23 thoughts on “Sprung”

  1. Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

    Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

    Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

    Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

    [from the first stanza in Spring, The Sweet Spring by Thomas Nashe]

    about the author and his work:

    Thomas Nashe was born in 1567 and died in 1601. He was an English poet, playwright, and satirist. Thomas Nashe is considered to be one of the best pamphleteers of the Elizabethan time. He is known for his novel The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton, the first picaresque novel in English.  [continues]

  2. craig, did you see this?  

    Report: Former Texas governor sabotaged Carter in Iran hostage crisis (axios.com)

    and more in depth

    Lawmaker Admits 1980 GOP Plot to Prolong Iran Hostage Crisis (nymag.com)

    A former Texas lawmaker, compelled by the news of President Jimmy Carter entering hospice care, has come forward to reveal that there was, in fact, a secret GOP effort in 1980 to prevent Iran from releasing more than 50 Americans hostages until after that year’s presidential election.
    Former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes, 85, has told the New York Times that in the summer of 1980, he accompanied his mentor and one-time business partner, former Texas governor John Connally, on a trip to the Middle East during which Connally asked Arab leaders to communicate to Iranian officials that they should not release the hostages before Election Day because if they waited, Ronald Reagan would offer them a better deal. (Connally, at that point a former Democrat, is also known for being the other person seriously wounded during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.)
    The infamous hostage crisis, which began on November 4, 1979, and lasted 444 days, was an open political wound for Carter, who went on to lose his reelection bid to Reagan. After Iran released the hostages on Reagan’s Inauguration Day, there were immediate suspicions among Democrats that the Reagan team had somehow sabotaged the Carter administration’s efforts in order to deny Carter a late-campaign political win — which Reagan advisers famously dubbed a potential “October surprise.” The most prominent theories, like the one put forward by former Carter national security aide Gary Sick in the early 90s, alleged that William Casey, Reagan’s campaign chairman who went on to become the director of the CIA, had orchestrated the sabotage and made a deal with Iran, but as the Times notes, subsequent Congressional investigations never turned up proof.
    Barnes, a Democrat who was once the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, told the Times that there was no doubt in his mind that the purpose of Connally’s trip was to get a message to Iran. He also said that they communicated with the Reagan team during the trip, and that after they returned to the U.S., Connally — who wanted to be Reagan’s Secretary of State — briefed Casey on the trip:
    [continues]

    aside from what Jimmy must feel reading this, can you imagine what those hostages feel?

  3. speaking of past presidents gone bad and in case you missed john oliver last night, you might enjoy seeing one segment which motivated this twitter response:

  4. Jennifer Rubin, WaPo.

    Beryl Howell says there’s sufficient grounds to believe that Trump and Corcoran committed a crime to toss aside attorney-client privilege and require Corcoran to testify and provide his notes.

    Howell held that because there was sufficient evidence that Trump and Corcoran participated in a crime (e.g., violation of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice), Trump lost the benefit of attorney-client privilege. Put differently, if he and Corcoran, for example, were working to deceive investigators or willfully retain highly sensitive documents, their conversations and any documents in furtherance of such crimes must be disclosed to the grand jury.

    Trump’s attorneys squawked that this was a violation of due process. Trump has denied breaking any laws, claiming at one point that he had declassified the documents (although his attorneys have never made that claim in a legal document).

    ***

    Legal scholar Joshua Matz tells me, “Courts do not lightly pierce attorney-client privilege on the basis of the crime-fraud exception, and doing so here signals a judicial understanding that some of the relevant communications likely involved ongoing or future crimes.”

    It is hard to overstate how unusual this is.  I don’t know whether Judge Howell issued that opinion on 3/15 but I really hope so.

    In a 30 year legal career I’ve had an attorney seek my notes once. My response was F*** **u and the attorney seeking them dropped that request. On one occasion I had the Court compel a former boss of mine to testify and to refer to his notes – in a civil matter that did not involve crime-fraud – but that testimony went only to the disclosure requirements in the formation of a contract and he was a willing witness for the other side (they lost by the way).👍

  5. Pat,
    I had 2 brain cells working today so you have something in the bin for tomorrow or whenever, to make up for my Sunday screwup.
    And since you reminded me it is warmer today, so I need to get to work outside. won’t be long, home grown tomatoes. 
    Later
    Jack

  6. Ah, the scent of indictment is wafting in the air.  The loonies, crazies and outright mentally challenged are getting their screwy lives aimed at NYC. If they were smart they would try to get there real early because sfb will be there too.  Maybe not the way they think. The orange idiot said he would fly in to surrender.  My thought is he is cuffed leaving whatever conveyance he shows up in.  They scoot his sorry a to an alternate court room and jail cell. Thus leaving the cult mulling around the streets with the rats.

  7. jack, thanks for the post will plug it in tomorrow (unless fearless leader asserts his privilege and takes back the stage).  Also thanks for the “home grown tomatoes” song.  sure sounds familiar and i wonder if the tune has been used before with other lyrics.

     

    jamie, thanks for sharing willie with us.  never heard that one before.  it sounds right down personal with a lot of meaning for him.

  8. patd – I was also thinking he might be “offered” a ride on one of the custom jets available to the secret service.  As this is not a federal case it would be hard to see how an FBI plane could be used.
    What might become interesting is if the whole procedure stretches out for hours and he can’t get his fix of whatever white stuff that tends to fall out of his nose.

  9. Guy Clark wrote the Home Grown ‘Mater song.    Not sure if he used an existing tune or not. 
    Customer at diner: Give me a BLM, please  
    Waitress: What’s a BLM?
     
    Customer: Why, that’s a Bacon Lettuce and ‘Mater sandwich.
    Waitress: Don’t you mean BLT?
     
    Customer: No, if I’d wanted a Bacon, Lettuce, and ‘Tater I’d have said so
     

  10. Pat
    Guy Clark wrote it and recorded it back in the early 80’s
    It has been covered by a bunch of folks from John Denver to probably every singer in Texas
    Jack

  11. Pat, I just like that version because it reminded me of some folks that would come into the  tavern where I hung out in my drunken youth. They would come in, set up and play for drinks and tips. but mostly for drinks. Then they would pack up and stagger home.
    Jack

  12. Jack – saw that in bars all over the world.  A couple places I happened to spend a night or some, the consumer of beverages would stare and not talk.  Other places they would notice I was single and not a local and talk.  I saw this in the large cities, and I saw this in the middle of nowhere. 
    I just read a small piece about our cousins, in the Ape world, would do some fermentation work to enjoy the outflow.  Getting hammered, or just a little tipsy is life, including outside the humanoid linage.  But, we are not talking about the famous “Joe six-pack” now. 
    Surprising how many places I have been over time and not get “hit” on or asked to do something.  I have sat and talked with “pros” and it was commiserating about how crappy life is everyday. 
    You read or hear about how “red” Wyoming is.  That is a story for another day.

  13. Somebody say “Bars”?   
    lol

    “Fifty-four Fifteen intro, shuffle with two pick-up notes in C.”

    New guy: “Shouldn’t that be a Fifty-Five Forty-four Eleven?”

  14. I like Guy’s version – probably because it’s the first version of the song I heard.

  15. Sturge, jack and BB

    no way i meant to disparage guy clark about writing the ‘mater song.  what i was insinuating with my “sounds familiar” was that perhaps his melody had been lifted by others or used as background score in in some movie and not attributed to him.

     

    NEW THREAD courtesy of Jack 

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