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!,4 Billion people plus barefoot doctors

Damn the LDL! Full speed ahead!

Quote was from Getty News

Clarified

Charles Completely Boots Andrew From Palace, Report Says -Getty News King Charles is pushing Prince Andrew out of Buckingham Palace—and won’t even let him use it for mailing letters. That’s according to The Sun, which says the disgraced royal can no longer keep an office at the palace, and the small number of staffers he has there might be let go. “The King has made it clear. He isn’t a working royal. He’s on his own,” a source told the newspaper. “Any presence at the Palace is officially over.” Andrew, whose friendship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein plunged the royal family into scandal, does keep his home in the grounds of Windsor Castle—for now.

Revealed: Trump wanted 10,000 National Guard soldiers to protect him on walk to the Capitol on J6 At the end of November, House Select Committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told reporters that they hadn't yet heard from a Secret Service agent that had corroborated the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows. The full report on the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election detailed in Chapter 6 that Hutchinson's testimony was confirmed by other White House staffers. "On the evening of Dec. 27th," the report said, "President [Donald] Trump boosted the upcoming event on Twitter: 'See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it. Information to follow!' The Select Committee learned that this tweet came after the White House spoke with a former Trump staffer, Justin Caporale, who was asked to help produce the Ellipse rally. That same evening, the President had dinner with Donald Trump, Jr., and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who spoke with rally organizer Caroline Wren during the meal." According to those who testified, Wren sent Guilfoyle talking points describing her hopes for the event that “buses of people are coming in from all over the country to support you. It’s going to be huge, we are also adding in programming the night of January 5th.” Guilfoyle’s call with Wren was then followed by several calls with senior White House staff. A Dec. 29th text to Wren to Caporale explained that after Trump's Jan. 6 speech there “maybe [sic] a call to action to march to the [C]apitol and make noise.” It marks the first mention of Trump's plans to call on the rally-goers to march on the Capitol. "On Jan 2nd, rally organizer Katrina Pierson informed Wren that President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, had said the President was going to 'call on everyone to march to the [C]apitol,'" the report cited. "Inside the White House, the President’s intent was well-known. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows, recalled in her testimony that she overheard discussions to this effect toward the end of December or early January. One such discussion included an exchange between Meadows and Rudolph Giuliani that occurred on January 2nd. Hutchinson understood that President Trump wanted to have a crowd at the Capitol in connection with what was happening inside—the certification of the electoral count." The goal, she explained was to delay the certification and then they'd be able to send the vote to state legislatures to overturn it. The questionable legal theory is now before the Supreme Court as a question about the future of elections. "During a call with members of the House Freedom Caucus," the report continued describing the tea party members, "the idea of telling people to go to the Capitol was discussed as a way to encourage Congress to delay the electoral college certification and send it back to the States. On January 4th, [Women for America First's] Kylie Kremer informed Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and an ally of President Trump, that 'POTUS is going to have us march there [the Supreme Court]/the Capitol' but emphasized that the plan 'stays only between us.' The 'Stop the Steal' coalition was aware of the President’s intent. On January 5th, Ali Alexander sent a text to a journalist saying: 'Ellipse then US capitol [sic]. Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol [sic] at the end of his speech but we will see.'" Pierson then told the committee that Trump thought, "Well, I should walk with the people," but at the time she didn't take him "seriously." Advisers tried to talk him out of it, including White House Senior Advisor Max Miller, who "shot it down immediately," the report said, because there were concerns about Trump's safety. Pierson agreed, but Trump was firm. That's when he first floated the idea of 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by leftwing counter-protesters. Trump has said over and over again that he told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi he wanted 10,000 National Guard soldiers. He has made it seem like he warned her that there would be violence, in fact, the truth is that Trump wanted them to protect him on a march to the Capitol. "Miller again rejected the President’s idea, saying that the National Guard was not necessary for the event," the report says. "Miller testified that there was no further conversation on the matter. After the meeting, Miller texted Pierson, 'Just glad we killed the national guard and a procession.' That is, President Trump considered having the National Guard oversee his procession to the U.S. Capitol." Only the president can order the National Guard in Washington, D.C. As former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper's deposition makes clear, there are only about 1,200 Guard soldiers in the Washington, D.C. guard, so it would require the president to call on multiple states to bring together such a number. The idea was floated in June. 2020 when protests broke out in cities over the murder of George Floyd. Esper told the committee that he made it very clear to Trump the difference between active-duty soldiers and guardsmen and what it would entail calling up just 5,000 to serve in Washington, D.C. during the Black Lives Matter protests. "Pierson’s agenda for the meeting reflected the President’s plan for protestors to go to the U.S. Capitol after the rally," the report explained. "But President Trump did not give up on the idea of personally joining his supporters on their march..." In Nov. 2022, writing for The Bulwark, Navy veteran and Brennan Center for Justice fellow Theodore Johnson argued that former President Donald Trump believed that just because he was the commander-in-chief, the military "swore an oath to him personally," and could be ordered to do whatever he wanted, regardless of whether it was legal or constitutional. At the end of the report, in Appendix 2 on page 742, there's a key comment that that an email was sent by then chief of staff Meadows explicitly saying on Jan.5 that the Washington, D.C. National Guard would be on hand to “protect pro Trump people.”

