17 thoughts on “Serendipity Substitute”

1. jack, wakey wakey.  it’s sunday and your day to shine beautiful music upon the Trail.  in the meantime, enjoy some happy people making with happy song in celebration of a happy seasonal change.

   this is also for those whose brackets are still intact and for those who’re cheered by the hint of justice about to come with regard to putie, his puppet and his puppet’s pundits.

2. speaking of those pundits, can their viewers begin to “see clearly now” as the song proclaims?

   Dominion lawsuit is just the start as Fox faces losing friends – and viewers | Fox News | The Guardian

   […]
   But whether Fox News wins or loses the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion – a court hearing is set for 21 March, and a trial is scheduled to start on 17 April – more suffering is likely to come, on multiple fronts.
   There’s some evidence that Fox News’s legendary hold over the Republican party is on the wane, and even speculation that the Murdoch family’s position atop the Fox conglomerate could be at risk.
   The channel, which was founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1996, has become arguably the most influential media operation in American political history, holding huge sway over the Republican party while maintaining a reputation as a news organization.
   But the disclosures released as part of Dominion’s suit have put that balance at risk.
   […]
   “What we’ve seen is a keyhole view into how Fox operates,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a watchdog group.
   “What makes all of this so disturbing is that this is about power,” he said. “And Fox News at its core is actually a political operation that is designed to give power to the Murdochs.”
   The exposure of Fox News’s internal workings will weaken its reputation as a news organization, Carusone said, and should the channel and its owner, Fox Corporation, lose the Dominion case, there could be immediate financial consequences.
   “If they lose the case I think it’s going to be really significant. One, it makes shareholder litigation a certainty. Two, it puts Murdoch control of the company in jeopardy.”
   Some law firms are already approaching Fox corporation shareholders about litigation.
   […]
   Fox News could also face problems when it comes to renewing its contracts with cable companies, Carusone said. Cable companies in the US pay individual channels, like Fox News, for the right to include them in their cable packages. Fox News is currently the second most expensive channel, behind ESPN.
   Fox News has been able to demand such fees by touting its loyal audience. But messages released as part of the Dominion case have laid bare the contempt some at Fox News have for both their viewers and for Donald Trump, a hero to many in the Fox News audience.
   “Like negotiating with terrorists,” Alex Pfeiffer, then a producer on Tucker Carlson’s nightly show, said of the line Fox News had to tread between reporting the news and feeding its audience the conspiracy theories they crave.
   “But especially dumb ones. Cousin-fucking types, not Saudi royalty.”

   [continues]

3. Yesterday I noted there was a report of puttie visiting Crimea.  OSINT shows a body double for all outdoor scenes, consistent with previous years, the guy is very afraid of being killed.  There were indoor scenes of the double, but a couple shots of what appears to be the real puttie.  This morning there are confirmed shots of him in Ukraine city of Mariupol, indoors, and the body double driving around. 
   This is interesting because puttie decided to risk the trip as his invasion of a country is not going well.  Recruiting is down to hauling women out of prisons.  He has run out of modern tanks and weapons. And, losing around one thousand people, most not actual trained soldiers, each day is hard to hide from the people of russia.  The propaganda is needed to support a war against a peaceful people.

4. Patd

   Thank you for the bright good morning song.  Hope Jack is just vacationing the Sunday away.

    

5. Putin seen limping during unannounced visit to Crimea

    

6. 

   Attribution: Presidential Primary Madness Bracket by Bruce Plante, PoliticalCartoons.com

7. for those keeping score on law vs lawlessness, seems the courts are also seeing things clearly according to the ever colorful wonkette:

   Mean Federal Court Still Won’t Let Ron DeSantis Cast Woke Demons Out Of Colleges – Wonkette

   Wokeness and critical race theory and Marxist indoctrination can continue to run rampant in Florida colleges and universities after a federal court ruled Thursday to keep in place an injunction against enforcing the “Stop WOKE” Act. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration to please let it stop some woke, even just a little, while the case is being decided.
   In November, US District Judge Mark Walker determined the law, which would restrict how colleges and universities can teach about race and gender, was unconstitutional as all fuck, because what part of free speech don’t you understand? In a remarkably fun decision to read, Walker called the law “positively dystopian” and cited George Orwell in his order, adding that the bill’s formal name, the “Individual Freedom Act,” was a dandy example of doublespeak.
   As we said at the time, it’s awfully refreshing to see an invocation of Orwell by someone who has actually read and understood the dear old lifelong socialist who thought basic human decency might yet have a chance against totalizing ideologies.
   In yesterday’s 26-word order, a three-judge panel of the appeals court turned down the state’s request to stay the injunction Walker issued in November. It also directed the court clerk to “treat any motion for reconsideration of this order as a non-emergency matter,” just in case Florida decided to get shirty. In an act of judicial decorum, the appeals panel did not add “Neener-neener, you fascists.”
   […]
   As Politico ‘splains, the law expanded Florida’s existing anti-discrimination law to protect the sensitive feelings of anyone who might have conniptions when told that other people have been discriminated against, how dare you. The bill prohibits institutions of higher education from ever causing students to feel sad in lessons about race or sex.

   Inspired by DeSantis, it takes aim at lessons over issues like “white privilege” by creating new protections for students and workers, including that a person should not be instructed to “feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin.

   As we always point out, OF COURSE no one would ever teach that white children are guilty for things like slavery or Jim Crow, but the problem with these “divisive concepts” laws is that they’re written so vaguely that any teaching about racism or sexism could potentially get an instructor or school sued and penalized.
   [continues]

8. Jamie – that video is of one of the doubles.  Note the mask, which he keeps adjusting, also puttie has two things wrong, that we know of, with his right arm and hand. This guy goes full arm swings.  Puttie does not arm swing and his hand is kept closed, no open fingers out. Also, he will show tremblers from a neuro thing (disease or damage).  He might also still be showing his KGB training of keeping his hand at his sidearm, I tend to think it is because of the damage not training now.  Over the years there have been several videos where the editor did not care and left the shots of the mask show.  The limp is a bit of acting on the part of the double.  Other scenes he is strolling along like a SS trooper. 

9. It’s my party and I’ll lie if I want to.

10. Lock him up.  The weather is terrible here more rain but I am going out to buy adult beveridges and popcorn for tomorrow.  If not lock him a nice juicy indictment will do.
    I hope he does provoke more arrests for his lunatic followers 

11. Happy St. Joseph’s Day! 

12. Pat, thanks for covering for me. So today is Sunday, hmm, I’ll be damn. I could have swore it was Saturday.
    Retired, don’t party on Saturday any more, no church, one day seems to blend in with another. 
    Again thanks and Sorry, I’ll try to do better. 
    Jack

13. Wouldn’t mind if he flees the country. “Ignominious Exile” has a nice ring to it.

14. jack, glad it was just a mix up of days and nothing worse.  we all suffer now and then a touch of old timer’s disease.

     

    in re the upcoming perp walk for the perp-in-chief, am exasperated with the talking heads poo-pooing the arrest lamenting how minor the alleged crime is.  hell, a man was sentenced 3 years in prison regarding that same offense.  yeah, yeah cohen got out earlier due to covid releases, but still he lost his law license, his freedom for a time, what reputation he had, money and more at the direction of aforesaid perp who’s thumbing his nose at the judicial and law enforcement systems and fomenting another violent riot.  

15. 

16. It is too easy when retired to not know the day of the week.  I should know until this  discussion I thought it was Monday.

17. NEW THREAD