It’s absolutely ridiculous.

We communicate the most critical flight information, using a system invented in 1920, with a format unchanged since 1924, burying essential information that will lose a pilot their job, an airline their aircraft, and passengers their lives, in a mountain of unreadable, irrelevant bullshit.

Yes CASA Australia, that’s you. Yes, Greek CAA, that’s you. And you’re not alone. //

In an unintended twist of irony, the agencies seeking to cover their legal ass are party to creating the most criminal of systems – an unending flow of aeronautical sewage rendering the critical few pieces of information unfindable.

This is more than just hugely frustrating for each pilot, dispatcher, and controller that has to parse through it all; it’s downright dangerous.

If you’re a pilot, you’ll either have already experienced this, or you’re going to – you stuff something up, and then be told: “but there was a Notam out about that”. Sure enough, there it is in black and white (and in big capital letters). Do you think that “but there were 100 pages of them” is going to be a valid defence?

Well, it should be. The same agency conducting your post-incident interview is busy on the other end stuffing the system full of the garbage that prevented you from seeing it in the first place. //

There are three parts to the problem: the system, the format, and the content. The system is actually quite amazing. The AFTN network connects every country in the world, and Notam information once added is immediately available to every user. Coupled with the internet, delivery is immediate.

The format is, at best, forgivable. It’s pretty awful. It’s a trip back in time to when Notams were introduced. You might think that was the 1960’s, or the 50’s. In fact, it’s 1924, when 5-bit ITA2 was introduced. The world shifted to ASCII in 1963, bringing the Upper and Lower case format that every QWERTY keyboard uses today, but we didn’t follow – nope, we’ll stick with our 1924 format, thank you.

Read that again. 1924. Back then, upper case code-infested aeronautical messages would have seemed impressive and almost reassuring in their aloofness. But there weren’t in excess of 1 million Notams per year, a milestone we passed in 2013. The 1 million milestone is remarkable in itself, but here’s something else amazing: in 2006, there were only 500,000. So in seven years, Notams doubled. Why? Are there twice as many airports in the world? No. Twice as many changes and updates? Possibly. But far more likely: the operating agencies became twice as scared about leaving things out. //

It’s not what comes out that needs to be fixed, it’s what goes in.

Even in 1921, we had much the same problem. Obstacle, 18 feet high, several miles from the runway.

Nobody cares. Unless you’ve parked the Eiffel Tower on the threshold, leave this stuff for the AIP. And nobody cares about kites either. Nor about goat-grazing times. We don’t care if your bird scarer is U/S. We don’t care if there’s a cherry-picker fixing a bulb somewhere. We don’t care when you’re cutting your grass.

Nor do we care about closed taxiways. The only way I can get onto a taxiway is with an ATC clearance, and ATC will not clear me onto a closed taxiway.

We care if the airport is going to be closed when we get there. If we’re going to have to divert because the runway is shut. If someone might shoot at us. If there are new rules. We care about the critical items, but we won’t see them as things stand.

One of Cyrus" first official acts after capturing Babylon was to allow the Jews to return to their land. This took place in his "first year" ( Ezra 1:1), that Isaiah, as king over all Medo-Persia including Babylonia (i.e, 538 B.C.). The writer of Ezra regarded539 B.C. as the beginning of Cyrus" reign probably because when Cyrus defeated Babylonia he gained authority over Palestine that had until then been under Babylonian sovereignty. //

About150 years earlier, Jeremiah had prophesied that the Babylonian captivity would last70 years ( Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 29:10). Cyrus proclaimed his edict67 years after the first Babylonian deportation from Judah (605 B.C.). Important matters were put in writing in the ancient Near East. [Note: Breneman, p68.]

Ezra 1:2 reads as though Cyrus was a believer in Yahweh. However, Isaiah presented him as an unbeliever ( Isaiah 45:4-5). Evidently he was a polytheist and worshipped several gods. [Note: See Edwin M. Yamauchi, "The Archaeological Background of Ezra," Bibliotheca Sacra137:547 (July-September1980):200.] On the "Cyrus Cylinder," the clay cylinder on which Cyrus recorded his capture of Babylon, the king gave credit to Marduk for his success. He said he hoped the people under his authority would pray for him to Bel and Nebo. [Note: James B. Pritchard, ed, The Ancient Near East, pp206-8. Cf. Amelie Kuhrt, "The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament25 (1983):83-97.] Probably Cyrus gave lip service to all the gods his people worshipped, but the evidence suggests that he did not believe that Yahweh was the only true God.

