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ALL SMALL BUSINESSES ARE CRIMINALS ACCORDING TO THE GOVERNMENT!

Get this, starting on January 1, 2024, our nasty Senators and Congressmen have now activated a LAW that considers all businesses with less than $5 million in revenue and 20 employees or less to be FIRST considered as financial criminals.

The law now mandates reporting of the BENEFICIAL OWNERS of ALL companies and businesses operating in the USA FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NETWORK (FInCEN) or face fines and JAIL!

AS SMALL BUSINESS YOU ARE ALL SUSPECTED CRIMINALS1

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule implementing the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting provisions. The rule will enhance the ability of FinCEN and other agencies to protect U.S. national security and the U.S. financial system from illicit use and provide essential information to national security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies; state, local, and Tribal officials; and financial institutions to help prevent drug traffickers, fraudsters, corrupt actors such as oligarchs, and proliferators from laundering or hiding money and other assets in the United States.

Illicit actors frequently use corporate structures such as shell and front companies to obfuscate their identities and launder their ill-gotten gains through the United States. Not only do such acts undermine U.S. national security, they also threaten U.S. economic prosperity: shell and front companies can shield beneficial owners’ identities and allow criminals to illegally access and transact in the U.S. economy, while disadvantaging small U.S. businesses who are playing by the rules. This rule will strengthen the integrity of the U.S. financial system by making it harder for illicit actors to use shell companies to launder their money or hide assets.

Recent geopolitical events have reinforced the point that abuse of corporate entities, including shell or front companies, by illicit actors and corrupt officials presents a direct threat to the U.S. national security and the U.S. and international financial systems. For example, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 further underscored that Russian elites, state-owned enterprises, and organized crime, as well as Russian government proxies have attempted to use U.S. and non-U.S. shell companies to evade sanctions imposed on Russia. This rule will enhance U.S national security by making it more difficult for criminals to exploit opaque legal structures to launder money, traffic humans and drugs, and commit serious tax fraud and other crimes that harm the American taxpayer.

At the same time, the rule aims to minimize burdens on small businesses and other reporting companies. Millions of businesses are formed in the United States each year. These businesses play an essential and important economic role. In particular, small businesses are a backbone of the U.S. economy, accounting for a large share of U.S. economic activity and driving U.S. innovation and competitiveness. U.S. small businesses also generate millions of jobs, and in 2021, created jobs at the highest rate on record. It is anticipated that it will cost reporting companies with simple management and ownership structures—which FinCEN expects to be the majority of reporting companies—approximately $85 apiece to prepare and submit an initial BOI report. In comparison, the state formation fee for creating a limited liability company (LLC) can cost between $40 and $500, depending on the state.

Beyond the direct benefits to law enforcement and other authorized users, the collection of BOI will help to shed light on criminals who evade taxes, hide their illicit wealth, and defraud employees and customers and hurt honest U.S. businesses through their misuse of shell companies.

The rule describes who must file a BOI report, what information must be reported, and when a report is due. Specifically, the rule requires reporting companies to file reports with FinCEN that identify two categories of individuals: (1) the beneficial owners of the entity; and (2) the company applicants of the entity.

The final rule reflects FinCEN’s careful consideration of detailed public comments received in response to its December 8, 2021 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the same topic, and extensive interagency consultations. FinCEN received comments from a broad array of individuals and organizations, including Members of Congress, government officials, groups representing small business interests, corporate transparency advocacy groups, the financial industry and trade associations representing its members, law enforcement representatives, and other interested groups and individuals.

Balancing both benefits and burden, the following are the key elements of the BOI reporting rule:

Reporting Companies

  • The rule identifies two types of reporting companies: domestic and foreign. A domestic reporting company is a corporation, limited liability company (LLC), or any entity created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office under the law of a state or Indian tribe. A foreign reporting company is a corporation, LLC, or other entity formed under the law of a foreign country that is registered to do business in any state or tribal jurisdiction by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office. Under the rule, and in keeping with the CTA, twenty-three types of entities are exempt from the definition of “reporting company.”
  • FinCEN expects that these definitions mean that reporting companies will include (subject to the applicability of specific exemptions) limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships, business trusts, and most limited partnerships, in addition to corporations and LLCs, because such entities are generally created by a filing with a secretary of state or similar office.
  • Other types of legal entities, including certain trusts, are excluded from the definitions to the extent that they are not created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or similar office. FinCEN recognizes that in many states the creation of most trusts typically does not involve the filing of such a formation document.

Beneficial Owners

  • Under the rule, a beneficial owner includes any individual who, directly or indirectly, either (1) exercises substantial control over a reporting company, or (2) owns or controls at least 25 percent of the ownership interests of a reporting company. The rule defines the terms “substantial control” and “ownership interest.” In keeping with the CTA, the rule exempts five types of individuals from the definition of “beneficial owner.”
  • In defining the contours of who has substantial control, the rule sets forth a range of activities that could constitute substantial control of a reporting company. This list captures anyone who is able to make important decisions on behalf of the entity. FinCEN’s approach is designed to close loopholes that allow corporate structuring that obscures owners or decision-makers. This is crucial to unmasking anonymous shell companies.
  • The rule provides standards and mechanisms for determining whether an individual owns or controls 25 percent of the ownership interests of a reporting company. Among other things, these standards and mechanisms address how a reporting company should handle a situation in which ownership interests are held in trust.
  • These definitions have been drafted to account for the various ownership or control structures reporting companies may adopt. However, for reporting companies that have simple organizational structures it should be a straightforward process to identify and report their beneficial owners. FinCEN expects the majority of reporting companies will have simple ownership structures.

Company Applicants

  • The rule defines a company applicant to be only two persons:
    1. the individual who directly files the document that creates the entity, or in the case of a foreign reporting company, the document that first registers the entity to do business in the United States.
    2. the individual who is primarily responsible for directing or controlling the filing of the relevant document by another.
  • The rule, however, does not require reporting companies existing or registered at the time of the effective date of the rule to identify and report on their company applicants. In addition, reporting companies formed or registered after the effective date of the rule also do not need to update company applicant information.

