Surprisingly, Joker leads the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards. A total of 11 nominations were piled onto the contentious film about the Clown Prince of Crime, which is more than any other movie. I mean, I like the film but … probably not 11 nominations liked. You know? Anyway,  eight other movies were selected to compete for Best Picture including - 1917, Ford v Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, The Irishman, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood and Parasite. Three of those films, The Irishman, 1917 and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, received 10 nominations. 

I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees except for 1917 (but I’ll get to it, eventually) and my personal taste leans towards Little Women, a movie that I think is simply fantastic from beginning to end, but I suspect the night will belong to either Scorsese or Tarantino. Probably, Tarantino. 

As many pointed out there is a surprising (or maybe not) lack of women and people of color in the nominations. The two most glaring omissions are the lack of a Best Director nod for Greta Gerwig’s (Little Women) and the no nomination for Lupita Nyong'o for her devastating turn in Us. But, as I often say - the Academy didn’t bother asking my opinion. 

Last year the Oscar awards went hostless and the entire show was automated. At the time, people freaked out that the show was going to be a disaster. It wasn’t. And so this year the Oscars will once again go hostless. Which is fine. 

I have  yet to see all the major movies for several of the acting categories so I will refrain from offering further opinion. But I’m sure I’ll get around to that eventually.  Until then, the 92nd Academy Awards Ceremony will air on ABC on Sunday, February 9th. 

Here is a list of the complete nominees: 

BEST PICTURE

"Ford v Ferrari"

"The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Joker"

"Little Women"

"Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

"Marriage Story"

"Parasite"

"1917"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kathy Bates, "Richard Jewell"

Laura Dern, "Marriage Story"

Scarlett Johansson, "Jojo Rabbit"

Florence Pugh, "Little Women"

Margot Robbie, "Bombshell"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Tom Hanks, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Anthony Hopkins, "The Two Popes"

Al Pacino, "The Irishman"

Joe Pesci, "The Irishman"

Brad Pitt, "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

South Korea, "Parasite"

Spain, "Pain and Glory"

France, "Les Misérables"

North Macedonia, "Honeyland"

Poland, "Corpus Christi"

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)

"In the Absence"

"Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)"

"Life Overtakes Me"

"St. Louis Superman"

"Walk Run Cha-Cha"

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"American Factory"

"The Edge of Democracy"

"Honeyland"

"For Sama"

"The Cave"

ORIGINAL SONG

"I'm Standing With You," "Breakthrough"

"Into the Unknown," "Frozen II"

"Stand Up," "Harriet"

"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again," "Rocketman"

"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away," "Toy Story 4"

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

"How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World"

"I Lost My Body"

"Klaus"

"Missing Link"

"Toy Story 4"

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Little Women"

"The Two Popes"

"Joker"

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"Marriage Story"

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

"Parasite"

"Knives Out"

"1917"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Antonio Banderas, "Pain and Glory"

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

Adam Driver, "Marriage Story"

Joaquin Phoenix, "Joker"

Jonathan Pryce, "The Two Popes"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cynthia Erivo, "Harriet"

Scarlett Johansson, "Marriage Story"

Saoirse Ronan, "Little Women"

Renée Zellweger, "Judy"

Charlize Theron, "Bombshell"

DIRECTOR

Martin Scorsese, "The Irishman"

Quentin Tarantino, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

Bong Joon-ho, "Parasite"

Sam Mendes, "1917"

Todd Phillips, "Joker"

PRODUCTION DESIGN

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

"The Irishman"

"1917"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Parasite"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

"1917"

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

"The Irishman"

"Joker"

"The Lighthouse"

COSTUME DESIGN

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

"Little Women"

"The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit"

"Joker"

SOUND EDITING

"1917"

"Ford v Ferrari"

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

"Joker"

SOUND MIXING

"1917"

"Ford v Ferrari"

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

"Ad Astra"

"Joker"

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

"Dcera (Daughter)"

