The Burr under Weekend Economists' Saddle August 8-10, 2014

[Demeter]

This Weekend, in the Bad Boys series of exposés, we examine the historical records for Aaron Burr, 3rd VP and unconvicted traitor.

And as an added bonus, we will also look at Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President and also an unconvicted traitor, on the 40th anniversary of his resignation. But first, Mr. Burr:

Aaron Burr, Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was the third Vice President of the United States (1801–1805); he served during President Thomas Jefferson's first term.



After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician. He was elected twice to the New York State Assembly (1784–1785, 1798–1799), was appointed New York State Attorney General (1789–1791), was chosen as a United States Senator (1791–1797) from the state of New York, and reached the apex of his career as Vice President.

The highlight of Burr's tenure as President of the Senate (one of his few official duties as Vice President) was the Senate's first impeachment trial, of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase. In 1804, the last full year of his single term as Vice President, Burr killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel. Burr was never tried for the illegal duel, and all charges against him were eventually dropped. Hamilton's death ended Burr's political career.

After leaving Washington, Burr traveled west seeking new opportunities, both economic and political. His activities eventually led to his arrest on charges of treason in 1807. Although the subsequent trial resulted in acquittal, Burr's western schemes left him with large debts and few influential friends. In a final quest for grand opportunities, he left the United States for Europe. He remained overseas until 1812, when he returned to the United States to practice law in New York City. There he spent the remainder of his long life in relative obscurity.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a Republican U.S. Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.

Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. He graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and Duke University School of Law in 1937, returning to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington to work for the federal government in 1942. He subsequently served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected in California to the House of Representatives in 1946, reelected in 1948, and elected to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California in 1962. In 1968, he ran again for the presidency and was elected.

Although Nixon initially escalated America's involvement in the Vietnam War, he subsequently ended U.S. involvement by 1973. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened communications between the two nations and eventually led to the normalization of diplomatic relations. He initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union the same year. Domestically, his administration generally embraced policies that transferred power from Washington to the states. Among other things, he launched initiatives to fight cancer and illegal drugs, imposed wage and price controls, enforced desegregation of Southern schools, implemented environmental reforms, and introduced legislation to reform healthcare and welfare. Though he presided over the lunar landings beginning with Apollo 11, he replaced manned space exploration with shuttle missions. He was re-elected by a landslide in 1972.

Nixon's second term saw a crisis in the Middle East, resulting in an oil embargo and the restart of the Middle East peace process, as well as a continuing series of revelations about the Watergate scandal. The scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9, 1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he accepted a pardon issued by his successor, Gerald Ford. In retirement, Nixon's work as an elder statesman, authoring nine books and undertaking many foreign trips, helped to rehabilitate his public image. He suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994, and died four days later at the age of 81.

There is a certain commonality among the Bad Boys of America...overreaching, arrogance, and disgrace.

[Demeter]

1. This thread will continue after a pause for zzzzzzzzzzzz

(I came in 3rd in euchre!)


NO banks failed this weekend.

[Demeter]

2. Red Hot Comics!

Last, but not least: Classic Doonesbury (1976) by Garry Trudeau

[Crewleader]

3. Here's another cartoon to add:

[Demeter]

4. I have that same impulse

In fact, I don't have a credit card...only debit card. It's still not secure enough, and one bank is still a bastard about "lending" me for overdrafts although I have not authorized them, and whacking a $37 fee....

But the banksters will get their comeuppance. What cannot continue will not continue...

[Warpy]

5. I keep an ATM card on a junk account

so if it gets hacked, they won't do much damage.

[DemReadingDU]

13. I stopped using debit card

I didn't want to deal with any damage if the account was hacked. So I'm using cash, except for a few online purchases, then I have to use a credit card.

[Warpy]

20. I can get away with it

because I make sure the balance in the junk account stays low enough. I have another account where they could do some damage but all I use that one for is taxes and I don't have any cards on it. When the junk account is depleted, I rob Peter to pay Paul and throw a little more money into it.

So far, so good.

[Demeter]

14. More Comics!

I POSITIVELY WILL NOT MENTION WHO I WOULD NOMINATE TO PLAY CALVIN IN THE ABOVE STRIP...BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO GET BOGGED DOWN; THEY'D TOMBSTONE ME.

[Demeter]

17. ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD

[Crewleader]

24. And one more....

Forgot My Password

[ReRe]

6. Yeah, GWB would really fit in with those two.

Thanks Demeter.

[FairWinds]

7. Nixon was far more traitorous than Burr . .

even George Will now admits that the Trickster
sabotaged a peace accord in Vietnam -
which led directly to 20,000 US deaths,
and likely over a million Vietnamese dead.
Except for Nixon, that war would have ended
five years sooner. Ya cannot get much more
traitorous than that.

[Demeter]

8. FRIDAY REPRINT: You wanna be Uncle Sam's bitch? Pay the price!

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/08/you-wanna-be-uncle-sams-bitch-pay-price.html

...the great news of the day: Russia is introducing a full 12 months embargo on the import of beef, pork, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, cheese, milk and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and the Kingdom of Norway. Russia is also introducing an airspace ban against European and US airlines that fly over our airspace to Eastern Asia, namely, the Asia-Pacific Region and is considering changing the so-called Russian airspace entry and exit points for European scheduled and charter flights. Furthermore, Russia is ready to revise the rules of using the trans-Siberian routes, and will also discontinue talks with the US air authorities on the use of the trans-Siberian routes. Finally, starting this winter, we may revoke the additional rights issued by the Russian air authorities beyond the previous agreements. This is such an interesting and major development that it requires a much more subtle analysis than just the crude calculation of how much this might cost the EU or US. I will attempt no such calculation, but instead I would point out the following elements:

First, this is a typically Russian response. There is a basic rule which every Russian kid learns in school, in street fights, in the military or elsewhere: never promise and never threaten - just act. Unlike western politicians who spent months threatening sanctions, the all the Russians did was to say, rather vaguely, that they reserve the right to reply. And then, BANG!, this wide and far-reaching embargo which, unlike the western sanctions, will have a major impact on the West, but even much more so on Russia (more about that in an instant). This "no words & only action" tactic is designed to maximize deterrence of hostile acts: since the Russians do not clearly spell out what they could do in retaliation, God only knows what they could do next! On top of that, to maximize insecurity, the Russians only said that these were the measures agreed upon, but not when they would be introduced, partially or fully, and against whom. They also strongly implied that other measure were under consideration in the pipeline.

Second, the sanctions are wonderfully targeted. The Europeans have acted like spineless and brainless prostitutes in this entire business, they were opposed to sanctions from day 1, but they did not have the courage to tell that to Uncle Sam, so each time they ended up caving in. Russia's message to the EU is simple: you wanna be Uncle Sam's bitch? Pay the price! This embargo will especially hurt southern Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Greece) whose agricultural production will greatly suffer from it These countries also happen to be the weakest in the EU. By hitting them, Russia is maximizing the inevitable friction inside the EU over sanctions against Russia.

Third, not only will EU carriers suffer from much higher costs and flight times on the very important Europe to Asia route, but the Asian carriers will not, giving the latter a double competitive advantage. How is that for a way to reward one side while hurting the other? The EU got one Russian airline in trouble over its flights to Crimea (Dobrolet) and for that the entire EU airlines community could end being at a huge disadvantage vis-à-vis its Asian counterparts.

Fourth, Russia used these sanctions to do something vital for the Russian economy. Let me explain: after the collapse of the USSR the Russian agriculture was in disarray, and the Eltsin only made things worse. Russian farmers simply could not compete against advanced western agro-industrial concerns which benefited from huge economies of scale, from expensive and high-tech chemical and biological research, which had a full chain of production (often through large holdings), and a top quality marketing capability. The Russian agricultural sector badly, desperately, needed barriers and tariffs to be protected form the western capitalist giants and, instead, Russia voluntarily abided by the terms of the WTO and then eventually became member. Now Russia is using this total embargo to provide a crucially needed time for the Russian agriculture to invest and take up a much bigger share on the Russian market. Also, keep in mind that Russian products are GMO-free, and that they have much less preservatives, antibiotics, colors, taste enhancers, or pesticides. And since they are local, they don't need to be brought in by using the kind of refrigeration/preservation techniques which typically make products taste like cardboard. In other words, Russian agricultural products taste much better, but that is not enough to complete. This embargo now gives them a powerful boost to invest, develop and conquer market shares.

Fifth, there are 100 countries which did not vote with the US on Crimea. The Russians have already announced that these are the countries with which Russia will trade to get whatever products it cannot produce indigenously. A nice reward for standing up to Uncle Sam.

Sixth, small but sweet: did you notice that EU sanctions were introduced for 3 months only, "to be reviewed" later? By introducing a 12 months embargo Russia also sends a clear message: who do you think will benefit from this mess?

