Flutterby™! From 2020-06-01 to 2020-06-30

Dear Amazon Transcribe: It's a fucking video file. That plays just fine. That ffmpeg can convert to other things. Why are you trying to treat it like UTF-8 text with "'utf-8 codec can't decode byte 0xda in position 52: invalid continuation byte".

[ related topics: Books Video ]

A little heartwarming video about racial profiling: Black FBI agent arrested by white police officers, see what happens at the end. (YouTube)

Thre bad cops, one good one.

[ related topics: Movies Law Enforcement Race Video ]

Samuel Sinyangwe @samswey

For those who are interested in research-based solutions to stop police violence, here’s what you need to know - based on the facts and data. A thread. (1/x)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1180655701271732224.html

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Via the always awesome Tara at https://researchbuzz.me : Santa Maria Times: Your Central Coast — John Lindsey: View hundreds of weather monitoring sites

If you're a weather or map geek, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has now installed more than 600 weather stations and 130 high-definition cameras across Northern and Central California as part of its Community Wildfire Safety Program.

• http://www.pgecurrents.com/
• http://pge.com/weather
• https://mesowest.utah.edu/

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Software Engineering Current Events California Culture Community Maps and Mapping Global Warming ]

RT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people!

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

RT Scott Rosenberg @scottros

Last night Dr. Allison Richardson of the USC Annenberg School, @DrAlliRich , accused me of using her work without citing it. The charge is false. 1/7

Dr Richardson's article: Why cellphone videos of black people’s deaths should be considered sacred, like lynching photographs

Scott Rosenberg's article: The technology of witnessing brutality

I think both are worth a read (and Rosenberg agrees).

[ related topics: Children and growing up Photography Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Race Video ]

Twitter thread about the dismantlement of one of Birmingham's Confederate monuments

The history behind Birmingham monuments damaged during George Floyd protest notes that when the monument was built in 1894:

News editor Rufus N. Rhodes, who headed a ‘Sons of Confederate Veterans’ group and is honored with a Birmingham park of his own, introduced Confederate Gen. Stephen D. Lee to the crowd as “the model for the civilized world.”</blockqutoe>

“May the blood of our martyrs be the seed of such a race in the future,” Lee said of the Confederate dead. A Bible, Confederate flag, and Birmingham newspapers were placed inside the cornerstone.

[ related topics: Current Events Civil Liberties ]

Jared Huffman on Facebook talking about the attempts to negotiate with Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick on enforcing public health orders

[ related topics: Health ]

New York Times Opinion: Just Stop the Superspreading — In our study, 20 percent of Covid-19 cases accounted for 80 percent of transmissions.

Dillon C. Adam and Benjamin J. Cowling suggests that the R-naught may be reducible in more targeted ways.

[ related topics: Invention and Design New York ]

White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter

This isn’t the first time Twitter has taken action against fake accounts engaged in hateful conduct linked to Identity Evropa, according to the spokesperson.

We've found the terrorists. Turns out they were the white supremacists all along. Go figure.

[ related topics: Civil Liberties Race ]

Atlanta Officers Fired After Video Shows Use of Taser, Violence on 2 Black College Students. Video of the event.

News crew stops police from arresting black shop owners protecting themselves from looters, sends cops after looters instead.

And, of course, a reminder that Louisville Police Chief Fired After Officers Failed to Activate Body Cameras During Fatal Shooting, in which the Louisville police and/or National Guard troops shot and killed David McAtee in the parking lot next to his restaurant.

Alexandria's Confederate Statue Removed from Old Town Intersection

The owners of the statue, United Daughters of the Confederacy, took it down Tuesday morning.

[ related topics: Photography Food Current Events Law Enforcement Television Education Video ]

Leaked posts show Facebook employees asking the company to remove Trump’s threat of violence — “If we fail the test case here, history will not judge us kindly”

Another employee compared working at Facebook to a comedy sketch by the duo Mitchell and Webb in which two SS officers are talking during World War II and one asks the other, “Are we the baddies?” “Waking up every morning at FB now and having this run through my head, immediately followed by ‘yes, apparently,’” the employee wrote, above a GIF of the sketch.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama History Law Work, productivity and environment ]

Isaac Chotiner interviews Omar Wasow, a professor of politics at Princeton, on how violent protests change politics:

What’s often hard for people to see is that there are these white moderates who are part of the Democratic coalition as long as they perceive there to be order, but when they perceive there to be too much disorder they shift to the party that has owned the issue of order, which is the Republican Party. For some people, the idea that there are these swing Democratic-minded voters is hard to grasp, but there is pretty strong evidence that in 2016, and in 1968, that was an important and influential niche of voters.

You are absolutely right that Trump, to a lot of people, is an instigator of chaos rather than a restorer of order, so I think that potentially works against him. But if you are this white moderate, and perceive the disorder to be coming from African-Americans in cities, then turning to Trump, even if you see him as a rough character, is appealing: He’s a street fighter, but he is our street fighter. So the real danger for advocates of reform in Minneapolis trying to get better policing, and for those trying to pursue racial justice nationally, is that there are people who are turned off by Trump but who have a strong taste for order, and so if they are more concerned about racial disorder, then Trump is their racial order.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Current Events Law Enforcement Race ]

Qualified Immunity, Explained

The Supreme Court invented qualified immunity in 1967, describing it as a modest exception for public officials who had acted in “good faith” and believed that their conduct was authorized by law. Fifteen years later, in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, the Court drastically expanded the defense. The protection afforded to public officials would no longer turn on whether the official acted in “good faith.” Instead, even officials who violate peoples’ rights maliciously will be immune unless the victim can show that his or her right was “clearly established.” Since the Harlow decision, the Court has made it exceedingly difficult for victims to satisfy this standard. To show that the law is “clearly established,” the Court has said, a victim must point to a previously decided case that involves the same “specific context” and “particular conduct.” Unless the victim can point to a judicial decision that happened to involve the same context and conduct, the officer will be shielded from liability.

