Sentencing for Jussie Smollert will occur today (Thursday).
Anyone's guess here.
I think if he'd come out and done the 'I-admit-guilt-while-doped-up' routine.....most of what would be handed out is rehab time and a hefty fine.
But I'm likely to believe he's going off for 12 months of jail-time, with good behavior getting him out in six months.
I noticed this AM....Politico had done a poll, asking the question if President Biden is mentally fit. Around 25-percent said 'yes'. The rest....less so.
Does a poll mean anything? No.
If you'd gone to the people of New York in the 1980s....asking if George Steinbrenner was sane.....probably half would have said 'no'.
If you'd gone to Americans in the late 1930s and asked if FDR was sane...probably one-third of them would responded 'no'.
The trouble is....polls like this get out, and various people from Europe start asking stupid questions....like if he is not mentally fit, why are you allowing him to stand as President, and the obvious answer is that you really don't President Harris to be the solution to this problem.
Lately, I've been watching Russian YouTube sites (1420 is an interesting guy who does on the street Russian interviews). So, you get a great prospective of regular Russians.
My general views of Russians (not Putin or the Kremlin elite)?
1. If you locked ten Russian scientists in a room.....within eight hours, they'd invent something something out of thin air, without any encouragement.
2. I kinda believe that 50-percent of Russians consume vodka to serious levels, and the other fifty percent of Russians never consume vodka or alcohol of any type.
3. I believe that Russians probably read 50-percent more than the typical average American.
4. Based on YouTube, I would remark that a quarter of Russian society dress like it's 1977. Course, maybe it's a fashion trend, or maybe just that they all like the style/look.
5. Per one-hundred.....there are probably more intellectuals in Russia, than in the United States. I'm not saying it's a positive thing....just a noted thing.
6. If I had to go to the 'Lost' TV series island and could select ten people to accompany there, I'd make sure that nine of the ten were Russians (with one Brit in the mix). We'd face off the smoke-creature, the bad-evil folks, and probably build a boat within two weeks to leave the island.
7. You just don't see that many 'chunky' Russians. Maybe it's the diet....maybe the lack of fast-food....or maybe just good cleaning living.
8. Urban Russians don't seem as ready for difficulties....as rural Russians are.
9. It just seems like every Russian guy has a simple 10-tool bag he carries around in his car, which seem to resolve every single repair on a car required.
10. Maybe it's just me, but almost every Russian gal on YouTube seems like she walked off a James Bond movie set.
Russia for the most part....has shut down all news media operations except state-run units. So what you get is fully-filtered news.
Oddly enough, this is mostly how the Soviet Union survived all those years.
You'd have one newspaper in a major city of 500,000, with one editor responsible for ensuring only the 'right' news got printed.
It was OK to talk about sport scores, or discussing over 60 lines about some weight-lifting competition.
If a water-main burst and destroyed the contents of some shopping district area....you'd just write a two-line piece describing renovation being done in such-and-such district.
If some drunk Russian hit a few cars with his dump truck, then ran over a old lady and her dog (killing them both)....the editor would have sat long and hard over the story. The end version would have been a 1-line piece saying 'some lady on J-street met an untimely end, with her poodle 'Barney'......leaving you the reader to wonder what the untimely end was about.
A cat up in a tree, and rescued by the local fire department? This would have been a full page with four pictures.....with a broad description of the six-man crew, and six lines to describe the cat in detail. In fact, another six lines would have been added over an imaginary grandmother who came to offer cookies and tea to the firemen after the episode. There would have been enough details to write a one-hour TV show over....but half of it would have been bogus (filler-material).
Stories over farmers having giant pumpkins? Great....maybe even a sixty-line story to detail that. Stories over a farmer failing? Nothing.
Soviet people got used to this, and as the 1990s arrived, with commercial news available.....I think most were in a state of shock. You got to learn about dope dealers, murders, planes falling out of the sky, corruption, and failed lives.
Going back to the old style Soviet news pattern? They have to be sitting there and asking what really happened to trigger filtered news?
I hate to bring up the Ghislaine Maxwell case (most folks thought it was done)....but there's some hearing going on about one of the juriors.
So the story goes....when picking the jury, there was a questionnaire, and it kinda asked....have you any sexual abuse in your history......the person said no. Well....weeks passed, and this juror starts to talk about their personal sexual abuse as a kid to the other jurors....likely influencing them.
