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On today's episode: Decorations!

My birthday is nine months away, so it's time to start buying all the decorations for the party. We're talking flags, buntings, cups, plates.. Pretty much everything that needs to go on the walls or on the tables. I need a special type of tablecloth, that is reusable. I found one online, which measures 51 by 70 inches, or 1.3 meters by 1.8 meters. I need three of those, and they aren't expensive at all.

The next thing I need are foil curtains. I also need three of those.

My entire shopping list is as follows:

Tablecloth
Foil curtains
Balloons
Red solo cups
XL cups
Stars and stripes serviettes (or napkins, for you Americans)
Cloth buntings
Garlands
Party tape with American flags
Small flags on picks
Big flags

I also need a costume for myself, but luckily, the birthday is pretty far away, so I don't have to think about that at the moment. For all the decorative things, the total cost is 1473 DKK ($211.50, €197.50). A part of me just wants to buy it all tomorrow, and just get it over with. Once I am done with decorating, it'll be the best thing you have ever seen! It's gonna be legendary! One of those parties that people will remember, even after ten years. After fifteen years. After 25 years! It's gonna absolutely rule!

I see in the news that Donald J. Trump was holding a $100,000 a plate fundraiser dinner for his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The event was to be held at his Bedminster country club.

I haven't followed up as of yet, but one article brought some interesting reader comments and that is usually better than the story itself.

For example...
If Trump would have paid Giuliani for his legal fees in the first place, he probably would not need to have the fundraiser.

MAGA complain about prices and the economy, yet they continue to donate money to trump and his minions.

Trump must be scared that Rudy will flip on him.

Trump doing something to benefit someone else?? Somehow he will make it all about himself. There has to be something in it for him or else he wouldn't bother.

If Ghouliani thinks he needs money now, just wait until they see the settlement for Miss Ruby, his lawsuit for exploiting his secretary, and Jack Smith drops the J6th charges on him.

He's apparently trying to keep Rudy in the fold. Rudy knows where all the bodies are buried going back to the old days. Since Rudy is guilty as sin, the chances of him turning are good. djt doesn't want that.

Only a complete fool would give Rudy money, he created his own mess, let him pay the price!

Would love to know the number of plates sold and who paid for them. Also, the names of the people who actually attended.
(don't worry - it wouldn't surprise me if there will be investigations for the source of the funds)

Those who contribute to the defense of this traitor are traitors themselves.

Yeah, I’m totally sure ALL of it is going to Rudy, trump wouldn’t ever skimm

MAGA: My Attorney Got Arrested!!

Two weeks ago, Donald J. Trump surrendered to the Fulton County jail where he was booked, fingerprinted and posed for a mugshot. This is a first as no US president can claim what he has accomplished... that is, he is facing 4 criminal indictments.
Within a few hours his mugshot came online. There was a delay as so many people clicking to see it overloaded the network server.

It didn't take long for King Grifter to turn this event into a money-making merchandising operation by selling T-shirts and and mugs with his booking photo and the inscription:
NEVER SURRENDER.

One small detail is he had to surrender to the jail for them to take a mugshot.
Did I miss something here?
It's now reported Trump's campaign has raised $9.4 million since his booking with the release of his shirts. I'm surprised he didn't offer a signed and numbered 'collectors edition' for $500 bucks more! Certainly this is something collectors could be hawking on eBAY for years to come.

Mugshots posted online are part of the public domain... however there are some rules/limitations about their use and misuse. One topic that is being tested is profiting off of ones mugshot. Another is playing down the seriousness of a criminal indictment and can that be perceived as a form of jury tampering?
This is what I've seen in the news and since it appears to be something without case history, can the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office legally force Trump (and his campaign and or merchandising company) to cease selling the shirts and mugs. One step further, could they be legally charged and have to pay fines for misuse and possibly have to refund the money?



Warning: while I often allow off-topic comments to my blogs, any mention of Biden weaponizing the DOJ or FBI will probably disappear in the night.

From what I see it's not only T-shirts and mugs.

