Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

C-17 rapid drill.

Speaking of Ivory-Towered Assholes...

Amid a rash of gun violence in Hartford’s North End, a church leader who called for armed citizens to supervise the streets has said that so far the patrols have been successful in keeping the neighborhood safe.

Archbishop Dexter Burke, senior pastor of Walk In The Light Church of God on Garden Street, said that he got “fed up” with the violence around his church back in February. After two men were shot and killed right near his congregation on Feb. 10, Burke wrote a letter on Facebook saying that area residents were teaming up with Rev. Cornell Lewis’ Self Defense Brigade.

“Folks are afraid, Hartford is unsafe,” Burke said. “The current policies are not helping. Those who criticize the patrols don’t understand the seriousness of the problem.”
...
“We think it has been successful in the sense that where we usually see pockets of crime, we have seen a substantial decline,” Burke said. “It’s noticeably less. Residents of Garden Street have said they feel much safer now. We feel they have been effective and we’re going to keep doing them.”
...
But Mike Lawlor, criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven and former undersecretary for criminal justice policy under former Gov. Dannel Malloy, said that armed citizen patrols carry several risks that can lead to unintended consequences. Lawlor also served as part of [Mayor] Arulampalam’s transition team on the quality of life and public safety committee for Hartford.
...
The city’s police department, which has dealt with staffing issues, has 372 officers, according to Boisvert. The department is authorized to have 463 sworn personnel, ranging from patrol officers to chief. The number is down from 374 officers last summer.

Malloy was possibly the worst governor in the state in this century, and that includes a guy who served 2.5 terms as governor and two terms in Federal prison. So that Lawlor worked for him isn't exactly a stirring line on his CV.

Beyond that, his comments reflect ivory tower unrealism. He wants people to wait for Hartford to boost up its police force, but shitfire, they are down ninety officers and lost two more people. I guess he doesn't get it that nobody is beating down the door to become a Hartford cop. Those that are there can feel the siren call of suburban/exurban/rural towns that pay more, have better schools and are a lot quieter.

There comes a point where people are not willing to accept the excuse of "we can't" from local government, not when the streets are unsafe. And all of the nay-saying and carping of some ivory-towered jackass isn't going to deter them from doing what they need to.

NBC News Falling Down the Same Rut as Boeing

Cesar Conde is not the typical leader of a major news institution.

A Wharton-trained executive who revived the fortunes of Telemundo and sits on the boards of Pepsi and Walmart, Mr. Conde had limited experience in journalism when, in 2020, he became the chairman of NBC’s sprawling news division, including MSNBC, CNBC and franchises like “Meet the Press,” “Nightly News” and the “Today” show.

Now he is trying to navigate the biggest crisis of his tenure: a journalistic firestorm that prompted an open revolt among his stars and has fueled internal questions about just how neatly Mr. Conde’s corporate experience and ambitions gel with the unique challenges of the news business.

Conde is yet another American manager, a species of critter that believes they don't have to know jack-point-shit about the business they are running in order to be an effective manager. They don't have to know anything about making airplanes or washing mashines or producing phearmaceuticals or reporting in order to run businesses that do those things. All they need to do is be able to interpret a spreadsheet and then hire or fine people as needed to make the numbers improve.

Do you want to know why your refrigerator only lasts six years instead of three decades? MBAs are running things. Do you want to know why airplanes have started shedding parts in flight? MBAs are running things. Do you want to know why the local news no longer pays attention to your town unless there is a triple homicide? MBAs are running things. They only give a fuck about the quarterly/yearly numbers and how the stock market reacts. They don't care about the prodcuts they make, the workers making them or the people using them. Not one good goddamn. As long as the stock price goes up and they get to cash out, it's all good for them.

Oh, there may be some MBA managers who actually care about the businesses they run and know the fine details of how the sausage gets made, but in this great and glorious country, you could not find enough of them to fill the seats on a city bus. (Not that any of them would ride a bus, mind you.)

Shorter Paxton: "The Trouble with Anything and Everything Is That They Didn't Only Hire White Men."

The Texas attorney general has opened an investigation into a key Boeing supplier that is already facing scrutiny from federal regulators over quality of parts that it provides to the aircraft maker.
...
Paxton asked for a breakdown of Spirit’s workforce by race, sexual orientation and other factors, and whether the makeup has changed over time.

And there we have it: The "conservative" belief that everything went to hell when employers began hiring women to do more than type, take dictation and serve food and began hiring minorities to do more than mop floors and clean toilets.

