Jerry Remy says latest cancer diagnosis ‘hit me hard’
I don't know what kind of medicine they can give him for the pain.
It's sad, but sometimes life is unfair.
Back to the fun and games:
"Fantasy sports scores, winning legalization and a tax break in Massachusetts" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff August 09, 2018
A state legislative move this summer to permanently legalize daily fantasy sports also gave the industry a break on taxes, as lawmakers brushed aside a proposal that could have collected more than $2 million in revenue this coming year.
Other states levy taxes on fantasy sports games, in which players can win money based on the performance of real-life athletes they select, and a legislative committee that spent two years studying the issue recommended taxing the sports games.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo has also said that the state should get its “fair share” from fantasy sports games, but the House and Senate couldn’t agree on how to regulate and tax the industry before the usual end-of-session scramble to wrap up business. A temporary provision legalizing the business was set to expire. So lawmakers opted to grant the industry permanent legal status and delay imposing any tax for now, as Governor Charlie Baker had suggested.
The deal came amid lobbying from companies such as Boston-based DraftKings, which can continue operating as it has since 2016, when state officials hurriedly put together the temporary authorization amid questions about the legality of the young industry. Some lawmakers worry that the state missed a golden opportunity to reap millions in tax proceeds.
They didn't $eem too worried $lowing down pot $ales even though “there are a ton of needs across the state that require additional revenue.”
It “wasn’t going to be a game-changer by any means, but a modest tax” added to the rest of the fees they just passed.
Casinos in Massachusetts are taxed starting at 25 percent of gross revenue. The daily fantasy sports industry is now operating in most states, with tax rates as high as 15 percent.....
I stopped reading there and went to the sports so I could pick my team.
--more--"
They are in an “information-gathering mode” now and DraftKings will likely be at the center of the debate.
(flip to below fold)
"So much change has come to South Boston in recent years. Now it’s even coming for what’s billed as “the Oldest Restaurant & Bar in Southie.” The owner of Amrheins, which has held down the corner of West Broadway and A Street since 1890, has put the classy neighborhood joint, and its prized parking lot next door, up for sale. The half-acre site could fetch $20 million or more, real estate experts say, and the new owner almost certainly will replace the brick and wood buildings that house Amrheins with something along the lines of the mid-rise apartments that have transformed Broadway’s Lower End....."
Sorry, you will have to move.
Indonesia quake deaths top 130, aid effort intensifies
As the pre$$ coverage starts to wind down and be buried in a cave (it's like ‘‘the old ‘company store’ policy where it used to keep the coal miners indebted to the company.’’)!
I wonder where they will house all the refugees.
*********
The heckling has turned to violence when it comes to the politics:
Ohio, Kansas elections too close to call; GOP steels for fall
The Democrats already flipped a seat in upstate New York as California faces their worst fire season ever.
"Manafort’s defense team takes parting shot at Gates as star witness ends testimony" by Rachel Weiner, Matt Zapotosky, Lynh Bui and Devlin Barrett The Washington Post August 09, 2018
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Without a parting glance, Rick Gates left the witness stand Wednesday after three days of testimony that prosecutors hope will seal a guilty verdict against his former boss, Paul Manafort, on tax and bank fraud charges.
Gates, the star witness at Manafort’s trial in Alexandria, Va., portrayed Manafort as a demanding boss who directed a years-long scheme to hide millions of dollars from the IRS in foreign bank accounts, and use that money to spend a fortune on expensive suits, homes, and home entertainment systems. Gates also admitted to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort with phony invoices and padded expenses.
He didn't harass any women, did he?
The case is a critical public test of the work done by special counsel Robert Mueller III, as Manafort is the first person charged by Mueller’s office to go to trial. More than a dozen witnesses have told the court how Manafort and Gates, two political consultants who once held senior positions in the Trump campaign, spent years stashing cash overseas and living beyond their means.
The judge berated prosecutors again when he learned that the prosecution’s next witness — IRS agent Michael Welch — had been watching the trial from the gallery. Prosecutors have said they expect to finish presenting their case Friday.....
