Motor City Mayhem

 The Detroit Fire Department has had two DUI crashes involving on-duty personnel in one one week. In the first incident, an intoxicated firefighter drove his rescue truck into a parked car. In the second, a command officer was found in his FD Suburban, hanging off an overpass.

The driver of the rescue truck, by the way, had been to a retirement "dinner party" where alcohol was being served. And we know what fire department retirement parties are like.

The city has announced plans to address the issue (and, surprisingly, it wasn't "well, then, let's get started").

They're going to bolster their Employee Assistance Program, which they scaled back in response to Covid-19, believing, apparently, that a deadly pandemic, isolation, travel restrictions, and reduced staffing due to illness, wouldn't put any additional strain on firefighters.

Oops.

Here's another suggestion: the first time sometime is caught OUI on duty, immediate enrollment in an in-patient drug or alcohol rehab program, OR six-month unpaid suspension, no outside work authorization, no benefits.

Second offense, fire the person. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I see no reason why my tax dollars should pay for $600,000 vehicles so these IDIOTS can act like idiots. Every firefighter I know has responded to drunk-driving crashes. Why do they feel THEY are exempt, from their law and/or from the consequences of their actions?

Isolation and Quarantine

 While doing some research on the issues involved with voluntary and involuntary isolation and quarantine, I ran across the case of Robert Daniels, a Russian who had been admitted into the US despite having a rare and highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis (TB). As a condition of entry, he agreed not to go out in public without a mask (sound familiar?), but got caught at a Maricopa County (AZ) convenience store without one. He was promptly tossed in the hoosegow, for NINE MONTHS.

"Like jailed inmates accused of crimes, Daniels is subjected to intrusive strip searches and he is unable to receive any visits from family and friends. He isn’t permitted to exercise or walk outside, and has no access to social or recreational activities like the Internet. He has been outside only once in the past nine months, and was shackled hand and foot. The lights in his cell are required to be kept on at night, and video cameras record his every move. He can’t see through the frosted windows in his room and wasn’t able to shower or call anyone until a few weeks ago." (1)

Bear in mind, Roberts wasn't being accused of being a mass murderer, or anything... he was a guy with a contagious disease.

"In its complaint, the ACLU argues that the county has failed to implement procedures on how to humanely quarantine sick patients for lengthy periods of time, and in an effort to cut costs deliberately failed to explore alternative locations in which to quarantine Daniels. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio(2) publicly stated that in the interest of security he would treat any person housed in the jail ward in the same manner as all other jail inmates."(3)

The ACLU went on to describe the compassionate medical treatment Roberts received:

" Like jailed inmates accused of crimes, Daniels is subjected to intrusive strip searches and he is unable to receive any visits from family and friends. He isn’t permitted to exercise or walk outside, and has no access to social or recreational activities like the Internet. He has been outside only once in the past nine months, and was shackled hand and foot. The lights in his cell are required to be kept on at night, and video cameras record his every move. He can’t see through the frosted windows in his room and wasn’t able to shower or call anyone until a few weeks ago."(4)

We ran into a similar situation here in Maine a few years, during the last Ebola scare here in the states. Kaci Hickox, a nurse who had worked with "Doctors Without Borders" in West Africa, was locked up, initially in New Jersey, on the orders of Governor Chris Christie (another trump supporter), and subsequently in Maine, on orders from Governor Paul LePage (yet another trumper... are you starting to see a pattern here?). Hickox sued in both cases, and won. Christie, by the way, claimed Hickox was positive for Ebola; she was not. (5)

"I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s private prison," Hickox said in a statement released through the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is representing her in the lawsuit.

"My liberty, my interests and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear," she said.(6)

This, of course, is standard operating procedure for the GOP: use fear if you don't have facts on your side. 

__________

1. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-arizona-sues-county-officials-over-inhumane-confinement-tb-patient, retrieved Mar 2, 2021

2. You remember Joe "Feed Them Green Bologna" Arpaio: he was pardoned by his good buddy trump after pissing off the Federal Courts by ignoring orders that his *COUNTY* deputies not engage in *FEDERAL* immigration enforcement.

3. Ibid

4. Ibid

5. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/kaci-hickox-maine-nurse-quarantined-ebola-scare-sues-new-jersey-n449491, retrieved Mar 2, 2021

6. Ibid

Far-Right Extremism and Facebook

A while back, I mentioned the Facebook group “I’m 10-15,” which is the Border Patrol radio code for “alien in custody,” and the loathsome posts by current and former CBP agents. 

The online news site Revealnews.com recently reported on a number of “Confederate, anti-Islam, misogynistic or anti-government militia groups” who have public, private, or secret Facebook pages. Another investigative site, TheVerge.com, identified more than 400 law enforcement officers posting to hate groups. ProPublica.org cited a 2018 investigation into Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen, who referred to immigrants as “guats” (Guatemalans), “wild-ass shitbags,” “beaners” and “subhuman” (the Nazis used to refer to Jews as “sub-human,” as do their current adherents). And on Friday (July 12), Slate posted an article on the “10-15” group, including the interesting fact that Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost participated in the group, which has come under (well-deserved) fire for its hateful vitriol. The article says Provost commented on a post regarding her ascendancy to the head of the agency, but they very fact that she was able to comment shows (a) she was a member of the “secret” group, and, by extension, (b) she was familiar with the overall tone of the group.

