Baltimore, a Reeking Hellhole of a City, Somehow Just Got Even Worse

Posted on | March 26, 2024 | 1 Comment

Whenever I’m trying to describe conditions in some poverty-stricken, violence-ridden Third World country like Haiti, my habit is to say it’s so bad, it’s worse than Baltimore, which is about as bad as it gets in America. Nothing good ever happens in Baltimore, a city crammed full of bad people, where Joe Biden got 88% of the vote in 2020.

The only thing functional about Baltimore is that it’s one of the largest seaports on the East Coast, but even that’s gone for now:

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday after a support column was hit by a large container ship that had lost power, sending vehicles and people into the Patapsco River, authorities said.
Six people remain unaccounted for, Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said in a mid-morning news conference. Two other people were rescued from the water.
All eight people were part of a construction crew that was filling potholes on the bridge at the time, Wiedefeld said. Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Security Board, said Tuesday afternoon that the workers were employed by local company Brawner Builders.
One of the rescued workers was unhurt. The other was treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center and has been discharged, CBS Baltimore station WJZ reported. . . .

The story goes on about this relatively trivial aspect of the destruction of a major infrastructure element before getting to this:

The ship — the Singapore-flagged Dali — was operated by charter vessel company Synergy Marine Group and was chartered by Maersk, carrying Maersk customers’ cargo, the companies said.
There were 22 crew members, including two pilots, aboard the ship, according to a statement from Synergy. All 22 crew members are Indian nationals. Synergy said it had activated its incident response team and is cooperating with state and federal officials. Homendy said that the NTSB is communicating with Singaporean officials as part of their investigation. . . .
Officials have confirmed that the ship lost power right before the collision. Moore said that the crew notified authorities of a “power issue.”
Two U.S. officials told CBS News that multiple alarms rang out on the ship, alerting pilots and crew to an issue on board. The crew ran several system tests to attempt to remedy the loss of propulsion from the motor, but the tests proved unsuccessful. At that point, the pilot alerted the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transit Authority.
Roughly two minutes elapsed between when the ship’s pilot notified state authorities of an issue on board and when the bridge collapsed, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski said.
Officials said in a news conference that the call allowed officials to order a mayday and stop traffic onto the bridge. . . .

The main span of the bridge is wide enough that there was no reason the ship should have been anywhere near the support pylons, and the loss of power on the ship thus would explain why it was so far off course. The real story here is the economic damage that this catastrophe has wrought by shutting down the port:

The Francis Scott Key Bridge spans the Patapsco River, a key waterway that serves with the Port of Baltimore as a hub for East Coast shipping.
CBS News Baltimore reports that the 1.6-mile span was used by some 31,000 people per day and carried 11.5 million vehicles annually.
The Maryland Transportation Authority said all lanes were closed in both directions on I-695. Traffic was being detoured to I-95 and I-895.
All ship traffic at the port, the second-largest seaport in the mid-Atlantic region, has been halted. According to Census data, the Port of Baltimore handled more than $80 billion in imports and exports in 2023, marking a 20-year record.

Do the math — divide $80 billion by 365 — and you realize that America loses about $220 million a day in commerce for every day the port of Baltimore is inoperative. So while it’s all fine and good to wring your hands about the six missing workers who were plunged into the river by this disaster, the far more important matter is how soon the wreckage of the bridge can be cleared so as to restore cargo shipping to the port.

It will take many years to rebuild this bridge, but no time should be wasted in the immediate task of getting this shipping channel open again. In the meantime, more freight will be diverted to New York, Savannah, Jacksonville and other East Coast ports, but there is only so much cargo any port is equipped to handle, and the loss of the port at Baltimore will have serious economic consequences. But don’t worry — Secretary of Transportation Pete Bootigieg is on the job, and Joe Biden’s got another phony personal anecdote to share with America:

Biden claims to have taken the TRAIN over the Francis Scott Key bridge!
Says he has been over the bridge "many many times commuting from the state of Delaware either by train or by car."

