I saw a post on Mastodon where somebody was explaining RSS to a couple of millennial coworkers, and the thing that sort of clicked for them was the idea that you could follow content without needing an account. They’ve only known a walled garden online experience. That is sad.

In that thread, somebody mentioned that they prefer RSS and email because it’s quiet. That really resonated with me. Anytime you read anything on social media, the algorithm is working to distract you towards the next shiny thing. The reading experience is distracting. It’s noisy. When you read email and RSS in an open source tool like Thunderbird (or many others), you don’t have that distraction. There is nothing in the platform actively trying to get your attention. It’s quiet.

I think that is an important point, and a strong argument in favor of communicating more via RSS and email, and less via the noisy channels. I know “people” have been predicting the demise of email forever, but it’s still here and still useful for a reason. Spam is mostly a solved problem for the end user, and it’s an open platform (IMAP/SMTP) that nobody can control. Likewise with RSS. I’d argue that since Spotify “podcasts” are not available via RSS, they aren’t actually podcasts. They are Spotifycasts or something lame like that. If I can’t listen with an open source podcast tool, it’s not a podcast.

If you have stuff to say that goes beyond Tweet length, get a blog. Start writing. It’s good for your brain. It’s good for the Internet.

The Mastodon thread

The title is a lie. I didn’t spend the day with the President. I did spend an hour in the same room with him yesterday though.

On Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from a DC area code. I ignored it, as I don’t need to extend my car’s warranty. However, the call was from the health care policy analyst with Congressional Representative Abigail Spanberger’s office. I had talked to him last summer when I found a flaw in the laws related to high deductible health plans. (If you change jobs mid-year, you start over at zero on a new plan, meaning your out-of-pocket for the year can exceed the federally mandated maximum for out-of-pocket expenses for high deductible plans.) Remembering me (or maybe I just came up in a database search of constituents interested in health care policy) he was calling to invite us to the Biden event in Culpepper the next day. I didn’t have any client meetings on Thursday and Michelle was into it, so I took the day off, and we made a date-day of a Presidential policy speech.

Never let it be said that I don’t know how to romance a girl. I did at least dress for the occasion. First time I've put a sport coat and dress shoes on since late 2019.

I had no idea what to expect. They told me to bring ID, proof-of-vaccination, and to expect an onsite COVID-19 test also. Michelle was concerned that her insulin pump and CGM might cause an issue, but having been through Secret Service security a couple of times in the past I knew it would not be an issue. Passing through White House security is way less of a hassle than getting to your plane. I guess it helps that they’ve already done a thorough background check before you even get invited. So anyway, we got up Thursday AM and headed north to Culpepper, arriving around 1030 AM. It took about 20 minutes to get through first level security, a search of your vehicle and a visit from the explosives detecting dog. Then we parked and wandered into the building at Germanna Community College, where security consisted of a simple ID check and a Secret Service agent with a metal detecting wand. As predicted - it was easier than airport security. Maybe what we need is well paid professionals running airport security. They didn’t check our vaccine cards, and nobody tried to stuff a swab up our nose. I did notice our names were coded green on the guest roster, so maybe Secret Service has access to the Virginia vaccine database and knew we were vaccinated?

The event was scheduled to start around 12:30 PM, and we were inside around 11 AM. There were no more than about 25 or 30 guests there. The press outnumbered us. When dealing with very important people, you get to do a lot of very important waiting. The press appeared to have been there for quite a while by the time we got there. It was Biden standing at a podium talking, I’m not sure 30+ photographers were really needed to get the perfect picture of Biden standing at a podium, but what do I know?

The event was, I think, basically a campaign event for Representative Spanberger. She was bounced out of her district after all the arguing about redistricting, so she will have to seek re-election in a more conservative district. Meanwhile, I lose her as a Representative and pick up a Trumplican.

The first speaker was HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, who spoke for about 5 minutes and mostly praised Spanberger and Biden.

Representative Spanberger was 2nd, talking about high healthcare costs and its impact on her constituents. She also touted her accomplishments on other healthcare cost issues. The Republicans repeated attempts to kill the Healthcare Reform Act was her motivation to run for office.

