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Robert Mayer Has Been Missing For Two Months And No One Knows Where He Is

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Robert Mayer woke up early on Friday, June 14th, 2013. He had to be out the door by 4:30 AM to drive to a job site in Brooklyn, about an hour’s drive from the Mayers’ house in Dix Hills, New York. In the quiet and dark, he got dressed and ready while his wife and kids slept.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and a gray collared polo shirt with the logo ‘J.G. Electrical’, and grabbed his lunchbox and car keys. He said his usual, quiet “goodbye, love you” to Ida, and stepped out the door of the house into the strange but pleasant stillness of pre-dawn.

It was just like every other morning.

– – – – –

Ida Mayer called her husband around 9:00 AM that morning. It was going to be a big weekend, filled with the normal chaos familiar to any family with with kids. Their son, 15 years old, was playing guitar with his band on Saturday. Robbie had turned his son on to classic rock, and did a little drumming himself. He never missed one of his son’s concerts – he was extremely proud of his kids, and would need to get to the venue early to help set up the equipment as usual. And Sunday was Father’s Day. Ida and Robbie were doing a barbecue at their house. Robbie asked Ida to pick up some oysters – he loved manning the grill, and was looking forward to whatever sweet tribute the kids were planning for him.

skitched-20130815-122447“It was one of those conversations you have with your husband,” Ida told me. “You know – the usual thing, where I’m yakking away a mile a minute about what needs to be done, and Robbie’s going ‘okay, okay’ and ‘hang on, I can’t hear you’ because of how loud it always is at job sites.” Robert, an electrician who worked for the Local 3 union, was working on a theater being constructed in Brooklyn, and the noise of the equipment nearly drowned out Ida’s voice.

After a couple of minutes, the call dropped. Ida shrugged, and went about her morning busy routine, doing the thousand chores that always need to be done and re-done. They could always nail down the planning details after Robbie got home. He’d probably leave work early, since it was a Friday and there were so many things to do for the weekend.

But Robert was also a hard worker, very responsible – so Ida only really started to worry in the late afternoon. She kept watching for his car, a bright red 2004 Pontiac. Robert loved that car: “It’s the family first, and that car second,” Ida says. He was extremely careful about it. He kept it in great shape, used a club every time he parked it, and never left it in lots that didn’t have some kind of security.

Ida called Robbie’s cell again.  This time, it went straight to voicemail. She tried a few minutes later – same result. Maybe he was stuck in traffic? She checked the street, watching for the flash of red.

Evening came, and night. Ida was now frantic with worry, which she tried as best she could to keep hidden from the kids, but they were smart and picked up on everything; they knew something was wrong.

Finally, around 1:00 AM on Saturday, June 15th, Ida called the cops and reported Robbie missing. That was almost exactly two months ago. Robert Mayer never made it back home, and his family has not seen him since.

– – – – –

Calling Ida for this story was like opening a small window into a world nobody in their right mind would want to inhabit. When I asked for Ida Mayer, the voice on the other end of the call – a woman’s voice, even-toned and cautious – said: “Whom may I say is calling?”. After I told her my name, she said “This is Ida; hi, sorry, the phone’s kind of non-stop.” During our conversation, I heard people in the background – the Mayers’ friends, family, the kids – and Ida frequently had to pause to say goodbye to someone, or to answer a question from another person.

I’d researched the case, and had seen Ida’s many posts on the Robert Mayer Search Group page on Facebook. As she answered my questions, I realized how many times she must have to repeat the same information to different reporters; how much effort she puts into organizing and searching; the huge amount of self control it must take her to get through each day, keeping things as “normal” as possible for the kids; keeping up with the investigation; looking for clues. It’s a wonder she ever sleeps, I thought – but in her situation, sleep must seem like a luxury, only to be indulged in when truly needed.

skitched-20130815-122300

What Ida and the kids need, more than anything, is information. The police have opened an investigation, and although they have said that they don’t currently believe foul play was involved, there are several very strange things about Robert Mayer’s disappearance. Here are the things that are known:

  • Robert was seen at work in Brooklyn. He definitely made it there.
  • His cell phone was last pinged at 1:45 PM, around Melville, just off the Northern State Parkway. Because it was the Friday before a busy family weekend, Ida believes he was probably on his way home early, as she’d expected.
  • At 2:15 PM, Robert was seen at Arrow Scrap in West Babylon – about a 17-minute drive from Melville. He would have turned off the Northern State Parkway and taken a series of roads – Broad Hollow, Old Country, Pinelawn, Little East Neck – to get to Arrow Scrap, where he and other electricians occasionally go to sell junked scrap metal collected from job sites. Robert had been to Arrow Scrap before: “Not often,” says Ida, “but he went there a few times.”
  • At 2:45 PM, Robert Mayer’s phone was either shut off, or it went dead.
  • Robert’s cherished bright-red Pontiac was found by a friend of the Mayers’, at the Deer Park train station of the Long Island Rail Road line, seven and a half miles from the Mayers’ home in Dix Hills. Robert is a tall guy – over six feet. The driver’s seat was found moved noticeably forward from where Robert normally had it. The car was locked, but the keys were missing. The trunk, where Robert usually kept tools and other things, was empty. His lunch pail was missing, though there was a bottle of water on the front passenger seat. The car is currently being processed by investigators.

“There is no way he’d leave that car at the train station,” Ida says. “The lot at Deer Park has had a lot of car thefts and break-ins. He distrusted that lot in particular.” There are no security cameras at Deer Park train station. This also means there is no surveillance footage of Robert’s car entering the lot and being parked. No way to see who was driving it.

Just across Long Island Avenue from the Deer Park train station is the Edgewood/Oak Brush Plains Preserve. It’s a large area, over 800 acres of land covered by pine barrens: dense thickets of pitch pine and scrub oak, interspersed with stands of bigtooth aspen. Some of the area has been searched – at first by official teams with canine search units, now by search groups organized by Ida Mayer, friends, and supporters. So far, the dogs have not picked up Robert’s scent – not at Edgewood/Oak Brush; not at Deer Park train station. The canines were brought to the site of the abandoned Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, which adjoins the preserve, but found nothing. It seems the dogs have not yet been brought to Arrow Scrap.

– – – – –

skitched-20130815-122722

Looking at the area on Google Maps, you can trace the route Robert Mayer took to work in Brooklyn. On his drive home, the town of Melville, where his phone last pinged, is just off the Northern State Parkway. Robert would have turned South and followed the roads down to Arrow Scrap. The route from Arrow Scrap to the Deer Park train station, where his car was found, would require heading up the 495/Long Island Expressway; going over three miles PAST Dix Hills, where the Mayers’ home is located; then another three-plus miles South, down the Sagtikos Parkway; taking a right onto Pine Aire Drive, and driving another mile to the station.

Could Robert have driven to the station from Arrow Scrap? Maybe, but that idea stretches belief. Robert and Ida have been happily married for 18 years. They never spent a night apart in that time. Robert is an exceptionally good father, according to his family and friends. Well-liked in his community, he is one of those guys who gets along with most people. Hard working. Funny. Smiles a lot. Never misses a show when his son gets up on stage and plays the classic rock songs he loves; never took the train; never, ever would have left his car – practically a fifth family member – at the sketchy Deer Park station lot. With the driver’s seat scooted to a position that would have made driving uncomfortable, if you were a strapping guy over six foot tall. It just does not wash. And Ida, who knows Robert better than anyone, has a gut-deep certainty that something is terribly wrong here.

To get through each day and long night, in Ida Mayer’s situation, takes an amazing amount of stamina. Ida is uncomfortable with praise, but it’s hard not to be impressed by the stoic determination she shows. She even laughs, briefly, on the phone with me, as we bond over those typical husband/wife phone calls, where we blab our heads off about this or that errand that needs doing, while our husbands say “yeah, okay” once every few minutes or so. Talking to Ida on the phone just underscores how normal they Mayers are. There is no dramatic backstory here that would indicate any suspicion of Robert Mayer. His disappearance is like sudden rain out of a clear blue sky.

The kids’ friends have been great, and that helps. It also helps that so many people are starting to take notice of the situation: the Robert Mayer Search Group page on Facebook has over 2,000 members, and Ida has given interviews to a local CBS affiliate, to News 12 of Long Island, and to quite a few print journalists. She helps organize and conduct regular search groups of volunteers, who are methodically covering as much of the Edgewood/Oak Brush preserve as possible, and passing out the MISSING/REWARD fliers. Thanks to donors, there is a substantial reward – $10,000 – for information leading to Robert’s discovery. Ida Mayer juggles all this and her kids and chores with a kind of no-nonsense practical outward stoicism, though it’s clear she’s in a lot of pain and gripped by a need to know what happened to Robert.