Yeah, the judge is a real tyrant, and I'm told there is no talk of "Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired with those efforts."
Conspiracy, you say?
--more--"
Related: Ukraine, Seeking U.S. Missiles, Halted Cooperation With Mueller
Isn't that obstruction?
"Trump’s lawyers counter Mueller’s interview offer, seek narrower scope, sources say" by Michael S. Schmidt New York Times August 08, 2018
WASHINGTON — By making another counterproposal after months of promises that they were just weeks away from deciding about an interview, Trump’s lawyers run the risk that Mueller could conclude they are negotiating in bad faith to prolong the investigation. In a meeting with Trump’s lawyers this year, Mueller threatened to take the extraordinary step of subpoenaing the president if he did not sit for a voluntary interview.
Only one president, Bill Clinton, has been subpoenaed while in office; he eventually agreed to a voluntary interview to avoid a prolonged court fight. The Supreme Court has never decided whether a sitting president can be subpoenaed for testimony.
Yeah, but he had an excuse.
Law enforcement officials who have worked with Mueller — a longtime federal prosecutor and the head of the FBI from 2001 to 2013 — believe that he will try to use every tool he has to get the president to answer questions and that he will probably subpoena him to testify if he does not agree to be questioned voluntarily.
Some of Trump’s lawyers believe that Mueller will not subpoena their client out of fear of losing a court fight that could undermine the investigation’s legitimacy to the public.
That's based on the assumption that it still has any.
The president’s lawyers have said they would fight a subpoena — a battle that could eventually be decided by the Supreme Court.....
Better confirm Kavanaugh quickly then.
--more--"
Related:
"Some Republicans worry that the effect of Trump’s continued attacks — and the tacit approval or even complicity of party leadership — is doing lasting damage to the FBI. A group of Republicans — including Bill Kristol, editor at large of the Weekly Standard and an avowed critic of Trump — recently formed a nonprofit called Republicans for the Rule of Law. It has been running television ads that feature Mueller’s service in Vietnam, supportive comments from prominent Republicans, and a line at the end reading: “Call your Representative. Support the Mueller Investigation.” The group released a new ad Wednesday in which a narrator says over black and white photos of Mueller, “If he has nothing to hide, he should let the investigation continue without interference. . . . No one is above the law. Even the president.”
What a totalitarian mindset coming from a lead neo-con promoter of an illegal war.
The Rule of law indeed!
What was Mueller doing in the lead up to 911 anyway?
Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has entertained the possibility that Trump was wiretapped by the FBI during his campaign, wrote a memo alleging that the FBI “may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources” in obtaining a warrant during its investigation into Trump adviser Carter Page, and has pushed for the release of information on an FBI undercover agent. None of the allegations from Nunes has resulted in bombshells..... "
Yeah, who remembers Halper?
Or Page, for that matter?
That is why support is cratering for the witch hunt and why “people are losing interest and not seeing what the point of the Mueller investigation is anymore, undermining trust in America’s law enforcement institutions especially at a time when we’re losing confidence in all institutions.”
Of course, you do have to do away with ICE (you load 16 tons, what ya' get?).
Of course, the battle for the Federal Reserve’s independence is another sore point for the globalist war hawks as Trump has also brought an end to the war in Syria, and while he's pulling back in Africa (only South Sudan is standing in the way).
He's even throwing them bones regarding Russia, as if anybody believed that crock of sh.....!
********
"It is not yet clear what threat the 11-year-old girl may have posed to the off-duty officer as she walked away from him. Or how many steps she took before he unholstered his Taser. The officer had suspected the 11-year-old of shoplifting Monday at a Kroger in northern Cincinnati, where he worked another job. He commanded her to stop. She didn’t, authorities later said. Then he deployed his Taser and shocked her in the back. The incident prompted an investigation and landed the officer on ‘‘restricted duty,’’ Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot K. Isaac said. The department’s use-of-force policy allows using the disabling weapon on suspects between the ages of 7 and 70. But the policy also spells out when officers should avoid it....."
