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Posts posted by Francisco 2.0
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22 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:
The QAnon mouth breathers are all busy tonight deciphering what is the meaning of a capital Z.
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1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:
I have trepidation for 2020 that enough states/voters will fall for trumps fear mongering about whichever dem candidate is nominated. They will vote for trump but say they voted for Gary Johnson.
Perhaps I’m wrong about conservative voters and they will vote for America’s future over trump but I don’t think so.
There's no way conservative voters will turn their backs on Trump, not now, not ever. There's nothing left for him to do that would make them sway. Plus they are going to have 15 months of nonstop assault on their senses courtesy of Facebook, Fox News and the President's twitter account to tell them the nation (and by extension, they and their families) will cease to exist on January 20, 2021 if Trump is not in office.
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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article234108307.html
QuoteA decade ago, during a brief stint in Palm Beach County Jail, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein made an odd purchase at the facility’s store: two pairs of small women’s panties, size 5.
It was just one of thousands of dollars of purchases made by the disgraced financier while in jail after pleading guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for sex, according to a purchase log. (His top purchase was single-serve cups of coffee, of which he bought more than 800 in 13 months.) But the panties raise questions about why a childless male inmate, accused of sexually abusing girls as young as 14, would be allowed to buy female undergarments so small that they wouldn’t fit an average-sized adult woman.
QuoteThe panties were certainly too small for Epstein, who also purchased his briefs in men’s medium and sweatshirts ranging from XL to 3XL, and size-12 shoes. So what, or who, were they for, and why wouldn’t the purchase raise eyebrows under the circumstances? It’s one of many questions that arise from thousands of pages of records obtained by the Miami Herald from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
The stockade held male and female inmates, separately, explaining why the panties would be stocked.
QuoteOn Friday, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail and stockade, handed out the records of his stay, during which he was allowed to leave the stockade in a chauffeur-driven car and deposited at a downtown West Palm Beach office building for a 12-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week respite from incarceration.
The records came out too late Friday to get a comment from Sheriff Ric Bradshaw or his spokeswoman. Bradshaw has faced increasingly fierce criticism — and his department is now under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement — for its seemingly soft treatment of the multimillionaire hedge fund manager, who was, according to the records, allowed to wander in and out of his unlocked cell at will.
SpoilerThat investigation is separate from the Justice Department probe looking at why then-federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta decided to shelve a 53-page sex trafficking indictment against Epstein, which could have put him away for life.
And now there is yet another pending investigation, this one looking at how Epstein, rearrested at 66 in early July on renewed sex trafficking charges, was able to hang himself last Saturday in a New York City jail cell while awaiting trial. The new charges were filed after the Miami Herald published a series on Epstein’s 10-year-old case, Perversion of Justice, that examined, among other things, Acosta’s decision to give in to a defense demand that victims not be told about the earlier federal charges being dropped.
The Manhattan cell where he took his own life — in a hardscrabble lockup notorious for bugs, rodents and rough jailmates — was a stark contrast to his surroundings in Palm Beach County in 2008.
What’s clear from the Palm Beach sheriff’s records is that Epstein’s wealth provided him extraordinary privileges during his 13-month stay in Palm Beach stockade from June 30, 2008 toJuly 22, 2009 — an unlocked cell door, almost unlimited access to a TV, and a perhaps uniquely generous work release program that meant he spent almost as much time outside the jail as in it.
The longer he stayed, the cushier things got. Six-day-a-week work release was extended to seven. Hours outside the cell were extended from 12 to 16. He was permitted to pass some of the time at home. Records that once referred to him as an inmate now called him “client.”
Deputies, required to wear business suits, provided “security” for Epstein while he was on work release. They guarded the door to his office or home, sometimes from the outside, rather than keeping an eye directly on Epstein, while the inmate was on structured leave from the jail. Some deputies expressed relief in their daily reports that he seemed pleased with services rendered.
The records from Palm Beach suggest the local sheriff’s office never intended to treat the convicted sex offender as a typical inmate — explicitly because of his extraordinary wealth.
