Category Archives: Current Events

Current Events

Welcome to Seattle – “The Emerald City”

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Once a great city known as the Gateway to the Pacific. What a great place to live — NOT!

Shoplifting as Usual in Seattle

From the Wall Street Journal

Friday 6 May 2022

Lowe’s employees came to recognize William Piccone by his skinny jeans, distinctive gait and posture—and his prolific shoplifting, police say. Over a 97-day spree last year, he allegedly stole from the same store 27 times, walking away with more than $4,650 in merchandise. Welcome to Seattle, where impunity reigns.

That’s what Ann Davison, Seattle’s newly elected city attorney, is learning as she acts on a voter mandate to restore order. Her office ran the numbers and discovered that 118 individuals were responsible for more than 2,400 crimes in Seattle over the past five years. Her effort to crack down on the worst repeat offenders is facing progressive resistance.

At issue is Ms. Davison’s proposal to exclude prolific criminals from Seattle’s Community Court. In 2019 her predecessor signed an agreement with the Seattle Municipal Court and the Department of Public Defense. Some two dozen classes of misdemeanor cases now go straight to the Community Court, which releases the accused after referring them to support services and sometimes assigning them a life-skills class or community service.

Theft of up to $750 in a single incident in Seattle is a misdemeanor. Other crimes that go express to Community Court include residential trespassing, possession of tools for burglary or auto theft, and property destruction.

The 2019 agreement includes no eligibility restrictions, so those with serious criminal histories qualify. Seattle criminals get four tries in the Community Court before they flunk out. Each can encompass multiple charges. Repeat offenders see the lack of consequences as an invitation to commit more crimes.

Since 2017 Mr. Piccone has been charged in some 60 criminal cases across Washington, and police have referred him for prosecution to the Seattle city attorney 46 times, Ms. Davison’s office says. Twenty-two of his most recent cases were referred to the Seattle Community Court, where he was turned loose, the city attorney’s office says. The King County Prosecuting Attorney, which handles Seattle felonies, has three current cases against Mr. Piccone for organized retail theft and burglary. On a judge’s order Mr. Piccone was released into a halfway house after receiving detox treatment. On April 28, Mr. Piccone missed a hearing after he was arrested on multiple municipal warrants earlier that day.

Mr. Piccone has pleaded not guilty to a second- degree burglary charge and didn’t respond to a message left at a phone number listed for him in police records. His public defender didn’t respond to our inquiry by deadline.

“With regard to Mr. Piccone, court documents show significant mainstream criminal court involvement predating the creation of community court,” said Anita Khandelwal, the director of Department of Public Defense, in a written response to our inquiry.

She continued: “That involvement resulted, at times, in multiple months of incarceration, but it neither ended his involvement with the system nor addressed his unmet needs. Those same documents suggest that Mr. Piccone is experiencing housing instability. Providing him housing is much more likely to promote safety than continued court involvement.”

As Ms. Davison seeks to renegotiate the 2019 agreement, she sits across the table from Ms. Khandelwal and Judge Damon Shadid, a progressive who oversees the Seattle Community Court. On April 27, Ms. Davison told the Seattle Municipal Court that negotiations had reached an impasse. Is it any wonder?

Ms. Davison has now asked the Seattle Municipal Court to intervene. The court said in a statement that it was considering her proposal and would work “to identify how to move forward together and create a prioritized plan for people whose needs and issues are not being addressed, and have not been addressed historically, by our criminal justice system.”

Here’s hoping the court means the victims of crime, not the criminals. But I doubt it!

Originally posted 2022-05-09 12:45:24.

Current Events

Pennsylvania

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Most do no know this but this place is not a state, but a Commonwealth. Big deal? No, not really as there are three others that are not “states.” Do you know which ones?  But then who cares, I sure don’t All of my kin came from PA, Altoona area to be exact. I spent a lot time there as a small child with my parents visiting kin. I always thought it was a beautiful place, and even considered possibly retiring there — sure glad that didn’t work out. Now it has become a liberal haven full of folks who are certainly not my kin anymore. I cringe when I see cars here with PA license plates during non-snowbird season. I hope they are here to escape the liberal mindset and not here with a goal of changing the color of our state.

