neatimes.com

Wednesday 30 April 2025 11:53:04 PM CST

Saturday 26 April 2025 10:39:02 PM CST

Hadn't kept up with ARP in a while and checked to see if he had any new live stuff up. Here's a nice piece from just last year. Actually they're all good, there's a performance at Wacken from a few years back they didn't get the sound perfect but still pretty good. That can happen at big affairs like that with a lot of bands. He still got pretty much the same crew with the newest being there for about twelve years now. That'd the great Bobby Rondilelli who started out with Rainbow way back in the day. Bobby replaced Mike Terrana who was with them for quite a while. Ferdy still on keys and he's real fun to watch and they all seem to be having fun. And of course Johnny still there, one of the best around and a lot of fun.

Hokay, sorry, doing my Lance Russell again. Okey-dokey, Chris sez he ready to go so let's go.

Believe I commented on the stuff in Memphis about MATA employees spending a lot of money on city credit cards for non-business stuff. That's one more reason the city government needs to be put under some kind of adult supervision. Still pretty regular killings, several unapprehended suspects.

This is northeast Arkansas since it happened across the river in Marion. Marion is too close to Left Memphis for me and it's demographics are going the wrong way. It's had a small increase in population but whether any or them are leaving Left Memphis or not. Left Memphis population is declining a good bit. Used to be a lot of people had jobs in Memphis and didn't want to live there and lived in Marion and even further away. That was when there was jobs in Memphis. I asked the Goolge AI thing about it:

That doesn't tell the whole story. Used to be big companies like International Harvester and Malone and Hyde and Firestone and even Ford had a plant there. Course some of them companies like International Paper fell victim to economic changes. Dunno how much the reduced use of paper for writing and printing newspapers hurt since they make paper for other stuff but it probably didn't help much.

Sunday 27 April 2025 10:52:12 PM CST

The West Memphis thing has been talked about a lot and I guess nobody knows what happened except the ones done it. Maybe if the police had immediately called the state police and let them handle it maybe it would have gone differently. Whether they would have found who done it who knows but at least a reasonably competent and professional investigation would have happened. I would think that three children murdered would be sufficiently out of the ordinary for murders that they would have. Left Memphis sits on the intersection of I-40 and I-55 and no telling how many thousands of cars go through there and I wondered sometimes if somebody from no telling where stopped and did it and moved on. Dunno if that's likely or not.

They didn't say why it took so long to charge this dude. Has he been in the hospital since December or it took a while to figure out what to charge him with? They closed the books on this one so that's that.

It would seem that the only way to keep this one off the road for a while would be prison. I'd think after about the third one would be better. I ain't been by that Dodge's store in a long time. Kingshighway is so narrow in places I get nervous the way some people around there drive. I never did care for it - kinda dirty and the clientele was kinda dodgy.

What, Chris?

That's from living in England for a while.

Monday 28 April 2025 11:32:34 PM CST

Probably happens a lot - somebody leaves and then there's money missing. Seen it a few times meself in banking and some other businesses where somebody wasn't paying attention. Shouldn't happen in police departments though. If they didn't fire the guy or gal for stealing I'd guess they didn't know.

Every illegal in the country should be experiencing anxiety. Actually they should just leave and apparently some are but not nearly enough. The recent arrests of a couple of obstructionist judges may make some less enthusiastic but there are those determined to keep as many of them here as possible. I do wonder who pays those people.

"As someone who doesn't have any legal status here, she is afraid of her kids being left alone," said attorney Matthew Orr, who translated for Cindy Flores. Even though her kids have some type of protected status now, she still has that fear of them going to school, of something happening to them. She says one always comes here with the, looking for opportunities, and it's just something sad and shameful to happen."

WREG.com

Been here twelve years and can't speak English?

The Zenger trial doesn't have anything to do with the organized slander against President Trump. And with his record of wins so far it it wouldn't be surprising if most if not all settle.

