Justin Amash quits the G.O.P. Good for him

Today, I will only say nice things and think nice things about him
And then go back to thinking and saying what I think about his time in congress

Why So Dour Flower?

Last weekend President Trump jetted off to the DMZ to meet with PDRK Chairman Kim Jong-un and Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in. This picture was the front page in almost every newspaper in South Korea, from the far right Chosun Ilbo (which this pic is taken from) to the liberal dailies like the Hankyoreh.
One would think that maybe, Kim Jong-un likes South Korean President Moon Jae-in much better than either of them like Donald Trump. But to be fair, both men speak Korean and trump is barely literate in English


[IMG][/IMG]

I do love this picture

NJ EMT Accused Of Manufacturing Arsenal Of Assault Rifles, Handguns

FRANKLIN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A New Jersey emergency medical technician is under arrest, accused of stockpiling assault rifles, handguns and semi-automatic weapons inside his home.

Zaresmki faces more than 35 charges after police seized an arsenal of weapons from his home on Old Pond Lane.

snip

Youst says he never saw any sign that Zaremski, who worked as an EMT with Hackettstown EMS, was manufacturing weapons.

Det. Nevin Mattessich says the investigation started after a complaint of domestic violence from someone outside the family.

link
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/06/25/new-jersey-emt-manufacturing-assault-rifles/

Jerry Falwell Jr seizes the torch of assholishness and goes full sprint into the lead

Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention-
The reports of the conditions for migrant children at the border should shock all of our consciences. Those created in the image of God should be treated with dignity and compassion, especially those seeking refuge from violence back home. We can do better than this.

Jerry Falwell Jr-
Who are you @drmoore ? Have you ever made a payroll? Have you ever built an organization of any type from scratch? What gives you authority to speak on any issue? I’m being serious. You’re nothing but an employee- a bureaucrat.

Built an organization from scratch? I am unaware of anything Falwell JR has built from scratch.
I am aware that he inherited a university and ministry from his late father Jerry Falwell Sr

As to authority on any issue, I am curious what scriptures Falwell Jr has been reading in his support for these abominations

Strong Candidate for the Worst Person in the World

Woman 'poses as dead cyclist's aunt' to oppose new London bike lane

A woman posed as the aunt of a cyclist who was killed in London in order to oppose plans for a new segregated bike lane, according to the victim’s mother.

Eilidh Cairns, a television producer from Alnwick in Northumberland, died aged 30 in 2009 after being hit by a tipper truck while riding in Notting Hill in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Her family was contacted by several people who attended a council meeting held this month to discuss a proposed cycle scheme in Kensington, saying a woman who spoke there claimed to be Cairns’s aunt and said: “Had Eilidh been alive today, she would not have supported the scheme.”

snip
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/24/woman-poses-dead-cyclist-eilidh-cairns-aunt-oppose-london-bike-lane

The Republican Robin Hood

Me 1981-2 DeLaSalle High School, Gonzaga and Kyle Kashuv in 2019

I have read a few articles about Mr Kashuv, those that support him and those that support Harvard. The crux of his support seems to focus on how it was two years ago, that he was being immature, that he has grown, has learned from the ordeal and he has so much potential that what is happening to him is unfair.
Casting aside the racial and gender dimensions, I am going to focus on this from my own experience.

September 1981 started my senior year at De La Salle High School in Concord, California (Before DLS became an institution focused on its football program as the center of its universe). DLS was/is a highly regarded Catholic high school, it had/has a reputation for excellence in education and for having fairly high expectations on the behavior of its students.
I spent part of the year filling out applications and attending the recruiting sessions from university representatives. I wanted to go to Washington State University, but when the recruitment representative from Gonzaga came, I thought that might be the school for me.

I filled out my application, got letters of recommendation from my teachers and sent my transcripts; I had a 2.9, not the greatest, but enough to get in.
"Why would they turn me down? I have good grades, have been a three year starter on the varsity baseball team, been in most of the school plays, have volunteered in elementary schools and I am Catholic. Why would they turn me down?

No way they could.

They did.

I found out that they considered my character to be questionable. This confused me.
Why did they turn me down?
Because in my junior year, I had written a story titled, "Escape from De La Salle." (I saw Escape from New York and it was my 'inspiration') It was a pseudo dystopian kind of story that mocked the school, the administration and the teachers. It was thirty pages long, a bit over-the-top, I admitted at the time, and many of my peers found it funny. The school could have overlooked the story, I mean, it's a story I wrote for my friends and I to laugh at.
But, for some immature reason, I thought it would be funny to post it. I made many, many copies and placed them all over the school. Now, there was no 'n' word in my story, or anything racial in it. But, I made several references to a teacher being gay, one teacher being a violent fascist, I mocked several students at the school and so on.
Things that were funny to a teenager, but not funny to people whom I was mocking

When Gonzaga's Admissions found out about the events of the story, that was it for Gonzaga and me. Whose fault is that? It's mine. I accepted I screwed up then and I still do. Getting into Gonzaga is not a right, Gonzaga was not obligated to accept me. They made a decision based on what I had done and decided that I was a poor fit.

