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brooklynite

brooklynite's Journal
brooklynite's Journal
March 18, 2022

Trump considers rescinding his endorsement of Mo Brooks in Alabama's competitive Senate primary

CNN

(CNN)Former President Donald Trump is on the brink of withdrawing his endorsement from Alabama Senate hopeful Mo Brooks following a series of public and private missteps by the Republican congressman, including back-to-back statements this week in which Brooks declined to affirm Trump's belief that the 2020 election result can be overturned.

"I am baffled by the view that we can do something right now to put Donald Trump into office today," Brooks said in a local radio interview Thursday, one day after he told an Alabama newspaper there was no "legal" mechanism by which Trump could be reinstalled as president.

"Whoever is giving him that advice is misleading President Trump," Brooks told AL.com.

While Trump has been seething over Brooks' lackluster campaign performance for several months now, four people familiar with the situation told CNN that he has reached his breaking point and is weighing when and how he might pursue a course correction in the contentious Republican primary to succeed retiring Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby. Two of these people said a phone call that took place between Trump and Brooks earlier this week precipitated Trump's decision to publicly criticize Brooks in an interview with the Washington Examiner that published Wednesday.
March 18, 2022

Russia is stealing commercial aircraft

The Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority has provisionally suspended the certificates of airworthiness of all aircraft operated by Russian airlines on the Bermudan registry. The suspension affects roughly 700 aircraft, including nearly 600 operated for Russia’s largest passenger airlines. Irish authorities have also suspended the certificates of airworthiness for Russian operated aircraft on the Irish registry.

A majority of aircraft operated by Russian commercial airlines are leased, not owned by the airlines. Often as part of that lease, the aircraft are placed on the Bermudan registry as part of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Article 83bis delegation agreements. An 83bis agreement between Russia and Bermuda means that Bermudan authorities assume responsibility for ensuring operations, maintenance, and continuing airworthiness.

On 14 March, Russia passed a law allowing foreign-registered aircraft owned by non-Russian lessors to be placed on the Russian registry. The new law increases the likelihood that few aircraft owned by foreign lessors will be recovered.

Aircraft kept by Russian airlines in the face of lease cancellation and the suspension of their certificates of airworthiness are being re-registered on the Russian civil aircraft registry. The new registrations begin with RA-. Some aircraft have been stored outside of Russia by airlines or lessors. Those locations are noted in the new registrations column.

https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/tracking-re-registered-russian-jets/

March 18, 2022

Russian strikes on Lviv raise fears of Ukraine war spreading west

Source: The Guardian

A Russian missile attack near Lviv airport has raised fears of Vladimir Putin’s war spreading to western Ukraine, as Russia claimed to be “tightening the noose” around the south-eastern port city of Mariupol.

A facility for repairing military aircraft by Lviv’s international airport – only 43 miles from Poland’s border – was hit by two cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea on Friday morning.

Ukrainian officials said they had shot down a further four missiles launched in the attack, the second on facilities near the historic city in recent days.

The strikes raise the spectre of Ukraine losing what has so far been a relative haven and hub for refugees and humanitarian aid.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/russia-missile-lviv-mariupol-ukraine-war
March 18, 2022

Once Motorcade Pals, Congressman and Photographer Are Now Public Foes

New York Times

WASHINGTON — They were once seatmates in the spare limousine of the White House motorcade, traveling the globe together as part of the president’s inner circle.

Bonded by the miles they logged on the road and their unique access to power, Pete Souza, the former official White House photographer who took nearly two million photographs of former President Barack Obama, and Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, the former White House physician who was elected to Congress as a Republican in 2020, were once close friends.

Now, they are the most public of enemies on social media, where Mr. Jackson routinely hurls insults and unsubstantiated claims of cognitive decline at President Biden and Mr. Souza responds with bitingly personal, sometimes salacious takedowns of the congressman’s character. He often begins them tauntingly with, “Hey Ronny.”

Their break is a particularly vivid and public example of how allegiance or opposition to former President Donald J. Trump has driven more Americans into partisan corners, sometimes transforming personal relationships in the process.
March 18, 2022

COVID responses: Very Liberal vs Liberal

New York Times

The key dividing line appears to be ideology. Americans who identify as “very liberal” are much more worried about Covid than Americans who identify as “somewhat liberal” or “liberal.” Increasingly, the very liberal look like outliers on Covid: The merely liberal are sometimes closer to moderates than to the very liberal.

