January 30, 2024

Man who leaked wealthy people’s tax returns gets five-year prison sentence. “A former IRS consultant was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax returns as well as the filings of thousands of other wealthy people to the news media. A district court judge on Monday agreed with the Justice Department that Charles Littlejohn, 38, deserved the maximum statutory sentence for what she called ‘egregious’ crimes. ….Littlejohn’s lawyers had asked for leniency in the form of a sentence of between 12 and 18 months, saying that, at the time, he believed the public had the right to know how much Trump and the others paid in taxes. He has since come to regret leaking the information, his representatives told the court. ….Littlejohn leaked the information to The New York Times and ProPublica, both of which protested the sentence. ….Relying on the documents, the [Times] published a blockbuster story in September 2020, shortly before the presidential election, showing that Trump had paid little or nothing in taxes. Littlejohn also separately gave tax data on thousands of wealthy people to ProPublica, which published a string of stories showing the strategies some use to reduce or erase their tax bills, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and George Soros. ProPublica spokeswoman Alexis Stephens said, ‘Whistleblowers are often the lifeblood of investigative journalism’ and ‘they deserve protection not prosecution’. Altogether, at least 152 people had their private information published in the media.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/29/irs-charles-littlejohn-tax-prison-trump-00138367

Source tells Washington Post 47 wounded in attack on U.S. base in Jordan, some seriously. “The dead were identified as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46; Spec. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24; and Spec. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23. They were members of an Army Reserve unit, the 718th Engineer Company, from Fort Moore in Georgia and the first American troops killed by hostile fire since the war in Gaza triggered a steep rise in violence across the Middle East. ….More than 40 troops were injured, {Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina] Singh said. Another official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the military’s ongoing assessment of the incident, said the attack left 47 wounded. Tower 22, which functions as a support site for a separate U.S. outpost across the border in Syria, houses about 350 American personnel.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/29/jordan-drone-attack-us-confusion/

Foreign-born residents of Japan sue over harassment by police. “The suit alleges [the three plaintiffs] were questioned by police on the basis of their race, skin color, nationality, and other factors, constituting discrimination in violation of Japan’s constitution, NHK reported. They are seeking three million yen (about $20,355) in compensation per person from the national government, the Tokyo metropolitan government, and the Aichi prefectural government. One plaintiff came to Japan from India after marrying his wife, and has lived there for more than 20 years, NHK reported. Since then, he has been repeatedly stopped and questioned by police officers on the street, sometimes twice a day. It got so bad he became afraid to leave the house at times, he said, according to NHK. Another plaintiff, a Pakistani-born Japanese citizen, said during the news conference, ‘I think that people in Japan have the image that… foreigners commit crimes.’ ….The country’s high ethnic homogeneity means people who look different can attract unwanted attention, and feel ‘othered’… especially those with darker skin.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/30/asia/japan-foreign-residents-lawsuit-discrimination-intl-hnk/index.html   The third plaintiff is reportedly an African-American man from the U.S.

U.S. arms manufacturers saw spike in foreign sales. “The $81 billion in sales brokered by the U.S. government represents a 56 percent increase, up from $52 billion in fiscal 2022. The fiscal 2023 total is the highest since 2020 when former President Donald Trump very publicly played the role of lead salesperson for U.S. military hardware — and when the U.S. initially struck a $14 billion megadeal for Indonesia to buy Boeing-made F-15s. Direct commercial sales between nations and defense firms themselves, which tend to be more opaque, totaled $157.5 billion for fiscal 2023, up slightly from $153.6 billion in fiscal 2022.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/29/us-foreign-arms-sales-russia-china-00138390

Defense Intelligence Agency and NSA reportedly buying Americans’ cell phone location data from data brokers. “United States officials fought to conceal details of arrangements between US spy agencies and private companies tracking the whereabouts of Americans via their cell phones. Obtaining location data from US phones normally requires a warrant, but police and intelligence agencies routinely pay companies instead for the data, effectively circumventing the courts. ….Pentagon offices known to have purchased location data from these companies include the Defense Intelligence Agency and the NSA, among others. ….[Sen. Ron] Wyden’s disclosure comes amid a fight in the US House of Representatives over efforts to outlaw the purchases entirely.”   https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-data-purchases-wyden-letter/

Undercover Israeli soldiers kill three sleeping terror suspects inside West Bank hospital. “Israeli forces have assassinated three men a hospital ward in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. The operation, confirmed by the Israeli army, was conducted by soldiers disguised as Palestinians, with CCTV footage showing dozens of undercover troops, including three in women’s clothing and two dressed as medical staff. They were seen in a corridor of Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin with assault rifles. The men were killed using silenced pistols, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.”   https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/palestine-israel/2024/01/30/israel-army-kills-three-suspected-hamas-members-in-jenin-hospital-raid/   They could have arrested them, but executed them instead. It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish between governments and organized crime organizations.

January 29, 2024

Florida legislators propose concealing identities of law enforcement and corrections officers who commit homicides. “Bills filed in Florida would allow law enforcement agencies to hide the names of police and correctional officers who kill people. Such legislation was widely expected after the Florida Supreme Court ruled in December that police departments could not invoke Marsy’s Law, a crime victims’ rights law adopted by Florida voters in 2018, to hide the names of officers involved in deadly shootings. The ruling was much broader than expected, though, and stripped privacy protections from civilian crime victims as well. The legislation is one of several efforts in the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature to further insulate police in the Sunshine State—once lauded for its expansive public record laws—from scrutiny. ….State Rep. Chuck Brannan (R–Macclenny) filed House Bill 1605 and House Bill 1607 earlier this month. The former would expand the definition of ‘crime victims’ to include ‘law enforcement officers, correctional officers, or correctional probation officers who use deadly force in the course and scope of their employment or official duties’. The latter would exempt records that could be used to identify and harass ‘crime victims’ from the state’s public records law unless the victim opts to have it disclosed.”   https://reason.com/2024/01/26/florida-bills-would-hide-the-names-of-police-officers-who-kill-people/

Three soldiers killed in attack on U.S. base in Jordan. “Three US service members have been killed and at least 34 others wounded in a drone attack in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border, the United States military has said. ….The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups, claimed attacks targeting three bases, including one on the Jordan-Syria border. ….In recent weeks, Iran-backed armed groups have intensified their attacks on US military bases in Iraq and neighbouring Syria in response to the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed groups have called their strikes… retaliation for Washington’s support for the Israeli war on Gaza and say they aim to push US forces out of the region.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/28/three-us-service-members-killed-in-jordan-drone-attack-biden-says

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: Russia likely funding pro-Palestinian peace protests. “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Sunday condemned Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for linking pro-Palestinian protesters to Russia during a CNN interview in which she also indicated she wants the FBI to investigate any potential financial links. Pelosi suggested on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ that some pro-Palestinian protesters who are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza are spreading a message that is beneficial to Russian President Vladimir Putin. ….’I think some of these — some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia. And I say that having looked at this for a long time now, as you know.'”   https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4434319-pelosi-pro-palestinian-protesters-russia/

Conservative and Green candidates to face off in Finland’s presidential election, both are pro-NATO. “Former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb won the first round of Finland’s presidential election Sunday and will face runner-up ex-Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto in a runoff next month. The vote largely centered on the Nordic nation’s new role as a NATO front-line country with Russia, and the security situation in Europe, particularly Russia’s assault on Ukraine. ….As foreign minister, [Green candidate] Haavisto signed Finland’s historic accession treaty to NATO last year…”   https://apnews.com/article/finland-presidential-election-cd3d168b50c72b0437f90c3c757a80e4   What’s up with the Greens? Germany’s Green foreign minister has claimed we’re already at war with Russia.   https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-accuses-russia-twisting-ministers-war-comments-propaganda-2023-01-27/   And 2020 U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins is backing Ukraine, instead of pressing for an immediate ceasefire and negotiated peace agreement. “… we agreed to build a broader network of people to support the Ukrainian people’s national liberation struggle. Our fundamental aim is to build moral, political and material support in labour and social movements for the people of Ukraine in their resistance to Russia’s invasion and their struggle for independence, democracy and social justice. We want to nurture links between progressive labor and social organizations in Ukraine and the United States.”   https://www.gp.org/anti_imperialist_position_is_to_support_the_national_liberation_struggle   “We’re Greens, we’re nationalists, and we’re in favor of expanding NATO right up to the Russian border.” Hawkins didn’t say that – it’s a joke based on an SNL skit making fun of public access cable TV: “The Gay, Communist, Gun Club – We’re gay, we’re communists, and we love guns.” “Caller #2: Yeah, I love guns.. but I ain’t no Commie, and I certainly ain’t no homosexual. Could I join? Bob: Sorry, no. We’d love to talk guns with you, but unless you took the next logical step of becoming gay and Communist, I don’t see much chance. Do you? John: No, not really. Next caller, please.”   https://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88cgunclub.phtml/

Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet advocate creation of Jewish settlements and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. “In front of an impassioned audience of thousands of right-wing activists, 11 government ministers and 15 coalition lawmakers pledged Sunday night to rebuild Jewish Israeli settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip, with some also encouraging the emigration of the Palestinian population after the war with Hamas is over. ….’We have an obligation to act, for our sakes and even for the sake of those purported uninvolved civilians, to [bring about] voluntary emigration — even if this war, which was imposed on us, turns this voluntary migration into a situation of “Coerce him until he says, ‘I want to do so.'”….”   https://www.timesofisrael.com/12-ministers-call-to-resettle-gaza-encourage-gazans-to-leave-at-jubilant-conference/

UK Labour Party M.P. suspended over Holocaust Remembrance Day comments. “Labour MP Kate Osamor…. sparked outrage after claiming in her weekly newsletter to local members that Gaza should be added to the list of ‘recent genocides’. ….she wrote on X: ‘Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza.’ ….A Labour source confirmed to MailOnline on Sunday evening that the Chief Whip has suspended Kate Osamor from the Parliamentary Labour Party pending an investigation.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13016513/labour-mp-suspended-kate-osamor-holocaust-israel-genocide-gaza.html   Are some genocides worse than others, or is genocide a bad thing no matter who the victims are? It’s a bit surreal to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day and ignore the tens of thousands of civilians currently being killed in Gaza, not because they belong to Hamas but because they Palestinians.

Former leader of Canada’s left-of-center New Democratic Party, Ed Broadbent, dies at 87. “Broadbent, who served as a member of parliament and was a staunch labor advocate, led Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1975 to 1989. In 2011, he established the Broadbent Institute, a progressive policy research and educational organization. ….Broadbent’s vision laid out a path for Canada to progress beyond basic welfare initiatives toward a society that is truly just and egalitarian — a vision that remains deeply relevant today. ….’Since the 1930s we have experienced important modifications of the classical [free market] structure. The more important of these include: (1) the right of trade unions to exist and to strike; (2) the gradual implementation of old age pensions; (3) some form of progressive taxation; (4) comprehensive medical and health programs; and (5) an unemployment insurance scheme. No sensible Canadian would deny that these measures have made a very significant change in the kind of life the majority of our people can now experience. They have provided the quantitative basis for a qualitatively enriched life for millions of adults and children. These five changes have provided the structural core of our modern welfare state. ….To defend what we have and to refuse to go beyond is to cease to lead. And to cease to lead beyond the welfare state is to leave Canadians with a kind of society which is inherently inegalitarian, inherently acquisitive, and inherently unjust.”   https://jacobin.com/2024/01/ed-broadbent-canada-welfare-state

Police in Israel clash with anti-Netanyahu protesters. “Fighting erupted Sunday between Israeli protesters and police attempting to disperse crowds in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media, reports Anadolu Agency. The protesters were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the release of hostages held in Gaza. The Israeli broadcasting authority reported that police ‘attempted to disperse the protesters in Paris Square, in the center of West Jerusalem, where several of them were arrested.’ The [dispersal of protesters] in West Jerusalem, estimated to be in the hundreds, followed confrontations with police. In Tel Aviv, police arrested several protesters in Kaplan Square in the city center, while hundreds were dispersed by force… according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. It said that ‘thousands of Israelis gathered in Kaplan Square to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and early elections.’ Protesters raised the slogan: ‘Elections Now’ and chanted for the immediate dismissal of Netanyahu, according to the report. Several other areas in Israel witnessed protests with thousands participating, demanding the dismissal of the government and the release of hostages.”   https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240128-israel-fighting-erupts-between-police-protesters-in-jerusalem-tel-aviv/

