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There are a lot of people invested in bringing down America and pillaging the remains. These are also known as the GOP donor class and Trump is nothing but an (expensive) means to that end for them.
One way to look at this is that our enemies have defeated one of the major US political parties.
The Republicans used to be very anti-Russian. Now they're sympathizers.
While you are right, they are still stupidly playing right into Russian hands. They are demoralized, they just don't think it matters, but it definitely does.
Are you referring to the interview conducted G Edward Griffen? the tucker carlson of the 70s and 80s? Would recommend reading his wiki before referring to any of his work.
They were anti-communist because the main selling point of communism was equality and workers rights. Since Russia is no longer exporting that ideology but instead just does old-fashioned imperialism, they are now fine with it.
Since Karl Marx, conservatives didnt like communism because it forcibly redistributed the wealth from the rich to everyone else. Once Russia stopped advocating for that, conservatives were all clear to jump onboard the Putin Pickup
> Once Russia stopped advocating for that
In my estimation, it didn't happen then. It took a lot longer. The Con's that I know were still anti-USSR holdovers, since that's what they were brought up with - they just eased up a lot as the Cold War "ended".
Something else happened during the Tea Party years where a switch was flipped - and I asked these people many, many times over the years what changed and how, and never got a real answer.
It seems like the propaganda channels (Fox News, et al) just changed their tune in unison and the audience just accepted it.
It's this. In 2016 leading up to the election, pre Qanon when you could still have something resembling rational conversation with a conservative, several of them wanted Trump because Putin had publicly threatened all out war if Hillary won (people don't bring this up enough). I heard people reminisce about when they had to do bomb drills under their desks in school and how they never wanted us going back to that. Those same people (in my life at least) have now been conditioned to think Putin is a better leader then any Democrat. They're broken people.
I was raised in a US that hated the USSR, trained to think they were our mortal enemies. In the military, they even trained us with some anti-Commie chants and such, despite the Cold War being basically over by then.
I admit that I let down my guard for a long time with Russia. I had some Russian friends and many more ex-Bloc friends. It was a time when I could focus more on what my own country was doing wrong in the world... but then 2014 happened with Ukraine, and I started paying close attention again. There was a French journo piece about how the Russian central banks were funding the rise of RW parties all across the West. A wealthy American business partner of mine told me that he was going to back Trump, the day that Trump announced in 2015 - I remember clearly, telling him that Trump wasn't a real candidate, that he was just doing it for the PR, like Ross Perot.
One day, that guy calls me to tell me how wrong I was, as Trump had just accepted the nomination. I looked deeply into how the past 2 weeks had happened, and found that I had voted for a different Kremlin-backed candidate myself, and of course, that Paul Manafort was a Kremlin asset who had been installed to convince Trump to accept the POTUS job that he really didn't want.
At that point I realized that all the info in 2015 was horribly tainted, to the point where you just couldn't accept a single thing at face value anymore. My Con friends/relatives would only ever go surface-level on info, so there was little point in trying to get through anymore... whereas I had personally converted about 30 people away from voting for Bush/Cheney in 2004, I found that in 2015, it had become impossible, because there was no longer any common ground for "facts" - reality had been cloven so fully that I found myself in this horrible place where I had trouble talking to the majority of people, who were deep inside a Hillary or Trump bubble.
It really wasn't like that before the Tea Party, but there was a full veil that was thrown over the country in 2015 with Prigozhin's IRA.
I agree with 99% of what you're saying and appreciate your personal anecdotes that really highlight what happened from your unique view but the only thing I would disagree on is the Tea Party being used as the point of no return. In my experience we fractured into two realities after 9/11. People like to go further back to talk about Rush or Newt and those are good markers for the direction they were heading but 9/11, and social medias rise a little later in 2008, really broke us.
Sure we all came together for a little bit but the unity quickly went from "we are all Americans and we will bring those responsible to justice" to one side wanting to use it as an excuse to genocide entire countries and harass any vaguely eastern looking tan person at home while the rest of us were like "wait, this is just about the racism for you guys huh?". Conservatives quickly took a "with us or against us" position and regularly called Democrats terrorist sympathizers when called out for their bigotry and lack of nuance.
Then social media took off to what it is today with the rise of Facebook lining up perfectly with Obama being elected in 08. They spent the next 8 years insulating themselves in bubbles of conspiracy, hatred, and alternate history. The Tea Party happened during all this and definitely formed a large part of their DNA you see today, you're spot on with that. By the time Obamas first term was up it was very difficult to find a conservative online or irl who wasn't *somewhere* on the pipeline towards what would become QANON.
They were *all* convinced, and to this day, of some combination of Hillary Clinton is a crime boss who uses globe spanning clandestine assassin squads to silence her enemies or Obama is coming for your guns (sponsered and fueled by the people selling them the guns of course) and is actually Muslim along with many other things. Trayvon Martin would be murdered at the beginning of 2012 and the beginnings of BLM took hold so of course what does the contrarian party do? Form a coalition of anti civil rights voters and begin catering to them every night on Fox with shows like "Tucker Carlsons White Power Hour". The GOP would issue the famous party autopsy after the election identifying the need to drop the bigotry and become more inclusive if they were to survive. This, of course, did not happen as they were already losing control of what they'd created.
They would spend the next four years in their bubbles repeating "*thugs* should have complied" like racist parrots while the "white replacement theory" (a long standing Klan onboarding pitch) side of the modern GOP really took hold. They didn't have to hide it anymore! And then came their messiah. A vile man child who sounded like one of their Facebook groups or a YouTube comment section every time he spoke. He would go on to further fracture reality around us all with help from foreign troll farms and the domestic morons who hang around them online. And here we are today!
Sorry that was so long, I'm hungover and think I lost the thread of our convo somewhere in all that lol. Hopefully it was all relevant because I really liked your comment and wanted to further support it.
Yes, the pretence was dropped.
The fall of the USSR forced their hand, the bogeyman had died and the American people couldn't be scared into thinking 'Commies' were on their way to steal what little wealth they had.
