Many Republicans, including many business leaders, downplay the threat posed from Trump’s potential return to the White House. Although his agenda includes radical protectionism and, as reported by the New York Times Magazine, reducing “the power of the Federal Reserve, limiting its ability to serve as a so-called lender of last resort for banks and other financial institutions facing cash crunches,” many Republicans arrogantly insist things would be fine in a second Trump term. They roll their eyes at the real potential for grotesque cronyism and corruption, use of the Justice Department against Trump’s enemies, demolition of the professional civil service, and international disorder.




Industry titans consistently — be it in 1930s Europe or in present-day Hungary or in Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s Chile or in Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil — imagine they can cut deals with autocrats or that persecution of disfavored groups will have no impact on the business environment. The economic and political upheaval an autocrat brings never fails to surprise those who insisted they could control him.


Big Business and other segments of the old-style Republican Party (including those who worked to stack the Supreme Court) who are sanguine about a Trump presidency should pay attention to three flashing red lights.
First, as The Post reports, Trump talks about how he would “end” Russia’s war in Ukraine “by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory.” That would signal to Moscow and other aggressive regimes that it is open season on democratic neighbors. If aggressors believe that international borders are not inviolate, China would be emboldened to attack Taiwan and Russia to menace the rest of the former U.S.S.R. Dismantling America’s traditional alliances and receding into Fortress America would plunge the United States and our allies into a period of turmoil, conflict and uncertainty.



Second, as the nonpartisan United to Protect Democracy’s “Authoritarian Playbook for 2025” illustrates, MAGA’s “Project 2025” envisions, among other things, a second Trump term that uses “pardons to incite political violence,” incentivizes lawbreaking for Trump’s benefit, engages in “regulatory retaliation” and resorts to law enforcement overreach.
Anyone who thinks only they won’t suffer from an irrational and vengeful regime should consider how other countries fared when captured by autocrats. “Every culture is unprepared for an authoritarian assault, and ... even when one takes place, and certain groups are targeted, other groups think ‘they’ll never go after me,’” fascism expert and historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat said in an interview with George Takei. The disastrous economic results in Hungary, Brazil and India under autocrats demonstrate how misplaced this confidence is.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom Trump welcomed to Mar-a-Lago, “wrested control over the independent media, put the country’s universities and cultural institutions under his authority, used demonizing rhetoric to justify his immigration crackdowns, and leveraged his electoral wins to rewrite his country’s constitution to keep himself in power,” the playbook states.



Trump’s plan to destroy the career civil service alone would undermine evenhanded, rational government action. We would revert to a “spoils” system, as alleged by the playbook, in which federal jobs would be doled out to those who pledged personal fealty to Trump.
Third, we face the prospect that the U.S. military, obligated to abide by the Constitution, would be transformed into Trump’s private militia. The American Enterprise Institute’s Kori Schake reminded us in 2020 that Trump “considered invoking federal authority to enforce the law and putting the military on the streets to restore order.” Worse: “Riot police forcibly cleared protesters and the president paraded through Lafayette Square, near the White House, with the leaders of the agencies representing coercive force: the attorney general, the defense secretary, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was wearing combat fatigues.”
Trump, who pardoned war criminals and contemplated invoking the Insurrection Act, considers the military to be his Praetorian guard, obliged on his whim to disregard rules of war and crack down on domestic dissent. Last time, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper (subsequently fired) and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (whom Trump said deserved to be executed), objected and defended the apolitical military. Next time, instead of such professionals, imagine conspiratorialist Michael Flynn (participant in the Jan. 6 war room) as defense secretary.



In sum, ignoring the consequences of a second Trump term amounts to whistling past the graveyard of democracy. It’s time to pay attention to the prospect of a MAGA autocracy.

I probably only get through 6-9 books per year. I wish I read more, but four kids, other distractions, slow reader, etc.

