Irish Citizen overstayed his US visa by 3 days, spent 100 days in detention

I really enjoy reading articles like this. They make me think. There's a bit of a disconnect between the real story and the headline.  

Irish Citizen overstayed visa by 3 days, detained 100 days

At first, I thought, "Oh no! Those ICE troopers grabbed this guy and threw him in the dungeon!" As I read the story, it painted Thomas (a nickname, used fearing further consequences) as a victim of excessive immigration enforcement. Let's review his timeline.

He visited his girlfriend Malone (likely not her real name) in West Virginia in the fall of 2024, having 90 days to visit. He planned to leave in December. In October, he "badly tore his calf" and the doctor told him not to travel for 8-12 weeks. The risk of blood clots, you know. It meant he would have to stay slightly past the expiration of his visa on 08-Dec. He sent paperwork from his doctor to "the Irish and US embassies and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seek an extension, but it was short notice and he did not hear back," the Guardian quotes him as saying. 

Somehow, they visited her family in Savannah GA (a journey of about 450 miles) without traveling (presumably the doctor meant air travel and they drove?), and there he suffered a "mental health episode" which manifested as a hotel room argument with his girlfriend.

Someone overheard the argument and called the police, who arrested Thomas for "falsely imprisoning" Malone. He was released on bond, and then picked up by ICE, presumably on 11-December 2024. He immediately volunteered for deportation to Ireland.

• Florida Atty General notices possibility that weather modification could have played a role in Texas floods.

The weather. Everybody's talking about it, but no one is really doing anything about it. --- common saying often repeated by Mark Twain

James Uthmeier is the attorney general for the state of Florida.The state has recently passed a law prohibiting cloud-seeding, weather modification, and geoengineering. Florida claims that airports are in the best position to recognize weather modification, and are required to report monthly on their observations. 

    In a letter to the operators of public use airports, Florida Atty General writes he “can’t help but notice the possibility that weather modification could have played a role” in the Texas floods. 

MY TAKE: I have no idea why airports would be in a better position than anyone else, but the conspiracy theory about "chemtrails" is that water vapor contrails are a sign of an attempt to modify weather, or introduce mind control chemicals, or to fight global warming by reflecting heat back into space. 

AA good imagination is a terrific thing, as long as we can tell the difference between what's real and what's not. One of the time-tested ways is to ask, "Do I THINK it? Do I KNOW it? Can I PROVE it?” I'm not sure it serves the public interest for government officials to spend much time on the first two. 

Yeah? Well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man.

I like to pick on Uthmeier because he's a magnet for satire. 

NOAA has debunked the claims that clouds were seeded near Kerrville TX two days before the floods. They also are adamant that there is not a way to steer hurricanes. 

General Uthmeier proposed and has overseen the development of an immigration detention center in Florida that he named, "Alligator Alcatraz." Early reports are that the place has issues with mosquitos, plumbing, and flooding. There are concerns about the impact it might have on the water supply for 8 million South Florida residents, but that's just like, you know, someone's opinion, man. 

A

Government Statistics are getting more imputed these days

We have always needed to take government statistics with a grain of salt. It's more popular these days to change definitions and methods of measurement in ways that look a great deal like bias. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates inflation numbers monthly. Where they can’t find prices for particular products in particular location, they estimate by using a comparable product or location. This guesstimate is called “different cell imputation.” [It’s too close to “amputation” for my tastes.] 

Before staffing cuts, this process was used about 10% of the time. I April it was used 30% of the time and in May 35%. One of the casualties of the federal staffing cuts is the accuracy of government statistics. 

I don’t think that the administration considers this a problem, since they like to say what’s true and what’s not. But beware of government statistics for the time being. Inflation, employment, and trade are a few examples. 

On the other hand, the government has been massaging statistics as long as I can remember. Every month they change last month’s employment numbers and sometimes the month before that. Hindsight isn't always 20/20, and foresight never is. 

23-Apr-2018

 Originally published on Facebook 23-April-2018

The News You Need

23-Apr-2018

• The Duchess of Cambridge is in hospital in the early stages of labor with her 3rd child. Prince William is a proud papa-to-be again. You royals-watchers, there’s your fix. 

• A naked man killed 4 at a Waffle House in Nashville. He was arrested at the White House last summer. If they had only executed him like Archie Bunker suggested … I would say that he is still at large but that wouldn’t be true. 

• The Aggies had a great day Saturday, what with burying former First Lady Barbara Bush and holding Muster on the same day. Us Aggies, we eat that stuff up. If you’ve never attended Muster in College Station, well, there’s nothing like it that I know of. 

• Over in Caldwell TX a house was destroyed in an explosion late Saturday night. Police think it might be gas-related. People around here roll their eyes when they hear that. “That’s no UFO, that’s swamp gas.” I’m smelling swamp gas right now. 

