JB Welding These Down, Here

The Star Spangled Banner, LGEN Flynn Style

Stephen Colbert and The Late Show audience sing it:

I screwed it up last night, so I just went to bed instead of fixing it.

Time Flies Like an Arrow, MOH Ed.

Hershel W. "Woody" Williams, the last remaining Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, died Wednesday. He was 98.

Williams' foundation announced on Twitter and Facebook that he died at the Veterans Affairs medical center bearing his name in Huntington.

As a young Marine corporal, Williams went ahead of his unit during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean in February 1945 and eliminated a series of Japanese machine gun positions.

His MOH citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as demolition sergeant serving with the 21st Marines, 3d Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 23 February 1945. Quick to volunteer his services when our tanks were maneuvering vainly to open a lane for the infantry through the network of reinforced concrete pillboxes, buried mines, and black volcanic sands, Cpl. Williams daringly went forward alone to attempt the reduction of devastating machine-gun fire from the unyielding positions. Covered only by four riflemen, he fought desperately for four hours under terrific enemy small-arms fire and repeatedly returned to his own lines to prepare demolition charges and obtain serviced flamethrowers, struggling back, frequently to the rear of hostile emplacements, to wipe out one position after another. On one occasion, he daringly mounted a pillbox to insert the nozzle of his flamethrower through the air vent, killing the occupants, and silencing the gun; on another he grimly charged enemy riflemen who attempted to stop him with bayonets and destroyed them with a burst of flame from his weapon. His unyielding determination and extraordinary heroism in the face of ruthless enemy resistance were directly instrumental in neutralizing one of the most fanatically defended Japanese strongpoints encountered by his regiment and aided vitally in enabling his company to reach its objective. Cpl. Williams' aggressive fighting spirit and valiant devotion to duty throughout this fiercely contested action sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

The Second World War is going from living history to just history. They deserve the highest honor.

There's Always a Price; NATO Ed.

Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, a breakthrough in an impasse clouding a leaders’ summit in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades triggered by the war in Ukraine.

Turkey wanted something, Turkey got something. Whether they got all they wanted, nobody knows.

Slathering These Down, Here

"I Could Never Shoot Another Person."

That's what a friend of mine told me earlier today. She's almost my age, she's white, Christian and has lived a typical middle/upper-middle class life. So I understand where she is coming from.

I'm almost like her, except for one important difference: I'm not Christian. My religious tradition teaches that there has been many times when government-sponsored groups have attempted to enslave us and to murder us. They have had varying success, but we're still here.

BadTux has pointed out that, thanks to the Supreme Court's hard turn to the right, that those times are coming for this country.

He is right about one other thing: The Supreme Court, in 1954, did not hand down Brown vs. Board of Ed. of Topeka like a bolt from the blue, the way that they just overruled Roe v. Wade. The NAACP attacked Plessy V. Ferguson for decades, challenging "separate-but-equal" in case after case. The NAACP picked apart Plessy, challenging the denial of admission of a Black man to U-MO because there were no state facilities for higher education of Black people. The NAACP challenged school conditions in other states, each time, proving that there was no equality and obtaining Supreme Court orders to change those conditions. Finally, it because clear to the Court that there was no piecemealing to be done and they made a national ruling.

That wasn't what the Right did. They, instead, worked for decades to salt the judiciary with ideologues and, when they finally got their majority on the Court, they struck. Not by appealing to reason, not by providing evidence, but imposing a decsion based solely in ideology and their religious beliefs.

Worse, they have worked diligently to strip away voting rights, to ensure that their voices are heard above all, and to ensure that the states can tilt their playing fields so that their voters have an outsized impact. They are working to ensure that, even if they lose elections, that those results will be thrown out.

We are standing on the edge of a right-wing, Christianist authoritarian state.

We are in real danger of losing our democracy. Not to any external enemy, but to the enemies of democracy and freedom that we, ourselves, have grown.

What are you going to do about it?

Russian War Crimes Continue

Scores of civilians were feared killed or wounded in a Russian missile strike Monday on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine's central city of Kremenchuk, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that the number of victims was “unimaginable,” citing reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the attack. Images from the scene showed giant plumes of black smoke from the shopping center engulfed in flames, as emergency crews rushed in and onlookers watched in distress.

