Month: October 2022

Closing Thought–19Oct22

The lack of rain has the rivers around this country running dry…..my river, the Mississippi, is so low that barges are grounding as they try to move around the heart of the nation. There is also some ideas to suck the water out of the Mississippi and send it West…..I informed my readers to this problem…..

Water….Is Not Everywhere

The low level of the Mississippi is revealing some lost history…..

A shipwreck has emerged along the banks of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as water levels threaten to reach record lows in some areas. The ship, which archaeologists believe to be a ferry that sunk in the late 1800s to early 1900s, was spotted by a Baton Rouge resident walking along the shore earlier this month, per the AP. The discovery is the latest to surface from ebbing waters caused by drought. During the summer, receding waters in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada and Arizona revealed several skeletal remains, countless desiccated fish, a graveyard of forgotten boats, and even a sunken World War II-era craft that once surveyed the lake.

“Eventually the river will come back up and (the ship) will go back underwater,” said Chip McGimsey, the Louisiana state archeologist, who has been surveying the wreck during the past two weeks. “That’s part of the reason for making the big effort to document it this time—because she may not be there the next time.” McGimsey believes the ship may be the Brookhill Ferry, which likely carried people and horse-drawn wagons from one side of the river to the other before major bridges spanned the mighty Mississippi. Newspaper archives indicate that the ship sank in 1915 during a major storm. Roughly a third of the 95-foot vessel is visible on the muddy shoreline near downtown Baton Rouge.

 

McGimsey expects more discoveries as water levels continue to fall, having already received calls about two more possible shipwrecks. But the unusually low water level in the lower Mississippi River, where there has been below-normal rainfall since late August, has also led to chaos—causing barges to get stuck in mud and sand, leading to waterway restrictions from the Coast Guard, and disrupting river travel for shippers, recreational boaters, and passengers on a cruise line. In Baton Rouge, the river depth is about 5 feet, its lowest level since 2012, according to the National Weather Service. Water levels are projected to drop even more in the weeks ahead, dampening the region’s economic activity and potentially threatening jobs.

But not to worry….the GOP will protect us from all evils when they are in charge.  (sarcasm)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Ukraine And NATO

Ukraine was barred from entry into NATO until it cleaned up its act and work on clean out corruption and extend democracy…..now since Russia’s ill-fated invasion of Ukraine the world including NATO are considering Ukraine for membership. But why?

Zelensky has tried to play Europe to rush through their membership….but sadly it is not falling on supportive ears…..

On September 30, in the tailwind of Russia’s announcement that Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia would be annexed by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a renewed plea for Ukrainian membership in NATO. 

The Ukrainian president made his case for membership by pointing out that “de facto, we have already made our way to NATO.” With that statement, he lifted up Russia’s claim that it is “now in a direct war with the U.S.” or, as Putin said on September 21, that Russia is fighting “the entire Western military machine.”

In other words, Zelensky’s request has further fed into Russian fears that Ukraine has already become a Western vassal. For Ukraine and its allies, it also highlighted, once again, that Kyiv is not a member of NATO. And, judging by the muted response from NATO leaders, that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Take NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who repeated that the door is open to all European countries before slamming the door shut again by saying that “our focus now is on providing immediate support to Ukraine to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s brutal invasion.”

If that wasn’t enough, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan then pretty much locked the door, saying Ukraine’s application “should be taken up at a different time.”

This is a reminder to the people of Ukraine — the people who are directly suffering the horrors of this war — that the U.S. and its NATO allies are more than happy to send weapons to Ukrainian soldiers but remain unwilling to send their own men and women to fight.

Biden has repeatedly insisted that the U.S. “will not fight the third world war in Ukraine,” hence the  immediate reason NATO won’t entertain Zelensky’s entreaties: Article 5 could be triggered immediately in the face of continued Russian aggression against the defenses, infrastructure, and populace in Ukraine.

Zelensky’s NATO bid falls flat

Of course Russia takes exception to the possibility of a Ukraine membership….

A Russian Security Council official said Thursday that Ukraine joining NATO would guarantee World War III when commenting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent attempt to join the alliance.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech on annexing Ukrainian territory on September 30, Zelensky submitted a “fast-track” application to join NATO, which was quickly shot down.

Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said that Zelensky’s application was a propaganda move. “Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War Three,” he said.

Venediktov said that the US and its allies also recognize that Ukraine can’t join NATO without sparking a world war. “The suicidal nature of such a step is understood by NATO members themselves,” he said.

