SivaGanesha

14 hours ago, sfzombie13 said:

i didn't read the article as i don't have an interest, but the paragraph you have in bold does say exactly what you reworded below.  the court has discretion with sentencing AFTER consideration of the sentencing guidelines.  depending on how good the lawyer arguing the case is, or how much money the plaintiff has, he may well plea down the charges with mandatory sentencing guidelines or be found not guilty of them.

 

Yes it is all in the stuff in bold, but the paragraph in bold refers to both "discretionary" and "mandatory" sentences. I'm trying to emphasize that in the end his sentence will be more mandatory than discretionary.

 

Yes, if his lawyer is good enough to get the aggravated identity theft charges dropped entirely, he can get a lower sentence. My point is that by tacking on such charges, the prosecutors are sending a strong signal that they aren't open to such a deal. Should he elect to go to trial, his odds are not good, as federal prosecutors have a 95%+ conviction rate.

 

Unless his attorney believes he has an unusually good case at trial, they will likely focus on getting as good a plea bargain as possible. By tacking on the aggravated identity theft charges, the prosecutors have already drawn their line in the sand as to how they expect said plea bargaining to go, and it is unlikely (not impossible) that line will be crossed.

 

He'll get some short, plea bargained, sentence on the wire fraud and two years, served consecutively, on the aggravated identity theft.

 

 

On 6/23/2021 at 3:34 PM, jacketsdb23 said:

More drama from the Lodi tandem course fiasco many years ago. Will be curious how this ends.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/san-joaquin-county-skydiver-arrested-running-unauthorized-tandem-instructor-courses?fbclid=IwAR1J9K-54iAs7VHd8Pt3j4s50-FInjljkV9xBsKvgVhrnoQgwGF5Ho2DNWA

 

Thanks for this link. There is a statement from that press release that needs to be clarified a bit:

If convicted, Pooley faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of wire fraud, and a mandatory two year sentence on each count of aggravated identity theft. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

This says that the court has discretion on the sentencing. That is only true on the wire fraud charge. On the surface, the wire fraud charge sounds more serious since the maximum penalty is 20 years. In practice, however, the federal sentencing guidelines will almost surely lead to a sentence far, far lower than 20 years. For the wire fraud charge, 20 years probably doesn't really mean 20 years or anything close.

 

However the 2 years for aggravated identity theft really does mean 2 years. If convicted, his sentence on that count will be 2 years, neither more nor less. There is exactly zero discretion when it comes to the federal sentencing guidelines for aggravated identity theft. The 2 years for aggravated identity theft could well end up being longer than the 20 years for wire fraud because there is no discretion.

 

The aggravated identity theft charge is only used in conjunction with other serious felonies, and it is a tool used by federal prosecutors to reduce the discretion of judges, probation officers, and the defense to push for a shorter sentence. If convicted, he will be serving 2 years plus whatever he gets on the other charge.

 

By tacking on the aggravated identity theft charges, the prosecutors are sending a strong signal that they want significant prison time rather than some more lenient alternative sentence.

I got that survey question too.

Long ago I used to be a member of CSPA (Canadian Sport Parachuting Association) back when they still had an E license on the books.

I said that an E license was wrong back when CSPA did it.

And an E license would be wrong if USPA does it.

And two wrongs sure as hell don't make a Wright @BobWright LOL!!

More seriously, I did recommend to them in my response to the query that they talk to Bob. Bob is the only E license holder I've ever met, CSPA E-8. I jumped at his DZ a couple of times in 1986. I recall that the E license involved jumping through a lot of hoops, figuratively or literally. One had to have made five night jumps and five water jumps. The E license seemed to just involve bragging rights without really giving a lot of additional privileges. Most jumpers stopped at a D.

 

Note that multiple responses are not allowed. Trump, like anyone else, can only physically be sent to one prison at a time. There is a lot of talk of prosecuting him after he leaves office. However, he has been accused of multiple instances of different types of crimes--crimes against the country as President as well as both private business and personal crimes. At some point a decision will need to made as to which type of crime to focus on first.

 

8 hours ago, wmw999 said:

Policing is one of those real-time-decision jobs where there has to be some leeway for acceptance of decisions made with insufficient evidence;

 

Agreed but if those real time decisions evince underlying priorities that are seriously screwed, then something needs to change.

 

AFAIK George Floyd was accused of nothing more than using a $20 counterfeit bill--a relatively minor crime. I have no idea whether he was innocent or guilty of the original accused crime--and he is no longer around to defend himself from any criminal charges. But it should never happen that the arrest of someone charged with such a minor crime results in anyone's death--be that the detainee, a law enforcement officer, or a bystander. It is better--much better--that the suspect simply get away than there be a death over something so minor. When such minor charges escalate into death, something is very very wrong with the underlying priorities that are driving the real time decisions.

