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Supercruz! - 7 Updates
Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy - 3 Updates
OT: Michael Hudson on Clinton v Trump - 5 Updates
No wonder why George W Bush, his bro Jeb, and McCain are stayin' home 'cause Thiel said Trump was right about the most important issue that concerns America today: It's time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild the country - 7 Updates
OT: Does this Webpage look OK? - 1 Update
Trump's casino scam - 1 Update
AO '09 Final: Federer- Nadal - 1 Update
Supercruz!
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:19PM +0300
24.7.2016, 16:11, bob kirjoitti:
> he is making speeches to get votes. you've no idea what he'd do.
You say it as it would be a good thing. This is the exact thing you are
criticizing Clinton of... changing opinions to fit the tide.
> you
> know what the clintons do.
Of course I do, they have been in politics for decades.
As for Trump, you're voting blindfolded.
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:27PM +0300
24.7.2016, 16:22, bob kirjoitti:
>> Really, asshole?
>> Go and vote Trump, asshole.
> wait - you're supporting the police shootings?
No he is not. He's saying that random police violence is not comparable
to systematic human rights violations by government.
In context...The first is something the country itself should look into
- the other may require intervention from other countries. So Skriptis'
claim that China could morally attack USA for police violence is bs.
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:32PM +0300
24.7.2016, 16:34, *skriptis kirjoitti:
> Kosovo which was a pretext for Nazi
> e.g. NATO bombings.
Yes, what a devious act from USA to stop the ethnic cleansing.
bob <bob@nospam.net>: Jul 24 11:03AM -0400
>24.7.2016, 16:11, bob kirjoitti:
>> he is making speeches to get votes. you've no idea what he'd do.
>You say it as it would be a good thing.
that's right.
> This is the exact thing you are criticizing Clinton of... changing opinions to fit the tide.
i'm criticizing clinton of having a longgg record with her husband in
public office and changing her POLICIES - i.e. ACTIONS - based on
whatever suits her and her chance to keep power. no matter the lying,
changing, thievery involved from the american public.
>> you know what the clintons do.
>Of course I do, they have been in politics for decades.
>As for Trump, you're voting blindfolded.
you're catching on...took a while, but better late than never. :-)
bob
calimero377@gmx.de: Jul 24 08:14AM -0700
On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 3:22:10 PM UTC+2, bob wrote:
> >Go and vote Trump, asshole.
> wait - you're supporting the police shootings? trump is a big police
> supporter too! i'm confused, you seem confused too!
I support the policeman who shot Michael Brown, yes.
He did no wrong.
> 749 whites (50% killed, 62% of overall population)
> 381 blacks (25%, 13%)
> 382 other (25%, 25%)
Blacks only 25 % of the people who were shot by police?
What is their percentage of murders, rapes, robberies committed?
Max
Carey <carey_1959@yahoo.com>: Jul 24 08:18AM -0700
On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 8:03:37 AM UTC-7, bob wrote:
> >As for Trump, you're voting blindfolded.
> you're catching on...took a while, but better late than never. :-)
> bob
:)
-CW
Gracchus <gracchado@gmail.com>: Jul 24 08:19AM -0700
On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 8:03:37 AM UTC-7, bob wrote:
> public office and changing her POLICIES - i.e. ACTIONS - based on
> whatever suits her and her chance to keep power. no matter the lying,
> changing, thievery involved from the american public.
And ambition without principle means there is nothing to anchor the Clintons' commitment to anything. Any hint of political danger and they set a new course, often contrary to the previous one. Thus you get nothing but partial measures, always in increments as not to jar anyone with their boldness or commit themselves beyond a point of no return. Aside from the obvious dishonesty, this is the worst part IMO.
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Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:50PM +0300
Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy
Washington Post)
By Editorial Board July 22
DONALD J. TRUMP, until now a Republican problem, this week became a
challenge the nation must confront and overcome. The real estate tycoon
is uniquely unqualified to serve as president, in experience and
temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not
substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis
of America's problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions. Mr.
Trump's politics of denigration and division could strain the bonds that
have held a diverse nation together. His contempt for constitutional
norms might reveal the nation's two-century-old experiment in checks and
balances to be more fragile than we knew.
Any one of these characteristics would be disqualifying; together, they
make Mr. Trump a peril. We recognize that this is not the usual moment
to make such a statement. In an ordinary election year, we would
acknowledge the Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention
and spend the following months, like other voters, evaluating the
candidates' performance in debates, on the stump and in position papers.
