#Jacob Pence

[meganlynnhostetler]

Portraits

📸 Instagram: @meganlynnhostetler

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Brandi Buchman at HuffPost:

A four-part appendix detailing more about former President Donald Trump’s alleged criminal attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election hit the public record on Friday. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved the public release on the federal criminal docket in Washington, D.C., late Thursday, following weeks of Trump requesting to keep the appendix out of the public eye. Trump told the judge on Oct. 10 he needed more time to weigh his “litigation options” if she decided to admit the source materials publicly, arguing they could be damaging to jurors and the integrity of the case. Chutkan agreed to give him one week to respond and make his arguments at blocking the release. He filed a last-ditch motion early Thursday asking for more time, but was denied.

The appendix is split into four parts with sensitive information redacted. The four volumes total more than 1,800 pages. Volume I is mostly transcripts of interviews with witnesses who testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. There is a new detail in this first volume that stands out, however: testimony before the Jan. 6 committee from a White House valet to Trump. The valet told the committee that on Jan. 6, when Trump was preparing to watch playback of his speech as violence erupted, Trump asked him if his “speech was cut off.” The valet told the committee that he tried to explain to Trump that it had been. [...]

The version published in March by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), the chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, redacted the section where the valet tells investigators that after Trump said “let’s go see” when he was told that his speech was cut off, the valet took off Trump’s outer coat, got a television ready for him and handed him a remote. “And he starts watching it. And I stepped out to get him a Diet Coke, come back in, and that’s pretty much it for me as he’s watching it and like, seeing it for himself,” the valet testified, according to Smith’s version.

The Republican version of the transcript also redacted when congressional investigators next asked the valet: “So, you set up the TV. Did you set it up for him to watch his speech or live coverage of what was happening at the Capitol?” “Typically, that’s — a lot of times he’s in that back dining room a lot,” the valet said. The contents of the transcript with the valet cut off here in Smith’s appendix once investigators asked the valet if he knew, in fact, whether Trump was watching the events at the Capitol. Volume I also contains a previously public transcript in which Jan. 6 committee investigators ask a witness about whether Trump’s Jan. 6 speech draft was something his staffers categorized as “political” or “official.”

[...] Another transcript in the first volume features testimony from Greg Jacob, former Vice President Mike Pence’s legal counsel. The transcript in the Smith appendix redacts Jacob’s name, but a side-by-side comparison by HuffPost of the Jan. 6 committee transcript and the one Chutkan published Friday, confirms it is him. Here the material Smith attaches to his immunity arguments zeroes in on testimony in which Jacob told the Jan. 6 committee about attempts by Trump darling and “coup memo” author John Eastman to convince Pence and Pence’s staff that a vice president had the constitutional authority to count slates and object to them. This meant, according to Eastman, that anything in the existing legislation that governed the count, like the Electoral Count Act, was unconstitutional.

[...]

Volume II is heavily redacted and primarily features tweets from Trump in which he said there had been pervasive voter fraud in battleground states and called on state and election officials to address it. In tweets from November 2020, including on and around Election Day, Trump calls on the Supreme Court to decide the outcome or alleges that fraud in those battleground states is an “unsolvable problem.” The records show how officials including Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt were forced to directly rebut Trump’s bunk claims online but often with demonstrably less effect on social media, given Trump’s reach on Twitter.

The tweets and retweets relate, in part, to Smith’s allegation that Trump was exacting a pressure campaign on election officials predicated on information he knew to be false and despite being told numerous times after Election Day that the election had been the most secure in history. Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, made that announcement on Nov. 13. Former Attorney General William Barr would declare publicly on Dec. 1 that there was no evidence of voter fraud. None of that deterred Trump from pursuing his conspiracy theories, according to prosecutors. This volume also shows tweets in which Trump calls on people to come to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, and not just the first time, Dec. 19, 2020, when he blasted out the invite to his “wild” rally. Smith’s appendix shows Chutkan that Trump sent out the call multiple times in December, including on Dec. 30, when he wrote, “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!”

[...] Volume III has sections from Pence’s book, “So Help Me God.” Prosecutors highlighted certain passages in which Pence’s describes trying to console a despondent Trump over his defeat and Pence’s own awareness at the time that if there had been any voter fraud, it wasn’t enough to cost Republicans the 2020 election. Other sections feature Pence’s recollection of Trump’s repeated calls to him on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack. “You gotta be tough tomorrow,” Pence recalled Trump telling him. There are transcripts from court hearings in the third appendix, including a portion of one that took place in Arizona’s Maricopa County, where Trump and his cohorts peddled a fake elector scheme. Other transcripts come straight from political speeches Trump gave, including one on Jan. 4, 2021, when he endorsed Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue before a Georgia runoff election. Trump spent much of that rally talking about his own reelection campaign and claiming the presidential vote had been rigged.

[...] Volume IV contains information that is mostly already in the public record and was obtained through the House Jan. 6 committee. Much of this 384-page document is redacted and it doesn’t offer much new to pore over. There are letters and emails already on the record about the strategy to advance fake electors as well as Pence’s letter issued on Jan. 6, 2021, stating that he did not have unilateral authority to determine which electoral slates should be counted. It also includes a transcript of a town hall from May 2023 in which Trump defended his remarks made at the rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, and denied telling people to march to the Capitol that day. The next big deadline Trump must meet in the election subversion case arrives Nov. 7, when he must reply to the 165-page immunity brief special counsel Jack Smith filed on Oct. 2. When he does, it is expected that Trump’s lawyers will emphasize that Trump genuinely believed there was widespread voter fraud and that he acted with the interest of the nation first to reverse his defeat.

[...] The Supreme Court’s ruling granted presidents absolute immunity for their core acts and “presumptive” immunity for all other official acts. But actions outside of core acts are not given this protection.

On Friday, more January 6th-related evidence that Insurrection-Inciter Donald Trump and his allies tried to keep from being revealed came out in the open in a 4-part appendix totaling more than 1,800 pages by Judge Tanya Chutkan.

