August 18, 2016

The Denver County Fair. Zombies, Freaks, and Geeks, oh my!!

Growing up in a variety of small towns the summer months always brought the Carnival / Fair to the town. I have lots of very fond memories from my yesterdays at these summer events. Well, the Denver County Fair didn’t bring back too many of those memories. But, I can’t say it wasn’t interesting.

I attended this year’s Denver County Fair with my partner in crime. The Camera I took was one of my recent Thrift Store purchases. Test drove a Panasonic Limux DMC-TZ1. This was one of the first marriages of Panasonic and Leica in a compact Digital Camera. I paid about $3.00 for it with my senior discount. Had to get a cheap aftermarket charger for it that cost more than the camera. Its ISO topped out at 800 and had more noise than I’ve grown accustomed to from these newfangled super Cameras but I wasn’t going for picture perfection. Those of you that cringe when you see digital noise in a picture might want to turn away.

Most Posters are designed by local artist Mark Penner-Howell:



Lindsey Kuhn designed the 2015 Pot Pavilion poster:



Sadly, the Pot Pavilion was nixed this year. In 2015 there was this little incident that I think contributed to not having the Pot Pavilion. Long Story Short. Dispenser was giving away Free Edibles that weren’t supposed to have any THC or something like that. Anyway, many people filled up on these Free Brownies. An hour later they were sedated. Heavily. FYI: If you are planning a trip to Colorado and want to include a little Weed on the trip; don’t do edibles. I’ll say that again; don’t do edibles.

The Denver County Fair had the usual Caged Animals, Corn Dogs, and Funnel Cakes. They also had many different competitions. From Cooking to Art and everything in between. Unless it was intentional I avoided having any living things in any of my pictures. I took about 50 pictures but I won’t lay them all on you. Just a few:

We entered the County Fair where a dude dressed in a Steam Punk outfit scanned our QR on his iPhone and we were good to go.



In one area there were a number of ‘Peep Dioramas’. There was much discussion about what exactly is going on in this one. I’d really like to get someone to throw their hat in the discussion.



After I took this picture a nice woman came over and explained to me that I was supposed to put my head inside the Lion and then have someone take a picture.



I have no idea what this is and I didn’t spy any notes or placards that might give me a clue. Any guesses?



This is Christopher Clark, a licensed Star Wars / Marvel Artist. Think he’s a local boy. I really wanted to check out his booth but I would have had to do the New York Sidewalk Shuffle to get in it. Does Disney own Lucas Films? I can’t track of all this kind of stuff.



The Art Exhibit was damn impressive. I believe that most of it came from artists in the RINO district. If you live in the Denver area or you have plans to visit Denver in the near (or distant) future you’ve got to check out the RINO District. It’s an Artist Community that continues to grow. I read recently that they plan on converting a large chunk of empty land behind the district and turn it into a Concert/Event center. FYI. I also read that Denver’s music scene is considered better than Los Angeles.

Enough about that. Some images of the Art on Exhibit



I believe this was was done by a local famous Fiber Artist who has a Studio/Gallery in the RINO District:



Don’t know much about this. Just liked it.



Liked the way this framed up.



Oh, and they even had a Cat Art contest.



And, can’t forget the Textile/Quilting items:



There was an area dedicated to ‘Colorado Cars Used In Movies’. I’m guessing this came from one of the Resident Evil flicks. I happen to be a huge fan of the Resident Evil Movies.



I also met this dude (link below). Sorry, no pictures of him. Very nice young man. Purchased his comic. You can also see and read some of his work at his site.

http://thescarletderby.com/

My People!!!!







Scored a cool T-Shirt with this dude on it.



I learned quite a bit. Including my discovery of this being a Thing. Picked up some information so I could educate myself.



Had 9 Card sets in the Art Exhibit area.





I’ll close it out with a couple from the Geek Pavilion.



I believe this was a Sign-Up booth for that Trump dude.



Thanks for taking time from whatever it is you’re doing to read and look. Really appreciate it.

August 9, 2016

The Orange Sludge: Ripping people off and illegal money laundering

As someone who has been involved in small business most of my life this really pisses me off. I've dealt with assholes like the Orange Sludge over the years.

If you are engaged in illegal criminal activity or you are say.... a terrorist... Trump was the place to go!!!

Trump Taj Mahal willfully violated the BSA’s program, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements from 2010 through 2012. Importantly, many of these violations were previously cited by IRS SB/SE in previous examinations of Trump Taj Mahal since 2003. As described below, Trump Taj Mahal (a) failed to implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering program; (b) failed to report suspicious activity related to several financial transactions at the casino; (c) failed to properly file Currency Transaction Reports; and (d) failed to keep appropriate records as required by the BSA and its implementing regulations.

The BSA and its implementing regulations require a casino to report a transaction that the casino “knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect” is suspicious, if the transaction is conducted or attempted by, at, or through the casino, and the transaction involves or aggregates to at least $5,000 in funds or other assets.

A transaction is “suspicious” if the transaction: (a) involves funds derived from illegal activity; (b) is intended or conducted in order to hide or disguise funds or assets derived from illegal activity, or to disguise the ownership, nature, source, location, or control of funds or assets derived from illegal activity; (c) is designed, whether through structuring or other means, to evade any requirement in the BSA or its implementing regulations; (d) has no business or apparent lawful purpose or is not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage, and the casino knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction; or (e) involves use of the casino to facilitate criminal activity.

Within the scope period of the 2010 and 2012 IRS SB/SE examinations, Trump failed to file approximately 100 SARs. During the three-month examination scope for the 2010 BSA exam, Trump Taj Mahal filed 32 SARs, but failed to file 41 others, which represents a 56% failure rate. Similarly, during the three-month exam scope for the 2012 BSA exam, Trump Taj Mahal filed 69 SARs, but failed to file 55 others, which represents a failure rate of 44%. The suspicious activity included patrons engaged in minimal gaming activity, avoiding the CTR filing requirement by structuring marker payments and chip redemptions to avoid reporting, and apparent laundering of funds through the issuance and redemption of slot ticket in/ticket-out tickets.

http://bit.ly/2aHBKSR

The Clinton Campaign has a 'tip-line' which I've sent this and other related material. They are probably more aware of it than myself but just to be certain.......

I don't know for a fact that Terrorists used the Trump Casino to launder their money, but I've heard things.