Showing posts with label Montana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montana. Show all posts

Thursday, March 5, 2026

Reading archive 2026-03-4

In Dallas County, frustration and confusion after GOP forces switch to precinct-based voting: Countywide vote centers weren’t used for election day. The ensuing disorder spurred an unresolved legal battle.

Abolition Vs. Empire, At Home As It Is Abroad: A new essay of mine for The Nation. It predicted the Iran War. I had to rewrite a bunch of it over the weekend. Stay for the part about abolishing JSOC

“Bombs will fall Everywhere”: The American, Israeli and Iranian Weapons Being Deployed in Middle East

Senator mocked ‘green energy crap.’ His house runs on it.: Montana Republican Tim Sheehy voted to scrap solar tax credits after installing panels and battery storage at his Bozeman home.

Why MAGA suddenly loves solar power: The Trump-led attack on solar eases as the right reckons with its crucial role in powering AI and keeping utility bills in check.

Targeting this $2.8 trillion tax shelter could solve a big U.S. problem: Only good can come from taxing these “nonprofits.” - "Reform could take several paths. The simplest: exempt only charitable donations and government grants from taxation, while taxing all commercial revenue — TV deals, insurance payments, ticket sales, royalties and sponsorship income — at standard corporate rates. The infrastructure exists; nonprofits must already categorize these revenue streams on their tax returns."

Putin is failing. These charts prove it.: Data from the battlefield show Ukraine is holding its own.

Top defense officials push back on concerns about U.S. munitions shortage: The U.S. campaign in Iran has already expended thousands of high-cost air defense missiles and other sophisticated munitions, just days into the conflict.

Capitol rioter arrested for assault, battery on Silver Line Metro train: Bryan Betancur spent four months in prison for his role on Jan. 6, 2021. He was later taken back to jail for stalking a D.C. activist.

Pete Buttigieg in the Wilderness: He has a beard, a splitting maul, and a house in Michigan. Is that enough to convince America that he’s a man of the people?

‘Elaine From Atlantic … She Needs to Leave’: Representative Jasmine Crockett claimed I wasn’t kicked out of her rally. Here’s the audio.

Elon Musk Moves Against the Russians in Ukraine: Russian forces falter as the world’s richest man intervenes in the war once again.

Monday, March 24, 2025

Reading archive 2025-03-24 pt 1

How a Global Online Network of White Supremacists Groomed a Teen to Kill

Turkey lurches toward outright autocracy as Erdoğan’s main rival is jailed: Popular opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu calls for mass protests as he is thrown in jail and booted out as Istanbul mayor.

What Is the Endgame for Ukraine?: History offers a range of precedents for what an agreement with Russia could look like—and how bad the consequences might be.

How Berlin’s fiscal flip stunned Brussels and spooked its allies: The weeklong blitz on the EU’s fiscal rules generated more blowback than Germany ever expected.

Trump said he didn’t sign the Alien Enemies Act proclamation. So who — or what — did?: Did Trump misspeak? Is he trying to deflect a decision under heavy legal scrutiny onto Secretary of State Marco Rubio?

‘Very dangerous’: Japanese Americans warn of Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act: Some fear Trump’s invocation of a 1798 wartime authority could lead to abuses similar to those that took place during one of the darkest chapters of U.S. history.

Trump wants to build more ships in the United States. It’s not so simple.: The administration aims to counter China’s dominance of commercial shipbuilding. - "'It appears to be written by people who have absolutely no idea how the maritime supply chain works,' said Lars Jensen, chief executive of Vespucci Maritime, a consultancy in Copenhagen. 'The container lines will adjust and cut out the smaller ports. The consequence is going to be massive port congestion in the larger ports.'

...

"If the new port fees are imposed, the three major ocean carrier alliances, which collaborate like airline industry partnerships, would probably try to avoid the extra costs by reassigning Chinese-made container ships from U.S. routes to serve Europe, analysts said. 

"Some vessels that would be subject to the fees could dock at Canadian or Mexican ports rather than unload at American wharves — costing American dockworkers and truck drivers.

...

"Fewer vessels docking at smaller ports such as Oakland, California, would make it harder and more expensive for major U.S. exporters to ship their goods to foreign customers, and it would affect imports as well. Farmers who rely on bulk carriers to move grain and other commodities would be hit especially hard, forced to send their crops hundreds of miles overland to Southern California."