There is an unconfirmed report out of China(and it will never be confirmed) that in the past 24 hours, 37 million new diagnoses of COVID were found. Very ill patients are being brought to hospitals where they sit on the floor waiting for someone to die so a bed will be available. The Chinese government chose to use a much less effective domestically-produced vaccine rather than buy from outsiders.

This is really an upcoming movie!

28 House Republicans vote against bill to protect child sex abuse victims The bipartisan Respect for Child Survivors Act, a law that would aid victims of child sex abuse and their families, just passed the House in a 385-28 vote. All 28 votes against the bill came from Republicans. The bill would require the FBI to form multi-disciplinary teams to aid sex abuse victims and their families in order to prevent re-traumatization from investigation and any cases from being dropped. These teams would include “investigative personnel, mental health professionals, medical personnel, family advocacy workers, child advocacy workers, and prosecutors,” Newsweek reported. U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Chris Coons (D-DE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the legislation. “I applaud Senator Cornyn’s leadership on this issue to correct an egregious wrong committed by certain FBI agents regarding their treatment of victims of sexual abuse,”said Sen. Graham.“Requiring the FBI to use appropriate, tried and true methods to interview child victims will help ensure the FBI’s failure in the Nassar case doesn’t happen again. This legislation will make it clear that we expect better.” However, not all Republicans expect better from the FBI, it seems. The bill was opposed by the following GOP Representatives: Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar (Ariz.); Dan Bishop and Virginia Foxx (NC); Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mo Brooks and Barry Moore (Ala.); Louie Gohmert, Ronny Jackson, Troy Nehls, Chip Roy, and Michael Cloud (Texas); Andrew Clyde, Jody Hice, Austin Scott, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.); James Comer and Thomas Massie (Ky.); Rick Crawford (Ark.); Byron Donalds and John Rutherford (Fla.); Bob Good (Va.), Clay Higgins (La.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Ralph Norman (SC), Scott Perry (Pa.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), and Jeff Van Drew (NJ). Despite this, the bill is supported by the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network, the National District Attorneys Association, Army of Survivors, the National Children’s Alliance, Keep Kids Safe, Together for Girls, Darkness to Light, the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and the Brave Movement. https://www.alternet.org/28-house-republicans-abuse-victims/ “Hundreds of millions potentially at stake”: Experts say Jan. 6 report opens door to Trump lawsuit The Jan. 6 committee released its final 800-plus-page report on Thursday, calling former President Donald Trump the "central cause" of the attack on the Capitol. Legal experts noted that in addition to four criminal referrals, the committee's report may open up other legal liabilities for Trump, including potential liability in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the former president's allies. New York University Law Professor Ryan Goodman pointed out that the report "opens doors wide for Dominion Voting Systems to sue former president Trump for defamation," and that there are "hundreds of millions of [dollars] potentially at stake." https://www.salon.com/2022/12/23/hundreds-of-millions-potentially-at-stake-experts-say-jan-6-report-opens-door-to/

Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, who both represent the worst of the GOP, refused to stand in applause when Zelensky entered the House and played video games on their phones all the while he spoke, never looking up.

