September 30, 2022

U.S. history full of election shenanigans, voting fraud and disputed outcomes. “Samuel J. Tilden, a New York governor… defeated Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote by about 250,000, about 3 percent of the total vote. Each side engaged in widespread fraud. Both parties claimed victory in three states—Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina—while a single electoral vote in Oregon was also subject to a dispute. With those 20 electoral votes cast into doubt, Tilden was one vote shy of the outright majority needed to win the presidency…. Congress was unable to resolve the impasse in the Electoral College because Republicans controlled the Senate, the president of which, per the Constitution, is responsible for tallying the electoral votes. Democrats, meanwhile, controlled the House, which would elect the president if neither candidate received a majority in the Electoral College. If the Republican Senate rejected the votes from the disputed states, then, it would succeed only in throwing the election to the House—which would, presumably, elect Tilden, the Democrat. If the Senate accepted the disputed votes, Tilden would win the old-fashioned way. The impasse dragged on for weeks…. Finally, Congress struck a bizarre compromise: It passed a law creating a one-time Electoral Commission including five then–Supreme Court justices and members from both chambers. The commission concocted a backroom deal—the specifics of which were never made public—to name Hayes president. Fearing a possible mob protesting the outcome, the inauguration ceremony was held in private.”   https://reason.com/2022/09/29/american-elections-are-a-mess-and-they-always-have-been/

Man jailed for parody of police department’s Facebook page wants Supreme Court to decide if he has a right to sue. “Granting the officers qualified immunity does not mean their actions were justified or should be condoned,” [U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals judge Amul] Thapar wrote. “Indeed, it is cases like these when government officials have a particular obligation to act reasonably. Was Novak’s Facebook page worth a criminal prosecution, two appeals, and countless hours of Novak’s and the government’s time? We have our doubts. And from the beginning, any one of the officials involved could have allowed ‘the entire story to turn out differently’, simply by saying ‘No.’ Unfortunately, no one did.”   https://reason.com/2022/09/28/a-parodist-asks-scotus-to-let-him-sue-the-cops-who-arrested-him-for-making-fun-of-them/

Federal judge rules that Iowa law banning unauthorized videos of factory farms is unconstitutional. “On Monday, Judge Stephanie Rose of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa ruled that a 2021 Iowa ‘ag-gag’ law aimed at preventing undercover investigations of the state’s agriculture facilities by animal rights activists presents an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech. The law criminalizes making a video recording while committing the already-illegal act of trespassing on private property. Rose ruled that while the state of Iowa is free to continue punishing trespassing, it cannot try to stop individuals from making recordings while doing so.”   https://reason.com/2022/09/28/1st-amendment-protects-activist-recordings-of-factory-farms-rules-federal-judge/

Two men arrested in connection with shooting of two migrants. “[A group of visa-less migrants] were walking in a group along a roadway near Sierra Blanca around 7 p.m. when they stopped at a water tank, according to the affidavits. As the pickup truck approached, the group, which included at least four people, tried to hide…. The driver leaned on the truck’s hood and fired two shots at the group of migrants before climbing back in and driving away, according to the affidavits. One shot hit one of the migrants in the head, killing him; another shot hit a female migrant in the stomach, the official said. She was taken to a hospital, where she was recovering, according to a statement from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the case…. [Suspect] Michael Sheppard worked as the warden of the West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca, a site run by LaSalle Corrections, a company that operates more than a dozen private detention facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Georgia…”   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/us/texas-migrants-shot.html

Biden administration scales back student loan forgiveness plan after lawsuits. “Borrowers whose federal student loans are guaranteed by the government but held by private lenders will now be excluded from receiving debt relief. Around 770,000 people will be affected by the change, according to an administration official. The Department of Education initially said these loans, many of which were made under the former Federal Family Education Loan program and Federal Perkins Loan program, would be eligible for the one-time forgiveness action as long as the borrower consolidated his or her debt into the federal Direct loan program. On Thursday, the department reversed course. According to its website, privately held federal student loans must have been consolidated before September 29 in order to be eligible for the debt relief.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/29/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-lawsuit/index.html

Death toll during protests against Iran’s ‘morality police’ rises to 83. “Protests continued in several cities across Iran on Thursday against the death of young woman in police custody…. Mahsa Amini, 22, from the Iranian Kurdish town of Saqez, was arrested this month in Tehran for ‘unsuitable attire’ [for not wearing a headscarf properly]…. Despite the growing death toll and a fierce crackdown by authorities, videos posted on Twitter showed demonstrators calling for the fall of the clerical establishment in Tehran, Qom, Rasht, Sanandaj, Masjed-i-Suleiman and other cities.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-protests-over-young-womans-death-continue-83-said-killed-2022-09-29/

Kamala Harris gets her Koreas confused. “Vice President Kamala Harris made an unfortunate gaffe during her speech at the Korean Peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Thursday, saying that the U.S. has a ‘strong alliance’ with ‘the Republic of North Korea’. ‘It is an alliance that is strong and enduring,’ she added, intending to refer to the Republic of Korea, which is South Korea’s official name.”   https://www.foxnews.com/world/vice-president-kamala-harris-visits-dmz-north-korea-missile-launches

French workers hold general strike. “Workers marched in cities across France as unions pushed for salary increases to address the impact of inflation and rising prices. Unions also called for the scrapping of Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65 progressively over several years. The president’s insistence on pushing through changes to the pensions system – one of his main re-election campaign pledges – remains broadly unpopular in polling.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/29/french-teachers-and-transport-workers-strike-over-pay-and-pension-age   When the retirement age was raised from 65 to 67 in the U.S., labor unions complained but none went on strike. Some politicians have even floated the idea of raising it to 70! That would help keep the program solvent, since many working class people die before they hit 70. “While poor and middle-class Americans are dying earlier, the wealthiest among us are enjoying unprecedented longevity…. [Researchers] found that, from 2001 to 2014, the richest Americans gained about five years of longevity, while life expectancy for the poor didn’t budge. They also found that men who were among the top 1 percent of income earners lived 15 years longer than men at the bottom 1 percent.”   https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/9/16860994/life-expectancy-us-income-inequality

U.S. citizen reportedly killed in Iranian attack on leftist opposition group in Iraq. “‘We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was killed as a result of a rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan region yesterday,’ spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Thursday. Patel said the administration was not releasing the name of the American out of privacy concerns, and he did not say how the U.S. would respond…. The American’s death was first reported by Iran International, a Persian-language media outlet based in London.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-citizen-was-killed-iranian-attack-iraq-state-department-says-rcna50056   “Iran International learned late on Wednesday that a US citizen named Omar Mahmoudzadeh, aka Chicho, has been killed in the IRGC’s missile and drone attacks against the positions of Kurdish groups opposed to the Islamic Republic in Iraqi Kurdistan. He lived in the US since 1990s.”   https://www.iranintl.com/en/202209282541   “Omar Mahmoudzadeh, a 59-year-old American born in Iran, moved from the United States to Iraq in 2019 to join the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), an Iranian Kurdish opposition group that’s considered a terrorist organization by Tehran. Khalid Azizi, a spokesman for the KDPI, described Mahmoudzadeh as a well-known party member and retired peshmerga fighter who previously fought against Iranian regime forces when the KDPI was still engaged in armed activities…. From her home in northern Virginia on Thursday, Tara Mahmoudzadeh described her father as ‘a very good man’ respected by his community.”   https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/09/us-confirms-american-citizen-killed-iranian-rocket-attack-iraq   Northern Virginia? As in Washington D.C. metro area? That’s interesting.   “Jila Mostajer, a board of directors member at the Norway-based Kurdish human rights watchdog Hengaw, told [Middle East Eye] that Iran attacked the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan in Sulaymaniyah province, the KDP-I headquarters in Koya in Erbil province, and the headquarters of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) near Pirde, south of Erbil.”   https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-iraq-kurdistan-escalates-bombing-kurdish-opposition

CIA official who left UK after killing teen in traffic accident appears in court via videolink. “[Anne] Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration following the collision near RAF Croughton and left the UK 19 days later…. The chief magistrate Paul Goldspring told Mrs Sacoolas she would be required to appear in person at the Old Bailey. But he said that might change as there would be a joint application to allow Mrs Sacoolas to appear via videolink again…. This is the first time the case has been heard at a British court, following a diplomatic row between the two governments.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63076171   “A US spy accused of killing motorcyclist Harry Dunn has finally appeared in a British court, with a sketch showing Anne Sacoolas on video-link. The wife of an American diplomat, who left the UK after killing Harry Dunn in a collision near a military base, came face to face with the 19-year-old’s family as lawyers reveal she will admit causing death by careless driving. The 45-year-old is accused of causing the teenage motorcyclist’s death following a collision outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in August 2019.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11262283/US-diplomat-fled-UK-crash-killed-Harry-Dunn-appear-videolink-British-court.html   Sacoolas was allegedly driving in the wrong lane, resulting a head-on collision with Dunn. The U.K. tried to extradite her from the U.S. but was unsuccessful. “The United States has rejected Britain’s request for the extradition of an American woman who fled the country after she was involved in an accident in which a teenager died last year. The State Department called the request ‘highly inappropriate’, deepening the diplomatic stalemate over the case.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/world/europe/harry-dunn-anne-sacoolas-extradition.html   There is some dispute over whether she snuck out of the UK on a private jet, or if she left the UK on a private jet at the urging of, or with the consent of, the UK government.

U.S. military to orchestrate the arming and training of Ukraine’s military from Germany. “The new command, which would be based at Wiesbaden in Germany, would fall under Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commander of US European Command, which has led the multinational effort to train Ukrainian military forces on advanced Western weapons and deliver those weapons to the border with Ukraine, one official said. It is expected to be led by a 3-star general. But the US has been careful in how it discusses the plans, which the officials emphasized is not a major change to the current system of organizing and administering shipments. Officials are careful not to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a reason to claim the US is party to the conflict…”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/29/politics/pentagon-new-command-arming-training-ukraine/index.html   We wouldn’t want people calling it a ‘proxy war‘! “‘The reality is that NATO and the United States, are now, without question, in a proxy war with Russia,’ former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta told the [Australian Broadcasting Corporation].”   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-25/nato-us-in-proxy-war-with-russia-biden-next-move-crucial/100937196

Federal judge orders FBI to turn over data from Seth Rich’s laptop. “Rich was a Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered around 4:20 a.m. in July 2016 in Washington. Officials have claimed the killing was done as part of a botched robbery. The FBI has acknowledged it has files from Rich’s computer but tried withholding them from [Brian] Huddleston, citing a portion of federal law that enables agencies to withhold information that would be a clear invasion of privacy interests when the interests are not outweighed by the public interest…. ‘The Court is not persuaded by the FBI’s argument that Seth Rich’s survivors have a privacy interest in withholding the entirety of the information contained on Seth Rich’s laptop,’ he said…. ‘The FBI has fought tooth and nail to conceal evidence about Seth Rich, so Judge Mazzant’s order is a major victory for us,’ [Huddleston’s attorney Ty] Clevenger told The Epoch Times via email…. Clevenger said any files not of a personal nature will be posted online after Huddleston receives them…. The bureau falsely told Clevenger when he asked for information on Rich that it didn’t possess any…. The FBI has only produced 75 pages to date, while withholding hundreds of others.”   https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-orders-fbi-to-produce-information-from-seth-richs-laptop_4763994.html   Seth Rich worked for the Democratic National Committee, and was fatally shot near his home in Washington, D.C. Some have alleged (and been sued for alleging) that he leaked the DNC emails revealing that the Democratic Party backed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential primaries at the expense of Bernie Sanders. But others say the DNC emails were hacked by Russia and then handed over to Wikileaks. So it will be interesting to see if there is anything on Rich’s computer suggesting he was in touch with Wikileaks or indicating he was upset about the DNC’s treatment of Sanders.

