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| 04-11-22 09:00am - 892 days | #2 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans are poised to attack Joe Biden through his son, Hunter Biden. Republicans, the party of truth, honor and freedom, are digging up dirt on Hunter Biden. The President of the United States has a corrupt son, blares the Republican party. Joe Biden is not fit to lead our great nation. Bring back Donald Trump, a man who knows how to take bribes in secret, to defend his honor with lies, to fight to the bitter end any attempt to make him pay for him lies and crimes. Donald Trump, the man who became the first president of the United States to promise to never golf while president, the man who spent more time on the golf course while president than any president before him. God save Donald Trump, the face of the Republican party. ---- ---- 'Family, family, family:' Valerie Biden Owens defends brother 'Joey' and nephew Hunter USA TODAY April 10, 2022, 10:36 AM NEWARK, Del. – With the Bidens, it's all in the family. For better or worse. There's the "safe haven" President Biden's sister Valerie provides in their regular late-night phone conversations, chitchat about nothing after a day that might have been dominated for him by Russian aggression and record inflation. But there's also the escalating furor around his son Hunter, the subject of a federal investigation and the likely target of Capitol Hill hearings if Republicans win control of Congress in November. Not since John F. Kennedy has a president been surrounded by such a large and close-knit clan, one that has been a source of both emotional support and political trouble for the commander in chief. "We have been best friends our entire life," Valerie Biden Owens told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview about her memoir, "Growing Up Biden," being published Tuesday by Celadon Books. "I can't read his mind, but 99.9% of the time, we'll come out with the same answer, his by Jesuit logic and mine by just a feel." She was her brother's first campaign manager and decades later remains a voice he trusts. Dubbed "the Biden whisperer," she shares her brother's instincts and articulates his perspective, sometimes with fewer political constraints than he has. Valerie Biden Owens, right, is a source of unwavering support for her brother Joe and their family. Valerie Biden Owens, right, is a source of unwavering support for her brother Joe and their family. She heatedly defended his son Hunter, who has struggled with addiction, as the blameless victim of a partisan attack over alleged financial misconduct. Does he bear some of the responsibility for the controversies swirling around him? “No,” she replied flatly. “Hunter walked through hell. He didn't wake up and say, ‘Aunt Val, I think I'm going to be an addict. And so whatever happens, it's my responsibility.’” She praised him for having the “courage” and “strength” to combat the dependence on alcohol and crack that she said was behind his actions. More: Hunter Biden says he was 'smoking crack every 15 minutes,' more jaw-dropping moments from memoir 'Beautiful Things' Federal prosecutors who convened a grand jury in Delaware may be less understanding in their investigation of whether Hunter Biden violated money laundering laws, evaded taxes and failed to abide by foreign lobbying regulations. For years, Donald Trump has hammered Joe Biden with accusations of corruption involving multimillion-dollar contracts that son Hunter and brother James won in China and Ukraine when Biden was vice president. On the Senate floor last week, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, both Republicans, made their third lengthy presentation about what they labeled "The Biden Family Investigation," this time detailing James Biden's business ties to the Chinese government. Johnson described the Biden family as "grifters" and "influence peddlers." If the GOP wins control of the House or Senate in the November midterm elections – and with that the power to convene hearings and issue subpoenas – floor speeches about the Biden family are likely to become full-scale congressional inquiries. A fast talker with a big laugh Valerie Biden Owens, 76, is wiry and wired, a fast talker with a big laugh. Perched on a chair pulled before a crackling fireplace in Joe Biden's office at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, she said she can't remember a time when she and the big brother she calls Joey weren't best friends. "Really and truly, from the time I opened my eyes," she said. White House wedding: Joe and Jill Biden to host granddaughter's wedding reception at White House, the first since 2008 She said she sees Hunter as more of a son than a nephew, the little boy she helped rear when his mother and sister were killed in a car accident that injured him and his brother, Beau. Addiction is a thread that runs through her memoir and through generations of her family. Her "Uncle Boo-Boo" was an alcoholic, she wrote. Her brother Frankie abused drugs and alcohol. President-elect Joe Biden, right, embraces his son Hunter in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 7, 2020. President-elect Joe Biden, right, embraces his son Hunter in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 7, 2020. "What is it? The Irish and the drink," she said, citing a genetic susceptibility in the family to addiction. That's why she didn't drink through high school and college; Joe Biden has never used alcohol. The hardest part of the book to write, she said, was "exposing the vulnerabilities of a family and addiction." She dismissed out of hand the idea that the worst is yet to come for the family in the investigations into her nephew and brother. "I don't know what could be worse than Beau's dying of glioblastoma when he was 46 years old," she said sharply. "I don't know what could be worse than watching Hunter walk through hell. You never say the worst is over, but whatever comes, we can handle it as a family." Their unity gives them resilience, she said, a lesson from her parents. "Mom said there's family, and there's family, and then there's family." Even some allies worry that Joe Biden's devotion to family has made it harder for him to fully acknowledge and effectively deal with the political perils his son and brother present. Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, and his sister Valerie Biden Owens attend the funeral Mass for the Bidens' mother, Jean, on Jan. 12, 2010, at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del. Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, and his sister Valerie Biden Owens attend the funeral Mass for the Bidens' mother, Jean, on Jan. 12, 2010, at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del. Meet the Bidens: A who's who of the new first family Knowing she was nervous about the USA TODAY interview, brother Jimmy and his wife, Sarah, unexpectedly arrived at the Biden Institute before the conversation began to offer moral support. They sat against a wall for the hour, two friendly faces that were out of the camera angle but within her line of sight. 'The price was going to be too high' Valerie was one who initially urged her brother not to make his third bid for the presidency in the 2020 contest. "I just thought the price was going to be too high," she wrote, worried that a campaign against Trump would be brutal. "I didn't want the family to go through it. I was worried the family couldn't go through it." Though she came around to support Biden's run, she said her predictions about the campaign turned out to be true. "It met and exceeded my expectations of being ugly and degrading, disrespectful, a disservice to the country," she said. "Trump and his right-wing followers have continued to do whatever they can to discredit the family and therefore to bring Joe down." President Biden faces commentary from his fiercest critics that at age 79, he lacks the physical vigor and mental acuity needed in a president. "Just watch him," she said in response. "It's not even worth a flick." Do those comments bother him? "No," she said. Later in the interview, she launched into a defense of his sometimes stumbling speaking style, which she described as an aftermath of his childhood stutter. "My brother's a stutterer, and he still stutters and tries to get things out," she said. "And what did really make me mad and drive me crazy was when he would go to speak, and there would be a hesitancy, and the critique from the bad guys, the right wing, was that he's not smart; he didn't know what he was saying." She bristles at criticism of her brother, and she worries that the White House staff doesn't do a good enough job in spotlighting his administration's accomplishments. "This Washington jargon," she said with frustration. "Talk about infrastructure? What the hell? I don't care about infrastructure. I care about the water that's coming out of my faucet that is toxic to my children." Several nights a week, at 10 p.m. or so, she'll call the president or he'll call her to touch base. "When he calls, I don't talk about what happened with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin today," she said. "We talk about family. It's a respite. ... We talk about nothing, and in talking about nothing, we talk about everything. "I don't have to say a whole lot, because we understand each other." Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Joe Biden's sister Valerie on 'Joey,' nephew Hunter | |
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| 04-11-22 05:30am - 893 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the staunchest defenders of Donald J. Trump, in spite of Trump's attacks on her father, the coward Dick Cheney, the man who gave up the Vice Presidency to run away from Washington DC, has admitted that there is enough evidence to charge Trump with crimes. Will Trump demand that Liz Cheney resign from the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the truest, bluest part of the Untitled States of Trumperland? Will God Himself come down from the heavens and serve as Trump's lawyer, to defend God's anointed ambassador on Earth? However, the Justice Department, the home of the famed FBI, the same FBI that whitewashed Brett Kavanaugh so Brett could become an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is standing firmly with Donald Trump. ------ ------ Jan. 6 panel has enough evidence to refer Trump for criminal charges, Cheney says NBC Universal Christina Zhao April 10, 2022, 10:24 AM The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has enough evidence to refer President Donald Trump for criminal charges, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Sunday. “It’s absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing — what a number of people around him were doing — that they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway,” Cheney, the vice chair and one of two Republicans on the committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union" when host Jake Tapper asked her whether the panel had enough evidence to make a criminal referral for Trump. Cheney said the panel has not made a decision about moving forward with the referral. The New York Times reported that the committee has concluded that it has enough evidence to make a criminal referral but that its leaders were divided over whether to do so. "I think what we have seen is a massive and well-organized and well-planned effort that used multiple tools to try to overturn an election," Cheney said. The committee has "got a tremendous amount of testimony and documents that I think very, very clearly demonstrate the extent of the planning and the organization and the objective." She added: "The objective was absolutely to try to stop the kind of electoral votes, to try to interfere with that official proceeding. And it’s absolutely clear that they knew what they were doing was wrong." She referred to a ruling in a civil suit involving the committee last month, in which a federal judge found that based on evidence, Trump most likely "attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress" on the day of the attack, which would be a crime. “The illegality of the plan was obvious,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote of Trump and lawyer John Eastman’s plan to have then-Vice President Mike Pence determine the results of the 2020 election. “Every American — and certainly the president of the United States — knows that in a democracy, leaders are elected, not installed. With a plan this ‘BOLD,’ President Trump knowingly tried to subvert this fundamental principle." The Jan. 6 panel made similar allegations in a court filing in the case last month, saying it had a "good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States." Trump, who has not been charged with a crime, has denied any wrongdoing. In recent months, the panel has ramped up its investigation ahead of public hearings expected next month. The House voted Wednesday to refer former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress after they refused to comply with subpoenas from the panel to testify and turn over documents. The House previously voted to refer former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the investigation. He was indicted by a grand jury in November and could face a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 if he is convicted. The House in December also voted to refer former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for a criminal contempt charge. The Justice Department has not acted on Meadows' referral. | |
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| 04-09-22 07:51am - 894 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Greene passionately (or maybe with fervor) believes in her right of free speech. She advocated the death of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who were standing in the way of Trump's remaining in the White House for a second term. Of course, she is a member of Congress. As a politician, she believes she has the right to speak her mind. Can she say whatever she wants, without any consequences? ---- ---- Marjorie Taylor Greene seeks to quash effort to block her from running for reelection Yahoo News Jon Ward April 8, 2022, 2:23 PM Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in a hearing in federal court on Friday, sought to quash a legal challenge that would bar her from running for another term in Congress. Federal Judge Amy Totenberg heard arguments from lawyers for Greene, a first-term member of Congress from northwest Georgia, and from voters in her district who want to block her from running for reelection. The lawsuit against Greene seeks to prevent her from appearing on future ballots because it alleges she violated the Constitution by encouraging and “facilitating” the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. The challenge to Greene’s candidacy is being brought by residents of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, which she represents. The legal effort is being spearheaded by a nonpartisan legal advocacy group, Free Speech for People, and a progressive political action group, Our Revolution. Marjorie Taylor Greene Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Greene sought Friday to prevent the state of Georgia from hearing the challenge in the first place. Judge Totenberg, the sister of National Public Radio legal correspondent Nina Totenberg, is expected to issue a ruling Monday on whether the challenge can move forward. If Totenberg allows the case to proceed, arguments will be heard next week by administrative law judge Charles Beaudrot Jr. The groups bringing the challenge against Greene’s candidacy describe it as “a national campaign to ensure that election officials across the country follow the mandate of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment and bar elected officials who engaged in the insurrection, including former President Donald Trump, from appearing on any future ballot.” The legal effort is targeting numerous Republican members of Congress who, like Greene, spread falsehoods about the 2020 election and incited Republican voters against the government in the days leading up to Jan. 6. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 to reckon with the fallout from the Civil War. The clause states that “no Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress ... who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” The legal complaint against Greene argues that the Jan. 6 riot fits the legal and historical definition of an insurrection as constituting “actions against the United States with the intent to overthrow the government of the United States or obstruct an essential constitutional function.” Trump supporters clash with police and security forces Trump supporters clashing with police and security personnel on Jan. 6, 2021. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images) Greene, the complaint reads, “encouraged and was otherwise involved in efforts to intimidate Congress and the Vice President into rejecting valid electoral votes and subvert the essential constitutional function of an orderly and peaceful transition of power.” “She was involved in either planning the attack on January 6, or alternatively the planning of the pre-attack demonstration and/or march on the Capitol with knowledge that it was substantially likely to lead to the attack, and otherwise voluntarily aided the insurrection,” it says. Greene, the complaint says, “has a long history of advocating for violence against her political opponents and endorsing wildly false claims against them.” “On January 7, 2019, she advocated for exactly what would happen two years later: ‘If we have a sea of people shut down the streets ... flood the Capitol building, flood all of the government buildings, go inside these are public buildings we own them,’” the suit says. According to the suit,in a video that she later deleted, Greene said, “You can’t allow it to just transfer power ‘peacefully’ like Joe Biden wants and allow him to become our president because he did not win this election. He’s guilty of treason. It’s a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.” Free Speech for People and Our Revolution have also brought complaints against three Arizona Republican lawmakers — Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Andy Biggs and state Rep. Mark Finchem — who also promoted Trump’s election lies about a stolen election, and promoted or attended the Jan. 6 rally before the assault on the Capitol. The rioters got within two doors of Vice President Mike Pence's office. See how in this 3D explainer from Yahoo Immersive. | |
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| 04-08-22 11:09am - 895 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Mads Mikkelsen doesn't believe in method acting. "It's bullshit," he says. But to prepare for his role as serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the TV series, Mads revealed that he spent 2 years as an undercover serial killer. "I wanted to make art," Mads confesses. When questioned about how many people he killed, Mads plays coy. "I can't reveal the exact details of what I did. It would only detract from the performance I gave as one of the deadliest men alive. But I have to admit that my performance was superb." Unfortunately, his performance did not lead to an Oscar, since it was a TV series. But Mads has no regrets: either for his serial undercover killings, or for his performance on TV. -------- -------- Mads Mikkelsen Doesn’t Believe in Method Acting: ‘It’s Bullsh*t’ The "Fantastic Beasts" star doesn't believe method acting makes a significant difference, and blames the media for over-glamorizing it. Whether it’s Benedict Cumberbatch giving himself nicotine poisoning to prepare for “The Power of the Dog,” Lady Gaga hiring an on-set psychiatrist for “House of Gucci,” or Jared Leto taking 45-minute bathroom breaks in character as Morbius, method acting is huge right now. Actors love to detail their intense preparation for roles as a way to generate buzz and ticket sales, and awards voters often reward the work that goes into those performances. One person who’s not impressed? Mads Mikkelsen, who stars as Grindelwald in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” taking over the role that Johnny Depp was forced to vacate. In an interview with GQ UK to promote the film, Mikkelsen says he does not use method acting and does not understand the hype. His response? “It’s bullshit.” “You can take [the preparation] into insanity,” Mikkelsen said. “What if it’s a shit film — what do you think you achieved? Am I impressed that you didn’t drop character? You should have dropped it from the beginning! How do you prepare for a serial killer? You gonna spend two years checking it out?” The actor, who will next be seen in next summer’s “Indiana Jones 5,” went on to mock actors who attempt to stay in character for period pieces, despite the fact that they inevitably run into anachronisms. “‘I’m having a cigarette? This is from 2020, it’s not from 1870 — can you live with it?’” he joked. “It’s just pretentious.” While Mikkelsen personally does not practice method acting, that doesn’t mean he can’t respect the work of famous method actors. He simply credits their performances to their talent and direction, rather than staying in character. “Daniel Day-Lewis is a great actor,” he said. “But it’s got nothing to do with this.” “I would have the time of my life, just breaking down the character constantly,” Mikkelsen said of the chance to work alongside someone as method-oriented as Daniel Day-Lewis, who rarely leaves character during a production. Mikkelsen also does not blame method actors as much as he blames the media for giving them so much attention, creating an incentive structure for more people to try it. “The media goes, ‘Oh my god, he took it so seriously, therefore he must be fantastic; let’s give him an award.'” he said. “Then that’s the talk, and everybody knows about it, and it becomes a thing.” “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” opens in the U.S. on April 15. | |
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| 04-07-22 10:49pm - 896 days | #8 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Jimmy Kimmel reported to Capitol Police for making a joke about Marjorie Taylor Greene. Free speech is only available to politicians. Everyone else must get an OK from the police department, before they can open their mouth. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the homophobic, gun-toting Congresswoman representing the great state of Georgia. ------ ------ Jimmy Kimmel mocks Marjorie Taylor Greene for reporting his slap joke to Capitol Police Variety Zack Sharf April 7, 2022, 8:20 AM Jimmy Kimmel fired back at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on social media over her claim that she reported one of his jokes to Capitol Police. Greene took issue with a joke Kimmel made on the April 5 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” During his monologue, Kimmel evoked Will Smith in joking about wanting someone to slap Greene over her thoughts on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson. “This woman, Klan mom, is especially upset with the three Republican senators who said they’ll vote yes on Ketanji Brown Jackson, who’s nominated for the Supreme Court,” Kimmel said, referring to Greene. “She tweeted, ‘Murkowski, Collins and Romney are pro-pedophile. They just voted for KBJ.’ Wow, where is Will Smith when you really need him?” Greene called Kimmel’s joke a “threat of violence against me” in a Twitter post. The Georgia Republican told ABC she had filed a report over the joke to Capitol Police. Kimmel responded by mocking Greene, writing, “Officer? I would like to report a joke.” Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings have prompted several Hollywood figures to condemn Republicans for their views on the matter. Ron Perlman went viral after calling Ted Cruz a “big prick” for his questioning of Brown in late March. Cruz asked Jackson about her role as a board member of the Georgetown Day School, where books such as Ibram X. Kendi’s “Antiracist Baby” are taught. Cruz used the book to question Jackson on whether or not she believes “babies are racist.” “Hi Ted, Ron here,” Perlman said in a video responding to Cruz. “Listen, I know how tempting it is to appeal to the real lowest form of humanity here in the United States, the bottom feeders…but Jesus Christ Ted, for somebody with a really, really small dick, you get to be a bigger prick every fucking day. Go fuck yourself.” | |
