261 Comments

I would caution you against using slavery allusions. Sure, we're in a fine pickle with these kleptocrats, but we're nowhere near suffering like victims of slavery. It just sounds bad, and pisses people off.

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Yes, fair enough. I recognize the words, and should have chosen more carefully. Guess I'm implying that the rest of us privileged folk might get just a taste of real evils, every now and then. This feels like one of those times. But, no, not slavery. Thanks.

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Right, but what's in it for Kushner? He might owe marginally less, but he's still on the hook for $1B+.

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Hahaha I've read that! Beyonce the giant metal chicken (?) was also my intro to her.

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Six six six Fifth AvenueBillion down and more to doShake down the Ay-rabs Qataris and the restThat's what the Kushner family does best...

Devil with the mortgageMortgage mortgageDevil with the mortgage on....

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'The Walrus lives on northern seasAnd unsuspecting appointees'

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Nope. First you strip out any actual assets from the failing venture. Then you load it up with as much other debt as you can. THEN you pull the plug on the entity that owns that debt - Chapter 11. The actual assets are safe in another entity you own. At the same time you have been collecting your monthly management 'fees' and trailing commissions paid out from the failing entity to your other businesses that were inserted into the deal. Like you create a company called TJD Advisory and pay them $50,000 a month for 'advisory services'. It's bullshit, but not illegal.

I don't know if the same deal that Donald used to get out of paying taxes for 19 years exists. He converted the billion he pretended he lost in into a 'tax liability'. He didn't lose that money, he had borrowed to buy the Plaza. He then took out loans on THAT property - highly leveraged loans - to buy more stuff; casinos and an airline. However, he didn't have an actual equity in the Plaza so they had to take all those useless assets off him to get something back. He sold the place in 1995 at a loss which meant that he could claim the paper loss for the whole package of deals; 917 million. He booked the loss and could use that against future earnings. Don't try it yourself though.

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Time.

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Really? I was under the impression that there was a multi-$100M ballon payment coming due soon, and this wouldn't make that big a dent in it.

Well, whatever; I'm sure the grifty bastards know more about this than me.

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I've seen the amount of debt as $1.2 to $1.4 Billion. Not that there is really much difference between those two figures - if you don't have $1.2B you sure as hell don't have $1.4.

Again, because Vornado holds the debt in a quasi-equity position (is it debt? Is it equity? The answer usually depends on the tax position of the source of the financing) it's not clear how much is owed and when it is due.

It is clear to me the Kushner Klown Family is scrambling.

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The word 'vig' comes from Russian. Not a lot of people know that.

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To sell them arms. And buy their oil and gas. The exact same reason the USA is allied with the Saudis.

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Hmm. I didn't notice it.

You make a great point. tRump is a serious symptom of an international problem. We are going to have to be prepared to deal with the problem on a world-wide scale.

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It's the only remotely just outcome.

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The ITIS!

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