Trumр FURІOUS аftеr bеіng ІΝЅULТЕD АТ FАΝСΥ DІΝΝЕR РАRТΥ
Sunday, December 31, 2023
"R" voters are CONSPICUOSLY UNINFORMED!
THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING OF INFORMATION THAT WILL BE ADDED TO
Many of us are tired of the MISINFORMATION being spread
"R' voters are conspicuously uninformed and incapable of addressing issues, refuse to research from credible sources to enlighten themselves.
Recently a resident of EAST PALESTINE, OHIO was criticizing President Biden for his failure to address their contamination.
Let's remember that OHIO REPUBLICANS govern and have successfully gerrymandered the state to allow DIM WITS like GYM JORDAN to be elected.
OHIO REPUBLICANS bought CRUMBLING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS with lots of BRIBES & CORRUPTION - remember the RICO TRIAL?
Don't they still own a DIRTY COAL PLANT in another state?
OHIO CORRUPTION doesn't end!
Recently the REPUBLICAN in charge of regulation was indicted for BRIBES he received - I'm not gonna look it up because it defines what OHIO voters continue to ignore.
When a TOXIC TRAIN exploded in EAST PALESTINE, OHIO, first responders were unprepared, uninformed and risked their lives and health without adequate protective gear.
OHIO voters need to take charge of their own government REPUBLICAN failures.
"R" voters are CONSPICUOSLY UNINFORMED!
THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING OF INFORMATION THAT WILL BE ADDED TO
Many of us are tired of the MISINFORMATION being spread
"R' voters are conspicuously uninformed and incapable of addressing issues, refuse to research from credible sources to enlighten themselves.
Republican Deregulation Is Dragging Us Back to the 19th Century | Opinion
"R" voters are CONSPICUOSLY UNINFORMED!
THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING OF INFORMATION THAT WILL BE ADDED TO
Many of us are tired of the MISINFORMATION being spread
"R' voters are conspicuously uninformed and incapable of addressing issues, refuse to research from credible sources to enlighten themselves.
Their comments confirms that statement.
Another former Trump chump singing like a bird. Lev Parnas is revealing the depraved depth of the bogus Biden investigations, Ukraine, and the GOP. Once again, it's all about power; not about truth.
Lev Parnas, who was a central figure in the 2019 Ukraine scandal that led to the impeachment of Donald Trump, is still telling his story — and is now revealing insights into "diplomatic impropriety" that he says is at the heart of current investigations targeting the Biden family.
It's a message Republicans are not eager to promote, The Palm Beach Post reports.
"The whole motive and the whole Biden stuff was never about getting justice, and getting to the bottom of Biden criminality or doing an investigation in Ukraine," Parnas said. "It was all about announcing an investigation and using that in the media to be able to destroy the Biden campaign and have Trump win."
Parnas, a henchman of Rudy Giuliani who was also connected to Trump, was a link between investigators and Ukranian figures attempting to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden's son, Hunter. He was convicted on several charges, including fraud and campaign finance violations.
Parnas was arrested along with fellow Giuliani associate Igor Fruman in 2019 and accused of setting up a shell company to funnel hundreds of thousands in Russian donations to Republican candidates. He was sentenced to a year and eight months in prison.
Parnas was also subpoenaed to give evidence in the impeachment hearing of Trump that involved the then-president's "perfect call" to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, 2019, in which Trump congratulated the new president on his campaign win — but suggested he owed a favor.
While Parnas' message might be ignored by the likes of House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer, he's hoping the public will listen.
His upcoming book "Shadow Diplomacy" will be followed by a podcast titled "Lev Remembers," and he's also cooperating for a documentary — all endeavors he says are designed to get the truth out about what happened with Trump and Ukraine.
Also read: Mike Johnson is following Kevin McCarthy’s footsteps to failure: conservative
"It's all because of one individual that wanted to stay in power, that didn't want to relinquish power," he told The Palm Beach Post.
Parnas also wants to counter the image of himself as being a shady figure from South Florida.
