Gun Violence Continues; Senate Does Nothing

More than 150 people were killed across America during the Memorial Day weekend, as gun violence soared across the country just days after the school massacre in Uvalde left 19 children and two teachers dead.  There were at least 14 'mass shootings' across the US over the weekend, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an institute tracking shootings in the country.

At least nine people were killed in the mass shootings and more than 60 people were injured, according to the Archive, which defines mass shootings as an incident where at least four people are shot and injured or killed, not including any shooter.   Overall, gun violence over the Memorial Day weekend saw 156 people killed and 412 injured.

Philadelphia and Chicago saw the worst of the shootings with 20 fatally shot, with 12 killed in the city of brotherly love and 8 killed in the Windy City.  At least 12 people were killed in Philadelphia, including a nine-year-old boy, while 12 people were injured.  A man, aged between 18 and 21, died of his injuries sustained in Overbrook on Sunday afternoon. Another man, 30, was shot in the Mill Creek neighborhood and died of his wounds. There was a double shooting in Kensington killing one man, a 49-year-old man was fatally shot in North Philadelphia at 9.30am on Sunday and a man was also killed in East Germantown.  In the Wissinoming neighborhood, a father and his son, 9, were killed in a drive-by shooting, according to NBC Philadelphia. The shooting happened on Carver Street around 10.30pm. Police also said multiple weapons were involved and several shots were fired.  A one-year-old boy was killed in another drive-by shooting in downtown Pittsburgh.

A man was shot in the head in the city's Chicago Lawn neighborhood at 1.31pm on Saturday and later died at Advocate Christ Medical Center, NBC5 reported.  Another two men, 29 and 28, were fatally shot when they opened fire on each other in the Englewood neighborhood at 5.04pm on Saturday. They later died at the University of Chicago Medical Center.  In South Carpenter, a man was shot in the head and body while standing on a sidewalk at 1.05am on Sunday.   A fifth fatal shooting occurred in West Madison at 6.40am on Sunday when a man, 33, was shot while driving eastbound.  Five were also injured in a mass shooting near Daniel Webster Elementary School, The Tribune reported.

In Oklahoma, a 26-year-old man opened fire at a Memorial Day festival in a mass shooting, killing a 39-year-old woman and injuring seven victims.  Authorities said a 26-year-old man is in custody after the shooting on Saturday night at an outdoor festival in eastern Oklahoma, where witnesses described frantic people running for cover amid gunfire.

One person was killed and six people were injured during a shooting on East Shelby Drive in Memphis, Tennessee at 6:30 pm. on Saturday.  Two male victims were taken to Regional One Health in critical condition, where one died, according to Memphis Commercial Appeal.  In another shooting, near the intersection of Chelsea Avenue and Peres Avenue at 11pm on Saturday, two people sustained gunshot wounds.

Two people were killed in separate shootings in New York City during Memorial Day weekend, according to police.  Donovan Davy, 45, was shot in Brooklyn and was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital, The New York Post reported.  Elsewhere, a victim was killed at an apartment complex in Brownsville, Brooklyn.  A man was also shot in Queens before 12am on Sunday and three others were hit by gunshots in Brooklyn.

Shots were fired in an amphitheater in Inner Harbor, Baltimore, at 7.35pm on Saturday killing a 17-year-old boy, it was reported by The Baltimore Sun.  Two men were also killed in a triple shooting on Saturday night and a woman was fatally shot.  Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said: 'I am sickened that this plague continues to grip our city.  "I will continue to push every public safety agency to do more, but it will also require all of us to collectively say enough is enough, that we’re not going to accept or allow violence in our city," he said.

One adult died and three teenagers were left injured in Fresno, California. Police responded to gunfire and found multiple victims with gunshot wounds, Your Central Valley reported.

One person was killed at graduation party inside the Park Lane Event Center in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 200 teenagers were celebrating the occasion when a gunman opened fire leaving two more injured.  Akeem Ellison, 18, later died at Upson Regional Medical Center, however cops have not made any arrests to date.

One person was killed at the exact same nightclub in Florida that a victim was killed three years previously.   According to Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, shots were fired at the Blue Lounge club in Tampa at 3am on Sunday.

