In The Crosshairs

The "Police Blotter" is one of the best features of the Blue Bag Rag, but it could do with a layout change. Since the Wally Whirled Freak Show folded tent and left town, Shoplift Nation has targeted, well, Target. And they're hitting them up multiple times a week. Just recently they got hit on December 19, December 21 and December 26 (Happy Boxing Day). Maybe there should be a section in the Police Blotter dedicated to "shrinkage" at Target. This need not be permanent as Target is likely to follow the trail blazed by Wally despite having superior Loss Prevention personnel and procedures. 

And these perps do bring entertainment to the community. First, they ain't from around here. Not sure if that is a comfort (your neighbors aren't thieves) or a concern (we're being attacked from without). We're talking Marietta, Clarkston, Lawrenceville and Duluth. What, do these places have no Target? And before you get all "It's MARTA" about it, in at least one of the cases the perps drove cars, a Genesis G70. How may Targets did they drive past to get here? Or, did they stop at every one?

Then, it is somewhat interesting that, at least in these three cases, all the perps are women. In a couple of cases they didn't act alone. One woman brought her kid, a four year old boy. Never too young to learn. The perp was hauled off to jail but not before granny came for the kid and the perp's personal effects. 

Lady Genesis had a crew of three (all women) of which two were arrested. This crew was particularly interesting in that the car was searched, drugs were found as were checkbooks, credit cards and IDs belonging to someone other than these three ladies. Oh, and a handgun on the front seat. Here's the kicker: the driver claimed complete ignorance of the contraband saying it wasn't even her car. You gotta wonder if the car was stolen, and if so, why the Flock didn't descend upon it. With all this, only two of the three were arrested because the third woman wasn't on the Target security footage, but she probably had to Uber home because the car was impounded as the driver had no license. 

Stepping back a bit, you really have to wonder what it is about Dunwoody that attracts thieves. They ARE making quite the trip to get to a Dunwoody Wally Whirled or Target. Do they know something we don't? Maybe Loss Prevention should be a bit more introspective. 

Third Time Is The Charm

The Chicken Littles seem to be over their malaise and are back to sowing Trump Terror. This isn't about T2, which is on the launching pad, but the prospect of T3.

Wait...what?

Yep. They're scared of a T3 and they're touting the plan that makes this possible. It is as if without Trump to tear down they'd have no reason to live. Is this really possible and just what is this plan?

Well, it is possible, but highly improbable, which will become obvious when you consider the plan. The plan is simple in design. Trump runs as Veep with someone else topping the ticket, they win, and upon inauguration the new Prez resigns elevating Trump to the oval office. 

This is perfectly legal, and as the left is about to learn, it is because words matter. See, the constitution prevents someone from being elected more than two times to the presidency. It does not place a limit on the number of times someone can serve in that office. The left, notorious for word salad and semantic gymnastics will contend that somehow, the word elected subsumes the meaning of the word serve. Might be true in their partisan minds but not in a court of law, primarily because of legal precedence. Genuflect to stare decisis. The precedent is priceless because it is Joe Biden. See, Papa Joe ran, and was elected, to the US Senate when he was 29 years old, too young to serve, but between being elected and sworn in, he turned 30 years old, old enough to serve. Clearly there is an undeniable constitutional distinction between elected and serve, a distinction that cuts both ways. 

So, it is technically possible for Trump to serve a third term but it is practically impossible. For so many reasons.

It requires that Trump be on a ticket that can win, one where top of ticket can overcome what is likely to be significant Trump Fatigue in the electorate. That's one hell of a candidate.

Such a candidate who can carry that burden across the finish line will inevitably be equipped with an enormous ego. Hell, losers are blessed with egos that would overflow the Benz. Even Biden now thinks he should not have dropped out with his ego telling him he could have snatched victory from the jaws of dementia. Does anyone with any political acumen really believe there exists a politician, were they to win the White House, that would willingly relinquish the presidency?

Another political reality is there are Republicans who feign loyalty (for their own benefit) but secretly look forward to a post-Trump political landscape. Everyone knows politicians are windsocks interested in themselves, their wealth, their power, and little else. 

So yeah, the fear-mongers have identified a legitimate path to T3, but only an idiot can be fooled into taking it seriously.