• I can’t say how real it is, but it looks like there might be peace in the Korean Peninsula. There are summits, and the k-pop music has been “holstered” for the time being. Please, let me be in charge of US foreign relations with North Korea for a day. I’d let them foul their own nest as much as they like if they don’t bug anyone else. When that guy from Caldwell gets out of the hospital, I’d send him over as an adviser. 

• Since our last visit, a SW Airlines plane had an engine explode. Debris broke a window and a passenger was almost pulled out the window by the air rushing out. Quick-acting passengers pulled the woman back in, though she did not live through the event. The pilot was one of the first female F-18 pilots in the Navy, and her calm professional approach was praised by all concerned.

• Remember the poop train? It’s been cleared, thankfully. In an unrelated note, the zoo in Detroil is offering free “Detroit Zoo Poo.” I think that second prize is extra poo, but I could be wrong. 

• In Singapore, a university robot assembled an Ikea chair in about 20 minutes. Bob Ray, a neighbor I totally made up, says it cheated.  

• With all the news about electric cars and solar power for the house, are we looking at a future where we actually change our impact on the environment? Nah, we’ll probably see peace in Korea first.

Alabama Woman arrested for manslaughter - 27-Jun-2019

So, six months ago, Marshae Jones got into a fight at a mall in Alabama. The other woman shot Ms Jones, who was 5 months pregnant at the time. Jones miscarried. This week, she was arrested for manslaughter. A grand jury claimed she started the fight with the intent of causing her baby's death. We're gonna need Lynyrd Skynyrd to speak to this. Sometimes Alabama looks wrong until Skynyrd straightens it out.

Alabama is trying to be more like El Salvador, where women serve long prison terms for abortions and miscarriages. I wonder if the Women of Alabama still have the vote and can use it to change the landscape over there.

08 June 2018 Entitlement Week

• Todd Entrekin is the sheriff of Etowah County in Alabama. He makes $93,000 a year. He and his wife have a 4 bedroom house with a pool on the Gulf Coast between Pensacola and Mobile, 330 miles from his Gadsden office. Altogether they have $1.7 million in property in Alabama. He pays for yard work for himself and his parents with checks from the “Food Provision” account for the county jail. In a recent financial disclosure, he indicated that he has received $750,000 in additional income from “Food Provision.” This week we was voted out of office by a 2-1 margin to a candidate promising not to use those funds for his personal income. It appears that the people of Etowah County don’t like to pay taxes for jail food that goes into the sheriff’s pockets instead. People seem to feel so entitled these days.

• The Finan family of Indiana spent three years scamming Amazon. They would order electronics, claim that it was damaged or broken, and get a free replacement. Then they would sell them. They created hundreds of fake accounts, stole $1.2 million in merchandise, and made $750,000. They will spend the next six years in federal prison for fraud. Some people seem to feel so entitled these days.

• We knew that Facebook user data was accessed by Cambridge Analytics prior to the 2016 national elections. Shame on them, FB said. Then we found that FB shared customer data with other US tech companies. Hmm, not so much the victim, FB? Then we learned that they shared it with 4 Chinese firms. Okay, no doubt about it. FB is a sieve, piping your info to anyone who pays. And now we hear that some privacy settings may have been changed. Oops! People, I love seeing y’all here, but this place is a public square. Act accordingly.

• The US is putting tariffs on Canadian (and European and Mexican) steel. The president can’t do that just because he’s concerned about trade imbalances, so he has to call it a threat to national security. Canada’s PM said, “Hey, we’re no military threat to you!” and POTUS replied, “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” Um, no. That was a different country. While I admit to being a free trade fan, I don’t mind some brinksmanship to try to keep a level playing field. I do object to having to learn alternate histories. We were not allowed to put whatever we wanted on history tests when I was in school. I might still be a bit upset about that. Mom likes to say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got my mind made up.”

• Burton TX is a small town west of Brenham on 290. This week the state bank was robbed at gunpoint by a heavy-set middle-aged white male. The suspect was nattily attired in a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and a painter’s mask. It appears that he hasn’t missed any meals. My neighbor Bob Ray thinks he might have driven his own pickup to the bank. People feel entitled to rob banks? Really?

• Trugreen is a Memphis-based lawn and weed care company. They’ve published a list of ten cities where they want to increase sales, disguised as a list of cities with the most lyme disease problems. Here you go: Chicago, Hartford, Boston, New Monmouth NJ, Wash DC, Rapid City SD, Boise, Dayton, Pittsburgh, and St Louis. Some cities seem to feel so entitled these days. The CDC reports that infections transmitted by ticks, mosquitos, and fleas are up 30% since 2004.

• Five years ago, a fossilized dinosaur skeleton was found in Wyoming. It’s 70% complete but we don’t know what species it is. Recently it was sold to an anonymous British business man for $2.4 million. It will be loaned to a museum and studied by scientists, who are appalled that a person with $2.4 million feels entitled to own a dinosaur skeleton.

