Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalPutin Calls in 'Organized Crime Syndicate' to Shake Up Failing Army in Ukraine
Nearly six months into Russia’s bloody war against Ukraine, it appears Vladimir Putin has pinned his hopes for claiming victory on a self-described “organized crime syndicate” that is now trawling prisons for cold-blooded killers and deploying mercenaries to straighten out fed-up troops.
That’s according to several explosive new reports out Thursday by the independent Russian investigative news outlets iStories and The Insider, both of which uncovered disturbing new details about the notorious Wagner Group’s alleged role in the war.
After myriad reports in recent weeks that Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has been personally touring Russian prisons and promising inmates full amnesty if they fight for Wagner in Ukraine, a staffer at a high-security penal colony in the Tula region has revealed the real reason behind the desperate recruiting drive.
Identified only as Ivan, the staffer told The Insider that Prighozhin had visited personally on July 24 and told inmates the regular Russian military was “weakening” and “cannot cope” with the war.
Prighozin said he’d been given an order by President Putin “to use all possible resources” to win the war, Ivan was quoted saying.
“He called his organization an organized crime group and talked a lot about the advantage of participating in war through them. Honestly, I thought it was a surrealistic dream. A man who had a Hero of Russia star pinned to his T-shirt, was telling us loud and clear about what was going on in our country. That gangsters are really in power and they don’t give a fuck about any human rights organizations like Gulagu.net or the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers,” he said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-calls-in-organized-crime-syndicate-to-shake-up-failing-army-in-ukraine?ref=home
Who's surprised? Just like the Slobfather, Putin, ex-GRU, is a mobster
Utah Investigated a Schoolgirl's Gender at the Request of Sore Loser Parents
When a girl left her competitors in the dust at a state-level school sports competition in Utah last year, not everyone was impressed with her inspiring athleticism. The parents of the girls who came in second and third couldn’t accept the winner had simply “outclassed” their daughters—so they called her gender into question, sparking a secret investigation that delved into the winner’s personal history.
At a meeting of Utah Legislature’s Education Interim Committee on Wednesday, a school sports official recounted the grim probe, and added that it wasn’t an isolated incident. David Spatafore, the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) legislative representative, told the committee that his organization had received multiple complaints in which parents claimed “that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough.”
Spatafore would not disclose the sport or the school associated with the case where the winner had outclassed her competitors last year. But he did reveal that the UHSAA asked the student’s school to investigate by looking back through her school-enrollment records. “The school went back to kindergarten,” Spatafore said, “And she’d always been a female.”
Neither the pupil nor her family were told about the investigation. “We didn’t get to the parents or the student simply because if all of the questions about eligibility were answered by the school or the feeder system schools, there was no reason to make it a personal situation with a family or that athlete,” Spatafore explained, according to The Desert News.
Such secret policing of children’s bodies was made possible in Utah by HB11, a controversial bill passed by the state House and Senate in March that banned transgender girls from competing in school sports. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox was among those critical of the bill, pointing out at the time of the vote that, of the four trans children in the state who play sports, only one of them was a girl, CBS News reported. Despite the new rules essentially prohibiting just one child from competing in school sports, Cox’s veto was overturned by the state legislature and enacted all the same.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sore-loser-utah-parents-spark-investigation-to-see-if-winning-girl-is-transgender?ref=home
Utah Investigated a Schoolgirl's Gender at the Request of Sore Loser Parents
When a girl left her competitors in the dust at a state-level school sports competition in Utah last year, not everyone was impressed with her inspiring athleticism. The parents of the girls who came in second and third couldn’t accept the winner had simply “outclassed” their daughters—so they called her gender into question, sparking a secret investigation that delved into the winner’s personal history.
At a meeting of Utah Legislature’s Education Interim Committee on Wednesday, a school sports official recounted the grim probe, and added that it wasn’t an isolated incident. David Spatafore, the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) legislative representative, told the committee that his organization had received multiple complaints in which parents claimed “that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough.”
Spatafore would not disclose the sport or the school associated with the case where the winner had outclassed her competitors last year. But he did reveal that the UHSAA asked the student’s school to investigate by looking back through her school-enrollment records. “The school went back to kindergarten,” Spatafore said, “And she’d always been a female.”
Neither the pupil nor her family were told about the investigation. “We didn’t get to the parents or the student simply because if all of the questions about eligibility were answered by the school or the feeder system schools, there was no reason to make it a personal situation with a family or that athlete,” Spatafore explained, according to The Desert News.