Actually they've been behaving pretty well. Apparently there have been some arguments and each one was supposed to be the beginning of the end. Just like the DOD boss snafu was supposed to be the end of him. Whatever.

I don't doubt there are hundreds of scholars that believe that diminishing the power of the government is moving swiftly towards authoritarianism. The universities crank them out almost fast as welfare babies. Well, not quite but...

Ocrazio and the old commie that owns three mansions teamed up to tour the country in 10K per hour jets and tell everybody how bad things are and how much worse they're gonna get if we don't get rid of President Trump and elect commies. Be interesting how many crowds they can pay for.

Tuesday 29 April 2025 09:12:03 PM CST

The population of Forrest City peaked at just over 15K in 2010, down to barely 13K in 2020. They used to have a good bit of industry, few good-sized factories and a lot of people from Wynne worked there. Working in the bank in Wynne lot of paychecks from them being cashed on Friday afternoon. Dunno if they still do but back then the bank closed at three like other days and then opened up at four for two hours so people could cash paychecks. For a while there was people lived in Forrest City worked in Memphis, like a lot of people from Wynne. Pretty quick drive as I-40 runs through Forrest City. If you lived in Wynne you usually took US 64 over to Left Memphis and got on I-40 or I-55 depending on where you was goin' in Memphis.

Dunno what Social Justice and Equality Day is. There a Social Justice Day in February but that doesn't include equality of whatever kind. Lessee what the google says:

Good to know somebody is concerned about hairballs and mani-pedis. And two for plumbers - one suggests embracing a plumber. Not after he been working on the bathroom stuff I hope. There's been times I was mighty glad to see a plumber but prefer to just get it done and wait for bill. Hairstylists too and penguins. But no combination social justice and equality.

I don't recall him talking sense about alphabet people any more than illegals murdering our people. Don't care either. Will the next one be worse? Some say he might be black but I'd be surprised. Like Democrats allowing a Jewish person to run for president. Want their votes but don't want them in charge. I expect he won't be any better.

60 Minutes didn't have any independence to be compromised. Why when they invite a conservative talk show host he said only if they do it live-to-tape they didn't go for it. Gotta record it and cut it up the way they want.

There a lot of cities losing revenue as government waste and fraud is eliminated. Why should KC be any different? St. Louis is a bigger cesspit and has more to cut but why they talk about KC?

Wednesday 30 April 2025 09:12:03 PM CST

Some of the better covers in this era. Most weren't that great compared to the final ones in the 1990s or whenever but that goes for the genre generally. Got a collection of the James Bond paperbacks from around then and they got a similar look. If you haven't read the books but seen the movies you may be disappointed but they're closer to real world. The Nick Carter books are very close to reality of the time they were written.

In this adventure Nick is informed by his boss that he needs to get down to Bolivia on account of reports that Che Guevara is alive and well and planning to make more trouble. Not as well as he was since one of his hands was sent to the CIA to prove he was dead so when Nick catches up with him he got a hook where the hand was.

You already know that this time Che is gonna be dead for sure when it's over. Wickedpedia tells us this was written by a Jon Messman. He seems to have written quite a few books but I don't seem to have read any of his others.

Local hospital back in the black it seems. They get a one percent sales tax given to them so I guess when they was losin' money it calculated with the taxpayer input. Actually with the influx of illegals stopped the situation shouldn't get any worse. Now if we could just get rid of a few million things would get real better. The administration had a couple of judges arrested for aiding and abetting illegals to escape ICE - be interesting to see if that dampens enthusiasm for resistance. They were warned, now they know to take it seriously.

The Memphis MATA director said she didn't know the situation - 60 million deficit - was so bad or she wouldn't have blown all that money. Did she think it would be all right to steal if the operation wasn't losing money? Somebody needs to go to prison but I ain't holding my breath.