The House took a critical first step on Friday toward reauthorizing a law extending an expiring warrantless surveillance law that national security officials say is crucial to fighting terrorism, voting to take it up two days after a previous attempt to pass it collapsed.
Grasping to salvage the measure before the law expires next week, Speaker Mike Johnson put forward a shorter extension — two years instead of five — in a move that appeared to win over hard-right Republicans who blocked the bill earlier this week.
On a party-line vote of 213 to 208, the House agreed to take up the new version of the legislation, which would extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702. That cleared the way for a debate Friday on proposed changes to the bill before a final vote on passage.
The preliminary vote on Friday suggested that the measure was back on track after former President Donald J. Trump implored lawmakers this week to “kill” FISA, complaining that government officials had used it to spy on him. Should it pass the House, the Senate would still have to clear it, sending it to President Biden for his signature.
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Mr. Johnson’s two-year version of the bill was an attempt to mollify hard-right Republicans, who believe Mr. Trump would be president once again the next time the law expired. All 19 of them who voted to block the measure on Wednesday switched their positions on Friday to allow it to go forward.
On the House floor, Representative Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Rules Committee, praised the bill’s shorter envisioned reauthorization. He credited an influential member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, Representative Chip Roy of Texas, with the idea of cutting back the renewal to two years.
“That’s important,” Mr. Burgess said. “Reforms that are now incorporated in the new FISA reauthorization will be re-evaluated by the next Congress as to whether or not they’re actually working.”
Mr. Johnson also released a document moments shortly before the vote Friday morning touting the bill as “the largest intelligence reform package since FISA’s inception in 1978.”

Editors’ Picks​

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Section 702 is now set to expire on April 19. But the program can continue operating until April 2025 because last week the FISA court granted a government request authorizing it for another year. Under the law, surveillance activity can continue so long as there are active court orders allowing it, even if the underlying statute expires.

Even so, the intelligence community has urged Congress to pass a reauthorization of the legislation before the program enters a sort of legal limbo, where the outcomes of court challenges to it would be uncertain.

At issue is a debate that has roiled Congress for months. Under Section 702, the government is empowered to collect, without warrants, the messages of noncitizens abroad, even when those targeted are communicating with Americans.
As a result, the government sometimes collects Americans’ private messages without a warrant. While there are limits on how that material can be searched for and used, the F.B.I. has repeatedly violated those constraints in recent years — including improperly querying for information about Black Lives Matter protesters and people suspected of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The F.B.I. has since tightened its system to reduce the risk of queries that violate the standards, and the bill under consideration would codify those changes and add reporting requirements, as well as limiting the number of officials with access to the repository of raw information.
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But reformers — including both progressive Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans — want to add a requirement that prohibits warrantless queries in the repository for the contents of Americans’ communications, with certain narrow exceptions.
“Why are we being hustled to do this today?” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, who favors a warrant requirement. She added: “I think we are being hustled here today for a reason: to prevent the Constitution from being applied to FISA.”
Critics led by Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will have a chance to try to add the warrant requirement to the bill on Friday before a final vote.
National security officials argue that doing so would cripple the program because they typically use it early in investigations, such as to try to learn more about an American phone number or email account in contact with a suspected foreign spy or terrorist, before there is enough evidence to meet a probable cause standard for a warrant.
On Friday, ahead of the vote, a senior national security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, asserted that hostile adversaries were watching the congressional debate closely and hoping that lawmakers would deprive U.S. intelligence agencies of a key capability.
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Senior lawmakers on the House national security committees, including Representatives Michael R. Turner of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Jim Himes of Connecticut, its top Democrat, have also resisted such changes. They are backing the more modest adjustments in the bill.
The House is also set to vote on several other significant amendments to the surveillance law before voting on the extension itself, including a measure pushed by Mr. Turner and Mr. Himes that would expand the types of companies with access to foreign communications that could be compelled to participate in the program.

First Dan Hurley says no thank you, next Scott Drew let's Kentucky know he is going to stay at Baylor. Any chance we can introduce Kentucky to Ham?

