The "conservative" meltdown in full flower.
Aug 10, 2022
Aug 9, 2022
Today's Glenn
Glenn Kirschner - Justice Matters
It took some time, but I think Biden has managed to re-establish some of the Separation Of Powers necessary to keep things legit.
Trump (recently) and the GOP (for-fucking-ever-and-still-at-it) have tried to erase that separation through the bullshit "theory" of the "Unitary Executive", which is code for "Imperial Presidency", which is code for "Asshole Plutocratic Dictator".
Anyway, yesterday's search of Trump's home illustrates how this thing is supposed to work. ie: two separate and independent branches of government have to agree on some things before certain actions can be taken. And even beyond that, the Justice Department has to be acting independently from the White House, just to be sure it's all as much on the level as possible.
Yeehaw
The many crimes of Donald J Trump continue to come to light.
FBI searches Trump safe at Mar-a-Lago for possible classified documents
Search was court-authorized and related to long-running investigation, person familiar with the probe said.
Former president Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI had raided his Mar-a-Lago Club and searched his safe — activity related to an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents, according to two people familiar with the probe.
One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its details, said agents were conducting a court-authorized search as part of a long-running investigation of whether documents — some of them top-secret — were taken to the former president’s private golf club and residence instead of sent to the National Archives when Trump left office. That could be a violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.
Searching a former president’s property to look for possible evidence of a crime is highly unusual and would require approval at the top levels of the Justice Department. It represents a historic moment in Trump’s tortured relationship with the Justice Department, both in and out of the White House.
A department spokeswoman declined to comment when asked whether Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the search. The FBI also declined to comment.
In a lengthy statement in which he equated the raid to Watergate, Trump accused the FBI of “even” breaking into his safe. He provided no further details on what federal agents were looking for, or what else happened during their visit.
“My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement released through his political action committee, Save America.
Trump said the raid was “unannounced” and claimed it was not “necessary or appropriate.” The former president, without evidence, accused Democrats of weaponizing the “justice system” against him.
Many Republican lawmakers and political candidates also reacted with outrage Monday night, declaring the search of Mar-a-Lago a politically motivated attack intended to impede Trump’s chances if he runs for president again.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is poised to possibly become speaker should Republicans win the majority in November’s midterm elections, vowed to launch oversight investigations into the Justice Department.
“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” he said on Twitter. “Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
The president of the FBI Agents Association, Brian O’Hare, issued a broad defense of the investigators who carry out court-approved searches, without commenting specifically on the Trump case.
O’Hare said search warrants are issued by federal judges, “must satisfy detailed and clear procedural rules, and are the product of collaboration and consultation with relevant Department of Justice attorneys.”
FBI agents, he added, “perform their investigative duties with integrity and professionalism, and remain focused on complying with the law and the Constitution.”
Trump nominated the current head of the FBI, Christopher A. Wray, to the position in 2017, after firing the previous FBI director, James B. Comey, amid a probe into whether any Trump campaign advisers had conspired with Russian operatives to influence the 2016 election.
But Trump’s relationship with Wray also soured, and the president considered firing him on multiple occasions, former advisers said. Through most of Trump’s presidency, the two men had limited interactions.
Mar-a-Lago is closed in the hot months of Florida’s summer, and Trump’s advisers said he was not there on Monday when the search involving more than a dozen FBI agents was conducted. Trump advisers said a coterie of agents arrived Monday morning and left by late afternoon. There were few Trump employees around, but the Secret Service was present.
The former president has spent much of the summer at Bedminster, his golf resort in New Jersey. But on Monday he was in New York, according to a person familiar with his whereabouts. Trump’s team was given no heads-up about the search, several advisers said. There was no indication the FBI had searched any of Trump’s other properties, and advisers said law enforcement had not.
Evan Corcoran, a lawyer representing Trump, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago that Archives officials said should have been turned over when Trump left the White House.
“The Presidential Records Act is critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people,” David S. Ferriero, then the archivist of the United States, said in a statement in February.
At the time, Ferriero said in a statement that Trump representatives were “continuing to search” for additional records. Trump was resistant to giving over the records for months, advisers said at the time.
Some of the materials Trump took included letters and notes from foreign leaders, such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The inventory of unclassified items in the boxes that were recovered earlier this year from Mar-a-Lago is roughly 100 pages long, according to a person familiar with that document. Descriptions of items that were improperly taken to Mar-a-Lago include a cocktail napkin, a phone list, charts, slide decks, letters, memos, maps, talking points, a birthday dinner menu, schedules and more, this person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the ongoing investigation.
There is a separate inventory for just the classified materials that were taken to the former president’s Florida residence, this person said. If the unclassified version of the classified inventory were organized in the same way as the inventory of nonclassified items, it would be about three pages long, according to this person.
“It’s important to note that volume is only one way to quantify the documents that were taken,” the person added. “But just one page — or one portion of highly sensitive information — being improperly released can cause great national security harm.”
As for classification level, they range from confidential to top-secret to special handling categories, the person added.
