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I'm trying to be non-political today, but I'm noticing a really high percentage of Republicans using the word 'weaponized' to describe any government efforts that follow the law. Governor Ron DeSantis says it often, probably as much as he uses 'woke' to describe some political orientation that differs from his own.

Hearing the word weaponized gets connected with the Department of Justice (DOJ) when they research into someones (believed to be illegal) activity and have proof of wrongdoing... suddenly, the Republicans (or those who support Republicans) insert that word... weaponized in their statements on TRUTH, X (formally Twitter) or news shows.

Last week, I blogged about a political 'dog whistle' where certain words or phrases are used to alert followers of a political group. MAGA was one of them and weaponized needs to be added to the list.

Wouldn't you think laws are in place for a reason?
I get it... when a government agency follows the law they are being weaponized.

We don't get many hurricanes on the West coast of Florida. Nearly a year ago, Ian cut North of the Fort Myers area with extreme flooding and loss of life. The outer bands of winds were so extreme it spawned tornadoes on the East coast 200 miles away that took the roofs off several of the houses and condos around me.

11 months later, waiting for reconstruction, I see they put new trusses on some of the 2nd story condos that were covered with tarps all this time. Those units were severely damaged and unoccupied all this time.
To those who haven't experienced the force of a hurricane and seen the devastation, words and photos cannot fully describe.

Sunday morning, I met with friends and one mentioned a tropical storm in the Yucatan peninsula with a forecast to become a powerful hurricane headed for the West coast of Florida.

Idalia is born...

Late Sunday night, Idalia was a Tropical storm and will strengthen Monday morning while crossing the Western top of Cuba, expected to be a hurricane mid-Monday making a slight curve to the East and hit Florida about 100 miles North of Tampa.

The image below is linked to the National Hurricane Center and usually updates every 4 hours.

It looks like I'll be getting new neighbors. Mar-a-Lago Club located at 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida has changed ownership. That is, depending on who you talk to. The real estate website Zillow said the property sold for $422 million but later stated it was a listing mistake. TV10 claimed the same story, but the website radaronline has a different story. They say on August 4, Trump sold the resort to a corporation named Mar-a-Lago, Inc. and it's registered agent is Donald Trump Jr.
Somewhere along the way, Mar-a-Lago wasn't in the listing. Instead, it was listed by it's address, 1100 South Ocean Boulevard.
Is there any way this transaction was handled fraudulently?
I have no idea, but I believe attorneys are 'hot on the trail' just to investigate this considering the time line to the Georgia indictment and Trump's surrender at the Fulton County jail.

Other than a name change on the title/deed, I imagine it's business a usual, less the property manager and head of computer security... but you already knew that!

Hopefully, they cleared all those boxes that were kept in the pool storage, toilet, banquet stage and possibly Barron's bedroom.

Well here it is. A moment in history. How will all this turn out? Very badly for the Democrats in my opinion. But we shall see. Be careful what you wish for. Be careful for the precedents you set. For be careful they may come back to hit you in the áss.


"I am your retribution" - Donald Trump

Indictments-a-plenty with several surrendering this week in the election interference case in Fulton county Georgia. Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in to authorities for booking on Thursday. In Florida, we've got Trump out on bail, his valet Walt Nauta out on bail and recently the property manager Carlos DeOliveira out on bail.

It was stated that legal fees for both Walt and Carlos were being paid by Trump. Both men had difficulty securing an attorney licensed in the state of Florida. I believe there are some issues with conflict of interest with a shared attorney.

Enter Trump employee #4... Yuscil Taveras, who is the IT director at Mar-a-Lago and was the one who was approached to delete security camera footage that showed boxes of classified documents being moved out prior to the search and back after the search.
I believe he shared an attorney with Walt & Carlos. In news on Tuesday, prosecutors say Yuscil changed his testimony after switching lawyers. He now accuses Mr Trump and two aides of "efforts to delete security camera footage", says the filing.
By definition... I'd say he flipped.

Recap. He was asked to delete security video, but he didn't. He lied to investigators but changed his story and implicated the others in their scheme.

What's the possibility the court will be lenient to Yuscil and give him probation instead of jail time?

Walt is in too deep... maybe there's hope for Carlos... that is if he switches lawyers and flips. I'm sure it's weighing heavily on his mind.

Hopefully, everyone reading this knows that dogs have a great range of hearing. They can hear high-pitched sounds way above the range for Humans. Because of this, dog trainers often use specialized whistles for training where they can teach a dog to respond to commands by the sound of a dog whistle.
Lately, the term 'Dog Whistle' has been used in a political sense. When used, certain groups of people hearing a key word or phrases will have meaning to someone who hasn't been 'trained' to respond.
It's almost like AMAZON ALEXA that sleeps until it hears it's name.
Another example would be Trump supporters waking up when they hear: Make America Great Again.
I'm reading about it and have seen a few YouTube videos reference phrases, I'm not 'in-tune' with the political dog whistle phrases. However, I fear not, someone will enlighten me about this phenomena.

A few days ago, Donald J. Trump posted on his social media site he had information to exonerate himself from the current legal matters that entangle him. On the advice of his lawyers (probably because it would open a quagmire that he could fall into) he restated the claim and said that it would wait for his day in court.

This morning in the news, Rudolph William Louis Giuliani aka Rudy Giuliani, who is facing election fraud charges in the 2020 election, claimed he has 'scientific proof' that will exonerate him. Rudy was at Mar-a-Lago last week asking (more like begging) the former president for money to pay his legal fees. I read, to raise money, he's got his apartment up for sale and there's a chance he could file for bankruptcy.

I dislike gambling, but I'd wager both claims of self-exoneration are just a case of "Open foot, insert mouth."
Yes, I know what I said...

With the discovery of oil in the Orange Basin off the Namibian coast, will most probably mean the 'homing in' of countless vultures/ criminal elements from around the globe.

I lived in Namibia for 10 years, it's a wonderful clean and orderly country.

Wonder what the future holds.

A day or two ago Hilary was a hurricane and weakened to a tropical storm as it crossed Baja and Southern California. Now the winds are less than 50 miles per hour but moving North at 23 miles per hour.
Heavy rains are expected and a flood watch in effect from Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, including parts of Oregon and Idaho.

Hilary is the first storm of its kind to hit the region since Nora in 1997.

Over the years, I've seen videos of waves pounding the shoreline where beach erosion and houses on stilts often collapse into the water. I'm sure this will happen again.

Rumors are beginning to spread (fueled by some new laws in Russia coupled with some announcements from Moscow) of a new mass mobilization of Russian men to occur in September. The new draft will include men up to age 65 and could possibly impact as many as one million Russian men..
We can view it as proof of Russia's desperation and inability of their army to hold the lines in Ukraine with their present strength. It is not clear how such a sweeping round up of males in Russia will effect production in Russia's factories.
The new changes and announcements indicate that the call up orders may arrive by paper OR by electronic media OR both. Announcements by Moscow indicate that when a name is chosen for activation Border Police will be among the first notified and then other legal agencies involved. When that is done then the notifications will be sent out. I
n short if you are Russian you may already have been secretly drafted, but won't know of it until you show up at a border crossing trying to leave the country, or get pulled over for a traffic stop, or go to a bank to get a loan, etc. At that time you will be told you have been called up and turned over to the military. Or maybe you will be one of the lucky ones who first learns of it by email, which is better than a couple of guys in uniform knocking at your door to give you a piece of paper to read as they drag you away.
It is such fun being Russian these days.