Perhaps the most telling post on the “10–15” group is the one with the Associated Press photo of Óscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month old daughter Valeria, lying dead on the bank of the Rio Grande:

“Ok, I’m gonna go ahead and ask…… have y’all ever seen floaters this clean. [sic] I’m not trying to be an a$$, but I HAVE NEVER SEEN FLOATERS LIKE THIS, could this be another edited photo. [sic] We’ve all seen the the dems and liberal parties do some pretty sick things….”[1]

Politico reports that senior CBP officials had been told of the group’s existence as late as 2016, and that senior officials had been monitoring the group “as a source of intelligence,” but had apparently not taken any action against CBP officers posting racist or supremacist comments. The agency did not deny, however, that Provost and other senior Border patrol agents had participated in the group.

At its peak, the “10-15” group claimed about 9,500 members. The Border Patrol currently has about 20,000 active agents. Since the group includes retired agents, let’s be generous and say the pool of prospective members is 40,000 (20,000 active, 20,000 retired). 9,500 is roughly 25% of the total… a truly disgustingly large percentage, but reflective of the percentage of racists, white supremacists, xenophobes, and assorted other haters in law enforcement as a whole.

Many would say that this hateful speech is protected under the First Amendment. But retired TV newsman Dave Statter and attorney Curt Varone (and retired Deputy Assistant Fire Chief in Providence, RI) both point out that not all speech by public employees is protected. Statter refers to “SMACSS,” or “Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome,” in which public employees manage to shoot themselves in the foot with amazing regularity.

Varone cites the “Pickering Balance Test,”[2] which holds:

Public employees have protection under the 1st Amendment when they are speaking on a matter of public concern as a private citizen, and their interest “in commenting upon matters of public concern” outweighs the “interests of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.[3]

While this may appear to grant blanket protection to the speech, Varone discusses several caveats:

•          “… [If] public employee speech involves a matter of public concern and even if said as a private citizen – if the speech causes actual harm or disruption to the mission & function of the employer, there is no First Amendment protection. In this regard, speech of a racist or discriminatory nature has been found to be unprotected when it causes actual harm or disruption.” [4] [Emphasis in original]
•           Speech that threatens violence or harm or encourages others to commit violence/harm to any person or group loses First Amendment protection
•       Likewise, speech that threatens to or encourages others to withhold public safety services from any person or group is not protected.

Varone was responding to a social media post in which (now former) North Chatham (NC) firefighter Caleb Folwell stated “They should exterminate all captive [sic] right now and broadcast it over Mexican National TV to send a message if you cross illegally you die.” Caleb’s father, Jeff Folwell, was forced out as chief of the Julian Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department (where Caleb also volunteered) also as a result of the post.

Now, the question is, “what do we do about these hideous groups?” Politico said, “[…] it wasn’t clear as of Wednesday that either the Trump administration or Facebook would be able to shut the Facebook group down…”

Bull.

Facebook is a privately-owned entity, and the First Amendment, which protects against governmental infringement of speech, has no application there. Additionally, Facebook can, and has, shut down other hate groups recently. They are very quick to suspend users (including your humble host) who post disparaging comments about trump or the far-reich wing in general.

According to ProPublica, Heidi Beirich, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said she’d been pressing Facebook to pursue secret groups like 10-15 and hidden hate speech for years. Facebook, she said, “can use their AI or their people to identify these groups, and with the horrible language in there, they should have been finding these people.”[5] Since Facebook has been able to identify, and suspend, liberals referring to conservatives as “trailer trash,” it seems disingenuous for Facebook to claim they cannot identify hate speech in the extremist groups.

What is becoming clear, moreover, is Facebook’s apparent dedication to protecting the far-right extremists on their platform. Whether from a misguided sense of “fair play” for “the underdog,” or outright support for their hatred and loathing, Facebook is rapidly becoming the “safe space” for the far right, a place where they can post their hate and misogyny and supremacy and homophobia and xenophobia without fear of reprisal, while knowing that the “libtards” will be severely punished for hurting their feelings. And yet they have the nerve to call us “snowflakes.”

---

[1] I have seen “floaters this clean.” If a drowning victim is found within a day or two, there has not been an opportunity for decomposition to set in. Floaters achieve their gruesome appearance over a period of weeks or months, during which a process called “saponification” allows anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis of fat tissue, resulting in the formation of “adipocere,” a soapy or waxy substance (see, e.g., Kahana, T., et al., “Marine Taphonomy: Adipocere Formation in a Series of Bodies Recovered from a Single Shipwreck,’ Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 44, No. 5, 1999, pp. 897-901) . Óscar and Valeria were found the morning after they vanished.

[2] Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968)

[3] http://www.firelawblog.com/2019/07/04/nc-facebook-post-results-in-two-cybercasualties/, 07-04-2019, retrieved 07-13-2019

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://www.propublica.org/article/investigation-of-secret-border-patrol-group-launched-as-new-degrading-facebook-posts-surface, 07-01-2019, retrieved 07-13-2019

Right-Wing Extremism in Law Enforcement, Part I

All of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty.[1]

~ Former FBI Director James Comey

I have been saying for a while – and the FBI has been saying it for years – that far-right extremists are actively infiltrating law enforcement and the military, and there is rampant and blatant racism within the ranks of those whose job it is “to serve and to protect.”

Law enforcement has always had its warts, whether in the “slave patrols” of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the widespread police corruption during Prohibition, the continuing corruption during the “Serpico Era” in NYC, the Civil Rights conflicts in the 1960s, or today’s open racism in places like Ferguson, MO.

Years before I entered law enforcement, my great-uncle, who had been a patrolman with the St. Louis County Police for 40+ years, told me that law enforcement was “the greatest calling,” about medicine, above the law, above even the clergy, and certainly far above politics. To paraphrase what Uncle Fred told me:

We are there on the best days and the worst days in peoples’ lives. We are there when they are born and when they die. We tell wives their husbands are never coming home, we tell parents their sons and daughters have been killed in crashes, we tell young children that they will never see Mommy and Daddy again. We hear their deepest, darkest secrets, we see their lives of despair. We see their lives crash around them. We must be confessors, marriage counsellors, referees, friends, disinterested strangers, often all at the same time. We must have the wisdom of Solomon and the compassion of Jesus.

