Author: photog

Great Caesar’s Ghost!

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Long ago, there was a tv show called the Adventures of Superman. Perry White, was played by the well-known character actor John Hamilton. And in one episode, after all of his reporters run out of the room before he can tell them what he wants them to do, he sits there staring into the space in front of him and says, “I know people say you’re crazy when you talk to yourself, but by Great Caesar’s Ghost, there’s no one else around here sane enough to talk to!”

Well, now I’m in the same situation. I’m talking to myself in order to use this program that Microsoft has on Windows called Voice Typing.  It works quite well. But what I notice is that it’s difficult for me to get used to the fact that I’m talking to myself.  I mean, when I type typically, I guess I’m silently talking to myself but this is a completely different thing. Uh, you have to think on the fly. Because I can speak a lot more quickly than I can type. So, I don’t have enough time to think of what I want to say.  If you see what I mean.

So, look at those last few sentences.  They’re pretty stilted.  That was me trying to dictate to the computer.  It’s not pretty.  And so, I’ll have to see if this works for me.  I’m guessing I’ll have to practice with it until I can think comfortably at the speed of my speech instead of at the speed of my typing.

But one interesting thing has come out of this experiment.  I can see now how some of the mistakes I’ve seen on other people’s blogs happen. They’re using a dictation program. That seems apparent.  The machine is mistaking certain similarly sounding words for others that have a completely different meaning.  And then afterwards, when the human edited it, he’s missed some of these problems.

So here we have a technological change.  Dictation replacing typing.  I remember reading that the ancients when they read something, they read it aloud.  I think it was something about Julius Caesar I remember, that he was able to read silently and at the time this was considered a radical departure from normal behavior.  Great Caesar’s Ghost!  Maybe I’m too old and inflexible to change how I produce text.  Maybe my brain is too canalized to change.  Well, it’ll be an experiment.

This has been an interesting week.  All the coverage of the Trump verdicts and the fines has further revealed the clear divide in the United States.  Once again there is no middle ground.  The Left has abandoned all pretense at objectivity.  Any and every attack on Trump is justified and reasonable in their eyes.  Even when the result of this thinking frightens even their allies.  The enormous fine against Trump’s commercial interests and the obvious fictitious nature of the “crime” has frightened other businessmen in New York.  The realization that prosecutors and judges can easily fabricate charges that will basically allow confiscation of all their wealth has panicked many of these ultra-wealthy individuals.  And Governor Hochul reacted by trying to soothe the nerves of the rich.

But if there’s one thing billionaires hate is the threat of confiscation of their wealth.  Recently Elon Musk was denied a huge payment from Tesla because the State of Delaware stepped in and forbade it.  Almost immediately Musk had the incorporation of Tesla moved out of Delaware.  I fully expect to see similar moves by many public and private corporations to preempt any possible chicanery by Letitia James or any of the other bloodsucking ghouls in New York State.

And this is on top of an already desperate fiscal situation in both New York City and New York State.  Things like the feeding and housing of illegal aliens is starting to put a real hole in their budgets.  So, could the lawfare against Trump hasten the unravelling of the Empire State?  Great Caesar’s Ghost!

NY Gov Reassures Rich: We Only Use Lawfare on Trump

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Just look at that smile.  How could the rich worry that a state that twists the law into pretzels to bankrupt its enemies could possibly turn on them?  Just do exactly as we say and shut up and we’ll only bleed you dry a pint at a time.  We won’t go for the throat like we did with Trump.  At least not this week.

As the rich head for the exits Kathy Hochul can figure out how to keep  MS-13 from pushing her aside and planting its flag in Manhattan.  It seems they don’t respond to subpoenas from Letitia James except with automatic weapons fire.

Hochul tells NY businesses not to fear about Trump verdict: ‘Nothing to worry about’

 

Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 18FEB2024 – New York Exodus

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How many corporations will look at what happened to Trump, and start making HARD decisions about conducting business in New York City or State? Some truckers are already refusing loads for NYC. How many billions would it cost NY if those companies closed their offices and moved their operations to surrounding states like CT, RI, NJ, or PA. The COVID experience with remote office work proved that large corporate administrative centers are not essential to conducting business. The money saved on real estate costs may well counter the cost of server farms and optical fiber networks. Not to mention relieving workers of having to face long commutes or living in outrageously expensive apartments in the city.

