Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill have identified an abnormal growth pattern in the brain that may be a precursor to identify children who will develop autism, reports the non-profit scientific news site EurekAlert.

In a peer reviewed study, scientists found that the amygdala, the remote area of the brain responsible for interpreting social and emotional inputs to the brain, showed an unusual fast growth rate in children who later developed autism.

The overgrowth is apparent in children six to twelve months old, indicating that it was there before the children received the MMR vaccine, which anti-vax and anti-science conspiracy theorists believe causes autism. 

https://rumble.com/embed/vffilv/?pub=pddk5

Russia has deployed to Ukraine 1,000 members of the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization described variously as a private militia or a mercenary force which Vladimir Putin used as the point of the spear in Donbas invasion, the New York Times reports.

Putin has personally ordered Argentinian-registered Wagner Group operations in Syria, Belarus and eastern Ukraine as a way to shield the Russian military from blame in questionable operations.  Experts believe that the unit operates as Putin’s personal army when the competence or loyalty of Russian officers were in doubt.   A significant part of the unit are foreign fighters who have experience in the Middle East.

Republican Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry says he’ll resign after being convicted this week in a federal court of making false statements to the FBI, the AP reports.

A dozen civil rights activists who were arrested by Denver police during protests after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 were awarded $14 million by a federal judge Friday night to settle excessive force charges, Reuters reports.

The verdict was the first of the lawsuits relating to the Denver police’s response that have gone to court.  The city has settled several other lawsuits filed claiming excessive force was used.  Filed in June 2020, the suit prompted a judge to restrict the police’s use of non-lethal weapons like tear gas, rubber bullets and so-called “flash-bang” grenades.

Zachary Packard received three million dollars, the largest portion of this award.  Packard was struck in the head by a round, believed to be a plastic bullet, which led to a broken jaw and skull, two fractured spinal discs and bleeding in his brain.

Joe Biden is quite strict when it comes to neo-nazis on the home front; however, it seems liberal values go out the window when it comes to foreign policy, with support for Ukrainian far-right groups like Azov Battalion and what not pic.twitter.com/TR6SD9nDKe

— RT (@RT_com) March 26, 2022

Putin’s friends who made millions out of his regime will not enjoy luxuries whilst innocent people die. (2/2) https://t.co/ZMbyQpvTeP

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) March 26, 2022

It’s a hard time for Russia’s elites.  For example, oil billionaire Eugene Shvidler, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had two jets valued at a combine $60 million seized by the British government, the Associated Press reports.  Shvidler’s a $45 million Bombardier Global 6500 and a $13 million Cessna Citation Latitude are now in the possession of the British Government, said Grant Shapps, the UK’s Secretary of State for Transportation.

On Saturday Politico reported on some momentum in a number of states to ban ballot tabulation machines and mandate that every vote be hand-counted, driven of course by Trump fanboys who still believe Dominion and Venezuela cheated their Orange Pharaoh out of a second term. Like every other batshit plan that comes from the MAGAverse, this is an incredibly stupid and short-sighted move that will actually make vote counts less accurate and take longer. It’s yet another example of the self-fulfilling prophecies right wingers bring upon themselves when it comes to “election integrity,” just like in early 2020 when the Senate GOP blocked Dem election security bills only to have their party screaming about the lack of election security nine months later.

People like to use a lot of sports analogies when it comes to politics. “We’re at the one yard line,” “This is going to extra innings,” “We totally dunked on the libs,” so on and so forth, but in reality there’s a huge gap in between, say, a single baseball game and any individual election. There’s no dispute between Philadelphia Phillies fans and Miami Marlins fans over who actually won a Tuesday night regular season game. Sure, there could be a dispute over a call the umpire made in the fifth inning about if the second baseman touched the bag before the runner made it there, but in baseball blown calls are typically a very marginal issue – especially in the age of video review – affecting the outcome of only a tiny percentage of games in Major League Baseball.

Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, commander of Russia’s 49th combined army was killed at the Chornobaivka airbase near Kherson on Friday, now the seventh Russian general, and second Lt General, to be KIA on the ground in Ukraine, the BBC reports. Western intel sources believe that Rezantsev, like other Russian commanders canceled in Ukraine, had moved closer to the front to help build up morale as Putin’s forces repeatedly and continually get their asses kicked in action.

• The so-called People’s Convoy is emblematic of conservatism:  Running around in circles angry about something that doesn’t exist and with no solution to offer.
• People who think Ukraine should be part of Russia because some Ukrainians speak Russian must also assert support for the United States to be reincorporated into the UK under the same logic.
• Texas has historically been Mexican territory longer than it was American or independent.  A significant portion of its population speaks Spanish.  And they share more cultural features with Chihuahua and Tamaulipas than Maine and Ohio.  Tucker Carlson, therefore, should welcome the forthcoming Mexican claiming of the territory without pushback from the other states or the white population of Texas, just like he supports the Russian claim to the Donbas area.  
• I find it absolutely amazing that Trump and his ilk thought that rescinding the results of the 2020 election–in late 2021–and holding a new election wouldn’t result in a landslide victory for the Party that didn’t just try to overthrow a legitimate election.  They are so delusional they thought undermining the entire democratic system is something Americans would support in the voting booth.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume LXII”

In the days after the 2020 election Ginni Thomas sent an email to the staff of Congressman Jim Banks, head of the House Republican Study Committee, warning she would not support the group if she did not see its members “out in the streets” protesting the Orange God Emperor’s loss, NBC News reports. The email was a reply sent in response to a request for policy input from the evil harridan, but when Thomas warned she was more aligned with the House Freedom Caucasians because they stood up for Trump. The staff member then thanked her for the reply and moved on.

