After the ridiculous farce that was the Kenosha Lynchings trial, where it was established that a white nationalist can provoke a confrontation through the provocative display of a firearm, murder and seriously injure others and then escape criminal penalties by claiming “self-defense”, it is likely that highly educated individuals, and especially those who hold liberal political views will actively avoid moving to states that have “stand your ground” laws, and Republican dominated state legislatures that are constantly pushing to make it easier for white nationalists to obtain all the firearms they want.

Rational people want to live in a place where they will be safe. No one wants to live in a place where at any time, they can be seriously injured by an accidental discharge from a firearm, or be confronted and gunned down by a white nationalist, and have the negligent gun owner or provocative extremist let off without legal penalty. Highly educated people also want good schools for their children, and will refuse to live in areas where white-nationalists have terrorized the local school board and driven away all of the credentialed educators to replace them with right-wing lunatics who want to burn any book that so much as mentions homosexuality, nad who insist that any teaching about the Civil Rights movement is “critical race theory indoctrination”. Conservatives are going to suffer consequences for their radicalization, through a loss of access to professional services, and they have only themselves to blame.

“Officials at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport said on Saturday afternoon there was no active shooter threat and airport passengers and employees are safe. Atlanta police said a gun accidentally fired at the airport near the main security checkpoint,” reports FOX 5 Atlanta. “Police said at around 2:15 p.m. they hadn’t received reports of injuries. The investigation is ongoing, police said.”

The Atlanta Airport Tweeted that: “At approximately 1:30 pm today a weapon accidently discharged at ATL’s security screening area. There is NOT an active shooter at the airport. APD is on the scene. More information about the situation will be made available on our social media channels.”

“Videos on social media showed frightened travelers apparently taking cover near the security checkpoint before the official statement. City officials calmed scared travelers as police provided details of the investigation.”

“A Florida university confirmed Friday it will not employ next semester a former Florida State University professor who took a job there teaching after he was found guilty of sexual misconduct with students. It also said it was exploring how to overhaul its hiring practices to avoid similar issues in the future,” reports the Miami-Herald. “The University of West Florida in Pensacola said it had been unaware of the investigation at Florida State into Ross May, 38, when it hired him part time to teach two online classes after FSU had fired him. The university said in a statement it was reviewing how it examines the backgrounds of its instructors. ‘The safety and well-being of UWF students in the classroom and online is the highest priority for the university,’ spokeswoman Brittany Sherwood said.”

“May, the former associate director of FSU’s Family Institute, was among three FSU professors identified earlier this week who FSU had determined committed sexual misconduct in separate incidents with students. It fired May, suspended another who resigned a few months later and allowed a third to remain on the job. The most recent investigation concluded over the summer. FSU fired May over allegations he pressured a student to get drunk, hugged her ‘in a forceful way’ in a photograph and bet another student $50 he could have sex with her by the end of the semester. The incidents allegedly occurred during 2019, and the investigation was completed in May 2020.”

“With more than 50 foreign-policy nominations stalling on the Senate floor, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch said he has been ‘as energetic as I can about getting these [nominations] through’ the upper chamber,” reports Politico. “But Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have moved to slow-walk the confirmation of Biden’s nominees as a protest of his administration’s national-security decisions, frustrating lawmakers from both parties.”

“Risch’s remarks underscored the deep frustrations that Biden administration officials as well as close U.S. allies have expressed about the slow confirmation of the president’s diplomats and top State Department officials. But his remarks also highlighted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s difficulties in scheduling time on the Senate floor to process the nominations.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Michael C Bender reports that obese former President Trump is angry with Alabama Governor Kay Ivey over the cancelation of his July 3rd MAGA rally by the state-appointed commission that operates the museum ship, so much so that he’s considering endorsing Lynda Blanchard to challenge Ivey in the Republican primary. Blanchard, Trump’s former ambassador to his wife Melania’s home country Slovenia, is herself still running in the GOP primary to replace Republican Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, a race in which Trump has already endorsed MAGA insurrectionist Congressman Mo Brooks. Blanchard reportedly had pissed off Donald by implying she already had his endorsement, something which may have even driven him to go ahead and endorse Brooks out of spite (poor little George P Bush might’ve fallen victim to this sort of cruelty too in his now-doomed primary challenge against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton). But Blanchard apparently is still useful enough for the Pharaoh, so per Bender’s reporting, he’ll consider an endorsement if Blanchard switches her campaign to run for governor instead.

