Stop the Idiocracy: February 2022

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Germany steps up in the fight against Putin, reverses ban on weapon sales to Ukraine and announces it will support SWIFT banking restrictions on Russia

AP/Christoph Schmidt/dpa

At this time 80 years ago, Germany was the aggressor. Today, it is arguably the leader of the free world; a peaceful, prosperous, and responsible nation. Could Russia ever make that same transition? There were high hopes at the end of the Cold War, but those have been gradually shattered as Vladimir Putin came to power and set about restoring the empire. Germany’s redemption was due, in large part, to the strong character and work ethic of the German people (full disclosure - I am of German blood, so I may be a little biased.) While I do not wish to entirely disparage the Russian people, I’ve seen scant evidence over the years that they possess those same qualities that allowed Germany to successfully rebuild. Indeed, it has been 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, but Russia remains a despotic and largely impoverished backwater whose only leverage comes from its large geographic size, its military might (re: nuclear weapons), and its cunning, evil mastermind dictator. Associated Press -

VIENNA (AP) — In a significant shift, the German government said Saturday it will send weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, which is fighting to keep Russia from invading its capital city. Germany is also ready to also support some restrictions of the SWIFT global banking system for Russia, officials said.
Germany’s chancellery announced Saturday evening that it will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine “as quickly as possible.”
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. “In this situation, it is our duty to help Ukraine, to the best of our ability, to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army.”
The news came shortly after the German economy and climate ministry said in a Saturday evening statement that Germany is allowing the Netherlands to ship 400 German-made anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. The government has also approved the shipment of 9 D-30 howitzers and ammunition originally from Estonia.
Germany had long stuck to a policy of not exporting deadly weapons to conflict zones, including Ukraine. As recently as Friday, government officials said they would abide by that policy. (Read more)

Friday, February 25, 2022

Russian NHL superstar makes plea for peace in Ukraine

Reuters/Ria Novosti

Alexander Ovechkin is the most high-profile Russian athlete in the United States and, arguably, the world over. Perhaps only a couple of women’s tennis stars – Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova – can match his international fame. In the past, the Washington Capitals captain has proclaimed his support for Vladimir Putin, and he is not issuing any condemnations of the tyrant now - bear in mind, this man has family back in Moscow, and crossing Putin comes with severe consequences (putting it mildly.) Treading carefully, he is calling for peace in the region, and that is all that can reasonably be expected of any Russian athlete stationed in western countries. Ovechkin and the rest of these Russian NHL stars are between a rock and a hard place: Blessed with great talent, they are able to come to our shores to make better lives for themselves, and yet they remain at the mercy of a dictator and have to carry the burden of being de facto international ambassadors for their home country whether they want to be or not. Talent, fortune, and fame aside, I do not envy a single one of them at this moment. ESPN -

Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin issued an anti-war statement on Friday in his first comments following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Please, no more war. It doesn't matter who is in the war -- Russia, Ukraine, different countries -- we have to live in peace," he said following the Capitals' practice.
Ovechkin, 36, has been an ardent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin over the years. In 2017, he campaigned on behalf of Putin by starting a social media movement called Putin Team, writing, "I never made a secret of my attitude toward our president, always openly supporting him." His Instagram profile photo features him posing with Putin.
When asked Friday whether he supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine this week, Ovechkin said, "I'm Russian, right? It's not something I can control. It's not in my hands. I hope it's going to end soon and there's going to be peace in both countries. I don't control this one."
He said the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is "a hard situation" for him.
"Obviously, it's a hard situation. I have lots of friends in Russia and Ukraine, and it's hard to see the war. I hope soon it's going to be over and there's going to be peace in the whole world," he said.
Ovechkin's wife, children and parents have been in Moscow. Ovechkin wouldn't confirm whether his family will stay in Russia. (Read more)

The United States joins the EU and UK in levying personal sanctions on Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister

AP/Andreea Alexandru

An important and necessary step, but it is not at all clear that anything is going to dissuade Putin from carrying this invasion further. Associated Press -

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Biden administration announced Friday that it will move to freeze the assets of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following the European Union and Britain in directly sanctioning top Russian leadership.
The Treasury Department announced the sanctions shortly after the EU said it had also approved an asset freeze against Putin and Lavrov as part of a broader package of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also told NATO leaders during a call Friday that Britain would move to impose sanctions against Putin and Lavrov.
It wasn’t immediately clear how impactful an asset freeze would be on Putin or Lavrov, but the direct action targeting the Russian president was meant to be seen as a warning to Putin that he could emerge as an international pariah if he doesn’t end the invasion of Ukraine. (Read more)

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Thousands of Russian citizens take to the street to protest their dictator’s aggression toward Ukraine