See Also:

AP, via The Guardian: Judge in Trump election interference case unseals trove of documents

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Federal investigators found one additional document with classified markings during a search of former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home on Friday.

The Justice Department conducted a search of Pence’s home roughly three weeks after his attorney notified the National Archives that they had discovered about a dozen documents with classified markings there. The search was conducted in cooperation with Pence’s team, and it lasted roughly five hours.

Devin O’Malley, a Pence adviser, said investigators removed “one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the [former] Vice President’s counsel.”

“The [former] Vice President has directed his legal team to continue its cooperation with appropriate authorities and to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter,” O’Malley said in a statement.

Pence was not present for the search on Friday, but a member of his legal team was. The former Vice President and former Second Lady Karen Pence had traveled to the West Coast for the births of their second and third grandchildren.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) was given unrestricted access to Pence’s home, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The scope of the search included documents with classified markings or potentially classified materials, as well as documents the DOJ believed might be original Presidential Record Act documents. Former presidents and vice presidents are required to turn over materials to the National Archives for proper storage, though they are able to request copies of certain documents.

The terms of the search were the same as the ones applied to the search of President Biden’s home in Delaware and his old office in Washington, D.C., a person familiar told The Hill.

Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, had notified the National Archives on Jan. 18 that a small number of documents with classified markings were found at the former vice president’s Indiana home. Pence was not aware that the documents were in his home, Jacob said.

Officials had searched Pence’s home for classified documents out of an abundance of caution after sensitive government materials were found at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del., and his office while he worked at the Penn-Biden Center in D.C.

The Pence documents were turned over to federal authorities the next day, along with two other boxes with copies of administration records, Jacob said.

Documents were found at Biden’s old office in November and at his home in December from his time as Vice President. While the White House quickly alerted the National Archives and Justice Department, neither discovery was disclosed to the public until they were reported in the media.

Former President Trump was also found to have taken dozens of classified documents to his Florida estate upon leaving office in 2021. The FBI searched his home last August to recover those materials after months of attempting to get them back.

In response to the findings at Biden’s and Trump’s homes, Pence had said he did not take any classified material with him upon leaving office. Days after the discovery at his Indiana home, Pence said “mistakes were made” while packing up materials from his time as Vice President, and he vowed to cooperate with federal officials on the matter.

Pence is mulling a potential 2024 presidential bid, making regular trips to early voting states including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

[misfitwashere]

Vance and the future of the anti-democracy movement 

Vance has been anointed its future leader

ROBERT REICH

OCT 3

Trump, Vance, Thiel 

Friends,

JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, will almost certainly be the Republican presidential candidate in 2028, regardless of whether Trump wins in November.

But who is JD Vance, really? An opportunist chameleon who once viewed Donald Trump as “Hitler” and is now his pit bull? 

Or does Vance have an agenda over and above mere political ambition?

In one of the most important exchanges of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Vance refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election, and he downplayed the violent events of January 6, 2021. Vance also declined to rule out challenging the outcome of the upcoming election even if votes were certified by every state leader as legitimate.

Trump picked Vance for his vice president because Vance publicly stated he’d do what Mike Pence refused to do: overturn democracy and place America under MAGA control.

In response to a question ABC’s George Stephanopoulos put to Vance last February — “Had you been vice president on January 6th, would you have certified the election results?” — Vance said:

“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and so many others that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there.”

In 2020, Vance alleged that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” In 2022, he suggested that Democrats were attempting to “transform the electorate” amid an immigrant “invasion.”

Echoing the so-called “great replacement theory,” Vance told voters, “You’re talking about a shift in the democratic makeup of this country that would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again.”

In contrast to Trump, who has no ideology except accumulating power and wealth for himself and taking revenge on those who would deny them to him, Vance does have an ideology. He’s the emerging leader of the anti-democracy movement in America.

Vance would never have become a senator from Ohio in 2022 were it not for billionaire tech financier Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s election — a major portion of all the funds that went into Vance’s race.

Thiel knew what he was buying. Vance had worked for Thiel’s California venture capital firm before running for the Senate and was part of Thiel’s libertarian community of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.

Because Thiel had been a major funder of Trump’s 2016 presidential run, he had significant influence with the former president when urging Trump to pick Vance for his vice president.

Why has Thiel been such a strong sponsor of Vance? Because Thiel sees in his protege a future leader of a political movement to turn America away from democracy. “For Peter,” said one of the people familiar with his thinking, “Vance is a generational bet.”

Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.

That’s the point. Thiel and Vance — along with Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Blake Masters, tech entrepreneur David Sacks, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, Sequoia Capital’s Doug Leone, blogger Curtis Yarvin, and others in the anti-democracy movement — believe that the only way true libertarians can win in America is for a Caesar-like figure to wrest power from the American establishment and install a monarchical regime, run like a startup.

Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being the intellectual godfather of the anti-democracy movement. He has written that real political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream press, whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding social order.

In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful; they should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.

How to achieve Yarvin’s vision? The first step, as Vance offered in a 2021 podcast, is to replace “every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state … with our people. And when the courts stop you, stand before the country, and say—” as did Andrew Jackson — that “the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”

Vance has been anointed by Thiel and the rest of the anti-democracy movement as the post-Trump president, tasked with replacing the American establishment with an authoritarian regime.

Make no mistake: The foundation for America’s first true anti-democracy president is being laid right now. 

[thesinglesjukebox]

JO1 - "LOVE SEEKER"

That's pronounced "jay-oh-one," not "joy" as today's editor believed until just a minute ago...

