Now that they agree to murder Alby I’m happy.  I go over to my locked cabinet behind the bar, unlock it and take out a bottle of Jameson Black Barrel Irish whiskey. I pour three shots and carry them back. I say let’s shake hands on it and throw one down to seal the deal which we do.

Roger then takes out his .38 special. He holds it in his hand and says: “This will be the last thing Alby sees.” I look around to see if anyone is watching. I then tell Roger, “Let me have that. You know the club rules. No carrying inside.” He gives it to me and I put it into my cabinet.

In doing that have I carried a weapon during the commission of a felony, namely a murder? What do you think? My answer is probably not. I suggest this is the criminal statute that is applicable here: “A person who agrees, conspires, combines, or confederates with another person or persons to commit any offense commits the offense of criminal conspiracy.”

I’m having trouble figuring out what something means. I can’t do it in one post so it will take more than that. I like to limit my posts to around 600 words so if you don’t mind the conclusion won’t be reached today. It’ll take me until Friday.

Let me ask you this, what does the term outlined in bold in the following statute mean :

“Unless otherwise provided by law, whenever a person is charged with a felony, except a felony in which the use of a weapon or firearm is an essential element, and during the commission of such felony,  the defendant carries, displays, uses, threatens to use, or attempts to use any weapon or firearm, or during the commission of such felony the defendants commits an aggravated battery, the felony for which the person is charged shall be reclassified as follows: . . . ”

I’m interested in finding out what “during the commission of such felony” means. I’m trying to decide when the commission of a felony takes place  as envisioned by that statute. The reason is the crime is changed, the punishment is significantly increased, and time within which a charge can be brought is expanded changing the statute of limitations if a person carries a weapon or firearm.

We”ve green lighted an invasion and now after several days of atrocities we’ve managed to have Turkey call a temporary halt to it. The halt has been declared a great victory. It only requires us to betray our ally the Kurds by telling them they have to clear out of a stretch of land at least twenty-two miles from the Turkish border where they have lived for hundreds of years so that land can be settled with other people.

We’ve in effect gave in to Turkey ‘s demand that it be able to ethnically cleanse  the Kurds from a great part of their homeland because they brutally attacked them after we left them in the lurch. We have committed to helping with the ethnic cleansing.  Now where are the Kurds to go. Another Great Victory.

There is no comparison to this failure. Retreat or surrender when there is no other alternative is understandable to westerners.  But since someone tried to compare this to the Bataan march it is understood that the  Japanese brutality was occasioned in part by their belief that only cowards surrender. But this Syrian act wasn’t a retreat in the face of an enemy force – it was done without any pressure. A thoughtless act that will reverberate around the world.

It was apparent all along but it had to take a crises of his own making to force him to come out with his attitude with respect for our foreign policy. Here is how Trump  talked about the gratitude we show to the Kurds for being our ally for many years in fighting ISIS and Saddam Hussein.

“Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for their own land. I said to my Generals, why should we be fighting for Syria and Assad to protect the land of our enemy?” 

“Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!” 

Wow. Think of the ramifications of this doctrine that even if you are an ally you are on your own if trouble lurks because you are far away from out shore.

According to this article one executive editor Kevin Baron captioned this video posted by RT:

“Russia was “gloating on their global television propaganda network” as U.S. forces left the area .

Another RT video with a tweet read: “Syrian Army meet US troops on a highway as American forces move out from Kobani. Wondering if they waved to each other…”

Russian journalists are also documenting cheerful Russian soldiers apparently moving into deserted U.S. military outposts.

“Video scenes from Manbij #Syria this morning. US troops out of base, Russia comes in. Putin & Assad making most gains out of US withdrawal & #Turkey operation:”

Sometimes I feel like I’m beating a big drum in the woods and the only ones hearing me are the trees. I’m in the final stages of putting out a book I call The Boston Mobster Murders – there were almost 100 of these committed from 1956 to 1976 – a good number by some real evil criminals like Steve Flemmi, John Martorano, and Joe ‘the Animal’ Barboza and a lesser number by equally depraved men such as Howie Winter and Frank Salemme. The thought came to me that these men did very little time in prison for their murders. Unlike a man who never murdered anyone who will die in prison.

I’m sure anyone with a passing knowledge of the Boston’s crime scene will ask: “where is Whitey Bulger?” One thing, he was in prison from 1956 to 1965 so for half the time he isn’t a player; the other thing is that prior to 1973 when he’s 44-years-old there is no evidence he murdered anyone. He was implicated by John Martorano in the six murders done by Howie Winter and John Martorano on contract with Jerry Angiulo the Boston Mafia boss but his role in those was more as a bystander – he fired no shots at anyone but according to Martorano was in another car somewhere.

My hiatus from blogging caused by doing other important stuff as minding my grandchild who at times makes me think of the young lad in O Henry’s Kidnapping of Red Chief will continue after this short note.

(Because of Red Chief or my senility the rest of this tweet which I will let stand is messed up. I mistook the Judge Richard Sinnott for Bill Sinnott. It was Bill who worked with me in the DA’s office. I should have known it b/c Richard did not look like Bill as I remembered him but figured the gray hair changed his looks. Anyway, a big mistake by me and my apologies to Richard and Bill Sinnott.)

Judge Richard Sinnott is in the news as you know for his action against persons who were arrested for committing alleged criminal acts while being in the group of people who opposed the straight guy march and for his allegedly intemperate act in tossing a woman lawyer in the can. There are some who would argue that had she been a man she would not have been locked up but there seems to be little to base that on other than the idea that somehow Sinnott has a problem with women lawyers. I’ve never been before him but I’d tend to doubt it.

I went to an affair recently in Rhode Island. I was speaking with this one young person who I’ll call Charlie who told me that he had been investing in real estate lately. I knew he didn’t have the income or background to have the money to do this so I asked him how he was doing it. He said he gets school loans and uses the proceeds to buy the properties. He said he can defer paying off the loans or schedule them out for many years so he has that ready money for his investments.

I’m not sure how that works – I thought the money one borrowed went to the schools – but apparently it doesn’t in all cases. Obviously Charlie is very happy about the Democrats who are planning to erase all his loan debt. It would have been as if Uncle Sam gave him money to buy investment properties. A nice deal if you can get it.