#Real estate mogul to president

[newsepick]

From Real Estate to the White House: The Journey of Donald Trump Read ahead to know the journey of Donald Trump, from real estate mogul to U.S. president- a testament to his bold ambition, and how he has been instrumental in reshaping American politics. Read More :

https://newsepick.com/flash-cards/from-real-estate-to-the-white-house-the-journey-of-donald-trump

[scintillyyy]

does the gotham city baseball park have an official name?

well, whatever i'm sure it changed after NML anyways so let's brainstorm what the park's name *should* be.

wayne field/wayne stadium is the boring but most likely answer given that bruce probably picked up a controlling interesting in the teak after NML if he didn't already have it before. but in the interest of not making gotham more of a wayne entereprises monopoly than it already is-

luthor field is also boring to me but plausible for at least a little bit between the NML period when he bought up a bunch of gotham and lex luthor faking his death after becoming president. also i assume bruce wouldn't let him keep the controlling interest for long. but maybe they had this name for a season.

o'shaughnnessy's stadium (or, sigh, batburger stadium is current continuity) makes sense given it's a local business but also a franchise (who like to own things). i like this one personally. even if they don't get it, an o'shaughnessy's should be present on every level of the stadium imo. on that note. sundollar stadium would probably also work.

cobblepot stadium. hey, if he can own the iceberg loungue he can own the baseball stadium.

kane park/kane stadium. makes sense for the same reason wayne stadium does. and is slightly better imo.

davenport park. local real estate mogul should get to own the stadium for a season. he deserves a sports investment that probably fails on him.

ace chemical processing park--it's a historic business okay

"whatever the man bank in gotham is called" stadium. banks like to own baseball parks too okay.

zestico, inc park. no notes, this one wins.

[mrs-stans]

Sebastian Stan’s Variety ‘Actors on Actors’ Halted Because No Other Talent Wants to Talk About Trump

No talent that could be paired with him for the video series wants to address Trump or Stan's film "The Apprentice" at all, Stan said. Variety has now confirmed this to IndieWire.

BY CHRISTIAN BLAUVELT

Sebastian Stan said in a post-screening Q&A of his film “The Apprentice” Tuesday night that his participation in Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” video and TV series is halted because no other actor wants to talk about Trump. Stan plays the president-elect in the Ali Abbasi film that covers Trump’s early years and rise to initial prominence as a Manhattan real-estate mogul.

Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh confirms that this is indeed the case to IndieWire. “What Sebastian said is accurate,” Setoodeh said in a statement. “We invited him to participate in ‘Actors on Actors,’ the biggest franchise of awards season, but other actors didn’t want to pair with him because they didn’t want to talk about Donald Trump.”

In his remarks, captured on video and posted on Twitter, Stan said that he thinks this refusal to engage at all with Trump as a subject is unfortunate, and even bad for the country.

“The amount of love that I’ve received from some of the biggest — both of us I think [referring to Abbasi] — in terms of actors, directors, producers, writers who’ve seen the movie and rave about it… But then, for instance, I had an offer to do Variety’s ‘Actor on Actor’ [sic] this Friday, and I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me because they were too afraid to go and talk about this movie, so I couldn’t do it. And it doesn’t matter, that’s OK, that’s not to point a finger at anybody. That’s not pointing at anyone specific, we couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them because they were too afraid to talk about this movie.

“That’s when I think we lose the situation because if it really becomes that fear or discomfort to talk about this then we’re really going to have a problem. There was an op-ed in the New York Times recently that I thought was really interesting, which said that ‘we have to stop pretending that Trump is not one of us.’ And that’s a really difficult thing to deal with at the moment, and I understand the emotions are very high, but I think that’s the only way you’re going to grasp this film. All it’s saying is you cannot keep casting this person aside, especially after they get the popular vote. Should we not give this a closer look and try to understand what it is about this person that’s even driving that. I don’t know if the love is gonna translate into action, but it’s certainly there from what we’re hearing.”

Needless to say, “The Apprentice” does not present a flattering portrayal of Trump. It shows him involved in various grotesque moments — and goes so far as to show him raping his first wife Ivana. Stan has been publicly critical of Trump himself but has stressed the need to engage with why we got here. The refusal to engage with the subject at all since Trump won the presidency aligns with other recent trends, such as the massive ratings collapse that MSNBC has suffered post-election.

[comeonamericawakeup]

• Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein called himself Donald Trump's "closest friend" and accused the former president of being a "horrible human being" who delighted in cuckolding his friends, according to a 2017 recording released by The Daily Beast last week. That 1-hour, 44-minute interview was recorded by journalist Michael Wolff during research for his book on Trump, Fire and Fury; Wolff said he recorded 100 hours of interviews with Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019. On tape, the disgraced financier claims Trump first slept with his third wife, Melania, on the "Lolita Express" - Epstein's private jet - and said the real estate mogul was a serial cheat who loved to "f- the wives of his best friends." Epstein also claims Trump had scalp reduction surgery for baldness, and was "functionally illiterate." Asked how he knows all this, Epstein replies: "I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years."

THE WEEK November 15, 2024

[soon-palestine]

Who Is the Egyptian Tycoon Accused of Charging Palestinians to Escape Gaza?

Ibrahim al-Organi has close connections with the Egyptian government, diplomats say, and he has multiple business interests in Gaza.

By Vivian Yee, Emad Mekay and Adam Rasgon Vivian Yee and Emad Mekay reported from Cairo, and Adam Rasgon from Jerusalem.

