Tag: Crime

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Oh Brittney!

Brittney Griner has been sentenced to 9 years in a Russian jail.

OMG! The Horror!

Yeah, right!

The story is here

Griner, had a prescription from a US doctor for medical Cannabis. However what she was carrying was a vape pen with hash oil cartridges.

Yeah, Hash Oil is cannabis so technically she was carrying what the doctor’s note said she should have been carrying.

That being said, Cannabis is illegal in Russia. She must have known that. Her excuse was essentially, “I forgot that was in my bag.”

I’m sure everyone in the Russian court rolled their eyes when she said that. I know I would have.

Every country that you travel to has different laws.

It pays to make sure that you aren’t prescribed or carrying anything in your bags or on your person that is illegal in a country you plan to visit.

I checked that my BP medication was in fact legal when I went to the Netherland Antilles a few years back. It was entirely likely that the medication was legal, checking to be sure took exactly 1 minute and I did that 4 weeks before my departure. The Netherlands Consulate was very kind and helpful. At the same time I also made sure that I’d been vaccinated against any diseases endemic to that area of the Caribbean.

If you’re traveling internationally you must adhere to the local laws and regulations. Most countries make zero exceptions for Americans. I suspect this in part, because so many Americans are so poorly behaved when they visit other countries.

Helpful hint my fellow Americans. We’re guests, we should act like it. We should not act like we’re above the law, because uhh we’re not!

Anyway. This lady was carrying an illegal substance into the country. It doesn’t matter what the quantity was, or the form it took, or anything else. The questions are:

  1. Is the substance illegal?
  2. Did the person bring the substance into the country.

Item 1 is true. Brittney Griner admitted that item 2 was true. Therefore she’s guilty of breaking Russian law, and she has been sentenced according to that law.

Seems like a pretty cut & dried case. I honestly don’t see what all the fuss is about.

I’m sure that Brittney thought since she was a basketball “Star” she didn’t have to obey silly Russian laws. “What to they know anyway?”

It must be hard for her to deal with the fact that in Russia she’s not accorded special privileges.

Well Brittney, not all countries are as insane as America has become.

Here’s your prize… 9 and a half years. At least they gave you 6 months off your sentence for time served!

I’m sorry that I can’t muster much concern or outrage over this lady’s punishment.

Little Brittney is going to learn something about real oppression in a Russian prison. From what I understand, the Russians don’t mess around. On the bright side, she will probably learn Russian while she’s in prison so she may have a new career as a translator at the UN when she gets out.

I have to wonder what would happen if I was returning to the United States with ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine in my bag after having traveled in Africa or South America.

Both of those drugs are available without a prescription in many areas of the world, because of their utility and commonplace usage. Would I be detained at the US border and thrown into jail for smuggling?

There was a time when I could say without hesitation that I wouldn’t be. But these days… In the age of COVID? Honestly, I’d expect to be whisked away to the gulag in Washington D.C. and placed in a small cell with the Jan 6th protesters.

After all the CDC and FDA have said these drugs are forbidden.

The Biden administration is involved trying to negotiate a prisoner trade for Brittney.

If I was her I’d be very worried about that. 9 and a half years could turn into 20 years, the way this administration bungles things.

Perhaps if we modeled our drug responses after Russia we wouldn’t be drowning in fentanyl, meth, crack, heroin, and whatever the hell else is being imported.

I know, it’s a crazy idea. Actual punishment for breaking a law???

Get outta here!

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Finally!

18 months or longer after the news broke of Hunter Biden’s laptop, the DOJ has actually done their job. They’re investigating the laptop and Hunter Biden.

One could assume that there’s now enough pressure to force the DOJ to take action.

I suspect darker motives.

We went from, “The Laptop is Russian disinformation,” and memory holing the information contained on it.

To, “The laptop appears to really be Hunter’s.”

To, “Hunter is being investigated for tax fraud.”

To actually investigating the data on the laptop that appears to implicate Joe Biden being somehow involved in Hunter’s business dealings.

In part, this investigation may have been caused by hackers busting into Hunter’s cloud accounts and then spreading the information around. But I think it’s more than that.

I think that Joe has outlived his usefulness and now the laptop serves as a convenient way to dispose of Joe.

This will allow the appearance of the Democratic Party actually doing something constructive. They’ll have the opportunity to say to the American people, “See we don’t tolerate corruption,” while elevating Kamala to the Presidency.