Anyway, here’s one from my Marine brother, Greg.

Doubling down

By: G. Maresca

Given President Biden’s slumping approval numbers, CNN+s sudden termination, increasing crime rates, record inflation, a nonexistent border, transgender education being foisted upon kindergarten children, Democrats are doubling down with their four candidates for the open U.S. senate seat in Pennsylvania’s May 17th primary election.

It is easier to win an open seat than to defeat an incumbent. Retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s senate seat is a prime opportunity for Democrats to add to their senate number in a pivotal state that Biden carried in 2020.

 These are the haughty days for the left owning the White House, both houses of Congress, academia, and the mainstream media.  Not to be outdone, their four Democrat senate contenders in the Keystone state are ideologically pure exemplars of this self-aggrandizing age.

 Candidate Malcom Kenyatta’s senate website opens with a video of the 31-year-old state representative from Philadelphia kissing his gay lover. Prior to entering politics, Kenyatta served as the diversity and inclusion engagement coordinator for the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and is polling in the single digits. The same poll results have been following Alexandria Khalil whose campaign is about “compassion, justice, and prosperity for all.”

Who isn’t for such things?

The frontrunner is the goateed and tatted up Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who prefers gym shorts over a suit, who not only leads in fundraising but the polls, too.  Fetterman is a 6’9” cantankerous and unapologetic version of Bernie Sanders.

The huge fund-raising advantage for Fetterman underscores the blunder of ratifying the 17th Amendment, where candidates are more beholden to out-of-state donors than they are to their own constituents.

Fetterman supports abortion up until birth, allowing transgender males to compete athletically against females, Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, a moratorium on fracking and “climate justice” whatever that is. Fetterman is also a favorite of the defund-the-police mob never turning down a speaking engagement.

What is little known is how as mayor of Braddock, Fetterman pulled a gun on an unarmed Black man jogging and accused him of committing a felony he did not commit. This is the same Fetterman that wants to seize your guns and a major reason why a majority of Americans value their Second Amendment.

Fetterman never met a tax or government program that he did not love. He is better fit as a stand-in for an Addams Family revival as either Lerch or Uncle Fester than taking a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Trailing Fetterman in Franklin & Marshall College’s latest poll 41% to 17%, is U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb with 26% of Democrats still bewildered. Lamb is pro-abortion, supports Biden’s Build Back Better Act and having the federal government regulate all voting and ending the Senate filibuster.

Lamb was one of three House Democrats who voted to make permanent provisions of the GOP sponsored 2017 tax reform bill. Lamb has also voted on bills with small numbers of Democrats where the Democrat National Committee knew would not pass the House. Those meaningless votes bestowed upon him the much-ballyhooed canonization as a “political moderate” in an evident appeal to voters.

On key leftist issues, however, Lamb marches lockstep with House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Being able to manipulate the electorate into believing they are electing a so-called moderate when in fact, they are every bit as left as the privileged running the party is essential.

They are all the same wolves whether sporting gym shorts or a blue pinstriped suit.

Left-wing groupthinkers and scolds that makeup the current breed of populist progressives, believe their senate candidates will embolden their base to win a battleground state like Pennsylvania. Democrats see no problem in doubling down on issues that fail to resonate with the majority and are proven failures. With each passing day, Democrats fall further under the sway of an outspoken leftist minority whose members care more about imposing an unpopular agenda than winning elections.

Democrats today are what would have been called communists 40 years ago.

This is yet another refined illustration of the dismal state of the Democrats, but never underestimate the dogmatic trifecta of your median Pennsylvanian’s naivety, their dead relatives, and fabricated ballots when it comes to electing a Pelosi puppet or Bernie Bro.

Originally posted 2022-05-06 11:14:45.

