An Independent view of law, politics and social issues confronting Angelinos, Californians, and Americans
Yes, I only watch two or three football games ever year. This spectacle was exciting right to the very end. Like the Rams-49ers game the Rams won with just a few minutes to spare. I suspect it was all FIXED. The idea is to entertain. Just like the ads (Larry David on Cripto and happy A.I. dogs) and the half time show you watched and the NFL earned millions of dollars.
So the rich earned million and everyone is happy. Well for the moment anyway. No masks. What? Me worry!
Cambridge Dictionary definition. The action of frightening or threatening someone, usually in order to persuade them to do something that you want them to do.
The United States has a definition in the US code (18 USC § 1514(d)(1). It is long and complicated but does provide a legal situations.
This brings us to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is probably a great fan of “Godfather.” He wants control of Ukraine. We don’t know all of his demands. His threat is obvious.
Putin denies there is any plan to invade Ukraine. The war games Russia is conducting near the Ukrainian border is the threat and he know that. Will there be a Neville Chamberlin moment as we watch from afar?
It’s too soon to say but Putin knows that Hitler did have his way in annexing Sudetenland (a major part of the former Czechoslovakia). It was appeasement instituted in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britain’s policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. Obviously it did note work. Hitler took took British surrender to Hitler’s demand to annex and expanded his control over all of Europe.
The similarities should not be ignored.
Tennessee, USA is the heart of where country music really began – Nashville! The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, tells the story of the 1927 Bristol Sessions recordings by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest V. Stoneman, and others.
“These recordings in Bristol in 1927 are the single most important event in the history of country music.” -Johnny Cash
Sadly Tennessee is also the state that hates scientific theory and the free press.
Recall July 10–21, 1925, Dayton, Tennessee. That was the dates of the Scopes Trial, also called Scopes Monkey Trial. High-school teacher, John T. Scopes, charged with violating state law by teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The trial’s proceedings helped to bring the scientific evidence for evolution into the public sphere while also stoking a national debate over the veracity of evolution that continues to the present day.
The two sides brought in the biggest legal names in the nation, William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Scopes was convicted and fined $100.
The film Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized account and made religious people look like fools.
Now almost one hundred years later a Tennessee school district bans “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel depicting the horrors of the Holocaust. McMinn County, Tennessee, Board of Education removed “Maus” from the eighth-grade English language arts curriculum, citing “rough, objectionable language” and a drawing of a nude woman.
The Catcher in the Rye
Tennessee is a state of contradictions.
Why my family moved to Los Angeles
Consumer Reports now reports that for the first time ever, the average price of a new car has edged past $47,000, according to a new report from Kelley Blue Book and data from TrueCar. Blame it all on the pandemic and the resulting global semiconductor shortage that has hobbled automakers’ ability to crank out new cars, crimping supply, pushing up prices, and limiting availability.
Over several years, a variety of factors has contributed to pushing up the average new-car price. For one thing, consumer tastes have gravitated toward more expensive truck and SUV models. And the recent scarcity of all models has led to more extreme price increases among traditionally more affordable models. The preference for safety features that are on the high end trim lines has also been a factor. Those safety features require computer chips that are in short supply.
Over two years ago I bought a year old car that had all of those safety features. That was before COVID effected car manufacturing and the new car dealer had a parking lot of used cars to choose from. Not anymore.
Business Insider says the best bet for most consumers is to delay buying a car. As the dealers obtain higher stocks prices will fall.
Read this carefully
A 73-year-old New York grandmother outsmarted scammers who pretended to be her grandson and said he needed $8,000 to be bailed out of jail. I personally had this very same scam done on me. I simply hung up the phone. The grandmother played along.
A Long Island grandmother outsmarted scammers who tried to steal thousands from her.
The woman from Seaford, who asked to be identified as Jean, told CBS2 that she received a call from someone claiming to be her grandson. The man said he was arrested for drunk driving and needed to be bailed out of jail.
“I knew he was a real scammer. I just knew he wasn’t going to scam me,” Jean, 73, told CBS2. “He starts calling me ‘grandma,’ and then I’m like, I don’t have a grandson that drives, so I knew it was a scam.”
The scam took several phone calls to play out and involved multiple unidentified males, police said in a press release. One person claiming to be a lawyer for Jean’s grandson told her that he needed $8,000 to get out of jail. A third person called claiming to be a bail bondsman coming to collect the money.
“I told him I had the money in the house, and I figured, he’s not going to fall for that,” Jean said, adding that she called the police. “Well, he fell for that hook, line, and sinker.”
A man impersonating a bail bondsman arrived at Jean’s home to collect the money, and she handed him an envelope filled with paper towels. As he turned to leave, police officers tackled him, according to CBS2.
Officers of the Nassau County Police Department arrested Joshua Estrella Gomez, 28, and charged him with attempted grand larceny in the third degree. He was released on an appearance ticket and is due to appear in court on February 3.
“I feel like gotcha, and I feel like, like you say, so many people fall for this and you only hear about it on the other end after they’ve lost $8,000,” Jean said.
When Joe Biden was campaigning for the nomination of the Democratic Party he presented himself as the moderate who could not only unify the Party but also could win over moderate Republicans and return the country to what many called “normalcy.”
That is not what happened. After winning the popular vote for more that 7 million votes he has not been able to convince that the election was legitimate. His legislative proposals are taken from the Green New Deal. Furthermore, has gone from one bungled situation after another. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a too fast sloppily conducted event that resulted in a takeover of the entire country by the Taliban and as aircraft departed from an airport in Kabul it was the only area controlled by American forces.
While vaccinations have become available, thanks to a Trump Warp Speed development of the vaccines, millions of Americans refuse to get the injections. The COVID-19 virus in all its variants has been spreading in an ever faster rate.
President Joe Biden expressed frustration at Senator McConnell’s efforts to stall Democrats’ agenda in the Senate. “What’s he for? What’s he proposing?” Biden repeatedly asked at a press conference on Wednesday. His remarks came hours after McConnell declined to outline Republicans’ agenda for when they retake the majority.
Biden, near the end of his riveting speech in support of voting rights in Atlanta last week, challenged Republicans by laying down a particularly resonant historical gauntlet. Did the GOP want to be on the side of “Dr. King or George Wallace?” Wallace, the former governor of Alabama, infamously vowed to defend “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” in 1963 as he became the most visible symbol of White supremacy as expressed by elected officials during the civil rights era. This was not a good way to win Republican support for voting rights legislation.
In his news conference today Biden said, “I’m not so sure [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is certain what he is going to do. My guess is he will move in [to Ukraine]. He has to do something.” Biden also suggested that a “minor incursion” by Russian forces, as opposed to a full-scale invasion, may not prompt the severe response by Washington and its allies have threatened, creating confusion about how the United States would react to a Russian attack short of a devastating offensive and large-scale occupation. This appears to be a Neville Chamberlin’s “peace in our time” stance in 1939.
Both Senators Sinema and Manchin want laws passed that have support of both political parties and that means surrendering some goals of each party. That has been a historical reality and is the reason the filibuster will continue to be part of the Senate rules.
The best thing that came out of the almost two hour news conference was that Joe Biden had the stamina and focus to respond to tough questions through out the event despite questions from reporters representing news outlets that are known to oppose his objectives.
The Democratic Party will survive. The presidency of Joe Biden is in doubt.
How many did you recognize?
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