Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Nazi police arrest Anne Frank and family; Britain declares war on Germany in World War I; Three civil rights workers found slain in Mississippi; The Bordens axed to death; Jazz great Louis Armstrong born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

I don’t think a tough question is disrespectful.

Helen Thomas

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Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Christopher Columbus sets sail; Europe slides further into World War I; A Cold War case heats up Capitol Hill; Air traffic controllers in the U.S. go on strike; NBA founded; Singer Tony Bennett born.

We live in a very dysfunctional society, and this is a very, very dysfunctional Administration.

Martin Sheen

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Ok, so maybe taking the DNA of the greatest economic predators of the Reagan era and cloning their steroid and coke addled replicants as freeks and geeks for a dystopian 80s themed carnival was not such an outstanding business concept as I thought it was, at least I cured boneitis.

Ok, so maybe I didn’t remember to do that.

The truth is that macroeconomics is not much of a mystery post-Keynes. Aggragate Demand is it’s own supply and pushing on strings doesn’t work.

Explaining it on a 2 minute roller coaster ride is a perfectly reasonable request even though it’s a terrible metaphor that normalizes the ‘Boom/Bust’ cycle of Capitalist greed but imaginative on the level that Gravity, the force that runs them, is a well known physical principle.

Economics is unfortunately populated by a class of liars who can only be called “professional” in that they accept money for their services which they should understand as economists would normally be called “theft” except they get nothing for nothing and it’s all square.

To me the most interesting part is Krugman’s flirtation with outright Modern Monetary Theory under stress. I’ll get you yet my pretty.

Why is it always about bees?

When did that stop being funny?

It’s both homophobic and a rape fantasy at the same time!

Rational Thinking, Optional

You know, like those ‘naughty’ Mediterranean sea sides.

Other Things To Do With Russian Billions

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

The Tonkin Gulf incident sparks U.S. escalation of the Vietnam War; Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invades Kuwait; JFK’s PT-109 boat sunk; President Warren G. Harding dies; ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok killed in Deadwood.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

James A. Baldwin

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Ok, so $15,000 for a ostrich jacket (sigh, Gingham).

First of all it’s not a lot for ostrich-

Paul Manafort’s $15,000 jacket? That’s nothing, says ostrich expert
by Luke O’Neil, The Guardian
Wed 1 Aug 2018

On Tuesday the trial for Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, began in Alexandria, Virginia. Facing a bevy of bank and tax fraud charges, prosecutors attempted to paint a picture of a man who eschewed paying taxes on tens of millions of dollars he made in lobbying work for a pro-Russia politician in Ukraine to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself. Among the expenses detailed in the indictment in February were $849,000 he spent at a clothing store in New York and another $520,000 in Beverly Hills, not to mention, as prosecutors said in an opening statement in court, multi-million dollar homes, fancy cars and antique carpets.

“He got whatever he wanted,” US attorney Uzo Asonye told the jury. Perhaps anticipating that big houses and fast cars wouldn’t persuade jurors that Manafort had engaged in anything beyond normal rich guy behavior – indeed judge TS Ellis III expressed as much, interjecting: “It isn’t a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending” – Asonye also zeroed in on a few peculiar items among the litany of extravagances. One in particular stood out from the rest: a $15,000 ostrich jacket.
…
A number of publications tried to uncover the provenance of the jacket in question – a bit of sleuthing from Jezebel posited that the jacket might be Gucci’s ostrich leather biker jacket, which they found retailed for $14,500 back in 2012. Various politicians and celebrities such as Ted Cruz, author Buzz Bissinger and Victoria Beckham, whose Hermès Birkin bag made from ostrich leather costs tens of thousands of dollars, are devotees of ostrich garments themselves, as the Washington Post pointed out.

For the average person, a $15,000 jacket of any kind indeed seems like a wild indulgence. But if you ask people who work in ostrich leather, such as Henry Slaughter – “an appropriate name for this industry,” he joked – the owner of Ostrich Alligator Market in Melbourne, Florida, a few-hours drive across the state from where Trump held a rally last night, Manafort’s jacket sounds, well, a bit underwhelming. He may as well have bought it at a street stall in New York’s Chinatown.

“That’s nothing,” Slaughter said of the price tag, noting that ostrich leather, like the alligator and crocodile skins he regularly works with to produce bags, boots and motorcycle seats, is one of the most expensive in the world.

“An ostrich jacket, if it’s customer made? Fifteen thousand dollars is pretty cheap.”

“Ostrich leather, historically any of what’s called the exotic skins, are going to be expensive: python, ostrich, alligator. You’re automatically paying a premium over pig skin or some cowhide,” he said. “Ostrich never goes out of style.”
…
When asked how the price of ostrich skin compared to other animals, Slaughter couldn’t say. “When you’re talking to any of us who sell exotic skins, you’re talking to Ferrari dealers,” he said. “If I went in a Ferrari shop I don’t think the salesman has a clue what a Ford Taurus costs.”

Asked whether or not the idea of Manafort wearing such an expensive coat bothered him, as a business owner in the middle of Trump country, Slaughter demurred.

“I’m surprised Manafort got that cheap a jacket, since he lives well. I’d assume he’d spend $50,000.”

Well, there is a discount for slaughtering and skinning your own ostrich which are nasty, dangerous creatures whom I don’t feel a bit bad for given they’re dinosaurs and all. The only reason I want one is for an Iron Chef ‘eggs over easy’ sight gag (you use a pizza tin, oven, and peel).

