PastaJoe

It's reported that Trump brought up the Russian election interference twice. "Thank you, president Putin". And at the end, "Thank you again".

Trump cabinet excites collectors of Beanie Babies, POGs, and typewriters: DOE Rick Perry at coal plant: "Heres a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow." https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.mic.com/articles/amp/181603/rick-perry-has-no-idea-how-economics-works

Car sales continue to sputter. The three major U.S. automakers all reported sharp declines in June sales compared to a year ago. U.S. vehicle sales have lagged behind 2016 levels every month this year. If that performance continues, this year will mark the first since 2009 that industrywide sales declined. http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/03/news/companies/june-car-sales/index.html Well that certainly isn't making America great again. Time for Trump to make another hollow promise like the one to Carrier employees who are still losing their jobs.

I bought Sony earbuds with a cord for my iPhone, which is a 6s I got last month instead of a 7 because I didn't want the wireless. $18 at Target, they sound fine, good base, and are long enough to use when mowing lawn.

My son moved to Boston last year for a job after college. He thinks it's a great city, but can't stand the Boston sports fans. Went to a Cavs-Celtics playoff game and enjoyed watching their fans go crazy over losing. He found a Bills backers bar to watch games at. Went to the Pats game and said they have a great stadium complex. Boston has a good public transportation system, he works downtown and takes the train. Of course the housing costs are ridiculous, he pays over $2000 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment.

Like father like daughter, Ivanka is trying to deny the truth of her own words. Can't any of his conflict of interest "advisors" be honest? Ivanka Trump must answer questions in a lawsuit over whether her company ripped off a rival's shoe design, as a judge rejected her claim that she's too busy as a "high-ranking government official" in the White House to sit for a deposition. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan on Friday said Trump must spend two hours responding to questions about the design of a shoe sold by her company. "Ms. Trump's public statements regarding active and comprehensive brand management lead to a reasonable inference that the shoe at issue would not have been released without her approval," Forrest said in a three-page order. "In such a situation, a deposition is appropriate." Aquazzura Italia SRL sued Trump, her company IT Collection LLC and shoemaker Marc Fisher Holdings, claiming they illegally copied its pricey Wild Thing shoe in designing the Ivanka Trump Hettie model. Aquazzura wants to question Ivanka Trump before a trial, but her legal team asked Forrest to rule she doesnt have to testify. Trump, whose White House title is Assistant to the President of the United States, is too important and busy to testify, her lawyer, Darren Saunders, argued in a June 16 letter to the judge. "I had no involvement in the conception, design, production or sale of the Hettie Shoe," Trump said June 16 in a declaration filed with the court. "My involvement was strictly limited to the final sign-off of each seasons line after it was first reviewed and approved by the companys design team." Trumps lawyers offered Abigail Klem, IT Collections president, to answer Aquazzuras questions. In her ruling, Forrest noted Trumps competing professional obligations, limiting the deposition to two hours and ordering it be held in Washington. Forrest also extended deadlines in the case so Trump will have until the end of October to give her testimony. Aquazzuras lawyers cited a 2012 interview with Footwear News in arguing that Trump shouldnt be permitted to minimize her role as a shoe designer. "Individually, I focus not only on brand position and the direction of any given collection, but also on the individual product," Trump told the trade publication. "Theres not a shoe I'm not intimately involved in designing." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/ivanka-trump-must-answer-questions-in-wild-thing-shoe-suit

Not hilarious and not the exact same issues. It was an unprecedented level of interference in 2016 by Russia to get their preferred candidate elected, whose campaign had an unprecedented number of advisors with ties to Russia and didn't disclose all their meetings and attempts to bypass normal communication methods, thus leading to lying to Congress, firing only after it became public, recusals, and a president in denial. Not exactly the same by a long stretch. But of course you know that.

Trump promised the American public, "We're going to have insurance for everybody.... Everybody's going to be taken care of." He vowed his health care policy would offer "lower premiums" with "much lower deductibles." And perhaps most importantly, Trump swore, over and over again, in writing and in public remarks, that he would never cut Medicaid. And yet yesterday Trump threw his support behind a Senate GOP bill that won't cover everybody, would increase consumer costs, and cuts Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. This is a profound betrayal to those Americans who actually believed Trump's assurances, and voted for him because they expected the Republican to honor his word. What's the White House's explanation for the presidential perfidy? Trump's budget director recently questioned the importance of the Medicaid promise, which probably won't offer much comfort to families poised to suffer. What's more, it's not just Trump. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) recently said, before he knew about his party's plans to gut Medicaid, "We cannot pull the rug out from under states like Nevada that expanded Medicaid." Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has made similar comments, as have other GOP senators. https://www.google.com/amp/www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-and-health-care-promises-made-promises-broken/amp

Exactly, Trump's witch hunt claims are really reaching. Trump: Mueller-Comey friendship is bothersome. Mueller: Trump-Putin friendship is bothersome.

Yesterday in Iowa Trump said, "They have phony witch hunts going against me". So if the witch hunts are phony, then that means there are no witch hunts, only justified investigations. By George I think he's got it!

Be kind to the people you meet on the way up, because you're going to meet the same people on the way down.

I had them (see Rat Patrol jeep above). My best Christmas present ever was when I unwrapped a two foot high package, and it was a stack of GI Joe uniform and accessory boxes.

I still have that, along with the hockey stickers we would get from Loblaws.

Congressional hearing on gun legislation has been cancelled. The "Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act" would make it easier to purchase silencers, transport guns across state lines, and ease restrictions on armor-piercing bullets. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Jeff Duncan who was at the baseball practice.

Buffalo Bill; he played a local TV talk host.

Feeling pressure is an emotional response not a legal excuse to not answer. There was no claim of executive privilege. Unlike Trump, I don't need visuals to understand your feeling of desperation as you grasp at straws to defend Trump.

You can be asked to do something without feeling pressured. I can ask you to stop posting biased right-wing links, but that doesn't mean you feel pressured to comply. They wouldn't answer the simple question; "were you asked?".

Putting up vinyl siding isn't really hard, just labor intensive. I did it by myself on our former house, but it was a ranch. I had no experience and it was pre-YouTube, so just read up on it. You need to determine if you just want to cover the wood, or also first wrap the house in Tyvek for insulation.

Working on the second season of House of Cards on Netflix. It's both entertaining and depressing if it's anything like what really happens behind the scenes in government. The first season had some shocking turns.

The most surprising aspect of these shows, along with ones like Beachfront Bargain Hunt, is when they ask the buyer's budget, and they say 500k or even up to 1 million. Where are these younger people getting that much for a house?

COBOL was the first language I used at work. I liked using it but hated setting up the JCL to run it. I still have my manual and a couple of sample programs in the basement. Maybe I should dust them off.