Been There, Done That

This little item brought back a few unpleasant memories:

Three Transportation Security Administration officers were arrested at Miami International Airport for allegedly stealing from passengers during security screenings.

Arrest affidavits show that 22-year-old Elizabeth Fuster, 33-year-old Labarrius Williams and 20-year-old Josue Gonzalez were all arrested Thursday on charges of organized schemes to defraud.

According to the affidavits, the airport federal security director for law enforcement at MIA contacted a Miami-Dade Police detective regarding thefts that occurred at Checkpoint E involving TSA officers. The investigation revealed that three officers, while on duty, were seen on surveillance video conspiring together to distract passengers as they were being screened and stole money from their belongings.

This has happened to me too, only it wasn’t at Miami but at Jan Smuts O.R. Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, at the end of my last [sic]  visit to my hometown.  After unloading my pockets to go through the security cameras, I was (very politely) asked to open my carry-on bag for “extra” security checking.  I did all that, then redressed (shoes, belt etc.) and went off to get some coffee before takeoff…

…only to discover at the coffee bar that all the cash had been stripped from my wallet — about $200, £250, R300 and €50 all told.  Nothing to be done, of course — cash is untraceable, so I had no proof that I’d arrived with any cash in my wallet.

Plus, this was Johannesburg so what else could I expect?  South Africa wins again.  Bastards.

Down The Blue Sinkhole

Illinois has joined California (and not for the first time) in their blue-state legislative insanity, and IlGov Fatboi is leading the charge:

Starting January 1st, 2024, Illinois landlords will be required to rent or sell property to illegal aliens. Illinois Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed SB 1817 into law in late June, which will add “protections in the Illinois Human Rights Act for housing regarding immigration status protection and discriminatory advertising.”

Did I mention that Illinois also passed legislation, which Pritzker also gleefully signed into law, extending standard driver’s license privileges to illegal aliens?

Illinois Democrat State Sen. Ann Gillespie led the effort to expand housing rights to illegal aliens, absurdly claiming that the bill will ensure that illegals aren’t “unjustly denied housing.”

“Someone’s background should not disqualify them from buying or renting property.”

Almost without reflection, I can think of five reasons why illegal residence (which has nothing to do with “background”, by the way) is a very valid reason for disqualification.

To my Ill-Annoys Readers (and I think you know who I’m talking to):  it’s time to leave the state, or actively start seeking employment- and residential opportunities elsewhere so that you can.  Your state is fucked, California-not-so-lite, and that’s the beginning and end of it.  As I say to recalcitrant South Africans:  you don’t want to be in the line for a seat on that last helicopter on the rooftop;  get out while you can.

Look, I know that it’s not an easy decision:  I myself decided to flee Chicago only after much thought, soul-searching and anguish, especially as Connie really didn’t want to leave.  We even looked at northern Michigan for a while (I wouldn’t now, but that’s a different discussion), but eventually decided on Texas because Texas.

Ultimately, we were driven out by the combination of horrible gun laws, high taxes and a Marxist congressional representative (Jan Schakowski), but even when we lived in the NW burbs, our state senator was… the above-mentioned Ann Gillespie.  All those factors forced us to leave.  And that was then.  Now?  Huh.  Like a flash.

Uneven Surfaces

I see that the Climate Loonies have been playing their little games again, this time in Germany:

Climate activists blocked flights at two German airports for several hours Thursday in protest against the most polluting form of transportation, and to demand tougher government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The group Last Generation said several of its members entered the grounds of Hamburg Airport around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) and glued themselves to the runway on the first day of the school vacation in the north German city.

Dozens of flights were canceled and 10 arrivals had to be diverted to other airports, Germany’s dpa news agency reported.

Well, you can’t have airliners taking off over these human speedbumps, of course, so I propose some remedial action, toot sweet:

Or, if that tears up the surface of the runways too much, there’s always this option:

That’s called “crowd control with a schmear”.

Even better, we could use those as practice runs for bigger protests.

Just Stop Oil are planning their most annoying action yet as the eco-zealots said they will ‘paralyze London’ with slow-marching columns 10 times bigger than anyting they have previously done.

The climate activists are set to travel to London from all over the UK to disrupt the capital during rush-hour on Monday.

I’m thinking that crushed bone would make an excellent pothole filler.

Pants, Pants, Burning Bright

Here’s one who should go close to the head of the line when it comes time for visiting the Great Tree:

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed that he doesn’t know how many assets his agency had on the ground on January 6—or whether there were any at all.

I’m old enough to remember when it was a crime or something to lie under oath.  “Perjamas”?  “Purgeworthy”?

Whatever, this asshole should hang third from left.

When All Else Fails

…when your backs are to the wall, and when you have neither the money nor the expertise to fix an intractable problem, you can always call on the… Chinese?

South Africa’s newly minted electricity minister followed up a trip to China last week with pronouncements that the Communist Party will provide a solution for the socialist country’s collapsing power grid, which has needed planned blackouts for much of the past year.

This will end up, in typical African fashion, with a lose-lose result — the Chinese will come to realize, as all colonial powers eventually do, that sinking money into Africa is just that:  throwing money into a pit, with no tangible reward.  And South Africa will end up the same as they are now, maybe worse, with a power system that still doesn’t work, only with a mountain of debt to the Chinese loansharks that they have no chance (or intention) of paying back.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of socialists, on both sides.