Man hoping to challenge Putin in next election wants negotiated solution to Ukraine conflict. “[Boris] Nadezhdin has a controversial political past. His regular appearances on Russian state television programs, mixed in with an overwhelming majority of pro-Putin commentators, led some to label him a ‘conformist’ and a ‘token liberal’. ….In a recent interview with Georgian news outlet Sova he ducked the question of whether he considers occupied territories to be part of Russia, saying that ‘this is a matter of negotiations and a peace treaty.’ He added that ‘the position of those who live in Crimea, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions matters much more’ than his own personal view. ….’Nadezhdin’s personal [popularity] here is small; there could be someone else in his place… saying simple yet amazing things: He wants a peaceful, free Russia that exists to benefit its citizens.’ [Political analyst Maxim] Oreshkin added, ‘The main news here is that these words suddenly resonated.'”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/26/putin-challenger-russia-boris-nadezhdin/

Toyota apologizes for inflated engine power claims. “Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that power output data had been manipulated for 10 of its models sold globally, in a new blow to the world’s biggest automaker group…. Its affiliate Toyota Industries Corp. fabricated the data on diesel engines it makes and supplies for the automaker, Toyota said, adding that it will suspend shipment of the affected vehicles, including the Land Cruiser 300 and the Hilux. ….The 10 models also include the Hiace, the Fortuner and the Innova. The cars were sold in Japan, Europe and the Middle East, among other markets. The output data rigging dates back to 2017, Toyota Industries said. ….Toyota Industries doctored the volume of fuel injection in engine output tests in a bid to make the engines’ torque, or rotational force, appear better than it was, according to a report by a third-party panel.”   https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/01/ae5a9a8eaf58-urgent-toyota-group-firm-rigged-data-on-diesel-engine-power-output.html

January 28, 2024

Western nations cut funding for U.N. relief agency after allegations small number of employees had links to Hamas. “The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) earlier said it had opened an investigation after Israel alleged that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attacks that triggered the current conflict. Australia, Canada, Italy and the United States said they would halt funding to the agency, while European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-member bloc would ‘assess further steps and draw lessons based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation’. Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom then also joined the list of countries pausing financial aid to the UN agency, whose facilities where displaced Palestinians sought shelter have been repeatedly attacked in Israeli air raids. Ireland and Norway, however, expressed continued support for UNRWA, saying the agency does crucial work to help Palestinians displaced and in desperate need of assistance in Gaza. ….On Friday, UNRWA said it had fired several employees and that it had opened an investigation into the allegations.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/27/palestinians-slam-suspension-of-unrwa-funding-by-some-western-nations   Note that about 12 out of 13,000 UNRWA employees have been implicated so far. On the other hand, Israel has killed between 25,000 and 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, with no indication this was the work of ‘rogue’ employees. Despite this, no western countries have cut off aid to Israel, a shocking double standard.   https://www.npr.org/2024/01/27/1227434309/several-nations-pause-funding-to-unrwa-over-alleged-staff-involvement-in-hamas-a   Note also that western aid to Israel is mostly military, while UNRWA provides food, shelter and medical aid to a population the International Court of Justice has ruled is at threat of genocide.   “The ICJ ordered Israel to take a series of measures against potentially genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza. These include measures not only on the battlefield but also against public incitement to genocide. It also ordered Israel to take ‘immediate and effective measures’ to enable the provision of aid to people in Gaza.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68108260

Ukraine says $40 million stolen by corrupt defense officials. “Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Saturday it had uncovered a corruption scheme in the purchase of arms by the country’s military totalling the equivalent of about $40 million. ….The SBU said an investigation had ‘exposed officials of the Ministry of Defence and managers of arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, who stole nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias in the purchase of shells.’ ….The SBU said a contract for the shells was [negotiated] with Lviv Arsenal in August 2022 – six months into the war – and payment was made in advance, with some funds transferred abroad. But no arms were ever provided, the statement said, with some funds then moved to other foreign accounts.”   https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-says-uncovers-mass-fraud-225706554.html

43 more Alabama inmates to be executed using nitrogen hypoxia. “Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said that 43 more death row inmates have elected to die by nitrogen hypoxia. People incarcerated on death row are able to chose their preferred method from electrocution, lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia. ‘What occurred last night was textbook,’ AG Marshall said. ‘As of last night, nitrogen hypoxia as a means of execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one.'”   https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kenneth-eugene-smith-alabama-execution-nitrogen-b2486022.html   I suggest bringing back the guillotine and broadcasting executions on TV. It’s quick, low-pain, and will deter criminals while also making the public reconsider their support for the death penalty.

Venezuela bans opposition candidate from running for president. “[Maria Corina] Machado, a former lawmaker, won the opposition’s independently run presidential primary in October with more than 90% of the votes. Her victory came despite the government announcing a 15-year ban on her running for office just days after she formally entered the race in June. She was able to participate in the primary election because the effort was organized by a commission independent of Venezuela’s electoral authorities. She insisted throughout the campaign that she never received an official notification of the ban, and said that voters, not ruling-party loyalists, are the rightful decision-makers of her candidacy. ….Machado had filed a claim with Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice in December arguing the ban was null and void and seeking an injunction to protect her political rights. Instead, the court upheld the ban, which alleges fraud and tax violations and accuses her of seeking the economic sanctions the U.S. imposed on Venezuela…”   https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240127-venezuela-s-highest-court-upholds-ban-on-opposition-presidential-candidate-machado

Official death toll in Gaza now exceeds 26,000, not counting missing. “The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday at least 26,083 people have been killed in the war between the militant group and Israel. The latest toll includes 183 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while 64,487 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war erupted on October 7. ‘Many people are still under the rubble and rescuers cannot reach them,’ the ministry added.”   https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2024/Jan/08/israel-hamas-war-after-three-months-of-devastation-in-gaza-is-anyone-winning-2649112.html

Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate sections of Khan Younis. “The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians who had been displaced and were sheltering in a United Nations vocational training center in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis. The order came Thursday as the Israeli military’s ground offensive in Gaza intensified in the south – where more than 1 million people have fled seeking safety – telling those in the center to leave by 5 p.m. Friday, according to Palestinian media. The training center, which is run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, is the largest such U.N. facility in Khan Younis. More than 40,000 people have been sheltering in or around the center, according to the U.N. ….The order to leave the U.N. center also came as Israel reiterated orders for a number of entire Khan Younis neighborhoods to flee ‘for their safety’ and directed them to go to the overcrowded coastal area of Muwasi, which Israel has unilaterally designated a humanitarian zone.”   https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/jan/26/israel-orders-evacuation-of-tens-of-thousands-of-a/   The Gaza ghetto is getting smaller and smaller….

Women in Kenya protest against ‘femicide’. “The protests — which have taken place in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, as well as in the major cities of Mombasa, Kisumu, Nyeri and Nakuru — have seen demonstrators calling for an end to violence against women and girls. At least 10 cases of femicide have been reported in Kenya since Jan. 1, according to Amnesty International Kenya, bringing the rising gender-based violence to the forefront of national headlines. In 2022, there were 46 total femicide deaths recorded in Kenya, according to health data provider Africa Data Hub. In 2023, the number of femicides in the country rose to at least 75.”   https://abcnews.go.com/International/thousands-join-protests-femicide-kenya-after-rise-killings/story?id=106731619   In 2020 there were 3,111 total homicides reported in Kenya. “As of 2020, some 3,111 homicides were reported to the police in Kenya, increasing from 2,971 in the previous year. The number kept a slow upward trend starting in 2016.”   https://www.statista.com/statistics/1241731/number-of-reported-homicides-in-kenya/   The figures for 2020 are the last year reported. It appears that far, far more males are being murdered than females, despite a Kenyan feminist’s claim to the BBC that the country’s women are being exterminated, an assertion that went unchallenged by the (female) interviewer.

Tokyo hit by 4.8 magnitude earthquake, receives surprisingly little news coverage. “An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 struck Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture and other areas in eastern Japan on Sunday morning but there was no danger of a tsunami, the weather agency said. The 8:59 a.m. quake registered 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in central and other areas of Tokyo and in Yokohama in Kanagawa, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. There were no immediate reports of casualties…”   https://japantoday.com/category/national/update1-m4.8-quake-hits-tokyo-kanagawa-other-eastern-japan-areas

Psychic Uri Geller claims NASA rocket engineer Wernher von Braun and astronaut Edgar Mitchell showed him bodies of aliens. “He claimed the bodies were kept inside a ‘massive’ and refrigerated room deep below NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, which is about 10km northeast of Washington DC, in Greenbelt, Maryland in the US. ….Three flights of stairs below the building, he claims to have seen about eight bodies – some of which were ‘not intact but mangled’ – in glass containers. ….Inside the ‘coffins’ – which were supposedly misted with frost along the edges and corners – were thin and frail-looking, small-bodied creatures with big heads, according to the magician. ‘They looked uncannily like us -enough for me to feel repulsed and sorry for seeing these ‘victims’. They had either been severely injured or had decomposed a lot.'”   https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25544781/aliens-secret-nasa-base-uri-geller/

Former Iowa State University student wants campus police officer fired after violent arrest. “When Dariq Myles pulled into a city parking lot in Campustown to park Aug. 12, an Iowa State University Police Department (ISUPD) officer pulled his vehicle behind him, stopping him for tinted windows. The body and dash camera footage from the stop was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday and showed that the officer, Frankie Contreras, grabbed Myles after he asked for a sergeant on the scene and took him to the ground, tearing his labrum, which required surgery. ….’While the review concluded that there was not an excessive use of force in this situation, the review and the officer himself acknowledged that he could have used better de-escalation techniques during the traffic stop. The officer in this case has and will continue to receive advanced training in these areas,’ [ISUPD Chief Michael] Newton stated. Myles said he was ‘greatly disheartened’ by Newton’s statement and questioned what ISUPD defines as excessive use of force. ‘To see that there was no excessive use of force—even though I have a fully torn labrum; [I] still have back problems and neck issues—I don’t know what a use of force is when somebody is required to get surgery or they’re required to alter their life, all because of an incident that happened because somebody forced me to the ground,’ Myles said. Myles added that it did not shock him that there was no wrongdoing found because the police investigated themselves.”   https://iowastatedaily.com/288685/news/isupd-video-shows-officer-injuring-student-during-august-traffic-stop/

Former government insider Daniel Ellsberg claimed movie ‘Dr. Strangelove’ was eerily realistic. “‘How, I wondered, had the filmmakers picked up such an esoteric, highly secret (and totally incredible) detail as the lack of a ‘Stop code’, and the alleged reason for it? Or, for that matter, the real lack of any physical restraint on the ability of a squadron commander, or even a bomber pilot, to execute an attack without presidential authorization?’ ….The bomber pilots in ‘Dr. Strangelove’… open an envelope from Strategic Air Command (SAC) that contains ‘Plan R’. It is a top secret plan for a nuclear strike. The pilots follow instructions, silence their radio, and set a code receiver to block transmissions to ensure that the Soviets cannot sabotage them. According to Ellsberg’s book [‘The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner’], this was a stunningly accurate depiction of the envelope authentication procedures that were used. In 1959, he found out that the U.S. Pacific Air Forces had only one envelope with only one card. That card contained a ‘Go’ code for executing a strike. ‘There was no stop or return code in the envelope or otherwise in the possession of the plane crew.’ If an ‘Execute’ order was received, the procedure was designed to ensure that no official, not even the president of the United States, would be able to reverse course. ….to prevent the Soviet Union from discovering the code and ‘misdirect[ing] the whole force [to return]’. General Jack Ripper, the maniac commanding officer who orders the nuclear attack… [takes steps to] make it impossible for officers higher in the chain of command to stop him. The general shares his belief that ‘war is too important to be left to politicians’. ….During another scene, Russian ambassador Alexi de Sadesky informs the [U.S.] War Room that the Soviet Union has a Doomsday Machine that will trigger automatically if the attack ordered by Ripper succeeds. The doomsday device will most certainly annihilate all human and animal life on earth. What Kubrick probably did not realize was that both the Soviet Union and the U.S. had doomsday devices when he made ‘Dr. Strangelove’.”   https://thedissenter.org/60-years-of-dr-strangelove-how-learned-stop-worrying-love-bomb/