[ related topics: Law Civil Liberties ]

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted a picture of a badge with a black elastic around it ".. in quiet commemoration of our 27 brothers and sisters we’ve lost to #COVID."

The replies were not kind.

RT Andrew Cuda @andrew_cuda

Can I cover my license plate with a band to honor people killed in auto accidents?

law dog, esq. @ggooooddddoogg

mourning by filing the serial number off my gun

RT Assigned Cleric At Birth @Devon_OnEarth

Showing quiet commemoration by placing symbolic black tape across my bodycam lens

Others suggested that maybe other decoration may be appropriate, but Yaksisoba @yaksisoba

Cops wearing armbands would be pretty on point from what we've seen...

[ related topics: Privacy Law Enforcement Guns Dogs ]

RT Tall Paul @TallPaul612

Why are people scared of the riots and looting?

The flu kills way more people every year.

a response from 40% of Cops Are Wifebeaters @FanSince09

It’s less than 1% of all stores in the IS that are being looted. What’s next, we’re gonna mobilize the National Guard to stop car accidents and heart attacks?

Minneapolis police rendered 44 people unconscious with neck restraints in five years

Ed Obayashi, an attorney and the deputy sheriff in Plumas County, California, is a national use-of-force expert who trains and advises California police agencies. He said police departments across the country have been moving away from the neck restraint option for many years because of its "inherent life-threatening potential" and because officers often misinterpret resistance by a suspect, who may simply be struggling to breathe.

"It's common sense," Obayashi said. "Any time you cut off someone's airway or block blood flow to the brain, it can lead to serious injury or death as we have seen in so many of these tragedies. By using this tactic, it's a self-fulfilling tragedy."

Yeah. Suspect Restraint and Sudden Death — Journal: FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume:65 Issue:5 Dated:(May 1996) Pages:22-25

[ related topics: Law Current Events Law Enforcement California Culture Machinery Trains ]

Hero: Quick thinking bystander takes bomb that an agitator is setting and tosses it back in agitator's car.

[ related topics: Automobiles ]

People Say Pallets Of Bricks Are Showing Up Near Protests All Over The US. The Truth Is More Complicated.

As of now, there's no evidence to support claims of coordinated brick placements at protests.

Well, after a few years with their collective heads in the sand, they're finally starting to think about what they might look like testifying in the International Court of Justice... Too much good stuff to pull-quote anything in here, it's worth reading the whole thing.

Former Defense Secretary Mattis' statement on Trump and protests

[ related topics: Politics Law Enforcement Aviation - Helicopters ]

just trying to capture my nemesis, the stairs, from the top

[ related topics: Photography ]

History Q: In the late '70s or early '80s, my grandfather, who worked for the New York State Department of Health and as a volunteer firefighter in Floral Park, showed me a handwritten business card that he kept in his wallet next to his license where any police officer asking for identification would see it.

He described this card as a "Mickey Finn" card, and it said something like "Ralph Gode is an upstanding citizen and a friend to all policemen", and was signed by one Mickey Finn.

In his role for the Department of Health he did a lot of law enforcement and fire department training, so if I was out riding around with him in a car and there was something going on he'd inevitably stop and ask, and the response was almost always "Oh, hi, Mr Gode, yeah, you and your grandson step under the ropes and let's show ya what's going on".

(It was situations like those where I was cautioned that you never ever straddle a fire hose, step over quickly.)

I *think* the context in which I saw this card actually used was one of those, where the officer didn't recognize him, he flashed that card, and the attitude completely changed.

I'm assuming the signature came from a Michael Finn somewhere up in the Fraternal Order of Police or the union or something like that.

Anyone got background?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health Invention and Design Law Enforcement Automobiles Pyrotechnics New York Bicycling Woodworking ]

George freak' Will: Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers.

Also gonna leave this here: Adolf Eichmann’s Final Plea: “In His Own Words”:

I have heard the Court’s severe verdict of guilty. I see myself disappointed in my hopes for justice. I cannot recognize the verdict of guilty. I understand the demand for atonement for the crimes which were perpetrated against the Jews. The witnesses’ statements here in the Court made my limbs go numb once again, just as they went numb when once, acting on orders, I had to look at the atrocities. It was my misfortune to become entangled in these atrocities. But these misdeeds did not happen according tomy wishes. It was not my wish to slay people. The guilt for the mass murder is solely that of the political leaders.

I did try to leave my position, to leave for the front, for honest battle. But I was held fast in those dark duties. Once again I would stress that I am guilty of having been obedient,having subordinated myself to my official duties and the obligations of war service and my oath of allegiance and my oath of office, and in addition, once the war started, there was also martial law.

