Month: May 2021

The Colonial Pipeline Was Unaffected by the Ransomeware Attack

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It turns out that the systems controlling the pipeline continued to function as intended, it was only the billing systems were hit, which means that the decision to shut down the pipeline, which threw much of the East Coast of the US into a panic, was not about safety, and critical infrastructure was not impacted, it was just that collecting payments from customers became more inconvenient.

The technical term for what Colonial did was irresponsible, and possibly negligent.

Why am I not surprised that Koch Industries, aka, the Koch Brothers, are a major shareholder?

This, “F%$# you, pay me,” attitude is integral to their warped souls:

The cyber attack that shutdown the Colonial pipeline causing a gas panic and stoking fears of gasoline shortages, didn’t actually shut down the pipeline. It impacted the billing system at the Colonial Pipeline Co., which shut it down because they were worried about how they’d collect payments. 

Yes, the fuel-carrying pipeline was shut down last week in order to prevent a company that is entrusted with what should be a public utility from enduring an accounting headache.

I really hope that someone, I’m looking at you Katie Porter, to whip out the old white board, and cut the executives running a new asshole at hearings.

For the problem described, they could have set up a paper system, and faxes, (or scanners and Gmail) to handle billing temporarily in perhaps 48 hours.

Boeing Still Can’t Build Planes, Part 4⁹

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In 2019, a sweeping transformation of Boeing’s quality system deliberately eliminated thousands of quality checks during production and cut 100s of quality inspector jobs.

Ernesto Gonzalez-Beltran, the architect of that shift, left the company in Decemberhttps://t.co/SbcHIzcnFp

— Dominic Gates (@dominicgates) May 18, 2021

Roll Tape!

Boeing has finally been forced to accept the fact that axing hundreds quality inspectors in order to bust the union did now work, and now they are rehiring the inspectors that they laid off, and they canned the architect of the failed program:

The Boeing Co. has quietly recalled at least some of as many as 900 quality control inspectors who were laid off in 2019 as part of a drive to adopt car-industry manufacturing processes in aerospace manufacturing.

The move comes after the union for the inspectors – Machinists District Lodge 751 – pushed the company to prove that getting rid of inspectors could be done without risking quality issues and would actually improve production times.

“Our union’s goal is to save Boeing from making decisions that could be detrimental to (its) future and ours,” union leaders said in its monthly AeroMechanic newsletter. “A second set of eyes is a critical component of building Boeing airplanes and necessary for the long-term success of the company.”

A union spokeswoman said she was unable to say precisely how many of the inspectors were initially laid off, and how many have been brought back since the recalls started. Boeing’s media relations team did not respond to a written list of questions on the topic.

………

In theory, if you eliminate the downtime and the inspections a few thousand times on each plane, that adds up to substantial savings in production time without any investment in people or tools.

IAM 751 appealed to the Federal Aviation Administration to look into Boeing’s plan and made rumblings about getting its supporters in Congress to intervene. Congress is now preparing an investigation into quality lapses at Boeing.

But the deciding factor, in this case, seems to have been the union’s demand to enter into what’s called effects bargaining. Since Boeing was eliminating 900 jobs, the union claimed the right to negotiate over the impact of those changes on its members.

As a result of these talks, Boeing and the union agreed that a team of union-appointed experts would begin reviewing data in areas where inspections were ending, with the ability to propose reinstating inspections when warranted, using Boeing’s own risk assessment criteria and FAA regulations as guidelines.

No Efficiency Gains

What the experts found was that eliminating inspections did not lead to a more efficient production process, the union said.

They f%$#ed up their quality processes for nothing more than the hope that they could fire some union members, and they failed.

If you fired Boeing’s entire C-Suite and replaced them with dirnking bird toys, you would increase productiveity and product quality.

As Atrios Says

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“Time For Another Blogger Ethics Panel.”

It’s the thing that Mr. Black says whenever a prominent member of the mainstream media engages in actions so heinous that it buggers the mind.

In this case, he is referring to CNN host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo, who has avoided covering his brother’s problems with Covid mismanagement, sexual harassment, and general corruption.

However, while he has avoided covering his brother, which is what he is supposed to do, what he did do was, participate in strategy calls with Andrew Cuomo and his staff on how to best manipulate the media.

