Batshit Outrage on the Right; Incoming!

On CBS Sunday Morning, in their year-end "Hail and Farewell" segment, Charles Manson was followed by Roger Ailes.

Heh.

SWATting and the Nigerian Prince

First off, the "SWATting" death in Kansas: There's a lot that we don't know. But it sure looks as though the cops fired from across the street, behind some cover, and killed an innocent man over "furtive movement." The cops are going to say, of course, that it was a treasonable mistake.

I disagree. The cops summon a guy to the door, shine bright lights at him in the middle of the night and yell orders at him: What's reasonable is to expect the guy so summoned to be confused. If he's wearing sweatpants, he may need to pull them up and then it looks to the cops as he's reaching for a gun. It also appears that the cops were across the street, with rifles, crouched behind their cars, and to seriously believe that a guy is going to yank out a handgun and hit anything at that range in the dark is beyond credulity.

But hey: Officer Safety.

It'll get hashed out in civil court in a damages suit. And some appellate judges, who went to Tier One law schools and who have never been exposed to any serious danger in their lives, will throw the case out.
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It seems that one of the people posing as a Nigerian prince is a 67-year old white guy in Louisiana, who is now facing a couple hundred charges of wire fraud. As the WaPo noted, some of the victims of the con are lured to Nigeria and then bad shit happens.

Some consecutive sentences are in order.

Your New Year's Eve Big Prop Noise

Spraying forests with DC-3s:

Caturday

Can I haz Forever Home, pleeze?

Z is for Zero (R.I.P.)

Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of mysteries, died of cancer yesterday.

By sheer coincidence, I just picked up Y is for Yesterday.

I hope her heirs are not the sort of greedy chuckleheads who commission another writer to do the Z book. They say that's not going to happen:

Hello Dear Readers. This is Sue's daughter, Jamie. I am sorry to tell you all that Sue passed away last night after a two year battle with cancer. She was surrounded by family, including her devoted and adoring husband Steve. Although we knew this was coming, it was unexpected and fast. She had been fine up until just a few days ago, and then things moved quickly. Sue always said that she would continue writing as long as she had the juice. Many of you also know that she was adamant that her books would never be turned into movies or TV shows, and in that same vein, she would never allow a ghost writer to write in her name. Because of all of those things, and out of the deep abiding love and respect for our dear sweet Sue, as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y.

I hope they stick to it. Successor writers may try hard to stay with the spirit of the dead author, but like even the best art forgers, some of their own personality always leaks through. The finished product is almost always off in an intangible sense that a faithful reader will sense.

I was looking forward to the Z book, to see how Grafton closed out the tales of Kinsey Millhone. I can't imagine that I was the only one by a long shot.

Thirty years ago, also on December 28th, John D. MacDonald died. He had published what turned out to be the last book in the Travis McGee series, The Lonely Silver Rain. That book signaled that McGee, upon finding out that he had a teen-aged daughter, was going to jump headlong into not only being a father, but being responsible for another person. MacDonald's heirs have not let anyone else roll a sheet of Travis McGee into a typewriter.

I hope Grafton's survivors are cut from the same steel.

If you're a mystery reader, lift a glass in the memory of Sue Grafton, and to her characters that we've all come to know.

What Did Trump Say?

"I know the details of taxes better than anybody. Better than the greatest C.P.A. I know the details of health care better than most, better than most. And if I didn’t, I couldn’t have talked all these people into doing ultimately only to be rejected."

How much skill does it take to not make a sale?

Besides that, all reports are that Trump has a shorter attention span than the average six-year old. That he would know the ins and outs of a 400+ page tax bill defies credulity.

(Paging Mr. Dunning. Paging Mr. Kruger.)

Because It's Friday

The Pike's Peak cog railway.



Unlike Mt. Washington, which has always run steam, the Pike's Peak line began to dieselize almost eighty years ago. Steam returned to Pike's Peak solely to draw tourists and steam junkies.

Political Weasel in Operation

Singer and Trump supporter Joy Villa has filed a sexual assault charge against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the Associated Press reported.

Villa said she filed the complaint against Lewandowski for hitting her twice on the buttocks at a gathering at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. the day after Thanksgiving.

I just watched her interview on GMA. The interviewer asked Villa if she stood with the women who have accused Trump of assaulting them. The first time around, Villa answered by talking about herself. On a follow-up, Villa said that it was important for women to come forward and report sexual assaults.

Villa wants the cops to go after Lewandowski for slapping her on the ass, but she's still a loyal supporter pf the Ol' Pussy Grabber.

She'll be a good politician, for she can't answer a straight-forward question.

Weasel achievement: Unlocked.

Sore Loserman is Still Sore

Alabama officials on Thursday unhesitatingly pushed aside a legal challenge from Roy S. Moore and certified Doug Jones as the winner of this month’s Senate election.

The action, during a brief meeting at the State Capitol, was essentially the state’s final step before the seating of the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter century. It was also a swift rejection, by some of the state’s most powerful Republicans, of Mr. Moore’s complaint that he was the victim of “systematic voter fraud.”
...
In a lawsuit filed in a state court late Wednesday, Mr. Moore, who denied the allegations of sexual impropriety, complained that pervasive fraud had tainted the election, and that the Alabama authorities had inadequately investigated potential misconduct.

But Mr. Moore found himself aligned against Democrats and Republicans alike. Secretary of State John H. Merrill, a Republican who voted for Mr. Moore, said he had found no evidence of endemic fraud and refused to postpone the certification. Judge Johnny Hardwick of Montgomery County Circuit Court, citing a lack of jurisdiction, dismissed Mr. Moore’s complaint minutes before the vote was certified.
...
To support his arguments, Mr. Moore included affidavits from several people his campaign described as experts in elections; one has claimed to have “mathematically proved a conspiracy to assassinate” President John F. Kennedy. (Mr. Moore has himself indulged in conspiracy theories, including that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.)

Experts unaffiliated with either the Jones or Moore campaigns quickly said the lawsuit’s arguments appeared meritless.

Moore isn't going to go away anytime soon. The GOP in Alabama is delusional if they think he will. For every race that Moore might enter, the Democrats should find the strongest possible candidates.

The Derp is Strong With That One

I can't even begin to unpack the load of snark this generates.