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26 June 21
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Charles Pierce | How Long Until We Hear Rudy Was Just a Coffee Boy?
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "There was a great tragedy in the world of American drama on Thursday morning."
The former New York mayor—and Donald Trump's former attorney—has been suspended from practicing law in New York.
here was a great tragedy in the world of American drama on Thursday morning. The nation will not be entertained by the potential spectacle of watching Rudolph Giuliani defend himself in court. Rudy needs a lawyer, because he won’t be one himself for a while. From the New York Times:
The court wrote in a 33-page decision that Mr. Giuliani’s conduct threatened “the public interest and warrants interim suspension from the practice of law.”
Mr. Giuliani helped lead Mr. Trump’s legal challenge to the election results, arguing without merit that the vote had been rife with fraud and that voting machines had been rigged.
“We conclude that there is uncontroverted evidence that respondent communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020,” the decision read.
I’m hanging on until word leaks from Mar-a-Lago—via “well-placed sources familiar with the former president*’s thinking”—that Giuliani was nothing more than the guy who made the coffee and kept the Diet Coke on ice. El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago is going to cut and run like Sha’Carri Richardson, and Rudy won’t even see him as anything more than a dust cloud headed over the far horizon.
In other cheery January 6-related news, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has apparently decided that there will be no more slippin’ and doggin’ around as to the why’s and wherefore’s around that day’s events. From NPR:
"This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I am announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the January Sixth insurrection," Pelosi said. "January Six was one of the darkest days in our nation's history... it is imperative that we establish the truth of that day and ensure that an attack of that kind cannot happen and that we root out the causes of it all.”…It will also face challenges seen by other previous select committees, such one formed by Republicans in 2012 to look into the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi. It marks a much more partisan route, and it's unclear what role Republicans will play but it's likely they will look to be spoilers for the panel.
Good guess.
The speaker did not name the chair of the panel or the Democratic lawmakers she plans to tap for the select committee. Asked about Republican participation in the panel Pelosi said about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, "I hope that Kevin will appoint responsible people to the committee.”
Even if McCarthy wanted to do that, which he probably doesn’t, unless he’s prepared to bring Schuyler Colfax or Howard Baker back from the dead, his caucus doesn’t have enough “responsible people” to staff a toll plaza, let alone a select committee. (In fact, the odds are better than I’m comfortable with that one or two of the people McCarthy picks for the select committee will end up being called as a witness.) I predict two things here: 1) that the Republicans on the congressional committees that already are investigating these events now will go hog wild, and 2) Jim Jordan will be discovered trying to tunnel into McCarthy’s office with a flashlight and zip ties. I feel safe in predicting these things.
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Donald Trump. (photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
NY Prosecutors Warn Trump Org to Be Prepared for Indictment
John Santucci and Aaron Katersky, ABC News
Excerpt: "Former President Donald Trump's namesake company is expecting to face criminal charges as soon as next week after a nearly two-year investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News."
The probe has focused on the finances of the former president and his company.
ormer President Donald Trump's namesake company is expecting to face criminal charges as soon as next week after a nearly two-year investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
In a meeting Thursday, prosecutors told attorneys representing the Trump Organization that they expected to bring charges related to fringe benefits given to certain employees -- ranging from cars and apartments to school tuition -- over a period of several years.
"In my more than 50 years of practice, never before have I seen the District Attorney's Office target a company over employee compensation or fringe benefits," Ronald Fishchetti, an attorney for the Trump Organization, told ABC News in a statement. "The IRS would not, and has not, brought a case like this. Even the financial institutions responsible for causing the 2008 financial crises, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, were not prosecuted."
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance declined to comment on the matter. A spokesman for New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office is part of the investigation, also declined to comment.
Vance's probe has focused, in part, on the finances of the former president, his family, and his company, and included a battle over obtaining tax returns that twice landed before the U.S. Supreme Court. The investigation stemmed from the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who told Congress the Trump Organization valued its holdings differently when seeking loans versus when talking to tax authorities.
