Good News But Protests against Gaza Destruction

Follow-up on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem: The Jefferson County (CO) GOP canceled a fundraising dinner featuring Noem because of death threats and other safety concerns. The group had obtained 300 copies of Noem’s book which she intended to sign. While touting her new children’s book The Princess and Her Pup,  Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend tried to give Noem an out by saying “maybe somebody slipped [the story] in and she didn’t see it.” She read it aloud for the audio version.  

Some good news for the week:

The stock market rejoiced on Friday with slower job gains, hoping that the Federal Reserve might drop interest rates. The decrease of 175,000 jobs for April continued stable growth and kept the unemployment rate under 4 percent for the 27^th consecutive month, last seen from 1967 to 1970 and a longer period from 1951 to 1953. Wages consistently beat inflation for the past year. Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), whose monthly job gains averaged 185,000 while he was in the White House until they plummeted tens of millions after Covid arrived, posted, “HORRIBLE JOB NUMBERS JUST ANNOUNCED.”

Last Monday, Democrat Tim Kennedy won a special New York House election, bringing the party to 213 members, compared to 217 Republicans with five vacant seats. He will finish the term of Brian Higgins who resigned in February to run a performing arts center. Higgins said that Congress is “in a very, very bad place” and “an embarrassment across the country.” Kennedy will need to run in June’s primary and then in November if he wins.

After ProPublica reported that states seized child support for families as reimbursement for the mother receiving welfare, at least six states changed their policies, and others are considering changes. Federal and state governments annually intercept $1.7 billion in child support payments. Shifts have come in New Mexico, Wyoming, Illinois, Michigan, Vermont, and California with Illinois moving all child support payments to families starting in July. California doubled the amount going to families currently receiving welfare, a $44 million net increase. At least six states already “passed through” some or all child support payments to families.

For the first time since the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, over 100,000 young immigrants without health insurance will now be eligible to buy affordable health coverage. The new rule goes into effect on November 1, the opening day for the 2025 health insurance open enrollment period. DACA was closed to new registrants in July 2021 when lawsuits began challenging the program.

Student loans of $6 billion for 317,000 people who attended the Art Institutes, for-profit colleges closing the last of dozens of campuses in 2023 because of alleged fraud, will be canceled. AGs from Massachusetts, Iowa, and Pennsylvania previously investigated fraud complaints and sued the for-profit chain. The Education Department found that the chain lied about the success of graduates and employment partnerships helping students find jobs. The Biden administration has approved the cancellation of almost $160 billion in student loans, $28.7 billion for those cheated by their colleges or attending suddenly closed campuses.

Soren Aldaco, an anti-trans detransitioner, has been ordered to pay over $40,000 in attorney’s fees after a judge dismissed her $1 million suit against former doctors who provided hormone therapy. She claimed she was “coerced” into coming out as transgender and transitioning, including a double mastectomy three years ago when she was 19, and accused the doctors and nurse practitioner of ignoring her significant mental health issues. The suit concerning what she described as a botched surgery remains open. Detransitioners like Aldaco are used to block trans healthcare for everyone, but fewer than one percent of patients undergoing gender-affirming procedures regret them. According to a new study, regret rates are higher for people who get tattoos, elective plastic surgeries, and bariatric weight loss as well as have children. Another study found that 97 percent undergoing gender-affirming surgery have increased satisfaction with their lives.

Almost two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, 65 percent remain opposed to the Supreme Court ruling whereas 34 percent approve.

Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters wants Christian chaplains to replace school counselors, and the state House voted for a bill to do that. The state Senate may not pass the bill after the Satanic Temple (TST), a recognized religion, announced plans to put its Ministers into the state’s public schools. Walters wrote:

“Satanists are not welcome in Oklahoma schools, but they are welcome to go to hell.”

The former executive director Fred Wellman of the Republican anti-MAGA Lincoln Project responded:

“Hahahaha!!! You are an idiot. How did you not see this coming? Satanists, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Pastafarians…come one come all! After all you’re not trying to establish Christianity as the state religion are you? We had a whole ass revolution about that. There are history books about it…oh…right. Not your thing. What a fool.”

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) warned:

“The state of Oklahoma cannot discriminate against people or groups based on their religious beliefs. Walters’ hateful message shows, once again, that he only believes in religious freedom for Christians and that he is unfit to serve in public office.”

College Pro-Palestinian Protests:

Exactly 50 years after police cleared Columbia University students taking over Hamilton Hall to protest the Vietnam War, New York police cleared a group of students protesting Israel’s war against Gaza from the building. Again, students were vilified for protesting the Israelis’ killing at least 34,000 Gazans and starving hundreds of thousands more to erase any Palestinian state.

Within the past few weeks, Columbia students’ protests have moved across the country to 150 colleges seeking disinvestment in Israel’s military, many with outdoor encampments and civil disobedience. At over 80 of them, police used equipment donated by corporations to surveil the crowds, arrested thousands of protesters, and dismantled the encampments. Indiana University posted snipers prepared to fire on the protesters, and peaceful students and faculty members have been beaten and pinned down. Thus far only pro-Palestinian supporters have been arrested; Israeli war supporters attacking people at the camp have not suffered any repercussions.

Despite statements from President Joe Biden supporting the police crackdowns, some universities have been more rational about approaches to the protesting. Students at schools such as Brown University, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota removed or limited the encampments and protests after promises to take steps toward scholarships for Palestinians and divestment from Israel.

A contrast to the police violence at Columbia was the solution at Berkley, another school with a long history of student activism, where student demonstrations experience no arrests or campus disruptions. Berkley permitted a protest area where Martin Luther King gave a 1967 civil rights speech even after a scuffle between the co-founder of a Zionist activist group and a pro-Palestinian protester. The University of California policy is no police involvement except for physical safety of students, faculty, and staff since 2011 when campus police clubbed and jabbed students with batons during an Occupy movement protest.   

At UCLA, however, police flattened the UCLA encampment after pro-Israel counter protesters attacked the protesters. Protesters said that the “external security the university hired for “backup” filmed and laughed during the escalating violence as pro-Palestinians “screamed for help.” After counter protesters attempted to dismantle the encampment’s barricade, violence lasted for almost five hours with little or no police intervention even after law enforcement arrived. Counter protesters, many wearing pro-Israel slogans, beat protesters with metal pipes, sprayed chemicals on protesters’ faces, and launched fireworks directly at them. They used genocidal language while attacking protesters, yelling, “Second Nakba!” meaning the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948.

Protesters could be heard yelling, “Do not engage!” No videos show any violence from the protesters or initiating confrontations except for trying to defend their barricades, but they do show counter protesters physically attacking protesters and journalists from the UCLA student newspaper, the Daily Bruin. Los Angeles Jewish and Muslim organizations condemned the attacks. While these protesters are demonized for breaking the rules, history praises Rosa Parks for refusing to sit in the back of the bus and activists for sitting at segregated lunch counters. A history of these protests.

In promoting the school, Columbia brags about its tradition of protesting other than the Vietnam War such as anti-Black racism and the school’s expansion into the surrounding neighborhood with a segregated gymnasium 56 years ago when 150 people were injured from police involvement. Student activists successfully pushed for the creation of a Native American and Indigenous Studies minor. Princeton arrested 136 people for current protests after praising “activism and intersectionality” sit-ins in the 1970s and 1980s opposing South African apartheid and sexism on campus. The University of Minnesota stated they arrested nine protesting students because “tents are not allowed on any university property for any purpose without a permit.” 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the destruction of Gazan refugee camps and cities—”Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat—total annihilation.” Like Netanyahu, Smotrich quoted the biblical tale of Amalek, which God ordered to exterminate, used by right-wing leaders to justify Palestinian murderers. Journalist Mehdi Hasan sarcastically said these comments are deemed acceptable by U.S. officials and the corporate media because he didn’t “say it on a college campus.” An editorial in the Jewish newspaper Haaretz wrote Smotrich should be immediately fired for this statements.

Protests against the Vietnam War were equally unpopular when they started in 1965, but persistence—and the National Guard killing or injuring 13 students at Kent State in 1970—created an increasing awareness regarding the injustices of the U.S. conflict that couldn’t be won. The question is if the U.S. will tire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s killing and destruction in Gaza.  

Another Sunday with No Wins for DDT

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) regrets his kind words about independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after polls show that he could take votes from DDT. Friday night, DDT called RFK a “Radical Left Liberal” secretly working to help President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and focused on RFK’s “NASTY … Environmental moves,” saying he would choose Biden over their opponent because “our Country would last a year or two longer prior to collapse.” DDT called RFK’s anti-vax “Views on Vaccines … FAKE,” which they are, yet DDT’s supporters are more likely to be in agreement with RFK’s false skeptical beliefs about vaccinations. Recently, DDT said he would not “give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.”

Biden’s lead over DDT grows when third-party candidates factor into the equation. In a Marist College poll, Biden is only three points ahead with just DDT but five percent ahead with the others listed. With only the top two candidates, Biden trailed by two points but rose to two points ahead with third-party candidates. Kennedy takes twice as much of his support from those who picked DDT in the head-to-head survey—15 percent of the voters. Republicans like Kennedy 40 to 25 percent, but Democrats dislike him 53-16 points.

Court is exerting its toll on DDT who usually has almost daily rounds of golf, cheers at Mar-a-Lago when he walks in and out of rooms, and control of everything he does with his staff members. He usually spends his day making phone calls, posting on Truth Social, holding meetings, and wandering among his adoring public. His germophobia causes him to avoid restaurants outside his properties. During the trial, however, he spends long hours without caffeine from Diet Coke and sitting until the judge provides a break. No supporting family or friends are present. The media reports he seems to be shrinking.

