Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime

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lavrently beria had nothing on our current regime

The headline was plucked from a comment to the Twitter post below, but, yes.

And there’s this:

This news item in initially presented as an amusing stupid crook tale, but who's more dangerous, the criminal or the judge? Jail 'em both, for years.

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Ex NFL-er released from jail after fumbling $1.2 million cash heist in 2021: report

A former pro football player’s plot to rob $1.2 million in marijuana profits three years ago went awry when he discovered the bags full of stolen cash were too heavy to carry — so he chucked them in the Colorado woods and ran away.

But Devin Aguilar — a former college standout who briefly played for the Tennessee Titans more than a decade ago — made another big mistake during the previously unreported December 2021 heist: He forgot his gloves in one of the money bags, which CBS News said was later found by the cops.

….

On the day of the crime — Dec. 1, 2021 — the washed-up athlete dressed in black from head to toe, pulled out his pistol and snuck up on a transport van driver, who was pulling into the company garage with $1,224,785 from marijuana businesses throughout the state, CBS said.

The driver had no clue she was being tailed as she pulled into the holding facility — until Aguilar sprang up on her.

He got her out of the van, then held her at gunpoint as she filled the big trash bags with cash.

Read the full article to enjoy the stupidity, but the conclusion of the tale is infuriating, not funny:

….

Huya [the accomplice, who conspired for six months to plan and execute the theft with her boyfriend] … eventually admitted to her role in the scheme — took a plea bargain, admitted to armed robbery and was sentenced to six months in jail and probation, CBS reported.

Meanwhile, Aguilar also took a deal that let him plead guilty to felony theft and aggravated robbery.

Prosecutors asked Judge Joseph Whitfield to imprison him for 15 to 20 years — but the judge jailed him for just one year.

In the end, the gun-wielding thief served less than seven months behind bars.  

Both cops and the business he robbed were disgusted.

“It is not what we believe the suspect deserved, and we do not believe that the victims got the justice they deserved,” Cohn said.

A representative for the transport business echoed his comments and said they were “disappointed, but not surprised” that the “soft on crime” judge meted out such a weak punishment.

“We still rely on our justice system and hope that justice is equitable and appropriate for all involved parties … But I think that hope is fading.”

The driver added that she’s been suffering panic attacks and paranoia since the bone-chilling incident, and is now in therapy for anxiety.

Seven months in jail for armed robbery.

New listing on Rogues Hill

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not a zebra to be seen, and only an ironic reference to the orange, but overall, pretty nice

180 Round Hill Road, $6.4 million. Nothing on the web as of this writing (11:25), but I’ll provide a link when it appears. (Update: Oops! It has appeared on the web, sort of, but labelled as “restricted address”. That’s a new one on me, but forget that I ever gave out the address.)

Until then, here’s what this 1900 home looked like in 2020. when it was put up for sale at $1.750 and sold for $2 million. The builder has completely renovated it and almost doubled its size, from 3,268 sq. ft. to 5,926.

Gub'ment work

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electric chainsaws shipped to powerless N.C. by FEMA in anticipation of its workers using them as handsaws

Thirteen workers” to move a (very small) log fifty feet, plus one to watch, and how many off-camera, supervising?

If you had a wheelbarrow in that video, you could let all but one or two of those expensive federal employees go help someone else. 

Of course, efficiency was not the point: showing effort was--and the more employees, the better. 

Back in the pre-iPhone camera days, I wrote a letter (it was also before email) to the editor of Greenwich Time, noting that I’d seen a town crew digging a ditch on Summit Avenue in Riverside that day; there were two men actually doing something, a third standing around with a shovel, ready to ward off attack squirrels, I suppose, and five observers, presumably supervisors, standing around chatting. I thought that was a misallocation of resources, and said so, and the letter was just snarky enough to prompt a reply from the head of Public Works, “explaining” why those supervisors were critical to the mission. Uh huh.

My favorite composition from those days, because it actually elicited a public response by our Chief of Police, was one that pointed out an item in the paper’s police blotter reporting that eight of our finest had gone to the Cos Cob residence of one of the members of the Chimblo criminal branch (there are two branches of the Chimblo family in town: one is the good one, with plenty of notable accomplishments, the other is on its third — probably fourth, by now — generation of drug addicts, wife-beaters and thieves). Eight cops, but the target escaped out the back door. I suggested that, rather than have them all assemble on the front porch like a sad sack collection of Sam & Silos, a better approach might have been to station two officers at each of the four sides of the house and nab the miscreant as he fled.

“Although the Greenwich Police Department does not ordinarily publicly respond to citizens’ complaints”, the obviously embarrassed chief began, “in this case ….” . Hahahaha — victory! (I also received a nice postcard, illustrated with a drawing of his cartoon cops Sam and Silo, from Greenwich’s own, Jerry Dumas, thanking me for the nice mention; that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that lasted for years until Jerry’s lamentable passing).

I was careful not to violate any traffic laws for several years after the letter’s publication, however.