Russia had to have hit the mall with a long-range precision-guided missile, so it's pretty clear that the Russians did exactly what they wanted to do: Hit a civilian target and cause large numbers of casualties.

In short, this is nothing but a deliberate attack carried out by a nation of barbarians. They may have fine ballet, theater and a tradition of literature and the arts, but they are barbarians, descended fom the Golden Horde.

Scratch a Russian, find a Tartar.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The "Stratolaunch":

USA:1/3rd Theocracy, 2/3rds Republic

For now.

Your vote is the only thing that will stop this Christianist bullshit.

Caturday

There be birds, matey!

The Overturning of Roe v. Wade Has Been Brought to You By Susan Fucking Collins

That is all.

Well, not all.

There are a lot of "judge-made" rights out there that have come about since the 18th Century. For example, the right to not have a confession beaten out of you by the cops (the Supremes outlawed the "third degree" in the 1930s). The right to be informed of your rights. The right to engage in private sex acts with your spouse. The right to marry someone outside of your racial classification.

Someone else pointed out that in the 19th Century, a Black man who looked directly at a white woman in parts of this country, let alone dating or marrying her, would have found himself dangling by the neck from a tree.

One thing is clear: The Supreme Court has been captured by a far-right cabal. They are not deciding based on the law or the facts, but on their ideology, an ideology that is not very far removed from the Dark Ages. Their goal is to have a nation where men are on top, women are in the kitchen, gays are in the closet and those people know their places.

Now Commence the Fun and Games

ETA:

The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years. The decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step. Three of the court’s liberal justices wrote in a joint dissent that the decision would bring “sorrow” for the many millions of American women who will be losing a “fundamental constitutional protection.”

Let's see if those fuckwads on the Right now follow up with supporting mothers and families who are now faced with having to take care of children born of rapist fathers and of incest. Let's see if they do anything to help mothers whose lives have been placed at risk, such as the women in Missouri who would have been sentenced to death by ectopic pregnancy, until the language was exposed to the light of day.

Next on the agenda of the Christian Taliban will be banning the right to use contraception, use in-vitro fertilization to have a child, and to marry the person of your choice.

When the law impacts the freedom of men, this Court works to protect them. When the law impacts the freedom of women alone, this Court has worked to limit their freedoms.

If a woman has money, she will be able to get an abortion, as was true in the pre-Roe era. If a woman does not have a lot of money, she will have to bear the consequences of becoming pregnant.

But the men will not have to bear the consequences of getting a woman pregnant.

Shed a Tear for the Richest Asshole on the Planet

Elon Musk says Tesla's new factories in Germany and the US are "losing billions of dollars" due to battery shortages and supply disruptions in China.

The multi-billionaire also called the plants in Berlin and Austin, Texas "gigantic money furnaces".
...
The plants are "losing billions of dollars right now. There's a ton of expense and hardly any output," he added in an interview with the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, a company-recognised club.

Whaaaa-fucking-whaaaa.

Now Commence the Hand-Wringing!

In a major expansion of gun rights, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

I would be a bit more sympathetic about the hand-wringing if I wasn't away that the Sullivan Law in NY was enacted to deny gun rights to the political opponents of Tammany Hall as well as those people.

Then there is this bit of pernicious hand-wringing:

It has become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States.

The first step is for a state the "court" has now forced guns upon, to ignore this ruling.

Great. You're a court? Why and how do think you can enforce your rulings?#IgnoreTheCourt

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 23, 2022

One might recall that the segregationists took the same stance as Olbermann now does when the Supremes handed down Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.. They said the same thing as Olbermann, that the Supreme Court doesn't have the capacity to enforce its own rulings.

I get that a lot of people don't like this ruling. But to say "let's just disobey the ruling" means that people are making common cause with some of the worst people in American history.