San Francisco International Airport food service workers win their strike demands. “San Francisco airport workers ended a three-day strike Thursday after reaching a tentative deal that includes ‘significant’ pay increases and improved healthcare benefits. The deal, which still must be ratified by union members, came after around 1,000 restaurant, coffee shop, and bar workers at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) walked off the job to demand better wages and conditions, temporarily shuttering the operations of many of the airport’s food and drink spots.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/30/when-we-fight-we-win-san-francisco-airport-workers-end-strike-after-pay-victory

Carbon capture and storage programs called ‘a waste of taxpayer money’. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, a law crafted in part by top Big Oil ally Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), also greenlights $2.1 billion in loans and grants for new CCS infrastructure, which fossil fuel companies have embraced in what environmentalists say is a cynical ploy to stave off effective climate action. ‘What the fossil fuel industry hopes you won’t find out,’ Food & Water Watch declared, ‘is carbon capture is already a [failed experiment], funded with taxpayer money.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/29/analysis-exposes-taxpayer-billions-wasted-dead-end-carbon-capture-schemes

September 29, 2022

Iranian drones and artillery kill insurgents based in Iraq, at least nine dead and 32 wounded. “Iran’s attacks targeted Koya, some 65 kilometers (35 miles) east of Irbil, said Soran Nuri, a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. The group, known by the acronym KDPI, is a leftist armed opposition force banned in Iran. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in a statement said the attacks ‘impacted the Iranian refugee settlements’ in Koya, and that refugees and other civilians were among the casualties.”   https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/calls-iran-avoid-unnecessary-force-protesters-90621124

More than 1,700 land defenders killed since 2012. “Killed by hitmen, organised crime groups and their own governments, at least 1,733 land and environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2021, figures from Global Witness show, with Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras the deadliest countries…. Killings hit a record of 227 in 2020 despite the pandemic…. The killings have disproportionately affected lower-income countries and Indigenous communities; 39% of the victims were from this demographic, despite it making up only 5% of the world’s population. Mining and extractive industries [e.g., oil drilling], logging and agribusiness were the most common drivers for a murder when a cause was known.”   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/global-witness-report-1700-activists-murdered-past-decade-aoe

San Bernardino sheriff’s dept. claims slain 15 year-old abductee fired rifle at deputies during car chase. “Anthony John Graziano and his daughter, Savannah Graziano, were killed Tuesday in a shootout with deputies on the 15 Freeway in Hesperia after a 45-mile chase. Shots were fired at the officers from the pickup truck as it was being chased. Once it came to a stop, the girl, wearing a tactical helmet and vest, got out and ran toward deputies amid a hail of gunfire, police said. Authorities are investigating whether she was shot by deputies or her father, or both. Police have said the only weapon retrieved at the scene was a rifle in the truck, where Anthony Graziano died.”   https://abc7.com/hesperia-shootout-savannah-graziano-shot-at-deputies/12276990/   But they seem to be admitting she was unarmed when she was fatally shot and there is no explanation why she would be running toward the deputies after allegedly trying to kill them.

Biden administration approves an additional $1.1 billion in weapons for Ukraine. “The package, which brings U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine to more than $16.2 billion since February, also includes HIMARS-associated ammunitions, 150 armored high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, 40 trucks and 80 trailers to help Ukrainian troops transport heavy equipment. Additional radars for drones, communication and surveillance systems, mine and bomb disposal equipment, body armor and field equipment are also included.”   https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3665703-us-to-give-ukraine-18-more-rocket-systems-as-part-of-new-1-1b-weapons-package/

Parents and guardians of Uvalde, Texas school shooting victims protest outside school district offices, want police officers suspended. “Parents of victims in the Robb Elementary School shooting remained defiant outside Uvalde CISD’s doors on Wednesday, marking day two of a protest of the superintendent and district officials…. The Crosses and other families have said that the officers should be suspended until that investigation is complete, not the other way around. The city hired Jesse Prado, a former Austin Police Department detective, to conduct an independent internal investigation into the officers’ actions that day. Prado told the Crosses on Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing and will take time.”   https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2022/09/28/parents-of-uvalde-victims-remain-outside-district-headquarters-in-day-2-of-protest-im-not-going-anywhere/

Funeral for former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe projected to cost more than funeral of Queen Elizabeth. “While an official tally has not been disclosed by the UK government, the Queen’s funeral was expected to have cost about $8.5 million. Abe’s was about $12 million, according to a Japanese government spokesperson. Security accounted for about half of the costs [of Abe’s funeral], with another third going into hosting the estimated 700 foreign dignitaries, according to a BBC report.”   https://qz.com/shinzo-abes-funeral-was-more-expensive-than-the-queen-o-1849585843   “Many are already predicting the actual price tag to be much higher, citing examples such as the Tokyo Olympics which ended up costing $13bn – about double the original estimate. Others ask if the difference in the costs between the two state funerals is down to companies that act as a middleman when Japan hosts large events. When Tokyo-based event organiser Murayama was revealed as the only bidder – and therefore the winner of the 176m yen contract – for the state funeral, eyebrows were raised as it was the company Mr Abe used to host an annual cherry blossom party where he faced allegations of cronyism.”   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63004214

Congressional Budget Office releases updated figures on wealth inequality. “In 2019, families in the top 10% of the distribution held 72% of total wealth, and families in the top 1% of the distribution held more than one-third; families in the bottom half of the distribution held only 2% of total wealth.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/28/obscene-says-sanders-after-cbo-reports-richest-1-now-owns-over-13-us-wealth

PBS documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust claims Nazis modeled anti-Jewish laws on Jim Crow laws in the South. “The Nazis’ anti-Jewish efforts escalated with the September 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which among other things largely stripped Jewish people of their German citizenship. The documentary directly compared those laws to America’s Jim Crow laws, which created strict segregation between Black and white Americans in the South. The German laws, for instance, sought to maintain racial purity by barring Jews and those of ‘German or kindred blood’ from getting married or engaging in sex — mirroring miscegenation laws in the US. ‘Even as the Nazis are writing the Nuremberg laws that stripped Jews of their citizenship at the end of 1935, they’re looking to Jim Crow laws in the United States to understand segregation here,’ the historian Daniel Greene said in the documentary.”   https://www.insider.com/nazis-studied-us-eugenics-jim-crow-laws-model-policies-2022-9

President Biden accused of spreading disinformation about firearms and product liability laws. “‘President Biden’s statement that a bullet shot from an AR-15 travels 5x faster than a bullet shot out of ‘any other gun’ is false,’ Greg Wallace, a Campbell University law professor who focuses on Second Amendment issues, told The Washington Post early in September. As for bullets fired from AR-15s piercing Kevlar, ‘that is true of almost all centerfire rifle bullets. Body armor protection against rifle bullets require steel, ceramic, or composite plates.’ …. ‘Repeal the liability shield for gun manufacturers,’ Biden demanded in February. ‘They’re the only industry in America that is exempted from being able to be sued by the public. The only one.’ But ‘the 2005 law does not prevent gun makers from being held liable for defects in their design,’ Adam Winkler, professor of law at UCLA, told NPR about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act after then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made a nearly identical claim in 2015. ‘Like car makers, gun makers can be sued for selling a defective product. The problem is that gun violence victims often want to hold gun makers liable for the criminal misuse of a properly functioning product.'”   https://reason.com/2022/09/28/president-biden-lies-about-guns-again/

Former Iranian CIA collaborators say they were abandoned by the agency after being caught. “Gholamreza Hosseini was at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran in late 2010, preparing for a flight to Bangkok. There, the Iranian industrial engineer would meet his Central Intelligence Agency handlers. But before he could pay his exit tax to leave the country, the airport ATM machine rejected his card as invalid. Moments later, a security officer asked to see Hosseini’s passport before escorting him away…. Rather than betrayal, Hosseini was the victim of CIA negligence, a year-long Reuters investigation into the agency’s handling of its informants found. A faulty CIA covert communications system made it easy for Iranian intelligence to identify and capture him. Jailed for nearly a decade and speaking out for the first time, Hosseini said he never heard from the agency again, even after he was released in 2019…. Hosseini’s experience of sloppy handling and abandonment was not unique. In interviews with six Iranian former CIA informants, Reuters found that the agency was careless in other ways amid its intense drive to gather intelligence in Iran, putting in peril those risking their lives to help the United States…. The six Iranians served prison terms ranging from five to 10 years. Four of them, including Hosseini, stayed in Iran after their release and remain vulnerable to rearrest. Two fled the country and have become stateless refugees.”   https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spies-iran/   They were luckier than some Chinese CIA assets. “About 30 spies were reportedly executed, though some intelligence officials told Foreign Policy that 30 was a low estimate.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-found-cia-spies-leak-2018-8

Thirty former FBI agents come forward to defend whistle-blower. “Many former agents hailed [Stephen] Friend, a SWAT team member in Florida, as a ‘hero’, after he was punished for refusing to participate in what he regarded as unnecessarily heavy-handed SWAT raids over Jan. 6 misdemeanors. In his whistleblower complaint to the Department of Justice inspector general, Friend alleged that the FBI has been manipulating case-file management in order to falsely inflate the threat of domestic terrorism, and using unconstitutional, excessive force against political dissenters…. [Terry] Turchie, who led the Unabomber task force, says he didn’t even use a SWAT team in 1996 to arrest Theodore Kaczynski, a violent domestic terrorist who had killed three people and injured 23 others.”   https://nypost.com/2022/09/28/30-ex-fbi-agents-stand-up-to-support-whistleblower-who-exposed-agencys-political-bias/