Alaska Airlines has filed more than 1,200 defect reports with FAA on its Boeing 737 MAX fleet. “They include fuel leaks on potentially hundreds of planes caused by misapplied sealant, malfunctioning stabilizing motors, debris found in fuel tanks, engine stalls during takeoff, and malfunctioning anti-ice systems, among other issues. ….Safety advocates assert that understaffed airline regulators have failed to acknowledge or address the problems — all while Boeing has spent millions to curry favor with lawmakers through lobbying and campaign contributions. Though many of the incidents detailed in the safety reports would not necessarily cause a plane to crash, the totality of the incidents point to serious issues with Boeing’s production process, said Ed Pierson, a former senior Boeing employee and founder of the Foundation for Aviation Safety. ‘What we’re talking about is a cumulative effect of multiple emergencies at the same time,’ Pierson told us. ‘These add up, and these are new planes [that] should not be having these problems. There are clearly manufacturing defects because the planes haven’t been operated long enough to do any kind of maintenance on them.'”   https://jacobin.com/2024/01/boeing-safety-reports-faa-737-max

January 27, 2024

Houston unable to find three jurors willing to impose $500 fine for feeding homeless. “Fifteen Houstonians called for jury duty filed into a courtroom Thursday afternoon. ….Three of the 15 would be selected to decide the outcome of a case alleging that a woman had violated Houston law by feeding the homeless without the city’s permission. Roughly an hour later, the jury pool filed back out — all 15 of them. The lawyers had been unable to fill an unbiased jury. Too many of the potential jurors said that even if the defendant, Elisa Meadows, were guilty, they were unwilling to issue the $500 fine a city attorney was seeking, said Ren Rideauxx, Meadows’ attorney. A few jurors were also struck because they could not stay late that afternoon to serve on a jury.”   https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/food-not-bombs-trial-busted-jury-panel-homeless-18617041.php

FBI reportedly questioning social media users over anti-Israeli posts. “‘We’ve received several reports of the FBI visiting activists in response to their social media posts criticizing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,’ Palestine Legal, said on X urging victims of FBI harassment to know their rights if approached by federal officers. ….’Activists have a right to condemn apartheid and genocide. They also have a right to refuse to speak to FBI agents without an attorney.’ The organisation says it has received multiple accounts of activists being visited by FBI agents with printed copies of their tweets, Facebook posts and TikTok videos showing Gazan children killed in Israeli air strikes. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee confirmed it has also documented increased FBI questioning of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims over the past year, calling it ‘state intimidation tactics’ aimed at suppressing dissent.”   https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240125-rights-group-report-spike-in-fbi-interrogation-of-pro-palestine-activists/

NSA buying U.S. internet data. “The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans’ domestic internet activities from commercial data brokers, according to an unclassified letter by the agency. The letter, addressed to a Democratic senator [Ron Wyden] and obtained by The New York Times, offered few details about the nature of the data other than to stress that it did not include the content of internet communications. Still, the revelation is the latest disclosure to bring to the fore a legal gray zone: Intelligence and law enforcement agencies sometimes purchase potentially sensitive and revealing domestic data from brokers that would require a court order to acquire directly.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/us/politics/nsa-internet-privacy-warrant.html

Washington, D.C. experiences record January high temperature of 80 F. “Temperatures surged about 35 degrees above normal Friday, as highs climbed well into the 70s to near 80 across the region, breaking records that stood for decades. Reagan National Airport, the official observing site for Washington, reached 80 degrees, the highest observed in January since record keeping began in 1872.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/01/26/dc-record-january-temperature-climate/

Lawsuit accuses Biden administration of complicity in genocide in Gaza. “Lawyers representing Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, attended Friday’s proceedings along with the plaintiffs who accuse them of ‘failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide’. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S. civil liberties group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the human rights organization Defense for Children – Palestine, Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group based in the occupied West Bank, and eight Palestinians and U.S. citizens with relatives in Gaza. ….the CCR is arguing that by providing weapons to Israel, the US’s support violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/26/us-court-hears-civil-case-accusing-biden-of-complicity-in-gaza

Christian nationalist ‘God’s Army’ headed for southern border. “A trucker convoy of ‘patriots’ is heading to the U.S. border with Mexico next week, as the standoff between Texas and the federal government intensifies. The organizers of the ‘Take Our Border Back’ convoy have called themselves ‘God’s army’ and say they’re on a mission to stand up against the ‘globalists’ who they claim are conspiring to keep U.S. borders open and destroy the country. ‘This is a biblical, monumental moment that’s been put together by God,’ one convoy organizer said on a recent planning call. ‘We are besieged on all sides by dark forces of evil,’ said another. ….Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government—not Texas—had authority over the border, and that Border Control could cut down the razor wire. Texas has since doubled down on erecting razor wire, and officials said that they plan to ‘hold the line’. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote a letter accusing the federal government of ‘breaking its compact between the United States and the States’. At least 16 Republican governors say they support him, as Biden faces calls from some Democrats to ‘federalize’ the Texas national guard, which would remove it from Abbott’s command. These latest developments have aroused civil war fantasies on fringe forums, as well as on the social media accounts of GOP lawmakers and right-wing political commentators. On Thursday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Newsmax host Carl Rigbie mused about the possibility of a ‘force-on-force conflict’ erupting between the federal government and the Texas National Guard…”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9adk/trucker-convoy-eagle-pass-texas-border-dispute-christian-nationalism   Donald Trump urges governors to send National Guard troops to Texas. “Like pouring water on a grease fire, former President Donald Trump has weighed in on the escalating standoff between the federal government and Texas. In a multi-part social media post shared Thursday night, Trump called on ‘all willing states’ to deploy their national guard forces to Texas ‘to prevent the entry of illegals, and to remove them back across the Border.’ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Tucker Carlson on Friday, that so far, ten governors had sent National Guard or other law enforcement resources to assist on the border, and will be ‘disappointed’ if others do not follow suit.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/epv7p7/trump-national-guard-texas-border-dispute-federal-government-standoff

January 26, 2024

Florida bills would outlaw police oversight boards. “The legislation, House Bill 601 and its companion Senate Bill 576, would make it unlawful for a county or municipal government to pass ordinances related to civilian oversight of police misconduct investigations or the handling of misconduct complaints against law enforcement officers. Currently, the bills have passed several committees, and the Tallahassee Democrat reports they have the support of Republican majorities in both chambers, as well as influential Florida law enforcement groups. The bill’s text says its purpose is to create a uniform process for how police departments handle misconduct complaints against officers, but it would… leave police departments to hold themselves accountable and eliminate 21 civilian police oversight boards operating throughout Florida.”   https://reason.com/2024/01/25/florida-legislation-would-ban-civilian-police-oversight-boards/

Video doorbell company will require law enforcement to have search warrants to obtain footage. “Ring, which is owned by Amazon, offers a companion app called Neighbors, which lets users upload and share footage captured by their Ring video doorbells and surveillance cameras. ….Ring debuted the Request for Assistance tool in 2021, a Neighbors feature through which law enforcement agencies could ‘request information or video’ from users. Ring noted at the time that ‘you always have total control over your experience. Request for Assistance posts are opt-in, nothing is shared with any agency unless you actively go through the steps of choosing to do so.’ Requests would also be publicly accessible. Eric Kuhn, who runs Neighbors, wrote on the site’s blog this week that Ring would be ‘sunsetting the Request for Assistance (RFA) tool’. Kuhn noted that ‘public safety agencies like fire and police departments can still use the Neighbors app to share helpful safety tips, updates, and community events’, but ‘they will no longer be able to use the RFA tool to request and receive video in the app.’ Kuhn didn’t specify why Ring was choosing to shutter the RFA tool, but it was a potential civil liberties nightmare. As Reason noted in July 2022, police departments could access users’ Ring footage without a warrant. While Ring insisted that users had control over who had access to their footage, the Law Enforcement Request page on Amazon’s website included a bright red ‘Submit Emergency Request’ button, and Amazon’s ‘Law Enforcement Guidelines’ noted that the company ‘reserves the right to respond immediately to urgent law enforcement requests for information in cases involving a threat to public safety or risk of harm to any person’.”   https://reason.com/2024/01/25/amazons-ring-will-stop-giving-police-your-doorbell-footage-without-a-warrant/

Alabama nitrogen gas execution does not go as promised, as prisoner slowly dies from gradual suffocation. “Witnesses to Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution say convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney for at least two minutes, sometimes pulling against restraints. The execution took about 22 minutes, and Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. ….The state had predicted the nitrogen gas would cause unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes. State Attorney General Steve Marshall said late Thursday that nitrogen gas ‘was intended to be — and has now proved to be — an effective and humane method of execution.’ Asked about Smith’s shaking and convulsing on the gurney, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm said they appeared to be involuntary movements.”   https://www.newsnationnow.com/banfield/nitrogen-gas-execution-witnesses-smith-writhe/   “… Smith was shaking, writhing, and thrashing up and down on the gurney for two whole minutes after the nitrogen gas started filling up his mask. This was followed by five to seven minutes of heavy breathing and slight gasping. In total, Smith, 58, was visibly conscious and struggling in apparent pain for nearly 10 minutes before his breathing seemed to slowly stop at 8:08 pm. The viewing curtains closed at 8:15 pm and he was pronounced dead at 8:25 pm.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13008813/Kenneth-Eugene-Smith-die-agony-Alabama.html

Biden administration to review export of LNG, pauses applications for new shipping terminals after pressure from climate groups. “The Department of Energy will be launching a review to determine how to factor in the impact of climate change in whether to approve new natural gas export facilities but will not halt current natural gas exports. It would be the first time the federal government has considered blocking this kind of project because it could contribute to climate change. Liquified natural gas, or LNG, is natural gas that has been cooled to make it easier to transport. In 2023, the U.S. became the largest LNG exporter in the world, partly due to the increase in domestic production and construction of new LNG export terminals, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.”   https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-cites-climate-pause-liquified-natural-gas/story?id=106686922

Press group accuses Israeli military of targeting Palestinian journalists. “The International Press Institute (IPI) on Thursday, January 25, called for a stop to journalist killings in Gaza, with at least 80 reporters and media workers having died in Israeli airstrikes in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.  The IPI said, ‘Israel must respect the rules of war, credibly investigate any killings of journalists by its forces, and allow international journalists access to Gaza.’ ….IPI’s Executive Board… described the killings in Gaza and southern Lebanon as ‘unabated’, involving as well ‘the apparent targeting in some cases of our colleagues in Gaza and the region’. ….the at least 80 killed represent ‘the largest number of journalists killed in such a short span of time in a conflict zone since IPI was founded in 1950.'”   https://www.rappler.com/world/middle-east/international-press-institute-statement-calls-for-israel-stop-journalist-killings/

Only 44% of Americans able to cover $1,000 emergency expense. “While a percentage point higher than last year, most people still say they would be derailed by such a crisis.”   https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2024/01/25/emergency-expense-savings-study/72356517007/   “Nearly half of Americans have $500 or less in their savings accounts, an amount that leaves them vulnerable to unexpected expenses, according to a GOBankingRates survey of 1,063 U.S. adults conducted in November 2023. About 29% of respondents have between $501 and $5,000 in their savings accounts, while the remaining 21% of Americans have $5,001 or more.”   https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/24/how-much-money-americans-have-in-savings.html

Federal grand jury charges sheriff and deputy over jail tasing incident. “A federal grand jury in Florence [South Carolina] indicted former Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon and former Deputy David Andrew Cook on Wednesday, accusing them of using excessive force when they used a Taser on a prisoner at the county’s center in May 2020. The indictment alleges that Lemon directed Cook to use a Taser on the victim without legal justification. The indictment also alleges the offense resulted in bodily injury to the victim. Footage of the incident showed Lemon telling his deputy to take off the victim’s handcuffs and use a Taser on his head when he turns around. Lemon, 59, and Cook, 29, both of Bennettsville, face a maximum possible penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted, the U.S. Justice Department said in a release. Lemon and Cook are expected to make an initial appearance at the McMillian Federal Courthouse in Florence in early February.”   https://www.wbtw.com/news/pee-dee/marlboro-county/former-marlboro-county-sheriff-and-ex-deputy-indicted-for-use-of-excessive-force-in-2020-incident/

