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 hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’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
Churchill rallies Britain in World War II; Napoleon beaten at Battle of Waterloo; Amelia Earhart crosses the Atlantic; Sally Ride becomes America’s first woman in space; Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney born.
This week it was reported that the trump administration has ripped 2000 children from their parents on the pretense that there is a law, written by Democrats, that “commands” them to do this inhumane act. There isn’t. This is a cruel Trump policy that Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III tried to justify with a biblical quote. “Late Night” host Stephen Colbert righteously to Jeff to the woodshed. “Hey, don’t bring God into this. First of all, I don’t think God picked you, because I don’t worship Vladimir Putin. And, the only thing in the Bible close to this is a king threatening to cut a baby in two, and he was joking.”
“It wouldn’t matter if you took these children to really nice hotels—or Trump hotels—we’d still be the only country in the whole damn world doing it, because it’s just plain wrong,” he said. “I sincerely believe that it doesn’t matter who you voted for. If we let this happen in our name, we are a feckless country,” he said.
The Northern Neck jail roster indicates more than 600 inmates are currently in custody. Inmates are permitted one personal visit per week. Manafort, a former campaign chairman for President Trump, was assigned Fridays from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m. as his visitation window. Visitors may only speak to inmates through a glass partition, called “noncontact” visits, for a maximum of 30 minutes.
Inmates at Northern Neck, as at most jails, cannot receive calls, but they can make collect or prepaid calls between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., according to jail rules. Unless the calls are to an attorney, they are recorded. Attorneys may visit with clients remotely by video visitation on their computers or smartphones, the jail’s website says.
Family and friends are encouraged to communicate with their loved ones incarcerated at the jail, and mail is just one resource to keep in touch. While there is no restriction on the amount of mail an inmate may send or receive, there is a restriction on the size of certain mail coming into the Jail (restriction does not apply to legal/privileged mail).
For reasons of Jail Security, Any non-legal mail sent to an inmate and received by the jail will be photocopied for delivery to the intended inmate. Original material will be placed into the inmate’s stored property. Please remember to use paper no larger than 8 ½ by 11 inches and allow margin space around the edges of your letter. This will ensure that any writing is not left out of the photocopied material.
Magazine, newspaper, or printed material included with a letter will NOT be delivered to an inmate.
The following restrictions should be considered when sending mail to the jail. Correspondence that does not conform to these restrictions will be returned to sender.
Social occasion cards, (i.e. birthday, Christmas) cannot exceed 6″ x 8″ in size. Cards that contain mechanical devices, such as musical cards, are not allowed.
Photographs cannot exceed 4″ x 6″ in size. (No Polaroids & no more than 10 photos)
Do not send cash in the mail. Only money orders or certified checks will be processed into an inmate’s account. Other types of currency will be returned to sender.
Mail will be delivered to the recipient within 24 hours after it is received from the Post Office with the exception of Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays. Mail, if any, received on these days will be delivered on the next normal business day.
Contraband items discovered in an inmate’s mail will be seized. Both the inmate and the sender will be notified of any item which has been seized and the reason for the seizure.
Inmate Telephone Services
Each inmate in general housing is afforded access to telephone services and access hours are usually between 8:30am and 10:30pm. During this time frame calls may be made to family, friends, attorneys, parole officers, bondsmen, etc. There are several options for an inmate to make calls to family, friends, or an attorney. First, the inmate may call his party collect. The receiving party is advised of the calling party, their location, and gives them the option to accept the call and charges. Another option is for a friend or family member to create a pre-paid account with the vendor whereby the inmate can make calls and the costs are paid from the account. Further, an inmate may transfer money from his or her commissary account to pay for any calls that are made.
Inmate Property and Money
For reasons of security and limited space,The Jail will not accept any personal property belonging to an inmate brought in by friends or family. The jail will provide needed articles if the inmate is without funds. Otherwise, an inmate can purchase authorized items from the commissary.
Local inmates who must attend circuit court trials may have clothing brought to the jail by family members. Due to storage limitations extra clothing for an inmate court appearance is restricted to Circuit Court cases only.