Apparently Cyrus knew about Isaiah"s prophecies concerning himself ( Ezra 1:2; cf. Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1; Isaiah 45:4-5; Isaiah 45:12-13).

He ". . . read this, and . . . an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfill what was so written." [Note: Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 11:1:2.]

Which King Issued the Commandment to Rebuild Jerusalem in Daniel 9:25? //

Daniel 9:1-2, “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.”

Jeremiah 25:12, “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the LORD…”

Jeremiah 29:10, “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”

II Chronicles 36:21, “To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbaths, to fulfill threescore and ten years.”

The Bible plainly teaches that Cyrus, in his first year, fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah by bringing to an end the 70 years of captivity and desolations when he decreed for the Jews to return to their homeland and for the city of Jerusalem and the temple to be rebuilt. Here are the key passages. //

II Chronicles 36:22-23, “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing... //

Ezra 1:1-3, “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, //

If Cyrus fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah by ending the 70 years of desolations on the city of Jerusalem, then Cyrus must have been the king that decreed for the rebuilding of Jerusalem at the end of the 70 years

Ezra 1:1-11 – Cyrus’s Decree
Summary
The decree of Cyrus the Great permitted the people to return to their homes in Jerusalem, thus ending the Babylonian exile and fulfilling Jeremiah's prophecy.
Analysis
The Babylonians dealt with conquered peoples by deporting them to Babylon where they could live in relative freedom and prosperity, perhaps accounting for the meager numbers of exiles who wished to return to Jerusalem with Ezra and Nehemiah. When the Persians defeated the Babylonians in 539 B.C.E., the policy of deportation as a means of dealing with conquered peoples changed. The Persians preferred that conquered peoples stay in their own lands (but pay tribute) worshiping their own gods (and praying for the Persians). This tolerant religious policy signaled the end of the exile for the people of Israel and led to Isaiah's description of Cyrus as God's "anointed" (messiah) in Isaiah 45:1, even though Cyrus was not a follower of Israel's God.

While they were in Babylon, Jeremiah had urged the exiles to accept their lot (Jeremiah 29:4-9). But he also announced that the exile would last only seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10), after which time the people would return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. These first verses of Ezra see the decree of Cyrus as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's words. Notice that Cyrus's apparently magnanimous offer is somewhat self-serving and that it is "the Lord" who "stirred up" Cyrus's spirit to make the proclamation, just as it was the Lord who "stirred up" the Assyrian and Babylonian kings who brought God's judgment upon Israel (1 Chronicles 5:26; 2 Chronicles 21:16) and who "stirred up" those exiles who returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5). The majority of those people who returned at the stirring of God were members of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites. But the text understands Cyrus's decree to mean that, though not all the exiles need return to Jerusalem, they all need to support the rebuilding of the temple (vv. 3-4).

The greatest threat the digital yuan poses to the United States is that it endangers the international financial system America has led since World War II. //

Communist China became the first major economy to create a government-sanctioned digital currency — digital yuan. Such a move will significantly impact the great power competition between the United States and China and may reshape the dollar-dominated global financial structure forever.

When Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary, talked about returning China to a world superpower status, he always envisioned China’s currency (the yuan) would achieve a global reserve currency status akin to what the U.S. dollar has enjoyed since the end of World War II. //

Yet, despite the Chinese government’s relentless efforts, the Chinese yuan currently accounts for only 2 percent of global foreign exchange reserve assets while the dollar’s dominance remains unchallenged. Close to 90 percent of foreign-exchange transactions entail U.S. dollars, and more than 60 percent of all global central-bank reserves are held in dollar-denominated assets. China’s digital yuan, however, presents a challenge. //

The biggest threat the digital yuan poses to the United States is that it presents an alternative to the existing international financial system America has led for two generations. Individuals under U.S. sanctions will avoid suffering any financial pain by using digital yuan to access their assets thus rendering typical economic sanctions toothless.

America’s adversaries, such as North Korea, Iran, and Russia, will likely use digital yuan to exchange money, settle trades, and engage in weapon sales or other illicit activities. Doing so will enable them to bypass the existing financial system entirely, meaning American intelligence agencies won’t be able to monitor such activities and hurting the ability of the United States and its allies to anticipate potential threats before they metastasize. //

There are at least three things the United States should be doing in responding to the digital yuan. First, the Security and Exchange Commission should approve the existing requests to launch exchange-traded funds focusing on cryptocurrencies. Such funds will bring an inflow of fresh capital, stimulate the development of digital currencies and digital assets, and make them more accessible to the general public.