A Day in Memoriam

Sunday Thoughts

The Week in Ukraine - 5/28/21

On the ground, Ukraine’s military has been remarkably effective at halting Russian advances and extracting a price for every inch of ground surrendered. Oryx currently has Russia’s verified losses at over 4,000 pieces of equipment, including 715 tanks. By comparison, Ukraine’s documented losses are at just over 1,000 pieces of equipment and 177 tanks. Russia has been losing equipment at a rate that’s 4 times that of Ukraine. It still is.

Ukraine has also surprised Russia in the air. Not only was Russia’s initial attempt to take out Ukrainian air defenses ineffective, the Ukrainian Air Force is still flying. Despite the loss of multiple pilots and planes over the course of the war, it’s been making more sorties in the last two weeks than it did in the first two weeks (to be fair, so has Russia).

Russian shelling destroyed a music school in the Eastern Ukrainian village of Sviatohirsk.  Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, reported the attack on Twitter saying, “the Russians [have] turned [the school] into ruins.”   Less than 50 miles east from Sviatohirsk lies the former tourist city Severodonetsk. It is the largest city in the Luhansk region area which is still under Ukrainian control.  However, over the weekend, the city came under intense artillery and missile fire from Russian military. The Governor of Luhansk today accused Russia of using a “scorched-earth approach” in their army’s attempt to take control of Severodonetsk away from Ukraine, and “deliberately destroying” the city.  Like Sviatohirsk, another school came under fire in Severodonetsk. Around 200 people were sheltering in the building at the time, and reportedly, the majority of these were children. At least two were killed.  Severodonetsk’s own music school was reportedly destroyed by Russian forces in March 2022 at the start of the invasion.

Workers digging through the rubble of an apartment building in Mariupol found 200 bodies in the basement, as more horrors came to light in the ruined city that has seen some of the worst suffering of the 3-month-old war.  The bodies were decomposing and the stench hung over the neighborhood, said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor. He did not say when they were discovered, but the sheer number of victims makes it one of the deadliest known attacks of the war.

Mid-week came reports that Russian forces occupied the town of Lyman after an extended period of heavy combat that saw the town attacked from three sides. Those on-the-ground reports appear to be confirmed by high-resolution satellite imagery that showed a pattern similar other sites that have fallen. A day later, ground reports revealed that have Russian infantry were now patrolling the city’s streets, and it seems likely that remaining Ukrainian forces have withdrawn across a bridge to the south. 

Fears are rising that Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports is causing a global food crisis. Poland's primer minister publicly accused Vladimir Putin of "weaponizing Ukraine's crops" as "a blackmail tool" for the rest of the world.  Mateusz Morawiecki told the BBC it was like what "Stalin did in 1933".  Ukraine's inability to export its grain has led to global food prices soaring.  It has also raised the prospect of famines in the countries which depend on its exports.  Morawiecki said that this was "part of [Putin's] strategy" in order to "create ripple effects in Northern Africa and huge migration waves".   His warning was echoed by the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, who told delegates in Davos that Russia was using "hunger and grain to wield power".  "Global co-operation is the antidote to Russia's blackmail," she said.

 

Diana Ross & Tame Impala - Turn Up the Sunshine

Journalists Under Attack by Israeli Forces

Journalists continue to come under attack across the globe-- this time in Israel.  Al-Jazeera's Shireen Abu Aqleh was covering unrest in the Jenin refugee camp (a historic flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) when she was shot in the head and killed earlier this month. The Qatar-based TV channel said Israeli forces shot Abu Aqleh deliberately and "in cold blood".

"The Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood Al Jazeera's correspondent in Palestine,” said Al Jazeera.  It called on the international community to hold the Israeli forces accountable for their "intentional targeting and killing" of the journalist.

Another Al Jazeera journalist, producer Ali al-Samudi, was wounded in the incident, the broadcaster added.  Al-Samoudi and other journalists at the scene said there were no Palestinian fighters present when the journalists were shot, directly disputing an Israeli statement referencing the possibility that it was Palestinian fire.  “We were going to film the Israeli army operation and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming,” said al-Samoudi. Abu Aqleh was wearing a press flak jacket when she was shot.  The Israeli army later confirmed it had conducted an operation in the camp.   

