Chris Brown doesn't want to fly Con Air
Chris Brown has multiple legal woes at the moment. He's in a Los Angeles jail, without bail, after he was booted from a rehab facility. The same judge who ordered him to go to rehab, locked him up and said he'd stay there until a hearing date.
But Brown has a date in another court on another case. He's scheduled for a trial in Washington, D. C. where he's being charged with misdemeanor assault. That trial is to start April 17th and the judge in that case ordered U. S. Marshals (they do operate what's known as Con Air) to take Brown into custody and bring him to D. C. to stand trial.
Brown's highly-paid mouthpiece, Mark Geragos filed a motion challenging this, claiming that by Brown being taken to D. C. it may deny him his right to confer with his counsel.
This is a lot of BS. Geragos doesn't want his client going to D. C. because if Chris Brown is convicted in that misdemeanor case, the judge in CA could send him to prison for four years on a probation violation.
Eventually, if you get into trouble enough, no matter how much money you have, you will wind up in the gray-bar hotel. Are you listening, Justin "Douchebag" Bieber?
* * *
Is it an accident that the law passed in 2010 to try to force tax compliance by U. S. persons (citizens and permanent residents) regarding monies held in accounts outside the U. S. is known by the acronym FATCA, which only lacks a T to make it FATCAT?
It may be, but it is no accident that Steven Seagal is just the latest person to be considering giving up their U. S. citizenship to move abroad and enjoy lower tax rates. Seagal is making remarks about seeking Russian citizenship, where he would be taxed at the nice, low rate of 13%.
That's one of the reasons Gerard Depardieu is now a Russian citizen. He left France when they threatened to raise the top tax rate to 75% and was headed for Belgium until Putin came up with a better offer.
I don't give a damn if Seagal wants to go to live in Russia. Maybe he can become an auxiliary FSB officer (the FSB replaced the KGB following the 1991 dissolution of that agency). But if he's going to praise the actions of Vladimir Putin in the Crimea, he should be made aware of how disrespectful that is to the United States. You can certainly disagree with what our president does, but you don't side with another nation against us. As far as I'm concerned, he shouldn't let the Golden Door hit him in the ass on his way to Moscow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E
* * *
In 2012, Nicholas Lopez's film "Aftershock" was released. It was about a group of tourists in Chile who were in a nightclub when a massive earthquake hit. Hundreds of prisoners escaped from a prison and began raping, looting and pillaging. There was the threat of a tsunami.
Today there was a massive earthquake off the coast of Chile. A news report claims 300 inmates have escaped from a prison. There are tsunami warnings and watches.
Life imitating art?
* * *
Charles Keating has died at the age of 90. I don't know how many of the more than 20,000 people he fleeced out of all or part of their life savings are still alive, but those who are probably did not want another reminder of the pain he caused them.
I wasn't one of them, but I will remember the name Anthony Elliott for the rest of my life. A little more than a year after he lost his life savings of $200,000 in the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal, the 89 year old man wrote a note and slit his wrists.
Keating spent less than five years total in prison for his crimes. Not nearly enough. I suspect that his very short prison sentence had something to do with the sentences being handed down in the case of Bernie Madoff. He got 150 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law. Five of his subordinates face long prison terms when they are sentenced.
The problem with all of this? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes pops up once again. Or in English, "who guards the guards?" In the case of Lincoln Savings, back in the 1980s, it was Arthur Anderson & Company, Arthur Young & Company, and Touche Ross & Company. Three of the largest accounting firms in the nation at the time. All three issued financial statements throughout the 1980s portraying Lincoln Savings and Loan as being in pristine financial condition. Even for a large firm like Arthur Young & Co. was in those days, the fact is that the audit fees they were paid for auditing the parent company of Lincoln Savings represented 20% of the annual billings of their office in Phoenix. So were they reluctant to blow the whistle since it would cost them a huge client?
Then there's the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which doesn't make me feel very secure. They should have uncovered Madoff's Ponzi scheme decades earlier. His monthly reports contained listings of trades on days the markets were closed. Trades that had no connection with the real prices for the shares supposedly being bought and sold. The investors didn't pay any attention to those reports, or check their accuracy. As long as those double-digit returns were being earned, they didn't think it was important.