During the lead-up to Russia’s February 24 invasion, Putin was seeking a guarantee from the US that Ukraine won’t ever join NATO. Even though President Biden made clear at the time that Ukraine wouldn’t be joining the alliance anytime in the foreseeable future, he refused to make the promise.

Back in March, when seemingly discussing the period before the war, Zelensky said he asked for a straight answer about whether or not Ukraine would become a NATO member. He was told no, but that “publicly,” the door would remain open.

“I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five, just say it directly and clearly, or just say no,” he told CNN. “And the response was very clear, you’re not going to be a NATO member, but publicly, the doors will remain open.”

While NATO has no plans to accept Ukraine as a full member, Politico reported Wednesday that the alliance it is working on a 10-year plan to rebuild the country’s military and arms industry. The idea would be to focus on shifting the country from using Soviet equipment to primarily using NATO weapons, making it a de facto NATO member.

(antiwar.com)

The world should not be held up to blackmail…and that is exactly what Zelensky is doing regardless of how he puts lipstick on the request….it is a bad idea.   Period!

What to do, what to do?

The GOP may do something that I can agree with……

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) suggested on Tuesday that major Ukraine aid may be more difficult to pass if the House is controlled by Republicans after the upcoming mid-term elections.

“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News.

While spending billions on the war in Ukraine still has strong bipartisan support, 57 House Republicans voted against the $40 billion Ukraine aid bill that was passed in May.

McCarthy and other Republican leaders are still in favor of supporting Ukraine, but more GOP members are said to be questioning the policy. So far, the US has authorized over $67 billion to spend on the war, more than Russia’s entire military budget for 2021.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, downplayed McCarthy’s comments and said he believes the GOP concerns are more over the lack of oversight.

There still is virtually no oversight for the tens of billions of dollars that have been sent to Ukraine, which covers not only military aid but also direct funding of the Ukrainian government.

(antiwar.com)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18Oct22

Social media has given us a wealth of bullsh*t that enters into our political system…..some are outrageous to the point of being moronic.

This is one of those ‘myths’ that social media has given us and that was picked up in our political discourse.

It seems that there is a rally around litter boxes in schools…..

You read that correctly….litter boxes…..

At a luncheon for Republican women in Mesa County, Colorado, last week, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., warned that educators “are putting litter boxes in schools for people who identify as cats.”

To a person not steeped in the culture war battles over gender identity that have engulfed school districts nationwide, it’s the kind of claim that would sound bizarre and confusing — and, from high-profile GOP members, authoritative.

The week before, on Sept. 29, Minnesota GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen asked during a campaign stop, “Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry?” 

And during a legislative hearing last month in Tennessee, two Republican state lawmakers discussed the “growing crisis” of public schools providing litter boxes for children who identify as cats, and claimed it’s happening across the state. 

At least 20 conservative candidates and elected officials have claimed this year that K-12 schools are placing litter boxes on campus or making other accommodations for students who identify as cats, according to an NBC News review of public statements.

Every school district that has been named by those 20 politicians said either to NBC News or in public statements that these claims are untrue. There is no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/urban-myth-litter-boxes-schools-became-gop-talking-point-rcna51439

Seriously?  Litter boxes in schools?

Just how far can these morons take total bullsh*t?

Worse yet there are those mental midgets that will believe this stuff….and will vote accordingly.

What kind of mental midget believes this crap?

Social media is ruining this country and our political process…..at what point is enough enough?

This puts those that believe this crap into the “Can’t Fix Stupid Files”

I weep for their stupidity.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Dim Horizon

There is some ominous future looming….even if the reassurance from the president….the near future does not look like it will be as bright as he predicts…..

A new economic projection contradicts President Biden’s hopeful forecast of a minor recession, at worst, ahead for the nation. A Bloomberg Economics model shows the likelihood of a recession beginning at some point before October 2023 at 100%. Until now, the model had the chance of a recession at 65%, Bloomberg reports. With the midterm elections less than a month away, Biden dismissed a downturn as unlikely in a CNN interview last week. “I don’t think there will be a recession,” the president said, per CNBC. “If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession.”

Other forecasts, including Bloomberg’s, have been less certain. An unrelated Boomberg survey of 42 economists found the likelihood of a recession in the next 12 months has risen 10 points in the past month, to 60%. The change in the forecast was attributed to widespread worsening among the data used as the model’s inputs. The model uses 13 macroeconomic and financial indicators in predicting the chance of a recession occurring at points from one month to two years from now. More generally, Bloomberg attributed the growing chances of a downturn to inflation and concern that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates.

