Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[crashcourse]

650000 to a lawyer without any felony convictions and no experience with racketeering.
You then go on 4-5 trips with him in a 6 month period after he gets the money from you via the taxpayers --and you say you paid him back with piles of cash you have in a safe back home with no paper trail

Yeah nothing to see here

far as tucker goes Im glad he talked to putin if anything else give america a good idea who we are fighting
tucker did ukraine a favor by bringing this interview to americ

[CGVT]

far as tucker goes Im glad he talked to putin if anything else give america a good idea who we are fighting
tucker did ukraine a favor by bringing this interview to americ

5cca000fb9e89.jpg

[Dr. Strangelove]

Dunno if Trump said anything publicly about it, but despite posting a few hundred times yesterday on Truth he hasn't said a peep about Navalny/Putin. Not that I expected him to.

Russian authorities are now screwing around with Navalny's family, giving them the runaround on collecting the body.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I doubt anyone here needs an extra reason to NOT donate to that Trump GoFundMe that’s going around but here you go. It’s being overseen by one of the richest, most militant Scientologists in the country.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So, Navalny is dead probably at Putin's direction. Calls from western leaders for outside investigation will be ignored and Russian prison officials are already taking steps to secure his body. .

Things I've read suggest the particular prison that Navalny was moved to in Siberia a few months ago suggest living conditions are so bad, it's nothing more than a torture chamber of slow death. There's been small numbers of protesters gathering who are mostly there to morn his death. These were broken up by local police and Rosgavardia. Polls taken by independent agencies inside Russia have indicated the Russian population is apathetic about demonstrating against the War in Ukraine or in resisting the slide of the Russian state from a somewhat open society to one that is totally repressive. The war in Ukraine.is described as background noise that does not affect most people in Russia except those that have lost love ones there. The Kremlin has programs designed to mollify this group of people and keep them from organizing pretests. IOW, there is no significant discontent inside Russia over Ukraine, the application of more repression from the Kremlin or that which might arise from the Nalvany death.

The Ukrainian Army has withdrawn its forces from the defense of Adiivka a small town on the eastern front of Ukraine, completely destroyed by 4 months of siege warfare by the Russian Army. Adviika is a symbolic front door to the Kharkiv Oblast which the Russians retreated from early in the 3 year conflict. It is less of a strategic gain and more of a symbolic one, nonetheless an important symbolic battle ground. The US House's R extremists have brought the flow of aid to Ukraine from the US to a full stop holding that aid hostage to boarder security policies they are demanding.

Zelenski has been in Munich at an EU security conference making it pretty clear to attendees (US Secretary of Defense, Austin is not in attendance) that Ukraine desperately needs ammunition. If the Russian's, as Zelenski explained, continue to gain momentum and breathing space, the security of NATO members is going to be endangered. Trump's loose talk about America's NATO role, subject to the failure of other NATO members to contribute their fair share to NATO defense, will lead to the US not defending those countries if they are attacked by Russia, is playing right into Putin's hands.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Fuck this guy and what passes for comedy in MAGAdonia.

[Jeff Buchanan]

An upbeat article on the benefits of facial recognition technology in improving the airport experience for travelers appeared in the NYTs this morning. We travel a lot both domestically and internationally and have loved arriving and departing airports and cruise terminal where TSA and Customs and Immigration (C&I) use this technology. In passing through C&I in international terminals equipped with facial recognition technology, long lines have virtually disappeared. Before, you could spend hours clearing C&I when three wide-bodies discharge a thousand passengers around the same time, all of them headed for Customs and Immigration..

When a cruise ship disembarks passengers, C&I might be facing processing 6 to 10K passengers from three cruise ships at a time. Before, long lines of debarking cruise passengers required waiting interminably. That's done. With facial recognition we can leave our cabin and be back at our front door in less than an hour and the Uber from the port to our house takes about 40 minutes.

But let's not let government screw up a good thing. The benefits of speedy trips through airports or cruise ports far outweighs conspiracy driven downsides but NOOOOO. Here we go. From the NYTs:

But not everyone is happy with the technology’s growth. Critics say the systems lack guardrails to ensure people’s biological data is not misused. And, though they have improved over the years, facial-recognition algorithms have historically been shown to work better on white faces.

The Traveler Privacy Protection Act, a bill introduced by Senators Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, seeks to halt the T.S.A.’s ongoing facial-recognition program. The bill’s sponsors say they have serious concerns regarding security and the possibility of racial discrimination.

Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel on privacy and technology at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government had not yet shown a demonstrated need for facial-recognition technology at airports. And he expressed concern over what he called the “nuclear scenario.”

“Facial recognition technology,” he said, could be “the foundation for a really robust and widespread government surveillance and tracking network.”

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a three-day old article and it's usually paywalled Forbes. As Russian forces move westward onto the doorstep of the Kharkiv Oblast, taking the ruined city of Adviika symbolically, the US Congress dithers in approving $80b for Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia flush with artillery shells from NK and Iran (probably others) is firing 10,000 rounds along the front compared to Ukraine's 2000.

The Forbes article, linked below describes there are 4m + 155mm artillery rounds in the US inventory that are marked as excess. Biden could route these rounds to Ukraine by a single order that bypasses Congress. There's speculation that he understands this process but has elected not to use it, alternatively holding out for the $80b.

War is unpredictable and any small advantage by either side can dramatically alter outcomes. If things in Ukraine, WRT engaged forces, weren't at what IMO is a critical juncture, Biden's approach could work but it appears were at a tipping point. When alternatives exist to a by-pass a recalcitrant Congress, it's dumb to not execute the alternative pathway.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/14/joe-biden-could-send-millions-of-artillery-shells-to-ukraine-for-free-tomorrow-and-its-perfectly-legal/?sh=38a938a520c7

[Dr. Strangelove]

Looks like this creep is FINALLY heading for trial.

[iam416]

Paxton's trial is actually real. Probably.

Meanwhile, in NY, the State Government continues utterly sham actions. And the Progs cheer. Ya know, if DJT somehow gets elected and he turns his DOJ on "enemies" I'm gonna have very little sympathy for those involved. The Progs started this nonsense (in NY, well before DJT, too). If they're on the receiving end...jimmy crack corn and I don't care.

Such a wonderful precedent.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are children.

*********

Alabama Associate Justice Greg Cook wrote in his dissenting opinion that the “main opinion's holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization ("IVF") in Alabama.”

“I respectfully dissent," Cook said. "The first question that this Court is being asked to decide in these appeals is whether Alabama's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act ("the Wrongful Death Act"), see § 6-5-391, Ala. Code 1975, as passed by our Legislature, provides a civil cause of action for money damages for the loss of frozen embryos. This is a question of the meaning of the words in that Act, as it was originally passed and understood in 1872. My sympathy with the plaintiffs and my deeply held personal views on the sanctity of life cannot change the meaning of words enacted by our elected Legislature in 1872. Even when the facts of a case concern profoundly difficult moral questions, our Court must stay within the bounds of our judicial role. Moreover, there are other significant reasons to be concerned about the main opinion's holding. No court -- anywhere in the country -- has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches. And, the main opinion's holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization ("IVF") in Alabama.”


Alabama Supreme Court rules IVF embryos are protected under Wrongful Death of a Minor Act (1819news.com)

[THE_WIZARD_]

I wish you were a frozen embryo still...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Hey pal, take a long walk off a short pier whydoncha

[Dr. Strangelove]

[THE_WIZARD_]

TDS