March 31, 2022

Life in a developed market economy: Woman gives birth in convenience store parking lot after being sent home from hospital. “… [Lauren] Banks said she went into CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern, North Carolina, with painful contractions. But she said her doctors told her that her cervix had dilated just 4 centimeters and that she would need to be dilated 5 centimeters to be considered in active labor. As the pain of her contractions increased, she said the doctor told her the hospital was full and she wouldn’t be able to stay…. she said when her baby — who many are affectionately calling ‘Handy Mart’ — grows up, she’ll tell him the story of his birth in a lighthearted way.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/mom-labor-says-she-turned-222033745.html

Man sentenced to 10 years in prison for Portland anti-brutality protest violence. “From the [McMinnville, Oregon Goodwill store’s security camera] footage, police recognized the man who wore a black cowboy hat and jeans and was far from his home in Marion, Indiana: 23-year-old Malik Muhammad, a U.S. Army veteran…. In the five-odd weeks that transpired between the Goodwill shopping excursion and his arrest, state and federal prosecutors allege, Muhammad attended four Portland protests. During some of those events, he threw Molotov cocktails toward police—including one that ‘seriously burned’ a protester, and another that caught an officer’s pant leg on fire—and handed out baseball bats to incite property damage, prosecutors say…. [a witness (police informant?)] described Muhammad as ‘a communist revolutionary who was attempting to gather people with firearms to engage in acts of violence’, according to the filing…. A Multnomah County circuit judge had set Muhammad’s bail at $2,125,000. Then, on May 26, a community organization called the Portland Freedom Fund posted the requisite 10% bail amount—$212,500—and Muhammad was out. His freedom was short-lived. Two days later, on May 28, the feds arrested him on their own warrant.”   https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/03/30/the-curious-case-of-malik-muhammad/   A sharp contrast to the sentences handed out to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election! Were these the same kind of Molotov cocktails that CNN has been teaching its viewers how to make during their coverage of the war in Ukraine?

NYPD and city’s sanitation department clear 239 homeless encampments. “But only five people at those sites agreed to go to homeless shelters, a sign that most of them may remain outdoors and many were likely to rebuild their makeshift camps…. ‘Private rooms and permanent housing,’ [Jacquelyn Simone, the policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless] said. ‘That’s what people want. You don’t have to do heavy-handed policing to convince someone to come in off the streets if you’re actually offering them an option that is safer and better than the streets.'”   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/nyregion/nyc-homeless-eric-adams.html

Arizona voters will now have to prove they are U.S citizens to vote, even in federal elections, setting up legal battle. “Arizona is the only state that requires voters to prove their citizenship when they register, a provision adopted in a 2004 ballot measure known as Proposition 200. In a challenge to Proposition 200, the US Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that Arizona can adopt its own eligibility criteria for state elections but must accept a federal voter registration form for federal elections. The federal form requires voters to attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens, but unlike the state form, it does not require them to provide documentary proof…. The ruling created a class of voters who can vote only for president, US House and US Senate known as ‘federal-only voters’. There are 31,500 people currently registered that way, according to the Arizona secretary of state’s Office.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/30/arizona-voting-rights-citizenship-law

Washington Post joins New York Times in admitting that leaked emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, which surfaced in October of 2020, are real. “‘Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden,’ the [Washington] Post reported, before writing that it found no evidence that President Biden ‘personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC’ which all took place after he left office as vice president.”   https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-hunter-biden-laptop-story-coverage

Life in a developed market economy: At least 64 public school students in Camden, New Jersey ‘impacted’ by sanitizer contaminated milk. “According to school district spokeswoman Valerie Merritt, over 30 students were sent to two area hospitals following the discovery of the colorless substance Wednesday morning. Some students were vomiting, she said…. ‘It was determined that the substance found in the cartons is a non-toxic consumable sanitizer that runs through the vendor machines prior to milk,’ the district said in a series of posts on Twitter.”   https://www.nj.com/camden/2022/03/dozens-of-nj-students-sent-to-hospitals-after-sanitizer-found-in-milk-cartons.html

Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to pay $113,000 to settle Federal Election Commission charges related to ‘Steele dossier’. “The Clinton campaign hired Perkins Coie, which then hired Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm, to conduct opposition research on Republican candidate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. But on FEC forms, the Clinton campaign classified the spending as legal services.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/hillary-clinton-democrats-steele-dossier-settle-electoral-case

Republican leadership pressures Rep. Madison Cawthorn to walk back ‘orgies and drugs’ comments. “Asked if the Netflix hit House of Cards, about amoral Washington politicians and fixers, was anything like reality, Cawthorn said: ‘The only thing that isn’t accurate about that show is that you could never get a piece of legislation about education passed that quickly.’ …. [House minority leader Kevin] McCarthy met Cawthorn with the Republican chief whip, Steve Scalise, in attendance. According to the minority leader, Cawthorn admitted some of his remarks had been untrue or exaggerated.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/30/madison-cawthorn-washington-orgies-cocaine-claims   Sure they were. I wonder if all this orgies and drugs activity is possibly a program for collecting compromising material on legislators, and I wonder who is running it. You never know when you’re going to need a legislator’s vote on an important piece of legislation. Hard to believe senior party leaders would be stupid enough to be doing stuff like this just for kicks. Maybe they’re being blackmailed into helping blackmail new legislators?

Mexican military accused of helping cover up kidnappings of student protesters. “Mexico’s armed forces knew that 43 student teachers who disappeared in 2014 were being kidnapped by criminals, then hid evidence that could have helped locate them, according to a report released on Monday by a special investigation…. [Investigator Angela] Buitrago said investigators, prosecutors and military personnel altered crime scenes and records…. The students from a radical teachers’ college were abducted by local police in southern Guerrero state who presumably killed them and burned their bodies. But the students were under surveillance because their college, which has strong ties to left-wing social movements in Mexico, was viewed as a hotbed of subversion, the experts said.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/29/mexico-43-disappeared-students-military-report-iguala-ayotzinapa

Amnesty International accuses Russia of persecuting Ukraine war critics. “The human rights group Amnesty International warned Wednesday that the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a “witch hunt” against critics of Moscow’s deadly assault on Ukraine, hitting anti-war protesters with criminal charges over peaceful demonstrations and prosecuting activists for condemning the invasion on social media…. Amnesty noted Wednesday that a number of anti-war critics have been investigated and charged under a recently enacted law prohibiting the spread of ‘fake’ information about Russia’s military. Violations of the new law are punishable by fines or… up to 15 years in prison.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/30/russia-conducting-witch-hunt-against-war-critics-says-amnesty

March 30, 2022

President Biden’s wealth tax plan should not be taken seriously, claims writer. “Among the criticisms [Joe Biden] lobbed at the [Bernie] Sanders and [Elizabeth] Warren wealth tax proposals [during his presidential campaign] was that they were fundamentally punitive, because they taxed wealth of a small, specific group of individuals. He told a wealthy crowd of supporters in Los Angeles that while they shouldn’t expect a tax cut from him, there would be ‘no punishment either’…. In his latest budget plan, Biden proposed something the White House has dubbed the ‘Billionaire Minimum Income Tax’, which applies to all income, realized and unrealized, for households worth more than $100 million…. Biden’s wealth tax… is a desperate policy gimmick by a White House struggling with low approval numbers on the economy. Even Biden’s allies understand this. Late last year, his administration tried to convince congressional Democrats to include a wealth tax in one of the big spending bills. At the time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) reportedly called it ‘a publicity stunt’. That’s exactly what this is.”   https://reason.com/2022/03/29/bidens-desperate-wealth-tax-flip-flop/   The author is angry that Biden is even daring to propose the idea of a wealth tax, while most progressives will be angry when they figure out they are being played again.

