User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Picture This
An alley between two storefronts in Jersey.
32 thoughts on “Picture This”
an alleyway begats alley cats
nothing like a little silliness to ward off the winds of war wafting our way today
.
Well, yes dotard, we are still talking about impeachment, and more of us are saying you should go back to the private sector sooner rather than later. As many as 9% more favor removal than allowing you to continue as SCROTUS.
‘He was sent to us’: at church rally, evangelicals worship God and Trump
They came to pray with their president, though in truth many came just to worship him. Donald Trump’s Friday launch of his so-called “coalition of evangelicals”, an attempt to shore up the support of the religious right ahead of November’s election, had the feel of any other campaign rally, except this time with gospel music.
[…]
Friday’s rally, hastily organized in the wake of a stinging Christianity Today editorial last month, recognized Trump’s need to retain the loyalty of the evangelical voting bloc that propelled him to victory in 2016. Four years ago, he won 80% backing from white evangelical voters nationwide.
“In 2016 evangelical Christians went out and helped us in numbers never seen before. We’re going to blow those numbers away in 2020,” Trump said. “I really believe we have God on our side.”
For Rose Ann Farrell, 74, from Florida, the claim rang true. “I really believe he was sent to us,” she said. “From one to ten, he’s a ten. He lives in a Christian world and we needed a strong Christian, somebody who is not afraid. He speaks for us, has the guts and courage to speak what we want to say. His actions, his intentions, are Christian.”
Not everybody agreed. Francisco Morales, 47, traveled 30 miles from Fort Lauderdale with placards highlighting the Ten Commandments he says Trump has violated.
[continues]
Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
—Lenny Bruce
Well, we shall see if the career of Archduke Suleimani has longer legs than that of Assassin Trump.
given all the talk of probable vengeance and planned acts of terrorism, wonder if there will be an impact on the number of IMpotus rallies and rally goers for awhile. IMpotus (aka impetus) himself has to be a tad more worried than usual about his personal security. bet his bone spurs are really hurting right now, maybe have to forego unnecessary exposure amongst the unwashed masses.
Morell added that the killing of Soleimani, leader of the Iranian Quds Force, sets a “precedent that senior officials are fair game in this hybrid, not-yet-at-war kind of scenario.”
He added that if Iran wanted to respond “rationally,” it would not launch a military strike on American forces because it would lose. Instead, Morell predicted that Iran will instruct its allies and proxies in the region “to go after civilians.”
“At a time and place of their choosing, they’re going to conduct a terrorist strike that kills a senior American official,” Morell said.
He also warned that an attack of that nature could occur anywhere in the world, even on American soil.
“Lebanese Hezbollah, which is one of [Iran’s] closest allies, has contingency plans and those include plans in the United States against U.S. targets,” Morell said. “Such a terrorist attack could occur soon.”
[continues]
“senior American official” not necessarily means a top general on the level of Soleimani; but could mean folks like pence, pompeo or even mitch and lindsey
you know the mob way of sending a severed ear, dead pet dog, or dead horse head in one’s bed. something that unnerves the real target.
Computer systems quickly emerged as potential targets. Christopher C. Krebs, the department’s leader on cybersecurity, made clear on Twitter that the threat went beyond the federal government.
“Pay close attention to your critical systems,” Mr. Krebs said. “Make sure you’re also watching third party accesses!”
The warning was the most specific security action described by the Department of Homeland Security on Friday in light of General Suleimani’s death.
[continues]
If Trump’s Wag the Dog was moving any faster, that canine’s tail would be a helicopter.
“…has to be a tad more worried than usual about his personal security” Here, hear!”
The depths of the madness of SFB have not yet been reached, he is still in office and the Pentagon is still listening to him.
Chunky doing mental telepathy.
I think Ivanka and Jared might be high on the list….that’s what people are sayin
KGC… glad to see you. Hadn’t seen you for awhile and was beginning to worry about you.