This year we will follow the campaign as always, offering honest views
on all the candidates. But we cannot salute the Republican nominee or
pretend that we might endorse him this fall. A Trump presidency would be
dangerous for the nation and the world.
Why are we so sure? Start with experience. It has been 64 years since a
major party nominated anyone for president who did not have electoral
experience. That experiment turned out pretty well — but Mr. Trump, to
put it mildly, is no Dwight David Eisenhower. Leading the Allied
campaign to liberate Europe from the Nazis required strategic and
political skills of the first order, and Eisenhower — though he liked to
emphasize his common touch as he faced the intellectual Democrat Adlai
Stevenson — was shrewd, diligent, humble and thoughtful.
Donald Trump painted a dark picture of America during his acceptance
speech at the Republican National Convention, but some of his doomsday
stats are rather dubious. The Post's Fact Checker examined 25 of his key
claims. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
In contrast, there is nothing on Mr. Trump's résumé to suggest he could
function successfully in Washington. He was staked in the family
business by a well-to-do father and has pursued a career marked by some
real estate successes, some failures and repeated episodes of saving his
own hide while harming people who trusted him. Given his continuing
refusal to release his tax returns, breaking with a long bipartisan
tradition, it is only reasonable to assume there are aspects of his
record even more discreditable than what we know.
The lack of experience might be overcome if Mr. Trump saw it as a
handicap worth overcoming. But he displays no curiosity, reads no books
and appears to believe he needs no advice. In fact, what makes Mr. Trump
so unusual is his combination of extreme neediness and unbridled
arrogance. He is desperate for affirmation but contemptuous of other
views. He also is contemptuous of fact. Throughout the campaign, he has
unspooled one lie after another — that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated
after 9/11, that his tax-cut plan would not worsen the deficit, that he
opposed the Iraq War before it started — and when confronted with
contrary evidence, he simply repeats the lie. It is impossible to know
whether he convinces himself of his own untruths or knows that he is
wrong and does not care. It is also difficult to know which trait would
be more frightening in a commander in chief.
Given his ignorance, it is perhaps not surprising that Mr. Trump offers
no coherence when it comes to policy. In years past, he supported
immigration reform, gun control and legal abortion; as candidate, he
became a hard-line opponent of all three. Even in the course of the
campaign, he has flip-flopped on issues such as whether Muslims should
be banned from entering the United States and whether women who have
abortions should be punished . Worse than the flip-flops is the absence
of any substance in his agenda. Existing trade deals are "stupid," but
Mr. Trump does not say how they could be improved. The Islamic State
must be destroyed, but the candidate offers no strategy for doing so.
Eleven million undocumented immigrants must be deported, but Mr. Trump
does not tell us how he would accomplish this legally or practically.
What the candidate does offer is a series of prejudices and gut
feelings, most of them erroneous. Allies are taking advantage of the
United States. Immigrants are committing crimes and stealing jobs.
Muslims hate America. In fact, Japan and South Korea are major
contributors to an alliance that has preserved a peace of enormous
benefit to Americans. Immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born
Americans and take jobs that no one else will. Muslims are the primary
victims of Islamist terrorism, and Muslim Americans, including thousands
who have served in the military, are as patriotic as anyone else.
The Trump litany of victimization has resonated with many Americans
whose economic prospects have stagnated. They deserve a serious
champion, and the challenges of inequality and slow wage growth deserve
a serious response. But Mr. Trump has nothing positive to offer, only
scapegoats and dark conspiracy theories. He launched his campaign by
accusing Mexico of sending rapists across the border, and similar
hatefulness has surfaced numerous times in the year since.
In a dangerous world, Mr. Trump speaks blithely of abandoning NATO,
encouraging more nations to obtain nuclear weapons and cozying up to
dictators who in fact wish the United States nothing but harm. For eight
years, Republicans have criticized President Obama for "apologizing" for
America and for weakening alliances. Now they put forward a candidate
who mimics the vilest propaganda of authoritarian adversaries about how
terrible the United States is and how unfit it is to lecture others. He
has made clear that he would drop allies without a second thought. The
consequences to global security could be disastrous.
