They also demanded that the US remove all military equipment from central and eastern Europe, and threatened a “military-technical response” if demands aren’t met.
Oh, and Putin wants a pet dragon and some fairy dust.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has expelled the deputy chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Moscow amid escalating tensions over Ukraine.
Pro-Russian forces are desperately trying to draw fire from Ukraine — they’re clearly trying to elicit a response that would give them a “reason” to invade.
Russia-backed forces shelled the music room of a kindergarten in far-eastern Stanytsia Luhanska, Luhansk region, at 9am this morning, according to local reports, local city admin, & NGO Proliska. Children were present but unharmed. Two teachers said to have suffered concussions. pic.twitter.com/8zjX2OvatV
Oh, so the Ukrainian Army just happened to start mortaring pro-separatists *right* as the Russian Army got into their final firing positions and desperately needed a casus belli?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see an attack begin tonight — or at least in the next couple of days.
I’d still love to be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
The Kremlin’s claims this week that it had begun to remove troops from Ukraine’s borders were false, senior U.S. administration officials told reporters tonight. Instead, Russia has added as many as 7,000 troops to those already encircling its neighbor, a Biden official said.
It’s like everyone expected Kyiv to be this rundown shithole and can’t comprehend the fact that it’s actually a beautiful, modern city. https://t.co/6hYffgTxRn
Guess who is churning out the most coverage of the Canadian trucker protests? If you guessed #Russia's state media outlet RT, you're correct. pic.twitter.com/AK1KZvQQZd
There is no CC and I am sorry for that as this is a really important story. This is about how the far right threatened and took over a town. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were sent from out of town into the political races to run the hard right causes. This is scary.
Just a reminder: Starbucks could give every one of its 383,000 employees a $5000 bonus check and still keep $1,893,500,000 in net income this year. That’s without raising prices. And yet they’re going to raise prices and are actively firing people for wanting to unionize.
It’s time we put our money in heath care, child care, and prenatal care instead of feeding an endless war machine.
As I keep saying the major cause of inflation is price gouging and profit taking. Private business is sucking every cent they can from the lower incomes to the upper levels. They are going to keep doing it until there is nothing left to take. They are killing the golden goose for short term profit.
There are two different sets of rules for men and women
“We created the liberty institute to make sure only state approved ideas can be discussed” is an exquisite summary of Republican views on free speech. https://t.co/3wQHHLI3DX
Pennsylvania's Fair School Funding trial has chugged along since… at least 1998. Old toon on the subject. Double the amounts (plus some) but same problem. from Philly Daily News when we were pre-color. @edlawcenterPApic.twitter.com/mwq6nrGW0g
Why give Kim the attention and press coverage he craves. Th US knows what he has and what he is doing and he is not a threat to the US. He wants the attention that he got from tRump and misses it. Don’t give it to him
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
Seems to me the government of Canada is winning this situation not the truckers. The government has blocked the truckers funding, the government cleared the bridge, the government has the authority now to yank the commercial licenses, and the authority to seize the trucks.
Because the report on tRump clogging toilets and ripping up papers is collaborated. The Durham fantasy about Hillary is just a conspiracy rehash of spin attempts to validate tRump’s claim that the Mueller investigation was illegal. Durham did not file charges in his new filing, there was no new information. He is trying to charge the guy who provided the information to the FBI with lying to the FBI because he did not tell the FBI he once worked for Hillary and the FBI did not ask. The FBI did not ask him that, so how is not telling them a lie? Every lawyer I have heard on this says it is going to be laughed out of court if it ever gets to one. Durham made a 26 page report on a filing that should have been half a page. All so he could spin a misleading right wing tale.
What we are witnessing is PRICE GOUGING, NOT INFLATION.
INFLATION is when business owners raise prices commensurate with higher costs to make ends meet.
But when corporations are reporting record all-time profits, raising prices is NOT INFLATION, it is PRICE GOUGING to capitalize on supply chain disruptions caused by a national emergency.
McDonald’s profits soared 59% in 2021, to $7.5 billion.