Uncle Fred, by the way, never sought promotion, for in those days, the higher one’s rank, the greater the exposure to corruption became. Fred’s reputation for fairness and decency was widespread through St Louis County in those days: those being sought by the cops would surrender to him, knowing that he would not brutalize them as they were being booked (remember, this was before the days of Miranda and Brinegar and Mapp and Escobedo and Gideon) [2]

Police officers, and others in emergency services, see and hear and smell things no decent person should ever be exposed to. We pull wax-encapsulated corpses from our waters, we dig through fire scenes for charred remnants of what used to be living men and women. Sometimes, all we can do is hold their hand and comfort them as they die, trapped in the mangled wreckage of their cars, as they cry for their mothers (strangely, never the fathers). Sometimes, we can’t even do that, and all we can do is listen to them scream in agony as they burn to death because the Fire Department hasn’t arrived yet. We have cut down teens who hanged themselves because their parents couldn’t handle the thought of their children being gay. Yet, through it all, many manage to maintain the compassion and empathy that drew them to the job in the first place.

In fact, I believe law enforcement overwhelmingly attracts people who want to do good for a living – people who risk their lives because they want to help other people. They don’t sign up to be cops in New York or Chicago or L.A. to help white people or black people or Hispanic people or Asian people. They sign up because they want to help all people.[3]

But here I must respectfully disagree with Director Comey. But there are others, relatively few compared to the million or so sworn law enforcement officers in the United States, who enter the field for the wrong reasons: to address perceived wrongs against them, to settle scores, to make sure “those” people “know their place.”

There are far-right extremist groups – the Oath Keepers, the Ku Klux Klan, the Three Percenters, militia movements and other anti-government extremists – who are actively encouraging their members, both overt and covert, to enter law enforcement, to bend the mindset of the profession to more closely reflect their own warped views. The Verge, an on-line news organization, reported on research they conducted that identified at least 400 police officers as member of extremist groups, with approximately 150 being members of the most extreme groups.[4] Back when I was a police officer, back in the 1970s and 1980s, in Connecticut, there were large numbers of openly racist officers on the job; the situation has only gotten worse in the intervening 30 years. More recently, 14 San Francisco police officers were caught exchanging racist and homophobic text messages, including, “all ni**ers must f**king hang.”[5] Most of those officers remain on the job, as a court blocked disciplinary actions based on a statute of limitations. Even a cursory examination of the public comments on law enforcement news sites reveal truly vicious racist opinions being expressed by law enforcement officers and their supporters. For instance, the far-right website UNZ Review, in an article discussing the murder of Appleton, WI, firefighter Mitch Lundgaard, comments mentioned “two-legged brown turds,” and “the Negro,” and “Chicongo” (a racist reference to Chicago).[6]

We must work – in the words of New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton – to really see each other. Perhaps the reason we struggle as a nation is because we’ve come to see only what we represent, at face value, instead of who we are. We simply must see the people we serve.[7]

These extremists, however, are often ignored, and their danger swept under the rug. In part due to a lack of a standardized selection process or operational standards, “state and local police as well as sheriff’s departments present ample opportunities for white supremacists and other right-wing extremists looking to expand their power base.” [8] Some of these groups infiltrate members into law enforcement in order to warn crews of ongoing investigations or potential enforcement actions; others seek to subvert the agencies to their own ends.

As the Verge article points out, many of these far-right officers are active on the many racist and hate groups on social media. Facebook, roundly criticized for its inability – or perceived refusal – to moderate or block these groups, announced new measures to reduce the impact of hate groups, extremism, and misinformation on its platform.

But there’s no evidence to suggest that Facebook is taking a more active role in moderating these groups’ activities – in fact, the opposite appears to be true. And the notion of active duty police officers with access to firearms participating openly in bigotry and potentially violent online behavior is worrisome for how it could translate to offline actions in the future.[9]

It also appears that there is a certain amount of consideration offered to the far-right posters that is not available to others. I reported a certain post, possibly written by a law enforcement officer, based on the use of police 10-codes in his profile, to Facebook for promoting hate speech; Facebook replied that the post “does not violate our community standards.” I shared the post to my page, with the comment, “This is how they talk of us,” and was promptly banned for a month… for “hate speech.”

Law enforcement is a closed society, with outsiders considered potentially dangerous. The “Thin Blue Line” concept originated to indicate law enforcement’s stance as the line between order and chaos. These days, however, it is more of a rallying cry, and like the “Blue Lives Matter” movement, is used to shield officers from outside scrutiny, by painting those with grievances as anti-police, and hence, anti-law-and-order. The law enforcement community today enforces a “code of silence” that makes the Mafia’s “Omerta” pale by comparison, and effectively forces honest police officers to help protect corrupt officers from being held accountable for their actions.

Another major problem with combatting the extremists’ attempts is that there is no general consensus on classification of extremist actions: some states treat them as hate crimes, others as terrorist activities, and still others consider extremist activities to be gang-related, relegating it to the same (low) priority as motorcycle gangs dealing meth. The Federal government is even more confusing in its treatment of these crimes.