This obedience was not easy. And again, anyone who has to give orders and has to obey orders knows what one can demand of people. I did not persecute Jews with avidity and passion. That is what the government did. Nor could the persecution be carried out other tha nby a government. But I never… I accuse the leaders of abusing my obedience. At that time obedience was demanded, just as in the future it will also be demanded of the subordinate. Obedience is commended as a virtue.

May I therefore ask that consideration be given to the fact that I obeyed, and not whom I obeyed.

[ related topics: Religion Politics History moron Law Enforcement ]

The Zoot Suit as rebellion.

White House says police didn’t use tear gas and rubber bullets in incident that cleared protesters with chemical irritants and projectile munitions

“No tear gas was used, and no rubber bullets were used,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Wednesday, echoing similar claims from the U.S. Park Police and the president’s allies.

<blockquotemcenany was correct, but only to the extent that police did not use products labeled “tear gas” and “rubber bullets.”

As Joe McMahon said on Facebook: "There’s a term for this: teargaslighting."

RT Nathaniel Tapley @Natt

It's only tear gas if it comes from the Têar region of France, otherwise it's just sparkling white supremacy.

Quoting Peter Alexander @PeterAlexander

The US Park Police says its officers did *not* deploy tear gas at Lafayette Park, but acknowledges using "smoke canisters and pepper balls," that contain a chemical designed to irritate the eyes. https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1268142605738676227

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Food Journalism and Media Law Enforcement Guns Race Real Estate ]

Just saving this because I know that at some point I'm gonna have to match paint colors again, and a hundred bucks to avoid chipping off a piece to take to the paint store might totally be worth it: Nix Color Sensor attaches (presumably via Bluetooth) to your Android or iOS device.

[ related topics: Wireless ]

Must watch: New York Times: The David McAtee shooting: Did aggressive policing lead to a fatal outcome?

The NYT takes all of the available video of the David McAtee shooting. Turns out what looked like muzzle flash from the restaurant was bottles exploding because of police fired rounds. So, yeah, he was returning fire. Police were shooting at people fleeing into his restaurant. He had no way of knowing that ordinance being shot at him was "non-lethal". The police did not follow department policy in their engagement.

Reminder that Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by plainclothes Louisville police executing a likely illegal no-knock warrant

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design Food Law Enforcement Pyrotechnics New York Video ]

Fairness in reporting RT Greg Price @greg_price11

THREAD

A myriad of blue checks and news outlets are lying and claiming that Trump was saying that George Floyd would have been happy looking down on the job numbers. I've collected them all @DrewHolden360 style.

[ related topics: Current Events Heinlein ]

Whoah: I've had campyllobacter. It sucks. The Truth About Chlorinated Chicken review – an instant appetite-ruiner

Indeed, chlorine washing may prevent the detection of contaminants through ordinary testing, because it partially masks the problem. Quilton had no trouble finding a Texas restaurant owner who will swear there is nothing wrong with American chicken – “Not a thing. Superior quality and flavour”. But the numbers speak for themselves: US rates of campylobacter infection are 10 times higher than in the UK. The US records hundreds of salmonella deaths a year; the UK has in recent years recorded none.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Food Television Birds ]

Civilian Portland Police Employee Announces Support for Antifa and Denounces Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets

“I’m pretty sure I’m sick with that antifa that President Trump is always warning us about and also that anti-racism."

[ related topics: Current Events Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Guns Race ]

My Dad served in US Army Military Intelligence for 6 years. ROTC helped pay for his college, and when his 4 years were over he upped for another 2, and likely would have re-upped again, except that a stint in Vietnam was a surety at that point. Monitoring the Soviets was a cause he could believe in. But he also worked in military/defense adjacent stuff for another couple of years.

Two decades or so later, around 1990, '91, when George Bush was making up reasons to invade Iraq (the first time), he expressed regret, not so much at his military service, but because he did so at a time when the country was exploding in protest, and he'd been solidly inside the establishment, rather than on the streets working to overthrow the horrors and injustices of America of the 1960s.

The other day, someone on Twitter tagged me in a search for mentors of people of color in the software business. And I was like "yeah, I'm happy to help, but I've worked with basically the same small group of people or their friends since coming to California", and then I realized "oh, that's exclusionary as hell and part of the problem, isn't it?"

So as I see the world around me explode (and I've been aware of some of the injustices since my long-haired hippy days), I'm wondering how I can best effect change. Marching in a protest in my town seems twee, a bunch of white people on wide sidewalks in a very white town where the police may be casually racist (I've heard some reports) but know who pays their bills doesn't feel super effective.

Charlene and I watched Selma last night, and talked a little bit about what we might to do help.

I could Sharpie a lawyer's phone number on my wrist and bus down to Oakland or SF, and I'm trying to figure out how I feel about that.

Anyway, we've upped our donations to various organizations that work on these sorts of issues, and bought (take-out) dinner last night from a restaurant that announced that as the mid-way between the park where the Petaluma protests start and the police station, they were happy to provide water and snacks.

[ related topics: Politics Movies Food Bay Area Software Engineering Law Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Civil Liberties California Culture Education Race Public Transportation ]

Wasn't sure what this was, but based on how it smelled on the router table I'm guessing Sapele or Ipe. Couldn't find a frame I liked for a piece we're framing, so out to the shop it was...