An old economic foe has returned and will do little to raise the hopes of the American people…..that old foe is   stagflation.

Inflation is back, and it is rising sharply, especially over the past year, owing to a mix of both demand and supply factors. This rise in inflation may not be a short-term phenomenon: the Great Moderation of the past three decades may be over, and we may be entering a new era of Great Stagflationary Instability.

Unless you are middle-aged and gray-haired, you probably hadn’t heard about the term stagflation until very recently. You may have barely heard about inflation. For a long time, until 2021, inflation—the increase in prices year to year—was below the advanced economies’ central banks’ target of 2%. Usually inflation is associated with high economic growth. When aggregate demand for goods, services, and labor is strong, coupled with positive animal spirits, optimism about the future, and possibly loose monetary and fiscal policies, you get stronger than potential economic growth and higher than target inflation. Firms are able to set higher prices because demand outstrips supply, and workers receive higher wages given a low unemployment rate. In recessions, on the other hand, you have low aggregate demand below the potential supply of goods, which leads to a slack in labor and goods markets, with ensuing low inflation or even deflation: prices go down as consumers’ spending declines. Stagflation is a term that refers to high inflation that happens at the same time as stagnation of growth or outright recession.

https://time.com/6221771/stagflation-crisis-debt-nouriel-roubini/

Nothing in economics is showing any good….we are headed for disaster…..and with that will come a change in government and a change that will not be good for the country.

But the GOP is hoping for a recession….makes running for office a dream.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mid-Term Bad News

Just a mere couple of weeks before we Americans head to the voting booth…..the predictions are up and down….depending on which ones you pay attention to in your decision making process……

The latest news is not looking good for the Dems……

With the midterms closing in, a new poll from the New York Times and Sienna College delivers troubling news for Democrats: Worries about the economy are giving Republicans a renewed edge. The big takeaway stat is that likely voters would prefer a Republican to represent them in Congress over a Democrat by a 49-45 margin, a flip from September when Democrats (boosted by concerns over abortion rights) were up by a single point. The stats with independent voters explain the turnaround:

  • Huge flip: Nowhere is the shift more pronounced than among independent women voters. They now favor Republicans by 18 points, but they favored Democrats by 14 in September. The Times, in what may be an understatement, calls this 32-point shift “striking.” The story includes a quote from one such woman who says that while she disagrees with the Supreme Court’s Roe decision “1,000 percent,” it’s not enough to sway her vote.
  • One view: So what’s going on here? “Americans don’t like their Democratic president, and they aren’t happy with the status quo,” writes Charles C.W. Cooke at the conservative National Review. “And what respondents care about—despite all that talk of ‘Roevember’—is the bad economy.”
  • Another poll: A CBS News-YouGov poll also finds that Democratic momentum after the Roe decision has “stalled.” It finds that the “Republicans’ House lead has stabilized today at 224 seats to the Democrats’ 211,” after shrinking in the previous two monthly polls.
  • Big flip: Independents say they favor a GOP candidate by a margin of 51-41. But in September, Democrats had a 3-point lead.

Actually after looking at the population I have seen this scenario playing out for about 6 months…..

For me this is so sad…..the country deserves so much more from its elected officials than the GOP is willing to give.

You can make a difference but only if you care enough about this country to vote.

Be the change you want to see.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Defunding

Awhile back some Dem mentioned defunding the police and presto change-o the Right has a new and enduring campaign attack.

But while the Repubs are embracing the police and using comments as a way to influence the voter….some are calling for the defunding of the VA…..

Republican legislators are starting to suggest defunding the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the office founded in 1989 to assist with veteran needs. The VA assists with getting veterans mental and physical healthcare, educational opportunities, community support, and other everyday housing and living needs.

An Arizona legislator, captured on video participating in a mock congressional hearing, said he supported shutting down the department.

“That’s sort of what I’m thinking because … I hear no good stories. I had zero in my district,” the legislator said in a video posted by the far-right watchdog group Patriot Takes. “So I guess it’s a matter of us leading the fight to defund it.”

A second video, posted by the same account, showed Republican Florida Representative Matt Gaetz advocating for defunding the VA while speaking at an event held by FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian advocacy group.

“This is my question to the group. Is it savable? Why not abolish the VA, take all of the money that we are otherwise spending and go to an any willing provider system inside of our communities?” Gaetz says in the video. “And then, if people get bad care, they can vote with their feet and you don’t have a two-tier system of healthcare in this country with our veterans and then with everyone else.”