Slap Happy New Year

The year end edition of the Blue Bag Rag included self-congratulatory back slapping by the mayor and some New Year's resolution from Top Cop 2.0. Only a politician can tout spending money as an "accomplishment" when most of us have tightened our belts and success, for us, looks like fiscal prudence. But hey, this is government. 

One "accomplishment" the mayor and TC2 both spoke to was the "Real-Time Crime Center" serving as a "sports bar" where cops get to watch crime as it is happening. Wonder if they get popcorn. The mayor declared this a "game changer" without any reference to exactly what that game might be, who keeps score and who is the ref. Yet the claim is this expenditure "improves emergency response and aids in crime prevention and investigation." Wow. "Improves" in no way suggests a metric for emergency response consequently providing no assurance that this "improvement" is adequate. Relativism is the tool of political obfuscation. "Aids in crime prevention?" How so? We'll never know. Investigation? Sure, video evidence is admissible. 

TC2 chimes in with commitments to further integrate RTCC with "community safety programs" (we'll ignore the "regional partners" we're subsidizing with this effort). To what community safety does he refer? Certainly not community patrolling for enforcement of traffic laws. But maybe they'll get a kick out of watching red light runners on the big screen. TC2 hopes to ensure this system's "benefits" extend across all neighborhoods and businesses. The "benefit" seems to be "surveillance" so we, the taxpayers, should expect a bill for more cameras. Coming to a street corner near you. 

Maybe if they spent less money and time with their high tech (and soon to be outdated) toys and more on time-tested conventional police work, where community engagement means police patrolling our streets to keep us, and our children, safe, we might be better off. We will probably never know because it will probably never happen.

It's A Roundabout!

Is this part of the problem?

Seems like this package went round and round between Palmetto and the Distribution Center in Atlanta. It was a book, not a hot potato. 

How Long?

The city's recent concrete drop in the village raises an interesting question. You see, at one point, the city required anyone making what the city considered major building reno widen the sidewalks in front to meet Shining PATH Foundation requirements. Hence the patchwork (incrementalism?) you see on Village Parkway in front of a law office and the Jiffy Lube X-Fit. They showed their mercenary bent when the condo developer balked at wide sidewalks on the other side of the parkway. 

Still, you have to wonder. The city dropped some concrete in front of the PNC bank on Mt. Vernon, a road in the Shining PATH's crosshairs and this was the Wide Side, as it was before. A few yards further west, in front of the Wells Fargo bank, we see a Narrow Side dropped. 

Lost Opportunity

Hmmmm... Why didn't they do the Wide Side? Was it because it wasn't in a resident's yard? Perhaps they'll claim it was replacing what was there. Or maybe they'll invoke their long abandoned eco-creds claiming they didn't want to disturb those wonderful shrubs. And yet, rather than replace a fallen tree, which had previously been there, they decided to 'crete over the hole. 

Could Have Had A Tree

Service

They're Just Dying To Ask You...

Who's asking? The city. You might wish they'd actually ask you if you really want those 12 foot wide interstate lanes in your front, or back yard. They don't care what you think about that. You might wonder if they want to know whether or not you want compensation for the loss of property value when they do this, against your will. Don't care about that either. 

So just what do they care about? What do they want to ask?

Yeppers. They want to know if you want anchovies on that pizza! Are we in eighth grade? Are they? Do they think it is a really good idea to treat us like we are? Who knows.

You would have thought with the Democrat's recent face-plant they'd have figured some things out. Yes, Yes, mayor and council races are officially non-partisan, but we all know what color flags they're waving, and they fit the description. One of the key reasons for their recent troubles has been their neglect of the electorate combined with a supercilious approach. They have for far too long listened to pollsters rather than constituents. They've been under the mind-control of wonks and outsiders. Otherwise we'd not have these interstate lanes in our neighborhoods and consequently no heated discussions about them. And we would not be "left behind" because we would be plotting our own path, going our own way. Not someone else's.

Maybe recalls are not practical. Maybe we will have to wait until Election Day. Either way, something must change, either people, or policies, or both.