White House records show a 7 hour and 37 minute gap in President Trump’s phone log on January 6th, 2021. “The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes — from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. — … means there is no record of the calls made by Trump as his supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety…. The gap… stands in stark contrast to the extensive public reporting about phone conversations he had with allies during the attack…. The House [January 6th investigation] panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through back-channels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, known as ‘burner phones’…”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-calls-seven-hour-gap-january-6/

U.S. military personnel actually are training Ukrainian soldiers in Poland sources say, but they aren’t actually training them, claims U.S. NATO commander. “US troops in Poland have been providing Ukrainians with some instruction on how to use the weapons the West has been shipping into Ukraine, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. President Joe Biden said on Monday that US troops stationed in Poland have been ‘helping train the Ukrainian troops’ in that country…. ‘We were talking about helping train the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland,’ Biden said on Monday. He was seeking to clarify a remark he made last week to US troops that they would be seeing ‘when you’re [in Ukraine] … women, young people, standing in the middle of the damn tank, saying, ‘I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground.’ …. NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Tod D. Wolters told US lawmakers on Tuesday that the US had been providing ‘advice and assistance with respect to materiel’ going into Ukraine, but that the US forces are not ‘in the process of currently training military forces from Ukraine in Poland.'”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/29/politics/us-troops-poland-ukraine/   Why are they lying about this? I’m more worried about the lying than the training. Just don’t complain if, after an anti-American regime seizes power in a coup in Mexico and U.S. troops invade to crush it, because they don’t want a pro-Russian regime on their border, Russia ships these kinds of weapons to Cuba and trains Mexican soldiers there how to use them.

Lynching people – and conspiring to lynch people – is now a federal crime. “‘The failure of Congress to codify federal anti-lynching legislation — despite more than 200 attempts since 1900 — meant that 99% of lynching perpetrators walked free,’ [Rep. Bobby] Rush said after the House passed the bill on Feb. 28…. According to documentation from the Equal Justice Initiative, nearly 6,500 Black people were lynched between 1865 and 1950. NAACP research… found that of 4,743 lynchings that occurred between 1882 and 1968, 72% of the victims were Black.”   https://news.yahoo.com/biden-signs-bill-making-lynching-a-federal-crime-ending-centurylong-effort-210032180.html   I thought this was just a ‘feel good’ bill – I didn’t realize that so many local authorities had failed to charge or convict so many perpetrators.

High school friends regret not helping homeless classmate killed by drunk driver. “‘Unfortunately our society is not well equipped to deal with mental illness, which is part of the reason [Rochelle Zamacona] was in that [homeless] camp in Salem,’ [Kelsi] Hepler said. ‘It breaks my heart that her beautiful soul was taken in such a senseless tragedy. I hope people that knew her can remember her in the way I know I will. She’s always been in my heart and always will be.’ Over the last few years, [Talia] Davis said she had fallen out of touch with Zamacona. That was a similar story for others in their friend group, and now Davis said many of them feel guilt.”   https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/friends-remember-salem-woman-killed-crash/283-82d29fa2-7479-448e-8f71-63716f52e806   So many people not getting the help they need, and society seems to be ok with that, as long as they are out of sight.

Life in a mature, western democracy: State and local taxpayers to ‘contribute’ $850 million, or more, for NFL stadium. “Most of the public funds are coming from the state but Erie County, where the Bills’ new stadium will be built down the street from their current home, will contribute $250 million of the total…. as Field of Schemes blogger Neil deMause parses in his detailed rundown of the stadium deal, the actual public subsidies probably exceed $1 billion—and that doesn’t account for things like interest payments on the borrowing that the state and county will likely have to do to finance the agreement…. there are a lot of things western New York probably needs more than an expensive new football stadium. The population of Buffalo is about half what it was when the Bills were founded in 1960.”   https://reason.com/2022/03/29/taxpayers-to-be-billed-a-billion-dollars-for-buffalo-bills-new-stadium/   Follow the money if you want to see who really has power in a society. Here we can see working class taxpayers being forced to help pay for the private business infrastructure of a group of multi-billionaire and multi-millionaire sports franchise owners.

Conservative politician opens can of worms after claiming in interview that senior Republicans invited him to orgies, use drugs. “Rep. Madison Cawthorn should out the fellow Republicans he claims invited him to orgies and snorted cocaine in front of him, the leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus said…. The comments from freshman congressman Cawthorn, 26, have led to suggestions from some within the Freedom Caucus that he should be ousted from the group, Politico reported. [Chairman Scott] Perry wouldn’t say whether the caucus would consider booting Cawthorn if he didn’t name names or share evidence to back up his salacious claims.”   https://nypost.com/2022/03/29/cawthorns-orgy-coke-remarks-spark-uproar-in-freedom-caucus/

New York City’s Democratic Party mayor planning to clear all of the city’s homeless camps over next two weeks. “At a fundraiser on Friday, Adams told The New York Times that city agencies would identify the encampments, offer residents homeless outreach services, and then ‘dismantle’ their makeshift shelters — all within a two-week period. On Saturday, a spokesperson for the mayor said the initial sweep has already begun, led by the New York Police Department, as well as the sanitation, social services and parks departments…. his spokesperson said workers will connect people to shelters or other housing options. Many unhoused New Yorkers avoid congregate shelters due to restrictive rules and unsafe conditions.”   https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-adams-removing-homeless-encampments

Oregon lifts residency requirement for medically assisted suicide. “Oregon will no longer require people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication, after a lawsuit challenged the requirement as unconstitutional…. Advocates said they would use the settlement to press the eight other states and Washington, D.C., with using a physician’s aid in dying laws to drop their residency requirements as well.”   https://www.opb.org/article/2022/03/28/oregon-ends-residency-rule-for-medically-assisted-suicide/   My father died of Parkinson’s disease. I was told he was moved into hospice care and that I should return from overseas as soon as possible. A nurse (not from the facility where he was staying) told me that patients are generally in hospice care for several months before dying, so I decided to finish out the last few weeks of the semester before flying back to the U.S., because it would be a huge mess for my employer if I just disappeared. No one told me that he had stopped eating to hasten his death, so by the time I arrived it was for his funeral. Since assisted suicide was not allowed, he had starved himself to death.

Donald Trump out-polling Joe Biden by 6% in hypothetical rematch. “If the 2024 presidential election were held right now, the poll finds Trump getting 47 percent support compared to 41 percent for Biden. Twelve percent of voters are undecided. Vice President Harris performs even worse in a hypothetical match-up with Trump. Forty-nine percent said they would choose Trump, while 38 percent said they would support Harris.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/600146-poll-trump-leads-biden-harris-in-2024-matchups   Sad. So much for the theory that people actually wanted a centrist Democrat as their presidential candidate, instead of some crazy progressive who would push things like national health insurance, a Green New Deal, demilitarization of the police and a peace dividend.

Whistleblower says White House Office of Science and Technology Policy legal staff were concerned about former Google CEO Eric Schmidt possibly influencing White House tech policy. “‘I and others on the legal team had been noticing a large number of staff with financial connections to Schmidt Futures and were increasingly concerned about the influence this organization was able to have through these individuals,’ Wallace, who is now being represented by the Government Accountability Project as a whistleblower, told POLITICO. GAP and Wallace formally filed a whistleblower complaint in early March.… [Eric] Schmidt’s relationship with powerful Democrats dates from the 1990s…. Besides [artificial intelligence], Schmidt has also taken a keen interest in the future of 5G telephone technology, which is within the OSTP’s portfolio…”   https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/28/google-billionaire-joe-biden-science-office-00020712

Labor market turnover continues as 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in February. “In February, US businesses had 11.3 million job openings to fill, slightly more than economists had predicted…. For every job-seeking American, there were just below 1.8 positions available, matching the high from December…. Meanwhile, the number of Americans quitting their jobs inched up to 4.4 million in February — slightly higher than in the prior month, but below the November peak of 4.5 million.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/29/economy/us-job-openings-quits-february/index.html

Dept. of Justice endorses House and Senate bills that would block tech giants like Meta, Google, Apple and Amazon from favoring their own products. “‘The Department views the rise of dominant platforms as presenting a threat to open markets and competition, with risks for consumers, business, innovation, resiliency, global competitiveness, and our democracy,’ the letter, signed by acting assistant attorney general Peter Hyun, reads.”   https://www.axios.com/doj-big-tech-antitrust-e620d1e8-dfd9-4365-89d9-63e64767d319.html

Environmental groups pushing Bitcoin to change its operating system. “The campaign is being organized by advocacy organizations Greenpeace and the Environmental Working Group…. Bitcoin’s profligate energy use—and the carbon pollution associated with it—are rooted in the cryptocurrency’s’ proof-of-work’ approach to validating transactions on its blockchain…. As mining bitcoin has become harder, the network has drawn more energy—as much energy as entire countries…. The campaign is hoping to prod bitcoin into reducing its energy use by 99.9 percent by switching to so-called ‘proof-of-stake’, where validators who own the blockchain’s coin stake some of their coins.”    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/bitcoins-massive-energy-use-faces-5m-shame-campaign-from-environmental-groups/

