President Joe Biden was asked, as he was leaving his beach chair near the ocean in Delaware, what comments he had about the fires in Maui. His response: No comment.
No comment? Here's our comment. He's done. Cooked. Past the best before date. FYI Donald Trump had plenty to say about this and the last time we looked, he's not the one in the White House these days.
Biden was on the beach with the waves lapping on his feet where there are no handlers to whisper in his ear or give him notes. As such, the world could come to a screeching halt and he wouldn't know a thing. In fact, in Maui, the world did come to a screeching halt in a fiery inferno. Not to be graphic (but we will), people were incinerated. And he has no comment? Not even we're praying for those people?
Even Biden's supporters have to be nervous at this point. He is obviously not capable of running anything, least of all a country. Blanche, don't you wonder who is? Oh wait. Our guess is that his wife Jill has plenty to say behind the scenes.
In uber democratic woke loving California, a mob of about 50 'individuals' stormed a Nordstrom store in Westfield Topanga Shopping Center in Los Angeles Saturday afternoon, walking away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise.
A similar scene unfolded a few days earlier in a nearby LA suburb where police said thieves stole $300,000 worth of property in a “bold, flash mob burglary” at an Yves Saint Laurent store.
Seriously peeps, why pay for anything when, in a very few minutes, way shorter than it takes to try on dresses and shoes, you can steal whatever you want and get away with it?
The Nordstrom mob came with duffle bags and knew exactly where to go in the store. - the designer section. Customers were stunned to say the least but no one could do anything to stop these clearly very entitled people. "The world owes me."
Authorities say they are going to move heaven and earth to find this mob. Good luck to them. They were completely dressed - head to toe with only their eyes showing - in black.
These mobs turn up anywhere, anytime. Well, not anywhere. They go where they know that any stealing less than $1000 results in a slap on the wrist and nothing more. Obviously, this heist garnered this mob much more expensive stuff.
And speaking of stealing, putting self-checkout kiosks in grocery and other stores, as is happening with great frequency in this city, is an open invitation to steal. One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.
In other words, people scan half of what's in their cart and leave the store without anyone knowing how much they paid for and how much they stole.
They pretend to scan but who knows if they don't? By mistake a few weeks ago we forgot to scan the small bunch of dill we bought and only realized it as we were loading the goods into the car.
Did alarm bells go off because the dill wasn't scanned? Nope. Did anyone check our bill to see if everything in the cart was on the bill? Nope. There ya go. Buy 6 steaks, scan 3 and take 3. And if you think people are not doing that, please take the needle out of your arm.
If baby wipes are locked up in the pharmacy, you can be very sure that steaks and other expensive items are walking out of stores.
Our bs meter is beeping very loudly. It appears that the city of Montreal asked a judge to drop charges against Emile Benamor, the owner of the airbnb that had parts of the building with no means of evacuation in case of a fire which subsequently killed seven people.
It appears that Mr. Benamor was fined $714 for issues related to firewall protections and evacuation plans. He pleaded not guilty to the charges which were then withdrawn.
In 2018 the city of Montreal fire department instituted a moratorium on investigations of building evacuation routes. That moratorium meant there was no one checking that airbnb in Old Montreal that burned to the ground.
Now get this one: Right after the fire this past March, the city quietly lifted the moratoriums on checking buildings for fire hazards.
Something stinks here. It's either the fire department bureaucrats, the city of Montreal bureaucrats or both. One has to wonder who got paid handsomely to turn a blind eye to Benamor and probably many other recalcitrant landlord infractions.
'They' are still trying to stop Trump from running for president. Now, it's the Atlanta-based grand jury that indicted former President Trump on 41 state charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat in Georgia.
This is the fourth criminal case that Trump – who is currently leading the Republican field in the 2024 White House race – is now facing - in 4 different states.
The charges, brought after a sweeping investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Trump is now charged with felony racketeering and numerous conspiracy charges as part of an investigation into the effort by him and his allies to overturn the 2020 election.
In case you didn't know, one the racketeering charge ties all their alleged misconduct together: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO.
Unlike the other federal charges brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, Willis’ case will be insulated from any potential Trump interference if he is reelected in 2024.
In other words, he will not be able to pardon himself or his allies of any state convictions, nor will he be able to order Fulton County to dismiss the charges.
18 others were indicted along with Trump, including his lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. In addition there are 30 other unnamed co-conspirators.
If we think we're political orphans, imagine living in the US? There is literally no one to vote for in the 2024 election unless someone comes out of the woodwork.
Has anyone been to Montreal's airport (YUL) lately? While they may have upgraded the inside of the airport, try getting to the actual building between 2:00 and 9:00 pm on any day there are flights - which of course is every day of the week.
If you google aeroports de Montreal this is the alert on the top of the page:
Due to traffic congestion, particularly at peak times (2 p.m. to 9 p.m.) - basically all day - please plan your journey to YUL and allow more than 3 hours before your flight to get to the airport.
So your flight will be on time, but to get onto that 8:00 pm Paris flight you better get to the the lineup getting to the airport by 3:00 pm the latest or you will miss your flight.
Why? Because - get this one - there is one lane to get to both departures and arrivals. You can thank the federal government for this gong show. Clearly the bureaucrats who planned the last expansion - which includes this road - don't get around much or are completely and totally out of the loop as to how many people actually travel.
Your tax dollars at work.
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As someone who has worked very closely with self checkouts for several years, you are right that they do (currently) increase shrink at store level. It is the result of several factors, including challenges with security on the units themselves, training and policies of the stores, actual enforcement by attendants, and customers themselves.
Security on the units: this is an evolving subject and one that you will see over the next few years will result in more secure self checkouts. Indeed, today self checkouts either don't have any security or they have weight based security. As in, you scan an item and it expects the weight of that item to be put on the bagging scale. If you scan item…