One thing that I detest in politicians is when they don’t even have the heart to come to the streets and face everyday voters because they’re scared of getting yelled at.
While Sherrod Brown held real town halls during the fight to pass ObamaCare, Ohio’s other Senator is too cowardly to face anything other than pre-screened Republican voters lobbing softballs to him over the phone:
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Ohio Senator Rob Portman: The last man in America to use a phone attached to a cord. What a cornball.
FRIENDSHIP WITH DISGRACED PEDOPHILE NOT HELPING LES WEXNER’S BUSINESS VENTURES
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Ohio’s richest man Les Wexner plucked a creepy high school teacher named Jeffrey Epstein out of obscurity and entrusted him to manage his wealth much to the befuddlement of his advisors at Victoria’s Secret the company that sold thongs to children.
It was a curious move even before Epstein got outed as a career criminal pedophile. Though Wexner has escaped the fate of other Epstein accomplices the friendship isn’t doing any wonders for L Brands.
From Laura Hirsch of cnbc.com:
[L Brands], which also owns Bath & Body Works, has seen its shares fall more than 30% this year, hitting a 52-week low of $15.80 Wednesday. Sales have lagged at Victoria’s Secret as shoppers increasingly see its products as exclusionary and too provocative in the #MeToo era.
Perhaps most troubling of all the shadows over Wexner, however, is that of late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. The retail tycoon earlier this year acknowledged his close ties to Epstein, including that he gave the disgraced financier power of attorney.
But unlike some other wealthy and powerful Epstein associates, Wexner has yet to face consequences for his relationship with the accused child sex trafficker, who died earlier this year. There have been no public cries for Wexner’s resignation from board members or notable investors.
L Brands on Wednesday posted mixed results for the most recent quarter. Revenue fell short of expectations as declining Victoria’s Secret sales continued to weigh on results. Same-store sales fell 2% compared with Wall Street expectations of a 1% decline. Earnings, however, were in line with analysts’ views.
I think the bigger issue with Victoria’s Secret other than being too “provocative” for the #MeTooEra(???) is it’s increasingly clear it’s a company owned by an 82-year-old sex freak like Wexner trying to peddle lingerie to women young enough to be his great-granddaughter.
That’s all without mentioning the shady circumstances under which Wexner acquired Victoria’s Secret from Roy Larson Raymond in 1982:
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The tragedy will be compounded if Wexner’s hubristic refusal to fuck-off forever tanks my friends at Bath & Body Works. I refuse to buy hand soap from any other company. It’s the best and I’m going to pretend I did not just learn Wexner has his hand in that cookie jar as well.
Despite the sounding of alarms Ohio State continues to bury its head in the sand. I guess that’s the power you can purchase by donating hundreds of millions of dollars to a public university in an era of austerity politics.
LARRY HOUSEHOLDER SWITCHES TO SOCIALISM
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Republicans have been labeling Democrats as “socialist” since President Joseph Stalin decreed Social Security into existence. Of course this label doesn’t apply when Republicans engage in socialist policies like shelling out $8.6 billion to farmers caught in the crosshairs of President Business Deals’ easy-to-win trade war.
Lord knows I’ve picked many bones with Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and that I’ll continue picking them until one of us is dead (I’m -2500 in Vegas to win that race). But even I was surprised to see Householder cloak himself in the yellow and red flag of the Soviet Union yesterday when advocating for a new way to fund public schools.
From Jo Ingles of ideastream.org:
The head of the Ohio House wants the state to come up with a new way of funding schools. And he threw out a suggestion Wednesday that could involve what's often been called a "Robin Hood" approach.
Some wealthier school districts have high family incomes and business properties that contribute a lot of revenue while others districts cannot, Speaker Larry Householder said.
"So they are putting every effort they've got into trying to educate their kids and give them a better life and other school districts, I don't begrudge them, but they don't have that same effort. So we've got to find a way to balance that out so maybe everybody in the state is putting together the same amount of effort and those dollars are flowing across school districts all over the state of Ohio," Householder said.
Lawmakers need to change how schools are funded, Householder said. He suggested redistributing local tax dollars to the state as part of the solution. As it stands now, he said some wealthier districts benefit from the state formula.
Credit to Householder for actually wanting to tackle an issue that generations of politicians in the Statehouse have paid lip service too. America is founded on the idea of every man being equal despite our country being created by wealthy white enslavers with wooden teeth and unchecked syphilis.
Ohio’s current system of of school-funding is untenable and will only lead to further wealth inequality throughout the state. I’m as shocked as anybody that Householder is actually advocating for redistribution of wealth but in this game I won’t let previous beefs stand in the way of a good idea especially with children’s education at stake.
