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steve2470
steve2470's Journal
steve2470's Journal
May 13, 2015
Scott Stapp says he's finally on the road to recovery after a troubling bout with alcoholism, drug abuse and bipolar disorder.
Late last year, the Creed singer suffered a paranoid breakdown during which he threatened to kill President Obama, claimed he was a CIA agent and said the terrorist organization ISIS had infiltrated his family.
In an interview with People, the 41-year-old rock star admitted the dark period was "a psychotic break that was brought on by alcohol and drug abuse."
"I was hallucinating. I drove around the United States for a month, following an angel that I saw on the hood of my car," Stapp said.
more at link
Scott Stapp says alcohol and drugs abuse, bipolar disorder led to ‘psychotic break’
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/scott-stapp-bipolar-battled-drug-addiction-article-1.2220480Scott Stapp says he's finally on the road to recovery after a troubling bout with alcoholism, drug abuse and bipolar disorder.
Late last year, the Creed singer suffered a paranoid breakdown during which he threatened to kill President Obama, claimed he was a CIA agent and said the terrorist organization ISIS had infiltrated his family.
In an interview with People, the 41-year-old rock star admitted the dark period was "a psychotic break that was brought on by alcohol and drug abuse."
"I was hallucinating. I drove around the United States for a month, following an angel that I saw on the hood of my car," Stapp said.
more at link
May 13, 2015
North Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges, Seoul's National Intelligence Service was quoted as telling lawmakers, in the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011.
Hyon Yong-Chol, who heads the isolated country's military, was purged and then executed by firing squad with an antiaircraft gun, watched by hundreds of people, South Korean media reported on Wednesday, citing the NIS's comments to a parliamentary panel.
Hyon, who spoke at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by dozing off at a military event, media said, citing the agency briefing. The execution comes after South Korea's spy agency said late last month that Kim ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority.
Ouch, kinda harsh. eta: added extra text, had trouble copy pasting earlier.
North Korea executes defence chief for 'dozing off' at a military event
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/north-korea-executes-defence-chief-hyon-yong-chol-on-treason-charges/article1-1346615.aspxNorth Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges, Seoul's National Intelligence Service was quoted as telling lawmakers, in the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011.
Hyon Yong-Chol, who heads the isolated country's military, was purged and then executed by firing squad with an antiaircraft gun, watched by hundreds of people, South Korean media reported on Wednesday, citing the NIS's comments to a parliamentary panel.
Hyon, who spoke at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by dozing off at a military event, media said, citing the agency briefing. The execution comes after South Korea's spy agency said late last month that Kim ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority.
Ouch, kinda harsh. eta: added extra text, had trouble copy pasting earlier.
May 12, 2015
That thread made me think about this. Note I said theoretically. I'm not losing any sleep over this.
Asteroid defense: any feasible ideas or we are just doomed theoretically ?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026662521That thread made me think about this. Note I said theoretically. I'm not losing any sleep over this.
May 12, 2015
Carly Fiorina, the Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO, is marketing herself as a pragmatic, fiscally responsible businesswoman—the only GOP candidate who knows, as she says, "how the economy actually works." Yet during her unsuccessful US Senate bid in 2010, her opponents slammed her record at HP. When she led the firm, it laid off 18,000 workers, and its stock declined by 41 percent. Eventually, she was forced out of the company but departed with a $21 million golden parachute. Now she may need to answer for another managerial blunder. For more than four years, she was a deadbeat and didn't pay the bills she owed for her Senate campaign. She only settled these outstanding debts just before she jumped into the 2016 race.
Until late last year, Fiorina was close to $500,000 in debt from her 2010 run, nearly all of it in unpaid compensation to campaign staffers and outside consultants, according to Federal Election Commission filings. In 2013, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Fiorina owed serious cash to former campaign operatives, several of whom were unsure about when they would be paid for their work. And they complained they were not getting clear information from Fiorina about when she would get them their money. At that time, she owed $60,000 to her 2010 campaign manager, Marty Wilson; $20,500 to Beth Miller, a consultant and former aide to California Gov. Pete Wilson; and $30,000 to the firm of veteran GOP political consultant Joe Shumate.
Shumate, who also worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, died suddenly during Fiorina's Senate race. John Allan Peschong, another adviser whom the campaign owed money, told the Chronicle, "I would hope that Carly Fiorina would pay his widow the money that was owed him at the time of his death." Wilson, Fiorina's campaign manager, said in 2013 that he didn't recall if he "got that granular" with Fiorina regarding the campaign's mounting debt near the finish line. Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that the compensation delay had left her former staffers bitter.
Postcampaign debt is not uncommon, particularly in close and expensive contests. Carly for America press secretary Leslie Shedd, in a statement to Mother Jones, points out that Hillary Clinton owed a substantial amount of money after her 2008 defeat. "There was some leftover debt with Carly Fiorina's Senate campaign in 2010," Shedd notes. "However, this issue has been resolved and the campaign debt has been paid off in full."
