The brightest of bulbs

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Feb 102022
 

Behold Juliette Kayyem:

Juliette N. Kayyem (born August 16, 1969) is a former bureaucrat, author and host of the WGBH podcast The SCIF.[1] She serves as a national security analyst for CNN and is a weekly guest on Boston Public Radio. She is the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy. She is a former candidate for Governor of Massachusetts[2] and a former Boston Globe columnist, writing about issues of national security and foreign affairs for the op-ed page.

This genius, this pinnacle of human enlightenment and intellectual achievement, has this to say about Canadian truckers:

For starters, I’m not sure how great an idea it is for a US government lackey to be suggesting that a neighboring nation attack its own citizens. For second, she wants to slash the tires and drain the fuel tanks of trucks on a bridge… and *then* remove the trucks from the bridge.

Tell me you’re a fascist without telling me you’re a fascist…

 Posted by at 6:23 pm

Could the Feds get involved?

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Jan 272022
 

So, as Los Angeles and other localities allow criminality to skyrocket, new stories get crazier and crazier. Recently it was reported how trains are being robbed in broad daylight, with the thieves turning the region into a third world garbage pit. It got worse: the same spot saw a train derail, possibly because of all the garbage left on the tracks:

Freight train derails in Lincoln Heights

The local and state government have proven wholly unwilling to deal with the issue. But trains are almost definitionally inter-state commerce, so couldn’t the federal government swoop in? Granted, that would require that the FBI be able and willing to do its job, the Justice Department willing to prosecute *actual* criminals, the government as a whole being full of people willing to uphold the Constitution and their oaths of office. So… yeah, maybe not so likely to happen, or at least happen effectively. But at least theoretically, shouldn’t the FBI, ATF, IRS, DOT and just about every other Alphabet Agency be on the job here, ready to swoop in, snatch train robbers, and send them to some FPMITA Prison for a term of decades?

 Posted by at 3:59 pm

How can *voting* be hard???

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Jan 192022
 

Democrats are claiming that Republicans want to restrict the right to vote because Republicans want voters to prove that they are who they claim to be by displaying a valid ID like a drivers license or other state-issued identification card. To rational, sane people, this doesn’t sound like such a chore. But there are those who expand the concept of “valid identification” rather further:

Arrest Warrants Count As ID For Illegal Migrants At Airport Security, TSA Says

Ummm…

4. If proper identification is not available, what documents are sufficient to allow a Non- US/Canadian citizen to clear TSA’s checkpoint before proceeding into the sterile area of an airport?
As mentioned, in coordination with its DHS counterparts, TSA established a process where it will accept certain DHS-issued forms for non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals who do not have otherwise acceptable forms of ID for presentation at its security checkpoints. In this instance, the TSA TDC will look at the DHS-issued document (for example, I-94, I-862) for an alien identification number (A-file) and validate the document either by the CBP One™ mobile application or by the TSA NTVC. For all travelers, if an individual does not have acceptable ID as listed on TSA’s acceptable forms of ID list, TSA will accept additional forms of ID that have the individual’s name, with  preference given to Government-issued ID. One of the two forms must have the individual’s name and identifying information such as a photo, address, phone number, social security number or date of birth. For all travelers who lack acceptable ID, TSA uses the NTVC, which attempts to verify a traveler’s identity by using the individual’s information along with information from government and commercial databases. All such individuals receive additional screening procedures as described in the Checkpoint and Specialized Screening Standard Operating Procedure.
a. Please list each document.
DHS-issued forms that TSA may accept at the checkpoint include the following:
ICE Form I-200 – Warrant for Arrest of Alien
ICE Form I-205 – Warrant of Removal/Deportation
ICE Form I-220A – Order of Release on Recognizance
ICE Form I-220B – Order of Supervision
DHS Form I-862 – Notice to Appear
CBP Form I-94 – Arrival and Departure Form (including a print-out of an electronic record)
DHS Form I-385 – Alien Booking Record

…yay?