The bridge had only four lanes of traffic and no rail lines. pic.twitter.com/sB6Odzsr7i

— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) March 26, 2024

Traveling by car from Wilmington, Delaware, to D.C., you’d probably take U.S. 301 to U.S. 50 — going nowhere near Baltimore — or else you might go straight through Baltimore on I-95, but there’s no reason why you’d detour around the south side of the city on I-695 to cross the Francis Scott Key Bridge. As for the Amtrak route through Baltimore, from the city’s Penn Station on Charles Street, it loops around to the west before heading south toward D.C., which is to say it goes nowhere near the Key Bridge. Another day, another bullshit anecdote from the senile old liar.

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Category: Maryland

In The Mailbox: 03.25.24

Posted on | March 26, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.25.24

— compiled by Wombat-socho

What time is it, comrades of the Commentariat?
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

IT’S TAYLOR SWIFT FOR A NEW FASCISM TIME! (AGAIN!)

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: NYC Shocked To Discover That Solar & Wind Can’t Compete With Nuclear
EBL: Generation War, The Breakfast Club at 40, and 3 Body Problem
Twitchy: Chuck Todd Doubles Down To Protect “Basic Truth” and “Honest Journalists”, Free Beacon Catches Biden In ANOTHER Big Lie, and Missouri Attorney General Suing Media Matter For Documents About X
Louder With Crowder: Outrage as trans dart player steals women’s title two weeks after competing as a man, two female players quit, “The flow of migrants will continue”, and Watch: Clueless “climate expert” gets WRECKED by GOP Senator after claim carbon dioxide’s “a huge part of our atmosphere”
Vox Popoli: Candace Owens Banished, The Free Pass Has Expired, Ironic Inversion, Reality Always Intrudes, and Clown World’s Next Victim?
Upstream Reviews: Wild Souls – A Werewolf Anthology
Defending The Wood Perilous: The Burden Of Living In “Interesting Times”,
Gab: Christ Is King, And I Don’t Care If That Makes Me Antisemitic