In addition to the company itself, Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg could also be charged, the sources said, if a grand jury is convinced he did not properly account for any benefits he received.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has dismissed the investigation as being politically motivated, calling it "a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history."
Vance, who is not seeking re-election for another term as DA, is widely expected to make charging decisions in the case before he relinquishes his office to a successor in January.
News of the Trump Organization expecting charges as soon as next week was first reported by the New York Times.
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A rally for George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minneapolis. (photo: AFP)
Minneapolis Reacts to Chauvin Sentence With Fury and Hope
Emma Bowman, NPR
Bowman writes: "As Derek Chauvin's 22 1/2-year prison sentence for the murder of George Floyd was announced to a crowd gathered outside the Minneapolis courthouse, people processed the news with mixed reactions."
There was subdued debate following the proceedings that people streamed on cell phones, but those more vocal took in the news like a gut punch.
Immediate cries of "Is that it," "That's not justice" and profanities rang out from furious protesters who hoped to see the former police officer get more time behind bars.
Chauvin's sentence for second-degree murder, which Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said includes the 199 days that Chauvin has already served, exceeds Minnesota's minimum guidelines by about 10 years, but falls short of the 30-year sentence sought by prosecutors.
State Attorney General Keith Ellison said Chauvin's sentence "is one of the longest a former police officer has ever received for an unlawful use of deadly force."
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for killing Floyd by pressing his knee onto Floyd's neck for more than 9 minutes as the Black man lay on the pavement face-down while handcuffed.
Floyd's killing, captured on video, incited protests across the country against police brutality and racial injustice.
Though it's highly rare for a police officer to be convicted and handed such a heavy sentence for killing a person while on duty, many were disappointed.
"Just because it's the most time doesn't mean it's enough time," said local protest leader Nekima Levy Armstrong.
Others considered a 20-plus year sentence a hopeful precedent in the ongoing fight to hold law enforcement accountable.
At George Floyd Square, as the intersection where Floyd was killed is now known, Jennifer Starr Dodd, joined a crowd watching the proceedings on a live stream broke into applause at the sentence.
"There's going to be more George Floyds, there's going to be more Trayvon Martins, there's going to be more Daunte Wrights, unfortunately," Dodd said, referring to other Black people who died on the streets. "But I have hope now that they can get the consequences that they deserve for doing their missteps in their actions."
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The stage for a Democratic presidential debate at the Wynn Las Vegas. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
They Posed as Democratic Activists but Were Really Conservative Spies
Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman, The New York Times
Excerpt: "The young couple posing in front of the faux Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas fit right in, two people in a sea of idealistic Democrats who had arrived in the city in February 2020 for a Democratic primary debate."
Operatives infiltrated progressive groups across the West to try to manipulate politics and reshape the national electoral map. They targeted moderate Republicans, too — anyone seen as threats to hard-line conservatives.
Large donations to the Democratic National Committee — $10,000 each — had bought Beau Maier and Sofia LaRocca tickets to the debate. During a cocktail reception beforehand, they worked the room of party officials, rainbow donkey pins affixed to their lapels.
In fact, much about them was a lie. Mr. Maier and Ms. LaRocca were part of an undercover operation by conservatives to infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns and the offices of Democratic as well as moderate Republican elected officials during the 2020 election cycle, according to interviews and documents.
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Immigrant detainees at an ICE facility. (photo: ICE)
An Immigrant Died in ICE Custody After Staff Didn't Send Him to a Hospital, an Inspector Found
Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed
Aleaziz writes: "An immigrant in ICE custody in rural Mississippi died of a heart attack after staff did not send him to the hospital for urgent medical care, according to a draft inspector general's report obtained by BuzzFeed News."
“This highlights the issue with urgent care in ICE detention,” a doctor who teaches at USC told BuzzFeed News.
n immigrant in ICE custody in rural Mississippi died of a heart attack after staff did not send him to the hospital for urgent medical care, according to a draft inspector general’s report obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Department of Homeland Security investigators found that Anthony Jones, a 51-year-old Bahamian man who had been in ICE custody for more than a year, was in need of urgent medical attention on the morning of Dec. 17, 2020. When he went to the jail clinic for chest and arm pain, medical staffers gave him medication and testing but did not send him to the hospital, according to the report. Jones was not named in the report, but the details directly correspond to information on his death previously released by ICE.
