Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems
September 2, 2022
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“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” – Aristotle
Reading The Riot Act
As of July 6, 2022 – 18 months after a deadly pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol Building – the Justice Department had arrested and charged over 850 rioters and continued searching for some 2,000 more. 325 defendants had pleaded guilty, and several more have done so since. A handful of defendants have chosen to go to trial. The first was Texan Guy Reffitt, who was found guilty on all five felony counts in March. On August 1, he was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison. In April, Virginia police officer Thomas Robertson was found guilty on all six felony counts. On August 11, he received the same prison sentence as Guy Reffitt.
The first rioter to stand trial on assault charges was ex-NYPD officer Thomas Webster. The 20-year police veteran was also the first defendant to claim self-defense, laying the blame on a “rogue” Metropolitan Police officer. In court filings, his attorney argued that the mob had been “guided by unscrupulous politicians” and others promoting the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. He wrote, “These forces championed by former President Donald Trump exerted an extraordinary amount of influence … through their relentless disinformation.” In May, the jury found Webster, 56, guilty on all six felony counts, and yesterday, a U.S. district judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release. “Mr. Webster, I don’t think you’re a bad person,” the judge said. “I think you were caught up in a moment.” But the judge also admonished Webster that another of his victims on January 6 was democracy, and that “is not something that can be taken lightly.”
Two other events made September 1 remarkable. Thursday morning, Donald Trump told a conservative radio host that (if reelected president in 2024) he would issue full pardons and a government apology to rioters who stormed the Capitol and violently attacked law enforcement to stop the democratic transfer of power. “I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he vowed. Then, that evening, President Biden delivered a prime-time address warning of the threat to democracy from “MAGA Republicans” and election deniers who encourage violence in their determination to thwart the will of the vast majority of law-abiding Americans. (Politico, ABC, AP, WaPo ($))
Nuke It Out
- A 14-member inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency made its way Thursday through heavy machine guns, artillery, and mortar fire before finally entering Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The team is on a mission to safeguard Europe’s largest nuclear plant against potential catastrophe, as fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces has already prompted the shutdown of one reactor.
- After months of negotiations to get the group through the front lines, the director said: “The IAEA is now there at the plant and it’s not moving. It’s going to stay there. We’re going to have a continued presence at the plant with some of my experts.” He added, “It is obvious that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times by chance, deliberately.” He said he would continue worrying “until we have a situation which is more stable.” (AP News)
Oil Giant Dies In Russia
- Ravil Maganov was chairman of the Russian oil and gas giant Lukoil. The country’s second-largest oil company made headlines in early March after speaking out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. On Thursday, Maganov died after falling out of a sixth-floor hospital window around 7 am Moscow time.
- Lukoil confirmed Maganov’s death in a statement published on its website, saying only that the executive died “following a severe illness” and making no mention of a fall. Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a law enforcement source who said the businessman “most likely committed suicide.”
- At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, with three of them allegedly killing members of their families before taking their own lives. Four of the dead men were associated with the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries. Another Russian businessman, his wife, and two young children were found stabbed to death in late March. (CNN)
Additional World News
- Russian parents and teachers urged to boycott ‘propaganda classes’ (Guardian)
- Over 6.8 million have left Venezuela since 2014 and exodus grows (Al Jazeera)
- Oil firms seek U.S. mediation to defuse Iraq-Kurdistan tensions (Reuters)
- Taiwan shoots down drone for first time off Chinese coast (Reuters)
- Belgian PM tells EU to ‘stop the bleeding’ of energy prices as country unveils new measures (Politico)
- Tanker refloated after breakdown in Egypt’s Suez Canal (Reuters)
- Russia starts massive war games with China and other ally states (Al Jazeera)
Palin Comparison
- Republican Don Young won Alaska’s seat in the U.S. House in 1973 and held it until his death in March at age 88. Almost immediately Sarah Palin announced her candidacy in a special election to finish out Young’s term in office. But Alaska’s former Republican governor and vice-presidential candidate is a polarizing figure, and Wednesday’s election results proved to be shocking – in a good way for Democrats.
- For the first time in 50 years, a blue Democrat will fill the red state’s one House seat. Mary Peltola, 49, is Yup’ik, and will become the first Alaska Native and first woman to hold the seat. Peltola ran as a coalition builder while her two Republican opponents – Palin and Nick Begich, grandson of the late Nick Begich, the state’s last Democrat to hold the House seat in 1972 – at times went after each other.
- Palin also railed against the ranked voting system instituted by Alaska voters. Peltola, Palin, and Begich are all candidates in the November general election, seeking a two-year term starting in January. (NPR, WaPo ($))
Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems
- President Biden announced plans Wednesday to give civilian federal employees a pay raise in 2023. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Biden said there would be an overall average increase of 4.6 % for civilian federal employees to take effect January 1.
- He cited recruitment and retention challenges for federal positions as part of the reason for the proposed increases, and the new pay plan would allow the federal government to better compete with the private sector. The president’s announced pay increases are consistent with the increases he proposed in his 2023 budget and would apply to some 2.1 million executive branch employees.
- If Congress enacts different rates of pay increases for 2023, those numbers would take precedence over Biden’s, but that’s not expected to happen. Meanwhile, Republican attorneys general, top lawmakers, and conservative groups are strategizing about filing multiple lawsuits in different courts around the country to block Biden’s plan to cancel some student debt. Such challenges could limit or invalidate the policy before it takes full effect. (WaPo, $)
Additional USA News
- Family blasts South Dakota school hair length policy that would have required child to cut locks (NBC)
- Chicago busing: The first bus carrying migrants from the Texas-Mexico border arrives in Illinois, officials say (CNN)
- Columbus Police Release Body Camera Footage of Fatal Shooting (NYT, $)
- Fetterman campaign says stroke recovery factors into fall debate plans (WaPo, $)
- Federal judge says disabled Wisconsin voters can get help returning their ballots (NBC)
- Newsom’s court-ordered treatment plan for homeless Californians passes final test (LAT, $)
- Fire near Castaic shuts down 5 Freeway amid triple-digit heat (LAT, $)
Big Rig(atoni)
- If you remove the pieces of gravel and cement, this might not make such a bad recipe. The day after a truck of tomatoes overturned and was subsequently smushed all over the California freeway, a massive vat of Alfredo sauce overturned in Tennessee on Tuesday.
- An 18-wheeler truck carrying hundreds of bottles of the cheese-based sauce crashed and spilled them all over I-55. The bottles spread across the roadway. Of course, in the middle of summer in Tennessee, the idea of Alfredo sauce baking on the road in the hot sauce wasn’t exactly ideal. “Crews worked through dusk to clear the sauce – using cleaning equipment, not breadsticks, of course,” said NBC. (Guardian)
Additional Reads
- WATCH: Watch: TV anchor says she got fired for letting her hair go gray. See CNN anchors’ reaction (CNN)
- Efforts underway to remove hazardous sunken WWII German ships from the Danube River (CBS)
- Leaky battleship in Texas begins trip for $35M repairs (AP)
- Extraordinary images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 competition (CNN)
- Short breaks can help boost energy at work, study suggests (Guardian)
- $11.8 million worth of cocaine seized from truck purportedly carrying baby wipes, officials say (USA Today)
- Disney Ponders Creating A Program Similar To Amazon Prime To Drive New Revenue (Deadline)