AP/Dmitri Lovetsky

If ever I have appeared to imply, at any time, that all individuals of Russian blood are rotten souls, then I apologize. 144.1 million people in Russia, but at least a few thousand of them are not fooled by Putin’s rhetoric and are brave enough to take a stand against bloodshed. If only the rest of their countrymen would do the same. CBC News -

Shocked Russians turned out by the thousands Thursday to decry their country's invasion of Ukraine as emotional calls for protests grew on social media.
Around 1,745 people in 54 Russian cities were detained, at least 957 of them in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, which has documented crackdowns on Russia's opposition for years.
Hundreds of posts came pouring in condemning Moscow's most aggressive actions since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
President Vladimir Putin called the attack a "special military operation" to protect civilians in Eastern Ukraine from "genocide" — a false claim the U.S. had predicted would be a pretext for invasion, and which many Russians roundly rejected. Late Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 137 civilians and military personnel had been killed in the first day of the attack.
Tatyana Usmanova, an opposition activist in Moscow, wrote on Facebook that she thought she was dreaming when she awoke at 5:30 a.m. to the news, which she called "a disgrace that will be forever with us now."
"I want to ask Ukrainians for forgiveness. We didn't vote for those who unleashed the war," she said. (Read more)

NBC News reports that President Biden is considering launching cyber attacks to disrupt Russian aggression in Ukraine

Getty Images

All for any course of action that is going to thwart these evil bastards. The problem here is that the Russians will retaliate, but they are likely to conduct cyber attacks against America anyway in response to sanctions. Nothing can be put past Putin now. -

President Joe Biden has been presented with a menu of options for the U.S. to carry out massive cyberattacks designed to disrupt Russia’s ability to sustain its military operations in Ukraine, four people familiar with the deliberations tell NBC News.
Two U.S. intelligence officials, one Western intelligence official and another person briefed on the matter say no final decisions have been made, but they say U.S. intelligence and military cyber warriors are proposing the use of American cyberweapons on a scale never before contemplated. Among the options: disrupting internet connectivity across Russia, shutting off electric power, and tampering with railroad switches to hamper Russia’s ability to resupply its forces, three of the sources said.
“You could do everything from slow the trains down to have them fall off the tracks,” one person briefed on the matter said.
The sources said the options presented include pre-emptive responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, irrespective of whether Russian launches its own cyberattacks on the U.S. in retaliation for sanctions. They said most of the potential cyberattacks under consideration are designed to disrupt but not destroy, and therefore fall short of an act of war by the United States against Russia. They say the idea is to harm networks, not people. Officials are debating the legal authorities under which the attacks would take place — whether they would be covert action or clandestine military activity. Either way, the U.S. would not publicly acknowledge carrying out the operations, the sources say. U.S. Cyber Command, the National Security Agency, the CIA and other agencies would have a role to play in the operations, the sources said.
“Our response will be harsh and measured, but not so severe as to encourage Putin to take more drastic steps,” one U.S. official said.
The White House did not initially respond to a request for comment. After publication, Emily Horne, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement, “This report is wildly off base and does not reflect what is actually being discussed in any shape or form.”
The person briefed on the matter said there was a significant divide within the U.S. government, with one camp fearful of escalating and another urging a strong cyber response. (Read more)

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is underway, and already the global economy is feeling the effects

Prayers for Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is the Hitler of our time. God help Ukraine -

Stocks plunged and oil prices surged by more than $5 per barrel Thursday after President Vladimir Putin launched military action in Ukraine, prompting Washington and Europe to vow sanctions on Moscow that may roil the global economy.
Market benchmarks in Europe and Asia fell by as much as 4% as traders tried to figure out how large Putin's incursion would be and the scale of Western retaliation. Wall Street futures retreated by an unusually wide daily margin of 2.5%.
Brent crude oil briefly jumped above $100 per barrel in London for the first time since 2014 on unease about possible disruption of supplies from Russia, the No. 3 producer. Benchmark U.S. crude briefly surpassed $98 per barrel. Prices of wheat and corn also jumped.
The ruble sank 7.5% against the dollar.
Financial markets are in a “flight to safety and may have to price in slower growth" due to high energy costs, Chris Turner and Francesco Pesole of ING said in a report. (Read more)

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Trump praises tyrant Vladimir Putin as ‘very savvy’ and declares Russian aggression toward Ukraine as ‘genius,’ while millions of Americans nod in agreement

Erin Schaff/NYT

As if any further proof was needed to show that Donald Trump is a criminal, a traitor, and just not a good man. Precisely why millions of Americans love him, because he gives them free license to be the shameless, defiantly and willfully ignorant pieces of s**t that they are. Good people do not line up behind a Russian tyrant who is about to, for all intents and purposes, commit genocide on their neighbors. -

