The Full Belmonte, 1/15/2022
The Russian government has sent operatives into eastern Ukraine in preparation for potential sabotage operations that would serve as a pretext for invasion, the Biden administration said on Friday.
‘We have information that indicates Russia has already prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine,’ the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules established by the Biden administration, said in an email. ‘The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy-forces.’
The Biden administration has accused the government of President Vladimir Putin of taking actions that serve as a justification for a potential invasion, which the official said could occur between mid-January and mid-February.
The official said that Moscow was also increasing its use of social and state media to ‘fabricate Ukrainian provocations’ ahead of possible Russian military action.
The White House has warned of ‘severe consequences’ including broad sanctions on Russia if it launches an invasion of Ukraine as it did in 2014.” Read more at Washington Post
“The Republican officials who submitted forged state documents to the National Archives to make it appear as if Donald Trump won states he lost in 2020 may soon have to explain their actions to federal prosecutors. Over the past week, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has unearthed five fake certificates of ascertainment that were submitted to the National Archives from different swing states in a badly thought-out plan to secure victory for Trump. One of those states was Michigan, and its attorney general, Dana Nessel, appeared on Maddow’s show Thursday evening to set out her next steps. ‘We think this is a matter that is best investigated and potentially prosecuted by the feds,’ she said. ‘As such, just today, we referred this matter to the Western District [of Michigan] U.S. Attorney’s Office.’ Nessel explained that she made her decision after realizing that the plot was carried out over multiple states, not just her own. ‘I think that you’re talking about a conspiracy, really, to overthrow the United States government,’ she said.” [Daily Beast] Read more at Maddow Blog
“A Texas district attorney said Thursday that he will take the state attorney general to court if the latter does not hand over his communications relating to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Texas AG Ken Paxton received a letter from Travis County DA José Garza on Thursday notifying him he had broken state records laws by refusing to turn over his communications about his travel to the pro-Donald Trump rally that morphed into an attempted insurrection. Paxton has four days to ‘cure the violation’ or he’ll be in for a lawsuit, the letter said. ‘After a thorough review of the complaint, the [DA’s] office has determined that Paxton and [his office] violated Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code,’ wrote Jackie Wood, director of the district attorney’s public integrity unit. Five Texas newspapers—the Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, and San Antonio Express-News—brought a complaint against Paxton concerning the communications. The attorney general, who is up for re-election in 2022, has been under investigation for more than five years, facing multiple criminal indictments in Texas, a bribery investigation by the FBI, and allegations of an extramarital affair.” [Daily Beast]
Read it at The Austin-American Statesman
“A federal website where Americans can order free coronavirus rapid tests will be launched Wednesday and allow each household to order up to four tests, senior administration officials said Friday.
The website, called covidtests.gov, will require that users provide their names and addresses to receive the tests. The government purchased 500 million rapid tests that will be available to every household, and will limit to four the number of tests sent to each address, the senior officials said during a briefing with reporters.” Read more at Washington Post
“Google misled publishers and advertisers for years about the pricing and processes of its ad auctions, creating secret programs that deflated sales for some companies while increasing prices for buyers, according to newly unredacted allegations and details in a lawsuit by state attorneys general.
Meanwhile, Google pocketed the difference between what it told publishers and advertisers that an ad cost and used the pool of money to manipulate future auctions to expand its digital monopoly, the newly unredacted complaint alleges. The documents cite internal correspondence in which Google employees said some of these practices amounted to growing its business through ‘insider information.’
The unredacted filing on Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York came after a federal judge ruled this week that an amended complaint filed last year could be unsealed.
The lawsuit was first filed in December 2020, with many sections of the complaint redacted. Since then, the redactions have been stripped away in a series of rulings, providing fresh details about the states’ argument that Google runs a monopoly that harmed ad-industry competitors and publishers.
Google said it intends to file a motion to dismiss it next week. A company spokesman said the lawsuit was ‘full of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit.’ He added, ‘our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content, and enable small businesses to reach customers around the world. There is vigorous competition in online advertising.’
