The exception are three countries from South Asia – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – an interesting result given how the largest of them has recently attempted the balancing act of positioning itself as an ally of both the U.S. and Eastern powers like China and Russia.
However, many people in the region refused the question, meaning that there is also not a majority considering the U.S. democracy a good example for the world.
In traditional U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, the most people have changed their mind about U.S. democracy and the countries ended up ranking quite high in the overall ranking of both negative answer options combined.
They came in behind Singapore and Malaysia, however, where unfavorable opinions of U.S. democracy were most widespread.
Former U.S. colony the Philippines also picked negative answers mostly, while in Thailand, opinion about democracy in the United States was somewhat better.
NATO’s new focus on China harkens back to the belligerent alliance’s early days.
At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, DC, last week China was a big part of the agenda. The NATO summit’s final declaration mentioned the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) 14 times. It noted that “the PRC continues to pose systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security” and China’s “stated ambitions and coercive policies continue to challenge our interests, security and values.”
The leaders of NATO “partner” nations Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia attended the summit. They collectively met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to map out strategy for the Asia Pacific region. NATO announced four new joint projects with countries that are important to Washington’s bid to establish an anti-China military bloc. In response, Beijing accused NATO of “inciting bloc confrontation and hyping up regional tensions”.
Unsurprisingly, NATO frames its focus on China as defensive. “The PRC has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine”, claimed the summit’s final communique. According to this storyline, Chinese relations with Russia threaten NATO. But this is exaggerated. China has taken a cautious approach to Russia’s war largely complying with (illegal) US sanctions and refusing to sell arms (though its companies sell some dual use products to Russian firms). Conversely, North Korea and Iran are selling Russia arms while NATO countries are donating large amounts of weapons to Ukraine.
Comparing Chinese ties to India’s highlights NATO’s exaggeration. India is buying more oil and weapons from Russia than China and when NATO began its meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin.
In 2022, NATO released a strategic concept listing China for the first-time. It labeled Beijing a challenge to the alliance’s “interests, security and values” and at the time Stoltenberg declared, “China is substantially building up its military forces, including nuclear weapons, bullying its neighbours, threatening Taiwan ….”
This is all part of the US empire’s bid to contain China’s rise. Washington has become obsessed with an emerging “peer competitor” that may eventually rival its power.
While it seems strange that an alliance to defend the ‘north Atlantic’ should target a faraway Asian state, NATO is neither defensive nor only about the north Atlantic. The alliance’s recent wars in Afghanistan and Libya demonstrate that it’s a tool to enable US-led global domination.
That’s been clear for 75 years.
As part of the Parliamentary debate over NATO’s founding Canada’s external affairs minister Lester Pearson said:
“There is no better way of ensuring the security of the Pacific Ocean at this particular moment than by working out, between the great democratic powers, a security arrangement the effects of which will be felt all over the world, including the Pacific area.”
Two years later he said:
“The defence of the Middle East is vital to the successful defence of Europe and north Atlantic area.”
In 1953 Pearson went even further:
“There is now only a relatively small [5000 kilometre] geographical gap between southeast Asia and the area covered by the North Atlantic treaty, which goes to the eastern boundaries of Turkey.”
Pearson believed that the newly created ‘defensive’ alliance justified sending 27,000 Canadian troops to Korea. In a history of the 1950-53 US-led Korean war David Bercuson writes that Canada’s external minister “agreed with [President] Truman, [Secretary of State] Dean Acheson, and other American leaders that the Korean conflict was NATO’s first true test, even if it was taking place half a world away.”
The Korean War was partly a reaction to Mao’s 1949 communist/nationalist revolution in China. After US forces approached its border, China intervened. The war left around three million dead.
In reality, NATO was established to bring a decolonizing world under the US geopolitical umbrella. This remains true 75 years later as the alliance continues to advance US hegemony.
San Diego’s mayor announced July 17 a lease deal to convert a commercial building near the city’s airport into a 1,000-bed homeless shelter and resource center, but the city’s budget analyst raised concerns over the cost.
“For years, past mayors and city councils have only engaged in ad-hoc, piecemeal, temporary approaches to addressing homelessness,” Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement.
“With this proposal, we are looking to deliver the change that San Diegans want to see with regard to addressing homelessness on our streets.”
