Month: April 2021

About Bloody Time

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Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced that the Department of Justice will be conducting an in depth review of policing in Minneapolis.

Considering the reputation of the Minneapolis PD was among the worst in the nation even before Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, this is long overdue:

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced a sweeping Justice Department probe into the practices and culture of the Minneapolis Police Department, elevating the federal government’s role a day after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of killing George Floyd.

Garland said the pattern-or-practice civil investigation would be conducted separately from an ongoing federal criminal probe opened during the Trump administration over whether the Black man’s civil rights were violated during his arrest and death last May.

The new examination will go beyond Floyd’s case, Garland said, to determine whether the Minneapolis department has engaged in systemic misconduct that constituted “unconstitutional or unlawful policing.”

“Nothing can fill the void the loved ones of George Floyd have felt since his death,” Garland said during brief remarks at Justice Department headquarters. “My heart goes out to them and to all those who have experienced similar loss.”

He added that “justice is sometimes slow, sometimes elusive and sometimes never comes. The DOJ will be unwavering in its pursuit of equal justice under the law.”

If this ends with a consent decree, those involved in the negotiations, the Minneapolis city government, the Minnesota Governor, and the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison should do their level best to roll back the more odious parts of the police collective bargaining agreement.

Also, NYPD Officers Will Have to Start Asking Their Wives for Blow Jobs Again

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On the Stellar Parthenon BBS, user DC noted, upon hearing that the Manhattan DA will stop pursuing prostitution prosecutions, cynically observed that, “The income for NYPD officers just dropped by 20%, now that they can’t shake down the women.“

I noted (See title) that it will likely effect their home and family life as well. 

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. announced on Wednesday that his office would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage.

The new policy, according to a press release from the office, will prevent unnecessary future contacts with the criminal justice system, eliminate the collateral consequences associated with having a prostitution case or conviction and “empower New Yorkers to interact with law enforcement without fear of arrest or deportation.”

“Over the last decade we’ve learned from those with lived experience, and from our own experience on the ground: criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers,” Vance said in a statement.

“By vacating warrants, dismissing cases, and erasing convictions for these charges, we are completing a paradigm shift in our approach,” he added.

Thoughts and Prayers

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Ted Nugent has Covid.

Musician Ted Nugent has tested positive for coronavirus months after he said that the virus was “not a real pandemic”.

In his Christmas message shared on social media in December, Nugent called the worldwide crisis a “scammy pandemic” and said that people who wore masks were “sheep”.

On Monday (19 April), Nugent revealed on Facebook Live that he had caught Covid-19, admitting that “everybody” told him that he shouldn’t announce his diagnosis.

“I have had flu symptoms for the last 10 days and I thought I was dying, just a clusterf***,” he said.

“Today is the 19th of April 2021 during clusterf*** pandemic… I was tested positive today. I got the Chinese s***.”

Dumbass.

Every Single Damn Obituary Relegates His Greatest Accomplishment to the 3rd Paragraph

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Former Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale died last night, and every single obituary downplays his role in passing the fair housing act. 

He sponsored the bill, and got it through the senate after years of effort.

The above link does not even mention the Fair Housing Act, relegating it to the throw away line describing him as a, “Champion of such liberal causes as open housing and anti-poverty programs.”

And his whole life is reduced to, “The guy wot got destroyed in the 1984 Presidential election.”

This is a disgrace.

Never Happier to be Wrong

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Chauvin Upset He Isn’t Able to Properly Celebrate Hitler’s Birthday Thanks to Guilty Verdict https://t.co/6PmmnYQw7b pic.twitter.com/TKZzmtkmK7

— The Hard Times (@REALpunknews) April 20, 2021

Yeah, Pretty Much

I have not been commenting on the Derek Chauvin trial, because I found it too depressing.

I figured that in Minneapolis a city legendary both for antisemitism and for its completely dysfunctional police force, that at most Chauvin would get was a conviction for 2nd degree manslaughter, be sentenced to less than 5 years, and be out in less than 2 years, particularly after the jury deliberated about 10 hours.

