speak easy
speak easy's JournalThe 'Heroes of Mariupol Square' opens 200 meters away from a Russian Consulate
In Poland today, Gdansk mayor Alexandra Dulkiewicz opened 'The Heroes of Mariupol Square' 200 meters away from the Russian Consulate. The opening featured an exhibition showing how the city of Mariupol looked in peacetime and how it looks now. Gdansk and Mariupol have been sister cities since 2014 [Ukraine Now Telegram]
One thing the GOP gets, and Dems don't get (enough)
is that framing is rooted in repetition. The RW's endless repetition of 'the Radical Left', 'Cancel Culture' and 'Open Borders' has framed the debate - on their side of politics at least. As one member of Congress said - 'When you have said something so often that you are beginning to feel nauseous is the time that some people are just beginning get it.'
So I think the electorate deserves to hear, ad nauseam, about
'the ultra-MAGA agenda'
'the Trump Court'
until we get sick of saying it, and then some. And I'd like the nominate 'Proud Boy Republicans'. Ain't gonna have no Proud Boys in my bedroom.
'South African study shows COVID severity of Omicron BA.1, BA.4, BA.5 all similar'
What is new about BA.4 / BA.5, is not the severity, but the fact that an earlier Omicron BA.1 / BA.2 infection provides little, if any protection against reinfection with BA.4 / BA.5. The advice for vaccination with boosters against severe illness remains unchanged.
A recent article posted to the medRxiv* preprint server analyzed the illness severity of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron BA.4/BA.5 and prior viral waves in the Western Cape, South Africa.
The study findings depicted that in the context of heightening COVID-19 immunity due to vaccination and past infection, both of which were significantly protective, especially with booster vaccinations, COVID-19 severity among diagnosed cases in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 eras was comparable. The team stated that ensuring that those at a high risk of developing severe SARS-CoV-2 outcomes receive at least three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine was still a relevant tactic for reducing the impact of future SARS-CoV-2 waves on the public health system.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220630/South-African-study-shows-COVID-severity-of-Omicron-BA1-BA4-BA5-all-similar.aspx
What is the 'Independent State Legislature doctrine'? (a guide)
“A Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election”, Judge J. Michael Luttig.What is the Independent State Legislature doctrine?
Many legal scholars believe this theory deserves condemnation, both as an antidemocratic effort to hand absolute power to often wildly gerrymandered state legislatures, but also as a departure from decades of constitutional precedent. But those scholars don't have any of the nine votes that matter.
Four conservative justices have already indicated support: Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch in the North Carolina dissent issued this week, and Kavanaugh in his concurrence. It would just take either Roberts (whose stinging dissent in the 2015 Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission decision puts him down as a strong maybe), or Barrett to establish this crackpot theory as the law of the land.
https://www.salon.com/2022/03/09/will-the-independent-state-legislature-doctrine-literally-mean-the-end-of-democracy/
But wait, there's more :-
What would happen if the Supreme Court accepted the independent state legislature theory?
Delegations of authority would also be questionable, robbing elections commissions and secretaries of state of the power to make decisions, including in emergencies. And only federal courts would have the power to review gerrymandering or voter suppression claims relating to federal elections.
The nightmare scenario is that a legislature, displeased with how an election official on the ground has interpreted her state’s election laws, would invoke the theory as a pretext to refuse to certify the results of a presidential election and instead select its own slate of electors. Indeed, this isn’t far from the plan attempted by Trump allies following his loss in the 2020 election. And, according to former federal judge J. Michael Luttig — a distinguished conservative jurist — the theory is a part of the “Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election.”
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/independent-state-legislature-theory-explained
I am sick of hearing that Trump was unhinged on January 6.
He never was hinged in the first place. He has always been a simplistic psychopath with the temperament of a two year old. This is the guy who wanted - and got - a blow by blow account of how Kim Jong Un murdered his Uncle.
He killed his uncle and he put the body right in the steps," Trump said, in an apparent reference to a building used by senior officials. "And the head was cut off, sitting on the chest,"
https://news.yahoo.com/kim-showed-off-executed-uncles-093758467.html
and that is what Trump wanted .... for Mike Pence.
'Democrats are not packing the Supreme Court with liberal judges,
we are restoring the good standing of the Court by appointing Honest Justices who won't mislead the United States Senate during Confirmation, nor deceive Senators with private assurances they never had an intention of honoring. Trump packed the Court with judges who were prepared to lie to the American People. Democrats will restore the stature of, and confidence in the Supreme Court by nominating men and women of character. That is what expanding the court to 13 justices is about: Not abortion, not marriage equality, but the vital integrity of our institutions.'
my 2c
New Zealand declares US far-right Proud Boys and the Base terrorist groups
Source: The Guardian
New Zealand’s government has declared that the American far-right groups the Proud Boys and the Base are terrorist organisations.
The two groups join 18 others, including the Islamic State group, that have been given an official terrorist designation, making it illegal in New Zealand to fund, recruit or participate in the groups, and obligating authorities to take action against them.
The US groups are not known to be active in New Zealand, but the South Pacific nation has become more attuned to threats from the far right after a white supremacist shot and killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019.
The New Zealand massacre inspired other white supremacists around the world, including a white gunman who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May.
In the US, the state department only lists foreign groups as terrorist entities. But the Proud Boys were last year named a terrorist group in Canada, while the Base has previously been declared a terrorist group in Britain, Canada and Australia.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/01/new-zealand-declares-us-far-right-proud-boys-and-the-base-terrorist-groups
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