The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Joe Bauer]

15 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

       Yeah, Ron, Dusty Hill was always a big Elvis fan, as I learned from watching that recent documentary on Netflix about ZZ Top.

       Coincidentally, I've been watching a bunch of old Elvis flicks on HBO Max during the past week.  They take me back to my childhood, when I first watched some of them at our neighborhood theater.

       My favorite is Viva Las Vegas, from 1964.  There's a lot of Americana in that film-- including footage of the Vegas Strip and the Grand Prix race over the Hoover Dam.  But the best scenery in the film is Ann Margaret!  

 

My two Elvis stories.

I was driving my cheap old junker car around the ocean drive in Pebble Beach to a gardening/groundsman job I had at a wealthy person's home situated right on the cliffs next to the Lone Cypress.

I was 26. Didn't make but 5 or $6 an hour but I needed to work outdoors due to stress.

A mile or so around the shoreline it was reported on my radio that Elvis had died.

They started playing Elvis songs. It was a big news story for a week after.

Around 1989 I had a little side business of selling gardening themed items such as T-shirts, ball caps etc. I called my business "The Garden Artist."

I had set up some display tables at our Local Monterey County Fairgrounds ( home of the Monterey Pop Festival ) to sell my goods at an actual "Garden Show." Lots of garden related item vendors.

I had a very visible outdoor location.

At this time I was still thin, good looking, and very personable with a constant smile on my face.

For a noticeable amount of time I noticed one woman standing maybe 30 feet away who seemed to just want to watch me. 

Hmmm. 

Eventually when I had no one at the tables she slowly walked over.

She was very shy.

She kept looking at me. Making direct eye contact.

I must say there was instant attraction on both our parts.

I am a talker. So I tactfully began to say things that made her feel comfortable to talk also.

Long story short...

She eventually asked me whether I might have recognized her face?

I said something like " well, it's sure a pretty one...but no."

She said she had starred in two films with Elvis.

"Blue Hawaii" and "Kid Galahad."

Not seeing those films I embarrassingly admitted this.

Anyway...her name was Joan Blackmon.

Beautiful woman. Incredibly bright and glowing blue eyes.

She got my phone number and started calling me at home.

My wife got jealous eventually and picking up the phone before I could answer it one day, cursed her out for trying to steal her man.

Or something like that.

Never heard from her again.  Joan Blackmon. Beautiful woman.

Never asked her about Elvis personally, and she never offered any thoughts about him either.

And she didn't buy even one of my gardening T-shirts or ball caps!

Upon which I had printed some great, colorful and original art work and garden sayings.

At the end of the show the show organizer bought all my stock at 4% of my initial investment cost. Lost $15,000 on that venture.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Joe Bauer

[W. Niederhut]

Well, here you are, Joe.  Elvis, allegedly wanted to marry Blackman during the filming of Blue Hawaii in 1961.

People might say we're off topic, but let's be honest.  We're all fixated on the early 60s around here.  🤥

Elvis wanted to marry Blue Hawaii star during 'passionate affair' but she turned him down

https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/1427790/Elvis-Presley-girlfriends-Blue-Hawaii-film-star-Joan-Blackman-Priscilla-wife-Anita-Wood

[Ron Bulman]

6 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

       Yeah, Ron, Dusty Hill was always a big Elvis fan, as I learned from watching that recent documentary on Netflix about ZZ Top.

       Coincidentally, I've been watching a bunch of old Elvis flicks on HBO Max during the past week.  They take me back to my childhood, when I first watched some of them at our neighborhood theater.

       My favorite is Viva Las Vegas, from 1964.  There's a lot of Americana in that film-- including footage of the Vegas Strip and the Grand Prix race over the Hoover Dam.  But the best scenery in the film is Ann Margaret!  

 

My favorite as well, Blue Hawaii a close second.  You had me at Ann Margret.  I loved the racing scenes too but, my first crush besides maybe my third grade teacher.

 

[Steve Thomas]

Now, this is hilarious.

"Gaetz's primary opponent suggests he was the informant who sparked FBI's raid on Trump's resort.

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz's Republican primary opponent launched an ad accusing the Florida congressman of possibly being the informant who tipped off the FBI in their raid on Mar-a-Lago last week."

The 30 second ad is entitled, "The Informant?"