Beneficial Ownership Information Reports

  • When filing BOI reports with FinCEN, the rule requires a reporting company to identify itself and report four pieces of information about each of its beneficial owners: name, birthdate, address, and a unique identifying number and issuing jurisdiction from an acceptable identification document (and the image of such document). Additionally, the rule requires that reporting companies created after January 1, 2024, provide the four pieces of information and document image for company applicants.
  • If an individual provides their four pieces of information to FinCEN directly, the individual may obtain a “FinCEN identifier,” which can then be provided to FinCEN on a BOI report in lieu of the required information about the individual.

Timing

  • The effective date for the rule is January 1, 2024.
  • Reporting companies created or registered before January 1, 2024 will have one year (until January 1, 2025) to file their initial reports, while reporting companies created or registered after January 1, 2024, will have 30 days after receiving notice of their creation or registration to file their initial reports.
  • Reporting companies have 30 days to report changes to the information in their previously filed reports and must correct inaccurate information in previously filed reports within 30 days of when the reporting company becomes aware or has reason to know of the inaccuracy of information in earlier reports.

Next Steps

  • The BOI reporting rule is one of three rulemakings planned to implement the CTA. FinCEN will engage in additional rulemakings to (1) establish rules for who may access BOI, for what purposes, and what safeguards will be required to ensure that the information is secured and protected; and (2) revise FinCEN’s customer due diligence rule following the promulgation of the BOI reporting final rule.
  • In addition, FinCEN continues to develop the infrastructure to administer these requirements in accordance with the strict security and confidentiality requirements of the CTA, including the information technology system that will be used to store beneficial ownership information: the Beneficial Ownership Secure System (BOSS).
  • Consistent with its obligations under the Paperwork Reduction Act, FinCEN will publish in the Federal Register for public comment the reporting forms that persons will use to comply with their obligations under the BOI reporting rule. FinCEN will publish these forms well in advance of the effective date of the BOI reporting rule.
  • FinCEN will develop compliance and guidance documents to assist reporting companies in complying with this rule. Some of these materials will be aimed directly at, and made available to, reporting companies themselves. FinCEN will issue a Small Entity Compliance Guide, pursuant to section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, in order to inform small entities about their responsibilities under the rule. Other materials will be aimed at a wide range of stakeholders that are likely to receive questions about the rule, such as secretaries of state and similar offices. FinCEN also intends to conduct extensive outreach to all stakeholders, including industry associations as well as secretaries of state and similar offices to ensure the effective implementation of the rule.

 

 

 

 

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WARREN BUFFET THE CHEAPSKATE!

Warren Buffett’s frugal habits can help you save money just like a billionaire, but if you had billions is this the life you want to reward your efforts? NO!

In my opinion he is not someone to emulate; and Warren Buffett might have billions of dollars to his name, but unlike other celebrities and financial gurus, he prefers to live life simply, for the most part.

The investing icon practices what he preaches when it comes to financial discipline, saving and paying off debt.

Buffett gave an early warning last May about today’s higher prices when he told a livestream audience of over 28 million during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting that “substantial inflation” was already hitting businesses.

When one of the world’s most successful investors raises concerns about rising prices, it’s probably a good time to apply some well-tested strategies to tighten your belt. Here are nine ways Buffett’s frugality can help you save and spend wisely.

  1. He lives in the same home he bought back in 1958

While most billionaires bulk up on expensive real estate, Buffett originally paid $31,500 for his Omaha, Nebraska, home — that’s about $289,000 in today’s dollars — and he’s lived there for over 60 years.

His home is by no means tiny, however. The 6,570-square-foot, five-bedroom house has had plenty of renovations and additions over the decades and is worth about $1 million today. It’s also protected by fences and security cameras and most likely has a good homeowners insurance policy as well.

Buffett has no plans to move out, calling the house “the third best investment I ever made,” in a 2010 letter to Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders.

  1. He rarely takes out loans

Buffett’s one-and-only mortgage was on a vacation home in Laguna Beach, California, that he purchased in 1971, although he certainly had the cash to afford the $150,000-listed seaside property.

He told CNBC that he took out the 30-year mortgage loan because “I thought I could probably do better with the money than have it be an all-equity purchase of the house.” He decided to use the extra cash on hand for shares in Berkshire Hathaway — the company that brought him billions.

Buffett’s point about not locking up capital still resonates. And if you own your home, you have options to free up some of your capital by refinancing quickly at today’s historically low rates before they rise this year, as forecasters expect. A switch may save you thousands of dollars a year.

  1. He buys breakfast cheap

While Buffett could simply have a personal chef cook him a gourmet breakfast, he often grabs Mickey D’s on his way to work. He says he doesn’t like to spend more than $3.17 on his morning meal.

“When I’m not feeling quite so prosperous, I might go with the $2.61, which is two sausage patties, and then I put them together and pour myself a Coke,” he says in HBO’s 2017 documentary Becoming Warren Buffett. He continues: “$3.17 is a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, but the market’s down this morning, so I’ll pass up the $3.17 and go with the $2.95.”

Instead of going out for meals or buying a latte from Starbucks every day, make your own lunches and coffee. And when you buy online, you might be able to get a better deal with some help comparison shopping.

  1. He buys marked-down cars

Many billionaires and millionaires keep a collection of flashy sports cars and vintage models in their garages, but Buffett allegedly prefers fixed-up automobiles that he can acquire at reduced prices.

He upgraded from his 2006 Cadillac DTS to a Cadillac XTS for just $45,000 in 2014. “The truth is, I only drive about 3,500 miles a year, so I will buy a new car very infrequently,” he told Forbes.

