Trump boosts loan on Doral golf resort
By Brian Bandell – Senior Reporter, South Florida Business Journal
Aug 13, 2015, 9:59am EDT
While campaigning for president and raising almost daily controversies, billionaire Donald J. Trump took out a second mortgage for the Trump National Doral Miami on Aug. 7.

Trump Endeavor 12 LLC received a $19 million loan from Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Trump signed the document himself.

That’s the same lender that gave the resort and golf course a $106 million loan in 2012, when Trump acquired the property.

The recent loan is a “tranche B note,” which has less priority in the case of a default than the 2012 “tranche A note” and, therefore, has a lower credit rating.

Trump purchased the 650-acre property for $150 million and spent more than $200 million on renovations to its 693 rooms and five golf courses.https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2015/08/13/trump-boosts-loan-on-doral-golf-resort.html

Trump Has a Half Billion in Loans Coming Due. They May Be His Biggest Conflict of Interest Yet.
“It’s highly disconcerting.”
RUSS CHOMAJULY/AUGUST 2020 ISSUE

Trump’s biggest creditor is Deutsche Bank, which in the late 1990s took a gamble on the real estate developer whose history of corporate bankruptcies made him untouchable by most other lenders. Although Trump and the Frankfurt-based bank pulled off several profitable deals, eventually Deutsche’s commercial lending division learned the hard way one reason why other banks considered him persona non grata: If pushed by his creditors on payments, Trump shoves back. In 2008, after he defaulted on a loan for his Chicago hotel and condo development, he filed a multibillion-­dollar suit accusing Deutsche Bank and others of contributing to the recent financial meltdown, which he blamed for his inability to repay the loan.

Nevertheless, Deutsche’s private banking division, which caters to wealthy clientele, continued to lend to Trump, giving him $125 million, spread over two loans, to finance the purchase and renovation of his Doral golf resort in 2012. Both are floating rate loans, meaning the interest rate fluctuates based on market conditions, which lending experts say usually indicates they are interest-only loans. If so, Trump probably hasn’t paid down much if any of the principal and will owe something close to the whole $125 million when the loans come due in 2023.

In 2014, Trump took out a separate floating loan from Deutsche’s private bank to bankroll the development of his luxury hotel in Washington, DC. The balance of this $170 million debt is payable in 2024. That year, Trump will also owe Deutsche between $25 million and $50 million in connection with his Chicago hotel and complex.

Trump has received additional loans from a company named Ladder Capital, a financial firm that specializes in bundling commercial debt into mortgage-backed securities. Companies like Ladder are often lenders of last resort for people and companies that, for one reason or another, have difficulty obtaining money from traditional banks (ahem, Trump). Such firms are willing to take risky bets because they securitize the debt and pass the responsibility for it on to investors. Trump has two Ladder loans due over the next several years: a $100 million interest-only mortgage on Trump Tower and a roughly $13 million loan against Trump Plaza. The Trump Tower loan is up in September 2022.https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/donald-trump-loans-deutsche-bank/

Afghanistan, 1979-92:

Everyone knows of the unbelievable repression of women in Afghanistan, carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, even before the Taliban. But how many people know that during the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly backward nation into the 20th century, including giving women equal rights? What happened, however, is that the United States poured billions of dollars into waging a terrible war against this government, simply because it was supported by the Soviet Union. Prior to this, CIA operations had knowingly increased the probability of a Soviet intervention, which is what occurred. In the end, the United States won, and the women, and the rest of Afghanistan, lost. More than a million dead, three million disabled, five million refugees, in total about half the population.
https://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

