Brittney Griner is free! The American basketball player had been sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison for being caught with one gram of cannabis oil, and has now been swapped for a Russian arms dealer.

Now we just have to release all the prisoners held in American prisons for contrived cannabis-related offenses. It’s not just Russia that has unjust policies!

My grandson turned 5 a few weeks ago. Or did he?

As Koreans traditionally count age, he would have been 1 year old on the day he was born, and would have been 2 in January, so he would have been 6 going on 7. I know! Confusing! Fortunately, to simplify everything, his parents have used the common American dating scheme. It looks like South Korea is going to standardize their age on the model used by the rest of the world.

South Koreans are set to become one or two years younger after the country’s parliament on Thursday passed laws to abolish the traditional method of calculating age.

This traditional method, which will be replaced by the system used elsewhere in the world on June 2023, declares people a year old at birth and adds a year to their age every Jan. 1 — even if they were born just the day before.

That’s nice. I was worried that every time I would visit Korea I’d get a year older.

Twenty five German conspirators have been arrested for plotting to overthrow the government.

The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.

An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 – an empire called the Second Reich.

So they want to return to the glory days of Otto von Bismarck and the Franco-Prussian War? That’s weird. Is this a big thing in Deutschland?

One of the ringleaders was an old aristocrat, which I find mildly amusing. At least we don’t have those around here.

Heinrich XIII comes from an old noble family known as the House of Reuss, which ruled over parts of the modern eastern state of Thuringia until 1918. All the male members of the family were given the name Heinrich as well as a number.

Naming your member Heinrich is an odd European custom.

What isn’t funny is their violent plans.

They had already established plans to rule Germany with departments covering health, justice and foreign affairs, the prosecutor said. Members understood they could only realise their goals by “military means and violence against state representatives” which included carrying out killings.
…
As well as a shadow government, the plotters allegedly had plans for a military arm, with active and former members of the military a significant part of the coup plot, according to reports. They included ex-elite soldiers from special units. The aim of military arm was to eliminate democratic bodies at local level, prosecutors said.

I commend the German state in so thoroughly and effectively crushing an insurrection. Hint, hint, US Attorney General.

Although I do worry that every local race all across the country will now start dunning me for donations. There ought to be a rule that you only get to harass your electorate for money.

I’m glad Warnock won, but look at the numbers: 48.6% of Georgians voted for the blithering idiot, it’s no wonder he had to beg for help. Imagine if the Republicans had nominated a marginally competent candidate, or if the Republican governor of the state had actively tried to promote their party’s candidate — we’d be in trouble. I don’t see much cause to celebrate squeaking by in a race that should have been a cakewalk.

Yes, really. It’s all a LIE. SBF is a liar. MacAskill is a liar. It’s shocking how blatantly they all lie.

As a “filthy rich” public figure, SBF continued to follow the EA handbook — or so it seemed — which encourages its followers to be self-sacrificing, frugal and modest. This is based in marketing and public relations no less than a genuine commitment to the idea that, as privileged members of a rich nation, it’s their moral duty to forego unnecessary comforts for the sake of “doing good better.” But whatever the motive, it pays dividends. When MacAskill appeared on “The Daily Show” last September to promote his recent book, “What We Owe the Future,” his announcement that he gives away 50% of his income drew heavy applause. SBF, too, benefitted from media accounts that overlooked clear red flags at FTX to focus on his story as the humble crypto tycoon, practically a monk, who slept on bean bags in his office, shared an apartment with nine roommates, and drove a beat-up Carola.

A series of revelations since last summer, and especially since the FTX debacle, suggest that this was all, for lack of a better word, a massive grift. In reality, SBF owned a $40 million penthouse in the Bahamas, which he called home, and accrued a “local property portfolio worth an estimated three hundred million dollars.” Many of these “were luxury beachfront homes, including seven condominiums in an expensive resort community called Albany, costing almost $72 million.” SBF flew in private jets and purchased a $16.4 million mansion in the Bahamas under his parent’s name as a “vacation home.” FTX employees received free meals and had access to an “in-house Uber-like” transportation service. This is a far cry from the humble lifestyle that EAs, including MacAskill, consistently presented to the public.