REMINDER: MARITAL RAPE IN OHIO IS STILL LEGAL
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Rape is legal in Ohio if you can avoid prosecution for 25 years. Also you can rape your spouse and thanks to Ohio law that’s actually not a crime.
Thankfully two Ohio Democrats are trying to right these horrible laws.
From the Associated Press via 10tv.com:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — State senators in Ohio are debating a proposal to lift the statute of limitations on rape.
It would also close a loophole that allows rape inside marriage to go unpunished.
During Senate hearings that began Wednesday, Democratic co-sponsor Sen. Nickie Antonio, of Lakewood, said Ohio’s current rape laws don’t account for increasingly sophisticated DNA testing or the research that shows sex crime victims need time to come forward.
That it’s not a slam dunk these laws will pass is a blight on our state.
BEHOLD ONE OF THE MOST DERANGED PEOPLE IN OHIO
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Postpartum depression is a real and serious mental health issue. Yet millions of women have suffered through it without murdering three children on three separate occasions.
From Chris Harris of people.com:
An Ohio mother who killed her three young sons pleaded guilty in exchange for being spared the death penalty, according to multiple reports.
Brittany Pilkington, 27, was scheduled to stand trial in early 2020, but instead, she pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter and murder for suffocating her boys in three separate incidents.
Pilkington’s 3-month-old son, Noah, was found dead in August 2015 in the couple’s apartment in Bellefontaine, Ohio, reports the Springfield News-Sun. Months earlier, in April 2015, Gavin, her 4-year-old son, was killed. Niall, an infant, died in July 2014.
According to WSYX, Pilkington confessed to killing the children on the day Noah was found dead.
She told investigators she suffocated her sons because she was jealous of the attention they were getting from her husband — their father, and Pilkington’s mother’s ex-boyfriend, reports WITI.
The enormity of killing one child is sickening. But doing it on three separate occasions is almost incomprehensible. It almost makes me support the death penalty. Almost.
HUSBAND SHOOTS TERMINALLY ILL WIFE, TURNS GUN ON SELF
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A husband in Twinsburg shot his terminally ill wife in the head after doctors told him she wouldn’t survive the night. He then wrote a suicide note saying he couldn’t live without his wife and turned the gun on himself.
From Robin Gost of cleveland.com:
TWINSBURG, Ohio -- Twinsburg police and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are investigating after a husband and wife, both 87, were found dead from an apparent murder-suicide, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office.
A family member found the couple’s bodies in their Ridgewood Court home on Monday afternoon, the medical examiner’s office said. They were pronounced dead at 4:40 p.m.
Nina M. Houston died of a gunshot wound to the head, the medical examiner said. Her manner of death was homicide. John B. Houston, Jr. died of a gunshot would to the head. His manner of death was suicide, the medical examiner said.
I don’t have a wife so I can’t fully understand the pain of watching one die in front of me but my god I at least hope I’d have the common courtesy to let her pass away naturally in hospice care instead of shooting her in the head and denying her family an open casket funeral.
I know some of you sick fucks out there will find this stuff romantic but personally I think John B. Houston Jr.’s tombstone should read “Here lies a selfish son of a bitch who decided to play God.” He better hope there’s not an afterlife because if there is I have a feeling him and his wife won’t be reunited anytime soon.
WOMAN SETS “DIRTY” CAR ON FIRE IN WAL-MART PARKING LOT
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My question is if your township is called Liberty and it’s a crime to set my car on fire then what the fuck rudimentary understanding do you have about liberty?
From wfmj.com:
Responding personnel noticed the owner of the vehicle acting strange.
[40-year-old Stephanie] Carlson initially told police the fire started because there was a can of gasoline in the trunk and she had lit a candle to get the smell out.
Carlson later told police she had poured gas on the seats of the car and started the fire using a lighter.
When police asked the reasoning behind the fire, Carlson said the car was dirty, and there was a problem with the front wheel.
It’s always a bad idea to talk to police but it’s especially a bad idea to lie to them and then immediately retract your story. She’s lucky the engine didn’t explode and hurt an innocent bystander.
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THOSE WMDs. Phineas Fisher offers $100,000 bounty to hack banks and oil companies… Wildlife cameras are accidentally catching humans behaving badly… The real-life inspiration for Nintendo’s Kirby battled for black voters and against police brutality… Earthquake conspiracy theorists wreak havoc during emergencies… The joys of eating alone… The other Columbus: When your city gaslights you.