Myanmar rebel group claims it controls western port town of Pauktaw. “The Arakan Army (AA) said late Wednesday it ‘completely controlled’ Pauktaw, a town of 20,000 people close to a crucial deepwater port in the capital of western Rakhine state. AA fighters briefly seized Pauktaw in November, shattering a fragile ceasefire that had largely held since the military’s coup in 2021. The junta has used artillery and naval ships to bombard the town almost daily since and strafed it with gunfire from helicopters, residents have told AFP. ….A source close to the AA told AFP earlier this week that its fighters were conducting ‘clearance operations’ in the town.”   https://www.thedefensepost.com/2024/01/25/myanmar-ethnic-fighters-port-town/

International Court of Justice orders Israel to stop killing civilians. “The United Nations’ top court ordered Israel on Friday to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in its military offensive in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire. South Africa alleged that Israel’s campaign in the tiny coastal enclave amounted to genocide in the case, which goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, and had asked the court to order Israel to halt the operation. While the ruling stopped short of that, it nonetheless constituted an overwhelming rebuke of Israel’s wartime conduct and adds to mounting international pressure to halt the offensive that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, decimated vast swaths Gaza, and driven nearly 85% of its 2.3 million people from their homes.”   https://news.yahoo.com/top-un-court-set-issue-055946714.html

20 killed, 150 wounded in alleged Israeli strike that hit Gaza crowd waiting for aid. “An Israeli strike on Gaza City killed 20 Palestinians and wounded 150 who were queuing for food aid on Thursday, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said, in what a Palestinian coalition called a ‘war crime’. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-tanks-batter-hospital-districts-gazas-khan-younis-2024-01-25/

January 25, 2024

Man sues Sunglass Hut for having him arrested due to faulty facial recognition match. “Harvey Murphy was arrested in October 2022 for the armed burglary of a Huston-area Sunglass Hut store after a facial recognition device identified him as the burglar. The only problem? Murphy was in Sacramento, California at the time of the crime—thousands of miles away. ….Anthony Pfleger, the head of loss prevention at EssilorLuxottica, Sunglass Hut’s parent company, called the police and told them that the armed burglar had been identified. Apparently, facial recognition software had concluded that Harvey Murphy was the criminal—and that he had even been responsible for additional robberies of a different Huston-area Sunglass Hut and a Macy’s store. ….In October 2022, Murphy, who had been living in California, returned to Texas for work. After attempting to renew his driver’s license at a local DMV, he was arrested and booked into the Harris County jail. According to the complaint, once Murphy learned he was being charged for the January 22, 2022 robbery, he informed his lawyer that he was in a different state at the time of the crime. Soon after, the District Attorney agreed to drop the charges against Murphy. However, just hours before Murphy was set to be released, he says he was beaten and gang raped in a jail bathroom by three prisoners. ….’All of this happened to Murphy because the Defendants relied on facial recognition technology that is known to be error prone and faulty.'”   https://reason.com/2024/01/24/man-sues-sunglass-hut-after-faulty-ai-facial-recognition-tech-led-to-wrongful-arrest/

Minnesota state trooper charged in fatal shooting of fleeing motorist. “[Trooper Ryan] Londregan is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter — all felonies. ….As Londregan pulled the door open, [Ricky] Cobb shifted the vehicle into drive and took his foot off the brake. The vehicle began moving forward slowly. ….The trooper on the driver’s side door also attempted to open the door and tried reaching for Cobb’s seatbelt. At that moment, Cobb stepped on the brake and vehicle stopped moving forward. It was at that time that Londregan pulled his firearm and pointed it at Cobb, the complaint said. Londregan allegedly yelled ‘get out of the car now’ as Cobb again took his foot off the brake with the vehicle again moving forward. According to the criminal complaint, Londregan fired his handgun ‘within several tenths of second’ after yelling at Cobb to get out of the vehicle. He fired twice at Cobb’s torso, hitting him both times.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/hennepin-county-prosecutors-charging-decision-in-ricky-cobb-ii-case/

Heavy rain causes flash flooding in Texas and Louisiana. “More than a month’s worth of rain has fallen in several Texas and Louisiana cities from Monday to Wednesday. ….The week’s rainfall eclipsed 10 inches west of Houston, in Industry and Fayetteville, Texas. The torrential rainfall is part of a multi-day flood threat that began Monday and reached its peak intensity Wednesday. The city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was soaked with 4.94 inches of rain from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening, according to preliminary rainfall reports from the National Weather Service in New Orleans. ….About 70 miles east of Louisiana’s capital, the city of Mandeville saw 7.15 inches of rainfall from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening, preliminary rainfall reports show. Of that deluge, 4.71 inches fell between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday, making for a 1-in-10-year event, according to rainfall analysis from CNN Weather.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/24/weather/flood-warnings-texas-louisiana-climate/index.html

Vancouver, WA Proud Boy/Sovereign Citizen sentenced to 6 years in prison for rioting at Capitol and lack of remorse. “‘You are outside of your jurisdiction,’ [Marc] Bru said in lieu of giving a closing argument. ‘You have trafficked me and you have committed war crimes against me.’ ….’You can give me a hundred years and I’d do it all over again,’ he said. ….In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said Bru didn’t stop at Jan. 6. After returning home, Bru reportedly sought to buy gas masks in bulk and ‘made plans to lead a violent, armed insurrection to take over the government in Portland, Oregon’…”   https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/national/capitol-riots/doj-seeks-7-years-in-prison-for-sovereign-citizen-proud-boy-convicted-in-capitol-riot-marc-bru-washington-portland/65-40470ad3-c7d8-4243-86f0-0722120a2626

An estimated 65,000 rape victims denied access to legal abortions in states with total bans. “In the study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers from Planned Parenthood, Resound Research for Reproductive Health and academic institutions across the US used a combination of federal surveys on crime and sexual violence to estimate that there were about 520,000 rapes that led to 64,565 pregnancies in the time since abortion bans have been enacted in 14 states – ranging by state from four to 18 months ago. ….’Whether these survivors of rape had illegal abortions, received medication abortion through the mail, traveled to other states, or carried the child to birth is unknown.'”   https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/24/health/rape-pregnancy-abortion/index.html

Woman found guilty of stabbing boyfriend to death is sentenced to probation after ‘reefer madness’ defense. “Bryn Spejcher, now 33, had taken a hit of marijuana from a bong while at victim Chad O’Melia’s Thousand Oaks apartment in 2018 when she suddenly began attacking him with a knife. Despite ingesting a single toke of a standard pot leaf, Spejcher was launched into an extended rage, stabbing the 26-year-old accountant 108 times. Lawyers for Spejcher, an audiologist, argued that she wasn’t responsible for the bloody slaying because of her intoxicated state. ….[O’Melia’ s father] said the weed had been purchased at a local dispensary, and that there were no other reports of it inducing psychotic episodes in others. He said he believes that Spejcher had a predisposition that made her susceptible to marijuana-induced psychosis, but said she was deserving of jail time.”   https://nypost.com/2024/01/24/news/dad-rages-at-probation-for-bryn-spejcher-who-killed-his-son/

Four Albuquerque police officers under investigation for corruption. “The same scenario happens time and time again in the cases we reviewed. The officers make DWI arrests, the defendants hire [a] particular attorney, the officers don’t show up to court, and the cases get dismissed. ….Thomas Clear III is the same attorney who keeps showing up on the list of dismissed DWI cases. KOB 4 confirmed last week that FBI agents also raided his office in a Mid Heights neighborhood Thursday. ….’DWI cases are based on the testimony of the DWI investigative officer, so without that testimony there is no way to continue on with that case, and it is extremely disappointing, very upsetting.'”   https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/dwi-corruption-scandal-identifying-the-apd-officers-and-attorney-at-the-center-of-a-federal-investigation/

Japanese man with grudge sentenced to death for setting fatal animation studio fire. “A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more. The incident, one of Japan’s deadliest in recent decades, killed mostly young artists and shocked the anime world. Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of ‘mental incompetence’. Judges rejected this however, ruling that Aoba knew what he was doing. ….Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Aoba, saying he was motivated to attack the studio after believing his work had been stolen. He said Kyoto Animation – known as KyoAni- had plagiarised a novel he entered into their contest. ….Those convicted typically remain on death row for years, or even decades. The death penalty is conducted by hanging.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68090388   In addition to banning guns, it looks like Japan needs a ban on gasoline too, because only if we ban anything that can possibly be used to kill people will society be safe. Knives, vehicles, baseball bats, ties, etc. (sarcasm) A Japanese care home employee stabbed 19 disabled residents to death in 2016. Clearly, the public’s access to knives resulted in a mass murder. (more sarcasm)

Unions in Argentina stage general strike against policies of new prime minister. “[Javier] Milei’s decree and the draft legislation propose hundreds of highly controversial innovations including a wave of privatizations, ferocious spending cuts, a major expansion of presidential powers, and a scaling back of workers’ rights and the right to protest. Nine of 18 government ministries have been closed, including those responsible for education, the environment and women, gender and diversity. Argentina’s currency, the peso, was devalued by more than 50% against the dollar. ….n Wednesday [at] lunchtime thousands of objectors marched through the capital, Buenos Aires, and other major cities, to voice their anger at Milei’s moves. ‘We’re fighting against the way in which the far right is basically trying to eliminate our rights of existence on all levels, from healthcare to work,’ said Federica Baeza…. ‘What the ultra-right does not understand is that we live in an unequal world and that the state has to be active in order to reverse this situation.'”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/24/argentina-strike-protest-javier-milei

Egypt’s president accuses Israel of obstructing aid deliveries to Gaza. “‘We used to send Gaza 600 trucks a day. But for the past two to three days, we are not delivering more than 200 to 220 trucks (of aid) per day. How are these people (in Gaza) living?’ [President Abdel] Sisi said. ….Data from U.N. agency UNRWA shows fewer than 200 trucks entering Gaza daily since Jan. 24. Israel says its role is only to inspect aid going into Gaza for security reasons, and has denied holding up or rejecting humanitarian supplies.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/egypts-sisi-accuses-israel-impeding-aid-deliveries-gaza-2024-01-24/

Hong Kong’s highest court overturns pro-democracy activist’s acquittal. “Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal today reinstated Chow Hang-tung’s conviction for ‘inciting others to take part in an unauthorised assembly’ during the city’s 2021 Tiananmen vigil, after the prosecution had appealed the December 2022 ruling that acquitted her of the charge. Lawyer Chow Hang-tung is a former leader of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which disbanded after authorities used the annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil it had organised for 30 years as evidence of the group ‘endangering national security’. Along with other members of the group, Chow Hang-tung was charged with ‘inciting subversion’ under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, for which she faces a potential life prison sentence.”   https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/hong-kong-overturning-chow-hang-tung-acquittal-tiananmen-vigil-another-blow-rule-law

U.N.: More than 1/2 million Gaza residents are starving. “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said 570,000 Gazans are classified as having food insecurity equivalent to famine levels of starvation, as defined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). ‘Intense fighting, access denials & restrictions [plus] communications blackouts are hampering @UNRWA’s ability to safely & effectively deliver aid,’ the organization wrote Tuesday on X…. ‘As risk of famine grows, @UN calls for a critical increase in humanitarian access.'”   https://abcnews.go.com/International/500000-people-gaza-face-catastrophic-hunger-unrwa/story?id=106593939

Seattle to pay $10 million to settle excessive force lawsuit of 50 anti-brutality protesters. “The police department — led by then-Chief Carmen Best — used aggressive techniques to disperse the crowds, including flash-bang grenades, foam-tipped projectiles and blast balls that explode and emit pepper gas. ….Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit was Aubreanna Inda, who was standing in the middle of a street before a phalanx of officers in riot gear when a blast ball hit her in the chest and exploded, causing her to go into cardiac arrest. Volunteer medics and other protesters performed CPR and brought her to a hospital. Others included a teenager whose finger was partially blown off, a disabled veteran with a cane who was tear-gassed and tackled and dozens who suffered hearing loss, broken bones, concussions, severe bruises, PTSD or other injuries, according to the lawsuit.”   https://apnews.com/article/seattle-2020-protests-lawsuit-settlement-george-floyd-d24802d3c773998b470d2581610f2cf7