[ related topics: Photography Furniture Woodworking ]

In a Masturbation Mishap, Man Ends up With Phone Charger Cord Stuck in His Urinary Bladder

But how many times did he have to flip it over before it went in?

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

We found someone guilty of violence against the police, it turns out he's.... checks notes... a white Air Force staff sergeant active duty military police officer...

Air Force sergeant arrested on suspicion for killing of deputy in Santa Cruz County

My heart goes out to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department, and the family and friends of Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller.

[ related topics: Sociology Law Enforcement Race ]

Psychopathic traits linked to non-compliance with social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic

PsyArXiv Preprints: Adaptive and Dark Personality in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Predicting Health-behavior Endorsement and the Appeal of Public-health Messages

Who embraces directions to socially distance, boost hygiene, and protect others during a pandemic of contagious respiratory disease? Do differently phrased public-health messages appeal to different people? I based predictions on the five-factor, triarchic psychopathy, and Dark Triad models of normal-range and dark traits; the extended parallel process model (EPPM); and schema-congruence theory. In a survey of 502 online participants, normal-range traits (esp. agreeableness and conscientiousness) predicted endorsement of social distancing and hygiene, as well as the appeal of health messages in general. Consistent with the EPPM, conscientiousness and neuroticism had an interaction. Dark traits (esp. psychopathy, meanness, and disinhibition) predicted low endorsement of health behaviors and the intent to knowingly expose others to risk. Most participants preferred a message appealing to compassion (“Help protect the vulnerable...”), but dark traits predicted lower appeal of that message. Personality appears relevant to epidemiology and public-health communication in a contagious-disease context.

Of course 2020 is seeing my industry move away from terms like "whitelist" and "blacklist" because of the inherent bias those terms carry, and seeing "dark traits" in a psychology paper.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Health ]

Oh, look, we're finding the vandals: Minneapolis: Officers slashed tires on vehicles parked amid Minneapolis protests, unrest

Florida chapter of Fraternal Order of Police tells disciplined, jailed cops 'we are hiring'

Brevard County Fraternal Order of Police: disciplined and jailed cops should apply here

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement ]

Today in "dafuq year is it, anyway?": The Army is considering renaming military bases named for Confederate leaders

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Okay, I needed that laugh at someone else's expense this afternoon... Shadow forwarded along this video of a bicycle trials rider getting so close to awesome.

[ related topics: Pedal Power Video Bicycling ]

Twitter thread on MLK, non-violent protest, the Montgomery bus boycott, the Selma to Alabama march and James Forman of the SNCC's "Second Front", and Robert F. Williams and the "Black Armed Guard" of Monroe, NC.

[ related topics: Civil Liberties Public Transportation ]

Magnifique

[ related topics: Photography ]

Making walnut sawdust and brass shavings is fun

[ related topics: Photography Model Building ]

Gabe Meline: Eight Nights in the Streets of Santa Rosa

Each time I’ve seen something thrown at police, the majority of the crowd castigates them. When a sideshow turned rowdy with fighting on the periphery, protesters pushed the few troublemakers away while others took over the intersection and knelt, reclaiming their space and refocusing the protest on the issues at hand.

And as for the one case of someone stealing store merchandise on record that I witnessed, through the broken windows of an athletic store in the mall? The man who ran past me with an handful of clothes was intercepted by a group of young women, who took the clothes away from him and actually walked back to the store to return them.

[ related topics: Microsoft History Space & Astronomy Law Law Enforcement Civil Liberties Clothing ]

There are a lot of white people explaining what "defund the police" "really" means. Amplifying black voices here, MPD150 — a people's project evaluating policing (named for a performance evaluation of the Minneapolis Police Department at 150 years) has Building a Police-Free Future: Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)

[ related topics: Theater & Plays Law Enforcement Race ]

More than 1,250 former Justice Dept. workers call for internal watchdog to probe Barr role in clearing demonstrators from Lafayette Square, linked for this euphemism:

Barr has also sought to make counterfactual claims about the degree of force used.

(emphasis mine)

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Personal Lubricant ]

RT David Farrier @davidfarrier

it’s so crazy — 5G continues to roll out across new zealand, and yet we have zero new cases of covid-19. this is blowing my mind! almost like there’s no link at all

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

LoudWire: There’s a Petition to Replace Robert E. Lee Statue With GWAR’s Oderus Urungus

Metal Injection: Petition Launched For Richmond, VA To "Erect A GWAR Oderus Urungus Statue In Place of Robert E. Lee Statue"

Change.org: Richmond, Erect A GWAR Oderus Urungus Statue In Place of Robert E. Lee Statue

Edit: The story has been retracted, details in the link

Well, we knew they worked at the same place, but now we have it: George Floyd and Derek Chauvin "bumped heads" while working at nightclub, former coworker says

[ related topics: Current Events Work, productivity and environment ]

NASCAR statement on Confederate flag

“The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry. Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.”

A video statement from a bunch of NASCAR drivers.

And a few days ago on Facebook, I repeated sentiments I'd heard from several other sources:

This is not exactly an original observation with me, but the indication that "The South" needs a different set of monuments because they've forgotten history: NASCAR fans talking about obeying the law.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Current Events Journalism and Media Sports Community Video ]

Frankly Write: a white woman, racism, and a poodle

Before moving to New York City, I drove every where. I got pulled over 3 times in 15 years; two speeding tickets and an illegal left hand turn.

