Pittman claims militias plotting to ‘blow up the Capitol’ during Joe Biden’s yet to be scheduled State of the Union address to Congress. “We know that members of the militia groups that were present on Jan. 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union…”   https://www.foxnews.com/us/capitol-police-chief-intelligence-militias-building-biden-congress

Surge in number of unaccompanied minors detained after crossing the border. “A Customs and Border Protection staffer told top administration officials Thursday the agency is projecting a peak of 13,000 unaccompanied children crossing the border in May, sources directly familiar with the discussion told Axios…. ‘We’re seeing the highest February numbers than we’ve ever seen in the history of the [Unaccompanied Alien Child] program,’ a Department of Health and Human Services official told Axios.”   https://www.axios.com/biden-migrant-children-border-dcc5df38-b9cd-4053-bee4-3642c4c215bf.html

Airline pilot reports UFO over New Mexico to air traffic control, FAA claims there was nothing on the radar. “Do you have any targets up here?” the pilot is heard asking on a radio transmission. “We just had something just go over the top of us that — I hate to say this — looked like a long, cylindrical object. It almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast that went right over the top of us.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-airlines-pilot-reports-seeing-long-cylindrical-object-fly-over-n1258831

Federal judge strikes down pandemic eviction ban. “U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, said that while states have the authority to regulate residential evictions and foreclosures — and did so during the Great Depression — the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce under the Constitution doesn’t give it the right to impose a moratorium.”   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-25/cdc-s-eviction-moratorium-is-blocked-by-federal-judge-in-texas

President Biden reverses Trump executive orders banning visitors from Muslim countries, transgendered soldiers and diversity workshops, one requiring neo-classical federal buildings, and one designating New York City, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon as ‘anarchist jurisdictions’. “A banking-regulations order from 2017 was also overturned. This had sought to weaken Dodd-Frank, an Obama-era law that tightened regulation of Wall Street in response to the 2008 financial crisis.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-axes-trump-orders-on-anarchist-cities-neoclassical-buildings-2021-2   I guess Trump’s statue garden of American heroes is left standing, but it remains unfunded by Congress.

Amnesty International documents Tigray massacre. “Witnesses of the massacre in Axum told Amnesty International that Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers jointly took control of the city but the Eritreans carried out the killings and then conducted house-to-house raids for men and teenage boys. Bodies were left strewn in the streets after the events of Nov. 28 and 29, witnesses said.”   https://apnews.com/article/eritrea-ethiopia-massacres-kenya-a5c50540f673f7527d1f7cae9aa3c0da

Netherlands joins Canada in accusing China of Uighur ‘genocide’. “The Dutch motion said that actions by the Chinese government such as ‘measures intended to prevent births’ and ‘having punishment camps’ fell under United Nations Resolution 260, generally known as the genocide convention.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/25/europe/netherlands-china-xinjiang-genocide-intl-hnk/index.html

TikTok agrees to pay $92 million to settle personal data harvesting lawsuits. “Under the proposed terms of the settlement, TikTok will no longer record a user’s biometric information, including facial characteristics, nor track a user’s location using GPS data. TikTok also committed to stop sending U.S. users data overseas and the app said it would no longer collect data on draft videos before the content is published.”   https://www.npr.org/2021/02/25/971460327/tiktok-to-pay-92-million-to-settle-class-action-suit-over-theft-of-personal-data

31 House Democrats ask President Biden to give up unilateral nuclear weapons launch authority. “’Past presidents have threatened to attack other countries with nuclear weapons or exhibited behavior that caused other officials to express concern about the president’s judgment,’ (Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)) said, referencing former President Donald Trump’s very public feud with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un…. One (option) would be to require that the vice president and speaker of the House of Representatives concur with the president’s decision to strike. Another option would be requiring certifications from the secretary of defense that the strike order was valid, as well as the attorney general that it was legal.”  https://nypost.com/2021/02/25/democrats-ask-biden-to-give-up-power-to-launch-nuclear-bomb/

Huge number of illegal migrants being apprehended along southern border, with assistance from U.S. military. “The most recent mission began in April 2018 at the request of (President) Trump as the number of people apprehended for crossing the border without documents more than doubled — from nearly 400,000 individuals (in fiscal year 2018) to more than 850,000 individuals (in fiscal year 2019), according to the report.”   https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/25/troops-us-mexico-border-could-stay-there-three-five-years-report-says.html   In fiscal year 2020, which ran from October 1, 2019 – September 30, 2020, more than 405,000 people were apprehended, mostly along the border with Mexico.   https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics-fy2020

High Texas electricity bills blamed on surge pricing, aka ‘marginal-cost pricing’. “The only problem, as the Public Utility Commission of Texas found out last week, is that it doesn’t actually work—at least not in situations of extreme shortage when rationing is most needed—and that’s before considering the inequity associated with allocating access based on ability to pay…. (Griddy) knew its prices would spike because it had taken advantage of Texas’s almost completely deregulated electricity market to implement the ultimate in marginal-cost pricing for residential customers…. but many kept the heat on, even if they knew they couldn’t afford it.”   https://slate.com/business/2021/02/texas-electricity-bills-griddy-marginal-cost-pricing-alfred-kahn.html

No disciplinary action for NYPD cop caught on surveillance video using chokehold on noise complaint suspect. “…the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the body tasked with investigating civilian allegations of some types of police abuse, including excessive force, substantiated (Tomas) Medina’s accusations of misconduct…. That ruling was two years ago this week, and (detective Fabio) Nunez is yet to face any consequences for his conduct.”   https://theintercept.com/2021/02/25/nypd-chokehold-discipline-fabio-nunez/

President Biden hasn’t lifted Trump administration sanctions on International Criminal Court prosecutors who dared to launch investigations into possible Afghanistan and Israel war crimes. “The failure to take action has provoked unease among US allies in Europe and elsewhere, who are staunch supporters of the ICC.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/biden-trump-sanctions-icc-prosecutors-israel

Progressives urge Vice President Harris to ignore Senate parliamentarian’s advice on $15 an hour minimum wage. “While the parliamentarian’s advice is typically honored on Capitol Hill, progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups emphasized that the unelected official’s opinion is not binding and that Harris, as presiding officer of the Senate, has the constitutional authority to ignore the recommendation.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/26/progressives-vp-kamala-harris-not-difficult-decision-use-your-power-keep-15   Of course that assumes the Biden administration really supports it, and I’m not convinced they actually do.

Progressives push President Biden to publicly back union drive at Amazon warehouse. “… a coalition of labor and progressive groups on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to be ‘the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen’ by publicly backing the ongoing union drive.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/25/progressives-urge-biden-prove-pro-union-stance-publicly-backing-amazon-workers

Only 1 in 10 U.S. workers who would get a pay boost from a $15 minimum wage is a teenager. “… EPI’s research shows that more than half of those who would benefit from a $15 federal minimum wage are workers between 25 and 54, the majority of whom are women. Over a quarter of those workers have children.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/24/minimum-wage-15-dollars-per-hour-brings-benefits-consequences.html

Citing a technicality, Supreme Court throws out lawsuit of man hospitalized by police after they mistook him for a fugitive felon. “Writing for the unanimous court, Justice Clarence Thomas ruled that James King became barred from pursuing any other claims against his arresting officers once the District Court ruled against his bid for damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act…. (However, in a concurring opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out that) ‘King’s constitutional claims require only a showing that the officers’ behavior was objectively unreasonable, while the district court held that the state torts underlying King’s FTCA claims require subjective bad faith (on the part of the officers). If petitioners are right, King’s failure to show bad faith, which is irrelevant to his constitutional claims, means a jury will never decide whether the officers violate King’s constitutional rights when they stopped, searched and hospitalized him.'”   https://www.courthousenews.com/high-court-blocks-suit-over-mistaken-identity-arrest/

