And another day of walking through horror, conclusions, murder charge for abortion, missing records, a ‘cold war’ between FL and GA, inflicting violence upon teachers, elections around the world, retiring homeless, and how everyone got so lonely comes to a close:
“If you only support abortions in instances of rape or incest, you’re reinforcing the idea that in order for a woman to have control over her own body, someone else had to violate it first.” — Irishrygirl
Deaths
US: 1,012,151
World: 6,203,322
Cases
US: 82,062,989
World: 499,132,532
War Crimes Watch: A devastating walk through Bucha’s horror. Walking through Bucha, a reporter encountered two dozen witnesses of the Russian occupation. Almost everyone said they saw a body, sometimes several more. Civilians were killed, mostly men, sometimes picked off at random. Many, including the elderly, say they themselves were threatened. The question that survivors, investigators and the world would like to answer is why. Ukraine has seen the horrors of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and nearby Irpin. But the images from this town an hour’s drive from Kyiv -- of bodies burned, bodies with hands bound, bodies strewn near bicycles and flattened cars -- have seared themselves into global consciousness like no others.
Russians Raped 11-Year-Old Boy, Forced Mom to Watch: Ukraine Official. In a Facebook post, Denisova alleged that an 11-year-old boy was raped by Russians in front of his mother who was tied to a chair and forced to watch as it happened in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
US official: Russia appoints new Ukraine war commander. Russia has turned to Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, one of Russia’s most experienced military officers and — according to U.S. officials — a general with a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and other war theaters.
The 1/6 committee has concluded Trump broke the law. But it may not urge the Justice Department to charge him. “What we have seen is a massive and well organized and well-planned effort that used multiple tools to try to overturn the election,” Cheney said. The New York Times reported Sunday that the committee is divided over sending the Justice Department a referral of Trump. Some committee members and aides worry doing so would contribute to the appearance that any subsequent DOJ prosecution is politicized, according to the Times.
"It's absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing, what a number of people around him were doing, that they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway." -- Liz Cheney on the January 6 plot
Cheney rejects report of a dispute among Jan. 6 committee on criminal referral for Trump.
Texas woman charged with murder for ‘self-induced abortion’. — And so it begins.
“When Roe v Wade is overturned, (”if” is a pipedream at this stage), know that it was the white women of the Christian Brotherhood who destroyed it and helped build a theocracy.” — Mona Eltahawy
After pursuing an indictment, Starr County DA drops murder charge over self-induced abortion. After charging a woman with murder over a self-induced abortion, forcing her to spend three days in jail and drawing national attention, Starr County officials announced Sunday they would change course and move to dismiss the case. Few details on the case have been made public, including how the abortion was performed and how far along the pregnancy had been. Ramirez’s news release said a hospital reported the January abortion to the Starr County Sheriff's Department, prompting the criminal investigation and murder indictment. It’s also unclear under which statute Herrera was charged. Texas law exempts a pregnant person from being charged with murder or any lesser homicide charge for an abortion. The pregnant person is also typically excluded from lesser criminal charges if abortion laws are broken, as state laws instead target the provider.
The Starr County DA is dismissing charges against Lizelle Herrera. “In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her.” — Until next time.
“Lizelle was not merely arrested and charged, she was indicted by a grand jury. Evidence was presented to a grand jury by state prosecutors & the grand jury agreed there was a crime. This is insane & a clear and present danger to the freedom and lives of all women in our nation.” — Pima County Democratic Party
As I said: until next time.
Polish pro-choice activist on trial over abortion pills. A Polish pro-choice activist went on trial Friday for supplying a pregnant woman with abortion pills in the Catholic country, in the first such case in Europe. Poland has one of Europe’s most restrictive termination laws and all abortion is banned except in cases of rape and incest, or when the mother’s life or health is considered at risk.
Spain bans harassment of women entering abortion clinics. The Senate gave its blessing by 154 to 105 votes for changes to the penal code in Spain, where abortions are available for free in the public health service through the 14th week of pregnancy.