She also introduced the real star of the day, 12-year-old Joshua Davis and his mom Shannon. Shannon spoke about life with a diabetic son and husband, and then Joshua took over the podium and spoke like he was completely unaware that President Biden was standing off to his right. Joshua ended his speech by introducing the President.

Raise your hand if you could have pulled off when you were 12. Or this week.

Then Biden took the podium and talked for about 20 minutes about Build Back Better and specifically the need to limit costs of life-saving medications like insulin or various cancer drugs. Build Back Better contains a provision to limit out-of-pocket costs for insulin to $35/month, but Joe Manchin doesn’t give a damn, so people can die. Is this a great country or what?

After Biden made his exit, stage right, people lined up to take a picture with Representative Spanberger, which I thought was kind of weird. We went over and chatted with Joshua and his family, as Michelle and Joshua obviously have something in common. It turned out that Michelle and Joshua’s mom are also sorority sisters. After lunch at McDonalds we headed home.

So now I can check, “get invited to a Presidential event” off my bucket list. Maybe next year I’ll take Michelle to a Tim Kaine event.

No one starts their day with the expectation of being arrested by law enforcement. Inevitably, people all across Virginia are arrested every day for a wide variety of criminal violations.

Some violations warrant a significant stint behind bars, and other charges can result in as little as a fine. But regardless of how minor the charge is, nobody wants an arrest on their record.

It is clear that having any arrest on your record can negatively impact important parts of your life.

Sometimes, fear of potential lifelong consequences can lead individuals to resist law enforcement’s attempts to arrest them.

However, resisting arrest usually only compounds the problem as it adds yet another criminal charge to your record. And in some cases, resisting arrest can result in allegations that you assaulted an officer. 

If you face allegations of resisting arrest or assaulting an officer, you need to contact a criminal defense lawyer right away. When your freedom is at stake, you do not have time to mess around.

Contact Attorney Andrew Flusche today to set up your initial consultation.

Resisting Arrest in Virginia

Many clients come to our office with a simple question, What is resisting arrest? Unfortunately, the answer often varies depending on which police officer makes the arrest.

The Virginia Code Section 18.2-460 defines resisting arrest as intentionally preventing or attempting to prevent a law enforcement officer from making an arrest. The statute outlines three examples that constitute resisting arrest.

It includes fleeing from a law enforcement officer when:

• The officer applies physical force to the person; or
• The officer tells the person that they are under arrest while having the legal authority and immediate physical ability to place the person under arrest—and a reasonable person would know that they are not free to leave.

In many cases, DUI and resisting arrest charges can arise out of the same interaction. For example, if a law enforcement officer advises you that you are under arrest for DUI and you attempt to drive away, you could receive resisting arrest charges. 

Virginia considers resisting arrest a Class 1 misdemeanor. A Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia carries the potential of up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

Assaulting a Police Officer

Virginia imposes a much more severe penalty for assaulting a police officer than for a typical assault charge. Even though Virginia includes assault and battery in the same statute, they are not necessarily the same thing.

Assault vs. Battery 

An assault occurs when the perpetrator commits an intentional act that puts the victim in fear of immediate harm. Virginia defines battery as the simple touching of another person, willfully or in anger.

Assault differs from battery because assault does not require actual touching of or contact with the victim, but battery does. Still, even minor contact can categorize the touching as a battery. The most obvious example of a battery is punching, hitting, or kicking someone.

But just a few other examples of conduct that could result in a battery charge include:

• Intentionally bumping into someone who is walking by;
• Throwing a snowball at someone with the intent to harm them; or
• Kissing a stranger without their consent.

As a general matter, Virginia considers an assault and battery charge a Class 1 misdemeanor. 

Penalty for Assaulting a Police Officer

However, Virginia imposes stricter penalties for assaulting a police officer, specifically more jail time. However, you can only face charges of assault of a police officer if the officer was on duty during the alleged assault. 

Virginia considers assault and battery on a law enforcement official a Class 6 felony. Technically, Class 6 felonies in Virginia can qualify as felonies or misdemeanors. When treated as a felony, a Class 6 felony in Virginia carries the possibility of between one and five years in prison.

At the discretion of the judge or jury trying the case, they can treat the charge as a misdemeanor and sentence you to jail for no more than 12 months, with a mandatory minimum sentence of six months incarceration. Additionally, a Class 6 felony carries a potential fine of up to $2,500. 

A felony conviction can inflict other hardships on your life, including difficulty finding housing, lack of employment opportunities, and restrictions on owning a firearm.

Remember, the bar for sustaining a battery charge is low. If you are facing an arrest, do not give law enforcement any reason to file additional criminal charges against you.

Even if you think your arrest is improper, you can argue your case more effectively if you avoid receiving additional charges for resisting arrest or assault and battery on a law enforcement officer. 

Charged with Resisting Arrest or Assaulting a Police Officer? Contact Attorney Andrew Flusche Today

Charges of resisting arrest or assaulting a police officer can lead to jail time, stiff fines, and the negative stigma of a criminal conviction.

My experience and personal knowledge of the inner workings of our local courts are critical to giving my clients the best opportunity to secure a favorable outcome—as you can see by taking a look at some of my results and testimonials from clients.

I have developed professional relationships with prosecutors and officers in the local court system. I strive to give you the outcome you need with the least amount of stress.

Contact my office today to start your initial consultation. I’m here to help. 

The post Resisting an Arrest and Assaulting a Police Officer in Virginia: Overview appeared first on Andrew Flusche.

Many law enforcement agencies use traffic stops to uncover other potential driver violations. For example, an officer who stops you for running a stop sign might have more serious charges in mind, like a DUI.

The most common driver response when a police officer attempts to pull them over is to pull over to the side of the road or into a parking lot if there’s heavy traffic present.

However, in limited cases, adrenaline and fear might take over, spurring the decision to run from the police. 

If you are caught running from police, what charge can you expect? Fleeing from an attempted traffic stop is known as eluding police in VA.

If you are charged with eluding police in VA, you should contact a qualified criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. Contact Attorney Andrew Flusche today to set up your initial consultation.

What Is a Running from the Police Charge?

After an eluding police charge in VA, many clients ask us, Is evading the police a felony? In Virginia, the law outlines two forms of eluding police, misdemeanor eluding and felony eluding. The penalty for not stopping for police rises as the dangerousness of the conduct rises.

No matter what level of running from the cops charges you receive, the court will suspend your license for not less than 30 days and not more than one year. If your speed is determined to have exceeded the speed limit by 20 mph or more, the minimum suspension period rises to 90 days.

Misdemeanor Eluding

Code of Virginia Section 46.2-817(A) states that an individual who, having received a visible or audible signal from any law enforcement officer to stop their motor vehicle, drives their motor vehicle in a willful and wanton disregard of such signal, or who attempts to escape or elude the law enforcement officer, is guilty of the Class 2 misdemeanor of eluding police.

A Class 2 misdemeanor in Virginia carries the potential of up to six months in jail and a fine of not more than $1,000.

Felony Eluding

Code of Virginia Section 46.2-817(B) states that an individual who, having received a visible or audible signal from any law enforcement officer to stop their motor vehicle, drives their motor vehicle in a willful and wanton disregard of such signal so as to interfere with or endanger the operation of the law enforcement vehicle or another person is guilty of the Class 6 felony of eluding police.

A Class 6 felony in Virginia carries the potential of between one and five years in prison, or in the court or jury’s discretion, jail for no more than 12 months. Additionally, a Class 6 felony carries the potential of a fine not to exceed $2,500.

Essentially, the level of eluding police charges depends on the risk of harm to law enforcement and other bystanders created by your attempt to flee the traffic stop. 

Eluding Resulting in Death

If a law enforcement officer is killed as a direct and proximate cause of pursuit, the party who committed felony eluding is guilty of a Class 4 felony. A Class 4 felony in Virginia carries the potential of 2-10 years in prison. Additionally, a Class 6 felony carries the potential of a fine not to exceed $100,000.

Defenses to Eluding Police in VA

Virginia’s eluding police statute outlines a potential affirmative defense to the charge.

If the defendant can demonstrate that they reasonably believed they were being pursued by someone other than law enforcement, the affirmative defense applies. For example, if the car attempting to stop you lacked any police markings or emergency lights, this affirmative defense could apply to your case.

Other potential defenses to eluding charges include:

• Someone else was driving the vehicle;
• You didn’t receive a visible or audible signal to stop your vehicle; or
• You pulled over as soon as it was safe to do so.

An experienced criminal defense lawyer can help determine if a legal defense applies in your case.

Facing a Running from the Police Charge in Virginia? Contact an Experienced Criminal Defense Attorney Today

I have represented many clients facing charges of eluding police in Virginia. I was admitted to the Virginia bar in 2007, and shortly after that, I began representing clients charged with traffic infractions.

I realized quickly that this was a niche that excited me. I find great satisfaction in helping everyday people who stumble into the criminal justice system based on a traffic infraction get the justice they deserve.

I know how scary this can be, and I know what it takes to secure a good outcome for my clients. Additionally, I have extensive professional relationships with local law enforcement and prosecutors.

I believe these relationships are a critical asset when negotiating for the best possible plea agreement. I tackle my cases with a result-oriented approach looking to have your case dismissed or your charges reduced. I handle all of my cases personally, giving each client the one-on-one attention their case deserves.

Contact my office today to discuss your case. 

The post What Happens if I Don’t Stop for Law Enforcement in Virginia? appeared first on Andrew Flusche.

For a while I've been thinking about how best to share the stuff I'm reading or watching or listening, without just posting them to Facebook. Substack is the obvious answer, but screw that. I don't need another platform that will eventually disappoint me. So we'll do it right here on the blog with a monthly feature I've named Inputs.

I spent 5 seconds on that name. You can probably tell.

Reading

I apparently finished six books in January. Hiding from Omicron had at least one pleasant side effect. They are all cataloged on the books page, so I won't go into detail here. Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks by Mark Woods soothed my camping neglected soul in January. Likewise Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams by Robert Peterson gave me a midwinter baseball fix. Due to the owners being billionaire assholes I'm probably going to be looking for a substitute Red Sox fix this Spring as the owners seem willing to forego hundreds of millions in revenue this year in the hopes of getting billions more later. But that is a subject for a different post.

Online, I found a few things that were worth bookmarking.

The Battle to Save Waikiki Beach is a long but very interesting look at how all the various competing interests make it hard to get stuff done, even when everybody accepts the danger of climate change and the need to do something.

100 hard rock and metal albums you need in your life delivers exactly what it advertises. And it's written by a long time internet friend.

An old Virginia plantation, a new owner and a family legacy unveiled is a great story about a family buying the plantation in Virginia where their enslaved ancestors once toiled.

Drivin' N Cryin' got some love in This underdog Southern band is getting a well-deserved victory lap

I also enjoyed this story of non-partisan bird walks led by the Audubon Society for congressional staffers.

Watching

Hitting the treadmill almost every morning means I've upped my screen time quite a bit. Treadmill viewing has included a re-watch of The Dirt, some Olympic Curling, and I'm almost done with Lupin, which is a fabulous crime mystery on Netflix.

Michelle and I blasted through two seasons of For All Mankind, the Ronald D Moore series on Apple TV about an alternate history where the Russians got to the moon first. It's the drama and tension of Battlestar Galactica brought to the Space Race.

We also watched the final season of The Expanse, which wrapped up things nicely while leaving one big unresolved thing that could power a sequel if Bezos is so inclined.

Speaking of final seasons, we also got through the first half of the final season of Ozark, a show filled with completely unlikable characters, except maybe for Ruth. She is a heroin dealer though, so likable maybe only goes so far. The last half of the season is due in June I think.

We also watched Summer of Soul, the Questlove produced flick about the music and culture festival in Harlem the summer of 1969 that got overshadowed by Woodstock and completely forgotten, until the footage was rediscovered in 2019. It's up for a well deserved Oscar and you should watch it.

Listening

The whole Spotify dust-up has me trying to listen to my music more and random streaming less. However, random Internet travels did unearth some fabulous new to me music this month.

Lawrence is a wildly talented brother - sister team from Brooklyn channeling the best of early 70s soul (think Stevie Wonder, think The Jackson Five, etc.) layed with modern pop sensibilities. Not my usual jam, I know, but holy crap are these kids good!

Also, Ghost Hounds is a blues rock / roots rock band from Pittsburgh that I have had on repeat play for the last week.

And that's it. We only left the house for necessary errands in January as we tried to do our part to limit the spread of Omicron. It was probably a futile effort as nobody else seems to give a fuck. However the three folks living in my house have managed to not catch any version of COVID-19, so there is that.

A while back when I quit Amazon Prime (note to self - quit Amazon Prime again) I mentioned how the big problem with Prime was that it eliminated so much friction from the process of making a “buy” decision. Spending is one place where friction is good.

Do you know where else we need more friction? Human communication, particularly the online variety. The ease of clicking reply and saying something rude or stupid is going to cause a war soon, if it hasn’t already. My average Tweet only gets seen by about 100 people, but I’m much more likely to get a rude reply than I am here on my blog, which I think also gets about 100 readers to an average post. I took all analytics off the site a few years ago, so I’m not really sure, but that average held over most of the last decade, so no reason to think it’s changed dramatically. I never get rude emails about a blog post. (Note - not an invitation!). Clicking the email link at the bottom of the post really isn’t that much work, but nobody does it. But if I express the same thought on Twitter, I’m much more likely to get a rude reply from roughly the same number of viewers.

Interestingly, Twitter is experimenting with a feature that triggers a pop-up box suggesting your reply appears to be rude or angry, and gives you a chance to reconsider before posting. They report about 30% of people do edit or cancel the post. So apparently 30% of Twitter users are sheeple that can be led around by the company.

That was a joke.

I also noted in my previous blog post that a little friction in the music listening experience might make it better. If you pick an album versus letting an algorithm choose for you, the music is likely to be more meaningful and more memorable. If we accept that the above thesis is true, it presents a problem. The internet seems to exist to remove friction from every process it can touch, but if our happiness relative to those experiences suffers due to the lack of friction, we are literally making ourselves unhappier and unhappier the more time we spend online. Well, except for the time spent reading this blog.

I was an early adopter of the commercial Internet, and it’s paid my bills since 1996. But more and more I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve made a terrible mistake. Not the concept of the Internet, a worldwide platform anybody can publish to is a fine idea, but our implementation, particular the monetization of it, has ruined the ideals we all had when we were doing this stuff in 1996.

I don’t have any real solutions here, except maybe some of you should dust off your blogs and start posting regularly again.

Inspiration for this post

This post composed while listening to Natchez Trace and Restoration by Kevin Bowe & The Okemah Prophets, streaming straight from my SSD drive.

A while back when I quit Amazon Prime (note to self - quit Amazon Prime again) I mentioned how the big problem with Prime was that it eliminated so much friction from the process of making a “buy” decision. Spending is one place where friction is good.

Do you know where else we need more friction? Human communication, particularly the online variety. The ease of clicking reply and saying something rude or stupid is going to cause a war soon, if it hasn’t already. My average Tweet only gets seen by about 100 people, but I’m much more likely to get a rude reply than I am here on my blog, which I think also gets about 100 readers to an average post. I took all analytics off the site a few years ago, so I’m not really sure, but that average held over most of the last decade, so no reason to think it’s changed dramatically. I never get rude emails about a blog post. (Note - not an invitation!). Clicking the email link at the bottom of the post really isn’t that much work, but nobody does it. But if I express the same thought on Twitter, I’m much more likely to get a rude reply from roughly the same number of viewers.

Interestingly, Twitter is experimenting with a feature that triggers a pop-up box suggesting your reply appears to be rude or angry, and gives you a chance to reconsider before posting. They report about 30% of people do edit or cancel the post. So apparently 30% of Twitter users are sheeple that can be led around by the company.

That was a joke.

