#Buyback mania has completely hollowed out corporate balance sheets. My summer students randomly pick companies to analyze in their 10-K reports and two-thirds show negative shareholder equity. This is late stage capitalism, we have created new era of Robber Barons
Emmanuel Crawford was three years old when his parents sold him.
They lived in Ghana and they were poor enough that they could not feed him. So he was sold into the fishing trade on Lake Volta, which is where a lot of Ghana's trafficked children end up.
Here is what a three year old does out there.
He sits in a leaky wooden canoe and bails water out of it by hand, all day, so the boat does not sink.
And when the nets get caught, he goes in after them.
Lake Volta is man made. They dammed a river and flooded a forest to build it, and the trees are still down there, standing dead under the water. The nets snag on the branches, and somebody small has to dive down into water you cannot see through and pull them loose.
Children drown doing that. Regularly.
Crawford did it for two years.
He was five when a man working with a rescue organization came across his canoe out on the lake.
Crawford has described it simply.
"He felt a tug on his heart from the Lord, that this kid doesn't need to be here."
He was taken to a home in Tema, Ghana, run by a nonprofit called Touch A Life that gets children out of the trade.
And that is where a couple from Grove, Oklahoma found him. Audrey and Stan Crawford.
"When I first met my mom, I jumped onto her, I just climbed her, and we were best friends from the very beginning."
The adoption took months. Then Audrey got on a plane and brought a six year old home to a town of about 6,000 people in northeast Oklahoma, where he became the youngest of six kids.
He remembers the first day.
"I had my first hamburger that day and fries. It was heaven on Earth."
Then he grew up and started playing football.
As a senior at Grove High School he carried the ball 230 times for 2,304 yards. That is 10 yards every single time he touched it. He scored 36 rushing touchdowns, caught 19 passes for 546 more yards and seven more scores, and Grove went 13-1.
He finished his career with 6,777 rushing yards.
That is the most anyone has ever run for in Oklahoma Class 5A history. Plus 93 rushing touchdowns.
They named him the 2022-23 Gatorade Oklahoma Football Player of the Year.
And then he went to Arkansas as a preferred walk-on.
No scholarship. The best football player in the state, walking on.
He got there partly because Sam Pittman, who was the Arkansas head coach at the time, went to Grove High School himself. Crawford's high school coach texted him about the kid.
"The only campus that I felt a real connection was Arkansas. On the car ride home, I was like, 'I know where I want to be.'"
He redshirted in 2023 and has been stuck behind a crowded backfield ever since. Pittman got fired after last season.
Crawford is still on the roster in Fayetteville. Number 21.
Still waiting on his carries.
He has waited for worse.
The Fed is paying interest on regulatory reserves , at aggressive rates, too many companies have negative shareholder equity and retail investors no longer have a seat at the table. This is late stage capitalism, good luck guy. And telling people to rely on fiduciaries who specialize in putting lipstick on a pig is a leap of faith
@USCCB Airmen who during WWII claimed they did not drop bombs over Puglia, Italy due to visions of St. Padre Pius protecting the area. Many converted to Catholicism
@jasonlewris The reason:
CEO-to-worker pay ratio has grown from 21:1 in 1965 to 325:1 as of 2025
Some sectors and companies skew MUCH higher
-Abercrombie & Fitch: 6,076:1
-Mattel: 3,620:1
-The Gap: 2,100:1
-Economic Policy Inst.
@MorePerfectUS It's $41.83B and that's how it should be- they own the company. It's capitalism at its finest........................except for the share repurchases that have driven ROE to Null Set given the fact that the company is 100% creditor controlled now, but I digress.... #MCD
🚨#BREAKING: Outrage is erupting in Seattle after a 21-year-old who was SH0T 3 TIMES trying to STOP A ROBBERY walked 2 blocks BLEEDING TO DE*TH, begging for help...
...and a 7-Eleven LOCKED THE DOORS on him and people stood around FILMING him instead of helping.
He had to TEXT 911 by himself, alone.
Yes, you read that right... ZERO bystanders helped him and he had doors locked in his face while he was bleeding to DE*TH!!!
His name is Matthew Lanske, he's a construction worker in Seattle.
Last Saturday night, he and his friends had just finished dinner in Belltown when they walked into one of those "street takeovers."
