TRUMP IS A MOB BOSS. HIS MOB IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY A CLOWN CAR MAFIA

 “But a person close to Trump likened the former President to the mob patriarch Vito Corleone in the “The Godfather” movie for his efforts to retaliate against Republicans who criticized him for inciting the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol or for voting to pass Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan. Trump has been “pulling strings behind the scenes and guiding candidates in the right direction,” this person said.”

AS FORMER EMPLOYEES OF THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION TESTIFY AGAINST DEFENDANT TRUMP TRUMP JR. SITS IN THE COURTROOM

The Godfather: Part II (1974) - Frankie Pentangeli's Brother

Eric Trump in the courtroom. To stare at witnesses I suppose.

Eric does not hold a candle to Frankie Pentangeli's brother.

The absolutely banging serialized narrative that is the Jan. 6 hearings took a turn Sopranos-ward with the sensational testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday. In her closing statement, co-chair Liz Cheney read the statements of anonymous witnesses called by the panel reporting ominous messages they’d received from Trump World emissaries, telling those witnesses that an unnamed man knows how “loyal” they are and urging them to keep in mind all the fine opportunities potentially awaiting them after they spoke to the committee. In other words: “Nice career you’ve got there. Would be a shame if something bad were to happen to it.”

It’s a good reminder that Donald Trump thinks of himself, and tries to behave, as a Mafia don, but he can’t quite pull it off. For starters, unlike the real deal, Trump doesn’t actually provide for his loyalists in exchange for their obedience—none of the people who asked for pardons for their complicity in the events of Jan. 6 actually got them…

The son of successful New York real estate developer, an incompetent New York real estate developer himself, and the owner of an eventually bankrupt casino in Atlantic City, Trump has surely rubbed shoulders with more than his fair share of mobsters. And, like the rest of us, he’s seen plenty of them on screen. But is it really fair to compare Trump to a mob boss? Sure, he’s unprincipled, immoral, and completely indifferent to the rule of law. Sure, he demands complete loyalty from his underlings no matter how badly he treats them. But while actual mob bosses have to be good at their jobs to keep them—it’s a fierce, competitive environment!—this has never been the case with Trump. First, he had his father’s money to squander, and then he used his bizarre appeal to the most witless segment of the Republican Party to hold the rest of the GOP hostage to his mad-king whims. As dangerous as Trump is, especially when backed by his Republican enablers, he’s also ignorant, capricious, unfocused, reckless—in the words of his own former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a moron.

In other words, Trump is no Vito Corleone. He’s not even Tony Soprano, really. And while he does sometimes carry on like a mafia capo, and almost certainly enjoys styling himself as one, calling him a mob boss is an insult to mob bosses. That Trump was fully comfortable with seeing his riled-up troglodyte followers lynch his second-in-command for not showing a sufficient amount of that loyalty became crystal clear with Hutchinson’s testimony. She said that she heard her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, explain that Trump initially refused to talk the rioters down, remarking, “He doesn’t want to do anything,” and “He thinks Mike deserves it.”

Of course Mike deserved it, for as every mob boss knows, anything less than total obedience must be punished with extreme prejudice if you want to keep your perch at the top. Or, as Trump’s father drummed into his sons from an early age, “You’re a Trump. You’re a killer.” It’s just that most mob bosses either do the killing themselves or hire a professional to get it done, instead of relying on a mob of unpredictable Nazis, easily duped Fox News zombies, and a face-painted shaman. That’s the chilling yet undeniable proof that though Trump may fancy himself a mob boss, he isn’t one: If he were, Mike Pence would not still be around to refuse to testify about how it feels to hear the president wants you hanged.

FROM:

SLATE

Donald Trump Thinks He’s a Mob Boss, but That’s an Insult to Mob Bosses

Laura Miller June 28, 2022 5:16 PM 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson gets the Trump, Republican Party, organized crime cabal. 

"The most powerful person in the world with the greatest amount of authority could go into office knowing there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes," Jackson said during oral arguments. "I'm trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country.”

Business Insider

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warns of the Oval Office turning into a 'crime center' if Trump gets the sweeping immunity he wants

Brent D. Griffiths Apr 25, 2024, 4:20 PM EDT

 

It’s not the brain worm in RFK’s brain. It could be the mercury. Don’t eat too much fish. Especially Pennsylvania caught fish.

In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess so severe that a friend grew concerned he might have a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he consulted several of the country’s top neurologists, many of whom had either treated or spoken to his uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, before his death the previous year of brain cancer.

Several doctors noticed a dark spot on the younger Mr. Kennedy’s brain scans and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for a procedure at Duke University Medical Center by the same surgeon who had operated on his uncle, he said.