June 20, 2024, 5:49 a.m. ET

He is an Egyptian mogul who is little known outside the region.

The tycoon, Ibrahim al-Organi, chairman of Organi Group, oversees a vast network of companies involved in construction, real estate and security. He maintains close connections to top Egyptian officials, three people who have tracked the relationship and who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their work in the region.

But it is Hala — a company that Organi Group has listed as one of its own — that has drawn the most scrutiny.

Hala has emerged as a lifeline for Palestinians who are trying to escape war-torn Gaza but has also been accused of squeezing desperate people with exorbitant fees.

In an interview this month, Mr. Organi spoke at length and in detail about Hala’s activities, though he said that his role in the company was limited and that he was just one of many shareholders.

Officials at Hala did not respond to questions sent by email.

What is Hala?

Hala had long been listed on Organi Group’s website as one of the conglomerate’s companies, but the reference appeared to have been removed recently.

Organi Group did not respond to a request for comment about why it had removed Hala from the website. Organi Group has at least eight businesses. The company lists Mr. Organi as its chairman and his son, Essameldin Organi, as the chief executive.

The older Mr. Organi, according to the company’s website, has built “a diverse business empire acting as an inseparable backbone to the Egyptian economy in countless fields.”

In the interview in his office in Cairo, Mr. Organi described Hala as a tourism company, “just like any company that exists at an airport.”

It was set up in 2017, he said, to provide V.I.P. services to Palestinian travelers who wanted an upgraded experience crossing through Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza. At the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in February.

Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters According to people who paid for its services during the war, Hala has charged most Gazans older than 16 years $5,000, and most of those younger than 16 half that, $2,500, to coordinate their exits. They also said V.I.P. service was missing. Mr. Organi says Hala charges $2,500 per adult — and nothing for children.

What are the mogul’s ties to Gaza?

Mr. Organi was born in 1974 in the Egyptian border town of Sheikh Zuweid near Gaza.

He says he is merely a shareholder or partner in any companies with business relating to Gaza. But in the interview, he said his companies played a key role in the reconstruction in Gaza, including the removal of rubble, after a previous round of war between Israel and Hamas in 2021. Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing. 

His Instagram account features several videos that show earth-moving equipment clearing destroyed buildings in Gaza City in 2021. Text below many videos note that the work was being carried out based on the “instructions from President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.”

Mr. Organi also leases trucks to aid groups transporting supplies into the territory and procures some of those same supplies. Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that led to the war, Mr. Organi appeared at the border between Egypt and Gaza and pledged to support Palestinians in Gaza. “We won’t hesitate,” he said in remarks broadcast by the Egyptian news media. “They are our brothers.” Mr. Organi also says he is in talks about potentially participating in Gaza’s reconstruction after the war.

How is he linked to the Egyptian government?

Mr. Organi has maintained close relationships with members of the Egyptian government, using his influence to advance his business interests, according to two diplomats familiar with the matter. He was already a well-known businessman in Sinai when he rose to prominence in the 2010s after he partnered with the Egyptian military to fight militants in the peninsula who claimed affiliation with the Islamic State.

Trucks waiting near the Rafah border crossing in Egypt last month.

In the interview, Mr. Organi said he had led the Sinai Tribes’ Union, a statebacked group that helped to fight the militants in the peninsula.“God helped us gather the tribes again under the banner of the Union and put me as the head,” he said. “We decided to help the government wipe out terror groups completely.”

In 2022, Mr. el-Sisi appointed Mr. Organi as one of two nongovernment members on the Sinai Development Authority, which is responsible for development initiatives in the peninsula.

Mr. Organi recently announced that he, along with other tribal figures, would build a city named for Mr. elSisi in Sinai. He said that did not mean he had a special relationship with the president, and that others were involved. “We are known for strongly supporting President Sisi and we love him,” Mr. Organi said, “but it’s not that we are the only ones.”

Vivian Yee is a Times reporter covering North Africa and the broader Middle East. She is based in Cairo.

Yee Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.

[bueckersverse]

Hey, sincerely asking. What do you think will happen should trump win?

hi! thanks for asking 🙃

shit will get expensive for people who are not millionares because of trumps tax that benefits the wealthy.

also project 2025 as it states at aclu.org

"Project 2025 is a federal policy agenda and blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch authored and published by former Trump administration officials in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank that opposes abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity."

i personally don't want to fear for my right to love a woman, and my rights and my families rights because were mexican. i also want to have rights for my own body for reproduction.

MASS DEPORTATIONS

Targeting immigrant communities through mass deportations and raids, ending birthright citizenship, separating families, and dismantling our nation’s asylum system.

i personally dont want to see my family getting deported, im not sure if my birthright citizenship would also be at risk but id assume so.

What Are Donald Trump’s Connections to Project 2025?

Project 2025 was published by The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank with direct ties to former President Trump’s administration. Though Trump has falsely claimed he is not connected to Project 2025, a recent report from CNN found at least 140 people who worked on Project 2025 previously worked in the Trump administration. The Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts also previously worked on President Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has described his organization’s role as “institutionalizing Trumpism.”

he claims to not have anything to do with project 2025 but he is a liar.

ROLLING BACK TRANS RIGHTS

Weaponizing federal law to require states and private actors to discriminate against transgender people by threatening to sue schools that protect the rights of trans students or telling hospitals that they would lose their Medicaid funding if they provide gender-affirming medical care to trans adolescents

why are we going back in time? he literally wants to abolish so many rights that people fought so hard to have

"If Donald Trump wants to make America great again, as his oft-repeated slogan promises, then that leads to the question: When was the last time America was actually great?

