I had a security clearance. When I left the employ of the Federal Govt, I didn't get to take it with me. I'm not sure why anyone expects to. My Brother in Law has made a good living with his security clearance since he left, working in the private sector on Govt contracts, however, he has been required to reapply and recertify through the company he works for to maintain his clearance, with limitations related to the beneficial work he is performing.

I don't claim to understand how that process works, as I left mine behind, but the expectation that a security clearance somehow belongs to you is --------.

When enormous egos collide ... ... .

"I don't feel there is a need to apologize for a request for mercy. And I don't feel that there is a need to apologize to speak to the unity of this country that includes people that were not at all referenced in the unity that he spoke of the day before in his inaugural address. So, no, I don't feel the need to apologize."

Excellent analysis by Slate. I concur.

Well that didn't last long. I haven't delved too deeply into this, things that pop out at me ...
Why was January 19 chosen as the shut down date, and by whom?
How did Trump turn it back on beFORE he was sworn in?

Well that didn't last long. I haven't delved too deeply into this, things that pop out at me ...
Why was January 19 chosen as the shut down date, and by whom?
How did Trump turn it back on beFORE he was sworn in?

The Point, Laura, is that MAGA purport to be populists who hate Oligarchy.... and yet that's what they've given us.
#3 | POSTED BY CORKY AT 2025-01-19 05:06 PM | FLAG:

What is more populist than Facebook, X, Tik Tok and Amazon?

I guess not, for a white guy.

A couple secrets they left out ... their draconian immigration policies, the prevalence of white supremacy, and one of the highest incidences of rape in the world. Denmark has lots of dirty secrets.

Why didn't they throw him in prison liked they did with the average citizen.

#2 | POSTED BY A_MONSON AT 2025-01-16 08:33 PM | FLAG:

Because it is a civil case, not a criminal one.

As to the settlement, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I don't blame these women for settling for what is likely a significantly reduced amount of sure cash now vs years of appeals and uncertainty.

He was fighting like hell to hang onto that Super Bowl. Ring. Why does a mayor get a Super Bowl ring? Or a sky box? Or any of those other perks. So the politicians that enjoy this VIP treatment will vote to hand them millions in incentives, tax breaks and cash to build new stadiums that most taxpayers can't afford to visit. All so Mayor A can call Mayor B and boast that "my boys beat your boys", and proudly wear a Super Bowl ring.

This caught my eye:

ADAMS compounded his gains from the straw contributions by using them to defraud New York City and steal public funds. New York City has a matching funds program that matches small-dollar contributions from individual City residents with up to eight times their amount in public funds, to give New Yorkers a greater voice in elections. ADAMS's campaigns applied for matching funds based on known straw donations, fraudulently obtaining as much as $2,000 in public funds for each illegal contribution. ADAMS and those working at his direction falsely certified compliance with applicable campaign finance regulations despite ADAMS's repeated acceptance of straw donations, relying on the concealed nature of these illegal contributions to falsely portray his campaigns as law-abiding. As a result of those false certifications, ADAMS's 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds.

So NY has a program to basically FORCE taxpayers to bankroll political campaigns through this matching program, in the guise of giving New Yorkers a "greater voice". Sounds like another way to fleece taxpayers for the benefit of the elite, particularly when you see how said politicians spend "their" campaign cash.

Meant to say I can't unsee that.

"The best thing though, is that we have the same haircut!"

I've never tried to form a visual image of anybody here, but I unsee that now Corky, lol!

I spent at least 12 hours a month on the phone with Express Scripts while they pretend to help me and I raise hell escalating to another level, whereof upon it starts over and they pretend they have no record of previous calls. They are evil.

"In all the known cases of wrongful arrest because of facial recognition, police arrested someone without independently connecting the person to the crime. "

Eyewitness identification is notoriously unreliable. Picking a suspect out from a show-up or line up is NEVER enough for an arrest, and use of AI just makes it more likely to happen. The photo line up was also done in a manner to lead the witness (see video), which is never permissable. There is no excuse for this kind of shoddy investigative work. There is also no excuse for the judge who signed the arrest warrant based on such weak evidence, or the prosecutor who filed the charges. Lots of heads should roll on this one.

Fast-tracking building permits good. Waiving building permits - potentially disastrous. A great deal of the building code is related to fire safety. Contractors and sub-contractors are already predisposed to cutting corners, because they think rules they don't understand the purpose of are stupid. Waiving building permits just encourages them to ignore those provisions build unsafe homes. Don't be surprised when an insurer refuses to cover a home built with a permit waiver.

