Editor’s Note – No Electricity

Stephan:  Tuesday, just as I finished Wednesday's SR, the power went out across my entire island. No power, no telephone, no internet, no heat, no hot water, and that is why there was no Thursday SR. Power came back about 11 a.m. Thursday morning. To those who wrote asking if I was all right, thank you for your concern. Ronlyn and I are fine.
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How a Flurry of Suspicious Phone Calls Set Investigators on Rick Snyder’s Trail

Stephan:  Anti-democratic Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder was a particularly loathsome specimen of incompetent fascist Republican governance and, as a result, the brain of every child in Flint, Michigan was damaged because of the lead in their drinking water; I am sure you remember that sad story. Well, it is now possible that we will see Snyder and all the little slugs who served him go to prison. I hope that is the case.
Former Republican Governor and fascist Rick Snyder. Credit: The Flint Journal/AP

Former Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder knew about a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Flint as early as October 2014, when there was still a significant amount of time to save lives. That was the accusation of investigators looking into the Flint water crisis, according to documents compiled as part of a three-year investigation and obtained by The Intercept.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Snyder, as well as former Michigan health department director Nick Lyon, and Snyder’s top adviser Richard Baird, will be charged by the Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, over their roles in the Flint water crisis.

On Thursday, Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud announced charges against nine state of Michigan and city of Flint officials. Snyder was charged with two counts of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor. The Michigan penal code lists a maximum penalty for willful neglect as a year in prison or a fine of $1,000. In announcing Snyder’s charges, Hammoud said “for willfully neglecting his mandatory legal duties under the Michigan constitution and the emergency management act, thereby […]

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US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds

Stephan:  Here is the proof that law enforcement agencies are inherently biased again people of color and socially progressive peaceful demonstrations. It is baked into the American justice system and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or willfully ignorant.
A demonstrator is pepper sprayed shortly before being arrested during a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon, on 15 October 2020. Credit: Marcio José Sánchez/AP

Police in the United States are three timesmore likely to use force against leftwing protesters than rightwing protesters, according to new data from a non-profit that monitors political violence around the world.

In the past 10 months, US law enforcement agencies have used teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and beatings at a much higher percentage at Black Lives Matter demonstrations than at pro-Trump or other rightwing protests.

Law enforcement officers were also more likely to use force against leftwing demonstrators, whether the protests remained peaceful or not.Maga v BLM: how police handled the Capitol mob and George Floyd activists – in picturesRead more

The statistics, based on law enforcement responses to more than 13,000 protests across the United States since April 2020, show a clear disparity in how agencies have responded to the historic wave of Black Lives Matter protests against police violence, compared with demonstrations organized by Trump supporters.

Barack Obama highlighted an earlier version of these statistics on […]

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White House aide Peter Navarro STILL claims Donald Trump was ‘legally elected’ and produces ANOTHER ‘report’ stuffed with discredited election fraud claims

Stephan:  Even after everything that has happened, the 60 court cases the Trumpers have lost, the certification, recertification, and re-recertification of the vote showing this was the safest most carefully counted election in American history, on the Fox propaganda operation high ranking Trumpers are still pushing the Fascist Big Lie that he won the election.
Navarro (right) appeared with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo (left) and said he was ‘never more pissed off in my life at this place’ telling lawmakers they should give up impeachment and let Trump ‘leave peacefully with his dignity’
  • White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is still insisting that President Donald Trump was ‘legally elected’ 
  • He used that phrasing Thursday morning and also released a new report that contained debunked voter fraud claims
  • ‘The Democratic Party did violence in this country by attacking a president, who I believe was legally elected on November 3,’ Navarro told the Fox audience 
  • Navarro seethed over Trump’s impeachment over charges that the president incited an insurrection when he told supporters to march on Capitol Hill 
  • Navarro said he was ‘never more pissed off in my life at this place’ because of Trump’s second impeachment
  • He told lawmakers they should give up on impeachment and let Trump ‘leave peacefully with his dignity’ 

Navarro, the White House’s top trade adviser, continued to prop up those discredited claims by releasing another report Thursday, where he alleges massive voter fraud in key swing […]

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The $3,000-a-month toilet for the Ivanka Trump/Jared Kushner Secret Service detail

Stephan:  This story is a prime example of the Trump family's sense of privilege; it is like something from a medieval novel. The Kushner's see themselves as nobles and you can't have the peasants who guard you pissing in your toilet so we, the taxpayers, have to pay to rent a toilet for the Secret Service officers.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

Many U.S. Secret Service agents have stood guard in Washington’s elite Kalorama neighborhood, home over the years to Cabinet secretaries and former presidents. Those agents have had to worry about death threats, secure perimeters and suspicious strangers. But with the arrival of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, they had a new worry: finding a toilet.

Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside the couple’s house, the Secret Service detail assigned to President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job, according to neighbors and law enforcement officials. After resorting to a porta-potty, as well as bathrooms at the nearby home of former president Barack Obama and the not-so-nearby residence of Vice President Pence, the agents finally found a toilet to call their own.

The White House asked to borrow a van Gogh. The Guggenheim offered a gold toilet instead.

But it came at a cost to U.S. taxpayers. Since September 2017, the federal government has been spending $3,000 a month — more than $100,000 […]

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