March 10, 2022

Cyber Ninjas complain to court about $2 million in fines for concealing public documents: report

By Bob Brigham
Published March 10, 2022

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The Cyber Ninjas group that conducted the widely-panned Arizona "audit" of the 2020 election complained to a judge about the soaring cost of fines that have been leveled against it after refusing to turn over what courts have repeatedly ruled are public documents.

"Cyber Ninjas doesn't want to pay $50,000-a-day fines imposed by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge for not turning over records from work it did for the Arizona Senate, and is asking the Arizona Supreme Court for help," The Arizona Republic reported Thursday. "Two superior court judges and the court of appeals determined the company's records from the controversial review of Maricopa County's 2020 election are public records under state law. But Cyber Ninjas continues to argue that just because it was working for the government doesn't mean the records are government documents."

The $50,000 a day fines now total more than $2 million.

https://www.rawstory.com/cyber-ninjas-arizona-public-records-law/

WE the "public" have a right to know.......just like you had some right to to look at ballots that were suppose to counted in transparency...that your group violated with help from the senator leader and others in the state.........so if you don't want to accrue a $1,000. 00 fine ....well.....

March 10, 2022

Idaho Republicans push bill that would fine and jail librarians for certain books

By Jon Skolnik, Salon
Published March 09, 2022

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The Idaho House of Representative approved a bill on Monday that could fine and jail the staff of school libraries, universities, and museums if they provide "harmful" material to children, a development critics say is designed to prevent kids from having access to books about the LGBTQ+ experience.

The measure, House Bill 666, would subject employees of schools, museums and libraries to a maximum fine of $1,000 as well as up to a year in jail.

While the bill moved through the chamber along a 51-14 vote, its passage was met with impassioned debate on both sides of the aisle, with Republicans decrying the effects of what they deemed to be "pornography" on young children.

https://www.rawstory.com/idaho-book-ban/

So did this nimrod bunch ever see there dads Playboy magazines....which are not found in libraries...... fucking Idaho....next up public floggings coming to you from a fascist authoritarian right wing state near you.....

March 9, 2022

And now another word from a guy' and his company that committed 300+million in fraud in Medicare

and he wants..... and his party wants to ......get ready.....be a populist....


Rick Scott Admits He Wants To Raise Taxes On Poor And Middle Class

Laura Ingraham called Sen. Rick Scott’s plan to raise taxes on the least fortunate Americans “unabashedly populist.”

By NewsHound Ellen — March 8, 2022

Short of ripping off their clothes and having sex on the set, it’s hard to imagine anything more repulsive than watching two elitists like Laura Ingraham and Sen. Rick Scott pretend to be populists while they openly disdain the half of Americans who don't earn enough to pay federal income taxes. But that’s what happened when Scott visited The Ingraham Angle Monday night to defend his “skin in the game” tax proposal that is part of what he calls an “11-point plan to rescue America.”

Scott has come under quite a bit of criticism for his tax plan, including from Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. But for Ingraham, that’s reason to love it even more. She said in her introduction to the discussion, “Scott's plan is unabashedly populist, which is why McConnell is using one point in the plan to discredit the rest of it.”

She “forgot” to mention that that one point sticks it to millions of Americans while giving breaks to people like herself and Scott. The Institute on Taxation on Economic Policy finds that Scott’s plan would increase taxes by more than $1000 on average for Americans in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution and by an average of $500 for the middle 20%, while leaving the tax rate for the top 1% of earners unaffected. “The majority of the overall funds raised by the tax increase would be paid for by the lowest-income
Americans, with the bottom 40% of earners contributing 79% of the tax increase,” the institute concluded.

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/03/rick-scott-admits-he-wants-raise-taxes

and for anyone that is stupid enough to think he and that other sycophant are leading the charge on being the populist......here is the definition...... but remember that he wants to tax you and not be held accountable for committing MEDICARE fraud and her and him to continue supporting a traitor living in Mar A Lago......and your vote should not count.....

Populist

noun
a person, especially a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
"he ran as a populist on an anticorruption platform"

adjective
relating to or characteristic of a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
"party leaders plan to reprise the populist rhetoric that they used in the tax fight"

March 9, 2022

The dangerous Ukraine invasion issue no one is talking about

By David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory- Commentary
Published March 09, 2022

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Let’s step back for a moment from the awful human tragedy in Ukraine as the Russian army targets civilians. There is an even bigger issue here. And until we come up with an answer it’s going to continue to plague the world.

It’s an issue that Americans, more than anyone else, should understand. Yet based on all the news and commentary I’ve been reading since the Russian buildup began almost a year ago, this overarching issue is not even on the table.

The bigger issue is that there is no way to stop a nuclear power from invading a non-nuclear power, as America did 18 years ago this month when it took down the dictatorship in Iraq.

https://www.rawstory.com/russia-nuclear-weapons/

March 9, 2022

A Company Backed by This Mega Oligarch Helped Kill Clean Power in Maine

Natural gas giant Calpine, linked to post-Soviet billionaire Len Blavatnik, spearheaded efforts to stop a hydropower corridor from Canada to New England.

William Bredderman
Researcher
Published Mar. 09, 2022 4:53AM ET

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s savage assault on Ukraine has shocked the world, galvanized global democracies, and sent fuel prices surging.

But months before Kremlin troops poured into the country, a company tied to one of the regime’s erstwhile elite allies fought and won a major battle in the Maine woods. And the outcome of that saga will have its own ramifications for the future of the world and its energy supply.

