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Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Old Surfers Don't Die...They Just Fade Away...High Execution Rates Tijuana, Baja California; 06/30: The Count Is 199 Executions TIJ Month of June With the Killing of a Police Officer in Sanchez - - Links to Ukraine, Roe and the Jan 6th Hearings Where Trump Freaks Out And Lunges Plus Attempts To Strangle The Secret Service Agent: Good Thing He Didn't Have the Nuclear Codes with Him, Fuc*ing Maniac !!! "Stay Psyched".



When it rains, it pours. Luckily Mike let me use his phone to listen & watch the news while I was waiting to see the Docs, so I was shocked but up to date, unlike the blog. I'm adding links for y'all and at some point will return.

Meanwhile, SRS is still backlogged on surgeries due to the pandemic. My knee replacement won't be until mid- September, then of course there is the recovery period. We are discussing analgesic implant for pain during & after the procedure and setting up a stay for me afterwards at a skilled nursing rehab facility in San Diego; so this is turning out to be a pretty big deal and I just want to get it over with.

I'm not as freaked out as Jamie O'Brien was; not scared or nervous just impatient. Of course, no surfing here due to the contamination in the ocean all over the place and the very very bad knee...but that was my first question - will I still be able to surf and yes I am goofy foot...bad knee is on the right. The answer is yes, who knows, maybe we will find somewhere other than here to live by the sea and I can get out there again, I'm absolutely dying to - last six months have been horrid.

Anyway, here's Jamie, his video/blog is at the end and of course, these waves are out of my reach and ability, I'll be happy with some ankle slappers, and no sharks:

  ~ From ISP World Tour: Pretty cool montage at the very ending.

 

Can A Person Surf After Knee Replacement ? 

 

~~~~~

Okay, I need to go make a meatless Krackerbarrell meat loaf  so here are some links, it has been insane in the news and I'm worried about the Ukraine.


Mexico:

Everything you can imagine is here:

 

Pulse News Mexico


Locally - very high rates of executions, all throughout Mexico and locally here, we are up to 175 in Tijuana this month alone that's 882 YTD. Last month we closed out at 162 executions in Tijuana alone - so you know, be careful it just is not worth it, period. 

 

"Homicidios dolosos Tijuana

Enero:      141

Febrero:  122

Marzo:     155

Abril:        144

Mayo:      162

Fuente: FGE

 

Homicidios dolosos Baja California

Enero:        224

Febrero:    169

Marzo:       208

Abril:          214

Mayo:        228

Fuente: FGE"

 

Update/edit 06/30: Since that report from Zeta, Tijuana has skyrocketed to 199 executions in the month of June this afternoon with the killing of a Police Officer in Sanchez, bringing the YTD total in TIJ up to 906 dead.

  - From Zeta: "Tijuana suma 199 homicidios en junio"

Matan a Policia de Tijuana en la Sanchez Taboada 

 Destacados   -  jueves, 30 junio, 2022 2:28 PM

 

 

end edit.

 

~~~~~  

 

 

It's almost all here, stay informed:

 

Zeta Tijuana 

 

~~~~~ 

The Puritans have arrived, oh brother:

 

Roe-Wade Updates: 

 

CNN  

 

 

~~~~~

 

January 6th Hearings Updates: 

 


 

 

CNN 

 

P.S. Trump supporters have gone into full denial mode, unfreakinbelievable. It's a fuc*ing cult I'll tell you. Just like the Puritans and the Putinistas.Check it out:


Adding this: Don't miss Colbert on latest Hearing:

.......... 

 

From The Hill:

White House Aide Testifies Trump Sent Armed Mob To Capitol 

 

by Mike Lillis and Rebecca Beitsch - 06/28/22 4:51 PM ET

 "Former President Trump, well aware his supporters were heavily armed on Jan. 6, was so determined to join them at the Capitol that he lunged at the head of his security detail after his driver refused to transport him there, according to a former high-level White House aide testifying before Congress on Tuesday.

The revelation of a physical confrontation between a frustrated president and his own security detail was just one of many bombshells disclosed by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who painted an extraordinary portrait of a White House in chaos as the attack on the Capitol unfolded, aides scrambled to convince the president to intervene and Trump refused to do so.

Hutchinson, the first White House employee to testify publicly before the House committee investigating last year’s riot, suggested there was nothing spontaneous about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. She described a series of meetings in early January when members of Trump’s inner circle were planning for the protests and depicted Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, as practically complicit in the riot. 

Both had suggested ahead of time that they knew the protests of Jan. 6 would turn violent, she testified, and both of them would later request presidential pardons. 

“We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great. The president is going to be there, he’s going to look powerful,” Giuliani told Hutchinson on Jan. 2, she testified.

When Hutchinson approached Meadows about it, he said, “There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”

Hutchinson, with a West Wing office, had a bird’s eye view of Jan. 6, operating at the intersection of a lame-duck White House, Trump’s desperate efforts to remain in power and the inner workings of the pressure campaign on Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, to overturn the election results.

“As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American,” she said of Trump’s encouragement of the violence. “We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”

Hutchinson painted a picture of a president unhinged during his Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse and eager to get more protesters closer to the stage — so the event wouldn’t look empty — by removing the metal detectors that are virtually compulsory at all presidential events. 

