Three Losses Margaret Mary, Ed and Mike

Posted: December 20, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

There has been a sudden spate of deaths of people I know (in fact in the hour before I started this post two friends both told me of deaths in their families one yesterday and one earlier one that I hadn’t heard of) in the month of December. Most people would not have heard of these folks but I think they deserve a mention.

The 1st was Mary Margaret Rogers. Of the three she was likely the most prominent. While a British citizen she had lived in the US for decades and was active in political circles in NH. I first met her covering a Herman Cain event. I interviewed Ted Cruz at her home, spoke to Ben Carson there. Her husband writes for Granite Grok and it was through that association that I became an honorary Grokster.

But it was her kindness to people in general and my family in particular that stuck me. She had a high opinion of my wife and sons and treated us with the type of love and affection that people are used to associating with family. This however is not odd as all who knew her would have said the same. As her mass card quotes her:

“People will forget what you say, people will forget what you do but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.

She made me and mine feel special. She was the best of the British Isles.

The 2nd was Ed Thomas. He was a professor of history at Fitchburg State College when I was there and later Fitchburg State University. He had an active mind and a love of history and facts. His notes were copious (I once asked about buying them but he declined) and he delighted in original sources. He was not shy about his opinions (that often differed from mine) but he always made clear the difference between opinion and fact. In later years after he retired I would occasionally see him coming early to the 4:15 mass when confessions were running late and he would chat.

He was the best teacher I had during my college years bar none and only Theresa Mahoney from grade school had a bigger influence on me.

Generations of students benefited from his instruction and will mourn his leaving us.

The third if a fellow by the name of Mike Karamanos. Most people never knew his last name. To them he was Mike of Mike’s Pizza. He was a hard working man who for decades ran his small pizzeria making pizza, subs and salads for the people in town. He was honest with his customers, generous of his charity and grateful for the chance to make his business in America but his heart was always in Greece where he will be burried.

He was an American success story and it is my great regret that I never interviewed him for my series of that name but it was my great privilege to know him.

None of these people will rate an obit in the Times or Post but all three were fine people who touched those who know them. That is what life is all about.

Chicago mayor Lightfoot’s status as a fraud solidified in her response to police raid on wrong home

Posted: December 20, 2020 by John Ruberry in crime, elections, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

The competition for worst big city mayor is fierce, New York’s Bill de Blasio and Eric Garcetti typically lead the pack but don’t overlook Lori Lightfoot of Chicago.

How did America’s third-largest city get there?

Lightfoot’s victory in last year’s election was a fluke. She and Toni “Taxwinkle” Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board emerged as the top two candidates after a 14-candidate first round of balloting–she collected only 17-percent of the vote. Lightfoot, used her endorsement by the Chicago Sun-Times and her time as chair of the Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards to fashion herself as the reform candidate. Her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, decided not to run for a third term; it’s widely believed his blocking the release of a video until after his 2015 reelection of the shameful deadly police shooting of Laquan McDonald led to his bowing out.

Now there is a another video. Late in Emanuel’s second term Chicago police officers raided the apartment of social worker Anjanette Young. But they busted into the wrong home. Guns were drawn and Young was handuffed naked while she screamed. “You’ve got the wrong place.”  She said that 43 times. Lightfoot’s campaign slogan was “Let There Be Light” and this was her opportunity to be transparent in a time of crisis. 

She wasn’t.

City lawyers sued to block CBS Chicago from airing the video of the botched raid. Lightfoot later called that a mistake. 

Let There Be Light.

Then the woman often derisively called “Mayor Beetlejuice” claimed that she wasn’t aware of the raid on Young’s home. But emails show that Lightfoot learned about the raid in November of 2019, around the time CBS Chicago began reporting on it. She says she “focused on budget issues” at that time and the could explain why she has no recall of the emails.

Lightfoot also admitted that she was wrong when she said that Young hadn’t filed a Freedom of Information Request for the video of the raid. The victim had in fact done so. 

At best, Lightfoot’s Chicago is circling the drain. Yes, she inherited a mess. Even before the COVID-19 epidemic Chicago was losing residents. Chicago’s public-worker pension worker plans are the worst-funded of any big city. But Lightfoot’s lockdown orders are best draconian, she hasn’t been taken to task as much as she deserves for that only because her fellow Democrat, blowhard governor JB Pritzker, has been all over local media almost daily trying to frighten Illinoisans into compliance with his own lockdown orders. 

Shootings, murders, and especially carjackings in Chicago are up dramatically over last year.

