#tax agent harris park | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

beardedmrbean · 2 years ago

Text

This Cincinnati City Council term, which began on Jan. 2, 2018, has been marred by one scandal after another. The most recent: Councilman Wendell Young was charged with tampering with records, a third-degree felony.

Nine members were sworn in on Jan. 2, 2018. Right away, there were allegations of secret texting amongst five members that resulted in a $101,000 payment to settle a taxpayer lawsuit. Throughout the term, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers has said there was "a culture of corruption."

Here is a timeline of Cincinnati City Hall corruption

Nov. 7, 2017: Mayor John Cranley and the nine-member Cincinnati City Council are elected. Among them: Democrats Tamaya Dennard and P.G. Sittenfeld and Republican Jeff Pastor. Pastor places ninth in a vote so close it triggers a mandatory recount. Pastor prevails.

Jan. 2, 2018: Cincinnati City Councilmembers are sworn in for a four-year term. Dennard brings a red folding chair, evoking Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress, who famously said, “If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

March 9, 2018: Cranley and his hand-picked city manager, Harry Black, have a falling out over Black’s decision to fire Assistant Police Chief Dave Bailey. Black and Cranley haven’t been getting along for months and Cranley asks Cincinnati City Council to fire Black.

March 1 - March 18, 2018: Five members of Cincinnati City Council – Dennard, Sittenfeld, Wendell Young, Greg Landsman and Chris Seelbach – text among themselves about how to keep city manager Black and perhaps regain power they felt Cranley had usurped. Young, in texts which later become public, says, “Amen! We’re the new ‘gang of five.’ I pray we stay strong and continue to trust each other. We have the power to move this forward.” Young's "gang of five" comment references a former council coalition – Ken Blackwell, Steve Chabot, James Cissell, John Mirlisena and Charlie Luken – who were were often called the "gang of five."

Sittenfeld texts in response: "I'm game to make it a gang of 7 even! I know Mann and Pastor must be lonely over there!"

March 16, 2018: The five texting council members issue a joint press release saying they do not support firing Black. This catches the attention of Mark Miller, of Hyde Park, who is also treasurer of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes. Since the five seem to have reached a consensus when there hasn't yet been a public meeting regarding Black, Miller suspects the council members violated Ohio's Open Meeting Act.

April 9, 2018: Miller, acting as a citizen and not a representative of COAST, files a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, alleging the council members violated the Open Meetings Act. City lawyers contend text messages on personal phones are not public record and had told council members that.

April 21, 2018: Black resigns just before a hastily called Saturday morning special session of Cincinnati City Council where it is expected he will be fired.

September 2018 to February 2019: Pastor solicits and receives $55,000 in exchange for promised official action related to two projects before the City of Cincinnati, according to a federal indictment. He also travels on a private airplane to Florida with developers of the projects, but the developers are actually undercover FBI agents, according to the indictment. The allegations relate to the re-development of 435 Elm Street, a largely vacant piece of property next to the Duke Energy Convention Center, and another deal, which has not yet been named.

March 7, 2019: The City of Cincinnati, with agreement from the five councilmembers who make up the Gang of 5, settle the taxpayer lawsuit. They admit violating Ohio’s Open Meetings Act and settle for $101,000. Judge Robert Ruehlman tells the five members, whom he called to his courtroom for the settlement agreement, "You essentially lied to the people of the city. The trust is gone. I really believe the five city council members should resign and pay it back... no city voter should ever vote for them again.”

August to December 2019: Dennard tries to exchange votes for money. Prosecutors say Dennard requested between $10,000 and $15,000 from an attorney to pay for her personal expenses. In exchange, she promised a favorable vote on The Banks development.

In a Nov. 4, 2019, text message to the attorney, according to court records, Dennard says: "I could really use your help. It's kind of urgent to get it today. Happy to help you. But need yours too."

Dec. 19, 2019: Ohio Auditor Keith Faber looks at the texting case and refers the five council members for prosecution on a misdemeanor crime of dereliction of duty. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters appoints attorney Pat Hanley, a former attorney for the U.S. District Attorney’s office, to investigate the matter.

Feb. 25, 2020: Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard is arrested on federal bribery charges.

March 2, 2020: Dennard resigns.

June 29, 2020: Dennard pleads guilty to a charge of honest services wire fraud, which alleges she defrauded taxpayers. A plea agreement calls for her to spend up to 2 ½ years in prison. Sentencing is set for Nov. 24.

Sept. 28, 2020: Hanley, the special prosecutor, in a letter obtained by The Enquirer, recommends the texting councilmembers not be criminally charged with dereliction of duty. But he writes in a letter dated this day, “The investigation is on-going.”

Nov. 10, 2020: Councilman Jeff Pastor, along with an associate who is not connected to City Hall, is arrested on a 10-count federal indictment, including bribery, extortion, money laundering and conspiracy charges related to the $55,000 in alleged solicited payments. Pastor’s attorney, Ben Dusing, says his client will fight the charges.

Nov. 16, 2020: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asks the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend Pastor from Cincinnati City Council. That request is pending.

Nov. 18, 2020: Five citizens file a request with the Hamilton County Probate Court seeking to have Pastor removed from council. That request is pending.

Nov. 19, 2020: Federal agents arrest Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld on corruption charges. Sittenfeld says he is innocent. The charges: Sittenfeld orchestrated a scheme to funnel money from developers into a political action committee (PAC) that he secretly controlled. According to the indictment, the developers were actually undercover FBI agents who handed Sittenfeld checks totaling $40,000 on three different occasions in 2018 and 2019. The indictment states Sittenfeld solicited the money in exchange for his support of a plan to develop the former Convention Place Mall at 435 Elm St., which Cincinnati developer Chinedum Ndukwe, a former Bengals player, sought to develop as a hotel and office complex with sports betting. Sittenfeld, 36, did not pocket the cash himself, the indictment states, but instead funneled it into a leadership PAC.

Nov. 20, 2020: Sittenfeld releases a statement on Twitter saying he is innocent and that he intends to keep working and plans to run for mayor.

Nov. 23, 2020: Pastor agrees to the suspension.

Nov. 23, 2020: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asks the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend Sittenfeld from Cincinnati City Council.

Nov. 24, 2020: Dennard is sentenced to spend 18 months in prison on a charge of honest services wire fraud. The sentence won’t start until at least March because of the danger posed by the coronavirus, Judge Susan Dlott says.

Nov. 30, 2020: Hamilton County Probate Court Judge Ralph “Ted” Winkler selects Cincinnati attorney Steve Goodin to temporarily replace Pastor. All three are Republicans.

Dec. 7, 2020: Sittenfeld agrees to the state suspension.

April 15, 2021: A Hamilton County grand jury indicts Cincinnati Councilman Wendell Young on a felony charge of tampering with records. The charge alleges between January 3, 2018, and October 16, 2018, Young destroyed text messages that were public.

#nunyas news

4 notes · View notes

ficsilike-reblogged · 4 years ago

Text

Sunshine City: Three

A/N: Thank you to everyone who read/reblogged/commented on the last chapter. You are all lovely and deserve a Whiskey of your own. This chapter still revolves around the plot of the film, so if you have any questions just let me know! I hope this little story can make you smile at least for a moment. My asks and DMs are always open.

Pairing: (Eventual) Agent Whiskey x F!Reader (No Y/N)

Word Count: 5.7k

Rating For This Chapter: T for guns, blood, injuries

Catch up on the Prologue, Chapters One, and Two here!

Y/N sat at the bar and ordered a cranberry juice.

Butterfly Guy was sitting with Eggsy, Whiskey, and a guy who insisted on being called Merlin in a booth near the window.

“Rough day, sugar?” Paula the bartender asked as she set down the cloudy glass filled with purple-red juice.

“Rough couple of days,” she muttered and handed over a handful of crumpled bills that Paula methodically straightened out before placing them in the till. Paula was basically an agent in her own right. She’d been part of the bar for nearly twenty years and since only Statesmen drank here and knew of its existence, they spoke freely about their work. She probably knew more classified intel than some junior agents.

“You sure I can’t get you anything stronger?” She asked, her bleach blonde hair swiping over her shoulders. “Something with a little more oomph?”

“Just the cranberry juice for now.” She smiled and sipped on the too-bitter drink and resisted puckering her lips at the taste. “But thank you.”

Paula nodded and cast a glance at the table where the agents sat. “You know, Whiskey keeps lookin’ over here.”

She ignored the twisting in her stomach and took a large gulp. “ ‘s just post-mission jitters.”

“Uh-huh,” Paula said with a roll of her eyes. “Sure. When a handsome man looks at me like that…” she drifted off with a raise of her eyebrows.

(But she wouldn’t deny that she noticed Whiskey looking at her a little more often. When they met up after she implanted the tracker in Clara, she noticed Whiskey kept turning away every so often, a hand tucked in his front pocket. It was a common gesture used by men to hide an erection, she knew that—she just didn’t believe he would have one at that moment. They were in the middle of a mission. There was no way he was hiding a boner. But the thought was fun.)

Thankfully, Agent Moonshine started hollering and she sighed into her drink and got up from her barstool and walked behind the bar.

Paula was watching the scene unfold like she hadn’t watched a million bar fights before and looked ready to piss herself. Sunny patted her on the shoulder and signaled for her to hide in the little cubby beneath the register.

The Butterfly Guy quickly made a fool of himself, trying to teach Moonshine and his buddies some manners and she leaned against the sticky bar to watch as Whiskey stood from his seat. It wasn’t the first time she would watch Whiskey kick Moonshine’s ass but it was always fun to witness.

And those tight jeans did wonders for his butt.

While she would never understand his affinity for his lasso or his whip, it was nice to watch him work (and to see Moonshine bleed a little).

As he finished, Moonshine and his hangers-on all unconscious or bleeding enough to keep them still, Whiskey adjusted his hat and let out a whistle. “I feel like a tornado in a trailer park.”

She snorted and finished her drink as Paula slowly came out from the cubby and gaped at the mess. “It looks like a tornado came through here, boss. I think you owe Paula another window.”

“And new glasses!” Paula said with a frown.

She patted Paula’s shoulder again with a promise that the window would be fixed within a handful of hours as the televisions switched from the football game and were overtaken by a wash of yellow and red with an obnoxious chime.

A woman draped in a horrendous yellow outfit with fiery red hair soon filled the screens. “Mr. President, my name is Poppy Adams. I believe the UN has no teeth. So I've selected you, as leader of the free world, to receive this communication. And I invite you to begin negotiations on the largest scale hostage situation in history. A few weeks ago, an engineered virus was released and contained in all varieties of my product: cannabis, cocaine, heroin, opium, ecstasy, and crystal meth.” Each line item popped up on the screen in a pretty font. Cap looked over to see Whiskey already looking at her, lips pulled into a frown. “Some of you are already infected. And this is what you can expect in the coming days. After a brief incubation period, victims present with stage one symptoms: a blue rash. Next, second stage symptoms appear: mania, as the virus enters the brain. Very distressing to the victim and those around them. Stage three: paralysis. Muscles enter a state of catastrophic seizure. And once the muscles of the thorax become affected, breathing becomes impossible.” She watched as one new victim after another was revealed on the screen until blood spurted out of the last man’s eyes and nose, dead for millions to witness. “This leads to a very nasty death within 12 hours. But I have good news to the millions already affected. It doesn't have to be this way. I have an antidote.” Poppy held up a clear vial filled with an amber liquid—and Elton John behind another glass wall.

“What have you done to me, you fucking bitch?” God bless Elton John.

Undeterred by Elton John’s outburst, Poppy continued, “100% effective and ready to ship out worldwide at a moment's notice. I will do this if the following conditions are met. First, you agree to end the war on drugs, once and for all. All classes of substance are legalized paving the way to a new marketplace in which sales are regulated and taxed just like alcohol. And second, my colleagues and I receive full legal immunity. Meet my terms. I look forward to helping you keep our beloved country great, boosting our ailing economy, and easing spending on law enforcement. Or continue this blinkered, outmoded, and, frankly, disastrous exercise in prohibition, and live with blood on your hands. Save lives. Legalize.”

The broadcast ended and the televisions screens quickly flipped back to the football game. Whiskey was at her side in a blink of an eye. His hand brushed down her back. “We gotta talk to Champ, Sunny.”

And that was how she found herself bundled in winter gear on an Italian mountainside. Clara had called Charlie, and thanks to the tracking device she had implanted at Glastonbury, they were able to pick up the conversation. Charlie told Clara (who was now covered in the blue rash) to meet him at the ski resort they’d visited last year so he could give her the antidote. The tracking device could pinpoint their exact location and everyone was betting that the Italian resort was one of the storehouses for the antidote.

But she was also wondering, once again, why she found Whiskey attractive. He was in a terrible blue and white snowsuit that had to have been made in the 1970s. And he still refused to take off his damned cowboy hat. She appreciated the dedication to his aesthetic but it still seemed…ridiculous.

And he’d been grating on her last nerve on the flight over.

Ginger had buzzed in and suggested that Cap be the one to retrieve the antidote because only Clara would recognize her as opposed to Charlie possibly recognizing Eggsy or Butterfly Man (who she was told to call either Galahad or Harry). Whiskey then laughed—loudly—and stated plainly that he would be planning the mission and Ginger should stick to her computers and gadgets. “It isn’t like ya have any experience in the field.”

She really thought about murdering her boss for the rest of the flight. Her plots to kill him only got more creative when he told her to stay at the safe-house when they landed.

She was tired. She was angry.

And that was probably why she finally snapped. “If you didn’t want me to come along, you could have just told Champ. God knows you don’t listen to anyone else.” She hefted her bag filled with her own weapons and ammo higher onto her shoulder and turned away from him, readying to hike up toward the house and stew in her lonesome until the three men returned—hopefully with the antidote in hand.

But his hand grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop before she could get very far. “That ain’t fair, Sunny.”

