Top 10 Conservative Idiots #8-3: Viva Lev Parnas Edition

[Top 10 Idiots]

Last edited Wed Jan 22, 2020, 08:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #8-3: Viva Lev Parnas Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! What’s up Georgetown? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! This is our third Top 10 of the new year that is 2020 and our previous stops couldn’t have gone better. So you guys ready for Super Bowl LIV? Hell yeah!! We got the 49ers and the Chiefs! No pesky teams named Patriots that we have to deal with this year. But my favorite part of the Super Bowl is the prop bets. And these are the bets that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the game , so we will run through some of them. Because hey we like to educate as well as entertain! Like you can bet on how many commercials will have dogs in them. Or you can bet on which Anheuser Busch brand of beer will advertise first. My money is on Michelob Ultra. I mean come on it’s the new year, we’re still counting calories, damn it. Or the coin toss. Or the number of the jersey that will score the first touchdown. Or even what color of Gatorade will be dumped on the willing coach. You can also bet on which J. Lo song will be performed at the halftime show. Which, you know I’m surprised that they’re having Jennifer Lopez play the halftime show given her busy schedule of appearing in two award winning TV shows and all the movies that she does. But that said… there’s always time for J.Lo! Ah that felt good! OK that’s enough of the intro. We got a lot of idiocy to get to. But first John Oliver is back, sort of, and he warns us of the dangers of your cell phone’s push notifications.

Man where do we begin this week? In the number one slot is of course the guy who we currently call president and that is Donald J. Trump (1). Did Rachel Maddow uncover the missing link in the Trump – Russia scandal? Please let this be what brings him down! In the second slot this week is Donald Trump’s boss, Vladimir Putin! Yes, Putin is in the hot seat this week after he announces plans to expand his power and the entire Russian government walks out on him! In the number 3 slot this week is Virginia Gun Nuts (3). While the rest of Virginia is supporting sensible gun control laws, Virginia gun nuts are proving that they’re the reason why we can’t have nice things. Taking the fourth slot this week is the Houston Astros (4) and the entire sports world has been rocked with the stunning accusations that the Astros and Alex Cora cheated their way to multiple World Series wins in the last few years. In the number 5 slot is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5), and this week we’re going to talk about sleep. It turns out that sleep apnea machine provider ResMed may have aggressively targeted potential customers, and the entire sleep apnea industry might be suspect! Taking the sixth slot this week, is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and this week, our resident pastor is detailing a holy war of sorts brewing in the Catholic Church between new school Pope Francis and old school Pope Bendict. Who will come out on top? Hard to say. Taking the 7th slot this week is a new “Beating A Dead Horse” – and every celebrity from Stephen King to Vince Vaughn is expressing their political opinions, so why are we completely sick of it? We will let you draw your own conclusions! In the number 8 slot this week is a new edition of our segment “NO!” and a longtime favorite band of the show, REM, has finally had enough of Trump using their music in his campaigns and they’re actually doing something about it! In the number 9 (NEIN!!) slot this week is a new “I Need A Drink” (9). This week we’re going to the annual CES in Las Vegas where robots were all the rage and we’ll tell you about everything from bathroom pals to artificial limbs and walkers! Finally this week, in our 2020 voters’ guide Keeping Up With The Candidates (10), we’re a week out from the Iowa Straw Poll and we can tell you what to expect when the field of candidates gets even narrower! Plus the palate cleanser for all of my nonsense, we have some live music for you from Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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You know, for a party that claims they don’t want a partisan impeachment trial, they really are doing everything they can to make it partisan, am I right? And this whole shit show couldn’t be any crazier than it is right now. Especially when Trump is off to Davos where, the last time, he was all by himself while the rest of our world leaders were networking. But as the impeachment proceedings head to the Senate, things are going to get ugly. And mob boss Mitch McConnell certainly isn’t playing nice. And look at what South Carolina Senator ,and guy who looks like he just won the 2 for 1 Bingo tournament at the local learning annex, Lindsay Graham, and he isn’t playing nice either.

Lindsey Graham has said new impeachment evidence presented by Lev Parnas this week was "no different than the old evidence," calling the indicted Rudy Giuliani associate "crooked as a snake."

The GOP senator for South Carolina told Fox News on Thursday night that he smelled "a rat" and accused Parnas of "dripping out" evidence to the House Intelligence Committee in the build-up to the Senate impeachment trial.

His comments came two days after House Democrats released a trove of documents provided by Parnas' attorney, including text messages and photographs.

A letter from President Donald Trump's personal attorney Giuliani requesting a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was also among the evidence, and claimed to be sent with the commander-in-chief's "knowledge and consent."

https://www.newsweek.com/lindsey-graham-lev-parnas-crooked-snake-impeachment-evidence-1482671

Lindsay smells a rat? I think I know where this mob movie is going but I can't quite put my finger on it...

Come on, Lindsay, you can't out-act Jack Nicholson so don't even try! But that said we got to talk about this Lev Parnas situation. Viva Lev Parnas! Viva Lev Parnas! Viva, Vivaaaaaaa Lev Paraaaaaaaaaas!!! Thank you, that was my Elvis chunk! Thankyouverymuch! Yes, so Lev Parnas may be the missing link in this whole Trump – Russia affair. But of course you know the Trump cult, they will claim no knowledge of ever knowing Parnas.

Joseph Bondy, the attorney for Lev Parnas, shared on Twitter a video showing his client at an event with Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence.

The vice president has denied knowing Parnas after the Ukrainian American businessman accused him of working on an alleged scheme to pressure Ukraine's government. "I don't know the guy," Pence said last week, CNN reported, calling Parnas's claims "completely false."

In the video clip, Parnas is seen holding the hand of Karen Pence and talking with her as the vice president stands by her side, speaking to someone else. Towards the end of the 23-second video, Parnas is seen reaching towards Mike Pence, waiting to shake his hand.

Over the footage plays the opening lines of "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire: "Do you remember the 21st night of September? Love was changing the minds of pretenders while chasing the clouds away."
https://www.newsweek.com/pence-lev-parnas-video-twitter-ukraine-impeachment-1483149

Holy shit!!! Did he just say that Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani were possible culprits? Just how deep and connected is this thing? And why does Rudy keep getting invited to things? He’s like the GOP’s Cousin Eddie – he’s such a fuck up that you don’t want to be associated with him, and every time he gets involved, things go very south very quickly!

The House Intelligence Committee released a new trove of evidence Friday that appears to show extensive contact between the top aide for House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Lev Parnas, a former Rudy Giuliani ally and a key figure in the Ukraine scandal.

Following his arrest on campaign finance violation charges, Parnas began providing the committee with a body of notes, photographs, and cellphone data as part of President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings. These documents have been made public in tranches; earlier releases further defined Giuliani’s role in the push for a Ukrainian investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, and included messages that seemed to suggest a Republican congressional candidate had former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch under surveillance.

In recent days, Parnas has mounted a concerted push to shed light on outstanding questions related to the president’s pressure campaign — which sought to first trade a White House meeting and later critical military aid, for an investigation into Biden, his son Hunter, and the Democratic Party. Wednesday, he appeared on MSNBC to claim Trump knew “exactly what was going on” with respect to Giuliani’s efforts to advance a Biden investigation, and claiming that Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General William Barr were involved as well.

Parnas claimed last November that Nunes was also party to the pressure campaign, and that he’d worked with one of the lawmaker’s top aides, former White House official Derek Harvey, to keep the Congress member in the loop about the progress of the quid pro quo scheme.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/18/21071683/trump-impeachment-devin-nunes-lev-parnas-intelligence-committee-evidence

Have you checked our shitters? So who else does Lev Parnas know and what does he know and how far could this go? These are very pressing questions and they could have some very far reaching implications that could go all the way to Trump himself. This isn’t a reality show, this is a mob movie, but which one? Scarface? Goodfellas? The Godfather? Only time will tell.

A dinner with Jared and Ivanka about cannabis, a phone call from Trump Hotel with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and a whole lot of theorizing about George Soros. Lev Parnas’ interactions with Trumpworld, in his words, went way beyond the Ukraine influence effort.