I'm just guessing but it looks the... what was that... Social Justice and Equality Day was a Jonestown thing as I haven't seen any national news about it. Sez here the mayor proclaimed it and they been doing it for three years. Guess the regular Social Justice day wasn't enough or they needed one with Social Justice and Equality both. The president of the local NAACP explained it:

Carter spoke against the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in college admissions, state legislation in Arkansas aiming to place the State Library Board under the Department of Education, and anti-drag and LGBTQ+ legislation in Tennessee. He said citizens needed to involve themselves in state and local politics and speak out when they wanted to see change.

Jonesbororightnow.com

OK, got it. The Supreme Court prohibiting discrimination based on race, sex, religion and all that stuff is somehow socially unjust and/or unequal? And of course alphabet people got all the rights anyone else has but not allowing them to try to recruit children not old enough to know what's going on is oppression.

"We must be louder than our oppressor and stronger than our fear. We must speak up when silence is expected," Carter said. "We must vote when they try to suppress us and we must lead when others hesitate. We must love boldly in a time of hate. We must fight, but not with our fists. We must fight with faith and with vision."
Jonesbororightnow.com

Who are the oppressors and suppressors? The male Caucasians who don't want to see less qualified get a job they want and can do better because of race or sex? Speaking of which what a lot of people knew back in January but they let it age a few months so not so many people paying attention.

Female Blackhawk pilot and social aide to the president, very stylish as Harry Callahan would say. Sixty-seven innocent people dead is a helluva price to pay for being stylish.