She pulled out of his grip with a poorly hidden snarl. “No. You’re not fair. To me. To Ginger. All because of some bullshit you think is right.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“I don’t need protection. I’ve been in this game a long time-”

“And I’ve been in it longer-”

“-and I can take care of myself. What you’re doing to Ginger is so fucking backwards I’m surprised you can see straight,” she hissed it out like a curse. “I’m tired, Whiskey. I’m so tired of watching her jump through hoops trying to get you to notice that she could outperform half the agents in the field and you want her stuck behind the desk until she dies. I’m tired of you thinking you know best in the field. Why do you even request me to go with you if you’re going to undermine me every step of the way?”

Whiskey’s mouth opened. Then closed.

Her shoulders slumped. Harry and Eggsy both looked like they were very interested in the calibrations of their earpieces and not listening to what just happened. God this whole situation was pathetic. They were trying to save the world and she was waffling between yearning and rage for her stupid boss. She trudged away in the snow toward the safe house and barely heard Whiskey say, “what are you lookin’ at, Butterfly Guy?”

But she continued on, up the mountain and found the small shack of a house and swept the perimeter before settling in. She comm’ed in only to say she reached the safe house. Eggsy responded cheerfully but she didn’t respond when Whiskey also chimed in with a, “good work, Sunny.”

Time ticked by.

There was a commotion on the other end of the comm line when Butterfly Guy wouldn’t respond—and then all she heard was Eggsy and Whiskey screaming. She rolled her eyes. They were so dramatic. But soon, the trio was making their way toward the safe-house and she didn’t bother to open the door when she heard them outside. They all hobbled in, mid-argument.

Eggsy pulled out a small vial and showed it to her with a smile she had to reciprocate. “You got it.”

“We did. A little dicey—Charlie recognized me.”

She glanced at Whiskey who frowned in return. It didn’t matter. Ginger had been right and now he knew it.

“Can I see it, kid?” Whiskey asked with his hand outstretched as he walked toward them. But then his dark eyes tracked to the window and widened. “Get down!” Whiskey all but tackled both Eggsy and her to the dusty ground of the house as bullets started to fly. Glass shattered. Wood splintered.

She watched, unable to do anything from her pinned position, as the small vial was all but knocked from Eggsy’s hand and shattered on the ground.

“You fucking dickhead!” Eggsy hollered as he scrambled out from under Whiskey to look over the spilled antidote, almost uncaring of the bullets whizzing by.

“Fuck you, I just saved your life!” Whiskey retorted.

“Yeah, and cost millions of people theirs!”

She had to slap at Whiskey’s thigh to get him to move off her and she rolled off into the corner when he did. The rain of bullets stopped for a moment and she looked out the window. “They’re reloading.”

Whiskey nodded. “All right, I'll fix their wagons. Cover me, boys!” And then he all but bolted out of the house, guns blazing.

With a roll of her eyes, ignoring how Whiskey had told the ‘boys’ to cover him, she followed suit and ran out into the snow, pulling her guns out from their holsters. The shootout was nothing she hadn’t seen before and, while she didn’t have all the flair most of the Statesmen agents had, she could mow down people just as efficiently. (The acrobatics the Statesmen and Kingsman agents seemed so fond of really just seemed…excessive.)

Whiskey went through the left flank so she went through the unlucky men on the right.

It was easy pickings, really. Despite the heavy artillery and uneven numbers, it was almost too simple of a gunfight. But the adrenaline rush was nice. It had been too long since she had felt her heart beat this fast. Bullets were flying by her head as she dove behind a tree and then twisted to shoot down the other man. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Whiskey pull out his electric lasso and then cut a man in half who came out with a knife.

“Fucking ridiculous,” she muttered as she stood, lowering her guns and quietly thankful that Whiskey wasn’t hurt.

There was a single gunshot and she froze. A familiar cold crept up her torso and one last man stepped out from the tree line with his gun raised right in her direction. The barrel smoked. But his eyes were wide like he couldn’t quite understand that he’d actually managed to shoot her. With a snarl, she pulled her guns up again and fired twice, painting the trees and snow behind him in a spattering of red.

“Sunny!” Whiskey yelled as he spotted her.

She pressed a hand to her stomach and felt the terrible, wet warmth soak her palm. She holstered her guns again and stepped out to look at him, turning ever so slightly to hide the blossoming red from him. “We’re good.”

“You should’ve stayed in the house.”

“You needed back up!” She said, marching toward the house despite feeling her legs shake. Pressing against the wound only made bile rise in her throat.

“The kid and Butterfly Guy-”

“It’s over, boss. Let’s just-”

Whiskey suddenly grabbed at her waist and all but threw her into the house and she nearly lost her footing. She barely had time to recognize the pain suddenly roaring through her system as the adrenaline started to fade.

“Troop carrier coming in. And I’m out of ammo—whaddya got?” He asked, pointedly looking at Eggsy and Harry.

But they were both looking at Whiskey’s hand.

He slowly raised it to his face and saw it covered in blood. His head snapped to the side to look at her. “Sunny?”

Her knees finally buckled and she hit the weathered wood. She shakily caught herself with her other hand, feeling blood slip between her fingers. She coughed and watched as blood splattered against the wood.

“They’ve got Gatling guns!”

Whiskey was yelling. Bullets whizzed by. And the beat of her heart started to drown out everything else.

“Harry, no!” She barely heard Eggsy shout.

And then, in her quickly-hazing vision, she watched Whiskey’s body crumple to the floor beside hers. She reached out a bloody hand toward him without thinking, pressing crimson-colored fingers against his face as if that would stop the bleeding.

“He broke the vial on purpose, Eggsy. If we made it out of here, he was gonna kill us both!”

The world went dark.

The sterile scent of HQ’s medical wing was a welcoming aroma as her eyes opened.

“There you are.” Ginger leaned over her with a soft smile. “How ya feeling?”

“Tired.”

“No pain?” She asked as she helped Cap sit up slowly.

“A bit tender—but I know what feeling shot in the chest feels like so I would prefer this.” She pulled at the bland, cotton-blend shirt she was dressed in and saw her stomach covered in a bit of gauze and tape. Despite Ginger telling her not to, she pulled at the coverings to reveal the mostly-healed bullet wound and then pushed back into the pillows. It looked like it had already been healing for weeks instead of a day or two. Statesmen truly knew how to patch someone up. But then a thought struck her. “Where’s Whiskey?”

And Ginger’s soft, answering smile calmed her suddenly clenching heart. “He’s in the next room over, Cap. He’ll wake up soon. Eggsy gave him the Alpha Gel and it worked like it was supposed to.”

She pushed out a long breath through her nose and nodded. “Good. That’s good.”

Ginger’s watch beeped. She looked at the small screen and sighed. “I will be back. Don’t get into any trouble, okay?”

“I promise nothing.”

Ginger chuckled, having heard that answer many times before, and let herself out of the room.

She let herself stew for a moment (it was really about an hour). Her life had really gone off the rails since Vegas. It was one thing to secretly harbor amorous thoughts about your boss. It was another to scream at him, get shot, and then see him get shot after seeing him (possibly) thwart any efforts to get the antidote and save millions of people. And she had a chance to say something to Ginger. But she didn’t.

Hm.

She carefully slid off the bed and winced when a bolt of pain zig-zagged through her body as her feet touched the cold floor. Shuffling over to the door, she peered out into the hallway and then stepped out. Whiskey’s holding room was only a few footsteps away.

Should she go in? But then what would she say?

Should she just go back to her room and pretend she was unconscious the entire time and remembered exactly nothing from Italy? But what was she trying to forget anyway?

But, thankfully, Eggsy found her in the middle of the hall and broke her rambling thoughts. He pocketed his phone and looked a bit worried as he noticed her. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Better than I should be after being shot. You?”

He started to nod but then shook his head. “My girlfriend…she, uh, she’s got the blue rash.” He rubbed at his forehead.

“You care about her. Probably more than you should, right?” That was easy to see. Eggsy was a good kid, probably a little too easy to read. “Especially in this line of work.”

“You get it—Kingsmen aren’t allowed to have attachments. And I…” he tried to grasp at the words he needed, “love her.”

“Statesmen doesn’t have that rule. Probably because we’re very bad at following any sort of guideline anyway.” She shrugged and regretted the movement as it pulled at her wound. “But that means you’ve got less than 12 hours. You got a plan?”

Eggsy quickly explained that they had been able to trace Poppy’s location to Cambodia and they were heading out there now. But his eyes quickly widened as he realized he had just revealed a plan to a potentially dangerous adversary.

“Relax, Eggsy. I’m not the one you shot in the head.” She waved him on. “Go. Save the world. Look out for landmines.”

“Landmines?” Eggsy parroted, face scrunching into a confused frown.

“If Poppy’s as crazy as I think she is, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has nonsense like that. Who knows? Maybe she has a fleet of man-eating robots, too.”

“What are you on about?”

She shook her head. “I’ve seen some stuff. Don’t worry about it.”

He smiled and started to walk away. “You should come to London when this is all over. I’ll get you a drink!”

She smiled a bit and watched him disappear around a corner before her eyes once again drifted toward Whiskey’s door. “…fuck.” Against her better judgement, she walked up and let the door glide open without a sound. The room was quiet. Whiskey was motionless on the bed, face still covered by the machine to help the Alpha Gel finish its work. His vitals were steady, displayed on large screens across the wall.

He would be fine.

She slipped gingerly into a chair near the bed and resisted the urge to reach out and touch his hand. He just looked so…vulnerable. It was so unlike him. An angry, terrible twisting pulled at her chest. “I’m not sorry I yelled at you, you know.” She wasn’t sure why she was talking to him but the words kept coming anyway. “You need to let Ginger out in the field. She’d be a better agent than me. I don’t know why you’re… I don’t understand you at all, actually. I wish I did, I think. I wish I could understand you and why you do things and say things. I wish I could understand why you make me feel so stupid.”

Maybe being this close to death—again—was making her sentimental. Or maybe the pain medication was making her crazy.

Probably the second option. Hopefully, anyway.

The door opened again and Ginger stepped in. “I knew I’d find you in here.”

“How’d you figure that?”

Ginger gave her a look but didn’t answer. “It is about time we wake him up. You remember how it’s like, right?”

She nodded. She had heard stories about how most agents needed a ‘reminder’ of a traumatic event to bring them back to the present and how their minds could be a bit foggy for a few days after, but she had never seen it in person. But she basically knew what to except--right?

With a flip of a few switches, the machine receded and Whiskey’s eyes opened. He was up and off the bed with a spring in his gait that had her laughing as he gave some terrible pick-up line to Ginger. But the laugh drew his attention and his body went rigid as his eyes landed on her. “Sunny.”

She felt tension she didn’t realize she was holding leech from her shoulders as he smiled at her. “Hey, boss.”

Ginger tucked something back in her pocket and her smile seemed to reach her ears. “I’ll leave you two…alone. But I’m just outside if you need anything.” She then scurried out and left her alone with Whiskey and her hammering heart.

“Sunshine.” The new nickname was all but crushing to her heart, caving in her chest.

She waved him back to the bed and told him to rest before she curled her fingers around his hand. It was warm and calloused and, as cliché as it sounded, seemed to fit hers perfectly. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been shot in the head.”

She almost laughed and her other hand carefully pushed his still-impeccably styled hair away from the bandage covering a small bit of his temple. “Yeah. You look great for a dead man, though.”

“That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” But he said it with a smile and squeezed her hand. “Say it again.”

“You look great.” And her smile grew, heart a little lighter.

He huffed out a laugh but then a long silence stretched between them. She looked away from his dark eyes but didn’t pull her hand away from his, fearing he’d disappear if she did.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Sunshine?” He squeezed at her hand until she looked at him again.

“I’m okay. They fixed me up just fine. A new scar for the collection.”

His smile slowly dropped and he placed his other hand over hers, too. “I saw you drop. You were bleedin’ out and I-”

“I saw you get shot, too, you know. Butterfly Guy has an interesting way of showing he doesn’t trust someone.” She shook the thought away. Harry’s brain was scrambled, too. “I’m just happy you’re okay. Your brain might feel a bit funny for a day or two, but I’ll be here.”

“Where are they now? The Brits?”

“They’re on their way to Cambodia. They think they’ve found Poppy’s base.”

Whiskey all but yanked his hands from hers and threw his legs over the side of the bed before standing on his long legs. She quickly stood too, chair clattering backward. “We’ve gotta go. Tell Ginger to get the Silver Pony on the runway.” He started toward the door before she grabbed at his arm.

“Boss, c’mon. You need to rest-”

“I need to make sure that bitch doesn’t get what she wants.”

She was scrambling then, hands pawing up his arm to grasp at his face. Her heart was in her throat as she looked at him. His dark eyes looked so cold. Unfocused. She knew the Alpha Gel could scramble someone’s brain as it physically repaired it, pushing them into old habits and thoughts and fears. She knew Whiskey wasn’t thinking right at the moment—no matter how soft he had been with her moments ago, this wasn’t her Whiskey. Her mouth went dry. Thoughts raced by as the pit she had felt growing in her stomach expanded to an abyss. She knew what he’d been through. The death of his wife at the hands of some coked-out druggies was an open secret. And she knew her own grief, dealt with it in her own way—not all of it healthy, she knew. But she had to try. She knew the look of a man who wanted vengeance no matter the cost—and, right now, the cost was millions of lives. “Do you know why I don’t drink?”

“We don’t have time for this,” he said as he pulled out of her grip.

“Drunk driver plowed into my dad’s car. I was at the local pool with some friends and Dad piled everyone in to pick me up so we could get ice cream after. They never made it.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do you think I hold it against everyone who likes to put a little something extra in their coffee? Likes to have a little liquid courage to talk to the cute guy across the bar?”

Whiskey’s face twisted and his eyes seemed to dilate before he scrunched them shut. A shaking hand pushed through his hair.

“I work at a distillery for a man named Whiskey.”

Another silence stretched between them. She would swear he could hear her heartbeat in the quiet of the room.

A careful hand reached out to touch his wrist, too afraid to do much else. “Stay,” she whispered. “Stay with me.”

And his eyes finally opened.

Champ smiled and congratulated them on a job well done. It was a week since the entire Golden Circle situation had been handled. Tequila was well. Whiskey’s mind was clear. And their profits had never been higher.