"Hair Love"

"Kitbull"

"Memorable"

"Sister"

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

"Brotherhood"

"Nefta Football Club"

"The Neighbors' Window"

"Saria"

"A Sister"

ORIGINAL SCORE

"1917," Thomas Newman

"Joker," Hildur Guðnadóttir

"Little Women," Alexandre Desplat

"Marriage Story," Randy Newman

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," John Williams

VISUAL EFFECTS

"Avengers: Endgame"

"The Lion King"

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"

"The Irishman"

"1917"

FILM EDITING

"The Irishman"

"Ford v Ferrari"

"Parasite"

"Joker"

"Jojo Rabbit"

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

"Bombshell"

"Joker"

"Judy"

"Maleficent: Mistress of Evil"

"1917"

After experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades, the Australian wildfire has already burned through 18 million acres of land, making it one of the largest wildfires the world has ever seen. (I believe the largest on record is the 1987 Black Dragon Fire in China / Russia). 

No one knows exactly how the fires started but the best speculation I’ve seen is that because of the dryness from the drought a lightning strike began the blaze. So far it’s killed almost thirty people (including several volunteer firefighters), burned several thousands of people out of their homes and killed almost one billion animals. The devastation to the animal population is so extreme it might wipe entire species out and hasten the endangered koala into extinction.

An aerial view of the wildfires East Gippsland on January 2, 2020. Dale Appleton/DELWP via AP

Smoke from the Australian wildfires is pumping horrible amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and created a smoke plume above Australia almost as large as the United States. Which, is kind of terrifying to comprehend. Thankfully, cooler temperatures and mild winds are helping Australian firefighters finally get ahead of the blaze. From an AP story speaking with Dale McLeon who is one of the fire response managers on a team bulldozing small trees and burning scrub ahead of the fire’s path, in hopes to stop it from spreading: 

“This fire took a major run about seven or eight days ago, and with the weather changing now, the weather settling down, the fire has settled down. The fire behavior has changed. So we're able to get in front of the fire now, get on the offensive.”

But the fire fight is far from over and the Australian blaze will continue to burn for months, so, we’ve yet to even understand the full scope of damage and the cost of human & animal life. With that in mind, I’ve found a few legitimate links in ways you can help: 

Donate to the Australian Red Cross - disaster relief and recovery. 

Donate to the World Wildlife Fund - Australia’s bushfire emergency. 

Donate to the Salvation Army Australia - disaster relief.

We don’t know a lot. Yet. What we do know is that a US drone strike hit Baghdad airport killing Qasem Soleimani (and one of his deputies), a top general and very powerful man in Iran. Additionally, the U.S. will be sending thousands more troops to the Middle East in case of retaliation. The State Department claims that the drone strike happened to prevent an “imminent attack” in the region that would put American lives at risk. 

CNN is quoting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky) as saying: 

"Soleimani made it his life's work to take the Iranian revolutionary call for death to America and death to Israel and turned them into action. But this terrorist mastermind was not just a threat to the United States and Israel. For more than a decade, he masterminded Iran's malevolent and destabilizing work throughout the entire Middle East,"

And the Democrats seem to agree with Schumer saying that no one will shed a tear over Soleimani’s death. Although top Democrats, especially those on the Intel Commities were not briefed beforehand about the strike which is potentially problematic. 

Okay.  So those seem to be the general facts as everyone is reporting. Since both sides agree this guy was a terrorist mastermind I will take it on faith that his death will save innocent lives. But … now what? Well, the cynical side of me agrees with many folks who have pointed out that President Trump predicted this very event - for Obama. In 2011 and 2012 Trump tweeted that Obama would start a war with Iran in order to win an election. Here they are: 

@realDonaldTrump

In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.

1:48 PM - Nov 29, 2011

@realDonaldTrump

Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran.  He is desperate.

3:39 PM - Oct 9, 2012

@realDonaldTrump

Don't let Obama play the Iran card in order to start a war in order to get elected--be careful Republicans!

