Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The precious and irreplacable F-22:

A Giant Goes West

Millie Hughes-Fulford, astronaut and UCSF scientist, dies at 75.

She was the first scientist to do biomedical research in space. Among other things, she was a leading researcher in the problem of bone loss during extended spaceflight.

If humanity ever flies to Mars, it will be standing on the shoulders of the research done b Dr. Hughes-Fulford.

Yeah, Sure, It Was Just a Coincidence

Fox Corp’s Fox Business Network has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” a weekday program hosted by the business journalist and vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, the company said on Friday.

News of the cancellation came one day after Dobbs, 75, was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine maker Smartmatic, which argued that three Fox hosts, including Dobbs, falsely accused the company of helping to rig the election against Trump.

One of the other defendants was Fox News itself. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion, which was probably enough to get that withered alter kocker who owns the company. This doesn't seem to be a lawsuit that is going to easily go away.

Meanwhile, noted rich lunatic Mike Lindell bought airtime on Trump TV OAN to run his three-hour alternative-reality propaganda screed claiming that Martians or the Centauri stole the election. The network ran a "Oh Lord, please don't sue us" disclaimer before it. As the linked story and others have noted, the disclaimer got more attention than the torrent of bullshit following it. Because the legal fact of the matter is that third-party advertising (which is what Lindell's screech-fest was) opens the people airing it to such lawsuits.

So, is OAN going to find itself being sued to the gills over this? If you were going to bet whether or not OAN is going to be sued for airing it, I'd not put serious money on "no", not without getting really good odds.

Caturday, Guest Critter Ed:

King Louie:

I don't know from chickens, so I don't know what breed he is.

Too Rich Not to Share

smallestdick.com

(It's not porno, it's safe for work.)

Because It's Friday

Streamlined German steam:

The Irony is Deep in This One

New York’s top police official responsible for combating workplace harassment was fired on Wednesday, three weeks after an internal investigation concluded that he wrote racist online rants targeting Black, Hispanic and Jewish people, police officials said.

The official, Deputy Inspector James F. Kobel, has denied wrongdoing. He was placed on modified duty when the departmental inquiry started in November and was suspended in January.
...
The inspector did not appear to present a defense, and a Police Department administrative judge, Jeff S. Adler, found him guilty of six charges, including lying to investigators, impeding the investigation and posting the racist remarks.

He also was convicted of wrongfully divulging department information on the message board and improperly using police equipment, including a cellphone.
...
Inspector Kobel joined the department in June 1992 and most recently oversaw the department’s Equal Employment Opportunity Division. He will keep his pension.

Yep, they really slapped his wrist, hard. But man, this guy being in charge of the EEO Division was akin to putting Jeffry Dahlmer in charge of protecting against cannibalism.

The Party of Trump is the QAnon Party

House Democrats planned a showdown vote for Thursday over stripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments over her endorsement of racist and conspiratorial views, as the chamber’s top Republican signaled he would not bow to bipartisan demands to punish her.

Since the Republicans will not move against Greene, they own her. They own everything that she says, that she stands for. And very much this and this.

Remember this: U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by insurrectionists who were of the same stripe and flavor of Greene. The Republicans will honor Sicknick but will take no action against those who egged on the killers.

Hal Holbrook

Hal Holbrook, the craftsman who reincarnated Mark Twain on stage and screen for more than six decades and also stood out as Abraham Lincoln and Deep Throat, two other American legends, has died. He was 95.

Normally, I don't comment on celebrity passings. I tend to be of the opinion that master plumber are more important than movie actors.

But I'm making an exception for Mr. Holbrook. I saw his one-man Mark Twain show a very long time ago. A nice touch was, when starting one of the acts, he puffed smoke from his cigar from behind the curtain at stage left. It got a laugh.

What reading that I've done of Mark Twain was because my interest was sparked by his portrayal. He was, to my mind, Mr. Twain. One of the pieces Mr. Holbrook did during the show was from "Advice to Youth":

Don't meddle with old unloaded firearms. They are the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been created by man. You don't have to take any pains at all with them; you don't have to have a rest, you don't have to have any sights on the gun, you don't have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him. A youth who can't hit a cathedral at thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three-quarters of an hour, can take up an old empty musket and bag his mother every time at a hundred. Think what Waterloo would have been if one of the armies had been boys armed with old rusty muskets supposed not to be loaded, and the other army had been composed of their female relations. The very thought of it makes me shudder.

I was able to use that to good effect in a legal case, which pissed the hell out of the other lawyer.

Trump's Legal Strategy, Such As It Is

Trump is due to file a response to the impeachment charge on Tuesday but replaced his lead legal counsel over the weekend. ... Trump’s response to the charge likely will indicate whether he will continue to argue without merit that he lost the presidential election because of widespread voter fraud.

Trump, apparently, is determined to argue that the election was stolen from him, which in effect, is arguing that his coup attempt was justified.

I want to see that argument made by Trump during his trial. I want the fifty senators on the GOP side of the aisle to have to decide whether or not they are going to stand up for Trump or stand up for the Constitution. I want to to have to say whether or not they believe that trying to retain (or seize) power in a coup attmept is permissible.

I want those senators to have to vote whether or not the mob howling to stretch their necks on Jnuary 6th was acting lawfully or not.

My view is that everyone who supported Trump's self-coup has forfeited their moral right to be considered as a loyal American. They should all pack their shit up and move to a country where the governing principle is might makes right. Too bad for them that they'll have to learn Russian, Chinese, Burmese, Arabic or Farsi.