Merlin, Harry, and Eggsy were standing at the end of the table and each held a glass of amber liquid as everyone raised a toast. Whiskey was sitting across from his Sunny, golden glasses perched on the edge of his nose. He probably should have been listening to what was Champ was saying but all he could see was how she licked her lips after taking a sip of her cranberry juice.

Statesmen, knowing an ally when they saw one, had purchased a distillery in Scotland. It was the perfect guise to help Kingsman rebuild and keep their money looking “clean.” Yes, he should have listened.

Because the Kid opened his mouth and said Kingsman needed more agents.

“I think Ginger would be a great Kingsman,” Sunny said with a smile.

Ginger, tucked into a corner a drink of her own, smiled in return. “I…”

“Agreed,” Whiskey heard himself saying. And he quickly realized that he meant it.

Ginger’s eyes went wide and she nearly sloshed the entirety of her drink across her shirt.

Champ laughed. “Alrighty then. Ginger Ale, well, I guess you’ll get a new code name, won’t ya?”

But the Kid’s smile widened. “And I was thinking Cap could come, too.” He turned to her and shrugged a shoulder. “Whaddya say, Cap? I’ll show you the real London.”

Whiskey looked at her, feeling like someone had shoved their fist down his throat. Don’t go. Don’t leave.

“I always wanted to be a knight of the round table.”

The men at the end of the table cheered again and Ginger walked over to knock their glasses together.

And while everyone continued to pat themselves on the back for completing the mission, all he could feel was cold.

The revelry eventually died down and Whiskey found himself the last one seated at the table. Everyone else filtered out to ready for the next mission—or the move to London. It was just him and Champ. The older man plopped down in the seat beside him and refilled his empty glass.

“London is only a few hours by plane from New York.”

He took a long pull from his glass.

“I’ve never known you to wait for something you wanted, Whiskey. But sure seemed to drag your ass on this one.”

“What are you talkin’ about, Champ?” He finally asked after another large gulp of alcohol.

But Champ just shook his head with a throaty chuckle. “You two are a mess.”

Royal weddings were…an event, she was finding.

After nearly losing Princess Tilde to the Golden Circle, Eggsy actually proposed. And with Harry now known as Arthur and presiding over Kingsman, the rules changed. Attachments were allowed. And because Tilde knew his fellow Kingsman were like Eggsy’s family, they were invited to the wedding. A handful of Statesmen, too. It had been a year since Poppy’s demise in Cambodia and the world was (mostly) at peace. Kingsman managed to salvage quite a bit from the wreckage of their former bases and Statesmen funded the rest of their necessary rebuilds. It was slow-going, and a handful of new agents were still finding their footing after graduating from the selection process.

“Please tell me Tequila is not wearing jeans,” she muttered.

Ginger, now known as Agent Percival, rolled her eyes with an affectionate smile as she spotted the jean-clad man amid the rest of the American crowd. “I could but that would be a lie.” She paused. “But Whiskey certainly dressed for the occasion.”

She leaned forward just the slightest bit to see Whiskey dressed in a fine tuxedo. “Is that one of ours?”

Ginger hummed. “He came in a few days ago for a fitting.”

She swallowed the saliva filling her mouth and turned back to watch Eggsy nervously fidget with his cufflinks at the end of the aisle. “Looks good.”

The ceremony finished after the vows and a bit of perfunctory reading and singing before the guests were all chauffeured over to the reception space at the royal palace. “You know, Merlin told me that you and Whiskey are quite fond of using emojis in your emails,” Ginger said as dinner was cleared away and dessert started to be served.

Her glass of water nearly slipped from her grip as embarrassment washed over her. “I was told those were private.”

“Nothing’s private in our line of work,” Ginger said with a pat to her hand. “But you haven’t really explained what is going on between you two.”

She rubbed at her temples. How could she possibly explain that she knew Whiskey, while his brain was still scrambled, wanted to let everyone infected with the Blue Rash die? How could she explain that she, despite all that, missed his smile and stupid mustache? Missed how he had terrible pick-up lines that always made her roll her eyes? Missed how she always seemed a little lighter whenever he would waltz into her office in New York?

Their constant contact devolved away from work and missions and into their private lives. He would ask after Bela and she would ask him to tell her about the view from his office window. It was now a strange sort of friendship that she treasured and protected despite how they hadn’t seen each other in person in over a year. She had taken the position at Kingsman, took the code name Agent Mordred, moved to London. It should have been a clean break. She could have kept their communications purely professional. But she didn’t. She just couldn’t truly let him go.

But on the outside, she shrugged as her hands dropped away from her face.

“It looks like I’ll be able to see for myself because he’s on his way over here.”

Her head snapped up at the sound of Ginger’s smug tone and, sure enough, Whiskey was on his way over, walking through the dancing crowd and wandering guests, right toward their table.

“But oh no. Would you look at that, I need more champagne.” Ginger then scampered off and left her alone.

Whiskey easily took Ginger’s vacated seat and smiled at her. “Hey, Sunshine.”

“Hey, bos-Whiskey.”

He chuckled at her slip. His head tilted to the side as he looked at her, eyes trailing down her form and she resisted a shiver like a teenaged girl but was silently thankful for the designer dress that fit her like a glove in a soft blue silk. “You look good.”

“You too.” And he did. The tuxedo was impeccably cut and the darkest black. A pristine white shirt was held back with a matching cummerbund and a black bowtie was slightly crooked around his neck. She reached out and straightened it.

He reached up to keep her hand pressed against his chest with a small smile. “I miss you.” It was whispered like a secret.

“We talk every day.” But she didn’t pull her hand away.

“ ‘s not the same and you know it.” He squeezed her hand. “Dance with me?” Wordlessly, he led her out onto the dance floor and pulled her close.

His expensive cologne made her mind swim but she resisted the urge to rest her cheek against his shoulder despite every nerve in her body telling her to do so. The music was slow, soft, and romantic. The lighting was low and accentuated by flickering candles that danced across the golden walls of the royal ballroom. If she could let herself remember anything—it would be this moment. Held in the arms of the man she loved even if it was just for a tiny sliver of time.

“I never thanked you, you know.”

“For what?”

“Saving me. My head was a mess—even before Butterfly Guy put a bullet in it. It took me a while but I…” He shook his head. “You’ve given me a second chance.”

She cocked her head to the side with a smile. “To save the world?”

Whiskey’s smile was small and his cheeks reddened the slightest bit but his dark eyes never left her face. His grip on her hand and waist tightened the slightest bit. “A second chance at everything.”

She chuckled and ignored how her chest tightened. Reading into it would only make it hurt.

A/N: Thank you for reading!

Beautiful people who asked to be tagged: @spookyold-saintjm @honestlystop @paryl @fioccodineveautunnale @lackofhonor

#agent whiskey x reader #agent whiskey imagine #jack daniels x reader #jack daniels imagine #agent whiskey #kingsman the golden circle

112 notes · View notes

somegentlegiant · 5 years ago

Text

Magic in Sorcery Valley

(Original Prompt)

Picture for me, a world of magic. What does your mind conjure up? Gandalf and Harry Potter? Dungeons and Dragons style spell slinging and ritual casting? Necromancers summoning armies of undead, and old, wise wizards reading ancient tome after tome?

You'd be right about all of it, but your mind is likely putting too much emphasis on the fantasy aspect. The world of magic is far more mundane than people think, and it exists throughout the entire world. You've probably witnessed it at least a handful of times in your life without realizing it. Perhaps you've had a sick pet that was on it's deathbed, only for you to take it to a new vet and have it make a full recovery. You can thank modern medicine, but you can also thank magic.

Magic is far more normal than you realize. We are your plumbers, your electricians, your doctors, your employment agents and your mailman. Yes we fulfill higher purposes in the wizarding world, but figures like that you will never meet in your life. We swear an ancient oath of secrecy, bound by powerful magic. Why am I able to speak about it now? The loophole is that we are allowed to discuss it only when people would never believe it to be true. So, here I am now, telling you my story.

I graduated with my Master's in Wizardry, a six year program, from a well renowned school that I'm not allowed to disclose. Most people go for a full 10 years, but I wanted to get into the job market as quickly as possible. It would've been one of the worst decisions of my life, if it hadn't ended well. Agencies weren't looking to hire people without a full 10-year. I tried everything from a grand archivist to a potions assistant, nothing I applied for stuck.

It wasn't until I decided I wanted to travel that I came across my ticket to greatness. A small town in far east USA known as Sorcery Valley (I know, coincidental name for a wizard to travel to). The property there was cheap, and the taxes even cheaper. I could buy some property and start up my own business, perhaps selling it to the townsfolk without them realizing the magic involved.

I bought a garage for $10k and had portal services send my belongings. My new life began here.

What I hadn't accounted for was the culture of smalltown USA. I tried opening up a supplement shop as a cover to sell my potions, but no one was buying. I debated opening a gym that promised results, but people didn't need to work out when they spent all day working outside.

I was ready to surrender to humility and ask my parents if I could move back in, until I came home one day to a black jeep parked in front of my garage.

"Excuse me buddy," said the frail old man, "I see you bought the old Smith's garage there. I know you ain't open for business no more, but do they have any spare batteries in there? My jeep won't start, and I think the batteries fried."

"Sure," I said, "I'll check for you." I knew there was nothing inside, but I felt too bad not to check. Of course, there was nothing.

"I'm sorry sir, but, I couldn't find anything." His face drooped down into an expression of pure stress, and my heart sank. "er, but," I stumbled over my words, "I could take a look at it for you." I walked over without waiting for a reply and began putting my magic to work.

"I appreciate that mister but you ain't gonna be able to fix 'er, she's been shot for days. I've just been lucky enough-" his widened eyes looked at the once dead car now purring healthily.

"H-here, for your troubles." He palmed me a Benjamin, but I refused. "No, please, I insist," stammered the man. I shook my head, "I was only being helpful, I'm just glad I was able to get it working again."

"Well then," he said, "you should consider opening up this ol' garage again. The townsfolk miss it, I know it surely, and you'd have one hell of a regular customer on your hands." With a wave, he was off.

Two weeks later, the Wizard of Auto garage was open for business. I began to meet every face across town. Miss May, the town librarian. Uncle Glenn, the town drunk with a soft heart. Jewel and Johnny, the couple that ran an old antique shop down the road. Sorcery Valley was so pure and friendly it was as if it came straight out of a book.

Sometimes, the world of magic really is magical. Perhaps, then, your mind wasn't putting too much emphasis on the fantasy part after all.

#writing prompts #2 #short stories

1 note · View note

newstfionline · 3 years ago

Text

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Biden’s approval slumps after a slew of crises: AP-NORC poll (AP) President Joe Biden’s popularity has slumped after a slew of challenges in recent weeks at home and abroad for the leader who pledged to bring the country together and restore competence in government, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Fifty percent now say they approve of Biden, while 49% disapprove. The results come as Americans process the harried and deadly evacuation from Afghanistan, mounted border patrol agents charging at Haitian refugees, the unshakable threat of the coronavirus with its delta variant and the legislative drama of Biden trying to negotiate his economic, infrastructure and tax policies through Congress. Since July, Biden’s approval rating has dipped slightly among Democrats (from 92% to 85%) and among independents who don’t lean toward either party (from 62% to 38%). Just 11% of Republicans approve of the president, which is similar to July.

US hits 700,000 COVID deaths just as cases begin to fall (AP) The United States reached its latest heartbreaking pandemic milestone Friday, eclipsing 700,000 deaths from COVID-19 just as the surge from the delta variant is starting to slow down and give overwhelmed hospitals some relief. It took 3 ½ months for the U.S. to go from 600,000 to 700,000 deaths, driven by the variant’s rampant spread through unvaccinated Americans. The death toll is larger than the population of Boston. Nationwide, the number of people now in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen to somewhere around 75,000 from over 93,000 in early September. New cases are on the downswing at about 112,000 per day on average, a drop of about one-third over the past 2 1/2 weeks. Deaths, too, appear to be declining.

Yes, the Stock Market May Very Well Be Rigged (Bloomberg) Most Americans believe the stock market is rigged, and they just may be right. Investments by insiders—a senior executive, board member, or shareholder who owns 10% or more of a company—tend to significantly and consistently outperform benchmark indexes. U.S. trading rules make it illegal for insiders to trade on nonpublic information, but it’s long been an open secret that insiders trade on what they know. And no one seems to care.

California to require COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren (AP) California will become the first U.S. state to require COVID-19 vaccinations for children to attend public and private schools in person in a mandate that could effect millions of students. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that the coronavirus shot will be added to 10 other immunizations already required for school kids, including those for measles and mumps. Exemptions would be granted for medical reasons or because of religious or personal beliefs but the exemption rules haven’t been written yet pending public comment. Any student without an exemption who refuses to get the vaccine would be forced to do independent study at home.

Flooded Tennessee town wrestles with how, where to rebuild (AP) In the 100 years that Jim Traylor’s family had lived in his house in rural Waverly, Tennessee, it hadn’t once flooded. The normally shallow Trace Creek where he had fished and swam as a kid had never crossed the one-lane road that separated it from his home. That changed on Aug. 21, when more than 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rain just upstream transformed the usually placid waterway into a roiling river that rushed into his house and devastated the town, killing 20 people before it receded. The water was already halfway up his tires by the time the 79-year-old decided to flee. A hundred years ago, the massive flood would have been seen as a fluke of nature, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Residents could have built back without fear. But today, climate change is making the type of flood-producing rainfall that inundated Waverly more common, experts say. And so now, the roughly 4,000 people who live there face a dilemma. With more than 500 homes and 50 businesses damaged, Waverly will likely see massive losses in property and sales tax revenue even as it prepares to spend millions on debris removal and infrastructure repairs. If those homes and businesses don’t return, the town could slowly die. But if they build back along the creek, are they risking another disaster?