 

Now it is different when more serious crimes are alleged. If we are talking about the Boston Marathon bombing, then it was reasonable for law enforcement to take some risk of death both for themselves and for the suspects they were attempting to apprehend. As it turned out, one police officer as well as one suspect did perish, and the other suspect was seriously hurt before hiding in a boat and eventually being arrested.

 

But something is very wrong when these minor accused crimes--often, it seems, involving a black suspect--escalate into something so tragic. If the arrest cannot be done safely, then it should not be done at all. This case was especially egregious since it seems most of the severe brutality took place after Floyd was already handcuffed and, I presume, no longer a significant threat.

 

A review of any real time decision making needs to include learning and, if needed, changing the policies that were guiding the decision making. It is hard for me to imagine any reasonable policy leading to the real time behavior we've seen in these officers, especially the one who physically restrained Floyd. The fact that we don't typically see such things happen in other wealthy countries--many of which are also becoming quite racially diverse like the USA--means that we shouldn't accept such things as unavoidable.

 

I also believe that, given that this happened in the covid-19 era, this incident has resulted in protests which have put the whole country at greater risk of a new spike of covid-19 cases. As such I believe that Derek Chauvin should face federal treason charges carrying the death penalty. And I'm someone who is generally opposed to the death penalty. Chauvin should face state murder charges--life without parole--for the murder of Floyd but federal treason charges--death penalty--for jeopardizing the country's recovery from covid-19.

 

On 4/27/2020 at 4:41 PM, kallend said:

However bad things are for most other rich democracies...

 

I think that is the point. O'Toole is writing from the perspective of other rich democracies, and it may be a correct view from that perspective. It is not necessarily a worldwide view. The USA is still an attractive destination from the point of view of people from other countries who are truly hurting and want to seek a better life. Have a look at the following site which admittedly was before coronavirus but was after Trump took office:

 

Which countries do migrants want to move to?

 

It shows that the US is still the most popular destination for immigrants worldwide. I know a lot of immigrants from countries like India and China. As the list suggests, other countries like Canada, Germany, and the UK tend to be seen as worthy second choices if they can't get into, or stay, in the USA. But the US is still often the first choice. O'Toole's Ireland isn't on the list at all.

 

Additionally, per capita Ireland is actually harder hit by coronavirus than the US is:

 

COVID-19 Cases per Million Inhabitants: A Comparison

 

In general it seems to be "rich democracies" that are the hardest hit, or maybe they are just able to do more testing?

 

The situation with the migrant caravans traveling to the US from Central American countries through Mexico a year or two ago sent, for me, an interesting and mixed message. On one hand, the Democrats may be correct that they received pretty poor treatment from the Trump administration when they arrived at the border. OTOH, the caravans wouldn't have existed at all if people didn't still want to move to the US, even with Trump in charge.

 

I think O'Toole's comment really nails it, although he may not have intended it. If you are rich and live elsewhere the US has little to offer. But if you are poor and live elsewhere, there is still a perception, even now, that there is a lot of opportunity in the US--if you can get in that is.

 

I don't know who Biden will pick, but on the list you've provided I'd pick either Rice or Whitmer. Tulsi Gabbard would be an option too.

 

My sole criterion is that it should be a strong woman who is not currently sitting in the US Senate. It needs to be understood that when we pick a VP, we are effectively picking a US Senator, because the VP casts the tie breaking vote. The prospect of a deadlocked Senate after the 2020 election is high enough that I believe this should be the only criterion.

 

Democrats should view the VP choice as an opportunity to pick up a seat in the Senate. As such we should not be picking for a VP someone who is already sitting in the Senate, since we need their strong voices there. Even if the VP comes from a state with a Democratic governor who would surely appoint a Democratic replacement, appointments of that kind are going to be much weaker than an elected Senator with seniority. It is an extreme example, but the appointed Roland Burris proved to be a lot weaker than the elected Senator he replaced (Barack Obama). The Democrats lost that seat in the next election. Now that Democrats have again won that seat back (Tammy Duckworth) I think Duckworth and all strong women in the Senate should remain just that--strong women in the Senate.

 

But I do think Biden is right to want to pick a woman. I just think it should be a woman from outside the US Senate with one possible exception I'll now mention.

 

If I were Biden, and given how unusual this election is in multiple ways, I would be at least toying with the idea of pulling an Abe Lincoln and turning to a strong, but moderate, Republican woman to help unify the country. Susan Collins comes to mind.

 

I would expect that at DZ's where people who work there live (i.e. when they "shelter in place" they will remain at the DZ because that is where they live) they would still have the occasional load going up. The DZ might be closed to the general public and to skydivers who don't live at the DZ, but jumpers who live there could still jump.

 

Such people, although they will make far fewer jumps than in ordinary times, will still be jumping enough to stay current.

