HELENA, Mont. — A 46-year-old Columbia Falls man has admitted overstating his disabilities to receive government payments for nine years.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it will seek $830,000 in restitution from John Cicero Hughes, a Navy veteran who pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to theft of government money and Social Security disability fraud. Sentencing is set for April 12.
Prosecutors say the VA found Hughes was 100 percent disabled in 2009 after confirming his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. He said he could walk only a few steps, had no feeling in his left arm and leg and couldn’t care for himself. He received about $8,400 in benefits each month.
Investigators discovered Hughes drove himself to the VA in Helena in January 2018, walked around a grocery store using a cane and used both hands while gambling at a Helena casino.
You guys are familiar with attempts already in place to remove hate and other undesirable speech from social media. But, what’s considered hate speech, or speech that goes against community standards, seems to be the subject to the eye of the beholder.
Granted, both sides of the debate would agree on certain types of hate speech. However, what many of us has considered as “the norm” is increasingly being seen as something that could “trigger” a person, or groups of people. The potential for “abuse” would be hard to miss.
From The College Fix:
In addition to artificial intelligence, the program will use several different techniques to detect offensive speech online, including “machine learning, natural language processing, and good old human brains.” Researchers aim to have “major social media platforms” one day utilizing the technology to detect “hate speech” and eliminate it, and the users who spread it, from their networks.
For the human contribution, they recruited 10 students. As I mentioned in another post, the youngest Millennials will have all turned 22 before the end of this month. This means that there is a good chance that the students involved with this project are a part of Generation Z.
This is the generation that played an active role in the “Tide Pod Challenge” and for giving us David Hogg.
More from The College Fix:
D-Lab initially enlisted ten students of diverse backgrounds from around the country to “code” the posts, flagging those that overtly, or subtly, conveyed hate messages. Data obtained from the original group of students were fed into machine learning models, ultimately yielding algorithms that could identify text that met hate speech definitions with 85 percent accuracy, missing or mislabeling offensive words and phrases only 15 percent of the time.
Now, what we define as “hate messages” has some differences from that of the opposing side. There is also a difference between our definition, and that of the younger generation. The folks who were exposed to liberal indoctrination provided the human contribution to the algorithm that will determine whether your post constitutes hate or not.
From Army Times SFC Erik Kingsley Awarded Soldier’s Medal
An off-duty Special Forces Soldier’s quick thinking, and quick action, saved an unconscious driver’s life moments before the driver’s car exploded.
He was driving his brother-in-law, and his family, to the airport in order to drop off his brother-in-law. It was dark, approximately 3:30 AM, when he saw something that was not normal… A couple of headlights shining out of the ditch.
He quickly went into action, pulled over, had his wife call 911, and had his brother-in-law move the family’s vehicle further away from the other vehicle.
The other driver was apparently drunk, and unconscious, and had rolled off the highway. With his foot still on the accelerator, his engine overheated and it resulted in a fire.
From the Army Times:
The car was covered in briar patches, he said, and the driver’s lead foot on the accelerator had caused the engine to overheat. As the shrubs caught fire, Kingsley pulled the driver out, then directed his brother-in-law to move their own car farther away, out of the reach of the fire.
“I grabbed the guy, I put him on my shoulders, I started walking out, and the vehicle exploded,” he said.
For his quick action, SFC Erik Kingsley earned the Soldier’s Medal. This is the highest noncombat award for valor and bravery that the Army awards its soldiers in situations like this.
Thanks to Devtun for the link. You can read more here.
If PETA gets its way, many of the familiar phrases that we’ve used would fall victim to political correctness. Normally, when we use these sayings, we are using the characters in the sayings to symbolize something.
For example, taking the bull by the horns. Granted, most of us will not run out to the pasture and grab any bull by the horns. That’s just asking for trouble. The “bull” happens to be whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish or overcome.
One use for this saying is that we simply have to just “dive in” and tackle the issue. The idea is that a bull would fight back if we tried to grab it by the horns. We’d sometimes find ourselves dealing with a problem that does not offer an “easier route”.
