Althouse: Sunrise

February 16, 2024

Sunrise — 6:44.

18 comments:

Big Mike said...: Back in the day there was a regular member of the Althouse commentariat who called herself "Synova." Well right now she's dealing with some serious problems and she could use help. If you can help at all please go here.; 2/16/24, 7:16 PM
effinayright said...: Does anyone have reliable sources on whether Trump actually stiffed hundreds of the contractors who worked on his projects?

Has he stiffed them in an unusual manner (to the consturction biz in NY and NJ) or frequency? What were his stated reasons for not paying? How many of the instances were settled, in or out of court?

Did the stiffees sue him and recover? If they didn't, why?

If he's so notorious, why does anyone continue to do business with him?

I can't find anything that exonerates him, but after so much bullshit put out there, I don't know what to believe.

Yes, I'm aware of the MSM pilers-on, but by now we all know they cannot be trusted.

So....does anyone have the hot inside poop?; 2/16/24, 8:20 PM
rehajm said...: A text from a high level White House staffer mentioned an if Trump wins scenario today. I’ve been assuming for a long time, years, the fix would do Trump in but if someone who should be in the know is contingency planning…you guys acting like the vote matters…well, still think you’re wrong but I’m closer to tacking…; 2/16/24, 8:35 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: On Friday, you published a blog article titled "We have no reason to believe state propaganda. If this is true, then it’s not 'Navalny died,' but 'Putin killed Navalny, and only that."

Because of a technical problem, I was not able to participate in that blog discussion, but I will post my comment belatedly now.
-------------------

Navalny was involved in many financial disputes, and he acquired many rich, vicious enemies outside of Vladimir Putin's followers.

There seems to be good evidence that Navalny was poisoned in 2020, but probably Putin was not involved in a relevant sense.

Probably, Navalny died of natural causes recently in his prison camp.; 2/16/24, 9:46 PM
Dr Weevil said...: effinayright (8:20pm):
I have read that if Trump hires you to provide some product or service of a specified quality by a specified deadline, and you don't deliver, he doesn't pay you. If the conditions were specified in a signed contract, that seems perfectly fair to me. Shoddy or late work shouldn't be paid, or at least shouldn't be paid in full. No, I don't remember where I read it, or who wrote it, or how they would have known, but it sounded plausible.; 2/16/24, 9:52 PM
Jupiter said...: At the most primitive level, human tribes that come into contact attempt to destroy each other. On the rare occasions that this half-assed enterprise somehow results in capturing a member of the other tribe, he is tortured to death. She is raped. Which may, however, lead to a member of the victor tribe claiming her as breeding stock, never mind what his other women say. Bitches. They are all bitches.

If you subscribe to the view, that the human race has "advanced" beyond this stage, then you should recognize that a gigantic step in that advance, consisted in the recognition that it was wasteful to torture captives to death. That is, the development of "slavery" was a quantum leap in human relations. One might even surmise that the recognition that people who are not members of your gene-group can still be something other than intolerable resource sinks, was the precursor of economics. It made it possible to see an argument for allowing people to exist who are not members of your tribe. If only as slaves. This recognition set the stage for further developments.

Or, white, racist. colonialist doot, de-doot, doot, doot, de-doot doot, doot doot. All the coloured girls say.; 2/16/24, 11:22 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Thanks for the heads up big mike.

I’m on it.; 2/16/24, 11:29 PM
Jupiter said...: Some might argue, that the transition from torturing captives to death, to merely enslaving them, is a moral advance. Morality being orthogonal to reality, that is certainly a position one can take. But I would argue the opposite. I would say, that a society has the morality it can afford. A bunch of Sioux hunting buffalo on the Great Plains can certainly afford to add a few wives from other tribes, and maybe even to induct the occasional juvenile male into the tribe. But keeping adult male slaves is simply beyond their organizational capability. It takes a somewhat advanced society to keep adult male slaves. And therefore, it takes a somewhat advanced society to see torturing male captives to death as -- Groog? Wreeek-ah? Oh, wait. No. "W-rong". That's it. Torturing male captives to death is "W-rong". See "thrall". As in, "in thrall".; 2/16/24, 11:37 PM
Gospace said...: Dr Weevil said...
effinayright (8:20pm):
I have read that if Trump hires you to provide some product or service of a specified quality by a specified deadline, and you don't deliver, he doesn't pay you.

Something all successful large contractors are accused of on a regular basis. The other one I'm familiar with is Robert Congel. I've heard stories about his treatment of electrical subcontractors. And having seen stuff that electrical contractors get away with on state projects- I can see where it would be easy to stiff them if the contract required everything be actually done to code when finished. And- required everything to work as designed...

It seems from my experience that even making sure everything actually works is beyond some contractor's abilities- and state inspectors don't seem to care. I have stories.

Any contractor with experience in BIG projects knows to have a contract where payment is on stages. If the contract says one payment upon completion- no matter who the general contractor is- they're going to get screwed. Nitpicky inspections can show that everything wasn't totally up to par- and presto- no payment.; 2/17/24, 2:06 AM
wendybar said...: "The Obama and Biden administrations have continually used government bureaucrats to target political opponents. The media has known this for a long time, and hasn’t cared. They pretend that Obama and Biden were clean, and that Trump was/is the “greatest threat to democracy” America has ever seen.
Maybe the reason the intelligence agencies miss things like Hamas’s years-long preparation to attack Israel is because they’re more consumed with destroying politicians they don’t like."