Goobering These Down, Here

Modern SAT Question

If a person believes Donald Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen, they are:

a) A seditionist who is trying to subvert and destroy American democracy;

b) A follower of Vladimir Putin who is trying to cripple the United States of America and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization;

c) A follower of Xi Jinping who is trying to cripple the United States of America;

d) A sad example of someone who has been brainwashed by Trump and seditionist media into believing their falsehoods;

e) Some of the above; or

f) All of the above.

Pro tip: None of the answers will be graded as being wrong.

A vote for a Republican at any level of government, from school board to the Congressa, who has not denounced Trump's lies is a vote against the American democratic system. You don't have to vote for a Democrat. You can vote for an independent or a non=Trump Republican, if one is on the ballot. You can deface your ballot in protest. You can stay home.

But if you vote for a Trump-aligned candidate, you are voting against the United States and you might as well make your way to Moscow and join the Red Army. For you will be that much of a traitor.

Summer Solsticing These Down, Here

Another Russian Joke

Sergey Victorovich Chemezov, one of Russia’s leading oligarchs and a colleague of Vladimir Putin’s from their time in the KGB, paid Putin a visit to see how he is holding up under the strains of the Ukrainian “special military operation.” After the initial greetings, Chemezov asked how he was doing.

“Ah, Sergey Victorovich, it has been difficult. All I do is read the reports of my generals and issue order that may not be obeyed. I don’t know if this is all worth it,” Putin sighed.

“Come with me, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I have something to show you,” Chemezov said.

They left Putin’s office and went to the Ostankino Tower, also known as the Moscow Television Tower, the tallest structure in Europe. Putin and Chemzov took the elevator up to the top floor and then took a special maintenance elevator the rest of the way up. There, they stepped out on a small balcony.

“Look around you, Vladimir Vladimirovich,” Chemsov said. “This is the greatest city in the world. Within the sight of your eyes are tens of millions of Russians who will do your bidding. They will lay down their lives for you if you command it.”

Putin grasped the railing and looked out. “I know, Sergey, but do the people love and respect me or do they fear me?”

Chemsov said: “That, I do not know.”

Putin asked: “I want them to love me. How can I reach their hearts and make them love me?”

Chemsov thought for a minute and then offered a suggestion: “Well, you could jump.”

A Russian Joke

This joke is allegedly the rounds in Russia - quietly, of course.

A wife asked her husband: "What is this 'Special Military Operation' our great leader keeps telling us about?"

"It is a proxy war, held in Ukraine, between Russia and NATO." he replied.

She asked: "And how is it going?"

He replied: "Well, we have lost 24,000 troops, 2,000 tanks, 200 aircraft, many helicopters, loads of armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces plus the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet."

"Wow - that's a lot. What about NATO?" she asked.

"They have not yet begun to fight," he replied.

(OK, I confess. I changed the last line, a little.)

Another Lesson From the Great War

Eight years ago, I wondered whether or not the lesson of the difference between fighting wars in the Third World vs. the First World had been forgotten.

One lesson that has been relearned and reforgotten time and time again is the incredible wastage/expenditure of munitions during a war. In this regard, the Russians have a short-term advantage in that they never throw anything away. If it's obsolete, it goes into a warehouse deep in the interior.[1],[2] But once they burn through their stocks, they may not have the capacity to make more.[3] But as for America, we've been down this road before. During the Christmas bombing offensive of 1972, we were so short of bombs that new bomb casings went from having their TNT filler poured to being loaded on transports.[4]

But it's a lesson we don't learn and refuse to learn. Keeping the capacity up to rapidly make munitions from howitzer shells to the howitzers and AGTMS and MANPADs is expensive. So now we need to make a lot more war materiel and get it to the battlefield and do it fast. Going from zero to wartime production is not cheap and easy.

And it's going to scuttle a bunch of other things.[5] But that's the nature of war.

And we are in one, whether we want to admit it or not.
_______________
[1] It wasn't until two decades ago that the Russians stopped keeping everything in place to run steam engines.
[2] I am not certain, but I wonder if the flood of Mosin rifles imported in the Aughts and Teens came from Ukraine and other FSU nations. The Russians may have hung onto theirs.
[3] If the munitions plants weren't sold off to the Russian kelptocracy.
[4] The story was that they were still warm to the touch when they were offloaded in Guam and U-Tapao. [5] Such as expanded social programs and tax cuts for billionaires.

