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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 8:40:41 GMT -8
Nationwide must have looked pretty silly when they opened their first branch
I'm Worth $3 Billion ... Give or Take $3 Billion
New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused former President Donald Trump of routinely overstating his net worth.
ABC News first reported on James' motion for a summary judgment in a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and his family.
In the filing, Trump is accused of lying when he claimed in 2014 that he was worth $6.7 billion in assets — overstating his wealth by over $2.2 billion.
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
James requested that the court issue a decision against Trump without going to trial.
"Based on the undisputed evidence, no trial is required for the Court to determine that Defendants presented grossly and materially inflated asset values in the SFCs and then used those SFCs repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers," the motion states.
Your Money or Your Life
The advancing civil suit against former President Donald Trump's family by New York Attorney General Letitia James could be as serious a problem for the former president as the criminal cases against him, argued Trump University investigator Tristan Snell on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" Wednesday — in part, because it could actually strip Trump of the ability to finance his legal cases.
James is currently seeking summary judgment in the case, asking for a ruling that Trump fraudulently misstated his assets and seeking an order barring him from doing business in New York, without a trial.
"[Trump] is ... facing, potentially, some serious financial pain," said anchor Joy Reid.
"Yeah," said Snell. "It's the financial pain, Joy, but it's also then the fact that the AG's office as part of the law they will be asserting against Trump here includes the ability to seek the cancellation of corporate charters for these entities that were overvaluing the worth of these properties. So, in New York, that would mean, say, 40 Wall Street LLC getting its corporate charter cancelled, which then throws everything into doubt about Trump's ability to charge rent to those tenants, and the rent is the money that comes in, the lifeblood of his sort of empire of debt, if he can service all of these debts because he's getting this rent in the door from these properties. If he's not allowed to collect rent on his New York properties, it throws a whole bunch of things into major limbo."
"I think the one thing to look out for that we haven't been talking about that much yet is the possibility that he could lose the ability to do business in the state of New York because of his persistent fraud and illegality," said Snell. "Not just in this matter alone where it's years and years of overstatements allegedly, but also we have the Trump University matter, the Trump Foundation matter, and then the finding of tax fraud by a criminal jury in Manhattan that happened last year is more than enough to establish a pattern of persistent fraud and illegality, for which New York State courts will order the extraordinary relief of cancellation of corporate charters."
"Can they take some of these properties?" asked Reid. "Can the state of New York seize properties from him?"
"We don't know exactly how this is going to play out in practice," said Snell. "This is something that I'm actually going to be looking into as we head toward trial in this matter in the next month or so. It's going to be interesting to see what would happen. Will they take them? Will they put them into a receivership, potentially, whereby the property would basically be held in a trust? Some of the creditors might be able to get some money. They would probably be taking significant haircuts. But they wouldn't allow Trump to take money from his New York properties and use it, say, on his legal fees. That wouldn't be permitted. He wouldn't be able to rob Peter to pay Paul. It could have massive, massive financial impact for Trump and completely ruin the shell game that he's been running all these years."
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 8:43:09 GMT -8
He Lies That He Was Too Busy to Cheat, Lie, and Steal
Donald Trump told investigators in New York that he was too busy saving the world from "nuclear holocaust" to commit crimes.
The former president said in a sworn deposition stretching over seven hours in April that his efforts "saving millions of lives" kept him from running his company, which stands accused of fraud in a civil lawsuit filed by New York attorney general Letitia James, reported Insider.
"So you were too busy for the company?" said Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general's office.
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
"In a way, yeah," Trump said. "Yeah, I think you can say it. It's another way of saying it. I was very busy. I was — I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives."
"I think you would have nuclear holocaust if I didn't deal with North Korea," the ex-president added. "I think you would have a nuclear war, if I weren't elected, and I think you might have a nuclear war now if you want to know the truth."
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 8:44:30 GMT -8
How Do You Handle 5 Million Angry, Dangerous Homeless?
Beekeeper Michael Barber woke up on Wednesday morning to several calls from police looking for help after five million bees fell off a truck in Canada.
The hives were being transported when the straps holding them in place came loose, allowing them to slip free.
Mr Barber said he arrived to "a pretty crazy cloud of bees" who were "very angry, confused and homeless".