In his zeal to “get” Donald Trump, this idiot DA and his megalomaniac judge may have sown the seeds of New York’s final financial ruin. Remember, if they can do this to a financial powerhouse like Donald Trump, who won’t be targeted?

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 18FEB2024 – Lawless

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If a billionaire former US President and current candidate can be nakedly screwed over, what hope is there for the rest of us?

The only glimmer is that if Trump is elected, the precedent of no Presidential immunity has been set. That means Clinton, Obama and Biden cannot hide behind it.

But whatever. There is no rule of law in this nation, anymore. It is anarchy where violent criminals are coddled and lawful citizens are murdered by their own government. Time for the red states to declare martial law or else for a movement of vigilantism to take hold. It could rapidly rein in the antifa and blm movements as the anarchists would be hugely outnumbered and outgunned.

The blue states are already seceding by ignoring law and using kangaroo courts to produce false convictions. Time for the red states to band together in solidarity and tell the left’s minions to go get stuffed.

An American Spectacle

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In the last week or two Donald Trump has been found guilty of civil crimes that added up will cost him $438 million dollars.  And that does not include the ban on doing business in New York State that will cost him untold amounts of money in addition.  And both of these trials are on transparently trumped-up charges that have been railroaded by criminally partisan prosecutors and judges.

I can’t say that I’m surprised by any of this.  But I do think it is notable that federal and state officials are nakedly using fraudulent means to attack Donald Trump’s fortune in addition to his person.  Not only are they trying to imprison but they also want to bankrupt him.  What I’m curious to see is whether this is completely without consequences for those in charge of these bogus prosecutions.

From where I stand, I think they will get away with it.  It’s possible that higher courts may reverse some of these decisions based on the outrageous procedures that were used.  The case that involved the allegedly overvalued assets is a complete sham that has no precedent.  An honest court would have thrown it out on the face of it.  But I don’t foresee any blowback to the New York Attorney General or the judge that oversaw the trial.

And the fake rape civil trial is a complete farce over supposed events that happened over fifteen years ago and never had any credibility in the first place.  Once again, if the decision is reversed there won’t be any negative consequences for the Manhattan District Attorney or the judge.  None.

Probably the only tangible effect of these witch-hunts will be on wealthy New Yorkers who think they might have Democrat political enemies.  Being stripped of their fortunes now probably seems a lot more real and incredibly frightening.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them start to rethink living and doing business in the “Empire State.”  Maybe there will be a stampede of billionaires heading for the borders out of New York.  Suddenly that name Empire State takes on a new meaning.  Empires exist at the whim of the emperor.  Justice isn’t a blind goddess in an empire.  She takes her marching orders from the boss.

And that’s what we’re seeing.  Justice is now doled out in Washington, Colorado, California and New York according to whether you belong to the right party.  If you don’t genuflect to the pieties, if you won’t burn incense to Caesar then you can expect that knock on the door and maybe you lose your money or even your freedom.

More than ever it’s important to think about the United States as separate states.  Some of them still seem to possess equal justice under the law.  But definitely not all.  Being a business owner or even a parent is a lot different in Florida than it is in California or New York.  And something like Trump’s railroading will make that crystal clear.

I guess it seems odd, me pitying Donald Trump.  He’s very wealthy (so far), has been President of the United States and is famous and popular with over a hundred million Americans.  I’m nobody.  Even if Trump has to pay off these bogus fines, he’ll still be many thousands of times richer than I am.  But I think of the spectacle of the supposedly “last best hope for humanity” rounding on one of its most important citizens and using the same tactics that you’d expect Saddam Hussein would have used against his enemies.

I think of what I would do in his circumstances and I have to admit I’d be overwhelmed.  Look at what the FBI has done to those people who were in Washington on January 6th.  None of the courts in DC are fair.  The jury selection is rigged.  Once government uses a partisan mob against its citizens, we’ve reached bottom.  This is no different from Robespierre ginning up the mob to “judge” anyone and everyone who fell into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety.

It’s not justice.  It’s just being fed to the lions in the coliseum.  And the knowledge that any of the elite can be subjected to this same treatment will alter the reputation of the United States as a safe haven for the rich and their money.  And that alteration will weaken the United States a great deal.  Something to think about.