The committee showed evidence, in the form of police call logs, that a number of the protesters that day were carrying weapons, including Glock pistols and AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles. Hutchinson added to that record, saying top White House officials knew, as early as 10 a.m. on Jan. 6, that Trump supporters had knives, guns, bear spray, body armor and spears attached to the ends of flagpoles. 

She and Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, went to inform Meadows of the threat. Meadows, she said, was unmoved. 

“I remember distinctly Mark not looking up from his phone. I remember Tony finishing his explanation and it taking a few seconds for Mark to say something. Because I almost said, ‘Mark, did you hear him?’ And then Mark chimed in. It was like, ‘Alright, anything else?’ Still looking down at his phone,” Hutchinson said. 

That information did not disturb Trump, who was apparently furious the magnetometers, or mags for short, were evidently limiting his crowd size as many protesters with weapons elected to watch the speech from outside the screened area, so their arms wouldn’t be confiscated. 

“He felt the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in. But another leading reason and likely the primary reason is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons,” Hutchinson said.

In an earlier interview with the House investigators, Hutchinson had relayed Trump’s pleas to staff and security at the time: “ ‘They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away,’ ” she said. 

But perhaps the most shocking detail of Tuesday’s proceedings came following his Ellipse speech, when Trump insisted on joining his supporters as they marched to the Capitol — something Meadows appeared to be organizing at the last minute.

White House lawyers had warned against making such a journey, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone warning it would look like Trump was seeking to obstruct justice or incite a riot.

“Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” Hutchinson said, relaying Cipollone’s message to her that morning. “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also harbored deep concerns that Trump would, in fact, come to the Capitol. He called Hutchinson and Ornato in the middle of Trump’s Ellipse speech, alarmed that the president had vowed to march down Pennsylvania Ave. with his supporters. 

“’You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here. Why would you lie to me?’” Hutchinson said, relaying McCarthy’s remarks to her. 

But a national security chat log indicates they were trying to arrange the trip — despite a 12:57 p.m. warning that Capitol fencing had been breached.

Ultimately it was the Secret Service who would push back against Trump’s demands to be transported to the Capitol, Hutchinson was told by Ornato and Robert Engel, the special agent in charge for Secret Service on Jan. 6.

“I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Trump said when Engel informed him they could not safely make the unscheduled journey.

“The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, ‘Sir you need to take your hand off the steering wheel, we’re going back to the West Wing, we’re not going to the Capitol.’” 

“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson testified. 

Trump’s explosive anger was a theme that persisted throughout the day, with Meadows repeatedly being largely uninterested in intervening to push back against Trump’s demands.

Cipollone burst into Meadows office shortly after rioters entered the Capitol determined to get some kind of response from Trump.

“He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,” Meadows said.

“Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your effing hands,” Cipollone responded.

Cipollone, whom Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the select committee vice chair, pleaded in a recent hearing to likewise publicly testify, would clash again with Meadows just minutes later after Trump sent a tweet saying Pence “didn’t have the courage” to buck the election results.

The crowd at the Capitol was chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” Cipollone again approached Meadows to say they needed to do something more.

“You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Meadows responded.

The committee and Hutchingson detailed a number of other revelations during the hearing.

It played clips of a videotaped deposition with Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, pleading the fifth multiple times, including when asked if he believes violence was justified on Jan. 6 and if he believes in the peaceful transition of power.

It alluded to future hearings where they will delve into the connections with extremist groups, with Hutchinson noting that she would hear more about groups like the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys when Giuliani was around. 

And Cheney also displayed various intimidating messages sent to those testifying before the committee, including one where a witness was told they would stay in good graces in Trump world if they “protect[ed] who I need to protect” and stayed on the “right team.”

“I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” Cheney said, noting the committee would be considering next steps.

The committee also detailed in the aftermath Jan. 6 White House lawyers were huddling to review a speech Trump was to give on Jan. 7. Hutchinson said Trump was opinionated about the speech and lines about prosecuting rioters were ultimately removed. 

“Unlike many of his other speeches, he did not ad-lib much,” Cheney said of his delivery that day.

“He recited them without significant alteration except one. Even then on Jan. 7 2021, the day after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the president still could not bring himself to say, ‘But this election is now over.’”

This story was updated at 5:41 p.m.

 

~~~~~

 Adding this one too...don't let them tell you The Ivy League Guys don't have a sense of humor, hilarious:

  ~ From Informed Comment:  With Videos !

 Great Car Fight Scenes Reminiscent of Trumps Attack On Agent Bobby Engel on Jan 6


~~~~

 

Ukraine Updates:

 

CNN 

 

~~~~~

 

Everything in a bundle:

 

Democracy Now ! 

 

~~~~~

 

C'mon Ukraine and allies, kick Putin's ass and get it over with !

 

Love Y'all..... Keep surfin ! Or, "stay psyched". That's a neat one; at the office or wherever, just say to your amigos: "I'm staying psyched." Or, you can ask them, "Are you staying psyched?" Or, you could say something like, "Man, we are staying psyched !" Work with it.

And, stay psyched. 😎

 

..............

