I suspected many months ago that Trump was playing the money game by running for office as he gave his speeches. Now I have more evidence.
The recent Federal Election Commission filings provide information Trump would preferred to hide. But unlike tax filings, those are public.
Trump says he is financing his campaign. Well, not really. He is LOANING money to his campaign (and loans usually have interest charges). That's right, he is loaning personal money (and it may be more tricky than that) to his campaign. That means he is signing the checks on both sides of the loan! The campaign is obligated to back Trump back for the money he is essentially loaning to himself.
Don't you wish you could borrow money that easily and expect payment back? But it gets worse...
Trump is using his own businesses to support his campaign. And he is charging his campaign a hefty sum for "privilege" of using his own services. The idea seems to be that he will use his own companies to benefit financially supporting his Presidential campaign. Its a great gig, if you can arrange it. And Trump does.
Use his his own jet to fly to campaign stops? Trump charges himself high fees. Staying at his own residences in various States? Trump charges the top rates to his campaign. Eat at a fundraiser (and yes he has them though he says he doesn't) you eat Trump steak and drink Trump wine. Get given a framed picture of The Donald for a donation? That picture comes in a Trump Picture Frame.
Play a round of golf with Trump? High green fees for the round charged to his campaign. He charges the campaign to operate his campaign in various business locations he profits from.
Staffers and campaign supporters eat at Trump restaurants, fly accumulating Trump miles, and wear Trump T-shirts made by Trump companies. Those Trump hats he tosses out at campaign rallies? A staffer company makes those and the campaign pays top dollar for them.
On the single day Trump announced his campaign in June 2015, his campaign cost generated $506,846 to Trump businesses. One single day!
By the end of just 2015, the Trump campaign paid out $2.2 million, $2 million of which went to the airline where Trump is the CEO...
$90,000 went to staffers eating at Trump Cafe and Trump Grill...
Unspecified amounts went to Trump Payroll Corp. and Trump Tower Commercial LLC to pay for campaign staff payroll management, but that work isn't cheap...
This isn't a campaign, its a profit-making scam! The Republican party has finally produced the perfect example of its long-held claim that businessmen (and it's usually men) are the most suited to run the country for the benefit of all the citizens. If running for office is now a profit-center for Republican candidates to operate as a business, do you want to see what laws they pass? I sure don't.
Showing posts with label Scammers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scammers. Show all posts
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Trash Pickup
Before I moved here, I rented a house in another county where trash pickup was a single-contractor county service, paid through taxes. When I moved here, it was all private multiple-contractor service, and I signed up. All had 2 day per week pickup and all cost the same (about $35 per month and that was 20 years ago). It was all OK for a while.
But then, the county started recycling pickups AND I had started a compost pile. Between recycling and compost, my "trash" dropped to almost nothing! My one bag of trash once a month got ignored because my pickup company guys kept forgetting I was a customer. And paying $35 a month for one bag seemed ridiculous. And back then, I had Tinkerbell, then Skeeter and LC and they preferred to do their business outside. I didn't even have much kitty litter to toss.
I tried 3 companies and they always lost track of me on the routes. They said "well just put out your trash can twice a week with a small bag in it. I didn't even have THAT most weeks. So I cancelled the pickup service and switched to saving it for a few months and then driving to the county landfill paying $1 for the bag (my "trash" is not smelly, almost anything "smelly" is compostable).
Things change. Ayla, Iza, and Marley prefer to do their business indoors. I've even seen them demand to come in, use the litter box, and then demand to go back outside. And I've started ending up with some bulkier trash. So I was going to the landfill sometimes with a few 100 lbs of non-recyclable, non-compostable trash, and the price of gas was going up. So between the flat disposal rate of $5 and a gallon of gas to get there in my SUV, it was starting to be noticible. And who wants to have to drive to a landfill to unload in Winter or mucky Spring rains?
Well, 2 days ago, a guy knocked on the door and asked abut my trash pickup service. I told him I didn't have one. Now, I usually automatically just (politely) blow off door-knockers. If I want something, I'll find it on my own and comparison-shop carefully. But he managed to get my interest.
I explained that the cost was too high, and that I usually didn't have enough trash to put out the barrel once or twice each week and that what I really needed was a service that charged half the price for a single monthly pickup.
