Rick Kinnaird

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

It 7:17 a.m. some five and three quarter hours before Bennie Thompson bangs down the gavel on the next public hearing about the events of January 6th. It’s extraordinary. I mean we had a president trying, at last count, seven different ways to stay in power ending with an armed insurrection. Not only that but there were at least four documentary film makers recording the crimes being committed. I think his (you know who I mean) defense will be either, “I didn’t know it was a crime,” or “if you do it out in the open with everybody watching is it still a crime?”

First up in the latter category is Steve Bannon. In a sweeping turn of conscience he has decided to testify to the Jan 6th Committee – NOT! His trial for ignoring a subpoena is next week. He was hoping to avoid two years in jail. He even shaved and tried to look decent. Too bad Steve. The judge said no delay in the trial. 

Now how about Michael Flynn? There are questions. Was he always this way? Was he somehow radicalized? Was it that in the Army he was kept in line until he got his last assignment and then his true nature came out? When he pleaded the Fifth on the question as to whether he believed in the peaceful transfer of power I have to wonder what crime he was worried about that by answering the question he might be incriminating himself.

So with Flynn it a kind of Chicken and Egg question. But if they you’re an anti-abortionist it wouldn’t matter because eggs are chickens. (Sorry, i had to stick that in somewhere.)

Today’s hearing will supposedly tie the Oathkeeprs to Donald Trump’s inner circle and possibly directly to him.

Aside from the four documentary film makers following these folks around and recording their commission of crimes there is also a recording of The Proud Boys on Zoom (or was it Facetime?) planning what they were going to do on Jan 6th.

The only thing that might keep the orange one out of an orange suit is: death, or so many crimes that they never stop investigating.

PS YO – the Brooklyn Art Museum’s take on Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture. 

And an Egyptian “Weighing of The Heart” ceremony. The Egyptians believed that the heart was the organ of control in the human body. They didn’t understand what the brain was for. After death you went on a journey where there were various trials and tribulations. One of them was the weighing of the heart, as pictured here. The heart was weighed on a scale opposite a feather. If the heart was not “light as a feather” it was thrown to that dog like creature who devoured it and you could not proceed to the afterlife. Bummer.

Monday July 11, 2022

But first – Elvis, the movie. Terrific. Warning – it is almost 3 hours long. Drink no liquids before hand.

Okay so, hum, when I was in Angkor Wat the guards yelled at me, “No GoPro360.” I had no idea what that was. I thought they meant putting a superwide angle lens on a GoPro. But no.

360 photography refers to a new breed of camera. GoPro makes one as does a firm called InstaCamera.

The idea is that you have a thin rectangular camera with lenses on the front and back. They take video both front and back as you move about. With the Instacamera model the lenses overlap and the software in the camera is smart enough to eliminate the stick you are holding the camera with. Therefore the shot looks in someways like it was done from a drone, if you hold the stick high in the air.

InstaCamera makes another camera – very tiny. They provide a round magnetic pendant. The cord from the pendant goes around your neck. The magnet goes under your shirt. The little camera attaches magnetically to the round pendant. The camera lets you know what it is doing (ie photo, video, etc.) by vibrating and making a little noise. There is also a little light on the thing. It glows blue. I don’t know what it means because there is no instruction telling you what it means.

Likewise, there are no instructions telling you what any of the buttons do on the other camera. Yes, there is a picture with tiny print pointing to the buttons. There is a thing you can scan to get the app on your phone, which is the way to see what you’ve shot. It’s not clear of course, if each camera has a separate app or if it’s all in one app.

Then I got a little thing that looks like a small stopwatch in size. There’s no dial, only a screw that you can attach your bigger of the two cameras to. Cool. Why? There’s also a little thing that looks like the kind of a handle like on the bottom of a tripod shoe. Again, why?

Fortunately, the thing was marked with a label mentioning “Bullet Time Cord.” Again, cool, what?

I Googled “Bullet Time” and I get tons of videos of people using a string to swing their camera around their heads. They get a 360 view of their surroundings in slo-mo. One of the videos showed my little stopwatch thingee. It holds a cord. You can screw your camera into the top piece and then pull the camera away from the hub and a cord comes out. You can then swing the thing around. However, you are not in bullet time.

Okay great. What the hell is Bullet Time? More googling. it’s what they did in the movie The Matrix. It’s when you are in slo-mo and the camera is moving about the subject.

If you want to make bullet time stuff you have to go to the app, poke at the std time icon which will raise a slide bar of options. Bullet time is not listed. If you don’t know it’s a slide bar you won’t know to slide the icons to the left and the Bullet Time icon will appear on the right. You need to select Bullet Time. Then you need to hit the cog icon twice to go back to where you were.

