#President's Day Sales 2024

[crazyblondelife]

Brochu Walker Early Spring + The Best President's Day Sales

Hi Everyone! I’ve just gotten back from a quick trip to Richmond to visit my daughter and little granddaughter Stella! She’s growing so quickly and seems to change by the minute! She’s smiling and laughing and really getting quite a little personality! I got to keep her for a while yesterday while mom and dad went out and ran errands and it was the sweetest time! I feel so blessed to have 4 beautiful grandchildren!

On the way to Richmond, I met my friend Lisa Richey for lunch at an amazing restaurant in Raleigh called Bida Manda. Bida Manda is a Laotian restaurant and very delicious! I’ve never really eaten Laotian food but can’t wait to explore and learn more about this cuisine and culture. I highly recommend this restaurant if you’re in the Raleigh area! I’ll definitely be back as soon as possible!

These pictures were taken at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC…it’s one of my favorite hotels and they also have a fabulous restaurant called Print Works. The Proximity was named after the the Proximity Mill which was a cotton and sawmill in the 1800s. The restaurant was named after the Printworks Mill. These names are nods to Greensboro’s rich textile history. It’s such a pretty hotel and the food is delicious so we decided to take some pictures and then eat lunch after!

I’m wearing a gorgeous cashmere sweater and trousers from Brochu Walker. I started working with Brochu Walker last year around this time and they have truly become one of my favorite brands! The clothes are timeless, well made and elegant and pieces that I reach for again and again!

Brochu Walker makes the most luxurious cashmere and I’ll be wearing this sweater nonstop until the weather gets too warm. The camel is such a great color and it also comes in a beautiful ivory color…it’s so elegant! The pants are a linen/cotton blend and so versatile! I have the same style in a brown faux leather and I’ve worn them often! I’m such a denim girl and these pants have a denim look but a trouser style which I love! I added my favorite Veronica Beard booties (I’ll wear slingbacks when the weather gets warmer), my Louis Vuitton tote and a chunky gold chain (similar here).

Baldy and I are off to Florida on Tuesday and I’m very ready for some sunny skies and warm temperatures!

President’s Day Sales

I’m not sure what it is with President’s Day and mattresses, but there are so many great mattress sales going on now…so if you’re in the market, this is definitely time to purchase! Keep scrolling because I’ve included a boutique of some of my favorite pieces from a few of the sales!

Fashion & Beauty

Abercrombie - 25% Off All Jeans

Adidas - Savings of Up to 65% off with Code FEBRUARY

Nordstrom - Winter Sale Up to 50% Off

Stila Cometics - LIMITED TIME ONLY - Buy 3 or more Steals and enter code SAVEMORE for an EXTRA 10% OFF

Saylor Clothing - During the Friends & Family Sale, enjoy an extra 20% off sitewide with code FF24 from February 16 through February 19

ThirdLove - Take 25% off undergarments with code LONGWEEKEND between February 15 and February 19.

Natori - During the President’s Day Weekend Sale, take an extra 40% off the sale section with code PRESIDENT between February 16 and February 21.

Home

1stDibs: Up to 30% off Sitewide

Annie Selke: Extra 20% off Select Sale Items

Beautyrest Mattresses: Up to $1,100 Select Mattresses

Boll & Branch - 20% Off Sitewide

Brentwood Home - 10% Off Sitewide

Brooklinen - 20% Off Sitewide

Buffy - Up to 30% Off

Caraway - Free Cutting Board with Purchase of $825 or More

Casper - Up to 30% Off Sitewide

Castlery - Up to $450 Off Sitewide

Courant - 20% off Sitewide

Coyuchi Bedding & Bath - Up to 40% Off Select Bedding

Cozy Earth - 20 - 25% Off Sitewide

Crate & Barrel - Up to 60% off Clearance

Ettitude Bedding - Buy One Get One 50% Off Duvet Covers and Inserts

Lulu and Georgia Furniture - Up to 25% Off Sitewide

Made In Cookware - Up to 25% Off Sitewide

Mitzi Lighting - 20% Off Sitewide

Nectar Sleep - Up to 40% Off Sitewide

Our Place - Up to 25% Off Sitewide

Parachute Home - 20% Off Sitewide

Purple Bedding - Up to $800 Off Mattress Sets

Samsung - Up to 30% Off Frame Smart TV

Saatva Mattresses - Up to $600 Off Mattresses

Serta - Up to $1100 Off Mattresses and Adjustable Bases

Stearns & Foster - Up to $600 Off Select Mattresses

Target - Up to $150 Off Select Apple Products

Tempur-Pedic - Up to $500 Off Mattresses and Sets

Tuft & Needle Sleep - 20% Off Mattress

Urban Outfitters - Up to 50% Off Sale Items

Wayfair - Up to 70% Off Sitewide

West Elm - Up to 60% Off Sale Items

Williams Sonoma - Up to 50% Off Sale Items

[worksmarter4yourfuture]

President's Day Sale Worksmarter4u Editing Suite

Our Worksmarter4u Editing Suite President's Day Sale is happening now!  To Celebrate President's Day this year, we pulled out all the stops with and additional savings of up to 80% Off on all of our Artificial Intelligence powered Graphic Design and Animation apps!   Visit Worksmarter4uEditingSuite for more details 

[probablyasocialecologist]

The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. The U.S. Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its stance known to top diplomats in late April. Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. Israel has been largely dependent on American bombs and other weapons in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. But Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

[...]

Separately, the head of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration had also determined that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid and that the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze almost $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel, according to emails obtained by ProPublica. The U.N. has declared a famine in parts of Gaza. The world’s leading independent panel of aid experts found that nearly half of the Palestinians in the enclave are struggling with hunger. Many go days without eating. Local authorities say dozens of children have starved to death — likely a significant undercount. Health care workers are battling a lack of immunizations compounded by a sanitation crisis. Last month, a little boy became Gaza’s first confirmed case of polio in 25 years. The USAID officials wrote that because of Israel’s behavior, the U.S. should pause additional arms sales to the country. ProPublica obtained a copy of the agency’s April memo along with the list of evidence that the officials cited to back up their findings.

24 September 2024

[kaibutsushidousha]

The Hundred Line - Famitsu interview June 19th 2024

What does the title Hundred Line mean?

Kodaka: The simplest way to describe this game is: student have to live together in a school while fighting to survive 100 days. This "100 days" timeframe became a major keyword, so we decided to express it through the title The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy.

The game has been described as "a tale of extreme x despair produced by the creators of Danganronpa". This "extreme x despair" keyword reminds me of the Concept Art 1 presented September 2018 at the announcement of Too Kyo Games. Caption: Extreme x Despair. A game co-written by Kodaka and Uchikoshi!

Kodaka: As you can imagine, this is the game from Concept Art 1. We finally managed to announce, but at first, The Hundred Line was developed as Too Kyo's first original IP. However, our company isn't capable of self-publishing, so now we're working with Aniplex, on a half-half split on production costs.

When did development start?

Kodaka: Since we founded Too Kyo Games (2017), so that has been 6 or 7 years. At first, Uchikoshi and I partnered with another major publisher to release our game, but unfortunately, the project was canceled...

In a previous interview, you mentioned a title not coming out as planned, but I didn't think you mean an actual cancellation...

Kodaka: I have so much I could talk about on this one, but I don't think the first talk about this game should be about what went wrong, so how about we save it for another day? Haha. Although The Hundred Line's project was canceled for a while, now, after finding what we needed to make it a good game, we rebranded it and restarted our whole internal development cycle.

We were initially fine with it being indie-sized, but as the story and character designs were getting polished, and the concept gained a more solid form, we started thinking we couldn't make our ideal game unless we went bigger. Determined to put our hand to the test... we took a loan.

A loan!?

Kodaka: It wasn't guaranteed that we'd have the working capital to maintain our enlarged development scope even if we sold all of our stocks. We advanced the production with the phantom of debt on our necks while we searched for a new publisher, and that's where I met Aniplex and smoothly sold our pitch.

However, since this game has simulation RPG sections, they said that'd need a third-party developer. For that, they introduced us to the accomplished Media Vision and had them join the dev team. We're also cooperating with Jet Studio, who worked with us before in Danganronpa and Rain Code.

After all that it took to get this game to a presentable state, we of Too Kyo Games consider it a proud symbol of our persistence, or better yet, the culmination and conclusion to the current stage of our careers.

Staking your life on your work has never been so literal...

Kodaka: True, if this game flops, we won't be able to pay our debt. In that sense, this also provides a rare opportunity to the playerbase too. They get to witness how much a single title's sales can influence the future of a creator and company.

That's not the kind of suspense I want as a game fan, haha. Still, with six years of development, is it safe to assume you've been through a fair share of hardships?

Kodaka: I did. That was my first time dealing with a full cancellation. Also, to enable to Too Kyo to continue its work, to partner up with a new publisher, etc, we couldn't continue the development in the direction we were before. We needed to restart on our semi-complete project, and that's already painful labor in itself.

In terms of creative workload, I can't say I was much busier than I was in the Danganronpa V3 days, having to work in the game and the anime at the same time, but in this situation, aside from my directing, writing, and screen composition duties, I'm also Too Kyo Games's president and producer, meaning I have more work outside my craftsmanship... Making the game and managing the funds at the same time would have given most people a mental breakdown (laughs).

It was mentally and financially taxing, but I don't think I'll ever get another opportunity to pour this level of effort into making a game happen. Putting my life on the line was a very valuable experience.

