Independent News
Ukraine update: Russia is crawling forward, buying 'victory' at tremendous cost of men and materiel
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When I described the two miles between Popasna and Pervomaisk as “the center of the world” two weeks ago, what I missed was that those two miles are also apparently much larger than any other miles on the planet. How else to account for Russia reporting “steady progress” in Popasna for 12 days in a row, without actually taking Popasna?
As of Thursday, more of the town appears to have come under Russian control, and there are Chechen forces in the eastern part of the town performing what seems to be the specialty of Kadyrov’s forces: making propaganda videos. Those videos are supposed to show Ukrainian forces running away from Popasna as the Chechen fighters laugh. Shockingly, they seem to be fakes.
So far as can be discerned at this point, the center of Popasna remains under Ukrainian control, but the fighting there has devolved to a horrendous street-by-street nightmare. Russian artillery is continuing to fire into the heavily damaged town, and 10 more houses were reportedly taken out. But if Russia took more ground in the past 24 hours, it could be measured with a yardstick. And that’s in spite of hitting the small town with everything, including reportedly using cluster bombs, phosphorus, and something similar to napalm.
The tactic being used at Popasna is the tactic Russia is using everywhere, as well as the tactic Russia deployed in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria: Fire artillery until everything ahead is dust. Then advance across the dust.
This is why getting the artillery sent to Ukraine by the U.S. and other Western nations to the front lines is so vital. The 110 U.S. M777 howitzers (over half of which are now in Ukraine, with trained crews) have a range up to 24 miles, and they are closely coupled to anti-artillery radar systems that are specifically designed to trace back the source of incoming fire so that it can be destroyed. Artillery that is outranged by modern opposing artillery fires once. Then it’s gone.
Loitering munitions like the Switchblade and still-mysterious Phoenix Ghost can also help take out Russian artillery, but it’s not clear that these systems have been effective at this task to this point.
In any case, Russia’s grind with an artillery-and-then-advance system isn’t just slow; it’s costly for Russia. As kos noted earlier, Russia’s “tactical successes” gained by days of shelling have come at a cost of high levels of casualties and significant losses of equipment. Quoting former DNR separatist leader Igor Girkin:
“…after a certain time, in this area, the same situation will repeat as in Rubezhnoe-Severodonetsk, Popasnaya, Avdeevka and Maryanka, where united forces are advancing extremely slowly and with huge losses (especially among the infantry), or not moving at all (Avdeevka).”
When Russia advances over that dust, troops are not just crossing the rubble of Ukrainian cities. They’re walking on the bodies of their own troops and the wreckage of their own gear.
There is an axiom that moving forward against an enemy in defensive position requires a 3 to 1 force advantage, all other things being equal. Considering the training and unit cohesiveness of Russian forces, they have historically moved forward by employing a 7 to 1 advantage. They don’t have 7:1. They don’t have 3:1. That doesn’t mean they can’t advance. It means they can advance, but only at a very high rate of attrition.
Some of the numbers that are coming out of the Ukrainian ministry of defense, like those that suggest Russia has lost 100 tanks in the past four days, are certainly exaggerated. But considering the proven losses Russia has already seen, they may not be that exaggerated.
Russia is crawling toward Popasna, and a dozen other towns and cities, behind a screen of artillery, losing men and machines all the way, because they’ve been told to advance despite having insufficient forces to overwhelm defenders. Ukraine can’t allow that advance to continue forever. On the other hand, Russian forces can’t survive this rate of attrition forever.
If it sometimes seems that sites like CNN are wringing their hands over the idea that Russia is winning everywhere while Daily Kos continues to be optimistic about the chances for Ukraine, it’s because CNN is looking only at what Russia bought. Meanwhile, we’re looking at the price.
