A rather eventful day on the Durango & Silverton
Understaffed But Understood
17 minutes ago
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
If you're one of the Covidiots who believe that COVID-19 is "just the flu",
that the 2020 election was stolen, or
especially if you supported the 1/6/21 insurrection,
leave now.
Slava Ukraini!
Trump, asked about impeachment by Congress, called it a “dirty word” and said he couldn’t imagine the courts allowing him to be impeached. “I don’t think so because there’s no crime,” he said.Maybe one of his lawyers can do a "How Impeachment Works" coloring book for Trump.
After [Asswipe] pleaded guilty to charges in connection with painting swastikas on an Indiana synagogue’s property and setting the yard ablaze, his attorney argued in court documents that the 21-year-old man did not deserve prison time.I guess I have a twinge of sympathy for Asswipe's attorney. He had a pretty tough sell to make. But the judge didn't buy it, Asswipe got three years.
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Prisons are hotbeds for brainwashing by white supremacists, [Asswipe's] lawyer, Samuel Ansell, wrote in a sentencing memo filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Probation and significant community service were more appropriate punishments, Ansell wrote.
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Ansell argued that [Asswipe's] radicalization was heavily influenced by what his wife, who was 17 at the time of the crime, had been reading online. “According to [Asswipe], she began with rightwing yet mainstream views such as those presented on Fox News,” Ansell’s sentencing memo said. “She then moved on to writings by Ben Shapiro and articles on Breitbart News which bridged the gap to the notorious white supremacist and anti-Semitic propaganda site Stormfront.”
[Asswipe] “bought into the propaganda,” Ansell wrote.
The Florida-based Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) ran into a media storm about its spending and fundraising practices at the beginning of 2016. As had happened with Susan G. Komen before it, there was an extended period of denial, followed by high level staff departures, then precipitous fundraising losses. Komen, in fact, slipped from its high rank of 21st among the nation’s fundraisers to 127th, or from a high take of nearly $350 million in 2011 pre-scandal to $198 million in 2015.Losing public trust for a non-profit organization is a serious matter. It's one thing if one person gets sticky-fingers; for they can call in the cops, press charges and ratchet down on audits and cross-checks. It's another thing if the management is being seen to living the high life at the expense of the donors.
Similarly, the Wounded Warrior Project raised almost $373 million in donations for the 2015 fiscal year, but the next two years’ financials show the effects of the public scandal on public support. In 2016, the new executive director announced the organization had lost between $90 and $100 million in donations as a result of the scandal. Its latest Form 990 shows those revenues continued to drop; it raised only $211 million in donations in 2017.
A healthy dog was put to death in Virginia at the behest of its owner, who made the request in her will.Dogs are property, so as far as the dead woman ordering her dog be put down, no crime, there.
The owner of Emma, a Shih Tzu mix, died March 8. Her dog was held at the Chesterfield Animal Shelter before it was picked up March 22 and then euthanized, NBC affiliate WWBT in Richmond first reported.
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Emma's owner, Anita Cullop-Thompson, 67, wanted to be interred with her pet, Morrissett Funeral and Cremation Service owner Larry Spiaggi told NBC News.
Bowing to the inevitable, Theresa May announced Friday that she will step down as U.K. Conservative Party leader in two weeks, admitting defeat in her attempt to take Britain out of the European Union and sparking a contest to replace her as prime minister.Which means that she'll still be the Prime Minister when the Chief Saboteur of the Western Alliance comes for an official visit.
May said she will quit as head of the governing party on June 7 but stay as caretaker prime minister until the new leader is chosen, a process the Conservatives aim to complete by late July.
President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.I don't know how much of this has to go on until conservatives pull their heads out of the sand and wake up to the fact that Trump is corrupt to the core. But I'm guessing it will be a long time until they can grow a spine.
Researchers say that they have pinpointed the major sources of a mysterious recent rise in a dangerous, ozone-destroying chemical.China is probably the largest rogue nation on the planet. China's government pretty much operates on the principal that agreements, laws and norms mean nothing to them. Sort of like Donald Trump.
CFC-11 was primarily used for home insulation but global production was due to be phased out in 2010.
But scientists have seen a big slowdown in the rate of depletion over the past six years.
This new study says this is mostly being caused by new gas production in the north-east provinces of China.
A Mississippi state lawmaker has been accused of drunkenly assaulting his wife because she was taking too long to undress for sex.
Doug McLeod, 58, was arrested on Saturday night in George County on a minor domestic violence charge.
