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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 8:55:11 GMT -8
A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time, and as he passed the pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel.
And this went on for more then 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day, as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him.
"Sir, I appreciate your business. You are a good customer, but I have to tell you that the pretzel price has gone up to 35 cents."
The Long and the Short of DJT
You need a lot of cash — and guts — to short Trump Media stock right now.
Trump Media, which began being publicly traded last week, is now far and away the most expensive U.S. stock to sell short, according to S3 Partners, a leading financial data marketplace platform.
But plenty of people are still willing to pay those steep costs, based on their belief that Trump Media's share price is bound to fall dramatically from its Wednesday closing of $48.81.
Investors who wanted to borrow Trump Media shares to sell them short on Wednesday would have had to pay annual financing costs of between 750% and 900% of the price of the stock, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.
That means a short seller of the DJT ticker who took a position Wednesday would have had to pay costs of between about $1 and $1.22 per day to the lenders.
To break even on a new trade after one month, a short seller would have to see the share price of Trump Media drop by more than $30.
That could be a tough position to be in, given the fact that many of Trump Media's shareholders are individual investors motivated to buy the stock by their support for former President Donald Trump, the company's majority shareholder and the highest profile user of its Truth Social app.
Investors who started short-selling Trump Media earlier than Wednesday are paying less in costs, which are collected at the end of each month, Dusaniwsky noted. But not that much less.
Existing short positions in Trump Media were paying costs of 565% annually on Wednesday, he said.
Since the Stocked Started Trading, It Has Lost 34.5% of Its Value
The downturn in the stock fueled Left Action's fraud probe call.
"In short, it was a disastrous performance," the petition states, adding, "but the numbers weren't revealed until after the stock went public, meaning those buying the stock were left in the dark until it was too late — and their investments had collapsed in value."
The petition throws up two scenarios: the rollercoaster stock, bearing Trump's initials "DJT" was all happenstance and "legit" or "maybe critical information was withheld in order to keep the true state of the company out of the spotlight."
The stock for the Truth Social platform came out of the gate last Monday going for $49.90 per share. It shot up to a high of $79.38 on March 26, CBS News reported.
Then the fall on earnings and losses took it down 21% on Monday, closing at $48.66 and suffering a $3.8 billion bite, the outlet reported
As of Wednesday's close, the stock was $48.81.
The source of its shaky start on the public stage has Left Action pointing all fingers at the 45th president.
"No doubt, anyone foolish enough to buy into Trump's promises was probably someone who would lose their money on some idiotic venture soon enough," according to the petition. "But fraud is fraud, and there are laws, and Donald Trump is not above them."
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 8:56:30 GMT -8
Forget the Polls. Look at the Voting.
President Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the presumptive nominees of their parties, but unlike Democratic primary voters, Republican primary voters don't seem to have gotten the message.
Comparing the percentage of the each party's vote in primary states so far, Joe Biden is frequently beating Donald Trump. The results show a pattern that could signal trouble for the ex-president. Trump's problem isn't Nikki Haley per se, it's that in some states there appears to be a Republican enthusiasm gap for Trump, and GOP voters may be voting for Haley to send a message.
In state after state after state, when Nikki Haley was officially on the ballot and after she suspended her campaign on March 6, Republican primary voters have been voting for her, and continue to vote for her, and those vote percentages with a few exceptions have been in the double digits.
On Tuesday, voters went to the polls in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin to pull a lever for their party's only current candidate. In each state President Biden won a larger percent of the Democratic vote than Donald Trump won of the Republican vote.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 8:57:49 GMT -8
Is This Really All That Different From Raising Cattle to Slaughter?
South Africa on Wednesday laid out plans to phase out the captive breeding of lions for hunting purposes as the country moves to ban the controversial business.
The practice of breeding big cats to later have them shot by wealthy hunters typically paying thousands of US dollars has long been loathed by conservation and animal rights groups.
Hunters, usually foreigners, sometimes take home the head or skin of the killed animal as a trophy.
The South African government had already announced its intention to ban the breeding of lions for hunting in 2021 and an ad hoc panel has been working on the issue for the past two years.
"The panel recommended the closure of the captive breeding sector, including the keeping of lions in captivity, or the use of captive lions or their derivatives commercially," Environment Minister Barabara Creecy told a press conference in Cape Town.
Breeders will have two years to voluntarily withdraw from the sector and change their business model before the ban kicks in.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 8:59:56 GMT -8
The Return of the King ... Salmon Went Off the Road
A truck carrying 102,000 live salmon in the US state of Oregon crashed last week on a creek bed, inadvertently releasing thousands of the juvenile fish into the water.
The young Chinook, also known as King, salmon were being taken from the Lookingglass Hatchery in the state's north, to the Imnaha River, where they are listed as threatened.
But the crash caused some 77,000 fish to splash into the Lookingglass Creek, boosting the population of that waterway instead.
Wildlife officials said on Tuesday that the driver lost control around a tight turn, causing the fish tanker to roll down a rocky embankment. T
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:01:42 GMT -8
For Those Who Say You Can't Be Too Rich or Too Thin...
Residents of northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day since January, international charity says.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:03:02 GMT -8
Don't Quake in Your Boots. Prepare
The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said.
Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in the coming days. More than 1,000 were injured and at least 100 were feared trapped. But given the size of the quake — magnitude 7.4 — seismology experts said it appeared the dense island had fared as well as could be expected in initial reports.
That’s no fluke: Taiwan uses a robust early-warning system and has modern seismic building codes, experts said, and its population is accustomed to frequent seismic activity. Following the devastating 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, the island significantly upgraded much of its infrastructure.
“Two thousand four hundred people died. And this time, we only have nine people reported dead. You see the progress,” said Larry Syu-Heng Lai, a geologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington who grew up and studied in Taiwan. “Our buildings are stronger. Our facilities are better. You can say we take it seriously — but it’s part of life every day.”
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:48:49 GMT -8
Can I Get a Witness? Jumping Jack Smith Has Lots of ThemJack Smith Finds Multiple Witnesses to Speak Out Against Donald TrumpFormer White House officials disagreed with Donald Trump's explanation of how he came to acquire thousands of pages of presidential records, the latest filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith said. Those officials include a former national security adviser and former White House attorneys and chiefs of staff—none of whom said they had any recollection of Trump designating presidential records as personal. Trump's claim that he designated presidential files as personal before leaving the White House is a fundamental part of his defense in the classified documents case he faces in Florida.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:51:57 GMT -8
Yet the Public Consistently Trusts Republicans to Run the EconomyThe US economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance …The superiority of economic performance under Democrats rather than Republicans is nearly ubiquitous: it holds almost regardless of how you define success. By many measures, the performance gap is startlingly large. Presidents and the US Economy: An Econometric Exploration
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:53:21 GMT -8
Everything About Previous Guy Tests My Credulity
The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case refused to delay the trial any longer, despite a plea to wait until the Supreme Court has ruled on a claim of absolute presidential immunity.
Judge Juan Merchan rejected the final attempt to push the case beyond April 15, when jury selection is set to begin in Manhattan, saying the former president’s request was “inadequate and not convincing.”
“This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024,” the judge wrote. “After all, Defendant had already briefed the same issue in federal court and he was in possession of, and aware that, the People intended to offer the relevant evidence at trial that entire time.”
“The circumstances, viewed as a whole, test this Court’s credulity.”
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:56:33 GMT -8
Turning a DWB into a DUI
Body camera footage appears to show a police officer opening a sealed bottle of alcohol before that opened container is used to charge a Black man with a DUI in Tallahassee, Florida, according to a local media report.
Our Tallahassee first reported on the case of Calvin Riley Sr., 56, who was pulled over during a routine traffic stop last May and found to have a been driving with a suspended license. The news outlet notes that in Florida, officers are able to decide whether to ticket or arrest someone driving on a suspended license, but if they discover a second offense — like driving under the influence — they are required to arrest the person.
On body camera footage, Tallahassee Police Department Officer Kiersten Oliver speaks to the man before calling another officer for backup after expressing some belief that he smells like an illicit substance. Oliver and the other officer discuss asking the man to perform a voluntary sobriety test and then put them in the back of the officer’s patrol car after he refuses.
Oliver later said during a pre-trial hearing that she opened the bottle herself and poured the alcohol out, citing what she believed to be police department policy that prevented officers from impounding liquids as evidence.
There is no such policy.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:57:54 GMT -8
From One Sleazeball to Another
Providing Donald Trump’s $175 million appeal bond when other insurers wouldn’t is business as usual for California financier Don Hankey. As chairman of the Los Angeles-based Hankey Group of Companies, which includes an insurer, a subprime auto lender and a commercial real estate investment firm, Hankey has amassed a fortune lending to borrowers other financial firms shun.
Hankey’s assistance to Trump has brought the little-known billionaire into the spotlight. But in recent years, several of his companies’ operations attracted the attention of the U.S. Justice Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the California Department of Insurance. Since 2015, regulators have taken action against Hankey’s companies four times, public records show.
In 2017, for example, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in federal court in California against Westlake Financial, Hankey’s big subprime auto lender. With a network of 50,000 car dealerships and $3 billion in managed assets, Westlake Financial calls itself “The Yes! Yes! Lender.”
Westlake and its subsidiary Wilshire Commercial Capital, the DOJ complaint alleged, illegally repossessed at least 70 vehicles owned by military service members protected under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The companies paid $761,000 to settle the allegations. Five years later, the Justice Department returned with another complaint against Westlake, alleging that it had failed to provide service members with interest rate benefits they were owed under the law. The company paid $225,000 to settle that matter.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 9:59:35 GMT -8
Who Stores Tens of Millions in Cash Somewhere?
The Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI are investigating a multimillion dollar theft on Easter Sunday, sources told ABC News.
The money went missing Sunday from a money storage facility in Sylmar, in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, law enforcement sources said. The company that owns the building noticed the money had been stolen on Monday morning.[/b]
The thieves managed to break into the facility undetected, sources said.
They went through the roof and into the area where the money is kept, which may have been a vault, according to officials briefed on the investigation. Sources said the sophistication level of the operation indicates a crew of some kind is responsible.
There are no suspects at this point.
The LAPD and FBI are working together on the case.
Sources said the exact amount that was stolen is not known, but it is believed to be in the tens of millions.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 10:01:05 GMT -8
El Niño is Out-Starving El Netanyahu
More than 24 million people in southern Africa face hunger, malnutrition and water scarcity due to drought and floods, an aid group has warned, as experts say the situation risks spiraling into an “unimaginable humanitarian situation.”
The warning from Oxfam on Wednesday came as Zimbabwe joined other southern African nations in declaring its drought a national disaster, following earlier declarations by Zambia and Malawi.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said more than 2.7 million people in the country will go hungry this year and more than $2 billion in aid is required for the country’s national response, Reuters reported.
The country’s top priority “is securing food for all Zimbabweans,” the president told journalists at the state house in Harare. “No Zimbabwean must succumb to, or die from, hunger.”
The drought has been fueled by El Niño, a natural climate pattern originating in the Pacific Ocean along the equator, which tends to bring high temperatures and low rainfall to this part of Africa. When it does rain, dried-out ground is unable to absorb the moisture, making flooding more likely.
El Niño is exacerbating the impacts of the climate crisis, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, which is driving more frequent and severe weather — including drought and floods — across southern Africa, a region Oxfam describes as a “climate disaster hotspot.”
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 4, 2024 10:01:54 GMT -8
Bringing Home the Bacon
Rick Slayman, the world’s first living recipient of a genetically edited pig kidney transplant, was discharged from the hospital Wednesday, two weeks after his operation, Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement. “He is recovering well and will continue to recuperate at home with his family,” the hospital said on X, formerly Twitter.
In a statement issued by the hospital, Slayman said, “This moment – leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time – is one I wished would come for many years. Now, it’s a reality and one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Slayman, a 62-year-old manager with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, had previously said his doctors suggested that he try a pig kidney when he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year.
His doctors said last month that they thought Slayman’s new kidney could last years but also acknowledged that there are many unknowns in animal-to-human transplants.
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