Helluva Risk for the Dumb

Meanwhile, in Miami

SLATER SCOOP: Exclusive video of road-rage shooting in Miami from in-car camera.

The shooter seen here was arrested and is awaiting trial. He told cops the other driver fired first.

(Warning: Language and gunfire) pic.twitter.com/10vDVEwBbw

— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) January 28, 2022

The news story.

Pro tip: Don't have an inward-facing dashcam if you're going to do stupid shit while driving.

Oh, Foo

Howard Hesseman, who played the radio disc jockey Johnny Fever on the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” and the actor-turned-history teacher Charlie Moore on “Head of the Class,” has died. He was 81.

He was marvelous in Police Academy II, but while he wasn't the main player, he was in one of the funniest sitcom bits ever:

Some More Thoughts on Ukraine

First off, let's dispense with one thing: Tucker Carlson is not an authority on anything. My opinion is that if he's someone you're relying on, no dice. The Right would probably not accept my quoting Rachel Maddow, even though she has a degree in public policy from Stamford and a doctorate in politics from Oxford. Let me say this plainly: If Tucker said the Sun was going to come up tomorrow, I'd buy every fucking battery that I could get my hands on.

Second, as to the dismissal of the "borders are sancrosant" argument, that's not a good place to hang one's hat. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been the global norm that borders are not adjusted by force. It is one of the reasons why wars between neighboring nations have become rather uncommon.

Third, the Russians and their toadies are arguing that Ukrane is not really a country. If they are not, then are Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia countries? They were part of the USSR. Finland was part of the Russian Empire, is Finland a country?

Fourth, if Russia has complaints about missile systems in Europe, it has only itself to blame for that. Even TFG's administration couldn't look past Russia's ongoing violations of the 1987 INF Treaty.

Ukraine has diplomatic relations with about 180 nations. Contrast that with the Republic of China, aka Taiwan, which could easily fit the ambassadors of every nation that recognizes it in a hotel shuttle bus.

Speaking of Taiwan, care to bet how many of those arguing to stay out of this Russian-made mess would take the same tack if the People's Repubic of China decided to ramp up the pressure against Taiwan, from, say, blockading the island? How many of those arguing to let putin do as he wants would argue that "oh, Taiwan is not really a country"? I'm betting that there would be significant defections from the "do nothing on Ukraine" caucus.

What Putin wants isn't hard to understand. He wants to regain Russia's sphere of influence over its neighbors. He wants the rest of Europe to kowtow to Russia. He wants NATO and the Americans gone.

But what he has done, especially in the last six years, has had the opposite effect. Ukraine has had pro-Russian governments in the past, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, not with Russia fucking around in the Donbass region with its "little green men" war and with annexing the Crimean peninsula. Ukranians that were pro-Russian have changed their minds, thanks to Putin. Russian aggressiveness has stiffended the spines of the other nations in eastern Europe. Sweden and Finland, which were pretty much sitting on the sidelines during the Cold War, are growing closer to NATO.

Putin has backed his country into a corner where, regardless of the outcome, he loses.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

A shitload of B-25s:

New Heater Update- II

(Previous post)

I got the gun back earlier this week. I took it to the range. By the third or fourth cylinder of ammunition, it was locking up on the third shot. The cylinder will not turn and it takes some pressure to open it. The ammo was FMJ .38 Special practice rounds, not +P. There was no sign of high pressure (no flowed or flattened primers).

The upshot was that the gun was gone for two months and, regardless of what tinkering they did, it is still in SNAFU Mode.

I am going to ask them to either buy the gun back from me or send me a replacement. If they say that they want to try to fix it, I am going to ask to be jumped to the head of the repair queue. This "have the gun for less then a week, send it off and wait two months for it to be "fixed" and returned is getting old.

The only thing that keeps me from jumping on the "modern S&W revolvers are pieces of shit" is that I have a friend who has the same gun and whose round count is over 20K. Either he got an exceptional one or I got a lemon.

Stay tuned.

These Guys Should Lawyer Up and Plead the Fifth (Like Eric Trump Did)

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Friday issued subpoenas to lead participants in an audacious scheme to send fake Trump slates of electors to Congress.

The development comes as the panel seeks to learn whether the plan was coordinated by the Trump White House.

Forging government is probably some flavor of felony. Which would then lead to the idea that those in TFG's administration who came up with the idea of sending in faked certificates were participating in a conspiracy to commit a felony.

TFG's Chief Nazi should have a top-flight criminal defense lawyer on speed-dial.

Caturday

Chip enjoys a human leg pillow.

