July 31, 2023

Democratic Socialists of America reportedly divided on whether to endorse Joe Biden or Cornel West for president. “An honorary chair of DSA, West was an enthusiastic supporter of DSA-backed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election and, since, has remained a pious adherent to the platform he ran on. ….However deep the ties between them, some members of the DSA have begun to make it clear that their support of West’s candidacy is by no means guaranteed. ….While DSA has not yet made an endorsement in the race, the tension between lofty idealism and pragmatic politicking could once again be laid bare ahead of the 2024 cycle between supporters of West and those willing to accept the imperfect vessel of a Biden second term.”   https://www.newsweek.com/cornel-wests-candidacy-divides-democratic-socialists-1815626   If the DSA endorses Biden, they may as well just join the Democratic Party, because they’ll be faced with the same issue in every election. Only by putting forward candidates who are genuine alternatives (like Cornel West) can they differentiate themselves from business-as-usual Democrats.

Prosecuting Julian Assange is an attack on the free press, argues Ben Cohen. “In April, President Joe Biden stood before thousands of reporters at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and said, ‘Journalism is not a crime.’ But Julian Assange, award-winning journalist and the publisher of WikiLeaks, has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for the last four years for revealing the truth. ….The charges against Julian Assange trample the First Amendment, sending a chilling message to reporters and publishers around the world not to seek and publish the truths that governments hide.”   https://www.newsweek.com/president-biden-trampling-bill-rights-prosecuting-julian-assange-opinion-1813806

Phoenix endures 31st day with a high above 110 degrees. “The National Weather Service said Phoenix climbed to a high of 111 degrees before the day was through. July has been so steamy thus far that scientists calculate it will be the hottest month ever recorded and likely the warmest human civilization has seen.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heat-dome-forecast-phoenix-temperature/

TV correspondent agrees with man at Trump rally who says he wants to kill Trump’s opponents. “‘It’s a disgrace,’ the man told [Matthew] Alvarez [of the Right Side Broadcasting Network]. ‘Joe Biden is a disgrace to this country.’ That is when Alvarez said, ‘So are all the left, and the RINOS, the Globalists,’ before flipping the mic back in front of the man’s face. ‘Kill them all,’ the man appears to say. ‘Kill them all.’ Alvarez pulled the mic back and said, ‘I agree with you on that.'”   https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/07/rsbn-host-at-trump-rally-retracts-statements-after-agreeing-with-kill-them-all-comment-about-the-left-rinos-on-air.html

Biden administration launches new program to reduce student loan payments of low-income borrowers. “The SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan was finalized after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness initiative in June. It marks a significant change to the federal student loan system that could lower monthly loan payments for some borrowers and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans. ….Those already enrolled in the federal government’s REPAYE, or Revised Pay As You Earn, income-driven repayment plan will be automatically switched to the new plan. ….payments [will be determined] based on income and family size, and some monthly payments will be as small as $0. The income threshold to qualify for $0 payments has been increased from 150% to 225% of federal poverty guidelines, which translates to an annual income of $32,805 for a single borrower or $67,500 for a family of four. The Education Department estimates this means more than 1 million additional borrowers will qualify for $0 payments under the plan. ….Some borrowers could have their payments cut in half when the program is in full effect next year and see their remaining debt canceled after making at least 10 years of payments, a significant change from previous plans.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/30/politics/biden-student-loan-repayment-plan/index.html   For all those college graduates out there who are STILL toiling away in low paying jobs.

Homeless struggling to survive during Phoenix heatwave. “[Stefon] Livengood said he stopped briefly at a free clinic that took his blood pressure and declared it acceptable. But he received no other medical help for his apparent heat exhaustion, or for the peeling skin on his arms he believes was caused by sun exposure. He is careful when he walks through the sprawling tent city, cognizant that if he falls, the simmering black asphalt could seriously burn his skin. ….[the Arizona Burn Center–Valleywise Health] last year saw 85 people admitted with heat-related surface burns for the months of June through August. Seven died. ….Unhoused people accounted for about 40 per cent of the 425 heat-associated deaths tallied last year in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, during its hottest summer on record.   https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/07/30/arizona-the-realities-of-living-in-a-homeless-encampment-during-the-hottest-july-on-record

Spanish government identifies fallen members of Thälmann Brigade. “Researchers confirmed the names of 212 fighters from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, according to a statement from the government Sunday. Some 102 are of German origin, 70 Austrian and 40 Dutch. It gave no information on how many people of other nationalities had been identified. The identified combatants fought within the International Brigades, military units set up by the Communist International to fight against General Francisco Franco’s fascist forces. Some 40,000 foreign men and women joined up as volunteers, fighting alongside the forces of the democratic Second Spanish Republic and against the rise of fascism in Europe in late 1930s. ….All those identified were part of the Thälmann Brigade, a Communist unit made up largely of anti-Nazi Germans. ….The second phase of the project will try to identify missing militiamen from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States. ….Historians estimate nearly 10,000 foreign volunteers died in combat on Spanish soil during the war.”   https://apnews.com/article/spain-civil-war-international-brigades-catalonia-identified-5edeeac5a9155cab143b75e4cfc560ce

California report reveals how police officers spend their time while on duty. “In 2019, 88% of the time L.A. County sheriff’s officers spent on stops was for officer-initiated stops rather than in response to calls. The overwhelming majority of that time – 79% – was spent on traffic violations. By contrast, just 11% of those hours was spent on stops based on reasonable suspicion of a crime. In Riverside, about 83% of deputies’ time spent on officer-initiated stops went toward traffic violations, and just 7% on stops based on reasonable suspicion. ….Roughly three out of every four hours that Sacramento sheriff’s officers spent investigating traffic violations were for stops that ended in warnings, or no action, for example. ….Police spend most of their time on traffic violations and routine, minor issues, like noise complaints, according to three different, recent analyses of dispatch data from Los Angeles, Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans, Seattle, and New Haven, Connecticut. The New York Times reviewed national dispatch data from the FBI in June 2020, and found that just 4% of officers’ time is devoted to violent crime.”   https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-are-not-primarily-crime-fighters-according-data-2022-11-02/   Story is from November, 2022.

Mom contacted local sheriff’s department over concerning behavior of her mentally ill, teenage son, FBI then targeted him with informants posing as members of Islamic State. “Concerned over [Davin] Meyer’s erratic behavior and deteriorating mental health, Deanna Meyer reported her son, then a minor, to the authorities in the hopes that they would help keep him away from trouble. What followed instead was a lengthy government investigation employing two confidential FBI informants. First contacting Meyer the day after his 18th birthday, the informants secretly developed a relationship with him. Rather than help steer him away from wrongdoing, the FBI informants helped Meyer develop the plan to join the Islamic State that eventually led to his arrest. ….Meyer had previously spent eight months, between 2021 and 2022, in a facility ‘focused on mental health and behavior treatment’, according to the affidavit. He had been diagnosed with autism, clinical depression, and a range of anxiety and mood disorders — diagnoses of which the government was aware and even referenced in the criminal complaint.”   https://theintercept.com/2023/07/31/fbi-isis-sting-mentally-ill-teen/

Man who fled Colorado traffic stop on foot was tasered by deputy, then fatally run over by passing vehicle. “Brent Allen Thompson, 28, of Loveland was stopped by sheriffs on February 18. He gave them a fake name: when they ran the name through their system and realized he was lying, they confronted him. Thompson, who was later found to have drugs in his car, took off running across the I-25, with two officers in pursuit. …. [According to family attorney Siddhartha Rathod], ‘At the time that Brent ran from law enforcement, he was only suspected of committing the crimes of driving with expired registration and giving a false name to law enforcement. The tasering of an individual in the middle of an interstate highway at night is criminal and reprehensible conduct and has no place in law enforcement.'”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12354537/Horrific-moment-fleeing-suspect-28-falls-highway-tazed-Colorado-cops-RUN-killed-oncoming-car.html

Trucking company Yellow shuts down, received $729 million government pandemic loan. “Trucking giant Yellow collapsed on Sunday, ceasing operations immediately and leaving some 30,000 workers without jobs. The closure is the biggest in terms of jobs and revenue in the U.S. trucking industry, according to The Wall Street Journal – which first reported its shutdown. The company, which received $700 million in federal COVID relief funds in 2020, is preparing to file for bankruptcy and is in talks to sell off all or parts of the business.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12354609/Trucking-giant-Yellow-shuts-99-year-old-company-30-000-staff-12-000-big-rigs-ceases-operations-immediately.html

July 30, 2023

Northern Texas endures 21st day of temperatures over 100. “July 29 will be our 21st 100+ day so far this year and it is just going to get hotter. The ridge of high pressure will move directly overhead next week soaring temperatures to near record levels.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/record-high-temps-in-north-texas-no-rain-in-sight/

Phoenix hits 30 consecutive days with high temperatures over 110. “Forecasters expect that by Monday, people in metro Phoenix will begin to see high temperatures fall under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. But not on Saturday. The high temperature in the desert city with more than 1.6 million residents climbed past 110 F for the 30th straight day, the National Weather Service said. The previous record stretch of 110 F or above was for 18 days in 1974.”   https://apnews.com/article/southwest-extreme-heat-wave-922e965ba3d3e42cbffc2ece12d5c114

An estimated 170,000 Israelis protest judicial reform in Tel Aviv. “The vote to scrap the ‘reasonableness’ law, through which the Supreme Court can overturn government decisions…, was met with concern from Israel’s top allies, including the United States. Israeli medics responded with a brief walkout, while scores of military veterans have vowed to end their volunteer duties and trade unions are mulling further industrial action.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israelis-massive-protests-government-controversial-judicial-reform-netanyahu/

Group of 11 U.S. senators asks President Biden to withhold Egypt’s military aid. “Echoing calls from nearly two dozen advocacy groups, 11 U.S. senators on Friday urged the Biden administration to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from Egypt ‘absent improvements on human rights’ in a nation where thousands of dissidents are imprisoned and almost all forms of political opposition have been crushed. ….Egypt’s government ‘has not only failed to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, it has also continued to commit “significant human rights” violations such as extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture and life-threatening prison conditions; and severe restrictions on freedoms of expression, assembly, and association as documented in the State Department’s latest human rights report.’ The lawmakers’ letter came on the same day that 23 human rights and civil society groups also implored the Biden administration to withhold the $320 million in military aid, accusing Egypt of perpetrating a ‘merciless crackdown on the press, political opposition, and civil society.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/u-s-military-aid-to-egypt

Australian officials ask U.S. to drop prosecution of Julian Assange. “Australia’s center-left Labor Party government has been arguing since winning the elections last year that the United States should end its pursuit of the 52-year-old, who has spent four years in a British prison fighting extradition to the United States. ….Blinken confirmed on Saturday that Assange had been discussed in annual talks with Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane, Australia. ‘I understand the concerns and views of Australians. I think it’s very important that our friends here understand our concerns about this matter,’ Blinken told reporters. ‘Mr. Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country,’ he added.”   https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-secretary-state-tells-australia-wikileaks-founder-accused-101815275

Train engineer fired after blowing the whistle on safety problem. “The East Palestine disaster occurred partly because Norfolk Southern had hot box detectors on their trains set to trigger an alert for inspection only if the bearing reached over 170 degrees ‘above ambient temperature’. [Michael] Lindsey recorded a TikTok video that addressed how railroad companies were silencing hot box detectors. As Lindsey explained, ‘a hot box detector is a detector in the track every 10, 15, sometimes 20 miles. And as the train goes by, it measures the temperature on the bearings and determines whether the bearing is overheating. It always sends a message over the radio… after it goes by, gives a milepost, no defects, usually an actual count, a speed, and sometimes the ambient temperature outside.’ ….Lindsey continued, ‘What has come out with this East Palestine thing, the biggest thing that they’re wanting everyone to shut up about, is that hot box detectors do not have a fixed standard,’ and, ‘There’s no standard as to how they need to be calibrated.’
‘So it was people like me talking about this that got people really looking into that and wanting to talk about why the hot box detectors were being silenced.’ If an alarm for a ‘high temperature bearing went off,’ Lindsey said that alert would go to Union Pacific’s headquarters for review rather than the crew. ‘That would be like being on a plane, and they say there’s an engine alarm that goes off, and it goes to the airline headquarters and they determine whether they need to tell the pilots about it. It’s ridiculous,’ Lindsey declared.”   https://thedissenter.org/railroad-whistleblower-claims-industry-has-blackballed-him/

July 29, 2023

Bipartisan bill seeks to reassert Congressional war powers. “The [National Security Reforms and Accountability Act] aims to strengthen some of the requirements of the 1973 War Powers Act — which requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying armed forces and, absent Congressional approval, forbids armed forces from being deployed for more than 60 days — by automatically cutting off funding in the absence of a positive vote of Congressional approval. ….[Rep. Jim] McGovern and [Rep. Nancy] Mace’s bill would require future authorizations of force (AUMFs) to include a clearly defined mission, and clearly defined countries or armed entities against whom the use of force is permitted, along with the automatic end of any future such authorizations after two years. ….The NSRAA would also impose guardrails on what policies could be enacted under the National Emergencies Act and would require Congress to approve the renewal of emergencies after one year and would impose a five-year limit on states of emergency. National emergencies — of which there are 41 currently in effect, dating back as far as the Jimmy Carter administration — have also been the target of more narrow Congressional action recently, with Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz), and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), all putting forth unsuccessful attempts to end presidential emergency declarations that allow for sanctions against Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this month. When it comes to arms sales, the bill would require Congress to actively approve for the sales of air-to-ground munitions, tanks, armored vehicles, manned and unmanned aircraft, and more arms valued at $14 million or more, as well as firearms and ammunition with more than $1 million in value. As of 2019, presidents have approved at least $145 billion worth of weapons sales since 1986, according to the Washington Post.”   https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/07/27/bipartisan-effort-to-claw-back-war-powers-from-white-house-launched-today/