Former President Donald J. Trump called Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine “genius” and called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia “very savvy” for describing the troops aligned on the Ukrainian border as peacekeepers.
Mr. Trump made his remarks on Tuesday on a conservative talk radio show hosted by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. He praised Mr. Putin — something he did repeatedly as president and during his 2016 campaign — as well as Mr. Putin’s tactics on Ukraine.
“Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to keep peace, all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy.”
Mr. Trump’s favorable remarks toward Mr. Putin’s aggression comes after he broke with decades of American precedent and was deferential toward Russia during his time in the White House. (Read more)

Monday, February 21, 2022

The beginnings of World War III? Putin boldly declares that all of Ukraine belongs to Russia, recognizes the independence of the separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk; Russian troops being sent in for ‘peacekeeping functions’

Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

The proverbial s**t is hitting the fan. Via the BBC -

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has recognised breakaway rebel regions in Ukraine's east as independent states.
The self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are home to Russia-backed rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Russia's move is likely to end peace talks in the region, which has been under a tenuous ceasefire for years.
Western powers also fear it could pave the way for Russian military forces to enter Ukraine's eastern regions.
Shortly after the announcement, Mr Putin signed an order for troops to perform so-called "peacekeeping functions" in both regions. The extent of the mission remains unclear, but if troops cross the border it would be the first time Russian soldiers have officially entered rebel-held territory.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the move amounted to "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine" and breaks international law. He called it "a very ill omen and a very dark sign". Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK would announce new sanctions on Russia on Tuesday.
The EU pledged to "react with unity, firmness and with determination in solidarity with Ukraine".
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected the suggestion that Russian troops would have a peacekeeping brief, telling reporters: "It's unacceptable, it's unprovoked, it's unwarranted ... some suggestion that they are peacekeeping is nonsense."
The move by Vladimir Putin deepens the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, which is surrounded by more than 150,000 Russian troops on its borders. Russia has denied planning to invade, but the US believes Mr Putin is preparing an imminent attack. (Read more)

Meanwhile, President Biden is making it clear the United States means business, imposing sanctions prohibiting trade and investment in the two breakaway provinces, and the United Nations Security Council will be holding an emergency meeting. Frankly, war probably cannot be prevented now, and this evil man, Vladimir Putin, cannot be constrained. Ukraine is doomed, and the other former Soviet republics are likely not far behind in being reabsorbed into the evil empire.

Racing officials strip Medina Spirit of his 2021 Kentucky Derby win, trainer Bob Baffert suspended for 90 days and fined $7,500

Jim Owens/USA Today Sports/Reuters

Bob Baffert, who is the alleged villain in this whole sorted affair, gets a mere slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, a talented racehorse who – like any other horse – never had any say in his care and handling, and who died tragically (and suspiciously) of a heart attack just two months ago, is being stripped of his place in history. Forgive me for feeling as though justice has not been served here. The New York Times -

Medina Spirit is no longer the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The colt, who died unexpectedly in December, was officially disqualified by Kentucky racing officials on Monday for failing a drug test after winning the race.
Medina Spirit is only the third horse in the race’s 147-year history to receive such a penalty after finishing first. The decision means the colt’s owner, Amr Zedan, will not collect the $1.8 million first-place check, which was never paid out and will now go to Mandaloun’s owner, Juddmonte, the racing and breeding enterprise founded by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who died last year.
Churchill Downs, the track in Louisville, Ky., that hosts the Derby, said in a statement that it now recognizes Mandaloun as the winner of the 2021 race, adding, “We look forward to celebrating Mandaloun on a future date in a way that is fitting of this rare distinction.”
The ruling also erased the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s seventh Kentucky Derby victory, which had been a record.
In addition, Baffert was suspended for 90 days beginning March 8 and fined $7,500. The ruling followed a hearing via videoconference on Feb. 14 before a three-member panel of stewards for the Kentucky Horse Racing Association.
The drug found in Medina Spirit’s system was betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce pain and swelling. Baffert and his lawyers denied injecting the colt and said the drug was applied topically to treat a skin rash on Medina Spirit’s hind end. (Read more)

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Trudeau finally shows some backbone, as police clear Ottawa of belligerent truckers protesting vaccine mandates

Reuters

Disrupting industry, blocking critical infrastructure, and threatening violence against anyone opposed to their agenda will never be legitimate forms of protest, and the police should have authorized to suppress this insurrection from the very first day the convoys began amassing. The protests against COVID mandates and the Capitol Hill insurrection of January 6, 2021 are emboldening nationalist populists (also known as Fascists) the world over to impose their anti-intellectual, anti-science, and various other deluded beliefs onto others. It is America – the nation that once brought down European Fascism and liberated millions – that is leading the world into a new totalitarian nightmare. It is the ones who shout the loudest about their ‘freedom’ that are most set on bending society to their will, by any means necessary. Via the New York Times -