A Christmas Miracle

Here's a thought exercise to ponder. What if Biden gets all his pardons done and dusted by Christmas Eve? Then he can resign on Christmas Day, thereby making Harris the first woman-of-color to be president of the United States and securing his place in the pantheon of identity politics. Then, Harris could grant Biden one of those pardons, the ones for all things you have done, might have done, and might yet do. Wouldn't that be a Christmas Miracle?

Flailed Authority

Stephen Sackur, host of the BBC's Hard Talk, recently interviewed Martin Baron, the (fairly) recently retired editor of the Washington Post. Just when we thought the chicken littles had been served up as chicken dinner with media pundits pivoting towards the durability of our constitution and away from chimerical existential threats, Baron parrots the pre-election punditry served up by jurassic "journalists." Between decrying all the bad things the prez-elect will do, he belabored the loss of "authority" by the dying media that was his livelihood. And how does he know what T2 will do? Because Trump said he would. Anyone who's been paying attention for the past ten years has heard many prevarications, seen enormous amounts of "fact checking," and been told time and again, by dinosaurs like Baron, that "he's a liar." But Baron, and only those like Baron, can tell his truths from his lies. There, according to Baron, lies journalistic "authority" as in authoritative, not authoritarian. Yet.

But dino-media have lost this authority with many in the public no longer seeing them as purveyors of fact and objectivity, of truth. Critics of last generation media see them as politicized propagandists, but since almost no one under the age of forty even consumes legacy "output" their ability to move the needle has gone the way of their authority. Their transition to biased influence and prevarication is being "fact checked" in the courts. George Snuffleupagus stepped in it when he declared, on air, that Trump had been found guilty of rape. Fact: he was found, in a civil suit, liable of sexual abuse. As a "journalist" Snuffleupagus should, and probably did, know better. ABC, knowing the only defense against libel is the truth, wisely dodged their day in court by agreeing to pay up $15M. Of course this further convinced the public of ABC's devotion to the left at any cost. No authority, just politics. 

Now, tee up the Des Moines Register. And their recently retired pollster. Seems the pollster, in the week before the election, concluded that Iowa flipped from Trump to Harris with Harris commanding a three point lead. The Register dutifully printed it, after all it was what they wanted to believe. The pollster was only off by about fifteen points. Now she and the Register are facing their own fact checking. In court. Accused of election interference. By the winner. They didn't lose their authority, they threw it away. Of course Baron sees this as an illegitimate attack on the Fourth Estate, wants to hide behind the First Amendment and claims the court case is an existential threat to American democracy.  Almost as if he is crying lawfare.

Sackur challenged Baron on key points, but more importantly suggested that maybe, just maybe, the media empire of the previous millennium has fallen. And it can't get up. The cause of death? Suicide. Like the dinosaurs of yore, they did not adapt to a changing environment, they pretended that their business model would endure. It didn't. So what did they do? They doubled down. When that didn't work, they decided to pick a team, a political team, one they thought would align with them, support them, giving up a broad fan base for a smaller group of fervent followers. It isn't clear it ever did work, but it certainly has failed. Perhaps having a media star, like Snuffleupagus, lie about someone he has consistently called a liar, just doesn't play well in Peoria. The Fourth Estate had become accustomed to thinking of themselves as king makers, but they have not been very good at it. Had they been, we would be seeing the close out of Hillary's second term and not T2. The media not only gave up on facts and objectivity, they replaced introspection with arrogance. After all, they are the only ones claiming media authority is even a thing. They had no clue their transparent partisanship would backfire. Maybe telling voters that their candidate is in the lead isn't the best way to get out the vote, at least not for their candidate. 

They knew what they were doing, or wanted to do, they just didn't know how to do it.

Drug Money

Drug dealers have a special way with sales: the first one's free. Free samples are used in other fields, but it is particularly effective with an addictive product. Apparently this tactic is being used at city hall (and you thought it was just prostitution), on city hall. And the drug? Money. And the cost of the drug? More money.

Sounds like a recursive call to the stupid(){...} function. Because it is.

This manifests itself in do-what-we-say grants that gets whatever-they-say started but is insufficient to cover the real and often recurring costs. But the power of addiction is strong and it seems as if everyone at city hall has that monkey on their back. That's how we came to forsake our morals, cast aside integrity and embrace our current spend-then-tax addiction. 

Makes you wonder if we can pack them all up and send them to rehab.