Paramedics carry a victim rescued from an apartment building after a Russian air strike in Kharkiv on 30 Aug.
Ukraine needs “strong decisions” from its partners to stop the terror that Russia is perpetrating in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on 30 August after a Russian air strike on Kharkiv hit a high-rise residential building and playground, killing six people. One of the victims killed was a 14-year-old girl and the overall number of injured was 47.
“This strike was a Russian guided aerial bomb. A blow that would not have happened if our defense forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based. We need strong solutions from our partners to stop this terror,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram. He also again emphasized that agreements Ukraine has made with its partners on providing air-defense systems must be fulfilled.
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has an active international arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, will be blithely visiting Mongolia on 3 Sep. The trip will be Putin’s first to a country that is a member of the ICC since the arrest warrant was issued in March 2023. Putin will travel to Mongolia at the invitation of President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh to participate in ceremonies marking the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armies over Japan on the Khalkhin Gol River, a Kremlin statement said.
Sources:
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Orders Suspension of X After Elon Musk Misses Legal Deadline
With supreme oligarchic arrogance, Elon Musk threatened to reactivate X accounts and shared a manipulated image showing Brazilian Supreme Justice Alexandre de Moraes behind the bars of a prison cell, threatening that one day “this picture of you in prison will be real.”
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension of the social media platform X across the country after it missed a deadline to name a local legal representative. The decision was handed down two days after Moraes ordered X and its owner Elon Musk to appoint a Brazilian representative within 24 hours or face suspension until one is named.
According to Brazilian law, social media platforms must have someone available in their country to receive takedown notice information in alleged cases of misinformation. X has not had someone in this position since it closed its offices in Brazil, alleging that Moraes had asked it to censor political opponents in violation of “Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law.”
Justice de Moraes also ordered Apple and Google to take steps preventing the downloading of the X application from their app stores in Brazil and instituted a a fine of nearly $9,000 for any person or company in Brazil that uses X.
In his ruling, Moraes blasted what he called X’s lack of moderation policies, citing an “imminent danger” of extremist groups using the platform to disseminate “Nazi, racist, fascist, hateful and anti-democratic” messages leading up to this year’s municipal elections.”
Moraes had previously ordered all X accounts blamed for spreading disinformation, many of them supporters of former conservative president Jair Bolsonaro, must be blocked while they investigate the charges. The Brazilian Supreme Court also froze the bank accounts of Musk’s space satellite service Starlink in the country.
Authorities in the UK and Australia have previously expressed their distaste for Elon Musk for harboring extremist right-wing communicators and spreaders of malicious disinformation on X. Whether the UK or Australia take action against Elon Musk, like a French investigating magistrate took action against Telegram CEO Pavel Durov or Justice de Moraes did here, remains to be seen.
Too bad the US does not have a Supreme Court like Brazil.
Sources:
Brazilian supreme court justice orders suspension of X across country – UPI.com
Elon Musk confirms Brazil X office closure
American Police Brutality Continues: Former MPD Sergeant Sentenced Five Years for Fatally Shooting D.C. Motorist
27-year-old An’Twan Gilmore in 2021. LaShunna Gilmore, the cousin of Mr. Gilmore, had a message for Enis Jevric: “I hope that you learn to be a better person.” (Public domain image)
Enis Jevric (42), a former Sergeant with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), was sentenced in federal court to 60 months in prison and five years supervise release for the August 2021 shooting death of 27-year-old An’Twan Gilmore. Jevric pleaded guilty on 23 Feb 2024 to violating Mr. Gilmore’s constitutional rights by using deadly excessive force. Jevric also pleaded guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter under D.C. law.
Shortly before 3AM on 25 Aug 2021, Jevric and 17 other MPD officers responded to a report of a man asleep in the driver’s seat of a vehicle stopped at an intersection. Officers approached the car and noticed that the sleeping driver had a handgun in his waistband. After officers had been on scene for about ten minutes and had cleared the avenues of civilian pedestrian and vehicle traffic, Jevric approached the car and directed another officer to knock on its windows to rouse Mr. Gilmore. When Mr. Gilmore awoke, the car moved forward several feet, stopped briefly, and then moved forward again. As it did so, Jevric fired his MPD-issued firearm at the car four times. The car then rolled farther and Jevric fired at it six more times. Three of Jevric’s shots struck Mr. Gilmore, who died a short time later from his wounds. No other officer fired at Mr. Gilmore. When officers pulled the bleeding, unresponsive, and unconscious Gilmore out of the car after it came to a rest, Gilmore’s firearm was in the same spot it had been observed, tucked into his waistband, underneath his buckled seatbelt.
As part of his guilty plea, Jevric admitted that his conduct constituted unconstitutional, unreasonable force, and that he acted willfully, in reckless disregard of Mr. Gilmore’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force by police. He also admitted that his conduct created an extreme risk of death to Mr. Gilmore and was a gross deviation from a reasonable standard of care.
Remarkable that 17 police officers initially responded to a stopped vehicle incident, followed up by a senior officer who would recklessly fire a total of ten rounds at the victim and the car.
Sources:
Family of man killed by DC Police speaks out | wltx.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_District_of_Columbia
Trump Re-Election Campaign: “A Real $hitshow”
The wheels of Donald Trump’s campaign clown car are falling off.