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The ‘Rules-Based Order’ Is Already Over
American Greatness: Bobulinski’s Testimony – Unraveling Allegations of Biden Family Influence Peddling, Biden Vows to Fight Ban on Pride Flags at U.S. Embassies After Signing It, NY Appeals Court Reduces Trump’s Bond in Civil Fraud Case to $175 million, and Will DEI End America—or America end DEI?
American Thinker: Domination Through Chaos and Fear, also, Is Article V the Solution to Our FBI Problem?
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuban state-run media launches hate-filled diatribe against peaceful protesters, Heavy rains cause at least 26 building collapses in Havana, Cuba, At least 32 Cubans arrested for protesting on March 17 & 18, and Why does Pope Francis side with Putin and the Cuban dictatorship?
Baldilocks: I’m Back
BattleSwarm: Video Roundup Of Ridiculously Large Guns, WNBA Hates Breakout Player Because She’s Straight And White, and Japan Ends Negative Interest Rates
Behind The Black: Russians launch three astronauts to ISS, The tangled view of astronomers, France to award four rocket startups launch contracts worth as much as 400 million euros, SpaceX launches 23 more Starlink satellites, and Pushback: Smithsonian to pay Catholic students $50K and publicly apologize for ejecting them from Air & Space for wearing pro-life hats
Cafe Hayek: The Arrogance of Antitrust, also, Great Moments in Antitrust
CDR Salamander: End Of March Free For All, also, LCS – The Heavy Rotation Nightmare
Chicago Boyz: Heartsignals (updated)
Da Tech Guy: Where did those Pallets of Cash to Iran Go? Try the ANC or Why South Africa is Targeting Israel, “Squatters rights” will result in vigilante justice, They’re all Infidels anyways Ronna McDaniel Edition, Voting irregularities and worse in Cook County as the winner of the Dem Primary for state’s attorney remains unknown, and Five AM Thoughts Under the Fedora
Dana Loesch: Is Conservatism Making Enough Of A Comeback In Europe?
Don Surber: Carville complains about the world he made
First Street Journal: New car buyers are choosing hybrids over plug-in electrics, Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the rectum here] to do things right, and Hold them accountable!
Gates Of Vienna: I Am Also a Slut! When Italian Law Clashes With Quranic Law, Quranic Law Prevails, Austrians Look Forward to a Culture-Enriching Easter, Gagged in The Netherlands, and ISIS vs. the FSB: Who Will Win?
The Geller Report: HUGE TRUMP WIN: Judge REDUCES BOND OVER 60%, Gives Trump Another 10 Days, Vicious Jew Hater Nerdeen Kiswani at “Emergency” Anti-Israel Demo, DOJ Creates New Office To Seize Firearms From Law-Abiding Americans (But Not Illegals), RINO Saboteur Mike Gallagher Double Crosses GOP Base With Deliberately-Timed Resignation To Narrow GOP Edge To One Seat, Netanyahu Cancels White House Talks on Rafah After Biden Betrays Israel at The UN, and Shouting “Allahu Akbar!” Jubilant Muslim Group Brags, Releases Live Footage of ‘Bloody Attack’ on ‘Large Crowd of Christians,’ 133 Confirmed Dead in Islamic Terror Attack on Moscow
Glenn Reynolds: RIP Vernor Vinge
Hollywood In Toto: These Buried Bruce Willis Films Need to Be Unearthed, Is Liam Neeson Trying to Sink His Own Movie? Chazz Palminteri on Illegal Immigration: ‘This Has Gotta End’, Land of Saints and Sinners Shows Two Sides of Neeson, Bill Maher Schools Kara Swisher, Media on Censorship, and Late Night with the Devil Possesses Satirical Sting
The Lid: Toymaker Lego Warns CA Police to Stop Hiding Criminals’ Faces with Lego Images, Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram Secretly Changes People’s Settings to Block Political Posts, Here’s How to Change it Back, and Disaster for Dems/Biden: Less Than 40% of Black Youth Say They Intend to Vote This Year
Legal Insurrection: Cook County (IL) State’s Attorney Democratic Primary Race a Mess After 10,000 ‘Mistakenly Left Out’, DoE Civil Rights Office Opens Investigation Into UW-Madison ‘BIPOC’ Fellowship After Complaint By Equal Protection Project, Illegal Alien Border Encounters Sets New February Record as Tensions Escalate in El Paso, State Farm Cuts 72,000 California Home and Apartment Insurance Policies, Arizona State U. Paid Ibram Kendi $35,000 for a One-Hour Speech, Biden Moving Forward With Plan to ‘Forgive’ Billions More in Student Loan Debt, and Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia U. Panics Over House Investigation Into Campus Antisemitism
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, Palm Sunday, and Eve of Destruction
Outkick: Stanford Star Appears To Tell Ref ‘F*ck You’ After Fouling Out, Shedeur Sanders Gives Very Wrong Take About Texas High School QBs, Claims He Beat The Odds, Alabama Silences Grand Canyon Crowd, Advances To Sweet 16 In Wild NCAA Tournament Environment, Two Female Darts Players Quit Dutch Team After Male Wins Men’s And Women’s Pro Events In Same Week, What Kim Mulkey Called ‘Hit Job’ On Brian Kelly Is Not, And Shows Her Paranoia, Dan Le Batard Really, Really Hates Zach Edey, Calls Him A ‘Plague’, and MMA Fighter Julian Erosa Calls Out Lia Thomas: ‘I Don’t Like Cheaters’
Power Line: When Dag and Kurt Met Idi, Dumbest Thing A Liberal Said Last Week, Sen. Kennedy for the Win (As Usual), and Is Biden’s Re-Election Campaign Driving US Foreign Policy?
Shark Tank: Waltz Accuses Administration Of Making Israel-Hamas War A “Political Pig”
Shot In The Dark: You Heard It On The NARN First, also, The Ghost Of Minneapolis Future
STUMP: The Princess Announces Her Cancer Diagnosis, also, The Week In Meep
The Political Hat: Alabama vs. Wokeness
This Ain’t Hell: USS Boxer still working up to deploy three years on, Veteran charged for strangling his roommate to death at a VA medical center, Another of the last Pearl Harbor survivors passes, Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate helps Red China at the expense of Americans, Another old girl leaves home, and When Pigs Fly
Transterrestrial Musings: Brit Bashing From Spielberg, The Media Cover Up Continues, Commercial ISR, Biden And Michigan, Going Woke And Going Broke, and Ya Think?
Victory Girls: Putin Blames Ukraine For Moscow Terror Attack, ISIS-K Brings Receipts, The Train Is Coming, Fani Willis Warns Us, and The Ronna McDaniel Tantrums Expose Media Hypocrisy
Volokh Conspiracy: Supreme Court Shows Little Interest in Investigating Executive Power under the Antiquities Act
Watts Up With That: UK Guardian: A nuclear plant’s closure was hailed as a green win. Then emissions went up – ‘Shuttering of facility raises awkward climate crisis’, Time: More Chinese Communism can Save Us from Climate Change, California’s Electricity Disaster In Seven Charts, and Green Macaroni to the Rescue
The Federalist: What If We Addressed The Root Of Infertility Rather Than Pushing The Questionable IVF Quick Fix? Democrats’ Campaign Strategy Of Anti-Trump Lawfare Makes A Mockery Of The Justice System, If Pennsylvania Is Going To Flood Elections With Mail-In Ballots, We Need A Flood Of Poll Watchers, Tough-On-Crime Democrat’s Lead Shrinks After Chicago Officials ‘Mistakenly’ Forgot 9,000 Mail Ballots, Irish Voters Defeat Leftist Referendum To Remove ‘Mother’ From Constitution, and How To Save Your Local Library From Cultural Marxists
Mark Steyn: Live As It Happens – The Death of Your Nation, Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, War in the Air: Twelve O’Clock High and Masters of the Air, and Leilani Dowding, Samantha Smith and Tal Bachman