The first year I was back in Michigan, I got pulled over 5 times. Each time it was for impeding traffic and I did not get a ticket.

[ related topics: Invention and Design New York Race Dogs ]

Yay for slow streets

[ related topics: Photography ]

Between Zoom and the masks, I have taken to over physically emoting everything. Which means I'm constantly looking like I'm engaging in some sort of weird-ass combination of mime and modern dance.

[ related topics: Clowns ]

That Air Force MP who was killing law enforcement apparently had "Boogaloo" leanings: Suspect in Santa Cruz ambush linked to federal officer killing in Oakland; charged with 19 felonies

[ related topics: Bay Area Law Enforcement ]

Facebook Account Copying Trump's Posts Word-for-Word Gets Flagged for Inciting Violence

The warning was received yesterday by "Will they suspend me"—a profile conducting an experiment sharing Trump's updates verbatim to see how the platform responds. It uses the handle @suspendthepres on Twitter, where the test is also ongoing.

The notice forced the deletion of a post that remained untouched on the president's own page, containing the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." It warned that the account would face a 24-hour suspension if it broke the policies again.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Today is Loving Day, the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_Day

Today is also the anniversary of the death of Medgar Evers, famed civil rights activist killed in 1963.

https://www.naacp.org/naacp-history-medgar-evers/

[ related topics: Civil Liberties Government ]

Banksy on statues on Instagram:

What should we do with the empty plinth in the middle of Bristol?

Here’s an idea that caters for both those who miss the Colston statue and those who don’t.

We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable round his neck and commission some life size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down. Everyone happy. A famous day commemorated.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Melania Trump was in no rush to move into the White House. That’s when she renegotiated her prenup, a new book says.

The incoming first lady needed time to cool off, and “to amend her financial arrangement with Trump — what Melania referred to as ‘taking care of Barron,’ ” Jordan writes in “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump.”

[ related topics: Books Invention and Design Art & Culture Race Real Estate ]

@VoteVets on Twitter has a n ad:

Our new ad cuts to the chase, and pulls no punches: We’d never name bases after America’s enemies, like Osama bin Laden. Why does Donald Trump so desperately want to keep the names of other racist enemies on our Army bases?

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

Twitter thread on why people hate Donald Trump, saved because it's an easy place for me to find examples of supporting police violence, mocking the disabled, doing the "both sides" thing, and whatnot.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Handicaps & Disabilities ]

Linked the Twitter thread 'cause I don't have a WSJ subscription for the article “Facebook admits that 64% of the people on Facebook who joined extremist groups did so because FACEBOOK RECOMMENDED THEY JOIN EXTREMIST GROUPS.”

One of the three plainclothes officers who kicked in a door and shot and killed Breonna Taylor serves on the board that hears appeals on officer misconduct: Mayor Fischer: ‘Profoundly inappropriate’ for Hankison to be on LMPD Merit Board

LMPD acknowledged Tuesday that the department’s Public Integrity Unit was investigating the sex assault allegations against Hankison. And Thursday, Fischer’s office issued a statement announcing that the PIU wasn’t the only office looking into the case.

And just so I can find it: Louisville police released the Breonna Taylor death incident report.

Police in Louisville, Kentucky, released a nearly-blank incident report Wednesday from the night Breonna Taylor was fatally shot< in her own apartment by officers. Despite the fact that the 26-year-old EMT was shot at least eight times during the no-knock search, the report listed Taylor's injuries as "none."

Police also checked "no" next to the box that says "forced entry" on the form, but witnesses and crime scene photos show officers used a battering ram to force entry into the apartment while Taylor was asleep.

[ related topics: Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Law Current Events Law Enforcement Real Estate ]

RT zach reinert @zachreinert0

Cops be like “I can’t be racist, my wife’s eye is black”

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Marriage ]

Tennessee police chief tells officers they now must intervene when others are abusing their authority

(CNN)Police officers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, now have a duty to intervene when they see their colleagues acting unlawfully or inappropriately.

Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy announced the updated policy Monday in a statement. It comes amid weeks of protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis and calls to defund or abolish police departments.

[ related topics: Photography Theater & Plays Current Events Law Enforcement Chattanooga ]

1987. "On advice of counsel, I refuse to answer that question pursuant to my rights under the 5th Amendment". 2020: "I yield my time." Every generation has its "fuck you" catch phrase...

[ related topics: Civil Liberties ]

The tabletop was deteriorating, so I found some cut stone tile panels, and some scrap redwood, and had a little left over so I made a side table. Still need to clean up the grout and oil it after everything dries.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Furniture ]

Supreme Court rules that LGBTQ people are protected from job discrimination:

The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.

“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court.

Six to three.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Heinlein Civil Liberties ]

Just clearing off some browser tabs:

The Atlantic: The massacre of black wall street, on the destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa Oklahoma on May 31st, 1921.

Not Just Tulsa: Five Other Race Massacres That Devastated Black America — There is a long history of white terrorism destroying Black communities.

[ related topics: Current Events Community Race Economics ]

Just so I can find it again, I haven't vetted it: Corona Virus Science — The Cheating Is Getting Worse

A "mystery" illness is killing about 4,000 people in the US each week - that's more than the number of people killed by COVID-19, according to the most recent death certificate statistics published by the CDC. ...

So, yeah, COVID-19 deaths are being under-counted.