Shatha Hanaysha, a local journalist who was standing next to Abu Akleh when she was shot, also told Al Jazeera that there had been no confrontations between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli army. She said the group of journalists had been directly targeted.  “We were four journalists, we were all wearing vests, all wearing helmets,” Hanaysha said. “The [Israeli] occupation army did not stop firing even after she collapsed. I couldn’t even extend my arm to pull her because of the shots being fired. The army was adamant on shooting to kill.”

Abu Akleh, who was a dual Palestinian-American national, was one of Al Jazeera’s first field correspondents, joining the network in 1997. Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar said that Abu Akleh was the voice of Palestinians and was killed by “the monstrosity of Israeli colonialism and occupation”.  Palestinian Authority (PA) government spokesperson Ibrahim Melhem described it as a comprehensive crime committed against a well-known journalist. “The killing was deliberate… There will be an autopsy by Palestinian medics, which will be followed by a report including all the details of the killing,” Melhem told Al Jazeera.  “However, all the witnesses present at the scene of the crime ensures that it was an Israeli sniper that committed the crime in a deliberate way.”

Israeli forces compounded their deliberate cruelty by attacking mourners of the journalist and creating chaos at her funeral.  While thousands flocked to Jerusalem to pay their respects to the Aqleh, disturbing footage from the funeral showed Israeli security forces attacking the crowd of mourners.  A group of people carrying the casket from the hospital towards a church in the Old City can be seen being hit by the forces with batons.  At one point the coffin toppled to the ground as chaos ensued when the officers also fired tear gas.

 

Uvalde Massacre: The People Who Really Did This

 

Feral Chickens Wreaking Havoc in Hawaii

Hawaii’s ongoing battle with thousands of feral chickens continues — and  it’s not going very well. The Associated Press reported that in the past two months, the city and County of Honolulu set traps in five areas and have caught just 67 chickens, costing $7,000. That amounts to $104 per bird. The Associated Press says that catching chickens is costly because the traps are being vandalized and stolen, though it’s unclear who’s damaging them and why. Now, city officials are trying to address the public’s desperate pleas for help while figuring out a cost-effective solution.

According to written testimonies from Hawaii individuals responding to the proposed legislation recorded in early March, the “aggressive” chickens have “overtaken the community.” Residents say they’re damaging and defecating on properties, obstructing roads and roosting in mango trees while making loud “cackling” noises from dawn until dusk.

“Many of us work long hours, even double shifts, and to not be able to sleep in due to the cacking and crowing of the feral roosters and chickens has really been an unfair burden and hardship,” wrote Hawaii resident Majid Joneidi.

“From dawn to setting sun, there is a constant crowing daily, and I work from home so it is hard and sometimes embarrassing if I have to make a call to the mainland and it sounds like I am in a barnyard,” testified Desiree Garner, who supports the program. “It has never been like this before and I am not sure how they got to this area, if for food and then became pets or if they naturally traversed.”

Alexander Esin wrote that there are more than 100 feral chickens and roosters roaming the street on Kanuku Street and Lokowai Place. Esin has to “dodge them all over the roadway,” while residents like Murdoch Ortiz have watched them create “havoc” by jumping on garbage bins and ripping up trash bags, scattering trash and debris everywhere.

But the chickens aren’t just loud and messy; they’re destructive. Sharon Peine wrote that they dig up yards, easements, shoulder areas and gardens, “even foraging under walls and sidewalks,” seriously damaging local infrastructure. “This is insane and needs to be corrected!” she emphasized.
Community members also say that the feral fowl are now becoming a statewide problem. “They've been here for many years but the issue has gotten really bad lately,” wrote Michele Harman. “Their populations are skyrocketing and they are quickly expanding their territory.”

Spoke on the Woke

"A comic bemoaning cancel culture is like a sailor griping about waves."

When Will Wells Fargo Get Its Act Together?

Wells Fargo is once again making headlines for being a terrible, unethical company even by the poor standards of the financial industry. Just over two years after the bank paid a $3 billion fine for opening millions of fake accounts in the names of actual customers, current and former employees are alleging that they were told to conduct fake interviews to fulfill Wells Fargo’s diversity policies.

