Life under a dictator:

The Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit after a suspected poisoning.

“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea,” his press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, tweeted. “That was the only thing he drank this morning. The doctors say that the toxin was absorbed more quickly because of the hot liquid. Right now Alexei is unconscious.”

An outspoken critic of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Navalny was returning to Moscow by plane from Tomsk in Siberia when he began to feel ill. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk and he was taken to hospital. A

Seems to be a busy morning. Steve Bannon has been arrested for fraud, and a breaking news banner at the top of that story says a judge has thrown out Trump’s challenge to the Manhattan DA’s subpoena of his tax records. Also Trump melted down the rest of the way while watching the Dem convention last night.

So, Bannon.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has been arrested after being charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors through their campaign “We Build the Wall.” 

Bannon, along with three of his associates, w[as] indicted by investigators at the U.S. Southern District of New York on Thursday. They allege that the group of conservative leaders defrauded donors and that

Philip Bump at the Post says why Trump’s failure to disavow QAnon is so dangerous:

The FBI was concerned enough about the emergence of “anti-government, identity based, and fringe political conspiracy theories” last May that it issued a formal intelligence bulletin to American law enforcement agencies. It warned of people being inspired to engage in “criminal and sometimes violent activity” by such philosophies, given that they “tacitly support or legitimize violent action.”

So Trump thinks they sound nice.

The spread of QAnon is seen by federal law enforcement as a threat to the public. There are obvious cases in which QAnon is used by disturbed individuals as a rationale for their action, as in the murder of a reputed

Axios has more on Trump’s playdate with QAnon.

QAnon is a sprawling internet conspiracy theory that baselessly alleges that a powerful cabal of sex traffickers within the “deep state” is engaged in a global fight to take down Trump. The FBI identified fringe conspiracy theories, like QAnon, as domestic terrorist threats in 2019.

Why would sex traffickers want to take down Trump though? It’s not as if he’s a vocal opponent of sex trafficking or any other form of sexual exploitation.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vocal supporter of QAnon, won the Republican nomination in Georgia’s deep-red 14th Congressional District runoff last week. Trump tweeted his congratulations and called her a “future Republican Star.”

Well he had to say something… Read the rest

Others are not quite so cheery about QAnon as Trump is.

Background:

FBI: https://t.co/JC4l1ZtHDu

West Point: https://t.co/ifaWfzIw2m

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 19, 2020

I read some of that West Point one. It’s interesting.

Anyway it’s ok, a reporter explained it to Trump and he caught on perfectly.

REPORTER: QAnon believes you are secretly saving the world from this cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Are you behind that?

TRUMP: Is that supposed to be a bad thing? We are actually. We are saving the world. pic.twitter.com/rPYFU1B8WB

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2020

And he says we are akshally, we’re saving the world, we’re saving the world from a radical left philosuffy that will destroy this country, an when this … Read the rest

Trump is asked about QANON. His response is that they like him.

Trump on Qanon: I heard these are people who love our country pic.twitter.com/PphJQHJ0Am

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 19, 2020

What else does he need to know? Nazis? “They like me very muccchh.” Mass murderers? “They like me very muccchh.” Pedophile rings? “They like me very muccchh.” Putin? “He likes me very muccchh.” Jeffrey Epstein? “He liked me very muccchh.” Michael Flynn? “He likes me very muccchh.” … Read the rest

Trump:

Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES – They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020

Jim Wright:

Guy who wanted you to inject bleach now wants you to buy shitty cheap tires made in a foreign country to own the libs.

Also, his MAGA hats are made in China.Remember when Republicans got mad and started throwing their Keurigs off balconies before they figured out they didn’t actually know how to make coffee for themselves?

Looking forward to Republican Pinterest where they offer tips on making

The verbal re-engineering continues. A self-described “Trans & Queer Centered Full-Spectrum Doula & Childbirth Educator” wants to know what you and you and YOU call that thing where you give a baby milk that your body produces and the baby derives nourishment thereby.

While we’re working to dispel stigma around feeding babies from our bodies this month, I just want to pipe up with a little reminder that this practice goes by many names for many different people! For some of us, it’s chestfeeding, for some of us it’s bodyfeeding, and for some of us it’s something else! What words do you use to talk about feeding your baby the milk that your body makes?

I gotta say, “bodyfeeding” sounds … Read the rest

It’s a clothing line. Of course it is.

Amazon has removed a clothing line emblazoned with an offensive slogan referring to Kamala Harris from its website after complaints from Twitter users who branded it “unacceptable”.

The T-shirts, tank tops and hoodies which had the words “Joe and the hoe” written in red, white and blue in the style of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Harris’s campaign logo, were on sale for between $24.99 and $42.99.

Ok but you can’t seriously expect people to ignore the opportunity of a great rhyme can you? I mean it cries out for product placement. His name is Joe, and she is – ? Right? Come on. You know … Read the rest

Meghan Murphy was also unimpressed by Solnit’s rhapsody on her own hippitude. (Do I like to beat everything to death? Yes, I do, why do you ask?) Meghan Murphy does excellent unimpressed.

The increasing banality of Solnit’s writing might explain why she published a 1700 word letter in The Guardian, in response to nothing and no one, never making clear why this and why now. Perhaps she has a hat from which she can pull hot takes, or perhaps a predictable and dull editor requested the polemic for clicks. A writer myself, it strikes me that these kinds of pieces are what happens when one runs out of things to say.