The timing is nice. If they pull this off before the midterms they might be able to win back some of the voters they’re losing, and pull their asses out of the fire. They’ll also be able to parlay dumping Joe over corruption charges into some legitimacy for the Jan 6th committee.

Think about it. “If we dumped Joe, and he was from our party. Of course our investigation into Trump and the insurrection is legitimate. We wouldn’t lie to you.”

Uh Huh.

It’s what I’d do. Put a woman of color into the Oval Office. You win the female voters, the pro abortion voters, and theoretically the person of color votes all at the same time.

The Republicans can still be painted as evil, and the “Red Wave” hits the rocks before it really starts. The Democratic Party retains their power while maintaining a sock puppet in office who is remarkably even less popular than Joe.

Joe gets to retire. Hunter goes to jail, then is released after a few months to house arrest. Trump is mired in court cases, a little blood is spilled to appease the American People and at least in theory, all is right with the world.

Keep telling the people via CNN and other news media that the Democratic Party is strong, and takes action running up to the mid terms and there will be voters that buy it.

It’s actually pretty clever.

That being said, given the way this administration has handled the simplest of things. I doubt they or the Democratic Party have the ability to pull it off seamlessly. So the cleverness will be lost in the cluster fuck that would define the attempt.

The enemies of our country must be rubbing their hands together with absolute joy in anticipation of Kamala Harris potentially being President given her abject failure in almost every diplomatic encounter she’s had.

Well, at this point only time will tell. In the mean time, I suspect the screwing will continue and we’re all on our backs with our legs in the air.

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The Inquisition… What a rush!

Like most Americans, I haven’t bothered to watch anything but snippets of the Jan 6th Hearings. I have been moved to laughter and tears by some of the headlines.

Usually I’m moved to tears when I read the articles associated with those headlines.

Most recently there was a Brietbart headline, “Liz Cheney, January 6 Committee Call for More ‘Confessions’”

Within the article, is a video clip from CSPAN of Liz Cheney sloppily referring to the testimony before the Jan 6th Hearing as confessions.

Testimony, is not necessarily a confession. Association is not necessarily guilt. Hearsay is not admissible in court.

According to Liz Cheney’s Bio posted on the Congressional Website she’s an attorney. You’d think that as an attorney she would be a lot more precise with her wording and language. You’d also think that she would know the above facts.

During this whole hearing mess, in the back of my mind I’ve been hearing Mel Brooks singing the catchy tune “The Inquisition” from History of the World Part 1

I think like most Americans, I’ve been completely unimpressed. Perhaps a better description would be shamed and terrified.

I do not think this hearing represents the best of American Jurisprudence. In fact the hearing truly looks like a Soviet Era show trial. It is completely obvious that the sole purpose of the Jan 6th Committee is to find Donald Trump guilty.

Look, if he’s that guilty refer the matter to the freakin DOJ and get on with a real trial. The DOJ appears to have become the “Junk Yard Dog” of Congress, so dispense with the bullshit and just go arrest Trump. You could dispense with the trial and simply take Trump to prison. I’m sure from there you could “Epstein” him.

Everyone knows that guilty or not, Congress and the DOJ will fully destroy Trump, if for no other reason than he was uppity with Congress, he made mean tweets, and screwed up the status quo.

Come on Congress you’ve already shown America and the freakin World that there are two tiers of justice. You’ve demonstrated that the is no longer liberty and justice for All Americans. You’ve shown that certain groups have favored status, (for the time being,) and are therefore more equal than the rest of us. You’ve shown time and again what you really think of We The People.

America has already been destroyed by malfeasance, corruption, and elitism. Why not just come out of the freakin closet and tell us all, The Constitution is dead, Justice isn’t ever going to be “Just” again, you have decided that you…

… Our “Betters” know what is best for us and get on with the soft enslavement you’re gunning for.

That’s where you’re headed right? Elites and little people? Masters and slaves?

The little people beaten down and controlled, drones whose sole purpose of existence is to enrich elites then be cast aside when they are too tired, or useless to serve a function.

Stop nibbling on the barrel of the gun, fucking pull the trigger! I’m sick of watching my nation being torn at by a pack of corrupt rabid hyenas such as you.

None of you represent me, or even the interests of American Citizens. None of you are worthy of my vote. None of you in Congress are my betters. I hold you all in Contempt.

