Category Archives: Current News

This is about stuff in the mass media that generally has a short interest life span. Speculation about an election outcome a few days before the election is an example.

Seattle law enforcement in free fall

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Unexpectedly:

It’s been two weeks since a 21-year-old Seattle man was arrested for allegedly stealing an unoccupied bus in Sodo and intentionally ramming numerous vehicles at high speed before crashing into a bus stop in Judkins Park on Oct. 26.

Despite a judge’s finding that the man posed a danger to the community, he was released from jail on Oct. 29 and has yet to be criminally charged. The reason? Seattle police detectives have yet to submit paperwork to support the filing of criminal charges to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

The Seattle Police Department’s ongoing staffing crisis, coupled with a temporary personnel shuffle to cover for 93 officers seeking medical or religious exemptions to the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, are the apparent reasons behind the delay.

…

As of September, more than 300 officers had left SPD in what Diaz has called “an unprecedented exodus,” with many former officers citing lack of support from city leaders as a reason for their departure in the wake of last year’s civil rights protests and subsequent calls to defund the police. Only about 100 officers have been hired.

From Oct. 13 through Nov. 5, Diaz ordered a “stage 3 mobilization,” requiring detectives in many specialty and support units across the department to shift to patrol duties to ensure there were enough officers to respond to 911 calls, said spokesman Sgt. Randy Huserik.

It looks to me like Seattle law enforcement is in free fall. One has to wonder if it is through ignorance, stupidity and/or design. I’m inclined to believe it is by design. I find it difficult to believe people are that ignorant and/or stupid.

Prepare appropriately.

Quote of the day—Erik Ortiz

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When the trial opens of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager accused of gunning down two men and wounding a third during nightly unrest last summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, one word won’t be allowed to describe those who were shot: “victims.”

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder, however, ordered that other words could be used — “rioters,” “looters” or “arsonists” — if Rittenhouse’s defense attorneys can provide the evidence that they had engaged in those acts.

Erik Ortiz
October 27, 2021
Rittenhouse judge in spotlight after disallowing word ‘victims’ in courtroom
[More could be said about the wording of the article, but the bottom line is that this is great news for Rittenhouse.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John R. Lott & Rujun Wang

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Three states that have detailed race and gender data for at least a decade show remarkably larger increases in permits for minorities compared to whites. In Texas, black females saw a 6.3 times greater percentage increase in permits than white males from 2002 to 2020. Oklahoma data from 2002 to 2020 indicated that the increase of licenses approved for Asians and American Indians was more than twice the rate for whites. North Carolina had black permits increase twice as fast as whites from 1996 till 2016.

From 2015 to 2020/2021, in the four states that provide data by race over that time period, the number of Asian people with permits increased 93.2% faster than the number of whites with permits. Blacks appear to be the group that has experienced the largest increase in permitted concealed carry, growing 135.7% faster than whites.

John R. Lott & Rujun Wang
Crime Prevention Research Center
October 6, 2021
Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2021 (alternate link here)
[People demanding more restrictions on concealed carry permits, or the existence of such permits to begin with, are racist.—Joe]

Speaking of propaganda

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What the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority says about itself:

Metrorail provides safe, clean, reliable transit service for more than 600,000 customers a day throughout the Washington, DC area.

“Safe” and “reliable” they say…

Compare the above with what the National Transportation Safety Board says:

Metro officials have been aware since 2017 of equipment problems that appear to have caused the train derailment last week in Northern Virginia, a preliminary investigation by federal safety investigators showed.

Metro train 407, which derailed on the Blue Line on Oct. 12, had two other minor derailments the same day and was able to get back onto the tracks, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at a news conference Monday morning.

The train derailed and re-railed itself once near the Arlington Cemetery station at about 3:20 p.m. and again near the Largo Town Center station at about 4:15 p.m.

After the third and final derailment, the train with 187 people on board got stuck in a dark tunnel near the Arlington Cemetery station. Riders had to walk the equivalent of about six football fields to get to safety.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has known of problems with the wheel assemblies of 7000-series railcars for years, Homendy said.

“We were made aware that WMATA was aware of this situation with the wheel assemblies going back to 2017,” she said.

I wonder what the consequences will be to the government run Metro compared to a non government entity which did something similar.

A Boeing test pilot is being prosecuted over 737 Max crashes. I expect no prosecutions because of the Metro railcar issues and the probability of people being fired is low.

