MONDAY 23 DECEMBER 2024

Ohhhhhhhh, it’s Monday.  It’s two days before Christmas.  How can that be? Didn’t we just do this a couple of months ago?  

A few weeks ago my partner, Mike, asked me what I wanted to do about Christmas.  I was sitting on an upholstered footrest, well it used to be an upholstered footrest.  Now, it’s an upholstered square with four torn apart corners where cats have shredded it in frustration.  I looked around at the twenty boxes piled in the middle of the living room containing the new sofa that we couldn’t take out because the entire back of the house had been torn off by a pendejo of a contractor.  There was a layer of chalk all over the floors where the workers had allowed it to come in the doors and windows because they didn’t properly seal them. 

“What I want to do is not think about Christmas.  I don’t know nothing about no Christmas this year (Parody of Gone with the Wind).  (Pause) Do you think that’s unfair to the cats?”

The entire neighborhood is covered with strings of lights and outdoor manger scenes.  WE don’t even have our usual tasteful wreath on the front door.  Christmas, bah, humbug.

News:

• Panama, and a company that worked through Trump in Panama, is trying to hold Trump responsible for tax violations, so he is talking about the US taking Panama back.  God, what an ass.
• Ukraine has pulled off several successful ATACMS strikes in Russia. 
• North Korea is boosting arms flow to Russia (Euromaidan Press).
• IMF sends Ukraine $1.1 billion from a fund for “critical budget expenditures.” (Euromaidan Press)
• The German Defense Minster warns that Russia may attack NATO territory by 2030.  Currently, Russia is targeting German infrastructure and energy systems, funding far-right parties AfD and BSW, spreads disinformation through social media.  (Euromaidan Press).
• A majority of Ukrainians support nuclear weapons restoration (Euromaidan Press).  (Note: I don’t blame them.)
• Ukraine World
• Germany is providing new military aid package to Ukraine.
• North Korea is preparing to provide additional troops and military equipment to Russia.  It is moving towards the provision of strike drones.
• Ukraine struck a Russian warehouse storing parts for Shahed drones worth $16 million.  The warehouse burned down.

MSNBC

• Catherine Christian, former assistant DA in Manhattan says that it was “bizarre” to see the Mayor Adams participating in a perp walk with Mangione (CEO shooter).  The language that was used, Mayor did not use “alleged” was also highly unusual.  The terrorism charge is reserved for 9/11 type cases, the Oklahoma City Bombing.  Mangoine did not publicize the crime.  Just being “heinous” does not make it terrorism.  “They are making a straightforward case into a complicated case.”

MSNBC SOAP OPERA

• MSNBC keeps covering the story of Trump threatening to take back the Panama Canal but not mentioning that Trump started this because businesses involved with him in Panama are trying to get his properties to abide by the law.  Why? 
•  https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-panama-canal-threats-hotel-taxes-court-filing-2005079
• In June 2019, the owners of a Panama City hotel that was managed by Trump’s businesses, and carried the Trump brand, accused two companies, Trump Panama Hotel Management LLC and and Trump International Hotels Management LLC, of not paying taxes on their Panamanian earnings.
• In a filing to the U.S. district court in New York, private equity manager Orestes Fintiklis and his company, Ithaca Capital Partners, alleged that the Trump businesses failed to pay 12.5% taxes on the millions of dollars they earned from managing the Panama City hotel. They also alleged that the Trump units failed to correctly report the number of people the hotel employed so that he could avoid Panamanian social security payments.
• (Note: Trump cheats on EVERYTHING.)
• The filing documented how the Panamanian government later conducted a tax audit on the hotel and found major irregularities. Fintiklis and his company were forced to pay the money Trump owed, the court filing alleged.
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• Donald Trump on December 22, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump threatened to take back the Panama Canal in a series of social media posts on Sunday.
• In an updated complaint filed in the same court on March 30, 2020, Fintiklis’ attorneys complained that “had Trump been honest with Ithaca about its failure to pay taxes on the management fees it earned and its failure to properly report employee salaries to Panama’s social security agency, Ithaca would have never entered into the [licensing deal] because, among other things, (i) Ithaca would have recognized the significant, multi-million dollar tax penalty that could be imposed by the Panamanian government once it started auditing the Hotel; and (ii) Ithaca would have known that the representations made by Trump described above were false in that the Hotel was suffering from significant financial irregularities.” (Note: When are people going to stop doing business with this scam artist?)
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• The litigation is still before the courts.
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• Newsweek sought comment on Monday from Fintiklis, Ithaca Capital Partners and the Trump Organization. Newsweek also contacted the Trump-Vance transition team and Panama’s economy and finance ministry.
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• Why It Matters
• The issue is important because Trump is potentially pushing the U.S towards conflict with Panama after accusing the country of financial wrongdoing.