"That was the depiction presented in much of the reporting about Parnas after he became a news headliner in the fall of 2019," The Post's report states. "That followed the disclosure and widespread reporting of a whistleblower complaint about another more famous phone call, this one the previous July in which Trump reportedly pressured Zelenskyy to open up an investigation of Biden."
He says he hopes the Trump base will heed his warnings as a former Trump ally.
"They don't want to realize who Trump really is, because if they realize it, they will feel that they lost," he said. "The only way we can get through that is to get past Donald Trump and the divisiveness and the craziness he brings with him."
Read more at The Palm Beach Post.
Јаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump Famіlу
"R" VOTERS ARE CONSPICUOUSLY UNINFORMED!
WHY AREN'T THEY ASKING QUESTIONS?
REPUBLICANS DON'T WANT TO ADDRESS KUSHNER'S CORRUPTION!
WHAT ARE REPUBLICANS HIDING?
Јаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump FamіlуЈаrеd Kuѕhոеr Drорs МАЅЅІVE BОМB oո ЕΝТІRE Тrump Famіlу
DECEMBER 30, 2023 (SATURDAY) HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
December 30, 2023 (Saturday)
One day short of his first 100 days in the White House, on April 28, 2021, President Joe Biden spoke to a joint session of Congress, where he outlined an ambitious vision for the nation. In a time of rising autocrats who believed democracy was failing, he asked, could the United States demonstrate that democracy is still vital?
“Can our democracy deliver on its promise that all of us, created equal in the image of God, have a chance to lead lives of dignity, respect, and possibility? Can our democracy deliver…to the most pressing needs of our people? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate, and fears that have pulled us apart?”
America’s adversaries were betting that the U.S. was so full of anger and division that it could not. “But they are wrong,” Biden said. “You know it; I know it. But we have to prove them wrong.”
“We have to prove democracy still works—that our government still works and we can deliver for our people.”
In that speech, Biden outlined a plan to begin investing in the nation again as well as to rebuild the country’s neglected infrastructure. “Throughout our history,” he noted, “public investment and infrastructure has literally transformed America—our attitudes, as well as our opportunities.”
In the first two years of his administration, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, lawmakers set out to do what Biden asked. They passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to help restart the nation’s economy after the pandemic-induced crash; the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) to repair roads, bridges, and waterlines, extend broadband, and build infrastructure for electric vehicles; the roughly $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to promote scientific research and manufacturing of semiconductors; and the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to curb inflation by lowering prescription drug prices, promoting domestic renewable energy production, and investing in measures to combat climate change.
This was a dramatic shift from the previous 40 years of U.S. policy, when lawmakers maintained that slashing the government would stimulate economic growth, and pundits widely predicted that the Democrats’ policies would create a recession.
But in 2023, with the results of the investment in the United States falling into place, it is clear that those policies justified Biden’s faith in them. The U.S. economy is stronger than that of any other country in the Group of Seven (G7)—a political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union—with higher growth and faster drops in inflation than any other G7 country over the past three years.
Heather Long of the Washington Post said yesterday there was only one word for the U.S. economy in 2023, and that word is “miracle.”
Rather than cooling over the course of the year, growth accelerated to an astonishing 4.9% annualized rate in the third quarter of the year while inflation cooled from 6.4% to 3.1% and the economy added more than 2.5 million jobs. The S&P 500, which is a stock market index of 500 of the largest companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, ended this year up 24%. The Nasdaq composite index, which focuses on technology stocks, gained more than 40%. Noah Berlatsky, writing for Public Notice yesterday, pointed out that new businesses are starting up at a near-record pace, and that holiday sales this year were up 3.1%.
Unemployment has remained below 4% for 22 months in a row for the first time since the late 1960s. That low unemployment has enabled labor to make significant gains, with unionized workers in the automobile industry, UPS, Hollywood, railroads, and service industries winning higher wages and other benefits. Real wages have risen faster than inflation, especially for those at the bottom of the economy, whose wages have risen by 4.5% after inflation between 2020 and 2023.