In unanimous decision, California’s supreme court rules that no one under 16 can be tried as an adult. “The California Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that 14- and 15-year-olds can not be tried as adults in criminal court, finding that state law instead emphasized rehabilitation for juveniles.”  https://www.courthousenews.com/california-supreme-court-rules-teens-under-16-cant-be-tried-as-adults/

India tightens laws on internet content. “The Information Technology Ministry said the new regulations would require social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to swiftly erase content authorities deem unlawful. The regulations include a strict oversight mechanism that would allow the government to ban content affecting the ‘sovereignty and integrity of India’.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/india-introduces-new-rules-to-regulate-online-content/

 

 

February 25, 2021

Cops reportedly found eyeglasses of dead pedestrian in South Dakota attorney general’s car. “(Jason Ravnsborg) initially told police he had hit a deer, but he discovered (Joseph) Boever’s body the following morning after returning to the scene of the collision…. ‘They’re Joe’s glasses. So that means his face came through your windshield,’ an investigator tells Ravnsborg, who lets out an obvious gasp and says, ‘I wondered about that.'”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/24/politics/south-dakota-jason-ravnsborg-car-crash/index.html

Capitol Police hadn’t been trained for mass invasion scenario, were unsure about use of lethal force. “‘Officers were unsure of when to use lethal force on January 6th,’ (acting Chief Yogananda) Pittman states. ‘We have provided guidance to officers since January 6th as to when lethal force may be used consistent with the department’s existing Use of Force policy.’ …. According to Pittman’s statement, a lockdown of the Capitol also ‘was not properly executed’, and she states that officers lacked training for a scenario that included a mass breach of the building.”   https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/24/capitol-riot-police-had-no-specific-credible-threat-intel-attack/6802055002/   Would be interesting to know if the fatal shooting of an unarmed rioter was consistent with their use of force policy or if it was a violation of that policy, but the story doesn’t address that issue.

Amazon sends union election voting instructions to Bessemer, Alabama warehouse workers, instructs them to vote ‘No’. “Mark Your Ballot. Protect what you have. Vote No,’ one of the instructions reads in bold.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/3anw9k/amazon-sends-vote-no-instructions-to-unionizing-employees-tells-them-to-use-new-mailbox

Capitol Architect says cost for repairs and security improvements will exceed $30 million. “(J. Brett) Blanton also asked the committee for help in securing additional funds for a campus-wide security assessment to prevent similar events in the future and to protect the Capitol and the people who work there.”   https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol/2021/02/24/970977612/architect-of-the-capitol-outlines-30-million-in-damages-from-pro-trump-riot

Candidates who run for public office in Hong Kong will be required to swear allegiance to China and support Chinese rule. “(Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick) Tsang said that under the proposed new oath requirements, anyone standing for election at any level must embrace national sovereignty and security, and embrace the fact that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/23/asia/hong-kong-patriots-election-intl-hnk/index.html

Private medical group accused of vaccinating VIPs. “One Medical has branded itself as a high-end health care provider serving a relatively affluent clientele…. internal communications indicate that ineligible friends and family of One Medical leadership were vaccinated, as were work-from-home administrative, support and IT staff from its headquarters in San Francisco. While health care workers waited in line in January, One Medical made the decision to offer the vaccine to any of its San Francisco County staff members, regardless of whether they were patient facing.”   https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/970176532/high-end-medical-provider-let-ineligible-people-skip-covid-19-vaccine-line

Former energy CEO pleads guilty to fraud charges in connection with nuclear power plant project. “Former SCANA Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kevin Marsh will spend at least two years in prison and pay back at least $5 million for defrauding electric ratepayers in South Carolina’s $9 billion nuclear power fiasco, according to a plea deal that was presented to a federal judge Feb. 24…. SCANA hiked its rates nine times on its 753,000 electric customers to finance the project. Now, ratepayers for both SCANA and Santee Cooper will spend decades paying off that debt on their power bills.”   https://www.postandcourier.com/news/local_state_news/former-scana-ceo-kevin-marsh-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-charges-in-sc-nuclear-fiasco/article_6687ce9c-751c-11eb-8678-07d1d205c4db.html

Defense reporter says the F-35 has become the jet it was intended to replace. “As conceived in the 1990s, the program was supposed to produce thousands of (light, low-cost) fighters to displace almost all of the existing tactical warplanes in the inventories of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The Air Force alone wanted nearly 1,800 F-35s to replace aging F-16s and A-10s (to) constitute the low end of a low-high fighter mix, with 180 twin-engine F-22s making up the high end.”   https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/02/23/the-us-air-force-just-admitted-the-f-35-stealth-fighter-has-failed

Trump fought the Deep State, and the Deep State won. “America is becoming an impunity regime, in which government officials pay no price for their abuses. This is not a partisan issue: Republicans and Democrats have partnered for decades to keep Americans in the dark. Vast secrecy means that the political system, regardless of its external forms, is based on blind trust in officialdom. Pervasive secrecy defines down self-government: people merely select their Supreme Deceivers.”   https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-lies-arent-secret/

U.N. panel urges Biden administration to prosecute those responsible for ‘War on Terror’ human rights violations. “Democracies can and should do better and the United States must clearly put this dark chapter in its history behind it and demonstrate that it is not only prepared to close the prison facilities but ensure that such practices cannot be used again, and that the crimes committed there will not remain unpunished.”   https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/biden-guantanamo-bay-prison-address-rights-violations-un-rights-experts

Political prisoners in Egypt allegedly hit with new charges to keep them in indefinite pre-trial detention. “Rights groups estimate about 60,000 political prisoners are being held in Egyptian jails, in a crackdown on dissent under way since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power in 2014. Mai el-Sadany, legal director at Washington-based think-tank Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, sees the trend of extended pre-trial detention as ‘a punitive measure’ by security forces to silence opposition.”   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/egypt-detainees-languish-in-jail-with-no-end-in-sight/ar-BB1dZyl5

Russia quadruples fine for disobeying police during protests. “The legislation approved Wednesday increases fines from 1,000 roubles to 4,000 roubles ($54.30) along with 15 days in detention for the charge of insubordination to law enforcement, Reuters reported…. protest organizers could pay up to 20,000 roubles in fines if they violate funding regulations.”   https://thehill.com/policy/international/540281-putin-approves-increased-fines-for-protesters-after-pro-navalny

U.S. reportedly blocking waiver of intellectual property rights rules that could greatly increase vaccine production for poor countries. “Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is calling on the U.S. to agree to a temporary waiver on intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2021/2/24/headlines/us_blocks_waiver_on_vaccine_intellectual_property_protections

Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. “Colvin’s unplanned act of bravery was almost written out of civil-rights history. The Montgomery bus boycott began nine months after her arrest, spurred by the arrest of Rosa Parks in an almost identical incident…. She was an unsung hero of the movement, clumsily labelled ‘the original Rosa Parks’.”   https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/25/claudette-colvin-the-woman-who-refused-to-give-up-her-bus-seat-nine-months-before-rosa-parks

Gavin Newsom administration accused of approving fossil fuel extraction permits without required environmental reviews. “According to the (lawsuit), California regulators approved nearly 2,000 new oil and gas permits without proper environmental review. ‘CalGEM routinely violates its duty to conduct an initial study and further environmental review for any new oil and gas well drilling, well stimulation, or injection permits and approvals,’ the suit alleges.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/24/avowed-climate-champion-gavin-newsom-sued-completely-unacceptable-approval-oil-and

Environmental activists block pipeline work sites. “In the latest act of peaceful resistance to Canadian oil giant Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands project, three water protectors in Savanna State Forest, Minnesota blockaded more than a dozen active worksites on Wednesday morning. Two of the environmental and human rights activists impeded further construction of the fossil fuel pipeline by locking themselves to an overturned vehicle on a road leading to multiple worksites, the Giniw Collective explained in a statement…. The third protester—a water protector named Rose who ascended nearly 40 feet in the air on a bi-pod blocking an entry road to several worksites.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/24/fighting-disease-greed-and-destruction-water-protectors-blockade-over-dozen-line-3