“Dear ladies who are fearful and hostile to

That’s nice.

DeAnna Lorraine ran for Congress in Pelosi’s district; she lost the primary in March. She’s a self-employed “life and relationship coach.”

There was this the other day too:

What is wrong with people?… Read the rest

The longer clip makes clear what a fool this Mike Lindell is. He’s the kind of guy that if he sat next to you on the train you would move to another car.

—@andersoncooper relentlessly grills MyPillow CEO for evidence that the plant extract he's pushing as a miracle cure for coronavirus works.

"Where is the test?"

"The tests are out there."

"Where is the test? Show it to us."

"I don't have the test." pic.twitter.com/iSmKnonqQ4

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 18, 2020

There is no evidence that oleandrin is a miracle cure.

Reports of this oleandrin push in the White House have raised eyebrows this week, as there is no evidence that oleandrin works to treat COVID-19

Go Anderson!

Anderson Cooper just ripped Michael Lindell a new one over his snake oil salesman tactics and his attempt to make money off of the pandemic.

He also just asked the My Pillow guy: "How do you sleep at night?" pic.twitter.com/noS8TTNECO

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) August 18, 2020

Notice the cross worn outside the shirt, where a loosened necktie would be. Baby Jesus says oleander is MAGIC for the covid.… Read the rest

Female people aren’t human, they are merely the mechanism for creating humans and the mechanisms that make more humans and mechanisms, and so on. No mechanism is permitted to say no to the duty of a mechanism. It doesn’t matter if the mechanism is too small to create a human, the worst that can happen is that the mechanism will permanently break in the attempt. Nothing of value is lost.

Scores of Brazilian women have taken to the streets to protect a 10-year-old child who was being persecuted by religious extremists for trying to legally undergo an abortion after being raped, allegedly by her uncle.

So she’s a child, so she was raped, so the rapist is her uncle, … Read the rest

Fun choice:

Donald Trump has confirmed he will address the Republican convention next week from the White House, a controversial choice.

It’s not just “controversial,” it’s unethical and revolting.

But it’s worse than that: the racist couple who pointed guns at protesters are scheduled to speak at the Republican convention.

In a racially charged incident in late June, Patricia and Mark McCloskey, who are white, were pictured outside their mansion in St Louis, pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters heading for the mayor’s house nearby.

Mark McCloskey held an assault rifle, Patricia McCloskey a handgun. The couple, both lawyers, said they feared for their own safety and were defending their home.

And the Republican party said booya, we … Read the rest

Sad.

How to be absolutely 100% rock-solid completely positive you're on the wrong side of history.

[via @ChuckWendig and @MattNegrin] pic.twitter.com/KhLuO9U8Ys

— Phil (Newsletter link in bio) Plait (@BadAstronomer) June 7, 2020

The epistemology is obviously a joke, but the allegiance underlying the joke is for real. His allegiance is to team men are women if they say they are, and his hostility is to team men are not women just because they say they are.

I would have thought that verification by “because I say so” would be anathema to scientists. I especially would have thought that when the issue is an obvious material fact which is being denied on the basis of an internal subjective … Read the rest

Trump is bragging about…New Zealand?

Donald Trump has called out New Zealand for its recent Covid-19 outbreak, saying the places the world hailed as a success story is now facing a “big surge” in cases.

“The places they were using to hold up now they’re having a big surge … they were holding up names of countries and now they’re saying ‘whoops!’.

“Do you see what’s happening in New Zealand? They beat it, they beat it, it was like front-page news because they wanted to show me something,” the US president said at a campaign rally in Mankato, Minnesota.

That’s why they did it?

Of course the US has a lot more people. New Zealand has 4.8 million, the … Read the rest

The demonic shit is pushing ahead with his plan to destroy the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge. No matter how busy one is golfing and watching Fox News and tweeting sexist insults, there’s always time to destroy irreplaceable wilderness.

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with plans to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The first leases to drill for oil and gas in the area could be sold by the end of 2020, Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt said as his agency formally announced its leasing program on Monday.

We need more oil so that people can sit in their cars with the engines running for hours playing with their phones. It’s a basic human right.

Environmental

Now Trump is promoting a poison to “treat” the virus.

President Donald Trump and Mike Lindell, the creator of MyPillow and an avowed supporter, participated in a July meeting at the White House regarding the use of oleandrin as a potential therapeutic for coronavirus, Lindell confirmed to CNN.

What other meetings are they having? Meetings regarding being run over by tanks as a potential therapeutic for coronavirus? Meetings regarding being sliced up by swords as a potential therapeutic for coronavirus? Meetings regarding jumping out of planes without a parachute as a potential therapeutic for coronavirus?

Oleandrin is an extract from the plant Nerium oleander. The raw oleander plant is highly toxic, and consumption of it can be fatal.

So … Read the rest

Sean Coughlan at the BBC explains now what:

The next part of the A-level U-turn jigsaw is that the government is allowing universities in England to add more places – to meet the extra demand from young people who have had their results upgraded.

…

To increase capacity, the government in England will lift the “student number controls” which would have capped places.

Which means universities can add more students but

But that still depends on it being possible – they will still need to have enough spare space, teaching staff and accommodation, along with the pressures of Covid-19 social distancing measures.

Which doesn’t just magically pop into being because it’s needed.

A later update (the BBC doesn’t provide links … Read the rest