There Was An Unrealistic Expectation, The Price Was Too High And I Sold It At The Wrong Time

‘I don’t think it’s a good idea to drop prices on expensive or lower priced real estate. It’s always a signal to the buyer there’s a problem and they’re encouraged to make an even lower offer.’ She added, ‘You’re much better off taking your home off the market, waiting three to six months, listing with a new broker and coming on as a new listing.’ She pointed out that if the listing drops in price, it causes the buyer to wonder, ‘What’s wrong?’ She said, ‘It puts the emphasis, underlines what’s the new news there, which is the price dropped: why, why, why?’

I share yer frustration with these would be movers Babs. Why are you giving it away? Why, why, why!

Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky agrees to plead guilty to two fraud counts

Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of fraud.

Mashinsky, 59, was indicted on July 13, 2023, on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation charges. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he misled customers of Celsius to persuade them to invest, and artificially inflated the value of his company’s proprietary crypto token. He pleaded not guilty that day.

On Tuesday, during a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Koeltl, Mashinsky said he pleaded guilty to two out of the seven counts he was initially charged with: commodities fraud, and a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of CEL, Celsius’ in-house token.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have said Mashinsky also personally reaped approximately $42 million in proceeds from selling his holdings of the Cel token.

“Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars selling his own CEL at artificially high prices, while his customers were left holding the bag when the company went bankrupt,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement on Tuesday.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-celsius-founder-alex-mashinsky-agrees-to-plead-guilty-to-two-fraud/

Mexico president says Canada has a ‘very serious’ fentanyl problem

In a Monday press conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico “must be respected, especially by its trading partners.”

She also noted that Canada has “a very serious problem with fentanyl consumption,” more than Mexico, and possibly as a result of some drug-decriminalization measures.

“We are not going to fall for a provocation of which country is better,” she said, chalking some criticism from Canada up to political pandering.

“Mexico should not be used as part of (Canadian) electoral campaigns,” she said.

Yet Sheinbaum also said Canada “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has,” saying her country has civilizations dating back thousands of years.

Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said tensions between both countries played out in the NAFTA renegotiation, when there was limited communication between Ottawa and Mexico City.

“The Canada-Mexico relationship has always been the weakest part of the triangle of North America,” he said.

Sands added that Sheinbaum and her predecessor have implemented nationalist policies that have been at odds with Washington.

“The Mexican government has been moving in a direction which is antithetical to the North American project (through) nationalizing parts of the economy, by reversing energy reforms, by doing deals with the cartels. (They are) sometimes working co-operatively with the Americans in the borders, and sometimes not.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mexico-president-says-canada-has-a-very-serious-fentanyl-problem-1.7131981

‘doing deals with the cartels’

Wa?

Millennials helped elect Trudeau in 2015. Nearly a decade later, they’re turning to the Conservatives

Polls suggest inflation, souring attitudes toward immigration and fatigue with the federal Liberals are changing generations that were once optimistic for change

Back in 2015, Cisco Armstrong was so inspired by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau that nothing was going to stop him from voting in the federal election.

He and his now wife were going abroad and would miss the election, so they voted early to make sure they could register their support for Mr. Trudeau. “He symbolized progress,” says Mr. Armstrong, who is now 35 and lives outside Sherbrooke. “It was inspiring to vote for change.”

“He was almost designed to appeal to millennials,” says David Coletto, chief executive officer of Abacus Data, a polling firm headquartered in Ottawa. “He reflected a mindset of the public, but particularly among young Canadians, who wanted to change from the Stephen Harper years. And he was the complete opposite of Stephen Harper. He was dynamic, charismatic, dramatic. A celebrity. It was just this perfect moment where I think young people were looking for somebody to get their own version of [Barack] Obama.”

Nearly 10 years later, much has changed. The Liberal Party has trailed in the polls by double-digits for more than a year, and some MPs and party members have called on Mr. Trudeau to step down as Liberal Leader. The NDP has pulled out of its supply-and-confidence agreement supporting the Liberals, and Mr. Trudeau has gone from inspiring to anathema in many voters’ minds.