Your Sunday Morning (Not a Lot of) Prop Noise

From "A Bridge Too Far":

Back when they didn't CGI that shit.

Really Old NV gun

A carbine with an infrared scope:

I remember seeing them on episodes of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E", being used by assassins from THRUSH. They probably used them in the show because they looked cool, but the technology was over two decades old by then.

Anyhoo, if you want one, a couple are up for auction.

Caturday

I can be writer!!

The Shade of John Haralson is Smiling

The "peecyclers" are recycling uring to use as plant fertilizer.

Recycling urine was done during the Civil War for different reasons. The Southerners made a poem about it:

John Harrolson, John Harrolson, you are a wretched creature! You've added to this bloody war a new and awful feature. You'd have us think while every man is bound to be a fighter The ladies, bless the dears, should save their pee for nitre.

John Harrolson, John Harrolson, where did you get the notion To send your barrel round the town to gather up the lotion? We thought the girls had work enough making shirts and kissing But you have put the pretty dears to patriotic pissing.

John Harrolson, John Harrolson, do pray invent a neater And somewhat more modest mode of making your saltpetre For 'tis an awful idea, John, gunpowdery and cranky, That when a lady lifts her shift, she's killing off a Yankee.

That fell into Union hands and a response was soon forthcoming:

John Harrolson, John Harrolson, we've heard in song and story How through the years, women's tears have moistened fields of glory But never was it told before amid such scenes of slaughter Your Southern beauties dried their tears and went to making water.

No wonder Rebel boys are brave - who wouldn't be a fighter If every time he fired his gun, he used his sweetheart's nitre? And visa-versa, what could make a Yankee soldier sadder Than dodging bullets fired from a pretty woman's bladder?

They say there was a subtle smell that lingered in that powder And as the smoke grew thicker and the din of battle louder That there was found to this compound one serious objection: No soldier boy could sniff it without having an erection.

And yes, he was a real person.

If You Need Stamps, Get Them Now

DeJoy is hiking them, again.

If you use the "additional ounce" stamps, those are jumping by four cents.

Another Day, Another Dollar, and John Eastman Still Hasn't Been Arrested

Attorney John Eastman told former President Donald Trump their plan to have the vice president unilaterally throw out electors from multiple states was illegal and would be shot down by the Supreme Court, witnesses testified Thursday during a hearing of the January 6th Committee.

Greg Jacob, who served as general counsel for former Vice President Mike Pence, testified in person Thursday. He said he had multiple conversations with Eastman – a former professor at the Chapman University School of Law who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – about two courses of action Eastman and Trump wanted Pence take on Jan. 6. In one, Pence would have thrown out certified electors from multiple states disputed by Trump and instead ratified slates of “alternate electors.” In the other, Pence would have adjourned the joint session of Congress for a 10-day recess to allow legislatures in the disputed states to “finish their work.” According to Jacob, after being pressed on the issue, Eastman acknowledged neither plan backed by historic or legal precedent and both violated multiple provisions of the Electoral Count Act.

Besides asking for a pardon for his crimes (as the article points out), Eastman was, apparently, so sure that he committed crimes that he took the Fifth over a hundred times while being deposed by the Committee.

Why hasn't he been arrested and charged with attempted sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition, attempted obstruction of a government proceeding, among Lord knows what else?

The next question is whether he'll be disbarred before or after he receives a fair trial, followed by a term in prison.

Ship vs. ASCM

The ship often loses that one. Russian Project 22870 rescue tug Vasily Bekh was struck by two seas-skimming anti-ship missiles in succession. The ship, a 1,100 ton "rescue tug", was apparently ferrying an air-defense system to Snake Island.

Because It's Friday

Reading & Northern T-1 hauling freight:

I've read that in the steam era, 20% of the freight hauled by railroads was coal for their own use.

Baghram Lung Bill Passes the Senate

A bill to cover millions of veterans’ care for cancer and lung problems linked to burn pits is heading to President Joe Biden’s desk after a final vote in the House next week, where it is expected to pass.