OTTAWA — Police officers on Saturday cleared out the central area of a sprawling demonstration in Ottawa, moving from truck to truck and arresting protesters as they continued to subdue the occupation that has disrupted the Canadian capital for weeks.
Starting about 10 a.m., police advanced on trucks that had been parked on Wellington Street, the thoroughfare in front of the Parliament building, drawing guns on some vehicles and banging on doors as they searched for any people inside. They arrested several as other demonstrators shouted “Shame on you!” from nearby. In the heart of the main encampment on Saturday, the police pushed people back with batons and irritant spray and made more arrests.
One demonstrator, David Paisley, a HVAC technician who has spent the protest broadcasting updates from a fishing shack on the back of a flatbed truck known as “the shed,” described the moment an officer entered the vehicle to arrest him.
“He had a big military rifle, he pointed right at my chest, he yelled at me to get down, on the ground,” said Mr. Paisley, 33, who captured the moment of his arrest on a recorded livestream. “It was like a movie scene.”
A recording played in French and English, as the police advanced. “You must leave,” it said. “Anyone found in the zone will be arrested.”
The police operation appeared to be a final salvo in the government’s belated effort to break up the occupation. In recent weeks, the demonstrations, which began with truckers rallying against vaccine mandates, have attracted a variety of protesters airing grievances about pandemic restrictions, claims of government overreach and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s stewardship of the country.
By midmorning, police had cleared the demonstrators from what had been the occupation’s core, Wellington Street, and set up barricades. The Ottawa Police said that as of Saturday evening, 170 people had been arrested and that 46 vehicles had been removed. The police declined to discuss their tactics but in a tweet on Saturday, they asked the public to stop calling emergency phone lines “to express displeasure about the police action” to end the protest, noting that making unnecessary calls to 911 was a crime.
While significantly throttled, the protest was not completely disbanded. As police pushed demonstrators away from Parliament, some congregated on side streets while police warned that there were children in the crowd. “We are seeing young children being brought to the front of the police operation,” the Ottawa police said on Twitter. “This is dangerous and it is putting the children at risk.” (Read more)

Flagrant, unabashed disregard for the rule of law, and yet again he will get away with it: National Archives confirms that Trump took classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office

Jim Bourg/Reuters

Yet another high crime for which the unholy son-of-a-bitch is almost certain to never face charges. If there has ever been a figure in all of human history who has lived a charmed life of abusing others and engaging in rank criminality without consequence, it is Donald Trump. He will likely go to his grave a free man, beloved and fiercely defended by millions of American nationalist populists (a/k/a Fascists.) America is a powder keg set to explode. I am 100% convinced that the current administration and the DOJ are never going to pursue charges against Donald Trump, knowing that it will be the catalyst for millions of angry rednecks, white nationalists, fundamentalist Christians, and other assorted reprobates to begin the long, eagerly awaited armed uprising. Keeping the lights on, so to speak, just a bit longer appears to be of a higher priority than any other concern for the Biden administration, but nothing is going to prevent the inevitable, final collapse of this corrupted empire. Via the Associated Press -

WASHINGTON (AP) — Classified information was found in the 15 boxes of White House records that were stored at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, the National Archives and Records Administration said in a letter that confirmed the matter has been sent to the Justice Department.

The Friday letter from the agency follows numerous reports around Trump’s handling of sensitive and even classified information during his time as president and after he left the White House. The revelation could also interest federal investigators responsible for policing the handling of government secrets, though the Justice Department and FBI have not indicated they will pursue.

Federal law bars the removal of classified documents to unauthorized locations, though it is possible that Trump could try to argue that, as president, he was the ultimate declassification authority.

No matter the legal risk, it exposes him to charges of hypocrisy given his relentless attacks during the 2016 presidential campaign on Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state. The FBI investigated but ultimately did not recommend charges.

Trump recently denied reports about his administration’s tenuous relationship with the National Archives and his lawyers said that “they are continuing to search for additional presidential records that belong to the National Archives.”

In a statement Friday night, Trump said, “The National Archives did not ‘find’ anything, they were given, upon request, Presidential Records in an ordinary and routine process.”

“If this was anyone but ‘Trump,’ there would be no story here,” he said.

The letter from the archivists in response to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which is investigating, also details how certain social media records were not captured and preserved by the Trump administration. And it also says that the agency learned that White House staff frequently conducted official business using unofficial messaging accounts and personal phones. (Read more)

Friday, February 18, 2022

President Biden declares he is convinced Putin and Russia are about to invade their neighbors, as Russian separatists allege shelling and sabotage in eastern Ukraine

A shame that a large percentage of nationalist populist Americans - their brains destroyed by cult worship of Donald Trump, and egged on by numerous other far-right provocateurs and propagandists - will be chanting 'Let's Go Brandon' and rooting for the Russian aggressors; all the while cynically waving the American flag and crowing about what greater 'patriots' they are than the rest of the American populace. Prayers for Ukraine, and for sanity and morality to somehow overcome the great odds and prevail. Via the Los Angeles Times -