Seventh, it is plain wrong to calculate that EU country X was exporting for Y million dollars to Russia and to then conclude that the Russian embargo will cost Y million dollars to EU country X. Why is it wrong? Because the non-sale of these product with create a surplus which will then adversely affect the demand or, if the production is decreased, this will affect production costs (economies of scale). Conversely, for a hypothetical non-EU country Z a contract with Russia might mean enough cash to invest, modernize and become more competitive, not only in Russia, but on the world market, including the EU.

Eighth, the Baltic countries have played a particularly nasty role in the entire Ukrainian business and now some of their most profitable industries (such as fisheries), which were 90% dependent on Russia, will have to shut down. These countries are already a mess, but now they will hurt even more. Again, the message to them is simple: you wanna be Uncle Sam's bitch? Pay the price!

Ninth, and this is really important, what is happening is a gradual decoupling of Russia from the western economies. The West severed some of the financial, military and aerospace ties, Russia severed the monetary, agricultural and industrial ones. Keep in mind that the US/EU market is a sinking one, affected by deep systemic problems and huge social issues. In a way, the perfect comparison is the Titanic whose orchestra continued to play music while the sink was sinking. Well, Russia is like a passenger who is told that the Titanic's authorities have decided to disembark him at the next port. Well, gee, too bad, right?

'clock' by Josetxo Ezcurra
Last, but most definitely not least, this trade-war, combined with the West's hysterical russophobia, is doing for Putin a better PR campaign than anything the Kremlin could have dreamed of. All his PR people need to tell the Russian population is the truth: "we did everything right, we played it exactly by the book, we did everything we could to deescalate this crisis and all we asked for was to please not allow the genocide of our people in Novorussia - and what was the West's response to that? An insane hate campaign, sanctions against us and unconditional support for thegenocidal Nazis in Kiev". Furthermore, as somebody who carefully follows the Russian media, I can tell you that what is taking place today feels a lot like, paraphrasing Clausewitz, the "a continuation of WWII, but by other means", in other words a struggle to the end between two regimes, two civilizations, which cannot coexist on the same planet and who are locked in struggle to death. In these circumstances, expect the Russian people to support Putin even more.

In other words, in a typical Judo move, Putin has used the momentum of the the West's Russia-basing and Putin-bashing campaign to his advantage across the board: Russia will benefit from this economically and politically. Far from being threatened by some kind of "nationalistic Maidan" this winter, Putin's regime is being strengthened by his handling of the crisis (his ratings are higher than ever before).

Yes, of course, the USA have shown they they have a very wide array of capabilities to hurt Russia, especially through a court system (in the US and EU) which is as subservient to the US deep state as the courts in the DPRK are to their own "Dear Leader" in Pyongyang. And the total loss of the Ukrainian market (for both imports and exports) will also hurt Russia. Temporarily. But in the long wrong, this situation is immensely profitable for Russia.

In the meantime, the Maindan is burning again, Andriy Parubiy has resigned, a the Ukies are shelling hospital and churches in Novorussia. What else is knew?

As for Europe, it is shell-shocked and furious. Frankly, my own Schadenfreude knows no bounds this morning. Let these arrogant non-entities like Van Rompuy, Catherine Ashton, Angela Merkel or José Manuel Barroso deal with the shitstorm their stupidity and spinelessness have created.

In the USA, Jen Psaki seems to be under the impression that the Astrakhan region is on the Ukrainian border, while the Russian Defense Ministry plans to "open special accounts in social networks and video hosting resources so that the US State Department and the Pentagon will be able to receive unbiased information about Russian army’s actions".

Will all that be enough to suggest to the EU leaders that they have put their money on the wrong horse?

The Saker

Please feel free to copy, publish and pass on any part or all of the original contents of this blog. No authorization from anyone is required to use any of the original content published here.

[Ghost Dog]

12. From comments to the above (proofread & edited by GD):

... This is bad news for suppliers in the EU and great news for suppliers in Argentina, Brazil and South Africa. Russia will be playing the Great Equalizer by selling oil and gas to the EU, China and India and redistributing the proceeds to developing countries that are able to produce food. The miles and miles of plastic covered green houses and the income they produce in Holland and Spain will simply relocate to the developing world where they can be operated more cheaply. Once cargo is loaded on board a ship the transport cost to anywhere in the world is incidental.

As US NATO sanctions take hold, redirection of markets for manufactured goods will follow. Russia will be seeking sources for manufactured goods like airliners and automobiles from Brazil and China to the detriment of suppliers in the US and EU.

Once the flow of commerce is established between Russia and the other BRICs nations it will be next to impossible for the EU to regain their lost markets.

As the world economy shifts to the newer emerging markets world trade will likewise shift from transactions in dollars to other world currencies. As the World watches what could happen to them if they do not follow what the US dictates, the US-led sanctions against Russia will encourage trade to move away from the dollar. The US will find itself out of the loop and the dollar will lose its status as world reserve currency and the US will lose its hegemony...

- http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com.es/

(Posted in GDby GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025358674 )

[center]
Hydroponic greenhouse horticulture in Almería & Murcia, South-East Spain[/center]

[pscot]

18. Damn!

[MattSh]

23. Europe Furious That Putin Dares To Retaliate To Sanctions, Blames Economic Slide On Kremlin | Zero H

Either Europe is run by a bunch of unelected idiots, or... well, that's about it.

After blindly doing the US' bidding over all propaganda matters Ukraine-related, and following just as blindly into round after round of US-inspired sanctions, sanctions to whose retaliation Europe would be on the frontline unlike the largely insulated US, Europe appears to be absolutely shocked and is apoplectic that after several rounds of sanction escalations, Russia finally unleashed its own round of sanctions and yesterday announced a 1 year ban on all European food imports, something which will further push Europe into a triple-dip recession as already hinted by Italy yesterday.

In fact, Europe is so stunned by this unexpected "politically-motivated" retaliation by Russia, it issued a press release.

Statement by Commission spokesman on the announcement of measures by the Russian Federation

The European Union regrets the announcement by the Russian Federation of measures which will target imports of food and agricultural products. This announcement is clearly politically motivated. The Commission will assess the measures in question as soon as we have more information as to their full content and extent. We underline that the European Union's restrictive measures are directly linked with the illegal annexation of Crimea and destabilisation of Ukraine. The European Union remains committed to de-escalating the situation in Ukraine. All should join in this effort. Following full assessment by the Commission of the Russian Federation's measures, we reserve the right to take action as appropriate.

Surely, Putin is waiting for the European Commission to also issue a #hashtag before he starts shaking in his boots.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-07/europe-furious-putin-dares-retaliate-sanctions-blames-economic-slide-kremlin

[Demeter]

9. Obama Can End Argentina's Debt Crisis with a Pen By Greg Palast for The Guardian

Last edited Sun Aug 17, 2014, 07:12 PM - Edit history (1)

The President has the Constitutional power to pluck vulture-fund billionaire Paul Singer. Obama hasn't. Why not?

The "vulture" financier now threatening to devour Argentina can be stopped dead by a simple note to the courts from Barack Obama. But the president, while officially supporting Argentina, has not done this one thing that could save Buenos Aires from default. Obama could prevent vulture hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer from collecting a single penny from Argentina by invoking the long-established authority granted presidents by the US constitution's "Separation of Powers" clause. Under the principle known as "comity", Obama only need inform US federal judge Thomas Griesa that Singer's suit interferes with the president's sole authority to conduct foreign policy. Case dismissed. Indeed, President George W Bush invoked this power against the very same hedge fund now threatening Argentina. Bush blocked Singer's seizure of Congo-Brazzaville's US property, despite the fact that the hedge fund chief is one of the largest, and most influential, contributors to Republican candidates. Notably, an appeals court warned this very judge, 30 years ago, to heed the directive of a president invoking his foreign policy powers. In the Singer case, the US state department did inform Judge Griesa that the Obama administration agreed with Argentina's legal arguments; but the president never invoked the magical, vulture-stopping clause.

Obama's devastating hesitation is no surprise. It repeats the president's capitulation to Singer the last time they went mano a mano. It was 2009. Singer, through a brilliantly complex financial manoeuvre, took control of Delphi Automotive, the sole supplier of most of the auto parts needed by General Motors and Chrysler. Both auto firms were already in bankruptcy. Singer and co-investors demanded the US Treasury pay them billions, including $350m (£200m) in cash immediately, or – as the Singer consortium threatened – "we'll shut you down". They would cut off GM's parts. Literally. GM and Chrysler, with no more than a couple of days' worth of parts to hand, would have shut down, permanently forced into liquidation. Obama's negotiator, Treasury deputy Steven Rattner, called the vulture funds' demand "extortion" – a characterisation of Singer repeated last week by Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. But while Fernández declared "I cannot as president submit the country to such extortion," Obama submitted within days. Ultimately, the US Treasury quietly paid the Singer consortium a cool $12.9bn in cash and subsidies from the US Treasury's auto bailout fund. Singer responded to Obama's largesse by quickly shutting down 25 of Delphi's 29 US auto parts plants, shifting 25,000 jobs to Asia. Singer's Elliott Management pocketed $1.29bn of which Singer personally garnered the lion's share.