[5.30]

Taylor Alatorre: The question of whether a Japanese band can make K-pop music brings to mind tedious online arguments about whether things like Code Lyoko and RWBY can properly be considered anime. Maybe it's just my paternalistic Yankee mindset that assigns any sort of importance to this question -- let a hundred NCTs bloom if that's what today’s Japanese audiences really want from their idols. It should be possible to make a corporate workaround to cultural import restrictions sound sexier or at least less constipated than this, though. [4]

Isabel Cole: Infectiously effusive, with some great rhythmic touches slinking, clicking, and banging away throughout, keeping things feeling busy but never crowded, like a party with exactly the right amount of guests. The vocals commit so energetically that the bits that could feel corny just feel fun, a big silly game we're all invited to join. [9]

Nortey Dowuona: It feels inert. I've played it three times and am listening to it now, one of the boys is sanging his ass off, and it feels like a fan circling behind me. [4]

Jonathan Bradley: What if "Can't Stop the Feeling" had a "Can't Stop the Feeling"? [4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: It’s not these guys’ fault, really -- boy bands have been putting out lite funk since the dawn of funk. But at this point this style sounds less like music and more like cosmic background radiation, a wallpaper of sound that I associate more with podcast ad bumpers and other forms of strictly functional music than anything worthy of review. [3]

TA Inskeep: A smart, absurdly catchy three minutes that mashes at least four songs together with live-sounding drums, crossing both pure pop and pop-rock, and ends up sounding like a sibling to peak-era One Direction.  [7]

Alfred Soto: The rhythm guitars and percussive instruments signify "funk," but "Love Seeker" is as funky as Mike Pence. Play "Love Seeker" between a couple of, say, Harry Styles' fast ones from his last album and it makes sense. Brief, bright, banal -- solid pop. [7]

Aaron Bergstrom: As much as I try to fight it, I'm still a sucker for a clickbait-y headline, and "Why Do Animals Keep Evolving into Crabs?" really scratched that itch for a science-illiterate lit major. (The answer is something called "carcinization.") As far as the more pressing question, "Why Do Different Genres Keep Evolving Into 'Uptown Funk'?", I'm not sure if science has cracked that one yet. [5]

Katherine St. Asaph: I can't tell whether this is pastiching the same funk and new jack swing Bruno Mars did, or skipping a step and just pastiching Bruno Mars instead. The charms are similar. [6]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: I really want to give this a higher score because the delivery is so suave, but I can’t when the first thing I intuit from the beat is buying cars for my local Toyota-thon.  [4]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[beardedmrbean]

The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday morning amid the ongoing classified documents investigation, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

A third source familiar with the matter said no warrant was involved and the search was consensual. It is unclear whether FBI agents were looking for something they know about or if it was broad search for more classified documents. 

Biden's personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said in a statement that the Department of Justice was conducting the search with Biden's full support and cooperation.

"Under DOJ’s standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate," Bauer said. "The search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate. We will have further information at the conclusion of today’s search.”

Documents with classified markings were found earlier in Biden’s Wilmington residence and a Washington think tank office, but Bauer and the White House said earlier this month that no classified documents were found at the president's beach house.

The National Archives, which is responsible for retaining presidential records, declined to comment on the search of the president’s Rehoboth home. 

The FBI previously searched the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in mid-November after classified documents were discovered there, NBC News reported Tuesday.

News of the FBI's search of Biden's beach house comes as former President Donald Trump has been under investigation after classified documents were found at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. FBI agents executed a search at Trump's Florida estate last year, and found more than 100 classified documents, including some marked top secret. Last December, two more documents with classified markings were found at a Florida storage facility not far from Mar-a-Lago and were turned over to the FBI.

A “small number” of classified documents were also discovered last month at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, the former vice president’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, said in a letter sent to the National Archives. Pence had asked “outside counsel” to look for records bearing classified markings, according to Jacob.

Reacting to news of the FBI's search of Biden's beach home, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it’s good that the president is cooperating with the inquiry.

“I’m sure that he says, ‘Hey, everything I have is fair game.’ I think that’s very open, very honest. And that’s great,” Manchin said. “I don’t think there’s any resistance, is there? I would think, if anything, he’d probably encourage it to be done.”

Asked about the search of Biden’s home for classified documents, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said the first priority must be to “make sure that they don’t put this country at risk.”

“The Intel Committee at a minimum should know what’s in those documents — not just Biden’s documents but Pence’s documents, Trump’s documents,” Tester said Wednesday.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said Wednesday that he’s working with ranking member Jamie Raskin, R-Md., about a bipartisan bill to overhaul the system involving classified documents for former White House officeholders.

Comer said he wants “a set pattern for how documents” leave the president and vice president’s offices as they enter private life, and a way to tackle over-classification, in part by revamping the governmental process for those decisions.

Comer asked the White House last month for the release of visitors logs from Biden’s home in Delaware. The White House Counsel’s Office said it is reviewing Comer’s request related to Biden’s handling to classified documents and signaled it plans to cooperate to an extent.

Raskin on Sunday demanded the Secret Service provide information about visitors to Trump’s and Pence’s personal residences since they left office in light of the “mishandling of sensitive, highly classified documents.” In a news release, Raskin described the request as “similar” to the requests by Comer last month focusing on classified documents discovered at Biden’s home in Wilmington.

[collapsedsquid]

OK not George W Bush but I’m assuming they’ll get there.

[mariacallous]

The House January 6 select committee is considering a criminal referral to the justice department against Donald Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States on the recommendation of a special subcommittee, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The recommendations on the former president – made by the subcommittee examining referrals – were based on renewed examinations of the evidence that indicated Trump’s attempts to impede the certification of the 2020 election results amounted to potential crimes.

The select committee could pursue additional criminal referrals for Trump and others, given the subcommittee raised the obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud statutes among a range of options, including insurrection, and discussions about referrals continued on Thursday, said the sources.

The referrals could also largely be symbolic since Congress has no ability to compel prosecutions by the justice department, which has increasingly ramped up its own investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and subpoenaed top aides to appear before federal grand juries.

The recommendations presage a moment of high political drama next Monday, when the full panel will vote publicly to adopt its final report and formally decide on making referrals, and increase pressure on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to seek charges over January 6.