Sturg…. is that picture your way of saying… even if it looks bleak… look up… the sky is still blue.
kgc, methinks all his kids (ceptin tiff) and those in particular are somewhere at the top of the list, but in the meantime smaller fish will be hit just to hint at bad things to come. don’t underestimate the degree the avengers know IMpotus can be intimidated, scared and driven to despair.
This SFB president, the whole thing about him, is pathetic! He’s still trying to outdo Obama. He’s still trying to deflect from any of his misdeeds and sins. He’s just so weak and such a loser.
Two mortar rounds hit the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops, security sources said, a day after a deadly American strike.
The precision drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Friday killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, top Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and a clutch of other Iranian and Iraqi figures.
In Baghdad, mortar rounds on Saturday evening hit the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US embassy is based, security sources said.
The Iraqi military said that one projectile hit inside the zone, while another landed close to the enclave.
Sirens rang out at the US compound, sources there told AFP.
A pair of Katyusha rockets then hit the Balad airbase north of Baghdad, where American troops are based, security sources and the Iraqi military said.
Security sources there reported blaring sirens and said surveillance drones were sent above the base to locate the source of the rockets.
[continues]
and if that’s not bad enough to worry about, how’s this from the guardian:
An explosive leak of tens of thousands of documents from the defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica is set to expose the inner workings of the company that collapsed after the Observer revealed it had misappropriated 87 million Facebook profiles.
More than 100,000 documents relating to work in 68 countries that will lay bare the global infrastructure of an operation used to manipulate voters on “an industrial scale” is set to be released over the next months.
[…]
The release of documents began on New Year’s Day on an anonymous Twitter account, @HindsightFiles, with links to material on elections in Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. The documents were revealed to have come from Brittany Kaiser, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower, and to be the same ones subpoeaned by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Kaiser, who starred in the Oscar-shortlisted Netflix documentary The Great Hack, decided to go public after last month’s election in Britain. “It’s so abundantly clear our electoral systems are wide open to abuse,” she said. “I’m very fearful about what is going to happen in the US election later this year, and I think one of the few ways of protecting ourselves is to get as much information out there as possible.”
The documents were retrieved from her email accounts and hard drives, and though she handed over some material to parliament in April 2018, she said there were thousands and thousands more pages which showed a “breadth and depth of the work” that went “way beyond what people think they know about ‘the Cambridge Analytica scandal’”.
[…]
Kaiser said the Facebook data scandal was part of a much bigger global operation that worked with governments, intelligence agencies, commercial companies and political campaigns to manipulate and influence people, and that raised huge national security implications.
The unpublished documents contain material that suggests the firm was working for a political party in Ukraine in 2017 even while under investigation as part of Mueller’s inquiry and emails that Kaiser says describe how the firm helped develop a “sophisticated infrastructure of shell companies that were designed to funnel dark money into politics”.
“There are emails between these major Trump donors discussing ways of obscuring the source of their donations through a series of different financial vehicles. These documents expose the entire dark money machinery behind US politics.” The same machinery, she says, was deployed in other countries that Cambridge Analytica worked in, including, she claims, Britain.
Emma Briant, an academic at Bard College, New York, who specialises in investigating propaganda and has had access to some of the documents for research, said that what had been revealed was “the tip of the iceberg”.
“The documents reveal a much clearer idea of what actually happened in the 2016 US presidential election, which has a huge bearing on what will happen in 2020. It’s the same people involved who we know are building on these same techniques,” she said.
“There’s evidence of really quite disturbing experiments on American voters, manipulating them with fear-based messaging, targeting the most vulnerable, that seems to be continuing. This is an entire global industry that’s out of controlbut what this does is lay out what was happening with this one company.
There’s only one way to close the data/election mess, that’s with sunshine. Cambanal is well named.
There are many things to ponder now that SFB has killed another person. This one direct by his orders, others indirectly along with several spies (which we know of) are gone and we do not know the others he has given up. Suicide bombers in Iran are not unknown. The low intelligent fool has made many enemies around the world. Although kissing buddies with Putin and other dictators, they will let him punch ghosts on his own. All Americans are now targets anywhere in the world, including America. Past Iranian actions are typical terrorist meant to damage a lot and make headlines. Obama had started a process to bring Iran into a new world. SFB has worked hard to make the U.S. an isolated and hated country by all our former allies. Putin must be worn out from dancing hard.