MAGAHurtz@MyndCryme

Some Peyton Places are bigger than others. How big can one be? Memphis is not far from Twin Falls, but it's what some of its inhabitants and close neighbors describe as a big hick town. A lot more people in one place but the character of the place didn't improve. I spent a fair amount of time there back in the day, going to movies and concerts when I was younger and later on business. It's been too dangerous for a long time for me to even want to drive through. Across the Mississippi is a place called West Memphis, sometimes called Left Memphis by the locals. Its population peaked around 1990 and has decreased steadily since then to around 24,000 today. In 1994 the case of the West Memphis Three became national news for years, probably the most attention the city has ever had. Five or six miles away is Marion, population a little over a dozen thousand these days. Unlike West Memphis the population has increased considerably since 1990. West Memphis is... not a nice place, I'll just leave it that. Like Forrest City about forty miles away. About the same only smaller, about 13,000 and declining. Forrest City had a pretty sensational case on account of something that happened there about ten years before the West Memphis Three affair. Police and politics played a prominent role in that too. Let's do the West Memphis thing first. I traveled through Memphis a good bit in those days, mostly to the airport but on occasion driving to a customer in the Arkansas-Missouri area. Memphis is where I-40 and I-55 cross. I had been at a bank in southern Missouri and went through Memphis on the way home. I stopped in West Memphis because there was a Walgreens store there that carried a good selection of cigars and had a liquor store attached. The liquor store got a lot of traffic from Memphis for some reason. Arkansas seems to have higher taxes on liquor than Tennessee so it wouldn't be that, and Memphis had plenty of good liquor stores. Anyway the Walgreens had a good bit of imported beers and most liquor stores didn't have. So I'd stop and get some cigars and a bottle or two of something. That's what I did on 5 May 1993, the day the day they found the bodies of the three eight year old boys who had been killed the previous day. Cops all over the place, sheriff department and state police too. I drove by the place where the bodies were found and saw the yellow tape but didn't know what it was about. A truck wash visible from the interstate. The Blue Beacon, had a rotating blue light on top. Later that night I watched the news and learned what had happened. At least what was known, the bodies of the boys that went missing the day before had been found - that was about it. The whole thing has been thoroughly investigated and disscussed and books written and movies made and what happened (besides three boys being killed) remains the subject of debate and disagreement by a lot of people. My only observation is that had the West Memphis police, upon finding that they had an unusual crime (multiple victins, children, possible sexual assault) immediately called the state police things may well have been quite different. They didn't - possibly because the city was under investigation by the state for various corrupt activities - and the investigation was about what you'd expect from a corrupt and inept small town police department. You can read the rest and see what you think. The trials were held in Jonesboro, about sixty miles away. I knew - slightly - one of the defense lawyers and the foreman of one of juries. And I have no idea what happened or if they got the right guys or anything else. Due in part to the controversy and questions about the process but more because of the publicity and the celebrities who took up their cause the three (originally sentenced to death in one case and life in prison in the other two) would eventually be freed after serving less than twenty years. The only certain thing is that three young boys were murdered. As Mack Bolan said: For every action there is a reaction, for every good an evil, for every strength a weakness, and for every injustice there is somewhere a final justice. Over in Forrest City things were a bit simpler, fewer folks with the money and political power. I don't know if it's possible to have a sheriff that isn't crooked but never knew of one. The one in St. Francis county was the stereotypical corrupt southern sheriff. He kept a tight lid on things, drug dealers and gambling joints that didn't pay him off got shut down and people went to jail. The ones that paid operated without fear. I avoided the place, it being a speed trap and the cops looked for out of town cars that weren't just passing through. I had some friends there and was visiting one day and got pulled over. Wasn't speeding or violating any other laws, they just wanted to check me out. Put me in the police car and poked around in my car and quizzed my passenger about what we were doing in town. Asked if we smoked grass. I thought that was strange, most called it pot or weed. Grass was an '60s term and this was the '70s. Wrote me a ticket for improper lane usage and let me go. But I digress. The fact is if you weren't an insider or had friends who were you better behave. One guy who had moved around a bit ended up in Forrest City and found out the hard way. Wayne DuMond was a Vietnam vet, apparently a dodgy character. He seems to have participated in a murder and got off by turning state's evidence, had some arrests for child (teenaged) molestation and a rape charge that was dismissed. Guy like that didn't need to be hanging out in Forrest City. When the daughter of a local elite was raped by someone or other she identified DuMond as her attacker. Over a month later. Said she saw him driving a truck her assailant drove. Some problems with her story, description of he truck, some other details. Anyway he was arrested, supposedly the victim picked him out of a lineup. Whatever the facts he was going down. Life plus twenty. Usually rapist might get thirty years or so but someone wanted DuMond gone for good. The fact that the victim was a third cousin of Slick Willie (in office as governor at the time) may have had something to do with it. Before the trial he had some more bad luck. Couple of guys broke into his house, tied him up and castrated him. Sheriff came to he scene and collected the excised private parts and took them to the funeral home owned by the father of he victim. Put them in a jar of formaldehyde and kept them in his office for a while, showed them to people occasionally. Later he flushed them down a toilet. While in prison DuMond sued the sheriff and won, got $110,000. No one was ever arrested for cutting his balls off. Due to the doubts some people had and the excessive sentence the governor after Slick Willie (who had become President of the U.S. Slick Willie) reduced the sentence to something more reasonable. That governor was soon convicted of crimes as part of Slick Willie's criminal enterprise as governor and resigned after the lieutenant governor started impeachment proceedings. The lieutenant governor (whose daughter would later be governor) became governor and DuMond was paroled. What the governor had to do with it is unclear, but in any case the parole board recommended it. That caused a lot more controversy. After his release DuMond moved to Missouri. His wife had died while he was in prison and he married a woman in Missouri. Later he was arrested and charged with the rape and murder of another woman. He was convicted and died in prison a few years later. There is reason to believe that he was railroaded for the rape in Forrest City - mainly because of the credibility of his accusers is practically non-existent - but with his record he never had a chance even if he didn't do it. But if he didn't do it his experiences didn't improve his mental condition which apparently was not good to begin with. If not for the corrupt law his guilt would be much easier to believe. The sheriff was the chief crime lord in that county for a long time but finally his past caught up with him. It started out with some a federal tax beef and once he was down the pack moved in. He was in his sixties by then and he got a bit of prison time and died there. County got another sheriff about as bad as he was.