ExxonMobil reported a $8.9 billion in profits in the FOURTH QUARTER ALONE, while it was jacking up prices to new records.
Numerous other companies jacked up prices while raking in record profits in 2021.
Donald Trump crashed the economy, destroyed the supply chain, blew up international trade relations by imposing ridiculous tariffs that hurt farmers and consumers, mishandled a pandemic that exploded into a worldwide economic crisis and now as Biden is putting people back, restoring consumer confidence, which stimulates demand, but the devastation wrought by Trump on the supply chain is taking longer to undo, especially as anti-science right wing nut jobs continue to undermine recovery from the Trump plague.
If there were a hurricane, tornado, flood or wildfire and vendors were charging $20 for a bottle of water, they would be arrested. We need to see some of the corporate heads who have tripled their profits on the backs of consumers being frog-marched into the Big House.
Truth is not important. Smear, innuendo, and outright lies are necessary to outrage and disinform the public. This is the way to absolute power.
Amazing that after 30 years she is still their biggest boogieman. The right trots her out any time they need to deflect or distract knowing she is an easy way to enrage the base. The Durham filing added no new information. It was a screed of conspiracies designed to distract from a serious issue tRump has. Lawyers have publicly said the filing should have been half a page but Durham went on for 26 pages just to spin a misinformation tale. The crux of what Durham charged Michael Sussmann with is lying to the FBI by not answering a question the FBI never asked. Yes that is right, the FBI never asked him if he worked for Hillary as it was not important. It is going to be laughed out of court if it ever gets to one. Sussmann took information from some tech people on a bank from Moscow associated with Putin contacting a dedicated server in tRump Tower. He did not give them his life story, why would he. If you tell the bank about a bank robbery they don’t care if you ever had a bank account. So again an attempt to mislead and confuse, to muddy the water from the true criminal tRump by using a boogieman the right has demonized but never been able to prove did anything wrong.
School board Chair Rob Zandee says Osoyoos Secondary School and South Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver were targeted by protesters opposing vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions Friday as students were leaving for the weekend.
“I have a fucking right to be in this country, do you?” a woman screams at a young woman of colour. “Are you telling me to go back home?” the student replies.
Later in the video, the woman screams a sexist slur [JMG: “cunt”] at that same student. “You’re literally arguing with children,” someone else can be heard yelling as the woman walks away.
Grade 11 student Kai Allen says she and her classmates became aware of the protests around 2:15 p.m. PT, when the convoy, consisting of cars and trucks decorated with flags and anti-mandate slogans, arrived outside.
Allen says several students approached the protesters to find out why they were there, and the conversation turned into an argument about public safety measures.
A woman identified by RCMP as Silke Schulze of Oliver, B.C., can be seen leaning toward the student and yelling. According to RCMP, Schulze has been fined $2,300 under the Access to Services COVID-19 Vaccination Act.
The clip below has gone viral on TikTok.
An anti-mandate protest outside a South Okanagan high school, which students say school officials and police failed to prevent, resulted in a verbal confrontation between adults and students. https://t.co/KIJKngBnAO
BELLEVUE, Wash. —King County Prosecutors say a man tried to attack a Bellevue restaurant worker with a meat cleaver after being asked to show proof of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Man attacks restaurant employee with meat cleaver over proof of COVID-19 vaccine{ }
Investigators say Michael Dousa, 58, lunged at an Applebee’s bartender with a meat cleaver after he was asked to leave the Bellevue restaurant when he couldn’t provide proof of vaccination.
Detectives say when Dousa got outside the restaurant he was yelling and waving the knife around and when the bartender asked him to leave, police say Dousa went after him with the raised cleaver over his head.
Luckily the worker shut the door before he got hit.
“I don’t think violence is ever the answer,” said Levi Hudson who was going to Applebee’s. “I don’t think you should be violent because I think that is one of the most ridiculous things you can do. You’re not helping people by being violent.”
The Hudson siblings said it’s upsetting people still don’t understand the impact of the pandemic now.