Rules Are For the Little People

UK:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office apologized to Queen Elizabeth on Friday after it emerged that staff had partied late into the night in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, at a time when mixing indoors was banned.

Queen Elizabeth was sitting by herself during the funeral service for her late husband while Boris Johnson was partying. Britons had their gatherings broken up by the police and people fined. But Johnson wasn't.

US:

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, has continued to dine out at New York City restaurants despite testing positive for Covid-19.

The ex-Alaska governor, who is not vaccinated, was spotted on Wednesday eating outdoors at the upper east side restaurant Elio’s after testing positive for the illness, according to photos published by Mediaite. Palin had dined at the same restaurant on Saturday night, where she was seen eating indoors in violation of city rules requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining.

Average New Yorkers can't eat inside restaurants or go into a lot of other places without proof of vaccination, but Ol' Caribou Barbie can waltz into a restaurant without being vaccinated and not long after testing positive for Covid because she feels OK?

Well, she thinks she's something special, an elite, like Fat Boris, and the rules don't apply to them.

Because It's Friday

Reading Northern #425.
The video won't allow embedding, but it's still neat.

Crapping These Down, Here

Probably Not a Good Idea to Count on Them

Germany on Wednesday announced it's offering 5,000 helmets to Ukraine amid fears a Russian invasion is around the corner, in a move that was denounced by Kyiv's mayor as a "joke."

"I received a letter from the Ukrainian embassy, requesting support with military equipment, helmets to be precise," Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told reporters, per Reuters. "We will supply Ukraine with 5,000 helmets as a clear signal: We are at your side."

They still have these in stock?

The Germans are also offering a field hospital, but it's safe to say that the Ukranians are utterly underwhemed by the level of German support they are receiving in the face of a potential Russian invasion.

Password Hilarity

U.S. Response to Russian Demands: Нет!

The Biden administration and NATO told Russia on Wednesday there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine.

In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable.

The expected toadies are parrotting Russian propaganda points.

I wish I were surprised, but this is all in line with where the far-Right was in the 1930s.

"What a Dumb Son of a Bitch"

Truth is a defense. Peter Doocy is probably dumber than Doocy-père.

Placing These Down, Here

And a bonus:

JWST On Station

The Webb Telescope is in its L2 orbit and the mirror segments are fully deployed. It's cooling down.

This is an amazing achievement. There was so much that could have gone wrong and, as far as we know, none of it happened.

Going Old School; Gun Ed.

Nearly four years ago, I picked up a S&W 686.

I recently bought a set of magna grips from Midway and a grip adapter from Robertson's Trading Post.

First off, I think it looks better. It feels right, too. Second, with carrying it concealed, wood grips are less likely to grab clothing and "print".

Truth in Comics

Yesterday's Pearls Before Swine.

Go take a gander.

Another Million Moron March

One of them was a public idiot, RFK, Jr., who apparently thinks that Jews were more free under Nazi rule than Americans are today.

"Even in Hitler Germany (sic), you could, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did," said Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccine advocate, in a speech at the Lincoln Memorial. "I visited, in 1962, East Germany with my father and met people who had climbed the wall and escaped, so it was possible. Many died, true, but it was possible."

There is no reasonable explanation for such a comment other than some form of brain damage.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Tu-134:

The Media Needs a 12-Step Program to Address Its Addiction to the Petitio Story

The FBI on Friday released new details in the investigation of Gabby Petito's death, saying that that [sic] Brian Laundrie wrote in a notebook that he killed her.

The FBI's Denver office had sent out a timeline of the investigation, saying that before discovering Laundrie's remains in a Florida wetland in October, agents had discovered a backpack, a gun and a notebook that all belonged to him.

C'mon, you dumb ass-clowns, let this one go! The perp beat and choked his girlfriend to death nearly five months ago and offed himself a month or so later. Why do you keep dredging this story up? Indian women disappear and are murdered without a single peep out of ABC news and the rest of the press, who only get interested when the victim is a pretty, young, white, blonde chick.

Caturday

Can't we all just get along?

Start Soaking the Maskholes

An American Airlines flight to London returned to Miami after a passenger refused to follow the federal requirement to wear a face mask, according to the airline.

American Airlines should send the passenger a bill. Two hours of 777 flight time works out to somewhere around $60,000. Loading and unloading the airplane of baggage, guesstimate is six people for an hour's work... figure that at $300, maybe a little more. $50 per passenger to rebook them would be maybe $6,000. If the airline had to put up any passengers overnight, add that in. So maybe $70,000 or more.

If she doesn't pay, then sue her and ask for punitive damages due to her outrageous conduct. For it was outrageous. She probably believed that once the flight was an hour out or so, she could take off her mask and that they'd have no choice but to fly on. She bet poorly.

