Lazy Caturday Reads

Happy Caturday!!

Lorenzo the Cat has learned the identity of the handsome Turkish man who went viral after he rescued a cat from the rubble of the earthquake. His name is Ali Cacas, and he is on Twitter.

Hola!: Pet of the Week: Cat Saved from Turkey Earthquake Refuses to Leave his Rescuer’s Side.

Following the tragic 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria, search teams worked hard to help the victims of the terrifying natural disaster. Members of the Mardin Fire Department were able to find many survivors, even 11 days after the two earthquakes.

Among the survivors, there was a cat trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in the district of Defne. Ali Cakas, one of the members of the rescue team, found the adorable cat 9 days after the tragedy and decided to name him Enkas, which translates to Rubble.

The rescued cat instantly became a sign of hope amid the immense tragedy, not just because he was able to survive with minor injuries, but also because he showed how grateful he was with the 33-year-old rescuer.

Rubble became viral after the search team noticed that he decided to stick around. The cat showed his appreciation by not leaving Ali’s side, standing on his shoulder after being found. But the incredible story of Rubble doesn’t end here, as Ali decided to take him home and adopted him, becoming the mascot of the Mardin Fire Department.

The team continues to work day and night to find more survivors, including pets that might still be trapped in the rubble.

This bonus rescued cat is from Ukraine.

Now for the news of the day–interspersed with more cat tweets for relief.

Vice President Harris gave a major speech in Germany this morning. The Washington Post: Russia has committed ‘crimes against humanity’ in Ukraine, Harris declares.

Vice President Harris said Saturday that the United States believes strongly that Russia has committed crimes against humanity and needs to be held to account for ghastly actions that have been describedin intelligence reports and international headlines, including bombing a maternity hospital, forcibly relocating and “reeducating” Ukrainian children, and, just months ago, the suspected sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl.

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: These are crimes against humanity,” Harris said.

Speaking in moral terms a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Harris told diplomatic, intelligence and defense leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference that the world has a humanitarian and strategic interest in continued support of the besieged nation, even as the White House has warned Kyiv that fissures and fatigue threaten its global support a year into the conflict.

Harris stressed that standing firm against Russian aggression sends a message to “other authoritarian powers that could seek to bend the world to their will through coercion, disinformation and even a brute force.”

Later, she added, “We have come together to stand for our common values and our common interests. And our common humanity.”

Another miserable white man went on a shooting rampage in Mississippi yesterday. CNN: Man arrested after 6 killed, including suspect’s ex-wife, in series of shootings in Mississippi, sheriff says.

Six people are dead and another was wounded Friday in a series of shootings in Tate County, Mississippi after a man opened fire on his ex-wife and potentially other family members, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance told CNN.

The suspect, Richard Dale Crum, 52, was arrested after the alleged rampage and is facing charges of first-degree murder in connection with the case, the sheriff’s office said. Additional charges are expected to be filed, the department said.

Authorities got the first 911 call around 11 a.m. ET after the suspect pulled into the parking lot of a store in Arkabutla, a small rural town in northern Mississippi, and fired into the car next to him where he fatally shot the driver, Lance said. Another person in the vehicle was not injured.

Lance said the suspected gunman went into the store then took off, driving to his ex-wife’s home. Lance said the suspect shot and killed his ex-wife before striking her fiancé, who was also in the residence.

Deputies caught up to the suspect after finding a vehicle matching its description in front of a residence that authorities determined belonged to him, Lance said.

On a small road behind the suspect’s home, authorities found two men who had been shot and killed. One was found on the road and the other was in a vehicle, Lance said.

Another two victims were found shot and killed in a house neighboring the suspect’s home, Lance said. According to Lance, deputies believe the suspect might be related to the victims, a man and woman.

You’d think even the gun-loving Republicans would be getting sick to death of this, but it seems they will put up with any amount of violence and death to keep their precious assault rifles.

Another Virginia 6-year-old took a gun to school on Thursday. The Virginian Pilot: 6-year-old brings handgun to Norfolk elementary school, police say; mother charged.

Norfolk police charged the mother of a 6-year-old whom police said brought a handgun to Little Creek Elementary School on Thursday.

According to a police press release, police were called to Little Creek Elementary located at 7901 Nancy Drive around 3:30 p.m. Thursday for a report of a student having a weapon in school.

The handgun was turned over to police by a school staff member, and no injuries were reported.

The mother was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing access to a loaded firearm by children. She was issued a summons. The Virginian-Pilot is not identifying her to avoid the possibility of identifying the child….

Meanwhile, Newport News police are still investigating whether to bring charges against the parents or anyone else in the case of a 6-year-old first grader who shot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School on Jan. 6.

Thank goodness this kid didn’t shoot anyone. Parents have to be charged for these incidents.

At The Grid, Eric Sandy has a deep dive on the train derailment disaster in Ohio: Inside the hell of East Palestine: Unanswered questions, frustration and the lingering threat of toxic chemicals.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — As the wind picked up here, on Wednesday, several thousand residents joined public officials, law enforcement officers and members of various news media in a long line leading to the local high school, where a highly anticipated town hall meeting awaited.