His family says a man and two women tried to rob one of Matthew's friends at gunpoint.
Matthew tried to stop the gunman and for his trouble, he was SH0T THREE TIMES.
Twice in the stomach and a third bullet shattered his pelvis and tore through a major artery.
He should have passed away right there on the sidewalk.
Instead, this man got up and WALKED two blocks while bleeding out.
He was begging for people to help him, no one did.
He made it to a 7-Eleven and they locked the doors in his face:
Later he said he told his mother:
"Mom, they wouldn't let me in. They locked the doors. I begged them to let me, and there was so much blood coming out of my stomach, I thought I was going to die."
His mother's said that he begged BYSTANDERS for help and instead... they filmed him:
"While my son was fighting for his life, people were standing around filming him, taking pictures instead of helping him."
So Matthew sat down on the ground, alone, and did the only thing left.
He texted 911 and then he texted his girlfriend.
Police eventually found him... he has spent 2 days on life support.
He has had two surgeries so far and has two more to go.
It'll be MONTHS before he can work again.
Please pray for Matthew... you won't hear his story in the mainstream media, it doesn't fit the narrative.
Oh, and not a single person has been arrested...
WE DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS!!!!!
#FlAmendment3
This is the year the structural integrity studies are due for condo developments, FL’s answer to the Surfside collapse. Many owners in old buildings in prime locations can’t fund repairs. Developers are circling.
Amendment 3 is a huge gift for them.
The amendment affects condo buyouts and redevelopments through two specific mechanisms.
1. The 5% Cap on Non-Homestead Assessments
Currently, Florida caps how much the assessed value of non-homestead properties (like commercial buildings, vacant land, and rental properties) can increase each year at 10%.
The Change: Amendment 3 would slash this annual cap in half
1. When a developer buys up a failing or underfunded condo community to redevelop it, they hold the property as a non-homestead asset during the lengthy demolition, rezoning, and rebuilding phases. Capping their annual property tax increases at just 5% provides them with massive, predictable savings while they transition the land.
2. The "De-Oligarchizing" of Condo Communities (The Buyout Setup)
The post-Surfside mandatory reserve laws (SB 4-D / SB 154) are forcing aging condo communities to fully fund their structural integrity reserve studies (SIRS). For many cash-strapped condo owners, this has meant sudden, unpayable special assessments of tens of thousands of dollars.
When a condo association faces financial ruin because it can't fund its reserves, it becomes prime prey for a developer termination/buyout. Here is how Amendment 3 factors into that developer playbook:
•Driving Out Owners: If Amendment 3 passes, local governments will lose billions in property tax revenue. To survive, cities and counties will likely hike local sales taxes, utility fees, and garbage fees. For fixed-income condo owners already drowning in new mandatory association fees, a spike in municipal fees could be the breaking point that forces them to sell.
•Cheaper Holding Costs for the Developer: Once the developer successfully forces a termination vote and buys out the remaining owners, the entire property immediately converts from residential homesteads to a massive non-homestead commercial tract. Under Amendment 3, the developer’s tax liability on that newly acquired land is heavily protected by the new 5% cap.
The Bottom Line
While everyday homeowners look at the expanded homestead exemption, the real estate industry looks at the 5% non-homestead assessment cap. This is exactly why the powerful corporate trade group Florida Realtors has thrown a massive $10 million behind the "Vote Yes on 3" campaign. It heavily subsidizes the holding costs for developers who are waiting to snap up and redevelop struggling, under-reserved Florida coastal properties.
#SpanishGP#Ferrari
Hamilton’s P4 defense strategy against Leclerc tomorrow:
-Medium Tyres
-Launch Control
-Tactical Chaff Flares
-Cup of Snarky Tea's ‘ Calm The F Down’ but only because Gatling Guns are too heavy
@GrantWarr1 Just stop. There is no plan to replace these dollars- SHOW ME THE PLAN SO I CAN DECIDE.
Seems to be a gift to developers swarming around old condo buildings in prime locations, owners can’t fund repairs needed by the reserve studies due this year. $0 tax for developers
@GrantWarr1 Just tell me how FL plans to replace the revenue, b/c there’s no plan
I see a massive gift to developers who are swooping in to buy condo high rises whose owners can’t bring them up to code
30-year reserve studies we due THIS YEAR.
Coincidence, I think not