To receive clothing for a Circuit Court appearance the inmate must first make the request to the Chief of Inmate Services on request forms provided to the inmate. Once approved, the inmate’s family or attorney may arrange to bring in the clothing.
Books & Magazines
A variety of newspapers and magazines are provided to the inmates through the jail library. However, should an inmate want a subscription to a particular newspaper or magazine, the following guidelines must be followed.
Newspapers and Magazines may be mailed to an inmate only after prior approval of the administration has been obtained. Each inmate is informed of how to obtain this approval. Newspapers and/or magazines that do not have prior approval will be returned to the sender. Further, Newspapers and Magazines must be mailed directly to the inmate from the publisher.
The jail may disapprove, in whole or in part, any issue if the contents are of a nature to compromise jail security, order, or rehabilitative efforts. Further, publications cannot violate U.S. Postal Regulations.
In the event that the jail library does not have a particular book an inmate desires, he or she may obtain the book from the publisher. As with newspapers and magazines, Books must be mailed directly to the inmate from the publisher, not a bookstore, and only paperback editions will be allowed
To receive a book, the inmate must first request approval of the administration. Each inmate is informed of how to obtain this approval. Books received without prior approval or from someone other than publisher will be returned to the sender.
Books must be paperback and cannot be larger than 11” x 7” in size.
Note: Northern Neck Regional Jail is generally considered a rather “cushy” kind with no more than the usual level of overcrowding (600 inmates in a space designed for 198 though to be fair there have been two expansions). Inmate violence and suicide are unremarkable (4 since 2012) with the most notorious case being the death of Jaimee Kirkwood Reese who was denied medication for her open heart and leg artery surgery and suffered a stroke which led to her death in March of 2016.
Other infamous inmates have included notorious dog killer and middling NFL Quarterback Michael Vick and Chris Brown, a musician I have no opinion of, as well as Taliban linked Irek Hamidullin and Hernan Giraldo Serna, reputed drug kingpin who got the full Capone of respect and deference according to reports.
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 hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’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 10:30am (ET) 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 Watergate scandal begins to unfold; The Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolution; O.J. Simpson arrested in the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman; Singer Kate Smith dies.
FRIDAY NIGHT’S PRIMARY debate between 31-year elected official Rep. Joseph Crowley and 28-year-old progressive Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez was a contest between establishment and outsider, old guard and upstart, experience and progress, status quo and change. It marks only the third primary challenge Crowley has faced since moving from the state Assembly to Congress — and his first since 2004.
At times during the debate, his relative campaign inexperience showed, while Ocasio-Cortez presented as a well-studied newcomer with natural talent: delivering a summary of her agenda in a manner which was confident and sharp, if not effortless. The theme of her remarks was clear: “Not all Democrats are the same.”
Despite what she described as Crowley’s “adaptations” — meaning shifts leftward in response to her more-progressive campaign — there are real differences between the two, said Ocasio-Cortez, who is challenging Crowley for the seat representing the 14th district, which encompasses parts of Queens and the Bronx.
Unlike Crowley, Ocasio-Cortez said she has rejected all corporate money, and is the only candidate in the race who supports “improved and expanded Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, tuition free public college and the abolition of ICE.”
By contrast, Crowley’s first remarks were those of a professional who felt confident enough to not prepare — and who realized too late that he should have.
His opening pitch was also direct. This race, to him, isn’t just about local politics: He is running against Donald Trump.
But according to Ocasio-Cortez: “It’s not enough to fight Trump. We have to fight the issues that made his rise in the first place.”
…
FITCHBURG, Mass. (AP) — Residents of a Massachusetts city are hoping to set a world record for the largest paper airplane.
The Revolving Museum of Fitchburg revealed a 64-foot-long (19.5-meter-long) plane at the Fitchburg Municipal Airport on Tuesday. There was no plan to fly the nearly 1-ton (0.9-metric ton) contraption.
Fitchburg artist Jerry Beck tells the Sentinel & Enterprise he wanted to break the world record for the largest paper airplane to take flight but the hangar it was built in was too small to accommodate a wide enough wing span to support the glue-shallacked plane.
