Good morning from my office on Broadway. (sung to the Sir Mix-a-Lot tune, “My Posse’s on Broadway”)
Yes, this IS the Broadway in the song. You can still eat a bag of Dicks from Dick’s hamburgers just down the street from here.
Why am I here this morning? Well, this property is going through a $14 million renovation and I am here today to collect asset information to plug into my Asset Tracking Base program I wrote. Fun stuff.
Today is going to be a news day. There seems to be a lot going on, so let’s get to it so I can get back to my life…
The MAGA ‘Civil War’
Was there anyone out there NOT expecting something like this?
A MAGA ‘Civil War’ on X between Musk and the far right over H-1B visas
The online rift over the H-1B skilled-worker visa program signifies a potential wedge between Trump’s core base and his new Silicon Valley supporters.
Far-right activists clashed online with billionaire Elon Musk and other supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over the need for a skilled-worker immigration program that has long been a lifeblood for Silicon Valley — signifying a potential rift between Trump’s core nationalist base and technology executives who have come to support him.
The fight that spilled into public view over the holiday week could preview a wedge within Trump’s coalition over how to execute immigration policy, an issue that animated Trump’s White House campaign.
The controversy spread across X after far-right activist Laura Loomer on Monday criticized Trump’s choice to name Sriram Krishnan, a technology entrepreneur and investor who was born in India, as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence. She pointed to Krishnan’s previous support for removing some caps on green cards and easing the ability of skilled foreign workers to come to the United States. The policy is “in direct opposition” to Trump’s agenda, Loomer wrote.
The critique sparked a broader debate about immigration in the tech industry, which relies heavily on a visa program that allows foreigners with technical skills to work in the United States for up to six years under H-1B nonimmigrant status.
MY TAKE:
I don’t know why there would be anyone surprised by any of this. Chaos agents bring chaos — it’s literally what you voted for. You wanted to tear everything down, shit on the wreckage, and somehow expected things to become better because of it.
You voted for a candidate who has a long track record of deceit, fraud, and failure, somehow expecting that he would bring a positive change to all of your grievances.
Instead, you wound up with a guy who doesn’t give a flying fuck about you. He has very little, if any understanding of how to run a government, and has decided to find the most inept group of clowns whose only real goal is to tear it all down.
Elon Musk literally bought himself a president who will be very reluctant to cross the guy who spent $220+ million bucks of his own money to prop Trump up in office.
You see, Musk and the rest of his “Broligarchy” in the tech field have been freaking out over the idea that Trump wants to close the US border to any and all immigrants — including the cheap labor of Indian and Chinese tech workers.
Elon WANTS to keep the status quo when it comes to keeping his factories in China and bringing over the cheaper Indian tech workers in lieu of hiring American tech workers who would demand more in wages and benefits.
Bringing over an H1B visa worker would literally create a master/slave relationship instead of the Employer/employee relationship you would have with American workers. American workers can pick up and leave for another job on a whim. Foreign workers on an H1B visa cannot just quit and move on to another job at the drop of a hat. Employers do not have to provide matching Social Security payments or even health care. They don’t even have to give notice if they are going to lay off foreign workers.
Cracks emerge in Trump’s MAGA coalition
[…]
Skepticism over the benefits of immigration is a hallmark of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement and the billionaires’ remarks angered immigration hawks who accused them of ignoring US achievements in technological innovation.
Incoming White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted a 2020 speech in which Trump marveled at the American “culture” that had “harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet.”
The post appeared calculated to remind critics that Trump won November’s election on a platform of getting tough on immigration and boosting American manufacturing.
But it was Michael Faraday, an English scientist, who discovered that an electric current could be produced by passing a magnet through a copper wire and Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealander, who first split the atom.
And Alexander Graham Bell may have died a US citizen but he was a British subject in Canada when he invented the telephone.
MY TAKE:
Alexander Graham Bell did NOT invent the telephone. He just happened to beat the actual inventor to the patent office.
It was a former slave who figured out how to create a filament in a light bulb that didn’t burn.
Maga v Musk: Trump camp divided in bitter fight over immigration policy
Feud flared up when president-elect chose Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-born entrepreneur, as his AI adviser
Bitter in-fighting has broken out between the tech billionaire Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s hardline Make America great again (Maga) base after the US president-elect chose an Indian-born entrepreneur to be his adviser on artificial intelligence.
