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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:31:46 GMT -8
Church Bulletin Bloopers:
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals
$100 Million Here. $100 Million There! Pretty Soon You Are Talking About Some Real Money
Forbes editor Dan Alexander says Donald Trump could stump up the $83.3M he now owes E. Jean Carroll, but any extra ruling against him will leave him in a "cash crunch."
The writer, who has covered the ex-president's finances for years, revealed the assets that he has — and discussed if it's enough to cover the amount he owes after being found liable of defaming Carroll last week.
"He can pay this," Alexander said. "Right now he does have about $400 million in liquid assets. And so, sure, $83 million would hurt, but yeah, he can pay it."
Alexander clarified that things become more complicated when you add in the other potential penalties Trump faces. He is awaiting a ruling in a New York fraud case in which Attorney General Letitia James has asked for $370 million.
"And then all of a sudden he could find himself in a real cash crunch," he said.
In the event that Trump does get hit with a large amount of damages in the civil case, Alexander says that could gobble up about a fifth of his net worth.
"But more importantly, that's more cash than he has," Alexander clarified. "So, all of a sudden he's going to have to refinance something, sell something, and when you look across his portfolio, many of the assets that are easy to borrow against, he's already borrowed money against.
"So there's not a ton left that he can easily go to a bank, particularly with the credit issues that he's had in the past, and say, "Hey, give me a $100 million here and $100 million there to sort some things out.' Remember, banks at this point are wary of Donald Trump, and so it's gonna be tricky and delicate for him to figure this out."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:33:41 GMT -8
The Job Is Only Half Done
More than half of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Israel launched its retaliation for the Hamas attacks of 7 October, new analysis seen by the BBC reveals.
Detailed before-and-after imagery also shows how the bombardment of southern and central Gaza has intensified since the start of December, with the city of Khan Younis bearing much of the brunt of Israel's military action.
Israel has repeatedly told Gazans to move south for their own safety.
Across Gaza, residential areas have been left ruined, previously busy shopping streets reduced to rubble, universities destroyed and farmlands churned up, with tent cities springing up on the southern border to house many thousands of people left homeless.
About 1.7 million people - more than 80% of Gaza's population - are displaced, with nearly half crammed in the far southern end of the strip, according to the United Nations.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:37:15 GMT -8
You've Got to Be Desperate to Let Elon Musk Put a Computer Chip in Your Brain Tech billionaire Elon Musk has claimed his Neuralink company has successfully implanted one of its wireless brain chips in a human. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said "promising" brain activity had been detected after the procedure and the patient was "recovering well". The company's goal is to connect human brains to computers to help tackle complex neurological conditions. A number of rival firms have already implanted similar devices. "For any company producing medical devices, the first test in humans is a significant milestone," said Professor Anne Vanhoestenberghe of King's College London. "For the brain computer interface community, we must place this news in the context that whilst there are many companies working on exciting products, there are only a few other companies who have implanted their devices in humans, so Neuralink has joined a rather small group." However, she also suggested there needed to be a note of caution as "true success" could only be evaluated in the long-term. "We know Elon Musk is very adept at generating publicity for his company," she added. Among the other companies to make similar advances in the field is the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, which has successfully enabled a paralysed man to walk just by thinking. Elon Musk says Neuralink implanted wireless brain chipThat was achieved by putting electronic implants on his brain and spine which wirelessly communicate thoughts to his legs and feet. Details of the breakthrough were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature in May 2023. |
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:39:12 GMT -8
Fighting For Mother Russia --- And Against PutinWhen Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, 31-year-old Johnny, from St Petersburg, set himself a goal. He wanted to overthrow Vladimir Putin’s administration. In fact, he would have liked to kill the Russian president with his own hands, he told Al Jazeera in a cafe at a remote petrol station on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital. In October, Johnny joined other Russians fighting for Ukraine and against their homeland as part of the Siberian Battalion, a unit formed last summer by the Civic Council, a Russian opposition group based in Poland. “We want to democratise Russia. And it won’t be possible in the current state. Russia must fall apart into smaller pieces. I don’t care if it’s going to be small like Belgium. … Places like Yakutia and Chechnya and other regions should be able to secede if they choose to,” Johnny said. According to Denis Sokolov, 54, the group’s coordinator, 50 fighters from the unit are currently in training or fighting in Ukraine. Another 40 are being checked over by Ukraine’s security services as they wait to cross the border. He said there are thousands of other Russians willing to join the fight against Moscow, boasting that the Civic Council receives up to 10 applications per day. Those who want to sign up must first depart for a third country for safety reasons. And from there, it takes months to process an application.