Not a thing for a prominent member of a journalistic enterprise to do, particularly considering the fact that Chris likely has inside information on things like which reporters are most likely to cover him favorably, etc.

If CNN were as serious about its Journalism as it was about its ratings, Cuomo would have been fired today:

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo advised his brother, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and senior members of the governor’s staff on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations made earlier this year by women who had worked with the governor, according to four people familiar with the discussions.

Cuomo, one of the network’s top stars, joined a series of conference calls that included the Democratic governor, his top aide, his communications team, lawyers and a number of outside advisers, according to the people familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private sessions.

………

The behind-the-scenes strategy offered by Chris Cuomo, who anchors CNN’s 9 p.m. nightly newscast, cuts against the widely accepted norm in journalism that those reporting the news should not be involved in politics.

“If you are actively advising a politician in trouble while being an on-air host on a news network, that’s not okay,” said Nicholas Lemann, a professor at Columbia Journalism School and a New Yorker staff writer.

“Not okay ,” is putting this mildly.

In a statement, CNN acknowledged that Chris Cuomo took part in the strategy sessions, saying his involvement was a mistake.

………

The network said Cuomo will not be disciplined.

He should be fired  ……… Out of a cannon ……… And into the sun.

CNN should have taken Fredo out for a ride on their boat.

An Onanistic Abomination

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I am referring, of course, to architect Frank Gehry’s latest building, the LUMA tower in Arles.

Arles is a Unesco world heritage site for its classic architecture, including a Roman Coliseum, a cathedral dating back to the 1200s, and a city center comprised mainly of 17th century townhouses.

This is hideous, even by the standards of Gehry’s normal exercises in excess, but it is to be expected from a man who created a building, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, that literally fried its neighbors.

The culture and aesthetics of high end architecture is truly broken:

Over its 3,000 years, the city of Arles, France, has seen a lot. The Provençal town, once home to the Celts and later the Greeks and Romans, has played host over the centuries to a varied cast of characters that includes Roman emperors and Pablo Picasso. But it is perhaps best known as a pilgrimage site for devotees of Vincent van Gogh, who spent one of his most prolific years in Arles shortly before his death. The city’s lengthy and varied history has also made it a draw for architecture buffs: Its 12th-century Romanesque cathedral and ancient Roman amphitheater helped earn Arles one of France’s earliest Unesco World Heritage designations in 1981.

Sometime in the 17th century, a series of bourgeois townhouses were constructed in the village center. Since then, very little in Arles has changed. The city looks much the same as it did when Van Gogh sat at a sidewalk table and sketched the street scene that would become his famed Café Terrace at Night, and visitors can wander down the Place du Forum to dine at the same café the artist painted in 1888. Until recently, it would have been possible to walk across town and replicate the experience with Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhône—to stand on the banks of the river and gaze out at the same vista that met the artist’s eye over 130 years ago. For the first time in many years, Arles’ skyline is changing, with the addition of an ambitious new cultural complex called LUMA Arles.

Standing 184 feet tall, LUMA Arles towers over the city—the next tallest building is the 12th-century Cathedral of St. Trophime at about 138 feet tall. It is the centerpiece of the LUMA Foundation’s 27-acre campus, which the arts philanthropic organization has situated in a former railyard turned park. It’s also the culmination of over a decade of work spearheaded by LUMA founder and billionaire Maja Hoffmann (the foundation’s name is a portmanteau of the first part of her children’s names Lucas and Marina). The tower, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, seems to climb upward, twisting and turning as it stretches toward the sky. The building’s 11,000 reflective stainless steel panels spectacularly transform the building over the course of a day: It blends into a bright blue sky at noontime, gilds itself in the late afternoon, and twinkles as the sun sets. The style is unmistakably Gehry, with the sweeping, brushstroke-like lines and playful design cues that have become a hallmark of the dean of contemporary architecture.

The building has its detractors—Gehry’s initial plans were rejected as “threats” to the city’s archaeological sites, and some Arlesians have complained that the imposition of the angular, metallic tower is an affront to the stucco-and-stone charm of the village below. In a report from Vanity Fair’s French edition, a local townsperson said, roughly translated, “Those who are annoyed by this arrogance dub it ‘the beer can.’” But according to the 92-year-old architect, the design is intended to “evoke the local”: Its rippling exterior draws on Van Gogh’s Starry Night, while the tower’s central atrium pays homage to Arles’ Roman amphitheater. Local officials hope that Arles will see a “Bilbao effect,” and be rejuvenated like that Spanish city was after the Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum opened there in 1997.