The 30-year lease, which awaits approval from the city council on July 22, includes a cost of $1.95 per square foot for the property—with annual 3.5 percent rent increases—and an estimated $12.5 million in facility maintenance costs over the term.
The 64,939-square-foot property at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street in Middletown spans 1.8 acres over two parcels. It features a two-story building and 134 parking spaces, including rooftop, gated, and surface parking areas.
While the city’s Office of Independent Budget Analyst acknowledged the project’s potential to help with the city’s homeless situation on a July 15 report, it raises questions about its affordability.
The decades-long lease will amount to $72 million in rent for the city, which, according to the report, is above market rates of $1.44 to $1.54 per square foot for similar properties.
Besides the more expensive rates, the report raised concerns over “significant upfront and ongoing costs associated with rent, lease operating, tenant improvement, and program operating costs.”
Instead, the budget analyst suggested that the city purchasing and renovating the property itself could be a more economical option, potentially saving $15.7 million.
However, the mayor said that the property is not available for sale and highlighted several benefits of the agreement:
Nineteen months of rent would be waived, saving $2.4 million.
The property owner would contribute $5 million to the property.
The owner would be responsible for mitigation of any potential hazards identified during the renovation process.
The city has first right of refusal should the landlord sell the property.
If the property is sold within five years, the city would receive 14 percent of the net profit.
The deal would include an adjacent parcel of land that can serve “multiple uses including for additional shelter and services.”
Another concern raised by the report is the project’s operating costs, noting that the source of funding is unclear and could place an additional burden on the city.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria speaks at the press conference at H Barracks on June 6, 2024. (Jane Yang/The Epoch Times)
According to the mayor, the city would need to pay an estimated $26.4 million to operate shelter beds, a commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, dining areas, recreation spaces, and showers. Proposed services at the shelter campus would include job training, meals, housing navigation, and behavioral health support.
However, the report said only $13.7 million in existing operational funds can be reallocated from other homeless programs if no new funds are approved, leaving the remainder uncertain.
The report also detailed a monthly cost of $32,000, covering property taxes, maintenance, utilities, and insurance.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
LA Sheriff Investigated, “Urged” AG To Prosecute Reporter Who Leaked List Of Problem Deputies
After the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department leaked a list of problem deputies to Los Angeles Times reporter Maya Lau, it then turned around and investigated her.
The investigation began in 2017 when then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s team sought to identify who leaked a list of roughly 300 names to reporter Lau, the report says.
The case lost momentum but was revived in 2018 after Alex Villanueva took office, as revealed by a recent 300-page investigative file.
The department eventually labeled Lau as a criminal suspect for allegedly receiving “stolen property” and identified Diana Teran, its constitutional policing advisor, as the leaker, despite Teran having reported the leak and denying involvement.
In 2021, the case was sent to Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office declined to prosecute in May, citing “insufficient evidence”, the Times wrote this week.
In 2021, Lau said: “I’m glad this investigation is over, and it’s an outrage that the Sheriff’s Department would criminally investigate me as a reporter for doing my job. It’s the kind of action that’s aimed at intimidating journalists from digging into government agencies.”
“Under the leadership of Sheriff [Robert] Luna, we do not monitor journalists and we respect the freedom of the press,” the department commented this week.
David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, explained Lau’s immunity as a journalist: “You’re not authorized to break into a file cabinet to get records. You’re not authorized to hack computers. But receiving information that somebody else obtained unlawfully is not a crime. Publishing that information is protected under the 1st Amendment.”
The leaked records at the center of the investigation date back to 2014 when Diana Teran, working at the Office of Independent Review, began compiling a Brady List of officers with problematic disciplinary histories.
Teran relied on information from the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department databases but stopped adding names in late 2014, believing the Sheriff’s Department had started maintaining its own list.
In 2015, she joined the Sheriff’s Department as a constitutional policing advisor. In 2017, Teran discovered that reporter Maya Lau and others were inquiring about deputies on the Brady List, leading her to suspect her list had been leaked. She tracked down public records requests and identified similarities between her list and the reporters’ list.
The case made it all the way to Attorney General Rob Bonta in 2021, who declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence.
Courtney Furlong, 36, had always considered modern dating a hit-or-miss prospect, even before COVID-19 vaccines, masks, and lockdowns turned the world upside down.
But today, Ms. Furlong said it’s downright “terrible” trying to find a suitable dating partner who isn’t vaccinated.