The way ads are bought and sold on the internet is a complex process in which Google plays an outsize role as both a participant in and manager of the auctions that determine sales. Google owns the dominant tool at every link in the chain between online publishers and advertisers, giving it unique power over the monetization of digital content. It also owns key platforms for reaching consumers, such as YouTube. As a result, rivals have complained that the tech giant tilted the market in its own favor, allowing it to win more bids and foreclose competition. The amended complaint and its unredacted details aim to illuminate how that works in practice.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive best known for unapologetically hiking the price of a lifesaving medication, must pay $64.6 million and will be barred for life from the drug industry for violating antitrust law, a federal court ordered on Friday.
Mr. Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence for defrauding investors related to his work running two hedge funds and a different pharmaceutical company. That conviction is unrelated to the drug pricing saga that elevated him to notoriety. He is expected to be released this year.
In 2015, Mr. Shkreli — then a pharmaceutical entrepreneur in his early 30s not well known outside his industry — acquired a decades-old drug known as Daraprim, which is used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection, and raised its price to $750 a tablet, from $13.50. The move alarmed politicians and the public, who were already worried about rising drug prices and the role that pharmaceutical companies can play in making medicines unaffordable.
Most pharmaceutical executives raise prices more quietly and gradually, and with reassurances about ensuring patient access, but Mr. Shkreli seemed unrepentant. He became known as ‘pharma bro’ for his brash attitude in the face of criticism. The BBC called him possibly ‘the most hated man in America.’
On Friday, Judge Denise L. Cote of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Mr. Shkreli had tried to maintain a monopoly over Daraprim through anticompetitive tactics. The lawsuit had been brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of seven states, including New York.
The judge found that Mr. Shkreli had violated state and federal antitrust laws and that his former company, now known as Vyera Pharmaceuticals, had brought in $64.6 million in excess profits from its sales of Daraprim because of that conduct.
The court found that under Mr. Shkreli’s control, Vyera had changed the way the drug was distributed and impeded competition in the generic market. Consumers were harmed by higher prices and fewer options for the drug, ‘forcing many patients and physicians to make difficult and risky decisions for the treatment of life-threatening diseases,’ the New York attorney general’s office said in a news release.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic version of Daraprim.
The court opinion said Mr. Shkreli’s ‘anticompetitive conduct at the expense of the public health was flagrant and reckless.’
Lawyers for Mr. Shkreli did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday.
Mr. Shkreli repeatedly defended his decision to raise the price of Daraprim, saying the profits would allow his company to develop better antiparasitic drugs. When sentenced for his securities fraud conviction, he said he had never been motivated by money and had made mistakes in trying to bolster his reputation.” Read more at New York Times
“Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) said Friday he will not seek another term in Congress, becoming the third of the 10 Republicans who voted last year to impeach former president Donald Trump to announce their retirement.
In a statement posted to his Facebook page, Katko, 59, said that he made the decision ‘so that I can enjoy my family and life in a fuller and more present way.’
‘My conscience, principles, and commitment to do what’s right have guided every decision I’ve made as a Member of Congress, and they guide my decision today,’ said Katko, who is in his fourth term in Congress. ‘It is how I’ve been able to unite people to solve problems, and how I was rewarded with resounding victories in every single campaign for Congress.’
In a whiplash-inducing turn last year, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had deputized Katko to negotiate with Democrats on legislation to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Katko, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security panel, reached a deal with the chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), and announced the plan, only to have McCarthy reject it. The measure was approved by the Democratic-led House but blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
The House later formed its own bipartisan select committee to investigate the attack, which resulted in five deaths and injured 140 law enforcement officers.
Katko was one of 13 House Republicans to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, drawing the ire of some GOP colleagues who cast the 13 as ‘traitors’ for helping to deliver a legislative win for President Biden.
Trump celebrated the news of Katko’s retirement Friday.
‘Great news, another one bites the dust,’ the former president said in a statement. ‘Katko, from Upstate New York, is gone!’” Read more at Washington Post
“America now has 1 million fewer college students than before the start of the pandemic, reports Axios' Erin Doherty.
The big picture: Declines are hitting every category, including public and private colleges and two- and four-year schools.
Enrollment among first-year students is 9.2% lower than pre-pandemic levels, even as it stabilized this fall.