While packing for the trip, he said, he received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital who had a different opinion: Mr. Kennedy, he believed, had a dead parasite in his head.

The doctor believed that the abnormality seen on his scans “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Mr. Kennedy said in the deposition...

About the same time he learned of the parasite, he said, he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, most likely from ingesting too much fish containing the dangerous heavy metal, which can cause serious neurological issues.

“I have cognitive problems, clearly,” he said in the 2012 deposition. “I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me..”

Dr. Gardner said it was possible a worm would cause memory loss. However, severe memory loss is more often associated with another health scare Mr. Kennedy said he had at the time: mercury poisoning.

Mr. Kennedy said he was then subsisting on a diet heavy on predatory fish, notably tuna and perch, both known to have elevated mercury levels. In the interview with The Times, he said that he had experienced “severe brain fog” and had trouble retrieving words. Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who has railed against the dangers of mercury contamination in fish from coal-fired power plants, had his blood tested.

He said the tests showed his mercury levels were 10 times what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe.

At the time, Mr. Kennedy also was a few years into his crusade against thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines. He is a longtime vaccine skeptic who has falsely linked childhood inoculations to a rise in autism, as well as to other medical conditions.

In the interview, Mr. Kennedy said he was certain his diet had caused the poisoning. “I loved tuna fish sandwiches. I ate them all the time,” he said.

The Times described Mr. Kennedy’s symptoms to Elsie Sunderland, an environmental chemist at Harvard who has not spoken to Mr. Kennedy and responded generally about the condition.

She said the mercury levels that Mr. Kennedy described were high, but not surprising for someone consuming that quantity and type of seafood.

Mr. Kennedy said he made changes after these two health scares, including getting more sleep, traveling less and reducing his fish intake.

He also underwent chelation therapy, a treatment that binds to metals in the body so they can be expelled. It is generally given to people contaminated by metals, such as lead and zinc, in industrial accidents. Dr. Sunderland said that when mercury poisoning is clearly diet-related, she would simply recommend that the person stop eating fish. But another doctor who spoke to The Times said she would advise chelation therapy for the levels Mr. Kennedy said he had."

MORE AT:

The New York Times

R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain

The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain.

Susanne Craig 

May 8, 2024 Updated 2:21 p.m. ET

“Over the decades, the water quality has improved, he said, but “unfortunately with PCBs and mercury, we are paying for our sins of the past."

Lenny Lichvar suggests that to have health issues from eating fish, a significant amount of the protein would need to be consumed.

He's the president of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited.

“To have real health impairments from eating fish, you have to eat a significant amount of them,” he said.

"All the preservatives and everything else they put in the food you buy at the grocery store might be more of a detriment to you than a handful of fish you eat in Pennsylvania, unless there’s an advisory out by the state that you don’t eat fish in a certain area,” Lichvar said.”

MORE AT:

Eire Times News

How safe is it to eat fish caught in Pennsylvania waters?

Brian Whipkey

Erie Times-News

PENNSYLVANIA FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY

WE ARE LIVING IN A DAVID LYNCH FILM. I knew David Lynch as a friend of Jim Victor. He lived in the hay loft of the firehouse on Fairmont Avenue. There was a studio open to several artists on the second floor. Betsy and me lived at 2222 Green Street

David Lynch films are sometimes listed as horror films. 

His films are not horror films. They reflect the horror in our everyday life. 

I went with Jim Victor to watch The ELEPHANT MAN in the theater. 

My friend Jim Victor is in a photo still in the HBO Documentary David Lynch: The Art Life 

Still from HBO Documentary Jim Victor is on the left

I knew Dave Lynch as a friend of Jim Victor. He lived in the hay loft of the firehouse on Fairmont Avenue with Jack Fisk. There was a studio open to several artists on the second floor. Betsy and me lived at 2222 Green Street. I only met Dave and Jack Fisk coming and going in the firehouse. The firehouse is now a restaurant. 

Jim Lloyd sculptor  another friend of Jim Victor made the hayloft into an amazing living space. Plants hung in the places hay was moved up and down to the main floor. I had my Nikon F with me always. I might have photos of the hayloft living space somewhere. 

© James Pitcherella

I made photos of David Lynch making a life masks with Jack Fisk.  

He used the cast as part of screen. A film on a loop was projected onto it. The art piece was presented at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The additional frames on the second contact sheet are of Jim Victor making a sculpture. Photojournalist Ku In Kim developing prints. 

