38 thoughts on “Show Me the Money”

  2. NYTimes:

    Monday is judgment day for former President Donald J. Trump — the day he fears a $454 million judgment against him might come due.

    Hoping to stave off a financial crisis, Mr. Trump is racing the clock to block the New York attorney general from collecting the monetary penalty imposed in a civil fraud case. The attorney general, Letitia James, who brought the case accusing the former president of fraudulently inflating his net worth, has the power to freeze many of his bank accounts and begin the long, complicated process of seizing some of his properties.

    Under New York law, Ms. James could have enforced the $454 million judgment once it became final last month, but she provided Mr. Trump a 30-day grace period that expires on Monday. Although Ms. James could move to collect at any moment, she is not expected to take any aggressive action Monday.

    When Ms. James does act, her efforts, depending on their severity, could starve Mr. Trump’s family business of cash and drop the curtain on his final act as a New York mogul. And while Mr. Trump can seek to delay or limit some damage, that legal process is “slow torture,” said Mark Zauderer, a veteran New York business litigator who has handled many judgments.
    “There’s nothing here for Trump to gain,” added Mr. Zauderer, who is a partner at the firm Dorf Nelson & Zauderer. “It’s just a question of how much he will lose and how long it will take.”

    To avoid a humiliating outcome, Mr. Trump must find a company willing, for a fee, to post a half-billion dollar bond on his behalf, promising that it will cover the judgment if he loses a pending appeal and fails to pay. A bond of that size would have strings attached: Mr. Trump would need to pledge more than $550 million in collateral to the company, including as much cash as possible.
    That is the problem. Despite Mr. Trump’s boasts that he is worth billions, much of his wealth is tied up in real estate, which bond companies rarely accept as collateral. A recent New York Times analysis found that as of last month, he had more than $350 million in cash plus stocks and bonds he could easily sell, but much less than he would need to post in collateral.

    His lawyers, after being spurned by more than 30 bond companies, recently called their chances of securing a bond a “practical impossibility.”

    Now, Mr. Trump is banking on an appeals court pausing the judgment or accepting a smaller bond. Although the court is not expected to rule on Monday, it could do so later this week or next week.
    […]
    If Mr. Trump cannot produce the bond, Ms. James could send so-called restraining notices to his banks and brokerage firms, effectively freezing his accounts. She can then file a court action to access the money in those accounts.

    Public records show that Ms. James has formally posted the judgment against Mr. Trump in Westchester County, a preliminary step toward staking a claim to his private estate and golf club there.

    Yet any effort to seize property would most likely touch off a lengthy court fight with an uncertain result. Mr. Trump would seek to delay the matter at every turn, and even if Ms. James prevailed and forced the sale of a building, she would collect only what was left over after the property’s mortgage was paid off.

    “A lot of people say freeze and seize, but the seizing of properties isn’t so easy,” Mr. Zauderer said.
    He suggested that Ms. James could still inflict serious damage and collect a significant sum by pursuing Mr. Trump’s bank and brokerage accounts.

    “That’s the low-hanging fruit,” he said.

  4. So if I understand the numbers correctly, it would only take 2 Repubs now, and 1 after mid April, who hate Greene or Gaetz enough to to defeat any measure they support if all the Dems oppose it (and I’m guessing it’s not that hard to find those). If Johnson is smart he takes those odds and brings Greene’s vacation petition to the floor for a vote and strengthens his position as Speaker and marginalizes the Freedom Causus’ grip on the party. 

  5. Pogo – there was a little sentence from I think Buck, saying there were three more leaving early.  There might be up to five if one of the media outlets is correct.  It would sound like the magat party ends up in the minority during the summer.
     
    Plus, I have won at least four championships over the weekend. I need to decide which ones.

  6. Traveled a short distance through a Colorado spring snow-shower last evening to attend the touring production of Come from Away. Surprising number of young people in the audience who it occurred to me may “come away” believing 9/11 was a time of singing and dancing. Perhaps we may one day have a dancing show about covid. Maybe we need that to heal. 

  7. Waited a while to see it, so I wasn’t going to let a little blizzard stop me. I originally had tickets for Come from Away three years ago at the BJCC. That performance was cancelled due to covid.

  12. With Donald J. Trump on the clock to secure a nearly half-billion dollar bond in his civil fraud case, a New York appeals court appears to have handed the former president a lifeline on Monday, accepting a far smaller bond of $175 million.
    The ruling by a five-judge panel of appellate court judges is a crucial and unexpected victory for the former president, potentially staving off a looming financial disaster. Had the court denied his request — and had he failed to obtain the full bond — Mr. Trump was at risk of losing control over his bank accounts and, eventually, even some of his marquee properties.
    For now, those dire outcomes might be on hold. The bond will prevent the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the fraud case against Mr. Trump, from collecting the judgment while Mr. Trump appeals.
    Mr. Trump has 10 days to obtain the bond, and two people with knowledge of his finances said he should be able to secure it by then.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/nyregion/trump-bond-reduced.html
     

  13. While that merger may bring him $3b, it’s in the form of stock and it can’t be sold for 6 months following the merger.  Letitia James is buying chains and padlocks as we speak.

    Update: After reading the Times article linked by patd, he may be able to scrape up $175M within 10 days.

  14. So now he only has to come up with $175 million bond instead of the $464 million.  He can fleece the Republicans for that much.

    Court rules Trump can post lower bond of $175M to cover his fraud judgment (msn.com)

    “It is ordered that the motion is granted to the extent of staying enforcement of those portions of the Judgment (1) ordering disgorgement to the Attorney General of $464,576,230.62, conditioned on defendants-appellants posting, within ten (10) days of the date of this order, an undertaking in the amount of $175 million dollars,” the two-page order said.

     

     

  16. The disgust with the American courts continues.  The NY appellate went with “oh you poor man, that mean judge should have said pay what you want”.  Too PO to continue.

  18. TRUMP’S FIRST CRIMINAL TRIAL BACK ON TRACK

    NY criminal trial judge now ruling from bench. Rejects Trump delay motion, trial set for April 15 jury selection. So this latest maneuver only bought Trump about a 3 week delay

  19. But then…

    WaPo
     
    New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan appeared deeply skeptical during a hearing Monday morning about claims by Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his hush money criminal trial, and said the case would go to trial April 15.
     
    Trump’s lawyers said a late release of more than 100,000 pages of potential evidence should delay the case significantly, and they asked that the prosecutors be sanctioned. Merchan, raising his voice at times, admonished Trump’s attorneys for making what he called very serious allegations without legal backup. He also questioned why the defense did not seek the records from federal officials sooner.
     
    A key question for Monday’s hearing is whether the judge will set a new trial date, after delaying jury selection until at least mid-April.

    Take that, dumbass.

  20. Jamie, thanks, my favorite of the tunes as well, it was wonderful. A show I would see again and, as you say, best seen live than filmed. A few jokes would have gone over my head (like the half-hour time zone) except I visited Newfoundland last summer. 

  24. Ivey,
    I checked the weather for the eclipse – and while it’s 2 weeks out, they are calling for showers the day before and day of in the Cleveland – Erie area.  Bummer if that holds.

  25. Pogo, we’re traveling to Austin for the week, but we have more than one reason to be there. Fingers crossed. All will not be lost.

  26. Same here.  The extended forecast is calling for flash flooding on 4/8, and that doesn’t happen without clouds.  There’s no timing for that day, though.  Fingers crossed that the rain comes in overnight and is gone by mid-morning or it’s clear until late afternoon.   

  28. James Spann, Meteorologist Nonpareil
     

    SOLAR ECLIPSE: The April 8 eclipse is a partial one for Alabama… The path of totality is to the north and west. Still too early to know about cloud cover; we will have a good first look at the forecast for the eclipse late this week.

  31. my eclipse tips are seek the zone of totality and don’t bother trying to look at the disk, it’s the effect it has on nature that’s astounding- make a picnic out of it
     
    Even if it’s partly cloudy, it’s an experience 
     
    🫥

  32. Yeah, even if it’s raining, it’s going to look like midnight for awhile. 

    An article about folks looking at the sun had a pic of a scan of a woman’s retina and the shape of the eclipse (with a bite taken out of it) was burned into it.
     
    I keep reading that during totality, you can look directly at it, but that seems like dicey timing. What if you accidentally looked up at 90%? Nope.

    I remember my grandmother making a pinhole viewer with a shoe box.  We had some smoked glass photographic negatives, too.  I doubt that was up to code.  In 2017, I made a viewer out of a Rice Krispie box, but with the price of cereal these days…LoL

    I enjoy looking at the eclipse shadows under the trees. There was a partial last year. I was outside the movie theater for a noon show. Folks probably wondered why I was loitering outside, looking at the ground.

    Will tRUMPsky really go to trial on tax day?
     
     

  34. New York City’s celebrity owl Flaco was suffering from a severe pigeon-borne illness and high levels of rat poison when he crashed into a building and died last month, officials at the Bronx Zoo said Monday.
    The Eurasian eagle-owl was found dead in a Manhattan courtyard on Feb. 23, a little over a year after he escaped a damaged enclosure at the Central Park Zoo and began a life in the urban wilds that captivated New Yorkers. While an initial autopsy showed the cause of death was trauma, further testing revealed a pair of significant medical conditions may have contributed to the collision, zoo officials said.
    Blood tests showed Flaco had been exposed to four different rat poisons and had a “severe” case of pigeon herpesvirus that had damaged his brain, liver, spleen, and other organs. 
    “These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury,” the zoo said in a statement. “Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors — infectious disease, toxin exposures, and traumatic injuries — that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting.”
    After an unknown vandal snuck into the zoo and cut his cage, Flaco spent his initial days of freedom inside Central Park, before venturing out into the Manhattan skyline. Though he had lived his entire 13 years in captivity, he quickly proved a proficient hunter, preying on the city’s abundant rat population. But his freedom also worried some experts, who said he faced an array of threats in the city, including the likelihood of consuming a poisoned rat.
    In the days before his death, Flaco had ceased his nightly hooting from the city’s rooftops, prompting some to fear he was ill, according to David Barrett, a bird enthusiast who runs a social media page that documented the owl’s movements. 
    “Though these results remind us of the tragedy of Flaco’s passing, they also bring understanding and closure,” Barrett said. Following his death, zoo officials placed the blame squarely on the vandal who cut his enclosure, a crime that remains unsolved.
     

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/new-york-city-owl-flaco-was-exposed-to-pigeon-virus-and-rat-poison-before-death-tests-show/ar-BB1kw8tP

  37. https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/music/diddys-private-jet-lands-in-the-caribbean-amid-federal-raids-on-homes-linked-to-sex-trafficking-report-101711419388522.html
     
    “Sean Diddy’s private jet lands in the Caribbean amid federal raids on homes linked to sex trafficking: Report”
     
     
    “TMZ, also reports that Diddy’s private LoveAir LLC jet was spotted in Antigua. Some users on social networks say that the rapper can escape to Africa in Cape Verde.”
     
    Why can’t SFB and his crime family flee the country? 

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