Trump could be referred for obstruction of an official proceeding, the subcommittee is said to have concluded, because he attempted to impede the certification and did so with a “consciousness of wrongdoing” – as the panel has previously interpreted the intent threshold.

The former president was seen to have met the elements of the offense since he relentlessly pressured Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral college votes for Joe Biden, despite knowing he had lost the election and had been told the plan was illegal.

Trump could also be referred for conspiracy to defraud the United States, the subcommittee suggested, arguing the former president violated the statute that prohibits entering into an agreement to obstruct a lawful function of government by dishonest means.

The conspiracy charge was seen to be broadly applicable because Trump’s agreement with key lawyers – and potentially even the rioters – did not need to be overt, while the plan to have Pence reject Biden slates of electors with Trump slates that did not exist was deceitful.

The discussions about referring Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud appeared to build upon the major win for the panel in May, when a federal judge found that Trump and the lawyer John Eastman likely engaged in felonies in trying to subvert the 2020 election.

In the ruling, US district court judge David Carter in California ruled that Trump and Eastman had concocted a “coup in search of a legal theory” and ordered Eastman to turn over his most sensitive emails to the investigation, citing the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.

The emails later showed that Eastman had admitted that he knew that having Pence interrupt the January 6 certification was illegal – and yet urged Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob that the then-vice president should move ahead with the plot anyway.

The panel may not adopt all of the options presented by the subcommittee – it also suggested civil referrals to the House ethics committee for GOP congressmen and the disbarment of some Trump lawyers, among a number of options, though a witness tampering referral for Trump is no longer under consideration.

But members on the select committee have resolved to suggest criminal and civil charges to some degree, and any referral letters would be accompanied by supporting evidence not dissimilar to prosecution memorandums that are routinely drawn up by the justice department, one of the sources said. A spokesman for the select committee declined to comment. Regardless of how the panel proceeds against Trump, the intention to make criminal referrals against the former president has been practically an open secret for months as its members have used the issue of potential criminality to reinforce the seriousness of Trump’s conduct.

The recommendations from the subcommittee – led by congressman Jamie Raskin and comprised of vice-chair Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren, all members with a legal background – follow internal discussions for nearly a year that Trump committed crimes in seeking to nullify his defeat. Even before the select committee filed its civil suit to Carter, Cheney read aloud parts of the the obstruction statute at a public business meeting last December. And then throughout public hearings in the summer, the panel detailed their findings like prosecutors, treating the public like a jury at trial. If the members decide to move forward with criminal referrals against Trump in particular – essentially a letter informing the justice department they uncovered evidence of crimes – they would be creating a roadmap for a prosecution put together by the select committee’s top lawyers. The select committee’s investigation has been principally driven by color-coded teams of investigative lawyers, many of whom have previously worked as federal prosecutors, conducting more than 1,000 witness interviews and reviewing documents and communications from Trump’s confidantes. Still, the justice department has no obligation to take up any criminal referrals and, at this stage, could have a better perspective about the strength of criminal charges as it escalates its own January 6 inquiries with an investigative arsenal far more potent than possessed by Congress.

In recent months, an increasing number of top Trump advisors and election officials in states where Trump tried to nullify his defeat have been subpoenaed to testify before an increasing number of federal grand juries in Washington hearing evidence about events connected to the Capitol attack. The recent subpoenas to election officials have demanded any and all communications involving Trump and the Trump campaign from June 2020 to January 2021, as part of the investigations into Trump’s so-called fake electors scheme, according to two subpoenas reviewed by the Guardian.

[zkziz]

Donna Zeccero (US), Sarah Louise Heath (US), Michelle Obama (US), Hillary Clinton (US), Joe Biden (US), Mike Pence (US), Ronna (US), Anita’s family member (US), Zoe Saldan (SA), John (US), Emanuel Macron (FR) Melonech (FR), Justin Trudeau (CA), Salman Bin Abdul Aziz (SA), Sahle Work Zewde (ET), Suluhu (TZ), Giorgia Meloni (IT), Katerina S. (GR), Recep Tyep Erdogan (TR), Mahamat Idriss Deby (TD), Saleh Kabzabo (TD), Barham Sali (IQ), Mohammad Bagheri from chief of staff of armed force (IR), Aiatullah Ali Khameni (IR), Iran’s first vice president Mohammed Mokhber to acting president (IR), Reformist (IR), Bensen (US), Kimberly Zieselman (SA), Geraldine Roman Batista (PH), San Marino (), Kasem J. K. (KZ), Assefa Bhutto Zardari (PK), Asif Ali Zardari (PK), Mulana Fazl (PK), National Party (AU), NZ, Rome (LK), Jacquline Fernandez (LK), XI Xing Ping (CN), Basar Al Asad (SY), Kim Jongun (Korea), Korea, Russia, Sauth Africa K., Z. Sauth Africa, Libea, Lebanon, Elon Mask (US), Ronald Wayne (US), Jawed Karim (US), Sabina Yasmin Khan (US, Zehet (AT), Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Elizabeth Warren (US), Jeff Bezos (US), Jacquelin Mars (US), Literally Anybody Ealse (US), SISI (EG), Palestine, A K Faiyazul Huq Razu Independent (BD), Syed Magrub Morshed (BD) Independent, KPP. Dr. Mohammed Yunus’s wife (US), Dr. Mohammed Yunus (BD), Ursula Von Der Leyen (EC).

US Presidential candidate for a period, at present from independent.

