Random Thoughts

Tyger wrote:Went to a concert last night and been Christmas shopping.

My training period is over, tomorrow I start working the closing shift.

Spoiler:

joey con carne wrote:I purchased a Samsung 65" MU8000 television to finally start upgrading to 4k even though 8k is just around the corner with HDMI v2.1 coming out soon.

Now, you are all probably wondering why I said things too a turn for the worse (besides my crappy taste in movies). Please see photo below. I suppose one tiny silver lining is Wonder Woman came with a MINT slip!

WyldeMan wrote:

Is 8k and 2.1HDMI sarcasm or am I just that behind on all things technology?

joey con carne wrote:My 8K comment and HDMI v2.1 was not sarcasm but I'm glad Russ was able to set me straight and make me feel better.

HDMI v2.1 increases the bandwidth of the HDMI pipelineto 42.6Gbits per second which is going to have the capabilities of 8k at 120hz refresh rate.

I hope Russ is right! I do hope to start watching my good stuff in 4K.

WyldeMan wrote:

Tyger wrote:Went to a concert last night and been Christmas shopping.

My training period is over, tomorrow I start working the closing shift.

What concert?

Tyger wrote:Glassjaw, they're releasing their 3rd album on Friday, 15 years after their 2nd

Tyger wrote:Yeah they're a very frustrating band to love

joey con carne wrote:I'm gonna youtube them now and see if they got some tunez up in this piece.

joey con carne wrote:I am currently contemplating suing Amarzon, the picker, the packer, USPS, and every state my package passed through to get to me.

joey con carne wrote:UM, you didn't miss too much. I got screwed by Amarzon big time with one of my slips I got with the blu-rays I bought. I am currently contemplating suing Amarzon, the picker, the packer, USPS, and every state my package passed through to get to me.

joey con carne wrote:Mass homicide is definitely still an option. I will not rule that out.

Currently watching Death Race. Shit is good.

UPDATED with Michael Flynn statement: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn released a statement to the media after pleading guilty Friday morning to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russians:

   “After over 33 years of military service to our country, including five years in combat away from my family and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of treason and other outrageous acts. Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for. But I recognize that the actions I acknowledge in court today are wrong.  And, through my faith in god, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office reflect a decision I made in the best interest of family and of the country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

ABC News’s Brian Ross is reporting Flynn is going to testify Trump “directed him to make contact” with the Russians during the campaign, citing a Flynn contact.

Previous: Press reports from inside the courthouse says President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to one count from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office. Flynn pleaded guilty of making four false statements: two having to do with conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time, and and two about his conversations with Russians related to a UN Security resolution about Israel.

The alleged felony reportedly was committed on January 24 of this year, just after Trump’s inauguration. Flynn was serving as national security adviser then, briefing Trump every morning about international matters. A couple days later, then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the White House Flynn could be a national security risk because he was open to being blackmailed by the Russians. A couple week after that, according to former FBI Director James Comey, Trump asked him to back off his probe into Flynn.

Previous: Reporters, and Flynn non-fans gathered outside the courthouse began screaming questions/comments at ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn on Friday morning as he arrived at a federal courthouse in Washington D.C., where he is expected to plead guilty to one count of lying to the FBI. TV news operations jumped about 90 minutes earlier, when word broke Special Counsel Robert Mueller had formally charged Flynn with one count of lying twice to the bureau. Flynn did not respond to the hail of question from reporters camped outside the courthouse, kept his head down, and moved quickly from his car to the door and into the building.

Mueller’s office announced that a plea hearing had been set for 10:30 AM; legal docs show Flynn is charged with one count of making a false statement to the FBI about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador to the U.S.

No immediate official reax from the White House, and President Donald Trump has not yet tweeted about Friday morning’s development. But the spinning was immediate. CNN’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger reported a “source close to the President” told her, “Everyone lies in Washington.”
CNN

Another source, described as a White House advisor on Flynn, told the cable news network this development was expected and that it was no surprise if Flynn lied to FBI, his having been fired for “poor judgement” in lying to Veep Mike Pence.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General who was the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was a member of Trump’s inner circle during his campaign and the transition. Flynn was Trump’s chief foreign policy adviser during the campaign, and spoke at the GOP convention during which he famously led the crowd in “Lock Her Up” chants, in re Hillary Clinton. During the transition, Flynn ran security briefings, and very briefly served as national security adviser, “resigning” that position after just three weeks and three days, amid controversy over his work as a foreign agent. By way of explaining Flynn’s hasty exit, Trump called him a “wonderful man” who had been “treated very, very unfairly by the…fake news.”

Mueller has been investigating if members of Trump’s team helped Russia meddle in the 2016 presidential race, and Flynn’s been in headlines this week after his legal team reportedly broke off its pact with White House  to share info on Mueller’s probe. Political pundits suggested that meant Flynn’s camp had brokered a plea deal.

In March, Flynn’s attorney said his client wanted to talk, in exchange for immunity, saying, “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.” Trump had responded, via Twitter, that “Michael Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!”

In addition to being probed by the FBI, Flynn’s ties to Russia were among the things being investigated both by the House and Senate intel committees as they too looked into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential race. Trump’s tweet notwithstanding, they are bipartisan committees headed by Republicans.

Melissa Byers had overcome an addiction, turned her life around, regained custody of her 7-year-old daughter, moved into a nice home and was going to community college when, out of kindness, she allowed her ex-husband to stay with her temporarily.

Now she’s dead and he’s in jail.

Her older daughter, an adult, traveled to Kansas City on Friday to collect her little sister, who had discovered their mother’s body in the basement of their home.