On the criminal trial’s second day, one of two teens commented that “the defense attorney was basically annihilated in opening statements” because “he had no evidence.” The other one said that DDT kept “nodding off.”

Many others don’t believe that DDT’s trial is a partisan sham. In a Quinnipiac University survey, 60 percent consider the charges either “very” or “somewhat” serious, and 46 percent think he did something illegal with another 27 percent believing he committed something unethical if not illegal. Only 18 percent think he didn’t do anything wrong. Results of this polling is similar to the recent one from Pew Research, and in a Times/Sienna survey, 46 percent said DDT should be found guilty, compared to 36 percent who believe the opposite.

Congressional members are also not following his directives in how to vote on bills. He said, “KILL FISA,” and GOP passed the new law. The same for aid to Ukraine. Last fall, DDT wanted Jim Jordan (R-OH) for House Speaker; Republicans elected MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA). He told them to shut down the government and use the debt ceiling to default on U.S. obligations. Republicans did neither. DDT also failed to get Mitch McConnell (R-KY) replaced as Senate minority leader, derail the bipartisan infrastructure package, and kill the reform of the Electoral Count Act. Republicans call him the leader of their party, but they don’t always obey him.

DDT succeeded in replacing Ronna Romney with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), but McDaniel walked away with $118,769.99, almost half of her pay for last year. She will likely bring in another tidy sum from her lawsuit against NBC for her untimely firing after a week from her two-year contract at  an annual $300,000. 

Lara Trump has promised to join DDT in a “scorched earth” retribution during his second term with “no holds barred.” DDT plans to pardon “loyalist” violent criminals, enact radical anti-immigration plans, crack down on journalists, hire right-wing lawyers to exact revenge against his political foes, and seize control of government departments and agencies legally independent. And of course, commit crimes with immunity. 

The Federal Reserve is one independent agency that DDT plans to control. His allies claim he can oust Chair Jerome Powell, who he appointed in 2017. Biden re-appointed him in 2021, and Powell cannot be fired without cause. Several senators said they will oppose his plan, but his attempts could damage the financial standing of the U.S. and its markets, ending up in court. The Fed is run by a board of governors appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but the president has no legal power over its decisions.

Presidential pardons aren’t forever, as GOP operative Jesse Benton discovered. DDT pardoned him for trying to buy an endorsement for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in his 2016 presidential campaign. After the pardon, a DDT super PAC hired him in 2016, and he was then arrested for moving an illegal Russian donation to DDT’s 2016 campaign. Convicted in 2022, Benton’s appeal to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court failed.

Benton’s re-arrest isn’t unique: of the 238 people he pardoned or had their sentences commuted, at least nine others are under investigation, charged with a crime, or convicted. DDT’s pardons included dozens of friends and political allies as well as celebrities, lawmakers, and former aides convicted of crimes from fraud to murder. Only 25 went through the appropriate process with the Office of the Pardon Attorney to examine pardons’ merits, an “historic low.” DDT pardoned his aide Steve Bannon, friend Roger Stone, and former national security director for 22 days Michael Flynn who believed they are above the law.

DDT said the 2017 deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville (VA) was a “peanut” compared to the protests against Israeli’ destruction of Gaza that killed over 33,000 people. According to DDT, the 2017 protesters, who killed one woman and injured dozens of people while terrifying hundreds, didn’t exhibit the hate as the non-violent actions against the Israel war. At Charlottesville, white supremacists chanted “Jews will not replace us” while marching with torches.

DDT spews his lies in trying to get protesters out on the streets to “rally behind MAGA” and “go out and peacefully protest” at courthouses across the country but bemoans protections and security at the New York courthouse where the trial is located. He falsely said that “Palestinian protesters, and even rioters [are] threatening Supreme Court Justices right in front of their homes.” DDT posted that “people who truly LOVE our Country, and want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, are not allowed to ‘Peacefully Protest,’ and are rudely and systematically shut down and ushered off to far away ‘holding areas,’ essentially denying them their Constitutional Rights.”

On Sunday morning, DDT privately met with Floria Gov. Ron DeSantis in Miami several hours, hoping that DeSantis will fundraise for him. DeSantis supposedly agreed to help DDT who said he has “officially retired” his nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious.” DeSantis allies say he is interested in running for president in 2028.

Legal Issues:

In another DDT mystery, five of his political committees show an $8 million payment to an unknown firm or firms during the past 15 months through the firm handling political accounting, Red Curve Solutions, money possibly violating reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and its contribution limits and prohibitions. The company is the biggest single recipient of DDT’s “reimbursement for legal” costs or expenses since he left the White House, but the compliance firm Red Curve doesn’t provide legal services. It is run by Bradley Crate, treasurer for the five committees making the payment. The use of Red Curve appears to be hiding the true recipients of the money, a criminal act.      

E. Jean Carroll – Sexual Assault/Defamation:

Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected DDT’s motion for a new defamation trial and dropping the $83.3 million judgment against him. He claimed that the judge had restricted his testimony and claims that he is innocent. Kaplan’s limitations on DDT came after his defamatory comments following Carroll’s win in her first civil trial against DDT. DDT’s lawyers stated Kaplan blocked DDT from describing his mental state in relation to Carroll.

New York – Civil Business Fraud Costs:

Earlier this week, Judge Arthur Engoron accepted DDT’s $175 million bond for the civil trial conviction with additional requirements guaranteeing that the bond is secure by remaining as cash and not traded for securities. The bond holder will not withdraw funds and provide monthly statements.

New York – Criminal Business Fraud/Hush Money to Stormy Daniels to Interfere with 2016 Election:

Under a grant of immunity, David Pecker testified that he rigged stories in the National Inquirer to influence the 2016 election in DDT’s favor and believed he and his company violated election law for DDT. A detailed accounting of trial events is in the past week’s posts. Transcripts of the trial. 

Florida – DDT’s Taking Classified Documents:

DDT had promised to pardon one of his co-defendants if charges were filed, according to new court documents. The information refutes DDT’s argument (lie?) that he had a standard order to declassify anything he had. According to a witness who urged DDT to return records to the National Archives, Walt Nauta had been told the case was politically motivated. Prosecutors had released documents in response to DDT’s claims that he needs Smith’s communications because he faces political persecution.

MAGA Gateway Pundit, now in bankruptcy, lied about “smoking gun” evidence about Biden’s administration pushing the National Archives to demand classified documents. Unredacted materials don’t support Gateway’s claims.

Supreme Court:

Even if the Supreme Court rules immunity for DDT’s “official acts,” special counsel Jack Smith could continue other trials on his private acts to avoid further delay.

While DDT faces a jury, his allies have been indicted in five swing states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

Revelations, Updates – Supreme Court, Kacsmaryk, Dominion, Book Banning, Etc.

The five percent annual inflation rate increase through March is the lowest in two years. Inflation rate increase for only March was only 0.1 percent. Energy costs fell 3.5 percent and food prices were flat while egg prices dropped 10.9 percent. Vehicle prices also declined 0.9 percent for a total of 11.2 percent for the past year. Medical care also fell 0.5 percent in March. A shortage of workers has also helped pushed up wages and prices.

More updates and revelations:

Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay to eliminate mifepristone, an abortion pill, in all 50 states from far-right Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. DOJ now has time to appeal. The full Supreme Court will issue a ruling on April 18.

The polling on Kacsmaryk’s mifepristone decision is bad news for Republicans—not from those in the party but from independents. Democrats and Republicans are typically polarized, but each party needs a majority from independents to win an election. In this case 72 percent of independents favor the availability of mifepristone in states where abortion is legal, bringing the total for everyone to 67 percent.

 Washington state AG Bob Ferguson stated that a federal judge in Texas cannot overrule a federal judge in Washington state. Judge Thomas Rice had ruled for the 17 states represented by his plaintiffs, determining that the FDA approval of mifepristone is legal. Rice’s order applies to Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

Kacsmaryk needs to be investigated, not only for his colluding with anti-abortion groups for his bogus decisions but also for his lying about authorship of an article. Before his confirmation hearings for the judgeship, Kacsmaryk asked that his name be removed from an article and be replaced with the names of two colleagues. Either he lied about writing the article or not writing it. Judicial nominees are required to disclose publications with which they are associated. Kacsmaryk asked his name be removed on April 11, 2017, before he completed the questionnaire and didn’t mention his authorship of the article. In his request, he cited “reasons I may discuss at a later date” and omitted telling about his interviews for a judgeship by his state’s two senators on April 3, 2017, and expectations of an interview at the White House.

The article, “The Jurisprudence of the Body,” criticized President Obama’s protections for transgender patients and people seeking abortions and stated that Obama’s administration discounted religious physicians who “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.” The right-wing Texas Review of Law and Politics, which Kacsmaryk led when he was a law student at the University of Texas, published the article in September 2017, the same month that DDT first nominated Kacsmaryk as a federal judge. The appointment was rejected, and DDT renominated him in January 2018. The Senate confirmation vote was 51 to 48 with Democrats, Independents, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voting against it.

The public has discovered more of Justice Clarence Thomas’ “inaccuracies” (lies?): he continues to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in rental income from a real estate company that closed in 2006 with a newly created firm taking control of its leasing business. His wife and her relatives had created the Nebraska firm, Ginger Ltd. Partnership, in 1982. Thomas does not mention the new firm, Ginger Holdings LLC, on his forms, but income from the former company has grown exponentially in the past decade. The transfer in 2006 to the new company listed leases for over 200 residential lots.