Old Surfers Don't Die...They Just Fade Away...High Execution Rates Tijuana, Baja California; 06/30: The Count Is 199 Executions TIJ Month of June With the Killing of a Police Officer in Sanchez - - Links to Ukraine, Roe and the Jan 6th Hearings Where Trump Freaks Out And Lunges Plus Attempts To Strangle The Secret Service Agent: Good Thing He Didn't Have the Nuclear Codes with Him, Fuc*ing Maniac !!! "Stay Psyched".



When it rains, it pours. Luckily Mike let me use his phone to listen & watch the news while I was waiting to see the Docs, so I was shocked but up to date, unlike the blog. I'm adding links for y'all and at some point will return.

Meanwhile, SRS is still backlogged on surgeries due to the pandemic. My knee replacement won't be until mid- September, then of course there is the recovery period. We are discussing analgesic implant for pain during & after the procedure and setting up a stay for me afterwards at a skilled nursing rehab facility in San Diego; so this is turning out to be a pretty big deal and I just want to get it over with.

I'm not as freaked out as Jamie O'Brien was; not scared or nervous just impatient. Of course, no surfing here due to the contamination in the ocean all over the place and the very very bad knee...but that was my first question - will I still be able to surf and yes I am goofy foot...bad knee is on the right. The answer is yes, who knows, maybe we will find somewhere other than here to live by the sea and I can get out there again, I'm absolutely dying to - last six months have been horrid.

Anyway, here's Jamie, his video/blog is at the end and of course, these waves are out of my reach and ability, I'll be happy with some ankle slappers, and no sharks:

  ~ From ISP World Tour: Pretty cool montage at the very ending.

 

Can A Person Surf After Knee Replacement ? 

 

~~~~~

Okay, I need to go make a meatless Krackerbarrell meat loaf  so here are some links, it has been insane in the news and I'm worried about the Ukraine.


Mexico:

Everything you can imagine is here:

 

Pulse News Mexico


Locally - very high rates of executions, all throughout Mexico and locally here, we are up to 175 in Tijuana this month alone that's 882 YTD. Last month we closed out at 162 executions in Tijuana alone - so you know, be careful it just is not worth it, period. 

 

"Homicidios dolosos Tijuana

Enero:      141

Febrero:  122

Marzo:     155

Abril:        144

Mayo:      162

Fuente: FGE

 

Homicidios dolosos Baja California

Enero:        224

Febrero:    169

Marzo:       208

Abril:          214

Mayo:        228

Fuente: FGE"

 

Update/edit 06/30: Since that report from Zeta, Tijuana has skyrocketed to 199 executions in the month of June this afternoon with the killing of a Police Officer in Sanchez, bringing the YTD total in TIJ up to 906 dead.

  - From Zeta: "Tijuana suma 199 homicidios en junio"

Matan a Policia de Tijuana en la Sanchez Taboada 

 Destacados   -  jueves, 30 junio, 2022 2:28 PM

 

 

end edit.

 

~~~~~  

 

 

It's almost all here, stay informed:

 

Zeta Tijuana 

 

~~~~~ 

The Puritans have arrived, oh brother:

 

Roe-Wade Updates: 

 

CNN  

 

 

~~~~~

 

January 6th Hearings Updates: 

 


 

 

CNN 

 

P.S. Trump supporters have gone into full denial mode, unfreakinbelievable. It's a fuc*ing cult I'll tell you. Just like the Puritans and the Putinistas.Check it out:


Adding this: Don't miss Colbert on latest Hearing:

.......... 

 

From The Hill:

White House Aide Testifies Trump Sent Armed Mob To Capitol 

 

by Mike Lillis and Rebecca Beitsch - 06/28/22 4:51 PM ET

 "Former President Trump, well aware his supporters were heavily armed on Jan. 6, was so determined to join them at the Capitol that he lunged at the head of his security detail after his driver refused to transport him there, according to a former high-level White House aide testifying before Congress on Tuesday.

The revelation of a physical confrontation between a frustrated president and his own security detail was just one of many bombshells disclosed by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who painted an extraordinary portrait of a White House in chaos as the attack on the Capitol unfolded, aides scrambled to convince the president to intervene and Trump refused to do so.

Hutchinson, the first White House employee to testify publicly before the House committee investigating last year’s riot, suggested there was nothing spontaneous about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. She described a series of meetings in early January when members of Trump’s inner circle were planning for the protests and depicted Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, as practically complicit in the riot. 

Both had suggested ahead of time that they knew the protests of Jan. 6 would turn violent, she testified, and both of them would later request presidential pardons. 

“We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great. The president is going to be there, he’s going to look powerful,” Giuliani told Hutchinson on Jan. 2, she testified.

When Hutchinson approached Meadows about it, he said, “There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”

Hutchinson, with a West Wing office, had a bird’s eye view of Jan. 6, operating at the intersection of a lame-duck White House, Trump’s desperate efforts to remain in power and the inner workings of the pressure campaign on Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, to overturn the election results.

“As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American,” she said of Trump’s encouragement of the violence. “We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”

Hutchinson painted a picture of a president unhinged during his Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse and eager to get more protesters closer to the stage — so the event wouldn’t look empty — by removing the metal detectors that are virtually compulsory at all presidential events. 