NSA lobbying Congress to let it buy data of Americans without a warrant. “An effort by United States lawmakers to prevent government agencies from domestically tracking citizens without a search warrant is facing opposition internally from one of its largest intelligence services. Republican and Democratic aides familiar with ongoing defense-spending negotiations in Congress say officials at the National Security Agency (NSA) have approached lawmakers charged with its oversight about opposing an amendment that would prevent it from paying companies for location data instead of obtaining a warrant in court. Introduced by US representatives Warren Davidson and Sara Jacobs, the amendment, first reported by WIRED, would prohibit US military agencies from ‘purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant, court order, or subpoena’ to obtain. The ban would cover more than half of the US intelligence community, including the NSA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the newly formed National Space Intelligence Center, among others. ….A government report declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last month revealed that US intelligence agencies were avoiding judicial review by purchasing a ‘large amount’ of ‘sensitive and intimate information’ about Americans, including data that can be used to trace people’s whereabouts over extended periods of time. The sensitivity of the data is such that ‘in the wrong hands’, the report says, it could be used to ‘facilitate blackmail’, among other undesirable outcomes. The report also acknowledges that some of the data being procured is protected under the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, meaning the courts have ruled that government should be required to convince a judge the data is linked to an actual crime.”   https://www.wired.com/story/nsa-ndaa-lobbying-privacy-loophole/

Biden administration pressured Facebook to remove user posts advocating Covid-19 ‘lab leak’ theory. “President Joe Biden’s White House pushed Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to censor contrarian COVID-19 content, including speculation about the virus having escaped from a lab, vaccine skepticism, and even jokes. ‘Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing—rather than demoting/labeling—claims that Covid is man made,’ asked Nick Clegg, president for global affairs at the company, in a July 2021 email to his coworkers. A content moderator replied, ‘We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more. We shouldn’t have done it.’ These and other emails obtained by Rep. Jim Jordan (R–Ohio) and The Wall Street Journal provide further evidence of the federal government’s vast efforts to curb dissent online.”   https://reason.com/2023/07/28/biden-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-lab-leak-posts/

E.U.’s new visa approval process for Americans is likely a response to U.S. visa approval process for E.U. residents. “The grimly named European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is projected to cost 7 euros per application and take up to 14 days to render a decision. Before you start shaking your fist at freedom-hating Eurocrats, know that ETIAS is the belated continental answer to a system the U.S. has imposed on residents of friendly countries since 2009, called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA. Like ETIAS, ESTA is a response to 21st-century terrorist attacks and combines modest fees ($21) with less-than-instantaneous turnaround times (a promised 72 hours). Both either tweak or torpedo (depending on your point of view) the notion of reciprocal ‘visa waiver‘ travel between high-trust countries. ….beginning in 2019, citizens of Visa Waiver countries who had visited North Korea since 2011 were no longer eligible for Visa Waiver treatment. Then in August 2022 (based on a late Trump administration decision), Cuba was added to the don’t-go-there list retroactive to 2021; the ESTA application system was updated with a Cuba-travel question just this month. What to Europeans seemed like a routine questionnaire administered mostly by airline companies has now produced the shocking outcome that they have to spend $160 and wait many, many months to maybe (or maybe not!) obtain permission to travel into the United States. More than 300,000 Europeans from Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Portugal alone visited Cuba in 2022, according to the Cuban government.”   https://reason.com/2023/07/28/say-goodbye-to-permissionless-travel/

Property owners left to pay for damage caused when police aggressively pursue suspects. “That’s what happened to the Lech family in Greenwood Village, Colorado, after cops destroyed their residence while in pursuit of a suspected shoplifter, unrelated to the family, who forced himself inside their house. The $580,000 home was rendered unlivable and had to be demolished; the government gave them a cool $5,000. But Leo Lech’s claim made no headway in federal court. ‘The defendants’ law-enforcement actions fell within the scope of the police power,’ the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled, ‘and actions taken pursuant to the police power do not constitute takings.’ Lech was fortunate enough to get $345,000 from his insurance, which, between the loss of the home, the cost of rebuilding, and the government’s refusal to contribute significantly, left him $390,000 in the hole. In June 2020, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.”   https://reason.com/2023/07/27/a-swat-team-destroyed-an-innocent-mans-shop-then-the-city-left-him-with-the-bill/

Person in charge of Pentagon’s UAP investigation office doubles down on denial. “[Dr. Sean] Kirkpatrick wrote, ‘AARO has yet to find any credible evidence to support the allegations of any reverse engineering program for non-human technology.’ ….Kirkpatrick wrote in his letter that allegations of ‘retaliation, to include physical assault and hints of murder, are extraordinarily serious, which is why law enforcement is a critical member of the AARO team, specifically to address and take swift action should anyone come forward with such claims.'”   https://apnews.com/article/congress-ufos-uaps-pentagon-aliens-631ad4d174ee9559580935ec11afcf3f   Note that he says they haven’t found ‘credible evidence’ of reverse engineering. Have they tried looking where the witnesses claim the evidence is located?

Unidentified ‘Lady in Green’ walked up to Mitch McConnell and appeared to tap him or his right hand just before he went into a trance-like state. “Many noted that prior to the 81-year-old standing still, a woman in a green outfit came towards him and gently touched his right hand. ….The identity of the lady wearing the green outfit in question remains unknown at the time of writing this article. ….Internet users had a field day with the conspiracy theory. Many expressed that the situation seemed extremely peculiar.”   https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-really-creepy-mitch-mcconnell-lady-green-conspiracy-erupts-new-angle-freeze-video-goes-viral   Better video here:   https://twitter.com/Daily_Sinner/status/1684517213015777280   Watch the men who interact with the woman and with McConnell. One of the men grabs McConnell’s right hand, after some furtive motions in the same area the woman’s hand was, and then leads him away.

White House announces $345 million in military aid for Taiwan. “The United States has announced a historic $345 million military aid package for Taiwan which for the first time will come from existing U.S. military stockpiles instead of purchases through the foreign military sales program, the White House announced Friday. ….The Associated Press reported Friday, that according to U.S. officials, the aid package includes portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles.”   https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-announces-historic-345-million-military-aid-package/story?id=101782645   Here we go again.

Oklahoma County district attorney drops charges against seven police officers involved in fatal shootings. “District Attorney Vicki Behenna’s predecessor and fellow Democrat, David Prater, had filed criminal charges against the police officers before leaving office. ….’Under Oklahoma law, these shootings were justified,’ Behenna said at a news conference. ….The most high-profile case dismissed Friday involved five Oklahoma City officers charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Stavian Rodriguez. The teen was shot on Nov. 23, 2020, by officers responding to reports of an attempted armed robbery at a convenience store. TV news reports of the shooting showed video of the boy dropping a gun then reaching toward his waist before being shot. ….In another Oklahoma City case, Sgt. Clifford Holman was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of 60-year-old Bennie Edward. ….When he arrived at the scene, Holman encountered Edwards, who was holding a knife and refusing officers’ commands to drop it, the affidavit states. ….The Village officer Chance Avery… was charged with second-degree murder in the July 2020 shooting death of Christopher Pool. Avery was called to the home by Pool’s wife, who was retrieving personal belongings, when Pool ran inside carrying a bat and was shot by Avery after refusing to drop it, police said.”   https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-police-shooting-vicki-behenna-92842523e8168bcc955dcbb20a90a72f

25 confirmed heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, AZ, 249 more under investigation. “At the end of last year, Maricopa County had reported there were 378 heat-associated deaths confirmed for all of 2022. By this spring, that number had grown to 425, the current number, as more deaths that were under investigation were confirmed as heat-associated.”   https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/7-more-people-have-died-amid-record-highs-in-maricopa-county-heres-what-to-know

Wisconsin police officer accidentally drives over woman laying in road, killing her. “At 6:24 p.m., Greenfield police responded to a call for a welfare check for a female in the 5000 block of South 34th Street, according to a news release from the Greenfield Police Department. The responding officer was unaware that the woman was lying in the roadway and accidentally drove over her, police said. ….The officer involved in the situation has been placed on administrative leave, according to Greenfield police.”   https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/south/2023/07/28/milwaukee-woman-dies-after-greenfield-police-officer-runs-over-her/70488743007/

Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, NY to pay $100 million to over 400 victims of sexual exploitation. “‘I can tell you as shocking as the settlement amount may seem to leaders of our own parishes and other Catholic entities, more appalling and heart-rending to me is the pain and mistreatment experienced by the survivors of Child and Adult Sexual Abuse at the hands of those they thought they could trust,’ [Bishop Douglas] Lucia said. ….The diocese already paid $11 million to 79 survivors in 2019 through the church’s The Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program. The diocese at one point released a list of 57 sexually abusive priests.”   https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2023/07/syracuse-catholic-diocese-to-pay-sex-abuse-survivors-100-million.html

FBI agent shot fugitive Roy McGrath as he had his own pistol to his temple. “Roy McGrath, the disgraced ex-top aide to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, died after he was shot in the head both by himself and an FBI agent, Knoxville, Tennessee prosecutors said. ….Agents ordered McGrath to put his hands out the open driver’s side window, prosecutors said, but McGrath replied, ‘No,’ and, ‘I have a gun, and it’s loaded.’ McGrath allegedly had a handgun raised to his right temple. Prosecutors said the way McGrath held the gun had agents within the trajectory of the gun. McGrath allegedly fired his gun striking his right temple, and simultaneously an agent fired one round striking McGrath’s left cheek.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/fugitive-maryland-official-roy-mcgrath-shot-simultaneously-by-self-fbi-prosecutor-finds/   They were within the trajectory of his gun? On the opposite side of his head? I’ll bet when he shot himself he startled the agent who shot him.

Government Accountability Office investigation finds some Homeland Security agencies not accurately counting ‘use of force’ incidents. “GAO’s report, authorized by Congress last year, determined that several agencies under DHS have been regularly undercounting use-of-force incidents. From April 2022 to July 2023, GAO audited four DHS agencies: Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protective Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Secret Service. ‘If officers used force multiple times during one event, the agency counted only one instance of force,’ said Gretta Goodwin, a GAO director for homeland security and justice. After an encounter at the U.S. border, for example, Customs and Border Protection reported using force on a group of 62 subjects as a single use-of-force incident. GAO’s analysis also found that Federal Protective Service officers described using force 146 times in data from 2021 and 2022, while Federal Protective Service reported only 36 use-of-force incidents. In one case, according to GAO, Federal Protective Service counted 27 separate uses of force across 15 reports as a single incident.”   https://theintercept.com/2023/07/27/dhs-use-of-force/

Some U.S. prisons using attack dogs against prisoners. “Insider has identified 12 states that authorize their use against people in state custody. At least 23 prisons in eight states have deployed attack-trained dogs on prisoners in recent years — Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia. Over the past six years, hundreds of incarcerated people have been bitten or mauled. Human Rights Watch researchers wrote, in 2006, that they were unaware of a single other prison system in the world that used dogs to attack people in the confined space of a cell. ….The use of dogs to attack people in the confined space of a prison cell has been described by Human Rights Watch as a ‘well-kept secret’ — and a human-rights violation. The dogs’ presence inside prisons, the organization found, ‘is intended to terrify and intimidate’. Even witnessing a dog attack in close quarters is harrowing. One former Virginia corrections officer said watching a dog attack a person, hearing their screams and desperate pleas and seeing all that blood, was a ‘primal’ experience and deeply traumatizing. ‘It’s just not something you forget,’ he said. ….Through public-records requests, court documents, medical records, and interviews with dozens of bite victims, Insider documented at least 295 incidents where attack-trained dogs bit incarcerated people over the six years from 2017 to 2022. Insider identified one attack in Connecticut, to break up a fight in 2020; three in Massachusetts, all in the context of forced cell extractions, in 2020; five in Indiana; 15 in Arizona; and 271 attacks in Virginia.”   https://www.insider.com/guard-dogs-attack-prison-inmates-abu-ghraib-torture-trauma-2023-7

U.S. Senate passes record $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act. “The United States Senate has approved the largest military budget in history. ….Just 11 senators voted against the record military budget: six Democrats, four Republicans and Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders. Senators overwhelmingly rejected an amendment offered by Sanders that would have slashed the military budget by 10%. Ahead of the vote, Sanders said the U.S. should prioritize spending on healthcare and social programs over a bloated military budget. ‘Unbelievably, our life expectancy is actually declining. Our child care system is dysfunctional, millions of parents unable to find affordable sites for their kids. We have a major housing crisis. Six hundred thousand Americans are homeless. And, oh, yes, the planet is on fire, and the world we are leaving future generations will be increasingly unhealthy. But somehow, we never have enough money to address those crises.'”   https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/28/headlines/senate_passes_record_886b_military_budget_rejecting_sanders_amendment_cutting_pentagon_funding

Senator calls on President Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects. “Citing the extreme temperatures baking much of the United States during July—which is set to be the hottest month ever recorded on Earth—Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon on Thursday called on President Joe Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency. ….’In July, average temperatures for the entire globe have been the highest on record. Add that on top of the last nine years being the nine warmest years on record. We are in a climate emergency. We can’t take a piecemeal approach to the massive crisis we face. ….President Biden should develop a plan to end the reliance on fossil fuels that is causing this crisis. Any plan should start by ending approval of new fossil projects.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-fossil-fuels

