Tracker

Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced In Jeffrey Epstein Sex Abuse Case. U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan handed down the sentencing in a New York courtroom. Federal prosecutors had sought 30 to 55 years against the former international jetsetter and British socialite. The 60-year-old was convicted late last year of sex trafficking, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts and two conspiracy charges related to the late financier. Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, according to authorities. Epstein faced allegations of sexual abuse from scores of women, though the court in Maxwell’s trial focused on testimony from four women. They described being abused as teenagers with the help of Maxwell, who they said recruited them to Epstein’s homes after showering them with attention and offers of mentorship. Once at his properties, the women said they were instructed to perform sexual massages and were sexually abused.

'I’m The F-ing President’: Trump Got Into Physical Altercation On Jan. 6 WASHINGTON ― Former President Donald Trump got into a physical altercation after he tried to grab the wheel to turn the presidential motorcade around and go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Tuesday. Hutchinson testified before the House’s Jan. 6 committee that she heard from another Trump aide that the ex-president was “irate” after Secret Service agents told him they were taking him back to the White House shortly after he instructed his supporters to march on the Capitol building. “The president said something to the effect of, I’m the f-ing president, take me up to the Capitol now. To which [Secret Service agent Bobby Engel] responded, ‘Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing,’” Hutchison said. She continued: “The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel, we’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’” “Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel and when Mr. [Anthony] Ornato had recounted the story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/january-6-trump-limo-altercation_n_62bb40f3e4b05653163937ef

Trump Knew Supporters Had Weapons On Jan. 6 But Didn't Care, Top Aide Testifies Former President Donald Trump knew his supporters were armed with weapons the day of the Jan 6, 2021, Capitol attack, but insisted they be allowed to watch him speak before the riot. “I heard the president say something to the effect of, ‘I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags [metal detectors] away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here,’” said Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The new explosive testimony was aired during a surprise hearing on Tuesday. Hutchinson recalled that Trump had been informed by Secret Service that his supporters had brought weapons to his rally shortly before the attack on the Capitol. Those weapons included bear spray, spears, guns and flagpoles used as weapons. Trump, however, was apparently fixated on the crowd size and demanded more of his supporters be allowed to bypass metal detectors to watch him speak, Hutchinson testified. “He was furious because he wanted the arena we had at the ellipse to be maxed out to capacity,” Hutchinson said of Trump’s demeanor. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-supporters-weapons-capitol-riot_n_62bb3440e4b0adb8aa4d48e8 (With this plus the explosive testimony of Mark Meadows' aide cannot do anything but put Trump and his cabal on trial)

GOP lawmaker mocked for 'literally impossible' claim that gun control leads to mass shootings with arrows Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) is facing deep scrutiny after insisting that the United States could see an uptick in mass shootings with arrows if guns are banned. During a recent news interview, CNN's Pamela Brown asked Davidson if he could admit "that mass shooting could not happen" without guns. The Republican lawmaker dismissed Brown's argument and, instead, focused on a different hypothetical scenario. He pondered the possibility of mass shootings occurring with arrows if guns end up being banned. As the clip of the interview began circulating on Twitter, social media users quickly chimed in to share their criticism of Davidson. "Yeah, no such thing as an 'assault crossbow,' though," one Twitter user pointed out. "So it kinda takes a lot longer to kill as many people..." https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/lawmaker-mocked-mass-shootings-arrows/

I do not want to minimize what Rourke has accomplished so far but he has still to win a hotly contested game. What has impressed me about him most is that, in an interview he said that he runs wind sprints with his teammates when they do so as to not be huffing and puffing halfway through the game. from being out of shape. That also has to send a strong, positive message to his team that he is not just a pretty face, but pushes himself to be the best he can be. Good stuff.