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...scott-drew-turns-kentucky-remain-baylor-coach

Bellevue city police are being sued for allegedly contributing to a woman’s murder by repeatedly failing to enforce an arrest warrant and a restraining order against the victim’s estranged husband.
The federal lawsuit was filed by the family of the late Angela Marie Prichard, who was shot and killed by her estranged husband, Christopher Prichard, in 2022.
Christopher Prichard. (Photo courtesy of Jackson County)

The lawsuit claims the killing was the result of a “state-created danger” caused by the malfeasance, reckless or intentional behavior of the Bellevue Police Department. It accuses city police officers of “showing favoritism toward Christopher Prichard,” and that his relationship with the police “enabled and fostered his ability to murder his estranged spouse, Angela Marie Prichard.”
According to the lawsuit, Christopher Prichard was arrested in November 2019 on a charge of first-degree theft. The police then allegedly “acquiesced” to his release on bail and to 31 continuances in the case over the next four years. Those continuances, the lawsuit claims, “enabled Christopher Prichard to remain free of custody and emboldened him to repeatedly harass and assault Angela Marie Prichard.”
The police department’s actions were allegedly influenced by the fact that Christopher Prichard had “a personal relationship with one or more” of the city police officers and the fact that he had provided officers with electrical services at no cost or for a reduced fee.
Court records indicate that on April 18, 2022, Christopher Prichard was arrested for domestic violence against Angela Prichard, and a no-contact order was issued in the case. A few months later, Angela Prichard allegedly located a tracking device in her Jeep as well as two hidden cameras that had been placed in her home — potential violations of Iowa’s anti-stalking and invasion of privacy laws.
Angela Prichard notified the Bellevue police of the situation and, according to the lawsuit, the police “refused to enforce the law.”
On Aug. 23, 2022, the lawsuit alleges, Christopher Prichard sent threatening text messages to Angela Prichard, stating “it is going to get real f—ing ugly.” Angela Prichard allegedly notified the police, who took no action in the matter.
On Aug. 28, 2022, the lawsuit alleges, Christopher Prichard told Angela Prichard he intended to “destroy” her business, which led to another complaint to the city police that resulted in no enforcement action.

Restraining order, then an arrest warrant​

On Sept. 1, 2022, a temporary restraining order intended to shield Angela from any further contact from Christopher Prichard was filed. The next day, Angela Prichard asked for police assistance in going back to her house after her husband moved out. Police allegedly found that the doors to the house were bolted, the utilities had been shut off and the home was vandalized. The lawsuit alleges the police refused to arrest Christopher Prichard for violating the temporary restraining order.
On Sept. 7, 2022, Angela allegedly contacted Bellevue Police Chief Dennis Schroeder to report that Christopher Prichard had violated the restraining order by going to her place of employment and cutting the grass. Schroeder allegedly refused to enforce the order and instead advised Angela Prichard to contact an attorney.
Days later, Christopher Prichard allegedly confronted his wife at a gas station and simply stared at her. The lawsuit claims police refused to arrest Christopher Prichard, stating that it was a “small town” such encounters were to be expected.
In the second week of September 2022, Christopher Prichard allegedly drove past Angela Prichard’s home several times, including one instance in which he drove by six times in one hour. Again, the lawsuit alleges, the police were informed but refused to make an arrest.
On Sept. 12, 2022, Christopher Prichard went to Angela Prichard’s home to complain about credit cards he claimed Angela Prichard had opened in his name. The police were contacted, and an officer responded but allegedly declined to make an arrest.
The next day, Angela Prichard provided the police with text messages sent from Christopher Prichard in violation of the court’s restraining order. No arrest was made, the lawsuit claims.
On Sept. 15, 2022, Christopher Prichard spent one night in jail after Angela Prichard showed police a text message he had reportedly sent her. According to the lawsuit, Christopher Prichard then placed in his shop windows signs that made negative comments about Angela Prichard in violation of the restraining order. An officer allegedly went to the shop and observed the signs, but did not arrest Christopher Prichard.
On Sept. 23, 2022, Christopher Prichard failed to show up for a court hearing. Six days later, he failed to appear for a second court hearing and was ordered to turn himself in on Sept. 30 to begin a six-days jail sentence. Court records show Christopher Prichard failed to turn himself in on that date and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
“Despite knowing Christopher Prichard’s usual whereabouts in a small town of under 2,500 people, and the unique vehicle he drove — a black, two-door Jeep Wrangler with “0DARK30” plates, the defendants flat-out refused to enforce the warrant and arrest Christopher Prichard,” the lawsuit states.
Shortly before 8 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2022, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call from the Mississippi Ridge Kennels where Angela worked. When police arrived, Angela Prichard was found dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. She was 55 years old.
The next day, Christopher Prichard was located in a Jackson County residence with the murder weapon and ammunition still in his possession. He was later convicted of murder in the first degree.
The lawsuit filed by Angela Prichard’s family seeks damages for violations of due process rights through a state-created danger, violations of state law regarding the enforcement of no-contact orders, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and loss of consortium.
The lawsuit also seeks damages for the police department’s alleged role in turning over property jointly owned by Christopher and Angela Prichard to Christopher Prichard’s family after the killing. The lawsuit alleges that action violated the Iowa Slayer Act, which prohibits a person who murdered someone from benefitting in any way from the murder.
In addition to the city itself, the lawsuit names as defendants Schroeder and officers Ryan Kloft and Shelby Mutzl. The city has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, but one of its attorneys said Wednesday a response will be forthcoming.

