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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
@sgamer
I wonder if Trump will serve some Steamed Hams (that are obviously grilled) to Putin.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"Amazon Caused Donald Trump to Lose $400 Million Last Year
An article published in Fortune Magazine last fall stated that Donald Trump’s net worth dropped by more than $600 million last year, from $3.6 billion to $3.1 billion. What was unusual is that the article specifically attributed $400 million of the decline to Trump’s arch-nemesis, Amazon.
According to the article, “Trump’s real estate holdings, specifically those in New York City, have taken a big hit in the past year, as retail values are struggling in response to Amazon’s e-commerce gains.”
Just today Trump went off the rails tweeting crazy accusations about Amazon that all intelligent people know are untrue. (This of course excludes most of Trump’s base of supporters.)
Fortune cited the Forbes 400 List of wealthiest Americans and an article run by Forbes called “The Definitive Net Worth of Donald Trump” which was updated in February 2018 and confirmed they estimate Trump’s net worth at $3.1 billion. According to Forbes, Trump dropped from 156th on the “Forbes 400” list down to 248th.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, took the number two spot on the Forbes list for the second straight year, with an $81.5 billion net worth. This helps explain why Trump is acting more irrationally and attacking Bezos and Amazon.
“A dip in New York City’s real estate market that has hit retail particularly hard. “Values of several Manhattan properties, particularly those on or near Fifth Avenue, have dropped, shaving nearly $400 million off Trump’s fortune,” the magazine said.
The Fortune article contains this passage which explains the connection between Amazon and Trump’s net worth:
“Appearing on CNN, Forbes assistant managing editor Kerry Dolan leveled blame for Trump’s real estate losses on e-commerce’s domination over retail, mentioning Amazon.” Dolan said that “retailers are suffering—even on the high end. It would appear that Amazon’s strategy of e-commerce over brick and mortar retail is winning, and that is having an effect on real estate values,” she added.”
There have been many reports that Trump is over-leveraged and many of his hotel and resort properties have declining revenues. Not only that, but many of his real estate licensing deals are falling apart as the Trump name becomes toxic.
One article in January discussed these problems in detail, asking “Is This The Beginning of the End of Trump’s Real Estate Empire?”
If retail occupancy keeps going down due to the “retail apocalypse” and if his hotel and licensing revenues keep going down, Trump may get overwhelmed with his debt payments, because everybody knows his “empire” was built on borrowed money. This heavy leveraging has caused him to file bankruptcy many times in the past, and it could happen again.
If it does happen, there is no doubt who he will blame: Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos.
That sounds like some kind of Ethics Violation, if it's true.
According to a reporter for CNN
, Trump once again congratulated another authoritarian strongman for winning a rigged election.
edited 2nd Apr '18 2:44:02 PM by megaeliz
Update on the Mueller Investigation. It's not much, but relates to the Dutch Lawyer that got indicted a while back.
Mueller's office defends deal with Dutch lawyer to waive public records rights
In a new court filing, prosecutors make clear that Alex van der Zwaan knows key details about Mueller's ongoing investigation. "Van der Zwaan is in an unusual position of having information related to the office's investigation that is not widely known — including information that he knows first-hand due to his role in the conduct the Office is investigating," the filing on Monday morning says.
Last week, prosecutors revealed
that van der Zwaan was privy to fall 2016 communications between Gates and a person with ties to the Russian military intelligence service, and that his knowledge of those communications was relevant to the investigation.
Van der Zwaan's forfeiture of his Freedom of Information Act ability prevents him from interfering with the Mueller investigation by requesting documents from it, tipping others off to "investigative facts that are otherwise not known" and burdening the office with freedom of information tasks, the prosecutors told the judge Monday. The filing notes "the scarce resources of the special counsel's office" and how it may face "drain" if asked to "assemble records and to help explain to others both their significance and the potential that their release could harm the ongoing investigation."
Van der zwaan is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Washington at 10 a.m. ET in the first case in Mueller's investigation to reach that stage. The Dutch lawyer pleaded guilty to lying to Mueller's team in February, and likely faces up to six months in prison. The special counsel told the court they are discussing van der Zwaan's waiving of his FOIA rights because the same judge drew attention to a similar agreement with Gates.
This doesn't really make sense. I didn't think Van der Zwaan was cooperating, but now he has some type of deal?
edited 2nd Apr '18 2:58:20 PM by megaeliz
If anybody has an hour or so to spare sometime, I'd recommend listening to this story
. It's about a death row inmate cleared only weeks before he was set to be executed when it was discovered that prosecutors had deliberately hidden evidence (complete with a deathbed confession from a prosecutor about how he hid the evidence) that showed he couldn't have committed a crime they accused him of.
It's a deep dive into both a specific case and the faulty aspects of the US Justice system in general, including prosecutors acting on "we have to win cases, no matter what" mindset, the systematic imbalance of power between the prosecution and defense, biases and corruption, (especially the old boys club of politics sort of corruption) prosecutors not being trained by their DA in basic responsibilities and ethics of the office, etc.
The quote of the entire thing, for me, may well be this bit where the exonerated man talks about the deliberate concealment of evidence, and how the prosecutors and DA involved, (including one guy who keeps a mini electric chair in his office and pastes the faces of everyone he's ever gotten sentenced to death onto it) suffered no sanctions despite blatantly violating the law to get him convicted:
The Mueller investigation is now looking into whether Roger Stone has a meeting with Julian Assange.
Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn) will not be seeking re-election in November, due to fallout from a scandal (her chief of staff was a domestic abuser, but she kept him on the payroll for months after this was known).
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/politics/elizabeth-esty-expedited-ethics-review/index.html
The district in question (the 5th) is only rated at D+2. The Dems have held it since 2006, usually winning by under 3%, though Esty won with 58% of the vote in 2016 (likely due to anti-Trump swing in a blue state).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut%27s_5th_congressional_district
edited 2nd Apr '18 4:29:12 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Lawyer who didn't join Trump team: I'm still playing his lawyer on TV and in real life
But the two continue to be in contact with both Trump and the president’s attorneys, diGenova said.
Di Genova praised Trump, calling the president “a stunning questioner” who is “extremely intelligent and incisive.”
“He knows everything that is going on around him. He has a complete understanding of the legal battlefield that he is facing,” diGenova said of Trump.
“Rod Rosenstein created a special counsel where none is authorized by law. When he appointed Robert Mueller, he named no predicate crime for which a special counsel is required to be appointed. He did it to cover his fanny,” said diGenova.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I hope when this crisis is over, the U.S. does more to combat false and misleading information. I remember something about Reagan putting an end to an act that required news media to have better standards. I hope that after Trump is gone this kind of thing doesn't keep happening. Looking at Russia and Egypt, I'm glad things haven't gotten that bad, yet, but it could.
Seriously, sometimes it feels like the only thing keeping things from going completely to hell is the number of people who refuse to be complacent, for good or ill, and all the checks and balances put into place, and the people who have respect for the law like Mueller.
edited 2nd Apr '18 4:48:26 PM by StarOutlaw
We also need to make education in media literacy a priority. Too many people think that Breitbart and "The Daily h-I mean Mail" et al are good sources of information.
@Mueller Investigation now looking into Rodger Stone's possible meetings with Assange
No wonder Nunberg was so freaked out when he was called to testify.
edited 2nd Apr '18 4:56:10 PM by megaeliz
I know what you mean. It's something that needs to be taught and emphasized in high school civics. I'm glad I had teachers who did so, who taught me the importance of the 1st Amendment as well as its limits. Having librarians for parents helps too.
Been meaning to ask, but has the end of net neutrality begun to show any significant effects yet? I don't really have faith that cable companies aren't going to exploit that.
edited 2nd Apr '18 4:54:26 PM by StarOutlaw
I figured as much. I also imagine that even if people notice, there's not much they can do since they need internet/tv. Best you can do is shop around for the best deal, but that's not always an option.
I've applied to a local ISP as a technician, maybe if I get the job I can find out if they're affected in some way.
It always get me how some people assume that without regulation, the spirit of capitalism will cause the companies that don't try to screw over customers to flourish because of the free market, when instead what seems to happen is every company tries to screw everyone quietly under the radar. Monopolies that regulations try to prevent also really undermine the whole free market idea.
edited 2nd Apr '18 5:18:18 PM by StarOutlaw
I saw a thing that said the full repeal or at least its effects wouldn't take hold until... Q3/Q4 of this year? I don't know, I lost the article and couldn't find it again, But yeah, even in the worst case scenario we'd have a little less than a month at this point to ramrod a fix through.
Of course, the wave of lawsuits should hold the effects up, hopefully until the political landscape is less... retarded sums it up, I feel.
Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.This is from Vanity Fair so take it how you will, but it seems to match up with other reporting. [1]
Now, according to four sources close to the White House, Trump is discussing ways to escalate his Twitter attacks on Amazon to further damage the company. “He’s off the hook on this. It’s war,” one source told me. “He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos,” said another source. “Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?”
According to sources, Trump wants the Post Office to increase Amazon’s shipping costs. When Trump previously discussed the idea inside the White Hose, Gary Cohn had explained that Amazon is a benefit to the Postal Service, which has seen mail volume plummet in the age of e-mail. “Trump doesn’t have Gary Cohn breathing down his neck saying you can’t do the Post Office shit,” a Republican close to the White House said. “He really wants the Post Office deal renegotiated. He thinks Amazon’s getting a huge fucking deal on shipping.”
Advisers are also encouraging Trump to cancel Amazon’s multi-billion contract with the Pentagon to provide cloud computing services, sources say. Another line of attack would be to encourage attorneys general in red states to open investigations into Amazon’s business practices. Sources say Trump is open to the ideas. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)
Even Trump’s allies acknowledge that much of what’s fueling Trump’s rage toward Amazon is that Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, sources said. “Trump doesn’t like The New York Times, but he reveres it because it’s his hometown paper. The Washington Post, he has zero respect for,” the Republican close to the White House said. While the Post says that Bezos has no involvement in newsroom decisions, Trump has told advisers he believes Bezos uses the paper as a political weapon. One former White House official said Trump looks at the Post the same way he looks at the National Enquirer. “When Bezos says he has no involvement, Trump doesn’t believe him. His experience is with the David Peckers of the world. Whether it’s right or wrong, he knows it can be done.”
Maybe it will distract him from Mueller?
edited 2nd Apr '18 5:23:43 PM by megaeliz

Wasn't the term "White House" coined by Teddy Roosevelt?
Also, Tippy-Top Shape?
edited 2nd Apr '18 1:49:58 PM by megaeliz