Why Charles Schumer could be in trouble: Polling shows the Senate Democratic leader is in a historically bad position for a party leader, as some call to replace him.

‘Corner-crossing’ to reach public lands is legal, appeals court rules: The decision, in a case that pitted four Missouri hunters against a millionaire Wyoming landowner, protects public access to millions of acres across the West.

Trump says Boeing will develop the F-47, his namesake fighter jet: The president’s announcement marks a major milestone for the Air Force program that’s focused on ensuring the U.S. maintains a military edge over China.

Exploring the American frontier

Virginia man pleads guilty to removing top-secret documents from workplace: Gokhan Gun, a former electrical engineer for the Defense Department, admitted to taking classified records from the Joint Warfare Analysis Center.

Former Virginia sheriff sentenced in badges-for-dollars corruption case: Scott Jenkins, who was the sheriff of Culpeper County, had been convicted of federal bribery and fraud charges by a jury in December.

Your washing machine can clean a lot more than clothes: Here’s how to put this spring cleaning secret weapon to better use.

Sneeze smarter, not louder: The science of a quieter sneeze

Monday, October 28, 2024

Reading archive 2024-10-27

 Russian economy overheating, but still powering the war against Ukraine: Putin’s massive spending on the war is overheating the economy, but he has the resources to keep doing it. - "The failure of sanctions is closely watched by autocrats, he said.

"'The big message it sends to the Kremlin and to Beijing and any other autocratic potential troublemaker is that the West isn’t serious. The West is more interested in making money in the short term than in confronting autocrats. That’s the number one message, and that is deeply harmful,' he said."

Anti-Puerto Rico comments at Trump rally spur outrage as Bad Bunny supports Harris: The artist’s gesture of support came as a number of speakers at a Trump event in New York made racist and disparaging comments about Puerto Ricans and other Latinos.

Inside the fight for every vote in Montana

Trump says domestic foes worse than Kim Jong Un during meandering Joe Rogan interview: “We have a bigger problem, in my opinion, with the enemy from within,” Trump said after mentioning the oppressive North Korean leader, reprising a phrase that has drawn criticism.

Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally: Investors in Musk’s first company worried about “our founder being deported” and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa.

Elon Musk claims student visa permitted him to work in U.S.: After a Washington Post report and remarks from President Joe Biden, Musk denied working in the U.S. illegally.

Friday, October 18, 2024

Reading archive 2024-10-18 pt 1

Yahya Sinwar, architect of Hamas massacre in Israel, is killed: After years in Israeli prisons, he used his hard-line influence in Gaza to build Hamas into a powerful militia force against Israel.

A novel path to affordable housing in D.C.: Lawsuit, then settlement: The city’s Office of Attorney General announced a settlement that requires the owner of a troubled building in Shaw to keep apartment building affordable — or pay millions more.

Artificial nests can help endangered penguins breed, but design matters: Researchers assessed artificial nests made from four different materials to see which would help boost the population of endangered African penguins the most. - "Natural African penguin nests were historically created using burrows dug into accumulated bird droppings known as guano, Pichegru said. However, the nests were largely removed by humans in the 1800s and 1900s due to the practice of harvesting guano, which was used for fertilizer."

Man arrested for threatening FEMA workers speaks out: William Jacob Parsons, 44, defended his alleged actions at a Federal Emergency Management Agency site in storm-battered Lake Lure, N.C. - "Parsons said he was motivated by social media reports claiming that FEMA was withholding supplies from hurricane victims in western North Carolina. Such false claims are part of a wave of misinformation that has hampered hurricane recovery efforts across the Southeast.

...

"On Facebook, Parsons expressed support for Trump and espoused far-right, anti-government and anti-vaccination views and conspiracy theories, according to The Post’s review of dozens of publicly available posts made between 2018 and 2022." [ed. note: there's a fucking shock]

Between the Border and the Wall: Expanding the border wall in South Texas would leave more U.S. land in limbo - "At some locations, the wall has been placed as far as two miles away from the Rio Grande, leaving thousands of acres in the liminal space between the border and the barrier.

"The land is mostly farms and fields, but there are homes, historic churches and entire neighborhoods essentially cut off from the rest of the United States. A Washington Post analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection planning documents shows that the completion of the wall in the lower Rio Grande Valley would leave more than 100 square miles of U.S. territory — an area five times the size of Manhattan — on the wrong side of the divide.

