The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[W. Niederhut]

Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along now.  It's not like the guy was thrown off of a balcony or died in a bathtub accident.

Ex-Hill Staffer Linked to Veselnitskaya Dies Suddenly After Fall Near His Home
 

www.thedailybeast.com/paul-behrends-ex-staffer-to-dana-rohrabacher-who-was-linked-to-veselnitskaya-dies-suddenly-after-a-fall
 

[Steve Thomas]

Editorial: Shame on Nebraska officials for joining foolish Texas election lawsuit

• Editorial staff Dec 15, 2020

Omaha World-Herald

https://omaha.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-shame-on-nebraska-officials-for-joining-foolish-texas-election-lawsuit/article_294a76e0-3e2d-11eb-adf1-679e649b82c1.html

 

“Yet, presented with that scenario at a news conference before the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case — would Nebraska have been involved were Joe Biden not the winner? — Gov. Pete Ricketts insisted our interest wasn’t political and he just wants other states to follow their laws.”

 

“Bull.”

“As Republicans who supported the Texas lawsuit go forward in their political careers, voters must remember what they did in December 2020 in hopes of denying 20 million Americans their most fundamental right, and what they did to erode confidence in the very elections in which their ambitions drive them to compete.”

“It was shameful.”

Steve Thomas

[Sandy Larsen]

 

30 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Obama, definitely, ranks among the top ten best Presidents in history.  A century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for universal health insurance, Obama got it done-- succeeding even where Clinton had failed.  Obama also enacted the highly effective Stimulus Recovery Act of 2009, which prevented the Great Bush-Cheney Recession and widespread bank failures from devolving into a second Great Depression.  Obama also presided over the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulatory reform act, in response to the 2008 Crash.  He was consistently sabotaged and defamed by the Koch-funded GOP Tea Party and right wing media, but presided over seven years of consistent GDP and private sector job growth, and a near TRIPLING of the U.S. stock markets-- as I can attest from personal financial experience.

 

Thanks W. It's good to see that I'm not the only one to take note of Obama's greatest first-term accomplishments. Thanks also to Cliff for noting his greatest second-term accomplishments.

 

[David Andrews]

Ex-cop held Houston man at gunpoint, accused him of nonexistent voter fraud: police

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ex-cop-held-houston-man-at-gunpoint-accused-him-of-nonexistent-voter-fraud-police/ar-BB1bXO74?li=BBnb7Kz

[Kirk Gallaway]

That's really funny, Dave.!!    I expect there will be more of these!

This pretty much sums up the Pandemic in America.

 

[Steve Thomas]

Sound familiar?

Value of Loeffler’s Mansion Dropped $6M Overnight—and Nobody Can Explain Why

“The estate went from a $10.5 million appraisal to $4.1 million, resulting in a much lower tax bill for the senator and her husband.”

By Sam Brodey and William Bredderman Dec. 16, 2020

https://www.thedailybeast.com/value-of-sen-kelly-loefflers-georgia-mansion-dropped-dollar6m-overnightand-nobody-can-explain-why?ref=home

 

“When Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, bought a 15,000-square-foot Atlanta mansion known as “Descante” for $10.5 million in 2009, it was the most expensive private home purchase in the city’s history.

The value of the estate, as appraised by Fulton County government officials for the purpose of calculating annual property tax dues, remained the same, $10.5 million, for the next seven years. Then, in 2016, the appraised value suddenly plunged to $4.15 million—a whopping 60 percent decline.

The result was a dramatic cut to the couple’s property tax bill.

Originally, they were paying $200,000 annually to the city and county governments. In 2016, after their home’s value dropped, they paid $90,000.

Since then, the appraised value of the home has risen to roughly $5 million, but they are still paying about $80,000 less a year than they did when they first bought. In 2018, the home was valued at $5.5 million, and the couple paid $115,000 in property taxes for that year. In 2020, the home was valued at $5 million, with a tax bill of $112,000.

The devaluation of the Loeffler-Sprecher estate, and lower tax bill, came after the couple invested significantly in improvements to the property. In 2015, they spent nearly $90,000 to renovate the kitchen, $150,000 to construct a new greenhouse, and $125,000 on various outdoor improvements, records filed with the city show.

And it’s especially striking given that Atlanta was undergoing a real-estate boom at that time. Home prices in the metro area surged by 81 percent from 2012 to 2020, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

Donald Trump's Lame Duck Temper Tantrum Tracker

From Public Citizen

"President Donald Trump’s administration is winding down, but his cruelty, recklessness and cronyism isn’t.

That’s why Public Citizen is tracking some of his most corrupt, norm-breaking, dangerous, and unjust actions during the lame duck session.

And we’re barely scratching the surface. From attempting to steal the election to gutting critical regulations to protect the public interest, Trump continues to put himself, corporations, and his cronies over the rest of us – and our democracy.

https://www.citizen.org/article/lameduck/

Steve Thomas

Edited December 16, 2020 by Steve Thomas

[Sandy Larsen]

 

On 12/14/2020 at 12:20 PM, Kirk Gallaway said:

Jim's order  of best President would be:

1) JFK

2) JFK

3) JFK and so on...