10:43 AM - Oct 22, 2012

@RiegerReport

Trump on Nov. 16, 2011:

“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and ineffective. So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected — and as sure as you're sitting there — is to start a war with Iran.”

8:48 PM - Jan 2, 2020

So, is this just a Wag the Dog tactic? Is Trump doing what he “predicted” Obama would do? Even though … Obama never did that thing, but whatever. Let’s just ignore that for now. 

War Presidents are popular. It’s true; however, I suspect the truth is … all of the above. This Soleimani guy was clearly a terrorist scumbag and I don’t care that he’s dead. The drone strike also helps Donald Trump in the popularity polls because war sells. So, I think we have a little of column A and a little of column B. 

To be honest, I don’t think this will lead to a full scale war. The U.S. launches drone strikes a lot. Probably more than you realize. Remember that Obama was and still is criticized for the large amount of drone strikes he sent out. Well, it was widely reported that in 2009-2010, President Obama launched 186 drone strikes on Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. In 2017 and 2018, President Trump launched 238 drone strikes in those regions. Again, Obama was openly criticized for launching too many drone strikes. And Trump has launched much more. So, this is nothing new, especially to the people living in said regions. 

I’m not going to weigh in too heavily with the “but drone strikes create terrorists” argument, even though it's true. But I will say that if Iran was going to start a war with the U.S. because of drone strikes - they probably would have already done it. On the other hand, this was a very popular person in Iran who is publicaly claiming that they will retaliate the U.S.

Let's hope cooler heads prevail. An all out war with Iran would be ... ugly. 

On Sunday morning, two people were killed by a gunman at the West Free Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. Thankfully, the church had a team of armed volunteer security and within seconds of the initial attack, Jack Wilson, head of the security team, drew his weapon, fired a single shot and killed the attacker.

The church service was being live streamed at the time and the entire attack was caught on video. The video was removed from the church website but it was captured and posted to multiple sites. The video is shocking but I think it’s worthy of viewing. It does show the gunman killing two innocent people but it also shows the heroic actions by multiple parishioners. The video, which you can watch here on offgridsurvival.com, is from a camera across the room, I want to point out that it’s not a close up of horrific violence. Just so you know what you are getting into. (If you click the link above you have to scroll down a bit to Video 1, in order to watch it). 

Jack Wilson, the man who killed the gunman, is a reserve deputy sheriff and a firearm instructor and a volunteer security officer at the church. The gunman has been identified as 43 year old Keith Thomas Kinnunen who has had several run ins with law enforcement but, due to his death, Kinnunen's motivation for attacking the chruch remains unclear. The names of the two victims have now been officially been released as Anton Wallace and Richard White, both of which were volunteer security officers, and during the attack White was reaching for his weapon as he was shot by the gunman. 

Tiffany Wallace, daughter of slain Anton, witnessed the attack and said the gunman was wearing a fake beard and a wig and was wearing a long dark trench coat. No one recognized him but no one had any reason to believe he was dangerous. She said the gunman said to her father, “drop it” before opening fire. According to witnesses her father, a deacon at the church, was holding a communion tray. 

Tiffany’s interview at NBC can be viewed here. 

After the attack, Jack Wilson released this statement on his FB page:

As you no doubt have heard by now, President Donald Trump has been impeached by Congress. This is only the third time in the history of the country where a sitting President has been impeached. The first was way back in 1868 when President Andrew Johnson was impeached after the Civil War as the nation struggled with reunification. The second time was President Bill Clinton, who was impeached for lying to Congress about a sexual relationship he had with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Both Presidents were acquitted as neither received the two-thirds Senate vote to remove them from office. President Nixon resigned before the impeachment moved forward and was fully pardoned by President Ford. 