Meanwhile, perhaps as a reflection of better economic conditions in the wake of the pandemic, the nation has had a record drop in homicides and other categories of violent crime. The only crime that has risen in 2023 is vehicle theft.
While Biden has focused on making the economy deliver for ordinary Americans, Vice President Kamala Harris has emphasized protecting the right of all Americans to be treated equally before the law.
In April 2023, when the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature expelled two young Black legislators, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, for participating in a call for gun safety legislation after a mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Harris traveled to Nashville’s historically Black Fisk University to support them and their cause.
In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, Harris became the administration’s most vocal advocate for abortion rights. “How dare they?” she demanded. “How dare they tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body?... How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future? How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms?” She brought together civil rights leaders and reproductive rights advocates to work together to defend Americans’ civil and human rights.
In fall 2023, Harris traveled around the nation’s colleges to urge students to unite behind issues that disproportionately affect younger Americans: “reproductive freedom, common sense gun safety laws, climate action, voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and teaching America’s full history.”
“Opening doors of opportunity, guaranteeing some more fairness and justice—that’s the essence of America,” Biden said when he spoke to Congress in April 2021. “That’s democracy in action.”
Puppies, purebreds among the growing list of adoptable animals filling US shelters
ADOPT!
DON'T BUY!
Puppies, purebreds among the growing list of adoptable animals filling US shelters
Marc Ramirez USA TODAY
Published Dec 30, 2023
Among the many strays taken in this year by the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, was a vibrant 8-year-old black Labrador, weighing in at close to 90 pounds.
He was the kind of dog the shelter at one time would have considered an easy adoption ― social and handsome, with "just a phenomenal personality," said shelter administrator Mindy Naticchioni.
“Pre-pandemic, he would have been there a short time," Naticchioni said. "People would have been lining up to get him. But he was with us for almost two months. It’s just atypical to have a Lab, regardless of age, stay with us for that long.”
The Cuyahoga County shelter situation illustrates the ongoing boom taking place in shelter facilities across the nation. Nearly a quarter of a million more pets are in shelters compared to the same time last year, according to one animal advocacy agency, exacerbating conditions for facilities already experiencing a pet population crisis.
Shelter Animals Count, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that maintains a national database of sheltered animal statistics, says about 245,000 more dogs and cats are in shelters awaiting adoption or fostering this holiday season, marking the third straight year that the tally has risen.
“The number indicates that shelters are managing higher populations than they have the necessary capacity for,” said Stephanie Filer, executive director of Shelter Animals Count. “This isn’t a sustainable gap. It’s something that needs to be resolved quickly, or we will see a reduction of services or an increase in euthanasia.”
The Cuyahoga County shelter is designed to house a population of 111 but has met or exceeded that total multiple times this year, Naticchioni said. Prior to the pandemic, dogs typically remained in the shelter for 15 to 18 days before being adopted or fostered out, she said; that range is now 28 to 30 days.
At the same time, the number of animals in the shelter per day has jumped from around 90 or 100 before the pandemic to close to 140 now.
“We’re out of space,” she said. “It’s not so much that we’re taking in more. They’re just staying substantially longer.”
Among the dogs up for adoption: Puppies and purebreds
The estimated number of pets taken in by animal shelters annually ranges from 4 to 6 million.
While cats "are faring pretty well," Filer said, dog adoptions are down 1.2% from 2022, Shelter Animals Count reported. Meanwhile, 5% more animals entered facilities in 2023 than left.
Shelters are seeing unprecedented numbers of puppies, Filer said – not to mention doodles, oodles and poos – as more small-breed dogs, purebreds and so-called “designer dogs” end up in such facilities for the same economic, logistical and behavioral reasons that other dogs do. Nearly four in five shelters replying to a Shelter Animals Count national survey said people "would be surprised" by the types of dogs in their populations.
“There are a lot of puppies,” Filer said. “And dogs of all breeds. What would have been considered rare to find in shelters before is now common – purebred dogs, intentionally bred mutts. Some shelters have dozens of labradoodles and goldendoodles.”