I was completely wrong, and I am elated to be wrong.  The now-convicted murderer was convicted on all three counts, and, assuming that the judge is not completely in the tank for the malefactors in Minneapolis law enforcement, is facing decades in prison:

Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder for killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, a crime that prompted waves of protests in support of racial justice in the US and across the world.

The jury swiftly and unanimously convicted Chauvin of all the charges he faced – second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter – after concluding that the white former Minneapolis police officer killed the 46-year-old Black man in May through a criminal assault, by pinning him to the ground so he could not breathe.

Huge cheers immediately went up among a crowd of several hundred people outside the heavily fortified courthouse with people chanting “All three counts” and “Whose victory? Our victory!”

And then things went back to normal, when a cop in Columbus pumped 4 rounds into the chest of a 15 year old girl.

………

However, a fatal police shooting in Ohio of a 15-year-old girl, which took place just moments before the verdict was read, unleashed a sense of fury and frustration among protesters who gathered at the scene.

“We don’t get to celebrate nothing,” said one protester, KC Taynor, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “In the end, you know what, you can’t be Black.”

Chauvin, who showed little emotion as the verdicts were read, was immediately taken into custody to await sentencing. He faces up to 40 years in prison but is likely to receive a shorter sentence, according to legal guidelines.

What happened in Minneapolis is not just about one specific violent incident. It’s about systemic violence as well. This absurd headline from the Minneapolis Police Dept. drives that home. In a better world it would read “Minneapolis cop kills resident in broad daylight.” pic.twitter.com/6mrL3rBTCi

— Josh Skolnick (@JoshDSkolnick) May 26, 2020

Police lie confirmed on Snopes

It should be noted that if not for a teenage girl capturing the video of George Floyd’s murder, the police department lies about this incident would have meant that Chauvin would still be out on the streets, free to kill again.

In a related note, Nancy Pelosi needs to resign, because she is suffering from what can only be described as senile wokeness.

When she literally said that she thanked George Floyd for his sacrifice in the cause of civil rights, she was so clueless and so offensive that she needs to be removed from her position as speaker of the house.

This is even more racist and more clueless than Trent Lott’s endorsement of Strom Thurmond’s segregationist 1948 Presidential campaign in 2002.

It’s even worse because she did this at a Congressional Black Caucus press conference.

Sorry Madam Speaker, but as much as you love the limelight, this was a time for members of the CBC to take center stage, not you.

Also, Floyd was not a civil rights activist, he was a victim of a murder by a corrupt and evil police officer:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was condemned on Tuesday saying that George Floyd, a Minneapolis man murdered by a police officer in 2020, “sacrificed his life” for racial justice, a statement some critics called “ignorant” and “tone deaf.”

………

“Thank you George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice. For being there to call out to your mom, how heartbreaking was that, call out for you mom, ‘I can’t breathe,'” Pelosi said at a press conference hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus following the verdict. “But because of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.”

What a f%$#ing clueless narcissist.

Your Daily Schadenfreude

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The DoJ has sued Roger Stone for $2 million in unpaid taxes.

That’s what they got Al Capone for: 

The Justice Department sued Roger Stone on Friday, accusing him of failing to pay more than $2 million in taxes.

The suit, filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, alleges Stone, 67, and his wife, Nydia, dodged $1,590,361 in taxes between 2007 and 2011 and stiffed the IRS of $407,036 in 2018 alone. The couple used a company, Drake Ventures, to “shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle,” according to the Justice Department.

The DOJ calls Drake Ventures “an alter ego of the Stones,” alleging that despite appearances of separation between the couple and the company, “the Stones dominated and controlled Drake Ventures to such an extent that it does not exist as an independent entity.” The mailing address of the company is the Stone’s house, and the husband and wife each own 50 percent of the LLC, according to the suit. The Florida Secretary of State has twice dissolved the company.