No manual. No instruction in the box. Just scan and watch a bunch of idiots swinging around their environment. 

I learned how to operate it from some guy with an eastern European accent.

This is the equivalent of when I was trying to learn some of the controls in iMovie where they had young spindly arm girls yammering on about what you might want to do all the while waving their arms in the air and giving a bunch of “you may want to do this. You may want to do that…” then they’d show the iMovie screen for 3 seconds and do what you wanted to learn. I’d have to stop the action and move slowly through the sequence only to discover they had a different version and what they were doing, my version didn’t have the screen they had.

I think these techie folks are missing a much bigger audience. New technology has five groups of adopters: bleeding edge, early adopters, middle of the road, “I’ll do it if they do it”, and “this is a bad idea. we should kill it”.

It seems the GoPro and InstaCamera are appealing to the first two groups and trying to bring the middle group along by having some really cool videos. It doesn’t really work that way. You want the middle group and the “I’ll do it if they do it” group because that is where the money is.

I saw this in the kiting community with multi-line kites. The manufacturers went after the super-rad athletic types. They got some fabulous performances but didn’t sell much. I mean if you want to sell a kite ya gotta get something a fumble-fingers dad can do with his kids. You need to explain, to show, to have really good instructions.

If you want to sell your cameras. The people with the money are not the folks swinging a camera around on a string. Yeah, it’s cool, but then what?

And if you are going to sell this stuff it would be a really good idea to explain on your website what it is your product does.* Just a thought. I ended up buying both camera because I didn’t understand the difference and the two together on sale were under $1,000. Not everybody can spend that kind of money to find out. Or would care to.

*Yeah. And whole sentences? And as Arlo Gutherie would say, “pictures with circles and arrows.”

Me? I wanna try and show what it’s like to descend a tunnel in and Egyptian pyramid. I don’t know what’s the best way to do that is – yet.

I think the little magnetic guy is the lead contender.

Tomorrow is the hearing. I’ll be back on the beat. I think I’ll sell little Voodoo dolls of various people – politicians. Yeah, that’s it. that’s the ticket.

PS  Pictured: The Bullet cord, a GoPro, the pendant, the little white InstCamera 2 and the 360 InstaCamera model One X 2

PPS If anyone says something like, “Of course, everyone knows what bullet time is” or makes similar comments about 360 photography and you begin feeling a little tingling in your body, like someone is sticking a pin in you it cold be because they are. Sometimes the old tech works the best.

“Oh no, Mr. Bill.”

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

I finally posted Sunday’s bitcherie wherein I said we’d have to put stuff aside while the Tour was on. Now, we’ve got new stuff to worry about. I’d say, “thank god,” but the new stuff is so awful.

I was getting tired of the rehash of how brave Cassidy Hutchinson was and how pathetic and cowardly her former boss, Mark Meadows is, and all the rest of the gang. Then it comes out that the ex-pres is using some of the money he scammed from his followers to buy lawyers for the underlings and then sent them “be loyal” messages. Nice. Oh that’s a crime? Says who? Ya caught me? So what? What ya gonna do?

Now we’ve had two shootings one by an disaffected white guy who was taken into custody without a shot being fired at him and was offered free food, and the other by a black guy who tried to run away and was shot in the back sixty times. The BLM folks are all stirred up. However, after watching and listening to the bodycam footage I gotta say I see what happened. Just before the guy exited his car the police thought they heard a gun shot, thus concluding he was armed. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell you know that the most dangerous position to be in is when multiple police are on the scene because they will out do each other. I don’t know if the police knew the kid was black or white. It was at night. Now, one thing we do know is that the cops get real squeamish if they think they are outgunned like in Uvalde. The kid only had a hand gun and that was found on the seat of his car. So it is possible that he fired the gun once. What he should have done was pulled out an AR15, laid down suppressive gunfire, strapped on body armor and throw some smoke grenades. That or he could have sat in his car and let the police possibly arrest him or shoot him as he sat. 

We can now debate Black Live Matter/Police Brutality versus more mental health, when the real culprit is too many guns.

Speaking of the Tour, I was thinking watching the Tour is like following a baseball team for a season. Most of the time nothing is happening. Then it dawns on you that this might be a no-hitter, or when your team is way behind all of a sudden with two out and two men on base the batter puts one over the fence and your team is back in the game.

Is that what’s going to happen to the U S of A?

Hard to say. Right now there’s a lot of discussion about codifying Roe V Wade and how a small minority is gumming up the works. The best idea I’ve heard is that some billionaires who support democratic principles could pay $50K for several thousand young people to move to Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. They could flip those four states and elect people who were willing to do something and that would be the best investment in democracy we could make. Can you imagine the whining?