And then get all of the other passengers to assemble their costs and they could form a class-action and sue her for their additional costs.

Plus, there are the Federal charges of interfering with a flight and failing to obey the instructions of a flight crew, which might be good foor a little bit of a staycation in the Greybar Hotel.

Because It's Friday

Strasburg RR #90

What's Happening in TX?

The FBI was on the scene Wednesday near the Laredo home of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar for what authorities described as a court-authorized ongoing investigation.

FBI spokesperson Rosanne Hughes confirmed law enforcement’s presence in the area but did not clarify what authorities were investigating.

Hughes said in a statement that the FBI was present on two streets around Cuellar’s house in Laredo “conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity.”
...
Agents were seen taking cases and other items from the congressman’s home, according to MyRGVNews. FBI officials were also present at a downtown building owned by Cuellar that reportedly houses his campaign office as well as other private businesses, according to KGNS News.

One quibble: "Court-authorized law enforcement activity" is bullshit-speak for "executing a search warrant". The Supremes have not so trashed the Fourth Amendment that the FBI can sign its own search warrants.

Nobody Should Be Surprised By This

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is drawing criticism for comments he made shortly before the GOP blocked a federal elections bill, when he said that “African American” voters cast ballots at similar rates to “Americans.”

That's just standard WASP bullshit that has been going on since 1619. Mad Magazine nailed it over fifty years ago:

Beware the Super Patriot who loves his country while hating 93% of the people who live in it.

- Mad Magazine, 1968 pic.twitter.com/0o1S2I4dkT

— Doctor Roshan R 🌍 (@pythoroshan) October 31, 2018

Putting These Down, Here

An Epic Rant on the New and Improved High Power

You will never be a real FN Hi-power Mark III. You have no parts compatibility, you have no magazine compatibility, you have a full-length guiderod. You are an FN DAC twisted by minor aesthetic tweaks and the removal of double-action into a crude mockery of John Moses Browning and Dieudonne Saive’s perfection.

All the “reviews” you get are only for clickfarming. Behind your back people mock you. Your parent company is disgusted and ashamed of you, your “userbase” laugh at your ghoulish appearance behind closed doors.

Shooters are utterly repulsed by you. The over 80 year service record of the Hi-power has allowed men to sniff out cheap clones with incredible efficiency. Even clones which “pass” look uncanny and unnatural to a man. Your side profile is a dead giveaway. And even if you manage to get a drunk guy to buy you, he’ll go straight back to the local gun store and put you up for consignment the second he gets a whiff of your extraction issues.

You will never be competitive. Your shills wrench out a fake video with plenty of slow-mo every single week and say you're "just as good", but deep inside you feel the higher bore axis and inferior ergonomics creeping up like a weed, ready to crush you under the unbearable weight.

Eventually it’ll be too much to bear - you’ll be carelessly left in the glovebox of a 1998 Ford Escort, and be crushed along with the car when it's inevitably abandoned at the tow yard. Your manufacturer will discontinue you, disappointed at the lack of sales but relieved that they no longer have to have such an unfaithful "clone" in their lineup. They’ll put you in the discontinued section of the website mentioning the DAC you were an inferior version of, and every enthusiast for the rest of eternity will know a DAC is buried there. Your frame will rust and go back to the dust, and all that will remain of your legacy is a dust cover that is unmistakably generic.

This is your fate. This is what you chose. There is no turning back.

I'd lead off with "a real FN High Power Mk.IV", but the rest is spott on. I'd not heard of any extraction issues,but the gun's really not out in the wild, yet.

She Chose Poorly

Hana Horka, a Czech singer, deliberately contracted Covid so she wouldn't have to be vaccinated. She died of Covid.

T**** Is, Once Again, The Biggest Loser in Court

In a rebuff to former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court is allowing the release of presidential documents sought by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The justices on Wednesday rejected a bid by Trump to withhold the documents from the committee until the issue is finally resolved by the courts. Trump’s lawyers had hoped to prolong the court fight and keep the documents on hold.

Following the high court’s action, there is no legal impediment to turning over the documents, which are held by the National Archives and Records Administration. They include presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes dealing with Jan. 6 from the files of former chief of staff Mark Meadows.

8-1 vote, including all of "his" justices. The King of Bone Spurs must be feeling very betrayed. The only vote for Trump was by Justice Thomas, who seems to still be working off his butthurt from his confirmation hearings.