“We’ve had family who has gotten sick and who has died from Covid,” said Angela Hudson. “It’s kind of frustrating to see people just come in and not wear a mask and be violent.”
Just a few weeks ago- prosecutors say Angela Nommensen was seen on surveillance video repeatedly refusing to wear her mask inside a gas station.
Investigators said when the clerk forced her outside, she pulled a gun on him.
Prosecutors said they are noticing a trend in these types of crimes.
“Maybe it’s because are so close to being at the end of the pandemic or they’re getting so frustrated and we’re not done, but either way when you pull a meat cleaver on somebody, when you pull a gun at a gas station and we can prove that case, you’re going to get charged for it,” said Casey McNerthney.
Dousa is now charged with felony assault. Monday Nommensen pleaded not guilty to felony harassment.
Prosecutors said Dousa committed this act while pending Assault in the Third Degree and Assault in the
Fourth Degree charges from July 18, 2021, out of Snohomish County. Dousa’s criminal history includes convictions for theft and harassment.
Dousa is locked up at the King County on a $75,000 bail.
A real estate broker was leaving the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant in Fort Myers, Fla., when a sheriff’s deputy pulled him over for an alleged traffic violation. The Dec. 16 stop escalated when Deputy Niko Irizarry, with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, said he suspected there were illegal substances in the car.
With the help of drug-sniffing dogs, law enforcement found more than 50 bags of opioids, methamphetamines and other pills, police records show. Irizarry arrested the real estate broker and allegedly signed an affidavit stating he had witnessed the man putting the drugs in his car.
But the sheriff’s office now says the arrest was a setup. Irizarry, 25, was fired and charged with felony misconduct, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced on Friday. The deputy, investigators said, had made a deal with a friend to arrest the victim in exchange for sexual favors and a trip to Europe.
Investigators said Charles Custodio, 37, had a vendetta against the victim and promised Irizarry he would provide the trip and would arrange for the sex if he made the arrest. Custodio then had a third man, Scott Snider, pose as a real estate agent and plant drugs in the person’s car, investigators said.
Custodio then told Irizarry where he could find the victim. Investigators say Irizarry then performed a traffic stop and arrested the victim on drug charges. Custodio and Snider, 29, were arrested for trafficking in fentanyl, possession of a controlled substance, and conspiracy.
Hit the first link above for a detailed breakdown of the alleged convoluted plot. It’s not clear from reports exactly who was to provide the “sexual favors.”
In the years since Colin took a knee, we’ve learned that, in the eyes of conservatives, there is no acceptable form of protest against racial injustice.
Republicans see a calamity and elect it. The Russians beam with pride.
Trump is absolute poison for America.
This what the people behind Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill are really after. We don't have to guess or toss around hypotheticals. It's all right there, out in the open for all to see. https://t.co/Q9m420axHc
It seems Putin got what he wanted. Ukraine has said they wont join Nato. It is a shame that the local bully can keep the people from advancing their country with threats to destroy them.
Russia is not the USSR, but Putin would like it to be.
China is pushing it’s spear of influence all over the world. Just as the US did in the middle of the last century. And China is getting ever closer to places the US thought were in the US sphere of influence. The US is falling way behind and had better fix their interactions with other nations.
Oh I knew this was coming. It is pure distraction from tRump’s troubles. Basically Durham was appointed by Barr to find things to try to back up tRump’s claims that the Russia investigation was illegal. Several court cases and investigations found that the investigation was legal and valid. Every legal podcast I have listen too destroys the indictment. His indictment against the lawyer that brought the findings of the tech people to the FBI he accused of lying because he did not tell the FBI he once worked for Hillary. Once worked for her. He was not working for her then. The FBI did not ask because it did not matter, the information was what mattered. So it was not lying to the FBI to not says something they did not ask. If a person reports a bank robbery to the FBI the issue is not if the person reporting has a bank account. The other thing that jumps out is that these types of charges are normally one page. Durham wrote a screed of 26 pages of conjecture and conspiracies. He was building right wing talking points. Here is the weaponizing of the DOJ that the right seems to think Biden has done. It is being done right in the open, using the DOJ and the courts to attack political enemies like a banana republic.
