That's incorrect, Albion. Here is my first statement to you:
“Four of his companies have filed for bankruptcy protection. In spite of being a billionaire, Trump has made no attempt to pay back the investors and vendors who lost money in those companies.”
I never said a word about personal bankruptcy.
As to surrendering part of his personal wealth and exchanging part of his ownership for unpaid debts, he could have done that BEFORE anything went to court. But he did not do that. Instead, the courts had to ORDER him to surrender personal wealth and to exchange equity for unpaid debts.
Re: “But investing always involves risk, and the question is whether he acted in good faith, or rather set out to defraud, to fail or to cheat investors.”
No, that's not the question. In other posts you have praised Trump's business skills, and you have suggested that only someone like Trump can rescue America's fractured finances. Sorry, I disagree. Any politician who has been sued for fraud, and settles out of court, and does not release the full details of that settlement, is instantly suspect in my mind.
Re: “While the bankers may have had some of their anticipated profits reduced...”
Re: “...the creditors got not only some of their money back, they may have received most of their capital back...
Albion, it costs millions of dollars to file for a Chapter 11 corporate restructure.
If the bankers had just lost interest, if the other creditors had received most of their payments, these four cases would have NEVER gone to court.
Re: “I do not know what criminal fraud investigations you refer to...”
In 2002, the SEC investigated Trump for misleading claims in a corporate financial statement.
In 2013, the New York AG investigated Trump for fraud at Trump University.
In the late 70’s and 80’s, Trump was questioned several times by different agencies about his alleged financial relationship with New York area organized crime families.
Re: The “R” issue
The voting record graphic you posted is identical to the graphic posted on the Free Republic post I debunked several days ago.
I assumed you got that graphic at the exact same Free Republic post I read and commented on.
The posted article I read had the Daily Mail link at the bottom. Apparently, I was the only person at Free Republic who had enough curiosity to read the original.
Re: “Between 2000-2012, he quit, joined, or re-joined three different political parties six times.”
2000 - Quit GOP - Joined Reform - Sought Reform’s presidential nomination.
2004 - Quit Reform - Joined Democrats - Sought Democrat presidential nomination
2006 - Sought Democrat nomination for New York governor
2012 - Quit Democrats - Re-joined GOP - Briefly sought GOP presidential nomination
Bottom Line - Do you and the other Trump supporters here at Free Republic have any idea what the election professionals in the Democrat Party and the MSM are going to do Trump in the general election just with the few issues I posted about in this Comment?
I can see you have never been in business. That would have been a catastrophic move. There were so many people involved; it needed to be a negotiated settlement with clear terms spelled out for everyone.
I think that he has come through the fire, and his skills are what we need. You don’t use a pickax and shovel to clear a mountain of debris any more, you use a big, nasty, powerful earth mover. He is a paradigm shifter who sees things others can’t see and then addresses and redevelops them. He is tough. He is a man in a world of terrible, horrible enemies, and he wants to protect us. Had one of his towers fallen down due to faulty engineering and cheap materials, killing thousands, I would say your pecksniffing would have some merit. But no, he has planned hundreds of projects dealing with the absolute and real powers of nature, physics, earth, wind, electricity, water, materials, construction, and engineering, and has succeeded at those parts brilliantly. You want to throw the baby out with the bathwater because the baby peed in the bath?
Any person of means is going to be attacked, and often, by others wanting his money, even if it is government agencies — are our regulators’ hands any cleaner than the rest of our government? New Jersey is one of the dirtiest, most corruption-ridden states in the nation outside of Chicago. You think he could achieve success without people trying to take him down, and if they do, that it’s all because of him, not because of them? This isn’t Victorian times, when the barest accusation of wrong-doing, even if it is dead wrong, could banish a person from “polite society” for life, and America isn’t a virgin debutante.
It is virtually impossible for any human being to go through a long life without making mistakes at some point along the line. Smart people learn from their mistakes, as I amply cited: he owns around 30 towers, many resorts, the rights to 15 bestsellers, television royalties and merchandise lines. Only one property in one location has been plagued by these problems, and you are overlooking the interplay of the New Jersey and Atlantic City governments, the gaming commission, etc. It was their project — he was the developer and they used his recognizable brand name as part of the deal; and now his stake in it is small, but you want to set aside everything he has done to focus on this and insist that it has not made him stronger, when in this election, the obvious corruption of the Clintons and the Constitution-destroying communist ideology of Sanders is at stake. Do we want a naive lamb who faints with shock at wrongdoing to go up against them and their international cartels? I don’t.
You have every right to vote for and support any candidate you want. If you go on other threads about the candidates, you will not find me trying to speculate, make up scenarios out of whole cloth, split hairs or gossip about Cruz’s statements, mistakes, relationships or anything at all about him, even though plenty of other people want to tear him down in morally superior language, because he’s not my candidate. But he has much to offer the American people, he may get the nomination or it could still be Jeb or Rubio — or it could well be Trump.
So what is the point of your tut-tutting and speculating about him as you have speculated about me not knowing where your graphic find came from — but I should have, according to you. Do you think others only live to support your assumptions in life? I was sent it whole by someone else.
I rely on research, fact and logic, not assumptions and speculation. I have Ivy graduate education and a long professional career in business — speculation is a waste of life. There are facts; there is responsible interpretation of those facts; and failing that, there is just gossip.
When you wrote your half-truths and negative interpretations, and since I lived near Atlantic City and had read about the Trump Taj issues for months at that time so many years ago, I did not just answer you from memory but spent time researching what else could be true or clear. I encourage you to do the same when people attack your candidate, or before you post smack about someone else’s candidate in this community.
Why? Because any trash any of us talk on FR about any of the Republicans only helps the Democrats. That is why your “Nosy Nellie, Queen of Morality” tone has bothered me. It helps Hillary and Bernie.