RR
We are having an electricity crisis. Our generator (brand new) has turned out to be a lemon. We re hoping to get our money back and move on. Getting it back to the store is a project — it weighs 165 pounds and is to heavy for our winch system so we have to get strong young men with a furniture dolly to schlep it up the hill.
Hopefully we will be powered up soon We arr getting our hydro-electric system going. We relocated the turbine this year and there is still some work to be done on the new housing. It’s tough being completely off the grid and down a hill and over the dale.
The only “imminent threat” was to Trumpsky, with regard to his impeachment.
No tears for the a-hole that is no more, but the hornet nest can not be un-kicked.
BiD
That worthless piece of rubbish has been an imminent threat for the last 20 years. What do you think he was doing in the car?
Good riddance
Jack
jack – You made my point. He was a threat for a long time, including for Trump’s entire presidency. Why now? And, we are in agreement as to the creep’s demise. No tears and good riddance. However, there are still consequences; things will get worse. Hopefully, they will get better. But first, they will get much worse.
I think it is inadvisable to take bows after killing the employees of a foreign state, except in the case of a wartime enemy. The admission, as opposed to the killing itself, can be used as a casus belli.
As far as we know, osama bin ladin was not an employee of a foreign state. Rather, he appeared to be a murderous international gangster. saddam hussein was executed by Iraqis after what appeared from here to be a legitimate criminal trial. al bagdadi was the head of a nascent state based on his personal charisma, a state which for practical purposes ceased to exist upon his death. However, the killing of Gen. suliemani and his party is different. That killing can be construed as an attack on the Iranian state. It should have been accomplished Mossad-style, quietly, without taking bows and flashing ‘applaud’ signs.
Jamie, in case you missed it
wapo editorial board:
Bernie Sanders promised to disclose his medical records. What happened?
WHEN THE late John McCain was running for president in 2008, questions about his health arose. At 72, McCain would have been the oldest president if elected, and there were issues related to his past treatment for melanoma and his experience as a prisoner of war. McCain dealt with the concerns with his characteristic candor. The Arizona senator made 1,173 pages of his medical records available to the media, setting a standard for accessibility and transparency.
We can’t help but be reminded of — and long for — McCain and his recognition of the people’s right to know in light of the dismissive way Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a top contender to be the Democratic presidential nominee, has sought to deal with questions about his health. At 78, Mr. Sanders, too, would be the oldest president if elected, and in October he suffered a heart attack. He was briefly off the campaign trail but returned with vigor and a promise to release his medical records.
“Of course, we’re — of course, people do have a right to know about the health of a senator and someone running for president of the United States, full disclosure,” Mr. Sanders told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta. “And, we will make at the appropriate time, all of our medical records public for you or anybody else who wants to see them.” Mr. Sanders this week released some information — letters from three doctors attesting to his fitness for office — but it fell far short of his promise of full disclosure. When pressed by reporters if more information would be released, he said, “Probably not.”
Mr. Sanders, like everyone running for president and currently serving as president, should be totally forthcoming about his health. The inadequacy of doctor letters in lieu of records was underscored in 2016 by the ludicrous letter from then-candidate Donald Trump’s gastroenterologist. So far, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 70, has provided the most information, releasing a letter from her physician and five pages of supporting medical data. Former vice president Joe Biden, 77, released a three-page letter from his physician outlining his current condition and medical history.
The issue of candidates’ health has pronounced significance this year given that three of the top-tier Democratic contenders are, along with President Trump, septuagenarians. But younger candidates, too, have an obligation to provide complete and pertinent medical information. The best way candidates running in 2020 can prove they have nothing to hide is to emulate McCain and open up their medical records.
an alleyway begats alley cats
nothing like a little silliness to ward off the winds of war wafting our way today
.