There is good architecture out there, Louis Sullivan’s incorporation of the steel structure into skyscrapers comes to mind, but has technology has loosened constraints on buildings, some in the profession have gone off the deep end.

If I am in Arles, I’ll probably have lunch in the building, but only because it is the only place in the city where you cannot see this monstrosity.

It’s Jobless Thursday

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Last week, initial unemployment claims fell to 444,000, down 34,000 from last week.

Once again, it’s an improvement, but with the rush of the stupid states to roll back unemployment benefits, I expect the pace of improvement slow down in those states: 

The number of workers seeking and receiving unemployment benefits through state and federal programs has reached pandemic lows ahead of this summer, when 22 states plan to end a $300 federal benefit early.

Initial unemployment claims through regular state programs dropped to 444,000 last week, marking a new low level since the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020.

The number of people claiming benefits through state and pandemic-related programs also declined in the week ended May 1 to a pandemic low of 16 million people from 16.9 million a week earlier, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That includes benefits through one of several programs, including regular state aid and federal emergency programs put in place in response to the pandemic.

………

Though jobless claims are on a downward trend, April’s job gain of 266,000 fell far short of the one million economists had forecast, fueling concerns about the recovery. Republicans also are concerned that enhanced federal unemployment payments are discouraging people from seeking work.

The low job creation numbers are a fly in the ointment.

States have announced dates ranging from mid-June to mid-July for when they will stop processing pandemic-related benefits. That means nearly 3.7 million individuals could lose the $300 weekly benefits—which were set to expire in early September—beginning in mid-June, according to estimates by forecasting firm Oxford Economics.

Of those, about 1.45 million will also lose pandemic benefits for gig work, and about 1.31 million will no longer have access to extended benefits that kick in after claimants exhaust their regular state benefits.

This is the whole Brood X Cicada emergence in the ointment.

This recovery is driven by government spending, and because they fetishize being cruel, they are knocking the pins out from underneath the recovery.

Sadism as policy is never a good thing.

Linkage

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John Oliver eviscerates stand your ground laws:

That’s How You Do It

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In Pennsylvania, the procedure for approving charter schools is that they first apply to the local school district, and if they are denied, they can appeal to the Charter School Appeals Board, which has been staffed by right-wing anti-public education goons for years.

The Republican led legislature has refused to consider replacements on the boards nominated by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf.

After 7 years of delay, Wolf has fired the entire board, which means that it can no longer overrule school board decisions on charters, because there is no one to hold a meeting.

Wolf has nominated replacements, all of whom come from a background in public schools, so not the legislature can appoint his nominees, who might not vote to overrule local school boards, or not appoint anyone, which means that all appeals are effectively denied:

………

It took Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, seven years to fire his predecessor’s appointments and nominate replacements to the CAB.

Yet the GOP legislature is crying crocodile tears that he’s exceeding his authority by doing so.

The board is supposed to be a place where charter schools can challenge decisions made by their local school boards.

Charters are schools that are funded by taxpayer dollars but can be privately operated.

They have to ask the local school board for permission to open a new school in their district. Since the new charter would double services already present at the existent public school and require both schools to split existing funding, there is little incentive for school boards to grant these requests.

But charters can bypass local government by going to the CAB. Or at least they could when the board still had sitting members on it.

The CAB consists of the Secretary of Education and six members who are appointed by the Governor and approved by the state senate.

However, closed door negotiations with the Republican controlled senate over who they would even consider approving over the years continually stopped Wolf from putting people forward as official nominees.

After all, why would Republicans work with Wolf? What incentive did they have to do so?

Refusing to work with the Democratic Governor kept the previous Republican Governor’s appointees in place long after their tenure should have expired.

This kept the CAB ideologically right wing so the members could rubber stamp charter schools left and right bypassing the will of duly elected school boards all over the Commonwealth.

………

The far right love crying “Wolf” and blaming everything on the Governor, but make no mistake – gridlock is exactly what they want.

That’s why Wolf’s action on CAB is so clever.

