"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."
"National Girl, Me Too Day on April 7th recognizes the strength and endurance of women of all ages and is an opportunity to show support for each other.
"Take a moment to look at the women around us. Neighbors, shopkeepers, sisters, even strangers. If you ask any one of them a single thing they have had to overcome, many could respond, 'Girl, me too.'
"National Girl, Me Too Day is striving to break down divisions among women of all walks of life. The day reminds each woman they have all carried similar burdens and struggles. By lifting each other up, we help to mend the past and make a better future for our children."
"This is how a weak and sick person behaves - psychiatrists will be able to explain his behaviour better. American citizens should be ashamed of their president."
--How the entire free world describes Donald Trump How Russia describes Joe Biden
On July 1, 1968, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, and dozens of other countries entered into the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The NPT categorizes countries as either "nuclear-weapon States" or "non-nuclear-weapon States." The five "nuclear-weapon States" are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China, all of which had successfully exploded a nuclear device before 1967. (The Russian Federation formally agreed in 1992 to exercise the rights and fulfill the obligations of the former U.S.S.R. under the NPT.)
Under the NPT, non-nuclear-weapon States agree never to acquire nuclear weapons, and the nuclear-weapon States in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals. To this day, the NPT remains the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of nuclear disarmament. As of today, 191 (out of 193) States have agreed to the NPT; more countries have ratified it than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement in the world.
Not all countries agreed to be subject to the NPT's limitations immediately, however. Ukraine, for example, did not join the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon State until 1994, when the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation gave Ukraine ample security assurances, formalized in the "Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons." In exchange for Ukraine promising to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory and remain a non-nuclear-weapon State, the other countries--including Russia--explicitly promised (among other things):
"to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine";
"to refrain from the threat of force or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine"; and
"that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense..."
Russia is still a party to the 1994 Memorandum. Too bad it refuses to recognize the jurisdiction of any international court, or it might have been in trouble for blatantly violating it when it invaded the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2022 — The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has completed its evaluation of the
Since 1956, the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has evaluated all federal judicial nominees, rating them Well Qualified, Qualified, or Not Qualified based on "the qualities of integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament." The ABA has long been recognized as a neutral, non-political body, and its ratings have typically received widespread bipartisan support as objective. (Not always: for example, in 2017 Trump ended the ABA's role in evaluating his judicial nominees, preferring to follow recommendations from the conservative Federalist Society.)
The ABA has evaluated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, and "has given her a unanimous rating of Well Qualified."
President Biden said Russia should be expelled from the G-20 and pledged the U.S. would take in up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine as he
In 1998, the Group of Seven--the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy--added Russia to the G7, transforming into the G8. But when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and annexed the Crimean Peninsula, the other members of the G8 expelled it, transforming the group back into the G7. Russia responded by downplaying the significance of the G7: "All the economic and financial questions are decided in G20."
Now that Russia has again invaded Ukraine, the Group of Twenty is contemplating its expulsion. (China opposes the move.) Russia's response is, again, to downplay any significance:
"The G20 format is important, but in the current circumstances, when most of the participants are in a state of economic war with us, nothing terrible will happen."
March 31 is the International Transgender Day of Visibility. Trans Day of Visibility is an annual awareness day celebrated around the world. The day is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans justice.
YouTube removed some video content posted on the account of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) from its platform because it
YouTube removed some video content posted on the account of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) from its platform because it was in violation of its "election integrity policy," a spokesperson told The Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that YouTube had removed all the video footage from two days of the four-day conference, which occurred from Feb. 24-27. He said that the removed content included speeches made by former President Donald Trump and multiple GOP senators and House members, among others.
The videos that YouTube removed were flagged for "misinformation."
"Our policies apply to everyone, regardless of the uploader's political views, and while we do allow content that provides additional context such as countervailing views, the content we removed from this channel was footage that did not provide sufficient context."
The conservatives whose misinformation (a.k.a. lying) was removed promptly denounced YouTube for "censorship." Of course.
Some Azov Battalion Neo Nazi soldiers shot some russian prisoners of war in cold blood so they can continue the Russia and Ukraine conflict as to validate their fascist only the strong survive ideology. Those warmongering idiotic monsters! A video recording got released of it today. Ukraine Soldiers Shooting Russian Prisoners Of War is all over on youtube.
