sciencescience
sciencescience's Journaltheories on Crimean bridge explosion
(reasons why not)
truck bomb:
- would have to be driven through Russia (it was going towards Crimea)
- Russia has scanners for trucks going across the Crimean bridge
- would have to knowingly kill the civilian driver
- some analysis on Twitter shows the bridge was lifted up by an explosion from below, and there is no crater/curve seen in the remaining visible road pieces from an above ground explosion
missile:
- Ukraine doesn't publicly have missiles with that range from land
- ATACMS doesn't have a big enough warhead for that type of explosion
- a missile would have had to escape radar detection and no anti missile defenses fired
- a missile big enough to carry that amount of explosives could be seen with the naked eye
boat/semi-submersible/submarine:
- would have been seen by radar or someone
- one frame before the explosions shows a ball of light above the bridge
U.S. intel helped Ukraine protect air defenses, shoot down Russian plane carrying hundreds of troops
By By Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Dan De Luce
April 26, 2022
SNIP.....
As Russia launched its invasion, the U.S. gave Ukrainian forces detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News.
That near real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv.
......SNIP
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-intel-helped-ukraine-protect-air-defenses-shoot-russian-plane-carry-rcna26015
The insurrection pits moderates against the far-right. Democrats should not hesitate to use it
By Amanda Marcotte
January 10, 2022
SNIP.....
Polling shows that a huge majority of Americans disapprove of the insurrection at the Capitol. But in 2024 election match-ups, President Joe Biden and Trump are neck-in-neck. That can only mean that a lot of voters are happy to vote Republican, so long as they can keep telling themselves a story about how Republicans are not the party of violent insurrection.
......SNIP
SNIP.....
As the Cruz example shows, Republicans don't have a lot of wiggle room on this issue, because they're trapped by Fox News and the right-wing media. Attempts to distance themselves from the violence increasingly result in a sharp rebuke from the likes of Carlson and other powerful right-wing pundits and leaders. That's why the insurrection is, despite being an unusual event in American history, is still a standard issue wedge issue, one that pits the GOP base against the moderate voters they need to win elections. (While we still have elections, which may not be for much longer if the Democrats screw up the 2022 midterms.)
......SNIP
https://www.salon.com/2022/01/10/the-2022-midterms-will-be-all-about-jan-6-democrats-can-win-if-they-fight-big-lie/
New emails show how Trump and his allies pressured Justice Department to try to challenge 2020 elect
By Whitney Wild, Jeremy Herb, Lauren Fox, Zachary Cohen and Ryan Nobles, CNN
June 15, 2021
"SNIP.....
New emails show how former President Donald Trump's White House assistant, chief of staff and other allies pressured the Justice Department to investigate claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election -- and how Trump directed allies to push then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to join the legal effort to challenge the election result, according to a batch of emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday.
The emails from Justice Department and White House officials show how Trump allies pressured Rosen to consider false and outlandish allegations that the election had been stolen and sought to get the Justice Department to formally back up the false claims. The documents also offer a window into how Rosen dealt with the political pressure from the White House soon after he was tapped to lead the department in the final weeks of the Trump administration.
......SNIP"
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/politics/trump-allies-emails-justice-department-2020-election/index.html
The Chauvin Trial's Jury Wasn't Like Other Juries
By Sonali Chakravarti
April 28, 2021
SNIP
What I saw was a jury-selection process that substantially departed from the country’s norms, resulting in a racially mixed jury, a number of whose members criticized American law enforcement for systematically discriminating against Black people.
SNIP
That these people held these views and still served on the jury shows a path toward greater democratic representation in America’s courtrooms.
SNIP
It’s difficult to overstate how significant a departure from the norm this is. In many similar cases, a potential juror’s mere intimation of a belief in systemic injustice makes judges and attorneys nervous—especially when the juror is a person of color.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/what-was-different-time/618735/
Get police out of the business of traffic stops
By TJ Grayson and James Forman Jr.
March 16, 2021
"SNIP.....
Many of the deaths garnering media attention in recent years resulted from armed police officers enforcing traffic violations, even minor ones. A Minnesota police officer pulled over Philando Castile for a broken taillight, then fired seven shots at him. A Texas state trooper stopped Sandra Bland for not signaling when she changed lanes. Three days later, she was dead in a jail cell. According to a Washington Post database, about 11 percent of all fatal shootings by police in 2015 occurred during traffic stops; Black people accounted for a disproportionate share of those deaths.
......SNIP"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/16/remove-police-traffic-stops/
How Republicans' efforts to restrict mail voting could backfire
By Brittany Gibson
Mar 26, 2021
"SNIP.....
While decades of data and research show the lack of partisan benefit, the backlash to some of the most restrictive state laws could be a more motivated electorate. As Paul Waldman wrote for the Washington Post following the Wisconsin primaries, “it becomes more important to exercise your right to vote if you think someone is trying to take it away.”
......SNIP"
https://www.vox.com/22346839/republicans-attacks-on-mail-voting-research-studies
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