When Coincidence Is Not Coincidence

I try to be careful not to do a Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc on these things, but I think I have good reason to say you'll never convince me that this:

New York Is a Hellscape, Republicans Say. A Cabby Told Them So.
A look at the stagecraft behind the House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan.”

... and this:

Republicans Are Using Paul Pelosi Attack to Target Democrats on Crime
Republicans and conservative figures have taken aim at Democrats over crime following an attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

... can't possibly be linked to this:

84-Year-Old Is Charged in Shooting of Black Teenager Who Went to Wrong House
Lawyers for the family of Ralph Yarl, 16, said he was critically injured when he was shot twice in Kansas City, Mo.

... and this:

Man Charged With Murder in Shooting of Woman Who Went Up Wrong Driveway
Kevin Monahan shot Kaylin Gillis, 20, when she and several friends wound up outside his house in a rural part of upstate New York, the authorities said.

When so many Americans are being pounded every day with the hatred and paranoia coming from outlets like DumFux News and OAN and Breitbart (and and and), we have to consider the probabilities for deliberate purposeful mayhem.

So we have to acknowledge that there could be a stochastic method to this madness. 

ie: Somebody wants this shit to happen, and it's not just a matter of the NRA selling more guns, and buying political power thru the purchase of more Coin-Operated Politicians.

I can't shake the feeling there's quite a bit more to it than simply Commercial-Interests-At-Any-Cost.

Prove me wrong

Let's hash it out

Spy Story Stuff

People who hang with certain big time movers & shakers have an unfortunate tendency to meet with tragic ends.

I'm not saying somebody showed up at Ivana Trump's place on the upper east in NYC and helped her have a terrible accident. I'm just saying happenstance can seem pretty nasty and dark, especially considering that some of the people in relatively close orbit with guys like Trump and Putin have done the Peter Pan thing off of roofs and out windows, and down staircases - and dead ex-wives tell no tales.

Paranoid Mike says, "Fuck that - somebody definitely got to her. They got to Epstein, didn't they!?! She knew shit and there was probably a highly probable probability that she'd spill the beans, cuz maybe the NY AG's investigators were getting a little too close to something, and anyway, even if she didn't know anything there's no better way to send a signal to every other would-be witness rat to keep their tater traps shut, cuz hey - if we're willing to snuff the mother of the guy's kids...y'know?"

Whew - sorry - just had to get that out. But really, isn't that kinda how we do things now?

WaPo: (pay wall)

Ivana Trump died of ‘blunt impact injuries,’ medical examiner says

Ivana Trump, the first wife of former president Donald Trump, died of “blunt impact injuries” to her torso, according to a report from the New York City chief medical examiner Friday. The manner of death was classified as an accident, the report added.

The Trump family announced that Ivana, 73, mother of Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr., had died at home in Manhattan on Thursday.

“I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” the former president said in a post on his social medial platform Truth Social.

Ivana Trump was found unconscious on a staircase in her East 64th Street home near Central Park after police received an emergency call at 12:40 p.m., and she was pronounced dead at the scene, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the event. New York police detectives began an investigation and found no sign of forced entry or obvious sign of trauma suggesting criminality.

More than one in four Americans older than 65 fall each year, and falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among that age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths from falling occur at a rate of about 64 deaths per 100,000 older adults, it said.

The former president and his children lamented her death in statements online.

Ivanka tweeted: “Heartbroken by the passing of my mother. Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She lived life to the fullest. … I will miss her forever.” Her siblings also shared family photos online.

Ivana, who was born in the Czech Republic, married Donald in 1977. They divorced in 1992.

In the 1980s, Donald and Ivana were one of the most famous power couples in New York, frequently featured in the tabloids with a social profile that seemed to grow at the same rate as the Trump business empire. Throughout their marriage, Ivana, a former skier and model, played an active role in her husband’s businesses.

Following her death, depositions of the former president and two of his adult children — Donald Jr. and Ivanka — in the wide-ranging civil fraud probe of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) were postponed.

The depositions had originally been scheduled to take place during a six-day window that began Friday.

“In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to,” Delaney Kempner, a spokeswoman for the New York attorney general’s office, said.

“This is a temporary delay and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible. There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time.”

Who's Listening?

Everybody.

Paranoia's a real thing, and sometimes for real reasons. Cuz hey - I may be paranoid, but that don't mean nobody's out to get me.

WaPo: (pay wall)

The Take-Aways:

Military-grade spyware leased by the Israeli firm NSO Group to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and the two women closest to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners led by the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories.

Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, a human rights group, had access to a list of more than 50,000 numbers and shared it with the news organizations, which did further research and analysis. Amnesty’s Security Lab did forensic examination of the phones.

1. Phones identified from a sprawling list: Thirty-seven targeted smartphones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found. The list does not identify who put the numbers on it, or why, and it is unknown how many of the phones were targeted or surveilled. But forensic analysis of the 37 phones shows that many display a tight correlation between time stamps associated with a number on the list and the initiation of surveillance attempts, in some cases as brief as a few seconds.
2. Politicians, journalists, activists found on list: The numbers on the list are unattributed, but reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people spanning more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials — including cabinet ministers, diplomats and military and security officers, as well as several heads of state and prime ministers. The purpose of the list could not be conclusively determined.
3. Company says it polices its clients for abuses: The targeting of the 37 smartphones would appear to conflict with the stated purpose of NSO’s licensing of the Pegasus spyware, which the company says is intended only for use in surveilling terrorists and major criminals. The evidence extracted from these smartphones, revealed here for the first time, calls into question pledges by the Israeli company to police its clients for human rights abuses. NSO Chief Executive Shalev Hulio said Sunday that he was “very concerned” by The Post’s reports. “We are checking every allegation, and if some of the allegations are true, we will take stern action, and we will terminate contracts like we did in the past.” He added, “If anybody did any kind of surveillance on journalists, even if it’s not by Pegasus, it’s disturbing.”
4. Apple iPhone shown to be vulnerable: The discovery on a list of phone numbers of 37 smartphones that had been either penetrated or attacked with Pegasus spyware fuels the debate over whether Apple has done enough to ensure the security of its devices, popular the world over for their reputation for resisting hacking attempts. Thirty-four of the 37 were iPhones.
5. New details of hacking carry worldwide implications: Among the 37 phones confirmed to have been targeted, 10 were in India and another five in Hungary, most linked to journalists, activists or businesspeople. The finding will add to concerns about extralegal government surveillance conducted with private spyware in both countries. Hundreds more numbers from India and Hungary appear on the broader global list. Each country says it acts legally in carrying out any surveillance activity.

Rachel - starting at about 37:10

That Orwellian Thing

As we tiptoe thru these next coupla years; along the edge of the economic abyss, and across the minefields of racial tensions, community disintegration and a good half-dozen other shitty things that're happening that we don't even recognize yet; we need to be looking for the tell-tail signs of those shitty things.

Here's the really big and obvious one: Glenn Beck.  When he puts on his little dog-n-pony shows about the coming of concentration camps, etc, he's not warning you so you can take steps to prevent The Gummint from doing these things.  He's warning you so that when the government does these things, you can be on the "right side" when it happens.  That way, only The Bad Ones will suffer, and all Good Americans will prosper because of it.

Ya heard it here first.