The film is based on Sagarika's autobiography, “The Journey of a Mother” which was published in 2022. Sagarika moved to Norway with her husband Anurup Bhattacharya in 2007 as the latter got a job there as a geophysicist.

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway follows the story of an Indian immigrant couple whose world came crashing down in 2011 when their two children were removed from their care by the Norwegian foster system due to differences in culture.

The story begins with "Mrs Chatterjee" moving to Norway with her husband after marriage and settling down there.

The film is based on the struggles of a real-life mother, Sagarika Chakraborty, whose life took a dramatic turn in 2011 when Norway's child protection services (CPS), known as Barnevernet, took custody of her three-year old son and infant daughter accusing the couple of “improper parenting”.

Chatterjee Vs. Norway were abusing their children, and after they were taken and placed in foster care, Chakraborty's fight to regain custody became a diplomatic row and international incident because her children were Indian citizens.

The ending of the film more or less reflects real events. Just as Sagarika Chakraborty regained custody of her children in January 2013, the fictional Debkia Chatterjee is deemed to be emotionally able to be a mother and is reunited with her children at the end of the film.

After watching the screening of the movie "Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway"
i am shocked...

how can this be?

I went out for my morning walk and see someone had dropped 2 bagels in the parking lot expecting to feed the birds.
Some black crows were picking, but strangely no takers.
The reason why... the bagels were stale, as in hard like stone.

I started breaking a bagel into small pieces and throwing out to the birds who quickly ate them up. A squirrel wanted in on the action, so I threw a few larger pieces his way. He grabbed one, climbed the tree and returned for another.

To my surprise, some white birds with long bills came and chased the crows away. They had some difficulty with the size of the pieces I was breaking off for the crows, so I pinched them in 'pea' size chunks and they began to fight over them, eating as fast as I could toss them to the group.

I could see other birds in the nearby tree waiting and after the white birds left, they came over and started feeding. The whole event was more than 30 minutes and both bagels were gone!

I didn't get much walking this morning, but the birds got breakfast on me!

Music of The Beatles changed my life. Sure other artists influenced me too, but it's said The Beatles were inspired from many of the American musical artists.
Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bob Dylan to name a few.
Oddly, I never really followed the music of the musicians who influenced The Beatles. What a concept!
Early Beatles trivia I learned was from the album covers and 'teen' magazines that were filled with stupid things unrelated to their music. Like, Ringo's birthday or John's favorite color and had little or nothing to do with the music.

Usually on the weekends, I immerse myself in YouTube videos. Sometimes they are instructional, or science related... but there is always room for music and a few documentaries about musicians.
It seems the more I research things about The Beatles, the more I realize what little I really knew along the way.
55+ years later I found out that Abby Road Studios was really EMI studios. I knew that the recording equipment in America was far superior to what was in use in England at the time and I'm not sure why they didn't import those tape recording machines.

EMI studio was setup to have full musical scores used in movie soundtracks. One large room where a symphony of 40 musicians, lots of microphones and a control panel would record as though the listener were present in a live performance. Sound was recorded to 4-track machines. That means while recording, 4 discreet channels could be filled. Let's say drums, bass and rhythm guitar could be on the first track, piano and lead guitar on the second track, main vocal on the third track and backing vocals on the fourth track. That's it. If something wasn't right, either a mistake or a wrong recording level, the entire track had to be done again... including all the instruments or voices on that track. That would take days to perfect one song.
What happened then is, after each take was right, the recording engineer would 'mix down' the good parts to another 4-track machine so they have room for more parts. Maybe sound effects or orchestra arrangements added to the original recording. Often I would read about the original tapes used to create other versions of a song that would be decided later which version would make it to a record. Remastered is a word to describe when they make a new version (mix) using the original tapes.
I know all of this 'technology' existed, I didn't know exactly how it was applied to each song of every album. It originally came as a surprise, but it's been documented and there are lots of recording engineers who have all that information.

Many recording studios in the United States used 8-track recording machines giving a track for each voice or instrument. An example, if the piano track had a mistake, they only had to rerecord that one part and not an entire section where drums, guitar and piano shared a single track.