UK man proven innocent after 17 years in prison by DNA evidence may be charged for food and lodging. “Andrew Malkinson, now 57, on Wednesday finally won a 20-year battle to clear his name after he was in 2003 handed a life sentence with a minimum term of seven years, after being found guilty of raping a woman in Greater Manchester. ….Mr Malkinson served ten [additional] years because he maintained his innocence, but his conviction was quashed by senior judges at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday after DNA evidence linking another man to the crime came to light. ….The [Ministry of Justice?] told the Telegraph that compensation deductions can be made when those who had been falsely imprisoned made ‘substantial savings made on living costs while a person was in custody’.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12346819/Innocent-man-wrongly-jailed-17-years-rape-didnt-commit-faces-paying-prison-accommodation-blasts-kidnappers.html

July 28, 2023

Justice Dept. launches probe of Knoxville police. “The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday it is investigating how Memphis Police Department officers use force and conduct arrests, nearly seven months after the violent [and fatal] beating of Tyre Nichols by five officers after a traffic stop strengthened nationwide calls for police reform. ….[Assistant Attorney General Kristen] Clarke said the Department of Justice has received reports of officers escalating encounters with people in the community and using excessive force; using force punitively when they perceive someone’s behavior as insolent; and using force against people who are already restrained or in custody.”   https://apnews.com/article/tyre-nichols-memphis-police-beating-0d1b1133863abcc0d078a311dc5e8d76

Supreme Court rules in favor of fossil fuel pipeline project. “The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for construction of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline to proceed, granting an emergency request from backers of the project that has the support of Congress and the Biden administration. ….The Supreme Court’s order is a victory for West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat who has championed the project and pushed for it during debt ceiling negotiations in June. In the brief order, the court offered no extensive reasoning and no dissents were noted. ….Despite climate activists urging the Biden administration to stop approving fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, White House officials have been supportive of the pipeline since it was first introduced in Congress last year.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/27/politics/supreme-court-mountain-valley-pipeline/index.html

Amtrak derailment that killed three was caused by poorly-maintained tracks. “Worn and poorly-maintained train tracks that should have been replaced caused the 2021 derailment of an Amtrak train in Montana that killed three people and injured 49 others, federal investigators said Thursday. ….The crash could have been avoided if federal regulations that required replacing the rail — which was worn down, misaligned and would move up and down with the train’s weight — had been followed…. ‘The track inspector’s workload likely prevented him from performing a timely walking inspection of the track in the area of the derailment,’ investigators said in the report, noting that BNSF Railway Company, the freight railroad that owned and maintained the tracks, had not properly managed employee workloads.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/us/amtrak-derailment-montana.html

Singapore hangs second person for drug possession in a week. “Saridewi Djamani, 45, was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking about 31 grams (1 ounce) of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the Central Narcotics Bureau said. ….Singapore’s laws mandate the death penalty for anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis and 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin. ….Djamani’s execution came two days after that of a Singaporean man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, for trafficking around 50 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin. ….Human rights groups say it has executed 15 people for drug offenses since it resumed hangings in March 2022, an average of one a month. ….Critics say Singapore’s harsh policy punishes low-level traffickers and couriers, who are typically recruited from marginalized groups…”   https://apnews.com/article/singapore-woman-executed-drug-trafficking-d73c6cff32d6f8065cc0b7e6dd098e00

Stamford, CT police officer hits and kills pedestrian. “Zachary Lockwood, the Stamford police officer who was involved in the pedestrian crash that killed the Rev. Tommie Jackson, 69, on July 26, has been placed on administrative leave, according to the Stamford Police Department. ….Jackson had retrieved mail from a mailbox on Wire Mill Road and attempted to cross the roadway around 4:12 p.m. Wednesday, state police said. ….Stamford Police Chief Timothy Shaw said Lockwood was responding to a call for service. ….State police have not provided details on if Lockwood had lights and sirens on, or how fast he was driving. Jackson is being remembered by those who knew him as an advocate for social and racial justice, and a pillar in the community.”   https://patch.com/connecticut/stamford/stamford-man-fatally-struck-police-car-was-community-leader-pastor

So hot in Phoenix that cacti are dying. “Record-high temperatures in Arizona, combined with a lack of seasonal monsoons, have caused saguaro cactuses at the Desert Botanical Garden to become ‘highly stressed’, according to Chief Science Officer Kimberlie McCue. She said a saguaro can appear ‘fairly normal’ or feel somewhat squishy before it suddenly collapses and reveals it has been rotting from the inside out due to heat-related stress. ….Cactuses carry out essential functions at night. That’s when they open their stomata, or pores, and carry out a gas exchange in which they take in the carbon dioxide they use to photosynthesize during the day. But because nights in Phoenix have experienced record-high heat, McCue said this suffocates and stresses out the saguaros, which dehydrates them and makes them more susceptible to infections and insects.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/27/us/phoenix-arizona-heat-saguaro-cactuses/index.html

Judge in Hong Kong refuses to ban pro-democracy song. “The injunction would have posed significant challenges for tech companies, forcing them to stop the distribution of the song on platforms like Facebook, YouTube and iTunes, or be in violation of local law. Local rights activists feared the ban was a given, considering China’s ever tighter grip on the territory, warning it would allow Beijing to influence freedom of information for internet users everywhere. ….Hong Kong’s city government last month asked the court to prohibit the broadcast or distribution of the song, contending it contains a slogan that advocates secession — a crime under the sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the city in 2020 after a wave of protests.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/28/hong-kong-china-democracy-anthem-ruling/

Mexican government estimates 249 residents have been killed by heat. “The number of deaths across Mexico due to extreme heat has hit 249 over the past four months, its Ministry of Health has reported. ….According to government data, 92.4% of deaths are due to ‘heat stroke’, and the rest are due to dehydration.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/27/americas/extreme-heat-kills-over-200-mexico-intl-hnk/index.html

Hundreds of migrants have drowned along Tunisia’s coast so far this year. “The Tunisian interior ministry said 901 bodies had been recovered by July 20 following maritime accidents in the Mediterranean Sea. Tunisia has become a major gateway for irregular migrants and asylum-seekers attempting the perilous sea voyages in often rickety boats in the hopes of a better life in Europe. The distance between Tunisia’s second city of Sfax and Italy’s Lampedusa island is only about 130 kilometres (80 miles).”   https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230727-almost-800-migrants-drowned-off-tunisia-in-six-months-national-guard

Tesla accused of overstating driving range of its vehicles, then diverting concerned owners who requested repairs. “The Austin, Texas-based electric carmaker deployed the [‘diversion’] team because its service centers were inundated with appointments from owners who had expected better performance based on the company’s advertised estimates and the projections displayed by the in-dash range meters of the cars themselves, according to several people familiar with the matter. ….The team often closed hundreds of cases a week and staffers were tracked on their average number of diverted appointments per day. Managers told the employees that they were saving Tesla about $1,000 for every canceled appointment, the people said. Another goal was to ease the pressure on service centers, some of which had long waits for appointments. In most cases, the complaining customers’ cars likely did not need repair, according to the people familiar with the matter. Rather, Tesla created the groundswell of complaints… by hyping the range of its futuristic electric vehicles, or EVs, raising consumer expectations beyond what the cars can deliver.”   https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

Judge orders men released, calls their terror plot ‘an F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy’. “‘A person reading the crimes of conviction in this case would be left with the impression that the offending defendants were sophisticated international terrorists committed to jihad against the United States,’ Judge [Colleen] McMahon wrote. ‘However, they were, in actual reality, hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals.’ Under the judge’s order, Onta Williams’s, David Williams’s and [Laguerre] Payen’s sentences will be reduced to time served plus 90 days. They were sentenced in 2011 to at least 25 years in prison. ….After waffling for months, [James] Cromitie recruited the other three defendants…. Their plan, encouraged and orchestrated by [FBI informant Shahed] Hussain, was to bomb Jewish sites in the Bronx and fire Stinger missiles at military planes at Stewart Airport near Newburgh, N.Y. Bombs were, in fact, left outside two synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx — but they were fakes, built by the F.B.I. ‘The F.B.I. invented the conspiracy; identified the targets; manufactured the ordnance,’ Judge McMahon wrote, adding that officials had ‘federalized’ the charges — ensuring long prison sentences — by driving several of the men across state lines into Connecticut to ‘view the ‘bombs’’. ….While Judge McMahon conceded that the government had a legitimate interest in identifying and capturing terrorists, she was unsparing in her criticism, saying that the defendants ‘never could have dreamed up’ such serious criminal acts on their own.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/nyregion/newburgh-four-terrorism-fbi.html

Journalist downloads videos from Fox News website, FBI raids his home and takes his phone and computers. “According to [‘Deadspin’ contributor Tim] Burke and his legal reps, there was no leak and there was no hacking. All Burke did is upload [sic] footage found on Fox’s website — footage Fox perhaps meant to bury but possibly left accessible to those who knew how to look for it. ….The videos Burke shared with Vice featured [Kanye] West expounding on some bizarre eugenics theory that involved Planned Parenthood, the KKK, and a concerted effort to control the Jewish population in the United States. The other video also said things Fox didn’t want to publicize: namely, that Kanye West — a White House guest of super-spreader Donald Trump — had been vaccinated. ….the FBI has retained all of the seized electronics despite the DOJ not actually charging (either via indictment or probable cause presentation to a judge) [Mr. Burke] with any criminal activity. The DOJ has yet to offer any explanation for the raid, much less its refusal to return Burke’s devices. If it has any reason to believe Burke has committed a criminal act, it has yet to grant Burke access to its rationale. ….’The affidavit that explains the reasoning and method for obtaining the search warrant is still sealed by the federal court.’ ….At the very least, [the DoJ] should hand over the affidavit and warrant to the target of its investigation, since there’s no need to retain secrecy once the target of warrant has already been searched and had personal property seized.”   https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/27/journalist-tells-fbi-to-give-back-devices-seized-during-extremely-questionable-investigation-into-leaked-fox-news-footage/

Chairman of House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan claims subpoenaed documents prove Facebook was pressured by White House to censor users’ posts. “We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press, to remove more COVID-19 vaccine discouraging content. ….the White House was concerned that the #3 post was a vaccine discouraging humorous meme, and they called on us to delete the meme.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12346187/Bombshell-documents-PROVE-Facebook-Instagram-censored-Americans-misinformation-pressure-White-House-Republican-claims.html

Resume website ranks employers by median length of employment. “Apple has been named the country’s worst employer by a new study, with Amazon, Meta and Tesla not far behind. Resume builder platform Resume.io looked into the LinkedIn data of the top 100 market companies in the U.S. to find which workplaces have the best and worst employee retention rates. ….The study found that tech companies have the shortest retention rates, with Amazon and Meta tied for second place, behind Apple, and Tesla and Netflix not too far behind.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12345437/Apple-Americas-WORST-employer-Amazon-Meta-Tesla.html   The worst six companies have a median tenure of 2 years or less.

Ukraine extends martial law, postpones election. “Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday voted to extend martial law and general mobilization, a move that pushes back parliamentary elections that were scheduled for October. ….The vote on Thursday extended martial law and general mobilization for another 90 days, from when it was set to expire on August 18 to November 15. ….In March 2022, Zelensky used his martial law powers to ban 11 opposition parties and nationalize TV media.”   https://news.antiwar.com/2023/07/27/ukraines-parliament-votes-to-extend-martial-law-pushing-back-elections/

Foreign-born military recruits transition from permanent resident to U.S. citizen during basic training. “A partnership between the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security allows active duty service members with green cards to become citizens during basic training. ….To be eligible for naturalization, trainees must pass a background check, an English and civics test, and a personal interview to demonstrate high moral character. ….While citizenship isn’t required to join the armed forces, it is required to reenlist. Without it, service members don’t qualify for a security clearance, which means many military jobs are off limits. More than 135 airmen have become citizens during basic training this year.”   https://www.tpr.org/military-veterans-issues/2023-07-26/foreign-born-air-force-recruits-can-become-u-s-citizens-during-basic-training

Japanese writer who exposed the country’s WWII biological war crimes, dies at 90. “Renowned Japanese mystery writer Seiichi Morimura, whose non-fiction, controversial trilogy ‘The Devil’s Gluttony’ had exposed human medical experiments conducted by a secret Japanese army unit during World War II, died of pnemonia on Monday (July 24). He was 90. ….From its base in Japanese-controlled Harbin in China, Unit 731 and related units injected war prisoners with typhus, cholera and other diseases as research into germ warfare, according to historians and former unit members. Unit 731 is also believed to have performed vivisections and frozen prisoners to death in tests of endurance. ….In 1982 Morimura disclosed that he had got the information on [a] 1945 massacre from four former members of the secret army unit that conducted the experiments on Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, Russian and possible some American prisoners. The prisoners [were] gassed to death and their bodies burnt.”   https://thefederal.com/obituary/seiichi-morimura-who-exposed-atrocities-of-a-secret-japanese-army-unit-dies-at-90/   Hundreds of thousand were reportedly killed during these experiments. The researchers were granted an amnesty in return for sharing their research with the U.S.! Many went on to have successful careers in Japan’s medical and pharmaceutical industries. “[General Douglas] MacArthur struck a deal with Japanese informants; he secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731, including their leader, in exchange for providing America, solely, with their research on biological warfare and data from human experimentation.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Sen. John Fetterman introduces bill that would allow striking workers to qualify for food stamps. “Called the Food Secure Strikers Act of 2023, Fetterman’s bill would amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to ensure that striking workers aren’t excluded from receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In addition, the bill would preserve food stamp eligibility for public sector workers who are fired for striking and clarify that any income-eligible household is entitled to SNAP benefits even if a member of that household is on strike.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/fetterman-striking-workers-food-benefits