A mere 412,086 residents of the Pine Tree State—less than 38 percent of the eligible electorate—voted in the November referendum that decided the fate of the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project. The scheme would have linked the Maine and Massachusetts electrical grids with 1200 megawatts of renewable hydroelectricity from Quebec. The 243,943 people who voted against construction of the 145-mile transmission line did so against the wishes not only of Gov. Janet Mills, but of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who tweeted just days before the plebiscite about the benefits the already-underway venture would deliver to the environment and the economy.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/len-blavatnik-and-his-access-industries-are-shareholders-of-calpine-which-helped-kill-clean-energy-in-maine

March 9, 2022

Twin lions fleeing Ukraine war arrive at Belgian refuge

By Reuters UK
Published March 09, 2022

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By Clement Rossignol and Bart Biesemans OUDSBERGEN, Belgium (Reuters) -

A Belgian animal shelter has taken in two young lions evacuated from Ukraine, who it says Russian troops had threatened to shoot when they encountered them outside Kyiv. Twin males Tsar and Jamil, born in January 2021, were due to be transferred to Belgium in May after the Ukrainian authorities seized them from private owners who had mistreated them. However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine meant the transfer had to happen immediately, with shelling of Kyiv, where they were held, causing them stress and injury as they jumped ...

https://www.rawstory.com/twin-lions-fleeing-ukraine-war-arrive-at-belgian-refuge/

March 9, 2022

How SCOTUS could let the GOP rule forever

By David Daley, Salon and Gaby Goldstein, Salon
Published 09, 2022

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While this week has brought good news on voting rights from the Supreme Court, it may very well be a temporary win.

In a pair of orders issued on Monday, the justices allowed court-ordered congressional maps to stand in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, refusing to interfere with decisions by those state supreme courts. Republicans in both states had asked the court to block those maps under a tortured legal theory that has been advancing on the right, known as the Independent State Legislature (ISL) doctrine.

Make no mistake: This is a tremendous victory for voters in both states. The North Carolina state Supreme Court had rejected a GOP-drawn congressional map that guaranteed Republicans at least 10 and potentially 11 of the state's 14 seats as a violation of the state constitution. In Pennsylvania, where the state Supreme Court unwound last decade's extreme GOP gerrymander in 2018, that court mandated what most observers consider a balanced 9-8 map that does not favor either party.

https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-voting-rights/

So just think if the citizens of a state want to put a ballot initiative on the ballot, the republican fascist can just null and void it...... because Alito and the "gang" think that when it comes to Constitutional matters, they have to check in with the Federalist Society first if it's alright or a bad idea...... because this ISL is from dark money groups and the fucking Federalist Society backers....

March 9, 2022

Senate GOP's 'energy independence' plan includes imported oil from Canada

By Josh Israel -March 8, 2022 2:57 PM

Every Republican senator voted against President Joe Biden's plan to invest $555 billion in clean energy and combating climate change.

Senate Republicans are touting their plan for American "energy independence" as their solution to higher oil and gas prices while demanding the United States revive the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline project to import tar sands oil from Canada.

Gasoline prices — which dipped to $1.80 in some places during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown — have been rising steadily since the U.S. economy started to rebound in the fall of 2020 and demand has risen. In the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden's decision to halt the import of Russian oil in response, gas prices have soared to more than $4 per gallon.

Republican lawmakers, who were already blaming Biden for the price increase, seized on the news to demand unfettered fossil fuel drilling in the United States.

https://americanindependent.com/senate-republicans-keystone-pipeline-canada/

And what is really classic is that she and the other nimrods supporting this BS didn't think the election was fair, and that she and the nimrods kept a traitor in office that was blackmailing Ukraine, and finally the tar sands are only good for diesel truck, because of the higher sulfur content that causes more pollution......why hasn't she been expelled....I look up everyday and see the sun and wonder why our homes are not solar and wind power our cars can't get electric fast enough because of people like this vile Blackburn.....support oligarchs and war....for oil.....

March 8, 2022

SCOTUS shoots down GOP's attempts to block congressional maps in Pennsylvania and North Carolina

BY Matthew Chapman
Published March 07, 2022

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On Monday, the Supreme Court turned away a pair of Republican lawsuits that sought to use an untested far-right legal theory to block state courts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania from adopting new, fair congressional maps.

In the case of North Carolina, the state Supreme Court had struck down the maps passed by the legislature as an illegal political gerrymander that violated the state constitution; in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court chose a map after the Republican legislature and Democratic governor failed to agree on a compromise.

The plaintiffs in both cases wanted the Supreme Court to invalidate both of these processes, and allow the legislature to adopt gerrymandered Republican maps as they wish, under a doctrine called the "independent state legislature theory". This theory holds that the text of the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants state legislatures, and only state legislatures, the power to draw maps, and thus state courts cannot be involved in the process — even if the state's constitution separately has redistricting rules and the legislature violates those rules.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002

March 8, 2022

Deer have antlers, walruses have tusks - here's why so few birds have weapons of their own

By The Conversation
Published March 07, 2022

Mating season in the animal kingdom can be dramatic, and sometimes violent. As an example, take deer clashing their antlers during the rut – nostrils flaring, hooves hammering the ground, grass flying everywhere, and that eerie silence before the thunderous collision. The winning buck gets access to the harem, while the loser must find other females to fight for.

Many other animals also have formidable weapons. They range from rhinoceros beetles’ pointy horns to fiddler crabs’ proportionally gigantic claws and the long tusks of walruses and narwhals.

Birds also need to compete for their mates, which often involves fiercely defending a territory. But most birds don’t sport impressive weapons; we know them better for their colors, dances and songs. As evolutionary biologists primarily interested in birds and weapons, respectively, we couldn’t help but wonder: Why do most birds lack their own version of antlers? The answer, which we present in a recent study, likely lies in a trade-off between flying and fighting.

https://www.rawstory.com/deer-have-antlers-walruses-have-tusks-heres-why-so-few-birds-have-weapons-of-their-own/