Aug 4, 2020
###Use Pennies to Identify Recurring Monthly Payments
Let’s say you owe a creditor $50 per month. You make one $50 payment, then another. And another. Then the creditor comes to you claiming that a $50 payment wasn’t made. Finding and identifying the missing check-or deduction-now becomes a complicated exercise. To avoid this problem, make your first payment in the amount of 50.01. The second, 50.02 and so on. Now if a creditor claims that a payment has gone missing, you can quickly determine which payments were received and which checks haven’t been cashed. If the creditor claims, for example, that he has received a payment of 50.01 and 50.03 and you show you paid 50.02 as well, the error is his and not yours. It’s a lot easier looking for a 50.02 payment than trying to figure out which $50 payment is at issue.
You can restart the penny sequencing the next year, or in the case of a mortgage, you can simply keep adding the pennies. Once you hit 99, you can start over, or add a dollar to the amount.
Note that you must overpay by a penny (or two or three) because if you are one penny short your creditor will mark the bill as delinquent and charge you late fees.
Most creditors will merely credit the extra penny payment to your accounts. Some credit card companies will-astonishingly-send you a check for the overage. No matter: they will still note each month’s payment in the amount received.
Imagine what you could do with mills…
Avoid Late Fees by Paying Your Bills Ahead
Most American families live paycheck to paycheck so late fees are a fact of life. One way to avoid this problem is to pay bills one month in advance. This way, you are never late because the bill you are paying this month is next month’s bill.
What if don’t have the cash available to do this? The answer is to reach that one month cushion goal slowly. Can you pay 25% more this month? Save that 25% and in four months you’ll have enough to make an advance payment.
This method does not work with many credit card companies, especially those that want you to carry a balance. Some will return your advance payment, and some will credit the advance payment as merely an additional payment. Be careful because this tip will not work with all creditors.
This tip only works to avoid late fees. If you are looking to make extra interest-only payments in order to pay down this method will not work.
Go to a Chiropractor for an X-Ray
Chiropractic physicians are licensed in most English-speaking countries. In other countries, the practice of chiropractic is restricted or banned. While the originators of chiropractic believed that all diseases began with the spine and could be cured through spinal adjustment, today’s chiropractors have morphed into sports doctors. Their knowledge of musculature is invaluable on the sidelines. But even if you do not play sports or believe in the efficacy of chiropractic medicine, there is still one area where chiropractors beat the competition: the X-Ray.
If you need a quick X-Ray, go to a chiropractor. He will be happy to serve you, quickly and economically. If he thinks a bone is broken, he will be happy to refer to an orthopedic physician. Chiropractors do not set broken bones. If you want, you will be given a copy of your X-Ray which you can take to another doctor. Since most X-Rays these days are initially read overseas, you can save time and money by getting an X-Ray from a chiropractor instead of waiting in the cacophony of the Emergency Room of a hospital where you will be charged extortionate fees.
Privacy in Hotels
If you’ve ever stayed in a hotel in the Middle East, you know that the peephole in your room has a lid which is closed to protect the guest’s privacy. In the rest of the world (at least in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, China and Southeast Asia) there are no similar privacy protections. More than one peeper has pried using specialty lenses to see through the hole. How can you protect yourself? There is a cheap and effective solution-put a post-it note over the keyhole. Now no one can see in.
TBA
Writing a college paper, report or a document for work? What do you do when you are in the groove and suddenly you need a fact? If you stop to look up a fact next thing you know you’re checking your e-mail or looking at the calendar or browsing Reddit or answering the phone. Your groove is gone. How do you stay in the groove?
When you need to fill in a citation (quick, what’s the U.S. cite for Miranda v. Arizona?) and you don’t have it, simply write, “TBA” for “to be added.” When you finish, you can go back and fill in all of the missing information. The TBA’s are easy to find using the “Find” function in your application.
