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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:18:32 GMT -8
Someone stole the toilet at the police station. They are looking for clued, but the police have nothing to go on.
In Previous Guy World, Wierd Defenses Are Normal, But This One is Out There.
A New York State judge ruled for summary judgment in Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud suit against former President Donald Trump and his adult sons, finding that they lied about the value of their assets. The only matter left for a jury to decide is how much they owe in damages.
But Trump had one particularly eye-catching defense for the Trump Organization's valuations, flagged by New York University professor and former Defense Department special counsel Ryan Goodman in the judge's ruling: the Saudis would happily buy his properties at the inflated prices he used.
"The defenses Donald Trump attempts to articulate in his sworn deposition are wholly without basis in law or fact," wrote Judge Arthur Engoron. In addition to Trump claiming that his properties grew in value beyond what he originally exaggerated them to be anyway, "he also seems to imply that the numbers cannot be inflated because he could find a 'buyer from Saudi Arabia' to pay any price he suggests."
This comes amid intense scrutiny into Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who got a mysterious $2 billion deal from the Saudi wealth fund, over the objections of the people who were managing the fund itself.
None of Trump's excuses for his asset inflation are likely to hold water, legal experts like George Conway have noted, because the law used to find Trump liable has very simple requirements, none of which are in dispute.
It is unclear exactly what happens next, but barring a reversal on appeal, some sort of dissolution of the Trump Organization in New York State appears to be required by the ruling.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:21:29 GMT -8
Personally I Am Pro-Matter, Not Anti-Matter, But My Opinion Doesn't MatterScientists have made a key discovery about antimatter - a mysterious substance which was plentiful when the Universe began. Antimatter is the opposite of matter, from which stars and planets are made. Both were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang which formed our Universe. While matter is everywhere, though, its opposite is now fiendishly hard to find. The latest study has discovered the two respond to gravity in the same way. For years, physicists have been scrambling to discover their differences and similarities, to explain how the Universe arose. Discovering that antimatter rose in response to gravity, instead of falling would have blown apart what we know about physics. They've now confirmed for the first time that atoms of antimatter fall downwards. But far from being a scientific dead end this opens the doors to new experiments and theories. Does it fall at the same speed, for example? Scientists get closer to solving mystery of antimatter
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:24:00 GMT -8
I Kraine, You Kraine, We All Kraine for Ukraine.
Ukraine scored devastating deep strikes against Russian-occupied Crimea in the 83rd week of the war.
At the same time, Ukrainian and Western sources confirmed that Ukrainian troops had broken through the first and strongest line of Russian defence on the southern front, known as the Surovikin Line after the general who devised it. That success could accelerate their march towards the cities of Tokmak and Melitopol.
Ukraine attacked three targets in occupied Crimea in as many days, honing its signature tactic of using a wave of drones to destroy or distract air defences, followed by a wave of missiles.
Satellite images showed that attacks destroyed half of the Black Sea Fleet’s communications command centre in Verkhnosadove, 16 kilometres (10 miles) northeast of the fleet base in Sevastopol, on September 20.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:28:17 GMT -8
Auto Workers: Who Loves Ya?
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:28:53 GMT -8
What's Important?