Wells Fargo now has an official policy that for every open job paying more than $100,000, at least one “diverse” candidate—a woman or person of color—must be interviewed. But the company had apparently been doing what the NFL faces a lawsuit over: interviewing “diverse” candidates only after jobs had been promised to other (white, male) candidates.   

The New York Times found seven current and former Wells Fargo employees who were instructed to carry out fake interviews and another five who were aware of the practice. A company spokeswoman told the Times in an emailed statement, “To the extent that individual employees are engaging in the behavior as described by The New York Times, we do not tolerate it.” The spokeswoman also said that maybe this had happened in the past, but not under current leadership, which came in following the fake accounts scandal. But three of the Times’ sources said they had conducted or been aware of the fake interviews happening this year.

Wells Fargo told the Times that 77% percent of the people hired in 2020 and 81% of the people hired last year were not white men, but refused to say what those percentages were for people being paid more than $100,000.

Discrimination is not a new issue at Wells Fargo, either. Twice in recent years, it has paid out millions of dollars over discrimination claims, once paying nearly $8 million in back wages and interest after a Department of Labor claim that it had discriminated against more than 30,000 Black job applicants, and once paying a $36 million settlement in a lawsuit by Black financial advisers who said they had been steered into poor neighborhoods and away from opportunities.

 

The Week in Ukraine - 5/21/22

After weeks of intense fighting, Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region is “completely destroyed,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week.  He accused Russia of a “deliberate and criminal attempt to kill as many Ukrainians as possible” after a village in Chernihiv was hit with missiles, leaving many dead.  Officials in the region say the front line is being shelled “day and night,” with Russian forces attempting to break through Ukrainian lines.

Ukrainian forces have beaten back Russia’s assaults in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, and advanced toward the border in several places north and east of the city. 

Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, finally fell to Russian forces after weeks of relentless bombardment.  The city was the scene of some of the most intense fighting since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. It was there that Russia carried out deadly strikes on a maternity ward and the bombing of a theater where hundreds of civilians had sought refuge from the violence.

More evidence of potential Russian war crimes is emerging in Bucha, the northern Ukrainian city near Kyiv, the capital. An investigation by The New York Times alleged that Russian paratroopers carried out summary executions of at least eight Ukrainian men in Bucha on March 4.  Evidence of mass graves and civilian executions in the towns of Bucha and Borodianka has continued to emerge since early April, following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region.  Images of bodies lying strewn the streets of Bucha have sparked international condemnation and fueled calls for an investigation into potential Russian war crimes.

This week we also started getting reports that Russian troops have  become so demoralized and desperate to quit they’ve begun deliberately injuring themselves.  The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate released audio of what it said was an intercepted call revealing the incredible new deveolopment.  A man identified as a Russian soldier in an air assault brigade based in Ukraine’s Kherson region can be heard venting his frustrations to his mother and explaining why he wants to abandon the fight.  “Why would they [the Ukrainians] surrender? We’re on their land,” the soldier tells his mother. “This won’t end anytime soon. What the hell do I need this for? At 20 years old… I’m not at all interested in Ukraine. I need to come back and resign,” he says. “I had a commander who shot himself in the leg just to get out of here. And that was in the very beginning! What is there to talk about? He served in Chechnya.”  He said less than 50 percent of his brigade was left.  “Our people are just disappearing on their own. Some of them vanished without a trace, some were taken prisoner, some are hiding, some are already in Russia,” he said.

The tapped phone chat was not the only one to suggest Russian troops are taking desperate measures to escape the war. In a similar recording released by Ukrainian intelligence, a woman identified as the wife of a Russian soldier urges him to “fall off a tank.”  “There’s no way out,” she says. “Otherwise you will be there until September… They will not swap you out, because everyone is refusing.” “Well, clearly, what kind of stupid fuck would come here?” the soldier replies.  His wife argues a “fall from a tank” is just one option. “You just don’t need to shoot yourself in the leg, because who the fuck knows how that would end. Or let someone whack you on your side,” she says, so that his kidneys would get injured. “I don’t fucking know! Because you’d be able to go home straight from the hospital.”

The separatist city of Donetsk is having serious problems with their drinking water supply. But they can’t do anything about it because they’ve conscripted the people who used to maintain it. 

