Your Sunday Morning Turboprop Noise

A Convair-5800:

The base aircraft type for the -5800, the C-131, served in the U.S. armed forces for forty years.

Caturday

Chip, waiting for, only Bastet knows.

Politicians in Long, Black Dresses

North Carolina's highest court on Friday ruled that state law does not bar lawmakers from drawing congressional and state legislative maps for partisan benefit, boosting Republicans' odds next year of maintaining their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
...
Friday's ruling vacated the court's previous decision, issued barely more than a year ago when Democratic judges controlled the court, that had found partisan gerrymandering violated the state constitution.

When the rulings depend on which party controls the court, then the rulings are nothing more than political calculations dressed up in highfalutin' legalese.

"Calling balls and strikes"? Yeah, and the umps have been bribed.

Another Reason Why I Will Not Buy a New Car

The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that all new vehicles in the U.S. be required to have blood alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving.

It has been half-a-lifetime since I last drove after having a few drinks. But no, I am not having a government booze spy in my car, anymore than I will let an insurance company monitor my driving.

But hell, why stop there? Why not develop technology to detect a driver's emotional state or to detect road rage?

Because It's Friday

A British tank engine (not Thomas):

Whipping These Down, Here

DeSantis Is Going to Lose, Bigly

Disney sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday over the Republican’s takeover of its theme park district, alleging the governor waged a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” after the company opposed a law critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

The lawsuit was filed in Tallahassee minutes after a Disney World oversight board appointed by DeSantis voted to void a deal that gave the company authority over design and construction decisions in its sprawling properties near Orlando.

I'm surprised that Disney didn't sue DeSantis right from the start. DeSantis has made no secret of the fact that his moves against Disney are in retaliation for Disney opposing his "Don't Say Gay" law. Corporations have rights to speak out under the First Amendment, which the Supremes so ruled in the Citizens United.

I don;t know whether or not Disney's case against DeSantis is a slam-dunk, but it seems to me that it is pretty close to being that.

At least their standing up against DeSantis's fascistic view that "freedom" means "you are free to agree with me." Which is no different from the Republicans' view that parents are free to run their children's lives, so long as parents do it in a way that Republicans agree with.

You Know That None of Them Were Going to Betray Their Club; SCOTUS Ed.

The Supreme Court spoke is speaking with one voice in response to recent criticism of the justices’ ethical practices: No need to fix what isn’t broken.

Right. Thomas the Grifting Engine has been palling around with a billionaire for almost thirty years, a guy who bought up properties that were owned, in part, by Thomas in a sweetheart deal (including doing improvements to his mother's house and allowing her to life there, rent-free.) Thomas didn't report his wife's income because the forms were, oh, so complex for a trained legal scholar to figure out. Gorsuch profited from a real estate deal where property in which he had an interest was sold to the managing parter of a big-ass law firm within days of Gorsuch's confirmation to the SC. Roberts's wife may be running her own game that is arguably shady.

The Supremes are nine royal fuckwads who believe that they are accountable to nobody on this Earth whatsoever. The only tool that can be used against them is impeachment, and we all know that ain't happening. Any law that is passed to hold them accountable to any hint of an ethical standard will be held to be unconstitutional, by them, before the ink at the print shop has dried.

They are imperiling their own power. The Supreme Court has neither the ability to command law enforcement nor the ability to control budgets. Their power is based on a belief that their rulings are fair and just. If the national consensus reaches a tipping point that the justices are a pack of partisan hacks and society decides to disregard their holdings, there is fuck-all that they can do about it.

Eminently Foreseeable; SpaceX Ed.

SpaceX launched the largest rocket ever built for the first time on Thursday from its Boca Chica, Texas, spaceport. The Starship spacecraft, designed to fly people on a Mars mission someday, lifted off the launch pad then blew up in mid-flight, with no crew on board.

Now, residents and researchers are scrambling to assess the impact of the explosion on local communities, their health, habitat and wildlife including endangered species. Of primary concern is the large amount of sand- and ash-like particulate matter and heavier debris kicked up by the launch. The particulate emissions spread far beyond the expected debris field.