And a piano concerto that might have been at the Curtis Arboretum, 1250 Church Road, Wyncote, Montgomery County, PA 

© James Pitcherella

© James Pitcherella

Betsy and me have the good fortune of livelong friends particular Jim Victor and Norm Jones both played significant parts in the Twentieth Century.  Jim in the peace movement. Norm Jones at the DOD. 

I posted this earlier:

I’m familiar with peace activists. I walked with Father John McNamee and my friend Jim Victor to see Daniel Berrigan at the Race St Friends Meeting House in Philadelphia in 1966.  

After talking to Father John my wife said, “What a waste!” Me, “What do you mean.” He can’t get married. John is a much more handsome man than David Morse in the film “Diary of a City Priest.”

This is a recent photo of Jim Victor & Father John McNamee at Villa St. Joseph in Landsdowne. He’s 90 years old. And still handsome!

Father John has a new book:

Our family has had the good fortune of a friendship with Norman Jones. 

We met Norman through another friend, John Hamilton. I met John running up and down Lemon Hill. We were going to join a rowing club. John got a bad back. The Fairmont Rowing Association was desperate for members and I began in a gig on the Schuylkill. John taught string instruments in the Philadelphia School District and played the viola professionally. Norman was a tenant at one of John’s rental homes. 

When Norm graduated from Drexel University, he fulfilled his army, ROTC at Fort Benning, Georgia. After his basic training, the army told him they had too many officers and he would need to enroll in the National Guard.

We got a call from Norman saying he needed a place to stay for a couple of weeks until he, his wife Mary and his daughter Suzi could find a home of their own. That two weeks stretched out into three months. We became very close friends during the three month period of living basically as one family.

Norm is a microwave engineer but he’s inclined to repairing automobiles and he helped me get my Saab 96 running smoothly. At a time when all cars used mechanical points to distribute a spark to each spark, plug norm help me install and electronic distributor. I remember Norm saying don’t touch the car you’ll be electrocuted when he briefly reversed the polarity of the battery, making the car body positive. The electronic distributor was successfully installed and my Saab 96 no longer stopped and needed new points.

Norm got a job working for Philco Ford and was enrolled in the Air Force National guard at Willow Grove, Naval Air Station. The Air Force Reserve had Cessna O-2s at Willow Grove Naval Air Station. Norm had command of the modified jeeps that carried the ground component of the forward air control. 

Betsy & me brought Suzi to the Air Station swimming pool. I played racquet ball at the Air Station court. I sometimes drove Norms car and the guards saluted me. Security was limited at the time. 

Norm was working at Philco Ford which designed radios that went into Ford vehicles. Norm designed a radio that would work well in their vehicles. Ford told him to modify them to make them less costly. Norm said the radios would only work for a few months if they were designed that way. Didn’t matter to Ford.

Norm said he couldn’t work for a company like that.

Norm began a long career designing satellite communications for the Department of Defense leading a small number of engineers in Reston, Virginia. 

Norm, divorced Mary and married Janet. Janet was a colonel at the NIH Clinical Center. 

He was concerned Janet could be kidnapped and used to gain information about Norm's work. Norm was away often at Palo Alto CA and Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. He designed a complete hard wired security system for their Reston home. His computer recorded in detail every person that came near their home. 

Betsy, Julia, Jeff and me visited Norm and Janet at their home in Reston and were greeted by speaker on their security system as we walked to the front door. 

Desktop computers were a new thing in the early 1990s. Norm taught Jeff and Julia how to use them. This is his office in Norm & Janets home in Reston. 

In the photos below Norm is instructing Julia & Jeff on how to use computers. Norm is an excellent and very patient instructor. At the time the photos below were taken Norm could not tell us what he did for the DOD. 

The military satellite communications system his team in Reston designed is still in use. Norm placed a ground unit in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. For a time it was the only communication system connecting New Orleans with the rest of the world. 

Over the years Norm's original designs were modified and used by Google Maps, Skype and other commercial systems. 

I'm greatly concerned about the coming election. Democracy in the United States is on a chopping block and Republicans wield the axe. I made this video:

“Right wing justices postulate Trump’s “immunity.” The objection is that this makes him a king. 

Not so. It’s much worse. A king can be subject to law. The American Revolution was justified by the notion that he had overstepped the law.

 This discussion of immunity is something else. The justices are not discussing any constitutional system at all, including a constitutional monarchy. 

Justices are instead flirting with the idea that a single person can be outside any constitutional system, outside the rule of law as such. 

There is a tradition in which you say the constitution is just there for us to wait and find out who is willing to break it and then we are going to endorse that person and give him special rights. 

That tradition is Nazi.” 

Timothy Snyder Yale Professor of History. 

"Judge Luttig Issues DIRE WARNING to Supreme Court over Trump Immunity"