The only news organization to report this is Russia's state-controlled network, RT (f.k.a. "Russia Today"). A few other sites have reposted RT's article word for word, including, "The videos are so extremely graphic that RT is unable to share them." So far, neither the videos nor any related stories have (yet) appeared on any reputable news organization.
No independent source has verified any of the videos. To the contrary, a number of experts have pointed out some glaring discrepancies indicating--though not proving--that they are probably fake, including but not limited to:
The damage from bullets shot from that kind of rifle at close range is horrific. It looks nothing like the videos, which don't even show any blood.
The muzzle flashes from the shots are consistent with the use of blanks.
The supposed POWs, after supposedly being shot, do not appear to be in pain and answer questions without strain or difficulty.
The supposed POWs are wearing standard-issue Russian military boots, which are normally removed immediately upon capture to prevent prisoners from fleeing.
It doesn't make a lot of sense for supposed Ukrainian soldiers to take videos of themselves committing obvious war crimes.
And then there's this: Anonymous has published a leaked document dated March 21, 2022--a few days before the videos materialized online--in which Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense, Dmitry Bulgakov, issued this order:
"Develop and distribute a series of video materials demonstrating the inhuman behavior of the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist formations on the territory of Ukraine in relation to prisoners who showed a voluntary desire to surrender. ...
"Provide informational support for materials in the comments, the main argument is the violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War."
Here is the order in its original Russian:
Could it be fake? Absolutely. No independent source has verified it.
Just like the videos.
By the way, posting videos of actual POWs would arguably be a violation of Article 13 of the third Geneva Convention:
"Prisoners of war must at all times be protected ... against insults and public curiosity."
"What is the downside for humoring him [Donald Trump] for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change. He went golfing this weekend. It’s not like he's plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20. He's tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he'll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he'll leave."
The Atlanta Police Department released bodycam video on Wednesday that showed two officers with their guns out just before they detained “Bl
Ryan Coogler, director of "Black Panther" and its upcoming sequel, went to a Bank of America branch in Atlanta, Georgia, to withdraw $12,000 of his own money from his own bank account, so he could pay a household employee who preferred to be paid in cash.
See if you can guess where this story is going.
(HINT: Coogler is black.)
Coogler had a California Driver's License, and he wrote a note on his withdrawal slip saying, "I'd like to be discreet" (because he didn't want to announce to the entire bank that he was about to have $12,000 in cash in his possession). From this--and certainly not from his skin color!--the teller concluded that Coogler must be trying to rob the bank. She told her boss, and they called the police.
Four officers arrived. First they first arrested two of Coogler's colleagues, who were waiting for him in a car outside the bank. Then they entered the bank, spotted Coogler, and drew their guns. They arrested him, handcuffed him, and took him to their squad car. When a shaken Coogler suggested the officers might look him up on the Internet, one of them mocked him: "Apparently he's a big shot or something like that."
"I ain't had guns on me in a while, bro. It's a major problem, man… I just had guns drawn for taking money out my own account."
On the bright side, the police didn't actually shoot Coogler, and they did eventually realize the scary black man wasn't a bank robber.
"This situation should never have happened. However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on."
Just another African-American arrested for the heinous crime of Banking While Black.
A Connecticut judge’s ruling against the Infowars host combines with decisions in Texas to grant a clean sweep for the families of 10 shooti
In 2012, a mass shooter massacred 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook High School in Newtown, Connecticut. Beginning in 2014--and continuing for five years--Alex Jones and his right-wing conspiracy website Infowars repeatedly (and falsely) claimed that the mass shooting never happened and was "a giant hoax," supposedly perpetrated by gun-control advocates and liberals.
In 2018, families of several of the murdered schoolchildren sued Jones and Infowars for defamation in Connecticut and Texas, on the ground that "defendants' defamatory statements were knowingly false or made with reckless disregard for the truth." Jones demanded that the courts throw out the cases without allowing the families a chance to prove his statements were false. He argued that the First Amendment gave him the right to spread whatever lies he felt like, even if he knew (or simply didn't care) that they were false. He lost. He appealed, and lost again. He appealed again, and lost again.
