Thursday, June 30, 2016

L.A Times Drops Donald Trump Bombshell, New Scandal Left Retirees Homeless

By Dylan Kelly - June 29, 2016

The LA Times recently ran a long article detailing the frustrations of those who bought into one of Donald Trump’s many failed business ventures: the Trump Ocean Resort in Baja, Mexico.

The report begins with the story of Stephenee Simms, a buyer who withdrew over $50,000 from her life savings in order to put a deposit down on a one-bedroom condo located on the property. Simms, along with about 250 other buyers, ended up losing her hard-earned money in the process and is making her feelings of betrayal known to the public. She and the other buyers are claiming they were defrauded by the GOP frontrunner whose campaign relies on his carefully-crafted image as a “savvy businessman.”

The project began in 2006, with Trump participating in an aggressive marketing campaign before he abandoned it in 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis. Trump’s sales team had even printed blue, suede-bound books for potential buyers, promising them a fancy vacation getaway where they could “relax by the infinity-edge pool, margarita in hand, as the cabana boy brings fresh towels.”

Ivanka Trump herself, in a video on the Baja project’s website, told potential buyers the following:

‘WE ARE DEVELOPING A WORLD-CLASS RESORT BEFITTING OF THE TRUMP BRAND. I’M VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT. I ACTUALLY CHOSE TO BUY A UNIT IN THE FIRST TOWER.’

Such promises of luxury, of course, proved to be empty and unfounded. Trump characteristically denied any wrongdoing for his failed venture, claiming that all his company really did was license his name to the project without actually being involved in its literal development. This, of course, directly contradicts much of the language used by his daughter on the Trump Baja website.

Several buyers ended up bringing a lawsuit against Trump and his children, alleging justifiably that they were misled into thinking he was seriously involved in the property’s development through his aggressive marketing campaign. Trump and his organization, however, deflected the blame for the project’s failure, and by extension their responsibility to refund the buyers, onto two other developers: Irongate Wilshire and affiliate P.B Impulsores. They claimed that these developers were the ones who collected all of the buyers’ deposit money, spent it, and subsequently failed to get the construction loan necessary to get the project off the ground. The other two developers settled the lawsuit after agreeing to pay $7.25 million for their part in the failure.

Another one of the buyers, Tony Brown, who lost a $170,000 deposit to the failed project, told the LA Times:

‘WHEN WE FOUND OUT LATER IT WAS JUST A BRANDING SCHEME, WHATEVER CONFIDENCE WE HAD IN HIS ABILITY TO TAKE A PROJECT AND BRING IT TO FRUITION WENT OUT THE WINDOW.’

Brown did not participate in the lawsuit because he claimed he did not want to waste any more money.

Trump’s unsavory business practices have provided fodder for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s campaign against him. In a recent speech in Ohio, Clinton said the following about the frontrunner’s long history of failed businesses:

‘HE MAKES OVER-THE-TOP PROMISES THAT IF PEOPLE STICK WITH HIM, TRUST HIM, LISTEN TO HIM, PUT THEIR FAITH IN HIM, HE’LL DELIVER FOR THEM. HE’LL MAKE THEM WILDLY SUCCESSFUL, AND THEN EVERYTHING FALLS APART. AND PEOPLE GET HURT.’

http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/06/29/breaking-l-a-times-drops-donald-trump-bombshell-new-scandal-left-retirees-homeless-details/

California Cops Brutally Beat A Defenseless 16-Year-Old For No Reason

Three California cops were caught on camera in a one minute video (seen below) giving a 16-year old a devastating beating, cracking his legs with a baton and threatening the young man with a taser. Three Pomona Police officers beat teenager Christian Aguilar into submission at the Los Angeles County Fair when he recorded them arresting his family. Now the teenager and his family are suing six named cops and the Pomona Police Department, and the City of Pomona and Los Angeles County for heinous violation of his civil rights.

His only crime: recording the police.

Pomona Police officers arrested Robert Hansen, the man who recorded them beating the teenager. They illegally seized and searched Hanson’s phone and then charged him with bogus offenses. California cops then tried to cover their tracks, and maliciously prosecuted everyone involved. All charges were eventually dropped against the teen, and his family. After all of that hard work, the Pomona Police edited Robert Hanson’s video of the arrest of Christian Aguilar and gave the video to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.

All of the officers lied in their official reports. They only charged Aguilar with resisting arrest, which itself isn’t a crime if there is no criminal accusation against a person, and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department kept him housed in the adult population despite his protestation of juvenile status. The officers had just arrested his father Ignacio Aguilar Jr. and cousin, accusing them of public intoxication and Christian Ignacio decided to record the officers from 30 feet away. Aguilar’s brother Ignacio Aguilar IV was also physically detained by the police for yelling as his family’s civil rights were violated one at a time. Luckily, another citizen – Robert Hanson, the “neutral third party” – whipped out their cellphone and recorded the entire shocking police brutality incident started by Pomona Officer Jensen.

As is clear in the video, Aguilar didn’t ever challenge the first officer on the scene’s use of inappropriate force, when Officer Jensen smashed his head into a fence  – instead putting his hands at his sides and thrusting his chin forward in a posture of frustrated readiness. Officer Jensen thrust his forearm into Aguilar’s face twice at maximum thrust, before Pomona Officers Hutchinson and Correa arrived. Hutchinson thoughtfully held the teenager along with Jensen, and that’s when Pomona Officer landed a devastating blow, with his long black baton to Christian Aguilar’s knee, sending the teenager to the ground. As the three grown men beat the teenager, another Pomona Officer came over an discharged his taser near the teen to strike terror. There’s no other reason to deploy a weapon in that manner.

Eventually, at least seven cops responded to the call. Five of them hovered over the beaten Aguilar, as two kept a perimeter. The video ends as a police officer asks Hanson for his name in a familiar scene, where police seek to claim that photography is somehow a crime enabling them to illegally demand identification. Photography is not a crime, it’s a First Amendment protected right. Now the taxpayers of Pomona will be forced to cough up big bucks, and we still haven’t seen a single officer named below in this lawsuit charged with any crime for beating a teenager, and arresting him for recording the police.

But a federal court will settle the matter, and maybe, just maybe the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office will think twice about any evidence put forth by the rotten barrel California residents call the Pomona Police Department. Because the Pomona police department crossed the line, from law enforcement to thugs.

http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/06/29/watch-cali-cops-brutally-beat-defenseless-16-year-old-no-reason/

The TPP and the Democratic platform.

Robert Reich
6.28.2016

The Democratic National Convention Drafting Committee has approved a draft of the Democratic platform – which now goes before the entire platform committee. The draft opposes the death penalty (which Clinton supports under certain circumstances); opposes fracking; and supports a $15 minimum wage, a carbon tax, legislation similar to the Glass-Steagall Wall Street reform Act, expanded Social Security, improving the nation's infrastructure, a multi-millionaire surtax, and an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers.

All well and good.

But the Clinton majority on the committee outvoted the Sanders delegates 10-5 on the Trans Pacific Partnership -- rejecting language specifically opposing the deal. Instead, the majority substituted generic language urging that trade deals protect workers’ rights and the environment, and asserting that Democrats are divided on trade. (Not quite true. A year ago, 85 percent of House Democrats voted against a fast track on the TPP).

If enacted, the TPP would make a mockery of much of the rest of the putative Democratic platform. For example, there’s no way the U.S. can achieve adequate fossil-fuel reduction when the TPP gives fossil-fuel companies the right to sue any partner nation whose higher environmental standards threaten their future profits (just a few days ago, Trans Canada sued the United States for $15 billion, based on NAFTA provisions, arguing that the United States was in violation of the rules and now owed it for future lost profits).

The TPP would also cost American jobs. Donald Trump is already attacking Hillary Clinton for her initial support of the TPP, alleging she’d sign it if she’s elected president. Trump will get more ammunition if the Democratic National Committee approves the platform draft.

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?fref=nf

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Religiously speaking

In case you're not a Game of Thrones viewer, she destroyed the main religious temple, all of it's priests, and most of her rivals who were present in the temple. This SHOULD reduce the incidence of the church trying to exert influence over her government.

Militant atheist fundamentalist,

Poking fun at ridiculous religious beliefs.

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