Me? I’m with John Oliver who said that every time there’s a problem the Dems ask for another fifteen dollars. You know what? I’d like to know what they do with my money? At least with the right wing we learn from investigative reporting how they are scamming and stealing it then using it for illegal activities.

I was wondering what happened to Heidi Przybyla. That last name is a bunch of consonants with a few not really vowels thrown in. I looked her up. She had left her job. That was the day before yesterday. Yesterday she resurfaced with a report that the underlings around the Trump stop the steal MAGA horse manure are still mining the fools and doing quite well. I hope they all go to jail, and not for five months but twenty years.

Meanwhile, Fani Willis in Georgia has issued subpoenas for the clown car of fools that tried to sway the outcome of the Georgia election. She seems like a no nonsense person. I hope something comes of it. Of course, I hoped something would come of Robert Mueller’s report. Why would it? He only laid out in specific details of ten crimes. Ten crimes. It’s kind of like that Ron White routine where he talked about the LAPD who got in a gunfight with some criminals at point blank range and no one got hurt. “What happened?” “The police engaged the suspects in a gunfight at POINT BLANK RANGE!” “Then what happened?” “Everybody went home.”

Our democracy is in trouble. The Earth is in trouble. The oceans are in trouble. The air is in trouble.

(please note due to my not finishing this screed until Friday 7/8/22 there’s a time shift in the writing starting about here…:)

Stage four of the Tour is today. Did you see Stage three? OMG. Hours of riding, not much happening then on the last climb the yellow jersey was led out and broke away leaving the peleton in the dust and won by 18 seconds. The guy who came in second sprinted to the line and sat up as if he had won. Obviously, not realizing someone had been ahead of him. What did he say? What could he say? After congratulating the guy who came in first he then said, “ObviouslyI am very pleased with my second place finish.” Nice.

What? You want me to go on about the shootings? The testimony? The anticipated testimony next week? The cowards? Be they police or politicians or hangers on? Come on. Old news. Covid? It’s still here. You know, in most countries of the world they don’t allow people to walk around with guns and they wear masks. You are safer in almost any other country than here. Move you say? Land is still cheap out west. Abortion and the dishonesty of the anti-abortionists? Yeah. Well. All this to freak out about. I mean now that we’ve survived the random fireworks of the Fourth. How’s you dog? Still freaked out at night? How about the kids?

Terrible.

Well, ya know. Free expression and all that. Besides these killings are being done by well-regulate militia members. Apparently, these lonely disaffected racist young white men are not so lonely now. They have groups that meet on-line and track the shooting and they long to up the body count. Nice. Nothing we can do. Gotta keep our guns. Besides we have Hollywood that pumps out “the good guy wins” movies. In the real world? Not so much. 

But we can’t be concerned about all that – The Tour is on!

Yesterday the leader of the race went out front in the breakaway. Why? I haven’t heard the reasoning. He got caught and fell four minutes behind. What was he thinking?

Three sports I would not like to compete in: bike racing, cross-country skiing and long distance running. all three sports are hallmarked by complete exhaustion and pain.

Yesterday’s stage of the Tour demonstrated that no matter how good an individual you are you need the help of the other racers. If you go it alone, you will lose. So the question becomes, “How long do you stay in the pack (ie peleton) and when do you go for it?” It’s a huge psychological battle and one of strength and restraint. Go too early and exhaust yourself; go too late and miss crossing the finish first. Yesterday, was a classic. Here the Yellow Jersey went out early and ended up alone for miles. Then he got passed. Now it was up to four riders in front of the Peleton. One broke out and went for it. The other three let him go. He exhausted himself before the finish line and those three passed him. He finished fourth.

Yeah. There’s a lot to worry about. But we’ve got until Tuesday before anything happens. Will the Jan 6th Committee reveal enough that voters will realize that Trump is a criminal and turn on him? Will the Republicans retake the House and gut the committee? Will the Justice Department finally arrest someone?

It like watching the rider going too early for the finish line. Will someone make a move?

Meanwhile, I keep thinking. “Will you let that ten year old who is pregnant get an abortion?” “Will you stop saying that the heartbeat is the sign of life when in fact that heart has not been formed? (it’s an echo of a biological process. – btw.)” “Will we continue to be the only country in the world that allows ever idiot to have a weapon of war?” 

Sunday, July 3, 2023

Listen, I know: the war in Ukraiine, the overturning of Roe, the radical Supreme Court, Jan 6th … There’s a lot of bad ju-ju in the world right now. And there are signs it’s going to get worse. I know. All that will have to wait – sorry.

The Tour is on!

Don’t say, “What?” If you don’t know immediately, you are just a Philistine out of touch … never mind.