The former ally of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani spent more than a year embedded with some of the president’s close outside allies. In that time, he said he had an inside view of all sorts of eyebrow-raising interactions and conversations. He described several of them in an interview with The Daily Beast from his lawyer’s office in Midtown Manhattan.

Federal law enforcement officials arrested Parnas and his associate Igor Fruman on Oct. 9 at Dulles Airport. They were then charged with a number of election-related crimes, and accused of funneling Russian money into American political campaigns. Both men maintain their innocence. Fruman has kept quiet throughout the process; Parnas, meanwhile, has spoken out—a lot.

On Thursday and Friday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and CNN’s Anderson Cooper ran on-air interviews with him in which he made a host of claims regarding core episodes of the Trumpworld effort to extract political goodies from the Ukrainian government in order to boost the president’s re-election campaign. He recounted more episodes from his days in the Trump family orbit to The Daily Beast on Thursday afternoon. He spoke from his lawyer’s conference room, sporting a hoodie and eyeing incredulously the cable news coverage of his case that played in the background.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dishes-on-kushner-maduro-and-soros

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[font size="8"]Vladimir Putin
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**Justice League voice** Meanwhile, in Russia!!!!! You know it’s a weird week when Trump’s boss Vladimir Putin attempts to expand his government powers, causing the entire Russian government to quit, and it’s somehow not the number one story of the week! Yes, that happened. People think that American politics aren’t affected by other countries, well, you’re wrong. Vladimir Putin is, to put it lightly, the devil. And he is attempting to expand his power, despite that most of Russia really, truly hates his guts. Maybe this is the world the gun nuts truly fear, and if so I am with them. At least Dmitry Medvedev had the good sense to quit before things got weird.

The entire Russian government is resigning, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced Wednesday, after Vladimir Putin proposed sweeping reforms that could extend his decades-long grip on power beyond the end of his presidency.

Putin thanked members of the government for their work but added that "not everything worked out." Putin added that in the near future he would meet with each member of the cabinet. The mass resignation includes Medvedev.

The surprise announcement came after Putin proposed constitutional amendments that would strengthen the powers of the prime minister and parliament at the expense of the presidency.
Taking power from the presidency and handing it to parliament could signal a power shift that has been long speculated about in Russia.

Putin's critics have suggested that he is considering various scenarios to retain control of the country after his presidential term ends in 2024, including the option of becoming prime minister with extended powers. Similarly, in 2008 Putin swapped places with the prime minister to circumvent the constitutional provision banning the same person from serving two consecutive terms.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/15/europe/russian-government-resigns-vladimir-putin-reforms-intl/index.html

Could you imagine Zombie Lenin and Putin going at it? I would honestly pay the $50 Pay Per View fee to watch that! So what happens next? Now that Putin is on his own does he have a backup government ready to go? Or does he go on his own and go full old school Russian Czar on everyone and declare himself to be his own government? Well that could be a number of ways that could go.

The Russian prime minister and entire government resigned on Wednesday as part of sweeping constitutional changes that could see President Vladimir Putin extend his hold on power.

Putin, in his annual address to parliament, proposed a referendum on amending Russia's constitution to increase the powers of parliament - while maintaining a strong presidential system.

"I consider it necessary to conduct a vote by the country's citizens on an entire package of proposed amendments to the country's constitution," Putin said, without specifying a date for a referendum.

He suggested amending the constitution to allow lawmakers to name prime ministers and cabinet members.

The president currently holds the authority to make those appointments.

"It will increase the role of parliament and parliamentary parties, powers and independence of the prime minister and all cabinet members," Putin said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/russian-govt-quits-putin-calls-constitutional-shake-200115110750948.html

Not sure you want to do that, Homer! Especially if things are going the way we think things are going to go there, and it’s not going to end well for anyone involved. Trust me, this is going to get very weird very quickly. And we will continue to monitor the situation as it develops. But do you now see how this could end very badly and why we should be absolutely frightened here that Putin wants to expand his powers past 2024? Another two terms of this crap and there may be no stopping him.

President Vladimir Putin replaced his long-serving prime minister and called for sweeping constitutional changes, fueling speculation that the Russian leader is moving to extend his grip on power beyond the end of his term in 2024.

The constitution now requires Putin to step down as president then but he could take on another post to ensure his continued influence. Putin hasn’t commented on his plans and his proposals didn’t include any overhauls that would have created a new post for him. But the shifts could reduce the sweeping powers currently held by the president, potentially reining in any successor while making other bodies more influential.

Putin gave little public explanation for the dramatic and unexpected upheaval, which saw Dmitry Medvedev, one of his most loyal lieutenants, ousted after nearly 8 years in office. Medvedev became premier in 2012 after stepping down as president to make way for Putin’s return to the Kremlin. He will take a new position as deputy chairman of the Security Council, reporting to Putin.

Putin later nominated Mikhail Mishustin, 53, a low-profile technocrat who heads the Federal Tax Service, as his successor, the Kremlin said. Mishustin will address the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Thursday when lawmakers meet to consider his candidacy.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-15/russia-premier-medvedev-quits-says-putin-to-pick-new-government

Why does Russia make everything weird? And why do we as a species continue to elect such grossly incompetent leaders and then complain about them? We could elect the other guy and that wouldn’t happen but we choose reactionary. But at least Medvedev had the good sense to send Putin packing.

Vladimir Putin has embarked on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia’s leadership, accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and proposing constitutional amendments that would enable him to hold onto power even after leaving the presidency in 2024.

In a surprise move, Russia’s government said it would resign in full just hours after Putin announced plans for a national referendum that would shift power away from a successor to the presidency.

Putin’s shakeup sent shock waves through Russia’s political elites, who were left pondering what his intentions were and speculating about future cabinet appointments.

The president is laying the groundwork as he prepares for a transition in 2024 that analysts say will likely see him abandon the presidency but remain Russia’s dominant politician in a beefed-up role as Russia’s prime minister or in the government’s State Council instead.

The 67-year-old has in effect ruled Russia since 2000, making him the longest-serving leader since Stalin, and what he plans to do in 2024 remains the most important political question in the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/15/putin-calls-for-constitution-changes-that-would-weaken-successor

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[font size="8"]Gun Nuts
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A favorite talking point among America’s super far right gun nutters is “tyranny of the majority” which means that they’re exercising their right to take on a tyrannical government. Well, it should surprise no one that they are the majority (at least they think they are) and they’ve elected the most tyrannical government the US has ever seen. I’m of course talking about the gathering of the gun nuts in Virginia this week in what might be one of the stupidest protests in American history. Most of the time people protest causes that are supposed to benefit people. Climate change. Not wanting to get shot. Those are good causes right? Gun nuts are protesting… not being able to shoot things. And the rally in Virginia was quite the stuff of insanity.

Thousands of gun-rights advocates packed the streets around the Virginia Capitol on Monday, bristling with weapons, flags and threats of insurrection but never erupting into the violence authorities had feared.

Armed militias carrying assault-style weapons marched in formation until the crowds grew too thick. Protesters without firearms filed through 17 metal detectors at a single entrance to Capitol Square, where about 6,000 people cheered fiery speeches on the Second Amendment. A far larger crowd remained outside the square, where they could keep their weapons.

This was the aftershock of last fall’s elections, when thousands of Virginia voters gave majorities in the General Assembly to Democrats who promised to enact gun-control laws. The losing side of that equation thundered through this city’s streets on Monday, backed up by self-styled patriots from all over the country.

‘Why do you need something so big to go the range?’

The paucity of protesters meant that there were few confrontations. For the most part, if strangers spoke to one another, it was to compliment a sign or a firearm.

As the crowd began to thin out, however, one heated conversation drew a small gathering of onlookers.

“Why do you need to have that gun?” Paul Karns asked a 19-year-old in a black leather jacket with a massive .338-caliber Lapua precision rifle slung proudly over his shoulder.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/virginia-gun-rally-live-updates-despite-threats-massive-rally-is-peaceful-with-no-arrests/ar-BBZ8RCC?li=BBnb7Kz

Of course you are, and as to the question as to why gun owners would need something so big… oh fuck it, just go make some penis jokes on your own. I’ll wait. But then of course things got weird. And how did they get weird? Well he showed up. And by him, no, not Trump himself, who was egging on the 2A protestors, but Alex Jones. Who was literally riding around in an armored car. You know for people who hate tyranny, they really are showcasing what a tyrannical government looks like, aren’t they?