MacAskill, meanwhile, has more money at his fingertips than most of us make in a lifetime. Left unmentioned during his “Daily Show” appearance: he hired several PR firms to promote his book, one of which was paid $12,000 per month, according to someone with direct knowledge of the matter. MacAskill’s team, this person tells me, even floated a total promotional budget ceiling of $10 million — a staggering number — thanks partly to financial support from the tech multibillionaire Dustin Moskovitz, cofounder of Facebook and a major funder of EA.

It’s easy to give away part of your income — and sound saintly announcing this on TV — when you have, say, a mansion in the Bahamas or multimillion-dollar budgets to promote your projects and your brand.

It’s almost as if having a bunch of wealthy, privileged people getting together to tout a story that makes them look saintly ought not to be trusted, automatically.

And yeah, SBF was living the monastic life — nay, like an anchorite on a pillar in the desert — if you’re willing to grant him hundreds of millions of dollars for his Bahama properties, and a private jet, and catered meals, and the attention of ex-presidents and tycoons. The beat-up Toyota Corolla probably has its own gold-plated garage.

I’m finding it hard to keep track of who is up and who is down anymore. Elon Musk allowed Kanye West back on Twitter, and then West made a bunch of anti-semitic remarks and got booted again. So he announced what he really thinks.

West hired Milo Yiannopoulos as campaign manager (yep, Ye is running for president), and then fired him.

Mike Lindell was suing election boards all over the country, and his latest efforts got smacked down hard, including a demand that he pay all court costs. He has flushed millions down the crapper.

The only person whose star is rising is Andrew Anglin, rabid neo-Nazi, publisher of the Daily Stormer, who has been allowed back on Twitter, where he promptly endorsed Kanye West.

The ball is back in your court, Elon. I’m sure you’ll make some perspicacious Solomonic judgement here.

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Here’s a fine summary of what a bumbling incompetent Elon Musk is.

Many of us have been saying for years that Donald Trump is a dangerous fool, and that the Republican party has become the party of treason. Do you agree with us now?

So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?
A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founder’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections.

That’s an outright admission that he wants to overthrow the government and install a dictatorship ruled by his whims. So what are we doing about it? NOTHING.

And still a significant proportion of the Republican party don’t comprehend the magnitude of his betrayal of the country.

…Donald Trump is viewed unfavorably by almost one in three (29%) voters who backed Republicans in the midterms, including 33% of “Reagan Republicans,” 34% of “Traditional Republicans,” 34% of Fox News viewers, and even one in five (21%) voters who backed him in 2020.

One third regard Trump unfavorably…which means two thirds still think he’s peachy. He’s admitted he’s willing to stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot the Constitution, and all these people who in other circumstances fervently announce their support of the Founding Fathers, and are outraged that anyone would teach their kids any criticisms of 18th century America, are just fine with it. Do you want to be a banana republic? Because this is how you get a banana republic.

How can they let this admission of treachery slide? Because the Republican party is also the stupid party. Case in point: Herschel Walker.

You know what still stings? Fifteen years ago, I was at an organization meeting for the local Democrats, and they were looking for volunteers to run for office, and I volunteered to run for the school board. Everyone looked at me like I was a crazed madman, and quietly suggested I put my hand down and that we get someone who was electable. Ouch. It sill burns.

But somewhere, a group of Georgia Republicans met, looked over the available field of conservatives willing to run for high office, and they picked Herschel Walker, a man who every day demonstrates that he has a turnip in his skull instead of a brain. Someone with the mind of a slow child, who didn’t get past his fourth grade grammar lessons.

He doesn’t understand reason, either. His recent babbling gaffe about werewolves and vampires got the attention of Obama, and he’s not happy about it.

The whole story is that he used a fictional horror story as evidence of the importance of faith. Obama neglected to tell everyone that Walker was a godly man who interpreted cheesy movies as evidence for Jesus.