But, we still have to “prevail” regardless of how daunting and difficult the task. This describes many a problem and challenge. Both evolve, and both seem to “tend to try to overcome us”.
A flower doesn’t do that. If you grabbed a flower by the thorn, said flower would not try to fight you back. The meaning of the saying would simply not match the meaning of the original saying.
Ditto with “Kill two birds with one stone”. One of uses of this statement is to resolve two issues with one action. “Killing” implies a benefit to the one doing the “killing”.
If you’re feeding two birds with a scone, this statement becomes more of using one action to compound more than one problem.
From Fox News:
Instead of “kill two birds with one stone,” say “feed two birds with one scone.” “Take the bull by the horns” should be replaced with “take the flower by the thorns” and instead of “bring home the bacon,” say “bring home the bagels”.
They’re trying to include “anti-animal” statements in the same category as “anti-gay” statements.
Our language may be evolving, but the universal meanings, of the sayings that PETA wants to change, remain the same and would lose these meanings under PETA’s version.
Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they areand start ‘bringing home the bagels’ instead of the bacon.
When someone from Generation X, or the older generations, talks about getting paddled when they were younger, it’s usually by someone that was older. If we committed a serious enough action that dictated a butt whoppen, we increased the chances for a butt beating.
Well, a 45-year-old man exercised such error in judgment, and ended up getting paddled in the rear by members of a younger generation.
I was in a social fraternity during my first attempt at collage, going through the pledge phase, then initiation into the fraternity. No paddles were involved, but we had a wading pool outside the fraternity house that we constantly got tossed into… Regardless of what part of the year it was.
Although fraternity life was fun when I did it, I wouldn’t do it now, at my age… I’m older than the guy featured in this article.
Of course, at 45, he should’ve known better even if he never had fraternity experience. He has a couple of teenage sons, and he had to remember his mindset when he was a teenager, and when he was a young adult.
He was doing the equivalent of being a senior NCO that decides to “go native with the privates”.
From the New York Post:
A middle-aged Brooklyn man told cops he paid a painful price for pledging a fraternity at the ripe old age of 45 — by getting whacked on the backside hundreds of times with a wooden paddle, police sources said Friday.
Well, let’s see. He decided that he wanted to join a fraternity. He goes through the process, and ends up with young whipper snappers whacking his backsides with a paddle. The bruising was serious enough that he went to the hospital to get treatment. Then, this led to him talking to the police.
Didn’t he see Animal House?
That’s when they went more medieval than Greek on his heinie, whacking it up to 200 times with the paddle and their open hands, according to the sources.
Well, in certain sectors of society, “going Greek” means a back-door entry via the pooper. So, this guy would’ve been f’ed either way.
On a side note, Pew Research has decided they will use 1996 as the last year that Millennials were born. This means that the youngest millennial will turn 22 before the ball drops this coming New Year’s Day.
So, chances are that there were those among the paddlers who are members of Generation Z.
Because of the nature of what happened, I’m entertaining the possibility that this could be satire. if not, we’re familiar with “Teh Stoopid”.
When the tax bill was signed into law, before the end of last year, one of the things that it contained was the repeal of the individual mandate. But, the mandate still remains in effect as of this year. Now comes the other prong of attack, a federal judge ruled that not only is the individual mandate unconstitutional, but so is the rest of the law.
From thehill.com:
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, and that because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, the rest of the law is also invalid.
The law is still in effect, and appeals are pending. Whichever side you’re on, prepare for a “battle”.
the New York Times provides a more detailed account, but with some biases injected:
The ruling was over a lawsuit filed this year by a group of Republican governors and state attorneys general. A group of intervening states led by Democrats promised to appeal the decision, which will most likely not have any immediate effect. But it will almost certainly make its way to the Supreme Court, threatening the survival of the landmark health law and, with it, health coverage for millions of Americans, protections for people with pre-existing conditions and much more.
If you read the New York Times article, they mentioned which president appointed the judge that made this decision, and mention who would negatively be impacted by this decision:
“Today’s ruling is an assault on 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the A.C.A.’s consumer protections for health care, on America’s faithful progress toward affordable health care for all Americans.” – Xavier Becerra, California’s Attorney General
You can read more at The Hill and an New York Times. The Hill has a PDF copy of the ruling.