As grossly unethical as all of this is, it’s not entirely clear what, if any, liability Ginni or Clarence Thomas may have here. Ginni does not appear to be on the level of an Amy Kremer or Steve Bannon, people who had real involvement in planning the post-election shitshow. So far at least, Ginni Thomas just seems like a really angry Karen who had certain peoples’ numbers in her phone. Besides Clarence Thomas committing a fairly clear breach by voting against releasing the Trump White House records to the House January 6th Committee – records that might show his wife being more involved than she’s let on so far. But until there’s more there’s not a whole lot here.

Far-left environmental activist Eliot Cutler, whose 2014 bid for Maine Governor helped elect miserable piece of shit Paul LePage, was arrested Friday afternoon on four Class C counts of possessing sexually explicit material involving a child under age 12, the Bangor Daily News reports. Cutler took 8% of the vote in the 2014 election, in which the racist Republican LePage won by just under 5% over Democrat Mike Michaud. Nice to know LePage can’t count on him again this year.

Well the fanboys on The Hill were wrong, as usual. The US and Ukrainian governments weren’t just scaremongering and Putin’s army was not going to conquer Ukraine easily. Marvel at the hubris of our fellow Americans or the Russian propaganda trolls pretending to be our fellow Americans.

Build Crack Better • a month ago
️WOWZER! Putin wins against the Stalinists!!! Go Putin! Fk Joe Biden!
Thu, 2/24/2022 9:56 PM on ‘Blinken says he’s ‘convinced’ Putin will try to topple Ukrainian government’

Thisistofunny • a month ago
️Trump is right, Putin knew when dealing with Biden he was dealing with a moron and it was a savvy move.
Tue, 2/22/2022 8:52 PM on ‘Cheney: Trump’s ‘adulation’ of Putin ‘aids our enemies”

Dems Are Eunuchs • a month ago
️ VLAD will kick ass and take names! Most of Ukraine fell to the Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine the Great; in 1793 right-bank Ukraine was annexed by Russia in the Second Partition of Poland.
Tue, 2/22/2022 9:52 PM on ‘Cheney: Trump’s ‘adulation’ of Putin ‘aids our enemies”

Grandpa Badfinger • a month ago
️More propaganda from NATO.
Wed, 2/16/2022 8:07 AM on ‘NATO chief says it appears Russia is ‘continuing the military buildup”

Fre Okin The Contrarian • a month ago
️Ha ha. Now NATO change the story from Feb 16 Invasion to ‘Russia continue build up’. The Ruble is more trustworthy than the Euro.
Wed, 2/16/2022 9:22 AM on ‘NATO chief says it appears Russia is ‘continuing the military buildup”

Fezco, a five year old mutt who was surrendered to Stanly County, North Carolina Animal Protective Services by his former owners last month for homosexuality after he “humped another male dog,” has been re-homed, NBC News reports. “We’ve been together for 33 years, and in 33 years, we’ve faced the same ignorance, bigotry, but we talked about it, and we thought, ‘This time we’re going to do something about it,'” said new owner Steve Nichols about he and his husband John Winn’s reaction to the news of Fezco – now renamed Oscar – being abandoned by his former owners.

Ukraine forces have destabilized Russian operations in the southeast city of Kherson, the first city the Kremlin captured during its invasion, to the point that the Russian military no longer control the city, US intelligence analysts said.

According to the New York Times, Ukraine forces are pushing back against Russian gains in the region, recapturing strategic points in the area and impeding Russian movements.  With a population of nearly 300,000, Kherson is a key city for the control of Denieper River and the access to the Black Sea.

General Sergey Rudskoy, head of the Main Operational Directorate (GOU) of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, said Friday the main goal in Ukraine is now the “liberation” of the eastern Donbass region, per Interfax, which is a pretty obvious walk back from the complete domination of the entire country and decapitation of its government that had been planned – poorly.

“Initially, we did not plan to storm [the cities] in order to prevent destruction and minimize losses among personnel and civilians,” Rudskoy said at a briefing. “Although we do not rule out such a possibility, however, as individual groupings complete the tasks set, and they are successfully solved, our forces and means will be concentrated on the main thing – the complete liberation of Donbass,” said Rudskoy, adding they’re only attacking Kyiv and other cities “with the aim of causing such damage to military infrastructure, equipment, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the results of which allow not only to tie down their forces and do not give them the opportunity to strengthen their grouping in the Donbas, but also will not allow them to do this until complete liberation by the Russian army of the territories of the [Donetsk] and [Luhansk].”

Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection to a fundraising scheme run by his mistakingly accurate company named “Fraud Guarantee,” Politico reports.

“Fraud Guarantee” was supposedly raising money to help veteran-owned businesses, but the money raised went into the pocket of Parnas and his friends.

“Between 2012 and 2019, I agreed with another person to give false information to individuals regarding the financials to a start-up project called, ‘Fraud Guarantee,’” Parnas told U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken. “I’m extremely sorry for my actions, your honor.”