Gorilla dancer to "Maniac" in a pool, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. AND YOU DELIVER. pic.twitter.com/2MYN5uEKbg
— Jeff Elder (@JeffElder) June 23, 2017
(It’s okay to laugh, the experts assure us Zola’s enjoying himself.)
Apart from pool partying, what’s on the agenda for the day?
===========
My old man, who spent his working career as a dockmaster for the NY Port Authority, used to tell us one of the great criminal conundrums: You could steal from poor people and get away with it, because nobody with the power to punish cared about poor people… but poor people seldom have much worth stealing. On the other hand, it’s much more profitable in the short term to steal from rich people, but rich people will expend disproportionate amounts of money and effort to punish anyone who they suspect of stealing from them.
Looks like the man behind the (Dumpster)Fyre Fest is about to discover how true that is…
New tonight: Billy McFarland, the man behind Fyre Festival, has been charged with wire fraud pic.twitter.com/QKIcioFfcO
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 1, 2017
Per the NYTimes, which of course sympathizes deeply with the ripped-off richies:
… Billy McFarland, the entrepreneur behind the Fyre Festival, which was sold as an ultraluxurious music event in the Bahamas but collapsed spectacularly in April, leaving behind angry ticket buyers, investors and workers, was arrested by federal agents at his home in Manhattan on Friday and charged with one count of wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors announced the charge involves a scheme to defraud investors, which included misrepresenting financial information about Mr. McFarland’s company, Fyre Media. His representatives were not immediately available for comment.
Joon H. Kim, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement: “McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival.” If convicted, Mr. McFarland could face a maximum of 20 years in prison, but is likely to receive a lesser sentence…
According to the complaint, sworn to by Brandon Racz, a special agent with the F.B.I., at least two people invested about $1.2 million in the two companies, and in communications with these investors in 2016 and 2017, Mr. McFarland repeatedly overstated Fyre Media’s revenue from bookings and his own wealth.
He said Fyre Media had earned millions of dollars from thousands of bookings this year and last. But in reality, the complaint said, his company had taken in only $57,443.
And in one communication with an investor, Mr. McFarland supplied a Scottrade statement that he had altered to inflate his ownership of a particular company’s stock. According to the complaint, the fake document showed that Mr. McFarland owned $2.5 million in shares, when in reality his position was worth $1,500…
OzarkHillbilly
So they admit it, ‘entrepreneur’ is just another way of saying ‘conman’.
Keith P.
Oh, Billy.
OzarkHillbilly
Also,
Ya think? It’s not like he was selling loosies on the street or anything. I mean, just look at that face.
patrick II
If you steal a little from each poor person it adds up — just ask any large corporation.
OzarkHillbilly
@patrick II: And if you are pushing a product that kills 800,000 people every year, you’re a sin tax opportunity.
Aleta
@patrick II: steal a little from each poor person
Straight out of the Kushner housing company handbook.
Aleta
Things Jared has botched:
tenant laws, real estate purchase agreement
negotiating peace in the mideast
managing Tillerson
negotiating blackmail
financing for nyc building 666
Karen
There was that meme on my facebook wall first thing about terrorists being created; people who voted for dolt45 were created. First we had an industrial revolution that took people away from farms to work in factories, mills, and as servants for the newly rich. Then we took jobs away through the marvels of technology, took away unions who would fight for retraining, took away an education that would have helped them, then state governments started stripping away the social safety nets created after the great depression. So we have left behind a group of people with no safety nets, poor health since no one taught the last couple of generations proper nutrition or how to grow their own food. In poor communities young people have choice between WalMart or military, drug use is up and many have ended up on disability. Towns, like one am now living in are dying, each month another house becomes empty or boarded up, people are scared, angry and frightened; politicians look to party and ignore the people they are suppose to represent. So they vote for a man who expresses the same angers; there were two old white men tapping into the same fears and angers but only one was in finals, so they vote for the man who has never been a politician who their news source tells them is going to fix everything. People weren’t so much voting out of hope for something different but the fear that things would only get worse.
Baud
@Karen:
And now they’ve guaranteed it.
Aleta
Causing fear is a Republican/NRA objective. It makes our brains less likely to reason and more likely, they hope, to fight or to vote for protection from the man who talks tough and says he owns a castle.
