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notsosilentsister · 1 year

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Thoughts on the ending of Succession

I think Shiv's choice is fairly rational actually. It saves Roman, and if Kendall doesn’t kill himself, it might save Kendall too. But that was probably not on the top of her mind; I think she did it for naked self-interest. At the start of the episode she might still think she could work with the boys, but over the course of the episode she finally acknowledges that's just not going to happen. Kendall will never accept her as boss or co-boss. Because sexism. Because he's Kendall. He won't share the power. He's staked his whole life on the crown going to the eldest boy, and there's only one crown for only one head. Kendall would never crown her, and it turns out, neither would anyone else. No one believes in her like that. Because sexism. And also because she's Shiv. I think Shiv finally realizes that she can't be on the throne, no matter what. And if being the power behind the throne is the best she can do, there's an argument to be made for picking Tom's throne instead of Kendall's. It's worse for her pride, it makes her look weaker, and it might even be a sentimental miscalculation that the baby could give her more leverage than a continued stake in the ownership. But from a purely financial perspective, thinking about it in terms of future discounted cash-flows, it's definitely what I would do.

So the baby might not give her all that much leverage, fine. But let's face it, neither did her stake in the ownership. It gives her a vote, it might even give her title as COO or even Co-CEO, but it won't automatically make Kendall listen to her. She doesn't trust him to make good choices, to not go off the rails, and when he does, she'll have to plot again to depose him, or the value of her share goes down the drain. It would be a constant struggle. She's just done with that. Investment comes with risks, and she won't take a risk on Kendall. So she takes the pay-out. Makes perfect sense. Giving it to Tom, eh, it's of course a humiliation. But he'll earn more than he could ever spend as CEO (even if he might not stay in that position for long, all those potential scandals just waiting to be exposed) and a lot of that will be eventually left to Shiv’s baby. She'll still be the richer one in the marriage though, because of the pay out, and he’s still just Matsson’s puppet, a position she disqualified herself for by showing too much pride - so while he can probably make her eat a certain amount of crow now, there's very much a limit to the amount of crow he can make her eat. He might have the upper-hand temporarily, but that might just mean they’re more evenly matched taking the long view. And now that they’ve killed all sentiment between them, their business alliance might well be the most robust thing Shiv ever built. Shiv realizes that she can't have respect, so she chooses the money. Of course these people are all so fantastically rich that we can't imagine money still being a concern for them, but money is power just as much as a crown, and often the more useful part of it. Shiv choosing money over pride is the most rational thing anyone has ever done in this story.

But emotionally, it’s still devastating. Of course her final vote is not a power move, but a sign of giving up. Just like Roman, she has finally accepted her limitations. Unlike Roman, she’s does not feel liberated by that acceptance. Her limitations are not just limitations of personal ability, but also limitations forced upon her due to her gender. Clearly Shiv has always known that sexism is still a thing, but she thought she was an exception; she's never shown much solidarity with other women, she clearly didn't really think she would share their fate. And that recent ordeal with Matsson has robbed her of those illusions. There's a phrase from a restoration comedy I had to read for college, that will always stick with me, a scene in the third act: The couple is already negotiating the terms and condition of their impending marriage, the woman keenly aware that this is the last time she's got any leverage, hellbent on getting as many concessions as possible before she's ready "to dwindle into a wife". That's what's happening to Shiv - she's dwindling into a wife. She's realizing she's in the same position as the lady in the restoration comedy. This is the last time she's got any leverage. These guys need a yes from her now, and they will promise her all sorts of stuff to get it, and these promises will be worthless, because once they get that yes, she won't have anything to hold them to it. So Shiv trades her yes to Matsson not for a promise, but for a pay-out, and for shot at dwindling into Tom's wife. Since she gave up the hope of anyone casting her in another role, she takes the one that's left.

#succession #shiv roy #tom wambsgans #tv show #journal #personal

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davidmann95 · 4 years

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Superman’s 10 Best of the ‘10s

Good Miracle Monday, folks! The first third Monday of May of a new decade for that matter, and while that means that today in the DC Universe Superman just revealed his secret identity to the world on the latest anniversary of that time he defeated the devil, in ours it puts a capstone on a solid 10 years of his adventures now in the rear view mirror, ripe for reevaluation. And given there’s a nice solid ‘10′ right there I’ll go ahead with the obvious and list my own top ten for Superman comics of the past decade, with links in the titles to those I’ve spoken on in depth before - maybe you’ll find something you overlooked, or at least be reminded of good times.

A plethora of honorable mentions: I’m disqualifying team-ups or analogue character stories, but no list of the great Superman material of the last decade would be complete without bringing up Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye #7, Avengers 34.1, Irredeemable, Sideways Annual #1, Supreme: Blue Rose, Justice League: Sixth Dimension, usage of him in Wonder Twins, (somewhat in spite of itself) Superior, from all I’ve heard New Super-Man, DCeased #5, and Batman: Super Friends. And while they couldn’t quite squeeze in, all due praise to the largely entertaining Superman: Unchained, the decades’ great Luthor epic in Superman: The Black Ring, a brilliant accompaniment to Scott Snyder’s work with Lex in Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain, the bonkers joy of the Superman/Luthor feature in Walmart’s Crisis On Infinite Earths tie-in comics, Geoff Johns and John Romita’s last-minute win in their Superman run with their final story 24 Hours, Tom Taylor’s quiet criticism of the very premise he was working with on Injustice and bitter reflection on the changing tides for the character in The Man of Yesterday, the decades’ most consistent Superman ongoing in Bryan Miller and company’s Smallville Season 11, and Superman: American Alien, which probably would have made the top ten but has been dropped like a hot potato by one and all for Reasons. In addition are several stories from Adventures of Superman, a book with enough winners to merit a class of its own: Rob Williams and Chris Weston’s thoughtful Savior, Kyle Killen and Pia Guerra’s haunting The Way These Things Begin, Marc Guggenheim and Joe Bennett’s heart-wrenching Tears For Krypton, Christos Gage and Eduardo Francisco’s melancholy Flowers For Bizarro, Josh Elder and Victor Ibanez’s deeply sappy but deeply effective Dear Superman, Ron Marz and Doc Shaner’s crowdpleasing Only Child, and Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro’s super-sweet Mystery Box.

10. Greg Pak/Aaron Kuder’s Action Comics

Oh, what might’ve been. In spite of an all-timer creative team I can’t justify listing this run any higher given how profoundly and comprehensively compromised it is, from the status quo it was working with to the litany of ill-conceived crossovers to regular filler artists to its ignominious non-ending. But with the most visceral, dynamic, and truly humane take on Clark Kent perhaps of all time that still lives up to all Superman entails, and an indisputably iconic instant-classic moment to its name, I can’t justify excluding it either.

9. Action Comics #1000

Arguably the climax to the decade for the character as his original title became the first superhero comic to reach a 1000th issue. While any anthology of this sort is a crapshoot by nature, everyone involved here seemed to understand the enormity of the occasion and stepped up as best they could; while the lack of a Lois Lane story is indefensible, some are inevitably bland, and one or two are more than a bit bizarre, by and large this was a thoroughly charming tribute to the character and his history with a handful of legitimate all-timer short stories.

8. Faster Than A Bullet

Much as Adventures of Superman was rightfully considered an oasis amidst the New 52′s worst excesses post-Morrison and in part pre-Pak, few stories from it seem well-remembered now, and even at the time this third issue inexplicably seemed to draw little attention. Regardless, Matt Kindt and Stephen Segovia’s depiction of an hour in the life of Superman as he saves four planets first thing in the morning without anyone noticing - while clumsy in its efforts at paralleling the main events with a literal subplot of a conversation between Lois and Lex - is one of the best takes I can recall on the scope on which he operates, and ultimately the purpose of Clark Kent.

7. Man and Superman

Seemingly geared on every front against me, built as it was on several ideas of how to handle Superman’s origin I legitimately hate, and by a writer whose work over the years has rarely been to my liking, Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini’s Man and Superman somehow came out of nowhere to be one of my favorite takes on Clark Kent’s early days. With a Metropolis and characters within it that feel not only alive but lived-in, it’s shocking that a story written and drawn over ten years before it was actually published prefigured so many future approaches to its subject, and felt so of-the-moment in its depiction of a 20-something scrambling to figure out how to squeeze into his niche in the world when it actually reached stores.

6. Brian Bendis’s run

Controversial in the extreme, and indeed heir to several of Brian Bendis’s longstanding weaknesses as a writer, his work on The Man of Steel, Superman, and Action Comics has nevertheless been defined at least as much by its ambition and intuitive grasp of its lead, as well as fistfuls of some of the best artistic accompaniment in the industry. At turns bombastic space action, disaster flick, spy-fi, oddball crime serial, and family drama, its assorted diversions and legitimate attempts at shaking up the formula - or driving it into new territory altogether, as in the latest, apparently more longterm-minded unmasking of Clark Kent in Truth - have remained anchored and made palatable by an understanding of Superman’s voice, insecurities, and convictions that go virtually unmatched.

5. Strange Visitor

The boldest, most out-of-left-field Superman comic of the past 10 years, Joe Keatinge took the logline of Adventures of Superman to do whatever creators wanted with the character and, rather than getting back to a classic take absent from the mainline titles at the time as most others did, used the opportunity for a wildly expansive exploration of the hero from his second year in action to his far-distant final adventure. Alongside a murderer’s row of artists, Keatinge pulled off one of the few comics purely about how great Superman is that rather than falling prey to hollow self-indulgence actually managed to capture the wonder of its subject.

4. Superman: Up In The Sky

And here’s the other big “Superman’s just the best” comic the decade had to offer that actually pulled it off. Sadly if reasonably best-known for its one true misfire of a chapter, with the increasing antipathy towards Tom King among fans in general likely not helping, what ended up overlooked is that this is a stone-cold classic on moment of arrival. Andy Kubert turns in work that stands alongside the best of his career, Tom King’s style is honed to its cleanest edge by the 12-pager format and subject matter, and the quest they set their lead out on ends up a perfect vehicle to explore Superman’s drive to save others from a multitude of angles. I don’t know what its reputation will end up being in the long-term - I was struck how prosaic and subdued the back cover description was when I got this in hardcover, without any of the fanfare or critic quotes you’d expect from the writer of Mister Miracle and Vision tackling Superman - but while its one big problem prevents me from ranking it higher, this is going to remain an all-timer for me.

3. Jeff Loveness’s stories Help and Glasses

Cheating shamelessly here, but Jeff Loveness’s Help with David Williams and Glasses with Tom Grummett are absolutely two halves of the same coin, a pair of theses on Superman’s enduring relevance as a figure of hope and the core of Lois and Clark’s relationship that end up covering both sides of Superman the icon and Superman the guy. While basically illustrated essays, any sense of detached lecturing is utterly forbidden by the raw emotion on display here that instantly made them some of the most acclaimed Superman stories of the last several years; they’re basically guaranteed to remain in ‘best-of’ collections from now until the end of time.

2. Superman Smashes The Klan

A bitter race for the top spot, but #2 is no shame here; while not quite my favorite Superman story of the past ten years, it’s probably the most perfectly executed. While I don’t think anyone could have quite expected just *how* relevant this would be at the top of the decade, Gene Yang and Gurihiru put together an adventure in the best tradition of the Fleischer shorts and the occasional bystander-centered episodes of Batman: The Animated Series to explore racism’s both overt and subtle infections of society’s norms and institutions, the immigrant experience, and both of its leads’ senses of alienation and justice. Exciting, stirring, and insightful, it’s debuted to largely universal acknowledgement as being the best Superman story in years, and hopefully it’ll be continued to be marketed as such long-term.

1. Grant Morrison’s Action Comics

When it came time to make the hard choice, it came in no small part down to that I don’t think we would have ever seen a major Golden Age Superman revival project like Smashes The Klan in the first place if not for this. Even hampering by that godawful Jim Lee armor, inconsistent (if still generally very good) art, and a fandom that largely misunderstood it on arrival can’t detract from that this is Grant Morrison’s run on a Superman ongoing, a journey through Superman’s development as a character reframed as a coherent arc that takes him from Metropolis’s most beaten-down neighborhoods to the edge of the fifth dimension and the monstrous outermost limits of ‘Superman’ as a concept. It launched discussions of Superman as a corporate icon and his place relative to authority structures that have never entirely vanished, introduced multiple all-time great new villains, and made ‘t-shirt Superman’ a distinct era and mode of operation for the character that I’m skeptical will ever entirely go away. No other work on the character this decade had the bombast, scope, complexity, or ambition of this run, with few able to match its charm or heart. And once again, it was, cannot stress this enough, Grant Morrison on an ongoing Superman book.

#Superman #Miracle Monday #Opinion

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kyliafanfiction · 3 years

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Voldemort kinda does show some of the most Slytherin traits in the books though? Guy wants to take over all of the UK (ambition), he created an entire new spell to bring himself back from just a fragment of a soul (resourceful), and his plans still show more cunning than most other Slytherins in the books. The only times he shows any reckless bravery is when he's sure he'll win and he tends to run as soon as things turn against him, which I think disqualifies him from Gryffindor right there.

Cunning? I don’t see how blithely charging in head first and being a subtle as a brick through a window is cunning. I don’t see how resorting to murder as a first, second and last option is cunning when nonviolent means would have gotten him a lot of what he wanted a lot of the time (and then he could break out the killing) nor is it Slytherin to wear your passions on your sleeve, your heart on your other sleeve, and to be as nakedly transparent about your goals, intentions and methods as Voldemort is in the books.

While I’ll grant you he’s ambitious, Slytherins don’t have a lock on ambition exclusively, any more than Ravenclaws do on being smart, or Hufflepuffs do on being loyal.

And as for inventing the ritual - I rather doubt that. Leaving aside the fact that it had all the hallmarks of an old ritual (would Voldemort really have designed something that required his father’s bones?), Voldemort doesn’t claim credit for the ritual - he says his experiments were successful, but that’s not quite the same thing. And since we know the real reason he lives on and comes back is because of his horcruxes (Hooray JKR’s inconsistent and constantly retconned writing!), and he didn’t invent those, it’s pretty likely he didn’t invent the Flesh, Blood and Bone Ritual.

Yes, Voldemort was ambitious and cunning, to an extent, he was also far too open, hamfisted, direct, brash and bold in his efforts to take and hold power. In that, he was a Gryffindor. Tom Riddle was a Slytherin. Lord Voldemort, on the other hand, was a Gryffindor. A good summation of how I view the proper Slytherin means to take power is this quote from Deep Space Nine (specifically, Grand Nagus Zek)

“You don't grab power, you accumulate it quietly, without anyone noticing.”

