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Saturday, March 11, 2017

The Costs And Consequences of The US and Mexican Elite's Border Games Businesses

In response:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/11/mexico-border-wall-hispanic-owned-construction-companies?CMP=fb_us

Didn't the US GOV just report that illegal immigration arrests on the border are down 40%?

Let the border games begin (anew).

As a retired US Border Patrol/ICE agent, I say from my experience that Trump's wall ultimately will prove to be ineffective in stopping hungry people from getting into the US.

And why are the actual causes of illegal immigration NEVER included in Washington's border narratives? Those causes are poverty and profit. Poverty in Mexico and other countries that incentivize people crossing illegally. The 1% in the US will still profit off of cheap illegal labor and the 1% in Mexico will still profit from billions in remittances annually being pumped back into the Mexican economy.

Then there is the billions in profit for the border enforcement arm of the US Military Industrial Complex. Fences, agents, prisons, courts, judges, guns, vehicles, aircraft, drones, munitions, etc. Don't forget our 40 year long failed drug war and the one trillion dollar price tag that has cost US taxpayers.

Americans are generally unware of the horrendous narco murders, civil rights violations, poverty, and systemic corruption (police, military, judicial, political) that has been normalized in Mexico. Washington turns a blind eye and remains mum to its corrupt, drug cartel run NAFTA trading partner as long as trade benefits the rich on both sides.

Have you ever heard one US or Mexican politician ever suggest that the two governments meet to discuss how Mexico might care for its poor so that they do not have to risk their lives to come here illegally? Do you know about the wealth disparity in Mexico? How might the 6 million or so of Mexico's undocumented people here now being invited to return home with some minimal guarantees of wages that could put food on their families tables in Mexico?

It is not in either government's narratives because there is simply too much profit being made on both sides to effectively change the status quo.

As we see the pendulum swing now some Washington politicians will make a career out of being tough on enforcement or liberal about legalization. Yet if you study this problem you will see that Trump's insanity is the same wheel of injustice turning that has been turning for forty years or more.

Meanwhile, the undocumented poor and the US middle class suffer all of the costs and consequences of the bi-national elite's enrichment. And some undocumented will die crossing the border as will some Americans die from the hands of criminal illegal aliens. These deaths are simply the costs of the bi-national elite doing their insidious, for-profit border games businesses.    



 

Monday, March 6, 2017

Trump-ski's (-ский) Tax-skis

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/politics/donald-trump-debt.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0
Trump’s Empire: A Maze of Debts and Opaque Ties

On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has sold himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one.
But an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump’s real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt — twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times’s inquiry also found that Mr. Trump’s fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign.
For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, of which Mr. Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Mr. Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States, and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, after it paid her $675,000 in speaking fees.
Real estate projects often involve complex ownership and mortgage structures. And given Mr. Trump’s long real estate career in the United States and abroad, as well as his claim that his personal wealth exceeds $10 billion, it is safe to say that no previous major party presidential nominee has had finances nearly as complicated.
 
As president, Mr. Trump would have substantial sway over monetary and tax policy, as well as the power to make appointments that would directly affect his own financial empire. He would also wield influence over legislative issues that could have a significant impact on his net worth, and would have official dealings with countries in which he has business interests.
Yet The Times’s examination underscored how much of Mr. Trump’s business remains shrouded in mystery. He has declined to disclose his tax returns or allow an independent valuation of his assets.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Trump submitted a 104-page federal financial disclosure form. It said his businesses owed at least $315 million to a relatively small group of lenders and listed ties to more than 500 limited liability companies. Though he answered the questions, the form appears to have been designed for candidates with simpler finances than his, and did not require disclosure of portions of his business activities.
 
Beyond finding that companies owned by Mr. Trump had debts of at least $650 million, The Times discovered that a substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders, including those that hold the loan on the Avenue of the Americas building. If those loans were to go into default, Mr. Trump would not be held liable, the Trump Organization said. The value of his investments, however, would certainly sink.
Mr. Trump has said that if he were elected president, his children would be likely to run his company. Many presidents, to avoid any appearance of a conflict, have placed their holdings in blind trusts, which typically involves selling the original asset, and replacing it with different assets unknown to the seller.
Mr. Trump’s children seem unlikely to pursue that option.
Richard W. Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota and, from 2005 to 2007, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, compared Mr. Trump to Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs whom Mr. Bush appointed as Treasury secretary.
Professor Painter advised Mr. Paulson on his decision to sell his Goldman Sachs shares, saying it was clear that Mr. Paulson could not simply have placed that stock in trust and pretended it did not exist.
If Mr. Trump were to use a blind trust, the professor said, it would be “like putting a gold watch in a box and pretending you don’t know it is in there.”

‘We Overdisclosed’

“I am the king of debt,” Mr. Trump once said on CNN. “I love debt.” But in his career, debt has sometimes gotten the better of him, leading to at least four business bankruptcies.
He is, however, quick to stress that these days his companies have very little debt.
Mr. Trump indicated in the financial disclosure form he filed in connection with this campaign that he was worth at least $1.5 billion, and has said publicly that the figure is actually greater than $10 billion. Recent estimates by Forbes and Fortune magazines and Bloomberg have put his worth at less than $5 billion.
 

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Trump Is A Symptom Of A Self-indulgent Sickness In American Society


And as a matter of fact, the World. 
 
In order to find our way we must acknowledge that with lost touch with the characteristic that make us human:  integrity, honesty, compassion, generosity, love, self-introspection and humility.
 
Jan 24, 2016 - "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," Trump said.

Trump's statement sadly reveals just what Trump thinks of his voters. And his lies about Putin - coming straight from their president's  own horse's ass mouth - won't even begin to register in  many of his supporters closed minds.
 
Once people are conned it is baffling how they won't believe or accept the irrefutable truth.  
 
Any competent, common sense investigation begins with reviewing and revealing financial ties and trails. Yet there are those in Washington who are more concerned with staying in political power than they are with protecting America's security.

Considering Trump's economic history and his questionable ties to Russia, We The People have the moral right to know what facts are contained within his tax returns.

I have faith that the current American resistance will hold those in Washington accountable for their refusal to demand the immediate release of Trump's tax returns.

How naïve and insidiously mind boggling to think otherwise.
 
MEANWHILE WE THE PEOPLE fall prey to our own emotions and this farce.  We in fact pay our hard earned money to watch and promote this charade.  We not only believe it is real, but we believe in the process.  We believe our team can win!   Never once does it cross our minds that the two "wrestling" teams are actually actors or performers of a larger organization.  These politico wrestlers are all well paid  actors who are employed  by the super rich, 1% team owners.   WE THE PEOPLE, because of our own ignorance, get taken "or all that we got"
 
 
As Pogo said, we have met the enemy and he is us.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6706102374255163284#allposts