I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!
Comments
-
And, for fun....
0 -
If you look carefully at the AH photo, the sneakers are on the wrong feet (look at toe box) which makes the photo even funnier.
1 -
Hmmmm, never thought of JG Wentworth. An answer to the Loon's prayers. Just as hysterical as is the Hitler with the gold shoes —- on the wrong feet for sure.
I did hear/read earlier that the Go Fund Me is now at not quite 1 million. The article did say though that it is more symbolic than anything. The interest building up would likely never even allow getting close to what the Loon has hanging over his head monetarily and that is not even taking into acct. that he is likely not going to do business in New York again. Along with fines, interest, penalties etc. is the major amt. of funds that will be going to lawyers. At some point the RNC is going to run out of money it seems and that is where he has gotten a lot of money for legal bills. Of course, there are those who will get stiffed as well for at least some of what those bills are not even considering how many already have.
In some ways I can't imagine anyone wanting for any reason to mix it up in business with him, but they have time after time. Just as so many of the lawyers he has used. Used is the word too. Most of his current crop are lucky I think to find the right court room, but then again — once they sign on with the Loon they are required no matter how stupid or futile to make the arguments he wants made.
This circus is hanging on, but I'm hoping the upcoming cases will finally move us quickly than not to the jailhouse door. Only someone as totally 'nuts' as the Loon could have avoided it for so long.
0 -
2 -
2 -
Ruth, those are hysterical and so much like what I had been thinking. Some people are just totally off their rockers. Even Nicci Haley first opined (suck-up that she can be) that an embryo was a child. I immediately thought up on hearing it, how wonderful Nicci - but this one (your child) doesn't wake up at 2 a.m. needing fed, nor need a diaper change, nor go to the Pediatric specialist. This one doesn't even need you to set aside college fund money either.
She then backtracked since she realized how stupid and transparent she was. I really was gob-smacked over this having thought the rt. wing extremists were the ones likeliest to let go of something truly insane since they are totally taken over by the insanity of their dear orange leader.
I think someone mentioned that he hopes the (Michael Moore ? ) rt. just keeps it up. They are just giving the left huge loads of ammunition to use when the time comes. I'm sure the Lincoln Project has a few things perhaps already put together for that time as well.
Did I even mention that M. Steele, in speaking about the gold high-tops and word on Fox News (a guest) that all the black people would now rush to the Loon's side because it is well know how the black people like sneakers. M Steele was highly insulted and said that all of those he knew would see it the same way. They will not in fact, be falling for something so ignorant. I can't imagine anyone who would or could come up with such an ignorant viewpoint of black people. Just reinforces my chagrin at never realizing how many people in this world are really OFF. Way off.
Anyway, don't I wish I had kept my stroller so I could take an embryo for a walk.
1 -
LMAO over "don't I wish I had kept my stroller…". If an embryo is a child, then get it a SSN! How absurd those judges are and how WASP their actions are. If this is our judicial system, we are in dire straights.
1 -
I hope everyone with frozen embryos will claim them as tax deductions!
1 -
1 -
2 -
Last Christmas, the Washington Post ran a terrific special price for a one year subscription, I forget the exact cost, but I gifted it to myself! Lol. I like having access to their daily paper; here’s an article on the NRA’s former CEO, Wayne LaPierre, who’s been found liable at trial for squandering NRA money on…gasp!…himself. Once again, you have hard working people paying dues to a massively rich organization which steals those funds to pay for their lavish lifestyle. Even knowing this, no doubt those hardworking idiots will still contribute, because they need to be able to carry their guns to church and the dollar store!
NRA and ex-leader found liable after being sued over lavish spending
The National Rifle Association and its former CEO were found liable Friday after the New York attorney general’s office sued them, saying they misspent millions of dollars on extravagant perks.A New York jury found that Wayne LaPierre, who led the NRA for three decades, squandered millions on vacations, private jets and expensive clothes, and said he was liable for $5.4 million in damages. Jurors also determined that the NRA failed to include or misrepresented information in tax filings and broke New York law by not adopting a whistleblower policy.
