trump's handler pootin knows how to handle dissent. Can trump be far behind? Coming to a shithole country near you soon.

Russia Ordered a Killing That Made No Sense. Then the Assassin Started Talking.

By Michael Schwirtz

March 31, 2019

"RIVNE, Ukraine — The target lived on the sixth floor of a cheerless, salmon-colored building on Vidinska Street, across from a thicket of weeping willows. Oleg Smorodinov found him there, rented a small apartment on the ground floor, and waited.

He had gotten the name from his two handlers in Moscow. They met at the Vienna Cafe, a few blocks from the headquarters of Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, and handed him a list of six people in Ukraine. Find them, they told Mr. Smorodinov, and he set off. He was already boasting to friends that he was a spy.

...

Assassinations happen frequently enough in Ukraine that they are often just blips in the local news cycle. In 2006, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin signed a law legalizing targeted killings abroad, and Ukrainian officials say teams of Russian hit men operate freely inside the country.

“For the intelligence services, as bad as this sounds, murdering people is just part of the work flow,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, a retired officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence service. “They go to work, it’s their job. You have a work flow, you write articles. They have a workflow, they murder people.”"

Read the rest and get ready for similar stories closer to home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/world/europe/russian-assassinations-putin-ukraine.html?emc=edit_th_190331&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=469281980331

I found this very hard to read.

In the USA today, this is what happens if you dare to even touch a cop.

CCRB to probe allegation Bronx cop blinded woman; cleared by NYPD, officer could now face charges

"The Civilian Complaint Review Board is investigating a Bronx cop accused of beating a woman blind during an arrest, the Daily News has learned.

The move opens the door to possible administrative charges against Officer Theresa Lustica, whom the Internal Affairs Bureau previously said did not use excessive force during a June assault arrest of Johanna Pagan-Alomar after she asked Lustica why a friend was handcuffed.

Pagan-Alomar, 45, said Lustica cursed and disrespected her after she questioned the officer — and that she threw her onto the ground, using a handcuff key as a weapon while repeatedly punching the mother of two. Pagan-Alomar’s left eye was knocked out of its socket, she said, and had to be removed.

Lustica arrested Pagan-Alomar for allegedly shoving the officer, knocking her off her balance. But video of the beginning of the incident shows no such shove; what it does show appears to be a tap on the officer’s back. Pagan-Alomar denied making physical contact."

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-bronx-woman-blinded-ccrb-probe-20190328-lfa4oklwovewtnoqodfxwmfjxy-story.html

I mean, just WTF? Really? This is policing in the largest city in the nation in the 21st century?

Police unions need to be broken up and civilian review boards need to become the norm. No more bullshit "internal" investigations. It's like handing the mueller report to barr time and time again ad nauseum.

Deja Vu all over again.

I came across the 2018 NY Times article below while commenting in another thread. I searched DU and can't find it posted anywhere so I'm posting it now to clarify any misconceptions about the consistency of the repubican party in these matters - consistently criminal, that is.

The Myth of Watergate Bipartisanship

The Republicans stuck with their president, right up to the end.

By Michael Conway and Jon Marshall

Mr. Conway served as counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during its impeachment inquiry of President Richard Nixon. Mr. Marshall is an assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.

Aug. 13, 2018

"Reporters and political commentators often express frustrated surprise at the steadfast support of President Trump from most Republicans in the House and Senate. But they shouldn’t — it has happened before.

In fact, when these critics refer back to the Watergate era as a time of bipartisan commitment to the rule of law over politics, they get it exactly wrong. Defending the president at all costs, blaming investigators and demonizing journalists was all part of the Republican playbook during the political crisis leading up to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

...

Dispiriting, perhaps, but not shocking or unprecedented. In late 1972, when a Democratic congressman, Wright Patman of Texas, began to investigate connections between Mr. Nixon’s aides and the Watergate burglary, the House Republican leader, Gerald Ford of Michigan (who later succeeded Mr. Nixon as president), called it a “political witch hunt,” according to the historian Stanley I. Kutler in his book “The Wars of Watergate.”

Mr. Ford wasn’t alone, and the countercharges didn’t end even as the evidence piled up. After reporters revealed close ties between the Watergate burglars and Mr. Nixon’s administration and re-election campaign, Senator Robert Dole of Kansas jumped to the president’s defense. He labeled the media accounts “a barrage of unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations by George McGovern” — whom Mr. Nixon defeated in the 1972 election — “and his partner in mud-slinging, The Washington Post.”"