And this jives with the behavior of characters like Lucius Malfoy, who holds no office in the Wizarding World beyond being on the Board of Governors, but due to his wealth and connections, has a great deal of power over the Ministry informally. He doesn’t take direct action except in the context of his service to Voldemort. Who, as I said, is a Gryffindor.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to agree with me - while we’re all working from the same basic details about the Houses and what they mean, the limited and inconsistent picture we’re given by JKR in the books and all the other material she’s put out leaves us with a lot of room to interpret, and we all come to the table with our own philisophical baggage.

I can and will continue to beat the ‘Voldemort is a Gryffindor’ drum, because, as far as I’m concerned, he is one - he has too many of the traits I associate with that house (all the houses have equal capacity for good and evil, as all traits are perfectly capable of being used for evil), but if you view Gryffindor in a different way than I do, especially through the more narrow lens of ‘bravery’, then yeah, you may not agree with me.

#Lord Voldemort #Voldemort #Harry Potter (series)#Gryffindor #Slytherin #Hogwarts Houses #Asked and Answered #Voldemort is a Gryffindor #Anonymous

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newagesispage · 3 years

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AUGUST 2021

THE RIB PAGE

Fran Drescher is running for National SAG-AFTRA President with Anthony Rapp as secretary treasurer for Unite for Strength!!! Matthew Modine is running under Membership first with Joely Fisher for Secretary Treasurer. Running in local elections are, among others, Yvette Nicole Brown, Shari Belafonte, Rosie O’Donnell, Jeff Garlin, Ezra Knight, Dule Hill, Camryn Manheim, Sara Rue, Mindy Cohn and Ever Carradine. Sept. 2 is the day!** Frances Fisher filed a suit against SAG-AFTRA over the health care plan but a judge rejected it.

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Sha’Carri Richardson’s problem is all our problem. No more drug testing for Mary Jane in this country!

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Chuck Schumer finally unveiled the Cannabis administration opportunity act to end Federal prohibition of marijuana.

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Dolly Parton used the $10 mil + in royalties from the Whitney Houston version of her song to invest in a black neighborhood in Nashville.

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Bob Balaban and Henry Winkler play brothers in The French Dispatch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t wait for October 22!!!!!!!!!!!!** The next Wes Anderson film will star Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody and Tom Hanks. No other details are out there yet.

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Trees save lives in heat waves.

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TBS will bring us n updated Stupid Pet Tricks with Sarah Silverman.

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So much organized religion is based on forgeries, fakes and plundering. Virtually none of it is based on any sort of truth, spiritual or even historical. Just lies to fulfill an agenda and control the masses. And so far it has worked. –Larry Charles

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Scarlett Johansen has sued Disney cuz her contract guaranteed a theatrical release only.

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An expert on the circus industry recently reached out to me and urged me to not compare Trump and his comeback tour to clowns and the circus, as that is an insult to clowns. –Jim Acosta

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Eric Adams has won the Dem primary for Mayor in NY.

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Have you seen High on the Hog?? It’s awesome!!

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Jeff Flake will be ambassador to Turkey.

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Cornell West resigned from Harvard with a scathing letter accusing the school of “intellectual and spirited bankruptcy of deep depths.”

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Biden gave a hell of a speech in Philly. He needed to go on more about the filibuster but he was passionate about the For the People act and the John Lewis voting rights advancement act. He roared, “Peddlers of lies are threatening the very foundation of our country.”

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Will Celebrity Dating Game continue? I am sure they think romance expert, Michael Bolton is a cute and quirky thing to do but not so much. If it stays, I hope they change the music, at least those final notes. And why are half of the questions, “Who am I?” The show could be cute but they need a little work!!

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Jeff Bezos donated $200 mil to the Smithsonian air and space museum.**Feminists everywhere winced when Gayle King was interviewing the Bezos space team. Bezos commented about the 18 year old going with them into space and that he was just worried about the prom at 18. Gayle said “And I was just hoping for a date to the prom.”** But we have to love Wally Funk, the oldest woman to go into space.**Bezos thanked the Amazon employees and customers for paying for his trip. Yikes!** Saw a great sign: Pay fair taxes, end hunger, help people, end poverty, save Earth or fly to space.

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Antonio Banderas and Harrison Ford will star in Indiana Jones 5.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor’s ashes were laid to rest 5 years after her death.

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The Britney conservatorship mess is still going thru the courts, and now topless?

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Pope Francis underwent colon surgery which caused him to comment on the need for good health care for all.

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Questlove brings us Summer of Soul!!!

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Reports show that about 150 people were killed by guns in more than 400 shootings during the 4th.

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Has anybody ever built a show around the Tex Watson tapes?? The LAPD apparently liked to deny them but there was a book.

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Henry Hall is out with his debut album, Neato, along with a tour.

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Do all male law enforcement officers have to be bald now?

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Idaho has begun an eradication campaign that could slash the number of gray wolves living in the state by 90%.

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Hooray for the monthly child tax credit!!

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Release Me 2 from Barbra Streisand is due out August 6.

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The look into the Jan. 6 insurrection has begun. Kinzinger and Cheney are in. **Tucker Carlson attacked Harry Dunn, a Capitol officer on air. The man protected Carlson’s son, a House staffer.** On Jan. 5, the Steve Bannon podcast went like this: All Hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Just understand this. It’s gonna be moving. It’s gonna be quick.** Why is mainstream media putting nearly all eggs in the Covid and Olympic baskets and only a few on the insurrection hearing?

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Why do so many that call America , “great” seem to hate it?? How can one love this country and not want majority rule, not want democracy??

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The Emmy noms are out: Lovecraft Country was nominated even though it has been cancelled. Also hooray for Pose, The Flight attendant and for Conan!! Lead actor is a tough category with Matthew Rhys, Billy Porter and Rege-Jean Page. Aidy Bryant and Jean Smart got lead and supporting noms. I have to route for Ewan McGregor and Anya Taylor-Joy. I am excited for Paul Reiser, Bowen Yang, Evan Peters, Carl Weathers, Renee Elise Golsberry, Dave Chappelle, Helena Bonham Carter and Daniel Levy. There is love for Yvette Nicole Brown, Issa Rae and Maya Rudolph. The Masked Singer got a few noms. The doc category included Tina, Allen V. Farrow and The Bee Gees. Friends: The reunion got 4.

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“Voting is not supposed to be easy. That’s what our men died for.”- Jack Finger

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Giant Pandas are no longer endangered.

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Zalia Avante- Garde is the 93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee Champ.** I’m more impressed by the girl who won the Spelling Bee than the billionaire who went to space. –Mike Jollett.

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Why do they have to run erectile dysfunction ads during true crime rape episodes? ** And why do people still say things like, “this just don’t happen here” or “dumped like a piece of trash? “ There have to be other things to say.

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Tom Barrack, chairman of the inaugural committee for Trump was arrested for foreign lobbying shenanigans. America first, right?** Wilbur Ross lied to congress about the census and the Trump administration declined to prosecute.** Stephen Calk, bank exec was found guilty of trying to get a WH position by giving Manafort millions in loans.

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Jake Ellzey won the Texas special election run off for congress, beating out Trump’s girl Susan Wright.

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Every city should have a Peacemobile!!!!!

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The Chinese government has been called out for malicious cyber -attacks. Four officials have been indicted in California.

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Miracle Workers’ Simon Rich was there when FB was invented and was so creeped out by people using it to stalk women.

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There was a story in Rolling Stone about how Eric Clapton threatened to cancel shows if the venue required proof of vaccines. Valerie Bertinelli tweeted: Once a dick, always a dick.

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Every Fox news host is vaccinated. –Mikel Jollett

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Toyota has dropped out of Olympic ads. Contenders are starting to drop out due to positive Covid tests.

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Actor Isaiah Stokes has been indicted for murder.

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Lionsgate has bought the rights to Clerks 3.

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Ready or not, here come the Olympics.- Harry Shearer

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The Cleveland Indians will now be the Cleveland Guardians.

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A bust of KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest was taken out of the Tennessee capitol.

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American Housewife was sold into syndication.

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The poorest zip codes include Erie, Pennsylvania, Decatur and the south end of Peoria, il, Canton, Oh, Waterbury, Ct., Bonsecour, Al. and Elpaso, Tx.

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Issa Rae married Louis Diame.

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The court of appeals disqualified Judge John W. Ouderkirk from the Jolie- Pitt divorce because of a business relationship with Pitt’s attorney.

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Joe Manchin owns a coal company.

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The Hollywood walk of fame has welcomed Jimmy Smits, Kathie Lee Gifford and 90 year old Marla Gibbs. Terry Crews is next!

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Generation after generation of women love the bad boy. Do they never learn? I will never understand, please explain.

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Pelosi rejected 2 of the noms to serve on the special committee looking into Jan. 6. Kevin McCarthy withdrew his 5 noms.

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The gun that killed Billy the Kid is for sale.

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I think you should leave with Tim Robinson on Netflix is hilarious if U get thru the gross. U can’t miss the episode with Clifton Davis and Fred Willard!!

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Joaquin Phoenix is trying to get some bears from a traveling show moved to an accredited sanctuary. The Bearadise Ranch in Florida has been cited for, “violating state wildlife laws.”

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Go employees Go!! Frito Lay is on strike, Coal miners are on strike and Ride Share drivers are on strike. A good portion of this country should be on strike. The top of the corporate ladder needs to learn! Let those that treat us fair rise to the top.

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Who owns Brett Kavanaugh?

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A Bishop seeking to deny Biden communion was caught on Grindr.

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Gabriel Jagger married Anouk Winzenried.** I don’t know why the Rolling Stones bass player doesn’t just change his name to “not pictured.” –Michael Mckean

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Frank Fritz will not be back on American Pickers.

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For the first time, astronomers have seen behind a black hole. Einstein predicted the gravitational pull of black holes is so enormous that they warp the very fabric of space. He was right. Scientists have now spotted light which was being emitted by the far side of the black hole.

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Look for Heels on Starz.

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What is this new screen for Amazon? It sucks.

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Biden has signed an executive order to protect infrastructure from cyber- attacks.

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Arthur was canceled.

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The Kennedy Center has revealed the latest honorees. The 44th class is Justin Diaz, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, Bette Midler and Joni Mitchell and will be held on Dec. 5.

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Get well Bob Odenkirk!!!! The fabulous Odenkirk collapsed on the set of Better call Saul from a minor heart attack.

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Days alert: We have lost Days of Our Lives first director, Joseph Behar. He will be missed.** Marla Ginns is joining the cast as Paulina’s Mother. ** Is EJ throwing Sami out? Will AJ McLean join the cast? **Rex is back.**Peacock is bringing us a limited series, Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem that will send many couples on romantic vacations and lead to intrigue. Lisa Rinna will star.** Arianna Zucker (Nicole) is set to marry Shawn Christian (former Daniel). He popped the question on Father’s Day.

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R.I.P. President Jovenel Moise, Philece Sampler, Robert Downey Sr., Richard Donner, flood victims of Belgium and Germany, Robby Steinhardt, Covid victims, Joseph Behar, Robert Moses, Jackie Mason, Dusty Hill, joey Jordison, Priscilla McMillan, Ron Popeil, Carl Levin, Saginaw Grant and Charles Robinson.

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erhiem · 3 years

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Not since Johnny Carson’s departure The Tonight Show Has there been so much fanfare about a hosting gig? Alex Trebek Left behind to fill the impossibly large shoes, and the impossible task of naming his successor has turned into a months-long operation. producer of Danger! Decided to have several guest hosts to see who’s ready for the job. They are actually auditioning for a coveted role as you are likely to find on television.

hosting Danger! Provides unique challenges for hosts. They should be friendly, intellectual and have an open schedule. Most guest hosts like Anderson Cooper or Savannah Guthrie have commitments that make the job extremely impossible. With that in mind, here are the top contenders to be the next host Danger!.

Ken Jennings

For a while, it looked like Ken Jennings was really In college Hosting option Danger!. He is already synonymous with the program and has hosting experience. Let us tell you that Jennings was chosen as the first guest host. This shows that it is a safe alternative that manufacturers trust.

Unlike the tabloids, though, it’s hardly a deal. gossip police There have been plenty of stories about Jennings being Trebek’s chosen heir or being dismissed outright. At this point, he’s still a major front-runner to win the role.

Aaron Rodgers

He raised many eyebrows when Rodgers was named as the guest host, but the current NFL MVP did a stellar job. He took the job seriously and received good reviews. Danger! It was also used as a way to promote Rodgers’ upcoming golf match with Tom Brady.

Obviously, Brady is not on the selection committee, but he says, “Aaron was amazing.” Rodgers would normally be ruled out due to the grueling NFL schedule, but he is currently at an impasse with the Powers taking place at Green Bay. At this point, hosting Danger! A career move is likely for Rodgers as the Packers’ quarterback.

buzzy cohen

Buzzy Cohen remains unknown to casual viewers, but he is beloved by fans of the show. Cohen is a former champion in his own right, having had a delightful relationship with Trebek, who gave him the “Mr. Persona.” Like Jennings, the timing of his hosting gig is very telling. Cohen to host the Tournament of Champions The show had a particularly difficult set. At just 36 years old, Cohen would bring an air of youth to the Television Institute.

mayim baliki

Remember the importance of intelligence in this situation? Mayim Bialik is almost disqualified for Danger!. He has decades of television dating experience webster in 1988. He also holds a PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA. Show sources told is! News that “his guest-hosting run was flawless as far as the showrunner is concerned.”

The only bottleneck in her hosting campaign will be her schedule. while big bang theory 2018 May End, Bialik Still Starring at Fox call me bite, which was recently renewed for a second season. She is also making her directorial debut with sick as they made us Starring Dustin Hoffman. It’s always possible that he changes his plans for a hosting opportunity Danger!, but she may be too busy to be a full-time host.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

current host of Danger! Got some good marks as a host. Above all, Gupta has been a professional and is the middle candidate for the position. Like Bialik, Gupta will have to give up several other commitments at CNN to take over the position of full-time host. Gupta’s background in television and medicine, as well as his likeable nature, mean he is still a possibility.

mike richards

You may not be familiar with Richards’ name, but he has been a fixture in the game show industry for years. Richards was the producer let’s Make a Deal and price is right before becoming the producer of both Danger! and wheel of Fortune. He was also the first to succeed Bob Barker as host. the price is right Before Drew Carey caught it.