Also this is an attempt to distract from the information given to the FBI. The fact is a Russian bank in Moscow that was tied to Putin was pinging a dedicated server in tRump Tower. There was no explanation for it. Especially when the talk was Russia was helping tRump. Their was an attempt to hide the server, to hide the data on it, to hide the connection, and that server only talked to that bank. Very suspicious. So The right deflects by saying the real crime that should be investigated was the person who delivered it had once worked for Hillary.
How about both when the deserve it? This is not jousting wind mills. This is calling out that acts of aggression and violating human rights.
So what should the US have done to truckers / people on the Canadian side of the border? Send troops into a sovereign country and blow stuff up, steal the trucks by towing them away, and kidnap the people by arresting them? Well that is what the new right wing hero Putin would do. This was Canada’s problem to solve and they did.
The current inflation problem is caused by price gouging and profit taking. Companies are making record profits. CEO pay packages are soaring. The ones being hurt are the consumers as companies try to make up for the slower times during Covid.
Again the current inflation is caused by price gouging and profit taking of businesses. Corporations have record profits. CEO pay packages / benefits are soaring. But they want the people to blame everything else especially the little increases in pay that workers may get.
It is about the data. The cases are falling in the areas where the mandates are being withdrawn. This is a great thing, less cases means less death and less really ill people in hospitals. Follow the medical science is what people should be doing. It is what the people in charge should be following.
Must be a Fox reporter, can’t wear a mask correctly. Only people that are insecure in their own sexuality are concerned with others sexuality. And Republican politicians, of course.
Durham made a filing, no charges, no indictment. He built up a 26 page conspiracy theory with no new information and all insinuation. He accuses the lawyer that took the information from the tech people to the FBI of lying by not telling the FBI he once worked for Hillary. That doesn’t matter. If someone reports a bank robbery the FBI doesn’t care if the person has a bank account or not. The important point was the information Durham and the Republicans want to bury, that there was a bank in Moscow connected to Putin communicating with a server in tRump tower. It was the only computer communicating with that server. This at a time when there when Putin had hacked the DNC and was rumored to be interfering in the election. So this is just an attempt to muddy the waters and create a misleading right wing talking point.
I guess if a minority of the people wanted to race their cars through school zones some times killing kids and themselves, we should let them because of “Freedom”. The mask and vaccine mandates saved lives. No one lost freedom. No one was forced to get a shot or wear a mask at gun point. But if you wanted the right to join in the fun, you had the responsibility to follow public health rules.
This cartoon really pissed me off. That is an asinine cartoon that insults child abuse victims. Wearing a mask is not child abuse any more than wearing shoes are. It causes no harm and protects the wearer. Most children are not bothered by masks, the only ones with a problem with them are because the parents have made such a stink over it. Masks are proven to prevent the spread of Covid. Period. They saved lives, of children and adults. Grow up.
Kids do not care about masks, they are too worried about boredom, tests, bullies, making friends, dates, and a hundred more things important to them. Masks are not even on the list.
Police funding is actually UP across the country, and that “Defund the Police” meme is about as valid as the “Critical Race Theory” and “Sharia Law” boogymen that right wing propagandists use to keep their gullible “base” riled up.
MEANWHILE Republicans are doing everything they can to destroy democracy and literally steal elections, while supporting thoroughly-rotten criminal candidates, starting at the top with their Dear Leader. But what’s important to right-wing propagandists is to distract with their shiny-object reminders of anger and fear.
Goodwyn is indirectly attacking BLM, since “Defund the Police” was a collateral slogan of those protests; demonize “Defund the Police” (blaming all crime on a non-existent policy), and you’re also reminding people why they hated and feared BLM, too.
Win, win, because you keep people angry, fearful, and aggrieved, keeping attention off the very real assault on America.
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And now some for fun
This what the people behind Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill are really after. We don't have to guess or toss around hypotheticals. It's all right there, out in the open for all to see. https://t.co/Q9m420axHc
It seems Putin got what he wanted. Ukraine has said they wont join Nato. It is a shame that the local bully can keep the people from advancing their country with threats to destroy them.