It was not immediately clear on Monday why FBI agents would conduct a search related to the documents many months after the 15 boxes of material were retrieved. A sitting president is the top classification authority in the government, giving that person far more leeway than most government employees in deciding what is and isn’t classified.
Advisers, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s actions, have said that he mishandled documents for years, largely by ripping them up. They described an ad hoc packing process at the end of his term, in which Trump and his family took boxes of material that should have gone to the National Archives. The Archives only learned some of the material was missing after it tried to locate items for cataloguing.
Trump advisers have denied any bad intent, saying the boxes contained mementos from his presidency.
The search of Trump’s home is the most aggressive to date by federal agents and prosecutors examining the conduct of the president and his inner circle of advisers.
Separate from the investigation into the handling of documents, a federal grand jury in Washington has been gathering information about efforts by Trump lawyers and advocates to try to use fake electors to block Joe Biden from formally becoming president after the 2020 election.
As part of that investigation, authorities have begun examining Trump’s actions, seeking to understand, at a minimum, what instructions he gave to subordinates, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Federal investigators are also working up from their criminal investigations of the hundreds of Trump supporters who took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to see who, if anyone, tried to orchestrate violence to stop the formal congressional ceremony confirming Biden’s election victory.
It was not immediately clear on Monday whether the Justice Department has moved before to search the residence of a former president. In June 1975, Richard M. Nixon did meet behind closed doors with Watergate prosecutors and two grand jurors near his home in San Clemente, Calif. — 10 months after leaving the White House and after he was pardoned by his successor, President Gerald Ford.
Following lengthy negotiations, Nixon spent 11 hours over two days providing testimony to a federal grand jury investigating the Watergate break-in and coverup.
The DOJ's move against a former POTUS is not without precedent. And there have been numerous criminal probes into the actions of various Executive Branch office-holders over the years.
What's disturbing is that DOJ had to go to such lengths to get Trump to obey the fucking law.
It's more than a little disgusting to hear Republicans spluttering about "persecution" when they spent years dogging the Clintons, and finding not much more than a blowjob, and almost literally a few instances of mishandled info in the tens of thousands of emails and documents that pass between people in any given cabinet position.
WaPo: (pay wall)
FBI searches Trump safe at Mar-a-Lago for possible classified documents
Search was court-authorized and related to long-running investigation, person familiar with the probe said.
Former president Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI had raided his Mar-a-Lago Club and searched his safe — activity related to an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents, according to two people familiar with the probe.
One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its details, said agents were conducting a court-authorized search as part of a long-running investigation of whether documents — some of them top-secret — were taken to the former president’s private golf club and residence instead of sent to the National Archives when Trump left office. That could be a violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.
Searching a former president’s property to look for possible evidence of a crime is highly unusual and would require approval at the top levels of the Justice Department. It represents a historic moment in Trump’s tortured relationship with the Justice Department, both in and out of the White House.
A department spokeswoman declined to comment when asked whether Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the search. The FBI also declined to comment.
In a lengthy statement in which he equated the raid to Watergate, Trump accused the FBI of “even” breaking into his safe. He provided no further details on what federal agents were looking for, or what else happened during their visit.
“My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement released through his political action committee, Save America.
Trump said the raid was “unannounced” and claimed it was not “necessary or appropriate.” The former president, without evidence, accused Democrats of weaponizing the “justice system” against him.
Many Republican lawmakers and political candidates also reacted with outrage Monday night, declaring the search of Mar-a-Lago a politically motivated attack intended to impede Trump’s chances if he runs for president again.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is poised to possibly become speaker should Republicans win the majority in November’s midterm elections, vowed to launch oversight investigations into the Justice Department.
“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” he said on Twitter. “Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
The president of the FBI Agents Association, Brian O’Hare, issued a broad defense of the investigators who carry out court-approved searches, without commenting specifically on the Trump case.
O’Hare said search warrants are issued by federal judges, “must satisfy detailed and clear procedural rules, and are the product of collaboration and consultation with relevant Department of Justice attorneys.”
FBI agents, he added, “perform their investigative duties with integrity and professionalism, and remain focused on complying with the law and the Constitution.”
Trump nominated the current head of the FBI, Christopher A. Wray, to the position in 2017, after firing the previous FBI director, James B. Comey, amid a probe into whether any Trump campaign advisers had conspired with Russian operatives to influence the 2016 election.
But Trump’s relationship with Wray also soured, and the president considered firing him on multiple occasions, former advisers said. Through most of Trump’s presidency, the two men had limited interactions.
Mar-a-Lago is closed in the hot months of Florida’s summer, and Trump’s advisers said he was not there on Monday when the search involving more than a dozen FBI agents was conducted. Trump advisers said a coterie of agents arrived Monday morning and left by late afternoon. There were few Trump employees around, but the Secret Service was present.
The former president has spent much of the summer at Bedminster, his golf resort in New Jersey. But on Monday he was in New York, according to a person familiar with his whereabouts. Trump’s team was given no heads-up about the search, several advisers said. There was no indication the FBI had searched any of Trump’s other properties, and advisers said law enforcement had not.