Hours after the 18th annual Lobby Day Gun Rally at Capitol Square ended, demonstrators on both sides of the debate have already begun weighing in on the effectiveness of the demonstrations.

People like Jefferey Hopkins who came all the way from Massachusetts hope the number of Second Amendment supporters will make Virginia lawmakers think twice about gun reform legislation.

“My wife and I drove over eight hours to show that the whole country is in supporting Virginia and Virginians in their Second Amendment rights,” said Jeffery Hopkins. “I’m hoping people realize that gun owners are not violent people and we don’t want our hands to be tied when it comes to the protection of our loved ones.”

The event’s organizer, Philip Van Cleave with the Virginia Citizens Defense League, called the gun rally a success saying that he was pleased with the event and that the Second Amendment supporters “were a group of people whose voices were heard.”

But major players on the other side of the gun debate like gun reform activist Adam Parker say their voices were louder.
https://www.nbc12.com/2020/01/21/with-gun-rally-concluded-both-sides-weigh-effectiveness-demonstrations/

Yeah probably. But things could have been way worse. I mean get a bunch of big fat white guys with itchy trigger fingers and some really big guns into a small area? Thank god nothing set them off or this could have gone very badly for them. And guess what? You know how we joke about how they have a false flag equivalency for everything (see: Idiots #5-7 and Idiots #4-13)? Well of course Infowars has to go and float that conspiracy!

Infowars associate and former Navy SEAL Matt Bracken is giving out tactical advice to white nationalist audiences about attending a pro-gun rally in Virginia Monday and laying the groundwork to bolster “false-flag” conspiracy theories in the event of violence.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency ahead of the Jan. 20 pro-gun event at the state’s capitol in Richmond in response to threats of violence and reports that violent hate groups may attend. On Thursday, the FBI arrested neo-Nazis who had discussed opening fire at the event and who possessed an assault rifle and a cache of ammunition.

Although he does not plan to go to the event Monday, Bracken gave a nearly two-hour interview Friday about the rally to the web-based outlet Red Ice, which acts a megaphone for white nationalist and white supremacist rhetoric. Bracken claimed that the FBI arrested the neo-Nazis in order to fabricate a timeline of events that the agency could later use to smear people opposed to gun control laws. He also compared the FBI to the East German Stasi and attempted to downplay the threat the violent neo-Nazis posed to the event.

“[The FBI] arrested them because they’re setting a narrative. They’re basically putting up the background music, the subliminal background music, that really, really bad white racist nationalists are coming to Richmond and we’ve got to stop them,” Bracken said. “So no matter what happens on Monday in Richmond—if there’s any shooting or there’s somebody driving a car into a crowd—believe me, it’s going to be blamed on the 2nd Amendment.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ahead-of-richmond-gun-rally-infowars-associate-offers-advice-on-white-nationalist-show/

No bribes here! But at least the gun nuts showed that they are capable of good clean fun, whatever that may be. Once they are done gulping down buckets of Jim Bakker’s end times prepper food in preps for whatever excuse of a rally that was, at least they cleaned up their mess. Could they clean up the mess caused by their president? I’m guessing probably not.

As thousands descended upon Richmond for a pro-gun rally on Monday, stickers ended up stuck to the pavement. A Salem man encouraged attendees to clean up the mess.

Elyas Christley traveled to Capitol Square joining other gun-rights activists voicing their opposition to plans by the state's Democratic leadership to pass gun-control legislation.

An estimated 22,000 people showed up. Many wore bright orange stickers that said "Guns Save Lives," which were handed out by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

Christley grabbed a black plastic bag and yelled his "trash call" at 8th and Main Streets urging people to clean up the mess littering the roadway.
https://wtvr.com/2020/01/20/pro-gun-volunteers-pick-up-trash-protest-peacefully-we-want-to-show-an-example/

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[font size="8"]Houston Astros
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I know this isn’t really anything to do with politics but it’s dominating the news and I am OK so there’s no icons for “World Series stealer” or “being a cheating douchebag”. But what I am about to say, I say this as a baseball fan and in particular an AL West fan. Houston Astros, fuck you. Yeah the sooner you realize that the better. Also, Alex Cora - fuck you too. If you’re a sports fan at all the fact that the Houston Astros cheated their way to a World Series and Alex Cora won a world series the following year should both disgust and sicken you. And by the way Alex Cora and Jose Altuve really aren’t helping things. If anything they’re making the situation worse. Come on, MLB, seriously, Pete Rose got banned for less than this.

For the first time since MLB issued a nine-page report on the Houston Astros high-tech sign-stealing scandal, Houston players spoke to the media at the team's FanFest over the weekend. It did not go well. Astros players, including stars Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve, handled the situation the wrong way, says former MLB executive David Samson.

Samson, on the latest episode of Nothing Personal with David Samson, said when Altuve answered questions there was "zero contrition, zero I'm sorry's."

"He is combative. He becomes a predictor," Samson said. "'We're gonna win the World Series. We're gonna be in the World Series. We did nothing wrong. At the end of the year everything's going to be fine.'"

Samson called this a "disgrace" and said if this was his team, he would have prepared the players with answers to every possible question. He also calls out the team for not making the players available before the fan event, saying this is not the time or place to be discussing the sign-stealing investigation and that it should've happened prior to a public event.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/astros-sign-stealing-scandal-how-comments-from-alex-bregman-jose-altuve-made-the-situation-worse/

Oh fuck off. You know who else said that that they’re doing nothing wrong? Donald J. Trump, and you know how well that’s going! So what do actual baseball players think of the latest allegations surrounding the Houston Astros and Alex Cora? Well, behind the scenes the managers and owners are furious about the Astros’ cheating scandal and rightfully so. They pretty much ruined it, and don’t think the Red Sox are immune from this either. Pretty much anyone under the influence of Alex Cora is now highly suspect.

Multiple ownership-level sources told ESPN that dissatisfaction with the penalties had emerged following a conference call with Manfred, in which he explained how the Astros would be disciplined, then told teams to keep their thoughts to themselves.

"The impression," one person familiar with the call told ESPN, "was that the penalty for complaining would be more than Houston got."

The concern over any possible discipline for breaking ranks didn't entirely silence teams. At 12:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost the 2017 World Series in seven games to an Astros team that MLB's investigation confirmed cheated during that postseason, released a statement that read: "All clubs have been asked by Major League Baseball not to comment on today's punishment of the Houston Astros as it's inappropriate to comment on discipline imposed on another club. The Dodgers have also been asked not to comment on any wrongdoing during the 2017 World Series and will have no further comment at this time."

Run through a passive-aggressive translator, the Dodgers' words mirrored what a team president had said earlier in the day.

"Crane won," he said. "The entire thing was programmed to protect the future of the franchise. He got his championship. He keeps his team. His fine is nothing. The sport lost, but Crane won."
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28477741/why-anger-boiling-scenes-houston-astros-sign-stealing-punishments

Yeah this whole thing with the Astros really is kind of like Mr. Burns stuffing a beer league team with World Series caliber players. Now the control group for this whole thing - what does an actual Houston Astro think of the sign stealing scandal? Let’s ask OF Josh Reddick, who was actually on the 2017 team that won the World Series, what he thinks of the whole ordeal. And this is coming from someone who was on the inside.

Outfielder Josh Reddick addresses the media Thursday at an Astros Caravan appearance at St. Arnold’s Brewery. Reddick did not add any details to the Astros cheating scandal other than to say the situation "stinks."

Outfielder Josh Reddick addresses the media Thursday at an Astros Caravan appearance at St. Arnold’s Brewery. Reddick did not add any details to the Astros cheating scandal other than to say the situation "stinks."Photo: Karen Warren, Karen Warren / Staff photographer Houston Astros outfielder Josh Reddick is interviewed by local media members before the start on the Astros Caravan at St. Arnold’s Brewery, in Houston, January 16, 2020. Reddick did not add any details to the Astros cheating scandal other than to say the situation "stinks."