Russia is not the USSR, but Putin would like it to be.
China is pushing it’s spear of influence all over the world. Just as the US did in the middle of the last century. And China is getting ever closer to places the US thought were in the US sphere of influence. The US is falling way behind and had better fix their interactions with other nations.
Oh I knew this was coming. It is pure distraction from tRump’s troubles. Basically Durham was appointed by Barr to find things to try to back up tRump’s claims that the Russia investigation was illegal. Several court cases and investigations found that the investigation was legal and valid. Every legal podcast I have listen too destroys the indictment. His indictment against the lawyer that brought the findings of the tech people to the FBI he accused of lying because he did not tell the FBI he once worked for Hillary. Once worked for her. He was not working for her then. The FBI did not ask because it did not matter, the information was what mattered. So it was not lying to the FBI to not says something they did not ask. If a person reports a bank robbery to the FBI the issue is not if the person reporting has a bank account. The other thing that jumps out is that these types of charges are normally one page. Durham wrote a screed of 26 pages of conjecture and conspiracies. He was building right wing talking points. Here is the weaponizing of the DOJ that the right seems to think Biden has done. It is being done right in the open, using the DOJ and the courts to attack political enemies like a banana republic.
Also this is an attempt to distract from the information given to the FBI. The fact is a Russian bank in Moscow that was tied to Putin was pinging a dedicated server in tRump Tower. There was no explanation for it. Especially when the talk was Russia was helping tRump. Their was an attempt to hide the server, to hide the data on it, to hide the connection, and that server only talked to that bank. Very suspicious. So The right deflects by saying the real crime that should be investigated was the person who delivered it had once worked for Hillary.
How about both when the deserve it? This is not jousting wind mills. This is calling out that acts of aggression and violating human rights.
So what should the US have done to truckers / people on the Canadian side of the border? Send troops into a sovereign country and blow stuff up, steal the trucks by towing them away, and kidnap the people by arresting them? Well that is what the new right wing hero Putin would do. This was Canada’s problem to solve and they did.
The current inflation problem is caused by price gouging and profit taking. Companies are making record profits. CEO pay packages are soaring. The ones being hurt are the consumers as companies try to make up for the slower times during Covid.
Again the current inflation is caused by price gouging and profit taking of businesses. Corporations have record profits. CEO pay packages / benefits are soaring. But they want the people to blame everything else especially the little increases in pay that workers may get.
It is about the data. The cases are falling in the areas where the mandates are being withdrawn. This is a great thing, less cases means less death and less really ill people in hospitals. Follow the medical science is what people should be doing. It is what the people in charge should be following.
Must be a Fox reporter, can’t wear a mask correctly. Only people that are insecure in their own sexuality are concerned with others sexuality. And Republican politicians, of course.
Durham made a filing, no charges, no indictment. He built up a 26 page conspiracy theory with no new information and all insinuation. He accuses the lawyer that took the information from the tech people to the FBI of lying by not telling the FBI he once worked for Hillary. That doesn’t matter. If someone reports a bank robbery the FBI doesn’t care if the person has a bank account or not. The important point was the information Durham and the Republicans want to bury, that there was a bank in Moscow connected to Putin communicating with a server in tRump tower. It was the only computer communicating with that server. This at a time when there when Putin had hacked the DNC and was rumored to be interfering in the election. So this is just an attempt to muddy the waters and create a misleading right wing talking point.
I guess if a minority of the people wanted to race their cars through school zones some times killing kids and themselves, we should let them because of “Freedom”. The mask and vaccine mandates saved lives. No one lost freedom. No one was forced to get a shot or wear a mask at gun point. But if you wanted the right to join in the fun, you had the responsibility to follow public health rules.
This cartoon really pissed me off. That is an asinine cartoon that insults child abuse victims. Wearing a mask is not child abuse any more than wearing shoes are. It causes no harm and protects the wearer. Most children are not bothered by masks, the only ones with a problem with them are because the parents have made such a stink over it. Masks are proven to prevent the spread of Covid. Period. They saved lives, of children and adults. Grow up.
