Yet Another Neo-Nazi Terrorist Plot

A Maryland woman spent months conspiring with a neo-Nazi leader based in Florida to plan an attack on Baltimore’s power grid, hoping to further their racist mission, law enforcement officials said Monday.

The plan was thwarted when both suspects were arrested last week, adding to a growing list of similar cases as authorities warn the American electrical grid could be a vulnerable target for domestic terrorists.

If anything, these clowns could go away for awhile for being felons possessing guns.

What gets me is that none of these clowns ever seem bright enough to organize a two-car parade. And yet they seem to think that they're the "master race"?

Shooting Down the Chinese Spy Balloon, Cancun Cruz Ed.

Sen. Rafael T. Cruz said that waiting to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon until it was over water "telegraphed weakness".

First off, I gather that the fact that the equipment package the balloon had was the size of three buses and there was no good way to tell where that would fall doesn't bother Ted, but that's to be expected from a double-Ivy league grad who is LARPing as a bubba.

But hey, if the balloon had gone over Austin Texas (where Ted lives), sure, shoot it down. But he probably would have grabbed a plane to Cancun for an impromptu vacation (and left his dog home, alone).

(Crossposted here)

Tech Companies Know: Innovate or Die. Boeing Chooses Death.

Boeing Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun confirmed to investors [in November] that the aircraft manufacturer is not looking to introduce a brand-new model anytime soon. He cited the lack of propulsion systems on the horizon that can deliver the improvements to make developing a new airframe worthwhile.

As aircraft often remain in the market for many years, Calhoun wants the next jet to be groundbreaking rather than rushed through to fill a gap. He explained that fuel efficiency and carbon emissions reductions are crucial hurdles that Boeing must overcome before moving forward.

So what Boeing will have in the 2030s is an entire aircraft manufacturing company which, from top to bottom, will have no experience at designing, building, and certifying a new airplane.

How well did that lack of design talent work for the Boeing CST-100? But I digress.

It took Boeing under three years to design and build the first 747. I sadly predict that there will be damn few people reading this blog ebtry today who will live to see a 797 take to the skies.

(Crossposted here)

If It's a Boeing 787, I'm Not Going

The upshot of this article is that the 787s made in South Carolina have had lots of quality problems.

In other words, they are shitty airplanes. They may be great airplanes to ride in, what with higher pressurization, but they are still shitty-ass airplanes.

Boeing wanted to build airplanes where they could hire cut-rate workers. And, as a result, they got cut-rate airplanes. But this is what happens when a manufacturing company is run by MBAs and beancounters, not by people who understand how to make the product.

Jack Welch's managment philosophy has done more damage to American manufacturing than any Chinese or Russian espionage/sabotage operation could have ever hoped to do.

Supposedly there's a B-school named after him.

I wouldn't hire anyone from there to dry cars at the ass end of a car wash.

Courts Are Now Paying Attention, Maybe

A federal law prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded, citing last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump in Oklahoma City, on Friday dismissed an indictment against a man charged in August with violating that ban, saying it infringed his right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

Wyrick said that while the government can protect the public from dangerous people possessing guns, it could not argue Jared Harrison's "mere status as a user of marijuana justifies stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm."

Bravo.

Some years back, a federal judge became addicted to heroin. He pled out to a misdemeanor possession charge. The hammer that the prosecutors used is that they indicted him for being a durg user who possessed firearms, which is a ten-year rap. The judge had been a bird-hunter, he had two shotguns which were in his gun safe at his house. There was never any allegation whatsoever that the guns played any part in his drug use, but they charged him with it.

I felt conflicted about that one. The charge was bullshit and yet again more evidence of the crushing power of prosecutors to charge people with irrelevant felonies. On the other hand, he was a fucking judge and should have known better.

I have mixed feelings about the recent case before the 5th Circuit on firearms possession and restraining orders. There are cases where removal is warranted. There are also cases where, especialy in scorched-earth cases, one party has used restraining orders to harass the other party. I don't know what the answer is, there. I do believe that restraining orders are made of paper and will not deter somoneone who truly seeks to harm the other party. But they do give the cops grounds to arrest the offending party, if the cops take it seriously. Which often, they don't.

So I Got Dinged by Google.

It was over a post that I wrote about a man who, just after 9-11, was accused by the FBI of something he didn't do. He was threatened with extradordinary rendition and torture in a shithole Third World country if he didn't confess. So he did confess.

And then, it quickly came to light that the FBI's basis for detaining the guy, let alone charging him with a crime was bullshit. So they let him go. He sued and eventually the government settled.

I blogged about that in October of 2007. Overnight, The Gods of Google took down that post for "violating community standards". I read through the standards and found nothing prohibiting discussing a factual case of FBI misdeeds. I also have no idea why it took fifteen years for whatever was wrong in the post to get the Google Gods pissed off at me.

Because if saying bad things about the FBI is a violation, then, oh, about seventy percent of the blogs on Goggle are going to be gone. Including almost every one in the blogroll (which you don't see if you're using your phone).

Maybe this post will be taken down by Goggle around 2038 or so. So you'd best read it now.

ETA: This post, from April of 2014, was put behind an "adults only" warning for several hours. So they're up to a nine-year lag time. These posts from 2007 and 2013 are still behind warnings.

ETA 2: It's been reinstated. You can read it and wonder what irritated the dumb-ass bots at Google.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The "Tweet", an A-37:

Plumbing

The "Polar Plunge" brought us a gift: A busted pipe.

So today has been fun.

The Chinese Spy Balloon was shot down today.

Caturday

Downtime for Chip.

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.