The hardest hit: Public two-year colleges, with a 13.2% drop since 2019, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found.
Between the lines: College enrollment has been on a downward trajectory since 2012, driven in part by fewer college-age adults.
The bottom line: Omicron is sending colleges back to the behavior of spring 2020.
That includes last-minute returns to online classes, The Wall Street Journal reports.” Read more at Axios
“Ohio's state Supreme Court has struck down the state's new congressional map as a Republican gerrymander that violates the state constitution.
The ruling is a boon to Democrats, who could've held as few as two of the state's 15 House seats after the next election.” Read more at POLITICO
“Former President Trump will address the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol at a campaign rally in Arizona on Saturday, setting the tone for his wing of the GOP going into the midterm cycle.
The issues of election security and the 2022 election results will likely take center stage as his Democratic foes dig into the issue of voting rights.
Democrats and the former president’s critics predict he will continue to spread his unproven claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him as the House Jan. 6 Select Committee kicks into high gear.
Trump was originally supposed to hold a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., as counterprogramming for a scheduled prayer service at the Capitol to commemorate the events of Jan. 6, but canceled it, saying he would instead touch on many of the themes he had planned to discuss at the news conference during the rally in Arizona.
The selection of Arizona as a rally location also fits the theme of Trump’s continuous and baseless claims about the last presidential election. Trump narrowly lost Arizona to President Biden in 2020. The state’s GOP-controlled Senate ordered an audit of the results in Maricopa County in the wake of the 2020 elections. The audit found that President Biden won the county by a larger margin than the final certified results showed.” Read more at The Hill
“Thousands of Ohio prison guards will begin wearing body cameras for the first time this year, bringing more transparency inside prison walls at a time when the coronavirus pandemic and guard shortages are making many prisons more dangerous.
Annette Chambers-Smith, the head of the state prison agency, said the state was buying 5,100 body-worn cameras that will be used by guards and parole officers in all of the state’s prisons. Not every guard will wear a camera at all times, but the program is still ambitious: Axon, the company that is supplying the cameras, said the state was adopting the largest body camera program of any prison agency in the world.
There are already thousands of surveillance cameras across Ohio’s 28 state prisons, but the addition of body cameras could make it easier to review the actions of guards and prisoners, capturing incidents that are not visible through existing cameras or are blocked from view by other people.
The move comes as several other states have begun to use body cameras in prisons and jails, albeit on a smaller scale, amid increasing criticism that prison guards, like police officers, are regularly involved in violent encounters that may involve witnesses with competing versions of events.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department told Arizona officials on Friday that it could claw back some of the state’s pandemic aid and withhold future payments if the state did not halt or redesign programs that use the money to undercut mask requirements in schools.
The warning was the latest development in a dispute between Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, and the Biden administration over how the $4.2 billion that was awarded to the state as part of the relief package that Congress passed last year can be used. Republican governors in several states have been trying to use the money for unauthorized purposes, such as cutting taxes or enacting immigration policies that are unrelated to the pandemic.
The Treasury Department first raised concerns about Arizona’s education policies last October, but the state declined to make changes.
Mr. Ducey announced last year that he was rolling out two education programs intended to undercut school mask requirements that some school districts in the state put in place.
A $163 million program using the federal relief money provides up to $1,800 in additional funding per pupil in public and charter schools. However, these schools must be ‘following all state laws’ and open for in-person instruction. Schools that required masks would not be eligible.
A separate $10 million program funds vouchers worth up to $7,000 to help poor families leave districts that require face coverings or impose other Covid-related ‘constraints.’
In the letter, the Treasury Department said that if Arizona does not cease or change the programs within 60 days, it could start a process to recoup the money that is being misused. It also said that it could hold back the second installment of relief money that Arizona is scheduled to receive this year.
Arizona has so far received about $2.1 billion of the $4.2 billion that it was awarded through the $1.9 trillion relief package.” Read more at New York Times
“Johnson under pressure. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to face more pressure within his Conservative party amid new revelations of parties at 10 Downing Street while the rest of the country was under strict social restrictions. The Telegraph—Johnson’s former employer and usually a reliable source of support—reports that the two parties took place in April 2021, on the night before the funeral of Prince Phillip. The juxtaposition of the parties next to images of Queen Elizabeth II mourning her husband alone in the funeral chapel has not been lost on Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who repeated a call for Johnson’s resignation. ‘Whilst she mourned, Number 10 partied. Johnson must go.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Detained protesters in Cuba could get up to 30 years in prison as they face the largest and most punitive mass trials on the island since the early years of the revolution.
