Tag Archives: business

Carson Joins Trump Idiocy About Jersey City, Then Backs Away

by DorcasScrymgeour Posted on November 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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The latest from la-la land:

Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson joined GOP rival Donald Trump in claiming that he, too, saw news footage of Muslim-Americans cheering as the World Trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001 — despite the fact that no such footage has turned up yet. “I saw the film of it, yes,” Carson told reporters at a Monday campaign event, adding that it was documented by “newsreels.”

Newsreels? What is this? 1943? But wait. We have breaking news via Twitter from Jon Karl of ABC News:

@RealBenCarson spox Doug Watts: Carson was mistaken when he said he saw film of Muslims celebrating on 9/11 in Jersey City….”He doesn’t stand behind his comments on New Jersey and American Muslims,” Watts told ABC’s @KFaulders….”He was rather thinking of the protests going on in the Middle East and some of the demonstrations” there on 9/11.

This is nuts. These guys are trying to put the Onion out of business for real. “We have investigated and discovered that East Jerusalem is not on the Hudson River after all.” But hell, at least Carson is willing to admit his error. One brownie point for that—though it does raise some questions about his vaunted memory. Trump will continue to insist forever that he saw it, and his supporters will continue to believe him because you can never trust the mainstream media, can you? They’re always covering up for Jersey City’s Muslim community.

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Carson Joins Trump Idiocy About Jersey City, Then Backs Away

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How Good a Dealmaker Is Donald Trump, Anyway?

by HildredRMXD Posted on November 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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Here is Donald Trump on who he listens to regarding economic issues:

Honestly, I feel that I have such a vast feeling for it that I really—you know, Milton Friedman was good—but I don’t really listen to anybody. I just put it in and I have a feeling for, it’s almost common sense, it’s a business instinct.

Translation: Milton Friedman is the only conservative economist he can think of. And he probably wouldn’t listen to the guy if he were still alive anyway. Why mess with his killer instincts?

Which raises two questions. First: How good a developer is Donald Trump? Seriously. My sense is that he’s about a 5 on a scale of 1-10. He’s had some successes, he’s had some failures, and he seems to have found a decent—but hardly dazzling—niche in golf resorts. Overall, he started with a lot of money and has since grown his business at roughly the rate of the economy. Not bad, but nothing to crow about.

And second: why is it that we seem to have heard nothing about Trump from other developers? They’d have the best read on how good he really is, after all. If he were truly brilliant, I figure he would have been soliciting testimonials all over the place. I haven’t seen any. But if he’s a second-rater with a big mouth, I figure we would have heard that too. But I haven’t. I haven’t really heard anything. Do developers not like to talk smack about each other because they never know where their next deal might come from? Do they just generally shun publicity? Do they genuinely not know much about Trump because he doesn’t really do much business these days aside from golf courses, branding deals, and TV shows?

What’s the deal here? Trump must have a reputation within the New York developer community. So what is it?

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How Good a Dealmaker Is Donald Trump, Anyway?

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While You Were Watching Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders Just Called for Legalizing Weed

by GusBelstead Posted on October 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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You may have missed Bernie Sanders’ town hall at Virginia’s George Mason University on Wednesday as the GOP presidential contenders duked it out in Boulder, Colorado. But he made some news. Sanders called for the full decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level, a move that would allow states to regulate the drug the same way they handle alcohol or tobacco. “Right now marijuana is listed by the federal government as a schedule-one drug, meaning that it is considered to be as dangerous as heroin,” Sanders said. “That is absurd.”

Sanders, while touting the possible civic benefits of decriminalization (such as providing a funding stream, through taxation, for treatment of more dangerous substances such as opioids) took pains to frame legalization as a matter of racial justice:

Let us be clear, as is the case in many other areas, that there is a racial component to this situation. Although about the same proportion of blacks and whites use marijuana, a black person is almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person. Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records because of marijuana use. That is wrong. That has got to change…A criminal record could include not only time in jail, but a criminal record makes it harder for a person to get a job, harder for a person to get public benefits, harder for a person to even get housing. A criminal record stays with a person for his or her entire life.

The legalization he proposed would also eliminate one of the roadblocks to decriminalization in places such as Washington state or Colorado, by allowing marijuana distributors to use the banking system like any other business.

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While You Were Watching Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders Just Called for Legalizing Weed

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Meet the Republican Senator Who Wants to Fight Global Warming

by ChristoRivera Posted on October 27, 2015

Mother Jones

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This story originally appeared in the Huffington Post and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) came out in favor of the Obama administration’s effort to cut carbon pollution by power plants on Sunday, bucking Senate leadership that has worked to derail the emissions plan.

The Obama administration announced final regulations on emissions from both new and existing power plants in August. Dubbed the Clean Power Plan, the rules are part of the administration’s larger push to curb emissions that cause climate change. The Clean Power Plan has faced opposition from many conservative politicians.

In supporting the rules, Ayotte cited the work her state has already done to reduce emissions.

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Meet the Republican Senator Who Wants to Fight Global Warming

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How to live and farm in an old volcano

by ShantaeCarrera6 Posted on October 26, 2015

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Codex: Tau Empire (Tablet Edition) – Games Workshop

A dynamic race whose technology eclipses anything their foes can muster, the tau use speed, strategy and overwhelming firepower to win their battles. Guided by the mysterious Ethereal caste, all tau strive for the Greater Good of their empire, forging ever onward into the stars to assimilate or annihilate everything that stands in their path. […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

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Codex: Tau Empire (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

A dynamic race whose technology eclipses anything their foes can muster, the tau use speed, strategy and overwhelming firepower to win their battles. Guided by the mysterious Ethereal caste, all tau strive for the Greater Good of their empire, forging ever onward into the stars to assimilate or annihilate everything that stands in their path. […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel's Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]

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White Dwarf Issue 91: 24th October 2015 (Tablet Edition) – White Dwarf

The Patient Hunter strikes! White Dwarf 91 is here, and with it the Tau take their fight to the Imperium once more, with the release of War Zone Damocles: Kauyon, a brand-new campaign supplement detailing the next stage in the Tau’s Third Sphere Expansion. And, what’s more, the Tau are bolstered in their efforts by […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis – Instaread

PLEASE NOTE: This is a  summary and analysis  of the book and NOT the original book.  The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis   Inside this Instaread: Summary of entire book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Key Takeaways and Analysis of the Key Takeaways. […]

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War Zone Damocles: Kauyon (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The Tau have invaded the ancient fortress world of Prefectia in force. They seek to harness the planet’s immense geo-electric potential to power their latest expansion into the domain of the Imperium. The Adeptus Astartes, hell-bent on stopping them from subsuming another Imperial world, launch a devastating planetstrike that soon becomes a world-spanning war. In […]

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Codex: Space Marines (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The Space Marines are the Angels of Death, humanity’s finest warriors. Clad in the greatest armour and armed with awesomely destructive weapons, they defend the Imperium of Mankind from the alien, the traitor and the daemon. Codex: Space Marines is the most comprehensive guide ever to these superlative warriors. It contains all the rules and […]

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War Zone Damocles: Kauyon (Mobile Edition) – Games Workshop

The Tau have invaded the ancient fortress world of Prefectia in force. They seek to harness the planet’s immense geo-electric potential to power their latest expansion into the domain of the Imperium. The Adeptus Astartes, hell-bent on stopping them from subsuming another Imperial world, launch a devastating planetstrike that soon becomes a world-spanning war. In […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America's most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog's Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of […]

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How to live and farm in an old volcano

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Critics Pan New Show "21st Century"

by QuyenClarkson Posted on October 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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Charlie Stross is unhappy:

I want to complain to the studio execs who commissioned the current season of “21st century”; your show is broken.

I say this as a viewer coming in with low expectations. Its predecessor “20th century” plumbed the depths of inconsistency with the frankly silly story arc for world war II. It compounded it by leaving tons of loose plot threads dangling until the very last minute, then tidied them all up in a blinding hurry in that bizarre 1989-92 episode just in time for the big Y2K denouement (which then fizzled). But the new series reboot is simply ridiculous! It takes internal inconsistency to a new low, never before seen in the business: the “21st century” show is just plain implausible.

So far, I give the 21st century two stars. It might be better if they’d just release the whole thing at once so I could binge watch it, instead of forcing me to live through this nonsense week by week.

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Critics Pan New Show "21st Century"

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Smoking Will Kill 1 in 3 Chinese Men

by WesleyStLeon Posted on October 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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Smoking will kill one in three young men in China unless rates of tobacco use drop dramatically, according to a new study in the medical journal The Lancet.

The study, led by Oxford University epidemiologist Zhengming Chen, is full of eye-opening stats: In 2010 alone, smoking accounted for 1 million Chinese deaths, primarily of men. If the current trend continues, that number will double by 2030. (In the United States, cigarettes kill 480,000 people annually—a number that’s been steadily declining over the last several decades and is expected to keep dropping.) “About two-thirds of young Chinese men become cigarette smokers, and most start before they are 20,” explains Chen. “Unless they stop, about half of them will eventually be killed by their habit.”

The researchers came to these conclusions by conducting two nationally representative studies—the first in the 90s, the second 15 years later—that tracked the health outcomes of smoking among a total of 730,000 men and women.

There is some good news: While smoking among men has increased dramatically in recent years, smoking among women has plummeted, to roughly 3 percent of the population. And the proportion of smokers overall who have chosen to quit rose from 3 percent to 9 percent between 1991 and 2006.

The high smoking rates are fueled by low prices. “Over the past 20 years, tobacco deaths have been decreasing in Western countries, partly because of price increases,” said Richard Peto, a co-author of the study. “For China, a substantial increase in cigarette prices could save tens of millions of lives.” Pervasive myths don’t help either, including beliefs that Asians are less susceptible to tobacco’s effects and smoking is easy to quit. The World Health Organization estimates that only a quarter of Chinese adults have a “comprehensive understanding” of smoking’s hazards.

This lack of awareness is hardly surprising when you look into who’s selling the cigarettes: An estimated 98 percent of the Chinese cigarette market is controlled by China National Tobacco Corporation, a government-owned conglomerate that runs more than 160 cigarette brands. According to a Bloomberg Business feature on the topic, the industry accounts for 7 percent of the country’s revenue each year and employs roughly 500,000 people. In 2013, the company manufactured 2.25 trillion cigarettes. (Philip Morris International, the second-largest producer, manufactured 880 billion.)

“The extent to which the government is interlocked with the fortunes of China National might best be described by the company’s presence in schools,” writes Bloomberg’s Andrew Martin. “Slogans over the entrances to sponsored elementary schools read, ‘Genius comes from hard work. Tobacco helps you become talented.'”

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Smoking Will Kill 1 in 3 Chinese Men

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Jeb Bush Has No Clue About Business Regulation

by JosetteOneil Posted on September 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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Jeb Bush today in the Wall Street Journal:

To understand what is wrong with the regulatory culture of the U.S. under President Obama, consider this alarming statistic: Today, according to the World Bank—not exactly a right-wing think tank—the U.S. ranks 46th in the world in terms of ease of starting a business. That is unacceptable. Think what the U.S. could be and the prosperity we could have if we rolled back the overregulation that keeps us from ranking in the top 10.

My goodness. That does sound unacceptable. Still, it never hurts to check up on these presidential candidates, does it? So let’s click the link.

Sure enough, the World Bank ranks the United States 46th in ease of starting a business. But there’s an asterisk next to that. Let’s scroll down and see what it says: “The rankings of economies with populations over 100 million are based on data for 2 cities.” Hmmm. It turns out the World Bank is ranking the US based on starting up a business in New York City. That seems to tip the scales a wee bit, no?

But let’s soldier on. New Zealand ranks first in starting a new business, so let’s see how they work their magic. Here’s the World Bank’s comparison:

So it takes half a day in New Zealand and four days in New York City. Really? Half a day to start up a new business? Maybe they’re not using the same definition of “starting” that I am. Let’s check out the details for New York City. Here they are:

Now I get it. This isn’t about getting a business up and running. It’s solely about registering a new business. And it’s got nothing to do with any of Obama’s regulations. It’s all about state and local stuff. The only part that’s federal is getting an EIN number, which is free and takes one day. I’m not sure what Jeb Bush thinks he’s going to do to streamline this.

Bottom line: this is completely meaningless. It’s a measure only of how long it takes to register a business, and it’s only for New York City. And even at that, it takes only four days and costs $750. This is not stifling American entrepreneurship.

But wait! There’s more. The World Bank does have a broader “Ease of Doing Business” rank that takes into account the things you need to do to get up and running: construction permits, electricity, credit, paying taxes, enforcing contracts, etc. As it happens, the bulk of this stuff is still state and local, and has nothing to do with Obama or the federal government. Still, let’s take a look since Jeb chose not to share it with us for some reason. Where does the US rank on this measure?

The World Bank has us in 7th place. We’re already in the top ten that Jeb is aiming for. Mission accomplished!

POSTSCRIPT: Jeb has many other statistics in his piece, and I’d take them with the same grain of salt as his World Bank numbers. He also promises that in his administration every regulation “will have to satisfy a rigorous White House review process, including a cost-benefit analysis.” Apparently he doesn’t realize that this is already the case. As for the outrageous regulations he promises to repeal on Day One, this would mostly just benefit big campaign donors, not the yeoman entrepreneurs he claims to be sticking up for. No big surprise there, I suppose.

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Jeb Bush Has No Clue About Business Regulation

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Here’s What the Earth Will Look Like After All the Ice Melts

by ClintCorfield Posted on September 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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Remember a few years ago when National Geographic came out with a map showing what the world would look like after sea levels rose 216 feet from all the ice melting? Well, it happened. (There was also some pushback that the data was too optimistic) Anyway, the guys over at Business Insider just put together this nifty video exploring our would-be watery world.

It would take a very long time indeed for all the ice on Earth to melt. I don’t know how long. But long. Like a thousand years? Point is it’s not like this is going to happen on Tuesday or even a thousand Tuesdays from now, but the arc of history is long and our descendants will never “sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings,” if there is no longer any ground for them to sit on.

Global warming is bad and every day we don’t do anything about it we should feel bad.

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Here’s What the Earth Will Look Like After All the Ice Melts

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Donald Trump Has Lost Between $1 and $6 Billion Over His Business Career

by tfem31x Posted on September 2, 2015

Mother Jones

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This post is about Donald Trump—sorry!—but the topic is something I’ve been a little curious about for a while: how much of Trump’s wealth is inherited vs. earned? The basics are easy: Trump’s father turned over control of the family real estate business to him in 1974. At the time, it was worth about $200 million. Trump would eventually inherit one-fifth of this, so his share of the company was worth about $40 million to start with.

Over at National Journal, Shirish Dáte estimates that if Trump had put that money into an index fund of S&P 500 stocks, it would be worth about $3 billion today. If he’d taken the $200 million he was reportedly worth in 1982 and done the same, he’d be worth $8 billion. So how does that compare to Trump’s actual net worth? Here’s Dáte:

“Every year, Trump shares a lot of information with us that helps us get to the figures we publish. But he also consistently pushes for a higher net worth—especially when it comes to the value of his personal brand,” Forbes reporter Erin Carlyle wrote this June, explaining the magazine’s assessment that Trump was worth $4.1 billion, less than half of his claimed net worth. A subsequent review by Bloomberg found he was worth $2.9 billion.

….Perhaps the most deeply researched account of his wealth is a decade old: the book TrumpNation, by former New York Times journalist Tim O’Brien, who found three sources close to Trump who estimated that he was worth between $150 million and $250 million….Trump wound up suing O’Brien for defamation, claiming his book had damaged his business. The suit was eventually dismissed, but not before Trump sat for a deposition in which he admitted that he routinely exaggerated the values of his properties.

….That 2007 deposition also revealed that in 2005, two separate banks had assessed Trump’s assets and liabilities before agreeing to lend him money. One, North Fork Bank, decided he was worth $1.2 billion, while Deutsche Bank found he was worth no more than $788 million.

So….at a guess, Trump is worth somewhere in the neighborhood $2 billion in 2015. Anything above that is based on valuations of his personal brand—which might be worth something in theory, but buys no jet fuel or campaign ads. In terms of actual, tangible net worth, he’s worth considerably less than the $3 billion (or $8 billion) he’d be worth if he’d just dumped his share of the family fortune into a Vanguard fund.

In other words, over the course of the past four decades, Trump’s business acumen has netted him somewhere between -$1 billion and -$6 billion. Ouch. Virtually every person in America can claim a better financial record than that.

Now, in fairness, Dáte’s numbers assume that all dividends are reinvested, which would mean Trump had no income to live on. Obviously he spends a fair amount every year, and if you take that into account the Vanguard strategy wouldn’t look as good. Plus, of course, there’s the fact that Dáte is a THIRD-RATE LOSER who is JEALOUS of Trump’s BRILLIANT CAREER and does anything he can to DEMEAN Trump’s SUCCESS. So take him with a grain of salt.

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Donald Trump Has Lost Between $1 and $6 Billion Over His Business Career

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