Paul McCartney made famous a bass guitar manufactured by the German company Höfner. It had a unique hollow body violin appearance, 30" long scale and he was seen in all live performances with that bass guitar. He also used a British VOX amplifier by Jennings Musical Instruments.

The song 'Come Together' was recorded in 1969 and to my ear, the bass guitar didn't sound like a Höfner. I later learned McCartney had switched to an American made Rickenbacker with a solid body, 34" long scale and an American made Fender bass amplifier. Much of his later recordings and performances with Wings had his Rickenbacker bass with Mesa-Boogie amplification.

The Beatles music changed with a few short years. It evolved from the live band sound to a more complex studio band, probably due to many factors... that included their experiments with psychedelic drugs, study of Eastern philosophy and the use of recording machines that could vary speed/pitch, double track for added voices, playback in reverse.

That brings me to the 1966 album REVOLVER...

I can't find the blog I commented on last week referencing the number of guns sold in America versus the population and from raw facts it would appear each American had a gun. From experience of friends, workers and going to gun shows, I'd estimate one person had 10 guns while 9 didn't, making the tally (from a glance) look like everyone had a gun.

Okay, that thought passed. I was listening to a news report of Jeffrey Ferguson, a Superior court Judge in Orange County California had murdered his wife.

Get this: 47 weapons and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered during a search of his home, including the pistol used in the shooting. Authorities said the weapons were legally owned. A rifle registered in his name is not accounted for.

72 year old Ferguson was arrested last week. He was released a day later on $1 million bail and set to be arraigned on September first.

That 'shoots a hole' in the statement that each American owns a gun.



A rifle registered in his name is not accounted for, according to the district attorney's office.




Where do you think he stashed the rifle?

I can just see whats happening in this world without been led by the nose like a sheep to the slaughter.

I need no endorsement of whats right or wrong. At my age I should instinctively know whats right or wrong.

This I deem wrong. These people have no idea of the evil that was propagated by Hitlers Nazis.






Groups of “Nazis” who call themselves the “Blood Tribe” and “Goyim Defense League” exposed themselves as Biden supporters and Azov Battalion members while marching in a rally in Orlando, Florida.

Blood Tribe leader Christopher Pohlhaus, a former Marine who also goes by “Hammer”, accidentally let slip to reporters that he’s a Biden supporter while railing against “white subjugators.”

“I think Biden is better than Trump because he sends rockets to Ukraine!” Pohlhaus declared as a tattoo-faced member behind him yelled, “Slava Ukraini!”

‘Blood Tribe’ leader Christopher Pohlhaus, a former Marine who also goes by ‘Hammer’, spoke on an overpass alongside members of both ‘Blood Tribe’ and ‘Goyim Defense League’ today in Florida pic.twitter.com/B4do0BoiKS

News just in that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced today, Tuesday September 5th to 22 years in prison for orchestrating his far-right extremist group’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Of more than 1,100 Capitol riot cases, Tarrio has received the longest sentence so far.


"Tarrio pleaded for leniency, describing Jan. 6 as a “national embarrassment,” and apologizing to the police officers who defended the Capitol and the lawmakers who fled in fear. His voice cracked as he expressed remorse for letting down his family and vowed that he is done with politics."

Actually, he's not done with politics. Prison has their own form of pecking order.




Link of many:

It's nothing new where a tourist will climb a statue in a public place with the intent of posing for a selfie. Many of these carvings are made from marble and a few hundred years old. Huge statues, despite their size are fragile and can easily fracture when force is applied.

This past weekend, a German tourist climbed the Fountain of Neptune in Florence, Italy, causing damage estimated at 5,000 Euros.
The act was caught on surveillance cameras and the man was uploading his photos to X (formerly Twitter) so there is substantial proof who did the damage.

Hopefully, he will receive a fine for his action and this will send a message that public statues are off-limits for people to touch.

While this one was an act of stupidly, there are people who deface art/statues intentionally. Hopefully the fines are greater for them.



The tourist had to go past a gate, climb a fountain retaining wall, walk a few feet in the fountain to get to the base of the statue.