Federal judge throws out Parma, Ohio man’s lawsuit over his arrest for creating a satirical police department Facebook page, rules officers are protected by ‘qualified immunity’. “(Anthony) Novak was charged with a felony for the disruption of public service, but acquitted on all charges in April 2016. After defeating the charges, Novak filed his lawsuit, claiming the police and city had violated his free speech rights and pursued a malicious prosecution against him.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-tosses-first-amendment-claims-from-facebook-police-parody-creator/

Singapore woman pleads guilty to homicide in beating death of foreign domestic worker. “Piang Ngaih Don, who had worked for the family for over a year at the time of her death, was provided with very little food…. Only allowed to sleep for five hours a night, she lost about 38% of her body weight during her employment, and only weighed 52 pounds at the time of her death.”    https://www.courthousenews.com/singaporean-admits-killing-maid-after-inhumane-abuse/

Dissidents in Vietnam allegedly being targeted by pro-government hackers. “Amnesty International says it has found that a hacking group known as Ocean Lotus has been staging more spyware attacks on Vietnamese human rights activists in the latest blow to freedom of speech in the communist-ruled country…. The hackers are suspected of having ties to Vietnam’s government, which has been cracking down on dissent.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/amnesty-international-hackers-attacking-vietnam-dissidents/

 

 

 

February 24, 2021

Elementary school reports first grader to police over ‘sexual assault’ incident. “The dean of students had phoned (the boy’s mother) at work to say a girl told them her son had touched her inappropriately in their first-grade classroom that morning…. later, a Somerville (police) detective left a message on (her) voicemail…. (her son) now has a paper trail at several… governmental agencies: the police department, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and the state Department of Children and Families, whose intake report from the school system describes the incident as ‘sexual assault’ and her son as the ‘alleged perpetrator’.”   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/20/metro/somerville-mother-is-stunned-how-can-school-officials-accuse-her-6-year-old-son-sexual-misconduct-report-him-police-charges-racism-ensue/   When did elementary schools start having a ‘dean of students’?

Former U.S. Capitol security officials blame faulty intelligence for January 6th invasion. “Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving testified that intelligence assessments before the January 6 attack incorrectly concluded that there was only a ‘remote’ to ‘improbable’ chance of a civil disturbance that day, according to prepared testimony.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/us-capitol-attack-senate-hearing/index.html   The CBS Evening News reported today that the Capitol Police did not have sufficient riot helmets that day, because the helmets they had ordered did not arrive in time for the rally. This discrepancy was simply mentioned in passing and not commented on. “An FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit warning that extremists were planning to travel to Washington, D.C., to commit violence and ‘war’, the day before the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to an internal report obtained by The Washington Post, directly contradicting the bureau’s previous claim that it had no intelligence to predict last Wednesday’s siege.”   https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/01/12/report-fbi-office-warned-of-war-at-us-capitol-despite-claim-attack-was-unknown/

No charges for Rochester, New York police officers who put ‘spit hood’ and handcuffs on man having mental health crisis. “(Daniel) Prude died of ‘complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint’, with the drug PCP listed as a contributing factor, according to an autopsy report released by the family from Monroe County Medical Examiner Nadia Granger.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-york-grand-jury-declines-charge-rochester-officers-daniel-prude-n1258664

Hitman pleads guilty to murder of investigative journalist in Malta. “(Vince) Muscat and two other men were arrested in December 2017 and accused of having planned and executed the murder. Muscat’s alleged accomplices continue to plea not-guilty…. (Anti-corruption blogger Daphne) Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017…. Multimillionaire businessman Yorgen Fenech, who had high-level political connections, is suspected of having masterminded the crime and has been accused of being an accomplice to murder (which he denies)…. Fenech was close friends with (former premier Joseph Muscat’s) chief of staff Keith Schembri, who has denied any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the murder or its perpetrators.”   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malta-daphne/man-pleads-guilty-to-murder-of-malta-anti-corruption-journalist-idUSKBN2AN1EU?il=0

More than 6,500 migrant workers have reportedly died over a decade in Qatar, most of whom probably came to build infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Doha. “Data from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011–2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers, between 2010 and 2020. The total death toll is significantly higher, as these figures do not include deaths from a number of countries which send large numbers of workers to Qatar, including the Philippines and Kenya.”   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022

Mother files lawsuit over killing of son and botched police investigation. “The suit says (three local white men) ‘willfully and maliciously conspired to follow, threaten, detain and kill Ahmaud Arbery’. The court filing also names law enforcement officials and local prosecutors and alleges they were intimately involved with an alleged cover-up in the investigation…. Ten weeks passed between Arbery’s death and the first arrests in the case. Those arrests happened two days after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation from local authorities.”   https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/970598539/mother-of-ahmaud-arbery-files-civil-lawsuit-on-anniversary-of-sons-death

Retired NYPD officer charged in connection with Capitol invasion. “Federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday in court that the man, Thomas Webster, wore a bulletproof vest and was prepared for ‘armed conflict’ during the Jan. 6 attack on the federal building. Prosecutors alleged that Webster attacked a Capitol Police officer using a flagpole…”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/retired-nypd-cop-charged-capitol-riot-accused-attacking-officer-flag-n1258638   “A police source said Webster joined the NYPD in 1991 and retired in 2011 after working the security detail at City Hall and the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion.”   https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-retired-nypd-cop-capitol-20210223-zfmmkaowmbh4pm76iot7rbzl24-story.html   Can’t find his rank when he retired.

Republican party official from Queens, New York charged in Capitol invasion. “(Phillip) Grillo, a leader in Queens Republicans’ 24th District, was identified by two people who saw him in CNN coverage and said they’d known him for decades in Glen Oaks, a neighborhood on the borough’s Nassau County border…. Grillo was released by Federal Judge Robert Levy on a $100,000 bond…. He will be staying at his mother’s house, where he was living before his arrest.”   https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-queens-district-leader-arrest-fbi-capitol-riots-siege-trump-20210223-k2jn3yirgzg2piqddnitfcrqre-story.html

Gov. of Florida rescinds state-wide order to fly flags at half-staff on Wednesday in honor of Rush Limbaugh. “(Gov. Ron) DeSantis announced Tuesday that he was directing the U.S. and Florida flags to be flown at half-staff at the Palm Beach County Courthouse in West Palm Beach, the City Hall of Palm Beach and the State Capitol in Tallahassee from sunrise to sunset on Wednesday. The order states that flags will be lowered ‘to honor the memory of Rush Limbaugh and his service to our nation and state’.”   https://www.wesh.com/article/flags-florida-rush-limbaugh/35606317

Poet, publisher and bookstore founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti dead at 101. “The spiritual godfather of the Beat movement, Mr. Ferlinghetti made his home base in the modest independent book haven now formally known as City Lights Booksellers & Publishers…. In a significant First Amendment decision, he was acquitted (of charges for publishing indecent writings), and (Allen Ginsburg’s) ‘Howl’ became one of the 20th century’s best-known poems.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/obituaries/lawrence-ferlinghetti-dead.html

Fourteen year-old girl who fatally stabbed her older sister to be tried as an adult, district attorney releases her mug shot and confession. “Claire Miller, of Manheim Township, was being charged with criminal homicide as an adult in the death of her 19-year-old sister Helen, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said…. Officers responded to the home just after 1 a.m. Monday after the teen called to report that ‘she had killed her sister’, the district attorney’s office said…. Officers (who responded) said they heard her repeatedly say, ‘I stabbed my sister’, and watched as she appeared to try washing her hands in the snow.”   https://www.foxnews.com/us/pennsylvania-teen-charged-murder-sister-parents-slept   I wonder what her attorney or the judge is going to say about this?