And now President Trump has joined the Impeached Club for: 

1. Abuse of Power: For his effort to withhold aid to Ukraine until they launched an investigated a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
2. Obstruction of Congress: For his refusal to cooperate with the oversight committee

The vote in Congress went as much as you would expect, along party lines.  The abuse of power article passed 230-197, the Obstruction of Congress article passed 229-198. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D) voted “Present” in each case, which is neither a “yes” or “no.”

So … now what happens? 

Not much for the time being. President Trump is still the sitting President. Speaker Pelosi will, eventually send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate who will then hear a trial (or maybe they won’t) and vote to remove the President from office. 

But, Pelosi hasn’t quite sent the articles to the Senate floor yet. She’s holding out, some believe, in order to get Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to agree to hold a Senate trial as opposed to simply vote against the articles of impeachment without further investigation or trial, which Republicans have already threatened to do. 

The problem is that key witnesses refused subpoenas to testify before Congress. This … is a bit awkward. By comparison, when the Republican Congress sent out subpoenas to former Clinton advisor Susan McDougal to testify at the Whitewater hearing, she refused. And so Republicans threw her in jail for a year and a half. Today, several White House aides, lawyers, and even the acting chief of staff have ignored their subpoenas to testify before Congress in the Trump impeachment hearing. None of them went to jail. But maybe they should have. In fact, President Trump ordered some of them to ignore the subpoena, which is why Congress also added the Obstruction of Congress impeachment article. I mean, if Congress orders you to testify and you just, you know - refuse to show up, that’s pretty much the exact definition of “Obstruction of Congress.” Hard to argue with. 

Eventually, the articles of impeachment will get to the Senate and President Trump could be, but will probably not be removed from office. Democrats claim he is corrupt and was trying to get a foreign power to interfere in the 2020 election. Republicans say he’s a man of God and was only trying to fight corruption by speaking with Ukraine about the Biden scandal. 

All I know is this, do you know that only one week ago President Trump was fined $2 million dollars for, get this - stealing from Charity! 

*sigh*

If Trump were indeed a “man of God,” who wants to fight corruption at every turn then … um, well, he probably wouldn't be stealing money from charity and using it to pay for things like, a $12,000 autographed football helmet (which he kept), a $20,000 portrait of himself, paying off his legal debt. Trump actually spent more than $250,000 of money he raised for charity - to settle lawsuits involving his for profit business. That doesn’t even count his 2016 veterans fundraiser where he raised millions for vets and just .. you know, kept most of it to spend on his Presidential campaign. Which is what led to the actual New York State lawsuit against him and the $2 million fine he has been ordered to be distributed amongst eight charities Trump’s foundation swindled money from. 

Not only that, the Judge found the foundation to be so corrupt, he ordered the entire Trump Charity Foundation to liquidate, worth about $1.7 million, and also give that money - to the charities Trump swindled money out of. In conclusion, Donald Trump's charity, which raises money for charity, takes the vast majority of that money for personal use and business gain. This is grossly illegal. After the liquidation the Trump Foundation was ordered to pay out (and it quietly did so) approx $400,000 to each of the following charities, listed alphabetically: 

The Army Emergency Relief, the Children’s Aid Society, Citymeals on Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha’s Table, the United Negro College Fund, the United Way of the National Capital Area, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Since 2010 the Madison based website Murfie has been an internet based business that digitizes your audio CD’s, vinyl and cassettes. You mail in your collection, Murfie rips them to the cloud and digitize your music for your listening pleasure. Then, for a monthly fee, Murfie storied the actual hard copies of your music collection. 

Okay. Seems like a decent idea. 

Except of course, after several years of business as usual, as of late November, the Murfie website has this message: 

“Murfie has ceased operations. The company's senior debt holders are working together to develop a process in which customer-owned physical media can be retrieved. If you are a customer with media at Murfie, you will be receiving information by email on how to arrange for the retrieval of your physical media. Thank you, once again.   --  The Murfie Team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)”

Suddenly, thousands of people who were paying their monthly fee to Murfie’s all had the exact same question in mind, “Ummm … how the F am I going to get my CD’s / vinyl / cassettes back?” 