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Category: Linkagery

Election Fraud Never Happens. Election Fraud Never Happens. Election Fraud Never … Oh, Wait — Chicago?

Posted on | March 25, 2024 | 1 Comment

You’ll be denounced as an “election denier” if you dare suggest that Democrats are able to manufacture phony votes in order to “win” elections, but exactly what the hell is going on in Chicago?

The Chicago Board of Elections revealed on Saturday that more than 10,000 ballots hadn’t been included in previous vote totals by mistake, making unofficial counts lower than expected.
In a news release, a spokesperson for the CBOE explained that while adding up vote-by-mail ballots, he accidentally left out additional ballots that had been delivered by the U.S. Postal Service on Monday.
“I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this week as quickly as I could,” spokesperson Max Bever said in a statement, in part. “I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago.”
The 10,659 ballots in question were added to the unofficial vote count on Saturday, increasing the total of ballots cast in Chicago to 368,990. Voter turnout citywide was reported to be 24.44% out of 1,509,554 registered voters.
As of Saturday evening, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s race still had yet to be called, but judge Eileen O’Neill Burke’s lead over Clayton Harris III was narrowing slightly.

Oopsie! It was a mistake, an accident, an error!

You would be called a conspiracy theorist if you were to mention that this “accident” seems rather convenient for the State’s Attorney candidate who had been losing prior to the belated (but totally not suspicious) discovery of these 10,000 extra ballots. Both candidates are Democrats, but there is at least one important difference between them.

Can you spot the difference between Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III? If so, you’ll get hate-listed by the SPLC for suggesting that there is an obvious reason why Chicago officials are desperately trying to come up with enough fake votes to get Harris elected State’s Attorney.

OK, so you’re a racist, election-denying conspiracy theorist, just like Glenn Reynolds, who linked this from Jeffrey Carter:

I am in Chicago right now seeing my new grandson. While here, they had a primary election. The State’s Attorney’s race was the one to watch. It pitted a traditional liberal Democrat, Eileen Burke with a Chicago Teacher’s Union/Toni Preckwinkle socialist/communist Democrat Clayton Harris. . . .
Only about 20% of eligible voters voted, and it’s taking them at least six days past the election to count all the votes. Every single one of these people is responsible for making fraud easier.
But, the State’s Attorney’s race was closer. Lo and behold after all the ballots were practically counted they “found” another mail-in ballot dropbox full of 10,000 ballots that were not postmarked or dated. They are counting them now.
Amazingly, the lead that Eileen Burke had has shrunk to 1.8%, or 2000 votes. There are still enough ballots left to count to put her rival over the top.