 

 

I don't think many people in the skydiving community know that much about my professional background, but I've worked in the data science and AI communities for many years.

 

An Israeli data science/AI friend of mine, Shmuel Ur, has developed a new technique for diagnosing covid-19. The idea is to detect changes in the pattern of someone's voice which may betray having the virus before more visible symptoms show up. He needs people to sign up for his site and record their voice, though, to get him the data he needs to perfect his technique. He needs both healthy people and people with the virus to do this. It only takes a few minutes of someone's time to do this.

 

You can check out Shmuel's site and sign up here:

 

HELP US BEAT COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

58 minutes ago, Baksteen said:

That's quite the conclusion you draw, based on a post that was clearly a so-called "joke" (look it up sometime).

 

 

Nothing about COVID-19 is funny. I will not apologize for getting on my "high horse" on this. Close friends of mine are on a ship that was in Antarctic waters before this COVID-19 thing became serious. Their ship has been roaming the world looking for a place to dock that will let them in, and they may end up, against their will, in the Netherlands (their ship's home country) before too long. I hope they will find a place that is not too badly infected.

 

I recognize that my attitude here is that of a tight-assed asshole, and I make no apologies for acting like a tight-assed asshole in times like this.

 

Social distancing is applicable to EVERYONE, even immediate family living together, in times like this. Period.

 

6 minutes ago, Baksteen said:

Families as in parents and children living in the same home, du-uh.

 

 

 

Still wrong at least in some circumstances. There will be circumstances when husbands need to self isolate from wives to fight this. There will be circumstances when mothers need to self isolate from their children to fight this. There will be circumstances when this is needed even when they live in the same home. No one is exempt and no human relationship guarantees exemption.

 

This whole thing is REALLY serious and no one is exempt no matter what their relationship might be.

 

19 hours ago, Baksteen said:

In the Netherlands, social distancing is not applicable for families.

 

 

 

Then the Netherlands is approaching this wrong and putting the planet at risk.

Really sad to hear this. Maybe you should consider making the trip. Perhaps you could change the hospital's minds if you were there in person. Sounds like you don't have much time to decide what to do one way or the other.

27 minutes ago, RobertMBlevins said:

 

• Test subjects? I would offer immediate parole, or even Presidential Pardons, to inmates in Federal prison for volunteering as a test subject...as long as they were not violent offenders or considered really dangerous to the public. White collar criminals, some drug offenders, etc. 

 

Agreed.

 

While we are on the topic of prisons--and even more so jails--it seems to me that jails present a huge problem in terms of beating this thing. In a jail you have very overcrowded conditions which seem to me to be prime breeding grounds for spreading this virus. It is especially a problem in a jail because a jail, moreso than a prison, is run by the county and has a bit of a revolving door. These inmates then come into contact with correctional officers who in turn come into contact with the larger community. Big problem.

 

4 hours ago, normiss said:

Results from one model indicate likely outcomes depending on degree of mitigation we manage to implement in the U.S.:

“Weak mitigation (what's happening now): Peak in early June. ~100M infections, 1.76M casualties.

“Moderate mitigation (widespread social distancing, business closures, restricted travel): Peak in mid to late June. ~100M infections. 1.27M casualties.

“Strong mitigation (complete societal shutdown, Wuhan style): Peak December. ~35M infections. 171,000 casualties.

Source: https://neherlab.org/covid19/

“Right now, we are at weak mitigation. The sooner we move to moderate mitigation, the better - every day counts. Most non-authoritarian governments cannot implement strong mitigation..”

 

Hmmm...something doesn't seem right about these numbers. We are definitely at at least moderate mitigation here in the US at this point. Most non-essential businesses are closing where I live and travel is definitely severely restricted. These numbers suggest there would be no reduction at all in numbers of infections--only the numbers of casualties--by going from weak to moderate mitigation. That doesn't make sense to me, Additionally, in China/Wuhan, the rate of new infections peaked around mid-February, so strong mitigation seems to result in a peak less than a month after the number of cases was at the current US level.

52 minutes ago, wolfriverjoe said:

But to simply post that a cut away happened, nobody was hurt and no more info is not really worth it.
 

 

I mostly agree but slight nitpick: he didn't actually say that no one was hurt. He said only that no one was killed. I assume, reading between the lines, that no one was hurt--but he didn't actually say that.

33 minutes ago, pchapman said:

 

(PS - Bob Wright was my first jump PFF instructor at the end of the '80s!)

 

Thanks for the added detail on license numbers w/CSPA. Now that you mention it, I remember I heard before about the gap that was left when the requirements changed.

 

I didn't do PFF w/Bob. My home DZ back then was SWOOP then at the same airport. I did the SL/IAD progression at SWOOP (they switched from SL to IAD right during my student progression). After getting off student status, though, I occasionally jumped at Bob's DZ at the same airport.

