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@#19 ... Now that's funny. ...

Presuming you are referring to my #17, yeah.

Back in the day when I first heard the song on the local college station. I just laughed.

And, fwiw, back then, Ms Massey was referred to as "Egg Lady."

Edith Massey: The Egg Lady in Her Own Words (2021)
www.baltimoremagazine.com

... May 1982. Ronald Reagan is U.S. President. Late Night with David Letterman debuts. "I Love Rock n' Roll" covered by Maryland's own Joan Jett & the Blackhearts is the hot pop single. And John Waters is packing midnight movie houses with audiences drawn to his singularly shocking style of alt-films.

We are high school seniors at St. Paul's School for Girls, one of Baltimore's all-girls prep schools, buddied up in journalism class, and assigned one last article before graduating"a profile of a local celebrity.

Instead of our classmates' more staid interview subjects, we decide to go big and bold with Edith "Edie" Massey. Leader of an all-girl punk rock band, Edie and the Eggs. Smutty greeting card model. Most famously, actress in a series of Waters' dark comedies. A campy character deeply entrenched in Baltimore's underground arts scene.

Little do we know that ours would be the last interview the Egg Lady (her character, Divine's mother, in Pink Flamingos) would give before her death two years later in 1984. ...




Another view ...

DOJ whistleblower alleges probes into universities were politically motivated
www.highereddive.com

... The Trump administration's civil rights investigations into three Ivy League universities were politically motivated and designed to pressure those institutions into settlements, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney alleged in a whistleblower account Monday.

Officials pressed for deals with Columbia and Harvard universities despite hasty or incomplete investigations, Haley Van Erem, who worked in the Justice Department's civil rights division for almost a decade, alleged. At Brown University, officials pursued a deal even after investigators concluded that there wasn't evidence to support a civil rights violation.

The outcomes of the investigations were "predetermined, without regard to evidence," the account alleges. Moreover, Trump officials pulled vast sums of federal funding from the universities before probes were even completed. ...


Another view ...

Disturbing reason X keeps showing you posts you hate revealed in new study
www.uniladtech.com

... Algorithms. Can't live with them, can't live without them. Social media platforms are notoriously cagey about their own ones, and we'll be damned if we're going to pretend we understand how they work.

Basically, algorithms feed you a conveyor belt of content that social media giants think will be relevant to you. That might feel great when you're shown hilarious TikTok videos, local dining spots you need to try out, and can keep up with all the latest news when it comes to your favorite celebrity, but why does it sometimes feel like we're being fed a bunch of nonsense? Worse than that, why are there continued complaints that X shovels a bunch of ragebait our way?

Apparently, there could be a good reason for it.

Since taking over Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk has been accused of driving the platform into the ground by overhauling how the old Twitter blue system works, removing the ability to fully block, and allowing hate speech to flow.

This affects both ends of the political spectrum, with the left and the right arguing that they're being bombarded with content that doesn't align with their views. Musk vowed to reveal exactly how the X algorithm works by making it open source, with it now possible to even see whether you've been shadowbanned.

As for the idea that we're gobbling ragebait as part of some evil master plan, a study titled "Value misalignment of X's feed algorithm is a reflection of value tensions in engagement" has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Researchers suggest that X's algorithm prioritizes engagement on the For You Page (FYP), while users who identify as Democrats are apparently served more ragebait. ...


"The rich of course they use legit companies, because they have to, they have "accountants"."

ALWAYS a great reason to break the law. Always.

"Do you think Juan has a Bank of America business account? of course not."

Do you think that excuses you from getting his Social Security number before paying him $600 or more?

"I pay him with a check, under "juans landscaping""

Okay, so you're doing the right thing...unless you pay him more than $600 in the year.

"he takes the check to a check cashing office and cashes the check. He pays his guys, they don't care, he doesn't care and I don't care."

And you're right: what they do is THEIR choice. And you've got enough do deal with having already broken the law.

" Only stupid people think laws by themselves stop evasion."

You're right. It also takes character, which in this case, usually costs MONEY. And that's when you get to make the decision to follow the law, or break the law.

I have plausible deniability"

Try that in front of the IRS.

"Juan has work for his rotating crew, the cash checker gets his cut."

If the cash checker has done his job, that's legal. Juan cashing a check YOU WROTE is legal. You not reporting on a 1099 IS NOT LEGAL.

"And Danforth is wondering why the IRS isn't getting a 1099."

Oh, no...I know EXACTLY why. You find it cheaper to break the law.

"I'll end it with you think laws stop people, they don't especially when you don't enforce them."

I agree: you should be prosecuted by the IRS.

"The only time I see in America that laws get enforced is when one party doesn't like what the other is doing."

Odd. I haven't seen that In my 40 years of practice. What DID stun me, however, was the mere IDEA that ANYONE would get future immunity from IRS audits. NEVER HEARD of it.

"The system was here before I came"

No excuse at all. Aren't you supposed to be here to make it BETTER?

"people like you and the Lumpers defend illegal immigration to no end."

Hey Slurper, don't lump me into a group I've never joined. That's a lazy accusation at best, and a convenient lie at worst.