The latest: “According to election officials, updated totals showed O’Neill Burke with 259,445 votes and 50.20% of ballots cast compared to Harris’ 257,430 votes and 49.80%. A total of 3,500 mail-in ballots still had yet to be counted – 2,500 in the city and 1,000 in suburban Cook County, officials said.” So now they’ve got the margin down to 0.4% of the “total,” and if the remaining ballots aren’t enough to elect Harris, I’m sure they’ll find a few thousand more. It’s the Chicago way, baby.

That thing they tell us never happens keeps happening. https://t.co/p3kSmTarSU

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) March 24, 2024

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Category: Chicago, Corruption, Democrats, Election

The Leticia James Fraud

Posted on | March 25, 2024 | Comments Off on The Leticia James Fraud

How shall I phrase this? To hell with New York.

To hell with Leticia James and every one of the 3,739,239 New Yorkers who voted to elect her as their state’s attorney general in 2018.

These are bad people, and New York is a bad state. If it is your misfortune to reside in New York — well, why? Aren’t you ashamed? Have you no concern for your own safety and reputation? Why would you want to be associated with such a miserable place, governed by such wicked people?

In February, Joel Pollak summarized this travesty of “justice”:

New York Attorney General Letitia James welcomed Judge Arthur Engoron’s staggering $354 million fine against Donald Trump on Friday by declaring at a news conference: “Everyone must play by the same rules.”
But a review of 70 years of legal history by the Associated Press showed no precedent whatsoever for suing an entrepreneur or business for allegedly inflating real estate values when there was no victim that suffered any damage.
Indeed, the record suggests that James held Trump to different rules.
To recap:
Letitia James ran for Attorney General in 2018 calling Trump an “illegitimate” president and vowing to use the law to pursue him. She then sued Trump and his three grown children for civil fraud, right before the midterm elections, which were hotly contested in New York. She alleged that Trump had exaggerated his personal wealth and the value of his real estate holdings when applying for loans from banks. In so doing, she claimed, Trump violated a New York fraud statute that did not require intent, or harm.
There were no victims: the banks did their own due diligence before lending to Trump, who paid all of the loans back, on time. There was no evidence that Trump intended to mislead anyone; loan applicants frequently overestimate their assets’ values.
Nevertheless, Engoron — a registered Democrat — issued a summary judgment finding Trump liable for fraud before Trump had any opportunity to present any evidence in his own defense. The trial then proceeded to a determination of the penalty owed.
James not only wanted to slap Trump with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines; she also wanted to ban him from doing any business in the state in future, and wanted to take away control of his existing businesses and place them in receivership custody.
The Associated Press reported in January that there was no precedent for New York law being used — or abused — in this way . . .

Keep in mind, New Yorkers voted to reelect James in 2022 after she brought this unprecedented action against Trump. The people of New York own this; they have endorsed and ratified it, and they are responsible for the as-yet-unforeseen consequences.

What might those consequences be? Today is the day that Trump must either post a bond of nearly half a billion dollars to pursue an appeal, or let Leticia James seize his assets in New York to satisfy the unprecedented fine imposed by Judge Engoron. It has been suggested that letting James seize Trump Tower might better suit Trump’s purposes, since this action — so obviously the result of a partisan vendetta by Democrats — would enrage and motivate Trump’s supporters. One could easily imagine the attack ads featuring the faces of Leticia James, Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis, asking voters: “Do you think you’re safe from these people?” Trump could win by a landslide.

The thing about fools is, they never heed warnings, so there’s no point trying to warn Democrats that their persecution of Trump could yield very bad consequences for them. Let them find out on their own.

