Posts by Lawrence Cook

Nathan Morris3 said:In case anyone is looking for this, here’s a decent summary regarding the decision to rerun the elections:
https://www.facebook.com/arminwolf.j...81502795194920

It’s in German, but I guess Google can probably handle the translation. Basically:
- The Constitution says elections should be rerun if it's proven that irregularities actually changed the outcome (which wasn't really the case here).
- The Supreme Court ruled that since those mistakes *could* theoretically have swayed the result, they had to step in. It's a stricter interpretation than what's in the Constitution, mostly because they feel democracy is so vital that everything needs to be 100% spotless.
- There were issues in 14 districts (my take: mostly where Hofer won).
- They have to redo the whole thing across the entire United States of America, not just the affected areas, because mail-in ballots from the second round could have come from different districts or something like that, I think.
- The biggest issue—which the Supreme Court said is enough reason on its own to restart—was that the Department of Homeland Security sent results from closed precincts to the media before 5:00 PM. If someone still waiting to vote hears those numbers, it might influence them. Sending info early has always been the standard practice, but the Supreme Court hadn't weighed in on it before because nobody had officially asked them to.
- The voter registration lists stay exactly the same as last time (so, if someone turned 16 in the meantime, I guess they still don't get to vote).
- Trivia: If one of the two candidates drops out less than 31 days before the election, the whole thing gets redone.

My thoughts are still pretty much the same:
- People should definitely report any irregularities.
- But I guess the Republican Party looks like a bad loser for demanding a rerun when there isn't actually proof of manipulation.
- The Supreme Court didn't really have much of a choice, I suppose.
- United States of America: It's kind of a shame how sloppily these big things are handled, especially knowing how close the race would be.

You know there was no fraud, but the Supreme Court still found "irregularities."
Oh, so the Supreme Court was biased? By who? The Supreme Court is the highest legal authority, at least in "democratic" countries. According to your "sources," the errors happened in Hofer's districts? Really? Show us the proof. 👏
🤦
In Germany, they also MANIPULATE elections in Bremen, but that wasn't the Right wing.
But you rarely see people writing about that.☕
The Left wing is losing. They're weak, limp, and useless. People are fed up with their empty slogans.
The new Right wing in Europe is coming. Legally. Hopefully soon.

boldbadger20 said:I was wondering about the general hierarchy of economies within the European Union, though I suppose the actual forecasts for the near future matter more than just the current rankings...

where does America fit into all of this...

I've been looking at some projections suggesting that 2025 might be a rough year for Germany, which currently holds that top spot...

I guess it would be interesting to know how other places like France, the Netherlands, Austria, or Switzerland are holding up?

"Predictions are tough, especially the ones about the future." Mark Twain

Benjamin Taylor6 said:About 14 years ago, our company went through privatization. The new owner promised us the moon and the stars—which is usually how these things go, right? Then, after a few years, he went out and took out several massive mortgage loans, putting the very land our factory sits on up as collateral. The money was ALLEGEDLY intended to fuel the day-to-day operations of our firm, which employs about 120 people.
But if you look at our "normal" operations, you won't see a single cent of that impact. The owner pulled in roughly $7 million in loans, yet I’d be surprised if even a million actually made it into this company. We ended up with a couple of pieces of used machinery, nothing more.
Then the recession hit, and somehow, we managed to weather the storm. For the last few years, work has been plentiful—we have plenty of orders coming in—but the real issue is that nobody has invested a dime back into the business. Not in the equipment, not in the staff... nothing. And we all know those massive loans were drawn down in a few big chunks. Now, the owners are trying to play smart, claiming everything was spent on running the business, which is total nonsense because the company hasn't touched a penny of borrowed money in five years. Granted, we are struggling, but...
The struggle isn't caused by a lack of work; it's caused by a complete refusal to reinvest.
The employee council receives certain financial reports, but they are utterly useless when it comes to tracing where that loan money actually went. Honestly, it feels like those reports are written in a language only a specialized CPA could decipher—not some engineer who doesn't deal with high-level finance in his daily life.
Now, word is getting around that the money never even landed in our company's account. Instead, it was allegedly diverted to a sister company to be invested abroad, where the owner holds several other businesses.
Those of us on the union side and the employee council just want to know one thing: how do we find out what happened to that loan money? Because the second anyone brings up a raise or better working conditions, the owner immediately starts whining about how much money he spent and how we all need to chip in to pay off his debts.
So, how do we uncover the TRUTH? Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like we're being forced to tighten our belts just so someone else can fund a private hotel in Moscow.

We need this information to give us leverage during negotiations. We need to walk into that room with hard facts, rather than letting them treat us like idiots.

The owner isn't going to hand over this info—or if he does, it'll be scrubbed clean so nothing is visible. And the bank that issued the loans? They'll just hide behind "proprietary business secrets." There's a strong suspicion that the cash never even hit the books of the company providing the collateral, but was instead snatched up by an overseas parent company.
And apparently, that shell company only has about ten employees.

Is there any way for the employee council or the union to get answers from the IRS? The FBI? The GAO?

Yeah, you can definitely find out... Like how Deep Throat told Bob Woodward in "All President ` sa Men"? FOLLOW The MONEY🙂