Sometimes you wonder which century Republicans are living in. They seem more comfortable in the 17th century than in the 21st.

Georgia wasn't the only state where Team Trump tried to interfere with the 2020 election.

While Trump himself wasn't indicted in Arizona, a number of his minions were.

A grand jury in Arizona has handed up an indictment against former President Donald Trump’s allies over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, including the fake electors from that state and several individuals connected to his campaign. Boris Epshteyn, a former White House aide who remains one of Trump’s closest advisers; former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and Rudy Giuliani are among those who have been indicted, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, announced the indictment Wednesday night, focusing on the 11 individuals who acted as pro-Trump electors in the state. The names of several other indicted defendants remain redacted, Mayes said in a statement Wednesday, until those people have been served. “A state grand jury made up of everyday regular Arizonans, has now handed down felony indictments for all 11 Republican electors as well as several others connected to this scheme,” Mayes said. “These are serious indictments, but this is the first hurdle the state must pass in our constitutional criminal justice system. We intend to prove these crimes were committed beyond a reasonable doubt.” While Trump is not among those charged in Arizona, the details in the indictment suggest he is “Unindicted Coconspirator 1.”

Trump likes nicknames so I hope he enjoys his new one: Unindicted Coconspirator 1.

Speaking of Arizona on Wednesday, the lower chamber of the legislature voted to repeal the state's 1864 extreme abortion ban. A handful of Republicans joined the Democratic minority to move the measure forward.

Tempers, retribution come with vote to repeal abortion ban

These actions, on the same day, act as reminders of the importance of state government. Making sure that your state is not controlled by MAGA extremists is just as vital as keeping Trump and his Capitol Hill sycophants out of power.

Get involved with state politics, especially the legislature. Start by finding out who represents you in the legislature.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

Reposting this because today (April 25th) is the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution.

The revolution itself is an amazing story. And the speed with which the country went from a fascism lite dictatorship to a liberal democracy strikes me as breathtaking.

But the 1974 revolution also deserves attention for the effect it had on the downfall of white minority régimes in Southern Africa.

Portugal was the last European country with gigantic colonial holdings in Africa. The colonial wars pursued by the pre-democratic government put a major strain on the country and had been one of the factors which led to the revolution.

Decolonialization was a priority of the new MFA government in Lisbon. By the end of 1975, all of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa had become independent.

This was a problem for the white minority governments in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. The old Portuguese dictatorship had been friendly with them. But newly independent Mozambique made up half of Rhodesia's border and a good portion of South Africa's. And the former colony Angola made up most of the northern border of South West Africa (now Namibia) which had been illegally held by South Africa.

Despite concerted attempts at destabilization of Angola and Mozambique by South Africa's apartheid government, revolutionary sentiment and occasionally arms seeped South Africa and Rhodesia from their new neighbors.

By 1980, Rhodesia was on the road to full black majority rule. By 1989, the new pragmatic President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa announced a series of measures which led to black majority rule under Nelson Mandela in 1994.

There's a clear (if slightly circuitous) connection between the decolonization of Angola and Mozambique and the liberation of South Africa. It's another example of how historical events don't happen in a vacuum.

What happened in Portugal in 1974 needs to happen in Russia.

Today, April 25th, is the 48th anniversary of the 1974 Portuguese Revolution. A group of junior and middle ranking officers in the Portuguese military overthrew a fascist dictatorship which had been in power over 40 years.

The Estado Novo régime came to power in the same era as Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco. However it had been less heavy handed than those other dictatorships; its first and longest lasting leader, António Salazar, was a fervent Catholic who was turned off by the “paganism” of his fellow pre-war dictators and ruled accordingly. Still there were secret police, limits on free speech and the press, and no genuinely fair elections.

By the mid 1970s, Portugal was the last European country to have a colonial empire. A non-stop series of wars in the colonies had taken a large toll on the country. Younger and more clear-thinking officers decided that a change in the country was long overdue.

BBC History Extra describes what happened.

In March 1974, General António de Spínola was dismissed from his position as deputy minister of the armed forces.

He had written a book in which he suggested that the Portuguese colonial wars should come to an end. He was critical of the current Portuguese regime, something that was regarded as heretical by Portugal’s right-wing establishment.