I remember, during the Presidential Election Campaign of 1996, how the media loved to photo capture the crowds that attended President Clinton’s campaign stops. Contrast that with how they portrayed Bob Dole. The media frequently showed videos of him in small towns, with small crowds approaching him and his campaign bus.
The media’s emphasizing large crowds extended to Hillary Clinton. She brought in the crowds, and her speech brought in the money. She made more money in a single speech than what many people earned in an entire year.
In the Presidential Election Campaign of 2016, once again the media loved to camera capture the crowds attending Hillary’s campaign events. Then candidate Donald Trump had to make a request, in the middle of one of his speeches, for camera personnel to pan the crowds.
Predictably, they zeroed in on him instead.
After the Presidential Election of 2016, Hillary appeared to be in a struggle to remain relevant. Even with Bill Clinton at her side. But even members of her own party had been calling for her, or both of them, to step aside and let new leadership take the reins.
It has gotten to the point to where they appear to have problems drawing crowd numbers that they used to be able to bring in. Those selling tickets on the Clinton’s behalf, and who host Hillary Clinton’s speeches, are now losing out on earnings. Now, was the mainstream media as honest about their audiences as they were about Bob Dole’s?
Where they were willing to show Bob Dole and small crowds, attempts are made to diminish the appearance of small crowds at Bill and Hillary’s events. With not enough people purchasing tickets to see her speeches, those attempting to sell tickets to her speech events needed to rely more on other selling venues. They also considered discounts and cutting the prices to the tickets for the attendance.
Among the deals: Tickets to an April 11 talk at the Beacon Theatre in New York — normally priced $287 — are going for $145 on Monday. Tickets to an April 12 Detroit talk, originally listed for $220.70, are going for $95.And tickets in Philadelphia for an April 12 talk have been reduced from $208.20 to $85.
And things kept getting worse. Ticket prices for their event in Texas plunged to just $6. Seems no one is interested in hearing them tell “stories and inspiring anecdotes that shaped their historic careers in public service, while also discussing issues of the day and looking toward the future,” which a press release promised.
Maureen Dowd attended one of the speeches in an arena. Curtains separated the empty half of the arena from the half containing the audience. However, this half was not completely filled with customers. So, action was taken to isolate the empty seats. She paid $177.00 while pre-booking this event; however, had she waited to the day of the event she could potentially have purchased the same ticket for under $10.00.
You can read more of her observations of this event in her New York Times article:
I’m looking around Scotiabank Arena, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and it’s a depressing sight. It’s two-for-the-price-of-one in half the arena. The hockey rink is half curtained off, but even with that, organizers are scrambling at the last minute to cordon off more sections behind thick black curtains, they say due to a lack of sales. I paid $177 weeks in advance. (I passed on the pricey meet-and-greet option.) On the day of the event, some unsold tickets are slashed to single digits.
You guys are already familiar with many of the reasons to why Hillary Clinton has gone from a high-priced cash cow to someone that struggles to get the kind of audiences that she used to get.
It goes beyond that. The Democratic Party has new stars. Also, the party has shifted further to the left as evidenced by the political leanings of the last president, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others.
Not only is Hillary Clinton suffering from apparently becoming less relevant as a “sought-after” speaker, she is also suffering from the changes in demographics to include changes in attitude of the Millennials. And, of course, she is suffering from the culmination of decisions that she consistently made, and of actions that she consistently took, in the past.
Thanks to AW1Ed for the first link that lead to the generation of this post.
Happy Hump Day This Aint Hell! Going to mix things up today and include comments and news from beyond Democratic Underground.
This impeachment chatter is still strong among many on the left. Somehow, many think that once he’s impeached, he’s “gone”. Well, “stopbush” educates them on how the process works. The House does the impeachment proceedings and vote for or against it, it’s up to the Senate to determine if removal is warranted (trial):
As long as we’re tossing around the word “impeachment,” can we at least use the word correctly?
Impeachment in the United States is the process by which the lower house of a legislature brings charges against a civil officer of government for crimes alleged to have been committed, analogous to the bringing of an indictment by a grand jury. At the federal level, this is at the discretion of the House of Representatives.
