#who is this fabled Joe and what does he Trade?

[aria-ashryver]

ok im outsourcing my question bc last time i tried to check a fact i rabbitholed myself on wikipedia for ten years:

‘I could always duck out to [a green grocer that you'd find in a small town like Crimson Beech that sells fresh vegetables like red chillis. Teensy bit bougie bc Gabe is shopping there lol] and grab another one, I guess,’ he mused. ‘Nah, they won’t be open,’ Cas replied, not looking up from the laptop. ‘They’re usually closed on Thanksgiving.’

@ any folks in America - help a girl out w store names?

[progressiveparty]

Trump made 56 false claims last week

Trump calls women he doesn't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.

President Donald Trump made 56 false claims last week, delivering his usual assortment of dishonesty about immigration, his popularity and his record.

Do you accept or reject Trump's lies?

That was down from 78 false claims the week prior and 61 false claims the week before that. Where he made the biggest numbers: Trump made 26 false claims at his campaign rally in Cincinnati, 13 more in various exchanges with the media, seven on Twitter, five in an interview with C-SPAN. Top categories: Eighteen false claims were about the economy or trade; 10 were about Trump's popularity, his crowds or others' crowds; 10 were about immigration; eight were about former President Barack Obama's record. The most egregious false claim: Support from African Americans Trump's stories are peppered with unnamed validators -- "many people" who say he's right about something, "tough guys" backstage who break down crying in his presence, a "friend" who just called him to say something dramatic. Last week, as he faced accusations of racism for his attack on Baltimore as "disgusting, rat and rodent infested" and unfit for human habitation, he turned the black community into a validator. "What I've done for African Americans, no president, I would say, has done," he told reporters, citing his criminal justice legislation, the low black unemployment rate and the criticism of Baltimore itself. "Now, I'll say this: They are so happy, because I get the calls." Though Trump does have African American supporters, all the available evidence suggests African American voters are overwhelmingly unhappy with him. In one poll the week before last, he had a 6% approval rating with black voters; 80% of them said he is racist. We can't fact-check the existence of phone calls to him. We can note that he has invented phone calls before. The most revealing false claim: A Veterans Choice fable Trump has made a concerted effort to erase and distort Obama's record. He has claimed more than 75 times as President that he was the one who got the Veterans Choice health care program passed, though Obama signed it into law in 2014. Most of the time Trump talks about Veterans Choice, he simply asserts that he was the one responsible for doing what previous presidents couldn't. Sometimes, like at his rally last week, he invents an entire elaborate story. He said he was thinking about the problem of veterans' health care "during the campaign," and he approached "experts" with a "great idea" he thought made him "the smartest guy": Veterans, he had decided, should be allowed to see private doctors if they are facing long waits in the VA system. (Note: That is what the Obama program already allowed them to do.) As it turned out, he said, the "experts" had something remarkable to tell him: They had this same idea long before, but could never get it implemented. "Sir," Trump said the experts told him, "we've known about it for about 40 years, but we've never been able." Note the "sir," one of the most surefire signs Trump is making something up. The most absurd false claim: Hot air on wind When Trump uses his campaign rallies to rile up his supporters over issues like immigration, we say he is throwing them red meat. We need a phrase for when he uses his rallies to rant about a personal grievance that his supporters don't seem to be interested in at all. Green meat? One such issue is wind turbines, a longtime bugbear for him. Again and again, Trump has returned to the subject even as the people in his crowds have demonstrated little apparent excitement. At the rally last week, he did not repeat his infamous false claim that wind turbines cause cancer. He did, however, claim that wind turbines being built near your house means your house becomes "practically worthless." Not true, studies show. Here is this week's full list of 56: Crowds and popularity Empty seats "...I've never had an empty seat. ... I don't think we've had an empty seat. I don't think you've seen an empty seat, with thousands of people outside. ... We'll have a 22,000-seat arena, including like a basketball -- an NBA -- arena, or even bigger stadiums, we've never had an empty seat." -- July 30 interview with C-SPAN "I'm going to Cincinnati. The arena is a very large one. And we've sold it out. We could sell it out probably 10 times, from what I hear. The applications for seats, as you know -- never had an empty seat. ..." -- August 1 exchange with reporters Facts First: There have been empty seats at various Trump events, including a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, just two weeks prior to these remarks. Bloomberg News reporter Josh Wingrove tweeted a photo of what he described as a "smattering" of empty seats in the almost-full 8,000-capacity venue in Greenville. The Dallas News said of Trump's October 18 rally in Houston: "Many hundreds of seats were empty, including all of the boxes on both tiers of the mezzanine." At Trump's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rally in April 2017, Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Jonathan Tamari tweeted a photo of rows of empty seats in the upper deck. Support among religious voters When Trump was asked about recent criticism from Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, who said the President's recent remarks had "deepened divisions and diminished our national life," he said he was unaware of the archbishop's remarks but that he is highly popular with "the church." He continued, "The church has loved me and I love them. You know, we've got about 84% of the vote. And the churches love Donald Trump and I love them." -- August 1 exchange with reporters Facts First: Trump did not get anywhere close to 84% of the vote from Catholics in the 2016 election. Exit polls had him winning 50% of the Catholic vote to Hillary Clinton's 46%. Data from the American National Election Study had Clinton winning 48% to Trump's 45%. Trump might have been referring imprecisely to his level of support from white evangelical Christians. Exit polls found 80% of that particular group voted for Trump. Support among African Americans "What I've done for African Americans, no president, I would say, has done. Now, I'll say this: They are so happy, because I get the calls." And: "The African American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy as what a president has done." -- July 30 exchange with reporters Facts First: African Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy with Trump's job performance, polls have consistently shown. Trump began talking negatively about Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and Baltimore in a series of tweets on July 27. In a Quinnipiac University poll conducted from July 25 to July 28 -- two days before the tweets, the day of the tweets and one day after the tweets -- Trump had a 6% approval rating and 84% disapproval rating with black voters. Eighty percent of black voters said Trump is racist, while just 11% said he is not. A Fox News poll conducted from July 21 to July 23 had Trump at 75% disapproval among black registered voters, with 22% approval. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted June 28 to July 1, 81% of African Americans said they disapproved; 18% approved. Both of those approval numbers were substantially better than the one in the new Quinnipiac poll, but still: On the whole, large majorities of African Americans were displeased with him. 'Morning Joe' "Wow! Morning Joe & Psycho ratings have really crashed. Very small audience. People are tired of hearing Fake News delivered with an anger that is not to be believed. Sad, when the show was sane, they helped get me elected. Thanks! Was on all the time. Lost all of its juice!" -- July 30 tweet Facts First: The ratings for the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" have not "crashed." The show's viewership in the second quarter of 2019 was nearly identical to its viewership in the second quarter of 2018 and the second quarter of 2017 -- and significantly higher than its ratings in the second quarter of 2016, during the presidential election. "Morning Joe" averaged 1.03 million viewers in the second quarter of this year. That was down very slightly from 1.06 million viewers in the same quarter in 2018 and up very slightly from 997,000 viewers in the same quarter in 2017. All of these figures were higher than the 608,000 viewers "Morning Joe" averaged in the second quarter of 2016. Joe Biden's crowd size "I saw Biden's opening, where he couldn't get 150 people to an opening in a little basketball, high school gymnasium." -- July 30 interview with C-SPAN Facts First: About 600 people attended Biden's first speech after he announced his candidacy -- which was held at a union hall, not a high school gymnasium. Trump had previously claimed that Biden's launch event was attended by 150 people, not the reported 600. This time, the President claimed it was not even 150. The Atlantic reported that journalists occupied 100 of the 600 spots at the hall in Pittsburgh, but that is still 500 non-journalists. Biden did hold an event at a community center gym in South Carolina that same week, but he drew a crowd of 700, The New York Times reported. The crowd in Cincinnati "l'll tell you what: This is some crowd, some turnout. We've sold tens of thousands of tickets, and you know, at the sale prices, we keep it nice and low, but keep it nice and low." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnat Facts First: Tickets to Trump's rallies are not "sold" by the campaign. Contrary to Trump's suggestion that people had paid to attend this rally, attendance was, as always, free. It's possible Trump was making a joke, but that wasn't clear. The 2016 election "I say it all the time: never happened before. There's never been a movement like this. They've had movements, they never went -- they won a state, they did well in a state. We won 32 states, there's never been anything like it." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Trump won 30 states, not 32. Also, this was far from a historic number: Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1984 each won 49 states; James Monroe won every statein the uncontested election of 1820. "There have been 45 presidential elections in which the winning candidate won a larger share of the electoral vote," The New York Times reported. Ohio in 2016 "We ended up winning Ohio by close to 9 points, which is unheard-of. ..." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Trump exaggerated very slightly. He won 51.7% to 43.6%, a margin of just over 8 points. That was the biggest margin in Ohio since George H.W. Bush's 11-point win in 1988, but not an unprecedented margin for the state. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all won the state by 20 points or more. Florida in 2016 "So we have a great governor in the state of Florida. Ron DeSantis. Calls me up -- doing a great job, Ron DeSantis. He was at 3 and he went to 70. That's a pretty good increase." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: DeSantis did experience a spike in support after Trump endorsed him, but he never came close to 70% in the polls. He won the Republican primary with 56.5% of the vote. We also could not find any public polls in which DeSantis was as low as 3%, though he was indeed polling poorly before Trump expressed support for him in December 2017 and before the President issued a "full" endorsement in June 2018. He was at 17% in a Fox News poll just before the endorsement. Immigration Immigration judges Talking about immigration, Trump said, "We're the only country in the world, or just about, where people come in, Bill, they come in and they get a trial, so we hire Perry Mason. And it's a big deal. And the trial we say, 'Come back in four years.' It is so crazy. But we're the -- nobody else has judges. They come in -- other countries, they come and they say, 'Sorry, you have to get out.' And in this country they come in, it's 'Welcome to litigation.' " -- August 1 interview with Bill Cunningham of 700WLW Cincinnati Facts First: The US is far from the only country to grant asylum claimants the right to a legal process. In Canada, for example, refugee claimants who pass an initial eligibility test are given hearings before a tribunal called the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada; if their applications are rejected by the board, they have the right to seek reviews by the Federal Court of Canada. In Germany, claimants who are rejected by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also have the right to file appeals in court. "This statement is patently false," James Hathaway, law professor and director of the program in refugee and asylum law at the University of Michigan, said in an email in response to a previous version of Trump's claim. "It is completely routine in other countries that, like the U.S., have signed the UN refugee treaties for asylum-seekers to have access to the domestic legal system to make a protection claim (and to be allowed in while the claim is pending)." If Trump was talking about undocumented immigrants who do not make asylum claims, it is not true that these people are welcomed in and granted a trial years down the road. Under a system of "expedited removal," people who are apprehended within 100 miles of a land border and within 14 days of arrival can be quickly deported without seeing a judge. (The Trump administration announced in July that it plans to expand expedited removal to include undocumented immigrants anywhere in the country who can't prove they have been in the US continuously for two years or more.) Democrats and the border "Despite the Democrats wanting very unsafe Open Borders. ..." -- July 30 tweet "But what we have to do is fix the loopholes, and the Democrats don't want. The reason is the Democrats want open borders." -- July 31 exchange with reporters "The greatest betrayal committed by the Democrats is their support for open borders. And these open borders would overwhelm schools and hospitals, drain public services and flood communities with poisonous drugs." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati "But I watched (the Democratic debates) and I guess it's probably four or five (contenders). It's down to four or five. I can't imagine somebody else coming up. But I don't think it's what our country represents, number one. And when you look at open borders, how about the open borders, where everybody can just come in. ... But I'm just watching, and it's incredible to think people come up -- many of these people are not good people. They're convicted of lots of bad crimes, and they want open borders where they just flow into our country." -- August 1 interview with Bill Cunningham of 700WLW Cincinnati Facts First: Some Democrats, including presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Julián Castro, have advocated a significant loosening of immigration law, including a decriminalization of the act of illegally crossing the border. But none of them have proposed literally opening the border to unrestricted migration. During the Trump era, Democrats have voted for billions of dollars' worth of fencing and other border security measures. In 2018, Democratic leaders offered Trump $25 billion for border security in exchange for a path to citizenship for the "Dreamers," young undocumented immigrants brought to the US illegally as children. Family separation "The cages for kids were built by the Obama Administration in 2014. He had the policy of child separation. I ended it even as I realized that more families would then come to the Border! @CNN" -- July 31 tweet Facts First: Trump was correct that Obama's administration built chain-link "cages" to detain migrants. But Trump did not inherit an Obama policy of routinely separating migrant children from their parents. Separations were rare under Obama; Trump made them standard. In March 2017, John Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security, told CNN that he was thinking about implementing a separation program "to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network." In April 2018, Jeff Sessions, then the attorney general, announced a new "zero tolerance" policy in which everybody caught crossing the border illegally would be criminally prosecuted -- a change he explicitly noted would result in regular separations. Separations did sometimes occur under Obama, but they were non-routine and much less frequent, according to immigration experts and former Obama officials. They occurred in exceptional cases, such as those where the parent was being criminally prosecuted for carrying drugs across the border or other serious crimes aside from simple illegal crossing, those where human trafficking was suspected and those where the authorities could not confirm the connection between the child and the adult. It is technically true that Trump is the one who ended the separation policy: In June 2018, he signed an executive order to detain families together. But he was ending his own policy, not Obama's, and he signed the order only after a furious public outcry. The wall "We're building the wall faster and better than ever." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati "... Crossings are way down and the Wall is being built). Even with zero Dem help, Border getting strong!" -- July 29 tweet Facts First: Nothing resembling the wall Trump campaigned on has been built at any speed. Zero additional miles of border barriers had been erected as of mid-June. About 50 miles have been built over his two-and-a-half years in office, but all of them are replacement barriers rather than additional miles. According to Customs and Border Protection, 47 miles "of new border barriers in place of dilapidated design" had been completed as of June 14. The Washington Examiner reported July 20 that the total was up to 51 miles of such replacement barriers, but that no additional miles had been built. (Customs and Border Protection did not respond to our request for updated information in the wake of the Examiner story.) Trump has started arguing since this spring that replacement fencing should be counted by the media as his "wall," since he is replacing ineffective old barriers with effective modern ones. This is subjective, but we think it's fair to focus on the new barriers he promised during his campaign. Lottery system "We're replacing random migration and we're replacing the lottery system. How about the lottery system? How about lotteries? This was Chuck Schumer: You put the name in a basket. The country puts the name in the basket. And you pick people out of the lottery. 'Well, let's see, this one's a murderer. This one robbed four banks, this one ... I'd better not say ... this one, another murderer, ladies and gentlemen, another murderer.' " -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Almost everything Trump said here was inaccurate. Foreign countries don't enter people into the green card lottery conducted by the State Department, let alone deliberately enter their criminals and problem citizens. Individuals enter on their own because they want to immigrate. The people whose names are selected are subjected to an extensive vetting process that includes a criminal background check. Court hearings "It's time for Democrats to end sanctuary cities, end catch and release. You know what you do: You catch 'em and then you release 'em and you say, 'Would you please report back in four years from now?' But only 2% come back." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: While it's unclear what subset of migrants Trump was referring to, the majority of migrants appear in court. In 2017, 89% of asylum seekers appeared in court to receive decisions on their cases. Among all kinds of migrants, 72% appeared in court. Foreign affairs China and nuclear arms "But I will say this: With Russia, if we could get a pact where they reduce and we reduce nuclear, that would be a great thing for the world. And I do believe — I do believe that will happen. We've — we have discussed it. I've also discussed it with China. I've discussed it with President Putin. I've also discussed it with China. And I will tell you, China was very, very excited about talking about it, and so is Russia. So I think we'll have a deal at some point." -- August 2 exchange with reporters Facts First: We don't know what a Chinese official might have said to Trump in private, but China is not "excited" about the prospect of an arms control agreement with the United States. After Trump first suggested that China wanted to participate in a trilateral deal with the US and Russia, a spokesperson for the Chinese government said: "We oppose any country's attempt to make an issue out of China on arms control and will not participate in any negotiation for a trilateral nuclear disarmament agreement." Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Association, noted that two days before Trump's new remark, Zhou Bo, a senior colonel in China's People's Liberation Army, published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in which he wrote, "To Chinese ears, Mr. Trump's claims make no sense. Between them, the U.S. and Russia possess 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. China has fewer nuclear warheads (290) than France (300), according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. No wonder China's Ministry of National Defense essentially laughed at the idea of a three-way deal on arms control involving the U.S. and Russia." Reif told CNN: "The Chinese reaction is not surprising. China, which is estimated to possess a total of about 300 nuclear warheads, has never been party to any agreement limiting the size and configuration of its nuclear arsenal. Beijing is highly unlikely to engage in any such talks until the United States and Russia further cut their far larger arsenals, estimated at over 6,000 warheads each." The European Union "We are competing with other countries that know how to play the game against the U.S. That's actually why the E.U. was formed. ..." -- July 29 tweet Facts First: Competing with the United States economically was not a key reason for the formation of the European Union. "The President's claims are preposterous. The European Communities (forerunner of the EU) were formed in the 1950s as part of a joint US-Western European plan to stabilize and secure Western Europe and promote prosperity, by means of trade liberalization and economic growth, throughout the shared transatlantic space," Desmond Dinan, a public policy professor at George Mason University who is an expert in the history of European integration, said in response to a previous version of this claim. US presidents have consistently supported European integration efforts. "The EU was launched in 1993, on the shoulders of the European Communities, to promote peace and prosperity in the post-Cold War era, an era also of rapid globalization. American officials may have had their doubts about the feasibility of monetary union, and about the possibility of a Common (European) Security and Defense Policy, but the US Administration strongly supported further European integration in the 1990s," Dinan said. The war in Afghanistan "With respect to Afghanistan, we've made a lot of progress. We're talking, but we've also made a lot of progress. We're reducing it. We've been there for 19 years. " -- August 2 exchange with reporters Facts First: This was a small exaggeration. The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 -- less than 18 years ago, though Trump habitually says "19 years." Iran "To protect America's security I withdrew the United States from the horrible Iran nuclear deal, a horrible stupid deal. We gave Iran $150 billion." Trump went on to claim that the US also gave Iran $1.8 billion "in cash." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: The second figure is roughly correct, but the first is exaggerated. The Iran nuclear deal allowed the country to access tens of billions in its own assets that had been frozen in foreign financial institutions because of sanctions; experts say the total was significantly lower than $150 billion. Trump did not invent the $150 billion figure out of thin air: Obama himself mused in a 2015 interview about Iran having "$150 billion parked outside the country." But experts on Iran policy, and Obama's own administration, said that the quantity of assets the agreement actually made available to Iran was much lower. In 2015, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew put the number at $56 billion. PolitiFact reported that Garbis Iradian, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, put it at about $60 billion. Adam Szubin, a senior Treasury Department official, testified to Congress in 2015 that the "usable liquid assets" would total "a little more than $50 billion." The rest of Iran's foreign assets, he said, were either tied up in "illiquid" projects "that cannot be monetized quickly, if at all, or are composed of outstanding loans to Iranian entities that cannot repay them." As Trump regularly notes, the Obama administration did send Iran $1.7 billion to settle a decades-old dispute over a purchase of US military goods Iran made before its government was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Russia investigation "Treason" "Such a great victory in court yesterday on the Russian Hoax, the greatest political scam in the history of our Country. TREASON! Hopefully, the Attorney Generel of the United States, and all of those working with him, will find out, in great detail, what happened. NEVER AGAIN!!!!" -- July 31 tweet Facts First: Nothing about the Russia investigation comes close to meeting the definition of treason. Under the Constitution, treason is narrowly defined: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." Special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed and supervised by a Republican whom Trump appointed as deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. There is no evidence of any behavior that could even possibly qualify as treason. Mueller and obstruction "Well, I watched Mueller. I'm not sure Mueller knows what's going on, if you want to know the truth. But all I do know is he said, 'No collusion with us. No collusion,' and ultimately 'no obstruction,' because it led to no obstruction by a very smart group of people, including our attorney general. " -- August 1 exchange with reporters Facts First: Mueller's report did not say "no obstruction" in any way. Mueller laid out a case that Trump may have committed obstruction, but he explained that he would abide by a Justice Department policy that holds that a sitting president cannot be indicted. "... If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," the report said. As Trump said, Attorney General William Barr then determined that the evidence laid out by Mueller was "not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." So Trump was basically correct when he described what Barr concluded -- but he was incorrect in suggesting that Mueller himself had said "no obstruction." Mueller also did not use the words "no collusion"; his report explained that he was investigating the issue of conspiracy, since collusion does not have a precise legal meaning. With that said, "no collusion" is a much fairer paraphrase of Mueller's findings than "no obstruction" is. The economy and trade Steel plants before the tariffs After listing recent plant investments by American steel companies, Trump said, "And this was unthinkable, because four years ago, steel plants were closing, they weren't expanding and they weren't building." Facts First: While some steel plants were closing, being idled or otherwise doing poorly four years ago, some other plants were being built or expanding at the time. Investment was not "unthinkable." A simple Google search brings up numerous 2015 announcements about planned investments in steel plants. For example, Steel Dynamics announced a $100 million expansion at a mill in Mississippi. Commercial Metals announced a $250 million investment to build a micro-mill in Oklahoma. Nucor and a partner announced a $75 million investment in improvements at a mill in Arkansas. Ferrous CAL announced a $53 million investment in a Michigan plant to make steel for automotive companies. There were also multiple stories about US Steel and other companies idling plants and laying off workers at the time. But it's not true that it was "unthinkable" four years ago for plants to be built or expanded. Steel companies before the tariffs "... but they were dumping tremendous quantities of steel, and what was happening is United States Steel and all of our companies were going virtually out of business, and I stopped it. I put on a 25% tariff." Facts First: It is not true that "all" American steel companies were "going virtually out of business" before Trump imposed his steel tariffs last year. Though US Steel had significantly declined from its heyday and had faltered for much of the decade, it had earned a profit in 2017. Other American steel companies, notably Nucor, were thriving before the tariffs. US Steel earned $387 million in 2017, the year before Trump imposed the tariffs. The company had struggled so badly in the years prior that it was dropped in 2014 from the S&P 500 stock index, but it was not on the verge of quickly vanishing before the tariffs came into effect. Other steelmakers were faring much better than US Steel. Nucor, for example, reported consolidated net earnings of $1.3 billion for 2017 and $796 million for 2016. Steel Dynamics earned $813 million in 2017 and $382 million in 2016. Bloomberg reported in an October 2018 fact check: "In fact, US steelmakers Nucor Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. were two of the healthiest commodity companies in the world before Trump took office." Unemployment, part 1 "We need good people. We're down to 3.5% unemployment." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: The unemployment rate for June was 3.7%. The rate for July, released the morning after the rally, was unchanged, holding at 3.7%, well above the record 2.5% set in 1953. The rate has not hit 3.5% at any point in Trump's presidency. It was 3.6% in April and May. So Trump was close, but this is not a figure that is usually rounded to the nearest half-point. Unemployment, part 2 "Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: This was close to true, but Trump was exaggerating. The unemployment rate over this spring and summer -- 3.7% each month in July and June, 3.6% each month in May and April -- has been the lowest since December 1969, slightly less than 50 years ago. We might be inclined to ignore this one if it seemed like a one-time slip, but it was not. Trump, a serial exaggerator, habitually turns "almost" into "over" and "more than." Employment in Ohio "One hundred and twenty three thousand more Ohio workers are employed today than when I was elected." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Trump was exaggerating. As of the most recent jobs numbers at the time Trump spoke, for June, the increase from the month of Trump's election was 77,600 people. Who is paying for tariffs on Chinese products "We're taking in billions and billions of dollars from China in the form of tariffs. Our people are not paying for it." -- July 30 exchange with reporters "And it's been proven that our people are not paying for those tariffs." And: "They're paying for these tariffs; we're not." -- August 1 exchange with reporters "And don't let them tell you -- the fact is, China devalues their currency. They pour money into their system, they pour it in and because they do that you're not paying for those tariffs, China's paying for those tariffs." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati "The tariffs are not being paid for by our people; it's being paid for by China because of devaluation and because they're pumping money in." -- August 2 exchange with reporters Facts First: American importers make the actual tariff payments, and economic studies have found that Americans, not people and companies in China, have borne most of the cost. A March paper from economists at Columbia, Princeton and the New York Federal Reserve found that the "full incidence" of Trump's tariffs has fallen on domestic companies and consumers -- costing them $3 billion a month by the end of 2018. The paper also found that the tariffs led to a reduction in US income, by $1.4 billion a month. A separate academic paper also found that the tariffs led to higher consumer prices. It estimated that the tariffs will result in a $7.8 billion-per-year decline in income. The White House's Economic Report of the President also acknowledged that American consumers do pay some of the cost of these tariffs. Domestic producers, according to the report, benefit from price increases from the tariffs, but "offsetting these benefits are the costs paid by consumers in the form of higher prices and reduced consumption." Some Chinese suppliers might take on some of the burden of the tariff by reducing their prices to maintain a market in the United States, but these studies show that the burden heavily falls on US consumers and companies. The history of tariffs on China "Remember this: Our country is taking in billions and billions of dollars from China. We never took in 10 cents from China." -- August 2 exchange with reporters Facts First: The US government has been charging tariffs on imported Chinese goods for more than two centuries, and it took in hefty sums from such tariffs long before Trump's own tariffs. (Again, it is US importers, not China, who have paid these tariffs.) The Treasury received $14 billion from tariffs on China in 2014, to look at one pre-Trump year. Highest agricultural spending by China "And I will say that the farmers are very grateful. The most they've ever spent on agricultural product is $16 billion. So when they pulled out, I took just a small part of the money that China is paying us, and I gave it toward the farmers and the farmers are very happy." -- July 30 exchange with reporters Facts First: Sixteen billion dollars is not the most China has ever spent on US agricultural products in a year. As we noted above, studies have found that Americans, not China, are bearing the majority of the cost of the tariffs. And Trump's aid to affected farmers has required much more than "a small part" of the tariff revenue. China spent a record $29.6 billion on US agricultural products in 2014, according to government figures. The New York Times reported July 15 that Trump's tariffs on China had generated about $21 billion as of July 10. As Trump noted later last week, he has promised a total of $28 billion in aid to farmers over the last two years -- so the tariff revenue so far does not even cover the cost of his pledge. Baltimore Baltimore and corruption "What Elijah Cummings should do is he should take his Oversight Committee, bring them down to Baltimore, and invest all of it, and really study the billions and billions of dollars that's been stolen. It's been wasted; it's been stolen." And: "But the people of Baltimore are very thankful — they have let us know by the thousands of people — because of the fact that finally somebody is pointing out how corrupt Baltimore is, how billions and billions of dollars have been stolen." -- July 30 exchange with reporters Facts First: Though Baltimore has had a series of corruption scandals in recent years, there is no evidence that anywhere near "billions and billions" has been "stolen." We can't definitively fact-check Trump's claim that billions have been "wasted"; he is entitled to his opinion on the effectiveness of spending. But an allegation of billions in actual theft requires proof, and Trump has not provided any. "He has no idea what he's talking about," said Matthew Crenson, professor emeritus of political science at Johns Hopkins University and a scholar of Baltimore's political history. "I'd like to see those billions and billions." Corruption convictions or cases involving alleged corruption in Baltimore have tended to involve sums of money much smaller than "billions." In 2009, Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted of stealing about $1,500 worth of gift cards meant for low-income residents. Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned in May of this year over a scandal involving payments from the University of Maryland Medical System. Pugh, who sat on the nonprofit company's board of directors, received $500,000 for 100,000 copies of a children's book she wrote. (She called the deal a "regrettable mistake.") Baltimore's economy "Baltimore's numbers are the worst in the United States on Crime and the Economy. Billions of dollars have been pumped in over the years, but to no avail. The money was stolen or wasted. Ask Elijah Cummings where it went. He should investigate himself with his Oversight Committee!" -- July 29 tweet Facts First: Baltimore does not have the worst economic numbers in the United States, though it does rank poorly by several measures. Baltimore had the fourth-worst unemployment rate of major cities in 2018, but its 5.7% rate was substantially better than that of last-place Detroit, which was at 9.0%. In 2017, the Baltimore metropolitan area (which includes more than the city of Baltimore, on which Trump was focusing his attacks) ranked 19th in the country in gross domestic product out of 383 areas studied. The city of Baltimore had a 22.4% poverty rate over the 2013-2017 period, well ahead of such cities as Detroit (37.9%), Bloomington, Indiana (37.5%), and Laredo, Texas (30.6%). Baltimore did have the highest homicide rate of any major city in 2017, so Trump was accurate in his claim about crime. Obama's record Obama and energy "The previous administration tried to shut down American energy..." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Obama did encourage the use of renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels, but he didn't try to "shut down" fossil fuel production -- which increased significantly during his tenure. For example, field production of crude oil increased in each of Obama's first seven years in office before declining in his last year, reversing a steady decline that had begun in the mid-1980s. CNN reported in 2015: "The greatest oil boom in this nation's history has occurred during the tenure of self-proclaimed environmentalist Barack Obama." Obama also presided over a significant increase in natural gas production, which hit a record high in 2015 before declining in 2016. In his 2013 State of the Union address, Obama called for the US to go "all in on clean energy," but he immediately added, "Now, in the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. We need to encourage that. And that's why my administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. That's got to be part of an all-of-the-above plan." Coal Trump said the Obama administration tried to end the use of "American, clean, beautiful coal." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Obama did try to reduce the use of coal -- but nothing about coal is "clean." "Clean coal" is an industry term for particular technologies that attempt to reduce the many environmental harms caused by coal, a particularly dirty source of power. The term is not meant to be used to broadly describe coal itself, though that is what Trump generally does. Manufacturing While criticizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, from which he withdrew the US, Trump claimed Obama had said that "you can't produce manufacturing jobs anymore in the United States." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati "President Obama said that manufacturing jobs are gone." -- August 1 interview with Bill Cunningham of 700WLW Cincinnati Facts First: Obama didn't say you can't produce manufacturing jobs in the United States. At a town hall event on PBS in 2016, he said some manufacturing jobs were gone for good, in part because of automation, but he boasted of how many were being created and his administration's investment in new technologies to attempt to create new manufacturing sectors. Obama mocked Trump for not specifying how he would bring back the jobs that had been lost to other countries. But Obama was not saying that it was impossible to produce manufacturing jobs at all. He said: "Well, in fact, we've seen more manufacturing jobs created since I've been President than any time since the 1990s. That's a fact. And you know, if you look at just the auto industry as an example, they've had record sales and they've hired back more people over the last five years than they have for a very long, long time. We actually make more stuff, have a bigger manufacturing base today than we've had in most of our history." His tweet about Obama Talking about his tweeting habits, Trump said, "I sent the one about the 'wiretapping' in quotes, and that turned out to be true. Remember the big deal that was? I heard like about a minute after I sent that, I was called by my people, 'Sir, did you say --' I said, 'Yeah, I did, what's the big deal?' And the reason it was such a big deal is it turned out to be true." -- July 30 interview with C-SPAN Facts First: Trump's tweet about Obama allegedly wiretapping his phones has not been proved true. Trump was referring to the 2017 tweet in which he said, "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" (He repeated the allegation in additional tweets the same day, saying, for example, "I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!") There is still no evidence that Trump was wiretapped, let alone that Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump. The Justice Department said in a 2017 court filing that there are no records related to wiretaps like the ones Trump described. Then-FBI Director James Comey told Congress in 2017 that "we have no information to support those tweets." Paul Manafort, who served as Trump's campaign chairman, was wiretapped before and after the election, CNN has reported, and Manafort had a residence in Trump Tower. But a wiretap of someone living in Trump's apartment building is not the same as a wiretap of Trump himself. And there remains no public evidence that Obama was personally involved even in the Manafort wiretaps. Wind turbines "The previous administration, they liked windmills. You know windmills: If a windmill is within 2 miles of your house, your house is practically worthless." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: While some homes might fall in value when turbines are erected close by, studies in the US have not found that homes generally become anywhere close to "practically worthless" in such cases -- and some have found no significant decline at all. A 2016 study published in the Journal of Real Estate Research, for example, analyzed "more than 122,000 home sales, between 1998 and 2012, that occurred near (within 10 miles) 41 turbines in densely populated Massachusetts communities." The study found "no unique impact on the rate of home sales near wind turbines." Judicial vacancies Trump said of vacancies on federal courts: "And I came in, I had 148 openings. I said -- you're supposed to have none. I said, 'How many do we have?' '148.' I said, 'You've got to be kidding.' " -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Trump did not enter office with 148 judicial vacancies, and it is not normal for incoming presidents to be told they have "none." Like Trump, his predecessors entered office with dozens of vacancies. According to Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who tracks judicial appointments, there were 103 vacancies on district and appeals courts on Jan. 1, 2017, just before Trump took office; 53 vacancies on Jan. 1, 2009, just before Barack Obama took office; 80 vacancies on Jan. 1, 2001, just before George W. Bush took office; 107 vacancies on Jan. 1, 1993, just before Bill Clinton took office. So Trump had the most judges to appoint since Clinton, but, clearly, other presidents also had appointing to do. Promises and accomplishments Veterans Choice "We passed VA Choice and VA Accountability on behalf of our great veterans. They've been trying to pass VA Choice for four decades. They couldn't get it done, we got it done, we got it." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati "But with all of the things that we've got -- I mean think of VA Choice, think of all of the things that we've got, you would think that that would make people happy." -- July 30 interview with C-SPAN Facts First: Trump did not get the Veterans Choice program passed, nor had there been an unsuccessful 40-year effort to get it passed. The program was signed into law by Obama in 2014. In 2018, Trump signed the VA MISSION Act, which expanded and changed the Choice program. What Veterans Choice does "Trump contrasted the Choice program with the previous situation, in which he noted that veterans had to wait for health care for "three, four, five, six days, for three weeks, for five weeks." Trump suggested that this is no longer the case, saying that he had the idea to "let them go outside, go to a private doctor. We'll pay the bill, they'll be fixed up all perfect and they can do it immediately.'" -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: Neither the Obama version nor the Trump version of this program allows veterans to avoid waiting days or weeks to see a VA doctor. At present, most veterans can get reimbursed for private care only if they are facing waits of more than 20 days at the VA. Under the current version of the program, there is an exception to the 20-day rule for people who live more than a 30-minute drive from a VA facility. But people who live within a 30-minute zone are still forced to stay within the VA system if they are facing waits of just under three weeks. As we noted in the previous fact check, the program was not Trump's idea. It was created in 2014 under Obama. Firing people at the VA "You couldn't fire anybody. If they were treating our vets badly, you couldn't fire him for anything. People could steal, they could be sadistic to our vets. ... You couldn't fire anybody for almost anything." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: While Trump might have been exaggerating here for effect, it's not true that "you couldn't fire anybody" prior to the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act he signed into law in 2017. The VA fired on average approximately 2,300 employees annually from 2005 to 2016, based on data collected by the Office of Personnel Management. However, the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Mississippi did find several instances where VA employees who were registered sex offenders or had been indicted for killing patients, for example, retained their jobs. The legislation Trump signed simplified and expedited the process of terminating VA employees. Confirmed judges "You know we've been doing very well in the courts, by the way. ... We've been winning a lot of cases, a lot of cases, we really have. We really have been. You know, we've now appointed 148, think of this, federal judges, 148." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: This was a slight exaggeration. There were 144 judges confirmed during the Trump presidency as of the day Trump made this statement, said Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who tracks judicial appointments. It was 99 district court judges, 43 appeals court judges and two Supreme Court justices, Wheeler said. Debt and spending Asked about the increase in debt during his tenure, and told that spending under his watch has been higher than spending under Obama, Trump said, "Sure, but the difference is, he wasn't building up the military. The military was getting depleted. I have to build it up, and I have to build it up from both Bush and from Obama, because with Bush, you know we were in these wars all over the place, and with Obama the same thing, they just never ended." -- July 30 interview with C-SPAN Facts First: Military spending is not the primary contributor to the increase in debt under Trump. According to a July analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, legislation signed by Trump will produce a $4.1 trillion increase in the debt between 2017 and 2029. Of that $4.1 trillion, senior vice president Marc Goldwein said, approximately a quarter is attributable to the increase in military spending. Trump's tax cuts are responsible for a much bigger share of the $4.1 trillion: about $1.8 trillion. "There's been across-the board-increases in the deficit, and defense is certainly a piece of it. But to use it as an excuse for the other three-quarters doesn't make a lot of sense to me," Goldwein said. Drug prices "Last year was the first time in 51 years that drug pricing for prescription drugs actually came down." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: This was a slight exaggeration. Prescription drug prices declined last year for the first time in 46 years, according to one of several measures. The Consumer Price Index for prescription drugs showed a 0.6% decline between December 2017 and December 2018, the first calendar-year decline since 1972. As The Washington Post pointed out in its own recent fact check, some experts say the Consumer Price Index is a flawed measure of trends in drug prices, since it doesn't include rebates that drug companies pay to insurers. The IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, which studies drug prices, found that "net drug prices in the United States increased at an estimated 1.5% in 2018." Trump can reasonably cite the Consumer Price Index. He was just off on the number of years. Preexisting conditions "... We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions, always." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: This claim is undercut by Trump's actions and those of congressional Republicans during his presidency. We usually don't fact-check promises, but this one has already proved untrue. Trump's administration and congressional Republicans have repeatedly put forward bills and lawsuits that would weaken Obamacare's protections for people with preexisting conditions. Trump is currently supporting a Republican lawsuit that is seeking to get all of Obamacare declared void. He has not issued a plan to reinstate the law's protections for people with preexisting conditions if the suit succeeds. Right to Try "They had no hope. For 44 years, they've been trying to get Right to Try. ... I got it approved, and it wasn't easy." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: There had not been a 44-year push for a federal Right to Try law, experts said. The law tries to make it easier for terminally ill patients to access experimental medications that have not received Food and Drug Administration approval for widespread use. Similar laws have been passed at the state level only since 2014, after the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, began pushing for them. "I have no idea what 'they've been trying to get' for 44 years. The Right to Try law was a creation of the Goldwater Institute, and it first became state law in 2014 (in Colorado), relatively soon after it was first conceived of," said Alison Bateman-House, assistant professor of medical ethics at New York University's Langone Health. Before Right to Try Trump said that, before the Right to Try program came into effect, terminally ill patients "couldn't get medicine." He said, "They couldn't get anything -- they'd travel to Asia, if they had money. They'd travel to Europe, they'd travel all over the world hoping for a cure. If they had no money, they'd just go home, they'd die. They had no hope." -- August 1 rally in Cincinnati Facts First: It is not true that terminally ill patients "couldn't get anything" or would simply have to go home and die until Trump signed the Right to Try law in 2018. Prior to the law, patients did have to ask the federal government for permission to access experimental medications -- but the government almost always said yes. Scott Gottlieb, who served as Trump's FDA commissioner until April, told Congress in 2017 that the FDA had approved 99% of patient requests. "Emergency requests for individual patients are usually granted immediately over the phone and non-emergency requests are generally processed within a few days," he testified.   This Piece Originally Appeared in CNN Read the full article