As former Bush advisor David Frum wrote about Donald Trump after the July RNC Convention: “This crew is totally beatable.” With approximately two months to go until the Presidential election, the Trump Campaign is thrashing about like an angry, wounded acid-blooded xenomorph from the iconic movie Alien. A blogger recently noted the GOP has become a “real $hitshow.”
The latest misstep following the cheap publicity stunt at America’s most revered cemetery came from Trump who recently said he believes the six-week abortion ban in his home state of Florida was “too short.” Republicans in the swing state just north of there were quick to angrily respond.
“This is completely and utterly grotesque and indefensible,” said Cole Muzio, head of the Georgia anti-abortion group Frontline Policy Council. Georgia conservative pundit Erick Erickson piled on: “If Donald Trump loses, today is the day he lost. The committed pro-life community could turn a blind eye, in part, to national abortion issues. But for Trump to weigh in on Florida as he did will be a bridge too far for too many.”
This week Megachurch leader and MAGA acolyte Robert Morris, who has served as religious adviser to Trump, confessed to “inappropriate sexual behavior” after a woman accused him of molesting her starting when she was 12. The disgraced, hypocritical sky-pilot resigned this week from the Gateway Church in the Dallas TX area and whether the victim is seeking criminal or civil remedies is not yet known.
Meanwhile, Walmart’s is marketing a Trump campaign hat with a glaring typo: “Take American Back.”
But there are more calamities. Recently a so-called “Never Walz” group bought a booth at the Minnesota State Fair in order to hand out their propaganda. But these MAGA supporters neglected to buy the “Never Walz” domain name. Pray take a peek inside: https://www.neverwalz.com/
Super-icons ABBA demanded that the Trump campaign stop using their music at rallies. Abba’s request came the same day that White Stripes guitarist and singer jack White blasted Trump’s people for using his songs, too, calling the campaign “fascists.” Foo Fighters, Céline Dion, Beyoncé, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, the estate of the late singer Sinéad O’Connor and the family of the late soul singer Isaac Hayes have all previously asked Trump to stop playing their songs. Hayes’ family even filed a lawsuit against Trump.
Meanwhile, justice is slowly but surely closing in on Donald Trump. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s carefully crafted re-indictment should concern Trump’s legal team. And the 45th President lost a massive civil liability case in NYS at the hands of AG Letitia James. Thanks to Johnny Palmadessa, here is the Live Trump Debt Counter:
Donald Trump’s Debt: Live Counter (trumpdebtcounter.com)
Despite these Trumpian disasters, Team Kamala must continue what they are doing and not take the foot off the pedal. In football parlance, the Democrats must “run up the score” with overkill touchdowns to counter potential Republican voter suppression efforts in states like Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, and others.
Sources:
‘Today’s the day he lost’: Georgia Republicans furious at Trump’s latest comments – Raw Story
ABBA, other music icons, demand Trump stop campaigning with their music – UPI.com
MAGA pastor Robert Morris’ sexual abuse scandal underscores the right’s LGBTQ hypocrisy (msnbc.com)
This Crew Is Totally Beatable – The Atlantic
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/politics/voting-laws-restrictive-map-october/index.html
On 30 August 1983: Guion Bluford Becomes First Black American in Space
File Photo Courtesy of NASA.
In 1983, Guion Bluford became the first Black American astronaut in space aboard the Challenger as part of the STS-8 mission. Bluford participated in four Space Shuttle missions, his final in 1992.
Astronaut candidates Ron McNair, Bluford, and Fred Gregory wearing Apollo spacesuits, May 1978.
Bluford was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1997, the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2010,[14] and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2020, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine awarded Colonel Bluford the Ohio Distinguished Service Medal: Ohio’s highest non-combat decoration for service.
Sources:
On This Day, Aug. 30: Guion Bluford becomes 1st Black American in space – UPI.com
Germany: Far-Right AfD Party Eyeing Potential First Win in Eastern German State Elections
German authorities identified over 32,200 right-wing extremists in 2019. Much of the rise has to do with authorities counting groups affiliated with the far-right AfD for the first time. (Source: DW.com)
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is predicted to come first in at least one of two state elections in Thuringia and Saxony on Sunday, putting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal coalition over the economy, immigration, and support for Ukraine. Germany holds federal elections October 2025.
The 11-year-old AfD, which has greater support in the formerly communist-run east, will be unlikely to be able to form a state government even if it does win, as it is polling short of a majority and other parties refuse to collaborate with it. But it will be the first time a far-right party has the most seats in a German state parliament since World War Two and its strength will complicate coalition building and could allow it to block constitutional changes and appointments of some judges.
The AfD is led in Thuringia by Bjoern Hoecke, a man that some in the party considered so extremist they tried to expel him. The former history teacher has called Berlin’s memorial to Nazi Germany’s Holocaust of Europe’s Jews a “monument of shame” and was convicted earlier this year for using a Nazi slogan at a party rally.
Business leaders have warned of the threat of far-right extremism to Europe’s largest economy, saying it could make it harder to attract skilled labor and investment. German politicians say populist rhetoric has fueled physical attacks against moderate or progressive politicians.
Any right-wing electoral win in the West is a win for the Kremlin. As in France and elsewhere, the rise of anti-establishment parties in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis are complicating coalition-building and governability. Any win for the AfD, big or small, will stoke xenophobic hatred for immigrants and minorities as seen in the UK this summer.
Map: 2024 CIA World Factbook.
Source:
Far-right AfD on track for its first win in eastern German state vote | Reuters
Coriolanus 