Monday, October 21, 2024

Sexual exploitation in the Name of the Lord (North Carolina edition)

 
Photo and headline:  Church Leaders, 10/18/2024
According to WCYB, an investigator received a message in August from Rupard on an undercover social media account. In the message, Rupard, who reportedly utilized the fake username “David Eller,” allegedly solicited sex from a 16-year-old girl.  
The account received more messages of a similar nature through September. In October, the investigator obtained a search warrant and determined that the account belonged to Rupard. 
“Rupard had been in consistent communication with what he believed to be a sixteen-year-old female,” the Elizabethton Police Department in Elizabethton, Tennessee, said in a release. “Throughout these conversations, Rupard had repeatedly expressed his desire to engage in sexual acts with the minor female.” 

Other miscreants:
October 2024
Matt Queen.  (10/18)
Roy Shoop.  (10/12)
Gabriel Mills.  (10/3)

September 2024
John Raymond.  (9/27)
Juan Barrios.  (9/23)
Demiro Johnson.  (9/22)
Glen Dean McCoy.  (9/22)
James Swanson.  (9/21)
William Dunfee.  (9/21)
Steven Lawson.  (9/20)
Rocky Goodwin.  (9/19)
William Johnson.  (9/17)
Tim Ballard.  (9/13)

Affordable housing development at 3401 East Washington Avenue, Madison Wisconsin (October 2024 construction site visit)

 
Photos by Retiring Guy


Headline and rendering:  Wisconsin State Journal, 7/20/2022
The project could become the first to get city financial assistance to support lower-income housing and use special construction measures to insulate units in anticipation of the stationing of U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jets at nearby Truax Field starting in 2023. 
The site, which now includes a 2,100-square-foot retail building and 111,000-square-foot former bakery at the corner of East Washington Avenue and North Fair Oaks Avenue, is assessed at $2.85 million and has been vacant since 2019. It’s adjacent to Hawthorne Elementary School, 3344 Concord Ave.


Previous occupant:  Gardner Bakery 



Other East Washington posts:
2024
Baker's Place.  (9/28)
Moxy Hotel.  (5/6)
Baker's Place.  (5/6)

2023
The Continental.  (7/25)

2022

2021
The Valor.  (10/19)
800 block project revisited:  Love notes to the temporarily shuttered Sylvee.  (2/14)

2020
The Arden.  (12/18)

2019
Hotel Indigo.  (12/2)
NIMBY chronicles.  (11/12)

2018





If recent history is any indicator, Trafalgar lead pollster Robert Cahaly is an unqualified failure


If not a downright fraud!

 Headlines top to bottom:
CNN, Slate, (highlight added), Newsmax

Take a gander at Cahaly's 2022 report card.  Mostly F's.



Live by the polls, die by the polls
October 2024
Malpractice in journalism:  Taking Trafalgar lead pollster Robert Cahaly's GOP wet dream fantasy polls seriously. (10/16)
No need to panic, folks; it’s just Trafalgar lead pollster Robert Cahaly making up another batch of GOP wet dream fantasy polls. (10/5)
Been there, done that: Just like in 2022, Trafalgar lead pollster Robert Cahaly trolls the media with GOP wet dream fantasy polls (Wisconsin presidential edition)er  (10/4)
Been there, done that: Just like in 2022, Trafalgar lead pollster Robert Cahaly trolls the media with GOP wet dream fantasy polls (Michigan presidential edition)
Been there, done that: Just like in 2022, Trafalgar lead pollster Robert Cahaly trolls the media with GOP wet dream fantasy polls (Michigan US Senate edition)

September 2024
Dear Newsweek: Please place an election season embargo on Trafalgar polls.  They are nothing more than a GOP wet dream.  Just like 2022.  Best, Retiring Guy.  (9/1)
Dear Eric Mack:  Remember the so-called 2022 Red Wave?  Trafalgar polls are nothing but a GOP wet dream.  Best, Retiring Guy.  (9/1) 

June-August 2024
Trafalgar's Robert Cahaly:  Just what you'd expect from a "pollster" who promoted a nonexistent "Red Wave" in 2022
Dear Sean Hannity:  Trafalgar's Robert Cahaly deals in GOP wet-dream fantasies.  If he sez Trump is up 2 in Georgia, he's actually down 5.  Best, Retiring Guy.  (8/2/2024)