The row has pitted Musk and his fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy against diehard supporters including the far-right activist Laura Loomer and Matt Gaetz, the former Congress member and abortive nominee for attorney general. The spat threatens to open up a chasm among Trump’s supporters over immigration, a key issue in his election victory.
Presaging what has been called a “Maga civil war”, Musk went on the offensive after Loomer attacked the choice of Sriram Krishnan, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, as the nascent administration’s AI policy adviser as “deeply disturbing”.
Loomer, a renowned anti-immigration provocateur widely credited for persuading Trump to highlight false rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets in last September’s presidential debate with Kamala Harris, criticised Krishnan on social media for supporting the extension of visas and green cards for skilled workers. She said it was in “direct opposition” to Trump’s agenda.
Her comments provoked a riposte from Musk, the Space X and Tesla billionaire who is Trump’s most influential supporter and himself an immigrant from South Africa.
“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns, on Christmas Day.
MY TAKE:
Everyone has their own agenda.
A Murder by any other name is still Murder
‘Shocking’ bodycam video released of New York officers fatally beating prisoner
Robert Brooks, 43, died a day after being attacked by several correctional officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. His death has prompted a state investigation.
The office of New York’s attorney general released body camera footage Friday showing the fatal beating of a state prisoner this month by correctional officers who punched and kicked him repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.
The incident, which has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the officers’ union as “incomprehensible,” is being investigated by state Attorney General Letitia James. The inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, died in the hospital a day after the Dec. 9 attack.
“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” James said at a virtual news conference.
“These videos are shocking and disturbing,” she added.
Brooks can be seen in the videos with his hands cuffed behind his back. In one video, he is sitting up as an officer presses his foot down on him. He is then punched by two officers.
At another point, he is forcefully yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and held up above the ground, his face visibly bloodied.
Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to begin the process of firing 14 workers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, where the incident occurred. They include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse. In the interim, all have been suspended without pay, except for one officer, who already resigned.
In a statement following the release of the videos, Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the state corrections department, said his office has launched its own investigation in an effort to bring “institutional change.”
MY TAKE:
I don’t know who Robert Brookes was, or what it was that he did to find himself in custody and for this story, I do not care. He could have been in jail/prison for raping and killing infants and it still would not excuse a beating death perpetrated by a half-dozen corrections officers.
Once a person is “in the custody” of the state, it then becomes the state’s DUTY to protect the life and limb of the person in custody — all the way up until the person in custody is executed pursuant to a court imposed sentence of death. Even then, certain protocols must be taken to not cause pain through torture.
You do NOT need to beat a person who is already incapacitated by handcuffs and leg irons. There was no direct threat to officer’s safety. Any blows they took were done so under anger, and that pretty much translates to MURDER.
Pandemic 2.0?
Bird flu mutated inside US patient, raising concern
The bird flu virus found in a severely ill patient hospitalized in the United States has mutated to become better adapted to human airways, though there is no evidence it has spread beyond the individual, authorities said.
Earlier this month, officials announced an elderly Louisiana patient was in “critical condition” with a severe H5N1 infection.
An analysis posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website Thursday found that a small percentage of the virus detected in the patient’s throat had genetic changes that may lead to “increased virus binding” to certain “cell receptors found in the upper respiratory tract of humans.”
Importantly, these changes have not been found in birds, including in the backyard poultry flock thought to have infected the Louisiana patient initially.
Instead, the CDC stated that the mutations were “likely generated by replication of this virus in the patient with advanced disease,” adding that no transmission of the mutated virus to other humans has been identified.
Experts contacted by AFP said it was too early to determine whether these changes would make the virus spread more easily or cause more severe disease in humans.
MY TAKE:
I don’t hold out much hope that we will deal with this any better than we did with COVID.
More Diddler News
Less than 24 hours after Beyoncé‘s triumphant Christmas Day NFL halftime extravaganza blew Netflix viewers’ wigs off, a legal storm has hit the Carter household as Jay-Z lost his Hail Mary attempt to terminate the case against him and the incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs that alleges the duo violently assaulted a minor more than 20 years ago.
In a withering order published Thursday, a federal judge denied an effort by the Grammy-winning rapper, real name Shawn Carter, and his sharp-elbowed lead lawyer Alex Spiro to see the allegations against Jay-Z and Combs dismissed.