Generally speaking, Republican policies favor the privatization of all government functions, thinking that a “small government,” “free-market,” “for-profit” privatization provided by a corporation can solve any market ill.

https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-suggest-defunding-veteran-affairs-even-though-it-helps-9-million-vets/

But I thought the GOP was the champion of the veterans and their needs…..

This incidence is not the first time the GOP has taking aim on the VA….

When you hear Republicans praising veterans, do not believe it for a minute. Congressional Republicans blocked or filibustered bill after bill that would have aided veterans, all in an attempt to undermine President Barack Obama and cut taxes for the wealthy. They do not want this man to have a positive legacy.

Mitch McConnell and his cohorts filibustered $21 billion in funds that would have expanded veteran benefits and saved expansions.

Republicans:

• blocked a $1 billion jobs bill that would have helped millions of vets

• blocked a bill that would have kept benefits on par with the cost of living

• killed the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act

• killed the Veterans Retraining Act

• killed the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Act

• killed the Disabled Veterans Home Improvement Act

• killed the Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act

(lasvegassun.com)

The Dems need to jump on this with both feet….take a page from the GOP playbook….hammer their desire to defund the VA.

But will they?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Would A Break Help?

Has anyone else noticed just how stupid and boring the news has become?

I have decided a year and a half ago to back away from the news….it has become pedantic and boring….

Looks I I made a good decision…..

A constant influx of bad news — pandemic, shootings, inflation, natural disasters, political turmoil — can feel, at best, soul-crushing. Now, a new study from Spain confirms the negative toll constantly being plugged into the news cycle can take.

The researchers looked at how people were best able to manage feelings of anxiety and depression at the height of the pandemic, finding that one of the most effective methods was to take breaks from the barrage of bad news.

“The best predictor for having lower anxiety and depressive symptoms,” said lead study author Dr. Joaquim Radua, a psychiatrist in Barcelona, was to “avoid watching too much news.” Radua is also affiliated with King’s College London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

The research will be presented this weekend at a meeting of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Vienna. It has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Radua cautioned that because the research was conducted in 2020 and 2021, it was unclear how the results would apply as coronavirus cases continue to decline.

Others note that there’s only so much negative news coverage a person can take before it affects their mental health.

“There’s an endless availability of information,” said Lindsey McKernan, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville who was not involved with the new study. “Without putting the brakes on it yourself, you can just keep going and keep reading and become more stressed.”

Radua’s research looked at 942 adults in Spain who filled out an online questionnaire every two weeks for a year during the pandemic. The participants reported whether they were feeling despondent, and if so, how they were coping with such feelings. The analysis factored in whether participants had been previously diagnosed with anxiety or depression.

The study found that those who avoided “too much stressful news” had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.

(nbcnews.com)

For peace of mind is important to you then avoid too muck of what tries to pass for news.

Have a great Sunday and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

My Usual Saturday News

The news from the last week has been boring and dull…..so to counter my boring I look for ‘other’ news that will be entertaining an hopefully a bit educational….

First the bad news…..

I truly enjoy eating tomatoes…..matters not whether fresh, stewed, grilled, or sauced….so the latest report from the agriculture department…..

California farmers who grow tomatoes are being squeezed by the drought and other factors, which means prices at grocery stores are only going up. In the central part of the state, low levels of rain and snow are being felt, and the limits on water from the Colorado River are affecting the south, Reuters reports. Prices are high, but production is falling. One farmer near Firegaugh said he decided to plant only one-fourth of his 2,000 acres. “I don’t think farming in California has ever been more complex and more challenging, and the drought is a large part of that,” said Aaron Barcellos. The US Department of Agriculture cut its forecast for California’s tomato production in 2022 by 10% in August.

So farmers are getting high prices not only for tomatoes, but for onions and garlic. “What you’re seeing harvested this summer, that really hasn’t even hit the grocery shelf, is a 25% increase in the cost of the product to the processors—the canners, the buyers downstream,” said Don Cameron, president of the state’s State Board of Food and Agriculture. Studies show the main reason for the difficulty is the first human-driven regional drought on record, per Axios. “There’s just not enough water to grow everything that we normally grow,” said Cameron.

Keeping with the food trend…..

I like hot sauce….not the stuff that takes your breath away because it is too hot…..I have one for breakfast food, another for beans and such and one for Tex-Mex or Mexican.

My hot sauce for breakfast stuff is Texas Pete and there is a lawsuit around the product….