Such secret policing of children’s bodies was made possible in Utah by HB11, a controversial bill passed by the state House and Senate in March that banned transgender girls from competing in school sports. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox was among those critical of the bill, pointing out at the time of the vote that, of the four trans children in the state who play sports, only one of them was a girl, CBS News reported. Despite the new rules essentially prohibiting just one child from competing in school sports, Cox’s veto was overturned by the state legislature and enacted all the same.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sore-loser-utah-parents-spark-investigation-to-see-if-winning-girl-is-transgender?ref=home
Louie Gohmert leaves Congress having passed one law and spread countless falsehoods
In 2010, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert warned the nation from the floor of the House of Representatives about a looming threat: terrorist babies. He described — without providing evidence — a diabolical and far-fetched scheme in which foreign enemies were sending pregnant women to the U.S. to birth babies that would emerge decades later as terrorists.
He found out about it, he said, from a conversation with a retired FBI agent on a flight, even as the FBI said it had no information about any such plot.
He would go on to fight with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper in an interview that went viral as he for nearly 10 minutes refused to answer questions or provide evidence of the claim, while yelling at Cooper for “attacking the messenger.”
It was a breakout moment for the Republican congressman from East Texas, who had been in office for about five years at the time and whose profile was growing as a member of the newly founded Tea Party. He was something of an outlier in Congress for the ease with which he was willing to make unfounded and offensive pronouncements. But it would prove to be a harbinger of what was yet to come.
This January, Gohmert, who turned 69 on Thursday, leaves office having defined his 17-year congressional career with conspiracy, conflict and fomenting anger.
Some of his most memorable controversies include the time he compared homosexuality to bestiality. Or when he said Hillary Clinton was “mentally impaired.” Or when he speculated that wearing a mask is what caused him to catch COVID-19. Or when he compared former President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. Or when he said the canceling of a television show for homophobic remarks by its hosts was on par with Nazism. Or when he said he was grieving over the arrests of rioters involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Gohmert was a precursor to former President Donald Trump’s brand of populist, establishment-bucking conservatism that delights in offending progressives and makes no apologies for spreading misinformation.
https://www.rawstory.com/louie-gohmert-leaves-congress-having-passed-1-law-and-spread-countless-falsehoods/
Does this mean we can no longer cast aspersions on his asparagus?
USPS shuts Orange Co site, uneasy with racist past
One Virginia post office located in a historic train depot has abruptly suspended its services without informing the community.
Montpelier Station Post Office has served orange county for the past 110 years since its opening in 1912.
Before it was a post office, it operated as a train station after William duPont built the Depot in 1910. This was a regular stop on the existing Southern Railway line. Initially, the stop only served the duPont family and other residents of Montpelier but quickly became a frequent stop for the community.
(skip to)
Community members at Montpelier say they were not notified and received little information from their former Postmaster.
“He simply said that it was a decision that was coming out of Richmond, and he did not provide us any other information,” said Christy Moriarty, Director of Communications. She continued to say, “We’ve tried to reach out to them, they have not responded. We’d really like to sit down and have a conversation with them.”
https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/usps-closes-orange-county-location-uneasy-with-racist-past/
Screw you, DeJoy. Quit and go home. We know it was YOU and not "racist past".
Skeleton of Ice Age mastodon, cousin of mammoths, unearthed in Michigan
It's been a hot, steamy summer so far in Michigan, but road crews in Kent County are digging up remnants from the Ice Age and, with any luck, they hope to find even more pieces of the puzzle.
The bones of a "really unique" mastodon skeleton found at a road construction site in Kent County on Thursday are on their way to Grand Rapids Public Museum's archive research center to be preserved and studied.
Dr. Cory Redman, the museum's science curator, was contacted about the bones after Kent County Drain Commissioner Ken Yonker emailed Grand Valley State and the University of Michigan. He and other experts initially thought that it was just a couple of bones, but were shocked to discover otherwise.
“It’s not that often that you find a skeleton this complete, it’s probably about 40%-60% complete just based on initial field assessment and so when we got there and we realized there was a lot more to the animal, we were really excited about it," Redman said. "One of the things that makes this find really unique besides being local is all the bones appear to come from a single juvenile mastodon."
Mastodon bones discovered by construction workers in Kent County on Aug. 11.
"Mastodon," refers to a wide variety of extinct elephant-like creatures, and are distant cousins of mammoths, according to the National Park Service.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/16/mastodon-skeleton-mammal-michigan-grand-rapids/10335676002/
Trump demands return of seized documents - by order of social media
Donald Trump has demanded the return of some documents seized by the US justice department in an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida last week – apparently under the impression that posts on his Truth Social platform carry legal weight.
In a post on Sunday, the former president wrote: “By copy of this Truth, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!”
It is generally held that social media posts are not legal documents.
