It's a bad joke
So did you hear the one about the lawyer and the sushi chef who formed a partnership and opened a new restaurant in downtown Los Angeles? It's called "SoSueMe."
I know, bad joke. So is the notion that the United States House of Representatives needs to sue President Obama for failure to do his job and faithfully execute his oath of office. Especially when the members of the House and the Senate are not doing much better when it comes to doing the job they were elected for.
Is President Obama failing to carry out some of his duties? I believe he is. Mandating the "Dream Act" by Executive Order exceeded his authority, in my opinion. Instructing ICE to only deport people who have committed a serious crime is a failure on his part. At least by the letter of the law it is.
If someone is to sue the President, it should be an ordinary citizen. Not one of the other branches of government.
* * *
Joan Rivers melted down on CNN during an interview with Fredericka Whitfield. No big deal there. But it got me to thinking. My big problem with Rivers isn't that she's selling herself. My problem is she's not really funny these days. Calling President Obama gay isn't funny. Calling the First Lady is insulting.
I mention this only because CNN just replayed the interview in its entirety and having heard what preceded the meltdown portion only proves that Rivers was in the wrong. She's one of the most self-entitled people in the entertainment industry.
In any event, I'm done with her. Anytime my TV clicker lands on a channel where she is doing anything, I'm changing the channel.
* * *
The lawyer for Shelly Sterling has called the move by Donald Sterling to attempt to move the case going to trial tomorrow to federal court, "cowardly." That's actually pretty accurate. Trust documents are regulated by state law, not federal law. The issue of Donald Sterling's competency to continue to manage the assets of the trust is a state issue.
The basis for the claim to move the case into federal court is based on the violation of Donald Sterling's privacy rights. That's a completely separate issue from whether or not Sterling is competent to manage the assets of the trust. If he wants to pursue an action in federal court against visor-woman V. Stiviano, he should do that.
So why is he being so resistant to the sale of the team? I suspect it is a combination of two issues. One is that he has some belief in his mind that he can remain the team's owner. The other is that if he's forced to sell by the NBA, rather than the team being sold voluntarily, he can defer the capital gains tax on his sale proceeds. His gain is going to be more than $1.9 billion and being able to defer the tax on that over two years would be significant.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Clayton Kershaw is at 36 consecutive scoreless innings. Significant, but nothing to get too excited about yet.
Some idiot in Northern California blew off both his hands when the illegal fireworks he was trying to ignite went off prematurely. People have this "it won't happen to me" attitude right up to the moment when it does. Turn it around. Assume it will happen to you, and therefore don't do it.
Did Ellen DeGeneres cheat on Portia de Rossi while Portia was in rehab? Who knows? If true though, that's really harsh. Then again, any marital infidelity is pretty harsh.
The newspaper that described President Obama as the "The N***** in the White House" in an editorial that is actually pro-Obama made a poor choice in the use of that word.
If I had hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd make a big bid for Steve McQueen's Ferrari that is going to be auctioned off next month. I predict it will fetch more than the current projection of $12 million.
If "JAG" and/or "L. A. Law" were airing in syndication, I'd be watching and tempted to finally break down and get a DVR.
If Bobby Shriver holds firm on his recent announcement he won't self-finance his campaign for a seat on the L. A. County Board of Supervisors in the upcoming runoff-election, he will lose.
In the wake of the fired nanny who won't move out of the room she was given comes a story of a 26 year old stripper who rented a room in a woman's house and wound up costing her landlord over $40,000. Background checks, people.
Lindsay Lohan has a case against the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto. I hope she wins.
I love the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but they have no right to enforce a rule adopted in 1951 to try to recoup an Oscar awarded in 1942.
Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis will fight the $19 million judgment against him right up to the Supreme Court of the United States, and even then he won't pay willingly.
A pissing contest over July 4th fireworks shows in Los Angeles forced the taxpayers to spend $60,000 extra to host a second show. Bernard Parks and Curren Price need to go back to Kindergarten and re-take sharing.
* * *
July 6th in History:
371 BC – The Battle of Leuctra, where Epaminondas defeated Cleombrotus I, takes place
640 – Battle of Heliopolis: The Muslim Arab army under 'Amr ibn al-'As defeat the Byzantine forces near Heliopolis (Egypt).
1044 – The Battle of Ménfő between troops led by Emperor Henry III and Magyar forces led by King Samuel takes place.
1189 – Richard I "the Lionheart" accedes to the English throne.
1253 – Mindaugas is crowned King of Lithuania.
1348 – Pope Clement VI issues a papal bull protecting the Jews accused of having caused the Black Death.
1411 – Ming China's Admiral Zheng He returns to Nanjing after the third treasure voyage and presents the Sinhalese king, captured during the Ming–Kotte War, to the Yongle Emperor.