A new class-action lawsuit involves four different states and a very literal reading of the label on a bottle of hot sauce. The first state is California, where resident Philip White went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of Texas Pete (second state) hot sauce, reports USA Today. Upon getting home and reading the label, however, White discovered that the product—which falls under the general category of a Louisiana-style (third state) hot sauce—is not made in Texas but rather in the fourth state, North Carolina.

“White relied upon the language and images displayed on the front label of the product, and at the time of purchase understood the product to be a Texas product,” says the complaint, per WGHP. He says he never would have bought the hot sauce had he known it wasn’t from Texas, renowned for its spiciness, and he’s asking the court to force parent company TW Garner Food to pay damages and change the brand’s name.

The company “has cheated its way to a market-leading position in the $3 billion hot-sauce industry at the expense of law-abiding competitors and consumers nationwide who desire authentic Texas hot sauce and reasonably, but incorrectly, believe that is what they are getting when they purchase Texas Pete,” says the complaint. Texas Pete has not commented, but the brand’s website makes no secret of the fact that it’s made in North Carolina. So why the long-standing name? As the website explains, it’s just a marketing thing.

This yahoo sounds like one of those useless tools that wants to win the lawsuit lotto.  Did he ever think about reading the label before he bought?

Now a sad story…..

It seems a man died thanks to the use of GPS……

The family of a North Carolina father of two say he died after following his GPS at night onto a bridge that partially washed away almost a decade ago. The body of Philip Paxson, 47, was found in his overturned vehicle in a creek on Oct. 1, the morning after he failed to return home from his daughter’s birthday party, reports WCNC. “He was following his GPS which led him down a concrete road to a bridge that dropped off into a river,” wrote mother-in-law Linda McPhoee Koeing, per People. “The bridge had been destroyed 9 years ago and never repaired.”

As Today notes, the rural road Paxson turned onto after 11pm is a private one that is not maintained by the state or the county. The road in Hickory appears on GPS directions, even though it leads to a bridge that washed away and was never fixed. Police say barriers to prevent people from continuing down the road were removed for reasons that remain unclear. “He took a left, and that left went to that bridge to nowhere, which is what they called it since 2013 when that bridge washed away and no one took responsibility to get that bridge fixed,” sister-in-law Kayla Bubar tells WCNC.

Paxson had been at a birthday party for one of his children earlier that night, and his wife drove home ahead of him with their kids. Paxson stayed behind to clean up and never returned home. A friend out searching the next day came across his vehicle in the water. It remains murky just who is responsible for the road at this point, notes People. A real estate development company that once was involved in the upkeep has since dissolved.

Finally….there has been a wealth of debate around the Scooby-Do franchise….that being the sexual orientation of the character Velma….well that debate may have been settled once and for all…..

The sexual orientation of Scooby-Doo character Velma Dinkley has been as hot a topic as that of any actual celebrity—and perhaps more so, given that fans haven’t received clear confirmation of their suspicions for “generations,” per Deadline—until now. In the animated HBO Max flick Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, released digitally on Tuesday, Velma’s attraction to another woman is acknowledged outright. Upon meeting famous fashion designer Coco Diablo, Velma takes in her brilliant mind and attractive appearance as she blushes and her glasses fog up.

“I didn’t know convicted felons were your type,” fellow Mystery Incorporation crew member Daphne Blake (Grey Griffin) says to Velma (Kate Micucci), referring to Coco (Myrna Velasco), per the Hollywood Reporter. “I’m crushing big-time, Daphne,” Velma responds. “What do I do? What do I say?” In another scene, Velma adopts a lovestruck expression as Coco calls her “the cute one” and touches her shoulder. In yet another interaction with Coco, Velma’s glasses literally melt off her face. This means Velma is now “officially a lesbian,” according to Variety, which reports this fact has been “an open secret among fans and Scooby-Doo creatives” for years.

James Gunn, director of 2002’s live-action Scooby-Doo and the 2004 sequel, previously noted his intention was to portray Velma as “explicitly gay” but said Warner Bros. interfered. Tony Cervone, a producer for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2010 to 2013, also described Velma as “gay”—”not bi.” He added the series showed sparks between Velma and female character Marcie Fleach, though their relationship wasn’t explicitly acknowledged. “OMG LESBIAN VELMA FINALLY,” reads one Tuesday tweet, liked more than 225,000 times.

You are now caught up with the useless news from the week….

Enjoy your weekend and be safe…..