---

[1] James B. Comey, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race,” speech delivered at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, February 12, 2015; www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/hard-truths-law-enforcement-and-race, retrieved 07-04-2019

[2] Respectively: Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436, 1966; Brinegar v. United States, 338 US 160, 1949; Mapp v Ohio, 367 US 643, 1961; Escobedo v Illinois, 378 US 478, 1964; Gideon v Wainwright, 372 US 335, 1963

[3] Comey, “Hard Truths”

[4] Statt, Nick, “Hundreds of active and former police officers are part of extremist Facebook  groups,” www.theverge.com/2019/6/14/18679598/facebook-hate-groups-law-enforcement-police-officers-racism-islamaphobia, retrieved 07-04-2019

[5] Cited in Speri, Alice, “The FBI has quietly investigated white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement,” www.theintercept.com/2017/1/31/the-fbi-has-quietly-investigated-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-law-enforcement/, January 31, 2017, retrieved 07-04-2019. Expletive deletion added

[6] Kersey, Paul, “His Name Is Mitch Lundgaard: White Firefighter In 82% White City Murdered By Black Criminal After He Revives Him from Overdose,” www.unz.com/sbpd/his-name-is-mitch-lundgaard-white-firefighter-in-82-white-city-murdered-by-black-criminal-after-he-revives-him-from-overdoes, June 15, 2019, retrieved 07-04-2019

[7] Comey, “Hard Truths” Emphasis added.

[8] Speri, op cit.

[9] Statt, op cit.

Happy 2014...

The lovely yet talented Mrs618 and I awoke to a glorious, bright, sunny morning, the start of a new year... and the realization that we have no medical insurance.

None.

Our less-than-illustrious Teabaggin' Governor, Fat-Ass Paul LePage, he of more chins than a Chinatown phone book, whose entire family -- including his equally-fat-assed daughter Lauren "I Fell Out Of The Ugly Tree And Hit Every Branch On The Way Down" LePage --gets state-funded healthcare at tax payer expense, took advantage of the one part of the Affordable Care Act that the rethuglicans love.

Now that the ACA allows everyone to buy insurance on the open market, Fat-Ass was able to dump 70,000 Mainers off the roles of MaineCare, our Medicare program. The problem is, of course, one has to have the money to buy a policy on the open market, which is why the plan provides financial assistance for those making at least the Federal poverty level to 450% of the poverty level.

Those of us who are unemployed, or who otherwise fall below the poverty level do not qualify for financial assistance, so, for us, it's "AMF, YOYO"*

I doubt that any of the workers at Fat-Ass' previous employer, Marden's Junk Emporium (which makes Sanford and Son look like Neiman-Marcus) get insurance. Well, maybe one fat-assed part-time cashier did... whose Daddy just happened to be the boss.

This does explain, though, why Fat-Ass was so bound and determined to pay off the past-due Medicare payments to the hospitals. Now that they have this influx of "found money" -- cause, face it, Fat-Ass would never have paid them otherwise, preferring to use the money for tax cuts for the rich -- he can now completely screw over 70,000 Mainers.

We were at the hospital yesterday, getting one last round of blood work for Mrs618, and a bunch of us in the waiting room were talking. We agreed it seemed more crowded than usual. Then, one after another, we all said we were losing our insurance at midnight.

Guess what, Fat-Ass? Now that none of us have insurance, we'll have to wait longer before we bite the bullet when we get sick. We'll be far sicker, and we'll also be completely uninsured. You know what that means? That means the emergency room will become our primary care physician by default. We'll be a dead drain on the hospital's resources. The hospitals are, after all, required to render emergency care, regardless of the patient's ability to pay, so all the rich doctors who voted for you will see their income plummet because the hospitals have to provide minimal care for us at their own expense. You're taking money out of the pockets of the IDIOTS who voted you in. Great re-election strategy there, Fat-Ass.

About half the folks in the waiting room had voted for Fat-Ass, because they were the typical Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin' sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup, duck f***in', toothless, mouth breathin' morans who always vote Rethuglican, despite the fact that those same Rethuglicans inevitably screw them over. But most of them, yesterday, said they wouldn't vote to re-elect Fat-Ass, and a bunch of them said they wouldn't vote Rethuglican anymore period.

They even admitted that Fat-Ass did exactly what he said he would do during his campaigns: make Maine business-friendly (by cutting regulations, worker's rights, insurance costs, and social services). They were amazed that a politician -- especially a Rethuglican -- kept his word.

Fat-Ass's poorly-thought-out master stroke will also increase the drain on other social services, like fire and EMS squads. Folks will wait longer to call for help, so they'll be far sicker, requiring more intensive and expensive pre-hospital intervention. Guess who's going to wind up paying for that? Yup, the taxpayers. Hospital stays will be longer. More folks will be faced with the "heat, food, or medicine" quandary, probably resulting in increases in malnourishment and chronic hypothermia as well as more serious medical conditions.

The lovely yet talented Mrs618 has some serious, chronic medical issues. Her prescriptions -- without insurance -- run about $3,000 a month (according to the prescription labels affixed by our pharmacy).  My average monthly income is about $150.00, from the few per diem teaching gigs I can find.

Without some sort of assistance, my wife will die in less than a year.

Let me repeat that, in case you missed it:

Without some sort of assistance, my wife WILL DIE IN LESS THAN A YEAR.


BECAUSE THOSE MOTHERFUCKING TEABAGGING SUCK-ASS REPUBLICAN "FAMILY VALUES" ASSHOLES DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE DARKER THAN EDGAR WINTER OR ANYONE MAKING LESS THAN $300,000 A YEAR.

Happy New Year, everyone.


* Look it up.

Cold Beer, Hot Wings... and Hot Lead...

Country music star Toby Keith, who has spoken in support of unfettered access to small-penis-compensating killing devices, and who has performed at National Fecking Rifle Association events, has managed to do something smart (from my point of view). Of course, in doing so, he's managed to piss off all his Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin' sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup, duck f***in', toothless, mouth breathin' cohorts.

He has started a chain of restaurants, called "I Love This Bar and Grill" (or as the locals say, "Y'all hold mah beer an watch this"). His location in Woodbridge, VA, has a sign on the front door.