The Stones allegedly sent checks that listed Roger Stone as the payee to Drake Ventures, upwards of $1 million in total for 2018 and 2019. The company would pay for most of the Stones’ purchases and financial liabilities, including $500,000 in taxes in 2018 and 2019 and the $140,000 down payment on their condominium in February 2019. The company did all this, the DOJ alleges, without keeping necessary documentation. The financial arrangement “evaded and frustrated the IRS’s collection efforts,” DOJ lawyers wrote.

“[The Stones] used Drake Ventures to receive payments payable to Roger Stone personally, pay their personal expenses, shield their assets, and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS,” the DOJ alleges.

In addition to the Stones and Drake Ventures, the Justice Department is also suing the company that owns the Stones’ condominium, Bertran Family Revocable Trust, alleging that the transfer of ownership was a fraudulent transaction meant to further hide the Stones from financial liability. Nydia Stone is sole grantor and sole trustee, the suit says, giving her complete control over it.

How sweet.  The lovely couple is dodging taxes together, just like Carlo Ponti and Sofia Loren, only, of course, we don’t generally associate Ponti and Loren with ineluctable evil.

Not One to Talk About the Classics

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I did read Plato in high school, and tagged the Greek philosopher as a proto-Fascist, and read a fair amount more modern philosophy, and mave made an effort to understand the basic concepts at the heart of what is generally called, “Western Thought,” but it’s never been a huge part of my life or my, “Thinking.”

So I am not one of those people completely losing their sh%$ over Howard University abandoning the classics in its curriculum. 

What I am surprised by is that one of the people who wrote this OP/ED in the Post is the luminaries of African American academe, Cornell West.

I should not be surprised, if you look at his background, it is clear that he spent much of his formative years in the study of philosophers and philosophies from across the world, including those who are lumped under the sobriquet of, “The Classics.”

One of the best things about the article is that it is so much more thoughtful and well written that we can expect to hear from Fox News in the next few days:

Upon learning to read while enslaved, Frederick Douglass began his great journey of emancipation, as such journeys always begin, in the mind. Defying unjust laws, he read in secret, empowered by the wisdom of contemporaries and classics alike to think as a free man. Douglass risked mockery, abuse, beating and even death to study the likes of Socrates, Cato and Cicero.

Long after Douglass’s encounters with these ancient thinkers, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would be similarly galvanized by his reading in the classics as a young seminarian — he mentions Socrates three times in his 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”

Yet today, one of America’s greatest Black institutions, Howard University, is diminishing the light of wisdom and truth that inspired Douglass, King and countless other freedom fighters. Amid a move for educational “prioritization,” Howard University is dissolving its classics department. Tenured faculty will be dispersed to other departments, where their courses can still be taught. But the university has sent a disturbing message by abolishing the department.

Academia’s continual campaign to disregard or neglect the classics is a sign of spiritual decay, moral decline and a deep intellectual narrowness running amok in American culture. Those who commit this terrible act treat Western civilization as either irrelevant and not worthy of prioritization or as harmful and worthy only of condemnation.

It is a glorious expression of intellectual fury.

Failure is VERY Profitable

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Following her 9 point drubbing by Susan Collins, Democrat Sara Gideon still has $11,000,000.00 left in her campaign accounts.

By way of context, the population of Maine is 1.35 million.

Collins raised about $30 million, and Gideon raised about $75 million.  (And the loser spent only about 85% of that, because there is only so much media in Maine)

This is addition to at least $70,000,000.00 in “independent” PAC spending.

This from a campaign that was literally sending out frantic funding requests emails the day before the election.

The reason that they spent so much money was that for every media buy, the consultants associates with the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) got a percentage.

The same thing happened in Kentucky, where Mitch McConnell destroyed the hapless Amy McGrath by almost 20 points.

In both cases, the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) chose to run a largely content free campaign and a largely content free candidate, and the only winners on the Den side were the consultants.

The same could be said from North Carolina, where 3rd party expenditures, and hence commissions, dwarfed spending be l by both campaigns.