Evan Corcoran, a lawyer representing Trump, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago that Archives officials said should have been turned over when Trump left the White House.
“The Presidential Records Act is critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people,” David S. Ferriero, then the archivist of the United States, said in a statement in February.
At the time, Ferriero said in a statement that Trump representatives were “continuing to search” for additional records. Trump was resistant to giving over the records for months, advisers said at the time.
Some of the materials Trump took included letters and notes from foreign leaders, such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The inventory of unclassified items in the boxes that were recovered earlier this year from Mar-a-Lago is roughly 100 pages long, according to a person familiar with that document. Descriptions of items that were improperly taken to Mar-a-Lago include a cocktail napkin, a phone list, charts, slide decks, letters, memos, maps, talking points, a birthday dinner menu, schedules and more, this person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the ongoing investigation.
There is a separate inventory for just the classified materials that were taken to the former president’s Florida residence, this person said. If the unclassified version of the classified inventory were organized in the same way as the inventory of nonclassified items, it would be about three pages long, according to this person.
“It’s important to note that volume is only one way to quantify the documents that were taken,” the person added. “But just one page — or one portion of highly sensitive information — being improperly released can cause great national security harm.”
As for classification level, they range from confidential to top-secret to special handling categories, the person added.
It was not immediately clear on Monday why FBI agents would conduct a search related to the documents many months after the 15 boxes of material were retrieved. A sitting president is the top classification authority in the government, giving that person far more leeway than most government employees in deciding what is and isn’t classified.
Advisers, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s actions, have said that he mishandled documents for years, largely by ripping them up. They described an ad hoc packing process at the end of his term, in which Trump and his family took boxes of material that should have gone to the National Archives. The Archives only learned some of the material was missing after it tried to locate items for cataloguing.
Trump advisers have denied any bad intent, saying the boxes contained mementos from his presidency.
The search of Trump’s home is the most aggressive to date by federal agents and prosecutors examining the conduct of the president and his inner circle of advisers.
Separate from the investigation into the handling of documents, a federal grand jury in Washington has been gathering information about efforts by Trump lawyers and advocates to try to use fake electors to block Joe Biden from formally becoming president after the 2020 election.
As part of that investigation, authorities have begun examining Trump’s actions, seeking to understand, at a minimum, what instructions he gave to subordinates, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Federal investigators are also working up from their criminal investigations of the hundreds of Trump supporters who took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to see who, if anyone, tried to orchestrate violence to stop the formal congressional ceremony confirming Biden’s election victory.
It was not immediately clear on Monday whether the Justice Department has moved before to search the residence of a former president. In June 1975, Richard M. Nixon did meet behind closed doors with Watergate prosecutors and two grand jurors near his home in San Clemente, Calif. — 10 months after leaving the White House and after he was pardoned by his successor, President Gerald Ford.
Following lengthy negotiations, Nixon spent 11 hours over two days providing testimony to a federal grand jury investigating the Watergate break-in and coverup.
Ukraine
Слава Україні
🌎🌏🌍❤️🇺🇦
WaPo: (pay wall)
Ukrainian troops advance on Izyum; 80,000 Russians may have been killed, wounded in war
Ukrainian troops advance on Izyum; 80,000 Russians may have been killed, wounded in war
Ukrainian troops are advancing toward the key city of Izyum, placing strain on Russian forces. Washington estimates that up to 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured during the full-scale war in Ukraine. Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- Ukrainian troops are “moving very successfully” toward Izyum in the northeast, putting further pressure on Russian troops, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a YouTube video. The city of 50,000 is seen as the gateway to the eastern Donbas region, most of which is held by pro-Russian forces.
- Between 70,000 and 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded during the conflict, Colin Kahl, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, said at a Monday briefing. The figure is “pretty remarkable,” he said, “considering that the Russians have achieved none of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s objectives at the beginning of the war.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Russia of “nuclear blackmail” following recent attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant that the United Nations has warned could lead to catastrophic consequences. In his nightly address, Zelensky called on other nations to impose harsher sanctions on Russia for creating “the threat of nuclear disaster,” as Ukraine and Russia blame each other for attacks on the plant in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine.
- Air defense systems will be deployed at the nuclear power plant, Russia-appointed Zaporizhzhia regional Governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.
- The Kremlin said any attempt to isolate Russians had no future after Zelensky called for Western nations to ban entry for all Russian nationals in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post. “The most important sanctions are to close the borders,” he told The Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan in Kyiv, adding that Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy.”
- Two more grain ships sailed Tuesday under a deal brokered by the United Nations and facilitated by Turkey. One ship is destined for South Korea, the other headed to Turkey, the Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center said in a statement. The ships are carrying a combined total of 70,020 metric tons of foodstuffs.
- A Russian rocket has successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The technology will help Tehran to spy on military targets across the Middle East — but first, Moscow intends to use the spacecraft over Ukraine, The Washington Post reported last week.
