CUE ‘SOUNDS of SILENCE’

Time for Speaker Kevin “The Squatter” McCarthy to lay out his plan on what budget cuts his party is demanding in order to raise the federal debt limit and for assurances that McCarthy will NOT accept an economically debilitating government default.

Our 46th president and McCarthy are scheduled to meet tomorrow.

As we ALL have played witness to, McCarthy has been performing NOTHING but political games within his fractious party just to get the Speakership: giving away power; appeasing the extremist MAGA wing; and, making promises to play Russian Roulette with the World economy by using the debt ceiling vote as a hostage situation.

From appearances, the House GOP does NOT have a coherent set of budget priorities, because they are at odds with each other.

In a memo that the White House released today, Joey is attempting to force McCarthy and his cronies to engage in a debate over taxes, spending and debt on terms that are more favorable to Biden than to the newly empowered conservatives on the Hill.

I may be wrong, but it looks like “The Squatter” is in a straight-jacket of his own making; and barring some exotic congressional Hail Mary, he will decide whether to do the right thing and break his promises to the 15th round luminaries and risk being fired, or take ALL of us and our economy over the fiscal waterfall.

General vague aspirations are as far as either side is willing to go at the moment.

THE JOURNEY…onward we go

One of the things that is becoming more and more obvious as I trek through the Magic Kingdom of Cancer, everyone, and I mean everyone, seems to know your treatment schedule for the upcoming month before you do.

Initially, I was bothered by this…and, I mean really bothered by it.

Like many other things in my Life, that was an extremely immature attitude by me.

You’ll ALL be pleased to know, I’ve gotten over it!

Why? Because the people “in the know” before me should know!!! before I do: they’re the ones who administer my blood panels and ALL other required scans, X-rays, MRIs, etc. plus my hydration treatment and preventative injections.

NOT to mention the special people, along with my calm, scholarly and humane oncologist [God’s gift to me], who have designed my CHEMO-cocktail hopefully to shrink ALL my secondary tumors; stabilize and lower my PSA; and, minimize certain nasty side effects [the good with the bad, if you know what I mean].

Yesterday, as I was getting another round of hydration and nausea infusions, I was reminded how thankful I am to have such special folks around me…especially my better half, day-in and day-out.

Much of the time, while getting the aforementioned treatments, was spent talking about what I’m eating; review of my blood panels [I’ve got to up my protein intake]; my sleep patterns [NOT good!!!]; and, getting psyched for my next round of CHEMO tomorrow morning [I can NOT wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!].

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. ~ C.S. Lewis

THE FIRE is being BUILT!!!

This is the old Lobsterman’s version of a PSA – Public Service Announcement.

It’s grounded in my posting last week about the John Durham special counsel investigation, which was meant to root out the ostensibly corrupt origins of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and quickly came to embody the sins!!! that Donald John Trump and his toadies projected onto the FBI…along with many others.

Thus, with that said, of ALL the so-called accomplishments of the modern right – wasting time and money have to top the list.

It is part of the all-encompassing underlying philosophy that guides a political party that has NO interest in creating, advancing, and funding policies; the only noticeable exceptions being policies that undermine government and illuminating questionable characters within their ranks.

The self-fulfilling prophecy of less government for its own sake had an obvious end point. Fueled by grievance and frustration, fear and an increasingly ineffective political system, the self-fulfilled prophecy has resulted in a legislature seemingly locked in an endless chase of its own tail.

It turns out “small government” does small things and NOT particularly well.

A Congress of fiddlers have set the fire that will consume us ALL.

Pete Dennis, please report to Station 3 immediately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s July AD 64 once again.

EVIDENCE GOES to the GRAND JURY

To his flock, the MAGA crowd, they only see the parallel universe that Donald John Trump has painted and preached.

Every halt to his sickened bullying and scheming is seen as a result of the Big Lie – hindering their hero to realize his greatness like luring retirees into credit card-hurting recurring donations and other of the many facets on the path of becoming great again.

Well, more sadness to their obese leader is “on the way!“

The Manhattan district attorney’s office yesterday began presenting evidence to a grand jury about Boy Orange‘s role in paying hush money to a porn star during his ’16 presidential campaign, laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges against ‘the former guy’ in the coming months, according to the New York Times.

Most certainly, these developments compound Trump’s legal woes as he mounts a third presidential campaign; a district attorney in Georgia could seek to indict him for his efforts to overturn his ’20 election loss in the state, and he faces a special counsel investigation into his removal of sensitive documents from the White House as well as his actions during the Insurrection on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Tick, tock…

The endless long arms of The Law have reached – countless times it seems – the shadow of Trump; this is a pernicious cretin who has damaged thousands in his passage through time.

Trump has been building his own gallows for much of his life as he ascends the perpetual steps of judgement, toward the trap door of prosecution…to await the order to be given..

