Zachary Petrizzo, Staff Writer - Raw Story / Salon
Stephan: Erik Prince, the richest hired killer in the world -- oh, excuse me, mercenary -- and brother of the former and unlamented Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, wins today's Republican Scum Award. Unless you live on Earth 2 it should be obvious to you by now that there is no grift, no lie, no cheat, no crime that the Republican Party will not commit or carry out to stay in power. I know that sounds partisan, but it is based entirely on objectively verifiable facts.
Erik Prince Credit: Screencapture
A former British spy and Republican mega-donor Erik Prince, a founder of the private military contractor Blackwater (now rebranded as “Academi) and brother to former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recruited a motley crew of home-grown American operatives from the conservative group Project Veritas and elsewhere to lead an initiative to infiltrate state-level Democratic party organizations and campaigns, according to a new report.
Prince, alongside the ex-MI6 officer he recruited to head the project, Richard Seddon, also targeted moderate Republican officials and those deemed as insufficiently dedicated to the hardline right-wing agenda favored by former President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported Friday.
The duo were bankrolled by the longtime conservative donor and heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune, Susan Gore, and trained their operatives on a remote Wyoming ranch in areas like the “basics of espionage” and “political sabotage,” according to the newspaper.
It remains unclear what level of success they were able to accomplish, though the Times notes Seddon and Prince placed two spies — Beau Maier, the nephew of conservative […]
SARAH FERRIS and NICHOLAS WU, Staff Writers - Politico
Stephan: I think the Republicans under McConnell and McCarthy have made a bad error. These hearings are going to be based on videos and first-person witnesses. The Republicans are going to claim it is all political but, as with the George Floyd video, a critical consensus will emerge on what happened because people will see it with their own eyes.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she would create a new committee to investigate what she said are “many questions” about the events leading up to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and the federal response to that day.
“This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I’m announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Pelosi said, adding that the committee will look into both the “root causes” of the storming of the Capitol, as well as broader security concerns for the complex.
“It is imperative that we seek the truth of what happened,” Pelosi said.
Democrats are moving to create the panel four weeks after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan effort to establish an independent commission. Pelosi said she still preferred a bipartisan approach, resembling Congress’s probe into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but said she had no indication Senate Republicans could be persuaded to ever agree to that tack.
Pelosi did not disclose who would lead the commission, saying she would “make those announcements later.” Several of her members, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn have privately pushed for Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who seems to be the caucus favorite with […]
Stephan: Let's begin with Dick Cheney, lackey of the military-industrial industry, and his "Weapons of Mass Destruction," and trace the trend down to today. We have destroyed, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and the only people to benefit are those on the M-I gravy train. Almost a trillion squandered in Afghanistan, to say nothing of the human suffering, violence, and death created.
What we are beginning to see clearly is that when only 1% of a population are involved with the military bad things happen.
The Taliban have seized control of a THIRD of Afghanistan as they continue to accelerate their blitz offensive while the US continues to withdraw their forces.
The US has wasted nearly $1trillion on the “pointless” 20-year battle trying to stave off the terror group who are fighting to gain ultimate control over the war-torn country.
The Taliban have been on tenterhooks to forge ahead with their scheme since President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of troops back in April and have since continued at “lightning speed”.
Jihadist forces have now advanced across rural areas, putting them in reaching distance of major cities such as Herat and Kabul.
A recent US intelligence report warned they could take the capital, Kabul, within six months.
They have now seized hold in almost twice as much of Afghanistan as they had two months ago – sparking concerns they are planning an explosive offensive this summer.
It would see mark “the greatest jihadist victory since the Soviets quit in 1989,” one observer told the Daily Mail.
It would exceed even the worst-case scenarios US intelligence warned of months ago, prompting […]
Stephan: When you travel abroad you can always spot the Americans. It isn't their clothes, teenagers in Shanghai have hipper clothes than teenagers in Los Angeles. Nor their haircuts. Nor their gadgets. What makes Americans stand out is their weight, both men, and particularly women.
Let me be clear, the U.S. population is not the fattest in the world. According to the World Atlas, "the world's most obese countries are small Pacific Island nations such as Nauru, Palau, and Tuvalu, to name a few. Approximately half of the population of these countries are obese. The reason is that almost all of the food consumed in these island nations are imported and therefore expensive. However, fast-food chains offer a cheaper and more convenient alternative.
"The Pacific island nations are closely followed by a string of Middle Eastern nations – Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Libya. Around three-quarters of the population in these countries is overweight and well over a third is considered obese."
But you don't see a lot of tourists in Paris from Nauru, and Islamic nations often wear deliberately baggy, clothes, particularly the women, so it is hard to tell much about their weight. But amongst Europeans and Asians, Americans stand out for their weight, and they are getting more obese every year.
The United States is the world's 10th most obese country and the most obese country in North America with 36.2% of its population having a body mass index of over 30.0. Nearly 78 million adults and 13 million children in the United States deal with the health and emotional effects of obesity every day. According to the CDC, an average adult is 26 pounds heavier now than in the 1950s.
This obesity issue is linked to all kinds of illnesses, but until now obesity as a source of pain had not been established. Now it has.
Restricting certain foods — like “junk” food and sweets — in the name of health can be problematic for those who are… Credit: Chuck Burton / The Associated Press
The Western diet is associated with many ills, and now chronic pain may be added to the list.
Fats provide important health benefits, but they can be too much of a good thing. Most people eat too many omega-6 fats and not enough omega-3. A new study looks at the potential for omega-6 fats’ influence on neuropathic pain in people with diabetes and other conditions.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio studied the effects of omega-6 fatty acids themselves by measuring the role of these dietary lipids in pain conditions and found that the substances themselves seem to cause pain and inflammation.
The abundance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats prominent in the typical Western diet “served as a significant risk factor for both inflammatory and neuropathic pain,” UT said in a statement.
Diabetes, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular diseases are known to be affected by nutritional choices, the researchers said. […]
Stephan: I have been warning this was coming for years. The states in the West that have the worst water problems are also the states where the MAGA militia cretins are strongest. This article gives a sense of what is happening, and what is coming.
In 2021, some western states have been suffering record drought — one of the many examples of the type of crisis people can expect as climate change continues to accelerate. Far-right extremists in western states, however, aren’t pointing the finger at climate change, but rather, are using the drought to attack their usual targets, from Jews to Latinos. Journalist Kelly Weill, in an article published by the Daily Beast on June 24, describes some of the ways in which the drought is inflaming political tensions in western states and bringing extremists and conspiracy theorists out of the woodwork.
One of the effects of climate change, according to scientists, is more hurricanes and severe flooding in places that are prone to hot, humid weather and more droughts and wildfires in places that are prone to hot, dry weather. Humid Florida has a long history of being battered by hurricanes, but it can expect them to become more frequent as climate change accelerates. Similarly, residents […]
