Extra, Extra
Uncle Scam Wants You: “The scam center, Shunda Park, opened for business in 2024 with more than 3,500 workers from nearly 30 nations, including Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe and France. Some had been kidnapped and enslaved, but all had become skilled in the art of the online grift. When the scammers bilked $5,000 out of someone, they struck a Chinese gong. A $50,000 shakedown earned a celebratory pounding of a giant drum, then an offering to a Chinese deity resplendent in his golden altar.” An NYT (Gift Article) Photo Essay: At This Office Park, Scamming the World Was the Business. “While each nationality required a different approach — for Americans, one scammer told me, the preferred mark was ‘white old men’ — the general approach was the same: an online foray by a sympathetic and attractive person, followed by an invitation to participate in a select investment opportunity.”
+ See No Evil, Hear No Evil: “In my experience, many leaders harbor deep concerns about Mr. Trump’s lawlessness, weaponization of the government, and interference in markets. They refrain from public criticism not because they find nothing to criticize but because they’re intimidated. Such fear is understandable. Even so, when the business community and our leaders cease to speak out on matters of public concern, they turn their backs on the foundations of our country’s success.” Robert E. Rubin with a question we’ve all been asking: Why Have Business Leaders Gone Silent?
+ A Trump of Coal: “This time around, the Trump administration has gone much further to rescue coal, with more success. Last year, the amount of electricity produced by coal increased 13 percent, and retirements have slowed.” But it’s not cheap. It’s not clean. And it probably doesn’t make much sense, even for many in the coal business. Trump Wants to Halt Almost All Coal Plant Shutdowns. It Could Get Messy.
+ Managing Expectations: Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland. Here’s a little history on the matter from a comedian based in Denmark: Dear America, We’d Like to Speak to the Manager. “You see, we know the Greenlanders. They’re a proud Indigenous people who are not interested in being Americans. You can’t just buy them off. So Trump is running wild. He’s kidnapping presidents. He’s invading other countries without congressional approval. And frankly, we don’t want that mess spilling into Greenland or Europe — or Legoland, for that matter.”
+ Doing Time and Again: Trump has issued so many pardons to so many undeserving recipients that he’s having to double up. “In 2021, a convicted fraudster named Adriana Camberos was freed from prison when President Trump commuted her sentence. Rather than taking advantage of that second chance, prosecutors said, Ms. Camberos returned to crime. She and her brother were convicted in 2024 in an unrelated fraud.” Trump pardons a convicted fraudster for the second time.
