Star Wars Day
Who Got Shot First?May the Fourth be 2021
I'm
not much of a Star Wars fan or a Star Trek fan or a Star Tribune fan.
But since today isn't Star Trek day or Star Tribune day, I'll give two
reasons that I'm not a Star Wars fan.
1. The Star Wars Holiday Special
2. The Ewok Adventures
If
those reasons aren't enough, there are plenty more reasons in the Star
Wars universe, including the who-shot-whom-first nonsense.
I once knew an elderly wife who would remind her elderly husband to shoot himself. (He had daily medications.) “Have you shot yourself?” she would ask.
I've been vaccinated.
The
United States has more vaccines than it has people wanting to be
vaccinated. According to some polls, not enough Americans want to get
their shots, and the United States may not have enough immunized people
to reach herd immunity. That means there will be third doses of the
vaccines next year. The masks will stay on. And the health,
entertainment, and hospitality industries will continue to suffer.
The pandemic will continue until the covidiots are ready for it to end.
Music Association: Erich Korngold - King’s Row & Gustav Holst - The Planets - Mars, the Bringer of War
see link for details of the Star Wars music cues
After the Trial of Derek Chauvin
What's Next?April 22, 2021The Derek Chauvin guilty verdicts have delivered a brief sigh of relief for the people of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Chauvin
is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25th at 1:30pm CT. The
murder of George Floyd was a group effort, and the other three former
Minneapolis 3rd Precinct officers are scheduled to stand trial August
23rd. Then there's the trial of former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
police officer Kim Potter who killed Daunte Wright. And then there's the
next Minnesota police murder that hasn't happened yet but will.
People
should be prepared to be the next Darnella Frazier. She used a
smartphone to upload video directly to Facebook. Another option is ACLU’s Mobile Justice app.
Send your video directly to them while witnessing police misconduct,
discrimination, or voting rights violations. Being a witness makes a
difference. People with an iPhone can tell Siri, “Siri, I’m getting pulled over,” and it automatically starts a video recording using your front-facing camera.
Pretextual traffic stops must end. Issues like air fresheners hanging
from rearview mirrors should either be addressed through traffic camera
mailings or not addressed at all.
The
University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science is using buggy
code to attack the Linux Kernel. How does that help, you ask? I'm
asking the same thing.
Music Association: Paul McCartney - Another Day
The George Floyd Murder
The Trial Of Derek ChauvinApril 20, 2021The jury found Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts for the murder of George Floyd today at 4:07pm CT.
The racism of policing, the judicial system, and American society must end.Darnella Frazier is my hero.
From the GoFundMe page for the Peace and Healing of Darnella:
“Darnella
Frazier, the brave young woman who filmed the murder of George Floyd,
deserves peace and healing. In addition to the trauma of watching a
black man be murdered by police, she has had to deal with trolls,
bullies and ignorant people harassing her online. It took unbelievable
courage for her to stand there and bear witness to such an awful
tragedy.”
Darnella
Frazier filmed the murder of George Floyd by former officer Derek
Chauvin, even while Chauvin stared her down, trying to intimidate
her. Her video and still images from her video were instrumental in the
trial, and she also testified against Chauvin at the trial.
Thank you, Darnella Frazier.
Music Association: Van Halen - Right NowThe George Floyd Murder
The Trial Of Derek ChauvinApril 19, 2021The prosecution is making its closing arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. The trial is about life and the right to live and the contempt of life by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.Many businesses throughout the Twin Cities are boarded up to protect property. This
is the first trial in Minnesota history to be televised, and the
closing arguments are being covered live by all five local channels. George Floyd's last words were, “Please, I can't breathe.”
Music Association: The Police - Every Breath You Take
The Daunte Wright Murder
Policing the Police
April 12, 2021
What are we now — the Florida of the North?!?“Oh Shit! I just shot him!”Yes,
officer, you did. That's what pulling the trigger at point-blank range
does. And what was this all about? An air-freshener?!?
Yesterday, a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer shot Daunte Wright, a
20-year-old black father, during a traffic stop by confusing (?!?) a gun and a
tazer. The police officer, a police union president and 26 year police veteran, supposedly mistook her gun for a tazer.
Music Association: B.J. Thomas - Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song
Movie Association: Police Academy
Acronym Association: WTF
The George Floyd Murder
The Trial Of Policing
April 11, 2021
Two weeks have passed in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek
Chauvin. Witness and body cam videos provided front row seats to
the murder of George Floyd. Witness testimonies have shown bystanders
seeing Chauvin's suffocation of George Floyd and they spoke up but have felt guilty for not having done more to stop Chauvin.
Ranking
police officers testified repeatedly that Chauvin was acting outside of
police procedure, as if Chauvin was one bad apple in an orchard of
sweet, unblemished fruit.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria
Arradondo said there was nothing reasonable about Chauvin keeping his
knee on the handcuffed suspect’s neck for 9½ minutes.
“Once Mr. Floyd had stopped
resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to
verbalize that, that should have stopped,” Arradondo said.
Lt. Richard Zimmerman, who leads the Minneapolis Police Department's
homicide unit, said Chauvin's use of force while George Floyd was
already pinned down and handcuffed was “totally unnecessary.”
