Post by t-bob on Aug 12, 2022 12:46:16 GMT -5
August 12, 2022
Vol. 11, No. 1781
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Trumped Up: Attorney General Merrick Garland has moved to unseal the warrant used for the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home because of “substantial public interest in this matter.” Garland also said he personally approved the warrant, which would be expected for something this sensitive.
Trump said in a statement that he will not oppose opening the warrant that he has claimed was politically motivated.
The Washington Post reports that, “Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought.”
Trump said on his Truth Social website that, "Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved.”
Garland said in a two-minute statement that the warrant was executed after “less intrusive” attempts to retrieve documents Trump took from the White House. Trump said on Truth Social that “They could have had whatever they wanted, if we had it.”
The government is not looking to reveal the most sensitive legal papers involving the Trump search. They want to open the warrant itself, not what’s called the “affidavit,” the document put before a judge that would have laid out what the government was looking for, why it was important, why they could not get it by other means, and in what way Trump may have been committing a crime.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, is demanding that everything be revealed. He said, in a statement, “I am urging, actually insisting, the D.O.J. and the F.B.I. lay their cards on the table as to why this course of action was necessary.”
Covid Relaxation: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened many of its guidelines for fighting Covid as the fatality rate falls in a highly vaccinated population. The shift of strategy puts more of the prevention burden on individuals rather than schools, businesses, and other institutions.
Schools and other institutions will no longer need to screen apparently healthy students and employees. The new guidance has dropped the “six foot” standard for social distancing. The agency is shifting its focus to highly vulnerable populations and away from the majority who now have some immunity against the virus.
The War Zone: Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex and the head of the UN is proposing making it a demilitarized to avoid a catastrophe.
Ukraine's Energoatom agency said the complex was hit five times yesterday, some of the shells dropping where radioactive materials are stored. Russian-appointed officials said Ukraine shelled the plant twice.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine Ministry of Internal Affairs is claiming that the death toll in that attack on a Russian air base in Crimea is much higher than the Russians have admitted. Anton Geraschenko, an adviser to the minister of internal affairs, said that based on video evidence and intelligence data, 60 pilots and technicians were killed and 100 people wounded in the series of explosions rocked the Saki field.
That seems to be inflated. The only thing clear from released satellite photos is that aircraft were destroyed.
Getting Warmer: Rapid warming of the Arctic is happening even faster than scientists previously said, according to researchers in Finland. It’s a red flag for global warming.
For 40 years the Arctic has been warming as much as four times faster than the global average, not the two to three times previously reported. The Barents Sea north of Norway and Russia is warming up to seven times faster, the researchers report. The warming and ice melt also causes extreme rainfall and heat waves in North America and other areas south of the Arctic.
The Obit Page: Roger Mosley, the appealing actor who played tough with a sense of humor rising to stardom on the 1980s television series “Magnum, P.I.,” died on Sunday in Los Angeles at 83.
His daughter Ch-a Mosley, said her father died of injuries sustained in a car accident in Lynwood, California last month that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
In “Magnum,” Mosely played the helicopter pilot always ready for action as a sidekick to Tom Selleck. In the movies, he portrayed Sonny Liston and Leadbelly, also appearing on dozens of television shows over the years.
Patriot Games: Ricky Shiffer, a man who had ties to extremist groups, tried to break into the FBI office in Cincinnati yesterday armed with an assault rifle and later was killed in a standoff with police agencies near a stop on Interstate 71.
The NY Times reports that, “The day after former President Donald J. Trump’s private residence in Florida was searched by the F.B.I., someone with an account bearing Mr. Shiffer’s name posted messages on Mr. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, recommending that ‘patriots’ go to Florida and kill federal agents.”
The Spin Rack: An explosion that levelled a home in Evansville, Indiana, killed three people and damaged 39 other homes. The cause has not been determined. --- Actress Anne Heche is in a coma and not expected to survive after her flaming car wreck, her family says. She is on life support to determine whether any of her organs can be donated. The LAPD found cocaine and fentanyl in her bloodstream. --- The NBA has decided to retire Bill Russell’s uniform No. 6 throughout the league so “Bill’s transcendent career will always be recognized,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. Current players wearing No. 6, including the Lakers’ Lebron James, can wear the number until they retire.