Asked about the two companies, Joanne Elliott, listed as the new company’s manager, referred questions to her sister Ginni Thomas. Thomas’ wife is not named in the new company’s state incorporation records. The justice estimated in 2021 that his family’s interest in the defunct firm is worth between $250,000 and $500,000.

In 2011, Thomas, caught in misrepresentations on his financial disclosure reports, updated several years of them to include employment details for his conservative activist wife, Ginni Thomas. On his forms, Thomas originally listed no income for his wife who was paid $686,000 by the Heritage Foundation from 2003 until 2007 and worked for the conservative Hillsdale College in 2008 and 2009. He said he didn’t understand the filing instructions but had correctly reported his wife’s employment before 2003. In 2020, he was forced to revise forms after failing to report reimbursement for transportation, meals, and lodging while teaching at two separate law schools in 2018 and at another law school in 2017.

Thomas’ failed to report the sale of three Georgia properties to his benefactor Harlan Crow in 2014, properties he had owned since 1983. In 2010, he began to put the location of the properties in Liberty County instead of their actual location in Chatham County.

Fox may be trying to settle the $1.6 bill lawsuit filed against them by the Dominion Voting system; the trial has been postponed for one day after scheduled to begin jury selection on April 17. No reason was given. A twist in the lawsuit came recently when the network issued a formal apology to the judge for lying about Rupert Murdock not having an official title at Fox News. One of Fox’s attorneys said the network takes responsibility for the “misrepresentation” causing the judge to announce an investigation into the possibility of the network withholding evidence.

The trial is testing libel law about whether the network can be legally accountable for lying about election fraud connected to the voting machines and software. Discovery for the proceedings has shown the operations of a popular right-wing media company supporting GOP politics, and the network’s celebrities will likely testify, including its conservative billionaire founder Rupert Murdoch. On trial, too, may be the “alternative facts” culture defining DDT’s time in the White House, putting disinformation on trial.

Media are traditionally permitted wide latitude in making honest mistakes, but internal emails and texts demonstrate that the purpose for Fox’s lies was to bolster its ratings by appeasing DDT supporters while spreading tremendous damage to the U.S. A jury will need to determine whether Fox deliberately lied and, if so, how much Fox should pay for the transgression. First Amendment advocates pushing freedom of the press see a win for Dominion as support for a strong press.

Exactly one year after 17 books were removed from the three county libraries for content, Llano County commissioners unanimously voted to postpone a vote about closing their three libraries after a federal judge ordered the censored titles be returned to the shelves. Outside the meeting, protesters were clear about keeping the libraries open and the books in them. Only 35 people were allowed in the meeting room inside the building. Authorities who removed the books said that it was part of a “weeding” process to replace outdated and irrelevant books to make room for new ones. County officials blamed the people suing to return the books for endangering the community resource.

When one patron complained about “pornographic filth” in the libraries, the county replaced the libraries’ advisory board with advocates of book removal, including the woman who complained. After people objected to the books’ removal in a legal case, a judge ordered them returned. The fight isn’t over; a local judge and part of the group to remove books said the issue will be tried “in the courts” and another judicial hearing will decide how library books will be censored.

Another state legislature has expelled a member, but this time from their own party. Arizona House Republicans voted Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) after an ethics investigation found her guilty of “disorderly behavior” for deliberately bringing a speaker to a public hearing who falsely accused lawmakers of taking bribes from a drug cartel. The party of Kari Lake and the Cyber Ninja audit clown show view Harris as too out of bounds.

In a 41-minute presentation at the joint House and Senate Election Committee hearing in February, Scottsdale insurance agent Jacqueline Breger accused Gov. Katie Hobbs, House Speaker Ben Toma, lawmakers, judges, Mesa City Council members, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and others of conspiring with a Mexican drug cartel and receiving bribes through a scheme using property deeds. The expulsion vote was 46-13 because Harris lied about knowing the content and tried to cover up what the presentation would be. One Democrat could not attend because he was ill.

Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives are down one member after Harris’ expulsion to 30-29. A bill requires 31 votes to pass a bill, but a new Republican will soon take over her seat to recreate the slim GOP majority. That person will complete Harris’ term which ends in 2025.

Leaks from Pentagon classified information about Russia’s invasion and other world affairs have repeatedly been published in the past few days. A racist, anti-Semitic gun-lover sent material to impress a young audience fascinated by guns. Earlier materials were typed, and later copies were heavily annotated in the margins, both allowing the leaks to have sensational representations. Ukraine has already stated that some of the material was “not true.” Officials say that versions of some documents appear to be doctored. The question is what is not real. The leaks did damage world affairs, and the media broadcasting them as all fact only exacerbates the problems. I choose not to repeat any of this information until it has been officially verified.

Russia Invades Ukraine – Day 218

Although he didn’t cite anyone, Russian president Vladimir Putin finally admitted that mistakes were made in his mobilization of 300,000 new recruits to kill more people in his invasion of Ukraine—such as summons to “fathers of many children, or people suffering from chronic diseases, or who those who are already past conscription age.” Nevertheless, people still protest or flee the country, and even his own official supporters, including his state TV hosts, criticize him. By now, over 200,000 Russians have fled the country with about 98,000 of them going into Kazakhstan. Carlines at the Georgia border were over ten miles long, about a two-day wait, despite Putin’s warning to men not to leave the country. Russia plans a station there to serve summons to “citizens of the mobilization age” and is sending forces and armored vehicles to Georgia and other borders such as Kazakhstan and Mongolia to block Russian men from these escapes.  

Putin has also victoriously announced his sham referendum election of about 98 percent win to annex four areas after he either killed or drove off hundreds of thousands of people who might have opposed the annexation. Between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians may have been forcibly deported to Russia, many of them children. Putin also benefited from sending in armed men with ski masks into homes or placing them at polling stations to mark ballots for people. Russian Parliament will also vote for formal annexation. One consequence could be conscription of Ukrainians within these areas into the Russian army, already in existence in Luhansk and Donetsk which have been controlled by Russia and its proxies since 2014.

Russian newspapers also spread propaganda in referenda areas, trying to create a feeling of normalcy and unity amid the demolished homes and infrastructure, looted stores, and struggling civilians lacking provisions. Cellphone and internet service from the West had been mostly cut. The newspapers were found when Ukrainians took back Izyum. Ukrainians also found ten letters from Russian soldiers in Izyum begging to be dismissed. Dated August 30, they drew a picture of depressed troops desperate for rest and concerned about health and morale because they don’t receive medical care. The ten authors may have banded together to draft the letters which were abandoned as troops fled the city.

Patriotic pageantry was front and center at the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace in Putin’s announcement of the annexation in violation of international law, claiming 40,000 square miles of land, or about 15 percent of all Ukrainian territory. Putin launched the ceremony with long, angry threats about nuclear attacks and promises to “protect” the newly annexed lands “with all the forces and means at our disposal.” Even Italy’s newly-elected far-right prime minister Giogia Meloni said the annexation has no “legal and political value” and that Putin’s move again demonstrated his ” Soviet-style, neo-imperialist vision that threatens the security of the entire European continent.” She called for Western unity.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky responded by a post on Telegram announcing Ukraine is formally applying for “accelerated accession” into NATO. The annexation effectively eliminates a diplomatic resolution to Putin’s war in Ukraine, and Putin will be challenged with his claim to territory that he doesn’t control. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he didn’t know the boundaries of Russia’s new “territory.” He added, “It has to be liberated.” President Joe Biden announced a new round of sanctions against government, military officials, and their families. Some of them restrict Russian access to key technologies and other materials to fuel its war effort.

On the same day, Russia faced new setbacks near Lyman as Ukrainian forces “semi-encirled” the eastern city, a critical logistic route. The thousands of Russians trapped in Lyman are part of the 752^nd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment with a tradition of being cut off, surrounded, and almost destroyed since 1994. Ukrainians’ strategy has been to destroy Russian supply dumps and command centers, starving battalions and disrupting their leadership. East of Kharkiv, Russians abandoned their tanks and fighting vehicles to flee into separatist Luhansk Oblast. Ukrainians split to circle the Russian troops with no way out by the end of the week.

Russia is attempting a partnership with Saudi Arabia after its Kingdom Hold Company invested over $600 million in Russia’s three largest energy companies last spring after sanctions from the West. In the summer, Saudis doubled the amount of fuel oil buying from Russia to free up its own crude for export at elevated prices before they guided OPEC members to reduce output targets in last month to raise global oil prices and give both Russia and Saudi Arabia more profits. Saudis have turned from the U.S. since its fracking production threatens the power of OPEC and Russia.

High-profile Russians keep dying, many in mysterious or bizarre ways. Ten days ago, the former head of a Russian aviation research institute died by falling down stairs. It was announced as “an accident,” but an unnamed source told the newspaper that he fell “from a great height” down several flights of stairs.

The deaths started in January, a month before Putin invaded Ukraine, with first of four men tied to Gazprom, the energy giant owned by Gazprom, the others dying in February, April, and July. Early deaths appeared to be suicides.

• A Russian billionaire also died in February, again regarded as suicide in addition to a 43-year-old CEO of an energy development company who died of a stroke.
• March’s death was of a businessman, owner of the medical supply company Medstorm.
• The second death in April was of a former executive at Novatek.
• The dead businessman in August was an outspoken Putin critic, supposedly falling in his apartment.
• Four other high-placed Russians died in September, the first one an energy executive who “fell out of a window” on September 1 after his company, Lukoil, criticized the war six months earlier. Another Lukoil executive had an apparent heart attack on the grounds of a Moscow shaman in May. The aviation director for the same company as February’s death washed up over 100 miles from where he “suddenly fell” from his speeding yacht.  
• The last September death was of the editor-in-chief of the Russian state newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, who supposedly had a stroke and suffocated on his way to lunch.