I also noted in my previous blog post that a little friction in the music listening experience might make it better. If you pick an album versus letting an algorithm choose for you, the music is likely to be more meaningful and more memorable. If we accept that the above thesis is true, it presents a problem. The internet seems to exist to remove friction from every process it can touch, but if our happiness relative to those experiences suffers due to the lack of friction, we are literally making ourselves unhappier and unhappier the more time we spend online. Well, except for the time spent reading this blog.

I was an early adopter of the commercial Internet, and it’s paid my bills since 1996. But more and more I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve made a terrible mistake. Not the concept of the Internet, a worldwide platform anybody can publish to is a fine idea, but our implementation, particular the monetization of it, has ruined the ideals we all had when we were doing this stuff in 1996.

I don’t have any real solutions here, except maybe some of you should dust off your blogs and start posting regularly again.

Inspiration for this post

This post composed while listening to Natchez Trace and Restoration by Kevin Bowe & The Okemah Prophets, streaming straight from my SSD drive.

Hang on a second, gotta cancel my Spotify account before continuing this post. .
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.
.
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Huh. I don’t have a Spotify account. Not paid anyway. I never bothered to migrate away from Pandora. I do have a free account, so I can listen to the occasional song or playlist that somebody posts on Twitter or Facebook. For most of this century, I really didn’t use streaming music services. I’ve had a Pandora account since it was a start-up service in the early 2000s, but I mostly used it for occasional free listening at work. However, I've been WFH full-time since 2015. For about the last year, we have had a Pandora family account, which I use to mostly play music I already own. I need to stop doing that. Streaming services are useful for previewing new music before deciding to buy, and for sharing on social media, since sharing a song from my Dropbox would violate all kinds of rules and laws.

I have my MP3 directory on my computer. I don’t have time to enjoy the 500 odd albums I’ve chosen to buy over the years. Adding 70 million more choices on a streaming service doesn’t really help solve that problem.

Also, tech stocks have gotten hammered this entire month. Spotify, along with just about every other tech stock, has lost tens of billions combined market value. Neil Young did not blow up Spotify’s stock.

Here is the thing. You are never going to listen to even .01% of the music available on Spotify, or any of the other streaming services. Their value prop is portability and music discovery. Portability is not a big deal anymore. If you don’t want to install Plex, back up your MP3 directory to Dropbox. There are free apps that will let you stream straight from Dropbox. Again, not a user but from what I’ve read online this week music discovery on Spotify has been broken for years, as the algorithm recommends what gets Spotify paid the most, not what you might want to hear next.

I have a crazy idea, so hear me out. What if we all started talking about music again? What if we shared the cool stuff we are listening to on Twitter or Facebook or our blogs or wherever. Human curation > algorithms, every time and forever. Also, what if we bought the music we wanted to listen to? It’s better for the artists, and probably better for the environment too. Won’t you think of the songwriters, and the polar bears?

Also, support live music. Most indie bands are basically t-shirt sales operations anyway. Go to the show, buy the CD, buy a t-shirt. You’ll have more fun and the artist will make more money. It’s a win-win.

One more thing. Abundance causes us to under value anything. It's a simple economic principle. So having 70 million songs available at any time causes you to value any specific tune at roughly zero. Contrast that with a carefully curated record collection, even if it is all in MP3 form. Those albums have value. They have meaning, because they are yours. Also, you probably know the music better when you choose to play it, versus passively consuming whatever Spotify throws at you.

You don’t need Spotify for podcasts. In fact, Spotify locking up podcasts on their platform violates the spirit of openness that podcasts were created under. Podcasts use RSS (remember Google Reader?) It’s an open platform by design, an open platform usable by anybody with no fee or gatekeepers involved. So fuck Spotify just on principle, even if it is an asswaffle like Rogan they are locking up behind a proprietary platform.

Keep using Spotify or don’t, I really don’t care. I doubt it’s going to make any difference in the long run anyway. I’ll be here listening to my MP3s using an open source music player, like I have been for the last 20 years.

This post composed while listening to the album Perfectly Good Guitar by John Hiatt, using the open source Audacious music player to play locally hosted MP3 files.