long known for its standardized tests before more recently pursuing a broader mission of research, education and college and career readiness — this week announced a major collaboration with a large California investment firm, shifting the Iowa City-based ACT from a nonprofit to for-profit company.



Upon closing the deal with Nexus Capital Management LP, a Los Angeles private equity firm, ACT and an education data research organization it owns will operate as a “single, unified public benefit corporation.”


Essentially, according to a spokesperson, ACT will become “a type of for-profit company, under the ACT name and brand.”




“This partnership will create more pathways to degrees, credentials, and skills acquisition for people at any stage of their lives,” Daniel A. Domenech, chair of ACT’s board of directors and former executive director of the School Superintendents Association, said in a statement. “The time is right to move into the next phase of ACT’s long-term growth strategy alongside a partner with significant industry expertise, giving ACT the scale and capital necessary to deliver on its promise of education and workplace success.”


As a nonprofit, ACT’s past public filings show budget deficits every year between 2019 and 2022 — with 2023 filings not yet public. Those deficits total $113.5 million, including a loss of $60.6 million in 2020 alone. The last year ACT reported a surplus was in 2018, of $21.3 million.

Encoura unification​

Upon closing with Nexus, ACT will fully unify with Encoura — an education data science and research company it acquired in 2018 and since has been operating as a “wholly owned subsidiary of ACT.”


“ACT and Encoura will begin operating as a single, unified public benefit corporation, with ACT’s name and brand, upon close,” an ACT spokesperson said. “The integrated business, known as ACT, will advance the organization’s leadership in education and workforce readiness as it serves the needs of all ACT stakeholders through new investments in ACT’s products and people.”





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ACT Chief Executive Officer Janet Godwin will continue to lead the new company.


“Our partnership with Nexus Capital Management uniquely positions ACT to meet a watershed moment in our nation, as the demand for talent is growing and becoming more diverse,” Godwin said in a statement, arguing the country’s need for trained workers after high school and college “has never been higher, nor has the need to ensure that every learner has access to equitable college and career planning resources, guidance, and insights.”

Janet Godwin, ACT chief executive officer
“Partnering in this way will complement and amplify ACT’s proven platform of education and work readiness solutions,” she said.


The partnership and unification will not result in any layoffs, officials said. ACT last summer laid off more than 100 employees and disclosed plans to sell more of the properties on its east Iowa City campus off Scott Boulevard.


ACT hasn’t shared publicly terms of its new partnership with Nexus — including how much funding the investment firm is providing.


Nexus’ March 2024 public disclosure forms, filed with the U.S. government, show it advises for private funds administered in the United States and Cayman Islands, reporting feeder funds organized in the Cayman Islands valued at hundreds of millions.