Most alarming is Mr. Trump's contempt for the Constitution and the
unwritten democratic norms upon which our system depends. He doesn't
know what is in the nation's founding document. When asked by a member
of Congress about Article I, which enumerates congressional powers, the
candidate responded, "I am going to abide by the Constitution whether
it's number 1, number 2, number 12, number 9." The charter has seven
articles.
Worse, he doesn't seem to care about its limitations on executive power.
He has threatened that those who criticize him will suffer when he is
president. He has vowed to torture suspected terrorists and bomb their
innocent relatives, no matter the illegality of either act. He has vowed
to constrict the independent press. He went after a judge whose rulings
angered him, exacerbating his contempt for the independence of the
judiciary by insisting that the judge should be disqualified because of
his Mexican heritage. Mr. Trump has encouraged and celebrated violence
at his rallies. The U.S. democratic system is strong and has proved
resilient when it has been tested before. We have faith in it. But to
elect Mr. Trump would be to knowingly subject it to threat.
Mr. Trump campaigns by insult and denigration, insinuation and wild
accusation: Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy; Hillary Clinton may be guilty of murder; Mr.
Obama is a traitor who wants Muslims to attack. The Republican Party has
moved the lunatic fringe onto center stage, with discourse that renders
impossible the kind of substantive debate upon which any civil democracy
depends.
Most responsible Republican leaders know all this to be true; that is
why Mr. Trump had to rely so heavily on testimonials by relatives and
employees during this week's Republican convention. With one exception
(Bob Dole), the living Republican presidents and presidential nominees
of the past three decades all stayed away. But most current
officeholders, even those who declared Mr. Trump to be an unthinkable
choice only months ago, have lost the courage to speak out.
The party's failure of judgement leaves the nation's future where it
belongs, in the hands of voters. Many Americans do not like either
candidate this year . We have criticized the presumptive Democratic
nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the past and will do so again when
warranted. But we do not believe that she (or the Libertarian and Green
party candidates, for that matter) represents a threat to the
Constitution. Mr. Trump is a unique and present danger.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-a-unique-threat-to-american-democracy/2016/07/22/a6d823cc-4f4f-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most-draw8&wpmm=1
Carey <carey_1959@yahoo.com>: Jul 24 07:57AM -0700
On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 7:50:45 AM UTC-7, TT wrote:
> Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy>
From WaPo, who so helpfully gave us *sixteen negative
stories about Bernie Sanders in sixteen hours* one day.
Owned by Jeff Bezos; 'nuff said.
Standard Corporate $hilling.
calimero377@gmx.de: Jul 24 08:18AM -0700
On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 4:50:45 PM UTC+2, TT wrote:
> party candidates, for that matter) represents a threat to the
> Constitution. Mr. Trump is a unique and present danger.
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-a-unique-threat-to-american-democracy/2016/07/22/a6d823cc-4f4f-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most-draw8&wpmm=1
Where are the CIA "wet teams" when we need them?
Max
Back to top
OT: Michael Hudson on Clinton v Trump
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:36PM +0300
24.7.2016, 16:54, bob kirjoitti:
> suck on that a while TT.
I expect lack of professionalism on web design to the match lack of
professionalism on writing.
Carey <carey_1959@yahoo.com>: Jul 24 07:51AM -0700
On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 7:36:27 AM UTC-7, TT wrote:
> I expect lack of professionalism on web design to the match lack of
> professionalism on writing.
Can someone please parse this sentence? Thanks. :)
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:58PM +0300
24.7.2016, 17:51, Carey kirjoitti:
>> I expect lack of professionalism on web design to the match lack of
>> professionalism on writing.
> Can someone please parse this sentence? Thanks. :)
I expect content to match the web design. You're welcome.
bob <bob@nospam.net>: Jul 24 11:10AM -0400
>>> professionalism on writing.
>> Can someone please parse this sentence? Thanks. :)
>I expect content to match the web design. You're welcome.
why should the paragraphing in a web page be relevant to a simple
textual quote of an interview?
you a content type of guy or you like the pretty flowers?
bob
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 06:17PM +0300
24.7.2016, 18:10, bob kirjoitti:
>> I expect content to match the web design. You're welcome.
> why should the paragraphing in a web page be relevant to a simple
> textual quote of an interview?
I already said it. The site is unprofessional and I expect it to be that
on all aspects.
Back to top
No wonder why George W Bush, his bro Jeb, and McCain are stayin' home 'cause Thiel said Trump was right about the most important issue that concerns America today: It's time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild the country
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:16PM +0300
24.7.2016, 16:04, bob kirjoitti:
>> You'll be a fool if you think he wouldn't engage in wars. Just listen to
>> him, look at him...
> look at him? he has weird hair. you're a little rabid here TT.
I said look at him and listen to him...
>> stupid with the execution.
> my opinion is that hillary is a warmonger and is a puppet to other
> interests. just look at her. :-)
Ducking the dissonance, as expected.
>> What the FUCK are you talking about?
> you quoted a line. and you don't know what the "fuck" i'm responding
> to?
Now you're playing dumb...
Of course my intention was to say who the hell would be naive enough to
take Trump for his word.
>> hundreds of millions.
> trump has used laws, IMO bad laws, to his company's advantage over and
> over.
No, he has misused loopholes and trust.
> hillary clinton destroyed documents that she created for whitewater,
Links?
>> isn't in prison already. Oh wait, no it isn't... he settles the court
>> cases, with fraction of the money he stole.
> lol. and you say i'm the one reading biased press.
What the hell is wrong with you? What I wrote about his casino scam was
100% accurate, at least if we're to trust Washington Post...
Even had Trump's own quotes for you, again from Washington Post.
But hey, why don't you keep on pretending that Trump's business deals
are fair and square...
Or maybe read:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-its-stock-collapsed-trumps-firm-gave-him-huge-bonuses-and-paid-for-his-jet/2016/06/12/58458918-2766-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54_story.html
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:28PM +0300
24.7.2016, 16:04, bob kirjoitti:
> "like watching hitler himself." lol.
Indeed. As others pointed out: he was more like Mussolini.
bob <bob@nospam.net>: Jul 24 10:35AM -0400
>What the hell is wrong with you? What I wrote about his casino scam was
>100% accurate, at least if we're to trust Washington Post...
>Even had Trump's own quotes for you, again from Washington Post.
"if we're to trust the washington post."
lost me right there. anything out of washington, pertaining to trump,
is like gazelle's running when a cheetah is in sight, wildly flailing,
darting all over the place. washington is scared to death of trump.
finally.
>are fair and square...
>Or maybe read:
>https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-its-stock-collapsed-trumps-firm-gave-him-huge-bonuses-and-paid-for-his-jet/2016/06/12/58458918-2766-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54_story.html
i don't believe trump is the best businessman ever, i repeatedly say
he's a "decent" businessman. he's not in the tech industry, he didn't
invent facebook, he's a simple real estate developer. he invested in
local atlantic city at a time las vegas was booming to the seems and
took literally all business from atlantic city. so yes, atlantic city
went bust, resulted in bankrupcies.
again, trump is a businessman, not the best, not bad. and for a long
time, so there's a huge record to go on. surely you'll find lots of
disgruntled people and failed ventures out of that many. he's someone
who has used laws, many bad laws, to make the most money he can for
his companies. he's never run for office.
bob
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:41PM +0300
24.7.2016, 17:35, bob kirjoitti:
>> >https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-its-stock-collapsed-trumps-firm-gave-him-huge-bonuses-and-paid-for-his-jet/2016/06/12/58458918-2766-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54_story.html
> i don't believe trump is the best businessman ever, i repeatedly say
> he's a "decent" businessman.
No he fucking hell is not. READ THE ARTICLE!
bob <bob@nospam.net>: Jul 24 10:56AM -0400
>> i don't believe trump is the best businessman ever, i repeatedly say
>> he's a "decent" businessman.
>No he fucking hell is not. READ THE ARTICLE!
i'll read this one, but don't quote me the washington post again. i
won't read it, i'm doing it now just once as a favor cause i like you.
i read it. very poorly written, and full of disgruntled investors.
first of all, as someone who invests periodically myself, i know for a
fact that it is a risk, a gamble. can go down any time. and companies
have board's that will remove bad upper mgt if necessary. if someone
invested in trump's company wihtout reading the prospectus, without
understanding details of how trump or anyone else could be removed by
the shareholder elected board, then they made a mistake. and btw,
trump didn't buy the casinos with intent for them to fail or to scam
anyone, like clintons did with whitewater. trump's $5mil salary, while
i don't condone it, didn't bring his jersey casinos down. las vegas
did.
bob
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 06:08PM +0300
24.7.2016, 17:56, bob kirjoitti:
> i don't condone it, didn't bring his jersey casinos down. las vegas
> did.
> bob
You're hopeless. The article wasn't about his salary really, while it
certainly is outrageous.
Trump was nominated CEO of the company after which he sold to it his own
casinos, overpriced... after which the company bankrupted with 1,8
billion debt. Trump even said he didn't care about anybody but himself.
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 06:14PM +0300
24.7.2016, 18:08, TT kirjoitti:
> trump didn't buy the casinos with intent for them to fail or to scam
> anyone
Of course, but that's not the point... he sold his unsuccessful casinos
to a company which he himself was entrusted to manage.
Back to top
OT: Does this Webpage look OK?
Carey <carey_1959@yahoo.com>: Jul 24 08:13AM -0700
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/wikileaks-trove-plunges-democrats-into-crisis-on-eve-of-convetion-20160723-gqcamq.html
Back to top
Trump's casino scam
TT <ascii@dprk.kp>: Jul 24 05:57PM +0300
As its stock collapsed, Trump's firm gave him huge bonuses and paid for
his jet
It was promoted as the chance of a lifetime: Mom-and-pop investors could
buy shares in celebrity businessman Donald Trump's first public company,
Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts.
Their investments were quickly depleted. The company known by Trump's
initials, DJT, crumbled into a penny stock and filed for bankruptcy
after less than a decade, costing shareholders millions of dollars, even
as other casino companies soared.
In its short life, Trump the company greatly enriched Trump the
businessman, paying to have his personal jet piloted and buying heaps of
Trump-brand merchandise. Despite losing money every year under Trump's
leadership, the company paid Trump handsomely, including a $5 million
bonus in the year the company's stock plummeted 70 percent.
Many of those who lost money were Main Street shareholders who believed
in the Trump brand, such as Sebastian Pignatello, a retired private
investor in Queens. By the time of the 2004 bankruptcy, Pignatello's
150,000 shares were worth pennies on the dollar.
"He had been pillaging the company all along," said Pignatello, who
joined shareholders in a lawsuit against Trump that has since been
settled. "Even his business allies, they were all fair game. He has no
qualms about screwing anybody. That's what he does."
Trump's gamble: A failed bet in Atlantic City Play Video5:59
In 1990, Donald Trump opened the largest and most lavish casino-hotel
complex in Atlantic City. Unlike any other casino in America, the Trump
Taj Mahal was expected to break every record in the books. But just
several months later, it all fell apart. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)
Trump's bid for the White House relies heavily on his ability to sell
himself as a master businessman, a standout performer in real estate and
reality TV.
But interviews with former shareholders and analysts as well as years of
financial filings reveal a striking characteristic of his business
record: Even when his endeavors failed and other people lost money, the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee found a way to make money
for himself, to market his Trump-branded products and to pay for his
expensive lifestyle.
Trump was the chairman of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts in Atlantic
City from 1995 to 2009, his only outing as the head of a major public
company. During that time, the company lost more than $1 billion,
financial records show. He also was chief executive from 2000 to 2005,
during which time share prices plunged from a high of $35 to as low as
17 cents.
Trump received more than $44 million in salary, bonuses and other
compensation during his time at the company, filings show. He also
benefited from tens of millions of dollars more in special deals,
advisory fees and "service agreements" he negotiated with his company.
Trump's campaign did not make him available to respond to specific
questions about the company, but in a recent Washington Post interview,
Trump said he "made a lot of money in Atlantic City," adding, "I make
great deals for myself."
He expounded: "They say, 'Why don't you take the casinos public or
something?' You know, if you take them public, you make money on that.
All I can say is I wasn't representing the country. I wasn't
representing the banks. I wasn't representing anybody but myself."
Corporate governance experts say it's rare for executives of public
companies to suggest that they haven't been looking out for the
shareholders who financed them.
"When companies go public, when they first invite investors in . . .
they say: 'I promise you, you will come first. We are here to create
shareholder value, and that's why you should trust us,' " said Nell
Minow, the vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, which advises shareholders
on corporate governance issues. "For them to say, 'I don't really care
about you,' it's basically your [sell] signal. Who's going to make sure
my interests as a shareholder are going to be protected?"
Whatever price he wanted
Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts started out as a holding company that
owned the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, and then it
steadily added other Trump properties.
Because it was publicly traded, Trump could sell shares and quickly
raise money while other corners of his empire were in distress.
Virtually all of Trump's other businesses are privately held, so key
information about their performance is hidden from view.
The company began advertising its public offering of stock in 1995,
saying shareholders would benefit from "the widespread recognition of
the 'Trump' name and its association with high quality amenities and
first class service."
When it debuted that year on the New York Stock Exchange, Trump's
company raised $140 million from investors, at $14 a share, and said the
money would go toward expanding the Plaza and developing a riverboat
casino in Indiana.
But much of that money went to pay off tens of millions of dollars in
loans Trump had personally guaranteed, filings show. Those loans were
taken out before the company went public, but Trump's private fortune
could have been at risk if they went unpaid.
The company got off to an encouraging start. An improving national
economy and an upturn in Atlantic City gambling helped shares soar to a
peak of $35 in 1996. That boosted the value of Trump's stake in the
company and helped him return to the Forbes 400 list — the magazine's
ranking of America's wealthiest people — for the first time since 1989.
The early success didn't last long. In less than a year, the company
paid premium prices for two of Trump's deeply indebted, privately held
casinos, the Trump Taj Mahal and the Trump Castle. In essence, he was
both buyer and seller, able to set whatever price he wanted. The company
bought his Castle for $100 million more than analysts said it was worth.
Trump pocketed $880,000 in cash after arranging the deal, financial
filings show.
By the end of 1996, shareholders who had bet on a rosy Trump future were
now investors in a company with $1.7 billion of Trump's old debt. The
company was forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on
interest payments, more than the casinos brought in, securities filings
show. The unprofitable company couldn't afford the upgrades it needed to
compete with newer gambling rivals.
Spooked investors fled the company in 1996, sending its share price down
to $12. As millions of dollars in shareholder value evaporated, the
company gave Trump a $7 million pay package, including a 71 percent
raise to his salary, financial filings show. Trump defended his
compensation by telling the Wall Street Journal, "Other than the stock
price, we're doing great."
"He ran these companies into the ground," Graef Crystal, an
executive-pay consultant who watched the company at the time, said in an
interview.
As the company spiraled downward, it continued to pay for Trump's
luxuries. Between 1998 and 2005, it spent more than $6 million to
"entertain high-end customers" on Trump's plane and golf courses and
about $2 million to maintain his personal jet and have it piloted, a
Post analysis of company filings shows.
Trump also steered the company toward deals with the rest of the
Trump-brand empire. Between 2006 and 2009, the company bought $1.7
million of Trump-brand merchandise, including $1.2 million of Trump Ice
bottled water, the analysis shows.
"If you're chairman of the company, there have to be safeguards to avoid
that kind of blatant self-dealing," said Pignatello, who said he lost
tens of thousands of dollars in the investment. "He was milking the
company."
A 'basket of goodies'
The grand promises and boasting Trump had become famous for as a private
businessman became a source of tension with public investors. Wall
Street traders spoke of the "Donald discount" to highlight the gap
between what Trump promised and what they believed his stock was
actually worth.
Trump said in 1997 that he was "the biggest there is in the casino
business." But that March, when the stock was trading at a quarter of
its price 10 months before, Chase bond analyst Steve Ruggiero said the
company wasn't "forthcoming" about its financial performance with
analysts, which he said "raises suspicions."
The company at times ran into trouble. In 1998, the U.S. Treasury fined
one of the Trump casinos $477,000 for failing to file reports designed
to help guard against money laundering. Trump did not comment then on
the action. The company agreed last year to pay a $10 million civil
penalty after regulators found that it had continued to violate the
reporting and record-keeping requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act.
In 2000, Trump and his partners paid $250,000 to settle a case brought
by New York state alleging that they had secretly funded an ad blitz
opposing the opening of competing casinos in the Catskill Mountains.
"It's been settled. We're happy it all worked out nicely," Trump said then.
In 2002, federal securities regulators issued a cease-and-desist order
against the company, saying it had misled shareholders by publishing a
news release with numbers "deceptively" skewed to appear more upbeat.
The company said it quickly corrected the error and was not fined. Trump
defended the release by saying it "was just a statement that was too
verbose."
The company lost money every year of Trump's leadership, and its share
price suffered. A shareholder who bought $100 of DJT shares in 1995
could sell them for about $4 in 2005. The same investment in MGM Resorts
would have increased in value to about $600.
In 2004, the year Trump took home a $1.5 million salary, stock-exchange
officials froze trading in the company — and, later, delisted it
entirely — as word spread that it was filing for bankruptcy because of
about $1.8 billion in debt.
Under the company's Chapter 11 reorganization plan, shareholders' stake
in the company shrunk from roughly 40 percent to about 5 percent. Trump,
meanwhile, would remain chairman – and receive a $2 million annual
salary, a $7.5 million beachfront tract in Atlantic City and a personal
stake in the company's Miss Universe pageant.
"I don't think it's a failure. It's a success," Trump said in 2004 about
the bankruptcy. "The future looks very good."
Shareholders sued, saying in court filings that the "sweetheart deal"
amounted to a "basket of goodies" for Trump. "Chairmen of public
companies usually don't celebrate when millions of dollars of
shareholder equity are being wiped out," attorneys wrote in a court
filing that year. "Donald Trump apparently does."
Trump settled, agreeing to give creditors $17.5 million in cash and the
proceeds from an auction of the Atlantic City land.
Trump has said he had no regrets about the company's performance.
"Entrepreneurially speaking, not necessarily from the standpoint of
running a company but from an entrepreneur's standpoint, [the stock
offering] was one of the great deals," he told Fortune in 2004.
The 'imperial CEO'
Company decisions were, as in most public companies, approved by a board
of directors. None of the original directors responded to requests for
comment. Trump wrote in his book "Trump: Surviving at the Top" that he
"personally didn't like answering to a board of directors."
Charles Elson, the director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate
Governance at the University of Delaware, said that Trump exemplified
the corporate-American role once known as the "imperial CEO": an
unchallenged, dominant leader who singlehandedly steered the company.
"The CEO ran the show . . . and the board was the creature of the CEO,"
Elson said. "These days, it's very different," he added, because of a
shift toward greater oversight from company directors and the increasing
presence of activist shareholders.
One later director was close to Trump: his daughter. Ivanka Trump was
named to the board of directors in 2007, when she was 26 and had been
working for two years at her father's private company, the Trump
Organization. The public company paid her $188,861 in cash and stock
awards that year, filings show. Representatives for Ivanka Trump
declined to comment.
Ivanka and Donald Trump both resigned from the company in 2009, after
Trump declared in a statement that he strongly disagreed with
bondholders who had been pushing the company to file again for bankruptcy.
"The company has represented for quite some time substantially less than
1 percent of my net worth, and my investment in it is worthless to me
now," Trump said at the time.
The company, now called Trump Entertainment Resorts, never escaped its
crippling debt and filed for bankruptcy twice more, in 2009 and 2014.
Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor Trump has called a friend, took
control of the public company this year.
Trump's corporate reign was disruptive enough to give even his biggest
supporters pause. Jimmy Mullins, a Trump superfan who once paid for
specialty "TRMP 1" license plates, said he bought some of the company's
first publicly traded shares believing that Trump would lead the casinos
to glory. "How could you lose money at a casino?" Mullins said in a
recent interview.
But in 2009, after losing money, Mullins told the Press of Atlantic City
newspaper: "He let us down. . . . I could have bought another [car].
That's how much money I lost in this company."
Mullins, now 64 and working part time at a catering hall in New York,
said Trump called him after the story appeared and offered him
complimentary hotel stays at the casino. Mullins said he was upset when
interviewed in 2009 but no longer feels that way. He said he intends to
vote for Trump for president.
"Other people did lose money," Mullins said. "But he took care of me."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-its-stock-collapsed-trumps-firm-gave-him-huge-bonuses-and-paid-for-his-jet/2016/06/12/58458918-2766-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54_story.html
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...And that may be just tip of the iceberg... as we see from his Trump
University etc... plus his unwillingness to release his tax returns.
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AO '09 Final: Federer- Nadal
John Liang <jliang70@gmail.com>: Jul 24 07:30AM -0700
On Saturday, July 23, 2016 at 11:00:50 AM UTC+10, bob wrote:
> i'd love to see rafa win more. i just don't see it. his only chance
> was this FO, and IMO djok would've beaten him anyway.
> bob
From a Federer hater and Sampras fan to a Nadal lover, I can see the natural transition because Federer was the guy that should be playing second fiddle to Sampras on steroid ended up breaking most of the record that Sampras held. We all know deep inside both you and whimp hate the type and style of the game. bob, you and whimp are fake Nadal fans, I don't like TT much but at least he is a true Nadal fan that always believe Nadal was the best.
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