In a statement, the NRA said that the verdict revealed it had been victimized by vendors and “insiders” who had stolen from the organization. By the time James filed her lawsuit in 2020, the NRA said, it had fixed problems that had been exposed by 2018 whistleblower complaints and an internal investigation that followed. An attorney who represents LaPierre did not respond to requests for comment Friday night.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who had sued in 2020 over allegations that the group violated state law governing how charities registered in New York can operate, hailed the verdict as “a major victory.” “Wayne LaPierre blatantly abused his position and broke the law,” she wrote on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. “But today, LaPierre and the NRA are finally being held accountable for this rampant corruption and self-dealing.”
LaPierre’s lawyers denounced the case as a political witch hunt by James, the AP reported, and during closing arguments Thursday, attorney Kent Correll argued that LaPierre had to use private jets for safety reasons and that they were not for his personal benefit but to raise money for the NRA. “Whether you agree or disagree with the NRA’s mission, there should be no dispute the NRA delivers on that mission,” NRA lawyer Sarah Rogers told jurors during her opening statement.
Deadly school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Newtown, Conn., rattled LaPierre. In the summers that followed, he borrowed a 108-foot yacht from a Hollywood producer to use as a “security retreat.”
“Thank God I’m safe,” he said in a deposition
LaPierre, who built the NRA into a political powerhouse that stymied firearm limits even in the face of waves of mass shootings, resigned in early January on the eve of the start of the trial, citing health reasons. At the time, James said that the “end of the Wayne LaPierre era at the NRA is an important victory to our case” but vowed to hold him accountable at trial.
In her opening statement, special counsel Monica Connell said that LaPierre stacked top positions with enablers and participants in his bad conduct. Under LaPierre, the NRA “did not operate according to law or even according to its own rules,” but based on what LaPierre wanted, Connell said, adding that he had been referred to as “the king of the NRA.”
The New York attorney general’s case included accusations that the NRA’s money was stolen for personal use, such as taking swanky trips and buying expensive clothes, and that misconduct involved nepotism and corruption.
Connell told jurors that those misdeeds were a disservice to the NRA’s donors. “People take money out of their pockets, hard-earned money, and they donate it to charities that they believe in … They should be able to trust that the hard-earned money they donate is going to go to advance the mission of that charity,” Connell said.
At trial, LaPierre testified that he didn’t know that the hotel stays, travel expenses, meals, access to yachts and other perks counted as gifts, the AP reported. But he admitted that he had wrongly expensed flights on private jets for his family and received vacations from companies doing business with the NRA, all without disclosing them, according to the AP.
Founded in 1871, the NRA operated for many years as a promoter of safety and recreational shooting. After LaPierre took the reins in 1991, it focused on amassing political power in D.C. and state capitals. Politicians high and low feared a negative NRA rating would make them vulnerable to an election-year challenge on the right.
But underneath those political wins, cracks were beginning to form in an organization facing a sharp decline in membership, financial instability and disarray, The Washington Post previously reported.
In 2020, the attorneys general of New York and D.C., sued the NRA for financial improprieties. Two years later, member dues plummeted to $83 million from $170 million in 2018, according to tax records.
At the same time, donations slumped while the group faced mushrooming legal fees, growing to an annual average of $36 million after 2016. By 2018, former NRA board president Oliver North worried that the rising legal expenses — used to counter a slew of piling lawsuits — were “draining NRA cash at mind-boggling speed,” he wrote in a leaked memo that year, The Post reported.
In 2021, a group that was once among the most influential outside forces in electoral spending, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeking to restructure in Texas and avoid legal action in New York.
Four months later, a federal judge denied the protections, finding that the NRA’s bankruptcy petition “was not filed in good faith.”
Instead, the judge argued, it was a last-ditch effort to fend off a lawsuit — the same one that, nearly three years later, would prompt a jury to find the NRA and the key architect of it gun rights agenda liable of corruption.
Emma Brown, the executive director of Giffords, an advocacy and research organization promoting gun control, said in a statement to The Post that the jury’s decision is “only the beginning of legal consequences for the NRA’s financial wrongdoing and abuse.”
“The NRA has long been toppled from its seat of power, entrenched in scandal and extremism,” Brown said.
The advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety said in a statement posted on Instagram that Friday’s decision is the culmination of organizations putting “pressure on the NRA and exposing the destruction they’ve caused.”
“It confirms that the NRA is no longer invincible,” the post states.