Whether you opt for a brand-new car or a slightly used model, emulate Buffett by spending within your limit. That means you won’t want to go for the first loan you spot and should look around for better deals. A good habit is to do a quick check of auto insurance rates every six months.

  1. He doesn’t splurge on brands

Buffett doesn’t much care for designer suits or the latest iPhone model — he relied on his $20 flip-phone for years before swapping it out for the Apple smartphone in 2020.

Buffett avoids unnecessary spending and once said, “Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.”

Park your funds in a high-yield savings account or in a diversified investing portfolio so the money can grow over time. Set aside your extra cash for an emergency fund or retirement instead of blowing it all on nonessential purchases.

  1. He doesn’t invest with borrowed money (anymore)

“I’ve never borrowed a significant amount of money in my life. Never. Never will. I’ve got no interest in it,” he told students at Notre Dame in 1991.

Although a young Buffett once borrowed 25% of his net wealth to buy shares, he warns investors against repeating the same mistake.

Even skilled stock traders will tell you borrowing to invest can be risky. And there’s no real need with investing apps that allow you to start with a small amount of money, like one that lets you invest your “spare change”.

  1. He does what he loves

Buffett credits some of his success to his passion for investing. “You have to love something to do well at it,” he says, urging people to take the jobs they love, instead of positions that look good on your resume.

Even if you can’t quit your full-time job to focus on the things you truly enjoy, you can certainly find the time for some affordable hobbies. Buffett himself enjoys card games and playing the ukulele.

And if you’re looking for a way to boost your income, capitalize on your skills and hobbies and set up your own side hustle.

  1. He finds creative ways to save

When Buffett’s first child was born, he converted a dresser drawer into a bassinet. For his second, he borrowed a crib.

“If you buy things you don’t need, you will soon sell things you need,” the billionaire says.

Take a good, hard look at your finances and figure out where you can cut down on. Get yourself a library card and borrow books and movies instead of purchasing them. Or try a budgeting app to monitor your spending habits.

  1. He uses cash, not credit

While most of us prefer the convenience of a credit card for our everyday purchases, Buffett uses hard cash.

He told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in 2019 that he uses cash “98% of the time. If I’m in a restaurant, I’ll always pay cash. It’s just easier.” While the method may sound a bit old school, relying less on your credit card can help prevent spending money you don’t have.

 

 

HYBRIDS ARE BAD FOR ENGINE WEAR!!!BRING BACK THE ICE VEHICLES!

According to Powers Report, hybrids have worse repair records than EVs or ICE vehicles.

One of the biggest issues is the off-and-on of the engine and the lack of oil each time it starts after driving on battery power. It is the equivalent of a cold start each morning because the oil cools down and drains away from the critical parts.

Also, the oil does not get hot enough to boil the water out and thus becomes contaminated. In theory, it sounds great but in reality, the science is not there. An electric oil pump would help if it came on when the engine shut down but an oil heater would also have to be added both running off battery power. Are we starting to see the solution is ICE vehicles?

FAUCI’S HORRIBLE ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS-TORTURE

Rand Paul’s Festivus Report Exposes Fauci’s NIH Wasting Taxpayer’s Money on Barbaric Cat Experiments with Electroshock and Brain Mutilation

Credit: White Coat Waste Project

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has unleashed another scathing edition of his annual Festivus Report, a tradition that lays bare the federal government’s misuse of taxpayer dollars.

This year, Paul’s report shines a glaring spotlight on a deeply unsettling aspect of government spending—barbaric experiments on cats, funded by none other than Anthony Fauci’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD).

You can read the full list of projects here.

According to the report, $1.5 million of taxpayer money has been funneled into barbaric experiments at the University of Pittsburgh.

“If you learned that your money is being used to electro-shock young kittens, torturing them for hours on end, and to the point that they vomit, would you believe it?” according to the report.

It continued, “Since 2019, $1,513,299 worth of taxpayer money has been going to these medieval-type experiments. This is not some distant, dystopian future; it’s happening right now at the University of Pittsburgh, courtesy of a grant from the NIH.”

The experiments, ostensibly designed to study motion sickness, involve the torture of young kittens. These defenseless animals, some as young as four months old, are subjected to horrific treatment, including:

  • Electroshock therapy that causes uncontrollable vomiting.
  • Spinning them on hydraulic tables to induce severe motion sickness.
  • Brain mutilation, including drilling holes into their skulls and decerebrating them—leaving the kittens alive but completely devoid of cognitive function.

In these nightmarish experiments, female kittens are the preferred victims, selected because they are supposedly more “amenable” to the relentless, inhumane treatment they’re subjected to.

These kittens, often just four to six months old, are first trained to endure long periods of restraint. They’re kept tied down for hours at a time and for weeks on end.

The goal? To force them into submission so that they no longer resist the torture that awaits them.

Once sufficiently “trained,” these kittens are strapped to a hydraulic table that tilts and spins them in all directions—side to side, up and down, and a full 360 degrees, sometimes completing an entire rotation in just five seconds, all in a gruesome effort to induce severe motion sickness. As if that wasn’t enough, their eyes are subjected to bright,flashing lights.

And if the spinning and lights don’t do the trick, researchers inject copper sulfate directly into their stomachs to guarantee that the kittens will vomit.

In an experiment that can only be described as medieval, some of these kittens have holes drilled into their skulls, allowing the researchers to lock their heads into place during the spinning and shocking.  But these aren’t just ordinary cats—they’re “zombified” before the real torment begins.

Through a process known as “decerebration,” the researchers sever or completely remove parts of the kittens’ brains while they’re still alive. This leaves the kittens alive but devoid of any cognitive function, turning them into unresponsive shells that can be spun, shocked, and abused without resistance.

So, what’s the scientific goal here? According to the NIH, the purpose of these experiments is to study how different species, such as cats and monkeys, respond to motion sickness.

The researchers claim that understanding these responses could have implications for human health, potentially aiding in the treatment of conditions like vertigo or helping us understand the effects of space travel on the human body.”

