Will Manhattan DA's case against Trump have deadly tentacles

 Will Manhattan DA's case against Trump have deadly tentacles

By Hal Brown

I read this article in RAWSTORY and the phrase shown above leaped off the page and sent me to DuckDuckGo Images to find man-of-war jellyfish.

The article begins:

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg may finally have changed his mind about indicting former president Donald Trump.

The recent conviction of the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg gave a glimpse of evidence that could tie the ex-president directly to the tax fraud scheme, such as a memo he signed approving chief operating officer Matthew Calamari’s illegal request to reduce his taxed salary to cover the cost of his untaxed corporate apartment, reported The Daily Beast.

Here's the portion about the tentacles:

“This case has tentacles,” said Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who now represents Jennifer Weisselberg and has been communicating with investigators.

The district attorney's office declined to comment on what Bragg meant about another chapter, but former prosecutors from that office say their experience leads them to believe prosecutors will go after Trump.

“For people who want a certain outcome — to go after Trump — it gives hope," said Catherine A. Christian, a former assistant district attorney who investigated financial fraud. "They’re going to be thorough. I’m doubtful he would have said ‘next chapter’ if they weren’t looking."

To tell the unvarnished truth I don't have anything particularly original to say about this. I just wanted an excuse to make a couple of illustrations. I leave it to readers to indulge in fantasies about the Teflon don Don falling into a jellyfish swarm.

I think he might a need a full immersion wetsuit rather than a coating of Teflon to protect him from the jellyfish swarming around him not only in New York (cue music video) but also in Georgia (cue video two).

Update:

Irrelevant to today's story, items to share:

Funniest puniest of the week:

More seriously, everyone should share this image.

This hopefully will be the final straw to break for Santos and humiliate McCarthy. It would be truly great if McCarthy has to take steps to remove him from the House, and at least to immediately kick him off his committee assignments. There are a number of Republicans who shoot their dogs because they can't hunt anymore, but far more are dog lovers. I just wish more articles shared this photo:

More people should see the video in this article. It is of a former Santos roommate describing how he used the Jewish sounding name Zebrosky on his GoFundMe pages because Jews give more money. 

"He would say, 'oh well, that Jew will give more if you're a Jew," Morey-Parker quoted his former roommate.

I wouldn't say that you can make a firm judgement of how smart someone is by how they look, but then again.... (article)

.....Comment below or on Facebook or on Mastodon. You can make a reply on Twitter too.

GOP in center of circular firing squad

GOP in center of circular firing squad

By Hal Brown

THE TITLE of the article below SAYS FRAGILE, I'd add "fractious about to fracture" to this title, and change the photo (click to see how below) - this dark triad, this danger to democracy if they have power, fighting among themselves can only instill hope for those who fear they will bring a fascist autocracy (MAGAism and America First) to the country.

I made my own version of the photo used to illustrate the article. Click above to enlarge. Here's the meaning of Dark Triad.

Also on RAWSTORY:

'Don’t be ugly!' Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert quarrel noisily in House restroom

The article in Daily Beast is behind a paywall but you can see their illustration:

We all watched the soap opera of the fight over McCarthy's nomination to be Speaker of the House which included an actual attempted assault.

One would think that this travesty for Republicans would have taught them a lesson about public fighting and even supposedly private bathroom outbursts of acrimony.

Too bad Debbie Dingell didn't take and share a video of the so-called noisy quarrel. It was called a near-screaming match between Greene and Boebert. Classy person that she is, Dingell said "what happens in the ladies room stays in the ladies room."

Who actually reported the incident - since apparently it was't Dingell, hasn't been reported. It would be interesting to know who it was, especially if it was a Republican.

I don't see any avenue for the leaders of the GOP to remedy the situation by holding their version of the Mafia's Apalachin Meeting which was held to stop the feuding between various Mafia families. (It would have succeeded had not the police noticed all the out-of-state cars headed into a sleepy village and raided the meeting.)

The sociopaths in the Mafia knew what was best for their greater good. Not so with the sociopaths in the GOP because their narcissism overrides their good sense.