The committee showed evidence, in the form of police call logs, that a number of the protesters that day were carrying weapons, including Glock pistols and AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles. Hutchinson added to that record, saying top White House officials knew, as early as 10 a.m. on Jan. 6, that Trump supporters had knives, guns, bear spray, body armor and spears attached to the ends of flagpoles. 

She and Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, went to inform Meadows of the threat. Meadows, she said, was unmoved. 

“I remember distinctly Mark not looking up from his phone. I remember Tony finishing his explanation and it taking a few seconds for Mark to say something. Because I almost said, ‘Mark, did you hear him?’ And then Mark chimed in. It was like, ‘Alright, anything else?’ Still looking down at his phone,” Hutchinson said. 

That information did not disturb Trump, who was apparently furious the magnetometers, or mags for short, were evidently limiting his crowd size as many protesters with weapons elected to watch the speech from outside the screened area, so their arms wouldn’t be confiscated. 

“He felt the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in. But another leading reason and likely the primary reason is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons,” Hutchinson said.

In an earlier interview with the House investigators, Hutchinson had relayed Trump’s pleas to staff and security at the time: “ ‘They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away,’ ” she said. 

But perhaps the most shocking detail of Tuesday’s proceedings came following his Ellipse speech, when Trump insisted on joining his supporters as they marched to the Capitol — something Meadows appeared to be organizing at the last minute.

White House lawyers had warned against making such a journey, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone warning it would look like Trump was seeking to obstruct justice or incite a riot.

“Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” Hutchinson said, relaying Cipollone’s message to her that morning. “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also harbored deep concerns that Trump would, in fact, come to the Capitol. He called Hutchinson and Ornato in the middle of Trump’s Ellipse speech, alarmed that the president had vowed to march down Pennsylvania Ave. with his supporters. 

“’You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here. Why would you lie to me?’” Hutchinson said, relaying McCarthy’s remarks to her. 

But a national security chat log indicates they were trying to arrange the trip — despite a 12:57 p.m. warning that Capitol fencing had been breached.

Ultimately it was the Secret Service who would push back against Trump’s demands to be transported to the Capitol, Hutchinson was told by Ornato and Robert Engel, the special agent in charge for Secret Service on Jan. 6.

“I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Trump said when Engel informed him they could not safely make the unscheduled journey.

“The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, ‘Sir you need to take your hand off the steering wheel, we’re going back to the West Wing, we’re not going to the Capitol.’” 

“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson testified. 

Trump’s explosive anger was a theme that persisted throughout the day, with Meadows repeatedly being largely uninterested in intervening to push back against Trump’s demands.

Cipollone burst into Meadows office shortly after rioters entered the Capitol determined to get some kind of response from Trump.

“He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,” Meadows said.

“Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your effing hands,” Cipollone responded.

Cipollone, whom Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the select committee vice chair, pleaded in a recent hearing to likewise publicly testify, would clash again with Meadows just minutes later after Trump sent a tweet saying Pence “didn’t have the courage” to buck the election results.

The crowd at the Capitol was chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” Cipollone again approached Meadows to say they needed to do something more.

“You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Meadows responded.

The committee and Hutchingson detailed a number of other revelations during the hearing.

It played clips of a videotaped deposition with Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, pleading the fifth multiple times, including when asked if he believes violence was justified on Jan. 6 and if he believes in the peaceful transition of power.

It alluded to future hearings where they will delve into the connections with extremist groups, with Hutchinson noting that she would hear more about groups like the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys when Giuliani was around. 

And Cheney also displayed various intimidating messages sent to those testifying before the committee, including one where a witness was told they would stay in good graces in Trump world if they “protect[ed] who I need to protect” and stayed on the “right team.”

“I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” Cheney said, noting the committee would be considering next steps.

The committee also detailed in the aftermath Jan. 6 White House lawyers were huddling to review a speech Trump was to give on Jan. 7. Hutchinson said Trump was opinionated about the speech and lines about prosecuting rioters were ultimately removed. 

“Unlike many of his other speeches, he did not ad-lib much,” Cheney said of his delivery that day.

“He recited them without significant alteration except one. Even then on Jan. 7 2021, the day after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the president still could not bring himself to say, ‘But this election is now over.’”

This story was updated at 5:41 p.m.

 

~~~~~

 Adding this one too...don't let them tell you The Ivy League Guys don't have a sense of humor, hilarious:

  ~ From Informed Comment:  With Videos !

 Great Car Fight Scenes Reminiscent of Trumps Attack On Agent Bobby Engel on Jan 6


~~~~

 

Ukraine Updates:

 

CNN 

 

~~~~~

 

Everything in a bundle:

 

Democracy Now ! 

 

~~~~~

 

C'mon Ukraine and allies, kick Putin's ass and get it over with !

 

Love Y'all..... Keep surfin ! Or, "stay psyched". That's a neat one; at the office or wherever, just say to your amigos: "I'm staying psyched." Or, you can ask them, "Are you staying psyched?" Or, you could say something like, "Man, we are staying psyched !" Work with it.

And, stay psyched. 😎

 

..............

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Day 4 of The January 6th Hearings: Violent Threats and Intimidating Harassment; The M.O. of Gangstas. Update 06/22: On Line Violent Threats Continue Against January 6 Committee Members

Over the weekend, prior to today's Hearings, the Republicans came together at an all out good ole boy back rubbin convention in Texas, the results which turned most of our stomachs particularly during this time of the grave Hearings on the Hill. Do you ever wonder what is wrong with them ?