U.S. Postal Service sued over massive gas-guzzling mail truck order
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EarthJustice and the Center for Biological Diversity have teamed up to sue the U.S. Postal Service over its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) order of 50,000 mail trucks, just 10,019 of which will be electric. The order has been controversial since it was initially announced, though the USPS initially requested that just 10% of its NGDVs be EVs and has since ordered a slightly larger amount amid public outcry. That still isn’t good enough, given the Biden administration’s vow to purchase only zero-emissions vehicles for the federal government starting in 2035 and overall goal of the government hitting net-zero by 2050. The lawsuit contends that the way the USPS went about seeking to replace 165,000 vehicles was entirely unlawful because the agency failed to first conduct an environmental review.
“The Postal Service performed its NEPA [environmental review] analysis too late, and the analysis it did finally prepare was incomplete, misleading, and biased against cleaner vehicles,” the lawsuit notes. It’s easy to see how the Postal Service, which only began its NEPA process after it selected a contractor for its vehicle order, prioritized gas-guzzling vehicles over EVs. Per the lawsuit, the final EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) included high costs for batteries but suspiciously low assumptions for gas prices, as well as misleading data about EV capabilities that fail to take into account “expected advancements in battery technology over the next decade.” Because the agency was so worried about what it believed to be high upfront costs for EVs, it now appears as if it’ll be stuck with a majority of NGDVs hitting the road, and getting just 8.6 miles per gallon.
“We’re taking the Postal Service to court over its failure to electrify its vehicle fleet,” Katherine García, director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement. “Instead of moving forward with common-sense and available technology to mitigate the climate crisis, clean up our air, and create good union jobs, USPS has decided to keep polluting communities at a time when federal agencies should be leading the way on electrification. It’s an unacceptable decision, and we won’t let it slide.” Sierra Club is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with groups like CleanAirNow KC. The groups are hoping that a judge vacates the USPS’s final EIS and Record of Decision and forces the agency to comply with what’s required of the National Environmental Policy Act, which would likely call for more—if not a majority—of the NGDVs ordered by the USPS to be electric.
EarthJustice and the Center for Biological Diversity aren’t the only organizations looking to sue the USPS over its NGDV order. Also on Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a joint lawsuit with United Auto Workers, contending that the NGDV order is essentially “based on an unlawfully deficient environmental analysis conducted after the Postal Service had already decided on a course of action.” “If allowed to stand, it would lock in decades of fossil fuel consumption and pollution in communities across the United States, resulting in higher maintenance and fuel costs, worse air quality, and increased climate impacts,” the suit continues. “If the Postal Service undertook a supplemental environmental analysis, it could reach a different conclusion and instead invest in much-needed EVs that would reduce air pollution, mitigate the causes of climate change, provide union jobs, and save the Postal Service money.”
Attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. have also come together to file a petition against the USPS, similarly claiming that the agency “failed to comply with even the most basic requirements of NEPA.”
Latino workers and older workers face shocking workplace fatality rates
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April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a day to honor workers killed or injured on the job. There are a lot of them.
In 2020, according to the AFL-CIO’s 2022 Death on the Job report, 4,764 workers were killed at work in the United States, and an estimated 120,000 died from diseases related to their occupations. Nearly 3.2 million work-related illnesses and injuries were reported, despite significant underreporting. The true number is likely between 5.4 million and 8.1 million.
RELATED STORY: Amazon is crushing Walmart in one metric: The rate of serious injuries in its warehouses
This year, we at least have a president who observes the day. “Ensuring worker safety is a national priority and a moral imperative,” President Joe Biden tweeted. “On Workers Memorial Day, we honor and remember those who lost their lives on the job and reaffirm every worker’s basic right to a safe and healthy workplace.” Reducing the number of deaths, injuries, and illnesses would take significant investment, though, and we don’t have a Congress that’s going to appropriate the money needed.
At the federal and state levels combined, there are just 1,719 workplace safety inspectors in the United States. That’s one for every 81,427 workers. There are 10.8 million workplaces in the nation. And in addition to the low level of federal investment in protecting workers on the job—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has just $4.37 per worker—penalties to employers that endanger, injure, or even kill workers are appallingly low. The median federal penalty for a worker’s death was $9,753, and of course median means that half of the penalties were lower. State OSHA penalties for a worker’s death on the job were much lower: a median of just $5,825. For someone’s life.
