Lasher
Lasher's JournalRetired general warns the U.S. military could lead a coup after the 2024 election
The generals – Paul Eaton, Antonio Taguba and Steven Anderson – made their case in a recent Washington Post Op-Ed. "In short: We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time," they wrote.
Paul Eaton, a retired U.S. Army major general and a senior adviser to VoteVets, spoke with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly earlier this week.
Below are the highlights of the conversation.
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/31/1068930675/us-election-coup-january-6-military-constitution
So many people don't yet realize how close we came on January 6th. Others don't care. How I miss my naive younger days when I thought we all supported the basic principle of majority rule.
Police: Teen charged in triple killing is loose, dangerous
Source: Associated Press
GARLAND, Texas (AP) — Dallas-area police have charged a 14-year-old with capital murder in a triple killing at a gas station and are warning that the boy is at large, armed and dangerous.
Police in Garland are seeking Abel Elias Acosta and said Wednesday that they have evidence showing he was the gunman who left three teens dead and wounded a fourth at the suburban gas station’s convenience store Sunday.
Acosta is the son of Richard Acosta, 33, who turned himself into police Monday and is also charged with capital murder for allegedly acting as a get-away driver in the shooting, police said in a statement. A juvenile court has issued an order to take the younger Acosta into custody, police said, and authorized them to publicly release his name.
Prosecutors will determine whether the teen is charged as a minor or an adult, said Lt. Pedro Barineau.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/texas-dallas-crime-shootings-162a3954c61c4ac3d60111800f6c2ca2
Another multiple murderer. Police are saying the boy's father drove him there to do the killing with than 20 rounds from a .40-caliber pistol.
More COVID-19 Cases on the Norwegian Breakaway As the NCL Cruise Ship Sails to Roatan
At least three additional crew members are infected with COVID-19 on the Norwegian Breakaway, according to a knowledgeable crew member on the cruise ship who wishes to remain anonymous. This crew member also informed us that there are nine crew members in isolation on the ship due to close contact with other infected crew members. The three additional infected crew members at this time include a recreational staff member, a stateroom attendant and and a musician.
The Norwegian Breakaway arrived in Roatan this morning during its current cruise to the Caribbean, after its was delayed leaving New Orleans this weekend.
So Far, at Least Twenty People Infected with COVID-19
As we previouly reported, this past weekend the Norwegian Breakaway returned to New Orleans after a week-long cruise to the Caribbean with what the Louisiana Department of Health initially reported to be ten COVID-19 cases involving cruise guests and crew members. Additional testing, once the ship returned toport, revealed an additional seven coronavirus cases, for a total of seventeen cases so far (and counting), This total does not including the three infected crew members who we learned of today.
https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2021/12/articles/disease/more-covid-19-cases-on-the-norwegian-breakaway-as-the-ncl-cruise-ship-sails-to-roatan/
I thought some of you might be following this.
ETA: Link to prior DU discussion COVID outbreak on cruise ship approaching New Orleans
Ex-defense secretary sues over withheld material from Trump era memoir
Source: The Guardian
The former US defense secretary Mark Esper claims in a lawsuit against the defense department that material is being improperly withheld from him as he seeks to publish an “unvarnished and candid memoir” of his time in Donald Trump’s cabinet.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday in the US district court in Washington, describes the memoir, A Sacred Oath, as an account of Esper’s tenure as army secretary from 2017 to 2019 and his 18 months as defense secretary, which ended when Trump fired him in a tweet just days after the president lost his reelection bid.
The period in which Esper was Pentagon chief was “an unprecedented time of civil unrest, public health crises, growing threats abroad, Pentagon transformation, and a White House seemingly bent on circumventing the constitution”, the lawsuit says.