Melissa Byers’ death has been a crushing blow to people who knew her through Healing House, a live-in, addiction-recovery program in Kansas City’s Old Northeast.

“She was a beautiful woman inside and out,” Healing House Director Bobbi Jo Reed said Friday. “Such a kind, loving spirit. Everybody loved her.”

Because of privacy laws, Reed could not discuss details of Byers’ former problems. But she said the 47-year-old woman had succeeded in conquering whatever demons she had and had left Healing House some time ago.

“She did not have custody of the little girl when she got here, but she really utilized every minute to make it possible to get her daughter back in her life,” Reed said.

She accomplished that but allowed her ex, 45-year-old Benjamin Byers, to stay with her and the girl.    

Benjamin H. Byers is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Melissa Byers.

“I think she was being kind in letting him stay there temporarily,” said Reed, who stayed in touch with Melissa Byers as did others in the Healing House family. “And I think he started drinking and he turned. From what I understand he has a drinking issue and was mean when he was drinking, and I guess he was drinking and he was not supposed to be.”

The girl’s dad took her the two blocks to school at Phyllis Wheatley Elementary on Tuesday. When he picked her up after school that day he was acting “weird,” the girl would tell authorities. That meant he had been drinking. He told her to bring him a beer and then passed out.

The girl began to explore the house.

She told a forensic interviewer with the Child Protection Center that she found “lots of blood” on the bathroom carpet. She saw a bloody rug on top of the kitchen trash can. She went down to the basement and saw a body, face down with a gray sweater pulled over the face. It was her mom’s gray sweater. Her mom had been stabbed.

The girl looked into her dad’s room. His laundry basket was turned over, and beer cans littered the floor. An empty container of Clorox cleaning wipes did not belong in the room.

A male friend called Melissa Byers’ cellphone, and the girl told him her mother wasn’t home and her dad was asleep. The man said he was was coming over. Benjamin Byers woke up, and when he learned about the call he began acting “suspicious,” the girl told police. He closed the blinds, locked the doors and told his daughter not to answer the door — and to stay out of the basement.

Authorities would later ask the girl whether she had told her dad what she saw in the basement.

“No,” she replied. “I didn’t want to be next.”

The girl did not say anything to anybody until the next day, Wednesday, at school.

“What a horrific night that that little baby experienced in that house with him,” Reed said.

School officials called police, who forced their way into the house in the 2400 block of College Avenue when no one answered the door. They found Benjamin Byers, who told them he had not seen Melissa Byers since Monday.

But police noticed blood throughout the house and in the basement around a tarp with carpet on it. A large section of carpet had been removed from the dining room upstairs.

After obtaining a search warrant, crime investigators started looking more closely. There was blood on the living room walls and in the kitchen. There were cat paw prints in the blood. There were apparent attempts to clean up the blood. There appeared to be drag marks from the bottom of the basement stairs to the opposite wall. They could see part of a body sticking out from under the tarp.

Benjamin Byers was arrested and refused to talk without a lawyer. On Thursday he was charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, abandonment of a corpse and endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors requested a bond of $500,000.

Melissa Byers, who sometimes went by the name “Hippie,” will not get to see what her new life could have been.

“She was very excited starting her life again with her little girl,” said Reed of Healing House. “For this to happen is a tragedy.”

An adult daughter of Melissa Byers, Crystal O’Connor of Oklahoma City, contacted The Star early Friday to say that she was coming to Kansas City to collect her little sister.

“I’m bringing her back to my home in OKC to raise her as my mom would have liked,” O’Connor said in an email.

joey con carne wrote:UPS must be stacked with deliveries. They already fucked up (delayed) five of my shipments. God damn it, I want my stuff!

I was supposed to get five today and only received three. All of them say they were loaded onto the truck at 8am. Pretty annoying. Just causing more work for themselves. Why not deliver all five packages at once rather than deliver three today and two tomorrow (or who the hell knows when they'll get around to them) when they are on the same freakin' truck?

Rusty wrote:I just learned that Crocodile Dundee 1 & 2 is not available on Blu-Ray, iTunes, nor Netflix, in Australia.

What a fucking croc of shit.

joey con carne wrote:Saw the news on the Ventura County wildfires in California. Holy crap.

As Wylde will confirm, this is now practically the norm over there. Insane.

joey con carne wrote:Hopefully everyone has fire insurance. But having the insurance companies pay out is a whole other story.

I was reading about some shady stuff some insurance companies were pulling in Texas after Hurricane Harvey. Texas residents have flood insurance but the insurance companies were saying the damage was not caused by a flood but by a hurricane. Oops, you don't have hurricane coverage. Too bad.

That is some bullshit if they can get away with that.

joey con carne wrote:I got matinee tickets to Thor: Ragnarok for Sunday morning at 10am. Tickets cost me $18.58 for both. Damn man. What a ripoff. Good thing I'm using gift cards I received from Capital One. Still bullshit, though. Only three five other people in the theater so far. Reserved seating, baby. La-Z-Boys!

joey con carne wrote:I recall another girl who did porn a couple of years back who killed herself with a shotgun.

That's pretty nuts hanging yourself in a public park. I don't want to imagine how awful things must have been for her to do something like that. That goes for both women.

WyldeMan wrote:Kirk Douglas turned 101 on Saturday.......

Rusty wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:Kirk Douglas turned 101 on Saturday.......

Damn!

The first movie of his I ever saw was an Aussie flick: The Man From Snowy River. Great film. He played two roles.