You mean to say you can feel Too Kyo Games's entire soul in the game? On another note, I couldn't find any of the characters from the concept art in the new key visual or the screenshots. Does the restart mean that those characters got shelved?

Kodaka: The game's general concept is still the same, but to put a new, clean start on it, we changed a few things completely. One of them being the character designs. But despite their changed appearances, they maintain the characterization of their predecessors, so you'll see characters similar to what those would have been.

However, the old politician you see in the upper left corner won't be in the game (laughs). He's a character Komatsuzaki made up on the spot for this illustration, so I know as much about who he is as you do. He's doomed to disappear shrouded in mystery.

(laughs) By the way, considering how The Hundred Line is "the tale of extreme x despair", I'm curious about how this keyword "despair" relates to Danganronpa.

Kodaka: The tagline "tale of extreme x despair" is to signify that this is the first game Uchikoshi and I are directing together. It has nothing to do with Danganronpa, but it is a game made leveraging all of my previous experiences. With that plus Komatsuzaki's and Takada's involvement, I consider it a spiritual successor to Danganronpa.

Who from the main Too Kyo Games roster is working in this and what are their roles?

Kodaka: Uchikoshi and I are splitting the directing and writing work, Komatsuzaki is on the character design, Shimadrill is doing the enemy design and the backgrounds, and Takada is in charge of the soundtrack. Also, Uchikoshi and I do screen composition for the scenes we write.

I didn't think I'd have to do the screen composition job here myself, but I'm the best at handling Komatsuzaki's art and Takada's music, so that job is dumped on me. I got a lot of material to work with. Maybe more expression options than Yuma had in Rain Code.

The Danganronpa series also had me personally choosing faces and soundtrack one by one, so I hope the fans of that series enjoy the familiar vibes in the visual novel sections.

The new announcement came with a key visual. Are these characters in uniforms going to be the main cast?

Kodaka: Yes. They're the students of Last Defense Academy and are living in the school for unknown reasons. The students have special powers called Hemoanimas. They normally have their own sets of clothes, but upon activating their Hemoanima, they change into this uniform and fight against their enemies.

Is the white character a mascot?

Kodaka: Yes. He's the squad coordinator character. So his name is just SIREI, from shireikan; commander. By the way, SIREI is the reincarnation of the raccoon illustrated in the key visual. Both forms of this character were designed by Komatsuzaki. I pointed him in a general direction I wanted but overall let him do whatever he wanted. Meanwhile, the students followed the usual process going through a lot of back-and-forth until their completion.

In Danganronpa, their designs reflected their Super High School Level talents. Does The Hundred Line have any kind of keyword or characterization element that informed their designs in the same way the Super High School Level talents did?

Kodaka: Each student masters a different Unique Subject and has a different weapon of choice. That's what their designs mainly reflect. I'll talk more about Unique Subjects and weapons of choice later.

I'm looking forward to the update. Next question. Danganronpa and Rain Code had all-star casts of voice actors. I have expectations for The Hundred Line's cast.

Kodaka: Unfortunately, I can't reveal the actors at the moment, but I will say half of them have performed in previous Kodaka or Uchikoshi game and the other half is people we're both meeting for the first time. But look forward to it, it's going to be as all-star as any previous game. I know the released PV is voiced by the protagonist, but who is voicing him is still confidential.

Will the creatures depicted flying above the main characters be enemies?

Kodaka: Correct. The enemies are unknown entities attacking the school. They're called School Invaders. If you take a really close look at the key visual, you may notice the academy is protected by a pink flame. That's called the Unextinguishable Flame and that's what prevents the School Invaders from attacking 24/7.

When the School Invaders get past the Unextinguishable Flame, the students will need to repel them. The students aren't informed about the academy's or the unextinguishable flame's secrets, nor they know why the School Invaders are attacking. The story progresses as they fight School Invaders day by day unaware of their circumstances.

Do you have anything noteworthy to say about your interactions with Shimadrill regarding his work designing the enemies?

Kodaka: My priority for the character design of the weaker School Invaders was that they had venomous pop aesthetics. At my first discussion with Shimadrill, we arrived at the idea of making their designs intentionally similar to the monsters of a famous game franchise, but we changed plans along the way. Ultimately, we got likable enemies with that pop aesthetic.

Playing aggressively even on the designs, huh? That's the Too Kyo Games I know.

Kodaka: We changed our aim because copying designs was a really bad idea we took too far. Our mindset at the time is that, true to Too Kyo's name, we wanted to make a game that was indeed too crazy. Too Kyo Games is a company that prides itself on its writing, designs, and music.

However, compliance is a lot more important nowadays, so there's a lot more we need to keep in mind. We were defanged by the corporate structure of our partner for the cancelled version of the game. Depictions of violence and dirty jokes that were acceptable in our previous works weren't fine with them. We had to be on our best behavior to adhere to their compliance demands.

Now that I got to remake the game as something else, I can see that not releasing it on its previous state was for the best. Because I couldn't express my strengths in full there.

The Hundred Line was my first collaborative work with Uchikoshi and our first original IP. Making a game that's simply good wouldn't be enough. There'd be no point in starting this over if we couldn't go all-out. We developed The Hundred Line determined to make a game someone with good sense couldn't make. A title to be considered a product of deranged minds. In the sense, we were very lucky to land on a partnership with Aniplex.

Tell me more about what do you mean by "lucky" here.

Kodaka: To leverage the strengths of Too Kyo Games, we're writing a very controversial narrative. Aniplex is being thankfully quite flexible with what we're allowed to depict, as they understand our fortes and respect our vision. For that reason, Uchikoshi and I were able to depict the crazy story we wanted to.

Kodaka, in a previous interview, you expressed determination toward making this game a story that make people question your sanity. A game people wouldn't expect to be possible to make. Would you say managed to fulfill this ambition?

Kodaka: I can't comment about the gimmick without getting into spoilers, so I have no plans to reveal the answer to this before the game's release. Playing the game for yourself should be enough to convey Too Kyo Games's outlandishness. I believe my reason to pair up with Uchikoshi will be equally evident, and it'll be easy to make sense of why this game needed multiple writers and recruiting new hires.

I know perfectly well this is a tasteless request, but can you drop a hint?

Kodaka: Fine, I'll tell you some details after the interview. You're allowed to address what I'll say in your opinion post (laughs).

I appreciate the gesture, but let's see if I'm up for the challenge (laughs)

Tell us what the general gameplay loop is like.

Kodaka: The Hundred Line follows a cycle of 3 parts: a visual novel section, an exploration section, and a simulation RPG section. I already explained at the opener that it's a game where you survive 100 days of combat, but that doesn't mean time will pass uneventfully.

Like in Danganronpa, something will happen each day, and you'll get chances to talk with your schoolmates and deepen your relationships. You'll get Free Time, you'll get training sessions to increase your stats, and you'll be able to get other power ups by sharpening your weapons. The goal in the visual novel and exploration sections is to enjoy life with your schoolmates while also preparing for the enemies that can appear at any moment.

Got it. Now explain the simulation RPG section too, please.

Kodaka: The simulation RPG section has tower defense elements. It's not just about defeating the enemies, you also have to fight defending the school. Also, since the School Invaders come in large flocks, the main gimmick here is that you need to fight on multiple grids of the board at the same time instead of taking it one grid at a time.

Our developer, Media Vision, has a lot of experience in simulation RPGs. We'll disclose more details about the gameplay later, but I'm glad they were able to come up with and implement hype combat ideas (such as unique traits and ultimate moves for each character) in a way that can satisfy the fans of the genre.

You mean to say the simulation RPG sections are going to be solid?

Kodaka: Correct. That said, a lot of people who buy my games are casual gamers, so I always put emphasis on ease of play.

Then first-time simulation RPG players will have nothing to worry about.

Kodaka: Another point of interest is Takada's soundtrack. I requested the battle BGM to have the intensity of an action game. It's inspired by technical rock bands from the 90s, mainly The Chemical Brothers and Boom Boom Satellites. The visual novel sections, on the other hand, have a more sci-fi-adjacent OST to match its strong sci-fi aesthetics.

Tell us a release date and the consoles.

Kodaka: Early 2025, Switch and Steam.

Less than a year before release. Do you think the team can make it?

Kodaka: We're still working on it, but I think we won't have to delay the release. To be honest, The Hundred Line is progressing faster than Rain Code was (laughs). Besides, Too Kyo Games can't afford to delay a game our creators are staking their lives on.

Messages to players and readers usually often saying things like "We're doing our best" or "Cheer for us", but for this title, I can't bring myself to be so casual about it. I feel like I'm issuing a challenge to the players here.

I have a marketing strategy to draw attention to the game, and I'm polishing it to make anyone who buys it say it's a good game, so I'm feeling more of a "Just watch me!" or a "Wait until you see this thing released!" for a closing message.

Giant Kuroda's editorial comment

As outlandish as promised.

That's the interviewer's honest impression on what Kodaka told me about The Hundred Line's gimmick. I [Giant Kuroda] have been the Famitsu interviewer in charge of Danganronpa since Danganronpa 2. I interviewed him pre-release for a game launched in 2012, which means I've been talking to Kodaka for at least 12 years.

Kodaka and his art surprised me many times. In a good way.

Danganronpa 2's final boss. Danganronpa V3's first case culprit, finale, and the secret hidden in the title. Danganronpa 3 simultaneous broadcast of Side:Future and Side:Despair. Rain Code's first case...