Richards knows game shows inside and out, so it’s no surprise he’s made for a very charming host. if Danger! Had to keep the selection in-house, Richards could have easily been picked. In the end, Richards will have a big say in who gets the job.

take burton

Currently standing to host as the odds-on favorite Danger!LeVar Burton’s fan-driven campaign has been heartwarming to watch. Burton will host the show from July 26-30, but has stated that he would like to host much further.

roots the star told that’s a deal “I feel like my whole career is an advertisement for being the host of Jeopardy.” He is the only person on this list to actively promote. If It Was Up to the Fans, Burton Would Have a New Host Danger!.

Gossip Cop. more news from

Rebel Wilson and Sister Look Stunning in Matching Swimsuits – See Pic!

Report: Rebel Wilson breaks up with boyfriend in order to be famous

‘Covid tongue’ is the latest sign that you may be infected

Kutcher, Kunis Dunn ‘Living Separate Lives, Save Failing Marriage’

Claudia Conway Gives Rare Update On Relationship With Mom Kellyanne Rumors It Was All A Publicity Stunt

Source

The post Mayim Bialik, Aaron Rodgers, And The Rest Of The Serious Contenders For The Next Host Of Jeopardy! appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

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lifeofkj · 7 years

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Semi-regular political linkspam: So that happened

I'm sure no one really wants to think or talk about anything other than the House's narrow passage of the AHCA today, the bill that's intended to replace Obamacare and dismantle our entire healthcare system in the process. It's terrible, awful, and terrifying for a lot of people; I don't expect to be affected in the short term myself, but the ripple effects could be tremendous if this bill becomes law. It's hard to know what the odds of that happening are. The GOP got away with this in part by rushing the AHCA through before the CBO could prepare its report on how much the updated bill will cost, and how many people it will affect, and that report is expected to be ready before the Senate can vote. It's also commonly thought that the House bill is too draconian to pass the Senate as-is, but if the Senate softens it up too much, it might not survive another House vote. (Never forget: the GOP got this bill through the House by insuring fewer people. I think about that, and compare it to Obama's fruitless efforts in 2009 to win even one Republican vote for the ACA, and it makes me want to cry.) But never underestimate what this group of thugs, bullies, and fascists is willing to do. That said, if you are feeling defeated today, I recommend you to this Twitter thread, which I found a small beacon of hope on a dark day. Friends, we were dealt a setback today, maybe the worst one since January 20th; it's okay if you need a little time to rest and regroup. But I hope you come back refreshed and ready to fight another day. The marathon continues. Some other stuff that happened:

Lest we think the Democrats are perfect, in the last couple of weeks I feel like they've been ramping up their chase of the Great White Male vote, with everyone from Bernie Sanders (of course) to Nancy Pelosi (oh hell no) stating that lack of support for abortion rights ought not to be a disqualifying factor for Democrats to support a candidate for office. *rubs forehead* Look, I get that being loud and proud pro-choice isn't going to fly in every single district or community, and people can have whatever personal beliefs they want. But when it comes down to votes and proposing legislation, Democrats had better not get all wishy-washy. Single-issue anti-abortion voters left the Democratic party a generation ago; trying to lure them back is only going to alienate the current party base, which is women and people of color, particularly women of color. As I suggested above, I don't really expect anything better from Bernie right now, but from Nancy Pelosi it's like a knife in the heart. At least Tom Perez got with the program, recently stating that reproductive rights are a non-negotiable issue for the DNC (note, annoying auto-play Bernie video at that link) -- but only after a lot of pressure, mostly from women.

Speaking of annoying auto-play Bernie, he has been everywhere lately, and I am tired of it. This article does a good job of summing up why.

It took awhile, but United Airlines finally made what feels to me like an adequate response to the incident in April when a passenger was forcibly removed from an airplane. New policies announced include changes to their rules for when flights can be overbooked, and last-minute changes to move crew, greater employee discretion in offering incentives, and an absolute ban on removing someone who has been seated on a plane unless there's a clear security issue. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better, as long as they follow through. (I still hope the guy sues for all he can get, though.)

Another day, another Trump appointee who wants to destroy the agency they've been tapped to run: Teresa Manning, who has been nominated to run the Department of Health and Human Services office that manages family planning, believes that contraception doesn't work. Perfect.

The House Oversight Committee finally started doing its job and is investigating Michael Flynn for real. In a statement released on April 25th, Jason Chaffetz said, "I see no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law." So-- that means he broke the law, then? As in, committed a crime? How about that.

Probably the stupidest "controversy" of the past few weeks is the handwringing over Barack and Michelle Obama getting paid to make speeches now that they are private citizens. Let me repeat that: as influential as they might be, they are PRIVATE CITIZENS. They don't hold public office, and Barack never will again (and I'd be surprised if Michelle went that route), so why the fuss? Oh right, because money is dirty, unless it's going to white dudes, in which case it's fine.

One recent bright spot was Bill O'Reilly losing his Fox News gig, due to advertiser pressure over the sexual harassment allegations that have dogged him for years. But I'd be surprised if that were be the end of it, and in fact Sean Hannity is facing new allegations already. Vox has a good video on Fox's culture of sexism that goes way beyond just O'Reilly and Roger Ailes.

Also good news: Morgantown, WV, recently swept a progressive city council into office. I also recommend this follow-up article on how they did it.

Here's a report on automatic voter registration in Oregon and how it dramatically increased turnout. A model for more states to follow.

The media has often tried to paint Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, as a moderating influence on the president, and this urge has only ramped up with the recent release of Ivanka's new book. Don't fall for it.

Today's fun link: The Sandwich Alignment Chart. "What is a Sandwich" is possibly my favorite low-stakes debate topic, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if we come back to this one.

x-posted from My Dreamwidth Journal | Feel free to reply here or comment there

#dw crosspost #politics #kj's political linkspam

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delwin47 · 7 years

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Fanfic (ST:Voy), Reckonings

One more early Voyager fic from me -- Happy Voyager Anniversary, everyone and thank you to @alphaflyer @rikerssexblouse and @pg1890 for joining the fun!

Summary: Voyager's first three days stuck in the Delta Quadrant: two crews, one ship and, of course, Tom Paris.

Originally posted on FFN and AO3

Reckonings

Stardate 48321.46: 12 hours after the destruction of the Caretaker's array...

He might as well paint a giant red X on his back.

After all, an X, no matter how large and how red, couldn't possibly be as conspicuous as the uniform in his hands.

Starfleet command red. The Paris legacy. And now the unmistakeable sign of Tom Paris's treachery to the three dozen or so Maquis with whom he will apparently be sharing Voyager's fifteen decks for the immediate future.

Sliding the silky material through his fingers, Tom's expression twists into a humorless grin.

He's so very screwed.

Mustn't forget to add to those Maquis a crew of over a hundred Starfleet personnel all of whom think that he is the worst sort of disgrace to that same uniform...

...except the Captain.

The captain who put him back behind the helm of a starship.

Tom's fingers twitch as he mentally runs through the series of banks and turns, twists and dives that he guided Voyager through as they battled the Kazon less than twelve hours before. Whoever developed that bio-neural circuitry knew their stuff: Voyager responded to his commands like no other Starfleet ship he'd ever piloted.

And her captain evidently makes command decisions like no other captain Tom has ever encountered – and he's known a few. Who but Kathryn Janeway would hand over her ship to a paroled convict with a more than checkered service record?

Tom shakes his head in bemusement as he pulls on first the uniform pants and then the shirt. At least he'll provide a subject upon which Voyager's crew and their Maquis...guests? passengers? prisoners? can agree – everyone (except the Captain) hates Thomas Eugene Paris.

As he pins the communicator to his shirt, it promptly chirps to life :Kim to Paris:

"Paris here," Tom responds. "What can I do for you, Harry?" And he can't help smiling to himself: make that 'except the Captain and Ensign Harry Kim'.

:Do you have an hour or so? I'm in the middle of trying to figure out how to adapt the navigational systems to our...current coordinates and I could use a second pair of eyes:

All crises having passed for the moment, Tom has nothing if not time. Answering Harry in the affirmative, he slips on his boots, does a quick check in the mirror (the empty gray collar still pulls his attention like the gap from a missing tooth) and heads out the door – eyes straight ahead, mouth firmly and wisely set shut.

As it turns out, the corridors of Voyager are next to empty. Tom passes two or three of the Voyager crew but not a single Maquis. Come to think of it, he isn't sure what happened to Chakotay, Torres and the others once Janeway cleared her bridge – he and Harry were busy trying to find a relatively safe section of space into which to move Voyager. Are the Maquis now confined to quarters? Or the brig?

Having spent more than his fair share of time in starship brigs, Tom feels a brief flash of sympathy for the possible fate of the Val Jean's crew, but mostly he's glad to be spared becoming walking target practice, at least for the moment. When the doors of his destination slide open, he exhales heavily.

"Tom!" Harry turns to greet him, pausing in his work at the sole terminal in the room to do so. "Thanks for coming down."

"No problem." Tom glances around the gridded room appreciatively. "They made them bigger."

Harry follows his gaze and frowns. "The holodecks?"

Tom nods, estimating. "It looks like they increased both the area and the height. That gives some interesting extra potential for programs with multiple participants."

"Are you a holo-programmer?" Harry sounds surprised.

Tom considers that as he walks to join the younger man at the terminal. "Only as a hobby," he clarifies. "And 'was', not 'am'. I haven't been in a holodeck or holosuite since...for a couple of years."

Harry glances over, obviously trying to decide which tack to take in navigating the hazardous topic of Tom's recent history. "Well, now you are," he tries with only somewhat forced cheer. Then, with a grimace, "And we're all certainly going to need some new entertainment over the next seventy years so you'd better brush off those programming skills."

There are any number of questionable assumptions built into Harry's comment, but Tom chooses to address one of the less personal ones. "Given the circumstances, Harry, I'm pretty sure Janeway's not likely to authorize the use of energy for holodeck entertainment."

Harry shrugs. "The holodecks are on a separate grid from the rest of the ship. Their energy is incompatible with the main systems." He turns back to the computer. "That's actually why I'm working down here: it's more energy efficient to run simulations through the holodecks than through the main computer."

Despite everything, Tom chuckles. "So we may all starve out here, but even unofficial crew might be able to score holodeck privileges? Hell, maybe I'll invite Chakotay and his gang down to play some Velocity."

"Now that may be more difficult."

Which is interesting in itself, but even more interesting is the tone in which Harry drops his hint – the tone of someone with a nugget of information that he is all too eager to share. The straight-as-an-arrow Ensign Harry Kim is, Tom surmises, a first rate gossip hound.

Given that this particular nugget is one in which he has a personal interest, Tom has no problem biting. "And why is that?"

As expected, Kim pauses in his work and gives Tom his full attention. "Well, according to B'Elanna..."

"When were you talking to Torres?" No, not 'Torres'. 'B'Elanna'. When had that happened?

"The Captain ordered us both back down to Sickbay so that the Emergency Medical Hologram could make sure that virus or whatever it was that the Caretaker put into our systems was completely cleared out," Harry explains offhandedly, clearly impatient to get back to his point. "Anyway, B'Elanna said that all of the Maquis had been packed into various crew quarters and confined there."

Which is good news for Tom as evidently the lack of Maquis roaming the corridors this morning wasn't just a coincidence. But he finds himself backtracking through Harry's statement. "So are you okay? With the virus, I mean?"

Harry shrugs again, unconcerned. "Oh yeah. The EMH fixed that right up." Then he looks at Tom more directly. "By the way, I never did thank you for coming after me – or us – down there. We were in pretty bad shape before you found us. You probably saved our lives."

Tom scratches at the back of his neck. "You and Torres are both pretty stubborn. I'm sure you would have clawed your way out of there eventually."

Harry just grins. "So there's that, plus the Ferengi thing on DS9, not to mention your...help on the bridge yesterday – that's at least three I owe you, Paris."

The tone is light and casual: this is part of the script, the usual back-and-forth between crewmates who are used to putting their lives in each other's hands on a regular basis.

But it brings Tom up short. Because he and Harry are not, in fact, crewmates. And he disqualified himself from this sort of banter more than two years ago. Which no one seems to have any trouble remembering – except Harry.

Speaking of owing someone...

"Hey, Tom?" Harry glances over at him quizzically. "You okay?"

Tom blinks away his train of thought and turns back to his friend. "Yeah, Harry." Then he grins and briefly clasps the younger man's shoulder. "I'm fine." He turns his attention to the console. "Weren't you looking for my help with something?"

They spend the next hour working out how to compensate for the Delta Quadrant's lack of Federation navigational infrastructure until Harry is due to report back to the bridge. Once they part outside the holodeck, Tom begins to make his way back to his quarters, passing through still quiet and nearly empty corridors.

So at least he is running good there.

Stardate 48324.2: 36 hours after the destruction of the array...

So much for running good – though it was nice while it lasted.

Tom walks through the doors of the mess hall to find it – as expected – crawling with a dozen or so leather-clad Maquis.

An attempt to replicate breakfast in his quarters an hour earlier had been frustrated by an inactive replicator and a cheerful explanation from the computer that all meals were to be taken in the mess hall in order to maximize power conservation and centralize ration distribution. His brief musing on whether that would include the Maquis was answered by playing back an obviously hastily composed message from Harry which strongly suggested that Tom might want to wait until the ensign's shift break to head down to the mess hall for a meal.

Maquis included then.

Tom had taken a moment to wonder exactly how the negotiations on that one had gone down. Most likely Chakotay had pledged the good behavior of his crew – a pledge, no doubt, made in good faith and one that would be largely effective.

With the notable exception of behavior toward a certain ex-Maquis-turned-rat.

Having sent back a quick note declining Harry's well-intentioned but ultimately futile offer – Tom couldn't exactly hide behind the younger man for the next seventy years – Tom had made the decision to head directly into the line of fire.

His entrance immediately draws the attention of every person in the room, including the two Starfleet security officers who have clearly been stationed there to maintain order.

Neither of them looks exactly glad to see him.

Tom nods in their direction anyway but doesn't bother to wait for their acknowledgment. Feigning unconcern, he grabs a tray and makes his request of the replicator before moving to an open table where his back will be to the replicator and the door but he'll maintain a clear view of the full room and its occupants.

His attention ostensibly on his food, Tom takes a census of his fellow diners. Henley and Jonas occupy one table with two other Maquis whom he doesn't recognize. At the sight of him, Henley looks somewhat obscenely like a cat who's just been presented with an unexpected bowl of milk – or perhaps more accurately with a mouse with which to play. On the other side of the room, Chell's blue head glows as he whispers animatedly to the fellow Bolian seated across from him, his pointing finger and equally pointed gaze leaving little doubt as to the subject of his commentary. At a third table, Ken Dalby sits alone, tray pushed away. Slouched against the back of his chair, his arms are folded tightly to his chest and his calculating eyes are locked on Tom.

The other half dozen Maquis are unknown to Tom, evidently having joined Chakotay's crew after his own precipitous departure. But, based on the glares they are aiming in his direction, that's not affecting their ability to take Tom's betrayal personally.

Thirteen.

And all of them with very little left to lose.

A glance over at the gold-uniformed Starfleet officers confirms that help from that corner will be slow to arrive at best. Both men have subtly turned their shoulders, suggesting that it might well take an extra few seconds for them to notice any trouble starting in the direction of Voyager's observer.

And Tom well knows that a lot can happen in a few seconds.

He scans the room once more for potential sources of aid...like whom? Unless Harry cuts out in the middle of his bridge shift for a snack of ration bars... Chakotay, maybe? Tom did save the guy's life and, whatever else one might say about the man, one couldn't really doubt his sense of honor. Torres? An odd twist in his gut reminds him just how thoroughly he's burned that bridge.

"Tom Paris?"

He jumps violently at the soft voice. Little good it does keeping a view of the room before him if he misses the entrance of someone from behind. Twisting around, he identifies the voice's owner and hastily stands to cover the severity of his reaction. "That's me, yes." And then, regaining his composure, he adds, "It's Kes, right?"

The young woman nods, smiling and, despite the roomful of Maquis, Tom feels some of the tightness in his back and shoulders ease.

Motioning with the food tray in her hands, she asks, "May I join you?"

Tom nods, indicating the other chair and going so far as to pull it out for her. Kes sits, her back now to the room. Looking over her shoulder, Tom doesn't fail to notice that the security officers are once again on full alert: Tom Paris might be an easy victim to sacrifice but the elfin newcomer who has somewhat unwisely chosen to join him evidently is not.

Although, as Tom surveys the rest of the mess hall, the officers' renewed attention may be unneeded. The Maquis have turned back to their meals and the tension in the air has abated. He finds himself unsurprised that Kes seems to have called out the better angels of the freedom fighters' natures.

She might as well be an angel herself, with that air of innocence and kindness that seems to emanate from her. 'Unearthly' might be a fair descriptor and perhaps appropriate for a species that only lives nine years.

"I've been looking for the chance to thank you," Kes begins, interrupting his thoughts.

"To thank me?"

"For helping to rescue me." At what must be his somewhat blank look, she clarifies, "From Jabin."

"Ah." He has somehow almost forgotten about finding her beaten and half-starved in the Kazon encampment – had that only been two days ago? The holographic doctor did its work well and quickly in healing her. Not quite so innocent, then, and that kindness is more hard won than he was giving her credit for. "That wasn't our intent in going down to the surface," Tom explains honestly, then adds, "but I'm certainly happy to have helped."

Kes smiles warmly and, without thought, Tom smiles back. It's such an easy, natural interaction, without calculation. When did that become so unusual?

They both take a bite or two of their meals and Kes's gaze moves to the mess hall's expansive viewports. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she comments, indicating the starscape outside those ports. "And it's so amazing to be traveling through open space like this."

Having spent far too much of the last year landlocked, Tom can agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. "You've never been off-planet before, have you?"

"No." Kes's eyes are still on the stars. "Neelix told me stories – about his ship and all the different systems and planets – all the different species." She gives a self-deprecating shrug. "They seemed like fairy tales at the time."

"And now you're going to live that fairy tale," Tom points out to her. "You and Neelix can travel to all of those places."

"That's true," she agrees, taking another bite of food. "Still," and she looks back out at the stars, "I can't help but wonder what it would be like to see it all from this ship – to be a member of a starship crew." She turns back to him with another enchanting smile. "It must be a wonderful life."

Tom chokes a little on a bite of food that seems to have gotten caught in his throat. At the sound, Henley glances back in his direction, likely hoping to witness his untimely demise courtesy of a ration bar. Jonas says something to draw her attention back and she joins in her tablemates' laughter. To the side of the room, the two security officers are chatting quietly with each other. For the moment, Tom Paris is forgotten.

Which is about the best that he can hope for.

"Yeah," he agrees roughly. And his own eyes turn to the starscape. "It must be."

Stardate 48326.94: 60 hours after the destruction of the array...

Two quadrants away from Earth and San Francisco, but "Hurry up and wait" is still evidently the unofficial Starfleet motto for those lacking in rank insignia.

How many times during their first weeks at the Academy did Tom and his cohorts sprint in order to arrive at designated place X at appointed time Y only to spend the next half hour cooling their heels and waiting on someone higher up in the Starfleet pecking order?

Of course, at that point, 'someone' could have been just about anyone in uniform: it was pretty much impossible to get lower in the food chain than a freshly arrived Academy cadet.

Well, pretty much impossible unless you happened to be Thomas Eugene Paris. Seems like he's managed to accomplish that feat quite neatly.

Across the bridge at the tactical station, the lieutenant on duty – Andrews, maybe? – hasn't stopped glaring at him since Tom walked onto the bridge.

Perhaps 'rushed' more than 'walked'. Old habits die hard and one wouldn't want to be late when summoned by the captain of the ship to her ready room. Particularly when that captain put the helm of that ship in one's hands three days before. Even more particularly when one hasn't heard a word from that captain since finally, reluctantly turning that helm back over to someone whose gray collar wasn't bare.

Not that he blames her for the lack of communication. Right now Kathryn Janeway has bigger issues to deal with than the ex-Starfleet-lieutenant, ex-Maquis-pilot, current-convict-on-probation who happens to be an observer on her ship.

Like what to do with the three dozen not-so-ex Maquis who also happen to be residing on that ship.

Andrews hasn't let up his glower, and Tom begins to wonder if he's managed to do something to piss off the guy personally, beyond the usual 'cashiered out of Starfleet and convicted felon' stuff. Doesn't he have a station he's supposed to be monitoring anyway?

"Lieutenant?" comes Harry's voice from behind Tom at ops. "Could you confirm that the energy signature in grid forty seven is just a pocket of ambient radiation? My reading is unclear."

At which Andrews finally looks back down at his board. The corner of Tom's mouth twitches upward into something between a smirk and a grin, but he resists the urge to look back at Harry, instead mentally adding to his tally of what he owes the younger man.

Tom's actually been doing a good bit of mental calculating in the last couple of days – and not with good results. The inescapable conclusion of his ruminations has been that Voyager needs the Maquis. Without them, she simply will not have the manpower she needs to function sustainably, not to mention to begin a journey home.

And, if he's being honest, Tom knows that most of the Val Jean's crew are good people with talents that could serve Voyager well. Hell, Torres by herself would probably cut the length of the journey back to the Alpha Quadrant in half if given a crack at the engines. A captain would be foolish not to utilize those talents and foolish Kathryn Janeway is not.

Which is not good news for Tom Paris.

The Captain will not ask him to leave, he knows that. For one, he's his father's son, and secondly, it is by her request that Tom is on Voyager and in the Delta Quadrant to begin with. The combination of loyalty and slight guilt will ensure him a bunk and rations. But, if his existence is going to be limited to draining Voyager's resources and staying one step ahead of a Maquis lynch mob, he might as well still be in that penal colony in New Zealand.

From the conn, Culhane calls over to where Tuvok sits in the captain's chair: "Sir, I have the results of the navigational surveys that you asked me to run."

Without meaning to, Tom looks over at the ensign and Voyager's helm. Had it been for an hour, maybe two that he had occupied Culhane's seat?

The chance to fly again had been an unexpected and incredible gift; even more so had been the act of faith which had put him at the conn – the particular type of faith that a captain must have in her crew and that Tom thought he had forfeited forever.

Tom's eyes move again to the helm, so tantalizingly close.

Yet still absolutely out of his reach.

He may have raced like a new cadet to answer Janeway's summons, but the news awaiting him in the ready room can only be bad.

Despite that, he'll take the opportunity to thank her for giving him one more chance to fly a starship and to feel – if only for that short time – like a member of a crew again. For that, she has his endless gratitude.

The ready room door slides open, and Chakotay walks out, distracted and thoughtful. He glances Tom's way, but his look is without acknowledgment and inscrutable. He continues without pause to the turbolift and exits the bridge without a word.

Drawing on years of practice, Tom tries to school his own features back to impassivity as he steps up to the ready room door and sounds the chime. But, even though he refuses to glance back at the helm one more time, there is a tightness to his jaw that he can't ease as the door opens before him and he steps through.

Time to be cut loose again.

#star trek voyager #fanfic #delwin47 fanfic

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marymosley · 4 years

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Pierce Bainbridge and Littler Mendelson: Two Law Firms in the Same Deceitful Pod?

Christopher N. LaVigne (Pierce Bainbridge), S. Jeanine Conley (Littler Mendelson) and Denver G. Edwards (Pierce Bainbridge) have been accused of dishonesty and deceit in the lawsuits filed by Don Lewis, an ex-partner at Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP. Littler served as outside counsel for the firm, until compelled to withdraw when Conley and the firm became defendants themselves. Lewis claims he blew the whistle on illicit financial activity, and, in response, Pierce Bainbridge, a slew of its partners, along with the firm of Putney Twombly Hall & Hirson LLP (Michael D. Yim) weaponized the #MeToo movement to demonize and discredit him. According to Lewis, Conley and Littler were hired by Pierce Bainbridge to finish the job against him, and in doing so employed deceitful litigation tactics more typical of their client.

The impact of the lawsuits, and related revelations of a bevy of ugly realities about firm founder John Mark Pierce, certain of his partners, as well as firm operations, has turned the Pierce Bainbridge carousel into a “not-so-merry” ride; thirty-five attorneys have quit in the last several months. Be that as it may, the firm apparently continues to represent a high-profile clientele: Rudy Giuliani, Michael Avenatti, Lenny Dykstra (two of them convicted felons; the third with potential criminal headaches of his own), Tulsi Gabbard, as well as one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world Kraken, Inc. d/b/a Payward.

The conduct of Conley is particularly odd, however. Through events at the Federal Bar Association, the NYC Society For Human Resource Management, and the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, Conley has advocated for the “elimination of bias,” “lawful investigations in the Wake of #MeToo,” and “interrupting racism and inequality within the profession.” Lewis says: “S. Jeanine Conley has supported the deeply depraved and misogynistic John Pierce, race-based discrimination led by Pierce and a sham #MeToo investigation conducted by Michael D. Yim of Putney Twombly who flatly stated I was not entitled to ‘due process.’ Conley’s conduct, particularly given who she publicly holds herself out to be, was shocking to me.”

It appears, that Conley “bet on the wrong horse.”

Deceitful Litigation: “The Norm, not the Exception at Pierce Bainbridge”

Boasting About Violating the Ethical Rules

Lewis provided the quote above, but there seems to be a good deal of history lending support. It apparently starts right at the top. As a glaring example, the recently departed long-time Managing Partner of the Pierce Bainbridge New York Office, David L. Hecht, foolishly boasted publicly about violating the ethical Rules of Professional Conduct. It was not just a garden variety violation; Hecht was found to have violated Rule 8.4, which the federal court noted: “prohibits conduct involving dishonesty and misrepresentation;” the opinion invoked the words “trickery” and “deceit.” Hecht apparently took pride in the decision, because the court stopped short of disqualifying the firm. Indicative of the Pierce Bainbridge culture, other so-called leaders “liked” the post: Firm Managing Partner John Mark Pierce and Los Angeles Managing Partner Amman Khan.

$27,500,000 Malpractice Claim and Accusation of Intentionally “Bungling” a Client’s Case

Khan’s reaction to Hecht’s post is arguably unsurprising; he is no stranger to controversy concerning his litigation practice. A Law360 report indicates that while a partner at Glaser Weil, Khan was a defendant in a $27.5 million malpractice suit. Khan was accused of “intentionally bungling a legal action,” “breaching his fiduciary duties to his client,” and forming a “plan, scheme and conspiracy,” to foul up the litigation. The case dragged on for almost three years, before an apparent resolution was reached.

New Managing Partner Tom Warren: Sanctions and Violation of Ethical Rules

Thomas David Warren was chosen to succeed John Mark Pierce as Pierce Bainbridge Managing Partner, and it appears the firm intends to not skip a beat on its unethical litigation conduct. Warren, who has had his own recent ethical issues with courts, is named as a defendant in a proposed amended defamation complaint Lewis filed in October 2019.

******************

Additional new current and former partner defendants in Lewis’s proposed complaint are Brian Slater (formerly of Kramer Levin), ex-partner Conor McDonough (formerly of Paul Weiss) Christopher N. LaVigne (formerly of Success Academy Charter Schools), ex-partner David L. Hecht (Hecht Partners), Gregory Sephton (formerly of Kramer Levin), Jeff Alexander (Wachtell Missry), Jonathan Kortmansky (BraughnHagey & Borden), Michael Pomerantz (formerly of Grais & Ellsworth), Susan Winkler (Winkler Law LLC) and Ted Folkman (Folkman LLC). The nature of the claim is a conspiracy to defame.

Lewis say four new defendants: “conspired with Pierce in one of the most heinous defamatory lies one could make about a person; it is disgusting; Kortmansky, Warren, Pomerantz and Hecht all endorsed and promoted the most depraved of Pierce’s misconduct, as well as his outright public lies about the firm’s relationship with litigation funder Pravati and litigation funders generally, as well as Pierce’s baseless public attack on Bloomberg Big Business Law reporter Meghan Tribe.” Warren and Hecht are pictured above. Pomerantz (left) and Kortmansky (right) are pictured below)

*****************

In September 2018, while Warren was a partner at BakerHostetler, his client was hit with a motion for sanctions by Dostart Hannink & Coveney LLP. The sanctions request accused Warren and his client of “scurrilous accusations,” engaging in “totally improper” conduct, and deploying a “motion-by-ambush tactic.” The court granted monetary sanctions against Warren’s client for over $20,000.

Warren joined Pierce Bainbridge three months later, and it did not take him long to get back to unethical work. Just months after Hecht’s fiasco, Warren – while representing convicted felon Lenny Dykstra – was found by Los Angeles State court judge to have violated the ethical Rules of Professional Conduct, with the judge noting that such issues are “simply the purview of the State Bar . . .”

Yet Another Sanctions Motion

Incredibly, shortly after Warren took the Iron Throne for House Bainbridge in late February; the ethical problems for the firm seamlessly continued. On March 5, 2020, in a case where Pierce, Jim Bainbridge, ex-counsel Matt Rand (formerly of McKool Smith) and Michael Eggenberger appear on the signature block, Pierce Bainbridge was on the receiving end of sanctions motion to “avoid further fraud upon the court.”