Workplace dangers aren’t equally distributed. Latino and Black workers face greater risks. While the national average job fatality rate is 3.4 per 100,000 workers, for Black workers it’s 3.5 per 100,000 and for Latino workers it’s 4.5, and rising. Immigrants are particularly at risk: 65% of the Latino workers who died on the job in 2020 were immigrants.
Older workers also face a shocking level of risk, at 8.6 job fatalities per 100,000 workers 65 and older.
Where and in what industry you work also makes a big difference. In 2020, the least safe states to work in were Wyoming (13.0 per 100,000 workers), Alaska (10.7 per 100,000 workers), South Dakota (7.8 per 100,000 workers), North Dakota (7.4 per 100,000 workers), and West Virginia (6.6 per 100,000 workers). The least safe industries were agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting (21.5 per 100,000 workers); transportation and warehousing (13.4 per 100,000 workers); mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (10.5 per 100,000 workers); construction (10.2 per 100,000 workers); and wholesale trade (4.6 per 100,000 workers).
There are some obvious fixes here: Fund workplace safety inspections, and focus them on the groups and industries at particular risk. Increase penalties to a high enough level that they might serve as a deterrent to the kind of scumbag employer who won’t worry about workers’ lives unless it hits them in the bank account. Put into place new policies on things like emergency response, heat illness and injury, combustible dust, musculoskeletal disorders.
And unions. At the Economic Policy Institute, Jennifer Sherer highlights the importance of workplace safety as an issue in the biggest union win in years, at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse. Christian Smalls was fired after he protested for better COVID-19 safety measures. He went on to organize the historic union at a company that has workplace safety problems predating COVID-19, with serious injury rates in its warehouses coming in at nearly double that of other retail warehouses and more than double that of Walmart.
When workers come together to build power and make changes in the workplace, safety can be a major issue at the bargaining table. It remains to be seen what gains the Amazon union will be able to make—as of now, the company is refusing to even recognize the union—but the fact that this organizing win started with a workplace safety concern shows the power of the reality behind Workers Memorial Day.
'Well, hallelujah': University of California to offer free tuition for Native American students
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In a state with more than 100 federally recognized tribes, the University of California system announced earlier this month that it will be offering Native American students free tuition and fees. The students must be in-state residents and belong to federally recognized Native American, American Indian, or Alaska Native tribes, according to a letter system President Michael Drake wrote chancellors of the University of California campuses.
“The University of California is committed to recognizing and acknowledging historical wrongs endured by Native Americans,” Drake wrote. “I am proud of the efforts the University has made to support the Native American community, including the creation of the UC Native American Opportunity Plan, and appreciate our conversations to date on all the ways in which we can better support Native American students.”
RELATED STORY: 13 recommended books about and by American Indians
The free tuition offering will be funded through a combination of state and university financial aid programs, and it will launch this upcoming fall, Drake wrote.
There are about 500 undergraduate students and 160 graduate students who meet the funding requirement of being California residents and members of federally recognized tribes, according to The Los Angeles Times.
But there are also more than 50 tribes that are not federally recognized. For those students, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR) announced that it would be providing the University of California system with a $2.5-million scholarship.
“In the spirit of our ancestors we are driven to take care of our environment and our people,” FIGR Tribal Chairman Greg Sarris said in a statement the Times obtained. “Inclusivity is our responsibility and we’re pleased to extend scholarships to California Native Americans from non-federally recognized tribes.”
Clyde Hodge, a former president of the California Indian Education Association from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, praised the system funding decision. “Well, hallelujah,” he told NBC-affiliated KCRA. “We’ve been thinking that was a good idea for California natives for a long, long time. To open that up to all the federally recognized tribes is a long-needed thing.”