Just declare the Declaration of Independence a flawed racist founding document. Say that The Constitution and Bill of Rights were racist, illegal, drunken, fevered dreams, of a bunch of white supremacists. Call those two documents garbage and say that the United States was a bad idea.

Then Congress, you can move forward with your communist central committees, and your dictatorships, beginning the real purges.

All Republicans
Anyone who ever questioned or disagreed with you
All the conservative Justices on the SCOTUS and every single Judge not approved by your new regime
All the educated constitutional law scholars who disagree
Follow that up with purging real Scientists. Set us back by 100 years to ensure complete dependency on government by destroying innovation.
You could probably get away with marching most of the “educated” pseudo elites to re-education camps
With proper party members and regional tribunals you could order the summary executions of all the rest of us who should have forced you to stop who were too distracted by the latest episode of “The Masked Singer” or whatever other vapid show you’d care to name.

Just get on with it. Bend Lady Liberty over and slit her throat while you’re ass raping her. While you’re at, it don’t forget to blow up the Statue of Liberty in NY Harbor.

After all isn’t she the epitome of celebrating the racist founding documents? Therefore shouldn’t she be cancelled as well? Don’t forget… she’s white. That should be an easy sell dontyathink?

Remember this you miserable fucking bastards. Once you do, you’ll never know another moment of safety or peace. You’ll be despised, cursed, and hunted for all time.

Enjoy your humiliation on your knees in front of whatever communist masters come help quell the dissidents. I’m sure their cocks will taste sweet on your tongues.

That is what the Jan 6th Hearing makes me think. I no longer give a shit if Trump did or didn’t do anything wrong.

I didn’t vote for him, I also didn’t vote for Hillary. I did vote for Trump as opposed to Biden in 2020 because at least in that matchup, Trump knew where the fuck he was.

The longer this show trial goes on, the madder I get. At this point, if I vote in the next elections I’m going to vote for the least funded, most common, man in the line up. I’m going to vote for people who are hopefully just as pissed off as I am because it’s long past time for the anger of the American People to be represented in Congress.

I’d love to see 435 pissed off average citizens sitting in The House. I don’t care if they’re farmers, janitors, truck drivers, or garbage collectors.

At least they’d have the perspective of not living in a life of luxury. They’d know how to balance a checkbook and what is needed in a budget to put food on their tables.

Our entire leadership needs to be flushed like a gas station toilet. Then follow-up with a good dose of industrial bleach.

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Well, I watched the Biden Speech

I really don’t like The President.

However, I found that I leaned toward several of the points that he made.

I’m still processing on the points, Here’s a list of what I mostly agree with.

Shootings

The shootings must stop.

An animal that walks into a school or a store and just opens fire, is to my mind rabid. As such, they deserve nothing but to be put down as you would a rabid animal. No mercy, no negotiation.

Something that I have noticed is that these animals always seem to go for “soft” targets. Whether that is a school, a church, a bar, or a shopping center. One thing these venues have in common is that they are almost always a Gun Free Zone.

A notable exception was the church in TX where one of the parishioners dropped a shooter on a sunny Sunday morning.

More Gun Control Laws

I’m not sure that more gun control laws will prevent these kinds of shootings. The so-called “Expanded” background checks I think are toothless.

I can say from experience that the “Gun Show” loopholes are largely red herrings. I’ve never been to a gun show that was “Cash & Carry”. If you purchase a gun at a gun show, you still have to pass the background checks and the gun must be shipped to a licensed federal firearms dealer. The purchaser can pick it up after providing appropriate documentation, and paying a handling fee. The same is true of Online Sales.

Mental Health

Mental Health Care must be expanded. I honestly don’t care how that is done, but I believe it must be done.

Red Flag Laws

I’m ambivalent about red flag laws. I can see the point and their usefulness. Alternatively, I’ve read horror stories where an aggrieved party abused the law to settle a score.

There’s one story that pops to mind where in a bitter divorce, the wife activated the Red Flag law. Her husband’s collection of rare and antique guns was taken, then the guns “disappeared” from police custody. The collection was worth north of 100,000 dollars. The wife demanded her half of the cash even though the guns were gone and therefore couldn’t be sold for profit. Depending on the Red Flag law, it’s possible to misuse it in a way similar to “Swatting”.