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:32:15 GMT -8
'The Joe Manchin Of Foreign Policy': Menendez Case Could Mean Sea Change For Democrats On National SecuritySen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) spent years as the top Democrat on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, wielding tremendous influence over Congress, the White House and government agencies. With Menendez facing the biggest crisis of his career ― federal corruption charges and calls for his resignation from a growing number of his fellow Democrats ― he is almost certain to lose that position for good. The upshot would be dramatic, involving big changes to the Democratic Party’s approach to international relations and to Washington’s national security establishment. “The foreign policy implications are extremely significant,” one Democratic congressional aide told HuffPost. Referring to the West Virginia Democratic senator notorious for challenging his own party, the aide added: “You can’t overstate the extent to which Bob Menendez was the Joe Manchin of foreign policy.” Menendez holds hawkish views on many global questions, notably Middle East matters such as diplomacy with Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as Latin American dilemmas like how the U.S. should deal with unfriendly governments in Cuba and Venezuela. Through public advocacy and private pressure, he has pushed for U.S. policy to reflect those opinions ― even when such shifts clash with most Democrats’ preferences and risk conflict or human rights violations.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:34:14 GMT -8
Wind Blowing Between His Ears
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:36:31 GMT -8
Sharing the PainOnly 15 percent of the 2.19 million civilian full-time federal employees in the United States work in the Washington metro area, which includes Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and even a touch of West Virginia. The other 85 percent work elsewhere around the country. There Are Natural Disasters, But This One is Man-MadeWith a government shutdown as few as four days away, the Biden administration has started to ration federal disaster aid, delaying the delivery of about $2.8 billion in grants so the money is available in the event of a crisis, according to state and federal officials and budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. The last-minute move has allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to shore up its rapidly dwindling budget against the immediate threat of wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters as they arise, according to a senior agency official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal budget matters. But it has also disrupted longer-term recovery projects in Florida, Puerto Rico and other communities hit by past calamities, illustrating how a Republican-led standoff in Congress could unleash real hardship in Americans lives. Over the past month, FEMA has paused at least $555 million for long-term recovery projects in Florida, including those related to Hurricane Ian last year. It has held back $101 million from Louisiana and another $74 million in California, according to the federal records, which reflect delays through Sept. 18.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:38:26 GMT -8
The FAA is facing a double government shutdown this weekend.A deadline to renew the law underpinning the existence of the Federal Aviation Administration coincides with the one to extend federal funding this weekend, leaving the agency facing an especially broad double government shutdown. If the FAA law and federal funding expire simultaneously, air traffic controllers and some aviation safety inspectors would continue to work while being unpaid. But the training of new air traffic controllers would cease, work on technology upgrades would be disrupted, and the agency would lose more than $50 million a day in revenue from taxes on airline tickets and fuel that help to fund its operations. No immediate effects are expected for flights or aviation safety, but the twin deadlines put the FAA in an especially precarious position as the shutdown looms. It would come toward the end of a bumpy year in which the agency lacked a full-time leader, grappled with a staffing shortage at a key New York facility and endured a technology failure that closed the nation’s skies for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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Post by mhbruin on Sept 27, 2023 9:43:50 GMT -8
Lots of Violence Means Lots of Clicks and An AwardThe Hyundai hatchback barreled down the country road past darkened fields. A white SUV followed in hot pursuit, shattering the pre-dawn quiet with its screaming siren. The three young Muslim men in the first car were desperately trying to outrun one of the most notorious Hindu vigilantes in north India when they lost control, veered into a vegetable truck and came to a screeching halt. Now, they were in the clutches of Monu Manesar. The three men were immediately pulled out of their wrecked vehicle by Manesar’s gun-toting gang, then interrogated and beaten, according to surveillance footage and witness accounts. But the events of that fateful morning were recorded and then flaunted by another, unusual source: Manesar’s own Facebook page. The violence on display was carried out in the name of protecting cows. Since 2020, the self-styled “cow protection” squad led by Manesar had repeatedly live-streamed its late-night missions to intercept drivers suspected of transporting and slaughtering cows — a job often done by Muslims in India. Manesar would film himself exchanging gunfire with moving cattle trucks and ramming them with his SUV. He chased cow transporters on foot and beat them on camera. In return, his fans on YouTube and Facebook left comments full of heart emojis, praising him for doing the work of God. For a century, vigilantes in north India have worked discreetly in a legal gray zone to protect cows, an animal worshiped by Hindus. But these enforcers have become more extreme and flamboyant in the past decade, thanks to American social media companies that reward them with online followings, and officials from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who offer them political protection and champion their militant brand of Hindu nationalism. The emerging phenomenon of cow vigilante streamers exemplifies how the BJP and allied right-wing groups have used U.S. social media platforms — including YouTube, a Google subsidiary, and Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta — to polarize India, rally their political base and assert Hindu dominance, sometimes brutally, in one of the world’s most digitally connected countries. This effort is part of a broader campaign by Hindu nationalists aligned with Modi to use technology to advance their ideology and consolidate their control. Despite repeated warnings from Indian activists, Silicon Valley companies gave Manesar a platform to broadcast violence — and propelled his rise to fame. Last October, Manesar received a “Silver Creator” award from YouTube for reaching 100,000 subscribers and posed with his plaque next to a cow. A cycle of soaring viewership and increasing violence followed. He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award.
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