Generation

Paris Jackson (Michael). (US)

MARS (NZ, US)

Justin Bieber (Anti of St. Jesus killing) (CA)

Taylor Swift (but not British) (US)

Jacob Taylor (AU)

Jihad Ward (US)

Ronna’s daughter (US)

Alexandra Daddario Anna (US)

Sammy (NZ)

Abbie Cornish (AU)

Kimberly Zieselman (US)

Mike Johnson (US)

Amine Gülşe (TR)

Zknowledge

Our lost good sight

Ivana (US)

[influencermagazineuk]

Carlsberg to Acquire Britvic in $4 Billion Deal Following Improved Offer

Soft drinks maker Britvic has agreed to a sweetened takeover bid of £3.28 billion ($4.2 billion) from Carlsberg, the companies announced Monday. The deal offers 1,290 pence per share for Britvic, with a small dividend bringing the total to 1,315 pence per share for shareholders. In June, Britvic had rejected a previous cash offer from Carlsberg of 1,250 pence per share, citing undervaluation of the company’s current and future prospects. Carlsberg’s initial offer in early June was even lower at 1,200 pence per share. Ian Durant, Britvic’s non-executive chair, expressed optimism about the proposed deal, highlighting the creation of an expanded international group well-positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities in various beverage sectors. Durant also underscored the strategic value of Carlsberg’s partnership with PepsiCo, enhancing the combined group’s market position. Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the synergy between Britvic’s premium soft drinks portfolio and Carlsberg’s robust beer offerings and distribution capabilities across the UK and Western Europe. Central to the agreement is Britvic’s role as a key bottler and distributor of PepsiCo brands in the UK and Ireland. Earlier this year, Carlsberg and PepsiCo waived a contractual “change of control clause,” facilitating the transaction. Read the full article

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

One evening whilst I had nothing better to entertain myself with than taking laudanum, I received a curious note from my dear friend, Mr. John W-----.

As I was already too deep in my opium haze to trust my eyes, I bid my servant read it aloud, and what he said was more than enough to rouse me momentarily from my languor:

“Dear Jacob,

“My great-uncle who I never met, but who named me executor in his will, strictly ordered this packet of letters to be burnt without being opened in the event of his death. It turns out the old bastard was in the red, however, and now I’m on the hook for settling up with his creditors. Please consider this a cordial invitation to bring everyone you know around to my place Friday night, where I’ll be doing a dramatized reading of the packet’s contents for five pence a head.

“I know you've been hitting the hashish like a fiend lately, so don't tell me you haven't got the dough. Given who he owed money to, I can practically guarantee anything he was too ashamed of to have read after he'd kicked it will be worth the price of admission.”

As instructed, I went to John's on Friday night and was regaled with a tale so hair-raising that I shudder to think of it to this day. Having raised a princely sum and paid off his great-uncle's creditors, my dear friend John W----- did dutifully burn the letters, and the documentary evidence in support of what I shall soon relate passed from this mortal coil for all time.

It was a real corker, though, so it would be a shame if all those absent that night should be forever precluded from knowing the story, and John W----- didn't say we couldn't tell anyone else about it...

It's often been proposed that diary-style epistolary fiction is the historical literary equivalent of the "found footage" film, but I've gotta believe that pretending your story that you wrote is merely your translation of an historical document that you uncovered is at least in the same ballpark.

[meganlynnhostetler]

I’m so glad I waited for you. Happy birthday, I love you. ♥️

📸 Instagram: @meganlynnhostetler

[almaqead]

"The Liars." From Surah 10, Surah Yunus, "The Dove."

It is now very clear a bunch of Mormons took a cruise ship made in China, armed it with conventional and kinetic weapons and lasers, outfitted it with a Russian attack sub, had it followed by escorts decorated with "black and green and orange lights", and were caught in the act in Baltimore Harbor. Hopefully they are all dead or dying inside their container vessels.

Then they put head towels on, started banging marching band percussion instruments and behaving violently on college campuses all around the world. They don't fit in, they don't belong. They like to pretend they do, but it's not quite twerking.

These are the same persons who attacked Israel on October 7 pretending to be Muslims, the same persons who are aligned with Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, Mike Pence, George Bush and buddies at Liberty University, Christian Broadcasting Network and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And they are trying to take another swing at the White House once again.

None of these are affiliated with the Mosque, they are not Muslim, nor have they ever lived in Palestine. They are all devils and demoniacs and they deserve to die for what they have done.

They believe a sickening story about a clipper ship in 600 BCE that they think was blown across the continents and the oceans to the New World, where Jesus Christ appeared a second time to discuss their eventual return to Israel to conquer it.

This they are trying to do now, by hiding behind Islam as an excuse and the US Government has given them wide lattitude to do it: Donald Trump, their chief enabler yet lives, even after the slaughter and kidnapping of thousands of Jews on October 7.

Just look at the deep delusions these people are under:

These same highly organized raisinettes rape, murder, and steal without compunction, and are now plotting to pull the heist of humanity and steal Israel away from the Jews and Muslims that currently live there, and if Donald Trump is allowed to survive and make it into the White House again, they very well might be able to do it. They got very close this time...but what do they have planned next? There are 17 million of them, way more than even Hitler's army. And you all know how friendly Trump is with Vladimir Putin who is friendly with the Iranians.

The Quran says such liars and corruptors must be exterminated:

10: 66-70:

Certainly to Allah ˹alone˺ belong all those in the heavens and all those on the earth. And what do those who associate others with Allah really follow? They follow nothing but assumptions and do nothing but lie.

He is the One Who has made the night for you to rest in and the day bright. Surely in this are signs for people who listen.

They1 say, “Allah has offspring.”2 Glory be to Him! He is the Self-Sufficient. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. You have no proof of this! Do you say about Allah what you do not know?

Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “Indeed, those who fabricate lies against Allah will never succeed.”

˹It is only˺ a brief enjoyment in this world, then to Us is their return, then We will make them taste the severe punishment for their disbelief.

Commentary:

The unholy alliance between the Mormons, the great liars, the Republicans, Russians and Iranians, and their tailfeathers called Hamas and Hezbollah must be incinerated as soon as possible. The Mormons think they were all born in Palestine in another lifetime, in a dream where Jesus Christ was made and they think God wants them to take it for themselves in the here and now. They are an illness, a disease which must not be allowed to quicken.

While we mess with this shit, the world is heaving, the oceans are swelling, and the air is thinning. Vladimir Putin, a hater of Muslims, and the Iranians, tormentors of Muslims, and Donald Trump and the rest have to pay for what they have done. The liars especially have to pay.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Indiana.

