Non-Crazy Idea With A Foundation Of BS

America's Sweetheart and America's favorite cranky old coot paired up to talk up the idea of turning the Post Office into a banking system for the under-served. To cur to the spoiler: After roughly an hour with Google and my Sixers, I am confident that the advocates, including Sen. Kristen Gillibrand and the US Post Office team, have failed to understand the numbers and the revenue opportunity they are tossing about and are talking about $89 billion when $30 billion is nearer the mark. $30 billion is not a trifle, but its not $89 billion either. And that sort of easily discovered error does not do much for my confidence in the quality of the research effort by the advocates. 

And what is it with these progressives anyway? They want the government to have all our medical information and now they expect people (many of whom have, well, documentation challenges opening a conventional bank account) to trust the government with their financial information and savings? Do they know who is President or did Bernie forget?

Today's buzz was Tweeted by "Take On Wall Street". Let's toss them the mic:

A Public Option For Banking

It’s time to stop relying on the big banks and predatory lenders, and expand access to fair consumer banking services through “a public option” like postal banking and public banks.

Postal Banking

Regulating abusive and aggressively marketed products is important, but more can be done to broaden access to high-quality, low-cost financial services. As many as 8 million American households don’t have access to basic banking, like a checking account, and 1 in 5 Americans don’t have access to affordable accounts, debit cards, and credit. The big banks no longer offer free checking, and fees for basic banking have skyrocketed.

Worse still, nearly 28% of U.S. households rely on fringe and often predatory financial institutions for banking and credit. Fees to payday lenders and check-cashers cost these households an astonishing $89 billion a year. That’s more than $2,400 per household, or 10% of their average income. These predatory services are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, stripping additional wealth from those who can least afford it.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is well placed to provide such basic banking services. In past decades, the USPS offered savings accounts on a significant scale, and postal systems in countries around the world currently provide financial services to more than a billion consumers.

Keep on eye on that $89 billion figure and we will segue to Sen. Gillibrand, unveiling her 2018 legislative proposal:

Kirsten Gillibrand Unveils A Public Option For Banking

The idea would provide a low-cost alternative to payday loans — and it might just save the Postal Service, too.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is introducing legislation Wednesday that would require every U.S. post office to provide basic banking services, an ambitious step aimed at improving the lives of Americans with limited financial resources.

The bill brings to Congress for the first time a policy idea that has already won the support of liberal economists and anti-poverty activists: Turning the nation’s sprawling network of U.S. Postal Service facilities into places where working-class and low-income Americans who lack adequate access to commercial banking can obtain low-cost, short-term loans. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have both spoken out in favor of postal banking, but Gillibrand is the first to introduce legislation mandating it.

The central goal of the bill is to replace risky financial products like payday loans, which can trap borrowers in prolonged cycles of debt, with regulated alternatives.

Do note "short term loans", such as payday loans. And let's say hello to an old friend as we learn how this will save the Postal System:

A postal banking system could be a major boon to the financially strained Postal Service. If even 10 percent of the money Americans currently spend on interest and fees for risky financial products went toward postal banking loans that cost 90 percent less, the Postal Service would gain almost $9 billion in annual revenue, according to a 2014 study conducted by the Postal Service Inspector General.

Here's their White Paper and yes, the "almost $9 billion" in new revenue comes from 10% market share of an $89 billion market as of 2012. Now, one might want to ask why the Sen. Gillibrand and the US Post Office hope to take in ten percent of an outrageous, exploitative, predatory market. Shouldn't their revenue be much less?!? Don't ask.

The Post Office White Paper describes their proposed product offerings in detail but this description from Slate captures the spirit:

If Democrats do try to bring back postal banking, there are two main ways to do it. First, would be the basic approach: The post office could simply offer low-dollar checking accounts and debit cards, to make sure every American has affordable access to the absolute essentials of financial services. That would be a relief to the millions of households with no bank account today, and might not even be that much of a political lift—after all, the Postal Service would be catering to customers that Bank of America and Wells Fargo seem mostly uninterested in these days. This approach wouldn’t dramatically change the face of American finance; it would assist the unbanked, but less so the much larger group of underbanked.

