WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive for 30,322 emails & email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she was Secretary of State.
The 50,547 pages of documents span from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton. The emails were made available in the form of thousands of PDFs by the US State Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. The final PDFs were made available on February 29, 2016.
On April 27th, 2016, Donald Trump put away the showman, entertainer and rallymaster image today, and showed us what is really inside the man when he reins in the excitement and lays out what he’s really saying between the lines. “America First!”
His policies are all laid out on his website at Trump Positionsand anyone who has read them know they have always aligned with his impromptu rally speeches, but we finally got to hear the man lay one out, with much more detail than the website, in a “Presidential” demeanor that many have doubted him capable of.
Today he set the record straight.
In the first public unveiling of “Trump, the President.” he walked up to the podium today and gave one of the most coherent, direct-to-the-point, unifying and assuring messages to the country that I have heard since JFK. We have been dealing with the rest of the world in a totally misguided manner, and he intends to set that straight when elected.
The Trump campaign needs to incorporate some of this new vision into the roadwork for the upcoming final laps of this race. His supporters already know what he’s talking about, but in this crucial part of the cycle he needs to relate more to the uninitiated and the people who only have seen what the main stream media has pictured for their own particular interests.
No matter what anyone thinks, behind the MSM painting is a canvas that is just as, or more committed to the future of our people and our country as ANY person that has ever sat on the big chair in the Oval Office.
There is no practical reason for this to come to a brokered convention. Mr.Trump now has 953 bound delegates. He is within a couple good wins of have the magic 1237 that requires them all to vote Trump during the first ballot.
No one else running could reach that number, even if Trump didn’t get another vote. All the other two candidates can do is try to derail his path to prize, and attempt to steal the nomination behind closed doors.
That’s why everyone needs to vote and not just cheer him on in Facebook. People who have never voted in their lives have registered and done so. Every vote counts especially yours!
Moving into next week’s critical showdown in Indiana, Mr.Trump must make a bond with the remaining people out there that care as much about this country as he does, even if they have been misled by other candidates up to this point. Many have been switching to Trump after last weeks failed collusion against Trump for last Tuesday’s primaries.
If things go smoothly, this nomination will be decided on June 7th with a big win in California. It can, and must be done or the Convention will be open to many different underhanded means of corruption.
You can follow the progress here on the Delegate Trackerin real time.
Let’s get everything organized and done right, so we can move on to the real battle against Mrs. Clinton, if she manages to stay out of jail.
It’s up to you. Back the movement and Make America Great Again!
Here is the turning point speech, in case you missed it!
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Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you, and thank you to the Center for the National Interest for honoring me with this invitation.
I would like to talk today about how to develop a new foreign policy direction for our country – one that replaces randomness with purpose, ideology with strategy, and chaos with peace.
It is time to shake the rust off of America’s foreign policy. It’s time to invite new voices and new visions into the fold.
The direction I will outline today will also return us to a timeless principle. My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else. That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make.
America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.
But to chart our path forward, we must first briefly look back.
We have a lot to be proud of. In the 1940s we saved the world. The Greatest Generation beat back the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists.
Then we saved the world again, this time from totalitarian Communism. The Cold War lasted for decades, but we won.
Democrats and Republicans working together got Mr. Gorbachev to heed the words of President Reagan when he said: “tear down this wall.”
History will not forget what we did.
Unfortunately, after the Cold War, our foreign policy veered badly off course. We failed to develop a new vision for a new time. In fact, as time went on, our foreign policy began to make less and less sense.
Logic was replaced with foolishness and arrogance, and this led to one foreign policy disaster after another.
We went from mistakes in Iraq to Egypt to Libya, to President Obama’s line in the sand in Syria. Each of these actions have helped to throw the region into chaos, and gave ISIS the space it needs to grow and prosper.
It all began with the dangerous idea that we could make Western democracies out of countries that had no experience or interest in becoming a Western Democracy.
We tore up what institutions they had and then were surprised at what we unleashed. Civil war, religious fanaticism; thousands of American lives, and many trillions of dollars, were lost as a result. The vacuum was created that ISIS would fill. Iran, too, would rush in and fill the void, much to their unjust enrichment.
Our foreign policy is a complete and total disaster.
No vision, no purpose, no direction, no strategy.
Today, I want to identify five main weaknesses in our foreign policy.
First, Our Resources Are Overextended
President Obama has weakened our military by weakening our economy. He’s crippled us with wasteful spending, massive debt, low growth, a huge trade deficit and open borders.