All of these races were seen as winnable, and all of these races were not even close, despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).

By comparison, Democrats won both (still hugely expensive) races in Georgia, largely on the get out the vote efforts of Stacy Abrams, which were a TINY fraction of total spending.  (I still don’t trust her though, because of her choices in literature)

For to many in the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), the strategies never change, because they make money from these failed strategies.  Lots and lots of money, something like 20% on media buys, and 10% on fundraising.

My advice is the same as always tell the DCCC, DSCC, and the DNC to pound sand, never respond to online or phone solicitations for funds, and chose your candidates yourself.

Act Blue is good, but going through a candidate’s web site is better, and you can get links to their web sites through Act Blue.

Until the plague of consultants, who I liken to a plague of locusts, are ejected from the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), it’s all you can do.

H/t Atrios

—
Posted via mobile. 

Headline of the Day

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Political Reporters Are Hurting America, So How about Getting Rid Of Most Of Them?

—Dan Froomkin

He’s completely right.

The coverage of politics in isolation from actually doing stuff produces hack journalism focusing on, “The Game.”

Political reporters know nothing about anything BUT politics, and hold this as a badge of honor, and because their beat gives them license to write about everything, because politics is more often than not a triviality, it touches on everything.

Support Your Local Police

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It turns out that lots of cops have been making donations to racist murderer Kyle Rittenhouse.

If you are wondering how cops can donate to a racist murderer, you are not paying attention.  They are donating to a racist murderer, BECAUSE he was a racist murderer:

A data breach at a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials have donated money to fundraisers for accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.

In many of these cases, the donations were attached to their official email addresses, raising questions about the use of public resources in supporting such campaigns.

The breach, shared with journalists by transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, revealed the details of some donors who had previously attempted to conceal their identities using GiveSendGo’s anonymity feature, but whose identifying details the website preserved.

The beneficiaries of donations from public officials include Kyle Rittenhouse, who stands accused of murdering two leftwing protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August. Rittenhouse traveled from neighboring Illinois to, by his own account, offer armed protection to businesses during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

……

Among the donors were several associated with email addresses traceable to police and other public officials.

One donation for $25, made on 3 September last year, was made anonymously, but associated with the official email address for Sgt William Kelly, who currently serves as the executive officer of internal affairs in the Norfolk police department in Virginia.

That donation also carried a comment, reading: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

The comment continued: “Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”

…….

Meanwhile, several Wisconsin police officers donated to a fundraiser, “Support Rusten Sheskey”, held for the Kenosha police department officer whose shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, led to the protests that drew Rittenhouse to the city.

…….

Another donation to Sheskey was associated with the official email address of officer Pat Gainer of the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin police department. Given under the screen name “PPPD Motor 179”, the donation also carried the comment: “Stay strong brother.”

About 32 more donations, totaling more than $5,000, came to Sheskey from private email addresses associated with Kenosha officers, but under badge numbers rather than names.

It goes on, and on, and on, but you have to conclude that violent racism is supported by a significant portion of our constabulary.

This needs to be ended.

 

 

Back to Normal

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In yet another indication that we are returning to a post-pandemic new normal, a mass shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx warehouse has killed at least 8 people. 

The situation was made even worse because FedEx has a policy of requiring employees to turn over their cell phones at the beginning of a shift, which means that loved ones could not contact them, and they could not call the police.

Officials with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department identified the eight victims of the mass shooting at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis on Friday night, more than 20 hours after the gunman opened fire on Thursday.

Families of people who worked at the warehouse were gathered at a hotel in the hours after the shooting, waiting for news. FedEx employees are not allowed to use their phones on the floor of the warehouse, complicating the reuniting of employees and their loved ones.

The victims were identified by the police as Matthew R. Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74. Some family members of victims who were Sikh provided different spellings and ages: Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Amarjit Sekhon, 49; and Jaswinder Singh, 70.