The self-defeating actions of the Republicans don't just involve individuals. For example as Thom Hartmann reports in "House Republicans are playing with fire" in Rawstory+ "the House Republican threat to crash our economy if Democrats don’t agree to gut aid to higher education, the EPA, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid... are playing with fire and appear to be blissfully ignorant of how destructive it could become." He writes:

Will this be our entre into Strauss and Howe’s “Fourth Turning”? Will House Republicans provoke a worldwide repeat of the Republican Great Depression that, history suggests, could easily lead the planet into another world war? 

Anybody who thinks cooler heads will prevail like they did in 2011 doesn’t know these Republicans. 

If they’re willing to offer excuses for Trump trying to overthrow the government of the United States, there truly are no guardrails to protect our nation from their avarice, stupidity, and willingness to destroy America for personal and political gain.

Buckle up. We’re in for a wild ride.

The term circular firing squad comes to mind thinking of what the Republican Party has devolved into. Ready, aim, fire!

_________________________

Related from Salon:

Heroes and villains: Fascists now control Congress — we can't afford to pretend otherwise

Comment below or on Facebook or on Mastodon. You can make a reply on Twitter too.

For those panicking over America becoming a fascist country let's not forget Russia is committing war crimes every day

 For those panicking over America becoming a fascist country, let's not forget Russia is committing war crimes every day

By Hal Brown

This is not the first time the then Soviet Union committed genocide in Ukraine. Stalin did it through starvation rather than missiles.

Click above to read article.

It is easy to think America first, not in the Trumpian way, but because we live here and what is reported in the news about the MAGA cult and its aspirations effects democracy loving Americans each and every day as we worry, even obsess, about the country becoming an authoritarian state. 

If you're a news junkie like I am you also follow what Russia is doing to Ukraine. Today those paying attention to international news saw articles like this on HUFFPOST:

Excerpt: About 1,700 people lived in the multi-story building, and search and rescue crews have worked nonstop since Saturday’s strike to locate victims and survivors in the wreckage. The regional administration said 39 people have been rescued so far and 30 more remained missing. Authorities said at least 75 were wounded.

Click above to read article in The Guardian

Russia is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, on a weekly, if not nearly a daily basis. Killing civilians in order to demoralize the country is their primary strategy since they are unable to win on the ground. 

In addition to using the killing of Ukrainian civilians as a strategy Putin is able to use poorly trained convicts and reluctant conscripts to amass waves of 100,000 troops at a time to be basically cannon fodder. 

The NAZI buzzbomb strikes and bombing raids against London targeted civilians as well and supplemented their military engagements against the Allied forces. However from my understanding their main strategy was to win army vs. army, air force vs. air force, navy vs. navy.

Back to current day Russia:

We saw this in June:

It is a travesty that they even are members of the United Nations' let alone a permanent member of the Security Council where they have veto power.

Anyone who values democracy should be taking a stand against Russia. Unfortunately millions of Americans take Tucker Carlson's words like this as a gospel:

Putin is Stalin without a mustache. I wonder whose side the likes of Tucker Carlson would have been on prior to and during World War II. I expect he would have been a leader in the German-American Bund (read article):

German American Bund rally New York, Madison Square Garden, February 1939. Image courtesy of the Department of Defense.

Men saluting Nazi and American flags at Camp Siegfried, New York on October 1937. Image by University of Southern California.

Had the Allies not needed the Soviet Union to fight the NAZI army on the Eastern Front the alliance between this despot and the Allies would never have happened and we wouldn't have had the Yalta Conference and this amazing historic photo.

(From left) Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, 1945. Click above to enlarge photo.

To conclude:

“Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.”

This famous quote is attributed to the American philosopher George Santayana and it can be accurately quoted as “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” as stated in his work, The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense. His work speaks mostly about the role of rationality in moral philosophy and general ethics.

The problem is with those protofascists who do remember history and rather than wanting to repeat it are trying their damnedest to change the ending so their side wins. They want to avoid the errors of the NAZIS and turn the United States into the Germany Hitler envisioned for the greatest German Reich (read article).

Comment below or on Facebook or on Mastodon. You can make a reply on Twitter too.

