Dinosaurs, birds and England

On screen: Swift Injustice: The Case of Tommy Robinson

There's nothing about this situation that isn't revolting: 

• For nearly 30 years, British Pakistani Muslim gangs perpetuated a child rape ring in Rotherham, grooming and sexually abusing hundreds of mostly white English lower class underage girls. 
• Police and local government knew about it and covered it up. 
• Prominent Islam critic, independent journalist and all around provocateur Tommy Robinson attempts to cover the proceedings outside the court at a trial for suspects in the grooming and abuse ring. He's arrested, convicted, sentenced and dumped into prison in a matter of hours. 
• The media is ordered by the court not to report on the affair. 

From the linked article:

A kangaroo court, then a gag order. In the United Kingdom, where rapists enjoy the right to a full and fair trial, the right to the legal representation of their choice, the right to have sufficient time to prepare their cases, and the right to go home on bail between sessions of their trial. No such rights were offered, however, to Tommy Robinson.

The swiftness with which injustice was meted out to Robinson is stunning. No, more than that: it is terrifying. On various occasions over the years, I have been subjected in person to an immediate threat of Islamic violence: I have had a knife pulled on me by a young gang member, and been encircled by a crowd of belligerent men in djellabas outside a radical mosque. But that was not frightening. This is frightening -- this utter violation of fundamental British freedoms.

We have the Bill of Rights because of our English heritage and English common law. Having inspired our Founders to create those things, the English seem to have utterly rejected any semblance of recognition of individual rights. What in God's name is wrong with the Brits?

I've said on occasion that although the dinosaurs are long extinct, we can at least see a shadow of what they were by observing their closest descendants: birds. In the same way, I think it's safe to say that England - the real England - is dead and gone, and the closest we'll see to its glory is the USA, while it lasts. We're the birds.

An afterthought: if the Royal Family over there serves any purpose; if there is any justification for even having a king or queen - wouldn't it be appropriate for them to open their mouths, at least in private, to the political leaders of their country about where things are heading over there?

Number Four

On screen: Apple's iOS 11.4 update with 'USB Restricted Mode' may defeat tools like GrayKey

Here's a pretty flower to remind you of the danger (image from quozio.com)

If I could sit down and talk to a sitting Supreme Court Justice, I'd ask them if they thought this had any meaning left:

Amendment IV: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It appears law enforcement has a new toy to break into your phone, and Apple has responded with changes to the lightning cable sync rules.

"To improve security, for a locked iOS device to communicate with USB accessories you must connect an accessory via Lightning connector to the device while unlocked — or enter your device passcode while connected — at least once a week," reads Apple documentation highlighted by security firm ElcomSoft. The feature actually made an appearance in iOS 11.3 betas, but like AirPlay 2 was removed from the finished code.

The change blocks use of the Lightning port for anything but charging if a device is left untouched for seven days. An iPhone or iPad will even refuse to sync with computer running iTunes until iOS is unlocked with a passcode.

Personally, I'd prefer a mode where the lightning port is unusable unless the phone is unlocked at the time of connection. Once a week is seven days too long. Make it a setting that I can change.

In our modern age, our phones and devices ARE our "persons, houses, papers and effects". Law enforcement and the courts have tried to play a game with this issue and pretend that our smartphones are some sort of exception to this. I think the courts need to come down hard on the state over this. I'm not unlocking my phone without a warrant. 

BTW, powering your phone off would be the smart thing to do if the law shows up - that way they can't make you unlock it with a fingerprint. Or just disable Touch ID.

I don't like the idea of mobsters, drug runners, creeps and terrorists being able to hide their misdeeds, but if that's the price of keeping the government out of my personal data, I'm willing to pay it. Unethical prosecutors make any trust in the justice system unwarranted. We've seen cops and courts come after people for sport, money or political reasons. The Bill of Rights exists precisely because of this potential for abuse. It's time to bring our personal technology under the Constitution's protection.

Is a Puzzlement

On screen: Berkeley student government proposes giving College Republican funds to Black Student Union

Puzzlement: not just for the King of Siam

There's rarely an idea, good or bad, that doesn't come back into style eventually:

The student government of the University of California, Berkeley, will vote today on whether to defund Berkeley’s chapter of the College Republicans and reallocate those funds to the Black Student Union.

