May 10, 2022

McConnell tamps down chance abortion bill could pass GOP Senate

https://thehill.com/news/senate/3483391-mcconnell-tamps-down-chance-abortion-bill-could-pass-gop-senate/



Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) downplayed the possibility that a Republican-controlled Senate would pass a federal abortion ban.

McConnell, during a weekly press conference, sidestepped a question about if he would rule out bringing up an abortion but said that most of the Senate GOP believed abortion should be dealt with at the state level.

“Historically there have been abortion votes on the floor of the Senate none of them have achieved 60 votes … I think it’s safe to say there aren’t 60 votes there at the federal level. No matter who happens to be in the majority. No matter who happens to be in the White House,” McConnell said.

McConnell added that he believed that there were “no issues that Republicans believe should be exempt from the 60-vote threshold.” McConnell’s comments come after he said that it was possible a GOP-controlled Congress could take up national federal restrictions on abortion.

snip

May 10, 2022

Boris Johnson to sign defence deal in Sweden on Wednesday

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is coming to Sweden on Wednesday, Sweden's government has announced, with newspapers reporting he will sign a defence deal aimed at protecting Sweden during the Nato transition period.

https://www.thelocal.se/20220510/boris-johnson-to-sign-defence-deal-in-sweden-on-wednesday/



“This is a deal which is valid until further notice, but it is an important signal ahead of the coming [Nato] ratification process,” a source with knowledge of the deal told the Aftonbladet newspaper. According to a press release issued by the Swedish government, Johnson will meet Sweden’s prime minister Magdalena Andersson at her official country retreat at Harpsund, about 100km west of Stockholm.

The two will discuss the security situation in Europe and bilateral relations and cooperation between Sweden and the UK. The two are due to hold a press conference early on Wednesday afternoon. According to the newspaper, recent classified meetings of the Swedish parliament’s defence and foreign committees, MPs have been told of secret bilateral cooperation with the UK.

According to several of the newspaper’s sources, Johnson is visiting to officially sign an agreement on this deeper bilateral cooperation, which will, among other things, see British naval vessels dispatched to the Baltic to protect Swedish and Finnish waters during the Nato ratification process. On Tuesday morning, the Finnish newswire STT broke the news that Johnson was coming to Sweden on Wednesday, reporting that Johnson would then go on to visit Finland later on Wednesday afternoon.

UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace visited Finland last week, and gave reassurances that the UK would support Finland and Sweden in the event of an attack from Russia, whether or not the two countries decide to join Nato. This slightly toughened up an earlier pledge of support he gave at a meeting with his Swedish and Danish counterparts at the start of March.

snip

May 10, 2022

'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Is the Best 'Trek' in Years

A return to form that feels both familiar and brand-new.

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-review



Since Star Trek: Discovery premiered in the fall of 2017, Paramount has treated us to a veritable wealth of Star Trek stories on our small screens, from Disco's epic that took us through the Klingon war and beyond, to the hilarious animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks, to catching up with a fan-favorite retired captain in Star Trek: Picard. There's something for everyone in all of these, but despite all the love the fans seem to agree that there's something missing from the format, particularly in the live-action shows. It's a fatigue we're all feeling now that so much streaming television plays as if a season is more like an 8- or 10- or 13-hour movie meant to be binged over a weekend: What happened to episodes? Part of the joy of a Star Trek show, from the very beginning, was the anticipation of seeing something completely new every week as the USS Enterprise bounced around the universe meeting alien races and soaking up the rays from distant suns. We're aboard an exploration vessel, after all. As the title of Paramount+'s fantastic new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds suggests, we're finally going back to basics.

First, a little bit of background. Strange New Worlds is set directly after the events of Discovery Season 2, which first introduced the new iterations of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Vulcan science officer Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and ended up being so popular that they were granted their own spinoff show. It also takes place a few years before Star Trek: The Original Series, and chronicles Pike's captainship of the Enterprisebefore the show that started it all turned the job over to one Captain James T. Kirk.

If you know who Captain Pike is, you already know why this is a particularly fun concept for a Star Trek show, but in case you don't, here's a fun fact: Pike is actually the first captain at the helm of Enterprise in the very first Star Trek episode ever, the pilot titled "The Cage" that NBC originally rejected, which wasn't broadcast on television until 1988 (though bits and pieces were used for the follow-up two-part episode "The Menagerie" later in the first season). Pike has shown up in various Star Trek properties since then, but has never gotten his own show until now. In a way, Strange New Worlds is Star Trek finally making the show they had planned from the beginning.



