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Since 1994, this is the 1552nd issue of Randy Cassingham’s...

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10 March 2024: Why Man CreatesCopyright ©2024 https://thisistrue.com

Sure We Can: “I’m coming, and you can’t do a f***ing thing about it,” read the threat. Just a few little problems with that: John Mandia, 54, of Boca Raton, Fla., posted it in public on his Facebook page, the targets of his ire were two judges and a prosecutor, and someone who saw the post reported it to the sheriff. The post says Mandia intended to “hunt down” his targets and “go down in that blaze of glory,” and that he was like Donald Trump in that he was being targeted by “judgesand prosecutors” (after being arrested for domestic violence), and others should join him in the killings. After his arrest, Mandia’s beleaguered wife pointed investigators to an earlier post, which threatens two other judges, one because he had sentenced Mandia to a year in prison for stalking, and another because she had granted the wife a restraining order against her husband. Due to his repeated behavior, the judge in the new case has ordered Mandia held on $150,000 bail — for each of thethree felony counts against him. (RC/Palm Beach Post) ...Three strongly worded Facebook posts are pending.

Swatting SWAT: Two years ago Ruby Johnson, now 78, had just gotten out of the shower when she heard someone outside with a bullhorn ordering anyone inside her Denver, Colo., home to come out with their hands up. Wearing her bathrobe, Johnson opened the front door to see a SWAT team on her lawn. After she explained how to open her garage door, officers used a battering ram instead. They also broke ceiling tiles and a custom doll that looked like her. The police were there because theowner of a stolen truck — with several guns and an iPhone inside — used the Find My app to locate the phone. The app pointed to Johnson’s house, and Detective Gary Staab obtained a warrant. According to the lawsuit Johnson filed, Staab didn’t mention to the judge that the app only provides a general location of where a phone could be, not a specific address. Johnson sued Staab and the supervisor who approved the warrant, Sgt. Gregory Buschy, under a new Colorado law that allows citizens to sueindividual police officers for state constitutional violations in state court. She was awarded $3.76 million by the jury. (MS/AP) ...Qualified immunity needs qualification.

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Fan-Tase-Tic: Ken Ervin was shocked, but not surprised: he is a lawyer, and was involved in planning a Taser demonstration as one of the defense lawyers in a manslaughter case against police over the death of a suspect. Javier Ambler was that suspect, whom Williamson County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies — now former deputies — had apprehended after a chase. Bodycam footage captured Ambler’s yells as he warned the deputies of his heart condition, and then it captured his death; thedefendants had repeatedly shocked him with their Tasers. The defense lawyer survived getting shot once with a Taser, and the defendants were acquitted. (AC/KXAN Austin, Austin American-Statesman) ...Does Ervin have a heart condition?

Woman Tries to Steal a House. Felon is so happy with the result of his first conviction he does it again (and is caught again). Russia recruits foreign nationals for high paying jobs ...but it isn’t until they arrive that they learn the job is at the Ukranian front. Woman charged more than $1,000 for a Subway sandwich. Shopkeeper has to run and catch an employee who was caught by machinery. Florida man successfully evades the police, until he did something even more stupid. Floridawoman turns minor traffic offense into an arrest. Family has to fight the bureaucracy to force it to recognize their son is legal. And a new expensive trend for new parents for ...what?! The Premium edition always has more than double the stories, no outside ads, and other benefits, plus it supports the publication you love. You choose how much to pay. Thanks!

Changing Her Stripes: Pinellas County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office detectives allege that Katelyn Gomez, 27, attempted to convince a 16-year-old boy to have sex with her after discovering about ten “inappropriate letters” from her in his bed. What were the cops doing checking out the boy’s bed? Well, he was an inmate of the Pinellas Regional Juvenile Detention Center. Gomez, meanwhile, was a detention sergeant at the facility. Not anymore: she’s been fired. “The letters explicitly describedwhat would take place during their first sexual encounter,” detectives allege, “and described an ongoing relationship which had developed while the victim was incarcerated.” Gomez allegedly admitted writing the letters and said she “planned to build a life with him once he was released.” She is charged with solicitation of a child to engage in sex by a person in custodial authority, and booked into the county’s adult jail. (RC/Tampa Bay Times) ...Where she would be outraged if male guardspressured her for sex.