Having chosen to avoid taking the COVID-19 shots over concerns about their safety, the Phoenix resident now finds the dating market more restricted and challenging than ever.
She said that many vaccinated people refuse to date the unvaccinated, and vice versa.
“I’m at the age now where I want to have children. My situation now is, who should I have a baby with?” Ms. Furlong said, standing at the vegan bar at The Giving Tree in Phoenix, watching 50 other unvaccinated people mix and mingle on a hot Monday evening.
Who knows? Tonight could be the night she’ll meet her significant other, she said—or at least make new like-minded friends.
“I’m at a place where I’d like to meet someone and have a child,” Ms. Furlong told The Epoch Times. “A huge factor is: Did you get the vaccine or not?”
Sponsored by the dating website Unjected.com, the informal gathering of unvaccinated men and women took place on July 15 at The Giving Tree.
Other social mixers, dubbed “pure blood parties,” are also planned in Canada, New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
“These unvaccinated mixers are starting to pop up everywhere,” said Shelby Hosana, 28, who launched Unjected.com in the spring of 2021 to bring the unvaccinated singles community together.
She said a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status is “the biggest ice-breaker and deal-breaker in the modern dating world.”
And it cuts both ways—vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.
Many online dating sites, such as Tinder, Match, and Bumble, now include COVID-19 badges, stickers, and filters to help singles better navigate the post-pandemic landscape.
“It’s the very first question asked in the dating scene for many,” Ms. Hosana told The Epoch Times. “Especially now that we can anticipate all vaccines on the market will be mRNA. It’s quite literally choosing partners who choose zero vaccination.”
Jill Crosby, owner and founder of Conscious Singles, a dating site “for those who value freedom and sovereignty,” said that unvaccinated singles appear to be more concerned about dating within their group.
“Many of our non-vaccinated members will only date other non-vaccinated members,” Ms. Crosby told The Epoch Times.
However, vaccinated members are usually less likely to care whether a potential partner is vaccinated.
In early 2022, a sufficient number of unvaccinated members asked to declare their vaccination status to aid them in finding other unvaccinated members.
Ms. Crosby said Conscious Singles responded by creating unvaccinated and vaccinated badges to post on dating profiles.
“Since then, we’ve had a close to equal number of members post a nonvaccinated or vaccinated badge on their profile,” she said, “and about the same amount of members [about 30 percent] selected ”prefer not to say.”
The dating site also provides multiple-choice “Match Questions” in many categories and recently added, “Will you date someone who has been vaccinated?”
Ms. Hosana said not long ago some dating sites banned profiles that required a person’s vaccination status.
Moreover, the recent data point to a distinct social divide with online dating following the rollout of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for COVID-19 in early 2021.
A July 2022 Pew Research Center survey, found that nearly 25 percent thought it “very important” to include one’s COVID-19 vaccination status in a dating profile.
On the other hand, nearly half (47 percent) said it was “somewhat important” for people to provide their vaccination status, according to the survey.
The survey showed that roughly 9 percent of U.S. adults had used a dating site or app between 2021 and 2022.
More telling was the partisan split in survey responses: According to the report, Democrats were “far more likely” than Republicans to say that vaccination status was “important for them to see.”
In Las Vegas, Ms. Hosana said she was curious to learn about what other people thought about dating and COVID-19 vaccination status.
So she and her marketing director, Scott Armstrong, conducted a random “man on the street” survey that asked people whether they would date a vaccinated or unvaccinated person.
“Some [vaccinated] people said they would never date an unvaccinated person—someone as ’stupid’ as an anti-vaxxer,” Ms. Hosana said.
“It’s going both ways,” she said. “They don’t want to be with us. And we really don’t want to be with them.”
“To me, it’s like the first question they ask—did you take the COVID shots?” Mr. Armstrong told The Epoch Times about online dating.
“It’s sad, too,” he said, to think that a man or a woman rejected as a potential dating partner over their vaccination status could have been “the one.”
“It’s tough [but] this is the world we’re living in now,” he said.
And, given the number of vaccinated people versus the unvaccinated, singles who have not taken one or more COVID-19 shots appear to be at a disadvantage, Ms. Hosana said.
According to USAFacts, more than 270 million Americans (81 percent of the U.S. population) have received at least one COVID-19 injection; more than 230 million (70 percent) are considered fully vaccinated.