I won't even go looking, but I will bet heavily that one can find, in less than a few minutes, so-called conservatives who blame the Baltimore bridge crash on the shipping company for not hiring white men as sailors.

Racism and sexism are the emotional blankets that keep pathetic white men warm when they're not drinking themselves into oblivion and ODing on Oxy.

Caturday

Interruped stripes.

Another Republican Who Claimed Voting is Fraudulent is Convicted of Voter Fraud

The vice chair of the Georgia Republican Party voted illegally nine times while on probation for check forgery, a judge ruled this week.

Brian Pritchard, the first vice chair of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered Wednesday to pay $5,000 in civil penalties and be “publicly reprimanded” by the State Election Board for his conduct, Administrative Law Judge Lisa Boggs said in a ruling shared with The Hill.

Republicans complaining about voter fraud are like the Catholic Church complaining about pedophilia. It's sort of akin to "he who smelt it, dealt it". Republicans keep whining on and on about voter fraud and yet, when it comes to those charged with voter fraud, it's almost always Republicans who are doing the crime.

Because It's Friday

A "Victorian weekend":

Why is Anyone Shocked That There are Racists in Coeur d’Alene, ID?

Members of the Utah women’s basketball team were subjected to racism near their hotel in Idaho last week when a pickup truck with a Confederate flag drove near them and the driver began using offensive language, including the N-word, authorities said Tuesday. The team was left shaken and wound up moving to a different hotel the next day.
...
Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said at a news conference the Utes were walking from the hotel to a restaurant when the truck drove up and the driver began using racist language. After the team left the restaurant, the same driver returned “reinforced by others,” Stewart said, and they revved their engines and again yelled at the players.

People are surprised by this? Coeur d’Alene, and the Idaho panhandle, are known for being a hotbed of racists, white militias and other groupds of hateful nutjobs. All it takes is a whiff of a protest for civil rights and the cranks come out by the hundreds with their guns.

Nobody who is nonwhite, Jewish or non-straight who has an ounce of sense would even think of going there. Somebody at Utah University or the NCAA suffered a major brain fart if they thought it would be a good idea to house Black basketball players in that town.

Nailing These Down, Here

So aliens come to earth and they're Sooo nice. There's a huge televised event with all the world leaders in attendance.

The Pope asks, "Do you know of Jesus Christ?"

The aliens say, "Do we Ever? Awesome guy!! Swings by the planet every couple of years to say Hi!"

The Pope exclaims, "Every couple of years?? What!!?? We're still waiting for his second coming!"

The alien replies, "Maybe he didn't like your chocolate?"

The Pope is flabbergasted, "What does chocolate have to do with anything?"

The alien says, "Well when he came the first time, we gave him a huge box of chocolates! Why? What did you guys give him?"

Almost Missed an Anniversary

130 years ago today, D.B. Wesson was granted a patent on the hand-ejector revolver.

From little M-frames to huge X-frames, variants of the gun have been in production by Smith & Wesson ever since.

Kari Lake Admits She Defamed Election Official

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s defamation suit against former gubernatorial and current Senate candidate Kari Lake is ending in a default judgment in Richer’s favor and an award of damages to be determined by the court after Lake bowed out of defending the suit Tuesday.

Attorneys for Lake failed to file an answer to Richer’s lawsuit after a motion to dismiss the case failed in the superior and appellate courts. And following a motion for default judgment from Richer, her counsel asked the court to set a hearing to determine facts and damages awarded before entering default judgment in Richer’s favor.

Lake, of course, is publicly saying no such thing and spewing shit about she needs to concentrate on lying her way to the Senate. But the truth of the matter is that she defamed that guy and she's legally admitted it.

Good Old (and Unprovable) Corruption; Meatball Ron Ed.

As his campaign began to sputter and the big-money donors got shy, DeSantis's team began shaking down companies that do business with the State of Florida.

The biggest donors in Republican politics largely shunned Ron DeSantis after his presidential campaign began to falter last summer. So his allies turned to donors the Florida governor still held sway over because of his day job.
...
People involved in the DeSantis fundraising effort described the dependence on donors with business before Florida as part of a strategic shift born of necessity. Lobbyist friends and fundraisers of DeSantis called Florida clients asking them to contribute to the super PACs paying for television ads and field operations — and many of those people gave, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. The pitch, according to one person who received a call, was that DeSantis was likely to remain a powerful governor in the state.

