Turkey on Valentine's Day: Did Trump Obstruct Investigation of Flynn as a Foreign Agent?
When President Donald Trump tried to stop the FBI investigation of his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, was Trump aware of Flynn's meetings with Turkish officials? If so, it could significantly increase the president's exposure to political liability and legal wrongdoing involving obstruction of justice.
On Valentine's Day 2017, the president asked FBI Director James Comey if he could see his "way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," according to Comey's congressional testimony (see also interview with Donald Trump Jr.). What was Trump wanting Comey to let go exactly? So far the media has focused on federal investigators' ongoing probe at the time into whether Flynn lied to the FBI, but at the same time there was also an ongoing federal investigation into Flynn's work on behalf of Turkey–and the White House knew about it. We also now know that on Sept. 19, 2016, and in mid-December 2016, Flynn reportedly met with senior Turkish officials, and discussed the prospect of kidnapping and secretly removing a US resident, cleric Fethullah Gülen, from the United States into Turkey's custody. If Trump knew about the Turkey meetings at the time of the Feb. 14 exchange with Comey, that would raise a "different order of problem for the President," Ben Wittes exclaimed on Lawfare's podcast. Ben's right.
In this article, we look at several data points on the timeline, as well as statements provided to Just Security by former CIA Director James Woolsey's spokesperson.
One important point to know at the outset: First, it is not only important what the president knew on Feb. 14, but also what he became aware of in the weeks and months afterward. That's because the president took additional steps to try stop the investigation of Flynn following the Oval Office meeting with Comey. A crucial part of the timeline, for example, is the efforts of the White House to stop the investigation of Flynn in late March 2017 and the revelation of Flynn's September 2016 meeting with Turkish officials around that same time.
At the same time, we do not want to lose focus on another significant legal dimension here. Even if the president had no knowledge of the potential kidnapping meetings, if he tried to obstruct the federal investigation into Flynn's work as an agent of a foreign government (Turkey), it would significantly raise the prospect of legal and political liability beyond his potential liability for obstructing the Russia-related investigation.
We offer the timeline and analysis below for others to assess. Our own conclusions are threefold. First, the mounting evidence of Flynn's having been a paid foreign agent for Turkey presumably figured into Trump's calculus in relieving him of duty. Second, the White House knew of the threatening nature of an active federal investigation of Flynn's work on behalf of Turkey when the president asked Comey to let Flynn go on Feb. 14. Third, the information contained in Flynn's filing as a foreign agent in early March was likely on the minds of White House senior officials when they attempted to get top intelligence officials to intervene with Comey to drop the Flynn investigation that month.
These claims may sound strong when stacked together. But they are also each qualified and relatively modest all things considered. That's because we don't know the full picture. Even if Flynn's foreign agent filings were on senior officials' minds, they may have acted for other reasons, for example. And when they asked top intelligence officials to get Comey to halt the Flynn investigation, maybe they limited their inquiry to the Russia-related part. The Trump campaign and administration have also suffered from disorganization, which makes it hard to infer that any one set of individuals were aware of what others knew or were doing. All that said, there's a mountain of information here to raise serious questions, and that lend circumstantial support to our conclusions.
I. When did the Flynn-Turkey federal investigation start?
When did the Justice Department start looking into Flynn's ties to Turkey? It may have started once former CIA Director James Woolsey alerted U.S. officials to the September 2016 meeting around that time. Woolsey's spokesperson clarified in a story for NBC that the FBI was already "in communication" with Woolsey before the matter was taken over by Mueller in May. More importantly, in a letter dated Nov. 30, 2016, the Justice Department notified Flynn that it was scrutinizing his lobbying work on behalf of the Turkish government. That appears to be a step shy of an open investigation. But by Jan. 4, 2017, at the latest, the Justice Department was reportedly investigating the matter to the point that Flynn was told of the investigation. (Note: as discussed below, Flynn informed the Trump transition team on January 4 that he was under federal investigation for his work for Turkey.) In short, we know generally when the FBI started looking into Flynn's Turkey lobbying work, but we still don't know when the FBI became aware of the potential kidnapping plot.
Flynn also came under a different criminal investigation sometime after Jan. 24 2017, with respect to to his statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak. In an interview with the FBI on Jan. 24, Flynn may have lied to the FBI about whether he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador. It is after that point that Flynn came under criminal investigation for potentially lying to the FBI.
At an unknown date, Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, also became a subject of the federal investigation into Russia, NBC reported in September 2017. Mueller is now also looking into what role Flynn's son may have played in efforts involving Turkey, including the December 2016 meeting, NBC reported more recently.
II. When did President Trump try to intercede?
There are three relevant points on the timeline.
That passage suggests that Comey thought the President was asking only about the Flynn-Russia related investigation and not the Flynn-Turkey investigation. But it is difficult to know what the president actually knew at that time. Important to that evaluation, Comey was not at liberty to testify publicly about the Turkey-related investigation. It is also relevant that Trump told Comey in general that Flynn "is a good guy and has been through a lot"–suggesting he was trying to absolve Flynn personally from any investigation. It would also be unusual for Trump to say drop Flynn on one investigation but not another. What's more, Trump's interest in broad protection from liability for Flynn may also be indicated by the president's tweet on March 31, 2017, that "Flynn should ask for immunity." Finally, the headache created for the White House by Flynn's Turkey-related wrongdoing was presumably part of the decision-making that led to his departure (see the timeline below).
On March 22, the president reportedly asks Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, in a private conversation, to intervene with Comey to get the FBI to stop investigating Flynn. Coats reportedly "discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as Trump had suggested would be inappropriate." Also around that same time, "senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn," according to the Washington Post.
September 19, 2016: Flynn participates in a meeting with senior Turkish officials in which the group reportedly discusses the option of kidnapping the cleric Gulen and removing him from the United States, according to a Wall Street Journal story (published in March 2017). Alptekin invited Flynn to the meeting, according to Flynn's firm, and Alptekin is present at the meeting. Woolsey, who was affiliated with Flynn's firm at the time, was present for part of the meeting's discussion,the contents of which he said greatly disturbed him. Woolsey thought the proposal for Gulen would "pretty clearly be a violation of law" and he reported it to "several people," including U.S. government officials at the time, specifically including an intermediary to Vice President Joseph Biden.
Note: Woolsey's spokesman, Jonathan Franks, told Just Security that Woolsey did not inform members of the Trump campaign about the September meeting. An important question is whether, either through the "several people" Woolsey informed or through others, Trump or his inner circle learned of the September meeting. If the Trump campaign was aware of the meeting before the WSJ story broke in March, it was apparently not directly from Woolsey.
Sept. 19, 2016: On the same day as his Turkish meeting, Flynn joins Trump and Jeff Sessions in a meeting with Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-sisi.
Sometime between Nov. 8, 2016 and Jan. 20, 2017: Flynn's personal lawyer alerted the Trump transition team prior to the inauguration that Flynn might register as a foreign agent of Turkey. Don McGahn, the campaign's top lawyer and now White House Counsel, was reportedly among those told at the time.
Nov. 10, 2016: President Barack Obama privately warns Trump about Flynn during their Oval Office meeting two days after the election. At least one person familiar with the meeting told Politico that "Obama forcefully told Trump to steer clear of Flynn." There are no publicly available details about why exactly Obama warned Trump and whether Obama stated specific concerns about Flynn.
Prior to Nov. 11, 2016: Chris Christie, who headed the transition team until Nov. 11, 2016, has subsequently said he directly warned Trump about Flynn, but he has not said specifically what those warnings entailed or the basis for them. "I didn't think that he was someone who would bring benefit to the President or to the administration, and I made that very clear to candidate Trump, and I made it very clear to President-elect Trump," Christie said in May 2017. Politico reports that as chief of the transition team, Christie "mounted a campaign against Flynn for the national security adviser job." Christie told associates as early as August 2016 of his concerns about Flynn.
Nov. 15, 2016: Flynn's contract with Alptekin is terminated.
Flynn has voiced interest in being Director of National Intelligence, and was on a list of candidates for the position shortly after the election. He also expressed interest in being secretary of state, secretary of defense, or national security adviser. It's recognized, however, that Senate confirmation could be difficult in part due to his connections to Turkey, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Washington Post about the internal transition team discussions.