One exception might be FDR, I assume Jim given his stated preferences likes FDR, but he's really been rather quiet about it.

 

Kirk,

Thanks for your comments... I found them to be enlightening and amusing.

One of my reasons for asking Dennis and Jim D. for their top 10 presidents is because it seemed to me that they'd be unable to pick that many whose presidencies they could stomach. If not, I don't know if that would indicate that their expectations are unreasonably high, or if the Democratic platform doesn't align well with their ideologies.

 

[Joe Bauer]

27 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

Sound familiar?

Value of Loeffler’s Mansion Dropped $6M Overnight—and Nobody Can Explain Why

“The estate went from a $10.5 million appraisal to $4.1 million, resulting in a much lower tax bill for the senator and her husband.”

By Sam Brodey and William Bredderman Dec. 16, 2020

https://www.thedailybeast.com/value-of-sen-kelly-loefflers-georgia-mansion-dropped-dollar6m-overnightand-nobody-can-explain-why?ref=home

 

“When Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, bought a 15,000-square-foot Atlanta mansion known as “Descante” for $10.5 million in 2009, it was the most expensive private home purchase in the city’s history.

The value of the estate, as appraised by Fulton County government officials for the purpose of calculating annual property tax dues, remained the same, $10.5 million, for the next seven years. Then, in 2016, the appraised value suddenly plunged to $4.15 million—a whopping 60 percent decline.

The result was a dramatic cut to the couple’s property tax bill.

Originally, they were paying $200,000 annually to the city and county governments. In 2016, after their home’s value dropped, they paid $90,000.

Since then, the appraised value of the home has risen to roughly $5 million, but they are still paying about $80,000 less a year than they did when they first bought. In 2018, the home was valued at $5.5 million, and the couple paid $115,000 in property taxes for that year. In 2020, the home was valued at $5 million, with a tax bill of $112,000.

The devaluation of the Loeffler-Sprecher estate, and lower tax bill, came after the couple invested significantly in improvements to the property. In 2015, they spent nearly $90,000 to renovate the kitchen, $150,000 to construct a new greenhouse, and $125,000 on various outdoor improvements, records filed with the city show.

And it’s especially striking given that Atlanta was undergoing a real-estate boom at that time. Home prices in the metro area surged by 81 percent from 2012 to 2020, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”

Steve Thomas

Did real estate in Atlanta in general decline 60% in assessed value the year that the Loeffler/Sprecher property did?

Like in the GW Bush 2007/2008 recession when real estate nationwide dropped 50%?

A 60% drop without some major important reason or general area property devaluation MUST have a specific reason.

Was their estate found to be haunted? Did some drug cartel people or gang lyric rap star buy a neighboring property and move in with gaudy expensive cars and swarthy armed guards and big, loud sex parties? 

Did a neighbor start a Pit Bull breeding and training business?

Did they find a foundation ruining underground stream underneath their home or something toxic?

A 60% drop in accessed value in one year has to have a super clear and important reason. Surprised that no one has contacted the County assessors office to find the exact reason for such a massive one year drop.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Joe Bauer

[David Andrews]

7 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

That's really funny, Dave.!!    I expect there will be more of these!

 

I'm not surprised that an ad hoc surveillance op like that went down in Houston.  Because of the oil industry, the port, and the foreign consulates and corporations there (Israel, China), Huston is a major nexus for intelligence services, the Dallas of our times.  In that atmosphere, the Houston cops (and ex-cops) might get...hinky and wired.  See the rumors swirling around the Roland Carnaby killing a few years back.

Maybe Doug Caddy knows some good Houston stories.  Maybe Larry Hancock does.  I'd love to hear some.

Edited December 16, 2020 by David Andrews

[Joe Bauer]

By the way... is high tech leaving the Northern California , San Francisco South Bay Area?

Hewlitt Packard Enterprises just relocated their headquarters to Houston, Texas, Oracle to Austin Texas. Tesla to Austin.

Plantir Tech just moved to Denver.

HP expects many of their employees to continue working from home, even after the pandemic.

Our society is changing at lightening speed right before our eyes folks.

[James DiEugenio]

3 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

 

Kirk,

Thanks for your comments... I found them to be enlightening and amusing.

One of my reasons for asking Dennis and Jim D. for their top 10 presidents is because it seemed to me that they'd be unable to pick that many whose presidencies they could stomach. If not, I don't know if that would indicate that their expectations are unreasonably high, or if the Democratic platform doesn't align well with their ideologies.

 

You found that amusing and enlightening Sandy? Kirk is being his usual xxxxx, which is why I have him on ignore, thanks for showing my why I keep him there.