By firing the remaining members of the board, Wolf has functionally erased it from existence.

If the senate wants there to be a charter school appeals board, lawmakers need to vote on his nominees.

Wolf has nominated the following people to the board:

-Jodi Schwartz, a school board member from the Central Bucks School District

-Shanna Danielson, a teacher in the East Pennsboro School District in Cumberland County and former state senate candidate

-Stacey Marten, a teacher in the Hempfield School District in Lancaster County

-Ghadah Makoshi, a business owner and former candidate for Pittsburgh’s school board

-Nathan Barrett, superintendent of the Hanover Area School District in Luzerne County

………. 

In the meantime, there are at least nine cases scheduled to be decided by CAB from Souderton, Southeast Delco, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. And that’s not even counting a recent pair of charter schools in Philadelphia where backers said they would appeal the local school board’s decision to deny their request to open.

Republicans may find themselves forced to choose between waiting out protracted legal challenges while their pet charters languish in appeals limbo or swallowing their pride, doing their damn jobs and voting on Wolf’s nominees!

My only complaint about this is that Governor Wolf took 7 years to do this. 

If Republicans are not even willing to put your nominees to a vote, it is time to play hardball, don’t wait 7 f%$#ing years.

⅔ of Republicans Vote to Kill Capitol Insurrection Investigation

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This does not surprise me.

Seeing as how many members of the Republican caucus, particularly House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are hip deep in the conspiracies behind the January 6 insurrection, it comes as no surprise that House Republican leaders aggressively whipped the vote against a commission to investigate the matter.

This is why the idea of a bipartisan commission is a bad thing; unlike 911, Republican Representatives and Senators are suspects, and not just observers: 

The House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill that would create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the deadly attack on the Capitol in January.

The vote fell largely along party lines, with 35 Republicans joining Democrats in passing the measure. However, 175 Republicans voted against the bill, as Republican leaders endeavored to put the deadly 6 January attack behind them, and reframe the riot as a protest.

………

“It sounds like they are afraid of the truth, and that’s most unfortunate, but hopefully they’ll get used to the idea that the American people want us to find the truth,” Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said as she sharply criticized Republicans for opposing the bill.

Three Republicans spoke in favor of the legislation: John Katko, Fred Upton and Peter Meijer. All were among the 10 who had voted days after the attack to impeach Trump for encouraging his supporters to attack the Capitol.

The Republican Party is an enemy of the Republic.

90°? We are F%$#ed!

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In the first half of 1969, I was living in Anchorage, Alaska.

On June 14, 1969, Anchorage hit was was then the highest temperature ever recorded up to that time, 85°F (29°C).

Note that Anchorage is 372 miles (599 km) south of the Arctic Circle.

Today, in it hit  86.5°F (30.3°C) in Nizhnyaya Pesha, just north of the Arctic Circle.

We are completely screwed:

It’s only May, but it feels like summer has arrived in my hometown of Baltimore. Since I woke up, I’ve been counting the hours until I can drink iced cocktails on my deck while wearing a sundress. Can you blame me? It’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.7 degrees Celsius) out.

There’s another reason I really need a drink, though: That’s the same temperature it is in the Arctic today. Welcome to climate hell.

In fact, parts of the Arctic circle got even warmer than that on Wednesday. It was 86.5 degrees (30.3 degrees Celsius) in the Russian town of Nizhnyaya Pesha, and 91 degrees Fahrenheit (32.3 degrees Celsius) in the nearby town of Kolezma. The wildly high temperatures came as part of an ongoing heat wave in the region.

According to meteorologist Scott Duncan, these temperatures are between 37 and 43 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 24 degrees Celsius) hotter than the region’s average temperature for this time of year. As Duncan said on Twitter, this Arctic heat is “truly exceptional for any time of the year but mind-boggling for May.” But though they’re bizarre, they’re also a sign of the broader changes happening in the Arctic, which is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

I have a suggestion:  Let’s send all the anthropogenic climate change deniers to a penal colony in Nizhnyaya Pesha for the rest of their lives.

Not Enough Bullets

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Emergent BioSolutions, whose cavalier and incompetent business practices contaminated millions of vaccine doses, still saw fit to give huge bonuses to its top executives.