• On 29-May, Micheal Rotondo drove away from his parents’ home in Camillus NY, just west of Syracuse. It would be a common rite of passage for a son to move out of his parents’ home, but this son is 30. He was offered a financial incentive to leave within 30 days. That passed. So his parents took him to court, where he told the judge he felt like he was entitled to stay for six more months. The judge didn’t agree and Mr Rotondo moved out. Well, sort of. He left at 8am well in advance of a noon deadline from the court. He was back a while later to get his Legos out of the basement. His folks wouldn’t allow him in. He called the cops. The Legos were found by the folks and brought out to him. He should move to Alabama and run for sheriff.

• It would end there, as a story about another Peter Pan who didn’t want to grow up, except for the impact it had on Mike Rotondo of Albany NY, who is also looking for his own place. He kept receiving messages from the media around the world, and assuring them that he loves his parents and isn’t involved in any legal actions. All of the Michael Rotondos in upstate New York are on notice.

• Wait, we’re not done. For several hours on Christmas Day, the South Carolina lottery produced about 71,000 tickets that were winners. It was a tic-tac-toe game to get 3 christmas trees in a row, and these tickets had 9 trees – you couldn’t lose. About $1.7 million got paid out before the state stopped paying and researched the basis for the other $71 million in prizes. Coding error by the Greek company that did the computer work for the lottery. After five months of review the state has decided to refund the $1 purchase price of each ticket. Believe you me, there are lawyers all over this one. Now we’re done.

 The News You Need

1-June-2018

• In St Lucie County FL a jury awarded $4 to the family of a man killed by police. In 2014 Gregory Hill, 30, was listening to music in his garage. A woman picking up her child at the school across the street called the police because the music was loud and obscene. Long story here, but the short version is that Hill had a gun (unloaded), and the police shot him through his garage door. His mother sued for funeral costs ($11,000) and the pain and suffering of his 3 children. It’s complicated, and likely that the jury misunderstood their instructions, but it sure seems like a terribly unfair outcome. Florida, as it happens, has a law that if a person is drunk or on drugs they can’t get damages. Moral: Be careful playing Drake songs too loudly.

• In New Zealand, police knocked on the door of the home bought five years earlier by Nigel Rothsay. Fortunately for him they weren’t Florida cops. They had raided his neighbor’s home on suspicion of dealing meth, and put a restraining order on the neighbor’s property. That’s when they learned that Rothsay and his neighbor had bought their homes at the same time and the lot numbers of their homes had been mixed up. Rothsay owned the home lived in by his neighbor, and the house Rothsay lived in belonged to Meth Suspect Neighbor. Welcome to bizarro world, Nigel.

• Elon Musk owns 3 businesses: SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company. In February that last company sold 20,000 flamethrowers for $500 each. They’re more like big Bic lighters, with a range of less than 10 feet, but it’s just a bit of silliness all around anyway. Recently the California legislature wanted to require a $425 permit to own one. Opposition was quick and effective. The law now requires a warning label only. Musk has some room to improve in his enterprises, but is a very entertaining CEO when he’s not in a twitter fight.

• Remember Roseanne Barr? The Roseanne reboot was very successful. Then she tweeted something vulgar. Her employer cancelled her show. She later claimed she was under the influence of Ambien. The makers of Ambien deny that racism is a side effect. I am disappointed that ABC undertook a project with her and didn’t have a contingency plan for the inevitable controversy. Moral: Social media missteps can kill a TV show (or a main character) faster than you can say Jack Robinson.

• Remember back when Pluto was a planet? It was demoted in 2006 to a “dwarf planet” because it didn’t “clear its orbit” through gravitational dominance. NOTE: Neither does Earth, or Jupiter. It’s a controversy that continues. Now some scientists are arguing in Icarus that Pluto is a giant comet. Seriously, guys, lay off the little guy. What did Pluto ever do to you? I’d like to point out that a theory like this is just what makes sense at the time. They will change everything someday, just like all the science I ever learned.

• The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed on 2-March-1836 in a place called Washington-on-the-Brazos. They started a 4th of July fireworks display 20 years ago, sponsored by HEB. Now HEB wants to shift the focus to 2-March. Fine, it’s their marketing budget, do what they want, right? Do yourself a favor, never read the internet comments. You’d think that the state park service was involved in human sacrifice. Some people like change. Some people don’t want any.

• A Bronx couple had a problem. They needed to buy perfume and had to break a $100 bill. So William Williams and Michelle Conception bought a $20 lottery ticket. Williams picked a lottery he’d won $700 on once before. When he scratched the ticket, they won $5 million. There is no truth to the rumor that they’ve been asked to sponsor fireworks at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

• A Charleston SC mom was proud of her Summa Cum Laude graduate son. She ordered a cake online to celebrate, and the website replaced the middle word with 3 dashes. She explained it in the comments, but the cake still came out “Summa --- Laude.” Programmers, try not to confuse Latin with slang. It makes you and Publix Supermarkets look nekulturny. Aren’t we past simple word lists and into context now?