Meanwhile, Eric Trump seems to believe that saying more than his name puts him at risk, for he invoked the Fifth Amendment 500 times in a deposition. Back in the day, conservatives would scream that anyone who repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment had to be a really bad criminal, even a mobster. What they claimed was that anyone who had so much to hide must be guilty.

Bet that they've since changed their tune.

Ayup

pic.twitter.com/UBTHmRkH0z

— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) January 18, 2022

Budget High Power

Girsan MC P35, imported by EAA:

One quibble with the video: The magazines of (classic) Browning High Powers do not normally drop out because the magazine safety squeezes the magazine against the back of the magazine well. That's why the "mousetrap magazine" was invented, which has a little spring to eject the magazine (as indicated by the red arrow):

At $400 a copy (1/3rd the cost of FN's new non-clone), I'm interested.

On the other hand, RUMINT has been that EAA's customer service is orders of magnitude worse than Taurus's. If you buy one and it doesn't work, you might have to fix it yourself.

With a Few Minor Alterations, This Fits Putin Like a Bespoke Suit

“There must be no doubt about one thing. Political separation from [Russia] may not lead to deprivation of rights—that is, the general rights of self-determination. In the long run it is unbearable for a world power to know there are [ethnic] comrades at its side who are constantly being afflicted with the severest suffering for their sympathy or unity with the whole nation, its destiny, and its [worldview]. To the interests of the [Russian Federation] belong the protection of those [Russian] peoples who are not in a position to secure along our frontiers their political and spiritual freedom by their own efforts.”

I don't need to tell you who spoke the original version of those words, do I?

As a Jew, I Endorse This Opinon

Because nobody can pronounce "The Protocols of the Elders of Lllwgyddywwglch". https://t.co/9glTzHwOdU

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 16, 2022

(H/T)

FN's New (and Improved) High Power

FN is introducing a "reborn" High Power.

What I see:

• The barrel looks like something out of a Glock. So it locks up on the ejection port (like a Glock) and not into matching cuts in the slide (like the 1911 and the P35).
• 17 round magazines so all of the "legacy" P35 magazines won't fit.
• No magazine disconnect.
• No provision for red-dot optics.
• Separate takedown lever.
• Ambidextrous controls.

It short, it looks like a P35 on the outside, but that's about as far as it goes. Because older magazines apparently will not run in this new gun, I'll just wait to see if Springfield can get the bugs out of their clone.

Especially when I consider that this gun has a MSRP of nearly twice that of the Springfield SA-35.

Covid Testing

The free Covid test site is live on a soft open. It's super easy.

Laying These Down, Here

This and other regularly-scheduled features may be suspended due to an overlap of the Venn circles for "coffee" and "laptop".

We Shall See, MLK Ed.

I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to the manifold tweets and messages today from white Trump-voting Republicans praising equality and justice for all, touting civil rights and love of democracy, and telling us what Martin Luther King REALLY meant.

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) January 17, 2022

He was right, the very same clowns trying to make it harder for people to vote posted this:

Today we honor the incredible life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. pic.twitter.com/4wnfhaUyQi

— GOP (@GOP) January 17, 2022

I think most of them will try to ignore the day, if not silently cheer on the clown that did this:

https://t.co/oo5Zw8gwKw. And on the eve of MLK day no less. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

— thefieldnegro (@fieldnegro) January 17, 2022

MLK, Jr. Day

Nothing has changed in that regard.

(H/T)

Crazy People With Nuclear Weapons, USSR Russian Ed.

“From the beginning of the year we will have in our arsenal a new sea-based missile, a hypersonic one,” Mr. Putin said, referring to a weapon that travels at more than five times the speed of sound and could likely evade existing missile defenses.

In an apparent reference to the American capital, he added: “The flight time to reach those who give the orders will also be five minutes.”

That is the talk of a crazy person, a lunatic who just happens to be the Russian leader, a man who, unlike the leaders of the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, has no experience in a major war.

Is there a single shred of doubt what the response would be if a missile from a Russian submarine nuked Washington? To even play at saying such things shows a deep irresponsibility unbecoming the leader of any nation that has a military that is larger than Costa Rica's, let alone a significant, if fading, nuclear power.

"Fading" may be what's going on. Russia, as a nation, is fading. It is losing population. The global shift toward renewable energy sources threatens to limit Russia's economic influence. Putin's shenanigans may be a evidence of the thrashing throes of a nation that he knowss full well is sliding into irrelevance. Militaristic nations, like dangerous animals, are most dangerous when they are dying.