According to an actual legal document, a search warrant unsealed on Friday, records concerning top secret national security matters were among those seized by the FBI. It has been reported that some such documents concerned nuclear weapons.
Trump has called the nuclear weapons report a “hoax” and claimed to have had authority to declassify top secret records while in office. No evidence has been produced that he did declassify the records in question.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/trump-demands-return-documents-fbi-truth-social
I'm dying here.....
A Florida Teacher's Poster of Black Historical Figures Was Taken Down, So He Resigned
A Florida elementary school teacher resigned from his job this week after a co-worker removed a bulletin board he made featuring prominent Black Americans like Martin Luther King Jr. and Colin Powell alongside the Pledge of Allegiance—because it was allegedly deemed “not age-appropriate” for students.
Special education teacher Michael James, 61, sent his resignation notice to the superintendent of Escambia County Tim Smith and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Tuesday explaining his reason for leaving O.J. Semmes Elementary School in Pensacola. James, who’s white, criticized them for creating and allowing an environment in school where the celebration of Black figures in the classroom is grounds for conflict.
“Am I to believe Escambia County Schools employs those that dislike African Americans?” James wrote in his letter, according to the Pensacola News Journal, which first reported the story. “Is there a dislike in anything that states 'One Nation Under God' in it?”
A spokesman for the school district told VICE News that the incident was already under investigation.
While decorating his classroom in preparation for his first academic year at the school Monday, James told the outlet he put up a display showing at least five Black American heroes, including Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver. Just a week into the job, the teacher said that he spent about $58 of his own money and hours of his time creating the board because O.J. Semmes is located in a predominantly Black part of the county with a predominantly Black student body, and wanted students to see important historical figures who looked like them.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ax3qp/florida-teacher-black-historical-figure-poster-removal
Flori-fucking-DUH!
How the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago revealed a secret Twitter account for GOP Senator Mike Lee
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is the more Donald Trump-like of the two senators in the state, the other being Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). But it's Lee who is up for reelection this year against former Republican Evan McMullin, who previously ran for president in Utah to try and deny Trump the electoral votes in 2016.
Behind the scenes, however, Lee has been using an unofficial Twitter account that has gone unnoticed by the public, but appears to have been promoted by some far-right activists. The Star Tribune outed the senator with details on some of his more catty tweets.
It was something noticed after Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort was searched by the FBI for classified information. Lee's social media accounts were dead silent. Noting that it's rare for a politician to be quiet about anything unless they're pleading their Fifth Amendment rights, reporters started searching.
"Lee’s personal Facebook page links to a Twitter thread from a Twitter account — 'Based Mike Lee' — that was created in July," the report said. "The account, full of attempted snark and sarcasm, at one point had a profile picture of a young Mike Lee with digital sunglasses superimposed on his face — a reference to the 'Deal with it' meme that was popular in the early 2010s. A source close to Lee says the account is Lee’s personal Twitter which he manages by himself."
So, it appears Lee has made a statement about the search warrant, through his private Twitter account. He asked if the attorney general personally approved the search warrant and then rants about Hillary Clinton, protests at the homes of the Supreme Court justices and Hunter Biden.
https://www.rawstory.com/mike-lee-secret-twitter-account/
Paunchy Parcheesi, trying to be one of the "cool kids" ("Paunchy Parcheesi" is a reference to Mormon's Monday night "home evenings" which often feature board games. DM me if you want to know where the nickname originally came from.)
Don't go Greyhound
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Friday, Greyhound said Bus 1511 experienced an "unexpected cancellation." It was expected to arrive at the Marathon Gas Station bus stop on Cherry Street, but travelers said it never showed up.
"They would say it's going to be there soon, 'It's going to be there soon,'" said Emie Hinojosa, who has been sitting outside the gas station since Friday. "They said it was going to be there around 10:30, and it never showed up."
They said they were stranded there for days and were taken to a Red Roof Inn on the third night they spent waiting. But during those days, some storms passed through the Knoxville area. The group also said they couldn't charge their phones and at several points, people would approach them asking for money.
"Greyhound should have some kind of protocol that fell into place, and they didn't do it," said Dajuan Ward, a former bus driver from Ohio. "How would you feel if it was your mother out here?"
There was a similar incident in April when a bus never arrived and travelers were brought to a hotel to wait for a ride. Some of the people waiting at the gas station on Monday said they couldn't afford a hotel though, and had no choice but to wait where they were. Another group of travelers said they were stranded in July too.
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/greyhound-bus-never-shows-up-group-stranded/51-862b19f8-c294-4043-a85e-3e5140ad6b65
And Knoxville has still not negotiated with Greyhound for a better stop. This one is dangerous.
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