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Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Musk Donates to Trump, Tapping Fortune to Swing 2024 Race

Musk Donates to Trump, Tapping Fortune to Swing 2024 Race Bloomberg 



BaFin says lender failed to disclose in 2019 key details about losses at US operations
Deutsche Bank’s 2019 financial report did not meet international accounting standards as it lacked key details about the lender’s US losses, Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin said on Tuesday. 
BaFin said the bank in 2019 failed to disclose €2.1bn of deferred tax assets linked to multiyear losses at the US operations. Deutsche also failed to explain how it expected to generate profits in the region, the watchdog said. The ruling does not require Deutsche to restate its 2019 results nor is it linked to any fine or sanction.
BaFin has been Germany’s accounting regulator since 2022 when it replaced the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel, a private sector body with semi-official powers and limited resources. Its ruling on Deutsche is one of its most prominent actions so far.
Deutsche took issue with BaFin’s finding, saying it was still convinced that the 2019 financial statements and other disclosures “comply fully with IFRS requirements”. 
The lender pointed out that BaFin’s finding “relates to a footnote in our 2019 financial statements” which the watchdog considered incomplete. 
“There is no suggestion on BaFin’s part that there is any inaccuracy in Deutsche Bank’s 2019 accounts, and no restatement or other action is required,” it said in a statement. 
KPMG, which was replaced by EY as Deutsche’s auditor in 2020, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


How Far Goods Travel: Global Transport and Supply Chains from 1965-2020

A detailed looks at trade patterns and supply chains over the last 50+ years.


CHRIS QUEEN: The IRS Gloats About Its Successful Efforts to Soak the Rich.


64% of people not happy about idea of AI-generated customer service The Register


 64 office buildings in NYC could become new housing Gothamist


PRIVACY: AT&T says ‘nearly all’ of its customers’ call and text data has been leaked in massive security breach.

Drones Over Prisons CourtWatch For deliveries!


AT&T Says Criminals Stole Phone Records of ‘Nearly All’ Customers in New Data BreachTechcrunch


Trump Assassination Attempt: A Round-Up

The iconic photo, the shooter, the venue, the thooting, cui bono, and some of the more humane responses to Trump’s attempted assassination


Political views Writers and Victorian State library


Why Ernest Hemingway’s Younger Brother Established a Floating Republic in the Caribbean Smithsonian


Israel Lobby Funded Half of New UK CabinetConsortium News


Hiltzik: The federal government gets serious about gun deaths Los Angeles Times


Private equity has become hazardous terrain for investors and Private equity firms slash use of risky debt tactic to fund payouts FT


VDH: Our Brezhnev, Our Pravda, Our Soviet Union…:

Leonid Brezhnev led the former Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Communist Party until 1982. But like most Russian apparatchiks who excessively smoked, drank, and gained weight, he aged prematurely. Also like them, his disabilities never led to his abdication.

By Brezhnev’s late 60s and early 70s, he was too ill to travel abroad or make public appearances. Indeed, his debility left the Soviet Union without a real leader for the final six or seven years of his tenure.

Brezhnev got away with it because the Soviet state-controlled media doctored photos and videos to attest to his supposedly vigorous health and constant hands-on involvement.

“Journalists” sent out false communiques. They spun narratives that Brezhnev was robust, hale, and working long hours on behalf of the Russian people. Any dissenting journalists who sought to report the true, sad state of affairs were in danger of losing their jobs, freedom — or even their lives.

Instead, the “reporters” of Pravda (“Truth”), the official print megaphone of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, wrote lies about Brezhnev’s busy workdays. Pravda’s handlers spun fables about the respect (and fear) the rest of the world held for such a dynamic leader — even as Brezhnev became an ill virtual recluse.

The cynical Russian people shrugged because they had long been accustomed to their lying media and the falsehoods they peddled. And besides, Brezhnev was a doctrinaire Stalinist communist. So his job was not to rock the boat or upset the Russian communist hierarchy.

Instead, he reigned over the penultimate Soviet “era of stagnation,” while an ossified communism increasingly destroyed all incentives and hope, leaving the Russian people poor, cynical, and helpless.

The first time as tragedy, the second time, well, as another tragedy, to paraphrase Marx: Niall Ferguson: We’re All Soviets Now


SONNY BUNCH: Why Hollywood Turned on Biden First.

“Hollywood hates nothing more than weakness. Unless there’s a montage of getting strong and winning. They know there’s no montage of Biden getting strong and winning, so time for a quick offscreen death and a recast,” he said. Even if he manages to turn in an impressive campaign stop or press conference here and there, everyone’s simply waiting for Biden to stumble again. And he will. He’s not getting any younger.

Even in an age of aging heroes—one in which the biggest box office draws are Tom Cruise (62) and Denzel Washington (69) and Will Smith (55) and Keanu Reeves (59)—what’s being sold is not that they’re old but that they’re effective, that they’ve got verve, that they can outperform men and women half their age. It’s why Biden embraced the Onion’s vision of him as the aging bro washing his Trans Am, it’s why he goes everywhere he can in Top Gun-style aviators. It’s why the Dark Brandon meme took off in certain quarters of the Democratic party: He’s not nearing death, he’s old and wily and still vibrant enough to crush his enemies.

Call it shallow, call it whatever you want: politics is the art of persuasion and perception, and people are less likely to be persuaded by someone they perceive to be incapable of doing the job. People are also less likely to be persuaded by folks who lie to their face and tell them everything is just fine with Biden, that he’s clearly together enough to get the job done. For what it’s worth, I am incredibly ambivalent about the effort to replace Biden: the unknown unknowns that come with either a mini-primary at the convention or simply replacing Biden with Harris atop the ticket are vast and, potentially, destabilizing. And maybe Biden rights the ship with a series of command performances in front of the press and population alike. Maybe it was a one-off thing and his standing will improve in the polls.

But pretending there isn’t a conversation to be had at all is foolish and self-defeating. The voters have seen what they have seen. Again: politics is perception. And right now, the perception is bad.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Clooney on Wednesday added himself to the growing list of prominent Democrats who said he had concerns over Biden’s at-times frail condition, well before it spilled into public view at the debate.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F—ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020,” he wrote.

Campaign officials sought to intervene to prevent the piece from publishing, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Combine that with reports that “Obama Knew Clooney Was Going to Call for Biden to Drop Out. He Didn’t Try to Stop Him,” which means that the in-fighting in the various factions of the White House and the DNC must be spectacular right now.

Sonny Bunch wrote above that “politics is perception. And right now, the perception is bad.” But just think — up until a month ago, that perception was 180 degrees opposite. Or as America’s Newspaper of Record reports: In New ‘Ocean’s 14’, George Clooney Pulls Off $30 Million Heist By Tricking People Into Giving Money To Politician Before Revealing He’s Demented.