Tucker Carlson: Trump is angry dad ready to give ‘vigorous spanking’ to enemies

Tucker Carlson says former President Donald Trump is like an angry father who needs to give “a vigorous spanking” to his enemies.

The right-wing former Fox News host told a frenzied Trump campaign rally that the ex-president was “pissed” and ready to get physical with wayward Americans who oppose him. “Dad’s home and he’s pissed,” Carlson told the roaring crowd Wednesday night. “You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking, right now.”

Carlson said Trump is no different from a father who must command obedience from his teenage daughters. “If you allow your hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter to, like, slam the door of her bedroom and give you the finger, you’re going to get more of it,” said the conservative host, who has four grown children. “It’s not good for you and it’s not good for them. No!”

Carlson said Trump’s return to the White House would hurt his enemies and political opponents, not himself, echoing Trump’s vows to exact retribution if he regains power.

—New York Daily News

Could five elephants become legal persons in Colorado court?

DENVER — For the first time in state history, the Colorado Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday about whether animals are entitled to legal protections against imprisonment, including the right to challenge their custody.

The Nonhuman Rights Project, a nationwide civil rights organization trying to secure legal rights for animals, is suing the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs on behalf of the institution’s five elephants in hopes of getting the animals released into a sanctuary that has not been identified under the writ of habeas corpus that protects people against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.

“‘Person’ is a term that attaches to any individual or entity possessing (or capable of possessing) a legal right,” the Nonhuman Rights Project wrote in its appeal. “…If animals have legal rights, then they are legal persons.”

The project backed by six elephant experts, including award-winning researcher Dr. Joyce Poole and neuroscientist Bob Jacobs, claims the zoo’s small exhibit size, terrain and lack of mental stimulation is causing the elephants long-lasting physical and mental harm.

—The Denver Post

Large python swallows 77-pound deer, stunning researchers with the size of its mouth

When python researchers Ian Bartoszek and Ian Easterling tracked a male “scout snake” with a radio transmitter, they expected him to lead them to a big female Burmese python. What they found was much more chilling.

As they pushed their way through the brush of a private property near Naples, Florida, they saw something shocking — a massive 14.8-foot, 115-pound python in the act of consuming a 77-pound, white-tailed deer.

“In the 12 years of doing this tracking effort, this is the most intense thing I’ve ever seen in the field, by far,” Bartoszek said. “Watching an invasive apex predator swallow a full-sized deer in front of you is something that you will never forget. … The impact the Burmese python is having on native wildlife cannot be denied.”

This discovery was disturbing, but it was also thrilling in that it would help Bartoszek and Easterling, who run a python research and removal program for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, a nonprofit environmental group, understand the full impact these invasive snakes are having on native wildlife.

—Orlando Sentinel

Russia pushes for BRICS clearing, depository system to sidestep the West

Russia has set out proposals for a unified depository and clearance system for BRICS countries, as it seeks to persuade member nations to deepen financial cooperation without the involvement of the West.

Russia argued for integrating the depositories of member states under a so-called BRICS Clear umbrella as part of its presentation for this week’s summit in Kazan, according to a person who saw the document, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.

The aim would be to ensure uninterrupted cross-border securities transactions as an alternative to the Euroclear and Clearstream systems, the person said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting the first summit since BRICS expanded to nine members in January, with the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia joining Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in the organization. He said Wednesday that the group’s development showed that a “multipolar world” is emerging, in a challenge to the existing U.S.-dominated global order.

—Bloomberg News