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mar-a-lago-scandal/

The rest of us can sit back and watch the palace courtiers turn on each other.

Steve Thomas

[Kirk Gallaway]

12 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Trai-tors for sale or rent!

 

Re: Elvis  My older brothers were into Elvis so I had an early exposure to him. The Beatles liked Elvis up to the point he went into the service, but I also liked early 60's Elvis "Stuck on you" "His latest flame" Elvis. I personally thought Elvis was over by the Beatles and I could never stand the Las Vegas Elvis. Though friends of mine always remind me of "In the ghetto" and I have to admit there was a pang of social relevance there which I thought was cool.

 

Wow Steve!  Matt Gaetz as informant on Trump is pretty powerful Deep State!

Ben I think you better get on that one and report back to us!

[W. Niederhut]

1 hour ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

Trai-tors for sale or rent!

 

Re: Elvis  My older brothers were into Elvis so I had an early exposure to him. The Beatles liked Elvis up to the point he went into the service, but I also liked early 60's Elvis "Stuck on you" "His latest flame" Elvis. I personally thought Elvis was over by the Beatles and I could never stand the Las Vegas Elvis. Though friends of mine always remind me of "In the ghetto" and I have to admit there was a pang of social relevance there which I thought was cool.

 

Wow Steve!  Matt Gaetz as informant on Trump is pretty powerful Deep State!

Ben I think you better get on that one and report back to us!

I'm waiting for Ben to start posting about the latest MAGA-verse Trump-as-Victim-of-the-Deep-State trope-- "Release the Affidavit!" 🤥

It looks like the MAGA-verse has abandoned the "Planted Evidence" trope, and the "Trump De-Classified the Files" trope.

 

[Joe Bauer]

Since this thread has been moved to it's own separate forum space it seems to have been allowed to go off on it's own course with regards to Trump even more than before when it was getting more and more complaints on the main one as far as it being so off-topic regards JFK.

Serious Trump discussion to humorous Trump discussion - no holds barred!

I enjoy both.

On my own humorous note - can you imagine future films trying to capture the full breath of the Trump presidency and his post presidency mischief?

Let alone the rest of Trump's obsessive wealth and celebrity chasing pre-POTUS life?

I often ponder what Oliver Stone would do with a "TRUMP" film effort.

I would think Stone might feel it would be too much to take on - seriously.

That the craziness of it all was and is so magnificently outsized that he simply couldn't capture the TRUMP story adequately in one 2 and 1/2 hour film.

It would have to be a trilogy or even more divaricated like so many film themes now that have been franchised with 5, 6 or 7 sequels one after another.

Like Star Wars, Mission Impossible, Fast And Furious, Jason Bourne and Fantasy Super Hero bang outs etc.

And perhaps that spending too much time in the research and development stage ( months and months or even years ) of such a mega-sized Trump saga might be too much for him at his age.

And include the not too impossible danger of immersing oneself into a virtual insane asylum where one risks starting to absorb the intense pathological energy of the most damaged patients if you stay too long?

Pretending I am a serious screenplay writer tasked with the Trump story I first wonder where to begin.

Scenes of Trump as a child accompanying his father overseeing new building construction and deals and being constantly indoctrinated by his stern father's business and even moral and other life ethics beliefs and tenets?

With one overriding theme...that the absolute worst thing that can befall a man is to be looked upon as ... a LOSER!

Rich = Winner. Poor = Loser.

Moving on through his childhood rambunctiousness and placement in military school environments where he would have more structure and discipline to contain his well known strong self will behavior that some have recounted as sometimes bullying?

Skipping to his presidential run because there is just too much ground to cover before hand, I can't shake the hilarity of it all.

Those primary debates especially. Where for the first time in my experience I witnessed one candidate ( Trump ) turning the debates into mean junior high school boys taunting and insulting name throwing events.

Little Marco! Lying Ted Cruz. Mommas boy Jeb Bush - call your mother Jeb. Ugly Carly Forina? Incredibly personally insulting stuff. Right to their faces!

Trump was relentless and seemed to enjoy humiliating his opponents and making them blush with stunned embarrassment.

I couldn't belief a serious candidate could get away with this reckless and immature name calling bullying in front of millions of live TV watching Americans.

The main media press however seemed to leave it go without any condemnation of it's incivility. My guess is because they were basking in the super high viewer ratings Trump's crude and insulting crazy behavior was inspiring.