The Senate voted 84-14 Thursday to pass the Honoring Our PACT Act, H.R. 3967 (117), requiring broadened Department of Veterans Affairs coverage for toxic exposure related to burn pits.

So, one might ask, who were those brave Republicans who voted to not provide veterans with health care due to conditions they acquired while serving their country in time of war?

The usual suspects of the Party of the Rich:

Republican Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Rounds and John Thune of South Dakota, Richard Shelby and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee and Mitt Romney of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, and Mike Crapo and James Risch of Idaho voted against the bill.

Maybe if they had put in a provision that granted tax breaks for car elevators in the garages of mansions, then Romney might have voted for it. Rand Paul, well, he's little more than a spoiled brat with a Senate seat. As for the rest, I imagine that they are so, so proud of themselves for standing up against the cause of helping veterans who are suffering because they served. It takes real guts to do that. Zero integrity, no conscience, though, and that is true of all fourteen of those bespoke-suit-wearing millionaires in the "Fuck Veterans, What Have They Done for Me, Lately" caucus.

Crashing These Down, Here

Not a Mass Shooting, More Likely Suicide by Cop

Police quickly ended a potential siege at a children's sports camp in the Dallas area Monday when they fatally shot a gunman who had opened fire inside the complex, but did not injure anyone.

The unidentified man appeared to have fired twice in Duncanville Fieldhouse, a youth sports and training venue in the city of the same name about 13 miles south of Dallas, police said.

So the gunman goes into the place, is confronted by a staff member, doesn't shoot the staff member, goes to a gym where there are kids and doesn't shoot any of them, then he gets shot dead by the cops?

Sounds less like a "mass shooting averted by the quick response of law enforcement" and more like "suicide by cop."

Sentient AI

You've probably seen coverage of whether or not Google has produced a form of artificial intelligence that is sentient.

I don't know for sure, but I'm going to put more stock in the opinions of scientists and philosphers on this than I am English majors.

And maybe we're not there yet. Leonardo DaVinci conceived of helicopters and airplanes, but it took a shitload of technological and engineering innovation to get to the point that the Wright Brothers and Igor Sikorski could make them for profit.[1] Science Fiction writers galore have had sentient AIs in their fiction.[2]

But we will get there, because if we can dream it, eventually, we can do it. And when we do, then what? Would a sentient AI be considered to be alive, even though it would not be comprised of biological components. What is sentience and is it limited to meat-humans?

If an AI is judged to be sentient, how large a step is it to consider that it has rights? Corporations have rights, but you can't put one in jail. Corporations were created by people, but so would be an AI. Corporations are amoral, soulless entities, and so might be an AI. However, an AI might be considered an individual, something ExxonMobil is not. Would an AI be eligible for citizenship? And if you turn it off, would that me murder?

We really ought to seriously consider these things in advance. Fat chance of that ever happening. /
__________________

[1] The Wrights might have been more successful at making them if they weren't so focused on patent defense.
[2] "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," "Steel Beach", "I, Robot", LCDR Data, Professor Moriarty, etc., etc/

Mom to Patriot Front Kid: Pack Your Shit Up and GTFO of My House

Karen Amsden, the mother of one of the dozens of white supremacists who were arrested in a U-Haul in Idaho on Saturday, wasn’t thrilled to find out what her son was up to that day.

Amsden’s son, 27-year-old Jared Michael Boyce of Springville, Utah, was one of the 31 members of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front group who traveled in the back of a U-Haul truck to allegedly disrupt a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene. Law enforcement pulled over the truck and charged the men with conspiracy to riot.

Amsden told the Daily Beast that she forced her son to make a decision once he returned home after his arrest: His family, or the neo-Nazis.

“I told him, ‘Well, then you can’t live here. You can choose between Patriot Front and your family.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I can’t quit Patriot Front.’ I’m like, ‘Well, then you’ve just chosen. So pack your stuff and get out of my house,'” Amsden recounted.

I know quite a few mothers who, if their kids joined a Nazi group like that, would also have kicked them out of the house.

I would assume that quite a few of the U-Haul Nazis are going to be looking for new homes and jobs. Because a lot of people are not comfortable with being around Nazis.