Prosecutors this week put on trial more than 60 citizens charged with crimes, including sedition, for taking part in demonstrations against the country’s economic crisis over the summer, said human rights activists and relatives of those detained.
Those being prosecuted include at least five minors as young as 16. They are among the more than 620 detainees who have faced or are slated to face trial for joining the biggest outburst of popular discontent against the Communist government since it took power in 1959.
The severity of the charges is part of a concerted effort by the government to deter further public expressions of discontent, activists said. The crackdown also dashed lingering hopes of a gradual liberalization under President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who in 2018 replaced Fidel Castro’s brother Raúl to become Cuba’s first leader from outside the Castro family since 1959.” Read more at New York Times
“Electricity demand surges, Global electricity demand increased significantly in 2021, while growth in coal-fired power outstripped that of renewable energy according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. The increase in demand of 1,500 terawatt-hours, of which 50 percent was driven by China, is a new record, as is the growth in corresponding carbon emissions. The results of the report ‘underscore the massive changes needed for the electricity sector to fulfill its critical role in decarbonizing the broader energy system,’ IEA chief Fatih Birol said in a statement.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Serbia’s constitutional referendum. Serbian voters go to the polls on Sunday to vote in a constitutional referendum on reforming the country’s judicial system to increase its independence. The potential changes, if accepted would be another step forward for Serbia in its accession negotiations with the European Union as it strives to meet other standards for admission.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Afghanistan’s plight. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on the United States and World Bank to unlock Afghan funds frozen since the Taliban seized power in August. U.S. officials have frozen roughly $9.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets and, like most nations, has refused to recognize the Taliban-led government as legitimate. The call to release the funds comes as Afghanistan faces an acute hunger crisis, with U.N. agencies calling for $5 billion in aid for the country in 2022. ‘Freezing temperatures and frozen assets are a lethal combination for the people of Afghanistan,’ Guterres said.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“White House visitor logs obtained by the Daily Mail reveal that Jeffrey Epstein often had women with him during his 17 visits to Bill Clinton’s White House. The logs include the names of at least eight women who accompanied the disgraced pedophile to the White House during the early 1990s. Four were girlfriends, the Mailreports, including convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and Eva Dubin, who dated Epstein from 1983 to about 1991. Dubin, now 61, married hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin in 1994 just months before her White House visit. Though the logs don’t identify the purpose of the visits, they do record Epstein popping in and out of Clinton’s home twice in one day on three different occasions. Records also reveals that Epstein seemed quite comfortable in the presidential quarters; newly disclosed footage reveals that he decorated his Palm Beach mansion with photos of himself standing at the podium of the White House Briefing Room.” [Daily Beast] Read more at Daily Mail
“Clyde Bellecourt, a founder of the American Indian Movement who led violent protests in the 1970s at Wounded Knee, S.D., and in Washington over the federal government’s grim record of broken treaty obligations, and who later pressured sports teams to expunge their Native American nicknames, died on Tuesday at his home in Minneapolis. He was 85.
His wife, Peggy Sue (Holmes) Bellecourt, said the cause was complications of pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Bellecourt may not have been as well known to the general public as his fellow activists Dennis Banks and Russell Means, and his accomplishments may have been eclipsed by a checkered record of criminal arrests and internecine brawls, one of which ended with him shot in the stomach by a rival, Carter Camp, the movement’s newly elected national chairman, in 1973.
Regardless, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Mr. Bellecourt galvanized aggrieved but diffuse Native American dissidents after the publication of ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ (1970), Dee Brown’s scathing chronicle of the government’s historic betrayal of Indian treaties. He also dramatized their political, economic, social, cultural and educational agendas and redeemed his Ojibwe name, Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun, which means ‘Thunder Before the Storm.’ (The Ojibwe are also known as the Chippewa tribe.)
