A settlement was reached between Donald Trump and former students at the now defunct Trump University, who claim the courses they paid for were a scam.
Now Trump doesn’t have the embarrassment of testifying in a fraud case during his transition.
Some plaintiffs will get a full refund. Others much less.
Our president.

A rabid dog or a hungry lion, hillary or trump ?
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Once Trump gets his agenda rolling with the help of a radical right wing party, you will be wishing for Hillary. He can do almost whatever he wants in 4 years with a rubber stamp congress. The Democrats are a vey mild speed bump at this point.
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I doubt it would be better with HRC. She is a corporate shill in Dem clothing.
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Trump will sell out his core supporters. False equivalences won Trump the election. Crazy, racist, misogynist v. an email server in a basement.
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Let’s not pretend the Clintons are a model of virtue in the for-profit college business.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-bill-clintons-nearly-18-million-job-as-honorary-chancellor-of-a-for-profit-college/2016/09/05/8496db42-655b-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html?0p19G=c
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Raise,
Hillary is not president elect. Trump is.
The problem with false equivalences is they normalize the abnormal.
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A rabid dog or a hungry lion, trump and pence?
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I am amazed that for some people Hillary’s faults and Trump’s faults are some how on the same scale, with little differences here and there.
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I read today, people trashed a woman’s car and spray painted anti-Muslim messages on the car with swastikas as they thought she was wearing a hijab. She was wearing a head scarf because she lost her hair due to lupus. So now, Trump supporters are attacking people with cancer and auto-immune diseases.
At a local school, a black student was told she should be lynched. She said she is used to it because the Trump-supporting students usually just spit on her.
At my daughter’s college, I witnessed a pickup truck of rural Trump-supporting locals driving recklessly through the campus with confederate and “don’t tread on me” flags mounted on the back. I’ve seen similar large groups (10-15) of mostly pickups driving around Ohio with similar flags.
Oh, and Hillary had an email server in her basement.
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ah-ha so Trump and Hillary ARE essentially the same!
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You forgot two things:
1. Not approved yet
2. No admission of guilt
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Innocent people don’t pay out $25 million
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And there goes the judicial system of innocent unless proven guilty. I guess that only goes for the Clinton family I take it?
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Rudy,
You are correct. $25 million is the proposed deal. Not final yet. I hope the final deal will fully reimburse all students at “Trump University” who were cheated. Some were war widows, who lost their life savings to this fraud. The final settlement should be $500 million. That’s chump change for The Donald.
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Chump change or not, there should be punitive charges. It should hurt.
Even if the people who took these “classes” were filthy rich to begin with, it should be an amount that hurts trump.
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Rudy, give up the false equivalences. By the way, Hillary isn’t the president-elect, Trump is. Are conservatives and Trump supporters going to keep comparing Trump to Hillary for 4 years? Or maybe they’ll keep blaming Obama, Democrats, teachers, unions, women, LGBT, immigrants, liberals, young people, Muslms, disabled, poor? Sorry, Republicans and Trumpettes now have no one to blame, but themselves. They break it, they own it. Nowhere to hide.
And this isn’t a criminal case, it is a civil case so different standard. Public opinion doesn’t need a civil judgement to form a reasonable opinion. Trump made this go away like he always does – with a payoff.
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dianeravitch: given his numerous statements pledging his undying efforts to fight until the bitter end—
This is as close to an admission of guilt by Donald Trump as we are likely to get.
Until, that is, the growing number of women that have alleged sexual assault are also dealt with in a similar way.
He has pledged to fight their claims until the bitter end too.
Promises, promises, promises. As others have mentioned on this thread, wait until many of his erstwhile supporters find out that the fella that won’t hold himself to his own promises about himself, won’t hold himself to his own promises to those that put him in the White House.
Oh. I know that it will be claimed that he never ever in a million years vowed to be intransigeant.
LATIMES, appears in 11-19-16 print edition, p. 7 of section B:
[excerpt]
The lawsuits dogged Trump on the campaign trail, and he denied the allegations many times and said he would not settle the cases. He told supporters at a May rally that he would come to San Diego to testify after winning the presidency.
“I could have settled this case numerous times, but I don’t want to settle cases when we’re right,” he said at the time. “I don’t believe in it. And when you start settling cases, you know what happens? Everybody sues you because you get known as a settler. One thing about me, I am not known as a settler.”
[end excerpt]
Link: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-me-trump-university-20161118-story.html
Or perhaps this is just another example of the MSM taking unfair advantage of how Donald Trump has a shoe-shaped mouth?
And the case is still not technically over. Remember Judge Gonzalo Curiel?
[start excerpt]
Because it involves class-action litigation, the settlement still must be approved by Curiel. The judge said he needs to make sure it is “fair, appropriate and reasonable.” That will take at least a month.
If Curiel grants preliminary approval, notices will go out to the class members, who can object or opt out of the agreement.