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| 04-07-22 07:28am - 896 days | #2 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Article doesn't explain the details of what happened very well. Did Kidd Creole kill the homeless man in self defense? Or because Kidd Creole was defending his honor because he thought the homeless guy was was gay and hitting on him? Do you have the right to kill someone because you think he's gay? Some people think so. ---- ---- Kidd Creole convicted of manslaughter in 2017 stabbing Associated Press April 7, 2022, 5:55 AM Rapper Kidd Creole, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, has been found guilty of manslaughter. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP) Rapper Kidd Creole, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, has been found guilty of manslaughter. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP) NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan jury found rapper Kidd Creole guilty of manslaughter Wednesday in connection with the 2017 fatal stabbing of a homeless man on the street. The rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, had gone on trial last month for the death of John Jolly, who was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan in August 2017. Prosecutors accused Glover, a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, of stabbing the other man after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him. Glover's attorney said it was out of self-defense. An email seeking comment was sent to the rapper's attorney. Glover, who had faced a murder charge, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five formed in the late 1970s in the Bronx. The group's most well-known song is “The Message” from 1982. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, the first rap group to be included. ======= ======= Here are more facts: The attack happened just before midnight, in New York city. The homeless man asked Kidd Creole, who was walking on the street, “What’s up?” So to defend himself, Kidd Creole stabbed the homeless man twice in the chest. Kidd Creole's attorney says you don't say "What's up" in New York with good intentions. So it was self-defense to stab the homeless man. Also, the homeless man did not die from Kidd Creole stabbing him. Instead, the homeless man died because the hospital that treated the homeless man didn't take better care of him. Blame the hospital, not Kidd Creole, for the man's death. ---- ---- Associated Press 04/07/2022 Kidd Creole Convicted of Manslaughter in 2017 Stabbing Case Glover, who had faced a murder charge, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4. A Manhattan jury found rapper Kidd Creole guilty of manslaughter Wednesday (April 6) in connection with the 2017 fatal stabbing of a homeless man on the street. The rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, had gone on trial last month for the death of John Jolly, who was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan in August 2017. Prosecutors accused Glover, a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, of stabbing the other man after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him. The stabbing happened as Glover was walking to his maintenance job in midtown Manhattan shortly before midnight on Aug. 1, 2017, and Jolly asked him “What’s up?” authorities said. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions?” Glover’s lawyer, Scottie Celestin, told the jury at the start of the trial. “His fear for his life was reasonable.” Celestin also said Jolly died from a dose of the sedative benzodiazepine that was given to him at a hospital, not the stab wounds. Glover’s attorney said it was out of self-defense. An email seeking comment was sent to the rapper’s attorney. Glover, who had faced a murder charge, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five formed in the late 1970s in the Bronx. The group’s most well-known song is “The Message” from 1982. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, the first rap group to be included. | |
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| 04-07-22 06:46am - 896 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
I've just found a new sensation that's better than porn. Extreme pogo. This is a sport for people with tiny brains and a complete disregard for injury. You can easily shatter bones and end up in a wheelchair or in your favorite burial site (in your grave, to be more explicit). ----- ----- MEL Magazine Sports Andrew Fiouzi 1 day ago The Gravity-Defying Ups and Downs of Extreme Pogo A merry band of pogo tricksters are proving that their burgeoning sport is anything but child’s play Twenty-five-year-old Dalton Smith was 10 when he first hopped on a tiny spring pogo stick and bounced off the ground. “It matched perfectly with my tiny spring body and brain,” he says. And so, he kept jumping. “I was a spastic kid who needed an outlet to radiate this electric charge,” he tells me. Now, 15 years later, that charge has taken him to 11 countries and almost every state. He holds multiple Guinness World Records, and he’s won gold at the world championships of pogo for the last seven years in a row. “One day I started jumping, I blinked, and now here I am emerging on the other end as what I am now,” he explains. If you watch any of Smith’s or his friend’s recent viral videos you immediately recognize a complete disregard for gravity’s limitations. But pogo wasn’t always so vertical. In fact, prior to 2004, it was inconceivable that someone could jump high enough on a pogo stick to attempt a backflip. There were, however, a handful of folks who were doing tricks on a traditional steel spring pogo. Dave Armstrong, the godfather of extreme pogo, had even created a forum — Xpogo.com — to share pictures and videos. Then, in September 2004, pogo enthusiasts were finally given the tool they needed to fly. SBI Enterprises, the makers of the original pogo stick, released the Flybar, a high-powered pogo designed by Bruce Middleton, an MIT dropout who had suffered a “‘moral crisis’ over the detachment of science from real-world problems like global poverty and dropped out,” per Smithsonian Magazine. Around this same time, Bruce Spencer, a retired firefighter, had nearly finished developing the Vurtego, the first air-powered extreme pogo stick ever sold. Suddenly, there were pogo sticks capable of catapulting human beings more than six feet in the air. And in 2009, after the first Pogopalooza, a four-day extreme pogo competition that draws jumpers from around the world to Pittsburgh, concluded, a new extreme sport was officially born. Recommended Reading 10 Heavy Smokers Who Somehow Achieved Incredible Sporting Feats Sports The Strange Saga of Lauren Boebert’s Pro Wrestler Paternity Case Politics Will Weiner, the current CEO of Xpogo, first joined the traveling band of pogo jumpers in 2012 when he was asked to be the announcer at Pogopalooza. He was working at IBM at the time, making a cushy six-figure salary as a consultant. But in 2018, after years of lending his voice to the extreme sport, Weiner decided to make pogo his career instead. “I got well-integrated in the community and really fell in love with the sport, and this guy who was running the business needed to step away,” he tells me. And since there weren’t too many other people in the pogo world who had a business background, Weiner was their only hope. In addition to growing the sport, his main goal has been to help guys like Smith earn a decent living while jumping off rooftops on an air-spring pogo. “My favorite trick is the slingshot flip,” says Smith, which, he explains, gets its name from the fact that if you don’t land it correctly, you’re going to be slung every which way. “Think of it as a front-flip leapfrog starting from the reverse,” he continues. “It’s tricky. It’s dangerous. It’s drawn blood and chipped bones many times. But it’s glorious. I didn’t come up with that trick, but I was the first — and for many years only — person to land it.” Extreme pogo’s most recent viral video was shot in early March at Paradise Valley Park in Phoenix. Aaron Homoki, better known as Jaws and one of the greatest skateboarders in the world, captured the session. It features tricks that shouldn’t be possible: Backflips into front flips. Front flips into 360 spins. Rail grinds. And one-footed flips off rooftops. “That whole shoot, we got lucky,” says Weiner. “There were a couple scares, but these young kids we got with us, it’s like they’re made out of rubber or something. I don’t understand it.” But as rubbery as they may be, they aren’t immune to injury. To that end, when Smith was 13, he went to his first world championship in Salt Lake City. “I qualified for the finals, which I was shocked to make at such a young age,” he tells me. As a result of that shock and excitement, he decided to attempt a double backflip dismount at the end of his final run. “It all built up to that moment; the hype got me buzzed up, and I was ready to fly. I sent the double!” Smith recalls. But he opened up his body too early. “I basically belly-flopped, knees first, into the concrete,” he says. He would spend the next four months in a wheelchair after shattering both of his kneecaps, all the toes on each of his feet and his nose. (He suffered a major concussion, too.) It hasn’t exactly paid either — at least in terms of dollars and cents. “Most jumpers have another job to supplement like Uber or Grubhub, odd jobs or other service industry stuff,” says Smith. “I make roughly 25-30k a year and live in a converted sprinter van.” A major barrier to extreme pogo’s growth, per Weiner, is the sport’s steep entrance cost. “You’ll have a video blow up and all these people will get excited until they see it’s almost 500 bucks for a professional pogo stick,” he says. “Or you can get a spring one, but there’s no step in between, so we lose out on a lot of potential athletes because of the economics.” Which is why Weiner has been working with Vurtego to hopefully have a $150 air-powered starter stick by Christmas. Currently, the team makes most of its money from performances and stunt shows at halftime shows and corporate events. “I’d like to get our media to the level where I think we’re making really, really good stuff,” Weiner tells me. “I don’t think anyone’s trying to be a millionaire off of this, but if we can get a bit more money where everybody’s able to Pogo full-time, that’s the goal.” As for whether or not they’ll get there, he says, “Who the hell knows? Sometimes we talk about what it’s going to be like when we make it. At the same time, we just spent a weekend with Jaws, pogoing. So maybe in some aspects, we already have made it.” Andrew Fiouzi Andrew Fiouzi is a staff writer at MEL. | |
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| 04-06-22 08:57am - 897 days | #4 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The GOP, working together, blocked the Senate COVID bill. "Give me liberty, or give me death" screamed the Republican Senators. "We will never bow down to Joe Biden." "Trump over all is the God-fearing, God-annointed leader of the United States of Trumperland." ---- ---- Associated Press GOP blocks Senate COVID bill, demands votes on immigration ALAN FRAM Tue, April 5, 2022, 9:17 PM WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise, pressing to entangle the bipartisan package with an election-year showdown over immigration restrictions that poses a politically uncomfortable fight for Democrats. A day after Democratic and GOP bargainers reached agreement on providing the money for treatments, vaccines and testing, a Democratic move to push the measure past a procedural hurdle failed 52-47 Tuesday. All 50 Republicans opposed the move, leaving Democrats 13 votes short of the 60 they needed to prevail. Hours earlier, Republicans said they'd withhold crucial support for the measure unless Democrats agreed to votes on an amendment preventing President Joe Biden from lifting Trump-era curbs on migrants entering the U.S. With Biden polling poorly on his handling of immigration and Democrats divided on the issue, Republicans see a focus on migrants as a fertile line of attack. “I think there will have to be" an amendment preserving the immigration restrictions “in order to move the bill” bolstering federal pandemic efforts, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. At least 10 GOP votes will be needed in the 50-50 Senate for the measure to reach the 60 votes it must have for approval. Republicans could withhold that support until Democrats permit a vote on an immigration amendment. Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want Congress to approve the pandemic bill before lawmakers leave in days for a two-week recess. Tuesday's vote suggested that could be hard. ”This is a potentially devastating vote for every single American who was worried about the possibility of a new variant rearing its nasty head within a few months," Schumer said after the vote. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “Today’s Senate vote is a step backward for our ability to respond to this virus.” The new omicron variant, BA.2, is expected to spark a fresh increase in U.S. COVID-19 cases. Around 980,000 Americans and over 6 million people worldwide have died from the disease. The $10 billion pandemic package is far less than the $22.5 billion Biden initially sought. It also lacks $5 billion Biden wanted to battle the pandemic overseas after the two sides couldn't agree on budget savings to pay for it, as Republicans demanded. At least half the bill would finance research and production of therapeutics to treat COVID-19. Money would also be used to buy vaccines and tests and to research new variants. The measure is paid for by pulling back unspent pandemic funds provided earlier for protecting aviation manufacturing jobs, closed entertainment venues and other programs. Administration officials have said the government has run out of money to finance COVID-19 testing and treatments for people without insurance, and is running low on money for boosters, free monoclonal antibody treatments and care for people with immune system weaknesses. At the 2020 height of the pandemic, President Donald Trump imposed immigration curbs letting authorities immediately expel asylum seekers and migrants for public health reasons. The ban is set to expire May 23, triggering what by all accounts will be a massive increase in people trying to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. That confronts Democrats with messy choices ahead of fall elections when they’re expected to struggle to retain their hair-breadth House and Senate majorities. Many of the party’s lawmakers and their liberal supporters want the U.S. to open its doors to more immigrants. But moderates and some Democrats confronting tight November reelections worry about lifting the restrictions and alienating centrist voters. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who faces a competitive reelection this fall, declined to say whether she would support retaining the Trump-era ban but said more needs to be done. “I need a plan, we need a plan,” she said in a brief interview. “There’s going to be a surge at the border. There should be a plan and I’ve been calling for it all along.” Shortly before Tuesday's vote, Schumer showed no taste for exposing his party to a divisive immigration vote. “This is a bipartisan agreement that does a whole lot of important good for the American people. Vaccines, testing, therapeutics,” he said. “It should not be held hostage for an extraneous issue.” Jeff Zients, head of White House COVID-19 task force, expressed the same view. “This should not be included on any funding bill,” he said of immigration. “The decision should be made by the CDC. That’s where it has been, and that’s where it belongs.” The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which initiated the move two years ago, said earlier this month that it would lift the ban next month. The restrictions, known as Title 42, have been harder to justify as pandemic restrictions have eased. Trump administration officials cast the curb as a way to keep COVID-19 from spreading further in the U.S. Democrats considered that an excuse for Trump, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric was a hallmark of his presidency, to keep migrants from entering the country. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said she supported terminating Trump's curb and questioned GOP motives for seeking to reinstate it. “I find it very ironic for those who haven’t wanted to have a vaccination mandate, for those who did not want to have masks in the classroom, for them to suddenly be very interested in protecting the public,” she said. But Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would support a Senate COVID-19 aid bill if it included the GOP effort to retain the Trump immigration restrictions. “Why wouldn’t I?” he said in a brief interview. ___ AP congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro and reporters Chris Megerian and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report. | |
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| 04-06-22 06:31am - 897 days | #3 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
U.S. developing hypersonic missiles. As a patriotic citizen, I'm trying to develop a mixed adamantium/vibranium velocipent missile that will detonate on contact with krytonite. That will help Superman in his fight against evil persons in the world. Please fund my effort with donations. ---- ---- U.S., UK, Australia announce hypersonic missile plan Yahoo News Niamh Cavanagh April 5, 2022, 11:53 AM On April 5, it was revealed that President Joe Biden is preparing to announce that the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have created a security pact in response to China's military expansion. The three nations are due to co-operate on the creation and development of hypersonic weapons in the so-called Aukus security pact, the Financial Times reported. One of the people familiar with the pact told the FT that an announcement could be made as early as Tuesday. The push to co-develop the weapons is intended to counter the rise of China's growing military presence. The Pentagon, the FT writes, has stepped up its efforts in developing hypersonic missiles after discovering how advanced China had become in evolving its weapons. The communist country has carried out several hundred hypersonic missile tests - a stark contrast to the U.S. which has only completed less than a dozen. China is not the only U.S. adversary with access to the powerful new weapons. Russia’s military has claimed to have twice unleashed hypersonic missiles in its invasion of Ukraine, apparently destroying an arms depot in the process, during its monthlong onslaught. The missile, designed to be launched from a MiG fighter jet, can fly at 10 times the speed of sound, and unlike other missiles can change course during its flight, making it impossible for air-defense systems to shoot it down. It can also be used to deliver nuclear weapons. On March 19, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed it had struck an underground missile and ammunition warehouse in a village that borders Romania, and the following day, it had destroyed a fuel depot near the southern city of Mykolaiv. Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said the attack used its newest Kinzhal, or “dagger,” hypersonic missile, in Ukraine. RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, said the attacks were the first time the next-generation weapons have been used since Russian troops were deployed to Ukraine on Feb. 24. However, on March 9, Ukraine’s National Guard shared a picture of an unexploded hypersonic missile in the city of Kramatorsk in the breakaway region of Donetsk. Reports did not verify whether it was a “dagger” missile. A short-range hypersonic ballistic missile, according to Ukrainian authorities, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in a photo released on March 9. (Press service of the National Guard of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters) A short-range hypersonic ballistic missile, according to Ukrainian authorities, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in a photo released on March 9. (Press service of the National Guard of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters) Meanwhile, a U.S. defense official told CNN that the U.S. had successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet so as not to escalate tensions with Russia. The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was set off from the West Coast and came just days after Russia said it used its own hypersonic missile weapon in Ukraine. The official offered few details of the missile test but confirmed that it flew about 65,000 feet and for more than 300 miles. The advanced missile, which Russian President Vladimir Putin previously described as an “ideal weapon,” was one of several new weapons he unveiled in his state of the nation address in 2018. During that speech, Putin boasted that the missiles could hit almost any point across the world and evade the United States’ missile defense shield. It is believed that Russia first used the hypersonic weapon in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad during the civil war in 2016, although it has not been confirmed if it was the exact Kinzhal model. In comparison, while the U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile can travel as fast as 550 mph, the Kinzhal can travel at 7,672 mph. The French Navy and the U.K. Royal Navy have since 2011 been jointly developing their own hypersonic missile, which is expected to be completed in 2030. Ukrainian officials have confirmed Russia’s attacks over the weekend but said the type of missile used was not confirmed. A Russian Air Force MiG-31K jet in 2018 carries a high-precision hypersonic aero-ballistic Kinzhal missile. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) A Russian Air Force MiG-31K jet in 2018 carries a high-precision hypersonic aero-ballistic Kinzhal missile. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) According to reports, doubts have swirled over Russia’s use of the ballistic missile. One report suggested that the lack of secondary explosions from the attack at an ammunition warehouse in western Ukraine is suspicious. “There’s also a distinct lack of secondary explosions as one would expect when rocket fuel and explosives cook-off,” the online magazine the War Zone noted on Saturday. The magazine also questioned how an Orlan-10 — an unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone — was able to fly over the targeted area to film the strike. If a maneuverable hypersonic missile was needed for the attack due to Ukraine’s air-defense systems, then how could a drone manage to film the strike and get away safely? Russian analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the missile would change little on the ground in Ukraine beyond “giving a certain psychological and propaganda effect.” He added that its use may suggest that the Russian military’s weapons are drying up. Defense strategy researcher Joseph Henrotin reiterated Felgenhauer’s point, suggesting on Twitter that Russia could be running out of weaponry. Henrotin also claimed that Putin might have used the nuclear-capable missile in a bid to raise the stakes of the war. On Sunday, the U.N.’s human rights office said at least 1,417 civilians had been killed since Feb. 24, including 171 children but said it’s believed the actual figures are “considerably higher. | |
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| 04-06-22 06:03am - 898 days | #2 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Burger King accused of false advertising in lawsuit alleging Whoppers are too small The Today Show Rob Wile April 4, 2022, 6:53 PM It’s not the kind of Whopper Burger King wants to be associated with. A South Florida lawyer has filed a federal lawsuit seeking class-action status alleging that Burger King has misled customers by portraying its food as being much larger compared with what it has served to customers in real life. The suit, brought by attorney Anthony Russo, alleges Burger King began inflating the size of its burgers in images around September 2017. Before that, the suit claims, Burger King “more fairly” advertised its food products. Today, the size of virtually every food item advertised by Burger King is “materially overstated,” the lawsuit says. Russo and the plaintiffs he is representing single out advertisements for Burger King’s trademark Whopper, saying the entire burger is 35 percent larger than the real-life version, with double the meat than what is actually served. The suit cites as witnesses multiple YouTube users who specialize in food reviews and Twitter users who complained about their orders. It’s not the first time Burger King has been accused of inflating food in its ads. The United Kingdom’s advertising authority cited the company 12 years ago for burgers that had height and thickness “considerably less” than what was advertised. The suit, which seeks class-action status, demands monetary damages and a court order requiring Burger King to end what it says are its deceptive practices. Representatives for Burger King and its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Jonathan Maze, the editor in chief of Restaurant Business magazine, said that while lawsuits against fast-food companies like Russo’s may seem to lack merit, they can sometimes scare company executives into paying settlements “when they fear bad publicity.” In 2020, a California judge approved a $6.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed against Chipotle over what was alleged to be a misleading non-GMO advertising campaign. “Big or small, justice is justice, and laws are laws,” Russo said, “and just because something happens to appear in someone’s opinion to be minor doesn’t mean that it is.” He said he was seeking greater transparency in industry advertising more broadly. “If I’m advertising a vehicle, you don’t Photoshop it to enhance it,” he said. “Sure, maybe you shoot it in its best light, but certainly you don’t make it misleading. That’s really the basis for these kinds of lawsuits.” This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. | |
