Octopus Overlords

Moliere wrote:Yay! More "free" stuff for Seattle taxpayers to pay for: Mayoral candidate Jenny Durkan pitches free community college tuition for Seattle high-school grads

Pyperkub wrote:

Moliere wrote:Yay! More "free" stuff for Seattle taxpayers to pay for: Mayoral candidate Jenny Durkan pitches free community college tuition for Seattle high-school grads

FWIW, the data is that state money spent on college support for in state students comes back three-fold in terms of local, state taxes.

It's one of the state investments with the best ROI.

Rip wrote:Indeed.

Skinypupy wrote:

Rip wrote:Indeed.

As a Democrat, Mendez is on "my team", so to speak. If the allegations are indeed true and he is found guilty in the trial, then I truly hope he is severely punished and/or forced to serve appropriate restitution.

See how easy that is?

"This case is about serious questions of fact and law related to the corruption of one of the highest elected offices in the United States government," the brief reads. "It is not about anonymous tips, Cuba, Iran, party politics or the political consequences of a conviction.

The question of whether the defendants engaged in a corrupt scheme cannot be answered by the defendants' conspiracy theories. Rather, it only can be answered through a focused examination of the defendants' and their agents' own contemporaneous statements, black-and-white financial, government and business records, and live, non-anonymous witness testimony."

After Menendez was elected to the US Senate in 2006, prosecutors say in the brief that Melgen began "a pattern of treating Menendez to weekend and week-long getaways in the Dominican Republic that would continue for the next several years."

Melgen allegedly flew Menendez on his own private jet or on "equally luxurious travel" to his villa at Case de Campo, a luxurious resort in the Dominican Republic featuring amenities from beaches to polo fields.

At one point, Melgen allegedly purchased a three-night hotel stay for Menendez at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Paris. Prosecutors say that Menendez never acknowledged these gifts on his annual financial disclosure forms.

Melgen also donated heavily to Menendez's campaign and legal defense funds. At one point, Melgen donated more than $770,000 to various funds supporting Menendez over a five-month period.

In return, prosecutors say, Menendez acted in his "official capacity" to help Melgen -- a key hook for legal liability. After a Dominican company, purchased by Melgen, that had the exclusive right to install and operate x-ray imaging equipment in the Dominican Republic ran into a dispute with the government, Menendez allegedly "exerted substantial pressure on the State Department to intervene with the Dominican government to resolve the dispute in Melgen's favor," according to the brief.

Menendez also allegedly acted on Melgen's behalf in a dispute between Melgen's ophthalmology practice and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. When the CMS formally demanded the Melgen pay back $8.9 million in Medicare overbillings, Melgen allegedly asked Menendez to "weigh in with CMS," according to the brief.

In 2009, Menendez allegedly called the director of the Center of Medicare and "pressed the agency to approve Melgen's bills," according to the brief. Prosecutors say the same day as that call Melgen agreed to donate $60,000 to organizations supporting Menendez.

Beyond business matters, Menendez also allegedly got involved at different points in the visa cases of three international women, all allegedly girlfriends of Melgen's. The women, from Ukraine, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, were all attempting to visit Melgen in the United States.

Menendez allegedly lobbied ambassadors and other officials in support of their visa applications, even intervening after one of Melgen's girlfriends and her sister, both from the Dominican Republic, had their visas denied.

YellowKing wrote:Yeah there are much better things to spend taxpayer dollars on, like walls to keep out Mexican rapists and security for Trump's weekly golf outings.

Freyland wrote:I'm sure that if my omnipotent God wanted to smite me for my sins, he would level my entire community to do it. F'ing idiots.

Isgrimnur wrote:

Freyland wrote:I'm sure that if my omnipotent God wanted to smite me for my sins, he would level my entire community to do it. F'ing idiots.

See: Sodom; Gomorrah

Max Peck wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:

Freyland wrote:I'm sure that if my omnipotent God wanted to smite me for my sins, he would level my entire community to do it. F'ing idiots.

See: Sodom; Gomorrah

Or maybe the story of Noah and his ark.

El Guapo wrote:I suspect that Charlie Hebdo thinks of all or substantially all of the population of Texas as Neo-Nazis.

Isgrimnur wrote:

El Guapo wrote:I suspect that Charlie Hebdo thinks of all or substantially all of the population of Texas as Neo-Nazis.

Most Texans think that the French are cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

El Guapo wrote:I suspect that Charlie Hebdo thinks of all or substantially all of the population of Texas as Neo-Nazis.

Max Peck wrote:

El Guapo wrote:I suspect that Charlie Hebdo thinks of all or substantially all of the population of Texas as Neo-Nazis.

I suspect that Charlie Hebdo was making a tasteless comment on right-wing "christians" who often crow about divine justice being expressed through natural disasters, but since je ne suis pas Charlie Hebdo, I don't really know for sure.

French rag Charlie Hebdo mocks Harvey victims as Neo Nazis. Charlie Hebdo makes fun of everyone but Muslims. Cowards

Freyland wrote:

Max Peck wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:

Freyland wrote:I'm sure that if my omnipotent God wanted to smite me for my sins, he would level my entire community to do it. F'ing idiots.

See: Sodom; Gomorrah

Or maybe the story of Noah and his ark.

Fairly sure in both of those situations the story implies the entire populations in question had it coming, not just one person or small group. Not really the same thing.

GreenGoo wrote:What you should ask yourself is why you care so much about a shitty mag in a foreign country with low circulation, and yet when vocal religious leaders in your own country say these things (and mean it) they still have sponsors for their TV and radio shows.

Holman wrote:"Going CNN on Islam."

Wow. Is that what they call... whatever it is they think they're talking about?

GreenGoo wrote:

Holman wrote:"Going CNN on Islam."

Wow. Is that what they call... whatever it is they think they're talking about?

Jesus Christ.

Sure a bunch of them got murdered and sure they are still critical of Islam, but are they critical enough? Asks the guy who thinks everyone else is the idiot.

GreenGoo wrote:

Holman wrote:"Going CNN on Islam."

Wow. Is that what they call... whatever it is they think they're talking about?

Jesus Christ.

Sure a bunch of them got murdered and sure they are still critical of Islam, but are they critical enough? Asks the guy who thinks everyone else is the idiot.

ImLawBoy wrote:

GreenGoo wrote:What you should ask yourself is why you care so much about a shitty mag in a foreign country with low circulation, and yet when vocal religious leaders in your own country say these things (and mean it) they still have sponsors for their TV and radio shows.

That's a really good point. You can't really be upset about poorly done satire* from another country if you haven't gotten all of your domestic bad apples fixed.

* I have not read the article and have no idea whether or not the satire is good or bad.

GreenGoo wrote:

ImLawBoy wrote:

GreenGoo wrote:What you should ask yourself is why you care so much about a shitty mag in a foreign country with low circulation, and yet when vocal religious leaders in your own country say these things (and mean it) they still have sponsors for their TV and radio shows.

That's a really good point. You can't really be upset about poorly done satire* from another country if you haven't gotten all of your domestic bad apples fixed.

* I have not read the article and have no idea whether or not the satire is good or bad.

I know your reading comprehension is better than that.

You can't get upset about foreign satire when the satire only exists because of your ambivalence towards the domestic targets of that satire.

You're not the victim here, llb, or anyone else offended.

The hebedo's cover exists in defense of every single target religious leaders turned their sights on while the general population shrugged.

El Guapo wrote:It's silly to say that one can't get upset about the Hebdo cover without also being upset about domestic equivalent..