In an email on the day Epstein reported to jail, Capt. Mark Chamberlain wrote that the new inmate was a person of “unusual means” and expressed concerns that other prisoners might try to extort or manipulate him.
“His financial status lends itself to his being victimized while in custody and as such, he has been placed in special management,” Chamberlain wrote. “He is poorly versed in jail routine and society and his adjustment to incarceration will most likely be atypical. For the time being, I am authorizing that his cell door be left unlocked and he be given liberal access to the attorney room where a TV will be installed.”
All this while serving time for soliciting sex with a minor — a charge Epstein agreed to plead guilty to only after Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, killed an already drafted sex-trafficking indictment that could have put him away for life.
During his stint in Palm Beach County custody, Epstein was required to be physically present in the jail for about 60 percent of the time during the 13 months he served, far less time than originally reported by PBSO when questioned by the Miami Herald and other media outlets. According to calculations based on internal emails describing his work release, Epstein was approved to spend over 40 percent of the time at his office, at home, or at a variety of doctor appointments.
Bradley Edwards, an attorney for some of the women who accuse Epstein of having recruiters lure girls to his Palm Beach estate for massages that turned into sexual assaults, has alleged that Epstein used his work release hours to engage in sexual exploits behind closed doors. A release of court records earlier this month quoted a young female college student allegedly recruited by Epstein’s associates saying he required “three orgasms a day” to function. “It was biological. Like eating,” she said Epstein told her.
The record of who visited Epstein while on work release — a daily log maintained by deputies and tucked away in a safe — has been destroyed. Explaining that decision, the sheriff’s office cited legally prescribed retention schedules that allowed for the book’s destruction. But many records from that time remain for investigators to examine, including the thousands of pages of just-released records.
The records provided Friday list every deputy assigned as plainclothes “security” for Epstein during his work release. The deputies, paid for by Epstein, are potential witnesses in what is an ongoing Florida FDLE investigation of Epstein’s treatment by PBSO and its longtime sheriff, Bradshaw.
Purchase records from the jail’s commissary are a reflection of the hedge fund manager’s eclectic personal habits, which included an insatiable sweet-tooth, and a focus on physical appearance and personal hygiene. The prisoner’s purchases, $2,000 worth in all, included hundreds of snacks, from large Hershey’s almond bars to Sour Cheddar Ruffles, hair gel, seven bottles of shampoo, and 22 tubes of toothpaste.
Early during his jail stretch, one of Epstein’s paralegals was caught bringing Epstein a book titled “Face Exercises that Prevent Premature Aging.” Someone also smuggled in more hygiene products, including three additional tubes of toothpaste — brands that weren’t available on the jail shelves. All of that was confiscated as contraband, records show.
After three and a half months in the stockade, Epstein was granted work release by the sheriff’s office, allowing him 12 hours a day, six days a week at his private office, as well as permitting regular trips to a chiropractor. While on work release, Epstein was supervised by off-duty deputies who were required to wear business suits, not uniforms. They were paid hourly by Epstein, according to work release records. Epstein also paid $84 per week to PBSO as a standard work release fee.
The arrangement came to the attention of Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafaña, who wasn’t pleased. On July 3, 2008, she wrote a letter to PBSO Deputy Chief Mike Gauger that letting Epstein spend time in a private office “making telephone calls, web-surfing, and having food delivered to him is probably not in accordance with the objectives of imprisonment.”
Villafaña noted that the situation seemed to violate PBSO’s own policies and asserted that the financier had misrepresented details about the made-to-order charity where he purportedly worked while on work release.
Work release programs are meant to help inmates maintain their lives outside jail walls and reintegrate into society. But Epstein’s was loaded with perks.
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The NRA spent tens of thousands of dollars bringing hair and makeup artists around the country for the wife of its CEO, two sources told The Daily Beast. The expenses–which included plane flights and luxury hotel stays for the stylists–are bound to fuel an already-raging debate over what some see as a spendthrift culture in the NRA’s upper echelons. The NRA, meanwhile, called it a “non-story,” and said their ex-ad firm was responsible for any such expenses.
