Richard Cook (38) of Boca Raton, FL, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. He was convicted on 10 May 2024 of felony and misdemeanor offenses related to his conduct during the 6 Jan 2021 breach of the US Capitol.
Cook joined a mob that relentlessly attacked USCP officers in one of the most violent areas of the Capitol riot – the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. The defendant entered the Tunnel on two occasions to join a collective push against police officers as the seditionists tried to gain access to the Capitol building. While Richard Cook joined in collective pushes, one USCP officer screamed in pain as the weight of the rioters’ pushes pinned him between a shield and a door. The FBI arrested Cook on 9 March 2023 in Florida.
USCP officers might be upset with this fairly light sentence as there has been an unevenness across the US judiciary towards the punishments of these insurrection defendants. Part of the problem lies in what charges were initially specified against the suspects, what the Justice Dept could prove in court, and plea agreements. Also, some defendants may have cooperated against fellow conspirators, reducing their sentence.
In the 43 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,488 seditionists have been charged in nearly all 50 states for attacking the US Capitol, including nearly 550 suspects charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement personnel. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Source:
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-capitol-riot-obstruction-2cdba47baa5cea8177d651de751760a6
CIA: Plot to Attack Taylor Swift’s Vienna Concerts Intended to Kill Thousands
Undated image of Taylor Swift.
The suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests. The CIA notified Austrian authorities of the plot, which allegedly included links to the Islamic State (IS).
A 19-year-old Austrian man, inspired by the Islamic State, allegedly planned to attack outside the stadium, where over 30,000 fans were expected to gather, with knives or homemade explosives. Another 65,000 fans were likely to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect’s home. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancellation of three sold-out Eras Tour shows. Three suspects are in custody whose names have not been released because of Austrian privacy rules.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen publicly addressed the failed plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit this week in Maryland.
The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the UK in recent years.
Source:
Reports: F-16 Crashed in Ukraine
Ukrainian Air Force F-16 fighter jets fly in an undisclosed location over Ukraine. A single Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet costs approximately $63 million, while the cost of training a basic qualified F-16 fighter pilot could be as high as $5.6 million.
A Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet was reportedly destroyed in a crash on 26 Aug, according to a US official quoted by The Wall Street Journal. The incident occurred during a massive Russian missile barrage across the country. But initial reports indicate the jet wasn’t shot down by enemy fire, but the jet likely went down as a result of pilot error. The Ukrainian Air Force wouldn’t confirm the crash or the status of the pilot. The crash occurred just weeks after the first F-16s arrived in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said F-16s were recently used for the first time in combat to shoot down Russian missiles.
Meanwhile, Ukraine used domestically-manufactured drones to strike both deep and near Russian targets. A strategic oil facility 900 miles inside Russia was struck, as well as field artillery infrastructure 35 miles from the Ukrainian border. The Ukrainian military is conducting damage assessments.
Sources:
Reports: F-16 Crashed In Ukraine Earlier This Week (rferl.org)
Top 10 most expensive fighter jets in 2024 (aerotime.aero)
Ukraine launches drone strikes targeting Russia’s strategic oil infrastructure – UPI.com
Six More Deaths Reported in Multistate Listeria Outbreak Linked to Boar’s Head Deli Meat
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported six additional deaths in connection with a multistate listeria outbreak traced to Boar’s Head deli meat. This brings the total number of fatalities to nine, with over a dozen others sickened.
Since the outbreak began, 57 people have been hospitalized across 18 states, making it the largest listeriosis outbreak since 2011, when more than 30 people died from contaminated cantaloupe. On 25 July, Boar’s Head issued a recall of its Strassburger Brand Liverwurst, produced at its Jarratt, VA facility, after concerns arose about contamination with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. The recall was later expanded to include seven million pounds of meat—every item produced at the facility.
The deaths have been reported in Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico, South Carolina, Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia. The affected victims range in age from 32 to 94, with a median age of 77.