Federal judge rules in favor of California ‘net neutrality’ law. “California’s law was spurred by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 decision to repeal net-neutrality rules that applied nationwide…. The law seeks to ban internet providers from slowing down customers’ data streams based on the content they are viewing. It also bars providers from speeding up access to websites willing to pay extra for special treatment.”   https://www.marketwatch.com/story/california-can-enforce-its-net-neutrality-law-federal-judge-rules-01614132938

Gang war in prisons in Ecuador results in at least 62 deaths. “As security forces battled to regain control, distraught family members waited desperately for news outside the prison in Ecuador’s western port city of Guayaquil, where officials said 21 died. Another 33 died at the prison in Cuenca in the south and eight in Latacunga in the center of the South American country, according to Edmundo Moncayo, director of the government’s SNAI prisons management body.”   https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210224-at-least-62-inmates-dead-in-ecuador-prison-riots

Israel to export vaccine to its allies instead of to its occupied territories. “On Tuesday, the governments of the Czech Republic and Honduras confirmed that Israel had promised them each 5,000 vaccine doses manufactured by Moderna. The Israeli news media reported that Hungary and Guatemala would be sent a similar number…. But the move has angered Palestinians because it suggests that Israel’s allies are of greater priority than the Palestinians living under Israeli control in the occupied territories, almost all of whom have yet to receive a vaccine.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-vaccine-diplomacy.html

Russian ships able to make first February trans-arctic journey thanks to climate change. “The melting in the region is already in line with the worst-case climate scenarios outlined by scientists, with 28 trillion metric tons of (ice) lost globally between 1994 and 2017…. That compares with the traditional June to October (arctic) navigation season.”   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-22/first-arctic-navigation-in-february-sends-a-worrying-climate-signal

Apple forces Gmail and YouTube to disclose information they collect on iPhone and iPad users. “Data Linked to You. The following data may be collected and linked to your identity: Purchases, Location, Contact Info, Contacts, User Content, Search History, Identifiers, Data Usage, Diagnostics, Other Data. An App Store screenshot of Gmail’s summary App Privacy label in iOS 14.”   https://bgr.com/2021/02/23/gmail-app-privacy-label-iphone-user-tracking/

Twitter adds ‘hacked material’ warning to news stories based on hacked information. “The Grayzone’s story sources recently hacked and leaked documents which allegedly show that the BBC and Reuters participated in a program created by the UK government to ‘weaken Russia’s state influence’…. It should be stressed again that these warning labels are being added to tweets sharing links to news stories based on hacked materials, not tweets sharing raw leaked or stolen materials themselves…. some Twitter users have pointed out that the New York Times story on Ted Cruz’s trip to Cancun was based on leaked text messages from the senator’s wife. Yet, they point out, there is no warning label placed on tweets linking to that story even though it appears to fall under Twitter’s own ‘distribution of hacked materials’ policy.”   https://mashable.com/article/twitter-hacked-materials-warning-label/   Well, there’s a difference between ‘hacked’ and ‘leaked’, but if you’re going to flag news stories based on hacked information, then you’ll be flagging stuff like the UK hacker who found pictures of alien spacecraft and a list of ‘Non-terrestrial officers’ on NASA’s servers.

When a NATO exercise spooked the Soviet Union into scrambling its nuclear forces in 1983, an Air Force general with a cool head helped avert disaster. “At the time, the Soviet Air Forces were reacting to NATO military exercises in the region, but when they saw NATO did not escalate further (in response), as a result of (Lt. Gen. Leonard) Perroots’ recommendation, the Soviet military backed down as well, thereby avoiding a possible (nuclear) war.”  https://taskandpurpose.com/news/lt-gen-leonard-perroots-able-archer/   This is no way to run a planet. One of these days millions of people are going to get killed. And THEN you’ll be sorry!

Protests in former Soviet republic of Georgia after conservative party leader arrested. “Georgian police stormed the party’s headquarters in the early hours to arrest its chairman Nika Melia. A Tbilisi court last week ruled to place Melia, who is accused of organizing ‘mass violence’ during anti-government protests in 2019, in pre-trial detention. The political situation in Georgia has been tense amid allegations of voter fraud in the country’s fall parliamentary election. The opposition is demanding a rerun of the vote.”   https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/23/georgian-police-raid-opposition-hq-arrest-leader   Hmm, this story sounds familiar…

Making ‘ecocide’ a crime would help fight against climate change, say activists. “The pristine areas that ecocide targets – virgin forests, wetlands and our oceans – are precisely the places that have value far beyond mere extractive industries, including in sustainably developing new pharmaceuticals that may help in the current Covid-19 pandemic and in future pandemics.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/24/climate-crisis-ecocide-international-crime

Movie tells the story of Guantanamo Diary terror suspect imprisoned for 14 years without a trial. “Kevin Macdonald’s film (The Mauritanian) tells of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s 14-year imprisonment without charge in the facility now emblematic of human rights abuses, as well as the violent and sexual torture he experienced at the hands of his interrogators. It dramatizes the legal battle that led to his eventual release in 2016.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/24/guantanamo-film-denial-human-rights-the-mauritanian

Former Syrian intelligence official found guilty of crimes against humanity by German court. “Eyad al-Gharib, a 44-year-old former colonel in the Syrian intelligence service, carried out orders in one of Bashar al-Assad’s notorious prisons…. ‘Gharib is one man but he was part of an organized machine with orders to arrest peaceful civilians, disappear them, torture them, kill them and hide their bodies in mass graves.'”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/24/germany-convicts-former-assad-regime-agent-in-historic-syria-torture-verdict

February 23, 2021

Plano, Texas police drop charges against black man arrested for walking in the road during a snow storm. “Rodney Reese spent a night in jail after he was arrested for being in the street while walking home from work in icy conditions during last week’s winter weather…. Police said someone called, concerned that a Black male wearing a short-sleeve shirt was stumbling along (in) the icy conditions. It was dispatched to officers as a welfare check…. He repeatedly told officers he was fine.”    https://www.fox4news.com/news/plano-police-say-charge-dropped-for-18-year-old-arrested-while-walking-home-from-work-in-the-snow

Amazon offers workers at its Bessemer, Alabama distribution center $1,000 to quit during run up to union vote. “It removes inveterate employees whom the company might consider a liability and an unnecessary expense so it can replace them with fresh new-hires at starting wage with no tenure regarding benefits.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vy4m/amazon-is-paying-employees-to-quit-right-before-critical-union-vote

Antioch, California man went into coma after police officer knelt on his neck during welfare check. “When police realized (Angelo) Quinto was no longer responding, they handcuffed him and put him on to a mobile stretcher and performed chest compressions, The Washington Post reported. Quinto died three days later.”   https://www.insider.com/angelo-quinto-death-family-says-police-knelt-on-his-neck-2021-2

Supreme Court refuses to block New York state prosecutor from obtaining Donald Trump’s business and tax records. “The court’s order is a win for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who has been seeking Trump’s tax records since 2019 as part of an investigation…. Vance has disclosed little about what prompted him to seek them.”   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-wont-halt-trump-143721951.html

New Jersey legalizes marijuana. “While marijuana consumers will not have legal avenues to purchase it yet, arrests for thousands of possession cases should begin to cease…. The decriminalization law allows people to possess up to six ounces of marijuana without legal consequence.”   https://www.nj.com/marijuana/2021/02/murphy-signs-nj-legal-weed-bills-ending-3-year-saga.html

Independent investigation finds that Aurora, Colorado police had no legal justification to detain Elijah McClain in response to a ‘suspicious person’ call. “‘Based on the record available to the panel, we were not able to identify sufficient evidence that Mr. McClain was armed and dangerous in order to justify a pat-down search,’ the report said…. A chokehold was used during the confrontation and he was injected with ketamine…. McClain lost consciousness and was taken off life support on Aug. 30.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/elijah-mcclain-death-independent-probe-161440939.html   ‘Taken off life support’ means ‘letting him die because there was no hope for recovery’.

Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general refuses to answer question about illegal immigration. “Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, asked (Merrick) Garland whether he believes that illegally crossing the border should remain a crime. ‘I haven’t thought about that question, I just haven’t thought about that question,’ Garland said.”   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/merrick-garland-senate-hearing-dodged-questions

Ted Cruz reportedly stayed at luxury hotel during Cancun getaway. “Forbes’ Travel Guide ranks the Ritz-Carlton as one of the top luxury hotels in Cancun.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-cancun-trip-hotel-he-stayed-at-ritz-carlton-2021-2

Governor of Illinois signs legislation to end cash bail by 2023 and to require police officers to wear body cameras. “The Illinois Pre-Trial Fairness Act, as it’s called, is part of Illinois House Bill 3653, a sweeping package of criminal justice measures. Some of the provisions include requiring police officers to be licensed by the state and to wear body-cams by 2025, expanding training opportunities for officers, making it easier to decertify police officers who commit misconduct, and improving a victims compensation program by making resources more readily available to survivors.”   https://www.npr.org/2021/02/22/970378490/illinois-becomes-first-state-to-eliminate-cash-bail

Bail bond firm accused of charging immigration detainees excessive fees. “Under Libre’s contracts, detainees are required to pay an upfront fee equivalent to 24% to 30% of the immigration bond, as well as a $420 monthly fee for a GPS-tracking ankle monitor, the (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) claims.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/cfpb-sues-immigration-services-company-for-allegedly-preying-on-detainees.html

Elderly Buffalo man hospitalized by riot cops sues over his assault after charges against officers are dropped. “The suit accuses the defendants of violating (Martin) Gugino’s constitutional rights and alleges forcible assault without warning by officers McCabe, Torgalski and Losi.”   https://www.syracuse.com/state/2021/02/martin-gugino-sues-buffalo-police-mayor-city-after-charges-dropped-for-cops-who-shoved-him.html

Two turned away at vaccination site in Texas after not being able to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. “(Abraham) Diaz said his dad called him upset and embarrassed after waiting in line for four hours at the UT-RGV vaccine clinic, only to be wrongly told by a person working there he was not eligible for the shot. ‘[Dad] said that [the health worker] told him in front of everybody, ‘you don’t have a social (security number), so we can’t help you at all’. And ‘it’s only for U.S. citizens.'”   https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/02/22/970282174/texas-vaccination-site-apologizes-for-refusing-covid-19-shots-to-two-eligible-pe

Protesters in Myanmar fill the streets despite threats from military. “Huge crowds brought Myanmar’s towns and cities to a standstill Monday in a mass strike against the coup, despite a warning from the military junta that protesters will ‘suffer loss of life’ if demonstrations confront security forces.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/asia/myanmar-general-strike-military-warning-intl-hnk/index.html  

Six arrested in China for social media comments about deadly border clashes with India. “One man is Nanjing blogger, Qiu Ziming, who reportedly questioned the official death toll given by Chinese authorities (four), and the eight-month timeline before an official announcement. Indian officials said at the time they believed around 45 Chinese soldiers had died. Qui was (accused) of ‘picking quarrels and causing trouble’, a broadly defined crime which carries 10 years in jail, and is often used against journalists and activists.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/23/china-arrests-six-for-causing-negative-social-impact-online-over-india-border-clashes

Federal executioners accused of omitting evidence of prisoner distress from their reports on executions. “The distinctive jerking and jolting was visible in at least half the (13) executions, according to the AP and other media accounts. Among multiple executioner accounts, none described any such movements. All employed the same sleep metaphors.”   https://apnews.com/article/executioners-sanitized-accounts-of-death-25d133f59039150c2e308ba1a2a5caef

Iran points out West’s double standard regarding Iran’s nuclear program and Israel’s. “(Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad) Zarif tweeted a link to a recent report in the UK’s Guardian newspaper claiming that Israel’s top-secret nuclear research facility near the southern city of Dimona is undergoing a major expansion.”   https://www.timesofisrael.com/zarif-accuses-west-of-hypocrisy-over-report-israel-expands-dimona-nuclear-center/

2020 New York state budget reportedly gave private nursing homes ‘corporate legal immunity’ from covid related lawsuits and criminal charges. “During the peak of the first wave, the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), a lobbying arm of hospitals and nursing home facilities, drafted immunity legislation and sent it to the governor’s office. On 3 April, they bragged in a post on its website (later taken down) that they had drafted and passed the ‘gold standard’ of legal immunity for their members in New York’s 2020 budget…. There is a strong link between Governor Cuomo’s push for legal immunity and lobbyists like the Greater New York Hospital Association, which in one year gave him more than $1.5 million in political contributions.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/23/andrew-cuomo-new-york-nursing-homes-immunity-covid-deaths

Chief of Cherokee Nation asks Jeep to stop naming SUVs after them. “I think we’re in a day and age in this country where it’s time for both corporations and team sports to retire the use of Native American names, images and mascots from their products, team jerseys and sports in general.”   https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a35568468/cherokee-nation-jeep-stop-using-name/

American nun sadistically tortured in Guatemala, Sister Dianna Ortiz, dead at 62. “Ortiz said that a North American man her torturers called ‘Alejandro’ was present during her ordeal. When he realized she was an American, he helped her get dressed and drove her away while apologizing. ‘He said he was… working to liberate [Guatemala] from communism,’ Ortiz recalled.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/21/sister-dianna-ortiz-us-nun-who-survived-guatemala-torture-and-became-human-rights

Australian government demands Facebook pay news outlets for shared stories or remove them, Facebook removes them, Australians furious at Facebook. “The debate in recent times has been about Facebook’s propensity to amplify dangerous conspiracy theories and misinformation. Now Facebook’s response to that has been to ban facts from their network, which is reckless, arrogant and dangerous.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/outrage-facebook-blocks-access-news-content-australia-rcna297   Give me a break.

 

 

February 22, 2021

Deathbed confession of former undercover NYPD officer claims civil rights groups were the targets of sting operations, government was likely involved in Malcolm X assassination. “A letter written by ex-undercover NYPD policeman Raymond Wood alleges his department and the FBI covered up details of the assassination, saying he was ordered to infiltrate the civil rights movement and had members of Malcolm X’s security detail arrested shortly before the killing…. ‘Wood’s job was to infiltrate civil rights organizations and encourage leaders and members to commit felonious acts.'”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/21/ex-new-york-policeman-implicates-nypd-and-fbi-in-malcolm-x-murder

Japan grounds Boeing 777 airliners with Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines. “The (Japanese transportation) ministry said that on Dec. 4, 2020, a (Japan Airlines) flight from Naha Airport to Tokyo International Airport returned to the airport due to a malfunction in the left engine about 100 kilometres north of Naha Airport…. In Feb. 2018, a 777 of the same age operated by United and bound for Honolulu suffered an engine failure when a cowling fell off about 30 minutes before the plane landed safely. The NTSB determined that incident was the result of a full-length fan blade fracture.”   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-777-japan/japan-requests-airlines-stop-using-boeing-777s-with-pw4000-engines-until-further-notice-idUSKBN2AL0PD

46% of Republicans polled said they would leave the party to join a party led by Donald Trump. “Only 27 percent said they would stay with the GOP, with the remainder indicating they would be undecided.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/politics-101/539779-almost-half-of-republicans-would-join-trump-party-poll