H/T to Paul K. for the email.

Quote of the day—Ethan Siegel

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  • The Big Bang teaches us that our expanding, cooling universe used to be younger, denser, and hotter in the past.

  • However, extrapolating all the way back to a singularity leads to predictions that disagree with what we observe.

  • Instead, cosmic inflation preceded and set up the Big Bang, changing our cosmic origin story forever.

Ethan Siegel
October 13, 2021
Surprise: the Big Bang isn’t the beginning of the universe anymore
[Data exists back to about one second from the beginning.of the universe! Prior to that it’s speculation. The Big Bang from a singularity hypothesis doesn’t match some of the early data. Cosmic inflation is a better match.

Fascinating.—Joe]

Mass murder with bow and arrow

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Assailant with bow and arrows kills 5 people in Norway

A man armed with a bow fired arrows at shoppers in a small Norwegian town Wednesday, killing five people before he was arrested, authorities said.

The police chief in the community of Kongsberg, near the capital of Oslo, said there was “a confrontation” between officers and the assailant, but he did not elaborate. Two other people were wounded and hospitalized in intensive care, including an officer who was off duty and inside the shop where the attack took place, police said.

Almost silent and certainly deadly. These weapons of mass destruction have been available for 1000s of years. It’s long past time for civilized society to eliminate their possession by civilians. The weapons should be limited to the police and the military.

I wonder if they have universal background checks on the purchase of arrows and registration of all bows and bow owners owners. If not, are there bow safety advocates pushing for such legislation? It’s just common sense. Do it for the children. It’s a good first step.

Dominos?

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There are a number of indicators of interest to me around the world.

What You Need to Know About Evergrande

the company scrambles to find funds, construction has stalled on its projects, putting the future of the 1.4 million properties that it has committed to building in doubt. The situation has sparked protests at Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Protestors included contractors owed money by Evergrande and those who have paid for a home that may now never be built.

One of World’s Largest Port Operators Warns Global Supply Chain ‘Crisis’ Will Last Longer Than Expected

“Regardless if it is a port, vessel, or warehouse, when one becomes impacted, it quickly results in a downward spiral as delays accumulate,” Maersk’s update reads. “We see pockets of improvements, only to get setbacks when our operations encounter new COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns.”

Households Brace for Higher Winter Heating Costs as Natural Gas Prices Vault

The relentless rise in natural gas prices continued on Oct. 6, highlighting the looming threat to U.S. households bracing for higher heating costs in the event of a harsh winter.

U.S. natural gas futures were up 1.11 percent at $6.312 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in early trading on Oct. 6 after jumping around 9 percent a day earlier to settle at $6.312 per mmBtu, their highest level since 2008.

While gas prices in Europe and Asia have more than tripled this year, the United States has largely been shielded from the global crunch because of plentiful supplies. While U.S. natural gas is trading around the $6 per mmBTu mark, it’s at around $30-plus in Europe and Asia.

But experts warn the global natural gas crunch could have ripple effects, with possible impacts on households in the United States.

Those are just a sample.

Housing material is expensive and difficult to find. Labor is in short supply too.

The U.S. government is going to increase the debt even though everyone knows they can’t possibly pay off the existing debt. The situation of other governments, world wide, is not much different.

Closer to home is the drought this summer blew away the previous all time record in terms of total rainfall in Clearwater County Idaho. The yields were 1/3 to 1/2 of normal with very low quality. The drought wasn’t just local either.

It is not difficult to envision a domino effect and things go completely bonkers

Prepare appropriately. I want an underground bunker in Idaho.

Quote of the day—Tom Luongo

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The big reveal in Afghanistan is that what happened there can happen here, quickly. Those goat-herders just showed us how to defeat an Empire abroad. Now it’s time to defeat the empire within.

Tom Luongo
August 16, 2021
What If Afghanistan is More Than Just a Failed War?
[I suspect the rot is very deep and collapse could be much closer than what 99% of the people realize.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Allan Stein

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While many individual preppers and prepper organizations try to remain anonymous, the number of people preparing appears to be growing. In the last year alone, roughly 45 percent of Americans, or about 116 million people, said they spent money preparing for hard times or spent money stockpiling survival goods.

Allan Stein
August 6, 2021
‘Preppers’ Quietly Stock Up for the ‘Perfect Storm’
[We live in interesting times.—Joe]

California assault weapon declared unconstitutional!

