Posts from — June 2016

Family and neighbors always seem to describe murderers as quiet people, nothing out of the ordinary.

I remember Thomas Mair’s Brother saying he was non-violent and non-political and then he appeared in court:

The man accused of shooting and stabbing British MP Jo Cox to death in a brutal street attack ranted against “traitors” during a brief court appearance on Saturday.

“Death to traitors, freedom for Britain,” 52-year-old Thomas Mair said when asked to give his name in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, the Press Association reported.

To be fair, he did let his subscription to the South African neo-Nazi periodical lapse, but he still had the books he bought from the US neo-Nazis and other Nazi mementos in his house. Then there is the totally illegal firearm and large hunting knife. The facts don’t seem to coincide with non-violence or non-political.

It should also be noted that Mr. Mair did help neighbors weed their gardens when not planning to murder Members of Parliament.

NPR has a piece that covers the atmosphere in Mouse Town: Orlando’s Tourism Industry Hopes To Overcome A Nightmarish Week

This is the beginning of ‘the season’ when the majority of the tourist businesses make their big money and their workers can pay off their credit cards. The only thing left is for PETA to put out a video showing what they claim are SeaWorld employees throwing live kittens and puppies into the shark tank.

There are reports that the Westboro Baptist Church is going to picket the funerals. Now that would be a real shame … if they fell into the shark tank…

Jo Cox MP dead after shooting attack:

An MP has died after she was shot and stabbed in a “horrific” assault in her constituency, police have said.

Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, was left bleeding on the ground after the attack in Birstall, West Yorkshire. A man was arrested nearby.

One eyewitness told the BBC they heard her attacker shout “put Britain first” at least twice beforehand.

This guy shot her three times and then stabbed her as she was on the ground. Other witnesses did not hear the “put Britain first”. Britain is having a referendum on leaving the EU [Brexit] on the 23^rd, and Ms Cox has been campaigning to stay in the EU, but the voters will be making decision, not members of Parliament.

The shooter had a white baseball cap and in one photo was wear a camouflage jacket, looking more like he was from Alabama than Yorkshire.

The last time an MP was killed was in 1990.

The BBC is reporting that EgyptAir crash Wreckage has been found in Mediterranean

Wreckage of the EgyptAir flight that went missing over the Mediterranean last month has been found, Egyptian investigators say.

A statement said “several main locations of the wreckage” had been identified.

A deep sea search vessel had also sent back the first images of the wreckage, the statement added.

There was no indications that they have located the “black boxes”, but that search area has certainly been reduced to a more manageable size.

Update: They have located the voice recorder, and are still looking for the data recorder.

This time it was the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Disney World Resort, a two-year-old child was killed by an alligator.

Orlando and Orange County are going to have some burned out first responders.

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, 1215, signed the Great Charter in the presence of assorted heavily armed peers of the realm, who assured him it was the right thing to do.

The British Library has pictures of the Magna Carta available, but they are now requiring registration. Wikipedia has a nice discussion of the document.

The Magna Carta of 1297 is permanently residing in the US National Archives.

The Avalon Project has a translation of the 1215 version with an index and definitions.

John abided by the charter for several months, before he returned to business as normal, but the principle was established – no one is above the law.

Adopted as the flag of the United States of America by the Flag Resolution of 1777 enacted on 14 June, 1777.

The flag was first flown from Fort Stanwix, on the site of the present city of Rome, New York, on August 3, 1777. It was first under fire three days later in the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777.

An official flag has a rise to run ratio of 1 to 1.9 [the flag should be 1.9 times as long as it is high] with the canton [the dark blue part] that rises over the top seven stripes with a run of 40% of the flag’s run.

The only time you will see a “correct” US Flag is if you see the official colors of a military unit. Most flags are 3’X5′ or 4’X6′ instead of 3’X5.7′ or 4’X7.6′.

Frances Bellamy, the Baptist minister and socialist who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance was from Rome, New York.

Orlando is the home of the Mouse, Universal Studios, Sea World and other tourist destinations. This is not a good time for ‘Fantasyland’.

First it was Christina Grimmie gunned down by an apparent stalker after a concert in Orlando, and now it’s 50 known dead and 53 injured at a nightclub in Orlando. This just doesn’t fit in with ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’, the dolphin shows, or princesses.

The other update you have to eliminate to get rid of Winten nagging is KB2952664. This OPTIONAL update is responsible for lying to you about the fitness of your computer for Windows 10, part of the con game to get you to upgrade. It is as flaky as Win 10 is for any computer more than a year old. As someone who spent more than a week looking up error codes and changing settings to get my newest, most powerful box to load Windows 10 I know that KB2952664 is hazardous to your health.

My BBC News Alert today was Obama endorsing Clinton. This has been known since the beginning of the process that Obama would endorse a candidate when that candidate becomes the presumptive winner. The AP is now apparently in charge of selecting the winner of the nomination process for the major parties, and the conventions are just photo ops.

Bernie Sanders said he was in it to the end, but he is ‘destroying the Democratic Party’ by doing what he said he would. If the Clinton campaign messes with Bernie, he will not play ‘party unity’. The DNC has already ticked him off, so the party establishment can forget appealing to Bernie. There is no reason for Bernie not to stay in until the vote is actually taken at the Democratic nominating convention.

Position: 36.3N 72.2W [ 4PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [055°] near 40 mph [65 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Minimum central pressure: 996 mb.

Currently about 205 miles [ 330 km] East-Northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

All coastal watches and warnings have been discontinued. The system is moving away of the coast, and this is the final National Hurricane Center advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 29.8N 83.8W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 22 mph [35 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [105 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 230 miles [370 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1002 mb ↑.

Currently about 70 miles [ 115 km] East of Apalachicola, Florida.

Colin is about to make landfall in the Big Bend at 10PM CDT.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Florida from Indian Pass to Englewood and for the Atlantic Coast from the Sebastian Inlet, Florida to the Oregon Inlet, North Carolina.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 23.6N 87.8W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North [010°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb.

Currently about 450 miles [ 720 km] Southwest of Tampa, Florida.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Gulf Coast of Florida from Indian Pass to Englewood and for the Atlantic Coast from the Flagler/Volusia County Line, Florida to the Altamaha Sound, Georgia.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the Atlantic Coast from North of Altamaha Sound to South Santee River.

Current forecast has the storm coming ashore in the ‘armpit’/Big Bend of Florida, crossing the state and exiting to the Atlantic around the Georgia/Florida border.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

As I listen to the expensive explosions from the Billy Bowleg Festival, I note that Bonnie got back to the Atlantic and regained tropical storm status for a short time as it passes over the Gulf Stream. It will return to post-tropical cyclone status some time tomorrow.

There are floods in Paris and other West and Central European cities, in Eastern Australia, and across Texas caused by heavy rainfall. Of course, none of these floods can be conclusively shown to be the result of global climate change – it’s just a coincidence … really …