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http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."
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There's a small quake reported in Georgia.

STILLMORE, Ga. —
The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting an earthquake in Georgia.

The 3.9 magnitude quake happened at 4:05 Saturday morning, about 4 miles ESE of Stillmore.

South Carolina Emergency Management reported the earthquake due to its magnitude and proximity to South Carolina.

Another Earthquake happened Friday morning in Harlem, Georgia. It was a 2.2 magnitude.
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Members of Congress and others, pointing to the Juneteenth holiday, are pushing for the expansion of the 13th Amendment to provide worker protections for people who are incarcerated and often forced into working for very little pay.

“I’m bold enough to think that I can change the Constitution, and I know that there’s a national, bipartisan, multiracial movement to get it done. Let’s #EndTheException in the 13th Amendment,” Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) wrote on Twitter on Monday.

The Constitution’s 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in the United States was ratified in 1865 following the Civil War. Juneteenth recognizes when the news reached Texas two years later and is celebrated on the third Saturday in June. It became a federal holiday last year, when President Biden signed the Congress-approved legislation after years of advocates pushing for recognition. Federal offices observed Juneteenth on Monday.

But many advocates have argued that the recognition doesn’t go far enough and that Congress should act to extend the protections that the 13th provides.

“Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, but that recognition cannot be a placeholder for action,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote on Twitter. “We must recognize the lasting impact of slavery and that justice and freedom are still too often denied to Black Americans, and recommit to building a more just country.”

The 13th Amendment says: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Williams and Merkley, who also pushed for legislation last year during Juneteenth celebrations, are calling for a constitutional amendment to end the so-called punishment clause.

Advocates also have pointed to the low wages that prisoners are paid — particularly those forced to perform heavy-labor jobs — as a need to expand the 13th Amendment.

“We must recognize the lasting impact of slavery and that justice and freedom are still too often denied to Black Americans, and recommit to building a more just country that allows for slavery as punishment for a crime,” Merkley wrote. “This clause has fueled re-enslavement and mass incarceration for generations, and must be removed.”

In a recent report produced with the Global Human Rights Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that the average minimum wage for prisoners is 52 cents an hour or less.

Prisoners are forced to take on jobs as cooks, janitors, groundskeepers, barbers and plumbers, among other odd jobs spread throughout government and inside their prisons.

The ACLU analysts estimated that incarcerated workers generated at least $2 billion in goods and $9 billion dollars in prison maintenance services a year, despite the meager wages paid to them.
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The NY state attorney general get Trump in a catch-22.
June 21, 2022

New York's attorney general has President Trump in a Catch-22​

By David Ennocenti

President Trump recently lost an appeal and must testify in a civil investigation by New York State attorney general Letitia James. Her action was taken based on testimony and evidence given by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. This is the same Michael Cohen who pleaded guilty to eight counts, including criminal tax evasion and campaign finance violations.
While we may not be privy to the inner workings of our justice departments in the United States, it seems rather convenient that the government could take evidence from Michael Cohen regarding his claims of the improprieties of President Trump's financial records after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts. We could question the entire agreement the Justice Department made with him.

It is necessary to point out that Michael Cohen was Trump's attorney, not his accountant or financial adviser. This is necessary because Mr. Cohen may or may not be aware of the rules of accounting. He has, after all, pleaded guilty to tax and financial crimes. He may be guilty of incompetence more than outright fraud. I wonder if his attorneys ever considered that defense.

Michael Cohen claims to have documents showing that President Trump uses different valuations of his wealth based on what purpose the statements are required for. Mr. Cohen may not be aware that this is consistent with the standards of accounting set forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). If he is aware, he may have offered this information in a misleading way to save himself from a lengthy imprisonment.

I wrote about these rules of accounting in a previous edition of the American Thinker and how it relates to President Trump's business and profession. Without needing to see his business and personal financial statements, I am certain that they differ significantly. I explain in that previous article why that is the case.
What Attorney General James has done is placed President Trump in a legal Catch-22. The original Catch-22 was a governmental loophole involved in Joseph Heller's satirical novel Catch-22, later a movie written by Buck Henry. The storyline: A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation. In other words, the bombardier tries to get out of the service by claiming he is insane, but the army determines that being insane is a natural reaction to the insanity of war.

