Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalFormer Ukrainian President Takes Up Kalashnikov Rifle To Fight Russians
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has taken up arms against the Russian army in his nation’s capital, saying resistance fighters are prepared to hold out “forever.”
The 56-year-old, who led Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, held up a Kalashnikov rifle during an interview with CNN’s John Berman on Friday as an example of the weaponry available to them. Poroshenko said the men around him did not have access to heavy artillery like tanks as Russia assaults Kyiv.
“I think that Putin never will catch Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has,” Poroshenko said from a Kyiv street.
“We Ukrainians are free people,” he said.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ukraine-poroshenko-kalashnikov_n_6218fd1ee4b06e1cc58e9db7
Ukrainian soldiers defy Russians in final moment: "F*** you"
As Ukrainian forces battle against Russia's invasion, the reported actions of a small group of soldiers who were in charge of guarding a tiny island in the Black Sea have sent shockwaves across the world. As Russian forces descended on Thursday, threatening to bomb them if they didn't surrender, 13 guards allegedly refused and instead issued a resounding, "f*** you."
Moments later, they were killed.
Audio appearing to document the encounter was posted on YouTube on Thursday by local news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda. CBS News could not independently verify the audio.
"Zmeiny Island, [speaking is] Russian ship. I suggest you lay down your arms and surrender in order to avoid bloodshed," a voice is heard saying in Russian. "Otherwise you will be bombed-hit."
The Ukrainian soldiers responded simply: "Russian ship, f*** you."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-snake-island-soldiers-tell-russian-troops-f-you-killed/
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Much better than "Morituri te salutamus"
James Inhofe, GOP Oklahoma senator, to retire at end of year
Republican Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, announced Monday he'll retire from the Senate at the end of this year.
The 87-year old Inhofe has served in the Senate since 1995 and won re-election overwhelmingly in 2020 in the red state, pledging to serve one final term. But he is opting to leave earlier to care for his ailing wife, according to a person familiar with the plans, who asked for anonymity to discuss them.
"It is bittersweet, but with a clear heart, that Kay and I announce that at the end of the year, I will retire from the United States Senate," Inhofe wrote in a letter to Oklahoma's secretary of state. "Throughout our years there has been one constant – making the world safer and better for our 20 kids and grandkids and the next generation of Oklahomans. It is now time for that next generation of Oklahomans to have the opportunity to serve the state in the U.S. Senate."
Inhofe's sudden announcement is set to spark a special election and likely a competitive primary among Oklahoma Republicans, given the overwhelming GOP tilt of the state.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jim-inhofe-retiring-from-senate/
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I'm sure they'll manage to elect someone just as ignorant.
Anonymous launches cyber war on Russia and has disabled several websites
Hacking group Anonymous has declared ‘cyber war’ against Vladimir Putin’s government in response to his invasion of Ukraine.
The collective then said it had disabled several websites of Russian government, the Kremlin, the Duma, and the Ministry of Defence.
It also claimed to have taken down the website of Kremlin-backed TV channel Russia today, which broadcasts in Britain.
Earlier this week the news network was described by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as Putin’s ‘personal propaganda tool’.
When Metro.co.uk attempted to access the site this morning, it said it was inaccessible and displayed an error message saying ‘this site can’t be reached’.
https://metro.co.uk/2022/02/25/anonymous-declares-cyber-war-on-putin-and-says-it-took-down-rt-website-16173346/
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Gotta love 'em!
5 Texas DAs defy governor's order on trans youth
District attorneys representing five of Texas' largest counties on Wednesday said they will not treat gender-affirming procedures for transgender youth as "child abuse," defying a push by the state's attorney general and governor to target the medical treatments.
The news comes a day after an order from Gov. Greg Abbott mandated the state's child welfare agency treat gender-affirming procedures as "child abuse," a move with potential legal consequences for both parents of transgender youth and any teacher or other authority figure who interacts with a trans child.
The district attorneys said they believe Gov. Abbott's order — and the legal opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton on which the order is based — constitute "an egregious invasion of privacy."
"We will enforce the Constitution and will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians," said district attorneys representing more than 5 million people, including those in the cities of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Sugar Land and Corpus Christi.
Will parents of transgender kids be investigated in Texas?:Governor's order sparks fear, uncertainty
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/02/24/texas-order-trans-youth/6926395001/
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I applaud this FU to Gov. Hot Wheels!
How India is emerging as a chess powerhouse
"I just want to hit the bed," R Praggnanandhaa said early on Monday after defeating Magnus Carlsen, the highest-ranking chess player in the world, at the Airthings Masters, an online rapid tournament.
The frail-looking 16-year-old boy from India's southern city of Chennai is no stranger to success. At 10, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest International Master in the history of the game. Two years later, in 2018, he had become the world's then second-youngest chess grandmaster.
Now the prodigious teenager had achieved his "biggest dream" by becoming only the third Indian to trump the 32-year-old Norwegian grandmaster.
Praggnanandhaa, or Pragg as he's popularly known, belongs to a generation of young Indians who embody the country's growing influence in chess, a sport that has its origins in a two-player Indian board game from the sixth century. It's no mean feat in a country of 1.3 billion people feverishly obsessed with cricket.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60497243
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First they own all the spelling bees, now chess? 