The classified documents were discovered at Pence’s new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession.

It is not yet clear what the documents are related to or their level of sensitivity or classification.

Pence’s team notified congressional leaders and relevant committees of the discovery on Tuesday.

Pence asked his lawyer with experience handling classified material to conduct the search of his home out of an abundance of caution. Sources said that the attorney, Matt Morgan, began going through four boxes stored at Pence’s house last week, finding a small number of documents with classified markings.

Pence’s lawyer immediately alerted the National Archives, the sources said. In turn, the Archives informed the Justice Department.

A lawyer for Pence told CNN that the FBI requested to pick up the documents with classified markings that evening, and Pence agreed. Agents from the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis picked up the documents from Pence’s home, the lawyer said.

On Monday, Pence’s legal team drove the boxes back to Washington, DC, and handed them over to the Archives to review the rest of the material for compliance with the Presidential Records Act.

In a letter to the National Archives obtained by CNN, Pence’s representative to the Archives Greg Jacob wrote that a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were inadvertently boxed and transported to the vice president’s home.

“Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” Jacob wrote. “Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”

The classified material was stored in boxes that first went to Pence’s temporary home in Virginia before they were moved to Indiana, according to the sources. The boxes were not in a secure area, but they were taped up and were not believed to have been opened since they were packed, according to Pence’s attorney. Once the classified documents were discovered, the sources said they were placed inside a safe located in the house.

Pence’s Washington, DC, advocacy group office was also searched, Pence’s lawyer said, and no classified material or other records covered by the Presidential Records Act was discovered.

The news about Pence come as special counsels investigate the handling of classified documents by both Biden and former President Donald Trump. The revelations also come amid speculation that Pence is readying for a run at the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

Since the FBI searched Trump’s home in Florida for classified material in August with a search warrant, Pence has said that he had not retained any classified material upon leaving office. “No, not to my knowledge,” he told The Associated Press in August.

In November, Pence was asked by ABC News at his Indiana home whether he had taken any classified documents from the White House.

“I did not,” Pence responded.

“Well, there’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area,” Pence continued. “But I will tell you that I believe there had to be many better ways to resolve that issue than executing a search warrant at the personal residence of a former president of the United States.”

BOXES PACKED IN VP RESIDENCE AND WHITE HOUSE

While Pence’s vice presidential office in general did a rigorous job while he was leaving office of sorting through and turning over any classified material and unclassified material covered by the Presidential Records Act, these classified documents appear to have inadvertently slipped through the process because most of the materials were packed up separately from the vice president’s residence, along with Pence’s personal papers, the sources told CNN.

The vice president’s residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington has a secure facility for handling classified material along with other security, and it would be common for classified documents to be there for the vice president to review.

Some of the boxes at Pence’s Indiana home were packed up from the vice president’s residence, while some came from the White House in the final days of the Trump administration, which included last-minute things that did not go through the process the rest of Pence’s documents did.

The discovery of classified documents in Pence’s residence marks the third time in recent history in which a president or vice president has inappropriately possessed classified material after leaving office. Both Biden and Trump are now being investigated by separate special counsels for their handling of classified materials.

Sources familiar with the process say Pence’s discovery of classified documents after the Trump and Biden controversies would suggest a more systemic problem related to classified material and the Presidential Records Act, which requires official records from the White House to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of an administration.

On Friday, the FBI searched Biden’s Wilmington residence for additional classified material, an unprecedented search of a sitting president’s home that turned up six additional items containing classified markings. The search was conducted after Biden’s lawyers discovered classified material in Wilmington following the initial discovery of classified documents at Biden’s private think office in November.

Biden’s attorneys say they are fully cooperating with the Justice Department, seeking to draw a distinction from the Trump investigation.

Tuesday’s development was welcome news for Biden administration officials and allies. As one senior administration official put it: “It turns down the temperature on this being a Biden-only story.”

One hope, this official said, is that the discovery of classified documents at Pence’s home will help to underscore that Biden aides were not alone in making the mistake of packing up classified documents that should have been turned over to the Archives.

The development could also be used by the White House, the official said, to emphasize the importance of how the situation was handled once the classified documents were discovered.

Administration officials have maintained that lawyers working for the president did the right thing by immediately informing the Archives as soon as classified documents were first found in early November, drawing the distinction between the Biden legal team’s handling of the matter and the actions of Trump and his team.

The FBI obtained a search warrant to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August. Federal investigators took that step because they believed Trump had not turned over all classified material despite a subpoena and were concerned records at Mar-a-Lago were being moved around.

Still, Trump’s legal team also viewed the Pence development as positive for the former president, according to a source familiar with the matter. While the circumstances are different in each case, members of his legal team believe the developments will make it harder for prosecutors to justify bringing criminal charges against any of them, the source said.

“They are all now linked in a way,” the source said, referring to Pence, Biden and Trump.

Last week, Pence told Larry Kudlow in a Fox Business interview that he received the President’s Daily Brief at the Vice President’s residence.

“I’d rise early. I’d go to the safe where my military aide would place those classified materials. I’d pull them out, review them,” Pence said. “I’d receive a presentation to them and then, frankly, more often than not Larry, I would simply return them back to the file that I’d received them in. They went in commonly into what was called a burn bag that my military aide would gather and then destroy those classified materials—same goes in materials that I would receive at the White House.”

CONGRESSIONAL REACTION

Congressional leaders in both parties were stunned about the new revelations that Pence was also in possession of classified records at his home.

“I don’t understand this,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.

“The bottom line is I don’t know how this happened, we need to get to the bottom of it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “I don’t believe for a minute that Mike Pence is trying to intentionally compromise national security. But clearly we’ve got a problem here.”

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is investigating Biden’s classified documents, said in a statement that Pence reached out to him about the classified documents found at his home.

“He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter,” said Comer, adding that Pence’s transparency “stands in stark contrast” to the Biden administration’s response to Congress over the classified documents. Comer’s statement did not mention Trump’s classified documents.