Shayna Jacobs, Beth Reinhard, Silvia Foster-Frau and Justine McDaniel contributed to this report.
*
*1 -
1 -
Great memes and articles.
1 -
Divine. Thank you. I, like others here likely recall some time back getting wind of a 'great' decline in the NRA. I'm not completely surprised due to that. I do hope to look back though and see this as a beginning to the end of the NRA. I think I mentioned before that Dh who joined due to his brothers nagging didn't last long with the organization. It was not just the dues which were expected, but the fairly constant barrage of monetary solicitations. They just kept coming and coming. Seems anyone joining automatically went onto the donor's list.
It soon became obvious why. The change was coming then. I also am not surprised LaPierre resigned for "health" reasons. I'm sure the thought of what was about to happen was sickening to him. Those who find a way to play don't ever want to have to pay up for it. While I'm sure some get away, there are plenty of 'smart' criminals in the hoosegow. I hope LaPierre becomes one of them.
On another subject, I do think the Shukert meme is right on. The Reps. in particular seem to have spent many long yrs. staking out this position. That said though, I can't believe that women will settle for this any more than they settled for Roe V Wade reversal. Likely it will go down as helping the Reps. party lose bigly once more. I can't recall the exact words of that song — something about being kept down on the farm after we've seen L.A. or something to that effect. There are somethings that we will just not give up.
Today should be a bit interesting for the SC primary. In one spot they showed a huge long line and seemed very surprised by it. Don't know what that means, but time and this evening after the polls are closed we will see.
0 -
"I also am not surprised LaPierre resigned for "health" reasons."
Yeah, angering a lot of people with dozens of guns each isn't good for one's health. And wasn't that part of their messaging all along?
1 -
Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love—for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another. -Ram Dass
0 -
2 -
Too funny!
0 -
When one has reverence for life, one will never do anything
to harm, hinder, or destroy life. Instead one bends every
effort to help life to fulfill its highest destiny. One strives to
maintain, enhance, and assist life to make the most of itself.
Wilferd A. Peterson0 -
Love that meme too. I'll be so glad when I can get back into my "stash" of meme suppliers. I truly miss the hilarity of them all. Great way to let off steam and often says more than you could if you were just making a few broad statements.
It also (maybe for some of you as well) helps me take my focus elsewhere when I read a few too many pundits who are opining about all they can that is highly critical or downright negative about Pres.. Biden and the Democratic party. Even when I'm aware that it is highly un-trustworthy, very far from 'cream' of the crop types like Comer, Jordan, Tuberville etc. it still has a tendency to cause a slight decline in my overall hope and determination that we will prevail.
There is I do believe huge exhaustion for having not only to have put up with the Loon's four yrs., but what is indeed an inordinate amt. of time waiting for some REAL justice to prevail. I looked on the 2020 loss as the end of the fat, evil orange abomination and to yet be assaulted by his image, and words this whole time can't describe the angst.
If there is a bright spot, it is for now that some justice is taking place, while at the same time there are more and more instances of the Loon's senility making appearances of some sort every time he is in public. I do think unless he has one too many Mc Cheeseburgers and a heart attack he is going to make it all the way though because there just is NOTHING else for the Reps. Even at that though, I very much doubt he will have anything much going for him since the mental deterioration will have gotten much stronger and will render him not actually viable. And I do think we will have to cycle out of Trumpism, but if we have House, Senate and WH., good work could start quite soon in rebuilding and shoring up what the Loon caused with his four yrs. and the further damages from the four yrs. the Reps. did nothing that wasn't really destructive. So, yes those memes keep me feeling a bit more positive and help me cure the slight tendency for my hope to falter, even if just slightly.
0 -
I think the last nearly 8 years of him holding court over the repugnicans increases my anxiety about the future of our hard won democracy. My Dad was a WWII veteran and I know he would be distressed by the shenanigans we have had to endure from a draft dodger and self-proclaimed "genius" who actually has an IQ that most like reflects his shoe size or even, being generous, his belt size.
There was a clip on Morning Joe of Tommy Tuberville being interviewed about his thoughts on the SC ruling banning IVF in Alabama. He was utterly clueless and could not answer the reporter's direct questions about whether he supported the ban or was anti it. It could qualify as an apt SNL skit. Kept saying he hadn't had time to read the bill and she reminded him there was no bill, it was a SC decree and he still couldn't get it together mentally.
