Tracker

Maybe just to piss off the Rider fans.

And the law and order Cons are not falling all over each other to bring the miscreant to justice?

The goal of the GOP's QAnon-influenced "groomer" troll: More political violence Republicans don't really think liberals are "grooming" children — but they know saying so is permission to violence Here is the most important thing to remember about the word "groomer": Exactly zero percent of the people flinging the word at progressives care one bit about child abuse. This is all just pure, uncut trolling. It's never meant as a sincere concern or accusation. Indeed, the deep unfairness of the word "groomer" is the point. What right-wing trolls want more desperately than anything else is to "trigger" liberals. Falsely accusing someone of heinous crimes, while unimaginative, is a crude-but-effective way to bully people. So in the past month, there's been a rapid escalation of conspiracy theories falsely accusing Democrats of being somehow pro-pedophilia. The proximate twin causes are the confirmation hearings of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and Florida passing a "don't say gay" bill clearly meant to force LGBTQ teachers and students back into the closet. In the former, Republicans led by slime monster Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri spent the hearing falsely accusing Jackson of going light on sentences for child molesters. In the latter, Republicans defending the law have taken to suggesting that anyone who opposes it is a pedophile. Soon, a generalized accusation that Democrats and even companies that are mildly pro-LGBTQ want to "groom" children spread across Fox News. Falsely accusing someone of heinous crimes, while unimaginative, is a crude-but-effective way to bully people. Much digital ink has been spilled, for good reason, on how this nonsense is both about pandering to the QAnon cult and encouraging more Republican voters to be Q-curious. After all, QAnon espouses a conspiracy theory that Democrats secretly run a blood-drinking pedophilia cult that worships Satan. So any Republican leaders and pundits chattering about "grooming" and other false allegations around the subject of child abuse are clearly nodding in the direction of QAnon. https://www.salon.com/2022/04/11/the-goal-of-the-gops-qanon-influenced-groomer-troll-more-political-violence/

All the sane non-fascist Americans can hope for is that Garland is getting all of his ducks in a row before a mushroom-shaped cloud appears over Mar-A-Lago.

'Criminal conspiratorial intent': Legal experts stunned Trump Jr. claimed 'operational control' over election results Two days before the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden the President’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. sent a text to the White House Chief of Staff that said “we have operational control” to ensure a second Trump term, according to a just-published CNN bombshell report. “It’s very simple,” Trump Jr. added in the November 5 text. “We have multiple paths We control them all.” The damning text to Mark Meadows did not end there. “We have operational control Total leverage,” Trump Jr’s text continued. “Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now.” Legal experts are weighing in. U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), an attorney who obtained the rank of Colonel in the Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps made sure to stress the President’s son’s remarks seem to reveal illegality: Former federal prosecutor of 30 years, Glenn Kirschner, wrote: “The ‘Subject’ line of Don Jr.’s email might as well have been, ‘I’m a member of my father’s criminal conspiracy to overturn the election.’ ” And he asks, “How long do we have to endure this open, treasonous criminality by Trump and company before someone gets indicted?” Election law expert Rick Hasen, a law and political science professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law says “Mark Meadows election subversion texts are the gift that keep on giving. It’s amazing he didn’t fight against turning them over.” Former US Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal served up a one-word response: “Premeditated.”

I don't need more snow to be miserable.

Is this a gay reference?

And celebrate it.

Rape is a military tactic of the Russian army, but if they were planning to rape, they would not have brought condoms.

That Russian forces have been lied to, given poor training and outdated equipment and supplies has probably been the biggest factor in the Ukrainian routing of Russian forces. The Russian forces were told they were liberating Ukraine from neo-Nazi, corrupt and unpopular politicians and would be greeted as heroes. Many soldiers were carrying condoms, which gives an idea of what they were expecting.

Considering that the past couple of winters have had below-normal snowfall and temperatures, there ought to have been savings to be applied to this budget overrun.

Trump campaign implicated in Jan. 6 election scheme On Friday, CNN's Annie Grayer reported that David Shafer, a Republican from Georgia who served on the list of "alternative" electors declaring former President Donald Trump the winner of the state, told the House January 6 Committee that the Trump campaign gave the order for the Georgia Republican Party to create the fake elector slate. All told, 84 people allowed their names to be put forward as fake electors in the scheme, which included slates from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — all states won by President Joe Biden. The fake electors included eight current office holders and five former office holders. The fake electors were part of a bizarre legal strategy put forward by far-right Trump attorney John Eastman, who argued that if there were "competing" slates of electors, former Vice President Mike Pence could declare during the Electoral College counting process that there was no way of proving which set of electors was valid for these states and throw out the election results entirely, kicking the decision for president to the House of Representatives, where Republicans controlled a majority of the delegations needed to declare Trump the winner even though Democrats had a majority of representatives overall. Most experts believe this plan would have been illegal, as did Pence himself, who refused to go through with it. https://www.salon.com/2022/02/26/campaign-implicated-in-jan-6-scheme_partner/