Timelines and further details about the 16 deaths.  

Sweden and Denmark are investigating leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe. The simultaneous “unprecedented” damage in three lines 70 yards under the surface of the Baltic Sea sparked the possibility of sabotage. One pipe is a major source of gas for Europe with Russia stopping the flow; the other one was blocked by sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine. Blasts were detected a few miles from the pipelines before the disruption. The attacks on the pipeline are seen by Western countries as precursors to other physical and cyber sabotage of their infrastructures. 

Fox network’s Tucker Carlson is leading the charge that Biden ordered the pipeline to be blown up and has joined the MAGA people’s new mantra, “Blame America First.” He said Putin would have to be a “suicidal moron” to blow up the pipeline. Biden has not directly blamed Russia for the leaks but accused Putin of “pumping out disinformation and lies” and asserted that the leaks are a result of sabotage. At the same time, Putin is blaming “Anglo-Saxons” for the explosions, which Biden does not believe. Russia’s state company Gazprom is the majority shareholder in #1 and the sole owner of #2.

Russia’s denial of the explosions and blame for the U.S. match its false claim that it didn’t shoot down a Malaysian airline over Ukraine with a missile battery in 2014. Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) DDT is also offering to “head up [a] group” to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid further escalation for his war.

Denmark, Norway, and Poland have celebrated the opening of the Baltic Pipe which will transport natural gas from the Norwegian shelf through Denmark and the Baltic Sea to Poland. The goal is to create more independence from Russian energy. Poland has been cut off from Russian gas supplies since April for not paying in rubles. The pipe should benefit other Baltic states as well as the Danish market.

As Putin puts all his energy into destroying Ukraine to remove its sovereignty, Biden is moving into his turf of mediating the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict with national security adviser hosting “direct and constructive talks” between his counterparts of the two countries. The “road map” to further peace negotiations leads to a meeting in a few days between the countries’ foreign ministers. Both countries had been part of the Soviet Union which dissolved in 1991.

Truck Convoy Claims They Want ‘Freedom’

A month ago, the law closed down a disruptive truck convoy in Ottawa and blocked city streets and closed down businesses because a few truckers opposed vaccination mandates for crossing the border into the United States. The emergencies act blocked them, the law enforcement drove them out, and all their donations—even in bitcoin—were frozen. Polling showed that 72 percent of the people wanted protesters to “go home,” and the protests made 44 percent of them more likely to support mandates for mask wearing and cross-border vaccine checks. Only 21 percent were more likely to oppose the mandates, and the rest of them didn’t care.

Other parts of Canada are more successful about controlling convoys. In Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, police blocked trucks from getting to the legislature after eight weeks of incessant noise and ridicule against those who wear masks. The convoy protest was cancelled.

In the United States, bored, attention-seeking truck drivers want to cause chaos in Washington, D.C. The motley collection of mostly white men including Three Percenters, Proud Boys, and a variety of QAnon followers gathered 80 miles outside Washington, D.C. for their camp in Hagerstown (MD). Participants who said they voted in 2020 supported Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and believe the election was rigged against him. The ones who didn’t drop out on the trip from California searched for obstacles in their cry for “freedom.” They kept repeating the demand about no masks although only one state, Hawaii, still requires them.

Pete Simi, researcher of far-right movements, explained their current hostility to the D.C. police:

“You’ve got to have villains. You’ve got to have enemies, you’ve got to have outgroups, and D.C. police, part because of what happened with Jan. 6, they have a special status as a potential source of antagonism for these folks. Because of the emphasis on confrontation, there’s always that unforeseeable potential in terms of the turns that it can take, and when it is going to escalate to the point of where there’s potentially overt violence.”

At the beginning of the convoy’s trip on the day before Russia invaded Ukraine, they claimed to be peaceful and wouldn’t leave the Beltway to go into the District. Organizer Brian Brase told them that, like on January 6, 2021, they had to stay out of D.C. proper, falsely claiming that their going into the city was a police “set-up” to justify a crackdown on conservatives. After mask mandates were lifted, truckers added conspiracy theories and other far-right grievances. Last week, irritated by blockades into downtown Washington, they complained about the violation of their First Amendment rights, split up, and started traveling D.C. streets. Driving through the streets, they honked, disrupted commutes, and harassed people.

Paul Waldman wrote that the convoy is protesting something that doesn’t exist:

“The protesters shifted their complaint from the specific to the general, saying that liberty is under assault from everywhere. That creates an umbrella under which almost anything can fit, whether what bothers you is building codes or the microchip Bill Gates and the CIA implanted in your brain.”

Paranoid truck drivers believe commuter traffic near them are “antifa vehicles,” ripe for their attacks. One trucker, John Bigard livestreamed on the OTR Survival YouTube channel his getting out of his truck on the highway and going over to a car trying to merge from the far-left lane to reach an exit. Bigard repeatedly ranted at the driver, punched the car’s window, ridiculed the driver’s accent, yelling “f**king idiot.” Bigard drives for Courier Delivery in North Carolina. In other road rage, four trucks boxed in a car by coordinating on CB radio to pull the driver over and take over two lanes of the highway. One trucker got into a minor accident and then threatened to run over the driver who got out to talk.

In downtown D.C., police are investigating the possibility that one of the convoy truckers hit a pedestrian on Sunday afternoon while the convoy drove through the city. A DuPont Circle resident said she was on the west side of the 1600 block of Connecticut Ave NW “when [the convoy member] struck her with his vehicle and drove on top of her right ankle.” Donald Bryan Thomas of Butler (OH), driving a silver BMW 550i with stickers such as “TRUCKERS RULE!!! MSM LIES” blamed the woman for walking

At a meeting, a driver used a racist rant in calling on the convoy to vandalize the Black Lives Matter Plaza. He said, “All that paint’s coming off that street. Before I get put in my grave, it’s going to get tar and feathered, and then we’re going to tar and feather all our delegates.” Protesters also gathered outside the home of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the hated right-wing symbol of vaccinations and masks.

 About extremists, Simi said:

“That’s part of what the culture thrives on, the idea that they have this power to potentially intimidate, coerce through fear, through their history of using violent action that obviously, people are well aware of. That is a source of empowerment for folks within that culture.”

Republican politicians and candidates came to worship at the shrine of the Hagerstown speedway camp. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) even rode in the lead truck complete with a classic video of his trying to de-truck. Pennsylvania state senator and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who chartered buses for the January 6 rally, dropped by along with nine GOP congressional members. Those events were orchestrated pro bono by the GOP consulting firm Axiom Strategies that worked for Cruz and Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Cruz wants his DDT supporters back after his stupid actions including his description of the January 6 rioters as “insurrectionists.” Fox’s Tucker Carlson made him retract the statement and apologize for it. The drivers still booed him when he tried to make a speech at their camp.

Truck drivers say they want to slow down traffic, but they weren’t as successful as a guy on a bike who rode slowly in front of the line to frustrated honking from truck drivers. The video, complete with noise, has been seen over 4.2 million times. [visual – truck bicycle]

Truck drivers felt they didn’t enough attention from calls to police about insignficant problems, and the leader Brase suggested drivers “flood 911” with calls because the Maryland police wouldn’t take their calls about insignificant problems. Brase said, “So they can answer the phone tomorrow or enjoy 911 calls.” A police communications official said the truckers’ calls are answered and that a driver flipping off a trucker is not an emergency. Frivolous 911 calls not only keep help from needy people but are also illegal. Wanting to cause more trouble, drivers get out of their rigs and wander around in the middle of traffic on the highway.   

All those “expert” truck drivers also had trouble with the D.C. rain and traffic, having trouble finding their way around. Truckers canceled the convoy for a day because of the rain. Brase wandered the camp with a bag for donations. He also took unwarranted credit for rolling back vaccine and mask mandates throughout the country that had already been announced before the convoy. 

The convoy has collected almost $2 million, processed by the right-wing American Foundation for Civil Liberties and Freedoms, for gas and food although the goal was $5 million. Donations seem to have disappeared the last week. Questions have been raised about wire fraud or intent to defraud because of the convoy’s website claims that “100% OF THE DONATIONS GO TO SUPPORTING THE CONVOY!”

The convoy took a day off on Monday after their organizer left for home but promised to be back tomorrow. Organizer Brase said, “We ain’t going anywhere” just before he went home, saying he needed to “take a break.” No one knows if or when he’ll be back. The convoy has no deadline to leave but might relocate.

Zachary Petrizzo with The Daily Beast tweeted on Sunday:

“Today out in Hagerstown, more and more truckers with The People’s Convoy have complained about becoming sick with a bad cough. One streamer, ‘OTR Survival,’ ended up going to an urgent care, and described the illness as getting ‘hit by a bus.’”

Observing the “freedom fighters” in the U.S. since DDT’s election gives a new definition of “freedom”:  to people like those in the truck convoy, freedom means, “I can do anything I want to do no matter what how much damage it causes people.” The other part of the definition for “freedom”: “I can stop anyone else from doing anything if I disagree with what they are doing.” That’s the new perception of “constitutional rights” for conservative rights.

Updates: DDT, Protests, RNC, Abbott

The story of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) and his theft of gifts and federal documents may never end. This article is for people who want to claim DDT’s innocence. And other updates from stories earlier this week:  

Canadian Truck Convoy Protest:  

A judge gave permission to clear a primary crossing from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit (MI), and Canadian police cleared the vehicles. Other protesters still prevented access from going south on the crossing with about 180 remaining late Saturday, February 12. That crossing is the busiest between the two countries, carrying about 25 percent of the trade.