The fed prosecution folks came back and want them to answer more questions in a court hearing. Nope....the juror just can't do that....using their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
What'll happen? At the least, they will drag the person into some fed court.....giving a false testimony situation, and with evidence by other jurors likely....the person ends up with potentially five years in prison. My guess, the judge might feel sorry for the person, and just limit it to one year....getting out in eight months on good behavior.
The problem left? Do you have to redo the Maxwell case all over? My gut feeling? Yeah. This giving her lawyers all the inside parts of the case? Yeah, and it's more likely this time that she beats the prosecution on most of the charges.
All of this manufactured? Well....you just sit and wonder....what kind of idiot would do this stuff, and could a good bribe cause you to make up the abuse stuff with the jurors, even if you had to do 12 months in prison?
I noticed yesterday that the Santa Fe DA announced that he's reviewing the 'Rust' movie set shooting....over Alec Baldwin's statement that he didn't pull the trigger, and if it's possible for a gun to fire with no pull on the trigger.
For the record, various episodes have occurred where the trigger was engaged, and without a finger upon the trigger....it just 'failed' and fired. Hint: this is why you never aim at anything unless the intent is there to put-down or kill someone.
What'll likely occur? Some specialized gunsmith will go over the weapon and be asked.....just what kind of shape is the gun in?
Baldwin's whole explanation that he never pulled the trigger? It all goes back to this one idea.
If you asked a hundred handgun owners.....I would imagine that 90-percent would say it's practically impossible for this scenario to occur.
Since probably Thursday, I've probably watched around twenty-five hours of Ukraine-Russia war stuff via German, French, Brit and CNN TV. Ten observations:
1. It's just an awful lot of Doctor Doom characters that they've found and put on for a ten-minute 'chat'. Some seem to be knowledgeable, and some seem to know enough to fill out four 3x5 inch index cards.
The Covid Doctor Dooms are disappointed how the virus virtually disappeared overnight.
2. Just a lot of weepy interviews with Ukrainian refugees and developed in the way to get you feeling awful sorry for them. I'll admit.....the anti-Russia trend is hyped to the max.
3. While some of these rockets and missiles have worked.....you seem to see via video a fair number of Russian rockets/missiles that failed to explode. Maybe this was some Chinese-produced rocket or maybe the Russian-Marvin guy who was supposed to flip the right switch when loading on the helicopter.....failed to do so.
4. On the failed-to-explode videos, you also see a fair number of Ukrainian dimwits trying to have their picture taken while touching the 'fin' of the rocket impacted in the ground.
5. If you listen to the Russian propaganda.....their forces have officially circled Kiev twelve times and killed 100,000 Ukrainian troops. If you listen to Ukrainian propaganda, they've blasted 300 Russian tanks, and crippled the advance. Both are loaded with BS, and the journalists just accept it as fact.
6. The folks over 80 in Germany having serious anxiety problems? Oh yeah.....they remember 1945/1946 and it was not a pleasant time.
7. There's apparently a list of words that Russian journalists on the nightly news can't use....reminding one of the CNN trend where they directed folks in the same fashion to avoid using certain words/phrases.
8. Size-wise, the Ukraine is around the size of Texas....so when you say that 150,000 were the starting element of this war.....you have to figure it may take a while to get things done....a long while. Add in breakdowns....rest-breaks.....and it might take a while to seize up the whole country.
9. Just an odd thing to throw in, but back in September....around 30 of the Kremlin insiders to Putin all had Covid at the same time (this part of the story is a fact, even Putin admits that). The rumor then goes....Putin himself never had Covid (never established as fact or BS). Oddly, just after this episode is when the 'Ukraine-rage' starts up and orders go out to put troops at the border.
So, some folks are suggesting Covid-fog or Long-Covid took place, and a bunch of people in charge....said/did things....which make no real sense.
On my BS-meter, this is swaying between a 5 and 10. It could happen but this would be like a Doctor Strangelove episode.
10. The Daily Mail out of the UK spoke of potential mental issues with Putin....some coming from Parkinson's (zero facts on this)....and some from hubris syndrome (where in the case of brain damage or serious mental loss).
Again, on the BS meter, it's between a 5 and 10.
Adding to it....if you were in the inner circle and realized this....would you do anything to risk things for yourself?
Here's the final observation....if we emerge out of this...with various European countries invaded, and WW III is finally 'put down' in 2024....then we discover that Putin and his entire top level were foggy-Covid brained....would everyone just about freak out and not trust the world institutions?
(I think it's a great script for the next Tarantino movie...even way better than that crazy Dusk Til Dawn script that he wrote for the vampire-freaks)