Nov. 16, 2018: Trump announces that Flynn will serve as National Security Adviser.
What's more, Cummings did not just send a quiet letter. He issued a press release with the text of the letter, and received media coverage across major media outlets at the time, likely increasing the salience of the issue for the transition team.
Dec. 9, 2016: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) send a letter to FBI Director James Comey, DNI James Clapper, and OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert calling for a re-evaluation of Flynn's security clearance. They cite his "repeated mishandling of classified information," his paid visit to Moscow, and his business interests as CEO of Flynn Intel Group.
Blumenthal and Shaheen's letter receives significant media coverage, likely increasing the salience for the White House.
Mid-Dec. 2016: In a second meeting with Turkish government representatives, Flynn reportedly discusses the idea of he and his son helping to forcibly remove Gulen and deliver the cleric to Turkish custody using a private jet, in a plot that would have paid the Flynns $15 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Flynn also was prepared to use his influence in the White House to further the legal extradition of the cleric," according to the story. Michael Flynn's lawyers dispute the story.
Jan. 4, 2017: Flynn reportedly tells the transition team, including McGahn, that he is under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey.
After Jan. 20: Flynn's lawyers have "a second conversation with Trump lawyers … and made clear the national security adviser would indeed be registering [as a foreign agent] with the Justice Department," the AP reported.
Feb. 7, 2017: Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have their first telephone call in which they discuss a range of policy issues. Flynn is still national security advisor at this point.
REMINDER: It is on Feb. 14, 2017 that Trump asks Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn.
SIGNIFICANCE: It is hard to believe that the Flynn filings of his Turkey work were not on the minds of the White House when they engaged in efforts later that month to try to get other intelligence officials to intervene with Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.
The Wall Street Journal published a news report and exclusive video interview with Woolsey in which he publicly discloses that the Sept. 19, 2016 meeting included the discussion of kidnapping and removing the cleric from the United States.
SIGNIFICANCE: Did Trump and White House officials know before the Wall Street Journal story went public? Trump and his team were certainly made aware on March 24 of the potentially outrageous nature of the September meeting, when the interview with Woolsey was published. Were they alerted to this information before March 24, for example, through the people the Journal's reporters contacted for comment? The story does state, for example, that the Journal reached out to the chairman and president of Flynn's firm and to Mr. Alptekin for comment when researching the story. The Journal also reached out to the spokesperson for Erdogan's son-in-law, who is also the Turkish energy minister, and was present at the Sept. 19 meeting. That spokesperson referred the Journal to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, which provided a written statement prior to publication. The story does not indicate whether the White House was contacted prior to publication.
Why is this timing vitally important? As we discussed earlier, on March 22, Trump held his private conversation with Coats and Pompeo to see if they could help get Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, and apparently around that same time in March senior White House officials reached out to top intelligence officials for the same purpose. It would expose the White House politically and legally if they knew at the time about the September meeting that included the kidnapping discussion.
Woolsey's spokesman, Jonathan Franks, told Just Security that Woolsey did not inform the White House about the September meeting before the publication of the Wall Street Journal story in March. So, if the Trump campaign or the White House were aware of the Sept. 19 meeting before the Wall Street Journal story broke, it was not directly from Woolsey.
Q: Could you clear up what appears to be some tension between what you said yesterday about when the administration or the president was made aware of General Flynn's foreign lobbying ties and the AP reporting today that the transition team was informed of Flynn's potential need to register?
SPICER: So there's a big difference between when he filed, which was the other day — two days ago — and what happened then. What the AP is reporting, just so we're clear, is that a personal lawyer of General Flynn's contacted a transition lawyer and asked for guidance on what he should or should not do.
But why would it take Flynn's formally filing as a foreign agent for Trump and the transition team to be aware of Flynn's activities? We now know that Flynn told the transition team on Jan. 4 that he was under federal investigation for his work on behalf of Turkey. That was reported by the New York Times on May 17, 2017. Recall as well the conference call on Nov. 19, 2016 when Trump campaign lawyer and now White House Cabinet Secretary, William McGinley spoke with members of the Flynn firm to obtain information about the group's work for Turkey. That too was reported after Spicer's March 9 and 10, 2017 press conferences. Why did the White House deny it?


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The Archdiocese of San Francisco Catholic Charismatic Renewal has various events throughout the year, including a First Friday evening Mass each month, at different parishes throughout the archdiocese. Join the community on May 4, at St. Veronica Church.
6:30 Assembly; 6:45 Rosary; 7:00 Praise & Worship; 7:30 Mass; Healing Service and Hospitality after Mass.
For complete information on Catholic Charismatic Renewal of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, visit the website sfspirit.com.


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Business, Construction Company
December 6, 2019 Charlie	Leave a comment
The Toyo Setalcompany, based out of Brazil, has been making some big moves lately and the leadership team was recently able to make a major announcement. This announcement that Toyo Setal announced is that the company has come out on top of a process of bidding that took over a year to finalize. This bidding process was regarding the contract for construction projects with the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex. It has been since 2015 that was has been at a halt on this project. Getting it moving along again has been a top priority for Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex and there is much excitement about being able to bring in Toyo Setal. This is not the first time that these two organizations have worked together and there is a large amount of excitement surrounding the rekindling of a positive working relationship. With a deadline fast approaching, both organizations look forward to moving things ahead.
The importance of this new contract was recently emphasized by Rafael Ribeiro de Mendonca Lima of Toyo Setal. He is the firm's Commercial Manager. A major point that he made regarding this contract is the fact that it represents two great companies working together once again. His team looks forward to showing what they can do within the scope of this outstanding opportunity. The company is going to have the chance to complete a major project that has been stalled out now for some time. The team took great care in evaluating the areas that still need to be accomplished to complete this major work. To know more about the company click here.
The ceasing of work on this project over the last few years has been a major problem for the city of Rio de Janeiro's Itaborai area. The work previously shutting down has caused a great deal of economic hardship. This is a major reason why all involved are excited about being able to bring in a dedicated firm like Toyo Setal. This work poses a great potential to stimulate the economy in Brazil. It is yet another opportunity for the team at Toyo to show what they can do.
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/toyo-setal
based out of Brazil
Business, Food Industry
The OSI Group is a company that was founded in 1909, based out of Chicago. The OSI Group is a private owned company that specializes in meat processing. They serve the retail and food service industries nationally and internationally. They currently operate more than 65 facilities in 17 countries. In 1909, the company founder Otto Kolschowsky opened a family meat market in the outskirts of Chicago of Oak Park, Illinois. By 1917, Otto Kolschowsky expanded into the wholesale meat trade field and relocated his business to another Chicago suburb, the city of Maywood, Illinois. In 1928, the company became known as Otto & Sons and they had developed a reputation for making quality meats.
In 1955, when the first McDonalds restaurant was opened in Des Plaines, Illinois they choice of meat supplier was nonetheless Otto & Sons. McDonalds used their meat for their fresh ground patties. In 1975, Otto & Sons changed their name to OSI Industries.
Today, there's a rising popularity in plant based foods. As a result, Impossible Foods has come to an agreement with veteran food manufacture OSI Group. OSI Group agreed to help with the supply and demand. In recent news, Impossible Foods was struggling since April to meet the demand from big chain customers such as White Castle and Burger King. In addition to the supply and demand in the market, Beyond Meat successful IPO had stoked the interest of consumers and investors. Beyond Meat's share price had climbed to nearly 700%, since it debuted back in May on the Nasdaq.
Currently, the Impossible Burger is sold at approximately 10,000 restaurants worldwide. This number doubled from last year when it was nearing 5,000. With this success, the company is planning on selling groceries by the end of the year. The OSI Group objective is to help Impossible Foods expand their production by the end of the year. Their next goal is to develop products like frozen foods.
veteran food manufacture
Businessman, Founder
Career of Boris Ivanov
Born in Moscow, Boris Ivanov is a successful oil industry mogul. He began his career in 1983 within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. Through his time here, he concentrated deeply on diplomacy and improving US-Soviet relations. Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ivanov realigned his sites to the private sector. He left the Ministry to pursue private consultant work for an oil business in Russia. This career change was short-lived as he soon assumed the position of Vice President of Unibest Bank.