QuoteSusan LaPierre, the wife of longtime NRA chief Wayne LaPierre, is one of the gun organization’s many public faces, and co-chairs its Women’s Leadership Forum. She often speaks at that group’s annual gatherings for female NRA supporters. And for years now, the NRA has paid for a makeup artist and a hair stylist, both based in Nashville and plugged in to the country music scene, to do LaPierre’s hair and make-up at events around the country, according to two sources familiar with the arrangements.
QuoteThe NRA Women’s Leadership Forum hosts many of its events in major metropolitan areas where local hair and makeup talent abounds. But because of LaPierre’s preference for the Nashville artists, the gun group has paid a premium to fly them around the country, and put them up in style.
That may be changing, though, as those expenditures have raised eyebrows within the NRA. According to one of the sources, the stylists were booked to provide hair and makeup services for LaPierre at its member gathering in Indianapolis this past April. But as media reports emerged with allegations of extravagant spending by the gun group, NRA officials worried the Nashville stylists’ presence could attract scrutiny. So they canceled on them at the last minute. Because the cancellation came so late, the NRA still had to pay their fees.
SpoilerAn NRA spokesperson alleged this reporting was orchestrated by the group’s former public relations firm, which it is suing. That firm, Ackerman McQueen, worked with the NRA for more than three decades. It handled payments for many expenses related to the NRA’s public relations–expenses the NRA ultimately picked up.
“This is the latest example of the smear campaign orchestrated to damage those close to the NRA,” said Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA’s managing director of public affairs. “In this instance, our former vendor shamelessly targets the wife of the Association’s CEO. Once again, Ackerman McQueen attempts to mislead by suggesting that Ms. LaPierre had responsibility for actions taken by the agency.”
“Ms. LaPierre and other senior members of the NRA fundraising team participate in TV interviews, nationally-televised speeches, and videos used to raise millions of dollars annually. Hair and make-up services might be used in those instances–coordinated, directed, and paid for by Ackerman. This is another non-story with facts presented out of context–an act of desperation being fueled by the same group of people who attempted to extort Wayne LaPierre and the Association.”
A spokesperson for the ad firm directed The Daily Beast to prior statements saying all of Ackerman’s payments were made at the NRA’s direction.
The expenditures, which have not been previously reported, will frustrate some NRA members who say the group’s leadership spends donor funds irresponsibly.
“If all of these allegations are true, they are one more example of the climate of living life large on the donations of members,” said Steve Hoback, an NRA member and former NRA staffer who has criticized its leadership. “And they in no way add to the core mission of the NRA, which is the development and conduct of firearms safety and education courses and defense of Second Amendment rights. There’s no way that a bouffant ‘do and glittery eyeshadow is going to protect anyone’s Second Amendment rights.”
Over the last several weeks, scrutiny of the NRA’s financial decisions has intensified. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the group considered spending more than $5 million to buy a mansion on a golf course in Dallas, Texas, for the LaPierres. The talks came last year after the Parkland shooting when the NRA CEO had concerns about his safety, according to the Journal, but the NRA did not ultimately buy the house.
The association has also drawn criticism for spending almost $275,000 over 13 years on designer clothing for Wayne LaPierre. It also spent nearly $100,000 in 2012 on his travel, including trips to Palm Beach and the Bahamas, and stays at the Budapest Four Seasons and a five-star resort on Lake Como in Italy. The revelations came from a leaked document posted online anonymously. The NRA has defended the spending, saying its CEO needs to maintain a well-groomed public profile and that he raised money for the group on his trips. But LaPierre does not enjoy unanimous support: Col. Allen West, a member of the NRA board and grassroots favorite, called for his resignation after the news broke and said the spending was “despicable.”
The NRA’s finances have drawn intense public scrutiny over the last year as its expenses have ballooned. The group is embroiled in a host of legal tangles, including multiple congressional investigations, multiple probes from state attorneys general, and high-stakes litigation with the governor of New York. It is also suing—and, simultaneously being sued by—its former public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen. Tens of millions of dollars could be at stake in those lawsuits.
