Pete Hegseth wasn't honest with Trump about his past

 Trump transition team ‘quietly’ looking at alternatives to Pete Hegseth after he ‘wasn’t honest’ about past

Donald Trump’s transition team is said to be “upset” with Pete Hegseth because he “hasn’t been honest” about the sexual misconduct allegation from his past – prompting insiders to consider other options to lead the Pentagon.

Hegseth was tapped last week to become Trump’s defense secretary but now those in the president-elect’s inner circle are “quietly preparing a list of alternative” candidates, Vanity Fair reported.

“It’s becoming a real possibility,” a source told the outlet’s special correspondent Gabriel Sherman.

The source said that the Trump team was taken by surprise after a serious sexual assault allegation against Hegseth came to light, which led Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles to question the former Fox News host on a call last week. Hegseth was never charged with a crime and denies the allegations.

“People are upset about the distraction. The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest,” a second source told Vanity Fair.

A “prominent Republican” close to the Trump transition team told the outlet that some are also unhappy with the president-elect’s choice due to Hegseth’s lack of qualifications to lead the nation’s defense. . . ..     

What else would he fail to be honest about?

 

Supreme Court rules Obama can't be prosecuted for executing American citizens by drone while he was president, Democrats shaken, dismayed, hopeless

 

 Supreme Court rules ex-presidents have broad immunity, dimming chance of a pre-election Trump trial

 US Supreme Court rules Trump has immunity for official, not private acts

 

Missing us by 180k miles yesterday, asteroid 2024 MK was only discovered on June 16 and was one of the 60% larger than 140 meters still unknown

 

Gee that's . . . not a happy thought.

The asteroid, named 2024 MK, is estimated to measure about 480 feet (146 meters) across, which is greater than the height of a 40-story building or the Great Pyramid of Giza.

More. 

A sucker that size could destroy London, England:

"If [an asteroid as big as Dimorphos] were to fall on the city of London, windows would break over the whole south east of England and the damage in [the Greater London] area would be very extreme," Collins said. "There would be no survivors in the center of London because of the impact itself and also because of the severity of the air blast." ...

While asteroids of this size crossing the path of our planet are rare, astronomers estimate that 60% of near Earth asteroids larger than 140 meters are still unknown. 

NASA said it came in at 152.4 meters.

European Space Agency said it came as close as 180k miles.

Talk about giving two weeks notice.

DNC chair Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez gaslight DNC committee members in Saturday conference call, disable chat function and disallow questions

Here:

Multiple committee members on the call, most granted anonymity to talk about the private discussion, described feeling like they were being gaslighted — that they were being asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s predicament. The call, they said, may have worsened a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors and other stakeholders.

Instead, the people said, Harrison offered what they described as a rosy assessment of Biden's path forward. The chat function was disabled and there were no questions allowed.

“I was hoping for more of a substantive conversation instead of, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and just be cheerleaders,’ without actually addressing a very serious issue that unfolded on American television for millions of people to see," said Joe Salazar, an elected DNC member from Colorado, who was on the call. “There were a number of things that could have been said in addressing the situation. But we didn’t get that. We were being gaslit.” ... “This should not be a close race,” Salazar said, pointing to Trump's criminal record and long history of falsehoods. “They’re the ones who should be looking for a new nominee, not us. And unfortunately for us, because of our president’s performance on Thursday night, that is now an open discussion.”

Maybe that's the problem right there

 No human biologist now argues that violence is in our genes.

More.

Reuters: Trump was undeterred in front of Libertarians

 Undeterred, Trump poked fun at the crowd, saying if they did not back him, they would continue to garner just a tiny portion of voter support in national elections.

More.

Dubai seeds clouds on the weekend, gets floods by Tuesday, but no, it was climate change

Dubai Grinds to Standstill as Cloud Seeding Worsens Flooding

 

The Gulf state’s National Center of Meteorology dispatched seeding planes from Al Ain airport on Monday and Tuesday to take advantage of convective cloud formations, according to Ahmed Habib, a specialist meteorologist. The NCM on Wednesday said the seeding had taken place on Sunday and Monday, and not on Tuesday. ... The latest storms followed heavy rains earlier this year, according to Habib at NCM. The seeding planes have flown seven missions, he added. “For any cloud that’s suitable over the UAE you make the operation,” he said.

Thankfully NASA determines an object which weighed 1.6 pounds and smashed through a Florida man's roof wasn't the bag lost by two female astronauts last November

Nope, it was a 5,800 pound pallet heaved over the side of the ISS in March 2021.

Go big or go broke I always say.