As a result of the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the company’s Starship Super Heavy launch program pending results of a “mishap investigation,” part of standard practice, according to an email from the agency sent to CNBC after the launch. No injuries or public property damage had yet been reported to the agency as of Friday.

Anybody who had experience launching rockets more powerful than an Estes model rocket could have foreseen this. SpaceX launched a rocket that had a maximum thrust of two Saturn Vs. After engine start, it sat on the pad for six seconds, building thrust, and those nincompoops thought that they could get away with launching from a pad with no blast protection.

That suggests, at least to me, that SpaceX is operating on a Sillicon Valley mindset, rather than an aerospace mindset. The Silicon Velley mindset is to say "ecch, close enough" and if things blow up or people die, that's the price of progress. That includes doing things that anyone with even a glib understanding of things, would have said "no fucking way, dude."

When they start putting passengers on board SpaceX's Starship, Musk can go first. And you know and I know that he never would.

Supreme Corruption

For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colo.

Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court. Gorsuch owned the property with two other individuals.
...
Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the purchaser. That box was left blank.

Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court, according to a POLITICO review of the court’s docket.

Gorsuch relied on a "cut-out" to shield the transaction. He and his buddies owned the property through an single-purpose limited liability company, so he was able to report the money as income from the LLC.

So, to recap, the CEO of a big-ass law firm bought property from Gorsuch in a disguised way so that Gorsuch got a buttload of cash and never had to report it.

If you can't smell the stink coming from that deal, you need to have your nose checked.

Etching These Down, Here

ANZAC Day

108 years ago, British forces, primarily from Australia and New Zealand, landed in the Dardanelles under one of Winston Churchill's harebrained schemes to knock "the sick man of Europe" out of the war.

It was a debacle.

This is the episode about Gallipoli from the BBC's 1964 documentary series on the Great War.

The Gallipoli Campaign resulted, in part, in the removal of Churchill as First Sea Lord. It also was one of the reasons why, in the next war, nobody took his strategic ideas seriously, especially his insane idea to invade Eurpoe through the Balkans.

Tuckyo Rose Hits the Bricks

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Fox News has announced that it has replaced Tucker Carlson with a state-of-the-art lying Chatbot.

In a brief statement, Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch thanked Carlson for his service but said that he had been “rendered obsolete by swift advances in lying technology.”

That he's parted ways with Fox is true.

Fox News said Monday that it is parting ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, whose stew of grievances and political theories about Russia and the Jan. 6 insurrection had grown to define the network in recent years and influence GOP politics.

Fox offered no explanation for the stunning move, saying that the last broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” aired last Friday.

Don't shed a tear for Tuckyo Rose; it's a good bet that he has a standing offer from Sputnik News or Russia Today. Probably to partner with Traitor Tulsi with live captions until they can learn enough Russian.

Enjoy Your Stay at the Graybar Hotel, Asswipes

Two men were sentenced on Friday for conspiring to attack US electric substations in a plot motivated by white supremacy and intended to sow civil unrest and economic distress, the US Justice Department said.

Christopher Cook, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to 92 months in prison, and Jonathan Frost, 25, of Katy, Texas, and West Lafayette, Indiana, was given 60 months, DOJ said in a press release.

Cook and Frost each pleaded guilty in February 2022 to one count of conspiring to provide material support to extremists. Jackson Sawall of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was also charged and pleaded guilty in February 2022 and will be sentenced at a later date, DOJ said.

I don't understand why those guys were allowed to roam around for a fucking year after pleading guilty. Unless they were already in jail, which seems to be a bit uncertain.

And then, there's this:

A planned attack in Ohio was thwarted when police stopped their car in a routine encounter.

I don't suppose it's beyond the realm of possibility that a bunch of white Nazis thought that they didn't have to worry about being stopped by the cops for a traffic violation (see, T. MvVeigh), but on the other hand, it does seem a mite convenient.

ETA: For a certain reader (they're on the Banhammer List) who lacks the ability to comprehend what he reads (because the thinks that they were framed), let me make it simple:

They. Pled. Guilty. You. Moron.