GOP House Candidate Seen Berating Cop, Calling Her 'Immigrant' During Traffic Stop
A Republican congressional candidate in Florida was caught on police body camera footage threatening to end an officer’s career because she pulled him over for a traffic stop.
Martin Hyde, who is running in Florida’s 16th Congressional District, was pulled over by Sarasota Police Officer Julie Beskin on Feb. 14.
In video of the exchange, Beskin advised Hyde he was driving 57 mph in a 40 zone and was also seen texting on his phone. In a combative exchange that followed, he refused to cooperate, threatened her job and asked her if she was behaving that way because she was an immigrant.
“I’ll just call your chief. How’s that? You know who I am, right?” Hyde asked her after she explained why she’d stopped him.
“Go right ahead, sir,” Beskin replied. “Yes, sir, I do.”
She then asked him for his license and registration, telling him she was just doing her job.
“Yeah, for now,” he replied.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republican-house-candidate-martin-hyde-threatens-police-traffic-stop_n_6216a946e4b0d1388f0ece0b
'It's a sanctuary': the magic of quiet, low-cost, allergy-free 'passive' homes
The first night Stephanie Silva spent at her new Brooklyn apartment was uncommonly quiet. So was the following morning and the next day. The 32-year-old native New Yorker had forgotten the last time she was able to mute the city of 8.2 million.
“It’s like a sanctuary,” Silva says, but as soon as she opens the street-facing windows, the bustling outside noise fills her living room. Once she closed the windows again, the difference was instantly noticeable. “Since moving here my anxiety went out the window,” Silva says, referring to the 10-floor affordable apartment in Ocean Hill, part of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. But what sets this 67-unit building apart from the rest of the housing in the city is its “passive” element.
A passive building is designed to use minimal energy. To be efficient in heating and cooling, the space is sealed with airtight insulation – like a vacuum flask – so that it can keep the heat in during winter while keeping it out during the summer. Homes, schools, offices and other buildings built to passive house standards usually use thicker, high-performance windows – like triple-pane models, which have three layers of glass. Another key step is using the energy recovery process in the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. Known as ERV, the ventilator, by way of two fans, acts as the lungs of the building, drawing in clean, fresh and filtered air and pushing out the stale air.
In New York and other cities, passive design is catching on as a popular option for new apartment buildings and homes, and it’s easy to see why: people love living in them.
“I did not suffer an allergy attack the way I usually would,” said Silva, who has dust and seasonal allergies. “The building purifies the air and I can sleep through the night.”
The continuous exchange of air, coupled with superinsulated construction, means no more smell of whatever the downstairs neighbors are cooking, no more traffic noise in the living room, and no more clickety-clack of old radiators. Each room in Silva’s three-bedroom apartment has its own heating and cooling unit, allowing her family to heat one room at a time instead of the entire home. “My daughter hates heat, while I like my room to be nice and warm,” Silva says. “I love the fact that each room has its own separate temperature.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/24/passive-building-energy-efficiency-affordable-housing-new-york
Colin Kaepernick launches new initiative to offer autopsies for police-related deaths
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick announced the start of a new initiative to offer free second autopsies to family members of anyone whose death is "police-related."
The Autopsy Initiative, offered through Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp organization, will provide free, secondary autopsies conducted by board-certified pathologists who will disclose the preliminary findings and issue the final autopsy reports to families.
The autopsy can be requested by anyone with a close relationship with the victim — such as a spouse, partner, relative, close friend or lawyer. The autopsy must be authorized by a legal representative, according to the organization.
The initiative will eliminate any concerns from the originally given autopsy, ensuring that it was conducted without any biases or errors and that any evidence wasn't manipulated — giving the victim's family a clear picture of what happened.
"We know that the prison industrial complex, which includes police and policing, strives to protect and serve its interests at all costs," Kaepernick told The Associated Press.
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/24/1082670798/colin-kaepernick-autopsies-police-related-deaths
Tucker Carlson, downplaying Russia-Ukraine conflict, urges Americans to ask, 'Why do I hate Putin?'
Shortly after the White House announced the first wave of sanctions against Russia for troops entering eastern Ukraine in a move described by President Biden as “the beginning” of an invasion, Tucker Carlson had a question for Americans: Why do you hate Russian President Vladimir Putin?
Putin, who ordered his forces into the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in a decision Biden called “a flagrant violation of international law,” asserted this week that Ukraine wasn’t even a sovereign country at a time when there has been a sharp increase of violence in Ukrainian-controlled parts of the east.
But even with the Ukraine conflict and Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Fox News host described the tension in the region as merely “a border dispute” and wondered why Americans should despise the Russian president.
“It may be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious, what is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?” he said on his Tuesday night show. “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?”
Carlson, who has been accused of being “one of the biggest cheerleaders for Russia” during the conflict, asked viewers on his top-rated Fox News show a series of questions about whether Putin had promoted “racial discrimination” in schools, made fentanyl, attempted “to snuff out Christianity” or eaten dogs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/02/23/tucker-carlson-putin-russia-ukraine/
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Sounds like he's bucking for a job at Russia Today
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