This is not a year or two or three or four thing? It is a decades, and possibly centuries, thing that needs to be resolved. Unless, and until, you understand that, you will not understand the need

Well said. I have found that most people who take the effort to learn about the history of the Israel Palestine conflict go back in history to a certain year or era and stop. Whatever date they stop at informs their views on the conflict, who started it, who is at fault, who has claim to the land, etc.

For example, most of the pro-Hamas crowd stops around 1948, considers Palestinians indigenous people and believe the conflict originated with the Nakba. Go back 700 years and the Muslim Conquest presents an entirely different picture. Go back about 3000 years and find a unified Jewish kingdom.

#40 Nothing you said has anything to do with what's going on in Florida. Just so you know. Amazing how much you typed justifying and rationalizing something you know nothing about.

WTF? Literally EVERYTHING I typed in that post was from my first hand experience in Florida, with the exception of the short paragraph about California. Whereas almost EVERYTHING you typed was vague second hand clams with no attempt to provide factual support. You do you.

As an example of the "awful lot of headlines" trap, I googled "Jimmy Carter funeral" a few days ago. There were seemingly endless headlines about the interactions between the current and former presidents and vice presidents at Jimmy Carters funeral. Who smiled, who didn't, pundit reactions to the same. Far fewer, and further down the search results were stories about the speakers who eulogized him, or Jimmy Carter's family or accomplishments. So I suppose "Who snubbed who" was what was most important thing?

"I also know a very, very small minority of them are --------- who need to go, and the the good officers REALLY want to see the --------- gone."

I don't doubt you may have some insight.

But for such a "very small minority" you have to admit they sure do seem to grab an awful lot of headlines. And not in a "good officer" way.

#34 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-01-14 12:36 PM | Reply | Flag:

I hear what you are saying, but do you understand that the "very small minority" of any group seems to "grab an awful lot of headlines"? For example

A very small minority of teachers grab the headlines for having sexual relationships with their students (rape). And not in a "good teacher" kind of way. But I don't see anyone disputing that the vast majority of teachers are good people.

There aren't a lot of "good cop" stories grabbing the headlines because "bad cop" stories get more clicks. Same thing with teachers. I recall a day when our local newspaper had a cover story spread on a relatively minor police involved car crash, complete with a detailed analysis of every police involved accident that year. Buried on page 3 was a single paragraph about a daring ocean rescue the same day, where a police officer dangled from the skids of a helicopter in high winds over rough waters to pull a drowning woman to safety.

The media controls the narrative, and you are letting it control you when you make judgements based on what grabs "an awful lot of headlines". Take a moment and look for the actual statistics, i.e., allegations of misconduct as a percentage of calls for service, arrested officers as a percentage of total officers, etc. You will find that supports my "narrative".

Yav,
You are the one who accused me of "ignoring" your question, which I in fact answered in quite a lot of detail in a separate post, AS PROMISED.
You believe I am a POS for not agreeing with your ACAB narrative
You have dismissed my personal experience as "irrelevant" with no actual rebuttal or facts, none of the No answers to the questions I have posed.

Yes, I think you are triggered, because you are all emotion, bitter ad hominem attacks and no facts, no ""everything else" you claim invalidates my personal experience.

Also, what specifically do you think I lied about? Or is that just a spurious insult?

Triggered yav?

#33 - I get along extremely well with my sibling. You sure had to make a lot of assumptions to rationalize your narrative.

Assumptions? You missed the "I (and I said IF") part? The IF matters. Unless you are triggered.

Glad to hear you get along well with your sibling. You never answered whether they are a current or former cop, but I will make an "assumption" that he/she is "one of the good ones" (of which you seem to think are few). Ask him or her if they agree with my "rationalized narrative". I'd love to hear his/her take on it. This one:

I know the vast majority of them are good, hard working, selfless people who would put their own lives on the line to save a junkie. I also know a very, very small minority of them are --------- who need to go, and the the good officers REALLY want to see the --------- gone.

#35 | Posted by YAV at 2025-01-14 01:36 PM | Reply | Flag:

BTW - you come across as one of those ---------, Miranda7. Just so you know.

So by believing that most cops are good people, *I* am a -------- who is not? Sounds like a weirdly convoluted way to look at things. To be one of the good cops, you have to believe the ACAB narrative?

Getting public records in Florida increasingly takes waiting months, shelling out hundreds if not thousands of dollars, hiring a lawyer and in one recent case even having the police called.

#37 | Posted by YAV at 2025-01-14 01:42 PM | Reply | Flag:

You ignored that after lying and making accusations about my sibling and myself. You may go ---- yourself now."

#38 | Posted by YAV at 2025-01-14 01:43 PM | Reply | Flag:
Ignored? You also apparently didn't bother to read my last line where I told you I would get to the public records in another post. While you were telling me to go ---- myself, I was responding to that. See #39.