Midnight Dictation

Something I dictated into my phone in the middle of the night some months ago. I've posted similar stuff, but the snark in this one is worth sharing, in my non-humble opinion,

Putin’s going away, sooner or later, but there seems to be no possible mechanism for Russia to become anything but a basket-case ruled by a series of dictators. They have nothing to offer the world but oil and Kalashnikovs. It is a country riddled with graft and corruption, witness Putin’s reported 50% rakeoff from the oligarchs.

There is no force able to remake Russia. I fear it will stumble along, becoming a failed state with nukes, until it collapses and is dismembered by the Chinese. What’s left will be a rump nation from the Urals to its western border, run by corrupt elites who will remember when they were a great power.

Basically, France with harsh winters, lousy food and, of course, vodka.

Not Your Sunday Morning Rocket Noise

Last Thursday's test flight of SpaceX's Starship, set to Freebird:

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Something wrong about flying this bird outside of the range of London..

It's a 3/4th-scale model, so it should be shot down by a Mk.26 Spitfire.

Texas is For Morons

Every classroom in Texas could be made to display the Ten Commandments prominently, after lawmakers advanced a proposal to push more religion into schools.

A parallel bill also approved by the Republican-controlled Texas senate on Thursday would require educational establishments to set aside time every day for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious manuscripts, or to pray.

I'd like to see them read aloud, with emphasis on Nos. 8 and 9, from the floor of the Texas statehouse every hour that they're in session. But that's the thing about those publicly-pious clowns; they spend an hour in church each week showing their faithfulness to their lord Jesus and then they spend the remaining 167 hours of each week doing things that would make Jesus pound his head against a wall.

Caturday; Guest Critter

A German Sheperd/Husky mix:

I-95 Travel Alert for Southern New England

The southbound bridge over the Thames River, between New London and Groton, CT is closed and will be closed for awhile.

All of them Yorker bahstids coming home from their second homes in Rhose Island and on the Cape will need to find an alternate route.

SpaceX Stupidity

This is Starship's "Stage Zero" post-launch:

I'm sorry, but with a first-stage putting out roughly twice the thrust of a Saturn-V, not having a flame trench and water suppression system would seem to be the height of stupidity, if not irrational cost-cutting.

But that's how Elon Musk rolls; no reasonable safety precautions are put in place until shit goes sideways.

In Florida, Racism is Official Policy

At least in some counties, where if you're Hispanic, you get hammered harder. And yes, it's official policy:

MM = misdemeanor

Yes, it's genuine. It was posted policy.

I suppose it's a sign of progress that they're not openly encouraging lynching.

A Minor Revolver Quibble

Tam wants to know why, if she wants a new 3" 681, she has to buy one from Rossi.

My quibble is that, at 27.3 ounces, that gun is lighter than a 681. I have a 3" Model 65 that, empty, clocks in at 32 ounces. So the Rossi RP63 is probably much closer to being analogous to a Smith & Wesson Model 65.

Which aren't being made anymore, either. You can get a 2.75" Model 66, but it's going to cost about as much as a brace of RP63s.

Because It's Friday

Lots of steam engines!

Cough It Up, Mikey

An arbitration panel has ordered MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell to pay $5 million to a software engineer for breach of contract in a dispute over data that Lindell claims proves that China interfered in the U.S. 2020 elections and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden.

But Lindell told The Associated Press on Thursday that he has no intention of paying and that he expects the dispute to land in court.
...
Robert Zeidman entered the challenge with a 15-page report that concluded the data from Lindell did not “contain packet data of any kind and do not contain any information related to the November 2020 election.”

Lindell set up the contest and handpicked the judges. Of course, the judges saw it his way, but the contest rules required binding arbitration of any dispute. The arbitrators saw it Zeidman's way.

It'sprobably important to note that Zeidman voted for Trump in both elections and went to Lindell's "Cyber Symposium" and entered the "Prove Mike Wrong" contest as a believer that the election had been stolen and that China had interfered. But Lindell's data package was nothing but garbage and Zeidman proved that.

Which, mind you, is true of the claims of El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago and his followers. The election was not stolen and those who keep maintaining that it was stolen are shifting into the category of groups like flat-earthers and others who are mentally ill.

Galumping These Down, Here

Boom

SpaceX’s giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on its first test flight Thursday and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Elon Musk’s company was aiming to send the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship carried no people or satellites.