Jailed man dies after not receiving prescribed medication. “A California man died of AIDS in jail after staff failed to give him his HIV medication, a lawsuit alleges. Nicholas Overfield died in June 2022 after being detained in the El Dorado County Jail without access to his life-saving medication. The 38-year-old, who was HIV positive, was arrested in February 2022 after failing to appear for a court date and jailed. Upon arrival at the federal facility near Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border Overfield and his mother gave police officers his medication and informed them of his HIV-positive status so that he could continue to be treated in jail. However, medical records show Overfield never received the drugs, a lawsuit filed by his mother Lesley Overfield states. ….His mother contacted a nurse at the jail to complain about her son’s deteriorating condition and the same day he was taken to a local hospital for treatment. ….Overfield died of a viral infection, varicella zoster virus encephalitis, which is among the conditions associated with AIDS, according to his family’s attorney, Ty Clarke. After a short stay in the hospital Overfield was moved into hospice care and died in June 2022.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13001671/lawsuit-claims-hiv-inmate-died-medication-denied-california-jail.html

Man dies in Minneapolis jail after being denied medical care. “Lucas Bellamy, 41, died from a perforated bowel behind bars on July 21, 2022. Shocking footage from inside Hennepin County jail shows Bellamy on his hands and knees on the concrete, as staff look on. At one point he struggles to pull himself up onto a chair. A guard leans against the wall, looking on, as Bellamy writhes in pain. On Tuesday, his parents and sister held a press conference to demand justice for Lucas, and to call for reform to the way inmates are treated. They said Lucas was treated like ‘he was subhuman, like he was an animal.’ ….’Lucas spent the last day of his life… desperately begging nurses and jail guards to see a doctor,’ the suit states. ‘Lucas could have been saved with proper treatment. Instead, he endured a real-life nightmare and died.'”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13004373/lucas-bellamy-hennepin-county-jail-minneapolis-perforated-bowel.html

U.S. carries out 9th attack on Yemen. “US Central Command said it launched more missile strikes against the Houthis in Yemen early Wednesday morning, marking the ninth time the US bombed Yemen since January 12. CENTCOM claimed the strikes targeted ‘two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch’ and that US forces ‘identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that they presented an imminent threat.’ ….Later in the day, the Houthis said their forces engaged in a two-hour battle with several US warships. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea claimed the confrontation resulted in a Houthi missile ‘directly hitting an American warship’, but so far, the US has not confirmed the account.”   https://news.antiwar.com/2024/01/24/us-bombs-yemen-for-9th-time-houthis-attack-us-commercial-ship/

Legislators in more states planning to introduce wealth tax bills. “Lawmakers in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Washington introduced coordinated wealth tax bills a year ago. Some were inspired by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) 2020 presidential campaign proposal, which featured a 2% annual tax for assets above $50 million and a 3% tax for assets over $1 billion. Now, less than a month into 2024, legislators in 10 states are developing or have introduced wealth tax bills. Amber Wallin of the State Revenue Alliance confirmed to The New York Times on Tuesday that all of the states that were working on such legislation last year, except Illinois, have been joined by Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. ….The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) highlighted on social media Wednesday that state lawmakers already have a model proving how such legislation can improve the lives of residents: Massachusetts’ Fair Share Amendment, which was passed through a 2022 ballot initiative and requires those with incomes over $1 million to pay a 4% annual surtax. ‘A new wealth tax in Massachusetts last year that was expected to raise $1 billion actually raised $1.5 billion, helping to fund green infrastructure, education, and childcare,’ IPS said in response to the Times reporting.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/state-wealth-tax

January 24, 2024

U.S. military base in Marshall Islands flooded by storm surge. “Powerful waves, driven by offshore storm surges, hit an important US military installation in the Marshall Islands on Saturday night, causing damage and resulting in the evacuation of all ‘non-mission personnel’ from the island. Flooding caused by the waves also hit two airports at Ailinglaplap Atoll, leaving rocks, coral and debris in their wake, keeping those airports closed for weeks. Other islands reported flooding and moderate damage. The US Army in a statement on Sunday afternoon that at approximately 9pm on January 20, ‘a series of weather-induced waves hit Roi-Namur which caused significant flooding in the northern portions of the island’. A video circulating from Roi-Namur, an island at the northern end of Kwajalein Atoll, shows an approximately one-metre wave hitting the Army’s dining hall, breaking down doors, knocking people down and washing them from outside into the facility. Roi-Namur houses the US Army’s most sophisticated space-tracking equipment as part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site. A second follow-up wave, caught on video, was higher, possibly as high as one-and-a-half metres, washing through the dining hall. No deaths were reported at Roi-Namur, but one person was being treated for injuries at the clinic on Kwajalein Island, the base headquarters.”   https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/507233/freak-waves-cause-damage-at-us-army-base-shut-airports-in-remote-islands   It sounds like this hasn’t happened before.

More elite universities agree to settlements in financial aid anti-trust lawsuit. “Brown, Columbia, Duke and Yale Universities all filed settlement agreements Tuesday, according to court documents. Emory University also filed documents to formally settle…. Those institutions join the University of Chicago, which was the first to settle back in August, as well as Rice and Vanderbilt Universities…. The latest settlement filings mean nine defendants remain in the case. ….plaintiffs have alleged that the 17 need-blind institutions considered family finances in admissions decisions, which ultimately amounted to illegal collusion on financial aid formulas. The universities are accused of favoring affluent applicants and ultimately overcharging students for tuition and fees for years. Legal counsel for the plaintiffs allege that as many as 200,000 students may have been affected.”   https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/financial-aid/2024/01/23/more-institutions-settle-financial-aid-antitrust-lawsuit

Los Angeles Times to lay off 115 employees, 20% of its workforce. “The Los Angeles Times plans to lay off 94 journalists who belong to the newspaper’s union, the head of the union said on Tuesday, adding to a string of job cuts that have swept the media industry in recent weeks. ….The move adds to the turmoil at the newspaper, whose Managing Editor Sara Yasin resigned on Monday, a little over a week after Executive Editor Kevin Merida left, citing differences with the paper’s owner. ….The Washington Post had said in October it planned to offer voluntary separation packages to employees across all functions in an effort to reduce headcount by 240.”   https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/los-angeles-times-lay-off-94-workers-union-president-2024-01-23/

U.S. strikes three targets in Iraq linked to Iran-aligned militias. “The ‘proportionate’ strikes targeted ‘Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups’, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said. ….Last week, a number of US military personnel were injured in a missile attack on an airbase in western Iraq. US officials said they were ‘undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries’. ….A group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for that attack. The group emerged in late 2023 and is comprised of several Iran-affiliated armed groups operating in Iraq. It has claimed other attacks against US forces in recent weeks.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68077560

Experts predict biblical plague of cicadas in U.S. in 2024. “For the first time in 221 years, the two groupings of cicadas, brood XIX and XIII, will emerge from the underground in 17 states across the country, according to Fox Weather. ….Brood XIX last emerged in 2011 and Brodd XIII came out in 2007. ….Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia will witness the emergence of Brood XIX in the spring of 2024. Brood XIII is set to emerge in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and possibly Michigan…. The number of cicadas that are set to emerge this year exceeds a trillions…”   https://nypost.com/2024/01/23/lifestyle/spring-2024-may-be-buzzing-with-explosion-of-more-than-1-trillion-cicadas-for-first-time-in-221-years/

Newton, MA teachers’ union fined for illegal strike. “The fine, which began Monday at $25,000, could quickly escalate to $200,000 by Thursday night if Newton educators fail to call off their strike, according to a contempt order issued by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Christopher Barry-Smith. He penalized teachers after they failed to follow a preliminary injunction requiring them to end the strike over the weekend. The strike, which began on Friday, will continue on Wednesday. ….But the association appeared undeterred by the penalty Tuesday morning, noting in a statement members ‘will only return to work once a contract is settled.’ ….Under state law, public employees are forbidden from striking. But a small but growing number of teacher unions in an effort to secure new contracts in recent years have snubbed that law, abandoning their classrooms for picket lines in such districts as Andover, Woburn, Malden, Brookline, and Haverhill.”   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/23/metro/newton-teacher-strike-fines/

Oregon Democrats float bill that would re-criminalize possession of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin. “Oregon’s landmark experiment in drug decriminalization looks likely to meet its end next month, as lawmakers in both parties offer up proposals that would make drug possession a crime for the first time in three years. ….Majority Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a wide-ranging proposal that would unravel a portion of Measure 110, the 2020 ballot measure that ensured users could not be prosecuted if caught with small amounts of illicit drugs. ….The changes — floated in a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, D-Portland, and state Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend — serve as a starting point for a discussion on drug policy and addiction that promises to be a major focus in this year’s legislative session. ….people caught with user amounts of drugs would have repeated opportunities to skirt a criminal conviction — or charges altogether — in exchange for meeting with a [drug rehabilitation] service provider. Even if a person were convicted under the bill, Kropf and Lieber said, they would have the ability to have their record expunged with relative ease. The bill, House Bill 4002, also includes a host of other policy changes. Democratic lawmakers want to make it easier for drug users to receive medications to treat withdrawal symptoms, dedicate money to bolster specialty courts that prioritize treatment, and create new sober housing and other needed services.”   https://www.opb.org/article/2024/01/23/oregon-democrats-bill-recriminalize-drug-possession-step-up-treatment-access/

FBI arrests three Passaic County, NJ sheriff’s deputies for alleged beating of prisoner. “Two of the officers — Jose Gonzalez, 45, and Donald Vinales, 38 — allegedly committed the assault while escorting the handcuffed man from the jail’s medical unit back to his cell, timing the attack while they entered a blind spot not covered by surveillance cameras, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. Gonzalez and Vinales are both sergeants. Three other officers were present for the alleged assault — which sent the detainee to the hospital — but the witness officers did nothing to stop the beating, federal authorities said. One of the alleged witnesses, Lorenzo Bowden, 39, has also been charged in the case. ….The inmate they allegedly attacked, whose name has not been made public, was being held at the jail as a pretrial detainee facing weapons charges.”   https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/paterson-press/2024/01/17/passaic-county-nj-sheriffs-officers-arrested-alleged-beating/72257523007/

‘Doomsday Clock’ at 90 seconds to self-annihilation. “This year’s figurative clock reading was unveiled during an announcement by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit organization based at the University of Chicago that tracks man-made threats to the world as we know it, focusing on three primary hazard areas: nuclear risk, climate change and disruptive technologies. ….The group said the major factors informing the position of the clock were the continued war in Ukraine, the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, and dangerous new environmental milestones, as Earth in 2023 experienced its hottest year on record with little substantive action by world leaders to address climate change. Among other chief issues that the Bulletin deemed threatening to safety world over were advances in artificial intelligence, which they said ‘raise questions about how to control technology’ that could either [assist] or damage humanity. In a statement issued alongside Tuesday’s announcement, the Bulletin noted how the Russian war on Ukraine has [intensified] to such an extent that a vital nuclear weapons treaty between Russia and the U.S. potentially hangs in the balance. That could ‘heighten the possibility of a nuclear exchange’, the statement read, citing a comment from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last August where he described the present as ‘a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.'”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/watch-live-doomsday-clock-time-announcement-how-close-global-catastrophe-2024/

Canadian judge rules government’s use of emergency powers against vaccination protesters was illegal. “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked [the Emergencies Act] on 14 February 2022, three weeks into protests that gridlocked the capital. Dubbed the ‘Freedom Convoy’, the protest against the government’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate gained international attention as hundreds of demonstrators settled in for weeks around Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, many in trucks. Shorter protests and blockades also cropped up at various border points across the country. The emergency powers allowed the government to impose bans on public assembly in some areas and to prohibit travel to protest zones, including by foreign nationals, among other measures. In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Mosely wrote: ‘I have concluded that the decision to issue the proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration.’ The court case was brought by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation. They had argued that the protests did not meet the ‘high legal threshold’ needed to invoke the act, which was being used for the first time since it became law in 1988.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68038172