Oh if I had only known this in college…
Cover-up the Seatback Video Display Using a Large Post-it
Have you ever been on a night flight when the video display on the back of the seat in front of you wouldn’t turn off? And you ask the flight attendant for help and he tries and fails to turn off the display? All is not lost–Post-it notes are your friend. There is a version of the Post-it note which comes in the size of a half-sheet of letter paper. You can post several Post-it’s in this size over the display. You will need more than one because the display’s uncomfortable brightness will shine through a single sheet. Problem solved.
Break-in a New Notebook
Did you ever buy a new notebook and hesitate before writing in it? Not because of writer’s block, but perhaps because you bought the notebook with one idea in mind (to keep a diary) but are wondering if maybe you should use it for the grocery list? Or maybe you bought an expensive notebook and really don’t want to use it for grocery lists but you’re not ready to write your memoirs?
Open the notebook. Turn to the last page. Rotate the notebook 180 degrees (a half circle). Scribble your grocery list or whatever else you want. This writing does not “count” because, after all, it’s at the back of the book. Once you do this you will find it easier to use your notebook for its intended purpose.
Robbing a Bank
There is an art to bank robbery. The average bank robber only walks out with $700 or so. The take isn’t worth the risk. In order to successfully rob a bank you must…(you don’t really think I’m going to tell you, do you?)
Lost? Go to the Fire Department
If you’re in a new city (or just plain lost) drop by the Fire Department and ask how to get to where you’re going. The Fire Department relies on having this information to fight fires and respond to emergencies. Unless they are in the middle of a call, they are usually happy to help.
The Log (from Jerry Pournelle)
Reading Jerry Pournelle’s monthly column in Byte Magazine in the 1980’s and 90’s was always a pleasure. While the focus of the column was Jerry’s exploration of the new world of computing, sometimes there were tips that had application outside the usual talk of connecting a chain of SCSI devices.
Jerry’s tip was to maintain a log. He described it, as I remember it, as follows: keep one place, not several, where your write everything down. Talk to someone? Write down their name. Someone gives you a phone number? Write it down. You have to look up an address? Write it down. You look up a piece of information? Write it down. Over the year this advice has proved invaluable. Oftentimes, when you commence a project there are steps you have to go though along the way. Sometimes these steps are accompanied by discrete pieces of information, like phone numbers. If you have to repeat the steps in the future, you have the information. This is particularly useful when you contact a corporation or government agency and are passed off to whomever is handling customer service matters. Being able to recall the name of the individual you spoke to often proves the fact of the call and if you need to speak to that person again, you know who to ask for. Because companies and governments often take their time in getting back to you, writing the information down will insure that you don’t forget it.
A tip along these lines: if you have a tax practice, is to keep a separate phone book containing the name of every individual, office and phone number given to you by the Internal Revenue Service. This is invaluable down the road when you need to speak to someone and don’t want to waste time calling the general information number. Because internal IRS numbers aren’t published, you cannot simply look these numbers up on Google. Some people keep separate agenda-size phone books for the different agencies they deal with or the projects they work on. You can do this on paper or electronically as you prefer.
Applying for a Job on LinkedIn
Writing “interested” or “check my profile” is a popular method of applying for jobs listed on LinkedIn used mainly by people in the Subcontinent, but sometimes in other countries as well. This method never works. Employers are not going to waste their time reading through hundreds of irrelevant applications. If you don’t believe that there will be irrelevant applications, try to hire staff yourself.
Some people apply for positions they are not qualified for on the theory that, “it doesn’t hurt.” But, oh, it does. It identifies you as a person who is unable to read. If I list a position saying, “Saudis ONLY” and you are not Saudi and yet you apply anyway, I have to assume that you don’t know how to read or are deliberately wasting my time. If I am looking for a qualified chemical engineer who is legally permitted to work in Canada and you are a carpenter from the tribal areas of Waziristan, why are you responding?
