Segami

Segami's Journal

October 25, 2012

Donald Trump Is The Country’s LEAST Charitable Billionaire

Full of cheese con man!

Donald Trump is offering to donate $5 million to charity--just so long as President Barack Obama digs up and releases his passport and college records in the next week (to The Donald’s “satisfaction,” of course). So this is what it takes to get the purported billionaire to act like a philanthropist?

As reported in these pages, the real estate developer is the country’s least charitable billionaire, a guy who has personally donated a combined $3.7 million to his foundation since 1990. In fact, the largest contributor to the Donald J. Trump Foundation is not the businessman himself, but rather the World Wrestling Federation, which has given the group $5 million in return for Trump’s participation in some WWE promotions. In announcing his $5 million offer to Obama, the 66-year-old Trump suggested that the funds could benefit “inner city children in Chicago,” AIDS research, or the American Cancer Society. Trump, of course, never opened his foundation’s wallet in the wake of tragedies like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, or the Haiti earthquake.

While he amusingly refers to himself as an “ardent philanthropist,” Trump’s charitable activities make him the laughingstock of the uberwealthy. Over the past 21 years, Trump’s foundation (principally seeded by WWE money) has donated a total of $7.7 million.

How cheap is Trump?

Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s billionaire mayor, donated more than $350 million to his foundation in 2010 (the last year for which records are available). The charitable trust established by the late hotelier Leona Helmsley (who Trump delighted in tormenting) has more than $4 billion in assets. In the past two months, the Helmsley trust has made grants in excess of $9 million, more than Trump’s foundation has given, in total, since 1990. Shortly after announcing his donation gambit via Facebook and Twitter, Trump announced that response to his crass PR stunt “has been fantastic--- actually overwhelming!” Which will come as a relief to those AIDS patients and “inner city children in Chicago.”

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/donald-trump-publicity-stunt-785624

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October 25, 2012

Pennsylvania Bill Includes Provision Requiring Women To PROVE THEY WERE RAPED!

A bill in the Pennsylvania House proposing the reduction of welfare benefits for low-income women contains a provision requiring a woman who became pregnant from rape to prove that she reported her assault.

As ThinkProgress reported, the measure, proposed by five Republican state lawmakers, seeks to eliminate an increase in benefits if a child is conceived while a woman is covered under the Temporary Assistance To Needy Family program. A woman can seek an exception to this if the child is conceived as a result of rape. However, she must prove that she reported the incident to the authorities and gave the police her assaulter's identity. The bill reads:

Elimination of benefits under subsection (d) shall not apply to any child conceived as a result of rape or incest if the department: (1) receives a non-notarized, signed statement from the pregnant woman stating that she was a victim of rape or incest, as the case may be, and that she reported the crime, including the identity of the offender, if known, to a law enforcement agency having the requisite jurisdiction or, in the case of incest where a pregnant minor is the victim, to the county child protective service agency and stating the name of the law enforcement agency or child protective service agency to which the report was made and the date such report was made.

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2011&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=2718&pn=4295

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/pennsylvania-welfare-benefits-rape_n_2012417.html

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October 25, 2012

John McCain Does What Romney Won’t: DEMANDS APOLOGY from Richard Mourdock

JOHN McCAIN SHOWS UP MITT ROMNEY.......

Unlike Mitt Romney, John McCain won’t continue to support rape pregnancies are “God’s will” Richard Mourdoch unless the Republican Senate candidate apologizes.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper tonight, Senator John McCain broke with Mitt Romney and said that he could not continue to support Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock unless he offers an apology for saying that pregnancy after rape is “something that God intended to happen.”

TRANSCRIPT:

COOPER: Senator John McCain made some news on this when I asked him earlier if he still has – well, if he still supports Mourdock.

COOPER (on tape): Do you still count yourself in his corner?

MCCAIN (on tape): It depends on what he does. I think it depends on what he does. If he apologizes and says he misspoke and he was wrong and he asks the people to forgive him, then obviously I’d be the first – you know, as I said, I’m not sure how big a mistakes that I’ve made. But, you know, in the years that I’ve been around, I’ve made a few, Anderson, and I’ve asked for people’s understanding and forgiveness when I won’t — when I own up to it. It’s when you don’t own up to it when people will not believe you.

http://www.politicususa.com/john-mccain-romney-wont-demands-apology-richard-mourdock.html

October 24, 2012

BLOVIATING IGNORAMUS: Donald Trump’s Big October Surprise BLOWS UP in Mitt Romney’s FACE

It turns out that Donald Trump’s big October surprise was to make Mitt Romney look like a moron by offering President Obama $5 million if he will release his college transcripts and passport application. Remember that whole Moderate Mitt image that the Romney campaign is trying to sell? Donald Trump just trashed that.