The Armed Forces Movement (MFA) was soon formed by dissident and low- ranking officers who supported Spínola. Captains within the armed forces were also unhappy with a law which would grant privileges to conscripted officers, to the resentment of professionally trained officers. The armed forces’ support for the government was rapidly deteriorating.

Just before midnight on 24 April, Portugal’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest – ‘E Depois do Adeus’ (And After The Farewell) – was played by the radio station Emissores Associados de Lisboa, as had been arranged by the rebels. This was the first of two secret signals that the army was waiting for.

Tanks entered the centre of Lisbon in the early hours of 25 April and soon the airport, television and radio centres were taken over, as well as the Salazar Bridge over the river Tagus. Prime Minister Marcello Caetano, along with other ministers, had taken refuge in the Carmo barracks, which housed the National Republican Guard, and these were stormed by troops, armed with machine guns. With little resistance, Caetano surrendered to Spínola.

[ … ]

Radio appeals by the revolutionaries asked people to stay inside, but many flooded the streets and joined in, supporting the troops. By the time the sun had risen on 26 April, the MFA was in charge and promised to hold democratic elections for a national assembly as soon as they could.

In 2014 for the 40th anniversary, NBC News did a piece on it.

Portugal Honors April 25 Revolution, the World’s Coolest Coup

They took less than 24 hours to bring down Europe’s longest-lived dictatorship and signal the end of the last colonial empire in Africa.

“It was a coup like no other,” recalled Swiss journalist Werner Herzog, who reported on the revolution.

“The atmosphere was more like a party,” he joked at a conference on Wednesday. “None of us had ever heard of an army intervening to bring democracy, surely it’s normally the other way round.”

It certainly did turn out to be cool. By June of 1976 Portugal had drafted a constitution, elected a parliament, and installed a president – all peacefully and democratically. In just 26 months, Portugal had gone from a fascist dictatorship to a fully functioning Western liberal democracy. And it’s still doing fine today.

Portugal is one of the most stable and resilient truly democratic countries on the planet. It’s amazing what a success story it has been. It is proof that a difficult history doesn’t have to be a drag on a country’s present and future.

As for Russia, we can only hope that there are middle ranking officers currently plotting to remove their own fascist régime. They do have a much more difficult job than their Portuguese counterparts in 1974. The Estado Novo régime was fascism lite while Putin is a lot more like the hardcore Nazis of the late 1930s in Germany.

Anyway, the BBC excerpt above alluded to “the first of two secret signals” which were played on Lisbon radio stations to give the go-ahead for the revolution. The second was more important and is now a revered patriotic song in Portugal. Grândola, Vila Morena had been banned on radio by the government. So when it was played just after midnight on Rádio Renascença on April 25th, everyone involved knew there was no turning back.

'Sleepwalking into dictatorship': Trump warnings spook America

If somebody promises he's going to be a dictator, believe him.

Register and vote – and make sure every like minded citizen you know does the same. Remember that voter registration is geographic: if you've moved since the last election (even just next door) you need to register at your new address.

Be a voter | Vote Save America

Smack down anybody talking about RFK Jr. as a serious politician. He's a longtime anti-vaxxer who plays footsie with the fringe right. He's currently trying to attract low information voters who know his name but who are unaware of his record.

As for that Kennedy name, he has been politically disowned by the rest of the extended Kennedy family. I'm unaware of any blood relative of his who is supporting him. Most of his siblings and cousins have endorsed Joe Biden and some have appeared in ads for Biden.

RFK Jr.'s position on abortion is dubious.

An abortion-rights group is attacking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as extreme and unfit to serve over abortion rights, as the health issue takes focus in the presidential election. Reproductive Freedom for All Freedom Fund put out an ad Monday in Michigan and Wisconsin — two battleground states — looking to portray the independent candidate as indecisive and potentially threatening to a woman’s right to choose. The ad, which is targeting young voters, is set to run in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Madison, Wis., cities in two important swing states where Kennedy is angling to compete against President Biden and former President Trump. Both cities are home to major public universities, as well.  “He doesn’t know whether he’d support a national abortion ban, and he’s picked a vice president who won’t even protect IVF from MAGA attacks,” the ad says.  The spot also criticizes Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, who has been outwardly skeptical of IVF.