DARPA, a division of the Department of Defense, also comes under fire, with Paul’s report exposing nearly $11 million spent on bizarre experiments at the University of Pittsburgh.

One project involved inserting electrodes into cats’ spinal cords to induce erections, followed by severing their spinal cords to paralyze them—all in the name of studying erectile dysfunction.

Another experiment saw cats subjected to electroshock therapy to address constipation. Researchers inserted “condom-balloons” and marbles into the cats’ rectums, a procedure Paul derisively refers to as “torturing cats to poop marbles.”

According to the report:

“Researchers at University of Pittsburgh sliced open the backs of male cats to expose their spinal cords then inserted electrodes which fired off electric shocks while the incision was still open to make cats have an erection.

But the horror doesn’t end there. These cats were then subjected to even more electric shocks, sometimes for up to 10 minutes at a time, before having their spinal cords severed to paralyze their lower bodies. And just for good measure, the shocks continued for another 10 minutes. All this, in the name of “science.”

If you thought that was bad, brace yourself. In another DARPA-funded experiment, researchers at Pitt attached electrodes to cats’ spinal cords and inserted condom- balloons into their colons and marbles into their rectums. The objective? To force these poor animals to defecate the marbles via electric shock. cxxvi One particularly unfortunate cat had to endure 11 minutes of relentless shocks just to expel four marbles. Apparently, nothing says “national defense” quite like torturing cats to poop marbles.

Your hard-earned money, nearly $11 million of it, was spent on experiments that would be more at home in a dystopian novel than the real world. It’s a grim reminder that, when left unchecked, government spending can drift into realms that defy common sense.”

The White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit watchdog organization, first highlighted this waste, calling for an end to government-funded animal torture.

In 2021, The Gateway Pundit and White Coat Waste broke the story that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent $375,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund abusive experiments on dogs in Tunisia.

One of the tortures that the beagles were subjected to included locking their heads in mesh cages filled with infected sand flies so that the parasite-carrying insects could eat them alive.Read more:

WASHINGTON DC MANSIONS BOUGHT BY WEALTHY ARABS?

From The River To D.C.: How Arab Countries Bought Up Washington’s Most Elite Neighborhood

The Gulf states are the latest foreign entities to buy up key real estate in the United States.

The protest targeting Secretary of State Blinken is set up directly in front of 600 Chain Bridge Road, pictured here. Blinken's home is across the street. / Daily Wire
The protest targeting Secretary of State Blinken is set up directly in front of 600 Chain Bridge Road, pictured here. Blinken home is across the street. /

Arab Gulf states have quietly and sometimes secretly purchased at least $282 million worth of real estate in Washington’s most elite neighborhood.

Situated high atop the banks of the Potomac River and overlooking the nation’s capital, Virginia’s “Gold Coast” has long been the home of America’s ruling class. Today, it’s home to a number of high-profile Washingtonians, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose home on Arlington’s tony Chain Bridge Road has been swarmed by an encampment of anti-Israel protesters since Hamas’s October 7th invasion of Israel.

But since 2019, a mysterious entity called 600 CBR LLC has been buying up property in the area, building up a compound that sold for three times as much as Jeff Bezos’ $23 million D.C. mansion. Though the buyers behind 600 CBR are unknown, the real estate blog UrbanTurf reported in 2022 that “the buyer is from the United Arab Emirates and that settlement documents confirm this.”

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates owns extensive property just down the block from the 600 CBR compound, and the compound’s primary residence is directly across the street from Blinken’s $5 million home. Since October 7th, anti-Israel protesters have been living in the narrow strip between the road and the LLC’s property, with their tents, signs, and buckets of fake blood just inches from its fence.

If the UAE is behind 600 CBR, it’s not the only Gulf State with real estate holdings in the neighborhood. Saudi Arabia owns a compound on one side of the 600 compound, and Qatar owns land on the other.

It is unclear whether the various Arab nations who own the properties are involved in the protests outside Blinken’s home, which The Daily Wire reported likely violate several state and local laws. The UAE embassy did not answer questions from The Daily Wire about whether UAE royals are behind the purchase, nor their stance on the protest outside Blinken’s home.

This map shows the site of the Potomac River’s “Gold Coast,” with foreign-owned properties highlighted at left, in relation to DC, at right. / Daily Wire

The Gulf states are the latest foreign entities to buy up key real estate in the United States. In June, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that China was purchasing farm land near U.S. military bases to serve as launch pads for drones. Beijing has a history of acquiring American land, with one Chinese Communist Party billionaire secretly purchasing 200,000 acres of Oregon farm land in 2015.

Qatar’s efforts to expand its influence in the United States were on full display this week after Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted of working to benefit Qatar while securing millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund for his friend, who in turn paid him.

When a reporter attempted to knock on the door of the 600 CBR compound’s main building, he was intercepted by a Middle Eastern man in sunglasses who said in accented speech, “This is private villa…get out…please don’t ask questions.” Asked who owns the villa, he said “that is private, I cannot talk.” Shortly after, someone left the house driven in a black SUV.

Mortgage documents generally point to a property buyer’s identity. But 600 CBR’s purchase seems to have been made in cash, keeping all identifying information about the buyer out of public records. A transaction for just one of its parcels set the record for the largest residential transaction in the D.C. region’s history.

The articles of incorporation for 600 CBR LLC were signed in 2019 by Kathryn W. Hambrick, a lawyer who specializes in managing sovereign wealth funds, according to a Daily Wire review of state records. Hambrick did not return a request for comment on which country’s sovereign wealth fund may have been behind the purchase.

Whoever funds 600 CBR has plenty of company.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Embassy owns a $130 million compound that includes the historic Merrywood estate, the childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Merrywood was later purchased by AOL CEO Steve Case, and sold to the Saudis in 2018 for $43 million, the highest-ever home sale in the region at the time. It is next door to the home where Sen. Ted Kennedy lived until his death.