With gas pumps still dry, Britain brings in the army (Reuters) Britain will from Monday deploy military tanker drivers to deliver fuel to gas stations, many of which were still dry on Friday after a chaotic week that has seen panic-buying, fights at the pumps and drivers hoarding petrol in water bottles. With an acute shortage of truck drivers straining supply chains to breaking point the government said on Friday 200 military tanker personnel, 100 of which are drivers, will complete their training over the weekend and start deliveries on Monday. Shortages of workers in the wake of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic have sown disarray through some sectors of the economy, disrupting deliveries of fuel and medicines and leaving more than 100,000 pigs backed up on farms. Retailers said more than 2,000 gas stations were dry and Reuters reporters across London and southern England said dozens of pumps were still closed.

Sick of weeds and trash piles, Rome to elect new mayor (AP) Curbside weeds in Rome grow so tall, they cover car door handles, giving new meaning to the term urban jungle. With sidewalks impassable because of piles of uncollected trash, people resort to pushing baby strollers down the middle of pothole-pocked streets. Overflowing garbage bins attract wild boars, terrifying passersby. As for mass transit, some subway stations in the commercial heart of the city, awaiting sorely needed escalator repairs, have been closed for months. Rome’s first populist mayor, Virginia Raggi is running for a second term in an election Sunday and Monday, and the sorry state of basic municipal services such as trash pickup and street maintenance is a major issue in this city of ruins, just as it was the first time around. When Romans elected Raggi, they had taken to cleaning up Rome themselves, neighborhood by neighborhood, park by park, bagging trash, filling potholes and passing the hat to pay gardening businesses to pull weeds in playgrounds. Some say things are worse now.

Taiwan angered after largest ever incursion by Chinese air force (Reuters) Taiwan sharply criticised China on Saturday after Beijing marked the founding of the People’s Republic of China with the largest ever incursion by the Chinese air force into the island’s air defence zone. Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. Taiwanese fighters scrambled against 38 Chinese aircraft in two waves on Friday, the Taiwan Defence Ministry said. It said Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.

Philippine leader Duterte announces retirement from politics (AP) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday announced he was retiring from politics and dropping plans to run for vice president in next year’s elections when his term ends, avoiding a legal battle with opponents who question such a move. Speaking before reporters, Duterte said many Filipinos have expressed their opposition to his vice-presidential bid in surveys and public forums. “The overwhelming sentiment of the Filipino is that I’m not qualified, and it would be a violation of the constitution,” Duterte said. “In obedience to the will of the people ... I will follow what you wish and today I announce my retirement from politics.” The 76-year-old leader, known for his deadly anti-drugs crackdown, brash rhetoric and unorthodox political style, earlier accepted the ruling party’s nomination for him to seek the vice presidency in the May 9 elections. The decision outraged many of his opponents.

Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks (Yahoo) In 2017, as Julian Assange began his fifth year holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, the CIA plotted to kidnap the WikiLeaks founder. Some senior officials inside the CIA and the Trump administration even discussed killing Assange, going so far as to request “sketches” or “options” for how to assassinate him. Discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration, said a former senior counterintelligence official. “There seemed to be no boundaries.” In late 2017, in the midst of the debate over kidnapping and other extreme measures, the agency’s plans were upended when U.S. officials picked up what they viewed as alarming reports that Russian intelligence operatives were preparing to sneak Assange out of the United Kingdom and spirit him away to Moscow. In response, the CIA and the White House began preparing for a number of scenarios to foil Assange’s Russian departure plans, according to three former officials. Those included potential gun battles with Kremlin operatives on the streets of London, crashing a car into a Russian diplomatic vehicle transporting Assange and then grabbing him, and shooting out the tires of a Russian plane carrying Assange before it could take off for Moscow. The intrigue over a potential Assange escape set off a wild scramble among rival spy services in London. American, British and Russian agencies, among others, stationed undercover operatives around the Ecuadorian Embassy. In the Russians’ case, it was to facilitate a breakout. For the U.S. and allied services, it was to block such an escape. “It was beyond comical,” said the former senior official. “It got to the point where every human being in a three-block radius was working for one of the intelligence services—whether they were street sweepers or police officers or security guards.” Eventually, the threat of direct action gave way to court action. On April 11, 2019, after Ecuador’s new government revoked his asylum and evicted him, British police carried the WikiLeaks founder out of the embassy and arrested him for failing to surrender to the court over a warrant issued in 2012.

0 notes

patriotsnet · 3 years ago

Text

What Are Differences Between Democrats And Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-are-differences-between-democrats-and-republicans/

What Are Differences Between Democrats And Republicans

History Of The Democratic Party

Democrats Vs Republicans | What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans?

The party can trace its roots all the way back to Thomas Jefferson when they were known as Jeffersons Republicans and they strongly opposed the Federalist Party and their nationalist views. The Democrats adopted the donkey as their symbol due to Andrew Jackson who was publicly nicknamed jackass because of his popular position of let the people rule. The Democratic National Committee was officially created in 1848. During the civil war a rift grew within the party between those who supported slavery and those who opposed it. This deep division led to the creation of a new Democratic party, the one we now know today.

Metro At Brady Luxury Downtown Tulsa Ok Apartments

Embrace your vibrant lifestyle in Downtown Tulsa at Metro at Brady. Located adjacent to the historic Tribune Lofts in the thriving Tulsa Arts District, Metro at Brady embodies the absolute finest in urban living. These two communities share unique and lavish amenities like a beautiful outdoor swimming pool, two-story parking garage, and modern clubhouse with complimentary Wi-Fi access.

Our location is in close proximity to the best that Downtown Tulsa has to offer. From the restaurants, bars, live music venues, and art galleries of the Tulsa Arts District to ONEOK Field, the BOK Center, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Guthrie Green, or Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, there is no shortage of neighborhood fun surrounding our luxury apartments in Tulsa, OK!

The five-story brick building was designed with the convenience of our Tulsa residents in mind. There are beautifully maintained interior corridors and two elevators for ease of access. There is also readily available access to the two-story parking garage with limited access gates. The large and open clubhouse features complimentary Wi-Fi access and a state-of-the-art exercise facility that’s open 24-hours a day. In the heart of our Downtown Tulsa community, our Metro at Brady residents can indulge in our swimming pool with tanning ledges, seating areas with a fire pit, water features, and an outdoor kitchen with grill.

1120 S Utica Ave, Tulsa, OK 74104 PH:; 579-1000

1923 S Utica Ave, Tulsa, OK 74104 PH:; 744-2345

The Philosophy Behind Democratic Economic Policy

Democrats gear their economic policies to benefit low-income and middle-income families. They argue that reducing income inequality is the best way to foster economic growth. Low-income families are more likely to spend any extra money on necessities instead of saving or investing it. That directly increases demand and spurs economic growth. Democrats also support a Keynesian economic theory, which says that the government should spend its way out of a recession.

One dollar spent on increased food stamp benefits generates $1.73 in economic output.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt first outlined the Economic Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union address. It included taxes on war profiteering and price controls on food costs. President Harry Trumans 1949 Fair Deal proposed an increase in the minimum wage, civil rights legislation, and national health care. President Barack Obama expanded Medicaid with the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Like Donald Trump

Why Does Madison Always Cough In Hamilton

The coughing, handkerchiefs, and even some of the lyrics in Hamiltons songs are all in reference to James Madisons real life health issues. Madison would continue to suffer from illnesses throughout his years including more attacks of malaria but he lived a rather full and long life considering.

Living At Huntington Hollow

WELCOME! Huntington Hollow offers something for everyone! You’ll appreciate our traditionally designed apartment homes, quiet country landscaped courtyards and beautiful clubhouse. Easy access to Highway 169, I-44, and the Broken Arrow Expressway. You’ll be within minutes of shopping, entertainment and grocery. Discover classic living on a grand scale.

Also Check: How Many Registered Republicans In The Us

Explain Democrat Vs Republican With Examples

The best way to explain complex topics like the difference between republican and democrat is to use examples they would understand. Heres an example you can use to explain one difference between the two.

Lets say that there are 10 kids who all chip in to buy a large pizza. The restaurant provides only three flavors pepperoni, 4-cheese, and Hawaiian . Their group can only afford to buy one pizza, but not everyone wants the same flavor.

The government is a lot like this. For the government to work, everyone gives the government money . It is the governments job to decide how that money will be spent so that most of the people will be happy with the results. However, many people have different ways that they think the government should spend the money, which is why there are different types of governments like democratic and republican.

Going back to the pizza example, a democratic group would handle the situation differently from a republican group. If the group were democrates, they will choose the pizza flavor that most people want. So, if 4 kids want pepperoni, 3 kids want 4-cheese, and 3 want Hawaiian, then the group will go with the flavor with the most votes. It doesnt matter that the kid who chipped in the most money wants a 4-cheese or Hawaiian because they were outvoted.

How Does Independent Differ From Republican And Democrat

If you are a true independent in politics, you do not vote forthe party, you vote for the individual that comes closest to yourideas and beliefs. On the average, the Democrats are consideredmore liberal and the Republicans are considered more conservative.However, there are liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats.The Republicans tend to favor less government and the Democratstend to favor more government, when dealing with domestic problemsand individual and states’ rights. Republicans tend to favoreconomic laws that regulate as little as possible. Democrats favorlegislation that regulates industry for the protection of theconsumer. Democrats tend to favor some sort of government aid forthose individuals who need assistance. Republicans tend to favorwas to help the states and local, private charities helpindividuals in need. Libertarians believe in a strong support ofindividual civil liberties, private property and the free marketeconomy with little government intervention. They favor the leastamount of government interference. They believe the individualshould be left alone to do as he/she wishes, as long as there is noharm to any other person or group.

Recommended Reading: What Percentage Of Republicans Are White

The Party Thats Actually Best For The Economy

Many analyses look at which party is best for the economy. A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Democratic presidents since World War II have performed much better than Republicans. On average, Democratic presidents grew the economy 4.4% each year versus 2.5% for Republicans.

A study by Princeton University economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson found that the economy performs better when the president is a Democrat. They report that by many measures, the performance gap is startlingly large. Between Truman and Obama, growth was 1.8% higher under Democrats than Republicans.

A Hudson Institute study found that the six years with the best growth were evenly split between Republican and Democrat presidents.

Most of these evaluations measure growth during the presidents term in office. But no president has control over the growth added during his first year. The budget for that fiscal year was already set by the previous president, so you should compare the gross domestic product at the end of the presidents last budget to the end of his predecessors last budget.

For Obama, that would be the fiscal year from October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2018. Thats FY 2010 through FY 2017. During that time, GDP increased from $15.6 trillion to $17.7 trillion, or by 14%. Thats 1.7% a year.

The chart below ranks the presidents since 1929 on the average annual increase in GDP.

President

1.4%

A president would have better growth if he had no recession.

Main Difference Between Democrats And Republicans In Point Form

2021 Democrats VS Republicans- Round 2 | What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans?

Democratic Party was founded in 1828 while the Republican Party in 1854

The Democratic Party has about 15 presidents while the Republican Party has about 19 presidents since independence

Republican Party voters are older generation while Democratic Party voters are the younger generation

The voters of Republicans are conservatives while democrats are liberal

The main color of republicans is red while that of democrats is blue

The party symbol of democrats is a donkey whereas that of republicans is an elephant

The Democrats party was founded on the basis of anti-federalism whereas republican party on the basis of anti-slavery and agent of modernity

The Democrats party has a larger membership subscription whereas republican has a lower membership subscription

Democrats applaud same-sex marriage whereas republicans condemn same-sex marriage

Democrats want the elderly medical program to be allowed while republicans reject suggestions of elderly medical care program

Read Also: Do The Republicans Want To Cut Social Security

Elza: Difference Between Democrats Republicans

Dr. Jane Elza

When I was teaching, my students always complained that there were no differences between Democrats and Republicans.;

They said the candidates were just the same old white guys talking about the same old issues. There was no zing in the campaigns, no excitement. The positions of the candidates were always centered around the middle and that was boring. They overlooked one fundamental difference between the two parties.

Governments regulate the behavior of people. Thats what they do. They regulate the health and safety of the community by licensing, inspecting, citations, setting standards.;

The entire food chain from field to restaurant to store is regulated to ensure that the food is fresh and edible. The workplace is regulated so that workers dont suffer from health hazards and unsafe working conditions.;

I dont have to remind you of the various traffic laws that we obey without thinking every day. Governments regulate the behavior of people. The key question is how do they regulate that behavior.

If governments force you to obey laws you had no voice in making or what voice you have is ignored, thats a tyranny.;

If governments laws reflect your position, even if it doesnt embrace all of your positions, thats a democracy.;

In a democracy, the enforcement of those laws should be even handed, not favoring or punishing people based on governmental biases. Here is where we have the key difference between the two political parties in America.

Who Is A Democrat

A Democrat is someone who believes in the principles of a republic, thus, in the power of the majority. Unlike a Republican, who is conservative in his ideas, a Democrat is liberal in his ideas. A Democrat accepts the concept of a larger federal government People of all classes should be benefited by the various schemes of the government according to a Democrat. They should not be concerned more about individual interests. This means that a Democrat looks upon all classes of people as equal.

In short it can be said that a Republican believes that the people are adept at looking after themselves. A Democrat on the contrary firmly believes that the federal government alone is capable of bringing about equality.

Figure 02: Andrew Jackson, the First Democratic President of the United States

Furthermore, a Democrat supports government-sponsored programs. A Democrat is pro-choice in approach, As a result, a Democrat supports social policies at federal government level It is interesting to note that unlike the Republicans, Democrats support the view that the military budget should be decreased. These are the main differences between a Republican and a Democrat. Now let us summarize the difference as follows.

Recommended Reading: Did Republicans Win The House And Senate

The Concept Of A Democracy

Coming from the Greek words for people and rule , democracy means rule by the people. As such, a democracy requires that the people be allowed to take part in the government and its political processes. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln may have offered the best definition of democracy as being a government of the people, by the people, for the people in his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.;

Typically through a constitution, democracies limit the powers of their top rulers, such as the President of the United States, set up a system of and responsibilities between branches of the government, and protect the natural rights and civil liberties of the people. ;

In a pure democracy, all citizens who are eligible to vote take an equal part in the process of making laws that govern them. In a pure or direct democracy,” the citizens as a whole have the power to make all laws directly at the ballot box. Today, some U.S. states empower their citizens to make state laws through a form of direct democracy known as the ballot initiative. Put simply, in a pure democracy, the majority truly does rule and the minority has little or no power.

The concept of democracy can be traced back to around 500 BCE in Athens, Greece. Athenian democracy was a true direct democracy, or mobocracy, under which the public voted on every law, with the majority having almost total control over rights and freedoms.

Similarities Of Democrats With Republicans:

We already discussed the difference between the democratic and republican parties. Now similarities between democrats and republicans party demands. Identifying the similarities between democrats and republicans is not an easy task. However, there are some important similarities between democrats and republicans for a clearer understanding of you. Let us discuss the similarities. Such as:-

First, the Democrats parties want the USA to be a strong country in world concerns. Similarly, Republicans seem like.

Both political parties want peace to be existent throughout the world.

They want the United States to have good relations with other countries, but unconditionally.

Certainly, both parties want our economy to grow and be strong.

Both parties express love for our country and want to see the country and its people prosper.

There is in the concept of similarities between democrats and republicans.

Finally, they want to create a good relation to the USA with other countries, but unconditionally

If you want to acquire more knowledge about this topic, Well suggest you that collect one or more books from the following list.

Book

Also Check: Why Do Republicans Say Democrat Party

If A Party Gets What It Wants In The Pursuit Of Delivering Something Most People Want Most Of The Time So Be It

There’s nothing morally wrong with being the party of corporate interests. There’s nothing wrong, for that matter, with viewing politics as the preserve of the few, not the many. What’s wrong is lying about it. What’s wrong is treating the opposition as if it does not have a legitimate claim. What’s wrong is setting off a conflagration of white-power fury that consumes nearly everything, even the republic itself, in order to slake a thirst for power. The day Joe Biden decided to run for president was the day this white-power fury burned through Charlottesville, screaming, “Jews will not replace us.” That day, according to published reports, is the day Biden chose to fight to “restore the soul of America.”

Maybe he’s full of it. Maybe Biden and the Democrats don’t really believe what they say when they talk about everyone being in this together. That’s certainly what the Republicans and their media allies believe. A critic said Thursday that we can expect to see from Biden “lofty rhetoric about unity, while acting below the radar to smash norms to implement the Left-wing agenda.” The same day, a Times reporter asked the White House press secretary why the administration has not offered a bipartisan “fig leaf” to the Republicans, given the president putting so much emphasis on unity. Maybe the Democrats don’t mean what they say. Maybe it’s just politics-as-usual.

What Were The Main Aim Of The Chicano Mural Movement

This art, the Chicano Murals created as part of el Movimiento in San Diego, California was intended primarily as a didactic communication medium to reach into the barrios and marginalized neighborhoods for the primary purpose of carrying a resistance message to the semiliterate mestizo population within.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Are In The Senate Currently

Convenient Apartments In Tulsa Oklahoma

Union Point Apartments in Tulsa, Oklahoma is where your home fulfills every desire for ultimate comfort and endless convenience. We offer one and two bedroom apartments in a variety of three different floor plans. Our location is amidst several conveniences such as restaurants, shopping, and entertainment. You will soon discover we take absolute pride in our well-kept apartment community. In your individual apartment home, you will find all the pleasures of home. Our apartment community amenities will also impress: take complete with sparkling swimming pool, on-site courtesy patrol, and 24-hour laundry facility. Call and book an appointment with one of our leasing agents today, and see what’s available to you once you come home to Union Point Apartments.

Key Takeaways: Republic Vs Democracy

What Are The Differences Between The Republican And Democratic Parties: sciBRIGHT Politics

Republics and democracies both provide a political system in which citizens are represented by elected officials who are sworn to protect their interests.

In a pure democracy, laws are made directly by the voting majority leaving the rights of the minority largely unprotected.

In a republic, laws are made by representatives chosen by the people and must comply with a constitution that specifically protects the rights of the minority from the will of the majority.

The United States, while basically a republic, is best described as a representative democracy.;;

In a republic, an official set of fundamental laws, like the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, prohibits the government from limiting or taking away certain inalienable rights of the people, even if that government was freely chosen by a majority of the people. In a pure democracy, the voting majority has almost limitless power over the minority.;

The United States, like most modern nations, is neither a pure republic nor a pure democracy. Instead, it is;a hybrid democratic republic.

The main difference between a democracy and a republic is the extent to which the people control the process of making laws under each form of government.

Founding Father James Madison may have best described the difference between a democracy and a republic:

You May Like: How Many Seats Did The Republicans Lose In The House

0 notes

asataxation · 5 months ago

Text

Navigating Taxes with Ease: The Role of a Tax Agent in Harris Park

In the bustling suburb of Harris Park, nestled within the vibrant city of Parramatta, lies a crucial ally for individuals and businesses alike in the realm of finance: the tax agent. Harris Park, known for its multicultural community and thriving businesses, benefits significantly from the expertise and guidance provided by these professionals.

Expertise in Taxation Matters

Taxation can be a labyrinthine landscape for the uninitiated, with its myriad laws, regulations, and deadlines. This is where a tax agent steps in as a knowledgeable navigator, equipped with the latest insights and understanding of Australian tax laws. Whether it's filing personal income tax returns, managing corporate taxes, or navigating GST requirements, a tax agent in Harris Park plays a pivotal role in ensuring compliance and maximizing financial efficiency.

Tailored Advice and Support

One of the key advantages of engaging a tax agent is the personalized service they offer. Unlike generic online tax platforms, a local tax agent in Harris Park provides tailored advice that takes into account the specific needs and circumstances of each client. This bespoke approach not only ensures accurate tax filings but also helps in strategizing for future financial goals, such as investments, property acquisitions, or business expansions.

Keeping Abreast of Changes

Taxation laws are not static—they evolve. A proficient tax agent stays updated with these changes, ensuring that their clients are informed and prepared. Whether it's amendments in tax rates, new deductions, or alterations in compliance requirements, a tax agent in Harris Park remains vigilant, offering proactive advice to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.

Supporting Small Businesses

In Harris Park, a thriving hub for small businesses ranging from local eateries to boutique stores, tax agents serve as indispensable partners. They assist entrepreneurs in navigating the complexities of business tax structures, payroll obligations, and BAS lodgments. By shouldering the burden of tax compliance, these professionals empower business owners to focus on what they do best growing their enterprises and serving the community.

Building Long-Term Relationships

Beyond mere transactions, tax agents in Harris Park prioritize building enduring relationships with their clients. By fostering trust and reliability, these professionals become integral members of their clients' financial journey. Whether it's a young professional navigating their first tax return or an established business seeking strategic tax planning, the guidance provided by a tax agent extends far beyond the annual tax season.

Conclusion

In essence, the role of a tax agent in Harris Park transcends mere number crunching. It embodies a commitment to excellence, integrity, and proactive financial stewardship. As individuals and businesses continue to navigate the complexities of taxation in a dynamic economic landscape, the expertise and personalized service offered by tax agents remain invaluable. They stand not only as advisors but as partners in financial success, ensuring that Harris Park remains a thriving community where financial clarity and compliance go hand in hand.

#tax agent harris park

0 notes

kingsman-fam · 7 years ago

Text

The Littlest Kingsman [ 1 ]

Merlin & Child!Reader (with Harry and Eggsy)

[ Part 1 - 2 ]

Words: 1,261

Warnings: None ! Just fluffy flufferson!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingsman!

A/N: Hi everyone! So I finally plucked up the courage to post this story on Tumblr! I’d written it when the first movie came out and posted it on DA, but it’s since been on hiatus! After watching the latest movie, however, I was an emotional wreck! I plan to continue the series to deal with this massive resurgence of Kingsman feels!

This fic is a bit AU, set after Kingsman TSS but with Harry alive and well as the new Arthur! I do intend to incorporate TGC into future chapters tho!

I hope you all like it! Please let me know what you think! Without further ado, enjoy! \ (^ u ^) /

Being Kingsman was nothing short of being a hero.

The agents had dedicated their very existence to the task of keeping the evils of the world at bay - rarely sparing a moment for rest in the fear of losing momentum. They would traverse the flames of hell day in and day out (on their well polished oxfords, of course) to afford the world the luxury of ignorance.

Never thanked. Never acknowledged.

But for them, to see those they loved safe and sound was reward enough.

You see, each of them had something they fought for. Something that spurred them to stand after a bullet-wound to the shoulder and/or a stab wound to the leg.

For most of them, it was their families: their spouses and children. For Eggsy Unwin, it was his mother his precious little sister, Daisy - and quite recently - his girlfriend, Tilde.

And for Merlin and Harry Hart, their motivation came in the form of a little six-year-old girl named (Name), whose first meeting with Eggsy is the beginning of our tale.

Eggsy didn’t know the Kingsmen had a day-off.

Of course, there were breaks in between missions; and if you were lucky you could spend it at home with your family and not in the medical ward (this was a seldom occurrence). But the proper no-work-at-all-do-what-you-like-day-off? It was a nothing more than a myth as far as the new knights were concerned.

But when Harry - the new Arthur - had declared that they could all finally put the events of a particularly nasty mission behind them - that there were no loose ends left to be tied - he had also deemed it wise to give the agents a hard-earned break. After all, the operation had taxed most all of them. Even the most eager of knights weren’t foolish enough to object.

And so here he was: taking an unnervingly normal walk in the park as the autumn breeze lashed at his shins and ruffled his hair.

He felt a bit lost, if he was honest. Like a child during the first days of summer not knowing how to react to the fact there was no homework anymore.

Still… it was a nice change of pace, Eggsy thought, as he paused in his walk and smirked at the scene before him.

A couple sat on the freshly-trimmed grass with a picnic basket between the them, both laughing at some random joke or another. Farther away, a small pug nearly tripped over his own feet as he hurried to return a well-worn tennis ball to his waiting master. A group of children gathered leaves into a huge pile (most likely to jump into afterwards) and today, even the skies decided to cooperate for once and agreed not to release their usual downpour.

All very picturesque and cliche if you asked Eggsy. Not that he was complaining; it was comforting to see such peace and normalcy after being witness to so much turmoil.

A very loud, excited squeal, however, pulled him out of his thoughts rather sharply. His head snapped towards the source of the sound - muscles coiling as if ready to spring to into action at a moment’s notice if necessary.

Turns out it wasn’t really needed, as the source of the sound revealed itself to be of a young girl - no older than six, he was sure - clutching a bottle cap triumphantly in her hands as if it were a winning lottery ticket.

The (Hair Color)-haired girl brushed off the dirt on her jeans (which really didn’t do much as the fabric was still obviously stained) and quickly shot off towards the benches - most likely to her parents to show them her prize.

Eggsy laughed to himself, and was about to continue his stroll when he heard a very familiar Scottish lilt.

“(Name), for ‘eaven’s sake stop running before you trip on yer own two feet!”

Eggsy froze.

He recognized that voice.

Of course he did; it was beyond a doubt the same one he heard in his ear at each and every mission.

He turned back to the scene, and sure enough, there stood Merlin - towering over the little girl and looking thoroughly displeased.

Eggsy had seen that stern look in Merlin’s eyes far too many times as a trainee, and many young knights had buckled under the gaze. The little girl, however, simply smiled and met the older man’s eyes with mirthful (Eye Color)s, as if immune to the gaze.

“(Name),” Merlin began reprovingly. “What did I say about running too fast?”

“I know you said not to, but this important!” the child exclaimed, then held up the dirty little bottle cap excitedly. “I finally found it!”

“What ‘ave y’ got there?” Merlin asked curiously, hard gaze replaced by one much softer as he squatted down to the little girl’s level.

Eggsy decided to move closer to get a better view of the scene. He had never seen the usually serious quartermaster so… paternal (if the word could even apply).

The young girl - “(Name)” apparently - eagerly dropped the little token into his waiting palm.

“It’s for you!”

Eggsy didn’t know what to expect.

Merlin was a neat and tidy person - his desk at headquarters often clean and spotless. Eggsy had no idea how he would react to being given a dirt-covered piece of - let’s face it - garbage.

For some reason invested into the unfolding event, Eggsy felt worried that Merlin would reject the small gift. True, it was nothing more than a piece of trash, but judging by the amount of dirt on the child’s jeans - not to mention her joy at finally finding the piece of plastic - the young agent suspected that (Name) had been searching for it for quite some time.

He just hoped that if Merlin rejected the present, he would at least do it gently.

His worries, however, were completely unnecessary.

Eggsy realized this with his jaw partially hanging open, as Merlin smiled (actually smiled. Not that smug smirk which Eggsy thought was as far as it went) and placed the bottle cap in his trousers’ pocket.

“Thank you,” he said gratefully - as if he had been given something far more valuable than a plastic cap. Perhaps the older agent hadn’t been as blind to the young girl’s efforts as Eggsy had believed.

Knowing her manners, (Name) smiled and gave the older man a cheerful “You’re welcome!” - obviously pleased that her gift had been accepted and appreciated.

Merlin, however, leaned in closer to the girl as if he had something to add.

“As grateful as I am, (Name), I think a certain someone will be very jealous if ‘e didn’t get a bottle cap as well.”

The young girl’s eyes widened as the realization that certainly did not dawn on Eggsy, dawned on her.

“I need to find another one!” she exclaimed.

She surveyed the grassy expanse of the park then quickly turned back to Merlin, eyes imploring as if asking for permission.

With a nod of confirmation from the older man, (Name) ran as fast as her small legs could carry her to the place where she had found the first bottle cap, in the hopes of finding another.

Merlin opened his mouth - most likely to remind the girl about the dangers of running too quickly - but the reprimand died on his lips. Perhaps he had guessed as Eggsy had that the warning would go unheeded. The Scott sighed resignedly and made his way back to the benches.

In turn, Eggsy made his way towards the older agent.

As far as the young man was concerned, Merlin had a lot of explaining to do

#merlin x reader #kingsman #eggsy unwin #harry hart #merlin

106 notes · View notes

megacircuit9universe · 4 years ago

Text

Lemons

THU AUG 20, 2020

I never thought I would write these words, but Joe Biden delivered a nomination speech at the Democratic Convention tonight, that made me cry.