That's not the only way in which the show feels cozily retro: Strange New Worlds is, at last, a return to the episodic self-contained storytelling that made this franchise so much fun in the first place. The crew of the Enterprise disguise themselves as pre-Warp aliens to explore a new planet, they communicate with religious zealots protecting a deadly comet, they hide from a classic Trek villain and turn the ship into a haunted house, there's a hilarious shore leave episode and an episode where the crew has to fight a viral outbreak. The possibilities for this show are, quite simply, endless.

snip

May 10, 2022

Grubhub Is Offering Free Lunch to Everyone in New York City

Grubhub is going to try to give everyone in New York City a lunch that's free less taxes and tip.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/grubhub-free-lunch-new-york-city-2022



It won't break the adage that there's no such thing as a free lunch, but Grubhub is trying to get pretty close. On May 17, Grubhub is offering free lunch to everyone in New York City and the surrounding areas. Though, the extent of "surrounding areas" isn't entirely clear. A representative tells Thrillist that it includes "the surrounding New York and New Jersey areas, including most counties in New Jersey, Long Island and parts of Pennsylvania." On May 17, the food delivery service will give you $15 to order a lunch for yourself.

The food delivery service even made a calendar reminder you can drop in Outlook or Google Calendar. Simply use the promo code "FREELUNCH" between 11 am and 2 pm on May 17, and you're taking a steep discount on your midday meal. The code will get you a free lunch unless your order is over $15, in which case you get $15 off your meal.

Though, there are asterisks involved here. You have to order through Grubhub, and the discount only comes on the subtotal. You still have to pay taxes, fees, and tip. (Tip your delivery person!) Moreover, it cannot be used on any catering order or any order that contains alcohol. So, if you're ordering with other people, as inconvenient as it might be, you'll want to order separately. You could each drop the code in and place an order. If you’re all on the same order, you'll only get a single $15 discount.

Grubhub also says that there are a limited number of redemptions available. Though, a representative tells Thrillist that Grubhub has "accounted for enough orders for all of NYC based on historical ordering data and projections." Still, you'll probably want to get on it early. This will undoubtedly be a popular promotion.

snip

May 9, 2022

MSNBC just reported that even if there was no filibuster Casey & Manchin are No on the Abortion Bill

May 9, 2022

Russia increasingly firing their newest missiles into Ukraine. Today 4 of these new Onyx hypersonic

missiles with 250kg warheads hit Odessa.

I couldn't find the cost per missile but surely they are the most expensive to produce.



https://twitter.com/expatua/status/1523587660689788928

May 8, 2022

Russia smears Pippi Longstocking author as Nazi in propaganda posters

Russia has launched a poster campaign in Moscow featuring ostensibly pro-Nazi quotes from the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, the film-maker Ingmar Bergman, and the Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad. "We are against Nazism, but they are not," the poster reads.

https://www.thelocal.se/20220503/fact-check-has-russia-launched-an-anti-swedish-propaganda-campaign/




The poster was put up at this bus stop outside the Swedish embassy.

Oscar Jonsson, a researcher at the Swedish Defence University, tweeted out a picture of photograph of a Moscow bus stop carrying the propaganda poster, which has the word ‘they’ written in the colours of the Swedish flag. Latest plot twist from Moscow "We are against nazism, but they are not" with signs of Astrid Lindgren, Ingemar Bergman, Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA). Another poster accuses King Gustaf V of being a Nazi. Jonsson told The Local he was certain that the posters were genuine, but suspected that they were intended for Swedish consumption, as at least one of them had been placed outside the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. “They’re more of a provocation to Sweden than something for the Russian people,” he said.

Mikael Östlund, communication chief at Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency, argued the opposite case, that the posters were primarily designed to justify the war in Ukraine to Russia’s own population. “Accusing western countries of Nazism is a part of the justification for their own war,” he said. “This is probably directed towards its own population. This has been one of the justifications for the war in Ukraine as well.” Others even suggested they might even be a preparation for military action . “Are there any limits to these guys? Or are they preparing a ‘denazifying’ operation against Sweden as well?” tweeted Sweden’s former prime minister Carl Bildt.

https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/1521425081754398720
The Swedish foreign ministry said it was aware of the posters, but refused to comment. “We have no intention of engaging in a public polemic with the Russian organisation ‘Our Victory’, which is reportedly behind these posters,” a spokesperson told TT. “In Russia, smears about ‘Nazism’ have been used repeatedly against countries and individuals who are critical of Russia’s actions.” At a press conference in Germany, Sweden’s prime minister called the campaign “completely unacceptable”. “But it is important to say already right now that Sweden could become the target of an influence campaign by foreign powers,” she said. “It’s important that all Swedes, and not least those of you in journalism, recognise that there is a risk that foreign powers will try to influence the Swedish debate climate.”

https://twitter.com/ChrChristensen/status/1521424410040803328
The poster leads with a quote from the Second World War diaries of the writer Astrid Lindgren, who created the character Pippi Longstocking. This is from a passage where Lindgren, a German speaker, expresses her fears that Russia might invade Sweden, saying a Russian occupation would be worse than a German one. “And so I think I’d rather say ‘Heil Hitler’ my whole life than get the Russians on top of us. You can hardly think of anything so awful,” Lindgren writes. It’s worth pointing out that Lindgren was a committed anti-Nazi, who also wrote in her diary that Hitler was ‘a little, unknown German artisan’ who had become ‘his people’s nemesis and cultural destroyer’.