The Saudi properties’ combined assessed value is $130 million, according to Fairfax County real estate records. The ownership of some of the most expensive property in Fairfax County by embassies—even though the embassies themselves are in Washington—deals a blow to the tax base, as they are exempt from property taxes.

The Embassy of the State of Qatar’s nearby compound is assessed to be worth $20 million. The oil-rich nation has just 300,000 citizens—half the size of the District of Columbia—but recently counted 2 million residents. The vast majority of its residents are foreign laborers working in conditions sometimes described as “modern slavery.”

Qatar has been in the international spotlight since Hamas’s invasion of Israel. The terrorist group’s leaders operate out of Qatar, and the nation’s representative to the Arab parliament said “There can be no peace or negotiations with the Zionist entity.” Qatar has also enmeshed itself into D.C.’s culture by becoming part-owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards.

The $62 million worth of properties owned by the United Arab Emirates, mostly purchased in 2022, are also exempt from property taxes. If the UAE is indeed behind the 600 CBR compound, it would bring the UAE-connected holdings to an assessed value of $132 million.

One of the properties on the 600 CBR compound is “The Falls,” which was purchased for about $45 million in 2020 from AOL co-founder Jim Kimsey, making for the largest purchase in the region’s history, the Washington Business Journal reported at the time. It features 42,000 square feet of living space and a guest house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

It also includes a property, purchased for $23 million in 2022, that was home to former Virginia Gov. Chuck Robb and his wife, the daughter of former president Lyndon B. Johnson.

Standing yards from this enclave of the Gulf nations’ mega-mansions, pro-Palestinian protestors scream day and night at the United States’ top diplomat that the children of Gaza are starving.

BIGGEST FLUBS IN BRANDING IN 2024

These companies had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

The 5 biggest branding flubs of 2024

[Photos: Bumble; Lunchly; Jaguar; Mattel; Toys “R” Us]

Building a successful brand is difficult. It requires the fine-tuned execution of a myriad of parts, which will appear in nearly as many contexts: packaging with just the right shelf appeal, a fine-tuned, scalable logo, clicky-yet-authentic copy, and visuals. Nearly every company is bound to make a mistake at some point. But this year, a few big names really messed up.

Jaguar’s controversial rebrand

In November, the 90-year-old sports car brand Jaguar announced that it would scrap its existing branding (and car models) in favor of becoming a luxe, all-electric brand. The risky strategy seems to be a last-ditch effort to revive the struggling company, which sold 43,000 vehicles globally in 2023 compared to 179,000 in 2017. To really play up the major transformation, the company announced this shift before actually unveiling any of its new electric models. Instead, it used a series of ultra-colorful, space-inspired concept videos to convey a sense of mystery and newness.

The very early response to Jaguar’s new branding was pretty entertaining, with plenty of creative ribbing directed at the company for the funky videos. But the internet, as it so often is wont to do, promptly sucked all the fun out of the initial jokes by turning to large-scale hand-wringing from armchair critics who bemoaned the rebrand’s failure on LinkedIn. Then, right wing news outlets capitalized on the news cycle by turning a rebrand into a political wedge issue by suggesting Jaguar’s weird new look is a symptom of the “woke mind virus.”

Whether this is a true financial flub for Jaguar remains to be determined, as the company doesn’t plan to release its new EVs until 2025 at the earliest. Early data from Auto Trader suggests that the right wing backlash may have actually spiked interest in Jaguar vehicles. Whatever the case, it’s safe to say that few people were thinking about Jaguar in 2023, and the same certainly cannot be said in 2024.

Logan Paul’s (allegedly) moldy Lunchables dupe

Back in September, YouTubers Logan Paul, KSI, and MrBeast announced Lunchly, a series of boxed meal kits billed as a “healthier” alternative to Lunchables. But the kits’ supposed health was quickly called into question when several creators, including TikToker Rosanna Pansino and Twitch steamer @aSpicyCow, discovered mold in their mini pizza ingredients.

Even before the mold scandal, Lunchly didn’t look so good—literally. The brand’s combination of clunky font, lifeless product photography, and packaging promoting the YouTubers’ other CPG brands gave it an air of a school project that’s been hastily scraped together the night before it’s due. Now, the YouTubers involved are receiving a generous dose of backlash for the product. For MrBeast, who was already embroiled in a litany of unrelated controversies, it’s the mold on top of a very rough year.

Mattel’s accidentally R-rated ‘Wicked’ Barbie boxes

No one on Mattel’s PR team was dancing through life the week of November 11. That Monday, news had spread far and wide that a URL printed on the back of Mattel’s Wicked movie Barbie boxes led not to the film’s official website, but to a parody porn site of the same name.

Mattel worked quickly to issue an apology, help pull the dolls from shelves, and reissue new Wicked figurines in appropriately PG boxes. Even so, Mattel was hit with a class action lawsuit regarding the dolls just a few weeks after the initial news broke. According to the South Carolina mother who filed the suit, her daughter suffered “emotional distress” after accidentally visiting the offending site. It looks like it’ll take a lot more than one short day of crisis management for Mattel to move on from this error.

Bumble’s big fumble

This May, the dating app Bumble pulled off a true feat when it found a way to make the concept of online dating even more exhausting than it already is. In an effort to promote new in-app features, the company launched a campaign that was meant to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to the masses of people who are fed up with “the apps.” The campaign used language like, “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer” and imagery of a nunnery to convey the idea that women shouldn’t have to resort to loneliness because of too many bad dates.

Ultimately, though, the whole campaign ended up coming off tone deaf, with commenters expressing their concern that it invalidated womens’ sexual autonomy, the experiences of asexual people, and fears around restrictions on reproductive rights. Bumble quickly deleted the posts associated with the campaign and issued an apology, but not before the whole fiasco garnered its own name: “The Great Bumble Fumble.”