Walker discussed his internal would-you-rather werewolf vs. vampire debate in the context of recalling a movie he said he had watched about a vampire. He concluded his story by talking about the importance of faith because in the movie, he said, a person who did not believe in God tried to kill a vampire with a cross and failed because they didn’t have faith. On Fox, Walker said, The whole story is the story involved people having faith, having faith and continuing to go out and do your job, having faith to get things done. So they don’t tell you the whole story.

Shut up, Herschel. Shut up. In that Democratic meeting, I was willing to put my hand down and let someone else electable run, and you can’t even stop running off at the mouth about a story that was an embarrassment for you.

That’s the Republicans for you, the party of stupid criminals.

The right wing has flared up in another desperate attempt to crank up the hysteria over Hunter Biden. It’s a non-starter. All I get from it is a sense of how obsessed these loons are.

The source is Elon Musk, of course. He has dug up some boring internal documents from Twitter, then fed them to Matt Taibbi, who then shat them out onto Twitter again, claiming that they reveal First Amendment violations and that Twitter, before Musk, was in bed with the liberal Left. I already don’t care.

Musk is an ass.

Taibbi…my contempt for Matt Taibbi knows no bounds. I can never trust anything he ever writes.

As for Hunter Biden, I DON’T CARE. He’s the son of our current president, and that’s about it, and Joe Biden seems to love his son, which is only to be expected. Hunter seems to be a bumbling opportunist, but his profile in government is limited and he’s been given no power. Contrast him with Ivanka, Donald Trump’s daughter, who was brought along to all kinds of confidential meetings, and who, with her husband Jared, has profited mightily. Talk to me again when Hunter Biden scoops up $2 billion from the Saudis.

I might believe that Hunter Biden has done wicked things, but that doesn’t affect me or the US government. If there is evidence that he’s a bad guy, lock him up…but that’s where it ends. These wingnuts are only seeing a way to torment a president they don’t like. All the evidence they have consists of wild conspiracy theories about a laptop dropped off for repair that they claim contains all kinds of revealing information, but none of the stories are backed up with a solid connection to Hunter Biden.

There’s nothing there, but Musk & Taibbi blew it up into an absurd dark tale that falls apart on even casual inspection.

Elon Musk released the anticlimatic “Twitter Files” about “free speech suppression” by the social-media platform on Friday evening. On Monday, he teased the release, writing, “The public deserves to know what really happened …”

What followed after was a series of tweeted snippets detailing what the public has known—and what Twitter executives themselves have detailed over the past two years—about the company’s deliberation surrounding the New York Post’s publication of files from Hunter Biden shortly before the 2020 election.

“What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter,” Matt Taibbi, Substack writer and former longtime Rolling Stone writer, darkly intoned Friday evening. But contrary to the melodramatic billing, the files mostly show what’s already been documented: that Twitter removed links to the Post’s story and files from Hunter Biden’s laptop and struggled with how to react to the surprise revelation of the leak of files from a presidential candidate’s son.

Right. The New York Post story, which claimed that a laptop abandoned at a repair shop was full of secrets, was not credible, and Twitter dithered over whether they should allow such nonsense to be promoted. The story was comparable to that Pizzagate crap, which claimed that a child porn & murder ring was operating the basement of a pizza parlor which did not have a basement. Unless you’re some faux free speech absolutist, that’s the kind of thing that should definitely be quashed on the grounds that it is a lie.

Furthermore, much of what Twitter censored out seem to have been photoshopped dick pics of Hunter Biden.

In examples of what Taibbi characterized as wrongly removed content, the Substack blogger cited a number of tweets containing non-consensually posted intimate imagery of the former Vice President’s son, commonly referred to as “revenge porn.”

That says nothing but that there was some surprisingly obsessive behavior by the MAGA nitwits.

Also, as far as the claim that Joe Biden and the state were intentionally compromising free speech to suppress ‘information’ about the President’s son — take note that all the terrible tinkering with Twitter stories occurred prior to 2020. I know, we’d all like to forget who was president then, but it wasn’t Joe Biden. It was Trump.