Bender adds that an Ivey spokesperson told him the Governor had nothing to do with the rally cancelation, since she doesn’t control the commission that operates the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. She is listed as an honorary member of the commission on the ship’s website however. Misgendered too as the commission lists her as “The Honorable Kay Ivey, Governor of Alabama – Honorary Chairman, USS ALABAMA Battleship Commission”. Easy to imagine that one of Trump’s supplicants like Stephen Miller or Johnny McIntee decided that was enough to go on to blame Ivey for the cult having to move their Alabama rally to some empty field in August.

“Amid a mounting economic crisis, the Taliban has pledged to pay three months’ worth of lost wages to public employees. The group boasted of new revenue, but did not specify where it came from,” reports Deutsche-Welle. The Taliban government said on Saturday that it had begun paying government employees who had been without their salaries since the Islamist group seized power in Kabul in August. The takeover sparked a major financial crisis. ‘We are going to start paying salaries from today. We will pay three months’ salaries,’ Ahmad Wali Haqmal, spokesman for the Finance Ministry said at a press conference.

“The payment will be made available through the country’s banking system. But it remains unclear if the funds will reach those who need it. Since August, Afghanistan’s banking sector has collapsed, and people with money in banks have struggled to access their funds as branches curtailed withdrawals. In the absence of money, most government employees have yet to return to work. Many had not even been paid for months before the Taliban came to power. Another Taliban spokesman, Inamullah Samangani, said on Saturday that the group’s revenue collection had increased recently. ‘The Finance Ministry says that, in the last 78 working days of the last three months, we have generated income of about 26.915 billion Afghanis ($288 million/€255 million),’ he claimed. ‘We collected 557 million Afghanis in revenue on Wednesday alone,’ Samangani said, quoting the Finance Ministry, and adding that the payment of pensions to retired workers would also resume soon.”

“Drivers scrambled to grab cash Friday morning after bags of money fell out of an armored truck on a San Diego County freeway, authorities said. The incident occurred shortly before 9:15 a.m. on Interstate 5 in Carlsbad as the truck was heading from San Diego to an office of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.”, reports ABC 7 Carlsbad.

“Several bags fell out of the truck and broke open, spreading money – mainly $1 and $20 bills – all over the lanes and bringing the freeway to a chaotic halt, a local sheriff said. Video posted online showed some people laughing and leaping as they held wads of cash.”

“Two people were arrested at the scene, and Martin warned that any others who are found to have taken the money could face criminal charges. He noted there was plenty of video taken by bystanders at the scene and that the CHP and FBI were investigating. Anyone who took money was urged to bring it to the CHP office in Vista.”

“Authorities didn’t immediately say how much money was lost. However, at least a dozen people had returned money they collected to the CHP by Friday afternoon, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. ‘People are bringing in a lot,’ a sheriff’s office representative said. ‘People got a lot of money.’ The freeway was reopened shortly before 11 a.m.”

Kyle Rittenhouse is almost certain to face civil trials for deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and the injury of Gaige Grosskreutz. Civil liability may also fall on the Kenosha Police Department for conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of law.

In a criminal case, the prosecutor has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. In a civil case, it’s only necessary to prove that the defendant willfully engaged in reckless or criminal behavior that led to permanent injury or loss of life. It is also highly unlikely that Rittenhouse will have a quirky MAGA judge to protect him in a civil proceeding, which should make it possible for a lawyer who brings suit to cross-examine Rittenhouse far more aggressively, to ask him about his ties to the group “The Proud Boys”. A plaintiff whose counsel was able to focus in on Rittenhouse’s nationalist leanings, and his contempt for Civil Rights activists, would be far more likely to prevail in Civil Court. There is also the possibility that with Rittenhouse currently planning to appear on right-wing propagandist Tucker Carlson’s FOX News program, that he will “say the quiet part out loud”, and in the process of boasting about his acquittal, end up providing a wealth of evidence to establish his nationalist leanings, and portray him as someone who viewed himself as a “white knight” who took his AR-15 and ran into a political protest intending to punish people of color and the white protesters that supported them, for insulting his notions of white supremacy.

“Police opened fire on protesters in rioting that erupted in downtown Rotterdam around a demonstration against COVID-19 restrictions late Friday night. The Dutch city’s mayor called it ‘an orgy of violence.’ Police said that two rioters were hospitalized after being hit by bullets and investigations were underway to establish if they were shot by police. The condition of the injured rioters was not disclosed. Officers arrested 51 people, about half of them minors, police said Saturday afternoon. One police officer was hospitalized with a leg injury sustained in the rioting, another was treated by ambulance staff and ‘countless’ others suffered minor injuries.”

“Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told reporters in the early hours of Saturday morning that ‘on a number of occasions the police felt it necessary to draw their weapons to defend themselves’ as rioters ran rampage through the port city’s central shopping district, setting fires and throwing rocks and fireworks at officers. ‘They shot at protesters, people were injured,’ Aboutaleb said. He did not have details on the injuries. Police also fired warning shots. Police combing through video footage from security cameras expect to make more arrests” the AP reports.

This one will drive the MAGA kids insane. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” but they’re also peaceful patriots protesting a tyrannical government vaccine policy. Never mind being able to come up with a lame talking point to own the libs, how are they supposed to come up with one even consistent enough within their own warped moral universe of simplistic binaries?

There’s this large company that sells and maintains a popular home security system to Americans, having been in business for over a century. The name brand is very widely recognized and trusted in communities across the South and Midwest. Janie (not her real name), is one of their top-performing sales and marketing executives in the Midwest, she’s been with the company for over a decade, having risen up from a local reseller to becoming a direct hire by the company. She takes a lot of pride in her work, and puts up great numbers. Janie’s a former police officer, and her experience in law enforcement informs a lot of her work in the home security field.

Janie hasn’t had the easiest life. She grew up poor, paid her own way through college – at which she was raped by a male fellow student. She went through a divorce a few years ago, she’d been married since the early 90s to Gabe, her former instructor at the police academy, 17 years her senior. They had a daughter together and it’d been a tolerable, if not happy marriage for a while, until Gabe, stuck in the middle ranks of the state police and jealous of Janie’s rising star, began to fool around on the side. When Janie confronted Gabe about the infidelity, he physically assaulted her. They tried to patch things up with counseling, but Janie finally ended it when she saw emails very strongly indicating that Gabe was still fooling around. The divorce was acrimonious and contentious, but thankfully for Janie it ended quickly owing to the mutual enmity.

Janie’s free to pursue her career unburdened by an abusive, cheating loser husband. Things are going great for her at work, except for one troubling new development. There’s a new product launch coming up, and her boss Mike, the company’s CEO, is looking to hire some fresh faces. Three of them – Greg, Walter, and Pedro – have some serious red flags.

Have a great weekend folks. pic.twitter.com/g1xjKBqoZ1

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 20, 2021

KDKA: “Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate will pay up to $270,000 over the next six months to have a consulting firm examine the 2020 election with an eye toward developing changes to state election law. The ‘forensic investigation’ is being launched in response to pressure from Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump upset over his 80,000-vote loss in the state. Dubuque, Iowa-based Envoy Sage will be paid out of the Senate Republican leader’s taxpayer-funded leadership account.”

• Please accept our early birthday wishes, Mr. President.  We know you’re a faithful reader.  
• Marjorie Taylor Swift:  simple four-toed pop politician who sings nasty, airy songs about rules she hates because she feels wronged by them.
• Kevin McCathy is the least effective House Minority leader in modern times.  His caucus has no message except to be anti-everything.  He’s seen multiple transformative pieces of legislation passed.  His members are acting like prepubescent children who McCarthy can’t control.  And he is scared.  Very very scared.  Everyone can smell (and hear) the fear. 
• Nancy Pelosi is the most successful Speaker of the House in my lifetime.  She will have a federal building named after her.  
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume XLV”

New York Times:  “American intelligence officials are warning allies that there is a short window of time to prevent Russia from taking military action in Ukraine, pushing European countries to work with the United States to develop a package of economic and military measures to deter Moscow, according to American and European officials.  Russia has not yet decided what it intends to do with the troops it has amassed near Ukraine, American officials said, but the buildup is being taken seriously and the United States is not assuming it is a bluff.

“Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, traveled to Brussels this week to brief NATO ambassadors about American intelligence on the situation and a possible Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Ms. Haines’s trip was long planned and covered a variety issues, but the growing concerns over Russia were among the short-term threats discussed, according to officials briefed on them.

“The United States has also been sharing intelligence with Ukraine. And on Friday, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with Lt. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s military, to discuss Russia’s ‘concerning activity in the area,’ the Joint Staff said in a statement.  American and British intelligence are increasingly convinced that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is considering military action to take control of a larger swath of Ukraine, or to destabilize the country enough to usher in a more pro-Moscow government.”

Associated Press:  “The U.S. on Friday opened COVID-19 booster shots to all adults and took the extra step of urging people 50 and older to seek one, aiming to ward off a winter surge as coronavirus cases rise even before millions of Americans travel for the holidays. Until now, Americans faced a confusing list of who was eligible for a booster that varied by age, their health and which kind of vaccine they got first. The Food and Drug Administration authorized changes to Pfizer and Moderna boosters to make it easier.