Deep state black shirts coming for your gas stove and may confiscate your guns

Deep state black shirts coming for your gas stove, and may confiscate your guns

by Hal Brown

Below was the less dramatic image I created for the story earlier this morning. The one I ended up using is meant to reflect that fact, with a bit of exaggeration, that  an astounding story on The Washington Post's Wonkblog site revealed that the average number of firearms owned by a "typical gun-owning household" had roughly doubled between 1994 and 2013, to 8.1 guns per household. The trend has only gone up since. (from The Fool)

Bellow is the comment I made to Alexandra Petri's Washington Post satirical OpED.

Click image to enlarge

The Republicans attempt to conflate their fear mongering over heavily armed Deep State Black-shirts breaking down your door to haul off your gas stove with them doing the same thing to take your stash of pistols and assault rifles is both ludicrous and is pathetic in that it is apparently t-shirt slogan worthy an issue now. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) brilliantly tried to enflame the paranoia of gun owners when he said his gas stove would have to be torn from his “cold dead hands.” 

Click above to enlarge

Petri writes from the point of view of being a gas stove:

Hi, I’m a stove. What kind of stove? Don’t worry about it. I already told you what kind of stove I was. You remember, when you were sautéing on me. Your poor, fragile mind, stressed with so many things! Thank goodness you have me here, to take care of you and keep you safe.

Petri is a self-described punster:

Gaslighting isn't the only pun that can be applied to this dangerous attempt of the deep state to take over the lives of God-fearing patriotic white Americans. Consider Petri's gas stove's final words:

What kind of stove am I? What am I lit with? Listen, I am the best kind of stove. Don’t worry about me. Worry that they will come and take me from you, if you aren’t careful. “Even if they were considering a ban, that wouldn’t be how bans work?” Oh, sweetheart, do you hear yourself? I’m worried for you. You must be burned out. Maybe you should get some fresh air, for reasons unrelated to my presence in your kitchen. Just forget everything you know about how regulations and bans work and listen to the sound of me, your stove.

I’ll say it one more time: There is literally no reason to be concerned that you have me in your home. Nobody should look into this any further.

Look at my flames. There they are, flickering, just as bright as you remember.

She just as easily could be speaking as if she was an AR-15.

Hi, I’m a gun. What kind of gun (new link)? Don’t worry about it. I already told you what kind of gun I was. You remember, when you were shooting me. Your poor, fragile metal mind, stressed with so many things! Thank goodness you have me here, to take care of you and keep you safe.

and

What kind of gun am I? What am I loaded with? Listen, I am the best kind of gun. Don’t worry about me. Worry that they will come and take me from you, if you aren’t careful. “Even if they were considering a ban, that wouldn’t be how bans work?”  

Oh, sweetheart, do you hear yourself? I’m worried for you. You must be blasted out. Maybe you should get some fresh air, for reasons unrelated to my presence in your bedroom. Just forget everything you know about how regulations and bans work and listen to the sound of me, your AR-15.

I’ll say it one more time: There is literally no reason to be concerned that you have me in your home. 

Nobody should look into this any further.

Look at my shots. There they are, explosive, just as bright and loud as you remember.

Here's an excerpt from this Wired article The Gas Stove Culture Wars Have Begun:

A NEW WAY to show your political affiliation may be emerging, and it’s close to home. So close, you’ll find it in your kitchen. 

A debate over gas stoves reignited this week and fell along ideological lines in the US: As researchers, regulators, and Democratic politicians are pointing out the problematic emissions from gas appliances, conservatives are asserting their rights to cook how they choose. Things are, well, heating up quickly, as they do on a gas range: “If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!” Congressman Ronny Jackson, from Texas, told Twitter. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York clapped back: “Did you know that ongoing exposure to NO2 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance[?]”

Much like the divide over electric cars—US president Joe Biden has pushed the new electric options, but some Republicans cite them as costly and inconvenient—the stove finds itself at the center of a culture war. People have very strong feelings about the roaring flame of their gas stoves and enjoy their cooking speed and precision. For Republicans, it’s another issue to pick at as they tear apart Biden’s climate agenda and paint policies as government overreach. 

