Monthly Archives: March 2018

#BoxControl

12 Monday Mar 2018

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I don’t give a damn what the powerful National Box Association (NBA) has to say. And the Second Amendment does not concern me. The fact is it is past time for a national discussion on boxes. We need common sense box restrictions. #boxcontrol.

How many people have to die because of boxes? How many? I’m serious as a crisis actor. Tell me how many? Would two mass box attacks in a day be too much? How about three in ten days?

The Washington Post has identified one of the people injured in Southeast Austin during Monday’s second package explosion.

Esperanza Herrera is the 75-year-old woman injured in the explosion at the 6700 block of Galindo Street, according to relatives at the scene, the Post reported. They also said her mother, Maria Moreno, suffered minor injuries, the newspaper said.

The incident happened hours after police responded to a previous package explosion at the 4800 block of Oldfort Hill Drive, killing a teenager and injuring a woman, police have said. LaVonne Mason, co-founder of the Austin Area Urban League, told the Post her grandson was the 17-year-old victim killed Monday morning. The newspaper did not name the grandson.

3:20 p.m. update: A 75-year-old woman was injured after picking up an exploding package outside her Southeast Austin home on Monday in the second blast reported in the city and the third similar incident in two weeks, Austin police said.

Interim Police Chief Brian Manley confirmed that evidence suggested that this bombing was related to two previous blasts from “box-type deliveries” that killed a teenager earlier in the day and a 39-year-old man 10 days ago.

Manley warned the public about receiving unexpected or suspicious-looking deliveries in an “average-size delivery box,” but declined to offer more specifics about the packages to protect the integrity of the investigation.

He said the devices can be detonated by moving or by opening the boxes.

Old ladies scarred and terrorized. Generic men and teenage children killed. Enough is enough! I hereby call on President Donald J. Trump to administratively ban boxes via executive order!

High-capacity box-type device.

Assault-style delivery box.

Mercury-triggered, motion-activated killing box.

These are but synonyms for the plain, pure evil that is the box. The box that you, caring nothing for the children, YOU CLING TO!  Box clinger!

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A few years ago I tabulated some items and places that should be banned for safety.  In a momentary lapse of judgment I left off assault boxes. I say ban them. Ban them all – all types of these “packages.” Think, Dear Lord think, of the children.

It wasn’t a total lapse on my part. I specifically named “houses” as being direct accessory venues to all manner of atrocity. Had my recommendations been followed, I believe all of these poor, innocent people in Austin would have been spared. I guess the National House Association is like the NBA – too powerful and too well-connected. I say it’s time to silence these money-grubbing thugs. They no more have freedom of speech than you or I have the right to bear arms.

Okay … the boxes. It’s time, past time, to face facts:

Only the police and the military need such powerful and deadly cardboard constructed receptacles.

You cannot hunt with a box. (You! You with the stick, string, and rock! STFU, Yous!).

More school children in America are killed by boxes every single day than all the guns, cars, sugars, doctors, abortions, swimming pools, lightning bolts, falling trees, exploding hot water heaters, baseball bats, hammers, baseballs, nails, brimstone, and wars from the last three centuries combined.

Bubble wrap, found in many boxes, sounds when popped a lot like: little gun shots, very, very small bombs, or cap pistol fire. This is generally available to untrained civilians in this a supposedly civilized nation. Great Britain made bubble wrap illegal in 1984.

Someone called and told me CNN may classify these attacks as “school shootings”™. Young Hogg may, or may not be, speaking (agent cannot or will not confirm).

Boxes are scary.

They don’t say “the smoking BOX” for nothing.

You’re move likely to be killed with your own box than to use the box to thwart criminals or common woodland predators.

Blue-haired, be-gauged, tatted-up Tide Pod-eaters agree no one needs boxes.

The Second Amendment only allows Eric Holder to sell (or to give) boxes to foreign criminals and terrorists.

Some “big boxes” are banning rifles. I say ban the big boxes.

If you’re against #boxcontrol, you’re a racist.

UPS, FedEx, and other FOR PROFIT box pushers support capitalism. Marx said that’s bad.

Most assault rifles and almost all bullets are shipped and/or sold in boxes. Tell me that’s a coincidence!

Bibles, Constitutions, IQ tests, soap, and geometry books have also been seen inside boxes!

The ridiculous Trump-Twitter administration recently proposed shipping food to poor, hungry people. Shipping the food in boxes. Proof Twitter hates poor people.