Tom Nichols has a clue.

 ~ From The Atlantic: 

What Are Trump supporters So Afraid Of ? 

 The voice inside that tells them how wrong they are.

 "As more truths about Donald Trump and his attempted coup come out, I fear there will be more irrational anger and threats from people who cannot bear the truth. 

Secret Doubt

As the January 6 hearings restarted today after the long weekend, I was thinking about the weird, psychotic fear that has overtaken millions of Americans. I include in those millions people who are near and dear to me, friends I have known for years who now seem to speak a different language, a kind of Fox-infused, Gish Galloping, “what-about” patois that makes no sense even if you slow it down or add punctuation.

Such conversations are just part of life in divided America now. We live in a democracy, and there’s no law (nor should there be) against the willing suffocation of one’s own brain cells with television and the internet. But living in an alternate reality is unhealthy—and dangerous, as I realized yet again while watching the January 6 committee hearings and listening to the stories of Republicans, such as Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and others, describing the threats and harassment they have received for doing their duty to the Constitution.

And the threats don’t stop with political figures; families are now in the crosshairs. Representative Adam Kinzinger, for example, tweeted Monday about a letter he received in which the writer threatened not only to kill him, but to kill his wife and infant son.

There have always been unstable people in America, and they have always done frightening things. But there seem to be a lot more of them now. Some of them are genuinely dangerous, but many more are just rage-drunk nihilists who will threaten any public figures targeted by their preferred television hosts or websites, regardless of party or policy.

The more I think about it—and I spent years researching such problems while writing a book about democracy—the more I think that such people are less angry than they are terrified.

Many of you will respond: Of course they’re terrified. They’re scared of demographic change, of cultural shifts, of being looked down upon for being older and uneducated in an increasingly young and educated world.

All true. But I think there’s more to it.

I think the Trump superfans are terrified of being wrong. I suspect they know that for many years they’ve made a terrible mistake—that Trump and his coterie took them to the cleaners and the cognitive dissonance is now rising to ear-splitting, chest-constricting levels. And so they will literally threaten to kill people like Kinzinger (among others) if that’s what it takes to silence the last feeble voice of reason inside themselves.

We know from studies (and from experience as human beings) that being wrong makes us feel uncomfortable. It’s an actual physiological sensation, and when compounded by humiliation, it becomes intolerable. The ego cries out for either silence or assent. In the modern media environment, this fear expresses itself as a demand for the comfort of massive doses of self-justifying rage delivered through the Fox or Newsmax or OAN electronic EpiPen that stills the allergic reaction to truth and reason.

These outlets are eager to oblige. It’s not you, the hosts assure the viewers. It’s them. You made the right decisions years ago and no matter how much it now seems that you were fooled and conned, you are on the side of right and justice.

This therapy works for as long as the patient is glued to the television or computer screen. The moment someone like Bowers or Kinzinger or Liz Cheney appears and attacks the lie, the anxiety and embarrassment rise like reflux in the throat, and it must be stopped, even if it means threatening to kill the messenger.

No one who truly believes they are right threatens to hurt anyone for expressing a contrary view. The snarling threat of violence never comes from people who calmly believe they are in the right. It is always the instant resort of the bully who feels the hot flush of shame rising in the cheeks and the cold rock of fear dropping in the pit of the stomach.

In the film adaptation of the Cold War epic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John le Carré’s fictional British intelligence officer George Smiley describes his opposite number, the Soviet spymaster Karla. Smiley knows Karla can be beaten, he says, because Karla “is a fanatic. And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.”

What this means, I regret to say, is that there will be more threats, and more violence, because there will be more truth. It’s going to be a long summer."

~~~~~ 

 

With that in mind ( and adding that to me these folks act like addicts), here is coverage of today's Hearings...in short, something very much like control in Putin's Russia or the way things work in most third world countries; violent threats and intimidating harassment:


 ~ PBS News Hour - Live Episode 06/21/22

..............

 

More...

 

 ~ From The Hill: (more on their sidebar)

 Jan 6 Committee Links Trump's Election claims to Violent Threats

by Harper Neidig - 06/21/22 5:13 PM ET

 

State Republicans Say Trump Wanted them To Break Law To Keep Him In Power 

by Mike Lillis and Rebecca Beitsch - 06/21/22 5:54 PM ET

 

~~~~~ 

 Update/edit - 06/22/22

And yet still (although we should not be completely surprised) the violent threats continue through social media. So, how much longer (and stronger) will these persist and when the f*ck are our front line defenders going to brand these as a "clear and present danger" to Democracy ? Here's hoping they have already done so.

 ~ From CNN:

'Hang Them All': January 6 Committee Members Target of Violent Rhetoric on Right-Wing Social Media Platforms 

Meanwhile, careful with those Gulag jokes y'all....especially around Gangstas....and their allies/collaborators.




 

 An oldie but a goodie to hold you over...two Doc appointments coming up so I won't be back for awhile.

 

  ..........  

