Good Monday morning.
Two minutes of hate:
On Sunday evening the Biden Administration “directed military forces to conduct defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region,” CNN reports.
“The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq. Specifically, the U.S. strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in the release.
“As demonstrated by this evening’s strikes, President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect U.S. personnel. Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting U.S. interests in Iraq, the President directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks,” Kirby said.
Gotta keep the war machine humming!
The New York Times reports that structural failure in the Surfside, Florida condo building could be responsible for the tragic collapse of structure. “It does appear to start either at or very near the bottom of the structure,” said Donald O. Dusenberry, a consulting engineer who has investigated many structural collapses. “It’s not like there’s a failure high and it pancaked down.” Three years prior to the collapse, engineers found “major structural damage” to slab below the building along with “cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage under the building.” I’m sure there’s a team of “journalists” working on a way to blame this on Governor Ron DeSantis. More than 150 people are still missing.
Also from NYT front page, prisoners sent home because of Covid may have to go back to jail.
In the final days of the Trump administration, the Justice Department issued a memo saying inmates whose sentences lasted beyond the “pandemic emergency period” would have to go back to prison. But some lawmakers and criminal justice advocates are urging President Biden to revoke the rule, use his executive power to keep them on home confinement or commute their sentences entirely, arguing that the pandemic offers a glimpse into a different type of punitive system in America, one that relies far less on incarceration.
I expect the Biden to revoke this and let the inmates stay out of jail.
Former A.G. Bill Barr assisted with an anti-Trump hit piece in The Atlantic tabloid publication. “My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr said. “If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there.” Also revealed in the article is Cocaine Mitch’s concern that Trump needed to be focused on winning the Georgia senate run offs and not with presidential vote fraud. Mitch needed Trump to win the Senate but didn’t care if Trump lost the presidency. “Look, we need the president in Georgia,” then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Barr during a phone call, according to Karl. The article reports that Barr with McConnell to “inject some reality into this situation.” Barr is an institutionalist just like McConnell.
Speaking of Cocaine Mitch, reports are that he will go along with the bipartisan infrastructure deal negotiated with weak sauce GOPers. “If we can pull this off, I think Mitch will favor it,” Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said on a Sunday political snuff show. “But I think Mitch McConnell wants infrastructure as much as anyone else. He wants the jobs that this will create. I think Leader McConnell will be for it, if it continues to come together as it is,” Cassidy continued.
The SCOTUS will announce action on five cases before they head out for summer break. Here’s what decisions have yet to be revealed:
- a transgender case which prohibits transgender students from using school bathrooms based on their gender identity.
- some religious freedom cases: one in Washington state where a florist refused service to a same-sex marriage and one in Maryland where a Catholic hospital refused to perform a hysterectomy on a transgender man.
- a case dealing with Abu Ghraib where Iraqi prisoners want to sue the military contractor for torturing them.
- a property rights case involving the city of Chicago a chocolate company. The city seized property via eminent domain to allow the private company to expand.
- a freedom of speech/defamation case that involves the son of the former prime minister of Albania who claims a book called “War Dogs” falsely linked him to Miami arms dealers. This case is important because it would lower the bar for defamation cases and, as we all know, the media loves to defame it’s opponents with little consequence because the defamation standard, proving that the person publishing the falsehood knew the statement they made was false or made it with reckless disregard for the truth, is hard to meet.
Finally, Olympian Gwen Berry turned her back toward the flag as the national anthem played at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Berry had won a bronze medal at the event.
While the music played, Berry placed her left hand on her hip and shuffled her feet. She took a quarter turn, so she was facing the stands, not the flag. Toward the end, she plucked up her black T-shirt with the words “Activist Athlete” emblazoned on the front, and draped it over her head.
“I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose,” Berry said of the timing of the anthem. “I was pissed, to be honest.” What? They’ve played the national anthem every night at the event. She was pissed? Maybe go to another country and compete for them. A spokesman for the event said it was pre-published in a schedule.
46:
We Are on Front Lines of the Biden-Harris Border Disaster, Say Three South Texas Residents
Philadelphia Becomes ‘Sanctuary’ School District, Will Train Staff How to Respond to ICE
Taliban Takeover Of Critical Areas During Biden Withdrawal Suggests Grim Future For Afghanistan
China’s cyber power ‘exaggerated,’ at least decade behind US, new study says
Civil unrest:
Man shot in the back in Times Square, NYPD says
Chicago violence 3 killed, 62 injured in weekend shootings
NYPD releases video of gunman firing into group in the Bronx
Ivy League School Introduces Course That Explores Link Between Black Holes And Racism
Ocasio-Cortez Warns Against ‘Hysteria’ Over Rising Violence, Reiterates Her Proposal To Defund Police
Derek Chauvin Gets 22 1/2 Years in Prison for George Floyd’s Death
NYC Pride 2021: Police clash with crowd; arrests made around Washington Square Park: reports
Retired Black officer, Black Air Force veteran killed in possible hate crime: DA
8 more arrests in Mexico border city attacks that killed 19
Coronavirus news:
Frustrated California parents plan to sue over school mask mandates: ‘We’re seeing our kids suffering’
Bipartisan senators ask CDC, TSA when they will update mask guidance for travelers
Highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant spreading fast in California
Maher: ‘Outrageous’ Facebook, Google Suppressed Lab Leak Theory, ‘You Were Wrong Google and Facebook’
Now booming on Moscow’s black market: Fake vaccine certificates
Other morsels:
Romney on Trump’s return to rallies: ‘It’s entertaining but it’s not real’
Four more ID’d in Florida collapse; death toll still 9
Ron Johnson calls for Republicans to run for local office and ‘take back our culture’
And that’s all I’ve got, now go beat back the angry mob!