Fraud on the Court and Destruction of Evidence

The “fraud on the court” motion dovetails well with recent events in the Lewis lawsuits. As Legal Desire previously reported, Marc Mukasey, of Mukasey, Frenchman & Sklaroff LLP recently filed to withdraw as counsel for Pierce Bainbridge citing ethical concerns with continued representation. In response, Lewis’ counsel filed an affidavit which states: “we have strong reason to believe — based on information provided to us by former and current employees and partners of PB — that PB . . . has corrupted these proceedings”; and continues: “we have been led to believe . . .that the PB Defendants have destroyed pertinent and material evidence; have manufactured false ‘evidence’. . . and mislead the Court as to when they were aware of the arbitration provisions that were part of the recent motions before the Court.”

The pairing of Littler and Pierce Bainbridge was perhaps a match of kindred litigation spirits; Littler has a history of sanctions of its own. Indeed, it is exceedingly rare that a reputable law firm receives monetary sanctions for “frivolous” court filings and “violations of rules”. Lewis says: “a quick review reveals that Littler has been a culprit at least four times, and at least twice the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals supported such sanctions.”

John’s Pierce’s Three Musketeers of Dishonesty, Deception and Deceit

The apparently troubling issues surrounding Lewis’s ousting from the firm, with Michael D. Yim of Putney Twombly riding shotgun with Pierce Bainbridge, have been well documented. Conley appears to have been brought in to help finish what Yim failed to accomplish, silencing Lewis or destroying his credibility through lies. Conley, along with Pierce, Edwards and LaVigne are alleged to have hatched a conspiracy to defame Lewis on a nationwide scale to mute his soon to be filed complaint.

Lewis had provided Pierce Bainbridge a deadline to agree to private mediation. It appears that in order to buy more time, Conley claimed she misread a one-page letter with the deadline. Lewis gave her the benefit of the doubt and extended the deadline, but when two days later Pierce Bainbridge still did not agree to the conditions to mediation, Lewis moved forward with the filing of his complaint.

Conley, however, deceived Lewis’s New York counsel by continuing a charade of settlement negotiations in bad faith. Conley – by e-mail – asked Lewis to withdraw his complaint in New York so that the parties could continue negotiations, thanked him – by e-mail – for doing so, yet four hours after it was withdrawn, Pierce Bainbridge filed a complaint in California against Lewis and, most incredibly, alleged that Lewis filed and withdrew his action in New York as “part of a scheme to extort.”

Even worse, three months later, Lewis learned that Pierce Bainbridge and Conley were not only being deceitful to beat Lewis to the court with a sham complaint in California, but on that same day, Pierce Bainbridge was also filing a lawsuit in New York under seal; a filing in which firm partners Denver G. Edwards and Christopher N. LaVigne, according to Lewis, both demonstrably lied in supporting affidavits.

Lewis said: “The deceit, dishonesty and outright lies over a three-day period – by Christopher N. LaVigne, John M. Pierce, S. Jeanine Conley and Denver Edwards are actually incredible. Like I said in my complaint, stuff like this does not happen over the course of most lawyers’ careers.”

The White-Collar Partner Exodus

As for the financial misconduct that Pierce Bainbridge sought to cover-up, interestingly, the firm itself has conceded that the financial misconduct alleged by Lewis (which has been validated by recent events): “if true….would amount to criminal activity.” LaVigne, according to Lewis, made a very telling statement months after Lewis was no longer with the firm:

“John hired a bunch of white-collar lawyers; he thinks they’ll help when the Feds come knocking; they will be the first one’s out the door.” ~ Christopher N. LaVigne

Since LaVigne’s purported statement, at least eleven white-collar partners have hit the Pierce Bainbridge escape hatch:

Caroline Polisi (Armstrong Teasedale, formerly of Creizman LLC)

Deborah Renner (Renner Law, formerly of BakerHostetler)

Eric Creizman (Armstrong Teasedale, formerly of Creizman LLC)

Franklin Velie (formerly of Sullivan & Worcester)

Jeffrey Alexander (Wachtell Missry, formerly Kasowitz Benson)

Jonathan Kortmansky (BraunHagey & Borden LLP, formerly of Sullivan & Worcester)

Joan Meyer (Thompson Hine, formerly of Baker McKenzie)

Melissa Madrigal (Armstrong Teasedale, formerly of Creizman LLC)

Michael Winograd (Brown Rudnick, formerly of Ropes & Gray)

Susan Winkler (Winkler Law, United States Attorney’s Office, Winkler Law)

Thomas Frongillo (formerly Fish and Richardson)

We are reminded of an attorney who warned Pierce in Fall 2018: “Trying to do what you are doing – build a major NYC firm overnight is hugely risky. . . The last person who tried it in NY was Mark Dreier. He ended up in jail.”

Brazen Lies and Brazen Deceit

Christopher N. LaVigne

Notwithstanding LaVigne’s blistering written criticism of firm founder John Mark Pierce as a “lunatic,” “bully,” and “snake,” who “loses track of his lies,” “talks out of every side of his mouth,” and is “probably deep into the sauce [alcohol] and coke [cocaine],” LaVigne, according to Lewis, “lied under oath” to protect Pierce.

In court filings, Pierce Bainbridge claimed Lewis – who has played ice hockey socially with LaVigne for over ten years – never played with LaVigne from November (when he was ousted) until April (when LaVigne claims Lewis extorted him during a conversation after a game). The clear objective was to create a (false) narrative of Lewis going out of his way in order to allegedly “extort,” LaVigne. Hard evidence supports that Pierce Bainbridge and LaVigne were untruthful in court filings.

Below are photos from a February 13, 2019 championship game at Chelsea Piers Sky Rink Arena; LaVigne and Lewis are identified in the first, in the second they are side-by-side in the middle. In addition, a screenshot from a March 6, 2019 exchange between the two about another game is below. “OMW” means “on my way.”

Both February 13, 2019 and March 6, 2019, fall between November 2018 and April 2019.

Denver G. Edwards

Denver G. Edwards is on the Board of Trustees at Middlebury College. He has previously worked as a partner at Bryant Rabbino LLP and Bressler, Amery & Ross LLP. Edwards claimed in court filings and a sworn affidavit that Lewis blew confidentiality by publicly naming the firm’s litigation funder Pravati Capital LLC. To the contrary, the relationship was already the subject of media coverage, a press release from Pravati (the firm’s original name was Pierce Sergenian) and, even worse, publicly filed UCC lending documents in Denver Edwards’s own name, disclosed the relationship. (Below is an image from a March 8, 2019 UCC filing.)

The Conley “Withdrawal Stunt”

The third musketeer, Conley, is, according to Lewis: “as deceitful as the others.” The “Withdrawal Stunt” covered earlier, is detailed below.

Lewis Withdraws the Complaint at Conley’s Request, She Thanks Him

May 15, 11:40 a.m. – Lewis filed his complaint in New York.

May 15, 12:12 p.m. – Conley e-mailed Lewis’s counsel to request that he withdraw the complaint stating: “[PB] could get to Lewis’ number if you provide more time.”

May 15, 2:12 p.m. – Lewis’s counsel withdrew the complaint, Conley wrote to thank him and ask for a copy of the withdrawn complaint with the filing-stamp affixed.

May 15, 6:12 p.m. – Pierce Bainbridge filed a complaint in Los Angeles against Lewis which was never mentioned during the Conley-led negotiations. The complaint included the filed-stamped copy of the withdrawn complaint Conley requested.

Pierce Bainbridge Says Lewis Withdrew as “Scheme to Extort”

Incredibly, Pierce Bainbridge then alleged in LA: “[Lewis] deleted the filing as a tactic, furthering his scheme to extort [PB].” Seeing what had happened, Lewis’s counsel immediately took Conley to task:

Conley avoided these pointed questions, Pierce Bainbridge then labeled Lewis an “extortionist” and “terrorist,” S. Jeanine Conley failed and, eleven months later, continues to fail to come forward with the truth.

Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

For months, Pierce Bainbridge has been on a downward spiral towards full implosion. Thirty-five lawyers have jumped the sinking ship. Pierce was finally stripped of his Managing Partner title after his alleged Ponzi-Like financial foul play, which Lewis reported to the partnership well over a year ago. Now Pierce Bainbridge’s own attorney, Marc Mukasey, citing ethical concerns, has asked to withdraw as outside counsel. Attorneys who were or are with Pierce Bainbridge have apparently broken the wall of silence, as Lewis recently reported to the court, and reportedly have divulged information concerning Pierce Bainbridge manufacturing and destroying material evidence, and engaging in fraud on the court.

With respect to his former partners, who largely only started leaving when the firm was already in meltdown mode, Lewis says, “they are like rats fleeing a sinking ship; each of them turned a blind eye to issues I pointed out in written communications over a year ago; they did not care; their greed outweighed their integrity.” Lewis continued: “It is crystal clear to any reasonable person what has happened here, yet none of my former partners has ever reached out to apologize or attempt to make this right; they remained concerned with themselves only, fueled by selfishness and greed.”

The reports of substance abuse, the lies, the illicit financial dealings, the misogyny, Mukasey filing to withdraw, thirty-five lawyers quitting Team Pierce: none of this, however, has deterred Conley, LaVigne and Edwards. They remain committed to John Pierce and the firm, like the musicians on the Titanic. Beloved country western singer Kenny Rogers recently passed, but his lyrics in “The Gambler” are timeless words of wisdom; perhaps it’s time for the “Three Pierce Musketeers” to pay them heed.

The post Pierce Bainbridge and Littler Mendelson: Two Law Firms in the Same Deceitful Pod? appeared first on Legal Desire.

Pierce Bainbridge and Littler Mendelson: Two Law Firms in the Same Deceitful Pod? published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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yesburningpoetrycollection · 5 years

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KALINICH: ON PLIGHT OF LOUIS CANCHARI AND ‘ABSOLUTE INSURER RULE’

Where does the ‘Absolute Insurer Rule’ extend?

Louis Canchari has owned and trained horses at Canterbury Park for 32 years. His love and passion for the sport and the horses were inherited by his two sons, Patrick and Alex, who practically grew up there and today are successful jockeys. At 62, Canchari is broke and had to sell his stable of nine horses. But, he can’t imagine returning to Canterbury Park until he gets his reputation back. In horse racing, a reputation is all you have really.

And in horse racing, that reputation can be tainted in a nanosecond by a picogram of an illegal substance no matter how it got there. The trainer has the “Absolute Insurer” responsibility. But does he or she have the absolute control?

In 2014, Canchari’s reputation took a hit when his horse, Smart Masterpiece finished second and he was approached by the steward. “He said ‘your horse got a bad test’, I said ‘bad test’, he said, ‘methamphetamine,’ ‘I don’t even know what it is, methamphetamine,’” he recalled to Fox 9 Investigators. Smart Masterpiece was disqualified. Canchari was fined $2,000 and suspended for 90 days.

Then, three years later, in 2017 another Canchari horse, Carson’s Storm, tested positive for methamphetamine with a microscopic, trace amount: 126 picograms (per mil of blood). A picogram is one trillionth of a gram. This time, the Minnesota Racing Commission dropped the hammer with a $25,000 fine and a three year suspension. On appeal, the penalty was upheld by an administrative judge but was later reduced to $10,000 and one year.

“No one comes to a track to watch horses running with meth in their system,” said Tom DiPasquale, executive director of the Minnesota Racing Commission. “It has a high potential to effect performance in a horse and has no purpose in a horse, so as a class one violation, it’s the most serious offense in racing,” DiPasquale said.

Under the Minnesota Racing Commission’s zero tolerance policy, the trainer is ultimately responsible for the welfare of the horse. The Absolute Insurer Rule. Canchari had to essentially prove his innocence. “This is not a criminal trial and fault is not required, and that’s what Mr. Canchari has misunderstood,” DiPasquale said. The commission’s view is while Canchari may not have intentionally given methamphetamine to the horses, he failed to protect them from exposure.

This is not an isolated incident. Another trainer, Shane Miller, had a horse test positive in 2017. He paid his fine and left racing. It also happened to Mac Robertson, the most successful trainer in Canterbury Park’s history. He had a horse test positive in 2015. On June 7 Purest Form won in a $7,500 claiming race in which he was the favorite. A couple of weeks later, Robertson was summoned to a meeting with the stewards. He was told Purest Form had tested positive for meth.

“I asked, ‘How much?’ And they said, ‘It’s small’ … they didn’t give me a number,” Robertson said. “Wouldn’t have meant much to me, anyway, because I didn’t know what a picogram meant with meth. I don’t know anything about meth, except we’ve had a few cases on the backside where people were found with it.” Eventually, the number came back from the split sample at 74 picograms. “What would meth do to help a horse win a race?” Robertson remarked in an interview with The Star Tribune.

Kellyn Gorder is a well-regarded thoroughbred trainer. His then three-year-old filly, Bourbon Warfare, won a maiden race at Churchill Downs on November 22, 2014, and was drug tested with split tests. Bourbon Warfare’s tests both came back with a trace of methamphetamine — the first split at 57 picograms and the second at 48 picograms.

There were also incident of the same in Australia. In 2016, Australian racehorse trainer Ben Currie came under scrutiny after his horse, Party Till Dawn, tested positive for methamphetamine. This was the second time in just more than a year that a racehorse in Queensland has tested positive for methamphetamine. In October 2015, trainer Cassandra Marsh was fined $5,000 after her horse Island Tang was found to have a trace amount of the substance in his system. She blamed the failed tests on one of Island Tang’s handlers, a regular user of methamphetamine, who she said inadvertently transferred trace elements of the drug to the horse.

Both Miller and Robertson told the FOX 9 Investigators they believe their horses were contaminated by methamphetamine users working behind the scenes at Canterbury. Drug and alcohol use is not uncommon on the backside.

“I think it is probably an incidental transfer from a human substance abuser, likely through contact with the human hands to the horse’s mucus membranes,” said Dr. Mary Scollay, executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, based in Kentucky. That would be the mouth, nostrils, eyes. Others speculate it could happen if a methamphetamine user urinates in a stall or washes their hands in the horse’s water bucket.

At horse racing tracks around the country there are a scattering of positive methamphetamine tests every year. “It is not that common. In any given year, there may be a half dozen findings out of 10,000’s of post-race tests,” Dr. Scollay said.