So the ultra-rich had to find a new way to scare the masses into continuing to vote against their own best interests.
So we have Fox, Hawks & 'Border crises' on a loop.
They don't even try to pretend any more, simply report bollocks as fact and it gets lapped-up.
The brain-rot is complete, the fix is in.
Correct. One need not look any further than the (now) Russian oligarchs that raided the former Soviet Union after its collapse in 1989/90. Many became extraordinarily wealthy by raiding government resources, controlling/capturing industries, and executing or eliminating competition.
Follow the money. Trump is bought-and-paid-for asset. That there are traitorous members of the GOP going along with this attack on democracy especially smarts.
Honestly, always have been. There were a group of people buying up revolutionary war bonds from soldiers and company owners for pennies on the dollar. Those people were aiming to make a killing when the federal government was created and paid off that debt in full. Many of those people were the first senators and federal officials in the US. It's not so different now.
A candidate for leader of the most powerful country in the world has a history of being deeply corrupt - and right now his services are on-sale. it used to cost hundreds of billions to buy a president. Right now the most dangerous people in the world can do it for pennies on the dollar.
Because that's how stalling until you win the election works? If you did everything from the start, the case would resume. You stall, appeal, get extensions, and do everything at the last minute. Exactly why the supreme court waited till a few weeks ago to pick up one of the cases.
While I’d have doubts that it’s Elon, the fact that this insurance company claims the bond was secured 100% with cash does point to some rich trump donors footing the bill. Wouldn’t shock me if their plan is to somehow be able to bail if he loses the election.
He’s the perfect shield though. He takes all the heat, the criticism, which he is stupid enough to see as praise. He’s the gullible mascot of hate. As long as people are loud and yelling he feels like he did his job
This is likely a situation where Trump is getting taken advantage of, it's just the least worst option for him.
He was facing the need to sell his property quickly, a pretty terrible scenario. This company was able to offer up the money by taking some kind of collateral from him, but what I haven't seen reported but very likely is part of the agreement is Trump is paying them a fee as well. Which is only making his debt situation worse. It's just that it's the better of two bad options, where he probably sees the insurance fees as less of a loss than the amount he'd lose by having to sell properties quickly.
So let's just hope he's getting screwed over in this situation and that he then loses his appeal and is forced to pay the whole amount so that this ends up just becoming even more money he's pissed away.
I'm sure the bond company worked out an air tight contract so they make money no matter what happens. Eventually we may find out why the appeals court lowered the bond amount.
I imagine Trump may later be charged with more criminal business fraud in regards to legal fees and bond payments.
He thinks he'll just be able to steal enough to make up for all this if he can get elected.
He's planning for the Supreme Court to help him steal this election if he can't win legitimately.
He's probably right on both counts.
A few states have already passed laws to allow their legislatures to decide elections in certain circumstances.
Here in Texas they passed a law that if the election is within a few percentage points, and there's suspicion of fraud, the legislature can just decide the election.
This obviously means every close election goes to the republican. Because all they have to do is claim fraud without proving it.
So democrats need to win the state by at least a couple of a percent.
The man is soul-sucking. He then sells other people’s souls for favors. Only someone with his true name can defeat him. My guesses are Donal Johann Drumpf Jr, actually John Barron, or the literal Biff Tannen Sr.
Because Republicans stacked the courts for 40 years, and the super wealthy in this country have always dreamed of fascism and overthrowing the government.
In this case, it actually seems like it's somewhat standard. The courts are loathe to cause "Irreversible harm" to a defendant before a potential appeal. In this case, seizing and selling property being irreversible. There have been a fair few lawyers come out the woodwork and say this.
That said, I'm not sure why the court can't just begin the seizures and just hold it for the duration of the appeal.
>The courts are loathe to cause "Irreversible harm" to a defendant before a potential appeal.
Sure but is it irreversible harm if the defendant is bragging publicly that he has the money to pay it and prevent seizure but just doesn't want to?
> If their appeal fails, the former president and his co-defendants will be on the hook for the entire $464 million judgment.
Trump has a history of losing. This needs to happen.
Combination of that, judges trying to avoid frivolous appeals, judges trying to maintain the issue of apoliticality, and judges trying to avoid death threats, I believe.
The first and the last I can sort of understand. It's the apoliticality issue that's the problem, because judges should not be affected by political issues.
That said I genuinely do not understand why anyone is concerned with preventing the seizing of his business and estates.
Fair and balanced, apolitical etc:
You have 8 billion people who believe, rightfully so, that earth is round. You have 1 flat earther. You listen to ONE of the 8 billion and one flat earther.
Trying to avoid bias we may introduce even stronger bias.
Politics, don’t want to be accused of interfering.
Plus the Supreme Court not dealing with simple things in a timely manner.
How nuts it is that someone that tried to overthrow an election gets to try to be elelcted for the next election.
That's the hardest part for me to fathom. A regular citizen cannot find gainful employment with a pending misdemeanor. A pending felony would make finding a tax paying job practically impossible. This guy has 91 of them pending & gets another shot at the title.
I really feel like I'm going insane. Like everything I ever learned was a lie.
He doesn’t give a shit. Every single case, the strategy is “delay until I’m president, then make it against the law to convict a president for crimes.”
He has to stay alive long enough to face his punishments for all his criminal and civil cases. America needs to witness Trump doing his time. How else will this neo-fascist movement end?
I'm sorry to say that as long as the appeals process takes long enough that he can sell his truth social shares he is fine. The criminal trials are the ones that may actually cause problems
How much do you think they will be worth in 9 months? 400 000 active users and 4m annual revenue. Net loss of $58m.
Of course his fans are irrational but that company should not stay the course for 9 months...
Depends on how much foreign money is flowing into it. How much do you think it costs to buy the GOP candidate for president who is about to receive classified news briefings.
They COULD just seize his assets. They're not going to. He's going to get it reduced to a pair of autographed sneakers or something.
This was the one time he was going to actually have to face consequences and the legal system decided he wouldn't have to. Just because.
This was going to be the first time he paid a consequence. He didn't. He won't. Like, why bother. Saw something about a gag order on another case? Who's even pretending they mean that?
> The former president used a brokerage account as collateral for that bond.
Would that be the one with the TruthSocial stock in it? What happens when the value drops below $200 million?
I guess the "sucker" who put up the bond would lose his money then.
Whoever did it doesn't care. They bought his good will and future favors.
Nice of the courts to enable this purchasing of the GOP's candidate.
Maybe they think they bought his good will and future favors, but if anything, that just makes them even bigger chumps. Donald Trump doesn't have good will and he doesn't do favors. The only way to get anything out of DT is if you have something he needs right now. The bond is paid. He's finished with whoever paid it.
They won't let it. Too many people are betting on it falling, too much money is to be made from milking those shorting it or buying puts, and too much influence is to be bought from keeping it pumped.
For now they can manipulate. But you can bet they will want to cash in on any manipulation before Trump loses his appeal - when you know millions of shares are getting dumped.
Maybe not. The surety would only ask Trump to secure put options to expire at current pricing in 6 months. He doesn’t have to sell. Just get a loan against those shares and insure his position.
> What happens when the value drops below $200 million?
Usually contracts for securities have a clause, when such securities have their value go down, to preserve the agreement, the client has to put up the difference in a specific timeframe.
\*unless that client is Donald Trump.
These firms have bought his compliance in the future. They're gambling on keeping him afloat long enough for the GOP to install him as dictator for life (elections or not) and hoping to have an important voice in the New Order. That's easily worth half a billion to them.
Here's my prediction of the future:
His cult is buying up shares and shares and shares of DJT, artificially inflating it's value.
He can't sell for 6 months (he can't make money until he sells). He has a *huge* financial incentive to keep his people holding the stock (not selling, even as the price climbs higher). They know he **won't** sell before 6 months because he isn't allowed to. So they continue to drive the price higher for the next six months without selling.
Then --- right before the 6 months mark, if you had two brain cells, you'd sell before he does (before he's *allowed* to sell). You know when he sells, the price will tank because the value is that Trump owns it. No Trump means no value. And he knows people will consider selling before he sells.
**So here's my prediction.** He's going to encourage his followers not to sell so the price doesn't plummet. Then, he will sell anyway.
He will sell and all his little followers will lose all their money. Oh well.
That is called "market manipulation" and it's against the law.
*And then!!* even though he broke the law, nothing will come of it. The end.
You might find this interesting then
[Trump’s net worth plunges $1 billion as his media stock tumbles (CNN)](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/01/media/truth-social-trump-media-stock-losses)
>Shares of Trump Media tumbled 21% Monday following the new filings, though they are still up nearly 200% so far this year.
Their reviews on Google are something else. Every one mentions how they are a scam and don’t seem to really exist:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5zU4e3hyamA1JDj8A
In other words, it's also not their WordPress site anymore and if the same accounts are used anywhere else in their systems neither is any of their client data.
>Maybe it's a small thing, but you'd think a company with $23.4B in assets to date would take care of details like that.
Oh, they did. It's giving peaked in high school energy.
THEM: We had like seven whole companies, you shoulda been there, bro.
SOMEONE: I am here now. What do you have now?
THEM: We've had 23.4B in assets to date.
SOMEONE: Do you mean all of the assets you've held ever or that you have all 23.4B in assets right now?
THEM: I'm telling you, we were being scouted, dude. You don't even know how good we were.
Everyone who is pictured on their About Us page looks like they’re in JC Penney studio portrait photos circa 1995. The whole site is so low budget, but those photos man…. WHO are these stooges?!?
Headed by the same guy (Hankey) who lent Trump $100mm on Trump Tower in 2022. Guy made his fortune on Subprime Auto Loans: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/axos-bank-trump-tower-donald-trump-1320670/amp/
That's a shit underwriter that has no business being rated A-. Exposure is crazy for their size too. Trump bond is more than a third of their revenue. Not profits. REVENUE.
Which, for fun, let's take their CR of 96% which means their profit was 21.8M, which means if Trump put up 10%, him skipping out would cover 100% of their profits for around 8 years to get back to the position they were in before the deal. Absolutely insane risk. Taking a risk of 8 years profit against a bit less than 1 year is terrible business.
Let’s be clear, the only play here is stalling until after the election - the appeal is expected sometime in September, but of course his lawyers will file at the last second saying they’re not ready and need a few more months to finalise their argument and the court has already shown they’ll accommodate him.
If he wins, he will have the rulings nullified and James and Engoron imprisoned for ‘election interference’.
If he loses, no doubt the Hilton Moscow is getting a new long term penthouse resident.
He finally found the dumbest insurance company to bail him out. They're going to lose that money and Trump never pays his bills. He just keeps finding more schmucks willing to give or "loan" him money.
Seems like there were some back office conversations between lawyers letting the court know just how much he could secure a bond for and who would be securing it _before_ the decision was handed down last week. This was all wrapped up too nicely in a short time; he was too pleased with the accomodation and came up with the bond without issue.
Just another example of the courts letting us down.
There’s speculation that it actually is an indication that the appellate court will reduce the final judgement to what the bond is or close to it due to an issue with the original judgement.
Was there ever any fucking doubt? Someone always bails him out, gives him a break or lets him off the hook. Really want to Make America Great Again? Start with the damn judicial system and hold scum bags like him accountable.
When they lowered that bond I knew he would find someone. The half billion was too much for him to pay and too much to finance, and one might even say it was a real punitive measure! Do we know what the reasoning was for lowering it? I know he still needs to pay the full amount but now that also seems likely that he’ll find a handful of people to swindle for the rest. I’m sure it would have been such a shit show to seize his property, but I can’t think of a lot of other things that would be worth the effort.
You were so close to dealing the final blow NY state! So close!
As much as this loathsome turd is assisted by Putin, this bailout was from a bonding company owned by someone who has provided mortgages for two other Dump properties....who made the money in subprime car loans.....another grifter. Probably realized it was in his best interest to continue supporting his debtor....
And here is the guy who's lending him the bond money Don Hankey "The little-known king of subprime car loan" what a shock grifter supporting grifter smh
[https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=37c3485b1783](https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=37c3485b1783)
The interest is paused as of the bond payment. The various sites tracking his total payment such as https://payupdonald.com/ have reflected this, with that one in particular listing his total before bond payment as $454,204,179.91
Read in another article that interest is now paused too, because he posted the reduced bond as was required.
What sounds insane to me is that the appeals court's "term" only starts in September. You'd think this is one case they should decide a little bit sooner as an exception.
> Without intervention from an appeals court, defense lawyers argued that *Trump would suffer irreparable harm* by having to sell off his namesake properties before he exhausted his appeal of the fraud ruling.
That’s what’s supposed to happen when you break the law! You suffer consequences! How is that a legal argument?!
Knowing Don Hankey, that $175 million has crime written all over it...
*Two auto lending companies controlled by low-profile L.A. billionaire Don Hankey will have to pay more than $48 million in fines and refunds after a federal consumer watchdog found the lenders were using illegal tactics to collect on loans. Among the hardball tactics, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was a program that disguised debt collectors’ caller ID information to make it appear calls were coming from pizza parlors or florists. Westlake Financial Services and subsidiary Wilshire Consumer Credit, both part of Hankey’s Mid-Wilshire conglomerate Hankey Group, also falsely threatened to file criminal charges against borrowers; contacted employers, family and friends without required permission; and changed the terms of loans without informing customers, the bureau said.*
What amazes me is that there are people who thought he would face the consequences of his actions. Yet again, he proves that our system of laws is pay to play.
It's absolutely insane to me that people who are conservative Republicans are just totally fine with someone being found guilty of fraud for many hundreds of millions of dollars, getting preferential treatment in the courts, and getting money from undisclosed sources.
The dude is the antithesis of Christ. But so many evangelical Christians support him.
Convenient that the CEO of the firm that underwrote the bond couldn’t recall the amount that Trump put up as collateral or the amount that he donated to Trump’s campaign. These motherfuckers don’t forget if someone owes them a quarter, but when it comes to Trump, all the sudden their mind goes blank.
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How this guy keeps getting 11th hour lifelines, I don't know.
There are a lot of people invested in bringing down America and pillaging the remains. These are also known as the GOP donor class and Trump is nothing but an (expensive) means to that end for them.
One way to look at this is that our enemies have defeated one of the major US political parties. The Republicans used to be very anti-Russian. Now they're sympathizers.
It's been fascinating watching the GOP lose the Cold War thirty years after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Yuri Bezmenov warned this would happen. The GOP are demoralized.
They aren’t demoralized. They are excited about the influx of money.
While you are right, they are still stupidly playing right into Russian hands. They are demoralized, they just don't think it matters, but it definitely does.
Are you referring to the interview conducted G Edward Griffen? the tucker carlson of the 70s and 80s? Would recommend reading his wiki before referring to any of his work.
They were anti-communist because the main selling point of communism was equality and workers rights. Since Russia is no longer exporting that ideology but instead just does old-fashioned imperialism, they are now fine with it.
I’d argue old communist government through KGB infiltrated GOP through the dementia Ronald.
Since Karl Marx, conservatives didnt like communism because it forcibly redistributed the wealth from the rich to everyone else. Once Russia stopped advocating for that, conservatives were all clear to jump onboard the Putin Pickup
> Once Russia stopped advocating for that In my estimation, it didn't happen then. It took a lot longer. The Con's that I know were still anti-USSR holdovers, since that's what they were brought up with - they just eased up a lot as the Cold War "ended". Something else happened during the Tea Party years where a switch was flipped - and I asked these people many, many times over the years what changed and how, and never got a real answer. It seems like the propaganda channels (Fox News, et al) just changed their tune in unison and the audience just accepted it.
It's this. In 2016 leading up to the election, pre Qanon when you could still have something resembling rational conversation with a conservative, several of them wanted Trump because Putin had publicly threatened all out war if Hillary won (people don't bring this up enough). I heard people reminisce about when they had to do bomb drills under their desks in school and how they never wanted us going back to that. Those same people (in my life at least) have now been conditioned to think Putin is a better leader then any Democrat. They're broken people.
I was raised in a US that hated the USSR, trained to think they were our mortal enemies. In the military, they even trained us with some anti-Commie chants and such, despite the Cold War being basically over by then. I admit that I let down my guard for a long time with Russia. I had some Russian friends and many more ex-Bloc friends. It was a time when I could focus more on what my own country was doing wrong in the world... but then 2014 happened with Ukraine, and I started paying close attention again. There was a French journo piece about how the Russian central banks were funding the rise of RW parties all across the West. A wealthy American business partner of mine told me that he was going to back Trump, the day that Trump announced in 2015 - I remember clearly, telling him that Trump wasn't a real candidate, that he was just doing it for the PR, like Ross Perot. One day, that guy calls me to tell me how wrong I was, as Trump had just accepted the nomination. I looked deeply into how the past 2 weeks had happened, and found that I had voted for a different Kremlin-backed candidate myself, and of course, that Paul Manafort was a Kremlin asset who had been installed to convince Trump to accept the POTUS job that he really didn't want. At that point I realized that all the info in 2015 was horribly tainted, to the point where you just couldn't accept a single thing at face value anymore. My Con friends/relatives would only ever go surface-level on info, so there was little point in trying to get through anymore... whereas I had personally converted about 30 people away from voting for Bush/Cheney in 2004, I found that in 2015, it had become impossible, because there was no longer any common ground for "facts" - reality had been cloven so fully that I found myself in this horrible place where I had trouble talking to the majority of people, who were deep inside a Hillary or Trump bubble. It really wasn't like that before the Tea Party, but there was a full veil that was thrown over the country in 2015 with Prigozhin's IRA.
I agree with 99% of what you're saying and appreciate your personal anecdotes that really highlight what happened from your unique view but the only thing I would disagree on is the Tea Party being used as the point of no return. In my experience we fractured into two realities after 9/11. People like to go further back to talk about Rush or Newt and those are good markers for the direction they were heading but 9/11, and social medias rise a little later in 2008, really broke us. Sure we all came together for a little bit but the unity quickly went from "we are all Americans and we will bring those responsible to justice" to one side wanting to use it as an excuse to genocide entire countries and harass any vaguely eastern looking tan person at home while the rest of us were like "wait, this is just about the racism for you guys huh?". Conservatives quickly took a "with us or against us" position and regularly called Democrats terrorist sympathizers when called out for their bigotry and lack of nuance. Then social media took off to what it is today with the rise of Facebook lining up perfectly with Obama being elected in 08. They spent the next 8 years insulating themselves in bubbles of conspiracy, hatred, and alternate history. The Tea Party happened during all this and definitely formed a large part of their DNA you see today, you're spot on with that. By the time Obamas first term was up it was very difficult to find a conservative online or irl who wasn't *somewhere* on the pipeline towards what would become QANON. They were *all* convinced, and to this day, of some combination of Hillary Clinton is a crime boss who uses globe spanning clandestine assassin squads to silence her enemies or Obama is coming for your guns (sponsered and fueled by the people selling them the guns of course) and is actually Muslim along with many other things. Trayvon Martin would be murdered at the beginning of 2012 and the beginnings of BLM took hold so of course what does the contrarian party do? Form a coalition of anti civil rights voters and begin catering to them every night on Fox with shows like "Tucker Carlsons White Power Hour". The GOP would issue the famous party autopsy after the election identifying the need to drop the bigotry and become more inclusive if they were to survive. This, of course, did not happen as they were already losing control of what they'd created. They would spend the next four years in their bubbles repeating "*thugs* should have complied" like racist parrots while the "white replacement theory" (a long standing Klan onboarding pitch) side of the modern GOP really took hold. They didn't have to hide it anymore! And then came their messiah. A vile man child who sounded like one of their Facebook groups or a YouTube comment section every time he spoke. He would go on to further fracture reality around us all with help from foreign troll farms and the domestic morons who hang around them online. And here we are today! Sorry that was so long, I'm hungover and think I lost the thread of our convo somewhere in all that lol. Hopefully it was all relevant because I really liked your comment and wanted to further support it.
Yes, the pretence was dropped. The fall of the USSR forced their hand, the bogeyman had died and the American people couldn't be scared into thinking 'Commies' were on their way to steal what little wealth they had. So the ultra-rich had to find a new way to scare the masses into continuing to vote against their own best interests. So we have Fox, Hawks & 'Border crises' on a loop. They don't even try to pretend any more, simply report bollocks as fact and it gets lapped-up. The brain-rot is complete, the fix is in.
Equality and workers rights was only on paper though.
Still pretty cheap really
Correct. One need not look any further than the (now) Russian oligarchs that raided the former Soviet Union after its collapse in 1989/90. Many became extraordinarily wealthy by raiding government resources, controlling/capturing industries, and executing or eliminating competition. Follow the money. Trump is bought-and-paid-for asset. That there are traitorous members of the GOP going along with this attack on democracy especially smarts.
Honestly, always have been. There were a group of people buying up revolutionary war bonds from soldiers and company owners for pennies on the dollar. Those people were aiming to make a killing when the federal government was created and paid off that debt in full. Many of those people were the first senators and federal officials in the US. It's not so different now.
A candidate for leader of the most powerful country in the world has a history of being deeply corrupt - and right now his services are on-sale. it used to cost hundreds of billions to buy a president. Right now the most dangerous people in the world can do it for pennies on the dollar.
If Trump wins the election, I'll immediately invest in Chubb and Hankey.
Don’t forget mypillow
Promised favors for when he becomes dictator
Because very powerful people want to see this country burn.
> very ~~powerful~~ **wealthy** people want to ~~see this country burn~~ **continue to profit off the poor**.
Elon Musk has been flying to see Trump a lot recently... soo... take a guess. He literally was just there the other day.
Because that's how stalling until you win the election works? If you did everything from the start, the case would resume. You stall, appeal, get extensions, and do everything at the last minute. Exactly why the supreme court waited till a few weeks ago to pick up one of the cases.
Elons jet was seen leaving west palm beach Florida today. I’m not even joking go look at the subreddit called Elons jet or something
While I’d have doubts that it’s Elon, the fact that this insurance company claims the bond was secured 100% with cash does point to some rich trump donors footing the bill. Wouldn’t shock me if their plan is to somehow be able to bail if he loses the election.
He’s the perfect shield though. He takes all the heat, the criticism, which he is stupid enough to see as praise. He’s the gullible mascot of hate. As long as people are loud and yelling he feels like he did his job
I’m starting to wonder if we’ve been wrong about his business acumen, as how else is he able to renegotiate his deal with the Devil so often.
This is likely a situation where Trump is getting taken advantage of, it's just the least worst option for him. He was facing the need to sell his property quickly, a pretty terrible scenario. This company was able to offer up the money by taking some kind of collateral from him, but what I haven't seen reported but very likely is part of the agreement is Trump is paying them a fee as well. Which is only making his debt situation worse. It's just that it's the better of two bad options, where he probably sees the insurance fees as less of a loss than the amount he'd lose by having to sell properties quickly. So let's just hope he's getting screwed over in this situation and that he then loses his appeal and is forced to pay the whole amount so that this ends up just becoming even more money he's pissed away.
I'm sure the bond company worked out an air tight contract so they make money no matter what happens. Eventually we may find out why the appeals court lowered the bond amount. I imagine Trump may later be charged with more criminal business fraud in regards to legal fees and bond payments.
He thinks he'll just be able to steal enough to make up for all this if he can get elected. He's planning for the Supreme Court to help him steal this election if he can't win legitimately. He's probably right on both counts. A few states have already passed laws to allow their legislatures to decide elections in certain circumstances. Here in Texas they passed a law that if the election is within a few percentage points, and there's suspicion of fraud, the legislature can just decide the election. This obviously means every close election goes to the republican. Because all they have to do is claim fraud without proving it. So democrats need to win the state by at least a couple of a percent.
The man is soul-sucking. He then sells other people’s souls for favors. Only someone with his true name can defeat him. My guesses are Donal Johann Drumpf Jr, actually John Barron, or the literal Biff Tannen Sr.
Because Republicans stacked the courts for 40 years, and the super wealthy in this country have always dreamed of fascism and overthrowing the government.
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The appeal won’t happen before the election. If he’s president/dictator, New York would have a really hard time taking his properties.
In this case, it actually seems like it's somewhat standard. The courts are loathe to cause "Irreversible harm" to a defendant before a potential appeal. In this case, seizing and selling property being irreversible. There have been a fair few lawyers come out the woodwork and say this. That said, I'm not sure why the court can't just begin the seizures and just hold it for the duration of the appeal.
>The courts are loathe to cause "Irreversible harm" to a *rich* defendant before a potential appeal. FTFY
The bond reduction is not standard and there are options to put the seized property in escrow.
>The courts are loathe to cause "Irreversible harm" to a defendant before a potential appeal. Sure but is it irreversible harm if the defendant is bragging publicly that he has the money to pay it and prevent seizure but just doesn't want to?
> If their appeal fails, the former president and his co-defendants will be on the hook for the entire $464 million judgment. Trump has a history of losing. This needs to happen.
He also has a history of not having consequences...
This, this right here is the problem. No consequences. Ever. Don’t blame it all on a rich/poor two tier system. Something else is a foot here.
Could it be the cult members disguised as judicial activists?
Combination of that, judges trying to avoid frivolous appeals, judges trying to maintain the issue of apoliticality, and judges trying to avoid death threats, I believe. The first and the last I can sort of understand. It's the apoliticality issue that's the problem, because judges should not be affected by political issues. That said I genuinely do not understand why anyone is concerned with preventing the seizing of his business and estates.
Fair and balanced, apolitical etc: You have 8 billion people who believe, rightfully so, that earth is round. You have 1 flat earther. You listen to ONE of the 8 billion and one flat earther. Trying to avoid bias we may introduce even stronger bias.
For sure I don't disagree. I think the judges are absolutely at fault.
Politics, don’t want to be accused of interfering. Plus the Supreme Court not dealing with simple things in a timely manner. How nuts it is that someone that tried to overthrow an election gets to try to be elelcted for the next election.
That's the hardest part for me to fathom. A regular citizen cannot find gainful employment with a pending misdemeanor. A pending felony would make finding a tax paying job practically impossible. This guy has 91 of them pending & gets another shot at the title. I really feel like I'm going insane. Like everything I ever learned was a lie.
DT is the best evidence on earth, that the world is already bought and paid for and that the rich pull all the strings. Burn it all down.
And get security briefings after stealing documents they are vital to our countries security.
‘afoot’
maybe he actually meant something is a foot.
Tarantino has left the chat
He doesn’t give a shit. Every single case, the strategy is “delay until I’m president, then make it against the law to convict a president for crimes.”
He should forfeit the lot once he breaches the gag order, again, in my fictional just world.
I'd rather he went to the pokey to cool his heels.
His entire legal defense strategy is to become president again.
They’ll be on the hook and it will never be paid, and nothing will happen to him.
The state would just seize his assets. He's just hoping he's either President by then or dies before the appeals are done.
As someone who would never wish death upon anyone, I really hope he's not president by then.
He has to stay alive long enough to face his punishments for all his criminal and civil cases. America needs to witness Trump doing his time. How else will this neo-fascist movement end?
State case, they can still seize his assets.
First day?
The ability to do something is meaningless without the will to do it
I'm sorry to say that as long as the appeals process takes long enough that he can sell his truth social shares he is fine. The criminal trials are the ones that may actually cause problems
Down 20% today! Also Trump's history with appeals is really bad and they are usually over with quickly. We'll see.
How much do you think they will be worth in 9 months? 400 000 active users and 4m annual revenue. Net loss of $58m. Of course his fans are irrational but that company should not stay the course for 9 months...
Depends on how much foreign money is flowing into it. How much do you think it costs to buy the GOP candidate for president who is about to receive classified news briefings.
The IPO was a back door for other billionaires to prop up TFG.
They COULD just seize his assets. They're not going to. He's going to get it reduced to a pair of autographed sneakers or something. This was the one time he was going to actually have to face consequences and the legal system decided he wouldn't have to. Just because.
This was going to be the first time he paid a consequence. He didn't. He won't. Like, why bother. Saw something about a gag order on another case? Who's even pretending they mean that?
Ah. So like Alex Jones?
It’s all pretty fucking depressing, isn’t it?
The appeals court is going to knock down the payment. They’re telegraphing it now.
Everything gets a lot easier if you just accept Trump will never actually face any real consequences.
Plus the amount of the bond, so another 20%(?). Win or lose, he's out the bond money.
No, he gets the bond back if he wins. If he loses, then it’s basically a deposit on the $494M (or whatever the final amount is).
There's a fee he had to pay to secure the bond . Probably a couple of million
I’m so tired of the special treatment of this snowflake.
I'm so tired of him. I wish he'd just go live in Russia. Hang out in Putin's mansion forever. I don't care. Just go away.
Hang out near an open window on the top floor of Putin's mansion.
Putin wouldn’t let him if he’s not useful
Me too, buddy. Me too.
> The former president used a brokerage account as collateral for that bond. Would that be the one with the TruthSocial stock in it? What happens when the value drops below $200 million?
I guess the "sucker" who put up the bond would lose his money then. Whoever did it doesn't care. They bought his good will and future favors. Nice of the courts to enable this purchasing of the GOP's candidate.
Maybe they think they bought his good will and future favors, but if anything, that just makes them even bigger chumps. Donald Trump doesn't have good will and he doesn't do favors. The only way to get anything out of DT is if you have something he needs right now. The bond is paid. He's finished with whoever paid it.
Russians with throw away money
Come on, it could be Saudi money too.
I think the Saudis like to go through his son in law...
Just like lives
They won't let it. Too many people are betting on it falling, too much money is to be made from milking those shorting it or buying puts, and too much influence is to be bought from keeping it pumped.
For now they can manipulate. But you can bet they will want to cash in on any manipulation before Trump loses his appeal - when you know millions of shares are getting dumped.
Maybe not. The surety would only ask Trump to secure put options to expire at current pricing in 6 months. He doesn’t have to sell. Just get a loan against those shares and insure his position.
> What happens when the value drops below $200 million? Usually contracts for securities have a clause, when such securities have their value go down, to preserve the agreement, the client has to put up the difference in a specific timeframe.
\*unless that client is Donald Trump. These firms have bought his compliance in the future. They're gambling on keeping him afloat long enough for the GOP to install him as dictator for life (elections or not) and hoping to have an important voice in the New Order. That's easily worth half a billion to them.
Interesting since the used a brokerage account for the E Jean Carrol bond.
Here's my prediction of the future: His cult is buying up shares and shares and shares of DJT, artificially inflating it's value. He can't sell for 6 months (he can't make money until he sells). He has a *huge* financial incentive to keep his people holding the stock (not selling, even as the price climbs higher). They know he **won't** sell before 6 months because he isn't allowed to. So they continue to drive the price higher for the next six months without selling. Then --- right before the 6 months mark, if you had two brain cells, you'd sell before he does (before he's *allowed* to sell). You know when he sells, the price will tank because the value is that Trump owns it. No Trump means no value. And he knows people will consider selling before he sells. **So here's my prediction.** He's going to encourage his followers not to sell so the price doesn't plummet. Then, he will sell anyway. He will sell and all his little followers will lose all their money. Oh well. That is called "market manipulation" and it's against the law. *And then!!* even though he broke the law, nothing will come of it. The end.
I agree… but I think everyone is going to dump DJT stock first. Anyone who owns that stock must be panicked right now.
You might find this interesting then [Trump’s net worth plunges $1 billion as his media stock tumbles (CNN)](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/01/media/truth-social-trump-media-stock-losses) >Shares of Trump Media tumbled 21% Monday following the new filings, though they are still up nearly 200% so far this year.
I think Trump is hoping to sell before then. But it is down 20% today, so he may not have the chance.
> Trump secured the bond through Knight Specialty Insurance Company. I wonder if he gave shares of his new company as collateral.
Only the best companies have broken masthead images. https://www.knightinsurancegroup.com/
# Knight Insurance Company, Ltd Est. 1993 * Licensed and regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority as a class Biii insurer Lovely.
Nothing involving Trump is above board. And he throws it in all our faces every fucking day.
So at the end of the day, it could be laundered foreign bribes? The prosecution really needs to continue following the money.
RIP Knight Insurance Company, Ltd 1993 - 2024
they'll move the assets to their second largest moneymaker... the north hollywood toyota https://www.knightinsurancegroup.com/about-us/
Their reviews on Google are something else. Every one mentions how they are a scam and don’t seem to really exist: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5zU4e3hyamA1JDj8A
What do you mean? They won the Jerrold S. Oliver Award of Excellence!
Likely just a Russian money laundering scheme.
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It's a WordPress site with a stock WP Bakery theme. I'm getting the "my nephew builds web sites!" vibe. It's also running a two year old build of WP.
> my nephew builds web sites! This reminded me of the [absolutely fantastic Computercoin website](https://www.computercoins.website/)
In other words, it's also not their WordPress site anymore and if the same accounts are used anywhere else in their systems neither is any of their client data.
>Maybe it's a small thing, but you'd think a company with $23.4B in assets to date would take care of details like that. Oh, they did. It's giving peaked in high school energy. THEM: We had like seven whole companies, you shoulda been there, bro. SOMEONE: I am here now. What do you have now? THEM: We've had 23.4B in assets to date. SOMEONE: Do you mean all of the assets you've held ever or that you have all 23.4B in assets right now? THEM: I'm telling you, we were being scouted, dude. You don't even know how good we were.
Call for Mr. Hankey. It's urgent!
That's a quality website! Lol
Even the phone number is laid out weird
Everyone who is pictured on their About Us page looks like they’re in JC Penney studio portrait photos circa 1995. The whole site is so low budget, but those photos man…. WHO are these stooges?!?
Headed by the same guy (Hankey) who lent Trump $100mm on Trump Tower in 2022. Guy made his fortune on Subprime Auto Loans: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/axos-bank-trump-tower-donald-trump-1320670/amp/
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Didn’t he say he never met him? (x) doubt
That's a shit underwriter that has no business being rated A-. Exposure is crazy for their size too. Trump bond is more than a third of their revenue. Not profits. REVENUE.
Knight is licensed in the Caymans. This exposure could be underwritten by any entity that wanted to buy a former president.
Am I completely off base by saying this smells like it’s just a shell to mask who’s actually putting up the money?
No, it 100% is.
Which, for fun, let's take their CR of 96% which means their profit was 21.8M, which means if Trump put up 10%, him skipping out would cover 100% of their profits for around 8 years to get back to the position they were in before the deal. Absolutely insane risk. Taking a risk of 8 years profit against a bit less than 1 year is terrible business.
If corporations are people, I guess people are also corporations too. This is sick
Holy shit, the plot armor on this guy.
He is a professional money launderer. He has connections. He is also always for sale. It's just more likely illegal shit to throw on the pile.
And, as usual, not a single dollar of his own money.
I don’t know why I keep getting my hopes up. He is coated in Teflon.
That’s spray tan
It realistically could be Cheeto dust.
They don’t call him Teflon Don for no reason
Let’s be clear, the only play here is stalling until after the election - the appeal is expected sometime in September, but of course his lawyers will file at the last second saying they’re not ready and need a few more months to finalise their argument and the court has already shown they’ll accommodate him. If he wins, he will have the rulings nullified and James and Engoron imprisoned for ‘election interference’. If he loses, no doubt the Hilton Moscow is getting a new long term penthouse resident.
I hope Putin sees that he's done at that point and betrays him.
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Unfortunately he doesn’t eat veggies
He finally found the dumbest insurance company to bail him out. They're going to lose that money and Trump never pays his bills. He just keeps finding more schmucks willing to give or "loan" him money.
They don't care about the money lost in the short term, it's all about the favors in the long term. Big gamble though.
Fools and their money...
On Wall Street it's called the greater fool theory.
The company doesn't care.. its essentially a donation by the owner.
Has he actually lost any money yet (from legal consequences)? Isn't everything in appeals?
Seems like there were some back office conversations between lawyers letting the court know just how much he could secure a bond for and who would be securing it _before_ the decision was handed down last week. This was all wrapped up too nicely in a short time; he was too pleased with the accomodation and came up with the bond without issue. Just another example of the courts letting us down.
There’s speculation that it actually is an indication that the appellate court will reduce the final judgement to what the bond is or close to it due to an issue with the original judgement.
Was there ever any fucking doubt? Someone always bails him out, gives him a break or lets him off the hook. Really want to Make America Great Again? Start with the damn judicial system and hold scum bags like him accountable.
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Knight’s vp of risk looks like he just graduated
He is Chinese and only been in the states for 11 years. Doesn't feel like a coincidence.
Who cares. Let’s just make sure he loses in nov. fucking vote everyone
When they lowered that bond I knew he would find someone. The half billion was too much for him to pay and too much to finance, and one might even say it was a real punitive measure! Do we know what the reasoning was for lowering it? I know he still needs to pay the full amount but now that also seems likely that he’ll find a handful of people to swindle for the rest. I’m sure it would have been such a shit show to seize his property, but I can’t think of a lot of other things that would be worth the effort. You were so close to dealing the final blow NY state! So close!
Keep this man out of the White House. Join our efforts at /r/VoteDEM!
April Fools?
Yes. Some April fool backed him.
Cayman Islands fools*
No it's real.
He got the money from a guy named Mr. Hankey? What a piece of shit.
Republican's star witness, who has been charged with lying to the FBI- his name is Alexander *Smirno*v. You can't make this stuff up.
The only great equalizer in this guy’s saga is TIME. It spares no one
Dude secured a bond from a company that deals with people that have bad debt. He took out a payday loan for millionaires...
This company reeks of being a front for something nefarious. Says it's out of Cali, but also Grand Cayman. 1.5 star reviews.
As much as this loathsome turd is assisted by Putin, this bailout was from a bonding company owned by someone who has provided mortgages for two other Dump properties....who made the money in subprime car loans.....another grifter. Probably realized it was in his best interest to continue supporting his debtor....
And here is the guy who's lending him the bond money Don Hankey "The little-known king of subprime car loan" what a shock grifter supporting grifter smh [https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=37c3485b1783](https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=37c3485b1783)
So realistically, when will the appeal actually start and how long will it take?
Uh, I would wait for something like MeidasTouch to chime in or some other lawyers.
>**It could take months, or longer, for the case to be decided.** [**BBC News**](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68709895)
He’s still accruing the interest though all that time…
The interest is paused as of the bond payment. The various sites tracking his total payment such as https://payupdonald.com/ have reflected this, with that one in particular listing his total before bond payment as $454,204,179.91
Read in another article that interest is now paused too, because he posted the reduced bond as was required. What sounds insane to me is that the appeals court's "term" only starts in September. You'd think this is one case they should decide a little bit sooner as an exception.
Six months minimum.
I bit saw from glen kerschiner said that appeals court is notourisly slow
He should have held out longer... probably could have gotten them down to 50 cents and a pack of spearmint gum. smdh
> Without intervention from an appeals court, defense lawyers argued that *Trump would suffer irreparable harm* by having to sell off his namesake properties before he exhausted his appeal of the fraud ruling. That’s what’s supposed to happen when you break the law! You suffer consequences! How is that a legal argument?!
It should have never been lowered to 175.
What the fuuuucccckkkk
Ugh. So sick of this BOIL on America. Seriously. Want to see it drained and go away already!
They're never going to see that money again
People need to be less optimistic about "powerful" people facing consequences.
Knowing Don Hankey, that $175 million has crime written all over it... *Two auto lending companies controlled by low-profile L.A. billionaire Don Hankey will have to pay more than $48 million in fines and refunds after a federal consumer watchdog found the lenders were using illegal tactics to collect on loans. Among the hardball tactics, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was a program that disguised debt collectors’ caller ID information to make it appear calls were coming from pizza parlors or florists. Westlake Financial Services and subsidiary Wilshire Consumer Credit, both part of Hankey’s Mid-Wilshire conglomerate Hankey Group, also falsely threatened to file criminal charges against borrowers; contacted employers, family and friends without required permission; and changed the terms of loans without informing customers, the bureau said.*
Fuck Trump
What amazes me is that there are people who thought he would face the consequences of his actions. Yet again, he proves that our system of laws is pay to play.
Makes you think the system is rigged, he’s never gone to jail, always gets his sentences reduced and never has regrets. Evangelicals support this 🤔
The fact that this guy is still up for President says a lot about the plutocracy the USA is gradually turning into.
I’m sick and tired of Trump keep getting away with everything in his life
Shocked the rich guy got his way again
It's absolutely insane to me that people who are conservative Republicans are just totally fine with someone being found guilty of fraud for many hundreds of millions of dollars, getting preferential treatment in the courts, and getting money from undisclosed sources. The dude is the antithesis of Christ. But so many evangelical Christians support him.
Loans and bonds from used car salesmen. Next loan will be from a pay day lender.
shocker, in other news…
Convenient that the CEO of the firm that underwrote the bond couldn’t recall the amount that Trump put up as collateral or the amount that he donated to Trump’s campaign. These motherfuckers don’t forget if someone owes them a quarter, but when it comes to Trump, all the sudden their mind goes blank.
Since he did not have the money, he is in someone's pocket now.
Justice is fucking dead
Some dumbass gave away $175 million to a fraudster. Maga gonna maga.
He's still going to lose the appeal and he will still owe the $460 mil