August 16, 2021

Bob Dylan Accused of Drugging, Sexually Abusing 12-Year-Old in 1965

Source: Daily Beast

“Dylan exploited his status as a musician...as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse J.C.,” a bombshell lawsuit claims.

Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan allegedly groomed and sexually abused a 12-year-old girl multiple times when he was living at New York City’s Chelsea Hotel in 1965, a bombshell lawsuit states.

The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, states that in a six-week period between April and May 1965, Dylan “exploited his status as a musician” to gain the trust of a young girl identified in court filings only as “J.C.,” according to the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to The Daily Beast by J.C.’s attorney, Daniel Isaacs.

“Dylan exploited his status as a musician by grooming J.C. to gain her trust and obtain control over her as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse J.C.,” the suit claims.

J.C. claims she “suffered and continues to suffer from emotional and physical injury, including, but not limited to, serious and severe mental distress, anguish, humiliation, and embarrassment, as well as economic losses,” the filing states.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/bob-dylan-accused-of-drugging-sexually-abusing-12-year-old-in-1965

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56 years seems like a long time to wait to file charges.

August 15, 2021

The Cowardice of the Grim Reaper

Shortly before the sun goes supernova in five billion years, science will have made a storage device small enough to to put the entirety of human knowledge onto a platinum grain of rice which they will fire into deep space in the hope that new forms of sentient life can learn from our grievous mistakes as a species.

However we might evolve as a species between now and then, there is one champion being who will be remembered throughout the ages of man. You might be thinking of the likes of Plato, Aristotle or maybe Socrates if you have a classical education. A near-easter might consider Confucius or even Sun Tsu for their generous observations.

Europeans might choose Milton, Descartes or St. Thomas Aquinas.

The more feeble-brained Americans might select Jefferson, Madison, Roosevelt while the more educated would choose more wisely, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse come to mind but as stellar examples of humans as all of those men are, all of them are wrong.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cowardice-of-54777864

This guy is good.

August 15, 2021

The Hearst Estate in Beverly Hills Gets a $19.8 Million Price Cut

Once asking as much as $195 million, the property is now selling for $69.95 million

A bankruptcy court has slashed another $19.8 million off the price of the historic Beverly Hills, California, estate once owned by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and is now asking $69.95 million.

Once asking as much as $195 million, the property was relisted in April for $89.95 million before its latest discount.

The property’s longtime owner, attorney Leonard Ross, had been trying to sell the property at various price points since 2007. In 2019, he placed the limited-liability company that owns the property into chapter 11 bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

“The bankruptcy court was very motivated to sell the property,” Anthony Marguleas of Amalfi Estates, told Mansion Global. He is handling the sale with Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland, as well as Zizi Pak and John Gould of Rodeo Realty. “We expect the price reduction will produce several offers in the next few weeks.”

https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/the-hearst-estate-in-beverly-hills-gets-a-19-8-million-price-cut-228432

I was browsing the LA Times' real estate listings today and saw this one advertised on a couple of pages. I was also surprised at just how many 7-8 figure homes there are for sale in the area, along with several $100M+ properties. There's a lot of people with a lot of money around.

August 15, 2021

The Return of the Taliban

Their comeback has taken twenty years, but it is a classic example of a successful guerrilla war of attrition.

Watching Afghanistan’s cities fall to the Taliban in rapid succession, as the United States completes a hasty withdrawal from the country, is a surreal experience, laced with a sense of déjà vu. Twenty years ago, I reported from Afghanistan as the Taliban’s enemies took these same cities from them, in the short but decisive U.S.-backed military offensive that followed the 9/11 attacks. The war on terror had just been declared, and the unfolding American military action was cloaked in purposeful determinism in the name of freedom and against tyranny. For a brief moment, the war was blessed by that rare thing: public support, both at home and abroad.

In the wake of the horror of Al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States, most Americans polled believed that the country was doing the “right thing” in going to war in Afghanistan. That level of support didn’t last long, but the war on terror did, and so did the military expedition to Afghanistan, which stretched on inconclusively for two decades and now ends in ignominy. Donald Trump set this fiasco in motion, by announcing his intention to pull out the remaining American troops in Afghanistan and begin negotiations with the Taliban. In February, 2020, an agreement was signed that promised to withdraw all U.S. military forces in return for, among other things, peace talks with the U.S.-backed Afghan government. The American troops were duly drawn down, but, instead of engaging in real discussions, the Taliban stepped up their attacks. In April, President Joe Biden announced his intention to carry on with the withdrawal, and pull out forces by September 11th. However much he says that he does “not regret” his decision, his Presidency will be held responsible for whatever happens in Afghanistan now, and the key words that will forever be associated with the long American sojourn there will include hubris, ignorance, inevitability, betrayal, and failure.