Our manufacturing trade deficit with the world is now approaching $1 trillion a year. We’re rebuilding other countries while weakening our own.
Ending the theft of American jobs will give us the resources we need to rebuild our military and regain our financial independence and strength.
I am the only person running for the Presidency who understands this problem and knows how to fix it.
Secondly, our allies are not paying their fair share.
Our allies must contribute toward the financial, political and human costs of our tremendous security burden. But many of them are simply not doing so. They look at the United States as weak and forgiving and feel no obligation to honor their agreements with us.
In NATO, for instance, only 4 of 28 other member countries, besides America, are spending the minimum required 2% of GDP on defense.
We have spent trillions of dollars over time – on planes, missiles, ships, equipment – building up our military to provide a strong defense for Europe and Asia. The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense – and, if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.
The whole world will be safer if our allies do their part to support our common defense and security.
A Trump Administration will lead a free world that is properly armed and funded.
Thirdly, our friends are beginning to think they can’t depend on us.
We’ve had a president who dislikes our friends and bows to our enemies.
He negotiated a disastrous deal with Iran, and then we watched them ignore its terms, even before the ink was dry.
Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and, under a Trump Administration, will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
All of this without even mentioning the humiliation of the United States with Iran’s treatment of our ten captured sailors.
In negotiation, you must be willing to walk. The Iran deal, like so many of our worst agreements, is the result of not being willing to leave the table. When the other side knows you’re not going to walk, it becomes absolutely impossible to win.
At the same time, your friends need to know that you will stick by the agreements that you have with them.
President Obama gutted our missile defense program, then abandoned our missile defense plans with Poland and the Czech Republic.
He supported the ouster of a friendly regime in Egypt that had a longstanding peace treaty with Israel – and then helped bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in its place.
Israel, our great friend and the one true Democracy in the Middle East, has been snubbed and criticized by an Administration that lacks moral clarity. Just a few days ago, Vice President Biden again criticized Israel – a force for justice and peace – for acting as an impediment to peace in the region.
President Obama has not been a friend to Israel. He has treated Iran with tender love and care and made it a great power in the Middle East – all at the expense of Israel, our other allies in the region and, critically, the United States.
We’ve picked fights with our oldest friends, and now they’re starting to look elsewhere for help.
Fourth, our rivals no longer respect us.
In fact, they are just as confused as our allies, but an even bigger problem is that they don’t take us seriously any more.
When President Obama landed in Cuba on Air Force One, no leader was there to meet or greet him – perhaps an incident without precedent in the long and prestigious history of Air Force One.
Then, amazingly, the same thing happened in Saudi Arabia — it’s called no respect.
Do you remember when the President made a long and expensive trip to Copenhagen, Denmark to get the Olympics for our country, and, after this unprecedented effort, it was announced that the United States came in fourth place?
He should have known the result before making such an embarrassing commitment.
The list of humiliations goes on and on.
President Obama watches helplessly as North Korea increases its aggression and expands even further with its nuclear reach.
Our president has allowed China to continue its economic assault on American jobs and wealth, refusing to enforce trade rules – or apply the leverage on China necessary to rein in North Korea.
He has even allowed China to steal government secrets with cyber attacks and engage in industrial espionage against the United States and its companies.
We’ve let our rivals and challengers think they can get away with anything.
If President Obama’s goal had been to weaken America, he could not have done a better job.
Finally, America no longer has a clear understanding of our foreign policy goals.
Since the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union, we’ve lacked a coherent foreign policy.
One day we’re bombing Libya and getting rid of a dictator to foster democracy for civilians, the next day we are watching the same civilians suffer while that country falls apart.
We’re a humanitarian nation. But the legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions will be weakness, confusion, and disarray.
We have made the Middle East more unstable and chaotic than ever before.
We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide.
Our actions in Iraq, Libya and Syria have helped unleash ISIS.
And we’re in a war against radical Islam, but President Obama won’t even name the enemy!
Hillary Clinton also refuses to say the words “radical Islam,” even as she pushes for a massive increase in refugees.
After Secretary Clinton’s failed intervention in Libya, Islamic terrorists in Benghazi took down our consulate and killed our ambassador and three brave Americans. Then, instead of taking charge that night, Hillary Clinton decided to go home and sleep! Incredible.
Clinton blames it all on a video, an excuse that was a total lie. Our Ambassador was murdered and our Secretary of State misled the nation – and by the way, she was not awake to take that call at 3 o’clock in the morning.