In the case of Argentina, Obama certainly has reason to act. The US State Department warned the judge that adopting Singer's legal theories would imperil sovereign bailout agreements worldwide. Indeed, it is reported that, in 2012, Singer joined fellow billionaire vulture investor Kenneth Dart in shaking down the Greek government for a huge payout during the euro crisis by threatening to create a mass default of banks across Europe. The financial press has turned on Singer. Commentators in the Wall Street Journal and FT are enraged at the financier's quixotic re-interpretation of sovereign lending terms in the way that the Taliban interprets a peace agreement. No peace, no agreement. Singer has certainly earned his vulture feathers. His attack on Congo-Brazzaville in effect snatched the value of the debt relief paid for by US and British taxpayers and, says Oxfam, undermined the nation's ability to fight a cholera epidemic. (Singer's spokesman responded that corruption in the Congo-Brazzaville government, not his lawsuits, have impoverished that nation.)

As if to burnish his tough-guy credentials, Singer has mounted legal attacks on JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, BNY Mellon, and UBS, demanding they pay him the money that Argentina had paid them over the last decade. Furthermore, Singer's lawyers persuaded the judge to stop BNY Mellon, Argentina's agent, from making $500m in payments to Argentinian bondholders.

Surely the president would intervene. He didn't. He hasn't. Why? I'm not a psychologist. But this we know: since taking on Argentina, Singer has unlocked his billion-dollar bank account, becoming the biggest donor to New York Republican causes. He is a founder of Restore Our Future, a billionaire boys club, channelling the funds of Bill Koch and other Richie Rich-kid Republicans into a fearsome war-chest dedicated to vicious political attack ads. And Singer recently gave $1m to Karl Rove's Crossroads operation, another political attack machine. In other words, there's a price for crossing Singer. And, unlike the president of Argentina, Obama appears unwilling to pay it.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2014/aug/07/argentina-debt-crisis-barack-obama-paul-singer-vulture-funds

[xchrom]

10. DOW ADDS 185, TREASURY YIELD TOUCHES 14-MONTH LOW : Here's What You Need To Know

http://www.businessinsider.com/closing-bell-aug-8-2014-2014-8

It was supposed to be a risk-off day. But stocks rallied.
First, the scoreboard:

Dow: 16,553.9, +185.6, (+1.1%)
S&P 500: 1,931.5, +22.0, (+1.1%)
Nasdaq: 4,371.1, +36.1, (+0.8%)
And now, the top stories:

It's unclear what fueled today's stock market rally. Just after 1:00 p.m. ET, Bloomberg citing Interfax reported that "Russia ends exercises for air defenses; Russian warplanes end drills in Astrakhan region." Perhaps this is a sign that Russia may scale back its presence in Ukraine.

Even if you buy that Ukraine is improving, there's still plenty of geopolitical turmoil elsewhere. "Risk aversion rules," Societe Generale's Kit Juckes said. "Overnight, the U.S. has approved limited airstrikes in Northern Iraq. The conflict on Gaza too, is in danger of re-escalation. Investors have plenty of reasons to take risk off the table and are doing so across the board."

While stocks were in the green all day, Treasury securities had their own rally reflecting the risk-off mood of the markets. Earlier today, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note touched 2.37% earlier on Friday, the lowest level since June 2013.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/closing-bell-aug-8-2014-2014-8#ixzz39thCVOLt

[xchrom]

11. Arab countries in land-grab strategy to secure food supplies

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-02-310714.html

BEIRUT - Food price rises as far back as 2008 are believed to be the partial culprits behind the instability plaguing Arab countries and they have become increasingly aware of the importance of securing food needs through an international strategy of land grabs which are often detrimental to local populations.

Between 2007 and 2008, rises in food prices caused protest movements in Egypt and Morocco. "This has become an important concern for countries in the Arab region which want to meet the growing demands of their populations," notes Devlin Kuyek, a researcher at GRAIN, a non-profit organization



supporting small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems.

Arab countries, which appear to have started losing confidence in normal food supply chains, are now relying on acquisitions of farmland around the world. Globally, land deals by foreign countries were estimated at about 80 million hectares in 2011, according to figures provided by the World Bank.

The 2008 international food price crisis caused alarm among policy-makers and the public in general about the vulnerability of Arab countries to potential future food supply shocks (such as, for example, in the event of closure of the Straits of Hormuz) as well as the perceived continued sharp increase in international food prices in the long term, said Sarwat Hussain, Senior Communications Officer at the World Bank.

[Demeter]

15. Speaking of Agriculture, I'm going to go plant some late flowers

be back soon!

[Demeter]

16. The Crooked Ladder: The criminal’s guide to upward mobility. By Malcolm Gladwell

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/11/crooked-ladder?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklyemail&mbid=nl_Weekly%20%2846%29&spMailingID=6861521&spUserID=MzkxMjA1MjAwODQS1&spJobID=500378674&spReportId=NTAwMzc4Njc0S0

n 1964, the anthropologist Francis Ianni was introduced to a man in a congressional waiting room. His name was Philip Alcamo. People called him Uncle Phil, and he was, in the words of the person who made the introduction, “a business leader from New York City and an outstanding Italian-American.” Uncle Phil was in his early sixties, twenty years older than Ianni. He was wealthy and charming and told Runyonesque stories about the many characters he knew from the old neighborhood, in Brooklyn. The two became friends. “He spoke the lobbyist’s language, but with a genial disdain for Washington manners and morals,” Ianni later wrote. “He was always very good in those peculiar Washington conversations in which people try to convince each other how much they really know about what is going on in the government, because he generally did know.”

Ianni was by nature an adventurous man...Uncle Phil fascinated him. At dinners and social functions, Ianni met the other families in the business syndicate whose interests Uncle Phil represented in Washington—the Tuccis, the Salemis, and, at the heart of the organization, the Lupollos. When Ianni moved to New York to take a position at Columbia University, he asked Uncle Phil if he could write about the Lupollo clan. Phil was “neither surprised nor distressed,” Ianni recounted, but advised him that he should “tell each member of the family what I was about only when it was necessary to ask questions or seek specific pieces of information.” And for the next three years he watched and learned—all of which he memorably described in his 1972 book, “A Family Business: Kinship and Social Control in Organized Crime.”

The Lupollos were not really called the Lupollos, of course; nor was Uncle Phil really named Philip Alcamo. Ianni changed names and identifying details in his published work. The patriarch of the Lupollo clan he called Giuseppe. Giuseppe was born in the eighteen-seventies in the Corleone district of western Sicily. He came to New York in 1902, with his wife and their two young sons, and settled in Little Italy. He imported olive oil and ran an “Italian bank,” which was used for loan-sharking operations. When a loan could not be repaid, he would take an equity stake in his debtor’s business. He started a gambling operation, and moved into bootlegging; during Prohibition, the business branched out into trucking, garbage collection, food products, and real estate. He recruited close relatives to help him build his businesses—first, his wife’s cousin Cosimo Salemi, then his son, Joe, then his daughter-in-law’s brother, Phil Alcamo, and then the husband of his granddaughter, Pete Tucci. “From all accounts, he was a patriarch, at once kindly and domineering,” Ianni wrote of Giuseppe. “Within the family, all important decisions were reserved for him. . . . Outside of the family, he was feared and respected.” The family moved from Little Italy to a row house in Brooklyn, and from there—one by one—to Queens and Long Island, as its enterprise grew to encompass eleven businesses totalling tens of millions of dollars in assets.

“A Family Business” was the real-life version of “The Godfather,” the movie adaptation of which was released the same year. But Ianni’s portrait was markedly different from the romanticized accounts of Mafia life that have subsequently dominated popular culture. There were no blood oaths in Ianni’s account, or national commissions or dark conspiracies. There was no splashy gunplay. No one downed sambuca shots at Jilly’s, on West Fifty-second Street, with Frank Sinatra. The Lupollos lived modestly. Ianni gives little evidence, in fact, that the four families had any grand criminal ambitions beyond the illicit operations they ran out of storefronts in Brooklyn. Instead, from Giuseppe’s earliest days in Little Italy, the Lupollo clan was engaged in a quiet and determined push toward respectability. By 1970, Ianni calculated, there were forty-two fourth-generation members of the Lupollo-Salemi-Alcamo-Tucci family—of which only four were involved in the family’s crime businesses. The rest were firmly planted in the American upper middle class. A handful of the younger members of that generation were in private schools or in college. One was married to a judge’s son, another to a dentist. One was completing a master’s degree in psychology; another was a member of the English department at a liberal-arts college. There were several lawyers, a physician, and a stockbroker. Uncle Phil’s son Basil was an accountant, who lived on an estate in the posh Old Westbury section of Long Island’s North Shore. “His daughter rides and shows her own horses,” Ianni wrote, “and his son has some reputation as an up-and-coming young yachtsman.” Uncle Phil, meanwhile, lived in Manhattan, collected art, and frequented the opera. “The Lupollos love to tell of old Giuseppe’s wife Annunziata visiting Phil’s apartment,” Ianni wrote. “Her comment on the lavish collection of paintings was ‘manga nu Santa’ (‘not even one saint’s picture’).” The moral of the “Godfather” movies was that the Corleone family, conceived in crime, could never escape it. “Just when I thought I was out,” Michael Corleone says, “they pull me back in.” The moral of “A Family Business” was the opposite: that for the Lupollos and the Tuccis and the Salemis and the Alcamos—and, by extension, many other families just like them—crime was the means by which a group of immigrants could transcend their humble origins. It was, as the sociologist James O’Kane put it, the “crooked ladder” of social mobility.

