The News Buffet

Grab a plate and dig in my friends. The Crane’s Corner Virtual News Buffet is open. Remember, news knows no hours and doesn’t wear a mask. Help yourself to whatever news intrigues you, and feel free to share it with your friends. It appears the race is on. By 2024, will Donald Trump be living again in a big White House in DC or at another large federal facility. Like CLUB FED Lewisburg, Lompoc or Leavenworth With his hair newly dyed in what I’ll call an Apricots in Autumn shade, he spoke for well over an hour to Texas conservatives at the BIG C Pac festival of all things right, bragging about what he did as President, what he’ll do if he runs and wins in ‘24, and like OJ Simpson vowing to find the real killers, The Donald he insists was robbed by a cabal of crooked democrats, rigged voting machines, and the general national election fix crafted by the democrats with the convenient pandemic chaos as the fuel that fanned that wildfire. No one’s proven any of it, and Trump is loath to admit that he lost the election because while millions on the right love him, some in the right, most in the center and all on the left rank him on the popularity charts somewhere between Adolf Hitler and Richard Nixon. The view here is that Trump did some good things. He all but castrated the fat guy with the bad haircut in North Korea, bitch slapped Iran and stopped playing Daddy Warbucks to Nato and European Allies who knew Uncle Sam had their back against despots in other parts of the world. Trump’s enemy list should be topped by the name Donald Trump, whose ego compelled him to brag or insult daily in 160 characters until Twitter gave him a time out, right before the election. To his credit Trump got a co vid vaccine to the world in less than a year, and was making progress on immigration issues, which have exploded since he left. But Trump’s political enemies are legion, and they’re hell bent on tearing down his business empire, His top finance guy has been nailed and the word is, he’ll sing to save his own skin and I doubt that a control freak like Trump knew pretty much what went on, legal or not. Would tax fraud or ethical violations be enough to send him to jail, probably not, but the slightest felony conviction–even if it’s punished with a fine and probation makes it impossible to run in 24. And that may be good. Trump’s ego, his paranoia and his inability to talk about anything but his accomplishments, real or perceived, has worn a nation down. Others on the right, like Governor’s De Santis, Abbot and Noem are dependable conservative, but don’t carry the ego or personality baggage.

Then again, in politics, you never know, People who screw up badly or have no direct experience are rewarded for things that would have them fired or sued in the real world.

California’s Employment Development Department makes the DMV look like a Luxury Vacation destination run with the dependable efficiency of a high-priced Swiss Watch. During the pandemic thousands of newly pink slipped workers routinely failed to get through to the EDD’s phone lines or even get their claims in play by trying to register online. But murderers, rapists, swindlers and drug addicts had  no problem, pulling a jailhouse con that got them money for  nothing….They ripped off more than a billion dollars. Easier than robbing a bank, less dangerous than kidnapping. The woman who didn’t prevent it and didn’t stop it was Cal Employment Secretary Julie Su…who ought to be sued for dereliction of duty and pain of suffering for rightful recipients still looking for their entitled checks. Oh, Julie is out of a job–but wasn’t fired. She was kicked upstairs, amazingly she’s been confirmed as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor. So now the whole nation can share in her cluelessness.

Also in the news, what do you get when you cross Facebook Engineers, Dr. Frankenstein and a stroke victim left speechless by a severe stroke,

You get a man brought to tears. For the first time in the years, he can get the message in his mind out to an intended recipient without speaking. A Team of engineers implanted a device in the man’s brain that captures what he’s thinking and transfers the words to text. It’s not perfect. The words are limited and the accuracy is 70 percent at best. But think how it can ease the frustration of the once loquacious, left speechless by a stroke or other brain injury.

Yes, it probably could lead to some monstrous things if the technology got in the wrong hands, Kind of like ending home invasions by acquiring a pet tiger, there’s state of the art home security, a magnificent animal to behold, but if he misses a meal or just gets cranky, there’s no ap for that. You’re an entree.

Now This.