You can't learn all about high finance and investing yourself. Oh you can gain some self-education, but most of us will never be experts like those who work in the world of finance, trying to turn small amounts of money into larger amounts of money.
We don't have to. We find experts to do this for us. The thing is, we can't rely solely on just one expert. I had a client come in today with a brokerage statement of their investments and they didn't understand the first thing about it. What the transactions represented was unknown. I was more than happy to explain the statement's contents but even if I were licensed to give investment advice (I'm not and probably never will be), I wouldn't give out that kind of advice. I know I don't know enough about it to be advising others.
Find the person you think is the right expert for you. Then find another to make sure that your expert isn't misleading you and you probably won't become a victim. Hopefully.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
After seeing the musical lineup from the wedding of Linda Perry and Sara Gilbert all I can say is, dammit, I wish I could have gone. Terri Nunn singing "Highway to Hell" and "The Metro" (and yes, "Take My Breath Away"). Martha Davis does "Only the Lonely?" Wow.
Anderson Cooper says "inheritance is an initiative sucker" and that he's glad he won't get one. Wait a sec, didn't he say how proud he was of his mother for making her own millions after inheriting big? So is inheriting not an initiative sucker after all?
Gwyneth Paltrow is consciously uncoupling but on vacation with her future ex. Now Heather Locklear is on vacation with her ex-husband.
When Chris Pine tires of being Captain Kirk, can we then cast him in "T. J. Hooker, the Motion Picture?"
The Obama Administration is reporting that they've hit the goal of seven million people having signed up for the coverage through the Affordable Care Act. In my next blog I hope to take a closer look at that number. Remember these two words. "Adverse selection."
The Dodgers won a game in San Diego on April 1st that roughly 70% of Southern California could not watch on television. The new Dodger channel and Time Warner Cable aren't budging in their price demands for rights to broadcast these games. I guess they want a return on their multi-billion dollar investment.
Donald Trump is worried about the gun rights of New York residents. Perhaps he should focus more on the rights of toupee wearing men.
If I had known Drew Carey would be hosting for Craig Ferguson on April 1st, I'd have tuned in. I will catch Craig sitting in for Drew today on TPIR.
* * *
April 2nd in History:
1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now Florida.
1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
1801 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen – The British capture the Danish fleet.
1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
1863 – Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia, and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.
1865 – American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
1865 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
1885 – Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, North-West Territories, Canada, killing nine.
1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.
1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census.
1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
1917 – World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
1945 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS-TV. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
1962 – The first official panda crossing is opened outside London Waterloo station.
1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
1973 – The Liberal Movement breaks away from the Liberal and Country League in South Australia.
1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
1975 – Construction of the CN Tower is completed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It reaches 553.33 metres (1,815.4 ft) in height, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure.
1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.
1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist most widely known for the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
1994 – The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.
2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated; a siege ensues.
2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; hardest hit is in Tennessee with 29 people killed.
Famous Folk Born on April 2nd:
Charlemagne
Prince George of Denmark
Hans Christian Anderson
Emile Zola
Clement Adler
Walter Chrysler
Buddy Ebsen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDcgsRaGDao skip to 16:30 in the following clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MWN3mM38M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATUILf51B3c)
Sir Alec Guiness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM6uU9CWjAI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1vaO6DiRpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aai4TMoKjeM)
Jack Webb (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riYfFQMPIP0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo2hhvvlpw)
Gloria Mitchell (played the mom of Dennis the Menace on the old b/w TV show)
Marvin Gaye (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F--M5eQf8I)
Dr. Demento (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSAEownqddg)
Leon Russell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JzM4049aXY)
Linda Hunt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0limwxq_xs)
Reggie Smith
Don Sutton
Kurt Winter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO8ahHedcnk)
Emmylou Harris
Camille Paglia
Ron Palillo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cDAqrywsHE)
Debralee Scott
James Vance
Gregory Abbott (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX7luPKoQmU)
Donald Petrie
Michael Stone
David Frankel
Linford Christie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8d7tz2YK3A)
Christopher Meloni (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3GFbhNN0HY one of his best pieces of work)
Keren Woodward (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkcU2_Vs7Xw)
Shane and Shia Barbi (http://www.barbitwins.com/)
Rodney King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OauOPTwbqk)
Greg Camp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_jWHffIx5E)
Michael Fassbender (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvXKN5Fz_OE)
But Brown has a date in another court on another case. He's scheduled for a trial in Washington, D. C. where he's being charged with misdemeanor assault. That trial is to start April 17th and the judge in that case ordered U. S. Marshals (they do operate what's known as Con Air) to take Brown into custody and bring him to D. C. to stand trial.
