April 7, 2023

New Batch of Classified Documents Appears on Social Media Sites

Secret documents that appear to detail American national security secrets on Ukraine, the Middle East and China have surfaced online.

WASHINGTON — A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, said the leak of the classified documents represents “a significant breach in security” that could hinder Ukrainian military planning. “As many of these were pictures of documents, it appears that it was a deliberate leak done by someone that wished to damage the Ukraine, U.S., and NATO efforts,” he said.


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html

Hmmm... I wonder who could have leaked these?

April 7, 2023

BREAKING: Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issues nationwide ban of abortion drug mifepristone.

https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist/status/1644467530948390914?s=20

April 6, 2023

Robert Kennedy Jr., a Noted Vaccine Skeptic, Files to Run for President

While he has not yet announced his plans, he filed the federal paperwork for a campaign to run as a Democrat.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the political activist known most recently for his campaign to discredit coronavirus vaccines, filed paperwork on Wednesday to run for president as a Democrat, offering a potential long-shot challenge to President Biden.

Mr. Kennedy, the son and namesake of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968, has not made a formal announcement. However, he teased a run at a political gathering in New Hampshire last month, telling a crowd: “I’ve passed the biggest hurdle, which is, my wife has greenlighted it.”

He has set up a website to solicit donations and volunteers for a potential run, and a tweet pinned to his Twitter account says he will run if “I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win.”

Mr. Kennedy, 69, was once a top environmental lawyer, but his interests veered away from the Democratic mainstream into conspiracy theories, for which he has earned the public rebuke of some members of his prominent family. A longtime vaccine skeptic, he linked childhood vaccinations to autism, a claim thoroughly rebuked by medical experts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/us/politics/robert-kennedy-jr-presidential-run-2024.html

March 30, 2023

Manhattan DA Insiders Worry the Trump Hush Money Case Is Weak Sauce

The indictment that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is currently seeking against former President Donald Trump—over his payment to silence a porn star about their sexual affair—is based on a crime that was so flimsy it was never viewed as a standalone criminal case, according to three attorneys who have worked on that investigation.

These insiders spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, because they are not authorized to discuss the ongoing criminal investigation.

(snip)

His decision to bring back what has been deemed the “zombie” case surprised several insiders who have been briefed on the various iterations of the Stormy Daniels case over the years.

(snip)

“The hush money case had no exact state charge. It should have been the feds,” said a second person who spoke to The Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/manhattan-district-attorney-insiders-worry-the-trump-stormy-daniels-alvin-bragg-hush-money-case-is-weak-sauce?source=twitter&via=desktop

March 16, 2023

Son of Boulder mass shooting victim sues gun-maker Ruger

HARTFORD, Conn. | The son of one of 10 people killed at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 is suing gun-maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. over how it marketed the firearm used in the massacre — following the litigation road map set by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.

The lawsuit — filed Tuesday in state court in Connecticut, where Sturm, Ruger & Co. is based in Fairfield — accuses the company of marketing its AR-556 pistol in a “reckless” and “immoral” way that promoted its killing capability. It seeks an undisclosed amount of damages.

Nathaniel Getz, whose mother, Suzanne Fountain, was killed in the March 22, 2021, shooting at a King Soopers store in Boulder, filed the lawsuit — the first relative of the 10 victims to do so, said his lawyer, Andrew Garza.

“We filed the lawsuit to both to seek justice for the family of the victim, but also to hold them accountable and to serve a preventative function as well, to protect future victims,” Garza said in phone interview Wednesday.

https://sentinelcolorado.com/news/metro/son-of-colorado-mass-shooting-victim-sues-gun-maker-ruger/

March 7, 2023

Aurora police to use AI to review body camera footage for "the good, the bad and the ugly"

Interim Chief Art Acevedo previously worked as adviser to Truleo, the company department plans to hire

The technology is billed as a “virtual sergeant” — an omnipresent artificial intelligence capable of reviewing every minute of every police officer’s body camera footage across an entire department, analyzing how each officer handled every call.

The Aurora Police Department plans to implement just such AI tech in the near future, becoming the first law enforcement agency in Colorado to do so.

The department is finalizing a contract with Truleo, a company that uses artificial intelligence software to analyze police officers’ speech as recorded by their own body cameras. The software not only transcribes the audio and looks for keywords, but interprets the meaning of what officers say and analyzes text in context.

Truleo then looks for speech that either displays professionalism — like politeness, gratitude or offering an explanation — or is evidence of negative behaviors, such as insults, profanity and threats. It can flag potentially negative interactions to supervisors as well as measure an officer’s professionalism.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/03/07/ai-body-cameras-truleo-aurora-police/

March 2, 2023

CNN commentator lobbied for Norfolk Southern; the network didn't tell its audience during East

CNN commentator lobbied for Norfolk Southern; the network didn’t tell its audience during East Palestine discussion

CNN’s State of the Union and host Dana Bash held a Sunday roundtable discussion about the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment featuring CNN political commentator David Urban, who said that “there's plenty of blame to go around on this” and pivoted to criticizing the Biden administration. CNN never disclosed or asked Urban about his work for Norfolk Southern, which paid him and his then-lobbying firm over a million dollars.

Urban was until 2020 the president of the lobbying firm American Continental Group, where he lobbied for Norfolk Southern on “transportation issues related to railways” starting in 2009, according to federal disclosure forms. He and his firm collected at least $1,140,000, according to a calculation of federal data by ProPublica.

(snip)

During the segment, Bash said that the Trump administration rolled back regulations, to which Urban replied: “There's plenty of blame to go around on this, on these kind -- when these kinds of things happen. But what's important is what we do moving forward, right, to take care of the people in these towns and communities.” He then went on to criticize the Biden administration for allegedly “sloughing off” the crisis.

(snip)

CNN has continued to employ Urban despite a dizzying array of ethical problems. For example:

Urban urged a military strike against Iran without any disclosure that he worked for defense contractors.

Urban praised then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper without the network disclosing that he personally lobbied the Defense Department on behalf of defense contractors.

Urban repeatedly attacked environmental protections without disclosing he lobbied for fossil fuel-related clients including Norfolk Southern, which transports coal.

Urban repeatedly pushed for the passage of a trade agreement on-air after he was hired to lobby for it. The network didn’t disclose the conflict of interest.

Urban touted a lobbying client’s opposition to a tax bill without any disclosure that they paid him.

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-commentator-lobbied-norfolk-southern-network-didnt-tell-its-audience-during-east-palestine

?VersionId=Nx3B8QS3TpRvOW5jEbO92nZFPsIqlPXt&itok=NIkppS09

February 16, 2023

Sen. Fetterman checks himself into hospital for clinical depression

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who suffered a near-fatal stroke last year, checked himself into the hospital on Wednesday night to receive treatment for clinical depression, his office said on Thursday.

In a statement, Fetterman’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said the senator voluntarily admitted himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington to receive treatment for clinical depression on the recommendation of the attending physician of Congress, Brian P. Monahan, who on Monday evaluated the senator.

On Wednesday, “Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed,” Jentleson said.

“John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Jentleson said. “After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/16/fetterman-hospital-clinical-depression/

I hope he is feeling better soon.

February 8, 2023

ICYMI: Trump headed to trial in April in NYC rape and defamation case

It made my day to read that the judge didn't grant his delay:

Donald Trump is headed to trial in New York City this spring in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit alleging he raped her and then defamed her by saying she was lying about the sexual assault, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan set an April 25 trial date hours after Trump’s lawyers asked him to push the case back to June.

Kaplan said he is yet to resolve whether the trial will consolidate the two suits Carroll has against Trump.

Carroll filed the first lawsuit against Trump, which includes defamation claims, in Manhattan Supreme Court in 2019 when he called her a liar after she accused him of rape.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-e-jean-carroll-trump-lawsuits-trial-20230207-lvsla6ywjfah5mt5vsshpeyjfy-story.html

February 7, 2023

Alec Baldwin wants 'Rust' prosecutor dismissed as she's a Republican lawmaker: 'Unconstitutional'

Alec Baldwin wants the special prosecutor in his involuntary manslaughter case removed. In Tuesday's new filing, the actor claims Andrea Reeb's status as a Republican lawmaker in the New Mexico House of Representatives is "unconstitutional" — and one legal expert says he has a point. Baldwin was formally charged last week in the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

(snip)

According to the filing obtained by Yahoo Entertainment, Baldwin — who is known for his liberal views — avoided claiming politics are at play behind the decision to file criminal charges. The motion to disqualify, filed by his attorney Luke Nikas, lays out a constitutional argument.

"Under Section 1 of Article III of the New Mexico Constitution, however, a sitting member of the Legislature may not 'exercise any powers properly belonging' to either the executive or judicial branch," the document reads. "As a special prosecutor, Representative Reeb is vested by statute with 'all the powers and duties' of a District Attorney, who is considered to be a member of either the judicial or executive branch of the New Mexico government... Representative Reeb is therefore exercising either the executive power or the judicial power, and her continued service as a special prosecutor is unconstitutional."

Reeb, who was appointed by the District Attorney to the case, previously said Baldwin, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and first assistant director, David Halls are responsible for Hutchins's death.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/alec-baldwin-rust-prosecutor-dismissed-republican-lawmaker-220403964.html