The Art Of The Deal: Parts 1 – 3

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.

Peace talks conclude in Northern Ireland with Good Friday agreement; the Titanic sets sail; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ published; Comedian Sam Kinison killed.

What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation, and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy!

Joseph Pulitzer

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Oh, and anti-Semite but you knew that already.

You couldn’t pay me enough to live in one of Trump’s sleazy death traps (well, actually you could because I’m a terrible sell-out as you can see by my constant pleas for monetary support and the abundant and aggressive advertising on the site) but for some people it’s not that easy to walk away from a $2.5 Million investment (pretty much a slum based on Manhattan real estate prices) and unfortunately Todd Brassner paid for that with his life.

Todd was 67, and hip and rich by most standards. He was an Art Dealer which explains his relationship with Andy Warhol. He collected antique guitars, amps, and ukuleles valued at over $3 Million for insurance purposes.

Close friend of man killed in Trump Tower fire says President once called victim ‘crazy Jew’
by Esha Ray, New York Daily News
Sunday, April 8, 2018

He died in the home he hated, in a building owned by a man who apparently hated him.

Todd Brassner, a 67-year-old art dealer who lost his life Saturday in the Trump Tower fire, despised building owner Donald Trump, a friend of the victim told the Daily News. The feeling was evidently mutual, with now-President Trump allegedly calling Brassner a “crazy Jew” soon after the art dealer moved into the Fifth Ave. high-rise more than two decades ago, Brassner pal Patrick Goldsmith said Sunday.

A fellow art dealer, Goldsmith said he heard the vile remark in 1996 as he entered the building and passed by the exiting Trump. Goldsmith, who like Brassner opposes the President, took the opportunity to glance at Trump’s petite hands – which gained notoriety in the late 1980s and suffered another wave of scrutiny during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump reportedly became enraged when he caught Goldsmith staring and demanded the gawker’s identity from his doorman, Goldsmith said. The doorman said Goldsmith was headed to the 50th floor to see Brassner.

“Oh, that crazy Jew?” Trump asked, according to Goldsmith.
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By this year, Brassner was desperate to move out of his apartment – but he couldn’t get the $2.5 million pad off his hands.

“He hated living at Trump Tower. He talked about not living there almost nonstop,” said Rachael Cain, a close friend of Brassner’s who lives in Chicago.

“He thought that (Trump) was the worst thing for our country,” Cain added, “not caring about environmental issues – a horrible, lowlife human being.”

It took firefighters just over two hours to bring Saturday’s four-alarm blaze, which began in Brassner’s sprawling apartment, under control.

Fire marshals were combing his charred apartment Sunday looking for the cause, which sources said initially appears to be accidental.

By Sunday evening, Trump had tweeted praise for the firefighters, attacked Syrian President Bashar Assad and thrown punches at former President Barack Obama.

But he hadn’t said a word about Brassner.
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In 2015, Brassner filed for bankruptcy.

“The limited support of his family coupled with his medical problems caused the debtor to fall into arrears on his mortgage, credit card payments and line of credit payments,” the filing says.

The value of condos at Trump Tower dropped dramatically due to the recession and still hadn’t rebounded by last year, The Wall Street Journal reported – bringing Brassner even more agitation.

“He really wanted to sell (his apartment), but the value had gone so far down,” Cain said.

People with a better knowlege of the New York Real Estate Market than I tell me you can hardly give these Condos away. People are better off going through an estate agent group like UpNest than going for these condos, as they have all the attraction of a resort timeshare (heck, even the Plaza Hotel which Trump mismanaged into near oblivion is available now for a mere $625 Million cash on the barrelhead, no cryptocurrency ponzi scams). Economically they are money laundering machines for Oligarchs.

And let’s not forget Trump lobbied extensively to gut a provision to retrofit existing residential space in high rises with sprinklers.

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro noted the blaze was harder to fight because the building’s residential floors lacked sprinklers and fire was on the 50th floor.

Trump fought against fitting of sprinklers in apartment where man died
Associated Press
Sun 8 Apr 2018

Some fire safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when the city passed a law requiring them in new residential high-rises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani said that would be too expensive.

Trump was among the developers who spoke out against the retrofitting as unnecessary and expensive.

He later changed his views, saying sprinklers made tenants feel safer. He ultimately decided to spend $3m to put sprinklers in all 350 units of another building, Trump World Tower near the United Nations, The New York Times reported.

“People feel safer with sprinklers,” Trump said in 1999, according to The Times. “But the problem with the bill is that it doesn’t address the buildings that need sprinklers the most. If you look at the fire deaths in New York, almost all of them are in one-or two-family houses.”

You know, when I look back on it I’ve had a remarkable number of medical procedures, though I suppose that’s only if you don’t consider my advanced age (120+), none of which included looking up my penis. As far as I know, I’ve been unconscious for a lot of them and nothing inspires confidence in your colonoscopy, excuse me, lower endoscopy, than hearing the Resident say, just before you pass out, “We better use the big one.” Pro Tip- there is no “big one” they’re all the same size.

That’s a true enough story by the way as is the one about the Head of Department who tried to poison me with Potassium and the ICU Nurses that hated me enough that they bad mouthed me by handle at every shift change (my reaction? I didn’t know I was that famous.). Another Pro Tip- Hospitals are very bad places to sleep but you get the best views in ICU and the coolest beds. Yeah, “Code Blue” is a real thing, medical people should stop thinking they’re fooling us.

Anyway, among my least favorite is sonograms because they don’t really tell you anything and the Doctor ends up sending you back for an MRI. What’s icky is the technician slathers you with KY-Jelly and at the end you get a hand towel or two to scrape it off which never works so you end up peeling your shirt off when you get home (it does launder right out) and take another shower (you showered before didn’t you? Personal Hygiene folks.). It will frizz your hair unless you condition. Also they generally do it in places that used to be closets and between the equipment, your Gurney, and the Technician there’s not a lot of space.

MRI on the other hand is relatively relaxing. I know the Receptionist, we talk about our SAD, I ignore her Smoker’s Cough (the MRI Lab is right next to the parking lot). When they’re ready (early, early is best) you have a locker where you change into your non-metallic scrubs (including non-slip booties which you can keep since they’ll just throw them out) hand them your key and glasses and lie down and close your eyes.

High class joints have earphones, most make do with plugs and the Technician shouting at you- “Breathe In. Breathe Out. Breathe In. Hold it.” Buzz, buzz, buzz. Zap, zap, zap, zap. “Ok, you can breathe normally again.” I find it helps to hyperventilate a bit because sometimes they forget the “breathe normally” part.

If it’s with contrast they start you with an IV stick that I’ve had so many times I notice only if it’s done badly. If you’re a “non-compliant” patient they’ll pump it in really fast which will give you an arm ache, you should complain.

Not a big deal. You get in your car and drive home and did I mention close to the parking lot?

But I’m not talking about MRIs, Sonograms, or Colonoscopies Lower Endoscopies, or even Pornography, I’m talking about abortion and it’s not so much me as John Oliver-

You see, this is why you have to accept the principled stands of a Kevin Williamson who thinks women should be hanged and a Ross Douthat who only thinks Doctors should be hanged because any view that does not recognize abortion as murder of innocent babies is extreme.

Sorry. I think the right to privacy in personal medical decisions is just as important as the right to bear arms and I have 53 years of Supreme Court precedent on my side and you a mere 10.

Fun Fact- The World Can Kill You Without Warning

Like This–

Or This–

Have a great and wonderful day, eh?

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.

American Civil War effectively ends; Iraq celebrates collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime;NASA announces first seven astronauts dubbed the Mercury Seven; Marian Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial; Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles.

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

Sitting Bull

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So think about it. Some idiot from Kansas drops a house on your sister, kills her, and steals her shoes.

Damn right I want your little dog too.

Jeopardy

Dreamer

Weekend Update

Your Inner Princess

Black Panther

I’m an airline pilot.

I think you’re the greatest, but my dad says you don’t work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don’t even run down court. And that you don’t really try… except during the playoffs.

The hell I don’t! LISTEN, KID! I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!

The NFL’s plan to protect America from witches
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Guardian
Fri 6 Apr 2018

Witches, man. Just when you thought we were safe from their malignant influence on America’s virtue, the NFL has proven we are still in real danger from their dark powers. It is fortunate for our country’s moral fiber that the NFL has kept current in their reading, channeling Heinrich Kramer’s 1487 tome, Malleus Maleficarum (“The Hammer of Witches”), which was the go-to DIY text in many countries for conducting witch trials and public executions. As a result, an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 witches were put to death, about 80% of which were females. Why so many women? Kramer explains that it’s because a woman “is more carnal than man, as is clear in connection with many filthy carnal acts”. He believed that the sexual desire men felt when looking at a woman who was not their wife was due to the vixen casting magic spells to tempt them. As punishment, these sexual sirens must be, if not beheaded, drowned, or hanged, at least fired from their cheerleading jobs.

Bailey Davis, the 22-year-old former New Orleans Saints cheerleader, was recently fired for violating team social media rules by posting an Instagram photo of herself in one-piece lingerie that shows as much skin as a one-piece swimsuit in a Nordstrom’s ad, and a lot less than their cheerleading outfits. She has since filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for gender discrimination. When she spoke to a representative from the Saints’ human resources department, he complained that in her photo she had a “dirty face” (clear proof she was casting her spell compelling virtuous men to “filthy carnal acts”) and that he’d never allow his granddaughters to post something like that.

Grandpa’s pompous Lord Tywin Lannister response encapsulates exactly what’s wrong with NFL management: They insist on being the self-appointed guardians of America’s mythological vision of itself. Malt shops on every corner, Pat Boone crooning on the jukebox, and modestly dressed virgins sitting around with knees clamped together waiting to be asked to prom. This 1950s, Father Knows Best soundstage fantasy doesn’t stop with paternalistic and puritanical gender stereotypes, but also promotes simplistic notions about race and patriotism. The NFL’s anachronistic fancies aren’t just a misguided attempt to pander to what they think their traditionalist fans want, but also projects the hard-core conservative values of the mostly rich, white one-percenters who own the teams. We must live in their Disneyland – or else.

These powerful Citizen Kanes – isolated from contemporary American culture by wealth and self-importance – still think of the country as it appears in old-fashioned Archie comics, where teen hijinks rule the day, not the current version in the TV series Riverdale, where Archie has sex with Ms Grundy. Where the Parkland students single-handedly lead a nationwide political revolution. Where young girls and women launch #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that topple high-powered gropers in business and government – perhaps even a president.
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The country would be outraged if a team’s rules stated that if a black player was eating at a restaurant and a white player walked in, the black player would have to leave the restaurant. Yet, those are the rules for Saints’ cheerleaders, who must leave a restaurant they are eating at if a Saints player arrives. We would be equally outraged if a company demanded that office personnel address top executives only with “hello” and “you’re wonderful”. Yet the Saints’ cheerleaders are restricted to saying only “hello” and “great game” to players. Other restrictions about weight, makeup, body hair, tampon use and forbidding sweatpants in public make it seem as if the Saints watched The Handmaid’s Tale and thought, “They just don’t go far enough.” In other words, shut up and jiggle.

These highly trained and skilled women are being told that the NFL just wants to protect them from sexual predators, particularly NFL players. Like the grumpy grandpa in human resources who wouldn’t “allow” his granddaughters to post photos he doesn’t approve of, the NFL wants to be their (creepy? pimpy?) daddy. These are adult women who should be permitted to make their own decisions about who they contact and who they don’t, especially since the players have no such restrictions. A cheerleader poses in modest lingerie and she’s fired; a player knocks out his wife on video and is suspended for two games. Boys will be boys, but girls must be what the NFL tells them to be.

For necessary movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp to thrive, Americans have to recognize that how we treat females in high-profile entertainment contributes to the detrimental perception that walls them in and diminishes their contribution to society. Less pay communicates less value. Forcing rules that treat them like children demeans their intellect. Yet, the NFL doesn’t mind exploiting the sensual attributes of these women for financial gain. Because nothing says wholesome family entertainment than lithe young women in skimpy shorts and plunging tops doing the splits. I’m sure 13-year-old Jimmy and his leering father are watching their energetic performance thinking only the purest of thoughts. So, this moral umbrage over an Instagram photo is the height of hypocrisy.

The NFL continues doddering down the path to cultural irrelevancy. Ticket sales are down, television audiences are smaller, fear of concussions is causing more parents are keeping their kids from playing football, and four states are considering banning tackle football for players under 12. Instead of embracing the real world, team owners mistakenly think they can hold on to their fan base by holding back the hands of progress.

