Month: July 2023

Your thought for the day.

I am the idiot who people count on getting shit fixed because they were too lazy/ignorant to get it right the first time. And I do it because a work ethic was instilled in me to do what is right, but what was not taught is to learn when to detect and fight abusive laziness/incompetence and stop being the workplace dunce.

But I learned.

And I will admit that it is fun to watch the work Titanic ship sink after they hit the iceberg of their incompetence and have nobody else to blame but themselves.

Another banner day for antisemitism online

Federal prosecutors dropped campaign finance charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX.

He donated $40 million to Democrats last election cycle.

A guy who donates a shitload of money to the political party in charge of the DOJ doesn’t get prosecuted is pretty standard, run of the mill corruption.

One journalist decided that was evidence of white privilege.

 

X (formerly Twitter) responded by trending He’s Jewish.

 

That devolved into a running insane tirade of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Fan-fuckinh-tastic.

Welcome to Weimar Germany.

The economy is collapsing and corruption is blatant, so everyone blames the Jews.

I’m gonna go buy more ammo.

Friday Feedback

We had some excellent responses regarding car safes. I looked at an in console safe for my truck, the price has come way down, it is now on the “to buy” list.

I’m in the process of bringing a new client onboard. This makes me grateful to Miguel for getting me started on WordPress.

Ballistics software is currently on hold until I get client work caught up.

For our readers in Massachusetts, be aware that there is a horrible bill being pushed. I’ve not read the bill, but second hand descriptions from people I trust on the Interwebs suggest it will truly mess with everybody.

As predicted, the argument being pushed by the infringers is that “in common use” actually means “in common use for lawful purposes, like self-defense” which actually means “In common use for self-defense” which actually means “shots fired in a self-defense event”.

There are some cases pending transcription that I’m going to be evaluating over the following days.

Meanwhile, the comments are open, tell us what you are thinking, what you’d like to hear more about, what you’ve heard to much about.

But they’ll blame the guns

This is a tragedy:

Boy, 5, high on COCAINE fatally shoots his 16-month-old brother who was high on marijuana inside Indiana home: Parents are charged with neglect

A five-year-old boy high on cocaine shot his toddler brother in the head, and prosecutors have charged their parents with neglect.

Deonta Jermaine Johnson, 27, and Shatia Tiara Welch, 24, have been charged with neglect and various drug charges after cops swooped on their property.

Prosecutors say little Isiah, 16 months, died from a gunshot wound to the head and had marijuana in his blood, while his older brother, who shot him, tested positive for cocaine.

Johnson was asleep inside the apartment at the time of the shooting. Welsh, a nursing graduate, was not present during the incident, according to authorities.

Initially, Johnson told police Isiah fell or was injured by his brother and denied owning a gun.

He claimed Isiah had not been shot before admitting the children’s mother, Welch, had a gun on the property.

Welch confirmed she owned the gun but told police that she usually kept it locked in a box under her bed but had lost a second set of keys to it.

Police found a gun in the safe under a bed but also found a gun in the drawer of a dresser on the property.

Officers also found 93 fentanyl pills, marijuana and drug paraphernalia inside the apartment when they searched it after the horror.

Welch and Johnson have been charged with neglect resulting in death, two counts of neglect and neglect resulting in bodily injury.

They have also been charged with conspiracy to commit dealing a narcotic drug, dealing a narcotic drug, possession of a narcotic, conspiracy to commit dealing marijuana, dealing marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

The children had drugs in their system.

There were drugs everywhere.

The parents were dealing.

There were unsecured guns in the house.

Obviously, if the kids could get into the drugs, they could get into the guns.

A child is dead.

You just know that Left will blame the guns and not the drug dealing reprobate parents who let their kids fund drugs and guns in the house, and they will try to punish you for it.

 

Corporate DEI is dying but not fast enough

Two news articles crossed my path.

First the good news:

The Rise and Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer
Diversity executives hit the exits as company priorities shift; ‘everything is a battle’

Two years ago chief diversity officers were some of the hottest hires into executive ranks. Now, they increasingly feel left out in the cold.

Companies including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have recently said that high-profile diversity, equity and inclusion executives will be leaving their jobs. Thousands of diversity-focused workers have been laid off since last year, and some companies are scaling back racial justice commitments.

Diversity, equity and inclusion—or DEI—jobs were put in the crosshairs after many companies started re-examining their executive ranks during the tech sector’s shake out last fall. Some chief diversity officers say their work is facing additional scrutiny since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions and companies brace for potential legal challenges. DEI work has also become a political target.

