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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
April 23, 2024
The probable switch from El Niño to La Niña increases the risk of a hot summer and possibly the hottest on record
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/04/22/summer-forecast-united-states-hot/
https://archive.ph/Ew9pX
A new outlook for summer from the National Weather Service is a toasty one: Hotter-than-normal conditions are favored almost everywhere, except for a small portion of the northern Plains. The highest odds for a hot summer stretch from Texas into the Pacific Northwest, as well as much of the Northeast. This forecast sets the stage for bouts of record-challenging high temperatures throughout the nation and the possibility of the hottest summer ever observed. In the central states and Rocky Mountains, the combination of heat and an expectation for drier-than-normal weather will increase drought potential. It will also raise the fire threat in some areas.
Weather Service officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday stressed the importance of preparation for the heat as they unveiled a heat forecast guide that will be used across the United States for the first time this year. Already used for years in the West, the HeatRisk forecast will use a color-coded scale to describe the health risks expected from heat waves over the coming seven days. “It’s giving us knowledge we can use to take steps to protect our health if we need to,” said Aaron Bernstein, director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. “We’ll be able to know how hot is too hot for health.”
The hot summer forecast is linked to the probable switch from the El Niño to La Niña climate pattern by the summer’s second half. While La Niña has a small cooling effect on the planet overall, it has boosted summer heat in the United States, especially in recent years when human-caused climate change has also fueled higher temperatures. The three La Niña summers from 2020 to 2022 were all historically hot. The nation’s summer average temperature of 74 degrees in 2021 was tied for the hottest on record; 2022 and 2020 marked the third- and sixth-hottest summers, respectively.
“A common feature in summer during a developing La Niña is a semi-permanent upper-level ridge over the middle of North America,” wrote DTN, a forecasting company based in Minneapolis. “Ridges are notorious for hot and dry conditions.” These ridges, referred to as heat domes, are common in summer but tend to be most persistent during La Niña. A hot summer often goes hand in hand with drought, as high temperatures increase evaporation, which strips moisture from the land surface. The driest weather compared to normal is expected to stretch from western Texas into the northern Rockies. The Weather Service predicts drought will persist or develop in much of this region.
snip
Why this summer may be especially hot in the United States
The probable switch from El Niño to La Niña increases the risk of a hot summer and possibly the hottest on record
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/04/22/summer-forecast-united-states-hot/
https://archive.ph/Ew9pX
A new outlook for summer from the National Weather Service is a toasty one: Hotter-than-normal conditions are favored almost everywhere, except for a small portion of the northern Plains. The highest odds for a hot summer stretch from Texas into the Pacific Northwest, as well as much of the Northeast. This forecast sets the stage for bouts of record-challenging high temperatures throughout the nation and the possibility of the hottest summer ever observed. In the central states and Rocky Mountains, the combination of heat and an expectation for drier-than-normal weather will increase drought potential. It will also raise the fire threat in some areas.
Weather Service officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday stressed the importance of preparation for the heat as they unveiled a heat forecast guide that will be used across the United States for the first time this year. Already used for years in the West, the HeatRisk forecast will use a color-coded scale to describe the health risks expected from heat waves over the coming seven days. “It’s giving us knowledge we can use to take steps to protect our health if we need to,” said Aaron Bernstein, director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. “We’ll be able to know how hot is too hot for health.”
The hot summer forecast is linked to the probable switch from the El Niño to La Niña climate pattern by the summer’s second half. While La Niña has a small cooling effect on the planet overall, it has boosted summer heat in the United States, especially in recent years when human-caused climate change has also fueled higher temperatures. The three La Niña summers from 2020 to 2022 were all historically hot. The nation’s summer average temperature of 74 degrees in 2021 was tied for the hottest on record; 2022 and 2020 marked the third- and sixth-hottest summers, respectively.
“A common feature in summer during a developing La Niña is a semi-permanent upper-level ridge over the middle of North America,” wrote DTN, a forecasting company based in Minneapolis. “Ridges are notorious for hot and dry conditions.” These ridges, referred to as heat domes, are common in summer but tend to be most persistent during La Niña. A hot summer often goes hand in hand with drought, as high temperatures increase evaporation, which strips moisture from the land surface. The driest weather compared to normal is expected to stretch from western Texas into the northern Rockies. The Weather Service predicts drought will persist or develop in much of this region.
snip
April 23, 2024
Some employees protested the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government. They’ve been let go.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/22/google-nimbus-israel-protest-fired-workers/
https://archive.ph/JMLE8
SAN FRANCISCO — Google fired about 20 more workers it said participated in protests denouncing the company’s cloud computing deal with the Israeli government, bringing the total number of workers fired in the past week over the issue to more than 50, according to the activist group representing the workers. A spokesperson for Google confirmed it had fired more workers after continuing its investigation into the April 16 protests, which included sit-ins at Google’s offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, Calif.
The firings come several days after chief executive Sundar Pichai told employees in a companywide memo that they should not use the company as a “personal platform” or “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.” “The corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers and reassert its power over them,” said Jane Chung, a spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, a group that has protested Google’s and Amazon’s contracts with the Israeli government since 2021.
The protests at Google are among a wave of opposition to the U.S. government and corporations working with the Israeli government and military. Pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested in recent days at Yale and Columbia universities, spurring accusations of heavy-handedness by university officials and inspiring another wave of demonstrations at other colleges around the country. The day before the Google sit-ins, activists blocked highways, bridges and airport entrances across the United States to protest the war in Gaza.
At Google, the situation has become a public fight between Google managers and the fired employees. Google says that each worker it fired actively disrupted its offices, while the workers dispute the claims, saying some of those fired did not even enter the company’s office on the day of coordinated demonstrations against the company. Google has fired workers in the past who publicly criticized the company, but it has not fired this many people at once. For years, Google had a reputation as the most free and open among the Big Tech companies in terms of office culture and collaboration. The company celebrated an internal culture in which employees knew what other teams were working on and were encouraged to question the decisions of leaders.
snip
Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn't for politics
Some employees protested the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government. They’ve been let go.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/22/google-nimbus-israel-protest-fired-workers/
https://archive.ph/JMLE8
SAN FRANCISCO — Google fired about 20 more workers it said participated in protests denouncing the company’s cloud computing deal with the Israeli government, bringing the total number of workers fired in the past week over the issue to more than 50, according to the activist group representing the workers. A spokesperson for Google confirmed it had fired more workers after continuing its investigation into the April 16 protests, which included sit-ins at Google’s offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, Calif.
The firings come several days after chief executive Sundar Pichai told employees in a companywide memo that they should not use the company as a “personal platform” or “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.” “The corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers and reassert its power over them,” said Jane Chung, a spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, a group that has protested Google’s and Amazon’s contracts with the Israeli government since 2021.
The protests at Google are among a wave of opposition to the U.S. government and corporations working with the Israeli government and military. Pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested in recent days at Yale and Columbia universities, spurring accusations of heavy-handedness by university officials and inspiring another wave of demonstrations at other colleges around the country. The day before the Google sit-ins, activists blocked highways, bridges and airport entrances across the United States to protest the war in Gaza.
At Google, the situation has become a public fight between Google managers and the fired employees. Google says that each worker it fired actively disrupted its offices, while the workers dispute the claims, saying some of those fired did not even enter the company’s office on the day of coordinated demonstrations against the company. Google has fired workers in the past who publicly criticized the company, but it has not fired this many people at once. For years, Google had a reputation as the most free and open among the Big Tech companies in terms of office culture and collaboration. The company celebrated an internal culture in which employees knew what other teams were working on and were encouraged to question the decisions of leaders.
snip
April 23, 2024
Label: Local Anesthetic Records – none
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1982
Genre: Rock
Style: Goth Rock, Punk, Deathrock, Post-Punk
Formed in Denver, Colorado around 1981, Your Funeral released one 45rpm 7" single. The initial lineup featured Jeri Cain Rossi (later of Black Cat Bone) on vocals, Karen Sheridan (later of Corpses as Bedmates) on bass, and Cleo Tilde on percussion. This lineup released the 7" single "I Want To Be You", with Rossi's vocals and classic early-80s gothic/deathrock sounding guitars and production. It was released on Local Anesthetic Records (the name of the band's label) and distributed by Wax Trax, before Wax Trax moved onto Chicago, IL and far greater fame.