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| 04-06-22 05:58am - 898 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The fox was smart. If he had bitten a Republican, the Republican would have demanded the right to shoot the fox. Instead, the Democratic Congressman only wants the fox to be re-located. ------ ------ Fox bites man, putting Capitol Hill on high alert Associated Press KEVIN FREKING April 6, 2022, 7:57 AM A fox looks out from a cage after being captured on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Washington. (U.S. Capitol Police via AP) A fox looks out from a cage after being captured on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Washington. (U.S. Capitol Police via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) — Capitol Hill has a fox problem. And that's not the lead-in to a joke. Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., learned firsthand Monday evening while walking to the Capitol for votes. Now he's undergoing a series of four rabies shots out of an abundance of caution. Bera said he felt something lunge at him from behind as he walked near one of the Senate office buildings. He turned and used his umbrella to fend off what he thought would be a small dog, but he soon realized he was tangling with a fox. Bera said the encounter lasted about 15 seconds. A bystander yelled to alert others and the fox fled as U.S. Capitol Police officers ran up on the scene. A medical doctor, Bera looked for puncture wounds. He didn't see evidence of any, but there was some abrasion, so he consulted the Capitol physician, who told him not to take any chances and to get treated. 'The most unusual day on the Hill in 10 years' He said he went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after votes for the first of a series of four shots. “I would say it's the most unusual day on the Hill in 10 years," Bera said of his experience. Of course, there were many joking references to Fox News at the Capitol on Tuesday. But the House Sergeant at Arms was serious when telling lawmakers and their staffs Tuesday afternoon that there had been multiple recent fox encounters and that the animals should not be approached. The warning noted that there are possibly several fox dens on the Capitol grounds and that animal control personnel would be seeking to trap and locate any that they find. In at least one case, they were successful. Capitol Police tweeted pictures of one fox safely captured in a cage. Bera harbored no ill will toward the culprit. “Hopefully, the animal can be relocated,” he said. | |
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| 04-05-22 08:55am - 898 days | #7 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
HuffPost Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Condemned For One Of Her Vilest Tweets Yet Lee Moran Tue, April 5, 2022, 1:54 AM Conspiracy theory-endorsing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) faced fierce backlash on Monday for a vile attack on three fellow Republicans. Greene used her congressional account to tweet the baseless accusation that GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitt Romney (Utah) are “pro-pedophile” because they said will vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. During Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings, GOP lawmakers falsely accused Brown of being lenient in cases involving photos of child sexual abuse. Greene’s personal profile was nixed from Twitter in January for repeated violations of the platform’s coronavirus misinformation policies. Critics said they reported her latest outrageous post to the company. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. | |
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| 04-04-22 11:11am - 899 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Starting a new thread for sites unlisted at PU. Hoping there will be faster action on getting sites listed. Also, there will be more interest in getting new sites posted to this thread for possible inclusion at PU. freeusemilf.com Got an email ad to join this site. I think it's a MILF site. Don't know very much about the site. Is it worth joining? | |
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| 04-04-22 09:54am - 899 days | #6 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Putin reveals the truth: The United States is responsible for dead civilians in Ukraine. The cowardly United States has ordered Ukraine to kill its own innocent civilians, as a ploy to blame Russia. The United States, too much of a coward to do its own fighting, told Ukraine that it was needed for Ukraine to kill innocent civilians, and then to blame Mother Russia. Mother Russia, which loves everyone, even its enemies. ----- ----- Kremlin claims footage in Ukraine's Bucha was 'ordered' to blame Russia Reuters April 4, 2022, 1:57 AM (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said that footage of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha had been "ordered" by the United States as part of a plot to blame Russia. "Who are the masters of provocation? Of course the United States and NATO," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview on state television late on Sunday. Zakharova said the immediate Western outcry over the images of dead civilians indicated the story had been part of a plan to sully Russia's reputation. "In this case, it seems to me that the fact that these statements (about Russia) were made in the first minutes after these materials appeared leaves no doubt as to who 'ordered' this story." Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they were investigating possible war crimes by Russia after finding hundreds of bodies, some bound and shot at close range, strewn around towns outside the capital Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew from the area. Taras Shapravskyi, deputy mayor of Bucha, a town around 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Kyiv city, said 50 of some 300 bodies found after the Kremlin's forces withdrew late last week were the victims of extra-judicial killings carried out by Russian troops. Reuters reporters saw one man sprawled by the roadside, his hands tied behind his back and a bullet wound to his head, though Reuters could not independently verify those figures or who was responsible for the killings. A satellite image shows the grave site near the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints, in Bucha A satellite image shows the grave site near the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints, in Bucha Pictures of the destruction and apparent killings of civilians sparked shock and condemnation and looked set to galvanise the United States and Europe into fresh sanctions against Moscow, but it was not clear how quickly a new package could come together or if it would included Russian energy exports. Russian authorities have said the photographs and footage broadcast from Bucha are a "provocation" designed to disrupt peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. The Russian defence ministry said the images were "another staged performance by the Kyiv regime." Footage and photographs of dead civilians strewn across the town have prompted Western countries to call for those responsible for war crimes in Ukraine to be punished. The atrocities were also set to overshadow peace talks between Russia and Ukraine due to restart by video link on Monday. Asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be held accountable for the civilian killings , Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said others also shared the blame. "I think all the military commanders, everyone who gave instructions and orders should be punished," he told CBS' "Face the Nation" news program. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the images as "a punch in the gut," while United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation. "Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences," said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, adding that Western allies would agree on further sanctions in the coming days. A Ukrainian service member inspects a compound of the Antonov airfield in the settlement of Hostomel A Ukrainian service member inspects a compound of the Antonov airfield in the settlement of Hostomel Germany's Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union must discuss banning the import of Russian gas - a departure from Berlin's prior resistance to that idea. French President Emmanuel Macron said there were very "clear clues pointing to war crimes" by Russian forces and that new sanctions was needed, and Japan said it would consult with allies on that issue. Macron said new sanctions should include oil and coal. The U.N. Security Council will discuss Ukraine on Tuesday and will not meet on Monday as requested by Russia, said Britain's mission to the United Nations, which holds the presidency of the 15-member council for April. Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbour's military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists. Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces. | |
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| 04-03-22 05:12pm - 900 days | #5 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Ukraine says Russian troops killed citizens without provocation. Russia denies senseless killing, says Ukraine is lying. Who you gonna believe? Russia, who only invaded Ukraine to keep the peace? Or Ukraine, who refused to surrender to Russian peace keepers, who were only trying to help? Go Trump, the fightenest US President we've ever known. Go Putin, man of peace, who wants Russia to be strong again. ----- ----- Ukraine accuses Russia of massacre, city strewn with bodies Associated Press OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and NEBI QENA April 3, 2022, 3:00 PM BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and signs of torture lay scattered in a city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area. Ukrainian authorities accused the departing forces on Sunday of committing war crimes and leaving behind a “scene from a horror movie.” As images of the bodies — of people whom residents said were killed indiscriminately — began to emerge from Bucha, a slew of European leaders condemned the atrocities and called for tougher sanctions against Moscow. In a sign of how the horrific reports shook many leaders, Germany's defense minister even suggested that the European Union consider banning Russian gas imports. So far, the bodies of 410 civilians have been found in Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, said. Associated Press journalists saw the bodies of at least 21 people in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital. One group of nine, all in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said Russian troops used as a base. They appeared to have been killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs, one was shot in the head, another's legs were bound. Ukrainian officials laid the blame for the killings in Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs squarely at the feet of Russian troops, with the president calling them evidence of genocide. But Russia’s Defense Ministry rejected the accusations as “provocation.” The discoveries followed the Russian retreat from the area around the capital, territory that has seen heavy fighting since troops invaded Ukraine from three directions on Feb. 24. Troops who swept in from Belarus to the north spent weeks trying to clear a path to Kyiv, but their advance stalled in the face of resolute defense from Ukraine’s forces. Moscow now says it is focusing its offensive on the country's east, but it also pressed a siege on a city in the north and continued to strike cities elsewhere in a war that has left thousands dead and forced more than 4 million Ukrainians to flee their country. Russian troops rolled into Bucha in the early days of the invasion and stayed up to March 30. With those forces gone, residents gave harrowing accounts Sunday, saying soldiers shot and killed civilians without any apparent reason. One resident, who refused to give his name out of fear for his safety, said that Russian troops went building to building and took people out of the basements where they were hiding, checking their phones for any evidence of anti-Russian activity and taking them away or shooting them. Hanna Herega, another resident, said Russian troops shot a neighbor who had gone out to gather wood for heating. “He went to get some wood when all of a sudden they (Russians) started shooting. They hit him a bit above the heel, crushing the bone, and he fell down,” Herega said. “Then they shot off his left leg completely, with the boot. Then they shot him all over (the chest). And another shot went slightly below the temple. It was a controlled shot to the head.” The AP also saw two bodies, that of a man and a woman, wrapped in plastic that residents said they had covered and placed in a shaft until a proper funeral could be arranged. The resident who refused to be identified said the man was killed as he left a home. “He put his hands up, and they shot him,” he said. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described bodies lying the streets of the suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel as well as Bucha as a “scene from a horror movie.” He alleged that some of the women found dead had been raped before being killed and the Russians then burned the bodies. “This is genocide,” Zelenskyy told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. But Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the photos and videos of dead bodies “have been stage managed by the Kyiv regime for the Western media.” It noted that Bucha's mayor did not mention any abuses a day after Russian troops left. The ministry charged said “not a single civilian has faced any violent action by the Russian military" in Bucha. In Motyzhyn, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Kyiv, residents told AP on Sunday that Russian troops killed the town’s mayor, her husband and her son and threw their bodies into a pit in a pine forest behind houses where Russian forces had slept. Inside the pit, AP journalists saw four bodies of people who appeared to have been shot at close range. The mayor’s husband had his hands behind his back, with a piece of rope nearby, and a piece of plastic wrapped around his eyes like a blindfold. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed that the mayor was killed while being held by Russian forces. Some European leaders said the killings in the Kyiv area amounted to war crimes. The U.S. has previously said that it believes Russia has committed war crimes, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called images of what happened near Kyiv “a punch to the gut” on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is a brutality against civilians we haven’t seen in Europe for decades,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on the same show. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko called on nations to immediately end Russian gas imports, saying they were funding the killings. In a turnaround, Germany’s defense minister said that the EU should consider doing just that. Ministers “would have to talk about halting gas supplies from Russia,” Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Sunday night on German public broadcaster ARD. “Such crimes must not go unanswered.” As Russian forces retreated from the area around the capital, they pressed their sieges in other parts of the country. Russia has said it is directing troops to the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years. In that region, Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov that has seen some of the war's greatest suffering, remained cut off. About 100,000 civilians — less than a quarter of the prewar population of 430,000 — are believed to be trapped there with little or no food, water, fuel and medicine. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that a team sent Saturday to help evacuate residents had yet to reach the city. Ukrainian authorities said Russia agreed days ago to allow safe passage from the city, but similar agreements have broken down repeatedly under continued shelling. The mayor of Chernihiv, which has also been cut off from shipments of food and other supplies for weeks, said Sunday that relentless Russian shelling has destroyed 70% of the northern city. On Sunday morning, Russian forces launched missiles on the Black Sea port of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, sending up clouds of dark smoke that veiled parts of the city. The Russian military said the targets were an oil processing plant and fuel depots. The regional governor in Kharkiv said Sunday that Russian artillery and tanks launched over 20 strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city and its outskirts in the country's northeast over the past day. In a town southeast of the city, Oleh Synyehubov said Russian troops fired on a convoy of buses that was trying to evacuate patients from a hospital that had been heavily damaged in shelling a day earlier. Synyehubov said about 70 patients needed to be taken away from the hospital in Balakliya, but that the buses were not able to enter the town. The head of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia said Moscow’s negotiators informally agreed to most of a draft proposal discussed during face-to-face talks in Istanbul this week, but no written confirmation has been provided. ___ Qena reported from Motyzhyn, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. | |
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| 04-02-22 10:28am - 901 days | #4 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
This is not right. The GOP is the party of the Republicans. Republicans believe in the right to free speech. But they have censored a major figure in the Republican party for reporting that some members of Congress have engaged in sex orgies and illicit drug use. The truth will come out. And Republican leaders will be forced to admit they have tried to keep the dirty waters and swamp that Trump was trying to clean. Republicans are abandoning Trump's goals. And they are abandoning Rep. Madison Cawthorn. As honest, patriotic citizens of the United States, we must rally behind those leaders who will clean the swamps of Washington. Vote for Trump. And God bless America. ---- ---- North Carolina Republicans look to sink GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn Yahoo News Jon Ward April 1, 2022, 12:36 PM North Carolina Republicans believe Rep. Madison Cawthorn is beatable in a May 17 party primary, following his recent comments about orgies and cocaine, multiple sources in the state told Yahoo News. Cawthorn can still secure the nomination if he gets more than 30% of the primary vote, which is what he’ll need to avoid a runoff. But Republican Sen. Thom Tillis’s decision to endorse one of Cawthorn’s primary opponents, state Sen. Chuck Edwards, is the biggest sign yet that the North Carolina GOP believes it can oust Cawthorn and replace him with a less attention-grabbing alternative. "Madison Cawthorn has fallen well short of the most basic standards western North Carolina expects from their representatives," Tillis said of his decision to back Edwards. Cawthorn’s comments on a conservative podcast in which he accused other members of Congress of taking part in sex parties and illicit drug use angered his fellow lawmakers. He later tried to walk back the remarks, saying they were “exaggerated.” But the 26-year-old is vulnerable to defeat in large part because of two other mistakes he’s made this year that have angered the GOP establishment, as well as grassroots activists, in North Carolina. Rep. Madison Cawthorn arrives for the State of the Union address at the Capitol on March 1. Rep. Madison Cawthorn arrives for the State of the Union address at the Capitol on March 1. (Saul Loeb/Pool/Getty Images) Last November, Cawthorn announced he would switch congressional districts and run in a newly drawn district where it would be easier for him to win reelection. The Republican House speaker in the state Legislature, Tim Moore, had planned on running for Congress in that district. Cawthorn, in an implicit dig at Moore, explained his switch by saying he wanted to make sure an “establishment, go-along-to-get-along Republican” did not win that seat. But after the North Carolina Supreme Court rejected new congressional maps drawn by the Legislature, Cawthorn said he would switch back to his old district. While he was saying he would run in the new district, multiple GOP candidates had joined the primary to replace him in his old one. They all decided to stay in the race after he jumped back in, including Michele Woodhouse, a former local party chair, who says Cawthorn had endorsed her. Federal election records show that Cawthorn donated to her campaign before he switched back to his old district. The congressman angered the top Republican power brokers in the state by announcing his intention to move. When he switched back, he irritated grassroots activists, said one person working to oust him. “He’s ticked a lot of people off,” a North Carolina Republican lawmaker told Yahoo News. Moore, the House speaker, has endorsed Edwards, just as Tillis did. This week, Moore called Cawthorn a “clown.” “If you have clowns in office who aren’t serious about what they’re doing, you can’t get somewhere,” Moore, who is now running for reelection to the state House, told local reporters. “I’m just kind of without the words to describe what congressman Cawthorn is doing and saying. I mean, some of these ridiculous recent comments that continue to build on one another.” North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore speaks to reporters at the Legislative Building in Raleigh. North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore speaks to reporters at the Legislative Building in Raleigh. (Gary D. Robertson/AP) Moore and the Republican leader in the state Senate, Phil Berger, hosted a fundraiser for Edwards this week. It’s not just Cawthorn’s remarks about orgies and cocaine that have drawn the ire of other Republicans. This week, after the latest episode, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy summoned Cawthorn to his office for a dressing-down. McCarthy said afterward that Cawthorn provided “no evidence behind his statements” and that “he’s got a lot of members very upset.” "I just told him he's lost my trust, he's gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming," McCarthy said. Cawthorn has a long track record of questionable behavior, and of late he has increasingly found himself on the wrong side of his own party. In early March, he called Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky a “thug” and said the Ukrainian government was “incredibly evil,” which angered many Republican lawmakers and is at odds with how most GOP voters view Ukraine and its response to the Russian invasion. Cawthorn had raised $2.8 million for his reelection at the last disclosure, at the end of 2021. His penchant for garnering headlines has become a successful way to drum up online donations from rabid partisans willing to give $5 or $10 at a time. But the freshman lawmaker had spent $2.6 million at that point, most of what he had raised so far, and had only about $282,000 left to spend. Such a small war chest might have been fine in a noncompetitive primary. But Cawthorn will likely need plenty of cash to win a close contest. The fast-approaching primary will be a test of whether he can surpass the 30% threshold. When he was first elected in 2020, Cawthorn received only 20% in the primary but then won the ensuing runoff. In the meantime, Democrats have pounced on his comments. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went so far as to connect Cawthorn’s remarks with the ongoing sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. “Not sure why Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn’s alleged revelations about their party,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter this week. “One of their members is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they’ve been pretty OK w/ that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump." The next day, Gaetz, who denies any wrongdoing, told a reporter that he did not know about what Cawthorn was referencing. “I don’t get invited to the same parties Madison Cawthorn does,” Gaetz said. | |
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| 04-02-22 08:06am - 901 days | #3 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
NEWS ARTICLE (CONTINUES) Russia does have an effective submarine force, advanced missile technology and, of course, a vast nuclear arsenal. So it would be a mistake to assume Russia’s sloppy performance in Ukraine means it would roll over in a broader conflict with NATO or any other power. “After 2014, when Russia took over Crimea, we exaggerated Russia’s capabilities,” says Zysk. “Now we are in danger of exaggerating in the other direction. If Russia were preparing for a war with NATO, they’d be preparing very differently. They would use different kinds of weapons, morale would be better, their psychology would be different.” That's a test best avoided. Rick Newman is the author of four books, including "Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success.” | |
