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Pressure Is On
Attribution to Pavel Sevela
Why an image of a boa constrictor? They are known for grabbing their prey by the teeth and then squeezing the life out of the prey.
Donald Trump must feel like prey these days. His Truth Social rants are getting crazier and more explosive daily. In the last week alone, his woes have increased dramatically. He was already facing challenges with the ‘hush money to a porn star, Grand Jury, the ‘perfect call’ Georgia Grand Jury the Grim Reaper Jack Smith with his Mar-a-Lago and January 6 Grand Jury. For someone who claims that he has done nothing wrong, Donnie keeps fighting being brought to justice and he keeps losing and he keeps ranting. It is a vicious downward spiralling cycle.
In the last seven days, his ‘executive privilege’ defense has been torn apart. Last Friday, Evan Corcoran, his Mar-a-Lago lawyer testified before the Jack Smith Grand Jury. This week, Donnie’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and others were ordered to testify before Jack Smith’s Grand Jury. Yesterday it was Mike Pence, who was ordered to testify. In all three cases the defense used was executive privilege. In all three cases that defense was tossed out.
It is like a slow day by day constriction of life on Donnie. The New York Grand Jury has put off any decision on Trump until, at least, next week. The circle of people being subpoenaed and forced to testify is getting closer and closer to Trump. Don’t forget that Ivanka and Jared have also been subpoenaed.
There is also pressure on the Department of Justice. As one former federal judge stated,
“I think there’s some pressure now on Justice to bring this to a conclusion. To me, based on the way it is shaping up, it is a dead bang obstruction of justice case.”
No matter how much Donnie rants and raves, the pressure is just going to keep increasing on Donnie.
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Go To The Devil
There was one Star Trek episode, back in the 1960’s, where Kirk told a Klingon warrior to ‘go to the Devil’. I honestly don’t know if you could say ‘go to Hell’ on tv back then, or if the producers decided not to use that term.
So, restraining myself, after the shootings in Nashville, yesterday, I have the following message.
Second amendment extremists ‘go to the Devil’.
NRA executives ‘go to the Devil’.
Spineless NRA money grubbing Republicans ‘go to the Devil’
All of the above, you can all firetruck off.
That’s all I got.
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History May Repeat
Attribution to Avi Ohayon / Government Press Office
Here is a story. There is a leader of a country, But, it is not the United States. This leader has been accused of committing crimes. The police begin an investigation. this leader denies that he has committed any crimes. This is just an attempt by those who like him to bring him down. If he is found guilty of these indictments, he could face prison sentences of up to 15 years.
This leader is in a parliamentary system. His partry loses. That means this guy is no longer leader. But, fortunately for him,, there is another election soon after and he becomes leader again.
This leader is still under indictment. This leader wants to make sure that he never goes to jail. So, his party puts into motion, legislation that a sitting leader cannot be charged. Legislation is also in the works that would make it difficult for a leader to be declared unfit for office.
The leader does not stop there though. His Supreme Court has been a barrier to a number of things that the leader wants done. So legislation is now in the works to alter the composition of the Supreme Court, so that the new Supreme Court looks more favourably to the decisions that the leader wants made. But the leader has one more ace up his sleeve. Legislation is going to be passed so that the Parliament can override any ruling made by the Supreme Court.
The country is pissed. Even members of the leader’s own inner circle are concerned. The Defense Minister goes against the leader. The leader fires him. The country is now paralyzed by a general strike of the magnitude never seen in that country.
Is this fiction? No. The person in the image above is Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel. This is happening right now. The thing is, this could happen again, in the US, in 2024. Trump could still be under indictment. Trump could win the Presidency. Trump and his party could and will take measures to ensure that his party will remain in power, even if it means changing the judiciary and the constitution. The country would be paralyzed. History does repeat itself and it very well could here.
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Waco
This is David Koresh.. He was the cult leader of the Branch Davidians, a fanatical religious sect. His doomsday interpretation of the ‘Book of Revelation’ attracted a number of followers. Koresh claimed to be the final prophet. He was also alleged to be involved in a number of incidents of physical and sexual abuse of children.
The ATF on February 28, 1983 raided the building that Koresh was holed up in. The raid ended up with four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians dead. During that raid, Koresh was seriously injured by gun shot. The unsuccessful raid resulted in a 51 day siege. Following the approval of US Attorney General, Janet Reno, the FBI raided the building again on April 19. The building caught fire and 79 Branch Davidians died, including 21 children under the age of 16. Koresh died from a gun shot wound to the head. Five children under 14 were shot dead. A three year old was stabbed to death.
Waco became a clarion call for the extreme right. One of the gawkers at the Waco raid site was Timothy McVie. McVie was a white supremacist. McVie and fellow supremacist Terry Nichols bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, exactly two years to the date of the final Waco siege. A total of 168 died and over 680 people were injured. It was the worst terrorist act inflicted on an American city, until 9/11. McVie was later executed while Nichols received 161 consecutive life sentences.
Who was in Waco, last night, on the 30th anniversary of the Waco seige, spreading more lies. Donald Trump. Organizers will say that Waco was chosen for the speech due to its central location to major cities in Texas. Sure. Karl Rove observes,
“Mr. Trump’s strategy appears to focus exclusively on winning the votes of true believers. But many are suffering Trump fatigue and there weren’t enough of them to re-elect him last time. The most probable result of his current ranting and raving will be to convince more Republicans that he’s unelectable.”
It is a losing strategy. Trump must know this. But what drove him to do it anyway. Julian Zellzer a professor of political history, at Princeton, puts it best,
“It doesn’t seem to matter that much of the attention is negative. As president, reality television star and real estate mogul, Trump has cast himself as a fighter who has warded off individuals and institutions that he claims are out to get him. This is an essential part of his political persona: the aggrieved public figure who is at perpetual war with the world around him.”
Despite what Rove says, the Republicans are in a trap. If Trump does not win the Republican nomination, for President, he will run as an independent. It is in his narcissistic nature. The frightening part is how many people might die along the way.
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Tik Tok
By A09 – Own Work
I am leery about this chirp because I don’t know much about the subject matter. Though some (many) will say that has not stopped me before. A lot of the subject matter is very technical which causes my (bird) brain to freeze.
This is a world map of various Tik Tok censorship. The blue is for countries that have banned from government devices. The red is for countries who have banned Tik Tok in the past. And so on. France, one of the blue countries, have gone a step further by banning Tik Tok Face Book and Instagram from government devices.
In the US, there are 150 million Tik Tok users. In Canada, 26% of all adults use Tik Tok. This rises to 76% for all Canadian adults between 18 and 24. I do not use Tik Tok.
The big concern is privacy issues, security issues and data sharing. We all have experienced this. You ‘like’ something on a social media site and next day you start seeing ads relating to the thing you ‘liked’.
While there is concern relating to the above identified issues for all three media sites identified above, there is particular concern with Tik Tok. This is because of Tik Tok’s relationship with Communist China. An internet search of this issue will see articles about how the Chinese government is moving away from conquest in the battlefield to conquest of the mind, of the individual. As I said, 150 million Americans use Tik Tok. That means the Chinese government potentially has data on 150 million Americans.
The US congress is currently looking at banning Tik Tok completely from the US. Tik Tok CEO Shou Zi Chew, testified before a House Committee earlier this week. He was grilled for over five hours. An unprecedented thing occurred with this particular Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats were on the same side regarding privacy, security and data sharing concerns. Tik Tok users, on the other hand are not happy at the prospect of Tik Tok being taken away from them.
This story is far from over. The courts will get involved. Tik Tok will be around in Canada and the States for a while. Let’s see.
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Death and Destruction
Donald Trump Truth Social Post, sourced from the Independent
Donald Trump posted this picture on his Truth Social site yesterday. As the walls close in on Trump, he has been going on an absolutely insane Truth Social rage binge. Trump has been attacking everyone, within his sights. He is tweeting out posts non-stop afainst DA Alvin Bragg, Jack Smith and others.. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, he of ‘worst person in the world’ fame tweeted out,
“Trump has today issued repeated stochastic terrorist calls for his cult to “remove” the “animal” Alvin Bragg – and use a baseball bat,…He’s trying to get this man killed. Period. Enough.”
As per CNN analyst Norm Eisen,
“Threatening a prosecutor is a crime in NY. In fact MULTIPLE crimes: Harassment in the first degree NYPL 240.25; menacing in the second degree NYPL 120.14; stalking in the fourth or third degree NYPL 120.45 & 120.50 And that’s just for starters….”
If you think the picture above and his tweets against all those that are closing the walls on him are bad, it gets worse. Trump is now warning of death and destruction,
“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former president of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting president in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a crime, when it is known by all that NO crime has been committed, & also that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our country? “Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!”
Trump tweeted this out after one o’clock this morning. I am honestly at a loss for words. Shades of January 6. Trump, who called himself ‘The Law and Order’ President is calling on his Trumpkins to repeat January 6. Trump has not only gone off the rails, but he has also gone off the planet.
Trump’s threats aside, he may soon regret. When he is indicted, whether in New York, Atlanta and/or Washington, serious consideration will have to be given as to imposing a gag order on Trump (he won’t be able to do that” or revoking his bail. Trump does not give a crap about anyone but himself. He does not even care about his Trumpkins, who might heed his call and end up imprisoned or dying.
I need to stop. My blood pressure is boiling. Enjoy the day.
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Speed Of Light
This clean-shaven guy is Jack Smith. In November of 2022, he was appointed as Special Counsel to investigate both the January 6 insurrection and Trump’s mishandling of classified documents at Mat-a-Lago.
With all the investigations, on Trump, Trump has been playing the long-game. Trump has been putting barriers and roadblocks whenever possible to delay the investigations. He hopes to win the Presidency in 2024 so that all the investigations will just stop.
However, things are not going as planned. An indictment in the hush money case might occur at any time. There is also the stunning breakneck speed of events breaking in Mar-a-Lago.
The FBI and DOJ met with Trump lawyers in June of 2022, following a subpoena, a month earlier, demanding the return of all classified documents believed to be at Mar-a-Lago. They were given a letter by Christina Bobb drafted by Evan Corcoran, stating that there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. This turned out to be false. A follow up search, under warrant, in August, resulted in a number of documents being found. Bobb and Corcoran are both lawyers for Trump
Corcoran, testified for four hours in January of this year, before a Grand Jury. He invoked attorney-client privilege relating to the classified documents. This did not stop Jack Smith. Smith asked federal judge Beryl Howell, in February, to invoke a crime-fraud exception. Smith argued that Corcoran should not be able to invoke attorney-client privilege because may have committed a crime in the process of the letter being drafted, last June. Howell issued a ruling last Friday agreeing with Smith’s argument, that Trump may have committed a crime. That is stunning in itself. This was also Howell’s last day as a judge, before her retirement.
Court cases take a long time, especially when appeals are submitted. A case going to an Appeals Court usually takes weeks or even months before a ruling is issued on an appeal submitted. Trump appealed Howell’s decision to the Court of Appeals District of Columbia circuit. The Court held a hearing, on Tuesday. The Trump team were ordered to submit a Brief of their argument, by Tuesday midnight. Jack Smith’s team were ordered to respond to the Brief by six Wednesday morning. They had six hours to respond to the brief. All-nighter. University days. The court made a ruling Wednesday afternoon. The ruling denied Trump’s appeal. a hearing on Tuesday and a ruling, one day after. This is unheard of. It does not happen. It just doesn’t. Details will come out as to why this happened so fasat In my opinion, I think the court was giving Trump a ‘screw-you’ message. As for Jack Smith, he is a bulldog. Trump should be very afraid.