Second, the Fed should consider accepting some of these well-established cryptocurrencies into the U.S. financial system. Some well-known businesses such as Tesla and the Dallas Mavericks basketball team have already announced they would accept specific cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or dogecoin as an alternative means of payment. As more businesses embrace digital currencies every week, the Fed may ultimately not have much choice but to adopt at least some type of digital currencies. If that’s likely to be the case, it’s better to do so now rather than later.

Finally, the Fed can issue a digital dollar as long as there are sufficient privacy protections in place to prevent some ambitious politicians from using the digital currency the way the CCP does as a means to control the American people.
Competition produces better goods and services at lower prices. The more free-market choices of digital currencies we can offer, the less likely China’s digital yuan will replace the U.S. dollar and gain international dominance as the CCP intended.

Approaching history with condescending arrogance, as the woke movement does, merely highlights the smallness of the examiners. //

Clearly, the political left has a significant problem with our national story. They don’t understand history, either the actual developments that made the United States or the field of study that seeks to make sense of that process.

Historians try to understand how and why human beings acted the way they did in the context of their circumstances and possibilities. But social justice warriors know better. For them, the past is a convenient arena in which to practice the latest exercise in cancel culture.

The shocking ignorance of the past many social justice warriors display is all too evident. The 1619 Project overflows with untruthful assertions and gross distortions, beginning with its ludicrous claim that the American Revolution was launched to protect slavery. A clueless woke mob in Madison, Wisconsin dismembered a statue of an outspoken abolitionist and pulled down another symbolizing the advance of women’s rights.

One of the most egregious errors committed in San Francisco concerned poor Paul Revere, who was unhorsed from his midnight ride because he participated in the Penobscot Expedition of 1779. The school board decried this as a campaign to capture American Indian land when, in fact, it was a failed assault on a British fort during the American Revolution.

While this disdain for historical facts is distressing, even more troubling, however is the woke movement’s profoundly wrongheaded approach to history itself. Sometimes, they simply seek to abolish it.

Leftist disciples shrewdly sense (and fear) that history tends to create a sense of attachment and perspective, qualities that blunt efforts to remake the world anew. Revolutionary zealots have always targeted historical symbols as a key enemy in their crusades for purification. In the French Revolution, Jacobins sought to erase the centuries-old influence of Christianity by installing the Cult of the Supreme Being to harness religious feeling without the danger of religious content. //

The awakened believe that the past is just like the present and its inhabitants should be judged by contemporary standards. This is mistaken. Early on, the student of history learns to beware of “presentism,” or judging the past by the standards of the present. If not, you end up condemning Charlemagne for not endorsing women’s rights or Susan B. Anthony for insensitivity to transgenderism. The awakened believe that the past is a pantheon of heroes and villains to be lionized or condemned. //

The awakened believe that the past is a morality tale to be ransacked for lessons illustrating good and evil. Yet even a cursory look at past events discloses a whirl of motivations, often conflicting or ambiguous, at work in shaping outcomes. Henry Ford’s adoption of the assembly line in 1911, for instance, a move that reshaped the modern world, combined idealism (lowering costs to make the automobile available to average people), interest (boosting profits from an increased volume of sales), and unforeseen developments (such as overly repetitious labor workers often resented or rejected).

The awakened, however, believe that an overarching theory — class conflict or modernization not long ago; whiteness, the patriarchy, heteronormativity, intersectionality currently — offers a tidy explanation for everything. This is mistaken. The incredible complexity of human history demands multicausal explanations and vigorous debate among competing interpretations, not a conga line of liberationist theorists sent snaking through the past shimmying and shaking to the rhythm of revolution.

‘Interrogate the Past, But Don’t Bully It’

Judicious students of the American experience steer clear of these mistakes and approach it cautiously, seeking wisdom, not weaponization. They understand that history does not repeat, but instead unfolds as a process that produces the present. They understand that historical facts matter to provide credible evidence in support of reasonable judgments along with all the facts, not just those cherry-picked for ideological reasons. //

Edmund Burke observed that human society is a contract between “those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born,” and urged citizens to beware those who “should act as if they were the entire master.” In that spirit we should ponder American history as a pursuit of political participation, individual equality, constitutional order, social opportunity, and economic freedom, however imperfectly realized and full of ambiguities it has been.

We should celebrate what is worthy in our past and chastise what is reprehensible. We should submit our history to rigorous, fair-minded analysis and see what it can tell us about the human condition and how we got where we are.

This important task demands thoughtful examination and nuanced judgments, not a frenzied kangaroo court convened by wokesters jacked up on ideological amphetamines and spouting slogans. Confronting the imperfections of the past — as well as the human beings who inhabited it — should heighten an awareness not of our superiority but our shortcomings. In the end, such a careful investigation of history can provide the key inspiration for us to overcome them.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae’s immortal words of remembrance of all who fell in the Great War carried through a beautiful ceremony honoring the oft-forgotten war and America’s pivotal role. On Friday morning, politicians, historians, activists, military leaders, artists, and descendants virtually gathered to raise the American flag over the newly-erected World War I memorial in Washington DC.

As the last of the major 20th century US war veterans to receive a national memorial, those who served in WWI now have a powerful tribute to their sacrifice, bravery, and heroism. Hopefully, the monument will help return the Great War to public consciousness. //

The flag had quite a journey to reach Pershing Park, making a physical trip symbolic of that experienced by soldiers. It first was raised inside the US Capitol, before being flown to France to fly over a cemetery of American war dead, then spending time above the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City and finally arriving at its permanent home in DC.

Just before it was raised, the final words of the event were shared by Terry Hamby, the chairman of the World War I Centennial Commission. He dedicated the monument to the men and women of WWI, who answered the call to “serve in places they’ve never visited, for a war they didn’t start, to protect the freedom of people they’d never met.”

Americans should be outraged their government participates in the wide-scale human trafficking operation that created a market for harvesting the organs of murdered infants. //

Last week, legal accountability group Judicial Watch dropped a bombshell: a nearly 600-page report proving the U.S. government has been buying and trafficking “fresh” aborted baby body parts. These body parts, purchased by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “humanize” mice and test biologic drugs in scientific experiments, came from babies up to 24-weeks-old gestation, just weeks from being born. //

Recent emails uncovered by Judicial Watch between FDA employees and the California-based Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) prove the agency spent tens of thousands of dollars buying aborted babies for unethical scientific experiments between 2012 and 2018. In 2018, the Trump administration terminated the contract, halting government fetal tissue research due to concerns the contracts were unlawful. Judicial Watch’s new FOIA Request adds 575 pages of records to its existing 2019 lawsuit against the agency. //

When an ABR employee reassured the FDA they were working with doctors who performed late-term abortions, he admitted some tissue was unusable from a procedure that injects a poison called digoxin into the baby, destroying its cells and tissues. Once the chemical has done its work, an intact, dead baby is delivered. This method makes fetal tissue specimens unusable in experiments; with digoxin off the table, the likelihood partial-birth abortions were used is sickeningly high.

These conversations should shock even those who are pro-abortion, most of whom believe in significant term restrictions. Babies at this level of development possess all characteristics necessary for surviving life outside the womb and premature children born as young as 21 weeks go on to lead healthy, thriving lives.
An Atrocity Against Human Dignity

These gruesome excerpts are just a sample of records substantiating the 2019 lawsuit Judicial Watch filed against HHS, which houses the FDA. In March this year, a federal court ordered the agency to release records it withheld about purchasing organs of aborted babies, saying it found “reason to question” the transactions violated federal law.

The court’s decision found that the U.S. government bought second-trimester livers, thymuses, brains, eyes, and lungs for hundreds of dollars apiece from ABR, stating ABR could collect “over $2,000 on a single fetus it purchased … for $60” and “the federal government participated in this potentially illicit trade for years.”

Americans should be outraged their government participates in the wide-scale human trafficking operation that created a market for harvesting the organs of murdered infants. In no humane society could such a violation of the human body and dignity occur, in which babies’ eyes are “harvested immediately upon death,” organs marketed based on sex, and personhood attributed to mice but not children.