Napalming These Down, Here

Remember: "Napalm sticks to kids" is only a motivational slogan in Russian.

Stand By for Boring Action Movies

Amy Schumer, Shonda Rhimes and Julianne Moore are among a group of more than 200 Hollywood creatives asking for a reconsideration of how guns are used on screen.

The open letter, released by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, has been created in the wake of recent tragedies in Buffalo and Uvalde. This year has already seen over 250 mass shootings in the US.
...
The letter does not call for an end to guns on screen but for more responsible usage and lists issues for others to be mindful of when creating shows and films. Points include showing the consequences for reckless gun use, considering alternatives to guns pre-production without sacrificing narrative integrity and limiting scenes with children and guns.

Right. Maybe in the next Bond flick, Bond will run around with a boy and maybe throwing boomerangs and bolas at people. They could have a hulking bad guy with an atl-atl.

America's Drunken Mayor

An “intoxicated” Rudy Giuliani insisted then-President Donald Trump declare victory on election night in 2020 — even though others in the 45th president’s inner circle advised against it, a Trump campaign adviser told the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot.

Jason Miller, then a Trump campaign strategist, said during his recorded deposition that he and others insisted that Trump wait for more votes to be counted before making any statement about the race.
...
When asked during his testimony if anyone was inebriated during those conversations, Miller responded, “Mayor Giuliani.”

“The mayor was definitely intoxicated, but I do not know his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president, for example,” he added.

The witnesses have been almost all Republicans and Trump insiders. It's patently obvious, by now, that Trump lied about election fraud and had cause to know that he was lying and, effectively, trying to destroy our system of government so he could make a buck out of it.

When do we cross the point that we have to acknowledge that those who continue to believe Trump's lies have abandoned any claim to be loyal to the United States of America, that they have been sucked into a cult of personality and that their ultimate loyalty is to Trump over all?

Even Nazis Have Rights

I gather that Nazi cops have rights, too.

I have a hard time according rights to people who, from their conduct, would give rise to the presumption that they would be happy to see me and mine stuffed into boxcars en route to the gas chambers.

Lighting the Candle

Astra is trying for launch today, after an earlier hold:

9 minutes and counting.

UPDATE: That was a pretty launch.

UPDATE II: But it failed to reach orbit.

Yep, More Peaceful White Supremacists At Work

Authorities arrested 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near an Idaho pride event Saturday after they were found packed into the back of a U-Haul truck with riot gear.

The men were standing inside the truck wearing khakis, navy blue shirts and beige hats with white balaclavas covering their faces when Coeur d’Alene police stopped the U-Haul and began arresting them on the side of the road.

The Republican party owns these guys. They are their people. Every time legislation comes up about doing something about white supremacist and neo-nazi terrorism, Republicans block it.

They do so because right-wing hate groups comprise part of their base, and they know it.

Those terrorists whowere arrested in Idaho were probably surprised as fuck that the cops didn't stand back and let them do their evil deeds.

Hopefully, the judge will reenact this scene:

Thirty-one times.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

"Who's Afraind of the Old Focke-Wulf?"

Can Anyone Take a Stab At Explaining The Logic of This?

The Missouri Court of Appeals is siding with a woman who won a $5.2 million award against GEICO, in a case that centers on a unique auto injury claim: the woman says she contracted a sexually transmitted disease in a Hyundai sedan whose owner was insured by GEICO.

The woman, identified in court papers as M.O., says a man, identified as M.B., infected her with human papillomavirus, or HPV, when they had unprotected sex in his 2014 Hyundai Genesis.

While there might be much more to it, this seems like the sort of case that causes people to say "WFT,O" and then lose more respect for the black-robed clueless chuckleheads in the judiciary. If you have lunch in your car and contract food poisoning from the meal, in what world would you conclude that your auto insurance would have to pay for medical treatment?

But, according the esteemed judges in Missouri, they'd best pay up.

When you next renew your car insurance, look for a policy change that disclaims claims from having sex, eats, making out or anything like that there.

Caturday

This is my mom's fake cat:

It meows if someone comes close to it, its eyes blink, its head moves and it purrs when petted. She finds it comforting.