Photos show Russian reservists in their 50s and 60s heading off to fight in Ukraine. “In Sevastopol in Crimea, silver-haired and wrinkled recruits stood in line in their uniforms at a ceremony before they took a much-needed cigarette break and then made their way to the front lines…. A reservist drafted to the war effort during the partial mobilisation bids farewell to his adult son as he heads to the front lines.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11261617/Putins-Dads-Army-ageing-reservists-line-war.html

Florida county commissioner appointed by Ron DeSantis resigns after photo of him wearing a KKK costume emerges. “Jeffery Moore, a former Department of Revenue employee who was tapped to join the Gadsden County Commissioners by Gov. Ron DeSantis in July, abruptly resigned last week after the photo began circulating in the county, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. The shocking photo shows Moore celebrating in a KKK robe and hood at an undated Halloween party with other guests dancing around him…. In 2019, then-Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel, another DeSantis appointee, resigned after photos emerged of the politician in blackface at a 2005 Halloween party. In the pictures, Ertel, 52, is dressed like the highly-offensive mammie character in blackface, red lipstick and a New Orleans Saints bandanna. The Republican politician then finished it off with falsies and a shirt that read ‘Katrina victim’, clearly meant to mock the victims of the disaster just two months after the storm devastated the Louisiana coast.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11258695/Gov-DeSantis-appointee-resigns-pics-emerge-wearing-KKK-outfit-Halloween-party.html

Florida company urged employees to come to work during hurricane Ian. “As most of you know, PCM was built to withstand a Category 5 Hurricane. And since we are a national company we would like to continue servicing our clients if we can,” the email said. “You will be allowed to bring your children to work those two days. We will have movies and other fun stuff in the common area to keep them entertained.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7z47x/clearwater-florida-marketing-company-hurricane-ian

Russia requests U.N. Security Council meeting after Nord Stream pipeline explosions. “The French U.N. mission, which holds the presidency of the 15-member council for September, said the meeting would address the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building…. Gas leaks as a result of suspected sabotage discovered on the two pipelines on Tuesday have roiled energy markets and heightened security concerns.”   https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-09-28/un-security-council-to-meet-friday-on-damage-to-nord-stream-gas-pipelines

CEO tells stock analysts that inflation allows his company to increase its profit margin. “The CEO of Iron Mountain Inc. told Wall Street analysts at a September 20 investor event that the high levels of inflation of the past several years had helped the company increase its margins — and that for that reason he had long been ‘doing my inflation dance praying for inflation’. The comment is an unusually candid admission of a dirty secret in the business world: corporations use inflation as a pretext to hike prices…. It wasn’t a one-off comment by the Iron Mountain CEO, William Meaney. On a 2018 earnings call, he invoked a Native American ritual, telling participants that ‘it’s kind of like a rain dance, I pray for inflation every day I come to work because … our top line is really driven by inflation. … Every point of inflation expands our margins.’”   https://theintercept.com/2022/09/28/inflation-prices-investors-iron-mountain/

13 U.S. states providing tax havens for U.S. and world elite. “By providing a place to park illicit wealth abroad, roughly a dozen U.S. states are helping kleptocrats from around the world ‘avoid accountability at home’, the report explains. They are also enabling ultra-rich Americans to dodge federal taxes, ‘cheating the U.S. out of revenue with which it could combat poverty or invest in infrastructure’…. ‘The same states that morph their trust laws to help billionaires are often the same states that have the most regressive tax systems that overtax working people,’ said [Chuck] Collins. ‘It’s past time to curb wealth hiding in these states and enact policies to hold billionaires and their bureaucratic enablers accountable.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/28/new-report-reveals-how-13-us-states-shield-fortunes-worlds-richest-people

Federal appeals court strikes down city’s camping ban that only allowed homeless people to sleep in public if they didn’t have a blanket, sleeping bag, pillow or tent. “A divided Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that an Oregon city’s anti-camping ordinances that make it illegal for homeless people to use blankets and other bedding when sleeping in public violate their Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment…. Grants Pass, in direct response to the 2018 Martin v. Boise decision had amended its the anti-camping ordinance to make it clear that the act of sleeping was to be distinguished from the prohibited conduct of camping, according to the ruling…. ‘The City appears to have conceded it cannot cite homeless persons merely for sleeping in public but the City maintains it is entitled to cite individuals for the use of rudimentary bedding supplies, such as a blanket, pillow, or sleeping bag for bedding purposes,’ Senior District Judge Roslyn Silver, a Bill Clinton appointee who sat on the appellate panel by designation, wrote for the majority. ‘The City is incorrect.'”   https://www.courthousenews.com/ninth-circuit-finds-oregon-city-cant-prevent-homeless-from-using-blankets-and-pillows/

September 28, 2022

Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipeline leaks suspected to be the result of explosive sabotage. “Sabotage is the most likely cause of leaks in two Baltic Sea gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, European leaders have said, after seismologists reported explosions around the Nord Stream pipelines. A seismograph on the Danish island of Bornholm, near where the leaks occurred, twice recorded spikes on Monday, the day on which the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines underwent dramatic falls in pressure, the German geological research centre GFZ said.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/27/nord-stream-1-2-pipelines-leak-baltic-sabotage-fears   “The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had weeks ago warned Germany about possible attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, German magazine Spiegel said on Tuesday, after gas leaks in Russia pipelines to Germany were reported. The German government received the CIA tip in summer, Spiegel reported, citing unnamed sources, adding that Berlin assumes a targeted attack on Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/cia-warned-berlin-about-possible-attacks-gas-pipelines-summer-spiegel-2022-09-27/   I’m sure if this was a Russian plot to attack its own pipelines, we would have heard about it by now.   “Poland is leading the effort to curb reliance on Russia, once Europe’s main energy supplier, with the inauguration of a new gas pipeline. The Baltic Pipe will be a new link for Norwegian gas to Europe, which will allow countries to the south of Poland, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to access it.”   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63044747   “Leaders from Poland, Norway and Denmark have attended a ceremony to mark the opening of the new Baltic Pipe, a key stage in the drive to wean Poland and Europe off Russian gas. The pipeline will transport natural gas from the Norwegian shelf via Denmark and through the Baltic Sea to Poland. It is the centrepiece of a Polish strategy to diversify away from Russia that began years before Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy crisis. The flows from Norway along with supplies via liquefied gas terminals are central to Poland’s plan. The country was cut off from Russian gas supplies in April, allegedly for refusing to pay in roubles.”   https://www.euronews.com/2022/09/27/baltic-pipe-norway-poland-gas-pipeline-opens-in-key-move-to-cut-dependency-on-russia   I’m not saying that’s a huge coincidence, but it’s a huge coincidence.

Senate passes stopgap government funding bill after Manchin energy permit fast-track proposal is dropped. “Passage of the stoppage spending bill was ensured after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to remove a section of the bill designed to speed up permitting for energy-related infrastructure projects, including a pipeline through West Virginia…. At least a dozen Republicans and [only] two Democrats signaled they wouldn’t vote for the broader spending bill if it included Manchin’s proposal.”   https://theweek.com/joe-manchin/1017034/senate-advances-stopgap-spending-bill-after-manchin-drops-permit-amendment   “When progressives learned of Manchin’s proposal, they revolted. In a letter to colleagues last week, Sanders implored Democrats not to support the ‘disastrous side deal’ that he warned would ‘make it easier for the fossil fuel industry to destroy the planet and pollute the environment’. Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, also said he would vote against the permitting reform. Kaine said he was not consulted on the potential impact of green-lighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would run through his state.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/government-shutdown-senate-vote-funding-bill   “We support Senator Manchin’s decision not to press for a floor vote given the misguided Republican decision to put politics over progress by opposing his permitting reform plan,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement…. Additionally, Jean-Pierre said the White House will work to find a way to get Manchin’s permitting plan passed. “We will continue to work with him to find a vehicle to bring this bill to the floor and get it passed and to the President’s desk.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3664126-white-house-hits-gop-over-removal-of-manchin-permitting-reform/

Facebook disables Russian and Chinese influence networks. “Facebook parent company Meta said it took down two unconnected networks of accounts based in China and Russia seeking to influence political narratives in the U.S. and Europe. The platform regularly searches for and removes accounts it believes to have violated its policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior…. The Russia-based influence campaign mainly targeted Germany as well as France, Italy, Ukraine and the U.K. Starting in May, a network of more than 60 websites impersonating legitimate news organizations in Europe posted original articles criticizing Ukraine and arguing against Western sanctions on Russia, Meta said…. Separately, Meta said it removed a “small network” started in China that targeted the U.S., Czech Republic and some Chinese- and French-speaking audiences in other places…. In the U.S., the China-based operation ‘targeted people on both sides of the political spectrum’, Meta said, and was the first Chinese network focused on U.S. domestic politics that it disrupted ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. In the past, the company said, Chinese influence campaigns it disrupted would usually focus on criticizing the U.S. to audiences in other countries.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/27/facebook-removes-political-influence-operations-from-china-and-russia.html

Referenda in eastern Ukraine show overwhelming support (among those remaining) for merger with Russia. “Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to illegally annex four partially occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine lurched forward Tuesday, as Russian officials and Kremlin proxy leaders claimed that staged referendums showed that more than 95 percent of voters want to join Russia — an absurd level of support. Defying international condemnation and threats of additional Western economic sanctions, Putin could declare Russia’s absorption of the four regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — as soon as Friday, the British Defense Ministry said.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/27/russia-ukraine-war-referendum/   I imagine most of the pro-government Ukrainians have left these areas, and that those who stayed likely boycotted the election. In addition, most of the people who live in these regions speak Russian, and the Ukrainian government has shut down Russian language media and banned their political parties. The residents of these areas may fear far-right Ukrainian nationalists will force them to assimilate. The frenzied denouncements of these elections by western governments and media outlets seems like an example of ‘protesting too much‘. Note this line from the Washington Post story cited above: “The referendums in many areas were carried out at gunpoint [sic], with residents visited in their homes and forced to answer a single question [by marking and casting a ballot] about joining Russia. A woman who lives in the city of Luhansk — the regional capital of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, which has been controlled by Kremlin proxies since 2014 — said armed individuals had been going door to door and visiting businesses to collect ballots on which residents could check ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on joining Russia.” It’s highly unlikely that voters were held “at gunpoint” if the Post is using the common sense definition of “while having a gun pointed at you”. These armed men were not pointing their guns at voters, they were probably security for the election workers since there is a war going on, and at least one election worker has been assassinated. While a 95% “yes” vote does seem suspiciously high, it’s not hard to imagine some majority of the residents of these areas choosing Russia over Ukraine.

