Fri: No One Else Is Going to Do This For You, Schmucks!

If He Stiffs the Bail Bond Company, Can They Pull the Bond?

Former President Donald Trump is working with a local Georgia bonding company to foot the bill for his $200,000 bail, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The CEO of the Lawrenceville, Ga.-based Foster Bail Bonds LLC, Charles Shaw, confirmed to the outlet Thursday evening that the company would be posting Trump's bond but did not confirm the former president's fee, which CNN reported would be 10 percent, citing anonymous sources.

"Somewhat surprising because it means a $30,000 non-refundable payment to the bond company," Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Other legal experts also questioned Trump's decision to enlist the help of the company online Thursday evening. "Why does a billionaire need the help of a bonding company?" national security lawyer Bradley Moss asked. "A man who owns resorts and a private plane can't afford a $200,000 bond?" he added.

Conservative lawyer George Conway found the move "really puzzling." He tweeted, "If you have the cash, it seems a waste of money to use a bail bondsman. The only reason I could think of is that he didn't want to use his own money, and instead chose to have his PAC take the hit for the bonding fee. Don't know if that makes sense, but who knows?"

Is China Buying US Farmland?  We Don't Seem to Know.

State and federal lawmakers are pushing to regulate foreign ownership of U.S. real estate because of fears that Chinese entities are creating a national security risk by amassing swaths of U.S. farmland, some of it near sensitive sites.

A review by NBC News of thousands of documents filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, shows very few purchases by Chinese buyers in the past year and a half — fewer than 1,400 acres in a country with 1.3 billion acres of agricultural land. In fact, the total amount of U.S. agricultural land owned by Chinese interests is less than three-hundredths of 1%.

But the review also reveals a federal oversight system in which reporting of foreign ownership is lax and enforcement minimal.

Any foreign individual or entity that buys or leases U.S. agricultural land is required by federal law to report the transaction to the USDA within 90 days, yet some were not reported for years — in one case, more than 20 years. And in that same time period, no one has been fined more than $121,000 for failure to make such a report.

NBC News was able to review filings on foreign purchases and leases of agricultural land, meaning both farm and forestry land, from 35 states since Jan. 1, 2022. The vast majority of the transactions were European wind power companies leasing land from U.S. farmers to build wind turbines. One Italian wind company disclosed 40 new leases of farmland in just one rural Illinois county. The same company had leases in at least four other states.

In those 35 states, NBC News found 11 purchases by Chinese entities that had been reported to the USDA from Jan. 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.

Several of the disclosures were not recent sales, and at least one was a repeat of a previous disclosure. Another was not reported to the government till it had been revealed in the media.

Is China really buying up U.S. farmland? Here’s what we found

Pretty Soon We Won't Have DeathSentence to Kick Around Any More.

Poll: DeSantis’s support collapses ahead of 1st GOP debate

The survey of 1,665 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Aug. 17 to 21, shows that DeSantis’s support among potential GOP primary voters has fallen farther — and faster — over the last few weeks than ever before, plummeting from his previous low of 23% in mid-July to just 12% today.
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Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramswamy were the leading candidates behind Trump entering the debate among Republican primary voters, but were not as well received initially by independent participants in this dial group. DeSantis entered the night with negative opinions among these participants (net -19; 36 percent favorable – 55 percent unfavorable) and Ramaswamy came in as an unknown quantity with only 36 percent having an opinion on him (21 percent favorable – 15 percent unfavorable). By the conclusion of the debate, both candidates had net negative favorability ratings among these participants (each net -10; 45 percent favorable – 55 percent unfavorable).

Soon He Can Go Back to His Day Job of Destroying Flori-Dumb

WTF is Previous Guy Up To? Trying to Protect it From Judgements in All the Civil Suits He Is Involved In?

Donald Trump recently "sold" Mar A Lago, his beloved home in Florida, according to online property records.

However, it seems the ownership did not, in fact, leave the Trump family's hands.

Documents state the property is owned by an organization, and the owner of that organization is Donald Trump Jr.

Zillow, which claims to receive "information from the municipal office responsible for recording real estate transactions in your area", reports the property was sold on August 4, 2023.

The site claims: "The information we provide is public information gathered from county records. Our parcel information, which outlines the lot on which a house sits, comes from various public sources, such as the county."

A quick search of the website SunBiz, however, that the current owner of Mar A Lago is a company called Mar A Lago, Inc.

The owner of the company, and its registered agent, is Donald Trump Jr., the ex-president's oldest son.

