Let’s help the environment! Or not, because China is worse:
In a familiar Trump administration refrain, Wheeler blamed China. “The alarming truth of the matter is that over 50% of ocean plastics come from five Asian countries, China being the greatest offender by far.”
//i\\
A plastic bag charge worked incredibly well in the UK.
Funnily enough, many of the grumps who opposed it adopted an “I’ll show them! I’ll just bring my own bags to the store to avoid the tax!” argument, apparently unaware that that was the entire fucking point of the exercise.
I’m guessing that those 5 Asian countries coincidentally have > 50% of the world’s population, and therefore not surprisingly produce 50% of the world’s plastic.
Still mostly poor, so probably not as plastic based as Western countries. However, they also probably produce > 50% of the plastic stuff sold in the West, so that is likely a major contributor to whatever they are contributing to the garbage islands in the ocean.
“How dare those offending Asian countries produce all this polluting plastic shit used to create export merchandise that I voluntarily buy!!”
From Russia. What do you want to bet somewhere in the midst of Trump’s bitching was a demand for the ship’s plans, which would duly be passed along to Putin?
No, no! Say it isn’t so! <hides face and sobs>
Donald Trump, a businessman, entertainer and former U.S. president whose personal brand has always been closely intertwined with his wealth, is no longer in the top tier of America’s richest people.
At least not according to Forbes.
The former president was left off the Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people for the first time in a quarter-century, the magazine reported Tuesday.
The business magazine estimates his net worth fell by about $600 million during the coronavirus pandemic as big-city properties — the core of his assets — lost value, leaving him with a $2.5 billion fortune. The 400th entry on Forbes’s list, the Arkansas-based investment banker Warren Stephens, logged a net worth of $2.9 billion by comparison.
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Even worse:
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with an estimated net worth of $201 billion, topped the list for the fourth year in a row, Forbes said.
Trump sues Forbes in 3…2…1… 
What?? He lied?? 
…
The panel said Trump claimed the hotel, on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from the White House, generated $150 million in revenue during his time in office. But it said that Trump “grossly exaggerated the financial health” of the hotel and that his company had to inject $24 million to aid the facility.
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Eh- plus $150 million, minus $24 million. Same difference.
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The committee also found that Trump received preferential treatment from Deutsche Bank, the German financial institution, which allowed Trump to delay making payments on the principal of a $170 million loan for six years. The panel says Trump personally guaranteed that loan. It also says Trump did not disclose “this significant benefit from a foreign bank” while he was president.
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Try delaying some of your payments for six years.
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Also while he was president, the committee says, the hotel received an estimated $3.7 million from foreign governments that rented rooms in the facility, “raising concerns about possible violations of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause.”’
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You don’t say. 
The rest of the article has some interesting, nauseating, and unsurprising details about trump’s finances. Which will not result in any consequences to him.
This is correct. Shameful, and infuriating, but correct. Al Capone is looking down, or up, and just scratching his fat cheeked head.
This is a fundamental paradox of banking. If the bank lends you $1,000 it owns you. If the back lends you $170 million you own it.
Revenue is not profit.
$150 million revenue - $100 million expenses -$74 million paid to Trump Organization = $24 million loss
Deutsche Bank assets are 1.3 trillion Euros, which is over 1.5 trillion dollars. If my math is correct (always in doubt), Trump’s loan is less than .01% of the bank’s assets. Certainly a large customer, but the bank could survive without the repayment.
The contract would be given to a company in Idaho with two employees and a post office box.
I do not believe that is what he meant. I believe he meant that a bank will bend over backwards for such customers(as they already have). Certain employees will have their heads lopped off if he defaults on a loan like that.
Oh, I don’t disagree. But it’s not like the bank must have that loan repaid to keep their doors open.
Depends on which regulatory regime applies. Failure to do due diligence on your customers can at the very least land you with a hefty fine (as this week’s UK news shows). The US regulations are a little looser but the regulators tend to hit harder when they do swing at something.
I’m not actually outraged; but I am amused.
I am with the former President on this. They should all boycott the elections.
Certainly Twitter was gleeful over this, but I’m not so sure it’s cause for celebration, either of Trump’s stupidity or of the prospect of massive Democratic wins. If enough GOP-dominated states pass laws that permit legislatures or election boards to declare any election “fraudulent” and thereby to appoint whomever they wish to office, then the gleeful will realize they’ve been had.
Certainly such laws would work best if, say, election returns showed 90% Democratic votes in areas in which previous contests had been much closer.
So there may well be advice from the Federalist Society and other anti-democracy advocates behind Donald’s apparent gaffe.
So having more Republican voters is good for Republicans, and having more Democratic voters is good for Republicans?
Why are we even bothering, then?