For a virtual convention, the Democrats had been knocking it out of the park with the speeches all week, especially from Michelle and Barack Obama, and it seemed like maybe they’d done enough to set the tone and keep Joe’s lead in the polls from slipping away...

... but man! Joe himself really brought it tonight! If this is what he brings to the final nine weeks of the campaign... I do believe he’ll unseat Trump in a decisive victory, on November 3rd, and become our 46th President!

This is a strange thing to see myself write, because... in the world we always knew... the one with no President Trump, and no Covid 19... a Joe Biden Presidency had always seemed laughably impossible.

Nobody even questioned why Joe didn’t run in 2016. We assumed he just knew there wouldn’t be a point... and had to be told that no... his son had died of cancer, and that that’s the only reason he sat that race out.

Had he not, neither Hillary, nor Bernie Sanders would’ve have gotten any traction at all in the primaries against a sitting VP.

As it was, Sanders came so close to nabbing the nomination that he forced the Democratic Party onto a more progressive path, which they are still on today... even if they once again snubbed him as the nominee.

The problem for Sanders in 2016, was that Hillary still had a valid, “it’s her turn,” card to play, and so the DNC made sure to honor it.

As I’ve looked at in past entries, it turned out that her, “it’s her turn,” card was radioactive... thanks to the impeachment of her husband back in the 1990s... because impeachment by the House is always radioactive and destroys the political careers of all Presidents, and those close to them... even though they’re never actually removed by the Senate.

Sanders’ problem in 2020 was... as I looked at in a more recent entry during the primaries... Obama had spent four years developing a master plan to defeat Trump.

Biden was dead in the water... I called him the walking dead... it seemed like Bernie would have the nomination in the bag... until!... Obama made some phone calls, got all the other Dem contenders to drop out, and pulled off the miracle of reanimatig the corpse of Joe’s campaign.

A clever mastermind... capable of performing miracles... and I complained that he’d better damn well be able to follow that up with even bigger miracles in November, or Obama had just damned the nation to a Trump dicatorship for life.

Since then, we’ve had the big pandemic... which has been the thing that’s really fucked Trump more than anything else... and given the lead to Biden more than anything else.

While I refuse to believe Obama or any other human agent, or agency conspired to create the pandemic... It does seem plausible for Obama to have anticipated that something would come along to screw Trump in 2020... because he’s been neglecting so much, and coasting for so long.

And anybody who’s been President of the United States for eight years would know, a global pandemic could easily be on such a list of somethings... that would fuck the economy hard enough to give Biden a fighting chance.

The impeachment, last January... was another factor, already set in stone. Trump was already radioactive before the primaries began in 2020... which must have figured into Obama’s calculations.

Now, however, in late August of 2020, we’re finally beginning to see this election the way Obama must have forseen it... with huge hunks of the Republican party jumping on board for Biden, because they so loathe Trump, and can stomach Joe (because he’s conservative enough)... and then BAM... Joe actually exceeds expectations with a rousing, lucid, heartfelt, perfectly timed speech to show us he’s not just NOT Trump... but the honest embodiment of everything both parties used to hold dear, before this whole nighmare began...

...not just some place holder, but a principled guy with the merits... the hard won merits... to lead our great nation.

And Biden’s acceptance speech really took away whatever onus there was on Kamala Harris as his VP pick. Because she looks amazing, being both a woman, and a person of color...

...but that could have been a bit too much if there were any credibility to the fear that Kamala would assume the Presidency three weeks in, after Joe caved to dementia. That would’ve made this race, Kamala V Trump... which would have been a much tougher sell to the weird new coalition between leftists, centrists, and never-Trump conservatives.

As things are tonight... those fears have been put to bed.

And with that... Harris is a safely brilliant VP pick.

As a VP... who won’t be running the nation tomorrow... she’s conservative enough for the right wing of the coalition to feel comfortable... because she was a cop after all. And we gotta back the blue!

Politics is a very complex game... but Obama is better at it than Trump... especially when Trump’s already been President for four years and really shown the planet the true horror of his criminality, stupidity, misleadership, and willingness to destroy both the constitution and the planet.

In my last few entries, Trump was trying to send in a rag-tag force of paramilitary Federal thugs, to terrorize protesters... and promising to ban TikTok... before relenting on both those horrifying plots.

Since then, he attempted to destroy the US Post Office, appointing a sycophant as Postmaster General, who immediately began a campaign of removing post boxes, shutting down sorting machines, and generally defunding the fuck out of every aspect of USPS operations, in a desperate attempt to suppress mail-in votes this November... when they would be more important than ever, due to the pandemic.

The PMG even warned the public that due to the slow downs, he could not guarantee any mail in votes would get in on time, and Trump ran with that ball and began raising the specter that the results of our next election could be in limbo for months or years!

Blatantly attempting to soften the ground for a claim to stay in office past the election... seemingly unaware that his term constitutionally ends on January 20th, 2021, election or no... and also that the Post Office is a constitutionally established entity, overseen by Congress.

And Congress reconvened early from their August Recess solely for the purpose of calling in this new Postmaster General for questioning... which has not yet happened, but was enough to weaken his knees and have him roll back all the draconian changes he’d made... saying he’ll do those budget cuts later after the election.

Score another one for Pelosi. And hopefully they will grill the fuck out of the new PMG, under oath, facing criminal charges... and make his backpedalling stick until after November... if he doesn’t go straight to prison.

And in today’s news, a different branch of the post office we did not know existed... which investigates crimes, and can arrest people... arrested Steve Bannon on mail fraud charges, for defrauding idiot Trump supporters who donated to a fraudulent, “build the wall,” fund.

That, and an appeal Judge also said today that Trump must turn over his tax returns.

It’s all coming up lemons for Trump right now, on the old slot machine... just before the RNC convention... and just as Biden is about to get a huge bump from the DNC convention.

September and October are the gauntlet and the crucible for this, most critical Presidential election in American history.

We’ll see how it plays out.

But at the moment, things are looking up.

And with that... it is most definitely time for bed.

0 notes

ericfruits · 6 years ago

Text

Proposals to tax pieds-à-terre in New York are gaining ground

NUMBER 220 Central Park South is one of New York City’s swankier addresses. Its amenities include a golf simulation room and a saltwater swimming pool. In January Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, a hedge fund, bought a penthouse in the building for $238m, setting a record for the priciest home in America. Mr Griffin, who has homes in Chicago, Florida and London, reportedly will not make this his primary residence, thus reigniting an old proposal to tax New York City’s many pieds-à-terre.

Pieds-à-terre are part-time second homes occupied for less than half the year. Many are simply convenient places to park money and are vacant most of the time. Because their owners have their primary residences out of state, they are not subject to state or local income taxes. Nor do they generate much in local sales-tax revenues. After the Griffin deal closed, Corey Johnson, the city council’s Speaker, announced that it was “time for a pied-à-terre tax”.

Get our daily newsletter

Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.

Legislation which had been languishing in Albany for five years is gathering support. It would impose a yearly tax of between 0.5% and 4% on the assessed value of apartments worth $5m or more. Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, estimates the tax would generate a minimum of $650m a year. Robert Mujica, the state budget director, said taxing the absentee owners of expensive non-primary residences would help pay to restore the crumbling subway (though a few hundred million would not go far in those long tunnels). Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, supports the idea too.

Over the past few years New York has seen a lot of high-end property development, as new skinny towers have changed the city skyline. The most recent Housing and Vacancy Survey found that the number of non-primary residences increased from 55,000 in 2014 to 75,000 in 2017.

Estate agents fret that the tax will hit their profits. Manhattan has 8,600 unsold newly built units. At the current rate of sale, it would take 6.4 years to sell them all. According to Grant Long, an economist with StreetEasy, a listing site, only 21% of units priced at $5m and higher found buyers. Units that sold closed below the asking price. “It’s insanity,” says Doug Russell of Brown Harris Stevens, a brokerage that primarily serves the wealthy. “It will kill New York real estate.” Mr Russell foresees prices will stay under $5m to avoid the tax. He also predicts developers will go bankrupt.

Some buyers have been put off by a change in federal tax law which caps state and local tax deductions, including property taxes, at $10,000. Owners already pay a mansion tax, a one-time 1% sales tax. More tax, says Harry Nassar, a broker at Sotheby’s, will cause people to shun New York. Some advocates of new taxes might consider that to be a benefit.

If New York implements the tax, it would join Vancouver, which has an empty-home tax, and London, which has a surcharge on purchases of second homes. Some blame increased “stamp duty” a tax on home purchases, for a softening in the London market. But it did not dissuade Mr Griffin from spending £95m ($122m) in January on a London town house. That purchase would have incurred a one-off tax of $18.5m. By contrast, if New York’s laws change, he could face $8.9m a year in pied-à-terre taxes for his Manhattan base.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Islands in the sky"

https://ift.tt/2T7BRHk

#IFTTT #Feedly

0 notes

youthincare · 8 years ago

Link

Throughout the 2016 campaign, amid the  shock of its results, and in the various recapitulations of its lessons, great swaths of the mainstream and liberal press have been consistent about whom they blame for Donald Trump and his ultra-right-wing administration: the white working class. “That’s what Trump is playing to,” The New Yorker’s George Packer told NPR’s Terry Gross days before the election. “It’s a really dangerous, volatile game, but that’s…maybe the biggest story of this election.” In the weeks after the election, liberal-hotshot-of-yesteryear Markos Moulitsas found it appropriate to crow over retired coal miners losing their health coverage from his swanky office in Berkeley, California (median home value: $1,080,400). Even today, the contempt remains obvious: Self-appointed “resistance” leader and actual flag-wearer Keith Olbermann could find no better way to insult his fellow multimillionaires Sarah Palin, Kid Rock, and Ted Nugent than by calling them “trailer park trash.” 

Even according to pundits on the traditional right, one can find the reason for Trump’s success festering in lower-income white communities, the enemies of racial and social progress, where reactionary politics and redneck racism run rampant. “The white American underclass,” according to National Review’s Kevin D. Williamson, “is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin.” According to this analysis, Trump’s fascism is merely a reflection of the debased preferences of poor people. 

But scapegoating poor whites keeps the conversation away from fascism’s real base: the petite bourgeoisie. This is a piece of jargon used mostly by Marxists to denote small-property owners, whose nearest equivalents these days may be the “upper middle class” or “small-business owners.” FiveThirtyEightreported last May that “the median household income of a Trump voter so far in the primaries is about $72,000,” or roughly 130 percent of the national median. Trump’s real base, the actual backbone of fascism, isn’t poor and working-class voters, but middle-class and affluent whites. Often self-employed, possessed of a retirement account and a home as a nest egg, this is the stratum taken in by Horatio Alger stories. They can envision playing the market well enough to become the next Trump. They haven’t won “big-league,” but they’ve won enough to be invested in the hierarchy they aspire to climb. If only America were made great again, they could become the haute  bourgeoisie—the storied “1 percent.” 

Trump’s most institutionally entrenched middle-class base includes policeand Border Patrol unions, whom he promptly unleashed after his inauguration by allowing them free rein in enforcing his vague but terrifying immigration orders, and by appointing an attorney general who would call off investigations into troubled police departments. As wanton as their human-rights atrocities in the years leading up to the Trump era have been, law-enforcement agents are already making their earlier conduct look like a model of restraint. They are Trump’s most passionate supporters and make concrete his contempt for anyone not white, male, and rich. 

The Trump train: The candidate rallies with supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Reuters / Jonathan Ernst)

Always and everywhere, this sort of petit bourgeois constitutes the core of fascism. In The Mass Psychology of Fascism, his look at the German economy and ideology in the five years preceding Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Wilhelm Reich argued that this was largely because of the petite bourgeoisie’s dependence on the patriarchal family unit, which he called the “central reactionary germ cell” of “the authoritarian state.” As the “heads” of their families, small-business-owning men often exploited their wives and children and enforced a patriarchal morality on them in the interest of protecting their somewhat vulnerable enterprises. This oriented the petite bourgeoisie structurally toward reactionary politics. 

If the petit-bourgeois American suburbs embody a sexist hierarchy, they exist in order to enforce a racist one. In the mid-20th century, white northern and western urbanites faced a choice: Stay in the cities where Jim Crow was driving a “Great Migration” of millions of black people, or flee to the new suburban residential developments, complete with racist exclusionary charters. The Federal Housing Administration made the choice easy: Its policy redlined neighborhoods where black people were settling as having low “residential security,” thus making financial services inaccessible. In white-only suburban communities, however, the FHA was pleased to guarantee home mortgages. “There goes the neighborhood,” said millions, and fled. 

The lower you go down the economic ladder in America, the less likely an eligible voter is to go to the polls.

Their material security bound up in the value of their real-estate assets, suburban white people had powerful incentives to keep their neighborhoods white. Just by their very proximity, black people would make their neighborhoods less desirable to future white home-buyers, thereby depreciating the value of the location. Location being the first rule of real estate, suburban homeowners nurtured racist attitudes, while deluding themselves that they weren’t excluding black people for reasons beyond their pocketbooks. 

In recent decades, rising urban rents have been pushing lower-income people to more peripheral locations. As suburbia has grown poorer, the more affluent homeowners have fled for the even greener pastures of exurbia. Everywhere they turn, their economic anxiety  follows them.  

And yet, “among people I talk to, ‘economic anxiety’ has become kind of a joke slogan,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, by way of explaining Trump’s rise. “I mean, there is real economic hardship. West Virginia is not a happy place. But…it’s really mostly about race.” Krugman and Amanpour’s seamless transition from “anxiety” to “hardship” betrays the assumption that haunted the entire discussion: that the only form of economic anxiety is deprivation. To the contrary, the form of economic anxiety propelling the racism of devoted Trump supporters is associated with paying taxes; with jealously guarding their modest savings; with stopping black people from moving nearby and diminishing the value of their property and thus the quality of their kids’ schools; and with preserving the patriarchal family structure that facilitates it all.  

So where do white working-class people fit  in? When I use the phrase “working class” here, I mean “in and adjacent to poverty.” The first thing to understand about the political participation of these folks is that, as Bernie Sanders noted during the Democratic primaries, “poor people don’t vote”—not only because of their alienation from politics, but also because of voter suppression, a lack of education and transportation, and all the other practical ills of poverty. The lower you go down the economic ladder in America, the less likely an eligible voter is to go to the polls.  