Clarence and the Supremes have cut back on public corruption laws to the point that it it's not a blatant pay-to-play scheme, it's all legal. And so, likely, is this shakedown.

But it's corrupt. You know it. I know it. And so does Meatball Ron.

The Bridge Collapse and the Navy

Maryland's DOT apparently does better at maintaining its bridges than the Navy.

This is the wreckage of the bridge, which shows no significant rusting:

Unlike the Navy.

One of the axioms about military equipment is that if the little things are taken care of, it's a reasonable assumption that the big things are also good. It's a matter of pride and professionalism.

How to Fail an IQ Test

It'll only cost sixty bucks to fail one-- just buy a Bible from a man who wouldn't know what is inside one if his life depended on it and who has never read it because neither his name nor his picture are in it.

The only book that anyone knows that he has ever read was written by someone a century ago.

Oinking These Down, Here

A Real Mess in Balmer

A large container ship suffered a loss of power overnight and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695), bringing it down.

Besides the loss of life and the screwing up of travel up and down the Eastern Seaboard, the bridge collapse also blocks the Port of Baltimore, a major East Coast port. There will be some serious supply chain issues until this sorts itself out. It'll probably take a goodly bit of time to remove the wreckage and clear the channel.

If your plans involve driving from the NYC metro area to points south, check on the traffic and think about possibly detouring to I-81 or going down US-13.

VLS and Other Thoughts

Here is the CNO watching a demonstration of a proposed system to reload vertical launch cells at sea:

It's probably well past time that this got done. One of the lessons of modern war has been that the expenditure of ammunition during wartime is almost always at a far higher rate than peacetime planners (or politicians) are willing to accept. Part of that is because complex stuff, which is anything above small arms ammunition, needs to be inspected and reworked to ensure reliability, and that ccosts money, but that's probably not germaine to this post.

In a hot war, those VLS ships are going to be blowing missiles out of the tubes at a rather high rate and, once those rounds are fired, what is left is a rather large ship with less combat ability than a Gearing-class destroyer. That those in WESTPAC would have to withdraw far to the east in order to rearm is crazy.

Incidentally, the need to lift really heavy shit to carriers is why the Navy is stuck with the CV-22 for COD: C-2s can't haul replacement engines for F-35s. But I digress.

The ship that brings out the canisters for reloading should hold them in a vertical position, with the missles connected to a fire-control system. That ship could datalink to a DDG/CG and, in an emergency, the missle ship could command their launch. That probably would be an emergency because the chances are that a resupply ship would not be able to keep up with a warship if speed is called for.

By the way, the Navy's standards sure have slipped if they are demonstrating stuff with running rust to the CNO. It's not a new problem.

Putin Learned a Lesson From George Bush

That is: You can blame a country not involved in a terrorist attack and use that to justify a war.

Appearing on TV on Saturday, hours after the attack that killed 137 people and wounded over 100, [Putin] sought to make it serve his political goals by alleging a link between the gunmen and Ukraine, saying the assailants planned to flee there. He made no mention of the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility, or of Kyiv’s denial of involvement.

In Russia, the media will parrot Putin's claims because they are an arm of the Russian state. In America, the media parrotted Bush's claim because of a lack of moral fibre, to use a British term.

Ahhh....Ick? (1911 Ed.)

A 1911 that uses Glock 17 magazines?

Consensus elsewhere seems to be that if you want to run 9mm through a 1911, opt for the Commander-length barrel. (As Colt designed it.)

I guess it makes sense. The original pistol used nine-round magazines in a 25-oz gun, so why not opt for the extra capacity? Unless, of course, you live in a hi-cap ban state, in which case you would likely be better off dealing with 9mm magazines designed for 1911s instead of neutered-Glock magazines, which don't have the best of reputations.

Still, it's really a range toy and if you feel like dropping $1.4K on it, it's a free country. If you're going to be carrying a 9mm for realies, there are better and cheaper choices. The top four being Glock, S&W M&Ps, Sig-Sauers and HundK.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Brit Cold-War jets running around on the ground.

The Monster's Creator Laments What His Monster Has Done

"The hardliners on the right have done nothing except make it worse. The Freedom Caucus right now has been a disaster in public policy terms. They think their job in life is to grandstand and complain while the other team runs over you."

That, of course, is good old Newtie Gingrich. He was the architect of stupid-ass government shutdowns that did nothing. He was the leader of changing the Congress from a legislative body where people on both sides of the aisle worked together on what they could and basically treated each other like professionals to one where the members go on Radio Rwanda and Faux News to hate-talk about the other side.