Esper and Trump were sharply divided over the use of the military during civil unrest in June 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. Other issues led the president to believe Esper was not sufficiently loyal while Esper believed he was trying to keep the department apolitical. Firing a defense secretary after an election loss was unprecedented, but the opening allowed Trump to install loyalists in top Pentagon positions as he continued to dispute his election loss.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/ex-defense-secretary-sues-over-withheld-material-from-trump-era-memoir-mark-esper
Looks like the DoD is trying to torpedo Esper's forthcoming book.
Pandora Papers: "Biggest-ever" bombshell leak exposes financial secrets of the super-rich
Source: Salon
In what's being called the "biggest-ever leak of offshore data," a cache of nearly 12 million files published Sunday laid bare the hidden wealth, secret dealings, and corruption of hundreds of world leaders, billionaires, public officials, celebrities, and others.
The bombshell revelations—known as the Pandora Papers—were published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and include private emails, secret contracts, and other records obtained during a two-year investigation involving more than 600 journalists in 117 countries and territories.
"This is the Panama Papers on steroids," said ICIJ director Gerard Ryle, referring to the 2016 exposé of the tax-evading secrets of the super-rich. "It's broader, richer, and has more detail."
Read more: https://www.salon.com/2021/10/03/pandora-papers-biggest-ever-bombshell-leak-exposes-financial-secrets-of-the-super-rich_partner/
The Panama Papers on steroids. This should get interesting.
Trump's new interviews and appearances show that a storm is brewing
Trump was in the middle of a fact-free rant about "vicious" Democrats cheating on elections when he said "they're destroying our country. Our country will not survive this. Our country will not survive." Then he sniffed and shifted to immigration, saying "look at where they're coming from," clearly mimicking the "great replacement theory" talking points that Tucker Carlson has been mainlining into homes across the country.
These are all signs of the gathering storm. Trump's incessant lies about the last election (Biden "didn't get 81 million votes, there's no way," he told OAN) pose obvious threats to future elections. The so-called "Stop the Steal" movement is "racing forward," ignoring the Arizona audit "humiliation," the NYT pointed out over the weekend.
Most of us can feel the instability in the air the same way a weather forecaster can feel a storm coming on. News outlets need to be providing storm warnings -- but some are ignoring the threat. That's what my opening essay on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast was about. Anti-democratic talking points are being paraded across networks like Newsmax, and averting one's eyes doesn't make the parade go away...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/26/media/trump-interviews-reliable-sources/index.html
A new COVID-19 booster shot that could protect against multiple variants is being tested in humans
It uses new vaccine technology that self-replicates once injected in the muscle.
The vaccine may need a lower dose than existing shots, potentially reducing side effects.
https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-booster-vaccine-side-effects-multiple-variants-gritstone-trial-2021-9
This looks promising.
George W. Bush calls on Americans to confront domestic violent extremists on 9/11 anniversary
Source: CNN
Former President George W. Bush on Saturday called on Americans to confront domestic violent extremists, comparing them to violent extremists abroad and warning that they are "children of the same foul spirit."
In a speech marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Bush said the US has seen "growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within."
"There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home," Bush said. "But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit."
"And it is our continuing duty to confront them," he added.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/11/politics/george-w-bush-9-11-speech-domestic-violent-extremism/index.html
The January 6 insurrectionists were terrorists. George W. Bush just indicted them.
Kremlin papers appear to show Putin's plot to put Trump in White House
The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.
They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.
Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/15/kremlin-papers-appear-to-show-putins-plot-to-put-trump-in-white-house
Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency
Four conspiracy theorists marched into the Oval Office. It was early evening on Friday, Dec. 18 — more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden, and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official."How the hell did Sidney get in the building?" White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president.
President Trump's private schedule hadn't included appointments for Powell or the others: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and a little-known former Trump administration official, Emily Newman. But they'd come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting.
As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann - a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who'd been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump - quietly slipped in behind them.
https://www.axios.com/trump-oval-office-meeting-sidney-powell-a8e1e466-2e42-42d0-9cf1-26eb267f8723.html
Long read but well worth the time. If you want to know just how nutty Trump and his followers are, then here ya go.
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