FASCINATING SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY--CONTINUES AT LINK

[pscot]

19. This is a personal best

[Demeter]

21. Thank you! (What is the best, in your opinion?)

Stick around, it gets better all weekend

[pscot]

25. Compelling content

slick editing and snappy repartee; it's he complete package. Seriously, the piece on Russia's response is a dope slap. we'll see how it plays out. Plus I'm a sucker for cartoons.

[MattSh]

22. Damn, what's up this weekend?

13 recs? Been a long time since it's been that high, correct?

[Demeter]

26. There's NOTHING at the theaters

and TV is probably just as bad.

It could be the word is getting out?

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27. China Inflation Remains Below Annual Target

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-09/china-inflation-remains-below-annual-target.html

China’s consumer inflation remained below the government’s goal in July and factory-gate deflation persisted, suggesting policy makers still have room for monetary easing amid a lack of pressure on prices.

The consumer price index rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing yesterday, the same pace as in June and also the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Factory-gate prices fell 0.9 percent, matching projections and extending the longest stretch of declines since 1999.

Subdued inflation gives Communist Party leaders leeway to roll out more measures to support the economy after authorities expedited railway spending and freed up money for loans to counter a slowdown earlier in the year. The unexpected decline in imports in July reported Aug. 8 partly reflects sluggish investment, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said.

“July inflation data should ease any concerns policy makers and investors may have had about rising sequential inflation amid the economic growth rebound,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists led by Beijing-based Song Yu said in a note after the report. “The downward trend shown by food and non-food CPI will leave room for policy makers to maintain relatively supportive policy in the near future.”

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28. Banks Said to Be Arranging Argentine Debt Buyer Group

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-07/banks-said-to-be-arranging-argentine-debt-buyer-group.html

International banks are looking to put together a group of investors to buy disputed Argentine debt and resolve a U.S. lawsuit that is blocking the country from servicing any of its foreign bonds.

The banks are seeking investors willing to purchase bonds left over from the nation’s 2001 default held by firms led by Elliott Management Corp., said Eduardo Eurnekian, an Argentine billionaire who has been approached by bankers. While Elliott has a court order for full repayment, a banker familiar with the talks speculated the New York-based hedge fund would accept a settlement worth about 80 cents to 85 cents on the dollar.

At stake for the banks, which include Citigroup Inc. (C), is an opportunity to help Argentina resume payment on its bonds and regain access to overseas markets, bolstering the value of the debt and earning good will that could lead to underwriting business when the country starts issuing notes again. For now, Argentina finds itself back in default, having been forced to miss a $539 million interest payment last month on restructured bonds when a U.S. court ruled it couldn’t service those notes without also making good on its $1.5 billion debt with Elliott and other holdouts.

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29. Why Credit Scores May Be About to Go Up: It’s the New You

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/fico-changes-score-to-lessen-influence-of-medical-bills.html

A change in how the most-widely used credit score is calculated will reduce the importance of overdue medical bills and remove blemishes on once late, paid-off accounts.

The adjustments are expected to raise the median score for consumers whose only major delinquency is an unpaid medical bill by 25 points, according to an Aug. 7 statement from San Jose-based FICO (FICO), formerly known as the Fair Issac Corp. The updated scoring system is intended to better capture more recent behavior and will be available later this year, the company said.

One in four U.S. families struggled to pay medical bills in 2012 and 10 percent said they had costs they couldn’t pay at all, the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in January. Among families in which all members were insured, 21 percent still had difficulty paying medical expenses, the agency’s survey found.

“This will increase the credit scores of many, some substantially,” Judith Fox, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and the director of the law school’s Economic Justice Clinic, said in an e-mailed statement. “For those consumers, credit will be easier to obtain.”

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30. JPMorgan’s Fund Choices for Clients Said Under SEC Review

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/jpmorgan-s-fund-choices-for-clients-said-under-sec-review.html

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing whether conflicts of interest led JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) to sell certain investment products to individual clients, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The review is at an early stage, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because the inquiry isn’t public. The Wall Street Journal, in a report on the review earlier today, said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has conducted a similar probe into whether JPMorgan inappropriately steered private-banking clients into its own products.

Banks can capture a greater portion of fees by having clients invest in their own products. In some cases, they can also offer better-than-average performance. New York-based JPMorgan said in February that 80 percent of its fixed-income assets under management and 81 percent of its equity assets were in funds that were in the top 40 percent of peers over the previous 10 years.

“We manage a variety of portfolios based on a client’s investment objectives, and the mix of solutions varies, is dynamic and transparent,” said Darin Oduyoye, a JPMorgan spokesman. “Our clients have countless options in selecting financial providers. They come to JPMorgan because of our long-term investments track record and the depth and breadth of our platform.”

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31. Yesterday’s Inversion Buyers Are Next Targets: Real M&A

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-07/yesterday-s-inversion-buyers-are-next-targets-real-m-a.html

With a record number of U.S. tax-inversion deals shrinking the pool of possible targets, the next crop of acquirers may pursue their former American peers that have already reincorporated abroad.

While the Treasury Department is taking heed of President Barack Obama’s call to stop “corporate deserters” and weighing ways to deter companies from making overseas acquisitions for tax advantages, tax expert Robert Willens says it may only lead buyers to accelerate their plans. U.S. firms that have moved their legal addresses abroad present another option, according to Jefferies Group LLC, after about 20 deals since 2010 reduced the number of large, native European and Canadian candidates.

“You’re going to hear a lot of saber rattling on this issue, but it’s going to be hard to do anything at least before November, even from an executive level,” Kevin Kedra, a Rye, New York-based analyst at Gabelli & Co., said in a phone interview. “These deals still make sense,” he said. “There are a lot of quality companies out there that have done an inversion that could now be targets themselves.”

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32. Productivity Rises More Than Forecast, Limiting U.S. Costs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/productivity-rises-more-than-forecast-limiting-u-s-labor-costs.html

The productivity of U.S. workers rose more than projected in the second quarter, rebounding from the biggest drop in more than three decades and helping to restrain labor costs.

The measure of employee output per hour increased at a 2.5 percent annualized rate, after a revised 4.5 percent decrease in the prior three months that was the biggest since 1981, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 57 economists called for a 1.6 percent advance. Expenses per worker increased at a 0.6 percent pace, less than estimated.

Companies that have been relying on wringing efficiency gains from existing staff may take on more employees and increase investment as demand grows. Advances in productivity together with limited labor costs provide more room for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates close to zero while trimming monthly bond purchases.

“As businesses see improvement in demand, they are more likely to increase hiring to keep up with orders,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit. “The gains in labor costs are still subtle and very early. It’s premature to worry about labor costs overheating.”

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33. Brazil July Inflation Slows More Than Economists Forecast

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/brazil-july-inflation-slows-more-than-economists-forecast.html

Brazil’s consumer price increases slowed more than expected in July, as transport and food costs fell in the world’s second-biggest emerging market.

Inflation (BZPIIPCM) as measured by the benchmark IPCA index decelerated to 0.01 percent, the slowest in four years, from 0.40 percent in June, the national statistics agency said today in Rio de Janeiro. That was below all estimates from 46 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median forecast was 0.10 percent. Annual (BZPIIPCY) inflation slowed to 6.50 percent, versus a median estimate of 6.60 percent.

While consumer price increases slowed more than expected, inflation at the top of the target range is hurting consumers’ purchasing power less than two months before presidential elections. President Dilma Rousseff has worked to contain inflation by capping government-regulated prices, while the central bank undertook the longest rate-raising cycle in the world of its benchmark Selic rate.

“The overall picture continues to be one where you see price pressures,” Carlos Kawall, chief economist at Banco J. Safra, said by phone from Sao Paulo. “All the news is that auto sales are down, electronic goods sales, furniture, they’re all down, yet prices are still resilient.”

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34. The Analyst Who Nailed The Housing Crash Is Quietly Revealing The Next Big Thing

http://www.businessinsider.com/calculated-risk-demographics-2014-8

Anyway, lately he's been warming up the next big story: The big demographics tailwind coming to the US economy.