“During our unannounced inspection of Adams in Natchez, Mississippi, we identified violations of ICE detention standards that threatened the health, safety, and rights of detainees,” the report states. “Although Adams generally provided sufficient medical care, we identified one case in which the medical unit examined a sick detainee but did not send the detainee to the hospital for urgent medical treatment, and the detainee died.”
The existence of the report, which has yet to be released, comes at a time when the Biden administration has been pressed by immigrant advocates to make changes to the government’s detention apparatus. The administration has moved to no longer house ICE detainees in two facilities and has promised to evaluate the detention system as a whole. Still, the number of immigrants held by the agency has ballooned in recent weeks from around 15,000 to more than 26,000.
It also comes as congressional officials press the DHS to investigate how the pandemic was handled at the facility. Since last spring, more than 600 immigrants have tested positive for COVID-19 at Adams, according to the agency.
The draft report found that the jail did not consistently enforce COVID-19 precautions, like the use of facial coverings or social distancing, and investigators believe that it may have contributed to repeated transmissions.
An ICE spokesperson said they take the welfare and health of those in its custody very seriously.
“While deaths in ICE custody are exceedingly rare, these events are unfortunate and always a cause for concern,” the spokesperson said.
The agency, which spends more than $315 million a year on health services, has taken steps to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks, such as isolating new arrivals and those who have symptoms.
A spokesperson for CoreCivic, which operates Adams under a contract with ICE, said that they would not comment on a yet-to-be finalized report but that the company cares deeply about every person in its care. A spokesperson also said immigration facilities are closely monitored by the government and reviewed for standards of living. They added that at Adams “when emergency care becomes necessary for any detainee, patients are immediately evaluated and emergency care is provided in the most medically appropriate setting.”
The company states that all detainees were given multiple masks, trained on how to wear and handle them properly, and required to wear them. The staff also encourages social distancing through town halls and flyers.
Medical care for ICE detainees has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. In September, the House Oversight Committee found that ICE detainees died after receiving inadequate care and that jail workers “falsified records to cover up” issues. That same month, the House Homeland Security Committee released a report that found people detained by ICE are often given insufficient care, and that detention centers use segregation to threaten immigrants.
The report was based on interviews, facility inspections, and tours of eight ICE detention centers. The committee also found that the agency and its contractors frequently demonstrated an indifference to the mental and physical care of detainees.
ICE has publicly insisted that the detention facilities it runs, as well as those that are operated by private, for-profit corporations, provide thorough and adequate medical care to all detainees.
Jones, the detainee whose case was examined in the draft inspector's report on Adams, had been in ICE custody since 2019 and had previously been convicted of aggravated assault. A public report on his death posted by ICE earlier this year showed that on the morning of Dec. 17, Jones complained of burning in his arms and chest. He was examined at the facility’s medical unit and given aspirin, oxygen, and other medications between 7:40 and 8:25 a.m. He reported feeling better but said the burning in his right arm remained.
Medical staff also did an electrocardiogram to examine Jones’ heart and he was released, according to the inspector’s report.
Nearly an hour later, while he was waiting to return to his housing area, an officer at the jail found him slumped over in a chair. He was unresponsive and medical staff undertook life-saving measures. Jail staff called 911, and Jones was pronounced dead after first responders showed up at the facility. According to the autopsy, he died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a heart attack.
“Based on a review of medical records and autopsy, our medical contractor concluded that had the Adams medical staff compared the 2019 ECG with the one conducted on December 17, 2020, it should have prompted the medical staff to call 911 and send the detainee to the hospital where life support care would have been readily available,” the report states.
Dr. Elizabeth Burner, an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, agreed with the assessment provided by the inspector general after reviewing Jones’ medical records.
“This highlights the issue with urgent care in ICE detention,” she said. “This is a case of a classic emergency medical presentation that should not be missed. We call this a ‘can’t miss’ in emergency medicine.”
Jeremy Jong, an attorney representing Jones’ family, said the case is emblematic of wider issues in ICE detention about helping detainees requesting urgent medical assistance.
“This is a problem endemic to all detention centers,” he said.
The number of detainees in ICE custody has risen under the Biden administration. In recent weeks, it has jumped to more than 26,000, driven largely by immigrants who have been arrested at the border and transferred to ICE custody.
The inspector general’s office closely scrutinized the financial impact of the contract ICE has signed to keep Adams County as a place to detain immigrants.
ICE regularly contracts with detention centers in a way that guarantees payments for a minimum number of beds, regardless of whether they are filled. The practice of “guaranteed minimums” has come under criticism in recent years, especially during the pandemic.
The agency uses a similar contract for its detention of immigrants at Adams. In this case, the contract guarantees payment of nearly $4 million a month to house up to 1,100 detainees, according to the report. In 2020, as the pandemic swept through the country and forced ICE to limit its enforcement, the detention center had 35% of its space go unused; there were only six days during the year when its population went above 1,100.
The inspector general determined that the detention center was paid nearly $17 million for unused beds in 2020 as the overall detainee population shrunk during the pandemic.
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An injured resident of Togoga is carried on a stretcher to the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle on Wednesday, a day after the deadly airstrike. (photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
There Is a Civil War in Ethiopia and It's Getting Bloody
BBC
Excerpt: "Dozens of people have reportedly been killed or injured after Ethiopia's air force bombed a market in the northern region of Tigray."
Eyewitnesses told the BBC the Ethiopian air force struck the town of Togoga on Tuesday, 25km (15 miles) from the region's capital, Mekelle.
The Ethiopian military denied targeting civilians, saying it carried out the strikes to neutralise "terrorists".
Tigrayan rebel forces are said to have made advances in recent days.
However, this has been denied by the Ethiopian government.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it helped evacuate the wounded.
Meanwhile, the UN called on Ethiopia to investigate the reported air strike.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced after conflict erupted almost eight months ago.
What happened in the strikes?
A medical doctor at Mekelle's main Aider hospital told the BBC that at least 60 people were killed and more than 40 were injured.
There are fears the numbers will increase further.
Doctors say they are treating dozens of people, including a two-year-old child left injured by the air strike.
Medical personnel told Reuters the Ethiopian military blocked them from reaching the site of the attack to help others left behind.
A 16-year-old boy told the BBC from Aider hospital that he was struck in the hand by shrapnel and that he saw several people thrown on the ground. He said that the air strike killed a man he knew.
Ethiopia's army said the strikes were against military targets.
"We never carried out an air strike on the market place. How is this possible? The army is capable of accurately hitting its targets. We conducted air strikes, but only on certain targets," a spokeswoman said.
What's the background to the conflict?
Ethiopia's government, aided by troops from neighbouring Eritrea, launched an offensive in November last year to oust the region's then ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). By the end of the month, it declared victory.
The TPLF had had a massive falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over his political reforms, though its capture of federal military bases in Tigray was the catalyst for the invasion.
The TPLF has since joined forces with other groups in the region to form the Tigray Defence Force (TDF) rebel group.
Speaking to the BBC on Monday after casting his vote in the twice delayed national election, Mr Abiy said he was working with the troops in neighbouring Eritrea to get them to leave but said he would not "push them out".
They are accused of carrying out massacres, mass rape and blocking humanitarian aid - charges Eritrea has denied.
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A rattlesnake. (photo: Tom Reichner/Shutterstock)
Rattlesnakes Everywhere: The Odd Consequences of California's Drought
Gabrielle Canon, Guardian UK
Canon writes: "Len Ramirez stalked through the dried landscape, scanning the ground ahead searching for movement."