The good news is that more Americans are buying electric vehicles. The bad news is that many of them are going to be Hummers. “Well, it seems like a whole lot of you out there are doofuses. I say that with love, but 65,000 of y’all placed reservations for the GMC Hummer EV. That is entirely too many…. According to CNBC, [GM is] now trying to speed up production to meet demand. That means more of you buffoons bought this over-9,000 pound monolith to American excess than GM (the most America brand) thought possible. Shame on you…. please, for the love of Christ, get an EV that makes more sense than this. I am begging you nicely.”   https://jalopnik.com/god-weeps-as-65-000-people-reserve-the-gmc-hummer-ev-1848721289

U.S. House committee launches Credit Suisse investigation after bank reportedly asked investors to destroy documents connected with loans to wealthy Russians. “The probe comes after the Financial Times reported earlier this month that Credit Suisse had asked hedge funds and other investors to destroy documents relating to its richest clients’ yachts and private jets, in an attempt to stop information leaking about loans to oligarchs who were later sanctioned…. [Credit Suisse] said that the request had been made to ensure investors complied with a nondisclosure agreement and was ‘in no way linked to the recent implementation of additional sanctions [on Russians] – with which we are fully compliant.'”   https://www.euronews.com/2022/03/29/credit-suisse-gp-probe-russia   Apparently the yachts and jets were used as collateral for loans.

52.3% of Americans polled say Chris Rock more to blame than Will Smith for Oscars slap. “While Smith has received the lion’s share of public criticism and faces possible discipline from the Academy over the slap, data revealed a majority of Americans are on Team Smith, according to Blue Rose Researcher David Shor…. A majority of those 18 to 64 years old and those making less than $100,000-a-year agreed that Rock was more in the wrong. About 56.5 percent of women also put the blame on Rock, but 52.4 percent of men disagreed and said Smith was to blame.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10666077/Poll-finds-people-blame-Chris-Rock-Oscar-slapping-incident-Smith.html

Political prisoners in Kurdistan region of Iraq claim they’ve been tortured and mistreated. “Amjad Yusuf Rekani, a human rights activist from the Shiladze area of the Duhok province in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, is in “very bad health” after over 20 days of a hunger strike to protest his arrest and torture by Kurdish security forces,  his family said in a statement to the press on Monday. Four other detainees joined Rekani’s hunger strike this past Sunday, also to protest their arrest and ill-treatment by the security forces. All five detainees are activists who have been held without trial since late 2020…. Since early 2019, security forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have detained hundreds of protestors, activists and journalists across the region, following widespread protests against poor services, unpaid salaries, the existence of Turkish military bases as well as airstrikes against civilians in the region. ”   https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/kurdish-prisoners-launch-hunger-strike-protest-torture

Still no drop in U.S. deaths during encounters with police. “Law enforcement in the US have killed 249 people this year as of 24 March, averaging about three deaths a day and mirroring the deadly force trends of recent years, according to Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group. The data, experts say, suggests in the nearly two years since George Floyd’s murder, the US has made little progress in preventing deaths at the hands of law enforcement, and that the 2020 promises of systemic reforms have fallen short.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/30/us-police-killing-people-high-rates

Major banks still funding new fossil fuel industry projects. “In 2021 alone, the report finds, the world’s biggest private-sector banks financed oil and gas to the tune of $742 billion…. The worst offenders in the banking industry, according to the report, are the U.S. financial behemoths JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, which together accounted for 25% of all fossil fuel financing identified over the past six years.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/30/despite-splashy-net-zero-vows-big-banks-dumping-trillions-fossil-fuels

‘Radical action’ needed to hit climate goals. “The world must take ‘radical action’ to shift away from fossil fuels, including investing $5.7 trillion annually in solar, wind and other forms of clean power this decade to ensure that global warming doesn’t pass dangerous thresholds, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency said Tuesday…. Scientists say global emissions need to drop 45% by the end of the decade compared to 1990 levels. But recent data show they are going up, not down, in part due to rising energy demand and the expansion of fossil fuel use.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/energy-agency-radical-action-needed-to-hit-climate-goals/

March 29, 2022

Former Colorado Green Party members claim they were purged during party takeover. “[Gary] Swing, [Harry] Hempy and other former Green Party of Colorado members say that [Andrea] Mérida stacked [the 2018 state] assembly with people she’d recruited as temporary Greens who hadn’t been part of the party before. Mérida used those people as a way to out-vote other groups, presenting a different agenda than the one that had been previously agreed upon, they say. The new agenda didn’t allow discussion of changes to the party bylaws that Mérida had proposed, review of state office-holder’s actions throughout the year, or public disclosure of the treasurer’s report…. The agenda also called for giving the state council expanded power to kick people out of the party without a vote of members, Hempy says, adding that Mérida soon used that power to kick him out…. Along with Bartlett, Hempy and Swing, nearly a dozen other former Green Party members have been kicked out of the party by Mérida; each had run for office or held one within the Green Party. They say that kicking them out allowed Mérida to consolidate power for herself…. Since 1994, the Green Party had run candidates in every general election. The first time that the Colorado Green Party failed to nominate any candidates for statewide or congressional offices was 2018; none ran in 2020, either.”   https://www.westword.com/news/green-party-colorado-andrea-merida-takeover-assembly-13718005   If you were a Democratic Party supporter (or security agency employee) who wanted to destroy the Green Party, there are less effective methods than dismantling it from the inside. On the other hand, they could just be sincere, far-left zealots who don’t understand the damage they are doing in pursuit of the political purity of other less-than-1% parties.

Russia to reportedly drop ‘de-nazification’ from its list of Ukraine ceasefire demands. “… Moscow is also prepared to allow Ukraine to join the European Union as long as Kyiv agrees to several security concessions. These include refraining from developing nuclear weapons, ditching its initial pursuit to join NATO, and declining to host foreign military bases. [The Financial Times] cited four anonymous sources who claimed they were briefed on the discussions but chose not to provide their names because the agreement had not been finalized.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-nazi-demand-for-ukraine-dropped-in-ceasefire-talks-2022-3

Comedian makes fun of woman’s medical condition during TV broadcast, world shocked when angry husband slaps him. “Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she was diagnosed with alopecia. She has often discussed the challenges of hair loss on Instagram and other social media platforms. Some commentators noted that alopecia is a painful experience that many Black women go through and should not be joked about.”   https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/comedians-react-horror-smiths-oscar-slap-83720676   Will Smith should not have slapped Chris Rock, he should have let him have it verbally during his acceptance speech (which he did very movingly), or discussed it in interviews after the event. But where is the outrage over the disability joke? Are comedians really arguing that fat jokes, sexist jokes, gay jokes, handicapped jokes and ethnic jokes, in other words ‘mean humor’, even about specific people, are appropriate on television? Where are the calls for Chris Rock to apologize to Jada Pinkett Smith? Why does the Motion Picture Academy think this kind of comedy is ok during their broadcast?

Federal judge orders Trump adviser John Eastman to turn over emails, since evidence suggests there was a conspiracy to undermine results of 2020 election. “The January 6 select committee, which is investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol that was carried out in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Biden’s win over Trump, had sought the emails Eastman had sent laying out the plan he and Trump knew to be illegal, [U.S. District Court Judge David] Carter said. ‘Based on the evidence, the Court finds that it is more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,’ the judge wrote.”   https://news.yahoo.com/federal-judge-trump-and-lawyer-john-eastman-likely-committed-crimes-in-attempt-to-overturn-election-190219092.html

Indianapolis police officer charged in connection with violent arrest. “The man can be heard screaming in a portion of [Officer Travis] Lewis’ body camera footage released by IMPD. The footage is too dark to see what is going on, but a light later turns on, and Lewis can be seen appearing to grab the man’s underwear near his genitals. ‘It appears that Officer Lewis’s hand is in a closed position and rotating in a twisting motion in this area while (the man) is yelling and shifting his body in response,’ investigators wrote in the affidavit…. ‘My balls are bleeding,’ [the suspect said].”   https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2022/03/28/indianapolis-police-officer-travis-lewis-charged-misconduct/7191875001/

Videos claim to show Ukrainian soldiers beating Russian POWs, shooting them in the legs. “Men in Russian military uniforms lie bloody on the ground, stunned, with mangled legs. More men, their hands trussed behind their backs, step from a teal van, kneel to the ground and are shot behind the kneecap at point-blank range, screaming in pain…. It was filmed near a dairy plant in the village of Malaya Rohan, in the Kharkiv region, according to geolocation by The Washington Post…. According to the Ukrainian military, Russian soldiers were taken as prisoners in a town five miles north of Malaya Rohan on Friday.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/28/ukraine-russia-pow-video/   I’ll bet this was a Ukrainian nationalist militia. It seems like a Nazi kind of thing to do. “The footage, which has been circulated on the web and is being reviewed by several Open Source Intelligence concerns, shows what has allegedly been described as Russian POWs being wounded and potentially murdered by Ukrainian paramilitary units believed to be affiliated with the Azov Brigade.”   https://warisboring.com/ukrainian-probe-initiated-after-video-surfaces-allegedly-showing-russian-prisoners-being-shot/   I thought so.