He would remain Vice President from 1995 to 2000. In those 5 years, Ivanov primarily oversaw the financing of oil and gas projects. Following this position, Boris took on the challenge of First-Deputy Director General for Strategy for the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG. Upon completing the challenge of stabilizing the corporation financially, Boris Ivanov left to return to the petroleum industry. It was at this time in 2004 that he would become the Advisor to the Chairman of Gazprombank OJSC and aid in international expansion. Simultaneously he lead the charge for Gazprom Exploration and Production International B.V. to grow their operations for the Gazprom group. To date, Mr. Ivanov is GPB's largest shareholder and Managing Director of GPB Global Resources B.V.
The #RussiaAfricaSummit was valuable time spent for us to discuss the future of #AfricanRussian relations. https://t.co/64bXuYF4Uw
— Boris Ivanov (@BorisIvanovGPB) November 28, 2019
Throughout his career, Boris Ivanov claims that he is continuously developing his leadership style and undergone extensive personal growth. He strongly believes that it is crucial to not only lead his employees but to also listen to people. He is often quoted as saying a leader is only as strong as their support team. Another popular belief held by Ivanov is that GPB's most valuable asset is its employees. So to nurture and encourage the growth of employees and their skills is a crucial component of their success.
Outside of work, Boris Ivanov contributes to numerous charitable causes. He also finds that although time with family is unfortunately rare it is a priceless commodity.
successful oil industry mogul
Business, Business Expert, Businessman, Entrepreneur, Food Industry
Exceptionalism is a state that is purposefully acquired. It takes multiple people working towards a similar goal. It takes multiple points view and ways to accomplish things. It takes a team. Sheldon Lavin has spent his 55 year career developing exceptional businesses that shine and excel in a very competitive field.
Mr. Lavin has both the experience and the education to bring out the exceptional in both businesses and people. He graduated from Roosevelt University in Chicago Illinois with a Bachelor's degree in business. He also attended the University of Illinois and Northwestern for accounting and finance.
Sheldon Lavin was born in 1932 and calls Chicago his home. He has opened a financial consulting firm in downtown Chicago. It was this firm that would give him his first big success and spell out exceptional in his career.
The firm Mr. Lavin started specializes in large scale financial operations. He offers guidance to his clients as to how to better serve their consumer base. This includes moving stock to where it is needed, how to improve on in store delivery of product, and how to enhance profitability.
In 1970 Sheldon Lavin first became involved with Otto & Sons. Since that time he has helped them grow from a small local company to an internationally recognized meat and protein based provider. Since his first encounter with the company he has moved from financial advisor to Chief Executive Officer for the company.
One of the key aspects to his success is communication. All employees are treated like family. Every person has a say in every decision. Humility has kept Lavin grounded and in touch with his team. He surrounds himself with people with all types of experiences so he has a huge base of insight when having to make important business decisions.
Sheldon Lavin has always desired to make a difference in the world. He states that having a basic plan is one way to accomplish goals. One must also rely on personal knowledge and instinct to accentuate changes in your community and business. Sheldon has a specific talent in being able to build businesses. He finds the best business builder is learning how to build up the people who work in the business. Read More: https://www.osigroup.com/news/
Business, Business Solution, Company, Financial Industry, Investment, Investment Firm, Investment Management Firm
Fortress Investment Group is a business development and investment management company that operates in America and overseas. Wesley Edens, Randal A. Nardone, and Per L. Briger founded it in 1998 in New York City. It is one of the leading private equity firms in America.
The company became the first private equity company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007. Many investors were skeptical about this decision. However, when it paid off, other private firms gained the confidence to trade their shares on NYSE. Today, more than five private companies are trading their shares on the platform. Visit bizjournals.com to learn more about Fortress Investment Group.
This firm operates mostly in North America, Western Europe, and the Caribbean. It works with investors in the healthcare sector, transportation, leisure, telecommunication and real estate. The firm also manages investments for clients dealing with renewable energy, media, and senior living.
The core competencies that drive business in the company are deep industry knowledge, basing investments on assets, and involvement in acquisitions and mergers. They help firms to set up and improve their operations management. The company assists individuals with a high net-worth and private companies that require investment management services.
Peter L. Briger previously worked at Goldman Sachs, an investment management company specializing in distressed investments such as troubled mortgages and car loans. He introduced the firm to the concept of working with troubled investments.
Randal A. Nardone has been a senior manager in a number of investment management companies. He was the chief operations officer at IMPAC Commercial Holdings. He also worked as the managing director of UBS between 1997 and 1998. Since he joined the firm, he has worked as the vice president and the chief operations officer.
The company invests in leisure under the guidance of Wesley Edens. As the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and FlyQuest sports teams, he has a lot of knowledge in leisure and sports management. Before joining Fortress Investment Group, he had worked as a manager in Lehman Brothers and as the MD of BlackRock Brothers.
The company employs about two thousand four hundred workers. According to them, working at the firm trains them to work on different kinds of investment products. They say that the management is supportive, and there are opportunities to grow professionally since they are ever busy. The pay is commensurate with the work they do for the firm.
Millennium Development Group contracted the company to finance the construction of the villages for athletes participating in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The project, worth $875million, was completed on time for the games.
In 2017, SoftBank Group Corporation acquired Fortress Investment Group and all its subsidiaries for $3.3 billion. The firm will continue to operate under the leadership of the three founders. However, it will work under the SoftBank Group, and its shares will no longer be traded at the NYSE. The shareholders were offered a cash payout at the rate of $8.08 per share.
By the time of its acquisition, Fortress Investment Group was managing investments for more than one thousand seven hundred companies and individuals across the world. It manages investments worth about $36.1 billion.
Read more: https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Fortress-Investment-Group-EI_IE40847.11,36.htm
Business, Business Expert, Businessman, Entrepreneur, Founder, Investor
Bhanu Choudhrie: An Indian-English Entrepreneurship Role Model
It is one thing for a professional like Bhanu Choudhrie to simply be blessed with a son, a wife and a luxury home. It is quite a difference, however for someone like Mr. Choudhrie to have earned himself a $25,000,000 home and multiple professionally-oriented awards. In order to do this, the Indian-born Mr. Choudhrie had to traverse multiple nations and industries on his way.
Leaving New Delhi, India, in 1996 was, for Choudhrie and important jump. The result of this jump was Mr. Choudhrie landing on a Boston University degree in 2000. Bhanu Choudhrie managed to parlay this degree into a temporary position inside of JPMorgan that same year.
Eventually he moved on from JP Morgan and went over to Great Britain. This marked the beginning of Bhanu Choudhrie's London time financial rise. C&C Alpha Group Limited might not be a household name to casual financial readers, but it is precisely this entity that allowed Mr. Choudhrie to gain his current wealth, as well as his supreme philanthropic status.
It did so well, in fact, that its revenue paid for much of the operations that Path to Success, Choudhrie's most beloved charity organization, needed to carry out. These operations were related to disabled women, and the bulk of the efforts involved career-oriented duties and aid. It makes sense to many in the London financial sphere that Mister Choudhrie would become the Public Life Award;s champion 2010.
From there, graduate studies back in America would begin. These would begin in 2013, and they ended in 2016. Impressively, that time was spent by Bhanu Choudhrie at none other than the University of Harvard.
Leaving there with his presidential management credentials opened up for Mister Choudhrie some opportunities with both Megalith Financial Acquisition Corporation and its peer known as Atlantic Coast Financial Corporation. Mr. Choudhrie found that he belongs on these groups' boards, and his directing efforts were well received. Mister Bhanu Choudhrie even rose up to executive director at one of these groups. Clearly, Bhanu knows just how to prosper. This prosperity was achieved by him in education, investment and philanthropy.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhanu_Choudhrie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Whitney Tilson's Latest Newsletter
Posted By: Sep 10, 2011, 9:59 am
The latest from Whitney Tilson:
My favorite authors are out with new missives. First, is Howard Marks with What's Behind the Downturn Here's an excerpt:
I feel the prosperity we enjoyed in the final decades of the twentieth century was
considerably better than "normal," and better than we're likely to see up ahead.
I'm not implying a world without growth or otherwise permanently negative. Just
one without the prosperity, dynamism or positive feelings of past decades.In
addition, the newness of the macro picture and some of the problems – and the opacity of
the solutions – certainly make it less clear in which direction we'll go.