The former president, however, came to Pence’s defense on Tuesday. “Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!” Trump posted on his social media site.

[rutaalrocknoticias]

Joana Serrat publica el segundo avance de su nuevo álbum, la emocionante "Are You Still Here?"

La aclamada cantautora catalana Joana Serrat continúa desgranando algunas de las canciones que conformarán su nuevo álbum "BIG WAVE" -que verá la luz el 7 de junio-, y publica un segundo avance de este, una pieza altamente emocional titulada  "Are You Still Here?".

Joana Serrat explica que "mi abuela había fallecido hacía poco. Recuerdo comenzar a tocar una melodía lenta con el piano. A veces, cuando empiezo a tocar una canción nueva, aunque no tenga ningún verso, me emociono con el fraseo. Es lo que pasó esta vez. Sabía que le estaba escribiendo a ella. Al cabo de unos días empecé a grabar la canción en mi estudio casero y le cambié el ritmo, acelerándola. Mi abuela era una mujer muy alegre y quería añadir un poco de su esencia en la composición. Sé que la letra puede parecer infantil pero sencillamente dejé que mi niña interior cantase, sin juzgarme por ello. Simplemente le pido que continúe a mi lado. Rosa era una mujer única y maravillosa con quién tenía una conexión muy especial. Nací el mismo día que ella, uno de los regalos más bonitos que me ha dado la vida." 

"Are You Still Here?", como el resto del álbum, se ha grabado en los estudios The Echo Lab (Texas), un territorio geográficamente familiar para Serrat, ya que allí grabó sus dos discos anteriores: "Dripping Springs" (2019) y "Hardcore From The Heart" (21). Pero, en esta ocasión, lo ha llevado a cabo con un productor y mezclador nuevo a bordo: Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, John Grant).

Además, en "Are You Still Here?" colaboran el coproductor y guitarrista Joey McClellan (Midlake, Rufus Wainwright, John Grant), el batería McKenzie Smith (St Vincent, Sharon Van Etten), el flautista Jesse Chandler (Mercury Rev, Midlake, Beth Orton), el teclista Evan Jacobs (Israel Nash, Alejandro Escovedo) y el bajista Scott Lee (Nikki Lane, Josh T. Pearson).

El single extraído de "BIG WAVE" que precedió a esta nueva canción es el poderoso "The Cord".

La Pre-Compra del "BIG WAVE" ya está disponible en vinilo, CD y digital de alta definición a través del Bandcamp de Great Canyon Records.

[bookoformon]

3 Nephi, Chapter 4. Part 3: "Ticklish."

The Nephites have had enough. After a letter is sent by the leader of the Gadianton Robbers, "the liars" stating it would just be best if everyone played in the kiddie pool together, the leader of the Nephites musters an army and starts hacking away at them.

Like a 19th Century Hari Krishna, the Prophet says it is vital to pursue every last person that offended and kill them. Where pedophiles are concerned this is generally the rule as they create more pedophiles from the children they molest, around 30-40% of the time, so interupting the cycle is essential for curbing future cases of child sex abuse.

The presence of a large number of politicians like Mitt Romney, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, Mike Johnson, Lindsey Graham, Roger Wicker, Thom Massie, Brett Kavanaugh, etc. who have histories of engaging in intercourse with minors is disturbing therefore because it means law enforcement is not able to prevent future cases as it would in instances where ordinary citizens are involved. This we have seen in the utter complacency other Republicans and the BIden Administration have shown towards the nest in order for politics as usual in Washington to proceed.

It has to be stopped.

13 And it came to pass that Gidgiddoni גדגדוני, "ticklish" commanded that his armies should pursue them as far as the borders of the wilderness, and that they should not spare any that should fall into their hands by the way; and thus they did pursue them and did slay them, to the borders of the wilderness, even until they had fulfilled the commandment of Gidgiddoni "the path of wickedness".

14 And it came to pass that Giddianhi, who had stood and fought with boldness, was pursued as he fled; and being weary because of his much fighting he was overtaken and slain. And thus was the end of Giddianhi the robber.

15 And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites did return again to their place of security. And it came to pass that this nineteenth year did pass away, and the robbers did not come again to battle; neither did they come again in the twentieth year.

16 And in the twenty and first year they did not come up to battle, but they came up on all sides to lay siege round about the people of Nephi; for they did suppose that if they should cut off the people of Nephi from their lands, and should hem them in on every side, and if they should cut them off from all their outward privileges, that they could cause them to yield themselves up according to their wishes.

17 Now they had appointed unto themselves another leader, whose name was Zemnarihah זמנריהח, "the ever available lions"; therefore it was Zemnarihah that did cause that this siege should take place.

18 But behold, this was an advantage to the Nephites; for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites, because of their much provision which they had laid up in store,

19 And because of the scantiness of provisions among the robbers; for behold, they had nothing save it were meat for their subsistence, which meat they did obtain in the wilderness;

20 And it came to pass that the awild game became scarce in the wilderness insomuch that the robbers were about to perish with hunger.

21 And the Nephites were continually marching out by day and by night, and falling upon their armies, and cutting them off by thousands and by tens of thousands.

The word ticklish has another term in Hebrew, dagdegan which means "to multiply the cereal crop."

"The verb דגה (daga) means to multiply or increase, but as such it's used only once in the Bible. In Genesis 48:16, Jacob blesses Ephraim, Manasseh and Joseph, and says: "May they increase into a multitude in the midst of the earth" (with which he probably meant the center of prominence). The derivatives of this root are much more common:

The root דגן (dgn) isn't used as verb in the Bible and there is considerable doubt whether it actually existed. The nineteenth century linguists Justus Olshausen and Wilhelm Gesenius proposed that the following noun derived from דגה (daga) and essentially reflects multitudinousness, as does דג (dag), meaning fish.

The masculine noun דגן (dagan), denotes cereal crop in general. This word is used most often to express the abundance of grain or corn. It was tithed (Numbers 18:12).