Mexican prosecutor investigating 2014 disappearances of 43 students resigns. “The prosecutor in charge of Mexico’s most notorious human rights case has quit, throwing into disarray the eight-year-old investigation into the disappearance of 43 students while raising questions about the authorities’ willingness to take on politicians and the military. Omar Gómez Trejo had spent more than three years on the investigation, seen as a crucial test of Mexico’s ability to unravel a case allegedly involving drug traffickers and their ties to politicians and security forces…. The prosecutor won judicial approval last month for 83 arrest warrants, including one for a retired army general — a rare indictment of a senior military figure. But the Mexican Attorney General’s Office recently persuaded a judge to vacate 21 of the arrest warrants; 16 of which were for military officials…. ‘I would be very surprised if the military remains a target of this investigation,’ [senior analyst Kate Doyle] said.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/27/mexico-ayotzinapa-missing-students-prosecutor/

Transportation Dept. approves states plans to install EV chargers along interstate highways. “Earlier this year, the Biden administration allocated $5 billion to states to fund EV chargers over five years along interstate highways as part of the bipartisan infrastructure package…. It’s unclear how many charging stations the funds will support, and states have not yet shared specific charger locations. Transportation Department officials have said that states should install stations every 50 miles and ensure each station is located within one mile of an interstate highway.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/27/ev-charging-stations-on-highways-dot-approves-50-states-plans.html

47 Alameda county, California deputies put on desk assignment after sheriff decides it was a bad idea to hire people whose psychological exam scores indicated they were not suited for the job. “The failed exams date back as far as 2016. Former deputy Devin Williams Jr., 24, who allegedly shot and killed a couple in their home, had failed his psychological exam, according to the same sources…. The audit into the department’s psychological exams is a result of Williams being charged with two counts of murder earlier this month. ‘I know that people are going to assume that all these deputies are killers,’ Kelly said. ‘But that’s not true.’ …. Of those 47, 30 currently work at Santa Rita Jail while 17 have jobs elsewhere.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11255873/Nearly-50-sworn-California-police-officers-desk-duty-failed-psych-evaluations.html

September 27, 2022

Mysterious fires and explosions in Russia suggest campaign of special operations attacks. “For months now, sensitive sites and important facilities throughout Russia have been hit by mysterious fires and explosions, hinting at a sabotage campaign that is the hallmark of special-operations forces…. In all, there have been dozens of incidents at facilities throughout Russia with little obvious explanation. The targets include oil refineries, ammunition production and storage facilities, aerospace and defense companies, and communications infrastructure. The attacks appear to be part of an effort to undermine and degrade the Russian military’s offensive capabilities…. Unconventional warfare is a skill set that the US special-operations community excels at and with which it has decades of experience conducting and training others to conduct.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/fires-explosions-insider-russia-may-be-sign-of-unconventional-warfare-2022-9

Neighbor reported serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to Milwaukee police repeatedly in months prior to his arrest. “As depicted in episode 2 of the Netflix series, Tracy was not Dahmer’s first victim to escape: In May 1991, [Glenda] Cleveland’s daughter and niece found Konerak Sinthasomphone, a 14-year-old Laotian boy, in an alley, naked and in distress. Nicole Childress, Cleveland’s niece, called 911, who sent officers and an ambulance. But Dahmer arrived on the scene as well, advising officers that Sinthasomphone was 19 and that the two were romantically involved. Dahmer explained that Sinthasomphone, who did not speak during the interaction, was drunk and that they had had a fight. Paramedics thought Sinthasomphone needed treatment, but the officers disagreed and sent the ambulance away. Rather than probe further, the officers returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer’s apartment and left.”   https://reason.com/2022/09/23/in-netflixs-dahmer-incompetent-police-fail-to-catch-a-serial-killer/

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden granted Russian citizenship after being trapped there for more than 10 years. “Snowden—who exposed the [warrantless] mass surveillance practices of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)—has lived in Russia since the summer of 2013, when the United States revoked his passport while he was attempting to travel from Hong Kong to Ecuador…. Shadowproof managing editor Kevin Gosztola said: ‘Let’s be clear. Snowden sought citizenship in Russia because his government will not let him return to his home country without putting him on trial [for] exposing mass surveillance that systematically violated the privacy rights of millions and even spurred modest reform.’ …. A federal appeals court ruled two years ago that the NSA’s warrantless surveillance of U.S. phone records—which Snowden exposed—was illegal. Snowden has continued to criticize years of impunity for the agency’s violation of Americans’ civil liberties.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/26/after-nearly-decade-exile-snowden-granted-russian-citizenship

President Biden denounces Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, conveniently forgetting U.S. invasions of Cuba (attempted), Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. “We stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression, period. You cannot seize another country’s territory by force. The only country doing that is Russia.”   https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1127321

Donald Trump implies he ran for president in 2016 to become more famous. “The question I get asked more than any other question: ‘If you had it to do again, would you have done it?’” Trump said of running for president. “The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because here’s the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are.”   https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/donald-trump-maggie-haberman-mar-a-lago/671510/

Almost 67% of Cuban voters back gay marriage in referendum. “Preliminary results from the electoral commission showed 74% of 8.4 million Cubans eligible to vote participated in the Sunday referendum…. By Cuban standards Sunday’s turnout was relatively modest, and a 33% ‘no’ vote relatively large in the communist-run country, where previous referendums have seen the government position receiving near unanimous approval.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cubans-approve-gay-marriage-by-large-margin-referendum-2022-09-26/

New seal of Director of National Intelligence’s aviation office includes UFO. “When the U.S. intelligence community’s main aviation component updated its seal recently to include images of a flying saucer and what appears to be a Russian fighter jet many wondered if it was a joke. Turns out it may have been, but the leadership of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence does not appear to be amused. A spokesperson there told CyberScoop in an emailed statement that its National Intelligence Manager for the Air Domain, also known as NIM-Aviation, ‘erroneously posted an unofficial and incorrect logo’. So, no, the agency wasn’t hacked, as several people who spotted the seal also wondered.”   https://www.cyberscoop.com/odni-ufo-new-seal-in-error/

Companies that made campaign donations to Florida governor Ron DeSantis reaped state contracts. “… a Missouri-based railroad and transport company that contributed generously in support of his campaign saw an astonishing 280-fold increase in its Florida state government contract awards. A construction aggregates firm that contributed $82,500 was awarded $30 million in new contracts. And a highway and civil site contracting firm that gave $22,500 saw its contracts grow 15-fold…. Boosting DeSantis’s campaign are contributions from 18 companies, including construction, consulting, and utility firms, that received a total of more than $1.68 billion in contracts from state agencies during his time in office.”   https://theintercept.com/2022/09/27/florida-ron-desantis-campaign-fund/

U.N. General Secretary says it’s time to abolish nuclear weapons. “Eliminating these devices of death is not only possible, it is necessary,” [António] Guterres stressed. “At a moment of rising geopolitical division, mistrust, and outright aggression, we are in danger of forgetting the terrible lessons of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Cold War, and inciting a humanitarian Armageddon…. Eliminating nuclear weapons would be the greatest gift we could bestow on future generations.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/26/eliminating-nuclear-weapons-not-only-possible-it-necessary-un-chief

September 26, 2022

Number of Russians arrested during anti-mobilization protests rises to an estimated 2,300. “Some of those who were arrested were handed conscription papers…. Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are required to serve one year in the military…. The mobilization order comes as Putin seeks to replenish his forces in Ukraine more than seven months into the war. Ukraine’s defense ministry claims that Russia has lost at least 55,000 soldiers since the outset of the invasion.”   https://www.foxnews.com/world/russians-arrested-thousands-protesting-putins-mobilization-human-rights-group-says

No apparent drop in Texas sex assaults, despite governor’s pledge. “When Texas’ new abortion law made no exceptions in cases of rape, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defended it with an assurance: Texas would get to work eliminating rapes. One year later, Lindsey LeBlanc is busy as ever helping rape victims in a college town outside Houston. ‘The numbers have stayed consistently high,’ said LeBlanc, executive director of the Sexual Assault Resource Center in Bryan, near Texas A&M University. Despite hiring two additional counselors in the past six months, she still has a waitlist for victims. ‘We are struggling to keep up with demand,’ she said.”   https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-vow-to-eliminate-all-rapists-rings-hollow-at-clinics/3080637/

Tucker Carlson speaks at funeral of Hell’s Angels leader Sonny Barger. “Why is it left to Sonny Barger to say, ‘Stand tall, stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor?’ The president of the United States should be saying that – every single morning as he salutes the flag – but only Sunny Barger is saying it,” Carlson continued. “And I thought to myself, ‘I want to pay tribute to the man who spoke those words.'”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11249069/Tucker-Carlson-turns-pay-tribute-Hells-Angels-leader-Sonny-Barger.html   It doesn’t get much weirder than this….

Civil liberties groups ask Supreme Court to rule on government’s ‘state secrets’ defense. “Under a post-9/11 surveillance program known as Upstream, the NSA is systematically searching Americans’ internet communications as they enter and leave the United States. The agency sifts through these streams of data looking for ‘identifiers’ associated with its many thousands of foreign targets – identifiers like email addresses and phone numbers. The NSA does all of this without warrants, without any individual judicial approval, and without showing that any of the people it is surveilling – including countless Americans – have done anything wrong. This surveillance raises serious constitutional concerns, but no court has ever considered a legal challenge to it because the government has claimed that allowing a suit against Upstream surveillance to go forward would implicate ‘state secrets’…. This use of the state secrets privilege – to dismiss cases – departs from the supreme court’s narrow framing of the privilege.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/26/us-courts-government-accountability-state-secrets

September 25, 2022

Fort Lupton and Platteville, Colorado police left road rage suspect handcuffed in patrol car parked on railroad tracks, which was then hit by train. “[Yareni] Rios-Gonzalez is left in the vehicle alone as officers search her truck. Minutes later, a train horn is heard and officers express alarm as the train barrels into the cruiser, crumpling the side and pushing it dozens of feet into a field…. Rios-Gonzalez sustained multiple injuries, including nine broken ribs, a broken arm, broken teeth and injuries to her head, according to [her attorney, Paul] Wilkinson.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/us/colorado-police-car-train-bodycam-footage/index.html

An estimated 1,200 Iranians arrested in connection with anti-brutality protests, state radio says 35 killed. “Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in protest since the death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended in Tehran and taken to a ‘re-education center’, apparently for not wearing her hijab properly. Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed in the resulting clashes with security forces. CNN cannot independently verify the death toll —  a precise figure is impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm — and different estimates have been given by opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/middleeast/mahsa-amini-death-iran-internet-un-investigation-intl-hnk/index.html

Canada’s east coast hit by record storm. “The Canadian Hurricane Centre estimated that Fiona was the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian armed forces will be deployed to help with the clean-up, adding that Fiona caused significant damage and recovery will require a big effort.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-girds-long-haul-after-historic-storm-fiona-ravages-east-coast-2022-09-25/