Why Roe’s demise pushed the US even closer to violent civil conflict: author The United States was a deeply divided country long before Friday, June 24, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s hard-right majority overturned Roe v. Wade with its decision in Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization. But the Dobbs ruling will only intensify the United States’ bitter, ugly divisions, and some political science professors, authors and journalists fear that the tensions will lead to even more violence than the country has already suffered. In a disturbing article published by The Guardian on June 26, Stephen Marche — author of the book “The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future” — predicts that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will do a lot to bring about a major “civil conflict.” And Marche’s warning is similar to what political science professors Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way have been warning about. Levitsky and Way don’t believe that an outright civil war like the one that occurred in the 1860s is on the horizon, but they do fear that the U.S. is heading for a period of prolonged violent conflict comparable to The Troubles in Northern Ireland. “The cracks in the foundations of the United States are widening, rapidly and on several fronts,” Marche warns in his Guardian article. “The overturning of Roe v. Wade has provoked a legitimacy crisis no matter what your politics. For the right, the leaking of the draft memo last month revealed the breakdown of bipartisanship and common purpose within the institution. For the left, it demonstrated the will of dubiously selected Republican justices to overturn established rights that have somewhere near 70% to 80% political support.” Marche continues, “Accelerating political violence, like the attack in Buffalo, increasingly blurs the line between the mainstream political conservative movement and outright murderous insanity. The question is no longer whether there will be a civil conflict in the United States. The question is how the sides will divide, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how those strengths and weaknesses will determine the outcome.” The author/journalist points out that in the U.S., the far right has “been imagining a civil war, publicly, since at least the Obama Administration,” adding that “the possibility of civil war has long been a mainstay of right-wing talk radio.” And Marche, in parts of his article, is somewhat critical of Democrats, who, he argues, naively act as though the Republican Party still embraces pluralism. “The left-wing American political class, incredibly, continues to cling to its defunct institutional ideals,” Marche writes. “Democrats under (President Joe) Biden have wasted the past two years on fictions of bipartisanship and forlorn hopes of some kind of restoration of American trust. When violence like Buffalo hits, they can do little more than plead with the other side to reconsider the horror they’re unleashing, and offer obvious lectures about the poison of White supremacy.” Marche stresses that “incipient civil conflict in the United States won’t be formal armies struggling for territory.” “The techniques of both sides are clarifying,” Marche explains. “Republican officials will use the Supreme Court, or whatever other political institutions they control, to push their agenda no matter how unpopular with the American people. Meanwhile, their calls for violence, while never direct, create a climate of rage that solidifies into regular physical assaults on their enemies. The technical term for this process is stochastic terrorism; the attack in Buffalo is a textbook example.” https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/roes-demise-has-pushed-the-u-s-even-closer-to-violent-civil-conflict-author/

This is a devil's choice for the Rider head coach and GM. Their best players are some of the biggest problems when it comes to discipline, and if they cut or trade some or all of them, it will be a major setback, at least for the short term.

I saw nothing in the last Argo game to indicate that they are capable of beating the St. James Rods.

Granted, Harris is a year older and looks porkier than last year, but his O-line has not opened holes for him, and his production is way down. When our O-line starts playing better, Oliveira will get better. In the last game, the O-line was a bit better and Oliveira was also a bit better. Next game will be interesting for that reason alone.

That this sort of thing has become so common as to be banal is both telling about the Alberta culture and sad.

And he ought to change his jersey number to 00.

Someone gotta pay for their 0-3 start and he looked guilty.

This is a probable reaction to Putin's offer/threat to station nuclear weapons in Belarus. The glove-puppet president there hasn't thought it through that a nuclear exchange would completely destroy Belarus and almost certainly kill him as well. No doubt Putin has assured him that he and his significant others would be given refuge in one of Russia's bunkers. Fat chance of that.

The Tories' plan is working to perfection.

There may be so much going on in the body, but apparently very little in this woman's head. I wonder if she has a Stepford address.

GOP congressional nominee suggests rape rarely leads to pregnancy: 'Maybe because there’s so much going on in the body' Yesli Vega, the Republican Party’s nominee for a U.S. Congress seat in Virginia says she believes rape rarely leads to pregnancy, “maybe because there’s so much going on in the body.” Her remarks were recorded last month before the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took away the constitutional right to abortion. Axios broke the story Monday. “The left will say, ‘Well what about in cases of rape or incest?'” Vega said at an event (audio below) in Stafford County, Virginia. “I’m a law enforcement officer. I became a police officer in 2011. I’ve worked one case where as a result of a rape, the young woman became pregnant.” In the audio, Vega is asked: “I’ve actually heard that it’s harder for a woman to get pregnant if she’s been raped. Have you heard that?” She replies: “Well, maybe because there’s so much going on in the body. I don’t know. I haven’t, you know, seen any studies. But if I’m processing what you’re saying, it wouldn’t surprise me. Because it’s not something that’s happening organically. You’re forcing it. The individual, the male, is doing it as quickly — it’s not like, you know — and so I can see why there is truth to that. It’s unfortunate.” Vega, who is now being compared to the late GOP Senator Todd Akin, also brought up what she sees as her “number one” obligation as a person of faith, calling abortion a deviation. “It’s my, number one, as a believer, to give you all of the resources available. If you decide to deviate and do something else, we don’t stop loving you.” “Because of the data that we have it’s been proven that women who do move forward with an abortion, they suffer so much.” In a social media post celebrating the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade Vega claimed abortion has been legal “up to and even after the point of birth.” https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/yesli-vega/

Probably unenforceable if that is any consolation.