The House impeaches the president. The Senate does not impeach the president. The Senate tries the articles of impeachment in a Senate trial.
Never mind the stories about how the Clinton folks orchestrated things to come up with a phony information sheet on then candidate Donald Trump. The collusion could very well be on the Clinton side, but don’t tell that to these folks. Nope, they appear to have already tried and convicted president Trump of collusion with the Russians to win the election:
Trump and Republicans sold us out for dirt on Hillary Clinton or whatever their motivations. Former CIA director said a Trump Putin press conference was nothing short of treason. With everything involved it is in the spirit of treason. The betrayal especially at a key time in US-Russia relations.
Looks like we have somebody here who is going to take a different approach. Not the one that requires wearing a black mask and a black outfit, not one going online to rant, but one where somebody is going to attempt to “guide” the Trump administration from within. It seems like this person is talking about somebody else doing this, the person reporting this wouldn’t even bother trying to do things this way:
One of my colleagues at work is headed to DC to take a post in State though. I wish him well. He’s a good guy. Thinks he can teach the Trumpistas something about foreign policy.I told him he’s setting out on a fool’s errand. Put he’s near retiring and sees a last chance to help turn the Trump shit show into something tolerable.
I’d NEVER do it, even if I was ideologically inclined in that direction.
Did you guys know that This Aint Hell is declining in the rankings? No worries, one of our frequent visitors reports on how we are doing, and points out some of our shortcomings in order to hit on how we could possibly reverse our decline:
Originally posted by Cthulhu
It is astonishing that you all turn on anyone who Trimp does not like or criticizes Trump.
You all even turned against Admiral McRaven.
Cult-like behavior.
I also would not put so much effort in branding this site as a climate change denier site. Hard to recruit new veteran readers since current service members overwhelmingly believe in climate change.
It is also the official position of the Department of Defense and the Pentegon that climate change is real.
Half of the planning going on in national security is directly related to managing the consequences of climate change.
This site has dropped another 15.000 ranks globally in the last month.
Turns out climate denying is not a growth industry.
And, speaking of our local Berkeley graduate, the University of California, Berkeley, reached a settlement with those whose freedom of speech was infringed. From the Washington Examiner:
In the settlement, UC Berkeley agreed to the following terms set by YAF:
* Pay YAF $70,000. * Rescind the unconstitutional “High-Profile Speaker Policy.” * Rescind the viewpoint-discriminatory security fee policy. * Abolish its heckler’s veto – protesters will no longer be able to shut down conservative expression.
Under these terms, UC Berkeley will no longer be allowed to place a 3 p.m. curfew on conservative events or relegate conservative speakers to remote or inconvenient lecture halls on campus while giving left-leaning speakers access to preferred parts of campus.
According to the article, one of the things that Berkeley was doing was setting a 3 PM curfew for conservative events. Also, where they would provide desirable facilities to liberal commentators, they would provide facilities that are not always the best choice for conservative commentators. They were also charging higher security fees for conservative speakers than for liberal speakers.
Could the “me too” movement have reached the big boss?
It looks like not even God is immune to the “me too” movement. A Minnesota Professor claims that the Virgin Mary didn’t truly consent to conceiving Jesus. Even though she said, “Yes,” she “did so” on the account that God had incredible powers.
Through his tweets, this professor paints a picture of God, with his power and might, his ability to punish humanity for disobedience, as essentially impregnating a teenager.
‘The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen,’ Sprankle wrote on Twitter. ‘There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.’
And, finally, I’ll leave you guys with this video. A Muslim woman criticizing how we do things in the West.
Transcribed from the video, not precise but close:
Because many of those practices, from the west, are rooted in Christianity and the celebrations actually harm us. Now, the West is a multicultural society, it’s not like talking apples and oranges. Over there there is no right and wrong except what the government and people decide is right and what they decide is wrong. Now, if tomorrow they want to make it illegal to walk down the street wearing a hat, they can do that.
Looking forward to your thoughts. Enjoy Humpday, we are halfway to the weekend.