Snakes, bears and other animals seeking refuge from the drying landscape are increasingly finding their way into urban environments
en Ramirez stalked through the dried landscape, scanning the ground ahead searching for movement. Called out to an estate in Napa Valley, the owner of Ramirez Rattlesnake Removal company was finishing up his last job of another busy day wrangling, removing and relocating snakes from homes across northern California. He’d found three in just this yard, including one nestled roughly 1,000 yards from the pool.
Rattlesnakes are everywhere these days, he says – on front porches, in potted plants, and under children’s play equipment. “I am busier than I have ever been. Complaints are coming in from all over the state.”
Ramirez believes the drought may be partly to blame. He opened his business in 1985, and has seen spikes before. And while he doesn’t think the rattlesnake population is necessarily growing, snakes are increasingly finding their way into urban environments in search of refuge from the rising temperatures and relief from the drying landscape.
And it’s not just snakes.
California and other states across the south-west are in the grips of a historic drought. The conditions have produced consequences that extend beyond the risks of a decreased water supply and worsening wildfires. And as urban development creeps further into once-wild areas, the drought has also increased negative interactions between people, animals and pests – who are all trying to adapt.
“Rattlesnakes are becoming more common in the places where we live, work and play,” Ramirez says. After opening his business in 1985, he’s become a go-to source for removal and public education about the snakes, speaking to the media and producing safety videos for California’s office of emergency services. He clears snakes from properties and public areas and relocates them to uninhabited areas.
Ramirez worked through California’s last drought – which stretched from the end of 2011 to 2019 – and saw similar patterns. But now it’s gotten worse, mostly because he says, “there is so much development taking place, and that’s going to displace wildlife, including rattlesnakes”.
Ramirez says he’s had jobs when he has had to remove more than 60 snakes at a time. “I always remind parents to be a good scout before your kids go out to play,” he says.
As essential water sources start to run dry, other wild animals have also been spotted searching the suburbs for water, sustenance and reprieve from the intensifying conditions. Wildlife veterinarians have reported the numbers of abandoned babies or injured animals brought into their centers and animal sightings – especially of bears who are venturing deeper into urban areas – are surging.
“The bear population is expanding its range, so bears are showing up in areas where they’ve never seen before,” Rebecca Barboza, a wildlife biologist who studies the trend for the California department of fish and wildlife, told ABC News this month.
Smaller animals and insects are also coming closer in search of water – and some have the ability to cause a lot more damage. Song birds carrying the West Nile virus, which can cause a deadly and debilitating neurological disease, are increasingly showing up in back yards.
“Because there’s limited water in the environment and everything is dry, the birds go looking for water and refuge,” says Cameron Webb, a medical entomologist and senior investigator with the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology – Public Health who studies the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. “You get this combination of factors that means not only are conditions suitable for mosquitoes, but also the birds that carry the virus are more likely to be in higher concentration closer to where people live.”
Surprisingly, disease-carrying mosquitoes, which most people associate with wet times rather than dry, thrive in cities during times of drought when waters recede and grow still. Webb explains that human-made structures like pipes, pits and ponds are prime spots for stagnant water to become a breeding ground for the insects. “Fish and other animals that live in these systems die and the mosquitoes have free rein”.
In California, public health officials have already warned residents of an increase in virus activity and scientists believe the threat of transmissions of West Nile will increase with climate change, especially in coastal areas of California.
Less perilous pests may also pose more problems during drought conditions. Ants, cockroaches and rodents and other visitors also need water to survive and human homes are typically where they go to find it when it’s absent in outdoor environments.
“Drought conditions not only mean that a pest’s water supply dries up, but natural food sources can also be harder to find as well,” Mike Bentley, an entomologist for the National Pest Management Association, says. “Drought often drives pests into homes or other structures in search of these resources to survive”.
Not only does the drought mean an increase in unwanted houseguests, but it’s changing the behavior of critters themselves. They are “incredible at adapting to change”, he says. “This can mean rodents nesting in wall voids versus underground burrows and feeding from garbage bags rather than fallen fruits and seeds. Or, ants moving into potted plants to nest and feeding on last night’s leftovers.”
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