President Biden announces plan for extreme heat ‘hazard alerts’, fails to mention fossil fuels. “… Biden did not utter the words ‘fossil fuels’, ‘oil’, or ‘gas’ throughout his remarks, despite the fact that World Weather Attribution reported this week that the extreme heat seen in the U.S. and other countries would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without the climate crisis and continued fossil fuel extraction. ….In his remarks, Biden said the Department of Labor will issue its first-ever hazard alert for extreme heat and strengthen enforcement to protect workers, increasing safety inspections in industries such as construction and agriculture. The hazard alert ‘clarifies that workers have federal heat-related protections,’ said Biden. ‘We should be protecting workers from hazardous conditions, and we will.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-extreme-heat

Federal judge strikes down Atlanta rule that only city residents can collect referendum signatures. “U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen found that the residents-only rule ‘imposes a severe burden on core political speech’ and that Atlanta had failed ‘to present any argument that the requirement is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest’. ….’the city has offered no specifics as to why permitting nonresident plaintiffs to gather signatures on a petition that must be signed by residents of the city will cause any disruption to the political process.'”   https://www.courthousenews.com/atlanta-judge-nixes-resident-requirement-for-stop-cop-city-petitioners/

July 27, 2023

UFO whistleblowers testify before Congress. “The U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects, a former Air Force intelligence officer testified Wednesday to Congress. The Pentagon has denied his claims.”   https://apnews.com/article/ufos-uaps-congress-whistleblower-spy-aliens-ba8a8cfba353d7b9de29c3d906a69ba7   One witness testified that people have been threatened not to come forward. When asked if the government has made contact with aliens, and when, he said he was not able to discuss that in public, which is neither ‘No, they haven’t’ nor ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know’. So far, this is not being treated like a major news story, haven’t seen it mentioned on TV news.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell freezes up at news conference. “McConnell began the GOP’s leadership weekly news conference by saying lawmakers were on a path to finishing a major defense budget bill this week. ‘We’ve had good bipartisan cooperation and a string of —’ McConnell said. He then froze and remained silent for about 20 seconds, staring straight ahead, before other members of GOP leadership intervened. Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), standing at McConnell’s side, asked whether he was okay, but McConnell did not respond verbally. ….McConnell, 81, returned after several minutes, and after the news conference was over, was asked by reporters to address what had taken place. ‘I’m fine,’ McConnell said simply.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/26/mitch-mcconnell-freezes-press-conference/

U.S. Wildlife Service planted cyanide ‘landmines’ to kill predators. “Across the American West lies an untold number of potent chemical weapons, tucked away and waiting to go off. ….Packed with sodium cyanide, these spring-loaded devices blast clouds of poison gas five feet into the air. Once inhaled, the lethal toxins mount a multidirectional attack on your cardiovascular, pulmonary, and central nervous system. Death can come in a matter of minutes. The weapons, known as M-44s, are placed by an under-the-radar federal agency called Wildlife Services. The agency was created to protect the livestock industry’s bottom line by killing off the competition: namely, wild predators. The so-called cyanide bombs do kill predators, but they can also kill anyone else unlucky enough to stumble upon them. And they have a hair trigger. ….In the past eight years, Wildlife Services killed nearly 21 million animals as part of its mission to oversee ‘the eradication and control’ of species ‘injurious’ to human endeavors, particularly ranching.”   https://theintercept.com/2023/07/27/cyanide-bombs-poison-wildlife-services/

Former Gitmo prisoner re-arrested and imprisoned after being returned to Algeria. “Almost immediately after [Saeed] Bakhouch landed in Algiers, he passed through the usual interrogation process for former Guantánamo detainees in Algeria. After a two-week period of detention and interrogation, he appeared before a judge in early May. The judge told Bakhouch that his story did not match the information the U.S. provided, [attorney H. Candace] Gorman explained to The Intercept. ‘He was being stripped of all of his rights,’ Gorman said. Bakhouch was sent into pretrial detention and, for nearly three months, he has been held under brutal conditions. His hair and beard were forcibly shaved; he has been physically assaulted; and he has been deprived of his Guantánamo-issued medications to treat his injured heel. Now, human rights groups are alleging that Bakhouch is facing severe abuses in detention. ….Bakhouch is only the latest in a string of former Guantánamo detainees facing rights abuses after repatriation or placement in third countries. The question of responsibility over his well-being has pitted the State Department against human rights advocates who contend that his condition meets no viable definition of freedom.”   https://theintercept.com/2023/07/26/guantanamo-prisoner-release-algeria/

Honolulu sued over treatment of its homeless population. “The ACLU of Hawaii, along with Ginger Grimes of California’s Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, note in the suit that there are over 2,000 unhoused individuals on Oahu and fewer than 50 vacancies in shelters across the island. The plaintiffs say that this lack of shelter space conflicts with city ordinances and laws that prohibit camping, sitting or sleeping in public spaces. These prohibitions have prompted the city to conduct regular sweeps of houseless encampments, where personal belongings and shelters are seized and Honolulu Police Officers make arrests and issue citations without warning, and without recourse to recover personal property. The plaintiffs say in the suit that they have lost essential identification materials, medication and medical equipment, clothing, cookware and sentimental items in these sweeps. ‘We believe there is no legal justification for continuing to deny houseless people their fundamental rights when they have no other choice but to live outdoors.'”   https://www.courthousenews.com/893003-2/

Peace activist Marcy Winograd pens review of ‘Oppenheimer‘. “The ground-breaking movie Oppenheimer, despite its unsympathetic protagonist, packs a powerful anti-nuclear punch that makes it hard, if not impossible, to sleep after watching the film. For this reason alone, the movie should be shown on the floor of Congress and in the White House as required viewing by all in D.C. bent on spending $1.7 trillion over the next decades to build new nuclear weapons to kill us all. Only those with a global death wish or on the payroll of Northrop Grumman, the military contractor with the nuclear ‘modernization’ contract, could watch this film and still root for U.S. nuclear rearmament, a horror show now underway with the blessings of D.C. politicians. Unless people rise up in fury, unless this Hollywood movie sparks a second nuclear-freeze movement, a repeat on steroids of the 80’s nuclear weapons freeze, Congress and the White House will raid the treasury to expand our nuclear arsenal.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2023/07/26/the-movie-the-moment-to-stop-nuclear-rearmament/

July 26, 2023

Seawater off the coast of Florida hits 100 F (37.8 C). “Weather records for sea water temperature are unofficial, and there are certain conditions in this reading that could disqualify it for a top mark, meteorologists said. But the initial reading on a buoy at Manatee Bay hit 101.1 degrees (38.4 Celsius) Monday evening, according to National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto. On Sunday night the same buoy showed an online reading of 100.2 (37.9 Celsius) degrees. ….While there aren’t official water temperature records, a 2020 study listed a 99.7 degree (37.6 Celsius) mark in Kuwait Bay in July 2020 as the world’s highest recorded sea surface temperature.”   https://apnews.com/article/record-hot-water-florida-coral-climate-change-6414d44c6f120507d3ee37c059fb75cd

Ohio’s Secretary of State certifies signatures for November abortion referendum. “Ohio announced Tuesday that abortion rights advocates have met the signature requirement to place a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot that would codify abortion rights in the state constitution. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) certified petitioners received a total of 495,938 valid signatures, exceeding the required minimum of 413,446 signatures — equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast for the governor’s office in the last election. These signatures were collected from 55 counties in Ohio, also surpassing the minimum requirement of at least 44 counties.”   https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4118805-ohio-abortion-ballot-measure-meets-signature-requirement-for-november/

‘We Build the Wall’ organizer sentenced to more than five years in prison. “A New York federal judge sentenced Colorado businessman Tim Shea to more than five years behind bars Tuesday on convictions for his role in the ‘We Build the Wall’ fundraiser, a bogus charity that cheated $25 million from private donors who thought they were funding the construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall. ….Prosecutors originally brought the case back in August 2020, indicting Shea and Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign strategist, as well as Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage and venture capitalist Andrew Badolato. Following guilty pleas from Kolfage and Badolato, and Bannon’s presidential pardon from Trump, Shea was the last man standing in the federal case. ….We Build the Wall began on the public promise that 100% of funds raised would go toward construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It quickly raised some $25 million in private donations on GoFundMe but built a mere 3 miles of fencing. The remainder of the fundraiser money, according to charging papers, was kicked back to line pockets of its founders.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/border-wall-fundraiser-fraudster-sentenced-to-63-months-in-prison/   “In addition to serving as ‘We Build the Wall’s’ general counsel, [Kansas Attorney General Kris] Kobach was also on its board of directors. He resigned in early September, after New York prosecutors indicted Bannon and the organization. Florida business records at the time Kobach left showed he was on the board with Kolfage and Amanda Shea, the wife of Timothy Shea. At the time, Kobach said he remained on the board to assist with an ‘orderly shut down’ of the organization. Kobach has not been accused of wrongdoing. But the sentences against Kolfage and Badolato underscore the number of people formerly in the orbit of the Kansas attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement officer, who have been either charged with or convicted of crimes. In addition to Kolfage and Badolato, federal prosecutors have also secured a conviction of Timothy Shea, a former partner of Kolfage.”   https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article274777546.html

Ron DeSantis campaign fires speechwriter after link to Nazi-themed DeSantis video emerges. “Nate Hochman, a speechwriter on the DeSantis campaign and a former writer for National Review, created the video on his own and shared it through a pro-DeSantis Twitter account, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hochman then retweeted the video, but it was deleted shortly afterward. ‘Nate Hochman is no longer with the campaign. And we will not be commenting on him further,’ a DeSantis campaign official told Axios.”   https://www.axios.com/2023/07/25/desantis-campaign-video-nazi-symbol-sonnenrad   The video, which features marching troops and DeSantis’ head at the center of a spinning Sonnenrad at the end, can be viewed here:   https://twitter.com/AlexThomp/status/1683961998608924672

Texas A&M professor put on leave after criticizing the state’s Lt. Governor during presentation. “The Texas A&M System confirmed to the Tribune that the phone calls and messages leading to [Prof. Joy] Alonzo’s investigation began with Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, and the outlet separately confirmed that Buckingham’s daughter was a first-year medical student who attended the lecture. ….Three students who spoke to the outlet on the condition of anonymity said that they remembered Alonzo speaking about [Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick – one saying Alonzo cited the lieutenant governor as a reason it’s hard for drug users to access certain care for opioid addiction or overdoses. Another said Alonzo spoke of how Patrick’s office opposed policies that could have prevented opioid-related deaths, and a third said Alonzo referenced how certain state policies have a direct impact on prevent overdoses and deaths, according to the Tribune. ….The university lifted Alonzo’s leave just two weeks after the start of its investigation.”   https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-a-m-professor-suspended-dan-patrick-comment-18260581.php

‘Fake’ traffic ticket information submitted to Connecticut oversight board skewed data on race of drivers. “State and local police are required to submit traffic stop data to the state’s racial profiling advisory board. It makes sure troopers are not pulling over more people of color than white drivers. Researchers looked at 800,000 tickets that were turned into the board and compared them to tickets that went through the actual court system. They found about 25,000 fake tickets issued to white drivers, skewing racial data.”   https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/connecticut-lawmakers-holding-forum-on-audit-showing-troopers-wrote-fake-tickets/

Left scores surprise win in Spain’s parliamentary election. “Spain’s left-of-center parties pulled off a surprise win in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, final results showed today, dispelling fears that the far-right Vox party would enter national government for the first time. Although the conservative Popular Party (PP) picked up more seats than any other single party, a drop in support for Vox, with which the PP had been expected to form a coalition, left the Spanish Socialist Workers Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and its allies with a slightly stronger presence in the lower house Congress of Deputies. The bloc likely to support Mr. Sanchez totaled 172 seats, while parties on the right had 170.”   https://peoplesworld.org/article/spanish-left-scores-surprise-election-win/

Japan’s population continues to shrink. “The number of Japanese nationals fell for a 14th year, by about 800,000 people, to 122.42 million, according to resident registration data as of Jan. 1, 2023, released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. For the first time, the number of Japanese residents fell in all 47 prefectures, the data showed. The number of foreign nationals living in Japan was a record 2.99 million, a 10.7% increase from the previous year, the biggest year-on-year increase since the ministry began tracking the data a decade ago. As of Jan. 1, 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, there were 2.87 million foreigners living in Japan. ….The population has fallen every year since peaking in 2008 due to a low birth rate, reaching a record low last year.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japans-population-falls-while-foreign-residents-rise-record-govt-2023-07-26/

Mexican military, police and intelligence agencies all participated in disappearance of 43 student leftists. “Mexican security forces were complicit in the 2014 abduction of 43 student teachers and concealed documents which showed where some of them were taken, according to a new report by an independent panel of international experts presented on Tuesday. The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) tasked with investigating the case said in their findings that the Army, Navy, police and intelligence agencies knew, minute by minute, where the students were. ‘They all collaborated to make them disappear,’ GIEI panel member Carlos Beristain told a press conference before the presentation of the group’s final fact-finding report on one of Mexico’s most notorious human rights scandals. ….The 43 youths were part of a larger group of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College that came under attack in the city of Iguala, Guerrero, the night of Sept. 26, 2014. Some of that group died at the scene or escaped.”   https://news.yahoo.com/mexico-security-forces-collaborated-student-170548775.html    “… after presenting their final fact-finding report on Tuesday, the experts said they faced a series of roadblocks, and would be withdrawing from the investigation and leaving the country next week. ‘The failure to provide existing information for the investigation of atrocious events such as these, must be denounced by the Prosecutor’s Office and investigated to achieve justice,’ the GIEI report read. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, told a morning press conference on Tuesday that his government was ‘going to continue the investigation’. ….Exactly what happened remains unknown, since most of the missing students were never found. ….Survivors from the original group of 100 said their buses had been stopped by armed police officers and soldiers who suddenly opened fire. Last August, a Mexican court issued at least 83 arrest warrants for people allegedly involved in the 2014 disappearance, but so far no one has been convicted in relation to the students’ disappearance. The long list of suspects includes dozens of military commanders, troop personnel, police officers, as well as administrative and judicial authorities, who were accused of ‘organized crime, forced disappearance, torture, homicide and crimes against the administration of justice.’ ….Angela Buitrago, another panel member, said the experts were unable to access key intelligence files. ‘That condition [for continuing the investigation?] was to have all the information that was in the files that had not been opened, such as intelligence files,’ she said. ‘The reason why we are leaving is because we cannot go further without that information,’ she told CNNE.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/26/americas/mexico-ayotzinapa-missing-students-independent-panel-intl-hnk/index.html