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It’s about time!

SAF Court Victory: Judge Says Cal. ‘Assault Weapon Ban’ Unconstitutional

Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle,the AR-15 is the kind of versatile gun that lies at the intersection of the kinds of firearms protected under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and United States v Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939). Yet, the State of California makes it a crime to have an AR-15 type rifle. Therefore, this Court declares the California statutes to be unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs challenge a net of interlocking statutes which impose strict criminal restrictions on firearms that fall under California’s complex definition of the ignominious“assault weapon.” Hearings on a preliminary injunction were consolidated with a trial on the merits pursuant to F.R.C.P. Rule 65(a)(2). Having considered the evidence, the Court issues these findings of fact and conclusions of law, finds for the Plaintiffs, and enters Judgment accordingly.

Of course the defendants, rather than be put on trial, will appeal and probably get an injunction putting the right of the people to keep and bear these type of arms on hold for a few more years. In the mean time I suspect this means that the people of California can buy new AR-15s (if they can find them) for at least a few days.

Who could have guessed?

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Seattle police union chief fears losing 400 officers in a year as crime levels soar

As crime levels in Seattle continue to climb, more police officers are fleeing the force for jobs in police departments outside the city, where politics may play less of a role in shaping law enforcement decisions.

More than 200 officers have left the Seattle Police Department in the past year, leaving staffing levels below what department leaders say are necessary, and the head of the police union fears that number could double by next year.

“I’m fearful that we could lose up to 400 people within a year’s time, and then, where does that put us in our community?” Mike Solan, the president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, told the Washington Examiner.

“It would take decades to recover,” he said.

…

In 2020, Seattle saw its highest number of murders in 26 years, and crime in the city has trended upward in keeping with a national rise in violence.

This is such an obvious result I find it necessary to believe the politicians responsible intended this outcome. They are deliberately destroying “The Emerald City”.

Interesting times

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Gun sales: Best May ever, 2021 set to crush record, public ‘afraid of violence, tyranny’:

2021 looks to double the number of background checks and sales of 2015, when 23 million checks were conducted.

Sign of things to come?

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Is this some sort of communist takeover and a sign of things to come?

Squatters take over multimillion-dollar Sammamish home, police say hands are tied

…

Neighbors identified the two people as the squatters and both were arrested for burglary, according to Pingrey. Both were out of jail within days and headed back to the home, bringing more people with them.

“After they were out of jail, we had a large group trying to get back into the house,” Pingrey said. “No one was supposed to be there. The homeowners were not allowing anyone to stay there.”

Taking the advice of local prosecutors and lawyers, Pingrey said law enforcement is limited in what they can do. His frustrations hit a boiling point when the squatters demanded to be allowed to take property inside the home with them. Pingrey said, legally, his hands were tied and officers conducted a “civil standby.”

Pictures taken by a neighbor show police vehicles lined up on the street with officers watching, as the squatters filled a U-Haul truck with items inside. Another picture shows a garage full of appliances, including an ATM.

“We were not allowed to go in there with them and had to allow them to take this property out,” Pingrey said. “The person who had been illegally living there (was able) to come in and get what they stated was their property.”

Or is it some sort of misguided law with a loophole being exploited?

No surprise to me

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After gold being below $1700 in March and now near $1900/ounce we have this:

Bitcoin, ethereum plunge as sell-off smashes crypto sector:

Bitcoin and ether tumbled on Wednesday to 3-1/2 month lows, on track to post their largest one-day loss since March last year, in the wake of China’s move a day ago to ban financial and payment institutions from providing cryptocurrency services.

At one point during the meltdown, nearly $1 trillion was wiped off the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization.

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“Bitcoin’s sharp price drop should come as no shock to the market,” said Gavin Smith, chief executive officer of crypto consortium Panxora.

“Any asset which has risen as much as bitcoin over the past year can be expected to have pullbacks as some investors withdraw profits, like we’re currently seeing. While often a brilliant investment opportunity, traders must remember that Bitcoin is still an emerging asset class and will continue to experience large price swings,” he added.

It’s only a brilliant investment opportunity if you don’t have any moral qualms about “fleecing the sheep” and have good timing.

This is no surprise to me and apparently not Tam either.