Well, yes dotard, we are still talking about impeachment, and more of us are saying you should go back to the private sector sooner rather than later. As many as 9% more favor removal than allowing you to continue as SCROTUS.
true believers according to the guardian:
‘He was sent to us’: at church rally, evangelicals worship God and Trump
They came to pray with their president, though in truth many came just to worship him. Donald Trump’s Friday launch of his so-called “coalition of evangelicals”, an attempt to shore up the support of the religious right ahead of November’s election, had the feel of any other campaign rally, except this time with gospel music.
[…]
Friday’s rally, hastily organized in the wake of a stinging Christianity Today editorial last month, recognized Trump’s need to retain the loyalty of the evangelical voting bloc that propelled him to victory in 2016. Four years ago, he won 80% backing from white evangelical voters nationwide.
“In 2016 evangelical Christians went out and helped us in numbers never seen before. We’re going to blow those numbers away in 2020,” Trump said. “I really believe we have God on our side.”
For Rose Ann Farrell, 74, from Florida, the claim rang true. “I really believe he was sent to us,” she said. “From one to ten, he’s a ten. He lives in a Christian world and we needed a strong Christian, somebody who is not afraid. He speaks for us, has the guts and courage to speak what we want to say. His actions, his intentions, are Christian.”
Not everybody agreed. Francisco Morales, 47, traveled 30 miles from Fort Lauderdale with placards highlighting the Ten Commandments he says Trump has violated.
[continues]
Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
—Lenny Bruce
Well, we shall see if the career of Archduke Suleimani has longer legs than that of Assassin Trump.
given all the talk of probable vengeance and planned acts of terrorism, wonder if there will be an impact on the number of IMpotus rallies and rally goers for awhile. IMpotus (aka impetus) himself has to be a tad more worried than usual about his personal security. bet his bone spurs are really hurting right now, maybe have to forego unnecessary exposure amongst the unwashed masses.
the hill:
[…]
Morell added that the killing of Soleimani, leader of the Iranian Quds Force, sets a “precedent that senior officials are fair game in this hybrid, not-yet-at-war kind of scenario.”
He added that if Iran wanted to respond “rationally,” it would not launch a military strike on American forces because it would lose. Instead, Morell predicted that Iran will instruct its allies and proxies in the region “to go after civilians.”
“At a time and place of their choosing, they’re going to conduct a terrorist strike that kills a senior American official,” Morell said.
He also warned that an attack of that nature could occur anywhere in the world, even on American soil.
“Lebanese Hezbollah, which is one of [Iran’s] closest allies, has contingency plans and those include plans in the United States against U.S. targets,” Morell said. “Such a terrorist attack could occur soon.”
[continues]
“senior American official” not necessarily means a top general on the level of Soleimani; but could mean folks like pence, pompeo or even mitch and lindsey
you know the mob way of sending a severed ear, dead pet dog, or dead horse head in one’s bed. something that unnerves the real target.
as for us hoi polloi
NYTimes:
[…]
Computer systems quickly emerged as potential targets. Christopher C. Krebs, the department’s leader on cybersecurity, made clear on Twitter that the threat went beyond the federal government.
“Pay close attention to your critical systems,” Mr. Krebs said. “Make sure you’re also watching third party accesses!”
The warning was the most specific security action described by the Department of Homeland Security on Friday in light of General Suleimani’s death.
[continues]
If Trump’s Wag the Dog was moving any faster, that canine’s tail would be a helicopter.
“…has to be a tad more worried than usual about his personal security” Here, hear!”
The depths of the madness of SFB have not yet been reached, he is still in office and the Pentagon is still listening to him.
Chunky doing mental telepathy.
I think Ivanka and Jared might be high on the list….that’s what people are sayin
KGC… glad to see you. Hadn’t seen you for awhile and was beginning to worry about you.