His fellow Republicans in the state said Mr McLeod should resign immediately if the claims are true.
O' beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
They're beating plowshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king
Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details
Since daddy had to lie
1. Office in the West Wing.What is it with these right-wing grifters? It's a good thing for Bizjet Kris that Gen. Mattis is no longer SecDef. The first time that ol' Kris walked into Mattis's office and issued orders, Mattis would kick his pasty ass all the way down the stairs of the River Entrance.
2. Walk-in privileges with the president.
3. Assistant to the President rank - at highest pay level for WH senior staff.
4. Staff of 7 people (2 attorneys, 2 research analysts, 1 scheduler, 1 media person, 1 assistant).
5. POTUS sits down individually with Czar and the secretaries of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, Ag, Interior, and Commerce, and tells each of the Secretaries to follow the directives of the Czar without delay, subject to appeal to the President in cases of disagreement.
6. 24/7 access to either a DHS or DOD jet. Czar must be on the border every week.
7. Ability to spend weekends in KS with family on way from border back to DC, unless POTUS needs Czar elsewhere.
8. Security detail if deemed necessary after security review.
9. Serve as the face of Trump immigration policy - the principal spokesman on television and in the media.
10. Promise that by November 1, 2019, the president will nominate Kris Kobach to be DHS Secretary, unless Kobach wishes to continue in Czar position.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The saddest and funniest testament to American bigotry we've ever seen in our data. pic.twitter.com/Bh3FBsl8sR
— John Dick (@jdcivicscience) May 11, 2019
President Trump has told his acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, according to several administration officials, in a message to his hawkish aides that an intensifying American pressure campaign against the clerical-led government in Tehran must not escalate into open conflict.There was a process for diplomatic discussions with Iran. But between the machinations of chickenhawks like Pompeo and Bolton and the infantile dislike by Trump of everything Obama did, Trump blew that up last year.
The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran.Pompeo, of course, is lying like a senior Trump official:
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The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States does not seek a war with Iran, amid rapidly growing tensions between the two countries.The Iran nuclear deal was not perfect. But Trump blew it up because of his childish opposition to anything and everything that President Obama did. That is the bottom line for Trump: He's opposed to everything Obama did. It is a level of childish vindictiveness that normal people outgrow by the time their age reaches double digits.
Tim Conway, the impish second banana to Carol Burnett who won four Emmy Awards on her TV variety show, starred aboard “McHale’s Navy” and later voiced the role of Barnacle Boy for “Spongebob Squarepants,” has died. He was 85.The article touches on one of the funnier parts of The Carol Burnett Show: Watching Burnett and Harvey Korman struggle with not laughing at Conway's performances.
President Donald Trump is meeting with Hungary’s far-right prime minister — another example of the president not being shy about engaging with foreign leaders not warmly embraced by the West.It's far more than that. Dictator Orban has made the judiciary of Hungary subservient to his whims. He has used the power of the state to neuter his opposition and destroy press freedoms.
Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orban both have espoused hard-line anti-migration rhetoric. Orban says he hopes he and Trump can coordinate that stance into a global alliance.
President Trump has effectively taken charge of the nation’s premier Fourth of July celebration in Washington, moving the gargantuan fireworks display from its usual spot on the Mall to be closer to the Potomac River and making tentative plans to address the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, according to top administration officials.Because Trump is a showman and he figures that if he puts on a really good show, it'll distract everyone from how badly he's doing. No doubt farmers, who are being hammered by Trump's trade war, will be cheered by the televised spectacle of Der Fuhrer of Orange reviewing the troops.
The president’s starring role has the potential to turn what has long been a nonpartisan celebration of the nation’s founding into another version of a Trump campaign rally. Officials said it is unclear how much the changes may cost, but the plans have already raised alarms among city officials and some lawmakers about the potential impact of such major alterations to a time-honored and well-organized summer tradition.
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The president has received regular briefings on the effort in the Oval Office and has gotten involved in the minutiae of the planning — even discussing whether the fireworks should be launched from a barge in the Potomac River, administration aides said. The president has shown interest in the event that he often does not exhibit for other administration priorities, the aides added.
When asked whether he would consider directing [Bootlicking] Barr to investigate the Bidens, as some Democrats fear, Trump said he had not spoken to Barr about the issue. But he left open the possibility, saying “certainly it would be an appropriate thing to” discuss with Barr.Because that is what autocrats, like Erdogan of Turkey, do. I guess Biden should be grateful that Trump hasn't asked the Saudis for the loan of their bone saw.