"NO GUNS PERMITTED."

Via Huffington Post:

The gun friendly state permits citizens to openly carry firearms into restaurants and bars, but state laws offer no legal guidance on drinking while openly carrying a gun. Drinking while carrying a concealed weapon is prohibited.

Additionally, Virginia state law allows bar and restaurant owners to ban weapons from the premises, as long as they prominently display a gun-free sign in the establishment. However, “No Firearm” signs in Virginia do not carry the force of law unless the property is specifically mentioned in state law as off limits to individuals with a permit or license to carry.

Virginia is one of six states -- the others, not surprisingly are Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Arizonastan -- that explicitly allows loaded guns in bars. Another 18 (as of 2010) allow loaded weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol.  Michael Drescher, a spokesman for Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, said “Guns and alcohol don’t mix; that’s the bottom line.” Governor Bredesen vetoed the bill, but his veto was overridden by the gun-totin' hillbillies down there.

Think Progress:

The furor spurred a response by the restaurant, explaining, “While we understand and respect every person’s right to own and bear arms, we at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, with guidance from the State of Virginia and based on insurance regulations, have adopted a no weapons policy. It is our desire to provided a safe, enjoyable and entertaining experience for our patrons and staff.”

One Bubba who disagreed said this, “I’ll never eat here. Lawfully armed and spending my money elsewhere.” I'm sure Chick-Fil-A has no problem with heavily armed drunks, as long as they love the Sweet Baby Jebus.

This does support Megyn Kelly's contention that

Jesus is a white male Caucasian...

Whatever his rationale, trying to keep drunk rednecks away from guns is a Good Thing.

On the other hand, I find it interesting that Keith is all in favor of packing heat, even when schnockered... except when it's HIS name that's likely to be listed as a defendant. Maybe now he'll start trying to get the rest of the hicks down there disarmed (even a little bit).

It's amazing how these mouth-breathing, toothless, moronic LOSERS turn on their own.

New Hampshire Courts and Interpreters

The court system in New Hampshire has adopted some new rules governing the use of interpreters in legal proceedings, saying "a comprehensive, publicly available plan will better ensure that the services are reliable and consistent."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert Lynn disagreed with a provision in the plan that requires interpretation services to be provided regardless of the user’s ability to pay for the services.

Just in case you couldn't guess, Lynn was appointed by then-Governor Judd Gregg to the trial bench, and to the state Supreme Court by Craig Benson, both Republicans.

To paraphrase the bleeding hemorrhoids at the Ayn Rand Center, "fair treatment in the legal system isn't a right, it's a privilege."

It's this kind of reasoning that buttresses what Badtux and Jurassic Pork (among many others) have been saying, that the 1% is determined to obliterate the middle class and take us back to a feudal system.

If your community has a deaf person who needs professional assistance in translating court proceedings, and that person is denied a sign language interpreter's services because he cannot afford to pay the interpreter (the average charge for interpreter services is $50-$75 per hour), does that person receive "due process of law?" If the person suffers a loss in the legal system, as a result of not being able to pay for interpreter, could that person be "deprived of life, liberty, or property," or could his "private property be taken for public use, without just compensation[?]"

In the words of Caribou Barbie, "you betcha, by golly."

By preventing us from obtaining healthcare, or fair legal representation, or education, or even FOOD, the 1% can weaken us to the point where we can no longer resist their oppression.

But that is exactly what the rethuglicans want. They want to strip us of our rights, our protections, our very humanity, to fill their coffers and feed their greed. They want to grind us down and eliminate any rebellion.

Which, by the way, is why so many toothless mouth-breathers in the deep South are rethuglican: they think slavery is just a dandy idea. Duck F***er Phil Robertson expressed his views rather succinctly:

"I never heard one of them, one black person, say, 'I tell you what: These doggone white people' -- not a word!" he said. "Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues."

Yup, them darkies sure had it good.

 

 

 

Just look at the programs the Teabaggin conservative scum-burping murderers want to eliminate:

 

• Headstart (why do people need an edgimacation, when we're gonna tell 'em what to do?)
• SNAP (aka food stamps; after all, who needs anything more than subsistence rations?)
• Section 8 Housing Assistance (Sheriff Arpaio has the right idea, just use tents)
• Student Loans (keep 'em dumb, and they won't fight us)
• Healthcare (if you get sick, die quickly... don't clog our hospitals with your worthless carcasses)
• Due Process of Law (if they're incarcerated, they work cheap, and if they don't get due process, we get their stuff!)

 

 



 

 



Michael Vick: Why Doesn't He Just DIE?!?

First it was Whoopi Goldberg supporting Michael Vick (saying that dog fighting was accepted in his culture). Now, Chris Rock and Jay Leno both have come out in support of Vick, with Rock saying, "Dogs have never been good to black people!" which might have something to do with the fact that so many blacks like to... umm, beat, torture, electrocute, drown and otherwise MURDER dogs?

Going back to the point I made in the linked article, since dog fighting was acceptable in their culture, maybe we should return to another culturally acceptable pastime: lynching these worthless pieces of shit.

Screw Chris Rock for being a worthless piece of shit, and for supporting another worthless piece of shit.

And for that matter, screw the human chin for supporting TWO worthless pieces of shit.

Dog fighting -- or animal abuse in general -- is NEVER culturally acceptable.

Never.

Screw Vick, Rock, and Leno.

Guns and Racism... No Connection. None Whatsoever.

Via skippy... 

"racism linked to gun ownership" 

Whodathunkit? [All emphasis added] 

A new study of symbolic racism among white American voters yielded strong links between latent biases toward blacks and increased favor of gun ownership and oppositions toward gun control.