I grew up in the shadow of a possible global nuclear war. It appears that Generation Alpha will have that same experience.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

P-40 Warhawk:

Operation Canned Meat II

(Stickied from 1/14/22)

U.S. intelligence officials have determined a Russian effort is underway to create a pretext for its troops to further invade Ukraine, and Moscow has already prepositioned operatives to conduct “a false-flag operation” in eastern Ukraine, according to the White House.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday the intelligence findings show Russia is also laying the groundwork through a social media disinformation campaign that frames Ukraine as an aggressor that has been preparing an imminent attack against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine.

Psaki charged that Russia has already dispatched operatives trained in urban warfare who could use explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces — blaming the acts on Ukraine — if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides he wants to move forward with an invasion.

It is hard to look at this guy:

And not see a modern reflection of this guy:

• Mass overwhelming forces on the border of a far less-powerful neighbor -- check. 
•  Stage a pretext for an invasion -- check. 
• Claim that they are only acting in self-defense -- check. 
•  Claim that they are only protecting the rights of their own ethnic people -- check.
• Right wing groups in the United States parroting the lies of the invaders -- check.
• An Asian dictatorship using the distraction of a war in Europe to carry out their own war -- check. 

Other nations are paying attention and taking their own steps. Russia's aggressive posturing has made it clear to the Nordic neutrals that they will have to choose a side. And they seem to be.

Mike Lindell's Trolley Has Clearly Jumped the Rails

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said on Real America’s Voice that he has evidence to put 300 million Americans in jail as he continues his plan to overturn the 2020 election.
...
Lindell says he has “all the pieces of the puzzle.”

“And you talk about evidence,” Lindell added. “We have enough evidence to put everybody in prison for life, 300 and some million people. We have that all the way back to November and December.”

So that's basically every American above the age of what, ten? 300 million people, 2.6 million prison cells. That's a shitload of overcrowding, with every child in the country working as a prison guard and nobody doing anything else.

300 million people. Lindell sounds as though he's building a defense of insanity in advance of his libel trials.

NFL Coughs It Up

The National Football League and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke reached a settlement with officials in St. Louis for $790 million, the city announced on [11/24/21].

The settlement stems from a lawsuit from the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles in 2016. The city, St. Louis County and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority sued the NFL and the Rams in 2017. They claimed the league did not honor its own relocation policy and hold good faith negotiations to prevent the Rams’ relocation from St. Louis.

The City sued for a billion, plus. They alleged that the NFL broke its own rules on relocation to let one of their billionaire owners due whatever he felt like doing. That the NFL settled for $790 million suggests that the NFL knew that they were probably going to lose.

The money was paid last month. That whiny little fuck probably won't miss it; all he will have to do is get Walmart to screw over its workers a little more.

Every pro sports team contemplating a move should take to heart the lesson that if they don't follow their league's rules on jerking teams to new locations, it could coust them a bundle. With any luck, the Oakland Los Angeles Oakland Las Vegas Raiders will be sued into dust.

ETA: The Bengals beat the Raiders today in an AFC wild-card game, 26-19.

Caturday

Chip: "Whassup?"

Because It's Friday

Biggest Polar Express, ever!

Good Going, Gavin

California’s governor on Thursday rejected releasing Robert F. Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan from prison more than a half-century after the 1968 slaying that the governor called one of America’s “most notorious crimes.”
...
Aside from causing Kennedy’s then-pregnant wife and 10 children “immeasurable suffering,” Newsom said the slaying “also caused great harm to the American people.”

It “upended the 1968 presidential election, leaving millions in the United States and beyond mourning the promise of his candidacy,” Newsom wrote. “Mr. Sirhan killed Senator Kennedy during a dark season of political assassinations, just nine weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murder and four and a half years after the murder of Senator Kennedy’s brother, President John F. Kennedy.”

But for the Supreme Court halting executions in 1972, that little fuck would have been duly stuffed into a gas chamber. Which would have been justice. That asswipe, by shooting RFK, nullified the votes of millions of people and denied the entire country the possibility of voting for Sen. Kennedy in 1968. Arguably, without Sirhan, there would have been no "war on drugs" declared in 1970 and we'd have a lot more of the Constitution intact.

He should have been executed about four million times. But dying in prison is a substitute.

The Wheels Grind On; Insurrectionist Ed.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, and 10 other members or associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, authorities said Thursday.

The indictment is available for casual reading.

The reach of the law is extending beyond those who were either inside the Capitol or who assaulted police officers.[1] Those who provided the funds or support for the Insurrection might want to lawyer up before the stainless-steel braclets are snapped on their wrists.
_________________________

[1] Proving that the Right lies when they claim to stand with the cops.

Depositing These, Here

By Request; Gun Ed.