In order to apply for a job on LinkedIn, use the method the job poster has indicated. If no method is indicated, look up the e-mail of the poster or the company’s e-mail and send your c.v. with a reference to the post. If all else fails and you absolutely cannot find any e-mail address (and this is unlikely unless the company you seek to work for does not do business with the public or is a secretive organization like the Sinaloa Cartel, write using snail mail to the company’s street address.
Here’s the address of the Sinaloa Cartel, if you are curious: “Sinaloa Cartel, Poste Restante, Culiacan, Sin. Mexico.”
Aug 4, 2020
That’s depressing.
Go back to mu7ami.com
Aug 3, 2020
Sage advice.
Aug 3, 2020
But the post office in Adliya was closed.
Strange.
Aug 2, 2020
Here’s a document.
Here is a link to the document:
mu7ami.micro.blog/uploads/2…
Aug 2, 2020
This is basically the idea.
Aug 2, 2020
Chicken bacon corned beef beef ribs venison. Pig chislic pork belly corned beef pastrami, shankle buffalo hamburger shank drumstick brisket pork chop. Chuck pork belly swine, porchetta leberkas beef ground round. Cupim pancetta beef capicola biltong rump pork loin short loin jowl frankfurter flank.
Boudin beef ribs chicken hamburger t-bone. Tongue jowl pastrami, shankle spare ribs strip steak andouille corned beef swine landjaeger tail kielbasa shank. Bresaola jowl pig, salami short loin meatball cow sirloin frankfurter pork loin. Ribeye leberkas meatloaf, jerky ham hock hamburger picanha frankfurter bresaola chuck chislic flank meatball pig venison.
Aug 2, 2020
Chicken bacon corned beef beef ribs venison. Pig chislic pork belly corned beef pastrami, shankle buffalo hamburger shank drumstick brisket pork chop. Chuck pork belly swine, porchetta leberkas beef ground round. Cupim pancetta beef capicola biltong rump pork loin short loin jowl frankfurter flank.
Boudin beef ribs chicken hamburger t-bone. Tongue jowl pastrami, shankle spare ribs strip steak andouille corned beef swine landjaeger tail kielbasa shank. Bresaola jowl pig, salami short loin meatball cow sirloin frankfurter pork loin. Ribeye leberkas meatloaf, jerky ham hock hamburger picanha frankfurter bresaola chuck chislic flank meatball pig venison.
Aug 2, 2020
This is a test of Marsedit.
Bacon ipsum dolor amet chislic short ribs tongue, pork bresaola pork chop short loin pastrami strip steak turkey shankle pig. Jowl cupim ham turkey. Cow spare ribs tri-tip shank. Ham cupim rump salami.
Shankle pork loin frankfurter turducken. Pork pork belly ribeye short ribs tail hamburger tenderloin. Beef porchetta turducken, spare ribs burgdoggen pastrami frankfurter strip steak hamburger leberkas alcatra. Pancetta sirloin pork meatball andouille prosciutto shoulder pastrami. Drumstick pork belly pancetta meatloaf, rump tenderloin boudin sirloin chuck.
Chicken bacon corned beef beef ribs venison. Pig chislic pork belly corned beef pastrami, shankle buffalo hamburger shank drumstick brisket pork chop. Chuck pork belly swine, porchetta leberkas beef ground round. Cupim pancetta beef capicola biltong rump pork loin short loin jowl frankfurter flank.
Boudin beef ribs chicken hamburger t-bone. Tongue jowl pastrami, shankle spare ribs strip steak andouille corned beef swine landjaeger tail kielbasa shank. Bresaola jowl pig, salami short loin meatball cow sirloin frankfurter pork loin. Ribeye leberkas meatloaf, jerky ham hock hamburger picanha frankfurter bresaola chuck chislic flank meatball pig venison.
