Bits and Pieces

There are 26 new foals playing on Assateague - well, actually, 25, since Bat Girl and her colt are at the Carnival Grounds on Chincoteague, keeping Randy company.  Randy herself looks much better, and Bay Girl is also doing well with all the grass and hay.  Bay Girl was looking pretty poor after she foaled Friday, so she and the baby were moved to an area where they can be looked after.  We've lost one foal so far this year - not quite sure why, but Lady and Prince's chestnut foal did not survive it's first 36 hours.  Since Randy aborted after her quicksand ordeal, and both Wild Island Orchid and Surf Queen died while pregnant (also from being trapped in quicksand), we'll have a few fewer foals that usual this July.  And, since we have only 26 on the ground now, it seems that the majority of the foals purchased at the Auction on 26 July will need to have the owners return in October for a fall pick-up, since the foals will be too young to wean from their moms.

   I had to laugh at three teen-aged boys.  On Sunday, the three of them (two aged 15, and one 16) stole a Jeep in Aurora and drove it up to Boulder to buy a cheap cell phone. They had contacted the owner, and the boys and the man met at the Bustop, the bar and stripper club on North Broadway.  The man passed the phone into the Jeep for the boys to look at; and the boys decided to drive away without paying for the phone.  The phone owner threw himself into the open window, and was hanging there by his waist.  The driver kept the Jeep going, and the third boy pulled a pistol out and placed the barrel on the phone owner's head.  The driver looked over at the gun, and was so distracted he ran the Jeep into a parked RTD bus.  The boys all jumped out of the car and ran away, having pushed the cell phone owner out of the window and onto the ground.  Police caught all of the boys and also found the phone and unlicensed gun.  The phone owner was treated at the hospital for cuts, scrapes and bruises, and released.

  I was so very happy to see that Don Blankenship lost his race in West Virginia.  Felons should NOT be allowed to run for office, period.

  And, of course, the idiot in the White House has decided to back out of the Iran Nuclear Treaty, just as he said he would during his campaign for President.  A lot of past Presidential advisers believe that this will be the first misstep that starts our country into a slippery slide into a full-out war in the Middle East again - just like Iraq...  That orange-painted anus is doing everything he can to completely annihilate all the good things that Obama and Clinton worked so hard for.  - I am still amazed at his dismantling of the EPA; especially since it was formed by Nixon.

  And, suddenly, all this information regarding unusually large payments made to Michael Cohen, the personal counsel (attorney) for the Chief Chimpanzee, is appearing on the scene.  Four $50,000 payments from AT&T; $500,000 from Columbus Nova, an investment firm with close to ties to Russian oligarch Victor Vekselberg (who is a close associate of Vladimir Putin); four payments of $99,980 each from Novartis Investments S.A.R. L., a part of Novartis pharmaceuticals; and a $150,000 payment from Korea Aerospace, all were paid to Essential Consultants, the shell company that Michael Cohen owns.  All in all, over $4,400,000.00 have been paid into, and out of Essential Consultants between September 2016 and April of 2018.  And, don't forget that Michael Cohen is one of the  Finance Chairmen for the Republican National Committee....  What exactly was all that money for?  Why did it get paid into a shell company?  Where did it go?  What was it spent on?  Something seems rotten in this information....

Landscapes

Brenner Pass, Italy

Ovan, Lake Alamut, northern Iran

Mount Ararat

Sognefjord, Norway

Another view of the Bastei Bridge, Germany

From the Same Romney Fund-Raiser:

I cringed when Romney made the gaffes he did when he visited Europe this summer at the beginning of the Olympics.  In this new video, Mitt Romney tells donors the Middle East will "remain an unsolved problem... and we kick the ball down the field".  The video is from the same event as a clip released on Monday, in which Mr Romney says almost half of Americans "believe that they are victims".
** The leak comes seven weeks before the US presidential election.**
The new footage was posted today (Tuesday) on the website of the liberal investigative magazine Mother Jones, which said it was taken at a fundraiser in May in Boca Raton, Florida.  Mr. Romney is shown saying that Palestinians are "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel".
"The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," he says, adding that "the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish".
   Mitt Romney's unguarded and undiplomatic remarks may reinforce the perception that he is an ingenue in the art of foreign affairs, with harsher views than he dare express in public. Still, what he has said is more likely to provoke reactions in the region he is talking about than at home, where many conservatives may share his views.

   It is still his suggestion that nearly half the American people he seeks to represent are losers living off the government, that will continue to resonate here. Again, it is about image - he has played into the hands of Democrats who want to portray him as rich and out of touch.

   It has been widely reported that there has been panic in his camp because of the post-convention Obama bump in the opinion polls. Under 50 days away from polling day, no candidate wants to be hastily refocusing their campaign amid a barrage of stories about catastrophic gaffes.

   In another clip, the former Massachusetts governor is shown discussing Iran's nuclear program, and warning that America itself could come under attack.  "If I were Iran - a crazed fanatic, I'd say let's get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we'll just say, 'Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we're going to let off a dirty bomb'."

   This person wants to lead our country?  Where all persons are created equal (except females)?  I'm sure the timing of the leak was considered closely by the folks at Mother Jones - and I must say they held their cards close to their chest for a good while.  Romney frightens me even more, now.