Age Limits

I’m not sure about the age limits on gun purchases. I do applaud The President’s speechwriter for addressing the military versus non-military aspects of 18 year olds purchasing guns. Yes, we send 18 year olds to fight in wars and kill people. Then those young people come home and can’t buy a beer. I’ve always found that to be wrong. On the other hand if the drinking age is 21, then I can see the gun purchase age being 21 as well. It is for handguns in most places.

And yet, we still have the weekly Chicago teenage shooting fest. This tends to imply, that criminals will be criminals regardless of the law or their age.

I completely disagree with laws similar to the California law that proposed making it illegal to hand a weapon registered to you, to another person, or member of your family. That disrupts a father being able to take his sons hunting, or to a shooting range. It also creates a complication if, for example, you’re at a range with a buddy and would like to try out his new Glock to see if you’d like it. (I don’t know if that idiotic law passed or not in California. I’ll have to look it up.)

Gun Safety

The President mentioned trigger locks, and safe storage of weapons. I can see that. (Although trigger locks can be defeated fairly easily.) The problem I have with so called “safe storage” is that a gun locked in a safe is no damn good if someone kicks your door down in the middle of the night.

Now you know why I sleep with a baseball bat at hand and some kind of knife nearby as well. Just as with a gun, I hope I’ll never have to use either of them. (Then again, caving someone’s skull in or gutting them wouldn’t disturb the neighbors like a gunshot would.)

High Capacity Magazines

The President referenced High Capacity Magazines again. This time he defined what he meant by high capacity. I lean toward agreeing, that 30 or 40 round magazines are high capacity. I’m not sure why someone would want that kind of capacity. I don’t know enough about that particular subject to intelligently comment.

I’ve been looking a Henry Lever action rifles for hunting. Most of them, top out at 10 round capacities. Several of them top out at seven rounds. These seem like reasonable maximums if you’re hunting.

I remember being told once, (discussing the model 1911 pistol,) that if you couldn’t hit what you were aiming at with seven rounds, you probably couldn’t hit it with 70. In my family, we were taught it was a very bad thing to waste ammunition. So I might be biased about the number of rounds necessary.

Other things said

One thing I noticed in comments that popped up after The President’s speech was that a lot of people were just badmouthing The President based on some of his comments earlier in the week. He said things like he wanted to ban 9mm.

Because of his earlier statements, people heard what they wanted to hear in his address Thursday.

In this post, I’m trying to maintain focus on what he said in his speech.

If in fact some of the legislation his party is proposing contains bans on 9mm, or AR-15 rifle mechanisms then I’ll have to re-evaluate.

9mm is one of the most common calibers on the market today. Most law enforcement use them and honestly if The President did actually ban that caliber, it would create chaos.

Law enforcement goes through a lot of testing before they approve a particular gun and / or caliber for their use. Having to resupply every police force in the country would impose a large financial burden on police budgets nationwide. Including The President’s own security forces. I tend to think The President misspoke earlier in the week referencing 9mm.

Size wise, a 9mm slug isn’t terribly different from a .38 so I’m really not sure why The President spoke about 9mm at all.

Then again, time will tell.

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Why we can’t have nice things…

Four years ago I was leaving a grocery store near my apartment when a complete stranger walked up to me and commented on my watch.

It wasn’t uncommon for my colleagues to notice it or comment on it. It was not even that uncommon for a clerk in a shop to notice my watch, (particularly if they were male,) and say something like, “nice,” while looking at my wrist.

That day in front of the grocery store, this guy who appeared homeless commented about my watch in a very loud voice. He said something like, “That’s a really nice watch, what did that set you back 10 grand 15 grand?” What caught my attention was that he was speaking loudly enough for pretty much the entire shopping plaza to hear him. I’m a suspicious person, and in the back of my brain a thought popped in, “Why is this guy announcing this? Is he calling to an accomplice?”

I politely said in an equally loud voice, “Thank you for the compliment, it’s amazing how many compliments I get on this cheap $200 Hong Kong knock off. Would you like to hold it? “

At that point the man lost interest. Thank god he didn’t call my bluff.

This event was about the 3rd or 4th I’d experienced in 2 weeks. Admittedly, I wasn’t living in the best neighborhood at the time, but up to that point I hadn’t felt particularly unsafe.

The watch in question is not a knock off.

I purchased it 14 years ago for about 7K. I’d lost a rather large watch collection in a fire and decided that I simply wanted a single very nice watch that I never took off. I’d worn my watch continuously since I put it on in the store.