A construction crane held the plane aloft.
Two people measured the plane at 64 feet and 6 inches long, which Beck says makes it is the largest of its kind. He’s asking Guinness World Records to add a new category.
I don’t know what so-called “news” you’ve been watching, but this has been a week of unparalleled triumph (which is only 2 letters away from Trump in the dictionary which smart people know is a really big book with words in it).
First we got a chance to MAGA all those United States hating foreigners like the British, and the French, and the Germans and the Italians who are all Europeans and basically suspect sexually because they don’t have those huge United States hands (pay no attention to Macron’s thumbprint) and the Japanese and Canadians who, let’s face it, are sexually suspect too by association with those cheese eating French types (I told you not to look at the thumbprint).
Instead we got a chance to vicariously spend time with a true man’s man whose people sit up, shut up, and salute if they know what’s good for them and don’t want to end up against a wall.
Geopolitics is fun again.
We only hire the best people. Real ‘murikans from Long Island with deep ties to the Russian Mafia and legal degrees from the lowest ranked school in the country.
If we stay true to our base of bigots, racists, and Nazis there will be nothing but wall to wall victory.
Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.
Swordfish steaks are the closest fish to steak in texture and cooking technique, and even the fish-adverse will love them. This satisfying dish comes together in as little as 20 minutes.
Nothing says summer weekend like a crispy fish sandwich. This recipe has all the makings for your new favorite: crispy fried white flounder fillets enveloped in two thick slices of white bread, piled high with iceberg lettuce, pickles, onions, and of course, potato chips.
This crowd-pleasing mixed grill features lots of fresh asparagus, taking advantage of the early summer produce. The accompanying cilantro-lime dressing and creamy green dipping sauce will pair well with everything coming off the grill this summer.
Yeast-raised waffles require planning ahead, but they’re absolutely as easy to make as their last-minute counterparts. The time spent resting enhances the irresistible flavor and makes the texture fluffy but chewy. Serve with butter and syrup for a traditional breakfast for dad.
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 hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’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
Abraham Lincoln says America cannot remain divided over slavery; Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space; Deadly Soweto riots erupt in South Africa; Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
To love what you do and feel that it matters how could anything be more fun?
The New York State attorney general’s office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit on Thursday taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign.
The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar President Trump and three of his children from serving on nonprofit organizations, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Mr. Trump’s extensive legal challenges.
The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, culminated a nearly two-year investigation of Mr. Trump’s charity, which became a subject of scrutiny during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. While such foundations are supposed to be devoted to charitable activities, the petition asserts that Mr. Trump’s was often improperly used to settle legal claims against his various businesses, even spending $10,000 on a portrait of Mr. Trump that was hung at one of his golf clubs.
The foundation was also used to curry political favor, the lawsuit asserts. During the 2016 race, the foundation became a virtual arm of Mr. Trump’s campaign, email traffic showed, with his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, directing its expenditures, even though such foundations are explicitly prohibited from political activities.
The foundation was a source of funneling money into the pockets of Trump and his three oldest children who used it like their person piggy bank. They all act as if the rules don’t apply to them, “like they were raised by wolves.”
The bigger problem for the Trumps is the IRS that could revoke the non-profit status, even retroactively, requiring the Trumps to pay back millions in back taxes. It could also bring federal criminal charges. That’s just for starters:
Ms. Underwood’s petition noted that Mr. Trump signed the foundation’s tax returns, in which he stated, under penalties of perjury, “that the foundation did not engage in transactions with interested parties, and that the foundation did not carry out political activity.”
That is the sort of information that investigators would weigh in determining whether he should be charged with filing a false tax return, according to attorneys who have worked on criminal cases that were investigated by the I.R.S. and brought by the Justice Department. They said that Mr. Trump could be especially vulnerable because of his repeated involvement with the foundation, directing it to spend money on specific activities. [..]
The suit also cites a campaign event in Iowa where $2.8 million was raised for the foundation. Senior campaign staff controlled how and when those funds were eventually spent, the suit said.