Never use a scarecrow as your brain trust

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do i have to draw you a venn diagram, kid? just get on the bus and shut up.

Curtis: There's this very odd, disturbing, and -- frankly -- cringeworthy habit Leftist women have: they speak down to voters like we're kindergarteners. Kamala Harris does it. So does Gwen Walz. Back in July, we told you about this cringey TikToker who embodies the Nanny state.

Here's another Kamala supporter who treats rally attendees like children:

And this:

And this:

And this is what that same crack team came up with after she refused to attend the Al Smith dinner: pure genius

Nicht so schlau

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Ich bin ein Dummkopf

Huge, state-of-the-art fire station burns down because they didn't have any fire alarms

A fire station in Germany, a state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar fire station, along with ten fire trucks, burned to the ground this week ... because they hadn't installed fire alarms.

The new fire station, in Stadtallendorf, was hailed by Oberhessische Presse, the town's local newspaper, as a "modern, state-of-the-art" building when it opened last year.

But months later, Stadtallendorf firefighters, and others in the region, found themselves in the embarrassing situation of trying to put out a blaze at their own premises.

While there hasn't been an official statement about the source of the blaze, it appears as though a lithium ion battery charger started the inferno.

That’ll teach ‘em not to let immigrants store their stolen e-bikes in the station.

There's nothing so delicious as watching the Left engaging in riotous autosarcophagy

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Park Slope Food Co-op members face anti-Israel, antisemitic hate from their fellow liberals

The Park Slope Food Co-op has devolved into a hotbed of antisemitic and anti-Israel hate, with members spewing Nazi slogans toward Jews and sneering they “smell of Palestinian blood,” according to a complaint filed with the state. 

….The crunchy co-op, founded in 1973, requires its roughly 16,000 members to work 2.75-hour shifts every six weeks, in exchange for the privilege to purchase heavily discounted groceries, in addition to voting on store policies.

In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack and the ensuing war in Gaza, however, several members began pushing to strip the store’s shelves of products linked to the Jewish state, such as Sabra hummus, with the spicy scuffle soon permeating campaigns for the co-op’s board of directors election earlier this year. 

In May, a Jewish co-op member who was standing outside the store and trying to inform those strolling by about the boycott effort was confronted by a shopper, who called her a “Nazi,” according to Maislen’s complaint. 

The odious member began walking away, but not before shouting “Sieg Heil” at the 35-year-old, according to the complaint.  

“I’ve had antisemitic stuff happen to me, but like that publicly, that brazen, with that language … I was really shaken up,” the woman told The Post. 

The co-op, she said, is “not a welcoming space anymore, for Israelis, for Jews,” she said. 

Anti-Israel hostilities continued a week later, when Maislen, who unsuccessfully ran for a board of directors seat on the anti-boycott platform, was harassed by an unhinged member outside the co-op, who barked at him that Zionists “can’t have empathy,” the complaint noted.  

And in late June, an Israeli-Jewish co-op member who was discussing the pro-boycott candidates during her shift was harassed by another woman espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, including that Jews celebrated young Palestinians being raped and killed, according to the complaint.

The unhinged member seethed that she couldn’t work or stand next to the Jewish woman because she smelled “of Palestinian blood,” the complaint read. 

This article from The Jewish Forward provides a taste of what life among the woke is like:

In theory, co-ops are the ideal of democracy, where everyone gets a say on everything; a society built on community, compromise, collaboration and shared values. But the reality tends to be less utopian; without an ultimate authority, every decision, no matter how small, can erupt into a chaos of a thousand opinions. 

And though the Coop is a beloved neighborhood shop, it’s also a huge, profitable company; it has tens of thousands of members, many of whom commute from other neighborhoods or even other states to shop and work their shifts, making it the largest member-run co-op in the country. (Other cooperative companies, like REI, do not run on member labor; they are only coops insofar as members have some limited voting power.)

Those tens of thousands of members make for tens of thousands of opinions and rules — and zealous enforcers. Each change in operations is a battle. …. Members battle over which food additives are acceptable, the volume at which music can be played over the store speakers, what kind of meat to sell — and whether the Coop should sell meat at all. (It does, but my colleague, who has been a member since 1985, recalled a temporary compromise involving separate meat and non-meat shopping carts.)

In the letters to the editor section of the Coop’s newspaper, the Linewaiters’ Gazette, for the last several months, topics of contention included “the amplified collision of plastic” caused by the store paging system and pickle sourcing. And BDS is more controversial than any of those issues. 

A Jewish woman reported feeling afraid that another member would yell at her when she bought Jerusalem-made matzo before Passover. Another mentioned a beloved tahini brand that the store carries. “Did you know it’s made by an Israeli Arab who champions LGBT rights?” she asked. The rest of the letter is devoted to a tahini smoothie recipe: “Pour into a glass, take a sip, and savor the creamy goodness of standing against BDS and supporting products that promote unity and understanding.” Many, many letters accuse the store of being unwelcoming to Jews — members wearing keffiyehs while working their shifts is a common theme — and the Gazette of antisemitism for even publishing letters about BDS.