I was surprised to discover my 2 major problems were resolved! First, they provide company-identified trash cans and the cost was half what it used to be. So, no matter how infrequently I put the trash out, they won't miss me! Second, at only $20 per month, the cost begins to approach my own cost of landfill dumping and gas (and time). And the contract is only quarterly, not annual. If I don't like their service, I can drop them.
Most of my trash is kitty litter, followed by styrofoam packing peanuts,and blue or black styrofoam containers (which are not recyclable here), and some strange odds and ends. I can manage a small bag each week.
And the cool thing is that I HAPPEN to have a LOT of unrecyclable, un-compostable trash right now. Heavy old rotting preservative-treated wood from the old raised framed garden beds I am replacing now! I estimate that the cost of landfill-dumping of all that stuff would be about $50 at least right now, and I'm less than half through tearing out the old wood. So I should actually save money through Spring and getting rid of it a LOT easier.
And I'll mention that the landfill is inundated by seagulls searching for scraps of food. They normally don't bother visitors, but one day they got all scared up and flew over my car. Raining poop... If you don't know about seagull poop, it dries quickly and turns to cement. It took me 2 hours to clean the car after that 1 episode.
I hesitated to hand the trash guy a $60 check for services I hadn't yet received, but he presented a pretty good collection of legitimacy. His car had the trash company logo (Evergreen Disposal) and I see their trucks each week. He had a well-worn Evergreen hat, pictures of him in an Evergreen trash truck, pictures of him with other Evergreen people, a picture of him at some trash conventionpictures of him receiving an award at an Evergreen company meeting, and I imagine a check made out to Evergreen Disposal would be awkward to cash... He suggested I use my smart phone to check their website (where he said he is a route manager) assuming I had a smart phone (who doesn't? Well, *I* don't, but he didn't know that). I think I was sufficiently cautious.
If I got scammed by a door-knocker, it will be about the first time ever and I might even tip my hat to him. I have a pretty good mental "BS meter".
But I expect I will be getting regular trash pickup starting Nov 4th at a really good price and saving myself a lot of trips to the county landfill.
But then, the county started recycling pickups AND I had started a compost pile. Between recycling and compost, my "trash" dropped to almost nothing! My one bag of trash once a month got ignored because my pickup company guys kept forgetting I was a customer. And paying $35 a month for one bag seemed ridiculous. And back then, I had Tinkerbell, then Skeeter and LC and they preferred to do their business outside. I didn't even have much kitty litter to toss.
I tried 3 companies and they always lost track of me on the routes. They said "well just put out your trash can twice a week with a small bag in it. I didn't even have THAT most weeks. So I cancelled the pickup service and switched to saving it for a few months and then driving to the county landfill paying $1 for the bag (my "trash" is not smelly, almost anything "smelly" is compostable).
Things change. Ayla, Iza, and Marley prefer to do their business indoors. I've even seen them demand to come in, use the litter box, and then demand to go back outside. And I've started ending up with some bulkier trash. So I was going to the landfill sometimes with a few 100 lbs of non-recyclable, non-compostable trash, and the price of gas was going up. So between the flat disposal rate of $5 and a gallon of gas to get there in my SUV, it was starting to be noticible. And who wants to have to drive to a landfill to unload in Winter or mucky Spring rains?
Well, 2 days ago, a guy knocked on the door and asked abut my trash pickup service. I told him I didn't have one. Now, I usually automatically just (politely) blow off door-knockers. If I want something, I'll find it on my own and comparison-shop carefully. But he managed to get my interest.
I explained that the cost was too high, and that I usually didn't have enough trash to put out the barrel once or twice each week and that what I really needed was a service that charged half the price for a single monthly pickup.
I was surprised to discover my 2 major problems were resolved! First, they provide company-identified trash cans and the cost was half what it used to be. So, no matter how infrequently I put the trash out, they won't miss me! Second, at only $20 per month, the cost begins to approach my own cost of landfill dumping and gas (and time). And the contract is only quarterly, not annual. If I don't like their service, I can drop them.
Most of my trash is kitty litter, followed by styrofoam packing peanuts,and blue or black styrofoam containers (which are not recyclable here), and some strange odds and ends. I can manage a small bag each week.
And the cool thing is that I HAPPEN to have a LOT of unrecyclable, un-compostable trash right now. Heavy old rotting preservative-treated wood from the old raised framed garden beds I am replacing now! I estimate that the cost of landfill-dumping of all that stuff would be about $50 at least right now, and I'm less than half through tearing out the old wood. So I should actually save money through Spring and getting rid of it a LOT easier.