Practically speaking, ‘courage’ is not the key word in a situation like this, though many have praised Ida’s courage, and I understand why they do. It’s one of the hardest truisms of life that when something horrible happens, life – difficult and hectic enough for most of us, particularly those with kids – doesn’t just politely stop and let you tackle the emergency issue. There are dinners to be made, clothes to wash, school events, activities; the thousand chores that need to be done and re-done. The word ‘courage’ implies choice. And what can Ida Mayer do but put one foot in front of the other, and keep going? She doesn’t exactly HAVE a choice, and – from what little I could glean of her personality from the phone – she’s not the type to complain or seek attention. Indeed, I got the feeling that one of the hardest things about this whole incident is how she’s been forced by circumstance to get as much attention as possible. “The donations to the reward – I don’t know.. it just makes me so uncomfortable to have to even ask,” she told me.

But this discomfort, too, must simply be dealt with, so that she and her kids have the best possible chance of finding out what happened. On the phone with me, Ida spent no time talking about her own feelings, but she choked up when I asked her how the kids were doing. “It’s very hard for them,” she said. “They’re so close to their father. They love him so much.

“Every day they ask me: Where’s Dad? When’s Dad coming back?” Ida says.

– – – – –

Please share the Robert Mayer MISSING FLYER – $10,000 REWARD

Join The Robert Mayer Search Group on Facebook

Watch Ida Mayer’s interview with CBS2 New York

skitched-20130706-103052Sarah Laidlaw Beach is an artist and writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a straight ally who works as a graphic designer, and lives with her partner and dog.

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News

Biden Joins Experts Roasting Rubio: ‘Anything MAGA Republicans Don’t Like They Call Fake’

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3 days ago

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October 4, 2024

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The September jobs report released Friday was so stunningly great one economist literally exclaimed “wowza.” Fox News was forced to praise the numbers, with one guest lamenting he had expected “more red flags than a communist parade in this report, and there’s not a single one,” then having to admit, “There’s not one data point in here that I can point to that is not good.”

But not according to U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who falsely declared Friday afternoon the report is “fake,” before also falsely claiming updates to the monthly reports across almost a year-and-a-half have all been revised down.

“Another fake jobs report out from Biden-Harris government today,” the Florida Republican wrote on social media. “16 of the last 17 reports have been significantly revised downwards after media helps them with their fake headlines.”

READ MORE: Greene Mocked for Weather Control Claim as NC Lawmaker Pleads for Conspiracy ‘Junk’ to End

“But all the fake numbers in the world aren’t going to fool people dealing with the Biden-Harris economic disaster every day,” he declared.

Many experts on social media were stunned by a sitting U.S. Senator taking such a drastic and negative stand on an independent, nonpartisan government agency — one, most do not realize, for which he sits on a Senate subcommittee overseeing its work and is responsible for its funding.

“The data truthers are back. Conspiracy-mongering about federal statistics is bad and harmful. Measuring national stats is inherently difficult & subject to error. But the BLS is an independent statistical agency that produces accurate, high-quality data,” observed The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell.

Journalist Kai Ryssdal, host of public radio’s business program “Marketplace,” commented: “I honestly don’t know what to do with this except to point out that it’s a feeble lie and deeply corrosive.”

Media critic and former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob wrote: “Marco Rubio, a sitting U.S. senator, accuses nonpartisan government statisticians of fraud simply because good economic news is inconvenient to his fascist political party.”

“Rubio dishonestly claims that revisions in past months’ job numbers is a nefarious plot,” Jacob continued. “In fact, it’s normal and happened under Trump too. The revisions aren’t always downward. Today the feds revised July and August numbers *upward* – which blows up Rubio’s conspiracy theory.”

“The Dept. of Labor stats are the same for all presidents, including Trump. Rubio’s sleazy attack undermines public faith for the benefit of a criminal liar,” remarked journalist Chris Bury.

Glassdoor’s lead economist Daniel Zhao remarked: “Deeply disappointing to see Sen. Rubio joining the ranks of those endorsing a baseless conspiracy theory questioning the integrity of nonpartisan BLS employees.”

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Jonathan Levin, who writes about markets for Bloomberg Opinion, observed, “America’s high-quality, nonpartisan economic statistics are the envy of world. Yes, the data is subject to revisions, and that’s why @BLS_gov publishes these confidence intervals. But I don’t see ‘economic disaster’ anywhere in this range of values, Senator @marcorubio.”