For over 60 years, Pan Am grew as a dominant operator of international flights from the US. While it is this legacy it is remembered for; it also became one of the largest ever operators of fifth freedom flights between other cities. Many of these started as a method to promote viable growth on long-haul operations and went on to become important routes in their own right. //

First, a quick recap on what a fifth freedom flight is. In simplest terms, it is a flight between two countries that are not the operating airline’s home base. It is permitted as part of a flight to or from the airline’s base. As an example – Singapore Airlines operates flights from Singapore to Frankfurt and on to New York. It is permitted to sell tickets for the Frankfurt to New York sector as a fifth freedom flight. //

Fifth freedom flights were conceived as part of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation in December 1944. In these early days of aviation, such routes were vital for many airlines operating international flights. Several stops were common on long routes, and restricting airlines only to carry passengers between bases would be very limiting. In short, they made long-haul operations economically viable.

SpaceX recently inked a deal with NASA to move any of the company's Starlink internet satellites out of the way if they stray too close to the International Space Station or other agency spacecraft.

The Space Act Agreement, which was signed on March 18, will help maintain and improve space safety, NASA officials said.

SpaceX has launched more than 1,400 of its Starlink broadband satellites to orbit to date. Following the first operational Starlink launch in 2019, the company has tweaked the satellites' design, providing upgrades intended to reduce their reflectivity, enable them to communicate with each other on orbit and even maneuver out of the way if necessary.

Diamondback PubliusCryptus
a day ago
It's rather telling to note that in the early days, John Dillinger went out of his way in his crimes, after an early one that went sideways, to stick to a hard and fast "NOBODY dies today" rule, while after his girlfriend went informant trying to save his life Hoover gave the instruction that "DIllinger dies, and if you deem it appropriate to massacre everyone on the block to do so including the cooperating witness and even your own agents, just Make Sure He's Dead when you're done."

This does not lionize or whitewash Dillinger, it shows you how bad that cross-dressing thug who ran the FBI really was and the house he built still IS.

Random thought, but if your sample is coming out to a raw D+31 sample, perhaps there’s something wrong with your pool that you are originally drawing from? Are they just calling people in blue states? Further, if you look at the internals, they only weight the poll to D+9 while the 2020 election was Biden +4. The margin was even smaller in the vote totals for the House, for example. In other words, the country much more evenly divided than shown here, but according to these pollsters, we are in a new era of peace and unity.

The Recount
@therecount
"If you get a vaccine ... you're immune. So act immune."

— Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on why two masks aren't necessary after vaccination //

CNN
@CNN
About 5,800 people out of tens of millions who have been vaccinated against coronavirus have become infected anyway, the CDC says https://cnn.it/3gbllVP //

AG
@AGHamilton29
Better headline: Out of those Americans that have been vaccinated, only 0.0075% have still gotten infected and 0.0001% have died from Covid-19.

You currently have twice the chance of being struck by lightning in a given year than dying from Covid-19 after being vaccinated.

Daily Caller
@DailyCaller
BIDEN: "The folks who own guns, they support universal background checks. The majority of them think we should not be selling assault weapons. Who in God’s name needs a weapon that can hold 100 rounds, or 40 rounds, or 20 rounds."

Dana Loesch
@DLoesch
We have background checks and private transfers are ALREADY regulated.
We aren’t selling “assault weapons.”
Your son lied on his 4473 and your daughter-in-law stole a gun and threw it in the outside trash across from a school, so no lectures. //

Loesch was referencing the story that Hunter Biden allegedly didn’t tell the truth on his gun application form and then his girlfriend (who had been his brother’s wife) took the gun from him and dumped it in a trash can from which it disappeared.

That’s one of the main problems with Democrats is that they want to pass laws, but they have no idea what already exists and they’re ignorant in general on guns. Not to mention, the law never seems to apply to them when when it comes right down to it, as we see with Hunter Biden who appears to have never suffered consequences for any of his actions — at least so far.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/04/08/daily-mail-covers-what-wasnt-in-hunter-bidens-book-n357686

To believe Kristen Clarke in 2021 you have to accept that she spotlighted racists advocates of “melanin-based racial superiority” science to expose them as absurd, but one month later advocated and later defended a racist anti-semite academic

Put me at the front of the line for the “We shouldn’t crush adults for things they wrote and did when they were 19” group.

But Kristen Clarke was 45 when she testified last week and lied about her October 1994 letter.

She lied.

Is there no one else with a “D” next to their name who is worthy of occupying the post of Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division?