Addressing America’s deep economic inequality will require working-class unity across all categories.

Needless to say, there are many white working-class people fully on board with Trump’s program. Even the portion who merely tolerate his racism and xenophobia, so long as he delivers contracts to build pipelines, present a major political challenge. But as we consider, post-election, who belongs in the “resistance,” we are making a high-stakes claim if we regard working-class white people as so irredeemably bigoted that they should not be a part of it. Any political alignment capable of addressing the deep economic inequality that fortifies and exacerbates every other problem in American life will require working-class unity across racial, gender, and sexual categories, and around shared interests. While drawing working-class white people into this coalition requires a formidable political struggle, excluding them from it makes marshaling the numbers necessary to achieve and wield power impossible. 

Whiteness itself confers a degree of property, as the legal scholar Cheryl I. Harris has described, and poor and working-class whites, who lack other forms of property, therefore have reason to try to protect it. This led W.E.B. Du Bois to observe: “So long as the Southern white laborers could be induced to prefer poverty to equality with the Negro, just so long was a labor movement in the South made impossible.” America’s original sin has thereby created an enormous hurdle to organizing black and white workers together. In order to do so, white workers must be convinced to give up one form of privilege—the one that’s offered by the myth of racial superiority—in order to struggle alongside black workers. Solidarity, as a result, has been a monumental challenge, and white racism has often won the day. American history nevertheless offers us a variety of examples of workers choosing solidarity, often due to the leadership and perseverance of black workers and thinkers. 

In 1894, an alliance between the poor white Populists and poor black Republican agricultural workers won control of the North Carolina legislature and started making reforms, including the appointment of black officials. Four years later, a white-supremacist election returned the legislature to the “planter class”–backed Democrats. Two days after the election, mobs of  Democrat-aligned white people roamed black neighborhoods, shooting, killing, and burning. 

During the Great Depression, Communists went to Birmingham, Alabama, to organize for economic rights among the unemployed working class; they initially thought white workers would step up, but predominantly black workers did, and they ended up organizing black and white together. Making a national cause of the 1931 Scottsboro case, in which nine black teens were falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama, the Communists formed a series of organizations. These included the Southern Negro Youth Congress, which prefigured the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and a sharecroppers’ union that at its peak boasted 12,000 members, including white ones. As commissioner of public safety, Bull Connor waged war on them in the 1940s, and though he was able to crush the Alabama Communist Party, he couldn’t crush the groundwork it had laid for the civil-rights revolution against Jim Crow—including Rosa Parks’s early political action.  

In the late 1960s, both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton assembled interracial coalitions of lower-income people. In 1967, when initiating his Poor People’s Campaign, King suggested that since “the economic question [is] fundamental for blacks and whites alike, ‘Power for Poor People’ would be much more appropriate than the slogan ‘Black Power.’” Hampton didn’t shy away from “Black Power,” but he paired it with other forms: “White Power to white people, Brown Power to brown people, Yellow Power to yellow people, Black Power to Black people, X power to those we left out and Panther Power to the Vanguard Party.” For their efforts, both were murdered, Hampton by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI, and King by a “working-class white” assassin that his family and associates maintain was a pawn in a conspiracy involving the Memphis Police Department, the FBI, and others.  

War on Poverty: The Poor People’s Campaign at the State Fairgrounds in Ohio, May 13, 1968. (AP Photo)

In all of these cases, the racism that destroyed these efforts did not come from the white working class, but from affluent whites and law enforcement.  

To be sure, the white people who participated in these coalitions were not free from suspicion of and contempt for black people, but they were not so incorrigibly hateful as to be blind to the important points of unity they shared. These working-class whites were able to see working-class black people as teammates. 

This is key: People find ways to warm to those we perceive as teammates. Historian Judith Stein, for instance, cites the case of Jim Cole, who recalled of his time working in the CIO-organized Chicago yards: “I don’t care if the union don’t do another lick of work raisin’ our pay, or settling grievances about anything, I’ll always believe they done the greatest thing in the world gettin’ everybody who works in the yards together, and breakin’ up the hate and bad feelings that used to be held against the Negro.” 

“Egalitarian racial sentiment,” Stein concludes, “is often the consequence, not the cause, of unionization.” 

Pathologizing the white working class as inherently bigoted serves two functions: It discourages working-class organizing across racial lines, and it provides white liberals with a convenient scapegoat who, being white, can’t charge racism. As Malcolm X cautioned, “If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”  

If you’re looking for Trump’s implacable support, Texas trailer parks and Kentucky cabins are the wrong places to find it. Fascism develops over hands of poker in furnished basements, over the grill by the backyard pool, over beers on the commuter-rail ride back from the ball game—and in police stations and squad cars.  

THE STAKES ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER. GET THE NATION IN YOUR INBOX.

To overcome fascism, we will have to stop fetishizing the middle class and start uniting the working class. To that end, the Movement for Black Lives’ platformprovides a blueprint for the emancipation not only of black people but the working class at large. With an emphasis on divesting from law enforcement and incarceration and investing in guaranteed human rights to income, housing, health care, education, and a healthy environment, the agenda provides a broad umbrella that can accommodate the visions driving several of our recent period’s social movements: Labor, environmental, peace, and immigration groups, among many others, have already endorsed it. 

As the beneficiaries of systemic racism, white people have a special obligation to organize toward the realization of this program, and to acknowledge that black people’s reluctance to work with those who hold bigoted attitudes is understandable and that the need for independent black organizing is pressing. Still, the only political force capable of advancing the Movement for Black Lives’ agenda will be rooted in the shared interests of the working class. The failure to follow the lead of Fred Hampton and Martin Luther King and engage working-class white people in the fight for socialism and black liberation will only continue to undermine that struggle and sacrifice those same people to the cul-de-sac brownshirts and the revolting demagogue at their helm.

#working class #news #trumpism

4 notes · View notes

blackkudos · 8 years ago

Text

Gary Coleman

Gary Wayne Coleman (February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010) was an American actor and comedian, best known for his role as Arnold Jackson in Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986) and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman struggled financially later in life. In 1989, he successfully sued his parents and business adviser over misappropriation of his assets, only to declare bankruptcy a decade later.

On May 28, 2010, Coleman died of epidural hematoma at age 42.

Early life

Coleman was born Gary Wayne Coleman in Zion, Illinois, outside Chicago, on February 8, 1968. He was adopted by W. G. Coleman, a fork-lift operator, and Edmonia Sue, a nurse practitioner. He suffered from focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, an autoimmune kidney disease. Because of his chronic illness, combined with the corticosteroids and other medications used to treat it, his growth was limited to 4 ft 8 in (1.42 m), and his face retained a childlike appearance well into adulthood. He underwent two unsuccessful kidney transplants in 1973 and 1984, and required daily dialysis.

Career

In 1974, Coleman's career began when he appeared in a commercial for Harris Bank. His line (after the announcer said, "You should have a Harris banker.") was "You should have a Hubert doll." "Hubert" was a stuffed lion representing the Harris bank logo. The same year, he appeared in an episode of Medical Center.

While best known for his role on Diff'rent Strokes, Coleman had appeared earlier on television, on The Jeffersons as Raymond, George Jefferson's nephew, and on Good Times as Penny's friend Gary. He also appeared in a 1977 pilot for a revival of The Little Rascals as Stymie. VH1 rated Coleman first on a list of "100 Greatest Child Stars" on television.

Diff'rent Strokes

Coleman was cast in the role of Arnold Jackson in Diff'rent Strokes, portraying one of two black brothers from Harlem adopted by a wealthy white widower in Manhattan. The series was broadcast from 1978 to 1986.

He became the most popular fixture of the series, enhanced by his character's catchphrase "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?". At the height of his fame on Diff'rent Strokes, he earned $100,000 per episode. A Biography Channel documentary estimated he was left with a quarter of the original amount after paying his parents, advisers, lawyers, and taxes. He later successfully sued his parents and his former advisers for misappropriation of his finances and was awarded $1.3 million. According to Todd Bridges' autobiography Killing Willis, Coleman was made to work long hours on the set of Diff'rent Strokes, despite his age and health problems and this contributed to his being unhappy and separating himself from the cast.

Later character appearances

Coleman became a popular figure, starring in a number of feature films and television films, including On the Right Track and The Kid with the Broken Halo. The latter eventually served as the basis for The Gary Coleman Show in 1982. He also made video game appearances in The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) and Postal 2 (2003). In 2005, Coleman appeared in John Cena's music video for his single "Bad, Bad Man" (from the album You Can't See Me), Coleman played himself as a villain taking Michael Jackson and Madonna hostage. The video was a spoof of 80s culture, focusing on The A-Team.

Candidacy for Governor of California

In the 2003 California recall election, Coleman was a candidate for governor. This campaign was sponsored by the free newsweekly East Bay Express as a satirical comment on the recall. After Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his candidacy, Coleman announced that he would vote for Schwarzenegger. He placed 8th in a field of 135 candidates, receiving 14,242 votes.

Avenue Q

Coleman is parodied in Avenue Q, which won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical. A character presented as Coleman works as the superintendent of the apartment complex where the musical takes place. In the song "It Sucks to Be Me", he laments his fate. On Broadway, the role was originally portrayed by Natalie Venetia Belcon.

The show's creators Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez have said that the Coleman character is a personification of one of Avenue Q's central themes: that as children we are told we are "special", but upon entering adulthood we discover that life is not nearly as easy as we have been led to believe. They added that their original intent was for Coleman himself to play the Gary Coleman role, and he expressed interest in accepting it, but never showed up for a meeting scheduled to discuss it.

In 2005, Coleman announced his intention to sue the producers of Avenue Q for their depiction of him, although the lawsuit never materialized. At the 2007 New York Comic Con, Coleman said, "I wish there was a lawyer on Earth that would sue them for me."

Personal life

In a 1993 television interview, Coleman said he had twice attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. Around the same time he was living in Denver, Colorado, where he hosted a Sunday night show on local radio station KHIH titled Gary Coleman's Colorado High, in which he played light jazz and new-age music. He gave part of his salary to the Colorado Kidney Foundation.

In 2005, Coleman moved from Los Angeles to Santaquin, a small town about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah, where he lived for the remainder of his life. In early 2007 he met Shannon Price, 22, on the set of the film Church Ball, where she was working as an extra. Price and Coleman married several months later. On May 1 and 2, 2008, they made a well-publicized appearance on the show Divorce Court to air their differences in an attempt to save their marriage. Nevertheless, they divorced in August 2008, citing irreconcilable differences and Coleman was granted an ex parte restraining order against Price to prevent her from living in his home when he was hospitalized after their divorce. According to a court petition later filed by Price, she and Coleman continued to live together in a common law marriage until his death. However, a judge ultimately ruled against Price after hearing evidence that she carried on affairs with other men during the time she claimed to be with Coleman, and moreover "physically abused Coleman in public, led him around by the hand like a child [and] displayed no physical affection toward him in front of anyone."

Financial struggles

In August 1999, Coleman filed for bankruptcy protection. Multiple people, he said, were responsible for his insolvency, "... from me, to accountants, to my adoptive parents, to agents, to lawyers, and back to me again."

Ongoing medical expenses contributed significantly to Coleman's chronic financial problems, and compelled him, at times, to resort to unusual fundraising activities. In 2008, for example, he auctioned an autographed pair of his trousers on eBay to help pay his medical bills. The auction attracted considerable attention, including fake bids up to $400,000. The trousers were eventually bought for $500 by comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who hung them from the rafters of his television studio.

Legal troubles

In 1989, Coleman sued his adoptive parents and former business advisor for $3.8 million over misappropriation of his trust fund, and won a $1,280,000 judgment in 1993.

In 1998, Coleman was charged with assault while he was working as a security guard. Tracy Fields, a Los Angeles bus driver and fan of Coleman's work on Diff'rent Strokes, approached him and requested his autograph while he was shopping for a bulletproof vest in a California mall. Coleman refused to give her an autograph, an argument ensued, and Fields reportedly mocked Coleman's lackluster career as an actor. Coleman punched Fields in the face several times in front of witnesses. He was arrested and later testified in court that she threatened him and he defended himself. "She wouldn't leave me alone. I was getting scared, and she was getting ugly," he said. Coleman pleaded no contest to one count of assault, received a suspended jail sentence, and was ordered to pay Fields' $1,665 hospital bill, as well as take anger management classes.

In 2007, Coleman was cited for misdemeanor disorderly conduct in Provo, Utah after a "heated discussion" in public with his wife.

In 2008, Coleman was involved in a car accident after an altercation at a Payson, Utah bowling alley which began when Colt Rushton, age 24, photographed Coleman without his permission; the two men argued, according to witnesses. In the parking lot, Coleman allegedly backed his truck into Rushton, striking his knee and pulling him under the vehicle, before hitting another car. Rushton was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released. Coleman later pleaded no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and reckless driving, and was fined $100. In 2010, he settled a civil suit related to the incident for an undisclosed amount.

In 2009, Coleman and Price were involved in a domestic dispute, after which his ex-wife was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, and both parties were cited for disorderly conduct.

In January 2010, months before his death, he was arrested on an outstanding domestic assault warrant in Santaquin, booked into the Utah County Jail, and released the following day.

Trains and model railroading

Coleman was an avid railfan, model railroader, and supporter of Amtrak. He became interested in trains sometime before the age of 5 during his frequent train trips to Chicago in support of his burgeoning acting career. Fans often saw him at stores specializing in model trains in areas in which he lived, and he worked part-time at Denver-area, Tucson-area, and California hobby stores to be around his hobby. Coleman built and maintained miniature railroads in his homes in several states. One of his train layouts appears in the September 1990 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Coleman is photographed on the front cover, with his "Rio Grande" layout. He preferred to model in HO scale, but modeled in other scales as well. One such model railroad was over 800 square-feet in size. Currently, at least one of Coleman's model railroads is being preserved in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Death and memorial

Very few details of Coleman's medical history have been made public. His short stature (4 feet, 8 inches or 1.42 meters) stemmed from congenital autoimmune kidney disease and its treatment. He underwent at least two kidney transplants early in his life and required frequent dialysis, which he preferred not to discuss. In 2009, Coleman underwent heart surgery, details of which were never made public, but he was known to have developed pneumonia postoperatively. In January 2010, Coleman was hospitalized after a seizure in Los Angeles, and in February he suffered another seizure on the set of The Insider television program.

