|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:12:17 GMT -8
Crushing cola cans is soda pressing
Ever Have a Bad Week?
Donald Trump and three of his children have been hit with a fraud lawsuit after a New York investigation into their family company - the Trump Organization.
It alleges that they lied "by billions" about the value of real estate in order to get loans and pay less tax.
What's in the lawsuit?
Here's a look at what the 222-page document alleges:
-Donald Trump and three of his children lied about the value of his properties - hotels, golf courses and other assets - in order to secure better loans and lower tax rates
-Over the course of a decade, Trump and his family made more than 200 false or misleading valuations on financial statements
-The potential value of development on some estates was overstated, and used to gain higher tax benefits for forfeiting development in favour of conservation
-Each statement was personally certified as accurate by Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, or former Trump Organization financial executive Allen Weisselberg
-The scheme enriched the Trump family by at least $250m (£220m) - the state wants to recover that money
"The New York attorney general went one step further today," she told the BBC. "It announced that in addition to filing this civil complaint, it was also making a referral to federal law enforcement authorities for a criminal investigation."
But Wait! There's More!
On 8 August, the FBI conducted a search warrant at his home in Mar-a-Lago as part of an investigation into his handling of classified records.
Federal investigators were then ordered by another judge to freeze their probe while a court-appointed official decides if any of the records should be private.
But on Wednesday a federal appeals court ruled that the justice department can resume reviewing the classified documents.
The decision reactivates the inquiry into whether Mr Trump withheld US national secrets after leaving office.
Blowing Up the Cannon
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit found U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon likely erred when she ordered that the DOJ could not continue its criminal probe of Trump using the 100 or so classified documents found in the search.
The ruling succinctly cuts down some claims from the former president, particularly a suggestion he had any personal interest in classified documents or that he had declassified them as president. And the opinion concludes Cannon — who Trump appointed to the job — likely had abused her discretion.
The panel found it “self-evident” that the public interest favored a government investigation into the national security risks from the documents found in the search.
“An injunction delaying (or perhaps preventing) the United States’s criminal investigation from using classified materials risks imposing real and significant harm on the United States and the public,” the ruling said.
He is also being investigated in Georgia in relation to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:17:33 GMT -8
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego Fat Leonard?
A Malaysian businessman who scammed the US Navy in its biggest fraud scandal ever has been recaptured after he escaped house arrest two weeks ago.
Leonard Glenn Francis, known as "Fat Leonard", was captured in Venezuela attempting to board a flight to Russia.
He had been on the run since 4 September, when he fled his California home by cutting off his ankle bracelet.
A global Interpol warrant had been out for his arrest as US authorities tried to track him down.
On Wednesday, the 57-year-old was arrested at Simón Bolívar de Maiquetía airport by Venezuelan authorities.
Interpol says he entered the country from Mexico via a stopover in Cuba. He is due to be extradited back to the US.
Francis escaped house detention just weeks before he was due to face sentencing for his crimes. In 2015, he had admitted to bribery and corruption charges and had been a co-operative witness for prosecutors.
Authorities had allowed him to be detained at home in San Diego because he had suffered bouts of poor health in recent years, including kidney cancer.
However on 4 September, police went to his house after problems with his GPS bracelet were detected.
His recapture is the latest chapter in an embarrassing scandal for the US Navy. The US justice department has described it as a colossal fraud involving tens of millions of dollars.
Francis was the mastermind of a sprawling bribery scheme that operated through his Singapore-based company which serviced the US Navy's Pacific fleet.
Prosecutors say he overcharged the navy to the tune of $35m (£30m) and plied officers with cash, gourmet meals, cigars, rare liquor and sex parties in luxury hotels.
He was arrested in 2013, and pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 (£444,000) in bribes to navy officers to funnel official work towards his shipyards.
Dozens of US naval officers have also been implicated. Four have been convicted so far and at least 27 other contractors and officials have pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:20:42 GMT -8
The Real Number is Probably 83
Approximately 10,000 volunteers have turned up to enlist for Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine without waiting for call-up papers, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday, citing the Russian General Staff.
