Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of at Starting Point. Guard for the Milwaukee.
Bucks is Gamy trand Lillard.
Wow.
Cool they did it, man, Man, you know I own the text thread. We were talking about this Damian Lillard trade and I said, I'm getting a Bucks jersey because I just want to feel the excitement that Bucks fans.
Have right now.
That's I'm excited.
This was the Sharry's fun outcome, especially like we had the heat in mind for them for a long time.
Celtics could have gotten involved, which is.
Right, So that like that this is why this is such a load off, is that the team that I don't like did not get Damian Lillard. Yeah, and yeah, the Sun's got stronger. Who are a team I will be rooting for this year. I always root for the best players in the league, and Giannis now has like a much more exciting team. Yeah, it's it's tough. They lost a really good guard in Drew Holliday, but.
We shall see.
I mean, we're like the camera.
They won't do it because the chemistry. It's like, well maybe Dame, I don't know, you might do it for Damian Lillard.
Or he is a generational Uh just baller. I will say this is yet more confirmation. I was having this thought last night. I was watching a thirty for thirty documentary from the year twenty thirteen about the No Mas, The Roberto Doran Sugar Ray Leonard documentary.
You know, I'll see that one.
It's interviewing all these sports writers from the time and like to like still today, and they're like, he's a coward, what a lot, Like nobody can figure out why he quit.
In the middle, And I was just like, man, sports writers.
Really are the lowest form of humanity in a lot of cases.
They're just like these like old white.
Guys are here being like Roberto Duran disgraced himself as a man and disgusting. He ran away with them and still to this day just like talking why like he came back from that and like went on to like win multiple titles, and they were still like he still has to answer for this. But again with the Damian Lillard trade, sports writers know nothing. They they nobody was saying the Bucks. They were all he like, they threw out every name in the NBA except the Bucks. So
y'all blew it. You're bad at your job. Your job basically might as well not exist Smith. Yeah, just come on mat boost these where we have a decidedly anti journalisms.
But we don't slag them off like we do on this show.
Yeah exactly, Yeah, No, we have to go to one.
We have mine to go where you where are we on that one? Dipshit?
We should just go line by line through their columns everything they got wrong.
Like that Bucks writer who said three major reasons why the Bucks would.
Never trade Damian. He threw them off their son.
All right, that is the biggest news obviously happening right now, that Damian Lillard was traded. But like for those who aren't NBA fans, Damian Lillard is probably the coolest person in the NBA, like him and Jimmy Butler, Like he was supposed to be traded to the Heat, and they were like that team would be too cool with Damian Lillard and Jimmy Butler on it, And therefore they sent him to the team of the best player in the league. Uh and also the most lovable superstar in the league,
Gianni Sante Tokupo. So exciting times, I guess. In like one a to that news is that Donald Trump was found liable for fraud.
Yeah.
New York judge has said he's liable for two hundred and fifty million dollars civil case brought by the state, alleging that he engaged in a long time bait and switch scheme to misrepresent his assets for tax purposes, while also inflating their value in order to obtain favorable loan terms. So he would in one set of papers be like, yeah, this place is this big and also this valuable, and then like at the same time, to avoid paying taxes, would say it is a different size and worth a different.
Amount of money. Yeah, at the same time, like.
Just at the same damn time.
Yeah, just openly lying, openly making up wealth. Like the judges like, no, he just like made up his fortune.
There was there was one where like he completely overvalued his fucking Trump Tower like apartment that.
He lives in.
He did not even say the right size, yeah.
By like in ridiculous orders of magnitude, to the point where the judge was like, there's no way I can believe this is anything but fraud concerning you come from real estate, so how could you fucking blow it like that?
Like, no, this is it's supposed to be your thing.
Man like the case as like he doesn't seem to like his legal strategy just seems to be like, be annoying as fuck as for as long as possible until people are too annoyed to keep going. But that generally doesn't work when you're being sued by the state. And this judge was basically like he previously found some of Trump's legal team's arguments so stupid he literally thought it was a joke, such as the argument that the case should be dismissed because hey, no one was harmed by Trump's fraud.
I'm sorry, how did anybody get hurt? Hey, we're good here, right.
That's not how that goes.
But that's why it's wild too, Like the fucking judge sanctioned the fucking lawyers because you're like, dude, this is like I told you about these fucking spurious arguments, and you still kept coming back with it, like I have no choice but to.
They tried the no harm, no foul line of argument, like come on, are you bleeding like that that a bully is after he like punches you on the shoulder, What are you bleeding?
And then not only did.
They try that once, and then they're like oh right right, this is the court of law and not a playground. They tried it once, the judge was like, stop it, no, that is I thought that was a joke when you brought it up, And then they did it so often that the judge likened the defense to the time loop in the film Groundhog Day. That is a direct quote.
So that just shows you the fucking caliber of law like lawyer that he can get.
Now, like you, you can't even get like the janky ones anymore, who have some semblance of like a career.
Now it's people who are in there being.
Like I'm honestly at his appeal, I would be surprised if, as one of his lawyers at the appeal just didn't say, like, well, that's just like.
Your opinion opinion, man, so throw the case out, no further answers, answers your owner exactly.