Emerging COVID-19 crisis in China 'could shake the world': WaPo Editorial Board China is facing a new COVID-19 crisis that could severely affect the world after President Xi Jinping lifted the lockdown measures earlier this month, the Washington Post Editorial Board says. President Jinping originally lifted the “zero-covid” lockdown policy due to the negative impact it had on the economy – which triggered public protests throughout the country last month. He declared an end to the policy on December 7. China’s normally cool, calm and collected government, according to the Post, seems to be rattled by the new omicron variant that can potentially permeate throughout the nation. Residents have started to stay at home out of pure fear of its impact. The country traded the more powerful mRNA vaccines for “less-effective Chinese-made shots, and because the omicron variant hasn’t impacted much of the population, residents are less immune to the virus. The only possible saving grace to the outbreak is the CanSino Biologics aerosol vaccine, which is serving as a booster “in the form of an inhaled mist taking in through the mouth” in addition to imported mRNA shots. Of China’s 60-and-over population, only approximately 69 percent have had booster shots, and an even less percentage of residents over 80 have received theirs. The nation has already seen an uptick in deaths recently and is expected to see at least one million more in the next few months. In an attempt to mitigate this significant health crisis, China has enacted a campaign to attract more hesitant residents to vaccinate. Although vastly unpredictable, the current outbreak could continue to generate new variants over time on a global scale. https://www.alternet.org/covid-crisis-china-shake-world/

I think you are not seeing the forest for the trees. Right-wing politics in the US, Britain and Canada have swung sharply towards fascism but the center and center-left politics in Canada at least has remained static. British left-wingers have always been nutty and the US has no real concept of what European/Canadian left-wing politics are really like.

As easy as it is to succumb to fatalism and cynicism of the glacial progress of Garland's DOJ, I continue to believe that the mills of the gods grind exceeding slow but they grind exceeding fine. The fate of the American justice system, the trust that Americans have (perhaps naively) in their justice system and even their government may well hang on the next few months. This shattering of confidence serves the ends of fascism and may be what the GOP wants.

The rank and file Trump supporters have not realized that every dollar he has grifted from the US treasury/IRS is a dollar that has been taken from them.

Plus, Zelensky went home with a promise of an additional 2 billion in anti-aircraft systems.

Soooo....you would have them give the provinces a lump of money that they could use as they see fit without increasing health care? After provinces were wringing their hands and weeping that they did not have enough income to provide good healthcare after years/decades of cutting funding to there services?

Trump Secretly Paid For Lawyers And Then Tampered With 1/6 Witnesses CNN reported: Though the committee declined to identify the people, CNN has learned that Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the Trump White House, is the lawyer who allegedly advised his then-client, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, to tell the committee that she did not recall details that she did, sources familiar with the committee’s work tell CNN. Trump’s Save America political action committee funded Passantino and his law firm Elections LLC, including paying for his representation of Hutchinson, other sources tell CNN. The committee report notes the lawyer did not tell his client who was paying for the legal services. Hutchinson dumped the secretly Trump-financed lawyer and hired her own counsel who supported her decision to tell the truth to the committee. Hutchinson’s testimony was a bombshell. She detailed Trump’s demand to go to the Capitol on 1/6 and his altercation with his Secret Service detail. The 1/6 Committee has referred Trump for prosecution by the DOJ on an obstruction charge. The committee has made references to Trump witness tampering since the summer. Donald Trump used funds from his super PAC from his donors to tamper with 1/6 witnesses. Trump’s super PAC should also be under investigation, and if the campaign finance laws in the United States were functional in any way, the PAC would be shut down, and it would become another area of criminal investigation focus. The 1/6 Committee was not deterred by Trump’s witness tampering. They have put the pieces together to tell a comprehensive picture of how Donald Trump led an insurrection to overturn a presidential election.