Houston Astros outfielder Josh Reddick is interviewed by local media members before the start on the Astros Caravan at St. Arnold’s Brewery, in Houston, January 16, 2020. Reddick did not add any details to the Astros cheating scandal other than to say the situation "stinks."Photo: Karen Warren, Staff photographer

A stark silence ended Thursday. A player who witnessed the Astros’ electronic sign-stealing scheme finally spoke. Josh Reddick offered scant specifics. Afforded the opportunity, the outfielder did not signal any regret.

The scandal has cost four men their jobs, called into question the legitimacy of the 2017 World Series championship, and thrown the Astros into immediate upheaval.

“It just stinks,” Reddick said. “It stinks for everybody involved.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-cheating-scandal-Josh-Reddick-14982034.php

Damn straight it does! And if this was a managerial decision, what does that say about the players and staff who were unwitting pawns? Well let’s take a look at one of the whistleblowers in this whole damn scenario. So the Astros used some James Bond level tech to cheat. Actually they really just used things available at your local Best Buy. But nevertheless, what they did was wrong and they should absolutely be punished for it.

Last November, former Chicago White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar said in an interview with the Athletic that he had heard banging coming from the Astros dugout when he was pitching in a September 2017 game in Houston.

As soon as he read that Athletic story, O’Brien said he searched for the tape of the game, found it, and posted a video, which, in clear and precise terms, walks viewers through the scheme. It has been viewed 2.7 million times since it was posted last November, according to YouTube.

It clearly shows a huge advantage for the Astros’ hitter, Evan Gattis. Fans concerned about the game’s purity give O’Brien credit for taking the episode seriously.

The MLB’s official report found there was a sense of “panic” in the Astros dugout after Farquhar appeared to notice the banging, which Farquhar came to believe alerted Astros to calls for off-speed pitches from White Sox catcher Kevan Smith.

In O’Brien’s video, Farquhar, since retired from the game, calls timeout and apparently confers at the mound with Smith over the need to change signs. He goes on to get the hitter out with a changeup.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/watch-the-video-that-blew-the-lid-off-the-house-astros-pitch-stealing-scheme-2020-01-17

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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: You Snooze You Lose
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates!

The science of sleep is a complex and tricky one. And if you cannot sleep, which is a lot of us, there’s many ways that can help that. One of which is a sleep apnea machine. However, if you do use a sleep apnea machine or are heavily considering one, you should be aware that one of the world’s top manufacturers of such devices is currently under fire. You may have been unfairly targeted by ResMed if you are a customer considering a device. And they’re not the only company in the sleep apnea business that is engaging in this practice. If you feel that you were unfairly targeted by some aggressively shady business practices, well, you’re not alone.

ResMed, a San Diego, Calif.-based company that sells sleep apnea machines, will pay $37.5 million to settle allegations that it provided kickbacks to obtain customer referrals, federal prosecutors announced this week.

The settlement covers five whistleblower lawsuits filed on behalf of the federal government. The lawsuits say that the company provided free services and equipment to medical equipment suppliers, sleep labs and other health care providers in violation of the federal False Claims Act.

“Paying any type of illegal remuneration to induce patient referrals undermines the integrity of our nation’s health care system,” Jody Hunt, head of the U.S. Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement. “When a patient receives a prescription for a device to treat a health care condition, the patient deserves to know that the device was selected based on quality of care considerations and not on unlawful payments from equipment manufacturers.”

ResMed didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement but agreed to tighten controls on its pricing and sales.

In a statement, the company said it settled to avoid “the expense, inconvenience and distraction” of continuing the legal fight.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2020/01/17/555246.htm

But even if you are in the market for a CPAP machine, getting one can be a nightmare for the people who actually need one. Insurance companies don’t make it easy for people to obtain devices like this that they actually need. And if the provider is under fire for aggressively targeting customers, that negates the people who might actually really need a machine like this because a sleeping disorder can affect how they work and live.

As many CPAP users discover, the life-altering device comes with caveats: Health insurance companies are often tracking whether patients use them. If they aren't, the insurers might not cover the machines or the supplies that go with them. And, faced with the popularity of CPAPs — which can cost $400 to $800 — and their need for replacement filters, face masks and hoses, health insurers have deployed a host of tactics that can make the therapy more expensive or even price it out of reach.

Patients have been required to rent CPAPs at rates that total much more than the retail price of the devices, or they've discovered that the supplies would be substantially cheaper if they didn't have insurance at all.

Experts who study health care costs say insurers' CPAP strategies are part of the industry's playbook of shifting the costs of widely used therapies, devices and tests to unsuspecting patients.

"The doctors and providers are not in control of medicine anymore," says Harry Lawrence, owner of Advanced Oxy-Med Services, a New York company that provides CPAP supplies. "It's strictly the insurance companies. They call the shots."

Insurers say their concerns are legitimate. The masks and hoses can be cumbersome and noisy, and studies show that about one third of patients don't use their CPAPs as directed.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/21/669751038/you-snooze-you-lose-how-insurers-dodge-the-costs-of-popular-sleep-apnea-devices

So insurance can make or break a claim on a sleep apnea machine. But what if you’re trying to make a claim through your employer and you’re denied? Here’s where it gets highly suspect. Let’s take this case that recently went before SCOTUS where a truck driver attempted to obtain a sleep apnea machine and sued the company to get it. That case went all the way before SCOTUS and they ruled in favor of the company and not of the driver.

The Supreme Court has ruled it will not hear a truck driver’s lawsuit against Crete Carrier Corp., leaving in place a lower court ruling in favor of Crete and its policy to require testing for obstructive sleep apnea for certain truckers.

Crete (No. 22 in the CCJ Top 250) driver Robert Parker sued the carrier in 2013, arguing the carrier’s apnea-screening program violates drivers’ rights within the American Disabilities Act.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in October upholding the legality of Crete’s policy, calling it “legitimate and non-discriminatory.” Only outranked by the Supreme Court, the 8th Circuit’s decision is likely the case’s final verdict. Parker sued seeking back pay and reinstate of employment when he was fired for refusing an in-lab sleep study after Crete ordered him to be tested.

The decision could set a precedent for other courts, meaning carriers nationwide can install such apnea-screening programs and not be subject to court-ordered payouts.

Crete instituted the policy in 2010. It requires all driver applicants with a body mass index of 35 or greater to be screened for sleep apnea via an in-lab study.
https://www.ccjdigital.com/supreme-court-wont-hear-drivers-sleep-apnea-screening-lawsuit-against-crete/

But we don’t want you to think this is all doom and gloom for sleep apnea sufferers. There is a cure out there that could alleviate the machine and make it easier for people to obtain a good night’s sleep. This drug is a bit… controversial. Some might say it is even something that would not be good for you if you inhaled too much of it. But it is a drug that is all natural and would be a good alternative to a sleep apnea machine. OK, that drug is weed.

Three out-of-state residents – including a former state Cabinet secretary – filed a lawsuit Thursday over the New Mexico Department of Health’s denial of their applications to be license-carrying patients in the state’s medical cannabis program.

The lawsuit, filed in state District Court in Santa Fe, asks a judge to order Health Department officials to issue medical marijuana licenses to the three individuals – and any other out-of-state residents who have a qualifying medical condition and apply for a license.

The dispute hinges on the Department of Health’s interpretation of changes to the state’s medical cannabis program that were signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and took effect June 14.

<snip>

The Health Department spokesman did not respond Thursday to questions about the lawsuit being filed.

The lawsuits’ three plaintiffs are Harold Meyers and Laura Sias, both Texas residents, and Duke Rodriguez, an Arizona resident who is Ultra Health’s president and CEO. Rodriguez is also a former New Mexico human services secretary.

Two of the plaintiffs suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the other plaintiff has been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, according to the lawsuit. Those two conditions are among the 28 qualifying conditions for participation in New Mexico’s medical cannabis program.

