“Clang! Clang! Clang!” Go the Cell Doors

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted on Thursday of orchestrating a plot for members of his far-right extremist group to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.

A jury in Washington, D.C., found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV.

Heh. Goombye, Asswipe.

Derby Day

This Saturday, full of horses, pomp and circumstance, a tradition partially based on slavery, with lots of mostly white people wearing fancy getups.

There is something similar to that going on in Bloodye Olde Englande on the same day, except for the racing. But, from my perspective, we fought two wars so that we don't have to put up with that shit.

The other day, I walked a forest preserve in southern New England. The land is somewhat hilly, with lots of rock coming through the ground. There are ancient stone walls there, from when the land was farmed. But it got me to thinking: The land was farmed, in part, because the previous inhabitants were all but exterminated in one of the bloodiest wars in American history (going by percentage of the populations killed). After that, those stone-laden fields were farmed by generations of farmers, who endured back-breaking labor to eke out a living from the land. They were as tough as woodpecker lips.

What overfed, sclerotic bureaucrats an ocean away thought that such people would be easily cowed?

The Dumbest Executives on Earth Work for Fox News Corp.Prove Me Wrong.

Text messages that helped lead Fox News to part ways with star host Tucker Carlson included one in which he declared that Trump supporters beating a protester was “not how white men fight,” according to The New York Times.

The text was one of a trove of messages from Carlson and other Fox News hosts uncovered in a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against the network for airing false allegations that the company’s machines were used to steal the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump.

it took until that email came out that it dawned in the consciousness of those idiots that their star loudmouth was a misogynistic and racist troll who dabbled in conspiracy theories and that maybe, just maybe, he did believe some of the shit he spewed five nights a week? What the fuck, they never watched his show? they never saw the work of any of the comedians who mocked him? Instead of watching what aired on their cable channel, were they spending their nights doing cocaine with Spawn of DJT?

As for the rest of us: After the stuff that has come out as a result of DVS's lawsuit, anyone who doesn't realize that Fox is not a news channel, that all it does is feed propaganda and pablum to its core vewers, who are too addled/programmed to handle the truth, is either willfully blind or has had several lobotomies with both electrodes and ice-picks.

Wrenching These Down, Here

Tacopina Knows He's Screwed the Pooch; Grumpy Trumpy Felon Ed.

Former President Donald Trump's lawyer Joseph Tacopina has requested a mistrial in the E. Jean Carroll rape case, accusing the judge of acting unfairly in favor of Carroll.

My guess is that Tacopina filed the motion because his client told him to. Whining about people being so, so unfair to him is a hallmark of the World's Oldest Toddler.

If not that, it could be because Tacopina may believe that his overly aggressive cross-examination of Carroll isn't playing well. That might have worked fifty years ago, but times have changed.

Nothing is New Under the Sun; Gunnie Ed.

Lights on pistols? I give you the Wespi Pistol Light:

In some ways, it was more like a laser sight. The Wespi light had a black dot at the center of the light beam. It may have had black bars at four edges of the light cone to aid in sighting.

Activation apparently was even easer than a Crimson Trace laser sight. When the gun was levelled, the light came on, due to an internal mercury switch. When it was lowered and holstered, the light switched itself off.

I read about it in an old book about handgunning, Pistol and Revolver Shooting, by A. L. A. Himmelwright. The device came out just before the First World War.

My guess is that it was both expensive and too delicate for professional use, so it faded from use in the 1920s. But I don't know for certain.

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?