Let the clown go!  He's bringing in record ratings numbers!

Lastly ... there is so much mind boggling chaos in Trump's actual presidency with spontaneous firings, unprecedented turn over, eccentric person appointments, unqualified nepotism to the extreme, weird bonds to and affection for ruthless dictators, impeachment efforts, porn star cheating allegations and pay offs, countless ridiculously over-staged evangelical religious crusade type rallies with too animated screaming cheers after every sentence of Trump's bragging and forced laughter at his lame humor jokes and lines, the Corona Virus disaster and on and on and on...

Topped off by the most aggressive and violent attack on our government since the civil war, with our very own Capital building full of our entire Congress and even our Vice President stormed with resulting great bodily injury to over 100 Capital police who were left unreinforced to confront and hold back the multi-thousand number mob of murder and Trump praising shouting thugs.

With their hero and leader gleefully watching the carnage on TV and choosing to withhold his power and ability to stop it at anytime ( for 3 hours ) with simply a broadcast order to his worked up mob to stop and peacefully go home.  

Topped by telling the rampaging attack mob injury inflicters, property damage bashers and looters after the carnage that "we love you", "we understand your pain", "you are very special people."   

Mwaaa - blown kiss! 

A major Hollywood film or series of Trump's life and presidency films would require a massive ( unprecedented ) production budget and a cast of thousands.

A title?

Egads...take your best shot!

Donald J. Trump - A Man Who Would Be President.

Mr. Trump Goes To Washington.

I Am Perfect -The Presidency of Donald. J. Trump. 

Subtitles...

"A Man Not Afraid To 'Grab Em By The Pu$$y!' "

"A Man Not Afraid To Throw Ketchup When He Has To."

"Just Find Me 11,000 Votes!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Joe Bauer

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

 

Since this thread has been moved to it's own separate forum space it seems to have been allowed to go off on it's own course with regards to Trump even more than before when it was getting more and more complaints on the main one as far as it being so off-topic regards JFK.

 

It seems to be just a Trump bitching fest, or attempting to attack or diminish Ben’s character. We can all post memes and gifs all day, I think it detracts from the forum. I think there is a place for a serious discussion on this here, it just becomes silly if we repost our favourite MSM biased writers or presenters and barely leave a comment. We are so naive to not do the critical thinking ourselves, and just to outsource it to the Daily Beast, Washington Post, the Guardian, Independent, Fox or CNN. Though most of us have chipped in at times and have some level of guilt, the red/blue peeing contest is boring and largely redundant. It seems very obvious to me how easily impassioned folks are buying into the latest distraction. 

[Steve Thomas]

We have a looming Constitutional crisis ahead of us.

Can Donald Trump run for president if charged and convicted of removing official records?

By: Amy Sherman August 11, 2022

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/can-donald-trump-run-for-president-if-charged-and-convicted-of-removing-official-records/

 

"Federal statute says it is a crime to willfully and intentionally remove official records and that such a crime would disqualify the defendant from “holding any office under the United States.” But some legal scholars say that statute can’t be used to bar Trump from a 2024 presidential bid. The Constitution’s list of criteria to run for president mentions only age, citizenship and residency — there is no mention of criminal charges or convictions.

Federal statute 18 U.S. Code 2071 had long banned the removal, concealment or destruction of presidential records. It says “willfully and unlawfully” removing such records can result in a penalty of up to three years in prison and that the defendant “shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he doesn’t see a conviction for violating 18 U.S. Code 2071 preventing Trump from running for office.

“That statute cannot trump the Constitution, which sets the exclusive qualifications for President,” Hasen wrote on his election law blog. “So this is not a path to making Trump legally ineligible to run for office.”

The U.S. Constitution upholds the principle that voters decide who shall represent them. The Constitution says only natural born citizens or U.S. citizens who are at least 35 years old and have been a resident of the U.S. for 14 years can run for president.

Previous Supreme Court rulings hold that a state cannot prohibit indicted or convicted felons from running for federal office, and Congress cannot add qualifications to the office of president, said Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Iowa.

Someone could use the records statute to attempt to challenge Trump’s potential run for office, and the courts would then rule on the constitutionality of his bid, said Georgetown law professor Victoria Nourse.