It started two days ago with time trials in Denmark. Yesterday was stage 2. The Tour is brutal, if you fall behind watching you don’t catch up. Yesterday was a flat stage. Why? They are in Denmark. The highest point in Denmark is a bridge at 800 feet above sea level. The king of the mountain competition was kind of hard to do. They climbed three hills for on point each. Pretty much all they could do. All three were won by a Dane. Very fitting.

Thursday, June 30, 2022

It’s been three days since Ms Hutchinson gave her testimony. We are in the phase where lawyers and experts are explaining the significance of what she said.

Let’s start with the one thing various fake news outlets are jumping up and down about – The Beast.

The Beast is the name given to the Presidential Limo. These fake news pundits and their coterie of “I’m not a news person I’m an opinionist” are saying it would be near impossible for anyone in the back of that limo to reach the driver’s steering wheel. Ah yes. Maybe so. But others who have ridden with past presidents point out that the vehicle Liz Chaney showed in the hearing was not The Beast but a Suburban. Now if the ex-president had been getting into a Chevy Suburban instead of The Beast it would be relatively easy to lunge over the seat and try to grab the wheel. In fact, most moms point out that their four year olds try to do it regularly. And the ex-president acting as a four year old? … well, need I say more?

Okay, I’ll say more.

What Ms Hutchinson’s testimony has done, say the lawyers, is connect the players. We thought we knew, but now we know. The connection has been made from The Chief of Staff for The President, Mark Meadows, all the way to the war room at The Willard Hotel. This connects Meadows to Stone, Bannon, Giuliani, The Proud Boys, and The Oathkeepers. According to lawyers this does not connect Trump directly. So ya got ask, “Given Trump’s sticking his nose into every little detail and not letting anything be done without his approval is there anyway he didn’t know?” To actually make the connection they’ll need Meadows to testify.

During the 2nd Impeachment many charges were made based on circumstantial evidence, now these charges are being made on direct evidence. If so Trump faces six or seven separate Federal charges. Most carry a five year imprisonment. Sedition carries twenty. 

Now here’s perhaps the most compelling part of Ms Hutchinson’s testimony. The ex-president knew the mob was armed on Federal property (an offense.) He didn’t care because he knew “They aren’t coming for me.” So much for the “lotta love” defense, or the “I’d didn’t know” defense. He also then directed the mob to go to the Capital. He wanted to go too.

Here’s something I didn’t know. The Secret Service is sworn to protect democracy, whatever that means, but let’s game this out.

Suppose Trump actually went to the Capital and the mob was attacking the police. Let’s say that the Secret Service detail of Vice President Pence got into a tussle with the mob and ended up face to face with the ex-president’s detail. What would they do?

Okay. Here’s another one. It is one I’ve always wondered about. Why didn’t the police at the Capital fire on the crowd? The answer is that they knew the crowd was armed with AR15s. The police were outgunned. Imagine if a firefight had broken out? First off we’d be seeing blood on the Capital steps. Secondly, the police could have been slaughtered and the mob could have been free to roam the building searching for Pence and Pelosi and anyone else.

Okay. back to Ms Hutchinson. Trump says he barely knew her and uses all the phrases he always uses when he is disparaging a woman. I make the point that it’s a woman because he has different phrases of disparagement for men. Others have said she was just a glorified coffee girl. Really? That’s why she knew all the top players on a first name basis? 

When you’re Chief of Staff and you want to go to the Willard Hotel to consult with the coup plotters who ya gonna tell so the Secret Service can make the arrangements? Cassidy Hutchinson.

And isn’t it ironic that a 25 year old on basically her first job assignment after college advises this guy. “That’s not a good idea.”

When the president tell the mob he’s marching with them to the Capital who ya gonna call if you’re Minority Speaker of the House and you want to make sure it ain’t happening? Cassidy Hutchinson. “Kevin, that decision has already been made.” (ie He’s not going. Got it Kevin?)

When the ex-president has a hissy fit and throws his food who helps clean it up? Yeah.

When the Secret Service head of the detail needs help who does he call upon?

Who knows better than anyone else who saw the president, when, and what documents were presented to him? Ditto for the Chief of Staff.

Now we get to the reason, I think, they rushed to get this woman’s testimony is witness intimidation. Liz Chaney read and displayed a number of messages that some witnesses have received. She didn’t say who sent them, but they read like a mob boss trying to demand “loyalty.” Hum, who could it be sending these messages? Oh wait, Michael Cohen got messages like this from Donald Trump. In fact, the same phrases were used. Prosecutors, I am told, don’t believe in coincidences. This shot across the bow was aimed directly at you-know-who. I don’t think the shot was aimed across the bow, more like midships.

Carry on.

I’ll be in touch.