- The United States has obtained a warrant for the seizure of a $90 million aircraft owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrei Skoch, the Department of Justice announced Monday. “The airplane is subject to seizure and forfeiture based on probable cause of violation of the federal anti-money laundering laws,” officials said.
- Russia’s assaults on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut have been its most successful axis in the Donbas region in the past 30 days, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said, although it noted that Russian troops have gained only 10 kilometers (six miles) during that time frame. “In other Donbas sectors where Russia was attempting to break through, its forces have not gained more than 3km [1.8 miles] during this 30 day period; almost certainly significantly less than planned.”
- In the Kharkiv region, at least a dozen settlements came under Russian artillery, tank and aircraft fire, the Ukrainian military said in its latest update. But Ukrainian forces claimed to have captured the town of Dovhenke. Several villages in the northern Sumy region also came under intense Russian fire.
- The Pentagon will send Ukraine an additional $1 billion in military assistance, including tens of thousands more munitions and explosives — the largest such package since Russia launched its invasion in February, The Post’s Karoun Demirjian reports in Washington.
- The Pentagon has acknowledged supplying missiles designed to target Russian antiaircraft radar systems in Ukraine. “We’ve included a number of anti-radiation missiles that can be fired off of Ukrainian aircraft that can have effects on Russia radars and other things,” Kahl told a news briefing, without specifying the exact type.
Bodies are exhumed from a mass grave containing corpses of civilians
killed during the Russian occupation in Bucha
on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine
08-08-2022. (Heidi Levine/FTWP)
From our correspondents on the ground
Accounting of bodies in Bucha nears completion. It’s the closest accounting of victims from Russia’s occupation of the Kyiv suburb, officials say. The Washington Post’s Liz Sly reports that “after months of meticulous, painful and at times gruesome investigation … [the tally is] 458 bodies, of which 419 bore markings they had been shot, tortured or bludgeoned to death.”
Aug 8, 2022
Ukraine
Russians 'No Longer Able To Resist HIMARS': Front-Line Ukrainian Mayor
The mayor of a city in Ukraine has said Ukrainian soldiers' efforts are causing difficulties for Russian forces ahead of a future counteroffensive.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, took to Telegram on Monday morning to say that more than 100 Russian soldiers had been killed in recent attacks using "high-precision HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems]."
He shared multiple videos alongside his message that appeared to show the missiles being fired. This comes as the war between Ukraine and Russia nears the 6-month mark following the decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade the country.
"Today, high-precision HIMARS missiles fired at the points of temporary deployment of the occupying forces at industrial sites in various districts of the city of Melitopol," he said in the Telegram post (translated by Google).
Speaking to Newsweek, Fedorov said that one of the Russian bases targeted was an old military airport on the edge of the city, while the other was an old plant being used as a military warehouse.
He added that Ukrainian forces were able to find out about the location of these bases through partisans in the city.
In his Telegram message, he continued: "According to preliminary estimates, a significant amount of military equipment was destroyed. More than 100 Russian soldiers, who were in temporary barracks that night, received tickets to the Kobzon concert, and their parents are already choosing the model and color of the Lada car."
The phrase buying "tickets to the Kobzon concert" has been used by Ukrainian soldiers and officials as a euphemism for Russians killed in the war in reference to Iosif Kobzon, a singer born in Ukraine but popular in Russia. He was dubbed the "Soviet Sinatra" and died in 2018, viewed by some Ukrainians as a traitor.
The mention of the car refers to an interview in which grieving parents said they had bought a Lada with compensation money for the death of their son, killed in Ukraine, the online publication Ukrainian Pravda reported.
Newsweek contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Moscow has said on several occasions that it has destroyed HIMARS systems, but its claims have been unverified and have been dismissed by some Ukrainian and Western officials.
Fedorov added that this attack would prove vital for future counterattacks against Russian forces.
"Last week, the occupiers redeployed a significant part of air defense from Melitopol to Kherson," he added.
"Tonight is the most effective and shows that the existing enemy air defense units are no longer able to resist HIMARS.
"The weakening of the air defense system creates the necessary prerequisites for a successful counteroffensive in the direction of Melitopol."
Ukraine Partisans Can Block Russia's August 'Referendums': Front-Line Mayor
He also added how integral HIMARS are proving in the fight against Russian forces.
"HIMARS are helping us very much. Since HIMARS started working in Ukraine, in Melitopol, we've destroyed many Russian positions," he told Newsweek.
Speaking on Russian morale, he added:" They don't want to make war. They don't want to stay in Melitopol.
"They want to come back to Russia but their generals say to them, 'stay, everything will be good.' But it's impossible for them to be good in Melitopol."
As the conflict edges closer to the 6-month mark there appears to be no clear end in sight.
However, one European politician, Nico Lange, a German lawmaker and chief of staff for the country's Federal Minister of Defense, has said Russia now faces "tremendous " difficulties.
Speaking to German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) over the weekend, he said the significant influx of military aid to Ukraine is changing the dynamic of the Russian invasion.