Kids do not care about masks, they are too worried about boredom, tests, bullies, making friends, dates, and a hundred more things important to them. Masks are not even on the list.
Police funding is actually UP across the country, and that “Defund the Police” meme is about as valid as the “Critical Race Theory” and “Sharia Law” boogymen that right wing propagandists use to keep their gullible “base” riled up.
MEANWHILE Republicans are doing everything they can to destroy democracy and literally steal elections, while supporting thoroughly-rotten criminal candidates, starting at the top with their Dear Leader. But what’s important to right-wing propagandists is to distract with their shiny-object reminders of anger and fear.
Goodwyn is indirectly attacking BLM, since “Defund the Police” was a collateral slogan of those protests; demonize “Defund the Police” (blaming all crime on a non-existent policy), and you’re also reminding people why they hated and feared BLM, too.
Win, win, because you keep people angry, fearful, and aggrieved, keeping attention off the very real assault on America.
An Arizona House committee has approved a bill that would ban pet owners from declawing their cats.
HB 2224 would impose fines on any veterinarian that performs the procedure unless it is for therapeutic purposes.
“With all the research and science that we have accumulated on this topic, it is cruel, it is mutilation, and it needs to stop,” said Arizona State Representative Amish Shah.
Declawing cats involves the surgical removal of the third bone – or the first “knuckle” of a cat’s toes, and has been condemned by the Humane Society and the ASPCA as an unnecessary treatment.
The bill has also met some criticism, with some saying it’s the owner’s choice if they want the procedure done.
Some argue that not being able to declaw cats might dissuade some people from adopting them.
The bill now heads to the full House for consideration.
No one was calling for Rogan to be canceled or taken off the air. The issue was his misinformation about a public health crisis and misinformation on treatments for the public health crisis. Even he admitted he was careless with the truth and should have done better. The problem is he is promoting his program as a news show reporting facts and not just an opinion show. Now Spotify labels the misinformation and directs people to the factual true information.
And that is not being taught either. It is just another way to prevent real history from being taught. If they can prevent people from learning how bad slavery was then they can prevent any of the real history of holding black people back from being learned and they can keep doing things to oppress POC.
By using state power to censor any truthful teaching about how four centuries (and counting!) of American racism have influenced the socioeconomic status of Black Americans, bans on the teaching of “CRT” implicitly and deliberately “teach” the lie that the glaring disparities persist because Black “individuals” are “inherently inferior.” Those promoting such bans claim to be driven by solicitude for pupils’ feelings; but they are solicitous only about White pupils’ feelings. The effect of their lie on Black pupils’ feelings is devastating by deliberate design.
Scottie's Playtime 
What we are witnessing is PRICE GOUGING, NOT INFLATION.
INFLATION is when business owners raise prices commensurate with higher costs to make ends meet.
But when corporations are reporting record all-time profits, raising prices is NOT INFLATION, it is PRICE GOUGING to capitalize on supply chain disruptions caused by a national emergency.
McDonald’s profits soared 59% in 2021, to $7.5 billion.
ExxonMobil reported a $8.9 billion in profits in the FOURTH QUARTER ALONE, while it was jacking up prices to new records.
Numerous other companies jacked up prices while raking in record profits in 2021.
Donald Trump crashed the economy, destroyed the supply chain, blew up international trade relations by imposing ridiculous tariffs that hurt farmers and consumers, mishandled a pandemic that exploded into a worldwide economic crisis and now as Biden is putting people back, restoring consumer confidence, which stimulates demand, but the devastation wrought by Trump on the supply chain is taking longer to undo, especially as anti-science right wing nut jobs continue to undermine recovery from the Trump plague.
If there were a hurricane, tornado, flood or wildfire and vendors were charging $20 for a bottle of water, they would be arrested. We need to see some of the corporate heads who have tripled their profits on the backs of consumers being frog-marched into the Big House.