 

 

 

On 11/26/2019 at 11:53 AM, iranianjumper said:

Is there any change to license number by getting higher license ? or it is the same as perevious number ?

 

I believe that in both the USA and Canada, each category of license numbers starting from 1 (when licenses started in the 1950's or so) up to the present time. So your B license number will be based on the total number of B's issued to that point--which won't be the same as the total number of A's issued up to when you got your A, etc.

 

I remember that when I jumped at his drop zone back in the 1980's, Canadian DZO Bob Wright signed my logbook as "E-8". Back then CSPA (but not USPA) still issued E licenses, but they were rare even then, and "E-8" meant that Bob had only the eighth CSPA E license ever issued.

 

There may be some exceptions for example the honorary D-20000 of late President George HW Bush (who DID make a few civilian skydives but not enough to qualify for a non-honorary license of any flavor, let alone a "D").

 

15 hours ago, myeyescapture said:

That's their old website I believe. The new website is https://skydivelodiparachutecenter.com.

 

Thanks! That makes some sense but I'm still a bit confused. The site you are referring to as the 'new' website has existed since at least as early as 2015 according to web.archive.org . The 'old' website specifically shows the year of 2019 at the top of the page, suggesting it is still being updated (at least as of earlier in 2019) and is still showing current info (at least as of earlier in 2019).

Does anyone know if Lodi still offers courses that lead in any way to a USPA A license or any other type of recognition by USPA? I was checking out their website and I was quite surprised to see the name of an instructor listed there who I understood has been kicked out of USPA:

Accelerated Training Program

Is USPA in any way lending an air of legitimacy to whatever goes on at Lodi these days?

 

On 4/22/2019 at 11:33 AM, FLYJACK said:

 

 

 

On this map are the red dots supposed to represent before Cooper jumped and the blue dots after he jumped?  If so they seem to be off by one minute since I think he jumped at 20:13 but the 20:12 dot is already shown as blue.  Anyways I don't quite understand why a jump in this terrain is so often described as unsurvivable.  The closest communities to the location of the aircraft at 20:13 seem to be Heisson and Battle Ground.  The elevation of Heisson is 440ft and the elevation of Battle Ground is 295ft.  Doesn't sound that mountainous to me.  A jump in this area should have been survivable.  It doesn't make sense to me that this terrain is often described as so mountainous that Cooper could not have survived.

On 3/31/2019 at 6:42 AM, neilmck said:

You can add to that the fact that 30-odd years ago skydiving use to hurt.  As a student parachutist one would jump worn out modified ex-World War II C9 round chutes. Every landing felt like someone hitting you with a lump hammer.

 

While I don't deny that it was so at some point in the past, I think what you describe is further back than 30 years ago.  My first jump was nearly 36 years ago at SWOOP (South Western Ontario Organization of Parachutists) then in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada.  Student jumpers at SWOOP jumped Sierra round canopies, not military surplus gear.  And SWOOP was actually a bit behind the curve.  The other DZ at the same airport--Grand Bend Sport Parachuting Center--was already using ram air canopies for first jump students even as far back as 1983 IIRC.

 

I wouldn't describe every landing under a Sierra round as being like "someone hitting me with a lump hammer".  Some landings were like that, but those were definitely landings on which I didn't do a good PLF.

 

The openings under Sierra rounds, however, were much harder than anything I've experienced under a modern square canopy (once I progressed under the S/L student system to delays long enough to have a Sierra opening at terminal).

 

4 hours ago, FLYJACK said:

Due to Cooper's age he almost certainly had military experience, that alone doesn't make him Cooper.. hundreds of thousand of males that age range had military experience.

 

I'm curious why you'd say that.  Cooper is generally described as being in his forties in 1971.  In my view, the accuracy of your statement above would depend on whether he was in his early or his late forties.  If he was in his late forties, and old enough to have served in WW2, then your statement would definitely be true, since I believe the vast majority of young men in that generation did serve.  If he was in his early forties, though, he would have been too young for WW2 but also probably too old for Vietnam.  Yes, he might have served in Korea, but that is a much smaller group than WW2 veterans, so I'd question the "almost certainly" part of your statement.

turtlespeed

The next morning Bin Laden woke up in bed with Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding and Nancy Pelosi at his side.

His dick was gone, his knees were broken, and he had no health insurance.

Well in just two short weeks we will all be able to enjoy Nancycare again.

PS--the genie didn't quite get the job done. Lorena Bobbitt was Ecuadorean, not American. She was eventually allowed to stay in the USA, though. You might say that she was willing to do a job Americans wouldn't do.

ecnuob

Was the DZ open today?

I just read a news article at recordnet.com. Can't easily cut and paste the link since I'm on my mobile device right now. But according to that article the answer to your question is 'yes': Bill was very much open for business today.