Tracker

And there you have the Rider problems in a nutshell.

Today, Russia hit the largest apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr, causing massive damage and dozens if not hundreds of deaths of civilians. Upon hearing the news, Britain announced that they will be sending their most advanced tanks to Ukraine immediately.

Trump isn't just stupid. He is powerful, unassailably and utterly ignorant, possessing no self-awareness at all.

Kari Lake Says If She's Not Made Arizona Governor, America Will 'Turn Into A Venezuela' Failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake insisted in an interview Friday that if she is not made governor of Arizona, the U.S. will turn into Venezuela. The Donald Trump-backed Republican raised the specter of a Venezuelan America in an interview with far-right student agitator Charlie Kirk. Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs in November, the election has been certified and Hobbs has taken office. Lake also lost a court case last month challenging the election result and has since appealed. “There’s a boatload of evidence in our favor,” Lake baselessly claimed in the interview. “We just need a judge to wake up and realize what’s on the line here, and if we do not restore honest elections right now, our country will turn into a Venezuela. We have Venezuelan-style elections, and this is how you destroy a country.” Ironically, the ascension to power by someone who isn’t chosen in a free election is typical of authoritarian leadership in Venezuela, not in an American democracy. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kari-lake-governor-or-venezuela_n_63c22194e4b0b2e15071b4ca

John Kelly manipulated Donald Trump to befriend Kim Jong Un to prevent all-out war: book New York Times correspondent Michael Schmidt is publishing a paper back copy of his book, Donald Trump v. The United States, that will feature a 12,000-word addition that includes new information he discovered after publication about the relationship the former president had with Gen. John Kelly. Kelly, who served as Trump's second chief of staff, became increasingly concerned about the rhetoric that Trump was using publicly and in private to taunt North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Coming into the position, Kelly was shocked to learn that Trump was completely unmoved by the chance of thousands of people dying if Kim decided to bomb something. "When Kelly said ‘this could destroy the economy’ he thought it was something that might appeal to Trump’s love of his own economy. Trump didn’t appreciate that," Schmidt told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. "It was only after Kelly suggested to Trump ‘why don’t you become his friend? No one in history has ever done that.’ He knew it would never lead to a denuclearized North Korea but it would ratchet back the public and private rhetoric that was spinning out of control." It's exactly what Trump did and it's how America was saved from going to war with North Korea over the egos of the two leaders. "It's the indifference to death that I've never seen so starkly," she said. "We knew that Trump had an indifference to suffering in the spiked wall he wanted at the southern border and the nukes he wanted to shoot into Mexico. But the indifference in your telling of Kelly's efforts to educate him on the horrors and the heinous nature of war feels like an inflection point for kelly." Schmidt agreed, saying that no person understood the horrors of war more than Kelly, particularly when he lost his son in the post-9/11 wars. "And he's trying to explain to Trump what this could look like, what a DMZ with North and South Korea firing on each other could look like. How this could all spin into ways that could lead to missiles flying all over the place," said Schmidt. "And it didn't work to connect to Trump. He couldn't connect to Trump that way. It was only through Kelly, saying to Trump, 'You can be the deal maker. Go all the way back to Eisenhower. No one has done this. You can do this.' And Trump goes along with it." It explains the about-face that the public saw between Trump and Kim from taunting each other on Twitter to writing "love letters." https://www.alternet.org/john-kelly-manipulated-donald-trump/

Alabama Attorney General Pledges To Prosecute Women Who Take Abortion Pills A spokesperson for state Attorney General Steve Marshall said that although Alabama’s near-total abortion ban does not penalize a pregnant woman seeking an illegal abortion, he plans to rely on an older law to prosecute people seeking abortion care in the state. A spokesperson for state Attorney General Steve Marshall said that although Alabama’s near-total abortion ban does not penalize a pregnant woman seeking an illegal abortion, he plans to rely on an older law to prosecute people seeking abortion care in the state. Alabama’s attorney general confirmed what many abortion rights advocates have warned for years: Women can be prosecuted for using medication abortion, despite the state’s abortion ban explicitly stating it does not criminalize the pregnant person. A spokesperson for state Attorney General Steve Marshall told the conservative outlet 1819 News last week that although Alabama’s near-total abortion ban, the Human Life Protection Act, does not penalize a pregnant woman seeking an illegal abortion, he plans to rely on an older law to prosecute people seeking abortion care in the state. “The Human Life Protection Act targets abortion providers, exempting women ‘upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed’ from liability under the law,” a spokesperson for Marshall told the conservative outlet, and first flagged by feminist writer Jessica Valenti. “It does not provide an across-the-board exemption from all criminal laws, including the chemical-endangerment law — which the Alabama Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children,” the spokesperson added. Marshall’s office did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alabama-attorney-general-pledges-to-prosecute-women-who-take-abortion-pills_n_63c1a323e4b0fe267cb9f55c

Well, one of the storms was pretty bad in Winnipeg.

Ammunition Bulk Display in Boise, Idaho- ammo by the pound

Either way, there would be excitement and a lot of heavy breathing.

