We should give ’em a sample…Just a taste, as it were…

So in the inner cities (or any community that wants it, for that matter), if the folks in a neighborhood or community can demonstrate a majority of people inhabiting their area really wish to have no police presence (just to be sure that most people really want that), (and this election is a great time for that sort of referendum, innit?) the governing bodies (city or county, or for that matter, state) should grant them that wish. 

But first, they should give their citizens a taste of what they think they want…

Along about the middle of, say, October, the governing body should choose a Friday night, say 8 PM, to Sunday morning, say 8 AM, and declare a “Police holiday”…no police response to those areas that currently wish to “Defund the Police”…Any crimes committed in those places will not be responded to by the police. Further, there will be no investigations then or later, of any crimes committed during the “Holiday”. Let the people get a sample of what “No Police!” really looks like. 

No one to call when someone is breaking into your house. Up to you to make sure your property remains in you possession. No one to call when your wife or sister or girlfriend is raped….or worse…..you’d better escort them everywhere. No one to call when your car is stolen….. or someone wants your wallet and jewelry. Better keep those locked up or well hidden. Better be able to defend all of your possessions or have them locked up so no one can steal ’em from your home.  

And, of course, no one to haul off the bodies when all sorts of grudges are suddenly able to be dealt with…Payback is a bitch when the cops are not there to arrest folks who might want revenge for wrongs you might have done…especially when they have no fear of consequences from the police or the Law. I’d expect a lot of issues to be dealt with once the rule of law stops protecting criminals from righteously outraged citizens…….Maybe there had better be designated places for corpses to be stacked for disposal….

Oh, and fire and ambulance services? In most places, especially in those areas that want to “Defund the Police”, most ambulances and fire departments require a police presence when responding, so they might not show up when you call. You might be well advised to get a decent trauma kit and some fire extinguishers too. Probably better make sure your garden hoses work so you can fight random arson as well. 

I’m thinking 36 hours should be enough to help those folks make their decisions as to whether the police need to be “Defunded”. Might be it is actually too long. maybe only from 8 PM on Saturday to 8 AM on Sunday might be enough time. I think lots of action might happen in 12 hours. 

We’d have to schedule it, so that decent folks there can secure their belongings and give ’em time to figure out where they can relocate to, or hire armed security of their own to defend that which they think they value, but the logistics can be fairly straightforward with a bit of thought….

I’m thinking it will change a lot of attitudes. Probably would be good for the cops as well….a bit of time off, and a bit of respect afterwards. Probably some beatings for those who continue to insist on defunding the police afterwards too, I would imagine. But it would let people have a small taste of what they think they want. 

I think it would be an excellent lesson for the rest of us too. 

 So last weekend, I stepped out of the shower. 

Heard that odd sound that there was one loose floor tile. 

Closer inspection revealed loose grout and a tile that was, indeed, loose. 

Ok, no big deal. gently removed the cracked grout, and the tile came up easily. 

And the tile next to it moved as well. And the one next to that….. aaannd the one next to that, and of course the one next to that….

The last tile revealed a bit of soft flooring.  

So now I have 9- 6 x 6 tiles loose. and a half dollar sized bit of soft underlayment . I let it all dry out, cleaned up the old tile glue (I think the previous owner used Liquid Nails) and got the floor dried out. Stabilized and filled that soft section with some epoxy. Sealed the floor (who uses PARTICLE BOARD for an underlayment in a BATHROOM?) and then pulled the wall trim so I could get the edges clean to re-glue the tiles back down. ( I hope not to have to pull ALL the tiles up, ’cause then I gotta move the terlet and vanity and then GOD knows what other issues that is gonna cause). 

Pulling the wall trim revealed soft drywall, which is gonna have to be replaced…which is gonna necessitate repainting the walls…Unless I can find the paint I used 5 years ago when I last repainted that bathroom.  (and if that paint is still good). 

I am afraid of what else I am gonna find. Maybe it would be easier to move….

 The House can do a “Special Session” to find a way to suddenly come up with 25 Billion Dollars funding for the Post Office……

Yet they could not, and would not take the time to find a way to give our unemployed citizens some sort of  relief.

The first is most obviously an attempt to make sure that their push for “Vote by Mail” with it’s abundant opportunities for fraud and cheating and all the other attendant issues is not damaged by a lack of funds for the Post Office.

The second is a slap in the face of all those folks put out of work with the Coronavirus “Precautions” in order to damage the economy. 