Take a few minutes to read the rest. It reads like current events. lol

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/opinion/watergate-republican-party.html

Here's a little musical accompaniment for your reading pleasure.

Source: Advance Media/NJ.com

Atlantic City will pay $700,000 to a man who alleged that a group of police officers released a K-9 dog on him and beat him unconsciousness in November 2012.

...

After getting kicked out of a club for his drunkenness and then getting denied entry from multiple Atlantic City establishments in 2012, Charlie Harrison was driving down Pacific Avenue and swerving when officer Michael Oldroyd spotted him and tried to pull him over.

...

A confused Harrison began walking to Oldroyd before the officer “gave him a nice punch in the face” followed by several more, Bonjean said at the openings.

Soon after a K-9 bit him from behind, Harrison when to the ground and officers began “raining punches” to the point of him blacking out, Bonjean said.

Read more: https://www.nj.com/news/2019/03/city-will-pay-700k-to-nj-man-who-claims-he-was-attacked-by-cops-police-dogs.html

---

This seems to be the standard operating procedure for ACPD.

A.C. cop indicted in K-9 attack on man outside Tropicana Casino
https://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/atlantic-city-police-officer-sterling-wheaten-indictment-castellani-k9-tropicana-casino-20181011.html

Taxpayers must like paying for these sadists' pleasure. Read the rest of the story. Taxpayers have paid out $7 million for such behavior in AC alone over the past decade.

paul mulshine is a total asshole but read this to see what total assholes are making of the mueller/barr whitewash.

The walking dead: Never-Trumpers get a stake through the heart with Mueller report | Mulshine

Today 6:34 AM

By Paul Mulshine | Star-Ledger Columnist

(excerpts)

"The members of the Bush family are and always have been the textbook example of political moderates. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But as of the release of the Mueller report, the moderate wing of the Republican Party has been routed.

Not a moment too soon, I say. Like Bush, the moderate Republicans have been so consumed by what’s known as “Trump derangement syndrome” that they can’t think straight."

...

"Instead the result energized Trump’s Republican base to the point that only an actual zombie would want to walk into that primary fight.

That means the 2020 GOP convention in Charlotte, N.C., is likely to be a lot more crowded and enthusiastic than the 2016 convention in Cleveland."

Read the rest:
https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/03/the-walking-dead-never-trumpers-get-a-stake-through-the-heart-with-mueller-report-mulshine.html

You don't sell the steak, which in this case is pure USDA bullshit, you sell the sizzle - then no one realizes they're eating shit.

Fucking labor again.

Side hustle. LOFL It's just another example of capitalism at its finest, where the many pay for the few.

Is Gig Work a Job? Uber and Others Are Maneuvering to Shape the Answer

By Noam Scheiber

March 26, 2019

"It was a potentially sweeping proposal from a Texas regulator: Companies that use a “digital network” to dispatch workers the way Uber does could label them contractors rather than employees."

...

"When such companies are able to classify workers as contractors, they don’t have to contribute to unemployment insurance or workers’ compensation, or heed minimum-wage and overtime laws. Industry officials estimate that a work force of employees costs companies 20 to 30 percent more than a work force of contractors — a sum worth many hundreds of millions of dollars per year to Uber."

...

"What is notable about the Texas initiative, which would apply only to unemployment insurance, is that it emerged not from a democratically elected body but from an opaque bureaucracy. There were no hearings where outsiders were questioned, no meaningful floor debates — just a few perfunctory statements at public meetings and a 30-day comment period before the agency could issue a final proposal."

...

"Emails involving one commissioner and her staff show extensive communications with lobbyists working with Tusk Ventures, a venture-capital and political-strategy firm. Tusk, in turn, was retained by Handy, a company that dispatches workers, Uber-style, to perform household chores like cleaning and repairs. The strategy firm’s founder, Bradley Tusk, was once a top political consultant for Uber and remains a large shareholder who could cash out millions in equity when Uber goes public this year."

Read the rest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/business/economy/gig-economy-lobbying.html?emc=edit_th_190327&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=469281980327

Now you do the math and see who is going to get fucked again. Gig economy my ass. Side hustle bullshit.