Some non-Ukrainian (i.e., non-white) refugees are reportedly being held in Western European detention camps. “… we managed to obtain a letter, an official letter, from the Polish border guard confirming that there were 52 people, third-party nationals who fled the Ukrainian conflict, in detention. And that was on March 15th…. There could be more.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/3/28/detained_african_students_russia_ukraine

Sen. Bernie Sanders blasts Biden’s bloated military budget proposal. “Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday criticized President Joe Biden’s request for an $813.3 billion military budget in the next fiscal year as excessive, noting that the United States already spends more on national security than ‘the next 11 countries combined.’ …. By contrast, Biden is asking Congress for just $44.9 billion in total funding to fight the climate emergency in Fiscal Year 2023.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/28/we-do-not-need-massive-increase-sanders-criticizes-bidens-813-billion-military

Portland expands its unarmed emergency response program to cover whole city, but they are only allowed to respond to outdoor emergencies. “Portland Street Response is designed to respond to emergencies that aren’t life-threatening and where no crime has been committed. These calls often go unanswered by police themselves, who claim low levels of staffing mean they can’t get to every call that comes through the city’s overburdened emergency line…. Program leaders hoped that the police union would agree to allow Portland Street Response to respond to calls inside homes and businesses and those involving suicide as the program expanded citywide. Instead, the latest police union agreement with the city, released in February, specified only that police union jobs wouldn’t be reduced because of the program’s expansion.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/portland-unarmed-emergency-response-team-now-citywide/

YouTube takes down six years worth of Chris Hedges’ On Contact. “The entire archive of On Contact, the Emmy-nominated show I hosted for six years for RT America and RT International, has been disappeared from YouTube…. I received no inquiry or notice…. I was on RT for the same reason the dissident Vaclav Havel, who I knew, was on Voice of America during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. It was that or not be heard. Havel had no more love for the policies of Washington than I have for those of Moscow…. I did not, like my former employer, The New York Times, sell you the lie of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, peddle conspiracy theories about Donald Trump being a Russian asset, put out a 10-part podcast called The Caliphate that was a hoax, or tell you that the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘disinformation’. I did not prophesize that Joe Biden was the next FDR or that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/28/chris-hedges-on-being-disappeared/

March 28, 2022

Federal appeals court rules that a Fort Worth police officer who used a ‘pain compliance’ technique to extract a teenager’s name and age while investigating a littering complaint did not violate her constitutional rights. “… [Officer William] Martin unnecessarily re-escalated the encounter by confronting [Brea] Hymond—who had been recording the incident from a distance and yelling at the officer that she was doing so—grabbing her, shoving her against his patrol car, ripping the phone out of her hand, and placing her under arrest for ‘interfering’…. Martin started questioning Hymond: ‘How old are you? What is your name?’ Hymond did not immediately answer his questions. So, with Hymond’s hands restrained behind her back, Martin jerked her arms up into the air, applying a pain control maneuver taught in police training, and repeated the question, enunciating in a slow, purposeful staccato: ‘What. Is. Your. Name?’…. The 5th Circuit dismissed that use of force as ‘relatively minimal’, adding that Martin jerked Hymond’s arms ‘only after Hymond refused to provide Martin with her name.’ But deliberately inflicting pain on a nonresistant arrestee to obtain information is ‘obviously unconstitutional’, [the Institute for Justice] says [in its brief], and the appeals court’s alarming acceptance of that practice needs to be corrected.”   https://reason.com/2022/03/25/the-5th-circuit-approves-a-cops-violent-response-to-a-dispute-over-a-7-year-olds-littering/

Facebook wants a video selfie and government ID to unlock my personal account, which I’ve had for years, and almost no one seems to think that’s a problem. I’ve contacted the following groups, researchers and journalists about this, but only one responded to my offer to send a video of the ‘identity confirmation’ process:

• Electronic Frontier Foundation on March 16th
• Prof. April Glaser, author of the article The Watchdogs That Didn’t Bark on March 18th
• Sam Biddle at The Intercept on March 18th
• Digital Information World on March 19th, publisher of Facebook will now Require you to Create a Video Selfie for Identity Verification! (politely declined my offer). At the end of the article it says, “Have you or someone you know been asked to submit a video selfie to confirm their identity on Facebook yet? Let us know in the comments!” I submitted my story as a comment. My comment was apparently not approved by the publisher, since the story still has zero comments.
• Fast Company on March 19th
• Malachi Barret of MLive, author of Your Facebook selfies could end up in a police surveillance database, on March 19th (he responded with a request for my video)
• Restore the Fourth on March 20th
• Wired on March 21st

Then I got buried with work and I had to drop it for a while. This lack of interest seems a little odd. Doesn’t it seem just a little intrusive to make people upload videos of themselves and government photo ID just to interact on social media? What’s really going on here, and why doesn’t anyone care?

Southwest U.S. breaks March high temperature records. “Las Vegas soared to 93 degrees on Saturday, while Death Valley, Calif., hit 104 — both March records…. Daily records for March 26 were set in Salt Lake City (79 degrees); El Paso (87 degrees); Reno, Nev. (79 degrees); Clayton, N.M. (82 degrees); Pocatello, Idaho (70 degrees); and Pueblo, Colo. (84 degrees), among other locations.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/03/27/boulder-ncar-fire-heat-wave/   Climate change is only going to get worse, and it’s coming for YOU!

BBC article claims Ukrainian refugees in Western Europe are facing the threat of having their organs harvested by crime gangs. “Five weeks into Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine, processes across Europe screening those claiming to help Ukrainians are still far from foolproof. Organised crime (including sex and organ trafficking and frequently, slave labour) is not the only menace. Refugees are exploited by individuals too.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60891801   Hey, it could happen.

Two Indian River County, Florida sheriff’s deputies fatally shoot mental patient armed with scissors. “The suspect was brought to the hospital Friday by his family and was being held under Florida’s Baker Act. Flowers said the man had attempted to hang himself and had multiple cuts on his wrists and legs. The time between when deputies saw the man jump from his bed and grab the scissors and when the deputies fired at him was five seconds, [Sheriff Eric] Flowers said.”   https://www.wptv.com/news/treasure-coast/region-indian-river-county/cleveland-clinic-indian-river-hospital-shooting

Ukrainian president says neutrality is on the table. “In an interview on Sunday with Russian journalists, Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine was willing to discuss lifting restrictions on the Russian language and adopting a neutral geopolitical status. But he insisted that any deal would need to be validated by a referendum to be held after Russian troops withdraw, and that other countries would need to provide his nation with security guarantees.”   https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/28/world/ukraine-russia-war

U.S. expert claims white phosphorus munitions mainly used to create smoke. “‘… the United States and almost every other country in the world has white phosphorus projectiles in their arsenals. They’re used principally for creating smoke clouds because they do a very effective job at creating quick smoke,’ [RAND Corp. researcher David] Johnson said….  Such weapons have been used by US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria and are routinely used in military operations, Johnson said, despite being frequently misconstrued as illegal weapons.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/white-phosphorus-weapons-ukraine-russia-horror-of-war-expert-says-2022-3   “A Pentagon spokesman told the BBC last night that [white phosphorus] had been used as ‘an incendiary weapon’ during the assault last year on Falluja in 2004…. Asked if it was used as an offensive weapon during the siege of Falluja, [Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable] replied: ‘Yes, it was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on, and you wish to get them out of those positions, one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round into the position: the combined effects of the fire and smoke… will drive them out of the holes so you can kill them with high explosives.'”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/16/iraq.usa

President Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget includes a record $813.3 billion in military spending. “… Biden’s new military budget request amounts to $100 billion more than was spent at the height of the Cold War, adjusted for inflation…. Last week, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.)—the co-chairs and founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus—warned Biden that dumping more money into the Pentagon’s overflowing coffers ‘will continue to starve our domestic priorities of needed funding’.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/28/biden-asks-congress-approve-record-813-billion-military-spending

March 27, 2022

President Biden calls for regime change in Russia. “Speaking in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, President Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power…. This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead,’ Biden said.”   https://www.npr.org/2022/03/26/1089014039/biden-says-of-putin-for-gods-sake-this-man-cannot-remain-in-power   Adding to my suspicion that this was the plan all along – luring Russia into an invasion of Ukraine by arming the country and aggressively pushing for its inclusion in NATO, then bogging Russia down in an unpopular war, with the aim of replacing a disgraced Putin with a pro-Western leader. The other possibility is that the leaders of Ukraine and the U.S. are complete idiots for ignoring the advice of experts, who told them Russia would never tolerate Ukraine joining NATO since they would consider it a dire threat to their national security.