He can write too. Who knew?

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.

Civil war erupts in Rwanda; NY audience previews long-distance television; Auto pioneer Henry Ford dies in Dearborn, Mich.;Singer Billie Holiday, known as “Lady Day” is born in Philadelphia.

There is always the need to carry on.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

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You know what sucks? Coming back to your apartment after a long hard day destroying the environment, polluting the air, poisoning the water, and fostering Lead-melting Venus-like Global Warming, and finding the landlord has tossed all your stuff into the front yard and changed the locks.

Lobbyist couple had to change the locks on Pruitt
By ELIANA JOHNSON, Politico
04/06/2018

Scott Pruitt was only supposed to be living in the Capitol Hill condominium that has become a focal point of his latest ethics controversy for six weeks last year while he got settled in Washington – but the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator didn’t leave when his lease ended.

Instead, he asked the lobbyist couple who became his disgruntled landlords to revise his lease several times, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

The couple, Vicki and Steve Hart, became so frustrated by their lingering tenant that they eventually pushed him out and changed their locks. He probably didn’t realize how easily this is done with services like locksmith in Markham. After trying to nudge Pruitt out of their home over the course of several months, the Harts finally told Pruitt in July that they had plans to rent his room to another tenant.

“The original arrangement was that he would be there living out of a suitcase … and it just kept going and going,” said one of the people with knowledge of the arrangement.

The condo, in which Pruitt rented a bedroom for $50 a night, has attracted the attention of the EPA’s inspector general, which said Thursday it was considering opening an investigation. The agency is already reviewing Pruitt’s taxpayer-funded first-class travel, his use of a special hiring authority to grant raises to aides and his spending on a soundproof phone booth for his office.
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Both people familiar with the condo arrangement described Pruitt as a difficult tenant who, intoxicated by his newfound power, paid little attention to the headaches he was causing others.

Prior to Pruitt’s arrival in Washington, Steve Hart — an energy lobbyist who, like Pruitt, is a native Oklahoman — had been a friend and supporter of the EPA administrator. He and his wife, a health care lobbyist, viewed the six-week living arrangement as a favor for a friend.

They drew up a lease running from February through April 1, 2017, said the people familiar with it, in order to make sure neither they nor Pruitt ran afoul of ethics rules, which prohibit political appointees from accepting gifts from lobbyists. Under the terms of that lease, Pruitt paid a cut rate of $50 per night to stay in the condominium.

That favor turned into a headache for the couple when Pruitt repeatedly asked to extend his lease. “There were gentle questions regarding, OK, when are you going to leave and what have you … and they even started sending him ads of places close by that he could rent,” said the first person.
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The Harts eventually told Pruitt, who had to be reminded repeatedly to pay his rent, that they had plans to rent the room to somebody else — and that he needed to find another place to live, according to the people familiar with events. They also informed him in early August that they were changing the locks on their door.

You want to know what the original title of this piece was? Check the URL- “Pruitt Was The Kato Kaelin Of Capitol Hill”.

He fits right in.

Trump bemoans how Pruitt is ‘TOTALLY under siege’
By CRISTIANO LIMA, Politico
04/06/2018

President Donald Trump on Friday voiced fresh support for his embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, saying he is doing a “great job,” while blasting reports that he has considering replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Pruitt.

“Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege?” the president wrote. “Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!”

According to a CNN report, Trump recently floated replacing Sessions atop the Justice Department with Pruitt, even as the EPA chief battles deepening ethics scandals over his lavish travel habits, security costs and coziness with lobbyists.
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Trump so far has publicly backed his EPA chief and has appeared to sympathize with the notion that political forces are undermining Pruitt. On Thursday, the president praised him for doing a “fantastic job” at the agency, telling reporters he still had confidence in the Cabinet member.

“I think he’s done a fantastic job. I think he’s done an incredible job,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “He’s been very courageous. It hasn’t been easy, but I think he’s done a fantastic job.”
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While liberals called for Pruitt’s firing, a group of prominent conservatives praised Trump for standing by the EPA leader.

“The days of a rogue, agenda driven EPA are over,” the group wrote. “Scott Pruitt is a bold, capable manager and is right for this job. His record shows you made the right choice picking him. We are certain he will guide EPA through the coming years of your Administration as a courageous and qualified administrator.”