Current Events

Spaced Out!

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Okay, over the years I have usually accepted some of  the BS our guys in blue say and do, but this is over the top. They want me to pay for this fellow to live in a $1,800,000.00 house because he is responsible for what — rallying the ranks and growing the morale of 8,000 airmen? The audacity of those Space folks to even put something like this in their budget tells they are already spaced out.  Send this guy to the space station in orbit so he can get the feel of what space is like and come back and tell war stories.

And what’s with this “Guardians” BS? They aren’t regular air force people? OMG

Space Force’s Top Enlisted Leader Would Get $1.8 Million Home in 2023 Budget Request

28 Apr 2022
Military.com | By Thomas Novelly

The Department of the Air Force‘s 2023 budget proposal includes a request to build a $1.8 million home at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to house the Space Force‘s top enlisted leader.

The request for a brand-new, 3,500-square-foot home for the chief master sergeant of the Space Force is tucked away in the more than $230 million requested to fix and improve privatized base housing for families.

“A home meeting or exceeding the housing standards for the referenced grade/position is not available, and it’s not a viable option to renovate an existing home in the base inventory to house the chief,” budget documents justifying the project that were filed last week, said.

Read Next: Air Force Wants Big Increase for 2023 Budget to Improve On-Base Housing for Military Families

Roger Towberman currently holds the position for which the house would be built; he assumed the office in April 2020. As the top enlisted leader for the new military branch, he is tasked with rallying the ranks, growing morale, and helping implement and shape policies among the more than 8,000 Space Force Guardians.

Towberman would be the first resident of the new home at Andrews, but there is no projected completion date for the project. For now, he lives in existing military housing at Andrews, according to Capt. Annabel G. Monroe, an Air Force spokeswoman.

“This home will be the designated home of Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force, current and future,” Monroe said in an email.

It’s common for the services’ top military leaders to have homes on military bases.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond’s home is at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., and is named “Space House,” according to Pentagon photos of the residence.

Space House, the residence of Chief of Space Operations.
Space House, the residence of Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. Raymond, is seen before a holiday event on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)

The proposed $1.8 million residence at Andrews is just one of numerous projects mentioned in the Department of the Air Force’s $230 million construction improvement budget that is also meant to improve some of the Air Force’s more than 50,000 homes at 63 military installations run by privatized housing companies.

Military housing has come under intense scrutiny since 2018, when Reuters revealed examples of lead-based paint, widespread mold and shoddy workmanship in base homes managed by private companies.

Under the 2023 proposal, privatized military housing would be improved at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware; Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Luke Air Force Base, Arizona; Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

While the department made no request for construction funds for brand-new housing at Air Force bases, it did ask for $68 million to build a new three-story dormitory to house 84 Guardians at Clear Space Force Station in Denali, Alaska — which the department considers “one of the most strategically important installations in the United States,” according to budget documents.

For airmen and Guardians who choose to live off base, the 2023 budget offers a 4.3% increase in the Basic Allowance for Housing, a 3.4% jump in the Basic Allowance for Subsistence designed to offset the cost of groceries, and a 4.6% pay raise in response to a wounded economy and rising inflation caused by the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

— Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Postscript: Holy Cow! Did you happen to notice (how could you not) the number of ribbons this guy is wearing? As best as I can count he has well over 40 ribbons.  This fellow’s a hero, ya think?

Originally posted 2022-04-29 11:44:18.

Current Events

Hey Mickey Mouse –

6 Comments
– Suck it up  rodent!

I swear, if you have not learned by now, we Floridians simply love our Gov. He takes sh*t from nobody, including the venerable rodent from the  Magic Kingdom. It’s amazing when a CEO listens to his employees, who in this case, I’m sure are the young spoiled brats of today’s generation, and makes a decision that affect the financial status of the corporation he is charged to run for the owners (shareholders).  This would have certainly gone over very well in Disneyland, but not here in Disney World. Perhaps this CEO thought he was in the Land not the World, Ha.

