Finally Friday News and Stupid Commentary, and a FART or Two

Cross-Dressed at Really? Seriously?

Friday has arrived here in my Hunker-Bunker overlooking the Puget Sound in West Seattle. It is 0800, 49°F and sunny. The high will be 69°F and sunny. The perfect day to be inside, coding a complex SQL database project. Any excuse where I don’t have to be outside mingling with … people.

I am currently working on a DNS-Less connection code issue that is driving me crazy. I worked on it all day yesterday and into the early evening, before I put it away. I will get back to it in a little while, when my attitude and demeanor has changed. Meanwhile, I have this thing to do here first.

Headlines That Caught My Eye This Morning

Item 1: Israel retaliates against Iran, US official says

It seems that Israel heeded the warnings of its allies and kept it’s retaliation for Iran’s direct attack last week — proportional. It seemed to be more of a ‘demonstration’ that Israel can hit whatever it wants, whenever it wants.

For what it’s worth, Iran has indicated that it doesn’t plan on another tat for the tit. At least not directly…

Item 2: “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury” 12 picked for Trump Trial

Now all they need to do is pick another six ‘alternates’ and get on with the actual trial. Frankly, if I were the judge, I would sequester the jury.

Item 3: Donald Trump moans courtroom is too cold as he slams ‘freezing’ conditions

If he thinks the courtroom is cold, then he really isn’t going to like jail.

Funny thing: Trump could have put together a plea deal and whittled his ridiculous number of felonies down to one or two, accepted responsibility, he could have served maybe four months on home confinement, with an ankle bracelet and a five-year tail on probation. His ego would never allow himself to plead guilty to anything, so he’s going to get his ass shafted.

It’s not going to be much longer before the current judge gets tired of Trump’s outbursts and whining and decided to give Trump a ‘time-out’ in a holding cell for a few hours. Something to give him a little taste of things to come, if he doesn’t get his shit together FAST.

This isn’t a civil court where rules and decorum are somewhat relaxed, criminal court matters are much more serious, and have to follow certain stringent rules because life, limb, and property are involved. You also do NOT want to piss off the judge or alienate the jury.

Item 4: Mike Johnson Gives Impassioned Ukraine Speech as He Defies MAGA

Sometimes reality smacks a person really hard in the face. Mike Johnson must have gotten one of those bitch-slaps, where if you don’t do something ‘drastic’, then something really really bad will happen soon. In this case, the ‘drastic’ are some foreign aid bills that must be passed and a handful of chaos agents are preventing anything meaningful from passing — until the next session.

Mike Johnson barely has a majority in the House. About half of his caucus are idiots and the other half are too scared of Trump to defy the idiots.

Item 5: House conservatives have a special group dedicated to preserving their power. Of course, it’s called the FART team.

It seems to be quite fitting, if you ask me.

Item 6: California Assembly Introduces Legislation to Combat Retail Theft

Did they remove the basic criminal statutes in California? Why do they need to add more laws?

Basic shoplifting is a misdemeanor, under a value of around $750, depending on the jurisdiction. A felony theft for any value above that.

Most prolific shoplifters know to keep the value down below the limit, because it is usually a ‘catch and release’ situation and they can live to shoplift another day. For these people, there is another way to get them and hit them HARD.

For one thing, you can charge them with burglary — a felony. A burglary is a criminal trespass with the intent to commit another crime therein. The theory here is that a person has ‘provisional permission’ to enter and remain in a store for the purpose of shopping and doing business. If you steal something from that store you’ve lost that ‘provisional permission’ and are now guilty of criminal trespassing. The fact that you committed a crime of stealing while trespassing now makes it a burglary. If you REALLY want to tack on the heat, charge them with Burglary in the first degree because the premises was occupied. If the shoplifter is part of a larger group, then you have an organized crime situation…

Do you see what I mean here? There’s no reason to add MORE crimes to the books. There is already WAY too much there to choose from.

Item 7: H5N1 Strain Of Bird Flu Found In Milk: WHO

I don’t do dairy. When I turned 65 or 66, I started to notice that I was becoming lactose intolerant. I switched to oat milk and never looked back.

But still, just what we need, another virus scare. We fully demonstrated that we were far too stupid to handle the last one, and I don’t think it’s improved any since…

Item 8: China Building New Outpost on U.S. Doorstep, Leaked Documents Reveal

Oh wait. Aren’t we kinda on their doorstep too?

Item 9: SURVEY: 1 In 3 People Wouldn’t Marry Their Spouse Today

Most of these people would have problems taking care of a cat or dog on a long commitment.

But I think the real reason has to do with careers. If you and your spouse are on two separate career paths that will literally take you two separate places, how do you deal with that? It becomes another stressor in a relationship.

Item 10 Longest Covid infection recorded at 613 days

“Longest so far…”

He must have had a lot more going on than just COVID. Like maybe a transplant?

Item 11: Prince Harry cuts ties with UK as he formally makes the US his home

Just what we need: Some other clown claiming asylum. I’m assuming he’s bringing his ‘anchor babies’ here as well?

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