The commission

So, Republicans won't allow an independent and bi-partisan commission to study what happened on January 6th ...



Why have almost all Senate Republicans voted against this, even knowing that now the Democrats will still go ahead and study what ahppened during the riot with a select committee (think Benghazi)?

- Because Trump doesn't want facts about his behavior before and during the riot being made public, and they are Trump's slaves.

- Because Republican politicians don't want their own behavior, their collussion with the mob, to be made public.

- And because the people who perpetrated the riot are their voters, and they are terrified of making their crazy-as-a-bedbug voters mad at them.

History will remember the Republican party of this time as evil. Unless, of course, they do manage to destroy our democracy and put Trump in place as dictator for life. In which case, never mind.

Untouchables

Trump Organization probe enters potentially ominous phase with grand jury convened

For more than two years, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., has been digging deep into the operations of former President Donald Trump's family business for possible fraud involving banks, insurance companies and taxing entities ....

This week, Vance's investigation appears to have entered a new and potentially ominous phase for the former president with the disclosure that a special grand jury has been convened to consider possible evidence of criminality by the president, his business associates or the company itself ...

So much depends on what Allen Weisselberg, Trump's CFO, is willing to testify to.

This reminds me of the fall of the notorious gangster Al Capone. A federal grand jury indicted him for income tax evasion, and he was convicted on October 17, 1931, and sent to prison.

Remember G-man Eliot Ness and his team, the Untouchables? They were special agents of the U.S. Bureau of Prohibition and they spent a couple of years working to end Capone's career - they got him indicted for five thousand counts of conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act ... "Although Capone would never be prosecuted on the Prohibition charges, that indictment formed the basis of a tax suit brought by the federal government following Capone's conviction for income tax evasion".

Remember the movie, The Untouchables ? This was the scene from near the end, where Capone is convicted in court, and Ness confronts him ...



Given all the bad things Trump is believed to have done, it would be interesting if what finally brought him down was tax crime.

San Jose

Another mass shooting, this one in San Jose, about 100 miles from where I live. Nine people dead, including the shooter. Here's my governor at the scene, saying what many of us are thinking: this is all about the (Republican) enabling of gun-toting ...

UFOs

Last week on 60 Minutes ...



I only noticed this topic in the news a few days ago, when I saw a headline stating President Obama had mentioned UFOs.

I find the idea that aliens are visiting our planet so scary. I mean, what are the odds that they will be nice and will share their advanced technology with us? It seems much more likely that they will kill and eat us (or eat us and thus kill us) ....

Today is ...

- endangered numbat

Today is Endangered Species Day. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was signed into law by President Nixon, back when Republicans actually still cared about stuff besides just gaining raw political power.



We're killing off most of the other animal and plant species. Many will try to appeal to people's self-interest by pointing out that it will inevitably kill we humans off too, but even that prospect doesn't motivate most people to stop the destruction. They just don't give a poop about living things other than themselves. We'll turn this planet into a lifeless dustball, thinking we can always move on to another lifeless dustball (Marrs). It makes me so depressed and angry.

Beatles

This song is in my head today. Here are the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, doing the song, All My Loving, February 9, 1964. I was 12 :)

Insurrectigone

Bernie on Israel

Bernie Sanders: The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government

“Israel has the right to defend itself.”

These are the words we hear from both Democratic and Republican administrations whenever the government of Israel, with its enormous military power, responds to rocket attacks from Gaza.

Let’s be clear. No one is arguing that Israel, or any government, does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people. So why are these words repeated year after year, war after war? And why is the question almost never asked: “What are the rights of the Palestinian people?” ...

The whole thing is worth a read.

Insight

Some insight into what's happening in Israel ...

Liz Cheney

Today Representative Liz Cheney gave a short speech, knowing that tomorrow she will probably be voted out of her leadership role in the House.

Why will she be ousted? Because she won't repeat Trump's lies about the past election, and more significantly, because she won't get down on her knees and kiss his ass. I don't agree with her conservatism, but I admire her integrity. (Most of) her fellow Republicans are groveling Trump-toadies who care more about being in power than any other thing in this world.

One tribe

Tonight I re-watched Black Panther. The first time I watched it I forgot to scroll through the end credits to view the scene Marvel always puts there. It has King T'Challa (the Black Panther) of Wakanda (a country that has up until this point hidden its vast technological superiority from the rest of the world) addressing the United Nations. What he said seems so relevant to today ...

"Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows. We cannot. We must not. We will work to be an example of how we as brothers and sisters on this Earth should treat each other. Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe."

Being tall

My sister gave me a gift certificate for the Chewy place, so Yoda got a new tall cat furniture to help her look out the window :)

RIP: Tawny Kitaen

In the news today - Tawny Kitaen, ’80s rock video star and ‘Bachelor Party’ actress, dies at 59

I didn't realize she had quite a career in the 80s, including music videos with Whutesnake, but I only knew of her from the 90s tv series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and the Hercules tv movies that came before that, in which she played Deianira, the beloved wife of Hercules. Sadly, I can't find a video clip of her on the show, but here's a photo of her and Kevin Sorbo as Hercules ...

Death from above

Today

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Officially the celebration of the Mexican army's victory over the French at the first Battle of Puebla, now the day is more about culture (and food). Although I live relatively close to Mexico, I've never been there. The closest I've come is living briefly in San Diego and learning Spanish in high school.

The good news of the day .... Trump will continue to be banned from Facebook, at least for 6 more months. As former FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi notes, there's so much more to be done to counter the radicalization created by Trump and the extreme Right online ...

Sad news .... Bill and Melinda Gates are breaking up. I really like her. She has been a powerful voice for women's reproductive rights ...

Herd immunity

Apparently, we won't be reaching herd immunity after all, because not enough people are willing to get vaccinated. This political cartoon shown tonight on The 11th Hour (see above) says it all ...

And who are these anti-vaxxers? Republicans. They truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

Bernie

Bernie was on Meet The Press today ...



While the Republicans are spending their time lying their asses off about hamburgers and trying to creatively re-count past election ballots, the Democrats, and especially Bernie (an Independent), are actually trying to help people. God, I hope Medicare *will* pay for glasses and dental. I have one pair of glasses, over 20 years old, and now the foot on one leg has fallen off. And the dentist ... don't get me started.

I wish all the Repubocan politicians would be transformed into povery-striken wretches without help or hope. Let them live in that world for a while (or forever). It might give them a little perspective.

Pandora's Clock

Tonight I looked up an old made-for-tv movie. Couldn't find it at Netflix or at the library or at Amazon Prime (though you can buy the DVD for, I kid you not, $299.99), but I finally found it at YouTube and I'm watching it as we speak. Pandora's Clock ...

is a 1996 NBC miniseries based on a novel by John J. Nance about a deadly virus on a Boeing 747-200 from Frankfurt to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Directed by Eric Laneuville, the film stars Richard Dean Anderson, Stephen Root, Jane Leeves, Robert Loggia and Daphne Zuniga and the script closely follows the book.

I remember seeing the movie back in the day ... I'm a Richard Dean Anderson fan (Stargate!) ... and given the present COVID situation, I thought it would be interesting to see it again.

OK, yes, it's dated and a bit overwrought but it's helping to pass a Saturday night (along with some Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream), so ;)