Naticchioni said the Cuyahoga County shelter has seen similar trends.
“We have seen a lot more doodles this year,” she said. “We just had an 11-month-old sheepadoodle come in.”
'It will require a community solution'
Shelter Animals Count cited the rising side hustle of home breeding and the ongoing issue of puppy mills as among reasons for the increase. More than half of shelters responding to the agency’s survey said they had taken in dogs from owners who’d purchased high-priced puppies that they were then unable to keep and breeders disposing of unsold puppies no longer wanted or needed.
Filer said that while the number of owners surrendering their dogs hasn’t necessarily increased, the number of strays has.
“When you pair that with a decrease in strays reclaimed by their owners, that would indicate that these are animals that likely would be surrendered,” Filer said.
The overcrowding issues come as shelters face budget cuts and staffing shortages, competing with the service industry for potential employees.
“Shelters have always relied on robust volunteer programs to fill those gaps, and those programs have not returned to the levels they were at before the pandemic,” Filer said.
Meanwhile, staff reductions and a national shortage of veterinarians make it difficult for shelters to keep up with adequate wellness care. One national study estimated that about 2.7 million spay and neuter surgeries were not performed as a result of the pandemic as animal shelters suspended services seen as nonessential, “which is why we’re seeing more shelters with puppies,” Filer said.
Shelter Animals Count encourages potential owners seeking to adopt dogs to visit local shelters and rescues or to use adoption databases like AdoptAPet.com to find animals that need to be rehomed. Pets adopted from shelters and rescues generally also have the benefit of being already spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.
“Shelters are having to make tough decisions every day that are not a reflection of the shelter doing something wrong, but rather a reflection of something going on in the community,” Filer said. “So just as it is a community problem, it will require a community solution.”
Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge
Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge
Henry Kissinger, who died on Nov. 29, 2023 at the age of 100, stood as a colossus of U.S. foreign policy. His influence on American politics lasted long beyond his eight-year stint guiding the Nixon and Ford administrations as national security adviser and secretary of state, with successive presidents, presidential candidates and top diplomats seeking his advice and approval ever since.
But his mark extends beyond the United States. Kissinger’s policies in the 1970s had immediate impact on countries, governments and people across South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Sometimes the fallout – and it was that – lasted decades; in some places it continues to be felt today. Nowhere is that more true than Cambodia.
I’m a scholar of the political economy of Cambodia who, as a child, escaped the brutal Khmer Rouge regime with four siblings, thanks in large part to the cunning and determination of my mother. In both a professional and personal sense, I am aware of the near 50-year impact Kissinger’s policies during the Vietnam War have had on the country of my birth.
The rise of the murderous regime that forced my family to leave was, in part, encouraged by Kissinger’s policies. The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch continue to destroy the lives of any man, woman or child who happens across them. Indeed, when the current U.S. administration announced its intention in 2023 to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine, the prime minister of Cambodia was quick to call out the lingering damage the munition causes.
‘Island of peace’
Counterfactuals are not the best tool of the historian; no one can say how Cambodia would have developed were it not for the Vietnam War and U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia.
But prior to the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, the country was touted as an “Island of Peace” by then-leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk, with a developing economy and relative stability.
After Cambodia gained independence from its French colonial masters in 1953, Sihanouk presided over what was seen as a golden age for Cambodia. Even Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern-day Singapore, visited Cambodia to learn lessons on nation-building.
The country’s independence from France did not require any hard fight. Neighboring Vietnam, meanwhile, gained independence only after the bitter anti-colonial First Indochina War, which concluded with a rout of French troops at Điện Biên Phủ in 1954.
However, Cambodia’s location drew it into the subsequent war between the newly independent communist North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam.
Cambodia wasn’t officially a party in the Vietnam War, with Sihanouk declaring the country neutral. But Washington looked for ways to disrupt communist North Vietnamese operations along the Ho Chi Minh Trail – which cut across Cambodia’s east, with Sihanouk’s blessing, and allowed the resupply of North Vietnamese troops on Cambodian soil.