Only one candidate is campaigning to restore Roe.

Biden Blames Trump for Florida's 'Nightmare' Abortion Law

The first tranche of US aid from the just passed $60.8 billion assistance package for Ukraine is already being prepared for shipment. It will be on its way as soon as President Biden signs it into law.

Exclusive: US preparing $1 billion weapons package for Ukraine, officials say

Columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote about aid to Ukraine. He makes a relevant historical comparison.

Ukraine Aid in the Light of History

[S]pending on Ukraine isn’t a huge burden on America, coming at the expense of domestic priorities. No, America isn’t bearing this cost alone, without help from our European allies. Yes, U.S. aid is still crucial, in part because Europe can supply money but isn’t yet in a position to supply enough military hardware.

FDR's Lend-Lease program was the Ukraine aid package of 1941.

I find it useful to look back at the obvious historical parallel to current aid to Ukraine: Franklin Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease program, which began delivering aid to Britain and China in 1941, before Pearl Harbor brought America officially into World War II. It is often forgotten how controversial that aid was at the time. Many people are probably aware that there was an America First movement that opposed any aid to embattled Britain, in part because some of its prominent leaders, notably Charles Lindbergh, were racist and openly sympathetic to the Nazis. I suspect that fewer people are aware that even in Congress, Lend-Lease was a deeply partisan issue. The initial bill, enacted in early 1941, passed the House with very little Republican support. Even more strikingly, support for Lend-Lease (triangles pointing up in the chart below) was closely correlated with economic ideology (Dimension 1). Almost all liberals favored supporting Britain in its darkest hour; many conservatives didn’t:

The chart Dr. Krugman refers to...

Yet the aid passed. Congress appropriated $13 billion before the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was an immense sum at the time — about 10 percent of America’s annual gross domestic product. Somewhat surprisingly, however, not much of that total consisted of weaponry. As the American Historical Association noted: “Our munitions industry was still largely in the tooling up state. And the flow of finished weapons was at first only a trickle.”

Yes, isolationist sentiment in the US the 1930s, often led by anti-Semitic "America first" groups, left the US short of arms and munitions. We are comparatively in better shape today.

How does aid to Ukraine compare with that experience? First, it’s vastly smaller relative to the size of our economy. The just-passed package will roughly double the cumulative aid we’ve given Ukraine, but at about $60 billion it’s less than one-fourth of 1 percent of G.D.P. — around one-fortieth the size of the initial Lend-Lease appropriation. Anyone claiming that spending on this scale will break the budget, or that it will seriously interfere with other priorities, is innumerate, disingenuous or both. What about claims that America is bearing too much of the burden? Last week Donald Trump accused Europe of failing to pay its share: “Why is it that the United States is over $100 Billion Dollars into the Ukraine War more than Europe, and we have an Ocean between us in separation? Why can’t Europe equalize or match the money put in by the United States of America in order to help a Country in desperate need?” (Eccentric, more or less Germanic capitalization in the actual post.)

Apparently Donald Trump wants people to forget that an ocean didn't protect Pearl Harbor from attack.

The answer to his questions is that his assertions are false. As the Kiel Institute reports, “The data show that total European aid has long overtaken U.S. aid — not only in terms of commitments, but also in terms of specific aid allocations sent to Ukraine.” Notably, many though not all European nations are spending substantially more in support of Ukraine as a percentage of G.D.P. than we are:

Countries around the Baltic have given a larger share of aid to Ukraine, relative to GDP, than the US.

And in this graphic from the Kiel Institute's Ukraine Support Tracker, it's clear to anybody with a calculator that the US is Ukraine's biggest backer but does not provide a majority of Ukraine's military aid. Because of lack of space, it shows only 10 of the 31 countries supplying military assistance to Ukraine. Because of new commitments from other countries, the proportions are likely to remain similar even with the latest US aid package.

Paul Krugman points out that Europe is now in the process of ramping up arms production. There's nothing like a war in your neighborhood conducted by a genocidal maniac to end wishful thinking about a bad neighbor.

Remember that in the first year of Lend-Lease, America couldn’t supply much in the way of weapons, despite the immense size of our economy, because years of low military spending had left us with an underdeveloped military-industrial base. It took a couple of years to translate America’s overall industrial might into comparable military might. Right now Europe is in a similar situation: It has the money to help Ukraine, and for the most part it has the will, but it doesn’t have the production capacity to meet Ukraine’s military needs.

NOTE: If you like owls such as the one reposted up top, then follow @ethansowls and @30-minute-owls

« This is something that I've never seen – not actually made manifest in the courtroom before. Donald Trump's in that courtroom alone.

Jeffrey Dahmer's parents were there every single day.

It is, it is very hard to find a courtroom where the criminal defendant doesn't have a relative sitting there in the front row. »

— Lawrence O’Donnell at MSNBC pointing out the conspicuous absence of any of Trump's relatives in the courtroom at his New York trial. Being compared unfavorably to Jeffrey Dahmer is quite a burn.

Maybe the relatives just don't want to make a big stink about the case.

O'Donnell said this in conversation with psychologist Dr. Mary Trump – Donald's niece. It would have been fun if she then said she would try to fill one of those empty seats when court is back in session.

The Donald "Dozy Donny" Trump trial has been pushing other items out of the news. But it is not the only news story making history in New York.

Zeita Merchant just became the first woman of color to reach the rank of admiral in the US Coast Guard.

Her promotion ceremony took place at the NYC theater which hosts the play Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton happens to be the father of the Coast Guard.

Adm. Merchant decided to join the Coast Guard at the last minute. It turned out to be a good choice and she became a career officer, rising through the ranks to admiral.

By coincidence, I visited Alexander Hamilton after the solar eclipse earlier this month. He probably would have been pleased by this connection to him in the 21st century.

^^^ When Donald Trump drifts off to sleep in the Manhattan courtroom of Judge Merchan, this is one of the unsettling dreams which greets him. BUILD THAT WALL! 😆

A big problem for Trump is that he is a weak man who has a compulsion to show everybody that he's really in charge. He does this through bribery, bullying, and hissy fits. In court, he resents that he isn't in charge His unbusinesslike behavior will only get him in more trouble.

Republicans are soft on disease control. We all remember the MAGA anti-vaccine hysteria when the COVID-19 vaccines became available.

They are now turning their attention to the polio vaccine which was approved for use in the US on 12 April 1955. The number of polio cases in the US dropped from 57,879 in 1952 to 910 in 1962 and became rare by the early 1970s.

Thanks to anti-vaxxing conspiracy crackpots, polio returned to the US for the first time in three decades in 2022.

New Hampshire Republicans want to weaken vaccination requirements to kowtow to anti-science elements in their state.

New Hampshire could soon beat Florida—known for its anti-vaccine Surgeon General—when it comes to loosening vaccine requirements. A first-in-the-nation bill that’s already passed New Hampshire’s state House, sponsored only by Republican legislators, would end the requirement for parents enrolling kids in childcare to provide documentation of polio and measles vaccination. New Hampshire would be the only state in the US to have such a law, although many states allow religious exemptions to vaccine requirements.  Currently, Republicans control New Hampshire’s state House, Senate and governor’s office—but that isn’t a guarantee that the bill will be signed into law, with GOP Gov. Chris Sununu seemingly flip-flopping when it comes to disease control. Sununu did sign a bill in 2021 allowing people to use public places and services even if they did not receive the Covid-19 vaccine. But the next year, the governor vetoed a bill that would bar schools from implementing mask mandates.  The polio vaccine, first offered in 1955, and the MMR shot, which treats the highly infectious measles, mumps, and rubella viruses, are two very crucial vaccines both in the US and internationally. Since the year 2000 alone, vaccines against measles are estimated to have saved over 55 million lives around the world.  [ ... ] Vaccine hesitancy is rising among parents of young children. A 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center found that around half of parents with kids four or younger thought that not all standard childhood vaccines—a list that also includes hepatitis B, rotavirus, DTaP and chickenpox—may be necessary. Anti-vaccine misinformation plays a role in this phenomenon, which began before the Covid-19 pandemic, but has certainly increased since. In a 2019 UK report, about 50 percent of parents of young kids encountered false information about vaccines on social media. 

Gov. Chris Sununu is a spineless putz. In some ways he's like Lindsey Graham who likes to send smoke signals of independent thinking but always comes crawling home to Daddy Donald.

Sununu campaigned for Nikki Haley and blamed Trump for January 6th. But that hasn't stopped him from endorsing Trump anyway. Instigating a coup d'état does not disqualify somebody from the presidency in Sununu's opinion.

GOP's Chris Sununu tries, fails to defend his Trump endorsement

Sununu may do for polio in New Hampshire what Trump did for COVID in the entire US in 2020.

Ukraine hit yet another ship in Russia's shrinking Black Sea Fleet.

This time it was what the Russian navy calls a "rescue ship" (i.e. a salvage ship) called the Kommuna.

The interesting thing about the Kommuna is that it was originally commissioned on 14 July 1915 – when Tsar Nikolai II was ruling Russia as a near-absolute monarch during World War I. Russia again has a near-absolute leader during another catastrophic war. 🤔

It tells us something about the state of the Russian military that they were still using in active service a ship that is essentially a museum piece. We already have seen them using tanks in Ukraine that date back to the Nikita Khrushchev era. People in the West who run around with their hair on fire worrying about Russia's alleged strength are not looking closely at the reality of this strength.

The Kommuna was damaged at Russian-occupied Sevastopol by a Neptune (Нептун Р-360) missile which was manufactured by Ukraine.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Navy, told the Liga media outlet on April 21 that the navy had struck a ship in occupied Sevastopol and confirmed that it was the Kommuna, a salvage ship. The extent of the damage to the ship is unclear at the time of this publication. Earlier in the day, the Russian proxy official Mikhail Razvozhayev claimed an anti-ship missile had been "repelled" in occupied Sevastopol and that "fragments caused a small fire, which was quickly extinguished. Unverified video posted to social media appeared to show a Russian naval vessel on fire and local media reported the Crimea bridge had been closed. The Kommuna was launched in 1915 and is the oldest ship still in service in the Russian Navy. Sevastopol is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and is frequently targeted by Ukrainian missile and sea drone strikes. Pletenchuk said on March 30 that Russia had withdrawn nearly all its major ships from ports in occupied Crimea following successful Ukrainian strikes. To prevent further Ukrainian drone strikes on the Black Sea fleet, Russian forces in occupied Crimea are constructing barriers at the entrance to Sevastopol Bay, the partisan group Atesh reported on March 27.

🦉 🌎 🌍 Happy Earth Day 2024! 🌏 🌻 🐝

Earth Day originated in 1970 when pollution was the biggest environmental concern. Air and waterways are undoubtedly cleaner 50+ years later. It demonstrates that progress can be made when there's a concerted effort.

A current problem which gets overlooked is the amount of environmental damage which the Russian invasion has caused in Ukraine. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has called Putin's environmental destruction "ecocide".

Greta Thunberg denounces 'ecocide' in Ukraine

Just about every aspect of the environment has been worsened by Putin's illegal military action.

After Two Years of War, Ukraine Sees Deepening Environmental Wound

A consortium of agencies called EcoDozor has put together a map graphic showing the environmental consequences of the invasion.

Ecodozor

I feel strongly that Russian state assets should be impounded to pay for the damage. Contact your representative at your national parliament and insist that Russian assets be seized to be used to repair environmental damage done in Ukraine by Putin's Russia.

On a historical note, here's a cartoon done by American-Australian underground artist Ron Cobb. It gave rise to the use of the Greek letter Theta 𝚹 to symbolize environmental protection.

In turn, high school students in Springfield, Illinois were inspired to turn that into into a flag for the first Earth Day.

This Homemade Flag From the ‘70s Signals the Beginning of the Environmental Movement

Being mindful of the power of semiotics, it might be useful to revive Theta as a symbol of environmental action. It already exists as an emoji and most of us have devices which can access a Greek font. And at Tumblr we can make stuff green. 𝚹 Θ

« Four main factors will influence the course of the war. The first is the level of resistance and national unity shown by Ukrainians, which has until now been extraordinary. The second is international support for Ukraine, which, though recently falling short of the country’s expectations, remains broad. The third factor is the nature of modern warfare, a contest that turns on a combination of industrial might and command, control, communications and intelligence systems. One reason Russia has struggled in this war is that it is yet to recover from the dramatic deindustrialisation it suffered after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The final factor is information. When it comes to decision-making, Vladimir Putin is trapped in an information cocoon, thanks to his having been in power so long. The Russian president and his national-security team lack access to accurate intelligence. The system they operate lacks an efficient mechanism for correcting errors. Their Ukrainian counterparts are more flexible and effective. In combination, these four factors make Russia’s eventual defeat inevitable. In time it will be forced to withdraw from all occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea. Its nuclear capability is no guarantee of success. Didn’t a nuclear-armed America withdraw from Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan? »

— Prof. Feng Yujun, Director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Fudan University, writing at The Economist (archived).

Prof. Feng is one of China's leading "Russia watchers". His views may not reflect official thinking of the Chinese government though they are probably not distant from it.

China is currently benefiting economically in several ways from the war, but this does not mean Putin is highly regarded among Chinese policy makers.

Putin made a gross miscalculation with his invasion of Ukraine. He has put his military on international display as embarrassingly incompetent. Russian military hardware has been shown to be generally inferior to what Ukraine has gotten from the West and also inferior to various items of Ukrainian manufacture. Russia's few recent successes involve using its own troops as cannon fodder to make slow and costly advances.

With Putin's three-day "special operation" heading into day 789 and with Russian casualties equal to the population of a medium large city, Putin has clearly lost face in China.

A Conservative politician is making millions off of slavery 190 years after slavery was abolished in Britain and its territories.

Tory Richard Drax comes from a filthy rich family notorious for having established the model for slave-based sugar plantations in the Caribbean in the 1620s. Even by the standards of a slave-based economy, the record of the Drax family was appalling.

The Barbados plantation was worked by up to 327 slaves at a time, with the death rate for both adults and children high. Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the 20-state Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) Reparations Commission and vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, estimates that as many 30,000 slaves died on the Drax plantations in Barbados and Jamaica over 200 years.

Thanks largely to their their ill-gained riches, the Drax family owns a 700 acre walled estate in Dorset which includes a deer park. And apparently they are getting even richer.

Despite threats to make Richard Drax pay reparations and seize his family’s plantation – described by one historian as a “killing field” of enslaved Africans – the government is now planning to pay market value for 21 hectares (about 15 football pitches) of his land for housing. The move has angered many Barbadians, especially those who say the Drax family played a pivotal role in the development of slavery-based sugar production and the Barbados slave code in the 17th century. This denied Black Africans basic human rights, including the right to life. Critics have called the planned deal an “atrocity” and said this is “one plantation that the government should not be paying a cent for”. Trevor Prescod, MP and chair of the Barbados National Taskforce on Reparations, said: “What a bad example this is. Reparations and Drax Hall are now top of the global agenda. How do we explain this to the world? “The government should not be entering into any [commercial] relationship with Richard Drax, especially as we are negotiating with him regarding reparations.”

It's baffling why the Barbadian government would enter into such a deal.

Drax, the MP for South Dorset, travelled to Barbados to meet prime minister Mia Mottley. It is understood he was asked to hand over all or a substantial part of Drax Hall plantation. If he refused, legal action would follow. Mottley’s spokesperson said the current Drax Hall purchase was not linked to reparations and the government “constantly acquires land through this process”. Mottley has pledged to build 10,000 new homes to meet demand on the island, where there are 20,000 applications for housing. A senior valuation surveyor said the market value for agricultural land with an alternative use for housing would be about Bds$150,000 (£60,000) an acre. At this price, the 21 hectares could net Drax Bds$8m (£3.2m). The land would be for 500 low- and middle-income family homes, which would be for sale.

I'd just grab the land and pay Drax a token £1 just so he legally can't claim he wasn't compensated at all for the transfer.

Barbados poet laureate Esther Phillips, who grew up next to Drax Hall, said the planned deal was an “atrocity” and a case of the victims’ descendants now compensating the descendant of the enslaver. “He should be giving us this land as reparations, not further enriching himself … at the expense of Barbadians. As Barbadians, we must speak out against this.”

And with the reported thousands of deaths during the 200+ years of slavery at the Drax plantation, how many people will be comfortable with the idea that their new home is built on what was essentially a forced labor camp which became a model for regional slavery? Isn't the Drax property on Barbados a large cemetery?

Several months late, the aid package for Ukraine passed in the House of Representatives. All voting Democrats voted YEA while a majority of Republicans voted NAY.

You can see how your Representative voted here.

The most unseemly vote came from Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05). She is the only House member born in Ukraine yet she voted against saving her native land from genocidal Russian invaders. She is trying to out-MAGA a primary opponent by showing GOP voters in Indiana's 5th district how irrationally pro-Trump she is. She's an example of how many Republicans office holders have put pleasing Trump ahead of personal beliefs and morality.

This vote is clearly a loss for Donald Trump and is a bigger loss for his boss Vladimir Putin.

HR 8035 now heads back to the Senate to reconcile minor differences and should be approved Tuesday. President Biden will expeditiously sign it into law and aid can then immediately flow to Ukraine.

US House approves major military aid package for Ukraine

« There will be no leniency for collaborators of the Russian services. We will burn down every betrayal and attempt at destabilization.

[Dla kolaborantów rosyjskich służb nie będzie żadnej pobłażliwości. Wypalimy żelazem każdą zdradę i próbę destabilizacji.] »

— Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland commenting on the arrests of three residents of Poland taken in custody for actual and attempted terrorist acts instigated by Russia. From the BBC and Polsat News.

Prime Minister Tusk's strong words come after two Polish football hooligans were arrested for assaulting an anti-Putin exile in neighboring Lithuania and a Polish man was arrested for gathering intelligence on behalf of Russia around Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport.

Rzeszów-Jasionka is not far from Poland's border from Ukraine and is used by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy because civilian aviation in Ukrainian airspace has been shut down due to the war. The suspect in that case is alleged to have helped Russia with an attempted assassination of Zelenskyy.

Poland is as deeply divided along partisan lines as the United States. But one thing which unites most Poles is distrust of and opposition to Russia.

Poland disappeared as a national entity for 123 years when its territory was seized by Prussia (later Germany), Austria, and Russia – with Russia taking the bulk of the territory. And from the end of World War II until 1989 Poland was an involuntary satellite of the now defunct Soviet Union. People acting as Russian agents should expect no mercy from the justice system.

The US needs to take a similar hard line with those collaborating with the Putin dictatorship. Putin was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet secret police (KGB). He famously thinks that the collapse of the USSR was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. Such a person should never be trusted; those in the West who admire him are likely either intellectual simpletons or wannabe Russian collaborators.

Republicans are really a gas.

We've already learned that Donald Trump is apparently farting up a storm during his hush money trial. Perhaps he's hoping that his stench will make the judge declare a mistrial.

The far right House Freedom Caucus is onboard with Trump. They are calling a special unit they've formed the "Floor Action Response Team" or FART for short.

The far-right House Freedom Caucus has formed a crack team of conservative lawmakers to monitor the House floor lest Speaker Mike Johnson or other Republicans try to limit their power. Naturally, the band of rabble-rousers that loves generating headlines for its members has called the group the Floor Action Response Team or FART. Because, why not? According to Politico, this group will make sure that no other Republicans try to rush through changes that would make it harder for lawmakers to oust Johnson from power or that would strip three Freedom Caucus members of a powerful perch they all hold.

The Freedom Caucus intends to make a stink about any attempt to reduce their influence.

To secure the votes for becoming House Speaker in 2023, Kevin McCarthy agreed to a rule that any GOP House member could file a motion to vacate the chair – that is, remove the Speaker. Poor Kevin regretted that concession when that rule was used to get rid of him last autumn.

House members who are extremist even by GOP standards have used that rule to constipate most action in the House. Almost nothing is getting done other than DOA attempts to impeach administration officials.

Votes scheduled on Saturday for foreign military assistance could act as a purgative of sorts. We may finally see MAGA attempts to block aid to Ukraine go down the toilet.