Karen
@Baud: I agree, since moving here I’ve listened and learned that they believed all the lies about Hillary and didn’t trust a woman; my god, even the women are misogynic. I go to the grocery store and hear what they learned on news, fox. Even overheard a couple talking about Hannity said, then later it was Rush said.
Karen
@Aleta: one of my facebook friends has been posting everything she can find about what evangelical christianity does to brain; it is like doing drugs
Kay
The launch of this voter fraud panel is an absolute disaster:
They really didn’t anticipate that states would object to this?
Look at the due date Kobach gave them, too:
It’s 7/1 and there’s a holiday in there. He basically gave them 8 days. Even if they wanted to comply that’s a ridiculously short window. The commission is incompetent, thank God.
Baud
@Karen: I hate to bring him up on a sleepy Saturday morning, but if Bernie does have these peoples’ ears, one productive thing he could do is to try to convince them not to trust right wing media so much. That would help him too and not require him to say anything nice about Democrats.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Aleta: Yes, but the news last night said he’s working for FREE!
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well no wonder he is failing at everything. He needs a raise and a tax cut!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
This is the same Kris Kobach who as a Secretary of State worked to suppress votes in his own state, no? Who doesn’t know the law in his own state, which said it can’t supply his commission with personal and confidential voter info? Serve him right, I say.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
There are so many Kris Kobach stories you could write a book. Here’s one about how he won’t talk about a certain voter fraud case involving a GOP sheriff.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I kinda disagree ’cause here in Misery it’s working as designed: Missouri GOP flip-flops on privacy to aid Trump’s fake search for voter fraud Their whole purpose is to entrench themselves in power everywhere they can, and in GOP controlled states they will probably succeed.
Baud
@Kay:
How many times have we said this about the Trump administration? How many more times will we?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Haha. Even Mississippi said no.
gene108
@Baud:
They like right-wing media. It reinforces their already developed world view that America would be an ass-kicking machine, if not for liberals and Those People.
I’d be more sympathetic to rural America, if they showed any compassion for big cities that were going to shit in the 1970’s and 1980’s, as the factory jobs in cities moved out, as people left the cities and houses got boarded up, and drug use and crime spiked.
There are policies that would help them and would’ve helped cities bounce back faster, but they keep voting against those policies.
At some point your actions have to have consequences.
Amir Khalid
Woe is me. I bought some cyanoacrylate glue to fix my watch strap. I used a pair of scissors to snip off the tip of the tube at the sop of the little container of glue, and now the blades of the scissors are glued together. Feh.
p.a.
@Karen:
An opiate, as it were!
Baud
@gene108: Can’t disagree. The cities really made a comeback under Bill Clinton. That may be an unappreciated reason they hate the Clintons so much.
Jeffro
I was just catching up on the late-night thread and saw this
Considering how far back in time, and how far-reaching, and how interconnected so much of the Trumpov Inc scandal is…we’re going to basically need a Ken Burns-type documentary to ‘splain it all to regular folks who don’t keep up on all this inside baseball.
I mean, I can see at least five major story threads coming together through the years, culminating in “Pearl Harbor II: the election of 2016”
– Trumpov’s bio, starting with the abusive Fred Trump and how that created the narcissistic dominance-ritual-loving Trumpov of today
– Russia since the end of the Cold War, the rise of Putin, and the past decade of Putin’s war against the West
– a refresher on Watergate and some of the folks (like Stone) from that era
– a refresher on the Clinton Years, Whitewater, and the constant RWNJ drumbeat against Hillary “history’s greatest monster” Clinton
– the post-Citizens United era and the flood of “Dark Money”, to include the Kochs and now the Mercers
– ?
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: So did he already send the info, or is he just planning to do so. Where is the ACLU when we need them? I guess there is another public official to add to my phone list Monday am. Grrrrrr.
Good morning, everyone.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
He was fined for lying to a judge last week:
I think he’ll be a disaster. He was an adviser to Mitt Romney in ’12 and when it came out that he was advising Romney immediately distanced himself. Mitt Romney is smarter than Donald Trump.
They knew the judge would read the memo- the lawsuit was about whether Kobach could hide the memo from the public- he knew the judge had it. They knew judge would read it and compare the memo to what they had told him was in the memo- they didn’t care. They lied about it anyway. Lying like this isn’t a one-off. It’s a problem. Besides the ethical issues, even if Trump doesn’t care about that (and he doesn’t) hiring people like this creates problems.