The list could go on forever, but The Hundred Line's gimmick is more impactful than of those. I can't deliver a final judgement until I play the game for myself, but depending on what the game has to offer, it could be his uncontested best. That's how much potential I felt in that spoiler. I get the point of staking their lives on it now.

Also, in what's rare for a Kodaka title, the game will be allowed to be streamed relatively far into the story despite earlier spoilers (information subject to change). Kodaka's story-heavy games are a double-edged sword. It's possible for players to feel like they experienced enough by simply watching a Let's Play that spoils all the twists. However, I believe this game actually benefits from unrestricted streaming. But I can't say why. It's a spoiler...

At any rate, this game is Kodaka's and Uchikoshi's first collaborative story, and as Kodaka said, its narrative is a product of deranged minds. I wait with bated breath to the day I can finally play it, and also look forward to reading opinion posts about it online. You can get your hopes up, Kodaka and Uchikoshi fans.

[mrsreinhart]

Lionsgate was another of the studios that presented its novelties on the first day of screenings of the majors in the LA Screenings 2024. The event was held at the iconic Regency Theatre Westwood and culminated with an elegant party at the Santa Monica Pier, which was attended by numerous buyers and a carefully selected foreign press.

The day was led by the main executives of Lionsgate: Kevin Beggs, Chairman of Lionsgate Television, Sandra Stern, Vice Chairman of Lionsgate TV Group, and Jim Packer, President of Worldwide TV Distribution. During the event, they presented several outstanding titles that promise to capture the attention of global audiences.

One of the dramas presented was Hal & Harper. The series of 10 episodes of 30 minutes each, tells the story of the brothers Hal and Harper, who face the arrival of a new member to the family while their childhood home is for sale. Together with his father, who is also going through difficulties, the family explores the evolution of their relationships and faces profound losses on their way to new beginnings under different roofs.

Lionsgate Screening

[magz]

Palestine summary for March 16 to March 28, 2024. (From "Lets Talk Palestine" broadcast channel). Quote.

March 16, 2024.

Day 162

• 1st aid shipment departing Cyprus arrived in Gaza yesterday carrying 200 tons of food, marking 1st Gaza sea shipment since 2005 + planned 2nd ship coordinated by US, UAE, Spain & Japan; but unclear on distribution of aid across Gaza

• Massacre in central Gaza as Israel destroys home, killing 36 Palestinians, incl. kids & pregnant women

🔻 Senior Hamas & Houthi officials hold rare meeting to discuss coordinated action against an Israeli Rafah ground invasion

• Israeli settlers attack homes in Nablus (West Bank), throwing stones & shooting the air + 20 Palestinians abducted in West Bank, incl. some released in Nov. hostage exchange deal

•⁠ ⁠Palestinian Authority (PA) president Abbas accuses Hamas of causing “return of Israeli occupation of Gaza”, essentially blaming Hamas for the ongoing genocide. Was prompted by Hamas criticism of ‘unilateral’ appointment of new PM of the PA (see our last broadcast)

• 63 Palestinians killed, 112 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

March 17, 2024.

Day 163

🇺🇸⁠ NBC: Biden frustrated over drop in poll numbers in swing states Michigan & Georgia due to his handling of Gaza genocide. Shouting and swearing in a White House meeting, saying he’s doing what is right

•⁠ 19 aid trucks arrive in north Gaza — first convoys to reach the north without incident in 4 months. But aid remains scarce as Israel keeps blocking entry of aid as trucks pile outside Rafah crossing + rate of malnutrition among children under 2 in north doubles in past month

•⁠ 14th Palestinian dies since Oct 7 in Israeli prison following multiple allegations of extreme abusive conditions for Palestinian hostages

🇪🇺⁠ ⁠EU President condemns an Israeli Rafah invasion, joining countless nations to do so like the US & Arab countries

•⁠ Israeli forces abduct 25 Palestinians, incl. a woman with cancer from Gaza & a child in overnight raids in West Bank

•⁠ ⁠92 Palestinians killed, 130 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

(No specific summary for March 18)

March 19, 2024.

Day 165

🇨🇦⁠ Canada to halt all further arms exports to Israel in support of ceasefire and 2-state “solution”, recognizing ICJ ruling. This came after a non-binding parliamentary resolution which called for ending arms sales. But resolution’s language was watered down during amendment, denoting Hamas as a “terror organization” + removing call to sanction Israeli officials

• 93 Palestinians killed, 142 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

• Israel escalates attacks across Gaza with 1 attack on Rafah killing 14 Palestinians + ongoing raid of al-Shifa hospital killed & injured dozens

• Israel issued 100,000 new gun licenses to Israeli’s since Oct 7 out of the 299,354 applications

• Israel massacred aid distribution committee at Kuwaiti roundabout (north Gaza), killing at least 23 people

•⁠ ⁠Israeli settlers, w/ ongoing genocide as a distraction, accelerated building of 18 new illegal roads + 15 outposts (unauthorized settlement illegal under Israeli law) in West Bank since Oct

March 20, 2024.

Day 166

•⁠ 104 Palestinians killed, 162 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

🇺🇸 Reuters:⁠ US Congress & White House reach deal on funding bill that includes blocking UNRWA donations until March 2025, based on Israel’s unverified allegations

🏥 IOF siege on al-Shifa hospital enters 3rd day, as forces surround the complex trapping hundreds inside & block rescue efforts

•⁠ 8 Israeli attacks kill 100+ aid workers in 1 week + IOF massacred 23 aid seekers in north Gaza

🚢 Israel Hayom: Israel plans to buy port in Cyprus amid fears of Haifa port closure from Hezbollah strikes, hindering military & commercial imports

⚓️ ⁠Israel’s Eilat port will fire half its employees due to Red Sea blockade

•⁠ Israeli High Court approves demolition of a Palestinian’s home for carrying out a non-lethal resistance operation in West Bank; marking first authorized home demolition by court for an operation without fatalities — an escalation in Israeli repression

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia pledges $40m to UNRWA

March 21, 2024.

Day 167

• As Arabs celebrate Mother's Day today, we remember that on average 37 mothers are exterminated everyday in Gaza, meanwhile mothers from Gaza make up 28 of the 67 female detainees in Israeli prisons

• 65 Palestinians killed, 92 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

🏥 Israel continues 4th day siege on al-Shifa Hospital, killing 140+ Palestinians & abducted 600 people, incl. medical staff. 13 patients killed as Israel cut off electricity, depriving oxygen, medicine & food

• 18-year-old Ubai Abu Maria abducted by Israeli forces in West Bank for 7th time, impeding treatment for bullet wound requiring surgery

•⁠ Poll finds 71% of Palestinians in Gaza & West Bank support Hamas's Oct 7 resistance operation; compared to poll 3 months ago, support among West Bank residents dropped by 11% but amongst Gazans rose by 14%

• Israel ordered 25 patients receiving care in West Bank to return to Gaza. They're among the 400 patients from Gaza who were left stranded in West Bank after Oct 7

March 22, 2024.

🚨Russia & China veto US UN Security Council ceasefire resolution

The resolution showed a shift: US had vetoed every ceasefire proposal, most recently Algeria’s as the US opposed language of “immediate” ceasefire, preferring “humanitarian pause”. But now the US draft states “the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire”.

The problem? It’d last only 6 weeks, is conditional on release of Israeli hostages, and condemns both Hamas’ op & the Houthi naval blockade. The wording of “determines the imperative” is also weak, implying the importance of a ceasefire, not demanding one.

The result? It wouldn’t obligate Israel to end the genocide + let it continue on the pretext that there’s no “acceptable” hostage deal.

It was vetoed by 🇷🇺 & 🇨🇳 who said it’d let Israel continue attacks & invade Rafah. Algeria also voted against it.

10 states are planning alternative resolution calling for Ramadan ceasefire, including but not conditioned on release of Israeli hostages. US likely to veto.

Day 168 - IMPORTANT

•⁠ Gaza death toll surpasses 32,000 not including the thousands buried under rubble

‼️ Israel seized 1,977 acres of West Bank land for settlements, the largest land theft since 1993

🇺🇸 Congress passes bill that bans funding to UNRWA until 2025; expected for Senate to pass before midnight deadline

🏥 Israel’s siege on Shifa Hospital enters 5th day as they bomb & demolish buildings with bulldozers; abducting 240+ patients & 10 medical staff from radiology unit. IOF forces ordered trapped patients to surrender despite continuous heavy gunfire

•⁠ 50 Palestinians abducted incl. 4 kids during 60+ Israeli military raids across West Bank in 2 days. Marking March 20 “one of the deadliest nights recorded to date” in 2024 in West Bank w/ 7+ Palestinians killed. Israeli settlers also took over 20+ Palestinian residential structures

•⁠ UN aid mission to north Gaza for 7,500 people was denied by Israel

🇫🇮 Finland to resume UNRWA funding

March 24, 2024.