Greg Abbott's redundant inspections that cost Texas billions in losses find nothing, zero, nada
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It is simply untrue to say that right-wing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s political stunt that forced commercial vehicles to undergo redundant inspections and cost his state $4 billion in losses turned up nothing. The Texas Tribune reports that state inspectors cited a couple of hundred drivers for minor infractions that included under-inflated tires and oil leaks. So there, naysayers!
Oh, you want to know if Abbott’s political operation turned up any migrants or drugs, which was supposed to be the whole point of this disastrous scheme? The short answer: No. Zero, per official state data.
RELATED STORY: Angry over Mexico’s remarks, Abbott threatens to reinstate stunt that cost state $4 billion
The Texas Tribune reports that in addition to those minor citations, officials “took 850 trucks off the road for various violations related to their equipment.” But no migrants, or drugs. The Texas Department of Public Safety director tried to claim that this is proof that the scheme actually worked, and that cartels were scared away by their checks.
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But Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Director for Defense Oversight Adam Isacson explained that that’s unlikely, given that “many illegal drugs smuggled into the United States are hidden in small compartments or spare tires of people’s vehicles going through international bridges for tourists.” As KHOU-11 reports, Isacson says “if smugglers were trying to hide illegal drugs in a commercial truck, it’s most likely federal immigration officials found them before the trucks were directed to the DPS secondary inspections.”
This is a good moment for this reminder: As Republicans have been weirdly angry about the Biden administration seizing huge amounts of drugs at ports of entry, they’ve also voted against funding for screenings and upgrades at ports of entry.
The fact is that Abbott’s stunt was an economic disaster that cost Pharr, the site of one of the busiest land crossings in the country, roughly $200 million every single day in losses. The Perryman Group, an economic consulting firm in the state, estimated that Abbott caused the nation roughly $9 billion in lost gross domestic product. Republicans love to own the libs even if it means jabbing themselves in one eye, so the electoral consequences remain to be seen. We do know that Abbott faced intense opposition on this policy from his own party.
But even though he caved on this disaster after 10 days, Abbott has since threatened to reinstate the policy. Not because of some imaginary threat, but because he got mad at criticisms from Mexico’s president.
In ending this stunt, Abbott had touted agreements with a number of Mexican governors. “But three of the four Mexican governors said they will simply continue security measures they put in place before Abbott ordered the state inspections,” The Texas Tribune reported. Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador questioned whether Abbott had any authority to engage in international agreements in the first place. Abbott didn’t like any of that, so he claimed he has “the capability at any time” to resume his unnecessary secondary inspections, Houston Chronicle reported.
“Abbott just single-handedly cost us $4.2 billion,” tweeted Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. “Let’s make him pay the price.”
RELATED STORIES: Greg Abbott ends disastrous stunt that cost fruit and vegetable producers an estimated $240 million
Abbott’s increased truck inspections in response to Biden admin leading to huge delays, rotting food
Texas remains secretive about actual results of expensive border theatrics because they didn’t work
New ADL report finds 34% increase in antisemitism, with 2,717 reported incidents in 2021
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In the last several weeks, multiple reports have been released noting the rise in hate and bias against minority communities. Days after a report shared the increase in bias-based incidents against Muslim Americans in the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report Tuesday noting the number of incidents involving assault, vandalism, and harassment targeting the Jewish community.
According to the audit report, crimes against Jewish people have reached a historic high of more than 2,700 reported incidents, a 34% increase nationwide compared to 2,026 in 2020. The actual numbers are expected to be higher due to the number of incidents that go unreported.
This isn’t the first time ADL reports have found a rise in antisemitism. The rise in antisemitism has been consistent for years. According to CNN, the ADL has been tracking such incidents since 1979. This year has been the highest the organization has seen in the past 40 years, making it a “deeply troubling indicator of larger societal fissures.”
