I rest my case, your fingers on your keyboard make me look good, thanks mon ami :bounce:
Trumped 202
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I'm convinced the good Doc only writes these things to attempt to get under people's skin and he assuredly doesn't believe his own written words. I will say, good work Doc!! Lol.
On a side note, here's a very interesting article comparing a US Marine Jason Bezler, who was discharged for sending 1 classified email, warning his fellow marines of an Afghan police chief's link to the Taliban and who's 3 underlings would just weeks later kill 3 of those marines, to HRC's 110+ classified emails sent for convenience sake and receiving no penalty whatsoever. Pretty infuriating really.
Some are pointing back to this case of a U.S. Marine to highlight an alleged double standard involving Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information.
Steve Doocy sat down this morning with an attorney for Jason Brezler, who was forced out of the service for using his private email account to send a warning to fellow Marines about an Afghan police chief’s alleged links to the Taliban.
One of the police chief's servants would eventually attack the Marines, killing three of them in Afghanistan just weeks later.
Maj. Jason Brezler tried to warn about Afghan Police Chief Sarwar Jan, a known child predator with suspected ties to the Taliban. Jan was routinely allowed on military bases, but Brezler believed he should not be.
Brezler said he was trying to do the right thing by sending the warning, but it was issued through a personal email account.
Attorney Michael Bowe said that Brezler was determined to be unfit for service in the military by the Secretary of the Navy, a direct appointee of President Obama.
Bowe said that fellow Marines asked Brezler for "risk information" - which he had on his personal computer - via an urgent email. Brezler provided the information and self-reported it to his commanders.
Bowe said Brezler was punished for keeping the file on his computer after his deployment in Afghanistan ended. He said the Marine Corps allowed service members to use personal computers because they did not provide them.
Critics are now arguing that there is a different set of rules for the Clintons, also pointing to the case of Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director who was charged for revealing classified information to his biographer.
Defenders of Clinton maintain that she never knowingly mishandled classified information, however.
Watch the full interview below and let us know your thoughts.
On a side note, here's a very interesting article comparing a US Marine Jason Bezler, who was discharged for sending 1 classified email, warning his fellow marines of an Afghan police chief's link to the Taliban and who's 3 underlings would just weeks later kill 3 of those marines, to HRC's 110+ classified emails sent for convenience sake and receiving no penalty whatsoever. Pretty infuriating really.
Some are pointing back to this case of a U.S. Marine to highlight an alleged double standard involving Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information.
Steve Doocy sat down this morning with an attorney for Jason Brezler, who was forced out of the service for using his private email account to send a warning to fellow Marines about an Afghan police chief’s alleged links to the Taliban.
One of the police chief's servants would eventually attack the Marines, killing three of them in Afghanistan just weeks later.
Maj. Jason Brezler tried to warn about Afghan Police Chief Sarwar Jan, a known child predator with suspected ties to the Taliban. Jan was routinely allowed on military bases, but Brezler believed he should not be.
Brezler said he was trying to do the right thing by sending the warning, but it was issued through a personal email account.
Attorney Michael Bowe said that Brezler was determined to be unfit for service in the military by the Secretary of the Navy, a direct appointee of President Obama.
Bowe said that fellow Marines asked Brezler for "risk information" - which he had on his personal computer - via an urgent email. Brezler provided the information and self-reported it to his commanders.
Bowe said Brezler was punished for keeping the file on his computer after his deployment in Afghanistan ended. He said the Marine Corps allowed service members to use personal computers because they did not provide them.
Critics are now arguing that there is a different set of rules for the Clintons, also pointing to the case of Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director who was charged for revealing classified information to his biographer.
Defenders of Clinton maintain that she never knowingly mishandled classified information, however.
Watch the full interview below and let us know your thoughts.
Special K I am pretty sure I would not make a mistake to say that from Ontario to the eastern province of Canada, we mostly think like doc. We mostly were all very happy to finally see a black men being the president of the united state and we all think (given the state the economy was when he came in) that he did a hell of a good job. Now don't get me wrong, we are from Canada so what we say does have to be taken with a grain of salt because we are far different from Americans. Montreal would not be the greatest city in America to see escort if we were not a bit different. Maybe it's our 6 months of hell that we live in a freezer (commonly called winter) that make us so open minded and liberal?
Cheers,
A buddy of mine asked me the other day when Canadians moved so far from Americans politically. When did they change so much? He asked me who the Canadian Prime Minister was and if people liked him. I told him that most Canadians liked him very much as of today, other than a few conservatives who despised him no matter what he did.
As for the political question, i explained to him that in my opinion, it was not Canadians who had changed, but Americans whose politics had changed drastically towards the right. More extreme, you may say. For example, the likes of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reafan and George HW Bush would stand zero chance of being the GOP today. The current GOP would regard them as RINOs. They would be looked upon as liberals, a very dirty word in the GOP vocabulary.
Canada, on the other hand, is a social democrat country. It's very socialist. Canadians pay a lot of taxes. That is why many Americans, say the likes of Iggy & Special K who love to visit Canada, would never be able to make it as Canadian citizens were they to ever permanently move to Canada. They wouldn't be able to cope with paying that many taxes. I give nearly 42% of my bi-monthly paycheque to the government. I don't like it, but i accept it. I realize that my taxes serve a purpose and why many things (like healthcare) that people take for granted are free. But it would be very difficult for me to imagine most Americans who would be able to move permanently to Canada be able to accept and cope with being taxed so much and paying a lot more for things (ex-cars) that cost a lot less in the States.
And finally, one of my American sibblings once pointed out to me that there isn't such a thing as a true conservative in Canada. This particular sibbling of mine is the type of American who lives in the right-wing bubble. He listens to Faux News most of the time and listens constantly (i call it systemic brainwashing) to right-wing talk media. But he had a point. A true consecutive in Canada is equal to a centrist on the American political spectrum. Canada at one time even had its own right-wing 'news' channel (Sun News) and it went bankrupt and was shut down a couple of years ago. No one was watching it when they were already watxhing CTV News, CBC Newsworld, RDI & TVA Nouvelles.
I've been referred to as a liberal and a leftist, among other things. Well, i'll tell you this: as a proud Canadian, nothing could me more prouder. If you wish, add socialist and i'd be smiling from ear to ear, although i'm more towards the center of the Canadian political spectrum. I've voted for the Liberal party, for the PC party and the NDP. I voted for whomever best represented my interests at any given time. I voted for who ever i felt was the best candidate. I tend to vote more often for the Liberal party candidate, but i must unfortunately that i even voted for Stephen Harper once. I couldn't get myself to vote for Stephane Dion. And yes, i've even voted for Ed Broadbent a couple of times.
Call me a liberal, call me a leftist or socialist if you want.....AS A CANADIAN, NOTHING WOULD MAKE ME PROUDER!!! :thumb:
p.s. And if i were a Quebecer, i'd probably be a die-hard separatist. I'm not even from Quebec and i already think that the english language is spoken way too often in this province.
As for the political question, i explained to him that in my opinion, it was not Canadians who had changed, but Americans whose politics had changed drastically towards the right. More extreme, you may say. For example, the likes of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reafan and George HW Bush would stand zero chance of being the GOP today. The current GOP would regard them as RINOs. They would be looked upon as liberals, a very dirty word in the GOP vocabulary.
Canada, on the other hand, is a social democrat country. It's very socialist. Canadians pay a lot of taxes. That is why many Americans, say the likes of Iggy & Special K who love to visit Canada, would never be able to make it as Canadian citizens were they to ever permanently move to Canada. They wouldn't be able to cope with paying that many taxes. I give nearly 42% of my bi-monthly paycheque to the government. I don't like it, but i accept it. I realize that my taxes serve a purpose and why many things (like healthcare) that people take for granted are free. But it would be very difficult for me to imagine most Americans who would be able to move permanently to Canada be able to accept and cope with being taxed so much and paying a lot more for things (ex-cars) that cost a lot less in the States.
