Great Moments in Idaho Driving

 I took these in 2013, I do not remember

where.

This Guy Wants to Lose

 11/15/21 PJMedia with a picture even.

WHOA: Rittenhouse Prosecutor Thomas Binger Aims AR-15 at People in Courtroom, Finger on the Trigger

Someone needs to remind this guy how Copperhead Clement Vallandingham ended his legal career--holding an "unloaded" gun in the courtroom.

Rittenhouse State Witnesses

The prosecutor has some pretty damning video that seems to show Rittenhouse shooting Rosenbaum from some distance away.  If so, the coroner's testimony that Rosenbaum's hand was in close proximity to the muzzle.  That video makes that impossible.  This alone makes the video suspicious.

The prosecutor also points to the four shots fired in less than a second as evidence of bad intent for failing to stop and ascertain if more shots needed to be fired.  

Of course, in life threatening situations, making split second decisions can be quite dangerous.   This is why police officers often fire what seems like a lot of shots at a bad guy.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, or the prosecutor wants to lose.  On direct examination he asked Rosenbaum's fiancee if he had just come from the hospital the day he died, and if he had taken his medication that day.

This opened the door for the defense to ask for what the medication was, and why he was hospitalized.  I am still waiting for him to ask what hospital he was in.

And he did not ask it! Fortunately, the prosecutor then asked her how long he been taking Gabipentin.  At least  a year.  Even if the jurors do not know what it is, that question should tip them off that there was a long-term problem.

It gets better with every minute.   Prosecutor asks on cross-examination if car dealership owner ever asked Kyle to watch their business.   No.  Then the prosecutor asked him to read a text message from Kyle to Sam's brother offering to provide armed protection for the dealership.  The prosecutor is doing defense attorney's job.

It gets better. One of the car dealership employees, Anmol, denied talking to someone about defending the store.  Then the prosecutor asked him about the text message from Kyle to Anmol offering to provide armed protection to the dealership.  This is the prosecutor. 

Just before opening the door about Grosbaum's medication Binger and defense counsel whispered to each other.  Binger's boss told him to get Rittenhouse and I think his conscience is bothering.   Everything this guy practically is what the defense could only wish for.

Torpedoes Coming Back Around

 11/14/21 CNN:

(CNN)Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff -- deciding there simply isn't time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when President Joe Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political concerns.

The exasperation runs both ways. Interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers -- who spoke extensively to CNN -- reveal a complex reality inside the White House. Many in the vice president's circle fume that she's not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined. The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she's able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden's team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president.

She's a heartbeat away from the presidency now. She could be just a year away from launching a presidential campaign of her own, given doubts throughout the political world that Biden will actually go through with a reelection bid in 2024, something he's pledged to do publicly and privately. Or she'll be a critical validator in three years for a President trying to get the country to reelect him to serve until he's 86....

Suspicion has sprouted out of the bitterness. Last month, White House aides leapt to the defense of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was being hammered with outrage by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and like-minded online pundits for taking paternity leave after the adoption of his twins in September. Harris loyalists tell CNN they see in that yet another example of an unfair standard at play, wondering why she didn't get similar cover any of the times she's been attacked by the right.

"It's hard to miss the specific energy that the White House brings to defend a White man, knowing that Kamala Harris has spent almost a year taking a lot of the hits that the West Wing didn't want to take themselves," said a former Harris aide, reflecting conversations last month among several former aides and current allies.

This is where the current Democratic obsession with race takes you.  Even your allies are suspect. 

Memories

 I went to bed early after what should have been an easy 3 mile walk.  The allergic asthma makes this hard.

I woke up a few minutes ago with memories that will not shake, and that I think may interest some of you.

It was 1965 through 1967.  I was 9 - 11 (fourth through sixth grades).  We lived in an Edwardian house that had been subdivided into three apartments; my family occupied the bottom floor.  It was 857 3rd Street in Santa Monica so we were three blocks from the Palisades, overlooking the beach.  We were on the northwest corner of the intersection of 3rd Street and Idaho Blvd.  In summer, which seemed to last forever at that age, my sister Marilyn and I would walk down Idaho to the Palisades.

At Idaho, erosion had cut the edge of the cliff back to where Idaho met Ocean Blvd.  In some years, we would hop the fence and carefully climb down a path to the Pacific Coast Highway and somehow crossed it without getting killed.  At some point, we started taking the pedestrian walkway at California Blvd. that crossed the highway, at what in retrospect was a pretty major height,

When we left the house about 9 or 10, it was usually still foggy.  By 11 or 12, the fog burned off and we would play in the waves.  Marilyn and friends went swimming a bit offshore.  I was not able to swim yet so I stayed ijn very shallow water.  About noon, Marilyn would give a couple dollars to walk over to the Sorrento Beach Grill to get a burger, fries, and a Coke.  I remember walking back across the hot sand as fast as I could safely carry our meal.  I can still see the "No shoes, no service" sign inside.  At that age any food was pretty awesome.  By 4 or so we would make the climb back to the top of the Palisades to go home.

Free Monitors in Boise

 I have two monitors that I no longer need that are taking up space.  Used monitors are worth so little on Craig's List that I thought that I would offer them to any of my loyal readers who live close enough to come and pick them up.

Viewsonic VP201B 20" FHD USB SVGA and DisplayPort inputs.  and USB-A connector for those who want to daisy-chain them.  This has an adjustable height stand and can pivot to either portrait or landscape.  My loyal readers have replaced some odd part a couple of times (for which I am grateful).  It is currently working beautifully.  Too young for a computer museum; too old for anyone to buy.  No power cord (although I might be able to find one in the cord mating ball).

ASUS VS238 23" FHD HDMI DisplayPort SVGA.  This has a power cord.

I have an SVGA cable.  Heck, I've got all sorts of cables, DisplayPort to HDMI, SVGA to SVGA and some cables that belong in the Computer Museum (RS-232C and Centronics).  If you need a cable for one of these monitors, I can dig around and likely find one.

If no one wants them by Wednesday, I will offer them to my students.

Emacs Question

 I am again running cnclinux in VMWare and I have run into a problem.  GnuEmacs should allow me to bind Ctrl-Z to undo.  But modifying .emacs_pro to contain:

global-set-key C-z to undo

does not seem to wotk.