Children, left unattended by horrible parents, used to (maybe some still do!) make rudimentary make-believe forts out of larger boxes. This hideous practice, once promoted by the John Birch Society, encourages free play, imagination, violent reenactments (Cowboys and Indians, my a$$), and boxism.

Thursday, after they’ve warmed up with the walk out for communism gun control, the kids are playing hooky for box control.

And … a whole bunch of other worn clichés!

Stop the madness! #boxcontrol!

Image uploaded from iOS (3)

Imperial Stormtroopers try to make sense of carnage caused by high-capacity, military-esque, assault-style, wouldn’t-the-Unibomber-be-proud, NBA-has-blood-soaked-cardboard box attack. The Statesman.

Dangerous Devices to Ban? – (New) Cars and Government

12 Monday Mar 2018

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Two blurbish news features from FP News. We now summarize some of the day’s prepperish stories for reader convenience (and traffic driving…).

NRA vs. FLA

The State of Florida, acting partly on pressures from teenagers, quickly passed a ban on gun ownership by those under age 21. Yes, in Florida, teenagers aren’t old enough to own guns but they are old enough to direct public policy. Curious.

This will surely halt all violent crime in the Sunshine State. There are no criminals (or terrorists) over 21 and everyone knows criminals (and terrorists) respect and obey the law… It is certainly NOT a first step (third, 28th…) towards total gun control.

More on Car Computer Hacking

This isn’t something exactly new. The danger has been publicized for a few years. But it is real. The most prevalent problem is that your phone has been synced and your information is vulnerable (like banking, passwords, etc.). Then, there’s the issue of someone hacking the car and using the controls to kill you. Car companies and our ever-so-benevolent government have known about this and done next to nothing.

The manufacturers are working on even more mobile killing computers and the gubmit is after guns. This all makes good sense as guns kill 1/3 as many Americans as cars.

Either way – you are largely on your own. Be advised.

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Hacker News.

Cigar Trivia Sunday

11 Sunday Mar 2018

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Ever stay at the Waldorf Astoria? Love cigars? Yes, that’s me too.

Well, luxury lovers, here’s something you might not have known – there was once a Wardorf-Astoria Cigar Company! It was based in the hotel on Fifth Avenue.

This was back in the old days when Cubans were a bit more common in the US and on sale at local shops. And, legal beagles, one of Waldorf’s Cubans led to first-run trademark litigation in New York! Um … the case was resolved amicably…

Anyway, Wikipedia, from whom I’m stealing all this historic wisdom, says that the WASC grew, in part, out of the great phenomenon of the United Cigar Company. In the roaring 20’s United had over 3,000 cigar stores! That’s the most I’ve ever heard of. J.R. has, what, 5?

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United’s Shop at NYC’s Flatiron Building, 1917.

Peacock Alley was for cigars. All those years ago.

Cigars.

Happy Sunday!

Military Parity vs. Nonintervention?

10 Saturday Mar 2018

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Parity: not necessary in terms of quality or quantity. Effectiveness, rather. Things change.

This morning (pre-scheduling this on Thursday night) I read a take on the new nuclear super weapons Putin was boasting of the other day. They may be real. And that may be real bad. Dr. Donald Miller, Jr. explains.

Then this (Thursday) evening I saw something by Vox Day. It seems that even without 100 MT bombs and hypersonic deliver capabilities, an enemy learns, rather fast, to adapt to the conditions of war. Read Vox’s take on yet another take:

This points out two more very good reasons not to engage in unnecessary foreign wars. First, you’re implicitly training your enemy. The longer you fight him, the more he will learn. Second, if you compound your error by engaging in “nation-building”, you will usually find yourself literally and explicitly training your enemy.

Over time, opposing forces tend to become more and more symmetrical. This is the process that we are beginning to see, both in terms of tactics and the demographics of the militaries themselves. US military supremacy was always bound to erode, because no military, not even the Roman legions have ever remained permanently superior. But this increasingly observed tactical symmetry is a clear indication that the erosion is picking up speed.

Minding one’s business comes to mind.

Oh, and happy Saturday!

Shocking Justice in Texas

09 Friday Mar 2018

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Some wonder why people have a hard time trusting the “justice” system. Here’s part of it: a Texas Judge repeatedly zaps a defendant with shock device for no good reason:

State District Judge George Gallagher of Tarrant County told a bailiff on three occasions to punish an uncooperative defendant with electric shocks, and now the sex offender’s conviction has been overturned and a new trial ordered.

Stun belts can be strapped around the legs of some defendants and used to deliver thousands of volts of electric shock in the instance a defendant turns violent or attempts to escape the courtroom. However, in the case of Terry Lee Morris, who was convicted in 2014 of charges of soliciting sexual performance from a 15-year-old girl, an appeals court found that Gallagher used electric shocks as punishment after Morris failed to answer the judge’s questions properly.

…

“While the trial court’s frustration with an obstreperous defendant is understandable, the judge’s disproportionate response is not. We do not believe that trial judges can use stun belts to enforce decorum,” Justice Yvonne T. Rodriguez said of Gallagher’s actions in the court’s opinion.

“A stun belt is a device meant to ensure physical safety; it is not an operant conditioning collar meant to punish a defendant until he obeys a judge’s whim. This Court cannot sit idly by and say nothing when a judge turns a court of law into a Skinner Box, electrocuting a defendant until he provides the judge with behavior he likes,” Rodriguez wrote.

I know some will read this (or have it read to them) and say, “Who cares? He’s a child mo-lester!” That may be true. It may be proven at a subsequent, lawful retrial. The problems here are several. And they illustrate that maybe, just maybe, in some cases the government lacks the moral authority to try child mo-lesters or anyone else.

First, there’s that pesky right to remain absolutely silent. Even in court. Even in defiance of the judge. One does not have to enter a plea. In the absence of a verbal or written plea the universal protocol is for a judge to enter the defendant as “not guilty” and set a jury trial. Why Judge Sparky missed that I can’t explain.

Second, if you do speak to the court, or in order to another party while in court, then they’re supposed to let you speak. They can gently admonish you to stay on subject but a shock device is a but much.

Third … cruel and unusual anyone? And for nothing. Normally, as the article hinted at, a disruptive party will simply be removed from the court room. This man said he was mentally ill and may actually be (even without the electric torture). Judges with more sense sometimes suspend trials and cases pending mental evaluations. Shrinks don’t use shock treatment (much) anymore.

Here, in this case and as the article makes clear, this defendant, annoying or not, was not combative. Protocol, which has to be nationwide – especially in large states like Texas, is to use the shock devices only to protect staff from an actually violent and dangerous suspect.

I think what this fellow was wearing was a shock “ankle bracelet.” Belts usually go around the waist. And they have waist worn shock belts. I’ve seen one used in court. In civilized jurisdictions they usually are required to test demonstrate how effective the belt is – and they are effective. At the judge’s order, the sheriff, the bailiff, or whoever is in charge of security, will test shock an officer, in court and in front of the defendant, the judge, and the public.

Only once did I see this happen, in a murder case with a potentially, allegedly well-trained and dangerous defendant. Maybe he wasn’t that dangerous, volatile to begin with, or maybe it was seeing a 300-pound deputy knocked off his feet by the 50,000 volts, but he never once acted out during his prolonged trial.

As an aside, that guy didn’t make it all the way through the trial. Sensing his actual guilt or maybe the hopelessness of his case, he self-executed one night with a bed sheet. Justice? Maybe. We’ll never know.

But we do know there was little to no justice in Fort Worth.

There is now, and has been for a while, a massive assault on due process, equal protection, liberty, and the rule of law (not of crazed, zappy men) in America. Every little violation runs together with the others to form the monumental mess we now have at hand. It’s changed Anglo-American jurisprudence, governance, and culture for the worse.

The changes may make for expedience in some events. I’m half serious about handling certain criminal or martial acts with E.O. status and prosecution. What, years ago would have been considered insane tyranny, has been rubber stamped by all associated parties. Expedient? Yes, sometimes, sure. Dangerous? You damn-well better believe it.

So, in the real interest of justice (if we still value the word and concept), I bring you warning stories like this.

Now! All is not quite so dark and depressing. Somewhere near the end of the article the Star-Telegram featured a video. Watch it. Human concern and kindness from the most unseemly source. Maybe there is a little hope. Let’s hope so.

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These things work, appropriate or not. The Blaze.

Chinese Communists on Campus: A Day Late?

08 Thursday Mar 2018

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When I first saw the following story my initial thought was that the Chinese, as “well-intentioned” as they might be, are a little late in the coming. American and European Communists began infiltrating the academy in earnest in the 1940’s. Today they have virtual control over most US education, from grade school to graduate school.

But, that’s not exactly what the story is about. It seems the Chi-Coms want (and have) direct influence over their students studying abroad in America.