Fox News’s Will Cain: ‘Disney Is Turning Your Kids Gay’ The Right Wing’s obsession and terror with the Zoomer generation and Gen Z’s exploration of different self-identity through an LGBTQ prism continue apace. Today, Fox News’s Will Cain pointed directly to Disney content as on proximate cause of what some of us see as evolution, while the Right sees nothing but dissolution in all they ever thought to believe. At issue, this morning on Fox and Friends was a leaked zoom call message in which the child of Disney executive, Karey Burke, claimed her son texted that “Gen Z is 30% to 40% queerer than other generations Mom, so Disney better get with it.” Of course, it couldn’t be thrown away as one statement by one teen with the realization that any one teen is capable of saying any one stupid thing at any given time, which may or may not have any bearing upon reality. The message was very intentionally picked up upon by wedge issue specialist Christopher Rufo, who made Critical Race Theory Virginia’s single biggest issue and threat during Glenn Youngkin’s race for governor and the Disney-LGBTQ link is now being used to scare the living spit out of Fox-watching grandparents everywhere. Cain then set about to freak out over a new Gallup Poll that says one in five of the Gen Z generation identifies as LGBTQ. “What does it entail? What does it encompass? What is more interesting to me is why? Is it because, you know, they are true of this persuasion, or is it because it’s a chicken or egg theme? They are being fed these messages over and over from places like Disney and now the numbers are going up?”

Texas Woman, 26, Charged With Murder After Alleged 'Self-Induced Abortion' A 26-year-old Texas woman has been arrested and charged with murder after authorities said she had a “self-induced abortion.” The extreme move comes after Texas passed a draconian anti-abortion law last year that has forced thousands of women to seek care out of state. Lizelle Herrera was arrested Thursday when officials said she “intentionally and knowingly cause[d] the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” according to a spokesperson for the Starr County Sheriff’s Office. No details about the “abortion” or fetus were provided. Herrera was still in custody Friday. Her bail was set at $500,000, according to Valley Central, which was the first to report the arrest. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-murder-charge-self-induced-abortion_n_62510a34e4b06c2ea31d9ec3

People have been hanged for less

I believe that most of that exported grain came from Ukraine, so things may be different now,

FWIW: Regular gas at Costco today at $1.61 per liter

Russia’s “Elite” 38th Motorized Rifle Brigade entirely destroyed by Ukrainians. With the help of Russia, whose air force could not distinguish between their own troops and the Ukrainians.

There is definitely cowardice as well here. One of the GOP senators who fled the Capitol during the riot said that he feared for his life if he spoke out after his office received a threat to that effect. If America cannot protect its legislators, who is safe??

The Republicans who have remained silent while their colleagues have spewed vile racist, misogynist hateful statements with Fox News amplifying and validating their hatespeech are as guilty as the perpetrators. Someone said that the hottest part of Hell is reserved for those who, in times of crisis, say and do nothing.

Dozens Dead, Over 100 Wounded After Rocket Attack On Ukraine Train Station CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian leaders predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in reclaimed cities and towns as Russian soldiers retreat to focus on eastern Ukraine, where officials said a Russian rocket attack on a packed train station used to evacuate civilians killed over 30 people Friday. Hours after warning that Ukraine’s forces already had found worse scenes of brutality in a settlement north of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “thousands” of people were at the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, when it was hit by a missile. Zelenskyy accompanied a social media post with photos that showed a train car with smashed windows, abandoned luggage and bodies lying in what looked like an outdoor waiting area. Authorities said the strike wounded more than 100 people. “The inhuman Russians are not changing their methods. Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population,” the president said. “This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ukraine-war_n_624fcd54e4b0be72bfe70c35 Russian Troops Brag They Bombed Fleeing Families at Train Station -Getty A few minutes before it became clear that women, children and elderly people were among the at least 39 dead and nearly 100 known to be injured when a missile struck the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, Russian soldiers were bragging about the hit on Telegram. The missile struck the main evacuation center in the area and seemed to herald the beginning of an intensified offensive that Russia warned was coming. Minutes later, the messages, which included claims to have successfully obliterated “a crowd of Ukrainian militants at the Kramatorsk railway station,” were edited or disappeared altogether, according to several accounts by journalists in the region. -Getty

Kinda thought he was a homebrew. I recall when they tried him out at MLB.

Not overly fast, but seems to run good routes, good hands and fights for the ball. Seems more like a possession receiver.