The lawsuit argues that out-of-state residents with state-issued medical pot licenses would not necessarily transport marijuana across state lines, because potential applicants could own second homes in New Mexico or travel to the state for business or medical reasons.
https://www.abqjournal.com/1345167/lawsuit-targets-nm-medical-pot-residency-requirements.html

That’s it this week for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters of Amherst! It’s time to take a seat in the pew and pass the collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:



My fair congregation! You know we talk a lot of crap about super right wing Christian fundamentalists but there’s people like this in every religion. And the war is the same – it’s traditional vs modern. And I say this because there’s a group of let’s say old men, in this country who do not embrace change. Take for instance our good friends in the Catholic Church. Now don’t boo. Don’t boo. The Catholic Church has long looked to overturn this barbaric practice of priests and celibacy. And it’s a fight that goes back centuries. But while they’ve made great strides with Pope Francis, a former pope, Pope Benedict, has stepped in and well, he’s got some thoughts.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI, who promised to remain silent when he resigned as head of the Roman Catholic Church seven years ago, has stepped back into the ongoing debate over priestly celibacy with a new book defending the traditionalist view.

The surprise move is seen as a rebuke to Pope Francis, who is weighing the possibility of a revolutionary move to relax the strict celibacy requirement for ordination in some South American countries where the shortage of priests is particularly acute.

In the as-yet-unpublished book, whose title translates as From the Depths of Our Hearts, Benedict and his co-author, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, defend the "necessity" of celibacy in the priesthood. On Sunday, the French newspaper Le Figaro printed excerpts, which were also obtained by The Associated Press.

"The priesthood of Jesus Christ causes us to enter into a life that consists of becoming one with him and renouncing all that belongs only to us," the pope emeritus writes. "For priests, this is the foundation of the necessity of celibacy but also of liturgical prayer, meditation on the Word of God and the renunciation of material goods."
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/13/795826955/in-new-book-retired-pope-benedict-breaks-silence-to-speak-out-on-priestly-celiba

Yes, Pope Benedict, you might want to sit this one out. And I’ve seen Spotlight, I know what goes on behind closed confessional booths. So you’re booing me now. Ah, so now the tables have turned, haven’t they? But this war goes deep, my fair congregation. So deep that it could have some devastating long term effects on the Vatican itself.

At the beginning of the week, the insider Catholic universe imploded when news broke that retired Pope Benedict XVI and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah had co-authored a new book defending priestly celibacy just as Pope Francis is considering an exception to the rule proposed during the Amazon synod.

In the fierce and polemical debate that ensued, the role of a pope emeritus was questioned while Catholicism’s conservative and progressive camps exchanged arguments over Benedict XVI’s intentions with the book, titled From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, which hit shelves Jan. 15 in France.

The saga culminated with Archbishop Georg Ganswein, personal secretary for Benedict XVI, saying the emeritus pope had asked that his name be withdrawn as a coauthor and removed from the book’s introduction and conclusion. Citing the Chicago Manual of Style, however, the English-language publisher, Ignatius Press, said it considers the publication “coauthored.”

Though unprecedented is perhaps the wrong word to describe the bizarre episode, it was certainly odd, as Sarah, an active sitting cardinal who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office, took to social media to defend his credibility, issuing several statements and publishing correspondence between himself and Benedict - things that heads of Vatican departments don’t typically do.
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/01/sarahs-last-hurrah-2020-could-see-major-vatican-shakeups/

And by the way in case you’re wondering if the Catholic Church is in full “move along, nothing to see here” mode, whew, oh boy are they ever. But really Pope Benedict, you might want to sit this one out, especially after new allegations are surfacing against priests and abuse. The only real crisis here is that there’s a bunch of abusers and they are showing no remorse for the victims that they abused. Pope Francis is trying to steer the church in a much more modern tradition.

The Vatican on Monday sought to downplay the decision by retired Pope Benedict XVI to reaffirm the “necessity” of a celibate priesthood at the same time that Pope Francis is considering ordaining married men, calling his book a mere contribution that was written in full obedience to Francis.

The Vatican’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, penned an editorial that sought to put Benedict’s bombshell book in the context of a continuity between the two popes. He noted that Francis, too, has upheld the “gift” of priestly celibacy and refused to make it optional across the board.

The French daily Le Figaro late Sunday published excerpts of the book “From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church," co-authored with conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah; The Associated Press obtained galleys of the English edition, which is being published Feb. 20 by Ignatius Press.

Benedict’s intervention was extraordinary, given he had promised to remain “hidden from the world” when he retired in 2013, and pledged his obedience to the new pope. He has largely held to that pledge, though he penned an odd essay last year that blamed the sexual abuse crisis on the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pope-benedict-xvi-breaks-silence-reaffirm-priest-celibacy-68234586

That is a good point Reverend, but we’ll save that for a different sermon. Because I’m sure that’s not what the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want! And really by the way, give it up for my choir, how great are they? So if the Catholic Church can’t get it together on priests and marriage, what can they get it together on? Well don’t expect them to come to a conclusion anytime soon.

Former pope Benedict XVI has publicly urged his successor Pope Francis not to open the Catholic priesthood up to married men, in a plea that Sunday stunned Vatican experts.

The ex-pontiff, who retired in 2013, issued the defence of clerical celibacy in a book written with arch-conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah, extracts of which were published in exclusive by France's Le Figaro.

"I cannot keep silent!" Benedict wrote in the book, which follows an extraordinary meeting of bishops from the Amazonian at the Vatican last year that recommended the ordination of married men in certain circumstances.

The pope emeritus, 92, and Sarah from Guinea weighed in on the controversial question of whether or not to allow "viri probati" -- married "men of proven virtue" -- to join the priesthood.

Francis is currently considering allowing it in remote locations, such as the Amazon, where communities seldom have Mass due to a lack of priests, and is expected to publish his decision in the coming weeks.
https://news.yahoo.com/ex-pope-benedict-rejects-opening-priesthood-married-men-202354226.html

Yes so if we learned anything during our sermon today, just about everything is a sin, and this might be one of the most egregious of all! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Your Celebrity’s Political Opinions
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Can we be friends with people who may do something even slightly controversial? Yeah that may be a stupid question, but this is the year 2020, where social media freaks out at the slightest mention of a person’s team or vice. I mean just look at BTS fans, shit, they freak out if one of the members so much as gets out of bed in the morning! But take a look at what’s happened the last couple of weeks. Sure, you had Ellen DeGeneres hanging out with George W Bush, and now you have Vince Vaughn hanging out with Donald Trump. I mean what’s a guy like that going to do in that situation? Punch Trump in the face slow motion style? Seriously, can we just take a step back and pull our heads out of each other’s asses and act like civilized adults here? No? Sigh.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump watched LSU and Clemson battle it out for the college football championship in New Orleans on Monday night – and they were seated near another famous face. Actor Vince Vaughn also attended the game, and was seen chatting with the president and first lady.

The Trumps were greeted with cheers as they took the field for the national anthem before the game. Some fans cheered "USA, USA," and others chanted, "Four more years," according to the Associated Press.

Video captured by another fan showed the Trumps shaking hands with Vaughn, and then having a conversation with him as the rest of the stadium sang "Sweet Caroline." While there is no audio of their conversation, it appeared to be pleasant, with Mr. Trump shaking the actor's hand and smiling.

"I'm very sorry to have to share this video with you. All of it, every part of it," journalist Timothy Burke wrote on Twitter, sharing the video of the interaction.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vince-vaughn-trump-receives-backlash-chatting-president-and-melania-national-championship-football-game/

Oh come on! Has anyone cared about anything that Vince Vaughn has done since Wedding Crashers? I wonder how many times he gets asked where the meatloaf is? I mean come on, this is rage bait taken to some new extremes. And the funny thing is – conservatives are the ones who are trying to get us to be mad at this, and it’s backfiring on them big time!

The morning after a clip of actor Vince Vaughn having a brief, amicable conversation with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump in a private box at the national championship college football game in New Orleans went viral, Fox News went to desperate lengths to make it seem as though Democrats are mad about it.

The problem, however, is that there isn’t much evidence anyone aside from right-wingers is actually mad.

In fact, Fox News’s article about how Vaughn supposedly “faces liberal outrage after he was seen with Trump during national championship game” prominently features a tweet from Washington Examiner staffer Siraj Hashmi, who is hardly a liberal, sarcastically quipping that “Ladies & gentlemen, I regret to inform you Vince Vaughn is CANCELED” — but the tweet is presented in David Aaro’s article as though Hashmi is a liberal who meant it earnestly.