A 21-year-old Russian soldier pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian, in the first war crimes trial in Ukraine since the war started.  Vadim Shishimarin admitted shooting a 62-year-old man a few days after the invasion began.  Shishimarin was commanding a unit in a tank division when his convoy came under attack.  He and four other soldiers stole a car, and as they traveled near Chupakhivka, they encountered the man on a bicycle.  Shishimarin was ordered to kill the civilian and used a Kalashnikov assault rifle to do so. He faces life in jail.

 

Shakira and Rauw Alejandro - Te Felicito

It's Official: Phil Mickelson is a Complete Asshole

As we head into the PGA Championship, you might have noticed that defending champion Phil Mickelson is not in the field.  In seven decades prior to Phil, only a handful of golfers failed to defend their major championship titles-- and all of those cases were due to illness or death.  But Mickelson has now willingly skipped both the Masters and the PGA to avoid facing the media and the scorn of his fans.  How could the outpouring of affection that unfolded at last year's PGA victory fade so completely in just one year's time? 

Mickelson has always been something of a rebel within the sport, reveling in the opportunity to needle not only the PGA Tour, but also the USGA, the PGA of America, the media and even his longtime rival Tiger Woods.  But winning a major at 50 seemed to only embolden certain aspects of his personality. Since then, Mickelson has used Twitter to tell stories, trash-talk friends and rivals, aggressively promote companies he'd invested in, and air grievances big and small.

He attacked an investigative reporter from the Detroit News for writing an unflattering (but accurate) story about how a mob-connected bookie had refused to pay Mickelson a $500,000 gambling debt; he floated the nutty idea that his excessive coffee-drinking habit had protected him from catching COVID; he claimed that the PGA Tour was holding on to $10-20 billion in "digital moments" that top pros had created; he lied about winning an $8 million first-place prize in the PGA Tour's Player Impact Program; and he claimed he was considering leaving the PGA Tour because of its "obnoxious greed." All this occurred before the release of his disastrous interview with biographer Alan Shipnuck.

In that interview, Mickelson implied he was playing the Saudi-financed LIV Golf and the tour against one another.   "They're scary motherfuckers to get involved with," Mickelson said.  "They killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates."

The fallout was swift and dramatic. One by one, several of golf's biggest stars distanced themselves from LIV Golf and Mickelson.  Word is that not every PGA Tour player is interested in forgiveness for Mickelson. Privately, several have let it be known they don't care if he returns. 

But Mickelson's loyal fans have forgiven him for mistakes in the past. They barely shrugged in 2015, when a California man was sentenced to prison for laundering approximately $2.75 million of Mickelson's money (Mickelson wasn't charged in the case-- talk about privilege).  The next year, the SEC said that Mickelson made $931,000 by purchasing stock on an insider trading tip from sports gambler Billy Walters (Mickelson wasn't criminally charged but agreed to pay back more than $1 million in "ill-gotten gains"-- again, talk about privilege). The federal government believes that Mickelson used some of the money he made to pay Walters for gambling debts. Mickelson's fans forgave him again after he  cheated at the 2018 U.S. Open, when he intentionally hit a moving ball on the slick 13th green at Shinnecock during the third round.

This time seems different.  Mickelson seems too flippant about working with the murderers of a journalist and a regime that treats gay people so horrifically.  And it's not only that Mickelson was considering playing a rival league, it's that he and two other unnamed players hired attorneys to draw up the new league's operating agreement. He wasn't just flirting with a breakaway league -- he was helping build it.

And it gets worse.  There are now allegations that he lost more than $40 million gambling from 2010 to 201.  And there is an upcoming book that will reveal that Mickelson refused to testify at Billy Walters' trial (even though it could have helped with his friend's defense) to save his own skin.  "Here is a guy [Mickelson] that all he had to do was come forward and tell the truth," Walters says. "That was all he had to do. The guy wouldn't do that because he was concerned about his image. He was concerned about his endorsements."

Now, nearly all of Mickelson's endorsements have dried up. Longtime sponsors Amstel Light, KPMG and Workday ended their relationships with him. Callaway, which in 2017 signed Mickelson to a contract through the end of his playing career, paused its relationship with him.  It shouldn't surprise anyone that a significant portion of pro golf fans will be "pausing" their relationship with Phony Phil.