This is hilarious, and let it be a warning to all CEOs to be careful what you say. Run your damn company and stay out of politics, especially if you are located in Florida or the Gov will get you. I love it. 

Sadly, Mr. Walt Disney has to be screaming in his grave.

 

 

From the Wall Street Journal

Friday 22 April 2022

 

Revolt in Disney’s Florida’s Magic Kingdom

The Walt Disney Co. needs Florida more than Florida needs Walt Disney. That’s the latest chapter in this tale of a CEO who followed his woke staff like a lemming off the cliff of cultural politics. Disney employees demanded that Mickey Mouse oppose Florida’s misdescribed “don’t say gay” bill. Now state lawmakers are reacting by putting down a few glue traps.

The Florida Legislature voted this week to abolish the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which in effect lets Disney World run its own private government. Created by the Legislature in 1967, the district covers about 40 square miles and features two water parks and four theme parks, including the Magic Kingdom. Disney essentially controls land use, environmental protection, fire service, utilities, more than 100 miles of roads, and more.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the bill. The Journal cites a source who knows Disney’s finances and says the district saves the company tens of millions of dollars a year. Without it, services like fixing potholes could revert to county government.

Disney largely funds the Reedy Creek district, which had about $150 million in revenue last year. It also carries close to $1 billion in debt. The mayor of Orange County warned Thursday that if the district goes, then upkeep will “fall to the county’s budgets,” putting “an undue burden on the rest of the taxpayers.” The headaches look large enough that it’s difficult not to wonder about the bill’s effective date. It dissolves the Reedy Creek district on June 1, 2023—time for Disney and Mr. DeSantis to make up.

Are Florida Republicans engaged in unfair political retaliation? “As a matter of first principle,” Mr. DeSantis said last month, “I don’t support special privileges in law, just because a company is powerful.” Live by the corporate carve-out, die by the corporate carve-out. As a matter of political realism, the Reedy Creek district is a perk the state gave Disney. The mystery is why Disney thought it could push around state lawmakers without any pushback.

One answer is that previous corporate political signaling came with little cost and media hosannas. Recall when Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game out of Atlanta, as a punishment for Georgia’s new voting law. “Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. The voting law “does not match Delta’s values,” fretted CEO Ed Bastian.

Did they read the bill? Or did they trust President Biden, who called it “Jim Crow 2.0”? Voting absentee in Georgia is still easier than in New York or Delaware. The political frenzy in Florida began with a similar dynamic. Early versions of the state’s controversial bill were broader, but here’s the key line in the law that passed: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate.” That language belies the claim that kids with gay siblings or two moms couldn’t talk openly about their families.

At first CEO Bob Chapek told employees that Disney would take no position. “As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds,” he wrote. But inspired by an earlier tweet from former CEO Bob Iger, Disney employees went into open rebellion. Soon Mr. Chapek was groveling to his underlings and calling Florida’s bill a “challenge to basic human rights.”

Perhaps he thought this would be a freeway to mollify his staff, but Mr. Chapek misjudged the political moment. Republican voters who have watched companies side with the progressive agenda and silence employees who disagree are fed up. Mr. Chapek was right the first time: Disney’s political foray didn’t stop the Florida law. But it made a lot of people mad, including Disney customers and state lawmakers.

There’s a warning here to other companies, especially Big Tech and Wall Street, which are mainly based in liberal states but conduct business everywhere. If they try to impose their cultural values, they risk losing Republican allies on the policy issues that matter most to their bottom lines, such as regulation, trade, taxation, antitrust and labor law. Polls show rising GOP hostility to big business, and that is likely to be reflected when Republicans take power.

If good tax policy can’t pass Congress because Republican voters are furious about cultural imperialism from the C-suite, that’s bad for the country. It’s also bad for business. The Disney lesson for CEOs is to stay out of these divisive cultural fights. The lesson for political partisans in the workplace is that their bosses run the office, but they don’t run the country.

Originally posted 2022-04-22 11:35:40.