Hashmi later noted on Twitter that the Fox News article caused right-wing trolls to flood his Instagram page with abusive comments. And the few other examples of “liberal outrage” in the piece were gleaned from the far fringes of Twitter. (Fox News still hasn’t figured out that Hashmi isn’t actually liberal as of Tuesday afternoon — his tweet was falsely cited as an example of “liberal cancel culture” on Outnumbered.)

The clip of the conversation between Trump and Vaughn — a libertarian who supported Rand Paul’s presidential bid — was originally posted to Twitter by former Deadspin staffer Timothy Burke, who wrote, “I’m very sorry to have to share this video with you. All of it, every part of it.”
https://www.vox.com/2020/1/14/21065208/vince-vaughn-trump-national-championship-game-fox-news-outrage

So we can add “fake outrage” to the list of things conservatives royally suck at! But Vince Vaughn wasn’t the only celebrity who got hammered over their comments this week. Take a look at what happened to Stephen King. Yes, that Stephen King, the guy who gave us “It” and “The Shining”. So apparently he made some comments about how the Oscars should choose the best movies and not for diversity, and well, once again the internet lost their collective shit, but apparently only white males were the ones who were offended.

It started, as it so often does, with a series of tweets from someone famous enough to need a social-media manager. Early Tuesday morning, the author Stephen King logged on to Twitter to share his thoughts about the fact that the Oscar nominees, announced the day before, included no female directors and a single actor of color. “As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue—as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway—did not come up. That said,” King added, “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”

And thus the usual forces were set in motion: responses from disappointed peers and moviegoers alike, and an apparent backtracking of the ill-conceived comments within the same day. “You can’t win awards if you’re shut out of the game,” King wrote, acknowledging the structural challenges that many creators face. For those who have followed the industry’s responses to widespread calls for greater diversity, especially since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign began five years ago, cycles like this are a familiar part of the awards season. After a Golden Globes that featured many presenters of color but a primarily white set of winners, this year’s Oscar and BAFTA Awards nominations didn’t deviate much from a well-worn script either. (Cynthia Erivo, the only Oscar-nominated actor of color this year, stars in HBO’s adaptation of King’s The Outsider and offered an implicit critique of the author’s tweets when asked about them on Wednesday.)

The Academy’s perceived snubs—of actors such as Us’s Lupita Nyong’o and Hustlers’ Jennifer Lopez, along with directors such as Little Women’s Greta Gerwig and The Farewell’s Lulu Wang—are as unfortunate as they are predictable. And comments like King’s reveal a major reason why: Diversity is too often discussed as something separate from, or even in conflict with, artistic virtue. It is treated as an abstract concept meant to materialize without industry gatekeepers and Oscar voters, such as King, challenging their own possibly narrow views and instituting different practices. Put more plainly, the lack of representation is regularly talked about as a problem, but one for someone else to solve and for other institutions to address.
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/01/stephen-king-oscar-comments-diversity/605101/

No, Ron, that’s not the kind of diversity we’re talking about. But when it comes to who is being triggered, this once again opens up one of the biggest circular firing squads of all time. But really this whole thing is getting really out of hand. Just because your favorite celebrity may hang with people who you consider “the enemy” or they say something that may “offend you”, can we just let it go? Oh wait, this is 2020 we were talking about here. Crap only our 3rd edition of the year and I need to go on vacation.

Famed writer Stephen King has stirred up controversy after admitting he “would never consider diversity in matters of art,” a remark made in reference to his status as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) voting on Oscar contenders. His remarks come a day after the 2020 Oscar nominations were announced, prompting complaints that women and people of color were largely overlooked. Many critics bemoaned the exclusion of women like Greta Gerwig from the Best Director category, while Harriet’s Cynthia Erivo spoke out about being the only person of color to be nominated across four acting categories.

King, whose prolific career has included big-screen adaptations of stories like The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Misery and Carrie, took to Twitter to address the “diversity issue.” The author explained that he is allowed to vote for three non-acting categories — Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay — and only judges entries based on “quality,” not “diversity.” (Across the two screenplay categories, two women, Little Women’s Greta Gerwig and 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns were nominated, as were South Koreans Bong Joon-ho and Jin Won Han (Parasite), Just Mercy’s Destin Daniel Cretton, whose mother is Japanese-American, and JoJo Rabbit’s Taika Waititi, whose father is Māori.)

But King’s comments had critics accusing him of having white privilege, dismissing the systemic bias against minorities, and implying that diverse work lacks quality. Director Ava DuVernay, of Selma and When They See Us fame, was among those calling out the author’s “backward and ignorant statement,” while writer Roxane Gay tweeted, “quality is everywhere but most industries only believe in quality from one demographic.”
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/stephen-king-backlash-diversity-quality-oscars-181036444.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMFyezpnXFo9008BiQ40YEvDwDwmrn2pL2u79O052_PdT4pI4u4Y2Wa3TLDX3f3VsjT6008vt4PGf16XZMpaM6tSR5nExRPSfLMcpC40nf92rvd_dRXY5Lo0nVcRJrKpDpWCOaCE2-S1NSPLU1fhgbVMGIfMO1IbJS9nDS7vFf6e

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[font size="8"]NO! REM Vs Trump Round 3
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One of my favorite things about this current political climate that we live in is when a right wing politician gets caught with their pants down when they use a song without the artists’ approval. It’s happened time and time again. And it seems that no matter what song Trump uses, whether it’s REM’s classic “Everybody Hurts” or it’s the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in his rallies, everyone seems to have an opinion. And by the way, You Can’t Always Get What You Want perfectly describes the Trump administration. in fact I’d even say it’s a metaphor. But not everyone is feeling why Trump has been using these songs, and Michael Stipe himself is telling Trump that he can’t do it.

R.E.M. is not feeling fine.

The Georgia-based rock band is considering legal action to stop President Donald Trump from playing the group's popular music at his rallies.

The notice came by means of bassist Mike Mills' Twitter account. He tweeted after Tuesday night's Trump rally featured "Everybody Hurts" and "Losing My Religion."

"We are exploring all legal avenues to prevent this, but if that's not possible please know that we do not condone the use of our music by this fraud and con man," bassist Mike Mills posted.

The band, which disbanded in September 2011, has sparred with Trump over playing their music for years.

Last year, Trump retweeted a video playing "Everybody Hurts" over clips of Democrats looking not too pleased at his State of the Union address. Mills responded by tweeting, "Measures have been taken to stop it," and called on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to "get on this." Twitter eventually took down the video.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/r-e-m-trump-rally-trnd/index.html

Yes, this feud has been ongoing for quite a while. We previously covered this in Top 10 #6-7. But it’s not going away anytime soon. And – this may *NOT* surprise you but it’s also not the first time that Trump has been caught with his pants down using a song that he didn’t have permission for. This week. And this one doesn’t have anything to do with the artists’ political opinions either.

Another day, another tweet from President Trump. But Thursday night’s tweet featured both a familiar refrain from Trump as well as a familiar tune, at least to seasoned League of Legends players and esports fans like veteran journalist Rod Breslau.

The background music may sound like any old generic hype track, but the tune is actually the song that played during a past season of the League of Legends Championship Series, the world’s most popular esport. Here’s the SoundCloud track with the same song.

League of Legends publisher, Riot Games told The Washington Post on Friday that it does not own the rights to the song. Instead, it is available for use by anyone who signs up with Universal Production Music, a business-to-business company that produces and licenses songs for use in movies, trailers, games and ads.

The song, “The Throw Down,” by Gregg Lehrman, features “insistent and quick staccato strings” and a “driving hip-hop beat” with “huge distorted guitars, and a sweeping melodic orchestra as it builds to a climax,” according to Universal’s website. It’s featured in the 2012 collection, “Hip-hop Symphony No. 1” under the “epic urban” genre.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2020/01/17/yes-trump-campaign-ad-uses-song-league-legends-no-he-didnt-steal-it-riot/

Eventually it’s going to be down to Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, and that guitar army from Idiocracy. And by the way in case you’re wondering just how effective music is at Trump’s rallies, there’s a very real possibility that this is the linked playlist. It’s really just the same playlist you’d find on the 70s station at your local Starbucks or XM radio channel. The biggest surprise is his use of the Village People’s “Macho Man”. Come on, doesn’t he know the history of the Village People? I guess not.