While many countries, including the United States, fund educational activities abroad, the Chinese government’s direct support for, and control over, student groups appears to be unique. Beijing’s influence over these groups is also beginning to raise questions and concerns among students on American campuses, who fear they will be accused of being agents of espionage. The growing ties are also concerning U.S. government officials, who are wary of China’s political and economic reach in the United States.

At a security hearing last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that American universities are naive about the intelligence risk of Chinese “nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting,” and claimed that China poses a “whole-of-society threat.”

Those comments have alarmed some Chinese students. Several Georgetown University student representatives wrote an open letter to the university president, asking the school to disavow Wray’s statements and calling the comments a “witch-hunt” and a “McCarthyist craze.” The article also cited FP’s recent report revealing that the Georgetown CSSA has received Chinese government funding.

If this is a witch-hunt, modern-day, 21st Century McCarthyism, then rest assured in around 40 years a Venona-ish report will surface, justifying the hunt 110%.

But my initial fears are likely misplaced or over thought. Yes, young American Tide Pod-eaters and their post-hippy professors, and SJW administrators would surely appreciate a little more official indoctrination. However, the Chinese variety – geared towards a xenophobic nationalism and eco-techo progression – probably isn’t for them. I suspect they are more in favor of old-school Soviet central planning, with all the speech and religion quashing, heavy-handed social and work assignments, and mass murdering.

There’s sure to be some small crossover. Maybe forced abortions and population limitations could replace the religion of Row and specious climate change, blame-it-on-man reactionism. But the main focus of the article and of Wray’s concerns is that of a fifth column of potentially nefarious foreigners embedded in, and drawing resources from, American culture or what remains of it.

There may be a place for the left’s new meddling here, on the side against the infiltrators – a sort of American nationalism for those who really hate America. Odd but possible. East Asians, minorities though they be, here, are rapidly becoming the new white men, especially in employment and double-especially in academia. High IQ, serious students, who naturally excel at math and science, don’t exactly help the numbers or the narrative. It’s something for someone to think about. Feel, maybe.

For the rest of us, all of this kind of fits with Vox Day’s second edition of Voxiversity, Sink the Ships. Watch on YouTube (before they SJW it away):

Voxiversity/YouTube.

It’s a quick work from a quick study. It builds on the inaugural episode. History shows time and time again that egalitarian kindness is often the worst source of the worst violence and pseudo-genocidal changes any culture or people can subject themselves too. Sinking the ships, figuratively or literally, an overt act of unpleasantness to be certain, may just be more humanitarian in the long run than the alternative.

Something else to think about. Maybe best without the feels.

Protestors And Supporters Gather During Hu Jintao's Visit To Chicago

It’s like the Fourth of July! Scott Olson/Getty/Foreign Policy.

#KnifeControl

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

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I blame the National Knife Association. If there is such a thing.

No word on any “Aloha Snackbar-ing,” so we’ll just say some criminal bastard attacked a family on the streets of Vienna, Austria with a knife.

Several people are hurt after a man went on a knife rampage in Vienna, Austria.

At least three people are “seriously injured” after the attacker “randomly attacked pedestrians”.

The three people are reported to be an Austrian family – a mum, dad and daughter – who were attacked outside a Japanese restaurant.

The blood is on the blood-stained hands of the bloody NKA.

We need, well Austria needs, okay we and Austria need #knifecontrol.

Common sense knife control.

Reasonable restrictions on knives.

Waiting periods for knives.

No one under 21 should buy or own a knife.

Knife database.

High capacity blade length, assault knives.

Mental health records to buy knives.

High taxes on sheaths.

Hell with it – BAN ALL KNIVES!

The Second Amendment only protects the National Guard’s right to knives.

Knives ARE ONLY used to kill innocent people.

Knives are scary.

Knives are exactly like AR-47s.

CNN has probably already called this attack a school shooting. CNN!

Young Hogg, you know – the child actor with the agent, the boogie board, and the agenda – is probably speaking out. Possibly semi-coherently.

Only the police and the military (and maybe butchers and former running backs) need knives.

Hunters do not need knives. Okay, they do, but let’s keep the lies up!

You can’t protect yourself with a knife. Oops, again…

You’re 3 trillion times more likely to be victimized with your own knife than to successfully use it to deter a criminal. There! A good lie…

The average citizen does not need such sharp instruments of death. Sporks will do nicely, comrades.

There are knives in your child’s school. Think of the children.

Knives kill a disproportionate number of minorities. And oysters. Shuck it?