Murphy shelves his promised expansion of medical marijuana while leaders work on a new legal weed deal

Updated Mar 26, 7:24 PM; Posted Mar 26, 6:35 PM

By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com and Brent Johnson

"Gov. Phil Murphy has withdrawn a planned announcement to forge ahead with a massive expansion of the New Jersey’s medicinal marijuana program, one day after a failed attempt to pass a bill to legalize recreational pot in the state, sources told NJ Advance Media.

Hours after top state lawmakers called off the legal weed measure Monday, Murphy told a town hall audience he was prepared to announce Tuesday or Wednesday that state would seek applications for dozens of new growers, cultivators and retailers for the medicinal program that currently relies on six operators serving 42,000 patients.

He said such a move could boost enrollment to as many as 200,000 patients.

“We’ll likely aggressively further open up the medical regime in the next day or two,” the Democratic governor said during the event at a Union City elementary school, adding the number of people enrolled in the program “probably should be at 150,000 or 200,000.”"

This bullshit is just getting comical now. And NOT funny comical. This is exactly the mistake they made in the beginning of this mess - linking already legal medical with recreational use. chris christie fucked up the entire medical program but instead of just fixing the mess he made DEMOCRATS WHO HOLD POWER ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE GOVERNMENT just can't seem to get the easy stuff done. Over sixty percent of New Jersey voters approve of recreational use. Over NINETY PERCENT approve of medicinal use.

But we just can't seem to get it done. Funny, when that criminal chris christie was in office and the Democrats held the Assembly and Senate, they just couldn't seem to find a way to stop him.

This makes us look weak and ineffective and it's all over petty inside squabbles. After performing like this while in full control what the hell do they expect next election?

'Doomsday vault' town warming faster than any other on Earth

By Sarah Lazarus, CNN

Updated 1:50 AM ET, Wed March 27, 2019

"CNN In 2014, Mark Sabbatini noticed cracks in his apartment walls. Then a mysterious bulge appeared in his bedroom and the apartment block's communal staircase became crooked. "Doors and windows weren't shutting properly," he says.

Sabbatini, the editor of a local newspaper, was living in Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost town located just 800 miles from the North Pole, which is also the capital of a cluster of Norwegian islands called Svalbard."

...

"Inger Hanssen-Bauer, senior researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and editor of a new report about Svalbard, says the climate in Longyearbyen is probably warming faster than in any other town on Earth. That's because of accelerated Arctic warming -- as rising temperatures reduce ice and snow cover, less sunlight is reflected and more solar energy is absorbed by the darker surfaces that have been exposed."

According to Hanssen-Bauer, the annual mean temperature in Longybearbyen in 1900 was -7.8°C. Since then, it has risen by 3.7°C -- more than three times the global average of around 1°C. The town increasingly experiences days when the temperature exceeds zero. "All the projections show that this will continue," she says."

This is all starting to remind me of THX1138, and it's all happening a few centuries early.

mueller handed barr the pistol. barr loaded the pistol and handed it to trump. trump shot America dead on 5th Avenue and no one cares.

I don't think the full gravity of what just happened has sunk in yet. It happens in such small steps, by the time the last step is taken it's impossible to even realize we just stepped off a cliff into the abyss.

Source: Advance Media/NJ.com

Top state lawmakers have canceled a planned vote Monday on a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older in New Jersey, saying they simply haven’t gathered enough support in the state Senate.

But they vowed to take up the measure — one of Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature proposals — at a future date.

“We’ll be back at this," state Senate President Stephen Sweeney,
D-Gloucester, said at a news conference shortly after the vote was called off at the Statehouse in Trenton. "Anybody who thinks this is dead is wrong,”

...

NJ Advance Media was the first to report Sweeney called off the vote. He made the call after it became clear the Senate — the upper house of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature — would remain a handful of votes shy of the minimum 21 needed for passage.

Read more: https://www.nj.com/marijuana/2019/03/legal-weed-wont-happen-right-now-in-nj-lawmakers-call-off-big-vote.html

---

Another huge buzzkill in a week of huge buzzkills.

WTF? New Jersey? Half the state is always high and the other half is looking to score. JHC, what the fuck happened to this state, this country?

Bizarro America.

At least calling off the vote will give them the choice to call it again instead of waiting to put on the ballot next election.

I want the medical marijuana reforms made NOW. No use waiting any longer. The medical reforms have very broad support. Maybe with the Democrats in full control of both houses of the legislature and the governor's mansion they'll be able to at least accomplish that light lift.