In that regard, the United States joins a line of notable predecessors, including Great Britain, in the nineteenth century, and the Soviet Union, in the twentieth. Those historic precedents don’t make the American experience any more palatable. In Afghanistan—and, for that matter, in Iraq, as well—the Americans did not merely not learn from the mistakes of others; they did not learn from their own mistakes, committed a generation earlier, in Vietnam.

The main errors were, first, to underestimate the adversaries and to presume that American technological superiority necessarily translated into mastery of the battlefield, and, second, to be culturally disdainful, rarely learning the languages or the customs of the local people. By the end of the first American decade in Afghanistan, it seemed evident that the Western counterinsurgency enterprise was doomed to fail, and not only because of the return of the Taliban in many rural parts of the country: the Americans and their nato allies closed themselves off from Afghans in large regional bases, from which they operated in smaller units out of combat outposts, and distrust reined between them and their putative Afghan comrades. “Green-on-blue attacks,” in which Afghan security forces opened fire on their American and European counterparts, became alarmingly frequent. The Taliban, meanwhile, grew inexorably stronger.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-return-of-the-taliban

August 14, 2021

'Outsider' Buttigieg plays a skillful inside game, positioning himself for the future

Over Mexican food one recent evening, Pete Buttigieg told war stories from his presidential run to a small group of senators — including one who would have been an implausible dinner companion 18 months ago. At the table was Amy Klobuchar, his archnemesis on the campaign, who shared her own memories from the trail. The conversation was good-natured, according to a participant.

It wasn’t the first time this year that Buttigieg had broken bread with Klobuchar. In March, Klobuchar joined Buttigieg for lunch and a dog walk, according to an aide with knowledge of the event — a far cry from the days of trading bitter insults on live television. “I wish everyone was as perfect as you, Pete,” Klobuchar said mockingly in one debate last year. “But let me tell you what it’s like to be in the arena.”

Six months into his tenure as President Biden’s transportation secretary, Buttigieg has not only entered the arena, he is standing at center court and schmoozing with players on both teams. A former South Bend, Ind. mayor who embraced the outsider mantle as a candidate, Buttigieg has quickly morphed into a quintessential Washington insider. He has used his position at the center of the high-stakes infrastructure talks to mend old rifts, strengthen existing friendships and build new alliances.

His smooth debut has taken on greater significance as Democrats confront tough questions about the future of the party leadership. Biden says he intends to run for reelection, but as he nears his 79th birthday, that is no sure bet for many Democrats. Vice President Harris, Biden’s heir apparent, has had a rocky first few months on the job, prompting some Democrats to question her ability to pick up the baton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/buttigieg-transportation-politics/2021/08/13/4ad67328-fb78-11eb-9c0e-97e29906a970_story.html

I have no doubt Buttigieg will be a major player in national politics over the next quarter century.

August 14, 2021

Nothing is more urgent than breaking the GOP voting rights blockade

On Wednesday, Senate Democrats once again brought a major voting bill to the floor — and Senate Republicans once again blocked it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) railed that Democrats sought “to start tearing up the ground rules of our democracy and writing new ones, of course on a purely partisan basis.” That is rich. In state after state, Republicans have done precisely what Mr. McConnell describes, raising gratuitous barriers to the ballot box in search of partisan advantage, justified by fantasies about election fraud. Republicans’ falsehood-fueled campaign against the nation’s system of government is one of the reasons the country needs federal voting legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Democrats would continue trying to break the blockade, pledging that voting legislation would be the first order of business when the Senate returned from its August recess.

Democrats must keep trying, but with a new approach. Their voting bill is a sprawling collection of reforms covering judicial ethics, campaign finance, gerrymandering, voting procedures and much else. A thinner bill focused on ensuring free and fair voting would make it less defensible for Republicans to oppose — and easier for Democrats to rally around. The bill could include early voting requirements, absentee ballot standards, automatic voter registration, limits on partisan redistricting, safeguards that insulate vote-counting from partisan pressure, voting technology upgrades, vote auditing standards and election security improvements. It could fix the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court has unwisely eviscerated. If such a bill attracted no Republican support, it would clarify that GOP opposition is based on the fear that more people voting would translate into fewer Republicans winning.

