Day: June 24, 2024

US v Trump: Second day of Florida hearing wraps in classified documents case  Fox News

Of all the Republicans who have gone completely insane, Lindsey Graham is the biggest surprise. He used to be a normal Republicans who, when Trump announced his first run, berated Trump mercilessly. Then, Trump won, and something happened to Lindsey Graham. He turned from number one critic to chief bootlicker. One of these days, we’re going to find out what the Hell happened to him. In the meantime, we listen to him say all sorts of nonsense, including his claim that President Biden is the “real felon.” Graham must need some brain surgery-like a lobotomy-because his mind is shot.

Graham appeared with Jesse Watters on Fox. RawStory described his demeanor as “furious.” Graham told Watters: “Next time you hear the word ‘felon’ in this election, I think the felon in this election is Joe Biden.” Does Graham think saying it makes it so? Turns out that Graham meant: “What he’s doing to the country is criminal.” What has President Biden done other than lower the unemployment rate for Blacks, lower the poverty rate for Blacks, and got the cost of insulin down? Who knows what’s going on in that thing loosely called a mind in Graham’s head?

After Graham’s statement, Michael Steele, former RNC chair and current MSNBC host, had a fit. He ran the clip of Graham’s appearance and said that Graham’s ridiculous comments are part of attempts to ramp up attacks on President Biden as Trump continues to slip in the polls. What Graham said is not true, and people outside of Trump’s orbit know it’s not true. It really doesn’t matter what Trump’s minions think. They believe Trump is the second coming. At the end of the clip, Steele commented: “It is just mind numbingly stupid what he just said.” Explaining his comment, Steele said: “Because what you’re saying … I have a difference with his policies that are somehow criminal and therefore he’s a felon.” Of course, that makes absolutely no sense. Let’s call it was it is. Trump was convicted of 34 felony charges by a jury of his peers. Besides, who wants to stand behind a man who lies for a living? Trump brings nothing positive to the table, and as a convicted felon, he belongs nowhere near the White House, let alone in it. It is obvious that Graham has lost all sense of reason.

He returned to Fox Sunday to claim that Democrats are trying to “destroy” Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and referred to President Biden as “reckless.” No, these people sitting on the Supreme Court are reckless and lawless. Democrats merely want them to admit to their wrongdoing and live up to what should be the ethics of a Supreme Court justice. All judges should be scrutinized, and if they don’t live up to their roles, we should be able to recuse them. Graham and his fellow Republics love disorder and lawlessness. Graham is only one of many who need to vacate their offices for new people who know right from wrong.

The post There’s something wrong with Lindsey Graham appeared first on Palmer Report.

At least six people swimming along Florida’s coast died over the weekend after getting caught in a series of rip currents, bringing attention to one of the many dangers of the sea.

Experts say that there are many precautions people can take to stay safe from rip currents—which can move as fast as eight feet per second and faster than any Olympic swimmer.

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Rip currents are narrow channels of water that move people away from the shoreline and cause some 100 drowning fatalities every year. “At the beach, you have waves and water crushing up onto the sand, and that water needs to go somewhere, right? And so rip currents are locations along the beach where that water will flow back out to sea,” National Weather Service Community Engagement Lead Douglas Hilderbrand tells TIME. 

Rip currents are experienced along the East, Gulf, and West coasts of the U.S., as well as the Great Lakes. “Even in the Gulf of Mexico, where people think the waves are smaller than the Atlantic, you can still get very dangerous rip currents,” says Hilderbrand. This year rip currents have been particularly deadly in Puerto Rico, though the Outer Banks or Florida Panhandle can also see a high number of drownings, he says.  

These types of currents vary in strength, but can pose a risk to even the most experienced swimmers. More than 80% of all beach rescues are due to rip currents, according to the United States Lifesaving Association). 

There have been at least 16 reported deaths already in 2024. Here’s how to stay safe during a rip current. 

How to spot a rip current

Spotting a rip current may even be difficult for trained lifeguards, making it even harder for the average beach-goer. It might be easiest to spot a rip current by first looking at where waves are crashing to then find the gaps in the water. “The best description that we can give is that it’s an area where you don’t see a lot of breaking waves, and don’t see the white foamy water of a crashing wave. You actually see a lack of waves,” Hilderbrand says. Surf Life Saving of New South Wales notes that rip currents may also be seen as a gap of seemingly calmer and darker water. Debris or seaweed moving towards the sea may also be indicative of one.

Hilderbrand says that people swimming at a beach with a lifeguard should feel at ease as they often designate safe swimming areas with flags in the sand.

How to stay safe 

Basic water safety advises people to always swim near lifeguards and know their limits within the water. “Your children [may be] comfortable swimming at the neighborhood pool or the backyard pool, [but] the ocean is a completely different environment,” Hilderbrand says. 

But if you do find yourself caught in rip current, the most important thing is to remain calm. Trying to swim against a rip current will cause great fatigue, which will only increase the possibility of drowning. “There’s no downward force from rip currents. It’s going the opposite direction of the shoreline,” says Hilderbrand. “If you were able to stay calm and float, that rip current eventually ends.” 

To break the grip of the rip current, people should look for waves (which will indicate that they are out of the rip current area) and ride those waves to shore. Swimming parallel to the shore until you can get out of the current is the best bet.

If there are lifeguards on duty, or others nearby, you should try to ask for help by raising your hand, or calling out.