Washington, D.C. reportedly used $2.5 million in pandemic relief funds to hire more parking police. “At a time when many residents were struggling due to job losses and loss of business, the District of Columbia ramped up efforts to wring money out of them—and spent federal pandemic aid to do so…. In cities around the country, pandemic relief funds went to either ordinary police costs or to increase policing capabilities—sometimes in questionable ways.”   https://reason.com/2022/03/24/d-c-spent-2-5-million-in-pandemic-relief-funds-on-parking-cops/

New York state’s bail reform law didn’t cause crime spike, but the state’s Democratic Party leaders want to limit it anyway, because of election year politics. “In 2019, Democrats in the New York legislature passed a bill that eliminated cash bail and pretrial detention for most non-violent felonies and nearly all misdemeanors…. The goal of the reforms was to greatly reduce the number of people stuck in jail simply because they were unable to pay to get out…. in a report out this week, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander determined that not only did the bail reforms work, but the city and state should prioritize ‘strengthening [their] implementation’…. Rather than leading to an explosion of offenders getting out and re-offending, the rate of people released on bail who were rearrested before trial ‘remained nearly identical’ to the level prior to the law’s implementation, at around five percent.”   https://reason.com/2022/03/23/new-york-dems-want-to-roll-back-bail-reforms-not-so-fast-says-nyc-comptroller/

Denver police brutality protesters awarded $14 million by jury over police brutality. “A jury of eight found that 11 protesters had their free speech rights and rights to be protected from unreasonable force violated, while others only had their free speech rights violated…. The lawsuit came after police used shotguns that contained Kevlar-bags filled with lead to quell protests, with Zach Packard awarded $3 million after he was shot in the head and taken to an intensive care unit.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/599850-george-floyd-protesters-granted-14m-in-excessive-force-lawsuit-against

Five Pittsburgh police officers to be fired after taser death of bicycle theft suspect. “… eight officers were suspended with pay and faced disciplinary hearings after the death of 54-year-old Jim Rogers the day after police used a stun gun on him multiple times in October [2021] in the Bloomfield neighborhood. The medical examiner in January ruled the death accidental and resulting from a lack of oxygen to the brain.”   https://www.wtae.com/article/jim-rogers-death-pittsburgh-internal-investigation/39516582

Kenyan police accused of executing criminal and terrorism suspects. “While many in Kenya have become desensitised to reports of police killings, in January 2022, the bodies of dozens of men floated to the shores of a river in Western Kenya, shocking people across the country into speaking out about a suspected spate of police killings…. Douglas, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, works for the National Police Service and is part of a unit that the government officially denies the existence of. Hit sqauds like his were established to combat terrorism but their mandate now goes far beyond that…. The targeting and collective punishment of entire groups – like Muslim men – has done little for the war against terror or for overall law enforcement.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dnmx/police-brutality-kenya

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright dies, once said deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children due to U.S. sanctions was ‘worth it’. “The show’s correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Albright about the effect that U.N. sanctions were having on Iraqi society, saying, ‘We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?’ Albright responded with chilling equanimity: ‘I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.’”   https://theintercept.com/2022/03/25/madeleine-albright-dead-iraq-war-herbalife/   Article provides a handy link to video of Albright making this remark:  https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/1506757975272214542

Selective Service notes that in the event of a draft, it would be theoretically possible for conscientious objectors to perform alternative duties. “At a time of rising tension between NATO and Russia the U.S. government agency responsible for managing conscription, should a military draft be reinstated, posted on Twitter on March 23 suggesting how conscientious objectors might be treated. ‘In the event of a draft, our agency would partner with @fema [Federal Emergency Management Agency] to provide opportunities to conscientious objectors to ensure our nation keeps moving forward,’ the Selective Service System’s tweet read in part…. ‘What the SSS doesn’t say, of course, is that most people who object to any particular war don’t qualify for conscientious objector status, and many people who ought to qualify will probably be turned down by militarist draft boards.”   https://archive.ph/1AJ8H   Unless you oppose all wars, and are a total pacifist who wouldn’t even fight to protect your own family, you’re not considered a conscientious objector. So if you’re a draft age male, it sounds like it might be a good time to brush up on your Ukrainian or Russian.

Progressive activist and Greek MP Yanis Varoufakis says he’s worried about escalation in Ukraine conflict. “… the famed philosopher and military strategist from China, Sun Tzu, once said that if you are faced with a formidable enemy whose total defeat is going to kill many, or most of, your people as well, what you should do, Sun Tzu said, was to build a golden bridge behind your enemy from which your enemy can escape, to give him an opportunity to withdraw while claiming that he has achieved something… I would very much have preferred for us to be discussing… President Biden’s proposals for a resolution that would mean an immediate ceasefire and an immediate withdrawal from the Ukraine in exchange for some kind of deal that Putin can sell to his own henchmen as something of a victory. Instead of that, Biden is doubling down, and he’s speaking in language which is consistent with regime change, which will be catastrophic for the people of Ukraine.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/3/25/yanis_varoufakis_biden_give_putin_exit

Australian climate activists block rail lines that carry coal exports. “In Australia, climate activists blockaded rail lines leading to Sydney’s major port for a fourth day in a row, in a nonviolent direct action campaign aimed at halting fossil fuel exports…. The continued protests come after the government of New South Wales said on Thursday it would increase penalties against the nonviolent protesters, who now face fines of over $20,000 and up to two years in jail.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/3/25/headlines/climate_activists_blockade_ports_in_sydney_australia_in_defiance_of_ramped_up_penalties

Climate activists hold protests world-wide. “Climate activists staged a 10th series of worldwide protests Friday to demand that leaders take stronger action against global warming…. The Fridays for Future movement, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, called demonstrations from Indonesia to Europe and the United States…. many Germans at the march [were] frustrated that their country is paying tens of millions of euros a day to buy fossil fuels that contribute to Moscow’s war chest even as the burning of oil, gas and coal harms the planet.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/activists-stage-global-climate-protest-slam-ukraine-war/

Nobel Peace Prize winners demand an explicit commitment from U.S. and Russia that nuclear weapons are not going to be used. “‘The invasion of Ukraine has created a humanitarian disaster for its people. The entire world is facing the greatest threat in history: a large-scale nuclear war, capable of destroying our civilization and causing vast ecological damage across the Earth.’ The open letter calls for an immediate ceasefire agreement and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/26/dalai-lama-other-nobel-winners-demand-explicit-vow-not-use-nuclear-weapons-ukraine

Democrats scold Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for not keeping his wife under control. “… The Washington Post reported Thursday that Ginni Thomas sent text messages in 2020 to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, pressing him to help Trump overturn the election and accusing Democrats of ‘attempting the greatest Heist of our History’…. Rep. Mondaire Jones, a New York Democrat, responded to the texts by tweeting that ‘Justice Thomas’ association with a clearly deranged Ginni Thomas calls his own judgment into question. It is terrifying that he serves on the Supreme Court.'”   https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/us-elections-government/ny-justice-clarence-thomas-virginia-election-2020-text-messages-20220325-tplxajjtmzbxxlixjnj52ddvfe-story.html

March 24, 2022

FBI reportedly got a warrant to secretly access conservative group’s email accounts, then served Microsoft with a gag order so it would remain secret. “… we’re concerned that the precedent set by this case could have serious consequences for press freedom,” the ACLU’s Brian Hauss said. “We’re deeply troubled by reports that the Department of Justice obtained secret electronic surveillance orders requiring sweeping disclosure of ‘all content’ of communications associated with Project Veritas email accounts, including attorney-client communications. Compounding these concerns, the government suppressed information about the existence of the electronic surveillance orders even after the investigation became public knowledge and the district court appointed a special master to supervise prosecutors’ access to Project Veritas’ sensitive materials.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/22/project-veritas-feds-secretly-accessed-emails-00019247

