FLAG WAVING: Only a week after revealing that an upside down American flag was flown at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a sign of distress, the paper also reports that a revolution-era flag adopted by the Christian right and the pro-Trump “stop the Steal” movement was flown at the justice’s beach house in New Jersey.

  The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, also known as the “Pine Tree flag,” flew over the Alito retreat in July and September, according to photos obtained by the Times and accounts of people who saw it.  The flag also appears in a Google street view image from that August.

  It is considered unethical for a justice to give any indication of political sentiments, particularly when the court is confronted now with some historic political cases.

  The Times says Alito declined to comment about the flag at his beach house. He told the paper that the upside down American flag, carried by some of the January 6^th insurrectionists, was put up by his wife in response to some nasty political signage supporting Joe Biden after the last election.

THE WAR ROOM: The families of seven female Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas on October 7th have released graphic video of their abduction as they continue putting public pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate their release.

  The video originally given to the Israeli Defense Forces by Hamas militants shows the seven soldiers bound hand and foot sitting against a wall. Some are bruised and bloodied.

  The footage was previously released by Hamas, according to the Hostages Families Forum. The campaigning families got the video from the IDF. The Forum said in a press release, “Every new testimony about what happened to the hostages echoes the same tragic truth – we must bring them all back home, now.”

AISLE SEVEN: After two years of high inflation, mega-stores Target and Walmart are slashing prices. Walmart announced earlier this month that it would cut prices on nearly 7,000 items and target followed with 1500 items.

  Sales had been declining under higher prices and both companies are trying to reverse that. What this means for the overall rate of inflation remains to be seen.

SPACE LASERS: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was educated in Georgia and shows it, is pushing the claim that the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was really a plot to assassinate the former president. “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light,” she tweeted.

  Trump amplified that with a message that said, Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. “

  Trump followed with a fundraising appeal that claimed President Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out” with the search at Mar a Lago.

  The warrant did in fact have the boilerplate language authorizing deadly force if the FBI met opposition that endangered their lives. What Greene and Trump have not said, is that the raid was coordinated with the Secret Service and Trump was in New York at the time.

HEARTBREAK HOTEL: A Tennessee judge blocked the forced sale of Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion in Memphis after the music legend’s granddaughter claimed that documents for a loan in foreclosure were forged. A loan company says Elvis’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had borrowed $3.8 million putting Graceland up for collateral and died in 2023 before paying back the money. 

  Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough, has brought forward the notary whose seal is on the loan and he says he never signed or witnessed the document.   Graceland is a popular tourist attraction and a major source of income for Elvis Presley Enterprises and the family trust, which Keough controls.

THE OBIT PAGE: Shirley Conran, the British divorced mother of two who set out to write a sex education book for girls but instead tapped out the steamy 1982 bestseller “Lace,” has died at age 91.

  In British terminology, “Lace” was a “bonkbuster” that included an infamous scene involving a goldfish. We are not going to describe it.

  Conran had been married to and worked for the interior and modern design mogul Terence Conran. When they divorced he gave her four weeks’ pay and no divorce settlement.

  Shirley went on to become a writer … and a millionaire herself … with her novel and the witty feminist “Superwoman,” a guide to female independence and household management of everything from shopping to financial management and fixing a faucet. 

  On the subject of domestic perfectionism her mantra was, “Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.”     

THE SPIN RACK: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and presidential candidate Nikki Haley says she will vote for Donald Trump. Haley said Trump “has not been perfect” on policies important to her, including foreign policy, immigration and the economy, but Joe Biden “has been a catastrophe.” When she was still running for president she called Trump “unhinged.” — UCLA’s police chief has been removed from his job following a delay of several hours responding to a violent attack on the pro-Palestinian encampment at the school. — At least nine people were killed and 60 injured when the stage collapsed at a political event in northern Mexico. Authorities said a gust of high winds caused the collapse.

BELOW THE FOLD: Although Connecticut is officially known as “the Nutmeg State,” the state’s Rep. Rosa DeLauro is declaring her state “The Pizza State” and the “Pizza Capital of the United States.”

  So there, you can’t accuse Congress of doing nothing. 

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