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| 04-02-22 08:05am - 901 days | #2 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Russian military problems. Russia's military is having problems invading Ukraine. That's why they need the military genius of Donald Trump aka General Bonespurs. Trump and Putin are allies. For a measley 5 or 10 billion US dollars, Trump will fly to Russia to oversee the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This would purely be a humanitarian effort on Trump's part: to reduce the death toll, the wounded, and to save historic relics in Ukraine. God bless Donald Trump, the fightenest President of the Untied States we've ever seen. -------- -------- Why Russia’s military is so shabby Yahoo Finance Rick Newman April 1, 2022, 2:40 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. In 2015, naval observers noticed that Russia had purchased and refurbished a small fleet of dilapidated cargo ships barely suitable for scrap. Russia lacked modern supply vessels and needed the creaky ships to transport weapons and supplies to Russian troops fighting in Syria on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad. In 2018, Russia’s largest floating repair dock sank near Murmansk, in northern Russia, damaging Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. Officials blamed a power outage. In 2019, 14 Russian sailors died in a fire on a mysterious submarine operating off the coast of Norway. Five months after that, the cursed Kuznetsov, still in Murmansk, suffered a fire that killed at least one, injured many others and left the ship damaged. A superpower’s navy is supposed to project force around the world and demonstrate fearsome combat capabilities. Russia’s navy, during the last few years, has been showcasing something else: cracks in Russia’s military that stem from an unproductive economy, widespread corruption and the obstinacy of autocracy under President Vladimir Putin. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Presidential Grants Foundation CEO Ilya Chukalin in Moscow, Russia March 29, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Presidential Grants Foundation CEO Ilya Chukalin in Moscow, Russia March 29, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTER Those flaws are now on display for all the world to see in Ukraine, which Russia invaded on Feb. 24, clearly with the aim of rapidly deposing the elected government and installing a puppet regime. Much has gone wrong. Russian missiles and artillery fired from long distances have wrecked many undefended areas and killed hundreds of civilians, but Russia’s territorial gains have been minimal and its losses great. At least 10,000 Russian troops have died, approaching the death toll Russia suffered in Afghanistan during an entire decade in the 1980s. Ukraine’s military has destroyed hundreds of Russian tanks, trucks and other military vehicles, and dozens of aircraft and helicopters. The Russian effort to take Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, completely foundered and those troops have largely withdrawn. [Follow Rick Newman on Twitter, sign up for his newsletter or send in your thoughts.] More stunning than numerical losses may be widespread evidence of incompetence and hollowness. Russian vehicles break down due to dry-rotted tires and poor maintenance. Units have abandoned dozens of multimillion-dollar tanks for lack of gas. Russia seems to lack modern logistical tools such as cranes, pallets and fork lifts, crucial for moving materiel quickly and safely under stress, including combat. Camouflage efforts are primitive. Russian troops communicate over open radios, susceptible to interception, and loot Ukrainian homes and stores for basics such as food. One unit of panicked Russian troops appears to have turned on its own leader, running him over with a tank. A top British intelligence official said Russia’s “command and control is in chaos.” The cancer of corruption and inefficiency What happened? Western analysts obviously failed to notice many fundamental problems with Russia’s military, with many estimating before the invasion that overwhelming firepower and a deep kit of military tools would help Russia steamroll Ukraine. They had reason to believe that, however. For the last decade, Russia has increased defense spending and embarked on an aggressive modernization program, funded by lucrative sales of oil, natural gas and other valuable minerals. The 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region encountered little resistance and went smoothly, from a military perspective. Wrecks of a Russian Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) and military vehicles are seen on the front line near Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, Ukraine March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Wrecks of a Russian Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) and military vehicles are seen on the front line near Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, Ukraine March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich One thing that’s extremely difficult to diagnose from a distance, though, is the cancer of corruption and inefficiency. Russia has adopted some market reforms since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but it has also become a kleptocracy with endemic graft and plodding state agencies that make America’s federal bureaucracy look like a whiz-bang startup. In Ukraine, those shortcomings may have metastasized into disaster. “Corruption is part of the political and economic system in Russia, and what we are seeing in Ukraine is part of the explanation,” Katarzyna Zysk, a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo, tells Yahoo Finance. “The problem is there’s no accountability. We assume this continues to be part of the problem in the Russian military.” Russia’s annual defense budget is around $62 billion—less than one-tenth what the United States spends. Even then, secret bidding for military contracts and an overcomplicated military bureaucracy leave ample room for graft. In a couple of rare admissions, Russian military leaders have estimated that 20% to 40% of Russia’s military budget is stolen. Former Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev, who now lives in the United States, said on Twitter on March 6, “the Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus.” Some analysts have been aware of the holes in Russia’s military, even if it wasn’t yet evident on a battlefield. In a 2020 analysis for the University of Oxford, Zysk identified a slew of Russian military vulnerabilities: overlapping weapons programs that sap resources, logistical shortfalls, a weak drone program with limited attack capability, shipbuilding hindered by sanctions imposed after the 2014 invasion of Crimea, radar and satellite shortcomings, young people who want to leave the country en masse, poorly trained draftees, and more. Putin personally favors Russia’s submarine force, which might explain why the navy gets 26% of Russia’s military funding, with just 14% going to the ground forces that account for the majority of the Russian military. But the main problems behind Russia’s military woes, the Oxford paper concluded, are “pervasive corruption, low labor productivity, brain drain, the inability to acquire a large blue-water navy and, limited innovation.” A destroyed Russian armoured fighting vehicle is seen amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Trostianets, in Sumy region, Ukraine March 28, 2022. Picture taken March 28, 2022. REUTERS/Oleg Pereverzev A destroyed Russian armoured fighting vehicle is seen amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Trostianets, in Sumy region, Ukraine March 28, 2022. Picture taken March 28, 2022. REUTERS/Oleg Pereverzev Putin himself is responsible for those problems. As Russia’s leader or de facto leader for 22 years, he has fashioned the entire economy according to his liking, and probably purloined more of the nation’s wealth for himself than anyone else. “Putin is the corrupter-in-chief,” Barry Pavel, director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, tells Yahoo Finance. “In autocratic systems like Russia, China or North Korea, it’s much easier to skim a lot of money off the top. The same thing is happening in the military. Each branch of the military gets a certain budget, and it seems to me there are chunks off the top that go for the aggrandizement of those leaders.” Dude, I stole your army U.S. intelligence officials have deduced that Putin’s deputies are reluctant or afraid to tell him the truth about Russia’s shoddy military and its halting war in Ukraine. That might be because those are the same people who plundered the military budget in the first place, leaving poorly equipped troops to deal with the deadly consequences on foreign turf against a determined defender. Nobody wants to tell Putin, dude, I stole your army. America shouldn’t gloat. The U.S. military is clearly more competent than Russia’s, with better accountability, superior integration and a highly professionalized officer and enlisted corps. But there’s still plenty of waste, fraud and abuse in the U.S. military budget, plus the infamous military-industrial complex that sometimes prioritizes profits and campaign donations over national security. America’s two-decade mission in Afghanistan ended with an ignominious withdrawal last year, followed by the immediate collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government. A general view of destroyed Russian tanks and vehicles, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Dmytrivka village, west of Kyiv, Ukraine April 1, 2022. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra A general view of destroyed Russian tanks and vehicles, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Dmytrivka village, west of Kyiv, Ukraine April 1, 2022. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra | |
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| 04-02-22 03:18am - 902 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
She Took the White House Photos. Trump Moved to Take the Profit. Eric Lipton and Maggie Haberman Fri, April 1, 2022, 5:07 AM WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump’s tenure came to an end, the chief White House photographer, who had traveled the world with him and spent countless hours inside the White House snapping pictures, notified Trump’s aides that she intended to publish a book collecting some of her most memorable images. This was hardly a radical idea: Official photographers from every White House since President Ronald Reagan’s have published their own books. Barack Obama and George W. Bush were so supportive that they wrote forewords for them. But like so much else involving Trump, the plan by his chief photographer, Shealah Craighead, did not follow this bipartisan norm. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times First, aides to Trump asked her for a cut of her book advance payment, in exchange for his writing a foreword and helping promote the book, according to former associates of Trump. Then Trump’s team asked Craighead to hold off on her book project to allow the former president to take Craighead’s photos and those of other White House staff photographers and publish his own book, which is now selling for as much as $230 a copy. That the profits from Craighead’s labor are now going into Trump’s pocket has left several of Trump’s former aides upset — but not exactly surprised. “Shea’s a very talented photographer and this was really all of her hard work,” said Stephanie Grisham, who was the White House press secretary for Trump and wrote her own book, referring to Craighead by her nickname. “I just keep thinking: What a shame that he is actually now profiting off of it. But then again, this is the guy who is hawking caps and all kinds of stuff right now to raise money for himself.” Eric Draper, who was the chief White House photographer during Bush’s tenure, said the move was disrespectful to Craighead. “It’s a slap in the face,” Draper said, adding that he had spoken with Craighead last year about her plan to do her own book. “I would be disappointed if I were in her shoes.” Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for Trump, did not dispute that an aide had discussed the possibility of Trump writing a foreword for Craighead’s book and perhaps taking a cut of her advance. Her tentative deal with a publisher involved an advance in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, one industry executive said. Instead, Budowich said, Trump decided to first do his own book, a separate deal that came with a much bigger, multimillion-dollar advance. “President Trump has always had an eye for beautiful and engaging curation, which came alive through the pages of his book,” he said in a statement. Craighead said she did not want to publicly comment on matters involving a former client. But she did confirm that she has decided, at least for now, to kill her own book project. “I stay apolitical as possible, as I am a neutral historical documentarian,” she said. “By staying neutral I am able to remain a keen observer.” The 317-page book Trump published in December, titled “Our Journey Together,” includes no photo credits. It does not mention any of the photographers who took the images until the last page, where he briefly offered a “grateful acknowledgment” to “all the phenomenal White House photographers,” listing them by name, including Craighead, whose pictures make up much of the book. There is no legal prohibition on Trump assembling and publishing photographs that a White House staff member took during his tenure; under federal law, those photographs are considered in the public domain and not subject to copyright. There is a public Flickr account, now managed by the National Archives, that has 14,995 photos from the Trump White House, one-third of them listing Craighead as the photographer. But in dealing with Craighead, Trump appears to have become the first former president to try to make money from a book planned by a former White House photographer, said John Bredar, a documentary filmmaker and author who has studied the history of White House photographers. (Profits from the book published by George H.W. Bush’s chief photographer, David Valdez, were donated to his presidential library, Valdez said.) The first volume of the memoir written by Obama after leaving office included a selection of nearly 50 photos taken by the White House photographer during his tenure, Pete Souza. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also published autobiographies that included some White House photos. But there has been a long tradition of former White House photographers separately assembling their work into books. “It’s valuable for each chief photographer to do a book just for the historic record and put it together in a way that it tells sort of their story and contextualizes images,” said Souza, who worked as a White House photographer under Reagan as well as under Obama, and who has published several books of White House photos. Craighead had been a White House photographer during the tenure of George W. Bush and was known for her work with mostly Republican politicians including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Joni Ernst of Iowa. But unlike most of her predecessors, who had built relationships with presidents before they arrived at the White House, Craighead had not worked closely with Trump when she was hired just before his inauguration after his first pick for the job fell through. Trump at times would say insulting things about Craighead, telling other White House guests that he questioned her skills as a photographer, surprising other White House officials and photographers present. Trump, former White House aides said, was intensely involved in selecting photos of himself that would be released to the public, with Grisham recalling how during long flights on Air Force One, he often set aside time to review folders of photographs, after demanding that they be first printed so he could hold them and pick winners one at a time. Since leaving office, Trump has sought multiple ways to monetize his presidency, from charging supporters to attend an event and take photos with him to selling MAGA merchandise. He also has a long history of disputes from before his political career with business partners and over the years faced regular accusations that he did not properly compensate contractors. The plan to publish “Our Journey Together” came together quickly, after Craighead had already selected a book agent and negotiated a contract to publish her own book and secured a commitment from Trump to write the foreword, former White House officials said. Craighead had some questions about whether she wanted to move ahead with her own book, telling others she was not comfortable publishing a book that would be seen as an endorsement or a disparagement of Trump. It was while Craighead was debating this question that she heard from a representative for Trump that he would no longer be able to provide her right away with a foreword to the book, because Trump had a “noncompete” clause with his own publisher. Donald Trump Jr. and Trump’s campaign apparatus soon started to send out emails to his political fundraising list, urging his supporters to buy “Our Journey Together” perhaps as a Christmas gift — an example of how Trump has mixed his political efforts and his pursuit of personal profit since he left the White House. Trump’s book was published by Winning Team Publishing, a company only incorporated in October, and which was co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Sergio Gor, a former Capitol Hill aide and Republican campaign operative. Gor said the company had sold out the first 300,000 copies — which at $75 apiece for the unsigned version suggests gross sales of at least $20 million, assuming many were not given away. In addition to his advance payment, Trump is likely to earn a share of all book sales. The book is not the only way that the Trump family is cashing in on photos by White House photographers. On Presidents Day, Melania Trump opened sales of a series of digital images from Donald Trump’s White House tenure — photos of him at Mount Rushmore, exiting Air Force One and in a tuxedo for a White House dinner — for $50 apiece. This week, after The New York Times asked his office questions about the book, Trump called Craighead. It was the first time they had spoken directly since he left the White House. Trump told her he was still prepared to write a foreword for a photo book they could do together in the future, Budowich said. “It would be fun to do so,” Trump told her.  2022 The New York Times Company | |
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| 04-01-22 06:18pm - 902 days | #3 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Will Smith resigns from the Academy after slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars By Victoria Albert Updated on: April 1, 2022 / 7:50 PM / CBS News Will Smith said Friday night that he is resigning from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, less than a week after he slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars. "My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable," Smith said in a statement. "The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home." Smith said his actions both "betrayed the trust of the Academy" and "deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work," adding that he's "heartbroken." "I want to put the focus back on those who deserve attention for their achievements and allow the Academy to get back to the incredible work it does to support creativity and artistry in film," he said. "So, I am resigning from membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and will accept any further consequences the Board deems appropriate." "Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason," he added. Academy president David Rubin said the organization has "received and accepted" Smith's resignation, and "will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy's Standards of Conduct." TOPSHOT-US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-OSCARS-SHOW Actor Will Smith slaps comedian Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, March 27, 2022. ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images The slap, which sent shock waves across Hollywood, came after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife. Rock said he was looking forward to a sequel to "G.I. Jane" starring Jada Pinkett Smith, which was a reference to her shaved head. Pinkett Smith has spoken publicly about losing her hair from the autoimmune disease alopecia. Smith then walked onstage and slapped Rock, before returning to his seat and yelling, "Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth." Rock declined to press charges, and the LAPD did not take any action against Smith, though the incident has sparked intense public debate about whether his actions were justified. The Academy said Wednesday that Smith had been asked to leave after the slap, but he refused. Smith's decision to resign comes days after the Academy said it had launched a formal review into his conduct, which included "inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy." Though it's possible the Academy could take back the Oscar he won for "King Richard" soon after the slap, Whoopi Goldberg, who serves on the Academy's Board of Governors, has said they would not strip him of the award. | |
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| 04-01-22 11:29am - 902 days | #9 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Although many Republicans say that Ketanji Brown Jackson is qualified to serve on the US Supreme Court, they also say that she is not acceptable to serve. I love how Republicans can argue out of both sides of the mouth. Yes, I love you to pieces. And I also know that you are a piece of shit. So go away, you *9()---+++ disgusting person. ------- ------- Why Republicans say they're voting against Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court NBC Universal Sahil Kapur and Julie Tsirkin and Frank Thorp V March 31, 2022, 3:29 PM WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are coming out in droves against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court, citing a variety of reasons for their opposition to President Joe Biden's pick ahead of a major vote on her nomination next week. Many of these senators concede that Jackson is qualified for the job, but point to other reasons to justify their resistance — mainly her judicial philosophy, her refusal to denounce Supreme Court expansion, her record in child exploitation cases and Democrats' past treatment of conservative judicial nominees. Jackson remains in good shape to be confirmed due to the 50-vote requirement and strong Democratic support. So far, just one Republican has publicly backed her: centrist Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. It's not clear how many more she'll get. Here's what the bulk of Republicans say is holding them back. Judicial philosophy Many Republicans say Jackson's "judicial philosophy" makes her candidacy unacceptable. That's largely because she refused to limit herself to "originalism" and "textualism" — two connected and narrow approaches to interpreting the Constitution that's popular among conservative lawyers and activists. “I believe that it is appropriate to look at the original intent, original public meaning of the words," Jackson said during her confirmation hearings. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Jackson "refused to claim originalism as her judicial philosophy," saying that the judge appears to believe originalism is "just one of the tools judges use – not a genuine constraint on judicial power." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who voted to confirm Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year, said Thursday she has a "lack of a steady judicial philosophy" and "will not be deterred by the plain meaning of the law when it comes to liberal causes." The framework splits Republicans from Democrats, who believe judges should have room to read and apply constitutional text in a way that’s relevant for modern realities that the original writers could not have envisioned. When Jackson was questioned about how to apply First Amendment protections to a world with smartphones, she said it's "a process of understanding what the core foundational principles are in the Constitution, as captured by the text, as originally intended, and then applying those principles to modern day." Jackson said there's no simple label that captures her philosophy. She won't denounce 'court-packing' Numerous Republicans fault Jackson for declining to speak out against "court packing" — an effort by progressives to add seats to the Supreme Court to change its ideological balance, which has no viable chance of succeeding in Congress. “Judge Jackson has refused to follow the Ginsburg-Breyer model and denounce court-packing,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said when he announced his intent to vote against Jackson. “She testified she’d be, ‘thrilled to be one of however many.’” Jackson said that under the Constitution, the size of the Supreme Court is "a policy question for Congress" and that she's committed to "staying in my lane" as a judge. "I’m just not willing to speak to issues that are properly in the province of this body." Responding to a question from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., Jackson said she didn’t think it would be “appropriate” to comment on a political matter. Asked if she’d be okay with “28 justices” on the high court, Jackson replied, “If that’s Congress’ determination, yes. The Congress makes political decisions like that.” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who said he was “impressed” by Biden’s nominee, also said he was “disappointed” she is "reluctant to take a firm public stand" against a "court-packing scheme that represents a fundamental threat to the independence of the federal judiciary." Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said his "top concern going into our meeting was ascertaining Judge Jackson's position on radical proposals to pack the Supreme Court," and that her answers were unsatisfactory. Democrats have accused McConnell and other Republicans of hypocrisy for demanding that denunciation from Jackson after they didn't hold Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the same standard in her October 2020 hearings. Asked by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., if the Constitution says anything about the size of the court, Barrett said it "does not. That is a question left open to Congress." Sentencing record in child pornography cases Some Republicans attacked Jackson during her confirmation hearings by claiming that she handed down softer sentences in cases involving child pornography as a district court judge. They pointed to a handful of cases where she ordered sentences that were below recommendations. Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas, repeatedly pushed Jackson on the issue and later published a report claiming that “in every single child pornography case that she heard; Judge Jackson sentenced the defendant below the sentencing guidelines.” McConnell said, “In the specific area of child exploitation crimes, the nominee was lenient to the extreme.” Jackson defended her record during her confirmation hearing, saying she takes "these cases very seriously as a mother" and considered a range of factors, including the recommendations of the parties involved, the evidence, the stories of the victims and other details. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who spent most of his questioning time on Jackson’s sentencing for such cases, said: “As I’ve said over and over, part of my concern with Judge Jackson is that she has not followed the prosecutors’ sentences.” The White House argued that her approach is firmly in the mainstream, pointing to judges appointed by Republican presidents who adhered to the same sentencing practices. "The truth is that every single one of the specific senators who joined in these bad-faith attacks on her sentencing record with respect to child pornography has voted for numerous Trump-nominated judges who sentenced defendants for the same crimes in the same fashion, below guidelines widely considered to be out of date across the judiciary and below what prosecutors sought, which is also a norm," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates. Democrats have opposed conservative judges For many, it was an unspoken grudge. For some, it was explicit. During the hearings, Graham peppered Jackson with questions about how Democrats treated past conservative judicial nominees, which she responded was outside her lane to address. His insinuation was simple: They treated our judges badly, so don't expect us to vote for theirs. "The people celebrating this nomination are the same people who filibustered and blocked President George W. Bush’s nominee Janice Rogers Brown" to an appeals court, said Graham, who mused last week that if Brown had been confirmed earlier, she could have ended up being the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. | |