Countries projected to lose estimated $4.7 trillion in tax revenue due to creative accounting practices. “A majority (64%) of the forgone revenue is pegged to multinational corporations that can still — despite efforts at international tax reform by the OECD over the past decade — engage in profit-shifting, which is essentially selecting low-tax jurisdictions (i.e., tax havens) to assign a disproportionate share of a corporation’s profits for tax purposes even though they were largely generated by a company’s economic activities in higher-tax locales. While the term ‘tax haven’ usually conjures images of tropical islands, [the Tax Justice Network] notes there are also plenty of corporate tax havens in large, developed economies too — such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Luxembourg, all of which have effective corporate tax rates below 10%. ….The remaining 36% of the $4.7 trillion shortfall is attributable to wealthy individuals who benefit from rules (or lack thereof) that allow for financial secrecy, making it easy to shield assets in offshore havens from tax authorities.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/25/economy/global-tax-loss-haven-revenue/index.html

UPS and Teamsters Union reach deal, avoiding strike. “UPS and the Teamsters union representing about 340,000 workers at the package carrier on Tuesday said they reached a preliminary labor deal that includes raises for both full- and part-time workers and narrowly avoids a potential strike that could have started next week. ….Existing part-time workers will get a raise to at least $21 an hour, if workers approve the new contract, the union said. Part-time pay was a sticking point in negotiations. Full-time workers will average $49 an hour. ….The deal would also end mandatory overtime on drivers’ days off, according to an outline of the contract provided by the Teamsters. ….Workers still need to ratify the tentative deal.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/25/ups-teamsters-reach-contract-to-avoid-strike-union-says.html

Australia fines Meta $13.5 million for secretly collecting user data. “Wednesday’s judgement was in relation to a virtual private network (VPN) service the company then called Facebook offered from early 2016 to late 2017, Onavo, which it advertised as a way to keep personal information safe. VPNs obscure an internet user’s identity by giving their computer a different online address. However, Facebook used Onavo to collect users’ location, time and frequency using other smartphone apps and websites they visited for its own advertising purposes, Justice Wendy Abraham said in a written judgement.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/26/australia-fines-meta-14m-for-undisclosed-data-collection

Hawaii food wholesaler fined for not paying employees overtime. “An investigation found Family Food Co. in Kapolei owed $73,000 in back pay on Tuesday after denying 11 warehouse employees their overtime pay. The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division found the Hawaii food wholesaler violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying warehouse workers at least time and one-half for hours over 40 in a workweek.”   https://www.kitv.com/news/local/a-hawaii-wholesaler-fined-73k-in-back-wages-for-not-paying-overtime/article_11a82f66-2b31-11ee-a8f4-9b56f3217c75.html   Asian grocer in Utah ordered to pay employees for overtime. “After an investigation and lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Labor, Utah’s largest Asian grocer — Chinatown Supermarket LLC — has paid $525,000 in back wages, penalties and damages. ….In April 2023, a U.S. District Court for Utah ordered the grocer and the wholesale company to pay back wages and damages totaling to $251,305, and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the employees — plus another $22,390 in penalties for the overtime violations.”   https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/07/26/utahs-largest-asian-grocer-pays/   Alabama pest control company ordered to pay employees overtime. “U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found the Cedar Bluff pest control company failed to pay non-exempt salary counter sales people and delivery drivers overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Extermco Pest Control paid some workers an hourly wage, or a combination of hourly and commission pay that did not meet certain retail exemption requirements. The division recovered $64,385 in back wages for 41 workers.”   https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230725-4   Los Angeles area restaurants agree to pay employees back wages after failing to increase minimum wage. “The owner/operator of two LA-area ‘Wingstop’ restaurants has agreed to pay $667,414 in back wages and fines for allegedly underpaying 309 workers. The settlement with Costa Mesa-based Far West Restaurant Group, LLC involves wage theft violations that occurred from 2017 through 2020 at the two independently owned and operated locations in East Los Angeles and Walnut Park. An investigation by the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA) showed the company shorted employees by 25 cents to as much as $2.25 an hour during the four-year period when the county’s minimum wage rose from $12 to $14.25 an hour for businesses with 26 or more employees.”   https://www.dailynews.com/2023/07/21/wingstop-franchise-ower-to-pay-667414-for-wage-theft-violations/

Chevy Bolt comes back from the dead. “General Motors said it will bring a new model of the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle to market on an undisclosed date, reversing its decision three months ago to scrap the company’s most popular and affordable EV. Demand appears to have been key. ‘We can’t build enough Bolts right now,’ chief executive Mary Barra said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. The vehicle has also been a magnet for bringing new buyers to GM, the company said. About 70 percent of buyers who trade in a vehicle for a Bolt are trading in a non-GM vehicle, the company said.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/25/chevy-bolt-ev/

FBI seized server for Kolectiva.social Mastodon ‘instance’ in May. “Last May, Mastodon server Kolektiva.social was compromised when one of the server’s admins had their home raided by the FBI for unrelated charges. All of their electronics, including a backup of the instance database, were seized. ….make sure that you’ve adopted policies and practices to protect your users, including clear and regular transparency reports about law enforcement attempts to access user information and policies about what you will do if the cops show up – things like requiring a warrant for content, and fighting gag orders. Critically, that should include a promise to notify your users as soon as possible about any law enforcement action where law enforcement gained access to their information and communications. ….In Kolektiva’s case, hosts were fairly slow in giving notice. The raid occurred in mid-May and the notice didn’t come until June 30, about six weeks later. That’s quite a long delay, even if it took Kolektiva a while to realize the full impact of the raid. As a host of other people’s communications, it is vital to give notice as soon as you are able, as you generally have no way of knowing how much risk this information poses to your users and must assume the worst. The extra notice to users is vital for them to take any necessary steps to protect themselves. ….While it would not have protected all of the data seized by the FBI in this case, end-to-end encryption of direct messages is something that has been regrettably absent from Mastodon for years, and would at least have protected the most private content likely to have been on the Kolektiva server. There have been some proposals to enable this functionality, and developers should prioritize finding a solution.”   https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/fbi-seizure-mastodon-server-wakeup-call-fediverse-users-and-hosts-protect-their

Late-stage capitalism: NYC construction crane catches fire, hits adjacent building and plunges into the street, injuring five. “The blazing crane was attached to a luxury apartment building under construction – and a concrete pump it was connected to also smashed on to the street below. Terrifying video footage shot Wednesday morning on the corner of 43rd Street and 10th Avenue showed the crane collapse and strike a glass residential skyscraper opposite – while people staying in nearby hotels were quickly evacuated. People covered in blood were stretchered into ambulances as screams rung out from construction workers and commuters on ground level, eyewitnesses said. A number of firefighters rushed up to a nearby balcony and desperately battled the inferno – which blazed 500 feet above the Manhattan skyline this morning.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12339843/Hudson-Yards-construction-crane-catches-fire-COLLAPSES-NYC.html

X (previously known as Twitter) takes user’s Twitter handle. “Gene X Hwang held the @x Twitter handle from 2007 until it was taken over on Tuesday by the official account of X – Musk’s new brand for Twitter. Mr. Hwang had previously said he would be willing to sell the @x account to Musk as the rebrand appeared to be on the horizon. But instead, the photographer said he simply received an email on Tuesday telling him that the account handle had been taken by the company.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12339581/Elon-Musk-accused-taking-X-Twitter-account-San-Fran-snapper-Gene-X-Hwang-says-just-took-platforms-rebrand.html

Biden administration announces another $400 million in military aid for Ukraine. “This authorization is the Biden Administration’s forty-third drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021 as the U.S. government has continuously provided Ukraine with the weapons and equipment it needs for the battlefield. Today’s commitment in security assistance, valued at up to $400 million, includes additional air defense munitions, artillery and other ammunition, armored vehicles, anti-armor weapons, and other equipment to help Ukraine counter Russia’s ongoing war of aggression.”   https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3470064/biden-administration-announces-additional-security-assistance-for-ukraine/

Members of Congress introduce wealth tax bill. “A group of progressive U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday proposed a wealth tax that would automatically rise during periods of surging inequality and fall once inequality moderates. The tax is at the heart of new legislation called the Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH) Act, which was introduced by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). According to a summary of the bill released by the Patriotic Millionaires—an advocacy group that helped craft the measure—the wealth tax would have four brackets:

• 2% for all wealth between 1,000 and 10,000 times median household wealth;
• 4% for all wealth between 10,000 and 100,000 times median household wealth;
• 6% for all wealth between 100,000 and 1,000,000 times median household wealth; and
• 8% for all wealth over 1,000,000 times median household wealth.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-oligarch-act

July 25, 2023

Kansas City, KS to pay excessive force victim $500,000. “A bystander captured video of the Aug. 8, 2022, encounter, showing an officer forcing Mack Nelson’s face onto the ground outside of a gas station near 55th Street and Prospect Avenue. Nelson briefly fell unconscious and suffered injuries to his body and face, including his eyes and shoulders, the lawsuit said. He filed a civil lawsuit in February in Jackson County Circuit Court accusing the officers of assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. John Picerno, who represented Nelson, said the officers also failed to activate their body cameras and falsified the police report by saying Nelson fell to the ground.”   https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article277323563.html

IRS whistleblower claims Hunter Biden received preferential treatment during tax investigation. “I am here to tell you that the Delaware [United States Attorney’s Office] and Department of Justice handling of the Hunter Biden tax investigation was very different from any other case in my 14 years at the IRS,” Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley told the House Oversight Committee on July 19. “There should not be a two-track justice system based on who you are and who you’re connected to. Yet, in this case there was.”   https://reason.com/2023/07/24/irs-whistleblowers-claim-political-interference-in-hunter-biden-investigation/

Countertop fabrication workers contracting silicosis. “At least ten have died. Others have needed lung transplants. The disease, silicosis, is caused by silica dust that can fly into the air when a raw slab of countertop material gets cut to fulfill a customer’s order. While natural stone like granite contains silica, ‘engineered stone’ made of quartz contains far more, and public health experts have been warning of its increased risk. ….In California alone, officials have so far identified 77 sickened workers, says Dr. Sheiphali Gandhi, a pulmonologist at the University of California, San Francisco. ….in 2019 and 2020, safety officials in California examined its countertop industry and found that about 72 percent of the 808 fabrication shops operating in the state were ‘likely out of compliance with the existing silica standard’, putting hundreds of workers at risk of developing silicosis.”   https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/24/young-men-making-quartz-countertops-are-facing-lung-damage-one-state-is-taking-action

Right-wing activists ordered to pay $52.5 million for ‘disruptive’ hospital protests and ‘harassing’ internet posts. “More than a year after anti-government activist Ammon Bundy and his supporters swarmed a Boise hospital, prompting a shutdown that diverted ambulances to other hospitals, a jury ordered Bundy, his associate Diego Rodriguez and a network of groups to pay $52.5 million in damages to Idaho’s largest hospital system and to the medical professionals they harassed. Attorneys representing St. Luke’s Health System requested at least $16 million in damages for immediate costs. But attorney Erik Stidham argued the hospital system’s future damages — such as security costs — should be factored in because the groups’ online messages harassing those involved continue to circulate. The health system’s attorneys requested $37 million. The jury awarded all plaintiffs — which include the hospital system and three employees — $26.5 million in damages, but added $26 million in ‘punitive’ costs.”   https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/07/24/bundy-rodriguez-and-groups-ordered-to-pay-52-5m-in-damages-for-idaho-hospital-harassment-jury-rules/   Correct me if I’m wrong, but, regardless of whether or not the defendants’ protests were justified and their criticism accurate, this sounds a lot like a SLAPP lawsuit. “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP suit) refers to lawsuits brought by individuals and entities to dissuade their critics from continuing to produce negative publicity. By definition, SLAPP suits do not have any true legal claims against the critics. People bring SLAPP suits because they can either temporarily prevent their critics from making public statements against them or more commonly to make critics spend all of their time and resources defending the SLAPP suits.”   https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/slapp_suit

Children of the extremely wealthy much more likely to be admitted to elite colleges, say researchers. “At Ivy League schools, one in six students has parents in the top 1 percent. A large new study, released Monday, shows that it has not been because these children had more impressive grades on average or took harder classes. They tended to have higher SAT scores and finely honed résumés, and applied at a higher rate — but they were over-represented even after accounting for those things. For applicants with the same SAT or ACT score, children from families in the top 1 percent were 34 percent more likely to be admitted than the average applicant, and those from the top 0.1 percent were more than twice as likely to get in. ….In effect, the study shows, these [legacy admission and athletic recruitment] policies amounted to affirmative action for the children of the 1 percent, whose parents earn more than $611,000 a year.”   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/24/upshot/ivy-league-elite-college-admissions.html

Third person charged in 2022 firebombing of Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood clinic. “Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Florida, was arrested Friday and is being held in custody, according to prosecutors. He is charged alongside Chance Brannon, a 23-year-old active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, California. All three men are charged with conspiracy and malicious destruction of property by fire and explosion, each of which carries between five and 20 years in prison.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/24/politics/california-planned-parenthood-firebombing/index.html

Florida’s Supreme Court reprimands judge who conducted Parkland mass shooting trial. “The unanimous decision followed a June recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission. ….The 15-member commission found that Scherer ‘unduly chastised’ lead public defender Melisa McNeill and her team, wrongly accused one [Nikolas] Cruz attorney of threatening her child, and improperly embraced members of the prosecution in the courtroom after the trial’s conclusion. ….[Florida circuit judge Elizabeth] Scherer retired from the bench at the end of last month. The 46-year-old former prosecutor was appointed to the bench in 2012, and the Cruz case was her first capital murder trial.”   https://apnews.com/article/school-shooting-florida-judge-reprimand-0051d9e89da24e4a132568700796dc57

Elon Musk’s rebranding of Twitter as ‘X’, besides just being weird, is likely to bring trademark challenges. “‘There’s a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody,’ said trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who said he counted nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that already cover the letter X in a wide range of industries. ….’Given the difficulty in protecting a single letter, especially one as popular commercially as ‘X’, Twitter’s protection is likely to be confined to very similar graphics to their X logo,’ said Douglas Masters, a trademark attorney at law firm Loeb & Loeb.”   https://www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/   I’m going to buy Coca-Cola, rename it ‘V’ and change the color of the cans to purple. Hey it’s my company, so I can do whatever I want. Just don’t tell the investors.