It's my belief that things went better in the late twentieth century than we have reason to
expect in the years ahead. We could get lucky again, of course, but it would be
downright imprudent to make investments predicated on that assumption. Thus at
Oaktree we're making allowance for things that may go less well than they did in
past periods. Cheapness provides a margin of safety today, but only so much.
We're moving forward, but cautiously.
2) Here's GMO's Jeremy Grantham with Danger: Children at Play:
My worst fears about the potential loss of confidence in our leaders, institutions, "and capitalism itself" are being
realized. We have been digging this hole for a long time. We really must be serious in our attempts to resuscitate the
"average hour worked" and the fortunes of the average worker. Walking across the Boston Common this morning,
I came to realize that the unpalatable (to me) option of some debt forgiveness on mortgages looks increasingly to be
necessary as well as the tax changes I discuss here.
To go further, if we mean to prosper long term, I am sure we need to act to make debt less attractive to everybody: it
really is a snare and a delusion.
At the close on August 8, a slightly cheap equity portfolio could be put together comprised of U.S. high quality,
emerging markets, Japan, Italy, and European growth stocks. On our data, the imputed 7-year return of the package
today would be about 6.5% real!* Quality stocks, especially in the U.S. but almost everywhere, continue to
handsomely outperform. Regrettably, this means that they have declined very considerably less than the indices. In
its asset allocation accounts, GMO is modestly underweight equities, partly because of the desperately unattractive
yields on fixed income. We are now very modest buyers for the first time since mid 2009.
3) Re. my comments about Japan in my last email, attached is a more optimistic piece by GMO from April. Excerpts:
Japan's fiscal situation has little in common with Europe's PIIGS. For a start, sovereign defaults tend to afflict
countries that depend on foreign capital. This was the case for Greece and other countries in the European periphery.
Japan, on the other hand, remains the world's largest international creditor and the overwhelming bulk of its public
debt (roughly 94%) is domestically held. It is very rare for democratic countries to default on debt held by their own
nationals. Sovereign defaults may also be prompted by economic contraction in countries that are locked into an
uncompetitive exchange rate. But unlike the PIIGS, Japan has its own currency, controls the central bank, and can
devalue if necessary. Japan also runs a large current account surplus, whereas the PIIGS sport deficits. Banking crises
can induce sovereign debt crises, as Ireland and Iceland have recently shown. But after huge write-offs during the past
two decades, Japan's leading banks have robust balance sheets.
The focus on the downward trend in household savings is highly misleading. Unlike Greece and, for that matter, both
the US and UK, Japan's gross savings rate (at 23% of GDP) remains high. In fact, Japan's fiscal deficit is the result
of too much saving. Since the bubble burst in 1990, Japanese companies have been paying down their debts and
raising cash. The financial surplus of the private sector has produced a shortfall in aggregate demand, which has been
plugged by government deficits.15 Once corporate deleveraging ends and the Japanese start spending more and saving
less, then (everything else being equal) the government deficit should automatically contract.
There are other reasons to be relatively sanguine about Japan's sovereign credit. The headline debt figure at more than
twice GDP overstates the problem. This number includes debt held by various government entities and sterilization
bonds, but excludes the government's large foreign exchange reserves. A more appropriate figure is the net debt,
which stands at 114% of GDP (see Exhibit 4). By this yardstick, the debt is only four times tax revenues.
One should also take into account the fact that government revenues are currently depressed (see Exhibit 5). After
two decades of deflation, the tax take is lower today than in 1990. Corporation tax receipts are around half their 1990
level. Economists often refer to the "inflation tax," which occurs when the effective tax rate increases with inflation.
Japan's public finances have suffered from the opposite effect – a "deflation tax rebate." The Japanese are not heavily
taxed by modern standards. Government revenues are approximately 30% of GDP, compared to an average of around
40% in Western Europe. Consumption tax in Japan is much lower than in the West. The greatest beneficiaries of the
deflation rebate have been the elderly who, directly or indirectly, own most of the government debt but aren't paying
their share of the fiscal burden.
Nor is it true that Japan's public finances must necessarily collapse if interest rates were to rise. This would only be
the case if rates rose while tax revenues remain unchanged. In fact, Japan's tax revenues have shown themselves to
be sensitive to changes in nominal GDP. If rates rise because deflation has ended and economic growth is picking up,
then revenues may well rise faster than any increase in debt service. Under these circumstances, the government's
ratio of debt to GDP would rise initially but start falling after a few years. Interest payments on the outstanding debt
would never become unmanageable.
And here's the conclusion:
In the 1980s, "Japan is different" was a proud boast. The last two decades have shown Japanese differences in a less
flattering light. But some of its achievements have been glossed over. Japan still compares favorably to the US on
many measures: its energy efficiency is far greater; the population enjoys greater longevity while spending far less on
healthcare; income inequality is much less pronounced; since 2000, Japanese GDP per capita has even outpaced the
US. Japan's car industry still leads the world and, as recent events have shown, Japanese components manufacturers
continue to occupy many vital niches in the global supply chain.
Nevertheless, Japan has been slow to adapt to changing realities; whether to the collapse of the bubble economy,
the decline in its population, or the rise of its Asian neighbors. Far from conforming to Schumpeterian notions
of economic development, Japan has followed its own unique path of "creative self-destruction." If the country
continues on its recent path, the doomsters' dire predictions will eventually come to pass. Tokyo needs to get its fiscal
house in order. The country needs to improve its trend growth rate. Deflation must be dispelled. Japanese companies
must generate better returns.
These are not impossible demands. The fiscal situation can be rectified. Taxes can be raised on consumption and on
the elderly. Tax revenues will rise once deflation ends and the economy starts growing again. With sufficient political
pressure, the Bank of Japan might be persuaded to achieve its inflation target. This should bring down real interest
rates. If properly incentivized, corporate managers might find the will to raise profit margins. They might even find
a way to consolidate the over-supplied domestic market. Numerous supply-side reforms could improve productivity.
The workforce might be expanded with greater female participation, or foreign immigration (heaven forbid!).
4) Below is Bill Gross's latest Investment Outlook:
* Liquidity concerns may affect all European peripheral bond markets unless the European Central Bank counters the rush for the exits with an enlarged daily checkbook.
* In the U.S., discord between rich and poor has led to lower, not higher, Treasury yields as approaching recessionary winds force the Fed and private investors to favor bonds.
* We prefer investing in the "cleaner" dirty shirt countries of Canada, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, along with non-dollar currencies that have strong trade ties with the Asian continent.
5) Below is Dan Loeb's letter to Yahoo:
Third Point LLC ("Third Point") is a registered investment adviser with approximately $8 billion under management. We are writing to inform you that certain investment funds we manage have acquired a 5.1% interest in Yahoo! Inc. (the "Company" or "Yahoo"), bringing our holdings of common stock and currently-exercisable equity options to 65,000,000 of the outstanding shares, and positioning us as the Company's third largest outside shareholder.
This letter details our principled demands for sweeping changes in both the Board of Directors (the "Board") and Company leadership, and outlines the hidden value of Yahoo, which has been severely damaged – but not irreparably – by poor management and governance.
6) The guys at M3 are the smartest bank analysts I'm aware of. Their latest letter, shared with permission, in which they show that banks are engaged in extend-and-pretend and are juicing earnings by reducing allowances for loan losses:
On August 23, the FDIC released its second quarter 2011 Quarterly Banking Profile, a statistical piece
summarizing the state of the banking industry. The most recent edition of the Profile reveals that the
banking industry continues to support earnings by releasing loan loss reserves, despite only slight
improvement in credit quality. Additionally, the abundance of balance sheet liquidity present in the
industry suggests that banks will have a difficult time generating loan growth while still adhering to
sound underwriting principles.
The banking industry earned $28.8 billion in the second quarter, representing a 9.8% return on
tangible equity. Earnings improved 38% over the same period a year ago, but declined 1% compared
to last quarter. Industry wide loan loss provisions totaled only $19 billion in the second quarter,
representing the eighth consecutive quarterly decline and the lowest provision expense in four years.
Further, for the fifth consecutive quarter, net charge-offs outpaced provision expense, and
consequently, the coverage ratio (loan loss reserves divided by nonperforming assets) fell to a cyclical
low 42%.
