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Snarkoleptic

Snarkoleptic's Journal
Snarkoleptic's Journal
December 31, 2016

New Year Resulutions

Courtesty of Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian.

December 30, 2016

Crappy, mass produced beers boost alcohol content in advance of Trump inaugural. (NOT The Onion)

No, really!

During the lean years, when the Republican housing crisis forced me into a career change, I was known to pick up some low-rent beer/ale.
Today, I picked up a 12-pack of Lagunitas IPA, which is a locally brewed in Chicago's "Little Village" neighborhood (they also brew in California).

While seeking out refreshments for NYE, I noticed that two of my former go-to beers have jacked their ABV's to 6.9%
Both proudly displayed their (new and improved) high ABV content in large-font banners on their 30-pack cartons.

Icehouse increased from 5.5% to 6.9%, a whopping 25.4% increase in alcohol content.
Milwaukee's Best Ice (a/k/a Milwaukee's Beast) increased from 5.9% to 6.9%, a major 16.9% increase.

Bracing for impact?

December 27, 2016

Obama Promises Not To Leave Us All Alone With The Scary Clown-Man In The White House

http://wonkette.com/609728/obama-promises-not-to-leave-us-all-alone-with-the-scary-clown-man-in-the-white-house


Should you find yourself with 50 free minutes on this lovely Barbara Boxing Day, you owe it to yourself to listen to David Axelrod’s “exit interview” with Barack Obama, because it’s Barack-o-licious. All you have to do is get past the podcast title, “The Axe Files,” which sounds like it’s going to be 50 minutes on body spray, and no, David, nobody outside your immediate circle is ever going to call you “Axe,” even if they say it when you’re around just to be indulgent. Friends will do weird things if they really like you. But our point here is that you Wonkers should give this thing a listen, because it’s so ridiculously obvious that these are two old friends who like each other a hell of a lot, and they’re chatting about stuff that matters (as well as some stuff that’s just fun).

Does CNN have the decency to provide an embeddable version of the podcast? They do not, because they are a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be first up against the wall come the revolution (with votes), but you can listen to it here, where there is also a transcript.


Link to the article with podcast-
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/politics/axe-files-obama-transcript/index.html

The CNN overview of the conversation gets at the meatier, newsy parts of the interview, particularly Obama’s belief that if he’d had the Constitutional ability (and inclination, he says modestly) to run for a third term, he probably could have won it. Not that Hillary Clinton ran a bad campaign, he’s careful to say; rather, he says, she had to fight against 30 years of a media double standard that always seemed a hell of a lot tougher on Clinton than on most other candidates. And yes, that’s from the guy who in 2008 put his own foot in that stream when he said she was “likeable enough.” But he doesn’t think America as a whole has given up on Hope and Change. Directly quoting Sarah Palin’s mocking “How’s that Hopey-Changey thing workin’ out for ya?, Obama says, well, actually, pretty darn well, not this time around, but for the long term, probably
December 25, 2016

Transition in Shambles- Trump aide named to lead White House communications says he won't take job

amid allegations he impregnated a GOP staffer, despite the fact his wife is due to deliver their second child next month.


http://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-advisor-a-j-delgado-deletes-twitter-account-after-cryptic-tweets-about-jason-miller/



Donald Trump transition team advisor (and former Mediaite columnist) A.J. Delgado deleted her account Saturday after a series of cryptic tweets about recently departed communications director Jason Miller.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-communications-idUSKBN14E018
Jason Miller, who President-elect Donald Trump announced this week would serve as his White House communications director, said on Saturday he would not take the job.

Miller, the communications director for Trump's transition team, said in a statement that his family needed to take priority over career moves. He said he and his wife were expecting their second daughter in January. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

"This is not the right time to start a new job as demanding as White House communications director," Miller said.


December 23, 2016

Tracking Trump's Conflicts of Interest (Sunlight Foundation)

https://sunlightfoundation.com/tracking-trumps-conflicts-of-interest/

The linked article contains this list with links out to the relevant source.
Conflict of interest red flags

Businesses registered during the campaign in Saudi Arabia
Businessmen from India meet with President-elect Trump
Foreign diplomats at Trump Hotel in DC
Ivanka Trump sits in on meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe
Ivanka Trump’s company hawks a bracelet after 60 minutes interviews
Trump children (who will run business) on transition team. Donald Trump Jr. reportedly is involved in Secretary of Interior selection process
Trump currently facing investigation by Department of Labor
Trump hotel lease with GSA (which he could be in violation of on day 1 of his administration.)
Trump currently under audit by IRS
Russian Foreign Minister saying they were in touch with Trump campaign
Debt with foreign banks some now facing federal fines
Ivanka Trump joined President Mauricio Macri congratulatory phone call with her father
Trump said to have told British politician Nigel Farage to oppose wind farm near his Scottish golf course (then lobbying in a tweet for Farage to become ambassador to the U.S.)
Philippines appoints man building Trump Tower (licensed under the Trump name) in Manila as “special envoy.” President Duterte has said Trump expressed support for his drug war which has been criticized as an abuse of human rights.
Self-dealing (Using nonprofit to help self, business or family) reported in Trump Foundation 2015 Tax return posted on Guidestar.
Turkish newspapers reporting that Trump praised his Turkish business partner in a call with Turkish President Erdogan. Erdogan has reportedly arrested a businessman from Dogan, the company which works with Trump to possibly have leverage for the return of Gulen to Turkey.
Trump Foundation received $150,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch for a video speech Trump made in September 2015
Trump’s stock in oil pipeline company
Long-stalled Trump Tower project in resort town in former Soviet republic of Georgia moves forward
Bahrain to hold major event at Trump’s D.C. hotel
Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro involved in a criminal investigation in Brazil. (The Trump Organization announced it will pull the name off the hotel and will not operate it.)
Trademarks registered around the world
His stock portfolio (which reportedly includes shares in banks, pharma, and oil). The transition has stated the portfolio (which according to a May financial disclosure also includes Boeing) was sold in June, but has not presented evidence of that move.
Trump named properties could present global security risk (per former White House ethics lawyer)
Holds United Technologies Corp bonds (parent company of Carrier).
Ladder Capital, which owns at least $282 million in Trump debt, may be up for sale.
Trump has telephone call with Taiwan president where the Trump Organization reportedly is looking at building hotels. (“Beijing... regards the island as a renegade province.”)
NBC reportedly has ordered episodes of “The New Apprentice.” Variety reports Trump will retain his Executive Producer title for the show.
National Labor Relations Board