Senate GOP vows to rein in Biden if they win majority. The GOP message is an early warning sign of the potential gridlock, and headaches, Biden could face in the second half of his term, particularly if Democrats lose both the House and Senate. — We know what a Republican congress is like in the final two years of a Democratic Presidency. Vote Blue.
White House gift records for Trump, Pence missing, State Department says. The State Department says it is unable to compile a complete and accurate accounting of gifts presented to former President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials by foreign governments during Trump’s final year in office, citing missing data from the White House.
DeSantis says ‘Cold War’ coming between Florida, Georgia, if Stacey Abrams is elected governor. “If Stacey Abrams is elected governor of Georgia, I just want to be honest, that will be a cold war between Florida and Georgia,” he said. “I can’t have [former Cuban communist leader Raul] Castro to my south and Abrams to my north, that would be a disaster. So I hope you guys take care of that and we’ll end up in good shape.” — Fuck DeSantis. And fuck you if you support him.
Whitmer kidnap plot: 2 men acquitted, hung jury for 2 more. A jury acquitted two men of all charges in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer but couldn’t reach verdicts against the two alleged leaders, a stunning defeat for the government after a weekslong trial that centered on an FBI sting operation just before the 2020 election.
In outcome of Whitmer case, some see freedom, others danger. The men — who were heard on audio during the trial talking about killing Whitmer, blowing up a bridge and other violence — didn’t say anything shocking, attorney Michael Hills said. He noted one of the defense witnesses he considered calling to testify planned to assert that he’s “heard worse from pregnant mothers up on the Capitol.” “If I don’t like the governor and it’s rough talk, I can do that in our country. That’s what’s beautiful about this country. That’s what’s great about it,” Hills said. “So hurrah, freedom in America. It’s still here.” But to others, Friday’s outcome following a weekslong trial was a chilling reminder that the political violence that is raging across the U.S. too often goes unpunished. From attacks on social media and elsewhere that disproportionately affect women lawmakers, to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the plan to abduct Whitmer, people are increasingly angry and feeling emboldened to act on it, they say.
Tucker Suggests Dads Should 'Thrash' Kids' Teachers. Tucker Carlson on Friday suggested that fathers of students should inflict violence upon teachers whom he claims are “pushing sex values” on them. “I don’t understand where the men are. Like where are the dads?” Carlson asked. “You know, some teacher is pushing sex values on your third grader. Why don’t you go in and thrash the teacher? Like this is an agent of the government pushing someone else’s values on your kid about sex, like where’s the pushback?” — He is such a waste of flesh.
In France, a nail-biting election as Macron’s rival surges. Macron, a political centrist, for months looked like a shoo-in to become France’s first president in 20 years to win a second term. But that scenario blurred in the campaign’s closing stages. The pain of inflation and of pump, food and energy prices that are hitting low-income households particularly hard subsequently roared back as dominant election themes. They could drive many voters Sunday into the arms of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron’s political nemesis.
In France, it’s Macron vs. Le Pen, again, for presidency. Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all runoff for the French presidency, after they both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the country’s election to set up another head-to-head clash of their sharply opposing visions for France. But while Macron won their last contest in 2017 by a landslide to become France’s youngest-ever president, the same outcome this time is far from guaranteed. Macron, now 44, emerged ahead from Sunday’s first round, but the runoff is essentially a new election and the next two weeks of campaigning to the April 24 second-round vote promise to be bruising and confrontational against his 53-year-old political nemesis. -- Please, France. Learn from our mistakes. Do the right thing and elect Macron.
Hungary’s Authoritarian Leader Might Be Reelected This Weekend. Putin and the American far right are among his biggest fans. — And that should scare us all.
“It’s why propaganda is so embraced by so many people… they want to believe that their country is good, not this evil regime that kills people for no reason, because who would want to acknowledge that?” — Matthew Chance
Amazon fights to overturn union’s historic win at New York warehouse. Amazon is seeking to overturn a historic union victory at a New York City warehouse, arguing in a legal filing union organizers and the National Labor Relations Board acted in a way that tainted the results.