I hope those folks remember who could not find the time to even discuss any relief efforts for them when it come time to vote. 

 Seems that some were fairly well-off, some were college students, some were recently unemployed (and therefore getting unemployment PLUS that extra $600/week from the feds. 

But we are told they had to break into stores to loot and steal just so they could eat, just so they could clothe themselves. 

And, BTW, I have a question:

Who was buying all of those high-end goods that they liberated from their white oppressors stole from the stores they broke into? I strongly doubt that the pawnshops would take ’em, so they must have sold them to someone…..and where did THOSE folks get the money? 

 I mean, everyone is going on and on how she is the first “Woman of Color” Vice President candidate..

But other than having sorta brownish skin, what color is she? She isn’t African, except partly through some of her fathers’s ancestors. He was from British Jamaica…

It isn’t from her mother, she is from India. 

(here for some background)

She isn’t, except for the shade of her skin, an “American” black person. Certainly not an “African-American”. 

But I guess to those DNC Liberals, all people that are darker than them are all the same….These are the same folks that think that we need lesser standards for non-whites, after all. 

 Gah. 

Had to travel to Cleveland for a deposition. (I was not the one being deposed)

Flew the 182 to Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL)… flight time was about 2 hours. Much better than the nearly 6 hour drive. (Or the 4-1/2 hour time to travel if I had flown commercial)

Flight was enjoyable. Fairly smooth, fairly uneventful. When I got to the Cleveland class Bravo airspace, I asked if they would clear me direct instead of having to go around it. They gave me clearance through, direct BKL, so that took 15 minutes off my flight time. Never hurts to ask. Sometimes you get lucky.  One almost NEVER gets VFR clearance through the class B airspace in Chicago.  Landed, taxiied, parked as the marshaller directed, tied the wings down, checked in at Signature Flight Support, and locked the plane. waited a bit for their courtesy shuttle and off I went. I got to the hotel (near the Stadium) and spent the evening looking around a nearly deserted area that is apparently usually teeming with people from football games and conventions and such. 

The downtown area near the stadium is like a scene from a dystopian novel. probably less than 10% of “normal”. Not much business travel to fill the hotels and there is NO convention business. The Hilton had rates of $129 a night, so I stayed there. It is a sad reflection of what it once was. Services are at a minimum. If it is even 10% full I’d be surprised. They have to be losing tens of thousands of dollars a day. There is only one restaurant open, and that wasn’t being used much. The food was good though. Services are at a minimum. No valet services, few bellhop services, no concierge at all, no room service, etc. Masks are, of course, required in all indoor spaces. 

Since the place I had to be in the morning was only about 2 miles from the hotel, and the evening was cool, I thought I’d walk to it and see where I needed to be, just to get some exercise in and reconnoiter the area. 

Nope, …I changed my mind about 2 blocks from the hotel (heading west)…I did not realize until then that the streets change hands at night. Gone were the smiling, happy folks, clean cut and greeting even strangers with a “hello” (while, of course, staying “Socially Distant”)…in were a bunch of much more scruffy looking folks, playing loud rap music on their car stereos and congregating closely. It looked like a scene from Mogadishu…seriously.  Lots and lots of things being offered for sale, if you know what I mean. Men squaring off and women chatting and showing off for the men. No one was in any way threatening, mind you, but it was clear that not only did I stand out in my differences, but that I, whether because I was a stranger or because I was white, was not welcome. 

I took the hint and went back to the hotel. I found the same thing about 4 blocks south as well. I ended up going back and staying in my room, as there wasn’t much to do…

The day of depositions went well and we got done about 7 pm local,  earlier than I had been told to expect, and I got an Uber to the hotel. Called 1-800 WX-Brief and decided to fly home that evening as the weather was clear, broken layer of clouds at 7500 and only about 15 knots of headwind forecast. 

Went to the FBO and untied the plane, and had them top off my tanks. I MIGHT have been able to make it, but the forecast headwind would make the trip back home with the fuel I had left marginal, so I chose to buy their (fairly expensive) fuel. 

Checked the oil, used their ladder to clean the windshield, and waited 5 minutes to check the fuel for water. Fired up and called ground for taxi.

They had me wait at 06R while a Learjet crossed to 06L, then cleared me for takeoff. However, I was afraid of the jetwash of the big Lear sitting just of my runway, so I waited….and waited…and waited. He didn’t move, and Tower called me and repeated that I was “clear to takeoff” I told ’em that I was waiting for the jet to move as I was afraid they’d blow me off the runway, so they asked him to pull up a bit and he did, then I took off. 