‘We are obliged to end the war’: A new Russian unit fights for Ukraine
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:40:49 GMT -8
I Owe! I Owe! So Off to Sue I Go.
Pity the fool? Not when it comes to Rudy Giuliani. The 79-year-old immediately filed for bankruptcy protection last month after a D.C. jury required him to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers he defamed.
And in financial statements filed last Friday to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Giuliani reported a monthly net income of just $2,308. Among the assets Giuliani listed was a “possible claim for unpaid legal fees against Donald J. Trump,” and a “Joseph Biden Defamation Action.” In October, Giuliani filed a defamation lawsuit in New Hampshire against President Joe Biden for calling him a “Russian pawn” during a 2020 election debate, CNN reported.
Last summer, CNN reported that Giuliani and his then-attorney Robert Costello traveled to Mar-a-Lago “to make a personal and desperate appeal” to Trump to pay legal bills amounting to seven figures. And now it seems the student has become the master as Costello and his firm have since sued Giuliani for $1.4 million in unpaid legal bills.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:43:38 GMT -8
The Emperor Has No Clothes. He Isn't Even An Emperor.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:45:23 GMT -8
Universities Under Attack
A Penn alumnus and a major benefactor of the university, Marc Rowan deployed his formidable resources in a relentless campaign against Penn’s president, M. Elizabeth Magill, leading to her resignation in December.
But it was what happened next that spurred the protest. Mr. Rowan sent a four-page email to university trustees titled “Moving Forward,” which many professors interpreted as a blueprint for a more conservative campus.
Amy C. Offner, a history professor who led the protest, called the document a proposed “hostile takeover of the core academic functions of the university.”
Penn is now being assailed from many sides. It is the defendant in a lawsuit filed by Jewish students and partly financed by unnamed donors, and the subject of a congressional investigation with subpoena power. State Republican lawmakers have threatened to withhold $31 million for its veterinary medicine program, the only state appropriation the private university receives.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:49:49 GMT -8
Finally, the Truth Emerges!
Did liberals put Taylor Swift and pro-vaccine Travis Kelce in the Super Bowl? Yes, we did.We made it so Chiefs players would play their best football once they got into the playoffs. We also paid off the Chiefs' opponents with offers of Cabinet positions in the next Biden administration. As soon as the Kansas City Chiefs, D-Taylor Swift, beat the Baltimore Ravens to advance to the Super Bowl, right-wing thought leaders flooded social media announcing the NFL is rigged and in the bag for Democrats. Laura Loomer, a MAGA loyalist whom Donald Trump just last year called “terrific,” posted on what used to be Twitter: “The Democrats’ Taylor Swift election interference psyop is happening in the open… It’s not a coincidence that current and former Biden admin officials are propping up Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They are going to use Taylor Swift as the poster child for their pro-abortion GOTV Campaign.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:51:07 GMT -8
How the QOP Murdered Three American Soldiers
Behind this story is an even larger geopolitical story involving Iran’s ally Russia. As Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg retorted when Senator Wicker called on Biden to respond to the attack that killed three Americans “swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see”: “Wasn’t funding Ukraine and Israel the first, critical step in deterring Iran? We are in this place now due to the Russian fifth columnists in the Republican Party including Trump who slavishly do Putin’s bidding.”
Rosenberg was referring to the fact that Iran is allied with Russia, and Russia is desperate to stop the United States from supporting Ukraine. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, apparently thought his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine would establish control of the eastern parts of that country in a matter of days. Instead, the invasion has turned into an expensive and destabilizing two-year war that has badly weakened Russia and that threatens to stretch on.