Listeria is a hardy germ that can remain on surfaces, like meat slicers, and foods, even at refrigerated temperatures. It can also take up to 10 weeks for some people to have symptoms of listeriosis. Do not eat recalled deli meats. Some of the products have sell by dates into October 2024.
Source:
Listeria Outbreak Linked to Meats Sliced at Delis | Listeria Infection | CDC
Russian Agitprop Stoking Right-Wing Canadians; South Asians and Sikhs Targeted with Anti-Immigrant Hate
These proud and somber Sikhs represent several branches of the Canadian Armed Forces, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); one of them seems to be entitled to wear the kilt. (Undated public domain imagery taken at a memorial service).
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced new sanctions against Russia as a counter to the Kremlin’s disinformation activities aimed at Canada.
Ukraine and the West have long been a target of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has used a variety of information warfare tactics to destabilize the Ukrainian government and undermine the legitimacy of democratic governments around the world.
Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) has raised concerns about Russian online state-sponsored disinformation campaigns aimed at distorting Canada’s effort to help Ukraine defend itself. The most prevalent claim was “Ukrainian nationalism is a neo-Nazi movement,” a false narrative that has long been debunked by numerous fact-checkers. The Kremlin also actively spread the unsubstantiated claim that chemical and biological weapons are being covertly developed in Ukraine.
These Kremlin agitprop tactics are also incubating hatred towards South Asian and Sikh communities. Far-right Canadian influencers like Jeremy Mackenzie or Tommy Robinson have ramped up attacks against Canadians of South Asian origin – particularly Sikhs – telling them to “go back to their country,” while blaming immigrants for societal ills, like unemployment or lack of affordable housing. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network reports there has been a visible increase in content targeting of South Asians in Canada.
A hate crime was reported to police in Peterborough, Ontario on 26 July 26 after a Sikh man alleged he was spat on and “had his turban knocked off and stepped on.” Other incidents were recently outlined by the World Sikh Organization (WSO) in a press release, including another victim who was allegedly attacked had his turban removed and stolen in Scarborough, Ontario, and another man in Sudbury, Ontario, who was attacked and threatened to be run over for wearing a kirpan, a Sikh article of faith.
The WSO stated they are “deeply troubled by recent hate attacks on Sikhs” and an “alarming rise in online harassment of Sikhs across Canada” in recent months.
White supremacist group Diagolon, led by Jeremy Mackenzie, shared a post calling for “first world countries…to quarantine India,” otherwise Indians will “colonize every first world country” and called for the “deportation of all Indians.”
“They have to go back” is a phrase which advocates for the deportation of Indian immigrants en masse from Canada, is reminiscent of a trend gaining popularity in Europe called “remigration,” which argues for ethnically cleansing the continent of non-Europeans through forced deportations.
Growing anti-immigrant sentiments and racism took a violent turn in the UK this summer with rioters carrying out mayhem and attacks targeting immigrants and asylum seekers after far-right figures in the UK spread false information about the race of a suspect in an attack in northern England.
Sources:
Russian propaganda is making inroads with right-wing Canadians (theconversation.com)
‘She Can Go to Hell!’ JD Vance Lashes Out at Kamala Harris Amid Trump Arlington Cemetery Scandal
The Trump campaign continues to stumble from one pratfall to another. Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), who publicly bragged that he yelled at his seven-year-old son to “Shut the hell up about Pokemon!” has now viciously lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris during a Wednesday rally speech in response to media scrutiny over the Trump campaign’s possibly unlawful photo event at Arlington National Cemetery. This scandal may also damage House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) who allegedly intervened to allow Trump to attend the private Gold Star family commemoration.
In particular, JD Vance sought to blame Kamala Harris for the deaths of soldiers during the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan. This comes after Vance, himself a Marine veteran who served as a military correspondent, already tried to deflect to that topic, and accidentally mixed up “Abbey Gate”, the location where a suicide bomber killed US personnel at Kabul Airport, with “Abbey Road”, a London street popularized by the Beatles half a century ago.