If a loved one is caught in a current, the best thing to do is reach out for additional support to avoid being subject to what experts refer to as a secondary drowning.

“Stay calm. Activate that emergency process, whether it’s calling 911, shouting to somebody to call 911, or get[ting] the attention of a lifeguard. Try to find something that could be used as a flotation device, like a kid’s boogie board, or floaty [to help],” says Hilderbrand. “Take an emotional pause before taking the action to go into the water.”

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to plead guilty this week to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that could end his imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia, U.S. prosecutors said.

U.S. prosecutors said in court papers that Assange, 52, has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Assange is due to be sentenced at a hearing on the island of Saipan at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday (1900 EDT/2300 GMT on Tuesday). He is likely to be credited for the time he has already served and face no new jail time.

WikiLeaks in 2010 released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – the largest security breaches of their kind in U.S. military history – along with swaths of diplomatic cables.

Assange was indicted during former President Donald Trump’s administration over WikiLeaks’ mass release of secret U.S. documents, which were leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. military intelligence analyst who was also prosecuted under the Espionage Act.

The trove of more than 700,000 documents included diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts such as a 2007 video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Iraq, killing a dozen people including two Reuters news staff. That video was released in 2010.

The charges against Assange sparked outrage among his many global supporters who have long argued that Assange as the publisher of Wikileaks should not face charges typically used against federal government employees who steal or leak information.

Many press freedom advocates have argued that criminally charging Assange represents a threat to free speech.

Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a European arrest warrant after Swedish authorities said they wanted to question him over sex-crime allegations that were later dropped. He fled to Ecuador’s embassy, where he remained for seven years, to avoid extradition to Sweden.

He was dragged out of the embassy in 2019 and jailed for skipping bail. He has been in London’s Belmarsh top security jail ever since, from where he has for almost five years been fighting extradition to the United States.

While in Belmarsh he married his partner Stella with whom he had two children while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy.

Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington Additional reporting by Michael Holden and Kate Holton in London Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis

(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump continue to run neck-and-neck in the race for the White House, a trend that hasn’t changed significantly since convictions were handed down for Trump as well as Biden’s son Hunter.

Trump continues to hold a slim lead in several polls and maintains leads in key battleground states ahead of the first presidential debate, according to polling conducted by Emerson College/The Hill.

The polling shows that Trump leads Biden by four points in Georgia and Arizona, three points up in Wisconsin and Nevada and two points up in Pennsylvania. Trump also maintains a one-point lead in Michigan, according to the polling.

“There has been little movement, with support for Trump and Biden staying largely consistent since November, ”Spencer Kimball, the executive director of Emerson College Polling, told The Hill following its first poll since Trump’s hush money conviction in May.

What were Trump and Hunter Biden convicted of?

On May 31, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in an attempt to keep information from voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden was convicted earlier this month on three weapons charges in the first of two trials the president’s son will face ahead of his father’s bid for reelection.

President Biden was not implicated in the case and said that he accepts the jury’s decision and has no plans for a pardon for his son.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After the jury read its verdict in May, Trump said the trial had been disgraceful and rigged.

“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump said. “This is long from over.”

Independents might be swayed by Hunter Biden, Trump convictions

Residents in seven key states for the 2024 race indicated Trump’s conviction has no impact on how they will vote, the Emerson College polling found.

The same residents said the same about Hunter Biden’s conviction, showing that the two trials will not likely have a huge impact on the election results.

Although voters loyal to the Republican or Democratic Parties are not likely to be swayed by the convictions, a recent poll conducted by Politico/Ipsos found that 21% of independents were less likely to vote for Trump due to his hush money conviction.

NewsNation political contributor Chris Stirewalt recently said on The Hill that Trump’s legal woes could be a determining factor in the mind of the undecided voter.

“Having Donald Trump in the news every day for a couple of weeks and emphasizing the fact that he is a convicted felon took these marginal Biden voters — these folks who were saying they were undecided, took these folks who said, ‘Maybe I’ll vote for RFK Jr, maybe I’ll write in Peppa Pig,’” Stirewalt said. “These people said, ‘Uh, I have to do it – the election is on.’”

Trump still faces looming criminal charges in his classified documents and election interference cases, although dates have not been set, and it’s likely proceedings may not take place ahead of the November election.

Some polling shows momentum for Biden

Other recent polls have shown Biden picking up support among likely voters. Political site FiveThirtyEight shows Biden holding a slight lead over his Republican challenger by a 0.4% margin Monday, marking the first time that the president has led in its polling averages.

Polls conducted by YouGov (CBS News) and ActiVote show Trump leading the race, while two recent polls sponsored by Fox News show Biden leading by 2 points and 1 point, respectively.

A poll conducted last week by Redfield & Wilton Strategies and sponsored by The Economist shows the race to be even.

None of the polling shows either candidate with more than a three-point advantage heading into Thursday’s debate.

‘Siding with Trump…would show her incompetence’: Andrew Weissmann on Judge Cannon  MSNBC

Рекрутинговый центр по сбору стволовых клеток и костного мозга в Белгородской области успешно работает с марта этого года.

Предположительно, основатель Wikileaks может выйти на свободу после пяти лет, уже проведенных им в британской тюрьме.

Президент Франции мог бы обсудить с российским коллегой «тему атомных электростанций».

Исследователи пытаются оценить безопасность стимуляции мозга пациентов, страдающих от тяжелой эпилепсии