Trump has an answer. In an interview with The New York Times published Saturday, the real estate mogul was asked when the country last reached the GOP front-runner's lofty ideal -- as a reporter asked, when do "you think the United States last had the right balance, either in terms of defense footprint or in terms of trade?"

The answer, Trump explained, was during periods of military and industrial expansion at the onset of the 20th century and again in the years after World War II."

the years after world war II?

Truman announced Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. The news spread quickly and celebrations erupted across the United States. On September 2, 1945, formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri, designating the day as the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day).

world war two ended 1945

In the 1950s-1980s, women often lacked the right to full control over their finances, property ownership, career choices, reproductive decisions, equal pay, protection from workplace discrimination, and were often expected to prioritize domestic duties over professional ambitions, with societal pressure to primarily be wives and mothers, limiting their participation in politics and other public spheres; they also faced restrictions on access to credit and the ability to make legal contracts without their husband's consent in many cases.

Key points about women's limited rights in this period:

Limited employment opportunities:

Many jobs were considered "men's work" and women were often pushed towards traditionally female roles like secretarial work, with lower pay compared to men doing similar jobs.

Husband's legal authority:

Married women often had limited legal rights, with husbands having significant control over their finances and property.

Restrictions on reproductive choices:

Access to contraception and abortion was often limited or heavily regulated, with societal pressure to prioritize motherhood.

Discrimination in credit and loans:

Women often faced difficulty obtaining credit cards or loans without a male co-signer.

Lack of protection from sexual harassment

Legal protections against sexual harassment in the workplace were largely absent.

Limited representation in politics:

Women were significantly underrepresented in political leadership positions.

why would we want to vote for someone who wants to take us back in time to a point where we were restricted of so many things?

thats why i dont want trump to win cause if he said himself he had a part in overturning roe v wade imagine what else he would do with another 4 years of presidency.

(please reblog so this gains more traction so people know that trump is legit not a good candidate or person at all)

[mariacallous]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-massad-boulos-will-serve-adviser-arab-middle-eastern-affairs-2024-12-01/

Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders during the election campaign.

It was the second time in recent days that Trump chose the father-in-law of one of his children to serve in his administration.

On Saturday, Trump said that he had picked his son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, real estate mogul Charles Kushner, to serve as U.S. ambassador to France.

In recent months, Boulos campaigned for Trump to drum up Lebanese and Arab American support, even as the U.S.-backed Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

...

Particularly notable is his ability to maintain relations with Hezbollah, they say. The Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim party has a large number of seats in Lebanon's parliament and ministers in the government.

Boulos is a friend of Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian ally of Hezbollah and its candidate for Lebanon's presidency. He is also in touch with the Lebanese Forces Party, a vehemently anti-Hezbollah Christian faction, the sources say, and has ties to independent lawmakers.

Aron Lund, fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, said Boulos was well placed to influence Trump's Middle East policy after playing a small but significant role in expanding Trump's appeal to Arab American and Muslim voters during the campaign.

"Boulos' Lebanese political past gives no real indication of a geostrategic or even national vision, but it demonstrates ambition and a set of political allies that will stand out in Trump's circle like a sore thumb," Lund wrote.

[darkmaga-returns]

Donald Trump has launched his second presidential term with a “flood the zone” strategy designed to overwhelm the left before it can mount a response. The real estate mogul, aware of how a hostile media and entrenched Washington bureaucracy hindered his first term, is using the overwhelming mandate from voters to build early momentum.

Among Trump’s many promises, none mattered more to his supporters than swift and substantive action on immigration. His first-week strategy shows he took that commitment seriously. In just seven days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted nationwide raids, arresting thousands of illegal immigrants. Authorities prioritized the most dangerous offenders, ensuring gang members, drug traffickers, and child predators were swiftly removed. The speed of these removals raises one clear question: Was the Biden administration allowing violent illegal aliens to terrorize American citizens?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lauren Aratani at The Observer:

An elderly billionaire goes to war with his adult children over the future of his media empire. His only ally is his eldest son, crowned leader of his father’s enterprise after years of jostling with his siblings. In choosing a successor, the patriarch spurns three of his other children, who remain threats: when he dies, they will each have just as much power as the eldest son to shape his companies, potentially against the rightwing ideologies that have guided them for decades.

Away from the public eye, he makes a dramatic move. To deliver control to his eldest son, the mogul quietly launches an extraordinary bid to alter the trust set to hand the other three influence upon his death. But they stand ready to fight. This may sound akin to HBO’s Succession, but it’s life imitating art – which was, in turn, imitating life. Rupert Murdoch, 93, the billionaire owner of News Corp and Fox Corporation who helped inspire the show, is trying to give his eldest son, Lachlan, full control of his media outlets upon his death. While his other adult children – James, Elisabeth and Prudence – will still receive equal shares of company profits, this would leave them with no say over the companies upon his death.

This battle is in fact bigger than anything featured on Succession, according to Robert Thompson, a media scholar based at Syracuse University. “This is arguably the single most influential media outlet in all of the English-speaking world,” he said of News Corp and Fox. “How this turns out has a real, significant impact on real people living on planet Earth.” News Corp owns more than a hundred major and local newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the US, as well as the Times and the Sun in the UK. Meanwhile, Fox is the parent of Fox News, the leading conservative cable network in the US, with millions of viewers.