Officials said the gunman, a 19-year-old, was a former employee of the company whose mother had warned law enforcement officials last year that he might try to attempt “suicide by cop.” An F.B.I. special agent confirmed that the gunman had been interviewed by federal agents in April 2020, and that he was put on an “immediate detention mental health temporary hold.”

He was not charged with a crime, and the agent said that a shotgun was not returned to him.

………

The violence in Indianapolis comes only weeks after mass shootings last month at spas in the Atlanta area and at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., renewing pressure on lawmakers in Washington to address America’s deep-seated problem with gun violence.

Officials used a common word — “another” — to define the tragedy.

………

The atmosphere was fraught at a nearby hotel on Friday as families of workers at the facility waited for word about loved ones, many of whom were not allowed to have their cellphones at work.

(emphasis mine) 

There are many things that I missed from the before times: Restaurants, movie theaters, bars, and theater immediately come to mind.

There are also things that I really do not miss, in person meetings, commuting, and especially mass shootings.

At the very least, I had hoped that the pace of mass shootings would not return to their pre-pandemic levels so quickly.

Karma’s a Bitch, Neh?

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Liberty University has just sued Jerry Falwell Jr. for ten million dollars, claiming that his behavior ran counter to his obligations as an officer of the school.

I only hope that there is a way for both of them to lose:

Liberty University filed a lawsuit this week against its former president Jerry Falwell Jr., alleging that he breached his contract and fiduciary duties to the school as he sought to cover up a personal scandal.

The evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Va., is seeking more than $10 million in damages from the man who led it for 13 years. The suit filed Thursday in Lynchburg Circuit Court marked another twist in the saga of Falwell’s messy departure last year from Liberty.

………

Later that month he agreed to resign after news reports emerged about a young man Falwell and his wife, Rebecca Falwell, had befriended who allegedly was sexually connected to the couple. Falwell has said that his wife, who also goes by Becki, had a brief affair with the man.

Falwell, 58, filed a defamation suit against Liberty in October, alleging the school accepted without verifying what he called false statements made by the young man. He later dropped the lawsuit.

In its lawsuit, Liberty contends that Falwell failed to return university-owned computers, devices and confidential information to Liberty and that he failed to disclose to the university alleged threats of extortion he had received in connection with potential personal scandals.

………

The 38-page complaint alleges that Falwell deliberately sought to hide the affair. “Despite his clear duties as an executive and officer at Liberty, Falwell Jr. chose personal protection,” the suit alleged.

Further, the suit alleged: “Falwell Jr.’s actions in breaching the fiduciary duty he owed to Liberty were willful and wanton and disregarded the rights of Liberty.”

………

When Falwell resigned in August, he said he was entitled to $10.5 million in severance. Liberty, in its lawsuit, disputes that claim.

His severance package is a major issue in the suit. Liberty alleges that Falwell concealed information about extortion threats from the governing board when he negotiated a new contract in 2019 that included a higher salary and a provision for two years of severance pay, under certain conditions, worth a total of $2.5 million. The suit indicates that Liberty agreed to that level of payout on Aug. 28, 2020.

It appears that everyone involves worships Benjamin Franklin. Isn’t there something in the bible about worshiping false gods?

………

Falwell’s father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., was a prominent leader of the religious right who founded Liberty University and a nearby church.

Under Jerry Falwell Jr., who became Liberty’s president and chancellor after his father died in 2007, the school grew enormously and became a frequent stop for Republican politicians and others who wanted to connect with conservative evangelical Christian audiences.

………

Liberty recently announced that Jonathan Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Falwell Jr.’s brother, will become the school’s campus pastor at the end of the semester.

That last bit has gotta hurt.

I hope that this case burns through decades and consumes millions of dollars from both institutions.

The Rule, Not the Exception

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In 2015, it was revealed that charter school Success Academy, and its CEO Eva Moskowitz had systematically pushed special needs students out of their school through a program of harassment of the children and the parents.

The parents targeted sued, and the charter school chain has to pay $2.4 million dollars. 