Images showed several of the 33 main engines were not firing as Starship climbed from the launch pad, reaching as high as 24 miles (39 kilometers). There was no immediate word from SpaceX on how many engines failed to ignite or shut down prematurely.

The booster was supposed to peel away from the spacecraft three minutes after liftoff, but that didn’t happen. Rather, the rocket with the spacecraft still attached began to tumble and then exploded, plummeting into the gulf.

You can see, in this screenshot, that several engines aren't working. I don't know how launching at about 85% power will matter down the road, but it would seem to cut into possible payloads.

SpaceX is operating on a Silicon Valley mindest: Get it to "meh, close enough" and then see what happens when they turn the key.[1] They blew up a lot of the upper-stage vehicle before they got to this point.

That's opposed to NASA, which tries to ground-test everything as far as they can so they don't get slammed for wasting taxpayer money by blowing shit up.[2]

Well, as long as Musk can afford to keep cutting nine- and ten-figure checks to SpaceX, I imagine that they'll keep at it.
_________________
[1] This is why I think anyone who buys a Tesla should have their head examined. Before it goes through the windshield.
[2] One may recall the flak NASA took for not testing the Saturn-V by stages.

Hmm.

So, I'm watching the upcoming Starship launch attempt.

I had it running on my computer and just switched the TV to it. Both are on SpaceX's YouTube feed. But the feed on the TV is fifteen seconds ahead of the one on the computer. I'm not running a VPN at the moment. The source for both is ComBastards.

That makes no sense.

Holding at T- 40 seconds...

Breaking News: Anti-Government Violence Erupts. Mass Casualty Event in Progress

Reports are flooding in that anti-government extremists using assault weapons to interfere with the lawful seizure of an arsenal has turned into a running gunbattle and has resulted in at least 300 Government casualties.

Crime scenes are scattered along a 14 mile stretch from Concord to Cambridge.

Crown officials vow a full investigation into the incident and arrest of all involved. Arrest warrants have been issued for Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and many more are sure to follow.

God save the King.

(Circa 1775)

Eighty Years Ago

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on this day in 1943. The Jews fighting mainly with rifles, pistols and Molotov cocktails, held out for nearly a month against vastly superior German forces.

I read about the Uprising, first in Mila 18, when I was quite young. Quoting from a post soon after I began this blog:

What struck me, most of all, was that the Jews in the Ghetto took on the German Army and the SS with very few weapons at the beginning. Some handguns, a few rifles and mainly Molotov cocktails. With that and what they could capture, they held off the Germans for about six weeks, with little if any support from anyone. At one point, they raised their flag and the flag of pre-war Poland high over the Ghetto and those flags flew for days, despite the efforts of the Germans to take them down and much to the displeasure of Himmler.

Six weeks. How long did France last against the Germans? How long did Poland, Denmark, Belgium, or Norway last against the Germans? It wasn’t six weeks. Days, a few weeks at best. Not a month and a half.

The lesson I took away: Having an education is a good thing. Having an education and weapons is better.

And never go quietly.

Amen to that.

That Maybe All for the Flying Fortress

An upcoming airworthiness directive may, effectively, ground those few B-17s still flying. The cost to make new parts may be too frakking much for those few airplanes still flyable.

I count myself fortunate to have seen and heard B-17s fly.

Shorter Fox News: "Yes, We Lied. Here's $787,500,000."

Over three-quarters of a billion dollars is what Fox "News" will pay Dominion Voting Systems so that Fox News executives and on-air personalities won't have their lives and prevarications aired in open court.

Fox News basically admitted that yes, they lied. Paying that much in a settlement is also a tacit acknowledgement that they deemed it likely that they were going to be beaten like gongs in this case.

If you watch Fox News, keep in mind that a judge found that they lied and that Fox paid enough money to buy several F-35s in order to avoid that coming out more than it already has.

Scrambling These Down, Here

Unofficial ROC AF patch:

Hmm. Good Point.

It's behind a paywall, but the NY Daily News has a good point for the Defends of All Things Clarence to consider:

Change the people involved. What if the justice who was flying all around the world on a billionaire's private jet and cruising on the same billionaire's superyacht was Sonya Sotomayor and the billionaire was George Soros. Would you be calling for her head on a pike?