‘Simplify and streamline’​

By integrating ACT’s assessment systems and workforce solutions with Encoura’s data-driven enrollment services, ACT aims to “more precisely connect students and job seekers to institutions of higher education and employers.”


Among its forward-looking intentions, ACT aims to “simplify and streamline the college application process for students and institutions, better match employers with available talent, create new opportunities for upskilling mid- and late-career professionals, help learners identify their strengths and provide recommendations about applying them in education settings and the workplace, and provide more integrated and actionable insights to states, districts, families, and learners.”


In a statement, Nexus co-founder Damian J. Giangiacomo said, “We are excited to partner with ACT’s leadership team in this next chapter of growth to deliver enhanced capabilities for students, school districts, postsecondary institutions, employers, and government stakeholders.”


Nexus’ investment portfolio includes companies including Savvas Learning Company, previously Pearson Education; Toms, a lightweight shoe company; and Sugarbear, a beauty and wellness company.


Proceeds from the partnership, additionally, will fund “the continuation of an Iowa nonprofit organization that will be headquartered in Iowa City.” The nonprofit will conduct programs, services and research focused on education and workplace success, officials said. It also will retain an investment in the new corporation and have representation on ACT’s board.


“ACT will always be driven by our mission, and this investment will allow us to accelerate delivery of impact solutions that are core to who we are — and always have been — including expanding access and opportunity for students,” Godwin said. “As a result of this investment, we will help more students be ready for their postsecondary paths, and help more adults advance in their careers.”

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Familiar name reposted it too, so I think it’s legit

Many of the choices overlap, so pick all you want to get the mix you think best reflects the major actors in our current inflation problems.

Feel free to mention other specific bad actors or bad policies in your comments.

I didn’t see one?

If a building is saved but never used is it really saved?
Letter to the editor: Is it worth saving an unsellable building?

… after saying he would not prosecute IVF participants when things go south. Prolly a Pepsi but search failed me.

usa wrestling left him off this. is this blatant disrespect or did he have an injury?

i had previously heard he was filling into 65kg nicely since the qualifier.

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Oh wait...

California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the past five years but didn't consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation, according to state audit released Tuesday.

With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country's most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S.

Despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California doesn't have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn't improve in many cities, according to state auditor's report.

"This report concludes that the state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs," State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers.

The audit analyzed five programs that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding. It determined that only two of them are "likely cost-effective," including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that provides housing assistance to prevent families from becoming homeless.


Under the $3.6-billion program that converts hotel and motel rooms, which is a linchpin in Newsom's homelessness plan, the average cost of a room is at least 2.5 times cheaper than building a new home, the audit found. The housing assistance program, which has received $760 million over the past five years, gives an average of $12,000 to $22,000, depending on which county, to help a low-income family stay in their home. That's a fraction of the roughly $50,000 the state spends on a person once they become homeless.

The remaining three programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, couldn't be evaluated due to a lack of data.

Democratic state Sen. Dave Cortese, who requested the audit last year after touring a large homeless encampment in San Jose, said the report depicts "a data desert" and shows an unsettling lack of transparency at every level.

"Despite (the auditor office's) professionalism and best efforts, they are at this time unable to ... draw conclusions about things like whether or not overhead is appropriate or too high," Cortese said, though he stopped short of calling for a halt to future spending on the homelessness issue.


Republican state Sen. Roger Niello said the lack of accountability is troubling.

"California is facing a concerning paradox: despite an exorbitant amount of dollars spent, the state's homeless population is not slowing down," Niello said in a statement. "These audit results are a wake-up call for a shift toward solutions that prioritize self-sufficiency and cost effectiveness."

Newsom has made tackling homelessness a top priority, and the growing crisis is sure to dog him should he ever set his sights on a national elected office. He has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment, and he campaigned aggressively for a proposition that voters passed in March that imposes strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment programs to help tackle the state's homelessness crisis.

Among other things, the audit found that the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, which oversees the implementation of the homelessness programs, hasn't tracked spending or whether programs were working since June 2021. The council has no consistent method to collect outcome data for these programs, and it doesn't verify the accuracy of the data submitted by municipalities, the audit found.