The more ambitious approach, which Gillibrand and other Democrats have embraced, would be far more seismic. Gillibrand’s bill would allow the postal service to also make small loans at low interest rates and would almost certainly compete payday lenders out of business. The bill states that postal banks could make loans of up to $500 at a time at interest rates in line with the yield on month Treasury bills, which today is sitting at a low 1.65 percent. That rate of interest is probably too low given how many of these loans will likely default. The Postal Service’s Inspector General report pictured interest rates closer to 25 percent, which would still save customers hundreds of dollars compared to payday loans that commonly come with APRs around 400 percent. 

And now the reveal: Here is the study describing the $89 billion opportunity by CFSI:

Serving the underserved market : Market Size Study

They have a beautiful depiction of the market, below.

The possibly-not-obvious problem? The biggest market segment - $49.6 Billion - is automobile and other installment loans that go beyond the scope of the Post Office White Paper and the Gillibrand proposal. Oops.

Payday loans are included in the green column on the far left (as well they might be!). However, the $21.4 Billion total there includes Pawn shop loans of about $5 B, payday loans (internet and storefront) and overdraft protection on checking. The Post Office won't be running a pawn shop, so let's subtract that and say that $16B is left.

The orange "Payments" column of $8.9B looks good, as does the $4.7 B for checking and savings services. Tax preparation services and debt settlements for $4.2B? I don't think so. Take it out.

So totaling up the services the Post Office actually hopes to offer gets us to $16B (payday) + $9B Payments +$5B Checking/Savings, or roughly $30 Billion of market opportunity. 10% market share is $3 billion. Nothing to sneeze at, but not the number advertised.

So how great an idea is this, anyway? In an attempt to approach reality from a different direction, a UPenn professor, Lisa Servon, actually worked in a check cashing store and talked to customers about their background and motivation (Crazy, amirite?). Her thoughts are summarized here; a snippet:

It didn’t even seem clear to people studying the banking industry as to why people would ever use a check-cashing service. Surprisingly, it turned out that there were reasons:

Servon was surprised by what people told her. Over and over, Servon heard and observed that check cashers often met customers’ needs better than banks did.

She discovered there were three main reasons people used these services instead of banks: cost, transparency, and service.

She got a book out of it as well.

From yet another perspective, the Japanese had a more extensive Postal Bank with huge private savings. A 2005 Parliamentary campaign was oriented towards privatizing it. Apparently this institution had become cozy with crony capitalists and politicos. Who could have seen that coming?

Based on the proposal and target market I don't foresee the US Post deposits becoming huge so that predictable problem shouldn't arise. Or, limit their investments to Treasury bills. Time may tell!

STILL IRKED: The Take On Wall Street article includes this howler:

 

Worse still, nearly 28% of U.S. households rely on fringe and often predatory financial institutions for banking and credit. Fees to payday lenders and check-cashers cost these households an astonishing $89 billion a year. 

 

Well, no. As noted, payday lenders are much less than that.

 

A different advocacy group, the Campaign For Postal Banking, has this formulation:

 

The $100 billion a year Alternative Financial Services (AFS) industry has flooded the communities where the underserved live with products, services and practices that are expensive and often predatory. Each year, the average underserved household spends $2,412 – nearly 10 percent of gross income – in fees and interest for alternative financial services...

 

The $100 billion is for a different year. However, they have looked at a similar report!

The AFS industry includes:

• Check cashing services
• Payday lenders
• Auto title loans
• Pawn shops
• Rent-to-own stores
• Tax refund anticipation loans

OK, they noted auto loans and installment sales of bigger-ticker items. And they claim the public spends $7 billion a year on payday loans, which looks a lot like the numbers in the green column from the 2012 study. This group might be worth reading.

 

As to Sen. Gillibrand, I'm not sure. Her website includes this:

 

The Postal Bank would effectively wipe out predatory payday lending industry practices because low-income workers would be able to take out low-interest, small-dollar loans from the Postal Bank instead of being forced to rely on predatory payday lenders. High-cost, predatory financial products like payday loans cost the average underserved household 10 percent, or $2,412, of their gross income in fees and interest. This adds up to about $100 billion of lost savings for low-income families across the country, and results in diminished funding for rent, food, and childcare, as well as an inability to build credit. Under Gillibrand’s bill, any American could o pen an account at the Postal Bank.