[ related topics: virus Mathematics ]

There's a trend to get away from "master/slave" terminology, and "git" is one place where that terminology carried over from bitkeeper.

Scott Hanselman — Easily rename your Git default branch from master to main.

How to create a git repository with the default branch name other than master?

Automatically retarget github pull requests from master to your new branch

The Twitter thread from where I pulled these resources.

[ related topics: Weblogs Invention and Design ]

Former eBay employees harassed couple who wrote critical newsletter articles, prosecutors say

Six former members of eBay's global security team have been charged by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Boston with cyberstalking as part of an effort to "stifle" the publishers of an online newsletter about the online auction company.

Prosecutors say the plan was two-fold. First, the eBay members allegedly harassed the couple with online deliveries at all times of the day and night, sent threatening messages, and intimidated the couple who published the newsletter. Then, the eBay team would contact the couple so they could proclaim that eBay noticed the harassment and offered to help the couple get out of the threatening environment eBay itself created.

6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Sending Threats, Bloody Pig Mask To Natick Couple

[ related topics: Nature and environment Current Events Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement ]

Greg Doucette on how to search his police brutality mega Twitter thread. Good for searching, good for finding videos of police brutality.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Bwahahaha: RT Elie Mystal @ElieNYC

Gorsuch: Title VII protects gay people

Alito: Eww.

Gorsuch: And trans people.

Alito: How can we have a SOCIETY without knowing your genitals at birth!?

Gorsuch: Sam, are you okay?

Alito: NO NEIL. TURNS OUT HAVING A PENIS DOESN'T EVEN MATTER ANYMORE.

Elie Mystal @ElieNYC

Alito: What if I find out one of my clerks looks like a man but has lady genitals. WHAT THEN?

Gorsuch: You'd... want to fire them for that?

Alito: OF COURSE

Gorsuch: Dude.

Alito: I guess NOW I have to grab EVERYONE by the CROTCH before I hire them.

Roberts: DON'T DO THAT, SAM!

Elie Mystal @ElieNYC

Brett: I've NEVER done that. HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME! I ONLY HIRE WOMEN!

Everybody: ...

Alito: [drops pants] LOOK. I still have a penis and you CAN'T TAKE IT FROM ME, NEIL!

Gorsuch: What the shit is happening?

Roberts: You should've seen them after Obamacare.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Sexual Culture Pyrotechnics Clothing ]

Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive leak, an internal report found

Ron Wyden's Letter to John Ratcliffe, Director of the Office of Director of National Intelligence, and the partially redacted Wikileaks Task Force Final Report (PDF)

[ related topics: Politics Journalism and Media ]

Woman, 15 friends test positive for coronavirus after night out at Lynch’s — 40-year-old health care worker says she regrets not taking precautions

Crisp said she and her friends had been careful with social distancing and had stayed indoors for months “doing everything the right way.”

“And then the first night we go out, Murphy’s Law, I guess,” Crisp said. “The only thing we have in common is that one night at that one bar.”

The obvious question is "how did we decide who was the woman, and who were her friend". Mr. Show - Young People & Companions

[ related topics: Health Current Events ]

This is pretty cool: Why 'The Mandalorian' Uses Virtual Sets Over Green Screen | Movies Insider. They shoot in a space with walls that are LED screens, and reproject the sets on to the inside of that space from the tracked camera location.

So no green-screen light spill, the actors get to see some notion (even if distorted by the projection for the camera) of what the background and environment actually looks like, and they're using a game engine for projection, so they can move things around in real-time...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Games Movies Nature and environment Space & Astronomy Machinery ]

Best article I've seen about that cosplaytriot in Albuquerque who assaulted a woman, pepper sprayed the people who stepped in to defend her, and then shot one of her defenders: Protester Shot After Militiamen Raise Tensions At Oñate Monument

Some video from the protest

[ related topics: Food Civil Liberties Video ]

Oregon's 2014 Teacher of the Year Brett Bigham's Twitter thread on what it was like to he gay in the Multnomah Education Service District

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Education ]

Damn. So it's not an M2. Anyone help me identify what adapter I should be getting? This SSD is upside down from how it was mounted in my Asus Zenbook UX390U.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Chicago police arrested more people for protesting than for looting in early days of unrest, contradicting original claims

Just 20% of arrests during the first few days of protests over the killing of George Floyd were for looting-related crimes, new data shows, refuting earlier statements by CPD that looting accounted for the majority of arrests that weekend.

Of course not, the looters were in uniform... Police lounged in Bobby Rush’s office while Chicago’s South Side was looted

CHICAGO — As many as 13 Chicago police officers broke into Rep. Bobby Rush’s Chicago campaign offices to lounge on chairs, drink coffee and make popcorn while looters vandalized nearby businesses in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Rush and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on Thursday.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Current Events Law Enforcement Television Furniture ]

Not super fast at times, but run all the way up, just shy of puking at the top...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Some mornings I wish I had a longer lens

[ related topics: Photography ]

Just a shelf I threw together out of some cherry scraps for next to the bed in the second bedroom.

[ related topics: Photography Furniture ]

Anyone got experience with ecryptfs-recover-private? It looks like it's giving me the exact same thing in the mounted directory as I see in the raw /home folder.

This is What Community Oriented Policing Looks Like (YouTube video)

A team in the Houston Police Department is trying something new when addressing complaints associated with people living on the streets.