Demonstrators blocked the Ambassador Bridge for the past five days claiming they objected to a vaccination mandate to cross the border. Protests began on January 29.  Lack of parts forced Ford to temporarily stop work at an Ohio assembly plant in Ohio, and General Motors and Toyota announced production cuts, costing up to $700 million. This crossing is one of at least three closed to commerce by truckers, the others into Montana and North Dakota.  

The Toronto-Dominion has frozen two protester group’s personal bank accounts  of $1.1 million deposited by different crowdfunding sites, now blocked, one of them by the Canadian Superior Court of Justice. Much of the money came from the United States. 

The protesting truckers are not representative of Canadian truckers or population. The Canadian Trucking Alliance disavowed the participants, saying that most of them “have no connection with the trucking industry.” Over 84 percent of the Canadian population is vaccinated, compared to 64 percent of people in the U.S., and two-thirds of Canadians oppose the protest. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing 1.4 million people in the U.S. Canada, and Puerto Rico, also opposes the blockade at the border, stating it “continues to hurt workers and negatively impact our economy. The livelihood of working Americans and Canadians in the automotive, agricultural, and manufacturing sectors is threatened by this blockade.”

France and Belgium are banning road blockades, but reports in the U.S. indicate demonstrations affecting Super Bowl on Sunday and the State of the Union address next month. Paris police fired tear gas at demonstrators on the Champs Elysees avenue after a convoy of protesters against COVID restrictions moved into the French capital.

The Fox network leads the U.S. media charge in supporting the protest following the show hosts’ objections to vaccination despite their employer’s requirement they have them.  The network has spent over ten airtime hours for the story with over an hour each for Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, and at least 14 protest participants have been hosted on Fox. In the past month, Fox News has mentioned the truckers or Ottawa 2.5 times as often as CNN and five times as often as MSNBC. The network praises protesters just as they did the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, calling them “freedom fighters” and more.

Participation in the convoy protest comes from a coordination between anti-vax and anti-government organizations, many of them QAnon conspiracy theorists. Popular among the protesters are the Confederate and neo-Nazi flags as well as QAnon logos. Fake accounts on social media connected to content mills in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Romania, and other countries have pushed popularity with the right wing, including lawmakers Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) as well as DDT. Right-wingers convinced Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) that the truckers had overturned the Canadian government, and Joe Rogan, in trouble on Spotify for his lies and racism, claimed there were “like 50,000 trucks” protesting instead of the highest estimate thus far of 18,000. Other lies were the resignation of “50 percent of the Ottawa police force” in support and Canada blocking hotels from renting to convoy protesters.

Teamsters General Jim Hoffa explained the support is to disrupt the supply chain causing economic stabilization and weakened government in power. It follows the CIA’s destabilizing Chile’s government run by democratically elected Salvador Allende with a truckers’ strike in 1972. Allende was soon overthrown by right-wing dictator General Augusto Pinochet. 

RNC Censure Resolution: 

Most GOP congressional members have completely separated themselves from the RNC after their voice vote to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), members of the January 6 investigative committee. On Bulwark, Willliam Saletan compiled the dizzying spin of cultish Republicans as they excuse their censure of Cheney and Kinzinger for taking ethical action and called the January 6 insurrection, a “legitimate political discourse.”

• They voted to impeach DDT—the second time.
• They are taking part in a plot to sabotage the GOP. Cheney voted for DDT 93 percent of the time and Kinzinger 90 percent.
• Republicans say: We’re not on the committee; it’s their business.
• Nikki Haley doesn’t want “Republicans going against Republicans.”
• Republicans aren’t responsible for the RNC, and Chris Christie, who wanted to be the RNC chair, says the resolution is irrelevant.
• According to Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Cheney is on her own with Wyoming voters.
• Cheney and Kinzinger are losers because Cheney was removed from House TOP leadership and will probably lose her primary. Kinzinger isn’t running for re-election.
• The January 6 investigation is illegitimate because it’s an attack on DDT, his family, friends, and “all the people he fought for,” claimed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
• The investigation is illegitimate because it’s partisan after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “rejected [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy’s appointees.” She only refused two, one of them who might be subpoenaed and both who suggested they will sabotage the committee. McCarthy pulled all of his nominees.
• The investigation is illegitimate because it goes beyond the events of January 6 that led up to the attack: coercion of state officials, recruitment of fake electors, threats to seize voting machines, etc. The GOP wanted to know everything about the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic outpost killing four people but nothing about what led to January 6.
• The investigation is illegitimate because it goes beyond security failures.
• Nobody cares about January 6.
• DDT is right to question the election, from Republicans who pander to the cult leader.

A self-appointed House “committee,” including DDT supporters Jordan, Banks, Rodney Davis (IL), Kelly Armstrong (ND), and Troy Nehls (TX), is investigating the Capitol Police to blame them for the January 6 attack. A bipartisan Senate report has found that intelligence agencies didn’t sufficiently warn law enforcement before the riot; senior officials in charge of the Capital Police didn’t receive a January 5, 2021, FBI memo warning of a brewing “war” in Washington. Lacking subpoena power, the shadow House group relies on voluntary interviews.  

After the RNC censure resolution, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) repeated his assertion that January 6 was a “violent insurrection” intended to “prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election.” DDT reacted:

“Mitch McConnell does not speak for the Republican Party, and does not represent the views of the vast majority of its voters. He did nothing to fight for his constituents and stop the most fraudulent election in American history.”

McConnell’s popularity is 25 percent, but the number of conservatives who identify as “supporters of Trump” versus “supporters of the Republican Party” shrank to 36 percent from 46 percent. Conservative Sen. Kevin Kramer (ND) accused the RNC of getting “caught up in its own bubble” with “a complete lack of understanding or awareness of the people they’re supposed to be representing.”

According to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, 68 percent of registered voters think the January 6 insurrectionists should not be pardoned as DDT suggested he might do: 81 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of unaffiliated, and 54 percent of Republicans. Only 20 percent of registered voters want them pardoned despite DDT’s offer to do it at his Texas rally.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott: 

The problems Abbott has after indefinitely assigning 6,500 National Guard members to the Mexico border worsened after the sixth soldier died from an accidental shooting by a fellow soldier. The 19-year-old was handing a personal weapon to another soldier in the backseat of a parked vehicle, and the gun’s discharge hit him in the back. He died at the scene. All six deaths were from personal weapons, four of them suicides since October when they were hastily mobilized. A ruse for arresting asylum seekers at the border is for law enforcement to order them to a particular location and then charging them with trespassing.

A progressive Lincoln Project ad lambasted Abbott for failing Texas a year ago when millions of Texas faced freezing temperatures without heat or electricity. Several people died in their homes from the cold. Abbott faces primary challenges on March 1 from other Republicans. The ad points out the millions in campaign cash Abbott received from “big power and energy companies.”

A federal judge temporarily blocked Texas counties from criminally charging public officials for encouraging the use of mail ballots for the March 1 primary election. The new state voting law includes this provision in trying to prevent mail-in ballots used by over one million Texas voters in the 2020 election. The new law also permits heavy restrictions on who can mail their ballots and violates their privacy by demanding they include their driver’s license or partial Social Security number on the envelope. Thousands of mail ballots have been flagged for possible rejection, including 40 percent of those received in Harris County with about 2.5 million registered voters.

And then there’s the unraveling Russia-Ukraine problem. Too much news these days!

Systemic Racism Leads to Explosions

Last week, the trial defense for the police officer who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis rested after two days of their lies about the cause of Floyd’s death last summer—including the false accusation of carbon monoxide from car exhaust, thrown out of court.

Both prosecution medical experts testified the death came from lack of oxygen caused by nine minutes and 29 seconds of the officer pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck exacerbated by the officer’s refusal to permit any attempt at resuscitation. Law enforcement officials testified that the policeman who killed Floyd used excessive force and did not comply with his training.

Closing arguments start Monday before the jury is sequestered to make its decision.

According to the autopsy, Floyd had heart disease and illicit drugs in his system. Testifying for the defense, David Fowler, facing a lawsuit in his home state, said he would not have categorized Floyd’s death a homicide but admitted under cross-examination that Floyd should have received immediate medical attention, blocked by the police officer, to reverse any cardiac arrest.

The defense claimed no force because of no bruising, but prosecution testimony stated bruising wasn’t necessary to indicate loss of oxygen. Cardiologist Jonathan Rich said “the position that he was subjected to” meant his heart “did not have enough oxygen.” Pulmonologist Martin Tobin testified that a perfectly healthy person could have pulmonary failure under this type of physical restraint. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the police officer’s restraint “is not part of our training” and “in no way, shape, or form is anything that is by policy,” and a Minneapolis police lieutenant called it “totally unnecessary.” Other people testifying for the prosecution supported these statements.

The police officer refused to testify at the trial, claiming Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate himself. Last year he offered to plead guilty to third-degree murder with a ten-year prison sentence before then-Attorney General William Barr personally stopped the deal. This plea would have blocked federal charges, including civil rights, and the rapid resolution would have avoided the year-long protests about the murder. 

The officer’s conviction of second-degree murder, with a sentence of 40 years in prison, requires the finding that he caused Floyd’s death “while committing or attempting to commit a felony offence,” meaning assault. The lesser charge of third-degree murder, with a maximum sentence of 25 years, requires the finding that he committed an “act eminently dangerous to others … without regard for human life.” Although the judge blocked the third-degree murder charge, an appeal from the prosecution to overturn that decision succeeded because of a greater chance for conviction with a jury decision he showed disregard for Floyd’s safety. A second-degree manslaughter conviction with ten years in prison would come from the finding that the officer took “an unreasonable risk” that endangered Floyd’s life.