In the United States, today marks the 100th day that extremist Republicans have refused to provide supplemental funding for Ukraine or Israel arguing that funding to protect the U.S. border must be addressed first. On October 20, 2023, as David Frum pointed out today, Biden asked Congress for “$106 billion to aid Ukraine and Israel against attack by Russia, Iran, and their proxies.” That funding has bipartisan support, but “[f]or 100 days, House Republicans have said NO,” Frum said. “Today, Iranian proxies have killed Americans.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:55:43 GMT -8
Read This and Play the "Excessive Fees" Drinking GameTrump lawyer's histrionic letter accuses Trump monitor of greed, manipulation & bad faithIn November 2023, the Judge supervising NY AG Letitia James’ civil fraud case against Donald Trump and his two eldest sons enlarged his gag order to include Trump’s lawyers in the case. In the revision, Judge Arthur Engoron said Trump’s attorneys Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert, and Alina Habba had made “repeated, inappropriate remarks.” I do not know whether the lawyers had always been big-mouth assholes — or if this was a new skill learned at the knee of their client, a man who symbolizes feral, low-IQ aggression and a puerile lack of self-control. Today, Trump’s legal team sent a letter to Engeron, lambasting Barbara Jones, the independent federal monitor agreed to by Trump. Jones, a highly regarded ex-Federal Judge, is overseeing the Trump Organization until the case is settled and the inevitable penalties paid. The letter was the Trump team’s reaction to a letter Jones sent to Engeron outlining the dubious and amateurish management of Trump’s businesses. The defense’s 12-page letter, signed only by Robert, dismissed Jones’s findings as a maliciously motivated overreaction by a greedy woman looking to feather her nest at Trump’s expense. They also claimed the avaricious opportunist had only found a few clerical errors and some math mistakes.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:57:42 GMT -8
OAN? OMG!Pro-Trump network OAN execs may have ‘engaged in criminal activities’ while promoting 2020 election lies, Smartmatic alleges"In the wake of the 2020 election, the president of the far-right network One America News sent a potentially explosive email to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, with a spreadsheet claiming to contain passwords of employees from the voting technology company Smartmatic, according to court filings. "Lawyers from Smartmatic told a federal judge that the email, and the attached spreadsheet, suggest OAN executives 'may have engaged in criminal activities' because they 'appear to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy.'"
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 9:59:36 GMT -8
Governor DeathSentence and His Pals Return to His Day Job of Screwing Workers
Fresh off of trying to replace education with child labor, Florida Republicans have another bright idea that’s sure to improve conditions for workers in the Sunshine State. They’re out to ensure that workers don’t have any right to protection when toiling outdoors in the heat.
A bill is advancing through the Florida Senate that would prohibit local officials from passing regulations that would provide heat protection for outdoor workers. Authored by state Sen. Jay Trumbull, SB 1492 has already passed in the state House and cleared the first hurdles in the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee.
Right now, there aren’t any such local ordinances. That Florida legislators are moving to outlaw something that doesn’t exist might seem odd, even for Florida. But last fall, Miami-Dade County considered passing such regulations. So state Republicans are working to beat them to the punch and prevent worker protections statewide—before they ever exist.
As the Florida Phoenix reported in November, Miami-Dade County could have been the first local government in the nation to pass regulations protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat. The ordinance first proposed last summer would have required that construction and agriculture workers have access to water and 10-minute breaks in the shade every two hours on days when the heat index exceeds 90 degrees. It would have also required employers to provide training on dealing with signs of heat-induced illness and calling for help in the case of an emergency.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 30, 2024 10:02:06 GMT -8
Idiot Left-Wingnuts Throw Soup. Idiot Right-Wingnuts Throw Bombs
Two brothers were indicted on 130 criminal charges in New York City on Tuesday, over a vast collection of 3D-printed guns, improvised explosives, anarchist propaganda and a "hit list" of celebrities and authority figures.
Andrew Hatziagelis, 39, and Angelo Hatziagelis, 51, from Astoria in Queens, were remanded in custody after police said the pair harbored "evil intent."
Among the weapons cache were eight "fully operable" bombs, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
“We cannot measure the number of lives that were saved, but we do know that these weapons will never hurt anyone," Katz said in a statement.
Katz’s office released an image of a hand-written “Hit List” recovered by police that mentions “cops, judges, politicians, celebrities” and “banker scum.” There were no names, but the list was enough to alarm the authorities.
"We did recover multiple writings, multiple notebooks, showing that they were just very anti-government, anti-society. There were writings quoting Charles Manson, very into human destruction," Courtney Nilan, from NYPD's intelligence division, told NBC New York.
“Today’s charges underscore the harsh reality that our communities contain a small number of people who conceivably harbor evil intent," NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban said in a statement.
"This cache of weapons — including explosives and untraceable, 3D-printed ghost guns — had the potential to wreak horrendous carnage," he added.
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