I moved on, applied to other universities, and ultimately went to Washington State University and was fine with it. I didn't complain, or whine or whatever. I didn't try and play the martyr whose potential was being snuffed out by the horrible guardians of morality at Gonzaga University.

The fact is, what I did and Mr. Kashuv did in high school is how they decide to let people in. They don't possess crystal balls and special elixirs that let them see the future of every person who applies. It's kind of hard to say which people have the most potential out of the thousands of applications they receive every year. Like posting pictures on facebook of you at a drunken orgy can cost you admissions and job possibilities, posting obnoxious racist twits, or posting an inappropriate story around the school can cost you admission as well.
Similar to, the good things you do and say help you get into universities, because they show qualities about your past that make you a desirable candidate for admission, stupid stuff makes you undesirable.

I would argue letting him in to Harvard, or in the case of me, Gonazga, sends the worst possible message; 'That you can do racist, stupid, horrible, obnoxious things that offend and embarrass others and there are no consequences for your actions, because you believe you have 'potential'.

Bosses pocket Trump tax windfall as workers see job promises vanish

Stephen Smith worked at an AT&T call center in Meriden, Connecticut, for over 20 years before the giant telecoms company announced it was closing the city’s three call centers in February 2019.

snip

AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson, promised in November 2017 to invest $1bn in capital expenditure and create 7,000 new jobs at the company if Trump’s hugely controversial tax cut bill passed. Many opponents had slammed the cuts as a corporate giveaway that benefited the super-rich. But big firms lobbied for it, saying – as AT&T did – that it would fund job-creating expansions.

The bill was voted into law in December 2017, reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. AT&T’s benefit was a tax windfall of $21bn and an additional estimated $3bn annually. But instead of creating jobs and increasing investment into the company, AT&T has eliminated 23,328 jobs since the tax cut bill was passed, according to a recent report by the Communications Workers of America. The CWA also said AT&T reduced their capital investments by $1.4bn.

snip

AT&T is among several large corporations whose CEOs announced support of the Trump tax cut bill by claiming if the legislation passed, their companies would ensure workers reaped benefits from it. But a report published on 22 May by the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan thinktank for members of Congress, found the tax cuts did not significantly affect the economy or boost wages, but benefited investors more than anyone else.

link
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/15/job-losses-trump-tax-cut-at-t-general-motors-wells-fargo

A poem

There was a crooked man
He had a crooked laugh
He ran a crooked office
He hired a crooked staff

He had a crooked wife
She ran her crooked affairs
They were really something
That crooked, crooked pair

How Bob Marley's Daughter Saved Jamaican Women's Soccer

One afternoon in 2014, Cedella Marley, Bob's eldest daughter with his wife Rita, was handed a flier by her son, Skip, after he came home from school. The flier was from Skip's soccer coach, and it asked parents to consider donating money to resurrect Jamaica's women's soccer team.

Cedella was startled. She lives outside Miami but is still royalty in Jamaica, leading Tuff Gong, the record label her father started, as well as the foundation named for him. She made some calls. Turned out, the women's soccer team hadn't existed for much of the previous four years because the country's soccer federation cut the funding.

snip

Cedella bristled. Was it a soccer thing? she asked. Nope. The men's team, known as the Reggae Boyz, had its funding fully intact.

snip

When the federation defunded the team a second time in 2016, Cedella -- unbowed -- simply redoubled her efforts, pushing for a complete culture change within Jamaican women's soccer. First, she persuaded Alessandra Lo Savio, a co-founder of the Alacran Foundation, which does arts philanthropy work in Jamaica and elsewhere, to become a major contributor. Then she identified Hue Menzies, who gave up a career in corporate finance to become a full-time soccer coach, to lead the re-formed team.

There was nothing in the Jamaican soccer federation budget for a women's-team head coach, of course. That meant Menzies -- who runs a very successful youth soccer club near Orlando -- would have to be a volunteer. He didn't hesitate.

link
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/3867379/how-bob-marleys-daughter-saved-jamaican-womens-soccer

I put this here because it's as much about Cedella Marley and Women in sports as it is about sports