So these giant lizards that require a great deal of calories to sustain themselves....

Are totally focused on what is not even a big appetizer? Expending all that energy for is basically a cracker?

Humans are so egocentric. Nature is out to get me! Especially if I am blonde and female.

Jurassic Park had the same logic, which annoyed me too.

On Thursday &7/15/21) the Arizona Senate held a hearing on the ongoing Maricopa County forensic audit.

The audit team announced there were 74,000 ballots that were received and included in the 2020 Election in Maricopa County than were mailed out.

The Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan reported this along with other issues already identified from their investigation

They found 74,243 mail-in ballots with NO clear record of them ever being sent!

The audit team also announced that ballots were counted that WERE NOT on the proper paper stock and WERE NOT in proper printing alignment.

Other ballots were marked with Sharpie pens that bled through the paper.

According to elections expert Jovan Pulitzer what was presented today was just the appetizer before the main course to come!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/president-trump-wrecks-fox-news-bret-baier-latest-release-says-az-audit-findings-enough-already-change-outcom
e-election/

You forgot the Filipino Balut for an appetizer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(food)

Ha! I misread your appetizer, reading it as a description of how Russiagate (I hate that name) worked instead of a description of how it's being reported on. It works fairly well for both. ;-)

Not exactly a nothing burger to me, but not case closed proof of collusion with Trump either. His cabinet and campaign, different story.

Good piece in the Nation on the current state of Russiagate.

Appetizer:

These imperatives have incentivized a compromised set of journalistic and evidentiary standards. In Russiagate, unverified claims are reported with little to no skepticism. Comporting developments are cherry-picked and overhyped, while countervailing ones are minimized or ignored. Front-page headlines advertise explosive and incriminating developments, only to often be undermined by the article’s content, or retracted entirely. Qualified language—likely, suspected, apparent—appears next to “Russians” to account for the absence of concrete links. As a result, Russiagate has enlarged into a storm of innuendo that engulfs issues far beyond its original scope.

Pure gold: https://www.centrism.biz/

Browse through the sections, values and policies most of all.

Appetizer:
"Centrist politicians

These charismatic stage managers for capitalism enchant voters with thrilling tales of the imminent economic prosperity that will grow without limits forever. Their slogans, selfies and well-rehearsed hand gestures help voters understand that better isn't possible, but feeling better is. "

Obama: a Hollow Man Filled With Ruling Class Ideas

If you read that piece by Paul Street, I guarantee you will not regret it. You might need a cup of coffee though, it's rather long. And maybe a punching bag.

Appetizer:
"Like his politico-ideological soul-brothers Bill Clinton and Tony Blair (and perhaps now Emmanuel Macron), Obama’s public life has been a wretched monument to the dark power of the neoliberal corporate-financial and imperial agendas behind the progressive pretense of façade of telegenic and silver-tongued professional class politicos."

Since election rigging is featured so often in the media these days, the lack of coverage of the class-action suit filed against the DNC becomes even more apparent. Luckily though, some some blogs are still on the case.

Appetizer:

Counsel for the DNC tap-danced around the judge’s initial line of questioning before finally answering that primary elections are “generally state funded.” But he left out how the Clinton campaign’s “takeover of national party structure” completely changes the context for “state funded.” Sure, there’s accounts with the state’s name on them, but the money was supplied by the Clinton campaign. At the very least, counsel for the DNC is being disingenuous when he says the DNC doesn’t fund state elections. In 2016 alone, FEC filings show that Florida received almost $22 million from DNC Services corp. How does that not constitute DNC funding?

He's just presenting the science, he's wasn't involved in the research he's talking about.

But it's true, once you break the addiction cycle, cheese is no longer appetizing. It's very similar to quitting smoking in that sense.

Jordan Chariton and Emma Vigeland at TYT Politics covered the entire thing, every day, while also covering the Standing Rock resistance.

For a quick appetizer, read this piece by Thomas Frank in the Guardian.

It had to happen some day: Frankie Boyle commented on the US election.

Appetizer: "[...]Ted Cruz: a cross between a permanently disappointed sitcom vampire and the high school yearbook photo of every serial killer of the modern era."

If you really want to add some fuel to your, shall we say, "dislike" of HRC, have a look at this. It's an excerpt of Thomas Frank's new book "Listen, Liberal!". Afterwards, you might have to reassure yourself that HRC is, in fact, not a creation of John Cleese's or Terry Jones'.

Edit: I should probably have provided an appetizer.

"For poor and working-class American women, the floor was pulled up and hauled off to the landfill some twenty years ago. There is no State Department somewhere to pay for their cell phones or to pick up their day-care expenses. And one of the people who helped to work this deed was the very woman I watched present herself as the champion of the world’s downtrodden femininity."

For your daily entertainment -- or depression:

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/yanis-varoufakis-full-transcript-our-battle-save-greece

Appetizer:

[But] Schäuble was consistent throughout. His view was “I’m not discussing the programme – this was accepted by the previous government and we can’t possibly allow an election to change anything. Because we have elections all the time, there are 19 of us, if every time there was an election and something changed, the contracts between us wouldn’t mean anything.”

So at that point I had to get up and say “Well perhaps we should simply not hold elections anymore for indebted countries”, and there was no answer. The only interpretation I can give [of their view] is “Yes, that would be a good idea, but it would be difficult to do. So you either sign on the dotted line or you are out.”

In theory, I would suppose so.

But in reality, the one entity tasked with enforcing the legal frameworks of the EU, the European Commission, is also the entity behind many violations in the first place. So tough luck, I guess.

We have a saying in Germany that fits the activities since the beginning of the crisis rather nicely: "legal, illegal, scheissegal". Legal, illegal, who gives a shit.

Just a few appetizers:

- EU parliamentary inquiry says troika acts outside of legal framework, without any oversight
- Special Rapporteur: cuts in Greece would have never passed EU parliament, had to be done outside of any democratic control
- Portuguese Supreme Court rules cuts unconstitutional, European Commission calls court a group of activists
- Troika forced an end of collective bargaining in Greece, in violation of ILO agreements
- Troika forced Greek minister to use decree to cut minimum wage, circumventing parliament entirely
- EC and ECB violate law by being part of the troika
- Eurogroup acts as enforcer for EC wherever law needs to be violated
- Troika forced sale of Portuguese BPN (bank) under extremely shady circumstances
- Bailout, nationalisation and later privatisation of four largest Greek banks equally shady
- Cyprus/Piraeus
- Just about everything the Spanish government has done in the last couple of years

Nevermind all the treaty violations vis-á-vis financing/bailouts, etc. But you won't find a court willing to touch any of this. Nobody wants to destabilize this mess even further, despite all the gross violations. TINA, all the way.

Frankly, I'd be satisfied if these calls were made by parliaments instead of unelected and unaccountable officials.

The thumbnail certainly doesn't look appetizing.