Addendum:

This is my Twitter tweet shown below with related hashtags.

Comment below or on Facebook or on Mastodon. You can make a reply on Twitter too.

When it came to surviving Covid, Trump was really Teflon Don

When it came to surviving Covid, Trump was really Teflon Don 

By Hal Brown

Click images below to enlarge.

The original photoshop was tweeted by Trump himself:

Below: The original Teflon don

About the photo of Trump:

I wanted to find a photo of Trump looking as bad as possible and an image search of "Trump looking bad" turned up this one taken by an official White House photographer. Here's an article about it.

This word leaped off the screen when I read this article in Medscape.

Excerpt:

Which Treatments Improve Long-term Outcomes of Critical COVID Illness?

Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center.

Treatment with interleukin 6 (IL-6) receptor antagonists or antiplatelet agents improves survival and outcomes at 6 months for critically ill patients with COVID-19, according to new data.

However, survival wasn't improved with therapeutic anticoagulation, convalescent plasma, or lopinavir-ritonavir, and survival was worsened with hydroxychloroquine.

"After critically ill patients leave the hospital, there's a high risk of readmission, death after discharge, or exacerbations of chronic illness," study author Patrick Lawler, MD, a clinician-scientist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, told Medscape Medical News.

"When looking at the impact of treatment, we don't want to improve short-term outcomes yet worsen long-term disability," he said. "That long-term, 6-month horizon is what matters most to patients."

Remember this?

Of course anyone who isn't a brainwashed and brain dead Trump cultist can't forget this:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52399464

And then there's hapless Dr. Birx who has to forever live with these moments:

Then we had the publicity stunt which was meant to show both how invulnerable he was and how Covid was no big deal:

This is an excerpt:

In the midst of an aggressive course of treatment for coronavirus, President Donald Trump left the hospital with his security detail Sunday so he could ride in an SUV past supporters cheering him on outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. 

The short trip, where Trump waved to his supporters through the window while wearing a mask in the back of his SUV, was an attempted show of strength that displayed the President’s questionable judgment, his willingness to endanger his staff and the fact that he still does not seem to comprehend the seriousness of a highly contagious and deadly disease.

Trump’s doctors on Sunday provided concerning details about his condition to reporters – including two alarming drops in his oxygen levels. But the late Sunday photo op underscored that the chief concern for the President, who was furious at his chief of staff for telling reporters about his troubling vital signs, is projecting a commanding image to the public.

An attending physician at Walter Reed harshly criticized Trump’s Sunday drive-by as a risk to the lives of Secret Service agents who accompanied him in his SUV. 

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity,” Dr. James Phillips tweeted.

The original Teflon don was Mafia boss John Gotti. He was given this nickname because of the way he avoided legal consequences for his crimes for so many years. He eventually was sentenced to life in prison. He spent the majority of his sentence in effective solitary confinement, allowed out of his cell for only one hour a day. This is how he spent the final years of his life at the US Penitentiary in Marion, ILL

It is a fortuitous coincidence that when referring to Trump with this moniker the word "don" has two meanings, don as the head of a crime family and "Don" as in Donald.

Not only has Trump followed in Gotti's footsteps when it comes to staying out of prison he managed to get elected president despite years of breaking the law. He proved to be Teflon in another way by avoiding dying when he contracted Covid prior to the development of vaccines.

It remains to be seen whether some of his off the rails behavior is a form of long Covid. There's no way to determine this now but one thing we can say for sure is that he's alive and kicking.

If Trump has an autopsy made public after he dies it is possible we will know whether Covid had invaded his brain. Consider, also from Medscape that 

Autopsies Show COVID Virus Invades Entire Body

The researchers said their work shows the virus "is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain." They also said their results indicate the virus spreads via the blood early during infection, which "seeds the virus throughout the body following infection of the respiratory tract."

Can you imagine what would happen if Trump cultists learn that Covid has invaded Trump's brain, Trump who claimed he had the biggest brain, or as he put it a very, very large brain, also had, literally not figuratively, a very sick brain. 

Comment below or on Facebook or on Mastodon. You can make a reply on Twitter too.