Unsurprisingly, the NRA has amassed hefty legal bills. Its estranged ex-president Oliver North estimated the gun group’s outside law firm was charging it upwards of $100,000 a day and has said the fees threaten the group’s very existence. The NRA board and senior leadership, meanwhile, have disputed North’s estimates and defended the law firm’s work.
At the same time, the group has lost some of its top political talent. Earlier this year, its longtime lobbying chief Chris Cox resigned. Cox, who pushed the group to spend big to support Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election, had the president’s trust, as well as a fat Rolodex of Republican members of Congress. Together, LaPierre and Cox dissuaded Trump from pushing for tougher gun laws after the Parkland massacre. It remains to be seen if the association will maintain its effectiveness in his absence.
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8 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:
The no lunch part is really shitty
But they provided breakfast (I'm assuming in the form of dozens of glazed donuts from some hardworking local immigrant owned donut place) so #MAGA.
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17 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:
Churches should be much more concerned about the sexual predators under their roof
Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.
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39 minutes ago, NWBuck said:
Given what he thinks he can do/grab, that's pretty reserved
[Tex]Such a lucky young couple! The President was being so kind and sweet to the bride! Look at how proud the groom is![/Ags]
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So, this is how you get a massive crowd. Pay them to be there.
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51 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:
That’s sad but not surprising.
I find it deeply ironic that our parents, who many of them thought we were going to be brainwashed and harmed by heavy metal, rap, and violent video games, were instead completely brainwashed themselves by a for-profit hate network to the point that they are just about gone.
Or am I misusing “irony” again?
Don't forget the easily accessible and totally free Facebook. That, to me, was the absolute knockout punch for a lot of individuals. I'm convinced it's what shoved my in-laws who as recently as summer of 2016 believed that Trump was a fucking fool who would be a terrible president and could destroy the Republican party if he were elected...now, they are full-blown #MAGA.
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Yeah, I know the President has no control over the climate. But this tweet coupled with the following is so Trump.
SHOT:
CHASER:
https://earther.gizmodo.com/a-weather-station-above-the-arctic-circle-hit-94-6-degr-1837274379
QuoteAccording to data released in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) monthly climate analysis, a weather station in Sweden north of the Arctic Circle hit a stunning 94.6 Fahrenheit (34.8 degrees Celsius) last month. As an isolated data point, it would be shocking. But coupled with a host of other maladies, from no sea ice within 125 miles of Alaska to the unruly fires ravaging Siberia, it’s an exclamation point on the climate crisis.
QuoteThe steamy temperature was recorded on July 26 in the small Swedish outpost of Markusvinsa, which sits on the southern edge of the Arctic Circle. Deke Arndt, a NOAA climate scientist, said on a call with reporters that the data was analyzed and quality controlled by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute and that “they have established that as highest temperature north of the Arctic Circle” for the country. For comparison, the hottest temperature recorded in New York City last month was 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius).
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21 minutes ago, Iconoclast Texan said:I fucking love Bibi.
And we all know just how much you would do to show your love for him.
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1 minute ago, Iconoclast Texan said:
I have never been made to feel unwelcome during my involvement as a member of the GOP. Those of us who buck the trend of what their ethnicity typically votes for are viewed very positively
Feel free to drop in a monthly meeting of the local GOP in Bumblefuck, Kentucky next month. Bring donuts.
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Hey, maybe the market will be better tomorrow. #MAGA.
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3 hours ago, David Dennison said:
34% of black people having no opinion is jaw dropping.
34% of black people probably believe stating an opinion will get their ass shot.
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Friend of mine is a public school AD. Some years ago, he received a cease and desist letter from Georgia Tech, since his school used their logo. GT caught them easily enough; some kid had pulled the logo off and used it on the school website. GT looked at server logs, made the connection, sent the letter.