There are no studies testing the effect of methamphetamine on horses because it would be unethical to conduct such research. But, like humans, the prevailing belief is methamphetamine could cause an irregular heartbeat, which could result in atrial fibrillation, the most common cause of fatalities among race horses.

Dr. Scollay says on a practical level, it is perception that matters. “I don’t know how much medication it takes to gain or lose fractions of a second, but if I am the one who runs second to a horse that has meth in its blood, I am going to say I was cheated,” she told the Fox 9 Investigators.

Thermoscientific recently wrote about this issue and steps being taken within the industry to aid in resolving these issues. The impact of drugs in the environment is an emerging problem, but not just for forensic or public health agencies. This issue has also entered the paddocks of horse racing.

Failed equine drug tests have placed blame on everything from tainted feed, to stables contaminated with human urine, to handlers who inadvertently transferred traces of methamphetamine to horses. The proliferation of environmental contamination has proven to be a challenge in the interpretation of drug test results. Increasingly sensitive equipment used in screening has led to horses testing positive for drugs reportedly not administered to them by trainers or veterinarians. Low quality data can sometimes lead to false conclusions. How can officials be aided to determine what is environmental contamination and what is actual equine doping?

What drugs or substances are in the racing environment that may contaminate the horse’s body and affect testing? Without any concrete evidence as to the levels of drugs present in the environment, it’s still just speculation.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission is trying to find some answers. The growing concern about environmental contamination and increasing levels of sensitivity in equine drug testing has led to an approved analytical study by the Commission. The study, announced in May of 2018, will collect samples from Kentucky racetracks using broad-based, high-sensitivity full spectrum analysis instruments designed to quantify various substances and drugs found in different areas of the racing environment.

However, until this research is completed we still have the Absolute Insurer Rule. The trainer has the ultimate responsibility for their horse. But they do not have absolute control over every human their horse comes into contact with?

Louis Canchari said after the second positive result in 2017, all of his employees took drug tests and passed. Canchari even took a voluntary polygraph. He believes his horses could have been contaminated by the starting gate crew because it’s the one part of the race a trainer has no control over. When Canterbury Park tried to randomly drug test the starting gate crew in 2017, a half dozen members quit and left a month early for a track in Arizona.

In 2014, a month after Canchari’s first horse tested positive, Shakopee Police arrested two members of the starting gate crew, Dustin Matthew Shanyfelt and Devin Lynn Stortzum, both of whom were in possession of methamphetamine. In a dorm room behind the track, police found a gram of methamphetamine, a pipe used to smoke it, a scale, and a bottle containing urine to falsify a drug test.

The Fox 9 Investigators also discovered at least five other horse handlers at Canterbury busted for drugs during this period. A stable worker, Helene Elizabeth Bowen, was caught with a ball of meth, as well as morphine and oxycodone. A jockey from Iowa, Siegmore Richard Karl Golibrzuch, has a small amount of methamphetamine in his locker, along with a device used to shock horses during a race. And exercise walker, Scott Russell Hawkins, was arrested with methamphetamine near Canterbury in 2015. He also lost his license in Oklahoma for testing positive for the drug. But the Minnesota Racing Commission granted him a license anyway, even though the stewards determined he was “unfit for licensure due to his history of methamphetamine use.”

Regardless of these findings the Commission is adamant who has the responsibility. The commission’s view is while Canchari may not have intentionally given methamphetamine to the horses, he failed to protect them from exposure. Under the Minnesota Racing Commission’s zero tolerance policy, the trainer is ultimately responsible for the welfare of the horse. Canchari had to essentially prove his innocence.

“It has been the basis of horse racing, someone has to be responsible for the horse, but we live in a more complicated world than perhaps when the rules were written,” Dr. Scollay added.

For Canchari, that means reputation, will always place second. “When I die, I’m going to die with nothing like all the jockeys and the trainers,” he said. And he said he will never go back to Canterbury. “I refuse to go. When I go, I want to run with my horses. I’ll be happy man, and my life will come back again,” Canchari said. Earlier this year, an administrative law judge upheld the racing commission’s discipline of Canchari, but he still refuses to pay his $10,000 fine.

“The only reason I’m talking to [Fox9] today is because my dignity, my honor, is more important than anything. More important than the racing commission, more important than Canterbury, because that is all you’ve got — your dignity,” Canchari said.

Contributing Authors

MB Kalinich

Maribeth Kalinich is a racing enthusiast and historian who writes about current racing events, Thoroughbred history and preservation of historic racing sites. Growing up in...

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paulsletters · 6 years

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Dear Tom again.

I don’t accept Evolution because I know it’s not true. If you haven’t realised it already Tom you will see that I have the convictions of a dictator. But hey if evolution was true it would be a different story wouldn’t it. I suspect that you’re not crazy about the idea of looking at all the material that rubbishes Evolution. I understand that. You want it to be true. It appeals to us doesn’t it. To you and me and countless millions. But I don’t buy it Tom. You do. It makes you feel important. You won’t agree with this Tom but with all due respect to you this is where I understand you and countless millions like yourself better than you guys do. Ah but this is the price I have to pay isn’t it Tom and suffer the slings and arrows for being one thats ridiculed for my views and for daring to tell others I know them better than they do. Hey Tom, there is always one possibility and it’s this. I am right. Atheism is a most splendid delusion. Your father wasn’t delusional. But your friend Richard Dawkins is. He is absolutely 100% deluded. I have given you good advice Tom but you are yet to take it. And that’s to cry out to God and tell him that if He exists you will follow and obey Him if He reveals Himself to you. But Tom you don’t really want God to exist. But you are so deluded you don’t actually see this. You actually think otherwise. Not only have you never cried out to God in all sincerity but you gloss over it and never write about it. You speak about God and say if He exists, He will know you did what you believed to be right. But think about this for a minute. Let’s for a moment assume the worst. You die and you meet God. You say, hey God I did what I believed to be right. Ok let’s say you say that. What would you say if God said to you. Why didn’t you do what your pen friend Paul told you to do? He said to go to a lonely beach or the woods and yell out sincerely to God to reveal Himself or kneel somewhere quietly. You never did that Tom. He said to make a study as to why intelligent people like Professor Walter Veith do not believe in Evolution. You haven’t done this either Tom. He said to do a study on all the prophesies in the bible that have supposedly come true. There are books on the subject and copious amounts of info on line. But Tom you haven’t done that either. He said Tom you have a brain. I wanted you to watch copious amounts on NDE videos because I knew that you would eventually see it isn’t a bunch of hallucinations but Tom you wouldn’t watch them either except for maybe a few. I said watch truck loads of them. Make it a study of them. I got Paul to tell you to do it but you dismissed it. And then there are Christians telling their before and after stories of becoming born again Tom but you didn’t want to watch them on Utube. Instead you spent your time opposing me with arguments. Tom let’s be fair saith the Lord, you didn’t want me to exist. I threw Paul the apostle off his horse because I knew I could bring him to his senses, but Tom you wouldn’t let me throw you from your horse. It was going to be a waste of time. The Pharisees who paid off the guards to say the disciples stole the body were also a waste of time. And now Tom you have thrown away your life. You are unsuitable to be with those who love and obey me with never ending gratitude. This place called heaven is what I created you for, but Tom, it’s now an anathema to you, therefore you cannot enter in. You have not developed any necessary love for me saith the Lord in order to harmonise in this place called heaven. There is no plan B Tom. There is nowhere else for you to go. Everlasting life in heaven is only suitable to those who have proved their grateful love to me. I begged you to repent via the instrumentality of many people such as your father, and your pen friend Paul who tried so hard to reach you, but Tom you knew best. I cannot let you in. You disqualified yourself. And regrettably you have to be destroyed as though you never existed. There is no plan B. There is no where else for you to go. Ok Tom that’s the end of the story of how it could be with you and the Lord. But remember this Tom and it’s this. I have all my marbles. I’m not a nut job. I can think. And with all due respect to you Tom I can probably out think you. I believe what I believe not just because of blind faith but because of what I know to be true. Hell is a hell of a place to go to. And there was a time when I was heading there too. I didn’t become a born again believer in Jesus Christ to avoid hell. It wasn’t even on my radar. And really it’s the wrong motivation. It’s like all those people who drowned in the great flood. If they could have gotten on the ark when the flood came they would have done it. But they would have eventually returned to their wicked ways. The right motivation is genuine submission to God. A surrender to God. If you become born again like me I can give you bible studies on line. But I’m not holding my breath Tom.

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fromtheringapron · 6 years

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Coliseum Critique: WWF Rampage ‘91

It’s so easy to write off the WWF Coliseum Home Video releases of the ‘80s and ‘90s as merely products of their time because, well, they are. And truthfully, it’s tough explaining their appeal to anyone who wasn’t fortunate enough to have them on the shelves of their local video store back in the day. But thanks to the WWE Network finally caving to years of demand, they’ve been uploaded for critical reappraisal. That they’ve been so requested by fans suggests they’re were more than just a fad, and I’ll be exploring why with the Coliseum Critique.

I chose to start with WWF Rampage ’91 because, um, The Rockers teaming up with The Big Bossman? Count me the fuck in. In all seriousness though, I feel like this tape is pretty exemplary of the Coliseum Home Video library. There are a bunch of random matches strewn together, with some silly segments sprinkled in between. That may not seem like much in a time where big matches are given away for free on Raw every week, but matches between two name talents didn’t happen all the time on TV back in ’91 so something like Road Warrior Animal vs. Paul Roma is made to feel all the more special and important. It’s almost like not showing all of your roster on TV every week to the point of overexposure can actually work in getting everyone over. Hmmm.

Anyway, let’s get down to it. I’ll be structuring these reviews a bit differently than my regular ones and I’m honestly still figuring out how to do that so bear with me:

Golfing with Sean Mooney, Gene Okerlund, and Bobby Heenan: This is a series of segments shown between each match, but I think it’s best to keep it as one entry because I’m lazy. It’s not a proper Coliseum Home Video release if Sean Mooney isn’t hosting it. It’s hard to describe the appeal of Mooney, but I do think it has something to do with the fact he seems like your average newscaster who just so happens to be thrown into the wacky world of pro wrestling and deals with it accordingly. He’s also not unlike Julie Chen on Big Brother in the sense that his awkward, stilted manner of talking actually enhances his charm.

He’s joined by Okerlund and Heenan at a golf course, which is apparently located in Stamford, CT and is probably just Vince McMahon’s backyard. The segments are mostly just Heenan being incompetent at golf despite Okerlund’s attempts at giving him lessons. That’s another thing about Coliseum Home Video. You’ll get these random segments that have nothing to do with wrestling, but are nonetheless a delight. It’s just a hoot seeing larger-than-life characters try to do everyday stuff.

Intercontinental Championship Match: Mr. Perfect (champion) (with The Coach) defeated The British Bulldog via disqualification: Perfect and Bulldog wrestled each other a lot on the house show circuit in the spring/summer of ’91. Mooney keeps calling Perfect “The Flawless One” on commentary and it annoys me a great deal. Stop trying to make fetch happen, Sean. This match also gives us a rare look at Perfect’s short-lived manager The Coach, who is such a downgrade from Heenan and is super unnecessary. Since they’re setting up Bret Hart as the top contender for the IC title by the time of this match, he shows up in Bulldog’s corner mid-match but winds up causing Bulldog to get disqualified when he attacks Perfect. If I were Bulldog, I’d actually be pissed at Bret for costing me the title. He really couldn’t rise above his tiff with Perfect to help his brother-in-law win the title? I guess Owen was right; Bret is too damn selfish.

The Texas Tornado fought The Warlord to a double count-out: This takes places in Madison Square Garden. The Warlord’s look is amazing, sorry. Seriously one of my favorites. I know some people mock it, but I dig the Phantom of the Opera meets Star Trek vibe of it all. You know who doesn’t look amazing? The Texas Tornado, who is wearing years of drug use on his face by this point. I’d say more but HOLY FUCK JIM NEIDHART IS ANNOYING ON COMMENTARY. I have no idea why they thought his work in 30-second Hart Foundation promos would translate into hours-long television broadcasts, but this match takes place smack in the middle of that experiment. As for the match, both guys get counted out of the ring, but Neidhart’s commentary caused me to nearly blackout so I kinda feel like I missed most of it.

Road Warrior Animal defeated Paul Roma (with Hercules): Different MSG show, same annoying Neidhart commentary. What’s really distracting here though is that the order of the classic red/white/blue ring ropes has been switched up, with blue as the top rope instead. It’s amazing how just swapping the red and blue ropes can suddenly make the WWF look like a knock-off indy fed. Anyway, Roma and Hercules flip a coin before the match to see who will wrestle Animal but since this is Power & Glory post-WrestleMania VII, they’re already losing either way. No idea of Road Warrior Hawk’s whereabouts during this match, but I’m guessing it’s due to an injury, drugs, or the classic wrestling mix of both.

The Big Bossman & The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Janetty) defeated The Mountie & The Nasty Boys (with Jimmy Hart): One of the coolest things about Coliseum Home Video is that you’d sometimes get these ultra rare team-ups you would never see on television. The Rockers teaming up The Bossman is a prime example, so my enjoyment of this match largely coasted on that basis alone, or maybe it’s just because Shawn wears one of those silly Rockers hats to the ring completely stone-faced. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk it about it before, but The Mountie’s entrance music is incredible. It’s like an aerial shot of the Canadian Rockies put to sound. Just beautiful. On a grim note, it’s taken me forever to realize the Bossman is wearing the Confederate Flag on the sleeve of his shirt. And here I thought he was problematic for killing Al Snow’s dog and ruining the funeral for Big Show’s dad.

The Dragon defeated Demolition Smash: Simply referring to Ricky Steamboat as “The Dragon” does not feel kosher in any way, but that’s what the WWF wants us to roll with. Like, I get they wanted him to appeal to younger viewers, but didn’t he already do a pretty a good job of that in his first run just by being Ricky Steamboat? The funny part is that The Dragon was actually my introduction to Steamboat, as I owned his Hasbro figure growing up. This is from the same MSG show with the messed-up ropes. Again, distracting. Watching Demolition Smash here all by himself makes me deeply sad. He’s stripped of everything that made Demolition the top tag team in all of wrestling just a year prior. No Axe, no Crush, no Rick Derringer entrance music, no S&M masks. Even Mr. Fuji has bailed on him. No wonder why he turned to a life of Long Ranger masks and stealing people’s stuff. The poor guy had nothing.