Meanwhile, the lawsuits continued despite these appeals. In 2019, Jones essentially admitted--in a court-ordered deposition, under oath--that his claims and accusations were untrue and that he never had any reasonable basis for believing them to be true:
"I, myself, have almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I'm now learning a lot of times things aren't staged. ... So long before these lawsuits I said that in the past I thought everything was a conspiracy and I would kind of get into that mass group think of the communities that were out saying that. And so now I see that it's more in the middle… so that's where I stand."
It was around this time that Jones apparently decided fulfilling his legal obligations in these lawsuits was no longer in his best interests. He refused to produce documents or identify witnesses, violated numerous court orders, and was sanctioned hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Which he repeatedly appealed--all the way to the United States Supreme Court--and repeatedly lost.)
Eventually, after over two years of egregious misconduct, the court system had enough of Alex Jones. In October of 2021, the Texas court entered three default judgments against Jones and Infowars, citing his "consistent pattern of discovery abuse" and his "flagrant bad faith and callous disregard" of court orders. In November, the Connecticut court followed suit: "Mr. Jones was given every opportunity to comply but, when he chose instead to withhold evidence for more than two years, the Court was left with no choice but to rule as it did today." Trials will still go forward, but the only issue will be how much Jones and Infowars must pay in damages; their liability is conclusively settled as a matter of law.
Jones has already announced that he will appeal the default judgments against him, as he has appealed every other unfavorable aspect of these cases. Ideally they will be as unsuccessful as his other efforts to evade justice.
t - Below are key findings of the U.S. Senate intelligence committee's final report released on Tuesday about Russian efforts to influence t
Back in 2018, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee released the fifth and final volume of its investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. The full document is here, but this was one of its "key" findings:
"[Paul] Manafort's presence on the [Trump] Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign. Taken as a whole, Manafort's high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services ... represented a grave counterintelligence threat."
What happened to Paul Manafort? Oh, right, a jury convicted him of filing false tax returns, failing to report foreign bank accounts, and bank fraud. And then Trump pardoned him.
Anyway, this is just a reminder, in case you don't understand why Paul Manafort was removed from a plane to Dubai on Wednesday because the United States revoked his passport.
Other highlights:
"Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton... Moscow's intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process."
"WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian influence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort... Trump and senior Campaign officials sought to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks's planned releases through [Republican political operative] Roger Stone. At their direction, Stone took action to gain inside knowledge for the Campaign and shared his purported knowledge directly with Trump and senior Campaign officials on multiple occasions. Trump and the Campaign believed that Stone had inside information..."
What happened to Roger Stone? Oh, right, a jury convicted him of lying to Congress, obstructing an official proceeding, and witness tampering. And then Trump pardoned him.
"I think it's the role of the president of the United States to stay back, to not inflame the tensions. I think he should have just reserved comment and said he's praying for the family as we all are."
--Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump's former Press Secretary, criticizing President Biden on Fox News
Russian President Vladimir Putin has revoked an additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions related to the protection of victims of intern
In 1989, the Soviet Union ratified Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, "related to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts."
Subsequently, Russia was accused of killing civilians during its 2008 invasion of the (former Soviet) Republic of Georgia. In 2016 and 2018, Russia was accused of causing multiple civilian deaths in connection with its military intervention in the Syrian civil war.
On October 16, 2019, Putin formally revoked Russia's ratification of the Protocol, claiming other nations were "acting in bad faith."
Just in case you're wondering why Putin doesn't seem too concerned about all the accusations of war crimes in Ukraine.
A veteran aide of President Vladimir Putin has resigned over the Ukraine war and left Russia with no intention to return, two sources said o
Anatoly Chubais was Vladimir Putin's boss in his first Kremlin job. He is now a senior aide to Putin, and serves as Kremlin special envoy to international organizations.
Sorry, that should read "He was a senior aide to Putin."
"A veteran aide to Putin, Anatoly Chubais, resigned over the Ukraine war and has left Russia with no intention to return, two sources said. He was the first senior official to break with the Kremlin since Putin launched his invasion on Feb. 24. ... In Moscow, the Kremlin confirmed that Chubais, the senior aide, had resigned."
It might not seem like much of a gesture--heck, under Trump high-level U.S. personnel resigned all the time!--but in a country that criminalizes all form of protest, and where Putin typically imprisons his political opponents or (allegedly) tries to have them murdered, it is a bit of a courageous move.
