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Libertarian Republican Thomas Massie drives a Tesla!

This tweet caught my eye:

When Representative Massie (R-KY 4th District) was asked about the time it took, he replied:

Mr Massie is, of course, a free citizen, and I absolutely support his right to choose which vehicle he wishes to drive. But that map shows just what it’s like, because once you get away from the northeast corridor, your stops better be well-planned, or you’re going to run out of sparktricity along the way. If I’m reading that map correctly, and Mr Massie is taking Interstate 64, there are charging stations in Charleston, West Virginia, Huntington, WV, and then the next one is in Lexington. May the Lord help the Distinguished Gentleman from Kentucky if one of his well planned stops is at a Tesla TSLA: (%) station that is out-of-service for some reason.

Charleston and Huntington are not that far apart, roughly an hour along I-64. Mr Massie’s home in Lewis County isn’t that far from Huntington.

But what Mr Massie has told us, that so many don’t want to acknowledge, is that to make the roughly 475 mile trip, which would take 7 hours in a gasoline powered car, takes two hours longer in his Tesla due to the length of time it takes to recharge the infernal thing.  He is obviously willing to take that extra time — at least, is willing to avoid the idiotic mask mandate aboard commercial airliners  — but people considering electric vehicles need to be aware of this. And the people pushing these vehicles on other people should not only be aware of this, but willing to tell the truth about it.

The truth is in short supply among the left.

 

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Is the Lexington Herald-Leader guilty of sheltering a criminal suspect?

As we have previously noted, the Lexington Herald-Leader is bound by the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, which states that McClatchy publications will not print photos of criminal suspects, unless certain conditions are met. One of the exceptions editors are supposed to consider — and all exceptions to the policy must be approved by an editor — is “Is there an urgent threat to the community?”

On Wednesday, July 28th, Lexington police officers, working with United States Marshals, attempted to arrest Mr Dockery at a home in the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court. The suspect allegedly shot at police, and at least one officer returned fire and wounded Mr Dockery. The Herald-Leader was all kinds of upset that the LPD would not release the names of either the suspect or the officer who shot him.

    Officials haven’t identified the Lexington police officer who fired his gun, nor have they identified the suspect who was shot. He was served with a murder warrant after being taken to a Lexington hospital, according to Lexington police. Police hadn’t yet confirmed who shot the man. It was unclear if U.S. Marshals also fired at him.

    Kentucky State Police are investigating the shooting and Lexington police told the Herald-Leader the release of any additional information would have to be approved by the state agency. Lexington police declined to answer several questions about the shooting during a press conference Wednesday after providing a news release.

The Kentucky State Police, rather than the Lexington Police Department, investigates all officer involved shootings. It would normally be considered a good thing that an agency not involved in the incident would do the investigations.

Well, for the Herald-Leader, which is reluctant to print the mugshots of even “armed and dangerous” criminals, not knowing which officer shot the suspect was just too, too much, so the newspaper kept investigating. At least so far, the officer has not been publicly identified.

    Documents divulge name of man injured in shooting involving Lexington police officer

    By Karla Ward | July 30, 2021 | 9:45 PM EDT

    Court documents provide a description of what police say led up to a shooting in which law enforcement officers injured a homicide suspect at a Lexington home Wednesday.

    The man who was shot is identified as Brandon Dockery, according to documents filed in Fayette District Court in a related case.

    Police said in the court documents that when they went to a home on the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court and made contact with Dockery at the front door, he kept “his hand in his pocket as if he had a weapon” and “continued to ignore officer’s commands.”

    Dockery can be heard saying “I don’t want to die,” on body camera footage, police said in the documents.

The article continues to note that the police initially used a stun gun to subdue Mr Dockery, and an exchange of gunfire followed when the taser apparently failed to incapacitate the suspect. A jammed handgun was found in Mr Dockery’s possession, which has investigators believing that the suspect shot at the arresting officers until it jammed on him.

While the Herald-Leader does not print mugshots of criminal suspects, The First Street Journal does, if we can obtain them. The mugshot of Mr Dockery is not from any Herald-Leader article, but from the Lexington Police Department’s homicide investigations page. I obtained this photo at the time of June 25th story, when Mr Dockery was still on the loose.

So, how did Karla Ward, the newspaper reporter, find out the name of the suspect shot, a name officials had declined to release prior to the completion of the investigation?

    Courtney Jade Brown. Screen capture from WKYT-TV.

    The information was included in a criminal complaint charging Courtney Jade Brown, 26, with first-degree hindering prosecution/apprehension in connection with Dockery’s apprehension. . . .

    The complaint against Brown states that officers and federal agents were doing surveillance at Brown’s residence on Thirlstane Court after learning that Dockery had been in contact with Brown recently and had been “staying there regularly since June.”

    When they saw Brown leave Wednesday morning, Lexington police immediately stopped her at the Speedway at New Circle and Meadow Lane.

    During an interview with a detective from the U.S. Marshal’s Service at the gas station, Brown said she didn’t know where Dockery was and lied when asked if he was at her home, the complaint states.

After interviewing Miss Brown, the LPD and US Marshalls went straight to her home, where Mr Dockery was found. Miss Brown was arrested, charged and released on Thursday.

Of course, the Herald-Leader did not choose to print Miss Brown’s photo either, even though my source for it, WKYT-TV is the newspaper’s ‘news partner,’ and the WKYT story was published at 4:38 PM EDT, three hours and 7 minutes prior to the Herald-Leader’s story. The Herald-Leader certainly had access to the photo.

Obvious question: if Miss Brown is guilty of sheltering Mr Dockery from the police, is the Herald-Leader guilty of the same thing? The residence in question is on a single family homes street, and if the Herald-Leader had published Mr Dockery’s mugshot, perhaps one of the neighbors might have seen it, recognized him, and reported it to the police. The police clearly suspected that Mr Dockery was at Miss Brown’s residence, as they were keeping the place under surveillance, but must not have had enough evidence he was there to execute a warrant there. Had a neighbor spotted the suspect, and reported it to the police, perhaps the warrant could have been executed weeks earlier.

Yes, I know: that would be a difficult case to make. But the McClatchy Mugshot Policy is clearly not helping law enforcement, or serving what so many media outlets have termed the “public’s right to know.” The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists states:

  • Responsibility: The public’s right to know of events of public importance and interest is the overriding mission of the mass media. The purpose of distributing news and enlightened opinion is to serve the general welfare.
  • Freedom of the Press: Freedom of the press is to be guarded as an inalienable right of people in a free society. It carries with it the freedom and the responsibility to discuss, question, and challenge actions and utterances of our government and of our public and private institutions. Journalists uphold the right to speak unpopular opinions and the privilege to agree with the majority.
  • Ethics: Journalists must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know the truth. . . . . Journalists will seek news that serves the public interest, despite the obstacles. They will make constant efforts to assure that the public’s business is conducted in public and that public records are open to public inspection.

Can someone tell me how the McClatchy Mugshot Policy and the Lexington Herald-Leader’s adherence to it, even in the case of armed and dangerous suspects, serves the public’s right to know or the general welfare? How does it serve the public’s interest, despite the obstacles? Mr Dockery has been criminally charged with murder, the most serious crime there is, yet the Herald-Leader chose to withhold from the public information which could have led to his apprehension as much as a month earlier.

Perhaps the McClatchy newspapers have chosen instead to adhere to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journolists.[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term … Continue reading

It’s simple: in their efforts not to “disproportionately harm people of color,”[2]Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy. the Herald-Leader is sacrificing the public’s right to know.

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.
↑2 Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy.
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There is no reason to mandate the COVID vaccine

From The New York Times, not exactly an evil reich-wing source:

    C.D.C. Internal Report Calls Delta Variant as Contagious as Chickenpox

    Infections in vaccinated Americans are rare, compared with those in unvaccinated people, the document said. But when they occur, vaccinated people may spread the virus just as easily.

    By Apoorva Mandavilli | July 30, 2021 | Updated 10:00 a.m. ET

    The Delta variant is much more contagious, more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines and may cause more severe disease than all other known versions of the virus, according to an internal presentation circulated within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Continue reading →

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Los Angeles Unified School District plans on physically assaulting every student and employee, every week.

Have you ever had a COVID-19 test? I have, and it’s a very unpleasant experience. Basically, a nurse sticks a long, stick-mounted cotton swab — think of an eight-inch-long Q-Tip — up your nose to obtain the ‘material’ to be tested. In every state in the union, if you have not consented to this, it would be considered an assault. Does the Los Angeles Unified School District plan on making public education, something required by state law, to be contingent on consenting to be assaulted?