By that point — 12 days after a Norfolk Southern train ran off the tracks on the east side of town, prompting an evacuation and a controlled burn of vinyl chloride, and dispersing a wave of other toxic chemicals into the environment — the 4,700 residents of this village were eager to translate that nightmare into plain English. Is their drinking water safe? Will their pets be all right? Will this disaster have any long-term health impacts on the population?

These are straightforward questions with complicated answers.

The residents of East Palestine and nearby communities are trying to square their lived experience — the evacuation, the sight of the toxic plume, the cloying odor drifting through the village — with public health officials’ insistence that the air and water is safe and contaminant-free as of now. Put simply, these families do not know how to plan for the near- or long-term future, and, in an already tenuous economic environment in rural Ohio, that level of uncertainty is a major problem. Even the basic question of who to trust is up for debate. In the midst of this calamity, who’s at the wheel?

Outside the high school, as the crowd shuffled forward an inch at a time, East Palestine residents Cory and Dawn White traded stories with others in line. They were coming to this meeting in search of clarity about a lot of things — about the water quality, yes, but also about the nuances of soil sampling and about the recovery plans for the city. But, like anyone in attendance at the town hall that night could attest, nailing down an answer to most any question — health-related, environment-related, finance-related, you name it — is no easy task.

“That’s the scary part,” Cory said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen, and no one can give you answers.”

This is best story I’ve seen on the East Palestine disaster. Read the rest at the Grid link.

Did you hear about the Republican operative with longtime ties to Ron and Rand Paul who was convicted of funneling Russian money to Trump in 2016? Russ Choma at Mother Jones: GOP Operative Sentenced to 18 Months for Funneling Russian Money to Trump Campaign.

On Friday, a federal judge in Washington, DC sentenced a veteran GOP operative to 18 months in prison for funneling $25,000 from a Russian businessman to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Jesse Benton, a longtime aide to both Ron and Rand Paul, was convicted in November on six related charges. The court found that he and another GOP operative accepted $100,000 from Roman Vasilenko, a St. Petersburg-based influencer who wanted photos with Trump to display on his social media accounts. Benton kept most of the money for himself but donated $25,000 to the Republican National Committee as part of a plan to secure two tickets to a fundraising event for Trump in Philadelphia. At the event, Vasilenko was allowed to sit close to Trump at a roundtable discussion and later took a photo with him. Foreign nationals, like Vasilenko, are not allowed to donate to US political campaigns or committees, and it is illegal to make a donation on behalf of someone else.

Benton, who is married to Ron Paul’s grandaughter, was previously convicted in 2016of a scheme to pay an Iowa state senator to switch his endorsement from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul ahead of the state’s 2012 republican presidential caucus. In that case, Benton, after pleading that he had reformed and had a family to support, was sentenced to home confinement. Just six days later, the Trump fundraiser at which Vasilenko met Trump took place. A few weeks after that, Benton was caught in an undercover sting orchestrated by the British newspaper The Telegraph, whose reporters posed as representatives of a Chinese businessman who wanted to donate $2 million to Trump’s campaign. Benton told them he could arrange it. He apparently violated the terms of his home confinement in the Iowa case to meet with the undercover reporters.

Read more at Mother Jones.

One more before I wrap this up. House Republicans have another George Santos on their hands.

Insider: GOP Rep. Andy Ogles claimed to fight international sex crimes and be an economic expert. Like George Santos, his real resume tells another story.

During far-right Republican Andy Ogles’ successful campaign for Congress last fall, he advertised himself as a successful entrepreneur and real estate investor, a tax policy expert, and the former leader of an international nonprofit rescuing sex trafficking victims.

But the freshman member from Tennessee embellished many aspects of his resume, according to interviews, business and property records, tax filings, and local newspaper archives. Ogles’ inflations invite comparisons to his Republican congressional colleague, Rep. George Santos of New York, who has seen nearly every aspect of his past called into question.

Ogles’ business experience seems to be limited to owning two restaurants, a short-lived travel agency, and becoming licensed as an insurance agent. His real estate investments appear limited to a few adjacent parcels of land, including one he lives on, in rural Tennessee, and he reported no rental income from his properties Insider found.

Ogles claimed he studied economics and international relations, and worked at two right-wing  think tanks that focus on economic policy. But his educational credentials and supposed policy expertise were thrown into question this week by Nashville’s NewsChannel5, which reported Ogles had studied languages in college – not economics or international policy, as he had claimed.

Ogles’ supposed experience rescuing sex trafficking victims helped propel him into national headlines in his first week in Congress. But his representations about that work are vastly overstated, according to public records and a former manager at an anti-trafficking nonprofit where Ogles worked.

There’s more at the link. Also check out these local stories:

NewsChannel5 Nashville: Congressman Andy Ogles, graduate of respected Vanderbilt, Dartmouth business schools? Not really.

NewsChannel5 Nashville: Businessman, economist, cop, international sex crimes expert? The stories of Congressman Andy Ogles.

Sorry there wasn’t a lot of good news today. What stories are you following?