Morning Joe also mentioned how disruptive JD Vance has been and after watching the abomination of a movie they made from his book, I am glad I did not purchase it. It wasn't the movie itself, it was the story line and the fact that decent actors were convinced to participate. Yes, I know they all laughed on the way to the bank but their lack of discrimination in making it makes me less of a future follower of their works.
0 -
JD Vance has turned out to be a shockingly awful human being. Hillbilly Elegy was an amazing book as it really helped me understand my ex and his family in a way I never did when we were married. I knew that his views were conservative but I have lost any admiration I may have had for him. The book, however, was still a major enlightening read for me.
0 -
Betrayal, I was taken with your mention of your dad. My dad was a disabled veteran and a very staunch Rep. Much like your family (dad) he would I know be really horrified at what the Loon campaigns were like as well as the Loon in the WH. To be honest, I'm not at all certain he would have quit his party, but I know he would have been in major disagreement with how the Trump yrs. played out. He, being pretty astute would also be in great disagreement about the border and Ukraine reversals that Speaker Johnson and his band of idiots are carrying out per Loon's orders. I'm glad that he is not here to be pitted up again some of the choices he might feel absolutely forced into by his 'party'.
Exbrnxgrl, I'm also glad for your explanation of reading Hillbilly Elegy. I always meant to get the book and read it but never did. As you explained it, it sounds like Vance used the fact that many seemed to have the same reaction to his book as you and he used it to catapult himself into our government structures. Too bad he chose to settle himself quite firmly on the right as well as into the more extreme right. Whatever slight admiration I had in the beginning for him as an author I quickly lost. Mainly even before he showed himself as an extremist. I'm thinking here of the Peter principal. If your successful writing books, perhaps you won't make a good politician. The only nice thing I can think is that tons of his government cohorts seem to be in the wrong profession right along with Vance.
Would be nice to think he as well as many others will find during the next election or two that they are in the wrong profession and get voted out or leave on their own.
ETA: I saw the Tuberville IVF clips as well which is why his name came so easily to me. It seems that former professions play a bit of a role in who gets elected. I don't think that should rule a person out, but it is plain to see that he can't keep up with current events even so why is he there. Those who elected him did so on his previous 'fame' and they won't change now. That is sad. He is NOT qualified.
0 -
Just a short note here about something I saw yesterday evening. It was during the time that MSNBC was having some special coverage of the SC primary presidential ( Reps.) campaign results. Of course the expected party won. I think there was little doubt. My reference was to the Loon when he was making remarks about his win. I barely heard a thing he said and the reason why — the camera caught him turning his head to right pretty far and I found it amazing that his hair almost seemed to be bunched up in something of a pompadour type look. I immediately thought of Elvis Pressley and I've not been able to dislodge that idea. The Loon hasn't looked too tidy anywhere for some time, but to my knowledge I've never seen his hair style rising that high up on his head. I'm sure I'll be looking in the future to see if it remains that way.
0 -
Well, Rona McDaniel is definitely stepping down after super Tuesday. Seems the Loon will then be on his way to being able to grift a lot more from the RNC as if he hasn't gotten enough already.
The Loon lost his appeal to hold off paying E. Jean Carroll and seems (save for the first $5 million judgement ) he has not as yet managed to raise the needed bond to appeal the larger amt. He would be likely to lose that anyway. In fact, he is getting so senile along with his guilt on all of his accusations and indictments that I think he is only having his lawyers do the same maneuvers he has always done. They won't work now, but his lawyers keep him happy and make themselves more 'hours' so even knowing the futility they go ahead. It spins the wheels but does get nowhere.
That said, I'm wondering — if he can't find help with the bond on the second Carroll judgement, who might (if anyone) be willing to step up for his New York fraud judgement. Seems to me that there is enough possible doubt about his dementia status and even his being able to actually get the nomination and run that those who might have been eager are now not so much. He may be convicted and, on his way, to jail by election time, or so demented by then its widely accepted that he could not survive an actual election process.