Knives are used to murder three times as many Americans every year as shotguns and rifles combined. Woah! Yeah, I know, … a real fact. Sorry. #knifecontrol!

Tide Pod-eating kids demand #knifecontrol.

Rumor has it The Trump has already moved to administratively ban whetstones. Chuck and Nancy approve.

Enough is enough!

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Daily Star.

Another School Shooting

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

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A teenage Utah student, allegedly a supporter of ISIS, allegedly brought a homemade bomb to his high school on Monday. The police arrested him. The officers carry guns. Guns have been known to shoot. School. Shooting. Since we’re playing loose and fast with facts, why not? Makes as much sense as 15 of those other 17 “shootings” this year.

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) – UPDATE: Police said a homemade explosive device was the item discovered in a backpack at Pine View High School Monday that forced the evacuation of the school. Police said if the device had detonated, it would have caused significant injury or death. Police have a suspect in custody.

A warrant served at the home of a male juvenile found materials consistent with the materials used to build the device.

Police also said the suspect had been researching information and expressing interest in ISIS and promoting the organization.

I’m sure there’s some way to blame this on the NRA. Maybe the drama club can organize a march. Trump could administratively ban shoulder slings. Certainly no problems with the schools, the culture, or terrorism.

Aiding, Abetting, and … Civil Process?

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

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The people the current President has around him, and the advice they give, are rather suspect. Take AG Sessions and the issue of illegal aliens in California. Various state and local authorities in the Golden Land O’ The Bear are engaged in aiding and abetting known illegals under color of CA law. Sessions decided to sue them in federal court:

So far, though, his arguments have made little headway in federal court, where judges in San Francisco and elsewhere have rejected efforts to strip federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to comply with Justice Department edicts.

The suits by California, San Francisco and other sanctuary jurisdictions challenge conditions the department has sought to attach to federal funding, while the Justice Department’s suit directly challenges the California laws. But the central issue in all of them appears to be whether sanctuary laws are a proper exercise of state and local government’s authority over law enforcement or an unconstitutional intrusion by those governments into federal immigration law.

There’s been no luck whatsoever on the civil side of the federal courts so … let’s try it again. Something about the definition of insanity.

18. U. S. C. 1324. Felonies. Crime. Indictments. This is how the FedGov usually seeks to manipulate behavior. Whether it’s home boys with drugs, good ol’ boys with guns, or political types with beach houses, the formula is the same. They pile on the criminal charges, the suspects enter pleas, then the courts just hand down recommended sentences. Works 97% of the time.

Or there’s the Enemy Combatant route, which I long ago heard John Yoo promote and extol as perfectly Constitutional. Seems everyone who counts – the courts, Congress, two prior administrations, etc. – are A-okay with that approach. And that system has already been used “successfully” on both foreign nationals and US citizens.

But, here and now, Sessions goes the same old civil route. Hmmm?

Maybe the man should return to Alabama and resume baking cookies in the tree.

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I see a vague resemblance. You? Business Insider.

So Long, Roy! I Mean … Gary!

06 Tuesday Mar 2018

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What do Gary Cohn and Roy Cohn have in common? Yes, that. But they also both USED to work for Donald Trump.

GARY resigns amidst Tariff Tantrum:

White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn has resigned from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The former Goldman Sachs president and free trade advocate Cohn, whose departure date will come in a few weeks, decided to quit after Trump announced he would impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

In a prepared statement, Cohn said, “It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform.”

Don’t let the door hit you…

In November of 2016 I noted that Cohn (Gary) seemed made for a Pearls Before Swine panel. And I called him the “chief gangster President of Goldman Sachs.” I also feared he was on the short list for Fed Chairman. He was. I said then:

“I certainly support the concept of “make America great again.” However, my American allegiance is to freedom, not to any candidate or politician. I do not support the money changers.”

I also have no use for free-trading, globalist charlatans.

Good. Riddance.

Oooooh kaaay. The robots.

They want to kill and replace us. Seems some humans are waking up:

1/3 of 2018 California Car Crashes Involving Robo-Cars Involved Pedestrians Physically Attacking the Machines. Good.

and

There’s a Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. I subscribed on YouTube. You should too.

*See, Roy Cohn was one of Trump’s real estate attorneys or something back in the 70’s in NYC. Roy Cohn. McCarthy. Lavender? All 25-35 years before the Venona Cables and Ann Coulter’s Treason…. Get it? … Cohn? …. …. March Madness is coming…

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Roy. Vanity Fair.