But it's just it's a fucking summary judgment.
Yeah, it wasn't even.
That's fucking again.
When when it's like that, it seemed like, bro, I don't even a jury doesn't mean to fucking hear this.
That's how fucking out of control this whole shit is.
Yeah, so I think, what is it to Tuesday is when the trial will happen, and that's when we will begin to see what the fate is of all the companies and things like that and all that. But again it's going to get dragged on because there's going to be appeals and shit like that.
But he cannot practice any kind of business or his sons in the state of New York right now.
Yeah, according to the ruling which allows the civil trial to begin next week, Like he said, uh, but this ruling says that he led to banks and insures by both overvaluing and undervaluing his assets. So it's just like that's the that's the wild shit here. Like when you read the history of like how he built his business, it is both like mind boggling that he got away
with it. But also when you look at like go back and look at the history of the Enron scandal, go back and look at like a lot of like the shit that was going down in two thousand and eight on Wall Street, Like this is so much of the economy is people just making up money, just making making it up being.
Like no, that that club that I bought for you know, tens of millions of.
Dollars it's actually worth two billion dollars now, Like that's what he was doing with mar A Lago, like, and that that's the one that they're focusing on because I guess they're like differences of opinion of like how much you could value mar A Lago at because the judge is valuing it as not a private property but as a you know, institution, like a business, which is what it is. And people are like, no, you could sell that for much more than that, but I don't know,
like it seems to be beside the point. Like that's just the one that like his people have seized on to try and defend it.
Right and again, like his whole thing was that he one of the things he was arguing that is like more of a footnote in the whole the like all the legal documents, is that he said it didn't matt like, he didn't fraudulently inflate it because he could still sell them to Saudi buyers at any price he chooses. That is why, yo, come on, Like let's dive in on that a little bit, you know what I mean?
Like this is I.
Can name my price.
They owe me one, they owe me big time.
I don't know, if you know I was the president and I might be the president again, I'm cheating super hard at that. So uh yeah, like yeah, it's just the the.
So it's influence pedaling, not real estate documen.
Yeah, the shit is just baked in. The corruption is baked in. He's not really trying to hide it. No, And this is this like really shouldn't be a surprise, Like if you were reading about like where he was as a businessman heading into the twenty sixteen election, he really like wasn't allowed to do business in the United States. So like any arguments that like oh this this is now everybody wants to find fault with him because he's the political threat. It's like, no, he's.
Been he's been a roadster.
Yeah, he's been fraudulent from day one, and like he couldn't do business in the US without committing fraud.
It is wildli like the mar al Lago thing.
It's like, I don't know, man, it could be worth nothing and ten times that simultaneously, which was really interesting how the judge was like, so it's both at the same time, sir, and then.
The other three times his ruling which is two billion times.
Yes, sorry, excuse me, eighteen.
Million one hundred times eighteen million, uh is two billion dollars almost one point yeah billion.
And he then like, which is twenty two was Then he's like, well, it's about it's about the potential for real estate development, but like the deed prevents that fucking property from ever being.
Used that way. So it's just all fucking horseshit.
Man.
He's trying to get them to value mar A Lago like it's a tech company in the early two thousands. Right, yeah, I think we can probably put that at two bills. Right, he's moved along here, Yeah, sir Brian put it. But we're still going with the air Bud law of running for president. A nothing says, no, there's nothing the rule book that says that a fraudulent criminal who is in prison can't run for president.
Yeah, let's take a quick break.
There's other big news in the world of you know, financial court.
I guess we'll be right back.
And we're back.
We are, And is the United States back? What's going on with this one?
We have politicians, we have the president standing with workers on the picket line.
Sure for he said, but still he.
Even said they deserve a significant race He didn't go as far to come after the automakers, but he did utter those workers.
Which and he was like, they they should You should be getting some of the stuff that they're getting, Like, yeah, the ridiculous money that they're making, so you should be doing well too, Come on, man, And then he pulled out his acoustic guitar and started singing Woody Guthrie.
Shit, it was pretty dope, no he Yeah, so there's that.
And then Trump coming out and being like he stole the idea of siding with workers from me. Yeah, so that's one thing that made me.
I had to check my GEO tagging is where is.
I is still America? Then I realized, ah, yes, Apple owns me. Apple knows where I am. Airmation back to the corporate But Amazon FTC has filed what some think maybe the big one.
Mm hmmm yeah, they call it the m in trouble.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean they are the Federal Trade Commission, along with seventeen other state attorneys general. Yes, they're all filing it together. I had to put A'SG as my abbreviation. I wrote this, but basically saying Amazon is illegally maintaining a monopoly FDC Chairlein and con said, quote are complaintly is out how Amazon is used a set of punitive
and coursive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies. The complaint sets forth detailed allegations, noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them.
Today's lawsuits seeks to.
Hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise.
Of free and fair competition.
They're seeking a quote permanent injunction in federal court that would prohibit Amazon from engaging in its unlawful conduct and probably loose Amazon's monopolistic control to restore competition.
Wow, Wow, let's.
Do Google next?
Yeah?
What do them all?