“It is despicable and disgraceful that it happens, and there’s not enough people in authority calling it out,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
“People beaten and brutalized in broad daylight, without any provocation, attacked for the crime of wearing a kippah,” Greenblatt added.
Of the 2,717 incidents reported, 1,776 were described as harassment in which one or more Jews or those perceived to be Jewish were the targets of antisemitic slurs, stereotypes, or conspiracy theories, the report said. At least 850 incidents included vandalism of Jewish places of worship or businesses; 88 incidents were assaults.
Every state and the District of Columbia reported incidents rising, with the most occurring in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Michigan, and Texas. The report found that nearly 60% of the total incidents were in those six states.
According to the report, New York has the highest rate of antisemitic incidents in the country. There were 416 incidents reported in New York in 2021, a 24% increase since 2020. Fifty-one were assaults, the most ever recorded with a 325% increase from 2020.
Comparatively, California reported 367 incidents of antisemitic hate and harassment in 2021, setting a record that has carried into 2022.
“In the Bay Area, notwithstanding the fact that, broadly speaking, it’s a more progressive place … we see antisemitism emanating from the far right and the far left,” Seth Brysk, director of ADL’s Central Pacific Region, told the SF Chronicle, noting that each incident targets a community rather than an individual. “Every swastika tagged on a wall can harm scores of people,” he said.
One of the solutions the ADL offered was better educating students about bias in schools.
“We need to see schools introduce anti-bias, anti-hate, Holocaust education content to their students, so we can inoculate our kids before intolerance takes hold,” Greenblatt said.
The report also indicated that the ADL plans to work with law enforcement and other officials to track trends in efforts to prevent further antisemitic incidents.
Trevor Reed's parents say Biden saved their son's life. Why can't McCarthy give credit where due?
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Wednesday brought news of a surprise prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia, with Russia releasing former Marine Trevor Reed as the U.S. released Konstantin Yaroshenko. The decision to make the exchange came amid the relentless advocacy of Reed’s parents and news of his deteriorating health, with President Joe Biden ultimately making the decision to trade Yaroshenko, who was convicted of drug trafficking in 2010.
Embattled House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy celebrated the news … with a noteworthy omission. “After being held captive by Russia’s corrupt system since 2019, Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed will finally be returned to U.S. soil,” McCarthy tweeted Wednesday. “Securing his freedom has been a years-long process—I am relieved for his family. I invite them all to my office to celebrate Trevor’s freedom.”
Okay, Kevin. “Securing his freedom has been a years-long process,” huh? That makes it sound like you were intimately involved. But, uh, how did it ultimately happen?
Reed’s parents have answered that question: They credit Biden for saving their son’s life.
RELATED STORY: Olympic athlete and WNBA star Brittney Griner will be detained in Russia until May 19
Biden has said he raised the issue with Russia “three months ago,” CNN reports, while an administration official described “months and months of hard, careful work across the U.S. government,” with outreach not only from U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan but Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden, and others, as well. The Richardson Center, headed by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, also served as an intermediary.
The decision to commute Yaroshenko’s sentence was Biden’s, with approval from the Department of Justice.
Biden’s focus on Reed’s case came after Reed’s parents, Joey and Paula, fought to get his attention, asking for a meeting when he visited Texas in early March and, when they were turned down, standing along his motorcade route with a sign. On a phone call afterward, Biden told them he had prayed the rosary for their son and “thinks of Trevor every day.” But when they didn’t see further action, they went and stood outside the White House with a sign about their son. By the end of the day, they were inside the White House meeting with Biden. That was March 30—before which Biden and others in his administration had talked to Russian officials about releasing Reed. He still had to make the decision to do a prisoner exchange, though.
Trevor Reed and Constantin Yaroshenko were returned to the custody of their respective countries in Turkey, and Reed arrived in the U.S. in the early hours of Thursday morning.
“We are grateful beyond words,” Paula Reed tweeted. “We actually said that we believe @POTUS saved @freetrevorreed’s life by agreeing to this prisoner swap. We truly mean that!”