If so, then why are you defending Clarence the Grifter?

Thomas the Grifting Engine Keeps On Chugging Along

As Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is under heightened scrutiny for accepting lavish trips from a GOP billionaire megadonor, he has also been disclosing income from a now-defunct real estate company, The Washington Post reported.

Over the last two decades, Thomas has been reporting on required financial disclosures rental income from a family real estate company – but the company ceased operations in 2006.

Nothing suspicious there, eh? How does one not know that a faimily company went Tango-Uniform sixteen or so years ago, but the checks kept on rolling in? Whose filling out his tax forms, Daredevil and Associates?

Betting on a Big Boom

ETA3: Scrubbed for today. They'll try again on Wednesday, maybe.

SpaceX's first full-up Starship test, set for 0920 EDT

A fully-reusable launching system is way overdue. But as SpaceX has a track record of saying "eh, good enough, let's test it" and then blowing ship up, repeatedly, before they finally get it right, I'd expect that today.

ETA: Their feed seems to be down. Here's a different one:

ETA2: Supposedly the Starship is coated with 18,000 or so heat shield tiles. That would seem to be something that would give a thoughtful person a few qualms. How many can fall of, and from where, before it would burn up on atmospheric entry?

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

This came close to being a very bad day:

Just Too Fabulous to Save for Later

No explanation necessary, from here.

So Much for The Party of Freedom and Personal Responsibility

When they're not approving of marrying children who should be in the seventh grade, Missouri Republicans are now messing around with non-reproductive health care for adults, as long as it's for people they despise.

A first-of-its-kind emergency rule introduced this week by Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey will impose numerous restrictions on both adults and children before they can receive puberty-blocking drugs, hormones or surgeries “for the purpose of transitioning gender.”
...
Before gender-affirming medical treatments can be provided by physicians, the regulation requires people to have experienced an “intense pattern” of documented gender dysphoria for three years and to have received at least 15 hourly sessions with a therapist over at least 18 months. Patients also would first have to be screened for autism and “social media addiction,” and any psychiatric symptoms from mental health issues would have to be treated and resolved.

A bunch of mouthbreathing, low-wattage members of the Christian Taliban who have achieved elective office are now going to make health care decisions for adults.

What's next? Maybe they'll require intensive therapy before anyone has any body-altering procedure done, such as tattoos. Or cosmetic surgery. Why not check to make sure that somebody who is getting a butt lift or a facial tattoo isn't addicted to social media?

Or, for that matter, why not require fifteen hourly sessions over eighteen months with a psychologist before anyone in Missouri can buy an assault rifle?

Abbott's Favorite Felon Is Racist

(Earlier post)

It turns out that his favorite convicted murderer is, in point of fact, a racist.

On another note: Fuck you, CNN. I would have used you for a source, but your page had an unclosable popup from KMPG, so fuck you and your web designers.

Missouri is for Child Molesters

Those good old Republican pedos are at it again:

A Missouri Republican state senator this week suggested that children as young as 12 should be able to get married as he pushes legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

“Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12? I do. And guess what? They’re still married,” state Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, said Tuesday evening in response to questioning by state Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat.

So, to be clear, Sen. Moon knows men who were able to use the shiled of the marriage laws to legally molest children. But if one of those dudes commissioned by Jesus to sanctify molesting children says that it's OK, that's all it takes, right?

Caturday

Old Cat Syndrome: Sunbeam locater is on.

Justice Thomas-- Corrupt or Arrogant?

In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.
...
The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements on the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, which looks out onto a patch of orange trees. The renovations included a carport, a repaired roof and a new fence and gates, according to city permit records and blueprints.

It’s unclear if Crow paid fair market value for the Thomas properties. Crow also bought several other properties on the street and paid significantly less than his deal with the Thomases. One example: In 2013, he bought a pair of properties on the same block — a vacant lot and a small house — for a total of $40,000.

So Thomas is, apparently, just another corrupt little fuckwad in a position where nobody is ever going to do anything about it. I doubt that he'll beindicted for failure to follow the disclosure laws. Presumably, he was not so foolish as to not report any capital gains on his taxes.