Mr. Schumer announced Wednesday that Democrats are embracing this strategy. The majority leader touted the efforts of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and other lawmakers to craft slimmer voting legislation, indicating that, once released, their proposal would replace the larger bill that Democrats have failed to move. Mr. Manchin has already released an outline for a compromise that includes national voter ID standards, a longtime GOP goal, along with vote-enabling reforms that no one committed to democracy should oppose.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/14/nothing-is-more-urgent-than-breaking-gop-voting-rights-blockade/

August 14, 2021

Tap Dancing With Trump: Lindsey Graham's Quest for Relevance

The senator went from Donald J. Trump’s public enemy to his impassioned defender. Now he’s a golfing regular at Mar-a-Lago, advising the former president on his future. What is behind one of the unlikeliest partnerships in politics?

Lindsey Graham’s moment, it seemed, came on the evening of Jan. 6. With crews still cleaning up the blood and broken glass left by the mob that just hours before had stormed the Capitol, he took the Senate floor to declare, “Count me out” and “Enough is enough.”

Half a year later, a relaxed Mr. Graham, sitting in his Senate office behind a desk strewn with balled napkins and empty Coke Zero bottles, says he did not mean what almost everybody else thought he meant.

“That was taken as, ‘I’m out, count me out,’ that somehow, you know, that I’m done with the president,” he said. “No! What I was trying to say to my colleagues and to the country was, ‘This process has come to a conclusion.’ The president had access to the courts. He was able to make his case to state legislators through hearings. He was disappointed he fell short. It didn’t work out. It was over for me.”

What was not over for the senator from South Carolina was his unlikely — to many people, confounding — relationship with that president, Donald J. Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/14/us/politics/lindsey-graham-donald-trump.html

This hypocritical, obsequious pipsqueak has infested our politics for much too long.

August 14, 2021

Florida COVID deaths rise as delta spreads; infections hit 21,600 a day

Source: Tampa Bay Times

The state reports 1,071 people died of COVID-19 over a seven-day period. Infections, hospitalizations keep building.

Florida continues to see record COVID-19 infections across the state. Now, deaths are rising too.

The state reported 151,415 infections from Aug. 6-12, according to the state Department of Health. That’s an average of more than 21,600 cases a day. It’s the third week in a row that the Sunshine State set a record for weekly cases. Only Louisiana saw more infections per capita.

Florida also reported 1,071 deaths, a 74 percent increase from the previous week. Two children are among the dead.

More than 500,000 Floridians have been infected since June 19, when cases began climbing again. The more contagious delta variant is the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the nation, rewriting the old rules of staying safe as it powers the fourth — and worst — wave of the 17-month pandemic.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2021/08/13/florida-covid-deaths-rise-as-delta-spreads-infections-hit-21600-a-day/

August 14, 2021

Large hole swallows car in Palm Harbor driveway

A car was swallowed by a large hole that opened up in a driveway at a Palm Harbor home Friday morning. A second vehicle also was teetering at the edge of the hole.

Palm Harbor Fire Rescue responded to the scene in the 400 block of Ulelah Avenue at about 6:50 a.m. The hole is about 10 feet by 10 feet in size, fire officials said in a news release.

Fire officials said the hole is about 10 to 15 away from the residence. The people who live there were evacuated as a precaution and the scene was “taped off and isolated,” the release states.

Fire officials said the Pinellas County Building Department had been called in for an inspection. A county spokesperson said no obvious structural damage was found to the house and the people who live there won’t have to move out.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2021/08/13/large-hole-swallows-car-in-palm-harbor-driveway/

Boy I hate it when that happens...

August 13, 2021

Amid Extreme Weather, a Shift Among Republicans on Climate Change

Many Republicans in Congress no longer deny that Earth is heating because of fossil fuel emissions. But they say abandoning oil, gas and coal will harm the economy.

WASHINGTON — After a decade of disputing the existence of climate change, many leading Republicans are shifting their posture amid deadly heat waves, devastating drought and ferocious wildfires that have bludgeoned their districts and unnerved their constituents back home.

Members of Congress who long insisted that the climate is changing due to natural cycles have notably adjusted that view, with many now acknowledging the solid science that emissions from burning oil, gas and coal have raised Earth’s temperature.

But their growing acceptance of the reality of climate change has not translated into support for the one strategy that scientists said in a major United Nations report this week is imperative to avert an even more harrowing future: stop burning fossil fuels.

Instead, Republicans want to spend billions to prepare communities to cope with extreme weather, but are trying to block efforts by Democrats to cut the emissions that are fueling the disasters in the first place.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/climate/republicans-climate-change.html