Battle Opens on Eastern Front

The War Room: Russia’s push to take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine appears to have opened along a 300-mile front, Ukrainian officials say. The Russians have been pounding Ukraine with rockets, missiles, and artillery.

  It could be the defining battle of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. “A very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said overnight. “No matter how many Russian soldiers are driven there, we will fight.”

  The Pentagon says that Russian troop strength in Ukraine has grown to 76 battalion tactical groups, each consisting of 700 to 1,000 soldiers. Another 22 battalions stationed north of Ukraine are likely being resupplied and refitted, according to the Pentagon.

  The Ukraine city of  Kreminna has been lost and Ukrainian troops are still holding out in Mariupol. The Russians appear to control a band of eastern Ukraine from Kharkiv in the north curving along the border down to Crimea.

Maskless: A federal judge in Florida yesterday struck down the Biden administration’s mask mandate for air travel and other public transportation. The mandate had just been extended through May 3 because of rising Covid cases. 

  Major airlines immediately responded by lifting their mask requirement for passengers.

  Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, voided the mandate nationwide saying that the Centers for Disease Control had exceeded its legal authority under the Public Health Services Act of 1944. 

  The law says the CDC may take measures  “necessary”  to control diseases and gives examples like “sanitation.” The judge wrote that this power was limited to things like cleaning property, not requiring people to take hygienic measures.

  The Health Freedom Defense Fund, a Wyoming-based group had filed a lawsuit challenging the mask mandate. In a statement, the group quoted its president, Leslie Manookian, saying, “Unelected officials cannot do whatever they like to our personal freedoms just because they claim good motives and a desirable goal.”

Morally Bankrupt: Infowars and two other companies associated with the right wing commentator Alex Jones have filed for bankruptcy in federal court as Jones attempts to shield himself from possible multimillion-dollar judgements in defamation lawsuits.

  For years Jones had spouted bogus claims that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six teachers in Newtown, Conn., was actually a hoax carried out as part of a government plot to confiscate Americans’ guns and that the families of victims were actually actors. Jones faces multiple lawsuits by families that say they have been defamed, some who say they have had to hide from the gun nuts who believe what Jones said.

  In his bankruptcy filings, Jones claims that his companies have roughly $1 million in assets and $10 million in liabilities. Bankruptcy allows companies to reorganize and pay debts over time.

The Spin Rack: That last winter storm is dumping snow in the East, six to 12 inches in some places, particularly in the mountains. — A Kentucky man was awarded $450,000 by a jury because he was thrown an unwanted birthday party at work. The man had asked for no party because he has bad associations with his birthday and it makes him hyperventilate, quiver, and cry. And that’s what he did when he was thrown a party. —  Johnson & Johnson  said it has agreed to pay $99 million to settle claims by West Virginia that it fueled the opioid addiction crisis in the state. 

Unlucky: The Food and Drug Administration is investigating Lucky Charms cereal after dozens of people reported getting sick after eating it.

  “The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury,” the agency said in a statement. Several hundred people have reported on the food safety website, iwaspoisoned.com that they developed nausea, diarrhea and vomiting after eating Lucky Charms.

  Lucky Charms is a toasted oat cereal mixed with colorful bits of marshmallow. Officially, the contents are listed as “ Whole Grain Oats, Sugar, Corn Starch, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Dextrose. Contains 2% or less of: Salt, Gelatin, Trisodium Phosphate, Red 40, Yellow 5 & 6, Blue 1, Natural and Artificial Flavor.”

  Just reading that can make you sick.

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Friday, November 15, 2024

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The “Great” President

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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