While credit costs continue to decline, delinquency trends have not followed the same downward
trajectory. Nonaccrual assets appear to be dropping significantly (down 18% from the peak in 2010),
but this is largely the result of banks restructuring problem loans. We believe banks are restructuring
underwater loans with the hope of keeping borrowers attached long enough for collateral values to
recover. As the chart below illustrates, troubled debt restructurings (TDRs) have increased 84% since
nonaccrual loans peaked, and today, there is an additional $1 of restructured loans for every $3 in
nonaccrual assets.
7) An article about how Warren Buffett, Bruce Berkowitz and Francis Chou are investing in US financials (as are we – and, like Chou, we like the TARP warrants, and own those of JPM and WFC):
A pretty simple investing formula thus becomes: buy the banks that have survived immediately after a blow-up, when everyone hates them. Hold them for a few years until earnings and balance sheets recover. Then sell them when most investors are no longer afraid of the sector.
That formula seems to be exactly what Bruce Berkowitz of the Fairholme Funds and Warren Buffett are ascribing to. Both Berkowitz and Buffett bought into the banking sector in a large way in the early '90s after the last major banking collapse. Specifically, both made large investments in Wells Fargo (WFC) when the general consensus was that the California real estate collapse was going to destroy the company.
Now both investors are doing so again, with their headline investment being Bank of America (BAC). They buy when the banking sector is still covered with the wretched smell of the last disaster. They will sell when headlines improve and other investors lose their fear.
Another well-respected and risk-averse Canadian value investor named Francis Chou has also invested heavily in the American banking sector in the past year. Chou however has decided to try and amplify his returns by not simply investing in shares of Bank of America and other banks directly, but rather by investing in the warrants of these companies that were issued to the US Treasury during the TARP program.
8) Amidst all the bearishness on Europe is this promising development:
As leaders in Europe try to contain a deepening financial crisis, they are also increasingly talking about making fundamental changes to the way their 17-nation economic union works.
The idea is to create a central financial authority — with powers in areas like taxation, bond issuance and budget approval — that could eventually turn the euro zone into something resembling a United States of Europe.
Officials have been hesitant to publicly endorse such a drastic change. But privately they say the issue has gained urgency in recent months, as it has become clear that Europe's current approach, which requires unanimity on any significant moves, is unwieldy and inefficient. The idea is being promoted by some global financial officials, who worry about the risks that continued uncertainty in Europe poses to the global economy.
Full article here.
9) Jonathan Weil on the Sino-Forest debacle:
The credit rater Standard & Poor's may have been late to throw Sino-Forest Corp. (TRE) into the wood chipper when it withdrew its opinion on the company's debt this week. At least it wasn't last.
The end seems near for Sino-Forest. The Chinese-Canadian timber company's bonds are priced for a default. Securities regulators in Canada have accused the company of fraud and suspended trading in its stock. One question lingers: Which of the company's paid opinion merchants will be the last to step aside? Will it be a credit rater? Or will it be the company's auditor, Ernst & Young LLP in Toronto, which has yet to rescind any of its reports on Sino-Forest's finances?
So far Ernst looks like the favorite, with only one rating company left in the hunt. Think of it as a contest between giant tortoises to see which one is slower. This time-honored ritual — of market gatekeepers waiting to blow the whistle until long after a scam has been exposed — has become so familiar, we might as well revel in the spectacle.
Fitch Ratings withdrew its junk rating on Sino-Forest on July 14, six weeks after the short-selling research firm Muddy Waters LLC released a lengthy report accusing the company of fraudulently overstating its timber holdings in China. S&P pulled its rating this week after downgrading the company to CCC-, three levels above default, citing "heightened information risks." That's a euphemism for "we have no idea what's going on here."
This leaves just Moody's Investors Service and Ernst, both of which, like S&P and Fitch, are paid by the same companies on which they render opinions. Moody's this week downgraded the company three steps to Caa1, its fifth-lowest mark. That's well into junk territory. So at least Moody's is on record saying that Sino-Forest is a very high credit risk.
Ernst is still clinging to its position that Sino-Forest's books are clean, under the accounting profession's usual pass- fail standard. Beyond that, the firm refuses to speak publicly about its audit work for the company, whose board includes two former Ernst partners.
There's every reason to believe Muddy Waters' call was spectacularly correct. Once again a Big Four accounting firm seems to have been caught with its pants down, having told the investing public for years that a multibillion-dollar enterprise's numbers could be trusted, only to see its imprimatur discarded by the markets and its conclusions upended by government investigators. Even the lowly credit raters, notorious for being slow to pull the trigger on dying companies, have been quicker on the draw this go-around.
10) It's very interesting (and unusual) to see how vocal Buffett has gotten on this. He must really believe that our government is being hijacked by the Tea Party:
Warren Buffett, the self-made billionaire and son of a former Republican congressman, has widened the rift with his father's party by pressing for tax increases on the wealthy and reinforcing ties with President Barack Obama.
Buffett endured scorn from Republicans this month after he called the Tea Party approach to budget talks "insane" and proposed raising $500 billion by taxing the richest Americans. Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., was cited as an exemplar by Obama at least three times since July.
"Whenever Buffett says something, you can almost put money on the fact that within the next 48 hours, Obama's going to use the phrase, 'My good friend Warren Buffett says blah, blah, blah,'" said David Rolfe, chief investment officer of Berkshire shareholder Wedgewood Partners Inc. "If you're going to tread into those waters, you need to expect the brickbats."
Buffett's criticism contrasts with praise he offered in the last decade to former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the political appointees of former President George W. Bush. The Tea Party movement, which made gains in last year's elections, was faulted by Buffett for silencing other Republican voices. Buffett plans to hold a Sept. 30 fundraiser in New York City for Obama's re-election bid, Democratic officials said.
"He crossed the line from being an observer to being more of a participant," said Jeff Matthews, author of "Secrets in Plain Sight: Business & Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett." That, "to a lot of people seemed kind of weird and prompted a hostile reaction."
11) Hilarious!
Yes, It's True: Ben & Jerry's Introduces 'Schweddy Balls' Ice Cream Flavor
by Eyder Peralta
We thought it would never happen. When we reported that comedian Ana Gasteyer had spilled the beans on a new Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor based on aSaturday Night Live skit that pokes fun at NPR, we thought it would never happen.
Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls ice cream.
But we were wrong. Ben & Jerry's announced today that "Schweddy Balls" ice cream is on its way to store shelves across the country.
As we explained in June, "in case you don't get the reference, the skit is a hilarious commentary on NPR's, um, uniquely soothing sound. [Alec] Baldwin plays Pete Schweddy, a guest on a fake NPR show called Delicious Dish. Pete makes holiday treats like cheese balls, popcorn balls, rum balls and his famous Schweddy balls. The skit is an exercise in double entendres."
We talked to Ben & Jerry's spokesman Sean Greenwood and asked him, "What are you guys thinking?" We were imagining someone who's never seen the skit walking the grocery aisles and stumbling on the flavor.
Greenwood laughed.
"We've always been a company that has had a sense of humor," he said. Sometimes, he said, they spend time discussing serious business and other times "we just do fun."
"This is just plain silly," he said. And it tastes pretty good, he promised.
The flavor is made up of "vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and is loaded with fudge covered rum balls and milk chocolate malt balls."
It'll be available for a limited time in about 30 percent of stores that carry Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
Uber and Lyft Business Deterioration Even Worse Than You Think: Tilson
Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue: Investing in Retail Turnarounds


Just a little list of things I've done this week that I felt like sharing with you all. Enjoy!
Watched snowflakes fall outside the living room window - while the sun was shining!
Brushed up on French history because why not?
Hello, everyone! It's been a while, but I'm back with a post about this beautiful coloring book for adults - Picturing Heaven, based on Randy Alcorn's book Heaven.
Besides pretty coloring pages, this coloring book also includes a devotion and Bible verse with each coloring page. The devotions read more like personal thoughts about heaven rather than an actual morning devo, but they were good nonetheless. The coloring pages themselves are very lovely with lots of intricate designs to color in.
Personally, I didn't like the extra gold details on each coloring page, but my sister did. It's just a personal preference, though I feel it hindered the way I would want to color in the pages since it was partially colored in already.
Overall, I found this coloring book very pretty, and relaxing to color in - a nice, reflective way to spend the morning or afternoon.
This book review is long overdue, despite my excitement to write it. I received this book a while ago for free from the authoress in exchange for my honest review. So, without any further delay, here is my review!