https://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_page.html

Afghanistan page

Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden, and the Taliban
The Real Afghanis
How can the US bomb this tragic people? - Robert Fisk
A Resource War - Afghanistan
The Fire Down Below
The Truth About Afghanistan
Betrayal (1/04)
War Without End - Afghanistan (9/04)
'One Huge US Jail' (3/05)
The U.S. War In Afghanistan Continues (7/05)
Women and Warlords: Letter From Afghanistan (5/06)
Afghanistan: The Other Lost War (9/06)
Abandoning Hypocrisy - Canada in Afghanistan (9/06)
Afghanistan - Foreign Troops and the Insurgency (9/06)
Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade? (9/06)
Afghanistan: Five Years Later (10/06)
Afghanistan Unliberated (10/06)
Women in Afghanistan (11/06)
Afghanistan - The Bloodiest Field for Slaughtering Human Rights (12/06)
Iran Is Seeking More Influence in Afghanistan (12/06)
Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence - by Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls (3/07) - a book review
Occupation Forces Support Afghan Narcotics Trade - Multibillion dollar earnings for organized crime and Western financial Institutions (4/07)
The US and Her Fundamentalist Stooges are the Main Human Rights Violators In Afghanistan (12/07)
Women's lives worse than ever [in Afghanistan] (2/08)
Afghanistan, Another Untold Story (11/08)
The Other Front [Afghanistan] (12/08)
The Afghan Scam (1/09)
'The Killing of Women Is Like Killing a Bird Today in Afghanistan' (7/09)

https://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html
Following its bombing of Iraq in 1991, the United States wound up with military bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Following its bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the United States wound up with military bases in Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia.
Following its bombing of Afghanistan in 2001-2, the United States wound up with military bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Yemen and Djibouti.
Following its bombing and invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States wound up with Iraq.
This is not very subtle foreign policy. Certainly not covert. The men who run the American Empire are not easily embarrassed.
And that is the way the empire grows-a base in every neighborhood, ready to be mobilized to put down any threat to imperial rule, real or imagined. Fifty-eight years after world War II ended, the United States still has major bases in Germany and Japan; fifty ears after the end of the Korean War, tens of thousands of American armed forces continue to be stationed in South Korea.
.... we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."
1996: "We will engage terrestrial targets someday-ships, airplanes, land targets-from space.... We're going to fight in space. We're going to fight from space and we're going to fight into space.

Capitol police made 14 arrests last night, none were D.C.residents
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/live-blog/2021-01-06-congress-electoral-vote-count-n1253179/ncrd1253295#blogHeader
The U.S. Capitol Police Department made 14 arrests related to the breach at the Capitol on Wednesday.

Most of those arrested were charged with unlawful entry, but there were also people arrested for weapons possession and assaulting an officer.

The department released the names and hometowns of the people arrested. None of them are Washington residents.

Indiana journalist loses eye to tear gas canister during demonstrations against George Floyd's death
Similar injuries have occurred across the country
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/500467-texas-journalist-loses-eye-to-tear-gas-canister-during
By Anagha Srikanth
Police threw tear gas canisters into crowds of protesters demonstrating against police violence in cities across the country this weekend. Outside the Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne, Ind., one of those canisters hit 21-year-old Balin Brake, a weekend editor at a local television station.

Brake was taken to the hospital with a ruptured eye and fractured occipital bone, according to a post tied to a Facebook fundraiser set up by his mother, Rachel Simonis. In a selfie taken after surgery, Brake revealed that he had lost his eye. By Monday, the fundraiser had exceeded the initial goal of $40,000 set to cover his medical bills.

Journalists blinded, injured, arrested covering George Floyd protests nationwide
Lorenzo Reyes
USA TODAY============
“Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews and news organizations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical role in documenting issues of public interest and are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate them,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Authorities in cities across the U.S. need to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation.”

The CPJ said it is investigating reports of attacks and arrests in Louisville, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

U.S. police have arrested or attacked journalists more than 110 times since May 28, according to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit on behalf of a freelance journalist that alleges a pattern of attacks on journalists carried out by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol "tramples on the Constitution."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/31/journalists-blinded-injured-arrested-covering-george-floyd-protests/5299374002/

“Directly at us”: Louisville law enforcement shoots reporters with pepper bullets
Arrests, shootings, and harassment of journalists are features of the George Floyd protests.

By Alex Ward@AlexWardVoxalex.ward@vox.com May 30, 2020, 2:10pm EDT
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21275594/george-floyd-protest-louisville-reporter-shot
On Friday night, video footage captured a law enforcement officer shooting journalists covering the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests in Louisville, Kentucky, with what appear to be pepper balls — continuing a disturbing trend of unwarranted assaults on press covering the uprisings.

WAVE 3’s Kaitlin Rust was live on television that night reporting on the unrest in the city, part of a nationwide movement in the wake of Floyd’s death.

As Rust covered the standoff between protesters and police, she screamed and then yelled she was “getting shot.” The camera operator then turned to show the officer shooting right at the reporting crew. They were aiming “at us, like directly at us,” Rust told the station’s anchors.

The unidentified officer shooting the pepper-ball launcher gave no reason why he shot at Rust and her camera crew.

KC police permanently blind local dogwalker amid peaceful protest
June 3, 2020 Brock Wilbur
https://www.thepitchkc.com/showing-up-as-an-ally-i-didnt-expect-the-police-to-blind-me-forever-but-ive-mad-my-piece/
Over the weekend, Sydney and Sean showed up to the protests in KC to show support. Things went very well, and then things went terrible.

Sydney Ragsdale, 28, is an investigative lawyer and went with her boyfriend to the park. They wanted to participate in the social movement they believed in. In fact, they were convinced by the sheer number of police sirens they’d heard outside their home in the preceding days. It was a reminder that without white bodies, it is solely Black people being put on the front lines for their beliefs.

Fractured skulls, lost eyes: Police break their own rules when shooting protesters with ‘rubber bullets’
Liz Szabo, Jay Hancock, Kevin McCoy, Donovan Slack and Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY and Kaiser Health News
Published 5:00 AM EDT Jun. 19, 2020 Updated 9:00 PM EDT Sep. 11, 2020
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/06/19/police-break-rules-shooting-protesters-rubber-bullets-less-lethal-projectiles/3211421001/

Photos and videos posted on social media show protesters with large bruises or deep gashes on the throat, hands, arms, legs, chest, rib cage and stomach, all caused by what law enforcement calls “kinetic impact projectiles” and bystanders call “rubber bullets.”

At least 20 people have suffered severe eye injuries, including seven people who lost an eye, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Photographer Linda Tirado, 37, lost an eye after being hit by a foam projectile in Minneapolis. Brandon Saenz, 26, lost an eye and several teeth after being hit with a “sponge round” in Dallas. Leslie Furcron, 59, was placed in a medically induced coma after she was shot between the eyes with a “bean bag” round in La Mesa, California.

Twenty-seven-year-old Derrick Sanderlin helped defuse a confrontation at a protest in San Jose, California, on May 29. While he was trying to protect a young woman from police, he was hit with a projectile that ruptured a testicle and his doctor said may leave him infertile.

========================================

At least 20 people have suffered severe eye injuries, including seven people who lost an eye, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Photographer Linda Tirado, 37, lost an eye after being hit by a foam projectile in Minneapolis. Brandon Saenz, 26, lost an eye and several teeth after being hit with a “sponge round” in Dallas. Leslie Furcron, 59, was placed in a medically induced coma after she was shot between the eyes with a “bean bag” round in La Mesa, California.

C.J. Montano, 24, has a bruise on his forehead in the shape of a circle – visible evidence of the projectile that caused bleeding inside his brain.

“They shot me directly in the face,” said Montano, a former Marine who was hospitalized in the intensive care unit after attending a protest May 30 in Los Angeles. “It was definitely intentional.”

Russia is 'amplifying' claims of mail-in voter fraud, intel bulletin warns
Bulletin: “Russian malign influence actors” targeted absentee voting process.
By Josh Margolin and Lucien Bruggeman
September 3, 2020, 3:09 PM

Russia has sought to “amplify” concerns over the integrity of U.S. elections by promoting allegations that mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud, according to an intelligence bulletin obtained by ABC News, again echoing a frequent and unfounded complaint raised by President Donald Trump.

Analysts with the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence branch issued the warning on Thursday to federal and state law enforcement partners after finding with “high confidence” that “Russian malign influence actors” have targeted the absentee voting process “by spreading disinformation” since at least March.

“Russian state media and proxy websites in mid-August 2020 criticized the integrity of expanded and universal vote-by-mail, claiming ineligible voters could receive ballots due to out-of-date voter rolls, leaving a vast amount of ballots unaccounted for and vulnerable to tampering,” the bulletin notes.

FBI warned of white supremacists in law enforcement 10 years ago. Has anything changed?
Nation Oct 21, 2016 4:10 PM EDT

In the 2006 bulletin, the FBI detailed the threat of white nationalists and skinheads infiltrating police in order to disrupt investigations against fellow members and recruit other supremacists. The bulletin was released during a period of scandal for many law enforcement agencies throughout the country, including a neo-Nazi gang formed by members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department who harassed black and Latino communities. Similar investigations revealed officers and entire agencies with hate group ties in Illinois, Ohio and Texas.
================================

Problems with white supremacists in law enforcement have surfaced since that report. In 2014, two Florida officers — including a deputy police chief — were fired after an FBI informant outed them as members of the Ku Klux Klan. It marked the second time within five years that the agency uncovered an officer’s membership in the KKK. Several agencies nationwide have also launched investigations into personnel who may not be formal hate group members, but face allegations of race-based misconduct.
==================
Policing in America has historically had racial implications. The earliest forms of organized law enforcement in the U.S. can be traced to slave patrols that tracked down escaped slaves, and overseers assigned to guard settler communities from Native Americans. In the centuries since, many law enforcement agencies directly participated in antagonizing communities of color, or provided a shield for others who did. But in the 10 years since the FBI’s initial warning, little has changed, Jones said.

Neither the FBI nor state and local law enforcement agencies have established systems for vetting personnel for potential supremacist links, he said. That task is left primarily to everyday citizens and nonprofit organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of few that tracks the growing number of hate groups in America.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/6/1/21277363/lets-start-riot-galesburg-man-federal-charge-related-rioting-chicago
‘Let’s start a riot’: Galesburg man hit with federal charge related to rioting in Chicago
The charges come as U.S. officials seek to determine if extremist groups infiltrated protests nationwide and tipped peaceful demonstrations toward violence.

By Jon Seidel and Frank Main Updated Jun 1, 2020, 6:03pm CDT
Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, has been charged in an eight-page criminal complaint in federal court in Minnesota with civil disorder, carrying on a riot and possession of unregistered destructive devices. The complaint alleges Rupert participated in looting and rioting in Minneapolis in response to the police killing of George Floyd before moving on to Chicago.
==============
Still, a Chicago police officer told the Chicago Sun-Times that a sizable number of people looting in the Loop on Saturday night had Southern accents, indicating they were from out of town.

The officer was only involved in one arrest, of a person from Tennessee. “A lot are not from Chicago,” the officer said.

==================
Allegations in the criminal complaint against Rupert largely revolve around a Facebook account for “El Ricco Rupert.” Rupert allegedly used that page to announce Thursday night that, “I’m going to Minneapolis tomorrow who coming only goons I’m renting hotel rooms.”

The next day, Rupert allegedly posted video to his Facebook account suggesting he was in Minneapolis. The video appeared to be filmed by Rupert while he was holding his cell phone, according to an FBI special agent’s affidavit. The video was marked “live” and lasted roughly two hours, records show. Authorities allege he passed out explosives, encouraged others to throw explosives at police and appeared to light a building on fire.

At one point, Rupert allegedly said, “There are SWAT trucks up there. They got SWAT trucks up there . . . I’ve got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back . . . bomb them back . . . here I got some more . . . light it and throw it.” As he made the comments, Rupert allegedly handed out an item with brown casing and a green wick to others.

Man in Joker mask set Chicago police car on fire during George Floyd protests, feds say
Timothy O’Donnell, of Pilsen, was connected to the incident downtown through a tattoo on his neck that said “PRETTY,” according to a criminal complaint.
O’Donnell is now among at least five people facing federal charges in connection with the rioting and looting in Chicago last weekend.

A video of the incident that allegedly involved O’Donnell Saturday in the 200 block of North State was given to law enforcement by a witness, according to the complaint. It allegedly shows O’Donnell wearing the Joker mask, holding a lit object and placing it in the gas tank of the CPD vehicle. Prosecutors said the vehicle burst into flames.
By Jon Seidel Updated Jun 2, 2020, 6:25pm CDT

O’Donnell is now among at least five people facing federal charges in connection with the rioting and looting in Chicago last weekend.

A video of the incident that allegedly involved O’Donnell Saturday in the 200 block of North State was given to law enforcement by a witness, according to the complaint. It allegedly shows O’Donnell wearing the Joker mask, holding a lit object and placing it in the gas tank of the CPD vehicle. Prosecutors said the vehicle burst into flames.

LAS VEGAS (AP) —Three Nevada men with ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas

Federal prosecutors say the three white men with U.S. military experience are accused of conspiring to carry out a plan that began in April in conjunction with protests to reopen businesses closed because of the coronavirus and later sought to capitalize on protests over the death of a Minneapolis man in police custody
They were arrested Saturday on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press.

https://news3lv.com/news/local/three-men-tied-to-white-extremist-group-arrested-on-terrorism-related-charges-in-las-vegas

The Postal Service Scandal Doesn't Belong Only To Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell Played A Big Role
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/08/postal-service-scandal-doesnt-belong-only
8/17/20 3:37am
The Postal Service Scandal Doesn't Belong Only To Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell Played A Big Role
Trump isn’t the only Republican who’s been visiting with DeJoy, and DeJoy isn’t the only Postal Service leader who can thank Republicans for his sudden rise.
By Mark Sumner


Before stepping into the top job in May, DeJoy had a total of zero time with the actual USPS. However, he did have two decades of experience as CEO of a freight company that competed against the Postal Service—making it no surprise that his stock portfolio is full of reasons to destroy the institution where he works. Much more importantly in terms of landing his current position, DeJoy has long been a big fundraiser for the Republican Party in general and for Donald Trump in particular. In fact, DeJoy was named one of four finance chairs for the Republican Party, along with such luminaries as Steve Wynn and Michael Cohen. And DeJoy’s contact with Republican leadership didn’t end with cutting checks for their campaigns.

But Trump isn’t the only Republican who’s been visiting with DeJoy, and DeJoy isn’t the only Postal Service leader who can thank Republicans for his sudden rise. As Yahoo! News reports, DeJoy is in "in frequent contact with top Republican Party officials.” Presumably that means Mitch McConnell. Which is quite the coincidence seeing that every single member of the current all-white, all-male Postal Service board of governors can thank McConnell for that role.
=============================
As it turns out, since 1970, members of the board of governors have served in staggered 9-year terms. The idea is to have a board whose membership is spread across multiple administrations and which owes allegiance to no particular White House. That should mean that about half those currently seated on the board are left over from Obama’s term in office, with others appointed by Trump. But that’s not what happened. In 2015, Obama re-nominated most of the existing board members for a second term, including those members appointed under Bush. Those six members should all still be on the board. None of them are.

That’s because McConnell did what he did so often—blocked those nominations. By the time Trump stepped in, the number of remaining Bush- and Obama-appointed board members was exactly zero. Then, as with federal judges, McConnell abruptly got out of the way. That means that every single current member of the United States Postal Service board of governors was appointed by Donald Trump. That board then officially ousted lifelong Postal Service employee Megan Brennan, and replaced her with Republican fundraiser Louis DeJoy.