 

Payday loans are the tip of the iceberg. I don't know whether she is hiding the ball or is sincere and ignorant.

 

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: Why isn't there a WalMart Credit Services dominating this market? Or is there? Well, yes - among many other services they will cash checks up to $1,000 for a $4 flat fee, which does not outrage me. That would be 2% on a $200 check. Unfair?

 

Further dabbling suggests I can send money to Italy for an $8 fee. Same to Mexico. Presumably varies by country but I'm done for now.

 

BOYCOTT NUMBERS: The Babylon Bee battles AOC. Stop the fight!

Comments

[Gentlejim]

Pin,
Absolutely, do you know how dangerous those high capacity roll-on deodorants are?

[Threadkiller]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/10/steele-dossier-roils-capitol-hill-anew/

All it took was the wrapping up of the Mueller hamstringer to unlock everything. Everything is dropping now because he can't stop it.

[henry]

Mueller can’t stop it because Rosenstein can’t cover his fat ass anymore.

[henry]

That is because Sessions recused back to Alabama (permanently it is hoped) allowing adult management of DOJ.

[Extraneus]

Mr. Grassley has said there’s a possibility that the information Mr. Steele, a foreign national, compiled was disinformation fed him by Russian operatives. Mr. Steele’s work was funded by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee through secret payments to a law firm, shielding the work from campaign finance disclosures.

He obviously had no stomach for pursuing it, but why Mueller & Co. didn't even attempt to clear or at least whitewash them on this is a mystery.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7012485/Father-Colorado-school-shooter-Alec-McKinney-serial-felon-illegal-immigrant.html

EXCLUSIVE: The Mexican father of alleged Colorado school shooter Alec McKinney, 16, was jailed for domestic violence and deported TWICE, with his son posting how he missed him just days before the atrocity

[Tom R]

Everything is dropping now because the exoneration of Trump was a milestone on the critical path before the release of the Horowitz report and subsequent indictments of the Obama criminal cabal.

https://twitter.com/galacticredpill/status/1126886375930732545?s=21

[Beasts of England]

Absolutely, Jim - I've been promised two weeks for about six months!! ;)

[Jane]

Steph I love those things. They always nake me pause.

[Beasts of England]

'All it took was the wrapping up of the Mueller hamstringer to unlock everything.'

He provided cover as long as he could...

[Threadkiller]

He provided cover as long as he could...

Yep.

[hoyden]

Hoyden, are you still planning to come out for that?

Posted by: Manuel Transmission | May 10, 2019 at 11:01 AM

MT, I'm keeping it on the agenda. I thought the date was Monday, the day before I leave out for home. Okay to bring along a companion?

Glad to hear you are inching closer to getting your bird back home.

[MissMarple2]

https://cbs4indy.com/2019/05/10/100-year-old-woman-fulfills-life-long-dream-of-zip-lining/

Crawfordsville, Indiana.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2019/05/08/new-york-times-bombshell-already-part-of-donald-trump-apprentice-tv-narrative/

Critics gloated over President Donald Trump’s newly revealed tax details from the New York Times. But his economic struggles in the ’90s were no surprise for fans of his hit NBC TV show The Apprentice.

“It wasn’t always so easy. About 13 years ago, I was seriously in trouble. I was billions of dollars in debt,” Donald Trump said in his opening narrative of the main titles of the show in 2004. “But I fought back and I won, big league.

[MissMarple2]

Retweeted from earlier today.

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
12h12 hours ago

Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our Country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind. Also, much easier & quicker to do. Our Farmers will do better, faster, and starving nations can now be helped. Waivers on some products will be granted, or go to new source!

[Beasts of England]

Time for some live music! And cold beer.

Nytol

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

What Trump is doing is calling China's bluff because he knows they are in the long game but can't sustain it if he puts a monkey wrench in their gears even for a few months. Yes, you can have the patience of an oyster but if you don't have an economy to sustain that oyster then you are done.

Western aggression versus oriental patience wins every time. Ask the Japs or the Norks.

[Pinandpuller]

Extraeus

I thought Nights and Weekends went out with mobile phones.

[Pinandpuller]

Was long distance a real thing or just another of the many examples of government monopolies ripping people off?

[henry]

@RepLeeZeldin

Totally unacceptable that @SpeakerPelosi had Omar Suleiman give the opening prayer yesterday in the House. He compares Israel to the Nazis & calls them terrorists, supports Muslim Brotherhood, incites violence calling for a Palestinian antifada & the end of zionism, etc. Bad call

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

henry,

He is my guy in Southampton. Can't win on the east side of the Shinnecock Canal but brings it home on the other side. So, when people say the Republicans are the party of the wealthy, just remind them that the Hamptons are voting Dems versus the gardeners, carpenters, plumbers, and working class on the other side voting Republican.

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Some notable tee times at Black for the PGA on next Thursday.

8:24 AM* — Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari, Tiger Woods

1:16 PM — Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth

1:38 PM — Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day

2:11 PM* — Jazz Janewattananond, Tyler Hall, Michael Kim LOL.

[Narciso79]

I've seem this movie before:

https://mobile.twitter.com/KHOU/status/1126971002611748865

[bubarooni]

"The best way to kill the fire ants,..."

When I lived in Dallas (Mesquite actually...) in the early '80's, we got free bags of stuff from the city (?) to kill the ants. Some kind of powder that the ants gleefully picked up and took downstairs to eat.

One morning, after an especially successful Jungle Juice Party, we took a couple of leftover bottles of Everclear outside, took off the top and plunged them into the hills and let them drain.

Worked like a charm.

I'm not sure we killed them. They definitely moved though.

We were the envy of the neighborhood after about a month of heavy purchases from a local liquor store.

Fire Ant free by then.

The neighbors took notice we could walk out to the mailbox barefoot and soon adopted our practice.

[MissMarple2]

Retweet:

Donald J. Trump Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
12h12 hours ago

....If we bought 15 Billion Dollars of Agriculture from our Farmers, far more than China buys now, we would have more than 85 Billion Dollars left over for new Infrastructure, Healthcare, or anything else. China would greatly slow down, and we would automatically speed up!

[MissMarple2]

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/rebecca-grant-for-trump-the-china-trade-war-began-long-ago-and-this-is-a-war-hes-determined-not-to-lose

[Narciso79]

Except we know what oil sanctions on Japan ended up in.

[Narciso79]

They prompt one to drink heavily:

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1126988488979693568

[Narciso79]

Thanos was their investment mamaher:
https://mobile.twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1126291961663643648

[clarice]

AT reports DiGenova and Toensing said this last night:Make no mistake: this means that crimes were committed and criminal referrals from the I.G. are coming. Those who signed the applications — a group that includes James Comey and Rod Rosenstein — face criminal prosecution.

The second revelation from the duo is, if anything, even more shocking: the FBI attempted to set up a sting on George Papadopoulos by offering him $10,000 in cash — which he left on the hotel room bed where it was offered to him. The trap this represented was fully revealed when Papadopoulos returned to the USA and customs agents unsuccessfully searched for the $10,000. One of them told Papadopoulos, "This is what happens when you work for Donald Trump." They make the point that the rot at the FBI is not confined to a few appointees at the top. A large number of lower-ranked officials were involved in these stings and associated frauds, and not a single one spoke up as a whistleblower. A heartening assertion from the two well connected figures is that they are confident that justice will be done — that grand juries and indictments are in process. Watch:

[MissMarple2]

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/10/trump-interview-transcript-1317598

Transcript: POLITICO interviews President Donald Trump on Joe Biden, impeachment, Bill Barr, North Korea

[Gentlejim]

Was that why ze Germans bomber Pearl Harbor?

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Tonight I celebrate my existence on Mother Earth and open a bottle of Chateau May Certan 2006 Pomerol. It is splendid and to think I have 3 cases of it in the wine room. More to enjoy.

Thinking about making a trip up to Beasts for a wine tasting at the lake's bar:)

[Tom R]

He provided cover as long as he could...

Funny that you mention that. I think Horowitz and Huber agree with you.

[Catsmeat]

Pin! A bit back, but your point about Aeschylus should not be forgotten—told my 17-year-old the story and he was not impressed, saying there was no way that was true. I don’t assume that’s the case at all—after all, there’s this image of the tragi-comic event, admittedly from about 1800 years later--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschylus#/media/File:Death_of_Aeschylus_in_Florentine_Picture_Chronicle.jpg

Clarice, also a bit back (10:13 am, where did the day go?) but I loved the elementary school aid prompt, “Decisions I Made.” The decision was prompted by the child identifying a problem. This child wrote “my sister socked me on the nose,” and then worked her way through a decision chain (she had to fill out three options) to get to the point of locking her little sister in a closet—for this child, obviously the way to go! So that’s funny. But (and a nod to rse) the graphics for this obviously mass-produced form is in fact troubling. Flanking the “Decisions I Made” title are two vaguely Chast-like heads. On the left, in the good shoulder angel position, is a nerdy glasses-wearing girl with wild hair; on the right, in the bad shoulder position, is a boy with a punk crew, dark sunglasses, and a black/white striped shirt (think an eight-year-old convict on the lam). This happens all the time—girls good, boys bad. I don’t like it.

Jane, years ago I decided to be a hip professor and let my students have class outside, this at Trinity University in San Antonio, on a lovely spring day. We all settled in, and just as we’d started getting somewhere (say, with Auden), I realized I’d sat on a fire-ant nest. The horrible bites didn’t stop driving me crazy for at least a week. I am glad to know of the club soda solution, Jack.

MM, you have mail.

[Melinda]

Chinese finances, in particular crony finances, are more ephemeral than any other in the world, except maybe German banks. When tariffs change your cost of goods sold, as essentially a pre-tax that has to be paid, in cash, up front, inefficient firms blow up but quick.

More later. Dinner!

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Catsmeat,

My favorite Auden poem:

Ten pound art book about Berlin. Black and whites
of a bear rifled down in a square, boys in sun on rubble,
a woman wearing a gas mask pushing a pram.
I was examining each photo for a glimpse of street corner
or sidewalk, wondering if it could be the spot
where my ancestor the roofer’s head
smashed into the pavement when he fell, the loss
that earned the payout that put his children on a boat
that put me here, when I smelled something burning,
but what began as an acrid odor softened
to the familiar scent of bonfires, signature fragrance
of the dying season. I never know where it’s coming from,
but in it there’s always that warm anticipation
of Halloween I remember, and within that the disappointment
when it was never like the movies: no New England
facades, no sidewalks choked with kids, there weren’t
enough of us, and yet I hear children’s laughter
like I’m there again, not in the memory, but the expectation—
outside the window a girl is filming on her phone
another girl tossing handfuls of red maple
over her head. I can see on the screen the video
playing in a short, closed loop. The leaves go up,
then are rewound into her hands, never falling all the way
into the grass over which they’re scattered now
after she dropped them when suddenly a firetruck blared by,
awaking at my feet the dog I’m paid to keep alive.

You know who it is about and dedicated to. I wonder how many others know. My second favorite poet.

[clarice]

Glad you liked it, Catsmeat. My "little sister" is a good sport. She laughed at it, too. I think the kid who filled out the form has a decent future ahead of her/him.

[MissMarple2]

For those who have the Killfile app, could someone put it up and let a JOM member load it and use it?

Thanks!

[clarice]

"filming on her phone"? Was Auden a time traveler?

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Correction: Not the poem I wanted to post at 9:03 which isn't even an Auden poem. Weird.

This is the poem, my favorite as an engineer and physics freak.

If all a top physicist knows
About the Truth be true,
Then, for all the so-and-so's,
Futility and grime,
Our common world contains,
We have a better time
Than the Greater Nebulae do,
Or the atoms in our brains.

Marriage is rarely bliss
But, surely it would be worse
As particles to pelt
At thousands of miles per sec
About a universe
Wherein a lover's kiss
Would either not be felt
Or break the loved one's neck.

