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How the levers of state—and powerful friends—could help Erdogan win his toughest election.
— Read on www.foreignaffairs.com/turkey/erdogan-turkeys-resilient-autocrat -
FBI special agents descended on Trump Tower III on Collins to carry out a search of unit 4102. It’s owned by a shell company controlled by two Russians.
— Read on www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article275358451.html -
In early May, tensions between the Russian Defense Ministry and Wagner, the private military company close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, burst into the open.
— Read on www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/why-putin-needs-wagnerFor Putin, Wagner has also become a crucial means to rein in the military, which he has long viewed as a potential threat to his rule.
new department had been formed inside the GRU to supervise the activities of private military companies, including Wagner
For the GRU, Wagner provided a convenient deniability to its operations, at a time when Russia was publicly disavowing its direct involvement in eastern Ukraine.
Military contractors had been used by the United States in Iraq, for example, and Wagner bore some similarities to Blackwater, the U.S. military contractor.
started as a secretive, deniable proxy mercenary force, and gradually evolved into a large military unit with operations in several countries, its own artillery and air force, and finally, huge recruiting billboards on the streets of Russian cities, its own film production glorifying its deeds, and a big shiny tower in St. Petersburg for its corporate headquarters
Although Prigozhin has been incessantly promoting his fighters as the most capable fighting force on the Russian side, he has also made a special effort to keep his officers and field commanders anonymous.
Just as important for Wagner is the stance of the FSB, Russia’s main intelligence agency
The most important factor in Prigozhin’s continued role in Ukraine, however, is Putin himself.
the role of Wagner as a counterbalancing force to the military
Wagner is burning through more ammunition than any other Russian unit, which can be justified only as long as Wagner is doing what Prigozhin promised—making advances in Bakhmut
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www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/opinion/supremely-arrogant.html
It’s the greatest gathering of grievances we’ve ever seen on the high court. The woe-is-me bloc of conservative male justices is obsessed with who has wronged them.
It might be an opportune time to hire a Supreme shrink so these resentful men can get some much-needed therapy and stop working out their issues from the bench
Neil Gorsuch is settling a score for his mother.
The Times wrote in an editorial back then: “On becoming the head of the E.P.A., Anne Gorsuch inherited one of the most efficient and capable agencies of government. She has turned it into an Augean stable, reeking of cynicism, mismanagement and decay.”
Alito told The Wall Street Journal that he did not like the way the court’s legitimacy was being questioned. “We are being hammered daily, and I think quite unfairly in a lot of instances. And nobody, practically nobody, is defending us.”
Clarence Thomas, who is still bitter over being outed as a porn-loving harasser of women who worked for him — even though Joe Biden did his best to sweep the corroborating evidence under the Senate rug — was slapped with more revelations of ethics derelictions this past week.
Even though I’ve been writing since Bush v. Gore that the court is full of hacks and the bloom is off the robes, it is still disorienting to see the murk of this Supreme Court.
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Social scientists and other experts have repeatedly shown that the number of guns in a community are directly correlated with the rate of gun violence and gun deaths. Texas has some of the weakest gun laws in the United States.
— Read on www.salon.com/2023/05/09/when-a-mass-shooter-is-a-supremacist-does-it-even-matter/ -
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/05/wagner-russia-ukraine-discord-leak/
While Prigozhin has led Russia’s bloody campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city using soldiers of fortune and recently freed convicts, he’s also been locked in a public fight with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who he says have denied his forces ammunition and manpower.
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www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war.html
The latest manifestation of those tensions came from Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who used what he said were the newly bloody corpses of his fighters as the backdrop for another expletive-laced rant against the top military command.
the Russian occupation authorities on Friday ordered civilians living near the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, in southern Ukraine, to leave their homes and businesses.
Mr. Prigozhin said that he had been expected to take Bakhmut by then, but had been foiled by “military bureaucrats” who cut off the supply of artillery shells days ago.
a previous outburst by Mr. Prigozhin did win him some of the ammunition and recruits that he wanted, although the numbers remain murky.
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Tuesday 2 May 2023
Vox “Today Explained” Podcast: Supreme Court
Propublica didn’t start out investigating Clarence Thomas. They were investigating travel and happened on the Crowe connection with Clarence Thomas. Thomas had taken Crowe’s private plane and flown to Connecticut for only a few hours. Talking to charter companies, they said that renting a jet for a comparable flight would cost somewhere like $70,000.
Crowe is very involved in pro0business conservative politics. He’s a major republican donor. Also, he has given millions to ideological efforts to move the judiciary to the right. He sits on the board of major conservative think tanks.
Joshua Kaplan was one of three reporters who broke the initial story of the Thomas corruption.
2019, Thomas flew to Indonesia and spent nine days island hopping on Crowe’s super yacht complete with private chefs.
The first direct financial transaction was an undisclosed financial transaction, involved the house Thomas mother lived in. Money directly flowed from Crowe into Thomas’ pocket.
There are few rules about what kind of gifts Supreme Court Judges can receive. Thomas appears to have broken the law for not disclosing any of these gifts.
Then, after these stories broke, there were other stories, like that of Neil Gorsuch who struggled to sell a property and then nine days after being confirmed to the Supreme Court suddenly sold it to the head of a top law firm.
Then, there was the wife of Chief Justice Roberts who made $10 million placing lawyers with law firms. Some of them have had had business before the court.
There is no oversight of the court.
Corporate Media
This is one of those nights when I think I am going to lose my mind. First, there was Nicolle Wallace weeping on national television over the fact that Tim Russert died and his son wrote a book. You would think that nobody’s parent ever died in the history of the world. First, I have never understood why people find it necessary to winge on and on about Russert. I am sure he was a nice guy, but please, all this adoration? I don’t get it. Second, Luke Russert is not the only person who has ever experienced grief or hardship. Why does his grief merit an entire segment on nightly corporate news? Third, Nicolle Wallace was making it perfectly clear to her audience last night that she was crying over gun deaths. We do not need news anchors weeping. We need a media that will stand up for what is right, cover something beside the latest episode in the “Trump’s Legal Trouble” saga.
Alright. Then, there’s Ari Melber. Melber’s guests are talking about how the brinksmanship over the debt limit is “so yesterday.” The base seems to have moved on to fights with Disney, etc. I have no idea how this conclusion was reached by Chai Komanduri, a guest on Melber’s show. I really think that establishment Washington is incapable of realizing that the REALLY CRAZY faction of the Republican party actually wants to throw the world into economic chaos. People like Steve Bannon want there to be an economic catastrophe so they can establish a religious fascist state in the ruins.
Establishment Democrats refuse to fight, refuse to look at the reality of the political situation in this country. The Republicans are not going to be defeated in some kind of nice, rules-based debating session. They want to tear down society, to tear it apart. It seems like they will have to do it before establishment Washington will realize the truth. But, we will be the losers.
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Leonard Leo — who assisted former President Donald Trump in selecting judicial nominees — received a groundbreaking $1.6 billion dollar gift for his network through the Federalist Society; an organization with a tax status that condemns political activism.A new report published by Politico explains …
— Read on www.alternet.org/largest-political-donation-ever/
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