Breaking Good News Out of Hartford

East Hartford police are investigating an attempted robbery incident where a store clerk shot and killed one of two suspects, according to police.

The incident began on Thursday night around 10:30 p.m. when two suspects in black ski masks entered the Humble & Paid Co. on Main Street. Police stated that the two suspects had intended to rob the store.

A brief struggle took place when the suspects entered the store, and one pulled out a firearm. During the struggle, the store clerk was shot in the back by this suspect.

The store clerk was able to return fire with one of his two legally registered firearms, according to police. The clerk fired several rounds and struck one of the suspects multiple times.
...
The clerk was also treated for the gunshot wound to his lower back, and he was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Here's hoping that the clerk makes a speedy recovery with no lasting effects, and that the cops arrest the other suspect. I believe that CT has a felony murder routine, so the other critter can be charged with that.

Because It's Friday

British narrow-gauge steam.

Shoot the Fucker Down, Already

The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts a further strain on U.S.-China relations at a time of heightened tensions.

I'm guessing it's more likely that the Zoomies can't shoot it down.

Gym Jordan Almost Commits Heresy

By almost acknowledging that there is systemic racism.

JB-Welding These Down Here

First one is from the "not always a common language" department:

pic.twitter.com/KN5LvBFlIF

— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) January 24, 2023

The irony in this from Dead-Eyed Sarah is thick.

Making 155mm Shells

This is, essentially, How They're Made.

Apologies if it's paywall blocked. You may be able to find it elsewhere.

Lesson Learned: The College Board Can be Bullied by Politicians Pushing a White Nationalist Agenda

The official curriculum for a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies downplays some components that drew criticism from conservatives including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had threatened to ban the class in his state.

In the framework released on Wednesday, topics including Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations and queer life are not part of the exam. They are included only on a sample list states and school systems can choose from for student projects.

Republicans love closing their eyes to reality. They love pretending that the best time in this country was the 1950s, when, to their recollection, women were in the kitchen, minorities knew their place (and didn't vote), gays were in the closet and nobody ever heard of a trans person. They like pretending that slaves were "immigrant workers".

Of course, the one thing they don't like about the 1950s that such things as interstate highways and strong defense were paid for, in part, by high taxes on rich people and that there were heavy taxes on generational wealth. Nope, they didn't like that at all.

The takeaway here is that the College Board has the spine of overcooked linguini and will cave to even a smallish pressure campaign.

In other news, as DeSantis purges the state universities in Florida, look for "Jewish science" to be banned. Which is essentially science that is not in accordance with the Bible. for any professor, tenured or not, who dares to each anything not approved by the Christian Taliban will be fired.

Florida has long had a reputation for shitty-ass public schools. Now their public universities will be equally shitty.

China Regurgitates Russian Propaganda

China’s Foreign Ministry sought to blame the United States for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming Washington created the conditions that led to the war and condemning weapons deliveries for inflaming the conflict as it approaches the one-year mark.

“The US is the one who triggered the Ukraine crisis and the biggest factor fuelling it and has kept selling heavy and assault weapons to Ukraine, which has only prolonged and intensify the conflict,” Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Monday.

Right. We triggered the Ukraine war because how, exactly? Ukraine wasn't going to get into NATO. NATO membership requires unanimous consent of the member and, even if it was on the table a year ago, the Hungarians and the Turks would not have agreed.

No, what threatened the Russians was the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU. Neither Putin nor his finger-puppet in Belarus want to see another prosperous European country on their borders. It causes people who travel there (before the war, Russians had free access to EU countries) to wonder: "Why can't we also have nice things?"

As for supplying weapons to Ukraine so that they can defend themselves against Russian aggression, well, I'm flying that flag with pride.

The Supreme Court is Corrupt. Change My Mind.

The Supreme Court did not disclose its longstanding financial ties with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff even as it touted him as an expert who independently validated its investigation into who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
...
The estimated payments to Chertoff’s risk assessment firm, for consultations that extended over several months and involved a review of the justices’ homes, reached at least $1 million. The exact amount of money paid could not be determined. Supreme Court contracts are not covered by federal public disclosure rules and elude tracking on public databases.
...
The court’s decision to keep secret the prior arrangements with Chertoff, whose professional path has intersected over the years with Chief Justice John Roberts and other court conservatives, as it used him for a seal of approval, adds to controversy over the leak investigation itself.

Just a bunch of good ole boys, handing out fat contracts to their friends, because they can and because they're not accountable to anyone.

If it looks rotten and smells rotten, it probably is rotten.

Do You Provide Data to ADS-B Exchange?

ADS-B Exchange has been an open-source provider of flight information. People around the world have set up stations that collect ADS-B data and then transmits it to ADS-B's servers. The commercial flight tracking companies buy their data from the FAA, which censors it. ADS-B didn't, so you could see anyone who was in the air.

But now, ADS-B Exchange has been sold to some skeevy private-equity firm. Because one guy had set up the site and owned it, he cashed out. Everyone pretty much assumes that the new owners will try to charge people to see the data on the site and will also censor the data of rich people who don't like the unwashed masses seeing where they go. People like Mr. Bonesaw and Elon the Loosely Tuned, for two examples.

So, as you might imagine, that hasn't gone over too well. ADS-B Exchange depends entirely on volunteers, people who put together somewhat eeasy-to-build ADS-B receivers and tiny computers to send in the data. Volunteers often don't take well to people making bank off of their efforts, so people are unplugging from ADS-B Exchange.

With any luck, the private-equity guys will end up having bought an empty sack.

Fuck those guys and the greedy mofo who took their money.

(Brain-Farting on Verbs) These Down, Here

pic.twitter.com/OJw2afzSUm

— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) January 25, 2023

A Question for China

Is it better to have a strong Russia or a weak Russia on your northern boder?

Is it better to run the risk of being tied to Russia as a pariah nation or to make common cause with those nations who make up your largest markets?

How to Ensure that One Spends the Rest of One's Life in Prison

David DePape called the KTVU newsroom from San Francisco County Jail Friday, the same day a superior court judge ordered video of the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi to be released. The call was unexpected. He told our reporter he had an important message.
...
He said he attacked Pelosi because people's individual liberties are under attack.

In almost a call to arms, DePape says the, "people killing it have names and addresses, so I got their names and addresses so I could pay them a little visit…have a heart to heart chat about their bad behavior."

In the chilling and bizarre phone call, he apologized for not going further.

"I want to apologize to everyone. I messed up. What I did was really bad. I'm so sorry I didn't get more of them. It's my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared," he says.

He's going to end up talking himself into getting consecutive sentences and dying in a cell much like the one he is in now.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

A "Forked-Tail Devil"

Women to South Korean Men: Go Fuck Yourselves, Because We Won't Have Sex With You Assholes

Women in South Korea have come to realize that becoming married and raising children is little more than slavery.

So more and more of them are not doing it. South Korea is steeped in misogyny. South Korea is so steeped in women-hating that women there regard a "safe breakup" as one where they're not killed., But women speaking up thratens the fragine egos of men. So what happened is that the Koreans went even further right, elected a government that proclaims that feminism is the problem, is working to dismantle what few protections women have and trying to shame women to go back to having children.

The response in South Korea is about what it would have been here: A round "go fuck yourself." South Korean birth rates are the lowest in the world, to the point that the country will have half its population by the end of the century. My guess is that it'll happen much faster than that.

Interesting Data Points

President Joe Biden called 26-year-old Brandon Tsay to thank the California man for disarming the Monterey Park shooting suspect over the weekend.
...
“I wanted to call to see how you’re doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger,” Biden told Tsay. “I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you. But I want them to know more about you. … You have my respect. You are America, pal. You are who we are – no, no, you are who we are. America’s never backed down, we’ve always stepped up, because of people like you.”

I'm not saying that the call was not deserved. Mr. Tsay is a hero and he has earned his accolades.

But what about this guy? Is he not also a hero?

Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, Elisjsha Dicken was shopping with his girlfriend when a gunman opened fire on a food court at a Greenwood, Indiana, mall Sunday evening, killing three people and wounding two others.