Earlier this week he spotted that in 2013, for the first time in several years, there were more babies born in the US than in the year before (it's slight, but you gotta start somewhere).



Back in June he noted that the 20-24 demographic is now the largest population cohort in the US.

Now a crucial thing here is that while the 20-24 cohort is the largest now, in a few years, the largest group will be those of prime-age workers: 25-29, the age when people really begin to earn better money and buy homes and cars.



McBride argues that currently, with so many 20-24 year olds, the demographics are very favorable to apartment renting. And so of course these days, the multi-family housing sector has been leading the way. And you hear all these stories about how people aren't into homeownership anymore. But the demographics that are currently favorable to apartments will turn into demographics favorable to homeownership, as the cohort gets older, moves into higher paying jobs, and wants more space for those new babies.

McBride pointed out as such on Twitter, how things were aligning favorably for homeownership.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/calculated-risk-demographics-2014-8#ixzz39zWjl4sX

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/calculated-risk-demographics-2014-8#ixzz39zWWN48k

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35. Everything Is Coming Apart In Europe

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-europes-fragile-economy-put-to-test-as-ukraine-iraq-sour-mood-2014-10

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Investors will gauge the strength of the euro zone's fragile economy this week as escalating conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq darken the mood globally.

In stark contrast to the United States and Britain, which are growing strongly, economic output in the euro bloc is likely to have all but ground to a halt in the three months to June. Its star economy, Germany, is losing momentum and Italy is sliding back into recession.

"The United States and the United Kingdom are going to be among the fastest-growing economies both this year and next," said James Knightley, an economist with ING. "In Europe, the situation seems to be going into reverse."

The growing sanctions fight between Russia and the West over Moscow's backing of rebels in Ukraine and U.S. air strikes to block Islamist militants in Iraq are also upsetting the markets.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-europes-fragile-economy-put-to-test-as-ukraine-iraq-sour-mood-2014-10#ixzz39zXnMx45

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36. Look Around Paris In August And You'll See Why The French Succeed At Life

http://www.businessinsider.com/working-less-makes-you-more-productive-2014-8

Between 1853 and 1870, Baron Haussmann ordered much of Paris to be destroyed. Slums were razed and converted to bourgeois neighborhoods, and the formerly labyrinthine city became a place of order, full of wide boulevards (think Saint-Germain) and angular avenues (the Champs-Élysées). Poor Parisians tried to put up a fight but were eventually forced to flee, their homes knocked down with minimal notice and little or no recompense. The city underwent a full transformation—from working class and medieval to bourgeois and modern—in less than two decades' time.

Every August, Paris now sees another rapid transformation. Tourists rule the picturesque streets. Shops are shuttered. The singsong sounds of English, Italian, and Spanish float down the street in place of the usual French monotone. As French workers are required to take at least 31 days off each year, nearly all of them have chosen this month to flit down to Cannes or over to Italy, Spain, or Greece, where the Mediterranean beckons and life hasn’t stopped like it has here.

Some might call it laziness, but what French people are really doing by vacationing for the entirety of August is avoiding the tipping point of overwork. Just as the city transforms overnight, so do French work habits—and this vacation time pays dividends. That’s because, even though the amount of time you work tends to match how productive you are as if on a sliding scale, length of work and quality of work at a certain point become inversely related. At some point, in other words, the more you work, the less productive you become.

For example, working long hours often leads to productivity-killingdistractions. Such is an instance of the saying known as Parkinson’s law, which states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Work less, and you’ll tend to work better.



Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/to-work-better-work-less/375763/#ixzz39zbMHPFA

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37. Aaron Burr started out a 1%er, and religious ONE, too

Burr was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1756 as the second child of the Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr., a Presbyterian minister and second president of the College of New Jersey in Newark (which moved in 1756 to Princeton and later became Princeton University). His mother Esther Burr (née Edwards) was the daughter of Jonathan Edwards, the noted Calvinist theologian, and his wife Sarah. Burr had an older sister Sarah ("Sally&quot , named for her maternal grandmother. She later married Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Aaron Burr's father died in 1757, and his mother the following year, leaving him and his sister orphans. Burr was two years old. He and his sister had first lived with their mother and her parents, but Sarah Edwards also died in 1757, and Jonathan Edwards in 1758. Young Aaron and his sister Sally were placed with the William Shippen family in Philadelphia. In 1759, the children's guardianship was assumed by their 21-year-old maternal uncle Timothy Edwards. The next year, Edwards married Rhoda Ogden and moved with the children to Elizabeth, New Jersey near her family. Rhoda's younger brothers Aaron Ogden and Matthias Ogden became the boy's playmates. The three boys, along with their neighbor Jonathan Dayton, formed a group of friends that lasted their lifetimes.

After being rejected once, Aaron Burr was admitted to the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University) at the age of 13. (Such schools were also like academies). Aside from being occupied with intensive studies, he was a part of the American Whig Society and Cliosophic Society, the two clubs the college had to offer at the time. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1772 at age 16. He studied theology for an additional year, before rigorous theological training with Joseph Bellamy, a Presbyterian. He changed his career path two years later. At age 19, he moved to Connecticut to study law with his brother-in-law Tapping Reeve, his sister Sally's husband.[2] When, in 1775, news reached Litchfield of the clashes with British troops at Lexington and Concord, Burr put his studies on hold and enlisted in the Continental Army....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr

William Shippen family...remember Peggy Shippen, who seduced Benedict Arnold into turning his coat for her heart? Yup, that wealthy family. Already showing signs of detachment to their native land, before it was even a nation...

During the Revolutionary War, Burr took part in Colonel Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec, an arduous trek of more than 300 miles (480 km) through the frontier of what is now Maine. When their forces reached the city of Quebec, Burr was sent up the Saint Lawrence River to contact General Richard Montgomery, who had taken Montreal, and escort him to Quebec. Montgomery promoted Burr to captain and made him an aide-de-camp. Burr distinguished himself during the Battle of Quebec, earning a place on Washington's staff in Manhattan. But, he quit within two weeks, wanting to be on the battlefield.

General Israel Putnam took Burr under his wing; by his vigilance in the retreat from lower Manhattan to Harlem, Burr saved an entire brigade (including Alexander Hamilton, who was one of its officers) from capture after the British landing on Manhattan. In a departure from common practice, Washington failed to commend Burr's actions in the next day's General Orders (the fastest way to obtain a promotion in rank). Although Burr was already a nationally known hero, he never received a commendation. According to Burr's stepbrother Mathias Ogden, Burr was infuriated by the incident, which may have led to the eventual estrangement between him and Washington.

BENEDICT ARNOLD HAD SIMILARLY CRUSHED FEELINGS...

On being promoted to lieutenant colonel in July 1777, Burr assumed virtual leadership of Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment. There were approximately 300 men under Colonel William Malcolm's nominal command. The regiment successfully fought off many nighttime raids into central New Jersey by British troops arriving by water from Manhattan. Later that year, during the harsh winter encampment at Valley Forge, Burr commanded a small contingent guarding "the Gulf", an isolated pass that controlled one approach to the camp. Burr imposed discipline, defeating an attempted mutiny by some of the troops.

On June 28, 1778, at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey, Burr's regiment was devastated by British artillery, and in the day's heat, Burr suffered heat stroke. In January 1779 Burr, in command of Malcolm's Regiment, was assigned to Westchester County, a region between the British post at Kingsbridge and that of the Americans about 15 miles (24 km) to the north. In this district, part of the larger command of General Alexander McDougall, there was much turbulence and plundering by lawless bands of rebel or loyalist sympathizers, and by raiding parties of ill-disciplined soldiers from both armies.

Burr resigned from the Continental Army in March 1779 due to his continuing bad health and renewed his study of law. Though technically no longer in the service, Burr remained active in the war: he was assigned by General Washington to perform occasional intelligence missions for Continental generals such as Arthur St. Clair. On July 5, 1779, he rallied a group of Yale students at New Haven along with Capt. James Hillhouse and the Second Connecticut Governors Foot Guard, in a skirmish with the British at the West River. The British advance was repulsed, forcing them to enter New Haven from Hamden.

Despite these activities, Burr finished his studies and was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1782. That year he married and began to practice in New York City after the British evacuated the city the following year. He and his wife lived for the next several years in a house on Wall Street in Lower Manhattan...

[Demeter]

38. NATIONAL POLITICAL CAREER

Burr ran for Vice President in the 1796 election, coming in fourth with 30 votes behind John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Pinckney. (At the time members of the electoral college cast two ballots but did not specify an office. The first place finisher overall became President and the runner up Vice President. They did not run on a 'ticket' and were often opponents.)

Burr was shocked by his defeat, as he believed he had arranged with Jefferson's supporters for their vote for him as well, in exchange for Burr's working to obtain New York's electoral votes for Jefferson. But many Democratic-Republican electors voted for Jefferson and no one else, or for Jefferson and a candidate other than Burr. During the next presidential election of 1800, Jefferson and Burr were again candidates for President and Vice President. Jefferson ran with Burr in exchange for the latter's working to obtain New York's electoral votes for Jefferson.