Dorian The Daring is an adventure novel set in medieval time, and is written by Camille Esther. The story follows a young man, Dorian, who discovers that he is not, as he believed, a noblewoman's son but the son of an impoverished villager. After a two-faced friend of his nobleman father gets him turned out of his grand home, Dorian sets out to find his true family and stumbles across some startling discoveries - including the fact that someone wants him dead.
Dorian The Daring was all in all a fantastic read. I thoroughly enjoyed how well the authoress developed the characters and the plot. Every new chapter - sometimes even the next page! - brought something new and exciting to the story. At times, however, it seemed that Dorian escaped dangerous ordeals too easily. However, that is my only negative feedback for the story. This book is not your average "brave prince saves the damsel in distress and lives happily ever after" medieval story. Dorian has many doubts and fears, and fights with his thoughts all throughout his journey. With would-be assassins and other dangers hiding in every shadow, he is always looking over his shoulder, thinking twice, trying to protect his newfound family from the evil plot he has discovered. With each new danger he faces, Dorian comes closer to uncovering the truth and realizes what he must do to set everything right.
Dorian The Daring is a book I would recommend to anyone looking for an adventurous tale!
I cannot express how much I love Fall. The cold weather, the warm jackets, the need for socks so that your toes don't get too cold. Not to mention sitting on the porch with a cup of hot tea, watching the leaves fall off the trees and land on the lawn.
Frank Sinatra (and pretty much any singer in that era) has a voice with the splendid style that reminds me of driving in a car through the city on a cold night, not really going anywhere, just looking at the stores lining the streets, all locked up tight with the lights left on in the windows. This song, Autumn in New York, makes me smile.
In the midst of all the book reviews and scribblings I've been writing, I feel like I haven't quite been true to the reason my younger self started this blog in the first place - posting photos. (My blog name is The Godly Photographer, is it not?) So, here are some photos of flowers I have taken in the past couple of years. Hope you enjoy!
Most of these photos were taken while vacationing in Colorado. A couple were taken at a relative's farmhouse. I think it's a safe bet to say all of these were photographed using my 50mm lens (my favorite lens). I love that the photos that involve subjects other than flowers have flowery pieces - the floral appliques on my sister's dress in the photo above, and the flower curtains in the photo below.
I hope you enjoyed these photos! I'll hopefully be posting some more of my photography here on the blog. If you want to see more of my photos, you can visit my photo blog at DiverseReflections.com.
Over the years, I have acquainted myself with many intellectual people - people who like to get into deep conversation instead of the simple "how's the weather?" sort of talk. In TeenPact, we talk about politics, government, figuring out how we can fix the nation's problems when we grow up. I have my family to share opinions with, as well as awesome friends with whom to discuss big topics. I enjoy having discussions with others.
And I enjoy reading books. Grand books. Old books. Most books, really. I'm currently in the middle of Les Misérables, which is now one of my favorite books. At any given time, I am reading at least one book. I also enjoy talking to my friends about the books I've been reading.
So I decided to start a book club with some of the teens in a homeschool group I'm in. I chose to start the club with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - a book I had read and enjoyed (and also a book which is a favorite of my best friend, Paprika...she can quote it cover to cover!). We would read the book and meet the next month to discuss the book, what we'd thought of it, which character we most liked and why...That's what a book club is, isn't it?
I spent the month leading up to the first meeting re-reading the book, finding favorite quotes to share with my fellow club members, making little favors (bookmarks with some of the book quotes on them, with pieces of ribbon tied to the ends), and coming up with questions to spark discussion. I was super excited, positive the club's first meeting would be a fantastic one, and could hardly wait to discuss Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth and Jane and Bingley. On the day of the club, I strolled in and met one person. Okay, I thought, I'm a bit early. Maybe the others haven't arrived yet. So I started chatting with the girl - I'll call her Rachel - who had already come. Five minutes passed, and no one else had arrived. I learned from Rachel that she had only read the first chapter of the book in the past month since I had announced the book club. The first chapter. If you have ever read Pride and Prejudice, you'll know that the first chapter is less than two pages long. Rachel had read two pages of the book, but hadn't understood it, so she had chosen to read a series of less-Classic books instead...which she had already read once before.
I supposed I hadn't been clear about reading the whole book before the first meeting. Maybe when the other teens arrived, we would be able to have a bigger discussion about the book. For the time being, I explained the first part of the book to Rachel without giving away too many spoilers (I hate spoilers, but I suppose nearly everyone knows what happens at the end of Pride and Prejudice?).
Well, after a bit, Rachel told me that the people who were going to come - a couple other girls - couldn't make it. So it was just me, who had read the entire book and craved intellectual discussion, and Rachel, who had read one chapter and didn't want to continue reading Jane Austen's writing style.
So instead of discussing Mr. Darcy's trying to break up Jane and Bingley's relationship, or how hilarious Mrs. Bennet's attempts were at getting her girls to marry richer men, Rachel and I ended up talking about other books which she had read - and a few that I had read that she knew of.
"Have you read Journey to the Centre of the Earth?"
"Uhhh, no. Have you read the Lunar Chronicles?"
"Can't say I have...um, have you ever read The Time Machine?"
"Hmm, no, I haven't. But I've read (lists book I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, while other homeschoolers might love it as much as Rachel did)."
"Oh," I tried to sound just interested enough, but not too much so that she shared everything I didn't want to know about this book.
"Yeah, I love it so much. I've watched all the movies."
We tried. A few books we had both read - all modern - and we casually chatted about those. I didn't expect her to have read Arabian Nights, which I had read and really liked (I mean, c'mon! A girl who cheats death by telling stories?). But when I told her the next book would be The Hound of The Baskervilles, she asked in a bit of an anxious tone, "So are all the books going to be Classics?"
I understand that people don't read like they used to. Most books nowadays are written on an eighth-, even sixth-, grade reading level, so trying to read Jane Austen can be a bit foreign to some. But even though I like the average modern book just as much as the next person, the Classics are the books that I love, the books I want to share with others. But I couldn't have the first book club meeting I had been so excited for because the one person who could come hadn't read past page two.
So what I've learned from that first book club meeting is this: Some people won't ever get to grin at Elizabeth Bennet's wit, or shudder at the thought of the footprints of a gigantic hound, or feel relieved when Jean Valjean and Cosette escape Javert on the Cul-de-sac Genrot. These are the books I want to share with people. I want them to feel the excitement I had felt, or something like it. And while modern books can sometimes be just as good as Classics, some people just won't get past the "antiquated" writing style to see the adventure in it.
It is a sad truth, but Mr. Darcy was right when he said not everyone reads the same, or with the same feelings.
Hi everyone! Today I have another book review: "Meals from Mars" by Ben Sciacca.
First off, I must say that I got this book in high hopes that it would be a inspiring book and not just another polarizing or sympathetic read. The front cover itself called the book "a parable of prejudice and providence." However, in some ways it didn't quite live up to my expectations.
The book begins toward the end of the story, then backtracks twenty hours before the end, telling the story of a well-to-do white guy from the suburbs and a black teen from the inner city. Through a twist of fate, they end up stuck in an icy storm at night in the country together. Neither cares much for the other, and the well-to-do man, Jim, argues about how Malik, the inner city teen, could be something better than he is if he "moved on" or "got a job" while Malik argues about how bad things are and how nothing ever matters and how much he dislikes false sympathy. This arguing (which seemed like whining) continues through the night, and there is little to no resolve between the two men.
I won't spoil the ending (which was a bit predictable, in my opinion), but when I finally turned the last page, I felt that there were more arguments and sympathy than mutual understanding and relief of prejudicial tension between the two characters. I do, however, appreciate that the author wrote the book in such a way that I was given two sides of the story and was not told what to think. Also the book is written with interesting imagery, humor and some relatability. The characters were polar opposites (one has a great, well-paying job, great house, good family life, etc, and the other lives in the bad side of town, is dirt-poor, gets into trouble, speaks very stereotypically, etc), but seemed real enough to be believable. While the book was well-written, I still wish there had been at least some sort of real resolve instead of the sudden, almost unreal ending.
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text:
Ylona recalls that she and Bailey just 'let it out' while recording their song
EXCLUSIVE: Is Ylona Garcia pressured about winning on Himig Handog 2016?