[getseriouser]

20 THOUGHTS: Trade Radio Ga Ga (’is this real life or just a fantasy?’)

WHAT a stupid year. 

The losers of the NRL Grand Final are paid out as winners by bookmakers, and not because of a silly betting promotion but because the code and its officials are as relevant and effective in their jobs as contraception to Irish catholic newlyweds on their honeymoon.

Where Donald Trump himself is evidence our species might now be regressing, the fact endless hours of Trade Radio always have talkback callers is the proof in that devolution pudding.

And in a year where all the conservatives and right-wingers in this country should be as excited as a Beagle on full lipstick following ScoMo’s Steven Bradbury effort in May, they’re got their pantyhose and pressed slacks in a twist because of what some Volvo factory-worker’s teenage daughter has to say about the inclement weather conditions.

There was chaos and anarchy on Swan Street for the second time in three years last month but Hold Kong locals asked Richmond fans if they could hold their beer. We lost Polly and Spud, and said vale, gone too soon, to Saturday Night Rove. Five clubs let go of their coaches, Pope Francis delisted one of his cardinals, and a ginger from Christchurch defeated his own country by the virtue of most boundaries.

But at least we retained the Ashes in England.

  1.       Let’s start with the footy, trades season is almost done. Hutchy to his credit was a genius for seeing revenue opportunity in this trade period, with an ‘insert sponsor here’ open line and hours and hours of coverage, its been a windfall and then some for his business. But I reckon we’re only a year or so away from the unwashed realising there’s no relevance in any of it until the final day. There’s only so many Terry Wallace orations on the merits of list analysis before your average punter switches off. Know when to hold them, know when to fold them, Craig.

2.       The biggest name out there with a day to go is Joe Daniher. Was that meeting with Tom Harley a personal one or an actual, official Swans’ approach? Soft tacos, hard tacos, why not both? Now we have Essendon playing hardball and who knows if it gets done. Chances are it does, Geelong last year with Tim Kelly was more exception than example, if the Swans want him bad enough, they’ll lump up the pieces, especially if they fear as I do that Bud’s barely got ten more games in him in a market that requires a star.

3.       St Kilda has a lot on. Jack Steven and Josh Bruce are two big losses, but getting in Dougal Howard, Bradley Hill, Zak Jones, Paddy Ryder and Dan Butler are some nice pieces. If Ratten can indeed coach, and as an ex-Clarko assistant he should be just fine, next year looks properly solid down at Moorabbin.

4.       Whats the thinking with the Dogs? Aaron Naughton looks like a key forward gun, and Josh Schache was just starting to show something as a footballer without being a star. Yet they’re throwing all the cash at Josh Bruce for a go at a third flag? I do know he was free to a good home because the Saints were hellbent Max King’s twin at the Gold Coast would head home next year – not now after that re-signing yesterday. Couple big mistakes there for mine.

5.       Tom Papley worth pick nine? Righto. And the Masked Singer will be popular on Australian television too, right?..... Yep, pick nine sounds about right then, forgive me.

6.       Jack Martin though, to Carlton, that’s the steal of the whole thing. Martin is a freak, who has gone underappreciated playing in the ghost town that is Gold Coast, for a horribly weak side, in a club that can’t develop anyone not named Tom Lynch. But has talent to burn and could easily become one of Carlton’s top 10 players next year, in fact based on the player he can become, he should. Think 2019 Michael Walters. Seriously. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

7.       Collingwood have cap issues? Really? Firstly who really knows, unlike North American sports where contracts are public, only each club really knows how much room they’ve got and how that ever would be divulged puzzles me. And yes they have to pay Grundy, De Goey and Moore next year, although the latter won’t be all that much given his hamstrings are like an Uber driver with turrets, unreliable and could snap at any time. But given the Pies were offering Tom Lynch the same financial terms as Richmond this time last year, with Scott Pendlebury out of contract next year and coming down in salary, with less stars to pay than West Coast, how is this a thing? It isn’t. Chris Mayne is overpaid, sure, but that’s it. Wells has retired, Beams took a cut, and unless George Calombaris oversaw their player payments and there’s backpay to cover off, I think it’s a total beat-up. But sure, let James Aish being wanted by his former backs coach at Freo to fuel that fable.

8.       Crows hired Matthew Nicks. Reckon that’s got fail all over it. Adelaide’s list is in a heap, the review basically said their post Grand-Final plans two years ago totally wiped the place out like a broken toilet on a buck’s weekend, and not seeing to the damage since has only exacerbated the crap spilling out all over the shop. Good half dozen or so quality players leaving this offseason, Walker and Sloane are the wrong side of 30 and they’ve got only a few good kids, most clubs around them have better youth and are more rapidly improving. Either Nicks can’t coach at the level or he can but the Crows will be a bad side regardless, either way it doesn’t see him making a new contract beyond whats given out today.

9.       NRL. Definiton of a pub league. Your local Wednesday night basketball is better run. And with better officiating. That Six Again controversy was the most befitting thing you’ll ever see to a sport, a sport where 13 of its 16 clubs run insolvent, but that’s ok because all their giant pokies-infested leagues club venues write them all a cheque to cover the losses each year. Absolute pub league.

10.   If an umpire or referee makes a bad call, it’s only made worse by changing that decision midstream. If a player marks the ball, but then the umpire overrules saying no, it was touched, its no mark, and because you’ve claimed it and made no attempt to get rid of it its now holding the ball, you just can’t do that. Kids are taught to play to the whistle. Except in rugby league then. Because chances are what the ref just said isn’t what he is about to mean in a couple seconds time, just be patient. That referee shouldn’t be crucified for what’s essentially just one error, but in the grand scheme of things, he needs witness protection. Or better yet, stay off the roster for trips to Canberra next season.

11.   It was mentioned in the preamble but no wonder SportsBet paid out all Canberra to win bets. The Raiders had all the momentum, it was 8-all, and it was near the Roosters tryline. They were no guarantee to score off that play, at best they might have got a repeat set. But if there was anyone more likely to break that deadlock given who was playing better but also, more importantly, the territory battle, it was the Green Machine. This isn’t SportsBet just being philanthropic, the result is just that shady.

12.   Speaking of Sportsbet – Western United. Made their A-League debut on the weekend, won one-nil in front of some fans at Wellington. But it was midweek that we saw their announcement which said “we are proud to announce SportsBet has joined the club as its exclusive sports wagering partner”. Firstly, poor form, in a city where all the AFL clubs are quite publicly backing out of gambling revenue, to be going the other way stinks big time. But secondly, what does that even mean? That if I go into a TAB all Western United games are unavailable to bet on. Coz that’s just not even close to true. Dumb and stupid in all of the ways, that.

13.   So the new boys have their home opener this weekend down at Geelong, even though they’re a team based out of Tarneit. Melbourne Victory when they’ve ventured down to Sleepy Hollow attract 14,000 or so, who knows how many turn up for the novelty first time around this Saturday. But going forward, given Melbourne City don’t exceed 10,000 and they play in town, if they’re getting anymore than 5,000-6,000 in what’s otherwise a 36,000 AFL venue, its going to look oh so pretty on television. What’s the opposite of the eggplant emoji?

14.   Few more on the A-League, firstly, why have your opening round smack bang in the middle of an international window? They were so hyper vigilant to schedule their opening round after the AFL and NRL had ended they failed to recognise all of the good Aussie players will be off winning 28-nil against Chinese Taipei or Christmas Island or whoever it was. Its like Victoria Police planning a social function on New Year’s Eve. No-one’s going to be able to make it you morons.

15.   And you open up with the Melbourne Derby. Lucky Victory is a terrifically run club with a strong, loyal fanbase. But only 33,000, with zero promotion? These should be nudging 50,000.

16.   Lastly, you know they’re going really well when the free-to-air partner this season is the ABC. Even the VFL got a commercial broadcaster, yet the country’s premier round ball competition shares a channel with Gardening Australia and Four Corners. And the cherry on the top is when it comes to finals, and I’ll quote the ABC press release on this one, where “one A-League match per round broadcast live on ABC TV and iView around the country… and a selection of A-League finals on delay, including the grand final.” Delay?! Remember those days? You can’t make this stuff up.

17.   Darren Weir got done for using jiggers. Rest of racing stays dead quiet. Right. Now is that because Darren is their mate and despite the heinous crimes blood is thicker than water in the industry and they have some empathy for him? Or is it a case of if he can get caught, then maybe some of the others equally as guilty could so easily as well, and staying mum is step one of avoiding such scrutiny? I wonder.

18.   So, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier for running a marathon. Phenomenal achievement, just ridiculous to even comprehend the feat. Amazing. But it won’t count as a world record. Why? Well it wasn’t a race. Old mate contrived the event with a couple dozen pacers to help him do it and that’s it. It’s like if me and some mates hire lane eight down Altona Pool Thursday morning, and fresh off a high-protein breakfast and a quick hit of flakka happen to break 20 seconds for one-lap of freestyle – you think FINA will recognise it? You think Kieran Perkins will shout me free Light Start for life off the back of it? As a milk crusader I could only dream of such a reward but yeah nah. Nice stunt Eliud, you’re a freak of a human. But we’re in the same boat brother.

19.   Tough one, not just for boxing because its bigger than that, but Patrick Day is in real bother and sincere optimism about his recovery to one side, so is his sport. Day was knocked out in the tenth round in a bout with Charles Conwell in Chicago in the weekend, which in itself is not unusual. But the consequences of the blow are such that Day is in a coma and in an “extremely critical condition”. Again, nothing but positive wishes about his eventual recovery first and foremost, but in an era where concussion in the football codes is as alarming as ever, combat spots’ existence, like boxing, could/would/should be on borrowed time with cases like this.

20.   TV ratings worry the pants off me. By far the most important and major revenue source for all the sport we love to watch, it helps grow the professionalism and the standards, and the access really. But as TV viewership declines, so does the viewership with live sport. And we all waited with bated breath for the NRL Grand Final numbers in the hope maybe they would be good, and it wasn’t just sport in general in trouble, that maybe rugby league was still on an upward trajectory and its just everyone else.

Nope, it was down too. Usually something that rates at times near 3m nationally, it was around 1.8m. The AFL Grand Final, with an engaged Sydney audience, has been on a trajectory over 3.5m, topping 4m occasionally, it was under 3m for the first time in years. Australia Open primetime slots were down, cricket was good but still down, be it the summer on Seven or The Ashes mid-year on Nine.

What does this mean? It means less people are watching live sport. And when advertisers hear that, they’ll be paying less to the networks for the privilege of putting 30 seconds of their product in front of the eyeballs of footy fans. And that then means TV networks will hand over less cash, subsequently, to the sporting bodies for the rights to broadcast their fixtures.

It doesn’t mean that we’re all destined to see the days of the 1980s return where players need a job outside of footy and only one game is broadcast a week and all that nostalgia. But the idea that salaries will keep going up and up is gone, the idea the game can grow at the same rate looks doomed. So unless someone makes Foxtel honest (nudge nudge Amazon Prime) or this is only a lull, and once we get over Fortnite and Korean boy-bands we will all fall back in love with Friday night in front of the telly watching footy, it’s a big, big concern. 

[bobjlower]

My trading book recommendations

Updated: August 19, 2019 – a complete update of all my favorite trading books and non-trading related books.

 This is not going to be another must-read trading book list where the same old trading books are mentioned for the 1000th time.

Although I do include some of the classics, you will also find a lot of new and non-trading related books in my list. In my opinion, you need to read a diverse mix of different books and different genres to get exposed to as many different ideas as possible. And sometimes, you will get the best ideas from a book you almost didn’t pick up.

All it takes is 1 idea or 1 sentence to completely change the trajectory of your life. So please, for your own sake, stay open-minded and pick up some books you’d normally avoid.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

 The Trading Classics

Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Day Trader [personal favorite]

Marty Schwartz is a legend and his results speak for themselves. This book isn’t just a very entertaining read, but Marty Schwartz’ personal story is also a very inspiring one from the average Joe to a multi-million dollar trader.

   Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline and a Winning Attitude

Is Trading in the Zone the best trading book out there? At least for beginners this probably holds true. But even if you are not new to trading and haven’t read this book yet, go and read it! At some point every trader acknowledges that trading successfully isn’t only about a trading method, but about a trader’s mindset and psychology. This is the point when you’ll want to have this book.

  Hedge Fund Market Wizards: How Winning Traders Win

I haven’t met a single trader who doesn’t like the Market Wizard Series. Some of the best and most popular traders and hedge fund managers share their stories and explain what it takes to become a profitable trader, and what helped them. Since the books are available as an audio version and written in an interview style, they are ideal to listen to wherever you go.

Also recommended by this author: By Jack D. Schwager: Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders and The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America’s Top Traders

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing [a personal favorite]

Burton Malkiel talks about bubbles, behavioral finance, herd mentality and everything that happens in the head of traders and investors. This book points out what drives prices and how traders see and think about the markets. The concepts and ideas in this book are often in complete contrast to what you usually hear on TV or read in financial books. At the same time, you will have a lot of aha-moments when Malkiel shares his thoughts on financial topics and trading.

  Come Into My Trading Room: A Complete Guide to Trading

Alexander Elder, another legendary name in the world of trading, explains what it takes to become a professional trader. He focuses on a trader’s mindset, money and risk management and developing your own trading strategy. He points out how important discipline as a trader is and what separates the average from the successful trader. Although the points about technical analysis won’t be particularly helpful to all traders, his view on psychology and the trader’s mindset will help everyone to understand the impacts of psychology better.

   More About Trading

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

This book walks you through the history of probabilities, math and risk management. From the first time, people started engaging in games of chance such as rolling dice, to the modern world of risk management and modeling. If you are looking to learn something new and are a bit of a math and statistics geek, this book is a must.

  Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the World’s Greatest Gamblers

Professional gambling and trading have many similarities, especially when it comes to mindset, psychology and discipline. This book is the gambling equivalent to the Market Wizards series in trading. From the best poker players,  blackjack and backgammon player, to sports bettors and multi-millionaire horse racing legends, this book offers some fascinating insights into the world of professional gambling.

  The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility” (Incerto)

Nicholas Taleb’s book talks about the very rare, but highly impactful events that shock financial markets and the whole world in general. He talks about the impossibility to prepare for such events and the implication that arises from it. This is a thought-provoking book which offers unique insights and provides a different view on the world and highly recommended for traders since we deal with the unknown every day.

  Books That Will Challenge The Way You Think About Life

The Alchemist [personal favorite]

I am convinced that The Alchemist should be included in every recommended reading-list, regardless of the topic. It fair to say that this book is probably the most inspiring novel ever written. The book shows the story of a shepherd who sets out to follow his heart and pursue his dreams despite uncertainty and lack of resources. If you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow – and you never will – but still follow the voice in your heart, something extraordinary is waiting for you.

 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

This is a super fun read, packed with LOADS of practical tips on how to improve your life. However, it is not the standard self help book and it encoirages you to think differently and question many of the conventional tips and the general approach to life. Highly recommended!

I also highly recommend his newer book:  Everything Is F*cked

  The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch was a computer science professor who has been diagnosed with cancer. In his ‘last lecture’ he talked about how to live life and how to overcome obstacles. This book isn’t about dying, but about living. If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

  The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny

This novel is completely different from all the books on this list, but it’s a personal favorite and a world-wide bestseller as well. Robin Sharma shares the story of a successful lawyer who, after a heart attack, quit his job, sold all of his possessions and set out to find a secret tribe of monks deep in the Himalaya. The monks taught him their secrets about life, how they view the world and showed him how to use the mind in a whole new way. Robin Sharma’s writing style is very vivid and he shares many practical tips that you can apply to your own daily life.

 Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

When it comes to personal finance, Rich Dad, Poor Dad is probably the #1 book in the world. Robert Kiyosaki’s book contains so many valuable lessons about how to take your finances to the next level, why passive income is so important and what you can do to live independently, that it should be taught in school.

  The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Timothy Ferris is a legend in the area of online entrepreneurs and investors. He not only has a blog that is worth subscribing to, but his book is also a must-read if you plan to escape the usual 9-5 job routine and pursue the dream of doing what you love. In his book. Tim Ferris gives a lot of real life examples and provides many actual tips on how to earn money online and what it takes to live independently and freely by doing what you want.

  Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Although the title claims that this book is for startups, it’s much more than just this. Peter Thiel is probably among the smartest people you’ll ever hear about. Not only is he the founder of Paypal and Palantir, but he’s also an angel investor and visionary. In his new book, he talks about society and what he believes is wrong about how we see our world and shape our future. He challenges a variety of common-sense beliefs and provides a whole different view on the world we live in. If you like to think differently, this book is undoubtedly for you.

 The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

When traders just starting out, everything is fun and exciting. But once trading becomes hard, frustrating and boring, you notice that it takes more than you originally thought. Research shows that the majority of traders only trade for a few months. Seth Godin’s book The Dip describes this phenomenon and explains why pushing through the hard times is so important to the success of any profession and skill.

   Biographies

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

This biography is a fascinating story about risk, following your passion, building a business, having a vision and overcoming setbacks. This book has easily become my #1 most favorite biography.

I listened to it as an audiobook on Audible and I could not turn it off.

  Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

Prior to reading Shoe Dog, Total Recall was my favorite biography. Arnold’s book does indeed read like a movie script and there is so much more to him than just bodybuilding and being a movie star.

His will, motivation and his work ethic are unparalleled. After reading this book, you will be ready to take on the world.

  Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

First I didn’t want to read his book because I felt that I already knew it all after listening to various podcasts. But man was I wrong.

His life story is truly remarkable and his will is from another world. If you are struggling to find motivation, this book will show you what is possible.

   Spirutal books

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

This book has been hugely successful and I have read it numerous times within just a few months. There is so much wisdom packed into this book that it will just keep blowing your mind time and again.

This book is so important for traders because it also tackles the issues of dealing with the inner voice in our heads, how to manage it and how to put it into perspective.

  The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection

This is Singer’s (the man who wrote the previously mentioned book The Untethered Soul) biography. His life story is astonishing and it resonated with me in particular because he is not the classic spiritual guru. He built a billion Dollar tech company and was very sucesful in his life.

He surrendered to life and just went with the flow. There is so many lessons in this book you will be able to apply to your own life as well.

  Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1

I am not relegious what so ever but I picked up this book after it was recommended to me and I did not expect the impact it would have on me. Although the book is weird at times, the messages in the book are just so well expressed. The first and second book are my personal favorites.

This book series has completely changed the way I look at the world, how I view religion, society and so many other things. If you are open-minded, this book will probably do the samr for you as well.

  The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

You probably will have to read this multiple times to fully understand all aspects but there are so many gold nuggets hidden in this book, that you will have plenty of aha moments while reading it.

Tolle talks about much more than just living in the present moment.

   Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon

This book is quite strange at times, a little confusing and the ideas that are presented are very different. However, since the ideas of this book are so groundbreaking and potentially life changing, I expected it to be different. You can’t expect to have a mindset shift if you keep reading the same old things you already know about.

Give it a try and I am sure you will see the value.

   I am always looking for non-conventional and different books. If you have a suggestion for a book that is completely overlooked by most, please share it in the comments.

The post My trading book recommendations appeared first on Tradeciety Trading Academy.

My trading book recommendations published first on your-t1-blog-url

[junker-town]

Eli Manning’s benching is the beginning of the end for the all-star 2004 QB class

Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Philip Rivers are nearing career crossroads.

Four teams selected quarterbacks with their first-round picks in the 2004 NFL Draft. Three found players destined for Halls of Fame, whether for their franchise or the league as a whole.

The fourth was the Bills, which tells you everything you need to know right there.

Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger all came into the league on the same day. From the start of 2006 to Week 13 of the 2017 season, each was the unquestioned starter for his team when healthy. That streak ends Sunday after Giants head coach Ben McAdoo announced Geno Smith would start over Manning in a lost season in New York, much to the chagrin of, well, just about anyone who’s ever followed football.

It’s a harbinger for the end of three storied careers that will be forever be intertwined — especially in the case of Rivers and Manning, who were swapped for each other on draft day. The trio have been a Sunday staple for more than a decade. They’ve won 334 regular season games, 25 playoff games, and four Super Bowl rings.

Manning and Roethlisberger restored two fabled franchises to greatness and brought championship parades to their new hometowns. Rivers took an AFC punching bag and turned it into a fierce competitor.

But when Geno Smith — 12-18 as a starting quarterback, typically on teams equally as hopeless as the 2017 New York Giants — takes the field, it will mark the final stage for the stellar quarterback class of 2004.

If Eli Manning’s time with the Giants is done, what comes next?

The Manning-Rivers-Roethlisberger triumvirate isn’t just special because they’re three quarterbacks who made good on their promise from the same draft class. A unique thing about this grouping is that they’ve only ever played for one NFL team.

All signs point to Roethlisberger and Rivers playing out the string with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, respectively. Manning, on the other hand, may have come to the end of the line in New York. While head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese, the architects behind this year’s 2-9 campaign and the benching of a probable Hall of Fame quarterback, may not return in 2018, the Giants may still look to move on from Manning as a total rebuild looms.

Cutting Manning would save $9.8 million on the team’s salary cap after eating $12.4 million in dead money. With a handful of valuable quarterback prospects at the top of next spring’s draft — and 2017 third-round pick Davis Webb on the roster — it could be time for New York to make a tough decision. Rather than keep the veteran around to play mentor through the end of his contract, the Giants may move on.

But Manning hasn’t been appreciably worse than average in a season where he’s watched a bevy of his top receivers go down with injuries and had very little support from his run game. Several teams in the middle of the next draft could balk at the risk of adding a top-tier QB prospect and instead turn to the two-time NFL champion instead. That includes possible suitors like the Broncos, Jaguars, Cardinals, and even a post-Kirk Cousins Washington team.

While Manning seems primed for at least one more year in the league, he may lose a member of his cohort.

Is Ben Roethlisberger really thinking of retirement?

Roethlisberger toyed with the idea of hanging up his cleats last offseason, though no one — not even head coach Mike Tomlin — really took his contemplation seriously. If he makes similar thoughts public this winter, they may garner some more traction, especially after telling reporters he wonders if he “doesn’t have it any more” after a midseason loss to the Jaguars.

The veteran quarterback has been blessed with one of the NFL’s most explosive set of skill players but has struggled to drop his team into that extra gear that should separate them from the rest of the AFC. His passing accuracy and yardage numbers have fallen for the third straight season. His quarterback rating is the lowest it’s been since 2008.

Of course, Roethlisberger’s brilliance has never shined through his stats. The burly quarterback’s unquantifiable ability to get swallowed up in the pocket only to scramble out of an unseen hole before throwing a first-down dart is what makes him such a dangerous commodity for Pittsburgh. He’s remained a valuable leader in the team’s clutch games this fall: the Steelers are 5-1 in one-possession games in 2017. The most recent example came on Sunday night, when he led his team 35 yards in 17 seconds to set up a game-winning field goal against the Packers.

Like the Giants, Pittsburgh doesn’t yet have a clear succession plan in place — which will place an extra onus on preventing Roethlisberger’s retirement efforts. The Steelers drafted former Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs in the fourth round of this year’s draft, but the jury’s out on whether he can be a viable starting option — especially in 2018.

Keeping Roethlisberger around doesn’t just boost the team’s Super Bowl chances next season, but in the future as well. Having Ben around to serve as mentor for a project QB isn’t nearly as valuable as having him in the pocket slinging passes to Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, but it’s still significant.

And through it all, Philip Rivers persists.

Rivers is being put upon once more to carry the Chargers’ offensive burden, but a bounce-back season has proven he’s not yet slowing down as age 36 approaches. The veteran has cut his 2016 interception rate in half this season as Los Angeles has emerged as an unlikely playoff contender. His three-touchdown, 434-yard performance last week against the Cowboys proved he’s still able to play at a Pro Bowl level.

Prevailing wisdom suggested Rivers would retire when the Chargers left his longtime hometown of San Diego, but the noted family man hasn’t been vocal about any displeasure with the move. He even invested more than $200,000 on a mobile film review room in the back of his SUV, which has allowed him to commute without uprooting his life.

His team has also been dedicated to surrounding him with talent. Rivers doesn’t enjoy the same level of targets Roethlisberger does, but a healthy Keenan Allen and an upgraded offensive line — his sack rate has dropped from 5.8 to 3.0 percent this fall — is certainly making things easier. Over the past three years, the Chargers have spent draft capital to add talent like Melvin Gordon, Hunter Henry, Mike Williams, Forrest Lamp, and Dan Feeney.

The team’s free agent pickups haven’t been as effective — big-ticket players like Orlando Franklin and Stevie Johnson have failed to live up to their contracts, for example — but this willingness to spend tells a story. That’s the kind of investment you make for a quarterback who you plan on being around for a while. Rivers is an older veteran at this point, but his 2017 has shown no signs of slowing down.

All three QBs have had their own success, but one man truly ties them together.

In the end, Rivers and Roethlisberger can attribute some of their biggest playoff flops to the presence of Tom Brady. For Manning, his biggest triumphs came against the ageless passer, making him the transitive G.O.A.T.

Of the three, he’s the only one to have beaten Brady in the postseason.

That could change in early 2018. Roethlisberger’s Steelers look like a lock for a prime playoff spot. Rivers’ Chargers have battled back from an 0-4 start to rally back into the postseason hunt. The only question is whether either man can take advantage of a steadily improving Patriots defense if given a third chance to end New England’s season.

Wither the rest of the QB class of 2004?

2004 produced a first-round quarterback class that ranks with the hauls of 1983 (Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, John Elway) and 1971 (Archie Manning, Joe Theismann, Jim Plunkett), but Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger weren’t the only players to make an impact that season. The forgotten member of that first round is J.P. Losman, who was swallowed up by the black hole known as the Bills and finished his career with a 10-23 record as a starter (0-2 against Rivers and Roethlisberger in that span).

Losman wouldn’t be the most notable QB to follow the lofty trio. Matt Schaub matriculated from the University of Virginia to Atlanta, where he backed up Michael Vick for three seasons before Houston pried him away for a pair of second-round picks. Schaub was never a star quarterback, but he had a pair of Pro Bowl appearances and stands as the best quarterback in Texans history — at least until Deshaun Watson gets a few years under his belt. Now, Schaub is back with the Falcons, backing up Matt Ryan for the past two seasons.

Luke McCown, who went on to spend 13 seasons in the league as a backup, also spent his career looking up at the three players who defined the 2004 NFL Draft.

The lesson to Steelers and Chargers fans: enjoy your franchise QBs while you can.

The clock is ticking on three great careers. By 2020, all we may have of the 2004 class are a handful of Hall of Fame debates. Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger have all been great in their own ways — their longevity has tied them together more than any trades or draft class comparisons ever could. The light is starting to dim on one of these players after the Giants look to have moved on from Manning.

Roethlisberger and Rivers appear to be locked into homes that will keep them as long as they want to stay — but this is the NFL, where nothing good ever lasts. The end of the road is coming for one of the most successful QB draft classes of all time, and Manning’s demotion is just a sad reminder of it. That makes the end of the 2017 season even more important for the Chargers and Steelers — they don’t know how much longer these memorable eras can last.

[tortuga-aak]

5 strategies billionaires used to go from having nothing to massive wealth

Getty

There are 5 key strategies billionaires have used to build their wealth.

They created products with an abundance of value, inserted themselves as a service provider in a high-growth industry, or improved systems of communication.

Two other strategies include creating a consumable product, and investing in real estate.

You're likely asking yourself what it takes to get rich. But not just rich. Rich at the highest level.

How do you go from broke to billionaire? Most people might simply want to have positive cash flow or even a million dollars in the bank. But does a million dollars really cut it these days? I suppose that depends on where you live and what you do.

But billionaires are a different breed. It's a different world. Spending time with them is more likened to fabled fantasies rather than actual reality. The world truly is their oyster. Now, if you want to get there, or you're just looking to become a multi-millionaire, there are some strategies that will propel your growth.

In fact, there are five strategies these billionaires have used to go from broke and hopeless, to absolutely on top of the world.

One thing to keep in mind is that you're far less likely to attain this type of success without owning your own business. But if you're already an entrepreneur or a business owner, then it's a matter of adapting — look at the following strategies and see how you can adapt them to your business, or to potentially pivot your business to strike while the proverbial iron is hot in one sector or another.

Most people think that it's impossible to go from broke to billionaire. But it's been done repeatedly. Individuals including Roman Abromovich,  Francois Pinault, Howard Schultz, Oprah Winfrey, Shahid Khan, Do Won Chang, Ralph Lauren, John Paul DeJoria, Larry Ellison and Mohed Altrad were once broke. But they all became billionaires.

How did they do it? First, and foremost, by harboring the following skills. And second, by wielding one of the five strategies that you'll find below. As you read the list and the strategies, ask yourself the following question. How many of these skills am I employing and how can I adapt these strategies to my business today, right now? 

Leverage an abundance mentality and laser-focus your mindset

Become an expert at business networking 

Overcome the often-stifling fear of failure 

Effectively manage your time

Create long-term goals and take daily action towards them

Never give up no matter how tough things might be

Focus the power of your thoughts on the positive over the negative

Never look for shortcuts or try to cut corners

Understand the underlying principles of sales and marketing

Become a fervent brand-builder 

1. Create something that adds an abundant amount of value to the world.

Today, as it's been for all our recorded history, getting rich entails building and adding an abundant amount of value to the world. The richest and most successful people have added the most value. That's how real wealth is attained. Find some way that you can add an excessive amount of value to the world. This is not a short-term strategy. This takes time.

But it also involves seizing opportunities as they arise. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard got incredibly rich not by inventing new products, but by improving on existing products. While Patagonia is a giant clothing retailer today, at the age of 50, Chouinard's company went bankrupt after the fallout from a series of lawsuits.

However, Chouinard stayed the course. He added value. Improved on iterations of products to make them better for the environment, longer lasting, and higher in quality. That's how Patagonia grew into a behemoth. He added an abundant amount of value.

2. Create a consumable product that people love.

There are a number of industries in consumable products that are simply taking off like wild fire. From cold-brewed coffee to energy shots and drinks and even electronic cigarettes have become industries that have begun to balloon. Manoj Bhargava, founder of the 5-Hour Energy Drink, grew his business from a 2003 startup to over $1 billion in sales by 9 years later. 

In 2010, Howard Panes was $600,000 in debt and lost his house to a short sale when he entered into the e-cigarettes industry, ramping it up within 18 months to over $100 million in sales. Several years later, after an astounding exponential growth, Japan Tobacco International, a corporate giant with 27,000 employees and $20 billion in annual revenue acquired the company.

With no experience in the industry, Panes, like Bhargava, did what it took to see things through, traveling and living in Shenzhen, China where the company refined its product and delivery systems. Today, as an avid car collector with a near-$15 million collection of rare and exotic hypercars, Panes has become one of South Florida's wealthiest residents.

John Paul Dejoria, who was not only once broke, but also homeless and living in his car with his son, also did the unimaginable. He created salon-quality products and went door to door to sell them. He focused on quality and he took action every single day. At the age of 36, with a $700 loan and while living in a car with his son, he grew Paul Mitchell Systems into a behemoth, becoming one of the world's richest persons in the process. 

3. Insert yourself as a service provider into a high-growth industry.

We saw Airbnb grow from obscurity and blow-up air mattress rentals on floors into a global behemoth, making its three founders, Brian Chesky, Nathan Biecharczyk and Joe Gebbia, who were all once broke, into billionaires. Airbnb blazed a trail. But they weren't the first. Vacation rentals had already begun to take off, but VRBO was first. Yet, Airbnb did it better.

The goal? Identify a high-growth industry and become a service provider. Whether that's vacation rentals, ecommerce, financial services, insurance, virtual reality, chat bots, or any other industry for that matter, insert yourself into the industry by finding a unique way that you can provide the same service, but better, more efficiently and with greater reliability.

You could also find a way you can cater to the rich themselves by building up a service that attracts wealthy individuals. Whether that means renting out exotic cars, private jets, or becoming a global concierge for the uber wealthy like Annastasia Seebohm's Quintessentially Group, find a way you can do something more effectively than everyone else around you.

Kenny Trout, the founder of Excel Communications, achieved his success in the early telecom industry by becoming a long-distance reseller after deregulation took hold, selling over 200,000 franchises using the multi-level marketing model. Trout, who grew up with a dad who worked as a bartender, never had much money. He sold life insurance early on and identified a high-growth industry that he trail-blazed his way into.

4. Find a way to improve communications or connection online.

Mark Zuckerberg became one of the world's wealthiest individuals by improving connection and communications online. Today, we all know about the success of Facebook. But Zuckerberg was never poor or broke. He hailed from an upper-middle-class heritage.

However, what's most intriguing is the story of WhatsApp founder, Jan Koum. In 2007, while working at Ernst & Young, and shortly after the launch of the iPhone, Koum, who was an immigrant from Ukraine, where he was born, decided to create a communications app with Brian Acton that was released in January of 2010.

Koum, who had been passed over for a job at Facebook just shortly prior, grew WhatsApp into a wildly popular communications application that was later acquired by Facebook for $19 billion. Like other billionaires, Koum seized on the new industry and identified an opportunity that others might have missed.

5. Invest in real estate and grow your portfolio over time.

Real estate has given a platform to the world's richest individuals. If you think that making money through real estate is impossible, especially if you have no money to start with, then you've got a few lessons to learn. Some of the biggest real estate moguls in the world have started with nothing. It's called wholesaling and creative financing. Once you understand it, it truly can propel tremendous growth.

The goal is to focus on positive cash flow. Like Robert Kiyosaki's iconic, Rich Dad Poor Dad book and series, discover how to create assets rather than liabilities. Whether you just want to be a millionaire or a billionaire, real estate will give you a solid foundation or platform from which you can grow.

Leon Charney became a billionaire through his real estate investments. But he was the child of two immigrants, and at the time of his father's death, his family became destitute. He had nothing, and he worked his way through college and through law school.

Carl Berg, another billionaire real estate investor, also lost his father early on and was raised by his mother who was a school teacher. While working at a hotel, he met someone who turned out to be the largest home builder in the United States, who later offered him a job to run his mortgage company after he graduated from college. 

NOW WATCH: I won't trade in my iPhone 6s for an iPhone X or iPhone 8 — here's why

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[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1160

Monday, April 24, 2017

 Should be a lot of happy hockey fans here in Ottawa today with the Senators moving on to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after defeating the Boston Bruins in game 6 yesterday. I'm more excited because fishing season starts in 3 weeks. I went to check up on my boat yesterday wishing I could take it out right then. That first trip out to the lake with my buddy Matt can't come soon enough.

 Punisher #11 - Becky Cloonan (writer) Matt Horak (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). It's the penultimate issue of the EMC drug story. That's the pharmaceutical that turns ordinary people into near indestructible berserker killers. Frank has been captured by the bad guy mercenaries and must fight his way to freedom plus kill all the bad guys. No sweat when you're the Punisher. Becky really stretched my suspension of disbelief with all the injuries that Frank sustains so I might take a break after next issue's conclusion.

 Batwoman #2 - Marguerite Bennett & James Tynion IV (writers) Steve Epting (art) Jeromy Cox (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). It must be hard coming up with names for villains. Here we are introduced to Knife. You can probably guess her weapons of choice.

 Secret Empire #0 - Nick Spencer (writer) Daniel Acuna (art) Rod Reis (prologue art) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Spoiler Alert: Steve Rogers/Captain America is really a Hydra sleeper agent. Has been since day one. If you can believe that nonsense then you'll love this new Marvel Universe wide crisis crossover. Steve is now the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the new Supreme Leader of Hydra. This is 2017's big event for Marvel with fans anxious to see how the heroes handle the betrayal by one of their best. It's all hands on deck and battle stations all around. Look for the Secret Empire trade dress on the covers of all related tie-in books to get the full story. Have fun Marvel Zombies.

 Batman #21 - Tom King (writer) Jason Fabok (art) Brad Anderson (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). Good timing here with the NHL in playoff season eh. The first few pages features a hockey game brawl. Here's DC's entry in the crossover sweepstakes. It's called "The Button" and it starts here. This looks like an interdimensional story with the smiley face button from Watchmen a major image appearing often. They should have used it as a distinctive trade dress on the covers to help fans find the other parts of the story on the racks easier but they didn't. You'll have to pay close attention to get the whole story. Part 2 hits the racks on April 26 in Flash #21. I am more inclined to read this story than Marvel's "Secret Empire" since this book was better written and drawn than Secret Empire #0.

 The Shaolin Cowboy: Who'll Stop the Reign? #1 - Geof Darrow (story & art) Dave Stewart (colours) Nate Piekos (letters). It's a new 4-issue mini picking up where the last one left off right after Amitoufu (I think that's his name) killed all the zombies. Geof's books are such a visual feast that the weird story fits right in with all the stuff that he puts on the page. This is my favourite type of comic book. A fun story (there are talking vultures) with stunning artwork. The minute details always amaze me.

 Nick Fury #1 - James Robinson (writer) Aco (pencils) Hugo Petrus (inks) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). This is a good replacement for the recently ended Black Widow spy series. Nick's got some cool gadgets that would make James Bond envious. Even his eye patch does some nifty things. The vibrant colours make each page pop while this mission hums along with plenty of action. There are hot Hydra agents and a cool as a cucumber hero so I'm going to come back for the next mission.

 Superman #21 - Patrick Gleason & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Patrick Gleason (pencils) Mick Gray, Joe Prado & Ray McCarthy (inks) John Kalisz, Hi-Fi (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Part 2 of "Black Dawn" makes the Kents' neighbours even creepier. I can't wait to find out what's going on out on the farm.

 Plastic #1 - Doug Wagner (writer) Daniel Hillyard (art) Laura Martin (colours) Ed Dukeshire (letters). This is some sick stuff right here, as if you couldn't tell from the variant cover with the severed head in a zip lock plastic bag and the fork impaled tongue. This comic book is NOT FOR CHILDREN and follows the misadventures of Victor, a former spy who lives in a fantasy world with his "girlfriend" Virginia. He runs afoul of a very bad man and must repay a blood debt. The art is very good but the story is super cringe worthy. Victor is like the Punisher with autism so you decide whether you want to get to know him or not.

 Guardians of the Galaxy: Dream On #1 - Marc Sumerak (writer) Andrea Di Vito (art) Laura Villari (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). You could not dream up a truer title for this one shot if you tried. Half of this book is a reprint of an original Guardians of the Galaxy adventure from 1990. This is perfect for teens but this mature reader wasn't stimulated intellectually.

 Super Sons #3 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Jorge Jimenez (art) Alejandro Sanchez (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). The boys battle deadly doppelgangers and are overwhelmed. Robin may have found a way to gain the upper hand but I looks like he's too late. A nice cliffhanger last panel to make you want to read the next issue as soon as it hits the racks.

 The Greatest Adventure #1 - Bill Willingham (writer) Cezar Razek (art) Daniela Miwa (colours) Taylor Esposito (letters). I grabbed this off the rack to read based on my love for Bill's most excellent work on Fables. Here he takes a bunch of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fictional characters on a great adventure to stop a mad scientist from assembling a weapon of mass destruction. The biggest name in this group is Tarzan and he and Jane are the only ones that I recognise. There's an innocent pulpy feel to this adventures so it's quite suitable for younger readers.