Falling to eternal ignominy.

THE STORM IS COMING…

You need NOT be a meteorologist to see it on the horizon.

Even as the parent company of Facebook and Instagram announced that the Orange Despot would be reinstated – a move that followed the lifting of his ban from Twitter, though he has NOT yet returned – there is NO sign that he has curtailed his behavior or stopped spreading the kinds of messages that got him exiled in the first place.

Truth be told, two years after he was banished from most mainstream social media sites for his role in inciting the 1/6 Capitol riot, his online presence has grown only more extreme – even if it is far less visible to most Americans, who NEVER use the relatively obscure platforms where he has been posting at a sometimes astonishing clip.

Since introducing his social media website in February 2022, Boy Orange has shared hundreds of posts from accounts promoting QAnon ideas; he has continued to falsely insist that the ’20 election was stolen and that he is a victim of corrupt federal law enforcement agencies.

Now, as he starts to ‘juice up’ his ’24 run, Trump’s increasingly probable return to major platforms raises the prospect that he will carry over his more radicalized behavior to a far wider audience on Facebook and Instagram, with a combined five billion active users, and Twitter, with 360 million active users.

The problem is NOT what is said, the problem is people believing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadly, and to put a fine point on it, the evolution of Facebook and Twitter are examples where instead of seeing the very best of humanity we are served a menu of lies, conspiracy theories, racism because these items generate the most clicks and allow those who want to sell adverts the most eyes.

Yes, boys and girls, it’s just that simple.

What is so hard about differentiating between misguided opinions such as I really won the election from comments that are inflammatory and slanderous such as specifying individuals or organizations engaged in illegal activities without supplying any prove or examples??!

One is an erroneous opinion while the other is intentionally libelous and should be prohibited by media who are held accountable for reporting unverified stories of illicit behaviors.

Has the old Lobsterman over-simplified the situation? as regards the Orange Lucifer??!!!?????????

UNCOMFORTABLE AWAKENING

A story broke this week that I thought would get more traction than it did.

The old Lobsterman is referring to last summer’s investigation of the abortion opinion leak.

As the court marshal’s office looked into who had leaked the draft opinion of the decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, law clerks who had secured coveted perches at the top of the judiciary scrambled for legal advice and navigated quandaries like whether to surrender their personal cellphones to investigators.

Eighty-two people, in addition to the justices, had access to the draft opinion.

While, for the moment, it appears NO culprit was identified, certain issues within the Court were brought under question, and serious concern:

• “Burn bags” holding sensitive documents headed for destruction sat around for days.;
• Internal doors swung open with numerical codes that were shared widely and went unchanged for months;
• As staff members were grilled, some grew concerned about the fairness of the inquiry, worried that the nine most powerful people at the court were NOT being questioned rigorously like everyone else. 

The Court issued a 20-page report [twenty pages??!…how weak can you get?] disclosing that the marshal’s monthslong search for the leaker had been fruitless, and detailing embarrassing gaps in internal policies and security; while noting that 97 workers had been formally interviewed, the report did NOT say whether the justices or their spouses had been [ouch!!!].

Public reaction was scathing!

A day later, the court was forced to issue a second statement saying that the marshal had in fact conferred with the justices, but on very different terms from others at the institution; lower-level employees had been formally interrogated, recorded, pressed to sign affidavits denying any involvement and warned that they could lose their jobs if they failed to answer questions fully, according to interviews and the report.

In contrast, conversations with the justices had been a two-way “iterative process” in which they asked as well as answered questions, the marshal, Gail Curley, wrote. She had seen NO need for them to sign affidavits, she said.

Holy Judge Isaac Parker!!!

What the whole affair demonstrates is the collosal arrogance!!!!!!!!!!!! of the Court. The Justices seem to forget that they are ordinary men and women elevated to a position of implied infallibility by the vagaries of chance and the political process.

That Court employees should be subject to the kind of investigation normally reserved for the theft of national security secrets for sale to our enemies is terrifying and is a further example of the excessive importance the Justices ascribe to themselves. Everyone in government leaks; the citizens have a right to know what their government, including the courts, is up to.

Allow me to close with this remark, a good first step would be for the Justices to learn how to dress themselves; as far as I know only royalty and actors who have to do quick wardrobe changes have dressers.

ESCALATION of a TRAFFIC STOP to MADNESS

The city of Memphis has been bracing for more than a week about the release of video footage that officials say depicts in agonizing detail how a traffic stop this month for suspicion of reckless driving ended with the death of a 29-year old Black man, Tyre Nichols.

Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition on January 7th and died three days later.

Civic leaders and law enforcement authorities in Memphis have raised concerns about the reaction the footage could provoke among residents who are ALREADY anguished and outraged about Nichols’s death.