 

Payback for the North Carolina Nazi

Tucker Carlson Tries to Dodge His Role in the Buffalo Attack

Tucker Carlson spent the day Monday lying to his audience about the role he played in helping to inspire Saturday’s horrifying massacre by a white nationalist unhinged by “replacement theory” rhetoric.  The “great replacement theory” is a classic white supremacist trope that is the foundation of the modern white supremacist movement in America.  It is a notion that fueled the hateful chants of “Jews will not replace us!” in Charlottesville in 2017. And it has lit the fuse in explosive hate crimes, most notably the hate-motivated mass shooting attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, as well as in Christchurch, New Zealand, and now Buffalo.

Carlson has spent years pushing the idea, and a New York Times investigation found he has promoted it in more than 400 episodes of his program since he joined Fox News’ prime time lineup in 2016.  People have been warning Carlson and Republicans that this was the kind of outcome they were encouraging. And now that it’s happened, they want to pretend that the criticism is just opportunistic when in fact, it’s holding his feet to the fire of his own words.

Carlson has been spouting a weak defense of his antics, first attempting to claim that he’s still unsure what the conspiracy theory is, but then also accusing his critics of attacking “Trumpism,”-- making no mention of his own oft-repeated “replacement” theory and the role it may have played in providing the fuel for the Buffalo shooter’s violent radicalization. That’s made clear in the shooter’s own words in his manifesto—namely, his belief that nonwhite people were “replacers” whose mere existence disempowered white people like himself.

In several passage, the Buffalo shooter repeated Carlson talking points, talking about the inevitable demographic decline of white people, noting that the national population keeps growing despite a drop in white fertility rates: “All through immigration. This is ethnic replacement. This is cultural replacement. This is racial replacement,” he wrote, and made the inevitable leap such logic takes: “This is white genocide.” Carlson’s partisan-reductionist version of “replacement theory” is that Democrats are secretly “trying to replace the current electorate” with “more obedient voters from the Third World.” He has repeatedly promoted it on his nightly talk show.

Carlson already has a remarkable record of dabbling increasingly in white supremacist rhetoric dating back to 2006, including recently unearthed recordings of his ramblings on radio. His greatest hits include a regurgitation of neo-Nazi propaganda about “white genocide” in Africa, not to mention his mutual promotion of the white nationalist website VDare. There is a reason white supremacists love Carlson’s show, and why they assiduously watch it in hopes of picking up pointers.

Perhaps most egregiously, Carlson has repeatedly claimed that white-nationalist domestic terrorism is a “hoax.” The very act of calling out white nationalism, according to Carlson, is a racist attack on white people: “You could live your entire life here without running into a white nationalist. No matter what they tell you, this is a remarkably kind and decent country,” he claimed. “Attacking people for their race is exactly how you destroy a country."

Replacement Theory has been identified as a major ideological wellspring of domestic-terrorist violence, with the FBI calling it out in an internal assessment of terrorist threats. Carlson and his colleagues at Fox also avoided any mention of “replacement theory”—and in fact deliberately whitewashed the reality that Saturday’s massacre was an unmistakable act of domestic terrorism.

P.S. As if we needed any more evidence of Carlson's hypocrisy-- back in 2018, Tucker was furious when SNL made a joke about Dan Crenshaw. But on Monday night, Carlson mocked the fact that the veteran lost his eye in combat, calling him 'Eyepatch McCain.'  What more do we need to say about this douchebag dilettante?

Just Sayin'

Cutting the Cheese in France

I recently caught wind of an unusual story from France's top soccer league (Ligue 1).  At the beginning of this season, it seems that Lyon demoted Marcelo, a 34-year-old Brazilian defender (who goes only by his first name) after the team’s 3-0 loss to Angers.  It was reported at the time that Marcelo was caught laughing during the team captain’s post-game speech, which officials later described as “inappropriate behavior.”

However, it has since emerged that team officials had another issue with Marcelo: He repeatedly farted around his teammates and laughed in front of team officials.

Although Marcelo was considered a team leader and had signed a new contract with Lyon before the season started, the club was ripe for change and demoted him to the reserve squad.  Five months later, the team blew him off, terminating his contract completely.