Day 170

🚨 Israeli forces lay siege to 3 hospitals, surrounding al-Amal Hospital forcing Palestinians to strip naked & leave; currently carpet bombing near Nasser Hospital & sniping anyone moving, while continuing aggressive 7-day seige on al-Shifa

• 84 Palestinians killed, 106 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

• Israel denied thousands of Christians from West Bank entry to Jerusalem on Psalm Sunday, heightening military checkpoints. Israel’s apartheid system discriminates Palestinians’ freedom of movement, requiring permits for West Bank residents to enter, which is rarely granted. More info on Israeli apartheid: https://rb.gy/vjocrd + checkpoints: https://rb.gy/rabxt6;

• Israel to deny all UNRWA aid convoys to north Gaza, despite 70% of population subject to “catastrophic starvation”

• BDS launches boycott of tech company Intel due to its $25bn investment in new factory in Israel, the “largest investment ever”; on top of Intel’s $50bn+ investments in Israel in past 50 years

March 25, 2024.

UNSC CEASEFIRE MOTION PASSES

For the 1st time the Security Council managed to pass a ceasefire resolution. The US abstained while all 14 others voted yes

The US planned to veto if it didn’t mention the hostages so it “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

But it doesn’t condition the ceasefire on a hostage swap the way done by the US draft that got vetoed by 🇷🇺 & 🇨🇳

It doesn’t condemn Hamas explicitly as the US wanted but it “deplores” all attacks against civilians & “all acts of terrorism” noting that it’s illegal to take hostages under int’l law. So it’s indirect condemnation

It expresses deep concern “about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” calling for more efforts for more aid & to protect civilians. This is weak language

Better than nothing but not enough as people are slaughtered & raped.

Day 171 — Attacks on 3 hospitals

🚨 Israel escalates attacks on “safe zone” Rafah killing 30+, including women and children amid threats of looming ground invasion

• 107 Palestinians killed, 176 injured in past 24 hours

🏥 22,000 displaced Palestinians face worsening conditions in the European Hospital, one of the last functioning in Gaza, overcrowded with patients awaiting critical care

🏥 Israeli forces lay siege to further hospitals in Khan Younis forcing critically ill patients to evacuate the premises surrounded by complete destruction

🏥 Israeli forces open fire on medical staff forced to evacuate al-Amal Hospital amid continuous attacks on the premise leaving patients in critical condition, deprived of medical supervision

• Netanyahu cancels Israeli delegation trip to US over its abstention in today’s UNSC vote, calling it a departure from their long-standing support of Israel. Biden called the move “disappointing”

• Israeli assaults targeting homes in central Gaza kill 18

(No march 26 summary)

March 27, 2024

Day 172

🚨 Gaza Gov’t Media Office demands end to aerial aid drops after one today killed 6 & caused 12 to drown in north Gaza

• 81 Palestinians killed, 93 injured in the last 24 hours

🇯🇴 100+ protesters arrested & teargassed outside Jordan’s Israeli embassy amid demands to end Jordan’s military & economic ties with Israel

🇧🇪 Brussels City Council passes motion to ban council purchases of products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank on the basis of international law violations

• Israel bombs residential building in Rafah, killing 15+ displaced Palestinians incl. 4 kids. Analysts say the Rafah bombings mark the start of a “silent” invasion

🏥 Ongoing Israeli attacks on Shifa Hospital kill 30+ people incl. a family living in a residential building near the besieged complex

• IOF abducts 30 Palestinians in overnight raids in West Bank cities

🇱🇧 Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon kills 2 people, an escalation as the bombing was far from south Lebanon, the usual battleground

March 28, 2024.

Day 173

🇮🇪 Ireland to follow Nicaragua and join South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel

•⁠ ⁠Israeli attacks on residential homes in Rafah kill 25 displaced Palestinians, incl. multiple children

•⁠ ⁠76 Palestinians killed, 102 injured in the last 24 hours

•⁠ ⁠IOF kills 4 in central Gaza, forcefully burying them by bulldozers

🇺🇸 ⁠US state department report claims Israel is complying with international law, as US reviewed Israeli usage of US weapons in order to validate future arms exports

🇱🇧 Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon residencies kill 12 in past 24 hours with many still trapped under the rubble

•⁠ ⁠Two aid seekers remain in critical condition as Israeli snipers target the Kuwait Roundabout aid distribution point

🇺🇸 Poll: 55% of Americans disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza — a 10% increase from November’s poll

•⁠ ⁠Israeli drone attack kills 8 in West Bank; IOF abducts 20 Palestinians in overnight raids

[simply-ivanka]

Letitia James Turns the Screws on Trump

The inflated $464 million bond required to appeal effectively denies him due process.

By The Editorial Board

Wall Street Journal

March 18, 2024 

New York Attorney General Letitia James’s use of lawfare to take down Donald Trump is getting uglier by the day. She is now threatening to seize the former President’s assets after effectively denying him the ability to appeal the grossly inflated civil-fraud judgment against him.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote Monday in a court filing that they’ve been unable to obtain a bond to guarantee last month’s $464 million judgment. Defendants are required to post bonds to appeal verdicts. Mr. Trump’s lawyers say securing the full bond would be “impossible” since most of his assets are illiquid.

One way to satisfy the bond would be to borrow against his real-estate holdings. But Mr. Trump’s lawyers say that only a handful of insurance companies have “both the financial capability and willingness to underwrite a bond of this magnitude,” and “the vast majority are unwilling to accept the risk associated with such a large bond.”

What’s more, his lawyers say that none of the insurers that Mr. Trump’s team approached “are willing to accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral for appeal bonds.” This isn’t surprising given the recent write-downs in commercial real estate and enormous uncertainty about their valuations, especially in places like New York. Insurers may also fear Ms. James’s legal retribution if they provide the bond to Mr. Trump.

Thus in order to appeal the judgment, Mr. Trump could have to unload property in a fire sale. If he were later to win on appeal, his lawyers rightly argue that he would have suffered an enormous, irreparable loss.

Ms. James no doubt knows she has Mr. Trump in a bind. She and courts have opposed his requests to reduce the bond even though a court-appointed independent monitor overseeing his businesses eliminates the risk he could dispose of or transfer his assets to make the judgment harder for the state to enforce.

As we wrote last month, the judgment is overkill. None of Mr. Trump’s business partners lost money lending to him or claimed to have been deceived by his erroneous financial statements. No witness during the trial said his alleged misrepresentations changed its loan terms or prices, and there was no evidence that he profited from his alleged deceptions.

Nonetheless, state trial judge Arthur Engoron ordered him to “disgorge” $355 million in “ill-gotten gains.” This sum was based on the interest-rate savings that a financial expert retained by Ms. James estimated Mr. Trump netted from his legerdemain. But this calculation seems dubious since banks said they didn’t alter their loan terms.

The judge also tacked on profits that Mr. Trump putatively made on properties for which he submitted false financial statements without demonstrating that the latter enable the former. He also added “pre-judgment interest” dating back to the day Ms. James launched her investigation in 2019. This makes Mr. Trump liable for alleged wrongdoings before he was even charged. All of this provides plausible grounds for appeal.

Whatever his transgressions, defendants are entitled to due process, which includes the right to appeal. Ms. James is trying to short-circuit the justice system to get Mr. Trump, as she promised she would during her 2018 campaign. Anyone who does business in New York ought to worry about how Ms. James could likewise twist the screws on them.

[nikkeisimmer]

Warning: Non-Sims Hockey Post

As most people who follow me know, I'm a hockey fan (almost required to be Canadian) and I'm a Vancouver Canucks fan which means that for most other teams' followers, they hate my guts. 🤣

July 1st for me, most always includes Free Agent Frenzy Day as well as Canada Day. And this year was no different. As of July 6, 2024, Jim Rutherford (or as I like to call him "Trader Jim" (the original Trader Jim)) will have been at the directional helm (as President of Hockey Operations) for almost two and a half years (has it been that long? - it's gone by in the blink of an eye) and two years and almost 4 1/2 months since Patrik Allvin has been hired as General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks.

Considering the sad shape that the Canucks were in in December of 2021, I did not hold hope that there was going to be such a turn around and frankly 2022-2023 season did not disappoint in my books. In fact I will go on record as stating:

Even Scotty Bowman wouldn't be able to win the

Stanley Cup with these idiots...

I meant the efforts of the on-ice team in the fact that they had absolutely no direction and that they were losing more than they were winning. With Travis Green the Canucks were losing and he got fired in December of 2021 and outside of a sudden spurt of winning effort when Bruce Boudreau was hired in December of 2021 right after Green was fired. Under Bruce the Canucks at the end half of the that 2021-2022 season went 32-15-10 and nearly made the playoffs missing it by only 5 points. And we thought that was going to be our Pacific Street Miracle. But 2022-2023 season and our fortunes did a complete 180°. In fact, not only was the winning record in the pre-season illusory, but the Canucks were on their way to a league worst opening season. It was a pretty sad effort all around. The Canucks stumbled out of the gate losing to the Edmonton Oilers in a match-up that ended 3-2. Surprisingly they won the next game against the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4; which was surprising to me which for a long-time fan, having seen the Flyers come into GM Place (now Rogers Arena - and I'm sorry, I just can't call GM Place Rogers Arena - it's too ingrained in me - Sorry, Ted) and essentially ROFLstomping the Canucks on a regular basis - the Canucks getting these infrequent wins seemed like an effing miracle.