President Biden said Friday that he is convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, capping a day full of ominous turns toward war between Russia and the former Soviet Republic.
“We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people,” Biden said in a somber White House address. “We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly, not because we want a conflict, but because we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reasons that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine.”
Until Russia attacks, Biden said, “diplomacy is always a possibility,” holding out slight hope that Western powers might avert a bloody, disruptive and economically damaging war.
The comments followed similar admonitions from Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken that Russia’s plan to create a pretext for invading Ukraine “is already in play,” with Russian-backed separatists claiming they were the victims of artillery shelling and sabotage.
The Biden administration has said it will not send troops to defend Ukraine. Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh, however, vowed on Friday that Russia would become a “pariah to the international community” and “isolated from global financial markets,” with punishing sanctions, if it attacks its western neighbor.
American and European leaders, meanwhile, continued a show of unity as Russia, which has 150,000 troops amassed around Ukraine, announced weekend drills that would test the “reliability” of its nuclear weapons, yet another stark reminder of the stakes in the standoff between the Kremlin and NATO. (Read more)

Monday, February 14, 2022

Alberta: RCMP confiscate fire arms from anti-vaxxer truckers and supporters, eleven arrested; ‘large farm tractor and a semi truck attempted to ram a police vehicle’

Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Violent extremism is on the rise in America, and it has infected our neighbors to the north. Via the CBC -

Alberta RCMP have arrested at least 11 people after searching three trailers and finding weapons at a protest against pandemic restrictions near the main U.S. border crossing in southern Alberta.
Mounties said in a release Monday that they became aware of a small organized group within the larger protest at Coutts.
They say they had information that the group had access to a cache of firearms and ammunition. Officers seized long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armour, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity firearm magazines.
"We haven't had many incidents involving violence, but unfortunately an investigation started after a period of time when the initial protesters arrived," Supt. Roberta McKale of the RCMP told media around 2 p.m. on Monday.
McKale said that RCMP began to receive information about potential threats, which took time to investigate, and led to arrests on Sunday night.
"We have since made another arrest involving this, the escalation of violence towards the members, including having someone break one of our checkpoints this afternoon and just about hit one of our members on the road," McKale said.
McKale also added that the different charges and different acts has created a situation where the Mounties are investigating conspiracy to attempt to commit murder. (Read more)

Anti-Semitism on the rise in ‘Murica. Louisville, KY: Jewish mayoral candidate narrowly escapes assassination attempt

Reuters/USA Today Network

Echoes of Nazi Germany are all around us. In Louisville, KY, an unidentified gunman opened fire at the campaign offices of a Jewish mayoral candidate, who was present and managed to evade the bullets. This was just one individual, apparently acting alone (at least as far as is known), but oppression and tyranny is not the exclusive domain of governments and organized institutions. In Nazi Germany, Hitler and company liberated large segments of German society to freely express their various hatreds, and many individuals committed crimes against Jews, gipsys, and other outcasts without direct orders from authorities. We are increasingly seeing the same effect in America in the years since Donald Trump has been a political cult leader. Nobody has been more effective at blowing those various ‘dog whistles’ than Trump, and even as he has been deposed from high office, the fallout is only just beginning in earnest. All Jews in America would be wise to take all precautions, and to alert the world to what is coming. Via Algemeiner -

A Jewish Democratic mayoral candidate in Kentucky was left miraculously unharmed after multiple shots were fired at him in his campaign office on Monday morning.
Craig Greenberg, who is running for the post of mayor in Louisville, Kentucky, was guided to safety along with members of his staff by police officers after an unidentified gunman opened fire at around 10:15 am. None of the shots hit Greenberg, though one bullet did pierce his clothing.
“We consider ourselves very fortunate,” Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields said at a press conference following the attack, the Courier Journal reported.
Shields said that a motive behind the shooting was yet to be established. (Read more)

Donald Trump’s own accounting firm gives up on him, says financial records for the last ten years cannot be trusted

Reuters

Any question now as to why he will not release his taxes? Yet, people will still not repent for supporting this most obvious of conmen, nor is the Republican Party going to change course. The perverse devotion and loyalty this man inspires among so many is simply impossible to break. It is baffling, it is scary, and it is not going to end well. Via the New York Times -