Your Funeral - I Wanna Be You (ft. video from A Clockwork Orange)
Label: Local Anesthetic Records – none
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1982
Genre: Rock
Style: Goth Rock, Punk, Deathrock, Post-Punk
Formed in Denver, Colorado around 1981, Your Funeral released one 45rpm 7" single. The initial lineup featured Jeri Cain Rossi (later of Black Cat Bone) on vocals, Karen Sheridan (later of Corpses as Bedmates) on bass, and Cleo Tilde on percussion. This lineup released the 7" single "I Want To Be You", with Rossi's vocals and classic early-80s gothic/deathrock sounding guitars and production. It was released on Local Anesthetic Records (the name of the band's label) and distributed by Wax Trax, before Wax Trax moved onto Chicago, IL and far greater fame.
April 23, 2024
Released: 6 May, 2012
Anya Marina -- Satellite Heart (Young Shockolate Dubstep Remix) 2012
Released: 6 May, 2012
April 22, 2024
Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?
https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-america-become-the-nation-of-credit-cards
The American economy has always relied on household borrowing. Since before the founding, the colonies had been ever short of metallic currency. Our 18th-century forebears substituted credit for cash. They bought goods ‘on account’, borrowing to buy time until the harvest came in or some other windfall enabled them to repay what they owed. The 19th-century shift from agriculture to industry brought many American workers predictable wages and fixed salaries. Industrial businesses – selling sewing machines, pianos, home appliances, and especially automobiles – developed novel credit arrangements to transform steady paychecks into steady repayments. Instalment credit enabled consumers to purchase expensive durable goods with a small down payment, followed by weekly or monthly payments thereafter.
In cities, department stores refined another form of borrowing: the charge account. These accounts granted affluent consumers a fixed line of credit, which they repaid monthly without paying interest. Like instalment credit, charge accounts existed to sell goods, rather than generating profits from lending as such. Charge accounts made credit convenient, encouraging consumers to buy more. Convenience came in part through a new link between credit and identification media. Stores issued charge tokens and later charge plates – fobs and metal cards that carried consumer account information – granting affluent consumers the prestige of recognition in cities full of strangers. Mass consumer credit greased the wheels of mass production. In the early 20th century, proponents praised a virtuous lending cycle. Credit generated consumer demand; which encouraged industrial investment; which led to economies of scale, lower costs, and more industrial work; finally encouraging further consumer demand.
Critics worried that consumers, having committed future income to present consumption, would have no future buying power to turn the wheel the next cycle, or the next. ‘Larger and larger doses of the stimulant must be injected merely to prevent a relapse,’ two prominent critics warned in 1926. The Great Depression ended the debate. The 1929 stock market crash stalled credit buying. Consumers worried. They waited. They postponed credit purchases – a month, two months, three. Individual delays, in the aggregate, froze the economy. Without credit purchases, factories had fewer orders. With fewer orders, factories idled and laid off workers. Unemployed workers cut spending further. They did not borrow to buy. They did not buy at all. The virtuous credit circle that turned in the 1920s shuttered and stopped in the 1930s. Policymakers took an unexpected lesson from this experience: the United States’ industrial capacity had been built to run on a steady fuel of consumer borrowing. If private lenders would not provide that fuel, New Dealers reasoned, the federal government should.
The New Deal has many conflicting legacies but, from that point forward, federal policy unambiguously supported a political economy with household borrowing at the centre. Federal lending programmes legitimised credit buying by aligning it with national economic priorities of stable employment and steady growth. Those national priorities changed course when the nation shifted from recovery to warmaking during the Second World War. Policymakers wanted consumers to save, not spend, a policy the US Federal Reserve pursued through firm controls on consumer credit. Government controls encouraged credit innovation, first to circumvent the rules, then to comply with them. Policymakers initially targeted instalment credit, which consumers used to buy durable goods like cars and home appliances. Retailers, still eager to generate sales, modified their unregulated charge account plans to enable consumers to pay over longer periods of time. Charge accounts gained the now-familiar 30-days interest-free period, with interest charged monthly on the remaining balance.
snip
Credit card nation
Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?
https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-america-become-the-nation-of-credit-cards
The American economy has always relied on household borrowing. Since before the founding, the colonies had been ever short of metallic currency. Our 18th-century forebears substituted credit for cash. They bought goods ‘on account’, borrowing to buy time until the harvest came in or some other windfall enabled them to repay what they owed. The 19th-century shift from agriculture to industry brought many American workers predictable wages and fixed salaries. Industrial businesses – selling sewing machines, pianos, home appliances, and especially automobiles – developed novel credit arrangements to transform steady paychecks into steady repayments. Instalment credit enabled consumers to purchase expensive durable goods with a small down payment, followed by weekly or monthly payments thereafter.
In cities, department stores refined another form of borrowing: the charge account. These accounts granted affluent consumers a fixed line of credit, which they repaid monthly without paying interest. Like instalment credit, charge accounts existed to sell goods, rather than generating profits from lending as such. Charge accounts made credit convenient, encouraging consumers to buy more. Convenience came in part through a new link between credit and identification media. Stores issued charge tokens and later charge plates – fobs and metal cards that carried consumer account information – granting affluent consumers the prestige of recognition in cities full of strangers. Mass consumer credit greased the wheels of mass production. In the early 20th century, proponents praised a virtuous lending cycle. Credit generated consumer demand; which encouraged industrial investment; which led to economies of scale, lower costs, and more industrial work; finally encouraging further consumer demand.
Critics worried that consumers, having committed future income to present consumption, would have no future buying power to turn the wheel the next cycle, or the next. ‘Larger and larger doses of the stimulant must be injected merely to prevent a relapse,’ two prominent critics warned in 1926. The Great Depression ended the debate. The 1929 stock market crash stalled credit buying. Consumers worried. They waited. They postponed credit purchases – a month, two months, three. Individual delays, in the aggregate, froze the economy. Without credit purchases, factories had fewer orders. With fewer orders, factories idled and laid off workers. Unemployed workers cut spending further. They did not borrow to buy. They did not buy at all. The virtuous credit circle that turned in the 1920s shuttered and stopped in the 1930s. Policymakers took an unexpected lesson from this experience: the United States’ industrial capacity had been built to run on a steady fuel of consumer borrowing. If private lenders would not provide that fuel, New Dealers reasoned, the federal government should.
The New Deal has many conflicting legacies but, from that point forward, federal policy unambiguously supported a political economy with household borrowing at the centre. Federal lending programmes legitimised credit buying by aligning it with national economic priorities of stable employment and steady growth. Those national priorities changed course when the nation shifted from recovery to warmaking during the Second World War. Policymakers wanted consumers to save, not spend, a policy the US Federal Reserve pursued through firm controls on consumer credit. Government controls encouraged credit innovation, first to circumvent the rules, then to comply with them. Policymakers initially targeted instalment credit, which consumers used to buy durable goods like cars and home appliances. Retailers, still eager to generate sales, modified their unregulated charge account plans to enable consumers to pay over longer periods of time. Charge accounts gained the now-familiar 30-days interest-free period, with interest charged monthly on the remaining balance.
snip
April 22, 2024
English Teacher - This Could Be Texas (full album) 2024 (superb Leeds, UK band)
Label: Island Records – 5876414
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Galaxy Gold Marble CD All Media, Limited Edition
Country: UK
Released: 12 Apr 2024
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Post-Punk
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Galaxy Gold Marble CD All Media, Limited Edition
Country: UK
Released: 12 Apr 2024
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Post-Punk
April 22, 2024
Paste Magazine on Friday published a scathing review of Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department—but didn’t include a byline for the review’s author.
That’s because the last time it published an album review for Swift, in 2019, its journalist received a deluge of hate mail that included “threats of violence from readers who disagreed with the work,” the magazine wrote in a statement.
That onslaught, something a segment of “Swifties” have become infamous for in recent years, was apparently enough to make Paste not want to risk it happening a second time. “We care more about the safety of our staff than a name attached to an article,” the magazine said.
As for Paste’s opinion on the album itself, the it characterized it as being a “relentlessly cringe” flop that showed just how out of touch Swift is with her fans and the real world. Not long after the review published, a writer—who declared she had “nothing to do” with the piece—posted screenshots of messages she was receiving from Swifties who were adamant that she wrote the review, including one who’d baselessly called her a “loser.”
https://twitter.com/Ceilidhann/status/1781451866926178642
https://twitter.com/PasteMagazine/status/1781432759631700336
Paste Magazine Pens Taylor Swift Review Without Byline to Duck Violent Threats From Fans
https://www.thedailybeast.com/paste-magazine-publishes-t-swift-album-review-without-byline-to-duck-violent-threatsPaste Magazine on Friday published a scathing review of Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department—but didn’t include a byline for the review’s author.
That’s because the last time it published an album review for Swift, in 2019, its journalist received a deluge of hate mail that included “threats of violence from readers who disagreed with the work,” the magazine wrote in a statement.
That onslaught, something a segment of “Swifties” have become infamous for in recent years, was apparently enough to make Paste not want to risk it happening a second time. “We care more about the safety of our staff than a name attached to an article,” the magazine said.
As for Paste’s opinion on the album itself, the it characterized it as being a “relentlessly cringe” flop that showed just how out of touch Swift is with her fans and the real world. Not long after the review published, a writer—who declared she had “nothing to do” with the piece—posted screenshots of messages she was receiving from Swifties who were adamant that she wrote the review, including one who’d baselessly called her a “loser.”
https://twitter.com/Ceilidhann/status/1781451866926178642
https://twitter.com/PasteMagazine/status/1781432759631700336
April 22, 2024
Sabreen was dead before she could look into the baby's eyes or hold her.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68874070
The young mother had carried her child through seven-and-a-half months of pregnancy. They were days and nights of constant fear, but Sabreen hoped the family's luck would hold until the war ended. That luck vanished in the roar and fire of an explosion in the hour before midnight on 20 April.
The Israelis dropped a bomb onto the al-Sakani family home in Rafah where Sabreen, along with her husband and the couple's other daughter - three-year-old Malak - were asleep. Sabreen suffered extensive injuries and her husband and Malak were killed, but the baby was still alive in her mother's womb when rescue workers reached the site. They rushed Sabreen to hospital, where doctors performed an emergency caesarean section to deliver the child.
Sabreen could not be saved but doctors worked to resuscitate the baby, gently tapping her chest to stimulate breathing. Air was pumped into her lungs. "She was born in severe respiratory distress," said Dr Mohammed Salama, head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital in Rafah.
But the baby - who weighed just 1.4kg (3.1 lbs) - survived the ordeal of her birth. The doctor wrote the words "the baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani" on a piece of tape and attached it to her body. She was then placed in an incubator. "We can say there is some progress in her health condition," Dr Salama said. "But the situation is still at risk. This respiratory distress syndrome is originally caused by premature birth. This child should have been in the mother's womb at this time, but she was deprived of this right."
snip
A Palestinian doctor tends to a baby born prematurely after her mother was fatally wounded by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, April 20, 2024. AFP/GETTY
Israel-Gaza: Baby saved from dead mother's womb after Israeli strike in Rafah
Sabreen was dead before she could look into the baby's eyes or hold her.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68874070
The young mother had carried her child through seven-and-a-half months of pregnancy. They were days and nights of constant fear, but Sabreen hoped the family's luck would hold until the war ended. That luck vanished in the roar and fire of an explosion in the hour before midnight on 20 April.
The Israelis dropped a bomb onto the al-Sakani family home in Rafah where Sabreen, along with her husband and the couple's other daughter - three-year-old Malak - were asleep. Sabreen suffered extensive injuries and her husband and Malak were killed, but the baby was still alive in her mother's womb when rescue workers reached the site. They rushed Sabreen to hospital, where doctors performed an emergency caesarean section to deliver the child.
Sabreen could not be saved but doctors worked to resuscitate the baby, gently tapping her chest to stimulate breathing. Air was pumped into her lungs. "She was born in severe respiratory distress," said Dr Mohammed Salama, head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital in Rafah.
But the baby - who weighed just 1.4kg (3.1 lbs) - survived the ordeal of her birth. The doctor wrote the words "the baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani" on a piece of tape and attached it to her body. She was then placed in an incubator. "We can say there is some progress in her health condition," Dr Salama said. "But the situation is still at risk. This respiratory distress syndrome is originally caused by premature birth. This child should have been in the mother's womb at this time, but she was deprived of this right."
snip
A Palestinian doctor tends to a baby born prematurely after her mother was fatally wounded by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, April 20, 2024. AFP/GETTY
April 22, 2024
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-a-fraud-when-it-comes-to-law-and-order-and-backing-the-blue
Donald Trump likes to project himself on the campaign trail as a tough, “law and order” president who always “backs the blue.” At nearly every campaign stop, his advance team arranges for law enforcement photo ops, and a central part of his campaign message is that he wants the law strictly enforced and is always on the side of the police. After NYPD officer Jonathan Diller was shot and killed in the line of duty last month, Trump scrambled a flight from Florida up to New York City to attend the slain officer’s memorial service. His campaign arranged for Diller’s family to pose for pictures with the ex-president, while Trump complained that violence against police officers is “happening all too often and we’re just not going to let it happen.”
https://twitter.com/kleavittnh/status/1778145766415925724
However, many of Trump’s actions as president—and many that he promises to make should he win the election in November—directly contradict his manufactured pro-cop image. His initial budget in 2017 sought dramatic cuts in funding for community policing and federal grants used to train and equip local police agencies. His final three budgets sought to either cut these programs in half or eliminate them entirely. When Congress continued to fund these programs, Trump’s DOJ refused to release millions in funding to police agencies that he determined weren’t tough enough on immigration.
As president, Trump pardoned 237 people convicted of federal crimes, but bypassed procedures that had been in place for 125 years to ensure pardons were fair and appropriate based on the facts and circumstances. Under past presidents, the Justice Department’s Office of Pardons reviewed each application for suitability. Trump ended that practice, bypassing DOJ to dole out pardons to his friends, political supporters, and people with well-connected friends—such as Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Dinesh D’Souza, Paul Manafort, Michael Milken, Bernard Kerik, Charles Kushner, and George Papadopoulos.
Trump also granted pardons to seven former Republican congressmen, whose alleged crimes included insider trading, conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, bribery, money laundering, extortion, insurance fraud, and tax evasion. (Trump’s “law and order” apparently doesn’t apply to Republican politicians, either.) Only 25 of Trump’s 237 pardons were recommended by DOJ. But if there’s one aspect of Trump’s 2024 campaign that proves beyond a doubt that his “backing the blue” pose is a fraud—it’s his repeated promises to pardon defendants charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol that he incited. He’s called the insurrectionists “patriots” who have been “treated very unfairly.” He has never added any limiting or qualifying language to his pledge to set the “Jan. 6 hostages” free, so voters must assume he means all of them.
snip
Trump's a Fraud When It Comes to Law and Order and 'Backing the Blue'
He pardoned crony crooks against DOJ’s recommendations, and he’s promised to let Jan. 6 insurrectionists—who brutally attacked cops—off the hook.https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-a-fraud-when-it-comes-to-law-and-order-and-backing-the-blue
Donald Trump likes to project himself on the campaign trail as a tough, “law and order” president who always “backs the blue.” At nearly every campaign stop, his advance team arranges for law enforcement photo ops, and a central part of his campaign message is that he wants the law strictly enforced and is always on the side of the police. After NYPD officer Jonathan Diller was shot and killed in the line of duty last month, Trump scrambled a flight from Florida up to New York City to attend the slain officer’s memorial service. His campaign arranged for Diller’s family to pose for pictures with the ex-president, while Trump complained that violence against police officers is “happening all too often and we’re just not going to let it happen.”
https://twitter.com/kleavittnh/status/1778145766415925724
However, many of Trump’s actions as president—and many that he promises to make should he win the election in November—directly contradict his manufactured pro-cop image. His initial budget in 2017 sought dramatic cuts in funding for community policing and federal grants used to train and equip local police agencies. His final three budgets sought to either cut these programs in half or eliminate them entirely. When Congress continued to fund these programs, Trump’s DOJ refused to release millions in funding to police agencies that he determined weren’t tough enough on immigration.
As president, Trump pardoned 237 people convicted of federal crimes, but bypassed procedures that had been in place for 125 years to ensure pardons were fair and appropriate based on the facts and circumstances. Under past presidents, the Justice Department’s Office of Pardons reviewed each application for suitability. Trump ended that practice, bypassing DOJ to dole out pardons to his friends, political supporters, and people with well-connected friends—such as Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Dinesh D’Souza, Paul Manafort, Michael Milken, Bernard Kerik, Charles Kushner, and George Papadopoulos.
Trump also granted pardons to seven former Republican congressmen, whose alleged crimes included insider trading, conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, bribery, money laundering, extortion, insurance fraud, and tax evasion. (Trump’s “law and order” apparently doesn’t apply to Republican politicians, either.) Only 25 of Trump’s 237 pardons were recommended by DOJ. But if there’s one aspect of Trump’s 2024 campaign that proves beyond a doubt that his “backing the blue” pose is a fraud—it’s his repeated promises to pardon defendants charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol that he incited. He’s called the insurrectionists “patriots” who have been “treated very unfairly.” He has never added any limiting or qualifying language to his pledge to set the “Jan. 6 hostages” free, so voters must assume he means all of them.
snip
April 22, 2024
fuck Newsweek and fuck The Daily Mail, please, please stop giving those RW shitrags exposure and clicks
So bloody sick of them being posted left, right, and centre here. 
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: London
Home country: US/UK/Sweden
Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
Number of posts: 43,248