But by the time the first ten games of the regular season were over, the Canucks had compiled a 2-6-2 record and were pretty much enroute to shitting the bed and making certain that their coach Bruce Boudreau was going to end up getting sacked. The question was when not if. In fact it looked as though the entire Jim Rutherford/Patrik Allvin experiment wasn't going to go the way that everyone had hoped and that this was all a mistake that they should rectify in a hurry. As usual our reactive fanbase was calling for their heads. It also meant that something had to be done. But it dragged on and on for the entirety of half a season while poor Bruce was trying to do everything in his power to get a team going that just wouldn't listen to him. It appeared that the team had tuned him out. In fact, I was not happy with the guys on the ice more than I was unhappy with Bruce. I kept saying to my wife that "God help the players on that team, because if I were the general manager on this team, I'd be having a fire-sale on players and try to bring in some players with a will-to-win." I'd be firing these players out the door like the slingshotted Bombbird on Angry Birds. God knows that Boudreau was trying his damndest to get something out of a team that just wasn't doing the right things to win. And of course the management was dumping all over Bruce every chance they got when they should have been questioning the work-ethic of their players. Anybody who was in Vancouver at the time knew the coaching drama that was going on in Rogers Arena. It was practically front-page news and the topic of damned near every sportsfan in Vancouver. So I wonder just how long Bruce Boudreau has, because he looks like he's a marked man.

Yeah, well, that pain lasted till January 22nd, 2023 - while the Canucks compiled a 18-25-3 record that was a hole that was seriously going to be difficult to climb out of. And fans were getting on the Tank for Bedard train. Yeah, I hate to admit it, I was one who was hoping that every loss would bring us closer to getting the coveted #1 draft pick. But I knew the NHL. They would do everything to make sure that we didn't get the number one. As a long-time Canucks fan from the very beginning (with Captain Orland Kurtenbach) I knew damned well the hockey gods would conspire to make sure we didn't or we would have had Gilbert Perrault. Instead we got Dale Tallon at #2.

Luke Schenn, one of the players that I think was actually trying on the ice, said it best "Obviously, we feel like we let him down in the room. He deserves better. I think that's on us as players," Yeah, no shit. This was entirely on the heads of the players and their "will-to-win". They were playing to get their coach fired. And that was the bottom line.

Rick Tocchet became the new Canucks Coach and a lot of fans were unhappy the way that it was presented to them. I know I wasn't too happy either, but I was one of the ones willing to give Coach Tocchet a chance. Besides...he wasn't the one that was responsible for Coach Boudreau's ignonimous departure. Frankly that was 100% to blame on the front office and the shitty way they handled things. The second Coach Tocchet took over the bench, it seemed like fortunes had turned around. The Canucks seemed to listen to Coach Rick Tocchet in a way they hadn't for Coach Boudreau. There was a new work ethic being instituted in the locker room. Coach Tocchet demanded hard work without being overbearing. We learned that he was a player's coach as he had been a players' player; that he had two ears and one mouth and used them in proportion.

He was bloody tough to play against as a player as most of the 80s and 90s players will tell you. He was a hard-nosed player who went into the corners, was gritty and tough-as-nails, was capable of throwing down the gloves and chucking knuckles and I hated him when he used to come into the Pacific Colisseum and take on my 'Nucks. But now...

Seeing him in Canucks colors on the ice helping players become the best versions of themselves they can be - I'm just glad that we have him.

Less than ten days after that, one of the main issues in the dressing room (the contention between Horvat and Miller) was addressed. I'm certain that there was friction between the two. The Canucks gambled on an older Miller and fired Horvat out the door trading him to the New York Islanders for Anthony Beauvillier (was later traded to Chicago for a fifth round pick in for in the now complete 2024 draft), Aatu Raty (now a stalwart in Abby) and a protected 2023 first-round draft pick (ended up going to the Islanders for Filip Hronek) and extending J.T. Miller instead. In retrospect, that was definitely the right decision to do, however it sure pissed off a lot of fans even more than they were already about the Boudreau firing.

Over the off-season we were thirsting for news about the Canucks. Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin had instituted a practical information lockdown and we could only speculate what was being done during the off-season to change the on-ice dynamics and work-ethic of the team and whether or not the Canucks players were buying in. The Canucks front office would toss us out crumbs from the draft table at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.

Canucks drafted Jonathan Lekkerimäki at 15th overall in the 2023 draft. And Allvin did some major fine-tuning during the off-season picking up Hronek,

And then 2023-2024. HOLY SHIT!!! It's like we'd somehow acquired a whole different team with the faces of the players we'd had before. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought that humankind had perfected cloning because we now had players with familiar names that had "work-ethic" coming into games. None of this holiday resort type atmosphere, it was what we knew now as "lunch-bucket" hockey, crack-your-knuckles" and get to work.

We were seeing a lot more of these kinds of celebrations on the ice. It was a far cry from the dejection. It was fun to be a hockey fan again (not that I ever left, but those losses hurt). And the loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs hurt like hell, but we know that playoff hockey is back in Vancouver and that there will be more playoffs to come.

Yes, there were losses throughout the season, but somehow we knew the Canucks would dig themselves out. This was a whole different team and the man responsible, the man behind the bench.

The fact that we have Adam Foote as an Assistant Coach is incredible.

Again as a long-time Canucks fan whose young adulthood coincided with Tocchet's and Foote's time on the ice as players. Footey was an Avalanche player, again tough to play against and he was one of those players that got under your skin because he was so damned good at what he did.

This is how I remember Adam Foote - tough, gritty and basically would clear players from in front of his net and this was the skillset that he was now teaching to our Canucks players as Canucks assistant coach. These were guys with Cup winning pedigrees.

We can't miss out Sergei Gonchar who was with Crosby when they won the first of two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh in 2009.

Sergei Gonchar is now our Defensive Development Coach and he goes into the intricacies of what constitutes how to play good defense. It's great to see him on the ice teaching our young Canucks.

And the best damned thing about these three is that THEY WANT THAT for our Canucks - in fact the coaching staff may not have been former Canucks players, but they are Canucks in the fact that they are our players' guiding lights. They're not going to be satisfied until Lord Stanley's Cup is raised in Rogers Arena and neither are Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin.

The 2024 offseason so far, as short a period as it's been has been tumultuous. Both Lindholm and Zadorov (is still loved in Vancouver - and he deserves his new contract, but it's a bit too pricey for us) are now Boston Bruins and we just inherited a shit-ton of new Canucks (ex-Bruins in return) that we signed in free agency.

According to Quinn Hughes. Kiefer Sherwood had pissed off the entire team while playing for Nashville

New Canucks team-mate Sherwood harassing ex-Canuck, now Bruin Elias Lindholm. "Welcome to Vancouver" Kiefer.

The Bruins stole two of our players (yeah, I know they were free agents and they wanted too much for the Canucks to pay them what they wanted but they were our players, dammit!) so Allvin returned the favour and signed Jake DeBrusk. Big Z no matter what team he plays for made an impact in Vancouver and will be a loved player here just as much as Kuzmenko was.

They will be missed.

Lindholm, well, he was just a rental.

Well, good luck in Boston, Elias.

Danton Heinen came home (He's a Langley boy) after playing with the Bruins for the past year after playing with the Penguins for the prior two years to that.

And he's so looking forward to playing for his hometown team. He gave the hometeam discount in order to come play for them. He wants to help the Canucks win and well, he remembers the 2011 playoffs too well and wants to change that outcome.

He's also an ex-Penguin so he knows the regime over here having played with them for two years recently. Heinen returned to the Bruins after being drafted by them back in 2014 becoming a regular in the lineup in the 2016-2017 season.

Derek Forbort is a monster. He may not be the most fleet of foot, but he's effective where he places himself. And evidently he can hit like a Mack truck and clear the area around the net which is what Tocchet will want him to do. 6'4" of pure unbridled aggression and "get out of my team's net".

Hopefully Tocchet will be able to help Jake DeBrusk find some consistency and the fact that Jake acknowledges that he has some work to do is nice to hear. But he's one of the most promising of the signings next to Kiefer Sherwood. He's also the "power forward" that Tocchet wanted lining up with Elias Pettersson hopefully to get him going during the playoffs. DeBrusk is a gritty player, a good two way player and able to make defensive plays as well as generate offense. And hopefully Tocc will be able to take him to the next level.

Not much is known here about Nate Smith (Nathan Smith) other than the fact that he spent most of his past two seasons in the minors and that he had a promising season back in 2021-2022. But in 4 games in 2022-2023, he had 0 points.

Hopefully he becomes a good pickup for Abby or that maybe Tocchet will be able to spark something in him during camp.

Last of the pick-ups on opening day of Free Agent Frenzy was Vincent Desharnais from the Oil who will now be plying his trade making sure that Petey is protected rather than plowing into him as seen here.

At 6'7" he's a replacement for 6'6" Big Z. And can clear the net as well as his new team-mate Derek Forbort.

Abby needs a new goalie and well, it's going to be a two-way race with Jiri Patera (Vegas Golden Knights) now possibly contending for backup position to Thatcher Demko against Arturs Silovs who played phenomenally against the Edmonton Oilers and drew them to a seven game series after Demko went down in Game 1 versus Nashville. Demko did not return for the duration of the playoffs and it was Casey DeSmith and Arturs Silovs for the rest of that series. Then it was all Silovs against the Edmonton Oilers.

My gut says that Silovs will ultimately get the nod to become the permanent back-up to Thatcher Demko and Patera will become the lead goaltender for the Abbotsford Canucks.

So in a nutshell, that's Vancouver's offseason acquisitions for you. As far as I can tell, the Canucks made some solid acquisitions early in the Free Agency Frenzy on July 1st, because it was clear that they weren't going to land the big names being floated around.

Frankly they would have shot themselves in the foot if they had gone after Jake Guentzel and we've seen that kind of thing happen before. (Hello, Mark Messier...and Oliver Ekman-Larsson).