1415 – Jan Hus is burned at the stake.
1483 – Richard III is crowned King of England.
1484 – Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River.
1495 – First Italian War: Battle of Fornovo – Charles VIII defeats the Holy League.
1535 – Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England.
1557 – King Philip II of Spain, consort of Queen Mary I of England, sets out from Dover to war with France, which eventually resulted in the loss of the City of Calais, the last English possession on the continent, and Mary I never seeing her husband again.
1560 – The Treaty of Edinburgh is signed by Scotland and England.
1573 – Córdoba, Argentina, is founded by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera.
1609 – Bohemia is granted freedom of religion.
1614 – Żejtun and the surrounding villages suffer a raid from Ottoman forces. This was the last unsuccessful attempt by the Ottomans to conquer the island of Malta.
1630 – Thirty Years' War: Four thousand Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus land in Pomerania, Germany.
1685 – Battle of Sedgemoor: Last battle of the Monmouth Rebellion. troops of King James II defeat troops of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth.
1751 – Pope Benedict XIV suppresses the Patriarchate of Aquileia and establishes from its territory the Archdiocese of Udine and Gorizia.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Siege of Fort Ticonderoga: After a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreat from Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
1779 – Battle of Grenada: The French defeat British naval forces during the American Revolutionary War.
1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.
1801 – First Battle of Algeciras: Outnumbered French Navy ships defeat the Royal Navy in the fortified Spanish port of Algeciras.
1809 – The second day of the Battle of Wagram; France defeats the Austrian army in the largest battle to date of the Napoleonic Wars.
1854 – In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party is held.
1885 – Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
1887 – David Kalākaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint by Americans to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.
1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
1892 – Three thousand eight hundred striking steelworkers engage in a day-long battle with Pinkerton agents during the Homestead Strike, leaving ten dead and dozens wounded.
1893 – The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa, is nearly destroyed by a tornado that killed 71 people and injured 200.
1917 – World War I: Arabian troops led by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire during the Arab Revolt.
1919 – The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.
1933 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2.
1936 – A major breach of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in England sends millions of gallons of water cascading 200 feet (61 m) into the River Irwell.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Battle of Brunete: The battle begins with Spanish Republican troops going on the offensive against the Nationalists to relieve pressure on Madrid.
1939 – Holocaust: the last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
1940 – Story Bridge, a major landmark in Brisbane, as well as Australia's longest cantilever bridge is formally opened.
1941 – Nazi Germany launches its offensive to encircle several Soviet armies near Smolensk.
1942 – Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
1944 – Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court martial.
1944 – The Hartford circus fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.
1947 – The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
1957 – Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so.
1957 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles.
1962 – As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test takes place.
1962 – The Late Late Show, the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTÉ One for the first time.
1964 – Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
1966 – Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as its first President.
1967 – Nigerian Civil War: Nigerian forces invade Biafra, beginning the war.
1975 – The Comoros declares independence from France.
1986 – Davis Phinney becomes the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France.
1988 – The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. One hundred sixty-seven oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life.
1989 – The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 suicide attack: Fourteen bus passengers are killed when an Arab assaulted the bus driver as the bus was driving by the edge of a cliff.
1995 – In the Bosnian War, under the command of General Ratko Mladić, Serbia begins its attack on the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and kills more than 8000 Bosniaks, in what then- UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called "the worst crime on European soil since the Second World War".
1997 – The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree dispute, five days of mass protests, riots and gun battles begin in Irish nationalist districts of Northern Ireland.
1999 – U.S. Army private Barry Winchell dies from baseball-bat injuries inflicted on him in his sleep the previous day by a fellow soldier, Calvin Glover, for his relationship with transgender showgirl and former Navy Corpsman Calpernia Addams.
2003 – The 70-metre Eupatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044 and 2049 respectively.
2006 – The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-openes for trade after 44 years.
2013 – At least 42 people are killed in a shooting at a school in Yobe State, Nigeria.
2013 – A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board.
2013 – A 73-car oil train derails in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and explodes into flames, killing at least 47 people and destroying more than 30 buildings in the town's central area.
Famous Folk Born on July 6th:
General Daniel Morgan
Captain John Paul Jones
Nicholas I of Russia
Adolf Anderssen
Maximilian I of Mexico
Ernest Busch
Marc Chagall
Frida Kahlo
Vincent McMahon, Sr.
Sebastian Cabot
Nancy Reagan
Merv Griffin
Bill Haley
Alan Freeman
Janet Leigh
Della Reese
Candy Barr
The 14th Dalai Lama
Ned Beatty
Byron Berline
Burt Ward (Holy Happy Birthday, Robin)
George W. Bush
Fred Dryer
Sylvester Stallone
Shelley Hack
Phyllis Hyman
Geraldine James
Geoffrey Rush
Allyce Beasley
Willie Randolph
Valerie Brisco-Hooks
Pau Gasol
Misty Upham
I know, bad joke. So is the notion that the United States House of Representatives needs to sue President Obama for failure to do his job and faithfully execute his oath of office. Especially when the members of the House and the Senate are not doing much better when it comes to doing the job they were elected for.