GT made an offer: $1 fee per year for 99 years in return for using the logo. He was hesitant, until I pointed out the logo was plastered everywhere---basketball floor, elementary school hallways, whatever. Wasn't used exclusively by athletic teams. He sent them $99 and that was it.
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Driving by a muni golf course once I saw a golf ball hit in the road, take a big bounce, and nailed my truck in the hood. Massive dent. Being that I was not a golfer at that point in my life, I drove immediately to the pro shop. I'm pretty sure they were laughing their asses off when I left after they told me there was nothing they could do.
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25 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:
On brand for Trump to make catastrophic business decisions
No, no. It's all about the sacrifice.
The rubes eat shit up like there is no tomorrow.
Now, granted, most everyone here can spend 2-3 minutes on Google and see what kind of business failure he has been over the decades, but to the flock, they either don't know or don't care. All they see is the sacrifice he has made to Make America Great Again.
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5 hours ago, Burt said:
So I asked him if he's come off Trump any since he and I last talked about it in late spring. He (and just about every other farmer up here) is gonna ride that dick right down to the nub. They seem to think this hurt is only temporary...that Trump will get them an even better deal than they had previously. Never mind the fact that China is turning to the Argentina, Brazil and Russia markets so the US farmer may not even get back to where they already were, much less get an even better deal. But as long as Trump continues buying that agriculture vote with subsidies, the Trump support will endure.
Oh, BNSF has been furlowing guys left and right because there aren't any crops to move. But those fuckers are still right on board with him, too.
The Chinese market may be lost forever:
QuoteBill Bishop of Sinocism tells me that President Xi Jinping and his team have concluded that China is far too reliant on the U.S. for technology and agriculture.
- So they have accelerated efforts to become self-sufficient, while also diversifying their reliance away from the U.S.
- Even if there is a trade deal, that shift will not reverse.
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8 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:
Seems like the nuclear explosion in Russia should be a bigger deal.
Like more important than Scaramucci and Fredo.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/12/russia-mysterious-explosion-arctic-putin-chernobyl/
QuoteOn Thursday, Aug. 8, Russian authorities issued a surprising announcement. Some sort of accident had occurred during a test of a missile engine near the city of Severodvinsk, along Russia’s Arctic coast. Two people died, and there had been a brief spike in radiation detected. Soon after, images and videos appeared on social media of first responders in hazmat suits, ambulances, and a helicopter for an emergency airlift.
The reference to radiation was striking—tests of missile engines don’t involve radiation. Well, with one exception: Last year, Russia announced it had tested a cruise missile powered by a nuclear reactor. It calls this missile the 9M730 Burevestnik. NATO calls it the SSC-X-9 Skyfall.
QuoteA nuclear-powered cruise missile is an outrageous idea, one the United States long ago considered and rejected as a technical, strategic, and environmental nightmare. Vladimir Putin’s Russia, though, thinks differently. My colleagues and I at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies—who regularly use open-source tools to monitor the state of nuclear proliferation around the world—wondered if something had gone wrong with the Skyfall. We soon discovered there was good reason to believe so.
QuoteThe first thing we did was attempt to locate where the incident had occurred. Many of the reports pointed to a missile test site at a place called Nenoksa, about 18 miles up the coast from Severodvinsk. Our assumption was that the accident had occurred at the Nenoksa Missile Test Center. The facility is no secret: It is well documented in declassified intelligence reports and even marked on open-source platforms such as Wikimapia. The test center has been there since the 1960s—and, from satellite images, looks every year of its age.
Much more at the link.
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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:
Per the days of the "welfare queens" rhetoric, we all know what that means.
They're against....you know....THOSE people....getting government money.
But when white folks get it, well, that's just good hardworking people of the land getting what they deserve.
I have tried and tried to see it differently, but it's fucking sad how much of this bullshit comes back to race.
Well, those uppity black folk are all lazy, too. Don't forget that talking point.
The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult
in Cloak Room
Posted
My mother in law will vote GOP until the day she dies. She thinks Trump was heaven sent.