The only other remedy is to impeach his corrupt ass and remove him from the court, but you and I both know that's never going to happen. It is clear to everyone, by now, that the only people who believe that the Supremes are apolitical and only "call balls and strikes" are the nine people on the court itself. And I'll bet that, deep down, even they know that they are political hacks who mine legal precedent to justify the outcome they desire.

In that regard, they are no different from Hedley Lamarr:

MTG Has Not Met a Traitor That She Doesn't Defend

Question is whether or not everything that she is bleating about was in the documents. It anything wasn't, then she's committing her own brand of treason, because she can't declassify things with her mind.

It does seem that she gives a complete pass to fuckery done by anyone who is a white christian. You can bet the farm that if the leaker had been a muslim or Black, that she'd be calling for an immediate application of the death penalty.

ETA: He also may be a bigot, which would be another reason for MTG to approve of him.

Oops, I Did It Again

Another 28-2:

i'm not a big fan of N–frame target stocks, so these will be replaced. The gun is in pretty good shape. The timing is a little soft on one chamber, so that will need to be addressed down the road.

Because It's Friday

No, Professor Moriarity didn't "engage a special".

"Push chairs" are what Americans call "strollers".

Shaving These Down, Here

The Leaker

It seems that the WaPo, at least, has a good idea who the leaker is. My guess he'll be sporting FBI-issue bracelets within a week, if he doesn't do a runner or caps himself.

Wheels; Grinding

The fundraising prong of the [Special Counsel's] investigation is focused on money raised during the period between Nov. 3, 2020, and the end of Trump’s time in office on Jan. 20, 2o21, and prosecutors are said to be interested in whether anyone associated with the fundraising operation violated wire fraud laws which make it illegal to make false representations over email to swindle people out of money.
...
At least two grand juries in Washington are meeting every week about Trump and his advisers on multiple fronts, people familiar with the investigations said.

Betcha Cadet Bone Spurs didn't know that blatantly lying while fundraising constitutes wire fraud. "But I didn't know it was illegal" gets you nowhere.

Pass the popcorn, please.

Backstabbing, Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys

President Emmanuel Macron landed in China to a red-carpet reception and all the pomp of a state visit, a three-day tour little short of a love-fest that he clearly hoped would further his ambitions for France to sit at the table of the great powers in a world changed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s emergence as an arbiter of global conflict. ... Already embattled at home, facing huge weekly protests in the streets, he now finds himself excoriated abroad for what has been criticized as his naïveté — first with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom he failed to dissuade from war after an intense courtship, and now with China’s president, Xi Jinping, who wants to drive a wedge between Europe and the United States and has warned of American “containment.”

The article is outside the Times's paywall.

French leaders seem to have a penchant to cosying up to adversarial nations, while, at the same time, shivving their friends in the back. Macron got absolutely nowhere in trying to persuade Putin not to go to war and he's not going to make a dent in Xi's ambitions for China to dominate its neighbors and invade Taiwan.

Macron, and his predecessors, ignore reality. France's desire for the United States to disengage from Europe is second only to Russia's. Every time that thre has been a serious fight in Europe in the last century, the United States has had to get involved. European forces tried to handle the Balkan wars in the 1990s, but it took American airpower to end things.

French aid to Ukraine by any measure, whether by GDP or by amount shows that France has not exactly been stepping up to the challenge. The notion that France, let alone the European members of NATO, can deter Russian aggression by themselves is risible.

No, that's not accurate. It's a French delusion that certainly is not shared by those nations who are not as distant from the Russian border. Possibly because it's been two centuries since Russian soldiers marched through Paris.

Arseing These Down, Here

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery...a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."
-- Mississippi Declaration of Secession, 1861https://t.co/7Uy6UfzV1A

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 10, 2023

Russia: Out-Grifting the Dolt-45 Grifters

CarMoney, a microfinance company with ties to Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, earned a record-setting 391.3 million rubles ($4.8 million) in 2022. According to the Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit, which cited the company’s financial reports, the company’s net profit rose 66 percent compared to the previous year.
...
According to an audit report on CarMoney’s financial report, Ocheretnaya personally received 58 million rubles (about $709,000) from CarMoney in 2022.