A grand jury returned indictments yesterday against the five officers, with charges that include kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression, in addition to second-degree murder, prosecutors said. The officers, ALL of whom are Black, were fired last week.

The city is expected to release the video this evening; officials said it would consist of nearly an hour of footage taken from police body cameras and stationary cameras, with limited redactions, such as blurring out faces of people who are NOT city employees. 

Before I close out this posting, would someone explain why the video needs to be released??!

There appears to be NO doubt/unease over the charges!!! nor the termination!!! of the police officers.

Clips and/or the complete content of this video will just be played over and over to the detriment of many…including law-abiding police officials.

Does this help protect the dignity of Tyre Nichols in any way??!

CONFERENCE GAMES

The Super Bowl-winning odds of the Eagles (+230), Bengals (+240), Chiefs (+280) and 49ers (+320) leave barely a glint of daylight between them, the first time in the recorded history of the NFL betting markets that ALL four teams in the conference championships were this close.

By comparison, the odds for last year’s final four were spread out between +125 and +900 going into championship weekend.

The matchups in this season’s conference championships are NOT just close, they are historically so, at least from a market perspective.

The teams in BOTH games are so evenly matched that the point spreads for the AFC and NFC championship games are each less than a field goal.

San Francisco 49ers at Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, 3 pm, Fox; pick: ’49ers by 4.

Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City, Sunday, 6:30 pm, CBS; pick: Chiefs by 2. Full disclosure – picking with my heart!

GOVERNMENTAL INTRUSION…at any cost

It’s the kind of reporting that confirms how ugly the ‘underbelly of politics,’ especially in America, truly is – day-in and day-out.

Point of fact, it’s much more sophisticated and much worse than we generally imagine.

Played out at the highest levels of power!!!

This time, to NO surprise, the story centers around Donald John Trump and his obsession with the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia being a witch hunt.

If you remember, back in 2019, prompted – almost daily – by Trump, Attorney General “Fat Billy” Barr set out to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Billy turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after the Orange Despot left office.

Now, after almost four years – far longer than the Russia investigation itself – Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot!!! alleged by Boy Orange and suspected by “Fat Billy.”

With ALL that being said, late yesterday afternoon, we learned – through some intrepid reporting by the New York Times – that the main thrust of the Durham inquiry was marked by some glaring flaws including a strained justification for opening it and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would NEVER be charged in court, and, more importantly, that Trump allies claim characterized the Russia investigation.

Interviews by The Times with more than a dozen current and former officials revealed an array of previously unreported episodes that show how the Durham inquiry became roiled by internal dissent and ethical disputes as it went unsuccessfully down one path after another even as Trump and “Fat Billy” promoted a misleading narrative of its progress.

Whom amongst us is shocked??!!!?

There were deeper internal fractures on the Durham team than previously known. The publicly unexplained resignation , in 2020, of Durham’s number 2 and longtime aide, Nora Dannehy, was the culmination of a series of disputes between them over prosecutorial ethics.

The Times also reports Barr and Durham NEVER disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the Fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, that included a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings!!! related to Trump [he’s a very dirty boy!]; the specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Durham brought NO charges over it.

At the very least, Merrick Garland has an obligation to find out what happened to the investigation of Trump’s financial dealings. and reveal the results to the American people [recognizing a vast majority of the MAGA crowd would find the contents too complex and nuanced to even attempt to digest!!!!!!!!!].

The depth and speed with which the MAGA corruption infiltrated our government is profound. We are still NOT cured of this virus, notably, as the House of Representatives is led by this pustulant infection, and that justice has horrifically still NOT been brought to bear on the corrupt previous administration.

SOWING of HATE EXPANDS…again

Meta, the owner of social media platforms, after just over two years of suspending Boy Orange from Facebook and Instagram, announced yesterday that it would reinstate the “the former guy’s” access to its social platforms.

Holy Agatha Raisin!

Yet again, free speech in a democratic society is verging on becoming a sick joke.

The cost of Donald John Trump‘s “free speech” has been very real. So, at least, let us NOT pretend that it has anything to do with freedom.

Civil libertarians NEVER seem to get it right when they allow free speech to impose!!! costs on others.

But…

That suits the speech-ifiers and insurrectionists just fine. Free speech absolutism [like gun rights absolutism] gives them the cover they need to go about imposing!!! costs on others.

ALL absolutist ideas are inherently flawed, contradictory, and ultimately dangerous.

It is unclear whether Trump will again become active on Facebook and Instagram; remember he started Truth Social, in which he has a financial stake and where he is obligated to make his posts available exclusively for six hours before he can share them on other sites, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Trump can post to any site immediately if the messages pertain to political messaging, fund-raising or get-out-the-vote initiatives.

Sounds like the normal playground rules still apply for the Orange Despot!!!

Stay hydrated, kids.

h/t: CNBC.