And there’s the rub. 

It sounds as if customers were blindsided with the news, too. Apparently, as late as November 17th, Murfie charged folks to their monthly membership and then, not even one week later “ceased operations.” Hence the message above. Seems shady to me. 

Now, Murfie does have one page still functioning, their “Terms of Service” page. It says: 

“Every CD and vinyl record you store at Murfie HQ is your property. We take that very seriously. In the event Murfie goes out of business, you will get back every CD and vinyl record you own in your current collection.

If it's inside the 90-Day Guarantee period, we guarantee to pay all shipping and handling expenses required to return your collection. After this Guarantee expires, our regular shipping/handling costs would apply. See our Pricing page for current shipping rates.”

I should also note that the link to the “Pricing” page is broken. 

Millions of people’s CD’s have, mostly likely ... vanished. Or in the words of some of the comments, if this took place in Madison … perhaps we should all go dumpster diving in Madison and search for those missing million CD’s. 

In a long exchange of customers on the Sonos chat page, customers don’t even know who to complain to. The site is dead, which means no one at the site is responding … because it’s dead. The company didn’t even have a current CEO. 

And, uh-oh. I just found out that Murfie did try and get hold of customers to let them know the company was going away but they didn’t give them very much time to respond. An email was sent at the end of November telling customers Murfie was shutting down but his was only days after that Nov17th charging their monthly fee, and that customers should await instructions on how to get their stuff back. But, um … the email was sent over Black Friday weekend and gave the customer only until December 2nd (later extended to December 5th) to fill out a Google form and pay a fee to get your CD’s back. How much of a fee? Well, it was $100.00 plus $.45 per disc. Which, seems like a lot to me. 

From their email: 

"Unfortunately Murfie's financial situation precludes any ability to reimburse customers for unused portions of subscriptions or for any Murfie credits that may have accumulated.  Murfie' secured creditors  have joined together with a few former Murfie customers to informally aid customers seeking return of their CDs.  Since Murfie's debt obligations far exceed cash on hand, any return of customer media must be funded by the customers themselves." 

And then they tell customers that any and all CD's not picked up by the end of December will be ... recycled.  Ugh. That’s painful. And that, as they say … is probably that.

Much has changed since yesterday when authorities were saying the gun fight started in a cemetery and moved several blocks away to randomly selected kosher market. Now, after viewing video footage of the attack authorities are saying that the gun fight in Jersey City, NY between police and two armed men holed up in a bodega was a targeted attack on that specific bodega (a small grocery store).  The neighborhood the attack occurred in is mainly orthodox Jews, and authorities now believe the shop was specifically targeted. Video evidence clearly shows the attackers exiting a van and firing into the store. Two local police officers happened to be very close by, called the attack in and then rushed to the scene within seconds. Officers Ray Sanchez and Mariela Fernandez placed themselves between the attackers and civilians. Both officers, were shot and wounded but it pushed the attackers back into the bodega instead of allowing them to remain on the streets and fire indiscriminately at civilians. Within seconds more police arrived, pulled both wounded officers out of the line of fire and the long standoff gunfight occurred between the police and the shooters.

Both Sanchez and Fernandez have been released from the hospital. Another officer, Detective Joseph Seals was killed but it's still a little unclear where or when. Authorities are saying he was "ambushed," which seems to imply he was killed elsewhere but as of yet, I'm unable to find out more.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said:

Although there is no credible or specific threat directed against New York City, I have directed teh NYPD to assume a state of high alert. Tonight (this would be yesterday), NYPD assets are being redeployed to protect key locations in the Jewish community. Tommorow, we will annouce additional measures." 

As of yet, I haven't seen what the "additional measures" are or will be. 

Both shooters are dead and authorities have not released their names, nor do they know that exact specific motive for the attack beyond the fact it was "targeted," and it was probably targeted becauase it was a Jewish shop in a Jewish neighborhood. 