To put that in perspective, that is 3 years of taxpayer funded salary for Ms. Moskowitz:

You might have caught this story, but I don’t want you to miss it.

Success Academy has long been one of the stars of the charter school world. But in 2015, Kate Taylor at the New York Times reported on a secret “got to go” list that targeted students that SA administrators wanted to push out, part of a general pattern of deliberately making life difficult for students that the schools simply didn’t want. It was not a good look for Eva Moskowitz and her charter crew. Moskowitz pushed back and defended the principal who was caught (but then shortly thereafter reassigned Candido Brown to an elementary classroom teaching job). And as the smoke cleared, Moskowitz went back to business as usual.

But five families sued. Their children were on that list, and they had all been pushed out of SA.

They sued Success Academy for targeting families–particularly families of students with special needs– to try to get them to withdraw. Said one of the lawyers handling the case, “Success Academy’s harsh, inflexible, one-size-fits-all approach to discipline is at odds with its obligation to reasonably accommodate students’ disabilities. These children and their families were forced to withdraw from the Success Academy network not only because their educational needs were not being met, but also because they were explicitly not welcome there.”

She’s not kidding. It was ugly.

The litigation centered on five children, then a mere 4 to 5 years old, with diagnosed or perceived disabilities. Success Academy did not provide appropriate accommodations, and frequently dismissed the students prior to the end of the school day – often for behaviors like fidgeting and pouting. Success Academy also threatened to call child welfare authorities to investigate the children’s families, and even sent one child to a hospital psychiatric unit. Each family eventually removed their child from the Success Academy network.

Last month, in a decision that didn’t get nearly as much press as the original allegations, the five families won their suit.“Success Academy forced these families to withdraw their children by bullying and daily harassment, instead of providing a quality education free from discrimination,” said Laura D. Barbieri, Special Counsel to Advocates for Justice. “New York’s parents and children deserve better, and we are pleased these families achieved justice.”

Will a $2.4 million price tag motivate Moskowitz to behave better and stop pushing out families that don’t fit her vision for the schools? I doubt it, though one can hope. But it’s reminder that charter schools are not public schools, and too often do not feel a need to act like public schools.

Actually, at least according to Baltimore City Public Schools, charters are technically public schools, and they are required to follow IEPs.  It’s just that they don’t.

Have some sympathy for Eva Moskowitz.  If she had to spend money on disabled students, she might have to take a pay cut.

Good.

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Both the Brooklyn Center police Chief and the cop who shot Daunte Wright have resigned. If this has happened a year ago, they would both still have their jobs.

Also, a year ago, Kimberly Potter would never have been charged with manslaughter.  Instead, at best, the DA would have commissioned a grand jury and then thrown the case as Bob McCulloch did in the case of the Michael Brown police murder in Ferguson, Missouri.

At the very least, the optics are changing.

George Floyd’s murder, and the protests growing from that, have led to a positive change in this country.

Good News on Initial Jobless Claims

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Initial jobless claims have finally fallen below their pre-pandemic record.

Well, that only took 13 months: 

Unemployment claims declined to the lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic struck last spring, adding to signs the U.S. economic revival is picking up speed.

Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 576,000 last week from 769,000 a week earlier. That is the lowest weekly figure since March 2020. Claims remain higher than the pre-pandemic levels of around 220,000, but economists expect they will continue to drop as the recovery accelerates.

“We are seeing both a strong reopening and rehiring in the economy at this time,” said Kathy Bostjancic, economist at Oxford Economics. “It’s been faster than most economists expected.”

Several factors are converging to boost growth across the economy. Vaccination rates are powering consumer spending, governments are relaxing restrictions on businesses, and federal-stimulus funds are flowing through the economy.

………

The total number of people receiving unemployment assistance is declining as the labor market heals. About 16.9 million people were collecting unemployment benefits through state and federal programs in the week ended March 27, down from 18.2 million a week earlier.
More on the Economy

The labor market still has a long way to go before achieving a full recovery. As of March, U.S. payrolls remained 8.4 million below their level in February 2020.