The so-called Freedom Caucus is what Gingrich's party has devolved to.

So it's pretty fucking rich that he's now carping about what his creation has done.

988, the Crisis Hotline

That is the number of the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can call, text, or click on the link to call up a chat window.

I get that someone who is in such a crisis probably isn't thinking it through. They are in real emotional pain and believe that their pain will stop if they're dead. It's a dark place to be.

Yet here is the thing: The pain doesn't go away. It gets transferred. It moves on to friends and family who will anguish over what they could have done, what signs they may have missed, and cycle through iterations of "if only I had..." It's even worse for children. It can seriously screw them up.

If life seems overwhelming and you see no way out, before you make a move to flick your off-switch, pick up the phone. Call 988 and talk it through.

Caturday

"Go away so I can get to the food bowl," Speck.

The Private Detective Full Employment Bills

40 or so years after every state in the country legalized no-fault divorce, Republicans want to do away with it.

Do you know something? It seems as though, every few days, Republicans come up with new ways to be disgusting human beings. Forcing people to stay in loveless, if not dangerous, marriages is just their latest outrage against modern humanity.

Because, when you drill right down to it, Republicans have no compassion. They have no humanity. They are just disgusting lumps of semi-sentient protoplasm.

ABC World News Tonight is Run by Chuckleheads

This is their news judgment at work: The first story of the night was about Princess Whatzerface, a senior member of the World's Wealthiest Welfare Family, who has cancer.

Second story: Forty people were killed in an ISIS terror attack in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the TOFF's lawyers have been lying to the New York courts about his lack of cash, but more on that later.

The GOP Clown Show Keeps Beclowning Itself

They seem to be addicted to putting on their clown shoes and tromping through minefields.

Speaker Mike Johnson is at risk of being ousted after hard-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a “motion to vacate” on Friday in the middle of a House vote on a $1.2 trillion package to keep the government open.

Pass the popcorn.

A darker view is that the only way that MTG can follow Putin/TOFF's orders to stop more aid from going to Ukraine is to sacrifice Bible Mike.

Stay tuned!

And remember, the GOP is no longer a serious party. Vote blue in 24!

Because It's Friday

I'm not feeling going looking for stuff as I write this, so here's some good old Brit steam.

How to Tell That Republicans Have Never Done an Honest Day's Work in Their Lives

Ben Shapiro thinks that people should work until they die, because work makes you free, I guess.

Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem. Everybody that I know who is -- who is elderly, who has retired, is dead within five years. And if you talk to people who are elderly and they lose their purpose in life by losing their job and they stop working, things go to hell in a handbasket real quick.

That could be a matter of nobody who is happy in their life would care to be within ten clicks of Ben Shapiro. True, my father died about eight years after he retired, but it wasn't lack of purpose that killed him. It was cancer. So fuck you, Ben, along with your horse and everybody who looks like you.

Republicans want to raise the retirement age, too.

I know a number of guys who work in the trades. While they are all thankful that they have because they make a good living (the ones who have their own businesses pulled their logos from their trucks as they have too much work as it is); all of them who are over fifty have mentioned that their bodies are slowly showing the strain, especially in their lower backs and knees. All of them are looking forward to retiring. Some are adjusting their finances so they can retire early and live before Social Security kicks in. The same is more than true, by the way, for nurses.

Cops, soldiers and firefighters retire at twenty years for a reason. It can be hard and brutal work. There was a state that didn't offer early retirement to corrections officers, requiring them to work until they were at least 55. Most didn't live to see 60. The state wasn't run by heartless fucks like Shapiro, who would have seen that as a success. Instead, they gave their prison guards the same retirement plan as their first responders.

These are the people that Republicans want to fuck over. The hardest work most of those buttmunchers have ever done is lifting a bag of golf clubs onto the back of a golf cart. They've never come home from a job where the first thing they needed to do was take a shower.

But what can you expect from a party whose party leader believes that hard work and sacrifice is for losers?

Gazing These Down, Here

Don't Worry. Some Billionaire With a Bad Case of Butthurt Will Buy Reddit and Run It Into the Ground

Reddit went public today.

Shares of social forum giant Reddit opened Thursday at $47 per share, then quickly soared to around $55, up about 60% in heavy volume from its IPO price of $34 per share. It bounced around before stabilizing at around $50 a share. The company had indicated a target range of $31 to $34 per share in the run-up to its public-market debut, eventually settling on the top-end of that interval. The peak share price as of the writing of this post was $57.80, though prices are, at the moment, a couple of dollars cooler, and a few percentage points down, from that price.

