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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.
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Con Man
Some follow up on yesterday’s chirp. The rumors are true that various law enforcement agencies are meeting in preparation for a possible inditement of Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money investigation. However, Donnie has conned us all again with the text that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday. Nobody, at the Manhattan DA’s office has told Trump, when or if this will happen. In fact there is another witness to be testifying in front of the Grand Jury on Monday. Con man Trump though has suckered in his Trumpkins by using the text as a catalyst for another fund raising opportunity. I guess the money was running dry on hos trading cards so why not another con.
For the most part, Republicans are behind Trump, so afraid they are of the Trumpkins. Speaker Kevin McCarthy made the following pathetic statement.
“…an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.”
McCarthy’s response is typical of many Republican responses, especially those, such as Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others who were intimately involved in the January 6 events. Trump’s text has caused an uproar on Twitter, Trumpkins on twitter are calling for civil war. Trumpkins are planning to form a human barricade around Mar-a-Lago and threatening to shoot anyone who tries to come in and arrest their dear leader. Gong show.
PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!“
This is the last part of Trump’s text from yesterday. He saw what happened on January 6 when he enraged his Trumpkins. The ex-president of the United States is aking for potentially deadly protests on law enforcement agencies and institutions! Stunning. If and when Trump is indicted, the judge needs to take his text into consideration when considering bail At the very least the judge needs to impose a gag order on Trump. That would be so pasinful for Trump. Any breach of the gag order could result in immediate jailing of Trump.
Trump is trying to intimidate anyone who opposes him. But it won’t work with Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA pursuing this case. Yesterday he told his staff the following,
“… not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”
Lets hope it all turns out peacefully.
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Finally?
There have been rumours floating around the last few days, that New York City Police, the FBI, The Da’s office and the Secret Service have been meeting in preparation for a possible arerst of Donald Trump. Trump pretty well confirmed it this morning by issuing his patented all Caps angry tweet.
“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
Shades of January 6, all over again. Calling for protest. Calling to ‘take our nation back’. He thinks the major reason he is being arrested ids because the Manhattan District Attorney ‘hates him’. Trump has been ranting and raving the last few days over the possibility of an arrest, attacking everyone is site including ‘horseface’ Stormy Daniels and ‘dishonest’ Michael Cohen. Donnie, Cohen has testified under oath numerous times. Yourself, you did testify regarding to your organization’s activities. That’s right, you claimed the fifth over 400 times. Yet, you once said that anyone who claims the fifth is a crook. You and your cronies have done that a lott lately.
There are major security concerns as to how Tuesday, if it is Tuesday, will go. Your call for protest just made it worse. The street leading to the courthouse will need to be secured, as well as, the courthouse itself. There will be demonstrators and counter demonstrators. As with everything you are associated with, it will be a gong show.
Will Donnie be handcuffed? Probably not. Will he be doing a perp twaddle? Again, probably not. But he will be fingerprinted. He will also be required to take mug shots.
Hopefully, this will be the first of at least three occasions of fingerprinting and mug shots. Hopefully soon this will be happening in Atlanta and with Jack Smith’s show in Washington. Donnie, you have a reputation of being a con man. Eventually you may be known as another type of conman, Con, short for convict.
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Grand Jury
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) interviewed five members of the Georgia Grand Jury tasked with investigating election interference by the Trump team and by Trump himself. The five mentioned that it was an exhausting and an emotional process. There were a total of 75 witnesses called to testify. Many of the witnesses did not want to be there. They were forced to be there due to subpoenas. At least ten of the witnesses pleaded the fifth amendment.
The Grand Jury heard gut wrenching testimony from Ruby Freeman about the death threats she received after being singled out by Trump. They heard from Eric Coomer, an executive of Dominion Voting Systems, who had to resign, after being vilified. They also heard from the wife of George Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State who taped trump’s perfect call asking for 11,780 votes. Tricia Raffensperger broke down on the stand as she detailed all the threats that her family received.
The five grand jurors another taped conversation that Trump had with the Georgia speaker of the house, who has since passed away. Trump wanted the Speaker to convene a special session of the Legislature to overturn Biden’s victory in the state. The Speaker turned him down.
The Grand Jurors talked about Senator Lindsey Graham’s testimony. Apparently, Graham said that if Trump was told that aliens had been involved in the ballot tampering, Trump would have believed it.
The Grand Jury want the findings to be released soon. One of the five mentioned that once the findings are released, the effects will be massive and the country might not be so divided. One can only hope.
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Neville?
Attribution to Gage Skidmore from Surprise, Arizona
Neville Chamberlain is known as the man who backed down to Hitler. In 1938, during a conference in Munich, Chamberlain negotiated the annexation of Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany. When Chamberlain came London he announced ‘peace in our time’. We all know how that turned out.
Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, is toying with the American public about a 2024 Presidential run. In some respects, playing to the Trumpkin base, he is trying to outTrump Trump. Trump loves Putin and, as such, his Trumpkin base loves Putin. Almost nightly, his Trumpkin base hears Tucker Carlson tear Ukraine down. Putin owned Russian media uses a number of Tucker’s quotes for Russian consumption. Carlson has a questionnaire floating around. DeSantis responded to one of the question as follows,
“while the US has many vital national interests … becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”
A territorial dispute? Is that what the Russian invasion of Ukraine is?. Now this has appeal to the Trumpkin base, which DeSantis is trying to attract. It plays well with Fox Entertainment. It plays well with the radical right in the House, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Many in the Republican Party have done a complete 180 from the days of then beloved leader Ronald Reagan. It was Reagan back in 1987 who said.
“Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall”
Fortunately, for Democracy, there has been blowback in DeSantis’ own party, Fortunately Reagan’s ghost is still present. The following quotes are just a small sample of blowback comments made by high profile Republicans. John Cornyn, Senator from Texas,
“I mean, Gov. DeSantis is a veteran. He’s a smart guy. I think he’s a been a very good governor and I don’t understand him saying that Ukraine isn’t important to the United States.”
Marco Rubio stated the following.
“It’s not a territorial dispute in the sense that any more than it would be a territorial dispute if the United States decided that it wanted to invade Canada or take over the Bahamas.”
Reassuring statements to hear. The Democrats are all united in the support of Ukraine. There is a growing split in the GOP. It will be entertaining to see how this plays out in the 2024 Presidential primaries. At the same time, let us pray that there still is a Ukraine.
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It’s Woke’s Fault
Trumpkins and others have tried to give new meaning to the word ‘woke’ as of late. There is a video going viral where conservative author Bethany Mandel was asked on The Hill’s online show ‘Rising’ what the definition of ‘woke’ was. She could not do it. Mandel started with,
“So, I mean, woke is sort of the idea that, um, …This is going to be one of those moments that goes viral.”
She continued with,
“I mean, woke is something that’s very hard to define, and we’ve spent an entire chapter defining it. It is sort of the understanding that we need to totally reimagine and reduce society in order to create hierarchies of oppression. Um, sorry, I—it’s hard to explain in a 15-second sound bite.”
And when told to take her time defining it, she concluded with,
“I mean, everybody is weighing in against wokeness. Like we do some of it on this show as well. It’s definitely something you know what it is when you see it.”
Of course, the video has gone viral.
The stock market has taken a tumble lately following the collapse of the Silicon Valley Banks (SVB). This follows deregulation moves of the banking industry under Trump’s presidency back in 2018. Republicans are loathe to make any connections between these deregulation moves and the collapse of SVB. They are blaming the collapse on ‘wokeness’. Ron DeSantis, potential Presidential contender stated the following on the SVB collapse.
“This bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff, I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission,”
DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Others on the right have pointed out the fact that the SVB board consisted of 45% women, one Black, one LGBTQ and two veterans. But they are quick to point out ‘that does not mean that 12 white men would have run it better’. Sure.
From now on, anything the Republicans see that is going wrong that could be attributed to them, they have the ‘woke’ fallback position.
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Off The Rails
Yesterday’s chirp was about Mike Pence’s criticisms of Trump for January 6, made by Pence at the Gridiron Club Dinner, last Saturday night. Pence said that history would hold Trump accountable. Trump, being Trump, had the need to respond and respond he did. While campaigning in Iowa, in Trumpian manner, he cast himself in the role of victim and said January 6 was all Pence’s fault.
“Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with Jan. 6, so in many ways you can blame him for Jan. 6. Had he sent them back to Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, the states, I believe, number one, you would have had a different outcome. But I also believe you wouldn’t have had ‘Jan. 6’ as we call it.”
Huh? Even after eight years of Trump in the political limelight, he can still make statements that can make the brain explode. To comment on his statement would legitimize the statement. Not going to.
Trump is going off the rails. Recently he said that the world is getting closer to a nuclear war.
“World War III would be a catastrophe unlike any other. This would make World War I and World War II like very small battles,”
Why does he say that?
“…because they have no respect for our leadership,”
Of course he is referring to Putin. During Trump’s time as President, he rolled over and played dead for Putin. He has even praised Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. But, he claims that ‘they’ have no respect for Biden. Again, another mind blower.
The pressure is obviously getting to Trump. He has Georgia on his mind. There is the hush money coverup for his 30 second tryst with Stormy. Melania must be pissed. He probably has a dart board with Jack Smith’s picture on it. He still has a $250 million lawsuit filed by New York. The Dominion lawsuit is revealing that his friends at Fox Entertainment did not really like him that much. With his narcissistic ego how can he not be cracking. The saga continues.
Bird's Chirps
So I don't have to put it on Facebook anymore….