Once mostly tasked with HR matters, today’s diversity leaders are expected to weigh in on new product development, marketing efforts and current events that have an impact on how workers and consumers are feeling. Warren and other CDOs said the expanded remit is playing out in a politically divided environment where corporate diversity efforts are the subject of frequent social-media firestorms.

During the pandemic, some companies moved people into diversity leadership if they were an ethnic minority, says Dani Monroe, even when they weren’t qualified. Monroe served as CDO for Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based hospital system and one of the largest employers in the state, until 2021 and convenes a yearly gathering of more than 100 CDOs.

“These were knee-jerk reactions,” she says of the hurried CDO hires, adding that some of those elevations didn’t create much impact, leaving both sides feeling disillusioned.

Companies paid the racial grievance Danegeld after the George Floyd Summer of Love.

It was a disaster.

They promoted incompetent people, it undermined employee morale and cohesiveness, and cost the companies money.

In one famous case in North Carolina, Novant Health (the largest hospital chain in the state) paid a discrimination suit for $10 million because they fired a white guy to hire two black women.

Companies are starting to wise up to the disaster that is DE&I.

The bad news is that they’re not doing ot fast enough, especially in Canada.

White Toronto school principal Richard Bilkszto dies by suicide after he was accused of backing white supremacy for complaining about a black instructor during anti-racism training

A Toronto school principal has died by suicide after he was accused of supporting white supremacy for calling out a black instructor during anti-racism training.

Richard Bilkszto, 60, worked in the Toronto School District for 24 years and had been serving as fill-in principal at the Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke where he faced workplace bullying as a result of the spat with an anti-racism trainer.

He filed a lawsuit earlier in the year, claiming his reputation was ‘systematically demolished’ and he was labeled a white supremacist for his remarks questioning racism in Canada.

But on July 13, his lawyer, Lisa Bildy announced on Twitter, Bilkszto took his own life.

‘Unfortunately, the stress and effects of these incidents continued to plague Richard,’ she wrote in a lengthy statement. ‘Last week, he succumbed to this distress.

Bilkszto’s problems started on April 26, 2021, when Toronto District School Board educators attended an anti-racism training led by Kike Ojo-Thompson, the founder of the KOJO Institute, a consulting firm.

In his lawsuit, the Toronto Star reported, Bilkszto claimed Ojo-Thompson told educators that Canada could be considered more racist than the US because it ‘never reckoned with its anti-black history.’

The principal, who had previously taught high school in Buffalo, New York, disagreed with the sentiment.

He said it would be ‘an incredible disservice to our learners’ to suggest the US is a more just country than Canada, according to the lawsuit, which claims Ojo-Thompson reacted ‘with vitriol.’

She allegedly lashed out at the principal for appearing to undermine a black woman.

‘We are here to talk about anti-black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for black people,’ Ojo-Thompson allegedly said.

The lawsuit added Bilkszto tried to de-escalate the situation, admitting that there was anti-black racism in Canada, but argued the evidence suggested ‘we are a far more just society’ than the US.

But at another session the following week , Ojo-Thompson allegedly brought up the argument again, describing it to Bilkszto and his colleagues as a ‘real life’ example of someone supporting white supremacy.

This white man fully admitted that Canada was racist.  His only gripe was that he believed that the United States was more racist than Canada.

Voicing that opinion to a black woman was apparently an act of white supremacy.

For that, he was berated, fired, and his reputation ruined.

This feels like an Twilight Zone episode based on a Franz Kafka story.

This man was so damaged by the racist bullying of a DE&I worker, that he committed suicide.

It’s not enough for DE&I to die on its own.

I need to be put to the wall and buried in a ditch.

Possibly literally.

Not there yet…

J.Kb. posted about the case regarding Mexico suing a number of American firearm manufacturers for reasons. Oral arguments were heard in the 1st Cir. on the 24th. I’ve created one of my automatic transcriptions. I have not finished listening nor reading.

That is part of the plan for today.

The short version seems to be that the District Court tossed the case because it was in direct violation of PLCAA.

The problem, for me, is that much of this is not a 2A case but a bunch of other things.

I need to understand the legal concept of extraterritorial, what the lawyer is talking about when he claims that only some things are precluded by PLCAA. If a US court must hear the case because of a violation of Mexico’s laws. There is a section on “cumulative damage”, “jurisdictional stripping”, references to multiple cases, are all issues mentioned. They are also considering if they should allow the case to proceed, regardless of PLCAA because if Mexico were to do this in Mexican courts, they would have no way of enforcing on the American companies.

There is a bunch of stuff regarding “aiding and abetting liability”. And “proximate cause”, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, I’m attempting to get some client work done. Including GFZ. Have a good one!