Climbed out on runway heading as instructed, and then turned left “West on course” when they cleared me to do so. Changed to Cleveland Departure and, again, they cleared me right through their class B airspace at 6500 feet MSL.  

I never did find that headwind. My groundspeed matched my airspeed for nearly the whole flight plus or minus a knot or two. I moved right along at about 134 knots. Pretty smooth flight in the calm air. VFR all the way. 

1.9 hours home. If I had known the winds were gonna be calm, rather than a headwind, I would not have bought the expensive gas, and paid nearly $2 less per gallon back home. But, better to land with expensive gas in the tank than none at all. 

2 hours each way is so much better than nearly 6 hours driving (each way). This a part of the reason that I own a plane….I just don’t get to use it that much for that what with the WuHan stuff these days. 

 (the above was sarcasm, just in case you weren’t aware of that)

Nevada sends nearly a quarter million votes via US Mail to wrong addresses. 

and, of course, there’s all the “rejected” ballots, (lots of reasons, some legit, some not, some caused by the voters, some caused by the USPS) that happen in Mail-in votes….

And those are just the ones where honest errors were made. How many more can be mis/un/not counted when the folks that have and interest in defrauding the voters get involved? We know that Donald Trump had to (in the last election) not only win a majority of voters, but overcome the “margin of fraud” in many “blue” enclaves. 

Why should we think that the political party that (disingenuously) tells us that it is racist to require people to prove they are who they claim to be in order to vote (Racist? Black people don’t possess government ID? Really? Or are they too stupid to get one? Too lazy to get one? Who is racist here? ) won’t continue the vote manipulation that has historically happened in Blue strongholds? 

Why, if we can go to the grocery store and the liquor store and such in a safe manner as long as we wear a mask, can we not vote safely wearing a mask? If we can march in the streets shoulder to shoulder for hours with a bunch of unmasked strangers why is standing in a line for a few minutes so dangerous? (Masked and, “socially Distanced” of course) 

One with a suspicious and untrusting attitude (such as myself) might think that there is an….underhanded reason for such changes….

 So, in addition to being Willie Brown’s “Side Piece” so she could get the appointments that have led to her current positions (some might think she had prostituted herself for those positions, but other might just say that she was “helped” by a friend…you decide for yourself) there is this to consider….

Let us not forget that a year and a half or so ago, Ms Harris said about Joe Biden, when he was accused by a bunch of women of “Inappropriate touching” that she believed those women …. “I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it.” . (to be fair to Dopey Joe, this was at the height of the “Mee Tooo” movement, where nearly every left leaning woman who could get a camera to focus on her long enough had a story to tell about a man being bad to her)…

Yet now, since she couldn’t get enough people to want her as President, she’s hitched her wagon to the star of Joe Biden….

Odd, innit, what ambition and lust for power will do to a person, especially one with a history like Ms Harris. Some people have standards and moral, then there are politicians….then folks like Ms Harris, for whom no sacrifice, no sell out is too great for advancement. 

You’d think that, if she wasn’t lying when she “believed” those women, that she wouldn’t want anything to do with a man she has all but accused of being a serial rapist. But then again, she’s sold a part of her for advancement once, what is another piece of her soul?  

 So the planned March/Protest/Riot/Shutdown of the Dan Ryan Expressway was a fizzle…

Oddly enough, when the police (the Illinois State Police, actually) stood in a line and blocked access, the protesters, already less than well organized, chose to do their protest on City of Chicago streets instead. 

Funny how that works, innit? When these folks who want to protest are not allowed to do so, when confronted with an authority that says “NO, Not Here” then they….don’t. 

If the leftist mayors in Blue cites would learn from this lesson, and NOT LET THE SHIT START, then they wouldn’t have to stop it later. 

Kudos to the ISP for not letting folks commit a Federal and State crime…and especially for not aiding them in committing one. 

 Seems that the feds investigating the “RussiaGate”  debacle by the FBI…By that I mean the malfeasance in targeting the Trump campaign to try and keep him out of the 2016 Presidential election…In essence, politicizing the FBI….have found someone they have been investigating that figures it’s easier to cooperate and plead guilty. 

I fully expect that there will be more folks that are convicted from the leads he will be providing. 

Unless, of course, he is suddenly introduced to Jeffrey Epstein.