The Self-Claimed Billionaire Begs for Money, Again

He has no shame whatsoever. He's no better than those smarmy televangelists who con the ederly out of their life savings.

People who work for a living and who have trouble making ends meet are his target audience. Feed your kid more off-brand cereal and sent the TOFF fifty bucks. Operators are standing by to assist.

And, after you do that, get your head examined.

Space Karen Makes The Place Formerly Known as Twitter a Safe Space for Nazis

That's what he's been doing when he tried to stop reporters from discussing the identity of a neo-Nazi cartoonist of whom he seems to approve. The neo-Nazi cartoonist in question (he seems to insist on that distinction) is a real piece of work, his cartoons would have been at home in a Nazi newspaper in Germany during Hitler's regime.

Make no mistake about it, he's one of the TOFF's peeps.

Putin's Poodles in the House At Work

So the House passed a resolution condemning Russia's abductions of Urainian children.

Nine Republicans stood up for Russia. They are:

Biggs, AZ;
Burlison, MO;
Davidson, OH;
Greene, GA;
Higgins, LA;
Massie, KY;
Rosendale, MT;
Roy, TX; and
Tiffany, WI

No doubt that some of those assholes are going to quibble about the wording of the resolution or whine about supporting transgendered kids or some other meaningless bullshit.

But the truth of the matter is that, when offered an easy way to indicate that they are not in Putin's corner on this war, nine of them couldn't bring themselves to do that.

One Clear Thing About the Supremes

"Textualism" and "originalism" only matter when it gets the Batshit Caucus of the Court to where they want to be. Immigration and the enforcement of laws governing immigration have been the purview of the Feds since the country's founding. But Texas wants to stick its nib in and the Batshit Caucus is just fine with that.

The Roberts Court has tossed aside any respect or consideration of legal principles such as whatever the Constitution says or legal precedent or any of that bullshit that they still teach in the ConLaw courses during the first year of law school. It's just political ideology and naked racism, dressed up in high-faluting rhetoric and fig-leaf references to the Constitution. They'll toss things back to the 1790s, unless it's not convenient.

I had thought that this "states' rights" bullshit was settled for good in 1865, but I guess not. One thing seems to be clear: If it wasn't for the 13th Amendment, those lunatics would figure out a way to legalize slavery. If it wasn't for the 19th Amendment, they'd say it was OK to deny women the right to vote. This current iteration of the Supreme Court is all about protecting the rights of billionaires to effectively buy elections, politicians to take bribes if they are smart about it, and states to make it harder for people to vote, especially if their skin is darker than a sheet of copy paper.

Some of the justices seem to be concerned about the Supremes losing legitimacy and respect. Well, that ship got up steam in 2000 and has been increasing speed since

I Didn't Know That Was Even Possible

Former President Trump sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos on Monday, alleging defamation over the anchor’s questioning of Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) about her endorsement of Trump. ... Trump’s lawsuit takes aim at how Stephanopoulos at multiple points in his questioning said Trump had been found “liable for rape.”

Really? There is something that someone can say about the TOFF that's defamatory? The guy who seems to dream of banging his own daughter?

Meanwhile, it does seem as though Judge Cannon is trying her level best to figure out how to throw a wrench into the TOFF's documents case without openly appearing to do so.

Is anyone surprised by that?

If anything, you'd think that she'd be sensitive to the level of public scrutiny her actions will receive, but I guess since it was the defendant who gave her a lifetime gig with no heavy lifting, that doesn't matter.

Interrogating These Down, Here

Bet this guy votes Republican:

Pro Tip: Don't Take Religious Advice From a Nazi

The TOFF, who doesn't worship anything except himself (and money), is handing out religious advice to Jews. As if any Jew whatsoever should take advice from a clown who admires Hitler.

Operation Sad Panda Now in Effect

Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appellate court Monday that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of a $454 million civil fraud judgment while he appeals, suggesting the former president’s legal losses have put him in a serious cash crunch.

I'd like to know whether or not non-rich folks who can't afford an appeal bond in civil cases get to have the bond waived. I'll hazard a guess that the answer is "no".

Another question: Why can't he take out loans on some of his properties and raise the cash that way? He claimed, in court, that Mar-a-Lago was worth over a billion, so why not use that to float a loan?