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design Law Enforcement Community Video ]

Alaska's 'Into the Wild' bus, known as a deadly tourist lure, has been removed by air

An Alaska Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter airlifted the bus, also known as the Fairbanks Bus 142 and the "Magic Bus," on Thursday afternoon, the Alaska National Guard said.

[ related topics: Clowns Public Transportation Alaska Aviation - Helicopters ]

RT Rebelle Winter @FeistyWinter

All girls are girls, no matter how many penises they have.

That said if a girl has more than six, while still a girl, she may also be secretly a Lovecraftian-horror sex monster

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Two weeks ago, that I'd casually upload a half a terabyte disk image while two Zoom streams were active was unthinkable. Thank you, Sonic!

Afraid this umbrella stand may end up being too light with only one bag of concrete, but the only round pan of the right size I could find was 3 gallons, so we'll see...

[ related topics: Photography ]

By way of Shadow: Stop Colour Theory, Start Colour Fact. I... I... I no longer know what's satirical and what's earnest. Even if the spell "color" with a "u".

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Shelf, installed, with fan (and I finally made covers for the labels on the fan, after years and years) (and the fan is my first attempt at a heart dovetail).

[ related topics: Photography Gambling ]

Bagheera is not having any of it (with picture)

[ related topics: Photography ]

When you want to accomplish something on OS/X, do a Google search for "AppKit" and that task, and all of the results are how easy this is to do on the various Linux desktop platforms. Sigh.

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source ]

June 23, 2020

CalEITC4Me

345 California Street, #600

San Francisco, CA 94104

Good people at Cal EITC 4 Me:

I am not a likely user of your services, but if I may, a little feedback:

1. Despite responding “STOP”, I have gotten an unreasonable number of SMS spam messages with the content:
   
   
   
   “Hello, this is [name] with CalETIC4Me. We are reminding people that there still(sic) time to file your taxes online for FREE! You could get CASH back with the Earned Income Tax Credit. More info here: www.caleitc4me.org/ftp”
   
   
   
   The .org rather than .gov domain name, and the copied typo, along with the numerous messages from different senders, make this appear to be a scam message. I had to do some extensive Google searching to convince myself that the site was legitimate.
2. I am not eligible for this service. Whoever sold you your phone list did extremely bad filtering.

And this is annoying enough that I, and Gen Xer who grew up on BBSes and the Internet, actually dug out paper to send you a physical message begging you to please, as a matter of policy, do better. At best, you're encouraging lower-income people to expect scammy messages to be worth pursuing. At worst, you're annoying a whole lot of voters.

Dan Lyke

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Spam Bay Area moron Monty Python California Culture Net Culture Government ]

RT Matthew Garrett @mjg59

Campaign for Google Maps to tell you if directions will take you through a region whose police force is largely funded by asset forfeiture

And the thread led to:

Institute for Justice: Policing for Profit: Grading State & Federal Civil Forfeiture Laws

Reason: This Map Details Whether Asset Forfeiture Laws in Your State Are Good or Awful (Spoiler: Chances are they're probably awful.)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Law Enforcement Maps and Mapping Government ]

Crime numbers across Atlanta drop dramatically after protests, records show

I mean, part of the problem is that we measure crime by the police response to it, but...

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement ]

When I want to believe it, but there are a dozen white-guy essays on Medium that agree with it I've really gotta dig deeper...

[ related topics: Writing Race ]

Tyree Kimber on Facebook:

ME, A CYBERPUNK FAN IN THE 90's: Why do they think we'll only talk in weird slang in the future?

ME NOW: Bae, spill the tea on these K-pop stans. When Tik-Tok zoomers yeet the alt-Right it's heart reaccs only.

Whoah, super cool: Shadow forwarded along Drone Helicopter Hybrid (YouTube video). With the right hinged head design, you can build a helicopter main rotor that's controlled by the acceleration of a brushless motor. No swashplate. The built helicopter uses a tail rotor, but you could probably also do this with contra-rotating main rotors... At any rate, two motors, no other active drives...

[ related topics: Movies Graphic Design Video Aviation - Helicopters ]

What We Know About the Killing of Elijah McClain

Last August, police officers in Aurora, Colorado, approached 23-year-old Elijah McClain as he walked home from a convenience store. The Aurora Police Department later said that a 911 caller had reported a “suspicious person” in a ski mask, and that when officers confronted McClain — who was not armed and had not committed any kind of crime — he “resisted arrest.” In the 15 minutes that followed, the officers tackled McClain to the ground, put him in a carotid hold, and called first responders, who injected him with ketamine. He had a heart attack on the way to the hospital, and died days later, after he was declared brain dead.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Sports ]

I'm just saying, why take chances?

Can Being a Furry Protect You from Coronavirus?

“Fursuit heads are multilayer, and constructed in a whole host of different materials and styles,” says Doc Wolverine, a medical doctor who often answers questions about health on Twitter. He points out that heads can minimize droplet spray from an infected person. Just like the cloth masks you (hopefully) see everyone wearing when you go to the grocery store, “Anything without an airtight seal and sufficiently small filter is more about protecting others from what you have than protecting you from others

[ related topics: Health Dan & Charlene's July 2003 San Juan Trip ]

3 North Carolina police officers fired over racist rants

Fired Wilmington cop: “We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f—— ni—–. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.”