And finally, one of my American sibblings once pointed out to me that there isn't such a thing as a true conservative in Canada. This particular sibbling of mine is the type of American who lives in the right-wing bubble. He listens to Faux News most of the time and listens constantly (i call it systemic brainwashing) to right-wing talk media. But he had a point. A true consecutive in Canada is equal to a centrist on the American political spectrum. Canada at one time even had its own right-wing 'news' channel (Sun News) and it went bankrupt and was shut down a couple of years ago. No one was watching it when they were already watxhing CTV News, CBC Newsworld, RDI & TVA Nouvelles.
I've been referred to as a liberal and a leftist, among other things. Well, i'll tell you this: as a proud Canadian, nothing could me more prouder. If you wish, add socialist and i'd be smiling from ear to ear, although i'm more towards the center of the Canadian political spectrum. I've voted for the Liberal party, for the PC party and the NDP. I voted for whomever best represented my interests at any given time. I voted for who ever i felt was the best candidate. I tend to vote more often for the Liberal party candidate, but i must unfortunately that i even voted for Stephen Harper once. I couldn't get myself to vote for Stephane Dion. And yes, i've even voted for Ed Broadbent a couple of times.
Call me a liberal, call me a leftist or socialist if you want.....AS A CANADIAN, NOTHING WOULD MAKE ME PROUDER!!! :thumb:
p.s. And if i were a Quebecer, i'd probably be a die-hard separatist. I'm not even from Quebec and i already think that the english language is spoken way too often in this province.
Trump's Casino Broke a Big Promise to Give Millions to Charity
The GOP presidential nominee fought hard to avoid giving proceeds from his casino to local charities.
by Stephanie Mensimer
In 1993, Donald Trump wanted to open a riverboat casino about 40 miles from Chicago in the troubled and violent city of Gary, Indiana. But he had a problem: Gary wasn't keen on him. City officials were skeptical of Trump's vow to invest in the city. After all, Trump's Atlantic City casino empire, $1.5 billion in debt, was on the brink of bankruptcy. They recommended that the state grant Gary's two riverboat gambling licenses to other companies.
What Trump did to overcome their objections and win a lucrative Indiana casino license is a case study in his business practices. It's a tale of intense lobbying, political maneuvering, and, most notably, a broken promise to provide millions of dollars to local charities.
At the time Trump sought the casino license in Gary, the city's population was about 80 percent black, and nearly 17 percent of its population lived in deep poverty. The city was dubbed the murder capital of America. In an effort to revive its flagging fortunes after the collapse of the steel industry, Gary officials had sought to capitalize on its proximity to Chicago to turn it into a gambling hub.
Trump had long opposed opening casinos in Indiana. Such a move would threaten his Atlantic City operation. In 1990, he told the Chicago Tribune that he would never open a casino in Gary and that setting up gambling establishments there would be a "very bad idea, not only for Gary but also for the Chicago area." He contended that a Gary casino would "empty the pockets of people in Chicago" and increase welfare costs in Gary. "Gambling has not been the savior of Atlantic City," Trump said. "We still have slums here."
But a few years later, Trump changed his tune. In 1993, Indiana legislators voted to allow 11 riverboat casinos to open on Lake Michigan and elsewhere. Gary requested two of those casino licenses, and Trump wanted one of them. The competition for Gary's licenses was fierce. Trump reportedly spent $1 million on a campaign to win the backing of local officials.
Charles Hughes was on the Gary city council at the time and in the room for many of the negotiations with Trump. "He promised everything," Hughes recalls. "He was going to build these magnificent edifices in Gary. He was going to build giant hotels, he was going to hire all these people. He was going to change our world, until it came time to put it in writing."
Gary officials recommended the state award the licenses to other suitors, including a company owned by Don Barden, a Detroit native and later the first African American to own a casino in Las Vegas. After Trump failed to win Gary's endorsement, his lawyers recommended that Trump "Hoosierize" his application to the state to make it more attractive, according to legal documents. The attorneys suggested that Trump provide a 15 percent ownership interest in the riverboat casino to local investors.
Trump's organization recruited eight local investors, six of whom were from Gary or the surrounding Lake County; all but one were minorities. One of the two investors from outside Gary was William Mays, perhaps Indiana's most famous and successful black businessman. He owned a chemical company and one of the country's oldest black newspapers, the Indianapolis Recorder. (He died in 2014.) Trump's reps also enlisted Buddy Yosha, a prominent Indiana trial lawyer with strong ties to the state's Democratic political establishment.
Aside from Mays and Yosha, most of the potential investors didn't have the money to invest in Trump's enterprise. (The shares they were offered would cost each investor about $1.4 million.) So his lawyers offered the group a sweetheart deal in which the company would finance the purchase of their shares in the riverboat—loans they would pay back with their dividends and distributions.
During the negotiations, Yosha suggested Trump sweeten his offer to the state. He proposed that instead of giving the full 15 percent interest to this small group of investors, Trump offer them 7.5 percent and use the other 7.5 percent to set up a foundation that would make donations to Indiana charities. The local investors would serve as trustees of the foundation and administer it to ensure its work benefited charities in Gary and the state. Trump's firm agreed to the proposal.
Trump's company promptly dumped all the local minority investors, along with the promise to place 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership into a foundation.
Trump's lawyers drew up a document creating the foundation and got the investors to approve its terms. They asked Yosha to draft a list of charities the foundation could support. A letter from Trump's lawyer showed that the company had agreed on 35 charities, everything from Gamblers Anonymous to the Gary Commission on the Status of Women, food banks, homeless services, and groups that worked with the developmentally disabled. Then they sent the proposal to the Indiana gaming commission as part of Trump's casino application. Trump's representatives, according to legal filings, estimated during a hearing on the application that the arrangement would translate to about $11.5 million for the foundation. The gambit seemed to work. In December 1994, the state agreed to give Trump's company one of the two Gary gaming licenses.
Then Trump's company promptly dumped all the local minority investors, along with the promise to place 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership into a foundation.
The news came as a shock to the would-be investors. Only months earlier, Trump's lawyers had sent letters to them that appeared to seal the deal. A February 1994 letter to Mays from Trump's lawyers said, "We are very pleased that you are now an investor in the Trump application for a riverboat gaming license in Indiana." But after Trump's company won the casino license, Yosha says his lawyers told the investors that nothing promised in the letters or the gaming license application was legally binding. "Everything had been oral," says lawyer James Fisher, who represented the investors. But he maintains that the assorted letters, such as the one Mays received, were confirmation that a deal had been reached between Trump's company and the investors.
Trump's promise to the Indiana investors had become inconvenient. By 1995, his New Jersey operation was on the verge of forced bankruptcy after falling behind on the huge debt payments owed on his Atlantic City establishments. He needed the Indiana riverboat to save his company. Using the Gary casino as additional security, Trump was able to refinance his near-bankrupt New Jersey casinos through a public stock offering for a new firm that lumped together the Indiana property and some of the New Jersey properties. This arrangement made it difficult for Trump's company to provide the minority investors or the foundation shares only in the Indiana riverboat.
In spring 1996, Trump unveiled the 290-foot casino boat, Trump Princess Indiana, and the jilted investors sued him and his company for breach of contract. Trump now routinely says he never settles lawsuits, but according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a year later, the company that Trump formed for the riverboat venture, Trump Indiana, settled with four of the plaintiffs in the case for a total of more than $1.4 million. Two others eventually received more than $800,000 combined.
The deals, though, didn't end Trump's legal troubles in Indiana. Mays and Yosha refused to settle. They were unhappy that Trump had reneged on his promise to create the local foundation. The proposed charitable foundation, according to legal filings, was the only reason that Mays had agreed to lend his name to Trump's gambling license application. The case went to trial, and Trump himself testified for the defense.
In 1999, a federal jury awarded the pair $1.33 million. The jury found that Trump was not personally liable or guilty of fraud but that his company had broken a contract to give the two men shares of the Indiana casino. The jury also concluded that Trump's firm had violated its contractual agreement to create the foundation with 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership. By ridding itself of this obligation, Trump's firm had avoided making a charitable contribution worth between $4.5 million and nearly $30 million, according to estimates by experts on both sides who testified at the trial.
The trial court judge signed off on the jury award to Yosha and Mays. But the fate of the multimillion-dollar foundation was not settled. The jury had found that Trump's firm had breached its contract with Yosha and Mays to create a charitable foundation, but the judge had the final say over the details of the foundation. And he decided that Trump's company didn't have to put 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership into a foundation because it had created a different foundation that the judge considered an acceptable substitute.
This other foundation was the result of behind-the-scenes political maneuvering by Trump's operation. Unbeknown to Mays or Yosha, Trump, before dumping them and the other investors, had cut a deal with the new mayor of Gary, Scott King, who had been elected in November 1995, the first white person to hold the job in nearly three decades. As part of Trump Indiana's casino license, his firm was required to have a development agreement with the city of Gary. During negotiations with the city, Trump's lawyers persuaded the mayor to support the creation of a different foundation. This nonprofit would not be controlled by local investors. Rather, Trump himself would be president, and the other directors would be New Jersey-based employees of his firm. The mayor would be a trustee.
"We lost everything," says local investor Buddy Yosha, who is still steamed about the whole episode.
This foundation would not be funded by transferring valuable shares in the riverboat. Instead, Trump Indiana would give it an initial $1 million, followed by $100,000 annual donations. This money would fund a handful of $5,000 scholarships to Gary high school graduates every year. James Fisher, who represented the local investors, says Trump turned the foundation "into a political patronage thing, where the mayor would be able to pass it out." (King denies his work with the foundation was a form of patronage, saying the public schools had a far greater role than he did in deciding where the money would go.)
The money in the alternative foundation "was a small fraction of what he had originally represented to the gaming commission," says Fisher. In 1999, Trump Indiana had gross gaming revenues of $139 million. The $100,000 annual contributions to the Trump Indiana foundation amounted to 0.07 percent of the company's gross gaming income—a far cry from the 7.5 percent ownership Trump's firm had originally promised.
Yosha was upset over the judge's ruling on the foundation, and he and Mays considered appealing the decision to press the courts to hold Trump's company to its original agreement. Hoping to avoid further litigation, Trump's lawyers proposed settling. In March 2000, according to one letter between Fisher and Yosha and Mays, Trump Indiana offered to pay Yosha and Mays a total of $1 million and donate a total of $500,000 to charity over the course of five years if they would not appeal.
The settlement offer put Yosha and Mays in a bind. Appealing the trial court ruling on the foundation would mean risking the money the jury had awarded them individually. Yet the jilted investors chose to appeal the judge's ruling to "try to make Trump do what they committed themselves to doing, which is funding the charities," Yosha says.
This gamble proved a bad one. The conservative 7th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the jury verdict and sided with Trump, whose lawyers had argued that none of the promises they had made in letters to the investors constituted a binding contract. "We lost everything," says Yosha, who is still steamed about the whole episode.
Yosha's concerns about the Trump-controlled foundation—that it wouldn't do much to help the needy of Indiana—were eventually confirmed. In 2005, with his gambling empire in shambles, Trump sold the Indiana riverboat for a quarter of a billion dollars to Barden, the African American casino magnate who owned the other Gary riverboat.
If Trump's firm had stuck to its original promise to donate a 7.5 percent interest in the riverboat to a charitable foundation, the sale could have netted the foundation millions. Instead, the alternative Gary foundation received nothing from the sale. Barden eventually took over Trump's Indiana foundation. He died in 2011, and what's left of the nonprofit is now the Bella and Don Barden Foundation, run by Alana Barden, Barden's 20-something daughter who lives in California.
According to its most recent available tax filings, from 2012 through 2014, the foundation has made donations to the Motown music museum, a golf club caddy scholarship fund, and a cancer center that treated Barden before he died. Each of these recipients is in Detroit. It also made a donation to the Skull and Dagger Foundation at the University of Southern California, Alana's alma mater. During these same years, it handed out no money in Gary.
Trump broke big promise to donate to charity
The GOP presidential nominee fought hard to avoid giving proceeds from his casino to local charities.
by Stephanie Mensimer
In 1993, Donald Trump wanted to open a riverboat casino about 40 miles from Chicago in the troubled and violent city of Gary, Indiana. But he had a problem: Gary wasn't keen on him. City officials were skeptical of Trump's vow to invest in the city. After all, Trump's Atlantic City casino empire, $1.5 billion in debt, was on the brink of bankruptcy. They recommended that the state grant Gary's two riverboat gambling licenses to other companies.
What Trump did to overcome their objections and win a lucrative Indiana casino license is a case study in his business practices. It's a tale of intense lobbying, political maneuvering, and, most notably, a broken promise to provide millions of dollars to local charities.
At the time Trump sought the casino license in Gary, the city's population was about 80 percent black, and nearly 17 percent of its population lived in deep poverty. The city was dubbed the murder capital of America. In an effort to revive its flagging fortunes after the collapse of the steel industry, Gary officials had sought to capitalize on its proximity to Chicago to turn it into a gambling hub.
Trump had long opposed opening casinos in Indiana. Such a move would threaten his Atlantic City operation. In 1990, he told the Chicago Tribune that he would never open a casino in Gary and that setting up gambling establishments there would be a "very bad idea, not only for Gary but also for the Chicago area." He contended that a Gary casino would "empty the pockets of people in Chicago" and increase welfare costs in Gary. "Gambling has not been the savior of Atlantic City," Trump said. "We still have slums here."
But a few years later, Trump changed his tune. In 1993, Indiana legislators voted to allow 11 riverboat casinos to open on Lake Michigan and elsewhere. Gary requested two of those casino licenses, and Trump wanted one of them. The competition for Gary's licenses was fierce. Trump reportedly spent $1 million on a campaign to win the backing of local officials.
Charles Hughes was on the Gary city council at the time and in the room for many of the negotiations with Trump. "He promised everything," Hughes recalls. "He was going to build these magnificent edifices in Gary. He was going to build giant hotels, he was going to hire all these people. He was going to change our world, until it came time to put it in writing."
Gary officials recommended the state award the licenses to other suitors, including a company owned by Don Barden, a Detroit native and later the first African American to own a casino in Las Vegas. After Trump failed to win Gary's endorsement, his lawyers recommended that Trump "Hoosierize" his application to the state to make it more attractive, according to legal documents. The attorneys suggested that Trump provide a 15 percent ownership interest in the riverboat casino to local investors.
Trump's organization recruited eight local investors, six of whom were from Gary or the surrounding Lake County; all but one were minorities. One of the two investors from outside Gary was William Mays, perhaps Indiana's most famous and successful black businessman. He owned a chemical company and one of the country's oldest black newspapers, the Indianapolis Recorder. (He died in 2014.) Trump's reps also enlisted Buddy Yosha, a prominent Indiana trial lawyer with strong ties to the state's Democratic political establishment.
Aside from Mays and Yosha, most of the potential investors didn't have the money to invest in Trump's enterprise. (The shares they were offered would cost each investor about $1.4 million.) So his lawyers offered the group a sweetheart deal in which the company would finance the purchase of their shares in the riverboat—loans they would pay back with their dividends and distributions.
During the negotiations, Yosha suggested Trump sweeten his offer to the state. He proposed that instead of giving the full 15 percent interest to this small group of investors, Trump offer them 7.5 percent and use the other 7.5 percent to set up a foundation that would make donations to Indiana charities. The local investors would serve as trustees of the foundation and administer it to ensure its work benefited charities in Gary and the state. Trump's firm agreed to the proposal.
Trump's company promptly dumped all the local minority investors, along with the promise to place 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership into a foundation.
Trump's lawyers drew up a document creating the foundation and got the investors to approve its terms. They asked Yosha to draft a list of charities the foundation could support. A letter from Trump's lawyer showed that the company had agreed on 35 charities, everything from Gamblers Anonymous to the Gary Commission on the Status of Women, food banks, homeless services, and groups that worked with the developmentally disabled. Then they sent the proposal to the Indiana gaming commission as part of Trump's casino application. Trump's representatives, according to legal filings, estimated during a hearing on the application that the arrangement would translate to about $11.5 million for the foundation. The gambit seemed to work. In December 1994, the state agreed to give Trump's company one of the two Gary gaming licenses.
Then Trump's company promptly dumped all the local minority investors, along with the promise to place 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership into a foundation.
The news came as a shock to the would-be investors. Only months earlier, Trump's lawyers had sent letters to them that appeared to seal the deal. A February 1994 letter to Mays from Trump's lawyers said, "We are very pleased that you are now an investor in the Trump application for a riverboat gaming license in Indiana." But after Trump's company won the casino license, Yosha says his lawyers told the investors that nothing promised in the letters or the gaming license application was legally binding. "Everything had been oral," says lawyer James Fisher, who represented the investors. But he maintains that the assorted letters, such as the one Mays received, were confirmation that a deal had been reached between Trump's company and the investors.
Trump's promise to the Indiana investors had become inconvenient. By 1995, his New Jersey operation was on the verge of forced bankruptcy after falling behind on the huge debt payments owed on his Atlantic City establishments. He needed the Indiana riverboat to save his company. Using the Gary casino as additional security, Trump was able to refinance his near-bankrupt New Jersey casinos through a public stock offering for a new firm that lumped together the Indiana property and some of the New Jersey properties. This arrangement made it difficult for Trump's company to provide the minority investors or the foundation shares only in the Indiana riverboat.
In spring 1996, Trump unveiled the 290-foot casino boat, Trump Princess Indiana, and the jilted investors sued him and his company for breach of contract. Trump now routinely says he never settles lawsuits, but according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a year later, the company that Trump formed for the riverboat venture, Trump Indiana, settled with four of the plaintiffs in the case for a total of more than $1.4 million. Two others eventually received more than $800,000 combined.
The deals, though, didn't end Trump's legal troubles in Indiana. Mays and Yosha refused to settle. They were unhappy that Trump had reneged on his promise to create the local foundation. The proposed charitable foundation, according to legal filings, was the only reason that Mays had agreed to lend his name to Trump's gambling license application. The case went to trial, and Trump himself testified for the defense.
In 1999, a federal jury awarded the pair $1.33 million. The jury found that Trump was not personally liable or guilty of fraud but that his company had broken a contract to give the two men shares of the Indiana casino. The jury also concluded that Trump's firm had violated its contractual agreement to create the foundation with 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership. By ridding itself of this obligation, Trump's firm had avoided making a charitable contribution worth between $4.5 million and nearly $30 million, according to estimates by experts on both sides who testified at the trial.
The trial court judge signed off on the jury award to Yosha and Mays. But the fate of the multimillion-dollar foundation was not settled. The jury had found that Trump's firm had breached its contract with Yosha and Mays to create a charitable foundation, but the judge had the final say over the details of the foundation. And he decided that Trump's company didn't have to put 7.5 percent of the riverboat ownership into a foundation because it had created a different foundation that the judge considered an acceptable substitute.
This other foundation was the result of behind-the-scenes political maneuvering by Trump's operation. Unbeknown to Mays or Yosha, Trump, before dumping them and the other investors, had cut a deal with the new mayor of Gary, Scott King, who had been elected in November 1995, the first white person to hold the job in nearly three decades. As part of Trump Indiana's casino license, his firm was required to have a development agreement with the city of Gary. During negotiations with the city, Trump's lawyers persuaded the mayor to support the creation of a different foundation. This nonprofit would not be controlled by local investors. Rather, Trump himself would be president, and the other directors would be New Jersey-based employees of his firm. The mayor would be a trustee.
"We lost everything," says local investor Buddy Yosha, who is still steamed about the whole episode.
This foundation would not be funded by transferring valuable shares in the riverboat. Instead, Trump Indiana would give it an initial $1 million, followed by $100,000 annual donations. This money would fund a handful of $5,000 scholarships to Gary high school graduates every year. James Fisher, who represented the local investors, says Trump turned the foundation "into a political patronage thing, where the mayor would be able to pass it out." (King denies his work with the foundation was a form of patronage, saying the public schools had a far greater role than he did in deciding where the money would go.)
The money in the alternative foundation "was a small fraction of what he had originally represented to the gaming commission," says Fisher. In 1999, Trump Indiana had gross gaming revenues of $139 million. The $100,000 annual contributions to the Trump Indiana foundation amounted to 0.07 percent of the company's gross gaming income—a far cry from the 7.5 percent ownership Trump's firm had originally promised.
Yosha was upset over the judge's ruling on the foundation, and he and Mays considered appealing the decision to press the courts to hold Trump's company to its original agreement. Hoping to avoid further litigation, Trump's lawyers proposed settling. In March 2000, according to one letter between Fisher and Yosha and Mays, Trump Indiana offered to pay Yosha and Mays a total of $1 million and donate a total of $500,000 to charity over the course of five years if they would not appeal.
The settlement offer put Yosha and Mays in a bind. Appealing the trial court ruling on the foundation would mean risking the money the jury had awarded them individually. Yet the jilted investors chose to appeal the judge's ruling to "try to make Trump do what they committed themselves to doing, which is funding the charities," Yosha says.
This gamble proved a bad one. The conservative 7th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the jury verdict and sided with Trump, whose lawyers had argued that none of the promises they had made in letters to the investors constituted a binding contract. "We lost everything," says Yosha, who is still steamed about the whole episode.
Yosha's concerns about the Trump-controlled foundation—that it wouldn't do much to help the needy of Indiana—were eventually confirmed. In 2005, with his gambling empire in shambles, Trump sold the Indiana riverboat for a quarter of a billion dollars to Barden, the African American casino magnate who owned the other Gary riverboat.
If Trump's firm had stuck to its original promise to donate a 7.5 percent interest in the riverboat to a charitable foundation, the sale could have netted the foundation millions. Instead, the alternative Gary foundation received nothing from the sale. Barden eventually took over Trump's Indiana foundation. He died in 2011, and what's left of the nonprofit is now the Bella and Don Barden Foundation, run by Alana Barden, Barden's 20-something daughter who lives in California.
According to its most recent available tax filings, from 2012 through 2014, the foundation has made donations to the Motown music museum, a golf club caddy scholarship fund, and a cancer center that treated Barden before he died. Each of these recipients is in Detroit. It also made a donation to the Skull and Dagger Foundation at the University of Southern California, Alana's alma mater. During these same years, it handed out no money in Gary.
Trump broke big promise to donate to charity
This is a total LIE LIE LIE. My pal Donald says he's never been the kind to use intense lobbying or political maneuvering. Also, he is the soul of integrity. He never could break a promise to help the needy.
How could other Republicans call The Donald a "Sick Sociopath"? This can't be real either:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/11/gop-convention-delegates-welcome-for-trump-hes-a-sick-sociopath.html
Humphrey, previously a John Kasich supporter, said the Delegates Unbound organization is about removing a candidate who is not fit for the presidency. "Trump is a sick sociopath. He has no conscience. No feelings of guilt, remorse, empathy or embarrassment. He has never apologized to Carly [Fiorina], the disabled reporter or Senator McCain on the horrible things he said about them," said Humphrey, who served two terms in the Senate. "He has severe personality disorders and is not fit to be president."
I dont' think you realize that lobbying is a perfectly legal activity. In fact, lobbying is a major activity on Capitol Hill. You are singling Trump for an activity just about every US politician lets themselves be influenced by.
Obama is an abject failure. Do you actually know what happened in 2008? The banking system got way ahead of itself and conspired to massively defraud its customers, and millions of people lost their homes in the process. Rather than begin compensating these people because of the actions of the quasi-unregulated banks, Obama's presidency 'rewarded' them with almost a trillion dollars of free money.
This whole mess was due to the abolishing of the Glass-Stegal act, that was passed in 1933 by FDR. That was to correct the disaster of the big crash of 1929 and the resulting great depression. It separated retail and merchant banking operations, thereby preventing the banks from gambling depositor's money. It was largely repealed under the Clinton presidency; fast forward a few years and we had another 1929 in 2008. Obama did not try to reinstate a Glass-Stegal Act, including reforming and re-regulating the banking sector, so the whole thing is going to repeat itself in the next year or so.
Obama is the greatest prosecutor of whistle blowers that has ever been. So much for transparency. He's also running an extraterritorial killing maching using drones to a scale that has never been seen, attacking targets in friendly coutries like Pakistan, and killing US ctiizens without due process. The list goes on. Although Bush junior was the worst president, Obama is second worst.
About Clinton: The truly scary thing about her is her view of foreign policy. She is the one who brought us the destruction of Libya. Although France started it, the US could have put a stop to it (like Ike put a stop to the 1956 Suez campaign by threatening the UK with crashing the Pound). Obama relied on her advice and her advice was to oust Ghadaffi. After he was tortured and killed, she actually rejoiced about it on TV. A true psychopath. She is a neocon in neo-liberal clothing (both bad). Vicotria Newland worked under her; she is married to neocon Robert Kagan who co-wrote the Project for a New American Century along with Paul Wolfowitz, She is the one behind the violent ouster of the democratically elected Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovytch, when he had 15 months left in his mandate. It was really because of the destabilization of Ukraine that led to the separatists in Donbass and Lugansk to separate violently, and for Crimeans to vote for annexation to Russia. None of this was going to happen if the US had not meddled in Ukraine. In fact, US neocons like Kagan are not supporting Trump, but putting their support behind Clinton, as she is the one most likely to promote their world domination policies.
It was Clinton who called Putin another Hitler, when he is nothing of the sort. She is a shill for the US military industrial complex and a believer in world economic and political domination for her corporate sponsors. Russia and China stand in the way because they will not bow to US demands, and Clinton is going to confront them. Trump is not. So you are quite wrong on Clinton and Trump. To paraphrase Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Secretary of State Colin Powel's chief of staff, 'I'm worried about Clinton: She'll stand up to Putin and not back down (neither will Putin in his own backyard) just because she's a woman and has something to prove; that will lead to WW3'. Can't say that about Trump. as he says that it's time the Europeans pay for their own defence for a change, meanding the end of NATO.
Left wing academics like Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Lawrence Wilkerson think that electing Clinton will be a disaster, and according to Hedges and Wilkerson, could lead to popular revolt in the US. Both predict predict that if the same old politics continues and the population continues to lose out economically and socially, we could see a popular revolt in the US inside of 20 years.
Jeb Bush Says People Will ‘Feel Betrayed’ by Donald Trump
by Brendan Dorsey, TIME
Bush thinks Trump is living in an 'alternate universe'
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said people are going to “feel betrayed” by Donald Trump when the presumptive Republican nominee is not able to deliver on his campaign promises like building a border wall or banning Muslims from the United States.
“That’s the heartbreaking part of this — I think people are really going to feel betrayed,” Bush said to MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace.
“The tragedy of this, though, is that there isn’t going to be a wall built. And Mexico’s not going to pay for it. And there’s not going to be a ban on Muslims. This is all like an alternative universe that he created. The reality is, that’s not going to happen.”
Trump and Bush consistently sparred in the Republican Primary, with Donald Trump branding Bush as “low energy” and a “lightweight” during the race.
Bush also added that Trump’s candidacy is bad for the country.
“People are going to be deeply frustrated, and the divides will grow in our country,” he said. “This extraordinary country, still the greatest country on earth, will continue to stagger instead of soar.”
Since leaving the race in February, Bush has kept a low profile, though he said he will not vote for Trump in May and recently endorsed Republican congressional candidate Rep. David Jolly, who is battling former Florida Gov. Charlie Christ for a House seat in Florida’s 13th congressional district.
Bush also plans on skipping the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Jeb Bush: People will feel betrayed by Trump
by Brendan Dorsey, TIME
Bush thinks Trump is living in an 'alternate universe'
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said people are going to “feel betrayed” by Donald Trump when the presumptive Republican nominee is not able to deliver on his campaign promises like building a border wall or banning Muslims from the United States.
“That’s the heartbreaking part of this — I think people are really going to feel betrayed,” Bush said to MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace.
“The tragedy of this, though, is that there isn’t going to be a wall built. And Mexico’s not going to pay for it. And there’s not going to be a ban on Muslims. This is all like an alternative universe that he created. The reality is, that’s not going to happen.”
Trump and Bush consistently sparred in the Republican Primary, with Donald Trump branding Bush as “low energy” and a “lightweight” during the race.
Bush also added that Trump’s candidacy is bad for the country.
“People are going to be deeply frustrated, and the divides will grow in our country,” he said. “This extraordinary country, still the greatest country on earth, will continue to stagger instead of soar.”
Since leaving the race in February, Bush has kept a low profile, though he said he will not vote for Trump in May and recently endorsed Republican congressional candidate Rep. David Jolly, who is battling former Florida Gov. Charlie Christ for a House seat in Florida’s 13th congressional district.
Bush also plans on skipping the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Jeb Bush: People will feel betrayed by Trump
Jeb Bush: People Will ‘Feel Betrayed’ When Trump Can’t Keep Promises
“The reality is, that’s not going to happen. And people are going to be deeply frustrated and the divides will grow in our country.”
by Paige Lavender, Huffington Post
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) criticized presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying “people are really going to feel betrayed” when the businessman’s promises don’t work out.
Bush, who also ran in the GOP presidential primary, gave Trump credit for “understanding how the media works.”
“Trump, you know, to his credit was very smart at exploiting these kind of opportunities,” Bush said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday.
But Bush said there’s a downside to Trump’s ability to “manipulate the environment to his effect.”
“The tragedy of this though, is that there isn’t going to be a wall built. And Mexico’s not going to pay for it. And there’s not going to be a ban on Muslims,” Bush said. “None of that is ― this is all like an alternative universe that he created. The reality is, that’s not going to happen. And people are going to be deeply frustrated and the divides will grow in our country.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who was another GOP presidential hopeful, made similar statements on Monday.
“It’s a wall. But it’s a technological wall. It’s a digital wall. There are some that hear, ‘This is going to be 1,200 miles from Brownsville to El Paso. Thirty feet high.’ And listen, I know you can’t do that,” Perry told Snapchat’s Peter Hamby.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
Jeb Bush: People will feel betrayed by Trump
“The reality is, that’s not going to happen. And people are going to be deeply frustrated and the divides will grow in our country.”
by Paige Lavender, Huffington Post
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) criticized presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying “people are really going to feel betrayed” when the businessman’s promises don’t work out.
Bush, who also ran in the GOP presidential primary, gave Trump credit for “understanding how the media works.”
“Trump, you know, to his credit was very smart at exploiting these kind of opportunities,” Bush said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday.
But Bush said there’s a downside to Trump’s ability to “manipulate the environment to his effect.”
“The tragedy of this though, is that there isn’t going to be a wall built. And Mexico’s not going to pay for it. And there’s not going to be a ban on Muslims,” Bush said. “None of that is ― this is all like an alternative universe that he created. The reality is, that’s not going to happen. And people are going to be deeply frustrated and the divides will grow in our country.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who was another GOP presidential hopeful, made similar statements on Monday.
“It’s a wall. But it’s a technological wall. It’s a digital wall. There are some that hear, ‘This is going to be 1,200 miles from Brownsville to El Paso. Thirty feet high.’ And listen, I know you can’t do that,” Perry told Snapchat’s Peter Hamby.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
Jeb Bush: People will feel betrayed by Trump
When Donald Trump Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
"They fell to the floor and shattered in a million pieces."
by Max J. Rosenthal, Mother Jones
The construction of Trump Tower may have been Donald Trump's greatest achievement, but it was a disaster for the city's artistic legacy.
To build his skyscraper, Trump first had to knock down the Bonwit Teller building, a luxurious limestone building erected in 1929. The face of the building featured two huge Art Deco friezes that the Metropolitan Museum of Art wanted to preserve. The museum asked Trump to save the sculptures and donate them, and the mogul agreed—as long as the cost of doing so wasn't too high.
But then, according to journalist Harry Hurt III in his book Lost Tycoon, Trump discovered that taking out the sculptures would delay demolition by two weeks. He wasn't willing to wait. "On his orders, the demolition workers cut up the grillwork with acetylene torches," Hurt wrote. "Then they jackhammered the friezes, dislodged them with crowbars, and pushed the remains inside the building, where they fell to the floor and shattered in a million pieces."
The art world was shocked. "Architectural sculpture of this quality is rare and would have made definite sense in our collections," Ashton Hawkins, the vice president and secretary of the Met's board of trustees, told the New York Times. Robert Miller, a gallery owner who had agreed to assess the friezes, told the paper that "the reliefs are as important as the sculptures on the Rockefeller building. They'll never be made again."
The Times reported that Trump also lost a large bronze grillwork, measuring 25 feet in length, from the building that the museum had hoped to save.
Trump—posing as spokesman John Baron, one of the fake alter egos he used to speak to the press throughout his career—told the Times that he had the friezes appraised and found they were "without artistic merit" and weren't worth the $32,000 he supposedly would have had to pay to remove them intact. "Can you imagine the museum accepting them if they were not of artistic merit?" Hawkins said in response.
"It's odd that a person like Trump, who is spending $80 million or $100 million on this building, should squirm that it might cost as much as $32,000 to take down those panels," Otto Teegen, who designed the bronze grillwork, told the Times. Yet he wasn't willing to protect the art in this construction deal.
When Trump destroyed priceless art to build ugly Trump Tower
"They fell to the floor and shattered in a million pieces."
by Max J. Rosenthal, Mother Jones
The construction of Trump Tower may have been Donald Trump's greatest achievement, but it was a disaster for the city's artistic legacy.
To build his skyscraper, Trump first had to knock down the Bonwit Teller building, a luxurious limestone building erected in 1929. The face of the building featured two huge Art Deco friezes that the Metropolitan Museum of Art wanted to preserve. The museum asked Trump to save the sculptures and donate them, and the mogul agreed—as long as the cost of doing so wasn't too high.
But then, according to journalist Harry Hurt III in his book Lost Tycoon, Trump discovered that taking out the sculptures would delay demolition by two weeks. He wasn't willing to wait. "On his orders, the demolition workers cut up the grillwork with acetylene torches," Hurt wrote. "Then they jackhammered the friezes, dislodged them with crowbars, and pushed the remains inside the building, where they fell to the floor and shattered in a million pieces."
The art world was shocked. "Architectural sculpture of this quality is rare and would have made definite sense in our collections," Ashton Hawkins, the vice president and secretary of the Met's board of trustees, told the New York Times. Robert Miller, a gallery owner who had agreed to assess the friezes, told the paper that "the reliefs are as important as the sculptures on the Rockefeller building. They'll never be made again."
The Times reported that Trump also lost a large bronze grillwork, measuring 25 feet in length, from the building that the museum had hoped to save.
Trump—posing as spokesman John Baron, one of the fake alter egos he used to speak to the press throughout his career—told the Times that he had the friezes appraised and found they were "without artistic merit" and weren't worth the $32,000 he supposedly would have had to pay to remove them intact. "Can you imagine the museum accepting them if they were not of artistic merit?" Hawkins said in response.
"It's odd that a person like Trump, who is spending $80 million or $100 million on this building, should squirm that it might cost as much as $32,000 to take down those panels," Otto Teegen, who designed the bronze grillwork, told the Times. Yet he wasn't willing to protect the art in this construction deal.
When Trump destroyed priceless art to build ugly Trump Tower
Donald Trump Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
Now he's proposing virtually the same thing.
by Max J. Rosenthal, Mother Jones
Donald Trump loves to (falsely) complain at his rallies and speeches that America is "the highest-taxed country in the world." His tax plan would slash income tax rates and deliver huge savings to the richest Americans. But he wasn't always a fan of trickle-down, supply-side tax cuts.
In 1991, Trump told the House Budget Committee's Subcommittee on Urgent Fiscal Matters that President Ronald Reagan had screwed up with his 1986 tax cuts, which cut the highest income tax rates nearly in half, from 50 percent to 28 percent.
"In the real estate business we're in an absolute depression, and one of the reasons we're there is what happened in 1986," he said. "Something has to be done. It has to be brought back. It has to be reformed."
Trump contended that the low income tax rates took away rich people's reason to invest and that the economy as a whole suffered as a result. He recommended a return to much higher rates for the rich, arguing that they cause more people to invest in real estate. But he didn't quite explain why that would happen. "The fact is that 25 percent for high-income people—for high-income people—it should be raised substantially," he said. "I say leave the middle, leave the low—lower 'em. But people with money have to have the incentive."
A tax rate of 25 percent (which Trump erroneously thought was the top income tax rate at the time) is now the maximum income tax rate that Trump calls for in his 2016 tax plan.
When Trump told Congress the Reagan tax cuts were terrible
Now he's proposing virtually the same thing.
by Max J. Rosenthal, Mother Jones
Donald Trump loves to (falsely) complain at his rallies and speeches that America is "the highest-taxed country in the world." His tax plan would slash income tax rates and deliver huge savings to the richest Americans. But he wasn't always a fan of trickle-down, supply-side tax cuts.
In 1991, Trump told the House Budget Committee's Subcommittee on Urgent Fiscal Matters that President Ronald Reagan had screwed up with his 1986 tax cuts, which cut the highest income tax rates nearly in half, from 50 percent to 28 percent.
"In the real estate business we're in an absolute depression, and one of the reasons we're there is what happened in 1986," he said. "Something has to be done. It has to be brought back. It has to be reformed."
Trump contended that the low income tax rates took away rich people's reason to invest and that the economy as a whole suffered as a result. He recommended a return to much higher rates for the rich, arguing that they cause more people to invest in real estate. But he didn't quite explain why that would happen. "The fact is that 25 percent for high-income people—for high-income people—it should be raised substantially," he said. "I say leave the middle, leave the low—lower 'em. But people with money have to have the incentive."
A tax rate of 25 percent (which Trump erroneously thought was the top income tax rate at the time) is now the maximum income tax rate that Trump calls for in his 2016 tax plan.
When Trump told Congress the Reagan tax cuts were terrible
Are you talking about the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that was signed into law by George Bush? Of all the things that that abject failure of a president did, that was probably one of the least stupid... It prevented a global collapse that would have made 1929 look like a joke... Maybe the bankers should have been prosecuted after, but that is a whole other issue.
Obama is responsible for the auto-industry bailout (which the US government ended up making a profit on) and the economic stimulus bill (which Republicans insisted contain 50% tax cuts which have a much smaller stimulatory impact). He also managed to get Congress (you remember them... the people who actually pass laws?) to pass Dodd-Frank (again, watered down by Republicans), create the Consumer Protection Board and the Affordable Care Act over fierce Republican opposition. All this has led to the 79 straight months of private sector job growth, decreased unemployment and a strengthening economy. I know my investments have done a whole lot better during Obama's 8 years than Bush's 8. But please, don't let facts get in the way of your narrative...
Failure??? Not so fast...
Have you considered that he was specifically put in office as the public face of the military/financial complex with the actual mandate to do these things? Things that clearly would have been close to impossible with a paler rethug like the Bushleaguer??? ...please, that W guy couldn't even scratch his balls in private without public outcry, while Obama could snort lines of blow off Reggie Love's cock in the middle of a SOTU and the neurotic left and everyone with an EBT card would convince themselves they saw him kissing a baby.
Exaggeration? The guy's got a fucking kill list and I swear honest to god I thought I saw him on TV recently giving a lecture on violence. No better sign of success than infallibility (see Hillary), assuming your role isn't actually intended to be a failure/scapegoat (see Donald)
...and the .00001%ers like Soros via his OSF are doing their best to prevent that popular revolt by dividing up the rest of us with a contrived (and deadly) race war to go along with their old tried and true methods like turning the hoi polloi into dependents via PC-deemed economic and social policy. I wouldn't count on that revolt, regardless of what dog and pony show cast members like Chris Hedges claim.
Maybe some of us might see failure rather than success but our opinions of these professional politicians are about as relevant as our opinions of an HDH that we could never afford, whether you like her because she was smiling at you at a party and rubbing her tits up against you au gratis, or whether you don't like her because her services are out of your price range.
The collapse happened under Bush's watch. However, Obama had 8 years to correct the fundamental structural problem about the US banking structure. He did absolutely nothing; the basic regulatory structure is allowing the banking system to repeat its wayward ways, and another collapse is inevitable.
In the capitalist system, enterprises, including banks are born, they grow, maybe thrive and then inevitably decline and die. When they die, scavengers swoop in and pick up the pieces, just like the eco-system. Many banks that should have failed because they were and still are insolvent remain, due to government interference/bailout. It is doubtful to say that a global collapse would have happened, but if it had happened, that it would have been permanent. In this case, the US banking system is not presently run under capitalist principles, but under a government run centrally planned management, exactly like centrally planned marxist/communist economy. That's why the Soviet system failed, and that's why Deng Xiao Ping of China saw the writing on the wall and threw out its centrally planned economy in favour of a capitalists system. But the US and the UK bailed out their banks and attached no strings, such as legislating a new Glass-Stegal Act. The US and European banks are still heavily leveraged and are technically inslovent. The banks prop themselves up by manipulating the currency, precious metals and stock markets. They were caught manipulating the Libor (inter bank) interest rate, but the manipulation
schemes remain, since banks and their directors do not get prosecuted.
Ultimately, it is the little guy who's going to pay. The Cyprus banking collapse was the test case for bail-ins: through no fault of their own, individual depositors had a proportion of their savings confiscated in order that the banks in which they had trusted to keep their money would not go insolvent and was a condition under which the European central bank would provide liquidity.
I could go on and on, but the point being that Obama, followed by Clinton represents the status quo, of leading politicians with the banks' interests, but not their electors (banks don't vote).
Sanders and Trump do not fit in the current mass-media (controlled by Wall-Street and big business) group think, and that's why they have largely been ignoring Sanders, and reporting only the attention getting mass-appeal non-PC things that Trump has been saying to get any kind of reporting. As it stands, Trump is against NATO expansion and confrontation with Russia and Ukraine, and that the US should get out of the Middle East and concentrate on it's own issues, such as a crumbling infrastructure and inner city decay caused by unfavourable trade deals that have resulted in US workers losing their jobs.
Now that Trump has secured the Republication nomination race, neocons such as Robert Kagan have jumped ship and endorsed Clinton, which gives you an idea of her extra-territorial ambitions: war mongering.
The unemployment statistics are being manipulated. It doesn't count people who have run out of unemployment benefits and who have ceased officially looking for work. Any job growth is in the service industry, are mostly part time. People have to have multiple jobs to make ends meet. Although the official unemployent rate is 5%, in reality it is over 20%, according to Trump. Inflation is apparently low, because any factor that is not low is simply discarded. The stock market is being manipulated through programmed trades, that give the appearance of activity. The real buying of shares is by corporate share buy backs; that is, they are not investing in new production and technology, but using their spare cash to prop up share prices, which results in big bonuses for their executives.
You believe it's really twice as big as the worse time of the 2008 collapse because someone who sees conspiracies in everything says so??? Do you have any actual proof...I mean from anyone who doesn't need to say the sky is falling because he wants to get elected?
The bureau of Labor statistics says 4.9%, up from 4.7. So you are saying they have conspired to cut the numbers by 75%??? Those stock market guys must be the worst idiots in the world.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
The same wayward ways Trump used to escape bankruptcy 4 times. You think a guy who used the system to his advantage with no shame will change regulations?
You seem to forget Republicans have been in control and letting the system run this way by choice. They also openly vowed to oppose anything Obama would do, which means you're blaming the guy held hostage by a party determined to stop him at everything.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerry-myers/republicans-control-both-_b_6501020.html
After the 2008 election, Republicans vowed to do everything to obstruct President Obama and keep anything he supported from passing. When they lost again in 2012, they doubled down on this philosophy. Unfortunately for the country, this strategy, coupled with falsehoods about Democratic programs and the Democrats cowardly showing in 2014, Republicans now control both the House and the Senate.
.......
Wilbur, there are 124 million people employed full time in the U.S.. If that's 80% then if 20% are unemployed that's 31 million people. High by a lot don't you think?
Blaming one side is a partisans ploy.
Oh yes... I forgot... he is a dictator. He can just bend congress to his will so that they pass the laws he wants...
Its funny how according to some people the only thing government is actually good at is perpetrating and maintaining massive conspiracies... They can't fix a road, but they can rig the world-wide economic system for the benefit of George Soros without any 1 of thousands, perhaps millions of co-conspirators blowing the whistle...
I'm not even sure Trump knows what NATO is, and I doubt he could hit Russia on a map if you let him pee on it...
Maybe they still have a shred of common sense?
Another massive and far reaching cover-up? Believing anything that comes out of Trump's mouth is really setting yourself up for ridicule... Do you really think that if he is elected President he won't rule for the pure benefit of the 1%? He is the poster boy for the 1%... living off daddy's wealth and screwing over everyone he does business with...
This notion seems so haggard at this point, or should I say merle haggard
Are there any causes he's actually championed to benefit the working middle class? Permanent zero interest rates, artificially inflated equity & real estate prices, and of course the infamous health care tax would be good examples of the opposite.
Cleveland Strip Clubs Pumped for Trump But Brace for Violent Protests
In the metropolis playing host to this year’s GOP convention, no one is more eager to separate conventioneers from their money than the city’s strip clubs.
by Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast
Donald Trump is the best thing to happen to Cleveland’s strip clubs in a generation. Possibly multiple generations.
The top strip clubs in Cleveland, Ohio, are all preparing for the inevitable influx of horny, cash-flinging Republican out-of-towners who will drop by during next week’s GOP convention. The city’s gentlemen’s clubs are also gearing up for potentially violent protests, as the four-day convention is expected to attract droves of anti-Donald Trump demonstrators and even some neo-Nazi street fighters.
It’s no wonder why the strip-club proprietors are excited. A huge gathering of drunk, lustful Republicans—much like drunk, lustful Democrats, or drunk, lustful registered independents, or drunk, lustful Green Party members—is sure to be great for business.
“It’s all hands on deck—we’ve cancelled all vacations [for convention week], ordered in extra stock of alcohol, food, everything,” Jeff Kallam, general manager at the Crazy Horse Cleveland strip club (which insists that “bad decisions make great stories!”), told The Daily Beast. “Republicans love strippers, so we’re just hoping to make some money.” (Republicans do love such vices as exotic dancers and pornography, at least when they aren’t busy trying to create statewide stripper registries.)
Some of the city’s gentlemen’s clubs, including Crazy Horse, have also noticed in the past few weeks a considerable uptick in phone calls inquiring about special accommodations, discount packages, and private rooms that would be available during convention week.
The city of Cleveland is doing its part to keep the party going (with the convention lasting from July 18-21) and has allowed bars and restaurants to apply under a new state law for a waiver to serve alcohol and remain open until 4 a.m. during the relevant days. In May, the city released a list of establishments that had applied for the convention stretch, and the roster was of course dotted with the names of strip clubs.
“We've got extended hours, and we've got some connections with the [local] hotels and limo services, so we're hoping that helps us out,” Kallam said.
Another Cleveland club getting ready for the coming rush of lecherous Trump voters is the Diamond Men’s Club on Fall St.—a 15-minute walk from the Quicken Loans Arena, the GOP convention site. The nightclub brags, as one might expect, that it employs the “hottest girls in town.”
“I’ll be living here that week,” said one of the managers at Diamond Men’s Club, who would only identify himself as “Frank.” “The state of Ohio is trying to make this as memorable an event as possible for the Republican Party … And [special] decorations isn’t a bad idea—maybe a little red, white, and blue.” (However, when asked if his club would be doing anything Trump-themed, Frank simply chuckled and said, “Doubt it.”)
“Cleveland’s never experienced anything of this magnitude,” he continued. “I remember that they had a Republican convention in Tampa, and the Tampa clubs all telling me that they did very well.”
Christie's Cabaret on Main Ave., which features a karaoke machine in each private room and is apparently “all about privacy and quality,” still has its garishly patriotic Fourth of July decorations adorning the club from earlier this year. And those decorations are now likely to be recycled for a politically conservative audience.
“There will be red, white, and blue everywhere throughout the club to support the concept that the Republican National Convention is in Cleveland and that we are a part of it,” said Bob Fisher, manager at Christie’s. “We’re all pumped up! Many staff members and entertainers are excited about it. And we’re making sure we have the appropriate amount of staff and security ready, providing the best entertainment possible for all those coming down to participate in the RNC.”
Fisher said that the extra security precautions and “concerns” are due to the fact that his club is “right down the hill from the demarcation lines for protesters.”
“I understand all the difficulties that go along with maintaining security in the Cleveland area … and how lines can be grayed when you’re participating in these kinds of protests” he said, remarking that if demonstrations get out of hand, chaotic, or violent (a regrettable hallmark of too many Trump campaign events), he is aware that he could potentially endure some property damage.
“We have a bunch of men doing [security] jobs, and we’re having them educated and [trained] so that they understand what could happen,” he added.
But most important, Fisher emphasized, he and his staff want to ensure that their patrons, whatever the customers’ political stripes, have the “appropriate amount of fun”—debauched, non-ideological fun.
“We want everybody to keep in mind that when they come here ... they leave their politics at the door,” he said. “They need to be pro-America and be having fun in our club.”
Fisher, who says he supports the “middle-of-the-road” in American politics, said he is “very much leaning towards the Republican” side in this election. Though when asked to clarify if he is a Trump supporter, he would not even use the candidate’s name.
It’s hardly shocking that Cleveland’s exotic dancers are itching to make a profit off of the convention crowds. When the GOP held its presidential nominating convention in Tampa, Florida, in 2012, TMZ reported that the local stripper business was “BOOMING.” According to one strip-club trade group, Republicans tend to spend three times more than their Democratic counterparts at such establishments. However, when the Democrats threw their 2008 convention in Denver, Colorado, The Rocky Mountain News reported that both local prostitutes and strippers were prepping for the surge in clientele.
And due to the difficulty that the Trump campaign and Republican Party have been experiencing lately in booking star power and major musical acts for their four-day event, it is entirely possible that the most satisfying entertainment in Cleveland for the GOP convention will be found not on the main stage, but at a friendly neighborhood strip joint.
“We are prepared, we are excited, we are looking forward to it, and we are looking forward to everybody being impressed by our level of service and fun,” Fisher said of the coming week.
Republicans sure love strippers!
In the metropolis playing host to this year’s GOP convention, no one is more eager to separate conventioneers from their money than the city’s strip clubs.
by Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast
Donald Trump is the best thing to happen to Cleveland’s strip clubs in a generation. Possibly multiple generations.
The top strip clubs in Cleveland, Ohio, are all preparing for the inevitable influx of horny, cash-flinging Republican out-of-towners who will drop by during next week’s GOP convention. The city’s gentlemen’s clubs are also gearing up for potentially violent protests, as the four-day convention is expected to attract droves of anti-Donald Trump demonstrators and even some neo-Nazi street fighters.
It’s no wonder why the strip-club proprietors are excited. A huge gathering of drunk, lustful Republicans—much like drunk, lustful Democrats, or drunk, lustful registered independents, or drunk, lustful Green Party members—is sure to be great for business.
“It’s all hands on deck—we’ve cancelled all vacations [for convention week], ordered in extra stock of alcohol, food, everything,” Jeff Kallam, general manager at the Crazy Horse Cleveland strip club (which insists that “bad decisions make great stories!”), told The Daily Beast. “Republicans love strippers, so we’re just hoping to make some money.” (Republicans do love such vices as exotic dancers and pornography, at least when they aren’t busy trying to create statewide stripper registries.)
Some of the city’s gentlemen’s clubs, including Crazy Horse, have also noticed in the past few weeks a considerable uptick in phone calls inquiring about special accommodations, discount packages, and private rooms that would be available during convention week.
The city of Cleveland is doing its part to keep the party going (with the convention lasting from July 18-21) and has allowed bars and restaurants to apply under a new state law for a waiver to serve alcohol and remain open until 4 a.m. during the relevant days. In May, the city released a list of establishments that had applied for the convention stretch, and the roster was of course dotted with the names of strip clubs.
“We've got extended hours, and we've got some connections with the [local] hotels and limo services, so we're hoping that helps us out,” Kallam said.
Another Cleveland club getting ready for the coming rush of lecherous Trump voters is the Diamond Men’s Club on Fall St.—a 15-minute walk from the Quicken Loans Arena, the GOP convention site. The nightclub brags, as one might expect, that it employs the “hottest girls in town.”
“I’ll be living here that week,” said one of the managers at Diamond Men’s Club, who would only identify himself as “Frank.” “The state of Ohio is trying to make this as memorable an event as possible for the Republican Party … And [special] decorations isn’t a bad idea—maybe a little red, white, and blue.” (However, when asked if his club would be doing anything Trump-themed, Frank simply chuckled and said, “Doubt it.”)
“Cleveland’s never experienced anything of this magnitude,” he continued. “I remember that they had a Republican convention in Tampa, and the Tampa clubs all telling me that they did very well.”
Christie's Cabaret on Main Ave., which features a karaoke machine in each private room and is apparently “all about privacy and quality,” still has its garishly patriotic Fourth of July decorations adorning the club from earlier this year. And those decorations are now likely to be recycled for a politically conservative audience.
“There will be red, white, and blue everywhere throughout the club to support the concept that the Republican National Convention is in Cleveland and that we are a part of it,” said Bob Fisher, manager at Christie’s. “We’re all pumped up! Many staff members and entertainers are excited about it. And we’re making sure we have the appropriate amount of staff and security ready, providing the best entertainment possible for all those coming down to participate in the RNC.”
Fisher said that the extra security precautions and “concerns” are due to the fact that his club is “right down the hill from the demarcation lines for protesters.”
“I understand all the difficulties that go along with maintaining security in the Cleveland area … and how lines can be grayed when you’re participating in these kinds of protests” he said, remarking that if demonstrations get out of hand, chaotic, or violent (a regrettable hallmark of too many Trump campaign events), he is aware that he could potentially endure some property damage.
“We have a bunch of men doing [security] jobs, and we’re having them educated and [trained] so that they understand what could happen,” he added.
But most important, Fisher emphasized, he and his staff want to ensure that their patrons, whatever the customers’ political stripes, have the “appropriate amount of fun”—debauched, non-ideological fun.
“We want everybody to keep in mind that when they come here ... they leave their politics at the door,” he said. “They need to be pro-America and be having fun in our club.”
Fisher, who says he supports the “middle-of-the-road” in American politics, said he is “very much leaning towards the Republican” side in this election. Though when asked to clarify if he is a Trump supporter, he would not even use the candidate’s name.
It’s hardly shocking that Cleveland’s exotic dancers are itching to make a profit off of the convention crowds. When the GOP held its presidential nominating convention in Tampa, Florida, in 2012, TMZ reported that the local stripper business was “BOOMING.” According to one strip-club trade group, Republicans tend to spend three times more than their Democratic counterparts at such establishments. However, when the Democrats threw their 2008 convention in Denver, Colorado, The Rocky Mountain News reported that both local prostitutes and strippers were prepping for the surge in clientele.
And due to the difficulty that the Trump campaign and Republican Party have been experiencing lately in booking star power and major musical acts for their four-day event, it is entirely possible that the most satisfying entertainment in Cleveland for the GOP convention will be found not on the main stage, but at a friendly neighborhood strip joint.
“We are prepared, we are excited, we are looking forward to it, and we are looking forward to everybody being impressed by our level of service and fun,” Fisher said of the coming week.
Republicans sure love strippers!
- Status