...

"The project in Texas was different. The Rio Grande forms roughly two-thirds of the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border. The land along the river has long been valuable — unlike most of the borderland farther west — because it has water access. Many parcels in Texas consist of narrow slivers of land running perpendicular to the river, allowing owners to draw water for cattle or crops."

Opinion Harris ought to send Bret Baier flowers for that Fox News interview: Harris’s combative interview with the Fox News anchor displayed her qualities -- and facts

This American fruit could outcompete apples and peaches on a hotter planet: The resilient, native fruit has a cult following and could be small farms’ hedge against climate change in a fast-warming world

Here’s how the Smithsonian Zoo grows bamboo for its pandas: At a 3,200-acre facility in rural Virginia, the zoo harvests over 13,000 bamboo stalks a year. The process is now ramping up for the new pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao.

Can Trump and Harris turn out the voters they need? A key county has clues.: Northampton County, Pa., which went for Obama, then Trump, then Biden as part of a 100-year track record of almost always voting for the winner, shows the challenges both candidates are confronting.

Va.’s AG accused an election worker of corruption. She’s suing him back.: The office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Plan for more housing exposes a schism in a deep-blue Maryland county: Montgomery County officials want to allow denser housing in single-family zones. Opponents call it a “betrayal.”

Amazon doubles down on nuclear energy with deal for small reactors: The cloud computing and retail giant signed a deal to buy electricity generated by small modular nuclear reactors.

Montana ranger comes forward with account of Sheehy gun incident: Candidate says he was shot in Afghanistan; ranger witness to gun incident questions that account

Obama’s fears about Trump drive his stepped-up campaigning: Associates say the rallies are cathartic for the former president as he joins a Harris-Trump battle that could reflect on his own legacy.

Monday, September 23, 2024

Reading archive 2024-09-23

Tech giants fight plan to make them pay more for electric grid upgrades - "Chief among the power company’s concerns, according to the documents, is what will happen if it invests billions of dollars into new grid infrastructure only for the data centers to leave for greener pastures, or for the AI bubble to burst and the facilities to need much less power than initially projected. If the power company spends big on new infrastructure but the power demand it was built to serve doesn’t materialize, other customers — including business and residential payers — will be stuck with the bill, the utility said."

‘Agatha All Along’ star Kathryn Hahn casts an unforgettable spell: As the witch next door in Disney Plus’s ‘WandaVision’ spinoff, the longtime character actress steps into a role worthy of her charms.

Putin wants Russia’s youth to become ultranationalist patriots. Many are all in.

Opinion The U.S. military’s true advantage against any adversary: It’s the NCOs who set the U.S. military apart from the rest of the world.

GOP senator insults Arab American advocate at hearing on hate crimes: Sen. John Neely Kennedy used a hearing about hate crimes to accuse Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry of supporting terrorists.

Russia expels U.K. diplomats; Putin warns against deep strikes with Western weapons: The Russian president issued his sternest warning to date about the use of Western weapons in Ukraine ahead of a meeting of British and U.S. leaders.

The disaster no major U.S. city is prepared for [ed. note: power outage from storm and then heatwave]

Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair: Afghan religious police wield new power to enforce a ban on women raising their voices in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. - "Some Afghan women blame the outside world for their vanishing freedoms. 'The silence of the world over the last three years will go down as a dark chapter in history,' said Meena, echoing a widespread sentiment in the country that global attention has moved on from Afghanistan." [ed. note: we fought for them for 20 years]

These birds are almost extinct. A radical idea could save them. - "The sihek’s woes started shortly after World War II. Guam was a key battleground between U.S. and Japanese forces. After the war, residents began spotting invasive brown snakes slithering around the island’s trees, probably stowaways from military aircraft or cargo ships. 

"With no natural predators, the snakes proliferated, gobbling up the island’s small animals. Already, the snake has driven nine of Guam’s native forest birds to extinction."

Opinion Decades later, string theory continues its march toward Einstein’s dream: Why we must keep investigating physics’ most tantalizing theory — even without experimental results.

Cars with the most unpaid DC fines go to this impound lot

A survivor to her rapist: ‘I, too, am in prison’: He kidnapped, assaulted and raped multiple women. As activists try to give him a second chance, victims are speaking up about their rights. - "In that courtroom where Hubbard and her best friend from college faced their attacker — yet again — they were devastated that the man who assaulted and degraded them so violently has a real chance of getting out of prison. They now have to wait for the judge’s decision. 