It’s unalloyed good news though the current situation remains pretty dire.

Gee, Now There’s a Surprise

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It turns out that the evidence that Russia put bounties on American Troops was decidedly sketchy.

The technical term for this is, “low to moderate confidence.”  The layman’s term for this is, “Likely bullsh%$.”

Color me not surprised. This allegation has been made against the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

It’s bullsh%$.  It’s always been bullsh%$.

When you invade someone’s country, the occupied citizenry will try to kill you for free:

It was a blockbuster story about Russia’s return to the imperial “Great Game” in Afghanistan. The Kremlin had spread money around the longtime central Asian battlefield for militants to kill remaining U.S. forces. It sparked a massive outcry from Democrats and their #resistance amplifiers about the treasonous Russian puppet in the White House whose admiration for Vladimir Putin had endangered American troops.

But on Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. intelligence only had “low to moderate” confidence in the story after all. Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the story is, at best, unproven—and possibly untrue.

………

“We have noted our conclusion of the review that we conducted on the bounties issue and we have conveyed through diplomatic, intelligence, and military channels strong, direct messages on this issue, but we are not specifically tying the actions we are taking today to that matter,” a senior administration official told reporters in reference to the bounty claims.

According to the officials on Thursday’s call, the reporting about the alleged “bounties” came from “detainee reporting”–raising the specter that someone told their U.S.-aligned Afghan jailers what they thought was necessary to get out of a cage. Specifically, the official cited “information and evidence of connections to criminal agents in Afghanistan and elements of the Russian government” as sources for the intelligence community’s assessment.

Given the rather dubious history regarding intelligence reports from tortured prisoners, I think that it’s safe to call bullshit, particularly since any halfway competent intelligence agency would be using cut-outs if they were making payments.

Also, there never was a justification for the Russians to do this.

Also, with 2,312 deaths in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, if the Russians wanted to kill Americans, they would have done a better job.

OK, This is Funny.

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It’s cruel, and crass, but today’s joke from Least I Could Do is really damn funny.

I would argue that of the Prince Philip funereal jokes, this one is the best.

To state the blatantly obvious, it’s funny to make jokes about creatng a fake Tinder profile for Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, but it is most assuredly NOT funny to actually make such a profile on Tinder.

It is even less funny to make a fake Grindr profile for Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

As an aside, does anyone know that the statute of limitations is for Lèse-majesté laws in the UK?

Russians Test Pulse-Detonation Engine

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Russia’s United Engine has has successfully tested a low thrust pulse detonation engine.

The short version of what a PDE is is that it is a formed of pulsed propulsion where instead of just burning the fuel (subsonic combustion) it detonates the fuel (supersonic combustion) creating about 50% more specific thrust.  (Ratio to thrust to all mass flow through the engine)

Higher specific thrust engines are more efficient, thermodynamics favors constant volume combustion, particularly at higher speeds.

My guess would be that the first real-world application might be as an afterburner, but seeing as how this program is funded by Rostec, they clearly see space applications:

Russian powerplant specialist United Engine has carried out initial testing of a pulse-detonation rocket motor which has potential application to orbital spaceplanes or hypersonic aircraft.

Pulse-detonation propulsion combusts fuel and oxidizer using detonation waves, with relatively few mechanical moving parts, offering a more efficient thermodynamic cycle than conventional gas turbines.

United Engine’s Lyulka design bureau – part of its Ufa-based UMPO division – has established a specific development project for such powerplants.

Russian state technology firm Rostec says the bureau has completed the first stage of tests for a demonstrator engine.

“In some operating modes the powerplant demonstrated up to 50% increase in specific thrust compared with traditional engines,” it adds, enabling aircraft range and payload to rise by a factor of 1.3-1.5.

Rostec envisions the design being applied to orbital spaceplanes and other future-generation aircraft operating at supersonic and hypersonic speeds.

I think that this is some seriously neat tech, but much like fusion, its application always seems to be about 10 years away.