Wow, that's is a "stop-the-press" moment... that the small-penis-compensation-device-loving crowd would also be jealous of the stereotypical big black jungle dick?

Published in the journal PLoS One, the study used voter data of white Americans that, after accounting for political ideology, income, and education, still revealed startling connections between racism and gun ownership. For every one point increase in symbolic racism — measured on a five-point scale — the chance someone had a gun in the home rose by 50 percent, and the chance the respondent supported policies that allowed people to carry concealed guns rose by 28 percent.

This would certainly explain the South. As BadTux and others have pointed out, the Southern social norms have traditionally included slavery -- which is racism in it's purest form -- and violence to keeps the slaves from rebelling. When one couples that with the still-extant desire to secede and rebuild the Confederacy, it's obvious that disarming the rednecks isn't going to happen.

"We were initially surprised that no one had studied this issue before,” said study co-author Dr. Dermot Lynott, from Lancaster University, in a statement. “However, the U.S. government cut research funding for gun-related research over decade and a half ago, so research in this area has been somewhat suppressed." 

Well, yes, the funding was cut at the demand of the National Feckin Rifle Association, since they didn't want folks to realize that the gun nuts were also racist bastards (among their many other un-American failings). God forbid anyone should think that guns.. oh, I don't know, kill people?!?

Gun control debates are set against a bleak backdrop of school shootings, homicides, suicides, and gun violence in a country that routinely tops the list for most gun-related deaths in a given year. A study performed earlier this year found that the more guns a U.S. state owns directly relates to an increased homicide rate. Covering 30 years from 1981 to 2010, and controlling for a laundry list of variables, it is the largest and most comprehensive study to date examining homicide’s relationship to gun ownership. 

Part of the answer is simply freedom. Americans whose family is steeped in the traditions of southern conservatism tend to enjoy exercising their second amendment Constitutional right. Another is irrationality, or an ignorance of the facts. Gun ownership often proceeds under the assumption that one will be attacked. So people buy guns fearing someone else will use one on them, despite the supposed closeness of people inhabiting gun-heavy regions. 

And if there is anywhere on Earth that epitomizes “irrationality” and “ignorance,” it is the disease-ridden Trashcanistan hellhole home of our Bible-thumpin’, hooker-humpin’, sister-marryin’, rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup wingnut “breathren” below the Mason-Dixie line.  

This whole concept of "home defense" lead Mrs. Lanza in Newtown to buy a poopload of weapons to protect herself. How did THAT work out for ya, Mrs. L?

The present study also found associations in their data between opposition to gun controls and conservatism, anti-government sentiment, party identification, and being from a southern state. Even controlling for these factors, the team found racism associated with gun control opposition and gun ownership. 

Yeah, I’d say that pretty much covers it.

 

To be fair, though, it's not just the Southern racists that are frickin lunatics. Here in Maine, we've had small-penis-compensators like David Marsters, who advocated the assassination of our President; Steve Collins, who advocated the assassination of our President; we have the Maine Tea Party Patriots -- the ones who support Fat-Ass Paul LePage, he of more chins than a Chinatown phone book; the National Socialist American Labor Party, a buncha neo-Nazi twats and Volksfront, representing the racist skinhead crowd. Every one of these assholes keeps agitating for unfettered access to firearms... especially assault rifles.

 

Since they're such firm believers in guns...

 

They oughta be shot.

 

 

 

 

 

*NO* Frickin Sympathy.

None.

Ronald Phillips, who was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter, wants his execution delayed*.

Ronald Phillips

CONVICTED RAPIST

and BABY MURDERER

 

Gee, whiz, Ronnie. You think maybe your girlfriend's little girl might have liked having her death postponed? By about 75 years?

 

 

As the lovely yet talented Mrs618 asked, "You think maybe she didn't want your fully-grown penis in her three-year-old body?"

 

 

Hey, Ronnie...

 

 

DIE SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY, ASSHOLE.

 

Don't want to be executed?

 

THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE RAPED AND MURDERED A CHILD!!

 

 

*He says he "deserves" a reprieve because Ohio uses lethal injection... and he's afraid of needles. Cry me a frickin river, jerkwad. 

Attracting, Recruiting, and Retaining Volunteers

One of the biggest problems facing volunteer organizations today is attracting and retaining qualified volunteers. Whether its a volunteer FD or EMS agency, a local Red Cross or Salvation Army chapter, food pantry, pet shelter, whatever, the ranks of volunteers are becoming alarmingly thin. With the economy the way it is these days, those fortunate enough to have jobs often have two jobs, trying to make ends meet. The spouse will often have two jobs, as well. In addition, there is that nebulous conglomeration of housecleaning, cooking, etc, not to mention a couple of things I have heard of, called "sleep" and "having a life." The result is simply insufficient time to engage in volunteer activities.

For skilled volunteer professions like firefighting or EMS, there are ever-increasing training requirements to be met.

For example, the EMT-Basic class is now somewhere around 200 hours, plus clinical rotations and state and national Registry testing. In Maine, an EMT-Basic is also required to have a minimum of 38 hours of Continuing Education, in the following areas: Preparatory, Operations; Airway, Breathing, Circulation; Assessment; Medical; Trauma; Obstetrics, Pediatrics; Psychomotor Skills; and Further Continuing Ed (essentially, electives).

Firefighters are in an even tougher situation: most departments encourage and strive for Firefighter I and II certification, but many also require Haz-Mat Operations, EMT-Basic, commercial driver licenses, or other skills. The career fire departments -- FDNY, Boston, DC, LA -- include these topics in their 3-6 month academies. The volunteers, however, do it a couple of hours a night, a couple of evenings a week... for a couple of YEARS. Yet the public expects volunteer firefighters in Pudunk, Maine, to have the same basic skillset as FDNY (and notice I said basic skill set, not the sophisticated things like high-rise firefighting, urban search and rescue, dive team, or air operations). It is an understandable expectation, even if perhaps currently unattainable.