“Other than some inexperience in Vancouver, which is probably the thing that they're lacking the most right now, you've got to look at their team as being really positioned well to play well in the playoffs.” ~Mark Messier

Yeah, Mark, thanks, do us a favour next time...and keep it to yourself.

Mark Messier with the "invisible Cup" that he was going to win for us. 🤮

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amee Vanderpool at SHERO:

Donald Trump is now trying to claim that he knows nothing about the controversial conservative agenda that is meant to go into place on “Day One” of another Trump presidency. The extensive plan, which was developed by the prominent Trump supporting Heritage Foundation, lays out a blueprint for a complete overhaul of the federal government, detailing a strategy for immediately firing thousands of civil servants, expanding the executive powers of the president, halting all sales of the abortion pill, and much, much more. Although Trump has recently attempted to distance himself publicly from his own custom-made agenda, he has continued for months at his rallies to make dog whistle promises that include the main tenants of this conservative policy. [...]

Contrary to recent protests, Donald Trump also knows exactly who is behind Project 2025, because it was created by many of his most trusted allies and former advisors, who ultimately wrote the plan for him. The plan sets out four main policy aims to install an extreme, far-right agenda that includes: restoring the family as the center piece of American life; dismantling the administrative state; defending the nation's sovereignty and borders; and securing God-given individual rights to live freely. Look for Trump to manipulate the language of these basic tenants in his ongoing speeches, which are ultimately a signal to his support of the 2025 agenda. In January of 2018, just a year into his first term, the Heritage Foundation bragged that the Trump administration had “embraced nearly two-thirds of the policy recommendations from the “Mandate for Leadership,” which ultimately became “Project 2025.” But the team that created the project is chock full of former Trump advisers, including director Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management while Trump was president. Russell Vought, who was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump from July 2020 to January 2021, wrote a key chapter on future executive branch staffing for Project 2025, and also serves as the Republican National Committee’s 2024 platform policy director. The Heritage Foundation touts that “more than 350 leading conservatives” contributed to the plan, including many that would be hugely influential in Washington if Republicans take back the White House.

[...] In the last few weeks, the Biden Campaign has made a point to direct the public to the goals of the conservative plan — which is backed by more than 100 far right groups — to warn of the potential danger involved with a second Trump presidency. The increased concern over the far right agenda, which appeared to rise in tandem with Trump’s slight edge in the polls following the presidential debate, has now gone viral and is getting a lot of backlash. This has made it a little more difficult for the Republican Party to outwardly adopt Project 2025 as planned at the RNC this week. Most party platforms tend to average between 50- to 75-pages, according to historians. The Republican Party has issued a formal platform that is��16 pages long, and it makes extensive use of capital letters to somehow mirror Donald Trump’s own speaking and social media posting tone. Many of the concepts and directives seem intentionally vague, as if to be filled in by a more substantial, 900 page companion agenda that fleshes out the real intentions of the Republican Party under Trump’s continued leadership.

While it may have been the intention of RNC Director Russell Vought and other key Heritage Foundation members for the GOP to formally adopt Project 2025 at the convention this week, they might just keep the connection between the two agendas implied and forgo drawing more attention to the unpopular far right plan. Using the Project 2025 agenda as an Appendix to the Republican Platform put forth this year is the only thing that explains why anyone would put forth such a slapdash and incomprehensible official agenda like the one presented by the RNC this week. Despite Donald Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the substantial conservative opus generated by the Heritage Foundation that he has publicly praised and acknowledged in the past, nothing happens on a large scale within the GOP without Trump’s express consent. Moving forward we can expect the rhetoric to change slightly and become even more obfuscated, as Trump and JD Vance continue to sell Project 2025 under a more generic premise that they think distances them from the conservative manifesto.

DJT can claim to disavow Project 2025 all he wants, but a large part of it was influenced by Trump staffers.

See Also:

Public Notice: Project 2025 is the GOP platform

[covid-safer-hotties]

Forgive the Google Translation - Prof. Fal: we do not test, so we do not officially record an increase in infections - Published Aug 16, 2024

Full-text in Polish and a link to the original in Polish at the link above!

In Poland, practically no tests are performed for COVID-19, which is why we officially have a very low incidence, Prof. Andrzej Fal, president of the Polish Public Health Society, told PAP.

According to data provided to PAP by PEX Pharma Sequence, in July this year there was a sharp increase in sales of COVID-19 tests . Polish pharmacies sold a total of almost 187,000 of them, which is more than twice as many as in June and three times as many as in May.

The daily reports provided by the Ministry of Health also note an increase in infections, although the official numbers of new cases are still very low. At the beginning of July, they remained at 60 per day, at the end of the month - over 200, in the first days of August - about 400 per day, and on August 14, there were 834.

According to Prof. Andrzej Fal, these values ​​do not reflect the true picture of the situation at all. "The Ministry of Health relies on data coming from the sanitary-epidemiological station and hospitals. And because we are not testing almost anyone, only symptomatic people and basically only in hospitals, we have an official very low incidence," said the expert.

"However, we see significant increases in the number of cases throughout Europe. Of course, this is a mild form of COVID-19 and there is no reason to be alarmed or afraid. But there is an increase, and a large one at that. And because people know that it may be COVID-19, they buy tests on their own. That's why so many tests are being sold," he added.

He stressed that it is not true that the number of cases is so low.

According to the professor, COVID-19 has ceased to be an important topic because it is no longer associated with high mortality and severe course. Currently, the SARS-CoV-2 variant called Omikron still dominates infections , although new subvariants are constantly emerging: Kraken, Pirola, JN1 and FLiRT variants (K.1.1, KP.2, KP.3).

The most common symptoms now are: sore throat, cough, fever, conjunctivitis, diarrhea and headaches.

"I myself have diagnosed five cases of COVID-19 among my close friends in the last week. So there are infections, and many of them," concluded Prof. Fal.

Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, 1,828 official COVID-19 tests were performed, of which 853 were positive. (PAP)

[ikram1909]

a new article on a sports newspaper today with an update on gavi: https://www.lesportiudecatalunya.cat/barca/article/2425850-gavi-a-tota-maquina.html

There are only eight days left until the start of the European Championship in Germany, but Pablo Martín Páez Gavira missed this train months ago, when on November 19, at José Zorrilla in Valladolid, the Barça footballer's knee said enough in that fateful match against Georgia, a qualifier for the European Championship, Gavi tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee, an injury that also affected the external meniscus. Six and a half months have passed since then, and on June 6, Gavi is completely focused on one thing: the return. It's getting closer every day. Its evolution is very good.

Yesterday, Barça published a video on its social media where you can see Gavi working at maximum intensity in the sports city's facilities, doing high-intensity exercises in the gym to strengthen the muscles in the affected area. The recovery is going very well, even better than expected at the start, but it is also known that with this type of injury you have to be careful. Unhurried positivism. This is the motto. But it is also true that Gavi's attitude infects anyone with optimism. His character makes him unique, and the intensity and passion he transmits in the field is the same attitude with which this recovery work has been undertaken from day one. Hansi Flick fell in love with Gavi's engagement in the first contact they both had a few days ago in the sports city. Flick also met at the Barça facilities with other injured players, such as Frenkie de Jong and Alejandro Balde, but in the specific case of Gavi he was fascinated by his positivity and his attitude towards work. It is the discipline and fighting spirit that Flick imposed on Bayern and that he will now try to instill in Barça. Gavi already has this built in as standard and is destined to be an important figure in Flick's plans when he becomes available again.

This last season 2023/24, the one from Los Palacios was only able to play a total of 15 games with the Blaugrana shirt (12 in the league and 3 in the Champions League). Xavi and Barça have missed him. Neither the player nor Flick set a date for their return, but Hansi already knows that Gavi's signing will be the big signing of the 2024/25 season. The forecasts are, if all goes well, that the culer midfielder will join training with his teammates in the month of August, and he is expected to play again around the month of October. The president Joan Laporta already warned on Tuesday that this summer the club does not intend to carry out major market operations, only the strictly necessary ones, specifically he said that there would be no major sales or major signings, and in this scenario of minimums, the return from Gavi will be the best reinforcement.

Gavi's profile fits well into Flick's football idea of ​​pressing high up. Flick's football is intensity, and Gavi's virtues fit in the advanced midfielder within the 4-2-3-1 system that Flick has always used. He would also fit in the double pivot, although in this position Flick knows that he would see one of his great virtues diminished, which is the arrival in the opponent's area.

Xavi Hernández has always described Gavi as "a heart with legs". His passion and temperament, never giving up a split ball, make him a treasure for any manager, and everything suggests he will end up being an important figure for Flick as well, even if the player starts at the clear disadvantage to miss the pre-season and the start of the season and lag behind his teammates in terms of pace of competition in the goal of securing a position in the starting eleven. The good feelings that the footballer has at the moment of his recovery phase is the best news for Hansi Flick.

As a curiosity, this coming season Gavi will have the opportunity to set foot again in the José Zorrilla, the stadium of the misfortune of his injury. Valladolid's confirmed promotion to the first division makes it possible. Everything will depend on the calendar, on which day Valladolid-Barça is set and on which Gavi's return date ends up being.

Thank you so much anon you're the best ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

So they're still insisting flick did meet Gavi already and they talked.