Forge on Friday made note of the attacks Curiel had faced over his role in the case, especially after Trump accused the judge of unfair or biased rulings against him during the campaign. Trump called Curiel a “hater” and “hostile judge,” saying his Mexican heritage and membership in a Latino attorneys group conflicted with Trump’s views on immigration and building a border wall.
“Outside this court, things have been pretty ugly, frankly,” Forge told Curiel. “Inside this court, I haven’t seen any hint of that. No bias shown on either side.”
Curiel said that the settlement represented an important milestone in the lawsuits, and that he hoped it also said something about the postelection healing process “this country very sorely needs.”
[end excerpt]
Oh yeah, Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Another “hater” according to the genius who described himself as being an immature 59 year-old in 2005.
😳
Simple question: when it comes to saying what he means, and means what he’s saying, when will the now 70 year-old finally grow up?
Hint: don’t hold your breath waiting.
😎
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Here is a better strategy to Trump who will be well protected by ACLU = 2000 fulltime lawyers and 10,000 lawyers in volunteers.
From NYT on Friday, November 18, 2016
[start quote]
Letters to the Editor
LETTERS
News From the Trump Transition
Readers discuss Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp,” and a Republican shocks himself with his decision to donate to the A.C.L.U.
[end quote]
That is how money talk and walk away from criminal acts PLUS being successful to be in any prestige position. Back2basic
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An easy out for the country’s biggest con artist. I would really love to see him in jail, where he so richly deserves to be, but then we’d be stuck with the religious bigot, Mike Pence. What a hell of a choice. We shall reap what we’ve sewn.
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Lock him up, lock him up.
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Agnew resigned, then Nixon. We can only hope voters realize they’ve been duped and played as fools.
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Kent State could look like a picnic compared to how these vile pukes respond to civil disobedience. I would take Agnew over this cast of vile Puke .
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Kent State is still in the back of everyone’s mind here in Ohio when Republican Governor Rhodes sent in the National Guard to quell student protests after a building was set on fire. Many conservatives still justify the killings and blame the students. They named an office building after Rhodes.
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Trump supporters of my acquaintance are rejoicing.
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Vale Math, Kent State was, and still is, on the minds of all of us who were protesting the Vietnam War at the time. We all thought “That could have been any of us.”
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Of course he settled. Was there any admission of guilt?
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No. part of the PROPOSED deal. Not final yet.
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Is America going to turn into some kind of banana republic with Trump as Juan Peron but with the largest military on earth and nuclear weapons?
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The frightening part is that all of the negatives will be accompanied by the Keynesian stimulus of infrastructure spending the economy so desperately needs. The Republicans will forget about the debt and deficits and jump on board a ” STIMULUS ” that they so derided in the past . Tax cuts and increased spending and debt. what you get every time they take power. It will do exactly what progressive economists have said it will do, grow the economy and wages .
This will be accompanied by legislation attacking Public Schools,Labor, Government regulation, Government it self , Entitlements , Civil rights.Constitutional rights. What will expand will be the police state .
When the dollars are gone the American people again will ask why their standard of living has dropped . Proving “you can fool most of the people most of the time”
Pence got booed last night at Hamlet . Democrats should take a message from the people .You do not work with these people you do not normalize their vile agenda.
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I like to think of myself as an economic populist . So I have attempted to rationalize the support from a certain small portion of Trumps voters, due to their economic pain .
But the reality is that way more than half are deplorable 59% believing Obama is a Muslim not born in the USA . Add to that those voting for him for purely economic reasons regardless of how putrid he is. . A very large basket of despicables .
Now do not take this too literally, but those angry white rural voters, have they ever met a Black man, an Hispanic or God forbid a Muslim.?
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Generalization after generalization – can’t tell you how much that scares me.
Assumption after assumption seems to be rife.
As the stats tell you, blacks and Hispanics have voted for trump, as have Muslims.
So your almost ridiculous question, havecthese voters ever met… indicates facts don’t mean a lot to you.
I am a white, immigrant, Christian Republican who, with many others like me, did not vote for trump.
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Thank goodness the Trump U fraud case is settled and Don Trumpiano can now get on to the all-important business of defrauding the country.
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“My book exposed a grubby secret of American higher education: that the rich buy their under-achieving children’s way into elite universities with massive, tax-deductible donations. It reported that New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner had pledged $2.5 million to Harvard University in 1998, not long before his son Jared was admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school. At the time, Harvard accepted about one of every nine applicants. (Nowadays, it only takes one out of twenty.)
I also quoted administrators at Jared’s high school, who described him as a less than stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvard’s decision.
“There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,” a former official at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, told me. “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-kushners-curious-acceptance-into-harvard
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Tell me it isn’t so!
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When you are Middle Class and actually work for a living, you and your kids get one shot, and that’s it. The Middle Class work without a net.
The rich and their trust fund kiddies can do no wrong and have the luxury of failure. We end up with a low intelligence upper crust leading the country and business. It is a perversion of the American Dream and corrodes our democracy.
In reality, if the Bushes, Romneys, Trumps, Kushners, and rest of the privileged and pampered did not have the benefit of a wealthy and powerful family, these elitists would be cube rats or popping Advil to get through the work day like the rest of us.
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“Level the playing field!” “Merit!” “Excellence!”
Talk about “rigged”, huh?
Trump’s son in law bought and Ivy League degree and Trump just bought his was out of a public trial.
25 million is absolute bargain to make sure no one finds out how the Trump’s robbed those people. It’s hush money.
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The Justice Dept has failed many many times to prosecute & convict white collar criminals. Rick Scott is but one egregious example- took the 5th 75 times & walked away unscathed & guiltless in the eyes of the law..
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2014/mar/03/florida-democratic-party/rick-scott-rick-scott-oversaw-largest-medicare-fra/
The drug companies, Wall St, The banks, – settle & declare no guilt,. Fines are part of doing business. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-2-billion-ubs-incident-rogue-trader-my-ass-20110915
Some of the blame belongs to GW Bush who hollowed out the civil rights & criminal areas of Justice. His Attorney General John Ashcroft replaced lifetime attorneys with religious zealots & Cheney loyalists whose mission was to focus on prosecuting internet porn. Eric Holder restored some
These are not singular prosecutorial failures but are systemic problems throughout the legal system. Our legal & justice system is broken and needs reform.
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“Eric Holder restored some”
You must be kidding . Please it is beyond Orwellian to insinuate that the Obama administration did anything but make this problem worse .
When faced with the greatest orgy of unbridled greed and out right thievery in history. A bank robbery of epic proportions, Obama and Holder prosecuted NO ONE !!!!!!!!.
Ronald Reagan may he rot in hell sent a thousand bankers to trial. In the much smaller savings and loan.
Holder went back to the same Law firm whose primary function was empowering Wall Street fraud .
We have Obama thank on many levels for the results of this election.
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Why don’t powerful people have to go to trial anymore?
The only people who have to endure trials are the people who can’t buy their way out of one.
How is this “justice”? It’s one system for the wealthy and another one for everyone else.
Ordinary people can’t buy their way out of a trial. Why are the wealthy and powerful allowed to do it?
We’ve just dispensed with trials for certain wealthy people? They get a pass contingent on making a payment?
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More than 800 financial leaders,bankers went to jail for the savings and loan crisis alone. Only one was sent to jail for the housing collapse. Holder gave a lot of excuses but in the end, the will to prosecute their big donors just wasn’t there.
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A pretty good conviction rate of the over 1000 that were brought to trial.
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True. Unfortunately, the Republicans will simply remove any laws their donors want to break.
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Who was sent to jail?
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Matt Taibbi’s book “Divide” explains this concept of the wealthy merely paying a “small fine” whereas the rest of America gets tangled up in its pernicious bureaucracy that screws them to serve the wealthy and powerful. Frankly, if I may be so bold, our system just flat out sucks.
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Worth every penny to Donald Trump. Now the details will stay buried forever.
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“Frankly, if I may be so bold, our system just flat out sucks.”
It’s a lot worse than that!!
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oops- forgot to finish this sentence Eric Holder restored some of strength to Justice, but now nearly enough to punish massive corporate fraud.
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Just read the oops .
But even “not nearly enough ” is a bit of an understatement.
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Punish massive corporate fraud? Name one Wall Street executive who was prosecuted for nearly bringing the US economy to a standstill.
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What I do not want to hear 15years from now, is that there was evidence of Trump colluding with Russian intelligence. Does it not seem strange that Gordon Liddy was dinning with Puttin last year . Now Gordon will go on to be National security adviser.
Not at all a senior moment.
One can argue that the American Left has found voice on the RT network. True enough, after being purged by the American Corporate media. They have something in common with RT for very different reasons. They too want to bring down the system and are using the only mass media outlet not owned by the right or Corporate center right. . What is it that repugnant puke Mike Flynn doing sitting next to Puttin. A far more real possibility Diane than the actual rigging of voting machines.
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Glad you brought up RT and the liberals/progressives who have shows there: Thom Hartmann, Chris Hedges, Ed Schultz, I may have missed some others. In my opinion, they are playing with fire and are possibly being used by RT because much of their shows are critical of the US right wing and what’s wrong with the US. Being on RT could backfire. It is certainly true that 99% of talk radio is hate wing, right wing ranters. The media are owned by 6 or 7 giant corporations which are mostly anti-union and do not allow real live progressives like Chris Hedges on their media outlets.
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Take it from the “shrewd businessman” we just elected: There’s a lesson here for de-regulated for-profit schools: build in some legal fees in your budget and settle… It’s a small price to pay to put millions in your pocket.
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A lesson learned from automakers and drug companies. Just the “cost of doing business”.
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