“lego ergo scribo”

The Last Public Hearing

The Congress is closing out its hearings on the 6 January insurrection…..

This is for all those that are truly interesting it what may come out of these hearings.

The ninth and probably last public hearing from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack ended Thursday with a vote to subpoena former President Trump. Earlier, the panel presented more evidence that advisers had urged Trump to declare victory on Election Day in 2020 whether he had won or not, and that Trump privately acknowledged he had lost, despite his public claims that the election had been “stolen.” Some takeaways:

  • “Powerful case” might not be enough. The committee presented a “powerful case full of damning testimony mainly from the defendant’s own advisers, allies, and even relatives,” Peter Baker writes at the New York Times. But it’s far from clear whether it will change the minds of many Trump supporters, he notes. The evidence may “have lit a fire at the Justice Department … as federal prosecutors appeared to ratchet up their own investigation in recent months,” Baker writes.
  • Subpoena was big step. The Hill calls the 9-0 vote in favor of the Trump subpoena a “remarkable step” after “months of wavering on whether to compel cooperation” from the former president. It “marks a major escalation” in the effort to hold Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 attack, though he is almost certain to challenge it in the courts, meaning the panel is unlikely to be able to obtain his testimony before its final report at the end of the year.
  • Footage showed leaders calling for help. In what the AP calls “one of its most riveting exhibits,” the panel showed previously unseen video of congressional leaders calling for help during the Capitol attack. “They’re breaking the law in many different ways,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says at one point. “And quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States.” (More on that here.)
  • New Secret Service evidence. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said newly obtained documents show that Secret Service members expressed concerns about armed rallygoers and possible violence more than a week before Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, the Washington Post reports. He said the evidence “strongly suggests” that previous testimony from Secret Service members and White House witnesses, who said they hadn’t received information that officials could be in danger, was “not credible.”
  • Criminal referral question is still up in the air. The New York Times notes that the question of whether the committee will recommend criminal charges against Trump or anybody else was left unresolved, though Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said near the end of Wednesday’s hearing that there was “sufficient information to consider criminal referrals for multiple individuals.” The committee is expected to produce its final report in December and it will be dissolved 30 days later, before the new Congress in January, the AP reports.

The Congress is closing out its investigation hearings just in time for them to go home for the mid-terms.

We can only guess what will be the outcome….after all a new House may well be sworn in and that could throw a monkey wrench into the deliberations.

Only time will tell if this investigation will come to anything other than fodder for nthe MSM.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

And The War Rages On

Americans seem to not care about anything else around the conflict between Ukraine and Russia other than the death and destruction….so I will give you what I know as of today….

Ukraine is retaking territory as far as the reports tell….

Ukraine said Wednesday it had retaken five more settlements in the southern region of Kherson as Kyiv continues its counteroffensive despite mass Russian missile strikes that hit the country in the past days.

“Ukrainian armed forces have liberated five more settlements in Beryslav district (of Kherson region): Novovasylivka, Novogrygorivka, Nova Kamyanka, Tryfonivka, Chervone,” the presidency said in its daily report.

“The enemy continues shelling the positions of our units to deter the counteroffensive along the entire contact line,” the presidency said.

The Ukrainian army announced its counteroffensive in the south in late August.

After regaining almost full control of the northeastern region of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian forces recently claimed more gains on the eastern and southern fronts.

Ukraine said it had recaptured over 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) in Kherson in less than a week, after Moscow claimed to have annexed the region.

Kherson is one of the four regions in Ukraine that Moscow recently claimed to have annexed.

(thedefensepost.com)

After retreating about 20km in the north of the Kherson sector in early October, Russian forces are likely to be attempting to consolidate a new frontline west from the village of Mylove, according to British intelligence. Heavy fighting continues along this line, especially at the western end, where Ukrainian advances mean Russia’s flank is no longer protected by the Inhulets River, the latest UK Ministry of Defence report reads.

Then with all this back and forth the usual rhetoric from the Russians….

A Russian Security Council official said Thursday that Ukraine joining NATO would guarantee World War III when commenting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent attempt to join the alliance.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech on annexing Ukrainian territory on September 30, Zelensky submitted a “fast-track” application to join NATO, which was quickly shot down.

Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said that Zelensky’s application was a propaganda move. “Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War Three,” he said.

Venediktov said that the US and its allies also recognize that Ukraine can’t join NATO without sparking a world war. “The suicidal nature of such a step is understood by NATO members themselves,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

All this ‘news’ is just a day in the life of the Ukraine war.

Just thought you should know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”