As the king would say, "is a puzzlement". To wit: 

1. Why are there College Republicans in Berkeley? Wouldn't sensible people stay clear of that place? 
2. Why is there a Black Student Union? Is there a White Student Union?
3. When did "separate but equal" come back into style? Did someone decide segregation was a good idea again and not tell me? 
4. Who decided to let a bunch of leftist children decide how the university would allocate funding?

What dastardly thing did the CR's do, anyway?

Senator Rizza Estacio, a member of the Associated Students of the University of California, proposed the reallocation of funding on the grounds that the College Republicans’ behavior during campus events was in violation of school policy.

“Some of what this organization has done has broken regulations that we uphold to every registered student organization,”  Estacio told the student newspaper The Daily Californian. “I want to make it clear that if you break these rules, you are no longer eligible for our funding.”

Ah, I see. They broke "rules". I'm not sure which ones, because they didn't say, but they must have been serious rules. Probably worse than the ones against wearing black masks and rioting, though I can't imagine what. Evidently, no one else can either:

It is unclear which policies Estacio believes the group violated. Eugene Volokh, a lawyer and law professor at UCLA, told The College Fix via email that, according to Supreme Court precedent, a “content-neutral application of generally applicable and enforced rules is generally allowed; targeting a group because of its viewpoint is not.” The student government did not respond to requests for clarification on which policies the College Republicans may have broken.

At least they have one adult out there:

Reached via email, campus spokesman Dan Mogulof told The College Fix that “the Student Unions on University of California campuses are separate legal entities from the campus and therefore act with full autonomy and independence.”

“By the same token, senate decisions are not binding on the campus, so regardless of any decisions the ASUC senate may or may not take, UC Berkeley’s administration will continue to treat every single one of our 1000+ student organizations in an equitable fashion without regard for their perspectives or politics,” Mogulof added.

 
The more time passes, the more I agree with Mike Rowe: Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe on the High Cost of College. The cost is more than just money - it's sanity.

On the other hand, it's so cute to see these children act like they're in charge of anything. They might as well enjoy the role playing now, because when I order my Starbucks, I get to call the shots (if you'll pardon the expression).

Want More Government? Here's More Government.

On screen: Just When You Thought Broward County's Failures Concerning The Parkland Shooting Can't Get Any Worse, They Do

And: An Investigation Into Broward County’s School Board & Superintendent

And this Twitter thread, from the author of the second link, a Parkland student

Background: Stoneman Douglas High School shooting


The gist of this post can be summarized almost completely by this excerpt from the first link:

1. The School Board after a $100 million dollar appropriation for school security in 2014, they failed to spend it, including a failure to modify the fire alarms to turn off if there is not a real fire, which would likely have saved lives along with other enhancements.

2. The School Board had a policy to keep students out of jail, going so far as to instruct school resource officers that when a felony is committed by a student that they could consider arresting them, not that they should arrest them, but they should just consider it as an option.

3. Cruz "was never arrested despite threatening to kill students, bringing bullets to school, and being involved in multiple fights."

4. No school board member or other administrative officials have been fired or required to resign for their malfeasance and disastrous policies to date.

Again, the mainstream media and professional journalists didn't pick up on this, it took a student journalist to be interested and persistent enough to dig this up, and it again destroys the blame the NRA narrative.

...

The sheer amount of fail before, during, and after the shooting is rather staggering. Verily, it takes a village to mess this up this consistently over and over again. So of course, instead of blaming themselves for this causal chain of events a mile long and years in the making, they decided to blame the NRA. 

While the media and gun grabbers have been using that reprehensible little douchebag David Hogg (he of the Nazi salute and armband fame) to advance their disarmament agenda, another Parkland student did the homework on the real fault(s) for the shooting. Read his Twitter thread above, and Medium article, if you can stand it.

If anyone want to know why I think less policing, less taxes and less government would be a good thing, have a close look at this situation and see how much throwing money and government management behind school security helped. If your answer is "not at all", then you and I just might be on the same side.

And of course, this is just another data point for how completely useless the news media is. It took a kid to do what they couldn't do. Or wouldn't. I'm not sure which makes them look worse.


Coda: then there's this, if you're not pissed enough: Parkland student ‘interrogated’ for shooting AR-15 at gun range

So get this - the school and police can't or won't lift a finger to stop a monster, but they're all over this guy for exercising his Constitutional rights in a safe and legal setting. Pretty typical, actually. Policing criminals and dangerous people is too much work. It's much easier to hassle the law-abiding.

And there's nothing the police and authorities can do that pisses me off more than that.