November 2, 2020

One day post blue moon! November 1, 2020.

November 1, 2020

More funny stuff--this time, stuff that court reporters had to write down.

How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces?
These are from a book called Disorder in the Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place....

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS:If not, he was by the time I finished. ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________
And last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

October 31, 2020

Pre-Halloween Moon, October 30, 2020.

October 29, 2020

This was posted on Daily Kos and I thought it was worth passing along. I know the author.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/29/1990633/-De-Nazification-not-Bipartisanship-after-Trump?fbclid=IwAR3vYeCyh183DHSSWUHLt4VLkQcVYsTUEtrXsWpmbV5Oy_qDsI_OIh5GmDE


Bipartisanship is impossible and must be banished from Democratic thought and speech. Not out of vengeance against the GOP, but from an assessment of facts. There is no honest partner across the aisle available to an incoming Biden transition and administration to be bipartisan with. The way to recover from Trump is much more akin to denazification.

Some say there are Republicans who opposed Trump to work with. But to only evaluate Republicans by who were in or out of Trump’s circle misses the core problem. The GOP, since Reagan at least, strove to create a political climate that made Trump possible. The Republican agenda has been building a Kleptocracy. How can government maximize the wealth of a few at the expense of everyone else. Republicans are essentially anti-democratic because they strive to win power with a minority of votes and fixed federal courts to build said Kleptocracy. Every GOP candidate, every consultant, every party leader since Reagan strove to create an authoritarian, white, racist, sexist, xenophobic base, weaponizing every prejudice in our country to win elections. Every GOP leader for decades across our country made Trump possible and none can be untangled from him today.

The Lincoln Project—chock full of enabling consultants, perhaps worried about getting into heaven now, cannot be redeemed simply by turning their authoritarian-honed weapons against Trump. Kasich—he was a Gingrich lieutenant back in the day and handed out cookies to friends from Ohio’s jar as its reactionary governor. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan—he crashed a multi-billion dollar transit line project, pushes a highway expansion for wealthy developers, while 2020 write-in voting Ronald Reagan. Never Trumpers—most were simply offended by how undeferential Trump was to them. Even the departed, bipartisan-sainted John McCain gave us Sarah Palin—the female Wal-Mart prequel to Taj Mahal bankrupting Trump. Any list of GOP corruption, deceit and hatefulness quickly grows very, very long.

Denazification is a model because this divisive and hateful GOP model for coalition building must be rooted out and destroyed. Bringing any GOP practitioners into a Democratic government legitimizes their authoritarianism just as Trump’s visit to North Korea did for Kim Jong-un.

All of it at the link.

October 26, 2020

Waxing Gibbous Moon, 10/25/2020

October 25, 2020

The Moon in Clouds, tonight...

October 22, 2020

Waxing Crescent, 10/21/2020

With a big thank you to flamin lib for post processing on software I don't have yet.

October 21, 2020

My husband and I went to the UCLA Sculpture Garden this morning...

Here's some of what we saw:

These are sculptures by Matisse:


Bust of a young woman; sculptor unknown.


Another young woman; sculptor unknown.


The grounds on a cool, overcast day:


Yet another nude woman; sculptor unknown.


Loved this pine tree!


The Horse and a modern sculpture; no idea who created them!


The Horse; no idea who did the work.


Yet another nude; unknown sculptor.


My husband hanging out with yet another nude!


A water feature; unknown artist.

October 19, 2020

Meet Arnon Mishkin, the Fox News analyst who will call the winner of the election.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-10-19/fox-news-arnon-mishkin-analyst-will-call-the-election

President Trump has sustained himself during a challenging 2020 campaign against former vice president Joe Biden with friendly interviews and support from the Fox News opinion hosts. But on Nov. 3, he can’t count on a break from the network’s political number-crunchers, who will be in charge as election results roll in.

The Fox News election “decision desk” is insulated from the right-leaning partisan pundits on the network. Arnon Mishkin, 65, leads the group of pollsters, statisticians and political scientists who will analyze the vote count, polling numbers and historical trends and determine the winners of the races for president, as well as the House and Senate races.

The operation has a track record of playing it straight and calling races correctly — even when it’s bad news for the Republicans. (Mishkin is also involved in the Fox News polling unit, which has gotten under the president’s skin throughout the campaign as it has consistently shown him running behind Biden.)

Fox News was the first to project that the Democrats would take back the majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms. In 2012, Mishkin went on camera to stiff-arm Republican strategist Karl Rove, who disputed Mishkin’s call giving Ohio’s electoral votes and the presidential election to incumbent Barack Obama.

All of it at the link.

October 17, 2020

What is it?

On edit: It is edible!