Toys “R” Us nightmare fuel

Topping off our list is Toys “R” Us, which used its five minutes of fame this year to furnish the American people with a few new sleep paralysis demons. During the Cannes Lions Festival in June, the brand decided to make a splash by debuting the first-ever brand film with OpenAI’s Sora platform.

Aside from its painfully corny storyline, the film mainly succeeded in demonstrating that Sora was not ready to make an entire ad by itself. Every shot feels more unsettling than the last, especially those of the brand’s mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe, who looks like he’s barely managing to suppress his deeply twisted nature. If this ad achieved one thing, it was to assure human marketers everywhere that their jobs wouldn’t be stolen by Sora just yet.

ROBOT POLICE IN CHINA…VERY INTERESTING COMING TO USA SOON?

BALL & ORDER

China unveils all-terrain SPHERICAL robocops to chase down, bludgeon & catch criminals using net-launching cannons

Watch unbelievable footage of the ball beast below

CHINA has unveiled unbreakable, spherical robo-cops which have been seen rolling around cities – ready to catch criminals.

The AI-powered bot beasts are capable of not only stopping crime, but somehow detecting it too.

The RT-G was seen accompanied by law enforcement around a city

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The RT-G was seen accompanied by law enforcement around a cityCredit: Newsflare
The spherical robots are said to be relatively unbreakable

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The spherical robots are said to be relatively unbreakableCredit: Twitter

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Chinese robotics company Logon Technology unveiled the RT-G autonomous spherical robot in a “technological breakthrough” the other month.

And despite people believing it was all a bizarre marketing stunt, RT-G bots have actually been spotted the streets of China alongside human cops.

Footage shows one of the beast balls rolling round a city, carefully patrolling for any potential crime that could occur.

The spheres are designed to assist – and eventually replace humans – in dangerous environments and situations involving crime.

The ball beast is able to operate both on land and in water, making it practically unstoppable.

It can also withstand a whopping four tonnes of impact damage to prevent criminals from trying to cover their tracks and kill it.

Despite the RT-G only being able to reach a fairly slow speed of 22mph, it does weigh a back-breaking 125kg.

The RT-G can also be equipped with non-fatal police gear like net guns, tear gas sprayers, some grenades, loudspeakers and sound wave dispersal devices.

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP BLOCKS USA PROGRESS

Destructive Environmentalists

John Stossel | 3:46 AM on November 20, 2024
AP Photo/Matt Rourke

People eagerly give money to rich environmental groups. The Natural Resources Defense Council has $463 million in assets. It claims it uses law “to confront the climate crisis.”

What it really does is pay lawyers to torture people who try to do useful things.

Example: America needs minerals like copper and silver to make things. Even President Joe Biden made a speech saying America will need 400-600% more such minerals to make “solar panels, wind turbines and so much more!”

An iPhone alone requires aluminum, iron, lithium, gold, copper …

But when investors dare try to dig up such minerals in America, the NRDC objects and uses political connections to stop them.

Twenty years ago, entrepreneurs tried to open a mine in Alaska. Before they even got the application in, the EPA vetoed it.

Why? Because groups like the NRDC say the mine “would be a catastrophic threat to the wildlife and … fragile ecosystem.”

They get their way because when Democrats run the EPA, they not only support NRDC’s positions, they even hire NRDC employees.

The next Republican administration removed the EPA’s veto. The Army Corps of Engineers then studied the mine and concluded that it wasn’t an environmental threat.

So, is Pebble a bustling mine today? No. Democrats got elected and vetoed it again.

Physicist Mark Mills wonders why anyone would try to open a mine in America today. “Why in the world would you put millions, maybe billions of dollars at risk, spending those decades to get a permit, knowing there’s a very good chance they’ll just cancel a permit? How in the world do you build mines in America knowing that that’s the landscape you have?”

Well, you don’t.

America now ranks second to last in the time it takes to develop a new mine — roughly 29 years. Only Zambia is worse.

“You start applying for permits,” says Mills, “You’re going to be waiting not months, not years, but decades!”

Waiting while the NRDC sues and runs frightening anti-mine ads, saying nature will be “destroyed by a 2,000-foot gaping hole in the ground!”

Mills points out their deceit. Today’s mines disturb “a tiny infinitesimal pinprick in the landscape” and we do need to disturb the landscape a little, because “we need metals and materials and minerals to build everything that exists to make society possible!”

I confronted NRDC spokesman Bob Deans, saying the NRDC killing mines also kills people’s opportunity. He responded that “clean” energy creates jobs.

“We created 50,000 new jobs in this country, putting up wind turbines, solar panels, building the next generation of energy efficient cars. This is where the future is!”

“But also, you need copper and gold,” I point out.

“That’s right,” says Deans, “And we have to weigh those risks.”

But the NRDC doesn’t weigh the risks. They just oppose American mines.

I asked Deans, “Are there any mines that the NRDC doesn’t complain about?

“Sure,” he replied.

He said he’d send us some names. But he never did.

I asked again this month. Again, no names.

Don’t hold your breath,” says Mills. “The mines that they implicitly support are in Africa.”

 “Implicitly” because they don’t actually say mining should be done in poor countries.

“They don’t say that,” says Mills, “But the green movement has been perfectly happy outsourcing mining to disadvantaged countries where thousands of children in bare feet, working by hand with shovels, dig minerals out of the earth.”

At least in America, children wouldn’t be digging with their hands, advanced equipment would make mining safer and our rules would reduce pollution. You’d think environmentalists would want more mining done in America.

“To have a sane world,” says Mills, “We should be doing a lot more of it. Not all of it. But not none.”

Allowing America to do more would definitely be good. Our future needs minerals.

“Society can’t exist without mines,” concludes Mills.

OBAMACARE WAS A LIE, MILLIONS LOST HEALTHCARE COVERAGE AND PREMIUMS SKYROCKETED

New Study: Obamacare Caused Millions To Lose Insurance Plans, Premiums To Skyrocket

Obamacare caused millions of Americans to lose their insurance plans while premiums skyrocketed, according to a new study from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.