An abundance of it was a blessing (Deuteronomy 7:13, Ezekiel 36:29) and a shortage of it came by curse (Hosea 2:11, Joel 1:10). At times there was so much of it that storehouses were required (2 Chronicles 31:5)."

The use of the word here in 3 Nephi as the name of a leader of a counteroffensive against the pedophiles and election thieves means a groundswell of educated persons and their offspring have to take up the burden of enlightening society. Children must not be sexually active with adults.

The Torah and Old Testament begin with the most famous stricture against this there is. God tells Adam and Even they must not be sexually active until they grow up.

Oversexed children are not subject to proper conditions for typical development and while there are exceptions, lack advantages of chidlren that develop typically.

3 Nephi adds the process was iterative, and it is. Every time a pedophile crops up, he she or they must be cut down, hence the change from a ticklish leader to Zemnarihah, "the ever present lions."

Eventually the "robbers", robbers of innocence, time thieves for us all, began to cannibalize themselves and lacking popularity and futher numbers eventually died out. This is what is meant by verse 19. We must do the same, see also v. 21. "They continually marched, day by day."

Once the Republican Party is made to pay for all the evil it has done and is disbanded, a decision not everyone will completely understand, the world will recover and move on.

No one will want to listen to the bickering of a bunch of pedophile porn addicts that cheat in federal elections and use hate speech against just about every other kind of person. The arguments will easy to quell, especially after their antics regarding the urgent needs of the people of Ukraine and Israel. These people are simply no good.

The Values in Gematria found in the above passages are:

v 15: Year 19-20 after the BOC: The Value in Gematria is 8042, חאֶפֶסדב, hafesdev, "the Zero Dove."

A dove with zero height is a total loser. Without proper rearing, the dove will not learn to fly, and if it cannot fly, it will not attain to its proper place in nature. This is what happens to the child victims of incest and sex abuse. I raised one I adopted myself. Trust me it's not pretty.

v. 16: Year 21 after the BOC: The Value in Gematria is 10365, יגו‎‎ה, yoga, "yoking" to one's most principaled self is indeed the way individuals and cultures surpass incidents of rampant corruption in their governments. Shame on the FBI and Department of Justice and White House for hesitating one second upon discovery cabinet level officials, federal lawmakers and judges were engaging in sexual abuses of little kids and teenagers.

When I turned them all in, the police called and said, "Wellll some of them we can do something about, but not most of them."

Now it has been learned these same persons helped Hamas attack Israel. If only the law had done its duty, much sadness, sorrow and destruction that is still scarring this planet could have been avoided.

v. 18: The verse mentions provisions, a term from the Torah we need to decrypt, along with its context. The Value in Gematria is 12464, יב‎דו‎ד, David, "persistent beauty."

I don't know what you're putting in your crack pipe, boo, but persistent beauty isn't what I see happening all around me.

Maybe next year? For now, there's too much meat in the wilderness. Just ask the Ukrainians...

v. 19: The Value in Gematria is 9981, טטחא, tatha, "She was wrong, teach the Counsel."

v. 20: The Value in Gematria is 7679, ז‎ו‎ז‎ט, zozt, "that which signs or marks."

Marks are found on persons who are protected by God.

"The L-rd will pass to smite the Egyptians, and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and the L-rd will pass over the entrance, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to smite [you]" (Ex. 12:23)

Law abiding persons, unlike the meat eaters in the wilderness should have nothing to fear from society. Should they start fearing the government or their fellow citizens, the righteous need to march:

v. 21: "They marched in the tens of thousands." The Value in Gematria is 8224, חבב‎‎ד, "a lover, habbed." habbed= end traditions of the guilty that are being protected that are debilitating the society.

hab= the hiding of the guilty

The verb חבה (haba) is probably the same as the previous verb, just spelled slightly different. It means to hide (Joshua 2:16, 1 Kings 22:25). This verb yields one derivative; the masculine noun חביון (hebyon), meaning a hiding (Habakkuk 3:4).

bed=

The curious noun κραββατος (krabbatos) describes a mat or make-shift mattress, apparently made from twigs and leaves, since it stems from the Macedonian word γραβος (grabos), meaning oak. This same Macedonian word also became the Greek noun γραβιον (grabion), which describes a torch made from a bundle of twigs. Where the Macedonians got this word from isn't clear, but it appears to be not Indo-European, or so say the experts.

Here at Abarim Publications we are of course shamelessly biased, but since everybody is guessing, here's our two cents worth: The Macedonian word is spelled with a single b but the Greek one has a double one.

That draws our attention to the Hebrew verb רבב (rabab), which speaks of being much or many, and especially many becoming one (many arrows, many rain drops, many instructions, many branches), which would perfectly describe our bundle or twigs.

The leading k can then be explained from the common Hebrew prefix כ (ke), meaning like. In Deuteronomy 32:2, Psalm 72:6 and Micah 5:7 appears the term כרביבים (krabybim), meaning "like showers" (literally: like the many).

Part of the pun would be that the familiar noun ραββι (rabbi), meaning rabbi, derives from this verb רבב (rabab), which suggests that the New Testament's familiar image of the paralyzed man upon his κραββατος (krabbatos) may be considered to represent the common Jewish population that's kept lame upon its debilitating rabbinical tradition (see Deuteronomy 21:22-23 and compare MATTHEW 23:23 to MATTHEW 13:32).

Also note that the name of the feast of Pesah (Passover), namely פסח (pesah), closely relates to the adjective פסח (piseah), lame or cripple."

Too many people depend on the efficient operations of the government to allow a bunch of cheaters and liars like the Republicans and Mormons to hold the world hostage. The scripture clearly forbids many of their behaviors and so does the law. There is likewise no requirement for mercy or understanding for persons that sexually abuse others regardless of their age. Zero tolerance and extreme prejudice is indicated whether the defendant is a civilian, the president, or a priest.

We seem to have lost our way and now all life on earth depends on our finding it again.