Ham hock tenderloin sirloin kevin fatback. Chicken cow beef ribs, hamburger kielbasa pastrami tongue ground round capicola bacon meatloaf flank strip steak chuck. Leberkas burgdoggen venison, tail spare ribs flank pancetta. Beef ribs pig t-bone, sausage doner strip steak hamburger prosciutto bacon picanha biltong ham hock buffalo jerky. Fatback ground round meatball pancetta prosciutto. Beef ribs filet mignon corned beef turkey landjaeger boudin chuck biltong ribeye cow andouille prosciutto frankfurter rump.
Does your lorem ipsum text long for something a little meatier? Give our generator a try… it’s tasty!
Aug 2, 2020
The killing of Floyd George has drawn an avalanche of commentary due to the subsequent and continuing protests throughout not only the country but the world. Few of these analysts have tried to analyze the arrest itself or draw legal conclusions from the known facts about that arrest.
Let’s take a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding the arrest and the legal conclusions which follow.
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Facts
Cup Foods is a convenience store in Minneapolis owned by Mahmoud Abumayyaleh. His teenage relatives worked in the store. On Monday, May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a regular customer at Cup Foods, entered the store.
At the time Floyd entered the store, Abumayyaleh’s nephew was working the cash register. Floyd purchased cigarets and paid with a $20 bill. Floyd then exited the store, walked across the street and sat in his vehicle. There is no allegation that Floyd ran out of the store or otherwise caused a problem in the store. The teenagers did not ask Floyd to remain in the store.
By the time Floyd was already in his automobile, the teenagers became concerned that the $20 bill Floyd used to pay for the cigarets was counterfeit. They exited the store and walked to Floyd’s automobile. When they reached Floyd’s car, the right-hand side passenger door was open. One of the teenagers approached this open door “in an effort to retrieve the cigarets.” Floyd, having already paid, declined.
The teenagers then returned to the store and called 911.
The teenagers did not call the US Secret Service, the agency tasked with investigating cases of counterfeit currency. There is a US Secret Service field office in Minneapolis.
The 911 call was improper. There was no “emergency” of any kind. Abumayyaleh, the store owner, claims that it was store policy to call 911 in counterfeit currency cases.
Floyd remained in his automobile and until the police arrive, had no contact with any other person. A prudent counterfeiter would not remain on the scene after passing a fake bill. Floyd’s presence on the scene is indicative of innocence and suggests that he did not know that the bill was fake, if indeed it was. To this day, no one knows if the bill was fake. The Minneapolis Police Department refuses to give out any information on this key issue. Perhaps they do not know either and are waiting for the Secret Service to determine the bill’s authenticity. If the police to this day do not know, how can one expect Floyd to know?
Two police officers responded to the scene. They walked past the store and then across the street where they found Floyd peacefully sitting in his automobile. This was not a vehicle stop. They tried to get Floyd to exit the vehicle. Floyd declined and one of the officers pulled his own firearm. Floyd then exited the vehicle and the firearm was re-holstered. Handcuffs were put on Floyd, who then peacefully walked to a wall and sat down at the officers’ direction.
At this point, another police car arrived, carrying Officer Derek Chauvin, a training officer for one of the other responding officers. Floyd and Chauvin knew each other; they were co-workers at the El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub in Minneapolis.
Chauvin placed Floyd under arrest. At this point, and throughout the encounter, there is no evidence that any police officer conducted an investigation to see if a crime had been committed. Chauvin and the others walked Floyd to one of the two police cars on the scene and ordered him to get into the vehicle. Floyd claimed that he was “claustrophobic” and refused.
The officers then tried to push Floyd into the car. Chauvin pulled Floyd out of the car. Chauvin and two other officers pinned Floyd to the ground. A fourth officer stood watch between the three officers, the pinned Floyd on the ground, and a small crowd that had formed and began filming. What follows is well-known: Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck. Floyd complained that he could not breathe. Chauvin ignored Floyd’s complaints and kept his weight on Floyd’s neck. Paramedics were called, but by the time they arrived, Floyd was lifeless.