True, That

Every black person watching this 01/06 committee hearing thinking one thing: *If that was black folks out there storming the Capitol, we would be having a totally different discussion. Hundreds of protestors killed by authorities* #January6thHearings

— thefieldnegro (@fieldnegro) June 10, 2022

This was the police presence at the Capitol when there was a BLM protest:

Nothing like that was in place for Trump's Coup.

The Shell Crisis

Nearly four months after Russia invaded, the Ukrainian military is struggling in the artillery war in the country’s east, because it is running short of Soviet-era ammunition and has not received enough from its allies to keep the Russians at bay, Ukrainian officials and artillery officers in the field say.

On the front lines in the Donbas, those shortages have meant that Ukrainian soldiers are conserving their shells and often are unable to return fire one-for-one.

I don't know who makes shells for Russian artillery pieces, so other than handing over stocks on hand, NATO nations would have to supply Western guns and shells. Which means that we all need to ramp up production to get around this current iteration of a shell crisis.

Because It's Friday

A replica Cugnot:

Mechanically-powered locomotion is older than most people realize.

Spraying These Down, Here

Putler the Megalomaniac

Among President Vladimir V. Putin’s motives for invading Ukraine, his view of himself as being on a historic mission to rebuild the Russian Empire has always loomed large. On Thursday, Mr. Putin went further, comparing himself directly to Peter the Great.

It was a new, if carefully staged, glimpse into Mr. Putin’s sense of his own grandeur.

Mr. Putin on Thursday marked the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth by visiting a new multimedia exhibit about the czar in Moscow. He then held a town-hall-style meeting with young Russian entrepreneurs and opened it by reflecting on Peter’s conquest of the Baltic coast during his 18th-century war with Sweden.

Mr. Putin described the land Peter conquered as rightfully Russian.

“He was returning it and strengthening it,” Mr. Putin said, leaning back in his armchair, before hinting with a smile that he was now doing the same thing in his war in Ukraine. “Well, apparently, it has also fallen to us to return and to strengthen.”

Finland and Sweden, among other countries, should be more than a little concerned about Putler's delusions of grandeur. If anything, this should be used to add stiffness into Western opposition to the rebuilding of the Russian Empire under Tsar Vladimir III. If a weapon does not involve nuclear material to go boom, then it, as long as everything else, should be given to Ukraine. Rockets, anti-artillery radar, citywide air-defense systems, what ever they need. And as for our friends who have been unwilling to help the Ukrainians, well, we should make our displeasure known. (Are you listening, Jerusalem?)

For it should be abundantly clear that the Ukrainians are fighting a war that, if they don't prevail, will eventually spread to the rest of Europe and to Central Asia. CDR Sal had this to say:

...if you desire a long peace in the east you will need to ensure that Ukraine defeats Russia and sends her forces home to deal with their politicians.

Give Russia land or create another frozen conflict and war will be back sooner.

Either way, war will be back. It always is. Just pick your period of peace and your magnitude.

Getting on a Russian (or Belarusian) Registered Airliner Will Be a Very Bad Idea

As Russia’s world narrows with sweeping sanctions, it’s about to take the inevitable step of making about 100 state-of-the-art Airbus and Boeing airliners virtually worthless. The state aviation authority Rosaviatsia has issued production certificates to five Russian companies to start making bootleg parts for the aircraft and more are expected to be approved shortly according to aviacononline. So far, the parts approved are cabin items like seats and galley equipment but even the installation of an unapproved seat can cancel the airworthiness certificate of an aircraft in the rest of the world.

Those airplanes won't be flyable outside of Russia and Belarus, and, possibly, China. But I would not bet much on them flying to China. While the Chinese have been backing the Russians, on more or less of a wobbly basis, they, so far, have been mindful of the risks of getting splashed by the sanctions on Russia.

Aeroflot, back in the days of the USSR, wasn't exactly known to be a safe carrier. It's probably a good bet that the bad old days will return.

The Treason Television Network

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Appliquéing These Down, Here

As If Any of Them Give a Shit

Russia has imposed personal sanctions on 61 U.S. officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and leading defence and media executives, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday.

