April 5, 2019

Saudis Offer To Help Julian Assange Exit Embassy

Citing their expertise in "sneaking people out of embassies", representatives of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman are reportedly in talks to render their unique assistance in removing Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Developing...

April 4, 2019

Lori Laughlin accused of bribing court for admission to better prison

Developing...

April 3, 2019

Men's Cycling Race Forced To Pause Due To Delay In Women's Race

It's the spring classics season, and today is the Dwars Door Vlaanderen.

In March and April, a series of bicycle races are held in the Flanders region of Belgium. The way these days work is that there are junior races, under 18's, elite women, and elite men, all of whom follow slightly different courses around loops of roads that take them over various cobbled hillside roads.

Each race is separated by a time gap and shares the same finish line, but follow different courses and cover different distances, so that they come across the finish line to the entertainment of spectators there (and where the timing devices, podium, officials, and other entertainment are located) at regular intervals.

Each race also has a full complement of support cars, motorcycles, emergency vehicles etc..

A few weeks back, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad got some attention in the general press among people who don't have the first clue how bicycle races work, or the importance of aerodynamic advantages from vehicles and other riders, when the shorter women's race was getting close to the back of the vehicle convoy for the men's race. This was portrayed as some kind of "keeping women down" story.

Here's the DU poutrage thread over that piece of journalistic malpractice:
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11886914

So, today in the Dwars Door Vlaanderen, the men's race had to be stopped due to a delay in the women's race because, sometimes shit happens in these things. Moments ago...


https://twitter.com/KONMBlog/status/1113424787152560128


https://twitter.com/gewtsop/status/1113425876148981760


https://twitter.com/centuriescc/status/1113424805011836928

https://twitter.com/simon_crisp/status/1113424583502249984

April 3, 2019

Men's Cycling Race Forced To Pause Due To Delay In Women's Race

Going on now at the Dwars Door Vlaanderen....

https://twitter.com/KONMBlog/status/1113424787152560128

I'm guessing this won't be the same "horror" over the fact that the spring classics run juniors, under 18's, women, and men over the same sub-loops, and sometimes shit happens, as it was when the women's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was held up.

April 3, 2019

More Clients File Suit Against Avenatti...

Stormy had better hurry up and get in line for her $293k in malpractice damages, because that line is getting crowded...


https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/attorney-michael-avenatti-sued-in-santa-barbara/1065169579

Attorney Michael Avenatti sued in Santa Barbara

The former clients are suing Avenatti for what their attorneys call "professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty over the mishandling of a settlement, misuse of settlement funds, and conflicts of interest."

The plaintiffs are represented by Cappello & Noël LLP, who have also represented local clients in high-profile cases including Ann Crawford-Hall, currently embroiled in a battle with the federal government over the proposed Santa Ynez parcel of land known as Camp 4.

According to court documents, the two plaintiffs were previously represented by Avenatti's law firm in 2006. The two were previous employees at FLIR Systems, Inc. who sued the company for malicious prosecution. FLIR, Systems Inc. eventually settled the case for $39 million, which was transferred to a trust operated by Avenatti's law firm.

The plaintiffs allege ethical violations and conflicts of interest as well as years of unnecessary litigation related to those funds.

--

copy of complaint here: https://media.keyt.com/npg-keyt-media-us-east-1/document_dev/2019/04/02/19.04.01%2C%20Avenatti%20Complaint_1554236727635_37942792_ver1.0.pdf




But he's a "fighter", and he talks good on TeeVee...

March 31, 2019

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike...

...turns out to be pretty valuable...


https://www.nj.com/traffic/2017/03/parkway_turnpike_break_predictions_for_traffic_and.html

For the fifth straight year, toll revenue and traffic was up on both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, exceeding projections.

The Turnpike Authority, which operates both roads, reported a total of $1.788 billion in revenues for 2016, $1.57 billion of it from tolls.

——-

If only Cathy had applied that interest.

March 31, 2019

Simple way for Americans to understand Theresa May this week

Befuddled by Brexit? You can still appreciate the political choices the UK faced this week.

Imagine if you will, Donald Trump saying, “Okay, I get it, you all think I suck. So I’m going to offer you a deal. Give me 10 billion dollars to find building a wall, and I’ll resign.”

Think about it. It does present something of an interesting choice.

But, they didn’t support her. So, she’s staying. In a complete reversal of ordinary political dynamics.

March 29, 2019

Cayman Islands Supreme Court Rules For Marriage Equality

Aside from its common perception as a tax haven, the Cayman Islands used to be an administrative unit of Jamaica. When Jamaica proceeded toward independence, the Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac) became a semi-autonomous British Overseas Territory. It has its own constitution, legislature and executive government, but is overseen by a Governor appointed by the Crown.

