I will attempt to be slightly less wordy in this DOT than you-know-who.
Note: I said “slightly.”
Waukesha driver faces 5 homicide charges after parade rampage
It’s probably too soon to make a “it was in self-defense” joke but I swear that’s never stopped me before. He’s Black, though, so even if it was applicable, it wouldn’t be applicable. Plus he apparently has a long track record of previous crimes which is to say … this is going to be topic A1 for racist Facebook uncles around the Thanksgiving table because something something bail reform something lock them all up. Good times, can’t wait!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/22/waukesha-parade-wisconsin-suv-crowd-suspect/
Speaking of Thanksgiving
Get the booster when you can, because the numbers are … oy. Just … oy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/us/us-covid-cases-rising-thanksgiving.html
This will end badly, which I know is true because it always ends badly
Alden Global Capital, the New York hedge fund that bought Tribune Publishing this year, said on Monday that it was making an offer for another big American newspaper chain, Lee Enterprises, the publisher of 90 daily newspapers including The Buffalo News, The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Omaha World-Herald.
In a letter to Lee Enterprises’ board of directors, Alden proposed a cash purchase at $24 a share, about 30 percent more than the company’s closing share price on Friday of $18.49. The deal values the company at about $141 million.
This seems like a relative anodyne media story: Hedge fund with media operation wants to purchase struggling newspaper group. But it’s personal to me because I once worked for a Lee Enterprises newspaper and I know several Alden-owned papers and let me tell you, nobody kills local media any more effectively or efficiently than Alden. There is not a worse owner anywhere, and I say that knowing — again, personally — that Lee is itself a garbage media company!
The loss of local media makes news increasingly nationally driven and that means it’s more partisan, more incendiary and less tied to people’s actual communities. It also creates a lot of space for national trends to just be taken as gospel locally when often, they’re not true — cRiMe On ThE rIsE!!!!11!!!!1111!!!! is a classic of this genre, as if the murder rate in New York City is somehow applicable to Shitstain, Idaho — and lets lots of small-town grifters off the hook if there’s nobody there to watch them. It’s bad, and it’s going to get worse in all of these cities when the deal goes down.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/business/media/alden-global-lee-enterprises.html
Report: Notorious shitbag Andrew Cuomo is indeed a giant shitbag
Cuomo’s options were to show real leadership and save a bunch of lives, or unnecessarily grandstand, sexually harass half of Albany and force state employees to work on his book. You’ll never guess which path he chose!
U-S-A! U-S-A!
European report says democracy is back-sliding in the United States for the first time. It’s funny because it’s true.
Farenthold is back on his bullshit again
It’s difficult to believe Donald J. Trump, noted paragon of virtue, would lie about such a thing as property valuation to attempt to escape taxation. Anyway, David Farenthold was on this story and there are few reporters who do a better job of nailing down metric shit-tons of facts, so, read the damn story.
OORAH!
Marines, not good at taking orders.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/11/21/vacine-mandate-marine-corps/
Nobody Loves Tucker
Tucker Carlson’s White Supremacist Variety Hour Documentary causes two of his colleagues to quit the network and makes public a rift between fascist-adjacent horribly racist Fox News employees and less-adjacent, more-fascist but still horribly racist Fox News employees.
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/21/1052837157/fox-resignations-tucker-carlson-patriot-purge-documentary
One weird trick …
My tip for hosting a stress-free holiday gathering: Do not host a holiday gathering! But the Washington Post offers a few others, if you can’t follow my tip.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2021/11/09/holiday-entertaining-tips/
If it sounds too good to be true …
How “HireAHitman.com” has ensnared dozens of people bent on bumping off someone close to them. (Seriously, have these people never heard of Craigslist?!)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/22/rent-a-hitman-website/
My family always warned me about the depravity of New York City
You say priceless Roman mosaic commissioned by the one and only Caligula; they said coffee table, at least for the past few decades.
Your moment of Zen (and/or the greatest video ever recorded)
And let’s hit the music to get moving on this Tuesday morning!
The Handsy Andy saga is getting a little depressing. This latest report was conducted by the State Assembly, who used the services of Davis, Polk, one of the country’s top law firms. It is even more damning than the Attorney General’s report. There are multiple investigations in several jurisdictions about Handsy’s crimes and misdemeanors and…nothing much is happening. Very Trump-like.