Alaska typhoon declared ‘major disaster’. “President Biden declared a major disaster in Alaska on Friday, ordering federal assistance to add to state, local and tribal recovery efforts after a strong storm, flooding and landslides hit the state over the past week. The severe weather and natural disasters occurred from Sept. 15 to 20, causing damage in much of the western part of the state, the White House said in a statement.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3659121-biden-declares-major-disaster-in-alaska-after-severe-storm/

Phoenix police fatally shoot man after he refuses to stop throwing rocks at them. “A man police say was throwing rocks at Phoenix police was shot by officers Saturday evening near 19th Avenue and Tuckey lane just south of Glendale Avenue. Phoenix police say the man in his early 30′s was throwing rocks and other items at officers while they passed through an intersection. The officers turned their patrol car around and confronted the man who continued to throw objects while the officers exited their vehicles. They told the man to stop and they say he continued to throw items at them, that’s when officers fired at the man. He was taken to a hospital where he died.”   https://www.azfamily.com/2022/09/25/police-investigating-an-officer-involved-shooting-phoenix/

Rumors of a coup, attempted coup or just political turmoil within China’s Communist Party. “In an interview with Newsmax on Saturday, [China expert Gordon] Chang said that there have been ‘unusual’ and ‘abnormal’ events occurring in China over the last few days, including the country’s decision to cancel 60 percent of its flights on Wednesday and suspend bus and high speed rail travel in and out of Beijing. He also mentioned a widely shared video posted on Twitter is also reported to show a line of military vehicles up to 80 kilometers long heading into Beijing amid reports of a military coup. ‘There’s been a lot of smoke, that says there is a fire somewhere. We don’t think that there has actually been a coup, but at this point there have been some extremely troubling developments at the top of the Communist Party as well as the top of the People’s Liberation Army, which reports to the party, so something is terribly wrong.'”   https://www.newsweek.com/li-qiaoming-general-center-china-coup-rumors-social-media-1746041   “The speculations also coincided with China sentencing two former ministers to death and four officials to life imprisonment. The timing of the anti-corruption crackdown is important. Coming ahead of the CCP’s 20th Party Congress on October 16—the [party’s] biggest event in which Xi will be seeking an unprecedented third term in office—massive disinformation campaigns took several countries, including China, by surprise.”   https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2022/09/25/biggest-psy-ops-in-recent-times-why-xi-house-arrest-trended-on-twitter.html   “With no official confirmation from the Chinese Communist Party or the state media and with all these updates from anonymous users, who are neither verified nor credible, experts are confident these rumours are just rumours and false speculations…. The last time the Chinese President was seen publicly was at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand…. There’s a strong possibility the Chinese premier could be in quarantine following the country’s strict ‘Zero Covid Policy’. Under the policy, every individual who enters China from abroad must undergo quarantine.”   https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/no-sign-of-coup-in-china-experts-confident-xi-jinping-still-in-control-dismiss-social-media-rumours-348120-2022-09-25

Iran targets bases of Kurdish leftist groups in northern Iraq after allegations of infiltration and arms smuggling. “Tasnim news agency, affiliated with [Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps], stated that the shelling targeted offices of Komala and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) for allegedly sending ‘armed teams and a large amount of weapons… to the border cities of the country to cause chaos.’ Sidakan’s mayor Ihsan Chalabi confirmed the news to Rudaw, saying the incident has not resulted in any casualties or damage, apart from starting fires in the mountainous areas of the district.”   https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/240920223

FBI failed to tell federal judge they planned to confiscate contents of safe deposit boxes emptied during 2021 Beverly Hills raid. “They omitted from their warrant request a central part of the FBI’s plan: Permanent confiscation of everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified. The FBI’s justification for the dragnet forfeiture was its presumption that hundreds of unknown box holders were all storing assets somehow tied to unknown crimes, court records show…. The court filings also show that federal agents defied restrictions that U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve Kim set in the warrant by searching through box holders’ belongings for evidence of crimes. ‘The government did not know what was in those boxes, who owned them, or what, if anything, those people had done,’ Robert Frommer, a lawyer who represents nearly 400 box holders in the class-action case, wrote in court papers. ‘That’s why the warrant application did not even attempt to argue there was probable cause to seize and forfeit box renters’ property.’ …. [Judge Steve] Kim was explicit in limiting the scope of the raid. ‘This warrant does not authorize a criminal search or seizure of the contents of the safety deposit boxes,’ his warrant stated.”   https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-23/fbi-beverly-hills-safe-deposit-box-raid-forfeiture-judge

September 24, 2022

U.S. government agencies and military buying internet browsing data from data broker, claims Senator. “‘According to the whistleblower, [the Naval Criminal Investigative Service] is purchasing access to data, which includes netflow records and some communications content from Team Cymru,’ Senator Ron Wyden shared in a letter to the offices of the inspector general for the Pentagon, Justice Department, and Homeland Security Department. The warrantless purchase of Americans’ data is not limited to the NCIS. Wyden’s office examined public contracting records and found Team Cymru was awarded data brokering contracts with US Cyber Command, the US Army, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the US Secret Service. The contracts do not appear under Team Cymru’s name. Instead, Argonne Ridge Group is listed as the contractor. Wyden’s office noticed that Argonne and Team Cymru have the same corporate address…”   https://thedissenter.org/military-whistleblower-pentagons-warrantless-purchase-internet-data/

Report says Meta (Facebook, Instagram) censorship violated human rights of Palestinians. “‘Meta’s actions in May 2021 appear to have had an adverse human rights impact… on the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination, and therefore on the ability of Palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred,’ says the long-awaited report, which was obtained by The Intercept in advance of its publication…. Many Palestinians attempting to document and protest the violence using Facebook and Instagram found their posts spontaneously disappeared without recourse, a phenomenon the [Business for Social Responsibility] inquiry attempts to explain.”   https://theintercept.com/2022/09/21/facebook-censorship-palestine-israel-algorithm/

White House lawyers secretly undermined Congressional limits on presidential power. “The Office of Legal Counsel drafted the memos in the decades after Congress enacted that law, the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The writings shaped White House interpretations of its constraints in ways not disclosed to Congress or the public, and their release sheds light on the inner workings of executive branch lawyers seeking to protect or expand presidential power…. The Office of Legal Counsel became a center of controversy for its role in secretly blessing some of the George W. Bush administration’s responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Those decisions were based on sweeping claims that a president, as commander in chief, can lawfully override statutes and treaties, including by approving the C.I.A.’s torture of detainees.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/us/politics/war-powers-justice-dept-president.html

Protests turn violent in Mexico on eighth anniversary of disappearance of 43 students. “Hundreds of demonstrators, some shouting “murderers,” pulled down metal fencing and tried to enter Military Camp No. 1 in Mexico City in the latest event marking the eighth anniversary of the tragedy…. The confrontation came a day after around a dozen police officers were injured at a protest outside the attorney general’s office to demand justice for the students. And on Wednesday, relatives staged a rally outside Israel’s embassy, demanding the extradition of Tomas Zeron, a former top investigator wanted in connection with one of the country’s worst human rights tragedies. The 43 teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration in Mexico City before they went missing.”   https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220923-clashes-erupt-at-mexico-protest-over-missing-students   “Tomas Zeron, who previously led Mexico’s Criminal Investigation Agency, is accused of manipulating the probe into one of the country’s worst human rights tragedies…. Zeron is one of the architects of the so-called ‘historical truth’, the official version of the case presented in 2015 that was rejected by the victims’ relatives and independent experts…. Mexico has repeatedly asked Israel to hand over Zeron, who is accused of kidnapping, torturing suspects and manipulating evidence — allegations he has denied.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/families-43-missing-students-mexico-urge-israel-to-deport-tomas-zeron-protests/

Iran blocking social media and internet activity amid police brutality protests. “Internet monitoring group NetBlocks said Instagram and WhatsApp – two of the major communication tools that Iran usually allows – had been restricted…. Telegram, YouTube and TikTok have also periodically been closed down…. NetBlocks reported that the internet was partially reconnected on Thursday night but that on Friday it was suffering a ‘nation-scale loss of connectivity’ again…. But others accused Meta of being complicit in disconnecting users. Meta has a team of Persian-speaking reviewers who look at and remove content that violates their rules.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62996100

Arizona judge rules that territorial 1901 abortion ban is automatically reinstated after Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. “In ruling that Arizona’s near-total ban on abortion could take effect, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson granted a request by the state’s Republican attorney general to lift a court injunction that had barred enforcement of Arizona’s pre-statehood ban on abortion after the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973. ‘The court finds that because the legal basis for the judgment entered in 1973 has now been overruled, it must vacate the judgment in its entirety,’ Johnson wrote in the ruling released Friday.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/23/politics/arizona-abortion-ban-ruling/index.html

News organizations sue to obtain updated Elijah McClain autopsy. “The original autopsy report released in 2019 did not come to a conclusion about how McClain died, citing ‘undetermined causes’. And in the latest update released on Friday, the manner of death is still classified as undetermined…. After the [three] police officers confronted McClain [who was walking home from the grocery store], they put him in a chokehold. When he passed out, paramedics injected him with ketamine in order to sedate him. He died three days later in a hospital. The updated autopsy report was released on Friday because of a court order in a lawsuit filed by Colorado Public Radio and other media organizations, including the Associated Press, asking that the coroner release the new findings…. ‘Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual, and it resulted in an overdose,’ [forensic pathology consultant Stephen] Cina wrote. ‘I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine.’”   https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annabetts/elijah-mcclain-new-autopsy-findings   It looks like going to court to obtain public records has become routine, if you want something that someone doesn’t want released. That pretty much obliterates ‘Freedom of Information Act’ laws and the whole concept of ‘public records’.