As if Janet Yellen is going to be upset that she can't vacation in St. Petersburgh. Nobody in their right mind would be visiting Russia, anyway. Russia is becoming like North Korea, but with more nuclear weaons and better food.

When You’re a Billionaire, Government Will Do Your Legal Work For You, Gratis

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Monday he is investigating Twitter over its reporting of how many accounts on the platform are from bots and fake users, saying the company may be misrepresenting the number to inflate its value and raise its revenue.

So Musk threatens to walk over the issue of how many bots are on Twitter, and Paxton falls all over himself to help Musk out.

If that doesn't smell like favoritism/corruption, I don't know what does.

Historical Heater

A "battlefield pickup" revolver from the Battle of Little Big Horn:

It sold at auction for 3/4ths of a million.

The Original Gerber Baby

That was Ann Taylor Cook. She died on Friday at age 95.

Mrs. Cook was a retired English teacher whose husband died in 2004. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Apologies to Some Commentators

A bunch of comments got snagged up in the spam filter and I was lax on checking it. At least one was from Old NFO, I don't remember who else. I have no idea why those comments got vaccuumed up, but I apologize for not releasing them sooner.

Fuck That Shit, Let Them Hammer the Russians

President Joe Biden said Tuesday in a New York Times opinion piece that he would “provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
...
The White House National Security Council said Tuesday that the “more advanced rocket systems” were longer-range multiple-launch rocket systems. They are capable of reaching Russia, officials said, but are not intended to fire rockets into Russia or be used outside Ukraine.

Fuck that shit, and this is why:

Russia struck Ukraine's capital Kyiv with missiles early on Sunday for the first time in more than a month, while Ukrainian officials said a counter-attack on the main battlefield in the east had retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk.
...
Ukraine said Russia had carried out the strike using long-range air-launched missiles fired from heavy bombers as far away as the Caspian Sea - a weapon far more valuable than the tanks Russia claimed to have hit.

The Russians are free to strike anywhere in Ukraine from hundreds of miles away, but the Ukrainians are not free to strike inside of Russia? What sort of handicapping bullshit is that? We didn't give/lend/sell weapons to the British with a provisio that they not be used on Germany itself. Why are we so handicapping the Ukrainians?

Your Sunday Morning Turboprop Noise

A Kiwi P-3:

Some annoying airshow narration, but the airplane drowns him out from time to time.

How Putler Has Fucked Over the Entire Planet, Forever

International efforts to combat climate change may now be impossible, thanks to the hell unleashed by the Russians.

I've been skeptical of the ability of humanity to do anything about climate change, other than suffer and die from it, taking much of the global environment with us. Dr. Teller told those fuckers in the oil industry about it 62 years ago. That knowledge was reinforced over three decades ago. Half of the atmospheric carbon emitted since the dawn of the Industrial Age has been pumped out since 1990.

Those in the position to do something about this were the Greatest Generation and the Boomers. None of the political leadership of those generations did a fucking thing of note, other than flapping their gums. Too many companies and other jackholes have been more than willing to see the world go up in flames, just so they can make a quarterly profit. Part of this is because there are damn few corporate executives that are going to do anything that jeopardizes their bonuses, so they have been complicit in the destruction of the habitability of our only home.

So now and into the future, humanity will have to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars to adapt to a warming planet. That's even if we can; much of the natural world won't adapt and will die off. Sure, the planet's been warm before. Carbon dioxide levels have been higher. But those changes took place over thousands, if not millions of years. Not over a handful of centuries. And we could trigger something far worse.

It really doesn't matter what else we do; go to the Moon (again), establish settlements on Mars, cure cancer, all of that will pale in comparison to our inability to do anything to save our home when we all knew damned well what was coming. Our spirits will be cursed for centuries.

(H/T)

.30 Super Carry

Gun Jesus looks at it.

If you live in a state that limits magazine capacity to ten rounds, then, to my mind, this cartridge makes no sense. There is no benefit to it over 9mm that is worth the difference in ammunition cost and availability.

For foreign sales, the cartridge makes sense in countries that prohibit the civilian use of military cartridges.

Caturday

Solar Chip.