The website added that of the roughly 1 billion doses distributed since 2020, more than 676 million (68 percent) doses were used nationwide, with almost 64 percent reported as fully vaccinated in Arizona.
As new strains of the virus develop, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people should receive an updated 2024–25 COVID-19 and flu vaccine for the fall and winter seasons.
Among unvaccinated singles, the CDC’s advice falls on unwelcome ears.
“It’s a whole new wild navigation in the world,” Ms. Hosana said.
“Of course, the desire to match with someone who also is aligned with protecting personal freedoms is paramount. But the need to protect reproductive health and overall health has been the biggest concern since day one,” she said.
Kristen Feuerstein, 58, and her friend Melanie Dias, 54, are both Phoenix residents who attended the July 15 social mixer hoping to connect with like-minded people.
As unvaccinated health care workers, both women are divorced, single, and currently dating vaccinated men.
Ms. Feuerstein said she is trying to make her relationship work despite her concerns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and alleged spin-off effects, like spike protein “shedding.”
She said her biggest fear is “investing” in a relationship in which her partner gets sick with the vaccine down the road.
Overall, her COVID-19 vaccination status has “really niched me down” in terms of charting a dating course, she said.
“Such trippy days,” Ms. Feuerstein said. “I’ve actually given up [on internet dating]. It’s just made dating really challenging.”
Ms. Dias said her goal is to seek out other people who are “on the same page” as herself regarding the mRNA vaccines and who “see the world the same as you.”
“At my age, I don’t want to invest time and energy in somebody who’s going to keel over,” she said jokingly.
The vaccinated man she’s now seeing is someone from her past. During the pandemic, her friend had assured her that he would not be taking the injection.
“We met up again last year,” Ms. Dias told The Epoch Times. “I assumed he didn’t get it. But he didn’t tell me [he received it] until we were already dating”—just “one” shot, she said, “but it was a tough call.”
“It was the only way he could fly into Chicago to visit his family. He visits his family every year. What am I going to say to that? Don’t see your aging parents?” Ms. Dias said.
John Ahlgren, 40, of Phoenix, said his plan at the social mixer was to meet other unvaccinated people and “have a good time.”
“For dating, I don’t know if [taking the vaccine] is a deal-breaker,” he said, “but when I find someone, I want to spend the rest of my life with them.”
“It’s just that the culture has changed. COVID certainly had a part to play in it. Social media has changed the landscape too,” Mr. Ahlgren told The Epoch Times.
Being single, he said he prefers face-to-face “organic engagements” with people and views online dating as a “big waste of time.”
Would you date a vaccinated person?
“Not fully vaxxed,” Mr. Ahlgren said. “Once [vaxxed] twice shy, I guess.”
Mike, 45, of Scottsdale, said he wasn’t expecting to meet the unvaccinated woman of his dreams on July 15, but he was open to the possibility.
“That’s what this whole thing is pretty much about,” he said. “It’s about people who don’t want to meet someone vaccinated.”
Ms. Furlong said the natural choice is to be with someone whose morals and values align with her own.
“When I told one of my best friends I wasn’t getting [vaccinated]—he’s had five boosters—well, he said if you don’t get your vaccine, you’re never going to meet my parents,” Ms. Furlong said.
“I feel like I’m the only person out of 20 people in my family who didn’t get injected. My parents said they only did it because they felt pressured.”
Ms. Dias said she intends to “stay present” in her current relationship, as she is a romantic at heart.
“They say it’s better to have loved than not at all—and if a person is really kind—you know what I mean,” she said.
Chaos Ensued The Last Time A US President Bowed Out Only Months Before An Election
Joe Biden’s sudden (though widely expected) announcement that he would be dropping out of the 2024 election is a rare event, but not without precedent. Biden is the third president in history to make such a last minute decision and all of them were Democrats.
Both Harry Truman and Lyndon B Johnson abandoned their intentions for a second term and both did so because of failing public approval ratings. Truman lost support in 1952 for a myriad of reasons including the war in North Korea and Johnson became wildly unpopular by 1968 because of the war in Vietnam. Biden has a similarly dismal public approval rating but he is the first president to drop out as a nominee for a second term due to cognitive decline (i.e. “health reasons”).
Much like Biden, Lyndon Johnson’s first term was rife with national division, economic decline, the rise of socialist movements, mass protests, inner-city riots and increasing political violence. He was of course sworn in after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and then continued on to a full term starting in 1964. Many would later see Kennedy’s death as the first domino in a terrible chain that ultimately ended with the US entering the war in Vietnam.