While the shooter, 20-year-old Douglas Sapirman, fired 24 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle, Dicken did not hesitate to use the Glock handgun he was legally carrying. Sapirman was “neutralized” within two minutes, police said.

“Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen that took action very quickly within the first two minutes of the shooting,” Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said at a news conference Monday.

Caturday

Chip helps with document editiong.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

That's today. today marks the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army.

Me, I would prefer either May 7th (the day Nazi Germany surrendered) or April 30th, in keeping with a very old joke. As for how I feel about the day, see this.

The Apollo 1 fire was also on this day, 53 years ago. NASA has a track record of getting complacent about safety and then killing a crew in the process, oh, every twenty years or so. Those who may fly on the upcoming Artemis missions might want to keep that in mind.

Because It's Friday

Mt. Washington cog RR:

Russia is Not Just Evil, Russia is MCU-Level Evil

I've mentioned it before, but the StrategyPage has a discussion of Russia's submarine weapons, including the Poseidon torpedo.

The Poseidon torpedo shows that Russia is not just evil, it is cartoonishly evil. Poseidon is supposed to go into the harbor of an enemy and detonate an enhanced-radiation thermonuclear warhead. A few days after there has been a general nuclear war and the likely targets of such a weapon have already been hit a few times by nuclear weapons, this thing swims in and goes bang, in some insane Russian desire to do what? Irradiate the rubble even more?

The Poseidon speaks to the ingrained lunacy of the Russian state. They'll spend trillions of rubles on something that does not move the neeedle on strategic deterrence even a single micron.

As for the Loshanik submarine, it seems to be yet another Russian death trap.

What Is It With These Canadiens?

A Canadian woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to mailing a threatening letter containing the poison ricin to then-President Donald Trump at the White House.

The letter from Pascale Ferrier directing Trump to “give up and remove your application for this election,” was intercepted at a mail sorting facility in September 2020, before it could reach the White House.

The 55-year-old Quebec woman also pleaded guilty to sending similar threatening letters to Texas law enforcement officials. She is expected to be sentenced to 262 months in prison, just short of 22 years, under the terms of a plea deal with prosecutors. A sentencing hearing is set for April.

Between this clown and the lunatic that tried to beat Paul Pelosi to death, what's the deal with these asswipes? They don't have enough weird politics in their own country to occupy their paranoic bozos?

"Speaker of the House"

Randy Rainbow hits a homer with this one:

I first saw it last night, but for some reason beyone my understanding, I can't embed videos with my smartphone. I probably damn near killed the battery of my phone in repeated watching

Skitching These Down, here

Tanks for That, Joe

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the U.S. will send 31 M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of persistent arguments that the tanks were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain.

I suspect that the senior bureaucrats/generals in the Army are making the Classic Russian Mistake: Underestimating the Ukrainians.

31 tanks is a start. 155 would be better. The Ukrainians need enough high-quality weapons to push the Russians out of every square meter of Ukraine. Shame on everyone who isn't making that happen. (Looking at you, Herr Scholtz.)

Or maybe the Army tankers are worried that their Abrams tanks will be shown to be not as good as advertised?

Somebody Please Get That Poor Lad Some Professional Help, Bless His Heart

M&M is withdrawing its "spokescandy" ads after Fox's Tucker Carlson railed about the candies' de-sexualization as part of a push for a "woke" society. Maya Rudolph is the new face of the ad campaign.

Tuckyo Rose has to be one sick piece of work if he fantasizes about banging animated candy characters. Maybe he's taking a break from masturbating to his autographed photo of Vladimir Putin.

It takes some really weird kink to get turned in by "spokescandies." But that seems to be par for the course at Fox News.

There Goes Another Idiot

A federal judge on Tuesday convicted a Pennsylvania restaurant owner of storming the U.S. Capitol, where she screamed at police officers to bring out then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so the pro-Trump mob could hang her.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden decided the case against Pauline Bauer after hearing testimony without a jury. The judge convicted her of all five counts in her indictment, including a felony charge that she obstructed the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, court records show.

Apparently she's one of those "sovereign citizens" morons and she defended herself. She adequately proved the old saying that anyone who acts as their own attorney has an idiot for a client.

Back to jail, asshole.