Trump May Have Committed Tens Of Millions Of Dollars In Tax Crimes Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) of the House Ways and Means Committee said that Trump’s tax returns suggest that he had tens of millions of dollars in unsubstantiated claims. Rep. Doggett said on CNN, “I think you will see tens of millions of dollars in these returns that were claimed without adequate substantiation. The extent to which the IRS made an effort to get that substantiation, I invite you to look at the reports. But I think you’ll be surprised by how little there is, and I have my doubts that another taxpayer could go into audit and provide as little as was provided here and expect to have a completed audit.

‘We’re Just Meat’: Russian Military Keeps Killing Its Own Troops Russian troops have also been caught venting openly to relatives about the dangers they face from their own men in Ukraine. In audio released by Ukrainian intelligence on Tuesday and said to capture a Russian soldier's phone conversation, a man identified only as Aleksei tells his mother the military just sent reinforcements. He explains that the reinforcements came because “20 people are gone.” “Our tank hit hard: It fired twice and 20 guys, ****. I’m telling you, what the **** kind of command is this, scumbags. They’re ******* killing their own,” Aleksei, who described himself as a commander, said. “I’m telling you, there are more losses from our own [guys],” than the Ukrainians, he said. Another purported soldier, heard complaining to a friend back home in audio released Monday, said it was clear the military leadership gives “zero fucks” if their soldiers come back alive. “It’s not a war, it’s a **** show. It’s complete bullshit,” he said. “That’s it, the entire response from leadership: There are 300,000 of you, basically, we don’t give a ****.” “Don’t you dare come here, and know that it’s complete ****,” he told his friend. “Only on [state-run] Channel One are there ******* tanks, here there’s ******* nothing, brother. Here there’s nothing, you have no food, you drink from puddles.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-military-keeps-killing-its-own-troops-in-ukraine-war-report-says?ref=home

The Cons are betting that people will have short memories and are willing to swallow more of the same crap they have been fed for the past few years.

Winter storms are back — and scientists say climate change is making them a lot worse As winter storms continue to pummel much of the United States, is climate change partially — or majorly — to blame? As with any natural disaster that relates to the weather, it is natural to wonder whether climate change plays a role. Certainly the weather this winter has been extreme, with Texans and Oklahomans being warned of potential tornadoes and Americans everywhere bracing for possible power outages (which on their own can be devastating). Winter storms mean blocked roads, damaged property, crumbling infrastructure and possibly even injuries and deaths. The big question for both policymakers and the public, therefore, is how much of the horrid weather can be definitively attributed to global warming. Climate change experts say that it's not merely a coincidence — climate change really is worsening our winter storms this year, as multiples experts told Salon. "Winter storms develop in a climate change environment: it is warmer and moister," Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) told Salon by email. "But it is plenty cold in winter over the continent. It means snow amounts can be much greater: e.g. see Buffalo recently. They may be more intense: not guaranteed, but more developments ensue. Watch for a bad nor-easter." While it may seem counterintuitive to attribute more snow to the planet warming, Trenberth observed that this only seems to be the case because the general public is insufficiently informed about how climate change works. "[People need] education that winter warming may mean more snow, not less," Trenberth added. This does not mean that scientists can precisely quantify the extent to which climate change has played a role. According to Dr. Michael E. Mann — a climate scientist and director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania — it is "tricky" to figure these things out with precision. "There's still quite a bit of debate about whether we can expect more events like the Texas cold spell last year due to climate change," Mann wrote to Salon. "On the other hand, there is evidence that warming leads to more powerful, snowier nor'easters—something we've seen quite a bit of in the northeast in recent years." https://www.salon.com/2022/12/17/winter-storms-are-back-and-scientists-say-climate-change-is-making-them-a-lot-worse/

Shouldn't they change their name to "First Nations Motorcycles"?