And Mr. Armstrong, now in the early stages of his career in environmental conservation and raising two children, ages 6 and 2, says he is “highly considering” voting for the Conservatives in the next federal election, set for no later than October.

He points to what he says are the Trudeau government’s “scandals” – most notably for him the SNC-Lavalin affair, which led to the resignation of two cabinet ministers and put the Prime Minister’s style of governing under a microscope. Above all, Mr. Armstrong says, he worries about the high cost of living since the pandemic.

“As you age, responsibilities change, and your value systems change. Your concern for saving the world is kind of trumped by taking care of your kids and paying bills,” he says.

Polling by the firm has also found that millennials and Gen Z are more likely than older generations to rate immigration as a top concern, seemingly confounding what many might suppose to be their support for tolerance and openness, Mr. Coletto says.

“I still think those are key values,” he says. “But what’s overtaken them is a sense of scarcity. And so the short-term scarcity of not being able to afford a home, about feeling insecure about where the economy is going and how fast it’s changing, has taken precedence.”

Coming out of the pandemic, the optimism that led many young voters to support Mr. Trudeau has now turned to bitterness. “Millennials have become the most angry, frustrated, anxious generation,” Mr. Coletto says.

A Leger survey conducted earlier this year found 54 per cent of Gen Z and millennials think previous generations are “rigging the system” for their own benefit and making it harder for younger generations. “The meat grinder that was COVID and then high inflation has left this group pretty bruised,” says Andrew Enns, who conducted the Leger poll.

Philippe Mathieu, a 26-year-old teacher in Sudbury, says the Liberals’ handling of immigration is just one example of their mismanagement of the economy.

“To be clear, I am pro-immigration. But there have been record number of population increases without the appropriate housing to sustain it,” he says.

Proof of the Liberals’ failures can be seen almost everywhere he now looks, Mr. Mathieu says.

“I look at the price on the shelves. I look at the prices of homes. I see all these people on the streets and I ask myself the question: Does this look successful?” he says. “I’m not sure I would call myself a Conservative. I don’t think so. But I just don’t see any other way of voting right now.”

https://www.lakelandtoday.ca/beyond-local/millennials-helped-elect-trudeau-in-2015-nearly-a-decade-later-theyre-turning-to-the-conservatives-9900022

George Clooney Reportedly Furious at Barack Obama After His Bold Demand Makes Actor a Scapegoat for Kamala Harris’ Presidential Defeat

It seems actor George Clooney is still facing backlash for advocating that President Joe Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential election months before U.S. citizens were set to cast their ballots. But a recent comment from an alleged insider suggests that the “Wolfs” star wants to drag his friend, former President Barack Obama, into the controversy with him.

Radar reported that the unnamed tipster said, “George is furious with Obama for disappearing after the election disaster and leaving him holding the bag for pushing the plan with his Hollywood pal.”

“Obama and Clooney have been tight for years,” the outlet reports it was told by the anonymous mouthpiece. “And George became Barack’s surrogate in leading the charge for Joe to step away. Barack knew he would look like a traitor if he publicly called for Joe to be cut loose. And now, he’s trying to walk away from it all.”

In July Clooney wrote a scathing op-ed in The New York Times where he expressed his love and support for the president but strongly urged him to abandon his campaign for the country’s sake after a disastrous performance in the first presidential debate.

“We are not going to win in November with this president,” he said in the piece, suggesting several alternatives. He even addressed concerns about shifting gears.

“All of the scary stories that we’re being told about what would happen next are simply not true. In all likelihood, the money in the Biden-Harris coffers could go to help elect the presidential ticket and other Democrats,” he wrote, offering, “The new nominee wouldn’t be left off ballots in Ohio. We Democrats have a very exciting bench. We don’t anoint leaders or fall sway to a cult of personality; we vote for a president.”

