In real life I had missed most of what led up to the burning of the compound. 1993 my oldest sister was dying from brain cancer. April 19, 1993, I was visiting her in the hospital. She was going into surgery the next day for her second brain operation to remove more of the regrown tumor. We all knew this was just buying her time, but we all hoped for the best.

April 19, 1993 she still had limited power of speech. The glioblastoma tumor had grown right next to her speech center. One of the first symptoms was that she was losing words. This was a brilliant woman whose 1987 doctoral thesis ironically was on Computer Tomography of the Brain, comparing classic brain sections to the images provided by the new CT scans so neurologists could diagnose brain problems before the patients died. That is why she got more than one attempt to save her life - neurosurgeons who had studied her thesis (which had been published as a book and widely distributed in certain circles) wanted to use that knowledge to treat her. She got treatments in 1993 that were later used to prolong Ted Kennedy and John McCain's lives.

As we visited her, she noticed on the TV in her room that was on with the sound turned down that there was something momentous happening. The Waco compound was on fire. She brought all our attention to it. Even in her state, she knew this was history.

I've avoided shows about Waco for thirty years since I didn't want the reminder of the last day my sister was really aware. And just now, as I watched the last episode on Netflix, I wish I had continued to avoid it. It brought back that pain.

I still miss you, Edi.

Source: CNN

A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives.

The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. were found guilty on all charges they faced.

Donald Trump and his family were not charged in this case, but the former president was mentioned repeatedly during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the benefits doled out to certain executives, including company-funded apartments, car leases and personal expenses.

The Trump Organization could face a maximum of $1.61 million in fines when sentenced in mid-January. The company is not at risk of being dismantled because there is no mechanism under New York law that would dissolve the company. However, a felony conviction could impact its ability to do business or obtain loans or contracts.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/politics/trump-organization-fraud-trial-verdict/index.html

And encourage him to hug Gov. Ron DeSantis.

After all, remember what President Obama's hug did for then Gov. Charlie Crist? (The Hug That Killed My Republican Career) I can only hope that a Biden hug would do the same for DeSantis!

Of course, Biden does not have race going for him as Obama did - but it could still damage DeSantis in the eyes of MAGA Republicans.

I can only hope.

Right now, according to both the National Weather Service forecast (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/090354.shtml?tswind120#contents) and the spaghetti models on Mike's Weather Page (https://spaghettimodels.com/) St. Marks on the coast will be dead center and Ian will head almost straight north to come across Tallahassee.

I live NE of Tallahassee, much closer to Georgia than to the coast, so usually storms have faded a lot by the time they get to us. But with our canopy roads and overhead lines, usually the power is knocked out for days even with just tropical storms or strong thunderstorms.

Now we have a whole house generator and can set up the generator we bought a few years ago to power the well, so it won't be as bad as in years past. We've had years when the power was out for nearly a week. I'm getting far too old to deal with that, thus the investment in the generator..

No matter where it hits, I hope we are stay safe.

My cousin died a few weeks back. He was the last in his family and my older sister is in charge of his estate. He'd left his mother's house untouched since she died several years ago. My sister found boxes and boxes of snapshots, negatives, and a number of rolls of 8mm film. She dumped them on me since I have been scanning family photos and expects me to scan all of these.

I simply don't have time to do this. I am still working on organizing and putting the family photos - many going back to the mid-1800s - so I can put them online for the extended family to see.

So I want to send this stuff to a service that can digitize all of it. My sister still expects me to organize the most interesting pictures and get them online, which will take a lot of time. But if a scanning service can do it, it will save me years of scanning.

Any suggestions?

When the PhotoShopped picture resurfaced a few weeks back of Putin riding bare chested on a Ritz cracker, I had a fleeting thought that Randy Rainbow should do that as one of his songs. It turns out he did - five years ago! So here we go:





The only question I have is, which was the Putin riding Ritz image or Randy Rainbow's parody?

Claims to be from DHL but the email is from ggomez@tves.sv domain.



Why on earth anyone in the US would be expected to pay in rubles, I don't get.