Johnson’s announcement to step down as nominee in 1968 was initially marked as a “moment of calm.” The general populace and the media treated the decision as a positive, a vehicle for ending national conflict and bringing Americans back together.
We have seen similar rhetoric in recent days surrounding Biden’s proclamation, with many predicting a trend towards “unity.” If history is any indication, this optimism is a pipe dream.
The Democratic Party was plunged into confusion over their prospective candidates and their chances. Johnson insisted on controlling party decisions on who would take his place, but there were other candidates that might disrupt Johnson’s plans, including Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy.
Though Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris to take his place as the Dem candidate, the official decision is up to DNC delegates, not Biden. An upset at the convention might sound unlikely, but it is certainly possible if Harris is viewed as too incompetent or unpopular to run against Trump.
Only five days after Lyndon Johnson’s speech, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a “lone gunman” in Memphis, TN. Two months later, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by a “lone gunman” after a campaign event celebrating his California primary win.
Trump’s near assassination just before Biden’s announcement to step down may mark a renewed period of political violence on a scale not seen since the 1960s. Suspicions of conspiracy are only magnified by the similarities to the LBJ era of multiple assassinations.
Despite hopes that Johnson’s departure would lead to peaceful conditions his replacement Hubert Humphrey promised to continue Johnson’s policies in lockstep, including the war in Vietnam. This enraged activists and resulted in riots around the convention in Chicago that summer. Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda had also left the country with deep racial divisions to be inherited by the next president and Humphrey was certain to expand on that agenda.
Richard Nixon and the Republicans were given an assured win. Humphrey was crushed by Nixon by a comfortable margin in the electoral college with many analysts suggesting Johnson would have done better had he stayed in the race. Nixon became the first former (non-sitting) vice president to win a presidential election; he was the only person to achieve that until Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election.
Nixon would enter office with a recession in progress and ultimately an energy crisis and stagflationary crisis hit hard (he didn’t help matters much when he started the process to remove the US dollar from the gold standard in 1971). There’s an array of economic threats facing the next president in 2025, with the most likely prospect being Trump and conservatives stepping into a financial and geopolitical mine field. Biden’s announcement likely heralds another tumultuous period in American history.
Dearborn, Michigan Is “America’s Jihad Capital” And Has Descended Into “Civil War”
The city of Dearborn, Michigan has been bestowed with the title of “America’s Jihad Capital”, and has fallen into civil war with itself over the war in Gaza, the Daily Mail reported last week.
Dearborn, near Detroit, Michigan, hosts the largest Arab American community in the U.S. As the death toll in Gaza rises with no political solution in sight, local sentiment has shifted.
Residents feel American political leaders are complicit in the ongoing Middle East conflict, diminishing their interest in the upcoming election.
The Mail interviewed Abu Bilal, owner of Oriental Fashion on Warren Avenue, who questioned the lack of humanity regarding the deaths of 90 Palestinian civilians.
Another man, at Al-Rehab Barber Shop in Dearborn, expressed apathy toward the upcoming presidential election, saying it wouldn’t make a difference to him.
His barber, who didn’t vote in 2020, echoed this sentiment.
As the Daily Mail notes, the implications for the upcoming election in Michigan could be enormous.
Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes, with Dearborn’s turnout 10 percent higher than in 2016.
However, local enthusiasm has waned, with many Arab American voters protesting Biden’s support for Israel.
In the Democratic primaries, 6,432 Dearborn voters chose ‘uncommitted.’ Despite a recent campaign rally near Dearborn, Arab Americans are rejecting Biden’s bid for their votes, according to the Daily Mail.
Jenin Yaseen, an artist whose family is from a village outside Nablus in the occupied West Bank told the Mail: “The whole community was aware [that the administration had sent campaign officials to meet with the community], and I think it says a lot, that he sees us as no more than votes and that it’s been normalized for our people back home to be killed.”
She added: “Dearborn is made up of people from Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere that have been directly impacted by American imperialism.”
In January, Biden’s campaign team visited Dearborn, but Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and two other Arab American state representatives refused to meet them, as the meeting focused on elections rather than the war.
Hammoud criticized President Biden’s remarks on an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, delivered while he was eating ice cream, and later voted ‘uncommitted’ in protest of Biden’s stance.
