What, Exactly, Do You Do Here?

Let me be clear, not THIS Scott Peterson: he’s just a murderous sociopath.

The Scot Peterson everyone’s talking about today is the recently retired Broward County Sheriff's Office Deputy whose dereliction of duty might arguably be considered  “acting stupidly.” 

Former Broward County Sheriff’s Office “School Security Monitor” Deputy Scot Peterson

According to Officer Tim Burton of the Coral Springs Police Department, Peterson responded to the Parkland school shooting “by seeking cover behind a concrete column leading to a stairwell” rather than running into danger to stop the killing of unarmed children and school staff.  But before you jump to conclusions, let me point out that Peterson was NOT an assigned “School Security Guard,” rather he was a “School Security Monitor.”

This clarification of Peterson’s assignment and duties should help Student Jenna Jorsten who told WSVN that she was “in shock” Peterson stayed outside -- especially after learning of unarmed teachers and students who risked their lives to save others. “If he’s the one with a gun, he should be the one out there with the gun trying to protect the kids,” she said. “Why was he hiding outside? It just makes no sense to me whatsoever. I mean it just doesn’t make sense to me at all.” I suspect she feels the same way about the other 3 Broward County “security monitors” with guns who showed up on the scene to monitor the situation from outside.

But Peterson wasn’t the only one — three other Broward County Sheriff’s deputies also remained outside the school with their pistols drawn as they took cover behind their vehicles, CNN reports.

Lest you be concerned about  ex-deputy Peterson’s safety and that of his family in the aftermath of this mis-misunderstanding of his duties, let me assure you there’s no reason to get all wee-weed up. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has pulled out all the stops to protect him and casa Peterson:

Wow, 6 fully armed Deputy Sheriff “Security Guards” (NOT Security Monitors). Imagine if the Sheriff’s Department had sent 6 fully armed Deputy Sheriffs to Parkland HS not as Security Monitors but as actual Security Guards.  And imagine if Coach Feis, teacher Scott Beigel and Athletic Director Chris Hixon had something at their disposal other than their bodies to protect the students; something like maybe a gun. I’ll bet Scot Peterson has a gun. You know - to protect his family.

Seems like it’s time to get back to the basics of real police work, this “monitoring” crap is working about as well at the local level as it works for the FBI.

Clue: the answer should not be “monitor”

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FLOTUS Friday, and I’m Planning a Party

It’s technically FLOTUS Friday. 

But Melania has wisely chosen to stay below the radar as Big Media and the Left (but I repeat myself) are loaded for bear – metaphorically speaking, as we all know how they feel about the right to bear arms – and have her husband in the cross hairs. I note there will be no lefty uproar about saying that as “cross hairs” are only “inflammatory political rhetoric” when talking about liberals.

To say the media has behaved reprehensibly during the past week in their attempt to advance their gun control “debate” is a given. But what is even more disheartening is listening to the heartfelt outpouring of the teenagers from Parkland who are disrespectfully demanding that we become more like China by restricting gun ownership in this country. I understand they are emotional over the loss of their classmates, but such sentiments indicate a complete failure of the education system to teach history, both our own and China’s.

It’s all enough to make a grown man (generic use of the word) weep.

I need to regroup, so I’m planning a party. Next Friday, March 2. It’s a virtual retirement party for Janice the American Elder and will be held in the virtual MOTUS Twilight Nocturne Lounge from 7:00 – 9:00 PM EST. So plan ahead, and set your calendar reminders. You do not want to miss it, there will be virtual food, music, art, and of course, beverages. Prepare to send JtAE into life-after-work in style.

I’m inviting Melania too, I think she could use a night out.  I wonder what she’ll wear – Melania, not Janice.

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I Am So Not Tired Of Winning Yet

Aw shucks:

On the slopes, Lindsey Vonn was a bust at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
She arrived here widely considered the best female Alpine skier ever, primed for a gold medal in the downhill and poised to win another medal in the Super-G. She will head home with a measly bronze. – USA Today

I was rooting for her to win the downhill, after all she is an American. Her team mate, Mikaela Shiffrin, had pulled out of that race and with her gone there was no other American in contention. Mikaela was entered in yesterday’s Women’s Combined (downhill and Slalom) –racing against her team mate. Lindsey didn’t make the podium but Mikaela took silver to go with the gold she earned earlier in the games. 

Mikaela takes silver

And so Lindsey rides into the sunset a great skiier whose reputation in now tarnished over one stupid, almost flippant, comment she was coaxed into making by a partisan interviewer – such are the times we live in. The Internet amplifies everything and the next thing you know everything is ruined for everybody. Sometimes even if your team wins. These are sad times my friends.

The country is no longer simply ideologically partisan and we’ve blown right past polarized at warp speed. We have settled uncomfortably into a bifurcated country of separate and most assuredly not equal in each other’s eyes. It saddens me that the hatred of some on the Left seems to be oozing over into our side as well; but that is how living down to the least common denominator works.

So let’s just step back and celebrate a few Team USA wins from yesterday: Jessica Diggins and Kikkan Randall - the first women to ever win a medal in cross country skiing did so in grand style with the gold:

Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs took silver in the Women’s Bobsled

The women’s hockey team won its first gold medal in 2 decades (in a shoot out, ugg, but still…):

And Jamie Anderson won her second Olympic medal, silver, during the women's snowboard slopestyle event at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Jamie, left, takes silver to add to the gold she already won

David Wise and Alex Ferreira took gold and silver respectively in the Men’s halfpipe:

And Red Gerard took gold in the Men’s slopestyle:

All in all not a bad day for Team USA. And you know what? I don’t know how any of these young people feel about politics in general or President Trump in particular. That’s how it should be. To paraphrase Laura Ingraham: shut up and fly. Someday we will stitch this republic back together and we’ll all be proud Americans again. You guys just keep winning your medals because I for one am not tired of winning yet.

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Nevertheless She Persisted

On this day in history:

• 1848 - Marx publishes Manifesto – and Elizabeth Warren was there

• 1828 - Cherokee receive their first printing press – and Elizabeth Warren was there

I understand Lizzy later went on to join the WWII Code Talkers as well.

Last week – to advance her chances in 2020 - she dropped in uninvited at the National Congress of American Indians' winter session in Washington in an attempt to put to rest the controversy surrounding her claim of Native American (minority) status. She didn’t apologize for the cultural appropriation (only required of non-minority conservatives) in fact she pretty much double-downed on the unsubstantiated and frequently disputed claim of Indian heritage.

While acknowledging the joke and conceding she wasn't a member of any tribe, she stuck by her claim that her mother's family was part Native American.

"I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead," she said. "I never used it to advance my career."

In an attempt to move past the conversation about her own heritage, she told the gathering that any time her opponents brought up her family's story, she would "use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities. U.S. News

She did look more like a Native American in 1986, before she was a blonde.

So the joke is she’s not really a Cherokee but will continue to use that story of victimology to advance her cause, and if they let her get away with the claim she’ll “lift them up” by letting them ride along on her skirt tails. What a gal!

“Nevertheless She Persists”

Honestly, Native Americans need to have their story told. Especially the part about the First Peoples’ culture devolving into a stew of socialistic experiments and state dependency that have resulted in poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide and educational failure. Thanks, Nanny State! What else you got?

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People Who Live In Glass Houses…

Stephen Jobs’ last project came to fruition last year: the Company’s 175 acre, $5 billion Apple Park Campus in Cupertino, California. The first of an estimated 13,000  employees began to move in early this year. Despite it’s massive size,

it is esthetically very pleasing both externally,

and internally.

But like most Apple design-obsessed products that are wrapped in a beautiful package, there are a few operational flaws that need to be worked out. Specifically, employees keep walking into the massive internal safety glass walls that are everywhere.

The entire project was designed by the British architectural firm Foster + Partners in conjunction with Apple’s own design chief Jony Ive – who is responsible for the design of virtually all of the company’s iconic products.

Ive joined Apple half a lifetime ago, in his mid-20s, when the company was at the brink of death. One of his early designs, the candy-colored iMac, was rejected by executives. Ive stashed it away until Jobs returned to the company in 1997, after a 12-year hiatus; it became an instant point of connection between the two men and was put into production soon thereafter. Ive is now revered in the design world and the technology industry for having made every Apple product since—iPod, iPhone, iPad and on and on… – WSJ

The final product, with a flying-saucer-esque design, has been dubbed “the spaceship” and is intended as a monument to Apple’s innovation – this time with respect to workplace design.

“While it is a technical marvel to make glass at this scale, that’s not the achievement. The achievement is to make a building where so many people can connect and collaborate and walk and talk,” Ive told Wired in May. “As with Apple’s products, Jobs wanted no seam, gap or paintbrush stroke showing; every wall, floor, and even ceiling is to be polished to a supernatural smoothness.

People bouncing off that “supernatural smoothness” was not part of that plan. Never-the-less, you have to admit it’s pretty funny that the world headquarters of the anti-Windows™ architecture company is having trouble with…their windows. Talk about the jokes writing themselves:

“Windows™  Crash"

“What is that?” “It's an iHouse.” “But there are no windows.” “Exactly!”

“There’s nothing wrong with the design, you’re walking wrong.”

And the patriarchy is also bound to come under fire:

“Forget the glass ceiling honey, first you’ll have to break through the walls.”

Employees started putting Post-its on the glass walls to mark them for other unsuspecting employees but they were reportedly removed “because they detracted from the building’s design.” Odd, you would think that even a British architectural firm and Apple’s chief design engineer would have known that “California laws require employees to be ‘protected against the hazard of walking through glass by barriers or by conspicuous durable markings.’” They’re going to have to find some way to mark those workplace hazards that doesn’t “detract from the building’s design.” Might I humbly suggest one of my own favorite Mirror tricks - Glass Wax:

Off course they could make their own custom designed stencils:

Alternatively I suppose they could just develop an app that will tell you when you are approaching a clear glass surface:

So let’s summarize: people who live in glass houses should show phones. Or at least phone logos.

Yes, that should do it.

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Happy Presidents’ Day, And Yes, He Is Your President

I’m simply tired of the Left’s latest round of “debate” over gun control and immigration “reform.” It’s beyond tedious at this point, and I blame the Russians.

Here’s the Left’s complete argument, on both issues:

”SHUT UP! I’m on a roll.”

And another thing I’m sick of: the Winter Olympics. Not the games so much as the coverage: How NBC Flubbed Its Coverage, Reported The Wrong Gold Medalist, Then Botched The Correction Of One Of The Most Stunning Upsets In Olympic History.

This was the race in which snow boarder Ester Ledecká, who entered the women’s Super-G on a whim and a set of borrowed skis, ended up taking the gold in a field of very accomplished women skiers. Looks like Lindsey Vonn won’t have to worry about going to the White House after all. As Ann Coulter pointed out (h/t Drama Queeen):

She’s been Trumped, bigly. Next chance to see Lindsey lose is on Wednesday, in the Downhill.

Happy Presidents’ Day!

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When the Idiots Are At the Gate, Don’t Open the Gate

We’re making progress. We’ve gone from a hysterical “Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the election” to this, from Jerry Nadler:

NADLER: My reaction to the news is this is absolute proof of what we knew all along and what the president has denied, namely that we were attacked. This is a very serious attack against the United States by a hostile foreign power, an attack against our election process, our entire governing process. We know that the attack is continuing. And that our intelligence agencies tell us that it’s going to certainly continue through the next election. And the president and the Republicans in the House for that matter refuse, refuse to do anything about protecting us from an attack. Imagine if FDR had denied that the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor and didn’t react. That’s the equivalent.

This even gave pause to professional Leftie Chris Hayes, who had to observe “It’s a bit of a different thing.” Not to be deterred from his talking point, Nadler insisted “No it’s not.” *sigh*

As the indictments of the 13 Russians show, this is precisely what the Russians are hoping to accomplish with their mischief; sowing seeds of unrest in hopes of creating a deep schism in the American vox populi. It is a long standing strategy of Russia’s and with a certain portion of our citizenry I would have to say, “mission accomplished.” If that point needs to be underscored there’s this, from MSNBC’s news ditz Joy Reid:

“Monday is President’s Day. It will be the second consecutive such holiday without an American president.”

Somehow the term “useful idiot” comes to mind.

It was over 30 years ago that Soviet KGB defector Yuri Bezmenof told us as much:

Ideological subversion is the process which is legitimate and open. You can see it with your own eyes…. It has nothing to do with espionage.

I know that intelligence gathering looks more romantic…. That’s probably why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond types of films. But in reality the main emphasis of the KGB is NOT in the area of intelligence at all. According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

It’s a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages. The first stage being “demoralization”. It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism.

The result? The result you can see — most of the people who graduated in the 60’s, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You can’t get through to them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov]. You can not change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior.

In other words [for] these people the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To rid society of these people you need another 15 or 20 years to educate a new generation of patriotically minded and common sense people who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society.

It is worse now, with another generation or two added to the “you can not change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information” list. They’ve been doing pretty well with their checklist.

Until all that changed on November 8, 2016. All I can say is thank you, PRESIDENT Trump. And MAGA! I for one will be celebrating President’s Day bigly.

P.S. Let it be noted that have when you have sufficient useful idiots of our own, you shouldn’t open the gate to let more in. We’ve got a bigly enough job on our hands as it is.

Non-English speaking useful idiots

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