The authorities then blocked release of the file.
Fatal encounters with police should be documented nationally
Why haven't they been?
"A man shot a patient to death in her bed at a suburban New York hospital Wednesday and then killed himself, police said. Police were trying to determine the connection between the two....."
It's ‘‘some type of family situation?’’
While you are there:
"Move over, Mother Nature. Study results overturn the longtime view, only the study did not track how inducing labor affected breastfeeding or other mother-baby issues later. Some groups such as Lamaze International still advocate letting nature take its course....."
Thank God it was a boy!
"Secretary General Antonio Guterres has chosen Chile’s former president Michelle Bachelet to be the next UN human rights chief, a high-profile and often controversial job, diplomats said. The new UN high commissioner for human rights must be confirmed by the 193-member UN General Assembly. Bachelet has been a pioneer for women and women’s rights. She was the first female president of Chile, from 2006-2010, and was then tapped to be the first head of UN Women, which was created in July 2010 by the General Assembly to combine four UN bodies dealing with gender equality and the advancement of women under a single umbrella. In 2013, Bachelet returned to Chile to run for president again and was elected and served a second term from 2014-2018....."
"Former Steward Health Care executive files harassment suit against company" by Liz Kowalczyk Globe Staff May 17, 2018
A former top executive at Steward Health Care has sued the company for harassment and discrimination, saying she was subject to sexual and racial comments that were part of an overall management culture that demeaned women and blacks.
Was it at the party?
Other executives, she alleged, also made racist and sexist remarks. One executive vice president called a complaint filed against him by an African-American “ridiculous,’’ and told Claudia Henderson, Steward’s former senior vice president of human resources, that she was his “favorite black person.”
Oooh, out of the frying pan and into the fryer.
The chief marketing officer repeatedly made inappropriate remarks, calling two white female employees his “beautiful girls’’ and using crude, sexual language in front of a newly single female employee, the lawsuit said.
Who knew that entry-level jobs that require an associate’s degree?
“We believe the allegations are completely unfounded, and we look forward to our day in court,’’ Steward attorney Timothy Van Dyck said. “The insinuations of racial bias against Dr. Ralph de la Torre, a minority executive of Latin American descent, are preposterous as are the insinuations against the chief marketing officer.”
--more--"
Whatever happened to Tom Brokaw, btw?
"A former head of the Southern Baptist Convention was removed Wednesday as president of a Texas seminary following allegations of ‘‘unbiblical teaching’’ through sexist and demeaning comments to women. 75-year-old Paige Patterson is accused of remarking on a teenage girl’s body....."
"A priest found two people having sex beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary at a Roman Catholic church in New Jersey, authorities said. Noelle Smart, 48, of Jersey City, and Anthony Getchius, 43, of Newark, face lewdness charges. Authorities said the pair was found around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday....."
Let's hope you didn't catch anything, and at least he didn't find an employee with a young boy.
"An alleged supporter of the Islamic State group is on trial in Britain accused of encouraging attacks on 4-year-old Prince George. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Husnain Rashid provided an ‘‘e-toolkit for terrorism’’ on an online channel he ran under the name the Lone Mujahid....."
He keeps changing his story, and the toolkit says we are in 2018 — a golden age of rebranding!
Court documents: Man at compound trained children for school shootings
Right in the middle of the desert, and I didn't believe the above story when I saw it last night.
Authority didn't bother after numerous warnings over a period of months, huh? Hmmm.
So what happened to the kids?
Here comes the bride:
"A German confectionery company has apologized for tweeting a picture of a chocolate-covered marshmallow dressed up as bride Meghan Markle at her wedding to Prince Harry. A spokesman for Dickmann’s Schokokuesse, a popular sweet in Germany among children, apologized for the picture depicting Markle, who has an African-American mother, as a chocolate-covered marshmallow with a crown, a white dress, and a bouquet. The chocolate marshmallow was linked in the past to racism, being widely known as the ‘‘Negerkuss’’ or ‘‘negro kiss’’ in Germany until about 20 years ago. Company spokesman Bernd Roessler said the picture was ‘‘stupid and embarrassing.’’
