The Associated Press reports:
The White House says President Joe Biden is ordering new sanctions after Russia moved to recognize separatist eastern Ukraine regions.
The Biden administration calls Monday’s announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin a “blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments.”
The sanctions will prohibit new investment, trade and financing in the two separatist regions of Ukraine recognized by Putin. The European Union’s top officials have also said the bloc will impose sanctions.
Via White House press release:
President Biden will soon issue an Executive Order that will prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine.
We will also soon announce additional measures related to today’s blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments.
To be clear: these measures are separate from and would be in addition to the swift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with Allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine.
Category: Economics / Economy / Income / Financial
Trump’s Truth Social Might Have Run Into Legal Trouble on Day One
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-truth-social-app-logo-trailar-launch-legal-issues-1681126
Donald Trump’s new social media platform is facing some legal issues almost immediately, coming from a rather unexpected source—a solar power company based in the U.K.
Trump’s new app, Truth Social, went live on the Apple Store on Monday, February 21, to coincide with President’s Day, five months after it was first announced.
The app (created by the Trump Media and Technology Group, TMTG) is right-wing “free speech” originated social media app similar to Gettr, Parler or Gab, and was set up by Trump after he was banned from all other mainstream social media sites in the wake of the January 6 attack.
However, upon its launch in the Apple app store, other social media users noticed that Truth Social’s logo—a purple square with a white “T” and a turquoise square in the bottom right—is almost identical to that of a British green energy company, Trailar.
The Truth Social logo even has the left side of the “T” cut off in the exact same way as Trailar’s, a company which fits solar mats on top of commercial vehicles across the globe, in order to save on fuel, CO2 emissions and maintenance costs.
In a statement to Newsweek, Trailer confirmed that it is now “seeking legal advice” to determine the best course of action after being made aware of the similarities between Truth Social’s logo, and its own logo.
“Based on recent news brought to our attention by various media outlets, showcasing the similarities between our own Trailar logo and the Truth Social logo, we are now seeking legal advice to understand next steps and options available to protect our brand,” said Matthew Summers, head of marketing, Trailar.
“Trailar has no affiliation or connection with the Truth Social network site, with our business firmly focused on decarbonising global transport through the use of solar and data driven technologies.”
In a tweet, the company added: “Great to see Donald Trump supporting a growing sustainability business! Maybe ask next time?
The logo is not the only issue which has affected Truth Social on its launch day.
While a number of prominent right-wing figures have been urging people to following them on their new accounts, tens of thousands of people have been placed in queues while trying to register their profiles, whereas others are seeing frequent error messages.
As of Monday morning, it was reported that more than 170,000 people were currently on the waiting list to register a new account with Truth Social.
The app is currently not available on Android and there is no corresponding website for users to access.
Former Congressman Devin Nunes, a California Republican who resigned to become chief executive officer of TMTG in January, previously said he expect it to be fully rolled out by the end of March.
A phone screen displays the Truth Social app in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2022. A British company is considering legal action as the logo for Donald Trump’s new app is almost identical to its own.STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
tRump couldn’t help himself, he had to steal, he had to take something that belongs to someone else. And the cult thinks he is such a great businessman.
Putin Claims Ukraine Was Never A Real Country, Calls It “Madness” That Nations Were Allowed To Leave USSR
From the Russia state outlet Pravda:
Putin started his urgent address to the nation with an insight into the history of Ukraine and its creation. The Ukraine that we know today was created during the times of Bolshevist Russia, he said. Putin in particular said that today’s Ukraine was completely created by Lenin.
Today’s Ukraine can be referred to as “The Ukraine in the name of Vladimir Lenin”,” Putin said. He was the author and the architect of Ukraine,” he added. Ukraine has never had true statehood of its own, Putin said, recalling the scale of corruption of Ukraine.
There is no independent statehood in Ukraine — everything depends on what Westerners say. Foreign advisors are in charge of Ukrainian intelligence services. “We are well aware of that,” he said.
Putin Orders “Peacekeeping” Troops Into Ukraine
The Washington Post reports:
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees ordering military forces into two separatist regions of Ukraine for “peacekeeping” purposes as Moscow recognized the breakaway regions’ independence Monday.
Putin signed a decree recognizing the areas — a move that Russia could use to justify an attack in those areas — and an agreement of cooperation with the heads of the two regions: Denis Pushilin of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Leonid Pasechnik of the Luhansk People’s Republic.
The formal recognition prompted a chorus of condemnation from world leaders, with some vowing sanctions.