Indoctrination
Florida Man Fed Endangered Deer Inside Home, Watches Fox News with Them
WFLA Tampa headline


Did You Find an Error? Check the Errata Page for updates.

This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy Cassingham.


I’m So Old I Remember when the Associated Press had excellent reporters, and editors to back them up when they did something boneheaded. The source article for Mike’s story about the woman who sued police who smashed their way into her home based on a faulty search warrant said she got out of the shower and heard police on a bullhorn commanding her to come out, as Mike summarized. The source AP story described the scene she saw, which endedwith, “and men in full military-style gear carrying rifles and a police dog.” The question not answered: why the police dog couldn’t walk on its own and had to be carried.

Click to see on Facebook.I Had Fun when Facebook crashed last week, and I posted this graphic. It has more than a thousand “reactions” (Like, LoL,whatever), been shared more than 600 times, and has over 135 comments. Almost everyone enjoyed the joke. Yet the best comment of all? “tried the 900 number didn’t work”. L-o-freaking-L! The second-best: “This is a SCAM”. I just love it when an oh-so-obvious joke goes whizzing right over someone’s pointy head to the point that they get indignant.

Business Insider has picked up on the debacle that is Victoria Cruises Line — the company we originally signed with for our Residential Cruising adventure. I wrote about it on our ResidentialCruising.com site in January. The BI article begins, “Randy and Kit Cassingham sold everything for a dream: to live out their retirement years ona residential cruise ship.”

The article got VCL’s attention. They’re sending us our deposit back? Oh, heck no! Rather, “Blah blah blah blah blah ... Therefore, legal action will be taken against the client [the Cassinghams] and you Miss Chang [one of the two reporters].” Yeah, really.

As I said in my own article, “Neither option is palatable: criminals using excuse after excuse as a delay tactic? Or completely incompetent when it comes to doing business?” Well, there seems to be no reason why they can’t be both!

So again, VCL shows its utter lack of business acumen. So why should anyone trust the company with their money or, more to the point, their personal safety for months or years at a time should they actually manage to depart? Such would be an act of sheer insanity.

This update is included on my original article (search or scroll to “Media Reaction”), including a screenshot of their bumbling threat.

P.S.: Everything is on track with the second company we signed up with. They have done everything according to their schedule, including what VCL and Life At Sea were not able to do: actually obtain a ship. At this time, the Villa Vie Odyssey is receiving upgrades and refurbishment, including modern broadband to accommodate digital nomads such as me and Kit. We board in England onMay 15.


Ten Years Ago in True: Learning the hard way that Wisdom Comes with Age.

This Week’s Sunday Reading: Sunday Reading - A reader missed seeing the ‘Ridiculous Reactions’ of other readers, so I found him one. It’s a doozie. “Ridiculous Reactions”.

The Wanna-be Judge Killer is the Story of the Week, which means you’re welcome to share it from Telegram, Mastodon, Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.

No Honorary Unsubscribe this week: I didn’t find anyone who meets the criteria, and I needed to take a break anyway.

    But Goodbye to Richard Truly, the first former astronaut to lead NASA as its Administrator, a role he later repeated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He died at his home in Genesee, Colorado, on February 27, at 86.
  • And So Long to singer Steve Lawrence, dead from Alzheimer’s disease on March 7. (His singing partner and wife, Eydie Gormé, died in 2013 at 84.)
  • Honorary Unsubscribe Archive.

Basic Subscriptions to This is True are Free at https://thisistrue.com. All stories are completely rewritten using facts from the noted sources. This is True® (and Get Out of Hell Free® and Stella Awards®) are registered trademarks of ThisisTrue.Inc. Published weekly by ThisisTrue.Inc, PO Box 666, Ridgway CO 81432 USA (ISSN 1521-1932).

Copyright ©2024 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved. All broadcast, publication, retransmission to email lists, web site or social media posting, or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the author. Manual forwarding by email to friends is allowed if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety from the “Since 1994” line on top through the end of this paragraph and 2) No fee is charged. I request that you forward no more than three copies to any one person — after that, they should get their own free subscription. I appreciate people who report violations of my copyright.


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