Kissinger’s ‘menu’
Kissinger was the chief architect of the plan to disrupt that supply line, and what he came up with was “Operation Menu.” The secret carpet-bombing campaign – with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert and supper representing different targets and missions within Cambodia – was confirmed at a meeting in the Oval Office on March 17, 1969. The diary entry of Richard Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, reads: “ … Historic day. K[issinger]‘s 'Operation Breakfast’ finally came off at 2:00 pm our time. K really excited, as is P[resident].”
The following day, Haldeman wrote: “K’s ‘Operation Breakfast’ a great success. He came beaming in with the report, very productive.”
And so began four years of Kissinger’s legally dubious campaign in Cambodia.
To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the title of William Shawcross’ damning book exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973.
During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated 500,000 tons of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country.
Secret and illegal war?
Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was turning against American involvement. The bombing campaign is also considered illegal under international law by many experts.
But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.
It resulted in the direct deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But estimates on the number of deaths range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million. Most estimates put the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.
Kissinger’s campaign also destabilized Cambodia, leaving it vulnerable for the horrors to come. The capital, Phnom Penh, ballooned in population because of the displacement of more than a million rural citizens fleeing U.S. bombs.
Meanwhile, the bombing of Cambodian citizens contributed to an erosion of trust in Camodia’s leadership and put at question Sihanouk’s policy of allowing the North Vietnamese access through the country’s east. On March 18, 1970, Sihanouk was ousted in a coup d’etat and replaced by the U.S.-friendly Lon Nol. Direct U.S. involvement in the coup has never been proven, but certainly opponents to Lon Nol saw the hand of the CIA in events.
The ousted Sihanouk called on the country’s rural masses to support his coalition government in exile, which included the Khmer Rouge. Until then, the Khmer Rouge had been a ragtag army with only revolutionary fantasies. But with Sihanouk’s backing, they grew. As journalist Philip Gourevitch noted: “His name became the Khmer Rouge’s greatest recruitment tool.”
But Kissinger’s bombs also served as a recruitment tool. The Khmer Rouge were able to capitalize on the anger and resentment of Cambodians in the areas being shelled. Rebel leaders portrayed themselves as a force to protect Cambodia from foreign aggression and restore order and justice, in contrast to the ruling government’s massive corruption and pro-American leanings.
Kissinger’s bombing campaign was certainly not the only reason for the Khmer Rouge’s rise, but it contributed to the overall destabilization of Cambodia and a political vacuum that the Khmer Rouge was able to exploit and eventually seize power – which it did in 1975, overthrowing the government.
Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge inflicted unimaginable atrocities upon the Cambodian people. Its genocidal campaign against political opponents, Cambodian minorities and those deemed counterrevolutionaries saw between 1.6 and 3 million people killed through executions, forced labor and starvation – a quarter of the country’s then population.
The scars from that period are still felt in Cambodia today. Recent research even points to the economic impact Kissinger’s bombs continue to have on farmers, who avoid richer, darker soil over fears that it hides unexploded ordnance.
Anti-Americanism is no longer prevalent at the everyday level in Cambodia; indeed, the opposite is increasingly becoming true as China’s financial and political embrace becomes suffocating. But anti-Americanism is frequently used in rhetoric by leading politicians in the country.
I don’t agree with some other scholars that Kissinger’s bombing campaign can be definitively proven to have resulted in Khmer Rouge rule. But in my view, it no doubt contributed. Hun Sen, Cambodia’s autocratic leader who ruled for 38 years before passing the prime minister baton to his son in August 2023, has cited the U.S. bombing of his birthplace as the reason he joined the Khmer Rouge. Many others joined for similar reasons.
As such, the devastating impact of Kissinger’s policies in Cambodia cannot be overstated – they contributed to the unraveling of the country’s social fabric and the suffering of its people, leaving behind a legacy of trauma.
This article was amended on Dec. 4, 2023, to revise the estimate of tonnage of ordinance dropped on Cambodia in U.S. bombing campaign.
https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353
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