The reason its difficult to do a top ten for  any list is because although there are many histories and biographies of the most popular presidents--Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Eisenhower, Truman, Clinton--it is not easy to find ones on presidents who were less popular, but were fairly good presidents e.g. Arthur.  And as I said earlier, the ones on people like Truman and Eisenhower, by McCullough  and Ambrose for example, have turned out not to be reliable.  Which you probably did not know. In addition to the information about McCullough which I posted, Steve Ambrose, the main biographer of Eisenhower, turned out to be not just a plagiarist, but a confabulator.  That is, he made up interviews he did not do with Eisenhower.  The other problem is the declassification process. Blanche Wiesen Cook's book on Eisenhower--which you probably never heard of--did not come out until 1984. That began a reevaluation of Ike.

With Kennedy, that problem does not exist so much because of the ARRB.  But, for example with your poster boy Obama, it does exist.  Obama tried to make a big deal out of his refusal to do HRC's bidding and invade Syria. The image was, well she suckered me on Libya, but yet I wised up after. He gave out a cover story to, I think, Atlantic on this. 

Well, it turned out that as he was doing that, he OK'd Timber Sycamore, a rather large CIA covert operation against Syria.  I believe, and many others do also, that this was one of the stupidest, most pointless covert ops in recent memory.  As with W and Iraq, it has unleashed ethnic and tribal rivalries and hatreds that should have been foreseen. But as was par for the course, they were not. And the last thing they expected was for Putin to intervene. Which I think he was correct to do. Because, Putin anticipated another Libya happening. In fact, that is what would have happened if you examine what the Nusra Front really was. And we end up with things like Aleppo, where a city is destroyed in order to save it.

The way you guys coddle DLC types like Obama and Clinton makes me wonder if you are already warming up to embrace Obama part 2, Joe Biden.  Let us see how long it takes Joe to get us out of Syria and to denounce what MBS is doing in Yemen, let alone for the murder of Khassoggi.

Edited December 16, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[David Andrews]

Why two votes here for Chester Arthur (Berube and DiEugenio), and none for, say, Teddy Roosevelt?

I'm aware of all of Teddy's bad points (jingoist, colonialist, animal killer, denier of Native American rights, supposed "tool" of the banking interests).  But TR had his good points, also: he stuck up for labor (in the coal miners' strike, e.g.); invited Booker T. Washington to the White House; generally refused to let the bankers run roughshod over the economy and the Executive office; opposed American entry into WW I and hated Wilson for it.

Chester Arthur, on the other hand, carried into the White House taints of mediocrity and corruption from the Conkling machine and the New York Customs House.  His civil rights records consists of expressing disapproval when Congress voted down rights measures, and he didn't prevent Indian reservations from being encroached by settlers.  Allegedly, a popular reaction among politicians to Arthur's ascendancy was, "Great God!  Chet Arthur as president!"  What am I missing in the Arthur story?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/11/when-a-new-york-baron-became-president

Edited December 16, 2020 by David Andrews

[W. Niederhut]

1 hour ago, David Andrews said:

Why two votes here for Chester Arthur (Berube and DiEugenio), and none for, say, Teddy Roosevelt?

I'm aware of all of Teddy's bad points (jingoist, colonialist, animal killer, denier of Native American rights, supposed "tool" of the banking interests).  But TR had his good points, also: he stuck up for labor (in the coal miners' strike, e.g.); invited Booker T. Washington to the White House; generally refused to let the bankers run roughshod over the economy and the Executive office; opposed American entry into WW I and hated Wilson for it.

Chester Arthur, on the other hand, carried into the White House taints of mediocrity and corruption from the Conkling machine and the New York Customs House.  His civil rights records consists of expressing disapproval when Congress voted down rights measures, and he didn't prevent Indian reservations from being encroached by settlers.  Allegedly, a popular reaction among politicians to Arthur's ascendancy was, "Great God!  Chet Arthur as president!"  What am I missing in the Arthur story?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/11/when-a-new-york-baron-became-president

I read George Frederick Howe's biography of Chester Arthur last year.

He has been praised mainly because everyone initially assumed that he was hopelessly corrupt, and he turned out to be quite reasonable.  Arthur was a skilled administrator who rose to prominence as a Civil War quarter master (and eventual major general) in New York City.

But, certainly, the jingoistic, (imperialistic racist, etc.) Teddy Roosevelt, accomplished far more during his tenure in the White House.  So did Grover Cleveland.

As for Obama, my main criticism of his presidency-- then and now-- has to do with his willingness to cooperate with the Neocon "War on Terror" in Syria, Libya, and Yemen.  He retained Robert Gates in the Pentagon and declined to say, "No," to the CIA and military establishment.  I was surprised and disappointed by this.

But I also think that it's somewhat myopic to judge Obama's otherwise highly successful presidency on the basis of his reluctance to take on the Neocons and the military-industrial complex in the Middle East.

Netanyahu hated Obama, and the Saudi royal family was none too fond of him.  And Obama, certainly, deserves credit for backing the Iranian nuclear disarmament deal, and negotiating nuclear arms reductions with Putin.

Trump killed more civilians in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq ("collateral damage") in his first eight months as POTUS than Obama killed in eight years!

[James DiEugenio]

6 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

Sandy, although I think JFK was a pretty good president.  I think RFK would have been a great one.

IMO, that is why there were both murdered by high level conspiracies.