On May 26, 2010, Coleman was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, in critical condition after falling down the stairs at his home in Santaquin and hitting his head, possibly after another seizure, and suffering an epidural hematoma. According to a hospital spokesman, Coleman was conscious and lucid the next morning, but his condition subsequently worsened. By mid-afternoon on May 27, he was unconscious and on life support. He died at 12:05 pm MDT (18:05 UTC) on May 28 at the age of 42.

The casts of the Off Broadway production of Avenue Q in New York City and the Avenue Q National Tour in Dallas dedicated their May 28 performances to his memory, and the actors playing the part of Coleman paid tribute to him from the stage at the performances' conclusions. (The Coleman character remained in the show after modifications were made to relevant dialogue.)

The weekend after Coleman's death, a scheduled funeral was postponed and later canceled due to a dispute regarding the disposition of his estate and remains between Coleman's adoptive parents, Price, and former business associate Anna Gray. Coleman's former manager Dion Mial was involved initially, but withdrew after Coleman's 1999 will, which named Mial as executor and directed that his wake be "...conducted by those with no financial ties to me and can look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Colemen [sic]", turned out to be superseded by a later one replacing Mial with Gray, and directing "...that there be no funeral service, wake, or other ceremony memorializing my passing."

Questions were also raised as to whether Price, who approved discontinuing Coleman's life support, was legally authorized to do so. The controversy was exacerbated by a photograph published on the front page of the tabloid newspaper The Globe depicting Price posed next to a comatose, intubated Coleman, under the headline, "It Was Murder!"

The hospital later issued a statement confirming that Coleman had completed an advance health care directive granting Price permission to make medical decisions on his behalf. An investigation by Santaquin police was closed on October 5, 2010, after the medical examiner ruled Coleman's death "accidental", and no evidence of wrongdoing could be demonstrated.

In June, Coleman's remains were cremated, in accordance with his wishes, after a Utah judge agreed that there was no dispute regarding that issue; but disposition of the ashes was delayed pending a judicial decision on permanent control of the estate. While Coleman's final will, signed in 2005, named Gray as executor and awarded his entire estate to her, Coleman and Price married in 2007. Although they divorced in 2008, Price claimed in a court petition that she remained Coleman's common-law wife, sharing bank accounts and presenting themselves publicly as husband and wife, until his death; an assertion that, if validated by the court, would make her the lawful heir.

In May 2012 Judge James Taylor ruled that while Price had indeed lived in Coleman's home after their marriage ended, their relationship at the time of his death failed to meet Utah's standard for a common-law marriage. The disposition of his ashes remains unreported. Price said that were she granted disposition, she would scatter the ashes at the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah as a tribute to Coleman's lifelong love of trains.

Wikipedia

#Gary Coleman

1 note · View note

d33-alex · 8 years ago

Text

Trump, Russia and the Phony Hunt for "Collusion"

The Russia Circus Will Drag On Without Comey He was a flawed FBI chief but the best bet for quickly closing out the phony hunt for ‘collusion.’

Here’s how the Russia inquiry would have played out, we believe, before the firing of James Comey. Mike Flynn would have been rung up on lobbying charges, probably related to Turkey, not Russia. The government might have found a tax bill to lay against Paul Manafort related to decade-old payments from a Russian oligarch. And surely Carter Page jaywalked or double-parked or used an expired MetroCard on his way to a meeting about some business deal that would have violated sanctions if it had any chance of coming to fruition.

Mr. Comey was an imperfect FBI chief. His political hypervisibility alone made him a liability to the agency he loved. But as even President Trump seemed to recognize during his NBC interview on Thursday, Mr. Comey was also the president’s best bet for bringing the Russia investigation to an expeditious end in a way that would relieve Mr. Trump of the main charge, supported by no evidence, that his campaign colluded with Russia.

This charge, let’s remember, first entered the public domain in a big way from the mouth of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, seeking to distract from his own crass error in letting his email be hacked. Then Harry Reid tried to spring an October surprise by releasing a letter to the FBI that made reference to claims circulated by retired British agent Christopher Steele, author of a notorious opposition research file on Mr. Trump.

A word on opposition research: It usually consists of public records, press accounts, documented personal history. When a researcher like Mr. Steele makes clear he wants only the most sensational, undocumented tall tales, it’s not surprising that his so-called sources oblige him with tall tales. As many Americans have come to understand, “wiretapping” nowadays means sifting through already-collected raw communications data stored in an NSA computer. Yet though the Steele file has been in government hands since last summer, no corroboration seems to have been forthcoming.

That Vladimir Putin disliked Hillary Clinton was not Mr. Trump’s doing. That Russian agents likely played a role in stealing Democratic emails was not his doing either. And who benefited electorally is clear only through a generous helping of the hindsight fallacy. Hillary lost, so of course it helped Trump—this is the lazy reasoning. Yet there is simply no way of knowing how many votes the Trump-Putin miasma cost Mr. Trump.

Cowardice and denial now suffuse the Clinton camp, and sadly Mrs. Clinton herself. Don’t kid yourself about this. An incompetent Democratic campaign, with an unattractive candidate, let the GOP steal back an election that Republicans had practically gifted to Democrats by nominating Mr. Trump. Nobody associated with this failure has a future if they can’t rewrite the story as one of Russian collusion.

But the wish is also the father of the thought for conservative Never-Trumpers. David Frum starts his piece at TheAtlantic.com by saying: “Who can sincerely believe that President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for any reason other than to thwart an investigation of serious crimes?”

Uh huh. Equally consistent with logic, and a lot more consistent with the evidence, is that Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey out of frustration with an investigation in which peripheral and incidental connections to Russia were being used to sustain a national conversation about treasonous collusion that never took place.

But then a problem with certain Never-Trumpers was that, from early on, they were writing less about Trump than about an idealized version of themselves. Even before the campaign was over, they were issuing anticipatory elegies to themselves as lone, courageous voices on Trump flaws that were apparent to everyone.

Worse than self-referential, this emptied the world of interest. Mr. Trump is surely going to be, like every president, a mixed bag. But you have to throw out your whole understanding of the Trump phenomenon, you have to lose sight of the colossal, meaningful accident that landed him in the presidency, to prefer the story of a Kremlin conspiracy.

Mr. Trump is right if he thinks many root for his failure simply for the benefit of their own reputations. But he should have more confidence in the ability of the public to discount the circus. His Comey miscalculation (so we believe it was) will be survivable if he wants to survive it. Mr. Trump still exudes a preternatural confidence that he’s going to figure it all out eventually. That’s not the worst trait in a president.

And give him credit: At least the Comey firing maintained his penchant for bold action. Mr. Trump’s job now is to put the FBI’s Russia investigation visibly back on track so he can exhibit nonchalance about it and get on with promoting his tax plan.

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Article appeared in the May 13, 2017, print edition of The Wall Street Journal - https://goo.gl/puXjhi

#current events #politics #FBI director #Trump

0 notes

cathrynstreich · 4 years ago

Text

The Luxury Market Mid-Pandemic: A Bird’s Eye View

In high-end real estate, life goes on.

A six-acre Southampton compound just a two-hour drive from New York City sold for $57.5 million in April, and Tyler Perry’s old 35,000-square-foot mansion on the banks of Atlanta’s Chattahoochee River sold for $15 million in May.

In less rarified but still pricey destinations, such as Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a $5.5 million co-op stalled mid-transaction amid early pandemic fears but sold at a slightly adjusted price in June. Some Florida mansions that languished for more than 1,200 days on market pre-pandemic are now seeing multiple offers as the wealthy seek spaces large enough to house their multi-generational families.

Diane Hartley, ILHM

“Early in the COVID-19 crisis the affluent, like most people, hit the pause button on real estate, opting essentially to stay safe by staying put,” says Diane Hartley, president of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM).

Hartley notes, however, that the high-end market is a want market, not a need market—after weeks or months of sheltering in place, wish lists began to emerge.

Mike Miedler, Century 21

“The pandemic had people at every level spending more time within their walls and re-evaluating, ‘what home means to me,'” says Mike Miedler, president and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate. “As their priorities shifted, the wealthy began to pursue what they wanted—more space, more privacy and more at-home amenities: a home gym, his-and-her offices, a private dock or helipad, even space to homeschool their children if it came to that.”

For high earners with workplace flexibility, there was an instant surge of interest in homes outside crowded urban areas.

Paul Boomsma, LeadingRE

“Bedroom communities on trainlines into urban destinations are seeing renewed popularity, especially larger homes with tennis courts and swimming pools, which were previously waning in popularity,” notes Paul Boomsma, president and CEO, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE). “In many of the nation’s most desirable destinations, the market today is outperforming last year’s numbers, with second or third home purchases also on the rise.”

REALTORS® contemplating a dormant spring were more than pleasantly surprised.

Chris Kelly, Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®

“If demand in the upper tier in March and April were at a veritable standstill, May lit a match under it,” says Chris Kelly, president, Ebby Halliday, REALTORS® in Dallas, Texas. “Unlike the last recession, when real estate lost value, affluent consumers today see real estate as the answer to privacy, on-site amenities, a safe place for the family and a stable place to park their cash.”

With inventory low as demand continues to surge, most high-end properties are selling for more than 90 percent of their list price, Kelly says, and multiple offers are becoming more commonplace, especially for homes in move-in condition.

That’s a statistic from the July ILHM report, which shows the inventory level of single-family homes in greater Dallas’ Collin County region in June down by 58 percent—barely changed from May figures. But the number of sales is up 22 percent from a year ago and 60 percent over the prior 30 days.

Leianne Messina, Coldwell Banker

Numbers like these come as no surprise to Atlanta agent Leianne Messina, a top producer with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate who specializes in the upscale market.

“The clients I serve are at the top echelons,” Messina says. “They can afford to live wherever they wish and fly private planes where they need to go—and they are flocking to the lake areas of greater Atlanta from states like New York, New Jersey and Florida, where prices for similar properties are much higher.”

Just a weekend ago, she says, she fielded 25 offers on a $1 million-plus property that sold for well over the asking price.

Messina says she is also assisting investors who are flush with cash, or who are taking advantage of rock bottom interest rates to buy tired properties, have them renovated and reap huge profits turning them over to buyers for whom price is not a concern.

Lennox Scott, John L. Scott Real Estate

“The luxury market is definitely back,” says Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO, John L. Scott Real Estate, serving four Northwest states. “For Seattle homes listed at $1 million and above, where there is a shortage of inventory and surging interest, we are seeing intense activity—perhaps the highest in our history—and we expect that trend to continue as travel restrictions ease and buyers feel safer coming in from other states.”

June figures for the Seattle area, reports ILHM, show inventory levels down by 25 percent, but sales up by 43 percent over the last year and as much as 73 percent over May’s sales.

“Other hot spots are emerging across the nation,” says Hartley. “In Palm Beach, Fla., June sales were up 18 percent over a year ago and 87 percent over May. In the most active price band—between $4.5 million and $5 million—sales might have been higher had there been more available inventory. The same could be said of some areas in Arizona, California and in the wide-open spaces of Idaho and Montana.”

Mark Pessin, ONE Luxe

REALTORS® specializing in upper-tier properties were ready to meet the delayed spring surge, says Mark Pessin, chief learning officer for Realty ONE Group’s new ONE Luxe upscale division and designated broker for the group’s San Diego offices in California.

“In many ways,” Pessin says, “the luxury market was better prepared for COVID-19 than other sectors because high-end agents have been using 3D video tours and similar technologies with great success for some time—and the wealthy often depend on long-standing relationships with trusted real estate advisors to guide them toward the properties that best meet their needs without expending a lot of time or energy.

In today’s environment, he notes, when seeking the right property is more of a health concern for wealthy buyers than an economic concern, brokers who have developed such relationships and mastered the art of the virtual sale have been more than ready to meet the challenge.

Bess Freedman, Brown Harris Stevens

“In the New York City market, summer rentals in the Hamptons are always brisk,” says Bess Freedman, chief executive officer, Brown Harris Stevens, which serves the Manhattan, Hamptons, Palm Beach and Miami markets, and recently folded Halstead Real Estate into its ranks. “This year, those summer rentals filled up faster and earlier because of COVID-19, and the competition was super-heated.”

With changing tax strategies that impact the wealthy making it problematic for New Yorkers to change permanent residence, Freedman says, interest has increased in finding the perfect second home within easy reach of the city.

“Not all square footage is created equally,” she says. “Buyers today are looking for privacy and updated luxury in a location that offers peace of mind, and our tech-savvy brokers are using virtual means to help clients find what will suit them.”

Price is often no object, says Freedman, although as sellers who took their homes off the market early in the pandemic slowly come back, most properties are fairly priced.

“Our index confirms that the higher the price point, the slower the turnover,” notes Hartley. “And while changing priorities are fueling interest, a $20 million home is not flying off the market or met with the same buyer frenzy as homes at lower price points.”

The basic principles still apply, she notes, especially in a low-inventory environment: A renovated, well-priced house in a desirable location will sell at close to asking price.

As fall approaches, valid concerns make it difficult to predict the path forward: school re-openings; stock market volatility; new surges of coronavirus cases and/or the emergence of a vaccine; and, not least, the state-by-state patchwork of rules, restrictions, regulations and requirements that make relocating a challenge.

“Many months into this pandemic, we are still trying to get a handle on what the new normal will be like,” says Kelly. “But if present demand is an indication, luxury real estate will see a strong second half and momentum going into the New Year.”

Barbara Pronin is a contributing editor to RISMedia.

The post The Luxury Market Mid-Pandemic: A Bird’s Eye View appeared first on RISMedia.

The Luxury Market Mid-Pandemic: A Bird’s Eye View published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

0 notes