Notices by James Gleick (jamesgleick@zirk.us), page 4

Let’s do some arithmetic. A company takes in $4 million in total revenue. To accomplish this, it spends $62 million.

Net loss: $58 million.

How much would you pay to buy this company? https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/112196716174826637

Even worse: that tiny bit of revenue is trending DOWNWARD.

https://wapo.st/4cEmKyX

This is correct, and the press keeps getting it wrong. The money Trump owes isn’t a “fine” or a “penalty.” Its DISGORGEMENT of ILL-GOTTEN GAINS. https://mstdn.social/@tristansnell/112125265736146734

In which @joshtpm reminds us why Letitia James isn’t going to seize Trump Tower.

Trump doesn’t own it.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-owns-the-valet-booth-at-trump-tower/sharetoken/3jTLuWi6kWgZ

“Becoming a public company burdened Mr. Trump with the responsibility of putting shareholders’ interests first. But Trump could generally meet that obligation by obtaining approval from his board of directors. The board’s three outside members were widely seen as bowing to his wishes.

"A week after the initial public offering, the new company began using some of the almost $300 million it had raised to clear Mr. Trump’s personal debts.”

“Early on, I took a lot of money out of the casinos with the financings and the things we do,” Trump said in a recent interview. “Atlantic City was a very good cash cow for me for a long time.”

Others were hurt.

“He put a number of local contractors and suppliers out of business when he didn’t pay them,” said Steven P. Perskie, who was New Jersey’s top casino regulator in the early 1990s. “So when he left Atlantic City, it wasn’t, ‘Sorry to see you go.’ It was, ‘How fast can you get the hell out of here?’”

A new company is going to start trading shortly with the ticker symbol DJT. Here’s a reminder of what happened to anyone who invested in the last DJT company. (1/2)

“He was failing in Atlantic City long before Atlantic City itself was failing. But even as his companies did poorly, Trump did well. He put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments. The burden of his failures fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen.”

This superb reporting from the NYT in 2016 stirred barely a ripple. [Gift link]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyregion/donald-trump-atlantic-city.html?ugrp=c&unlocked_article_code=1.ek0.krkM.or8Ioj9_EpTm&smid=url-share (2/2)

The turn to fascism in America isn’t coming just (or even primarily) from crazed fanatics. It’s coming from well funded “think tanks” full of well dressed and well fed pseudoscholars who imagine themselves to be reasonable and mannerly. https://journa.host/@w7voa/112124274481988039

Calling a lie a lie ≠ censorship. https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/112117424589771542

Imagine if a former US president was running for re-election and HIS OWN VICE PRESIDENT said he was unfit for office.

That would be really something, wouldn’t it?

Reporters should be asking every Republican official tonight: Do you support Trump’s plan to free the thousand violent criminals who have been convicted in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol?

This story should be leading the New York Times right now, and every other US newspaper. It’s not, because they think, well, Trump’s crazy, that’s not news.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/12/trump-january-6-pardons

Nearly a thousand violent criminals have been convicted by judges and juries of their peers of rioting, assaulting law-enforcement officers, attacking federal buildings with firearms, and other felonies in connection with the January 6 insurrection.

The Republican candidate for president says that they are “hostages” and that one of his first acts will be to set them all free.

To me this seems like important news.

Musk avoided capital gains tax on the value of his shares. Plus (due to this loophole) he deducted the FULL value against other income. Plus (due to being a cheat) he then used the tax-free money for his personal benefit.

So once again taxpayers subsidize him to the tune of billions. https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/112077717376261001

This is my nominee for least-covered, least-understood story of the decade. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is the righteous and plausible path to ending the Electoral College. No constitutional amendment required.

That seems too good to be true. Also, to wrap your head around it requires a bit of effort. It’s almost like (content warning!) math.

But take a minute or two, and the light will dawn. This could happen. And it should.

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/112045131762041444

I’ve been wondering why Elon Musk would have standing to sue OpenAI. How have they damaged HIM? How is it any of his business in the first place?

He doesn’t, they haven’t, and it isn’t. Here’s the Verge:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/1/24087937/elon-musk-suing-openai-nightmare-1l-contracts-exam

Mitch McConnell did so much to destroy our democracy that it’s hard to pick just one thing. But Josh Marshall says this is the worst:

"These days you often hear reporters and commentators saying matter of factly that legislation requires 60 votes in the Senate. This is truly McConnell’s greatest accomplishment. People say this like it’s in the Constitution, like the two-thirds requirement for conviction at impeachment or to approve a treaty. (1/2)

But it is a novel development and it has radically altered U.S. politics. It transforms the federal Senate into a genuinely Calhounian body in which minority factions exercise a de facto and permanent veto over the majority.

"It’s what creates gridlock, the breeding ground of political disaffection and extremism."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/mitch-mcconnell-some-thoughts-on-mastery-destruction-and-minority-rule/sharetoken/HKlwxw9i77vE (2/2)