"The crucial aspect of the past few days is that Russia is now being forced to react to the Ukrainians' statements and actions," he said.
"Until now, it was the other way around; The Ukrainians were forced to react to everything Russia did.
Lange continued, saying that Russia has "moved significant forces to the south, toward both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia," two regions in Southern Ukraine that have mostly fallen under Russian occupation. They have also recently become the focus of significant counteroffensives by Ukrainian forces aiming to retake them.
"A Ukrainian attack will not look like the Russians': this rolling barrage that destroys everything in its path," Lange said. "Rather, it will also rely on partisans, on uprisings in the occupied cities, on mobile operations behind enemy lines."
He added: "The Russians are having great problems controlling these areas. There is a lot of partisan activity in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia oblast.
"Russian patrols are being killed at night. In Melitopol, too, as in Kherson, there are posters directed against the Russian occupiers, there are leafleting campaigns. Something new is constantly being put up."
Russia is now unable to "escalate indefinitely" in Ukraine, Lange said, adding that the Russians are facing "tremendous" difficulty in continuing the conflict.
1. Ukrainian forces hit key bridges, Russian barracks in the south of the country
Ukraine has struck Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnipro river in long-range missile strikes overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.
The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the vast Dnipro river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command.
"The results are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges," she said on domestic television.
Ukrainian HIMARS strikes also hit multiple military bases in Ukraine's Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol in the early hours, killing troops and destroying hardware, the city's mayor said.
"According to preliminary estimates, a significant amount of military equipment was destroyed," Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's defence minister said two weeks ago that 50 Russian ammunition depots had been destroyed by US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which Ukraine started using in June.
2. The first cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain from Black Sea arrives in Turkey
The first of the ships to leave Ukraine under a deal to unblock grain supplies, the Turkey-flagged Polarnet, arrived at its destination in Turkey on Monday.
The ship carrying 12,000 tonnes of corn docked at Derince port in the Gulf of Izmit after setting off from Chornomorsk on 5 August.
“This sends a message of hope to every family in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia: Ukraine won’t abandon you,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “If Russia sticks to its obligations, the ‘grain corridor’ will keep maintaining global food security.”
A total of 10 ships have now been authorised to sail under the grain deal between Ukraine and Russia, which was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations — eight outbound and two headed for Ukraine.
The first ship to depart Ukraine, the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, which left on 1 August, still hasn’t reached its destination in Lebanon and was anchored off Turkey’s southern coast on Sunday evening, according to the Marine Traffic website.
Meanwhile, two more ships carrying corn and soybeans departed Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Monday, the Turkish Defence Ministry said.
The Sakura left Yuzhny carrying 11,000 tonnes of soybeans to Italy, while the Arizona left Chornomorsk with 48,458 tonnes of corn bound for İskenderun in southern Turkey.
Four ships that left Ukraine on Sunday are expected to anchor near Istanbul on Monday evening, the Defence Ministry said. They are due to be inspected on Tuesday.
3. Amnesty 'regrets distress and anger' caused by Ukraine report as criticism persists
The furore over Amnesty International's report accusing Kyiv of endangering civilians continued on Monday, drawing angry reactions from Ukrainian officials and criticism from Western diplomats.
The report also sparked fears it would serve as a further justification for Moscow in its increased bombardment of civilian targets in recent weeks.
On Sunday, the rights group said it regrets the pain caused by the report, which infuriated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and triggered the resignation of its Kyiv office head.
In the meantime, the Russian Mission in Geneva tweeted that if a civilian building "is used for military purposes, it turns into a legitimate target for a precision strike", causing further reactions against the report.
The rights group published the report on Thursday, saying the presence of Ukrainian troops in residential areas heightened risks to civilians during Russia's invasion.
4. UN chief calls for end to attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
The head of Ukraine's state nuclear power company Energoatom called on Monday for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be made a military-free zone, warning of the risk of a Chornobyl-style nuclear disaster after the site was hit by shelling.
He called for a team of peacekeepers to be deployed at the site in comments on television after Ukraine and Russia accused each of shelling the nuclear power plant -- Europe's biggest -- which lies in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine.
"The decision that we demand from the world community and all our partners... is to withdraw the invaders from the territory of the station and create a demilitarized zone on the territory of the station," Petro Kotin said.
Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for the end of military operations around Europe's largest nuclear plant.
Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine has been hit by a series of bombardments since last Friday, with both Russian and Ukrainian forces blaming one another for the attacks.
"Any attack on nuclear power plants is a suicidal thing," the UN's secretary-general told reporters in Tokyo, adding that international inspectors should be allowed to access the nuclear plant immediately.
"I hope that these attacks will end," said Guterres. "At the same time, I hope that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] will be able to access the power plant."
Russian forces captured the plant in Ukraine's southeast in early March, shortly after Moscow's 24 February invasion of its western neighbour, but it is still run by Ukrainian technicians.
Reports from Ukraine on Monday claim that the Russian military has mined the power plant with explosives, while the Russian commanding officer at the site has allegedly expressed his readiness to blow up the plant.