Teen star Ylona Garcia is very pleased to know that many are enjoying her and love team Bailey May's first-ever song interpretation for the Himig Handog P-Pop Love Song.
Bailey and Ylona were tapped to interpret Honlani Rabe and Jack Rufo's "O Pag-ibig" in the annual songwriting contest.
In an exclusive interview with PUSH at the Diana Stalder CEO Dina Stalder's birthday bash, Ylona just shrugged off the idea of being "concerned" about winning the tilt.
"Well I just hope that song really makes people happy," she said.
She then continued, "I think it's the number one most viral on Spotify and I'm just really happy that the people love it. I just get the happy and jumpy vibes when I listen to it so I'm really happy that the people love it. If it comes number 1, number 2 or number 3 or anything, it's just a bonus."
BaiLona's Himig Handog entry is apparently their second recording together. The first time that the two recorded former housemates' Sam Milby and Say Alonzo's "Magmahal Muli" during their stint at the Pinoy Big Brother house last year.
"I think the thing that was different there is that the first time we recorded we were just very awkward with each other kasi when we were in PBB we recorded it after a few weeks in the house," she said about their first-ever duet.
This time though, Ylona said that she and Bailey were more at ease while recording their Himig Handog song.
"I think from the first time when Bailey and I recorded a duet together, we weren't really close. We were so awkward with each other. Now, we're like really close. We're like best friends. We're really good friends. I love him and he's a good pal," she described the Filipino-British teen.
Meanwhile, Ylona seemed unruffled that they are both the youngest interpreters in the competition.
Ylona, who is no stranger to singing and who is set to release her album soon, said she and Bailey, who just released his album last January, both had a grand time recording the song.
"Well, to be honest, when Bailey and I first listened to the song we really liked it. 'Yun lang. We just went to the flow," she said. "With the song naman you don't have to 'Oh my God I have to do good in this song. I have to do this and that.' When we were in the studio, we just let it out. We didn't really care what's going to happen, we just let it out."
If the competition would follow the same format that it had for years, chances are there would be a voting component before they announce the winner.
How does she think BaiLona fans would fare on that?
"Oh my it reminds me of PBB! Well, I wish them luck with whatever they are going to do online. Thank you to the BaiLona supporters and Bailey supporters and Ylona supporters. Thank you guys," she ended.


The City of Harrisburg offers convenient and affordable parking at 11 garages and lots. Please see below for information on hourly and monthly parking.
For meter parking rates, please visit the On Street Meters page for details.
Monday to Friday, enter any time after 4:00 pm and exit by 9:00 am.
Saturday and Sunday, unlimited parking, enter/exit at anytime (must exit the garage by 9:00 Monday morning).
Available at all garages and lots.
Monday to Friday, enter any time after 4:00 pm and exit by 3:00 am.
Saturday and Sunday, unlimited parking, enter/exit at anytime (must exit the garage by 8:00 am Monday morning).
Available at the River St Garage only.
Monday to Friday, enter any time after 11:00 am and exit by 3:00 am.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Santana cancels concerts following 'unscheduled heart procedure'
Aidin Vaziri	December 2, 2021Updated: December 6, 2021, 11:08 am
Grammy Award-winning guitarist Carlos Santana speaks during the dedication and blessing ceremony for a mural in honor of the Santana family at the 24th Street Mission BART Station on Oct. 29. Photo: Constanza Hevia H. / Special to The Chronicle
Carlos Santana has canceled the December dates of his Las Vegas residency as he recovers from "an unscheduled heart procedure," according to a statement from his management.
The Grammy-winning guitarist and longtime Bay Area resident was scheduled to perform eight dates at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino beginning on Dec. 1. Those shows are now on hold, as fans await word on the rest of the dates for An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live, scheduled at the same venue in January, February and May.
"Just wanted to share with you some clarity with specificity what's been going on with my physicality," Santana, 74, said in a personal video shared with his fans on the same day the residency was set to begin. "There's been rumors flying around here and there about this and that. So, I'm here to just crystallize and make it clear. Last Saturday, I had an incident where I asked my wife, Cindy (Blackman), to take me to the hospital because I had this thing happening in my chest.
"So, when we went there we found out that I needed to take care of it," he continued. "So I am, and so I'm going to be taking time out for a little bit to make sure I replenish and I rest, and catch up with my health so that when I play for you I would play the way I'm used to and give you 150%. I wouldn't show up unless I can do that. So other than that, I hope you and your family are enjoying good health, peace of mind and joy. I know I will. Thank you for being a fan, and your oneness, and your caring. Peace."
In October, Santana and his late brother Jorge's contributions to the San Francisco music scene were celebrated in San Francisco's Mission District with the unveiling of a vibrant mural.
"Because of their vision and desire to be a part of this, we are the beneficiaries of their spirit, of their love, of their musical genius that has touched the lives of so many people," Mayor London Breed said at the ceremony at the 24th Street Mission BART Station.
Santana, who moved from Mexico to San Francisco with his family in the 1960s, lived in the Mission District for many years and attended Mission High School, before starting the Latin rock band Santana and gaining international acclaim with hits that include "Black Magic Woman" and "Evil Ways," as well as 1999's multiplatinum "Supernatural" album.
Carlos Santana Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez / TNS
He has won 10 Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammys, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Santana moved to Las Vegas in 2011 but remains connected to the Bay Area, only parting with his $5.53 million home in Tiburon in September.
Michael Vrionis, president of Universal Tone Management, said, "Carlos is doing fantastic and is anxious to be back onstage soon. He profoundly regrets that this 'speed bump' necessitated the cancellation of his upcoming performances. He is looking forward to seeing you all very soon."
Aidin Vaziri
Aidin Vaziri	Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle's pop music critic. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF
Your weekly guide to Bay Area arts & entertainment.
Review: Michael Tilson Thomas makes a heartening return to Davies Symphony Hall
Celine Dion cancels Bay Area shows, citing health concerns
Grants will help Bay Area arts companies that serve people of color acquire real estate
Through Jan 23
CANCELED: New Century Chamber Orchestra
Various Bay Area Locations
Friday, 8:00PM
Oakland Symphony
Paramount Theatre Oakland
CANCELED: American Bach Soloists


NATHAN LOWELL has been a writer for more than forty years, and first entered the literary world by podcasting his novels.
His sci-fi series, The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper grew from his long time fascination with space opera and his own experiences shipboard in the United States Coast Guard. Unlike most works which focus on a larger-than-life hero (prophesized savior, charismatic captain, or exiled prince), Nathan centers on the people behind the scenes—ordinary men and women trying to make a living in the depths of space. In his novels, there are no bug-eyed monsters, or galactic space battles, instead he paints a richly vivid and realistic world where the "hero" uses hard work and his own innate talents to improve his station and the lives of those of his community.
My "golden age of science fiction" started when I was ten in 1962. I rapidly exhausted all the sci-fi titles at my school library. To feed my reading obsession, an aunt who was a voracious reader, dropped off a paper grocery bag full of Ace Doubles every month. For those unfamiliar, a double is two novellas in one book printed back to back. You read one to the middle, then flip it over and read the other. My inspiration comes from all the greats: Asimov, Bujold, Cherryh … through Lackey, Modesitt, Moon … all the way through Weber, Willis, and Zelazny. I always had a desire to write fiction and when I started listening to books on podcasts, I knew I found a media to tell the stories bottled up in me.
Ishmael Wang returns to Port Newmar but ghosts from his past have followed him. His old shipmate, Phillip Carstairs, offers him the opportunity to track down the man who killed his lover. The catch? He must take command of the Chernyakova, a ship that still stinks of death and haunts Ishmael's nightmares. Together, Phillip and Ismael begin a journey into unknown reaches of the Deep Dark to bring back the man who killed Greta.
A dead ship returns to the Deep Dark with a live crew.
Captain Ishmael Wang finally gets the Chernyakova out of the yard and embarks on a voyage into the Toe-Holds where the Confederated Planets Joint Committee on Trade has no authority. Where the law is whatever you say it is as long as you can enforce it.
Where he learns that some will do anything to hide their secrets and everybody has a secret.
Profits. Coffee. Extortion. All in a day's work.
When Ishmael takes the Chernyakova back into Toe-Hold space, he finds a lot more than profit. A quick pass through the Telluride system reveals the answer to one question but leaves him docked without a cargo until the owner of Dark Knight Station makes him an offer he can't refuse.