I’m not sure what the executives did, beyond taking millions of dollars in government subsidies:

Emergent BioSolutions, the biotech company whose Baltimore plant ruined millions of coronavirus vaccine doses, awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses to its top executives last year, and the company’s board praised its founder and chairman for “leveraging his critical relationships with key customers, Congress, and other stakeholders,” according to documents released Wednesday by a House subcommittee.

………

Production at the plant was halted a month ago after workers accidentally contaminated a batch of vaccine, forcing Emergent to discard the equivalent of up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine.

Records from an Emergent board of directors compensation meeting offer a rare glimpse inside a politically connected federal contractor whose business is built largely around a single customer: the United States government.

The documents reflect earlier reporting by The New York Times, including a series of confidential audits that highlighted repeated violations of manufacturing standards at the Baltimore plant, including failure to properly disinfect the plant and protect against contamination of vaccine batches. Another report in June 2020, by a top manufacturing expert for the federal government, warned that Emergent lacked trained staff and adequate systems for quality control.

………

The board lauded executives for their “exemplary overall 2020 corporate performance including significantly outperforming revenue and earnings targets.”

Since 2018, Mr. El-Hibri and his wife, Nancy, have donated at least $150,000 to groups affiliated with the top Republican on the panel, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, as well as Mr. Scalise’s campaigns. At least two other members of the subcommittee received donations during the 2020 election cycle from the company’s political action committee, which has given about $1.4 million over the past 10 years to members of both parties.

Mr. Kramer received a $1.2 million cash bonus, the records show; the board found that he had “significantly exceeded expectations.” Three of the company’s executive vice presidents received bonuses ranging from $445,000 to $462,000 each.

Sean Kirk, the executive responsible for overseeing development and manufacturing operations at all of Emergent’s manufacturing sites, received a special bonus of $100,000 last year, over and above his regular bonus of $320,611, in recognition of his “exceptional performance in 2020,” and for significantly expanding the company’s contract manufacturing capability to address Covid-19, the documents show. After the discovery that workers had accidentally contaminated a batch of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine with the virus used to produced another vaccine at the same plant, the company said Mr. Kirk had taken personal leave from his job.

………

The $628 million contract, awarded by the Trump administration nearly a year ago, was mostly to reserve space at Emergent’s Baltimore plant for vaccine manufacturing. The contract was approved by a former Trump administration official, Dr. Robert Kadlec, who previously consulted for Emergent.

………

Dr. Kadlec has said that while he did not negotiate the contract, he did sign off on it. The documents also show that last August he recommended that Emergent be given a “priority rating” so that suppliers would give preference to its requests.

These guys should be sharing cells with the Capitol Insurrectionists.

So much of our economy these days consists of little more than stealing from the general public, whether with taxpayer money, (these guys) monetizing the public commons (Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, Lime, etc.), through indirect subsidies through IP provisions, (Media, Pharma, etc.) or the granting of special rights not held by ordinary people. (ISDS, TBTF, etc.)

If we stop these folks from stealing from us, there is no reason that we cannot have a better and more just society.

Pennsylvania Elections Today (Larry Krasner:1 — Philly PBA:0)

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Reformer Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, just destroyed his Police Union supported opponent by an almost 2:1 margin in today’s primary. 

This makes him almost certain to win the general election, as Republicans are severly out-numbered in Philadelphia, and their nominee is best known for having an ex-girl friend found dead in his bathtub: (Not kidding here)

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner easily defeated Democratic primary challenger Carlos Vega on Tuesday, taking a giant step toward winning a second term after campaigning on his record of criminal justice reform.

The Associated Press projected Krasner as the winner over Vega late Tuesday night. With 22% of the projected votes counted, Krasner held a wide advantage, 65% to 35%. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans seven to one, Krasner is now very likely to win November’s general election. He won the 2017 general election with 75% of the vote.

“Four years ago we promised reform and a focus on serious crime,” Krasner told supporters at a Center City hotel Tuesday night. “We kept those promises. And this time they put us back in office for what we have done. Not ideas, not promises, but realities.”

Krasner, 60, was a defense and civl rights lawyer for three decades, with a long record of suing the Philadelphia police before he was elected as a reformer in 2017. That victory helped propel him to the forefront of a new crop of progressive prosecutors across the country, a reform movement that was tested this election in Philadelphia by rising violent crime.