" You can blame me, but I feel no remorse or guilt"

Of course you don't. You don't have the character to take responsibility for your chosen actions.

" it's not my fault this person is available to work on my yard, the whole neighborhood hires the guy."

What a riot: that "the other guy was speeding" defense will get you thrown out of TRAFFIC court.

"...don't complain when I use it"

Well, don't complain when I turn you in.

Fair enough?

... Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) filed a lawsuit on 18 August 2026 against Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) to force the extradition of ICE agent Christian Castro ...

Yeah, good luck with that.

Pres Trump has been stymieing Minnesota's attempt to obtain evidence for the ICE murders of Minnesotan American citizens.

So, how might this current request with MAGA-enabled Texas?

Minnesota sues Trump admin to access evidence in federal shootings, including Alex Pretti, Renee Good cases (March 2026)
www.foxnews.com

Trump Promised Transparency. His Administration Keeps Finding New Ways to Hide Records.
https://reason.com/2026/08/15/trump-promised-transparency-his-administration-keeps-finding-new-ways- to-hide-records/


Of course, the question lingers out there, like an unclaimed air-biscuit ...

Why should a State have to sue the Federal government to share data about a crime committed?



RE: Danforths 1099 supposedly every thing is locked down.

This is how the real world works, landscaper has a pseudo name, "Juans landscaping", why? Because he learned that people don't want tax issues, or immigration issues. So he gets a truck outfitted with a vinyl for $10 claiming he's "juans landscaping". Lic #----------. Go ahead, next time you see a landscaping truck from the middle class write down the Lisc number and verify it .... it won't be found, its all bs. The rich of course they use legit companies, because they have to, they have "accountants".

Do you think Juan has a Bank of America business account? of course not.

I pay him with a check, under "juans landscaping", he takes the check to a check cashing office and cashes the check. He pays his guys, they don't care, he doesn't care and I don't care. Only stupid people think laws by themselves stop evasion.

I have plausible deniability, Juan has work for his rotating crew, the cash checker gets his cut.
And Danforth is wondering why the IRS isn't getting a 1099.

Do you hate illegal immigrants Danforth, why don't you want them working?

I'll end it with you think laws stop people, they don't especially when you don't enforce them. The only time I see in America that laws get enforced is when one party doesn't like what the other is doing.

The system was here before I came, people like you and the Lumpers defend illegal immigration to no end. You can blame me, but I feel no remorse or guilt, its not my fault this person is available to work on my yard, the whole neighborhood hires the guy. This is the Elite Democrat system, why his cheap labor is so plentiful ... don't complain when I use it.

@#142 ... General Electric (GE): Once provided extensive pensions and secure middle-class career stability, but later closed and froze its traditional plans to cut legacy costs. ...

Yup.

Because CEOs like Mr Welch apparently took over the company and, instead of using the comanpy's income and wealth to benefit the workers who created that wealth and income, detoured that money t the uber-rich management.


Mr Welch's reign over GE dows not now seem to be A Good Thing ...

Jack Welch
en.wikipedia.org

... Under Welch, GE acquired the RCA Corporation in 1986 and expanded aggressively into financial services through GE Capital, which came to account for 40% of the company's revenue. ...

In later years, Welch's practices and legacy have drawn scrutiny from historians and journalists, particularly regarding his transformation of GE into a company heavily dependent on financial services.[1] GE Capital collapsed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis ...



So, how much did Mr Welch's management buddies benefit from his ~transformation~ of GE?

Did he just suck GE dry of money for his benefit and the benefit of his frieds?


Back in my youth, I would haunt the huge book warehouses on Fourth Avenue down in the teens, where you'd be looking at one shelf of books, with two other shelves behind it, for acres up down and sideways. Probably all Starbucks and fashion stores and NYU now.

Self-publishing has evolved into quite something from 25 years ago. Now it is--or can be--entirely legitimate and with better attention to detail than royalty publishers have time to provide. And the secret is that even if you publish with a royalty publisher, you're still doing your own marketing (book tours, etc.), unless you happen to come with a PR agency in tow.

And I'm amazed at the number of people who just want desperately to be "authors." I've worked for two mainline Protestant pastors who said they wanted "author" on their tombstone. Didn't mention thanks to the Big Guy.

I worked for a company out of North Carolina last century, as you say, called Pentland Press, a UK subsidiary. Pure vanity press, with less and less attention to content, although I think they were more legit in the UK.

Right before I moved to the VA/TN state line, I worked on a book that was a woman taking her meager divorce settlement to publish a book containing all the alleged scandals, faults, and shortcomings (physical and psychological) related to her former spouse, in addition to all other violations of theology and geometry (Toole, Dunces) that he may have committed. The book was rank and vile by any measure.

The lady author's name was Goforth, as I came to find out was a not-uncommon name where I moved to, and I shuddered the first time in NE Tennessee, where the author lived, to see a Goforth mailbox.

I thought they'd folded, but a few years later I received another call from Pentland with a more legitimate project. I mentioned my previous experience and told them to go pluck that book of the shelves and scroll through it. They were unfamiliar with the title.

The response I received was one of horror.

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