Baud
@Kay: That deserves a “Can you imagine if a Hillary appointee had…”
efgoldman
Today (July 1) is the second anniversary of my retirement.
It also would have been my mother’s 100th birthday (she made it to 93). A tough, tough lady, in all the positive senses.
gene108
@Jeffro:
You left out Trump’s Russian money laundering and pee hookers.
Kay
@Baud:
The election integrity panel! This guy is leading it! This is his big break- out of state politics and into the majors. He’s supposed to be incredibly ambitious- Romney knew enough to keep him outside the public eye, nationally. He should be a shadowy operative rather than a public figure. Duh.
bemused
I was fascinated watching a clip of Martin Shkreli on Chris Hayes last night and couldn’t help but think how much the cocky punk reminded me of someone. Shkreli is a mini-Trump.
Iowa Old Lady
@Karen: I think one problem the 1% and their R enablers are running into reflects the criminal’s dilemma that Anne mentions about. They’ve already taken so much from the poor that they’re having to look higher in the income scale to find someone worth stealing from. You see that in the health care bill. So it provokes a bigger protest. We’ll see if it’s big enough, I guess.
Baud
@gene108: The pee pee scandal seems almost quaint now.
Amir Khalid
Princess Diana was born on the first of July. She’d be 56 today.
Baud
@Kay: After Trump, no one will ever consider themselves too skeezy to be a leader in the Republican party.
Kay
@Baud:
Trump made the same mistake with DeVos. She’s a big bucks behind the scenes person- you don’t actually hire her. She keeps saying her job isn’t to “make friends”- actually, it is. She has very little real authority over public schools- her WHOLE job is making friends. She’s supposed to be persuading these people, not outraging and alienating them. They don’t have to listen to her, and they don’t have to listen to Kobach either.
For such staunch conservatives they’re very fuzzy on federal/state/local governance.
efgoldman
@Kay:
As of late last evening, it was 27 states. The firmest “go pound sand” was from the RWNJ Secretary of State in that Commie Lefty Liberal bastion, Mississippi.
Oh, and one of the other states that can’t/won’t comply is Kansas, where the Secretary of State is… [wait for it…] Kris Kobach!
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
You probably don’t have any in the house, but nail polish remover (acetone or otherwise) unsticks cyanoacrylate glue.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Which, I suppose, makes him an ideal Trump appointee.
NotMax
Pardon followed by appointment as Comptroller General in 3… 2… 1…
Thoughtful David
In the thread below, someone said they thought Traitor Trump had fallen accidentally into collusion with the Russians, because they had similar goals–to kneecap Clinton.
I disagree, because I remember Tillerson. He seems to dropped off the Russia/treason radar lately, but he shouldn’t. I think it’s pretty clear that there was expectation of great money to be made by himself and Exxon and Traitor Trump from deals with the Russians. The whole reason Tillerson seems to have been nominated for SoS is because Putin wanted him there.
It wasn’t accidental collusion. These guys all wanted to join hands with Putin to win the presidency and hurt Clinton and make money. Putin wanted to damage the US. They all worked together, knowingly. If Traitor Trump and the trumpanzees were too stupid to realize Putin’s objectives, or just didn’t care, that doesn’t matter.
efgoldman
@gene108:
Like this?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The state GOP is doing everything it can to create a Somalia in America, and they just might succeed, Missouri Gov. Greitens signs budget, cuts $251 million in spending :
Putting the Misery in Missouri.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
You’re right, I don’t normally wear nail polish. But I’ll put nail polish remover on my next shopping list.
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: Heh.
Kay
My youngest came in to answer the phone at the law office because the assistant had a family emergency. All our kids have done it at one time or another but this was his first time. So he has to either transfer the call the lawyer or send to voice mail. I was working to file by 4:30 so I couldn’t answer but I could hear him. So when he sends the call he says “transferring” to the caller in this robotic voice. I guffawed, but I don’t want to hurt his feelings so I asked him about it- he said “I think it sounds professional” – dead serious.
Adorable.
efgoldman
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry, buddy, but this is what your friends and neighbors voted for.
We’ve got a house or two for sale in the neighborhood. Good schools, good town services, blue as blue can be (I hear Gin&Tonic laughing in the background). Colder winters than you’re used to but you’ll adapt.
debbie
@Karen:
i prefer this explanation: People voted with their middle finger.
NotMax
Snowball in downhill motion.
Donald Trump Has Finally Done Something: He’s Increased the Deficit By a Trillion Dollars
Phylllis
@efgoldman: By this time next year, I’ll be retired. From this job, anyway. Can’t come soon enough.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara:
ACLU of Missouri Statement on Presidential Commission’s Collection of Voter Information
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
Owing to my mishaps with superglue over the years (like gluing my hand to the windshield while reattaching the mirror), I always have a bottle in the house.
Kay
@efgoldman:
I love that it’s a big PR disaster and the White House had to respond. Kobach gave an interview where he admitted they have no real authority but said DOJ “could” compel. Oh, good luck with that. Prepare for lawsuits. The commission will be so busy suing states they’ll never get anything done, which would be great.
efgoldman
@Phylllis:
I worked for a great company, loved my job, most of my co-workers; but 70 was it for me, so I pulled the plug.
Benjamin Mays
Just a reminder to the BJ community that Virginia has it’s House of Delegates elections this Fall. While we currently have Democrats in all of the State-wide jobs (and a strong ticket for Gov/Lt. Gov/AG) this year), the House is 67 R/33 Dem. 51 of the 100 districts went for Hillary last year, so there are some very viable pick-up opportunities. See “http://bluevirginia.us/2017/06/flip-district-friday-volumes-ii” for some possibilities. A little $ goes a long way in some of these races.
Aleta
@Kay: Education is done by sharing (knowledge), giving (power), subordinating oneself (while leading). How can someone who practices none of that —
Phylllis
@efgoldman: I love my school district, and I do enjoy my work. There’s one person who impedes me getting my work on a regular basis though, and I’m just too damned old and cranky to put up with her bullshit anymore.
efgoldman
@Kay:
No competent DOJ or US attorney would advise the federal government to go forward with this shit. I imagine we’ll see citizen/ACLU suits in state and federal courts against any state that complies.
The kicker was Asshole Kobach refusing to comply with Asshole Kobach’s request. Betty’s chickens have more brains.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman:
No, they voted for worse, much worse. As to moving, not possible. The granddaughter is here, and so will our future grandchildren be (unless my youngest has a change of heart and decides to procreate)
Aleta
@Anne Laurie: Did not know that. Excited to learn I can finally unglue my thumbs from my fingertips.
lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: A Sunshine Law request? I want them to try for a TRO, before the info goes out the door. I don’t think any of the requested information should leave the state. I read that in some states, voter registration info is not considered a “public record,” so not covered by FOIA and only available to authorized persons. Come on, Missouri Republicans, where is your outrage?
TS
@OzarkHillbilly:
The whole concept of no taxes is the most misguided concept in the history of any nation. In a well developed and just community taxes are what keeps a society together and sane. The widening divide between the haves/have nots can be in a large part laid at the feet of no taxes.
That no taxes takes precedence over caring for the elderly is one of the scariest things I have read – and yet – people have been voting for this for the past 40 years.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: The Hill:
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Okay, and how does the DoJ go about “compelling” state officials to break state law?
Elizabelle
@Kay: The robotic voice. That’s hilarious.
Happy long weekend, BJ pals. Hope yours is a good one, with no further superglue mishaps.
Also: can someone explain to me why we’re calling Robert Mueller “Bobby Three Sticks”? What does that mean?
Baud
@Amir Khalid: DOJ can’t compel anything unrelated to an actual investigation. That’s not what this is.
Baud
@Aleta: There are worse places to get your fingers glued to.
debit
@NotMax: Hey, remember when the deficit was a thing? How it was stealing the future from our children and grandchildren and was the worst thing ever? I haven’t heard a thing about it for the last few months. I wonder what changed…
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: Has anyone else noticed that the ACLU has essentially taken over for the Democratic Party? And I say that proudly and in a good way. They have really stepped up their game. DNC, what’s up?
Baud
@Jeffro: No. That’s bullshit. They have different roles to play.
OzarkHillbilly
@lapassionara:
I leave legal stratagems to the lawyers who know what needs to be done and in what order. The ACLU has been very active in fighting voter restrictions, just not always successful.
In their left front pocket, handy for when some DEM somewhere does something in someway imaginably wrong. Remember, in Misery bribery of elected officials is not only legal, it’s encouraged.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
He is Robert S. Mueller III.
Hafabee
@Elizabelle:
Not just us — it apparently is a nickname he got early in his career. I could find no explanation of it, but then it hit me that he is Robert S. Mueller III — the “III” are the three sticks. Also, maybe, referencing his straight-up style?
ETA: SiubhanDuinne got there first, and more succinctly, too.
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
His full name is Robert Swan Mueller III.
ETA: @SiubhanDuinne: Dang you.
Spanky
Here’s the WaPo headline on the relevant article:
Spanky
@Hafabee: Sounds like a mob name, so maybe it came from one of his “clients”.
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: What would Frye choose if offered twenty years in prison or ten years at his own festival?
jeffreyw
Thread needz moar kittehs!
Ms Bea says hi!
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: That sounds like experience talking.
Raven
After a 5 hr visitation the funeral is today @ 2. My bil is being buried above San Pedro in Palos Verdes so he’ll have a decent view. It’s always interesting to be out here because, while it is family, I’m not nearly as close as they all are. It’s just dawn down here at the pier and parking is free until 8 and then I can get 5 hrs @ 1.50 per so I can have a good morning with a bit of body surfing and just hangin wishing I’d learned how to ride a board.Alas, that ship sailed.
Elizabelle
@Raven: I love San Pedro and the PV peninsula. Have a great morning body surfing. I hope the family get together after the funeral is wonderful.
Elizabelle
Thanks all for the Juicesplanation on Bobby Three Sticks. Got it.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
Ms Bea looks very elegant and comfortable.
Phylllis
1776 alert. Showing on TCM Tuesday evening at 10:15 p.m. And the original Broadway cast album is available on Amazon Prime music.
d58826
I have a small suggestion for how the GOP can solve the Medicaid portion of it’s heath care reform nightmare. Simply rename the program TRUMPCAID. Based on the linked Thomas Edsall opinion piece the largest cohorts benefiting from Medicaid are the same WWC/red state/rural voters who are the core of Der Fuhrer’s support. If it is TRUMPCAID it could not possibly be a program for the lazy thieving undeserving OTHER.
nytimes.com/2017/06/29/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-health-care-medicaid.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Elizabelle
@Raven: More suggestions for your stay in the LA area (and how long do you stay):
If you get to Long Beach, gonna recommend Claire’s at the Museum for brunch, Third Street area for looking at vintage stores and drinking coffee, and Schooner or Later near the Alamitos Marina (near border of Long Beach and Seal Beach in the OC) is very popular for brunch or meals. And my fave is in Seal Beach, on the Beach, River’s End Cafe, at the San Gabriel River Channel. Great food, great coffee, spectacular views, and horrendously slow service. Cuz a small kitchen.
Another bonus to hanging out in Long Beach near Seal Beach: great farmer’s market near Alamitos Marina.
And maybe you and the bride could rent bikes and ride the Long Beach waterfront. Flat and wonderful and you end up across from the Queen Mary, if you are that ambitious.
Yes, I miss Long Beach.
SiubhanDuinne
Seen on Facebook:
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: She’s camouflaging those green eyes.
jeffreyw
@SiubhanDuinne:
She has a well developed gardening sense, something akin to a “green paw”.
mai naem mobile
@Jeffro: the DNC is busy mollifying BernieBros because the face of the party you want is somebody who just lawyered up for a possible FBI investigation.
In other normal Dolt 45 newz, Dolt made a comment about how the trade deficit had been horrible for years and that is why we now had a federal debt of 20 trillion .
tom
@efgoldman: That’s right, Mississippi runs its own voter-suppression program very well, thank you very much, and doesn’t need some snot-nosed kid Kobach telling them how to do it.
jeffreyw
@Elizabelle:
She has stars in her eyes.
Karen
@Iowa Old Lady: so far they haven’t run out of places to steal; so far there is always someone less fortunate or there are government “payouts” and “handouts”
look at dolt, he is pocketing millions in taxpayer dollars each time he goes golfing or holds an event at his property
d58826
and on a more serious note on healthcare reform from WAPO.
Or maybe the short version is ‘baby steps’. I would think the D’s would be more amenable to this approach, even Liz Warren, than the R’s but the politicization might just to to great.
washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-congress-could-pass-a-bipartisan-health-bill-people-actually-like/201…
Oldgold
Trumpelstiltskin is after Mika again this morning.
Woodrowfan
As seen in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy: If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him. You probably inherited every penny you got!
tobie
@efgoldman:
One thing nobody likes is being assigned extra work. Kobach is ordering Secretaries of State around, as if he were their boss. He’s not. They don’t like that. I think more no’s will follow from conservative states simply because they’re pissed at this scumbag giving them time-consuming homework assignments. They don’t actually have the information requested ready at their fingertips. They’d have to compile it and to do so they would need to devote a huge amount of time and resources to the task. Most don’t have the funds for this in their budgets.
Karen
can anyone explain why governors think or believe that shutting down the state’s government is a good idea? LePage has threatened to do so, he has already stripped the people of state of nearly every safety net and service. A few days ago the local police once again showed up at door with latest sex offender to move into area report, and brag they are keeping an eye on the black kid next door to stop the drug dealing. the drug dealer on this street is the “nice white kid” a few houses down.
Jeffro
@Oldgold: Just saw that…”crazy” and “dumb as a rock” but hey they’re “not bad people”. LOL
Hey GOP, miss Obama yet?
Immanentize
@Woodrowfan: or Bob Dylan:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If this Kobach thing can get all the recently formed groups– Wilmerites, Kander’s group, Indivisible– focusing on their state gov’ts, that would be a net positive. I wonder what percentage of Americans can name their state representative(s).
Raven
@Elizabelle: thanks, I’m by myself on this trip. I do the beach in the morning and then am at the mercy of the natives
Immanentize
One of the things that pisses me off about Trump’s tirades against Mika is that her father just died a month ago! Have a little respect!
Immanentize
@Raven: @Elizabelle:
Raven, I am sorry about your BiL and I hope the whole family is pulling together. I am certain they are glad you able to join them.
But if you have time outside of body surfing and relatives, and you too Elizabelle, check out the Museum of Jurassic Technology to get your absurd bone tickled.
Vhh
@p.a.: Religion is the opium of the people.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Respect has always been the farthest thing from Trump’s universe.
Woodrowfan
@Karen: small correction, the white kid is an “entrepreneur.” Only non-white (and poor white) kids are “drug dealers.”
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
I was thinking that too.
Oldgold
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
·
1h
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
Hmm, has knucklehead considered the same question might be asked concerning his tax returns?
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Will do. Best to you and Mrs. Imm and young Imm.
mai naem mobile
Sounds like Dolt made a pass at Mika and she must have rejected him. He must have not known that she was screwing around with Joe so he became doubly pissed off. There’s something very personal in this Mika stuff. Ofcourse we could all be getting played here by the three for their own reasons.
Elizabelle
@Raven: Ah. And you’re already a lark, and on East Coast time besides. Mornings are good. Some private time, in midst of family gathering.
bemused
@mai naem mobile:
That hadn’t occurred to me but it is his reflexive action. I’m thinking not because she is 50, at least 20-25 years past his prime victims.
frosty
@Raven: I spent a summer when I was a Californian learning to ride a board. Succeeded in either standing or steering but not both. I came away thinking it’s the most difficult sport out there from the combination of balance, strength, fast reflexes, etc.
Still have the board – it was my college roommate’s (who COULD surf).
chris
@NotMax: Wait until he starts a war.
Isn’t it time for some Democrats to start yelling about the debt and deficit and Greece, etc? Here in Canada there’s some low level whining from the right about “balancing the budget.” Justin campaigned on running a deficit to fix some of the damage done during nine years of Conservative rule and he won a strong majority.
Happy Canada Day!
Raven
@frosty: I used to be really good on a skateboard. About 10 years ago I tried one of those new big ones. That ship had sailed too. On the other hand, I’ve bodybsurfed all my life and it does me fine at 67.
Baud
@Oldgold:
Fixed.
frosty
@Raven: I never got into skateboards and like you, the surfboard ship has sailed. Still biking (rail trails mostly) though. And sailing when I can clear out the garage to get the boat out.
chris
Pro tip for glue, paint etc. Get a box of disposable vinyl gloves at the hardware store. Then you can glue the gloves to things! True story.
d58826
@tobie: Der Fuhrer is ranting on this today also.
This actually should open a serious debate about access to state data, security of personnel ids, in the cyber age.
The supporters of turning over the data claim it is already available in the public section. Now that may or may not be true. And it may be true but only some of the data is available. The supporters also say that anyone can walk into a county board of election and get this data. Scary thought.
Now this access issue applies to more than just voter rolls. Some states sell drivers license/registration information to who ever can afford it.
Now back in the day this might not have been a problem with the data was being distributed on paper or punch cards or mag. tape. The way the data was being distributed (i.e. mainframe to main frame) made ‘hacking’ difficult, which acted as a crude level of data security. Today with servers, internet, cloud computing that crude security is gone.
So the larger issue is (and it will never get addressed) is do we need a real/encrypted/virtually impossible to hack individual id number/photo card. Obviously we have the wide open SSN today. My little pasteboard card says not to be used for identification but try to buy a pack of gum w/o it.
So you make sure every child born in a US hospital, and therefore a birthright citizen) has this secure photo id card. As they grow up the photo will have to be updated. And over time it will be used as the basis of a drivers licence, id for welfare/snap, voter id, medical alert and what ever else we can build into a smart card. Offices to apply for/update could be almost any where – board of elections, DMV/post office, mall,etc. Go in complete the necessary forms/photos and the info is transmitted to a central site(s) where it is processed and the new card is then mailed from. Again back in the day when I renewed my photo drivers license they took the photo and gave me the card right then and there. Now we do the paper work/have the photo taken at the local DMV office and I get the updated license about a week later from the state office in Raleigh about a week later.
Yes it will be complicated and expensive. Yes we will lose some ‘freedom’ but how free are we live with the constant risk of identity theft. We are way past the day when a handshake will suffice.
Now I realized the only security that the GOP has in mind is to secure the vote for GOP voters only.
Karen
@Woodrowfan: thanks, but to me doesn’t matter what color the skin or how rich they are; doctors who push prescriptions rather than helping people are drug dealers to me.
d58826
Let that response speak for itself.
twitter.com/tomricks1/status/881145323896410112
d58826
@d58826: And there really was one by that name and not just a pun by Ricks
Jim Parene
@Elizabelle: The Art Deco Bar on the Queen Mary is always worth a visit!
jimmiraybob
I read today that Alex Jones is promoting a NASA child kidnapping ring and colony on mars and then I read that the head of the EPA is setting up a “red team/blue team” war gaming scenario to see if global warming is real or just a scientist-enrichment scheme. Can a BJ tech mogul put together a countdown to a Medieval America clock somewhere prominently on the front page. I assume that it would run backwards and increments would be in centuries.
I’d like to be able to compare with the nuclear doomsday clock.
SiubhanDuinne
Neither New Jersey nor Illinois was able to pass a budget before last night’s midnight deadline. NJ government is shut down (non-essential services, e.g. state beaches and parks closed at the start of a long holiday weekend), while IL legislature is staying on in special session until they can come up with a budget the governor can sign.
Any Juicers from those states care to comment about how long these stalemates are likely to last, and what kind of effect the closures might have on you?
Lapassionara
@Vhh: These days, opiates are the religion of the people.
Spanky
@chris: I once took a boatbuilding class with a guy whose broken finger had a big splint. When it came time to do some heavy-duty epoxy work, we all trooped to the local pharmacy to buy a box of latex (in those days) gloves and a pack of unlubricated condoms.
Ah, the look on the girl’s face…
d58826
@SiubhanDuinne: GOP freedom in action. I’m sure an essential service in NJ will be see that Der Fuhrer gets to his golf game.
And Twitter is saying there is a partial shutdown in Maine.
Spanky
@d58826: Yes, but will the NJ governor keep the bridges open?
trollhattan
Anybody catch what our buddy Steve King is sneaking through congress? “Protecting Access to Care Act” sounds so…progressive.
One recalls that apart from ruining the federal budget and before the job-creator that was 9/11, Dubya’s hobby horse was tort and bankruptcy reform in the form of reserving those things for corporations only.
Jeffro
@Oldgold: Jason Kander just asked that very same thing
normal liberal
@SiubhanDuinne:
I work in local government in Illinois-I have one project that relies on state funding, which we’re putting on hold until the state gets it together. Could be a long wait. Friends in other locations working on this project are unemployed as of yesterday. State workers will get paid, thanks to a lawsuit the last time this happened, but there’s a lot they can’t do.
The real victims are non-profit social service agencies that use Medicaid or other state-managed funding, and all their clients. A bunch of non-profits will go under or cut services. This means senior services clients, people with disabilities, dialysis patients and many others go without, or die waiting.
Gov. Rauner is Trump minus the vulgarity – a billionaire CEO who was shocked to learn that the General Assembly does not work for him. We are so fucked.
Karen
@d58826: LePage is notorious for being a tinpot ruler he is the “mini me” of dolt45
pressherald.com/2017/06/30/as-legislature-works-to-pass-compromise-state-budget-deal-lepage-says-he-…
Jeffro
Mueller talking to Joe and Mika
Woodrowfan
@Karen: I agree. Unfortunately it seems to matter to law enforcement agencies
japa21
@normal liberal: One of the biggest problems is that Rauner is demanding some things that are not totally budget related. Among them are term limits, property tax freeze and some anti union measures. He states he wants to compromise, but he won’t. He wants a balanced budget but no increase in income taxes. IL is constitutionally prohibited from doing progressive income tax. The voters have expressed a willingness to tax the wealthy at a higher level but it would require a constitutional amendment.
d58826
@Spanky: Well he will keep at least one lane of the GW open so that when his approval rating gets into single digits and the mob comes after him with tar and feathers he will have an escape route. Of course no telling what will greet him on the NY side.
Ruckus
@Karen:
evangelical christianity does to brain; it is like doing drugs
It’s an escape from every day life with little to no opportunity. Up until the industrial revolution got really going, about 100 yrs ago, most people did some job or work for meager food and shelter, with nothing different/better in sight. The industrial revolution was dangerous and dirty but it was an opportunity for a better life. And in the last 50 yrs it delivered. For most it wasn’t a lot better life but it was something. But religion promised perfection. All for being subservient to an idea. That is a cult. A promise that can’t be kept, of something that isn’t real, to people who can’t be satisfied because they will never be what they think they should be/deserve. Evangelical christianity is just the snake oil that people who really want to believe swallow. And scientology works because it promises a path to get to that end point that isn’t dying. A cult with a plus.
normal liberal
@japa21:
Hence the Trump comparison. Rauner thinks these barriers in state law are just a nuisance, another set of job-killing government regulations. A real leader ignores those distractions and forges ahead.
Thus his expectations that Madigan will roll over and do Rauner’s bidding. LOL, as the kids on my lawn say.
All of which makes me question Rauner’s brains. I know they have newspapers in Winnetka, so how could he be so oblivious?
I hope the state Democratic upper echelon has someone besides Pritzker on deck, since a white Dem Chicago (but I repeat myself) rich guy has no prayer Downstate.
d58826
Well that is a relief – NASA has officially denied the Alex Jones claim that there are child sex slaves on Mars.
But suspiciously they have not ruled out any of the other planets.
Jeffro
@d58826:
From this coming fall semester forward, students are going to have such an interesting time in their American History class…
stinger
@efgoldman: Congratulations, on both the retirement and the mother! I didn’t think of mine as tough, but she made it to 94.
stinger
@Kay: I love it.
Citizen Alan
@mai naem mobile:
I once argued with a republican for half an hour about economics before I finally realize that he was using the terms trade deficit, budget deficit, and national debt interchangeably. They all just wallow in ignorance, don’t they?
schrodingers_cat
@Citizen Alan: But they think they are so smart because Rush educated them or something. He is a good teacher, I have heard, said without any irony.
d58826
@Citizen Alan: Isn’t that like teaching a pig to sing?
sm*t cl*de
@d58826:
The Roman Empire went from Marcus Aurelius — who spent his reign trying to hold the Empire together and repair the damage wrought by previous misadministration — to Commodus. Who devoted his Caesarship to partying, corruption, playing at gladiator, avoiding responsibilities and generally undoing Aurelius’ last-chance efforts,
john fremont
@efgoldman: BTW, as of this date, has there been any US Attorneys put in since Sessions relieved them all a few months ago?
john fremont
@d58826: Notice that they didn’t say anything about the International Space Station either. How could an astronaut live up there for a year?????
J R in WV
@stinger:
My mom had COPD from Pall Mall addiction. She was hospitalized early on, and her doctors out in the hallway told us 3-6 months. She lasted 5 more years, mostly due to the home health care that our father gave her. Tough girl.
She whispered to me not long before she died that she had been canceling out Dad’s Republican votes for years, ever since they went crazy about Row V Wade and Pro-life bullshit (her words).
She was pro-choice her whole life, I believe in part from a beloved friend who died young after a botched abortion. “Now don’t tell your Dad, it would just hurt his feelings!” And I never did.
Another Scott
@john fremont: On June 12 he nominated 8 people as USA. I haven’t heard that hearings have been held, let alone a vote (but I haven’t checked). There are 93. Half were fired, half resigned.
It will be a while…
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.