Multimillionaire Carly Fiorina Took 4 Years to Pay Staffers From Her Last Campaign
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/carly-fiorina-campaign-debt-senate-2016Carly Fiorina, the Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO, is marketing herself as a pragmatic, fiscally responsible businesswoman—the only GOP candidate who knows, as she says, "how the economy actually works." Yet during her unsuccessful US Senate bid in 2010, her opponents slammed her record at HP. When she led the firm, it laid off 18,000 workers, and its stock declined by 41 percent. Eventually, she was forced out of the company but departed with a $21 million golden parachute. Now she may need to answer for another managerial blunder. For more than four years, she was a deadbeat and didn't pay the bills she owed for her Senate campaign. She only settled these outstanding debts just before she jumped into the 2016 race.
Until late last year, Fiorina was close to $500,000 in debt from her 2010 run, nearly all of it in unpaid compensation to campaign staffers and outside consultants, according to Federal Election Commission filings. In 2013, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Fiorina owed serious cash to former campaign operatives, several of whom were unsure about when they would be paid for their work. And they complained they were not getting clear information from Fiorina about when she would get them their money. At that time, she owed $60,000 to her 2010 campaign manager, Marty Wilson; $20,500 to Beth Miller, a consultant and former aide to California Gov. Pete Wilson; and $30,000 to the firm of veteran GOP political consultant Joe Shumate.
Shumate, who also worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, died suddenly during Fiorina's Senate race. John Allan Peschong, another adviser whom the campaign owed money, told the Chronicle, "I would hope that Carly Fiorina would pay his widow the money that was owed him at the time of his death." Wilson, Fiorina's campaign manager, said in 2013 that he didn't recall if he "got that granular" with Fiorina regarding the campaign's mounting debt near the finish line. Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that the compensation delay had left her former staffers bitter.
Postcampaign debt is not uncommon, particularly in close and expensive contests. Carly for America press secretary Leslie Shedd, in a statement to Mother Jones, points out that Hillary Clinton owed a substantial amount of money after her 2008 defeat. "There was some leftover debt with Carly Fiorina's Senate campaign in 2010," Shedd notes. "However, this issue has been resolved and the campaign debt has been paid off in full."
May 12, 2015
you can vote once per hour, unless you outwit it somehow.
btw, her son isn't going to win, unless a LOT more lurkers and DU'ers help out....
http://loudwire.com/battle-royale-the-darkness-papa-roach-video-countdown/you can vote once per hour, unless you outwit it somehow.
May 12, 2015
Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S) agreed to pay a combined $158 million - including $120 million in refunds to consumers - to settle charges they allowed their customers to be illegally billed by third parties, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Tuesday.
The settlements, which are subject to final court approval, were announced in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission and the state attorneys general. The wireless providers also agreed to pay $38 million in federal and state penalties, as well as agreeing to improve oversight of third-party billing.
"Sprint and Verizon had flawed billing systems that allowed merchants to add unauthorized charges to wireless customer bills," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. "Today's actions will put $120 million back into the pockets of harmed consumers and require these companies to improve their billing practices going forward."
Most consumers were targeted online through ads that once clicked on, brought them to websites asking for their cellphone numbers. Some merchants tricked consumers into providing their numbers to get "free" digital content only to be charged for it, the bureau said. In other cases, merchants fabricated charges without delivering any goods or communication with consumers.
Verizon, Sprint to pay $158M over "cramming" cases
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/verizon-sprint-to-pay-158m-to-settle-cramming-cases/Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S) agreed to pay a combined $158 million - including $120 million in refunds to consumers - to settle charges they allowed their customers to be illegally billed by third parties, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Tuesday.
The settlements, which are subject to final court approval, were announced in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission and the state attorneys general. The wireless providers also agreed to pay $38 million in federal and state penalties, as well as agreeing to improve oversight of third-party billing.
"Sprint and Verizon had flawed billing systems that allowed merchants to add unauthorized charges to wireless customer bills," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. "Today's actions will put $120 million back into the pockets of harmed consumers and require these companies to improve their billing practices going forward."
Most consumers were targeted online through ads that once clicked on, brought them to websites asking for their cellphone numbers. Some merchants tricked consumers into providing their numbers to get "free" digital content only to be charged for it, the bureau said. In other cases, merchants fabricated charges without delivering any goods or communication with consumers.
May 12, 2015
@_FloridaMan Beguiles With the Hapless and Harebrained
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/us/both-hapless-and-harebrained-florida-man-enlivens-internet.html?_r=0
MIAMI — Dangling into the sea like America’s last-ditch lifeline, the state of Florida beckons. Hustlers and fugitives, million-dollar hucksters and harebrained thieves, Armani-wearing drug traffickers and hapless dope dealers all congregate, scheme and revel in the Sunshine State. It’s easy to get in, get out or get lost.