Burr was active in various Democratic clubs and societies. "Aaron Burr defended the democratic clubs and was listed as a member of the New York Democratic Society in 1798." Although Alexander Hamilton and Burr had long been on good personal terms, often dining with one another (Lomask, vol. 1), Burr's defeat of General Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law, probably drove the first major wedge into their friendship. Their relationship declined over the following decade. More details are provided in the Burr–Hamilton duel article (SEE BELOW).

After being appointed commanding general of U.S. forces by President John Adams in 1798, Washington turned down Burr's application for a brigadier general's commission during the Quasi-War with France. Washington wrote, "By all that I have known and heard, Colonel Burr is a brave and able officer, but the question is whether he has not equal talents at intrigue." (Lomask vol.1) John Adams, whose enmity toward Alexander Hamilton was legendary, later wrote in 1815 that Washington's response was startling given his promotion of Hamilton, whom he described as

"the most restless, impatient, artful, indefatigable, and unprincipled intriguer in the United States, if not in the world, to be second in command under himself, and now Washington dreaded an intriguer in a poor brigadier".

Bored with the inactivity of the new U.S. Senate (Lomask vol. 1), Burr ran for and was elected to the New York State Assembly, serving from 1798 through 1799. During this time, he cooperated with the Holland Land Company in gaining passage of a law to permit aliens to hold and convey lands. During John Adams' term as President, national parties became clearly defined. Burr loosely associated with the Democratic-Republicans, though he had moderate Federalist allies, such as Sen. Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. Burr quickly became a key player in New York politics, more powerful in time than Hamilton. This was due largely to the power of the Tammany Society, later to become the infamous Tammany Hall. Burr converted it from a social club into a political machine, particularly in populous New York City, to help Jefferson reach the presidency.

In 1799, Burr founded the Bank of the Manhattan Company. In later years it was absorbed into the Chase Manhattan Bank, which in turn became part of JPMorgan Chase.

In September 1799 Burr fought a duel with John Barker Church, whose wife was the sister of Hamilton's wife. Church had alleged that Burr had taken a bribe from the Holland Company in exchange for using his political influence on its behalf. Burr and Church fired at each other and missed, and afterward Church acknowledged that he was wrong to have accused Burr without having proof. Burr accepted this as an apology, and the two men shook hands and ended the dispute.

The enmity between Hamilton and Burr may have arisen from how he founded the bank. Burr solicited Hamilton and other Federalists' support under the guise that he was establishing a badly needed water company for Manhattan. However, Burr secretly changed the charter to include banking; shortly after it was approved, he dropped any pretense of founding the water company. Hamilton and other supporters believed Burr acted dishonorably in deceiving them. Due to Burr's manipulations, there was a delay in constructing a safe water system for Manhattan. This likely contributed to additional deaths during a subsequent malaria epidemic.

In 1800, New York's state legislature was to choose the presidential electors, as they had in 1796 (for John Adams). Before the April 1800 legislative elections, the State Assembly was controlled by the Federalists. The City of New York elected assembly members on an at-large basis. Burr and Hamilton were the key campaigners for their respective parties. Burr's Republican slate of assemblymen for New York City was elected, giving the party control of the legislature. In due course, they gave New York's electoral votes to Jefferson and helped him win the 1800 presidential election. This drove another wedge between Hamilton and Burr. Burr became Vice President during Jefferson's first term (1801–1805).

Vice Presidency

Because of his influence in New York and opposition to the Hamiltonian Federalists, Burr had been asked by Jefferson and Madison to help them in the election of 1800. Burr sponsored a bill through the New York Assembly that established the Manhattan Company, a water utility company whose charter also allowed creation of a bank controlled by Jeffersonians. Another crucial move was Burr's success in securing the election of his slate of greater New York City area Electors, defeating the Federalist slate backed by Alexander Hamilton. This event only served to increase the antagonism between the former friends.

Burr is known as the father of modern political campaigning. He enlisted the help of members of Tammany Hall, a social club, to win the voting for selection of Electoral College delegates. He gained a place on the Democratic-Republican presidential ticket in the 1800 election with Jefferson. At the time, most states' legislatures chose the members of the U.S. Electoral College, and New York was crucial to Jefferson. Though Jefferson won New York, he and Burr tied for the presidency overall, with 73 electoral votes each.

Members of the Republican Party understood they intended that Jefferson should be president and Burr vice president, but the final choice still belonged to the House of Representatives. The attempts of a powerful faction among the Federalists to secure the election of Burr failed, partly due to opposition by Alexander Hamilton.

As Thomas Baker asserts in his piece, "An Attack Well Directed", William P. Van Ness, now believed to be in cahoots with Burr, had an electoral scheme. It was explained in a letter from Edward Livingston, a Democratic-Republican Representative. Van Ness planned to swing the election in Burr's favor by first having Livingston or another colleague vote for Burr on the first ballot, deadlocking New York. On the second ballot, Livingston would swing three House Republicans from the vulnerable states of New York, New Jersey, and Vermont to vote for Burr. Despite this plan, Livingston changed his mind on his way to Washington. This was likely due to a strong belief that some Federalists would vote for Jefferson so as to avoid a hung election. Despite Livingston's last minute renege, Jefferson lost the first ballot because Burr's supporters scrambled to keep Maryland voters on the side of the Federalists. Even so, there was little instability on the Democratic-Republican side of the ticket on the second ballot. Ultimately, it took 36 ballots before James A. Bayard, a Delaware Federalist, and several of his Federalist colleagues submitted blank votes to decide the election in Jefferson's favor.

Mudslinging was heavily used against the candidates, specifically Burr. In the general campaign, the public went at each other's throats so to defend the candidate thought best qualified to lead the country. While Van Ness and Burr had their own plans to turn the election in their favor, James Cheetham, a supporter of Clinton, had a plan to discredit Burr. Cheetham released Van Ness' letter. When Burr showed interest in certain Federalists, Cheetham and DeWitt Clinton accused Burr of "tampering with New York's electors; accusing Jefferson of buying off wavering Republicans to ensure his election; actively intriguing with Federalists to capture the chief magistracy in 1804".

Cheetham and Clintonians published a series of letters in American Citizen. These eight letters were meant to expose the supposed conspiracy of Burr, Van Ness, Ogden and Livingston. Many Republicans were persuaded by these letters; the defenses by Burr supporters seemed to lead more adverse admissions. When it came to the 9th letter in this series, Livingston was the key to the details to take down Burr. Cheetham pushed Livingston for his details on interactions with Ogden and Van Ness. Livingston would not give in, and Cheetham sent him letters explaining his already expansive knowledge of the contents of the letter with Van Ness, threatening "We stand upon the best ground. We know Mr. Burr is guilty. You have in fact, and I may say in express term, committed his guilt to me".

Livingston's resistance to Cheetham's push for information on Van Ness' original letter, which he had planned to publish as the 9th letter in American Citizen, was what saved Burr from exposure, at least temporarily. According to historian Baker, Burr dragged out the uncertainty of the 1800 election to manipulate it to his will. Burr's actions resulted in general political instability in the nation.

Upon confirmation of Jefferson's election, Burr became Vice President of the United States. Despite his letters supporting Jefferson and his shunning of any political activity during the balloting (he never left Albany), Burr was never trusted by Jefferson. He was effectively shut out of party matters.

As Vice President, Burr earned praise from some enemies for his even-handed fairness and his judicial manner as President of the Senate; he fostered some traditions for that office which have become time-honored. Burr's judicial manner in presiding over the impeachment trial of Justice Samuel Chase has been credited as helping to preserve the principle of judicial independence that was established by Marbury v. Madison in 1803. One Senator wrote that Burr had conducted the proceedings with the "impartiality of an angel and the rigor of a devil".

Burr's farewell speech in March 1805 moved some of his harshest critics in the Senate to tears. But it was never recorded in full, and has been preserved only in short quotes and descriptions of the address, which defended the United States of America's system of government.

[Demeter]

39. THE VERY ILLEGAL Duel with Alexander Hamilton

When it became clear that Jefferson would drop Burr from his ticket in the 1804 election, the Vice President ran for Governor of New York instead. Burr lost the election to little known Morgan Lewis, in what was the largest margin of loss in New York's history up to that time. Burr blamed his loss on a personal smear campaign believed to have been orchestrated by his party rivals, including New York governor George Clinton. Hamilton also opposed Burr, due to his belief that Burr had entertained a Federalist secession movement in New York.

In April, the Albany Register published a letter from Dr. Charles D. Cooper to Philip Schuyler, which relayed Hamilton's judgement that Burr was "a dangerous man, and one who ought not be trusted with the reins of government", and claiming to know of "a still more despicable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of Mr. Burr". In June, Burr sent this letter to Hamilton, seeking an affirmation or disavowal of Cooper's characterization of Hamilton's remarks.