The setup is that Jordan asks Fauci for the metrics he will use to reopen the country. This is a reasonable question given the damage the Insane Clown Posse at NIH/NIAID/CDC has inflicted on our economy and society. The question is at the 0:58 mark on the first video.

Jordan: What…what measure? What I mean are we just going to continue this forever? When does wind doesn’t when do we get to the point? What measure, what standard, what objective outcome do we have to reach before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back?

Fauci: You know you’re indicating liberty and freedom, I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to the hospital.

Jordan: You don’t think Americans’ liberties have been threatened last year Dr. Fauci? They’ve been assaulted, their liberties have.

Fauci: I don’t look at this as a liberty thing, Congressman Jordan…

Jordan: Well, that’s obvious.

Fauci: …as a public health thing but I disagree with you on that completely…

Jordan You think the constitution is suspended during a virus, during a pandemic? It’s certainly not.

It is hard to conceive of a more tone-deaf and hubristic answer. //

Jordan: And I’m asking a question: what measures have to be attained before Americans get their First Amendment liberties back?

Fauci: I just told you that.

Jordan: You haven’t given anything specific. You said we hope when this certain…tell me specifically…

Fauci: Right now, right now we have about 60 000 infections a day which is a very large risk for a surge. We’re not talking about liberties; we’re talking about a pandemic that has killed five hundred and sixty thousand Americans. That’s what we’re talking about. //

He can’t answer the real question, so he goes for the “higher purpose” argument. He seems to want to say, “I don’t care about your rights and your families; I’m busy doing God’s work.” We actually aren’t talking about whatever number of Americans had died from the virus. We can do nothing for them, and, more to the point, nothing Fauci and Friends did helped them. They are dead, and our focus has to be on the living. Having demonstrated empirically that nothing that the CDC recommended has had any measurable impact, the real question Fauci needs to be wrestling with is how to detach himself from this tar baby with a shred of credibility.

The only explanation I have seen him provide — and I wasn’t able to pay full attention as the trial process got underway — was that he was unpersuaded that any other county in Minnesota would be better able to provide a trial venue fairer to Chauvin than Hennepin County. I find that rationale laughable.

At the same time, everyone recognized that the sentiment in the activist community was that the trial had to take place in Hennepin County because it is the most racially diverse county in Minnesota, and the chances of having black jurors sit in judgment of Chauvin was higher in Hennepin County than any other county in Minnesota, most of which have negligible minority populations.

That shouldn’t be any factor at all, and the promise of having a higher likelihood of having black jurors in the case — presumably improving the chances of convicting Chauvin notwithstanding the fact that he’s entitled to the presumption of innocence just like anyone else — is antithetical to the notion of “justice.” The judicial system provides for a fair trial for both the accused and the prosecution. “Justice” is in the process of reaching a verdict. “Justice” does not come from decisions to improve the chances for a conviction. Criminal cases are purposely styled as “Minnesota v. Chauvin” or “United States v. John Doe” and not “George Floyd v. Derek Chauvin.” The justice system doesn’t “vindicate” the victim of the crime. The justice system vindicates the rule of law. Circumstances that afford an accused a fair trial, while at the same time degrading the prospects for a conviction are not a basis to render an objection. The right of the accused to due process and a fair trial before the government can incarcerate you are paramount because they are “liberty” interests. The government is seeking to deprive an individual of their liberty. The government must respect and abide by all the requirements that guarantee due process and a fair trial.

“That’s the best we could do” is not good enough.

But that is all that Minnesota has provided

We always talk about peoples’ lives mattering. Adam Toledo’s life mattered. Adam Toledo’s life mattered enough that the people around him should never have allowed a 13-year-old child out into an alleyway in the city in the middle of the night with an armed 21-year-old who was a prohibited possessor. No one’s having that conversation! Lives matter! And they matter enough to take care of him, Sean. Lives matter enough that they don’t allow children to get in this situation.

If everybody’s going to be going off on this cop, where are all the adults in Adam Toledo’s life right now? And that is not politically incorrect to say, that is the correct thing that people should be saying right now.

[…]

If Adam Toledo’s life mattered then it is worth it to ask why it didn’t matter enough, apparently, to keep him out of that alley. As a mother, I’m asking!

1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell’s® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup or 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 1/2 cups Swanson® Chicken Broth
1 1/2 cups uncooked instant white rice
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Step 1

Heat the soup and broth in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat to a boil.

Step 2

Stir in the rice and cheese. Cover the saucepan and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.

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