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More details: this was a revelation that Musk made a pinned tweet and claimed was a violation of the Constitution’s first amendment. It was a series of blocked tweets that contained:

The offending material that Taibbi revealed was removed by Twitter at the Biden campaign’s request turns out to have been a bunch of links to Hunter Biden in the buff.

There was a tweet from a Chinese account featuring a naked woman on top of Hunter Biden, as well as a family photo. Two pictures of Hunter Biden’s penis, one with another woman in the background. Taibbi’s next list of material was removed by Twitter after being flagged by the Democratic National Committee. They include a picture of Hunter Biden smoking crack and getting his feet rubbed and a link to a Hunter Biden sex tape.

And that’s the big hubbub. Social media company removes unwanted dick pics: News at 11.

Constitutional crisis!

Here in Minnesota, the most reliable supporters of Republicans are gun owners, hunters, and fishing fanatics. Even our Democratic governor made appeasing that demographic a key part of his electoral success, and I don’t mind — it’s a bridge to environmental action, you know. I also have roots in the Western US, where a major issue is individual liberty to use local resources.

Here’s an interesting case of private interference in individual liberty.

OnX is an app that’s intended to help hunters find public land so they can go after deer, elk, or whatever they happen to be hunting. At first glance, that may not seem like news, but users of that app get an invaluable view of just who owns the property around them, which is critical when trying to reach public lands where hunting is legal. They have also gotten a very clear view of something that is otherwise hidden from the public: how corporations, millionaires, and billionaires have blocked out huge chunks of public property so that they alone can access it—without paying a dime.

They do this by creating public land “islands,” areas that are surrounded by privately held property. The public lands in these islands become de facto parts of the surrounding property. In most states, there is absolutely no rule that says the property owners have to do anything to allow access to that island of land.

One of their tactics is to divide the land into a checkerboard — squares of private ownership around public land that are in contact at only their corners. The rich want to make it illegal to step across any of those corners!

Well aware of how prickly many land owners are about hunters crossing their property, Cape located an area of “checkerboard” control. That is, the land is divided into one mile-by-one mile sections, half of which are public property, half of which are privately owned, like the black and white squares on a checkboard.

At one place on this checkboard map, Eshelman controlled two squares that met at a corner. The other two squares were public property. Using OnX, Cape mapped out the exact location and led three friends in stepping across the corner from one public square to the other. They not only didn’t step on Eshelman’s land, the area of his property they crossed was infinitely small. Not one state has laws against this “corner crossing,” which is common in areas where grants of public land were once given to railroad companies in an effort to “open up” the West.

The rich guy who has bought up these parcels of land, drug company executive Fredric Eshelman, is upset at this simple privilege. He’s an extraordinarily greedy person.

Eshelman owns 23,277 acres near Elk Mountain, but in prosecuting this case against corner-crossing, he attempted to block access to 1.6 million acres of public land.

So he’s suing four hunters who stepped across the mathematically infinitesimal corner boundary for $7 million. He lost a criminal trial against them — it would have been difficult to show that they’d deprived him of anything — so he’s making a civil case of it, and since he’s rich, he can harass the hunters with lawsuits until he wins. Sadly, people in Wyoming (Wyoming! Deeply Republican Wyoming!) think the hunters will eventually lose.

No matter how ridiculous this may all seem, and no matter the quick outcome of the jury trial, Wyoming officials are convinced that the landowners will win in the end. According to a Republican attorney who formerly worked for the state attorney general’s office, if the hunters win, “it would not surprise me at all that the Legislature would come back and pass a law saying corner crossing is illegal. It’s sort of if you win, you lose, and if you lose, you lose.”

This is the kind of case that ought to unite everyone, Republican rednecks, environmentalists, Democrats, people who want to look for spiders, just everyone, in opposing this scheme. I don’t like the idea that filthy rich assholes can wall off huge chunks of public land to create private game hunting parks for themselves. Unfortunately, there are also lots of ranchers who exploit the Wyoming checkerboard for their personal gain.

By the way, Eshelman is a hard right Republican donor.