Amazon wasn't. I didn't think Amazon was the one that had.
The most like case built against it. I thought Google was going to be the one because they because of their practices around Google Ads.
But yeah, I'm not planning you know, no, no, no, no, but uh, you know, that's we'll see where this goes. But it is nice to see them, you know, actually filing these kinds of lawsuits because like it's absolutely we're just gonna have fucking three places to buy things in ten years.
Yeah.
Well, to bring us back down to earth, let's talk about what Netflix, Disney and the other streaming companies are doing. In response to their big l that they took in the in the strike, they have decided to form a powerful new political lobbying group, the Streaming Innovation Alliance see US SEE.
Which not to be confused with the Pop Star but.
They claim they will advocate for federal and state policies that build on the strong, competitive and pro customer market for streaming video. Look, they're just looking out for the consumer here, that's all they care about.
And how are you doing that? Because you want to bring the prices down?
And what you did not.
Pay more taxes than make sure I heard that right, I make sure you don't pay taxes. Also, they get because you think they're not gonna come on, I'm spending money at your local store that isn't in business anymore because we put your own business.
Yeah, but because with the because cable there so they can't do the cable taxes, and they're like, but they're trying.
To put it on us the streamers doesn't know, Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that.
Yeah.
I mean some people are like, oh, they could be, you know, lobbying in favor of net neutrality, because that was like the one thing they were on the right side of. But Netflix has stopped giving a shit about net neutrality and started giving a shit about you know, just their own tax base and also not having to deal with regulations around the world. Netflix has been lobbying since twenty ten, and they now have a team of thirty full time staffers devoted to public policy, so four
of them based in Washington. So there are four people probably graduated from like Ivy League schools, who work in Washington full time on Netflix policy, on behalf of right Flix.
Yeah.
Yeah, Like, realistically it's going to be, like you're saying, to try and avoid taxation. I'd imagine that they would probably have a bit of an anti worker bend now that you know what.
What's hard to imagine that when you see the WJ being like, all right, we like this deal, that they got to be like, bro, we got to figure out where to find some of this other money now, because we got to start paying these people.
They're fair sure. Oh fuck, all right, well fire up the lobbying machine in Washington.
Netflix hires companies lobbying firms such as Baker McKenzie, which, if you're not familiar with Baker McKenzie, you haven't read the Pandora papers.
Which.
Those dumped all sorts of crazy information about corporate tax evasion like uber Wealthy People's tax evasion, and those papers mentioned Baker McKenzie more than any other major US law firm. The leaks alone revealed that Baker McKenzie was involved in setting up more than four hundred and forty shore companies registered in tax havens. Uh so they're basically professional corruption engines, you know, like that they are allegedly yeah, yeah, allegedly we do miles.
Do you think is going to be just come on, we.
Have a soup to nuts sort of offering for our custom I mean our clients, because we care about them.
Obviously, we're full service. We're full service, full service, full service.
Anyways.
Uh, it's that So that's I mean, that's how things are fought, you know, like just straight up you have corporations spending tons of money on lobbying efforts, and then for the first time, maybe we have people actually, you know, governments and regulators are actually trying to regulate.
So yeah, be interesting.
Will they regulate? Will they do?
Warren g and Nate Dog proud with these regulations? And do you think they said that at the FDC before they filed that lawsuit.
Yeah, almost definitely.
They just screamed it out.
Like forty something white guys or there is like there are like some gen X and like older millennials that are working there now.
They're like that would be kind of cool.
Dude, that would be tight, right. Yeah. What else?
California and acts first gun and ammunition tax in the country.
I mean, that's pretty cool. There's a lot of good news today. Holy shit.
The federal government party taxes the sale of guns and ammunition at either ten or eleven percent, depending on the type of gun. But with the signing of AB twenty eight on Tuesday, California will now add an eleven percent excise tax on the purchase of guns and ammunition, which the bills author states is lower than the excise tax on marijuana sales. So that's how they got. Yeah, let's look, this is barely.
Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, it's like again, it's it's like what that Chris Rock bit from like one of his first albums is, if you want to make gun control like easier, just make a bullet cost five.
Yeah, exactly. It's like the printer printer, that's it.
If you're not going to do it that way, then create some other forces. But now I'm sure people just buy it. Who knows, I don't. I don't know where the black market is for ammunition. But nice to see some little things getting done.
It's like common sense.
The money will pay for security improvements at public schools and a variety of gun violence prevention programs, including those geared toward young people and gangs, whereas the money from federal tax which has been in place for more than one hundred years, pays for wildlife conservation and hunter education programs. Basically like might as well fun to the NRI.
Yeah, which is interesting.
I'm curious if these if a gun violence prevention program means money to cops, that's the one thing.
A little what are we doing here? What are we doing here?
Eventually one for us, no longer for them. Yeah, exactly. Hey, that sounds good. Sounds good to me.
We're so desperate for one for us that we're like, yeah, yeah, sure.
And that's what we call boy Matt.
That's right.
Those are some of the things that are trending on this Wednesday, September twenty seventh. We are back tomorrow with a whole lest episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, get the vaccine, don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to you all tomorrow.
Bye bye bye,