Three other police officers who stood and watched the murder will be tried together later this year for charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

The Army has now disciplined soldiers in the D.C. National Guard for hovering only 55 feet over protesters’ heads to frighten and scatter the crowds. Then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy falsely claimed helicopters were to monitor crowd movements. One crew member said the mission was to “be loud … fly low over the crowds.” Ryan said then-Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) “fully vetted” the mission. Four of the five helicopters carried painted red crosses to identity them as medical transports; their use for non-medical mission without specific approval violates Army regulations, which they did not obtain. One reporter recounted pulling shards of glass from her hair spread by the helicopters. 

Emails obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted “covert surveillance” on protesters in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Albuquerque. DEA agents were assigned to “infiltrate” protests, monitor social media monitoring, and perform aerial surveillance. The DOJ authorized these DEA activities.

Protests for almost a year after Floyd’s murder by a police officer on May 25, 2020, focus on the law enforcement killings of black people for small offenses. Almost 800 people, almost all White, broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to stop the legal counting of electoral votes for the president of the United States. They beat up law enforcement officers, rifled through classified documents, vandalized the building, and threatened the lives of hundreds of people including members of Congress and the vice president of the United States. No one was arrested that day, and conservative judges and lawmakers are still trying to protect these criminals.

George Floyd paid with his life for trying to pass a $20 counterfeit bill—perhaps unintentionally. Fewer than seven years ago, Eric Garner was also choked to death for suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps. A police officer put him into a chokehold after he tried to pull away from two of them. The unindicted killer kept his job in law enforcement for another five years. Both Black men, George Floyd and Eric Garner, repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe” until they lost consciousness.

Since Floyd’s trial started on March 8, 2021, law enforcement has continued killing Black males, often with little provocation:

Chicago: A police officer chased a 13-year-old in an alley and told him to put his hands up. The boy started to comply, and the officer shot him dead.

Minnesota: Ten miles away from Floyd’s murder trial, in Brooklyn Center, a police officer shot a 20-year-old Black man dead when he tried tog et back into his car after a stop for expired license plates and an air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror; she said she meant to use a taser.

Knoxville (TN): A police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old Black teenager in a school bathroom after reports that the boy had a gun. The first report stated that the teen had shot the school resource officer, but he was critically wounded by the officer who killed the student.

Daly City (CA): Police shot and killed a 44-year-old Black man sitting in his pickup truck with a flat tire because they claimed he had a gun on his lap. It was a BB gun. 

Almost all the victims of 64 fatal encounters with law enforcement within the past three weeks are are male, Black or Latino. Many of all the killings have no video evidence, unlike the death of George Floyd and the boy in Chicago. Fortunately, the video of the horrific traffic stop of an Army medic near Norfolk (VA) in the small town of Windsor has gone viral after he filed a federal lawsuit against the abusive police officers. The police officers threatened and attacked Lieutenant Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, because he had temporary license plates on his brand-new car. When he was ordered out of the car, he said he was afraid to get out. One of the policeman said, “You should be.” Journalists wrote, “Nazario was pepper-sprayed, struck in the knees to force him to the ground and handcuffed. No charges were ever filed.” Police threatened to destroy Nazario’s military career if he talked about the traffic stop. Nazario is related to Eric Garner and called him “uncle.”

Veterans of color describe the racist abuse they have suffered. 

David Gray’s commentary on the difference between Black and White:  

“I need to drive my two-year-old to daycare tomorrow morning. To ensure we arrive alive, we won’t take public transit (Oscar Grant). I removed all air fresheners from the vehicle and double-checked my registration status (Daunte Wright), and ensured my license plates were visible (Lt. Caron Nazario). I will be careful to follow all traffic rules (Philando Castille), signal every turn (Sandra Bland), keep the radio volume low (Jordan Davis), and won’t stop at a fast food chain for a meal (Rayshard Brooks). I’m too afraid to pray (Rev. Clementa C. Pickney) so I just hope the car won’t break down (Corey Jones). When my wife picks him up at the end of the day, I’ll remind her not to dance (Elijah McClain), stop to play in a park (Tamir Rice), patronize the local convenience store for snacks (Trayvon Martin), or walk around the neighborhood (Mike Brown). Once they are home, we won’t stand in our backyard (Stephon Clark), eat ice cream on the couch (Botham Jean), or play any video games (Atatiana Jefferson).

After my wife and I tuck him into bed around 7:30pm, neither of us will leave the house to go to Walmart (John Crawford) or to the gym (Tshyrand Oates) or on a jog (Ahmaud Arbery). We won’t even walk to see the birds (Christian Cooper). We’ll just sit and try not to breathe (George Floyd) and not to sleep (Breonna Taylor).

“These are things white people simply do not have to think about.”

The United States is a tinderbox, waiting for the outcome of George Floyd’s trial. Without justice, the Black Lives Matter movement will blow up; with justice, conservatives, fueled by the hateful rhetoric from Fox and other far-right media, will come out in full Ku Klux Klan force. Summer will be very long.

No Government Shutdown, Little Funding

The threat of the holiday 2020 government shutdown has been averted if Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) signs the $2.3 trillion budget bill. Included in the bill is $900 billion for coronavirus relief. Congress already passed the $741 billion defense bill which DDT has not yet signed and promised to veto. He has until Wednesday before it goes into law unless he vetoes it in that time.

The House passed the budget by 359-53, the Senate by 92-6. The White House said DDT will sign the measure. The six GOP senators voting against the bill: Marsha Blackburn (TN), Rand Paul (KY), Rick Scott (FL), Ron Johnson (WI), Mike Lee (UT), and Ted Cruz (TX).  

DDT has signed a one-week Continuing Resolution to give time for the budget’s paperwork preparation.   

Last May, the House passed a $3 billion stimulus bill; it passed another one for $2.2 trillion in October. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to go above $1.1 trillion but finally settled on $900 billion in his attempt to get two GOP incumbent senators re-elected in Georgia on January 5. Arguments about the contents of the bill included the inclusion of stimulus checks, extended unemployment, and assistance for state and local governments—all opposed by Republicans. The GOP wanted no liability for lack of safety from COVID-19 and the elimination of any programs to use money from the Treasury Department rainy-day fund to save the country from financial crisis. Republicans lost both of these as well as financial help for states. The 5,593-page measure probably has lots of mystery items because lawmakers had only a few hours to consider it. A few openers:

• $1.375 billion for 56 miles of DDT’s border wall;
• $5 million for a database to track police misconduct;
• $153 million for programs to better community relations with police;
• 3 percent pay raise for military;
• 1 percent pay raise for the civilian federal workforce.

Critics have pointed out that the “stimulus” bill is quite skimpy, especially the direct aid: 

• $166 billion: the federal unemployment insurance supplement of $300 a week, extended for 11 weeks;
• $120 billion: direct aid checks of $600 a person making under $75,000;
• $284 billion: forgivable loans for businesses paying for rent and workers;
• $15 billion: live venues, movie theaters, and other entertainment;
• [several billion]: other Small Business Administration programs;
• $82 billion: colleges and schools with $54 billion going to public schools;
• $69 billion: vaccines ($22 billion – testing and tracing, $20 billion – vaccine procurement, $9 billion – vaccine distribution);
• $45 billion: transportation, including $15 billion for the airline industry;
• $25 billion: rental assistance and an extension of the moratorium on evictions;
• $20 billion: Economic Injury Disaster Loans;
• $13 billion: food-assistance programs, increasing the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit by 15 percent;
• $10 billion: childcare assistance.

States and cities have a full year to use funding from last March’s Cares Act bill. In another measure, health providers must work with insurers for a fair price in case of unexpectedly out-of-network care to avoid massive bills. Republicans get a tax break on “three-martini lunch” because Democrats wanted expanded tax credits for low income families and the working poor. DDT lobbied for that benefit. Lawmakers claim this bill is only a starter for help, but McConnell will almost surely not allow another one. The GOP firmly believes in austerity when a Democrat is president.

Oregon hit national news when about 300 heavily armed white supremacists, including Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, broke into the state capitol during a one-day special legislative session. The far-right protesters attacked police with spray chemical agents, broke glass in the doors, and tore tarps from vandalized marble reliefs on the front steps. Streets around the capitol were closed, and residents were told to avoid the area. DDT has gone silent about any protesters, including the Antifa, because of the white supremacists’ unprovoked attacks on people. [Left: a protester at the Oregon capitol.]

Arizona’s GOP Chair Kelli Ward wants DDT to “cross the Rubicon,” the illegal action Julius Caesar took to change the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire through civil war and require people to swear fealty to him and not their country.

Caught up in a conspiracy theory, air-conditioner installer David Lopez-Zuniga was going to work in a small cargo truck filled with parts last October when a SUV deliberately struck his truck and forced him to the edge of the highway. Feigning an injury, Mark Aguirre, a former Houston police officer who believed the truck had 750,000 fraudulent ballots, ordered Lopez Zuniga to the ground and pointed a gun at his head. Aguirre claimed “Hispanic children” were used to sign ballots because their fingerprints weren’t in any databases. Steven Hotze, head of a conservative nonprofit, hired Aguirre as one of 20 investigators looking into Texas ballot fraud—conspiracy theories fed by DDT and his court cases. Aguirre was fired from the Houston police force in 2003 for ordering the arrest of 300 people in a retail store parking lot, some of them shopping. He claimed drag racing, and the city paid almost $1 million to settle multiple lawsuits. Aguirre refused to say why he picked Lopez-Zuniga and called the charges a “political prosecution.”  