Marla Maples, take note. You should have upped your game when you had the chance.

Nothing Political About This, No Sirree

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Saturday that he is seeking to pardon a U.S. Army sergeant who was convicted of murder in the 2020 fatal shooting of an armed protester during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.

Abbott tweeted that because the state constitution limits him to a pardon only on a recommendation by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles he is asking the board to recommend a pardon and to expedite his request in order to pardon Sgt. Daniel Perry.
...
Perry’s attorneys argued that the shooting was self-defense as Foster approached Perry’s car with an AK-47 rifle. Prosecutors said Perry could have driven away before firing his revolver and witnesses testified that Foster never raised his rifle at Perry.

You can bet the farm that if the rally had been a MAGA event or a pro-2A demonstration that Abbott would be seeking to expedite the perp's date with Old Sparky.

Happy Easter Greetings

From the Orange Menace of Mar-a-Lago:

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

Super-Constellation!

Destroying the Rule of Law Because of Your Religion

Texas-based federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday issued a ruling aiming to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a common abortion drug approved for use 23 years ago that has been consistently found to be safe and effective.

So, a medication that has been in use for over two decades, one that has been found safe and effective in study after study, rules to ban the medication because it offends his ideologial sensitivites.

Funny, isn't it? The far-right as been bleating for decades about "activist judges" that "legislate from teh bench", but as soon as they can identify a judge that will rule their way, facts and legal precedent be damned, they run to him to get him to do their evil bidding.

So much for their complaints about separation of powers and such. One unelected right-wing thug dons a black robe and we're expected to bow down and kiss his ass?

Fuck that shit.

ETA: The cocksucker behind the lawsuit said that it's not about abortion, it's about protecting women. A guy who can lie that broadly should be selling used cars or cryptocurrency.

Extortion, MAGA Style

A Shelby County commissioner told FOX13 on Friday that state leaders in Nashville are threatening to take away funding from Memphis and other Shelby County projects if the county commission decides to reinstate expelled state Rep. Justin J. Pearson.

The GOP, at this point, might as well adopt white robes and matchng hoods as its official uniform. Telling a governmental body whom they can and cannot appoint is pretty fucking outrageous.

(H/T)

Somebody's Jealous For Not Getting a Shoe Contract

Jealousy or hypocrisy?

Caitlyn Jenner slams Nike for their partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney:

“It is a shame to see such an iconic American company go so woke! We can be inclusive but not at the expense of the mass majority of people, and have some decency while being inclusive. This is… pic.twitter.com/1WG4oaaoiU

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 7, 2023

But if Jenner got one, would she have to then slam Nike for giving her a contract because it's "woke" to recognize a transgendered woman?

Or she's a fucking quisling.

If Jenner hates transgendered people so much, given that she, herself, is one, then maybe she needs to invest in intensive therapy to get over what would seem to be self-hatred, instead of running her mouth in a futile attempt to stay relevant with the MAGA Morons -- "Yes, I'm trans, but I'm really one of you!"

Caturday

Chip on daily nap #4:

Caturday

Chip, about ten years old, now.

STFU at Work, People

This is worth reading by everyone, at least the body of it.

Or take more time and read STFU. This test may tell you if you have a problem, in case you dn't already know it.

I run my yap mostly on this blog. I figure that I'm not forcing anyone to read it. In meatspace, I follow the principle that "an open mouth gathers no wisdom" (or "intelligence"). When I was practicing law, I sat through numerous continuing education classes where attendees were "asking questions" that were patently designed to show off to the room how smart they were. In a perfect world, the presenter would have been allowed to make a signal for that person to be frog-marched out of the lecture room and flogged.

Most people know if they talk too much. The compulsives don't.

For Today Only!

Because It's Friday

Kiwi steam:

Some Good Points About Violence in Movies

If you can get past the libertarian snark of this dude, he does make some good points.

I don't believe that superhero movies are to blame for violence in America, but there is an argument to be made that vilence without consequences isn't a good idea. On the other hand, it could also be argued that showing violent acts without a lot of consequences has been a staple of movies for, oh, 120 years or so. The Hays Code prohibited realistic violence; The Wild Bunch would never have been approved by the Hays office. It could also be argued that graphically-rendered violence is more violence-porn than realism.