Judge Analisa Torres also rejected the “99 Problems” performer’s hopes to to see Jane Doe’s real identity made public, and to move the whole thing along at a quicker pace. Stressing the “weight of the factors” including the “highly sensitive and extremely personal” nature of Jane Doe’s claims, Torres has decided the context of the matter “tips in favor of allowing Plaintiff to remain anonymous, at least for this stage of the litigation.”
Interestingly, the judge did acknowledge that her opinion on anonymity could change down the line, depending where the case and its evidence leads.
MY TAKE:
Why isn’t Jay-Z in jail? Why aren’t a lot of these freaks?
I have to say, I look at Justin Bieber in a completely different light now. It now makes sense why Justin Bieber was acting out in all those weird ways back when he was 16-21. He was being diddled.
The More Pressing Issue of Homelessness
US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people
The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.
That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time. The numbers overall represent 23 of every 10,000 people in the U.S., with Black people being overrepresented among the homeless population.
“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said in a statement, adding that the focus should remain on “evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”
Among the most concerning trends was a nearly 40% rise in family homelessness — one of the areas that was most affected by the arrival of migrants in big cities. Family homelessness more than doubled in 13 communities impacted by migrants including Denver, Chicago and New York City, according to HUD, while it rose less than 8% in the remaining 373 communities. Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% jump from last year.
Disasters also played a part in the rise in the count, especially last year’s catastrophic Maui wildfire, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. More than 5,200 people were staying in emergency shelters in Hawaii on the night of the count.
MY TAKE:
I think that the homelessness problem is FAR more important than any of the other bullshit y’all’s been whining about for the past ten years. What you are seeing is really on the tip of the ice berg. What you don’t see are the greater number of ‘homeless’ who are couch-surfing or living in cheap motels.
I have an engineer working here who has been homeless for three years. He is not a drug addict or a criminal. He just cannot afford to rent anywhere near Seattle, because he has bad credit due to wage garnishments for back child support. Around here, if you do not have a credit score of at least 680 and a salary that at least three times the rent of the place you are looking at, then you are shit out of luck.
Here in Seattle, rent is 33% higher than the national average. A couple of weeks ago I was surprised to learn that an apartment I had rented for $250 a month back in 1995 is now renting for a whopping $3550 a month. The apartment was built in 1930 and is still pretty dumpy.
The Luigi Fan Club News
Will the jury let Luigi Mangione get away with murder? OP-ED
It may seem an apostasy for someone in my line of work, as a criminal defense attorney, to pontificate on what is such a delicate subject. But here goes.?
There are far too many among us whose inner voice?allows them to somehow convince themselves that UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson had it coming — that Thompson deserved to be murdered, either because he was himself directly guilty of some insurance coverage denial or was a tangible proxy for a heartless industry that?leaves its insured out to dry.
And, if secretly rooting for Luigi Mangione, now charged with murder, is not enough, too many publicly protest the prosecution of Mangione or make deposits to his prison commissary account to help fund his defense. We shouldn’t then be surprised, then, if Mangione admirers somehow manage to steal their way onto a jury slated to try him for the murder. Do we find ourselves?in a?new moment?of the stealth juror, and if we do, what then is the fallout?
Featured centrally in the criminal defense lawyer’s toolbox is a determination to find the most effective method of prying open the deepest thoughts of jurors, particularly the elusive nullifier — those jurors whose most intimate?views motivate them to work to acquit a trial defendant regardless of the facts, even in the face of strong evidence of guilt. Of course, it is the prosecutor’s duty to exclude them. My heresy notwithstanding, it is indeed the defense lawyer’s righteous obligation to identify those nullifiers and try to seat them.
MY TAKE:
“Jury nullification” is a thing. It doesn’t happen all that often, but it does happen.
There is a better than even chance that a jury could let Luigi go. A defendant has the option of picking a six person or twelve person jury, or opting for a ‘bench trial’ where the judge is the jury. Whatever the choice, it takes a unanimous decision for guilt, but it only takes on person to prevent a conviction.
Two Pervs Get Beaten By Teens
11 Illinois teens charged with felonies after men lured and beaten using dating apps
The teens, all males 17 and 16, were charged with aggravated battery, criminal damage to property and mob action. Some allegedly took inspiration for the crimes from social media.
Eleven Illinois teenagers were charged with felony crimes after two men using dating apps were allegedly lured and beaten during the summer, according to police.
Some of the teens, males 17 and 16, took inspiration for the alleged crimes from a viral social media trend, the Mount Prospect Police Department said in a statement Thursday. Police did not elaborate on what the social media trend entailed.