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Category: Donald Trump, New York

Rule 5 Sunday: Blast From The Past

Posted on | March 25, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

A long time ago at an anime convention far away (Anime Iowa in Cedar Rapids, IIRC), I took this pic of a fetching young cowgirl. Hope she’s doing well.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Step In The Right Direction Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA Truth Social Windfall, Angela Chao RIP, Roadhouse Remake, Palm Royale, Spring, Son Of Silvercon II, Isabella Maria DeLuca – Political Prisoner, Goldfinger, The Gentlemen, Democrats Bloodbath Freaking Bloodbath, St. Patrick’s Day, and Irish Treble Dancers

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Lina Belfior, Fish Pic Friday – Aly From Alabama, Thursday Tanlines, AI Stealing Work From Scientists, Save the Whales!, More Primaries, Chinese Predict EV Bloodbath, The Wednesday Wetness, NYC Tries to Banish Wood and Coal Fire Pizzas, Justice KBJ Has a Different Take on the 1st Amendment, Lunar, Feds Try to Outlaw Maryland Blue Catfish, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Can Fishing Tournaments Save the Bay?, Some St. Patrick’s Day Flotsam and Jetsam, Palm Sunday and Maryland, My Maryland

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S for March 22

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Opening Day & Other Disasters

Posted on | March 24, 2024 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Opening Day & Other Disasters

— compiled by Wombat-socho

“Ever seen that guy in the street carrying a sign that says THE END IS NEAR? Chances are he’s a PhilliesSenators fan.”
– Bill James, THIS TIME LET’S NOT EAT THE BONES, slightly modified

Actually, our opening series against Dom’s Royals at KC went well – we won two games in extra innings, because KC has no bullpen, and we probably would have won the third game in similar fashion if it hadn’t been rained out after the Royals scored four in the bottom of the fifth. Then we went to the frozen wasteland of Milwaukee and lost two out of three to Pete’s Brewers, following which we defrosted in San Francisco and lost two out of three to the Giants. So we’re 4-5 at the end of the first week, and our closer, Vicente Romo, is on the 10-day DL. The team doctor has advised us to start drinking heavily before our home opener against the Angels on Tuesday.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Teddy Baseball is not in his happy place. He’s spending a lot of time talking to Coach Herzog…

In The Mailbox: 03.18.24
Daybreak Bulletin
Battleswarm
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Why Have Liberal Judges Suddenly Become Second Amendment Absolutists?
The Daley Gator
The Pirate’s Cove
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Three Shot Dead in Bucks County, Pa.; Manhunt Underway for Fugitive Suspect; UPDATE: Suspect Takes Hostages; UPDATE: Suspect Now in Custody; Victims Identified as Family, Baby Mama
357 Magnum
EBL

‘An Extensive Criminal History’
Flappr
357 Magnum
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Play Ball!
A View From The Beach
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Sleeping In
Animal Magnetism
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.20.24 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.21.24 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.21.24 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Illegal Alien From Eritrea on Terror Watch List Arrested in Gates County, N.C.
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 03.22.24
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending March 22:

EBL (11)
(tied) 357 Magnum & A View From The Beach (9)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Just a Couple of Car Thieves

Posted on | March 24, 2024 | Comments Off on Just a Couple of Car Thieves

Kensly Alston (left) and Halley Tejada (right)

On Wednesday, March 13, there was an auto accident in Lower Paxton Township, Pennsylvania, involving a black Lexus with New York tags, driven by 16-year-old Kensly Alston. A check showed the vehicle was uninsured, and the police had it towed. Three days later — Saturday, March 16 — as the officer was writing his final report on the accident, he entered the car’s data into the computer and learned it had been reported stolen in New York City on March 14. The officer contacted NYPD and was told that the registered owner of the Lexus had been found dead in an apartment on March 14. Nadia Vitels, 52, had gone to the apartment — where her recently deceased mother had lived — on Tuesday, March 12:

According to authorities in New York, Vitels arrived at the apartment on March 12 to prepare it for a family friend. When she arrived, she found a man and a woman, believed to be Tejada and Alston, staying there without permission.
Authorities say a struggle ensued, and Vitels sustained a fatal injury after being slammed against a wall. She died of blunt force trauma to the head, authorities claim.
The suspects then stuffed her body in a duffel bag, stole her vehicle, and fled to Pennsylvania, authorities in New York believe.
Her body was found [March 14] by her son, who visited the apartment after not hearing from his mother for two days, reports out of New York state. As they were about to leave the apartment, the son opened the closet and discovered the duffel bag, with a foot sticking out.