Though the face at which I stare
While shaving it be cruel
For, year after year, it repels
An ageing suitor, it has,
Thank God, sufficient mass
To be altogether there,
Not an indeterminate gruel
Which is partly somewhere else.

Our eyes prefer to suppose
That a habitable place
Has a geocentric view,
That architects enclose
A quiet Euclidian space:
Exploded myths - but who
Could feel at home astraddle
An ever expanding saddle?

This passion of our kind
For the process of finding out
Is a fact one can hardly doubt,
But I would rejoice in it more
If I knew more clearly what
We wanted the knowledge for,
Felt certain still that the mind
Is free to know or not.

It has chosen once, it seems,
And whether our concern
For magnitude's extremes
Really become a creature
Who comes in a median size,
Or politicizing Nature
Be altogether wise,
Is something we shall learn.

[henry]

Clarice, if that Degenova/Toensig thing pans out, a lot of twitter sleuths may delete their accounts.

[MissMarple2]

Cartsneat,

I answered you on my emnail.

But sure I was totally with it.

Keep the faith.

[Narciso79]

Some intelligent life:

https://babalublog.com/2019/05/10/mexicans-hold-massive-protest-against-leftist-president-amlo-vow-mexico-will-not-become-venezuela/

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

If you want to be raped and be the bad person, Seattle is your destination. Is there anything the left can't make more attractive than shit?

https://www.city-journal.org/seattle-elites-homeless-crime

[clarice]

Henry, and wouldn't that be a loss?

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Off to bed. Need to get up early tomorrow to put the puppies in the kennel and drive up to Hilton Head with friends for the weekend. All enjoy the beautiful weather, at least here, and keep the faith.

[MissMarple2]

Jack,

Keep the puppies safe and drive safe!

Love those beagles!!

[Pinandpuller]

Catsmeat

He was probably murdered by an unscrupulous bivalve sales girl by the Aegean.

[lurkersusie]

I keep missing opportunities to met fellow JOM posters.
I was in Syracuse when sbw and his wife were here and
I’ll be in Washington for JIB’s visit.

[Pinandpuller]

One morning, after an especially successful Jungle Juice Party, we took a couple of leftover bottles of Everclear outside, took off the top and plunged them into the hills and let them drain.

Are Fire Ants Black?

[Pinandpuller]

Pin,
Absolutely, do you know how dangerous those high capacity roll-on deodorants are?

Posted by: Gentlejim | May 10, 2019 at 06:34 PM

Strong enough for a man but made for a woman. Not on my watch!

[lyle]

Well, she-it. I want to be swilling wine at JiB’s crib. Alas.

Grilled trout almondine with twice cooked sliced red potatoes and blanched Brussels sprouts and a ‘10 [insert good but not great producer name here] chateauneuf du pape.

[Pinandpuller]

The tranny shooter’s doctor should get 10 years in Federal PMITA Prison for creating a destructive device.

[MissMarple2]

lurkersusie,

Anytime you have to pass through Indy, let me know,

[lurkersusie]

mm,

Thanks, you still have open invitation to visit me in Hilton Head

[sbwaters]

Lurkersusie ... Funny. I was near Syracuse when you were in Hilton Head and I was in Hilton Head when you ere in Syracuse.

Oh well. Do you Syracuse often?

[Another Bob]

Killfile for Firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/blog-killfile/

[MissMarple2]

I am hitting the wall.

Will check in tomorrow,

Good night, everyone!

[lurkersusie]

sbw,

My husband and I were both born and raised in Syracuse.
Our siblings still live in Syracuse so we’re back often.

[Manuel Transmission]

A Steph joke she can own if she wants:

A man was telling his buddy : "You won't believe what happened last night.

My daughter walked into the living room and said : Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, forget my college tuition loan, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out the window, take my TV and my laptop.

Please take any of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then sell my car, take my house key away, and throw me out.

Then disown me and never talk to me again. And don't forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to any charity you choose."

"Holy Smokes," replied the friend, " - she actually said that?"

"Well, she didn't put it quite like that. She actually said :

"Dad, meet my new boyfriend, Mohammed. We're going to work together on Elizabeth Warren’s Presidential Campaign."