"They were also gobsmacked at the array of help he had there for him — therapists, psychologists, a crusading attorney, anger-management programs."

Satellite footage suggests Russia ICBM launch test was a disaster: The apparent launch failure raised questions about Russia’s military capabilities and put in a dent in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling.

With nuclear option unlikely, Putin struggles to defend his red lines: There’s a growing realization in the Kremlin that the West is not falling for its nuclear threats and Putin is searching for new ways to enforce his red lines.

As Taliban starts restricting men, too, some regret not speaking up sooner: Beside imposing severe rules on women, new laws require men to grow fist-length beards and bar them from imitating non-Muslims in appearance or behavior. - "Amir, a resident who lives in eastern Afghanistan, said he supported the Taliban up until the latest restrictions. But he now feels bullied into submission by their morality police."

Where the sea wall ends: At a time of fast-rising seas, the ocean is eating away at this barrier island and others like it. But humans, who have held their ground here for over a century, are planning new condos.

The future of RFK Stadium should be up to D.C. — not a Montana senator: A Montana senator is blocking D.C.’s hopes for developing the RFK Stadium site. What if the roles were reversed? - "Close your eyes for a second. Imagine the role of Daines being played by, say, Phil Mendelson (D), the chairman of the D.C. Council. 

"Would the good senator from Montana take kindly to an elected official from the nation’s capital using political performatives to block, say, an economic development project in Bozeman? It sounds absurd because it is absurd."

Here’s how rich each candidate is compared with the average American: Trump, Harris, Vance and Walz span a wide range of financial circumstances. Here’s where they fit on the spectrum of American wealth.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Reading archive 2024-04-06

Opinion  How Ukraine’s tech army is taking the fight to Russia

Opinion  Trump swindles his followers — again

Opinion  How No Labels was thwarted — and a disaster for democracy was avoided

Opinion  Recriminalizing drugs, Oregon offers a cautionary tale

Column: The false centrism of political group No Labels

Inside Donald Trump’s secret, long-shot plan to end the war in Ukraine: Foreign policy experts and some Republicans warned that pressuring Ukraine to cede land would reward Putin

Montana GOP Senate candidate says he lied to ranger about gunshot wound in 2015: Tim Sheehy was cited for illegally discharging a weapon in a national park but says he made up the gunshot to cover up a bullet wound he received as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan that he never reported to superiors

They were thought to be hostages in Gaza. Israeli raids found they were dead.

‘Increasingly chaotic’: Why House Republicans are heading for the exits: The decision by 21 Republican lawmakers to depart is indicative of the broader morale problem within the GOP conference

Top Republican warns pro-Russia messages are echoed ‘on the House floor’: The latest remarks come after another GOP member said Russian propaganda has ‘infected’ the Republican base

Ohio warns Democrats that Biden may miss deadline for November ballot

The unassuming material that could soak up carbon emissions: Researchers want to use the ultrafine rock particles left by eroding glaciers — called ‘rock flour’ — to suck climate-warming carbon from the air

Trump in ‘full sprint’ to close Biden’s money lead as legal bills mount

Opinion  Environmentalism could stop the clean-energy transition

Mexico breaks relations with Ecuador after embassy raid

With no way out of a worsening war, Zelensky’s options look bad or worse

Monday, April 18, 2022

Reading archive 2022-04-18

McDuffie ineligible to run for D.C. attorney general, elections board says

The nuclear missile next door: What it’s like to live with a bomb stronger than 20 Hiroshimas in a time of rising worldwide tensions.

China tries to cover lockdown strains on Shanghai’s front-line workers

Elon Musk wants a free speech utopia. Technologists clap back.: Musk’s vision of the Internet is outdated and doesn’t take into account the real world, they say - "Fast forward and the Internet is indeed a different place. Russian trolls sowed disinformation on social platforms in the 2016 U.S. election and President Donald Trump used a network of followers as a misinformation megaphone in the lead up to the last election. Anti-vaccine activists have used social media to spread health conspiracies to millions of people. Even now, amid the conflict in Ukraine, researchers and Facebook have identified disinformation networks trying to tilt public opinion toward Russia."