Professor of Economics, Public health, and Management Howard Forman commented: “Criticizing non-partisan federal workers/economists because they don’t tell you what you want to hear is Orwellian. You were once a man with huge promise. How low you have sunk. Truly ‘liddl Marco.'”

Professor of Law Darren Hutchinson, rebuking Senator Rubio, wrote: “The old southern church ladies would say ‘The Devil is a liar.'”

Former chief economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Ernie Tedeschi added: “Of course, this is a bald-faced lie. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an independent agency priding itself on many layers of insulation from political interference.
Truly depraved of a sitting US senator to sow baseless doubt in data collected for the benefit of all Americans.”

In a press briefing Friday afternoon President Joe Biden was asked about Rubio’s false claims. It appears he had the last laugh.

“Anything the MAGA Republicans don’t like they call fake,” Biden said. “The job numbers are what the job numbers are. They’re real. They’re sincere.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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This article has been updated to include remarks from Ernie Tedeschi

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Greene Mocked for Weather Control Claim as NC Lawmaker Pleads for Conspiracy ‘Junk’ to End

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3 days ago

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October 4, 2024

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“Friends can I ask a small favor?” North Carolina Republican state Senator Kevin Corbin’s Facebook post began Thursday afternoon. “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC,” he wrote, referring to Hurricane Helene-hit western North Carolina.

Senator Corbin listed some examples of the conspiracy theories he and his fellow lawmakers are battling as they try to bring help to the people they represent: “FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on.”

“PLEASE help stop this junk. It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job.”

In the middle of Corbin’s post, one conspiracy theory stood out: “government is controlling the weather.”

READ MORE: ‘Wowza’: Economists Thrilled With ‘Huge’ Jobs Report and Wages Outpacing Prices

That echoes a claim U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made just hours later, Thursday night on social media:

“Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Exactly 12 hours after she posted that falsehood, it’s been been viewed 4.6 million times—not including all the screenshots that are flying around social media.

Congresswoman Greene is being widely derided and mocked.

National security expert, NSA contractor, and former Republican U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia blasted Greene.

“This person is in Congress,” he wrote on social media. “This ignorance, this lunacy, is why we have a government teetering and lurching. Her stupidity is a disease. She’s not alone either. Who do we blame? Well, folks.. we blame disinfo ecosystems— like here on X and we blame… voters. Mass idiocy. Stupid votes count.”

He added: “It’s dangerous how dumb she is.”

Some suggested Greene was merely referring to cloud seeding, attempts to increase rainfall, which date back to the 1940’s.

Riggleman disputed those suggestions: “She’s not thinking of cloud seeding— she is a QAnon adherent who also believes in direct prophecy and 9/11 conspiracies.”

Indeed, in 2021, just weeks after she was sworn in, Media Matters reported on Greene’s conspiracy theory-fueled history: “Marjorie Taylor Greene penned conspiracy theory that a laser beam from space started deadly 2018 California wildfire.”

“In November 2018, California was hit with the worst wildfire in the state’s history. At the time, future Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote a bizarre Facebook post that echoed QAnon conspiracy theorists and falsely claimed that the real and hidden culprit behind the disaster was a laser from space triggered by some nefarious group of people,” the report reads.

READ MORE: JD Vance Says ‘Yes’ Trump Won in 2020 Then Walks Away When Asked ‘Will You Concede?’

“Greene’s post, which hasn’t previously been reported, is just the latest example to be unearthed of her embracing conspiracy theories about tragedies during her time as a right-wing commentator. In addition to being a QAnon supporter, Greene has pushed conspiracy theories about 9/11, the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings, the Las Vegas shooting, and the murder of Democratic staffer Seth Rich, among others.”

“Greene also has a history of pushing anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic remarks,” Media Matters wrote before noting, “CNN’s Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski recently reported that on her Facebook page, ‘Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.'”

Some, including Newsweek on Friday, suggested Greene was referring to Democrats when she ambiguously wrote, “they can control the weather,” but others insisted she was referring to Jews.

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) served up this response:

Gun violence prevention activist Shannon Watts added, “Reminder: This is a conspiracy theory based in anti-Semitism alleging that Jewish people have the technology to manipulate the weather and cause freak storms that wreak havoc on the world.”

Regardless of who Congresswoman Greene was referring to, her promotion of yet another dangerous conspiracy theory at a time when people in the area of the country she claims to be fighting for are calling for level heads stands out.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), appearing to respond to Greene’s tweet (which he had just retweeted) wrote: “Spreading lies during natural disasters is a special kind of evil. Don’t do it, don’t indulge it, don’t excuse it.”