Here's One Volunteer
Will Russian Media Show This as a Group of Young People Rushing to Enlist?
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:22:47 GMT -8
Mississippi Vice
A key figure in Mississippi’s welfare spending scandal has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges under an arrangement that signals he may be cooperating, according to court records.
John Davis directed Mississippi’s welfare agency while it doled out millions of dollars in federal welfare money to projects investigators now say were improper, including a new volleyball facility requested by former NFL quarterback Brett Favre that benefited his daughter.
According to court records, Davis agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and theft — charges that together carry a maximum of 15 years in prison.
“At Davis’s direction, (Mississippi’s welfare agency) provided federal funds to two nonprofit organizations and then directed the two nonprofit organizations to fraudulently award contracts to various entities and individuals for social services that were never provided,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:23:52 GMT -8
This Keeps Happening
A South Carolina mother died on Wednesday after she was shot by her 3-year-old child, after the toddler got a hold of an "unsecured firearm" in their home, authorities said.
Spartanburg County Sheriff's deputies were called to 4750 S. Pine St. at about 7:45 a.m. and found wounded mom Cora Lyn Bush, 33, her child and the victim's mother, officials said.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:25:45 GMT -8
What Happens If They Eat Chocolate?Fetuses in the womb scowled after their mothers ate kale but smiled after they ate carrots, according to a new study of around 100 pregnant women and their fetuses in England. The study offers a rare look at how fetuses respond to flavors in real time. The researchers gave the participating women capsules containing powdered versions of the two foods. Thirty-five women consumed the equivalent of one medium carrot, and 34 women consumed the equivalent of 100 grams of chopped kale. The remaining 30 women didn't consume either. Twenty minutes later, ultrasound scans showed that most of the fetuses exposed to the kale flavor seemed to grimace, while most exposed to the carrot appeared to be laughing. The control group, meanwhile, didn't have the same responses. "We are the first ones who could actually show on an ultrasound scan the facial expressions in relation to the food which the mother has just consumed," said Nadja Reissland, a co-author of the study and the head of the Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab at Durham University. Previous research has shown that the amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus can have different smells or flavors depending on a pregnant person’s diet. 
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:27:50 GMT -8
It Takes 2 Weeks to Learn How To Die?
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:38:25 GMT -8
The Russia Virus
The latest victim of Tall Building Syndrome in Russia — or as Rick Wilson calls it, Terminal Velocity Poisoning — is Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute, who fell from a great height in the MAI building.
The organization’s press office released a statement describing the 73-year-old’s death as “the result of an accident,” adding that his untimely demise was a “a colossal loss for the MAI and the scientific and pedagogical community.”
Russian news outlet Izvestia, citing an unnamed source, reported that Gerashchenko “fell from a great height” and careened down several flights of stairs. He was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.
A commission is reportedly being established at the institute to look into the circumstances of his bizarre death.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:40:29 GMT -8
He Has a Great Brain. He Thinks Powerful Thoughts
Donald Trump just made one of the broadest claims of presidential power yet, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity he had the ability to declassify government documents with his mind.
Or, as one U.S. senator summed it up, Trump appears to think it can be done “telepathically.”
On Wednesday, the ex-president took it to a new level, insisting that he not only didn’t have to tell anyone but that he could do it without a word.
All he needed was his mind.
“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” he told Hannity. “You’re the president of the United States. You can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it.”
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:42:02 GMT -8
Good News For Gibbs. He Won't Have a Lot of Women Voting For Him
A Michigan GOP congressional nominee supported by former President Donald Trump once said the country would be better if women could not govern or vote, and argued that patriarchy “is the best model for the continued success of a society.”
John Gibbs made the sexist arguments online in the early 2000s while he was a student at Stanford University, according to CNN’s KFile, which unearthed pages from his site via internet archive services.