I love how this article is basically a live letter about Gavi and his character they're so real for that 😭😭 he's really amazing and I can't wait for him to come back ☹️

[firstkanaphans]

SMASH or PASS: GMMTV 2024, Part 1

[my personal favorites are starred]

Ploy’s Yearbook: SMASH. Particularly intrigued by Punpun/Jimmy and Jamie/Mond, although it really irks me when you have large ensemble pieces like this and everyone is hetero. Would it've killed you to give me one lesbian couple, GMMTV? 

We Are: PASS. Not my thing, but I will probably end up watching it anyway.

The Trainee: SMASH. But only because it’s OffGun.

⭐️Only Boo!: SMASH. I can see that the Project Alpha contestant to My School President knock-off pipeline is going to become a thing. But this actually looks very intriguing and these newbies acted better than a lot of veterans in their trailer, so I’m cautiously optimistic. 

Pluto: SMASH? Here for another GL, but slightly worried about where we’re going with this one. I don’t love the fact that Oon is pretending to be her twin sister and if GMMTV’s not going to hire disabled actors to play disabled parts, I really wish they wouldn’t do these types of stories. I’ll give it a chance, but I have some reservations.  

⭐️On Sale: SMASH. Yes to all of this. Is it a BL? I don't know. I don’t care. Gimme gimme gimme.

Ossan’s Love: TBD. I haven’t seen the original and they didn’t give me a trailer so who knows. I’ll probably watch it, though. Because EarthMix.

My Golden Blood: SMASH. Don’t even lie. We’re all going to be watching this dumpster fire.

Kidnap: PASS. Unless it’s a BL.

Summer Night: PASS

High School Frenemy: PASS. Let Dew kiss boys and then we'll talk. Slightly worried this took the place of a Homeschool season 2, but I am not thinking about it.

My Love Mix-Up: SMASH. But only because it’s GeminiFourth and P'Au.

Enigma 2: PASS. Didn't watch the first season. Have no desire to watch the second.

⭐️Wandee Goodday: SMASH SMASH SMASH. But of course this trailer has already been taken down, which is not promising 🙃. By far my favorite offering of the day. Top-tier cast and the same writer and director of The Eclipse, so you know it’s going to be good. I'm so glad they're putting Inn Sarin to good use. (I do find it funny, though, that they stole two actors from outside the company and put them in a high heat BL. It’s giving, “Our boys are too pure, but you guys are perfect!”)

[naritaren]

TNA Shakeup - Fightful Select

Early details on major TNA shakeup

An hour ago

Anthony Cicione is in, Scott D'Amore is out as President of TNA Wrestling.

Fightful confirmed that talent and staff were informed of the move today, with some finding out this morning.

Currently staff and talent are on a zoom call to discuss the move.

One talent said they believed Anthem wanted the brand to be more closely associated with them as opposed to D'Amore, and when we asked another about that they said "I can see that, but he saved TNA."

We'll be posting more as we get details. 

Anthem posted the following: "Anthem Sports & Entertainment Inc., a global multi-platform media company, announced today the appointment of Anthony Cicione as the President of TNA Wrestling.

The move aims to further integrate TNA Wrestling into Anthem’s Entertainment Group, of which Cicione is the President, leveraging the entire Company’s resources to add more value in areas including production, distribution, marketing, viewership, customer acquisition, digital revenue streams, ad sales and sponsorships, digital tech operations, and more.

Cicione replaces Scott D’Amore, whose contract with Anthem has been terminated. D’Amore has been a part of TNA since 2003. He held many key leadership positions and played a vital role in the growth of the company leading to its strong industry reputation today, including the successful return of the TNA Wrestling brand in 2024. Anthem thanks him for the commitment he brought to the business, the talent, and the people who work outside the ring.

In addition to these duties as President of Entertainment, Cicione will now manage the day-to-day business operations for TNA Wrestling. He brings more than 30 years of executive-level management experience to the organization. Cicione has been with Anthem for the last 16 years, managing technical operations and multiple cable and digital channels. Prior to his time with Anthem, Cicione was a producer of sports content including catapulting The Score to success by bringing WWE to the channel."

[ingek73]

How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she supports Israel’s war? Here is my answer

Bernie Sanders

Trump says Netanyahu is doing a good job and Biden is holding him back. Even on this issue, Trump is worse

Wed 30 Oct 2024 15.30 GMT

I understand that there are millions of Americans who disagree with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the terrible war in Gaza. I am one of them.

While Israel had a right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, it did not have the right to wage an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.

It did not have the right to kill 42,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were children, women and the elderly, or injure over 100,000 people in Gaza. It did not have the right to destroy Gaza’s infrastructure and housing and healthcare systems. It did not have the right to bomb every one of Gaza’s 12 universities. It did not have the right to block humanitarian aid, causing massive malnutrition in children and, in fact, starvation.

And that is why I am doing everything I can to block US military aid and offensive weapons sales to the rightwing extremist Netanyahu government in Israel. And I know that many of you share those feelings. And some of you are saying, “How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?” And that is a very fair question.

And let me give you my best answer. And that is that even on this issue, Donald Trump and his rightwing friends are worse. In the Senate and in Congress Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza. The president and vice-president both support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible.

Trump has said that Netanyahu is doing a good job and that Biden is holding him back. He has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. It is no wonder Netanyahu prefers to have Donald Trump in office.

We cannot sit this election out. Trump has to be defeated

But even more importantly, and this I promise you, after Harris wins we will, together, do everything we can to change US policy toward Netanyahu – including an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people.

And let me be clear. We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing US policy with Harris than with Trump, who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, rightwing extremist ally.

But let me also say this, and I deal with this every single day as a US senator. As important as Gaza is, and as strongly as many of us feel about this issue, it is not the only issue at stake in this election.

If Trump wins, women in this country will suffer an enormous setback and lose the ability to control their own bodies. That is not acceptable.

If Trump wins, to be honest with you, the struggle against the climate crisis is over. While virtually every scientist who has studied the issue understands that the climate crisis is real and an existential threat to our country and the world, Trump believes it is a “hoax”. And if the United States, the largest economy in the world, stops transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, every other country – China, Europe, all over the world, they will do exactly the same thing. And God only knows the kind of planet we will leave to our kids and future generations.

If Trump wins, at a time of enormous income and wealth inequality, he will demand even more tax breaks for the very richest people in our country, while cutting back on programs that working families desperately need. The rich will only get richer, while the minimum wage will remain at $7.25 an hour, and millions of our fellow workers will continue to earn starvation wages.

Did you all see the recent Trump rally at Madison Square Garden? Well, I did, and what I can tell you is that as a nation, as all of you know, we have struggled for years against impossible odds to try to overcome all forms of bigotry – whether it is racism, whether it’s sexism, whether it’s homophobia, whether it’s xenophobia, you name it.

We have tried to fight against bigotry, but that is exactly what we saw on display at that unbelievable Trump rally. It was not a question of speakers getting up there and disagreeing with Kamala Harris on the issues. That wasn’t the issue at all. They were attacking her simply because she was a woman and a woman of color. Extreme vulgar sexism and racism. Is that really the kind of America that we can allow?

So let me conclude by saying this. This is the most consequential election in our lifetimes. Many of you have differences of opinion with Harris on Gaza. So do I. But we cannot sit this election out. Trump has to be defeated. Let’s do everything we can in the next week to make sure that Kamala Harris is our next president.

Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and chair of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress

[magz]

Lets Talk Palestine, summary. March 31 to April 5, 2024. Quote:

March 31. Day 177 - Easter

✝️ Israel denied Palestinian Christians — the oldest in the world — access to the old city in Jerusalem

🇫🇷 France to prosecute its citizens serving in IOF for implicated war crimes after video showed French citizen assaulting Palestinian hostages

• 77 Palestinians killed, 108 injured in last 24 hours

🇮🇶 Iraqi group’s drone strikes & damages Israeli naval base in Eilat in southern Palestine, bypassing Jordanian & Israeli air defense to do so (📸 above)

• Another massacre of aid seekers at Kuwaiti roundabout killed 17 & wounded 30. This major aid distribution point now dubbed a “deathtrap”

🏥 Israeli bombing of tents housing displaced Palestinians at al-Aqsa Hospital kills 4, wounds 17 incl. journalist

• IOF abducts 14 in overnight raids in West Bank

🏥 26 patients killed in Israel’s siege of Shifa Hospital. The remaining 107 patients face mass disease spread

🐀 Palestinian Authority President Abbas swears in new unelected gov’t

April 1. Day 178

🏥 IOF withdraws from Shifa Hospital after 2-week siege that completely destroyed the hospital as they set fire to buildings (📸 above). 400+ bodies of Palestinians executed by IOF found, many missing body parts, showing signs of torture

•⁠ 63 killed, 94 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

•⁠ ⁠Israeli army report admits that IOF executed Palestinians for crossing arbitrary invisible “kill zones” determined by IOF

🇸🇾🇮🇷 Israel strikes & destroys Iranian consulate in Syria, killing 7 in a dangerous regional escalation

•⁠ ⁠4 foreign @ wckitchen aid workers (incl. Australian, British & Polish) & their Palestinian translator killed by Israeli targeted bombing of their car while distributing food

•⁠ Hamas says the Palestinian Authority & Egyptian officials coordinated w/ Israel to infiltrate Gaza via Rafah crossing as an "intelligence plan" disguised as "distributing aid". PA denies the accusation; 6 PA officers were arrested by Hamas. The PA seeks to administer Gaza post-genocide

