Category: Government (Page 11 of 13)

What happens if Trump is arrested?

It would be better to not find out what happens if Trump is arrested.

In 2016, adult film star Stormy Daniels contacted media outlets offering to sell her account of what she said was an adulterous affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006.

Mr Trump’s team got wind of this, and his lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to Ms Daniels to keep quiet.

This is not illegal. However, when Mr Trump reimbursed Mr Cohen, the record for the payment says it was for legal fees. Prosecutors say this amounts to Mr Trump falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour – a criminal offence – in New York.

This is a bullshit charge that happens all the time.  The district attorney is applying it to Trump as a punitive use of his authority.  Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney issuing the indictment, doesn’t care about blow back or fracturing America.  Assume the arrest will be maximum embarrassment, bail denied and leaks of confidential information.  There will be no reasonable restraint.

Some organization has been working to undermine America by funding divisive activities.  I don’t know if it’s George Soros, Communist China or Putin.  Whoever it is has decided that it’s time for a showdown.

Electric school buses might make sense.

Electric school buses  may actually make sense.  Electric cars aren’t a good solution for most people because they take a long time to recharge and lose range quickly in cold weather. 

When I started at North Royalton a couple of decades ago, I forwarded information to the administration about a government program to subsidize the conversion of school buses to natural gas.  The district had some capped natural gas wells, so this could have been a great opportunity. 

Are we finally entering an era of electric school buses?

It appears that way: A growing number of school districts are upgrading their student transportation with electric buses. The Biden-Harris Administration has paved the way for electric school buses with resources and funding. 

School buses have tons of room for batteries.  A school bus has two steel beams for a frame, with the body resting on top.  Batteries could easily be nestled between the beams.  District maintenance garages would have access to 220 V charging, or even 480 V 3 phase power.  Home owners may not have 220 V available for a charger, so are looking at 8 hours for a full charge.  Not convenient.

Bus drivers have fixed routes, so running out of a charge isn’t likely.  Transportation for field trips and athletic events could be a concern.  A wise district would consider retaining a number of diesel buses for those uses.

Heating uses a ton of energy.  There is no way around that.  Engines produce waste heat, so heating the passenger compartment isn’t an issue.  For an electric vehicle, getting stuck in traffic in the Winter could end the trip.  For student pickup, buses are generally on surface streets and the entire route isn’t likely to challenge the vehicle range.

The rest of the article dwells on stupid stuff.

Electric buses also provide a smoother, better ride to and from school; fewer vibrations on the bus mean lower body fatigue for students and drivers.

Nobody cares about that.

A quieter ride means children are more likely to arrive at school with a calmer headspace, ready and eager to learn.

Or that.

Electric fleets give back more energy than they consume during the day, and each electric bus has enough charge to provide electricity to four to six homes for one day.

I can’t tell what that is supposed to mean.

A mindset shift. While electric buses cost more, this should be viewed as strategic long-term investment for the betterment of our communities.

That’s a problem.

Electric buses doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but the articles proposing that approach should be more realistic, rather than just throwing in everything the author can think of.  It makes me think they are lying about something.

Nice guy Pence doesn’t apologize to Buttigieg for a mild joke.

Pence defends joke about Buttigieg’s maternity leave , but doesn’t apologize.  Good for him.

“Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression,” Pence said Saturday at the Gridiron Dinner.

That’s a good joke.  After taking two weeks to tweet about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Buttigieg confirmed that he doesn’t feel any duty to do his job.  He’s just in it for the perks.

“The Gridiron Dinner is a roast. I had a lot of jokes directed to me, and I directed a lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats,” he told reporters. “The only thing I can figure is Pete Buttigieg not only can’t do his job, but he can’t take a joke.”

I’m not used to Pence taking a stand.  Like he say, it’s the Gridiron Dinner, toughen up.  Pete’s response is weak beer.

“I spoke up because we all have an obligation to hold people accountable for when they say something wrong, especially when it’s misogynistic, especially when it’s homophobic, and I just don’t take that when it’s towards my family, and I don’t think anyone else would, especially when you bring a very small, medically fragile child into it,” he said.

Buttigieg’s bullshit answer tries to make him sound principled.  It isn’t about women or gay people, so it isn’t misogynistic or homophobic.  It’s about Pete not giving a shit about anyone or anything, but demonstrating his prestige by taking two months off while the air traffic control system was shutting down and travelers were stranded at airports.

When Pence didn’t apologize, Buttigieg realized that a nice, establishment, family guy is calling him out.  That can’t feel good.

Science says that race doesn’t make sense.

The National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine  says that race doesn’t make sense.

I didn’t want to say anything, but race in America hasn’t made any sense for decades.

Them:  “Don’t call us colored people.  We’re Black”

Us:  “James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud’, so we can say it out loud?”

Them:  “No, you say it too loud, like a racist. Call us African-American.”

Us: “Oh, like Elon Musk?”

Them: “Just because he was born in Africa and is an American, doesn’t make him an African-American.  Call us “People of Color”.