Academy graduate Natalya Regyri stood first in line for her pick of Engineering Officer jobs, until, at the graduation party, a classmate turned up dead. Now, betrayed by her friends and framed for murder, she must flee beyond the reach of the Confederation …and any semblance of civilized society.
…who somehow know she's coming.
A new ship. A young crew. A dream job gone horribly wrong.
When circumstances drive Zoya and Natalya to accept an offer from the most powerful organization in the Western Annex, it looks like their ship – literally – comes in. The job fails to live up to its promise and the pair soon find themselves fighting for their lives against a booby trapped ship and its unseen master.
Will they unmask their enemies and survive their Suicide Run?
Two women. One mission. Do what ever is necessary.
In this final volume of the Smuggler's Tales, Natalya and Zoya wind up on a mission of mercy back into Toe-Hold space to find out why one of Usoko Mining company's smelters has gone dark. They find an expanding cloud of debris, a crippled ship, and a fleet of mining barges that can't leave the system.
When his mother dies in a flitter crash, eighteen-year-old Ishmael Horatio Wang must find a job with the planet company or leave the system–and NerisCo isn't hiring. With credits running low, and prospects limited, he has just one hope…to enlist for two years with a deep space commercial freighter. Ishmael, who only rarely visited the Neris Orbital, and has never been off-planet alone before, finds himself part of an eclectic crew sailing a deep space leviathan between the stars.
Six months in the Deep Dark. Four different women. One man discovers what it means to be a spacer.
It's a time of change on the Lois McKendrick. Sarah Krugg joins the crew and Ishmael Wang moves to Environmental. After getting accustomed to life aboard a solar clipper, Ishmael must learn a whole new set of skills, face his own fears and doubts, and try to balance love and loss in the depths of space.
Both Ishmael and Sarah must learn to live by the mantra, "Trust Lois." For Sarah, there is the hope of escaping a horrifying past. For Ishmael, he must discover what type of man he wants to become and learn his choices have consequences.
Return with the crew of the SC Lois McKendrick, and set sail in the next installment of the Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. All your favorites return: Ish, Pip, Cookie, Brill, Diane, and Big Bad Bev. You might even discover some new friends as you travel among the stars.
Learn more about the officers and crew of the Lois McKendrick as they struggle to keep their ship and discover how Ishmael finds out how wrong he's been about what it means to be a spacer in this latest Trader's Tale.
An inexperienced officer. A dysfunctional ship. Life in the deep dark just got a lot harder.
A good captain protects his crew. Who protects the captain?
A shuffling of cabins puts Ishmael Horatio Wang in command of the worst ship in the fleet. He learns that being captain doesn't make you infallible and that life in the captain's cabin is filled with new kinds of challenge as he tries to keep the ship moving, the crew out of trouble, and turn a profit to earn his Captain's Share.
You're never too old to make a bad decision.
After twenty winters on the road, Tanyth Fairport makes one last pilgrimage in her quest to learn all she can about the herbs and medicinal plants of Korlay before settling down to write her magnum opus. Her journey is interrupted when she decides to help a small village and learns that much of what she knows of the world may not be quite as it seems.
Nathan Lowell blends wiccan tradition and shamanistic lore into a fantasy quest for a new – if unlikely – heroine. She learns that the familiar sometimes hides the fantastic and that, even when you think you've made your decisions, life doesn't always agree.
Sometimes the longest journeys are within.
Tanyth must make her way across the ocean to continue her voyage to find the hermit of Lammas Wood. Storms and ice block her path, but her most serious enemy may be people she has never met.
As her power grows, she must come to grips with the changes within her even as she must answer the Zypheria's Call.
Some journeys take you where you need to be.
Otto is Richard Krugg's only son and heir to the Shaman's gift. Otto doesn't want it. He wants to be a fisherman. When company policies force unwelcome changes onto his life and threaten even the security of the village, Otto discovers that being a shaman isn't optional.
Jimmy Pirano is caught between the devil and the deep green sea when new production quotas are handed down from corporate headquarters. Locked into a century of existing practice, Jimmy is forced to find new ways to fish and new places to do it in or face the very real possibility that Pirano Fisheries will lose the St. Cloud franchise.
Join Otto, Richard, and Rachel Krugg as they struggle with what it means to be the son of a shaman. Cast off with Jimmy, Tony, and Casey as they navigate the shoals and shallows of corporate fishery along the South Coast.
Agent Heathcliff Durham finds himself crisscrossing Africa, looking for an Amulet that could spell disaster for any who come near it. Battling blistering heat, starvation, wild animals, and despair, he is not comforted by the company of a rough and ready sort named Morrison. Soon Durham begins to suspect he may never return home—and to top it all off the tea has almost run out.
Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come.
This seven-story anthology from creator Matthew Wayne Selznick is a glimpse into the first year of the Sovereign Era, that period in the late 20th century when the appearance of individuals with remarkable abilities rocked the delicate Cold War balance of power and forever altered the course of human destiny.
The Sovereign Era began in April of 1985 (as depicted in "Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era"), when Dr. William Karl Donner revealed that super-powered metahumans existed, declared their autonomy, and demonstrated his ability to enforce that demand.
Arrangements between Donner and the government of the United States resulted in the establishment of the Donner Institute for Sovereign Studies, a compound in central Montana where the "Sovereigns" could find refuge and learn more about themselves.
Over the next twelve months, while the world struggled to deal with the political and social repercussions caused by the existence of the Sovereigns, the metahumans themselves mostly tried to find their place in the world.
That's what these stories are about.


5 Reasons I'm excited that break is finally in arm's reach.
This is the week that I have been waiting for ever since I moved back on campus. This Friday is the start of a well deserved and much needed break. I am so thankful for this opportunity. School has been so busy and I am excited to chill and not have academic responsibilities for a little bit. The following reasons are what I am looking forward to most when I go back home for a few days.
I have not seen my family for about two months. They are greatly missed. It is always nice to be reunited with them.
I am always one to want to eat out all of the time. Being away from school makes me very appreciative of home cooked meals. I am tired of the repetition of the meals that my school's dining services provide.
I talk to them quite often, but we haven't seen each other since the summer! I'm looking forward to hanging out and catching up with my close friends.
I am ready to sleep in my own comfortable bed without the disruptions of noisy neighbors who think it's okay to not be considerate of other people's sleep.
This is what I'm looking forward to the most. Showering with shoes gets annoying after a while!


List of Newport based recruitment agencies offering full, part time & temporary job vacancies.
Established in 1980, Select Appointments now has a network of offices throughout the UK and Ireland and is recognised as a leading national staffing services company. We find jobs for people and people for jobs, specialising in all areas of: Secretarial & Administration, Call & Contact Centre, Accountancy & Finance, Sales & Marketing, Retail, Legal, Medical, Travel & Leisure.
The Acorn Group is one of the UK's leading recruitment and training companies and is the largest agency in Wales. Acorn offers permanent, temporary and contract recruitment supported by a portfolio of training, learning and development solutions. Acorn is a long-standing member of the 'Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC)' and is 'Investors in People' and 'ISO' accredited.
At SMR Consulting, we specialise in Financial Services Recruitment. Our Client Portfolio is made up of some of the industry's best known and respected Companies in addition to a number of more specialist organisations. By working with these carefully selected companies, we are able to offer an extensive range of vacancies across the full spectrum of the Financial Services Industry.


physical footprint, and matched performance in storage controllers has always been difficult. The NGD Systems Newport platform represents the first 16 flash channel ASICbased computational storage solution that provides In-Situ Processing with NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 storage performance in a variety of form factors including M.2 and EDSFF that do not suffer from performance due to power throttling like other architectures.
Founded in 2013 with its headquarters in Irvine, California, NGD Systems is a venturefunded company focused on creation of new category of storage devices that brings computation to data. NGD has designed its advanced proprietary NVMe controller technology which deploys patented Elastic FTL algorithm and Advanced LDPC Engines to provide industry leading capacity and scalability. The platform also deploys the patented In-Situ Processing technology to enable Computational Storage capability. The company is led by an executive team that helped drive and shape the flash storage industry, with decades in leadership positions with storage companies such as Western Digital, STEC, Memtech, and Micron. For more information please visit https://www.ngdsystems.com.