A Democrat in gym shorts tries to rally blue votes in Trump country: John Fetterman believes his road to the U.S. Senate runs through Pennsylvania’s red, rural areas

The mindfulness conspiracy: It is sold as a force that can help us cope with the ravages of capitalism, but with its inward focus, mindful meditation may be the enemy of activism. - "Instead of encouraging radical action, mindfulness says the causes of suffering are disproportionately inside us, not in the political and economic frameworks that shape how we live. And yet mindfulness zealots believe that paying closer attention to the present moment without passing judgment has the revolutionary power to transform the whole world. It’s magical thinking on steroids."

Thich Nhat Hanh: is mindfulness being corrupted by business and finance?

The Trouble with Mindfulness Be mindful of three compelling problems with mindfulness. - "Thus, these studies basically find that mindfulness is better than nothing. Those that do use established interventions as comparison groups in randomized trials generally find that mindfulness works about as well as the other interventions such as exercise, prayer, pleasant activities (including watching television), and so forth."

Mindfulness is a capitalist grift: How faux enlightenment maintains our status quo: The meditative practice favored by America's titans of industry bears no relation to its anti-materialist origins


Monday, August 9, 2021

Reading archive 2021-08-09

Antiabortion activists at Supreme Court cite an unlikely authority for overturning Roe v. Wade: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally revs up, drawing thousands and heightening delta superspreader fears

Florida offers school vouchers for families angry with mask mandates while judge temporarily blocks ban in Arkansas

Democrats head home with a clearer message for voters as they try to avoid a repeat of the 2010 midterm disaster

The Cheapo Olympics Are Coming: The 2024 Summer Games in Paris will feature a big change: a modest price tag.

At Blizzard, groping, free-flowing booze and fear of retaliation tainted ‘magical’ workplace

Opinion: Trump’s coup attempt grows even more worrisome as new details emerge

Opinion: Shocking new Trump-DOJ revelations should shape the Jan. 6 investigation

A rape allegation at China’s Alibaba spurs furor over sexual assault, binge drinking

Florida church reeling after six members die within 10 days amid spike in cases

Visitors enter Montana mines filled with radon as a therapy for their ills

Judge asks why Capitol rioters are paying just $1.5 million for attack, while U.S. taxpayers will pay more than $500 million

Humans have pushed the climate into ‘unprecedented’ territory, landmark U.N. report finds: U.N. chief calls findings ‘a code red for humanity’ with worse climate impacts to come unless greenhouse gas pollution falls dramatically - "Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen to levels not seen in 2 million years, the authors state. The oceans are turning acidic. Sea levels continue to rise. Arctic ice is disintegrating. Weather-related disasters are growing more extreme and affecting every region of the world."

Billionaire James Murdoch building “recreational retreat” in Nascall Bay: A Globe and Mail article has confirmed that the 445 acre property in Nascall Bay was purchased by billionaire media mogul James Murdoch [ed. note: the super rich have apocalypse bunkers in New Zealand]

Monday, January 25, 2021

Reading archive 2021-01-25

After Capitol riot, police chiefs work to root out officers with ties to extremist groups - "'A brand new cadet, first week in the academy, openly bragged that they were part of the Aryan Brotherhood. Another cadet notified us. That is how emboldened some of these folks are right now,' Acevedo, who is police chief at the Houston Police Department, said. 'Needless to say, this cadet is no longer with us. We are looking to see what we failed to check before he entered the academy.'"

The rivers run through it, and Jon Tester wants them protected for Montana

The Biden administration’s Saudi problem

Mitch McConnell’s latest sabotage effort is a scam. He already showed us how.

Dominion voting machine firm sues Giuliani for more than $1.3 billion

Fall is prime tree planting season, but what about next spring’s cicada eruption?

Cicadas Are the Next Plague That Will Keep You Indoors: Brood X is coming this spring.

Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes Is Super Bowl Mythology in the Making: The greatest quarterback of all time is set to face off with the greatest quarterback on the planet. The result could echo throughout NFL history.

Transgender ban lifted. Tubman on the $20. It’s a hard time for conservatives.

Why the right’s machine of opposition is in for some tough times

The Nazification of the Republican Party - "If Republicans can’t permanently dominate this country with a demographically shrinking number of angry white people, they proved they are ready to blow it up, figuratively and literally. Now they want us to rush to forgiveness and reconciliation, and ignore that truth and accountability come first in the achievement of healing."