“Under the new rules, anyone 18 or older can choose either a Pfizer or Moderna booster six months after their last dose. For anyone who got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the wait already was just two months. And people can mix-and-match boosters from any company. ‘We heard loud and clear that people needed something simpler — and this, I think, is simple,’ FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks told The Associated Press.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to agree before the new policy became official late Friday. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky endorsed a recommendation from her agency’s scientific advisers that — in addition to offering all adults a booster — had stressed that people 50 and older should be urged to get one.”

CNN:  “President Joe Biden pardoned two turkeys, named Peanut Butter and Jelly, on Friday during the first traditional turkey pardon ceremony of his presidency.  In a joke-filled ceremony on the White House’s Rose Garden, Biden pardoned the two birds, sparing them both from becoming a presidential meal this holiday season.

“‘Eventually, Peanut Butter and Jelly were selected based on their temperament, appearance and, I suspect, vaccination status,’ the President joked. ‘Yes, instead of getting basted, these two turkeys are getting boosted.’  Biden said Peanut Butter and Jelly were ‘two names I couldn’t agree on more,’ adding, ‘I have to admit to you, my wife doesn’t like me to admit it — that’s what I like for lunch.’

“The President also took a moment during the ceremony to acknowledge the Covid-19 pandemic and a return to Thanksgiving traditions with loved ones.  ‘In all seriousness, it’s important to continue traditions like this to remind us how from the darkness, there’s light and hope and progress and — that’s what this year’s Thanksgiving, in my view, represents,’ the President said. ‘So many of us will be gathering with our loved ones for the first time in a long time. And we’ll be reconnecting with traditions, with our tables and our hearts full of grace and gratitude for everyone who made it possible.'”

CNBC:  “Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, adding to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said Friday.  Fires in Sequoia National Park and the surrounding national forest that also bears the trees’ name tore through more than a third of groves in California and torched an estimated 2,261 to 3,637 sequoias, which are the largest trees by volume. Fires in the same area last year killed an unprecedented 7,500 to 10,400 of the 75,000 trees that are only native in about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range.

“Intense fires that burned hot enough and high enough to kill so many giant sequoias — trees once considered nearly fire-proof — puts an exclamation point on the impact of climate change. The combination of a warming planet that has created hotter droughts and a century of fire suppression that choked forests with thick undergrowth have fueled blazes that have sounded the death knell for trees that date back to ancient civilizations.

“’The sobering reality is that we have seen another huge loss within a finite population of these iconic trees that are irreplaceable in many lifetimes,’ said Clay Jordan, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. ‘As spectacular as these trees are we really can’t take them for granted. To ensure that they’re around for our kids and grandkids and great grandkids, some action is necessary.'”

“In sum, Plaintiffs fail to substantiate these claims with any case law, statute, or regulation prohibiting the President of the United States and/or federal governmental entities from executing agreements that contain forum-selection clauses. Plaintiffs further fail to cite to any case law, statute, or regulation that nullifies a forum-selection clause in an agreement between a private corporation and a private individual, once that private individual becomes a federal governmental official. Therefore, Plaintiffs have failed to establish that Mr. Trump’s former status as President of the United States on January 6, 2021 precludes Facebook from enforcing its forum-selection clause against him.” –A portion of the judge’s decision shooting down Donald Trump’s third and final motion trying to get his lawsuit against Facebook moved from California to Florida.

Washington Post: “Federal and state investigators are examining an attempt to breach an Ohio county’s election network that bears striking similarities to an incident in Colorado earlier this year, when government officials helped an outsider gain access to the county voting system in an effort to find fraud. Data obtained in both instances were distributed at an August ‘cyber symposium’ on election fraud hosted by MyPillow executive Mike Lindell, an ally of former president Donald Trump who has spent millions of dollars promoting false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

“The attempted breach in Ohio occurred on May 4 inside the county office of John Hamercheck (R), chairman of the Lake County Board of Commissioners, according to two individuals with knowledge of the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. State and county officials said no sensitive data were obtained, but they determined that a private laptop was plugged into the county network in Hamercheck’s office, and that the routine network traffic captured by the computer was circulated at the same Lindell conference as the data from the Colorado breach. Together, the incidents in Ohio and Colorado point to an escalation in attacks on the nation’s voting systems by those who have embraced Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud. Now, some Trump loyalists pushing for legal challenges and partisan audits are also targeting local officials in a bid to gain access to election systems — moves that themselves could undermine election security.

“An FBI spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that the bureau is investigating the incident in Lake County but declined to comment further. Investigators are trying to determine whether someone on the fifth floor of the Lake County government building improperly accessed the computer network and whether any laws were violated. Investigators with the office of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) believe a government official appears to have facilitated the attempted breach of the election network in Lake County, a spokesman for LaRose said.”