Today is Thursday, February 16, 2023. Today the Georgia grand jury empaneled to probe election tampering involving the former president released parts of a special grand jury report saying unidentified witnesses might have lied to jurors investigating former president Donald Dumpf’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state. This bombshell report is covered in a Wall Street Journal online article by Cameron McWhirter and Jan Wolfe entitled “Georgia Grand Jury Cites Possible Perjury in Trump Election Probe.”

Without naming names here, one excerpt of the report states that “A majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” and continues to say, “The grand jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney who oversaw the grand jury’s work, announced Monday his plans to release the excerpts. The records released today consisted of nine pages and included the report’s introduction and conclusion.

The special grand jury was assembled at the request of Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, who in early 2021 launched an investigation into efforts to influence Georgia’s election results. The special grand jury was given the job of investigating possible election interference but didn’t have authority to issue indictments. But that has changed now! Ms. Willis, who has the complete report, can now call a regular grand jury to seek indictments. And, boy, will the fur fly when that day comes.

As expected, a spokesperson for Little Donnie said the former insurrectionist “did absolutely nothing wrong,” and had “participated in two perfect phone calls regarding election integrity in Georgia, which he is entitled to.” If you believe this bullshit, I have a bridge I can sell you dirt cheap.

As you might recall, Dumpf’s efforts to reverse the outcome included direct calls to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who oversees elections, and the chief investigator for his office. His infamous exhortation to find additional votes is played ad nauseam on television news since it was first recorded over two years ago.

The report said the panel heard from 75 witnesses before ending its work last month. Predicting probable indictments, Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University College of Law, said Ms. Willis’s investigation likely would result in indictments, but that the newly unsealed materials didn’t shed much light on the nature of potential charges.

The bringing of perjury indictments could put pressure on charged individuals to cooperate and implicate Dumpf and his inner circle, said Clark Cunningham, also a professor at Georgia State’s law school.

So let’s see where this development will take us. Are we closer to some sort of charges being leveled against the Orange Fiend or what? And who else could be indicted other than Dumpf here in the ongoing Georgia investigation?

As you know, I was absent yesterday from the blog because I was visiting my friend “Jake” on the Island. I spent a most agreeable day with my friend of over 51 years seeing a 1997 film, Soul Food, about a middle-class Black family that turns to bickering and dissolution when the matriarch of the family suffers a stroke after lapsing into a diabetic coma. The narrator is young Ahmad (Brandon Hammond) who is a wise commentator on the family’s foibles. This first foray into film production is by songwriter/superproducer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds who serves up this tasty dish about the healing power of family and food. I never saw the movie when it first came out, so I was game to watch it in a community room in the Bay Shore Library.

As we drove to the library to see the film, I noticed a funky store called Blast from the Past, on Main Street, in Bay Shore. I jumped out of the car to inquire if comics were sold there, and I was taken to a rear area of the store that contained old comics. I asked Jake if we could return to the store after the film program and he accommodated my request. I spent about 10 minutes going through the scattered pile of comics on the floor and picked out a series of Detective comics featuring Bat-Man and one Spider-Man comic. I was happy that I could buy some comics there since Wednesday generally signified comic day for me. This time I did not receive an email from my store informing me that something came into my folder, so I wouldn’t have gone to Royal Collectibles on Thursday anyway.

We returned to the library before 6 to participate in a trivia quiz on Black History Month. Here there were only three contestants, Jack, me, and one other participant, “Claudia.” This middle-aged woman was very garrulous, talking about all of the people she knew and hobnobbed with. She recounted a true story about meeting superathlete LeBron James in an elevator in Midtown but didn’t know who he was. The moderator was named “James,” who introduced himself as an English teacher at a school in Manhattan. The contest combined photos, open-ended questions, and multiple-choice questions. I was quite shocked when I was declared the winner after tying with Jake initially. We had to answer one final question in which the best strategy was to just guess since the question involved knowing the actual miles people walked in several iconic protest marches from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery in 1965. Do you know? I’m sure you don’t. Anyway, I guessed the miles as being 30; Jake guessed over 100 miles. The answer was 54 miles, so my reply was closer to the real answer. Unfortunately, I did not win any prize at all.

Then we drove to Shandon Court, a convivial Irish-American restaurant, that hosts the Wednesday evening trivia games. As we sat down by the bar area, we noticed people were milling around talking with drinks in their hands, but they were not from Jake’s group of players. Eventually, Jake learned – to his utter disgust – that game night was canceled because of some inexplicable reason having to do with next week’s game being a version of Family Feud. What one has to do with the other, no one can really distinguish here. At this point, Jake expressed his disappointment in the game being canceled since he wanted me to join him again – I played this game with him many months ago – in playing it. I tried to console him by saying this was not something he could control, so it would be advisable to accept and live with it.

Since we now didn’t want to have dinner at Shannon Court, Jake drove to a nearby diner, in Islip, called Oconee Diner. The interior of the diner was very bright and spacious. We had no trouble finding something to eat. I was hungry since it was around 8 and I had no lunch other than having coffee and a chocolate chip muffin at Dunkin’ Donuts around 12:30 p.m., where Jake drove me after picking me up at the Central Islip station. This is our little routine after all these years: Jake drives me to a Dunkin’ Donuts first before starting our day.

After our dinner, it was time to drive to the LIRR train station, where I took the 10:21 train back to Penn Station and got off at Jamaica, Queens, where I waited for the train to Forest Hills that arrived around 18 minutes later. There were no other passengers waiting for a train on the platform at that time, so I accepted my time reading one of the books I bought.

All in all, I had a very nice day with my longterm friend, despite the trivia night game being called for a truly bizarre reason.

An announcement: I will probably not write an entry for tomorrow either because I’m seeing Jack Whitehall, the British comedian, at the Beacon Theatre tomorrow evening, at 7:30. You might know that he starred in a Netflix series some years back with his elderly father in Travels with my Father. It was on for several seasons; Elliot and I watched the whole series, I believe. He has also starred in some recent films – with Clifford the Big Red Dog, in 2021, being his latest – and now, he’s doing a North American tour. I couldn’t wait to buy a ticket to his show in New York tomorrow. I’ll let you know what I think of the show.

Stay safe and be well.