If enough people in Alberta are embarrassed by this, there is still hope.

Apparently Brits approve of a monarchy by a slim margin, provided that Queen Elizabeth is the regent. Once she is gone, that would mean a drastically reduce support for her heirs, who have shown themselves to be problems.

I think that one of the Dickenson brothers will be on UIC before Labour Day.

The asylum is being run by the inmates.

It looks to me like Harris is carrying extra ballast as well.

Prince Charles Accepted $3m in Cash Stuffed Into Bags and Suitcases from Sheikh The cartoon image of Prince Charles rubbing his hands with glee while chucking shopping bags stuffed full of banknotes into the back of his wine-powered Aston Martin like something out of the irreverent British comedy The Windsors is on the Royalist’s mind today. The image follows the astonishing revelation that the heir to the throne was personally handed a suitcase containing €1m (just over $1.05m) by a politician representing a rich oil-producing Arab statelet. “It was one of three lots of cash, totaling €3 million ($3.2m), which Prince Charles personally received from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar who is nicknamed ‘HBJ,’ between 2011 and 2015,” the London Sunday Times reports. The story, described as “truly shocking” by a senior ethics official, will cement in many minds Charles’ reputation for financial indiscipline. While it may be a little too much to say it jeopardizes his succession, it certainly poses urgent and new questions about the judgement of the heir to the throne when it comes to money matters. Late last year, Charles lost his key aide Michael Fawcett, who was forced to stand down from Charles’ foundation after it was revealed he arranged an honor for a billionaire Saudi donor, explicitly in return for donations. Charles denied any knowledge of the transactional arrangement but a reported police investigation into the matter has provided no answers, being discreet to the point of invisibility. Prince Harry pointedly accused his father of being involved in what he described as a “scandal” over the affair. https://upexampaper.com/prince-charles-accepted-3m-in-cash-stuffed-into-bags-and-suitcases-from-sheikh-more-trending-news-here/

Another sign the troglodytes are emerging: Texas Senator John Cornyn says "Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education" Cornyn made the remark via Twitter in a share of former President Barack Obama's statement on the Roe reversal. On Saturday morning, Texas Senator John Cornyn tweeted a racist comment along with a share of former President Barack Obama's statement regarding Friday's Supreme Court ruling to reverse Roe v. Wade. Obama, making his statement on Twitter on Friday morning shortly after the ruling was handed down, said "Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans." The following morning, Cornyn shared that statement from Obama to his own Twitter account adding "Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education." Brown v. Board of Education, ruled on by the Supreme Court in 1954, did historical justice in wiping away the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, making "separate but equal" rightfully unconstitutional. Following Cornyn's initial tweet, which received tremendous heated backlash, he fired off another one saying "Thank goodness some SCOTUS precedents are overruled." https://www.salon.com/2022/06/25/texas-senator-john-cornyn-says-now-do-plessy-vs-fergusonbrown-vs-board-of-education/

Another reason for the right wing to hate Trudeau: Canada Will Allow Americans To Cross The Border For Abortions: Trudeau TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Saturday that the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion could lead to the loss of other rights and indicated his country would continue to allow Americans to get abortions in Canada. Trudeau called the court’s decision “horrific” and voiced concern that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry. “We know that this is an extremely, not just scary, but disheartening time for so many women,” Trudeau said at a news conference in Kigali, Rwanda, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. “Women for generations have fought for more rights in the United States, (only) to see this setback, to worry as well about how this can be expanded to more rights be taken away in the United States,” he said. “This is a reminder of how we need to be unequivocal in our defense of people’s rights, in not taking anything for granted, in staying vigilant, and always standing up for woman’s rights, for LBGT rights, for the rights of people who are disenfranchised and marginalized,” he added. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/canada-will-allow-americans-to-cross-the-border-for-abortions-trudeau_n_62b76e11e4b04a61736b4169 Asked if his government would help American women seeking abortions in Canada, Trudeau did not directly respond, but said: “Everyday Americans who find themselves in Canada access our health care system in Canada and that’s certainly something that will continue,”