News of the Day

People are lining up not to endorse Donald Trump but to utterly disassociate themselves from him.  You have both President Bushes and their wives, you have Jebbers Bush, you have Lindsey Graham and John Mc Cain, who is concerned about the Latino vote in Arizona for his own election, and you have Speaker Paul Ryan who is “Waiting for Donald Trump to do something to heal the party first”.  They interviewed Reinz Priebus on C-Span and he was asked all the relevant questions.  I think all parties agree that the split - - fizzure - - in the Republican Party is far worse than what the democrats are experiencing.  Meanwhile Bernie Sanders is still mad at Debby Wasserman Shultz and states that he’s in this till the convention.  I’ve heard conflicting polling in California but basically the consensus is that Bernie will win here.

The verdict of the Grim Sleeper trial came in.  There are the deaths of eight women and attempted death of one woman mostly in the late eighties.  Juror number two read the verdict replete with all sorts of legal code numbers as all nine convictions are tediously gone through.  They interrupted Days of our Lives yesterday for the verdict to be read.  He is called the Grim Sleeper because of the lenghtly amount of time between some of the last few murders.

According to Washington’s blog, all of the testimony and evidence gathered for the remaining 9 – 11 trials at Guantanamo Bay- - are based on torture.  Further they charge that the government plans to “manipulate” the trial to assure a guilty verdict even if an innocent verdict is warrented.  The thing is we know the 9 – 11 commission itself is a work of fiction.  And the evidence in that commission seems to be based on the same source of testimony gained by torture.  I know enough about the law from Senior Law that evidence or permission given under duress or torture is invalid.  Of course it violates the fifth amendment, but I don’t know if they even have that in military trials.  I’m not even sure whether these show trials even rise to the level of a proper Court Marshal.  It’s time to elect a democratic congress as President Sanders leads the reopening of the 9 – 11 case and the evidence is gathered fresh and untainted.

As the United States plans to move thousands of NATO troops to Russia’s borders and continues to bolster a fiercely anti-Russian regime in neighboring Ukraine, the official line in Washington and its subservient corporate media is that beneficent America is simply seeking to curtail Moscow’s “aggression.” But the U.S. government and media might look at things quite differently if the shoe were on the other foot.  What, for instance, would the U.S. reaction be if Russia instead had supported the violent overthrow of, say, Canada’s government and assisted the new Ottawa regime’s “anti-terrorist operations” against a few rebellious “pro-American” provinces, including one that voted 96 percent in a referendum to reject the new Russian-backed authorities and attach itself to the U.S.?  If the U.S. government tried to help these embattled “pro-American” Canadians – and protect the breakaway province against the Russian-installed regime – would Washington see itself as the “aggressor” or as simply helping people resist anti-democratic repression? Would it view Russian troop movements to the U.S. border as a way to stop an American “invasion” or rather an act of “aggression” and provocation by Russia against the United States?  

For dinner we had beef stew in a bowl.  It was good but it was too salty.  I’m sure Jeff will complain.  We had different mixed vegetables and rice, some of which I put in my stew.  We had two oatmeal cookies for dessert.  When Connie sings those soul songs it’s like some gospel singer of old.  I wonder if Maya Angelo ever sang.  She had a saying “When somebody tells you who they are – believe them”.  I would disagree with that only to say “When someone shows you who they are to believe them” as for instance someone in a fundamentalist church.  One thing I still need to do is back up my files to the exterior hard drive before it’s too late.  This morning I played the Tony Sharidan CD.   Sometimes this week I’ve felt as though I needed to call a family member though I just saw all of them Monday.  This split in the republican party is something Paul and Judy haven’t weighed in on yet.  Can I add their names to the anti Trump list?  Tonight perhaps I should try to get coffee from Paul and hopefully set up a working relationship of coffee for cigarettes, since Glen may not be back.  Nora was here this morning around snack time.  I should get my name on the list to see the eye doctor assuming that it isn’t already.