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| 04-01-22 11:04am - 902 days | #8 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Jerry Jones is not like Donald Trump. Jerry Jones reportedly paid $3 million to a woman who claims to be his daughter. The woman is suing Jerry Jones to be able to say publicly that she is his daughter. When the woman was 1 year old, her mother signed an agreement that barred the baby daughter from identifying the billionaire as her father. Love is blind. And money talks. Why can't the daughter and Jerry Jones talk to each other about love and forgiveness? ------- ------- Jerry Jones reportedly paid $3 million in 'child support' to woman claiming to be his daughter Yahoo Sports Jack Baer March 31, 2022, 6:38 PM A woman claiming to be Jerry Jones' biological daughter is suing the Dallas Cowboys owner to be able to publicly identify him as her father, and she seems to have interesting financial evidence. According to ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr., Jones has paid nearly $3 million to Alexandra Davis, a 25-year-old Congressional aide, and her mother Cynthia Spencer Davis, who reportedly claims to have met Jones in 1995 when she was working as a ticket-counter agent for American Airlines in Arkansas. Don Jack, the Arkansas lawyer who made the payments, reportedly told ESPN he delivered them on Jones' behalf. He reportedly started with a $375,000 sum followed by monthly "child support" payments and the coverage of other expenses, such as Davis' full SMU tuition, a $70,000 Range Rover on her 16th birthday, $33,000 for her "Sweet 16" party, $24,000 for a trip abroad after her college graduation and $25,000 for a mother-daughter Christmas trip to Paris. When asked if describing such payments as child support was an admission of paternity for Jones, Jack went to some ... interesting lengths to deny it. From ESPN: Jones has not acknowledged that Davis is his biological daughter. Asked why he used the term "child support" in his statement, Jack said, "I used the term child support because that's what the agreement calls it." Asked if the "child support" payments indicate that Jones is Davis' father, Jack paused for five seconds before saying, "I am not going to answer that one. My statement speaks for itself." Asked why Jones paid millions to Davis and her mother if Davis was not his daughter, Jones spokesman Jim Wilkinson declined to comment. Davis, who currently works for U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), filed her lawsuit earlier this month in Dallas County court. Her stated goal was to have the court rule she was not legally bound by an agreement between Jones and her mother, to which the above payments are tied, that barred her from identifying the billionaire as her father. Davis was one year old at the time of the agreement. Her lawyer told ESPN that she was not interested in receiving additional money, but Jack claimed the same lawyer presented a letter to him in a Dallas steakhouse several years ago that claimed a $20 million payment would stop her from bothering Jones in the future. Davis' lawyer disputed that claim and asked if there was proof of the letter. Neither Jack nor Wilkinson could provide proof of a letter or date for the dinner in question. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - DECEMBER 02: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones looks over warm ups before the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints at Caesars Superdome on December 02, 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) Jerry Jones reportedly shelled out significant money to a woman he has declined to identify as his daughter. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) | |
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| 04-01-22 10:52am - 902 days | #7 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Rats deserting a sinking ship. Is Joe Biden in trouble? Why is Jen Psaki leaving the White House? What secrets will she reveal, once her loyalty to Joe Biden is put to the test? Can Jen, a redhead with a temper to match, stay silent after suffering the torment and abuse of serving a Democrat who stole the election from Donald Trump? Enquiring minds want to know: how much will MSNBC pay Jen to reveal the dirt on Joe Biden? ----- ----- Psaki leaving White House for MSNBC Yahoo News Alexander Nazaryan April 1, 2022, 9:14 AM WASHINGTON — After serving as White House press secretary for more than a year, Jen Psaki will leave the Biden administration for MSNBC, where she will serve as a host and on-air expert. The departure, first reported by Axios, is expected this spring. Psaki has held near-daily briefings since the start of the Biden presidency, and has generally been praised for her transparency. She had initially said she would stay in her position for a year, but a number of overlapping crises — the coronavirus pandemic, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and, most recently, the war in Ukraine — appear to have extended her tenure. White House press secretary Jen Psaki arrives for a briefing with reporters. White House press secretary Jen Psaki arrives for a briefing with reporters. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) The news outlet Puck had previously reported that Psaki was in talks with both CNN and MSNBC, and there was even speculation that she might replace MSNBC primetime star Rachel Maddow, who is stepping back from nightly hosting duties. Psaki will join a cable news landscape crowded with alumni of high-level Washington politics. CBS recently hired former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a decision for which it was criticized by some of the network’s own employees. And Symone Sanders, former top spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris, will start hosting her own program on MSNBC in May. | |
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| 04-01-22 10:44am - 902 days | #6 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Is Ukraine invading Russia? This is not right. Has the Ukraine sent an armed missile into Russia? The only reason Russia invaded Ukraine was to keep the peace. If Ukraine people, soldiers and civilians die, it's only because Russia wants to help Ukraine. So if Ukraine resists, or tries to fight back, Ukraine is EVIL. Let us hope that Russia, with the aid and blessings of Donald J. Trump, will triumph. God bless Donald J. Trump, the fightenest US President we've ever seen. And maybe Putin ordered the air strike. There are theories that Putin has ordered Russians to be killed, to help promote Putin's policies. Putin is a genius, as testified by Donald Trump. You can't always trust a genius. ------ ------ Moscow accuses Ukraine of conducting airstrike inside Russia Yahoo News Niamh Cavanagh April 1, 2022, 6:23 AM Moscow accused Ukraine of sending two helicopters to strike a fuel storage depot in the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday. If confirmed, this would be the first attack on Russian soil since the war began on Feb. 24. The governor of the border city said that two Ukrainian helicopters crossed into Russia flying at low altitude before launching airstrikes at an oil storage facility just 25 miles from the border. Footage of the alleged attack shows several missiles being fired at the building before it erupts into flames. The video has not been independently verified. An oil depot on fire. An oil depot on fire in Belgorod, Russia, on Friday. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP) “There are casualties,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod. “Two people. They’re employees of the oil depot. They’ve been given first aid, and their lives are not in danger.” He added, “We are starting to resettle the residents of Pochtovaya, Makarenko and Konstantin Zaslonov streets to a safer location.” The Russian Emergency Ministry said that 170 firefighters battled the enormous fire, which was started around 6 a.m. local time. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said he could not confirm or deny reports of Ukraine’s involvement in the strike, as he did not have military information. Firefighters work to contain the blaze at the oil depot. Firefighters work to contain the blaze at the oil depot early Friday. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said authorities were working to reorganize the supply chain for fuel to avoid the disruption of energy supplies. He added that Putin had been briefed on the alleged attack. “What has happened is certainly not something that can be perceived as creating conditions comfortable for the continuation of negotiations,” Peskov said, referring to the peace talks being held between Russia and Ukraine. There have been other incidents in Belgorod, which is a major hub for the Russian military. On Thursday there was an explosion at an arms storage facility. Russian media outlet Tass claimed that four military personnel were injured during the attack. _____ How are Ukrainian forces taking out so many Russian tanks? Use this embed to learn about some of the weapons systems the U.S. is sending to the Ukrainian army. More From Yahoo News: | |
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| 03-31-22 02:42am - 904 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Russia is planting mines in the Black Sea. This is to protect ships from foreign viruses and other evil manifestations of US Imperial designs. Also, to protect Russia from the Nazi scourge. And if some civilians get blown out of the water, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. A Russian saying, invented by Stalin and other leaders of the world. ------ ------ Ukraine says Russia planting mines in Black Sea as shipping perils grow Reuters Jonathan Saul March 30, 2022, 9:18 AM By Jonathan Saul LONDON (Reuters) - Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of planting mines in the Black Sea and said some of those munitions had to be defused off Turkey and Romania as risks to vital merchant shipping in the region grow. The Black Sea is a major shipping route for grain, oil and oil products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey as well as Ukraine and Russia. Russia's military took control of waterways when it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, in what Moscow calls a "special operation". In recent days Turkish and Romanian military diving teams have been involved in defusing stray mines around their waters. Ukraine's foreign ministry said Russia was using naval mines as "uncontrolled drifting ammunition". "It was these drifting mines that were found March 26-28, 2022 off the coasts of Turkey and Romania," it said in a statement. The ministry said "the deliberate use by Russia of drifting sea mines turns them into a de facto weapon of indiscriminate action, which threatens, first of all, civil navigation and human life at sea in the whole waters not only of the Black and Azov Seas, but also of the Kerch and Black Sea Straits". Russian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. ACCUSATIONS Earlier this month Russia's main intelligence agency accused Ukraine of laying mines to protect ports and said several hundred of the explosives had broken from cables and drifted away. Kyiv dismissed that account as disinformation. A Ukrainian foreign ministry official told Reuters separately that the sea mines were of the "R-421-75" type, which were neither registered with or used by Ukraine's navy currently. The official said mines of this type - some 372 units - had been previously stored at Ukraine’s 174th armament base in Sevastopol and were seized by Russia's military during its annexation of Crimea in 2014 - a move not recognised internationally. "Russia, using sea mines seized in 2014, deliberately provokes and discredits Ukraine to international partners," Ukraine's foreign ministry added separately. London's marine insurance market has widened the area of waters it considers high risk in the region and insurance costs have soared. Five merchant vessels have been hit by projectiles - with one of them sunk - off Ukraine's coast with two seafarers killed, shipping officials say. "Vessels navigating in the Black Sea should maintain lookouts for mines and pay careful attention to local navigation warnings," ship insurer London P&I Club said in an advisory note on Tuesday. (Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Gareth Jones) | |
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| 03-30-22 06:55pm - 904 days | #5 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
This is terrible. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy forced a fellow Republican to admit that the fellow Republican was lying when he claimed fellow lawmakers were guilty of drug use and sex orgies. Only lies glorifying Republicans are allowed, McCarthy said. A Republican can not try to drag down the reputation of fellow lawmakers, unless they are Democrats or Republicans that President Trump does not like or follow Trump's lead. Trump uber alles. ------ ------ Rep. Madison Cawthorn admits lying about cocaine and orgies after tongue-lashing from GOP leaders NY Daily News Dave Goldiner March 30, 2022, 12:33 PM Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) Wednesday walked back blockbuster drugs-and-sex claims about fellow lawmakers in a brutal tongue-lashing from GOP leaders. Cawthorn admitted to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he made up claims that he saw lawmakers doing cocaine and that they invited him to orgies. “He changes what he tells and that’s not becoming of a congressman,” McCarthy said. “He did not tell the truth (and) that’s unacceptable” Cawthorn, a firebrand supporter of former President Trump, did not immediately comment after the 30-minute dressing-down from McCarthy (R-Calif.) and No. 2 GOP leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) McCarthy said Cawthorn could face further disciplinary action. “He’s lost my trust is gonna have to earn it back,”McCarthy told reporters. “And I laid out to everything that I find is unbecoming.” Cawthorn is in hot water because he made the claims without naming names. That left fellow lawmakers facing questions from constituents about whether they could be the culprits. He even suffered rare murmurs of discontent within the far right-wing Freedom Caucus, of which he is a stalwart member. “I think it is important, if you’re going to say something like that, to name names,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the chair of the Freedom Caucus, told Politico. McCarthy took action after he was bombarded with unwanted questions about Cawthorn at Tuesday’s GOP caucus meeting. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a straight-laced and usually not outspoken GOP lawmaker, said it was wrong for Cawthorn to “paint them with a broad brush.” The intramural GOP tumult is notable because Republican leaders have stubbornly resisted pressure to take a stand against fellow lawmakers who have glorified violence against Democrats and spewed Islamophobic hate. AOC hits back at 'creepy' GOP lawmaker who posted anime video depicting attack on her Cawthorn’s remarks were particularly damaging because they clearly refer to conservative Republicans, not Democrats, whom some GOP lawmakers regularly deride as degenerates. “I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life,” Cawthorn said in a podcast interview. “Then all of a sudden, you get invited to ... kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes.” “And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy,” he added. Cawthorn, 26, is the youngest member of Congress and is among the most outspoken supporters of former President Trump in Congress. He won election in 2020 in a red-leaning western North Carolina district previously held by Mark Meadows until he quit to become former President Trump’s chief of staff. Cawthorn had planned to seek reelection in a neighboring district amid a feud with more mainstream GOP leaders in the Tarheel State. But has since decided to stick to his current Asheville-based district. | |
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| 03-30-22 03:30am - 905 days | #4 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
This woman probably got her degree in finance from Trump University. That's how she was able to steal $40 million from Yale University. ---- ---- Former Yale administrator stole $40 million, pretending to buy computer equipment for the university. Instead, she bought a fleet of luxury cars, and several houses Last Updated: March 29, 2022 at 11:33 p.m. ET By Lukas I. Alpert Jamie Petrone estimated that 90% of all computer equipment orders she made for Yale’s medical school over eight years were bogus. Jamie Petrone began working for Yale in 1999 and rose to become the director of finance in the emergency medicine department of Yale’s medical school. (Getty Images) A former administrator at the Yale University School of Medicine has pleaded guilty to stealing $40 million from the school in a nearly decade-long computer and electronics purchasing fraud. Federal prosecutors say Jamie Petrone, 42, used the money to buy a fleet of luxury cars including Mercedes, Land Rovers and Cadillac Escalades, numerous properties in several states and to pay for lavish trips. She pleaded guilty on Monday to wire fraud and filing false tax returns and faces up to 30 years in prison when she is sentenced in June. Until then, she is free on a $1 million bond. Her attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. “90% of her computer-related purchases were fraudulent.” — Criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney for Connecticut. Petrone began working for Yale in 1999 and for the medical school in 2008. She had most recently served as the director of finance for its emergency medicine department. As part of her job, she was able to authorize equipment purchases without additional approvals as long as the orders were below $10,000, prosecutors said. Starting in 2013, prosecutors said Petrone began making numerous small orders of tablet computers and other equipment that were billed to the school. She would then sell them to a business in New York state and have them send money to the account of a wedding photography and videography company she controlled. Prosecutors say that in 2021 alone, she purchased more than 8,000 tablet computers, all in orders smaller than $10,000. In one 10-week period that year, she ordered $2.1 million worth of equipment. During the eight years that authorities say she ran the scam, Petrone told investigators that “90% of her computer-related purchases were fraudulent,” according to court documents. To explain the purchases to university officials, Petrone would claim the equipment was needed for certain medical studies being performed at the school, according to court papers. In a statement, Yale said that it initially alerted authorities last year after finding “evidence of suspected criminal behavior.” “Since the incident, Yale has worked to identify and correct gaps in its internal financial controls,” the school said. In all, prosecutors say Petrone caused $40,504,200 in losses to Yale. They also say Petrone never declared any of the income on her taxes, filing false returns for 2013 through 2016, and no returns at all between 2017 and 2020. In total, she defrauded the IRS out of over $6 million, according to prosecutors. As part of her guilty plea, Petrone agreed to forfeit $560,421.14 that was seized from her accounts, two $135,000 Mercedes-Benzes, a $90,000 Range Rover, two Cadillac Escalades and a Dodge Charger. She also has agreed to turn over three properties she co-owns in Connecticut and another in Georgia. | |
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| 03-30-22 03:19am - 905 days | #3 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Donald Trump, man of honor. He seeks to remove the dirt from politics. If Joe Biden, or any of Biden's family, have done anything wrong, it must be exposed and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And if Joe Biden or his son have not done anything wrong, let's make up stories about what they did wrong: stories can be entertaining. ----- ------ Trump solicits Putin's help to expose alleged dirt on Hunter Biden Yahoo News David Knowles March 29, 2022, 12:19 PM In what has become a familiar pattern, former President Donald Trump has once again solicited help from a foreign leader in exposing possible dirt to try to wound a political enemy. Trump, who was impeached in 2019 for his request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he do Trump a "favor" by investigating Joe Biden's son Hunter, told right-wing television host John Solomon in an interview published Tuesday that he wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to shed light on unverified reports that Biden's son received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's former mayor. “She gave him $3.5 million, so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that,” Trump told Solomon. “I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer.” “How is it that the mayor of Moscow, his wife, gave the Biden family three and a half million dollars?” he continued. “I think Putin now would be willing to probably give that answer. I’m sure he knows.” In a presidential debate with Biden during the 2020 campaign, Trump seized on that claim, which appears in a U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security report authored by the then-Republican majority but has not been verified. During the debate, Biden said of the $3.5 million wire-transfer allegation that it is "simply not true." While Trump has long sought foreign help in uncovering alleged business wrongdoing committed by Hunter Biden, the president's son does remain the center of a federal tax investigation. The New York Times reported that although he paid off outstanding tax liabilities related to his business dealings with foreign countries, he is the subject of an ongoing grand jury probe. After Hunter Biden learned in 2020 that he was under federal investigation, he said in a statement that “a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately.” Whether meant seriously or sarcastically, Trump's outreach to Putin's government is also not new. During the 2016 presidential election, Trump noted that Russian hackers had broken into a Democratic National Committee server and stolen sensitive material, conflating that event with Hillary Clinton's deletion of 33,000 personal emails from her private server. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," Trump said at a press conference on July 27, 2016. The FBI declined to bring charges against Clinton in the matter, and though Trump pledged that if he was elected president he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the deleted emails, he never did. At a Georgia rally over the weekend for candidates in the battleground state he has endorsed in the 2022 midterms, Trump indicated that he is considering mounting another run for president in 2024, saying, "We may just have to do it again." | |