Drivers were told to keep their windows up and pedestrians to stay away.
The scene in Burlington, Ontario was unlike anything Mr Barber has experienced in his 11-year career.
"It was something else," he told the BBC. "I hope to never experience it again."
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 8:46:26 GMT -8
Ukraine’s troops appear to be nearing a breakthrough, slowly edging south in the Zaporizhia region.Ukraine’s months-long counteroffensive at the crossroadsCasualties have been high on both sides but would have been far greater on the Ukrainian side if its commanders had rushed it. Now, finally, these first defensive lines have been breached. The Zaporizhia village of Robotyne has been taken, and the next hamlet, Novoprokopivka, is in Ukraine’s sights with Tokmak, one of its strategic objectives, now within reach.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 8:48:44 GMT -8
This is a Load of BullA man driving a full-sized bull named Howdy Doody in his car was pulled over by police in Nebraska on Wednesday after a stunned onlooker reported the odd sight, authorities said. Officers in Norfolk, about 120 miles northwest of Omaha, were dispatched at 10:05 a.m. CDT answering a call for a "vehicle with a cow inside" rolling through town, police records showed. Police assumed the bovine passenger would be a small calf, but what they came upon near the corner of West Norfolk Avenue and North 13th Street was a full-sized bull riding shotgun in a Ford Crown Victoria.  I Wouldn't Want to Have to Clean up the Bull Shit After This Drive.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 9:00:39 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 9:03:49 GMT -8
I Guess This is Good Politics, But Why Help Only This Group of Scammed People
President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced that it is dedicating $72 million to support more than 2,300 student borrowers who applied for relief from loans to pay for degrees at Ashford University, a former for-profit online college in San Diego that was found to have cheated attendees.
The ex-students in question will be contacted by the Education Department next month to confirm that their applications have been approved.
The decision follows an Education Department review of evidence brought forward by the California Department of Justice after it won a lawsuit against Ashford and parent company Zovio last year.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 9:08:04 GMT -8
Apparently It is Bad News That Americans Have More Money and Are Spending It.
Consumers increased their spending rapidly in July but modest price pressures will likely keep the Federal Reserve on course to hold interest rates steady next month.
Consumer spending, the primary driver of economic growth, rose 0.8% in July, the Commerce Department said Thursday, up from an upwardly revised 0.6% increase in June. Americans spent more on groceries, recreational goods and vehicles, and on services such as housing, dining out, financial services and insurance. Adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.6% in July.
The Fed’s preferred gauge of consumer prices, the personal-consumption expenditures price index, rose 0.2% in July from a month earlier, the same pace as in June. So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, rose at the same rate. Economists see core inflation as a better predictor of future inflation than overall inflation.
The latest report showed inflation ran at a 2.1% annualized rate over the three months through July. From a year earlier, prices rose 3.3% in July versus a 3% gain in June. Core prices rose at a 2.9% annualized rate over the previous three months.
With larger paychecks flowing into their accounts, Americans are spending at a faster pace, despite the Fed’s efforts to reduce inflation by slowing the economy. That echoes the recent strong retail sales report that fanned concerns of accelerating growth and higher interest rates.
Would It Be Good News If Americans Had Less Money and Weren't Buying Anything? That Sounds Like a Depression.
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Or Do They Want Us To Be More Like China?
China’s economy limped through August. A prolonged slump in the real-estate market deepened. Factories were hit by sinking exports, and consumers kept a tight leash on spending.
A new batch of data on Thursday heaped further pressure on China’s policy makers to do more to revive crumbling growth, with a dizzying mix of targeted measures so far showing little effect. In the latest steps, large banks said they are preparing to cut interest rates on existing mortgages and big cities said they would relax some restrictions on home purchases.
But many economists say such piecemeal measures, while helpful, don’t go far enough to restore household and business confidence in an economy beset by painfully high youth unemployment, cratering exports and worsening strains in the property sector.
“Every week there’s something new,” said Carlos Casanova, senior Asia economist at Union Bancaire Privée in Hong Kong. “But we are not entirely there yet, in my opinion. More needs to happen.”
Manufacturing activity shrank for the sixth straight month in August, while services-sector activity slowed again as consumers continued to pare back spending, according to gauges of activity published Thursday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Sales at China’s biggest real-estate developers were down by a third from the same month a year ago, new figures showed.