    LAUSD to require COVID-19 testing for all students and staff, regardless of vaccination status

    by: Sareen Habeshian, Jennifer McGraw |Posted: July 29, 2021 | 2:31 PM PDT | Updated: July 29, 2021 | 11:39 PM PDT

    The Los Angeles Unified School District will require all students and employees who are returning for in-person instruction to participate in weekly COVID-19 testing — regardless of vaccination status, the district announced Thursday.

    “This is in accordance with the most recent guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health,” Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said in a statement.

Really? The LAUSD employees are unionized. Have the District gotten the OK from the employees’ unions for this? What union is going to approve of this kind of employment condition?

    LAUSD, the nation’s second-largest school district, had previously said that fully vaccinated students and employees would not require testing. But as schools district-wide prepare to reopen for in-person instruction on Aug. 16, L.A. Unified said it’s closely monitoring evolving health conditions and adapting its response. . . . .

    In addition to regular testing, safety measures will include: masking for all students, staff and visitors; maximizing physical distancing as much as possible; continuing comprehensive sanitizing efforts, including frequent hand washing; upgraded air filtration systems; and collaborating with health partners and agencies to support free COVID-19 vaccination.

Also see: LA Times: Let’s Bring On The COVID Cracksdowns!

So, if some parents are concerned about the safety of the vaccines, why would they bother with getting their children vaccinated if they will still be subjected to weekly testing, and all of the other COVID-19 restrictions?

And since the vaccines have not yet been approved for children 11-years-old and younger, that means almost every student through the fifth grade will be unvaccinated. Even if the LAUSD changes its mind, and allows vaccinated students and employees to skip the weekly testing, the District are still planning on physically assaulting every student from pre-school through the fifth grade.

    “Ultimately, the greatest protection against COVID and the Delta variant is vaccination,” L.A. Unified said in its statement Thursday. “We encourage everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated.”

Really? You don’t plan on having vaccinations make any difference in how you treat students and employees!

The state is required, by law, to provide ‘free’ public education for every student who wants it, and compulsory attendance laws require all school-aged children to be educated. How is the LAUSD going to impose such a rule?

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Republican state agency heads tell Andy Beshear: not just no, but Hell no!

We noted yesterday Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) order that all employees and visitors to state buildings must wear face masks, even if they are fully vaccinated.

But Mr Beshear and his Lieutenant Governor, Jacqueline Coleman, are the only Democrats who serve in statewide elective offices, and that creates problems for enforcement of the Governor’s orders.

    Several KY state agencies run by Republicans won’t enforce Beshear’s new mask rules

    By Daniel Desrochers | July 29, 2021 10:56 AM | Updated: 12:06 PM EDT

    Several state agencies headed by Republicans say they will not enforce Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s mandate for all state workers to resume wearing masks while working inside, a potential sign of how contentious new orders to limit the spread of COVID-19 may become.

    Leaders of the Department of Agriculture, Office of the State Treasurer and Legislative Research Commission all said Thursday they will not enforce the new mask mandate, which comes as COVID-19 cases have surged over the past five weeks.

    In an email sent to the staff of the Department of Agriculture shortly after Beshear announced the new rule Wednesday, Keith Rogers, the chief of staff for Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, told employees the department would leave it up to staff members to decide if they want to wear a mask.

There’s more at the original.

Several state departments noted that the majority of their employees are already vaccinated, and will leave mask wearing optional. while the Legislative Research Commission, which is supervised by the General Assembly, not the Governor, will adhere to its May 23rd policy, which states that vaccinated employees need not wear masks.

We have previously mentioned Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) dictatorial orders, and his refusal to involve the General Assembly.

    Beshear was asked at Friday’s (July 10, 2020 — Editor) news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

His unwillingness to even try to work with the General Assembly was stated much more recently, on June 10th, following the state Supreme Court’s oral arguments on his suits to invalidate several bills passed by the state legislature earlier this year:

    You look back at different things that this legislature has tried to do in the midst of this pandemic and they would have not had the courage to step up and mandate masks, which we know from the experts is absolutely necessary.