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| 03-30-22 03:03am - 905 days | #2 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
US Supreme Court justices are supposed to be above politics. They are supposed to rule based on laws, not on personal opinion or political affiliation. However, that's a myth: it turns out that justices are human. There is no code of ethics for the Supreme Court. All other federal judges are held to a code of ethics: but the Supreme Court doesn't have one. Strange, but true. -------- -------- Clarence Thomas faces growing pressure to step aside from Jan. 6 cases NBC Universal Sahil Kapur and Julie Tsirkin and Haley Talbot March 29, 2022, 12:48 PM WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are turning up the heat on Justice Clarence Thomas, with some calling for him to step back from cases involving Jan. 6, after his wife was found to have actively pressured the Trump White House to change the result of the 2020 election based on false claims of fraud. At a closed-door meeting Tuesday, House Democrats raised questions about what they could do to hold Thomas accountable. “It’s up to an individual justice to decide to recuse himself if his wife is participating in a coup,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told them, according to a source in the room. She noted that under current law, the onus is on justices to hold themselves to account. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., are courting support for the Supreme Court Ethics Act, which would require the creation of a judicial ethics code. And senior lawmakers are publicly pushing Thomas to recuse himself from cases that involve the lobbying activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas, known as Ginni. "I do think he should recuse himself," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. "The information we know right now raises serious questions about how close Justice Thomas and his wife were to the planning and execution of the insurrection." He added: "I think there should be some kind of code of ethics for Supreme Court justices." Two dozen congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter addressed to Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts calling on Thomas to "promptly recuse himself from any future Supreme Court cases involving efforts to overturn the 2020 election or the January 6th attack on the Capitol." The letter also calls on Roberts to "commit no later than April 28, 2022 to creating a binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court" that includes enforceable standards for recusal. "Chief Justice Roberts has often spoken about the importance of the Supreme Court’s 'credibility and legitimacy as an institution.' That trust, already at all-time lows with the American public, must be earned," the lawmakers wrote in the letter. And the House Jan. 6 select committee met Monday evening to discuss whether to call in Virginia Thomas for an interview about her role and knowledge of the attempt to steal the 2020 election on behalf of then-President Donald Trump, who lost. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chair of the select committee, said afterward that no decision had been made. The flurry of new calls follows revelations of text messages Virginia Thomas sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pressuring him to keep Trump in office despite his defeat, and to convince the president to refuse to concede the 2020 election. Her messages, first reported by The Washington Post and CBS News, included a variety of false claims and conspiracy theories. Thomas also said she attended the "Stop The Steal" rally in Washington that preceded the violence at the Capitol. Justice Thomas didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent to the Supreme Court’s press office on the calls for recusal. Roberts didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawmakers’ letter regarding ethics, also sent to the court’s press office. NBC News has also reached out to Ginni Thomas for comment. The pressure on Justice Thomas has been elevated by the fact that he was the lone dissenter in an 8 to 1 Supreme Court ruling rejecting a request by Trump and requiring the release of White House documents to the Jan. 6 committee. Thomas sided with Trump. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Thomas should resign — or at least be investigated and potentially impeached. But most Democrats weren't ready to talk about impeachment, which would require a two-thirds majority for removal in the Senate, which is split evenly between the two parties. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the Judiciary Committee he serves on should consider an investigation. Republicans expressed little desire to join in the pressure campaign involving Thomas, who is seen by many as the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court and is a favorite of the GOP base. One Senate Republican aide said the caucus has "zero" interest in going down that road. No. 3 Republican Sen. John Barrasso, of Wyoming, brushed off the Democrats' calls for recusal when asked about them Tuesday. "They're always looking for something," he said. Would he support the legislation to set up a code of ethics for the Supreme Court? "I haven't read it," he said. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who voted to block the certification of some 2020 electors Jan. 6, dismissed the push as "just the latest attempt by the left to go after Justice Thomas." Although Hawley said Thomas shouldn't be held responsible for texts sent by Virginia Thomas, he didn't rule out the prospect that the justice should step back from deciding cases in which the outcome directly affects his wife. "Well, that'd be different, I mean, if it directly affected her," he said. | |
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| 03-29-22 05:02am - 906 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
In today's world, and for many years previous, it was OK for the government to lie to its citizens. This was done on the theory the less citizens know, the more the government can get away with. So when soldiers knew who took student civilians and let those students be killed, the soldiers never told anyone. Better to let the students die and say "We don't know anything" than to admit that maybe they could have saved at least some of the students. -------- -------- Mexican armed forces knew about attack on 43 students, report says Team of international experts deliver a report on the 43 missing students Ayotzinapa By Lizbeth Diaz MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's armed forces knew that 43 student teachers who disappeared in 2014 were being kidnapped by criminals, then hid evidence that could have helped locate them, according to a report released Monday by special investigation. Evidence obtained by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), an independent panel tasked with investigating the notorious case, revealed that Navy and Army officials kept secret that the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College were under real-time surveillance by the state leading up to and during their abduction. "Security authorities had two intelligence processes underway, one to follow the actions of organized crime in the area and the other to track the students," the investigators said in the report, which was based on declassified documents. The students were under surveillance because their college, which has strong ties to left-wing social movements in Mexico, was viewed as a potential hotbed of subversion, the GIEI said. Neither the Army nor the Navy immediately responded to requests for comment. The kidnapping of the students on the night of Sept. 26, 2014, in the southwestern city of Iguala sparked national and international protests, and remains one of the most infamous incidents in the history of Mexico's struggle with drug gangs. The official documents reviewed by the GIEI included transcripts of conversations between soldiers and their superiors detailing the students' arrival in Iguala. From Iguala, the students had planned to travel to Mexico City to attend a protest, but were instead kidnapped by corrupt local police and handed over to a local gang. The students were then massacred and their bodies incinerated, according to the previous government. The GIEI later picked holes in that version of events and the current government ordered the case to be re-opened. So far the remains of only two of the missing students have been definitively identified. The report did not conclude what happened to the rest of the students. Mexico's armed forces have long denied having information about the crime and the students' whereabouts. Communications intercepts by the armed forces could have been used at the time to locate the students after they were kidnapped, the report found. But the armed forces denied that such intercepts existed and did not hand them over, it said. (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) | |
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| 03-29-22 04:11am - 906 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Rival stations are suing a Woodman's location in Wisconsin for damages totaling $80,000 each Jeremy Korzeniewski Mar 22nd 2022 at 4:01PM As of today, March 22, 2022, AAA reports that the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States sits at $4.24. Obviously, that's subject to change, and since it's an average, the actual cost for someone in one part of the country will be different for buyers in another. Regardless, based on recent history, that's a lot more than drivers are used to paying for a gallon of gas. So you'd think a gas station could drum up quite a bit of business for pricing fuel less than its competitors, right? Not so fast, at least if you're in Wisconsin. A gas station managed by Woodman's Market in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was recently sued by two competitors who say it has priced its fuel artificially low. According to local ABC affiliate WISN, owners of Shell and BP stations claim that Woodman's is breaking the law by selling gas for less than the station itself paid for it. Apparently, that's a crime in Wisconsin, and the rival stations are suing for damages totaling $80,000 each. That's apparently based on the number of days they claim that Woodman's illegally undercut them. Woodman's counters that it isn't breaking Wisconsin's so-called Unfair Sales Act because it has priced its fuel to compete with a nearby Costco gas station. As you can see by clicking on Autoblog's own cheap gas finder, Costco generally prices fuel lower than other stations, which it can do because a significant portion of its profits are derived from membership fees. Costco won't sell gas to drivers that don't pay those membership fees, unlike other stations like Shell, BP and Woodman's. We're not legal experts, so we can't really comment on the merits of this lawsuit, but, as WISN found when polling pumpers pumping gas, Woodman's tactic to price its fuel lower than other stations seems to be working. "How come you pump your gas here at Woodman's," the reporter asks. "Woodman's has the best prices," comes the seemingly obvious reply. | |
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| 03-28-22 11:33am - 906 days | #2 | |
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Howard Stern blasts academy over Will Smith's Oscars slap. Says security should have stopped Will Smith. My question: how could security have stopped Will Smith? Pulled out their 357 Magnum revolvers and shot Will Smith? Pulled out their 44 Magnum revolvers and shot Will Smith? Pulled out their Ruger Super Redhawk revolvers, which shoots the 454 Casull, to shoot Will Smith? It should only take 6 shots or less from the Ruger Super Redhawk to take Will Smith down, assuming all 6 hits are kill-shots. So if Howard Stern was working security, and he had been fully armed, he could have stepped in to stop Will Smith from assaulting the black dude. But one thing I did learn from reading this news article: according to Howard Stern, “Will Smith and Trump are the same guy." I guess Howard Stern is color blind, if he confuses Will Smith with Donald Trump. ------ ------ Howard Stern Blasts Academy Over Will Smith Oscars Slap: ‘Where’s Security?’ The SiriusXM host was disturbed that no one stepped in to stop it: “This is how Trump gets away with s—“ Jolie Lash | March 28, 2022 @ 9:56 AM Howard Stern tore into The Academy for the Oscars telecast Monday after Will Smith was able to smack Chris Rock onstage without interruption. “Will Smith walks up to Chris Rock and he open hand — with a lot of force — smacks him right in the mouth on TV. Now the first thing I said to myself, ‘What the f— is going on? Is this a bit?’ Because where’s security? This is a live television event. Not one person came out, because he’s Will Smith,” Stern said on his SiriusXM show Monday as he discussed the slap heard around the world with co-host Robin Quivers. “This is this is how Trump gets away with sh–,” Stern continued. “Will Smith and Trump are the same guy. He decided he’s going to take matters into his own hands, you know, at a time when the world is at war. Bad timing man. I mean just you know, calm your f—in ass down.” Academy Governor Whoopi Goldberg: ‘We’re Not Going to Take That Oscar’ From Will Smith (Video) Also Read: Academy Governor Whoopi Goldberg: ‘We’re Not Going to Take That Oscar’ From Will Smith (Video) Stern also suggested the incident showed off a double standard in Hollywood. “Here’s Hollywood that so outraged by every little thing. Not one person got up and said, ‘Hold on. We got an out of control situation here,” Stern said. “Now this guy was allowed to sit there for the rest of the awards and he’s laughing it up and having a good time with his wife.” On Sunday night, Rock was serving as an awards presenter when he made a joke about how he couldn’t wait to see Jada Pinkett Smith in “G.I. Jane 2.” Pinkett Smith suffers from autoimmune disorder alopecia, which makes a person’s hair fall out. The actress was not amused by Rock’s joke as the live feed showed, although Will Smith was seeing smiling initially. A moment later, Smith yelled at Rock, and then stormed the stage and slapped the presenter. “So, long walk up to Chris Rock. He didn’t stop and think twice about what he was about to do. Now that’s crazy. That’s crazy when you can’t contain yourself like that,” Stern said, turning his attention back to the Academy. “But here’s the thing, here’s the thing: You don’t provide security? You don’t have somebody come out?” Stern said. “P-Diddy comes out afterwards and the show must go on and, hey, those guys are gonna settle it out back? I’m sorry a man was assaulted on live television.” According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Rock declined to file a police report over the incident. “Once Will Smith got out of his chair — and I don’t know who’s doing security there, they should be brought up on charges too, man — when you see a guy crossing the line, you come up and you grab him,” Stern said. | |
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| 03-28-22 10:56am - 906 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Trump likely committed felony by obstructing Congress, U.S judge rules https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-l...ge-rules-2022-03-28/ Trump likely committed felony by obstructing Congress, U.S judge rules Reuters Jan Wolfe March 28, 2022, 9:44 AM By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that former President Donald Trump “more likely than not” committed a felony by attempting to obstruct Congress when he tried to subvert the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles said in his ruling that the U.S. congressional committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters could obtain emails written by Trump lawyer John Eastman. “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” Carter said in a written decision. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Chizu Nomiyama) | |
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| 03-28-22 12:27am - 907 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Watch the brief clip on YouTube. It doesn't appear to be a comedy skit. It appears to be real. Where Will Smith is really angry with Chris Rock, going on stage and slapping Chris Rock and telling Chris Rock to stop making jokes about Will Smith's wife. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjEoDypUD8 ---- ---- Will Smith, Chris Rock involved in heated moment at Oscars Associated Press TIM REYNOLDS March 27, 2022, 8:16 PM Will Smith marched on stage and appeared to smack presenter Chris Rock during Sunday night's Oscars after Rock made a joke about the appearance of Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The crowd at the Dolby Theatre hushed as Smith twice shouted at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth.” Rock took aim at Pinkett Smith's shaved head, saying, “Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it, all right?” Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she was diagnosed with alopecia. She has often discussed the challenge of hair loss on Instagram and other social media platforms. Smith, nominated for best actor for his role in “King Richard,” walked onto the stage and took a swing at Rock with an open palm, generating a loud smack. Smith walked back to his seat and shouted for Rock to leave Pinkett Smith alone. Rock replied that he was just making a “GI Jane” joke — and Smith yelled back at him a second time. “That was the greatest night in the history of television,” Rock said, then resumed his role as presenter. A few minutes later, rapper Sean Combs — on stage to introduce a tribute to “The Godfather” — tried to play peacemaker and suggested Smith and Rock settle their differences at an Oscars afterparty. “Will and Chris, we’re going to solve that like family at the Gold party,” Combs said. Pinkett Smith was also the subject of jokes from Rock when he hosted the Oscars in 2016. She did not attend the Oscars that year, saying at the time her decision stemmed from a lack of diversity among award nominees and how Black artists were not properly represented. | |
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| 03-27-22 12:40pm - 907 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Note: I've seen Ana de Armas in movies. In this Marilyn Monroe movie, Ana de Armas is supposed to be blonde. Like Marilyn Monroe. But Ana de Armas is a brunette. Dark hair. Almost black. Or maybe it is black hair. Why couldn't they find a blonde to play Marilyn Monroe? Madonna is blonde. And Madonna is famed for being sexy. Why couldn't they have hired Madonna? On second thought, Ana de Armas is prettier than Madonna. Maybe that's why they picked Ana. ------- ------- Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe Movie Gets Rare NC-17 Rating for Sexual Content The MPAA has given the biopic 'Blonde,' starring Ana de Armas as the celebrity icon, an adults-only rating. March 24, 2022 1:37pm Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic officially has an NC-17 rating. Blonde, which stars Ana de Armas (Deep Water) as the iconic actress and pinup model, was given the rare adults-only rating for “some sexual content” by the Motion Picture Association on Wednesday. Director Andrew Dominik previously predicted the film, which is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, would get an NC-17, defiantly telling Screen Daily in February: “It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the fucking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.” The director also said Netflix “insisted” on hiring editor Jennifer Lame (Tenet) “to curb the excesses of the movie,” which includes a rape scene that was also in Oates’ book. Oates’ acclaimed 2000 novel is a 700-page fictionalized take on Monroe’s life, which The New Yorker once dubbed “the definitive study of American celebrity.” Netflix has previously streamed NC-17 movies produced by other studios (such as 2013’s Blue Is the Warmest Color), but Blonde seemingly marks the first movie produced by Netflix to receive the hard-core rating. Dominik has expressed appreciation for Netflix’s support, noting, “It’s much easier to support stuff when you like it. It’s much harder when you don’t. I have nothing but gratitude for Netflix.” Blonde co-stars Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson. The film was originally rumored to premiere in May outside of competition at Cannes, but reportedly is no longer expected during the festival. If Blonde does open in theaters before moving to streaming, the NC-17 label could be an obstacle for some cinemas that have been reluctant to play films with that rating in the past. However, Netflix often relies on smaller indie chains that may not have the same objections, so it isn’t as significant as if it were a major studio release relying on a wide break. In any case, Netflix has not officially announced any release plan or date as of yet. | |
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| 03-27-22 11:33am - 907 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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My personal opinion: James Gunn tweeted controversial (offensive) tweets in 2008 and 2009. He has explained he did it for effect, not because he believed the tweets. This was done over 10 years ago. He has apologized for the tweets many times since. So why is Disney firing Gunn for the tweets? Walt Disney, who founded Disney, was a Nazi sympathizer. He personally hosted Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl when she came to promote her film Olympia in 1938, a month after the infamous assault on Jews known as Kristallnacht. Disney was also reported to attend many meetings of the American Nazi Party before the US entered World War 2. So Disney will hold Gunn accountable and guilty for tweets he did over 10 years ago. While ignoring the dark side of Walt Disney's legacy? There are critics of Disney, who don't believe all is sunshine and light in the Magic Kingdom. The way they treat their workers. Not the executives. The workers. But Disney acts all high and mighty when they criticize or fire or boycott people. ------- ------- James Gunn has left 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' after controversial tweets resurfaced online. By Borys Kit, Aaron Couch July 20, 2018 12:19pm James Gunn is exiting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The move comes after conservative personalities resurfaced old tweets Thursday in which the filmmaker joked about controversial topics such as pedophilia and rape. Gunn has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement Friday. On Thursday, Gunn tweeted in response to the tweets being resurfaced, “Many people who have followed my career know, when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.” He added: “It’s not to say I’m better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago; today I try to root my work in love and connection and less in anger. My days saying something just because it’s shocking and trying to get a reaction are over.” The offensive tweets came to light after conservative website The Daily Caller dug up the social media posts, which were mostly posted in 2008 and 2009. Soon after, conservative personalities were tweeting to followers to confront Gunn at Comic-Con. Gunn had been expected to be at Sony’s presentation on Friday. Insiders say Gunn is not expected to be part of the panel now. Gunn issued a statement on Friday afternoon, saying that he “regretted” the tweets in question and stressed that “they don’t reflect the person I am today.” “My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative,” his statement read. “I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.” He continued: “Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then. All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse. To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all.” Gunn has been writing the script for Guardians 3, and the movie was expected to begin shooting in Atlanta in the fall for an expected 2020 release date, though Marvel Studios had never officially announced the date. The Guardians movies have been a massive success for Disney and Marvel. The first movie made more than $773 million worldwide while the second made $863 million. The films stood out from other Marvel movies as they were infused with Gunn’s off-kilter filmmaking sensibilities that owed more to indie genre movies than slicker cookie-cutter studio fare. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige had previously indicated that Gunn would continue to work with Marvel after Guardians 3, helping shepherd the cosmic side of the studio’s universe. | |
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| 03-25-22 05:46am - 910 days | #5 | |
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You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Super marine soldier John is told to kill a young female human. But instead of killing her, he escapes with her, thus turning rogue. This is a soldier who refused a direct order. What would Donald J. Trump have done? Kill an innocent young girl? Or something else? We all know Trump has a heart of gold. He freely forgives all of his enemies. So we must watch further episodes of Halo to learn what happens, in the fight against evil aliens. | |
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| 03-25-22 05:06am - 910 days | #4 | |