Is President Obama failing to carry out some of his duties? I believe he is. Mandating the "Dream Act" by Executive Order exceeded his authority, in my opinion. Instructing ICE to only deport people who have committed a serious crime is a failure on his part. At least by the letter of the law it is.
If someone is to sue the President, it should be an ordinary citizen. Not one of the other branches of government.
* * *
Joan Rivers melted down on CNN during an interview with Fredericka Whitfield. No big deal there. But it got me to thinking. My big problem with Rivers isn't that she's selling herself. My problem is she's not really funny these days. Calling President Obama gay isn't funny. Calling the First Lady is insulting.
I mention this only because CNN just replayed the interview in its entirety and having heard what preceded the meltdown portion only proves that Rivers was in the wrong. She's one of the most self-entitled people in the entertainment industry.
In any event, I'm done with her. Anytime my TV clicker lands on a channel where she is doing anything, I'm changing the channel.
* * *
The lawyer for Shelly Sterling has called the move by Donald Sterling to attempt to move the case going to trial tomorrow to federal court, "cowardly." That's actually pretty accurate. Trust documents are regulated by state law, not federal law. The issue of Donald Sterling's competency to continue to manage the assets of the trust is a state issue.
The basis for the claim to move the case into federal court is based on the violation of Donald Sterling's privacy rights. That's a completely separate issue from whether or not Sterling is competent to manage the assets of the trust. If he wants to pursue an action in federal court against visor-woman V. Stiviano, he should do that.
So why is he being so resistant to the sale of the team? I suspect it is a combination of two issues. One is that he has some belief in his mind that he can remain the team's owner. The other is that if he's forced to sell by the NBA, rather than the team being sold voluntarily, he can defer the capital gains tax on his sale proceeds. His gain is going to be more than $1.9 billion and being able to defer the tax on that over two years would be significant.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Clayton Kershaw is at 36 consecutive scoreless innings. Significant, but nothing to get too excited about yet.
Some idiot in Northern California blew off both his hands when the illegal fireworks he was trying to ignite went off prematurely. People have this "it won't happen to me" attitude right up to the moment when it does. Turn it around. Assume it will happen to you, and therefore don't do it.
Did Ellen DeGeneres cheat on Portia de Rossi while Portia was in rehab? Who knows? If true though, that's really harsh. Then again, any marital infidelity is pretty harsh.
The newspaper that described President Obama as the "The N***** in the White House" in an editorial that is actually pro-Obama made a poor choice in the use of that word.
If I had hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd make a big bid for Steve McQueen's Ferrari that is going to be auctioned off next month. I predict it will fetch more than the current projection of $12 million.
If "JAG" and/or "L. A. Law" were airing in syndication, I'd be watching and tempted to finally break down and get a DVR.
If Bobby Shriver holds firm on his recent announcement he won't self-finance his campaign for a seat on the L. A. County Board of Supervisors in the upcoming runoff-election, he will lose.
In the wake of the fired nanny who won't move out of the room she was given comes a story of a 26 year old stripper who rented a room in a woman's house and wound up costing her landlord over $40,000. Background checks, people.
Lindsay Lohan has a case against the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto. I hope she wins.
I love the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but they have no right to enforce a rule adopted in 1951 to try to recoup an Oscar awarded in 1942.
Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis will fight the $19 million judgment against him right up to the Supreme Court of the United States, and even then he won't pay willingly.
A pissing contest over July 4th fireworks shows in Los Angeles forced the taxpayers to spend $60,000 extra to host a second show. Bernard Parks and Curren Price need to go back to Kindergarten and re-take sharing.
* * *
July 6th in History:
371 BC – The Battle of Leuctra, where Epaminondas defeated Cleombrotus I, takes place
640 – Battle of Heliopolis: The Muslim Arab army under 'Amr ibn al-'As defeat the Byzantine forces near Heliopolis (Egypt).
1044 – The Battle of Ménfő between troops led by Emperor Henry III and Magyar forces led by King Samuel takes place.
1189 – Richard I "the Lionheart" accedes to the English throne.
1253 – Mindaugas is crowned King of Lithuania.
1348 – Pope Clement VI issues a papal bull protecting the Jews accused of having caused the Black Death.
1411 – Ming China's Admiral Zheng He returns to Nanjing after the third treasure voyage and presents the Sinhalese king, captured during the Ming–Kotte War, to the Yongle Emperor.
1415 – Jan Hus is burned at the stake.
1483 – Richard III is crowned King of England.
1484 – Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River.