But Kevin McCarthy? He couldn’t unbend enough to give that tiny bit of credit for the months of work by the Biden administration. And no wonder. McCarthy has in recent days been busy groveling for Donald Trump’s forgiveness for recordings of McCarthy, in Jan. 2021, saying he was going to urge Trump to resign the presidency, and expressing what at moments sounded like real outrage at the Trump-supporting mob’s attack on the Capitol. McCarthy has gotten Trump to express public support, but praising Biden for anything, at all, however glancingly, would be the kind of tweak Trump’s ego cannot stand. So even if it was McCarthy’s instinct to acknowledge that Biden was responsible for Reed’s release—which it probably was not—there’s no way McCarthy’s current political position would allow him to do so. That’s today’s Republican Party: run by Donald Trump’s ego and the imperative to never, ever to give a Democrat credit for anything, however detached it might be from partisan policy battles.
RELATED STORIES:
McCarthy does damage control with House Republicans over leaked recordings
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Kansas Proud Boy enters a guilty plea and agrees to cooperate with the Feds
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Facing up to five years in prison if he failed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Louis Colon, a “first degree” member of the Kansas City Proud Boys chapter, has pleaded guilty to obstructing police during the Jan. 6 attack.
The 45-year-old Blue Springs, Missouri, man was facing a slew of charges including felony obstruction, civil disorder, trespassing, and disorderly conduct when he was initially indicted with five other members of the neofascist group in January.
But with his plea deal struck, those counts are expected to be dismissed when Colon is sentenced. That date has not been set as of Thursday according to court records, but prosecutors have indicated it will come once they figure out how Colon’s cooperation might influence other Proud Boys in the case who have pleaded not guilty.
Two days before President Donald Trump would hit the stage at the Ellipse in D.C., back in Kansas, according to a statement of his offense, Colon and a few other Proud Boys decided they would come to Washington to show support for the outgoing president’s push to stop the certification of Electoral College votes by Congress.
Colon, members Ryan Ashlock and Christopher Kuehne, and another unnamed individual popped into a car that had two of Kuehne’s AR-15s stowed inside. The car was never brought into the nation’s capitol, however.
Once they arrived in Virginia on Jan. 5, Colon admitted the group went to a hardware store where he picked up, among other things, an ax handle. He would later modify it so it could be used as a walking stick and a weapon.
But before they left the shop, Colon said Kuehne suggested they grab a bit of bright orange tape and use it to identify each other as members of the same group in the crowd. According to the initial indictment, the Kansas Proud Boys Colon traveled with wore paramilitary gear, camouflaged uniforms, tactical vests and plates, helmets, and eye protection. They also carried radio equipment.
On the eve of the assault, Colon said his group met with Proud Boy and co-defendant William Chrestman and they discussed how to move “safely” as a group.
According to Colon, it was then that someone in the group said they didn’t come to Washington ”to just march around.”
“Do we have patriots willing to take it by force?” the person asked.
“[Colon] was shocked by this and understood that the individual was referring to using force against the government,” a statement of his offense notes.
In the moment, Kuehne, who has pleaded not guilty, said he still had his guns in his car and another member of the group piped up, saying the Proud Boys should “go in and take over.”
Meeting around the Washington Monument on the morning of Jan. 6, Colon said the group was joined by siblings Felicia Konold and Cory Konold of Arizona.
In Snapchat videos Felicia Konold posted describing the riots, she said she was recruited by the organization in Kansas. In one clip, she shows off a Proud Boys challenge coin of sorts that she received.
Her acceptance into the group would be notable given that the network is a self-professed “chauvinistic” organization steeped in misogyny. Sometimes, however, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Proud Boys have created offshoot chapters for wives or girlfriends.
According to court records, with their group amassed, Colon, Kuehne, Ashlock, Chrestman, and the Konold siblings began marching through the street toward the Capitol, chanting. Chrestman shouted to the crowd: “Do you want to take your house back?”