Donald J. Trump’s longtime accounting firm cut ties with him and his family business last week amid ongoing criminal and civil investigations into whether Mr. Trump illegally inflated the value of his assets, court documents filed on Monday show.
In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the accounting firm notified the company of its decision and disclosed that it could no longer stand behind annual financial statements it prepared for Mr. Trump. The firm, Mazars USA, compiled the financial statements based on information the former president and his company provided.
The letter instructed the Trump Organization to essentially retract the documents, known as statements of financial condition, from 2011 to 2020. In the letter, Mazars noted that the firm had not “as a whole” found material discrepancies between the information the Trump Organization provided and the actual value of Mr. Trump’s assets. But given what it called “the totality of circumstances,” the letter directed the Trump Organization to notify anyone who received the statements that they should no longer rely on them.
The statements, which Mr. Trump used to secure loans, are at the center of the two law enforcement investigations into whether Mr. Trump exaggerated the value of his properties to defraud his lenders into providing him the best possible loan terms.
The disclosures about Mazars’ work for Mr. Trump appeared in new court documents filed by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who is seeking to question the former president and two of his adult children under oath as part of her civil investigation.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had asked a judge to prohibit the questioning, and in response, Ms. James’s office argued in court papers last month that the company had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices.
Her filing on Monday — which marked her latest attempt to press ahead with questioning Mr. Trump as well as Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump — included a copy of the Mazars letter, signed by the accounting firm’s general counsel.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been conducting a separate criminal investigation, with the assistance of lawyers from Ms. James’s office. (Read more)

Ungrateful, cowardly Afghanis bemoan the Biden Administration redirecting central bank funds to 9/11 victims

Kiana Hayeri/NYT

For twenty long and thankless years, Americans soldiers gave their blood for these ingrates and cowards, and American taxpayers spent unholy amount of money to assist (key word) in the rebuilding of their pathetic wasteland of a country. It is 100% the responsibility of Afghani citizens that the Taliban is ruling over them once again. The Biden Administration’s greatest accomplishment to date is getting our military out of that hellhole, for which they took nothing but grief from nearly all sides. The nerve of any of these people to say America has been ‘cruel’ and has betrayed them. In hindsight, perhaps Afghanistan should have been nuked into oblivion on September 12, 2001. Only half-kidding there. New York Times -

KABUL, Afghanistan — Many Afghans said they were outraged by the Biden administration’s decision to divert billions in frozen assets from the Afghan central bank to American families of 9/11 victims, as Afghanistan hurtles deeper into economic catastrophe.
The move, which would effectively bankrupt the country’s central bank, adds to the growing animosity that many Afghans have felt toward the United States since the troop withdrawal that paved the way for the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August.
“It is a cruel act and a betrayal of the rights of the Afghan people,” Fazl Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Kabul, the capital, said on Saturday. “It is clear that the poor economic situation right now is due to the U.S. economic constraints on Afghanistan.”
After the Taliban seized power, the Biden administration froze the roughly $7 billion in central bank assets that the now-defunct Western-backed government had on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, amid uncertainty over who — if anyone — now had the legal authority to gain access to the account.
On Friday, the Biden administration began a process aimed at letting relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks who have legal claims against the Taliban pursue $3.5 billion of those assets. The Taliban sheltered Qaeda leaders who planned the Sept. 11 attacks during the Taliban’s previous rule of Afghanistan.
The White House said a roughly equal amount would be steered toward humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, which is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes. In a statement, it said the move was “designed to provide a path for the funds to reach the people of Afghanistan, while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and malicious actors.”
But for many Afghans, the decision to put half of the assets into American hands amplified frustrations about the stranglehold that the United States has had on the country’s financial system since it withdrew its troops. (Read more)

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Canadian authorities begin regaining law and order, shutting down trucker protests that closed the Ambassador Bridge border crossing

Robin Buckson/Detroit News

About time law enforcement pushed back against these petulant assholes. Via the Detroit News -

Windsor — Canadian police removed protesters camped nearly a week near the Ambassador Bridge, a critical U.S.-Canadian border crossing, and regained control Sunday.
The bridge had been blocked to traffic in Canada since Monday evening, when a protest at the Capitol in Ottawa spread to other cities across the country. The protesting over COVID-19 restrictions and a trucker vaccine mandate has threatened the economies of both nations, the countries' leaders have said. The bridge remained closed Sunday night as authorities continued to crack down on the remaining scattered protesters.
"Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end," Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkins said. "Border crossings will reopen when it is safe to do so, and I defer to police and border agencies to make that determination."
Windsor Police Service Chief Pam Mizuno said 25-30 arrests were made during the crackdown and 12 vehicles were seized that were in or near the blockade on Huron Church Road near the bridge. Authorities did not disclose how many police officers were deployed.

Despite the crackdown, there was no immediate time frame when the bridge would reopen. "We are working as fast as we can to restore traffic flow and reopen the bridge, and as soon as we can make that happen, we will," Mizuno said. (Read more)

Not merely ‘hysteria.’ White House National Security Adviser warns that Russia is going to fabricate a pretext for invading Ukraine

AP/Mikhail Metzel

‘Hysteria’ the Russians say of the global alarm over the Ukraine crisis, knowing full well what they’re about to go in for the kill. The only things the Russians do well in this world are gaslighting, bullying, and murder. They are never to be trusted, and neither are any of their various mouthpieces and fans here in the United States. Take heed of the administration's warning. -

WASHINGTON/KYIV, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Russia could invade Ukraine at any time and might create a surprise pretext for an attack, the United States said on Sunday, as it reaffirmed a pledge to defend "every inch" of NATO territory.
Russia has more than 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, which is not part of the Atlantic military alliance, and Washington - while keeping open the diplomatic channels that have so far failed to ease the crisis - has repeatedly said an invasion is imminent.
Moscow denies any such plans and has accused the West of "hysteria".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the eve of a trip that takes him to Kyiv on Monday and Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, called for Russia to de-escalate and warned of sanctions if Moscow did invade.
A German official said Berlin did not expect "concrete results" but diplomacy was important.
In Washington, President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said an invasion could begin "any day now".
"We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window," Sullivan told CNN.
U.S. officials said they could not confirm reports that U.S. intelligence indicated Russia planned to invade on Wednesday.
Sullivan said Washington would continue sharing what it learned with the world in order to deny Moscow the chance to stage a surprise "false flag" operation that could be a pretext for an attack.
It would also "defend every inch of NATO territory ... and Russia we think fully understands that message," Sullivan added in a separate CBS interview. (Read more)

Friday, February 11, 2022

The White House puts the screws to weakling Justin Trudeau, demands Canada crackdown on trucker blockades at the border

Cole Burston/Getty Images

Disrupting the lives of ordinary citizens is not a legitimate form of protest. Rather, it is terrorism, and these truckers ought to be treated as terrorists. But pretty boy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has his thumb up his ass, sitting back and doing nothing. These petulant bullies are already causing great harm to the economies of both Canada and the United States, and they are beginning to inspire copycat protests in the U.S. and around the world. It has to be stopped. -

The Canadian government is coming under increasing pressure from the United States to resolve anti-vaccine mandate protests that are impacting the economy in both countries with border blockades, including a 5-day shutdown of the vital Ambassador Bridge.
The “Freedom Convoy” by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, mirrored by the U.S. government, began with the occupation of the Canadian capital, Ottawa. The truckers then blocked the Ambassador Bridge earlier this week, and shut down two other smaller border crossings.
The closure of the bridge, North America’s busiest international land border crossing and a key supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to limit economic damage. (Read more)

President Biden warns Americans to leave Ukraine

AFP via Getty Images

If one is an American currently in Ukraine and somehow reading these words, ‘take heed.’ Everybody else, don’t point the finger of blame at the president when Russia invades and Americans remain stuck in Ukraine. He has given fair warning. -

US President Joe Biden has called on all American citizens remaining in Ukraine to leave the country immediately, citing increased threats of Russian military action.
Mr Biden said he would not send troops to rescue Americans if Moscow invades Ukraine.
He warned that "things could go crazy quickly" in the region.
Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine despite massing more than 100,000 troops near the border.
But it has just begun massive military drills with neighbouring Belarus, and Ukraine has accused Russia of blocking its access to the sea.
The Kremlin says it wants to enforce "red lines" to make sure that its former Soviet neighbour does not join Nato. (Read more)

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Calculated cruelty in the new, post-COVID America. Empathy and compassion not allowed, your very life no longer matters

Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Images

If America was not an evil nation before, it is now. More to the point, the American people are evil. A massive, highly successful gaslighting campaign is ongoing to desensitize Americans to the horror all around them. Borderline eugenics. This is only the beginning of the inhumanity to come. Via Scientific American -

Sometime in the next few weeks, the official death toll for the two-year COVID pandemic in the U.S. will reach one million. Despite being the wealthiest nation on the planet, the U.S. has continued to have the most COVID infections and deaths per country, by far, and it has the highest per capita death rate of any wealthy nation.
This is an unfathomable number of people dead, yet, mass media are downplaying it. This is despite an empathetic New York Times headline in May 2020 of “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, an Incalculable Loss,” and using its entire front page to print names of some of the deceased. As Luppe B. Luppen noted on Twitter, the newspaper’s more recent headline was the cruel and callous “900,000 Dead, but Many Americans Move On.”
The Times is not alone; several large mainstream publications, in complicity with politicians of both major political parties, have been beating a death knell of a drum for getting “back to normal” for months. The effect is the manufactured consent to normalize mass death and suffering—to subtly suggest to Americans that they want to move on.
News media are helping to shape public opinion in order for business to return to the very circumstances that have created this ongoing crisis. A return to normal will allow profits to be reaped by people working relatively safely from their homes (the target audience of many news organizations’ advertisers) at the expense of people working or studying in person who are more vulnerable.
A few weeks ago, David Leonhardt, the writer of the Times’ newsletter “The Morning,” asked Michael Barbaro, the host of the company’s podcast “The Daily”: “If [COVID] is starting to look like a regular respiratory virus, is it rational [emphasis by the Times] to treat it like something completely different— to disrupt all our lives in all these big and consequential ways[?]”
I was dismayed. That rhetorical move is a familiar one to me: Two white men frame what they think is rational, deeming any questioning of their stand as irrational.
Meanwhile, some 140,000 children in the U.S. have lost a caregiver—about one in every 500 children. That is a big and consequential loss, and those children are probably not among the many who are ready to “move on” (another nearly one million Americans can’t move on because they’re already dead). During this pandemic, Black people have been disproportionately killed by this virus. About 50,000 people have died each month of COVID, meaning several Black children are being orphaned by SARS-CoV-2 this month, as you read this.
So is it rational? To be calling for the end of life-saving mitigation efforts and saying they harm children when so many have been orphaned here and worldwide? (Read more)

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Russian aggression toward Ukraine prompts oil traders to bid up the price of crude oil, leading to the highest U.S. gas prices in eight years

Getty Images

The actions of tyrants have ripple effects beyond their individual domains. Not that most Americans know or care, they’ll just blame President Biden or whoever their favorite political punching bag is. CBS News -

Gasoline prices across the U.S. are surging to the highest level in eight years as the price of crude oil rises, spiked by worries about geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe.
The average price of a gallon of gas hit $3.47 on Wednesday, according to AAA, a jump of eight cents from the previous week. Gas prices this week are at their highest since October 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
While gasoline prices typically dip in the first months of the year as Americans wait out cold weather indoors, this year has been different. Oil traders, anxious over the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, have bid up the price of crude oil to more than $90 a barrel.
"This has not been demand-driven, but it has been supply-driven, and recently we've seen crude oil prices move on the basis of geopolitics. A lot of what-if scenarios: what if Russia does invade Ukraine and we have sanctions?" Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Russia produced more than one-tenth of the world's oil in 2020 — a sizable portion that would be disrupted with military conflict or threatened sanctions by the U.S. and its allies.
While the price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, has fallen from earlier in the week, is was at $91on Wednesday, or 50% higher than it was at the start of last summer.
"Higher oil prices will eventually lead to higher prices at the pump," AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said. (Read more)

Speaker Pelosi drops opposition, and measure to ban members from trading stocks advances in the U.S. House

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Thoroughly approve of this measure, though it is merely a start toward cleaning up a thoroughly corrupted body. Among many other reforms that need to be made, the most pressing is the need for term limits – no more than two Senate terms, no more than six terms in the House, no more than 12 years of service between the two bodies. If we were really serious about maintaining our constitutional republic, we’d do away with political parties altogether, but both the politicians and the American public will never let go of their beloved partisan affiliations. From CNBC -

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders have greenlighted a plan to craft legislation that would prohibit members of Congress from trading stock, after months of resistance to a ban by Pelosi, CNBC confirmed Wednesday.
At Pelosi’s direction, the House Administration Committee is working on drafting the rules, and the legislation is expected to be put up for a vote this year, likely before the November midterm elections.
In the Senate, several versions of a stock trading ban are under consideration, including one co-authored by progressive Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
“When you’re elected, you’re here to serve the people, not the elite, and [a stock trading ban] I think is a step forward, an important step forward, to restore the faith and trust of the American people in this institution,” Daines told CNBC on Wednesday.
Many questions remain about what types of investments would be prohibited, what incoming members would be required to do to comply with a new law, and whether family members of lawmakers would also be banned from trading stocks.
Nevertheless, Pelosi’s support for a stock trading ban in the House, first reported by Punchbowl News, represents an about-face for the speaker, and comes after years of congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle rejecting the idea of limiting what investments members of Congress can hold.
In the past, opponents of a ban on stock trading in Congress have claimed it would hamper efforts to recruit the best candidates to run for office. Meanwhile, many of their own families have grown wealthy by investing in the stock market, including Pelosi’s.
Yet in recent months, Pelosi and her top lieutenants have come under growing pressure from rank-and-file members to take action and pass a stock trading ban.
These increasingly noisy calls for a ban have been spurred in part by growing public support for a prohibition on lawmakers trading stocks. (Read more)

Monday, February 7, 2022

On account of the lockout and a twenty-year agreement expiring, Major League Baseball temporarily halts steroid testing

Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Really nothing to see here, just another reminder that it is time for the owners and players to make agreement, and then get back to work. Not terribly optimistic, though, that we are going to have a full, 162-game season. Associated Press -

NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball has stopped testing players for steroids for the first time in nearly 20 years due to the expiration of the sport's drug agreement, two people familiar with the sport's Joint Drug Program told The Associated Press.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because no public announcement was made.
The halt in testing is a casualty of the sport's lockout that started Dec. 2 and a provision in the joint drug agreement between MLB and the players' association that states "the termination date and time of the program shall be 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2021."
"It should be a major concern to all those who value fair play," Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said Monday.
MLB and the union declined comment on the halt.
Just last month, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were denied election to the Hall of Fame by baseball writers over suspicions of PEDs use. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, who both served drug suspensions, fell well short in voting. (Read more)