In his victory speech, Krasner said he had a mandate “from the people most affected by serious crime,” voters he suggested had rejected critics who blame the DA for shootings plaguing the city.“That mandate has rejected, definitively, a politics of fear that is built on falsehoods,” he said, calling for more funding for crime prevention. “We have to invest in all those things because we were robbed of them a long time ago. And what we are facing now is the consequences.

You have a mandate to push even harder, particularly against the Philadelphia police who still have a lot of Frank Rizzo in them.

Also, on the other side of the state, a DSA supported candidate scored an upset victory over the incumbent mayor.

Beating a two-term incumbent in a race centered on equity, state Rep. Ed Gainey won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, which should pave the way to becoming Pittsburgh’s first ever Black mayor.

Mr. Gainey was beating incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto 45 to 41 percent as of 11:11 p.m., with retired police officer Tony Moreno garnering 13 percent of the vote and local ride-share driver Michael Thompson registering 1 percent.

“I just called [Ed Gainey] and congratulated him on earning the Democratic endorsement for Mayor of the city of Pittsburgh. Wishing him well. Thank you Pittsburgh for the honor of being your Mayor these past 8 years. I will remain forever grateful,” Mr. Peduto tweeted shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Mr. Gainey, a 51-year-old state lawmaker representing a district stretching from Highland Park to Wilkinsburg, frequently asked, “For whom is Pittsburgh most livable?” — a question that he backed with facts from the many task forces and reports Mr. Peduto commissioned to identify problems. His message seemed to match the moment, and he thanked God, his wife, his children, his mother, his step-father and all of his campaign staff after Mr. Peduto conceded on Tuesday.

………

Mr. Gainey is almost certain to win in November, with no Republican filed to run in the primary and the city’s dark blue demographics making it unlikely a challenger could oust him — though it’s possible a Republican will have emerged from the write-ins.

Not a bad result, particularly given that Peduto tried to accuse Gainey of “Socialism”  toward the end of the campaign.

Nice to see the term shifting from a detriment to something positive.

Katie Porter and Her White Board

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Representative Katie Porter, (D-CA) does her homework, and she knows her numbers, and when she whips out her white board, someone is in for a can of whup ass.

In this case, it was the Richard Gonzalez, the CEO of AbbVie, which is gouging patients for its Humira Arthritis drug.

She showed that the money for R&D is dwarfed by advertising, and executive compensation, particularly that compensation which is driven by stock buybacks:

Or, as Porter observed: “You lie to patients when you charge them twice as much for an unimproved drug, when you tell us that R&D justifies those price increases. The Big Pharma fairy tale is one of groundbreaking R&D that justifies astronomical prices. But the pharma reality is that you spend most of that money making money for yourself and your shareholders.”

Roll the tape, it’s beautiful: (It’s also not that difficult if you aren’t spending 8 hours a day dialing for dollars for your DCCC dues)

Cowardly Prosecutor Bullsh%$

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Elizabeth City, NC DA Andrew Womble has announced that he will not be charging the officers who unleashed a fusillade of bullets and killed Andrew Brown in his car.

He has also announced that this was a serious investigation, and that he won’t be releasing the body cam footage, because, f%$# you.

This does not fill me with confidence in the integrity of the investigation:

A North Carolina district attorney on Tuesday said officers were justified in the fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr, a Black man, in April, and that the sheriff’s deputies who fired will not face charges for killing the 42-year-old father of seven.

Andrew Womble said Brown’s death “while tragic, was justified” because three deputies “reasonably” believed deadly force was necessary to protect themselves and others while serving a warrant for Brown’s arrest on felony drug charges.

………

Brown’s death certificate said he died as the result of a gunshot wound to the head. Brown’s family commissioned an independent autopsy which specified that he was shot five times, once to the back of his head.

Womble said he would not release body-camera video of the confrontation, for which Brown’s family and supporters have repeatedly called to ensure integrity in the investigation of his death.

If the body cam footage were that clear, they would be streaming it on YouTube now.

They are covering it up because they have something to cover up.

Punk’D

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Remember that unhinged letter signed by 100 retired US military retired general officers? It included the signature of one, “Rear Admiral Jack Meehoff.”