December 2023

November 2023

October 2023

February 2023
 
January 2023
RULE #1: Never take a Trafalgar poll at face valve (RNC chair election edition).  (1/27)
Day 61 of Robert C. Cahaly's self-imposed exile.  (1/7)
FiveThirtyEight reports Trafalgar poll with a straight face.  (1/6)

December 2022

November 2022
And then there were those Trafalgar fantasy polls.  (11/21)
Since Election Day, we have been listening to 'The Sounds of Silence" by Robert C. Cahaly.  (11/16)
Looking forward to Trafalgar's first fantasy poll of the 2024 GOP presidential campaign shit show.  (11/16)

Redtail Ridge apartments under construction, Middleton Wisconsin (October 2024 site visit)

 
Photos by Retiring Guy








Construction news: Extension of Belle Fontaine Boulevard taking place in Redtail Ridge, new housing development in Middleton Wisconsin

 
Photo by Retiring Guy

Orange arrow shows extension of Belle Fontaine Boulevard

USA box office on the 3rd weekend of October 2017-2024


USA box office on the third weekend of October 2024 is down 20% compared to last year when "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tourwas the top-grossing movie.   "Smile 2" was the top-grossing movie this weekend.

And it's down 60% compared to the 2018 peak when "Halloweenruled the weekend box office.



Source:  Box Office Mojo


Variety, 10/20/2024
“Smile 2” was this weekend’s only new nationwide release, though several titles opened at the specialty box office. A24’s weepy romantic drama “We Live in Time” debuted impressively in fifth place with $4.1 million from only 955 theaters. The film, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh as a young couple in unenviable circumstances, has grossed $4.5 million to date after playing for one weekend in limited release. Young women were the primary ticket buyers, of which 85% were under 35 and 70% were female.

More box office posts:
2024
Easter weekend.  (3/31)

2023

2022
Third weekend in December.  (12/19)
First weekend in December.  (12/5)
Thranksgiving 2022 daily top 10 movie grosses (Wednesday-Sunday)  (11/28)
Pre-Thanksgiving box office weekend down 47% from 2017 peak.  (11/21)
Going down: October 2022 box office drops 44% compare
d to 2018. (11/3)

Not qualified to represent Wisconsin: Eric Hovde’s epic fail in U.S. Senate debate with Tammy Baldwin



 
From Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American, 10/20/2024:
I had hoped to write tonight about the farm bill, which Eric Hovde, running for the Senate from Wisconsin although it’s not clear he lives there, could not talk about in the debate between him and incumbent senator Tammy Baldwin on Friday. “I’m not an expert on the farm bill because I'm not in the U.S. Senate at this point in time,” Hovde said. “So I can’t opine specifically on all aspects of the farm bill.” 
The farm bill is one of our most important pieces of legislation. It establishes the main agricultural and food policies of the government, covering price supports for farm products, especially corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar; crop insurance; conservation programs; and nutritional programs for 41 million low-income Americans, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as food stamps. It must pass every five years but has been held up by Republican extremists in the House and is now in limbo. One would think that anyone running for Senate should know it pretty well, especially in Wisconsin, where in 2022 farms produced $16.7 billion in agricultural products.

Screenshot from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/10/2024


Clearly, transgender messaging is more important to Wisconsin Republicans than the farm bill.

Other Hovde posts:
2024
Eric Hovde rips a page from the 2022 Ron Johnson campaign playbook.  (8/16/2024)

Dear Ottawa County voters: Now is your chance to dump that incompetent clown Joe Moss. Vote smart! Best Retiring Guy!


Headline:  mlive, 10/20/2024
Moss has been board chair since January 2023 and was elected to the board two months earlier with a slate of candidates associated with Ottawa Impact, a group that formed, in part, in opposition to COVID-19 mask mandates. 
Those commissioners have made several controversial decisions since taking office, including dismantling the county’s diversity office, trying to fire the health officer, hiring new legal counsel and passing various resolutions that included one to “protect childhood innocence.” 
Moss, according to his web site, founded or co-founded three technology companies. MLive previously reported that Moss is involved in Freshphone, which advertises “cloud-based phone and texting platforms” and the software company Eclarian. He has degrees in accounting and marketing from Cedarville University.

Related posts:
October 2024

September 2024

August 2024
2024 primary election Ottawa County Commission:  Far-right Ottawa Impact incumbent Gretchen Crosby gets crush by moderate Republican.  (8/7)

July 2024
 
June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024.  

February 2024 
Chris Vander Sys challenges Ottawa Impact whackjob Gretchen Cosby for seat on Michigan's Ottawa County Board.  (2/21)

January 2024

2023