Leaderboard

In a fairly groundbreaking case, the parents of the Oxford shooter (Ethan Crumbley) are being charged with involuntary manslaughter for providing their troubled and violent son access to weapons, and not getting him help when he showed signs that he would become violent. A few days before the shooting, teachers at Crumbley's school found a drawing of someone shooting guns with the caption "The thoughts won’t stop help me" . Teachers showed this to his parents and told them to get him counseling within 48 hours. They did not, and further they purchased new weapons and left them in unlocked storage. Crumbley also brought live ammunition to school to show to his classmates, and brought in a severed bird head to show as well. He also posted the (by-now usual) threats on social media. This will be an interesting case, since the "well, why punish responsible gun owners?" argument won't fly here - but at the same time, gun enthusiasts will likely be aghast at the idea that they could be held responsible for not securing their weapons against a known risk.

We pulled that out of a box at Himmelsbach's grandson's house. Although finding the original letter to Himmy from "Clara" was the highlight of that trip. Would be neat to have that stamp DNA tested at some point.

Unredacted TTY ? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k__MfEN6CmaaWPbFjYrphul3F-LHE341 Quote: "any redactions on the FBI teletype are merely references to other flights unrelated to NORJACK. There's no conspiracy! " (missing or redacted lines someone at WSHM identified have nothing to do with a coverup. Had WSHM dug deeper it would know that! Likewise R99.R99 is disingenuous. ) ?

So "negotiable American currency" always struck me like something that Jack Webb would have said, but Dragnet was off the air by 1971. However, there was a short lived series called O'Hara: US Treasury that he produced during the fall of 1971. It starred David Janssen as an undercover ATF agent. So far none of the episodes that were on before the hijacking use "negotiable American currency" but the episode that aired on October 15 jumps out for other reasons. It's called Operation:Time-Fuse. In it Manson Family hippies send a fake bomb to a newspaper editor in an attempt to extort $200k. The bomb is inside a metal box with the dimensions of an attache case stolen from a construction site. The bomb is "open circuit" with a bright red battery. "This one is a dud. It wouldn't have exploded even if the wiring hadn't been cut...There's no way the electrical circuit could close. It looks like somebody is trying to scare you...Someone knew what they were doing. If this is a sample of their work it was first rate." The package it came in was untraceable. "We might get fingerprints of that but I doubt it." James Cagney tough guy dialogue from the bomber comes in over the phone. (Typing this out doesn't do it justice.) "Please listen carefully. You received my calling card. You understand what it means. Just listen. You get the message Fuzz. Don't miss a syllable. Two hundred thousand. Complete instrustions later. In the past I have asked to be heard, now I demand to be heard. Unless my demands are met a real bomb will explode." Hollywood hard boiled detective dialogue follows. "Top priority. I want you to play it cool. We don't need to start a panic. Questions? Hit the streets." Discussion from the ATF agent to the newspaper editor about whether he should pay the $200k. "You're a private citizen. That's a judgement call you're going to have to make for yourself...If you do decide to pay, the money will be under tight control, identifiable by listed serial numbers and never out of sight of Treasury agents." The editor agrees to "get the money and let [the Treasury Department] list the serial numbers" but is still undecided about paying. A composite is made of one of the suspects. Nobody can identify the suspect from the drawing. Discussion follows about the witnesses feeling the composite was an "accurate likeness...You can ask a dozen witnesses for a suspect's description, you get a dozen accurate likenesses, all different...even the officers responding to the bomb call couldn't make the picture." The description for another one of the male suspects was "medium build, about six feet, brown hair." Anyway, all this went on in the first 10 minutes. The rest of the show involves David Janssen going undercover to find scope out the Manson Family bombers and recover the stolen dynamite. The Family are threatening to detonate a real bomb if they don't get the $200k dropped off in a wide open crossroad by 3 pm. There's much discussion about whether the bomb they set if the newspaper editor doesn't pay up is real or just a bluff. So if Cooper were watching that would mean he lived near a CBS affiliate and without any kids at home on a Friday night. (The Partridge Family was on opposite on ABC.) His would be the target demographic for the show. The Dirty Dozen came on that night following the episode in question. Anyway, check it out and see what you think. James Doohan has a cameo. https://youtu.be/qyL76F3eAUY (As an aside, the Wikipedia entry for the show says that: "according to Brandon Tartikoff, when Fred Silverman was the head of programming at CBS and considering whether or not to renew O'Hara, he met with a representative of the Treasury Department, who told him, "There are those of us down in Washington who like the idea of a weekly prime-time showcase. So if the show gets cancelled, we're gonna do what we've gotta do." Silverman didn't take the Treasury representative seriously, but according to Tartikoff, after the show was cancelled, "about a dozen top CBS executives on both coasts had their income taxes audited the following year.")