Around 9:45 p.m. on July 8, a 41-year-old man reported to police that he’d been beaten by “a group of teenagers” in a parking lot on West Northwest Highway in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
“The victim related that he had utilized an online dating app to arrange to meet a person at that location,” police said. “After arriving, the victim related that he was approached by a group of teenage males, who confronted him verbally and battered him. Teenagers in the group also damaged the victim’s vehicle.”
The 41-year-old was followed by the teenagers when he tried to flee in his car, but was able to get away from them, police said.
About 10 minutes later, police responded to a report of a battery. A 23-year-old man told police he arranged to meet someone through a dating app about a mile away from the location of the first incident and was instead approached by teen males who beat him, with one slashing tires on his car.
Police did not provide the name of the dating app and did not say if it was one or more apps used to lure the men.
MY TAKE:
I couldn’t help but notice that these were adults who were looking for sex with teenaged boys.
We may be needing these…
Just outside LA: Abandoned nuclear escape tunnels in a national forest
Inmates built the two tunnels for 50 cents a day
Deep in Angeles National Forest, about 2 miles from where the nearest paved road ends, a random concrete tunnel is carved into the hillside. A second tunnel follows down the broad path shortly after. And then … nothing. The dusty walk simply peters out into the mountainside.
Nicknamed the Tunnels to Nowhere — and located near another unrelated abandoned infrastructure project, the Bridge to Nowhere — the tunnels are a hulking concrete and stone reminder of the nuclear panic of the Cold War era, as well one of just several examples of the difficulty of building major infrastructure projects in the ever-shifting mountain range that serves as a backdrop to the Los Angeles Basin.
It was the 1950s, the height of fears about potential nuclear threats amid tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Schoolchildren practiced duck-and-cover drills , and families built fallout shelters in their basements. Half of Americans said they would feel unsafe in their community if an “atomic war” broke out, according to a 1951 Gallup poll, with fear levels notably higher in larger cities compared to more rural areas. In Riverside County, about 50 miles outside of Los Angeles, civil defense officials reportedly warned residents to arm themselves against invaders, including potential refugees from the big city of Los Angeles.
Against this fearful backdrop, officials decided that a new evacuation route was needed from fast-growing Los Angeles, which had recently become the fourth-largest city in the country, surpassing Detroit in 1950. The road “was blueprinted in part as a Civil Defense escape from fallout; one route among a spiderwork of exits in all directions should Los Angeles be threatened, even executed by an atomic attack,” notes a 1980 Los Angeles Times story on the route.
Plans focused on a potential north-south route through the San Gabriel Mountains, a 25-mile carve-out connecting greater Los Angeles and the High Desert. The new road would serve as the only opportunity to travel north-south through the mountains between Angeles Crest Highway, which starts in the town of La Cañada Flintridge, and the Cajon Pass, which begins just north of the Inland Empire suburb of Fontana. Those mountain roads, which still exist today, start more than 50 miles apart.
MY TAKE:
I’m not sure there is anywhere in this country that would be safe from an atomic war. If the initial blast didn’t wipe you out in an instant, the atomic and/or nuclear fallout would make for a long and painful death.
Let me share a story-telling song with you
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times already, I’ve been down this musical rabbit hole for the past week or so. The subject is a young Welsh street busker named Ren.
Ren sold his first beat at the age of twelve. He started busking on the streets of Brighton, UK at the age of 13, and by the time he was 17 he had been discovered by someone at Sony Records who signed him to a two-year contract. Shortly after that he fell ill with chronic fatigue, severe pain and psychosis. He ended up bed ridden for over a year and for the next ten years had been misdiagnosed with bipolar and psychosis. He was eventually tested for Lyme disease and it was discovered then that he had the antibodies.
Most of his music deals with what he has had to go through for all those years.
He plays guitar, piano, drums, flute, and several other instruments and is self-taught on all of them simply by watching YouTube videos. His vocal range is insane, and he doesn’t have just one style of music — he can literally do it all.
He produces his own beats, writes his own music, and his own videos. He is about as non-commercial as he could ever be. His ability to tell a story with his music is uncanny. You WANT to pay attention.
Following video is a story in three parts. Pay close attention to the details, because you are going to end up picking your jaw up off the floor when this is done.
The Tale of Jenny and Screech
Tell me what you think.
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