Which raises the obvious question: did the Governor, before issuing his order, do something really radical like call the heads of the various state agencies and get their input, or ask them to put in place such rules for the agencies they ran? It’s not that the agency heads had no clue that such an order could come; I have been noting for weeks now that the Governor was looking for an excuse to reimpose the mask mandate, and, despite my obvious brilliance, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

Protesters hanged Governor Andy Beshear in effigy, May 24, 2020.

Governor Beshear hates Republicans, and, in the Bluegrass State, a whole lot of Republicans hate Mr Beshear, and protestors over his lockout policies hanged the Governor in effigy last year. Yeah, that makes it difficult for them to work together. But the state agency heads aren’t rowdy protesters, and many are elected officials in their own rights, people not under the Governor’s authority, and people whom he cannot simply fire. Even if the Governor did not think he would get much of a positive response, he would have at least have had a chance of compliance if he had had the courtesy to call them in advance and ask for their cooperation, or even to issue the instructions for their agencies under their own authority.

But, if the Governor made such calls, it was not so reported in the Herald-Leader article. Personally, I doubt that he did, simply because he believes he can just issue his decrees.

So, if the agency officials refuse to go along, what can the Governor do? He has only two options:

  1. He can plead and cajole with them; or
  2. He can send in the Kentucky State Police to do, what, arrest those not wearing masks?

He did, after all, send the State Police to record license plate and vehicle identification numbers on cars in church parking lots on Easter Sunday of 2020!

Still, I doubt that even our Governor would be so boneheadedly stupid as to do that. At least, I hope so!
______________________________
Update! Well, what do you know?

    Beshear not considering reinstating statewide mask mandate despite COVID case surge

    By Alex Acquisto | July 29, 2021 01:53 PM

    As the threat of COVID-19 continues to worsen in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday said he is not at the point of considering a statewide vaccine mandate or reconsidering a mask mandate.

    “I am not currently considering reinstating the mask mandate,” he said in the state Capitol during a news conference. But reinstating it isn’t out of the question: “It’s on the table if needed.”

    Likewise, with a statewide vaccine mandate, “Right now, I don’t think a mandate from me would necessarily get those that have been unwilling to get vaccinated, vaccinated,” he said.

I’m pretty sure that he’s right about that! Of course, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 8, which expands the exemptions allowable to refuse mandatory vaccination orders, and it became law without the Governor’s signature on March 23, 2021.

So, the mask mandate remains on the table, if not issued again. But I wonder: what would happen if the Governor would simply ask Kentuckians to wear masks, rather than ordering them to do so?

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Andy Beshear orders face masks in all state office buildings

I have been saying, for a while now, that Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) would eventually reissue his odious mask mandate. He hasn’t yet, but he’s moving closer to it:

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Two more Capitol kerfufflers plead guilty to misdemeanors

The seriousness of the Capitol kerfuffle is revealed in the fact that the feds are charging most with just misdemeanors. The bias of the Lexington Herald-Leader is revealed in how they played up the story.

Fired Kentucky nurse, husband plead guilty in Capitol riot case. Sentencing next.

By Jeremy Chisenhall | July 28, 2021 | 01:46 PM | Updated 1:52 PM EDT

A Kentucky couple who were at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in Washington, D.C., have pleaded guilty to participating and face a maximum punishment of six months in prison, according to federal court records filed Tuesday.

Thomas and Lori Vinson, who were arrested on Feb. 23 and charged with participating in the riot and other related crimes, have each pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building, according to plea agreements filed in federal court. In addition to a maximum prison time of six months, the two defendants could also face a fine of up to $5,000. Continue reading →

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More discrimination against Asians by the left

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” — Chief Justice John Roberts, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1

We have previously noted the apparently acceptable racial discrimination against Asians in the United States, and how white liberals not think that black and Hispanic students “have what it takes to compete on merit,” but they dismiss the achievements of students of Asian ethnicity as “white adjacent.”

From The Wall Street Journal:

    The Revolt of the Unwoke

    Three progressive San Francisco school board members are targeted for a recall.

    By William McGurn | July 26, 2021 | 6:26 PM EDT

    If the land of woke has a capital, it’s San Francisco. Which makes it all the more extraordinary that the City by the Bay has now become ground zero for a revolt by unwoke moms and dads.

Continue reading →