Convicted felons have run for president and lost. Lyndon LaRouche was convicted in 1988 of tax and mail fraud conspiracy and ran for president multiple times between 1976 and 2004. Eugene Debs, convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 for an anti-war speech, was in a federal prison when he ran for president as a socialist in 1920. Debs’ supporters handed out campaign buttons for “Prisoner 9653.”

While it’s legally possible to run for office behind bars, it would pose some political challenges in terms of limiting a candidate’s ability to fundraise or hold rallies.”

 

Gird your loins. Rough seas are ahead.

Steve Thomas

[Mark Knight]

Since this thread is ostensibly about the Deep State...Just who IS the "Deep State"?

In MY mind, the Deep State has to do with keeping power in the hands of the entrenched. Power = Money = Power.

To me, then, and reference to the "Deep State" is a reference to the oligarchy, or near-oligarchy. Who, other than the rich, has the money to grease the wheels and pull the strings to make events happen? By that yardstick, Trump wasn't going to upset the Deep State; he was [and is] a big part of it.

The Deep State took us to war in Vietnam, back when it was Viet Nam [two words]. They took us to war in Iraq and in Afghanistan as well. They jettisoned Richard Nixon when he became an albatross to them. I would argue that they were behind the assassination attempts on Gerald Ford; none of which were meant to be successful, but which were to simply remind him who was in charge.

And I would argue that, despite all the Jody Foster claims, the Deep State had Reagan shot, just so he knew better than to cross them. And George Bush was ex-CIA [as if anyone who WAS CIA is ever "ex-CIA], so the Deep State directly took the wheel after Reagan. Bill Clinton? He grew up a poor kid but by the time he was Governor of Arkansas, he knew who to answer to in order to keep that Mena airport drug-smuggling op from getting busted. When Clinton won the Presidency, he had debts to the Deep State already. And I'd wager that Vince Foster was "offed" and the suspicion was pointed toward BOTH Clintons in order to keep Hillary in line as well as Bill.

It all culminated in the 2016 election, which featured Deep State Clinton against Deep State Trump. The Deep State didn't care which one won. When Trump won, he decided to join in the grifting that the rest of the Deep State was doing. The difference for Trump was, he didn't give a damn about the mechanics of the government, he just wanted the money. The rest of the Deep State was after the money as well, but they also wanted to make sure the structure remained in place for them to actually RUN the government.

Trump's proximity to Putin was a problem, though, for the oligarchs. Trump was not as deep a thinker as most of the Deep State, so Trump saw Putin as a source of more money; Putin saw Trump as a useful idiot who could do more to destroy the US from inside than a hundred nuclear weapons could. Trump's evolution toward emotional maturity ended when his dad sent him to military school at age 13. He's frozen in time there, unable to speak and act diplomatically because 13-year-olds don't do that. The Deep State didn't deep-six Trump primarily because they were too busy looting the government coffers themselves.  And they haven't disavowed Trump because the division he sows has also become a profitable side business for the Deep State, providing cover for them in the headlines because the press repeats his every word...drawing attention from what is TRULY going on in the world.

For the Deep State, Trump is the magician's assistant, drawing the audience's attention while the sleight-of-hand occurs. He's the orange clown who taunts us at the dunking booth, because that keeps our eyes off the pickpockets in the carnival midway. He's not the enemy of the Deep State; he's their sidekick.

[Douglas Caddy]

Breaking from the NY Times:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the government to redact and ultimately release a version of the highly sensitive warrant affidavit that was used to justify a search by the F.B.I. last week of former President Donald J. Trump’s private home and club.

Ruling from the bench, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said that there were portions of the affidavit that “could be presumptively unsealed.”

“Whether those portions would be meaningful for the public or the media,” he added, was not for him to decide.

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

Whoa! I didn't know about this.

“The Speaker has been removed from the chambers.”

-Lauren Boebert, 2:18pm, Jan 6

I fact checked with 2 sources. One is snopes which the right always hates because they say they're skewed to the left. Then i tried ed USA Today, and their responses were identical!

First Snopes:

What's True

Rep. Boebert posted a message on Twitter saying "The Speaker has been removed from the chambers" as a pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol.

What's False

Boebert's tweet did not reveal the location to which Pelosi had been removed.