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Imagine … if the US was run for the people and not the wealthy corporations
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scottie’s world today
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The right calls anything that helps the public socialism. Republican block any attempt to require the upper wealthy pay their share of taxes so the country can have more than the bare minimums of survival. The country did best when the upper class paid more in taxes including wealth taxes. The country had the money to expand and create, to do things that astonished the world. Now a we have multimillionaires and billionaires paying next to nothing ruling the country while 80% of the people struggle for a decent quality of life. 40% of the country couldn’t handle an unexpected $400 expense. We need to do better on the messaging and help people see they have been lied to by the wealthy to steal the countries assets.
The end of privilege feels like loss for so many.
Nutrition aids education. Taking away food will guarantee a worse education.
https://twitter.com/risahoshinoMD/status/1494707061871026182?s=20&t=YCY5OScdH2kzGNSHbub7eg
“It’s really, massively stupid not to welcome vaccination,” the 98-year-old Munger said. “We probably have 30% of the people in the country that think vaccination is evil and [is] coming after them like the hobgoblins. It’s not good that there’s that much ignorance left.”
Republicans attract the ignorant, then weaponize their self-interests and sadism.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
FFS, corps are having record profits, CEOs & execs are getting big bonuses and raises. The supply chain is breaking down, slowing products from the Wall Street bottom liners outsourced factories to the market, decreasing supply and driving up prices even further. The Owning Class is engaged in wholesale looting, and Real Leftist Ted Rall is putting this drivel out? GTFO.
The protesting truckers were a small percentage of all the truckers in Canada. The truckers union and the majority of truckers condemned the protest. It wouldn’t have stopped food deliveries nor caused shortages in grocery stores. This cartoon is about fear. Be afraid, don’t let the government require vaccines or you will go hungry.
The slogan is awkward but it is correct. The police have become too militarized with too many non-law enforcement jobs required of them. Right now the police are more occupying army than protectors of the people. Police shouldn’t be the primary ones answering mental health calls, they should only be a back up to the mental health workers trained for that job. Several places have tried switching to having trained professionals answer those types of calls and it works. Right now in many areas of the country the police have become gangs, thugs demanding ever higher pay, perks, and military gear. Time to get back to what core policing really is and leave the video game commando tactic to the gaming consoles. Civilian boards should be in charge of police investigations, No excuses for body cams not on or worn. It is time for civilians to be in charge, not the gangs of cops. A national database for bad cops and those in that data base do not get rehired if they are fired for cause.
A protest organized by a fascist Qanon leader and supported mainly by far right white supremacists with the goal of over turning a law in the US about not being able to cross the US / Canada border without being vaccinated. This was vaccine protest was in a country already 90% vaccinated. The public did not support this, the truckers union did not support this action, and the protest was conducted by a very small percentage of Canadian truckers. It was promoted on social media by foreign governments interested in causing unrest and chaos in the US and Canada. The majority of funding was coming from the US. Which might explain the Confederate battle flag being flown by the protestors.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And now some for fun
Anti-Vax Trucker Convoy Is Brainchild Of QAnon Leader
The Guardian reports:
The so-called “freedom convoy” – which departed for Ottawa on 23 January – was the brainchild of James Bauder, an admitted conspiracy theorist who has endorsed the QAnon movement and called Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history”. Bauder’s group, Canada Unity, contends that vaccine mandates and passports are illegal under Canada’s constitution, the Nuremberg Code and a host of other international conventions.
Another group, Action4Canada, launched legal challenges to mask and vaccine mandates. In one 400-page court filing, they allege that the “false pronouncement of a Covid-19 ‘pandemic’” was carried out, at least in part, by Bill Gates and a “New World (Economic) Order” to facilitate the injection of 5G-enabled microchips into the population. Both groups are listed as “participating groups” on the Canada Unity website, and sent vehicles and personnel to join the convoy.
Read the full article. There’s much more. Action4Canada’s leader was in a ten-day COVID-related coma until a few days ago.
First, a reminder about this nutbag:
The so-called “freedom convoy” – which departed for Ottawa on 23 January – was the brainchild of James Bauder, an admitted conspiracy theorist who has endorsed the QAnon movement and called Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history”.
Bauder’s group, Canada Unity, contends that vaccine mandates and passports are illegal under Canada’s constitution, the Nuremberg Code and a host of other international conventions.
Since they have arrived in Ottawa, the extreme elements of the protest have been visible: neo-Nazi and Confederate flags were seen flying, QAnon logos were emblazoned on trucks and signs and stickers were pasted to telephone poles around the occupied area bear Trudeau’s face, reading: “Wanted for crimes against humanity.”
And below is today’s update.
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: The US wont progress until people have enough money to live comfortable decent quality lives. Life should be more than a struggle for survival
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scottie’s world today
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rentier capitalism.
Rentier capitalism is a term currently used to describe the belief in economic practices of monopolization of access to any kind of property (physical, financial, intellectual, etc.) and gaining significant amounts of profit without contribution to society.
Laws for thee, none for me.
If eating peanuts could hurt democrats, Republicans would be at schools eating PB&Js to own the libs.
FOX is Russia’s sister network.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
It’s ironic that Fox is so outraged by the media properly passing on the Durham probe fabrications, when they are so flagrantly ignoring the real story about Trump’s financial corruption. It’s just more proof that Fox has never been a news network. And it’s why their audience is so pitifully uninformed, or even worse, misinformed, about everything from the Biden economic boom, to the COVID pandemic, to the 2020 presidential election, and so much more. They are the “New Ignorati.” And that’s exactly how Fox News wants them.
Fox News has been completely distorting the Durham Nothingburger to falsely claim that it proves that Hillary Clinton was spying on Trump. There is no truth to that whatsoever, and the filing doesn’t even make that allegation. But that didn’t stop Sean Hannity from fictionalizing the story.
The Sussman indictment – and I’ve been saying this since it dropped because of a lack of materiality and unclear charges – will probably be dismissed before it even goes to trial. I describe this latest Durham stunt as “Kash Patel garbage in, Kash Patel garbage out, and then Trump threatening to kill people as a result. It’s that simple.”
No one from Clinton’s campaign ordered spying or hacking. No spying or hacking took place. A contractor that was tasked with analyzing DNS queries on government networks. They brought in a lawyer who works on cybersecurity matters to bring what they thought was suspicious activity to the attention of national security agencies. One of Bill Barr’s hacks claims the lawyer didn’t tell the FBI he had also done work for the DNC. The lawyer has proof that the FBI was well aware that he had worked for the DNC.
Minnesota Freedom Fund. The Minnesota Freedom Fund is working to end the discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive policy of cash bail, which criminalizes poverty and takes a disproportionate toll on communities of color. It is a well known problem that poor people spend more time in prison than those with money to pay bail. Justice shouldn’t depend on your income. Bail was used to insure a person will show up in court. But it has become a punitive measure used to harm people. Bail was not to be used as punishment but it is being used that way. Remember that a person is considered innocent until judged at trial.
The misleading right wing media wants to convince everyone that their favorite boogieman was spying on tRump. Fact is that was not true. Neither John Durham nor anyone else for that matter had actually provided any evidence of any such crime, let alone even suggested it. … (T)he actual reason that the “LameStream” media hadn’t covered the story was likely because, as the Times notes: (1) Sussmann’s conversation with the CIA had already been reported last October (2) Durham never once said anything about the White House being “infiltrate[d]” (3) the special counsel also never claimed the Clinton campaign had paid Joffe’s company and (4) perhaps most importantly, “the filing never said the White House data that came under scrutiny was from the Trump era.” In fact, lawyers for the data scientist who helped develop the data analysis in question, say this happened during— wait for it—Barack Obama’s presidency.
Almost a million Americans are dead, more reported Covid fatalities than any other country in the world. Yet some accuse leaders of doing too much.
S Kelley believes the Fox narrative. They really want her to run and tell everyone else she is. She lives rent free in all their heads. Conservatives just can’t get over the fact that Hillary won the popular vote in ‘16
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And now some for fun
New Docuseries Deconstructs Dangerous Stereotypes About Black men
Too Scared To Teach: New Restrictions In Classrooms Force Teachers To Self-Censor
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Why is universal healthcare not a right in the US? It would save businesses money, cost less, cover everyone. Oh ya it would take the incredibly large profit out of it for healthcare systems and drug companies.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scottie’s world today
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Conservatives coordinate corporate fascism.
Stories with no context are propaganda. White supremacy runs on propaganda.
The misinformation right wing media tries to keep their base riled up with anger and outrage to keep them engaged. They know if the base is angry they will be more active in the cause. But anger clouds judgement and the right wing media misleads to get the desired actions from the base. The result is cognitive dissidence on a massive scale. The base has to deny reality and create conspiracy fantasies to make the ideas work. Normal things are taken as if nefarious plots. A guy they call sleep Joe and claim has lost his mental abilities is also a mastermind taking away their nebulous freedom thing. The right uses the same arguments in support of their conspiracies that they refute on things they do not want others to have the freedom to do. Such as abortion. Against vaccines then it is their body their choice, but if it is a woman wanting an abortion it is her body but someone else’s choice mandated by law.
Conservative gospel: think only of yourself while thinking the worst in others. Convert your shame into anger. Never atone.
It’s a FUCKING DEATH CULT!