President Donald Trump on Monday was running behind schedule, but the officers at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference were pleasantly occupied enjoying the music.

A police captain in a cowboy hat and Trump 2020 socks was bobbing his head to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” A sales representative from a body camera vendor was Shazaaming The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.” And when the Village People’s “Macho Man” blasted through the Skyline Ballroom’s PA system at around 10:15 a.m., there was audible laughter—someone even remarked about “the psychology” of playing this particular song at a Trump event for cops.

The music was so good that when Paul Cell, the president of the IACP, took the stage, his first order of business was to solicit a round of applause, not for the president, but for the playlist. While the music at Donald Trump rallies has been extensively covered by the media, the president, unlike nearly every other candidate looking to seize his office in 2020, has yet to release his official playlist—a fact made puzzling by the sheer volume of bangers the playlist seems to contain.

While such a file might seem imminently attainable through existing public records laws, under the Presidential Records Act, most presidential records can not be released until five years after the president leaves office. However, Gizmodo identified a 67-song Spotify playlist maintained by a member of the White House Advance Office that appears to contain nearly all, if not all, of the president’s allegedly hand-picked rally songs.
https://gizmodo.com/this-appears-to-be-donald-trumps-hand-curated-campaign-1839503165

OK if Trump wants to use music at his rallies, he should at the very least find out whether or not that artist likes him at first. And if he wants his music cred to be known, maybe if you’re trying to go for some live music at your rallies, don’t do this. This might be my favorite part of one of his recent rallies – he hired a band that goes by the name of “Live Music”. Yes, that is their name. And this one I did Google – they actually do exist. No, I’m not talking about the actual band Live, which is a far better 90s alternative rock band, I’m talking about a band called Live Music.

Before President Donald Trump's rally Thursday night at American Airlines Center, thousands of ardent supporters gathered outside on Victory Plaza to tailgate. A video of the festivities made the rounds on Twitter, offering images of red-hatted Trumpsters dancing to ... a band.

Which band, you ask? So do we. Despite the huge numbers of local and national press on the scene, we haven't been able to find the name of the band. News reports said only that the rally offered "live music." Maybe that was the band's name: Live Music. Sort of like The Band, but definitely not The Band.

And that's sort of our point: If you’re going to wage a culture war against your political opponents, it helps to have an actual sense of culture. As the video demonstrates, Trump’s base is severely lacking on this front. I mean, come on. Those line array speakers mounted on both sides of the stage must be at least $25,000. A stage this size would easily be able to accommodate the back line of an artist who normally plays midsized venues.

So why waste all of this on a band whose name nobody even knows? OK, presumably someone does. Drop us a line in the comments if you do, unless the band was playing incognito. We get that: A paying gig's a gig, gotta eat, etc. No judgment here. We'll reserve that for Trump's enabling political appointees.
https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/trump-rallies-arent-sending-their-best-musicians-11784484-11784484

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[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey everyone I don’t know about you but I could really use a drink!



So of course you know the idea behind this is that we have a few drinks and discuss anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. Because you should never combine booze and politics. Well this one may be borderline because we are going to be discussing robots in this segment. So tell me bartender, what goes well with a story about robots? I’m apparently being told that my bartender is being replaced with something called a “Robot Drink Buddy”. OK so tell me Robot Drink Buddy, what do you recommend? A Cadillac margarita already pre-mixed in your blender? OK sure, I will try one of those, easy on the salt. Hmm… not bad. But the reason why I bring this up is because robots were all the rage at CES this year and there’s everything from bathroom pals to robotic prosthetics as seen in Star Wars.

CES 2020 played host to a huge collection of strutting and rolling robots, designed to handle everything from everyday chores to nurturing human kindness. Perhaps as a reflection of our increasingly high-stress lifestyles, this year's show was also populated by a surprising number of robots designed to provide companionship and alleviate loneliness.

Robot pets are nothing new (Sony's dog-bot Aibo made its debut in 1999), but the new generation of mechanical beasts are quite different; all soft fur and limpid eyes, designed to appeal to our need to protect and nurture.

The future is surprisingly cuddly – so after much petting, tickling and fussing, here's our guide to the best robots of CES 2020…

MarsCat is a robotic pet that appears, at first glance, to be a feline version of Sony’s robot pup Aibo, but the two are actually quite different. While you can’t teach an old Aibo new tricks, MarsCat is open source and controlled by a Raspberry Pi, so you can tinker with it to your heart’s content.
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-robots-from-ces-2020-the-cute-the-cuddly-and-the-confusing

Thankfully we haven’t got to those kinds of robots yet, but seeing as how humans just can’t control their insatiable blood lust, we might get there. But this is my favorite story to come out of CES, and that is coming from everyone’s favorite toilet paper manufacturer Charmin. Yes, the company responsible for those commercials featuring talking bears rapping about how clean their assholes are, is bringing us some bizarre and potentially useful bathroom technology!

When Charmin announced its new toilet experience innovations earlier this week, including a pooptime robot pal, we knew we had to see them for ourselves on the CES show floor.

Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg was discussing his billion dollar startup Quibi with Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard a mere 10 feet away, but camera crews from media outlets like ourselves and CNN were more obsessed with experiencing bad puns and toilet humor from the folks at Charmin.

The future bathroom concepts were surely the talk of CES this week. Heck, the invention was even skewered by Stephen Colbert.

GeekWire Managing Editor Taylor Soper got a first-hand look at three new toilet technology concepts: the RollBot, SmellSense, and V.I.Pee. His conclusion?

“The future of the bathroom smells rosy and will never, ever lack toilet paper,” he said. “Absolutely incredible.”

RollBot is a Bluetooth-enabled robot designed to deliver a fresh roll of toilet paper to you when you unexpectedly run out on the throne.
SmellSense combines a fart sensor with an LED display that alerts you whether or not a bathroom is safe or toxic to enter.
V.I.Pee provides an Oculus Rift S VR headset at concerts and events so that you don’t have to miss any of the action while you are answering nature’s call.
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/hands-demo-charmins-new-toilet-paper-robot-fart-smell-sensor-ces/

Well let’s hope it doesn’t come to that! So Charmin has laid out the future of bathroom technology although we suspect that V.R. Pee will be used more for evil instead of good. But while Charmin has its’ eye on the restroom, Toyota is setting it’s sites on conquering whole cities. Tesla may have pioneered the concept of the electric car but Toyota is taking it a step further. Think Bruce Wayne’s cell phone tech from the Dark Knight.

At CES 2020, the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda, began his company’s official press conference by appearing to announce a flying car. And a giant robot.

Neither of those announcements turned out to be real (which we are very sad about), but he made up for that with what came next—his reveal of the company’s plans to build a brand new ‘prototype’ city.

Built on the site of an old Toyota plant at the base of Mt. Fuji, Woven City will be 175 acres of futuristic buildings and infrastructure designed to explore how humans and robots can thrive together. It’s all just concepts and renderings so far, with construction slated to start in 2021. And if Toyota can make this happen, it could be incredible.

When Woven City is complete, if you want to do research on urban autonomy or long-term human robot interactions, then you can just move into the city for a while and work from there. With a population made up of both long-term residents and guest researchers, it will be a unique chance, Toyota says, to test and develop new technologies in a real-world environment. Or at least, an environment that’s as real as a fantasy city can be.

Woven City will be designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who described the typical street that you find in most cities today as “a mess, with everything and nothing everywhere.” Ingels split the streets in Woven City into three separate tree-covered routes, one each for fully autonomous vehicles, personal mobility systems, and pedestrians. The three routes are all woven together (hence the city’s name and logo) into a grid of three-by-three blocks, each framing a park or courtyard.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/green-tech/buildings/toyota-ces2020-ces-announcements-news-city-autonomous-cars-robots

Could you imagine driving an autonomous car to a restaurant where autonomous robots serve you drinks like our Robot Drink Buddy is doing? I mean I don’t want to think that we’re heading toward a blank planet but it does seem like that’s our future. But then again we could be merging toward more of a Jetsons or Futurama like future where humans and robots co-exist. But if the robots of the future are anything like the humans of today, don’t count on it.

