Cont: President Trump: Part 3

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Emily's Cat said:
Lol... to tie together a couple of distinctly different threads... the expectation of behavior from women versus men could very well be one of the larger factors in this last election outcome. I'm certainly not immune from being shaped by social bias, much as I try really hard to be aware of them. On the topic of behavioral expectations and biases against women in leadership, I hit this piece:

Are Successful Women Really Less Likable Than Successful Men?

And then I giggled out loud, partly at myself, when I read this bit:


Seems a bit spot-on, despite being written in 2013.
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Figured I'd actually tie them together in both threads.
 
eeyore1954 said:
The same things that motivated Anbang to buy the Waldorf Astoria for $2 billion a few years ago. Profit, growth and cash to invest.
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You don't pay more than something is worth if profit is your motive.

Sweetheart Deal

eeyore1954 said:
When he purchased the building in 2007 it was also the highest purchase price for a Manhattan building.

Clearly whoever wrote the article either does not understand real estate deals, is very biased or both.
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Or you are looking at it through confirmation biased glasses. You already denied the Chinese company was connected to the Chinese government. That's nonsense right off the bat.

As for paying a high price in 2007, (love the address ;) )

eeyore1954 said:
There is nothing striking at all about when someone is buying an 80% stake in a property that they also will end up with 80% of the debt. This happens all of the time.
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Again, you ignore the details and fit this into your own alt-reality.

Post some evidence this is business as usual and nothing more.

The building's history:
In January 2007, Tishman Speyer, along with the German investment firm TMW, announced the sale of the building to the Kushner Properties for $1.8 billion (about $2.2 billion real value), at the time the highest price ever paid for an individual building in Manhattan.[9] This was an unconventional price for such a short building; at 483 ft (147 m), 666 Fifth is not even among top 100 tallest buildings in New York City, but its price was mainly because of its location on Fifth Avenue across from Rockefeller Center. Kushner sold the retail condominium portion of 666 Fifth to a Stanley Chera-led group for $525 million in 2008 (about $610 million real value).[10] In 2017, Anbang Insurance Group of China purchased an interest in the building, based on a value of $2.85 billion ($1.6 billion for the office section, and $1.25 billion for the retail section); some of the deal's terms were called "unusually favorable", including an exit for Vornado Realty Trust and retirement of the Kushner organization's remaining debt at 20 cents on the dollar, raising concerns about political influence on the Donald Trump presidential administration due to Jared Kushner's position.[11]
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Just because it was the highest price to date in Manhattan did not mean it was over valued.

From the news at the time of the sale: A Big Deal, Even in Manhattan: A Tower Goes for $1.8 Billion
With vacancy rates low, rents rising and few new buildings coming on line, local and international tycoons, pension funds and other investors have lined up with billions of dollars to buy New York real estate.
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Side note, runs in the family?
Mr. Kushner’s father, Charles B. Kushner, is a company founder and a newsmaker in his own right. A major Democratic fund-raiser, Charles Kushner was convicted last year of 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations. He was released from prison earlier this year.
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Bloomberg: The planned $4-billion transaction includes terms that some real estate experts consider unusually favorable for the Kushners.
Also at issue: as-of-yet undisclosed lenders who are financing the project and the forgiveness of a portion of a $250 million loan which will allow the debt to be cleared for one-fifth of its value.

‘Sweetheart Deal’

"At the very least, this raises serious questions about the appearance of a conflict that arises from the possibility that the Kushners are getting a sweetheart deal," said Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. "A classic way you influence people is by financially helping their family."...

... The company’s ties to the Chinese government are sufficiently unclear that former President Barack Obama declined to stay at the Waldorf after Anbang bought it because of fears of espionage. Now Anbang will be business partners with in-laws of the First Family....

...The refinancing agreement is the latest twist in the history of a building that was Jared Kushner’s grandest conquest and nearly proved his downfall.
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Aaaannnd then there's this:
The plan also relies on the government program known as EB-5, which grants two-year visas and a path to permanent residency to foreigners who invest a minimum of $500,000 in projects that create jobs in economically distressed areas....

Supporters argue that the program, which is overwhelmingly used on deals involving Chinese investors, attracts foreign capital and creates jobs at no U.S. taxpayer cost. But some Homeland Security officials and the General Accounting Office have warned that lax vetting has threatened to turn the program into a mechanism for the government to sell visas to wealthy foreigners with no proven skills, paving the way for money laundering and compromising national security.
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There is a lot of money flowing out of China along with immigrants. Just look at the flow of immigrants into Canada before China reasserted control over Hong Kong.


Kleptocracy doesn't seem to worry enough people, IMO, but they never turn out well.
 
Who among us has never sold a $15.8 million penthouse to a Chinese woman with ties to military intelligence?

When a Chinese American businesswoman who sells access to powerful people recently purchased a $15.8 million penthouse in a building owned by President Donald Trump, the deal raised a key question. Was this a straightforward real estate transaction, or was this an effort to win favor with the new administration? The woman, Angela Chen, refused to discuss the purchase with the media. The White House and the Trump Organization would not comment on it. Further investigation by Mother Jones has unearthed a new element to the story: Chen has ties to important members of the Chinese ruling elite and to an organization considered a front group for Chinese military intelligence.

Chen, who also goes by the names Xiao Yan Chen and Chen Yu, purchased the four-bedroom condo in the Trump Park Avenue building in New York City on February 21. As Mother Jones first reported, Chen runs a business consulting firm,*Global Alliance Associates, which specializes in linking US businesses seeking deals in China with the country's top power brokers. "As counselors in consummating the right relationships—quite simply—we provide access," Chen's firm boasts on its website. But Chen has another job: She chairs the US arm of a nonprofit called the China Arts Foundation, which was founded in 2006 and has links with Chinese elites and the country's military intelligence service.
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Oh please. Like the Deep State has time for this. It's too busy spraying chemtrails and listening to microwave ovens.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats...-boning-my-car.html?via=mobile&source=copyurl

In an appearance Wednesday on conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones’s radio show, former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed he had recently been in a car that was T-boned by “deep state” actors in an attempted assassination. “They have poisoned me, they have smeared me, and someone in a car tried to kill me,” Stone told Jones
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Emily's Cat said:
Two things:

1) No, I didn't.
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Yes, you did.

50% of the people said they believed that black people are more likely to be criminals than white people. Does that necessarily equate to racism in your book?
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We both know that there were more questions on race than that one. Do you think no one will notice if you cherry pick one question to make it seem like there were fewer racists than the poll you provided showed?

2) Offending an actual racist is a direct and personal thing. If you know a person that is actually a racist, by all means tear into them. Don't tear into an unspecified and monolithically vague group of unnamed people that you're assuming are racists.
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There's that word that you know is untrue, yet again. When someone directly says that racists are deplorable, they aren't tearing into people that aren't racists. How can you not get this?
 
NoahFence said:
He's actually campaigning 2 months into his administration.
What in the actual ****?
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Jebus Christ. :rolleyes:

I had to switch over to Fox to get audio... CNN and MSNBC had him in a silent box in the corner (don't say it) so I didn't even realize it's a live event (TN?) (TV as background noise).


What a pillock.
 
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NoahFence said:
He's actually campaigning 2 months into his administration.
What in the actual ****?
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It seems perfectly obvious. Campaigning is the only part of the job where he feels comfortable. His health care bill is unraveling. No one can find a senior campaign aid who wasn't wearing a Russian collar and leash. KAC went from being an attack dog to the butt of cruel jokes. He had to fire his National Sevurity Advisor. A judge put a stay on his executive order. He is drowning in the swamp he came to drain. He's going back to the part of the job he can do, campaigning for it.

It's fun watching him suffer like this.
 
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