The Barbarian (with Bobby Heenan) defeated Jake Roberts via count-out: My mind drifted during this match, admittedly. I will say The Barbarian’s look is also amazing. They really did a good job of making sure both former members of the Powers of Pain look like total badasses. This takes place during that special time where Earthquake murdered Jake Roberts’ pet snake Damien on TV. Quake gets involved in the match here to continue the feud, although when he came to ringside I started thinking what it would’ve been like if he were managed by Heenan instead. Like, I imagine Heenan would’ve quickly picked up a guy whose raison d’etre was once to put Hulk Hogan permanently on the shelf, yes? The downside is that we’d be robbed of those amazing promos where Quake is bouncing around with Jimmy Hart shrieking in the background. Anyway, The Barbarian holds a victory over Jake Roberts. How about that?

Greg Valentine defeated Haku: This is from the other Rampage event, broadcast exclusively in the UK a month after WrestleMania VII. Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper are on commentary for this. I don’t really have much to say about the match, other than Greg Valentine as a face is super weird. It’s such a contrast to his “grumpy bus driver” aesthetic.

Power & Glory (Hercules & Paul Roma) (with Slick) fought The Orient Express (Kato & Tanaka) (with Mr. Fuji) to a double count-out: Okay, this is the random ass shit I want out of a Coliseum Home Video release. You see, kids, a classic Coliseum Home Video match isn’t a showcase of technical expertise or a high-risk spotfest. Rather, it’s the matches that make you stop in your tracks and say, “Um, what?” That’s simply the Coliseum Home Video way, and a generation of fans accepted it.

Heel vs. heel matches are already pretty rare for this time period, but what also makes this match a bit of an odd duck is that both teams were on their way out by the time of this video’s release. The Orient Express never got that huge of a push, but Power & Glory look like a shadow of the fresh-faced tag team they were just a year prior. Hercules in particular looks like he’s aged 10 years, and I could probably write up a separate entry on the dreariness of Herc’s final months in the WWF alone. It’s appropriate that this match ends in a draw considering both teams are going absolutely nowhere. And, wow, two Paul Roma matches on this tape? Coliseum Home Video, you sneaky temptress.

At Home with Paul Bearer: I love skits like this. It’s fluff, yes, but it’s also character development just for the sake of it. This honestly would’ve freaked me out as a kid, especially the part where a human corpse falls out of Bearer’s closet. Bearer shows us his cocktail bar where he makes his favorite drink, a Bloody Mary except we’re supposed to believe it’s actually blood from a dead person named Mary. He can also make a Bloody Jane, Cindy, and Tom. His favorite book is Death of a Salesman which, I mean, cool if you like it, Paul, but I’m personally not an Arthur Miller fan. He’s also apparently inherited the Macho King’s throne after Randy Savage retired from that role. I’m kinda disappointed we didn’t get to see the rest of his home. What’s his bathroom look like?

The Ultimate Warrior defeated The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) via disqualification: The Warrior/Taker feud is proof that you can go totally out there with a storyline and still have people invested in it. I mean, I’m pretty sure the basis of the feud is that Taker tried to murder the Warrior by locking him in a casket, which in turn triggered Warrior’s claustrophobia (there is a lot of attempted murder in early ‘90s WWF, if you pay close attention). Warrior then sought guidance from Jake Roberts, who trained him by burying him up to his head in a grave and later betrayed him by leading him to a room where he was bit by a fake cobra in a box. Um, okay, not sure how they’re getting from point A to point B there, but whacked-out shit like this is why I watch wrestling.

It also helps that I actually dig the Warrior/Taker pairing because I think the characters compliment each other quite well, with Warrior’s frenetic energy contrasting nicely to Taker’s cold, emotionless demeanor. One thing that surprised me about this match is that Warrior gets his ass kicked for much of it. Taker is really being made to look like a legit threat around this time, which sets him up perfectly for Hogan later in the year. He gets some of Warrior’s face paint on his gloves, which Lord Alfred Hayes on commentary seems to mistake as human skin on commentary. That’s a tasty visual if there ever was one.

And with that, the tape reaches its conclusion!

What I’ve Learned: Coliseum Home Video releases were a great way of developing characters without worrying about putting them near a wrestling ring or wasting any precious television time. In retrospect, they also serve as a nice history lesson as to what the feuds and roster were like at the time of the video’s release, and this particular tape gave me plenty of insight into the state of things in the spring/summer of 1991. Yes, the matches are randomly strewn together, and they wouldn’t be able to pull it off successfully today, but it’s a nice reminder of a time where booking made matches between wrestlers on the lower end of the card still fresh and important. Other things I’ve learned: Bret is too damn selfish, the works of Arthur Miller aren’t interesting, The Bossman isn’t quite as reputable a policeman as everyone thinks, The Barbarian and The Warlord are the fashionistas we’ve always needed, and Jim Neidhart should stay far, far away from the commentary booth.

#wwe network #coliseum home video

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footyplusau · 7 years

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After the siren: If your team’s 0-2, is it time to panic?

THERE is 0-2 and there is 0-2 and right now, there are eight teams without a win to their name that are feeling various forms of anxiety.

All is not lost. Since the top eight was introduced in 1994, 18 teams have made the finals after losing their first two games, with Sydney in 2014 being the most recent.

Where the nervousness sets in is at 0-3, from which only six teams went on to make the finals, one of which was Carlton in 2013 and only after Essendon was disqualified from September action.

So for these clubs, a big week looms. Let’s take a look at how they’re tracking, in ladder order.

11. COLLINGWOOD Not a whole lot to add to hours of weekend radio already devoted to the Magpies. They could nearly have put the game out of Richmond’s reach by half-time had they kicked straight, but they left the window just wide enough for the Tigers to climb back in and take control of the game. There’s no doubting that the Pies are turning up to play, but their skill errors are killing them and the No.1 query heading into the season – the potency of their forward line – remains a big problem. Nathan Buckley can rightfully query his list management people and in particular their infatuation with midfielders and ask why they couldn’t find him at least one more key forward. The Swans at the SCG on Friday night will be daunting opponents.

12. NORTH MELBOURNE Brad Scott picked a team of goers to take on Geelong on Sunday and for three quarters and a bit, they were excellent. It didn’t seem to matter there was no Todd Goldstein and no Jarrad Waite, but they made the Cats slow and reactive through much of an absorbing afternoon. Leading the tackle count 18-6 while also leading the game by 25 points at the first change was a reasonable sign of intent. Last season’s sweeping personnel changes make a finals appearance seem unlikely for North, but fans should enjoy watching Jy Simpkin, Braydon Preuss, Taylor Garner and Trent Dumont continue to blossom and Shaun Higgins give the All Australian selectors early cause for thought.

13. ST KILDA The Saints were magnificent for three-and-a-half quarters against West Coast on Saturday night. They headed west with a plan and for much of the game they denied West Coast time and space in the corridor and they worked the scoreboard furiously themselves. They led 6.7 to 4.0 at the first change, but should have led by six goals such was their dominance. So good did they look for large periods against the Eagles, that they should feel comfortable about beating the Brisbane Lions and Collingwood at Etihad Stadium in the next fortnight, to square the ledger at 2-2 and get their season firmly back on track. Circle the Hawthorn game in round six in Tassie as their next chance to bury the growing interstate bogey.

14. HAWTHORN Not since 2009 have the Hawks dropped their first two games and there seems to be no sense of panic, with coach Alastair Clarkson saying after the 24-point loss to Adelaide that he still believes he has a premiership list at his disposal. We’re not quite as convinced, but the Hawks were a bit stiff on Saturday losing runners Grant Birchall, Liam Shiels and Isaac Smith to various injuries when the game was in the balance. Hawthorn’s back six remains a concern and the forward line isn’t performing close to potential. The upside is that boom recruits Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara have been outstanding. And Clarko, if you’re reading, Ryan Burton needs to play every week.

• Nine things we learned from round two

15. SYDNEY The Swans probably deserved harsher criticism for their opening-round loss to Port Adelaide, but get nothing but praise here for a brave effort against the Dogs on Friday night. The Swans aren’t fielding close to their best side due to injury and on Friday night lost Kurt Tippett early in the game. What we learned from the Swans was a) Lance Franklin is worth just about every cent they’re paying him b) Sydney’s coaches might be the best in the competition given how first-gamers such as Robbie Fox, Nic Newman and Will Hayward can make an impact straight away and c) midfield leaders Luke Parker and Dan Hannebery need to do just that bit more. The Swans should break their duck against the Pies on Friday night at home, but the West Coast and GWS games to follow will make or break their season.

16. CARLTON What we saw from Carlton is what we’ll likely get all season – honesty and industry, but not enough polish to go with the big boys. They made the Demons sweat on Sunday and hit the lead after a barnstorming third quarter that would have delighted Blues fans, particularly the work of former Giant Caleb Marchbank and draftees Sam Petrevski-Seton and Harrison Macreadie. And good to see Dale Thomas play better after a week of commentary, not all of it informed and some of it unfair.

17. GOLD COAST The ‘no more excuses’ year isn’t panning out so well thus far for the Suns, who paid a high price for their tardy start in the season opener against the Lions and then appeared to turn up their toes when it got too willing against GWS on Saturday. It was a meek performance from a team coach Rodney Eade said doesn’t have too many alpha-type personalities and it doesn’t help when Gary Ablett is held to one touch in the first quarter. One-time favourite son O’Meara and the Hawks come to town for a twilight game next Sunday. What sort of response will the Suns provide?

18. FREMANTLE Hands up those of you thought Fremantle bottomed out last year? Yeah, include me in that group. The freefall seemingly continues after a non-competitive effort against Port Adelaide on Sunday. The worrying part for the Dockers is that they still have one of the oldest lists in the competition. Ross Lyon can keep playing the kids, but he doesn’t have all that many, and he’ll need a few more drafts and the re-signing of Nat Fyfe to get this thing going again.

• Around the state leagues: Who shone in your club’s twos?

Crows shop early

Adelaide would likely have settled for a split of their opening two games of the season after drawing the Giants and Hawthorn to start with. Instead, the Crows are 2-0 and they’re off and running.

Improvement has come incrementally for the Crows but what delighted them on Saturday was conceding a 24-point lead at quarter-time to a team they hadn’t beaten since 2011 and had lost a few heartbreakers to (refer the 2012 preliminary final and round five last year) and turning it around from there.

They were on the receiving end of blistering start from Hawthorn but even late in the first quarter, the sense was the game was being played on their terms. It was crying out for ruckman Sam Jacobs to take control and once he did there was an air in inevitability about it all.

“To play in different way and win in different way is a benefit to take out if the game,” coach Don Pyke said afterwards, adding that the players themselves starting making the on-field adjustments to get the Crows back in the game.

The ability to adjust on the fly is the hallmark of really good teams. Two weeks in and we’re ready to include the Crows in that group.

Do yourself a favour…

If you haven’t already done so, to watch the final quarter of Friday night’s Bulldogs-Swans clash, which had as many twists and turns as the final stanza of the Grand Final they played in last year, but the standard of football far, far better.

Three goals from Lance Franklin, brilliance from Jake Stringer and Marcus Bontempelli and some umpiring controversy for the Monday morning quarterbacks, this game had it all.

When the coaches pause to reflect afterwards that it must have been a great game to watch, then you know it was one to watch over and over again. So please do.

Other observations

1. We in the football media can be prone to hyperbole but the push in the back free kick awarded to Hawk Paul Puopolo in the third term at the MCG on Saturday really might have been, as Paul Roos remarked on the Fox Footy match call, one of the worst ever paid.

2. Dustin Martin has us all in his thrall as he makes a blistering start to the season for Richmond. But some of the work from Trent Cotchin in the second half was outstanding and played a key role in getting the Tigers home. The Tigers have been good so far but West Coast in a tasty Saturday afternoon clash at the MCG this week will represent a considerable step up in class.

3. What is it they say about racehorses? Don’t back them second up after a spell? Essendon put paid to that theory at the Gabba, grinding out a 27-point win at the Gabba on Saturday night, having led by 42 points at one stage in the second term before surrendering the lead in the last. 2-0 and with Carlton to come, the Bombers should be well entrenched in the eight ahead of a trip to Adelaide in a fortnight.

4. Adelaide Oval is the place to be next Saturday night. A Showdown featuring teams one and two on the ladder. Nice.

• Fantasy form watch: star Swans disappoint again

5. Jordan Lewis was the poster boy for the ‘unsociable Hawks’ during that club’s dominant era. But now it is Melbourne’s turn to face that anxious wait for the Match Review Panel to do its thing every Monday morning. Lewis should just be OK for the clash with Carlton’s Patrick Cripps, as should Jesse Hogan for his incident with Sam Rowe. If not, then a terrific twilight game next Saturday against Geelong will be that bit tougher for the Demons, who are 2-0 for the first time since 2005, to negotiate.

6. Brave coaching from Geelong’s Chris Scott to temporarily abort the Harry Taylor forward-line experiment midway through the third term with the game against the Kangaroos slipping away. He helped stem the bleeding when he returned to his customary key defensive post, while the Cats forward line looked better without him. Whether a permanent return to the backline is on the cards is something only Scott himself would know. And in keeping with the earlier suggestion about the final 30 minutes of the Dogs-Swans game, the final stanza of Geelong-North was from the top-shelf as well, especially the magnificent leadership of Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield, who will their team over the line. How fortunate the Cats are to have them both.

The post After the siren: If your team’s 0-2, is it time to panic? appeared first on Footy Plus.

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thebarrblog · 7 years

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When Grown Men Cry…

“One guy started pounding on the table and weeping…” (continued below)

It was early 2000’s when I first read Wild at Heart. I remember mid-book a close friend characterized it as 75% Biblical and 25% Worldy. I became skeptical…at first.

By the time I finished the book I realized what he meant. John Eldridge takes a major masculine angle that at times appears to border machismo. He tells the wife to let her husband get the motorcycle and the everyman to climb a mountain. However, he later clarified this as a blueprint or metaphor or example of a general principle. And by the way, I actually agree with the first one. The difference is the motive. The man who wants the motorcycle should be allowed to get it if the only thing in the way is a wife’s fear of danger. It’s not the same as being reckless. The second is the one more about principle. We don’t all need to scale the rock, but we may all need to scale a metaphorical one. Here’s the slogan for the book. Maybe it’ll help.

“Deep in his heart, every man longs for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.” - John Eldridge

Now that I’ve set up the book for you, let me share some of the retreat.

More of the same? Not even close! I was worried I had romanticized this event. So I told myself not to expect too much. I was pleasantly surprised. More like blown away.