As soon as police in Lower Paxton Township — more than 150 miles west of New York City — learned the car had been stolen from a murdered woman, they “immediately filed charges against both subjects for receiving stolen property, entered both subjects into NCIC [the National Crime Information Center database] and obtained felony criminal arrest warrants for each of them.” This Friday, U.S. Marshals caught up with Alston and Tejada about 30 miles away in York, Pennsylvania. They were extradited to face the charges in Lower Paxton Township, but have not yet been charged with the murder of Nadia Vitels.

Y’know, one hears from the advocates of “social justice” that it’s wrong to be concerned about mere property crimes like theft, burglary and trespassing. Such crimes are non-violent, we are told. If the people who break into your home and steal your car also decide to kill you? Well, then it’s OK to call the police, but you can’t send people to prison for mere property crimes, say the advocates of “social justice,” because that would result in mass incarceration. So until they kill somebody, criminals must be turned loose, and then one day there’s a car accident in Pennsylvania and the cops have no idea they’re dealing with two murderers, because the victim’s body hasn’t been found yet.

Please, liberals, tell me again why mass incarceration is a bad thing, because I’m not quite sure I understand the logic of your argument.

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Category: Crime, New York, Pennsylvania

Death Toll Mounts in ISIS Moscow Attack

Posted on | March 23, 2024 | Comments Off on Death Toll Mounts in ISIS Moscow Attack

When I got up this morning, the reported death toll was 115 from the terrorist attack on a concert at Crocus City Hall in Moscow. As of this writing, the total is 133, and it may go higher, as many of the wounded are in critical condition and might not make it.

State media reported Saturday that Russian authorities detained 11 people — including four suspected gunmen — for their involvement in a deadly attack on a crowded concert hall near Moscow on Friday that has left at least 133 people dead.
The attack left hundreds more injured, Russian officials said.
The four suspects were stopped in the Bryansk region of western Russia, “not far from the border with Ukraine,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said. They planned to cross the border into Ukraine and “had contacts” there, state news agency Tass said, citing Russia’s FSB. The head of the FSB briefed President Vladimir Putin on the arrests on Saturday, according to Tass.
Videos circulated on Russian social media show pandemonium inside the large concert hall, which is connected to a shopping mall. Videos show people screaming and ducking for cover as gunmen fire volley after volley of automatic gunfire. Other clips show the gunmen firing, sometimes at point-blank range. The attackers also set the venue on fire, causing a partial collapse of the building’s roof.
“The shots were constant,” eyewitness Dave Primov told CBS News. “People panicked and started to run. Some fell down and were trampled on.”
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack. A U.S. official told CBS News that the U.S. has intelligence confirming the Islamic State’s claims of responsibility, and that they have no reason to doubt those claims.
The U.S. Embassy in Russia had previously advised Americans to stay away from concert venues, citing the threat of a terrorist attack. The U.S. official confirmed that the U.S. provided intelligence to Russia about a potential attack under the intelligence community’s Duty to Warn requirement.

Wait, I thought we’d eliminated ISIS? It’s good that our intelligence was able to figure out that such an attack was coming, but I just got off the phone with a friend who was wondering, why Russia? Why now? Is this somehow related to the Russia/Chechnya conflict?

No doubt there will be plenty of conspiracy theories — “false flag”? — but the key takeaway, as far as I’m concerned, is that ISIS is still a danger, capable of mounting major terrorist attacks in distant countries, and we shouldn’t be too complacent about this threat.

UPDATE: Yup, it was definitely ISIS:

BREAKING:

The official ISIS outlet Al-Amaq releases the video recorded by the terrorists from the Moscow attack

It shows the slowly walking out of the place after killing 140+ people

In the video, 1 of them shouts Allahu Akbar & that they have punished the “kuffars” (infidels) pic.twitter.com/QQre7KhXfF

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 23, 2024