April 2. Day 179

• 71 Palestinians killed, 102 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

•⁠ ⁠Netanyahu claims yesterday’s attack killing 7 foreign aid workers (🇦🇺, 🇨🇦, 🇬🇧, 🇺🇸, 🇵🇱) was “unintended”. But the workers were in a deconflicted zone, coordinated movement w/ Israel, & were in clearly marked @ wckitchen cars

👆UK & Australia summon Israeli ambassadors, demanding accountability; but US & Canada accept Israel’s excuse that the killing was unintended

🇺🇸⁠ Alarming level of US intelligence sharing w/ Israel since Oct 7 from Gaza surveillance. US unsure of its intel’s contribution to civilian deaths

• Knesset (Israel Parliament) pass bill paving way to ban Al Jazeera, claims it poses threat to international media & freedom of the press

• Multiple aid orgs incl. @ aneraorg & @ wckitchen halt Gaza operations after yesterday’s attack + aid shipment returns to Cyprus w/ 240 tons of undelivered aid. Due to Israel targeting humanitarian workers

• World Bank: Gaza infrastructure damage estimated at $18.5bn

April 3. Day 180

• After 6 months of genocide, Israel has killed 32,975 Palestinians, not including thousands buried under rubble; incl. 14,500 kids, 140 journalists & 484 medical staff. Starvation & disease are expected to kill even more as Israel prevents aid

🇺🇳 UN Human Rights Council to consider draft motion for arms embargo on Israel to halt arms sales

• 30% of children under 2 in Gaza are ‘acutely malnourished’

🇺🇳 UN suspends night aid deliveries in last 48 hours after Israel’s killing of 7 @ wckitchen aid workers

⚖️ The PA attempted to arrest a Palestinian resistance fighter in Tulkarem (West Bank), and later PA forces killed Motassim Al-Arif of Tulkarem Brigades (local resistance group), making him the 7th Palestinian resistance fighter killed by the PA since Oct 7. This sparked Tulkarem brigades to initiate a state of “civil disobedience” in Tulkarem. The attempted arrest of the Hamas leader occurred in Jenin (West Bank) and is another escalation of clashes between the PA and Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank

🇬🇧 YouGov Poll: 56% UK voters support ban of arms export to Israel

April 4. Day 181

‼️ Gaza death toll surpasses 33,000 not including thousands under rubble

•⁠ ⁠Israel’s bombing of Gaza is driven by flawed AI software with little human review of the thousands of Palestinians placed on its ‘kill list’. The AI accounts for 5-10 ‘acceptable civilian deaths’ per targeted resistance fighter

[Magz note: This is a part of Israel's various efforts to kill Palestinians / "Hamas" with more efficiency and ease for the IOF. Other examples being robot dogs and high-tech missile launchers and dropping specialized bombs on highly-concentrated "concentration camp" of Gaza. In this case, the machine-learning database is called "Lavender", and 'identifies' targets that 'might' have any connection to Hamas at all, so the IOF directs "dumb bombs" on the targets. The unspoken implications is that the targets' identifications would include potential family members and friends - thus having as many as 37000 target list total for "Hamas", as the dehumanization of Palestinians is to idenitfy them all as inherently "terrorist". ("‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets", The Gaurdian article. Article date: April 4, 2024)]

🇮🇷 Israel evacuated several of its embassies abroad, halted deploying combat units & called reservists in response to Iran’s threats of retaliation after Israel killed 7 Iranian personnel in strike on its consulate in Syria. Israel taking Iran’s threat seriously

• Israeli doctor reveals catastrophic conditions for Palestinian captives incl. requiring amputations from being shackled for 24 hours, regularly blindfolded, denied toilet access & surgeries without proper medical care

• IOF strikes homes in ‘safe zone’ Rafah, killing 8+ Palestinians

🇱🇧 2000 acres of Lebanese farmland destroyed by Israeli bombardment

• IOF shot & killed 28-year-old Asad Amr in Jenin in West Bank

April 5. Day 182

•⁠ ⁠On Palestinian Children’s Day, Israel has killed 14,000+ children in Gaza, 117 in West Bank since Oct 7. 31 kids killed by starvation while 50,000+ are acutely malnourished, 200 kids held captive by Israel & 17,000+ unaccompanied or separated from immediate family

⚖️ Colombia follows Nicaragua in requesting to join South Africa in ICJ genocide case against Israel

🇺🇳 UN Human Rights Council passes non-binding motion urging states to halt arms sales to Israel, citing ICJ ruling; US voted against. First time UNHRC takes a position since Oct 7

•⁠ Israel to open Beit Hanoon crossing to north Gaza & Ashdod port temporarily; analysts say it’s inadequate as Gaza subject to ‘catastrophic starvation’ by Israel’s blockade

•⁠ After international outrage, Israel dismisses 2 officers & reprimands 3 for attack killing 6 foreign aid workers, but no criminal trials or real accountability

•⁠ Israeli sniper kills Palestinian while filming an Israeli raid from his rooftop in West Bank

[blogparanormalexpresso2stuff]

On May 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had extradited from the United Kingdom, Michael Lynch, the former CEO of Autonomy Corporation, to stand trial in the Northern District Court of California, alongside the former Vice President of Finance at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain.

Among the numerous charges brought by the Justice Department were these:

“…between 2009 and 2011, Lynch and Chamberlain, and other co-conspirators, (1) artificially inflated Autonomy’s revenues by backdating written agreements to record revenue in prior periods; recorded revenue on contracts that were subject to side letters or other contingencies that impacted revenue recognition; and improperly recorded revenue for reciprocal or roundtrip transactions…”

As part of this alleged scheme to defraud, according to the Justice Department, “…Lynch and Chamberlain caused Autonomy to make materially false and misleading statements directly to HP [Hewlett-Packard] regarding Autonomy’s financial condition, performance, and business during the negotiations between HP and Autonomy leading up to the August 18, 2011, announcement by HP to acquire Autonomy for approximately $11 billion.”

It has been reported that Lynch made approximately $800 million on the sale of Autonomy to HP.

Both Lynch and Chamberlain were acquitted on all charges on June 7, following a jury trial that lasted three months.

Less than two months following the trial, on Saturday, August 17, Chamberlain was out running in Cambridgeshire, England and was hit by a car. Chamberlain died of his injuries after being hospitalized.

Two days later, on Monday, August 19, Mike Lynch, Chamberlain’s co-defendant in the Justice Department trial, died when his “unsinkable” 184-foot sailing yacht sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sicily during a storm that failed to harm other nearby yachts.

Making these deaths all the more suspicious, two other individuals involved in the criminal trial died in the sinking of the yacht: the Chair of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, who had been a witness for the defense; and the attorney for Mike Lynch during the trial, Chris Morvillo, of law firm Clifford Chance.

The statistical improbability of four people connected to one criminal case dying within 72 hours in two separate unusual events is raising eyebrows.

Equally suspect, there were 22 people on board the yacht with 15 people surviving, including 9 members of the 10-member crew, who made it to a life boat. Other survivors in the life boat included Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares; the Managing Partner of Lynch’s venture capital firm, Invoke Capital, Charlotte Golunshi and her one-year old daughter; and Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald and her partner, Matthew Fletcher.

The seven deceased victims from the sinking of the yacht were Lynch; his 18-year old daughter, Hannah; Bloomer and his wife, Judy; Morvillo and his wife, Neda; and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas.

To put that more starkly, the crew had a 90 percent survival rate while the other passengers had a 58 percent survival rate.

Reuters is reporting this morning that Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation and have conducted multiple interviews with the Captain of the yacht, James Cutfield. Maritime law places the safety of the ship, crew and all passengers as the responsibility of the Captain.

For unknown reasons, the Captain was able to make it to the lifeboat while six of the seven who died were trapped below deck in cabins or hallways, where their bodies were eventually located by divers. The chef was reportedly found floating in the water.

Lynch’s life had been a living hell for the five years before the tragedy on the yacht. Prior to his acquittal in June, he had been living under house arrest for a year in a townhouse in San Francisco, with guards watching his every move.

On April 30, 2018, the former CFO of Autonomy, Sushovan Hussain, was separately tried and convicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in the same U.S. District Court that heard the case against Lynch and Chamberlain. Hussain was convicted of one count of conspiracy, fourteen counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud involving Autonomy’s sale to Hewlett-Packard. Hussain served five years in prison.

Another company in which Lynch’s venture capital firm had invested money following the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard was Darktrace, a cyber-security firm which was packed with people from the U.K.’s intelligence agency MI5 and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In 2023, the short-seller, Quintessential Capital Management, published a lengthy report alleging claims against Darktrace that had a familiar ring to some of the charges brought by the Justice Department against Autonomy executives.

Quintessential Capital’s researchers wrote this about Darktrace:

“Our opinion is based primarily on numerous transactions we detected during the period leading to DT’s [Darktrace’s] IPO seemingly involving simulated or anticipated sales to phantom end-users through a network of willing resellers. Darktrace seems to have repeatedly used marketing activities to channel funds back into its partners as payment for apparently fictitious purchases. These alleged channel stuffing and round-tripping activities seem to have even involved shell companies in offshore jurisdictions….”

Hewlett-Packard is no boy scout either. The company was scandalized in 2006 when Newsweek broke the story that it had spied on its own Board of Directors and journalists, illegally obtaining their phone records in some cases to ascertain with whom they had been in contact.