Magger Mikey fiddles while Ukraine burns.
Ukraine air defences overwhelmed as Russia pounds power stations | Ukraine | The Guardian
Fiddling Around
User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Magger Mikey fiddles while Ukraine burns.
Ukraine air defences overwhelmed as Russia pounds power stations | Ukraine | The Guardian
Instead of passing Ukraine aid, the House is voting on bills to shield home appliances from government regulations (msn.com)
Russian troops advance in Ukraine as Kyiv runs low on air defenses – The Washington Post
Republicans are depraved.
Svengoolie presents: “Island of Terror” with Peter Cushing.
The People of the State of New York v. Donald Trump is finally here
Monday starts jury selection.
it begins? Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seizes a container ship near Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Israel – ABC News (go.com) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks between the two countries. The Middle East had braced for potential Iranian retaliation over a suspected Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force there. The Israeli war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip meanwhile is now 6 months old and is inflaming decades-old tensions across the whole region. With Iranian-backed forces like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels also involved in the fighting, any new attack in the Mideast threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war. Iran’s state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guard’s navy carried out the attack on the vessel, which other media in the country widely identified as the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC, which did not immediately respond. […] Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and attacks on vessels have been attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. In previous seizures, Iran has offered initial explanations about their operations to make it seem like the attacks had nothing to do with the wider geopolitical tensions — though later acknowledging as much. In Saturday’s attack, however, Iran telling offered no explanation for the seizure other than to say the MSC Aries had links to Israel. For days, Iranian officials up to and including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been threatening to “slap” Israel for the Syria strike. Western governments have issued warnings to their citizens in the region to be prepared for attacks.… Read more »
jamie, wonder if those prospective jurors will be asked whether they saw or had bought tickets to
‘Five: The Parody Musical’ covers Trump’s relationships in a ‘Six’-style show (timeout.com)
Pundits on Russian TV brag that Mike Johnson and Trump are “ours”
Russian state TV experts discussed Mike Johnson’s meeting with Trump as the deciding factor in stopping US aid to Ukraine.. Referring to Johnson, state TV host Olga Skabeeva claimed him as “theirs,” just like Trump.
VIDEO (with captions)..
https://x.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1778912250520367170
CHECKMATE!
Wall Street Journal: “Abortion is the most powerful issue driving suburban women who could decide the presidential election”
Patd
The Smerconish question today was whether people thought Trump could get a fair trial. Overwhelming yes including me. Either people were lying through their teeth or like me actually believe in the jury system. Almost restored my faith in something.
Love the soundtrack to Six so would definitely be heading for Five if a New York denizen.
According to the Wall Street Journal poll, 57% of suburban women in swing states thought Trump’s policies on abortion were “too restrictive:” Biden leads that group by 17 points.
Books of the Week:
THE RUNAWAY JURY,
THE LAST JUROR, by John Grisham.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Juries but were afraid to ask
Pray tell, will Plumpty’s phone be embargoed in the courtroom during the criminal trial?
I once witnessed a judge confiscate a person’s phone and place it in a drawer under his bench until after the day’s proceeding. (The person was a fellow juror.)
Teachers, of course, used to do this all the time in classrooms, but those were the old days.
The second biggest group on the list of Biden/Harris voters will be those who don’t want to see cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as outlined in the House Republicans’ budget proposal for 2025.
https://newrepublic.com/post/180029/house-republicans-plan-raise-retirement-age-social-security
“House Republicans Resurrect Plan to Gut Social Security and Medicare”
Just like they promised they wouldn’t do during the 2023 SOTU. They are liars.
ps – The way to save it is to tax the uber-rich, but tRUMPsky already promised another tax cut for them this week.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/tennessee-schools-gun-control-vote-b2527018.html
“Protesting parents chant ‘shame on you’ from Senate gallery as Protesting parents chant ‘shame on you’ from Senate gallery as Tennessee lawmakers vote on arming teachersTennessee lawmakers vote on arming teachers”
More groups of Biden/Harris voters:
Teachers’ unions (all unions, really)
Parents
Only the wealthy who will benefit from tax cuts (to the detriment of the rest of our society), and the willfully-ignorant white nationalists (who are not in any way followers of Christ) are still on board with tRUMPsky and Project 2025.
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/12/jonathan-stickland-matt-rinaldi-white-supremacy-scandal/
“Far-right activist Jonathan Stickland starts new group, months after white supremacist scandal”
“Stickland has been at the center of a white supremacy scandal since October, when The Texas Tribune reported that he had hosted infamous Adolf Hitler fan Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse’s offices for several hours. Rinaldi was also spotted outside Pale Horse’s one-story office building in rural Tarrant County, but denied knowing Fuentes was inside.”