Life in a developed market economy: A half million Americans now dead from coronavirus pandemic. “NBC News’ tally showed that roughly 500,001 people had died of Covid-19 as of Sunday afternoon. The number of dead rivals the population of Atlanta or Sacramento, California.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-reaches-500-000-deaths-coronavirus-n1257992

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posts photos on Twitter of himself loading bottled water into a car after his Mexico vacation scandal. “In the post, Cruz did not say where the pictures were taken.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/senator-ted-cruz-mocked-over-texas-disaster-relief-photo-op-2021-2

Saturday Night Live comedian Michael Che accused of anti-semitism over joke about Israel’s covid-19 vaccination program. “‘Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.’ …. As of Sunday, over 4.3 million Israelis have received their first vaccine dose, and almost three million have received the second, out of a population of nine million. However, the state is refusing to vaccinate the millions of Palestinians living under its control in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”   https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/israel-covid-vaccinations-fury-over-joke-on-saturday-night-live/news-story/4ea6d30b04887a79a6f92940b9adb42a   If they WERE vaccinating residents of the occupied territories, and were FALSELY being accused of not vaccinating them, then it could be considered an anti-semitic joke. The example provided in the story is, ‘In the Middle Ages, Jews were blamed for the Black Death in Europe and accused of protecting only themselves.’ See the difference?

Erik Prince denies providing rogue Libyan general with weapons or soldiers. “‘Erik Prince didn’t breach any arms embargo and had nothing to do with sending aircraft, drones, arms or people to Libya — period,’ he said in an interview with The New York Times.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/21/world/middleeast/Erik-Prince-Libya-interview.html   Interesting third-person statement. “First, speaking in the third person distances you from your actions…. When a gaslighter/narcissist speaks in the third person, his statement is said as if it is coming from a supporter. When his quote is published in the media, readers scanning the news may see just the quote and assume it is attributable to someone else. This then gives the quote more credibility.”   https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniesarkis/2019/04/26/gaslighters-use-the-third-person-for-dramatic-effect/   Donald Trump did this often.

Libya’s Interior minister survives assassination attempt. “The motorcade of Fathi Bashagha ‘was fired on from an armored car while he was on the highway. His police escort returned fire. Two of the assailants were arrested and a third is in hospital’, a source close to the interior minister told AFP news agency.”   https://www.dw.com/en/libyan-interior-minister-escapes-assassination-attempt/a-56643176

Researchers say websites are using ‘favicons’ to track their visitors, even those who have cleared their cache or who are using ‘incognito’ mode. “Overall, while favicons have long been considered a simple decorative resource supported by browsers to facilitate websites’ branding, our research demonstrates that they introduce a powerful tracking vector that poses a significant privacy threat to users.”   https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/new-browser-tracking-hack-works-even-when-you-flush-caches-or-go-incognito/

February 21, 2021

Life in a developed market economy: United Airlines jet drops engine parts over Denver suburb after takeoff, returns to airport with one functioning engine. “Local police said that pieces of the aircraft landed in at least three different areas around Broomfield, Colorado, including scattered across a park and perilously close to some suburban homes.”   https://www.huffpost.com/entry/united-flight-engine-debris-denver_n_6031803cc5b6cc8bbf3bfff1   Looks like at least one person’s car was totaled.

When several conservative news outlets recently interviewed Donald Trump, he repeatedly claimed he won the election, but was reportedly not challenged. “Trump emerged this week for interviews with Fox News Channel, Newsmax and One America News Network tied to the death of Rush Limbaugh…. He brought up (his) election grievances six times with Kelly, twice with Pellegrino and twice with the Fox team…. No interviewer introduced the topic.”   https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/trump-repeats-election-claims-interviews-unchallenged-76002370

Squalid conditions, limited drinking water reported in Texas prisons. “They give us one bottle (of water) a day and tell us to make it last.’ ….Many facilities have gone long stretches with no heat, leaving inmates shivering in their cells. A lack of running water has caused toilets to overflow and people to go days without a shower.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/overflowing-toilets-frigid-cells-no-running-water-inside-texas-inhumane-n1258377

Two more pro-democracy protesters shot dead in Myanmar. “One man died on the scene after being shot in the head and another en route to receiving treatment after being shot in the chest, according to media reports that cited local journalists and medical workers. At least 20 others were injured, according to multiple reports.”   https://www.npr.org/2021/02/20/969768969/2-killed-in-myanmar-in-worst-day-of-violence-since-feb-1-coup

Texans step up and help others in their communities amid winter weather disaster. “As millions of Texans went without safe shelter, clean water or food, good samaritans and mutual aid collectives bolstered by a national outpouring of support tried to fill the vacuum left by officials who fumbled the emergency management of the record-setting storm.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/21/texas-volunteers-neighbors-mutual-aid

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raises millions for Texas disaster victims, volunteers at food bank. “On Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez was on the ground in Texas to celebrate the success of the fundraising effort, which will go to local organizations providing Texans food assistance, homelessness relief and elder care. She was joined by Democratic Texas Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Sheila Jackson Lee, all of whom helped fill boxes at the Houston Food Bank.”   https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-winter-storms-2021/2021/02/20/969809679/ocasio-cortez-fundraising-drive-for-texas-relief-raises-4-million

Black Chicago man sues police after being taken down while walking down the sidewalk. “In the video, officers Ridgner and Abramson run toward (Leroy) Kennedy and stop him as he is walking down the sidewalk. It appears that Kennedy and the officers exchange words and one of the officers, a Black man, slams Kennedy against a brick wall. The officer is then seen on the video taking Kennedy to the ground as the second officer tries to control a crowd that has gathered…. According to a police report… the officers wrote that they stopped Kennedy because he looked directly at them, stiffened his body and his eyes enlarged.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-man-sues-chicago-police-department-over-violent-arrest-n1258457   Didn’t know that was against the law in Illinois. (sarcasm)

Jailed, transgendered Oathkeeper linked to Capitol invasion claims she was held naked in a cell for four days. “(Jessica) Watkins, 38, a former Army ranger who served in Afghanistan, was ‘forced out of the military after her sexual orientation was discovered’, her attorney wrote in a motion for home detention filed late Saturday. In the petition, Watkins alleged that while in a county jail in Ohio, she was stripped naked and left ‘in a cell with lights on 24 hours a day for 4 days in full view of everyone.'”   https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jessicagarrison/oath-keeper-transgender-jail-jessica-watkins

U.N. accuses private U.S. security contractor Erik Prince of violating Libya arms embargo. “A confidential U.N. report sent to the Security Council and obtained by The New York Times shows that Prince sent foreign mercenaries with weapons such as attack aircraft and gunboats to eastern Libya in 2019 to support Khalifa Haftar…. The mercenaries involved in the plot also reportedly planned to assassinate specific Libyan commanders.”   https://thehill.com/policy/international/539697-un-report-says-erik-prince-violated-arms-embargo-against-libya-report

Review of Nomadland. “(Fern) and other seasonal workers will live in their vehicles in an RV park and pack boxes (at Amazon) during the busy holiday season as part of the company’s CamperForce program. When it’s over, they move on to the next job…. Thinking of this lifestyle as ‘freedom’… might take a little bit of the sting out of it for the folks who, like Fern, did not exactly make the choice to have almost no money.”   https://www.vox.com/22289457/nomadland-review-zhao-mcdormand-streaming-hulu

Richest .01% of Americans paying 1/6th the taxes they paid in 1953 and 1/3rd the tax they paid in 1980. “The top .01 percent in America is a phenomenally wealthy group. Even during America’s most egalitarian periods, the average member of the top .01 percent held over 200 times the wealth of the average American. Today, the wealth of the average top .01 percenter is nearly 1,000 times that of the average American and is closing in on one billion dollars.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2021/02/17/taxes-on-the-rich-one-sixth-of-what-they-used-to-be/