Lisa Marie’s Final Days: Grief, Isolation, an Alarming Red Carpet Appearance -Getty Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, spent her final days on a trying trek between Los Angeles and Graceland that some family members fear may have pushed the 54-year-old to the brink. Deborah Presley Brando, Presley's half-sister, told Extra that she’d been worried about her sibling’s recent health, fearing her star-studded week, which included a speech and an appearance at the Golden Globes, may have been too much for her. “She's been pushed a lot the past five days, and there are schedules and commitments that don't have anything to do with the reality of family,” she said outside a Los Angeles hospital, Extra reported. “This is a living example.” Brando also noticed her sister was unsteady as she walked the red carpet and talked to reporters at the Golden Globes on Tuesday night, two days before she died from sudden cardiac arrest. “I saw people propping her up,” Brando said. “I saw people holding her… I wish she had not have committed to anything she didn't want to do.”

The 2022 Darwin Award should be given to the GOP.

Sweden uncovers 1 million tonnes of rare earth minerals, largest finding in Europe

This is life in America:

Russia Sets Ultimatum to Formally Pull a Third Country Into Putin’s War -Reuters Russia’s close ally Belarus could formally join the war in Ukraine in the coming days if Moscow concludes that Ukraine has “used force” against either Russia or Belarus, a senior Russian foreign ministry official warned Friday. “Any use of force by the Kyiv regime or a Ukrainian military invasion of either Belarus or Russia would be enough to trigger a collective response," Aleksey Polishchuk, a director in Russian Foreign Ministry, told TASS, referring to the so-called Union State that Belarus and Russia formed together years ago, in which the countries have been enmeshing their banking, military, and economic sectors. “The republic has the sovereign right to defend its territory through all means available and Minsk can count on Russia’s full support here,” Polishchuk said. The warning comes as fears mount that Russia may be preparing a renewed offensive in the new year against Ukraine that could be launched northwest of Ukraine from Belarus. Russia has repeatedly used Belarus as a launching ground to conduct attacks against Ukraine since the war broke out last February, including Russia’s failed attempt to storm and capture Kyiv.

Superintendent: Official Learned Of Weapon Before Student Shot Teacher NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Administrators at the Virginia school where a first-grader shot his teacher last week learned the child may have had a weapon in his possession before the shooting but did not seize the 9mm handgun he brought to his classroom, the school system’s superintendent said. School system Superintendent George Parker told parents Thursday night in an online meeting that a school official was notified about the weapon before the 6-year-old shot the teacher at Richneck Elementary in Newport News. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/school-shooting-newport-news_n_63c17eace4b0fe267cb9af54

Ummm...we're back to the "king's English" now.

To underline your point- the US courts have established that it is ok for a cop to shoot someone without provocation if that officer "feels" threatened, but anyone who is stopped by police is not allowed to become agitated when an officer puts a gun in their face in an otherwise non-threatening situation. What?

Trump’s Company Fined $1.6 Million For Tax Fraud Scheme NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s company was fined $1.6 million Friday as punishment for a scheme in which the former president’s top executives dodged personal income taxes on lavish job perks — a symbolic, hardly crippling blow for an enterprise boasting billions of dollars in assets. A fine was the only penalty a judge could impose on the Trump Organization for its conviction last month for 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records.

Military analysts believe it is 'entirely realistic' that Ukraine could gain control of Crimea: report Before Russian forces, on orders from President Vladimir Putin, launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, some pro-Putin pundits in Eastern Europe believed that he should be satisfied with having Crimea and leave the Ukrainian government alone. Essentially, they were worried that all all-out invasion would be more than Russia could handle militarily, and they remembered how much of a drain the invasion of Afghanistan was on the old Soviet Union during the 1980s. Regardless, Putin proceeded with a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian military proved to be much better fighters than Putin anticipated. Now, according to Newsweek, some military analysts believe that Russia is in danger of possibly “losing” Crimea during its war with Ukraine. Journalist Jon Jackson, reporting for Newsweek in an article published on January 12, explains, “Crimea has emerged as a central talking point in the war in Ukraine, and as President Volodymyr Zelensky's military forces continue their momentum on the battlefield, Russia faces a legitimate threat of losing the peninsula it took by force in 2014, according to military analysts. After Ukraine surprised many experts around the globe by mounting a strong defense against the Russian invasion that began in late February, Zelensky began publicly stating that he wants Crimea to be once again considered part of his country.” https://www.alternet.org/military-analysts-ukraine-retake-crimea/

for those who would like a bit of encouragement: January 15th marks the midpoint of winter and temperatures on average moderate after this point. WE'RE HALFWAY THROUGH WINTER!!! YAAAY!!! But its been a pretty moderate winter so far.

Already are. The GOP is desperate for anything to take the public's attention away from the debacle of choosing a speaker. Realistically, there were less than 20 documents in total (shouldn't have been any at all) and all were immediately reported and transported, compared to Trump who deliberately took classified documents, lied about them, refused to turn them over, claimed that he had magically de-classified them and finally had to be invaded to recover the documents. The immediate appointment of a special counsel will further diffuse criticism. None of this will be acknowledged by the GOP or Fox News (same thing, really),

Their numbers now are roughly equal to their collective IQ.