Gun Jesus shoots a Greasegun:

People, Please Quit Snacking on the Cheap Drugs

The batshit crazies on the far-Right are promoting a Clinton-Trump rematch.

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly suggested Hillary Clinton wants to run for president again and could face former President Trump in the 2024 election.

"Hillary Clinton wants the nomination. She knows the Biden administration is falling apart, which is why you're seeing her surface right now," O'Reilly said Tuesday while appearing on Dan Abrams's primetime show on NewsNation. "So it could be a replay. But voters make up their own mind."

As far as I can tell, all of the "Clinton chatter" is originating from Trumpist media and those useful idiots who suck up to Trump.

Dan Abrams had to have lost his mind since he left ABC in order to be reduced to peddling this crap.

Just the Thing When the In-Laws Come Calling

M-3 "Greasegun":

This Horse is More Useful Than Joe Manchin

Soccer players are taking notes.

Placing These Down, Here

Nice, DoJ, But About 25 Years Late

The Justice Department is establishing a specialized unit focused on domestic terrorism, the department’s top national security official told lawmakers Tuesday as he described an “elevated” threat from violent extremists in the United States.

The threat from violent right-wing extremists is not a new issue. Right-wing terrorism has been a problem for a long time. When the DHS began, belatedly, to look at it, the GOP had a cow, because the right-wing terrorists are from their base.

A prediction: The next Republican Trumpist to become president will disband the unit in short order, proclaiming "nothing to see here, folks". You read that here, first.

One Thing Gym Jordan is Good At Doing Is Not Talking About Bad Things He Might Have Seen

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress, on Sunday rejected a request for an interview by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

The Mafia could take lessons from Jordan on clamming up. It's what he does.

Veterans' Administration Fuckery; Agent Orange Deja Vu

It's hard to read this article about how the VA and the DoD have been fighting to prevent recognition of lung problems from burning trash and hazardous materials in Iraq and Afghanistan and not be reminded of the decades that the VA fought to deny benefits for those who were affected by Agent Orange.

Denying the results of studies -- check. Preventins researchers from investigating the issue -- check. Censoring research -- check. Not changing position until political pressure was brought to bear -- check.

Same shit, different war.

Words Fail Me; Covidiot Ed.

Anti-COVID-19 “Vaccine Police” leader Christopher Key has a new quarter-baked conspiracy theory for his anti-vax followers to use to cure themselves of COVID-19: Drink their own urine. “The antidote that we have seen now, and we have tons and tons of research, is urine therapy. OK, and I know to a lot of you this sounds crazy, but guys, God’s given us everything we need,” Key said in a video posted over the weekend on his Telegram account after being released from jail over a trespassing charge.

Go ahead, bucko. Drinnk your own piss. Why not eat your own shit, whilst you're at it? Lots of animals do it, already. It doesn't hurt them.

Moron.

(H/T)

Democracy is on the Ebb

This is a damn good article about how Boris Johnson is methodically stripping away the freedoms of Englishmen. I am not quoting it, as there are numerout internal links worth pursuing.

The threats to our own democracy from extreme gerrymandering that imposes minority rule in many states need hardly be recounted in this post. I've written a bit about that.

The King of Grift failed at his first coup attempt. Republicans have been falling over themselves to pledge fealty to him. Republicans who were shocked, if not physically threatened by the Insurrection, have gotten over their disgust to go back to kissing Bone Spur's ample ass. They've made their loyalty crystal clear: Trump über alles. Über the rule of law, über the Constitution, über the right to vote, über free and fair elections. Republicans are so focused on "owning the libs" that they will burn down our Republic in order to achieve their aims. It is no surprise that Republicans love Putin and Orban.

It is an interesting twist of historical events that the most vibrant democracy currently may be Germany, with France and Italy not far behind.

Vaxed and Unvaxed

I know that charts such as this can be offered:

(Source)

But it will make little difference. Whether out of honest reasons or because they've drunk the Right-Wing/Russian Kool-Aid, the only way we're now going to get through this pandemic is if the virus can burn through as many of those fools as possible, either to get to herd immunity or to dirt-nap them, or both.

On another notide, I'm thinking of replacing the Stinson Gull-Wings at the top of the page with this:

Comments?

Cats at Work

On Black Friday, Jessica and Nikii Gerson-Neeves bought a blender. It was a Vitamix blender, a professional-grade splurge, and the couple was looking forward to a winter of smoothies and soups.

It arrived on Dec. 16 at their home on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Jessica put the hefty box down on the floor in the kitchen, just for a second. Her 4-year-old tuxedo cat, Max, otherwise known as the “sentient soccer ball,” jumped up on the box. Jessica thought it was funny and snapped a photo.