For decades, this cast of characters provided a diffuse, luckless counternarrative to the salt-and-sun-kissed Florida that tourists spy from their beach towels. But recently there arrived a digital-era prototype, @_FloridaMan, a composite of Florida’s nuttiness unspooled, tweet by tweet, to the world at large. With pithy headlines and links to real news stories, @_FloridaMan offers up the “real-life stories of the world’s worst super hero,” as his Twitter bio proclaims.
His more than 1,600 tweets — equal parts ode and derision — are a favorite for weird-news aficionados. Yet, two years since his 2013 debut, the man behind the Twitter feed remains beguilingly anonymous, a Wizard of LOLZ. (The one false note is his zombielike avatar: The mug shot belongs to an Indiana Man.)
*snip*
Florida Woman Covers Husband in Barbecue Sauce, Threatens to Carve Him Up Like Roast Chicken
https://twitter.com/_Flor1daWoman/status/586598965954666496
BWAHAHAHA! This sank like a stone in GD, which completely amazed me.
@_FloridaMan Beguiles With the Hapless and Harebrained
@_FloridaMan Beguiles With the Hapless and Harebrained
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/us/both-hapless-and-harebrained-florida-man-enlivens-internet.html?_r=0
MIAMI — Dangling into the sea like America’s last-ditch lifeline, the state of Florida beckons. Hustlers and fugitives, million-dollar hucksters and harebrained thieves, Armani-wearing drug traffickers and hapless dope dealers all congregate, scheme and revel in the Sunshine State. It’s easy to get in, get out or get lost.
For decades, this cast of characters provided a diffuse, luckless counternarrative to the salt-and-sun-kissed Florida that tourists spy from their beach towels. But recently there arrived a digital-era prototype, @_FloridaMan, a composite of Florida’s nuttiness unspooled, tweet by tweet, to the world at large. With pithy headlines and links to real news stories, @_FloridaMan offers up the “real-life stories of the world’s worst super hero,” as his Twitter bio proclaims.
His more than 1,600 tweets — equal parts ode and derision — are a favorite for weird-news aficionados. Yet, two years since his 2013 debut, the man behind the Twitter feed remains beguilingly anonymous, a Wizard of LOLZ. (The one false note is his zombielike avatar: The mug shot belongs to an Indiana Man.)
*snip*
Florida Woman Covers Husband in Barbecue Sauce, Threatens to Carve Him Up Like Roast Chicken
https://twitter.com/_Flor1daWoman/status/586598965954666496
BWAHAHAHA! This sank like a stone in GD, which completely amazed me.
May 12, 2015
While the rest of the Supreme Court argued Monday over the constitutional limits on official prayers at town board meetings, one justice said the question may be beside the point.
In a separate opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that while the First Amendment “probably prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion,” it wasn’t intended to restrict states from adopting their own official religions. Under this view, not only could state or local officials ordain religious exercises for their meetings, they could use tax dollars to fund an official church. He cites the clause “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” saying that “choice of language…effectively denied Congress any power to regulate state establishments.”
After all, “at least six States had established churches in 1789,” Justice Thomas wrote. Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire “maintained local-rule establishments whereby the majority in each town could select the minister and religious denomination (usually Congregationalism, or ‘Puritanism’).” Georgia and Maryland “permitted taxation in support of all Christian churches,” while South Carolina limited its subsidy to “all Protestant churches,” he added. And while Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island “had no history of formal establishments,” they “maintained religious tests for office.”
Such diversity regarding official religions “suggests that the First Amendment was simply agnostic on the subject of state establishments; the decision to establish or disestablish religion was reserved to the states,” he wrote.
more at link
State Churches? Justice Clarence Thomas Hears the Call (from 2014)
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/05/09/justice-clarence-thomas-and-the-church-of-virginia/While the rest of the Supreme Court argued Monday over the constitutional limits on official prayers at town board meetings, one justice said the question may be beside the point.
In a separate opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that while the First Amendment “probably prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion,” it wasn’t intended to restrict states from adopting their own official religions. Under this view, not only could state or local officials ordain religious exercises for their meetings, they could use tax dollars to fund an official church. He cites the clause “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” saying that “choice of language…effectively denied Congress any power to regulate state establishments.”
After all, “at least six States had established churches in 1789,” Justice Thomas wrote. Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire “maintained local-rule establishments whereby the majority in each town could select the minister and religious denomination (usually Congregationalism, or ‘Puritanism’).” Georgia and Maryland “permitted taxation in support of all Christian churches,” while South Carolina limited its subsidy to “all Protestant churches,” he added. And while Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island “had no history of formal establishments,” they “maintained religious tests for office.”
Such diversity regarding official religions “suggests that the First Amendment was simply agnostic on the subject of state establishments; the decision to establish or disestablish religion was reserved to the states,” he wrote.
more at link
May 12, 2015
Ok. FDR only got what he got because, hello, Great Depression ?
It is revealing
SOCIALIST REVOLUTION NOW OR NOTHING AT ALL.Ok. FDR only got what he got because, hello, Great Depression ?
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