[rich]

test

[rich]

yes this is a brilliant idea ...

[Narciso79]

My boss gave me a bunch of leads which I called and even visited some in person and then told me, you werent mean to find those, isn't this a riot.

[Narciso79]

All of a sudden Bezos went Tony stark or perhaps dr. Evil with blue origin?

[rich]

Posted by: Narciso79 | May 10, 2019 at 10:18 PM

i'd go with dr.evil

thank goodness i'm home another crummy we for me to. listening to the nats game (they'll probably lose) so that might cheer me up a bit.

[rich]

>>>Clarice, if that Degenova/Toensig thing pans out, a lot of twitter sleuths may delete their accounts.

Posted by: henry | May 10, 2019 at 09:22 PM<<<

they'll find a way.

[damn it, that didn't take long ... dodgers homerun]

[Catsmeat]

Jack, when you catch up, I adore Auden, and that Brewster is also great. I will keep that particular Auden for class--I can think of more than one place at which this will be useful.

Pin--yours is a sordid explanation--the original tale has the nicety of fate (the oracle at Eleusus, his hometown, had foretold he would die by a falling object, so he took to hanging out outside, and thus subject to utilitarian eagles--who were violating the categorical imperative). Again, my son thought this story was bosh--but is yours more plausible? He was at this point rather an old man...

[Narciso79]

With the Bob's big boy rocket, the lander doesn't look like any great shakes

[Narciso79]

So theres this crazy British novelist ned Beaumon who was this tale of an American film crew trying to film heart of darkness in. The 30s but holy ctluthu things go horribly wrong and another character has to find out why.

[Melinda]

Utterly brilliant thread on online behavior and the tools that have driven us to where we are today (hint: you better know what GameGate was about. It’s an inflection point.)::

https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/1126634621108727808?s=21

[rich]

Posted by: fdcol63 🇺🇸 | May 09, 2019 at 04:13 PM

>>>Hillary really INTENDED to lose the election, just so she could set up Trump for the win.<<<

make it stop.

[lurkersusie]

When the other’s fizzle out, she’s in!

Michelle Obama visits Miami, Sunrise

https://www.local10.com/news/florida/michelle-obama-visits-miami-sunrise

[Narciso79]

That's just patently ridiculous shes a slorr from the time of veldrani.

[Narciso79]

How is it the real hellfire club, nxim is not on the cover of any major publication?

[rich]

Posted by: lurkersusie | May 10, 2019 at 10:54 PM

good grief.

i've got an idea, let's do what they do in 3rd world shit holes ... elect the wife of the previous dictator. totes cool.

[Melinda]

narc-

They haven’t even gotten to the biz side of NXIVM. It’s going to get waayyy worse from here on down. No turtles needed. Especially if they get to the auctions.

[Manuel Transmission]

Hoyden,

Yes, I think we can handle it. My sis will be visiting and will go down with us and then stay over to leave for home Sunday morning.

I’m now planning to try bringing the bird back the KBLI for a quick annual on Monday. Fingers crossed.

[bubarooni]

PaP,

"Are Fire Ants Black?"

Tiny.

Red.

Aggresive.

Organized.

My bro came down to visit. I was telling him about the big ant hills.

He went over and kicked one.

120 seconds later he was pulling off his pants in the front yard screaming 'what the f*ck is happening to me!!!'

rookies.

BTW, this was before the Jungle Juice Party.

[Stephanie Nene Not Your Normal Granma]

Thanks MT. Love that one!

Jane glad you liked those today!

We went to the AAA Gwinnett Stripers/Braves game tonight. If anyone is interested, there is a pic of Ariel at the game on my FB. Her dad was running late picking her up today - traffic sucks all over the ATL, so we took her to the game and he came by the game and picked her up instead of holding us up at home and being late for the game.

Get AMDRO for fire ants. They eat it and take it back to the hive and are gone in 48 hours. We have NONE in the yard and haven't for years. Just sprinkle it around any mounds you see and proactively sprinkle it all around your yard at the start of spring and they won't even start a nest in your yard.