After being dropped by Lyon, Marcelo signed with Bordeaux.  Sadly, that team is currently stinking worse than Lyon’s locker room, losing eight of the 10 games Marcelo has played.

 

The Catholic Takeover of the Supreme Court

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has made it clear that he believes the government should force women to give birth to the babies of their rapists. No exceptions for incest or rape-- none. Under Republican government in Nebraska and elsewhere, a 12 year old girl raped by her father will carry that pregnancy to term. 

It's a position that is almost required, if one truly believes in the "personhood" of a fertilized egg with no organs or nervous system. Pete Ricketts doesn't know a thing about medicine, but has strong religious convictions that he believes should override medical knowledge—not for him, but for every last American of every religion (or no religion) in any circumstance, enforced by the powers of the state.

This is what is coming. Republicans have vowed they would do it ever since racist evangelical leaders of past decades latched onto abortion as a means of galvanizing support for a Christian nationalism-premised erasing of the last half-century of gained civil rights. The leaked news that the Supreme Court the Republican Party packed exclusively with Catholics is on the cusp of ending federal abortion rights means that Pete Ricketts and other Republicans like him will now use their power to implement whatever faux-religious rules their base demands of them.

What has gone under the radar is that SEVEN of the current Supreme justices were raised Catholic-- John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.  Neil Gorsuch is Episcopalian, but was raised Catholic.  So is it any surprise that their moral foundations (shaped by their Catholic upbringing) are leading to a theocratic Supreme Courth?

And their GOP enabler/co-conspirators are not being subtle about what's coming next. They don't believe they need to play games anymore, now that they have a Supreme Court that will back their theocratic moves every step of the way.

The South Carolina state Senate recently passed  H 4776, misleadingly titled the “Medical Ethics and Diversity Act,” which would essentially permit medical providers, health care institutions, and insurance companies to deny care to LGBTQ+ people based on their religious, ethical, or moral beliefs, as covered by local outlet ABC News 4. If signed into law, these workers would be protected from any civil, administrative, or criminal penalties.  If all that sounds like discrimination, you’re right.  And if you don't think this Supreme Court will allow it in their Catholic/Christian vision of our country, think again.

The Week in Ukraine - 5/14/22

On Sunday, we heard the tragic news that many are feared dead after a bomb hit a school in the village of Bilohorivka, in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.  Regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, confirmed two deaths, but claimed as many as 60 people could be lying dead under the rubble.  About 90 people had been sheltering in the building and 30 were rescued, seven of them wounded, he added. Two deaths have been confirmed so far.  Haidai said a Russian plane had dropped the bomb on Saturday, but there was no immediate response from Russia.  The blast brought down the building which caught fire and it took firefighters three hours to extinguish the blaze, according to the governor, writing on Telegram.  He said almost the entire village had been sheltering in the basement of the school.  The final death toll would only be known when the rubble had been cleared, he added.

Early on this week, we also started getting reports that Russian fighters have been sharing tips with one another about how to deliberately damage their own equipment and hamper Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war plans in Ukraine, according to recordings of alleged Russian troops’ phone calls that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) intercepted.  In one regiment, one Russian soldier allegedly said they’ve been pouring sand into the tanks’ fuel systems to clog them up.  “I don't follow stupid orders, I simply refuse,” one fighter can be heard telling a comrade. “The motherfucker sent me to tanks, motherfucking piece of shit. I fucked it up and that's it.”

We also heard a heartbreaking story from Zaporizhzhia, where the military head of the regional state administration, Oleg Buryak, is a helpless father waiting for the return of his teen son Vladislav, kidnapped by the Russian military.  “I don't know what to do. I don’t know how to bring my son back. What should I give? I can offer myself instead of him. Take me. I will come for the exchange if it helps the situation somehow,” the desperate father said.  Buryak says his son’s kidnapping has not been connected with blackmail yet. “They haven't asked for anything. But the point is, Vlad was taken because he is my son. When the soldiers understood whose son he was, they took him. I haven't got any demands from their side. I'm an official, a public person and I will not disappear.” 