But now that the “cult of personality” actually hurt the replacement candidate, Vice President Harris, who is widely regarded as one of the most qualified to ever run for the top office, Clooney has become the target of many jokes from low-information commenters and trolls.

On social media, some even blamed him for the devastating loss: “It’s all George Clooney’s fault!” “George feels duped and vows he’s not going to be anyone’s political water boy anymore,” Radar also reported its alleged insider said.

The person adds that the “The American” star “feels he stepped up and took a bullet for the team, and now everyone’s complaining about the bloodbath.”

Clooney, according to Radar, reportedly is upset that despite other celebrities aligning themselves with the Harris-Walz campaign — like Beyoncé, John Legend, Taylor Swift, and Eminem — people are only focusing on him.

“He thinks Obama should come forward and say that George did the right thing and it isn’t his fault that it didn’t work out,” the alleged source said. “But he doesn’t expect that will be forthcoming, and it’s left George feeling like a patsy.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/george-clooney-reportedly-furious-at-barack-obama-after-his-bold-demand-makes-actor-a-scapegoat-for-kamala-harris-presidential-defeat/ar-AA1v50aD

Mexican Officials Dissolve ‘Migrant Caravan’ Headed to US, Activists Say

Authorities in Mexico dissolved two caravans of would-be illegal immigrants heading to the United States, just days after President-elect Donald Trump warned he would levy a 25 percent tariff on imports from the country.

Migrant activists said this week that some were bused to cities in southern Mexico, and others were offered transit papers. Migrant rights activist Luis Garcia Villagran said the breaking-up of the two caravans appeared to be part of “an agreement between the president of Mexico and the president of the United States.”

The first of the caravans started out from the southern Mexico city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, on Nov. 5, the day Trump was elected. At its height, it had about 2,500 people. In almost four weeks of walking, it had gone about 270 miles to Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca, activists said.

In Tehuantepec, Mexican immigration officials offered the migrants free bus rides to other cities in southern or central Mexico, members of the caravan and activists said.

“They took some of us to Acapulco, others to Morelia, and others from our group to Oaxaca city,” said Barbara Rodriguez, an opposition supporter who left her native Venezuela after that country’s contested presidential elections earlier this year.

The second caravan of about 1,500 migrants set out on Nov. 20 and made it about 140 miles to the town of Tonala, in Chiapas state, activists say. There, authorities offered a sort of transit visa that allows travel across Mexico for 20 days.

The Mexican National Migration Institute (INM), in a post on X and in a statement, appeared to confirm activists’ reports that at least one caravan was broken up by officials.

However, in its two statements, the agency denied claims the government “deceives foreigners who decide to abandon their transit through caravans and accept the transportation service offered by immigration authorities to move to different points where they have medical services and their immigration status is reviewed,” according to a translation.

The INM said that it also has “not received any complaints from foreigners who have opted for this aid, since when accepting it they expressed that they did not want to face more risks in their path,” according to the statement.

“At no time has the INM promised them anything that the institution has not fulfilled,” it said.

What’s more, it said, INM found girls, boys, and other “vulnerable people” within those caravans. Those people were removed from the caravans and referred for care to other government agencies under Mexican law, the agency said.

At the end of November, Sheinbaum confirmed that migrant caravans, which travel through Mexico to reach the southern U.S. border, would no longer arrive in the United States.

“You may not be aware that Mexico has developed a comprehensive policy to assist migrants from different parts of the world who cross our territory en route to the southern border of the United States,” she said, according to a translation provided by the embassy.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/mexican-officials-dissolve-migrant-caravan-headed-to-us-activists-say-5769880

‘They lured patients into their programs by offering kickbacks, such as free or low-cost living arrangements in ‘sober living homes’ in highly desirable locations throughout California, the suit asserted. ‘In reality, the sober living homes were little more than drug dens, used to ensure patients remained in Defendants’ treatment ‘programs’ for as long as possible…. ensuring reliance on treatment rather than recovery from treatment’

That’s some central planning right there.