ROCKLEDGE, Fla. – A 61-year-old Florida man was arrested on allegations of urinating on cases of beer inside a Brevard County store.

According to a Rockledge police arrest affidavit, on Saturday the man walked into the Hop and Pop convenience store on Eyster Boulevard and tried to enter the restroom, but it was locked.

The man then went into the store’s “beer cave” and made it appear like he was looking at the merchandise, police said.

According to the affidavit, store video shows the man facing toward the shelves, unzipping his pants and urinating on cases of beer. The store owner said six cases of beer totaling $113.36 were damaged and could not be sold, according to police. ............(more)

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/04/21/urine-trouble-florida-man-takes-leak-in-stores-beer-cave-police-say/

Dr. Deborah Birx revealed she had a resignation pact with other doctors on President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response team, and said Trump’s outlandish public comments during the early days of the pandemic made her wish she was in the “Twilight Zone.”

Birx, in a sweeping interview with ABC News Monday about her work on the front lines of the pandemic, told the story behind Trump’s infamous April 2020 news conference in which he mused about using injected disinfectant as a treatment for COVID-19. Birx, caught frozen on camera as Trump spoke, said she was “paralyzed” when the then-president brought that up.

She said minutes later during Trump’s news conference that disinfectants were “not a treatment,” but was later lambasted for failing to call out Trump and others in his White House for spreading disproven and at times dangerous ideas.

Vehemently rebutting Trump’s claim would have been the “logical and important thing to do,” Birx acknowledged to ABC News. But “I was paralyzed in that moment because it was so unexpected.” .............(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/birx-resignation-pact_n_62677181e4b0197ae3fa3c69?

The $12.5 billion “Line 5 Eglinton” of Toronto, also known as the Eglinton Crosstown or just “Crosstown”, is the topic of today’s video.
The Crosstown is a light rail line, which is currently under construction in Toronto, Canada.
A light rail transit or LRT is a type of passenger urban rail transit that combines the features of both tram and metro.
The Crosstown is part of Metrolinx's regional transportation plan, The Big Move, a 25-year long plan, worth $50 billion for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

A first-class passenger flying home from Atlanta became enraged with a flight attendant who refused to continue serving the man alcohol, calling him a “fag” and a “queer” before throwing a glass of ice at him and hitting him with an onboard telephone, according to an FBI affidavit obtained first by The Daily Beast.

Christopher Alexander Morgan was arrested when Delta Air Lines flight 2908 touched down April 22 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, states the affidavit, which was unsealed Monday. He is facing charges of interference with flight crew members or attendants, a felony which carries up to 20 years in prison.

The fracas started before the aircraft even left the ground, when Morgan, who was sitting in seat 1D, “reclined his seat all the way back and refused to put on his seatbelt,” the affidavit alleges.

Two flight attendants told Morgan that he needed to bring his seatback to the upright position for takeoff, but he refused, becoming “uncooperative and would not comply with their instructions,” according to the affidavit. ..............(more)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/first-class-flier-causes-absolute-chaos-with-homophobic-attack-feds-say

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., ripped House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as a "liar and a traitor" on Sunday after he discussed calling on former President Donald Trump to resign in a leaked call while defending him publicly. But Republicans don't seem too worried that the leak and McCarthy's false denial that the call occurred will hurt his bid to be the next House speaker.

The New York Times reported last week that McCarthy told House Republican leaders that he would demand Trump's resignation after the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot before ultimately caving and defending Trump as he faced his second impeachment. McCarthy called the report "totally false" before a leaked recording of a phone call showed him vowing to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, then the No. 3 ranked Republican in the caucus, that he would recommend that Trump step down.

"Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor. This is outrageous. And that is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now, that they say one thing to the American public and something else in private," Warren told CNN on Sunday.

"They understand that it is wrong what happened, an attempt to overthrow our government," she said. "And that the Republicans instead want to continue to try to figure out how to make 2020 election different instead of spending their energy on how it is that we go forward in order to build an economy, in order to make this country work better for the people who sent us to Washington. Shame on Kevin McCarthy." .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/25/warren-labels-mccarthy-a-liar-and-traitor--but-says-tape-wont-hurt-his-speaker-bid/

(Guardian UK) The White House Covid response coordinator Ashish Jha appeared to undercut the Biden administration’s efforts to reinstate the federal mask mandate on Sunday, stating that the spreading BA.2 variant in the US was unlikely to have much effect on the nation’s pandemic recovery.

The justice department announced last week it would appeal the decision of a federal judge in Florida to prematurely lift the mandate on air, rail and bus travel in the US, based on the assertion by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that “an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health”.

With cases rising again in the US, Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious diseases expert, told CNN he was “disappointed” by the judge’s ruling and that “this is a CDC issue – it should not have been a court issue.”

But in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Jha said that while he was “concerned” about the spread of Omicron variants including BA.2, he did not see it having any significant impact. .................(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/24/biden-covid-adviser-ashish-jha-variant

Media gets it wrong on Elon Musk and Twitter: The issue is oligarchy, not "free speech"
Mainstream media largely parrots Musk's mendacious framing — but this fight is about monopoly power, not speech

By NOLAN HIGDON
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2022 8:00AM


(Salon) Tesla billionaire Elon Musk's attempt to buy Twitter has rightly drawn concern from critics, but legacy media coverage has inaccurately framed his bid as a story about free speech. In actuality, it is the latest iteration of oligarchs' quest to control the news media: Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post; Rupert Murdoch owns the Fox networks and several newspapers and former President Donald Trump has also tried to get in the game (with less notable success) with Truth Social. In this context, Musk is unremarkable. He is just the most recent billionaire to flex his economic muscle by taking over a major communication platform.