Three Stoughton, Massachusetts police officers accused of inappropriate relationships with same woman. “At the time of her death, Sandra Birchmore, 23, had been telling friends she was pregnant with the child of one of the officers, Matthew G. Farwell, 36, a detective, former patrolmen’s union president, and married father. They met when Birchmore was just 13 through the department’s youth explorers program, which introduces young people to law enforcement careers…. [Police Chief Donna] McNamara said Matthew Farwell embarked on an inappropriate relationship with Birchmore when she was 15 and he was 27, but declined to reveal specifics…. If true, those actions would be statutory rape, as the age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.”   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/22/metro/three-stoughton-police-officers-had-inappropriate-relationships-with-young-woman-who-came-them-mentoring-town-report-finds/

U.N. investigators find evidence of war crimes committed by both sides in Ukraine conflict. “The team of investigators visited 27 towns and settlements, as well as graves and detention and torture centres; interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses; and met with advocacy groups and government officials. Mose said the team had been especially ‘struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited’, and the frequent ‘visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats’…. He said investigators had also documented cases of sexual and gender-based violence, in some cases establishing that Russian soldiers were the perpetrators…. Since the beginning of Moscow’s invasion, Russian troops have been accused of having used a number of illegal weapons that have killed hundreds of civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kyiv, including extremely powerful unguided bombs in populated areas, which have destroyed at least eight civilian buildings.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/23/russia-has-committed-war-crimes-in-ukraine-say-un-investigators

Youth activists worldwide march for action on climate change. “Demonstrations were planned in around 450 locations worldwide by youth movement Fridays for Future. They are timed to coincide with global leaders meeting in New York City at the U.N. General Assembly this week…. In New York, at least 2,000 people gathered Friday afternoon for the march, chanting slogans… as they went from Foley Square to lower Manhattan. Shortly before 3 p.m., the crowd started gathering in Wall Streets’ financial district in front of the famous bull statue, which has come to symbolize the stock market and big business.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/global-protests-demand-climate-change-compensation-ahead-cop27-2022-09-23/

Most vulnerable employees likely to suffer disproportionate job losses in Fed-induced recession. “Between the late 1980s and mid-2000s, government employment data shows ‘considerable evidence’ that Black workers are among the first ones fired as the economy weakens, according to an economic study published in 2010 in Demography, an academic journal.… A similar dynamic of disproportionate job losses impacts Hispanic workers, the economists said.… Another group that would stand among the first to end up jobless amid a downturn is less-educated workers. Two years ago, during the pandemic-induced recession, less-educated workers suffered far more acute job losses than their better-educated peers, according to a study published in 2021 by the Institute for New Economic Thinking…. Data from the two most recent recessions, in 2020 and 2007, indicates that young workers suffer disproportionately when the economy contracts.”   https://abcnews.go.com/Business/fed-unemployment-rise-economists-lose-jobs/story?id=90375709

Arms contractors awarded $985 million contract to produce Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missiles. “The two companies have already been working jointly since 2019 on a hypersonic weapon concept that integrates Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engines into Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons, launching test flights in September 2021 and in July…. In addition to their work on an offensive hypersonic missile, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have been jointly involved in defensive systems.”   https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2022/09/23/raytheon-northrop-grumman-hypersonic-missile-deal.html

11 climate protesters arrested outside Senate Office Building. “The sit-in protest came a day after West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin unveiled a permitting reform bill that would speed federal review of energy projects. The legislation would limit environmental and community review of oil, gas, coal and mining projects, while fast-tracking approval of the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline and other fossil fuel projects. The bill has the support of both the White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has pledged Senate passage ahead of a September 30 deadline to fund the government.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/9/23/headlines/11_climate_activists_arrested_at_sit_in_protest_of_sen_joe_manchins_dirty_side_deal

Company of Kansas billionaire reportedly funding campaigns of 2020 election deniers. “Koch [Industries], which is controlled by multibillionaire Charles Koch, boasts a corporate PAC that has donated $607,000 to the campaigns or leadership PACs of 52 election deniers since January 2021, making Koch’s PAC the top corporate funder of members who opposed the election results, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign spending. In addition, the Super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action, to which Koch Industries has given over $6m since January 2021, has backed some election deniers with advertising and other communications support, as well as a few candidates Donald Trump has endorsed who tried to help him overturn the 2020 election, or raised doubts about the final results.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/23/koch-bankrolls-election-denier-candidates

Many in less developed countries still unvaccinated against Covid-19. “Epidemiologists have long warned that the persistence of a massive inoculation gap between rich and poor countries allows the coronavirus to keep circulating and mutating, increasing the likelihood of a vaccine-resistant variant emerging…. ‘The best chance to stop this pandemic is to make vaccines available for everyone, everywhere,’ a pair of experts wrote in Lancet Infectious Diseases earlier this week.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/23/blood-your-hands-if-global-poor-hit-covid-wave-who-official-tells-rich-nations

September 23, 2022

Pranksters tell son of Russian official that he’s been called up for military duty. “The hosts of the Russian YouTube channel Popular Politics called the 32-year-old son of Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. The pranksters, who pretended to be recruitment officers, told the 32-year-old Nikolay Peskov that he has been drafted into the army and needed to attend a medical examination the following day. ‘Obviously not!’ the younger Peskov told the pranksters, according to a video shared by independent Russian news website The Insider. ‘You must understand it is not right for me to be there. I have to resolve this on a different level. If I have to defend my motherland I will step up, no problem but you need to understand the political implications and nuances of my situation,’ he added.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/pranksters-tell-kremlin-officials-son-hes-being-enlisted-he-refused-2022-9

Michigan candidate for U.S. House advocated abolishing 19th Amendment when in college. “Some argue that in a democratic society, it is hypocritical or unjust for women, who are 50% of the population, not to have the vote,” [John] Gibbs’ website read. “This is obviously not true, since the founding fathers, who understood liberty and democracy better than anyone, did not believe so. In addition, all people under age 18 cannot vote, although they too comprise a significant portion of the population. So we cannot say that women should be able to vote simply because they are a large part of the population.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/21/politics/john-gibbs-womens-suffrage-19th-amendment-kfile/index.html

Donald Trump claims FBI planted evidence during Mar-a-Lago search. “Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said in a filing Thursday that Trump’s team needs to submit a sworn declaration saying if they believe the Justice Department included any items on their “inventory” of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not actually seized during the search…. This has come up as an issue in the case because Trump himself, some of his attorneys, and several of his outside Republican allies have publicly claimed that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago during the August 8 search. However, they have offered no evidence to support these accusations.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/22/politics/mar-a-lago-special-master-trump-fbi-planting-evidence/index.html

Alleged Nazi sympathizer sentenced to four years in prison for entering Capitol during January 6th riot. “An informant told investigators that [Timothy] Hale-Cusanelli was ‘an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer’ who had posted online videos espousing extreme political opinions, the Justice Department had alleged earlier in court filings. Video footage from the riot showed Hale-Cusanelli yelling at police officers outside the Capitol complex and entering the building after it was breached. Thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The attack followed months of false claims by Trump that he had won the 2020 election.”   https://www.reuters.com/legal/alleged-nazi-sympathizer-gets-four-years-prison-over-us-capitol-attack-2022-09-22/   It sounds like he was sentenced to four years in prison because, a) he went to trial instead of pleading guilty, and because, b) he has unpopular political beliefs.

Nine progressive Democrats vote against massive police funding bill. “All nine Democrats who voted against the bill are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus: Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Andy Levin (Ill.), Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.). A total of 153 Republicans supported the bill, while 55 voted ‘no’.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3657102-these-9-house-democrats-bucked-the-party-and-voted-against-a-policing-bill/   “A broad bipartisan majority voted, 360 to 64, in favor of the centerpiece of the four-bill package, called the Invest to Protect Act, which would give $60,000,000 a year for five years [a total of $300 million] to local police departments. The funds could be used for purchasing body cameras and conducting de-escalation training, as well as other activities. But a backlash by progressives, who balked at sending money to police departments without stronger accountability measures to address excessive use of force or other misconduct, nearly tanked the bills before they could be considered.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/us/politics/house-passes-police-funding-bills.html   Without accountability provisions, you’re just going to get more videos of cops shooting people.

Philadelphia police officer found guilty of manslaughter in fatal shooting of unarmed motorist. “A white Philadelphia police officer was convicted Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter and a weapons charge in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black motorist shot six seconds after the officer arrived on the scene. Officer Eric Ruch Jr. told jurors he feared for his life when he fired at Dennis Plowden Jr. as the 25-year-old sat on a sidewalk after crashing a car during a high-speed chase. He said Plowden had his left hand raised, but kept his right hand hidden despite police orders. The officer said he could not take cover and feared he would be shot.”   https://www.foxnews.com/us/philadelphia-police-officer-convicted-manslaughter-after-shooting-unarmed-black-motorist

‘Dark money’ bill killed in the Senate. “The DISCLOSE Act, a bill aimed at targeting dark money in political campaigns, failed on Thursday to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster in the Senate. The procedural vote ended 49-49, with all Democrats present voting to advance the bill and all Republicans present voting against…. It would require most independent groups that pay for political advertising — which is currently not required to disclose the names of donors — to release the names of those who give donations of $10,000 or more.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/22/politics/campaign-finance-bill-fails/index.html   And now we know why Democratic Party leadership was backing this – because they knew it wouldn’t pass.

Former rector of Moscow Aviation Institute, Anatoly Gerashchenko, falls to his death. “The former head of a Russian aviation research institute died on Wednesday, reportedly by falling down the stairs, in the latest in a string of deaths of Russian officials…. An unnamed source told Russian newspaper Izvestia that he died on the university’s grounds, by falling ‘from a great height’ down several flights of stairs. Gerashchenko was the institute’s rector until 2015, and at the time of his death was acting as an adviser to the current rector, according to Russian state-controlled news service RIA Novosti.”   https://news.yahoo.com/kremlin-ally-died-falling-down-102720242.html   Three theories: This is a Stalin style purge, where insiders are invited to join a plot against the leader – and if they say ‘yes’ they die. Or it could be that Russia has cracked a CIA spy network and is working its way down the list. Or least likely, people are being assassinated by Ukrainian spies, like the woman blown up by a car bomb that was probably intended for her father.