The MAGAts are really, really stupid people:

A group of more than 100 retired generals and admirals who have accused President Joe Biden of being a communist have been pranked by a faux flag officer going by the nom de guerre “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff.”

If you don’t get the joke, just say the name “Jack Meehoff” aloud. That’s right. You understand now.

Earlier this month, the group Flag Officers 4 America posted an open letter that repeated lies spread by former President Donald Trump and the elected leaders who support his claims that the FBI and Supreme Court ignored “election irregularities” in 2020.

………

In their letter, the retired generals and admirals – most of whom have been out of uniform for several years – claim the Biden administration has “launched a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights in a dictatorial manner” by passing executive orders. They also claim the administration is damaging the military’s ability to fight wars through an “infusion of Political Correctness.” And they raise doubts about Biden’s ability to serve as commander in chief by claiming: “The mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief cannot be ignored.”

“Under a Democrat Congress and the Current Administration, our Country has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government which must be countered now by electing congressional and presidential candidates who will always act to defend our Constitutional Republic,” reads the heavily capitalized letter. “The survival of our Nation and its cherished freedoms, liberty, and historic values are at stake.”

Enter “Jack Meehoff.”

After Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post wrote a May 12 story about the letter, he received an email the following day from someone showing how he had managed to get the apocryphal “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff” added to the list of signatories.

………

On Monday, Task & Purpose spoke to “Jack Meehoff” – not his real name – who said he was prompted to prank the cabal of McCarthyites because he felt their open letter was “f—ing absurd”, especially in the context of the Jan. 6 riots.

The man – who declined to provide his real name or a copy of his DD-214 [military discharge documents] – claimed to be a former enlisted submariner. He said Flag Officers 4 America removed “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff” from the letter on Saturday after Mathias tweeted about how they had fallen for his ruse.

………

Among its other more well-known signatories are retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, a U.S. Senate candidate in New Hampshire; retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, a virulent anti-Muslim bigot who now heads up the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council; and retired Vice Adm. John Poindexter, best known for being convicted for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair as national security adviser for President Ronald Reagan.

One way to fix the problem is to understand that we have too many general officers in the US military.

In World War II, there were 16 million men in service, and about 2000 GOFOs, and now with 1.3 million men (and women) under arms, there are 900 general/flag officers.

Additionally, the ratio of officers to enlisted men has gone from the traditional ratio of about 10:1 then to about 5:1 now.

Tighter standards for officers, they reducing the size of the officer corps would go a long way toward reducing the total numbers blithering idiots in the higher ranks of US military.

$5 Million, Nothing to See Here

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That’s what “Ratfaced Andy” Coumo got as a $5 million book deal for self absorbed account of his “Heroic” fight against the Corona virus.

Later, more recent, accounts of his behavior, including things like covering up nursing home deaths indicate that he got about 100000% more than it warranted.

More patterns of corrupt behavior from His Excellency:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s publisher is scheduled to pay him more than $5 million for the book he authored last year on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to newly released tax returns and ethics documents.

The documents released Monday ended a months-long mystery over the size of the Cuomo’s book deal with The Crown Publishing Group, which issued Cuomo’s best-selling book, American Crisis, in October as the state stared down a second wave of coronavirus infections.

For nine months, Cuomo had repeatedly refused to reveal the details of his book deal, noting it would be revealed on his taxes at a later date. That came Monday, when both his state-mandated disclosure form and his taxes were due and released.

The form showed Cuomo’s book deal is set to pay him more than $5.1 million total. Cuomo’s tax return showed Crown paid him $3.12 million in 2020; He’s due another $2.05 million to $2.15 million, according to a separate financial disclosure form, which his office said will be paid out over the next two years.

………

The book deal has been referred to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation into whether Cuomo improperly used state resources for the project.

………

American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic was published in October at a time when Cuomo’s national profile had grown to new heights, in large part because of well-received, daily news conferences in the early days of the coronavirus crisis.

The book has been at the center of controversy ever since because members of Cuomo’s government staff assisted in the project, though the governor insists they volunteered their time for the project.

………

In April, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli referred the book matter to state Attorney General Letitia James, asking her to investigate whether state resources were used for personal purposes.

BTW, Cuomo this guy is corrupt as hell, even if he did not actually break the law.