Most Americans retiring at 62, but not by choice. “In the Transamerica survey, 56% of retirees said they retired sooner than they had planned. A much smaller share, 7%, retired later than expected. Only 37% retired on their own schedule. ….In the Transamerica report, nearly half of those who retired earlier than planned blamed their health: physical limitations, illness or disability. Roughly two-fifths blamed their jobs: They were laid off, downsized or lured into early retirement, or they were no longer happy at work. ….’We’ve seen this in our work for years. We ask retirees why they retired sooner than planned and, by and large, it’s due to either personal health issues or employment-related issues. They may get laid off, bought out, reorganized, and it’s extremely difficult for older workers to find work.’ ….Transamerica found a five-year gap, 67 vs. 62, between when older workers expected to retire and when retirees actually retired.”   https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/01/24/most-americans-retire-earlier-than-expected-over-their-health-layoffs/72312011007/

Union membership in U.S. hits record low percentage of work force. “The number of workers belonging to a union increased by 139,000 to a total of roughly 14.4 million, according to figures released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the overall share of workers belonging to unions (what’s known as union density) dropped slightly from 10.1% to 10% — the lowest on record since the data was first released in 1983. Union density serves as a key measure of organized labor’s overall strength in the workforce and its ability to influence wages and benefits. Even though unions managed to add to the raw number of members last year, they could not keep pace with the strong growth of non-union jobs in the economy. ….While the private sector managed to add 191,000 union members, the number of union members in the public sector dropped by 52,000.”   https://www.huffpost.com/entry/union-membership-low-despite-labor-victories_n_65b00640e4b0f55c6e313294

Federal appeals court rules FBI exceeded scope of search warrant during safe deposit box investigation. “A Ninth Circuit appeals panel found Tuesday that a group of safe deposit box owners’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure were violated when the FBI seized 700 safe deposit boxes at a self-storage facility in Beverly Hills during a raid in 2021. The FBI sought the safe deposit boxes as part of its investigation into US Private Vaults, which it suspected of money laundering. While the FBI did find evidence of criminal activity in some boxes, it also seized boxes belonging to non-criminal safe deposit box owners — who filed a class action against the agency in June 2021 — that contained money, legal documents, jewelry, family trusts and other personal property. ….The three-judge appeals panel found that the FBI exceeded the scope of its warrant when it seized the boxes, because the warrant did not authorize the agency for a criminal search or seizure of box contents, and the FBI did not follow its own written policies to inventory items and contact box owners to claim their property after the seizure.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/fbi-breached-search-privacy-rights-during-safe-deposit-box-seizure-at-self-storage-facility/

Former Michigan state trooper pleads ‘no contest’ to excessive force charges. “Former Trooper Bram Schroeder, 28, of Freeland, pled No Contest to one count each of Aggravated Assault and Neglect of Duty in the 10th Circuit Court in Saginaw. ….According to the [Attorney General Dana Nessel], Schroeder stopped a Saginaw man in March of 2022 for failure to signal and speeding. The driver had appeared intoxicated and was uncooperative with the attempted arrest, and Schroeder then struck the driver while he was handcuffed, knocking him unconscious. EMS arrived to evaluate the man and then left the scene. According to reports, Schroeder again assaulted the man while trying to secure him in the back of a patrol car.”   https://www.wlns.com/news/former-msp-trooper-pleads-no-contest-in-excessive-force-case/

NYPD officer charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault for death of man fleeing on motorcycle. “Erik Duran pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday in the Bronx and made bail, which was set at $150,000. ….Duran, 37, was suspended shortly after the death of Eric Duprey and was later placed on modified duty. ….Police said Duprey had tried to flee on a friend’s motorcycle after he was caught selling drugs to an undercover police officer. ….Surveillance video showed Duprey driving the motorcycle on a sidewalk toward a group of people, including the sergeant, who was not in uniform. As he approached, the video shows Duran pick up the red picnic cooler and throw it. Duprey is struck, loses control, and is tossed toward a tree as the motorcycle veers into the street. The bike smashes into a metal barricade before coming to rest against a parked car.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/new-york-city-police-sergeant-who-hurled-plastic-cooler-at-fleeing-motorcyclist-charged-in-his-death/

January 23, 2024

Additional $4.9 billion in federal student loan debt to be forgiven. “That [will bring] the total amount discharged since President Joe Biden took office to $136.6 billion for more than 3.7 million borrowers. The latest discharges include $3.2 billion for 43,900 borrowers using the public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) program and waiver, and $1.7 billion for 29,700 borrowers under the one-time payment adjustment for income-driven repayment plans. ‘The nearly $5 billion in additional debt relief announced today will go to teachers, social workers, and other public servants whose service to our communities have earned them Public Service Loan Forgiveness, as well as borrowers qualifying for income-driven repayment forgiveness because their payments are for the first time being accurately accounted for,’ Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a press statement released Thursday. ‘Today we are helping borrowers who were promised help with their loans, planned their lives around those promises, and earned forgiveness through years of payments.'”   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-loans-biden-administration-discharges-additional-49-billion-160257610.html

Dexter King, younger son of Martin Luther King, Jr., dies at 62. “Mr. King was the longtime chairman of the King Center, an institution established by his mother, Coretta Scott King, in 1968 to advance the vision of her husband. He was also the president of the King Estate, which managed licensing of his father’s image and likeness. ….Mr. King was 7 years old when his father was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He and his brother, who was 10, were sitting on the floor at home in Atlanta watching TV when a news bulletin reporting the shooting interrupted their show. ….In 1997, he met with James Earl Ray, who had confessed to killing Dr. King. Mr. Ray had been sentenced to prison without a trial, but later recanted, saying that he was the fall guy for an expansive conspiracy linking the F.B.I., the mafia and the U.S. military. Mr. King came away from the meeting a believer, telling the news media that President Lyndon B. Johnson himself had been involved in his father’s assassination. ‘Based on the evidence that I’ve been shown, I would think that it would be very difficult for something of that magnitude to occur on his watch and he not be privy to it,’ Mr. King said in an interview with ‘Turning Point‘, an ABC News program. ….Dexter Scott King was born on Jan. 30, 1961, in Atlanta. He was named for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery, Ala., where his father had first emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. ….While [older son] Martin III became a noted civil rights leader, including a stint as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Dr. King founded, and while [younger daughter] Bernice became, like her father, a preacher, Dexter insisted that he was not a leader. ….’I’m not trying to have a constituency. I’m not trying to be preachy or be on a pedestal. I’m not trying to effect change on that level, not because it’s not something that should be done, but that’s just not my best destiny.'”   https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/us/dexter-scott-king-dead.html

Fake Biden robocalls tell New Hampshire voters not to bother voting. “The robocalls, reported by NBC News, used an imitation of Biden’s voice to urge New Hampshire voters to ‘save your vote for the November election’. ‘Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,’ it said. A spokesperson for Biden’s write-in campaign in New Hampshire told Axios’ April Rubin the calls were ‘deep fake disinformation designed to harm Joe Biden, suppress votes, and damage our democracy.’ The New Hampshire state attorney general’s office is investigating the matter, according to NBC.”   https://www.axios.com/2024/01/23/ai-generated-biden-robocalls-house-democrat-seeks-probe

Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips seize opportunity to beat Biden in New Hampshire. “Ahead of primary voting Tuesday, Williamson and Phillips made their final pitch to voters across the Granite State. As the primary parade descended on the state this weekend, Biden remained nowhere to be found. Biden will not appear on Tuesday’s ballot, after a year-long standoff with state and party leaders over the primary order. By DNC orders, South Carolina, which Biden won in 2020, will hold the first party-sanctioned primary next month. And while some Democrats are encouraging voters to participate in a grassroots write-in campaign to make sure the president still wins New Hampshire, Ketchum, who is a lifelong Democrat and voted for Biden previously, said she would not write in his name. ….’It’s time for new blood.’ ….Even if they are unsuccessful on Tuesday, Williamson and Phillips have engaged with voters about the future of the Democratic Party.”   https://www.concordmonitor.com/Dean-Phillips-and-Marianne-Williamson-campaign-ahead-of-primary-53749767   Good luck reforming the Democratic Party!

Activists protesting for Gaza peace deal at Columbia University sprayed with chemical. “The New York Police Department confirmed Monday that a report for assault was filed, alleging that the impacted protesters were sprayed Friday with a foul-smelling odor that caused nausea and headaches. The investigation is ongoing, the department said. Protest organizations Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — both of which were suspended by the university in November, sparking national outrage — claimed the spray was… a crowd control chemical developed by the Israeli military. ….the groups said least eight students were hospitalized due to the attack. ….Columbia announced Monday that the two suspected perpetrators had been banned from campus pending a law enforcement investigation.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4422747-pro-palestinian-protestors-say-they-were-attacked-with-stink-bomb-at-columbia-university/

New York City to purchase $2 billion worth of unpaid medical debt of low-income residents. “The program involves partnering with a nonprofit organization, RIP Medical Debt, that buys unpaid medical debt from hospitals at a steep discount and then clears it. The city will invest $18 million to relieve more than $2 billion in medical debt for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, Adams said. Affected New Yorkers will be notified that their medical debt has been relieved, as there is no application process for the one-time debt relief program, which will launch early this year and run for three years. ….The program is aimed at New Yorkers whose unpaid medical bills are at least 5% of their annual household income or those in households with an income under four times the federal poverty line, which is $31,200 for a family of four. Medical debt is the single-largest cause of bankruptcy in the United States, and disproportionately affects low-income Americans and those without health insurance or who are under-insured.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-eric-adams-medical-debt/

Man accused of attacking cops during Capitol riot is former soldier previously convicted of manslaughter. “A former U.S. Army soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a handcuffed civilian in Iraq was arrested Monday on charges that he attacked police officers with a baton during the U.S. Capitol riot three years ago. ….[Edward] Richmond was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday on charges including civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police with a dangerous weapon.”   https://apnews.com/article/edward-richmond-manslaughter-iraq-capitol-riot-adff1bfd6c80cd7316a97f3f5f7dc06e

U.S. and UK carry out eighth round of strikes on Yemen. “US fighter jets from the carrier USS Eisenhower were involved in Monday’s strikes. Four RAF Typhoons, supported by a pair of Voyager tankers, joined the US forces, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. ‘Our aircraft used Paveway IV precision guided bombs to strike multiple targets at two military sites in the vicinity of Sanaa airfield. These locations were being used to enable the continued intolerable attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea,’ the [Ministry of Defense] said. ….The Houthis began attacking merchant vessels in November, saying they were responding to Israel’s military ground operation in Gaza. Since then, the group has launched dozens of attacks on commercial tankers passing through the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. In response, the US and UK [began launching a series of]… air strikes against dozens of Houthi targets on 11 January. Those strikes – also supported by Australia, Bahrain, the Netherlands and Canada – began after Houthi forces ignored an ultimatum to cease attacks in the region.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68064422   “British and US forces used warships, submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets to take out Houthi missile storage sites, drones and launchers.”   https://www.euronews.com/2024/01/23/uk-and-us-strike-houthi-targets-in-yemen

Taliban reportedly tightening restrictions on women. “The Taliban are restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, according to a new UN report published on Monday. ….There are no official laws about male guardianship in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have said women cannot move around or travel a certain distance without a man who is related to her by blood or by marriage. The report mentioned how three female health workers were detained last October because they were without a male guardian. ….In southeast Afghanistan’s Paktia province, the Vice and Virtue Ministry has stopped women without male guardians from accessing health facilities since December.”   https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-crackdown-continues-on-womens-rights-un-says/a-68059607

Russia claims Ukraine used western-supplied weapons to target civilians in city of Donetsk. “At least 27 people have been killed and 25 others have been wounded after shelling in the city, Moscow-installed officials said. ….Russia has claimed that Western-supplied weapons were used in the attack at a market in Tekstilshchik on Sunday. ….UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ‘strongly condemns all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including today’s shelling of the city of Donetsk in Ukraine,’ according to a UN spokesperson.”   https://au.news.yahoo.com/watch-live-russia-attends-un-145031798.html