Reuters, BBC and anti-Putin websites accused of participating in covert UK government plan to influence public opinion in Russia and other Russian-speaking areas. “Reuters and the BBC solicited multimillion-dollar contracts to advance the British state’s interventionist aims, promising to cultivate Russian journalists through (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)-funded tours and training sessions, establish influence networks in and around Russia, and promote pro-NATO narratives in Russian-speaking regions…. The UK (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) projects were carried out covertly, and in partnership with purportedly independent, high-profile online media outfits including Bellingcat, Meduza, and the Pussy Riot-founded Mediazona.”   https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/

Nicaraguan government passes law requiring foreign-funded organizations to register as foreign agents, U.S. State Dept. objects. “The legislation is very similar to a law passed by the United States in 1938 known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). In recent years, Washington has exploited FARA to force Russian and Chinese media outlets and journalists working in the United States to register as foreign agents…. Though Washington has had this legislation on the books for more than eight decades, and still utilizes it regularly, the Joe Biden administration has lashed out at Nicaragua for its decision to pass a similar law…. According to a review of USAID’s publicly available data, the agency has spent the following sums of money just on opposition media outlets in Nicaragua… $1,697,400 in 2020, $1,729,645 in 2019, $889,355 in 2018…”   https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/11/biden-nicaragua-dictatorship-foreign-agents/

February 20, 2021

President Biden denounces countries that engage in state-sponsored hacking. “… addressing Russian recklessness and hacking into computer networks in the United States and across Europe and the world has become critical to protecting our collective security.”   https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/539598-biden-calls-for-creating-rules-on-cyber-tech-to-combat-china-and-russia   Meanwhile…. “When the NSA hacks machines in Iran, Russia, China, and elsewhere, its operators want to know if foreign spies are in the same machines because these hackers can steal NSA tools or spy on NSA activity in the machines. If the other hackers are noisy and reckless, they can also cause the NSA’s own operations to get exposed.”   https://theintercept.com/2018/03/06/leaked-files-show-how-nsa-tracks-other-countries-hackers/

Wind turbines still operating just fine outside Texas. “Places reliant on wind energy that are no strangers to cold and ice — from Sweden to Iowa — are proof that the freezing of turbines in Texas was not inevitable. The difference: Unlike in Texas, those turbines were weatherized to operate in the cold.”   https://www.vox.com/2021/2/19/22290512/texas-winter-storm-wind-energy-power-outage-grid-fox-news

Video captures aftermath of massacre in Ethiopia. “These are scenes from a video clip obtained exclusively by The Telegraph showing the first evidence of what appears to be a war crime carried out by the Ethiopian army. Around 40 bodies in civilian clothes can be seen in the four-minute clip.”   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/19/should-have-finished-survivors-ethiopian-army-implicated-brutal/

Deputies fatally shoot black jaywalking suspect in San Clemente, California. “… both deputies tackled (Kurt) Reinhold. One of the deputies shouted that Reinhold had his gun. Surveillance video appears to show Reinhold’s hand near one of their holsters. Then, a deputy fires two shots.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kurt-reinhold-shooting-california-new-video/

North Cornwall, Pennsylvania police officer facing federal charges in connection with Capitol invasion. “(Joseph) Fischer has been charged with four federal crimes: obstruction of law enforcement, unlawful entry into a restricted building, obstructing Congress and violent conduct in the Capitol.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/19/politics/capitol-riot-pennsylvania-cop/index.html

Unemployed protest outside Kansas Dept. of Labor over unpaid unemployment benefits. “All had not received unemployment benefits from the labor department for weeks or months.”   https://www.kmbc.com/article/people-protest-at-capitol-against-kansas-department-of-labor/35568586   I tried to collect unemployment in Kansas once, after being laid off, but was told that because my employer had not been paying his unemployment insurance tax that I was ineligible for benefits.

NYPD releases man alleged to have yelled racial slurs at an elderly, Asian woman before knocking her to the ground, sending her to the hospital. “Patrick Mateo, 47, who was charged with (misdemeanor) assault and harassment, was released this morning at around 3 a.m. without bail, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.”   https://foresthillspost.com/man-released-after-being-arrested-for-shoving-asian-woman-on-flushing-street-da

Dozens likely dead in Texas due to cold weather and power outages. “Across Texas, deaths related to the winter storm continued to mount this week amid freezing temperatures, widespread power outages and a scarcity of clean water. While there have been reports that dozens of deaths are tied to the storm in Texas, experts say the death toll is likely far larger. And it could be weeks or months before the true magnitude is known.”   https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/19/texas-power-outage-winter-storm-deaths/

Malaysian government fines news website $123,000 for publishing comments that criticized the country’s courts. “One of Malaysia’s most prominent independent news outlets has been has been found in contempt of court over comments posted by readers, a verdict condemned as a grave setback for freedom of expression in the country. The attorney general filed the charges against Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief Steven Gan last year over five reader comments that were critical of the judiciary.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/19/malaysian-news-site-fined-123000-over-reader-comments-amid-press-freedom-fears

Second Google AI researcher fired. “The Alphabet Inc. company had accused (Meg) Mitchell of downloading files from its systems and said it would review her conduct. For five weeks, Mitchell, who had co-led the Ethical AI team with (former employee Timnit) Gebru, was locked out of all corporate systems — unable to access her email or calendar.”   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-19/google-fires-researcher-meg-mitchell-escalating-ai-saga

Residents of Axum in the Tigray region of Ethiopa report massacres. “(A church official) believes some 800 people were killed (in one weekend in late November) at the church and around the city, and that thousands in Axum have died in all…. ‘If we go to the rural areas, the situation is much worse,’ the deacon said.”   https://apnews.com/article/witnesses-recall-massacre-axum-ethiopia-fa1b531fea069aed6768409bd1d20bfa

Bernie Sanders questions why different government agencies are being charged different prices for the same drugs. “There is no rational reason why Medicare pays nearly three times more than Medicaid and about twice as much as the VA for the same exact medicine.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/18/congress-must-end-national-embarrassment-says-sanders-after-cbo-reveals-high-drug

There is a specter haunting France, the specter of ‘Islamo-leftism’, and the country’s government wants to do something about it. “… Gilles Kepel, an expert on Islam, said that American influence had led to ‘a sort of prohibition in universities to think about the phenomenon of political Islam, in the name of a Leftist ideology that considers it the religion of the underprivileged’. In November, (President) Macron accused parts of the English-speaking media, including the New York Times, of ‘legitimizing violence’ from Islamists by ‘saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic’.”   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/17/french-minister-sparks-storm-warning-islamo-leftist-scourge/   So, for our American readers, although many of the victims of racism in France are black, Muslims are also discriminated against. Some on the right argue that disliking minority groups is not racism, because they believe that minority groups, especially Muslims, are objectively a threat to society, and therefore disliking them is rational, unless they have completely assimilated. So ‘Islamo-leftism’ is being an apologist for (or defender of) Muslims, in general, because you view them as a diverse and misunderstood community not that different from believers in any other religion, instead of viewing them, in general, as a dangerous threat to society. Basically, the same kind of people who hate Muslims in the U.S. hate them in France too, but it’s more respectable to be a hater in France because it’s ‘not racism’. What the French are calling ‘Islamo-leftism’ is probably similar to what we would call ‘multiculturalism’ in the U.S.

California being victimized yet again by crappy, expensive software, say critics of new accounting system. “The $1 billion project goes back nearly 15 years, outlasting multiple governors and several legislative sessions…. Developers began working on the Financial Information System for California, dubbed FI$Cal, in 2007, with the goal of streamlining accounting and procurement processes for the state’s 152 departments…. ‘Previously California never had a problem getting reports out on time. Then we spend $1 billion on new software and suddenly can’t get our reports out?'”   https://www.courthousenews.com/californias-1-billion-accounting-software-continues-to-plague-taxpayers/   Been there and done that. I worked in a payroll office where we managed to pay everyone correctly, even if departments sent in late paper work and we had to go back and adjust people’s pay for a previous pay period that they had already been paid for, which happened ridiculously often, hundreds of adjustments per pay period. Then we got an expensive, new payroll system and we couldn’t issue additional paychecks for previous pay periods anymore. Eventually, I got tired of receiving angry phone calls from employees who we owed money to, and I left.