Jersey City schools were on lockdown yesterday but, opened back up Wednesday morning. 

Juice Jacking, apparently, is a real thing. But at this point it doesn’t sound like it’s a widespread threat. What is it? Well, it involves someone loading malware on public charging stations so that when you plug your phone in via USB, it uploads the malway which might be able to lock your device, or worse - export data and passwords to a scammer. USB, as you may or may not know charges your phone but is also able to upload and download information. Which is exactly what the threat is all about. 

LA has warned the public of the threat but when asked by reporters if they knew of any known cases on its books, officials couldn’t come up with any. It really does sound like, while it technically might be possible for someone to hijack your cell phone data in such a way, it’s unlikely to ever happen. After a round of Googling, security researchers across the web do say that they’ve seen proof-of-concepts in regards to such malway, but haven’t yet heard of a working public JuiceJacking prototype. 

Finally, the major phones have upgraded protection software to protect against this kind of malware so … again, while it’s possible to get JuiceJacked - you’re probably safe. 

That being said, there are a few things you can do to protect your phone: 

1. Bring and use your own cord. By using your own cord you don’t have to use a public charging station, instead you can just plug your phone into any socket. 
2. Have an external battery pack available. Battery packs work as portable chargers, are fairly inexpensive and will give you a good 50-75% charge. You won’t need to plug into the wall or use a charging station.
3. Turn off your phone. You can turn your phone off and plug it in to a public station to charge. This will protect some (but not all) phones.

With ten candidates still in the running we have three obvious front runners and two additional wildcards. Biden, Warren and Sanders are at the top. Mayor Pete (Buttigieg) and Harris round out the top five. Yang, Klobuchar, Booker, Gabbard and Steyer should pack it in. I mean, after something like fifteen debates if you’re not in the top 3-5 you should, you know - move on. 

In fact, I’m willing to bet most of you went - “Steyer? Who is Steyer?” I know, right? There are too many people running. Let’s get rid of some of the candidates on the bottom. Also, Tom Steyer is a non politician, progressive billionaire who wants term limits for Congress, wants to decriminalize illegal border crossings and wants to expand the Supreme Court. Well, term limits for Congress is a fantastic idea! I’m all for that. Unfortunately, he’s polling at less than 1% so I’m not sure what he’s still doing in the race. 

Anyway. Sanders is out raising them all, but seems to be consistently in the number three spot in terms of news coverage and polls. Warren, just a few weeks ago was the clear front runner but she took a huge slump, for some reason. And now it’s good old “Uncle Joe” back as the front runner. Which, you may remember, is Biden’s unofficial nickname. 

Well, all of them were at it again last night at another debate that had way too many people on stage. And, I thought it was pretty clear that Mayor Pete came out on top. No one is attacking him because he’s not a front runner and so he was able to get his points across. And man o’ man Mayor Pete comes across poised, intelligent and filled to the brim with common sense and reason. 

Warren did her Warren thing - Medicare for all, tax the rich. I don’t think she gained or lost ground. Same with Sanders. Biden pushed civility, which is great but I’m not sure that will help him surge up in the polls. All three of them kind of pushed their brand name. Harris, who has fallen so far behind the other front runners was more aggressive than I have seen her in the past few months and even called out President Trump for getting “punked” by North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. 

I don’t think last night’s debate changed the way anyone views the democratic candidates, with perhaps the exception of Mayor Pete. I know Pete is surging in Iowa, which is a critical caucus to win, but too many people don’t know him. But that’s the thing about him, the more people hear about him the more people are clearly like, “I don’t know who this guy is … but I like him!” 

Yeah. Me too. He’s a great candidate. But … can he beat Donald Trump in the popular vote? Perhaps. But perhaps he’s too much of an underdog to win. Perhaps the Democrats need a big name to win. And they have three big names in Biden, Sanders and Warren. Mayor Pete just might have to wait four or eight more years for a legitimate shot.  