AG Bill Barr has until Wednesday in office, and he opposes special investigators for both Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, and election fraud. He also thinks DDT is wrong with his rejection that Russia is behind the current cyber espionage; he said the hacking “certainly appears” to be from the Kremlin. On Monday, DDT told a tea party conference he won in a landslide and wants the Justice Department to back him in overturning the election. Barr also said there is no reason for seizing voting machines, something Sidney Powell talked about with DDT Sunday at the White House. DDT’s campaign had fired Powell because of her history of false claims. 

Boeing’s 737 MAX is back in the air after being grounded for 21 months ago, but a bipartisan Senate report describes how the company and the FAA manipulated its recertification tests after the two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. Boeing “inappropriately coached” FAA test pilots for the airplane’s desirable outcome with some tests on simulators not equipped to recreate the same conditions as the crashes. The FAA also retaliated against whistleblowers, blocking the investigation, didn’t hold senior managers accountable, and permitted Southwest Airlines to operate dozens of falsely certified planes.

The post office is again failing to deliver packages on time. This time the reason is heavy e-commerce and COVID-19 infections/exposures among almost 20,000 employees. DDT’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s sabotage of USPS delivery, especially of ballots, worsened the situation by trashing sorting machines and cutting back on overtime. Georgia’s election, with a deadline on January 5, has a request for 1.3 million mail-in ballots.

Last August, Russians poisoned Vladimir Putin’s opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Almost dying, Navalny tricked the Russian assigned to tail Navalny into explaining the method of poisoning: the lethal nerve agent Novichok was planted inside the crotch of his underpants. Konstantin Kudryavtsev believed he was being debriefed by a senior official from Russia’s National Security Council and talked about traveling to Siberia to clean up the evidence. Navalny probably lived because his flight was diverted to Omsk where he was treated within minutes of landing. When Kudryavtsev got the clothing, he applied solutions to destroy any evidence of poison, according to directions from Stanislav Makshakov, the official in charge of the toxin team.

Russia’s four-year ban from international sports competition may be cut in half, but the country will still miss the next two Olympics and the World Cup. No flag, no anthem, no presence at next summer’s Tokyo Olympics, 2022 Winter Games (Beijing), and other competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, the Youth Olympic Games, Paralympics, and other world championships. Russian athletes can compete but not under the Russian flag. The court ruling for Russian doping also requires Russian government representatives, including Putin, cannot attend a major international event for the next two years. Russia must pay $1.27 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency for covering the costs of its investigation and turn over data from its Moscow laboratory.

With the addition of a Moderna vaccine, the CDC is planning more vaccinations with the next tier going to essential workers and people 75 and over. The first group was comprised of healthcare workers and people in nursing homes along with “older” members of Congress. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 49, joined the “older” group to get vaccinated, becoming one of the 32,000 Floridians in a state with a population of 21,480,000, mostly people over 65 and an enormous nursing home population.

Grifters are making money off the grifter in the White House. Reggie Skyrock and Ashley Weiss selling bus tickets to Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, for $40—no refunds. Yes, you read that right. It’s posted on Event Brite. And the announcement was still there a few hours even after The Bulwark outed them.  

Biden Works, DDT Kills

President-elect Joe Biden:

Officials, currently in the administration of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) as well as former ones and all aware of the importance of national security, are quietly reaching out to Biden’s transition team although Emily Murphy, GSA direction, refuses to start the process. One official described the outreach effort as putting duty to country over party considerations. Although conversations cannot replace formal briefings, they can explain the issues Biden needs to address after January 20.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar has ordered anyone in his agencies not to communicate with Biden’s team and told them to alert the deputy surgeon general of any requested communication. Azar said, “We’re about … saving lives here,” as he keeps Biden from knowledge that can save people’s lives. Policy staffers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the immigration agency that handles paperwork like naturalization forms, got the same orders. Part of the goal may be to hide the agency’s abuses and radicalization, disclosed by former USCIS chief counsel Ur Jaddou, now a member of Biden’s transition team.

Illegally led by racist Ken Cuccinelli who refuses to leave despite a judicial decision, USCIS now has a revised citizenship test creating a greater barrier for applicants. The oral test has over two dozen more questions, 128 in all, with a higher number of mandated correct answers. Answers to questions have also been changed. For example, the correct answer to “who does a U.S. Senator represent” was formerly “all the people of the state.” Now the answer is “citizens of their state.” The exam goes into effect on December 1.

Republicans continue to stall the transition, saying it will happen “on time”—which was actually almost two weeks ago.

Pentagon officials confirmed they hadn’t formally begun the transition process but they have started providing unclassified briefing material, which is permitted. Some officials were also willing to meet off site with some of the Biden transition team if Murphy refuses to permit the process into December. Officials agreed with Biden that the his team could not learn about protecting the safety of U.S. troops if they wait until after mid-December. 

While DDT sulks in the White House, Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among other world leaders. Netanyahu said they had a “warm conversation” and agreed to meet soon. Modi also hailed the election of part-Indian Kamala Harris as vice president.

Congressional members on both sides of the aisle are upset about DDT’s firing Chris Krebs, the top cybersecurity official who protected both elections and the power grid. In addition, his agency is in charge of protecting hospitals and vaccine researchers from hacking. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said:

“It just adds to the confusion and chaos, and I’m sure I’m not the only one that would like some return to a little bit more of a—I don’t even know what’s normal anymore. We’ll call it the next normal.”

Other GOP senators who praised Krebs and expressed concern include Mike Rounds (SD), Susan Collins (ME), Richard Burr (NC), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Ben Sasse (R-OH), and Rob Portman (OH). 

From the White House: The removal of troops from Afghanistan is part of DDT’s plan to sabotage the Biden administration. DDT plans to create so many problems with foreign policy that Biden can’t handle it. Toward this end, DDT’s team is preparing the legally-required transition memos with policy challenges but no actions. National security be damned. A sample:

• Directing new acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller to focus on cyber and irregular warfare, China in particular.
• Considering new terrorist designations in Yemen complicating efforts to broker peace.
• Rushing massive arms sales altering the balance of power in the Middle East with an arms race.
• Floating the idea of a military strike on Iran’s primary nuclear site.
• Building a wall of sanctions and creating new penalties.
• Further expanding illegal Israeli settlement to damage a two-state solution.

DDT is counting on Biden being on DDT’s low level of competence and understanding of diplomacy.

DDT:

DDT plans another superspreader event. Arlington National Cemetery canceled the event “Wreaths across America” because of safety issues for visitors and cemetery staff after consulting with public health officials and the event leaders. DDT overrode Army officials and ordered it reinstated. “It will now go on,” DDT tweeted. Sixty-three days left before DDT is no longer in control.

Reports from Saturday’s “Million MAGA March” in Washington show unregistered firearms, including a loaded submachine gun, from an Atlanta couple affiliated with a militia; an altercation in which a MAGA man hit a counterprotester in the back  and stomped him; and a stabbing in a group of MAGA men with no arrests. Police are also investigating why an officer was with QAnon member Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

DDT’s campaign and Fox’s Tucker Carlson are accusing another live woman of being dead when she voted for Biden in Georgia.

DDT Recount:

DDT is paying Wisconsin $3 million for a recount in two heavily-populated Democratic-leaning counties in another attempt to obtain a majority of the votes or at least block their certification. The selection was supposedly for “the worst irregularities” although state elections chief and local officials had no reports of wrongdoing. The count must be finished by December 1, the deadline for certifying the state’s vote count for electoral votes, but officials estimate it will be finished in less than a week. Four years ago, DDT ridiculed Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s paying $3.5 million for a recount, and his son Eric said the money could have saved at least “5,000 Children’s Lives.” The 2016 recount of the entire state gave DDT another 133 votes. Biden leads DDT 49.6 percent to 48.9 percent—1,630,673 to 1,610,065 votes. In 2016, DDT won the state by 23,000 votes.

The completed Georgia recount found a few minor discrepancies leaving Biden winning by about 0.3 percent. Newest totals will be announced tomorrow. Losing DDT and other Republicans describe the recount as fraudulent. If DDT demands a machine count, it can take up to nine more days. DDT taking Georgia still gives Biden 290 electoral votes, 20 more than he needs to be president.

DDT’s allies called for a protest connected to Georgia’s recount, but social media suggested that the protesters, led by conspiracy-laden Alex Jones, correct “Georiga” State Capitol and suggested they work on their spelling.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is facing an ethics complaint for asking Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to throw away valid ballots. The complaint asks Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “be recused from any investigation or other Senate matter relating to alleged irregularities in the 2020 election” while any probe of his comments is ongoing. Graham’s spokesman said those who filed the complaint are “longtime vocal critics” of both Graham and DDT. Walter Schaub, one of the complainants, was the director of the United States Office of Government Ethics. He resigned because of DDT’s constant unethical behavior. Raffensperger and his wife have received multiple death threats.

DDT Lawsuits:

In a classic approach toward overturning Biden’s win, DDT is suing Nevada’s Democratic presidential electors, one of the six the former chair of the Clark County (Las Vegas) Democratic Party and a homeless veteran who is now homeless. She lost her job when the U.S. Census ended and lives with a friend. Attorneys claim 15,000 voted in Nevada while voting in another state, 1,000 voters didn’t meet residency requirements, and 500 voters are dead. Thus far, the campaign has no evidence, but they claim “40,000 or more” fraudulent votes in Nevada. A Clark County spokesperson stated:

“They are repeating allegations the courts have already rejected, misstating and misrepresenting evidence provided in those proceedings, and parroting erroneous allegations made by partisans without first-hand knowledge of the facts.”

When Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, promoter of old people dying from the coronavirus, offered $1 million for evidence of voter fraud, he proved the state couldn’t find any. He did get a taker: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) pointed to suspected fraud from a DDT supporter. Patrick didn’t follow it up.

DDT and his “herd immunity” spreader Scott Atlas are determined to kill more people by not protecting them from COVID-19. In addition, Atlas is encouraging people to engage in large Thanksgiving celebrations next week. One of his reassurances is that this might be the last Thanksgiving for some of them anyway. More unnecessary deaths will occur because DDT refuses Biden any information about the upcoming vaccines and their distribution. Everything DDT refuses to do now is a death knell for people—and he doesn’t care. He only wants to stay in Oval Office and play golf.

 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

For the seventh consecutive day—and the eleventh day since his election—he has no public events on his schedule. “It feels like bunker mentality,” a White House official said even before DDT canceled his Thanksgiving trip to Mar-a-Lago.  Outside his north windows, he can watch the building of the reviewing stand on his front lawn for Biden’s inaugural parade. [trump north windows] 

On the other hand, FLOTUS Melania Trump is arrange holiday decorations and planning the parties. Perhaps another season of red trees. [red trees]  And get ready for the government shutdown: the budget deadline is December 11, and Congress has gone home for a while.

Meanwhile, with 173,768 COVID-19 in the U.S. today, the total number will hit 12 million by tomorrow night. The 1,964 deaths in one day are the highest since last spring, bringing the total to 256,262 deaths in the United States.

Twitter flagged seven DDT tweets as lies in 45 minutes, making him more and more frantic. The real meltdown on January 20 may come unnoticed when Twitter drops his account because he no longer has immunity as a political leader to use it.

DDT’s ‘America’ on Anniversary of ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

[Correction from August 27, 2020, post on Nel New Day: DDT [Dictator Donald Trump] did keep his promise to cut down on immigration across the southern border, but he did not mention the process would include abusing and molesting children, sexually assaulting women, separating families, and depriving immigrants of decent healthcare, food, and shelter.] Also, DDT wanted to “maim” and “shoot” immigrants seeking asylum on the southern border. 

Last Tuesday on the second RNC night, a 17-year-old from Antioch (IL) shot three protesters in Kenosha (WI), killing two of them. Two days earlier, police shot unarmed Jacob Blake in the back seven times in front of his three of his small children on the birthday of the oldest. Paralyzed from the waist down, Blake was handcuffed to his hospital bed until a public outcry. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who spoke to Blake’s father, said:

“His first question after he woke up was, ‘Daddy, why did they shoot me so many times?’ He wept to his father. He has restraints on even though he can’t move his legs.”

Police claim, without witnesses or evidence, they shot Blake because he put them in a headlock and refused to drop a knife he was carrying. Police had no body cameras.

Classmates remember the teenage killer as being short-tempered and easily offended, focused on loving guns, cops, DDT, and “triggering the libs.” They joked about his being a future mass shooter, and one of them said, “I personally believe he went to Wisconsin with the intent to kill.” When the teen joined militia members in Kenosha, the city police thanked him for being there and gave him a bottle of water although he was breaking the 8:00 pm curfew. An hour later, he shot a protester in the head and tried to run away. After he tripped and fell, he opened fire on two protesters chasing him, killing one and injuring the other. Police drove by him as he tried to surrender. The police chief justified law enforcement action by claiming tunnel vision in “high-stress” situations. (A video trail of the police ignoring the teenager killing people.) 

A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” shows how white supremacist groups or violent far-right militias  infiltrated law enforcement agencies in at least ten states, including my home state of Oregon. In Kenosha, the ACLU has called for the resignations of Police Chief Daniel Miskinis, who blamed protesters for being shot and killed and Kenosha Sheriff David Beth who said Black shoplifters are “a cancer to our society” and “have to be warehoused.” Read the Brennan report here. 

Twitter forced conservative pundit Ann Coulter to delete her tweet calling on the teenager to be her “president.” It followed another tweet recommending the teen be a “bodyguard.” Fox’s Tucker Carlson suggested the teen’s actions were noble. The killer’s first murder was of another White man carrying a skateboard.

A judge is permitting the white teenager, witnessed in killing two people and injuring a third, to stay in Illinois until a September 25 hearing. The purpose of the delay, according to the judge, is for the killer to put together a legal team. The personal lawyer for Fox network’s Sean Hannity, L. Lin Wood, announced he is raising money and coordinating legal representation for the vigilante murderer. A QAnon member, Wood also represented the case against the media by Kentucky teenager, Nick Sandmann, after he was accused to blocking an Indigenous activist at the Lincoln Memorial last year. Sandmann was a speaker for DDT at this week’s GOP convention.

A journalist for Mother Jones described the difference in treatment for Jacob Blake, a Black, and the teenager, a White:

“Jacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers. Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people.”

Conservatives complain about the violence of leftist activists, but radical right counterprotesters are causing violence in cities and towns across the U.S. At a Democratic rally for candidate Hank Gilbert in Tyler (TX) on July 26, Paul Benson tried to protect the speakers from DDT-supporters with military-style rifles who charged into the town of 100,000 population. The rally was intended to oppose deploying federal agents to U.S. cities and register new Democratic voters in conservative east Texas 100 miles southeast of Dallas. Hundreds the radical right pushed and shoved people. A man punched voter deputy registrar Nancy Nichols in the chest, three others held her husband against a war memorial, and Gilbert’s top aid was injured. The thugs blew air horns over the candidate’s speech, shouted and jeered, and pulled the plug on his sound system. Others surrounded the square in military-style defensive formation.

A Tyler councilman connected to Texas Freedom Fighters and Oath Keepers came with an AR-15 and a .45-caliber pistol. He had at least six more guns in his logging truck parked nearby and wants to keep the liberals from unfairly stealing the election from DDT. Police said they held back from the town square because they didn’t want to “escalate the situation.” Supposedly, they moved in after the radical right started the violence. They did file assault charges against three people, including a local businessman. Nichols said she plans to continue appearing at events to register people but said:

“If I see the presence of these goons, I will immediately call the police, the constables, the sheriff, the county judge and anyone else I can think of to make sure there is protection there for everyone.”

In a disturbance at Weatherford (TX) 160 miles west of Tyler, heavily armed counterprotesters, including far-right Texas-based group members, clashed over removing a Confederate statue from the Parker County Courthouse. Tony Crawford, a leader of the Parker County Progressives, talked to the police about having protection, but law enforcement never appeared, despite calls for help, when social media brought busloads from Dallas and Fort Worth, heavily armed, spitting on the rally, throwing water bottles at them, and chasing demonstrators back to their vehicles. The police chief of Weatherford, population 31,000, said city and county law enforcement agencies lacked the ability to police the event.

A week later, hundreds of motorists, many with DDT and Confederate flags, police were called to break up a gathering when hundreds of motorists, many flying Trump and Confederate flags, descended on an historical Black church in Dallas displaying a two-story Black Lives Matter sign.

People marching from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C. for the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington were subjected to slurs, arrests, and gunfire.  On August 28, 57 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial. Last Monday night, the first night of the GOP convention, one of the marchers was shot in the face and side with bird shot in Schellsburg (PA) while the group rested near a salvage yard on U.S. 30, known as Lincoln Highway. The business owner said the marchers refused to leave the parking lot, but the leader said they “never even had a conversation” with him or the shooter. Two marchers were arrested in Indiana, accused of blocking traffic. 

Take America Back Texas, a new group surging to over 10,000 members in less than three months, orchestrates attacks on rallies such as those in Tyler and Weatherford. PR director Wendi Rees, a conservative, White suburban mother in Tyler, repeated the GOP mantra about losing “constitutional rights” although she mentioned only First and Second Amendments.

In the Tyler debacle, other radical right groups joined Take America Back Texas, including Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) supporters, members of Texas militia groups, and the white-supremacist Aryan Brotherhood. People who attended compared the event to public lynchings in the square persisting into the 1900s. A Black retired Army nurse who served in Iraq said seeing the people with “lots and lots of weapons” was “devastating.”

White vigilantes and radical-right thugs have shown up to inject violence into Black Lives Matter protests at least 497 times in the three months since George Floyd was killed, according to data collected by Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right. Vigilante crimes include driving cars into demonstrators 38 times and firing guns at protesters nine times. Three people died from their wounds. In at least two events, law enforcement approved or supported the vigilantes. A sheriff’s deputy wore a “III Percenters” militia patch while policing a protest, and Portland (OR) police stood and watched the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys attack peaceful protesters in the street. While the police arrested 22 protesters, they didn’t bother the Proud Boys leader who had an outstanding warrant for his arrest.  

Never mentioning the violence of the radical right, speakers at the GOP convention dwelt on a view of the dark, violent world under Joe Biden. DDT’s approval of the radical right is creating this dark violence during personal crime-ridden administration. 

Today, thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial on the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington to protest the inequalities within the “justice” system. Unlike the RNC, the Black Lives Matter event required temperature checks, masks, and social distancing.

U.S. daily COVID-19 cases are rising—49,601 in the last 24 hours bringing the total to 6,096,235. Deaths remain above 1,000—1,105 with the total at 185,901. Iowa saw a record surge of almost 80 percent positivity rate with 2,579 positive cases from 3,247 tests.