Federal government boosts labor supply by increasing immigration. “Worker shortages began to bite in late 2020…. The civilian labor force — which includes people who are working or looking for work — plummeted by eight million people in early 2020. But the supply of workers has since rebounded by about 10.6 million people. That recovery has owed partly to a pickup in the foreign-born labor force, which has accounted for roughly one in every three potential workers added since the pandemic low point, based on Labor Department data. Legal immigration has been gaining steam as processing backlogs clear and Biden administration policies allow more refugees into the country, said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute. Undocumented immigration has also been notable, increased by political turmoil abroad and the draw of a comparatively strong and stable American economy. ….The recovery in documented immigration is clear in visa data. About 1.7 million workers may enter the country this year if current trends continue, about 950,000 more than at the low point during the pandemic, Courtney Shupert, an economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives, found in an analysis.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/24/business/economy/labor-supply-federal-reserve.html   This is what they always do when the economy approaches full employment and wages start to rise. The New York Times headline calls it a ‘flood of new workers’.

‘Oppenheimer’ fails to mention New Mexico residents whose homes were showered with plutonium dust. “The explosion, which U.S. officials publicly claimed to be an accident at a local ammunition depot, tore through the morning sky, leaving a 40,000-foot-tall cloud of radioactive debris that would cake the surrounding area with dust for days on end. Tina Cordova, whose hometown of Tularosa lies just 45 miles from ground zero, remembers her grandmother’s stories about wiping that infernal dust off every nook and cranny of her childhood home. ….In total, 21 members of [Bernice] Gutierrez’s family have had cancer, and seven have died from it. ….In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which gave insurance and lump-sum payments to the people affected by decades of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. RECA payouts to date total more than $2.5 billion. But New Mexican downwinders were not included in the original law or a broader version of it passed in 2000, a fact that former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson attributes to a simple lack of awareness about their plight. ….the entire state of New Mexico saw an unprecedented spike in infant mortality, with 56 percent more New Mexican babies dying during live births in 1945 than in 1944. That number went back down in 1946 and has never reached such high levels since, a statistical anomaly with a 0.0001 percent chance of being caused by natural conditions, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.”    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/07/21/what-oppenheimer-leaves-out/

Anti-nuke activist Greg Mitchell says ‘Oppenheimer’ fails to address key issues. “… one of the most important things is, certainly, it does not challenge in any way the Hiroshima narrative or official narrative, as I call it, that has held sway since 1945 about the decision to use the bomb…. I think you’re supposed to take away from the haunted visage of Oppenheimer and the great actor Cillian Murphy, his sort vague, conflicted, confusing regrets that he seemed to issue during the movie and during his life, but, in fact, as I’ve shown at my blog and in my books, Oppenheimer in fact defended the use of the bomb against Japan ’til the end of his life, right up to 1965 as 1966. So the film is a little misleading in that. But, in fact, it’s true and it’s quite accurate that Oppenheimer really did not reject it, and the film certainly does not challenge the decision to use the bomb. It’s more moving forward from 1945. ….the Hiroshima narrative that still carries the day today, you might say, with the media and some historians, …is that only the use of the bomb, only the use of two bombs, really, would prevent a bloody invasion of Japan, hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties and so forth. And this is not really challenged in the film, and not by Oppenheimer and not really in the film narrative. It then goes to the future, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki are kind of left alone. And, you know, the danger of this and the legacy and the reason I’ve written so much on this for the past 40 years, really, is that the lessons for today is that, yes, everyone says we should never use nuclear weapons again, it’s terrible, they must not be used. But on the other hand, we make these two exceptions, from 1945, of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ….Truman himself, as I’m sure you’re aware, wrote in his diary, ‘Fini Japs’ when the Soviets would enter the war. General Eisenhower later said it was totally unnecessary to use the bomb, that Japan was going to surrender very soon. And, you know, you have to step back a bit, which the film doesn’t do the best job of, of showing, OK, you deliberately targeted and exploded these bombs over the center of two cities. That was the aim. Oppenheimer was in on that. Everyone knew in the targeting committee that the aim was to really kill as many people and cause as much destruction as possible — which they executed. This was not a surprise. So, you really have to go back and say, was it worth [it]— especially to the people… who died, and the lessons for today, where we still have a first-strike policy today, that we can use nuclear weapons in response to a crisis or conventional attack. And the lesson that we have from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is still endorsed by the media every year and many historians, is you can make exceptions and decide to use these weapons, because we not only used them against two cities, but we continue, or many people continue, to defend that today.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/24/oppenheimer_greg_mitchell

Big banks accused of propping up big oil. “It’s no secret that financial institutions play a leading role in driving the climate emergency. Since 2016, the year the Paris agreement took effect, the world’s 60 largest private banks have provided more than $5.5 trillion in financing to the fossil fuel industry, flouting their pledges to put themselves and their clients on a path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as the window to avert the worst consequences of the intensifying climate crisis rapidly closes. But banks’ underwriting activities receive far less attention than their direct lending practices, even though both are instrumental in enabling fossil fuel expansion and must be reformed to rein in the industry most responsible for imperiling the planet’s livability. That’s the key takeaway from a new analysis of Wall Street’s participation in capital markets published by the Sierra Club’s Fossil-Free Finance campaign. ….Since 2016, the six largest U.S. banks—JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs—have provided more than $433 billion in lending and underwriting to 30 of the companies doing the most to increase fossil fuel extraction and combustion worldwide, the report notes. More than three-fifths (61%) of that financing comes from underwriting, with those half-dozen banking giants issuing $266 billion in new bonds and equities for the world’s top 30 fossil fuel expansion firms.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/wall-street-underwriting-fossil-fuels

Raising the federal minimum wage long overdue. “Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour, pay that’s currently not livable in any state in the U.S. ….But Congress has done little to push for a minimum wage increase since early 2021, when eight Senate Democrats joined Republicans in rejecting Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ (I-Vt.) attempt to attach a $15 minimum wage provision to a coronavirus relief package. Last month, Sanders proposed legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour over a five-year period, but the bill’s unlikely to move in the divided Congress. In a column for The Guardian on Monday, Rev. William J. Barber and Rev. A. Kazimir Brown wrote that ‘instead of pushing culture wars and partisanship, lawmakers should focus on the 800 people dying each day from poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth.’ ….’Poor and low-wealth people make up nearly 40% of the electorate and have the ability to decide elections,’ Barber and Brown added.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/14-years-minimum-wage

Democrats ask Sec. of Labor and OSHA to implement heat protections for workers. “More than 110 congressional Democrats on Monday implored President Joe Biden’s administration to immediately enact a federal standard to protect workers from extreme heat. ….The letter calls for ‘the fastest possible implementation of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) workplace heat standard to ensure that millions of people can go to work with greater confidence that they will return to their families alive and uninjured.’ Public Citizen estimates that exposure to extreme heat kills up to 2,000 workers and causes at least 170,000 injuries each year in the U.S. alone. The risks and consequences of heat stress are borne overwhelmingly by low-income employees, and farm workers are particularly vulnerable to its deadly effects.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/dems-biden-osha-heat-standard

Proposed rule would cut miners’ exposure to silica dust in half. “A half-century ago, the nation’s top health experts urged the federal agency in charge of mine safety to adopt strict rules protecting miners from poisonous rock dust. The inaction since — fueled by denials and lobbying from coal and other industries — has contributed to the premature deaths of thousands of miners from pneumoconiosis, more commonly known as ‘black lung’. The problem has only grown in recent years as miners dig through more layers of rock to get to less accessible coal, generating deadly silica dust in the process. One former regulator called the lack of protection from silica-related illnesses ‘stunning’ and one of the most ‘catastrophic’ occupational health failures in U.S. history. Now the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has proposed a rule that would cut the current limit for silica exposure by half — a major victory for safety advocates. But there is skepticism and concern about the government following through after years of broken promises and delays.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/after-decades-of-delays-and-broken-promises-coal-miners-hail-rule-to-slow-rise-of-black-lung/   Follow the money (political donations from the mining industry).

July 24, 2023

Police video shows officers releasing dog to attack trucker with his hands up. “A police dog mauled a Black man in Ohio during a July Fourth traffic stop after he surrendered to authorities with his hands raised in the air following a ‘lengthy pursuit’, officials said. A Motor Carrier Enforcement inspector with the Ohio State Highway Patrol tried to stop Jadarrius Rose, 23, who was driving a semi-tractor trailer, because it ‘was missing a left rear mud flap’, according to an incident report. ….’The driver was given orders to get down on the ground and the suspect would not comply.’ Rose can be seen on video released by the highway patrol standing in front of troopers with his hands in the air. A Circleville police officer who has a dog can be heard telling Rose to ‘go on the ground or you’re gonna get bit’. Meanwhile, a trooper with the highway patrol tells Rose to ‘come to me’. It is then that the Circleville police officer, identified as R. Speakman, deploys his K9. ‘Do not release the dog with his hands up!’ a trooper can be heard yelling multiple times before Speakman releases the dog.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/not-release-dog-hands-black-184559398.html

Trans man says he was beaten by Los Angeles County deputy after he flipped him off. “He turned down one side street and then another, trying to figure out whether the cruiser was following him or just going in the same direction. The deputy didn’t turn on his lights or siren, but made every turn [Emmett] Brock did. Growing unnerved, he called 911. ‘Hi, um, I’m being followed by a police car,’ he said in a recording shared with The Times. He told the dispatcher that the car was copying his turns, but not pulling him over. He said he wanted to make sure it was a ‘real police car’ and that he wasn’t being stalked. ….eventually the dispatcher asked: ‘What is it that you want us to do? If he hasn’t pulled you over, he hasn’t pulled you over.’ ….pulling up outside the 7-Eleven on Mills Avenue in Whittier, planning to buy a Coke before heading to a therapy appointment. The cruiser pulled in behind him, and the store’s surveillance camera captured what followed. The deputy’s body-worn camera captured the sound. As Brock stepped out of his car, Deputy Joseph Benza approached and told him: ‘I just stopped you,’ offering no explanation as to why. Confused, Brock replied, ‘No, you didn’t.’ ‘Yeah, I did,’ the deputy said. Then he grabbed Brock’s arm and forced him to the ground. Still unsure what he’d done, Brock said, he began to scream. ‘What — what are you doing? Oh, my god. What the f— is happening?’ For the next three minutes, Brock struggled and screamed as the deputy held him down and punched him in the head. ….The deputy said [in his report] he’d spotted an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, supposedly obstructing the view of the road from Brock’s black Honda Civic.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-die-video-shows-trans-100029056.html

Republican presidential candidates say they’ll ‘reform’ Social Security program to keep it solvent. “In comments on Sunday as well as in interviews earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Social Security will need to be revamped – but not for people who are near or in retirement. Former vice president Mike Pence and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley have taken similar positions since launching their presidential campaigns. From the earliest days of his 2016 run, Trump has vowed not to touch either Social Security or Medicare – a break from GOP orthodoxy that has shifted the party’s views – and has more recently hammered DeSantis for wanting to cut the program.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-gop-rivals-open-door-221456231.html  One easy fix is to remove the cap on contributions and also tax non-wage income. Currently, only the first $160,200 in wages is taxed. Problem solved! “I am very proud that the Social Security Administration has estimated that our legislation to expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year will [also] fully fund Social Security for the next 75 years by applying the payroll tax on all income – including capital gains – above $250,000 a year.”   https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-warren-and-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-expand-social-security-by-2400-a-year-and-extend-solvency-for-75-years/

Phoenix records 24th day of 110+ heat. “Temperatures this afternoon have propelled Phoenix into the 24th straight day of temperatures of more than 110 degrees. If Phoenix hits 115 degrees or more on Sunday, it would be the seventh consecutive day of at least 115 degrees and would become the longest streak of that occurring on record. ….Record-high lows, meaning low temperatures that are higher than usual, have accompanied the sweltering temperatures, adding yet another challenge for cooling down. Saturday and Sunday continued the streak, producing 14 consecutive days with lows of more than 90 degrees.”   https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-weather/2023/07/23/metro-phoenix-sees-24-days-of-110-degree-heat-chance-of-showers/70453455007/