Sturg…. is that picture your way of saying… even if it looks bleak… look up… the sky is still blue.
kgc, methinks all his kids (ceptin tiff) and those in particular are somewhere at the top of the list, but in the meantime smaller fish will be hit just to hint at bad things to come. don’t underestimate the degree the avengers know IMpotus can be intimidated, scared and driven to despair.
This SFB president, the whole thing about him, is pathetic! He’s still trying to outdo Obama. He’s still trying to deflect from any of his misdeeds and sins. He’s just so weak and such a loser.
Hey, Bungalow Bill, what did you kill?
AFP via msn:
Two mortar rounds hit the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops, security sources said, a day after a deadly American strike.
The precision drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Friday killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, top Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and a clutch of other Iranian and Iraqi figures.
In Baghdad, mortar rounds on Saturday evening hit the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US embassy is based, security sources said.
The Iraqi military said that one projectile hit inside the zone, while another landed close to the enclave.
Sirens rang out at the US compound, sources there told AFP.
A pair of Katyusha rockets then hit the Balad airbase north of Baghdad, where American troops are based, security sources and the Iraqi military said.
Security sources there reported blaring sirens and said surveillance drones were sent above the base to locate the source of the rockets.
[continues]
and if that’s not bad enough to worry about, how’s this from the guardian:
An explosive leak of tens of thousands of documents from the defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica is set to expose the inner workings of the company that collapsed after the Observer revealed it had misappropriated 87 million Facebook profiles.
More than 100,000 documents relating to work in 68 countries that will lay bare the global infrastructure of an operation used to manipulate voters on “an industrial scale” is set to be released over the next months.
[…]
The release of documents began on New Year’s Day on an anonymous Twitter account, @HindsightFiles, with links to material on elections in Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. The documents were revealed to have come from Brittany Kaiser, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower, and to be the same ones subpoeaned by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Kaiser, who starred in the Oscar-shortlisted Netflix documentary The Great Hack, decided to go public after last month’s election in Britain. “It’s so abundantly clear our electoral systems are wide open to abuse,” she said. “I’m very fearful about what is going to happen in the US election later this year, and I think one of the few ways of protecting ourselves is to get as much information out there as possible.”
The documents were retrieved from her email accounts and hard drives, and though she handed over some material to parliament in April 2018, she said there were thousands and thousands more pages which showed a “breadth and depth of the work” that went “way beyond what people think they know about ‘the Cambridge Analytica scandal’”.
[…]
Kaiser said the Facebook data scandal was part of a much bigger global operation that worked with governments, intelligence agencies, commercial companies and political campaigns to manipulate and influence people, and that raised huge national security implications.
The unpublished documents contain material that suggests the firm was working for a political party in Ukraine in 2017 even while under investigation as part of Mueller’s inquiry and emails that Kaiser says describe how the firm helped develop a “sophisticated infrastructure of shell companies that were designed to funnel dark money into politics”.
“There are emails between these major Trump donors discussing ways of obscuring the source of their donations through a series of different financial vehicles. These documents expose the entire dark money machinery behind US politics.” The same machinery, she says, was deployed in other countries that Cambridge Analytica worked in, including, she claims, Britain.
Emma Briant, an academic at Bard College, New York, who specialises in investigating propaganda and has had access to some of the documents for research, said that what had been revealed was “the tip of the iceberg”.
“The documents reveal a much clearer idea of what actually happened in the 2016 US presidential election, which has a huge bearing on what will happen in 2020. It’s the same people involved who we know are building on these same techniques,” she said.
“There’s evidence of really quite disturbing experiments on American voters, manipulating them with fear-based messaging, targeting the most vulnerable, that seems to be continuing. This is an entire global industry that’s out of controlbut what this does is lay out what was happening with this one company.
There’s only one way to close the data/election mess, that’s with sunshine. Cambanal is well named.