Capitol riot suspect granted asylum in Belarus. “The California man, Evan Neumann, went to Europe after being charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol…. A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Neumann in December on 14 charges, including assaulting a police officer and engaging in physical violence on Capitol grounds.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/22/politics/evan-neumann-belarus-political-asylum-january-6/

Sacramento, California teachers go on strike. “Thousands of teachers and other school workers in Sacramento walked off the job Wednesday as the California capital became the second big U.S. school district this month to see a work stoppage over pay and staffing shortages as a teachers strike in Minneapolis entered its third week.”   https://apnews.com/31511997ecaa9b71a678418e4d2b5214

Manhattan prosecutor who resigned says Donald Trump was ‘guilty of numerous felony violations’ in resignation letter. “His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people,” Mark Pomerantz wrote to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) in the letter obtained by the (New York) Times. “The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did.”   https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/599491-former-manhattan-prosecutor-believed-trump-was-guilty-of-numerous

Sen. Bernie Sanders says COMPETES Act is loaded with ‘corporate welfare’. “We are debating legislation to provide some $53 billion in corporate welfare with no strings attached to the highly profitable microchip industry,” he noted. “And yes, if you can believe it… this legislation also provides a $10 billion bailout to Jeff Bezos so that his company Blue Origin can launch a rocket ship to the moon.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/22/sanders-opposes-america-competes-act-over-billions-corporate-welfare

Federal jury finds former Boeing employee not guilty of misleading FAA on 737 MAX changes. “Prosecutors unsuccessfully argued that [Mark] Forkner lied to the FAA and airlines during the agency’s evaluation of the Max before it debuted in 2017. They told the jury Forkner tried to minimize the importance of MCAS in order to keep pilot training for the Max to a minimum, resulting in the FAA publishing a final report that lacked any reference to the software. This then allegedly led to pilot-training manuals for U.S. airlines lacking references to the software as well…. Forkner’s attorneys have insisted that his former coworkers were the ones who withheld the changes from him, arguing their client is an easy scapegoat.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/texas-federal-jury-quickly-acquits-former-boeing-test-pilot-of-misleading-feds-about-737-max/

Pentagon sources question the media’s ‘intentional targeting of civilians’ narrative in Ukraine conflict. “’Russia’s conduct in the brutal war tells a different story than the widely accepted view that Vladimir Putin is intent on demolishing Ukraine and inflicting maximum civilian damage—and it reveals the Russian leader’s strategic balancing act,’ reported Newsweek in an article entitled, Putin’s Bombers Could Devastate Ukraine But He’s Holding Back. Here’s Why. The piece quotes an unnamed analyst at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) saying, ‘The heart of Kyiv has barely been touched. And almost all of the long-range strikes have been aimed at military targets…. A proportion of those strikes have damaged and destroyed civilian structures and killed and injured innocent civilians, but the level of death and destruction is low compared to Russia’s capacity.’”   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/23/pentagon-drops-truth-bombs-to-stave-off-war-with-russia/

March 22, 2022

South Dakota’s governor signs into law measure that bans teaching of ‘divisive concepts’ at the state’s colleges. “[South Dakota Gov. Kristi] Noem said the [state’s] House Bill 1012 ‘prohibits colleges from requiring students and teachers to attend trainings or orientations based on Critical Race Theory’, though the actual text of measure makes no mention of critical race theory. Instead, it lists seven ‘divisive concepts’ that are prohibited from being a mandatory part of trainings for college students or faculty members. It does not ban teaching that racism is systemic in societal institutions, which is the framework of critical race theory.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/599122-noem-signs-bill-that-rejects-divisive-race-trainings-at-south-dakota

Almost 1/3 of American workers still making less than $15 an hour. “‘It’s shameful that at a time when many US companies are boasting record profits, some of the hardest working people in this country — especially people who keep our economy and society functioning — are struggling to get by and falling behind,’ said Kaitlyn Henderson, the study’s author and senior research adviser at Oxfam America…. In Texas… more than 60% of women of color earn less than $15 an hour. In Mississippi, 45% of the state’s workforce makes less than that amount.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/22/politics/american-workers-15-dollars-hour-minimum-wage/index.html

Ukraine bans 11 opposition political parties and nationalizes the country’s television stations. “Axios reports the list of parties now banned include: Platform For Life, Shariy Party, Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, State, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialists Party, and Volodymyr Saldo Bloc…. The opposition parties largely represent the 17% of the Ukrainian people who are ethnic Russians…. [President Zelensky] has announced an information policy that combines ‘all national TV channels…[into] a single information platform of strategic communication.'”   https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/20/zelensky-bans-political-opposition-nationalizes-media-to-create-unified-information/

A thin Alexei Navalny sentenced to 9 more years in prison. “A gaunt Navalny stood besides his lawyers in a room filled with prison security officers as the judge read out the accusations. The 45-year-old seemed unfazed as he flipped through court documents…. The judge, Margarita Kotova, said Navalny had committed a criminal offence by publicly insulting the court. She confirmed he had pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges…. Navalny’s opposition movement has been labelled ‘extremist’ and shut down, although his supporters continue to express their political stance on social media, including their opposition to Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/22/alexei-navalny-13-years-more-jail-fraud

March 21, 2022

Gunfight outside Dumas, Arkansas car show kills one, injures 27. “During a news conference Sunday, Colonel Bill Bryant [of the state police] said there were 28 people hit by gunfire in the shooting outside the Hood-Nic car show. Bryant also identified the victim who died in the shooting as 23-year-old Cameron Schaffer from Jacksonville…. agents investigating the case are not considering this a gang-related shooting…”   https://www.kark.com/news/state-news/asp-gives-update-on-the-investigation-into-the-deadly-shooting-outside-dumas-car-show/   Don’t bring a gun to a fist-fight.

Western governments and their wealthy supporters are partially to blame for hidden wealth of Russian oligarchs, claims researcher. “… one could target the people who hold over €10m ($11m) in real estate and financial assets, or about 20,000 people, according to the latest available data. This represents 0.02% of the Russian adult population (currently 110 million)…. all the evidence suggests that a considerable proportion of their real-estate and financial assets are located in western countries (between half and three-quarters). It would therefore be relatively easy for western states to levy a heavy tax on these assets, say at a rate of 10% or 20% to start with, freezing the rest as a precaution…. To implement this type of measure, it would be sufficient for western countries to finally set up an international financial registry (also known as a ‘global financial registry’ or GFR) that would keep track of who owns what in the various countries…. So why has no progress… been made in this direction? For one simple reason: western wealthy people fear that such transparency will ultimately harm them…. western countries share with Russia and China an unbridled, hyper-capitalist ideology, and a legal, fiscal and political system that is increasingly favourable to large fortunes.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/16/russia-rich-wealthy-western-elites-thomas-piketty

Man fatally shoots rescued jet ski driver, police only name the victim. “A statement from the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office says 10th Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Wagner ruled that the Tuesday shooting of 29-year-old Nathan Drew Morgan by an unnamed 74-year-old man was in self-defense. Morgan, a Walhalla [South Carolina] resident, was shot aboard a pontoon boat on Lake Keowee.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-charges-shooting-man-saved-161845703.html   Seems odd not to name the shooter, since he did fatally shoot someone. Wanna bet he’s a retired local law enforcement officer? Who carries a gun when they go boating on a lake? Gangsters and cops.