Worst Headline Ever

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The good folks at the Gray Lady wrote a story on Marine Le Pen, the right wing nationalist running for French President.

It’s a rather soft article, highlighting things like her cat breeding, which is kind of classic New York Times, normalizing awful people, but whoever wrote the hed, and it’s probably an editor, and not the author, should be fired, because, “On the Scrappy Fringes of French Politics, Marine Le Pen Tries to Rebrand,” is a simply horrific exercise in editorial discretion.

It is simply, “Bad beyond all dimensions of of possible badness,” to quote Berkeley Breathed.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

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The Washington State legislature passed two different bills repealing the states ban on municipal broadband.  One is expansive (H.B. 1336), and the other is more limited in scope (S.B. 5383), authorizing municipal broadband only in areas that are underserved. 

There was a rush to pass a bill to break the incumbent provider’s monopoly, and when presented with two conflicting bills, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed both bills simultaneously, which means that neither bill has precedence.

By simultaneously, I mean that the Governor claims that he signed a bill with each hand at the same time.

First, much criticisms to the State House and Senate for passing two conflicting bills.

Second, I can see no explanation for the Governor’s actions unless he wants to keep this all snarled in litigation for the next few years as a way to suck up to Comcast and it’s Evil Minions™, who will try to extract every penny from their monopoly rents int he interim:

Washington state went all in on expanding public broadband this year. So much so, that the Legislature passed two different bills aimed at extending high-speed internet to people in rural areas.

It’s possible, however, that two bills aren’t better than one. And they may partly cancel each other out.

Now that Gov. Jay Inslee has signed both measures into law, confusion is mounting about whether the two laws can co-exist.

And that debate may end up in court.

Both House Bill 1336 and Senate Bill 5383 give public utility districts and ports new authority to offer broadband internet. The idea behind both bills is to have those public entities offer broadband in remote areas where private companies don’t operate because it’s not cost effective.

But the authority granted under HB 1336 is broader, said state Sen, Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island. Rather than requiring PUDs and ports to focus on offering broadband to people who lack any internet service, the House bill allows the public entities to serve all customers, including people who can already access the internet through a private company, such as CenturyLink or Comcast.

………

Inslee’s office hasn’t done much to clarify matters. In an unusual move on Thursday, the governor signed both bills at the same time, one with his right hand and the other with his left. While most bill signings occur in public and are broadcast on video, Inslee signed these two bills off camera. His office didn’t explain why.

If the bills do conflict with one another, the order in which they were signed into law becomes of paramount importance. In theory, the last bill signed would take precedence over the other. If it was Hansen’s bill, Wellman said she believes her bill’s focus on expanding public broadband in remote, unserved areas would be stripped out.

“It’s such drama, I’m telling you,” said Wellman, the sponsor of SB 5383. “I’ve never been in this situation before and I don’t want to ever be again.”

………

“We are planning to seek clarification from Thurston County Superior Court on how to proceed, as this is unchartered territory,” [Secretary of State Spokesperson Kylee] Zabel wrote in an email Friday.

………

The Washington State Broadband Office is set to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal money to expand broadband internet access across the state. Under either of the bills that passed the Legislature, public utility districts and ports would be in a better position to take advantage of that influx of new money.

………

However, the dispute over how the two bills interact could complicate public utility districts’ plans to jump into the retail broadband business, he [Russ Elliott, the director of the broadband office] said.

“I think there are a lot of people right now worried whether, if someone implements something in the vein of this legislation, are they subjecting themselves to some sort of a legal battle?” Elliott said Friday. “Unfortunately that may be the way this gets played out — someone challenges what happens under these bills. I would hate to see that.”

The legal battle is the goal.  The longer that Comcast, CenturyLink, and Frontier can string this along, the more money they can rake in.

Linkage

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Here is said robot taxi going terminator (at about 26 minutes)

Of Course They Do

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The UK, normally the United States’ poodle in all matters, is not offering its support for Biden’s global business tax plan. 

This is not a surprise.  The British financial sector, known colloquially as the City of London, has two areas where it dominates world markets: Tax evasion and currency speculation.

The US may dominate the UK, but the City of London owns the whole government, lock, stock and barrel.

Of course they are objecting to a plan with makes revenue shifting a less profitable enterprise.  It’s their profits that they are protecting.