As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
Perhaps responding to international pressure, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a hospital facility in the prison system:
The Russian state penitentiary service said Monday a decision has been made to transfer imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, to a hospital.
The announcement comes two days after Navalny’s physician said his health was deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.
The state prison service, FSIN, said in a statement that Navalny would be transferred to a hospital for convicts located in another penal colony in Vladimir, a city 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Moscow. According to the statement, Navalny’s condition is deemed “satisfactory” and he has agreed to take vitamin therapy.
It shouldn't be assumed that the Putin regime has suddenly become humanitarian; they still would prefer Navalny "out of the way," but probably in a less public manner.
This smug sycophant's ethical transgressions will hardly make a ripple with the Republican base if he runs for future office:
The State Department’s internal watchdog has concluded that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife violated federal ethics rules by asking staffers to run personal errands and perform non-official work such as making restaurant reservations, shopping and caring for their dog.
In a report released on Friday, the department’s inspector general concluded that those requests were “inconsistent” with the regulations. But, because Pompeo is no longer a federal employee and not subject to federal disciplinary or other measures, it did not call for any action against the former secretary who left office on Jan. 20 at the end of the Trump administration. [snip]
The report identified inappropriate tasks as including “picking up personal items, planning events unrelated to the department’s mission, and conducting such personal business as pet care and mailing personal Christmas cards.” Many of those requests were directed to a long-time assistant of the Pompeos who was hired by the State Department as a senior adviser to the secretary.
It said it had found evidence that Susan Pompeo had “on several occasions” instructed the adviser to plan events for groups with which the Pompeos had nongovernmental relationships. It said it had identified at least 30 instances in which either the secretary or his wife told staffers to make restaurant reservations for personal lunches and dinners.
The inspector general “found that such requests were inconsistent with department ethics rules and the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch,” the report said.
"Rules and ethics are for the little people" thought Pompeo, escaping consequences like so many of his fellow Trumpers (so far).
The cicada bloom is coming to some of us (mostly us):
Sometime in the next few weeks, billions of cicadas that have been underground since 2004 will emerge en masse and blanket parts of the eastern United States with their song and, eventually, their carcasses.
If you’re in the right location, ignoring them will be impossible. [snip]
If you live in the D.C. area, lucky you! You’ll be in the middle of cicada-Palooza, where huge concentrations will emerge simultaneously.
People in other affected cities, such as Cincinnati and Philadelphia, will experience the insects as well, but New Yorkers may not. The last New York population, on Long Island, was nearly extinct in 2004. The sandy soil was never a good fit for cicadas, said John Cooley, who leads the Periodical Cicada Project at the University of Connecticut.
Here's where the biggest cicada blooms will be (click to enlarge):
Lastly, please head over to Infidel 753's link round- up for the best selection of links to postings from around the Internet. As we've said many times, you're bound to find many topics of interest to you (also, bookmark his blog!).