⭐️JESUS
⭐️GUNS
⭐️BABIES
Gun manufactures love the cries that crime is worse, that life is super dangerous, that someone anyone doesn’t matter who is coming to take your guns. It drives sales. Fear is what they use as advertisements. I have to wonder at people willing to lose their job to avoid getting a vaccine while fighting to keep kids from life saving masks, but wont allow any restrictions on guns to save the lives of school children. I just looked up the numbers.
… surveys show that gun ownership in America is actually highly concentrated. Only 22 to 31% of Americans adults say they personally own a gun.
Rates of personal and household gun ownership appear to have declined over the past decades – roughly two-thirds of Americans today say they live in a gun-free household. By contrast, in the late 1970s, the majority of Americans said they lived in a household with guns.
Most of America’s gun owners have relatively modest collections, with the majority of gun owners having an average of just three guns, and nearly half owning just one or two, according to a 2015 survey by Harvard and Northeastern researchers, which gave the most in-depth estimate of Americans’ current patterns of gun ownerships.
But America’s gun super-owners, have amassed huge collections. Just 3% of American adults own a collective 133m firearms – half of America’s total gun stock. These owners have collections that range from eight to 140 guns, the 2015 study found. Their average collection: 17 guns each.
Seems as though the same christian Taliban that believes Transgender schoolgirls will somehow utilize their penile extremity to their advantage in sports, didn’t think the massive strength and abilities of the Williams sisters put an unfair advantage over other girls in Tennis.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
This is the craziness that the right promotes about public health mandates. Creating rules that keep the public safe is cause to kill some one. WTF
Protesting is legal, and in a way patriotic… no matter what the subject, it is an expression of living in a free country.
Breaking the law while protesting… that’s another thing. You CAN make that choice, it is called “civil disobedience”. But these people (and Lisa) don’t seem to comprehend that you are still breaking the law, and that there will be consequences.
There are groups who have been protesting for decades (from environmentalists, to pro-life movements… all political stripes). And these experienced protesters understand that you need to work with the system. You have to play the game. You set up a blockade, and you wait to be arrested, testing how long you can hold out, hoping you can get some media attention, and cause some grief to your opponent. These “truckers” on the other hand are actually saying “your laws don’t apply to us”. That’s not protest, that’s anarchy.
The Truckers can protest on the side of the road, in the park almost anywhere they would like. the TRUCK is a tool that is regulated by the state and as such it has NO FREE SPEECH RIGHTS.
But it’s not about COVID, vaccination, or mandates. As part of an interview with Pat King, leader of the “Freedom Convoy”, he tells us exactly why they’re “protesting”:
“Now, what it is, is the part of the depopulation. And a lot of people don’t understand what that means.”
(Tell us, Pat. Tell us what it means)
“And what there is, see, is there’s an endgame. It’s called depopulation of the caucasian race. Or the Anglo-Saxon.”
Blink
“And, that’s what the goal is, is to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race, because they are the ones with the strongest bloodlines.”
The Democrats face an uphill battle to get their message out. Also historically the party in power loses seats in the midterms. But the Republicans are facing their own serious voter issues with only the shrinking base fully committed to the current message out of the Republican party. For example tRump is very popular with the base but not popular with the average Republican and swing voter. The Jan 6th denials are very popular with the base, but despised by the main stream Republicans and swing voters. If the Republicans run on the emotion of blocking every thing the Democrats try to do to help the public while pushing tRump with his big lie and trying to sell the fantasy that Jan 6th was legitimate political discourse the Democrats will keep control of congress and may even gain seats.
What would you have him do, start world war three? Nuke Moscow and end civilization as we know it. Putin wants to lie and and invade with little cost to himself. By Biden keeping it in the news, marshaling the NATO countries, by getting other countries to agree to crippling sanctions he is doing as much as he can to deter Putin. Plus the US has increased our arms sales to Ukraine and encouraged other countries to do so. Anything else is just counter effective and would prove Putin’s point that he needs to take other countries to keep his safe.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And now some for fun
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There was a cartoon about cannibals in this space. While I thought the punchline was funny it was pointed out to me that the way the individuals in the cartoon were drawn, it was very stereotypical and is a trope used by racist bigots. I have decided because of that to remove the cartoon and explain that my intent was not to cause harm. The punchline would have worked without the characters being drawn that way and it is a shame the cartoonist went in that direction. I apologize for missing the offending part of the cartoon and I thank the person who pointed it out to me. Thanks.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wages are up and people are still buying. If people are willing to spend over retail for vehicles and such, inflation will continue. The white supremacist backed road blocks impeding commerce between the USA and Canada certainly didn’t help do anything good to slow inflation. Republicans are desperate to find an issue they can run with. One fizzle after another. Hillary still seems the best bet for them.