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Analysis
In Minnesota, knowingly passing false currency in small amounts, as here, is a misdemeanor. At the time of the arrest and thereafter, there was no investigation into whether the bill was counterfeit. Had Floyd simply stolen merchandise, my analysis would be different, because then there would be probable cause for the arrest. But in this case, there was no probable cause. Maybe the teenagers were correct and the bill was counterfeit: who knows? People make mistakes concerning counterfeit currency all the time. Before making the arrest, the police did not even examine the bill.
The officers were investigating a misdemeanor. Deadly force may not be used to halt a fleeing misdemeanant. But they treated Floyd as if they were trying to arrest not an alleged misdemeanant, but someone who had just committed a dangerous felony.
As a practical matter, Floyd should not have refused the officers’ command; as a legal matter, were the officers justified in making the arrest? If an arrest is unlawful, does a citizen have the right to resist?
At the time the officers approached Floyd’s vehicle, was there probable cause for his arrest? Certainly not. The officers had not even taken the time to examine the $20 bill. At best, they were permitted to keep Floyd in the area while they identified him and investigated whether there were grounds to arrest him for misdemeanor theft.
There was no felony to justify the use of deadly force—unholstering a gun was thus improper. What about handcuffs? I think the answer to this question could go either way. Handcuffs certainly escalate the situation, but the officers may feel they are necessary for their own protection and to insure that the suspect remains during an initial investigation. Floyd was a big, strong man. I do not believe that a court will substitute its after-the fact analysis and prohibit the use of handcuffs.
As of today, there is no proof that Floyd committed any crime. We do not even know if the teenagers were correct in their guess that the $20 bill was counterfeit; the officers certainly did not know. At best, the crime here is misdemeanor retail theft. A summons, that is a ticket should have been issued to Floyd and the matter left at that. Instead, full post-felony police deadly force rained down on Floyd as if he had committed a violent act.
The officers were only entitled to keep Floyd at the scene while they investigated the alleged misdemeanor. They did not have to let Floyd walk away—a crime may have been committed. To establish probable cause, at a minimum the officers should have examined the currency. They did not.
What is clear is that the officers had no probable cause to arrest Floyd. Without probable cause, was Floyd privileged, from a legal and not practical point of view, to refuse what were illegal police orders? Such illegal police orders are best sorted out, not on the street, but in a courtroom. Unfortunately, economically disadvantaged defendants rarely have the opportunity to engage judges in theoretical legal analysis. They are treated differently.
And did the officers lose qualified immunity because they were making an illegal arrest?
This analysis demonstrates, in part, the reasons for the frustration felt by the black community and explains in large part the nationwide reaction. Here a non-violent, unarmed man was killed where there may well have been no crime. Even when black people are only suspected of committing crimes, they are treated as a population under occupation, with violence the order of the day.
When police commands are not obeyed immediately, the police are trained to use force. This is in itself a problem, because the force used is all too often disproportional to the original reason for the police intervention.
Police commands are not laws. But to let a policeman’s command become equivalent to a criminal statute “comes dangerously near making our government one of men rather than of laws.” Gregory v. Chicago, 394 US 111 (1969)
A possible reason for the escalation in this case is because Chauvin took the opportunity to turn the situation into a training exercise for the new officer, demonstrating ways to subdue an arrestee. The problem with Chauvin’s decision is that, as the senior officer on the scene, he failed to conduct any investigation at all.
The only question for purposes of examining the constitutionality of the arrest is: Did Chauvin have probable cause to believe that a violation had occurred? See, *Draper v. Reynolds,*369 F.3d 1270 (11th Cir. 2004) . In the absence of any investigation, there was no probable cause and hence no immunity. No crime, no probable cause to arrest—no immunity.
Any lawyer knows how a misdemeanor retail theft case like this plays out: time served if the individual could not make bail and either probation or watch the movie and an order not to return to the store.
A misdemeanor case should not end with a body in the street.
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Note: For many years I practiced federal criminal defense law. I am not an expert in Minnesota state law.