Los
Angeles Police Sgt. Jody Stiger testified that Chauvin was inflicting
pain on George Floyd, while he was handcuffed and pinned on the
pavement. Stiger said officers' body-worn camera video showed Chauvin
using “his right hand and appeared to use a pain compliance on Mr. Floyd's hand.” Chauvin appeared to be “squeezing
fingers or bringing knuckles together, which can cause pain or pulling
the hand into the cuff, which can cause pain as well.” Sgt. Stiger pointed out that “the handcuffs were not double-locked; they can continue to ratchet tighter as the person moved” while George Floyd was in the prone position and not resisting.
Many commentaries
have said that the Police are not on trial here in Minneapolis. But it
is. Black lives matter and should even to the police. Far too long, the
blue wall of silence has gagged any decency and destroyed evidence of
police misconduct. A compost heap of bad apples have been shielded
behind police badges.
Maryland has just canceled its police bill of rights.
The police should have liability insurance and licensing, not their own bill of rights and not qualified immunity.
The trial continues tomorrow.
Music Association: The Osmond Brothers - One Bad Apple
Tv Association: “See that sign? It says, Apple sauce.”The George Floyd Murder
The Trial Of Derek Chauvin
March 29, 2021
Opening statements began today in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.
A bystander
video was played by the prosecution. The defense tried to sell the idea
that George Floyd happened to die of unrelated medical issues while
Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck.
Music Association: Van Halen - Right Now
The George Floyd Murder
Jury Statistics
March 12, 2021
On
Tuesday, three jurors were selected. On Wednesday, two jurors were
selected. On Thursday, one juror was selected. Today is Friday.
If
I were designing a bar chart, the X axis would be days of the week, the
Y axis would be number of jurors, and the bars would be represented by
jury chairs stacked on top of each other.
Jury selections continue today in Minneapolis for the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Music Association: Badfinger - Day After Day
The George Floyd Murder
Jury Selection
March 9, 2021
Jury
selection began today in Minneapolis in the case of the George Floyd
murder, the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
The voir dire of potential jurors has two fundamental problems: bias due to lack of diversity and a required ignorance about a case.
One of my favorite movies is 12 Angry Men,
a 1957 jury room drama filmed in 19 days. It has everything: expert
cinematography, dynamic characters, a study of arguments,
rationale of emotion, actors wearing their own clothes, a knife fight
-- it has everything, except diversity.
The cast was quite white and male. The jury room has a men's room and a
women's room off of it, not that they needed a women's room.
The
murder case before the 12 Angry Men
didn't have video from multiple
sources like the George Floyd murder. It didn't have
national attention or (to a point) global attention. It didn't
have a jury
representational of Minneapolis.
The trial of Derek Chauvin, facing murder and manslaughter charges, has
video and witnesses of him kneeling on George Floyd's neck for nine
minutes. George Floyd and Derek Chauvin both worked event security for the El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub
with Floyd working security from inside while Chauvin worked security
outside. The videos
include more than 18 minutes from Officer Alex Kueng's bodycam and 10
minutes from Officer Thomas Lane. They were the first two police
officers to arrive on the scene after a complaint that Floyd had
attempted to pass a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes at Cup Foods, a
store in the Powderhorn Park section of Minneapolis.
George Floyd is lying on the road with Chauvin's knee pressed on his neck with Lane and Kueng helping to restrain Floyd.
He says he can't breathe over and over again and calls for his mother but his voice slowly gets weaker as his life drains away.
“Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead,” he says at one point.
Kueng
is seen nonchalantly picking a pebble from the squad car tire with his
right hand as he restrains Floyd's legs with his left.
As his
knee presses the life out of Floyd, Chauvin, the most senior officer on
the scene, asks rookies Lane and Kueng if they are okay. “My knee
might be a little scratched but I will survive,”
Lane answers. When Floyd continues to wail that he can’t breathe,
Kueng is heard telling him. “You’re fine. You’re
talking fine.’
Floyd replies: “I'll probably just die this way.”
“I'm through,' Floyd says. “I'm claustrophobic. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. I need some water or something, please.”
“Then stop talking. Stop yelling,” Chauvin replies. “It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.”
As Floyd stops moving Chauvin keeps his knee on his neck, despite complaints from a small crowd that has gathered.
“Check his pulse,” one man says repeatedly. “You call what you are doing okay?!?”
But the other officers do little to stop Chauvin. At one point Lane asks: “Should we roll him on his side?” But Chauvin replies. “No, he's staying where we've got him.”
“Okay,” Lane says. “I just worry about the excited delirium or whatever.”
“Well, that's why we got the ambulance coming,” Chauvin says.
By the time EMTs arrive, George Floyd is dead.
Music Association: The Police - Every Breath You Take
Transcript from Daily Mail
George
Floyd
Covid-19
Trump
Timeline (PDF)
Voter
Suppression
Music
Videos
Landmine
Hopscotch
Superman
Impact
Investing
Holiday
Gifs of Cats and Kittens Part 1
Part 2
Part
3 Part
4 Part
5
Southdale
Hennepin Library,
Edina
Library 
Wonder
Woman
Food
Fraud 