[Pinandpuller]

I had Fire Ants in W TN but not here. Must be all of the bloody armadillos.

[Pinandpuller]

IIRC Fire Ants have distinctively tall housing projects.

[Melinda]

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/10/721763041/exclusive-documents-detail-meetings-of-russians-with-treasury-federal-reserve

A rehash, reprint, or just muddying the water?

[Narciso79]

Well it shows continuity:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/05/10/could-amber-rudds-attack-tory-parade-wives-mean-leadership-pact/

Remember the bank of New York scandal that even made it to law and order?

[Melinda]

Which one? There were a few since the mid 80s.

[Melinda]

Time for the rack.

G’night all.

[Narciso79]

It was around 1999, and the flights of cash to a correspondent bank,

[Stephanie Nene Not Your Normal Granma]

Jimmy Buffett took the stage at the NO Jazz Festival dressed as a blind NFL referee.

LOL

[jim nj]

I can't remember the question, but when the telcos began to offer tone dialing they charged more for it than the older pulse dialing that actually cost more by tying up their switching systems for a longer period of time.

Tone dialing was more efficient for the telco but because of its' novelty they were able to make money off it for a while.

[jim nj]

Caught part of the eleven o'clock news tonight.

Chinese tariffs bad for Americans will cost average family 800-1.000 dollars per year.

No source cited for that idiocy. IHTFP.

[jim nj]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/uber-stumbles-in-ipocramer-and-other-experts-on-what-to-expect.html

I'm not terribly surprised by this. Their IPO went off at the low end of their prospectus pre-pricing range. That means demand was low. Many IPO investors buy with the hope to flip at a higher price for a very quick profit.

No quick profit likely means no profit ever - sell.

[jim nj]

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/coastal/news/2019/05/10/ancient-forest-dating-back-more-than-2-600-years-found-in-nc

North Carolina

[jim nj]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/top-trump-admin-intel-military-advisers-held-meeting-cia-iran-n1003736

No discussion on what was talked about besides it being on Iran.

[jim nj]

I've been thinking of the failed China trade negotiations.

Trump went out of his way not to blame Xi.

And reassert his personal friendship with Xi.

Sounds like Trump is giving him "face," Xi didn't fail here. His advisors did.

[jim nj]

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/05/09/marine-corps-gets-long-range-missile-take-out-enemy-ships.html

The dynamic between the Marines and the Navy seems to be rapidly changing based on what I've been reading lately.

I assume they are focused on the challenges of a China sea battle.

I've read of a new Marine concept of dispersed landings suggesting not an island-hopping strategy like in WWII, but maybe simultaneous attacks on South China sea man-made islands.

The Navy seems very willing to support the new Marine tactics.

[jim nj]

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/05/08/the-pacific-push-new-rotation-thousands-more-soldiers-heading-to-the-region-as-the-army-readies-for-a-new-kind-of-fight/

The Army is seeking similar abilities.

[jim nj]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/u-s-officials-iran-official-ok-d-attacks-american-military-n1003421

Apparently our cause of alarm,

[Buckeye]

jim_nj

The UBER IPO stunk from the getgo.

If the underlying business, which has become ubiquitous, still can't figure out how to make money, what is the value??

UBER is like Tesla, there is no pony in that pile.

[jim nj]

Buckeye,

Hard to sell the sizzle, when there's none there. IPO's thrive on hype. Not a lot to hype here. $11 billion in income and we're losing money.

Yeah, I want a large piece of that, not.

[Buckeye]

jim_nj

When I went this week to get blood work and ekg done, my appt was at the one of the hospitals.

I parked in one of the garages and had to make my way up near the top floor.

I passed 14 reserved parking spots with charging stations, each occupied by a Tesla, almost every one was a model S.

Undoubtedly physicians who are into this trendy, virtue signalling, BS. Yes I have driven one, and yes they are a very high performance vehicle, but you have to plug the damn things in every time you park. Basically, a $100K golf cart.

Not a solution for the masses.

They are already getting "old in the tooth", and no way Tesla is going to be able to launch an update of each model as frequently as Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

I think Tesla is in a death spiral, despite the story the public gets from Elon.

Another place not to put your money.