And now ISIS is making millions of dollars a week selling Libyan oil.
This will change when I am president.
To all our friends and allies, I say America is going to be strong again. America is going to be a reliable friend and ally again.
We’re going to finally have a coherent foreign policy based upon American interests, and the shared interests of our allies.
We are getting out of the nation-building business, and instead focusing on creating stability in the world.
Our moments of greatest strength came when politics ended at the water’s edge.
We need a new, rational American foreign policy, informed by the best minds and supported by both parties, as well as by our close allies.
This is how we won the Cold War, and it’s how we will win our new and future struggles.
First, we need a long-term plan to halt the spread and reach of radical Islam.
Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States.
Events may require the use of military force. But it’s also a philosophical struggle, like our long struggle in the Cold War.
In this we’re going to be working very closely with our allies in the Muslim world, all of which are at risk from radical Islamic violence.
We should work together with any nation in the region that is threatened by the rise of radical Islam. But this has to be a two-way street – they must also be good to us and remember us and all we are doing for them.
The struggle against radical Islam also takes place in our homeland. There are scores of recent migrants inside our borders charged with terrorism. For every case known to the public, there are dozens more.
We must stop importing extremism through senseless immigration policies.
A pause for reassessment will help us to prevent the next San Bernardino or worse — all you have to do is look at the World Trade Center and September 11th.
And then there’s ISIS. I have a simple message for them. Their days are numbered. I won’t tell them where and I won’t tell them how. We must as, a nation, be more unpredictable. But they’re going to be gone. And soon.
Secondly, we have to rebuild our military and our economy.
The Russians and Chinese have rapidly expanded their military capability, but look what’s happened to us!
Our nuclear weapons arsenal – our ultimate deterrent – has been allowed to atrophy and is desperately in need of modernization and renewal.
Our active duty armed forces have shrunk from 2 million in 1991 to about 1.3 million today.
The Navy has shrunk from over 500 ships to 272 ships during that time.
The Air Force is about 1/3 smaller than 1991. Pilots are flying B-52s in combat missions today which are older than most people in this room.
And what are we doing about this? President Obama has proposed a 2017 defense budget that, in real dollars, cuts nearly 25% from what we were spending in 2011.
Our military is depleted, and we’re asking our generals and military leaders to worry about global warming.
We will spend what we need to rebuild our military. It is the cheapest investment we can make. We will develop, build and purchase the best equipment known to mankind. Our military dominance must be unquestioned.
But we will look for savings and spend our money wisely. In this time of mounting debt, not one dollar can be wasted.
We are also going to have to change our trade, immigration and economic policies to make our economy strong again – and to put Americans first again. This will ensure that our own workers, right here in America, get the jobs and higher pay that will grow our tax revenue and increase our economic might as a nation.
We need to think smarter about areas where our technological superiority gives us an edge. This includes 3-D printing, artificial intelligence and cyberwarfare.
A great country also takes care of its warriors. Our commitment to them is absolute. A Trump Administration will give our service men and women the best equipment and support in the world when they serve, and the best care in the world when they return as veterans to civilian life.
Finally, we must develop a foreign policy based on American interests.
Businesses do not succeed when they lose sight of their core interests and neither do countries.
Look at what happened in the 1990s. Our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked and seventeen brave sailors were killed on the USS Cole. And what did we do? It seemed we put more effort into adding China to the World Trade Organization – which has been a disaster for the United States – than into stopping Al Qaeda.
We even had an opportunity to take out Osama Bin Laden, and didn’t do it. And then, we got hit at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the worst attack on our country in its history.
Our foreign policy goals must be based on America’s core national security interests, and the following will be my priorities.
In the Middle East, our goals must be to defeat terrorists and promote regional stability, not radical change. We need to be clear-sighted about the groups that will never be anything other than enemies.
And we must only be generous to those that prove they are our friends.
We desire to live peacefully and in friendship with Russia and China. We have serious differences with these two nations, and must regard them with open eyes. But we are not bound to be adversaries. We should seek common ground based on shared interests. Russia, for instance, has also seen the horror of Islamic terrorism.
I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia – from a position of strength – is possible. Common sense says this cycle of hostility must end. Some say the Russians won’t be reasonable. I intend to find out. If we can’t make a good deal for America, then we will quickly walk from the table.
Fixing our relations with China is another important step towards a prosperous century. China respects strength, and by letting them take advantage of us economically, we have lost all of their respect. We have a massive trade deficit with China, a deficit we must find a way, quickly, to balance.
A strong and smart America is an America that will find a better friend in China. We can both benefit or we can both go our separate ways.
After I am elected President, I will also call for a summit with our NATO allies, and a separate summit with our Asian allies. In these summits, we will not only discuss a rebalancing of financial commitments, but take a fresh look at how we can adopt new strategies for tackling our common challenges.
For instance, we will discuss how we can upgrade NATO’s outdated mission and structure – grown out of the Cold War – to confront our shared challenges, including migration and Islamic terrorism.
I will not hesitate to deploy military force when there is no alternative. But if America fights, it must fight to win. I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary – and will only do so if we have a plan for victory.
Our goal is peace and prosperity, not war and destruction.
The best way to achieve those goals is through a disciplined, deliberate and consistent foreign policy.
With President Obama and Secretary Clinton we’ve had the exact opposite: a reckless, rudderless and aimless foreign policy – one that has blazed a path of destruction in its wake.
After losing thousands of lives and spending trillions of dollars, we are in far worse shape now in the Middle East than ever before.
I challenge anyone to explain the strategic foreign policy vision of Obama-Clinton – it has been a complete and total disaster.
I will also be prepared to deploy America’s economic resources. Financial leverage and sanctions can be very persuasive – but we need to use them selectively and with determination. Our power will be used if others do not play by the rules.
Our friends and enemies must know that if I draw a line in the sand, I will enforce it.
However, unlike other candidates for the presidency, war and aggression will not be my first instinct. You cannot have a foreign policy without diplomacy. A superpower understands that caution and restraint are signs of strength.
Although not in government service, I was totally against the War in Iraq, saying for many years that it would destabilize the Middle East. Sadly, I was correct, and the biggest beneficiary was Iran, who is systematically taking over Iraq and gaining access to their rich oil reserves – something it has wanted to do for decades. And now, to top it all off, we have ISIS.
My goal is to establish a foreign policy that will endure for several generations.
That is why I will also look for talented experts with new approaches, and practical ideas, rather than surrounding myself with those who have perfect resumes but very little to brag about except responsibility for a long history of failed policies and continued losses at war.
Finally, I will work with our allies to reinvigorate Western values and institutions. Instead of trying to spread “universal values” that not everyone shares, we should understand that strengthening and promoting Western civilization and its accomplishments will do more to inspire positive reforms around the world than military interventions.
These are my goals, as president.
I will seek a foreign policy that all Americans, whatever their party, can support, and which our friends and allies will respect and welcome.
The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies, that we are always happy when old enemies become friends, and when old friends become allies.
To achieve these goals, Americans must have confidence in their country and its leadership again.
Many Americans must wonder why our politicians seem more interested in defending the borders of foreign countries than their own.
Americans must know that we are putting the American people first again. On trade, on immigration, on foreign policy – the jobs, incomes and security of the American worker will always be my first priority.
No country has ever prospered that failed to put its own interests first. Both our friends and enemies put their countries above ours and we, while being fair to them, must do the same.
We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism.
The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down, and will never enter America into any agreement that reduces our ability to control our own affairs.
NAFTA, as an example, has been a total disaster for the U.S. and has emptied our states of our manufacturing and our jobs. Never again. Only the reverse will happen. We will keep our jobs and bring in new ones. Their will be consequences for companies that leave the U.S. only to exploit it later.
Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.
I will view the world through the clear lens of American interests.
I will be America’s greatest defender and most loyal champion. We will not apologize for becoming successful again, but will instead embrace the unique heritage that makes us who we are.
The world is most peaceful, and most prosperous, when America is strongest.
America will continually play the role of peacemaker.
We will always help to save lives and, indeed, humanity itself. But to play that role, we must make America strong again.
We must make America respected again. And we must make America great again.
If we do that, perhaps this century can be the most peaceful and prosperous the world has ever known. Thank you.
Turns out the word Eskimo is a racist term. That’s just for starters. Here they are, along with some children’s books and cartoons from the past that are definitely over the top in today’s wonderful PC world.
Vandals is actually a racial term to describe filthy Germans. Vandals were the Germanic tribe that sacked Rome, and that’s where the word is rooted from.
But in the 1800s, Americans frequently replaced the word tiger with “nigg*r“. The next time you use the words to choose, remind yourself of the racist history behind this phrase.
People use Gyp to describe a person who cheats. But the word Gypsy is used by the Europeans to describe the Romani tribe that travels by selling things across the continent. Even the word Gypsy is racist.
In the olden times, the word barbarian was used by the Greek to refer to anyone who was non-Greek. In that sense all of us non-greeks are barbarians. But it was used as a racist word.
This word is extremely racist because Americans in the 1800s used the word “spook” to refer to dark-skinned African American people who would “blend” in the dark night sky and “spook” them.
Mumbo jumbo is a word you use when something said to you doesn’t make sense at all. Actually, mumbo jumbo was the beating African tribes gave to their women.
The cannibals were an indigenous tribe in the West Indies that did NOT partake in eating each other. But they were accused of this cannibalism by an Italian colonist. And hence, just like the Vandals, the name got stuck for a very bad thing.
As they say, English is a funny language, albeit racist too, I guess.
Ted Cruz was a bizarre politician in college. He hopes you forget that he lobbied for liberal causes while the school was facing a $1 million dollar deficit, that he opposed spending when it came to campus safety and dorm intrusion, that he was a proponent of spending when it came to social events and parties, and that if he was ever a maverick, it was in his forerunner status as a ‘rape culture’ fear monger. Ted wants you to forget that the closest person in his life–whether it was his best friend in college, or his wife today–has always been inexorably linked to the financial institutions on Wall Street.
Most of all, Ted wants you to forget how badly he let his school down after a series of violent rapes took place, how he was preoccupied with parties, and how he tried to derail the implementation of a dormitory lock program every…
If this article and I mysteriously disappear from Facebook, after you have read this you will understand why. And I can always be found at my blog Vaults Of Karma, Tea Party Community, Patriots For America, Seen Life, or check with my partner on Facebook, Rick West. You may want to join or friend those now.
Anyway, to the point…
Recently in Germany, Facebook helped develop a campaign against “hate speech” called the “Online Civil Courage Initiative” (OCCI).
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg launched the initiative this January in Berlin, along with the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection among other independent NGOs from Germany and Europe designed to tackle radical and extreme speech.
“We have repeatedly emphasized that Facebook is no place for the dissemination of xenophobia, hate speech or calls for violence,” Sandberg said in a press release. “With this new initiative, we are convinced to better understand and respond to the challenges of extremist speech on the internet.”
Facebook initially pledged more than $1 million to the campaign, which focused on helping organizations that are already tackling hate speech, building “best practices” for those groups, and researching the various sources of hate speech.
The program has been tested and is now coming to America. Many have already felt it’s effect, including Dennis Michael Lynch”
“Call it a coincidence or just bad luck, but Facebook fans of Dennis Michael Lynch have been sending us messages on DML’s Facebook page stating that in the past 48-hours they’ve received warnings from Facebook stating the links we are posting to Trump stories found on this website are malicious and carry viruses.”
Facebook is encouraging people to share stories and ideas on the official OCCI Facebook page by using the hashtag #civilcourage to show their support for the initiative.
“The best cure for bad ideas are good ideas,” Sandberg said. “The best remedy for hate is tolerance. Counter speech is incredibly strong — and it takes time, energy and courage.”
It is becoming crystal clear to an ever-awakening populace: Open-borders globalists and technocrats are actively using their power and influence to subvert and subdue the Will of the People across the world.
Social media platforms, which serve as the most effective way to rapidly disseminate information, are cracking down on those of us who oppose the underlying agenda of these outlets. It has come to light that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are working to influence critical political issues and the 2016 presidential election by censoring pro-Trump accounts and supporters. I have had many removals, account limits and FB jail sentences myself, almost as many as I have friends.
Just imagine who might be putting money in the American edition of this program. The name, George Soros, springs to mind for one…
As long as I am still in existence on Facebook, you are welcome to please follow me HERE..
Lisa Haven gives you a rundown of many of the aspects of OCCI in this video…
Lisa Haven is an independent Christian news analysis and one of the top contributors on www.BeforeItsNews.com. She is also author of www.LisaHavenNews.net and runs her own youtube channel (Lisa Haven) with tens-of-thousands of views per day. Digging deep and finding truth is what she lives for. Her passion is to spread truth no matter where it lies. She covers everything from martial law, to FEMA camps, to end time bible prophecy, to government documents and much more! Before launching her journalism career, she wrote many bible studies and lead women ministries for a number of years. She will also complete her ministry degree at International School of Ministry this year.
The original OCCI conspirators…
From left to right: Sasha Havlicek (Institute for Strategic Dialogue), Gerd Billen (State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Peter Neumann (International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence), Anetta Kahane (Amadeu Antonio Foundation).
To start with, let’s lay out the bottom line facts. Trump has created 515 businesses and only 11 of them failed. that’s a 98.64% success rate. Let’s see YOU match that!
It’s time to get to the bottom of this “bankruptcy” issue. “How can a person who has filed bankruptcy four times expect to be elected President of the United States?” “How is Donald Trump able to file for bankruptcy so many times?”
The answer is… “He didn’t.” Trump himself has never filed for bankruptcy. His corporations have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy four times.
All of these bankruptcies were connected to over-leveraged casino and hotel properties in Atlantic City, all of which are now operated under the banner of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Again, so you will understand, he has never filed for personal bankruptcy, an important distinction when considering his ability to emerge relatively unscathed, at least financially.
But to those uninitiated in bankruptcy laws, four instances of corporate bankruptcy in a row can seem staggering. “To the ordinary person in the street, it may seem surprising, but certainly not to me,” said Reed Smith partner Michael Venditto, who has represented clients in high profile Chapter 11 cases, including bankrupt airline TWA. “Chapter 11 is how you reshape and restructure a company that has problems. It doesn’t indicate anything nefarious or even bad management.”
By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the corporation is allowed to continue running while restructuring and reducing its debt. By allowing the business to continue, employees still have their jobs and the business is still making money. Corporate debts still need to be repaid but they may be reduced. The corporation must develop a repayment plan and corporate budget. All must be approved by the creditors and by the bankruptcy court.
The purpose is to “save” the business, as opposed to other forms of bankruptcy which would liquidate the company, said Michael Venditto, a partner at the ReedSmith law firm who has extensive experience with Chapter 11.
A sharp contrast of corporate bankruptcies is found in the airline industry. If you’re foolish enough to bash Trump for keeping the businesses open through reorganization bankruptcy, perhaps you’re just confused.
Aloha Airlines filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008, ceasing operations, leaving passengers stranded and many ‘out in the cold’ with tickets they had already purchased? Chapter 7 is what happens when the business is liquidated and closed, most unsecured debts don’t get paid and the secured-lenders get pennies on the dollar, if anything.
Maybe you thought Trump did that?
By contrast, Delta, United and American Airlines have all filed chapter 11 bankruptcy in the past 15 years. All three are now impressively profitable and employee a total of 246,000 people. So if you think we should judge any executive who took those three airlines through rough market turmoil and reorganization, which ultimately saved them from liquidation (chapter 7) bankruptcy, then you are foolish.
Trump doesn’t deny that four of his hundreds of businesses have filed for bankruptcy. He argues, however, that filing for bankruptcy is a common business decision, and he was smart to make the moves when he did.
“Out of hundreds of deals — hundreds — on four occasions, I’ve taken advantage of the laws of this country, like other people,” he said. “The difference is, when somebody else uses those laws, nobody writes about it. When I use it, it’s like, ‘Oh, Trump, Trump, Trump.’ The fact is, I built a net worth of more than $10 billion. I have a great, great company. I employ thousands of people. And I’m very proud of the job I did.”
Because this dead horse keeps getting beaten, let’s look at Trump’s four bankruptcies. And the opinions of some finance experts, who say Trump is correct that Chapter 11 reorganization is not always the result of bad business decisions.
Bankruptcy 1: The Trump Taj Mahal, 1991
Trump’s first corporate bankruptcy, for the Trump Taj Mahal, was the one that stung the most. It was also the only time at which his personal finances were at stake.
Trump first got his hands on the property in 1988 as part of a deal involving media mogul Merv Griffin. Trump ceded his controlling interest of Atlantic City hotel-casino company Resorts International Inc. to Griffin in exchange for ownership of the Taj Mahal. The casino opened in 1990 to enormous fanfare, including an appearance by pop star Michael Jackson, who Trump called his friend and a “tremendous talent.”
He funded the construction of the $1 billion Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, which opened in 1990. By 1991, the casino was nearly $3 billion in debt, while Trump had racked up nearly $900 million in personal liabilities, so the business decided to file for Chapter 11 reorganization, according to the New York Times. As a result, Trump gave up half his personal stake in the casino and sold his yacht and airline, according to the Washington Post.
The Times reported that Trump faced about $900 million in personal liabilities, which he reduced to about $550 million by the end of the year. The ordeal led to the sale of his Trump Princess Yacht and Trump Shuttle airline.
It provided an important lesson as well. Ted Connolly, a Boston Bankruptcy attorney who studied Trump for his book The Road Out of Debt: Bankruptcy and Other Solutions to Your Financial Problems, told TheStreet in an August interview that the first bankruptcy was a learning experience for Trump.
“The first business bankruptcy, he had a lot of personal liabilities, guarantees on the business debt, which would have wiped him out,” Connolly said. “What he did was leverage the amount of business debt to negotiate away his personal liability. And from that, he learned not to put his personal wealth at risk anymore. And so in the next three, he didn’t have any personal guarantees.”
Through the ordeal was bruising for Trump, one person involved in the case said his brand and persona helped him to retain more equity than he might have otherwise. And in true Trump fashion, he denied being too concerned about the issue anyway.
“You’ll never see me sitting in the corner sucking my thumb,” Trump told BusinessWeekat the time. “The name Trump will be hotter than ever.”
Bankruptcy 2: Trump Plaza Hotel, 1992
Trump seems to have had an inkling from the get-go that the Plaza deal may not have been the best he ever made .
“I haven’t purchased a building, I have purchased a masterpiece — the Mona Lisa,” he wrote in a 1988 essay in New York magazine. “For the first time in my life, I have knowingly made a deal which was not economic — for I can never justify the price I paid, no matter how successful The Plaza becomes.”
Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel in New York for $390 million in 1988. By November, 1992, the hotel had accumulated $550 million in debt. As a result of the bankruptcy, in exchange for easier terms on which to pay off the debts, Trump relinquished a 49 percent stake in the Plaza to a total of six lenders, according to ABC News.
A month later, federal bankruptcy judge Prudence Abraham approved a plan for Trump to reorganize more than $550 million in debt.
Bankruptcy 3: Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, 2004
Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts filed for bankruptcy again in 2004 when his casinos — including the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Marina and Trump Plaza casinos in Atlantic City and a riverboat casino in Indiana — had accrued an estimated $1.8 billion in debt, according to the Associated Press. Trump agreed to reduce his share in the company from 47 to 27 percent in a restructuring plan, but he was still the company’s largest single shareholder and remained in charge of its operations.
The third bankruptcy didn’t appear to bruise Trump’s ego. At the end of the year, he said in an interview that the Trump brand was bigger than Pepsi(PEP – Get Report) andCoca-Cola (KO – Get Report) and emphasized that Atlantic City was just a drop in the bucket for him. “The casinos represent less than 1% of my net worth, OK?” he said. “I’m doing something that, frankly, if someone else did it, it wouldn’t even be a story.”
Bankruptcy 4: Trump Entertainment Resorts, 2009
Trump Entertainment Resorts — formerly Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts — was hit hard by the 2008 economic recession and missed a $53.1 million bond interest payment in December 2008, according to ABC News. After debating with the company’s board of directors, Trump resigned as the company’s chairman and had his corporate stake in the company reduced to 10 percent. The company continued to use Trump’s name in licensing.
So four Trump companies filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. Is that as big a deal as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz said?
Risky business
While it would be better to avoid a situation where Chapter 11 reorganization is necessary, filing for bankruptcy can be a “sound business decision” when the company is facing serious financial problems, Venditto said. It’s better than the business shutting down completely.
“However, the source of the financial problems varies from case to case,” he said. “Sometimes it is the result of circumstances beyond the control of the business. Sometime it caused by poor judgment. More frequently, it is a combination.”
Trump’s four bankruptcies all happened within the past 25 years. That’s a lot, said Stephen Lubben, a leading expert in corporate finance and professor at Seton Hall School of Law. But to be fair, the gaming industry has been struggling the past few years, he added, and three out of four of Trump’s bankruptcies were tied to casinos.
It’s not fair to put all the blame on Trump for the four bankruptcies because he’s acting as any investor would. Investors often own many non-integrated companies, which they fund by taking on debt, and some of them inevitably file for bankruptcy, said Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University.
He added that people typically wouldn’t personally blame former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney or investor Warren Buffett for individual failures within their investment companies, Bain Capital and Berkshire Hathaway, respectively.
“The only difference is that Trump puts his name on his companies, which means people associate them with him, but he’s not at all the leader in the bankruptcy space,” Levitan said. “These bankruptcies were not defining moments for Trump and shouldn’t color our view of him.”
“Filing bankruptcy” is taking advantage of existing laws.
It would be ludicrous not to utilize a law that is available to you, either as a business or as an individual.
For example, many states have laws that allow for a “cooling off” period after purchasing something, like a vehicle. You are allowed to cancel the contract within a certain number of hours after the sale (usually 48-72 hours).
If you changed your mind about a vehicle purchase, would you not use the law that allows you to return the vehicle without penalty?
Of course you would.
And if you did it, you wouldn’t describe yourself as a bad person or bad with business.
So there’s your answer…
Expect the liberals to continue this lie despite the facts.
Since its inscription, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution has proven problematic. Weapons are not what they were in the 18th century and neither are people — at least in the lifestyle sense. Thankfully, we have an entire branch of government dedicated to resolving intractable questions into incomprehensible answers. The court has routinely ruled that the Second Amendment does not grant an absolute right to weapon ownership, but that it does grant Americans the right to — within statutes determined by states — own guns. But what about laser guns?
If that sounds like a flippant question, it isn’t. Last month, engineers from Lockheed Martin shot a hole in a Ford F-150 from a mile away. They were working on hardware to compete in the nascent laser weapons market against other offerings from Northrop Grumman. These weapons are certainly traditional in their point-and-shoot forms, but things are never simple when it comes to what are arguably the 27 most controversial words in American law.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
That’s not exactly a well-crafted sentence by modern standards, and so not exactly a perspicuous principle. It’s not clear whether it’s intended to grant members of a militia the right to keep and bear arms, or, instead, to grant all U.S. citizens the right to keep and bear arms. There is no mention of lasers. Let’s see if the justices can clear it up.
In 2008, the Supreme Court decided a case that directly informs our current inquiry. District of Columbia v. Heller sought to settle whether a D.C. “prohibition on the possession of usable handguns in the home” was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled, with five votes against four, that the prohibition was unconstitutional. The late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority’s opinion to explain the decision, and now-retired Justice John Paul Stevens penned the dissent.
The majority opinion broke down the amendment into a prefatory (introductory) clause and an operative clause. The operative clause states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” while the prefatory clause introduces and accounts for that dictum. In short, then, the majority opinion argued that “the people” was intended to mean all U.S. citizens, just as elsewhere in the Constitution “the people” represented all U.S. citizens.
The dissent disagreed, arguing that this so-called prefatory clause limits who “the people” of the operative clause encompasses. In other words, “the people,” insofar as they are connected to the well regulated militia, may “keep and bear arms.”
So far, so simple. Now let’s talk about arms.
Scalia’s written opinion argued that our interpretation of what constitutes “arms” can be no different than what the Founding Fathers intended. “The 18th-century meaning is no different from the meaning today,” Scalia wrote. “The term was applied, then as now, to weapons that were not specifically designed for military use and were not employed in a military capacity.” No matter that the weapons of today do not resemble the weapons of yore: Scalia argued that we cannot pick and choose which constitutional rights remain applicable in modern times and which do not.
“We do not interpret constitutional rights that way. Just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications… and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search… the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.”
No less, Scalia agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Miller, a 1939 case that ruled sawed-off shotguns — being, as they are, inessential to the maintenance of a well regulated militia — were not protected by the Second Amendment.
“Miller said… that the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time.’ We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”
Sawed-off shotguns were designated as Title II weapons — along with machine guns and crazy explosives — under 1968’s Gun Control Act, which made them strictly regulated. People who wanted to own these highly destructive weapons still could own them, but had to register them with the federal government, pay a tax, and be approved.
Later, he goes on:
“It may well be true today that a militia, to be as effective as militias in the 18th century, would require sophisticated arms that are highly unusual in society at large. Indeed, it may be true that no amount of small arms could be useful against modern-day bombers and tanks. But the fact that modern developments have limited the degree of fit between the prefatory clause and the protected right cannot change our interpretation of the right.”
Not looking good for laser guns. Though laser guns are militarily effective, and would be extraordinarily “useful against modern-day bombers and tanks” — cf. Air Force fighter jets equipped with laser guns to burn through targets — they’d definitely fall into the “M-16 rifles and the like” category. They’re most certainly “dangerous and unusual weapons,” and, as such — unlike handguns — could still be prohibited.
In addition, laser guns would likely be classified as Title II weapons after some legal tinkering. The relevant U.S Code definition, 26 U.S.C §5845, states that a shot can be “discharged through the energy of an explosive” within “any other weapon” not subjected to additional restriction. Lasers are not discharged from explosions — not as such.
Title II weapons, even in originalists’ eyes and despite their military applications, can be broadly controlled and outright restricted. The Second Amendment may federally uphold your right to arm yourself, but you still can’t own a sawed-off shotgun and, unless things go south in a hurry, you’ll probably never own a laser gun.
HALLS OF KARMA 
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