That is a central finding of a poll conducted last week by Morning Consult for this newsletter. The poll is a follow-up to one from January. This time, to go deeper than partisan identification, we asked respondents to choose one of seven labels: very liberal, liberal, slightly liberal, moderate, slightly conservative, conservative or very conservative.



Nearly 50 percent of very liberal Americans say that they believe Covid presents a “great risk” to their personal health. Other liberals, moderates and conservatives tend to be less worried.





More than 60 percent of very liberal Americans believe that mask mandates should continue for the foreseeable future. Most moderates and conservatives see mandates as a temporary strategy that should end this year.

March 18, 2022

Ivermectin didn't protect people from COVID-19, study shows

Source: Marketwatch

Researchers testing repurposed drugs against Covid-19 found that ivermectin didn’t reduce hospital admissions, in the largest trial yet of the effect of the antiparasitic on the disease driving the pandemic.

Ivermectin has received a lot of attention as a potential treatment for Covid-19 including from celebrities such as podcast host Joe Rogan. Most evidence has shown it to be ineffective against Covid-19 or has relied on data of poor quality, infectious-disease researchers said. Public-health authorities and researchers have for months said the drug hasn’t shown any benefit in treating the disease. Taking large doses of the drug is dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration has said.

The latest trial, of nearly 1,400 Covid-19 patients at risk of severe disease, is the largest to show that those who received ivermectin as a treatment didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo.

“There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,” said Edward Mills, one of the study’s lead researchers and a professor of health sciences at Canada’s McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Mills on Friday plans to present the findings, which have been accepted for publication in a major peer-reviewed medical journal, at a public forum sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.


Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ivermectin-didnt-protect-people-from-covid-19-study-shows-11647602256



That, of course, is what Big Science WOULD say.....
March 18, 2022

Cuomo on his future: 'I have a lot of options open, and I'm considering them'

Politico

NEW YORK — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo continued his attempt at a comeback tour Thursday, laying out his own state budget priorities even though he’s out of office and denouncing what he continues to call a cancel culture that led him to resign in August amid sexual harassment allegations.

Cuomo gave an address and answered questions from the crowd for an hour at the Bronx church run by former Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., a conservative Democrat whom the former governor often sparred with over same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

But with Cuomo looking for opportunities to tout his accomplishments and try to remake his scandal-scarred image, he accepted Diaz’s invite last week, often joking during the appearance about their differences but also their friendship.

And Cuomo continued to stoke speculation about a potential comeback, telling reporters who swarmed him after the speech that he hasn’t ruled out a return to office — or a potential run for governor.
March 18, 2022

Sanders camp quietly pushes Khanna presidential bid

Politico

Top figures from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign are privately encouraging Ro Khanna to run for president in 2024 if Joe Biden doesn’t seek a second term, giving the California congressman an important stamp of approval from progressives as the party looks to its post-Biden future.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ former presidential campaign manager, and Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Sanders during his 2016 bid, have both urged Khanna to consider a campaign in the event Biden declines to run again, according to a person familiar with their discussions.

Democratic officeholders are reluctant to speak publicly about their ambitions in a potential open race in 2024 out of concern that they could undermine the president, who has said he plans to campaign for a second term if he is in good health. There are also sensitivities surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris, who is atop the list of possible candidates but faces skepticism from some party insiders who fear she cannot win a general election.

But a growing list of Democratic governors, senators and House members are turning their attention to the possibility of a primary in two years that doesn’t include Biden, given the president’s advanced age and dismal approval ratings. Roughly half of Americans don’t expect Biden, now 79, will run for a second term, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll.
March 18, 2022

New Jersey Democrats pushing for state to hold early presidential primary

Source: Politico

New Jersey Democrats are asking the Democratic National Committee to consider the Garden State as an early presidential primary location.

Democratic State Committee Chair LeRoy J. Jones made the suggestion in a letter Wednesday to DNC Chair Jaime Harrison.

New Jersey should be considered as one of the first presidential primary states as the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee considers modernizing its primary calendar, Jones said. Democrats have criticized Iowa for going first in the presidential primary process, particularly because of the Hawkeye State’s lack of racial diversity. Iowa, a state of 3.1 million people, is about 90 percent white.

New Jersey is among the last states to hold its presidential primaries and the results rarely have an impact on who the nominees of the respective parties will be.


Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/17/new-jersey-democrats-push-early-primary-00018278



I sat in on the DNC's Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting on Saturday; they will be holding a series of public engagement forums to discuss the framework of th 2024 Primary.

https://static.politico.com/54/07/b6dec17640fd90ff919356098c6f/njdsc-letter-to-dnc-1.pdf

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Name: Chris Bastian
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