Areas of potential conflicts needing more reporting

Reports from Argentina newspaper La Nacion Trump asked President Mauricio Macri about a building project there.
Jared Kushner rumored to join the White House
Trump team denies they asked for security clearance for Trump children

Settled potential conflicts

Removed lobbyists from transition team
$25 million settlement of Trump University fraud case
Trump Organization to go before planning board in Ireland over seawall for Trump International Golf Links. (Organization reportedly dropped seawall from plans.)
Eric Trump to stop soliciting money for charity
Trump Organization announced accords with unions at two hotels
Quits hotel project in Brazil named in criminal inquiry
Charity auction to have coffee with Ivanka Trump closed
Fundraiser for post-inauguration meeting with President and hunting trip cancelled

Other swampy behavior

Huge perks for inauguration donors


Trump’s conflicts of interest explained by White House ethics lawyers Norm Eisen and Richard Painter.
December 23, 2016

How The Donald Stole Christmas

December 22, 2016

Massive Recall Issued for Ineffective COEXIST Bumper Stickers

http://thehardtimes.net/2016/12/20/massive-recall-issued-ineffective-coexist-bumper-sticker/

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will recall over 550,000 units of the popular “COEXIST” bumper sticker due to an ineffective and unsustainable message of world peace, U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.

“After an estimated 300 billion incidents of human suffering and death due to war, religious intolerance, racism, genocide, and homophobia, from the years of 50,000 B.C.E. through 2016, this sticker needs to be pulled from retail shelves and all automobiles immediately,” the NHTSA said in a statement online.

“NHTSA likes the sticker,” the statement continued. “We believe it looks really cool in a tie-dye color scheme. In the current geopolitical climate, however, our in-house engineers predict this trend in which everybody dies will not slow down in the foreseeable future.”

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December 22, 2016

Nation Throws Off Tyrannical Yoke Of Moderate Respect For Women

http://www.theonion.com/article/nation-throws-tyrannical-yoke-moderate-respect-wom-54664

OK, satire may be on life-support, but not quite dead yet.

WASHINGTON—Political experts are hailing Donald Trump’s historic presidential victory early Wednesday as a resounding declaration that the nation is finally ready to cast off the tyrannical yoke of moderate respect for women that has suffocated the citizens of this country for generations. “Under Trump’s presidency, we can now look ahead to a bold new era in America in which we will no longer suffer under a repressive ideology that demands basic decency and relatively equal treatment toward half the nation’s population,” said Harvard political science professor Gregory Nagle, adding that citizens could now live free from the fear that they would never again be lightly chastised for making derogatory comments about a woman’s appearance or implying that women are less capable or intelligent than men. “For far too long, Americans have been at the mercy of an authoritarian belief system that sometimes presses employers to consider hiring women for high-level positions and, under certain circumstances, allows women to have control over their own bodies. And faced with the unsavory prospect of women receiving fair pay or having their sexual assault claims taken seriously, Americans went to the polls today and made their voices heard loud and clear. This is a bright new day for America.” In a similar finding, political scientists asserted that Trump’s election also represented a decisive move by the people of this country to shake off the brutal fetters of half-hearted attempts at racial tolerance.
December 19, 2016

Trump skips US security briefings, while his staff receives secret briefing from Israeli Mossad.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/report-mossad-head-briefs-trump-staff-during-secret-meeting/

The head of Israel’s Mossad national intelligence agency made a secret visit to the United States to meet with members of President-elect Donald Trump staff and give a security briefing.

Mossad Director Yossi Cohen briefed the Trump staff members on the Iranian nuclear deal, the Syrian civil war, terror threats and the Palestinian issue, Ynet reported Saturday. The report did not say when the briefings took place.

The security delegation was organized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Ynet, and was led by National Security Council head Yaakov Nagel. Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer reportedly also attended the meetings.

The Israeli officials also reportedly discussed with Trump officials a proposed regional conference to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to be held in Egypt and an anti-settlement United Nations resolution by the Palestinians and backed by New Zealand.

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Hometown: Chicago
Home country: USA
Current location: Chicago
Member since: Fri May 4, 2007, 12:12 PM
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