They would scream back, “Yes!”
Chrestman, prosecutors say, urged them on.
“Take it,” he allegedly told the mob.
Once on the west side of the Capitol, they scaled a wall, searched for higher ground, and then found a way inside. But the group was first met by police struggling to keep rioters back. As U.S. Capitol Police fired non-lethal projectiles at them, Chrestman allegedly screamed at the officers: “You shoot and I’ll take your fucking ass out!”
Konold, prosecutors say, was meanwhile urging people to keep fighting. All in the group but Ashlock made it inside of the Capitol.
Once in, Colon said they spotted retractable doors being lowered by police to keep rioters from spreading into another part of the building.
That was when Colon said he used his hands to stop the door and then put a chair in the way to keep it open. Kuehne, he said, was nearby with another person using a podium as a doorstop.
Colon admits to being inside the Capitol for roughly 50 minutes before he and co-defendants fled.
In addition to his sentence, Colon will pay $2,000 towards restoring the U.S. Capitol. The damages to the complex alone hover around $1.4 million. If he is forced to pay a fine on top of the sentence and restitution, it could total up to $250,000.
Louis Colon Plea Agreement by Daily Kos on Scribd
Another plea agreement for a different Proud Boy appears to be in the works, too.
On April 22, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an order noting that prosecutors and lawyers for Nicholas “Nick” Kennedy, also known as Squatch, have “progressed in discussions regarding pretrial resolution” and requested another status hearing be held in June.
The 41-year-old of Sikeston, Missouri, faces six counts including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted area, disorderly conduct in a capitol building, and parading in a capitol building. Prior to the April 22 order, Kennedy pleaded not guilty.
When news of his indictment first emerged, his picture, Cash app handle, and email were posted in the Proud Boys’ Telegram channel, as noted by Jan. 6 sleuths Sedition Track last year.
An attorney for Kennedy did not immediately return a request for comment to Daily Kos on Thursday.
Biden requests $33 billion for Ukraine, giving GOP another chance to show which side it's on
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President Joe Biden has officially made his request for the next tranche of aid to Ukraine, $33 billion in military and humanitarian aid for the next five months. In addition to the funding request, he is asking Congress to amend existing criminal laws to make seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs easier.
“The cost of this fight? It’s not cheap,” Biden said in announcing the request. “But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.”
The funding request includes $20.4 billion for security and military aid; $8.5 billion for economic support (food, energy, health care, and agriculture); and $3 billion in global food aid to offset the losses in Ukrainian production of wheat and other commodities. It also included $500 million for U.S. food production assistance. The request is expected to last through September, as good an indication as any that U.S. defense analysts expect a long slog for Ukraine against Russia. “As long as the assaults and atrocities continue, we’re going to continue to supply military assistance,” Biden said Thursday, indicating that this request is the beginning of a transition to longer-term security assistance for Ukraine.
“The president’s funding request is what we believe is needed to enable Ukraine’s success over the next five months of this war,” an administration official told reporters on a press call ahead of the official announcement from Biden. “And we have every expectation that our partners and allies … will continue to provide comparable levels of assistance going forward.”
Coupled with that funding request is a proposal to “establish new authorities for the forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy, allow the government to use the proceeds to support Ukraine, and further strengthen related law enforcement tools,” according to a White House fact sheet.
It would streamline the process of the seizure and forfeiture of sanctioned oligarchs assets as well as expand the U.S. assets they can grab, and then to use the proceeds to support Ukraine. “Under the proposal, the Departments of Justice, Treasury, and State will work together to use forfeited funds related to corruption, sanctions and export control violations, and other specified offenses to remediate harms of Russian aggression toward Ukraine.”
As current law stands, in order to sell off seized assets, prosecutors have to demonstrate that they are the proceeds of a crime, and being a sanctioned Russian isn’t a crime and theoretically, oligarchs could sue to get their stuff back. So the White House is pursuing legislation that would create a new criminal law, “making it unlawful for any person to knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government.” That might make some elected Republicans sweat just a little bit.