Furthermore, the state database includes deleted records and test entries, and some data on the number of program participants might be overstated, the audit found.

The council, which lawmakers created in 2017 to help deal with the homelessness crisis, has only reported on homelessness spending once, according to the audit. Without reliable and recent data on its spending, "the state will continue to lack complete and timely information about the ongoing costs and associated outcomes of its homelessness programs," the report says.

In a written response to the auditor's office, Meghan Marshall, who heads the council, agreed with the audit's findings and vowed to implement its recommendations "where possible." But she also noted that the council has limited resources to put toward collecting data and that lawmakers had only required it to complete a one-time assessment.


In response to questions from The Associated Press, the council said local governments also need to step up.

"The State Auditor's findings highlight the significant progress made in recent years to address homelessness at the state level, including the completion of a statewide assessment of homelessness programs. But it also underscores a need to continue to hold local governments accountable, who are primarily responsible for implementing these programs and collecting data on outcomes that the state can use to evaluate program effectiveness," the statement reads.

The state auditor also reviewed homelessness spending in two major cities, San Jose and San Diego, and found that both failed to effectively track revenue and spending due to a lack of spending plans.

I wish the best for Tyler in overcoming what was possibly horrible parenting. I do not dislike the karma for his mother, however.

"Initially, Hitler did incredibly well. If he had stopped with the Anschluss, where he gets Austria and he's going to take Czeckoslovakia, and then he says 'Ah, I'm uniting the German people" - if he had quit right there, he would have gotten away with it and probably considered a brilliant leader by Germans."

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Just watched the video of Frank Chamizo's loss at an Olympic qualification tournament in Azerbaijan. Any knowledgeable people on here know why he didn't get 2 at the end of the match?

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Not bad if he can play half as good as his older brother I will take him… Jaxx…

Longtime DSM icon musician Scott Smith (Trio) passed recently. He had his trio and would solo at various watering holes as a pianist/one man show. The guy was THEE best!
Back in the 70’-80’s and 90’s, if you wanted a nice quiet weekend evening of classics and bar room ballads, Fritello’s or Jimmy’s was the place to be because Scott and his friends were gonna be there.
Scott loved to play the piano and play for people. He was a frequent pianist at Von Maur later in his career and played private parties, too.

Good times….. RIP Scott…..

Surprised they haven’t taken the evidence down yet. Who wants to venture a guess before CNN and other outlets take down these Biden open border articles?


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Congrats to Wes and Pleasant Valley, Iowa for his addition to their coaching staff. Go Spartans.

I'm a casual that waits till August usually to look into what's new.

What dynamic youngsters are ready to get the Hawkeyes back to greatness.

... joined Russian army. Great marketing campaign by Russia. Join our Army or register as a sex offender.

He and Snowden can go have a love affair as far as I'm concerned.

US military veteran accused of having explicit images of a child apparently joined Russian army​

STEVE LeBLANC and NICK PERRY
Wed, April 10, 2024 at 5:39 PM CDT·5 min read





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Russia Ukraine War US Defector​

Wilmer Puello-Mota, a member of the 66th Security Forces Squadron, speaks during a gate dedication and renaming ceremony at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, on Oct. 2, 2018. Puello-Mota, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former elected official in Massachusetts who fled the U.S. after being charged with possessing sexually explicit images of a child, told his lawyer he joined Russia’s army, and video appears to show him signing documents in a military enlistment office in Siberia, Russia.

BOSTON (AP) — A U.S. Air Force veteran who fled a charge of possessing sexually explicit images of a child told his lawyer he joined Russia’s army, and video appears to show him signing documents in a military enlistment office in Siberia.
Wilmer Puello-Mota, a former elected official in a small Massachusetts city, was expected to enter a guilty plea in Rhode Island in early January, but did not show up to court, according to prosecutors. Last week, video surfaced that appears to show the 28-year-old in Russia and expressing support for the country's war against Ukraine — footage that could be used to promote Moscow’s narrative of the conflict.