Overnight, NBC News reported: “At least 215 people are known to have died as a result of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene since it made landfall in Florida a week ago.”

“More than half of the deaths were in North Carolina, where several feet of fast-moving water destroyed entire communities,” the report adds. “Hundreds are still missing, and officials have reported difficulties in identifying some of the dead.”

Senator Corbin, in his Facebook post, also stressed the need for an end to what he described as “intentional distractions.”

“Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known. It is the largest crisis event in the history of N.C. The state is working non-stop,” he wrote. “DOT has deployed workers from all over the state. Duke power has 10,000 workers on this. FEMA is here. The National Guard is here in large numbers.”

“Government will play a role in this cleanup,” he promised. “We are going to make sure the state chips in some massive money. But Government is not the total solution. YES, there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors and that’s good and the way it should be. Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true. I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop …….. ‘fill in the blank.’ 98% chance it’s not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it and not waiting for a post to go thru 10,000 people to be addressed. Thanks for listening but I’ve been working on this 12 hours a day since it started and I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions from the main job …. which is to help our citizens in need.”

READ MORE: ‘Judicially Executed Cover Up’: Experts Say Jack Smith Filing ‘Major Indictment’ of SCOTUS

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News

‘Wowza’: Economists Thrilled With ‘Huge’ Jobs Report and Wages Outpacing Prices

Published

3 days ago

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October 4, 2024

By

The September jobs report is a stunning confirmation of just how “strong” and “resilient” the U.S economy is, according to economic experts who are celebrating Friday morning.

“US economy smashes expectations with 254,000 jobs added in September,” The Financial Times reports, “far outstripping expectations.”

“Wowza: HUGE jobs report,” exclaimed Professor of economics Justin Wolfers, a senior fellow at Brookings and a frequent guest on cable news. “This economic expansion that is motoring along.”

“This is a great September jobs report,” declared The Washington Post’s Heather Long. “The ‘soft landing’ is still on track.”

The New York Times’ economic reporter, Talmon Joseph Smith, summed up the news:

Economists had expected 140,000 to 159,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, continuing the Biden administration’s historic record of producing and maintaining unemployment at five-decade lows.

READ MORE: JD Vance Says ‘Yes’ Trump Won in 2020 Then Walks Away When Asked ‘Will You Concede?’

“Average hourly earnings grew 0.4% last month, and are now up 4.0% over the year. There’s no question that wages are running ahead of prices, and people are seeing meaningful real wage gains,” he added. Wolfers says he’s “been relentlessly optimistic about the economy for the past couple of years, and it’s felt lonely at times during the drumbeat of ‘recession’ talk, but it’s also been a pretty great place to be. If you were looking for what a soft landing looks like, this is it.”

Bloomberg News adds, “Unemployment for major ethnic groups — Black, White, Hispanic — fell, while the Asian unemployment rate held steady.”

President Biden, who worked with the dockworkers union to bring an extraordinarily fast end to their strike that ended after just three days this week, took a victory lap.

READ MORE: ‘Judicially Executed Cover Up’: Experts Say Jack Smith Filing ‘Major Indictment’ of SCOTUS

“Today, we received good news for American workers and families with more than 250,000 new jobs in September and unemployment back down at 4.1%,” President Biden said in a statement. “With today’s report, we’ve created 16 million jobs, unemployment remains low, and wages are growing faster than prices. Under my Administration, unemployment has been the lowest in 50 years, a record 19 million new businesses have been created, and inflation and interest rates are falling. And we’re seeing the power of collective bargaining to lift up workers’ wages—including the progress made by dockworkers on record wages with carriers, and port operators and the reopening of East Coast and Gulf ports.”

Biden also took a swipe at Republicans.

“Congress should pass our plan to build millions of new homes, expand prescription drug price caps, empower workers and protect the right to organize, and cut taxes for hardworking families. Congressional Republicans have a different plan—more giant tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, ending the Affordable Care Act, undermining workers by cutting overtime and making it harder to organize, and imposing a national sales tax that would raise costs by nearly $4,000 per year. While they put billionaires first, we’ll keep fighting to grow the middle class.”

See the social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Biggest Whopper of the Night’: Vance’s ‘Heap of Lies’ on Abortion Was ‘Jaw-Dropping’

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