Friday, June 17, 2022

Day 3 of the January 6th Hearings: They All Knew It Was A Crime - Juan Cole on Mike Pence's Brush with Murder: "Gimme Shelter" - " It's Just a Shot Away"

At least over in England they are addressing the January 6th Hearings- there was a panel today on Sky News who were in absolute disbelief of the possibility of Donald Trump running again for POTUS and being elected. None of the participants mentioned "indictment" which I pray for as the final outcome, how can it NOT be ?

 

 

 


 

 Meanwhile, every time I either saw a picture of Mike Pence or heard his name I felt really awful for him much to the chagrin of my Mike. "He's a Bible Banger, he knew what Trump was about, he made a choice" I was being lectured far into the dinner hour. "He's Republican for cryin out loud !"

And I have to keep reminding him that so is Liz Cheney, Wonderwoman of the Hill who I respect and admire, along with Luttig who is also a conservative. And, how close did it come for Mike Pence to be murdered January the 6th ? Real close, thanks to Donald Trump.

 Fact is, Mike Pence saved our asses, period. 

 

 Update/edit  - 06/17/212  - @2:43pm

Finally able to sit down and open up emails. This one is from Juan Cole, and to answer Juan's title-question at the risk of being called a conspiracy looney by Fox News - The answer Juan is quite simply, yes:

 ~ From Informed Comment: 

[Filed under Domestic Terrorism with video on the link]

Did Trump Try To Get VP Mike Pence Killed?

 

"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Jan. 6 Committee revealed on Thursday that Trump knew that the Capitol had been breached by his Oath Keeper and Proud Boy black shirts when he sent his tweet at 2:24 p.m. saying, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands truth!” So writes Nolan D. McCaskill at the LA Times.

At the rally on the mall, Trump told his minions, “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.”

Instead, Pence had headed over to the Capitol to certify Biden’s win.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) presided over the presentation and further questioning on Thursday, revealing, as well, that the secure location to which the Secret Service had spirited Pence, in an underground loading dock, was still only 40 feet from the murderous “paramilitary wing of the GOP” (in the phrase of Patrick J. Coolican), calling for him to be hanged.

As McCaskill points out, Aguilar showed video of insurrectionists saying that they had heard that Pence had declined to decertify Biden’s win, with one shouting aggressively, “I’m telling you, if Pence caved, we’re gonna drag motherf— through the streets,” the man said. “You f— politicians are gonna get f— drug through the streets.”

We’ve all seen another clip played, with chants of “Hang Mike Pence” against the backdrop of a placard with a noose and gallows pictured on it.

Trump was watching obsessively the news coverage of the insurrection and there is no way that he did not know by 2:24 pm that his goons had murder on their minds should they have gotten hold of the vice president.

In fact, AP says Liz Cheney alleged that Trump was told by a staffer about the chants to hang Mike Pence and he replied, “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence ‘deserves it.”

So the question must be raised of whether Trump was attempting to threaten Pence’s life, either in revenge for his blocking of Trump’s self-coup, or in hopes of scaring him into changing his mind and sending the certification back to the states. Pence did not have the authority to do the latter.

The Rasputin-like role of former law professor at Chapman University, Peter Eastman, crystallized even more clearly with Thursday’s testimony, much of it from Pence’s legal staff at the vice president’s office. Eastman thought the easiest path to overthrowing Biden was to have Pence refuse to certify the election on the (specious) grounds that disputed states such as Arizona recounts were still being conducted. But, witnesses said, Eastman also thought the same end could be achieved if Pence would turn the vote back to the states. He is alleged to have admitted that perhaps no justices on the Supreme Court would support the first, but to have asserted that there would be some support for the second way of proceeding.

Since, as Ed Kilgore at New York Magazine reports, it is now clear that Eastman, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, was in close contact with Clarence’s wife, Ginni Thomas. All this raises the question of whether Thomas himself helped plan the coup and was actively colluding with Eastman, tipping him through his wife to the procedures most likely to win approval at the Supreme Court. Ginni Thomas has now agreed to testify before the Jan. 6 committee.

Since Eastman’s crackpot plot pivoted on the actions of the vice president, he thereby put a target on Pence’s back from the Trump paramilitaries should Pence decline to cooperate.

Pence served Trump faithfully for four years, helping him gain the evangelical vote and giving him the imprimatur of the non-crazy wing of the Republican Party. What he may have discovered in the end was that Trumpism is not the sort of predator that is ever satisfied, and in its voracious hunger it will devour all those not in lockstep with the great leader."

 

~~~~~

 

"Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Ooh yeah I'm gonna fade away
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'
Our streets today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost its way
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, yeah, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Mmm, a flood is threatening
My very life today
Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I'm gonna fade away
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
I tell you love, sister
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
Kiss away, kiss away..."
 
 
 
 
..........
 
 
 Thanks Mick, very cool.

End Edit.


~~~~~


Here are the Hearings: 


............


 

 

Terrific synopsis in Colbert's Monologue for y'all.

 

Sweet Dreams.

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Day 2 of January 6 Committee Hearings

Before I get so far behind that I'll never catch up, here is (late... sorry) the Day 2 of the January 6 Committee Hearings which are still not being reported locally. Maybe the Mexican people think that nothing will come of these Hearings; if they do I hope they are wrong. If they are correct, we are screwed.