Volunteers are expected to attend training sessions and meetings without compensation, even if they receive nominal compensation while responding to calls. Many volunteer departments charge annual dues, require members to pay for (required) training out of their own pockets, and some even require members to purchase their own firefighting gear (which runs about $2000 per person).

What's the quick-n-easy solution? There isn't one.

Some not-so-easy solutions:

• Eliminate volunteer fire departments and EMS and go to career departments. This would cost a bloody fortune, which most taxpayers would refuse to authorize. A full-time firefighter costs at least $100,000 per year, depending on base pay, benefits, etc. In rural areas, this would probably take the form of a county department, similar to the situation in Virginia and Maryland.
• Eliminate most of the training requirements for volunteers agencies. This would be unacceptable from a public safety point of view. Firefighting and EMS require highly specialized skills... after all, we are literally talking life and death here. Besides, we don't mind training, we just don't want it to take over our lives, especially if it's training in skills we are not allowed to use (foolish, yes, but it happens).
• Reevaluate training using evidence-based research, and provide government-funded stipends. There is a lot of training that continues simply because "this is the way we've always done it," regardless of the impact on patient outcome (for example, backboarding patients based solely on mechanism of injury as opposed to appropriate assessment); eliminating such outmoded protocols would allow more efficient use of training time and improve patient care. Extending existing stipends to cover training time would reimburse participants somewhat for committing their time to the community. Most stipends, by way the, are nominal at best: $15.00 per call, or $500.00 per year. Nobody will ever get rich working as a volunteer.
• Leave things the way they are. And watch the ranks of volunteers thin even more. We need sufficient staffing and resources to do our jobs properly and safely. But even more importantly, perhaps, we need time off, too, no matter how dedicated we are, time to spend with our wives (or husbands) and children, time to have a couple of beers, time to just kick back and do nothing.

Since I got sidetracked and came back to this a couple of hours later (and since my train of thought left me on the platform), I'll come back to this topic, looking at each aspect of the problem, and -- maybe -- suggesting some possible solutions.

And A Follow-Up

A couple of posts back, I went off on the small-penis-compensatin' National Fecking Rifle Association asswipes for their obsessive lust for killing devices.

Badtux left a comment saying "The only argument the right wing has that actually has any validity is the 2nd Amendment argument, where the 2nd Amendment by any reasonable reading protects both an individual and collective right to keep and bear arms."

But, alas, Badtux -- along with many other Americans, most of whom are small-penis-compensatin whackjobs -- forgot the first clause of the Second Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. [emphasis added]

And by "militia," the Framers were not thinking about the small-penis-compensatin', gun-totin' whackjobs like the Michigan Militia and the rest of the Militia/Patriot/Redemptionist genre, they were talking about what is today's National Guard.

The current crop of small-penis-compensatin', gun-totin' whackjobs wouldn't know "well regulated" if it bit them in their doughy asses.

It is astonishing how many people manage to miss the reference to a "well regulated militia," in their mad dash to justify keeping murderous devices in their homes.

Not that Badtux is in that crowd, mind you; I have a feeling he's pretty much on the side of common sense.

NSFW: Sandy Hook/Newtown, CT

UPDATE: The lovely yet talented Mrs618 convinced me to tone it down.

But you know damn well what I mean...

THIS POST IS FOR ADULTS ONLY. IF YOU ARE UNDER 21, GO AWAY.

IF YOU ARE A RIGHT-WING NRA GUN NUT, LEAVE NOW. I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FECK* FOR YOU, YOUR OPINION, OR YOUR "RIGHTS."

Once again, the fecking right-wing whackjob gun nuts at the National Fecking Rifle Association have let loose the hounds of disaster, this time killing 20 children. 20 elementary school children.

TWENTY CHILDREN.

Because some fecking whackjob got his mother to buy and register four weapons, cause he couldn't, cause he was a fecking psychotic nutcase.

Twenty children are DEAD, because the National Fecking Rifle Association will not, under any circumstances whatsoever, consider any kind of reasonable gun control.

All right. So be it.

Here's what we need to do to prevent this from happening again.

BAN ALL PRIVATE GUN OWNERSHIP, WITH TWO EXCEPTIONS.

Only ACTIVE-DUTY military and active law enforcement officers should be allowed to possess handguns.

Hunters can hunt with a .22 rifle, or a shotgun that can hold no more than one shell at a time.

NO ASSAULT RIFLES, NO AR-15S, NO LARGE-CAPACITY CLIPS FOR ANY WEAPON.

THE NATIONAL FECKING RIFLE ASSOCIATION, WITH THEIR BULL-HEADED INTRANSIGENCE, OWNS THIS.

THEY OWN THIS.

THEY SUPPORT THE MURDER OF HELPLESS KINDERGARTNERS, INNOCENT THIRD-GRADERS, AND TEACHERS.

And if you're one of the whining, mewling, sycophants for the National Fecking Rifle Association, and you want to make your point, DO IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. You have NO fecking rights HERE, you murderous scum-burping asshole.

I don't fecking want to hear it, murderer.

Go the feck away, and take your deathtoys with you.

Don't talk to me about your "rights"... I don't give a feck. Our nation's right to protect OUR CHILDREN outweighs your "right" to go squirrel hunting with a 50 calibre machine gun.

I no longer give a shirt for your Second Amendment "rights," since you National Fecking Rifle Association MURDERERS use it as a perverted excuse to go on your damnable killing sprees.