Then Max’s 13-year-old feline siblings, George: Destroyer of Worlds (“sentient potato”) and Lando Calrissian (“the questionably sentient dust bunny,”), demanded their turn on the knee-high box.

One cat, or another, has been on the box ever since. 24/7.

Sure, they could kick the cats off and open the box. But they're having fun, the cats are having fun, the Internet is having fun and there's no harm in any of that.

(Comments evincing negative waves will be consigned to Ye Olde Byte Bucket.)

(H/T)

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A run of a V-1 pulsejet engine:

You can compare that to a recording of a V-1 warshot:

An Amazing Achievement in Space Science

The James Webb Space Telescope is fully deployed as of early this afternoon (EST). All of the big pieces are now in place. Hundreds of single-point failure steps were successful.

That success was not easy. It took a shitload of engineering and testing to ensure that the telescope was able to be erected.

Now comes the work of getting the telescope into position, tuning, calibrating and all of that.

Congratulations to NASA, the ESA, the CSA, JPL and everyone else involved.

Let's Blow Shit Up!

The Finns blow up a Tesla:

The subtitles are pretty craptastic, though.

Caturday

Chip, reflected in the fireplace doors:

Darwin Award Winner; Covid Ed. or You Can't Fix Stupid, But You Can Bury It.

A leading QAnon promoter who urged both her followers and strangers she passed on the street not to take the COVID vaccine died Thursday of the coronavirus, making her just the latest vaccine opponent killed by the disease.

Cirsten Weldon had amassed tens of thousands of followers across right-wing social media networks by promoting the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy under the screenname “CirstenW.” She was prominent enough to become a sort of QAnon interpreter for comedian conspiracy theorist Roseanne Barr, and started recording videos about QAnon with her.

Weldon focused on attacking vaccines and other efforts to fight COVID-19, saying in one video that Dr. Anthony Fauci “needs to be hung from a rope.” She claimed the vaccine killed people, and even recorded herself yelling at people standing in line to receive vaccines.

“The vaccines kill, don’t get it!” Weldon warned the waiting vaccine recipients in an undated video posted to one of her online accounts. “This is how gullible these idiots are. They’re all getting vaccine!”

In late December, however, Weldon started showing symptoms of coronavirus infection. In her last video, posted on Dec. 28, Weldon struggled through her remarks about the coming overthrow of the United States government, coughing and complaining that she was exhausted.

Three days later, Weldon was hospitalized in Camarillo, California. She posted a picture of herself wearing an oxygen mask to Instagram and claimed she had “bacterial pneumonia.” Weldon wrote in a post on the social media network Telegram that she refused to take coronavirus treatment remdesivir, calling it “Dr Fauci’s Resmedervir (sic).”

As the article goes on to set out, a fair number of prominent QAnon idiots are dying of Covid and, of course, to those wet-brains, that's just proof of a conspiracy. Those fuckers are threatening violence against the doctors and nurses for not giving their patients the Q-approved crackpot treatment du jour. The relevant authorities need to be keeping an eye on these morons and administer treatments of sedatives or lead, as needed.

Heh. Heh. Heh; Insurrection Ed.

Stephen Colbert's cold open from last night:

What the Rude Pundit has to say is worth reading.

Because It's Friday

"Poling" a car"

You can see the front poling pockets on UP 844:

The diesels made in the 1950s had poling pockets. I'm not sure when/if the practice was outlawed, but it was a long time ago.

Oh, Hell No.

Walmart is expanding its push to deliver groceries straight into customers' kitchen fridges, even when they aren't home.

Walmart (WMT) said Wednesday that it plans to make InHome, its $148 annual delivery option, available to 30 million US households by the end of the new year, up from six million today. Walmart will also hire around 3,000 workers to deliver orders for InHome, offering them an extra $1.50 an hour from most store jobs, which begin at $12 an hour.

Right, you're going to let a total fucking stranger come into your home, while you're not there, to stock your groceries. And you're going to trust Walmart to do this?

I respectfully suggest that anyone who signs up for this should be checked for undiagnosed brain damage.

Just Stands to Reason

A deputy district attorney from California who regularly spoke out against vaccine mandates has died of complications from Covid-19.

Kelly Ernby, 46, a prosecutor from Orange county, southern California, who recently ran for the state assembly, died after contracting the virus, her family and friends have said.

According to Ernby’s husband, Axel Mattias Ernby, Kelly Ernby was unvaccinated at the time of her death.

She died for what she believed in. Which is a positive thing to say.

Of course, what she believed in was stupid. But that's for her family to deal with.