Mr. Bellecourt defended the armed takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Washington in 1972 and the 71-day standoff at the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, during which two Native Americans were killed and a federal agent was paralyzed after being shot.
Wounded Knee was where, in 1890, in one of the last bloody conflicts of the American Indian Wars, about 350 Lakota men, women and children were massacred by U.S. troops.
‘We are the landlords of the country, it is the end of the month, the rent is due, and A.I.M. is going to collect,’ Mr. Bellecourt was quoted as saying.
By then he had already shifted from the politics of confrontation to educating his fellow Native Americans and the American public in general.
In 1972, he began the bilingual and bicultural Heart of the Earth Survival School. In later years he established the Peacemaker Center for Indian youth; the American Indian Movement Patrol, to provide security for the Minneapolis Indian community; a Legal Rights Center; the Native American Community Clinic; Women of Nations Eagle’s Nest Shelter; the International Indian Treaty Council; and the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center, a program to move welfare recipients to full-time jobs.
He also helped create the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media, which urged professional, amateur and school teams to abandon nicknames like Redskins, Indians and Braves, which he saw as demeaning stereotypes.
‘We’re trying to convince people we’re human beings and not mascots,’ he said in 1992. ‘They’re making fools of themselves and of us in the process.’
In recent years both the Washington Redskins of the National Football League and Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians have dropped their old names.
On Facebook, the Grand Governing Council of the American Indian Movement lauded Mr. Bellecourt’s ‘fierce dedication, monumental presence and selfless leadership’ and said that he ‘embodied the spirit of the American Indian Movement, the spirit of resistance, the strength and the resolve our people have held for over 530 years.’” Read more at New York Times
“Michael Avenatti, the disgraced lawyer jailed for extortion after he represented adult-film star Stormy Daniels, is suing the Federal Bureau of Prisons for allegedly mistreating him in prison as revenge for his high-profile battles with former President Donald Trump. According to CBS News, Avenatti is seeking $94 million from the government—or $1 million for each day he says he spent behind bars in solitary confinement or lockdown. The suit alleges that Avenatti was only allowed access to one book during his time in jail—Trump’s The Art of the Deal. It also claims officials limited his contact with friends, family, and other inmates. Avenatti said in a statement: ‘A federal district court judge has found that I was held under terrible conditions and that it was hard to believe it occurred in the United States of America... I agree and I look forward to holding Trump and [former Attorney General William] Barr accountable for what they did to me in the interest of politics and revenge.’ A BOP spokesman refused to comment on the pending litigation.” [Daily Beast] Read it at CBS News
“Spencer Elden, the 30-year-old who found fame as the nude swimming baby on Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind album cover, has re-filed his $1.5 million child-pornography suit against the band. Elden’s initial suit was tossed after he missed a deadline but he was allowed to re-file it by Jan. 13. Similar to his first filing, Elden has argued that the band deliberately engaged in child sexual exploitation when it chose to use his image rather than a stock image of a different baby mocked up by the band’s art director. He claims to have suffered ‘extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations’ ever since. But, Nirvana’s lawyers argued the last time that Elden has seemingly enjoyed his unexpected fame. He has the album title tattooed on his chest, has appeared on talk shows to parody the photo, has re-enacted the photo several times for money, and has ‘used the connection to try to pick up women,’ they argued.” Read it at Daily Mail
“DALLAS (AP) — A single page of artwork from a 1984 Spider-Man comic book sold at auction Thursday for a record $3.36 million.
Mike Zeck’s artwork for page 25 from Marvel Comics’ ‘Secret Wars No. 8’ brings the first appearance of Spidey’s black suit. The symbiote suit would eventually lead to the emergence of the character Venom.
The record bidding, which started at $330,000 and soared past $3 million, came on the first day of Heritage Auctions’ four-day comic event in Dallas.
The previous record for an interior page of a U.S. comic book was $657,250 for art from a 1974 issue of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ that featured a tease for the first appearance of Wolverine.
Also Thursday, one of the few surviving copies of Superman’s debut, Action Comics No. 1, sold for $3.18 million, putting it among the priciest books ever auctioned.
None of the sellers or buyers were identified.