“Certainly it is a very big issue and we’ll see what happens. I have not spoken to him about it. Would I speak to him about it? I haven’t thought of that. I mean, you’re asking me a question I just haven’t thought of,” he said, noting it “could be a very big situation” for Biden.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Wednesday a bill that will allow school districts in Florida to arm teachers.There was a fair amount of hyperventilating over this issue from the Astroturfers Against All Guns, who have been saying that the bill requires arming teachers. It does not.
The controversial measure, SB 7030, is an extension of the guardian program put in place after the Feb. 14, 2018, Parkland massacre in which 17 high school students and staff were killed. That program allowed some employees — but not classroom teachers — to receive weapons training and then carry guns on school property. Twenty-five of 67 Florida school districts are taking part in the program, including Lake and Broward counties.
The new law signed by DeSantis would allow classroom teachers to take part, too, with local school board authorization.
President Trump is questioning his administration’s aggressive strategy in Venezuela following the failure of a U.S.-backed effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist strongman with a young opposition figure, according to administration officials and White House advisers.Bolton was one in a long string of Republican draft-dodgers during the Vietnam War. Having successfully dodged that shooting war, his entire career has been spent advocating that the United States get into one war after another. He has never seen a foreign policy issue that he thinks can be solved by anything short of dropping bombs.
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Trump has said in recent days that Bolton wants to get him “into a war” — a comment that he has made in jest in the past but that now betrays his more serious concerns, one senior administration official said.
A US teenager who took legal action against his school after he was banned for refusing the chickenpox vaccination now has the virus, his lawyer says.Meanwhile, RFK, Jr's family has come out and lovingly said that he is nuttier than a jar of peanuts.
[Numbnuts], 18, made headlines last month after he unsuccessfully sued his Kentucky school for barring unimmunised students amid an outbreak.
We love Bobby. He is one of the great champions of the environment. His work to clean up the Hudson River and his tireless advocacy against multinational organizations who have polluted our waterways and endangered families has positively affected the lives of countless Americans. We stand behind him in his ongoing fight to protect our environment. However, on vaccines he is wrong.I think he's a fucking loon.
And his and others’ work against vaccines is having heartbreaking consequences. The challenge for public health officials right now is that many people are more afraid of the vaccines than the diseases, because they've been lucky enough to have never seen the diseases and their devastating impact. But that’s not luck; it’s the result of concerted vaccination efforts over many years. We don’t need measles outbreaks to remind us of the value of vaccination.
The data — printouts from Mr. Trump’s official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, for the years 1985 to 1994 — represents the fullest and most detailed look to date at the president’s taxes, information he has kept from public view. ... The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.Trump's Mouthpiece du Jour says that the report is "demonstrably false", but then does not point to any data that contradicts the report.
In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on Sunday.Last time I looked at this, the State Department, right up to Secretary Pompeo, has been saying that Russia has been involved in Venezuela. Two Tu-160s visited Venezuela and flew at least one patrol.
That the two would meet is not surprising — Russia, after all, is economically invested in Venezuela and is standing behind President Nicolás Maduro, who managed to remain in power last week after opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s attempt to stir a military uprising failed. Guaidó declared himself interim president of Venezuela in January and is recognized as the country’s legitimate leader by several nations, including the United States.
But the timing of the Lavrov-Arreaza meeting is, if not surprising, then at least conspicuous. On Friday, two days before the foreign ministers met, President Trump said at a news conference with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone.
“I had a very good talk with President Putin — probably over an hour,” Trump said. “And we talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. And he is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela.”
Actor Sir Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has died aged 89, his family has announced.His obituary is here.
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Sir Roger's family confirmed the news on Twitter, saying he had died after "a short but brave battle with cancer".
The Trump administration formally declared its opposition to the entire Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, arguing in a federal appeals court filing that the signature Obama-era legislation was unconstitutional and should be struck down.Looking at a straight political calculus, OK. Trump is playing to his base. The Democrats are likely welcoming this fight. They're going to broadcast that Trump is actively trying to take health insurance away from tens of millions. Those with pre-existing conditions are going to get screwed. The congressional Republicans and those thinking of running for office know this; this is the last fight that they want to have next year.
Such a decision could end health insurance for some 21 million Americans and affect many millions more who benefit from the law’s protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions and required coverage for pregnancy, prescription drugs and mental health.
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