5. No Zelenskyy-Putin meeting in sight, says Kremlin
There is no basis for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents at the moment, the Kremlin said on Monday.
In response to a question about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's offers to broker peace talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could meet only after negotiators from both sides had "done their homework".
Negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv have been stalled for months, with each side blaming the other for a lack of progress.
"The Ukrainian delegation has gone off the radar, there is no negotiation process now," Peskov said on Monday.
"As for a meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy, it is possible only after all the homework has been done by the delegations. This is missing, so there are no necessary prerequisites for the meeting," he added.
6. Plans are afoot in Zaporzhizhia to hold referendum on joining Russia
The head of the Moscow-installed administration in the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said on social media that authorities are pressing ahead with plans to stage a referendum on joining Russia.
"I signed a decree... to start working on the issue of organising a referendum on the reunification of the Zaporizhzhia region with the Russian Federation," he said shortly after indicating the vote could be held in autumn.
The south-eastern Ukrainian region has been under Russian occupation since the early days of the war, and rumours of the potential referendum have been circulating since.The latest from Balitsky indicates that Russia might push for a referendum in Zaporizhzhia, but also in other occupied regions such as Kherson and Mariupol, as a way of justifying its territorial claims as "the will of the people".
These referendums would be similar to the ones in 2014 in Moscow-occupied Crimea and the separatist-held self-proclaimed republics, LNR and DNR, in the eastern region of the Donbas.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia would lose any chance of negotiating with Ukraine should it conduct referendums in the occupied territories.
"If the occupiers follow the path of these pseudo-referendums, they will close any possibility of negotiations with Ukraine and the free world for themselves," he said in his nightly address.
There is no basis for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents at the moment, the Kremlin said on Monday.
In response to a question about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's offers to broker peace talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could meet only after negotiators from both sides had "done their homework".
Negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv have been stalled for months, with each side blaming the other for a lack of progress.
"The Ukrainian delegation has gone off the radar, there is no negotiation process now," Peskov said on Monday.
"As for a meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy, it is possible only after all the homework has been done by the delegations. This is missing, so there are no necessary prerequisites for the meeting," he added.
6. Plans are afoot in Zaporzhizhia to hold referendum on joining Russia
The head of the Moscow-installed administration in the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said on social media that authorities are pressing ahead with plans to stage a referendum on joining Russia.
"I signed a decree... to start working on the issue of organising a referendum on the reunification of the Zaporizhzhia region with the Russian Federation," he said shortly after indicating the vote could be held in autumn.
The south-eastern Ukrainian region has been under Russian occupation since the early days of the war, and rumours of the potential referendum have been circulating since.The latest from Balitsky indicates that Russia might push for a referendum in Zaporizhzhia, but also in other occupied regions such as Kherson and Mariupol, as a way of justifying its territorial claims as "the will of the people".
These referendums would be similar to the ones in 2014 in Moscow-occupied Crimea and the separatist-held self-proclaimed republics, LNR and DNR, in the eastern region of the Donbas.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia would lose any chance of negotiating with Ukraine should it conduct referendums in the occupied territories.
"If the occupiers follow the path of these pseudo-referendums, they will close any possibility of negotiations with Ukraine and the free world for themselves," he said in his nightly address.
Слава Україні
🌎 🌏 🌍 ❤️ 🇺🇦
Monkeypox Update
GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF MONKEYPOX
Discovered in 1958, monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. The monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are typically similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal. Despite the similarities in name, monkeypox is not related to chickenpox.
While the scientific community is continuing to assess how it is transmitted, the current understanding of this outbreak is that monkeypox is transmitted and spreads from person-to-person through:
- Direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids;
- Respiratory secretions during prolonged, face-to-face contact, or during intimate physical contact;
- Touching items (such as clothing or linens) that previously touched the infectious rash or body fluids
- Pregnant people can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta.
Generally, monkeypox can spread from the time symptoms start until an infected individual’s rash has fully healed and a fresh layer of skin has formed. Symptoms include fever (≥100.4°F), headache, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes, followed by a rash. Lesions typically develop at the same time and can spread over the body. The illness typically lasts between two to four weeks, and scientists are researching whether individuals who are not experiencing monkeypox symptoms can spread the virus to others. Unlike the initial outbreak of COVID-19, there are available vaccines and therapeutics for monkeypox, though the vaccination supply remains low in the United States. Currently, public health officials are not recommending or encouraging widespread vaccination against monkeypox.
- more -
BTW, we're still unclear on efforts to get people to call it something other than "monkeypox".
Monkeypox vaccines: A virologist answers 6 questions
Monkeypox isn’t going to be the next COVID-19. But with the outbreak having bloomed to thousands of infections, with cases in nearly every state, on Aug. 4, the U.S. declared monkeypox a national public health emergency. One reason health experts did not expect monkeypox to become so widespread is that the U.S. had previously approved two vaccines for the virus. Maureen Ferran, a virologist at Rochester Institute of Technology, has been keeping tabs on the two vaccines that can protect against monkeypox.