Party political opponent of China’s ruling circle sentenced to life in prison for graft. “China’s former Deputy Public Security Minister Sun Lijun, who had been denounced for ‘seriously damaging the unity of the party’, has been jailed for life, state media said on Friday, ahead of a key Communist Party congress…. The court said his crimes included giving and taking bribes amounting to 646 million yuan ($91 million), manipulating the stock market and illegally owning two firearms.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-sentences-former-public-security-vice-minister-death-graft-2022-09-23/

Interest rates on loans go up, but not interest rates on savings accounts at most banks. “On Wednesday, the Fed made its third straight three-quarter-point interest rate hike to bring the federal funds rate to 3.25 percent, the highest level since 2008. Fed forecasts showed that rates could reach 4.6 percent in 2023. But the national average interest rate for savings accounts is 0.13 percent, according to a Sept. 14 weekly survey of financial institutions by Bankrate. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation puts that number at 0.17 percent, with money market accounts returning 0.18 percent and checking accounts returning 0.04 percent.”   https://thehill.com/policy/3656474-lawmakers-slam-big-bank-ceos-for-failure-to-increase-interest-rates-on-savings/   “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.29% in the week ending September 22, up from 6.02% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. That is significantly higher than this time last year, when it was 2.88%, and it is the highest level seen since October 2008. Mortgage rates have almost doubled since the start of this year. After climbing to nearly 6% in mid-June, recession fears made rates more volatile. But now all eyes are on the central bank’s campaign of interest rates hikes in its fight against inflation.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/22/homes/mortgage-rates-september-22/index.html

Another FBI whistle-blower comes forward, claims counter-terrorism investigations ‘always’ involve entrapment. “The startling accusation came from Kyle Seraphin, an FBI agent of six years who was recently suspended by the bureau. He worked in multiple field offices in the counterterrorism division and conducted investigations of alleged domestic extremism and white supremacist plots over the past few years. ‘My team was deployed to 20 or 25 different high profile, national terrorism organization or terrorism investigations between 2018 and 2021. And what I saw, as the most obvious statement, is that there are three things about counterterrorism investigations: Number one, the demand for white supremacy vastly outstrips the supply of white supremacy. Number two, the FBI‘s playbook when it comes to counterterrorism investigations is always and unequivocally morally equivalent to entrapment, even if there’s a legal definition that allows them to skirt that.’ Mr. Seraphin said…. Thirdly, Mr. Seraphin said, the FBI has no objective metric on how they prioritize investigations…. ‘There is no requirement for an allegation of a crime to happen. For someone to open a national security investigation. None. There doesn’t have to be an underlying crime at all,’ Mr. Seraphin said. ‘To open up a case, for example on a parent [making threats?] at a school board meeting, if we allege that there are enough connected pieces, it’s like, ‘Okay, this person owns guns.’”   https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/sep/22/fbi-whistleblower-counterterrorism-cases-against-a/

September 22, 2022

New York to sue Donald Trump over alleged financial fraud. “[New York State Attorney General Letitia] James charged that as head of the Trump Organization, the former president ‘falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system’. She said that in addition to state law, her office has referred certain violations, ‘including issuing false statements to financial institutions and bank fraud’, to the Southern District of New York and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for federal criminal investigation…. For example, the Trump Building located at 40 Wall Street was appraised between $200-220 million between 2010 and 2012. But according to the filing, during that same period, the Trump Organization listed the building’s value as around $525 million. Higher valuations allowed Trump to qualify for more money or more favorable loan terms.”   https://reason.com/2022/09/21/new-york-attorney-general-sues-trump-for-fraud-seeks-250-million-in-restitution/

Russian police arrest more than 1,300 across the country at protests against mobilization of military reserves. “The OVD-Info monitoring group counted at least 1,332 people detained at rallies in 38 different cities across the country after Putin’s morning address to the nation. The protests were the largest in Russia since demonstrations that broke out following the announcement of Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine in February. AFP journalists in the centre of the Russian capital Moscow said at least 50 people were detained by police wearing anti-riot gear on a main shopping street.”   https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220921-over-1-300-arrests-in-russia-anti-mobilisation-protests-ngo

U.S. House passes bill that would make it more difficult to change the outcome of presidential elections. “The Presidential Election Reform Act would clearly reaffirm that the vice president has no role in validating a presidential election beyond acting as a figurehead who oversees the counting process, barring that person from changing the results. It also would expand the threshold necessary for members of both chambers to object to a state’s results, as well as clarify the role governors play in the process. Finally, it would make clear that state legislatures can’t change election rules retroactively to alter the results.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/21/house-election-jan-6-reform/

Senate ratifies climate treaty limiting use of hydrofluorocarbons. “HFCs were introduced as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were depleting the ozone layer. And while the switch addressed the immediate issue, [HFCs] also were significant contributors to the planet’s warming. The Kigali Amendment is an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a prior treaty that called for phasing out CFCs.”   https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3653718-senate-approves-climate-treaty-limiting-hfcs-which-us-is-already-phasing-out/

Recreational marijuana referendum won’t appear on 2022 Oklahoma ballot due to slow approval by election officials. “The Court acknowledged that organizers of SQ820 ‘diligently prepared’ the petition for submission on this November’s election, but delays were caused ‘by the Secretary of State’s “learning curve” associated with use of the new software and by the filing of four statutorily allowed protests.’ ‘There is still a possibility of rehearing in two of the protests, which prevents this Court from fully resolving those objections,’ said the Court, in their ruling. SQ820 received enough [signatures] to be placed on the November ballot, but because of a new verification system, the process to confirm the signatures was delayed.”   https://kfor.com/news/your-local-election-hq/oklahomans-wont-vote-on-recreational-marijuana-in-november/

15 arrested during Boston climate protest. “The environmental group Extinction Rebellion said it had planned to block four major traffic routes to protest fossil fuels…. ‘We’re seeing very little action on the state level and our house is on fire. So, we’re the fire alarm,’ protester Leslie Dicola told reporters.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/boston-protest-traffic-wednesday-extinction-rebellion-somerville-massachusetts/   The CBS headline: “15 arrested as protesters attempt to block Boston traffic during rush hour commute”. Apparently it’s an alarm that not everyone wants to be heard.

Two employees killed in connection with explosion at Ohio oil refinery. “The BP Husky Toledo Refinery has been shut down after two people lost their lives in a fire at the facility Tuesday. Representatives of BP confirmed that two people were killed after sustaining injuries in the fire. According to The Blade, the two who were killed were brothers Ben and Max Morrissey…. members of the United Steelworkers District One Local 346, according to the Union.”   https://www.13abc.com/2022/09/20/crews-battling-fire-bp-refinery/   “The fire department is responding to an explosion at a BP refinery near Toledo. The explosion occurred around 7 p.m. Officials say a giant plume of black smoke could be seen from miles away. Police say people reported that they were feeling the ground shake.”   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqtWwGu15to

Federal prosecutors charge child nutrition charity Feeding Our Future and its contractors with pandemic fraud. “Federal prosecutors say the defendants created companies that claimed to be offering food to tens of thousands of children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement for those meals through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food nutrition programs. Prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry…. Many of the companies that claimed to be serving food were sponsored by a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which submitted the companies’ claims for reimbursement. Feeding Our Future’s founder and executive director, Aimee Bock, was among those indicted, and authorities say she and others in her organization submitted the fraudulent claims for reimbursement and received kickbacks…. [U.S. Attorney Andy] Luger said the government was billed for more than 125 million fake meals, with some defendants making up names for children by using an online random name generator.”   https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2022/09/us-48-people-exploited-pandemic-to-steal-250m-from-food-program.html

Florida asks Supreme Court to hear social media censorship case. “The [blocked Florida] law, which had been challenged by [tech] industry group NetChoice, would require social media companies to disclose the rules they use for banning or censoring users and to apply them consistently, and would limit their ability to ban candidates for political office from their platforms…. Florida argued that the conflict between the 5th Circuit [federal appeals court, which reinstated the Texas anti-censorship law] and the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, which struck down the Florida law, must be resolved by the nation’s top court…. The 11th Circuit in May found that most of the [Florida] law violated the social media companies’ right to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, upholding a lower court judge’s ruling.”   https://www.reuters.com/legal/florida-asks-us-supreme-court-revive-law-targeting-social-media-censorship-2022-09-21/

U.N. report accuses Venezuelan government of political repression and torture. “The findings were based on 471 interviews with victims, their family members and legal representatives, as well as at least 50 people who previously worked for the DGCIM, SEBIN or other government entities…. Detainees were subject to being beaten with blunt and sharp objects, electric shocks, and force-feeding of feces and vomit, it added.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelas-state-security-agencies-repress-oppositions-through-arbitrary-arrests-2022-09-20/

FBI whistle-blower claims the agency retaliated against him after he questioned aggressive arrests of low-level January 6th Capitol riot suspects. “On Aug. 19, [FBI agent Steve Friend] told his immediate boss, Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Greg Federico, that he believed ‘it was inappropriate to use an FBI SWAT team to arrest a subject for misdemeanor offenses and opined that the subject would likely face extended detainment and biased jury pools in Washington, DC.’ …. Four days later, Friend was summoned to Jacksonville to meet his next-level bosses, Assistant Special Agents in Charge Coult Markovsky and Sean Ryan about his refusal to join the SWAT raid…. They asked if he believed any J6 rioters committed crimes and he replied: ‘Some of the people who entered the Capitol committed crimes, but others were innocent. I elaborated that I believed some innocent individuals had been unjustly prosecuted, convicted and sentenced.’ Markovsky then asked Friend if J6 rioters who ‘killed police officers’ should be prosecuted, even though no such thing happened. When Friend pointed out that ‘there were no police officers killed on January 6, 2021’, Markovsky told him he was being a ‘bad teammate’.”   https://nypost.com/2022/09/21/fbi-hero-paying-the-price-for-exposing-unjust-persecution-of-conservative-americans/

Days of protests in Iran following death of woman in police custody. “Young people in Iran are fighting back against the country’s feared morality police like never before, after a young woman [Mahsa Amini] died after being taken into custody for not wearing her hijab properly. At least seven people have died in the protests, and hundreds were injured and arrested during the clashes with the riot police over the past few days.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkgz9k/young-iranians-are-fighting-back-against-irans-morality-police-for-the-first-time

Kansas deputy fired after using excessive force on 12 year-old, but the state’s police commission didn’t decertify him. “A Jackson County sheriff’s deputy used his Taser on a 12-year-old autistic boy without warning as the youth sat handcuffed, shackled and hogtied in the deputy’s vehicle. The state’s law enforcement oversight body says Matthew Honas on Feb. 23 used excessive force multiple times on the boy, including tying him up in a manner that threatened ‘his ability to breathe properly’.”   https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/2022/09/20/kansas-deputy-disciplined-tasing-handcuffed-hogtied-autistic-boy-jackson-county/10411384002/

“Liking” pro-opposition or anti-government posts on social media can result in a 10 year prison sentence in Myanmar. “In televised remarks on Tuesday, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said support for the National Unity Government and affiliated groups on social media could result in a three- to 10-year prison sentence, Reuters reported…. The junta’s seizure of power has been accompanied by heightened state violence across the country, with at least 1,900 killings by the military reported since the February 2021 coup.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vznd/myanmar-social-media-junta

U.S. military has reportedly purchased powerful ‘mass surveillance’ internet monitoring software. “The tool, called Augury, [was] developed by cybersecurity firm Team Cymru and bundles a massive amount of data together and makes it available to government and corporate customers as a paid service…. Motherboard has found that the U.S. Navy, Army, Cyber Command, and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency have collectively paid at least $3.5 million to access Augury. This allows the military to track internet usage [revealing] an incredible amount of sensitive information…. The Augury platform makes a wide array of different types of internet data available to its users…. [including] packet capture data (PCAP) related to email, remote desktop, and file sharing protocols…. Augury’s data can also include web browser activity, like URLs visited and cookie usage, according to the procurement records…. Given their uniqueness, cookies can be effective for tracking.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pnkw/us-military-bought-mass-monitoring-augury-team-cymru-browsing-email-data

Maryland man’s murder conviction vacated over withheld evidence, after he spent 23 years in prison. “Adnan Syed, the subject of the popular podcast “Serial,” was released Monday after a Maryland judge vacated his murder conviction due to evidence withheld during the trial that might have helped exonerate him…. We speak with Syed’s first attorney, Doug Colbert, who says Brady violations, in which prosecutors fail to disclose evidence to the defense, happen ‘much too often’. He argues, ‘There are many other people innocent of their crimes who should not have been convicted.’”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/9/21/adnan_syed_first_lawyer_describes_release

Someone dies of hunger every four seconds as global hunger worsens, say relief groups. “… that’s the warning from a coalition of humanitarian groups who say global hunger is spiraling out of control. Oxfam, Save the Children and other groups say 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger — double the number from 2019.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/9/21/headlines/one_person_dies_from_hunger_every_4_seconds_while_number_of_super_wealthy_individuals_soars

Federal Reserve raises interest rates again. “The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, the third such outsized rate increase in a row, bringing the Fed rate to 3%-3.25% and increasing the cost of everything from credit card debt and mortgages to company financing…. Raising rates makes borrowing more expensive which should reduce spending and lower prices. But the policy is a blunt instrument and rate rises take time to filter through to the wider economy. So far the Fed’s rate rises have not had a significant impact.”   https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/21/fed-raises-interest-rates-third-increase-in-row   The rate hikes haven’t reduced inflation because we’re not experiencing demand-fueled inflation, it’s supply shortage and commodity speculation inflation. The Fed is tipping the economy into a recession, on purpose, to lower demand by increasing unemployment, which is just incredibly stupid.