In April, Muslim protesters in Dearborn chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel” during a rally supporting Palestinians and opposing Israel.
Sen. Ron Johnson Reveals Preliminary Findings From Attempted Assassination Of President Trump
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) posted on X the preliminary findings of his investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump at a July 13, 2024 rally in Butler, Pa:
1) Secret Service did not attend a security briefing provided to local special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and sniper teams the morning of July 13, 2024; pic.twitter.com/f236Y52Qfl
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) July 21, 2024
Continued…
2) Local law enforcement said communications were siloed and they were not in frequent radio contact directly with Secret Service;
3) Local law enforcement notified command about Crooks prior to the shooting and received confirmation that Secret Service was aware of the notification;
4) Following the shooting Secret Service was seen on the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building with local law enforcement; photos of the shooter were sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) for facial recognition;
5) Secret Service was initially not going to send snipers to the rally, according to local law enforcement.
It appears professors are getting on the Kamala Harris bandwagon.
Vice President Harris was quickly embraced Sunday by many in the Democratic establishment in the hours after President Joe Biden announced he is dropping out of the race and endorsed his vice president to lead his party to victory in November.
Local news stations across America turned to political science professors to weigh in on Harris as the new presumptive nominee, and the scholars were quick to offer their support.
Although Harris is often mocked among center-right circles for her verbal gaffes and tendency to talk in circles, it appears that hasn’t registered with several political scientists interviewed Sunday.
“She’s younger, she’s vigorous, she’s an engaging and energetic person, so they’re going to have to dramatically change how they’re planning on campaigning,” Debra Leiter, associate political science professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, told KHSB news.
“We may actually see similar turnout levels to what we saw in 2020, high high turnout,” Leiter said.
“This may really have an effective of really driving new people to the polls or getting them excited about a candidate that they previously were not about.”
MSU Billings political science Professor Paul Pope argued she’s done well over the last three years in her role.
“She has a good record. No one has a perfect record, of course, but she has a good record. She’s polling well. So the chances are good for her. But again, it’s no guarantee,” Pope told KTVQ news.
He did not give an example of something Harris has accomplished.
Syracuse University history and political science Professor Margaret Susan Thompson, when asked if Harris has a better chance of beating Trump than Biden, said she does.
“Harris has a better chance of beating Trump compared to Biden from the past few weeks but a better chance at beating Trump from when Biden was on the top of his game is something that we will have to see,” she said, according to SYR.com.
Justin Coffey, a Quincy University history professor, said he has high confidence in her.
“Vice President Kamala Harris is in a much stronger position than Joe Biden,” he told WGEM news. “She can win.”
The self-proclaimed “Wolf of Airbnb” was sentenced by Judge Lorna G. of the Southern District of New York to 51 months in prison for defrauding New York City landlords and ripping off the federal government during the PPP loan mania in early Covid.
Between July 2019 and about April 2022, Konrad Bicher leased 18 apartments across Manhattan and failed to make payments as required by the lease agreements. In many cases, the 32-year-old refused to vacate after the lease agreements expired. During this period, he turned the units into short-term rentals on various online platforms, including Airbnb, without the consent of landlords.
The feds have previously said Bicher ran the units like “mini-hotels,” listing them on Airbnb.
By avoiding his bills, he managed to live a lavish lifestyle…
“Wolf Of Airbnb” Konrad Bicher Pleads Guilty In Connection With PPP And Real Estate Fraud Scheme
Bicher failed to make $1M in lease payments on @Airbnb properties.
“Between in or about July 2019, and in or about April 2022, Bicher and his associates failed to make more than $1,000,000 in payments pursuant to the Lease Agreements or, for the period of time after the expiration of the Lease Agreements, based on the estimated fair market value for the Units,” prosecutors said.
They said, “During this period, Bicher caused the Units to be listed for short-term rent on Airbnb and at least one other online marketplace for short-term rentals, resulting in at least $1,170,000 in rental income to Bicher and his associates.”
Prosecutors highlighted that Bicher called himself the “Wolf of Airbnb” and told various media outlets that his nickname stemmed from being “hungry and ruthless enough to get on top of the financial ladder” and had the “ferocity…of a wolf, because wolves are territorial, vicious, and show no mercy when provoked.”
But it gets better. Bicher also obtained $565,000 in government-guaranteed PPP loans through fraudulent documents and false information, according to the prosecutors.