The answer to that question is probably two-fold. First, his properties really aren't worth what he thinks they are and none of the lenders are willing to take his word anymore. Second, he's probably already leveraged them to the hilt, so he can't extract any more cash from them.

Meanwhile, he's ranting like the wannabee dictator he thinks he can be. He wants to throw those who investigated his autogolpe into prison. He's promising to free the J6 insurrectionists, including those who assaulted cops.

As an aside, his coup-buddy in Brazil has been indicted for falsifying public data. An indictment for his own coup attempt is likely forthcoming.

He's not the only one ranting like a crazy person. Some loony-tune Republican in North Carolina who is running for statewide office has been calling for people she doesn't like to be executed. Republicans have been infected with a crazy virus.

Don't vote for them. For any office.

Come To Donnie’s House of Flip-Flops! His Prices Are Insane!!

The TOFF changed his position on banning TikTok after meeting a billionaire GOP donor who owns a stake in the company.

The takeaway: The TOFF is for sale. He believes in nothing, other than getting very large checks. He'd advocate for open borders and incest if the money was right.

(We know he's already in favor of the latter.)

P01135809 Is Re-Hiring a Russian Asset

Because birds of a feather, flock together.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to bring Paul Manafort, 74, back into the fold, as a campaign adviser later this year.
...
Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman in 2016 but left in August before the general election after his ties to Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych exposed Trump's pro-Russian vulnerabilities.

He was later charged with tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts over money he raised working for Yanukovych, which he and his deputy Rick Gates tried to hide from authorities.

Manafort was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was put on house arrest during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then pardoned by Trump in December 2020.

Mind you, this is the same crook who passed information on the TOFF's first campaign to the Russians. Which suggests that Cadet Bone Spurs is just fine with having a Russian spy high up in his campaign to destroy America.

Nepotism and, Apparently, No-Show Jobs Live On at the NRA

At least one, WLP's niece, who got promoted despite having an essentialy no-show job for which she got private jet flights and chopper rides. And which pays her 300 large a year.

At this point, any annual member who reups for any reason other than their gun club requires it for insurance purposes has mush for brains.

Bit of Meaningless Aviation Trivia

From the DC-2 through the MD-11, at least one of every type is still flying.

Except for the DC-7.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

The most gorgeous airliner ever made, the Constellation:

Never rode one. I did ride a DC-7 when I was too young to really appreciate it.

Caturday

Wherever there's sun, there's a cat.

Never Missing an Opportunity to Miss an Opportunity

In some ways, one has to admire how well Hamas has played much of the West. They started the war by committing atrocities, they took and keep hostages, and they are hiding behind their own people. Their strategy seems to be to let the Israelis kill as many civilians as possible until the rest of the world makes them stop. At which point, Hamas will claim the mantle of resistance and cement its control even further. And so far, it seems to be working.

If there is a trap there, Netanyahu has fallen into it. By the time he's finished conducting the war, Israel will be seen just another brutal Middle Eastern state that plays by Hama Rules. There will be no claim of moral authority as the survivor state of the Holocaust. Israel will be seen as just another state willing to massacre tens of thousands of people when it sees fit to do so.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Arab-American population is doing its best to ensure that, in the long run, everyone will hate them. A lot of them are saying that they will boycott the election because they don’t like Biden‘s position.

If they do that in sufficient numbers to affect the election, then they will be in a situation where the next president (Trump) hates them already (Gruppenführer Miller has a Muslim visa ban ready to go) and the losing side (Democrats) will also hate them.

I don’t know what genius thought up a plan to get everyone to hate them, but it seems that Abba Eban was right: They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Because It's Friday

More fresh steam from the Brits.

A Racist, Activist Right-Wing Judge

That would be Lee Rudofsky in Arkansas. In a voting rights case, he went looking for a reason to further dismantle the Voting Rights Act, found one, had the parties brief it, then ruled in favor of the issue that he had found. Which was just peachy with the appellate court.

For almost all of my life, I've read and heard the Racist Right screaming about "activist judges", especially when it came to dismantling segregation. But now that there are judges, especially Trump-appointed judges, who are actively making it harder for minorities to vote, that's just fine with so-called conservatives.

It is racism. It is Southern judges doing what Southern judges historically have done-- helping the neo-Confederates keep those uppity folks from voting.

And when they get done with that, those "conservatives" want to go after the 19th Amendment. Most of the states in the deep South didn't ratify the 19th Amendment until fifty years after it was adopted.

I Know, I Know

Strapping These Down, Here