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Donald Trump, Force Leader of the Space Marines, the fightenest bunch of heroes the untied planets have ever seen. Watch Trump in his suit of gold and platinum, wreaking destruction on the evil aliens. Subscribe to Paramount+, and you can understand why we need Trump in the White House. | |
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| 03-25-22 04:59am - 910 days | #3 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Big, ugly aliens. Aliens must be destroyed. Bring back Trump. He will save us. Only Trump has the courage and smarts to defeat evil aliens from Mexico and South America. And if Trump can invite Putin to help in the fight against evil aliens, we can overcome all the forces the evil Democrats can throw to bring us down.  | |
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| 03-25-22 04:49am - 910 days | #2 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
I only watched part of the first episode of Halo, and the actors talk with funny accents. Like they are from Europe or Australia or someplace where the people never learned to speak English properly. Why can't actors learn to speak English like Americans do? | |
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| 03-25-22 04:36am - 910 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Halo, a new SF series coming to Paramount+, will feature aliens threatening human existence in a 26th-century showdown. TV series based on the video game 'Halo'. Cool costumes, newly designed guns that explode on the screen. Feature yourself in one of these massive, titanium-enriched suits blowing up aliens and evil criminals with just one look out of your computer-enhanced, lasered eyeballs. Better than Tom Cruise. This is the next-generation of super-duper-heroes on steroids. | |
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| 03-23-22 09:56am - 911 days | #14 | |
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Putin allies warn of nuclear holocaust. Trump stands on podium and shouts that Biden is dragging Russia into a hole. That Russia must fight back against US aggression, that Russia could send nuclear missiles into the US. But since Trump is Russia's friend, the state of Florida should be spared. Thank God for Trump and the Republican party: fighting to preserve freedom throughout the entire world. But wait. Will Putin and Trump force the US to invade Russia? To execute both Putin and Trump on live TV? Think what a thrill that would be! -------- -------- Putin ally warns of nuclear dystopia due to United States Reuters Guy Faulconbridge March 23, 2022, 7:42 AM By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - One of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies warned the United States on Wednesday that the world could spiral towards a nuclear dystopia if Washington pressed on with what the Kremlin casts as a long-term plot to destroy Russia. Dmitry Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said the United States had conspired to destroy Russia as part of an "primitive game" since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. "It means Russia must be humiliated, limited, shattered, divided and destroyed," Medvedev, 56, said in a 550-word statement. The views of Medvedev, once considered to be one of the least hawkish members of Putin's circle, gives an insight into the thinking within the Kremlin as Moscow faces in the biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States has repeatedly said that it does not want the collapse of Russia and that its own interests are best served by a prosperous, stable and open Russia. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside usual business hours. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced nearly 10 million and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States - the world's two biggest nuclear powers. Putin says the operation was necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend against the "genocide" of Russian speakers by Ukraine. Ukraine says Putin's claims of genocide are nonsense. Medvedev said the Kremlin would never allow the destruction of Russia, but warned Washington that if it did achieve what he characterised as its destructive aims then the world could face a dystopian crisis that would end in a "big nuclear explosion". He also painted a picture of a post-Putin world that would follow the collapse of Russia, which has more nuclear warheads than any other country. The destruction of the world's biggest country by area, Medvedev said, could lead to an unstable leadership in Moscow "with a maximum number of nuclear weapons aimed at targets in the United States and Europe." Russia's collapse, he said, would lead to five or six nuclear armed states across the Eurasian landmass run by "freaks, fanatics and radicals". "Is this a dystopia or some mad futuristic forecast? Is it Pulp fiction? No," Medvedev said. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Jon Boyle and Philippa Fletcher) | |
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| 03-23-22 03:24am - 912 days | #13 | |
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LKLK (0)
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Republicans are the party of truth and honesty. Republicans are giving a black judge the chance to defend her record, even though she is soft on child porn offenders. Why do we love America? Because we give everyone, even blacks and softie Democrats, the chance to live in our neighborhood. Bring back Trump, so he can make America great again!!! ------ ------ Jackson defends herself against Republican attacks: 'Nothing could be further from the truth' Yahoo News Christopher Wilson March 22, 2022, 8:02 AM Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson began her second day of Supreme Court nomination hearings by defending herself against Republican accusations she had been too lenient when sentencing child porn offenders. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used the first round of questioning Tuesday morning to let Jackson rebut the charges, which senators had mentioned in Monday’s opening session of the hearings. Two of the committee’s members — Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. — referred to cases where Jackson issued sentences on child porn offenders in her time as a federal judge, while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., encouraged his colleagues to pursue that line of questioning. Jackson, who if confirmed would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was able to respond to the accusations for the first time on Tuesday. "As a mother and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” she said when asked what was going through her head when she heard the accusations. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies on her nomination to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) “These are some of the most difficult cases judges have to deal with, because we’re talking about pictures of sex abuse of children. We’re talking about graphic descriptions that judges have to read and consider when they decide how to sentence in these cases, and there’s a statute that tells judges what they’re supposed to do." Durbin had attempted to preempt the attack in his opening statement Monday, citing an article in the conservative magazine National Review that called the allegation against Jackson “meritless to the point of demagoguery.” Jackson detailed how she was affected by the stories of young abuse victims who had told her they couldn’t maintain normal relationships as adults, turned to drugs and could not leave their homes because of the trauma. “In every case when I am dealing with something like this, it is important to me to make sure that the children’s perspective, the children’s voices, are represented in my sentencings,” she said. Jackson testifies during her Senate confirmation hearing. Jackson testifies during her confirmation hearing. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Jackson added that when defendants attempt to argue that they are just “lookers,” who view child porn but do not participate in its creation, she tells them “about the victim statements that have come in to me as a judge.” “I say to them that there’s only a market for this kind of material because there are lookers — that you are contributing to child sex abuse," Jackson continued. "And then I impose a significant sentence, and then all of the additional restraints that are available in the law. These people are looking at 20, 30, 40 years of supervision. They can’t use their computers in a normal way for decades. I am imposing all of those constraints because I understand how significant, how damaging, how horrible this crime is.” In a series of tweets last week, Hawley announced his staff had discovered an “alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children.” During his opening statement Monday, Hawley listed seven cases involving Jackson that he was concerned about, and added that he was eager to hear her response. “Some have asked why did I raise these questions ahead of the hearing — why not wait until the hearing and spring them on Judge Jackson, as it were, and my answer to that is very simple: I’m not interested in trapping Judge Jackson, I’m not trying to play ‘gotcha.’ I’m interested in her answers,” Hawley said. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during Jackson's confirmation hearing. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., at Jackson's confirmation hearing. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) “Because I found in our time together that she was enormously thoughtful, enormously accomplished, and I suspect has a coherent view, an explanation and a way of thinking I look forward to hearing.” Multiple analyses ofJackson’s record have concluded that Hawley’s criticism of her was misleading. Andrew McCarthy, a conservative former prosecutor who wrote the National Review article that was referred to by Durbin and other Democrats, said that “the implication that [Jackson] has a soft spot for ‘sex offenders’ who ‘prey on children’ because she argued against a severe mandatory-minimum prison sentence for the receipt and distribution of pornographic images is a smear.” The line of attack, some argue, echoes the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely accuses Democrats of running child sex-trafficking rings. With Democrats able to confirm Jackson with their 50 votes in the Senate, she is expected to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last summer by a 53-44 vote, with three Republicans voting in favor: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Graham. Graham, however, has signaled that he won’t back Jackson this time around, calling her nomination a win for the “radical left.” | |
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| 03-20-22 03:36pm - 914 days | #12 | |
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Article continues: Roman Abramovich, for one, seems to have grown worried about the long-term prospects of British hospitality. In late February, he reportedly flew to Belarus to help Russian and Ukrainian negotiators secure a “peaceful resolution” to the conflict. (The lawyers who had previously claimed that it would be “ludicrous” to think there was a relationship of influence between Abramovich and the Kremlin volunteered no explanation for why he might now have a seat at the table.) Abramovich also said that he was putting Chelsea up for sale. There should be no shortage of potential buyers; last year, Newcastle United was purchased by a consortium of investors representing the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, who authorized the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Net proceeds from any sale would be dedicated to a fund for “all victims of the war in Ukraine,” Abramovich pledged. Even so, it appeared as if he were seeking to unload assets while he still had the chance. There was talk that Abramovich was also looking to sell his home in Kensington. A Chinese buyer was said to be circling. On March 10th, the British government finally sanctioned Abramovich, along with six other Russian oligarchs. The Chelsea Football Club can no longer charge for tickets or sign new players, but it can continue to play, and players and staff still get paid; Abramovich just can’t profit from the team. How much will these sanctions accomplish? Not enough, Bullough seems to suggest, given the multitude of tricks available for obscuring transactions. The system, he writes, “derives its power and resilience from the fact it does not rely on any one place: if one jurisdiction becomes hostile, money effortlessly relocates to somewhere that isn’t.” Ironically, this is the very rationalization that Britain’s butler class has long offered in its own defense: if deep-pocketed foreigners can’t do their business here, they’ll just take it elsewhere. In recent weeks, some have worried that dirty money is so woven into the fabric of British life that, as one parliamentary report from 2020 suggests, it “cannot be untangled.” But many Londoners share another fear, which is that it can—that the money will simply migrate to a more permissive jurisdiction. Dubai, for one, seems positively eager to sink to the occasion. And what becomes of Britain if that happens? The prospects for a post-Brexit economy were looking bleak already. Will Britain find itself, once again, without a role? On March 5th, Chelsea played Burnley. Prior to kickoff, at Turf Moor, Burnley’s stadium in Lancashire, both teams on the pitch and the fans in the stands paused for a show of solidarity with the people of Ukraine. For a solid minute, everyone stood clapping. In the midst of this, however, a discordant sound could be heard, as visiting Chelsea fans chimed in with a chant of their own. They were singing the name of the club’s beloved owner, who had just announced that he would be selling the team. His largesse is credited with transforming Chelsea from a moribund club to a championship-winning juggernaut. These supporters appeared unfazed by the accusations against him; they were just grateful for his munificence, and sorry to see him go. “Abramovich!” the English fans chanted. “Abramovich!”  Published in the print edition of the March 28, 2022, issue, with the headline “Do Stay for Tea.” | |
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| 03-20-22 03:35pm - 914 days | #11 | |
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Article continues: In assessing this dire legal situation, it’s important to consider not just the cases that are brought against books and articles but also the books and articles that are never published in England to begin with. In 2014, the American political scientist Karen Dawisha submitted her book “Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?” to her longtime publisher, Cambridge University Press. After reviewing the manuscript, Dawisha’s editor, John Haslam, wrote to her praising the book but saying that Cambridge could not publish it. “The risk is high that those implicated in the premise of the book—that Putin has a close circle of criminal oligarchs at his disposal and has spent his career cultivating this circle—would be motivated to sue,” he explained. Even if the press ultimately prevailed, the expense of the proceedings could be ruinous, Haslam said. In a controlled fury, Dawisha wrote back that the U.K. had apparently become a “no-fly zone” when it came to publishing “the truth about this group.” The oligarchs “feel free to buy Belgravia, kill dissidents in Piccadilly with Polonium 210, fight each other in the High Court, and hide their children in British boarding schools. And as a result of their growing knowledge about and influence in the UK, even the most significant institutions . . . cower and engage in pre-emptive book-burnings.” (The book was ultimately published by Simon & Schuster in the United States.) A major difficulty for would-be chroniclers of the kleptocrats is that, in England, a person bringing a libel suit does not have to prove that an assertion is untrue, so long as there’s evidence of “serious harm”; instead, the author must prove that it is true. This is a fiendishly burdensome standard when it comes to, say, establishing the true ownership of a super-yacht, or the subtle dynamics of an influence campaign orchestrated by ex-K.G.B. spies. In “Kleptopia,” Tom Burgis remarks that in the former Soviet Union the “skill prized above all others” was the ability to obfuscate the origins of stolen money. (On paper, Putin’s real-estate portfolio consists chiefly of one conspicuously modest apartment. He has denied that the palace on the Black Sea belongs to him.) Here, the professional facilitators of London’s butler class come in handy. There is a booming industry in financial dissimulation: the creation of shell companies, tax shelters, offshore trusts. Haslam, in his letter to Dawisha, had objected that “Putin has never been convicted” for the crimes described in the book. But, by making it perilous to publish allegations, however well documented, that haven’t yet resulted in a criminal conviction, the legal system can grant well-financed malefactors a free pass from scrutiny. According to an investigation by BuzzFeed News, U.S. intelligence believes that at least fourteen people have been assassinated on British soil by Russian mafia groups or secret services, which sometimes collaborate, but British authorities tend not to name suspects or bring charges. (Instead, they have concluded with an unsettling frequency that such deaths are suicides.) In an interview with NPR in late February, Bill Browder was asked whether he would name Russian oligarchs who had not yet been sanctioned but should be. “I live in London,” he said. “So it’s very unwise to name names.” Catherine Belton named names. But she, too, is bedevilled by the challenge of producing absolute proof in a world of shadowy deniability. There is the official record—property deeds, legal convictions—and then there is what everyone knows. “It’s not just his money,” a onetime associate of Abramovich’s told her. “He is Putin’s representative.” As the oligarch Oleg Deripaska once explained, “If the state says we need to give it up, we’ll give it up. I don’t separate myself from the state. I have no other interests.” (He later claimed to have been joking.) Time and again in “Putin’s People,” Belton tells the official version of a story, and then shares what she understands to be the real story—the word on the street. She describes “an emerging KGB capitalism in which nothing was quite as it seemed.” This is what it looks like when a national economy is designed by ex-spies. “Putin’s People” does include a denial from someone close to Abramovich, who said that he was not “acting under Kremlin direction” when he bought the Chelsea Football Club. Belton also uses a phrase that concedes the empirical limitations of her reporting: “whatever the truth of the matter.” But this was not enough for Abramovich, whose representatives argued that Sergei Pugachev was an unreliable source. “At no stage is the reader told that actually Abramovich is someone who is distant from Putin and doesn’t participate in the many and various corrupt schemes that are described,” his lawyers asserted. They later argued, “It would be ludicrous to suggest that our client has any responsibility or influence over the behavior of the Russian state.” In December, the case was settled. Belton and HarperCollins agreed to some changes and clarifications in future editions; the book would be amended to contain a more strenuous denial on the Chelsea claim, and to emphasize that the allegations relating to the team could not be characterized as incontrovertible facts. They also agreed to cut the line about Abramovich being “Putin’s representative,” and to include additional comments from his spokesperson. Chelsea released a smug statement expressing satisfaction that Belton had “apologized to Mr. Abramovich.” HarperCollins committed to making a payment to the charity of his choosing. Belton greeted this settlement as a victory—she would not have to go to trial, or make major changes to her book. But she seemed exhausted and demoralized. “This last year has felt like a war of attrition,” she said. The Observer columnist Nick Cohen, reflecting on the case, ventured that “oligarchs can manipulate the truth here as surely as Putin can in Russia.” In the days following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a slow-motion comedy began to unfold in the various exotic ports in which billionaires moor their yachts. Some of these mega-vessels started motoring out to international waters, presumably on instructions from anxious Kremlin-affiliated owners. Others were reportedly setting course for the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. The Graceful, a hundred-million-dollar yacht that is widely believed to belong to Vladimir Putin, had made a hasty departure from a German port on the eve of the invasion, and relocated to Russian waters, in Kaliningrad. Officials in France seized a boat linked to Igor Sechin, the C.E.O. of Rosneft. Boris Johnson, meanwhile, announced that “oligarchs in London” would find that there was “nowhere to hide,” and said that he would form a kleptocracy cell at the National Crime Agency, to target “corrupt Russian assets hidden in the U.K.” The real test, however, is not so much what legal authorities are created as how they are used. In 2018, Britain introduced a promising new ordinance concerning “unexplained wealth,” which meant that a potentate could be required to account for the source of the funds used to buy a particular asset or risk losing it altogether. Yet it has so far been used in only four cases, none of them targeting Russian oligarchs. In one proceeding, against the family of the former President of Kazakhstan, authorities froze three properties. After the move was challenged in court, though, the order was reversed. If a lack of political will was to blame for the paucity of cases, so was a lack of resources. The National Crime Agency is notoriously underfunded. Addressing the issue of why there hadn’t been more “unexplained wealth orders,” the agency’s director said, “We are, bluntly, concerned about the impact on our budget, because these are wealthy people with access to the best lawyers.” But, given the bloodshed in Ukraine, and the international community’s surprising resolve to isolate the Kremlin economically, couldn’t things be different this time? One great irony of the story that Bullough relates in “Butler to the World” is that, after decades of obliging the global criminal élite, Britain now has a singular opportunity to turn the tables. Lured by “Tier 1” visas and luxury real estate and fabulous shopping and the comfortable prospect of lasting impunity, the oligarchs entrusted their fortunes to the butlers of Britain. If the British government were to have a genuine change of heart and start demanding transparency and freezing assets, a sanctuary could become a snare. After all, what does Putin own on paper? If he has left his many assets in the care of a coterie of front men who have built lives for themselves in London, then London has the upper hand. It could help isolate Putin—by pinching off his access to resources, and perhaps even by motivating the front men to pressure him to change his behavior, or to abandon him altogether. | |