U.N. estimates 10 million Ukrainians have either left the country or are ‘internally displaced’. “The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Sunday that 10 million people have either been displaced from their [homes] in Ukraine, or have left the country. Over 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an invasion into the country, beginning a war that has already cost the lives of at least 902 people, but that figure is likely much higher because of unconfirmed deaths, according to the United Nations.”   https://www.foxnews.com/world/un-refugee-agency-10-million-people-displaced-in-ukraine-or-have-left-country

Unbelievable headlines: ‘Conservative coffee brand Black Rifle predicts revenue will soar… as Americans shun its woke rivals’ “Black Rifle Coffee Company predicts revenue will soar by 35% to $315m in 2022 and plans to double the number of stores it operates…. Black Rifle, which was founded by veterans and bills itself as pro-police, pro-military, and pro-Second Amendment, also says it hopes to add 15 to 20 new retail stores to the 16 it already operates.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10632853/Conservative-coffee-brand-Black-Rifle-predicts-35-jump-revenue-drinkers-shun-Starbucks.html   Wow, 16 stores you say? Sounds like they’ve pretty much taken over the coffee shop business! (sarcasm) “Globally famous coffeehouse chain, Starbucks, accounted for 8,947 company-operated and 6,497 licensed stores in the United States in 2021.”   https://www.statista.com/statistics/218360/number-of-starbucks-stores-in-the-us/

Hippie on bicycle gives People’s Convoy drivers a taste of their own medicine. “The unusual sighting came as the People’s Convoy entered its third week of protests near the nation’s capital. In one video posted to Twitter, the bicyclist could be seen peddling at an extremely slow place — nearly slow enough for the rider to lose their balance. In retaliation, a number of truck drivers blasted their horns in an attempt to ward off the bicyclist. The attempts were unsuccessful.”   https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/single-bicyclist-holds-up-peoples-convoy-in-d-c/

Climate scientists shocked by record polar temperatures. “Temperatures in parts of Antarctica were 50°F-90°F above normal in recent days, while earlier this week the mercury soared to over 50°F higher than average—close to the freezing mark—in areas of the Arctic…. ‘This is a Pacific Northwest 2021 heatwave kind of event,’ [researcher Jonathan Wille noted], referring to the record-breaking event in which parts of Canada topped 120°F for the first time in recorded history. ‘Never supposed to happen.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/20/unthinkable-scientists-shocked-polar-temperatures-soar-50-90-degrees-above-normal

National Endowment for Democracy accused of deleting searchable online results of its grants to Ukrainian projects. “The archived webpage captured February 25, 2022 from 14:53 shows that NED granted $22,394,281 in the form of 334 awards to Ukraine between 2014 to the present. The capture at 23:10 the same day shows ‘No results found’ for Ukraine. As of right now, there are still ‘No results found’ for Ukraine. Searching using ‘Ukraine’ as a keyword (as opposed to a ‘Project Country’ in the original captures) yields ‘No results found’. Searching for the titles of the funded projects listed in the last ‘intact’ web capture yields no results. Additionally, the current database search criteria have been restricted, previously funding from 2014 to present could be searched, currently only 2017 to present is searchable per the drop-down menus.”   https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/07/national-endowment-for-democracy-deletes-records-of-funding-projects-in-ukraine/

Former CIA agent accused of leaving out his past as an organized crime hit man in recently published autobiography. “Hard evidence showed a high-level spook specializing in counter-terrorism was suspected by the Miami-Dade Police Department in not one, but seven murders—and was apparently protected from prosecution through his connections in the CIA. ([Evan] Wright’s) investigation traces Enrique ‘Ricky’ Prado from alleged Mafia hit man and drug dealer to his perch near the top of the CIA and then Blackwater, the private contractor that has handled much of the United States’ dirty work in Iraq.”   https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/18/cia-shadow-warrior-covers-up-past-as-a-mob-hitman-in-new-memoir-being-celebrated-across-the-mainstream-media/

March 20, 2022

Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer resigns from his part-time school security job after video shows him using his knee on the neck of a black, 12 year-old lunchroom fight suspect. “Kenosha Unified School District released redacted footage Friday that shows Shawn Guetschow trying to break up a March 4 fight, before he tussles with the child and kneels on her neck for about a minute and a half…. In his resignation letter, the cop called out the district for lack of support and said the incident has placed a heavy burden on his family.”   https://nypost.com/2022/03/19/kenosha-cop-kneels-on-12-year-old-girls-neck-after-school-fight-video/

Russian forces may be targeting foreigners in Ukraine using cell phone activity. “At least 35 people were killed in the strike on the Yavoriv training base near the Polish border last Sunday, with unconfirmed reports that former British soldiers were among the dead and wounded. Now the security sources believe the guided missiles – around 30 in total – were fired at the base containing 600 foreign volunteers after phones used by the Britons were [identified] by the Russians. UK mobile numbers were said to have ‘lit up’ the Ukrainian phone network…. Former British defence intelligence officer Philip Ingram said last night Russia would be ‘monitoring the phone networks in Ukraine for unusual activity, such as foreign devices joining’…. Mr Ingram described mobile devices as ‘perfect target locating beacons for an enemy’.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10631861/Missile-attack-Ukrainian-military-base-launched-Russian-forces-hacked-British-phones.html

March 19, 2022

Russia’s president speaks at political rally, accuses Ukraine of ‘genocide’, state TV feed gets cut off. “As [Vladimir] Putin was finishing his speech, the broadcast was suddenly cut off and state television showed patriotic songs performed earlier in the day by the popular Russian musician Oleg Gazmanov. Soon afterwards, Putin’s speech, which lasted about five minutes, was re-aired from the start, with the Russian leader ending his speech and walking off stage…. Putin sought to justify his actions during his speech by repeating his unfounded claims that Ukraine was committing [anti-Russian] genocide in the Donbas region. ‘This really was genocide. Stopping that was the goal of the special operation,’ Putin said…”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/putin-praises-russian-unity-at-rally-but-state-tv-broadcast-is-cut-off   I thought this was all about NATO?

South Carolina gearing up for firing squad executions. “The state Corrections Department said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia and that the agency had notified Attorney General Alan Wilson that it was able to carry out a firing-squad execution. Lawmakers set about tweaking state law to get around the lethal injection drug situation. Legislation that went into effect in May made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution while giving inmates the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.”   https://apnews.com/article/business-executions-south-carolina-columbia-e9e1e1108d337526883b1b2b179ba223   I say bring back the guillotine – it’s got to be less painful than being shot in the chest. (sarcasm)

Speaker urges D.C. protest convoy to target Black Lives Matter plaza. “The People’s Convoy, was inspired by the Canadian trucker’s Freedom Convoy movement. The group gathered in the nation’s capital to demonstrate against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 protocols in the United States. In a video captured by The Daily Beast, a speaker standing on a stage bearing a sign for Freedom Convoy 2022 tells a crowd to ‘take back’ a street adorned with the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’, which stretches for two blocks on 16th Street NW in D.C.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/598853-dc-convoy-speaker-says-black-live-matter-street-will-be-tarred-and   They’re not going to tolerate anyone messing with the right of police officers to carry out extrajudical executions of black people. (sarcasm)

Group accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor was upset about mandatory vaccinations. “… it was the COVID-19 vaccines, and the thought of them becoming mandatory, that really pushed the alleged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plotters over the edge, an undercover FBI informant testified Friday…. According to the undercover informant, [Brandon] Caserta was so angry about the vaccine that he wanted to target groups responding to the pandemic, including contact tracers, doctors and companies manufacturing the vaccines…. ‘Doctors who advocated mandated vaccines — bullet to the face,’ Caserta is heard saying in recordings captured by ‘Dan’. ‘Buildings that manufacture the vaccines, blow them up. I’m not even kidding. Any lawyer that supports a vaccine mandate, decapitate them in their own home’ Caserta [allegedly] said…. ‘I want Zionist banker blood,’ Caserta is heard saying in one recording…”   https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/03/18/covid-vaccines-whitmer-kidnap-suspects/7090992001/

Former Arkansas deputy sentenced to 1 year in jail for shooting death of unarmed teenager. “The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that [Michael] Davis also was sentenced to a $1,000 fine…. Davis, who is white, told investigators he shot [Hunter] Brittain [also white] once in the neck during the stop outside an auto repair shop after the teen exited his truck and reached into the bed of the pickup while failing to comply with Davis’ commands to show his hands, according to the arrest affidavit. A passenger and another witness testified they never heard Davis tell the teen to show his hands…. Investigators found no evidence of firearms in or near the truck.”   https://apnews.com/article/shootings-george-floyd-arkansas-homicide-bc2f913d058c7cd3fe4f718d6e1e4254