Hamilton replied that Burr should give specifics of Hamilton's remarks, not Cooper's. He said he couldn't answer regarding Cooper's interpretation. A few more letters followed, in which the exchange escalated to Burr's demanding that Hamilton recant or deny any statement disparaging Burr's honor over the past 15 years. Hamilton, having already been disgraced by the Maria Reynolds adultery scandal and mindful of his own reputation and honor, did not. According to Thomas Fleming, Burr would have immediately published such an apology, and Hamilton's remaining power in the New York Federalist party would have been impaired. Burr responded by challenging Hamilton to personal combat under the code duello, the formalized rules of dueling. Hamilton's eldest son Philip had died in a duel in 1801.

Dueling had been outlawed in New York but still took place. The sentence for conviction of dueling was death. It was illegal in New Jersey as well, but the consequences were less severe. On July 11, 1804, the enemies met outside Weehawken, New Jersey, at the same spot where Hamilton's son had died. Both men fired, and Hamilton was mortally wounded by a shot just above the hip.

The observers disagreed on who fired first. They did agree that there was a three-to-four second interval between the first and the second shot, raising difficult questions in evaluating the two camps' versions. Historian William Weir speculates that Hamilton might have been undone by his own machinations: secretly setting his pistol's trigger to require only a half pound of pressure as opposed to the usual 10 pounds. Burr, Weir contends, most likely had no idea that the gun's trigger pressure could be reset. Louisiana State University history professors Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg concur in this view. They note that "Hamilton brought the pistols, which had a larger barrel than regular dueling pistols, and a secret hair-trigger, and were therefore much more deadly," and conclude that "Hamilton gave himself an unfair advantage in their duel, and got the worst of it anyway." However, this is a minority view among historians.

David O. Stewart, in his biography of Burr, American Emperor, notes that the reports of Hamilton's intentionally missing Burr with his shot began to be published in newspaper reports in papers friendly to Hamilton only in the days after his death. But Ron Chernow, in his biography, Alexander Hamilton, states Hamilton told numerous friends well before the duel of his intention to avoid firing at Burr Additionally, according to Chernow, Hamilton wrote a number of letters dated before the duel that also attest to this intention. The two shots, witnesses reported, followed one another in close succession, and none of those witnesses could agree as to who fired first. Prior to the duel proper, Hamilton took a good deal of time getting used to the feel and weight of the pistol (which had been used in the duel at the same Weehawken site in which his 19-year-old son had been killed ), as well as putting on his eyeglasses in order to see his opponent more clearly. His seconds placed him so that Burr would have the rising sun behind him, though during the brief duel, one witness reported, Hamilton seemed to be hindered by this placement as the sun was in his eyes.

In any event, Hamilton's shot missed Burr, but Burr's shot was fatal. The bullet entered Hamilton's abdomen above his right hip, piercing Hamilton's liver and spine. Hamilton was evacuated to Manhattan; he lay in the house of a friend, receiving visitors including clergy, in order to be baptized before he died the following day. Burr was charged with multiple crimes, including murder, in New York and New Jersey, but was never tried in either jurisdiction.

He fled to South Carolina, where his daughter lived with her family, but soon returned to Philadelphia and then to Washington to complete his term as Vice President. He avoided New York and New Jersey for a time, but all the charges against him were eventually dropped. In the case of New Jersey, the indictment was thrown out on the basis that, although Hamilton was shot in New Jersey, he died in New York. According to Bruce Adamson, a fourth-great-grandson of Rufus Easton; "two years later in 1806, Rufus Easton, postmaster of St. Louis and Judge of the Louisiana Territory, was talked out of a duel with Aaron Burr. Jefferson's postmaster general Gideon Granger wrote a three page letter, demanding that Rufus Easton take the high road."

AND I THOUGHT AGNEW WAS A TWISTY CHARACTER!


MORE RESOURCE INFORMATION AT: http://njculibrary.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/this-day-in-history-hamilton-burr-duel/

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40. The Burr conspiracy and tria

After Burr left the Vice-Presidency at the end of his term in 1805, he journeyed into what was then the Western frontier, areas west of the Allegheny Mountains and down the Ohio River Valley, eventually reaching the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Burr had leased 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of land—known as the Bastrop Tract—along the Ouachita River, in what is now Louisiana, from the Spanish government. Starting in Pittsburgh and then proceeding to Beaver, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, Virginia, and onward he drummed up support for his plans.

His most important contact was General James Wilkinson, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army at New Orleans and Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Others included Harman Blennerhassett, who offered the use of his private island for training and outfitting Burr's expedition. Wilkinson was later proved to be a bad choice.

Burr saw war with Spain as a distinct possibility. In case of a war declaration, Andrew Jackson stood ready to help Burr, who would be in position to immediately join in. Burr's expedition of about eighty men carried modest arms for hunting, and no materiel was ever revealed, even when Blennerhassett Island was seized by Ohio militia. His "conspiracy", he always avowed, was that if he settled there with a large group of (armed) "farmers" and war broke out, he would have an army with which to fight and claim land for himself, thus recouping his fortunes. However, the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty secured Florida for the United States without a fight, and war in Texas didn't occur until 1836, the year of Burr's death.

After a near-incident with Spanish forces at Natchitoches, Wilkinson decided he could best serve his conflicting interests by betraying Burr's plans to President Jefferson and to his Spanish paymasters. Jefferson issued an order for Burr's arrest, declaring him a traitor before any indictment. Burr read this in a newspaper in the Territory of Orleans on January 10, 1807. Jefferson's warrant put Federal agents on his trail. Burr twice turned himself in to the Federal authorities. Two judges found his actions legal and released him.

Jefferson's warrant, however, followed Burr, who fled toward Spanish Florida. He was intercepted at Wakefield, in Mississippi Territory (now in the state of Alabama), on February 19, 1807. He was confined to Fort Stoddert after being arrested on charges of treason. Burr was treated well there. For example, in the evening of February 20, 1807, when Burr appeared at the dinner table, he was introduced to Frances Gaines, the wife of the commandant Edmund P. Gaines. She was also the daughter of Judge Harry Toulmin, who had issued Burr's arrest warrant. Mrs. Gaines and Burr played chess that evening and continued this entertainment during his confinement at the fort.

Burr's secret correspondence with Anthony Merry and the Marquis of Casa Yrujo, the British and Spanish ministers at Washington, was eventually revealed. He had tried to secure money and to conceal his true designs, which was to help Mexico overthrow Spanish power in the Southwest. Burr intended to found a dynasty in what would have become former Mexican territory. This was a misdemeanor, based on the Neutrality Act of 1794, which Congress passed to block filibuster expeditions against US neighbors, such as those of George Rogers Clark and William Blount. Jefferson, however, sought the highest charges against Burr.


REMEMBER OUR BAD BOY, WILLIAM WALKER, THE FILLIBUSTER? IT WAS A COMMON GOAL, TO MAKE ONE'S OWN LITTLE KINGDOM...STILL IS, AS FAR AS I CAN SEE.


In 1807, on a charge of treason, Burr was brought to trial before the United States Circuit Court at Richmond, Virginia. His defense lawyers included Edmund Randolph, John Wickham, Luther Martin and Benjamin Gaines Botts. Burr had been arraigned four times for treason before a grand jury indicted him. The only physical evidence presented to the Grand Jury was Wilkinson's so-called letter from Burr, which proposed the idea of stealing land in the Louisiana Purchase. During the Jury's examination, the court discovered that the letter was written in Wilkinson's own handwriting. He said he had made a "copy" because he had "lost" the original. The Grand Jury threw the letter out as evidence, and the news made a laughingstock of the General for the rest of the proceedings.

The trial, presided over by Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, began on August 3. Article 3, Section 3 of the United States Constitution requires that treason either be admitted in open court, or proved by an overt act witnessed by two people. Since no two witnesses came forward, Burr was acquitted on September 1, in spite of the full force of the Jefferson administration's political influence thrown against him. In acquitting him, the jury apparently concluded that his guilt, as in the Scottish verdict, was "not proven." Immediately afterward, Burr was tried on a misdemeanor charge and was again acquitted.

Given the force of the presidency for conviction, the trial was a major test of the Constitution and separation of powers. It was a carefully watched drama (Henry Adams gives a full account in The History of the United States of America (1801–1817)) as Thomas Jefferson wanted a conviction. He challenged the authority of the Supreme Court and its Chief Justice John Marshall, an Adams appointee who clashed with Jefferson over John Adams' last-minute judicial appointments. Jefferson believed that Burr's treason was obvious. Burr sent a letter to Jefferson in which he stated that he could do Jefferson much harm. The case as tried was decided on whether Aaron Burr was present at certain events at certain times and in certain capacities. Thomas Jefferson used all of his influence to get Marshall to convict, but Marshall was not swayed.