Nor is Men’s clothing inexpensive. A custom designer suit is worth what you pay for it, a generic custom suit starts at $24,000 in certain fabrics. They are invariably well made and will last the rest of your life unlike Women’s clothing which will never see the inside of a washer, just a garbage can.

Yet another way we repress them.

The truth is there’s a certain vanity circle of Men who think Florsheims are déclassé and uncomfortable and Rolexes a symbol of aspiration to a really good watch like a Patek-Philippe. The rare and valuable ones are almost never made of titanium though they can cost considerably more than $21,000.

Some News

Jury, Opening Arguments, First Witness. That was quick. Bottom line- blame it all on Gates who signed everything too and was skimming more than his share.

Tad Devine is best known as a Democratic operative for Bernie Sanders and like many political professionals took advantage of the United States’ inflated reputation as some sort of democracy, or a least Neo Liberalism, experts to try and coin some cash in Russian Republican Spin Off countries like Ukraine.

Anyway he has a certain level of non-nefarious sorta legal if not quite savory knowlege of what was happening while he and Paul Manafort were working in the same business at the same time in the same place. He’s not earthshattering unless you’re an ‘oh noes, not Bernie too’ snowflake in which case the fainting couch is there in the corner underneath the files. DON’T TOUCH THEM! I haven’t posted the Gulianni weekend meltdown update yet.

This is so done. There is the untaxed $30 Million. Here is his accountant and the books. These are his sworn affidavits. Case closed.

Paul Manafort trial: Government begins calling witnesses
by Rachel Weiner, Justin Jouvenal, Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky, Washington Post
July 31, 2018

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, is on trial in federal court in Alexandria on bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay taxes on millions he made from his work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party, then lied to get loans when the cash stopped coming in.
…
Devine said he learned from talking to people on his first trip that there had been “a lot of controversy” in Ukraine, including a revolution that forced Viktor Yanukovych, who was part of the Party of Regions, from power.

But he said people “believed Yanukovych had moved on and lost a lot of the people with him” who were controversial, that it was “a new election and a new time.” Yanukovych’s “standing was low,” Devine said, and he was seen as “part of the past.”

Yanukovych became “part of the future” — he was elected prime minister in 2006 — because of the “excellent campaign that Paul ran,” Devine said.

Devine described his relationship with Manafort as “friendly” and said he handed over many documents earlier this year in response to a subpoena. Devine’s testimony is important because it is the work in Ukraine that prosecutors say funded Manafort’s lavish lifestyle. They say Manafort did not appropriately report or pay taxes what he earned overseas, and when Yanukovych was forced from power, Manafort’s money flow was cut off, prompting some of his later bank fraud.
…
Defense attorney Thomas Zehnle said Paul Manfort’s unusual financial arrangements, including bank accounts in Cyprus, came at the behest of the people in Ukraine who were funding Manafort’s work. Zehnle said Manafort never intentionally deceived the IRS about his income, but instead did not realize he needed to file certain forms and make certain declarations.

“This is not a case where someone flew to Switzerland and stashed money in an account,” Zehnle said.

Zehnle said that, four years ago, Manafort willingly sat down with FBI agents who were investigating the misuse of funds in Ukraine. He said the real reason the special counsel was pursuing the case was because of Manafort’s former business partner.

“We are primarily here because of one man: Rick Gates,” Zehnle.
…
Zehnle also for the first time accused Gates of embezzling millions of dollars from Manafort’s business and then working to hide the income.

“Rick Gates had his hand in the cookie jar and he couldn’t take the risk that his boss might find out,” Zehnle said.

Other people involved in Manafort’s finances — bookkeepers and accountants — were not talking to one another as they should have, Zehnle said, because Gates kept them from doing so.

A attorney for Gates did not return messages seeking comment.

Zehnle said government witnesses would back up Manafort’s account. Amanda Metzler, for example, was the in-house bookkeeper at Manafort’s company and gave information to their tax accountants. “She knew about offshore companies; none of this was hidden from her,” Zehnle said. “It was open and it was transparent.”

Zehnle said the business was composed of “a very small staff generating large revenues,” and the finances were “complicated.” He said Gates handled “income, expenses, loans and the like … Rick Gates was the contact employee for all the day to day.”

The firm reported $92 million in income from 2005 to 2015, Zehnle said, and Manafort alone reported $30 million in that time period.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

A shooting rampage takes place at the University of Texas clock tower; Germany declares war on Russia in World War I; Adolf Hitler opens the Berlin Olympics; Author Herman Melville born; MTV debuts.

If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously.

Jerry Garcia

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Just how long have we been receiving these mysterious signals from outer space?

Look up! Mars is closer to Earth than it’s been in 15 years
By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times
Jul 31, 2018

Heads up, sky watchers: Tonight, Mars is going to be closer to Earth than it has been in 15 years, and you don’t want to miss it.

On average, Mars is about 140 million miles from Earth. But this evening, it will be just 35.8 million miles away, according to NASA.

To take advantage of this celestial alignment, just wait for the sun to set and turn your gaze to the east. You will see what looks like a red-orange star glowing unusually brightly in the night sky.

That’s Mars, and it’s the best view of the red planet that you’re going to get for the next 17 years.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Ranger 7 beams lunar pictures; France’s Marquis de Lafayette makes his name in the American Revolution; Thomas Eagleton withdraws as George McGovern’s running mate; Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling born.

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.

J. K. Rowling

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