Gibbs, who worked in the Trump administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development, won Michigan’s GOP primary against incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Capitol riot. He faces Democrat Hillary Scholten in the November election.
Gibbs founded what he called a “think tank” named the Society for the Critique of Feminism, which was hosted on his personal page at Stanford in 2000 and 2001. On that forum, he argued that the country would be better off if women could not vote or govern, asserted that women are not as capable as men at thinking logically “without relying upon emotional reasoning,” and contended it’s not a father’s “primary task” to raise children, “whereas it is the mother’s.”
“Some argue that in a democratic society, it is hypocritical or unjust for women, who are 50% of the population, not to have the vote,” Gibbs argued. “This is obviously not true, since the founding fathers, who understood liberty and democracy better than anyone, did not believe so. In addition, all people under age 18 cannot vote, although they too comprise a significant portion of the population. So we cannot say that women should be able to vote simply because they are a large part of the population.”
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:44:26 GMT -8
Ted Talks ... Ted Lies
Donald Trump gave Ted Cruz the nickname of “Lyin’ Ted,” and it may be the only thing he did that President Joe Biden agrees with.
Although Cruz and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) introduced a bipartisan amendment to an omnibus bill passed earlier this year that designated part of the Ports-to-Plains corridor as a future addition to the nation’s interstate highway system, Cruz voted against the bill that would have funded it, according to The Hill.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:45:57 GMT -8
This is Too Hard For TucKKKer
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:49:58 GMT -8
Some Fans Melt Down When Their Team Loses, But This is Next Level Stuff
A University of Utah student has been arrested after threatening to detonate a nuclear reactor on campus if the school’s football team lost to San Diego State.
Salt Lake City police wrote in an affidavit obtained by KSL that the 21-year-old said that “if the football team did not win the game, [she] was going to detonate the nuclear reactor that is located in the University of Utah causing a mass destruction.”
The woman was booked into a Salt Lake county jail on Wednesday for investigation of making a threat of terrorism.
The woman made the threat on social media app Yik Yak. The police affidavit noted that the woman “is aware of where the reactor is located and attends class in the same building where the reactor is housed.”
The reactor is located in the university’s Merrill Engineering Building, and is used in student and faculty research. Police response times to emergencies at the reactor are tested monthly.
The Utes beat San Diego State 35-7 on Saturday, averting the threat of nuclear disaster.
WTF is Yik Yak?
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 8:52:52 GMT -8
Eugenics was Going On Until 2013
The compulsory sterilization of American men and women continues to this day. In 2013, it was reported that 148 female prisoners in two California prisons were sterilized between 2006 and 2010 in a supposedly voluntary program, but it was determined that the prisoners did not give consent to the procedures. In September 2014, California enacted Bill SB1135 that bans sterilization in correctional facilities, unless the procedure is required to save an inmate's life.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 22, 2022 14:49:07 GMT -8
What Kind of Combat Experience?
Remember that part of Putin’s speech where he said this was only for members of the reserves with combat experience, and it wasn’t like he was about to start conscripting college students? These are college students being pulled directly from their classrooms.
A student at the Buryat State University in Ulan-Ude told The Village that this morning the National Guard and the military police came to the university to take classes and “take the students straight from the classes”
...........................
I DM’d a Russian friend yesterday;
“It looks like Putin's announced a partial mobilization, and that soldiers contracts have been extended indefinitely. Apparently, it's because the war is going so well that Ukraine is about to collapse...”
My friend agreed that I could post their response here. So here it is;
“I’m worried sick about my friends in Russia, 300k soldiers will be mobilized in the first wave, the next wave will be dangerous for most of them.
I have some inside info from my close friends, about their drafted relatives;
They say that the fucks [are] just recruiting random people across Russia. Without combat experience, etc. Instead of the three or four months of training that the government is claiming they’ll get, they’re getting around ten (10) days.
FSB people are joking about this in cafes in my home town. They are literally saying that everyone in the first wave is a dead man.”
|
|