Still, I feel great concern. I do not trust the Reps. at all and can only hope they stay as focus and idiotic about the Loon as they have been. That they all seem to have such fear will always amaze me. I know if they all stood up together at the same time any bully, including the Loon, would fold like an old card table. Why the continue to hand out that kind of power — save for their own need for it and greed mystifies me. Any of them are stronger than the Loon. Hard to see that many weaklings together.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the media to get real. I've read just today that the Loon's gaffes are getting far worse. For a very recent speech he had to have the names of his children written out and he still managed to leave one of them out. That is senility/forgetting on a rather grand scale. There was also the time that is a while back now when someone asked the Loon to opine on his son Baron and all he seemed able to remember about him was that he was quite tall. We still are not hearing the amt. of admittance by the media we should. No wonder people become so full of doubts and just quit bothering. You have to fact. check (don't forget FactChek.Org by the way) everything that is said.
Anyway, we shall see how it goes. I'm hoping at the end of the month we are hearing which property or properties James is taking to satisfy the New York fraud verdict.
0 -
There was something on the online MSN news today that the Loon is selling off his Trump properties in NYC quietly and on the cheap. Wonder if he thinks selling them off under the cover will mean he can takes his money out of NY so they can't claim his properties. His Scottish golf course is millions in debt and he has filed an appeal on Engoron's ruling claiming he lacked the authority to fine him. He hasn't paid his bond as of yet, so his appeal may be for nought. I am keeping my fingers crossed he has to declare bankruptcy again and loses most of his properties. I would never let him near my check book!
0 -
I heard/read something about that as well Betrayal. I think one of the few things he may have had some willingness to pay for are those people who will find all the loopholes for him. So perhaps this selling of properties is one. I thought he had ( and has for some time now) a financial monitor and all transactions needed to be available to this person. I really don't know what all the conditions were for the monitor, but I have no doubt that even though it is said that most of his properties are worth less than he owes, he'd be likely to then sell at a loss rather than have James able to claim them for a judgement.
Like you my fingers are crossed.
0 -
Here’s a great story.
Students at a medical school in the Bronx will no longer pay tuition after it received a $1 billion donation, the college said Monday.
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine received the donation from Ruth Gottesman, the chair of its board of trustees. It marked the largest gift to any medical school in the country, the college said in a news release Monday.
Gottesman said in a statement that she was thankful that her husband, David Gottesman, who had been a business partner of Warren Buffett, left her the money when he died in 2022.
“I feel blessed to be given the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause,” she said.
Einstein’s tuition is about $60,000 per year. With the costs of books and room and board, the school estimates, students’ expenses can total around $100,000.
The school said in its release that it hopes the gift will allow medical educations for people from diverse backgrounds who may otherwise not be able to afford tuition. Of the college’s first-year class, more than half of the 183 students are women and about 18 percent self-identify as being from an underrepresented group.
Einstein opened in 1955, originally as a part of Yeshiva University, a private Jewish school in New York. While the university grants the college of medicine’s degrees, Einstein moved under the oversight of Montefiore Health System in 2015.
Gottesman’s donation, the college said, would make it possible for students to pursue medical degrees “free from the burden of crushing loan indebtedness.” The donation is probably the largest to a medical school, according to the New York Times.
Tuition will be free starting in August, and current fourth-year students will be reimbursed for the spring 2024 semester, the college said.
Before the announcement Monday, Einstein students were called to a mandatory meeting, but they weren’t told what it was about.
As soon as she spoke the news, the crowd erupted into claps and cheers, some jumping up to their feet and others wiping away tears.
Gottesman and her husband had established a relationship with Einstein long before Monday’s announcement.
In 1968, Gottesman joined Einstein’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, where she worked on screening tools for learning problems, the college said. She worked on learning disabilities for decades.
Yaron Tomer, the college’s dean, said Monday’s donation “radically revolutionizes our ability to continue attracting students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it.”
“We will be reminded of the legacy this historic gift represents each spring as we send another diverse class of physicians out across the Bronx and around the world to provide compassionate care and transform their communities,” Tomer said in a statement.
*
*1 -
Hooray, Divine. What a beautiful and I'm sure quite wise friend the Einstein College of Medicine has in its trustee Ruth Gottesman. Sounds like there will be many grateful recipients of her generosity who might be a lot more able to finish out their dreams.
0 -
Yes, Jackie. Here’s a short clip of Ruth Gottesman giving the announcement to the students and their reaction. It brought me to tears.1