Trump said, “If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and applications, and if he gives his passport applications and records, I will give to a charity of his choice, inner city children in Chicago, American Cancer Society, AIDS research, a check immediately for five million dollars. The check will be given within one hour after he releases all of the records so stated. He’ll be doing a great service for the country if he does this. If he releases these records, it will end the questions and indeed the anger of many Americans. They’ll know something about their president. The president will become transparent like other presidents.”

David Plouffe of the Obama campaign responded by reminding everyone that Mitt Romney loves him some Donald Trump. Plouffe said Trump is,”Mitt Romney’s biggest supporter. He (Romney) owns everything he says.”

This is really the last thing that the Romney campaign needed today. Romney happily climbed into bed with birther Trump, and he has been coming back to bite them in backside ever since. In May, hours before a joint fundraiser together, Trump went on CNBC and went full on frothing birther insane. Trump said, “This is something that came out last week; a lot of people are questioning his birth certificate, questioning the authenticity of his birth certificate. I’ve been known as being a very smart guy for a long time. I don’t consider myself birther or not birther but there are some major questions here and the press just refuses to cover it.”

cont'

http://www.politicususa.com/donald-trumps-big-october-surprise-blows-mitt-romneys-face.html

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October 24, 2012

2nd HEARING Set On Bid To UNSEAL Romney Testimony

Gloria Allred & Maureen Stemberg entering courthouse

CANTON, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts probate judge will hold another hearing Thursday before deciding whether to unseal testimony that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave in the divorce case of Staples founder Tom Stemberg.

Ex-wife Maureen Stemberg Sullivan appeared in court Wednesday with lawyer Gloria Allred. They said they didn't object to a Boston Globe motion to lift an impoundment order on Romney's testimony in the case from the early 1990s.

Attorneys for Romney and Staples asked the judge for more time to review two booklets of testimony. Stemberg's attorney said he had only been able to review about 20 pages. Romney's attorney says he doesn't anticipate objecting but Romney would like time to review the entire transcript.

No one would say exactly what's in the testimony but it appeared to relate to financial issues.

Staples was founded with backing from Romney's firm, Bain Capital.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ex-wife-of-staples-founder-backs-request-to-unseal-romney-testimony-in-her-divorce-case/2012/10/24/e83dafa8-1ddf-11e2-8817-41b9a7aaabc7_story.html

October 24, 2012

G. ALLRED IN COURT: David S. Bernstein Staff Writer For The Boston Phoenix LIVE Blogging From Court

David S. Bernstein

@dbernstein
Staff writer for the Boston Phoenix, covering local, state, & national politics
Boston · http://thephoenix.com/blogs/talkingpolitics

3m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Allred in hallway declines to make any comment. Other attys hightail it pretty quick.

8m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Continued to tmw

8m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Romney himself is not expecting to object to release of the testimony. But Stemberg sure is.

14m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
+1 MT @gintautasd: I want the livestream of City Council meetings to have a narrator whose voice is like the one from the 1960s Batman show

17m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
FTW RT @DavidCornDC: .@dbernstein @SarahEBlodgett The hashtag should be #stapled

23m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
.@SarahEBlodgett Good point. I think people are using #stemberg but I think we can do better than that

25m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Judge will allow pool media -- but don't go to your TV yet, Staples wants a continuance to review the Romney testimony.

28m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Judge is going to keep hearing open, take recess for Staples atty to review Romney testimony at issue.

29m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
I'm sitting behind @BreeSison who is also live-tweeting -- right behind ya Bree!

33m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Allred has Romney's testimony, in two volumes, submits to the court.

37m David S. Bernstein ?@dbernstein
Judge mentions that the transcripts (from 1994) have been destroyed by the courts, might not exist any more.

https://twitter.com/dbernstein

October 24, 2012

Mitt Romney - The Wanna Be President

Apart from a close friendship, which is no secret, between Mitt Romney and Tom Stemberg, one turns the question over and over why it is that the now Governor of Massachusetts would have ever testified in a divorce case? We speak here of Mitt Romney’s relationship with Staple’s founder Tom Stemberg who is now Romney’s Campaign Manager. He was called, that’s why, and had no choice, but Romney did have a choice and an obligation to be completely forthcoming on the stand. But then, the details haven’t been made clearly public, so in some effort to set the long and very winding road straight (for this is really like going through the looking glass, which may well be as it is intended), Mitt Romney and Tom Stemberg go back a long way – all the way to the very founding of Staples when Romney was working for Bain and felt that Staples was perhaps a good investment and was the first investor to come on board to the tune of $650,000 dollars. It was about a year and half later later, in 1988 when called as a witness by Tom Stemberg’s lawyers for a divorce case that Romney said on record that Staples stock was, essentially, “over-valued. In his own-words, Romney said, “I didn’t place a great deal of credibility in the forecast of the company’s future.” (p. 441, appeals court document No. 95 P 286, Norfolk County) Romney is then asked how many times in the past he has “reviewed these kinds of offerings” (441).

Yet in the early Spring of 1989 Staples went public. So much for undervalued. Either Mitt does not know his figures, or he was dangerously close to perjuring himself on the stand or outright lying. You decide… Of course, as a senior at Bain, the answer can only be many times. Romney goes on to say that Tom Stemberg spoke about the future as if it were today. Tom Stemberg minimized the risk and maximized the high probability of success.” (p. 366 appeals court document No. 95 P 286, Norfolk County). And as Romney says to the attorney, “…and the dream went on.” What is important to note here is that while Romney was giving this testimony, he was also in dealings with Stemberg and Goldman Sachs to take the company public. That is to say, a company of no worth, in Romney’s own words – he was about to carry the “dream” forward. Staples went public through Goldman Sachs but three years after Romney’s initial capital investment. “Mitt Romney says he’s prouder of this [Staples] investment than any other.” (Mister PowerPoint Goes to Washington, Mathew Rees, December 1, 2006) The issue here, if it is not already clear, is why a primary investor in a company that Romney was about to take public and of which he later says he is prouder than any other, he downplayed in a civil divorce case

As a witness for Tom Stemberg, Romney perhaps wanted to downplay the worth of Staples because if he did this then Maureen Sullivan-Stemberg stood to gain a whole lot less from Staples equity because Romney had just undervalued her ex-husband’s primary asset in a fifty/fifty state. If Staples is not worth very much, if the judge can be convinced of that, then how much can he award in terms of shares? More, if monies and property are communal in a marriage, why wasn’t Staples split fifty-fifty and why was Romney testifying at all, other than the fact that Tom Stemberg, clearly one of Mitt Romney’s best friends and who recently said of Romney, “I have never met a better venture capitalist [than Mitt Romney]…I suspect he will be an equally good president.” (Mr. PowerPoint Goes to Washington, Wide Awakes, syndicated). Clearly, the relationship between the two has not ended, and that’s fine: why shouldn’t they be friends. But Mitt Romney is running a bid for presidency on certain values and they are directly at odds with what some of what he has done, and certainly, what his best-friends who support him do. Now, since this article was began, Tom Stemberg has been named Romney’s campaign manager. Let’s look first at Romney’s integrity in 1989 at the time of the Stemberg divorce when he was a major shareholder, the first investor, and a boardmember and as such, had, as with any corporation, if the stock was plummeting and in as bad a shape as Romney had said on the stand, why had he not informed shareholders, in particular, didn’t he inform major shareholders like Maureen Sullivan-Stemberg (regardless that they were divorcing his best friend, for that would be immoral to withhold, right?) who owned at the time approximately 180,000 shares.

If Staples really was going under as Romney said and was not viable, like any corporate shareholder meeting that would be held, his role as the a primary investor and major shareholder would be to inform the shareholders, particularly large shareholders of the company’s future and how he did not “place a great deal of credibility in the forecast of the company’s future” (441, Appeals Court, No. 95-P-286, Norfolk County.” and that they were living a “dream” to use his word. (“and the dream went on…” (ibid) Romney apparently still has what Boston.com reported as a “distinct lack of authenticity.” (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/07/romney_tries_to_rebound_on_record/) That Romney in the Sullivan-Stemberg case and for Tom Stemberg, and get what you will from his testimony because to one day say the company is worth nothing, then take it public, make millions, then say it is his “proudest achievement” sounds a lot like flip-flopping which Romney has done on many issues, including abortion when he was pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and so on – he flip-flops, just as when he was nervous, he by some sources used to flip his tie back and forth. How apt.

cont'

http://tantmieux.squarespace.com/cyrano-tant-mieux-articles-old/2008/2/5/a-fish-out-of-water-mitt-romney-the-wanna-be-president.html

October 24, 2012

Reuters Predicting OBAMA LANDSLIDE

The newest Reuters/Ipsos poll has come out with a remarkable prediction. They now hold that Obama is holding enough of an edge that he is looking to be able to take 332 electoral votes.

Obama maintains a larger advantage in the state-by-state battle that will determine the outcome of the election. Ipsos projects that Obama holds an edge in the most hotly contested states, including Florida, Virginia and Ohio, and is likely to win by a relatively comfortable margin of 332 electoral votes to 206 electoral votes.

The poll has reflected a tight race since shortly after the two candidates met for their first debate on October 3. But a substantial portion of voters remain up for grabs. Roughly 20 percent of those surveyed say they could switch their votes or have not yet made up their minds.

Among the larger pool of registered voters, Obama leads Romney 46 percent to 42 percent.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/23/us-usa-campaign-poll-idUSBRE89K0A920121023

On top of this, the initial impression of the debate on Monday is showing Obama as the solid winner, with numbers mirroring the Microsoft X-Box polling results, this is forming in to a very good week for Obama. With only two weeks to go, however, this is crunch time.

Polls cannot be soothsayers, so turnout is the most important. If your state has early voting, it is up to you to go and vote as soon as you can. If not, you have two more weeks. But in this election, there should be no excuse for any person in America not to vote.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/23/reuters-reporting-obama-landslide/

October 24, 2012

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I Bet on American Workers. I Bet on American Manufacturing. And I'd Do it Again

October 24, 2012

STEVE RATTNER: Auto Companies "WOULD HAVE DIED" If Romney Had His Way

On MSNBC this evening, Steve Rattner, former US Treasury Auto Adviser who oversaw the President’s auto rescue, said that if Mitt Romney had his way General Motors and Chrysler “would have died.” So when Romney says his plan was the same as the President’s as he did in last night’s debate, he’s leaving out the little detail of the end result.

TRANSCRIPT

MATTHEWS: Romney’s New York Times op-ed headline, “let Detroit go bankrupt,” is often cited as evidence he would have let the auto industry fail. In fairness, Romney didn’t select the headline. But within Romney’s column is evidence he would have withheld federal money from the auto industry when it was needed. Romney wrote there, “a managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental reconstruction the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate cost. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing.” Well, Steve Rattner, you’re the expert. Chris, get in here in a minute. It seems to me if I wanted to borrow a sum of money from somebody to stay alive as a company ad I would remember who turned me down. And if they came along a couple of years later and said, of course I was going to give you the money, I was going to give you guarantees. But unless nobody was giving you the money what are you guaranteeing? It doesn’t make any sense, but he thinks he got away with it last night, Romney.

RATTNER: I think the President said it exactly right. The fact is that under the Romney plan the companies would have gone into bankruptcy without any government help, but they would have never come out because there was no private financing to help them during this period. The reason President Bush gave them money was because they had no money. They had run out of money. They literally were on the verge of closing their doors, laying off their workers and liquidating.

MATTHEWS: And so bankruptcy means bankruptcy. He makes it sound like it’s managed bankruptcy. It’s not really what we think of as Chapter 11.

RATTNER: There’s a lot of different kinds of bankruptcy. There’s what we did, which was a special kind of bankruptcy that was a quick bankruptcy that we did within 30 to 60 days. Romney would have put them into a regular Chapter 11, would have led to something we call Chapter 7 which is liquidation because nobody was going to finance these companies while they were in bankruptcy.

MATTHEWS: Can you say as a car expert and as well as a financial expert that if Obama hadn’t taken the extraordinary step of going in and lending the $80 billion or whatever it was, that they would have died? GM and Chrysler would have died?

RATTNER: GM and Chrysler, absolutely, there’s no question about it. They were literally running out of money. They did not have money to make their payroll, they didn’t have money to pay their electric bills, they didn’t have money to pay their suppliers. They would have closed their doors and liquidated.

Rattner is correct (details and factchecks here), because at the time of the auto rescue, credit was frozen. Without the government being willing to loan money, the auto makers would have had to liquidate.

Mitt Romney keeps lying about his plan being the same as the President’s but it was not the same. All bankruptcies are not the same. Under Mitt Romney’s plan, the US auto makers would have had to liquidate and they would be dead now. Mitt Romney knows that he can’t win Ohio if they know the truth about his auto bailout plan, that’s why he refuses to be honest about it now.

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