Unusually powerful winter storm hits UK. “Two people have died and tens of thousands were left without power after Storm Isha wreaked havoc across the UK with gusts as high as 107mph. ….The wild weather led to widespread power cuts. About 24,000 households in Northern Ireland were without power on Monday afternoon, down from a height of 53,000. There were also power cuts affecting thousands of people in north-west England, while more than 170,000 properties in the Republic of Ireland were without power. The entire UK was subject to Met Office wind warnings on Monday although the freakishly high gusts recorded overnight were not expected to return. They included 107mph on the Tay Road Bridge at Dundee, recorded by Transport Scotland, and 99mph at Brizlee Wood, an air defence radar station in Northumberland. ….A number of people were rescued by firefighters from flooded roads in the Yorkshire Dales.”   https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/22/uk-weather-storm-isha-causes-power-cuts-and-travel-chaos-amid-99mph-winds

Exxon Mobil sues shareholder groups planning to introduce climate reform proposals. “An Exxon Mobil win in the proceedings could have a chilling impact on future shareholder petitions. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. financial regulator, has overseen a growing number of environmental and social shareholder proposals during the past two proxy seasons. In an emailed statement, Exxon Mobil said, ‘the breakdown of the shareholder proposal process, one that allows proponents to advance their agendas through a flood of proposals, does not serve the interests of investors.’ ….Follow This said that it and Arjuna Capital filed a proposal, commonly referred to as a climate resolution, for Exxon Mobil’s upcoming annual meeting in compliance with their shareholder rights and SEC regulations. ‘Investors face economy-wide risks from climate change,’ Natasha Lamb, co-founder and chief investment officer at Arjuna Capital, said in a statement. ‘We have a fundamental right and duty to voice concern over climate risk, its impacts on the global economy and shareholder value.'”   https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/22/oil-exxon-mobil-sues-activist-investors-to-stop-shareholder-proposals.html

Multiple insiders have claimed alien worked at Area 51. “According to these tales, J. Rod is a tall, slender alien with large, almond-shaped eyes. He is said to have been a survivor of a UFO crash in Kingman, Arizona, in 1953. After the crash, J. Rod was taken to Area 51, where he helped scientists and engineers to reverse engineer the alien technology. He is also said to have shared knowledge about his home planet and the universe with the U.S. government. ….The stories of J. Rod are based on the accounts of several individuals, including military personnel and civilian contractors who worked at Area 51. These individuals claim to have seen J. Rod with their own eyes and to have spoken with him. Bill Uhouse, a former Navy pilot who claimed to have researched the UFO that crashed in Kingman, was stationed at Area 51 in the middle of the 1960s. In an interview from 2000, he claimed to have had direct communication with J Rod and stated that the alien ‘sounded just like you’ and ‘tried to answer questions’. The alien spoke perfect English, not an animatronic android or a CGI, the alien was real. Dan Burisch, another individual, says he was employed as a microbiologist to care for J Rod and ensure he stayed well. He said the government made him take tissue samples from the captured alien and claimed they became friends during the two years he worked on the project. ….One theory espoused by UFO enthusiasts is that J. Rod is still alive and living in seclusion. Some others suggest that he was eventually released from Area 51 and allowed to return to his home planet. It is also possible that he remains under the control of the U.S. government, perhaps in a secret facility or on a remote island, some believe. Another possibility is that J. Rod is deceased. Some accounts suggest that he died while working at Area 51, while others claim that he was killed by the government.”   https://greekreporter.com/2024/01/23/j-rod-alien-lived-area-51/

CIA federal agency that reported the most ‘conflicts of interest’ to Dept. of Justice between 2021 and 2023. “Between January of 2021 and May of 2023, the CIA filled out 32 ‘Form 202’ conflict of interest referral notifications to the Biden administration’s Office of Government Ethics (OGE), according to records obtained by the Daily Caller. Agencies are supposed to submit Form 202s to the OGE to report alleged ethics violations referred to the DOJ, the OGE website states. The OGE records were provided to the Daily Caller by the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. Heritage received information about the Form 202 submissions through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) public records request. ….It’s unclear if the DOJ took any action on the alleged conflicts of interest reported by the CIA. The OGE and DOJ declined to comment. The CIA did not offer any details about the reported conflicts of interest within the agency.”   https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/22/cia-conflict-of-interest-government-ethics-office-joe-biden-administration-heritage-foundation/

California hit by torrential rain, flash flooding. “Flash floods inundated homes and overturned cars in San Diego, toppling trees and overflowing streets…. Floodwaters swept away vehicles and caused cars to pile on top of each other…. Several feet of water inundated the Mountain View, Shelltown and Southcrest neighborhoods, and multiple highways including Interstate 15. Over a three-hour period, a whopping 3 inches of rain fell at nearby National City, while 2 inches fell at San Diego International Airport, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. ….Early morning flooding hit the town of Guerneville, north of San Francisco, where a creek overflowed after more than 4 inches of rain fell in 24 hours.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12994419/san-diego-flooding-weather-ca.html

U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear case accusing Palestinian group of ‘material support’ for terrorism through advocacy for Palestinian rights. “‘At issue were the [U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights] (USCPR) fiscal sponsorship of the Boycott National Committee and expressions of support for the rights and demands of Palestinians participating in the Great Return March [2108-19], when Palestinians protested to demand respect for their right to return to the villages from which Israeli settlers expelled them in 1948.’ ….The Jewish National Fund (JNF) — which was established in 1901 to purchase land for Jewish settler colonists in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire — claimed USCPR’s advocacy during the demonstrations violated a provision of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a highly contentious law signed by then-President Bill Clinton which prohibits ‘material support’ for activities the United States considers terrorism. ….’The JNF’s accusations were baseless, as recognized by the district court, the court of appeals, and now confirmed by the Supreme Court.'”   https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/23/us-supreme-court-defends-free-speech-on-palestine/

January 22, 2024

Cold arctic weather in U.S. has killed at least 94. “Some deaths remain under investigation to confirm that they are weather-related. This includes a person killed in a five-way car crash in Kentucky, and four deaths in Illinois, including two caused by a car accident. Some states warned drivers to take extra caution on the roads during the deep freeze. ….Dangerous weather continued across the U.S. this weekend. Tens of millions of people were facing bitterly cold, below-average temperatures Saturday, and the eastern half of the country will likely experience some of the coldest weather yet this season with dangerous wind chills and hard freeze warnings extending into Northern Florida.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/freezing-weather-united-states-deaths-cold-continues/

Two missing SEALS presumed dead after boarding arms smuggling vessel. ” Two U.S. Navy SEALs who went missing in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month during a raid on a boat carrying Iranian weapons have not been located following an exhaustive search and their status has been changed to deceased, military officials said on Sunday. The SEALs were reported missing after boarding the vessel in a Jan. 11 operation near the coast of Somali, the U.S. Central Command said on X.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/two-missing-us-navy-seals-have-not-been-found-status-changed-deceased-2024-01-21/   The Navy claims they went missing after one fell into the water and the other jumped in to rescue him. Seems hard to believe that SEALs could drown just from falling or jumping into the ocean. I’ll bet there is more to this story than what the public is being told.

Trump cites atomic bombings while making case for presidential immunity. “Trump has argued he is immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the deadly riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. [One rioter was fatally shot by a police officer, two rioters died of heart attacks, one rioter suffered an amphetamine overdose, and a police officer died of a stroke the following day.] Trump has repeatedly argued that presidents should have total immunity from prosecution, saying this week that it should even cover acts that ‘cross the line’. At his Saturday rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump continued to make that case. He claimed that President Harry Truman would never have dropped atomic bombs on Japan if he was worried he may face criminal charges. ‘Take a look at Harry Truman,’ he said. ‘He wouldn’t have done… If you think Hiroshima, not exactly a nice act, but it did end the Second World War probably, right? Nagasaki. He wouldn’t be doing that. He said, “I do not want to do that because my opponents will indict me.” You have to give a president full and total immunity.'”   https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-evokes-hiroshima-presidential-immunity-1862561   Ok, let’s unravel this a little. First of all, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians was clearly a war crime, and Harry Truman should have hesitated to do that. He should have feared being held accountable for slaughtering civilians. He wasn’t though, but it was not because of presidential immunity. No one was held accountable, not the Air Force generals, not the pilots, not bombardiers, not the scientists who developed the weapon, nobody. And that’s because the winners of wars are never held accountable. As Air Force General Curtis LeMay, who orchestrated the deadly firebombing of Japanese cities leading up to the atomic bombings, observed, if the U.S. had lost the war, he would have been tried as a war criminal. If the atomic bombings did contribute to ending the war, which is contested by those who argue that it was Russia declaring war on Japan that led to its surrender, it was because the bombs demonstrated obvious military superiority. However, that could have been just as clearly demonstrated by dropping them on a fleet of warships or on a large military base instead of on civilians. Long argument short, presidents should not have immunity, like dictators do, because presidents are expected to follow laws, not break them, and potential prosecution, even if it is unlikely, is the only thing holding them back.

Las Vegas area school district releases video of altercation between police and high school students. “It took a court order, [but] after nearly a year of refusing to release it to the public, [the Clark County School District] has finally released school police officer body camera video of an incident where a CCSD officer is seen slamming a student to the ground. The incident happened last February just down the street from Durango High School. Cell phone video shows the takedown and other students ended up in handcuffs. ….FOX5 filed public records requests and got lawyers involved to force CCSD to release the video and written reports. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada took CCSD to court to get the video. Thirty days ago, a judge ordered the district to release the video. One student who was handcuffed told FOX5 he simply wanted to record video of the interaction with police on his cell phone. Another student told us an officer approached him, saying he was jaywalking. But neither CCSD Police nor the district ever gave any explanation of why officers made contact with the students in the first place. Police only said officers were investigating reports of a gun near campus and never explained why one officer threw a student to the ground. The ACLU says a gun was not found on the students. It represents two of the students on the scene that day.”   https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/01/19/after-court-order-ccsd-releases-police-body-camera-video-incident-near-durango-high/

An estimated 250,000 Germans protest against far-right party’s plan to deport citizens with ‘migrant backgrounds’. “The protests were ignited by a Jan. 10 report from investigative outlet Correctiv that revealed AfD representatives met with extremist groups in Potsdam in November. Among the meeting topics was the mass expulsion or ‘remigration’ of foreigners and Germans with migrant backgrounds. ….Nationally, AfD is polling at 22% support, while Chancellor Olaf Sholz’s Socialist Democratic Party only has 13% support. But Saturday’s protesters were clear they did not support AfD’s ‘remigration’ vision. One of the largest rallies took place in Hanover, with police reports suggesting there were 35,000 participants. Another 35,000 protesters gathered in Frankfurt, and 30,000 appeared in Dortmund. Authorities had to halt a rally in Hamburg for safety reasons, as more people had turned out than expected. Estimates suggest 50,000 to 80,000 people had attended.”   https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/01/20/germany-mass-protests-afd-farright-immigration/2561705788223/

At least 5,875 West Bank Palestinians arrested since October 7th. “At least 355 of those arrested were children, and 200 were women, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said, adding that the violent arrests and raids had spared no one. The figure included individuals who were detained, those still in custody, and those who were later released, the statement said. More than 2,856 Palestinians have been held without trial or charge under Israel’s notorious policy of administrative detention since 7 October, the NGO said. ‘This figure takes the number of administrative detainees in Israeli prisons to more than 3,290 Palestinians,’ the statement added.”   https://www.newarab.com/news/west-bank-over-5800-palestinians-detained-100-days

Four charged with rioting in Russia, more than 30 arrested. “At least four people who protested the jailing of prominent Bashkir activist Fayil Alsynov could face up to 15 years in prison on charges of mass rioting in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan, the civil rights watchdog OVD-Info said late Sunday, citing local media. Bashkortostan’s Interior Ministry launched two criminal cases over protests held last week in the small town where Alsynov was sentenced to four years in prison for ‘inciting interethnic hatred’, charges which the activist denies. Authorities warned that participants of those protests could face up to 15 years in prison for ‘organizing and participating in mass unrest’, or up to 10 years for ‘violence against a government official’. More than 30 protesters have been detained since Alsynov’s sentencing, the Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported, adding that the charges against them are not yet known.”   https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/22/4-protesters-face-lengthy-jail-terms-over-mass-rioting-in-russias-bashkortostan-a83796

Small turnout in Red Square for commemoration of 100th anniversary of Lenin’s death. “A few dozen communists gathered at Red Square in Moscow on Sunday to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution and creator of the Soviet Union. Gennady Zyuganov, the head of Russia’s Communist Party, led those paying their respects to ‘the first person ever to found a socialist state’. Lenin tried to ‘build a just world with brotherhood among nations — without capitalism,’ said Zyuganov. Many waved flags, held posters, laid wreathes and brought flowers to the mausoleum in one of the last public rituals observing Lenin’s role in Russian history. ….[Russian president Vladimir] Putin claims Lenin appeased nationalists in his creation of the Soviet Union, which he says enabled former Soviet republics to secede and become nation states. Putin has leaned heavily on this theme regarding Russia’s invasion of ‘Vladimir Lenin’s Ukraine’ — a nation Putin says does not exist. ….Lenin has overwhelmingly been seen in the West as an imaginative builder of an alternative to the capitalist model but one who ruled with an iron fist, persecuting dissent in the most violent and fear-inducing manner.”   https://www.dw.com/en/russian-communists-mark-100-year-since-lenins-death/a-68047864   All that persecution, suffering and death for what? Russia and China have both reverted to capitalism as a result of the failure of the Leninist model, as well as Vietnam, Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc., etc. It wasn’t socialism that failed, it was one-party, socialist dictatorships that failed. Judging socialism based on the excesses of Leninist extremists is like judging Christianity based on the Spanish Inquisition. Despite all that, many people who lived under these governments look back with nostalgia at the economic guarantees and full-employment these regimes provided, in contrast to the economic insecurity, unemployment and chaos they experienced during the transition to capitalism.