Also very Trump-like, a poll was held recently about next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Our accidental Governor Kathy Hochul is in the lead, followed at a distance by the AG, Tish James, and in third place is—none other than Andrew M. Cuomo. After all this. Hochul had better start shoveling that state money out the door like Handsy over the last decade did if she wants to “shore up support,” because now attention is being turned to her Lt. Governor, Brian Benjamin. He is dripping with sleazy campaign contributions in his past, including, in a barely disguised way, using campaign contributions to pay for his wedding reception. These payments were earmarked “constituent services.” I suppose if the wife was a constituent…He also apparently submitted a not-entirely-truthful ethics questionnaire/background check upon assumption of the Lt. Governorship, and the fact that NY State in 2021 still engages in this charade must cause much mirth up in Albany.
Anyway, today is Chuck Schumer’s birthday. He turns 71. To demonstrate how youthful he is, he is the only member of the national Democratic leadership who does not quite yet have to start taking mandatory distributions from an IRA; that kicks in when you hit 72 (used to be 70 1/2).
But I bet he is feeling a lot better than I am. My ever-tingling leg aside, yesterday I went and got my Covid booster and while I was at it got a pneumonia shot. Why not? But after sleeping pretty much all day yesterday I’m slowly shaking it off and with no ill-effects. In NYC everyone can get a Covid booster and that will probably be extended to the whole state soon.
If I’m a cop then at any murder the first thing I’m looking at is the victim’s family, “friends” and business associates. That covers about 90% of murders anyway. Rarely it is some rando taking out another rando (unless you’ve crossed paths with the real life basis of Joe Pesci’s character from Goodfellas who was crazier/psychopathic than his movie counterpart.)
I can’t help but reflect on what John Cusack’s character from Grosse Point Blanke said, “If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there.” but that’s not always the case.
Not surprised that the original art thieves were nobles.
I get Ludicrous. That was how I felt the last few days driving. I don’t miss much about the pandemic except the traffic because it was great and frustration free.
BTW, is this site using GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress? The reason I ask is that they had a data breach the other day so I’m considering changing my password.
It was definitely not registered at GoDaddy & I would bet anything it is not hosted on their servers. I don’t see Myo rolling like that.
This was nowhere near as long as a @SplinterRIP DOT (Hi RIP!), plus you had bears – bears who want you to hurry up with the food, already. The rise in virus cases, well, it is going to be a long winter (don’t forget to get flu shots, too).
I laughed so hard when the camera panned over!
And along with your flu shot (I get one of those too every year) if you’re over 50 you’re advised to get the Shingrix shot, which protects against shingles. I’m in the middle of that, it’s a two-shot process. I wonder if there’s a term for people like me, who are not only not anti-vaxx but about as pro-vaxx as you can be. A vaccinophile?
Disinfected?
sensible
I think the thing to note in the article about the parade murder is that the driver was involved in domestic abuse charges.
The press really struggles to grapple with the connections between hatred of women and mass violence, including violence by the right. There is a very strong connection, but the press bends over backwards to minimize the pattern.
In this particular case, this guy sounds like he was violent all over, which sort of obscures the obvious.
I found the “released due to judicial congestion” angle fascinating. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the right wing: defund government, then complain that government isn’t doing its job!
He is clearly a BLM supporte who is escalating the War on Christmas. /s
This really doesn’t matter but I thought it was strange that the town was having a Christmas parade the week running up to Thanksgiving. It’s a little early, and doesn’t the town have a big Thanksgiving homecoming football game like every other suburb to keep the locals amused?
Yes, this!!! That connection is overlooked by damn near all the media.
Not every domestic abuser will become a mass murderer, but many mass murderers have also been domestic abusers.
Like we are okay to accept that torturing pets is a good indicator someone can escalate to hurting people, but we don’t care that hurting women can escalate to mass murdering.
It’s almost like women aren’t people to a large segment of the population.
I don’t think this was covered yesterday & they will never show up in court but some interesting developments…
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/22/1057038176/roger-stone-alex-jones-subpoenas-jan-6-panel-capitol
and can we get an AMEN?
Hey, I can comment today! Seriously… the last 2 days I have been able to star but not reply, either to a comment or a thread. I don’t know if that’s my phone being wonky or the site or what.
That Christmas parade thing really messed me up… ours is next weekend and I keep thinking about all the people I know who march and ride in the parade, hell, I’ve been in the parade a few times… and the hundreds of kids in the crowd… my mom was a Dancing Granny for a couple of years and did the parades with her troop… Waukesha is pretty close to us. I know people out there and everyone is really shaken.
About a month after Afghanistan completely collapsed to the Taliban, a billboard went up on the innerbelt I take to work with a bunch of marines playing with guns and big, bold, capital letters “MARINES FIGHT TO WIN!”
Ahhh, ummm, okay.