1. What are the available monkeypox vaccines?
Two vaccines are currently approved in the U.S. that can provide protection against monkeypox, the Jynneos vaccine – known as Imvamune/Imvanex in Europe – and ACAM2000, an older smallpox vaccine.
The Jynneos vaccine is produced by Bavarian Nordic, a small company in Denmark. The vaccine is for the prevention of smallpox and monkeypox disease in adults ages 18 and older who are at high risk for infection with either virus. It was approved in Europe in 2013 and by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2019.
The Jynneos vaccine is given in two doses four weeks apart and contains a live vaccinia virus. Vaccinia normally infects cattle and is a type of poxvirus, a family of viruses that includes smallpox and monkeypox. The virus in this vaccine has been crippled – or attenuated – so that it is no longer able to replicate in cells.
This vaccine is good at protecting those who are at high risk for monkeypox from getting infected before exposure and can also lessen the severity of disease post-infection. It is effective against smallpox as well as monkeypox. Until the recent monkeypox outbreak, this vaccine was primarily given to health care workers or people who have had confirmed or suspected monkeypox exposure.
The ACAM2000 vaccine was approved by the FDA in 2007 for protection against smallpox disease. This vaccine is also based on vaccinia virus, however the version of the vaccinia virus in the ACAM2000 vaccine is able to replicate in a person’s cells. Because of this, the ACAM2000 vaccine can be associated with serious side effects. These can include severe skin infections as well as potentially life-threatening heart problems in vulnerable people. Another potential issue with the ACAM2000 vaccine is that it is more complicated to administer compared to a normal shot.
The U.S. government has over 200 million doses of ACAM2000 stockpiled in case of a biological weapon attack of smallpox. But despite the adequate supply of the vaccine, ACAM2000 is not being used to vaccinate against monkeypox because of the risk of serious adverse side effects. For now, only designated U.S. military personnel and laboratory researchers who work with certain poxviruses may receive this vaccine.
2. How effective are these vaccines?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there is not yet any data available on the effectiveness of either vaccine in the current outbreak of monkeypox. But there is older data available from animal studies, clinical trials, and studies in Africa.
A number of clinical trials done during the approval process for the Jynneos vaccine show that when given to a person, it triggers a strong antibody response on par with the ACAM2000 vaccine. An additional study done in nonhuman primates showed that vaccinated animals that were infected with monkeypox survived 80 percent to 100 percent of the time, compared with zero to 40 percent survival in unvaccinated animals.
Another use of the Jynneos vaccine is as a post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, meaning the vaccine can be effective even when given after exposure to the virus. Because the monkeypox virus incubates in a person’s body for six to 14 days, the body of someone who gets the Jynneos vaccine shortly after being exposed will produce antibodies that can help fight off infection and protect against a serious monkeypox case.
The ACAM2000 data is older and less precise but shows strong protection. Researchers tested the vaccine during an outbreak of monkeypox in central Africa in the 1980s. Although the study was small and didn’t directly test vaccine efficacy, the authors concluded that unvaccinated people faced an 85 percent higher risk of being infected than vaccinated people.
3. Does a smallpox vaccine protect against monkeypox?
According to the CDC, a previous smallpox vaccination does provide some protection against monkeypox, though that protection wanes over time. Experts advise that anyone who had the smallpox vaccine more than three years ago and is at increased risk for monkeypox get the monkeypox vaccine.
4. Who should get vaccinated?
According to the CDC, a previous smallpox vaccination does provide some protection against monkeypox, though that protection wanes over time. Experts advise that anyone who had the smallpox vaccine more than three years ago and is at increased risk for monkeypox get the monkeypox vaccine.
4. Who should get vaccinated?
At the national level, anyone who has had close contact with an infected person, who has a weakened immune system, or who had dermatitis or eczema is eligible for a Jynneos vaccine.
Some state and local governments are also making vaccines available to people in communities at higher risk for monkeypox. For example, New York City is allowing men who have sex with men and who have had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days to get vaccinated.
Some state and local governments are also making vaccines available to people in communities at higher risk for monkeypox. For example, New York City is allowing men who have sex with men and who have had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days to get vaccinated.
5. What is the supply like for the Jynneos vaccine?
As of July 29, a little over 300,000 doses have been shipped to points of care or administered, with another 700,000 already allocated to states across the U.S. However, demand is far outpacing supply. Public health officials acknowledge that vaccine supply shortages have resulted in long lines and clinics having to close when they run out of vaccines. The issues have been magnified by technical problems with online booking systems, particularly in New York City.
To help boost supply, the U.S. has ordered nearly 7 million doses of the Jynneos vaccine, which are expected to arrive over the coming months.
6. What about just using one dose of Jynneos?
Although federal health officials advise against withholding the second dose, some places – including Washington, D.C., and New York City – are withholding the second dose until more become available. This strategy is being used in Britain and Canada as well to vaccinate as many people as possible at least one time.