Marcus Owens, who ran the I.R.S. division that oversees nonprofits during the administrations of Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, said there have been several cases where people were criminally prosecuted for filing false tax returns of charities they controlled. The difference in Mr. Trump’s case, he said, is that those cases were “less egregious.” [..]
At a minimum, tax attorneys said, the I.R.S. could seek civil penalties totaling about 20 percent of the funds that were allegedly misused. In the case of the single Iowa event, such penalties would total about $560,000.
A more drastic option in the civil realm would be to impose what’s known as a “termination tax” on the foundation. Such a penalty is equal to the organization’s remaining assets — meaning it would entirely drain the foundation’s coffers.
Not only that, the State of New York has another “trick up its sleeve,” a little known power held by the state’s AG called the Quo Warranto solution. Jed Legum at Think Progress explains:
On page 7 of the petition, Underwood cites her authority under section 1101(a) of New York nonprofit law. That provision gives Underwood the authority to dissolve an entity that transacts its business in an illegal manner.
This is where things get interesting. The exact same authority is conferred to the attorney general in the law governing for-profit corporations. The attorney general, in New York and many other states, is authorized to dissolve a for-profit corporation that is operating illegally.
The root of this authority is a legal concept called Quo Warranto. As law professor Jed Shugerman explained to me last year, Quo Warranto is based on the concept that “[i]ncorporation is a privilege afforded by the state, but to maintain corporate status, one must conduct business legally.” Quo Warranto authority grants the state the ability to dissolve corporations that are acting “ultra vires,” or beyond their legal authority.
Right now, there are multiple lawsuits against Trump arguing that his decision to maintain ownership of the Trump Organization violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution prohibits any federal office holder, including the president, from accepting “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”
By continuing to own his golf courses, condos, hotels, and other properties, Trump receives a steady stream of emoluments from foreign governments.
But a Quo Warranto action by the New York attorney general could avoid all of these issues. Underwood has authority over the Trump Organization and could use its illegal activity — serving as a conduit for emoluments — to enjoin it from doing business with foreign governments, require the divestment of certain assets, or dissolve it completely.
In her new lawsuit Thursday, Underwood revealed that she is well aware of her authority to do so under New York law. Now all she has to do is act.
Could this be the beginning of the end of this plague of grifters that has been foisted on this country’s democracy?
Not unexpectedly former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort had his bail revoked and was jailed for suspected tampering tampering. At his arraignment on the charges, federal Judge Amy Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said that Manafort could not remain free under the circumstances and there was no way for her to impose stricter conditions. Jackson said she “could not turn a blind eye to this.” “This is not middle school,” she said during a 90-minute court hearing. “I can’t take away his cellphone.” She accused Manafort of endangering the integrity of the court by attempting to contact witnesses.
Judge Jackson said she was particularly disturbed that some of the contacts occurred after Mr. Manafort had been specifically ordered by another federal judge to avoid all contacts with witnesses involved in Mr. Mueller’s investigation or prosecution of him. That judge is overseeing a separate case in Northern Virginia, where Mr. Manafort faces additional charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and failure to report foreign bank accounts.
“I have no appetite for this,” Judge Jackson told Mr. Manafort shortly before he was led out of the courtroom to be transported to jail. “I have struggled with this decision.”
But she said that even if she explicitly ordered Mr. Manafort never to contact any of the government’s 56 witnesses, she could not be certain he would comply. “Will he call the 57th?” she asked. She also implied that she was running out of patience with Mr. Manafort’s explanations of his behavior, saying the case “continues to be to this minute extraordinary.”
Manafort, who is 69, will remain in custody until the conclusion of his two trials, one in Virginia on July 25 and in the District in September. Today may have been his last day of freedom. If found guilty of any or all of the dozens of charges he faces, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Manfort also becomes the first of Trump’s campaign staff to be imprisoned. He worked with Trump for 30 years and as his campaign manager for nearly 5 months, he chose Mike Pence to be the Vice President and was on Trump’s transition team.
The Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton server and e-mail investigation was released Thursday. Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that although then FBI Director James Comey had deviated from FBI protocol, it was done without political bias.
Thursday’s report said that Comey’s move to hold a press conference, without briefing Justice Department leadership of his plans, in July 2016 announcing the FBI’s findings in its Clinton email probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails was “extraordinary and insubordinate.”
“[W]e found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established Department policies in a way intentionally designed to avoid supervision by Department leadership over his actions,” the DOJ Inspector General said.
Also being examined was Comey’s move to send a letter to Congress, just days before the election, to announce that the email probe was being reopened due to emails found on a computer in the probe of Anthony Weiner, whose wife was a top Clinton aide.
The Inspector General knocked the Justice Department for its delay on moving on the emails, which were discovered in late September, according to the report. [..]
While the Inspector General found no evidence Comey’s decision to send the letter “was influenced by political preferences,” it again criticized him for engaging in “ad hoc decision making based on his personal views even if it meant rejecting longstanding Department policy or practice.”
The report also concluded that there was no evidence supporting assertions made by Trump and his allies that political bias inside the FBI had rigged the case to clear Clinton. Despite Donald Trump’s complaint that anti-Trump forces within the FBI worked against Trump, it is clear the bureau’s public actions during the campaign hurt Clinton and helped Trump.
The report also includes previously unreported text messages between two FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who privately criticized Trump and previously worked on the bureau’s Russia investigation.
Among the new text messages uncovered in the report is one dated 8 August 2016, three months before the election, in which Page asked: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
Mueller reassigned Strzok last summer after the anti-Trump messages came to light. Page is no longer with the FBI.
“The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation,” the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, said in the report.
He nonetheless concluded: “We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed.”
The report determined that several FBI investigators — including Comey — also broke bureau protocol by using “personal email accounts for official government business.”
The inspector found five instances in which Comey either drafted official messages on or forwarded emails to his personal account, and at least two instances in which Strzok used his personal email for official business — including one “most troubling” instance on Oct. 29, 2016, when he forwarded “an email about the proposed search warrant the midyear team was seeking on the Weiner laptop” from his FBI account to his personal email.
The discovery is ironic, given that the FBI was exploring Clinton’s own use of a personal email server for work-related business and whether classified information traversed her server.
Republicans, including President Trump, have called McCabe’s impartiality into question because his wife, during her failed 2015 state senate run, accepted funds from a political group linked to then-Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally. [..]
McCabe told the IG that he did not learn about the donations until the publication of an Oct. 23, 2016 Wall Street Journal identifying them. That article prompted then-FBI Director James Comey to urge McCabe to voluntarily recuse himself, which he did days later.
The report concludes that McCabe assuming oversight of the Clinton email probe in February 2016, three months after his wife lost the race, did not represent an inappropriate conflict of interest. Chief FBI ethics official Pat Kelley told the IG that no reasonable person could question McCabe’s impartiality as a result of the donation—an assessment the report agreed with.
“The fact that McAuliffe supported Dr. McCabe’s campaign, and was a known associate of Hillary Clinton, did not create any connection between the Clinton email investigation and Dr. McCabe’s financial interests,” the report reads. [..]
“We found no evidence that McCabe continued to supervise investigative decisions in the Clinton-related matters after” his recusal, the report reads. “We did find that McCabe, prompted by a follow-up WSJ article of November 3, 2016, made inquiries about the steps the FBI was taking to address media leaks relating to the Clinton Foundation and exhorting managers to stop the leaking.”
No doubt Trump will seize on parts of the report to further attack the FBI and Hillary Clinton and undermine the US criminal justice system to caste doubt on his conspiring with Russia to enrich himself and his family of grifters and destroy our democratic system. The bottom line conclusion is very clear, the actions taken by James Comey helped Trump and not Clinton.
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 hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’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
England’s King John signs the Magna Carta; A deadly steamboat fire in New York City; Jordan’s King Hussein weds American Lisa Halaby; Arlington National Cemetery created; Singer Ella Fitzgerald dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
I have learned the difference between a cactus and a caucus. On a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.
Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s 