I had become complacent about some things, in particular the idea that spiritual mountain tops were a thing of the past. And in fairness, we shouldn’t expect or even need those if they’re defined by emotions alone. But this was something different. It wasn’t meant to just “retreat” and have a sort of spiritual high for a weekend. Of course, we were literally on a mountain top. It was beautiful Fraser, CO, just above Winter Park, at 8500’ elevation. I took a couple long soaks in the outdoor hot tub shaped like a dull 3-tear-drop Chinese throwing star. Some awesome convos took place there. Anyhow, I digress. The weekend was less about a getaway and more about introducing some freedom found in scripture. I’ll try and summarize some main points.

We watched a lot of movie clips. Manly movie clips of course. Like Braveheart, Gladiator, Last of the Mohicans, Lord of the Rings, and Superman. But we also watched clips from The Kid with Bruce Willis, City Slickers, Good Will Hunting, Les Miserables, Groundhog Day and Jerry MaGuire. What do all these movies have in common? Men seeking to fulfill an adventure deep in their hearts. I’ll just mention a few.

The Kid:

The movie The Kid was a touching fun Disney movie, but the premise is so crucial to the heart of a man, involving a 40 year old and his 8-year-old self, checking in on what he’s become. In one scene, the kid says to Willis, “where’s my truck?”…“my family?”…“my dog?”, etc. Realizing he’s just a single bitter Image Consultant, the kid responds, “I grow up to be a loser.”

City Slickers:

The same happens to Billy Crystal’s character in City Slickers. Faced with a boring job, he ropes his buddies into a cowboying adventure. I’m sure you know it.

Good Will Hunting:

In Good Will Hunting, Will (Matt Damon) is a wounded, beaten as a child, genius who’s concocted such an elaborate mask that it takes another genius (Robin Williams), wounded, beaten as a child, therapist to speak to his heart.

Jerry MaGuire:

In Jerry MaGuire, he (Tom Cruise) has an epiphany and calls it a “breakdown/breakthrough”. MaGuire writes a memo to all the sports managers on how to be more authentic and care for the players. He writes outlandish things like, “fewer clients” and “less money”. He’s ostracized from the business and saved only by a single player who chooses to believe in him because MaGuire gives him everything.

Braveheart:

My favorite is actually in Braveheart, and it’s not William Wallace. Robert the Bruce’s father convinces him to compromise his morals, his word, his freedom, his people, and ultimately his heart, to remain noble and wealthy. Eventually, after betraying Wallace and seeing the hurt in his eyes, The Bruce confronts his father in a rant ending with him screaming “BUT I DON’T WANT TO LOSE HEART!”

Aha Moments:

Here’s the main point of this thing: We are created to be warriors and Satan has it out for us.

John (Eldridge) shared that we are part of a story that is both large and small, both God’s and our’s. He has a story and adventure written for each of us! Just for you! And Satan has a mission to disqualify us from our story. He wants men to be nice, safe, tame, heartless, and of course, to assume he’s not even involved. Yes, Jesus defeated Satan, and that’s the judgement day result, but he’s still very active now! And it is very Biblical to think we are part of THAT war! We do that partially by proclaiming the Name of Jesus over the darkness, but we still need to recognize our authority to speak to it!

John empowered us with the truth that we are meant to be warriors on an adventure and meant for great things! This isn’t some prosperity of pride gospel. Jesus is still Lord and we are still sinful and desperate without him. But we are also fearfully and wonderfully made…in the image of the Most High, children of a King, heirs of a promise, and commissioned to fight in a very real battle…and the treasure is our hearts.

The Enemy, and his demons/evil angels, are fiercely trying to distinguish the flame in our hearts above all else. But we have the power and authority by the name of Jesus to command him to go. “Resists…and he will flee.” (James 4:7). Here’s how you do it:

Agreements:

We’ve made agreements with Satan that we are a number of things God does not say we are. Ugly, Lazy, ADHD, Selfish, Angry, Useless, Fat, Skinny, Dumb, etc. Sometimes they’re even little dismissive things we own like, “that doesn’t matter”, “I’m not good enough”, “I’ll never….“, “It’s just….” Now notice some of these things can actually be your current reality and even somewhat true. The problem lies in the defining. Don’t identify with negative terms that may be your temporary reality. We are redeemed and “will one day display the attributes that are already true about us” (partial quote from Truefaced). So whatever you’re speaking over yourself (or hearing and believing), command the lie to be broken, and believe you were made for greatness.

Last Thing:

I was in a room with 7 other guys from the KC area and we’re trying to keep in touch. While there, I think that also made us want to invest in getting to know each other. Out of 450 guys, it was helpful to be intentional with a few. One lunch, after a session alone with God breaking agreements, we began to share.

One by one the Holy Spirit hit us in the public cafeteria as we confessed things we had been believing. One guy started pounding on the table and weeping as he repeated, “I’m NOT selfish!” Another guy confessed some doubt. Another…dumb, which is one of mine due to my struggles in school and natural comparisons. On and on it went. Tears and honesty in public. I eventually said I struggled with the lack of education, but also some fear and jealousy that I didn’t serve in the military or something.

Afterward, the guy who never spoke, approached me and said, “I’ve known a lot of guys in the military, and they all say the real battle is at home.” And there it was: Another recognition that being a good father and husband is the biggest battle we can fight as men. And then it hit me. No one has ever told me I’m dumb or not strong. In fact, I’ve had the opposite communicated from my parents and wife and close friends. So it must be an agreement, not the truth! And certainly not from God or part of my story!

May you break your agreements with the Enemy, let the Father speak new names over you, become aware of the spiritual battle over your heart, see the value in your ability to father and love your wife, and pass it on!

Below is the scene when Robert the Bruce betrays Wallace. The moment that would force him to “never be on the wrong side again.”

And may you be free.

#wildatheart

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christophergill8 · 7 years

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Nanny tax trouble for Trump budget office nominee

Rep. Mick Mulvaney is going to have to answer some nanny tax questions if he hopes to become President-elect Donald Trump's budget director.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney speaks to some of his South Carolina constituents on last September's Constitution Day. (Photo by Erik B. Corcoran via Twitter)

The South Carolina Republican was elected to Congress in 2010 as part of the midterm Tea Party wave. Since then, the man whom some have called a debt warrior has been a major player in the conservative Freedom Caucus and has focused on ways to cut federal spending.

He probably should have focused on his tax filings, especially those from from 2000 to 2004

$15K in missing FICA taxes: During those tax years, Mulvaney failed to pay $15,000 in Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA, taxes, as well as federal and state unemployment taxes, for a household employee.

The tax revelation came in his official nominee questionnaire and was first reported by The New York Times.

Mulvaney said he paid the taxes after discovering the oversight during his confirmation review.

History of appointees' tax troubles: Nanny tax troubles doomed the nomination in 2009 of Nancy Killefer, who had been tapped by President Obama to be the nation's first Chief Performance Officer. Her job would have been to make sure government offices operated as efficiently as possible.

Before then, Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood and Linda Chavez all saw their professional political aspirations stalled by child care tax issues.

Around the same time Killefer was kissing her government job hopes goodbye, Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to serve in the Obama Administration as head the Department of Health and Human Services. Daschle, a former Democratic Senator representing South Dakota, neglected to claim all his income, including the value of a chauffeur-driven car, on his returns. There also were questions about charitable tax deductions.

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner fared better. Despite messing up his self-employment tax payments, Geithner was confirmed for his key financial post in the Obama Administration.

Mulvaney's tax test: Will Mulvaney be able to do what Geither did and get his White House appointment confirmed by the Senate? Or will the nanny tax curse fell him, too?

When the nanny tax trouble of the potential director of the Office of Managmeent and Budget came to light, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) suggested it could be disqualifying.

"If failure to pay taxes was disqualifying for Democratic nominees, then the same should be true for Republican nominees," said Schumer in a statement.

The matter no doubt will come up next Tuesday, Jan. 24, when Mulvaney has his first confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee.

Nanny tax traps: While you likely won't face tough confirmation questions about taxes and your household help, you could find yourself under scrutiny of an IRS auditor if you mess up your household help taxes.

It's popularly called the nanny tax, but the rules covering household workers apply to a wide variety of domestic service providers, including but not limited to caregivers for senior citizens, housekeepers, private nurses, drivers, personal assistants, cooks, yard workers and, yes, child care workers.

If you hire one of these folks, you are, in the IRS' eyes, a household employer as long as you meet some other criteria.

Basically, if you hire someone to perform duties in or around your home and have the ability to control when, where, how or by whom the work is done, you are a household employer and have some tax tasks to complete each year.

The first is due at the end of January. You must file a Form W-2 for your employee by Jan. 31, unless that date falls on a weekend or federal holiday.

Yep, this is the same W-2 that all salaried workers get. It details the worker's earned wages, taxes paid and any benefits they received during the tax year.

FICA tax requirements: You don't have to withhold income tax from a household worker's pay unless the employee asks you to do so. But you when you pay your household employee a certain amount -- it's adjusted annually for inflation; for 2016 and 2017 tax years it is $2,000 or more -- during the year, you do have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for that worker.

This is the 15.3 percent FICA tax (shameless plug: read more about FICA in the ol' blog's tax glossary) that Mulvaney missed.

It's the money that most salaried workers see taken out of their paychecks to go toward their future Social Security and Medicare benefits. In a typical business setting, the FICA tax amounts are split equally between the employer and employee; each pays 6.2 percent of income toward Social Security and 1.45 percent toward Medicare.

On the household help front, though, some generous employers also pick up their employees' FICA tax portions.

Regardless of who pays the FICA taxes, you must give each household worker a W-2 with all the tax details by the Jan. 31 tax deadline or pay a penalty.

This year, you also must get that information to the Social Security Administration (SSA) by the end-of-January due date. You send it to the SSA by submitting a copy of the worker's W-2 via Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements. The SSA has a special employers web page to help with this process.

Numbers you'll need: To take care of your household employer tax tasks, you'll need some information from your employees.

The key piece of data is each domestic worker's Social Security number.

You also will need your own employer identification number, or EIN. You'll need that nine-digit identification number to file the W-2 and W-3 forms, as well as when you report the household wages you paid on the Schedule H you send along with your 1040.

If you don't have an EIN, request one by submitting Form SS-4 Application for Employer ID Number. At this point in the tax season, it's best to use the online option.

Employee, not a contractor: Don't think you can slough off household employer tax responsibilities by calling your help independent contractors.

Tax and labor experts caution that the IRS has consistently ruled that domestic workers should be classified as employees, not contractors. The key here is that as the hiring agent, you have the right to control what, when, where or by whom the work is performed.

Long-term and ongoing arrangements with a housekeeper generally are deemed as an employer-employee relationship, even if the worker brings his or her own supplies.

The IRS has teamed up with the Department of Labor to focus on proper classification of household workers. Improper designations could be very costly.

More info from IRS (and me!): You can find more on determining whether a worker is an employee or contractor in IRS Publication 1779, as well as in my previous post on the tax treatment of seasonal workers and this one on Uber's employee/contractor issues.

IRS Publication 926 goes into detail on the tax duties of household employers.

IRS Publication 15 also has more on employers' tax responsibilities in general.

Yeah, that's a lot of reading. But household employee taxes are an important matter, even if you don't ever plan on holding a top government job.

So file them accurately and on time. And as in all complicated tax situations, get help if you find it's just too much to handle on your own.

The cost of a good tax professional will be well worth the price during filing season and -- never say never -- in possible future Washington, D.C. job searches.

You also might find these items of interest:

4 tax tips for independent contractors

Potential appointee advice: Take tax care!

A Mother's Day tax gift: 10 child care tax credit tips

from Tax News By Christopher http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DontMessWithTaxes/~3/mv1iklseAfM/nanny-tax-trouble-for-trump-omb-nominee.html

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marymosley · 4 years

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Pierce Bainbridge and Littler Mendelson: Two Law Firms in the Same Deceitful Pod?

It appears, that Conley “bet on the wrong horse.”

Deceitful Litigation: “The Norm, not the Exception at Pierce Bainbridge”

Boasting About Violating the Ethical Rules

$27,500,000 Malpractice Claim and Accusation of Intentionally “Bungling” a Client’s Case

New Managing Partner Tom Warren: Sanctions and Violation of Ethical Rules

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Yet Another Sanctions Motion

Fraud on the Court and Destruction of Evidence

John’s Pierce’s Three Musketeers of Dishonesty, Deception and Deceit

The White-Collar Partner Exodus

“John hired a bunch of white-collar lawyers; he thinks they’ll help when the Feds come knocking; they will be the first one’s out the door.” ~ Christopher N. LaVigne

Since LaVigne’s purported statement, at least eleven white-collar partners have hit the Pierce Bainbridge escape hatch:

Caroline Polisi (Armstrong Teasedale, formerly of Creizman LLC)

Deborah Renner (Renner Law, formerly of BakerHostetler)

Eric Creizman (Armstrong Teasedale, formerly of Creizman LLC)

Franklin Velie (formerly of Sullivan & Worcester)

Jeffrey Alexander (Wachtell Missry, formerly Kasowitz Benson)

Jonathan Kortmansky (BraunHagey & Borden LLP, formerly of Sullivan & Worcester)

Joan Meyer (Thompson Hine, formerly of Baker McKenzie)

Melissa Madrigal (Armstrong Teasedale, formerly of Creizman LLC)

Michael Winograd (Brown Rudnick, formerly of Ropes & Gray)

Susan Winkler (Winkler Law, United States Attorney’s Office, Winkler Law)

Thomas Frongillo (formerly Fish and Richardson)

Brazen Lies and Brazen Deceit

Christopher N. LaVigne

Both February 13, 2019 and March 6, 2019, fall between November 2018 and April 2019.

Denver G. Edwards

The Conley “Withdrawal Stunt”

The third musketeer, Conley, is, according to Lewis: “as deceitful as the others.” The “Withdrawal Stunt” covered earlier, is detailed below.

Lewis Withdraws the Complaint at Conley’s Request, She Thanks Him

May 15, 11:40 a.m. – Lewis filed his complaint in New York.

May 15, 12:12 p.m. – Conley e-mailed Lewis’s counsel to request that he withdraw the complaint stating: “[PB] could get to Lewis’ number if you provide more time.”

May 15, 2:12 p.m. – Lewis’s counsel withdrew the complaint, Conley wrote to thank him and ask for a copy of the withdrawn complaint with the filing-stamp affixed.

Pierce Bainbridge Says Lewis Withdrew as “Scheme to Extort”

Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The post Pierce Bainbridge and Littler Mendelson: Two Law Firms in the Same Deceitful Pod? appeared first on Legal Desire.

Pierce Bainbridge and Littler Mendelson: Two Law Firms in the Same Deceitful Pod? published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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