There are many things to ponder now that SFB has killed another person. This one direct by his orders, others indirectly along with several spies (which we know of) are gone and we do not know the others he has given up. Suicide bombers in Iran are not unknown. The low intelligent fool has made many enemies around the world. Although kissing buddies with Putin and other dictators, they will let him punch ghosts on his own. All Americans are now targets anywhere in the world, including America. Past Iranian actions are typical terrorist meant to damage a lot and make headlines. Obama had started a process to bring Iran into a new world. SFB has worked hard to make the U.S. an isolated and hated country by all our former allies. Putin must be worn out from dancing hard.
RR
We are having an electricity crisis. Our generator (brand new) has turned out to be a lemon. We re hoping to get our money back and move on. Getting it back to the store is a project — it weighs 165 pounds and is to heavy for our winch system so we have to get strong young men with a furniture dolly to schlep it up the hill.
Hopefully we will be powered up soon We arr getting our hydro-electric system going. We relocated the turbine this year and there is still some work to be done on the new housing. It’s tough being completely off the grid and down a hill and over the dale.
The only “imminent threat” was to Trumpsky, with regard to his impeachment.
No tears for the a-hole that is no more, but the hornet nest can not be un-kicked.
BiD
That worthless piece of rubbish has been an imminent threat for the last 20 years. What do you think he was doing in the car?
Good riddance
Jack
jack – You made my point. He was a threat for a long time, including for Trump’s entire presidency. Why now? And, we are in agreement as to the creep’s demise. No tears and good riddance. However, there are still consequences; things will get worse. Hopefully, they will get better. But first, they will get much worse.
I think it is inadvisable to take bows after killing the employees of a foreign state, except in the case of a wartime enemy. The admission, as opposed to the killing itself, can be used as a casus belli.
As far as we know, osama bin ladin was not an employee of a foreign state. Rather, he appeared to be a murderous international gangster. saddam hussein was executed by Iraqis after what appeared from here to be a legitimate criminal trial. al bagdadi was the head of a nascent state based on his personal charisma, a state which for practical purposes ceased to exist upon his death. However, the killing of Gen. suliemani and his party is different. That killing can be construed as an attack on the Iranian state. It should have been accomplished Mossad-style, quietly, without taking bows and flashing ‘applaud’ signs.
Jamie, in case you missed it
wapo editorial board:
Bernie Sanders promised to disclose his medical records. What happened?
WHEN THE late John McCain was running for president in 2008, questions about his health arose. At 72, McCain would have been the oldest president if elected, and there were issues related to his past treatment for melanoma and his experience as a prisoner of war. McCain dealt with the concerns with his characteristic candor. The Arizona senator made 1,173 pages of his medical records available to the media, setting a standard for accessibility and transparency.
We can’t help but be reminded of — and long for — McCain and his recognition of the people’s right to know in light of the dismissive way Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a top contender to be the Democratic presidential nominee, has sought to deal with questions about his health. At 78, Mr. Sanders, too, would be the oldest president if elected, and in October he suffered a heart attack. He was briefly off the campaign trail but returned with vigor and a promise to release his medical records.
“Of course, we’re — of course, people do have a right to know about the health of a senator and someone running for president of the United States, full disclosure,” Mr. Sanders told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta. “And, we will make at the appropriate time, all of our medical records public for you or anybody else who wants to see them.” Mr. Sanders this week released some information — letters from three doctors attesting to his fitness for office — but it fell far short of his promise of full disclosure. When pressed by reporters if more information would be released, he said, “Probably not.”
Mr. Sanders, like everyone running for president and currently serving as president, should be totally forthcoming about his health. The inadequacy of doctor letters in lieu of records was underscored in 2016 by the ludicrous letter from then-candidate Donald Trump’s gastroenterologist. So far, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 70, has provided the most information, releasing a letter from her physician and five pages of supporting medical data. Former vice president Joe Biden, 77, released a three-page letter from his physician outlining his current condition and medical history.
The issue of candidates’ health has pronounced significance this year given that three of the top-tier Democratic contenders are, along with President Trump, septuagenarians. But younger candidates, too, have an obligation to provide complete and pertinent medical information. The best way candidates running in 2020 can prove they have nothing to hide is to emulate McCain and open up their medical records.
NEW THREAD