“The meeting — as well as subsequent reporting by the Tribune that uncovered other white supremacistsin Stickland’s orbit — prompted House Speaker Dade Phelan and other Republicans to call for party members to redirect money they received from Stickland’s group, Defend Texas Liberty, to pro-Israel charities.”
“Defend Texas Liberty is a powerful political action committee that West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks have used to give more than $15 million to far-right groups, lawmakers and candidates. Dunn and Wilks are also Attorney General Ken Paxton’s biggest donors, and Defend Texas Liberty gave $3 million to Lt. Gov. Dan Patricklast summer, before Patrick presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial in the state Senate.”
“Stickland was quietly replaced as Defend Texas Liberty’s president in October, and Pale Horse Strategies later rebranded as “West Fort Worth Management LLC.” (Not long after it was registered last month, “Patriot Service Alliance” filed paperwork to operate under the name “West Fort Worth Management LLC”). Rinaldi, meanwhile, has continued to attack critics of Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty — while quietly working as an attorney for Wilks, one of the group’s billionaire funders.”
“In November, the Texas GOP’s executive committee narrowly rejected a resolution that banned the party from associating with Holocaust deniers, antisemites and neo-Nazis — language that some members argued could create a slippery slope and complicate the party’s relationship with donors or future candidates. After backlash, the party in Januarypassed a resolution that banned it from associating with antisemites — a significantly watered-down version of previous proposals that specifically named Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty.”
The snake sheds its skin, but it’s always a snake.
BREAKING NEWS: Iran said to begin attack on Israel, launching dozens of drones that’ll take hours to arrive * PM says Israel is ready
Netty’s permanent war no more elections, no jail time plan at work? Lesson for Dumbass?
Liz Cheney to Large Marge Green:
“Once again, Moscow Marge is busy deploying her Kremlin talking points. Is she a useful idiot or is she intentionally spreading Putin’s lies?” asked Cheney. “Either way, it’s pathetic and unAmerican.”
Pogo, Pat and y’all, feel free to beg, borrow or steal anytime. My compliments.
MTG: Magda Taylor Goebbels
anything interesting happen today?
The Obama admin made such remarkable diplomatic progress with Iran, i thought at the time, it might have been the dawn of a new age. Then, not-again-guy came and ——— it all up, as he does 😒
My friend I just caught up with had made a peace-keeping trip to Iran. That must’ve been during Obama. She just told me about it at dinner. She said her most poignant personal moment came when a child ran up to her and asked, why do Americans hate us so much?
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/calamity-jane-legend-reality?
AuthorS of the Day:
Henryk Sienkiewcz
Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz in Polish.[1]
The novel Quo Vadis tells of a love that develops between a young Christian woman, Lygia (Ligia in Polish), and Marcus Vinicius, a Roman patrician. It takes place in the city of Rome under the rule of emperor Nero, c. AD 64.
Sienkiewicz studied the Roman Empire extensively before writing the novel, with the aim of getting historical details correct. Consequently, several historical figures appear in the book. As a whole, the novel carries a pro-Christian message.[2][3][4]
It was first published in installments in the Gazeta Polska between 26 March 1895 and 29 February 1896,[5][6] as well as in two other journals, Czas and Dziennik Poznański, starting two and three days later.[7][8] It was published in book form in 1896 and has been translated into more than 50 languages. The novel contributed to Sienkiewicz’s Nobel Prize for literature in 1905.[9]
Also:
Lew Wallace
BEN HUR
And:
Lloyd C. Douglas
THE ROBE
Taylor Caldwell
A PILLAR OF IRON
Robert Graves
I, CLAUDIUS
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/13/business/google-links-california-news-legislation/index.html
“Google is removing links to California news websites in reaction to proposed state legislation requiring big tech companies to pay news outlets for their content, the company announced Friday in a blog post.”
“The California Journalism Preservation Act…would require digital platforms like Google and Meta to pay a “journalism usage fee” to eligible news outlets when they use their content alongside digital ads.”
“The bill comes as more people have shifted away from finding and consuming news though traditional media and toward social and online platforms. The legislation was introduced amid fears the companies’ news aggregation practices will siphon users away from news websites, which have sounded the alarm about how platforms have gained increasingly unfettered control over the content they allow users to see.”
The same thing happened in Canada, but they struck a deal (peanuts to Google who was also make ad money with those links).
bet some folks are scratching their heads as to why this isn’t also the response to russia’s drones and missiles coming at ukraine
US and UK forces help shoot down Iranian drones over Jordan, Syria and Iraq | Israel | The Guardian
One of these is not like the other
Quote from my old boss:
Saturday: Mostly sunny.
Sunday: Mostly sunny.
Monday: Mostly Stormy.
Typical lowbrow Twitter humor.
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