Man Charged with Murder for Shooting Uber Driver

Apr 17, 2024

William Brock, right, moments before he fucked up the rest of his life by taking the life of Lo-Letha Hall, left. (Screengrab / dashcam video.)

Eighty-one-year-old William Brock has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault, and three counts of murder for shooting Lo-Letha Hall — an unarmed, 61-year-old, Black woman — three times while she screamed for help.

Because he was afraid of her. And because at some point he decided having a gun around would be a good thing.

If convicted, Brock could be in prison for the rest of his life, which could be months.

Brock told police that he had been the victim of a phone scammer who demanded $12,000 to bail a relative of Brock’s out of jail. Apparently, the scammer called Uber to have a driver pick up the money. The driver was Hall.

All Hall seemed to know was that she was supposed to pick up a package from Brock. Thinking Hall was in on it, Brock demanded that she tell him who she was working with.

Didn’t call the police. Didn’t do other legal things. Got a gun. Took things into his own hands. Took her cell phone so she couldn’t call for help. When she got in her car to leave he shot her. Continued to have a conversation with her but did not call 9/11 to help a woman who was now obviously no threat to him. And shot her two more times.

He was charged with murder, police said, “Due to there being no active threat presented by Ms. Hall at any time during the encounter, and Mr. Brock’s failure to contact authorities for assistance while brandishing a firearm.”

The phone scammers have yet to be identified or found. The scammers who convinced Brock to live in fear and that a gun would save him continue to run the world.

GOP Governors Warn Autoworkers Not to Join Union

Workers at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant begin three days of voting today on whether to unionize the factory, and Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) has joined a coalition — an axis, if you will — with five other southern governors to stop it.

In a statement yesterday, Lee and the five other Republicans announced they’re opposing the broader United Auto Workers (UAW) unionization campaign launched last year. The Chattanooga, TN, plant will start counting votes Friday night.

A Mercedes plant in Vance, AL, voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to hold a unionization vote, as well. Gov. Kay Ivey (R-AL) was one of the six governors who signed yesterday’s anti-union statement.

The statement refers to the Big Three plants that the UAW successfully unionized last year, warning workers that “Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy — in fact, in this year already, all of the UAW automakers have announced layoffs.”

The governors said that they owe it to their constituents to sound a warning when they see “special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by.”

Unions coming into their states constitutes the second invasion these governors are fighting, as they’re already fighting a desperate battle against an invasion of undocumented migrants sneaking into their states hellbent on lowering crime rates and increasing production capacity.

And it’s true that unionization has been followed by job cuts. “[T]here have been buyout offers, as well as layoffs of salaried and hourly workers,” at the newly unionized Big Three plants, CNBC reports.

What the governors didn’t report was that many of the cuts have been to non-union jobs. What the governors also didn’t report is that correlation ≠ causation.

Because CNBC also reported that the automakers are cutting costs at fossil fuel auto plants so they can shift to electric vehicles while there’s still a planet. They’ve also been anticipating an economic downturn — maybe because six governors have been telling us Bidenomics will destroy the economy.

It’s also worth noting that the tax cuts those six governors dangle before automakers (and every other company) get used for things like, I dunno (j/k, I totally know): Robots to kill jobs.

Literally, Republicans offer incentives in the form of tax credits for research (on how to kill jobs) and capital investments (in robots to kill jobs).

Meanwhile, labor reporter Mike Elk’s Payday Report alerts us (because I can’t very well say “Payday Report reports…”) that anti-union groups are warning workers that their dues might help the UAW support Democrats, including Pres. Joe Biden, the job-killing, pedophile-blood-drinker-in-chief.

Given that the plant is in Tennessee, the UAW is trying to distance themselves and the vote from Biden. Volkswagen worker Issac Meadows told Payday Report, “this vote is not about politics. This vote is about the workers, the worker[s] standing up for themselves.”

Which, of course, is politics.

House Delivers Mayorkas Impeachment to Senate

House Republicans yesterday crossed their border with the Senate to deliver two (2) articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Mayorkas stands accused of not locking up every suspected undocumented immigrant he could find. And of testifying falsely to Congress that he’s done a very good job. In other words, Mayorkas is guilty of exactly what all of his predecessors have done.

Why would Republicans bring such shitty articles of impeachment to an impeachment fight? Glad you asked!

As I reported last month, it’s because they’ve sacrificed competence and brain-having for ideology and feels-indulging. So their impeachment effort was led by…

…theocrats!

…a former Stephen Miller aide!

…and a veteran of that other, oh so successful (for Democrats) effort to smear Democrats: Benghazi!

It’s not clear exactly how the Senate will handle the charges assembled by Team Fail, though we may find out today. A full trial doesn’t seem likely — so the issue may instead be how much time Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gives Republicans to yell about how terrible Mayorkas and Pres. Joe Biden are.

Report: Biden to Block Alaska-Wilderness Fuckery

The Interior Department this week is expected to recommend killing a proposed Alaska project that’s proposing to infringe on the subsistence fishing and hunting of at least 30 tribal communities.