Fancy Feast Cat Food

The small cans seem to be pretty scarce these days. The manager of my local store said that she's been told that Purina is running at 25% capacity and that they've been told not to expect normal shipments until well into 2023.

At her recommendation, I tried Mitten's Morsels:

Both Chip and Priss sucked it down.

YMMV. They're cats.

A Year Ago, Throngs of Peaceful Tourists Toured the Capitol, Looked at the Statues, and Went Home

That, of course, is not what happened. Far from it. But for those who believe that's what happened, they have had to disbelieve countless hours of film footage, tens of thousands of photographs and, of course, the arrests of several hundred of those "tourists" and the imprisonment of many of them. To believe that it was a peaceful demonstration, one has to have swallowed the Big Lie of Donald the Nutter, along with the fake "documentaries" produced by that smarmy little fuck on Fox News.

We all truly know what happened. So did Sean Hannity, who on the evening of the Insurrection, called for everyone who participated to be prosecuted, until he backwatered because he supports El Tubbo de Mar-a-Lago, who has continued to this day to spew his lies and falsehoods.

As a result of his lies and the legions of his followers who believe them, this country's political system is in as much danger as it has been since the Civil War. The Germans didn't threaten our democracy in two World Wars. The Soviets never succeeded in attacking our democracy during the Cold War. Our electoral system prevailed, with elections becoming more and more open to eligible voters. For decades, it has been a bipartisan effort to make it as easy as possible for people to vote.

But no longer. Republicans have concluded that free elections are bad for them. They have concluded that a high voter turnout equates to them mostly losing. They have watched as Viktor Orban of Hungary has turned his country into a democracy in name only, a country where only votes for his party are counted, where opposing voices are silenced. All of the so-called "election suecurity" bills that Republicans have advanced in numerous states are aimed to do just that: Disenfranchise those who would vote for a different party.

1/6/21 revealed that our nation, our political system, is under attack as never before. It is under attack from the Right.

To say otherwise is to deny reality. If Republicans cannot gain control of the entire country, then their secondary goal is to have another civil war. Maybe a majority of Republicans don't support having another civil war, but enough say they do to be worrisome. Enough showed up in combat gear on 1/6/21. Enough brought weapons and staged them in Virginia. Enough battered the Capitol Hill Police and enough broke down doors and windows to get in. Enough erected a gallows so that they could hang Mike Pence and others.

In short, we are so screwed.[1] We are not going to be safe until the Republicans snap out of their state of delusion. Which I don't see happening anytime soon.
___________________________

[1] It might not be a good idea to be invested in the stock market after the next presidential election.

Yadda, Yadda These Down, Here

Facts Will Never Dent Republicans' Certainty About the 2020 Election

The Texas secretary of state’s office has released the first batch of results from its review into the 2020 general election, finding few issues despite repeated, unsubstantiated claims by GOP leaders casting doubts on the integrity of the electoral system.

It won't matter because the hue and cry of the Trumpists for election audits has nothing to do with fair elections. It has everything to do with impugning the integrity of the electoral process in order to make it possible for Republicans to successfully stage a coup next time around.

You can be a loyal American or you can be a Republican. The overlap between the two groups is disappearing rapidly.

Police Fuckery Continues

The Seattle cops inflamed an already bad situation in 2020 by faking radio chatter about armed Proud Boys going towards an ongoing BLM demonstration.

You have to wonder what sort of low-wattage badeged-up chuckleheards thought that this was a good idea. You can bet that the Seattle brass tried to cover it up until they couldn't/

8mm (or .30) Super Carry?

The gun:

The cartridge:

Images from the patent application.

It appears that the major ammuniton companies are going to make cartridges for it.

The naming, either .30 or 8mm Super Carry, is a smart idea. No gun company wants to make guns for a cartridge designation that bears a competitor's name.

It's going to be interesting to see the reports once the non-shill press and reviewers get their hands on the gun. I think that it is fair to observe that the revolver equivalents, the .32 H&R Magnum and the .327 Federal Magnum were not huge commercial successes. Introducing a new cartridge at a time when even common cartridges have become hard to find at times seems a little unorthodox. The ballistics tests are kind of marginal and the pressure (50 KPSI) is likely to result in quite a bit of muzzle blast. A .327 Federal has a chamber pressure of 45 KPSI and nobody has ever said that was a quiet round.

This may be a cartridge for places where military camberings are forbidden for civilian use and there may be a market for a reasonably effective handgun cartridge. But it's more likely, in my uninformed opinion, that this will go the way of the .356 TSW.

ETA: Another view of this cartridge, a bit harsher than mine. And what you might expect from the gun press.