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/02/recapping_the_twotiered_justice_system_in_light_of_revelations_that_foreign_intel_spied_on_trump_associates.html; 2/17/24, 4:21 AM
Humperdink said...: Re: The Trump real estate verdict. Listening to the NYC real developers and real estate investors, the verdict sends a shot across the bow. All the aforementioned business people now are susceptible for overstating their net worth and/or the value of their real estate. Collateral damage from AG Letitia James targeting Trump and Trump only remains to be seen.

Watching the judge throughout the trial act as a clown was particularly distressing.

Freder, Mark, Rich, lonejustice, Mutaperson, rejoice.; 2/17/24, 5:11 AM
tim in vermont said...: Anybody who has ever done business at any scale much beyond a lemonade stand knows that disputes arise, and to take the version of one side as gospel truth because you simply don't like the person on the other side doesn't lead to understanding, it leads to tribalism.

What happened to Trump is that the other tribe got control of his assets and simply took them. Truth and justice have nothing to do with it.

Navalny was a traitor to Russia, if he had done the same things in the US that he did to Russia, he would be rotting in prison here too, and the same people bemoaning his death would be cheering it if he died in a US prison for being a white supremacist insurrectionist who tried to revive nazism. The best you can say for him is that he didn't believe the stuff he said at his rallies, and was only using nazism to try to bring "freedom" to Russia by breaking it into chunks that the US could easily manage. I guess it's only right to honor our fallen, and Navalny died in the service of the United States. His widow looked like Klaus Von Beullow probably did the day his wife died, though, which was a bit unseemly.

"Trump died in prison" is the wet dream of the people asking you to be upset about Navalny's death, and you shouldn't forget it. Gonzolo Lira, a journalist and US Citizen just died in a Ukrainian prison three weeks ago and our government did absolutely nothing to get him out. All they tell us is what they think that they need us to believe in order for them to get what they want.; 2/17/24, 5:36 AM
tim in vermont said...: "Maybe the reason the intelligence agencies miss things like Hamas’s years-long preparation to attack Israel is ..."

So close! It's because they wanted it to happen in order to draw the US into war with Iran. Israel just sabotages Iranian energy infrastructure two days ago. Why? To provoke Iran into open war or to reveal the regime as cucks who are then vulnerable to regime change.

I don't believe most of the 9-11 conspiracies, but I do believe that the US knew about the plot, and did nothing because it was seen as a huge opportunity to mop up more of the USSR's old overseas client regimes. Biden counseled against killing bin Laden that day, and among bin Laden's papers was an order not to kill Biden, even if they got a clear shot at him.; 2/17/24, 5:46 AM
Humperdink said...: Re: The Trump verdict(2). As businesses* large and small continue to flee the tyrant state of NY, the resultant tax revenue consequences will impact the city and state coffers. Commie-Pinkos dems never think past next week. Recall when (former) Governor David Patterson was euphoric when Rush Limbaugh left NYC for West Palm Beach, FL.

*On the bright side for for NYC, the population loss will be replaced by Venezuela gang members and other assorted miscreants. Couldn't happen to a better electorate.; 2/17/24, 6:00 AM
rehajm said...: All the aforementioned business people now are susceptible for overstating their net worth and/or the value of their real estate

The precedent now applies to ANYONE obtaining a loan where an appraisal is used…which is to say, any loan.

Perhaps the plan all along was to tie up Trump financially until the appeal but for now enjoy the stare decisis New Yorkers…; 2/17/24, 6:04 AM
Narr said...: I recall the myriad of "Trump cheats his contractors" claims from 2016 very well. There were supposed to be 400 (or was it 4,000?) lawsuits against him for non-payment . . . and yet somehow they all vanished only to reappear now--as if on cue.

I also recall Trump's statement about getting sued: if you don't fight, but choose to settle, you get a reputation as a settler, and will be sued more.

FTR, Letitia James is a fat, ugly, dimwitted bitch and Judge Engoron looks and acts like a loon.; 2/17/24, 10:02 AM
Jupiter said...: It is noteworthy, that your rude savage is not a racist. He sees unmarried women and children from other tribes as potential members of his own. It is only the adult males that cannot be redeemed. Apparently, a higher level of economic organization, is required, and some careful and systematic study, before it becomes evident that a sow's ear is not a transitional state in the development of a silken purse.; 2/17/24, 10:23 AM
tim in vermont said...: Ukrainian soldiers on a little ride into battle in Afdeyevka Don't worry, it's a short video, and everybody seems to be having a good time.

As far as New York State goes, I was born and raised there, it was largely run by the mafia at that time, my brother got a job on the railroad, and was told to keep $150 dollars in cash on him every day at work until some guy showed up to collect it, which he did, in civilian clothes driving a civilian car. My neighbor was required to send $10,000 in cash to some guy in Syracuse, before his Master Plumber's license could be approved. Not Albany, Syracuse. Still, I have had a pretty successful life, and would not have minded moving back there to live out my days, but the taxes there are ridiculous, and that's on top of any bribes that might be required, depending on what you wanted to get done, and the knowledge that if I got dragged into court, all my opponent would have to do is say "MAGA" and I could be ruined.

The same thing has happened to the Delaware Court of Chancery, which used to have one of the best reputations in the world, but now it was used to invalidate a contract and strip Elon Musk of many many billions, and in one of the emails, Hunter Biden used his friendly association with each and every judge there as a threat.; 2/17/24, 10:57 AM