New Zealand’s Labour Party minister of justice arrested, resigns. “Kiri Allan was involved in the [car] crash shortly after 9 pm on Sunday in Wellington, said prime minister Chris Hipkins, and she was detained at the central police station before being released four hours later. Police have charged her with careless use of a motor vehicle, and refusing to accompany a police officer, and summonsed to appear in court at a later date. Allan was handed an infringement notice for excess breath alcohol between 250 and 400mcg.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/24/kiri-allan-resigns-car-crash-new-zealand-justice-minister

Hundreds rally in Bangkok after coalition that won election is blocked from appointing prime minister. “Protesters braved heavy rain to show their anger and frustration toward the members of the Senate, who were appointed by the military and pride themselves as defenders of traditional royalist values, which they believe are under threat. The surprise election winner, the Move Forward Party, failed in two efforts to have its leader Pita Limjaroenrat confirmed as the next prime minister, largely because he failed to woo enough votes from the senators, who are disturbed by the party’s reformist policy platform.”   https://apnews.com/article/prime-minister-senate-pheu-thai-move-forward-116f65ae22cb3c88c7aa316c5e5f11c5

Arkansas hospital’s mental health unit accused of holding patients against their will. “In an apparent effort to keep the [alleged insurance billing] scam going, many of [Dr. Brian] Hyatt’s former patients say they were being held for days or even weeks against their will. Under Arkansas law, mental health patients can be held against their will for 72 hours if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. To keep them any longer, a medical provider must file a court petition and get a judge’s consent. But in at least two cases, NBC News reported, a patient was only released from Hyatt’s care after a sheriff’s deputy showed up with a court order. Northwest Medical Center could not provide sufficient documentation that justified the hospitalization of 246 patients who were held in Hyatt’s unit, [according to the state’s] Attorney General. ‘I think that they were running a scheme to hold people as long as possible, to bill their insurance as long as possible before kicking them out the door, and then filling the bed with someone else,’ Aaron Cash, a lawyer representing several of Hyatt’s former patients, claimed.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12330353/Arkansas-psychiatrist-held-patients-ran-insurance-scam.html

Bernie Sanders: U.S. spending too much on its military. “The proposed military budget that the Senate is now debating would increase defense spending by $28bn to over $886bn, an all-time record. The total is over $900bn if you include nuclear weapons spending through the Department of Energy. ….The United States spends more than three times what China spends on its military. This record high defense spending would come in spite of the end of the war in Afghanistan and despite the fact that the United States spends more on the military than the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are allies. ….the Department of Defense (DOD) remains the only major federal agency that cannot pass an independent audit. Last year, the department was unable to account for over half of its assets, which are in excess of $3.1tn. ….Almost half of the Pentagon budget goes to private contractors, some of whom are exploiting their monopoly positions and the trust granted them by the United States to line their pockets. Repeated investigations by the DOD inspector general, the GAO and CBS News have uncovered numerous instances of contractors massively overcharging DOD, helping boost these companies’ profits to nearly 40% – and sometimes as high as 4,451% – while costing US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/24/the-pentagon-doesnt-need-886bn-i-oppose-this-bloated-defense-budget

Former Air Force nuclear missile officer: We need more films and news stories about nuclear weapons. “Sidney Lumet’s 1964 film ‘Fail Safe’ is as serious a commentary on the questions around nuclear deterrence as has ever been presented on the screen. The same year, Stanley Kubrick defined the absurdity of a society that uses a nuclear arsenal to achieve ‘peace’ in his film ‘Dr. Strangelove’. When these films were released, it had been less than 20 years since Americans dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan. America was just beginning its nuclear arms race with Russia and the nuclear conversation felt very much alive to the average American. But the American public grew weary of always being on high alert. Hollywood reflected this change as the meticulous films of the 60s began to give way to a new type of cold war thriller – one in which every villain seemed to speak with a Russian accent and wield some sort of vague existential nuclear threat that would be defeated by a red-blooded American. ….As a result, in the decades before the release of ‘Oppenheimer’, the nuclear thriller had become an almost taboo genre in Hollywood. That’s a problem, because the nuclear threat never went away. If anything, it got worse. Today, the United States has about 400 nuclear tipped ICBMs, the ones I operated, ready for launch every single day. It also has a robust nuclear bomber program as well as nuclear-armed submarines. In total, the US owns approximately 6,000 nuclear warheads. What’s more, the air force is currently in the midst of developing a new ICBM nuclear delivery system, called Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD). In 2020, the air force awarded a $13.3bn sole-source contract for GBSD to Northrop Grumman. The contract was awarded by default with no other competitors for the contract and little to no press coverage or public debate. ….In short, we need a public that is as engaged with nuclear weapons as they were during the cold war. Otherwise, it’s only on days when Vladimir Putin threatens the use of nuclear weapons, or the days that North Korea test launches its latest ICBM, that we begin to discuss the inherent dangers of a world that allows nuclear missiles to exist. ….Do we want to live in a world free from the threat of nuclear war? Or do we want to cover our eyes and throw the dice in a world with more than 14,000 nuclear warheads? [Director Christopher] Nolan isn’t afraid to ask these hard questions. I hope other film-makers follow his lead.”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/24/nuclear-war-oppenheimer-serious

Israel’s parliament passes first installment of judicial reform package. “Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved part of a proposed judicial overhaul that would limit the Supreme Court’s power to check government action, a key priority of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. The vote took place as protests raged outside the Israeli Knesset and across the country. Polling has shown that a majority of Israelis oppose the sweeping overhaul, which has sparked mass outrage across Israel in recent months.  The bill approved Monday would prevent the Supreme Court from blocking government actions that the [court] deems ‘unreasonable‘.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/protests-judicial-coup

Experts say FBI should be required to obtain search warrants before accessing private electronic communications of Americans. “‘One warrantless query for Americans’ private communications is one too many, and this opinion shows the government is still conducting hundreds of thousands per year, including thousands in violation of their own lax rules,’ said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Security & Surveillance Project, in a Friday statement. ‘These new revelations of misconduct show yet again that lack of oversight invites abuse, and that it’s impossible to fix FISA 702 without adding a warrant rule for U.S. person queries.’ Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program at New York University School of Law, agreed in a series of Friday tweets. ‘Government self-policing will never be an adequate substitute for the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement,’ Goitein [wrote]. ‘The newest FISA Court opinion reaffirms that basic truth and underscores the urgent need for sweeping legislative reforms.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/fbi-warrantless-spying

July 23, 2023

Federal judge blocks Arizona law that restricted filming of police officers. “The law would have made it illegal to film police officers within 8 feet of law enforcement activity if the officer had requested the citizen or journalist to stop filming. In addition, officers could have ordered anyone filming on public property to stop if they determined the area was unsafe or if the person filming was interfering. U.S. District Judge John J. Tuchi cited infringement against a clear right for citizens to film police while doing their jobs in his ruling. ‘The law prohibits or chills a substantial amount of First Amendment protected activity and is unnecessary to prevent interference with police officers given other Arizona laws in effect,’ Tuchi wrote. ….Media groups, including a group of Associated Press lawyers and the ACLU, successfully sued to block the law last year, which was passed with the backing of Republicans in the state legislature and signed into law by former GOP Gov. Doug Ducey in July 2022.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4113248-federal-judge-arizona-law-filming-police-officers-unconstituional/

Fargo shooter had been listed in FBI’s ‘Guardian Threat Tracking System’. “The FBI routinely opens what it refers to internally as assessments — the lowest level, least intrusive and most elementary stage of a terrorism-related inquiry — when it receives unconfirmed information about potentially suspicious behavior. That information is catalogued in the Guardian system. During the assessment stage of an investigation, FBI agents are permitted to take certain basic investigative steps such as conducting online research or visual surveillance, but more sophisticated tools such as wiretaps cannot be undertaken without additional evidence of wrongdoing. Mac Schneider, the U.S. attorney for North Dakota, said the Guardian system is a way for members of the public to engage with local law enforcement about ‘things of concern’. But he provided no additional details.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fargo-police-officer-ambush-suspect-searched-crowd-events-ammunition-heavily-armed/   I wonder how many people are in this database? Anyone who gets reported as ‘suspicious’? Google’s not finding much recent information, but I did find this: “The committee found that 10 days before Jan. 6, the FBI created a unique tag within its Guardian threat tracking system to cover intelligence about possible threats to the Congressional electoral vote count that day. The code was ‘CERTUNREST’. One of the tips entered in Guardian on Dec. 27 came from a person who was reading traffic on a website called the Donald.win, a hive of Jan. 6 rhetoric. ‘They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped,’ the tipster wrote. ‘They believe that since the election was “stolen” that it’s their constitutional right to overtake the government and during this coup no US laws apply … Their plan is to literally kill people. Please please take this tip seriously and investigate further.’ Asked on the web form to describe what kind of attack was being reported, the tipster [or reporting law enforcement agency] wrote: ‘Attempted coup/terrorist attack on Jan 6th’.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/fbi-stopped-jan-6-capitol-mob-acted-intelligence-rcna68155

Canadian province of Nova Scotia received 3 months of rain in one day. “‘We have had biblical proportions of rain over the night and into the day,’ Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said Saturday. ….Much of central Nova Scotia has seen severe flooding that deluged roads, forced water rescues and left ‘significant’ property damage Saturday, Houston said. The storms have also compromised bridges and damaged highways.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/23/americas/nova-scotia-canada-rain-floods/index.html

Russian cluster bomb misses innocent civilians, accidentally hits military target. “A Ukrainian soldier was killed and several others were wounded in a Russian attack which also saw a [Deutsche Welle] cameraman injured by shrapnel on Saturday. The apparent cluster bomb attack targeted the Ukrainian army training ground in Donbas, some 23 kilometers (14 miles) away from the frontline…. DW’s Ievgen Shylko was part of a team sent to report from the training ground near the town of Druzhkivka when they came under Russian artillery fire. ….Shylko was injured when apiece of shrapnel hit him. He is being treated in a Ukrainian hospital and is in stable condition.”   https://www.dw.com/en/dw-cameraman-injured-in-russian-attack-on-ukrainian-army/a-66319054   Yes, my headline is sarcasm, targeting western media coverage of the conflict. I think this is the first time I’ve seen a report of Russia hitting a military target. Here’s a typical story: “Russian strikes on Odesa overnight damaged at least six residential buildings, a Ukrainian Orthodox Church and ‘architectural monuments’, according to Ukraine’s southern Operational Command. ‘Dozens of cars were damaged, facades and roofs of many buildings in the city were damaged and windows were blown out,’ it said in a statement on Telegram. ….The strikes on Saturday night killed at least one person, the statement said, and left at least 19 hurt. ….’Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral… There can be no excuse for Russian evil,’ Zelensky said. ….Civilian industry buildings including at least three houses and outbuildings were also damaged as a result of the attacks on Kupyansk with rocket launchers, cannon artillery and mortars.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/23/world/odesa-attacks-saturday-russia-ukraine-intl-hnk/index.html   Ukraine hits ammunition depots, bridges, armored vehicles, artillery positions and kills ‘hundreds’ of Russian soldiers, while ‘evil’ Russia is focusing on blowing up random civilian infrastructure, so the western news media would have us believe.

G20 countries unable to reach agreement on reducing use of fossil fuels. “The G20 bloc of wealthy economies meeting in India failed to reach a consensus on phasing down fossil fuels on Saturday after objections by some producer nations. Scientists and campaigners are exasperated by international bodies’ foot-dragging on action to curb global heating even as extreme weather across the northern hemisphere underlined the climate crisis facing the world. The G20 member countries together account for more than three-quarters of global emissions and gross domestic product, so a cumulative effort by the group to decarbonise is crucial in the global fight against climate breakdown. ….[Indian power minister, R.K.] Singh, in a press briefing after the conference, said some countries wanted to use carbon capture instead of a phase-down of fossil fuels. He did not name the countries.”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/22/g20-countries-fail-to-reach-agreement-on-cutting-fossil-fuels

Anchor Brewing employees considering buying company. “In a statement, Anchor spokesperson Sam Singer said that a union spokesperson sent the company an email stating that ‘workers of Anchor Brewing have met, discussed, and decided to launch an effort to purchase the brewery.’ The union spokesperson added that the purchase is being pursued by an ‘unidentified group of Anchor employees’, not the union itself, Singer said. ….The company announced on July 12 that it is shutting down, stating that operating the business was ‘no longer sustainable’ due to factors like product costs and a ‘highly competitive craft beer market’ coupled with Anchor’s ‘historically costly steam brewing technique’.”   https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/anchor-brewing-employees-purchasing-18255835.php   Employees want to turn the company into a worker co-op. “A letter sent to Anchor Brewing owner Sapporo USA indicates the company’s employees would like to ‘launch an effort to purchase the brewery and run it as a worker co-op’…”   https://sf.eater.com/2023/7/20/23801728/anchor-brewing-workers-purchase-co-op

FBI reportedly investigating case of prisoner seriously injured by Ohio jail employee. “The man, whose hands were cuffed behind his back, was being escorted by Lorain County Jail Corrections Officer Brian Tellier when the man suffered an injury after falling and hitting his head on the base of the floor and wall, according to the documents. ….’Basically, he (Tellier) had kind of indicated the individual was drunk and that he helped guide him down, when it was clear on the video that he had kind of hip tossed him (the victim) into the wall.'”   https://www.morningjournal.com/2023/07/22/fbi-investigating-incident-that-left-elyria-man-seriously-injured-while-in-lorain-county-jail/