 

 ~ From AP: 

..............

 

~~~~~

I caught this earlier today, so funny. However, it wasn't listed on YouTube. So click the link and enjoy:

 

 ~ From CNN:

 

See How Late Night Hosts Reacted to the Second Day of the January 6 Hearings 

 

~~~~~ 

 

Short and sweet, I'll be back .

 

Friday, June 10, 2022

No Coverage of the Jan. 6 Hearings Locally - Updates: Mass Shootings Continue in USA

Which more and more comes as no surprise - despite the fact that the US Government was practically toppled. The sheer ugliness of this insurrection where we saw in newly released footage parents actually taking along their children to join in the storm left me speechless.

Oh, the other important development not mentioned locally was Danny Ortega's invite to the Russians to come on over...I told you he was a dork: 

 ~ From AP:

 Nicaragua Authorizes Entry of Russian Troops, Planes , Ships

 June 9, 2022

 

If you think for even a second ole Dan would really invite the USA to come down and play war games, you are being naive. We are considered to be Public Enemy Numero Uno. Does anyone have any information on the grand re-opening of the Kalashnokov Factory in Venezuela ? Seems everyone wants to be an oligarch.

~~~~~

 

Let's continue with the January 6th Insurrection from one of the bestest; I'll be back with the recent stats and the Ukraine.

 

 ~ From Truthout:

 January 6 Hearings Offer Damning Evidence of "Culmination of an Attempted Coup" 

 


"First things first: If you have not seen Thursday night’s January 6 committee hearing in full, here it is. Watch that now, save this article for later. It’s not going anywhere.

Given how much political content I consume on a yearly basis, it’s natural for much of it to fade in time. I don’t have enough RAM in my processor to manage it all. Some moments will always linger, though (and here I date myself): Nixon’s bananas farewell address to his staff; Carter in a sweater talking about the energy crisis; Reagan’s eulogy for the Challenger astronauts; Bush Sr.’s “Read my lips” pledge; Wendy Davis’s filibuster; Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Barbara Boxer’s objection to Ohio’s 2004 electors; Clinton’s demand to “Save Social Security first”; the pure fear in George W. Bush’s eyes after he was informed of 9/11; Obama’s 2004 convention speech; Donald Trump at the podium before the January 6 assault; and more. If these moments did not all change history, they made history at least roll over in bed.

A new space has been set aside in my little cathedral of memory. So long as I retain one functioning neuron, I will remember Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi lowering the boom on this entire disgraceful affair with one simple, elegant and altogether damning statement: “Any legal jargon you hear about ‘seditious conspiracy’, ‘obstruction of an official proceeding’, ‘conspiracy to defraud the United States’ boils down to this: January 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup.”

Equally impressive was the performance of Rep. Liz Cheney, who labored last night under a unique set of circumstances. Cheney is one of only two Republicans on the commission (the other being Rep. Adam Kinzinger). She resisted the Trump wave within her party and was all but excommunicated for it. If her hopes for reelection in Wyoming come November were slim before, they are ashes now… and that is worth recognizing. We hear the term, “The hill you choose to die on” often enough. Last night, Liz Cheney chose her hill and did not blink.

Under virtually every circumstance imaginable, I am constitutionally incapable of praising a Cheney; that neuron burned out more than 20 years ago. This Cheney’s policy positions are the stuff of my personal nightmares, but in this moment and with so much on the line, she came through like Adlai Stevenson at the United Nations when the Cuban missiles were revealed: “As you hear this, all Americans should keep in mind this fact: On the morning of January 6, President Donald Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his constitutional obligation to relinquish power.”

Given the content of her apostasy, Cheney’s finest moment came when she called down the judgment of history itself upon the heads of every Republican who abandoned reason and the country for a taste of Trump’s table scraps: “Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

Peter Baker of The New York Times summed up the proceedings succinctly: “In the entire 246-year history of the United States, there was surely never a more damning indictment presented against an American president than outlined on Thursday night in a cavernous congressional hearing room where the future of democracy felt on the line.”

When I say watch it yourself, I do mean it. There were almost too many astonishing revelations put forth to be recounted by any second party; you have to experience it firsthand, listen to the gasps from the audience when Trump is quoted as saying the insurrectionists seeking to murder Mike Pence had the right idea, and watch as grown men weep in the gallery as they recall their own experiences on that bleak day.

Ivanka Trump believes Bill Barr, who thinks the stolen election narrative is “bullshit.” Rep. Scott Perry went spelunking for a presidential pardon after trying to insert a Trump mole into the Justice Department as part of the larger plot to overturn the election. The scramble to make it seem like Trump was “in charge” after Pence took all the needed actions to regain control of the situation. The fact that Trump was deemed “too dangerous to leave alone” by his aides. The clear connective tissue between militia groups like the Proud Boys and the efforts to overturn the election results… and with every revelation, lined up one after the other, came a sense of genuine horror, again, that such a thing had come to pass.

“What I saw was just a war scene,” recounted former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was beaten unconscious by the mob. “It was something like I’d seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw. I never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer — as a law enforcement officer — I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”

Before the hearings are concluded, the commissioners will seek to establish the following:

  • Trump deliberately spread false information about the election.
  • Trump sought to install allies at Justice to “support his fake election claims.”
  • Trump put enormous pressure on Mike Pence to make him try to overturn the election results.
  • Trump similarly harassed various state election officials and legislators to overthrow the results.
  • Trump’s legal team “instructed Republicans in multiple states to create false electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress and the National Archive.”
  • Trump invited a mob to Washington, D.C., and deliberately turned them loose on the Capitol.
  • Trump appeared to be enjoying the violence as it was taking place, and took no action to stop it for hours.

… and as Axios pointed out in its email newsletter this morning, “Note the first word of each of those sentences.”

As for Trump himself, well, it was just another evening spent rewriting history in his typical bog-standard fashion: “January 6th was not simply a protest,” he puled on his pet platform. “It represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”

That’s nice, Donnybrook. Have fun storming the castle. Hey, at least he didn’t try to blame everyone in the country for January 6 the way House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did before the hearing had even begun. I swear, these two were born for each other.

Was history made last night? Has anything changed? That is for time and Attorney General Merrick Garland to ultimately decide. Some 50 years of grim and disappointing history suggest all this will go down as just another television show, but who knows. Whatever else it was, last night’s hearing was deeply compelling. I slept very poorly after it was over, and I suspect I am not alone in that.

The next hearing is scheduled for Monday morning, 10 am Eastern time."

 

Ah, c'mon Mr. Pitt, you are always going somewhere and it is always terrific, thank you ! You were not alone, I didn't sleep at all afterwards.

 