Brown's highly-paid mouthpiece, Mark Geragos filed a motion challenging this, claiming that by Brown being taken to D. C. it may deny him his right to confer with his counsel.
This is a lot of BS. Geragos doesn't want his client going to D. C. because if Chris Brown is convicted in that misdemeanor case, the judge in CA could send him to prison for four years on a probation violation.
Eventually, if you get into trouble enough, no matter how much money you have, you will wind up in the gray-bar hotel. Are you listening, Justin "Douchebag" Bieber?
* * *
Is it an accident that the law passed in 2010 to try to force tax compliance by U. S. persons (citizens and permanent residents) regarding monies held in accounts outside the U. S. is known by the acronym FATCA, which only lacks a T to make it FATCAT?
It may be, but it is no accident that Steven Seagal is just the latest person to be considering giving up their U. S. citizenship to move abroad and enjoy lower tax rates. Seagal is making remarks about seeking Russian citizenship, where he would be taxed at the nice, low rate of 13%.
That's one of the reasons Gerard Depardieu is now a Russian citizen. He left France when they threatened to raise the top tax rate to 75% and was headed for Belgium until Putin came up with a better offer.
I don't give a damn if Seagal wants to go to live in Russia. Maybe he can become an auxiliary FSB officer (the FSB replaced the KGB following the 1991 dissolution of that agency). But if he's going to praise the actions of Vladimir Putin in the Crimea, he should be made aware of how disrespectful that is to the United States. You can certainly disagree with what our president does, but you don't side with another nation against us. As far as I'm concerned, he shouldn't let the Golden Door hit him in the ass on his way to Moscow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E
* * *
In 2012, Nicholas Lopez's film "Aftershock" was released. It was about a group of tourists in Chile who were in a nightclub when a massive earthquake hit. Hundreds of prisoners escaped from a prison and began raping, looting and pillaging. There was the threat of a tsunami.
Today there was a massive earthquake off the coast of Chile. A news report claims 300 inmates have escaped from a prison. There are tsunami warnings and watches.
Life imitating art?
* * *
Charles Keating has died at the age of 90. I don't know how many of the more than 20,000 people he fleeced out of all or part of their life savings are still alive, but those who are probably did not want another reminder of the pain he caused them.
I wasn't one of them, but I will remember the name Anthony Elliott for the rest of my life. A little more than a year after he lost his life savings of $200,000 in the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal, the 89 year old man wrote a note and slit his wrists.
Keating spent less than five years total in prison for his crimes. Not nearly enough. I suspect that his very short prison sentence had something to do with the sentences being handed down in the case of Bernie Madoff. He got 150 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law. Five of his subordinates face long prison terms when they are sentenced.
The problem with all of this? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes pops up once again. Or in English, "who guards the guards?" In the case of Lincoln Savings, back in the 1980s, it was Arthur Anderson & Company, Arthur Young & Company, and Touche Ross & Company. Three of the largest accounting firms in the nation at the time. All three issued financial statements throughout the 1980s portraying Lincoln Savings and Loan as being in pristine financial condition. Even for a large firm like Arthur Young & Co. was in those days, the fact is that the audit fees they were paid for auditing the parent company of Lincoln Savings represented 20% of the annual billings of their office in Phoenix. So were they reluctant to blow the whistle since it would cost them a huge client?
Then there's the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which doesn't make me feel very secure. They should have uncovered Madoff's Ponzi scheme decades earlier. His monthly reports contained listings of trades on days the markets were closed. Trades that had no connection with the real prices for the shares supposedly being bought and sold. The investors didn't pay any attention to those reports, or check their accuracy. As long as those double-digit returns were being earned, they didn't think it was important.
You can't learn all about high finance and investing yourself. Oh you can gain some self-education, but most of us will never be experts like those who work in the world of finance, trying to turn small amounts of money into larger amounts of money.