A previous study reported that a single shot of the Jynneos vaccine protected monkeys infected with monkeypox and that this protection lasted for at least two years. If this holds up in the real world, it would support withholding second doses in favor of immunizing more Americans. This would be key as many health experts expect the virus to continue spreading, furthering increasing demand of the vaccine.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
COVID-19 Update
Cases: 584,884,407
Deaths: 6,418,840
USA
Cases: 92,133,135
Deaths: 1,033,607
And to reiterate: The monster is still out there and it's still looking to kill you.
WaPo: (pay wall)
Fauci warns of ‘trouble’ for those with BA.5 variant if not up to date on vaccines
More than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said he understands people are exhausted, but is urging those who are not up to date on the vaccines to get the shots — this time, as the latest omicron subvariant, BA.5, has become the dominant strain in the United States.
Fauci told Los Angeles radio station KNX News earlier this week that although people who are unvaccinated and those with underlying conditions are at the greatest risk of complications from covid-19, others are not exempt.
“If they don’t get vaccinated or they don’t get boosted, they’re going to get into trouble,” he said.
BA.5, which has been called “the worst version of the virus,” accounts for more than 85 percent of cases of covid-19, with more than 41 percent of U.S. counties experiencing a high covid-19 community level, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some health experts have expressed concern that not enough people are vaccinated, particularly as the nation has fallen away from restrictions and mandates, such as masking, to help control the spread of the disease.
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending coronavirus vaccines for children under 5. (Video: Jackson Barton, John Farrell/The Washington Post)
In fact, the majority of the U.S. population is not up to date on the vaccines — defined by the CDC as having completed the primary series and all booster doses recommended for that individual. CDC data shows that 67 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated but only 48 percent has received the first booster shot. Only 32 percent of people 50 and older — who are eligible for a second booster — have received that extra dose.
Fauci said it’s important to get as many people vaccinated and boosted as possible so the virus does not have “ample opportunity to freely circulate.” When the virus is given that opportunity, he said, it can continue to mutate.
“It is about you as an individual, but it’s also about the communal responsibility to get this outbreak under control,” he told the radio station.
As the BA.5 variant spreads, the risk of coronavirus reinfection grows
That said, it is not uncommon for people who are vaccinated to become infected. President Biden, who is vaccinated and double-boosted, recently tested positive for the virus — and then got a rebound infection — though he experienced “very mild symptoms.”
Health experts, including Fauci, have repeatedly pointed out that research shows the shots still protect against severe complications, including hospitalization and death. As of July 27, there were more than 126,000 new cases reported daily, with 6,340 hospitalizations and 364 deaths, according to CDC data.
“Right now we have boosters that are very effective in diminishing any aspect of the infection,” Fauci told KNX News. “A virus like BA.5, which is the most prevalent circulating virus, is so transmissible that it often breaks through the protection of vaccine. But the vaccines and the boosters still do a very good job at preventing you from progressing to severe disease.”
Additionally, a booster designed to target the omicron variant is likely to be rolled out in the fall with the intent to broaden immunity.
“You don’t want covid to dominate the lives of people in this country or throughout the world, but you don’t want to, by wishing it’s behind us and it’s in the rearview mirror, not do things that would be prudent,” Fauci said.
Today In SmarmSpace
When you lie to the press, you're lying to the general public, which is not illegal.
It comes under the general heading of "Awful But Lawful".
With some notable exceptions, eg: defamation. See: Alex Jones Gets His Ass Hammered By Sandy Hook Parents.
Anyway, a politician can lie with near-total impunity when he's bloviating for the benefit of his public image in the public square.
We all know how that goes:
- He didn't lie
- But if he did, it was no big deal
- But if it was, he didn't mean it
- But if he did, it was for a good reason
- But if it wasn't, I don't care - he's my guy
But you try that under oath in front of a jury, and you're going head-first-ankle-deep into the shit.
So the distance between lying in the media and lying in court is part of what I call "smarmspace".
On occasions like this, politicians like Lindsey Graham have to fight hard to stay in smarmspace. If Graham is compelled to leave smarmspace, he's faced with the real possibility of getting driven out of office because some of his hardcore big-money supporters - and even some of the more braindead zombie rubes - will turn against him.
There's also an equally real possibility of bouncing his ass into a prison cell if he's not careful.
Glenn Kirschner - Justice Matters
Today's Tweet
Democrats passed a law that will lower the cost of energy, health care, and prescription drugs.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) August 7, 2022
Republicans voted against it to protect drug companies, oil companies, rich people who cheat on their taxes, and big corporations that don’t pay any.
That’s the choice.
And today's Beau - Justin King - Beau Of The Fifth Column
Today's Wingnut
RWW Blog
"...has declared Dickus Cheneyus an enemy of Rome and all good citizens are duty-bound to do him harm..."
These jerks do, in fact, hear themselves when they speak, but they've conditioned their audience to ignore their contradictions. They can say whatever they feel the need to say one day, and then say exactly the opposite the next day without a care in the world, because they know the rubes will think what the rubes are told to think.
This crap continues until "some of the people" get hip to being fooled all of the time.
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