“Piner tells Moore later in the conversation that he feels a civil war is coming and he is ‘ready.’ Piner advised he is going to buy a new assault rifle in the next couple of weeks. A short time later Officer Piner began to discuss society being close to ‘martial law’ and soon ‘we are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them fucking ni—–. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.’ Moore responded that he would not do that. Piner stated, ‘I am ready.'” according to the summary.

“Officer Piner then explained to Cpl. Moore that he felt society needed a civil war to ‘wipe ’em off the fucking map. That’ll put ’em back about four or five generations.'”

[ related topics: Religion Invention and Design History Current Events Law Enforcement Maps and Mapping ]

52. the number of cards in a conventional deck, if you don't count the Jokers. The number of weeks in a year, modulo a day or so.

June 26th: The anniversary of Supreme Court decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges, United States v. Windsor, Lawrence v. Texas. The day after the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne & Arapaho people defeated Custer and his invaders at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

It's also the 52nd anniversary of my birth. Another trip around the an insignificant little star in the outer arm of one of a hundred billion galaxies, and an opportunity for a little navel gazing.

Square dancing, and calling, is on hiatus, and when social touch comes back into style it's pretty clear that whatever we rebuild from that may or may not draw from what we once new as square dancing.

I'm starting to do stuff in the workshop again, which feels super good, projects long on my list are flowing once more.

Work is decent. It's a product I believe in. We transitioned to working from home fairly well.

Aside from the lack of human contact, life is pretty good, personally.

I'm glad to see that the United States is finally taking some action to change the long decline into police state that it's been on. If I had to pick a cause for my birthday, that'd be up there on the list.

So do what you can to build community and justice and empower the people around you, keep making cool things, and we'll put one foot in front of the other and keep walking.

But, please: All the birthday cupcakes that I got yesterday have been delicious (a fantastic chocolate one from Doug, and amazing lemon meringue from Sandy, coffee cake from Phil and Kelly), but I really really need to shed about 20 lbs, so you can hold off on delivering more baked goods.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music Invention and Design Space & Astronomy Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Travel Chocolate Community Aviation - Helicopters Food - Cake ]

Saved for those assholes with the "I need to enter your store without a mask because of the ADA" cards: § 36.208 Direct threat.

(a) This part does not require a public accommodation to permit an individual to participate in or benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations of that public accommodation when that individual poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others.

[ related topics: Health ]

Matthew Fleischer in the LA Times — Opinion: Want to tear down insidious monuments to racism and segregation? Bulldoze L.A. freeways

[ related topics: Race ]

Tip: If someone has signed into your service for the first time, maybe keep the "please rate how much easier our new interface is to use than our old one" popovers to a minimum. This is my first time. I don't care what your old interface was. Looking at you, @CircleCI...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design ]

NBER Working Paper Series — Black Lives Matter Protests, Social Distancing, And COVID-19, Dhaval M. Dave, Andrew I. Friedson, Kyutaro Matsuzawa, Joseph J. Sabia, Samuel Safford

Sparked by the killing of George Floyd in police custody, the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests have brought a new wave of attention to the issue of inequality within criminal justice. However, many public health officials have warned that mass protests could lead to a reduction in social distancing behavior, spurring a resurgence of COVID-19. This study uses newly collected data on protests in 315 of the largest U.S. cities to estimate the impacts of mass protests on social distancing and COVID-19 case growth. Event-study analyses provide strong evidence that net stay-at-home behavior increased following protest onset, consistent with the hypothesis that non-protesters’ behavior was substantially affected by urban protests. This effect was not fully explained by the imposition of city curfews. Estimated effects were generally larger for persistent protests and those accompanied by media reports of violence. Furthermore, we find no evidence that urban protests reignited COVID-19 case growth during the more than three weeks following protest onset. We conclude that predictions of broad negative public health consequences of Black Lives Matter protests were far too narrowly conceived.

[ related topics: Health Invention and Design Law Journalism and Media Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Civil Liberties ]

Powerful: You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument

[ related topics: Current Events ]

George and Martha Washington enslaved 300 people. Let’s start with their names.

From Shadow: Typographic Soup Happened When Bottle Of Degreaser Leaked And Got Underneath The..., a cool reminder that type can still be individual letters...

Some days I wish I had a shop to do all of the glue-ups for this project simultaneously. Another light frame to glue up, then I carve them.

[ related topics: Photography ]

RT jon rosenberg 🚫🧛‍♂️ @jonrosenberg

I don't want to be a misanthrope but the anthropes are making that awfully difficult.

The Whitest Kids U'Know Sketch for "I Want To Kill The President" from Season 1. (YouTube video)

[ related topics: Children and growing up Movies Video ]

From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials. By Carl Bernstein, CNN

In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

[ related topics: Politics Community Race Real Estate ]

Do bike lanes actually make cyclists safer? — It depends. And design choices have everything to do with it.

The whole premise of bike lanes is that giving cyclists a dedicated space will allow them to ride safely and coexist with vehicle traffic. And yet, bike lanes don’t always make cyclists safer—and sometimes they offer no protections at all. New York City, for example, has reported 34,112 collisions between cyclists and motorists since 2014, despite the addition or enhancement of about 330 miles of bike lanes (with 27 cyclists killed in 2019, the most of any year since 2000).

[ related topics: Invention and Design Space & Astronomy Graphic Design New York Bicycling ]