Seattle police officer traveling at 74 mph in a 25 mph zone hit and killed pedestrian in crosswalk. “[Officer Kevin] Dave was on his way to a priority-one call, classified as the highest importance of calls, as per the police department. The call was regarding a man who had overdosed on drugs but did not need to be taken to the hospital. The video recording also revealed intermittent sirens coming from the officer’s patrol car that were not continuous. ….Police said the officer was not suspended but was merely told to take off their shift following the crash as a ‘release day’ to deal with a ‘traumatic or upsetting’ experience. ….After the incident, Seattle police said they would be withholding information about the police report for the investigation, and ‘in consultation’ with [Jaahnavi] Kandula’s family.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12328061/Video-shows-moment-Seattle-police-officer-hits-kills-pedestrian-responding-call.html

Nebraska teenager sentenced to 90 days in jail over self-administered medication abortion. “Police charged 19-year-old Celeste Burgess and her mother, Jessica Burgess, who assisted her in getting the pills and disposing of the fetus, after Facebook handed over their private messages. Celeste was just 17 when her mother ordered the pills online.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/21/headlines/nebraska_teen_who_used_abortion_pill_gets_sentenced_to_90_days_in_jail

Thirteen women forced to endure dangerous pregnancies sue Texas. “A court in Austin heard testimony this week from women who are suing over Texas’s abortion ban, which put their lives in danger when they were unable to end their pregnancies, even when they were nonviable. ….’There is no statement of pro-life in this state when you send me home to wait for my baby to die inside of me…'”   https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/21/headlines/women_suing_texas_over_abortion_ban_share_harrowing_personal_accounts

Judge orders Inglewood, CA to hand over police misconduct records. “A Los Angeles County judge on Friday ordered the city of Inglewood to comply with a four-year-old Public Records Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to obtain documents relating to police misconduct and use of force. ….In 2018, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1421, which made a number of documents relating to police misconduct, including officer-involved shootings, use-of-force incidents, officers being accused of sexual assault, and officers lying to cover for fellow officers, accessible under the California Public Records Act. Weeks before SB 1421 was set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019, the Los Angeles Times reported that Inglewood had destroyed hundreds of documents that were about to be covered by the new law. ….At the start of 2019, the ACLU filed a number of large Public Records Act requests with law enforcement agencies all over the state, seeking newly discoverable records. Some departments complied; others refused. But Ochoa said Inglewood’s attempt to withhold documents was especially egregious.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-orders-inglewood-to-turn-over-police-records-to-aclu/

Connection observed between oil and wars. “Governments in London and Washington long denied the Iraq war was about oil. Yet BP returned to the country in 2009 after a 35-year absence and was awarded a significant interest in Iraq’s largest oil field near British-occupied Basra in the south of the country. Something similar happened in Libya following another U.K. military intervention in 2011. Eleven years after that war, in October last year, Libya’s National Oil Corporation agreed that BP would start drilling for natural gas in the country. ….British officials have a longstanding habit of fighting wars which they claim to be in the interests of human rights that are really about oil or geopolitics. ….The war over Biafra was the world’s worst humanitarian crisis of the late 1960s, causing the deaths of up to 3 million people. In Iraq, hundreds of thousands were killed amidst a humanitarian catastrophe. Libya, meanwhile, was turned into a safe haven for terrorism and slave markets and was plunged into a civil war from which it is yet to recover.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2023/07/20/bps-wars-coups-dictators/

July 22, 2023

Journalist testifies before Congress on censorship of her Hunter Biden laptop story. “… Emma-Jo Morris testified Thursday to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the FBI ‘knew’ the Hunter Biden laptop was real before December 2019 — [long before] she published the first story on it in October 2020 [in the New York Post] and social media companies censored the story and called it ‘disinformation’. ….Despite the FBI being aware of the laptop [being real], and frequently communicating with Twitter and Facebook officials before the 2020 election, when Morris first reported on the laptop story Twitter and Facebook both censored the story, and Americans sharing the story, on the basis that it could be Russian disinformation.”   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/07/20/breitbart-news-emma-jo-morris-testifies-fbi-well-aware-hunter-biden-laptop-before-story-broke/   Video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28tXX0cvvI   Wow! They knew the story was true, but they called it ‘Russian disinformation’ and had it censored anyway, presumably to protect Joe Biden.

Federal judge rules that Kansas Highway Patrol violated rights of motorists. “In the order filed Friday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil wrote that patrol’s tactics in traffic stops violated the Constitution. The practice, called the ‘Kansas two step’, is a maneuver in which troopers at the end of a traffic stop take a couple of steps toward their patrol car before turning around to initiate a voluntary interaction with the driver. The strategy would buy the patrol extra time to probe for incriminating information or get a drug-sniffing dog to a location.”   https://news.yahoo.com/judge-rules-kansas-highway-patrol-184013769.html

Nicaraguan man falls to his death while working for temp agency in Kansas City. “A worker on the 14th floor at the former AT&T building in downtown Kansas City fell to his death Tuesday, according to Manny Abarca, executive director of the Fair Contracting Alliance, an organization that advocates for construction workers. Abarca said the man appeared to be an undocumented worker from Nicaragua. ….He was working on the 14th floor when he fell to the bottom of an elevator shaft, Abarca said. ….The former office building is being converted into new apartments, The [Kansas City] Star reported in December 2021.”   https://www.yahoo.com/news/worker-dies-fall-down-elevator-171153677.html

Black renter sues after being tased by cops who thought he was a burglar. “Damien Smith says he came home one night in October 2021 to find an intruder burglarizing his house. When the police arrived, they tased him instead of the intruder. Smith, who is black, has now filed a lawsuit against the officers, claiming that they racially profiled him and violated his civil rights. ….LAPD officers arrived around 1:30 a.m. and entered through the back door of Smith’s apartment. According to the lawsuit, police ‘unholstered their taser guns, pointed them toward Mr. Smith, and screamed at Mr. Smith: “Get on the ground!”‘ Smith protested saying, ‘I live here, I called 911!’ LAPD officers subsequently tased Smith, striking him in the chest and back. According to a Los Angeles Times interview with Smith, when police tased him, the intruder used the opportunity to escape. Several LAPD officers then handcuffed Smith and walked him out to a patrol car.”   https://reason.com/2023/07/20/he-caught-a-burglar-in-the-act-but-when-police-came-he-says-they-tased-him-instead-of-the-intruder/   Story doesn’t provide the race of the burglar.

Student wins lawsuit after being suspended for Instagram posts making fun of his principal. “On Wednesday, [the student, referred to in legal documents as] I.P. filed a lawsuit with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment nonprofit. The suit challenges the school’s social media policies as unconstitutionally vague and argues that school administrators had no legal right to suspend him for his off-campus Instagram posts. ‘I.P.’s posts are protected First Amendment expression because they satirized a government official and did not create material disruption, cause substantial disorder, or invade the rights of others at school. The posts likewise did not cause Defendants to reasonably forecast such a disruption,’ reads the 48-page complaint. ‘There is no legitimate, let alone compelling, state interest in prohibiting students from engaging in non-disruptive speech about school staff or other students outside school hours and away from school property.'”   https://reason.com/2023/07/19/tennessee-public-school-sued-after-suspending-a-student-over-instagram-memes/

FBI improperly used Section 702 surveillance powers to run queries on public officials. “The FBI’s improper use of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was documented in an opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and is sure to pose challenges for an intelligence community lobbying for the reauthorization for what it sees as one of its most vital tools. ….And critics complain the information gathered by the agency through 702 is too easily tapped for investigations with no foreign nexus. The surveillance court outlined three examples of instances where FBI personnel conducted searches of ‘sensitive query terms’, like those of U.S. public officials or candidates, without first seeking approval from the FBI’s deputy director. ‘In June 2022, an analyst conducted four queries of Section 702 information using the last names of a U.S. Senator and a state senator, without further limitation,’ the opinion states. ….’These disturbing new revelations show how Section 702 surveillance, a spy program the government claims is focused on foreign adversaries, is routinely used against Americans, immigrants, and people who are not accused of any wrongdoing,’ Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a statement. ‘The FBI continues to break the rules put in place to protect Americans, running illegal searches on public officials including a U.S. senator, and it’s long past time for Congress to step in. As Congress debates reauthorizing Section 702, these opinions make clear why fundamental reforms are urgently needed.'”   https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4110850-fbi-improperly-used-702-surveillance-powers-on-us-senator/

Republican politicians worried their party is getting too far out there. “GOP senators are saying they’re being increasingly confronted by constituents who buy into discredited conspiracy theories such as the claim that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election or that federal agents incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Growing distrust with government institutions, from the FBI, CIA and Department of Justice to the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health, make it more difficult for Republican lawmakers to govern. Republican senators believe their party has a good chance to take back control of the White House and Senate, given President Biden’s low approval ratings and the favorable map of Senate seats up for reelection, but they regularly face political headaches caused by populist members of their party…. ‘I’m having more “rational Republicans” coming up to me and saying, “I just don’t know how long I can stay in this party”,’ said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). ‘Now our party is becoming known as a group of kind of extremist, populist over-the-top [people] where no one is taking us seriously anymore. ….I think it’s going to get even more interesting as we move closer to the elections and we start going through some of these primary debates. Is it going to be a situation of who can be more outlandish than the other?’ she asked. ….Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an advisor to the Senate Republican leadership, said bread-and-butter conservative economic ideas still resonated with voters, but he acknowledged ‘the cable news shows’ continue to keep attention on themes that Trump likes to emphasize, such as election fraud and the ‘deep-state’ control of the federal government.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4098609-gop-senators-rattled-by-radical-conservative-populism/   Suddenly this is a problem, but not during the Trump administration?

Man who opened fire on Fargo police investigating traffic accident had multiple weapons and improvised explosive devices. “The motive behind now-dead Mohamad Barakat’s fatal ambush on Fargo police officers last week remains a mystery…. According to [North Dakota attorney general Drew] Wrigley, investigators have determined that Barakat was researching mass shootings less than 24 hours before he stalked four officers at the scene of a crash before fatally shooting Officer Jake Wallin and seriously injuring two other officers and a 25-year-old woman [involved in the traffic accident]. ….Few details about Barakat have been released, but authorities have said he came to the U.S. on an asylum request from Syria in 2012. He became a U.S. citizen in 2019 and worked ‘odd jobs’ off and on, according to Wrigley. ‘It is fair to say that we’ve established no ties to the Muslim community in the area,’ Wrigley said.”   https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/sinister-plans-of-fargo-cop-killer-stopped-by-horrible-winds-of-fate-ag-says

Phoenix, AZ experiences 22nd day with highs over 110 degrees. “Every single day so far in the month of July, the high temperature — as recorded by the National Weather Service at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport — has been 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. ….Friday marked 22 days in a row. ‘Right now, the forecast is for that to continue for the next several days,’ said Sean Benedict, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix.”   https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix-summer-heat-wav-keeps-breaking-records-16730635   The previous record was 18 days in a row.

Russian governor claims village hit with cluster munitions. “The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region has said that Ukraine fired cluster munitions at a village near the Ukrainian border on Friday, but that there were no casualties or damage. The governor made the statement on Saturday during a daily briefing on his Telegram channel, without providing visual evidence. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. ‘In Belgorod district, 21 artillery shells and three cluster munitions from a multiple-launch rocket system were fired at the village of Zhuravlevka,’ Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Ukraine received cluster bombs from the United States this month, but it has pledged to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/22/ukraine-hit-russian-village-with-cluster-munitions-governor

At least 35 killed, more than 300 arrested during anti-tax and inflation protests in Kenya. “Data shared with the AP by a police watchdog, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit, showed 35 people were killed by police across the country in such demonstrations this month. All but one, who suffocated from tear gas, were shot dead. Most were young men. ….Many Kenyans now accuse the president of making life unbearable with new taxes on fuel and other essentials, while food prices rise. ….[President William Ruto’s] administration has [blamed] the opposition for any chaos and charged more than 300 people this week alone with crimes that include looting, destroying property and assaulting police. Human rights organizations expressed concern over the police killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions…”   https://apnews.com/article/kenya-police-shootings-protests-economy-0a2b38a6d84a1ae9bca2fa8a1589b8b7

Guatemalan police raid office of progressive political party. “Police raided the offices of [Bernardo] Arevalo’s center-left Semilla party, the attorney general’s office announced, saying it was carrying out a July 12 court order that had canceled the group’s legal status. ….The raid follows an investigation into alleged irregularities in the registration of over 5,000 Semilla members, which the party has denied and which has been widely criticized by rights groups and Western governments as improper interference in Central America’s biggest democracy. A court ordered the suspension of the party earlier this month after the June 25 first-round presidential vote, in which Arevalo, running on an anti-corruption platform, secured a surprise second place and advanced to the Aug. 20 run-off. The constitutional court, Guatemala’s highest judicial authority, last week quashed the suspension, ruling that there are no legal impediments to Arevalo competing in the run-off.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/guatemalan-police-raid-party-offices-presidential-candidate-arevalo-2023-07-21/

Anti-government protests in Israel intensify ahead of Knesset vote. “The protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul will hold a last-ditch effort aimed at blocking the coalition from passing its first law in the contentious legislative package, with a series of events scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. ….Large demonstrations are also set to take place outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday night starting at 7:15 p.m. ….It will be the 29th week of protests since the government announced its plans to drastically weaken the judiciary.”   https://www.timesofisrael.com/protesters-set-to-make-last-ditch-stand-against-passing-of-1st-judicial-overhaul-law/