Remember Snake Island, of “Russia warship, go fuck yourself” fame?  Over the past week, Russian forces have been wiped out several times (here, here, here, and here), and yet we saw Russian troops landing there once again.  Russia state media tried to claim that it was Ukrainians who were defeated on the island-- using the Ukrainian armed forces video (with their logo on the top right corner) which features the Bayraktar TB-2 drone interface, of which Russia has none.  It was not reported whether or not Russian viewers were aware of such an obvious deception. The destruction of the ship (when Ukraine has no navy!) was an incredible touch of ridiculousness

The mayor of Mariupol said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin is determining who lives, who leaves and who dies in the city.  Vadym Boichenko said that the 100,000 people still living in the besieged port city need a permit to move around - and a separate permit to leave.  According to Boichenko, around 2,000 men are being held in so-called “filtration centers” in Bezymenne and Kozatske, and not being allowed to return to their homes unless they are sick or injured.  “They are being used as labor to clear the rubble, collect the dead bodies of those the Russians have killed, and cover up evidence of war crimes,” he said.

 And just this morning, Dergachi's Palace of Culture (in Kharkiv) is now a smouldering ruin, thanks to a final barrage of rocket artillery. It may be one of the last buildings in Ukraine's second city to suffer this fate.  Kharkiv is called a fortress, and with good reason. It has withstood more than two months of constant bombardment.  Its buildings and people have been battered, but never broken. Its defenses never were breached  According to the city's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, people are starting to return – and that the battle has been won.   "There were no Russian troops inside the city of Kharkiv. Russian tanks and armored fighting vehicles were eliminated by Ukrainian fighters.  And due to the efforts of the Kharkiv territorial defense and Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russians have now withdrawn far from the city – towards the border," Terekhov said.   But, this was not a full-blown retreat as was seen around Kyiv. The Russian forces will hold lines further back, or re-join the fight elsewhere.  This is not a turning point in the war for Ukraine, but it is still a major victory.

 

 

 

Daniel Johns - Emergency Calls Only

Forget About Putin-- We Have Our Own Home-Grown Stalinism in the U.S.

Reuters has an excellent report on pro-Trump Republicans who have attacked U.S. election systems, stealing voting data or attempting to do so under the supposed justification of searching for "election fraud." Reuters counts eight known recent attempts, the most infamous being the case of Colorado election clerk Tina Peters, who now faces multiple felony charges after allowing voting data to be breached and stolen. 

Nutty Republican officials and allies are breaching election systems so that they can comb through voter data looking for "fraud" that they claim to be omnipresent simply because they refuse to believe Americans did not vote overwhelmingly to reelect Trump.

In Michigan's Adams Township, a QAnon-promoting clerk was found in possession of sensitive election tabulation hardware four days after it went missing; another Michigan episode in which a Republican activist impersonated a government official in an attempt to steal equipment; a Colorado election clerk caught on video making "forensic" copies of "everything on the election server"—the two hard drives the information was copied to have not been recovered. Pillow kingpin Mike Lindell features heavily as a financier of election conspiracy theories that have now morphed into pro-Trump crimes and attempted crimes.

All of the cases are based on the most ridiculous of conspiracy theories, and each involves brazen disregard for the law.  One local Republican official is threatening to get an elections official fired if that elections official doesn't let the Republican have access to secured voting equipment that by law nobody is allowed to have access to because then it wouldn't be secure.  In Texas, a big Republican donor is now under indictment for financing a supposed "investigation" into election fraud that saw one of his investigators run a random Texan off the road and hold him at gunpoint on the bizarre belief that the man's truck was stuffed with fake ballots.

Reuters is reporting on a wave of conspiracy-minded Republican cranks now looking to target the nation's election systems by stealing sensitive data.  But the bigger story is that the GOP is looking to legalize those sorts of breaches, not tamp down on them. The problem the GOP trying to solve is that, in states like Georgia, Americans aren't voting for Republicans in sufficient numbers for Republicans to win. The solution they've come up with is to declare that if a Republican candidate doesn't win, it's because there was a secret conspiracy to fudge the numbers—thus requiring Republican "investigation" into votes against them.  If this doesn't sound like good old fashioned election-fixing Stalinism, then I don't know what would.

 

The Final Chapter of the Omichronicles