Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House

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Thursday July 15, 2021 · 4:58 AM PDT

2021/07/15 · 04:58

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.

They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.

Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature.

The Guardian

At least 10 states divert federal welfare funding to anti-abortion clinics

golem

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Friday June 04, 2021 · 8:16 AM PDT

2021/06/04 · 08:16

At least 10 US states have siphoned millions of dollars from federal block grants, meant to provide aid to their neediest families, to pay for the operations of ideological anti-abortion clinics.

These overwhelmingly Republican-led states used money from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (Tanf), better known as welfare or direct cash aid, to fund the activities of anti-abortion clinics associated with the evangelical right. The clinics work to dissuade women from obtaining abortions.

In all cases, the states used these funds even as Covid-19 caused the worst economic upheaval in nearly a century, left one in four families without enough to eat, and resulted in mass layoffs that had a disproportionate effect on low-income and racial minority Americans.

Full article at The Guardian

The program gained traction after it was pioneered in 2001 by the former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who also helped craft the 1990s welfare reforms that made such state spending possible. That year, Pennsylvania became the first state to divert Tanf funds to anti-abortion clinics, and sent $1m to its Alternatives to Abortion program.

‘We’re terrorized’: LA sheriffs frequently harass families of people they kill, says report

golem

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Wednesday May 05, 2021 · 8:17 AM PDT

2021/05/05 · 08:17

Los Angeles sheriff deputies frequently harass the families of people they have killed, including taunting them at vigils, parking outside their homes and following them and pulling them over for no reason, according to a new report from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The LA sheriff’s department (LASD), which has faced national scrutiny for its corruption scandals and killings of young Black and Latino men, has routinely retaliated against victims’ relatives who speak out, the groups said in the report released on Tuesday.

The authors collected detailed accounts of alleged harassment from the families of Paul Rea, an 18-year-old killed during a traffic stop in 2019, and Anthony Vargas, a 21-year-old shot 13 times in 2018. The report, also produced by Black Lives Matter LA and Centro Community Service Organization, alleges:

LASD deputies regularly drive by or park in front of the Rea and Vargas families’ homes and workplaces and at times have taken photos or recorded them for no reason.

Deputies have repeatedly pulled over relatives, searched their cars and detained and arrested them without probable cause, allegedly in retaliation for their protests.

Officers have shown up to vigils and family gatherings, at times mocking and laughing at them or threatening to arrest them, and have also damaged items at memorial sites.

Source:

Donald Thump; Big Don channels the Kray twins

golem

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Monday February 01, 2016 · 10:27 AM PST

2016/02/01 · 10:27

So, this is all over the UK newspapers, and the locals find it hilarious. Actor and comedian Peter Serafinowicz took one of the Donald’s speeches, verbatim, and overdubbed it in a London Cockney tough guy accent:

YouTube Video

As he drily puts it “No words were changed”.

Republican men hormonally emasculated by US election

golem

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Wednesday October 21, 2009 · 10:35 AM PDT

2009/10/21 · 10:35

Lewis Page over at The Register, a British tech new site has the story titled above on the front page. Under the following sub-head, Mr Page writes:

Obama win sees GOP testosterone plunge, 'submissiveness'
American neuroscientists say that men who voted for Republican candidate John McCain in the recent presidential elections suffered a serious loss of testosterone as a result of the Obama victory. The hormone, produced by one's wedding-tackle, is considered essential for basic manliness.

golem

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Thursday August 28, 2008 · 6:13 PM PDT

2008/08/28 · 18:13

It's a little early for an October Surprise, but I really don't have a hard time suspecting that where there's smoke, there's fire. Vladimir Putin is now asserting that the Georgian assault on South Ossetia was fomented by political actors in the U.S. for sectarian advantage. He doesn't name names, because he doesn't need to. The "patriotic mainstream media" aren't going to touch this with someone else's bargepole. Between Randy Scheunemann's bought and paid lobbying, Rove's "holiday" in Yalta, Condoleeza's "diplomatic" efforts and Cindy McCain's high profile "humanitarian" visit to Georgia, where I'm sure someone's going to get a good stiff talking to, it's pretty fucking obvious that this little bit of political theatre is primarily for the benefit of an easily swayed domestic audience.

Cui bono?

Tony.

Dear Lord...

golem

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Friday July 25, 2008 · 7:40 PM PDT

2008/07/25 · 19:40

He who would valiant be,

> Protect my family and me,

'gainst all disaster

> Forgive me my sins

let him in constancy

> and help me guard against pride and despair

follow his master.

> Give me the wisdom

There's no discouragement

> to do what is right

shall make him once relent

> and just

his first avowed intent,

> And make me an instrument of your will.

to be a pilgrim.

Sometimes it's hard to knock that old time religion.

Tony.

Iraq invasion plan 'delusional'

golem

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Thursday February 15, 2007 · 5:37 PM PST

2007/02/15 · 17:37

The BBC is carrying a story that the National Security Archive has obtained declassified Central Command documents from August 2002, detailing the plans for the invasion of and aftermath in Iraq. To quote NSA executive director:

"Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans," NSA executive director Thomas Blanton said in a statement posted on the organisation's website.

"First, they assumed that a provisional government would be in place by 'D-Day', then that the Iraqis would stay in their garrisons and be reliable partners, and finally that the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere months'," Mr Blanton said.

"All of these were delusions," he added.

The BBC has the storyhere.

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