Us: “That’s just ‘colored people’, with the words mixed up.”

The report says researchers should not use race as a proxy for describing human genetic variation. Race is a social concept, but it is often used in genomics and genetics research as a surrogate for describing human genetic differences, which is misleading, inaccurate, and harmful.

Race is a social concept, not a genetic or scientific concept.  It’s imprecise and misleading.  That’s why we have so much trouble with the concept. People shouldn’t be categorized by race for any official purpose.

In education, racial statistics are very popular.  How different races compare on state mandated tests, school discipline or participation in AP classes, are all statistics that are given a lot of weight, but can’t actually mean anything.  How does the school know that a student is black?  No administrator is going to make that call.  When a student is enrolled in a school district, does a counselor ask?  It’s probably on a form, but how black is the kid?  The genetics company, 23 and Me, has millions of DNA samples.  They report that, on average, a person self-reporting as black, has 30% Caucasian genes.  Logically, Obama was probably more White than Black.  I know, you’re thinking that he looks Black, so he is Black.  Very imprecise and misleading. 

“Classifying people by race is a practice entangled with and rooted in racism, and the pernicious effects of applying this classification to genetics and genomics research have undeniably caused harm over the last century,” said Charmaine D. Royal, committee co-chair and Robert O. Keohane Professor of African and African American Studies, Biology, Global Health, and Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University. “The lack of consistency in the use of population descriptors also presents problems for the accuracy and applicability of genomics research. The new framework and processes our report recommends can help our field produce more trustworthy science.”

So can we just stop doing that now? 

DOJ Lied about January 6th

DOJ lied and withheld video evidence.

“We did not receive that video footage,” Watkins said. “We asked for it, and not just once or twice. Whether we asked for it or not is irrelevant because the government had an absolute, non-compromisible duty to disclose that video and they did not do so.”

This is truly appalling.  With the government possessing all of the surveillance video, there is an obligation to share the information in a practical way with the defense attorneys.  Otherwise, the DOJ can target anyone using only the evidence they’d like to release.

Chansley had already entered a guilty plea which allowed him to get out of solitary confinement.

In America, the legal process is the punishment.  Was there any reason to put this guy in solitary confinement other than to torture him?  Was he a flight risk?  How many defendants were denied bail solely to punish them for the temerity to question the government.  Shameful.

Tolerance turned into debauchery so slowly, nobody notice.

Governor DeSantis is revoking the Hyatt Regency’s alcohol license for sexually explicit shows with children present .   This video shows a summary of the show.  The title, in Swedish, says “American Christmas Show 2022 for All Ages”.  Presumably, an incredulous Swedish guy posted the video.  Porn used to come from there, and even they are shocked. 

There are 49 other governors.  Not all of them can be perverts.  Why aren’t they stopping this smut.  Governor DeWine, what are you waiting for?

In case Youtube doesn’t want anyone to see what the perverts are trying to show kids, here is another source of the video.

 

We got If-by-whiskeyed, and are stuck with Daylight Savings Time.

Don’t blame the House for not voting or the Democrats for blocking the bill to end the clock changing.

So close, yet so far: after the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act by unanimous consent in March, it was up to the House to hold a vote on the bill. It never did.

It went to the House, so easy-peasy, right?

“I think it just caught us all by surprise that the Senate actually produced something and sent it to us,” said Aguilar. “Usually bills go the other way.”

Uh-oh, now the House has to do something.

“While I have yet to decide whether I support a permanent switch to Standard or Daylight Saving Time, it’s time we stop changing our clocks,” said Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the chairman of the committee, at that hearing.

Have you ever seen a better example of an “If-By-Whiskey” answer by a politician?

Noah “Soggy” Sweat Jr. was a state representative in Mississippi giving a speech in 1952 addressing the prohibition of whiskey. 

My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, this is how I feel about whiskey:

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

Soggy so eloquently argues both sides, it’s hard to believe that this really happened.  A speech like that should be given by Harold Hill in The Music Man.  Which, coincidentally, opened on Broadway five years after that speech.

Frank Pallone, the Representative from New Jersey, took his If-by-whiskey stance, and we are left to change our clocks for at least another year.  If Congress can’t handle a soft ball issue like this, why do we trust them with important things?

Buttigieg thinks it matters where Tucker Carlson shops.

Buttigieg interview is a disaster.

You think Tucker Carlson knows the difference between a T.J. Maxx and a Kohl’s?

I don’t know the difference between T.J. Maxx and Kohl’s, but I can spot Buttigieg’s problem.  It’s all about the class struggle for a Marxist.  So long as people from your class are in positions of power, the the country is in good hands.

Buttigieg is a useful idiot, not a Marxist.  He is bland and unobjectionable, and doesn’t think too deeply.  As head of the Transportation Department, he really thought he was just a figurehead.  

It doesn’t matter where the people in charge shop as long as they understand that their job is to make every decision to benefit the American people. 

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Big Stick Physics

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