~~~~~ Mike has dinner ready, have to go.  

 

I wanted to add this one re the mass shootings in the USA before bringing our execution stats up to date. Note the interactive map on the link:

 

 ~ From CNN:

 Mass Shooting Leaves Family with Go Fund Me For Funerals and an Unfulfilled Baby Registry 

 

Updated 3:04 AM ET, Sat June 11, 2022

 

~~~~~

 

..............

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

D-Day & The Donbas, Ukraine From General Milley

American soldiers await the signal to begin the D-Day invasion.


 

The downstairs walls have been torn out where we usually hook up the computer, so I've been absent during the unrelenting gun violence, one case right after the next in the U.S. It will be touch and go for the next few weeks.

So much going on in Mexico, go here, sign up for their email notices and contribute:

Pulse News Mexico

News From Mexico and Around the World 


~~~~~

I felt badly about missing D-Day.

 

General Milley

 


 ~ From AP:


US General: Ukraine Will Keep Getting 'Significant' Support

 

June 6, 2022

 

 " COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — The United States and its allies will keep providing “significant” support to Ukraine out of respect for the legacy of D-Day soldiers, whose victory over the Nazis helped lead to a new world order and a “better peace,” Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.

In an interview with The Associated Press overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, Milley said Russia’s war on Ukraine undermines the rules established by Allied countries after the end of World War II. He spoke on the 78th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Allied troops onto the beaches of France, which led to the overthrow of Nazi Germany’s occupation.

One fundamental rule of the“global rules-based order” is that “countries cannot attack other countries with their military forces in acts of aggression unless it’s an act of pure self-defense,” he stressed. “But that’s not what’s happened here in Ukraine. What’s happened here is an open, unambiguous act of aggression.”

“It is widely considered to undermine the rules that these dead — here at Omaha Beach and at the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer — have died for. They died for something. They died for that order to be put in place so that we would have a better peace,” Milley said, speaking at the American Cemetery overlooking the shore in the northwestern French village at Colleville-sur-Mer.

That’s why “the nations of Europe, the nations of NATO, are supporting Ukraine with lethal and nonlethal support in order to make sure that that rule set is underwritten and supported,” Milley explained.

Dozens of veterans — now all in their 90s, from the U.S., Britain, Canada and elsewhere — were taking part in poignant D-Day ceremonies Monday.

On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed on French beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, carried by 7,000 boats. On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded. The massive invasion helped lead to Hitler’s defeat and the end of World War II.

Asked about whether Ukraine gets enough support, Milley noted “there’s a very, very significant battle going on in the Donbas,” in reference to Ukraine’s heavily contested eastern industrial region bordering Russia. “But Kyiv (the capital) was protected and successfully defended against. The Russians had to shift their forces to the south in the Donbas. And we’ll see how this plays out.”

“I think that the United States and the allied countries are providing a significant amount of support to Ukraine, and that will continue,” he said. He didn’t elaborate.

Milley also had strong words about Ukraine at the ceremony at the American Cemetery, attended by over 20 World War II veterans and several thousand spectators.

“Kiev may be 2,000 kilometers away from here, they too, right now, today, are experiencing the same horrors as the French citizens experienced in World War II at the hands of the Nazi invader,” Milley said in his speech. “Let’s not those only here be the last witnesses to a time when our Allies come together to defeat tyranny.”

Milley’s parents served during World War II and his uncle was in the Navy off Normandy’s coast on D-Day as part of Operation Overlord.

That generation of soldiers “fought and sacrificed for all of us... And I have a very, very special bond with them. And I’m very respectful of what they’ve done. And I think we all — all of us today — need to carry on the legacy that they fought and died for,” Milley said.

 

Thank You General Milley. Thank You Vets. Thank You Ukraine and all who stood by her side.

 

~~~~~

...........