And I'll mention that the landfill is inundated by seagulls searching for scraps of food. They normally don't bother visitors, but one day they got all scared up and flew over my car. Raining poop... If you don't know about seagull poop, it dries quickly and turns to cement. It took me 2 hours to clean the car after that 1 episode.
I hesitated to hand the trash guy a $60 check for services I hadn't yet received, but he presented a pretty good collection of legitimacy. His car had the trash company logo (Evergreen Disposal) and I see their trucks each week. He had a well-worn Evergreen hat, pictures of him in an Evergreen trash truck, pictures of him with other Evergreen people, a picture of him at some trash conventionpictures of him receiving an award at an Evergreen company meeting, and I imagine a check made out to Evergreen Disposal would be awkward to cash... He suggested I use my smart phone to check their website (where he said he is a route manager) assuming I had a smart phone (who doesn't? Well, *I* don't, but he didn't know that). I think I was sufficiently cautious.
If I got scammed by a door-knocker, it will be about the first time ever and I might even tip my hat to him. I have a pretty good mental "BS meter".
But I expect I will be getting regular trash pickup starting Nov 4th at a really good price and saving myself a lot of trips to the county landfill.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Scammers
I love scammers, they are SO stupid. I've mentioned before that they are endlessly amusing.
Today I got three calls from "Jake" at "Microsoft" about a problem with my software. I needed to update it "right away"...
Hint, if a company calls you, its fake.
Hint, if they want information they already should have, it's fake.
Hint, actually, if they call you at all, it's fake.
Hint, if it's "urgent", it's fake.
Companies don't call you. They don't know you you exist..
Hint, if they speak bad local language, it's fake.
Hint, if they speak AT ALL, it's fake. Microsoft isn't going to call you even if they knew a huge asteroid was about to land on your city.
Hint, if they all are named "Jake", its fake
Hint, if they call several times in a day and are too stupid to stop calling after you laugh at them, it's fake.
Hint, see above about "if they call at all", its fake.
I received a 3rd telephone call from "Jake" at "Microsoft" today (in different voices) and I stated to him clearly "Sir, you are an obviously liar and should be the victim of an honor killing". THAT set him back a bit. He asked how I knew. I just laughed and told him I sure wasn't going to help HIM learn how to scam others.
How did I know? Well, all those hints above. Plus dirty little secret; I don't HAVE a microsoft computer attached to the internet.
But not like it would have helped him any if he had claimed to be calling from Apple... I mean, obvious is obvious. Apple doesn't know me from Adam either. Maybe I'm running a Unix, LOL!
And there was the emails. "My Microsoft email had exceeded it 20Gb limit, it said". Three times in one day! Straight to trash along with the emails from the Nigerian Prince.
Today I got three calls from "Jake" at "Microsoft" about a problem with my software. I needed to update it "right away"...
Hint, if a company calls you, its fake.
Hint, if they want information they already should have, it's fake.
Hint, actually, if they call you at all, it's fake.
Hint, if it's "urgent", it's fake.
Companies don't call you. They don't know you you exist..
Hint, if they speak bad local language, it's fake.
Hint, if they speak AT ALL, it's fake. Microsoft isn't going to call you even if they knew a huge asteroid was about to land on your city.
Hint, if they all are named "Jake", its fake
Hint, if they call several times in a day and are too stupid to stop calling after you laugh at them, it's fake.
Hint, see above about "if they call at all", its fake.
I received a 3rd telephone call from "Jake" at "Microsoft" today (in different voices) and I stated to him clearly "Sir, you are an obviously liar and should be the victim of an honor killing". THAT set him back a bit. He asked how I knew. I just laughed and told him I sure wasn't going to help HIM learn how to scam others.
How did I know? Well, all those hints above. Plus dirty little secret; I don't HAVE a microsoft computer attached to the internet.
But not like it would have helped him any if he had claimed to be calling from Apple... I mean, obvious is obvious. Apple doesn't know me from Adam either. Maybe I'm running a Unix, LOL!
And there was the emails. "My Microsoft email had exceeded it 20Gb limit, it said". Three times in one day! Straight to trash along with the emails from the Nigerian Prince.
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