His lawyer, John M. Cicilline, told The Boston Globe that he called Puello-Mota on Jan. 8, the day before he was expected to plead guilty. According to prosecutors, he boarded a flight from Washington, D.C., to Istanbul, Turkey, a day earlier.

“He said, `I joined the Russian army,’ or something like that,” Cicilline told the Globe. “I thought he was joking.”

Cicilline said Puello-Mota wanted a career in politics and thought the criminal case had ruined his life.

“I’m sure he joined the Russian army because he didn’t want to register as a sex offender,” Cicilline said.

The Associated Press made several calls to Cicilline. A person answering his office phone said he would not make any additional comment.

Puello-Mota served in the U.S. Air Force and deployed to Afghanistan in 2015, when he was 19, media releases show. He later served with the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing as a security forces airman.

Puello-Mota was arrested in 2020 in Warwick, Rhode Island, after he called to report a stolen gun and police said they found nude images of a 17-year-old girl on his phone. He was charged with one count of having sexually explicit images of a child. He was later also charged with trying to deceive prosecutors and his commanders about the case. Cicilline told the Globe he reached a deal to plead guilty to all charges in exchange for an 18-month prison sentence.

Videos surfaced on Russian social media and local television in March showing the blurred image of a man in a uniform in what appears to be a war zone displaying the U.S. flag.

In video posted online last week, a man who looks like Puello-Mota talks directly to the camera, speaking in English over background music and Russian subtitles and discussing a military operation. His face is not blurred. He does not say his name, and the videos do not mention the Rhode Island criminal case.

President Vladimir Putin has eliminated nearly all independent media in Russia — and state media aligned regularly trumpet Russian victories in Ukraine, denounce the West and otherwise amplify good news while ignoring the bad.

The Rhode Island attorney general's office said in a court document last month that it had received images purporting to show Puello-Mota in Ukraine and Russia.

“While the state cannot verify the authenticity of the videos and photographs, if they are accurate the defendant is well beyond the jurisdiction of this court and, if false, the defendant is engaged in an elaborate ruse to conceal his whereabouts,” Rhode Island prosecutors said.

U.S. State Department officials said they were aware of media reports about Puello-Mota fleeing to Russia but have had no contact with him and have no way to confirm those reports.

The most recent video appears to show Puello-Mota entering a building in Khanty-Mansiysk and shaking the hand of a uniformed man. At the end of the video, he is seen signing a document.

The AP verified the location after examining satellite imagery and historical photos of the area. According to a plaque on the door, it’s a military recruitment center run by the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Obviously it’s a difficult situation. It’s war. It’s a special military operation,” Puello-Mota says in the video, adding that he was lucky to be with “people from the international brigade.”

“We did our work. We did our job. We did what we were supposed to do,” he said. “I was very lucky and fortunate to serve with those guys. I definitely would do it again.”

Ian Garner, an assistant professor of politics at Queen’s University in Canada, called it “a huge propaganda opportunity” for Russia.
"To be able to show off an American citizen who has chosen to reinvent themselves, to reform themselves and become a part of the Russian war machine seems to provide evidence that Russia is winning a much bigger spiritual war,” he said.

Puello-Mota held the rank of technical sergeant when he forced to leave the guard in October 2022 because of the criminal case, said Don Veitch, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts National Guard. His security clearance was also revoked.

Holyoke City Councilor David Bartley, who worked with Puello-Mota on the City Council, said he considers him a good friend. He said the person in the video looks and sounds like him.

“To me that’s him,” he said.

He knew of no connections between Puello-Mota and Russia and called the footage “shocking.”

“The Wil that I know was a good, decent person,” Bartley said.

A Facebook page attributed to Puello-Mota includes a photo of the Kremlin and an updated profile photo of a man in a uniform operating a drone. It says he is from Holyoke and currently lives in Moscow and works at the Russian Defense Ministry, which is spelled in Russian.

Under Rhode Island law, Puello-Mota's trial cannot begin without him being present.