From the Manhattan DA to republican congressional leaders: Your letter dated March 20, 2023 (the "Letter") . . .is an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution. The Letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry. As always, consider how the right would be screaming "IMPEACH! RIOT! SECOND AMENDMENT REMEDY!" if democratic leaders had attempted to interfere with, say, the investigation into the Hunter Biden laptop thing. At the end of the letter, they do a most excellent owning of those leaders. While the DA's Office will not allow a Congressional investigation to impede the exercise of New York's sovereign police power, this Office will always treat a fellow government entity with due respect. Therefore, we reguest a meet and confer to understand whether the Committee has any legitimate legislative purpose in the requested materials . . . I am most eager to see a delegation of the GOP's best and brightest - say, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and George Santos - go up against these people.

IMO the logical line of attack for Ukrainians would be from their current positions directly north of Mariupol. Then attack south to Mariupol. That distance is about 50 miles. Then use the recently supplied JDAM-ER bombs to take out the Putin bridge...er Crimean bridge. This would cut off the entirety of the Crimean peninsula and Russian positions west of that line of attack. Russia could then only supply their forces by sea or air. Presumably Russian prisoners have heard about the survival rates for Wagner contractors.Thus limiting the resupply of fodder from Russian prisons. Agree. From an interview with Ukrainian tankers: " “They are about to go into battle and they are laughing like horses,” Poltava said. “Morale, psychology is OK. They are tired, but they still have a sense of humor.” The tank unit spends most days lying in wait to ambush Russian troops and engaging them in direct fire fights. “It’s hunting the hunter,” a tank commander, Svyatosha, 38, said with a grin. “It’s the best job,” he said. “They feed you, dress you, give you an expensive tank, fuel it, give you ammunition. And they don’t charge you money for that. What’s not to like?”

Depending on who you believe, the Russian army is running out of everything ('Russian army' includes Wagner). Reports are that artillery usage has dropped significantly. Like maybe by 80%. Attacks by Russian infantry on Ukrainian positions have also fallen off. There's a pretty good probability that the 'Russian Winter Offensive' is done. Or almost done. The Ukrainians have done a masterful job of bleeding the Russians white. They set up strong defenses, and the Russians threw themselves at those defenses. Human wave attacks, without armor support. Troops with virtually zero training, ancient weapons, little (or no) ammunition. Truly just 'cannon fodder'. In many cases, those 'attacking troops' were sent to die for the simple purpose of revealing where the Ukrainian defensive gun placements were. They died en masse. Again, depending on who you believe, the Russians lost upwards of 30,000 'soldiers' attempting to take over Bakhmut. 'Soldiers' is in quotes because I don't really consider a draftee who is ten days out of induction, no training at all, thrown into a battle to be a 'real' soldier. Just a poor victim, one of many in this war. And even if the Russians had taken Bakhmut, that was only ONE line of defense that the Ukrainians had in place. They could have fallen back a few kilometers, where there were even stronger defensive positions. With the western tanks beginning to arrive, along with a few fighter jets from Europe, the ability of the Ukrainians to conduct a 'Spring Offensive' is increasing every day. At the same time, the Russians are running out of everything. They've sent envoys around the world, trying to source ammunition, mainly artillery. The next couple months are going to be telling. If the Ukrainians can put together a solid offensive battle plan and execute it well, the Russians are going to be fucked. They're going to be pushed back and the Crimean Peninsula will be cut off. Look at the fall offensive that retook Kherson and most of the territory in the northern part of the country. When the Ukrainians had the upper hand, the Russians ran like rats. Or cockroaches. If the Ukrainians can break through somewhere, it won't be a whole lot different. Right now, the only question is 'where?' And 'when?'

You didn't mention time limits on that work flow. Most of the turbine places work at 40-50 minute turns. That included everything you noted in the workflow plus downloading video, presenting certificates, and stowing brakes and stretching the canopy for packing. Sometimes it isn't the work, it's the pace. I know a lot of very experienced TI's that quit when the pace became unsustainable.

I’m hearing that Tom’s scope has been fixed and is up and running.