Because of the prominence of the financial industry, and the fact that many international banks and law firms rotate employees through Cayman (you can work there for 7 years as an expat, with the appropriate permit) from the UK and Canada, where marriage is between all persons, a problem had started to arise with married employees of foreign banks being able to get their spouses a residence permit on the basis of being the spouse of a person there on a work permit.

So, the first problem to tackle was carving out a limited exception to their immigration laws by which same sex spouses of foreign nationals present in the islands on a work permit would be recognized as spouses for the purpose of a residence permit. Otherwise, this would have caused a real problem with workplace equality rules for the banks themselves.

However, more recently, a Caymanian who was employed in the UK met her partner there, and sought to return to Cayman and obtain Caymanian status for her partner by marrying in Cayman.

This has caused no shortage of interesting discussion in Cayman which, like much of the Caribbean, is not what one would consider to be a welcoming society in that regard. Unlike Jamaica, in which gay sexual relations remain illegal and there is considerable violence against gays, Cayman has eliminated criminal penalties and is generally has more of an "act straight in public" level of tolerance. There are some 50,000 inhabitants of Cayman, and it's more like a small town, where everyone knows everyone else and has to get along somehow.

But after much hand-wringing, Bible-thumping and the usual things that go along with it, Chief Justice Smellie (yes, his name is Smellie) has finally ruled on the case of Ms. Day and Ms. Bodden Bush....

https://www.caymancompass.com/2019/03/29/chief-justice-rules-same-sex-marriage-is-legal/

BREAKING: Chief Justice rules same-sex marriage is legal

Chief Justice Smellie ordered in his ruling that section 2 of the Marriage Law be changed to state “‘Marriage’ means the union between two people as one another’s spouses.”

He stated: “This Court is … bound not to allow the violation of the Petitioners’ rights to continue without redress. The Constitution, in its mandatory requirement that the Law be brought into conformity, must prevail. The Petitioners and their daughter are entitled to the indignities to which they have been subjected being put to an immediate end by the Court.”

The couple’s attorney, Ben Tonner, issued this statement after the ruling: “Chantelle and Vickie are delighted that their relationship has been recognised at long last. The Chief Justice’s decision demonstrates in unequivocal terms that the rule of law and the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom are alive and well in the Cayman Islands.”



And if you are a fan of "local news comment sections", this site gets the cream of the crop in Cayman:

https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/03/legalises-gay-marriage/

March 27, 2019

Do you want to understand something important about people?

https://ahrefs.com/blog/top-google-searches/

Top Google searches (as of February 2019)



The FIFTH-HIGHEST ranked search term on Google is.... "google".

Just let that sink in the next time you think you want to do something like organize a "general strike" over whether the Attorney General will release the findings of the Office of Special Counsel.

The FIFTH-HIGHEST ranked search term on Google is.... "google".

Can you imagine how many people have to be looking for Google - ON GOOGLE - for that to happen 85 million times in a month?

March 25, 2019

CALIFORNIA federal prosecutors indict Michael Avenatti (in addition to NY)

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/lawyer-michael-avenatti-arrested-federal-bank-fraud-and-wire-fraud-charges

According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint in this case, Avenatti negotiated a settlement which called for $1.6 million in settlement money to be paid on January 10, 2018, but then gave the client a bogus settlement agreement with a false payment date of March 10, 2018. The affidavit states that Avenatti misappropriated his client’s settlement money and used it to pay expenses for his coffee business, Global Baristas US LLC, which operated Tully’s Coffee stores in California and Washington state, as well as for his own expenses. When the fake March 2018 deadline passed and the client asked where the money was, Avenatti continued to conceal that the payment had already been received, court documents said.

Avenatti also allegedly defrauded a bank in Mississippi by submitting to the lender false tax returns in order to obtain three loans totaling $4.1 million for his law firm and coffee business in 2014. According to the affidavit, Avenatti obtained the loans by submitting fabricated individual income tax returns (Forms 1040) for 2011, 2012, and 2013, reporting substantial income even though he had never filed any such returns with the Internal Revenue Service. The phony returns stated that he earned $4,562,881 in adjusted gross income in 2011, $5,423,099 in 2012, and $4,082,803 in 2013, according to the affidavit. Avenatti allegedly also claimed he paid $1.6 million in estimated tax payments to the IRS in 2012 and paid $1.25 million in 2013. In reality, Avenatti never filed personal income tax returns for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and did not make any estimated tax payments in 2012 and 2013. Instead of the millions of dollars he claimed to have paid in taxes, Avenatti still owed the IRS $850,438 in unpaid personal income tax plus interest and penalties for the tax years 2009 and 2010, court papers state. The affidavit also alleges that, as part of his loan applications, Avenatti also submitted a fictitious partnership tax return for his law firm.


------------

Full Complaint:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/press-release/file/1147466/download


You know, the next time someone has FACTS which you don't like, it might we worth debunking them, instead of just telling that person to shut up.