Activists hopeful that Biden administration will appoint board members to oversee release of documents related to civil rights crimes. “Miriam Kleiman, spokesperson for the National Archives, said the agency has assessed the documents already in its holdings for inclusion into the civil rights-era cold case collection. But further steps must wait until a group of lawyers, archivists and historians are named to the five-person board.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/empty-board-hampers-effort-to-release-records-on-civil-rights-era-killings/

Journalist and doctor in Belarus on trial after challenging authorities account of protester’s death. “The authorities denied that (Raman) Bandarenka was beaten by police and claimed that he was drunk when detained by police. (Katsiaryna) Barysevich’s report contested that assertion. She spoke to a doctor who treated Bandarenka and cited medical documents indicating that the protester had head wounds, a brain injury and multiple other injuries and no trace of alcohol in his blood. The doctor, Artyom Sarokin, went on trial alongside Barysevich. They face up to three years in prison if convicted on charges of revealing personal data…”   https://www.courthousenews.com/belarus-journalist-on-trial-over-report-on-protesters-death/

February 19, 2021

Senator Ted Cruz took his family to Cacun, Mexico during Texas power outages. “Photographs of Cruz, R-Texas, at an airport began circulating on social media late Wednesday, with critics slamming the senator for leaving the state for Cancun amid a major crisis…. ‘Like millions of Texans, our family lost heat and power too.'”   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ted-cruz-airport-power-crisis-texas

Biden immigration plan would allow people who entered the U.S. illegally as recently as December 31, 2020 to apply for citizenship. “The centerpiece of the bill is an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US prior to January 1, 2021.”   https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22289746/biden-immigration-reform-bill-congress   At one point, ‘immigration reform’ was being sold as providing a path to citizenship for long-term U.S. residents who had not committed any serious crimes, and now it’s anyone? We’re talking millions of people entering the labor force during an economic crisis. Unless a $15 an hour minimum wage is passed, the law of supply and demand says wages are going to fall even further. And if the economy remains weak, unemployment is going to increase.

As wealthy Texans flee the state or book high-end hotel rooms, some retailers reportedly charging $15 a case for bottled water. “Their mom forked over $45 for three cases of water at a (Pasadena) corner store for their family after their pipes burst, cutting off their water supply. Although a case normally costs $1.99, it was the only place their mom found that had any bottled water left to sell.”   https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/venessawong/texas-winter-storm-inequality

$15 minimum wage is not a hill that Joe Biden is willing to die on. “Biden’s suggestion to mayors and governors, that they start preparing for the absence of a minimum wage hike in the Covid bill, suggests what has been hinted at elsewhere: He is reluctant to deploy… strong-arm options.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/18/biden-governors-minimum-wage-469898   Namely, putting pressure on reluctant Democrats in the Senate and forcing a 51-50 Kamala Harris tie-breaker vote.

Florida county commissioner accused of favoring wealthy residents in vaccination push. “Vanessa Baugh admitted on Thursday that she ‘wanted to make sure certain people were on the list’ for vaccination after emails revealed that she directed county officials to create a list to let her and others jump the line. In response to criticism that county officials had only permitted residents from the two richest zip codes in the county to get vaccinated at the event, Baugh further admitted that she picked the zip codes herself.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/18/politics/manatee-county-vaccine/index.html   “Man the lifeboats! First-class passengers only!”

Six Capitol police officer disciplined over riot response. “‘Our Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the actions of 35 police officers from that day. We currently have suspended six of those officers with pay,’ the statement read. Some Capitol Police officers were caught on video watching the rioters enter Capitol Hill without taking any action.”   https://nypost.com/2021/02/18/six-capitol-police-officers-suspended-for-actions-during-riot/   Paid suspension? Ouch!

South Dakota’s attorney general charged with misdemeanors after hitting and killing pedestrian walking along the highway. “Jason Ravnsborg could face up to 30 days in jail and up to a $500 fine on each charge: careless driving, driving out of his lane and operating a motor vehicle while on his phone.”   https://apnews.com/article/jason-ravnsborg-charged-3-misdemanors-192acb129ad9cf2c901f9d26a2ba7e11   Don’t try this at home!

80 reportedly arrested in Spain during free speech protests in support of jailed rapper. “The rapper and his supporters say (Pablo) Hasél’s nine-month sentence for writing a critical song about former King Juan Carlos I, and for dozens of tweets that judges said glorified some of Spain’s defunct terrorist groups, violates free speech rights.”   https://apnews.com/480536ed6fd0621b4952456bfb32cbd6  

Spanish woman loses an eye after being struck by police projectile during Hasel protest. “Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted human rights group Iridia as saying the injury was caused by a foam-tipped projectile – the kind used by police in the city and wider Catalonia region…”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/18/protester-loses-eye-as-police-crackdown-on-hasel-demos-report

Britain’s supreme court rules that Uber drivers are employees. “Delivering his judgement, Lord Leggatt said that the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Uber’s appeal that it was an intermediary party and stated that drivers should be considered to be working not only when driving a passenger, but whenever logged in to the app…. Uber set the fare which meant that they dictated how much drivers could earn. Uber set the contract terms and drivers had no say in them.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56123668

NATO to increase number of ‘military trainers’ in Iraq from 500 to 4,000. “The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/18/nato-expands-mission-in-iraq-on-the-heels-of-deadly-rocket-attack.html

President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani claims most of the foreign financial aid to the country doesn’t appear in the government’s budget, criticizes widespread corruption. “60 percent of aid has gone out of the national budget, it is not the fault of the international community. Make the budget effective, make the state institutions accountable, the money will return.”   https://tolonews.com/business-170111

Colombian truth and reconciliation tribunal says 6,402 suspected insurgents were murdered by the country’s military. “We are grateful for the publication of the findings of the JEP’s investigations which show how widespread extrajudicial executions were during the period of [then-president] Álvaro Uribe, from 2002 to 2008,” said Castaño, who leads a victims’ group. “We hope that the truth will continue to come out.”   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/19/colombia-farc-tribunal-false-positives   The Guardian seems to be portraying these murders as killings of Colombians who were either mistaken for insurgents or who were just murdered randomly to boost the Army’s body count! Based on what we know about anti-communist counter-insurgency tactics, I find that highly unlikely.

Woman shot in the head by Myanmar security forces dies. “Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, 20, had been on life support since being taken to hospital on 9 February after she was hit by what doctors said was a live bullet at a protest in the capital, Naypyitaw.”   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/19/myanmar-protester-shot-in-head-during-police-crackdown-has-died-says-brother

Congressman Ro Khanna introduces legislation to boost IRS efforts to pursue wealthy tax dodgers. “Right now, the wealthiest 1% are responsible for roughly 70% of the ‘tax gap’—the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid. It’s time every American pay their fair share.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/18/ro-khanna-introduces-bill-end-runaway-tax-evasion-us-millionaires-and-billionaires

Federal court hears arguments in lawsuit brought by Chrome users who claim Google tracked their web browsing habits. “The plaintiffs in the class action claim they signed up for Chrome because Google explicitly said they would not have their browsing history sent to Google unless they decided to ‘sync’ the browser with their account. Despite these assurances, (they claim) Chrome tracked their web browsing and sent it to Google, in violation of federal law and the newly minted California Consumer Privacy Act.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/privacy-debated-in-fight-over-google-chrome-browser-history-tracking/