Now, if what’s *actually* going on is some devious scheme to convince illegal aliens to present their deportation orders at the airport, upon which the TSA calls the border patrol who snatch the illegals and divert them to a plane on a one-way flight to Tierra Del Fuego… I’d be *all* in favor of that. But somehow I suspect that’s not what actually going on; the TSA agents are doubtless as helpless to act against foreign invaders as a Walgreens employee in San Francisco is to act against a shoplifter.

 Posted by at 11:55 am

Translating English into English

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Jan 122022
 

When I lived in Utah I’d occasionally go on trips throughout the southwest. Far from civilization, radio stations would fade out and sometimes the only stations that came in were native American language stations… Navajo and such like. It was always interesting to listen to those for a bit; you could often figure out roughly what they were discussing because their conversations were so heavily laden with English loan-words. A lot of those folks half a limited grasp of English; this is a category of “person who lives within the confines of the United States” that I don’t have a problem with them not learning English or assimilating into American culture. It’s probably not *wise* for them to not assimilate; it leaves them on the outside. But in their case, I see no ethical or moral problem for them choosing to be on the outside, since the outside kinda came up and swallowed them.

A similar situation, I imagine, exists in Australia with the Aborigines. They have their own languages and a lot doubtless don’t understand English. So it makes sense for Important Government Messages to be translated for them. But *this* message from Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan about the importance of getting vaccinated… I have to question the utility of the translation.

 Posted by at 10:44 pm

Bubble burst

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Dec 312021
 

The bursting of some “bubbles” you can see coming a mile off. One such is the “medallion” system in use in New York City for their taxis. There were a limited number of “Medallions,” basically city licenses to operate taxis, and as they were sold on their price skyrocketed. A million dollars for the right to operate a taxi seems like an insane prospect… and it is. Especially in a world with Lyft and Uber, greatly expanding the number of taxi-like vehicles while reducing the cost. How anyone thought they could reasonably make a profit with a taxi with an initial funding requirement of a *million* dollars with no guarantee that they would necessarily be able to sell that medallion later on for equal or greater money, is beyond me. It’s like going deep into student load debt to get a degree in gender studies, it’s just a monumentally financially foolish idea. And now the price of these ridiculous “medallions” has collapsed, and *of* *course* the taxi drives are protesting and demanding that the government Do Something.

NYC Yellow Taxi Medallion Crisis, Explained

The article calls it a “crisis.” I call it “an opportunity for the free market system to replace the overly regulated and corrupt system that the city had installed.” The article is actually pretty funny in a dark way… the medallions reached a peak of over a million in 2014, and have now collapsed to around $80,000 (still a ridiculous sum for a license to operate a small business). Many of the taxi drivers, which the author goes to pains to point out are largely immigrants, owe $600,000 or so. The number of medallions, and thus taxis, was capped at 13,500; the number of rideshares is over 120,000. This is A BAD BUSINESS MODEL.

This shady scheme was instituted in 1937 and amplified by Mayor Bloomberg in 2004, and by 2014 had raised $855 *million* for the city coffers. There’s no grift like a government grift.

 Posted by at 1:01 am

Double jeopardy

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Nov 192021
 

The jury in Wisconsin reached the “wrong” conclusion. So there are those who wish to re-try it.

House Judiciary Chair Nadler Calls for DOJ Review of Kyle Rittenhouse Case After ‘Heartbreaking Verdict’: Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent’

For starters, it’s not illegal for armed American citizens to cross state lines. And for second… he didn’t cross state lines with a gun anyway. So Nadler is flat-out lying in order to either grandstand or to call for the end of the judicial system we’ve had since day one.

 Posted by at 11:08 pm

You get more of what you subsidize

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Nov 082021
 

They *really* want to give your hard-earned money to foreign invaders. It’s astonishing. What’s perhaps more astonishing is that they think they can gaslight the public about this. Witness this professional example of a deputy press secretary doing her damnedest to pretend to be a freakin’ moron.

I *can’t* be the only person to watch this doofus’ performance and wonder if maybe she’d be better employed playing a “before” character in infomercials for useless products.

 Posted by at 8:18 pm
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