What are Lightfoot’s priorities? 

The day before the second round of widespread looting and rioting, deemed “unrest” of course by the mainstream media, Lightfoot followed through on her threat to close the vast Montrose Beach to visitors because she thought too many people gathered there on a gorgeous late summer afternoon. 

In the spring Lighfoot scolded Chicagoan by declaring “getting your roots done is not essential.” During that first lockdown, which closed all hair salons, the mayor got her stylist, maskless, to do her hair. 

When confronted with a predictable uproar for her hypocrisy, Beetlejuice doubled down, “I’m the public face of this city, I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye.”

Last month a few days before imposing a second COVID-19 lockdown, Lightfoot appeared, maskless, outdoors at a spontaneous rally at an unsafe distance with many others as she celebrated the media calling the presidential election for Joe Biden.

Chicago, a failed city, has the perfect person to represent it in the public eye.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Social Media Exodus: MeWe

Posted: December 19, 2020 by ng36b in media, Uncomfortable Truths
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For anyone that remembers Google Plus, it was actually a fairly slick setup for social media. You could have different circles of people, which made it easy to segregate the sections of your life. Maybe you have some super liberal friends, so you put them in one circle and don’t share your news feed with them. Or maybe your brother is a complete moron and loves to comment about your parenting. In that case, you cut him out of the family picture sharing but don’t mind letting him see your posts about deer hunting.

When Google Plus shut down, most of the members went to MeWe. MeWe brags of inherent security, not selling your information and not censoring. I signed up, not even needing an email (I just used my phone number), and blam, I was in.

And it was really empty.

Like, I didn’t know what to do next.

On of MeWe’s biggest downsides is that it is so privacy conscious that it forgets that it forget that people were willing to give up some privacy to get easily connected with their friends. Facebook loves suggesting friends, groups and everything else based on location, contacts and browsing history. MeWe doesn’t do that, and that’s not a bad thing, but the Mewe walkthrough (seemingly run by a chatbot) doesn’t tell you what to do next.

After a lot of frustration, I figured out how to search for groups. Soon I was on a sous vide group, a chainsaw group, and some news media groups. Now my news feed was full of something. Then I found a few friends and added them. I also created a church group so people could have discussions without feeling like Facebook was hanging in the shadows, ready to classify them as a hate group.

After about 2 weeks of use, I did find some great meme groups, which to be honest, was a large reason that I scan Facebook. I’m also on a non-conspiracy theorist conservative group, which is decently uplifting and better than Facebook discussions ever were. But there are a lot of gaps. I can’t livestream or even call anyone (like you can with Messenger) unless you pay money.

To be frank, I’m not jazzed about MeWe. I think its most compelling feature is having a private group that is truly private, so you can talk openly and not worry about being thrown to the angry pitchfork mob of social justice warriors. But as a Facebook replacement? Not in its current form. It would need a way better introduction for new users and more features that I used in Facebook like livestreaming. Until then, MeWe might make temporary gains, but its not going to be a full Facebook competitor.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Five One Liners Under Other Peoples Fedoras Hogewash, Instapundit, Jim Treacher, Don Surber, Right Wing Granny.

Posted: December 19, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

2021 is going to interesting. And very, very ugly.

Hogewash: Losing Their Grip

I’m wondering what the spark is going to be, a friend think it’s coming but is generations away.

Just imagine how this triumph would be reported if it had been achieved by a Democratic president. But they didn’t achieve it, partly because they didn’t actually want to. 

Glenn Reynolds on the ‘Hanukkah miracle.’ of Arab delegations in Israel for the lighting ceremony.

It would not surprise me if the someone nominates Biden & Harris for the Nobel as a result of Trump’s actions.

Bad cops suck, but not as much as a complete breakdown of civil society. The only people who don’t realize that yet are the ones whose living room windows haven’t been smashed in.

Jim Treacher Seattle Councilwoman Calls Cops She Wants to Defund

If I was the police I’d set up a special group of social workers to answer these calls.

The man lived in Washington for 44 years — including 8 as vice president — and he still hasn’t picked a parish?

Don Surber on Joe Biden now making mass attendence a regular part of his schedule

I’m not surprised, if he had been regularly attending mass for 44 years the thought of stealing an election from 80 million people might have put the fear of God in him.

This is not an accident. Someone knew when they introduced these machines into the voting process what would happen.

Right Wing Granny Computers Do What They Are Programmed To Do

For America’s enemies both foreign and domestic this is a feature not a bug and no amount of knowing this matters unless we are willing to stop it.

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