Historians Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg write that Burr

"was not guilty of treason, nor was he ever convicted, because there was no evidence, not one credible piece of testimony, and the star witness for the prosecution had to admit that he had doctored a letter implicating Burr".

David Stewart, on the other hand, insists that while Burr was not explicitly guilty of treason according to Marshall's definition, evidence exists that links him to treasonous crimes. For example, Bollman admitted to Jefferson during an interrogation that Burr planned to raise an army and invade Mexico. He said that Burr believed that he should be Mexico's monarch, as a republican government was not right for the Mexican people (Stewart, American Emperor, 213–14). Many historians believe the extent of Burr's involvement may never be known.

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41. Later life and death

By this point all of Burr's hopes for a political comeback had been dashed, and he fled America and his creditors for Europe, where he tried to regain his fortunes. He lived abroad from 1808 to 1812, passing most of his time in England, where he occupied a house on Craven Street in London. He became a good friend, even confidant, of the English Utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, and on occasion lived at Bentham's home. He also spent time in Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and France. Ever hopeful, he solicited funding for renewing his plans for a conquest of Mexico, but was rebuffed. He was ordered out of England and Napoleon Bonaparte refused to receive him—although one of his ministers held an interview concerning Burr's goals for Spanish Florida or British possessions in the Caribbean.

After returning from Europe, Burr used the surname "Edwards", his mother's maiden name, for a while to avoid creditors. With help from old friends Samuel Swartwout and Matthew L. Davis, Burr returned to New York and his law practice. Later he helped the heirs of the Eden family in a financial lawsuit. The remaining members of the household soon became a second family to him. He also adopted two boys during this period: Aaron Burr Columbe (born 1808 in Paris) and Charles Burdett; the former was rumored to be his 'natural' son by a Frenchwoman. He lived the remainder of his life in relative peace.

In 1833, at age 77, Burr married Eliza Jumel, a wealthy widow who was 19 years younger, considered the richest woman in America. They separated in months, as she felt he was speculating too much of her fortune. She also thought he was unfaithful. She realized her fortune was dwindling due to her husband's land speculation losses. She separated from Burr after four months of marriage; their divorce was officially completed on September 14, 1836, coincidentally the day of Burr's death. They lived together briefly at her residence which she had acquired with her first husband, the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Manhattan. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is now preserved and open to the public.

Burr suffered a debilitating stroke in 1834, which rendered him immobile. In 1836, Burr died on Staten Island in the village of Port Richmond, in a boardinghouse. This was later was adapted and operated as the St. James Hotel. He was buried near his father in Princeton, New Jersey.

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42. THE BURR LEGACY

Gordon S. Wood, a leading scholar of the Revolutionary period, holds that it was Burr's character that put him at odds with the rest of the "founding fathers", especially Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton. He believed this led to his personal and political defeats and, ultimately, to his place outside the golden circle of revered revolutionary figures. Because of Burr's habit of placing self-interest above the good of the whole, those men felt Burr represented a serious threat to the ideals for which they had fought the Revolution. Their ideal, as particularly embodied in Washington and Jefferson, was that of "disinterested politics", a government led by educated gentlemen who would fulfill their duties in a spirit of public virtue and without regard to personal interests or pursuits. This was the core of an Enlightenment gentleman, and Burr, his political enemies felt, lacked that essential core. Hamilton thought that Burr's self-serving nature made him unfit to hold office—especially the presidency.

Although Hamilton considered Jefferson a political enemy, he believed him a man of public virtue. Hamilton conducted an unrelenting campaign in the House of Representatives to prevent Burr's election to the presidency, and gain election of his erstwhile enemy Jefferson. Hamilton characterized Burr as greatly immoral, "unprincipled ... voluptuary", and deemed his political quest as one for "permanent power". He predicted that if Burr gained power, his leadership would be for personal gain, but that Jefferson was committed to preserving the Constitution.

A lasting consequence of Burr's role in the election of 1800 was the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which changed the way in which vice presidents were chosen. As was obvious from the 1800 election, the situation could easily arise where the vice president, as the defeated presidential candidate, could not work well with the president. The Twelfth Amendment required that votes be cast separately for president and vice president.

He is remembered mainly for the duel with Hamilton. However, his establishment of guides and rules for the first impeachment trial set a high bar for behavior and procedures in the Senate chamber, many of which are followed today.

Burr conspiracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Burr conspiracy in the beginning of the 19th century was a suspected treasonous cabal of planters, politicians, and army officers allegedly led by former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. According to the accusations against him, Burr’s goal was to create an independent nation in the center of North America and/or present-day Southwest and parts of present-day Mexico. Burr’s version was that he intended to take possession of, and farm, 40,000 acres (160 km²) in the Texas Territory leased to him by the Spanish Crown.

U.S. President Thomas Jefferson ordered Burr arrested and indicted for treason, despite not providing firm evidence. Burr’s true intentions remain unclear to historians, some of whom claim he intended to take parts of Texas and some, or all, of the Louisiana Purchase, for himself. Burr was acquitted of treason, but the trial destroyed his already faltering political career.

At its core, however, the Burr Conspiracy clearly was about conquest and adventure...

FOR A STEP BY STEP RECOUNTING, SEE

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/burr/burraccount.html

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43. RICHARD NIXON CANNOT BE SUBJECTED TO THE SAME INTENSITY OF SCRUTINY

as the facts of his actions and intentions are still in discovery. It will take another generation to sift through the wreckage that Twisty Dick left behind.

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44. Will the Tapes That Destroyed Nixon Help Rehabilitate His Image?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/06/will-the-tapes-that-destroyed-nixon-help-rehabilitate-his-image.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Fpolitics+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Politics%29

The historical reckoning of most modern presidents goes through several seasons, but it’s been a long, cold winter for Richard Nixon. During the 40 years since he left office, his legacy has been defined solely by the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation.

The same Oval Office recordings that were so crucial in establishing Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate cover-up, says historian Douglas Brinkley, are beginning to thaw his reputation on matters of foreign policy...

How does a president’s legacy usually change over 30 or 40 years?

Because we have a 25-year Freedom of Information Act rule, which simply means you start getting more documentation from a president about 25 years after they leave office, you start getting upward revision of presidents. We beat up on them when they’re in office, but 25 years later most of them look a little better.

Certainly, we have had an upward revisionism of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan. As we speak, I think another one is taking place for Lyndon Johnson with his civil rights work. And George Herbert Walker Bush for smoothly overseeing the end of the Cold War. So there tends to be this upward revision.

What has the trajectory of Nixon’s legacy been?

Nixon is a flatline, and it’s a low flatline. He’s unable to get out of the basement of presidents because of these tapes. There’s too much incendiary material in them to start building a true revisionist movement—meaning an anti-Semitic slur, a putdown of all people with dark skin. These types of comments coming from the White House, from the Oval Office, it takes your breath away. In some ways, it’s very raw and disturbing.

If you stop for a minute and just realize that’s “tough talk” and just try to follow the line of thought of what Nixon is doing, he becomes a very significant president. After all, the 1972 breakthrough with China is a huge moment. His astute detente diplomacy with the Soviet Union, trying to make the world a safer place, gets high marks.

On domestic affairs, it’s Nixon who creates the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, the Environmental Protection Agency. In many ways, Nixon was our last New Deal president. He believed in the fact that the federal government could make your life better for you. This 40 years of Nixon’s resignation is really the beginning of Nixon’s revisionism, and it may help him move forward a few notches on the history ladder, but it’s still a lot of black eyes he gets because there’s always something new and incriminating being uttered on the tapes....I think the tapes on foreign policy show just how it was Nixon’s foreign policy and not Kissinger’s. How totally in command he was on things. How he was hoping to do a grand Wilsonian realignment of great powers. And the idea was that in the 21st century that there would be two superpowers—the United States and China—and how everything was connected. All roads led to Beijing. The things he was doing in Vietnam—not withdrawing [troops] early or doing a bombing campaign—all had a connection to his China policy. He needed to prove to China that we were tough and that we wouldn’t abandon allies. Even though we may recognize China, we may not abandon Taiwan.

The tapes show the elaborate thinking of Nixon, which makes him in some ways as a geo-strategist a hardcore realist, look fairly impressive. But then you get to the cold, callous view of the world—a guy who didn’t care enough about human rights—and it becomes disturbing. His utter hatred of the people of India, his mocking of folks in poverty around the world, his lack of sympathy of the downtrodden—that side makes him not a heroic figure. It very well may be that Nixon was a good president but not a good man.

I HAVE PERSONAL DOUBTS ABOUT NIXON'S PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER....

SEE THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE FOR RESOURCES AND SOME FASCINATING INSIGHTS INTO NIXONIAN THINKING PROCESSES

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45. And that's all I've got in me today, folks

(I shudder to use that word "folks"....forgive my choice of words. Maybe we will have to switch to "comrades" now...)

See you all on the SMW! And if you have a candidate for next week's Bad Boy, do let me know!