OBAMA LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND PROMISED TO CHANGE AMERICA, ONLY FOOLS BELIEVED HIM AND NOW EVERYONE IS SUFFERING THE HEALTHCARE MESS.

Former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to make health insurance more accessible, all while reducing premiums and the government’s budget shortfall, and allowing Americans to keep their preferred medical providers. However, individual market premiums surged, hundreds of billions of dollars were added to cumulative U.S. deficits and seven million consumers had their plans canceled following the ACA’s passage, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity study found.

“Obamacare has failed in every particular – it failed to make health care more affordable; it failed to improve the health of Americans; it piled on an enormous amount of additional debt on taxpayers; it has principally enriched massive insurance company conglomerates, and it now serves as a major impediment to real heath care reforms that would empower patients and doctors,” Phil Kerpen, American Commitment and Unleash Prosperity president and one of the study’s co-authors, told the DCNF. “As we show in this paper, every single promise that was made to pass this law turned out to be false.”

Obama claimed the ACA would slow the growth in U.S. healthcare spending and “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family,” but individual market premiums more than doubled from 2013 to 2017 and deductibles soared, according to the study.

The disparity between ACA advocates’ promises and the legislation’s actual effect on costs is largely due to a failure to implement the “Cadillac tax,” which was meant to use the proceeds from a tax on employer-sponsored insurance plans to prevent increases in private health insurance premiums, according to the study.  The tax was delayed for eight years due to a lack of political support, and was delayed again in 2015 and 2018 before Congress repealed it outright in 2019.

As Americans grappled with rising premiums and deductibles, the number of medical providers willing to accept coverage plummeted, with at least seven million consumers having their plans canceled in the fall of 2013 because they did not comply with the ACA’s new mandates, the study found. The wave of cancellations occurred despite Obama sayingin June 2009 that “if you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

Obama also claimed that the ACA would be a “deficit-reducing health care reform,” but the study found most of the tax increases that were going to be used to help fund the program have been repealed, and that student loan provisions embedded in the ACA had losses of $32 billion as of 2019.

The U.S. national debt stood at roughly $35.72 trillion as of Oct. 8, up from roughly $13 trillion in the first quarter of 2010 when the ACA was passed, according to data from the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The study also identified several additional “enticing promises” that were untrue, including claims that the ACA would be reserved for U.S. citizens. However, ample Obamacare insurance subsidies now go to insure people who immigrated illegally, as the Biden-Harris administration expanded ACA access in May to include members of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Obamacare also drove employers to move full-time workers into part-time positions in order to avoid ACA rules requiring companies provide 95% of full-time employees health insurance given they employ fifty or more people for more than 30 hours per week, the report found.

“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made healthcare in the United States anything but affordable,” Peter C. Earle, senior economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the DCNF. “A comparison between what was promised in the lead-up to the passage of the ACA in 2010, and how those assurances have actually played out, is well within the ability of any third grader. Yet there is a curious lack of motivation among intelligentsia in much of the media and virtually all of academia to point out how expensive the ACA has made healthcare for US citizens.”

DOJ FAILS TO INVESTIGATE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN THE LONGSHORMEN UNION

Some dockworkers earn more than $400,000 a year AND DO NOT WORK!t 1, 2024 FEDS LOOK THE OTHER WAY AND DO NOTHiNG!

– Some longshoreman regularly earn more than the president of the United States along with most other U.S. workers.

Under the existing contract with the East Coast union, a top-scale longshoreman could earn up to $39 an hour, which translates to about $81,000 a year. However, many workers take overtime and extra shifts that have higher rates.

Some 50,000 International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike Tuesday against the East and Gulf Coast ports, hampering the flow of goods in what some predict could be the most disruptive strike in decades.

Dockworkers often earn more than $100,000 a year because of work rules and overtime requirements.

More than half of 3,726 dockworkers at the Port of New York and New Jersey earned more than $150,000 in the fiscal year that ended in 2020, according to the port’s regulator, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. About one in five dockworkers at the port earned more than $250,000 that year.

Eighteen dockworkers brought in more than $450,000 that year – more than the annual salary as the U.S. President ($400,000) and more than most U.S. workers. The real median household income for all Americans was $74,580 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some dockworkers get paid even if they don’t work.

“Every terminal within the Port still has special compensation packages given to certain ILA longshore workers, the majority of whom are white males connected to organized crime figures or union leadership,” according to the Commission’s 2019-2020 annual report. “Based on the industry’s reported figures, the Commission has again identified over 590 individuals who collectively received over $147.6 million dollars last year in outsized salaries, or for hours they never worked.”

The report noted the special packages were not memorialized in the applicable collective bargaining agreements. Rather than eliminate or cap them, the NYSA and ILA negotiated a 2013 Memorandum of Settlement of Local Conditions in the Port of New York-New Jersey. That guarantees special packages to certain people. Those individuals are paid for hours not worked or hours worked by others, as long as they are at the Port for 40 hours each week, according to the Commission’s report.

Such conditions have endured for decades, according to the Commission’s report.

“The hearings revealed that the hiring, training and promotion practices of the industry led to low-show jobs, favoritism and nepotism, the abusive and illogical interpretation of collective bargaining agreements, and the impact of those practices both on the competitiveness of the Port and on the morale and career prospects of decent, hard-working Port employees,” according to the report. “Connected individuals are awarded high paying, low-show or no-work special compensation packages, in some cases earning salaries in excess of $500,000. Such positions were overwhelmingly given to white males connected to organized crime figures or union leadership.”

The ongoing strike, which extends from Maine to Texas, could affect everything from bananas to European beer and automobiles.

The International Longshoremen’s Association blamed the United States Maritime Alliance for refusing a contract offer.

NOBODY IS PROSECUTING OR INVESTIGATING THESE CORRUPT OFFICIALS WHILE THEY ARE INVESTIGATING BAKERS FOR NOT MAKING A CAKE FOR SOME MINORITY.