January 21, 2024

Americans injured in missile attack on Iraq air base. “US Central Command confirmed the attack Saturday evening and said in a statement that ‘a number’ of US personnel are being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries. Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets targeted the base and, while most were intercepted by the base’s air defenses, some made impact, the CENTCOM statement said. The use of more powerful ballistic missiles, far rarer than rockets or one-way attack drones, comes at a time of growing tension in the region as the Israel-Hamas war passes 100 days. ….The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia group, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack. In a statement, the group emphasized its commitment to resisting American ‘occupation forces’ in the region and cited the attack as a response to what it referred to as the ‘Zionist entity’s massacres’ against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/20/politics/al-asad-air-base-iraq-us-personnel-injured/index.html

India’s prime minister to open new Hindu temple built on site of mosque destroyed by mob. “The inauguration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, India is set for Monday, January 22. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Ram and stands on the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque. Some Hindu leaders have begun calling the town a ‘Hindu Vatican’. Many Hindus claim that Ram was born in Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh — exactly at the site where the mosque stood and that Muslim invaders built it on the ruins of an ancient Ram temple. In 1992, a right-wing Hindu mob razed the Babri Masjid mosque, triggering communal violence that killed about 2,000 people across the country.”   https://www.voanews.com/a/india-prepares-to-inaugurate-ram-temple-on-site-of-demolished-mosque/7448780.html

Leftists in Israel protest against government and Gaza war. “Omri Evron, a member of the Communist Party of Israel, who helped organise the anti-war protest, spoke to Al Jazeera about the message the protesters were hoping to convey. ‘The killing of thousands and thousands of Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are innocent civilians, is not only reprehensible, it does not serve the security of the people of Israel. It does not bring us security, it only ensures the next massacre, the next cycle of violence,’ he said. ‘Currently, they [the protestors] are chanting “refuse to kill, refuse to fight, refuse to murder” – this is our call.’ ….’It has been difficult because the government and the police in particular have done everything in their power to prevent [Jews and Arabs] from coming together, to prevent us from voicing a lawful and peaceful voice. We had to appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice just to allow us to come together and demonstrate.'”   https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/1/20/refuse-to-fight-jewish-arab-activists-call-for-peace-in-israels-haifa

Sunday is 100th anniversary of death of Vladimir Lenin. “The Red Square mausoleum where his embalmed corpse lies in an open sarcophagus is no longer a near-mandatory pilgrimage but a site of macabre kitsch, open only 15 hours a week. It draws far fewer visitors than the Moscow Zoo. The goateed face with its intense glare that once seemed unavoidable still stares out from statues, but many of those have been the targets of pranksters and vandals. The one at St. Petersburg’s Finland Station commemorating his return from exile was hit by a bomb that left a huge hole in his posterior. Many streets and localities that bore his name have been rechristened. ….The ideology that Lenin championed and spread over a vast territory is something of a sideshow in modern Russia. The Communist Party, although the largest opposition grouping in parliament, holds only 16% of the seats, overwhelmed by President Vladimir Putin’s political power-base, United Russia. ….Lenin’s hold on Russia’s heart is still strong enough that three years ago, the Union of Russian Architects succumbed to a public outcry and canceled a competition soliciting suggestions for how the Red Square mausoleum could be repurposed. That competition did not even specifically call for the removal of Lenin’s body. Lenin died on Jan. 21, 1924, at age 53, severely weakened by three strokes [and an assassination attempt]. His widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya, wanted him to be buried in a conventional grave. ….The honor guards whose goose-stepping rotations fascinated visitors were removed from outside the mausoleum three decades ago.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/01/21/lenin-russia-soviet-union-mausoleum-putin/96b839e8-b822-11ee-b285-0853d4d1b92f_story.html   Lenin and his Bolshevik Party effectively killed the Russian revolution after they came in second in the country’s first democratic election in 1917. “Lenin and the Bolsheviks began to cast doubt on the value of the Constituent Assembly as soon as it seemed likely that the Assembly would not contain a majority in favour of Soviet government. …..The Bolsheviks placed the Second Soviet Congress’ Decrees before the Assembly for endorsement. They were rejected by 237 votes to 136. It was thus clear that the Constituent Assembly was opposed to Soviet government and would not agree to new elections. In a recess, a special meeting of the Bolsheviks and Left SRs decided to dissolve the Assembly. The Deputy People’s Commissar for Naval Affairs Fyodor Raskolnikov read a prepared statement and the Bolsheviks and Left SRs walked out. Lenin left the building to go to bed, instructing the soldiers not to use force against the deputies, but to wait until they left of their own accord. ….The next day the deputies found the building locked down and the Assembly declared dissolved by the Bolshevik-Left SR Soviet government.”   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Constituent_Assembly

Most of those killed in Gaza conflict are Palestinian women and children. “Women and children are the main victims in the Israel-Hamas war, with some 16,000 killed and an estimated two mothers losing their lives every hour since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, the United Nations agency promoting gender equality said Friday. ….[UN Women’s executive director, Sima Bahous] echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ calls for a humanitarian cease-fire and the immediate release of all hostages taken captive in Israel on Oct. 7. ….The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, 70% of them women and children. The United Nations says more than a half million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving.”   https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/women-and-children-are-the-main-victims-of-the-israel-hamas-war-with-16000-killed-un-says/

Judge orders fourth ‘Newburgh Four’ prisoner released. “Four men, who became known as the ‘Newburgh Four’, were caught up in a scheme in 2009 to attack… synagogues and community [centers], and launch stinger missiles at military aircraft, driven by what the judge describes as overzealous FBI agents and an ‘unsavory’ confidential informant. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon had already ordered the three other men in the group – Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerra Payen – to be released last July. The fourth man, James Cromitie, described as the ringleader by the government, was ordered released by the judge on Friday. The judge called the case ‘notorious’ and described the men as ‘hapless’ petty criminals who were ‘easily manipulated’ by the government in a sting operation. ….Judge McMahon said that Cromitie was a small-time ‘grifter’ who was broke and unemployed when he was enlisted in the FBI-driven plot and provided  [with] fake bombs to plant in exchange for $250,000 in the ‘jihadist mission’. Cromitie enlisted the other three men to serve as lookouts, according to the judge. ‘The three men were recruited so that Cromitie could conspire with someone,’ the judge said. ‘The real lead conspirator was the United States. ….The FBI invented the conspiracy; identified the targets; manufactured the ordnance.'”   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-condemns-fbi-while-ordering-release-man-newburgh-four-case-2024-01-20/

Long Beach, CA settles lawsuit of prostate cancer patient repeatedly kneed in the groin by police officer. “Johnny Jackson suffered emergency medical complications on September 3, 2022 after surgery for prostate cancer when a Long Beach Police Officer ‘kneed the unresisting man in his groin multiple times during an arrest for driving with an expired registration tag’, according to the law firm of Pointer and Buelna LLP. The law firm this week reported the Long Beach City council approved a $300,000 settlement in a civil rights lawsuit filed against the officers for ‘using excessive and unreasonable force’ in their encounter with Jackson. ….The complaint states the ‘Plaintiff’s urine was clear before and following his September 2, 2022 prostate surgery. After the Subject Incident, and as a result of the Subject Uses of Force, Plaintiff began urinating blood.’ Pointer and Buelna LLP add that… the ‘Plaintiff presented to an emergency room for emergency medical care’. The complaint said Jackson was not only physically and emotionally damaged, but financially damaged as well.”   https://www.davisvanguard.org/2024/01/prostate-cancer-patient-intentionally-kneed-in-groin-by-long-beach-police-settles-excessive-force-lawsuit-for-300000/

Modesto, CA settles lawsuit of unarmed man shot multiple times by police sergeant. “Modesto has paid $1 million to settle an excessive force lawsuit involving a sergeant who in 2017 shot a suspect considered armed and dangerous. Jason Perkins survived being shot in the jaw, chest and left arm by Sgt. Jerry Ramar on the morning of Nov. 6, 2017, but needed several surgeries, including a bone graft to his jaw, according to court records. Ramar — now Oakdale’s police chief — fired six times at Perkins as the man was in the driver’s seat of a car. No one else was in the vehicle. Perkins was hit at least three times, according to Mark Merin, one of his attorneys. Ramar thought he saw a gun in Perkins’ hand, according to court records, but Perkins was not armed. ….Ramar declined to be interview but issued a statement, which said in part that Modesto police dispatchers had received information that Perkins was armed and dangerous and that Perkins refused to show his hands and drove in reverse rather than surrender.”   https://www.modbee.com/news/local/crime/article284189463.html

Former State Dept. official who harassed, insulted and threatened food trailer employee avoids prosecution. “Stuart Seldowitz, 64, was charged with two counts of stalking as a hate crime and one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree in late November after VICE News and other outlets reported on videos that showed him calling a young halal cart worker a ‘terrorist’ and saying the killing of 4,000 Palestinian children in the Israel-Hamas war ‘wasn’t enough’. ….Seldowitz agreed in court Wednesday to complete a 26-week anti-bias course at Queens Counseling for Change. If he does so, doesn’t have any new arrests, and doesn’t violate the order prohibiting him from contacting the food cart vendor, the charges against him will be dropped, the DA’s office said in an email statement. Adam Halal Food Cart employee Mohamed Hussein, 24, previously told VICE News Seldowitz harassed him three times, all of which Hussein filmed. The footage shows Seldowitz describing the prophet Muhammad as a ‘[child] rapist’ and telling Hussein he was going to get [him] deported. ….Seldowitz was acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under former President Barack Obama and was deputy director/senior political officer in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/epv7nn/stuart-seldowitz-stalking-harassment-hate-crime-charges-dropped-anti-bias-training   Wow. Imagine if the victim was Jewish and the harasser was Muslim.

Events held in thirty cities in remembrance of slain ‘forest protector’ Manuel Paez Terán. “Police killed Tortuguita 18 January of last year while the activist was sleeping in a forested public park south-east of Atlanta, in protest against the building of a police and fire department training center nearby known as ‘Cop City’. It was the first such incident in US history. On Thursday, there were vigils, panels, film screenings, church services and altars built under trees at sunset, in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, Tucson and other cities. Many of the events were billed as ‘Day of the Forest Defender’. ….Atlanta mourners repeatedly referred to those who could not be there due to the chilling effect of felony Rico, or conspiracy, charges leveled against 61 people in connection with opposition to the training center.”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/21/atlanta-cop-city-tortuguita-anniversary