Boston Starbucks workers prevail after 64 day strike. “Let me congratulate the Starbucks workers in Boston who won their 64-day strike for fair schedules and decent working conditions,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted. “When workers stand together and fight for justice, there is nothing they cannot accomplish. I was proud to have stood on the picket line with them.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/21/after-64-day-strike-boston-starbucks-workers-declare-victory

Egypt trying to improve its reputation ahead of climate summit, but human rights groups aren’t buying it. “Egypt’s human rights record has come under intensified scrutiny ahead of the November global COP27 summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Dozens of international rights groups have called on Egypt to end its crackdown on civil society and protect freedom of expression…. Egypt is among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China, according to 2021 data produced by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Human Rights Watch estimated in 2019 that as many as 60,000 political prisoners are incarcerated in Egyptian prisons. El-Sissi has said in the past that the country has no political prisoners and justified detentions on grounds of national security.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/amnesty-says-egypt-trying-to-cover-up-rights-violations/

September 21, 2022

Dept. of Justice under-counting U.S. deaths in custody. “Since October 2019, the DOJ has missed at least 18 percent of all deaths in state prisons, 39 percent of deaths in local jails, and between 62 and 71 percent of deaths in police custody, according to the [Office of the Attorney General’s] report, which compared the number of deaths reported under DCRA with publicly available sources of information…. In total, more than 5,000 deaths in the criminal legal system have gone uncounted over the past nearly three years. Fifteen states failed to report any arrest-related deaths in that period, and seven states failed to report any deaths in local jails…. A voluntary data collection program by the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) received nearly 100-percent response rates from state prisons and local jails, documenting more than 85,000 deaths between 2000 and 2019, when the program ended.”   https://theappeal.org/doj-deaths-in-custody-failure-missing-deaths/

Dept. of Defense to review its social media psy-ops program after Facebook and Twitter crackdowns. “The Pentagon has ordered a sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare after major social media companies identified and took offline fake accounts suspected of being run by the U.S. military in violation of the platforms’ rules…. The takedowns in recent years by Twitter and Facebook of more than 150 bogus personas and media sites created in the United States was disclosed last month by internet researchers Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory…. Some were recent, they said, and involved posts from the summer that advanced anti-Russia narratives citing the Kremlin’s “imperialist” war in Ukraine and warning of the conflict’s direct impact on Central Asian countries.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/19/pentagon-psychological-operations-facebook-twitter/

Edward Snowden reminds Americans of the CIA’s dark history. “The CIA was founded in the wake of the 1947 National Security Act…. Within a year, the young agency had already slipped the leash of its intended role of intelligence collection and analysis to establish a covert operations division. Within a decade, the CIA was directing the coverage of American news organizations, overthrowing democratically elected governments (at times merely to benefit a favored corporation), establishing propaganda outfits to manipulate public sentiment, launching a long-running series of mind-control experiments on unwitting human subjects (purportedly contributing to the creation of the Unabomber), and—gasp—interfering with foreign elections. From there, it was a short hop to wiretapping journalists and compiling files on Americans who opposed its wars.”   https://slguardian.org/the-cia-is-not-your-friend/   Is the CIA really a rogue agency, or is it just another federal agency that does whatever political leaders ask it to do? Think back to the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Military guards were accused of torturing and sexually abusing Iraqi prisoners after graphic photos were leaked. The government claimed it was the work of ‘a few bad apples’ and several low-level guards were actually prosecuted. But eventually it was revealed that the abuse was part of a government-approved interrogation program. “We were not implementing enhanced interrogation techniques and torture behind closed doors. We weren’t doing this and then going back to our bunks at night and suggesting, ‘I hope no one ever finds out about this’ or, ‘Don’t tell anyone.’ This was part of what we viewed as an authorized program.”   https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/04/04/472964974/it-was-torture-an-abu-ghraib-interrogator-acknowledges-horrible-mistakes   So I would argue that it’s our political leaders who have given the CIA direct instructions, or at least a general outline, regarding the activities they want the agency to engage in. It’s extremely likely that every terrible thing that the CIA has ever done (with the possible exception of the 1963 coup that deposed JFK) has been cleared by a political appointee (the director of the CIA), and it’s very likely that the president himself has approved them. So who is really responsible?

President Biden endorses bill that would require reporting big ‘dark money’ donors. “The Disclose Act would require super PACs and other dark money groups to report those who contribute $10,000 or more during an election season. Biden mentioned a recent $1.6 billion donation to a political advocacy group, the largest donation to such an entity in U.S. history, from a conservative activist who had worked to overturn Roe v. Wade. The donation was only discovered because of reporting from The New York Times. ‘There’s much too much money that flows in the shadows to influence our elections. It’s called dark money. It’s hidden. Right now, advocacy groups can run ads on issues attacking or supporting a candidate right until Election Day without disclosing who’s paying for that ad,’ he said.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3652129-biden-endorses-bill-to-disclose-super-pac-donors-dark-money-erodes-trust/   Wow, that’s a pleasant surprise.

Hong Kong man arrested after playing pro-democracy song on his harmonica. “Videos posted to social media show hundreds of people gathering outside the city’s British consulate on Monday night to pay tribute to the Queen, as her funeral took place in London…. One video shows a man playing on his harmonica the tune ‘Glory to Hong Kong’, a protest anthem created during the depths of the pro-democracy, anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019…. Photos then show police officers arriving and escorting the man into their van.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/21/asia/hong-kong-harmonica-arrest-sedition-intl-hnk-mic/index.html

Four predominantly Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine on Russia’s western border to vote on merging with Russia. “Votes will take place in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics of the Donbas region, which Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised as independent shortly before sending troops into Ukraine in February, according to officials and news agencies. A vote will also be held in the southern Kherson region that Moscow’s troops captured in the early days of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and in the partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhia region…. If Russia goes ahead with the referendums and includes the four regions in Russia, then Ukraine – and potentially its Western backers too – would, from a Russian perspective, be fighting against Russia itself.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/21/mapping-the-ukraine-regions-voting-on-joining-russia   Al-Jazeera article contains map showing the four regions. This map shows the Russian speaking regions of Ukraine:   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethnolingusitic_map_of_ukraine.png   “French President Emmanuel Macron pegged the notion as a ‘parody’ of democracy, adding that Russia’s actions represent ‘a return to the age of imperialism and colonialism’…. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz labelled the so-called referendums [a] ‘sham’, while US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington would never recognise the results as legitimate. ‘These referenda are an affront to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that underpin the international system and let lie at the heart of the United Nations Charter,’ Sullivan told reporters at a press conference at the White House.”   https://www.euronews.com/2022/09/20/russia-controlled-donbas-areas-to-hold-referendums-to-join-russia

Investigators claim Israeli soldier who fatally shot journalist Shireen Abu Akleh targeted her intentionally. “The probe examined the Israeli sniper’s precise angle of fire, and concluded that the sniper was able to clearly tell that there were journalists in the area. It also ruled out the possibility of confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jenin at the time of the attack. According to the investigation, for which Al Jazeera provided material, the Israeli sniper shot for two minutes, and deliberately targeted those who tried to rescue Abu Akleh. The sniper shot three times, releasing six bullets the first time, then after eight seconds, seven more. One of these bullets was the one that killed Abu Akleh, hitting her just under her helmet. Two minutes later, the sniper shot three more bullets, to stop efforts to rescue her.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/20/joint-investigation-reveals-abu-aklehs-killing-premeditated 

Myanmar government helicopters hit school. “At least 11 schoolchildren have died after an airstrike on a village in Myanmar, according to the United Nations children’s agency, in what could be the deadliest attack on children since the junta seized power last year…. ‘At least 15 children from the same school are still missing,’ UNICEF said, calling for their immediate safe release…. Video footage obtained from a local community group shows a classroom with blood on the floor, damage to the roof and a mother crying over her son’s dead body. The junta said they had sent troops in helicopters to Let Yet Kone after receiving a tip-off that fighters from the Kachin independence army (KIA) – an ethnic rebel group – and a local anti-coup militia were moving weapons in the area.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/21/myanmar-junta-attack-on-school-condemned-as-child-death-toll-rises-to-11

50% of Americans polled are just doing their jobs. “According to new research from Gallup, 50% of U.S. adult employees describe themselves as ‘not engaged’ at work. These individuals are people who ‘do the minimum required and are psychologically detached from their job’, Gallup’s poll indicates…. 32% of workers say they are engaged at work, the lowest number since 2014…. 18% of workers say they are actively disengaged at work, the highest number since 2013 on Gallup’s tracker.”   https://www.marketwatch.com/story/thinking-about-quiet-quitting-youre-not-alone-quiet-quitters-make-up-half-of-the-u-s-workforce-poll-shows-11662758785

Number of ‘ultra-high net worth’ individuals with more than $50 million in wealth grew by 21% last year. “Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report, published on Tuesday, found that the number of UHNW individuals globally grew by 46,000 in 2021 to a total of 218,200…. ‘The strong rise in financial assets resulted in an increase in inequality in 2021,’ the report said…. This comes as the number of U.S.-based millionaires increased by 2.5 million last year, bringing the total number in the country to 62.5 million. The U.S. is currently home to the largest number of millionaires in the world.”   https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3652928-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals-with-50m-or-more-spike-to-record-high-report/