While Junior has appeared as an agent of record for the corporation for quite a number of years, it's the appearance of the date of property transfer on Zillow - on August 4, just days before his arrest - that is raising eyebrows.

Donald Trump seemingly transferred Mar A Lago estate to his son before his arrest

Looking at Zillow, it shows that the property was sold on 8/4/2023 for $422,000,000 (approximately 17.5 times what Zillow thinks it is worth).

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Norway is rebuilding a dilapidated reindeer fence along its border with Russia in the Arctic to stop the animals from wandering into the neighboring country — costly strolls for which Oslo has to compensate Moscow over loss of grassland.

Norwegian officials said Thursday that so far this year, 42 reindeer have crossed into Russia seeking better pastures and grazing land.

The reindeer barrier along the Norway-Russia border spans 150 kilometers (93 miles) and dates back to 1954. The Norwegian Agriculture Agency said a stretch of about 7 kilometers (4 miles) between the Norwegian towns of Hamborgvatnet and Storskog would be replaced.

The construction, with a price tag of 3.7 million kroner ($348,000), is to be completed by Oct. 1, the agency said.

The work is a challenge, however, as the workers have to stay on the Norwegian side of the border “at all times” during construction, “which makes the work extra demanding,” said Magnar Evertsen of the agency. If a worker crossed into Russian territory, without a Russian visa, that would amount to illegal entry.

A Moose Tale

Chris Cushna and Sheila Janes were looking for a weekend activity with their family. They are dog lovers, so they thought it would be a good time to foster a dog for a night.

“We had all the kids for the week, and we needed something fun to do on a Friday,” said Janes, noting that her partner’s two children — Logan, 12, and Anya, 10 — as well as her granddaughter, Luna, 8, were staying with the couple on their houseboat in Portsmouth, Va., near Norfolk.

The couple remembered that the Portsmouth Humane Society has a “Paws Around PTown” program, which encourages people to check a dog out of the shelter for a few hours or however long they wish. The goal of the program is to lighten the load of shelter staff, and help the pups get adopted by introducing them to locals around town. It’s also good for the dogs.

“It allows the dogs to de-stress and break from the shelter,” said Amanda McQuarry, the director of Portsmouth Humane Society.

When the family of five stopped by the shelter on Aug. 4, “we all agreed that Moose was the one we were going to check out,” Janes, 49, said. “Moose was in the last cage, and he just had the kindest face.”

They took him to a local ice cream shop and showed him off to passersby.

“We thought, this dog is so charming, if we introduce the dog to different people he will surely find a forever home,” said Cushna, 54, adding that they found a potential adopter for him that day.
The family was having so much fun with Moose, they decided to keep the dog for one more night.

Little did they know that Moose would rescue them the following morning. A fire broke out on a neighboring boat on Sunday morning, and Moose alerted the family to the flames.

“Moose got us up early, and it saved our lives,” Cushna said.

Around 7:30 a.m., Moose — an 8-year-old Great Pyrenees — started stirring around the kids’ room while the whole family was still fast asleep. He was panting and pacing incessantly, and the children assumed he needed to go out. Once they got up, though, they quickly realized the boat next door was on fire, and it was spreading — fast. The kids woke up the rest of the family, and they all escaped

“This thing was so out of control,” Janes said of the fire.

“If Moose had not woken us up, we would have woken up to fire falling from the roof,” she continued, adding that workers at the marina called 911 when they heard Cushna yelling. “We credit Moose for getting us out.”



A family fostered a dog for 2 nights. The pup saved them from a fire.

COVID, Flu and RSV. Get Ready for the Big Three

The updated COVID vaccine should become available in mid-September, along with a likely recommendation that everyone should get the booster shot, U.S. health officials said this week.

The timeline was laid out by officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration in a briefing with reporters.

“Vaccination is going to continue to be key this year because immunity wanes and because the COVID-19 virus continues to change,” a CDC official said. “For those reasons, vaccines remain the best protection against hospitalization and death. And in the case of the COVID vaccines they also help reduce the likelihood of 'long COVID.'"

Only 56 million Americans – about 17 percent of the population – have received an updated booster, according to the CDC. That’s compared to the close to 81 percent of Americans who completed the primary doses.

The good news is that 97% of individuals in the U.S. ages 16 and over have protective immunity from COVID-19 either through vaccination, prior infection or both. That immunity has translated into fewer hospitalizations.

While COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. have been on the rise in recent weeks, levels are still three times lower than the same time last year – and six times lower than in 2021 after the first vaccines rolled out.