NASA confirms space junk that hit Florida home came from space station

Astronauts accidentally drop tool bag during ISS spacewalk

Object from the sky crashes through Naples family’s ceiling and floor

 

“It was a tremendous sound. It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all,” said Alejandro Otero.

 

Bug spray and vanilla extract flying off the shelves in South America amid dengue fever outbreak expected to top record 4.5 million cases from 2023

Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are the hardest hit, with more than 3.5 million cases, 83% of which are concentrated in Brazil, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

More.

Transqueers intimidate and harass feminists marching against new hate speech law in Edinburgh, Scotland

 Women Scotland, a campaign group, told The Telegraph: “It’s pure harassment and intimidation. They are deliberately going out to cause upset. Women are trying to talk about their lives and are being subject to torrents of sexist and homophobic abuse.”

More.

Guttmacher: Over 1 million abortions in 2023, 60% by pill

From the story:

 [The 2022 Supreme Court decision] led to a growing reliance on a two-pill regimen to terminate pregnancies, with U.S. abortions administered by pill increasing 10% since 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.

The Institute's report is published every three years and based on data collected from U.S. abortion providers.

The survey found over 1 million total abortions were provided through the U.S. healthcare system in 2023, the first time that number exceeded a million since 2012. ...

The survey likely undercounted the number of abortions in the U.S. since it did not account for terminations obtained outside the formal U.S. healthcare system, such as those done with pills mailed from abroad.

Push

 Eroding bluffs could send California homes tumbling into the ocean. What can be done?

"I don't feel no ways tired" to stop messing with you now

 Year after disappearing, informant in Trump probe found dead at high school...

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For now, the Pfizer vaccine appears to be the one to get, if you've got the choice, because the coronavirus is mutating

The new Novavax vaccine is just 49% effective vs. the new South Africa coronavirus strain B.1.351 which emerged last October and was just reported in two cases in South Carolina.

Johnson & Johnson's new vaccine is just 57% effective against it.

Moderna says its vaccine is "far less effective against the South Africa strain".

Pfizer's vaccine appears to be the most robust of them all, "only slightly less effective against the South Africa variant compared with the others."

Story here.

Note to Nancy Pelosi on impeachment from Pocahonky campaign: Every second that passes undermines the process a little bit

Warren’s campaign manager, Roger Lau, said the [Iowa] delay was concerning and disappointing. “Every second that passes undermines the process a little bit,” he said.

13 million young adults 18-29 use marijuana but the FDA's Scott Gottlieb is shocked, shocked I tell you, by 3.6 million young vapers

This administration, like the rest of this country, is completely effed up.

US orders restriction on e-cigarette sales; youth use surges:

Tampa (AFP) - US regulators Thursday ordered sharp restrictions on sales of e-cigarettes, as national data showed a 78 percent single-year surge in vaping among young people, with two-thirds using fruit and candy-flavored products. ...

"These data shock my conscience," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, referring to the latest data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. ...

A total of 3.6 million US youths reported vaping at least once in the past month, the data showed.

"These increases must stop. And the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes," said Gottlieb.

Meanwhile Gallup reported in August that 24% of the 54 million Americans aged 18-29 regularly or occasionally use marijuana, over three and half times as many as vape, but the FDA's Gottlieb isn't in the headlines over that.

Uganda prepares to vaccinate as Ebola threatens from Congo

From the story here:

Uganda, which has had five Ebola outbreaks since 2000, says it is preparing to begin vaccinations as needed. The health ministry in Congo, which is facing its 10th outbreak, says more than 12,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

Hey Justice Kennedy: A generation of vipers can't be magically taught to use enlightened civic discourse

Anthony Kennedy, miserable cretin, quoted here:

"Perhaps we didn't do too good a job teaching the importance of preserving democracy by an enlightened civic discourse," he said. "In the first part of this century we're seeing the death and decline of democracy."

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

-- Matthew 12:34

Like Trump, Joe Biden was taken over by the body snatchers long ago

Biden in 2018: says Ford "deserves an FBI investigation today."

Biden in 1991: "[T]he next person who refers to an FBI report as being worth anything, obviously doesn’t understand anything."

Yahoo/AFP story features Jean-Claude Trichet trying to rewrite financial crisis history and rescue his reputation

In the story here, Trichet portrays himself as seeing everything coming in August 2007 and acting accordingly through the end of his tenure as head of the ECB in 2011.

Unfortunately for Trichet, who saw nothing coming, the record of his interest rate hikes in the summer of 2008 (!) in the teeth of the crisis and repeated in the spring of 2011 cannot be erased!

Of course, he doesn't mention those.

Mario Draghi immediately reversed Trichet's course, nine days after assuming the leadership of the ECB.