While that request lands on Capitol Hill, the House will vote on the updated Lend-Lease Act that eliminates some restrictions on Biden’s ability to send military equipment to Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe under the World War II-era lend-lease program. It exempts the administration from the five-year limit on the duration of any loans or leases, and from the requirement that the countries getting the equipment pay all the costs. The Senate passed the bill earlier this month, before the Easter recess.
The House took a number of votes Wednesday aimed at punishing Russia and supporting surrounding countries and former Soviet Republics. That included one to “impose entry and property-blocking sanctions against foreign persons responsible for or complicit in serious human rights abuses in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia that are occupied by Russia,” which 20 Republicans voted against.
In addition, 17 Republicans voted no on a resolution “expressing support for Moldova’s democracy, independence, and territorial integrity and strengthening United States and Moldova relations, and 8 Republicans voted against a measure very similar to what Biden is requesting, to “seize assets belonging to a foreign person whose wealth is derived in part through political support for or corruption linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
We’ll have a much better picture of just where Republicans stand—with or against Putin—when these bills come to the Senate.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland pitches boosted department budget to House Committee
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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland spoke before the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies on Thursday to discuss her agency’s budget and answer any questions members may have about what the Interior Department’s been up to as of late. That included addressing offshore leasing concerns, with Haaland admitting that three lease sales have yet to be held ahead of the department’s current five-year plan concluding on June 30. The Interior Department is working on a new plan that will extend to 2027. Five-year plans are the norm, though continued fossil fuel development is utterly incongruous to the Biden administration’s net-zero aspirations and goes against the president’s own pushes for offshore drilling bans through the Build Back Better Act.
Questions about renewable energy and the minerals needed to use them far outweighed concerns over fossil fuels, however. That’s likely because “the 2023 budget includes $476.6 million for oil and gas programs,” according to a statement released by Haaland ahead of the hearing. Meanwhile, funding for climate-related projects is expected to increase—as is the overall budget for the department—but those numbers pale in comparison to the $63.7 million more the department is requesting for oil and gas programs compared with the prior year’s budget. Haaland billed the ask as “balancing the nation’s energy portfolio,” a frustrating framing akin to Sen. Joe Manchin’s calls for “all of the above” energy initiatives.
Little was discussed during Thursday’s meeting about the difference in budgeting for climate resiliency projects compared with oil and gas programs, though lawmakers did share concerns over the extraction of minerals to be used for renewable energy. An interagency task force report about those minerals is expected to be delivered to Congress within the year, Haaland told the committee. Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada briefly discussed permitting difficulties in the state, but his concerns seemed to center on the typical Republican concerns about “rights-holders” rather than environmental impact, something he previously touched on in a Q&A with the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Minerals were discussed in Haaland’s prepared statement only insofar as how the industry can provide additional jobs as well as how the Interior Department can streamline payouts from revenue from federal and Indian mineral leases. The Bureau of Land Management is expected to receive $49.7 million for its Renewable Energy programs, which includes expanding the amount of Renewable Energy Coordination Offices, “which specialize in permitting for renewable energy projects on public lands,” Haaland noted in her prepared statement.
What was discussed during the hearing that is of particular concern to Haaland and, really, anyone invested in Indigenous rights, is the proposed $7 million to continue funding the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which was launched last June to provide “a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies.” During the hearing, Haaland revealed that her grandparents were forced into such schools, which she’d initially written about in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
“It’s important for me to make sure that people know that we care about this issue, that we are doing something about it, giving them a chance to heal from this inter-generational trauma,” Haaland said. “We are working on the boarding school initiative. It should be out very soon … I think the initial start in getting a full listing of exactly what federal boarding schools were in this country where burial sites are, what tribes were relegated to these various boarding schools, those are the important facts that we are working on now that we’ll get out soon.”