There were some who scolded me for wearing such a nice watch while doing yard work, working on a car, building, painting, swimming, or just living. I really thought nothing of it.

It is my watch, and since it was the only one I owned, it was easier to keep it on my wrist than to keep track of it, if I took it off.

The watch itself has held up very well. I sent it in for routine service on its tenth birthday. The service center gave it a tune up, and a clean bill of health. complemented me on two things. 1) it was in excellent shape and 2) that they’d guessed I wore it every day and thought that was very cool.

They didn’t even charge me for the replacement of 2 links in the band that had taken the brunt of a saw kickback. The watch band had saved me from a very nasty cut on my wrist. As part of the service the watch was also appraised. I was a bit shocked, and pleased, to discover that my watch had more than doubled in value.

After the repeated incidents in public where the watch garnered unwanted and intrusive attention, (it’s still considered rude to ask a stranger what they paid for something isn’t it?) I decided it was time to put my beautiful functional timepiece in a safe and buy something cheap and ubiquitous.

I’ve enjoyed the lockdowns over the past two years because if I’m around home, or in my little mountain town I’ve been able to wear my nice watch. I also wore it with complete confidence on a recent trip to Florida. Some men in Florida noticed my watch, they just nodded in appreciation, and smiled. You know… “Old School Politeness.”

My cheap watch is an Apple watch. It’s nice, but having to recharge it daily is a pain in the butt. The advantage is that everyone has one and in that homogeneity is safety.

No-one is likely to mug me for an Apple Watch.

The sadness is that my beautiful, simple, functional, watch sits in the safe. I do wear it if I’m camping, diving, or know that I’m not likely to encounter crowds of people. I also wear it more in the Winter when a jacket or long sleeves afford cover for it.

Within the past month or two, I read a news item where a man in Los Angeles had been robbed of his Rolex, at gunpoint after an induced car accident.

Today There was a report from England in The Sunday Times talking about an apparently organized group of thieves who are targeting high end watch wearers. The article is here and it’s brazen.

Most of the men report being approached by lovely women asking for their signature on a petition or something. In some cases the women become handsy and quite forward, talking non stop. In a few cases they’ve offered sex or other enticements.

Often the men are so flabbergasted they don’t realize their watch is gone until the woman has left.

I’ve heard of expensive hookers, but these guys aren’t even getting blow jobs for their 10 to 20K!

The article mentions that the thieves seem to be targeting Rolexes.

The supply of Rolexes is thin and the resale market is booming.

Rolex among other high end watches retain their value worldwide. They’re easy to transport, and with a hot resale market the thief can dump the merchandise quickly.

I’ve been jonesing for a watch that I can safely wear daily that doesn’t require recharging or batteries.

I guess you could say I’m bored with the Apple Watch and its attendant software updates, power requirements, and fiddling.

I think fondly of my nice watch. Ten years, one watch, and zero trouble. Ahh, simplicity!

I’d been looking at a nice simple Omega. But that too is a high end watch and subject to the same targeting by thieves. That being said, I may get one anyway.

I suppose that a venerable Timex might be the best way to go.

It does make me wonder how long will it be before we’re all driving the same car, all wearing the same clothes, all wearing the same watch, and all using the same mobile phone?

Is that where this is going, will we all be stuck with a “one size fits all” solution just to fight crime?

That’s not freedom. That’s the old Soviet Union, North Korea, or China. I want the freedom to have nice things without worrying about becoming a target.

I’m also just old school enough to want a concealed carry permit and a stout .45 on my hip. I’d rather leave the thieves gut shot and bleeding out on the sidewalk. (Why gut shot? Because it’s an agonizing death.) People don’t usually think of me, and mercy at the same time.

I find myself thinking that all it would take is 1 year of would be criminals stacking up in the morgues, and crime would be almost nonexistent. I figure we’d either run out of criminals, or criminals would decide crime itself was too risky.

Unfortunately, especially in California, criminals have been given the upper hand and they’re continuing to press their advantage. Apparently this is also true elsewhere in the world.

Maybe I’ll go with a Timex until I’m able to move to a state where they’ve remembered, “An armed society is a polite society.”

Maybe sometime in the near future folks will wake the hell up and realize The “Wild West” era came to a close in part because we all agreed that a robust police force was preferable to daily shoot-outs at the saloon.

That’s provided that the morons running things haven’t burned the history books or forgotten how to read them.