1495 – First Italian War: Battle of Fornovo – Charles VIII defeats the Holy League.
1535 – Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England.
1557 – King Philip II of Spain, consort of Queen Mary I of England, sets out from Dover to war with France, which eventually resulted in the loss of the City of Calais, the last English possession on the continent, and Mary I never seeing her husband again.
1560 – The Treaty of Edinburgh is signed by Scotland and England.
1573 – Córdoba, Argentina, is founded by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera.
1609 – Bohemia is granted freedom of religion.
1614 – Żejtun and the surrounding villages suffer a raid from Ottoman forces. This was the last unsuccessful attempt by the Ottomans to conquer the island of Malta.
1630 – Thirty Years' War: Four thousand Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus land in Pomerania, Germany.
1685 – Battle of Sedgemoor: Last battle of the Monmouth Rebellion. troops of King James II defeat troops of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth.
1751 – Pope Benedict XIV suppresses the Patriarchate of Aquileia and establishes from its territory the Archdiocese of Udine and Gorizia.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Siege of Fort Ticonderoga: After a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreat from Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
1779 – Battle of Grenada: The French defeat British naval forces during the American Revolutionary War.
1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.
1801 – First Battle of Algeciras: Outnumbered French Navy ships defeat the Royal Navy in the fortified Spanish port of Algeciras.
1809 – The second day of the Battle of Wagram; France defeats the Austrian army in the largest battle to date of the Napoleonic Wars.
1854 – In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party is held.
1885 – Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
1887 – David Kalākaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint by Americans to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.
1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
1892 – Three thousand eight hundred striking steelworkers engage in a day-long battle with Pinkerton agents during the Homestead Strike, leaving ten dead and dozens wounded.
1893 – The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa, is nearly destroyed by a tornado that killed 71 people and injured 200.
1917 – World War I: Arabian troops led by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire during the Arab Revolt.
1919 – The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.
1933 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2.
1936 – A major breach of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in England sends millions of gallons of water cascading 200 feet (61 m) into the River Irwell.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Battle of Brunete: The battle begins with Spanish Republican troops going on the offensive against the Nationalists to relieve pressure on Madrid.
1939 – Holocaust: the last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
1940 – Story Bridge, a major landmark in Brisbane, as well as Australia's longest cantilever bridge is formally opened.
1941 – Nazi Germany launches its offensive to encircle several Soviet armies near Smolensk.
1942 – Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
1944 – Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court martial.
1944 – The Hartford circus fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.
1947 – The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
1957 – Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so.
1957 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles.
1962 – As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test takes place.
1962 – The Late Late Show, the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTÉ One for the first time.
1964 – Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
1966 – Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as its first President.
1967 – Nigerian Civil War: Nigerian forces invade Biafra, beginning the war.
1975 – The Comoros declares independence from France.
1986 – Davis Phinney becomes the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France.
1988 – The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. One hundred sixty-seven oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life.
1989 – The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 suicide attack: Fourteen bus passengers are killed when an Arab assaulted the bus driver as the bus was driving by the edge of a cliff.
1995 – In the Bosnian War, under the command of General Ratko Mladić, Serbia begins its attack on the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and kills more than 8000 Bosniaks, in what then- UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called "the worst crime on European soil since the Second World War".
1997 – The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree dispute, five days of mass protests, riots and gun battles begin in Irish nationalist districts of Northern Ireland.
1999 – U.S. Army private Barry Winchell dies from baseball-bat injuries inflicted on him in his sleep the previous day by a fellow soldier, Calvin Glover, for his relationship with transgender showgirl and former Navy Corpsman Calpernia Addams.
2003 – The 70-metre Eupatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044 and 2049 respectively.
2006 – The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-openes for trade after 44 years.
2013 – At least 42 people are killed in a shooting at a school in Yobe State, Nigeria.
2013 – A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board.
2013 – A 73-car oil train derails in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and explodes into flames, killing at least 47 people and destroying more than 30 buildings in the town's central area.
Famous Folk Born on July 6th:
General Daniel Morgan
Captain John Paul Jones
Nicholas I of Russia
Adolf Anderssen
Maximilian I of Mexico
Ernest Busch
Marc Chagall
Frida Kahlo
Vincent McMahon, Sr.
Sebastian Cabot
Nancy Reagan
Merv Griffin
Bill Haley
Alan Freeman
Janet Leigh
Della Reese
Candy Barr
The 14th Dalai Lama
Ned Beatty
Byron Berline
Burt Ward (Holy Happy Birthday, Robin)
George W. Bush
Fred Dryer
Sylvester Stallone
Shelley Hack
Phyllis Hyman
Geraldine James
Geoffrey Rush
Allyce Beasley
Willie Randolph
Valerie Brisco-Hooks
Pau Gasol
Misty Upham
posted by me at 5:43 PM
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