Robots have been a major part of CES for years, but they have usually been consumer-focused robots, such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner, robot toys such as those from UBTECH, or educational robot systems and similar offerings. At CES 2020, however, we saw major robotics companies that focus on industrial and commercial robotics applications increasingly finding spots on the show floor.

Companies such as FANUC, Doosan Robotics, and OMRON all had a major presence on the South Hall expo floor in the AI & Robotics area at CES 2020 last wee. They showed off robots, vehicles, and other technologies that would more likely be seen at an industrial trade show, such as Automate or ProMat. For many of these companies, it was an opportunity to be seen at the same event as companies showing off 8K television sets, new home theater speaker systems, or AR/VR gaming systems. Often, it felt like robotics companies were doing a “show and tell” session for CES attendees.

This was the biggest takeaway theme around robotics during the annual consumer technology trade show, which draws more than 100,000 attendees from around the world. In addition to the vast expo hall floors, CES held several conference track sessions, including our own “Robots for Good” conference track, which discussed robotics projects aimed at improving the land, the oceans, and human life, as well as exploring space. Here are some additional thoughts and takeaway messages from the show:
https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/events/show-and-tell-in-vegas-robot-reflections-from-ces-2020/

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[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep. 20: Iowa Straw Poll Preview
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Welcome back to our 2020 voters’ guide “Keeping Up With The Candidates”. Yes, we’re 11 months away from deciding the fate of the future of this country. Will Americans embrace fascism and give us another 4 years of the orange asshole or will freedom prevail and we will kick him out of office? Well the first part of what always seems like a 16 year campaign starts in the January of election year and that is the Iowa Straw Poll. Yes, the 800,000,000 candidates vying to unseat Trump are headed to Iowa in hopes that they will be the 46th president of the United States. Of America. Are you part of the Yang Gang? Or mayor Pete Buttigieg? Or Elizabeth Warren? Or maybe Bernie Sanders is your jam. Anyway Iowa and New Hampshire will be where it all gets narrowed down.

It is a well-established practice that the political winds of the nation will sweep the plains of Iowa and the mountains of New Hampshire for the next month, before infiltrating every coffee shop, rotary club, and roadstop diner in South Carolina and Nevada. These are the four crucial early states that shape the presidential primary for all those that follow.

Each election cycle, the same Iowa straw polls are dissected, the same county fairs barnstormed, and the same political consultants enriched. It’s political theater, it’s time-honored tradition, and it’s endless entertainment for our chattering media class.

But why must our nominees be filtered through a handful of Iowa caucus-goers, followed by the select few voters of New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina? Why such an astronomically greater influence for voters in Des Moines and Portsmouth over those in Kansas City or Pittsburgh?

The importance each presidential contender places on those early states shows just how much more important those voters are than the rest of us.

Iowa has held our nation’s first caucuses since the Nixon presidency. New Hampshire has hosted the first primary since the 1920s — and even has a state law that bumps its date if another state tries to supplant it.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary-presidential-election-20191226.html

I think I know who Texas guy is voting for but I can’t quite put my finger on it. But the Iowa Straw Poll is a recent tradition. But this is a weird time in American history because we are currently fighting as if the last election never ended. And we can thank endless years of Clinton bashing by the far right that got us to this point. Yes, the government has been at a stand still but for how long?

Americans may feel as though Christmas lasts forever, but at worst the holiday spreads out over two months, from Halloween until January 2. We do, however, have one truly endless season: campaign season. According to CNN, the 2016 presidential campaign took 597 days, which seems accurate if you believe the campaign ended on Election Day 2016, which everyone knows it did not. It’s still going strong and will continue going strong until at least Election Day 2020. In Japan campaigns last 12 days, in Australia they last 33 to 68 days, and in America they last forever.

The forever campaign is several orders of magnitude worse than Bing Crosby and eggnog in early November, is it not? Some people like eggnog, but no one likes politicians running for higher office. So, as Americans, we must engage in the very American tradition of figuring out who’s to blame for this agony.

Democrats geared up to defeat President Trump as soon as they accepted they’d lost to him, which hasn’t actually happened yet. Trump, for his part, started running for reelection the moment he was sworn in: “You’re in the first 100 days of an administration, and you’re doing campaign rallies for reelection. It was a very, very, very strange thing,” a former White House official told The Atlantic in April.

The thing is, no one can reasonably claim that the 2020 Democratic candidates or Trump started the campaign season we’re living through (and will always be living through). Only one of the 2020 Democrats ran in 2016, Bernie Sanders, and he announced after Hillary Clinton, likely without thinking he had a chance in hell. Trump wasn’t the first Republican to announce his candidacy for 2016—that’d be Ted Cruz, who told the world he would be president in March 2015. That was before Trump called his wife ugly and said his dad murdered JFK.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/life-permanent-campaign/604006/

Maybe that’s why there was such a low voter turnout in 2016, too many people couldn’t fit in the voting booth! By the way if you haven’t seen this week’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, there was a great scene where Larry tries wearing a MAGA hat in a bunch of different situations and finds that it’s a great way to get out of a jam. But sadly the good people of Iowa will be seeing a lot of those on Straw Poll Day.

President Donald Trump will host a Des Moines rally on Jan. 30, just four days before the Iowa caucuses.

President Donald Trump will host a Des Moines rally on Jan. 30, just four days before the Iowa caucuses.

The rally will celebrate "the good news of the Trump economy and the vast accomplishments of his administration," including Iowa's 2.6% unemployment rate, said Michael Glassner, chief operating officer for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

The "Keep America Great" rally at the Knapp Center at Drake University begins at 7 p.m., according to a release from the Trump-Pence campaign. Doors will open at 3 p.m. Free tickets to the event are available online.

While it has gotten far less attention than the Democratic caucuses, the Republican Party of Iowa will also hold its traditional straw poll at caucus meetings in February.

The latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows registered Iowa voters are split on the U.S. House of Representatives' decision to impeach Trump. Nearly half say he should not be removed from office. The split falls along party lines: 91% of Republicans say Trump should not be removed, while 83% of Democrats say he should be.

A majority of registered Iowa voters said, if the election were held today, they would definitely vote for someone other than Trump or would consider it. Thirty-four percent of registered voters said they would definitely vote to re-elect Trump.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/01/13/president-trump-hold-rally-des-moines-before-caucus-day/4459932002/

If you’re in Iowa and you’re planning on voting in the Straw Poll in Des Moines, you’re definitely going to need a good dose of MAGA spray to ward off the trolls. Not to mention all the stupidity surrounding bathroom appliances in another Trump barfs his brain rally. But the Iowa poll can make or break a candidate. Just ask Trump’s lawyer and soccer dad working on his forth Modelo, Rudy Giuliani. He could have been president but totally blew it in Iowa. So don’t get too confident!

‘America’s mayor’ led polling in the Republican primaries for almost a year in 2007. But his campaign collapsed into chaos

If things had gone a little differently, Rudy Giuliani might have been elected president in 2008.
The former New York City mayor turned Donald Trump stooge led polling in the Republican primaries for almost a year, and was seen as someone who could defeat Hillary Clinton – then the presumptive Democratic nominee – in key metropolitan areas.

Giuliani, still riding a wave of good feeling from his handling of the 9/11 attacks, was raising serious amounts of cash, and was the best-known of the Republican candidates. He had a very real chance of succeeding George W Bush.

But Giuliani’s campaign collapsed in chaotic fashion, and he became a political irrelevance – until re-emerging a decade later as Donald Trump’s lawyer, mouthpiece, bungling envoy to Ukraine and a central character in the third impeachment of an American president.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/19/rudy-giuliani-president-white-house-2008

[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

Next week we will reveal the winner of the Iowa Straw Poll, the runners up, and what to expect going forward!



[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]Brittany Howard[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest you know her best as the voice of Alabama Shakes. She is touring behind her new solo album called “Jaime”. Playing her song “History Repeats”, give it up for Brittany Howard!

Thank you El Paso! This was fun! We’re off to San Antonio next! See you next week!

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