Emails Reveal ‘War Games’ Meeting By Republican Attorneys General ; America Didn’t Need Sports After All ; and More Picks 3/2
Emails Reveal Secret ‘War Games’ Meeting and Other Pro-Trump Shenanigans By Republican Attorneys General (Reader Pat)
From Raw Story: “The nation’s Republican attorneys general were far more involved than previously known in using their offices — and state employees — for undisclosed partisan purposes over a period of several months in 2020 and this year. A trove of emails uncovered by a public-records search in Missouri shows that the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) staged secret events attended not only by AGs but by their staffs. It also uncovered a stunning array of political activities connected directly (at least in some cases) to official email accounts of the top state law-enforcement officials.”
‘It’s Donald Trump’s Party’: How the Former President Is Building a Political Operation to Cement His Hold on the GOP (Russ)
The author writes, “Any lingering doubts about Donald Trump’s primacy in the Republican Party have been settled in recent weeks by the parade of petitioners he has welcomed to his Florida social club. The party chairwoman, the top two House Republicans, the senior senator from South Carolina and a coterie of other former aides and advisers have all made appearances at Mar-a-Lago, offering their counsel and seeking the favor of a former president who many believe controls the short-term fortunes of GOP candidates up and down the ballot — and has made it clear he plans to use that power.”
China’s Fentanyl Connection: The Suppliers Fueling America’s Opioid Epidemic (DonkeyHotey)
From the South China Morning Post: “For most people, designations such as 125541-22-2, 79099-07-3, 103-63-9 and 40064-34-4 are meaningless jumbles of numbers. But for those looking to produce the synthetic opioid fentanyl, they are bar codes for the ingredients fuelling one of the most devastating drug epidemics in North American history. … The vast majority of these ‘precursor’ chemicals used in the creation of fentanyl, commonly assigned Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers such as 40064-34-4 — useful for purposes both legal and otherwise — are a product of China’s massive and poorly regulated chemical industry. Despite supply chain disruptions during China’s Covid-19 lockdown early last year, the availability of synthetic opioids appears to be rising again, as Mexican cartels invest heavily in manufacturing fentanyl using precursors provided by Chinese chemical companies. This is big business for all concerned.”
America Didn’t Need Sports After All (Bethany)
The author writes, “As the pandemic dragged on, the leagues, universities, pro franchises, and other entities that profit from a multibillion-dollar sports economy made a push for games to return. But these efforts also reflected a working assumption that the mere presence of sports would provide comfort, and perhaps a welcome distraction, for people who wanted to escape the horrors of the pandemic, at least momentarily. But the ratings for some of the biggest sporting events in the past year show that the public’s emotional connection to sports during a tumultuous time has been grossly overestimated. In practically every sport, the number of television viewers nosedived in 2020, despite the fact that more people than usual were stuck at home.”
78 Pounds of Wool Sheared From Sheep Found Living in the Wild (Dana)
The author writes, “A sheep found living in the wild in Australia was given an overdue shearing and instantly lost 78 pounds. The Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary said the sheep, now named Baarack, was found living in the wild near Lancefield, Victoria, and rescuers believe he was on his own for several years.”