Yep, No Racist Republicans in the Tennessee Legislature (In a Pig’s Eye)

In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans on Thursday expelled two Democratic lawmakers from the state Legislature for their role in a protest calling for more gun control in the aftermath of a deadly school shootingin Nashville. A third Democrat was narrowly spared by a one-vote margin. The split votes drew accusations of racism, with lawmakers ousting Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who are both Black, while Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, survived the vote on her expulsion. Republican leadership denied that race was a factor, however.

Fire the Black guys and keep the white chick, sure, that's not racist at all.

They had to rush through the voting, for their wives had already ironed their robes for the after-session cross-burning.

Greasing These Down, Here

Shout out to the guy who didn’t hold the door open for Trump pic.twitter.com/2KULzAJlL3

— sam wollaston (@samwollaston) April 4, 2023

Literally LOL'ed at the sight of Bone Spurs Six Actual, there, all jocked up. https://t.co/0zI0wOMXyx

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) March 30, 2023

A Church in Your Town May Be a Part of a Major Criminal Enterprise

More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability, according to a long-awaited state report released Wednesday that revealed the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.

The report paints a damning picture of the archdiocese, which is the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. Some parishes, schools and congregations had more than one abuser at the same time — including St. Mark Parish in Catonsville, which had 11 abusers living and working there between 1964 and 2004. One deacon admitted to molesting over 100 children. Another priest was allowed to feign hepatitis treatment and make other excuses to avoid facing abuse allegations.

How many times do stories like this need to be repeated, in different dioceses, in different states, in different countries, before we wise up and realize that the Roman Catholic Church is an age-old criminal institution?

Another Public Idiot Is Running for President

In this case, RFK, Jr., noted clean-energy hypocrite and science denier.

He has about as much chance of obtaining the Democratic nomination as does MTG, who is equally nuts.

ETA: Also, this.

How About This for a “Microaggression”: Go Fuck Yourselves

An incoming Massachusetts school superintendent revealed that his job offer was rescinded prior to his start date after he addressed two women on the school’s committee as "ladies" in an email.

Vito Perrone was offered the position as the head of Easthampton Schools on March 23, but was notified that the job offer had been withdrawn over his choice of salutation in an email to the chairperson and executive assistant, both female, who reportedly interpreted his "ladies" greeting as a "microaggression," the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported.

I've been with a lot of other women at meals and in meetings; we have been addressed as "ladies" and nobody, but nobody, took offense.

But then, again, maybe we weren't a bunch of fucking snowflakes.

Unlike the Clowns in Easthampton.

Trump's Lawyers Seem to Either Have Been Lying Through Their Teeth or They Are Incompetent AF

It seems that the charges against the Defendant have been widely used before and that the DA is on solid ground by bringing them and there is nothing unusual in bringing felony charges in New York for payments to a third party that benefit a campaign.

Meanwhile, in act of monumental stupidity, the Prime Defendant is attacking the judge in his case, as well as the judge's family. That may be fine for raising funds from the pool of MAGA saps, but when it comes time to deciding pretrial motions, any decent judge can craft an opinion that supports how he desires to rule. So the Defendant may be unwittingly doing everything he can to get convicted, and his "legal team" likely knows that.

One of the Biggest Piles of Rotting Excrement is DJT, Jr

Donald Trump Jr. has posted a picture of the judge's daughter on truth social.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) April 4, 2023

If you think that is OK for him to have done that, you are also a disgusting piece of human shit.

No Comment Needed

Charging These Down, Here

Presidents can now be married 3 times, have children from 3 different women, pay porn stars for sex while being married & still have 71% of the Evangelical Christian family values vote.
Just don’t be gay.

— @nottherealtraceydelaney (@TraceyDelaney) March 31, 2023

He had 7 years to delete this. Gets reminded of it constantly. Never did though. pic.twitter.com/esNY4WbYRP

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 31, 2023

Trump called this the darkest day in American history.

Not Antietam, Not Pearl Harbor, not 9/11

This.

— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) March 30, 2023

And one non-Cadet Bone Spurs pic: