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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by mystery-ak on Today at 07:16:41 pm »
a minute ago
Cohen says he paid off Daniels with Trump's approval - and a promise he'd be repaid
By Ben Kochman

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen whether he would have paid Daniels the hush money without Trump approving it first.

“Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign off,” Cohen testified.

Cohen added that he wanted to let Trump know about the payoff in advance to ensure he'd be paid back.

“On top of that, I wanted the money back," he testified.
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by 240B on Today at 07:09:55 pm »
Keep in mind during all of this 'testimony' that this is Cohen's last chance. He will be fighting like a trapped animal and will lie about anything as freely as a prisoner under torture. Cohen has no choice.

Cohen will never work again as any kind of lawyer or consultant. His employed life is over, unless he can get some anti-Trump gig with CNN or MSNBC. He is done. He is finished when this trial ends. So he is flailing about throwing anything and everything at Trump because he has nothing to lose.
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by mystery-ak on Today at 06:56:51 pm »
13:52
Cohen tells the jury he decided to fund $130,000 himself from a home equity loan

Cohen told the jury he decided to fund the $130,000 himself from his HELOC, or home equity loan, to keep it away from his wife.

He said: ‘My wife as chief executive of the household would not understand if there was $130,000 missing from out joint bank account

‘That would have been a problem for me. Once I received the money back from Mr Trump I would deposit it and nobody would be the wiser’
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by mystery-ak on Today at 06:55:44 pm »
2 minutes ago
Cohen had two phone calls with Trump before executing hush money payment: testimony
By Kyle Schnitzer

Michael Cohen testified that he had two phone calls with Donald Trump right before he walked to a bank to make the payment to Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Keith Davidson.

The jury was shown a call log from October 26, 2016, which showed Cohen had two calls with Trump around 8:30 a.m.

Explaining the situation, Cohen said: "I wanted to ensure that once again he approved what I was doing because I require approval from him on all of this."
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by mystery-ak on Today at 06:49:07 pm »
3 minutes ago
Cohen asked David Pecker to cover Daniels' hush money payment, but was denied

Cohen testified that, fearful that Daniels would sell her story to the Daily Mail, he asked David Pecker to pay the $130,000 to Daniels to keep the porn star's story quiet.

"I figured, why not ask?" Cohen testified, drawing some chuckles in the room.

But Pecker, who had already paid Karen McDougal $150,000, blanched at paying Daniels as well.

"Not a chance," Pecker told Cohen, Cohen recalled.

Quote
11 minutes ago
Weisselberg wanted to generate $130K through golf memberships, bar mitzvah at Trump properties: Cohen
By Kyle Schnitzer

Michael Cohen testified that Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, talked about possibly generating $130,000 through golf memberships or holding a wedding at one of Trump’s facilities.

The conversation happened when Cohen was scrambling to find a way to fund the LLC account to pay off Daniels, when Weiselberg suggested that he should see if someone wanted to buy a membership at one of Trump’s golf clubs.

Other options included finding someone to host a wedding or bar mitzvah, Cohen said.

He testified that it “wasn’t a possibility because each of those entities have a Trump name” attached to it and he wanted to keep it away from Donald Trump’s name.

Quote
22 minutes ago
Cohen used Yom Kippur as excuse to delay Stormy Daniels hush money payment
By Ben Kochman

Michael Cohen testified that Donald Trump told him to delay paying Stormy Daniels the $130,000 until after the election.

As part of this plan, Cohen emailed Daniels' lawyer Keith Davidson on Oct. 12, 2016, that he couldn't talk on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur -- but it was just part of their ruse to stiff Daniels, Cohen testified.

Trump believed that if they could merely push off the payment until after the election, "it would not matter," Cohen told jurors.

Yom Kippur is the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar, and is intended to be used for atonement and repentance.

Quote
29 minutes ago
Cohen said he had to change LLC name because it had same name as friend's company
By Kyle Schnitzer

Michael Cohen admitted he had to change the name of the LLC for hush money payments because it had the same name as his friend's company.

“I realized during the process but I couldn’t realize why we called it Resolution Consultants," Cohen testified.

"It’s actually the name of a company of someone that I know who is out of state, and I don’t think he’d appreciate using the same name as his company."

Cohen said he changed the name to "Essential Consultants LLC."

Cohen then testified he lied on paperwork filing out the form to say it was a management consulting company because he wasn't sure if it would go through knowing it was money for a porn star.

"I'm not sure if they would've opened it if it stated 'to pay off an adult film star for a nondisclosure agreement,'" Cohen said.
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Health/Education / Re: Who Had Chinese Ebola Hamsters on Their 2024 Bingo Card?
« Last post by PeteS in CA on Today at 06:48:59 pm »
Heard any peeps about this from PETA or other animal "rights" groups. The experiments sounds horrific. I doubt much, if anything, was learned from it, and probably nothing at all about preventing spread. IIRC, Ebola is a tropical disease, named for the Ebola River which flows through the area of Africa where the disease is endemic. There are provinces of China that are close to tropical latitudes, but Hebei Province is not.

The virus modified to include protein from the Ebola virus (the capability to produce a certain protein?) may have been a livestock virus that does not infect humans, but was it still harmless after being modified? This whole experiment sounds as risky as it was horrible for the hamsters.
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by corbe on Today at 06:48:10 pm »
Cohen says he used home equity line of credit to avoid wife’s suspicions


Cohen used his home equity line of credit (HELOC) to fund the $130,000 payment to Daniels.

On the stand, Cohen said he couldn’t pull the money directly from his bank account because he owned it jointly with his wife, who would raise suspicions, but Cohen stressed that he couldn’t tell her about the deal.

“My wife was the CEO of the household,” Cohen said.

— Zach Schonfeld
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by corbe on Today at 06:35:20 pm »
Jury sees Melania Trump’s text to Cohen
The jury saw a text from Melania Trump, the former president’s wife, to Cohen on the morning of Oct. 18, 2016.

“Good morning Michael, can you pls call DT on his cell. Thanks,” Melania Trump wrote.

“Of course,” Cohen responded moments later.

Cohen said he left a voicemail for Trump the prior night indicating that Stormy Daniels was looking to pull out of the hush money deal, because she hadn’t received her $130,000 payment yet.

Cohen testified that he told Trump he no longer believed they could stall things past the election.

— Zach Schonfeld
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Trump Legal Investigations / Re: Live Thread: Trump's hush money trial begins in NYC
« Last post by corbe on Today at 06:34:49 pm »
Michael Cohen walks jurors through how he set-up Daniels payment
Following the lunch break, prosecutors are having Cohen walk jurors through how he slow-walked the Stormy Daniels deal but ultimately set up a bank account and a shell company to make the $130,000 payment.

The jurors have already seen many of exhibits that prosecutors are pulling up, which include emails and texts Cohen sent or received.

— Zach Schonfeld
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Elections 2024 / Re: BREAKING: 80,000 in attendance at President Trump's rally in Wildwood, New Jersey!
« Last post by banddag on Today at 06:29:13 pm »
Quote from: Maj. Bill Martin on Today at 05:49:03 pm
This "we assimilated unskilled immigrants before and so can do it again" argument is intellectual laziness at its worst.

The economy of 2024 isn't anything like the economy during the mass immigration eras of the late 19th and early 20th century.  Back then, our economy required large numbers of unskilled/low-skilled laborers because we were still heavily dependent on human muscle power.  The Hoover Dam was dug largely by hand.   Now, the economy is much more heavily automated, and we hear a ton about the lack of lower end jobs for people without educations.

I always find it amusing that the same crowd that claims we need masses of illegal immigrants to take jobs that would otherwise go unfilled also tends to supports things like universal basic income because there aren't supposedly enough jobs to go around.   So we're just importing more people to whom we are going to have to pay that UBI.

But if you really think we need more immigrants, here's an idea: first secure the border, and stop the flood of unvetted, minimally qualified illegal aliens. Then, bring in the necessary number of legal immigrants via a merit-based based.  Isn't a merit-based system - English proficiency, education achievement, etc., preferable? Hell, bring in as many of those high-achieving Nigerians as we can get!

I'd have zero problem with that.
1. I agree illegals should be vetted

2. The US has assimilated illegals very well over the years. Europe and other countries have not They put them in ghettos with no job or education skills and of course they are now rebelling.

3. I said  multiple times we are between a rock and hard place. Our native born birth rates is in the negative. No country can survive a dwindling population. Without a steady stream of younger workers our economy, wall street/pensions housing market will collapse.  Why Japan has 11 million EMPTY homes they are now trying to sell to foreigners for $1. Italy is selling  them for $1 also. Village in Italy that were 3000 people 20 years agio no have 300 people. The #1 reason why these folks are being let to offset our population losses.. The #2 side reason is cheap votes for the dems and cheap labor for the republics (farm.ag)

The negative/low  birth rate is hitting every country including the Muslim ones, India and Africa.

The birth rates around the world have fallen way worse  what the UN thought the would be 10-15 year ago. Monetary reward for people to have more kids have failed EVERWHERE it has been tried.

https://www.wsj.com/world/birthrates-global-decline-cause-ddaf8be2

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