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| 03-20-22 03:33pm - 914 days | #10 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Article continues: The stark implication of “Putin’s People” is not just that the President of Russia may be a silent partner in one of England’s most storied sports franchises but also that England itself has been a silent and handsomely compensated partner in Putin’s kleptocratic designs—that, in the past two decades, Russian oligarchs have infiltrated England’s political, economic, and legal systems. “We must go after the oligarchs,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared after the invasion of Ukraine, doing his best to sound Churchillian. But, as the international community labors to isolate Putin and his cronies, the question is whether England has been too compromised by Russian money to do so. For the past several years, Oliver Bullough, a former Russia correspondent, has guided “kleptocracy tours” around London, explaining how dirty money from abroad has transformed the city. Bullough shows up with a busload of rubberneckers in front of elegant mansions and steel-and-glass apartment towers in Knightsbridge and Belgravia, and points out the multimillion-pound residences of the shady expatriates who find refuge there. His book “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Oligarchs, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats, and Criminals,” just published in the U.K., argues that England actively solicited such corrupting influences, by letting “some of the worst people in existence” know that it was open for business. Invoking Dean Acheson’s famous observation, in 1962, that Britain had “lost an empire but not yet found a role,” Bullough suggests that it did find a role, as a no-questions-asked service provider to the crooked élite, offering access to capital markets, prime real estate, shopping at Harrods, and illustrious private schools, along with accountants for tax tricks, attorneys for legal squabbles, and “reputation managers” for inconvenient backstories. It starts with visas; any foreigner with adequate funds can buy one, by investing two million pounds in the U.K. (Ten million can buy you permanent residency.) London property is always an option for such investments. After King Constantine II was ousted in the wake of a military coup in Greece, in 1967, he moved into a mansion overlooking Hampstead Heath; ever since, global plutocrats have sought safe harbor in the city’s leafy precincts. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian buyers raced into London’s housing market. One real-estate agent described his Russian clients “gleefully plonking saddlebags of cash on the desk.” According to new figures from Transparency International, Russians who have been accused of corruption or of having links to the Kremlin have bought at least 1.5 billion pounds’ worth of property in Great Britain. The real number is no doubt higher, but it is virtually impossible to ascertain, because so many of these transactions are obscured by layers of secrecy. The Economist describes London as “a slop-bucket for dodgy Russian wealth.” Bullough has made a careful study of this process. In an earlier book, “Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back” (201  , he explained that, for moneyed arrivistes in the U.K., a glamorous new home is the first step on a well-established pathway for laundering reputations. Next up: hire a P.R. firm. “The PR agency puts them in touch with biddable members of parliament,” Bullough says, “who are prepared to put their names to the billionaire’s charitable foundation. The foundation then launches itself at a fashionable London event space—a gallery is ideal.” Ultimately, the smart billionaire will “get his name on an institution, or become so closely associated with one that it may as well be.” Major gifts to universities are popular. So are football clubs.What’s most apt about Bullough’s butler analogy is the appearance of gray-flannel propriety, which can impart an aura of respectability to even the most disreputable fortune. The mercenary grubbiness of Britain’s role might be “hard to comprehend,” Bullough suggests, “because it is so at variance with Britain’s public image.” Yet Belton and Bullough are joined in their dispiriting diagnosis by Tom Burgis, the author of the excellent book “Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World” (2020). And by Britain’s National Crime Agency, which found that “many hundreds of billions of pounds of international criminal money” is laundered through U.K. banks and subsidiaries every year. And by Parliament’s own intelligence committee, which has described London as a “laundromat” for illicit Russian cash. And by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, which declared in 2018 that the ease with which Russia’s President and his allies hide their wealth in London has helped Putin pursue his agenda in Moscow. Advertisement Each time Putin has taken a provocative step in recent years—including the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in Mayfair, in 2006; Russia’s annexation of Crimea, in 2014; and the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, in 2018—British politicians and commentators have acknowledged London’s complicity with his regime and vowed to take steps to address it. But this has largely amounted to lip service. The English political establishment, like everything else in London, appears to be for sale. Boris Johnson, in his tenure as London’s mayor, was a pitchman to foreign buyers, boasting that property in the city had grown so desirable it was “treated effectively as another asset class.” Russian oligarchs have donated millions of pounds to the Conservative Party, and have enlisted British lords to sit on the boards of their companies. At a fund-raising auction at the Tory summer ball in 2014, a woman named Lubov Chernukhin—who was then married to Vladimir Chernukhin, one of Putin’s former deputy finance ministers—paid a hundred and sixty thousand pounds for the top prize: a tennis match with Johnson and David Cameron, who was Prime Minister at the time. Johnson defended the match, decrying “a miasma of suspicion” toward “all rich Russians in London.” A Russian magnate told Catherine Belton, “In London, money rules everyone. Anyone and anything can be bought.” The Russians came to London, the source said, “to corrupt the U.K. political elite.” Another reason that London’s oligarchs have been able to forestall a day of reckoning is their tendency to pursue punishing legal action against people who challenge them, exploiting a legal system that is notably friendly toward libel plaintiffs. In January, 2021, the Russian dissident and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny, who had recently survived an assassination attempt, released a video, titled “Putin’s Palace,” in which he accused the Russian President of being “obsessed with wealth and luxury,” and presented information about a billion-dollar compound that Putin had reportedly built for himself on the Black Sea. “Russia sells oil, gas, metals, fertilizer, and timber in huge quantities—but people’s incomes keep falling,” Navalny said. The oligarchs “influence political decisions from the shadows.” At one point, he held up a copy of Catherine Belton’s book. Not long afterward, Roman Abramovich sued Belton and HarperCollins in London. “Putin’s People” had been on shelves for nearly a year, leading Belton to suspect that Navalny’s endorsement had likely prompted the suit. (Navalny has described Abramovich as “one of the key enablers and beneficiaries of Russian kleptocracy.”) Within days, three other Russian billionaires filed lawsuits against the book, as did Rosneft, the national oil company. To Belton, it felt like “a concerted attack.” “Do you want heater side or humidifier side tonight?” Cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson And a terrifying one. Abramovich’s suit named Belton personally, meaning that her own home and savings would be at stake. The case was projected to cost ten million pounds if it went to trial, and under English law those who lose a suit can be ordered to pay their adversary’s legal costs. That’s part of why the rich like to take detractors to court in London. (Indeed, last fall, the Kazakh mining giant E.N.R.C. sued Tom Burgis over claims he made in “Kleptopia”; the case was dismissed on March 2nd.) Libel tourism is another chronic English problem that everyone bemoans but nobody does anything about. This has meant terrific business for the oligarchs’ morally flexible attorneys; according to the British trade publication The Lawyer, some law firms charge a “Russian premium” for their services, of up to fifteen hundred pounds an hour. The attorneys who represent oligarchs have managed to remain largely unsullied by their unsavory doings. One lawyer involved in the HarperCollins suit is Geraldine Proudler, who previously sued the anti-corruption activist Bill Browder on behalf of a Russian official who was accused of involvement in the torture and murder of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. (Browder prevailed in that case.) Remarkably, Proudler has served as a trustee of English PEN, which advocates free speech and human rights. | |
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| 03-20-22 03:31pm - 914 days | #9 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Trump idolizes Putin. Now the reasons are becoming clear. Putin has more money than Trump. More power than Trump. ------ ------ March 28, 2022 Issue How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London From banking to boarding schools, the British establishment has long been at their service, discretion guaranteed. By Patrick Radden Keefe March 17, 2022 Butlers holding up trays of a helicopter ship and mansion. “In London, money rules everyone,” a Russian magnate told the journalist Catherine Belton. “Anyone and anything can be bought.”Illustration by Álvaro Bernis Roman Abramovich was thirty-four years old—baby-faced, vigorous, already one of Russia’s richest oligarchs—when he did something seemingly inexplicable. The year was 2000. Abramovich, an orphan and a college dropout turned Kremlin insider, had amassed a giant fortune by taking control of businesses that once belonged to the Soviet state. He owned nearly half of the oil company Sibneft, and much of the world’s second-biggest producer of aluminum. A man of cosmopolitan tastes, he favored Chinese cuisine and holidays in the South of France. But now, he announced, he was going to relocate to the remote Chukotka region, a desolate Arctic hellscape, where he would run for governor. Chukotka, which is some thirty-seven hundred miles from Moscow, is comically inhospitable. The winds are fierce enough to blow a grown dog off its feet. When Abramovich arrived, the human population was meagre, and struggling with poverty and alcoholism. After he was elected governor—he got ninety-two per cent of the vote, his closest challenger being a local man who herded reindeer—he was confronted with the baying of his new constituents: “When will we have fuel? When will we have meat?” There was no Chinese food in Chukotka. “People here don’t live, they just exist,” Abramovich marvelled. Shy by nature, he was not a natural politician. He pumped plenty of his own money into the region, but appeared to derive no pleasure from his new job. Nor could he explain, to anyone’s satisfaction, what he was doing there. When a reporter from the Wall Street Journal trekked to Chukotka to pose the question, Abramovich claimed that he was “fed up” with making money. The Journal speculated that he was working an angle—did he have a lead on some untapped natural resource beneath the tundra? Abramovich acknowledged that his own friends “can’t understand” why he made this move. They “can’t even guess,” he said. Three years after gaining his governorship, Abramovich leapt from wealthy obscurity to tabloid prominence when he bought London’s Chelsea Football Club. In 2009, he settled into a fifteen-bedroom mansion behind Kensington Palace, for which he reportedly paid ninety million pounds. His mega-yacht Eclipse featured two helipads and its own missile-defense system, and he took to hosting New Year’s Eve parties with guests like Leonardo DiCaprio and Paul McCartney. It was a long way from Chukotka. Indeed, that unlikely interlude seemed mostly forgotten, until the publication of “Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West” (2020), a landmark work of investigative journalism by the longtime Russia correspondent Catherine Belton. Her thesis is that, after becoming the President of Russia, in 2000, Vladimir Putin proceeded to run the state and its economy like a Mafia don—and that he did so through the careful control of ostensibly independent businessmen like Roman Abramovich. When Abramovich went to Chukotka, Belton tells us, he did so “on Putin’s orders.” The first generation of post-Soviet capitalists had accumulated vast private fortunes, and Putin set out to bring the oligarchs under state control. He had leverage over government officials, so he forced Abramovich to become one. “Putin told me that if Abramovich breaks the law as governor, he can put him immediately in jail,” one Abramovich associate told Belton. A “feudal system” was beginning to emerge, Belton contends, in which the owners of Russia’s biggest companies would be forced to “operate as hired managers, working on behalf of the state.” Their gaudy displays of personal wealth were a diversion; these oligarchs were mere capos, who answered to the don. It wasn’t even their wealth, really: it was Putin’s. They were “no more than the guardians,” Belton writes, and “they kept their businesses by the Kremlin’s grace.” Belton even makes the case—on the basis of what she was told by the former Putin ally Sergei Pugachev and two unnamed sources—that Abramovich’s purchase of the Chelsea Football Club was carried out on Putin’s orders. “Putin’s Kremlin had accurately calculated that the way to gain acceptance in British society was through the country’s greatest love, its national sport,” she writes. Pugachev informs her that the objective was to build “a beachhead for Russian influence in the UK.” He adds, “Putin personally told me of his plan to acquire the Chelsea Football Club in order to increase his influence and raise Russia’s profile, not only with the elite but with ordinary British people.” | |
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| 03-19-22 08:02pm - 915 days | #8 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Trump cannot sue rape accuser to stop her defamation case, U.S. judge rules Reuters Jonathan Stempel March 11, 2022, 12:56 PM By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump cannot sue E. Jean Carroll, a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, on the grounds that her defamation lawsuit against him violated a New York state law intended to protect free speech, a federal judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan accused the former U.S. president of "bad faith" by needlessly delaying the former Elle magazine columnist's lawsuit, which began in November 2019 and could have "long ago" been decided. "The defendant's litigation tactics, whatever their intent, have delayed the case to an extent that readily could have been far less," Kaplan wrote. Letting Trump countersue "would make a regrettable situation worse by opening new avenues for significant further delay," he added. Kaplan also said it would be "futile" for Trump to prove that his counterclaim belonged in federal court. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said: "While we are disappointed with the court's decision today, we eagerly look forward to litigating this action and proving at trial that the plaintiff's claims have absolutely no basis in law or in fact." Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll and not related to the judge, said she and her client "could not agree more" that the case should be over by now. Carroll, 78, accused Trump in a June 2019 book excerpt of raping her in late 1995 or early 1996 in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan. She said Trump defamed her when he told a reporter he did not know Carroll, accused her of concocting the rape claim to sell her book and said, "She's not my type." 'FUTILE' TO COUNTERSUE In seeking a dismissal and damages, Trump invoked New York's "anti-SLAPP" law, short for "strategic lawsuits against public participation." The November 2020 law had been meant to protect journalists and others from deep-pocketed companies and people who file frivolous lawsuits designed to silence critics. Trump said Carroll's lawsuit also violated that law because it was meant to harass him for speaking out. But the judge said Trump offered "no satisfactory justification" for waiting 14 months after the law took effect to invoke it. Trump is awaiting a decision from the federal appeals court in Manhattan on whether he is immune from Carroll's lawsuit under a law shielding federal employees from defamation claims, because he discussed her in his capacity as president. Democratic President Joe Biden's administration sided with Trump in that appeal, despite what it called the Republican's "crude and offensive comments" over Carroll's "very serious" accusations. Carroll's lawyers are hoping to compare Trump's DNA with a dress Carroll said she wore during the alleged rape. They also wanted to question Trump under oath, but citing Trump's delays, said last month this was no longer necessary. The case is Carroll v Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-07311. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia Osterman) | |
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| 03-19-22 07:52pm - 915 days | #7 | |
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Fox news supports commies, just like our good friend and leader, Donald J. Trump Biden needs to take a lesson from Putin: send death squads to kill Fox news reporters, who are trying to incite revolution. We live in a free democracy. Let's kill off the commies who are trying to bring us down. ------ ------ Russian foreign minister praises Fox News for Ukraine coverage Yahoo News Niamh Cavanagh March 18, 2022, 11:42 AM After three weeks of bitter and barbaric fighting in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the coverage of the war from one American media outlet: Fox News. Speaking to the state-owned RT network, Lavrov said Fox News has been “trying to represent some alternative points of view” in its coverage of the war. “We understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent Western media,” he said in the Friday interview, which was conducted in English. He went on to denounce the social media ban of former President Donald Trump and appeared to criticize the labeling of Jan. 6 insurrectionists as terrorists. “But when you watch other channels, read the social networks and internet platforms, when the acting president was blocked and this censorship continues in a very big way. The substitution of notions whenever something is happening by the way of mass protest, mass demonstrations, which they don’t like, they immediately call it domestic terrorism.” He added: “So it’s a war, and it’s a war which involves the methods of information terrorism.” Last Friday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that U.S. government officials wanted a war between Russia and Ukraine in a bid to “grab more power.” While otherwise denouncing the Russian invasion, Carlson theorized that the U.S. helped provoke the conflict after emergency powers enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic had come to an end. “At exactly the moment when the emergency powers they awarded to themselves to fight COVID started to wane, our leaders began pushing for conflict with Russia,” the Fox News host said. Meanwhile, retired United States Army Col. Douglas Macgregor declared on Carlson’s show on Thursday that Kyiv had lost the war with Russia and that Ukraine had been “grounded to bits.” The retired colonel added: “There’s no question about that, despite what we report on our mainstream media.” Most military experts, however, say the Russian advance is moving much slower than Moscow expected in the face of severe logistical problems and fierce Ukrainian resistance. Fox News hosts have continued to push certain talking points while reporting on Russia’s invasion, linking the war to various Biden administration policies. Three days into the invasion, “Fox and Friends” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy declared it “a Green New Deal war,” stating, “This is John Kerry’s war. This is AOC’s war.” Two days before that, while covering Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine, Carlson accused the Biden administration of trying to “degrade and humiliate” the U.S. military by focusing on “white rage” and “maternity flight suits.” Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin has made waves for her near-constant correcting of the record set forth by the news network's opinion hosts, including primetime host Sean Hannity. And Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall corrected “The Five” co-host Greg Gutfeld in early March after Gutfeld complained about what he saw as a narrative presented solely through the eyes of the Ukrainians. “And they only go in one direction. And I understand why they only go in one direction, because it’s the invaded who experience the atrocity, right? And that’s all we’re going to see,” Gutfeld complained. Moments later, live on air, Hall rebuked the host for making those comments from a studio in New York. “Speaking as someone on the ground, I want to say that this is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response," Hall said from Ukraine. Gutfeld, whose mother-in-law escaped from Ukraine to Poland earlier this month, called it a “cheap attack” on him. Hall was wounded during a Russian attack just five days later. A cameraman, Pierre Zakrzewski, and a producer, Oleksandra Kuvshynova, who were both working for Fox News on the ground in Ukraine, were killed in the attack. | |
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| 03-19-22 01:50pm - 915 days | #6 | |
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Russia is taking a page from Donald Trump's playbook. The country is stealing trademarks from brands like McDonald's and Starbucks. Trump (and his current wife) stole speeches that actors used in movies. Russia and Trump both believe they have the right to eminent domain, where they can take whatever their eyes behold. In many countries, if the country takes over property, they are supposed to compensate the original owners. But in Russia, and for Trump, payment is not needed: because they are sovereign powers. Trump (and Russia) uber alles. Vote for Trump in 2024. And he will invite Putin to the White House. ------ ------ McDonald's, Starbucks, and others have no recourse for stolen trademarks in Russia Yahoo Finance Alexis Keenan March 18, 2022, 11:45 AM Russia's recent decree essentially legalizing intellectual property theft leaves brands like McDonald's (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX) with no legal recourse if copycat businesses use the brands as their own. Over the past two weeks, Russian officials have stripped away IP rights from U.S. companies doing business in Russia, along with foreign companies from 23 other “unfriendly” territories. As a result, companies like McDonald's and Starbucks that have left Russia to protest its invasion of Ukraine can do little when Russian businesses steal their trademarks. In fact, trademark applications were filed in Russia this week that bore a striking resemblance to marks belonging to Ikea, Instagram (FB), McDonald's, and Starbucks, trademark attorney Josh Gerbennoted. These companies can't immediately fight back because challenges for unauthorized use are largely limited to Russian courts, Gerben told Yahoo Finance. Gerben expects Russian lawyers to avoid any appearance of sympathy to Western interests. “The fact is that the courts are going to be stacked against you,” Gerben said. “And the fact is you might not have a willing counsel over there to help you, because they fear for their own safety.” Russia's decision to upend its IP rules — in direct response to sanctions from the West — puts company executives in a tough position. On one hand, companies might protect corporate assets by staying put, at least temporarily. And on the other, businesses could stoke costly moral and political backlash, plus jeopardize worker safety, if they continue doing business in Russia. For its part, McDonald's still has some presence in Russia, as certain franchised stores remain open. Trademark application filed March 12, 2022 with Russian Federation's Federal Service for Intellectual Property, also known as Rospatent Trademark application filed March 12, 2022 with Russian Federation's Federal Service for Intellectual Property, also known as Rospatent Just how much IP is in jeopardy is unclear. This week's trademark applications add to separate violations condoned in Russian court, earlier in March. In one case, a Russian judge denied compensation to a Hasbro (HAS) subsidiary, even though an entrepreneur used its "Peppa Pig" and "Daddy Pig" trademarks. The judge acknowledged denying the relief because of Western sanctions, Law360 reported. In theory, the World Trade Organization can settle IP disputes between the U.S. and Russia under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, according to Justin Hughes, an intellectual property law professor with Loyola Law School. However, even though the U.S. and Russia both signed onto the treaty, that path isn't likely because the U.S. suspended normal trade relations with Russia. “In the past it would have been possible,” Hughes said. But, he added, “The U.S. has already said the normal rules for our international commercial interaction are over.” Trademark application filed March 14, 2022 with Russian Federation's Federal Service for Intellectual Property Trademark application filed March 14, 2022 with Russian Federation's Federal Service for Intellectual Property No U.S. corporation will win in Russian IP court Christine Haight Farley, a law professor and co-director of American University Washington College of Law’s Program on Information Justice & Intellectual Property, agrees U.S. companies have no immediate recourse to protect against stolen IP. “At the moment, it would certainly not be a good idea to bring a lawsuit in Russia,” Haight Farley said. “No U.S. corporation is going to win that legal battle in the court.” As for the WTO, she adds, there’s little chance the path can offer U.S. companies immediate relief, because they must rely on the U.S. government to bring disputes before the organization and, right now, the issue is not likely top of mind for government officials. While the recent applications for McDonald’s and Starbucks’ trademarks may be more brazen assaults on U.S. IP than in Russia’s past, Hughes said the assaults are nothing new. “The Russian Federation has been a notorious zone of counterfeiting and piracy for years and years,” he said. “It’s not like they’re suddenly turning their back on IP. They’ve never been good at enforcing it.” He points out Russia’s designation on the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) priority watch list in 2021, 2020, and 2019. More recently, on March 11, the U.S. Trade & Patent Office announced it terminated its engagement with Russia’s intellectual property agency, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, also known as Rospatent. McDonald’s, Facebook, and Starbucks didn’t respond to requests for information on what if any responsive actions they're taking to protect their IP. An Ikea spokesperson said, “We don't want to speculate. It is too soon to talk about any potential consequences of this.” Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed. | |
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