Thursday’s data extend a long run of downbeat news on the world’s second-largest economy, a spell of weakness that means China can’t be counted on this year to boost a global economy dogged by persistent inflation and feeble growth, particularly in Europe.
Many economists believe China’s present difficulties foreshadow a new era of much slower growth for its huge economy, which as well as its domestic troubles in rebalancing growth toward consumption and away from real-estate investment is also struggling with unfavorable demographics and a deepening rivalry with the U.S. and its allies.
Concerns over China’s economic prospects have intensified after an anticipated boom in consumer spending this year failed to materialize. The hope was that after dismantling the country’s stringent Covid-19 policies, consumers would propel China’s economy even as a slowing global economy crimped exports and policy makers reined in what they saw as speculative excesses in the real-estate market.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 9:09:15 GMT -8
The Nation is Going To Pot
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has delivered a recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration on marijuana policy, and Senate leaders hailed it Wednesday as a first step toward easing federal restrictions on the drug.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said Wednesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the agency has responded to President Joe Biden's request “to provide a scheduling recommendation for marijuana to the DEA.”
“We’ve worked to ensure that a scientific evaluation be completed and shared expeditiously,” he added.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that HHS had recommended that marijuana be moved from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance.
“HHS has done the right thing,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “DEA should now follow through on this important step to greatly reduce the harm caused by draconian marijuana laws.”
Rescheduling the drug would reduce or potentially eliminate criminal penalties for possession. Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD.
According to the DEA, Schedule I drugs "have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse."
Schedule III drugs “have a potential for abuse less than substances in Schedules I or II and abuse may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.” They currently include ketamine and some anabolic steroids.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 9:13:50 GMT -8
I tried to have a relationship with a sniper....but I knew from the beginning it was a long shot.
The team of snipers has dubbed itself the "Devils and Angels," according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. A crucial part of their role is to take out high-level Russian commanders and other high profile targets, with the ultimate goal of sowing shock, chaos, and disorganization in the enemy ranks.
"If you're assembling to attack and your lieutenant is picked off, the unit goes into disarray," military historian and retired Army Major General Robert Scales told the Journal. Even killing the leader of a small unit can "completely discombobulate the unit," he added.
The snipers training near Bakhmut told the outlet that in addition to their marksmanship, they're training to be even more elusive in the field. "We work quietly, we are invisible," a sniper who goes by Fisher said.
Ukrainian snipers have previously said it's their mission to terrorize and demoralize Russian troops. One sniper who was severely wounded in battle told CNN last week he underwent 16 operations just so he could get rejoin his unit on the frontlines in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Journal "snipers also become much more important when the front lines stabilize, as they have for the last many months in Ukraine."
Ukraine's snipers have said they don't typically use ghillie suits, camouflage often used by Western snipers to help them blend into the environment, because they were too heavy to hike in across battlefields, Insider's Ryan Pickrell previously reported. The snipers do, however, say they prefer Western rifles.
Night-vision technology has also helped Ukrainian snipers identify and hit their targets, with an unverified video from June appearing to show them holding off a Russian attack by aiming at thermal images of moving targets.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 31, 2023 9:19:09 GMT -8
In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina.
When deadly gun violence gripped the campus of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on Monday, Emmy Martin received a flurry of text messages from loved ones asking if she was safe.
As she replied while in lockdown in the journalism school’s library, she realized that this terrifying event, which shattered the students’ sense of security and claimed the life of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the applied sciences department, was deserving of an equally powerful response.
After the terror subsided, Martin, who was in her second week as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel, came up with the idea of displaying on the cover a string of real text messages exchanged by students to show the agonizing hours on lockdown.
A copy of Wednesday's front page shared by Caitlyn Yaede, the Tar Heel's print managing editor, quickly went viral on social media and was largely praised for the emotions it evoked.
It also drew a response from President Joe Biden, who shared the front page on social media.
"To see people respond so viscerally and people saying, 'This made us cry,' made all of us on the staff realize our impact," Martin, 20, said. "Every one of us has shed tears. It's just been a lot to process as a student and a journalist, and it has really helped rejuvenate us."
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