Petes Musings 10-2-22
Haven’t done one of these in awhile but there are a few things going on I want to note, none of which is worthy of its own post but still is of interest.
First off, my thoughts to all those who have suffered from and are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Mother Nature can sure pack a punch.
On a lighter note, those illegal immigrants sent to Marthas Vineyard owe Governor DeSantis a big Thank You
I found this amusing
Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina asked a federal judge to impose an immediate temporary restraining order on entire the debt forgiveness scheme.
The suit specifically attacks the forgiveness of FFEL loans, arguing that doing so deprives private lenders of assets and "the ongoing payments that those loans generate."
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/psyche-biden-yanks-student-loan-forgiveness-770000-borrowers
Whats so amusing? Well, the same thing happens when Students actually pay off these loans, the assets go “poof”. Thats why these private lenders really don’t want you paying off your debt. They prefer to collect just the interest and late payment fees which don’t reduce the value of their asset (your debt). Furthermore, the increase in collections of higher interest rates and late fees are reflected as GDP growth
Some more economic news
According to SEC data, in 2020, U.S. firms collectively invested in Chinese companies over $200 billion in artificial intelligence, $50 billion in biotech, and approximately $80 billion in telecom, semiconductors and other technologies. In fact, many of these investments have been made in companies owned, controlled or influenced by the CCP. As of 2020, U.S. investments in PRC companies totaled by capital investment $152 billion to Chinese state-owned enterprises and $54 billion to Chinese military companies.”
Gee, I guess higher tariffs didn’t scare off investors. Wonder why? Because they pass off the higher costs to the consumer
Next up, who else besides the Gates of the World and the WEF/Left are behind the Climate Change Fraud. You might be surprised.
Andrew W. Marshall (September 13, 1921 – March 26, 2019)was a revered military oracle who served as director of the United States Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment from 1973 to 2015. The ONA is an
elite military think tank that envisions future threats to national security
In 2003, Andrew Marshall commissioned a report for the Pentagon predicting that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies.
2017
In its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officially recognized climate change as a factor worthy of consideration in future national security planning. The report stated, "Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment," noting that "climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked."1
The report goes on to describe the vast geopolitical impacts of climate change anticipated by the intelligence community, including sea level rise, increasing temperatures, food and water scarcity, the proliferation of disease vectors, and the risk of mass migration by vulnerable populations to escape these impacts. These risks led DOD to declare that "while climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world."
The department's leaders recognized that the United States' existing role in responding to extreme weather events, delivering humanitarian assistance, and preserving national security would be made all the more difficult by climate change.
Since DOD's public call to action, the department has worked to better integrate climate risk across its operations and long-term planning. DOD has also pursued climate mitigation and adaptation measures in accordance with a broad set of Executive Branch initiatives designed to move the entire U.S. government towards a lower carbon footprint, more efficient resource consumption, and improved resilience against extreme weather events.
The institutionalization of climate adaptation and mitigation measures has transformed how the department does business and has resulted in a more sustainable and agile military.
Responsibilities for these measures have been distributed across the Pentagon for development and implementation and have been outlined in numerous memos, reports, and other official guidance. In addition, each of the five service branches has established its own clean energy goals to be achieved through physical infrastructure upgrades, as well as training to adjust behaviors and risk perception among its personnel.
https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_Climate_Change_Security_Implications.pdf
2022
Tackling the Climate Crisis
The planet's changing climate has a significant effect on Defense Department missions, plans and installations. DOD is elevating climate change as a national security priority, integrating climate considerations into policies, strategies and partner engagements.
https://www.defense.gov/spotlights/tackling-the-climate-crisis/
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA469325.pdf
Ge whiz. Not only was the Military in on the COVID scam but also the Climate Change scam.
Update on China-Taiwan Conflict
US authorities in early September announced their intention to sell $1.1 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Taiwan.
At the same time, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved a bill on September 14 that would provide for a comprehensive expansion of support to Taiwan, including military support. As well as imposing sanctions on Beijing under the pretext of seeking to preserve stability in the Asia-Pacific region, said the Committee’s senior Republican, Jim Risch, commenting on the vote. In essence, this initiative by US lawmakers seeks to revise US policy towards Taiwan and, by extension, mainland China. The bill would make Taiwan a “major non-NATO ally” of the United States, increasing its military aid (not just defensive but also offensive weapons, including missiles) to $4.5 billion over the next four years, making it the largest recipient after Israel, Egypt and Ukraine.
China has already said that, if passed, the new bill would come as a shock to US-China relations. And China’s Ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, told Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in a meeting on August 23 that Chinese-US relations would be severed if the law went into effect.
Covering up his aggressive policy towards China with the alleged possibility of a Chinese “invasion” of Taiwan, US President Joe Biden assured in an interview with CBS that the US military would stand up to defend Taiwan.
However, by pushing China into military action, the US, Bloomberg estimates, could find itself in a terrible position in the event of a conflict with China within months or even weeks of the outbreak of hostilities. Pentagon arsenals are empty because of significant arms deliveries to Kiev. And China’s Army today is very technically equipped. Defending Taiwan will therefore be very costly, with the United States having to pay a prohibitive price in both personnel and equipment.
The US Navy is now poorly prepared, inferior in numbers to the Chinese, and US naval bases are underprepared, former US Navy Rear Admiral Charles Williams pointed out in an article for The Hill. Furthermore, the US can no longer act on two fronts; against Russia and China at the same time.
The Times also warns that the United States would suffer heavy losses and take years to recover from an open conflict with the PRC, citing analysis by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. In particular, its analysts predict that the US will lose a significant portion of its fleet and some 900 combat aircraft defending Taiwan against China.
In confronting China, regional allies are unlikely to help the US, and even Germany, which intends, according to remarks made in early September by Inspector General of the Bundeswehr General Eberhard Zorn, to “increase its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region to contain China.”
https://m.journal-neo.org/2022/09/26/us-hard-at-work-preparing-taiwan-for-war-with-china/
So stay tuned. I suspect China is waiting on Taiwans elections in November before making any decisions to take military action. A good showing by the KMT might see them stand down in the hope this carries into the next Presidential Election. Tsai is a lame duck and Taiwan will have a new President by 2024 (unless a War suspends elections). If DPP runs away with the mid-term elections I suspect China might push forward
In the run up to the Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade on October 29 this year Taiwan has announced the end of quarantines for incoming travelers on October 13 despite 40k COVID cases a day and about 1000 reported COVID deaths in September. It has also relaxed visa requirements for several countries in the region.
In 2019, prior to the implementation of COVID-19 border control measures, the march attracted a record 200,000 people from around the world.
Oh gee, what could go wrong?
For those who don’t know in May 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Although unlikely to be related this was 3 months after Trump administration launched a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality.
Speaking of Trump, I will close this out with some Trump News
(Trump supporters might not want continue🙂)
9-22-22
Yesterday, the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, filed a 222-page lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, his three adult children (Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric), and two company executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney.
The lawsuit is the culmination of a three-year investigation and documents in meticulous detail a “staggering” pattern of fraud from 2011 through 2021.
A sampling of the more than 200 instances of fraud alleged by the New York State Attorney General is as follows:
“Relying on objectively false numbers to calculate property values. For example, Mr. Trump’s own triplex apartment in Trump Tower was valued as being 30,000 square feet when it was 10,996 square feet. As a result, in 2015 the apartment was valued at $327 million in total, or $29,738 per square foot. That price was absurd given the fact that at that point only one apartment in New York City had ever sold for even $100 million, at a price per square foot of less than $10,000. And that sale was in a newly built, ultra-tall tower. In 30 year-old Trump Tower, the record sale as of 2015 was a mere $16.5 million at a price of less than $4,500 per square foot.
“In the 2012 Statement, rent stabilized apartments at Trump Park Avenue were valued as if they were unrestricted, leading to a nearly $50 million valuation for those units—but an appraisal accounting for those units’ stabilized [rent] status valued them collectively at just $750,000;
“The Mar-a-Lago club was valued as high as $739 million based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed and sold for residential use, even though Mr. Trump himself signed deeds donating his residential development rights and sharply restricting changes to the property – in reality, the club generated annual revenues of less than $25 million and should have been valued at closer to $75 million…
“Increasing the value of golf clubs to incorporate a ‘brand premium’ despite expressly advising in the Statements that brand value was not included in the figures and despite GAAP rules prohibiting inclusion of internally-generated intangible brand premiums. For example, in the 2013 Statement, the value of Mr. Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, Florida was further inflated by fraudulently adding 30% for the Trump ‘brand.’ Combining the inflation from using the fixed-asset approach with the 30% brand premium, Mr. Trump claimed that a club he purchased for $5 million in 2012 was worth more than $62 million in 2013. The 2013 Statement included the same fraudulent 30% brand premium for six other golf clubs.”
The lawsuit also charges that Trump’s Statements of Financial Condition falsely claimed that outside professionals had provided the asset valuations. Instead, it alleges the following:
“To the extent Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization received any advice from outside professionals that had any bearing on how to approach valuing the assets, they routinely ignored or contradicted such advice. For example, they received a series of bank-ordered appraisals for the commercial property at 40 Wall Street that calculated a value for the property at $200 million as of August 1, 2010 and $220 million as of November 1, 2012. Yet in the 2011 Statement, they listed 40 Wall Street with a value $524 million and increased the valuation to $527 million in the 2012 Statement, and to $530 million in 2013—more than twice the value calculated by the ‘professionals.’ ”
Attorney General James took questions from reporters at the end of her press conference. A reporter for Politico, Josh Gerstein, asked the following, highly relevant, question:
Gerstein: “How did he get away with what you’re saying he got away with, for such a long period of time. A lot of these transactions are with some of the largest financial institutions and insurance companies in the state of New York. Did they just not check anything that people tell them or they presumed it was true. Or did they have hints that these things were not true that they were being told. And what does it tell you about those institutions that they would take his word for it?”
Attorney General James said Deutsche Bank, the large German bank that was Trump’s largest lender, was cooperating with her investigation. A more comprehensive answer is that all of the major banks that Trump dealt with have been, themselves, charged with repeated frauds. As Senator Bernie Sanders has frequently stated, the business model of Wall Street is fraud.
Today, right under the nose of the U.S. Department of Justice, JPMorgan Chase – the largest bank in the United States, which helped Trump out with a large loan in late 2021 – is a five-count felon, and was repeatedly given deferred prosecution agreements by the Justice Department since 2014. During that crime spree, both the Justice Department and the bank’s Board of Directors have allowed the same Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, to remain at the helm of the bank.
While Dimon has been allowed to threaten the financial stability of the United States with a giant bank built on frauds, the Republican Party put Donald Trump in the Oval Office and gave him the nuclear codes for four years. During those four years, 18 U.S. intelligence agencies saw nothing wrong with allowing Trump — a man who had taken his businesses through bankruptcy six times and was accused by 16 women of sexual assault or sexual harassment — to have access to the nation’s Top Secret classified documents – eventually removing hundreds of classified documents to his resort hotel after he left office.
James also announced that her office has made a referral for criminal prosecution to the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
How much does Trump Owe Again?
Trump’s Debt Now Totals An Estimated $1.3 Billion
Dan Alexander06:30am EDT
The real estate mogul should have no problem paying back his loans in the short term. But come 2024, when he might be running for president again, things could get dicey.
Donald Trump’s business owes an estimated $1.3 billion, nearly $200 million more than it did when he left office. But that doesn’t mean that he’s under more financial pressure. In fact, Trump’s balance sheet is in better shape today than it was months ago.
The reason: Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase helped loan $1.2 billion against a San Francisco office complex in which Trump holds a 30% minority interest. As a limited partner, Trump would not be personally liable for that debt in the event of a default. But it still has a huge effect on his finances. In fact, the new loan allowed Trump and his business partner, publicly traded Vornado Realty Trust, to pay back their previous debt against the building, which was due last month, and extract about $616 million in cash.
In other words, the refinancing increased the debt on the property but also provided its owners with more liquidity. If Trump received 30% of the cash-out, the deal would have boosted his liquid holdings from an estimated $110 million to nearly $300 million.
That cash could come in handy over the next couple of years. In September 2022, Trump has another loan coming due, this one worth $100 million on property he owns outright—the commercial space inside Trump Tower.
Theoretically, Trump could refinance that loan as well. The real estate is worth an estimated $275 million, so a bank should be willing to offer a fresh $100 million against it.
Trump has an estimated $738 million of debt coming due over the next three years. If he is careful, he should be able to work his way through it.
He’d still probably be able to replenish his cash pile. Two months after the Trump Tower loan comes due, another piece of debt will mature—this one tied to a New York City skyscraper named 1290 Avenue of the Americas. Like the San Francisco building, Trump owns a 30% limited partnership interest in 1290 Avenue of the Americas alongside Vornado, which holds the other 70%. If Vornado refinances that building, too, Trump could easily extract another $75 million.
Doing so would provide the former president with some additional breathing room heading into 2023, when he has two loans with a combined original principal of $125 million coming due against Trump Doral, a golf resort in Miami. That property has struggled recently, so it could be challenging to refinance. Same goes for Trump’s hotels in D.C. and Chicago, which have an estimated $215 million of Deutsche Bank debt expiring in 2024.
Put it another way: The more cash Trump can stockpile now, the safer he’ll be then—even if that means increasing his debt load in the meantime.
Trumps owes China a big Thank You
In 2016 US presidential candidate Donald Trump said China was “raping” the US with unfair trade practices, and now it has emerged that the New York real estate tycoon may have a history of hurling accusations at Chinese, including Shui On Land chairman Vincent Lo and New World Development chairman Henry Cheng Kar-shun.
Trump, who made his name by building on his father’s New York property empire, has boasted “I’ve made a tremendous amount of money dealing with China,” and swears that he knows about “winning from China.”
Part of that winning strategy may involve liberal use of litigation, with Shui On’s Lo, who developed the Xintiandi complex in Shanghai, telling the New York Times recently that for Trump, “To file a lawsuit is nothing. It’s just like having lunch.”
That “war” started with a distressed Trump selling off a site that he couldn’t develop to scions of two of Hong Kong’s most successful real estate families.
Caught out when the New York property market slid in the early 1990s, Trump sold Riverside South to a company controlled by Lo and Cheng in 1994 in return for the two Hong Kong developers assuming Trump’s debts and promising him a 30 percent stake in any profits, according to an account in the New York Times.
Cheng, is the eldest son of New World and Chow Tai Fook founder Cheng Yu-Tung, with the elder Cheng estimated to be Hong Kong’s third richest man, with a fortune of $15 billion. Lo, is the younger son of the late founder of developer Great Eagle Holdings, Lo Ying Shek, and has had a long relationship with Shanghai party secretary Han Zheng.
These sons of eastern empire builders were reportedly surprised when, after their company sold the then largely completed Manhattan development in 2005, Trump slapped Lo and Cheng with the $1 billion suit, claiming “staggering breach” of fiduciary duty. Even before he became famous for his reality TV braggadocio, Trump’s confidence was on display as he insisted that he could have landed an offer well above the property’s $1.76 billion sale price.
Despite his claims of “winning from China,” however, the judge in the case ruled against giving Trump the $1 billion cash, although the billionaire did eventually gain the rights to profits from two projects in New York and San Francisco that Cheng and Lo bought with the proceeds of the Riverside South asset, both of them branded as Bank of America buildings.
https://www.mingtiandi.com/real-estate/outbound-investment/when-donald-trump-sued-vincent-lo-and-henry-cheng-for-1-bil/
Vornado eventually acquired the Chinese Investors 70% stake with Trump keeping 30%. It was the San Francisco property that allowed him to secure an addition 180 million in cash and the 1290 Avenue of the Americas may secure him another 75 million by December
So Trump owes the Rothschilds (Rothschild & Co. handled his 1991 bankruptcy negotiations) and Chinese Investors, not to mention Russian Money Launderers (buying his Real Estate) and foreign banks like Deutsche Bank (giving him hundreds in millions of dollars in loans after his bankruptcies) a lot for his good fortune.