Where a democracy sees the people utilize electoral politics — typically through their elected representatives – to exert control over the nation, an oligarchy relies on a small group of wealthy people who wield disproportionate power. Almost a decade ago, researchers from Princeton University noted that the U.S. was becoming more of an oligarchy and plutocracy and less a democratic republic. The framers of the Constitution ensconced freedom of the press in the First Amendment as a way to achieve, promote and protect a democratic process. By the 1980s, however, a handful of corporations owned the majority of U.S. news media. In their pursuit of maximizing profit, corporate news media abandoned its civic duty to inform and serve the electorate. Instead, it overwhelmingly produces content that normalizes corporatism, celebrates the wealthy, and distracts and divides audiences from engaging in meaningful, productive dialogue about their nation and global affairs.

Musk purports that free speech absolutism, not profit or power, is driving his interest in purchasing Twitter. To be clear, freedom of speech is critically important, and the public would be well served if the news media investigated the complexities of how big-tech and the government collude to skirt the constitutional protections of free speech and the free press. But that's not the approach that the corporate news media has taken. It has largely avoided any investigation that interrogates Musk's motives for seeking to buy Twitter, instead acting as stenographers for Musk's claim that he is motivated by free speech absolutism.

Musk is emblematic of the Big Tech industry, which tends to shroud destructive digital products in the veneer of progress. Take the costly lies that Elizabeth Holmes perpetuated as part Theranos' purported effort to make blood work easier and more affordable. Even more to the point, Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter's promises to build communities and strengthen democracies ring hollow when democracy is in peril and nations are so divided that some, including the U.S., fear a civil war may be on the horizon. For these reasons, the corporate news media should investigate rather than perpetuate Musk's claim that free speech is his driving concern in his pursuit of purchasing Twitter. Even a cursory search of Musk's recent past clearly shows his urges to censor and retaliate against those he believes have attacked him, and also to wield his wealth and power to control or curate narratives with which he disagrees. So Musk is clearly no free speech absolutist. He's a billionaire who wants to buy a platform that's become akin to the public square. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/23/media-gets-it-on-elon-musk-and-twitter-the-issue-is-oligarchy-not-free-speech/

Former President Donald Trump's endorsement of "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance has sparked a civil war between Trumpworld and one of the Republican Party's biggest donors.

Trump last week endorsed Vance, a venture capitalist whose campaign is financially backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, in the Ohio Republican Senate primary. The move sparked backlash from Republicans in the state who have criticized Vance for making anti-Trump statements in the past. Trump expected the conservative Club for Growth, which spent more than $65 million to elect Republicans last campaign cycle, to drop their backing of Vance opponent Josh Mandel but the group doubled down instead, according to The New York Times' Maggie Haberman.

The Club for Growth aired new ads in Ohio on Thursday featuring quotes from Vance criticizing Trump. Vance strongly opposed Trump during the 2016 campaign, blaming "racism" and "xenophobia" for his rise. Vance called Trump "reprehensible" and in a private text message reportedly worried that Trump would become "America's Hitler."

The ad shows Vance describing himself in a 2016 interview as a "Never Trump guy" and shows one of his old tweets where Vance described Trump as an "idiot." ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/22/go-fk-yourself-and-don-jr-with-top-donor-bought-ads-opposing-his-candidate/

Yellowstone's Idiot Tourists Are Out Of Hibernation (Approach Grizzly)




Here we go. Are you ready? Are you prepared for another year of tourists at Yellowstone National Park risking their lives to capture up-close pictures of bears, elk, and bison?

Yellowstone is slowly starting to reopen sections of the park as spring weather melts the winter snow, and it seems like the tourists are wasting no time in returning to their dangerous shenanigans.

They’ve awoken from hibernation, and are already parking their cars on the side of the road to snap pictures of a grizzly bear. WARNING- This video will make you cringe with anxiety…



It’s like they walk into Yellowstone and all of their evolutionary instincts about survival immediately dissipate. ...............(more)

https://unofficialnetworks.com/2022/04/20/yellowstone-idiot-tourists-hibernation/

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., blamed former President Donald Trump for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot and vowed to push him out of politics before caving amid fear of retribution, according to a new book.

"I've had it with this guy," McCarthy told a group of Republican leaders as he vowed to push Trump to "resign immediately," according to excerpts published in The New York Times from the new book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future" by Times reporters Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin.

McConnell, who condemned the "failed insurrection" on the Senate floor after the riot and blamed Trump for the violence, days after the Capitol riot expressed optimism that "the Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us" ahead of the impeachment for in the House, according to the book.

But neither leader followed up on their private complaints. McCarthy, who along with most of the House GOP caucus voted to reject the election results after the riot and became one of Trump's leading defenders, soon backed off his insistence and traveled to Mar-a-Lago to repair his relationship with Trump. McConnell voted to acquit Trump in his second impeachment trial, despite privately saying, "if this isn't impeachable, I don't know what is."

"I didn't get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference," McConnell told a friend, referring to the handful of Republicans who voted to convict Trump. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/21/spineless-mccarthy-mcconnell-vowed-to-cancel-son-of-a-bch-over-jan-6--then-caved-book/