This is exactly the predicament set up by the Justice Department. I like Webster's third definition of a Catch-22: a hidden difficulty or means of entrapment. The famous New York chief judge Sol Wachtler once said: prosecutors can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
If this prosecution against the former president is successful, it could lead to greater problems in the future. Will others who follow the rules of accounting be found guilty of "following the rules"? Will overzealous prosecutors find they can indict more than just a ham sandwich? If not, then is the case against Trump only a case of selective prosecution? This happens when a criminal prosecution is brought at the discretion of a prosecutor rather than as a matter of course in the normal functioning of the prosecuting authority's office.
Furthermore, the enforcement or prosecution of criminal laws against a particular class of persons and the simultaneous failure to administer criminal laws against others outside the targeted class is prima facie evidence of selective prosecution. It violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Where do we go from here if that happens? Do we start prosecuting otherwise innocent people?

I recently met the Republican candidate for New York attorney general, Michael Henry. I mentioned my assessment of the case of President Trump being targeted by the current attorney general. He agreed with me and added several other legal incidents of legal misconduct that he believes Letitia James has committed.
At this point, if President Trump testifies, he could be deemed guilty by Attorney General James if he admits to following the rules of accounting set forth by the profession's authority, the AICPA. In short, she has accused him of following the rules of accounting, which she claims is a violation of the law. Her real purpose of this case could be summed up by one of Webster's synonyms for Catch-22: gotcha.
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No need to guess old geezers like Maxine Waters, Pelosi and Chuck Schumer rub their hands in "Happy Merchant" style.
 
When I Binged the swastika symbol for the Victoria ban article, I found a page that linked to a funny "article":

fsymbols.com

Banned emoji 🏳️‍🌈⃠ Anti Gay Emoji copy paste 🤦‍⃠

👏‍⃠ The web went completely barserk after one Twitter user posted this emoji! It turns out you can
fsymbols.com fsymbols.com

I actually discovered this modifier a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't end up using it because it doesn't center the circle on the preceding character correctly, at least on my system. It ends up looking like shit. Oh well.

If there were a lot of these modifiers and they actually worked, we would have a near infinite amount of emojis:

xkcd.com

Vomiting Emoji

xkcd.com xkcd.com
 
U.S. artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez was close to death. https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2022...isic-swimming-faint-pool-world-championships/

U.S. artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez is OK after fainting at the end of her free solo final routine at the world championships in Budapest on Wednesday.

Two people dove in to help get her out of the pool.

“Anita is okay – the doctors checked all vitals and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure, etc… all is okay,” U.S. head coach Andrea Fuentes said in a statement from USA Artistic Swimming. “We sometimes forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports. Marathon, cycling, cross country… we all have seen images where some athletes don’t make it to the finish line and others help them to get there. Our sport is no different than others, just in a pool, we push through limits and sometimes we find them. Anita feels good now and the doctors also say she is okay.”

Images showed a woman grabbing Alvarez near the bottom of the pool and pulling her up to the surface. Spanish newspaper Marca reported that Fuentes, a retired Spanish Olympic artistic swimmer, was one of the people who dove in.

“It was a good scare, I had to dive because the lifeguards didn’t do it,” Fuentes said, according to the newspaper. “I was scared because I could see she wasn’t breathing, but she’s feeling great now, she’s at her best.”

Last June, Alvarez briefly lost consciousness at the end of a routine at an Olympic qualification event, leading Fuentes to dive into the pool, fully clothed, to help.

Alvarez’s mom said after that event that it had happened to Alvarez before outside of competition, according to a CBS affiliate in Buffalo near Alvarez’s hometown.

Alvarez and Lindi Schroeder placed 13th in the duet in Tokyo, four years after Alvarez and Mariya Koroleva took ninth. Solo artistic swimming is not on the Olympic program
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Just some snippits from this.
Spotify's Joe Rogan-Powered Podcast Bet Hasn't Paid Off
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Over the next four years, Ostroff spent more than $1 billion on the business, licensing shows, buying production studios, and signing exclusive deals with celebrities, including the Obamas, Kim Kardashian, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. [riveting content I'm sure]
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The team, the employees say, identified two groundbreaking hits—neither of which Spotify produced: Serial, the true crime drama that introduced many to the format (and is now owned by the New York Times), and The Joe Rogan Experience
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Rogan’s show, the service’s most popular and controversial, has caused Spotify one public-relations headache after another.
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[Ostroff had] been less successful developing an audience for comedian Amy Schumer.
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