snip

May 8, 2022

The US Is Now An Exporter Of Terrorist Ideology

Here's what you need to know about an incredibly dangerous, fast growing far right movement you've probably never heard of.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-us-is-now-an-exporter-of-terrorist


Sovereign citizen Bruce Doucette sentenced to 38 years on terrorism related charges. Image: Southern Poverty Law Center

Right-wing crazy comes in a lot of different flavors in America. Most people are familiar with the loudest and most obnoxious; MAGA, QAnon, white militias, the Proud Boys, and so on who get all the headlines and attention. One of the most dangerous, however, flies under most people’s radar. It’s called the “Sovereign Citizen movement,” and in America’s current political climate, it is growing like a tumor of steroids. The movement has been churning out terrorists for years, and has now spread to other countries — officially making the US an exporter of terrorist ideology. Vice recently published a report on how bad it is getting in the UK, and it is worth noting that their SC movement pales in comparison to our legion of violent, delusional, and well-armed anti-government terrorists. Let me introduce you to a movement designed to produce violence, how bonkers it is, and the dark path it is heading down.



In a completely unpredictable turn of events, the origins of the SC movement have to do with racism and antisemitism. Started by White Supremacist William Potter Gale in the early 1970’s, the Sovereign Citizens movement shares roots with the John Birch Society (the crazies who tried take over the Republican Party for over half a century before arguably finally succeeding). Gale, a Birch society member and far right Christian, would very much fit in with today’s MAGA movement. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports:

Potter formed a group of antigovernment Christian Identity adherents who mistrusted state and federal officials. They believed that non-white people were not human, and that Jews possessed a satanic plot to take over the world. They identified themselves as Posse Comitatus, which is Latin for “power of the county” and centers on the idea that county sheriffs are the highest governmental authority. 2Posse Comitatus is based on the Sheriffs Act of 1887, which allowed sheriffs to form a posse that would assist them in hunting down and arresting criminals. Potter’s posse believed they served under common law (laws based on their interpretation of the Bible), rather than civil law (legitimate laws formed by the American legal system).

You may notice more than a few similarities between the Sovereign Citizens and QAnon; the antisemitism, the satanic plot, the government being illegitimate (unless controlled by them, of course), laws don’t apply to them, etc, etc: The contemporary sovereign belief system is based on a decades-old conspiracy theory. Sovereigns believe that the American government set up by the founding fathers, under a common-law legal system, was secretly replaced. They think the replacement government swapped common law for admiralty law, which is the law of the sea and international commerce. Some sovereigns believe this perfidious change occurred during the Civil War, while others blame the events of 1933, when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard. Either way, they stake their lives and livelihoods on the idea that U.S. judges and lawyers, who they believe are foreign agents, know about this hidden government takeover but argue against it, denying the sovereigns’ motions and filings out of treasonous loyalty to hidden and malevolent government forces.

snip

May 8, 2022

Lagwagon - Trashed (Full Album - 1994)

Label: Fat Wreck Chords – FAT 513-1
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 4 Jan 1994
Genre: Rock
Style: Melodic Hardcore, Punk

May 6, 2022

The protestors fighting for abortion rights in New York City

As the US Supreme Court attempts to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, Kristina Shakht photographs those taking to the streets in protest.

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/n7nxeq/roe-v-wade-protest-nyc



On the first Monday in May, as our feeds were filling up with photos of celebrities in their best gilded glamour, news broke that the US Supreme Court was likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark court decision that protects abortion rights. Rallying cries were juxtaposed with flashes of sequins, in a way that felt both dystopian and perfectly aligned with what it has felt like living in America, where politics have become increasingly polarised over the last decade. In the last few years alone, the right to bodily autonomy has been at the heart of debates over the Covid-19 vaccine, yet this same freedom of choice is continuously called into question when it comes to women’s bodies.





The initial draft opinion obtained by POLITICO, “is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights”, in which Justice Samuel Alito writes that “it is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”





Though the court’s ruling will not be final until it’s published — and overturning Roe v. Wade will not ban abortions across the US, but leave it to individual states to determine the procedure’s legality — Republican politicians have attacked abortion rights for years. Thirteen states have already enacted trigger laws that would “ban abortions almost immediately” should the decision be overturned, while left-leaning states have made moves to reinforce reproductive rights.





In response to the news, thousands of protestors gathered in New York City’s Foley Square on Tuesday night to oppose the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Folks gathered in green, the colour synonymous with the campaign for safe and legal abortions, as they marched to Washington Square holding signs that read “Abortions are healthcare”, “Abort the court”, “Misogyny kills more people than abortion” and, maybe most importantly, “You can’t ban abortion, you can only ban safe abortions”.

snip