A good omen

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It’s not directly related to the “Red Flag” laws they are using to infringe upon our rights, but it’s very close:

Supreme Court Unanimously Rebuffs Biden Administration on Warrantless Searches for Handguns

The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Biden administration arguments in a case from Rhode Island that police should be allowed to enter homes without a warrant to seize handguns.

The ruling in the case, Caniglia v. Strom, court file 20-157, came May 17.

…

In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the Supreme Court is “properly reject[ing] the broad ‘community caretaking’ theory.”

At the same time, he noted that the case implicates “another body of law that petitioner glossed over: the so-called ‘red flag’ laws that some States are now enacting.”

Such laws, he wrote, “enable the police to seize guns pursuant to a court order to prevent their use for suicide or the infliction of harm on innocent persons.”

Although this particular decision does not address those issues, “provisions of red flag laws may be challenged under the Fourth Amendment, and those cases may come before us.”

Also of note is that the decision was unanimous.

Building the foundation for a broader recovery of our infringed rights is a good thing. I just wish it were progressing faster.

See also:

I found this version of the story particular “interesting”. This is a completely different version of the facts compared to all other sources I have read, including the SCOTUS opinion:

Caniglia had brandished a gun while expressing a possible intent to inflict harm on himself.

I originally saw the first quoted material via an Epoch News Alert (Breaking News) but Rolf also send me a link to the reposting on Zero Hedge.

Things happen fast

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A police officer arrives on the scene to reports of teenage girls trying to stab other girls. Nine seconds after opening his car door the officer draws his gun as the perpetrator chases a girl while trying to stab her. Two seconds after that he fires his first shot as she winds up to stab a different girl. Four shots are fired in two seconds and the perpetrator is on the ground with a knife by her side. That is how fast things happen in real life.

It’s tragic, but everything I see in this video indicates it was a legally justified use of lethal force. Yet we have people saying things like this:

image

image

Are these people just ignorant? Or are they evil? It’s difficult to decide given the current data. Regardless of the correct assessment of this set of people (and millions of those who have similar attitudes) I don’t want them in my neighborhood or even in the same state. They are seriously messed up.

Quote of the day—Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib)

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Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist.


…

No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.

Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib)
Tweeted on April 12, 2021
[It’s not as stupid as you might think at first thought. Thieves and robbers are the natural allies of socialists and communists. They all steal from (and murder) capitalists. Elimination of the restraints on such criminals enables the destruction of people and property.

This was extraordinarily well demonstrated in the USSR. Tlaib and gang are just using an slightly updated playbook from 1917 Russia.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

ATF director nominee David Chipman

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Tomorrow President Biden will nominate David Chipman to be the director of the ATF. Chipman is no stranger to this blog. I wrote about him as “Senior Policy Advisor” for the Gifford Group. And he was part of a set of cherry picked “experts” at a Gun Policy Summit.

It’s like nominating a Grand Cyclops of the KKK* to head the office of the African American Administration. No such branch of government should exist. And putting someone who despises the rights of the people most affected by the organization is a recipe for some very tough times for those wishing to exercise their rights.

* I didn’t know this until I was verifying the title of Grand Cyclops, but before candidates for membership in the KKK would be accepted they were asked, “Are you now or have ever been a member of the Radical Republican Party?” I could easily see identical language being used today for admission to anti-gun groups.

Quote of the day—Glenn Reynolds

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Dominion’s suing Rudy Giuliani, but not these Democrats. But an “unbiased” voting machine company that only sues Republicans has kind of blown its credibility already.

Glenn Reynolds
February 13, 2021
WELL, YES. THE DEMOCRATS’ AND MEDIA’S — BUT I REPEAT MYSELF — EFFORT TO MAKE ELECTION FRAUD CLAIM…
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jim Quinn

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Based on the first three weeks of this year and what appears to be on the short-term horizon, I am confident the term “detonation” will apply to this fateful year. The intensity level has already reached 10 but is headed up to 11.

Jim Quinn
January 25, 2021
FOURTH TURNING DETONATION (PART TWO)
[Quinn points out the events of 1781, 1861, and 1941. These were 80 years apart. And 80 years from 1941 is 2021.

Interesting.

And while 2021 has a lot of potential to be something more for the history books than we have already seen I find it difficult to believe history rhymes that perfectly.

Of course they could have used a very poor pseudo random number generator in the simulator and we can now see the pattern.—Joe]