Juror Oversleeps and is Imprisoned

A Florida juror has been sentenced to 10 days in prison after he overslept and missed the start of a court case.

Deandre Somerville, 21, of West Palm Beach, was chosen to serve on a jury in August.

But on the first day of the trial he overslept by at least two hours and failed to notify the court.

Judge John Kastrenakes held him in criminal contempt, also imposing 150 hours' community service and a $223 (£180) fine as well as the jail term.

After serving his time in prison, Somerville is appealing against the sentence, arguing it was "excessive".

I am rather skeptical about this one. An enterprising reporter might want to find out how many white guys the judge has sent to jail for anything similar.

The Press is Full of Shit (and So Are the Republicans)

They keep focusing on whether or not there was a quid pro quo with regard to Trump and Ukraine.

Asking for donations, whether in cash or in kind, from a foreign government is like soliciting prostitution: You don't have to get anything in order to be charged.

You can ask Robert Kraft about that.

Caturday

Chip

I broke out my D3100 and charged up the batteries. I do need to get a decent telephoto for outdoors. "Getting closer" doesn't work at the shore.

The Self-Impeaching President

President Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he raised corruption accusations against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. during a phone call with Ukraine’s leader..

And:

President Trump said Thursday that China should investigate the business dealings of 2020 rival Joe Biden's son, Hunter, as he doubled down on his prior -- and controversial -- call for Ukraine to do the same.

Trump is violating Federal law in the open. Asking for foreign assistance for a political campaign is soliciting foreign contributions is illegal. No quid pro quo is required, no response is needed. The ask, in and of itself, completes the crime.

The naysayers are right: Trump could gun down someone in Times Square and his sycophants, such as Lindsey Graham, would praise his marksmanship.

Because It's Friday

At the Grand Canyon

B-17 Crash

A B-17 crashed while returning to Bradley Airport with an emergency. At least seven people died.

A lightly-loaded B-17 should have easily been able to fly with one engine out. There is some speculation about that this may have been a fueling error, with the airplane refueled with Jet-A instead of aviation gasoline. Piston engines won't run on kerosene.

It'll be interesting to see what the NTSB report says.

As a Nation, We Look Stupidier and Stupider

Shit like this is making us look both petty and retarded.

Kyle Kuchirka, 25, an actor and recent graduate of the University of Saskatchewan's drama department, said he tried to cross the U.S. border between Abbotsford, B.C., and Sumas, Wash., on Aug. 29.

Kuchirka, who is also a set designer, said he was on his way to volunteer his skills at the Sh'Bang Art Festival near Bellingham, Wash. But he was questioned at the border by an agent, who then directed him to a side room inside the large customs building.

After more than four hours of questioning, he said, he was handed a document informing him he was prohibited from entering the U.S. for five years. "You do not have work authorization," the document stated.
...
Inside the customs building, Kuchirka said the guard told him he would be taking American jobs.

Kuchirka replied that he was a volunteer, and his only payment was free meals. He was paying all of his own expenses.

I imagine that former Soviet customs offers can only look at our CBP people and say to themselves "we were never that mean-spirited."

The Acts of a Man with a Guilty Conscience

Pompeo has implemented his phase of the cover-up:

Taking a defiant stance in the impeachment inquiry, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday declared that House Democrats are trying to “intimidate, bully and treat improperly” five current and former career officials in seeking information in the Ukraine investigation.

Pompeo said in a letter to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as part of the chamber’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, that the requested dates for the officials to voluntarily appear for depositions were “not feasible.”

News broke within the last day that Pompeo was in on Trump's "perfect call," as Trump puts it, with the President of Ukraine.

Why did Trump release the transcript, a rational person might ask. It's because he sees the entirety of the Federal government as his personal plaything, in the same was that everyone at the Trump enterprises had to bow to his every whim. Trump cannot conceive of it being wrong to use the power of his office to benefit his campaign or to enrich himself.

Trump serves only himself. He serves no cause, no country, nothing other than his own naked self-interest. I know of no instance in Trump's life where he did anything to benefit anyone else. Even his much-promoted rebuilding of the Central Park ice rink was done to benefit Trump. He owns the company that operates the ice rink.

Trump is a grifter. His family are grifters. His cabinet is largely made up of fools who have sold what was left of their good names in order to have a seat at Trump's table. They have managed to con the base of the GOP, most of whom will never admit that they've fallen for the con. In some ways, I pity them.

iOS 13

If you have an iPhone and you have not yet installed iOS 13 on it, I have one word of advice: Don't.

iOS 13 is, first off, a battery hog. I put it on when it first came out and my battery life on my SE went to shit. That was a bit of a surprise, for part of the hype of iOS 13 was that it improved battery life.

iOS 13 was released on September 19th. Five days later, Apple released 13.1. 13.1.1 was released three days after that. Yesterday, or three days later, iOS 13.1.2 was released.

In other words, iOS 13 is as buggy as a Louisiana bayou.

If you're still on iOS 12, you may want to wait to upgrade until 13 gets to the point that it can go a few weeks without being patched/repaired/unfucked a little more.

Impeachable Don (and HK)

Cue up another article of impeachment!

A key House Democrat said he’s consulting lawyers about whether to make public a complaint by a federal employee about possible misconduct in the Internal Revenue Service’s auditing of President Donald Trump.

The complaint raises allegations about “inappropriate efforts to influence” the audit process, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in August. Neal told reporters on Friday that a decision on releasing the complaint depends on advice he receives from lawyers for the House of Representatives.

This is early, but if Mnuchin pressured the IRS to take it easy on Trump, that's a clear abuse of power. Then comes the question whether Mnuchin did it on his own or if he was told to by Trump.

Either way, ordering the IRS to go easy on the president is corrupt as fuck.

Meanwhile, China has significantly reinforced its garrison in Hong Kong:

Last month, Beijing moved thousands of troops across the border into this restive city. They came in on trucks and armored cars, by bus and by ship.

The state news agency Xinhua described the operation as a routine “rotation” of the low-key force China has kept in Hong Kong since the city’s handover from Britain in 1997. No mention was made of the anti-government protests that have been shaking the metropolis since June.
...
A month on, Asian and Western envoys in Hong Kong say they are certain the late-August deployment was not a rotation at all, but a reinforcement. Seven envoys who spoke to Reuters said they didn’t detect any significant number of existing forces in Hong Kong returning to the mainland in the days before or after the announcement.

A significant element of the reinforcements are not army troops, but internal security forces, the People's Armed Police. As the article explains, the PAP was greatly expanded when the Chinese government learned that using tanks and automatic weapons to suppress a demonstration didn't play well overseas.