“The other thing our veterans care a lot more about is that three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn’t been a single investigation, or a single firing,” the junior Senator from Ohio said.
“Look, sometimes mistakes happen, that’s just the nature of government, the nature of military service. But to have those 13 Americans lose their lives, and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful. You want to tell a story about those 13 Americans who lost their lives, it’s that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can go to hell!” Vance ranted.
Sadly for Senator JD Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, a DoD investigation into the attack was completed under the Biden Administration while Kamala Harris was Vice-President. See link below.
This crass and baseless innuendo comes after Vance had an awkward month on the campaign trail, ranging from an ill-advised bakery photo-op to the emergence of more comments he made attacking childless women.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
The Trump Campaign strategy of demonizing and smearing their opponents with slander may appeal to their hardcore base, but will not convince critical undecided voters this November. Women have already been turned off by JD Vance’s misogynist hillbilly rhetoric.
All the Republicans seem to offer the American voter is hate and vitriol. The GOP campaign seems to have no platform to help hard-working Americans improve their lives. Neither ex-President Trump nor JD Vance seem willing to discuss the Heritage Foundation brainchild, Project 2025, a plan the Washington Post described will “infuse Christian nationalism into every facet of government policy;” put another way, a Christian Talibanization of America. After the radically-right SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, why would Americans want more such extremist measures foisted upon them?
Sources:
Watch: J.D. Vance flubs name of location where U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan – Raw Story
Arlington tried preventing Trump from attending ceremony: Report (americanmilitarynews.com)
FAA Grounds SpaceX Falcon 9 After First-Stage Booster Incident
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket returns to Landing Zone 1 after launching the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center, FL, on Sunday, August 4, 2024. The FAA grounded the Falcon 9 rockets after a stage 1 booster crashed into a barge while returning to Earth. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
The Federal Aviation Administration FAA grounded SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rockets as it investigates why one of its first-stage boosters crashed onto a landing barge in the Atlantic Ocean, bringing a screeching halt to the company’s robust launch schedule.
The return of the first-stage booster safely to Earth went awry Wednesday morning after separating from the second stage. A second SpaceX flight scheduled to liftoff from California was paused after the incident. So was the expected launching of the all-civilian Polaris Dawn. The delay postponed what was expected to be the first civilian spacewalk.
No one was hurt in the incident and the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket delivered the satellites into orbit as expected. According to the FAA, SpaceX could be cleared to fly again with an ongoing investigation under certain conditions.
Sources:
FAA grounds SpaceX after Falcon 9 booster topples on landing : NPR
https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/advAdvisoryForm.jsp
Orange Lobster Returned to Sea After Arrival at Long Island, NY Store
An ultra-rare orange lobster that arrived in a shipment at a store on New York’s Long Island was released back into the Long Island Sound. Photo courtesy of Humane Long Island/Facebook
FTA: An extremely rare orange lobster that arrived in a shipment at a New York store was released back into the wild by an animal advocacy group.
Humane Long Island said on social media that workers at Southampton Stop & Shop found the orange lobster among the standard brown lobsters that arrived in a recent shipment. The store offered the crustacean to the Long Island Aquarium, but the facility declined.
The Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation learned about Pinky’s situation and contacted Humane Long Island, which reached out to management at Stop & Shop. The lobster, now named Clementine, underwent rehabilitation under the supervision of a veterinarian before being released back into the Long Island Sound.
Orange coloration is believed to occur in only one out of every 30 million lobsters. Peaches, an orange lobster being studied by researchers at the University of New England, recently hatched a clutch of 100 eggs, and some of the babies share their mother’s unusual pigment.
Source:
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/08/29/orange-lobster-Humane-Long-Island/3841724963291/
Coriolanus 