Columbine, San Ysidro, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Oregon, now Newtown. You National Fecking Rifle Association DOUCHEBAGS don't deserve to call yourselves "Americans." You should call yourselves BRAIN-DEAD, SLACK-JAWED, DROOLING, MORONIC GUN-TOTING ASSWIPES FROM HELL.

And don't try to say "If the teachers had been armed, yadda yadda...," cause that shirt ain't gonna fly.

You bottom-feeding, inbred hillbilly yokels, YOU SOCKSUCKERS from the National Fecking Rifle Association, have forfeited any claim to consideration or even adult discussion.

THERE'S NO SENSE IN TRYING TO HOLD A RATIONAL DISCUSSION WITH A CRAZY-ASS MUTHERFECKING PSYCHOTIC NUTJOB.

YOU MURDEROUS FECKING ASSHOLES OWN THIS, YOU CHILD-KILLING SOCKSUCKING MOTHERFECKERS.

* "Feck" is a very useful word I picked up from one of the British paramedic blogs, either Trauma Queen or Medic999 (Mark Glencourse). It gets the point across rather well.

PD versus FD... One to Watch

Dave Statter has a post up at STATter911.com, involving a situation in which a Wisconsin police officer engaged in a high-speed (and high-risk) pursuit trying to stop a vehicle that turned out to be a volunteer firefighter/EMT. The FireLaw blog, written by chief officer and attorney Curt Varone, also weighs in on the issue.

The jackass involved is suing the police department, for excessive force (apparently due to the fact the cop approached with his gun in his hand).

Statter has a good portion of the officers dash-cam video posted; here is what *I* got from it:

• the cop was already watching for a person allegedly impersonating a police officer; the suspect was allegedly driving a black Challenger;
• the officer saw a black Charger with a spotlight and push bar go past his location at high speed, running red lights and siren;
• the officer initiated a pursuit of this vehicle, based on the impersonation complaint;
• the officer ran between 85 and 105 mph for roughly the first minute and a half, attempting to catch up to the Charger;
• the Charger, when the cop caught up, was driving between 70 and 80 on a basically-deserted open-country secondary road, with virtually no other traffic;
• both vehicles reduced speed to 45-55 in a more developed area, and 15-30 mph in an obvious residential zone;
• both vehicles pulled into the "Brooklyn EMS building," at which time the officer was able to see a Wisconsin EMS marker plate, but he still handled the situation -- at this point -- as a felony stop (bearing in mind the earlier impersonation complaint and the fact that a chase had occurred);
• the officer approached the Charger with his gun drawn, as is standard for felony stops;
• as soon as the driver of the Charger identified himself, the officer holstered his weapon, and explained his view of the situation to the driver of the Charger, in a polite professional manner.

Statter links to a Wisconsin State Journal article, which picks up the story:

By the time the two vehicles pulled into the station, a bay door was open and other firefighters were arriving, so the situation should have been clear to the officer, Dean said. Also, according to an in-squad video of the incident, the officer learned prior to drawing his gun that Dean's vehicle had a state-issued Emergency Medical Services plate.

The dashboard video, made available to the State Journal by the Oregon Police Department, shows Dean getting out of his car, then ordered by Gilbertson to "Get back in the car" and "Get your hands out the door, right now, both of them."

Gilbertson then approaches the car with both hands on his pistol and appears to hold the gun close to Dean's head. Dean can be heard apologizing and explaining he's a Brooklyn firefighter.

Unfortunately, possessing an EMS marker plate is not a guarantee that the driver isn't a bad guy: there have been many EMS personnel arrested for various offenses, plus of course, there's the possibility the Charger was stolen.

One thing that is not mentioned in the fire blog reports is this:

Clark's written report faults the firefighter for acting without "due regard" for public safety. The call went out as an "Alpha-level" page for an "odor investigation."

According to Dane County policy, Alpha-level calls are non-emergencies and should be answered with "no lights, no siren (and) normal driving conditions," Clark wrote. [emphasis added]

I have no idea what the laws are like in Wisconsin, and every state's laws differ, but...

Here in Maine, when I am responding to a fire, the use of a red light requests the right of way, it does not demand it (the way a police car can; even fire apparatus cannot demand right-of-way). I am not allowed to exceed the speed limit, nor am I allowed to violate any other traffic regulation (stop signs, one-way, etc). Our local department restricts the use of lights to in-town only... if I am in the next town over, I cannot use the light till I cross into my town. The only volunteer FF who can use a siren is the chief, and he/she can only use it on a fully-equipped emergency vehicle (which has to be registered and insured as such, which, for an individual, would be astronomical).

As far as I know, every state requires "due regard for the safety of others" -- even police officers cannot drive like complete lunatics (though some certainly do; see, for example, Fausto Lopez, formerly of Miami PD).

Unfortunately, there are a few circumstances that make things look bad for this particular FF/EMT and the fire service in general:

• The FF/EMT was a driving a POV (privately-owned vehicle) that is a black Dodge Charger, which is about the only police package sedan available right now.
• The vehicle had a pillar-mounted spotlight (which firefighters could find useful) and a push bar... sounds a little too much like he was trying to make people think he's a cop.

It's like all the volunteer FFs over the years who brought Crown Victorias (here, here, here, here, here, here). Some of these yahoos go so far as making traffic stops (here, here, here [and I love the gold badge that says 'concealed weapon permit' and 'second amendment, my freedom']). The more firefighters -- especially volunteers -- try to look or act like police officers, the more it'll piss off the "real" cops. There was a similar case just a few months back... a volunteer FF in a Crown Vic with a spotlight and LED light heads all over the place, who got into a dispute with a guy in a Corvette... who happened to be a real cop who called for uniformed backup.


This jamoke will hopefully be convicted, thrown off the FD, and -- if we're really lucky -- the state will seize his car as an instrumentality of the crime.