Meanwhile, others argue that the Coop is an inherently political project, and that it has boycotted other products and countries — Coca-Cola, Nestlé, South Africa, Chile — in the past. They speak of their guilt in eating good produce from the Coop while children in Gaza starve. Several letters accuse the Coop of being unwelcoming to Muslims for not having Ramadan foods on display — and for fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment by printing letters that accuse BDS of antisemitism.

Things have gotten so bad that, in the same issue, the Gazette published back-to-back letters in which both a pro-Unity and a pro-BDS member reported being called a Nazi. 

Ah, for the good old days, when Leftists could all just get along; so long as they all agreed with each other.

$12,162.16 per "underserved" customer vs $600.00 for satellite service; guess which one our Hartford Looters are going with?

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Starlink satellites fly over greenwich, unused

Greenwich gets $1.8M from state to upgrade broadband internet, most of any municipality in CT

GREENWICH — Verizon has been awarded $1.8 million from the state to upgrade its internet infrastructure all over town.

Oh — the money’s going to a nice, generous-to-politicians corporation like Verizon? Notice my shocked face.

The money will improve broadband internet access for 148 local businesses and residences that meet the federal government’s definition of “underserved” because current internet speeds are so slow.

The upgrades are for Verizon FIOS — the company’s wired “fiber-to-the-premises” connections — not Verizon Wireless.

Fiberoptic, no less; no plain ol’ cable for the underserved, if undeserving (in fact, there’s no means test for receiving this gift from the taxpayers, so the mana will fall into the homes and businesses of the rich and poor alike: Equity!)

Here’s a daring thought: do impose a means test, require business proprietors and those living in multi-million dollar back country homes and to pay for their own cable, fiber or otherwise, and buy $600 Starlink receivers for the handful of peasants shivering in unheated, cableless hovels down in Chickahominy Hollow.

The locations were selected based on the Federal Communication Commission's National Broadband Map, which included 152 residences and businesses in Greenwich that lack reliable broadband speeds as of Dec. 31, 2023.

Verizon did not seek any financial contribution from the town of Greenwich on the project, instead securing the funds with help from the town's three representatives in the state house. The work must be completed by Dec. 31, 2026 per the grants rules.

Reps. Rachel Khanna in the 149th District, Stephen Meskers in the 150th and Hector Arzeno in the 151st all supported the grant application. All three are seeking reelection in November.

Gee, if only there were a less expensive way to get high-speed internet service to these 148 households. Well, after spending 5 years and millions and millions of federal dollars paying the state’s cable providers to expand into rural locations, Maine’s Democrat governor Janet Mills had to throw in the towel and look to the heavens for relief from the cost of extending service to the last, most-remote 9,000 homes and businesses. Oh, how that must have hurt!

Maine will give Elon Musk’s satellite dishes to remaining homes without internet access

Maine will offer Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite dishes to the roughly 9,000 homes and businesses in the state that still lack internet service.

The Maine Connectivity Authority shared that plan Thursday while launching the Working Internet ASAP Program that will help the state fulfill its goal of offering internet connection options to all Mainers by the end of this year.

To bring service to the 1.5 percent of Maine homes and businesses without it, the state will coordinate the purchase of Low-Earth Orbit satellite hardware and service reservations from Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Musk.

What’s a news article from a liberal rag like the Bangor Daily News without a gratuitous bit of editorializing?

“Musk, the world’s richest person whose ownership portfolio also includes Tesla and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has not shied away from touting Starlink while also courting controversy as he stumps for former President Donald Trump.”

Now, back to the regularly scheduled broadcast:

Starlink has already brought internet to rural parts of Maine in recent years, though early users in 2021 complained of high prices and dropped connections. The Maine Connectivity Authority said Thursday it selected Starlink following a competitive bid process this summer.

What’s the cost: Brian Allenby, the connectivity authority’s senior director of program operations, said the total cost of purchasing the equipment along with offering free shipping and professional installation is still not set, especially given not all households may take the offer. Allenby cautioned a broadband-focused news outlet’s report on how the equipment alone likely will cost $5.4 million [$600 per terminal] does not capture all considerations [we’re talking a government contract here, after all].

The outlet, Broadband Breakfast, said Maine is possibly the first state in the nation to provide free Starlink satellites to unserved residents. Starlink terminals currently cost around $600. Maine will not cover Starlink’s monthly $120 service charge that comes with unlimited data.

So why would Connecticut choose to pay Verizon $1.8 million, $12,162 per household, to provided high-speed internet service that could be obtained from Starlink at a total cost of just $88,800? Reached for comment by FWIW, Greenwich’s representatives in Hartford, Khanna, Meskers, and Arzeno (would probably) respond: “who’s paying our salaries, Verizon or Musk? Besides — Musk’s politics? We hate that guy!”

Meskers tried to distance himself from his colleagues, insisting, “I not a crook, I’m just stupid”. Embrace the power of “and”.