The Ambler Road project, a 211-mile road through the remote Alaska wilderness, was approved by somehow-Pres. Donald Trump, ~~despite the fact that~~ because it will cross hundreds of rivers and streams and the lands of several Alaskan tribes, interfering with caribou migration and salmon and sheefish spawning.

There’s an environmental tension to the project, however, as the road was proposed to facilitate mining of copper and zinc for transitioning to clean energy.

In 2021, Politico revealed that Bureau of Land Management Alaska Director Chad Padgett — who was appointed by Trump because the nation literally allowed Trump to appoint people in charge of things for four benighted years — essentially covered up the environmental threats identified by his own people.

If Biden signs off on the recommendation to kill the road, it will mean not only that the vast expanse in question will remain untouched, but also that the minerals won’t be mined.

Report of Massive Antisemitism Spike Counts Anti-Zionism as Antisemitism

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported yesterday that 2023 saw more acts of antisemitism in the U.S. than in any year since it started counting in 1979. And since it started counting anti-Zionism as antisemitism in 2023.

According to the ADL, after the Oc. 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 people in Israel, the ADL decided to expand its definition of antisemitism to include:

Statements or actions “that could be perceived [emphasis added] as supporting terrorism or [emphasis added again] attacks on Jews, Israelis, or Zionists [emphasis added some more],” and
“...public activism (such as at protests), in confrontations between individuals or in the form of vandalism (such as graffiti)...”

In other words (okay, my words), antisemitism according to the ADL now includes public statements, including at peaceful protests, attacking Israeli government policy or Zionism. That’s because, in the ADL’s words, “these expressions constitute an implicit attack on the great majority of American Jews who view a relationship with Israel to be an important part of their religious, cultural and/or social identities.”

In other words (mine again), the ADL’s definition of antisemitism now includes opposition to things that a lot of Jewish people really, really like.

Well, guess what? A recent poll found that 71% of Israelis — the great majority — would like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gone, so I guess that makes supporting Netanyahu hate speech now?

As I’ve written, antisemitism is real. And it is rising. Diluting the definition of antisemitism makes it harder to fight and provides cover to real antisemitism.

Schneider Slaps Back at “Woke” Republicans

Former comedian Rob Schneider says he’s sick of “woke bullshit,” after he was … sigh, I guess I’m gonna say this … canceled over disgusting comments once considered “jokes.” That’s the annoying, boring part of the story. Now let’s have some fun. You’ve earned it!

The woke mob who canceled Schneider was … the Republican Senate Working Group! The SWG is a networking group for corporations and their employees, such as lobbyists and senators.

According to Politico, for a party last year, the SWG decided to hire Schneider, instead of a comedian, for $50,000, or roughly the amount most people would pay Schneider not to come to their party.

Schneider began insulting Asian people, referring to “Korean whorehouses.” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) walked out, heading off into the wintry night to join the other snowflakes. Eventually, the SWG cut Schneider off, as the rest of the country did in 1994.

Now here’s my favorite part. According to Politico, Schneider agreed before the gig to keep his act relatively clean. In other words, he agreed to woke bullshit.

Oh, crap, I forgot, that wasn’t my favorite part. The whole thing went down at a holiday party, Politico says.

NOT A CHRISTMAS PARTY.

Crime Watch

TRUMP JURY D4FRFP1 Donald Trump’s trial — on charges that he violated campaign-finance laws by violating bookkeeping laws to cover up violating God’s laws with Stormy Daniels — resumes today. Seven of his jurors were picked yesterday, and while some Trump critics have fretted that the seven are too Trump-friendly, there’s also a worrying trend for the defense here.

All seven have at least attended some college. At least five read the New York Times (or say they do). At least four have graduate-school degrees. There’s a teacher, a nurse, two lawyers, and a software engineer.

In other words, these are people who are trained in and work in empirical fields. Trump’s legal teams had been hoping to get jurors unfettered by empiricism, who make decisions based instead on feelings and vibes, such as psychics, Wall Street bros, and TV pundits.

TCB

FUCK ME Yesterday I screwed up two state abbreviations, for Tom Cotton, the Republican senator from Arkansas, and Mark Pryor, the former Democratic senator from Arkansas. As longtime followers of me are painfully aware, I have a disastrous record when it comes to the abbreviations for the A states. Just ark anyone. Anyway, the abbreviation for Arkansas is obviously AS, not AK, as I wrote.2 Sorry for the error. It’s a mistase I mase all the time and I should be more sareful.

And thanks to those diligent, loyal Newsfuckers who emailed me to alert me to the mistakes — instead of publicly shaming me in the comments, which I can’t really blame other diligent, loyal Newsfuckers for doing since it was my mistake.

Anyway, I welcome all feedback, whether you’re emailing me privately to let me know I fucked up or sharing your TFN publicly for all the world to see, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, Spoutible or whatever new social-media platform is launching this week And tag me if you do, so I know about it!

Go get ‘em, kids…!

D4FRFP = Disgraced, quadicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.

Gotcha! Man, I just pissed off so many people! Obviously, the abbreviation for Arkansas is AN.