We don't have to. We find experts to do this for us. The thing is, we can't rely solely on just one expert. I had a client come in today with a brokerage statement of their investments and they didn't understand the first thing about it. What the transactions represented was unknown. I was more than happy to explain the statement's contents but even if I were licensed to give investment advice (I'm not and probably never will be), I wouldn't give out that kind of advice. I know I don't know enough about it to be advising others.
Find the person you think is the right expert for you. Then find another to make sure that your expert isn't misleading you and you probably won't become a victim. Hopefully.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
After seeing the musical lineup from the wedding of Linda Perry and Sara Gilbert all I can say is, dammit, I wish I could have gone. Terri Nunn singing "Highway to Hell" and "The Metro" (and yes, "Take My Breath Away"). Martha Davis does "Only the Lonely?" Wow.
Anderson Cooper says "inheritance is an initiative sucker" and that he's glad he won't get one. Wait a sec, didn't he say how proud he was of his mother for making her own millions after inheriting big? So is inheriting not an initiative sucker after all?
Gwyneth Paltrow is consciously uncoupling but on vacation with her future ex. Now Heather Locklear is on vacation with her ex-husband.
When Chris Pine tires of being Captain Kirk, can we then cast him in "T. J. Hooker, the Motion Picture?"
The Obama Administration is reporting that they've hit the goal of seven million people having signed up for the coverage through the Affordable Care Act. In my next blog I hope to take a closer look at that number. Remember these two words. "Adverse selection."
The Dodgers won a game in San Diego on April 1st that roughly 70% of Southern California could not watch on television. The new Dodger channel and Time Warner Cable aren't budging in their price demands for rights to broadcast these games. I guess they want a return on their multi-billion dollar investment.
Donald Trump is worried about the gun rights of New York residents. Perhaps he should focus more on the rights of toupee wearing men.
If I had known Drew Carey would be hosting for Craig Ferguson on April 1st, I'd have tuned in. I will catch Craig sitting in for Drew today on TPIR.
* * *
April 2nd in History:
1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now Florida.
1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
1801 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen – The British capture the Danish fleet.
1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
1863 – Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia, and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.
1865 – American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
1865 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
1885 – Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, North-West Territories, Canada, killing nine.
1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.
1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census.
1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
1917 – World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
1945 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS-TV. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
1962 – The first official panda crossing is opened outside London Waterloo station.
1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
1973 – The Liberal Movement breaks away from the Liberal and Country League in South Australia.
1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
1975 – Construction of the CN Tower is completed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It reaches 553.33 metres (1,815.4 ft) in height, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure.
1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.
1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist most widely known for the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
1994 – The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.
2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated; a siege ensues.
2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; hardest hit is in Tennessee with 29 people killed.
Famous Folk Born on April 2nd:
Charlemagne
Prince George of Denmark
Hans Christian Anderson
Emile Zola
Clement Adler
Walter Chrysler
Buddy Ebsen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDcgsRaGDao skip to 16:30 in the following clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MWN3mM38M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATUILf51B3c)
Sir Alec Guiness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM6uU9CWjAI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1vaO6DiRpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aai4TMoKjeM)
Jack Webb (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riYfFQMPIP0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo2hhvvlpw)
Gloria Mitchell (played the mom of Dennis the Menace on the old b/w TV show)
Marvin Gaye (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F--M5eQf8I)
Dr. Demento (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSAEownqddg)
Leon Russell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JzM4049aXY)
Linda Hunt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0limwxq_xs)
Reggie Smith
Don Sutton
Kurt Winter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO8ahHedcnk)
Emmylou Harris
Camille Paglia
Ron Palillo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cDAqrywsHE)
Debralee Scott
James Vance
Gregory Abbott (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX7luPKoQmU)
Donald Petrie
Michael Stone
David Frankel
Linford Christie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8d7tz2YK3A)
Christopher Meloni (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3GFbhNN0HY one of his best pieces of work)
Keren Woodward (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkcU2_Vs7Xw)
Shane and Shia Barbi (http://www.barbitwins.com/)
Rodney King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OauOPTwbqk)
Greg Camp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_jWHffIx5E)
Michael Fassbender (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvXKN5Fz_OE)
posted by me at 1:56 PM
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