It’s the first strike at these ports since 1977. The strike will affect 36 U.S. ports handling about half of U.S. ocean imports. Included are Boston, New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Negotiations have been tense since June. The disagreement is between the International Longshore Association and Warehouse Union, which represents port workers across the country, and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents terminal operators and ocean carriers.

Wages of East and Gulf coast workers are a base wage of $39 an hour after six years. The union is asking for a 77% pay increase over six years. It is also asking for more restrictions and bans on the automation of cranes, gates, and container movements used to load or unload cargo.

 

DOCKWORKERS BOSS IS A RICH ARROGANT “A-HOLE” WHO WANTS TO TELL THE USA HOW IMPORTANT HE IS JOE BIDEN IS SCARED TO STOP HIM

The union boss Harold Daggett “known as the goat” has long cast himself as a staunch advocate for blue-collar workers, even as he has lived in luxury, owning a yacht and driving a Bentley — and fought off alleged ties to the Mafia. Oh, what a surprise, a union boss thug, say it is not so!

Sporting a polo shirt with a chunky gold medallion around his neck, the 78-year-old Daggett, who as president of the International Longshoremen’s Association is leading the port strikes stretching from Maine to Texas, was prone to theatrical flourishes in a September interview as he geared up for the strike.

“They’re gonna be like this,” Daggett said, grabbing his neck in a choking gesture. “I’ll cripple you. I will cripple you and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does.”

Harold Daggett speaks in New Jersey during picket on Oct. 1, 2024.
Harold Daggett warned the port strikes will “cripple” the US economy if longshoremen’s demands are not met. AFP via Getty Images

Since last year, Daggett has threatened to shut down the 36 ports covered by his union if “money crazy” shipping companies refused to issue wage hikes and protections for workers against industry automation.

“Who’s going to support [workers’] families? Machines? Machines don’t have families,” he previously said.

Meanwhile, Daggett — has worked at the ILA for 57 years and took the helm as president in 2011 — raked in $728,000 in compensation last year from the ILA.

He collected another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union branch, according to labor department filings.

He lives in a 7,136 square-foot house valued at $1.7 million on a 10-acre lot in Sparta, New Jersey, according to Zillow and NJ Property Records.

By comparison, his fellow union bosses at the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and autoworkers unions earn less than $300,000 a year, according to a Politico report.

Daggett formerly owned the Obsession – a 76-foot yacht – and his family reportedly saw him zipping around in a Bentley, according to The New York Times.

“Dude had more yachts than me!” billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

In 2005, the Justice Department accused Daggett of being an “associate” of the Genovese crime family – one of the “Five Families” of the US Mafia. Are not union bosses always “associates”?

Harold Daggett protesting with dockworkers at Newark port.
The dockworkers are seeking wage hikes and protections against industry automation in the new contract. AP

Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering.

He described himself as a target of the mob – though a turncoat Mafia member had testified Daggett was under the mob’s thumb, The New York Times reported.

During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged major mob figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner, or on the docks???LOL.

Ricci’s death remained unsolved, though speculation circulated that he was killed after refusing to plead guilty to avoid news reports of the trial.

Harold Daggett exits Brooklyn courthouse during recess in 2005 trial.
In 2005, Daggett was accused of being a Mafia “associate.” AP

Daggett was acquitted in two cases – even though the famous black-and-white mob movie “On the Waterfront” was inspired by his longshoremen’s union.

Over the years, Daggett has bad-mouthed the Waterfront Commission – a regulatory agency that was inspired by the movie and created to prevent corruption among New York and New Jersey ports.

Daggett called the commission’s accusations of mob ties “total bulls–t” and a “dark, ugly attack on Italian Americans.” TIME FOR AN IRS/DOJ AUDIT?

“It’s a damn tragedy for the Waterfront Commission to enjoy free rein and target Italian Americans as part of their historic anti-worker campaign,” Daggett said in 2022. “Let’s be real here. The Waterfront Commission has, for decades, claimed good jobs went to only those with so-called ‘mob ties.’”

Daggett’s sons — Dennis and John — reportedly earn similarly cushy salaries in their roles at the union.

Dennis, the executive vice president of the ILA, earned $250,156 in the fiscal year ended December 2022, according to ProPublica. John, the general vice president of the Atlantic Coast District ILA, reportedly earned $264,228 in the same period.

Now, he’s using his trademark aggression to fight suppliers, government agencies and even President Biden on the strikes – which will cause supply chain logjams and could cost the economy billions each day, according to JP Morgan.

Retailers, auto suppliers and produce importers had hoped Biden would impose the federal Taft-Hartley Act, which allows US presidents to enact an 80-day cooling-off period that forces employees to return to work during certain labor disputes.

Harold Daggett at picket lines with dock workers on Oct. 1, 2024.
Daggett has bad-mouthed the Waterfront Commission, a regulatory agency that seeks to prevent corruption. AFP via Getty Images

But those hopes were swept away when Biden said Monday that he does not “believe” in Taft-Hartley. BIDEN THE CLUELESS!

Daggett had mocked the idea during an interview in early September.

“Do you think when I go back for 90 days those men are gonna go to work on that pier?” Daggett said.

He painted a picture of the effects of the strikes over time – signaling he was readying to buckle down for the long run.

Dockworkers striking on Oct. 1.
President Joe Biden said he does not “believe” in the Taft-Hartley Act, would would force employees to return to work for 80 days. AFP via Getty Images

“Everything in the United States comes on a ship,” Daggett said during the September interview.

During the first week of the strikes, media outlets will cover the picket lines, he predicted.

During the second week, car salesmen will struggle to hold onto their jobs as automotive shipments stall, Daggett said. The malls will start to shut down during the third week.

“Everybody’s hating the longshoremen now because now they realize how important our jobs are,” the union head warned.