EU official claims Ukrainian refugees have not received preferential treatment. “…Ukrainian refugees have already received a temporary protected status which grants them access, school and work. In comparison, the one million people mostly from Syria, who reached the shores of Europe were not granted the automatic protection status…. The EU said on Friday that there were no double standards in the way Ukrainian refugees were treated in comparison to their counterparts from the Middle East. Speaking to journalists in Istanbul, EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas described the current humanitarian crisis as ‘unique’ from a European perspective but explained that Syrians who fled their country had also had the opportunity to seek asylum on European soil.”   https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/03/18/ukraine-shows-racial-disparity-of-europe-s-attitude-to-refugees-says-syrian   “… whereas prior waves of refugees and migrants faced lengthy and often unsuccessful asylum procedures, European governments have rushed to bend and suspend existing rules to host Ukrainians. While others paid smugglers to cross the Mediterranean, European railway companies have waived ticket fees for Ukrainian refugees. The French government has launched a website to connect the refugees with volunteers willing to host them. In Calais, though the tent camps still exist, the city is housing refugees from Ukraine in a hostel at the central beach…. Refugee advocates had… urged French officials to offer more humane shelter, or to at least stop police officers from taking people’s sleeping bags in the middle of the winter…. ‘We were always told it was impossible,’ said William Feuillard, a coordinator with the L’Auberge des Migrants NGO in Calais…. But overnight, what was long impossible no longer is — even if only for one group of refugees.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/17/calais-ukraine-refugees-migrants/  “Six EU member states have warned the bloc’s executive against halting deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe despite major advances of Taliban militants in their country…. ‘Stopping returns sends the wrong signal and is likely to motivate even more Afghan citizens to leave their home for the EU,’ Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Germany said in an Aug. 5 letter to the European Commission. ‘This is why we urge you and your teams at the Commission to intensify talks with the Afghan government on how returns to Afghanistan can and will continue in the coming months,’ they said in the letter seen by Reuters.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/six-countries-urge-eu-not-stop-deportations-afghanistan-belgium-says-2021-08-10/   The fighting is over, Putin won, time to go home! I bet not.

Swiss banking group says Russian oligarchs have billions stashed in Swiss banks. “On Thursday, the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) told Reuters that the country’s banks held between 150 billion and 200 billion Swiss francs ($160 billion to $214 billion) of Russian money.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-oligarchs-wealthy-stash-billions-dollars-secretive-swiss-bank-accounts-2022-3

Only 24% of Americans polled feel their employer cares about their well-being. “The discovery is based on a random sample of 15,001 full and part-time U.S. employees who were surveyed in February 2022…. The percentage of employees who are extremely satisfied with their organization as a place to work dropped from 23% to 18% from late 2021 to the first quarter of 2022.”   https://www.gallup.com/workplace/390776/percent-feel-employer-cares-wellbeing-plummets.aspx

CIA’s MK-Ultra experiments were initially conducted mainly on African Americans. “In 1977, roughly 16,000 pages of misfiled documents were unearthed showing that the ’25-year, $25-million effort by the [CIA] to learn how to control the human mind’… saw the US government dose thousands of American (and Canadian) citizens with LSD without their knowledge or consent…. ‘Whether or not those researchers were explicitly targeting Black Americans, they drew their participants mostly from prisons where Black Americans were over-represented because of racism in arrests, charges, incarceration, and sentencing.’ …. Using CIA funds, [Dr. Robert] Heath and his assistant Harry Bailey conducted non-consensual experiments in 1955 and 1956 on Black inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary…. Bailey would reportedly later state… that it had been ‘cheaper to use niggers than cats, because they were everywhere and cheap experimental animals.’”   https://www.thenation.com/article/society/lsd-acid-black-history/

Did the FBI steal treasure hunters’ Civil War gold? “Treasure hunters who claim the FBI made off with several tons of buried Civil War-era gold are now questioning whether evidence related to the 2018 excavation in Elk County has been destroyed…. the FBI initially said its records of the dig included 17 video files. Now, the government claims there are only four videos. Federal officials have not explained the discrepancy, the treasure hunters said…. the father-son duo of Dennis and Kem Parada, spent years looking for the fabled 1863 shipment of Union gold that was supposedly lost or stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia…. The FBI’s own contractor… said it detected a 9-ton metallic mass suggestive of gold, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed last year at the request of news organizations, including The Associated Press…. The FBI initially claimed it had no files about the investigation at all. Then, after the Justice Department ordered a more thorough review, the FBI claimed its records were exempt from public disclosure.”   https://www.bradfordera.com/news/treasure-hunters-did-fbi-destroy-video-of-civil-war-gold/article_a6f78b3d-25b7-5152-825f-0738f3eb7f27.html

General predicts U.S. troops will remain in Iraq for foreseeable future. “Today, the US currently has about 2,500 troops in Iraq. At the end of 2021, the US formally changed its presence in Iraq from a combat role to an advisory one, but no troops were withdrawn. ‘As we look into the future, any force level adjustment in Iraq is going to be made as a result of consultations with the government of Iraq,’ CENTCOM chief Gen. Frank McKenzie said. ‘And we just finished a strategic dialogue a few months ago — we believe that will continue.'”   https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/18/centcom-us-troops-will-likely-be-in-iraq-for-years-to-come/

187 pro-democracy protesters reportedly wounded by police in Sudan. “The Sudan’s Doctors Committee issued a statement saying that 187 people were wounded in clashes with police in Khartoum on Thursday, 70 of whom were likely struck by rubber bullets. Three of the wounded were shot in either the head or chest and are currently in intensive care, it added. Riot police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who had sought to reach the Republican Palace, seat of the military government.”   https://apnews.com/article/business-middle-east-africa-media-sudan-f485cd0f73556d72215940c1e5f3da1c

Hundreds killed, thousands arrested in Afrin since 2018 Turkish conquest. “At least 639 Kurds, including 95 children and 86 women were killed in ‘IED explosions, car bombs, airstrikes, ground bombardment by Turkish forces, and executions,’ the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) with a ground network in Syria reported. Some civilians also died under torture in prisons run by Turkish-backed forces, it added…. Over 7,000 Kurds from Afrin were kidnapped and arrested since the invasion, reported SOHR, with that around 1,300 of them remaining in prison.”   https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/18032022

International Energy Agency wants people to burn less fossil fuel. “Driving more slowly, turning down the air-conditioning, car free Sundays and working from home should be adopted as emergency measures to reduce the global demand for oil, according to a 10-point plan from the International Energy Agency (IEA)…. ‘These efforts would reduce the price pain being felt by consumers around the world, lessen the economic damage, shrink Russia’s hydrocarbon revenues, and help move oil demand towards a more sustainable pathway,’ it said.”   https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/18/car-free-sundays-iea-sets-out-10-point-plan-to-reduce-global-oil-demand   Walk or bike whenever you can – it’s good for you.

Corporate media accused of pushing for military escalation in Ukraine conflict, downplaying possibility of a negotiated solution. “During briefings held at the White House over the past week… correspondents have incessantly pushed Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President Joe Biden’s refusal to escalate U.S. involvement in the war even further, questioning the administration’s refusal to impose a no-fly zone and send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. By contrast, very few questions have centered on the diplomatic talks between Russia and Ukraine and what the U.S. is doing to facilitate the ongoing negotiations…. In one exchange on Monday, a reporter suggested to Psaki that by refusing to send American troops into Ukraine and impose a no-fly zone—which experts agree would likely spark a full-blown war between the U.S. and Russia—the Biden administration is effectively ‘pushing these guys [Ukrainian soldiers] to commit suicide’.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/18/corporate-media-accused-cheerleading-us-escalation-ukraine

Actress Jane Fonda launches Climate PAC. “‘Scientists have been very clear: We have to cut our fossil fuel emissions in half by 2030. We have eight years,’ Fonda continued in the video. ‘That’s just four election cycles before the point of no return. And there is no question that the obstacle between saving the planet and not is the money that has a stranglehold on our politicians.’ Noting that the fossil fuel industry contributed $139 million to the campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans during the 2020 election cycle, Fonda lamented that ‘major solutions’ to the climate emergency like the Green New Deal, provisions of the Build Back Better Act, clean energy investments, and ending fossil fuel industry tax subsidies ‘are stopped cold… all because of politicians backed by Big Oil.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/18/fonda-launches-climate-pac-break-big-oils-stranglehold-us-politicians

Happiest countries in the world are social democracies. “For the fifth consecutive year, Finland—where union density remains relatively high and the welfare state comparatively robust—was identified as the happiest country in the world. Denmark, where workers’ rights and the provision of public goods are also high priorities, maintained its position in second place, while Iceland, which in recent years has experimented with a four-day work week, moved up from fourth place to third. Coming in fourth was Switzerland, followed by the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Sweden, Norway, Israel, and New Zealand rounded out the top ten.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/18/social-democracy-lands-finland-atop-world-happiness-ranking   And if we could keep the democracy (and civil liberties) but phase out the capitalist economic system, no doubt the overwhelming majority of people would be even happier. Who wants to be a wage slave?