But the message never claimed to know where Pelosi went and in all probability Boebert didn't know where Pelosi was taken! The tweet is true! And she was the first person to tweet it! She claims she got it from c-span.

USA Today confirms that and largely confirms that it was Boebert who lead the tour through the Capitol days before!

The claims about Boebert tweeting 1776 and leading a tour of the Capitol are mostly in line with the evidence, but the notion that Boebert live-tweeted the speaker’s location is an exaggeration. In one tweet Boebert said the speaker was removed from the House chamber, but she did not say where Pelosi was.

Here is the most complete story with a time stamp.

https://truenorthresearch.org/2022/01/a-year-later-all-known-evidence-still-points-to-rep-lauren-boebert-being-the-first-to-report-that-speaker-pelosi-had-been-removed-from-the-house-chamber-on-january-6/

Edited August 18, 2022 by Kirk Gallaway

[W. Niederhut]

17 minutes ago, Mark Knight said:

Since this thread is ostensibly about the Deep State...Just who IS the "Deep State"?

In MY mind, the Deep State has to do with keeping power in the hands of the entrenched. Power = Money = Power.

To me, then, and reference to the "Deep State" is a reference to the oligarchy, or near-oligarchy. Who, other than the rich, has the money to grease the wheels and pull the strings to make events happen? By that yardstick, Trump wasn't going to upset the Deep State; he was [and is] a big part of it.

The Deep State took us to war in Vietnam, back when it was Viet Nam [two words]. They took us to war in Iraq and in Afghanistan as well. They jettisoned Richard Nixon when he became an albatross to them. I would argue that they were behind the assassination attempts on Gerald Ford; none of which were meant to be successful, but which were to simply remind him who was in charge.

And I would argue that, despite all the Jody Foster claims, the Deep State had Reagan shot, just so he knew better than to cross them. And George Bush was ex-CIA [as if anyone who WAS CIA is ever "ex-CIA], so the Deep State directly took the wheel after Reagan. Bill Clinton? He grew up a poor kid but by the time he was Governor of Arkansas, he knew who to answer to in order to keep that Mena airport drug-smuggling op from getting busted. When Clinton won the Presidency, he had debts to the Deep State already. And I'd wager that Vince Foster was "offed" and the suspicion was pointed toward BOTH Clintons in order to keep Hillary in line as well as Bill.

It all culminated in the 2016 election, which featured Deep State Clinton against Deep State Trump. The Deep State didn't care which one won. When Trump won, he decided to join in the grifting that the rest of the Deep State was doing. The difference for Trump was, he didn't give a damn about the mechanics of the government, he just wanted the money. The rest of the Deep State was after the money as well, but they also wanted to make sure the structure remained in place for them to actually RUN the government.

Trump's proximity to Putin was a problem, though, for the oligarchs. Trump was not as deep a thinker as most of the Deep State, so Trump saw Putin as a source of more money; Putin saw Trump as a useful idiot who could do more to destroy the US from inside than a hundred nuclear weapons could. Trump's evolution toward emotional maturity ended when his dad sent him to military school at age 13. He's frozen in time there, unable to speak and act diplomatically because 13-year-olds don't do that. The Deep State didn't deep-six Trump primarily because they were too busy looting the government coffers themselves.  And they haven't disavowed Trump because the division he sows has also become a profitable side business for the Deep State, providing cover for them in the headlines because the press repeats his every word...drawing attention from what is TRULY going on in the world.

For the Deep State, Trump is the magician's assistant, drawing the audience's attention while the sleight-of-hand occurs. He's the orange clown who taunts us at the dunking booth, because that keeps our eyes off the pickpockets in the carnival midway. He's not the enemy of the Deep State; he's their sidekick.

Good analysis, Mark.  I will only add the observation that the U.S. mainstream media did, in fact, play a well-documented role in getting Trump elected in 2016, by their relentless "coverage" of Hillary's Email-gate nothing burger. 

And the James Comey/FBI "October Surprise" also played a critical, well-documented role in Trump's improbable Electoral College "victory."

In other words, as Cliff Varnell, and others, have pointed out on this monster thread, far from sabotaging Trump, the powers that be (corporate M$M + FBI) played a decisive role in putting Trump in the White House.

[Douglas Caddy]

[Douglas Caddy]

For once, Fox News has done America a great favor in conducting this particular interview: