Tonight, families around the world will light the first candles of Hanukkah. And for eight nights, those flames will light others, spreading their light.
May the glow of our White House Menorah join yours to celebrate the miracle of faith and the strength in each of us. pic.twitter.com/tDsHf6SAYx
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) December 8, 2023
Happy Hanukkah from my family to our Jewish friends and neighbors in San Francisco and around the world!
In this challenging time, may the Festival of Lights bring peace, perseverance and hope to all who observe. -NP pic.twitter.com/n95NFmqhDx
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) December 7, 2023
Tonight, we proudly light our menorahs and let them shine out our front windows as a reminder that even in darkness, we can bring forth the light. From our family to yours, happy Hanukkah! pic.twitter.com/oGxtnYtxOn
— Douglas Emhoff (@SecondGentleman) December 8, 2023
This year, Hanukkah starts at sundown tonight. In the past 40 years, presidents have participated in Hanukkah celebrations, a tradition that began when President Jimmy Carter lit one candle in the 30-foot electric menorah in 1979. Learn more: https://t.co/dFJgwg9HIo pic.twitter.com/CICJ0vY0CP
— White House History (@WhiteHouseHstry) December 7, 2023
On The Road – Captain C – Amsterdam, October 2023, Part 3
NotMax
By now, obligatory.
:)
Betty Cracker
Here’s an update on the tawdry scandal engulfing the FL GOP, Moms for Liberty, Sarasota Co. School Board, Central FL Tourism Oversight Board, etc. The Florida Center for Government Accountability, which is the outfit that first reported the ongoing sexual assault investigation into FL GOP Chair Christian Ziegler, now says the cops have recovered the sex video Ziegler claimed would exonerate him from the rape charge. If the reporter’s source describes the video content accurately (and everything else they said has been confirmed so far), the sexual assault charge won’t hold up.
But the Zieglers both admitted to at least one three-way encounter with the alleged victim, and they are almost certainly done politically, though neither seems ready to admit that yet. Maybe they think they can brazen it out like Trump, but I suspect they’re about to find out otherwise. Cult members don’t have the same leeway as cult leaders. The next school board meeting is gonna be LIT!
Baud
Happy Hanukkah! 🕎
Geminid
@Baud: Happy Hannukah! May your lamps keep burning.
There was some good Hannukah news yesterday, amidst all the bad. AP reported on a meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Aliyev:
Armenia and Azerbaijan have the chance to move beyond 30 years of war that has brought them nothing but bloodshed and destruction.
There was good news from Athens also. Journalist Ragip Soylu reported results from Turkish President Erdogan’s visit to Greece:
Erdogan spends a lot of his time barking, but yesterday he was wagging his tail:
p.a.
🕎 !
Suzanne
I am enjoying watching Rishi Sunak struggle. Brexit has really dumped that country straight into the shitter. All the attempts at turd-polishing haven’t helped.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
OzarkHillbilly
This is rich:
Oh my Gawd! This District Attorney wants to put my client in prison! In all my years of defending people in criminal courts, I’ve never had such a vindictive DA!
I mean, c’mon guys, really?
From.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: These lawyers’ clients may be genuinely shocked at the prospect of prison. They shouldn’t be, though; they tried to steal a Presidential election, and they’re lucky to be facing as little prison time as the are. In a different time or place, they’d be facing the gallows.
Scout211
Happy Hanukkah!
In other news, did anyone post the news that Cheesy-bro is cooperating in multi-state probes of the fake electors plot?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I woke up with my head full of ideas for filling in plot holes in what I’m currently writing. I had to run to write them down before they faded. That morning creativity is one of the best parts of writing.
Betty
@Geminid: Following Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula?
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: if the DA was a white man, this comment would have been a nothing burger. instead, we have the equivalent of “How dare that uppity ——— threaten my client with jail time for a crime!”
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Their clients? For sure, they all acted as tho the law doesn’t apply to them. Their lawyers tho? I take their whining as an acknowledgement of their clients guilt and possibly of Kemp not promising pardons or commutations.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Interesting.
I have a question, though. How does one video that doesn’t show rape and sexual assault prove that rape and sexual assault didn’t happen?
I have not been following the story closely – do we have an exact date for the allegations, and the video in question was date and time stamped?
I also wonder if they had permission to be taping the sexual activity, even the ones that were consensual?
Kay
@Scout211:
I’m so pleased all of the states involved are investigating.
Pennsylvania’s fake electors added a caveat to their petition where they said they were only electors if a court determined they were electors, which probably saves them from criminal prosecution.
BlueGuitarist
@rikyrah:
good morning!
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: They are little snowflakes. Which is kind of funny given that they are criminals and/or attorneys.
Also, please note that the prosecutor is female. How dare she???!!
edit: I see that Lapassionara got there first in reference to the “she’s not just uppity, she’s also a bitch” criticisms.
Geminid
@Betty: These developments are on either side of the Ukraine geographically, and are not directly related to the Ukraine war. But they could contribute to a longer term stability in the region that Ukraine can benefit from in the medium and long term.
They also lessen the opportunities for Russian meddling. Russia thrives on regional and world instability
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I bet they enjoy this less now the it’s being said to them, as opposed to all the times they have surely said it to someone else.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl:@Lapassionara: That could well play into it, but this can’t be the first time they’ve sparred with a black/woman prosecutor.
Maybe they are just pretending to be outraged to assuage their clients hurt feefees. Whatever it is, I hope they have their fainting couches close by..
WaterGirl
.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I don’t think it does. I disagree with the lawyer quoted in the piece. It also doesn’t matter that she “invited him in” (the defense he uses in a later text to her). I think his apology and offer to help her (including offering her money) goes against him. It woudn’t be a slam dunk for prosecutors but lack of consent cases, where the parties have a consensual sexual history, never are.
My concern would be he’s politically powerful and would be protected or treated differently.
Mousebumples
Good morning all!
We enjoyed attending the Christmas Program for my daughter’s 4K class last night. So cute to see the kiddos singing and trying to remember all the words. 🤣
Happy Friday!
Soprano2
I’m sure it hasn’t escaped the notice of anyone here that the three university presidents who testified about anti-semitism on their campuses are all female, and one is black. Of course the House only called women and black people to beat up on – not a white man in sight. I wish they had been better prepared for what they had to know was coming, and relentlessly repeated that they are for freedom of speech even when it’s odious, that even odious speech should not be punished in the way these people in Congress seem to want to punish it, and then cited how conservatives have been insisting for years that people who spew odious and eliminationist rhetoric should be welcomed to speak on college campuses with open arms. Instead, they got lawyerly and into the weeds where no one could understand what they were saying, and made it sound like they were against calling for genocide against Jewish people (did this really happen, where people actually said this?) but there was nothing they could do about it. I appreciate Martin’s explanation of why this is a difficult issue for universities in general, but it’s hard to convey that to a Congress that wants to hate on you because you don’t love them and TFG and all their supporters who want to eliminate gay and transgender people.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mousebumples: That sounds so cute.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Absolutely. You let someone you know into your house and that means you have consented to sexual activity?
What year do they thing this is?
The “she invited him in” defense has been bullshit since they first started using it in the 70s, or earlier.
narya
@Scout211: Wow–I’m genuinely surprised by this one, and genuinely pleased; I figured he’d just brazen it out. If he also testifies in the DC J6 trial . . . Having someone who was hip-deep in the whole scheme, and that far up the chain to TIFG, is a pretty BFD.
WaterGirl
@Mousebumples: @Dorothy A. Winsor:
My favorite part of the professional hockey games I used to go to in Michigan was when they had the “pee wee” hockey teams out on the ice for “scrimmages” between periods.
So adorable watching those little ones! 100x more fun than the grown-ups playing.
WaterGirl
@narya: Unless I’m confusing Cheese-bro with one of the other defendants, the word is that he is totally out of $$, so he really has very little choice about whether to cooperate.
He will have to plead, and all this cooperation will surely shorten his prison sentence. Pretty sure all the looming indictments really focuses the mind.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: re: Cheesy-bro’s proffer:
From the article:
Nelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This made ne happy! The idea that you and others are waking up and creating! There are beautiful sunrises, nests are revealing themselves as leaves fall, children are chattering as they head off to school. Artists pick up brushes and colored pencils, musicians sit down at pianos, and writers pick up pens or flex their hands above their keyboards. Geese just flew overhead, honking, and creativity flies above the din of politics.
WaterGirl
@Nelle:
That paragraph is almost like poetry!
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Brian Kemp has really stayed clear of this mess. That was the only proper course and the safest one too, but a lot of Republican politicians would have entangled themselves in Trump’s schemes despite their own self-interests.
Nelle
An OT comment on one of my forays into talking across generations: a 17 y.o. clerk at Kwik Star said, ” I think my age group is going to come around but I’m worried about kids four and five years younger. I don’t think older people understand how much Covid lockdowns affected them. When they should have been learning to talk face to face, all contact with friends was through tech. They really have trouble face to face.”
I’ve been thinking about this ever since. That age group is totally off my radar.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle: Wow. Thank you. Among other things, I figured out how to kill a character, but what you said sounds much better.
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Just as I suspected, you are not able to give up on writing. It’s great that your creative juices are working. I’m in the process of figuring out the character arc in my next book, and it is going slowly. Late night is when I get my best ideas. Early morning is for coffee and news.
Steeplejack
Asking for technical advice:
At noon today I have a video call that I thought was going to be on Zoom, but it’s actually on Microsoft Teams. And I’m going to have to do it on my (Android) phone, not my computer.
So what is the best way to do this? Download the Teams app or (based on my reading of the invitation) just use my browser to go to the linked webpage? And how hard is it to do? I have no experience with Teams. Any tips or tricks also appreciated.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Josie: Are you using the same characters or historical setting?
This is my last book.
frosty
@Kay: Rats. I was hoping PA was next and it would take down Scott Perry and Doug Mastriano. I guess I’ll have to knock on doors next year to help run Perry out of Congress.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Yep. Kemp is not an idiot even if he is a Republican.
The whole dawgdamned party has entangled itself in trump’s schemes, the one’s who haven’t are the exceptions that prove the rule.
geg6
@Steeplejack:
Use the app. I’m forced to use Teams for work, so I know it’s pretty easy and not all that different from Zoom. I prefer Zoom, but we use Teams for pretty much everything here at the University, so I am often forced to use the video there. Thankfully, because I like Zoom better, I use it for any meetings I set up and most of my co-workers and counterparts at other campuses also do. I do like the chat function. I pretty much hate the rest of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack: The only tip I can offer is to get “too sick to participate”.
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, the setting is Mexico after the Revolution and the characters are the children of the original couple. My plan is to do a third book bringing Mexico to the present time, but I’m not sure I have the ganas to make it happen. We shall see. Is yours a sequel?
ETA: Then I will be done for sure.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: I agree, but I think the issue is she initially told the cops one story (he forced his way in when she opened the door to walk the dog) and building cameras indicate he knocked, and she opened the door and let him in.
I’m assuming the video the alleged perp took with his iPhone has date and time stamps since they usually do, and the cops have texts and statements from both parties that establish the general timeframe. That doesn’t prove he didn’t also assault her when the phone wasn’t recording, but it seems like that would be difficult to prove. I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know — maybe they’ll charge him. I’d be surprised if they do.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Apps load faster. I haven’t done Teams on my phone but have done Zoom. It was better with the app.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
Thanks for the advice. I presume you use Teams on your computer, which is how I have used Zoom in the past. I’m also wondering how gnarly it will be to use Teams on my phone. Guess I’ll look on YouTube, that font of all DIY knowledge.
schrodingers_cat
OT: I had asked this question on a dead thread has anyone here used Derwent Inktense paint pans and pencils? They activate like watercolor and but are permanent when dry like India Ink.
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good advice, but I can’t duck this one. It’s a “meet and greet” with a lawyer to start the process of writing a will and getting my (ridiculously simple) affairs in order.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks for the tip.
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: Thank you! I’d forgotten all about that video and seeing it again was fun.
When it first came out, I played it for everyone in my orbit. And yet, I forgot it existed. Memory can be so random.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Josie: I thought that time period was interesting in your first book. I knew very little about it other than having heard of Pancho Villa in Westerns.
The sequel to Glass Girl is already slated for release in September. This is the third and last book.
artem1s
@p.a.:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Or to taint the jury pool – i.e. their clients were declared guilty without benefit of a trial.
AliceBlue
@OzarkHillbilly: Kemp’s situation is interesting. The state party is so bugfuck crazy he won’t have anything to do with them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: One of the issues, if it were to go to trial, is that the video from the building camera seems to contradict parts of her story. This impacts her credibility. As a result, when they get to the part of her story that are purely “he said/she said,” she is at a distinct disadvantage. The defense doesn’t have to do much more than cast her as an unreliable witness. “You, the jury, simply cannot trust her version of the events and, therefore, have no choice but to return a verdict of not guilty.” Hell, do at as more in sorrow than anger. She not a liar; she is just overcome with guilt and regret for what she did with the defendant and built a false narrative in her head to cope.
BlueGuitarist
@frosty:
Excellent!
How do the candidates in the D primary look to you? Of course any of them would be better than the odious Perry.
Are you in PA House district 88 or PA Senate district 15?
do you think any other state legislative seats in the area could be flipped?
narya
@Steeplejack: I refused to download the app because I loathe Teams. I found it to be a terrible platform, no matter whether I was on a Dell or a MacBook; that non-functionality made me decide to avoid downloading at all costs.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I use Teams at work. I don’t use the video function, and it is on our desktops and laptops. I will not put it on my phone. No helpful advice on the tech. OTOH, wrt your will, make sure you leave at least one really weird bequest. It makes the trust and estate guys’ lives more interesting.
Steeplejack
@narya:
I found some information on Microsoft’s site that indicates the easiest path is to use the Teams app. (Going to check that with other sources.) So I’ll probably download it and then delete it after the meeting. Future meetings with the attorney will probably be in person (or just by phone).
BlueGuitarist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
excellent!
when I read your first phrase i couldn’t help but hear Dylan
i wake up in the morning, fold my hands and pray for rain
got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane
Glad you’ve got a bright sun shiny day of useful ideas.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: I’ve never done Teams on the phone. It’s pretty easy on a computer, although I prefer Zoom.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Like to Sturbridge Village? (ask me how I know)
MazeDancer
Feels like the White House is putting out a little extra Hanukkah cheer this year. And it is needed.
All I can do is retweet every celebratory message.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Great suggestion on the “really weird bequest.” I’ll have to put some thought into that.
I am doing this now as part of a post-pandemic “declutter/organize my life” plan, the need underscored by a close friend’s shocking death in a car accident a month ago. It really brought home the fact that none of us knows how much time we have left.
HinTN
@Steeplejack: I got the app on my android. Works fine.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
I would prefer to use the computer, but it won’t be possible today.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: I don’t think that’s weird at all. When my family lived in Newtown, we had a membership (who knows, my mom and dad may have continued it) and went at least once a month. I meant something like a requirement that someone leave a bottle cap on Fatty Arbuckle’s gravestone on St Michael’s Day every Leap Year.
Steeplejack
@HinTN:
Thanks, that gives me some confidence.
HinTN
@Josie: I just have to say that I really liked A Dangerous Woman. I look forward to your sequel.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@BlueGuitarist: It really is true that creativity seems to flow in that alpha wave state.
jonas
@OzarkHillbilly: Willis’s case against Trump in NY is a civil suit, not a criminal one. He’s facing huge fines and the loss of his business licenses, not prison time. Was Willis talking about the prospect of prison in his *other* cases? What am I missing?
Nelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oooo, new ways to kill people. My inner bad Mennonite girl is thrilled.
HinTN
@jonas: DA Willis is in Atlanta. That’s a criminal case.
jonas
@HinTN: You’re right — I was thinking of Letitia James. Ugh. Need moar coffee.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: @zhena gogolia: Heh that’s where I took my oath of citizenship.
BTW how do you go about making a will if you have assets/interests in more than one country
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Tell your lawyer about it. If they are good, they will either know how to handle it or they will refer you to someone who can. That’s well outside my area of competence.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I like to do something creative in the morning too. That’s when I have the most ideas.
Geminid
@Betty: President Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula is a good template for solving these problems. The Athens agreements may express what could eventually be known as the Fidan Docrine. Turkiye’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, was very well-prepared for the post he assumed in June, and enjoys a high level of trust and confidence from his boss, President Erdogan.
Fidan was a soldier-turned-academic in 2005 when Prime Minister Erdogan tapped him to be his trouble shooter. Fidan was Erdogan’s emmisary to secret talks with PKK leaders in Norway and later with PKK leader Ocalan. Fidan spent the last 11 years as head of M.I.T., Turkiye’s intelligence agency. That by nature is a low-profile job, but Fidan became well known within security circles from Tehran to Tripoli.
Erdogan’s talents lie in domestic politics and his foreign policy has been largely improvised, with very mixed results. Fidan emphasises a more methodical approach, seeking to define and “institutionalize” bilateral relations through measures like we saw in Athens yesterday.
Turkiye is a major regional power and a near neighbor to both Israel and Ukraine. It can play a positive role in the region, and is better able to with the “intellectual” Hakan Fidan complementing the headstrong R.T. Erdogan.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Not an issue for me. I barely have assets in one country!
Josie
@HinTN:
Thank you.
narya
@Steeplejack: I realize my loathing for Teams is possibly pathological . . . and I ended up getting an Office-for-Mac subscription for my consulting, and it reminds me how much I loathe Microsoft products in general. Excel is the one exception.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Both India and the US love to wallow in paperwork and bureaucracy. Indian officialdom is worse though. Assets are not huge but the headaches in dealing with them are.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: Depending on the country, your will, or resulting probate documents, in one country may be accepted in the other country. You need to talk to a lawyer in each country to be sure. In fact, talk to more than one. Not all are well informed. Also, check every 5 years or so because laws change. You don’t want to know how I know all this.
In the US wills follow the laws of the state in which the will is written, in which you hopefully reside. If you have assets in more than one state you also need to be sure your will follows the laws of the other state(s).
Back to the various countries, laws/rules that apply in one country do not necessarily apply in the other. Example: a tax free inheritance in another country may not be tax free in the US. So you may (likely do) need an accountant in all countries in which you have assets. Perhaps a financial adviser as well.
OzarkHillbilly
@jonas: ;-)
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: last book from you? Or last book in the glass girl series?
OzarkHillbilly
@Yarrow: Reading this comment makes me want to just say, “Screw it, I’ll be dead. Somebody else’s problem.”
Ohio Mom
@schrodingers_cat: Who do you know in the Indian-American community who is older and more prosperous than you? They will have already dealt with this or know someone who did, and they will tell you which attorneys to seek out or avoid.
WaterGirl
@narya: I much prefer numbers, which is free on a Mac, to excel.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Kay: A high-ranking Republican official under indictment claims “this piece of evidence that was under my exclusive control will be released soon and exonerate me of everything.“
I’ve heard this song and seen this dance before…
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: My condolences on the sudden loss of your friend. That would totally shake one’s faith in the world.
Yarrow
@OzarkHillbilly: If you have anyone you care about that you want to be sure gets your assets then unfortunately it’s better to care and do the work to make sure they do. I will say it fucking sucks.
TBone
@Kay: I am still pissed about that since they all knew they were not the official electors but signed anyway because of a get out of jail free clause in the document. That’s not how any of this works! We had a rural county worker remove hard drives and take them home as well but i can’t remember her name and can find nothing about whether she was prosecuted. Also too, some rural polling stations “ran out of paper” on election day and had to delay…
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I’ll take em off your hands. I ain’t got shit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: My condolences on your loss.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
BWA HA AH AHA H AH AH AHA H AH
OzarkHillbilly
@Yarrow: Like I said, makes me want to… Got a headache just reading that.
Ohio Mom
@Yarrow: Or maybe sell, donate or otherwise rid yourself of the assets in the other country?
This will probably be a hassle but at least when you are done, it’s over. You don’t have to keep checking to see if the rules have changed.
When I was a girl, my grandmother gave me an Israel bond. Boy, was that hard to cash in. The system is set up for an easy roll over to a new bond, they really don’t want you to take your money.
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: This is a good point. Ask around for sure. I will say as a point of caution that someone who used to be good may not be good now. Older people may have always used a certain lawyer but that lawyer may not be best for you. Maybe they’re starting to wind down their business. Ask.
Also, I will say, if you go with a small firm ask what happens if the lawyer you’re working with isn’t available – they die, they get seriously ill, etc. If they don’t have redundancy built in/a team that steps in, then walk away.
narya
@WaterGirl: Yes, I use Numbers a lot for my own stuff, and I like it, but I used Excel a lot when I was working, and I could make it sing and dance in ways that Numbers can’t quite do. I’d really like to avoid the Microsoft world completely, but I finally gave up; it’s just easier to work in Word/Excel natively, rather than trying to do it in Pages/Numbers and then save-as or export so I can share the docs easily. At one point I contemplated getting a cheap-ish Dell or something, and using that entirely for my consulting, but decided it just wasn’t worth doing.
RevRick
Channukah is a somewhat ironic religious celebration for liberal Jews since the story of the Maccabean rebellion involves fanatic fundamentalist Jews in a civil war against secularizing Jews and their Greco-Syrian/Egyptian rulers. It’s the story of imperialism versus theocracy. In that fight, which side would any of us choose?
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: .@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks.
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: Depending on what the assets are, you may or may not be able to do that. Parents in another country may have assets and you need to be prepared for what happens when they die. You don’t get to decide what they do with them. Or you have shared assets in another country with a sibling or other family member. You can’t always sell. Your will may need to reflect that. And it can change.
Other assets may not be something you can dispose of easily without massive penalties – pensions or other retirement vehicles. Sometimes you make a calculated decision to wait until you are at a certain age to avoid tax penalties. That may not be best if someone dies younger. But it may be a calculated smart choice based on the info you have
It’s not always easy to deal with this situation.
schrodingers_cat
@Ohio Mom: No that easy for me to do right now. I am going to India next year and will start the ball rolling. Its not just one bond. Its a mix of fixed assets and relatively liquid assets.
What @Yarrow said.
rikyrah
@Steeplejack
I like the app
Yarrow
@OzarkHillbilly: You have no idea.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: Reiterating what I said that assets considered tax free in one country may be income in the US if you liquidate. Check with your accountant and come up with tax strategies if your income will be affected.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Steeplejack: I’m sorry to hear about your friend. Something so sudden just can’t be anticipated then it hits you, almost like a car accident.
schrodingers_cat
@Ohio Mom: There is no Indian-American community where I live. I do have one Indian American friend who lives in the next town but they are from a different state in India and they own agricultural property which is subject to different laws.
I don’t even know exactly what I and my husband own and are responsible for actually. The first trip has to be just a fact finding mission.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: There is a property in my family that, if my mom were to pass away before my dad, would be owned 25% by me, 25% by my brother, and 50% by my aunt with a life estate in my mom’s 50% to my dad (also a life estate in my aunt’s 50% if she predeceases my uncle). Based on my aunt’s will, my brother and I will eventually own it 50/50. With all of that going on, it would be very hard for me to dispose of my interest in it (something I have no interest in doing btw).
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Just throwing out there that land ownership is a terrible practice.
zhena gogolia
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: That you, Henry George?
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m very familiar with that sort of situation. It can be a fucking pain, especially if it’s in a different country. And if the family doesn’t get along. And if you don’t have whatever money is needed for upkeep/taxes.
Sometimes the parents have a desire for the family to keep the “family property” in the family. But the kids aren’t interested in it at all, maybe never go there. They’d rather have the money. Or some are, some aren’t. It can be a nightmare.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@zhena gogolia: Who the fuck is Henry George?
OzarkHillbilly
@Yarrow: Of that, I am quite sure.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Henry George.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle, @Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks. I was friends with this woman for over 40 years. She was in her early 80s but physically fit and “young for her age.” She moved to Colorado a few weeks before the accident and was a passenger in the car with two friends.
She had severe injuries and was in the ICU. I was getting sporadic reports from a mutual friend and was thinking, “Well, she’ll have a long, tough recovery, probably will need to go into assisted living.” And then after five days she died. It still came as a shock.
When people are old you know their time is finite—not like all of us youngsters!—but you still unconsciously expect some notice, like a decline after an illness. Not realistic, because people have strokes, heart attacks and accidents all the time.
Like I said, it reminded me that I don’t know how much time I have left, and it tied in with a similar realization from the COVID pandemic and made it all more immediate.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus:
How have I gotten to this stage in my life without ever thinking about entertaining my trust attorney
ETA: Whom I’d not refer to as a “guy”
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@RevRick: It’s especially ironic considering, if I understand correctly, Hannukah celebrates the victory of the traditionalists but it’s elevation over other Jewish holidays in American culture represents a final victory for the assimilative position.
Forgive me if my outside perspective reflects ignorance on the matter.
Nora
@Steeplejack: My library system uses Teams exclusively and it is, in my biased opinion, garbage. Much less user friendly than Zoom. The app is probably your best bet, but it is not a fun experience in any event.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: You are obviously a very selfish person.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Thanks. I’m going to give it a try.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: There is another wrinkle, absent spouse of a beneficiary who isn’t legally divorced even though marriage for all intents and purposes has been over for more than a decade.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Omnes Omnibus: First I heard of him, but I like this guy. This is a glorious day. This is like the time I discovered Unitarian Universalism after mulling over similar ideas in my head for years.
Now I’m not alone. Now my ideas have a history. Now I need to read. I’ll see you fine folk later.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Golly.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: I was interested to see that he’s having a resurgence. I had to learn about him last spring while teaching Tolstoy’s Resurrection. Tolstoy was a total Georgist.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: I’m so sorry.
zhena gogolia
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: There was a recent article in the NYT about how people in Detroit are reviving his theories.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: That sucks. May she RIP. Hugs to you.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: IIRC there was a commenter here about a decade back who was a committed Georgist. Simpler times.
Steeplejack
@Nora:
I’m hoping it will be a one-off. This is my first encounter with this attorney. Probably pro forma on her part, to let me know what information and considerations I need to gather for the will, advanced care directive, end-of-life instructions, etc.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, I forgot that. But I wouldn’t have been alert to it before I had to find out about him.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: For a simple one-on-one conversation, I don’t think you’ll have much of a problem.
Soprano2
@Steeplejack: Good for you, way too many people never do this. It’s an act of love for the people you leave behind to get your affairs in order.
frosty
@BlueGuitarist: Adam has worked with Mike O’Brien and likes him. Ms F is pulling for Shamaine Daniels. I probably favor O’Brien just because of Pennsyltucky misogyny.
I won’t get to vote for either since I’m in southern York County and my rep is Lloyd Smucker, who is from Lancaster and to my knowledge has never crossed the Suskie to meet his new constituents after the ungerrymander a couple of years back.
I don’t know my house and state senate districts off the top of my head, other than to know there’s no Democrat who can win here.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@zhena gogolia: Thank you. I will follow uo on this as well.
Anyway
@schrodingers_cat: Maybe check with your twitter peeps for recommendations
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia, @schrodingers_cat:
Thanks.
Steeplejack
Okay, I’m off to plumb the depths of Teams and get ready for my meeting. Will check back later.
schrodingers_cat
@Anyway: I will figure it out! Thanks for the suggestion. There are IRL peeps that would be helpful too they are just not a stone’s throw away. This will be a multistep process.
frosty
@zhena gogolia: I was today years old when I first heard of Henry George. That’s obscure! Where and when did you run across him?
@zhena gogolia: ETA. Got it!
trollhattan
Pins & needles, I tell ya, I’ve been on pins and needles wondering if he would. Whew, that was hurrrrd to live through.
“If”?
Matt McIrvin
@frosty: I honestly learned about Henry George from a discussion of the origins of the board game Monopoly, which was a knockoff of “The Landlord’s Game”, a game invented by a Georgist as a simulation to get you angry about the unfairness of land ownership and the need for the Single Tax.
Villago Delenda Est
So, where is the menorah that was displayed during the darkness of the TFG years?
Soprano2
@Yarrow: When I was 21 my father died without a will or trust. I was in college and he was helping me pay for it; my sister was still a minor and he was remarried to a woman he had an affair with so my mother hated her. To say this was not a fun situation is an understatement, and I was angry at him that he left us all in this situation. Lucky for me he had enough life insurance for me and my sister that I was able to pay the last year’s tuition at the private college I was attending, otherwise I would have had to borrow money to pay it.
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: You know, I want this threesome to fall, hard, but now it sounds like the third wheel decided to claim rape, probably initially it was a threat to extract some concessions (leave your wife and marry me, empty your bank account and pay me off, that sort of thing). Of course it’s extra icing on the shit cake they baked that the third wheel is doing the “lying about rape” thing, just like all the women and men of that cohort believe is “always” the case when someone claims rape; that part pisses me off. I see a concerted effort to trash the third wheel in the near future as their attempt to make this go away gains more attention.
Sister Golden Bear
Submitted for your consideration:
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Was that Melanie with nine lasers, or something?
cain
@Geminid: Erdogan making sure that he’s made peace with one nation they’ve been at war with. Didn’t Erdogan have aspirations to build the Caliphate again?
cain
@Suzanne:
Biggest case of self-own I’ve ever seen. Yet, somehow these idiots are still in power and running the country. Perhaps they need to make things better and eliminate the NHS. ::sarcasm::
trollhattan
@cain: The bastard’s key acts have revolved around propping up the gas and oil industries, which I’m unaware of any organized pushback over.
UK politics seem more hopeless than ours, and that’s saying a lot. The spectacle of Boris testifying “we meant to do that all along and clearly, it went splendidly” in the covid 19 inquiry is another lurid chapter.
Geminid
@cain: You hear all kinds of shit about Erdogan. He may be a devout Muslim, but he’s also a realist. Kemal Atuturk abolished the Caliphate in 1924 and it ain’t coming back.
skerry
@Steeplejack: I’m so sorry for you loss.
I’m glad you are taking time to get things in order. It is such a gift to those you leave behind. My ex-husband died suddenly in May without a will. Probate is such a complicated process. None of our kids live in the state where he passed, so they are dealing with lawyers, etc long distance. No fun.
StringOnAStick
@StringOnAStick: I’m certainly willing to believe the third wheel was a victim of assault. I’m also sure there’s a bunch of guilty feelings and some desperate ass covering going on now that their illicit acts are getting extremely well aired in the public sphere. We think of TFG as shameless, but these Christianists are very steeped in shame culture so the frantic from them makes sense to me (I have similar relatives). I wonder if any of them have hired a reputation management/repair professional. Hmm, I wonder how you even find someone like that if you aren’t already quite wealthy?
Sister Golden Bear
@Kay: In the news story I saw, the video reportedly showed her asking him to climax on her face, rather than her new shirt, which supposedly implied consent (or at least reasonable doubt about whether it consensual).
Of course, that overlooks the possibility she was a woman trying to consciously/unconsciously keep a modicum of control over a situation where she felt powerless.
StringOnAStick
@skerry: I’m sorry you are dealing with that. No fun indeed.
Scout211
@Soprano2: When my husband was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, I had a sudden panic about what would happen if I suddenly was not around anymore and he was then tasked to handle our finances. We quickly made an appointment with our trust attorney and went over everything in the trust and in the wills. We were good and it was all fine. He didn’t even charge us.
We are really lucky to have three adult kids who get along, though. I know that doesn’t always happen. The three of them are joint successor trustees and we figured if they didn’t agree, we would be gone by then. LOL. But now we realize that there are other scenarios that could happen. Namely, my sudden death while he is in later stages of his disease. All three adult kids quickly agreed on which sibling would take the lead, if needed. All would have to sign on to decisions but they all agreed to let her be the lead.
We never expect these things to happen and when they do, if we are not prepared, it can be anywhere from a hassle to a giant mess.
If you anyone has heirs, I highly recommend a trust. But IANAL, so circumstances for others may be different than ours. Both of my stepkids quickly got trusts with their spouses after their mom suddenly died. She had a will but assumed that the amount of assets she had wouldn’t warrant a trust. The attorney who handled her probate told both of them that if she had had a trust, it would have gone much quickly and would have been less costly.
ETA: edited for clarity
sdhays
@narya: I just had Teams fail to share my screen. And Office 365 has a bug MS isn’t interested in fixing where their Flow add-on won’t authenticate when using the web version. I’ve had to figure out work arounds for my wife every few weeks with that shit since the tiny company she’s working for doesn’t pay for a license for her to use the desktop version.
I hate Excel too. Apple Numbers may not have all the bells and whistles, but I nearly cried when I first used its expression editor. Soooooo much more intuitive. And the SPACE so you can actually see and edit a non-trivial expression. I don’t do a lot in spreadsheets, but Excel is the absolute last option for me.
Sister Golden Bear
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t know about the international aspect, but I’d strongly recommend looking into getting a living trust if that’s an option in your state. Makes it far, far, easier and quicker to settle one’s estate. At worst, it handle your assets in the States.
Also, while having a lawyer prep either a will or living trust, they can also do documents for medical directives, plus legal power of attorney, both medical and in general, if you’re alive but incapacitated and unable communicate your wishes.
cain
It does seem like that doesn’t it? I can’t help but feel a little schadenfreude given how much turbulence they have created around the world thanks to their general method of maintaining control of their empire. Even the Israeli/Palestinian conflict can be pointed at them listening to the Zionists back in the late 1800s.
Their handiwork is evident – so the fact that they’ve fucked themselves. Luckily, they are only a fraction of their former selves and won’t go out and start destroying things with nuclear weapons or whatever.
Soprano2
@Omnes Omnibus: My mother and I owned property jointly. She left her half of the property to charities in her trust, so I was forced into a sale with significant tax consequences. I always intended to talk to her about how she did that in her trust, but I never did. I wish I had, it might have gotten her to change it.
Geminid
@Sister Golden Bear: This comment suggested a new rotating tag!
“Balloon Juice: Its After Dark Somewhere.”
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid:
And in a different different time or place, they’d have been beheaded pretty much immediately after trying to steal the election.
RevRick
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: No, you’re spot on.
Ohio Mom
@RevRick: Yeah, as a liberal secular Jew, I used to wrestle with that. I hardly wanted to commemorate the triumph of religious fanatics.
Then I read Arthur Waskow’s book, Seasons of our Joy and I saw that Hanukah is just an old-fashioned Winter Solstice celebration.
Like Christmas, its date was set to coincide with the returning light — Hanukah starts with a waning moon and ends as the new moon is arriving. What better time to re-open the Temple, when people were already in a festive mood?
Back in ancient days, the light of the moon meant something (I’m reminded of the joke, which is more useful, the sun or the moon, obviously the moon. It shines at night when it is dark, the sun shines when it is already light out).
I’ve long suspected that its very clearly pagan aspects (and I mean pagan in a good way) is why the rabbis of yore decided to downplay the holiday. Usually they were all in on historical victories.
Geminid
@mrmoshpotato: Only if they were of noble blood. These guys would have been hanged.
Old Man Shadow
@Ohio Mom: Yep. Have a party to celebrate life, togetherness, and family, friends, or found family.
That’s how I view Christmas now. Celebrate the lights in my life in the middle of the darkness this world can bring.
Another Scott
Happy Hanukkah!
Meanwhile, … ArsTechnica.com:
Seeing how folks I knew who had kids in high school have aged, yeah, there’s maybe more than something to that. :-/ I wonder, though, if they can extend these studies to folks who came from giant families who didn’t have kids themselves – different stuff in their DNA, or different environment and availability of contraception, or did they will themselves not to reproduce, or what…?
Cheers,
Scott.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Ohio Mom: yeah, it’s just this remarkable coincidence, all these major religious events always happen to co-incide with the solstices and equinoxes. For instance: the Christian messiah just happens to be born on the winter solstice and martyred on the spring equinox, what were the chances, really?
Ohio Mom
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: To elaborate on the spring holidays’ astronomical connections:
Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox; Passover starts on the night of the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. That is why these two holidays move through the calendar and why they don’t quite sync up consistently.
Passover is a drink-and-get-down sort of holiday so it makes sense to have it when there is plenty of moonlight to illuminate your late night revelry.
Ohio Mom
@Another Scott: Like most medical phenomena, this may be true in the aggregate but have no predictive value when it comes to individuals.
Betty Cracker
@StringOnAStick: It sure looks like the bible-humping “power couple” plan to brazen it out, but I don’t think their strategy will fly, even if the rape accusation goes away. The governor and cabinet have already called for the husband to resign, and two of the wife’s fellow school board members are calling for her to resign, including a fellow Moms for Liberty douche-canoe. I almost hope they dig in their heels and refuse to go quietly because that would extend the party’s PR crisis.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Ohio Mom: When I was reading it, I was thinking comparing species, not individuals within a single species. So bunnies die young and are very reproductively active, tortoises much the opposite.
Brachiator
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Coming late to the thread, so this probably has already been covered, but Jesus ‘ birthday was adjusted in part to take over a previous holiday.
And the date of his death is not a fixed date.
Steeplejack
Just coming back to say that my video meeting with the attorney went very well, although I did have some audio problems with Teams. But everything worked out.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
This story certainly is sad and tawdry.
But even if we can put the sexual assault charge aside, we still have the hypocrisy and cruelty of the Zieglers, who apparently believed that you shouldn’t say gay, but it is certainly fine to do gay and other non vanilla sex practices while demonizing others.
It certainly makes you wonder how many more of the upright family values crowd are practicing hypocrites.
Soprano2
@Scout211: I’m thinking about how I’m going to redo my trust, because everything has hubby on it as my executor and now of course he won’t be able to do that. We don’t have any kids, so I have to decide who I’m going to ask to handle things, and I haven’t decided yet. It’s good to be prepared, because I learned the hard way that you never know what can happen.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack: I’m very sorry for your loss. That sounds so hard.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: That sounds complicated. If those people are in another country then they’ll be governed by the laws of that country. A lawyer would have to advise.
FelonyGovt
@schrodingers_cat: I just saw your question on what is probably a dead thread. I love my Inktense pencils. The color is so bright and since they’re water soluble you can cover large areas easily.
Brachiator
@StringOnAStick:
I’m not seeing any of these melodramatic made-for-TV motives. The leaked information from the police investigation suggests that the woman really wanted Ziegler’s wife, not Ziegler. So while the sexual encounter might have been consensual, there may have been an element of regret or unhappiness or deep dissatisfaction.
I want the Zieglers to fall because of their hypocrisy, but with respect to this threesome I just feel sorry for the people involved if there was a lack of communication about what people wanted.
StringOnAStick
@Brachiator: In my younger days, I knew a number of people who tied the 3 some, polyamory route. None of them were anything other than a disaster, immediately or eventually. Sometimes the original relationships survived, but just as often they didn’t. Someone’s feelings always end up getting hurt when what they thought was their primary partner is now more interested/attracted to/way hot for someone else. Never works. These three had something complicated going on, which is hard enough with those of a more free thinking nature, and free thinking is the opposite of this crew.
Steeplejack
@Yarrow:
Thanks. I texted/emailed my friend daily and talked to her on the phone about once a week, and even after four weeks (November 10) I’m still coming to grips with the extent of the loss.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack: I’m sure. And four weeks is hardly any time. It might be extra hard because she moved to Colorado so you couldn’t visit her in the hospital or anything. Death at a distance is very hard, I think.
Grief is strange and takes many forms. If anyone tells you how to grieve or you’re doing it wrong or you should be over it by X time or anything like that they can stuff it. Everyone grieves in their own way and there’s no right way or timetable.
Steeplejack
@Yarrow:
Yeah, I know that and keep reminding myself of it.
She lived in Florida the last year and a half. The last time I saw her in person was two or three years ago. Most of our in-person time was decades ago in Atlanta.
wjca
The shepherds with their flocks out in the fields by night means it was right after the harvest. Which is definitely not midwinter, but that’s when the sheep get a chance to graze on the stubble. Having the celebration relocated near the solstice was pretty obviously an effort (successful!) to coopt the pagan festivals. Just like Hanukkah becoming more prominent was a result of needing a holiday when the surrounding Christians were celebrating.
wjca
I know of a couple of cases where a ménage à trois went along happily for decades. Certainly not all of them, but a couple did work.
One the other hand, I never saw an attempted 4 (or more) which made it to 2 years without disintegrating with bad feelings all around.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
My condolences on your loss.
Ohio Mom
@wjca: Yes, Hanukah only became a big holiday in the late 1800s. Two Cincinnati rabbis — Rabbi Isaac M. Wise (the father of Reform Judaism) and Rabbi Max Lilienthal created Hanukah festivals for their congregations, particularly for the children, and promoted the idea in Jewish publications.
Of course, that is about the same period that Christmas became the nostalgic extravaganza we know it as today. There is undoubtedly more historical context that I don’t know (yet).
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack: My condolences.
Paul in KY
A most Happy Hanukkah to all our Jewish BJ peeps!! Hope this season is great for all of you.
Steeplejack
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation, @Brachiator, @mrmoshpotato:
Thank you. 🙏
Brachiator
@StringOnAStick:
Yep. Relationships are complicated and only get more so when you add people.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack: It’s still hard to deal with death at a distance. In some ways the fact that you didn’t see her makes it harder. Your life goes on as normal, except…