And, I know we are still miles away from the finish line but sometimes I just wonder what is taking some of these politicians so long to drop out. Senator Harris is a decent progressive candidate but she’s clearly, and I mean clearly - too far behind. Drop out of the race and get back to the Senate - you know, the job you were elected for. I guess one could say the same about Senator Warren; however, she’s actually on top so there is reason for her to stay in the race. But Klobuchar? Gabbard? It’s not happening, maybe it’s time to get back to the Senate / House for your elected jobs. Booker? I mean, Booker had a great closing speech but this is just not your year. There is, as they say - a snowball's chance in hell the nomination will go to any of the folks on the bottom.

Unless some catastrophic event happens, it’s clearly going to be one of Biden, Sanders or Warren. Or, if they get really clever - a Biden / Warren ticket. Or a Sanders / Warren ticket. Or a Warren / Sanders ticket. 

Or, heck - a Warren / Mayor Pete ticket. Think of that. Wow. I like it. (Probably won’t happen). 

Any combination of the above will probably mount a decent challenge to President Trump. Just as long as Hillary Clinton doesn’t enter the race, which she (probably jokingly) hinted at a few days ago.

Ugh. She just won’t go away. Please, please Hillary - you lost to Obama, you lost to Trump. Leave it alone. The Dem’s don’t need more candidates.

In Michigan, a 33 year old man named Alex Lavell Rawls (our suspect) kicked down a door in search of his ex-girlfriend. Perhaps obviously, he wasn’t there to rescue her. After a series of harassment and threats of violence against her, he decided to go kick her door down. So, Rawls goes over to her place to due her harm, not knowing that - she had already moved to another state in order to get away from his lunatic ass! Cut to: Rawls gets to her apartment and pounds on the door. 

Enter Ben Ball, 36. Ben is a regular kind of guy who likes regular kind of things - he goes to work, he plays video games, he watches cool things on TV and … oh yeah, he collects and practices in the use of medieval weaponry! You see, on the weekends, Ball and friends choreograph and video live re-enactments of savage Viking-esq warrior combat. Ball has a wide collection of medieval weapons in his apartment up to and including, as he puts its, “my baby,” and in this case, his baby is a replica double headed carbon steel battle axe.   

By “replica” I don’t mean fake. I mean, it’s an exact recreation of a battle axe that had been specifically designed to injure an armored knight. Or cut off limbs of an unarmored person. 

Keep that in mind. 

Back to Rawls. He heads over to his ex-girlfriend's house for some more harassing and threatening. He pounds on her door. Ball answers and recognizes Rawls as the guy who used to date his roommate. Ball explains to Rawls that his roommate no longer lives here and tells the irate exboyfriend that she moved to Florida. 

Rawls doesn’t believe Ball, but leaves; however, he returns a short time later and kicks the door open, shattering the doorframe. Then Rawls rushes into the apartment to attack Ball. 

It’s now a full on home invasion. 

So, Ball does what any of us would have done. He picks up a weapon and defends himself. You might use a gun. I might use a knife. But Ball uses his baby. He picks up that carbon steel axe and chops Rawls right in the chest cutting him wide open. 

But Rawls was in mid charge and his momentum kept him going forward until he slams into Ball. In a chaotic melee, the two of them smash through the apartment. Ball drops the Axe, the apartment is demolished and both men go for the weapon. 

Eventually, the wound on Rawls’ chest is too much and he flees in terror. Neighbors call the cops. Police and K9 units arrive, follow the trail of blood and eventually capture Rawls. 

Ball is a little banged up, but he’s in good shape. Rawls, already a felon, is arrested and faces up to 20 years in jail for first degree home invasion. 

As for the ex-girlfriend in question? Well, it sounds like she totally knew what she was doing when she moved to another state in order to get away from lunatic Rawls. 

I’m glad she’s safe. I’m glad Ball is relatively unharmed. I’m glad Rawls is in custody. 

This has been another entry in “Weird, (but awesome) news!”