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Hopefully Bad Aim
Probably have you confused with the image and the title. The image is a bit before my time, When I went to school I, like most of my generation, had lunch boxes if we had to stay in school during lunch. I don’t believe this is the case anymore Kids now have their lunches, I think, in their 50 pound back packs.
What does this have to do with anything. Well, today is the first time I will be doing readings of my book ‘Goobletygok’. I will be reading the book to five individual classes this morning at a primary grade school. The classes range from kindergarten to grade three. Like I said, the readings will be in the mornings Those kids bringing lunches will still have them. If the readings go bad, food may be thrown. I wonder if parents pack tomatoes for lunch. I wonder if I should bring a second change of clothes. I wonder if the janitorial staff get paid overtime. Wish me luck.
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Worse and Worse
Do you know who Abby Grossberg is? I did not until this morning. Most people probably won’t know about her for a while yet given the wall-to-wall coverage on Trump. Maybe not wall-to-wall on Fox Entertainment. You will know about her shortly.
Grossberg is (if not already, soon to be, was) a Fox producer. She was a senior booking producer for Maria Bartiromo and then head of booking for Tucker Carlson. She has just filed a lawsuit against Fox claiming that Fox lawyers ‘coerced’ her into providing misleading testimony in the $1.6 billion Dominion lawsuit against Fox. The lawsuit states as follows,
“Fox News Attorneys acted as agents and at the behest of Fox News to misleadingly coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,”
Wow, just wow. Fox in turn has countersued Grossberg, with Fox issuing the following statement.
“Ms. Grossberg has threatened to disclose FOX News Media’s attorney-client privileged information and we have filed a temporary restraining order to protect our rights,”
Apparently, Grossberg’s lawyers recently shared draft versions of her civil complaint to Fox. Fox has asked a judge that this not be released to the public, given that the complaint contains,
“…pages of allegations purportedly summarizing and quoting communications that Defendant had with Fox News’ attorneys,”
Grossberg’s lawsuit does contain allegations. Allegations include Fox executives calling Fox’s own Bartiromo a crazy bitch and menopausal Also when Grossberg started working for Carlson the workspace there had a poster of Nancy Pelosi in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage. Her lawsuit states,
“Grossberg was mortified by what she was witnessing and began to experience a sinking feeling in her stomach as it became apparent how pervasive the misogyny and drive to embarrass and objectify women was among the male staff at [‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’],”
Just simply wow. Just when you think it can’t get worse for Fox, it does. The Dominion trial begins in under a month.
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20 Years Ago
This is an image of Saddam Hussein, shortly after his capture. There is no question to the fact that Saddam was a brutal dictator, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of his countrymen, women and children.
It was 20 years ago today that the US went to war with Iraq. At that time, the Bush propaganda machine was pushing out the line that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found. The Bush machine, and the country bought it, linked 9/11 to Iraq. This was so even though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. Bush was a hero. Anyone who did not support the Iraq war was not a patriot. The media, even the left-wing media, was for the most part, for the war.
For me, the two most memorable phrases from that war were ‘Mission Accomplished’. It was not. Not even close, The second most memorable statement, rather than a phrase, was this gem by, then secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Classic. It is now 20 years later. The invasion of Iraq is generally considered a mistake. Bush is reviled for the invasion. Thousands of American lives were lost and tens of thousands of Iraqui lives were lost. Trump in his 2016 campaign kept pushing that line that he never supported the Iraq invasion, even though he did.
Iraq today is approaching normalcy. They are better off that Saddam is gone. But now Iran is an influence in Iraq. One last thing. Bush was looked upon very favourably for his initial role in Iraq. That has changed 180 degrees The Trumpkins still ,love Trump today. In ten years this will also turn 180 degrees.
Bird's Chirps
So I don't have to put it on Facebook anymore….