How Everyone Got So Lonely. The recent decline in rates of sexual activity has been attributed variously to sexism, neoliberalism, and women’s increased economic independence. How fair are those claims—and will we be saved by the advent of the sex robot? In 2018, nearly a quarter of Americans—the highest number ever recorded—reported having no sex at all in the previous twelve months. Only thirty-nine per cent reported having intercourse once or more a week, a drop of twelve percentage points since 1996. The chief driver of this so-called “sex drought” is not, as one might expect, the aging of the American population but the ever more abstemious habits of the young. Since the nineteen-nineties, the proportion of American high-school students who are virgins has risen from forty-five per cent to sixty per cent. People who are in their early twenties are estimated to be two and half times more likely to be sexually inactive than members of Gen X were at the same age. — So mayby the reason why so many of us are so pissed off at just about everything is because those pissed off people need to fuck more. Or what if this major decrease in sexual interest by the young is evolution’s way of protecting the planet—to decrease the population? — Among the establishment figures whom he quotes discussing robo-relationships with equanimity and approval is a British doctor who, in a recent letter to The British Medical Journal, described prejudice against sex robots as no more reasonable or morally defensible than homophobia or transphobia. For those who persist in finding the prospect of the robot future a little bleak, Kislev adopts the reassuring tone of an adult explaining reproduction to a squeamish child: it may all seem a bit yucky now, he tells us, but you’ll think differently later on. He may well be right about this. In surveys, young people—young men in particular—seem sanguine about robot relationships. And even among the older, analog set resistance to the idea has been found to erode with “continuous exposure.” Whether this erosion is to be wished for, however, is another question. — This whole thing is fascinating.
America’s homeless ranks graying as more retire on streets. Finocchio is one face of America’s graying homeless population, a rapidly expanding group of destitute and desperate people 50 and older suddenly without a permanent home after a job loss, divorce, family death or health crisis during a pandemic. “We’re seeing a huge boom in senior homelessness,” said Kendra Hendry, a caseworker at Arizona’s largest shelter, where older people make up about 30% of those staying there. “These are not necessarily people who have mental illness or substance abuse problems. They are people being pushed into the streets by rising rents.” Academics project their numbers will nearly triple over the next decade, challenging policy makers from Los Angeles to New York to imagine new ideas for sheltering the last of the baby boomers as they get older, sicker and less able to pay spiraling rents. Advocates say much more housing is needed, especially for extremely low-income people.
Museums turn to immersive tech to preserve the stories of aging Holocaust survivors. Most Holocaust survivors are in their 80s or 90s. With every year, fewer remain to tell us their stories. So museums and archives are using advanced technologies to preserve their testimonies and introduce them to new generations. For example, at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, you can slip on a virtual reality headset and enter the world of survivor George Brent, at the moment the terrified teenager stepped off a boxcar at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944.
Inside the vast national experiment in test-optional college admissions. Test-optional and test-blind admissions had begun to gain steam before the pandemic, with proponents arguing that tests hurt the odds of applicants who have traditionally not done as well on them, including students whose first language isn’t English, students whose parents didn’t go to college, Black and Hispanic students, immigrant students and students whose families can’t afford expensive test prep programs. -- Your future determined by one test is bullshit. Standardized tests are bullshit. Get rid of them.
Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government announced Thursday it will ban foreign investors from buying homes in Canada for two years in a bid to cool off a hot housing market...The government announced a two-year ban on foreign home buying as well as higher taxes for people who sell their home within a year, though both measures include multiple exceptions including for permanent residents and foreign students.
Spain probes private taxidermy museum with 1,000 animals. Spain’s Civil Guard says it is investigating a businessman in the eastern Valencia region who owned a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 stuffed animals, including just over 400 from protected species and at least one specimen of a North African oryx, already extinct. The collection would fetch 29 million euros ($31.5 million) on the black market, the Civil Guard said Sunday in a statement, adding that its owner could be charged with trafficking and other crimes against the environment. It said the finding was the largest of protected stuffed specimens in Spain.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