Yeah, yesterday was a really bad day because of the date:
"Still, let’s consider what academic experts say of “The Pink Swastika.” “It is a highly tendentious, distorted history of the Nazi period that draws upon some legitimate sources but twists them in ways that go against the intentions of the authors,” said Arlene Stein, a professor of sociology at Rutgers who has written about the way various groups use the Holocaust to frame or further current causes. “It has a claim of being historical, but it is not history,” said historian J.D. Wyneken, an expert on modern German history. “It is a very selective use of documents. He finds in them what he wants them to say.”"
Oh, the IRONY and everyone knew about Röhm!
This will make them happy:
"Nazi death squads focus of latest war crime cases in Germany" by David Rising Associated Press June 06, 2018
BERLIN — German prosecutors are investigating a suspected former member of Adolf Hitler’s mobile killing squads for involvement in World War II massacres carried out by the ‘‘Einsatzgruppen,’’ part of an 11th-hour effort to bring elderly ex-Nazis to justice, the Associated Press has learned.
Yeah, all the Nazis will soon be dead (although rumor has it that Hitler is in fact still alive in Argentina and judging by his ubiquitousness on TV, he won the war. He's outlasted them all).
They wouldn't have been anything like the mobile weapons labs of Iraq, would they?
You gotta ask these days.
It’s the third case to be opened in Germany recent months targeting individuals who are believed to have been part of the death squads. All three are being investigated under a new legal argument, recently upheld by the country’s top criminal court, that someone who helped the Nazi killing machinery run can be convicted of accessory to mass murder, even if they can’t be linked to specific deaths.
OMFG!
It's Orwellian, the Western idea of JU$TU$.
Then again, the precedent puts the White House chef and chauffeurs into the war criminal category, as well as many other federal workers and war machine employees, etc, etc.
Extending the legal standard on complicity from death camp guards to the Einsatzgruppen raises the possibility of a fresh wave of investigations, said Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, who alerted German authorities about the new suspects.
They don't call it the Holocau$t™ for nothing!
‘‘It was a very significant decision, but it’s only one that has been reaching fruition in recent months after we helped them find now three people who fit the category,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not exactly clear why it took them so long.’’
The Einsatzgruppen were the Nazis’ opening salvo in the Holocaust — SS units and police personnel who followed behind the regular army as it pushed into the Soviet Union in 1941, slaughtering perceived racial or political enemies in mass executions. Estimates vary, but experts agree they were responsible for well over 1 million killings.
The Nazis later established their system of death camps partially due to concerns about the psychological effects the up-close mass killings were having on the troops themselves.
‘‘The death camps and concentration camps ... became the iconic images of the Holocaust, but it was the Einsatzgruppen that were maybe even a more stark manifestation of the Nazi ideology and the Final Solution,’’ Zuroff said. ‘‘The number of active (Einsatzgruppen) participants is much greater than the number who actually carried out the murders in the death camps.’’
The latest investigation centers on 95-year-old Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Hoffmeister, a former SS Rottenfuehrer — roughly equivalent to corporal — suspected of serving with one of the death squads in Ukraine.
That group, Einsatzgruppe C, was responsible for the shootings of nearly 34,000 people at Babi Yar, a ravine northwest of the Ukrainian city of Kiev, on Sept. 29-30, 1941 — one of the largest and most notorious of the mass executions done by Einsatzgruppen.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, the docile Jews led to slaughter.
Meanwhile, your 21st century Einsatzgruppen are sitting behind berms near the border fence with Gaza.
--more--"
Related(?): NASA probe launching on solar voyage
They going to make another movie, huh?
Well, my work is done. I'll let you ladies clean up the rest.
It's over as far as I am concerned, because I haven't yet read the second section and likely will not, same as yesterday.