The Murdochs’ legal fight played out in secret for months – until Wednesday, when it burst into the open. The New York Times reported on a decision from a Nevada probate commissioner, which is under seal, that Murdoch can rewrite his family’s irrevocable trust if he can prove the change is being made in good faith and benefits his heirs. The ruling sets the stage for a high-profile trial over the future of his vast array of media interests, with Murdoch and his three children slated to duke it out in court in September.

Both sides, according to the Times, have bulked up on high-profile lawyers. William Barr, the former US attorney general, is helping Murdoch rewrite the trust, and he has also hired Adam Streisand, a trial lawyer who previously worked on estate cases involving Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. The feuding appears to have taken its toll on the family. When Rupert married his fifth wife in California last month, Lachlan was said to have been the only one of his four eldest children in attendance. The other two also reportedly steered clear.

With Lachlan as his father’s successor, Fox News and News Corp will continue to be a conservative force. But under the trust’s current structure, the three other siblings, who are deemed more politically moderate, can push back. Murdoch is seemingly keen to avoid this prospect. Conservatism has been the backbone of his empire since its inception. It has proved to be remarkably profitable.

Though Murdoch had successfully formed relationships with powerful conservative figures in Australia and the UK, it was not until Donald Trump’s ascendancy that he had close ties to the White House. Though Fox was initially dismissive of Trump, the network soon turned into his most powerful megaphone. In turn, Murdoch had direct access to a commander-in-chief. Not all of Murdoch’s children were happy about this. During Trump’s presidency, Elisabeth, Prudence and James started to drift away from their father’s politics.

When Roger Ailes, the longtime Fox CEO, left the company in 2016 off the back of multiple sexual harassment allegations, James reportedly believed he could push the network in a new direction, bringing in an experienced executive who was less of an ideologue. Instead, the elder Murdoch took over as chair himself.

In the summer of 2020, James – once a senior executive at News Corp – announced he was resigning from the board over “disagreements over certain editorial content”. He and his wife, Kathryn, were particularly vocal about the climate crisis and seemed to resent Fox News and News Corp’s climate denialism. “We’ve been arguing about politics since I was a teenager,” James told the Times in 2020, about his father. In 2020, James and his wife donated more than $600,000 to Biden’s campaign. Murdoch eventually crowned Lachlan as his successor. While Lachlan does not speak publicly about his personal political views, reports have said they usually lean more conservative than his father’s. And while Lachlan appears less interested than his father in political influence, he cares about profit. And Trump has been profitable.

The Observer (the Sunday version of The Guardian) has an illuminating piece on the Murdoch media empire, and how Rupert Murdoch is going to war over who gets to succeed him upon his death by rewriting the trust to benefit stridently right-wing Lachlan at the expense of the other three (and less right-wing) children.

[murfeelee]

IWTV 2022 INSP - The Most Dangerous Man in the World

Daniel: I told my editor I was meeting with the most dangerous man in the world. Gave him two choices. He came back with Bezos and Putin! Louis: I wasn't sure you'd remembered me. Your book makes no mention of our prior meeting. Daniel: Gritty memoir, drugs, humiliation, self-pity kind of thing. Mention vampires in one of those, readers tend to call bulls***. You've got your own hangar at the airport, privileges on the Royal Meydan Bridge, and zero presence online. I know the Emirates are big on privacy, and that's probably important to you, but I gotta ask: what does it cost, this haven't-aged-in-half-a-century, killer views in all directions anonymity? Louis: Quite a lot. I have to be very careful whom I let in. Daniel: Yeah, well, things didn't end well the last time, so forgive me if I'm a little nervous! Louis: Back in San Francisco, you said, and I paraphrase, "Give it to me. Make me a vampire now." Daniel: In the eyes of a 20-year-old, you were wasting the gift. Louis: You're in your 20s, Rashid. What do you think? Rashid: Well, Mr. du Lac presides in the most desired real estate in the country. I do not see the "waste" Mr. Molloy sees. Daniel: Yeah, well, he lived in a dump the last time we did this. Louis: I'd give it to you now.

– Interview with the Vampire, S01E01, S01E06

MY THOUGHTS & CC CREDITS

MY THOUGHTS

My contribution to @iwtvfanevents' Vampterview rewatch of IWTV Season 1! \(^0^)/ I basically rebuilt Loumand's Dubai Penthouse from scratch, cuz in my other post it was on the same lot as Loustat's 1132 townhouse. 🤭 And I decided to remake my Daniel & Rashid/Armand sims, cuz I was too lazy to crack open my old saves and save a copy of them to my bin. So...yeah, "a do-over," in Daniel's words. XD

I just love thinking about Louis' strange life as a billionaire mogul, and how AMC's nodding to the life he had with Armand in Miami & NYC in the books, and the life he now has with "Rashid" in Dubai. I have many suspicions about what went down to bring Loumand to Dubai, and where in the books' timeline we even are. I need answers, Rolin!!!!

CC CREDITS

Dubai world; Zen Tower at Youtube (I just gutted the interior)

Limo by FreshPrince

Helicopter by @dailycard

IWTV Books & Rollercoaster "bridge" w/ Fullbright in beta by me

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

X

 New York appeals court on Monday gave former president Donald Trump ten more days to post a $175 million bond in his civil-fraud case. If he pays the reduced amount by the deadline, he won’t need to satisfy the original $464 million judgment and will avoid having has assets seized.

Last month, Manhattan supreme court judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his co-defendants, including his two adult sons and former Trump Organization executives, to pay more than $460 million in damages and interest for fraudulently inflating the value of his business assets.

The appellate ruling temporarily prevents New York attorney general Letitia James from seizing the real-estate mogul’s properties to enforce the judgment, which she previously indicated she would do if he didn’t post a bond by Monday. The collection deadline is now delayed to early next month.

The order also allows Trump and his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, to run the family’s New York businesses and obtain loans from New York banks, both of which were previously banned for the next three years under Engoron’s order. The Manhattan judge’s court-ordered monitor and the appointment of a compliance director for Trump’s company is still in effect, though.

[justforbooks]

Lucky Loser – how Donald Trump squandered his wealth

A forensic accounting of the former president’s business empire reveals a reputation built on myth

Donald Trump started his career at the end of the 1970s, financed by his father Fred Trump. Over the years this transfer of wealth added up to around $500m in today’s money in gifts. My rough calculations say that, had he simply taken the money, leveraged it not imprudently, and passively invested it in Manhattan real estate – gone to parties, womanised, played golf, collected his rent cheques and reinvested them – his fortune could have amounted to more than $80bn by the time he ascended to the presidency in 2017.

And yet Trump was not worth $80bn in 2017. Instead, Forbes pegged him at $2.5bn – which, given the difficulties of valuing and accounting for real estate, is really anything between $5bn (£4bn) and zero (or less). It is in this sense that Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig call Trump a “loser”. He is indeed one of the world’s biggest losers. By trying to run a business, rather than just kicking back and letting the rising tide of his chosen sector lift his wealth beyond the moon, he managed to destroy the vast majority of his potential net worth.

How he did that is what Buettner and Craig chronicle in a book dense with facts and figures, but punctuated with moments of irony and dark humour – particularly when contrasting Trump’s public bravado with the often pathetic reality of his money management. The combination turns what might have been a rather boring tome, of interest only to trained financial professionals like me, into something of a page turner. Buettner and Craig paint a picture of Trump’s businesses as a chimera. As a New York real estate developer who wished to remain anonymous told me, they are “mirage[s], built on inherited wealth, shady deals, and a relentless pursuit of appearances over substance”. And yet, Wile E Coyote-like, he runs off the edge of the cliff, looks down, shrugs – and keeps going until his feet touch the ground again on the other side.

Buettner and Craig delve more deeply into this story than anyone I have encountered. They have done their interview and newspaper-morgue homework, checked it against tax information and business records spanning three decades, and so gained an unprecedented look into the real workings of Trump’s financial empire. They uncover, I think as much as we can get at it, the truth behind the narrative of his wealth and its indispensable support: the myth of a genius businessman that he has spun and that, deplorably, much of the press and his supporters have bought, hook, line and sinker. Their conclusion? He was always exaggerating how rich he was, and always skating remarkably close to the edge of financial disaster.

But though he squandered a great deal, it’s also true that he was extremely lucky. First, and most importantly, he was a beneficiary of the absolutely spectacular Manhattan real-estate boom. Second, he had things break his way at many crucial junctures that ought to have sunk him into total and irrevocable bankruptcy. Third, he was able to use his celebrity developer-mogul image to attract new business partners after his old ones had washed their hands of him. He was also lucky in the complacency of many of them with respect to his shenanigans: their willingness to play along and not find a judge to pull the plug.

What sort of psychology produces this kind of behaviour? Buettner and Craig psychoanalyse Trump as unable to take the hit of recognising his relative incompetence. A deep need for public validation as the master of the Art of the Deal led him, over and over again, to make increasingly risky decisions. The illusion of success had to be maintained at all costs, which meant that a loss had to be followed by an even bigger bet.

And so there Trump was at the start of 2017, in spite of everything, stunningly successful. Buettner and Craig call this an “illusion”. I profoundly disagree. To repeatedly save yourself from bankruptcy – to somehow manage to hand responsibility off to the people you do business with while you hotfoot it out of the picture – demonstrates considerable skill and ingenuity of some sort. Trump has exhibited great (if low) cunning and resilience when faced with what often appeared to be near-certain financial, entrepreneurial and business doom. It is, Buettner and Craig suggest, a combination of bravado and branding that allowed him to always walk away with something – usually at the expense of others.

Many of us hope that Trump’s story will end with a proper comeuppance, restoring the appropriate and just moral order of the universe, in which his galaxy-scale hubris does indeed ultimately call forth a satisfying nemesis. Until then, we must regard him as a remarkable success – although few philosophers would judge Trump’s brand of success as the kind worth having.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[posttexasstressdisorder]

The simple yet powerful way Tim Walz just exposed Donald Trump

John Stoehr

September 20, 2024 6:51AM ET

US Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks at Temple University in Philadelphia on August 6, 2024. © Brendan Smialowski, AFP

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

Tim Walz was in Michigan recently. In a stump speech, he noted differing views on the meaning of homeownership. He said that for “the real estate mogul, the venture capitalist, whatever,” a house is “just an asset to be traded and sold.” To everyone else, however, it’s “a place to gather around the kitchen table to talk with our kids about what happened at school.”

The message was simple but powerful.

Donald Trump (“the real estate mogul”) and JD Vance (“the venture capitalist, whatever”) stand together as normal men who care about and understand the normal struggles of normal Americans, but they are not normal, nor do they care about or understand normal people’s struggles.

They don’t even know the meaning of owning a house and what it takes to achieve that dream. To them, it’s not real. It’s an abstraction. It has no value beyond its market value. But “to us,” Walz said, it’s so much more.

“That’s what Kamala Harris wants for you,” he said.

ALSO READ: Let's call Springfield what it is: Republican-made terrorism

Leigh McGowan, a social media influencer who goes by “Politics Girl,” watched the speech. She saw how Walz uses simple words to capture a common experience to rally normal Americans toward the common good and against “the real estate mogul, the venture capitalist, whatever.”

Then McGowan did something useful.

She named Walz’s rhetoric.

“It feels like he cannot possibly be real,” McGowan said. “Here’s this man who is masculine without being weirdly alpha, who hunts, who shoots, who was a teacher, who is a veteran. He’s just a good dad and a great husband, and he believes in the nation. He’s not trying to be president, he doesn’t have bigger ambitions, and he’s happy to be second banana to a woman. It’s like you made him in a lab as the perfect candidate.

“He talks to us in common sense,” she said.

Trump’s uncommon languageIf Tim Walz talks in common sense, what does Trump talk in?

Well, it’s common in that grievance and hate are ubiquitous. Beyond that, however, Trump does not communicate using words everyone can understand to relate the joys and sorrows they have experienced.

Virtually every word he chooses says more about him than it does anyone else. So while you don’t have to know anything about Tim Walz to understand his speeches, you have to know a lot about Donald Trump to understand his. Indeed, to talk about his speeches requires a kind of specialized language. And if you don’t know the lingo, you’re lost.

After nearly a decade in the public eye, Trump’s presence has become commonplace. It took someone like Walz speaking in the language of common sense to jolt us out of the normalcy that is Trump. Walz helped us realize we don’t really understand what the man is talking about.

I would even say the impact of that jolt is why McGowan said Walz “feels like he cannot possibly be real.” But it’s not Walz who doesn’t feel real.

It’s Trump.

Thanks in part to Walz, it’s clearer now than ever that Trump’s speeches have gotten longer, windier and more rambling. They start out grounded in discernable reality but eventually, they become so abstract as to be meaningless. Here he is, explaining, well, I don’t really know.

I don't think I've ever said this before. So we do these rallies. They're massive rallies. Everybody loves, everybody stays till the end. By the way, you know, when she said that, well, your rallies people leave. Honestly, nobody does. And if I saw them leaving, I'd say, and ladies and gentlemen make America great again and I'd get the hell out, ok? Because I don't want people leaving. But I do have to say so I give these long sometimes very complex sentences and paragraphs but they all come together. I do it a lot. I do it with Raising Cain. That story. I do it with the story on the catapults on the aircraft carriers. I do it with a lot of different stories. When I mentioned Doctor Hannibal Lecter, I'm using that as an example of people that are coming in from Silence of the Lambs. I use it. They say it's terrible. So they say so I'll give this long complex area for instance that I talked about a lot of different territory. The bottomline I said the most important thing. We’re going to bring more plants to your state and this country to make automobiles. We’re going to be bigger than before. The fake news and there’s a lot of them back there. You know, for a town hall, there's a lot of people but the fake news likes to say, the fake news likes to say, oh, he was rambling. No, no, that's not rambling. That's genius. When you can connect the dots. Now, now, Sarah, if you couldn't connect the dots, you got a problem. But every dot was connected and many stories were told in that little paragraph.

A normal person’s common language

Trump may not sound like a rich man, but he’s still a rich man.

When he talks about normal things, it sounds weird.

He has never gone back-to-school shopping. He has never pumped his own gas. He’s never written a check for the electric bill. He does not know what it’s like to be sticker-shocked at the supermarket. He has no idea what it feels like to go from renting to owning. He sure-as-hell doesn’t know how it feels to be forced to choose between food and medical bills.

He does not even know the meaning of a $10 bill. He does not know what it can buy, because $10 to “the real estate mogul” isn’t money. It’s power.

Indeed, $10 means nothing, just as tariffs mean nothing. Tariffs aren’t real economic tools presidents use to address real economic problems. They are abstractions. As such, whether they work makes no difference to him. Whether they cause suffering doesn’t matter. Suffering is abstract, too.

To a normal person, the price of things is about as real as it gets.

To Trump, the price of things is as real as fairy dust.

So he can say, as he did this week, that he will lower “energy bills” by 50 percent. He can say, as he did in January, that the cost of gasoline has gone from under $2 a gallon to “5, 6, 7, 8 dollars.” He can say, as he did this week, that he will decrease the price of food by decreasing the food supply (via tariffs on imports). To a normal person, that makes no sense. To a rich man, sense is beside the point. Money isn’t money. It’s power.

In the end, you don’t have to know much about Tim Walz to understand his speeches, because Tim Walz is himself a normal person. He knows the meaning of a $10 bill. He knows the meaning of owning a home. He speaks in common sense, because his own experience is so common. When he says, “that’s what Kamala Harris wants for you,” it makes sense.

It feels real.

[mrs-stans]

Sebastian Stan Scolds “Hypocrite” Trump at ‘The Apprentice’ U.K. Premiere: “Do You Really Trust This Person to Lead a Country?”

Stan, who portrays Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi's new movie, was asked whether this film debuting so close to the U.S. election could sway voters: "He's been trying to censor this movie, and at the same time, he claims he acknowledges free speech. I can't think of anything more hypocritical."

BY LILY FORD

Sebastian Stan has branded former U.S. president Donald Trump a hypocrite who has attempted to “censor” his new movie, The Apprentice.

The Marvel actor spoke at the BFI London Film Festival premiere of Ali Abbasi’s movie about Trump’s rise to power in 1970s and ’80s New York — in which he stars as the real estate mogul-turned-Republican politician — with the teachings of mentor Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong) guiding him on his ascension.

The cast and crew, including Stan, Strong, Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman, appeared on the red carpet at the BFI’s Royal Festival Hall in the U.K. capital.

When asked whether this film debuting so close to the U.S. election could sway voters, Stan told The Hollywood Reporter: “I don’t know, but what I do hope is that people, regardless of their opinion, are curious enough to try to dig deeper. Because I think we’re living in a world where it’s so easy to be handed an opinion everywhere you turn. And I know a lot of people love social media, and that’s where they go for information and for things. You’re being told what to think. You’re being told what to do.”

But, the Marvel star continued, “If you have any inkling of interest, go and really ask yourself: ‘Who is this man? Do you really know? Do you really trust this person to lead a country?’ He’s been trying to censor this movie, and at the same time, he claims that he acknowledges free speech … I can’t think of anything more hypocritical. So at the end of the day, it’s about him as a character. Forget the politics and just go in there and use your instinct and ask yourself: Do you trust this man? That’s what the movie is about.”

The feature film opened in roughly 1,700 theaters across the U.S. last weekend after its debut in Cannes and pulled in an anemic $1.6 million in its first weekend. Trump lashed out against the film after the numbers came in.

“A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully “bomb.” It’s a cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Sherman told THR: “It’s not surprising [that Trump lashed out]… You’ve seen the film, the first lesson that Roy Cohn teaches him is: attack, attack, attack. So Trump hasn’t seen the movie, but he’s clearly following the rules that are in the movie.”

Sherman also said part of the inspiration for this film was to show Trump as carrying on Cohn’s legacy, as sources who worked on the 2016 Trump campaign told him the businessman was just “using Roy’s lessons.”

The Apprentice received rave reviews and an 8-minute standing ovation after its Cannes Film Festival premiere in May.

[blackhistorychatgpt]

Black inventors

From Perplexity:

Famous black inventors have significantly contributed to various fields, from everyday household items to groundbreaking technological advancements. Here are some notable figures:

George Crum (1824-1914): A chef who is credited with inventing the potato chip in 1853[1].

Frederick McKinley Jones (1893-1961): Developed refrigeration equipment for trucks, trains, ships, and planes, receiving over 40 patents. His invention, the Thermo King, revolutionized the food and medical transport industries[1].

Granville T. Woods (1856-1910): Accumulated almost 60 patents, improving railroad functioning. Notably, he invented the induction telegraph system for train communication[1].

George Washington Carver (1864-1943): An agricultural chemist who developed 518 products from peanuts and sweet potatoes, including ink, dye, soap, and synthetic rubber[1].

Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919): Became the first African American woman self-made millionaire by creating a line of hair products for African American women[1].

Garrett Morgan (1877-1963): Invented the traffic signal and a safety hood that served as a prototype for the gas mask[1].

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner: Patented the sanitary belt in 1957, a significant advancement in women's health and hygiene[1].

Thomas L. Jennings (1791–1859): The first African American to receive a U.S. patent, for a dry-cleaning process[4].

Patricia Bath (1942-2019): Invented a laser cataract treatment, becoming the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent[4].

Mark Dean (1957-present): Holds over 20 patents, including contributions to the creation of the color PC monitor and the first gigahertz chip[4].

Elijah McCoy (1844-1929): Known for his invention of the automatic lubricator for oiling steam engines, leading to the phrase "the real McCoy" to denote something authentic[4].

These inventors have left a lasting impact on society, demonstrating ingenuity and perseverance in the face of challenges.

Citations: [1] https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/work-money/g30877473/african-american-inventors/ [2] https://www.parents.com/kids/education/world-changing-black-inventors-that-every-kid-should-know-about/ [3] https://www.black-inventor.com [4] https://www.biography.com/inventors/g46697619/famous-black-inventors [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_inventors_and_scientists

From Gemini (formerly Bard):

20 Famous Black Investors with Short Descriptions:

Dr. Shirley Jackson: First Black woman to earn a doctorate in nuclear physics, invested in research and development for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Robert F. Smith: Founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm with over $85 billion in assets under management. Known for his philanthropic endeavors.

Oprah Winfrey: Media mogul and investor, known for her investments in cable channels, production companies, and Weight Watchers.

Udayan I. Lekhraj: Founded CMG Partners, a private equity firm specializing in healthcare investments. Advocate for diversity and inclusion in venture capital.

Catherine Hughes: Founded Urban One, a media company serving the African American community. First Black woman to chair a publicly traded company in the U.S.

Rodney Bryant: Co-founded JUST Capital, a firm that measures and incentivizes corporations to prioritize stakeholder capitalism.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Former President of Liberia, Nobel Peace Prize winner. Focused on economic development and investment in her country.

Ronald Lauder: CEO of Estee Lauder Companies, known for his investments in the beauty industry and philanthropic work.

Charles R. Bronfman: Chairman of The Seagram Company Ltd., invested in various industries including entertainment, real estate, and philanthropy.

John Rogers Jr.: Founded Ariel Investments, a mutual fund company with over $28 billion in assets under management. Advocate for responsible investing.

Marc Morial: Former mayor of New Orleans, currently president of the National Urban League. Focused on economic empowerment of Black communities.

Ronald Watkins: Founding CEO of Watkins Investing Group, invests in real estate and businesses within the Black community.

Melody Hobson: President and CEO of Ariel Investments, known for her work on financial literacy and diversity in boardrooms.

Aisha Evans: Founded BE Capital, a venture capital firm focused on Black and Latinx tech entrepreneurs.

Kevin Hart: Comedian and investor, known for his investments in production companies, streaming platforms, and sports teams.

Jay-Z: Rapper and entrepreneur, known for his investments in music streaming, sports teams, and venture capital funds.

Will Smith: Actor and investor, known for his investments in production companies, media platforms, and venture capital funds.

Serena Williams: Tennis champion and investor, known for her investments in venture capital funds focused on women and diverse founders.

Rihanna: Singer and entrepreneur, known for her investments in beauty brands, fashion lines, and technology startups.

LeBron James: Basketball player and investor, known for his investments in media companies, production companies, and technology startups.

Please note: This list is not exhaustive and can be debated in terms of individual importance and impact.

Reading List on Black Inventors:

Black Inventors: Lives That Mattered by Darlene R. Medford

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

Lifting the Veil: Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Black History by Michael Hill

Lost Genius: The Forgotten Black Inventors Who Changed the World by Dennis Freeman

Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: From Agnes Scott to Emmy Noether by Pamela Prochazka

Black Inventors in Science and Technology by Shirley J. Smith

A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James M. Whitfield: With Recollections of the Early Struggles of Colored Men in Boston by Wilbur H. Siebert

Inventing the Future: Black Inventors in Science and Technology by Geneva Gay

African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention by Darlene R. Medford

Black Inventors in the United States by Darlene R. Medford

This list offers a variety of books covering different periods and areas of innovation by Black inventors. Consider exploring further based on your specific interests.

I hope this information is helpful!

[strideofpride]

On that note, can you imagine how INSANE the media circus would be if it did come out publicly that Chuck and Blair illegally backdated their marriage certificate and the case against them was actually re-opened? Especially in 2023, at a time when anti-billionaire “eat the rich” sentiment has become very mainstream, and true crime is one of the most popular and profitable genres of entertainment?

Like, the events of season six happen so fast that we don’t really get to appreciate just how wild they are from the outside looking in. Imagine if Michael Bloomberg or pre-presidency Donald Trump died in a car crash, and their then-teenage progeny took over their real estate empires. Everyone just gets used to the idea of a little boy real estate mogul, I guess, and a few years pass, and then - surprise! They were faking their death all along!! Yes there was a funeral, yes they were legally declared dead, but who cares! They’re back baby, and ready to go back to being the same shitbags they were before!

Except, a mere handful of months later, they’re dead again - this time having gone careening off the side of one of their company’s most famous buildings (imagine if Donald Trump died falling off of Trump Tower lmaoooo). Did they fake it again? Was it foul play? By the time rumors start to swirl of the alleged involvement of their recently deposed nepotism baby, the cops close the case and rule it an accident. Their heir, still barely an adult, retakes the reigns of leadership - newly married, a detail no one realizes is suspicious because they likely have no idea that the spouse was at the scene of the crime.

Years pass. YouTubers and online conspiracy theorists periodically bring up the case, but the public at large once again more or less accepts the public narrative. Another piece of shit real-estate mogul gets elected president, and the attitude of the general public towards the uber wealthy turns increasingly hostile. Then there’s 2020, and 2021, and 2022, and- And then. “Billionaire boy and family linked to father’s mysterious death after discovery of faked marriage license”.

Even though we, the audience, knows Chuck didn’t actually kill his father, do you think in a world where this was an actual case involving actual public figures anyone would believe that? The coverup is so ridiculously suspicious that the general public almost definitely assumes they really did do the crime.

And consider the players in this case - a terrible billionaire who died a deliciously ironic death, his somehow worse son who in a post-#MeToo world is already a PR nightmare waiting to happen, and the ex-princess of Monaco (?!) who just so happens to already be tabloid fodder. If they get especially unlucky, Dan (a pretty famous novelist, at least according to the reboot), Serena (a 2000s era “it girl” and semi-celebrity), and Nate (an ex-NYC mayoral candidate, media mogul, and in universe Kennedy equivalent) might just find themselves implicated too - or at least forced to testify - given they were at the very much in public wedding where any rando could have snapped a picture.

There is just soooo much fucked up entertainment value in a case like this I can’t imagine it being anything less than a public fucking spectacle, and not the kind Chuck or Blair could just shake off. I genuinely do not know how they could absolve themselves in the court of public opinion if it actually went to trial, even if they managed to prevail legally.

Oh my god. Okay well, first of all, I really want the fake Serial podcast that unpacks all of this lol. Someone should make that lmao.

"little boy real estate mogul" took me out lololololol

also like...faking your death is a crime right??? how was Bart just able to re-enter society so easily??? did they ever say???

i'd also like to point out that it's actually much vaguer whether or not Chuck killed his father. They cut away during their fight and then next thing you see is Bart hanging onto the edge. Chuck himself says that he isn't sure whether or not he pushed him or Bart fell over. but also Chuck and Blair both just stood there and did nothing to help Bart before he fell, which is involuntary manslaughter I believe

But seriously though, you're so right anon that all of this was made for true crime. In 2030, someone makes a "Jinx" style doc about Chuck I bet