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[WTS] World silver coins: Canada, Germany, South and Central America, 5 Grain Bars, etc. (some below spot)
Shipping Shipping is $4 tracked for up to 8 oz and at cost for any amount above within lower 48. For shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, APO, or US territories I will have to specifically determine the rate which will be at cost. I can ship anything less than $20 in value, less than 3 oz in weight, and not too bulky in a stamped envelope for $1.10, however there will be no tracking. Please note that anything in a 2x2 may be taped over for risky shipped. I will ship outside the US, but the rate will have to be specifically determined. It looks like world wide shipping would start at $9 for Canada and $11 for all other countries if you want tracking. With USPS experiencing historic delays and a plethora of other issues, I will not ship out of the country without tracking. Once I deposit packages in a USPS receptacle, you are at the mercy of USPS and as they are in responsible charge of the delivery, you should take up any issues with USPS. Payment I accept Google Pay, Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo, and PPGS. I will not take PPFF as I do not wish to get my account suspended. Leave the comments section blank for all payment methods. Not that you should be making any comments anyways, but I cannot stress this enough DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES MENTION CUBA OR IRAN. Buyer pays applicable fees on all payment methods. Note that the fees for Venmo, Google Pay, Zelle, and Cashapp are ZERO. Note that the fee for PPGS is +3% of order total +$0.30. I will no longer accept checks or money orders. Please note the following new stipulation: I will only accept Zelle, Cashapp, or Google Pay for purchases under $50. Purchases of $50 or more may utilize any of the listed payment methods including PPGS and Venmo. Other Notes No trades at this time. I generally only ship on weekdays, so purchases on Friday through Sunday will ship out on Monday at the earliest. Additional pics available upon request for coins over $5. I don’t have the time to mess around taking more pictures of coins less than $5 in value. DO NOT SEND CHATS, I WILL NO LONGER ANSWER THEM. Please use the link below to send me a private message. https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=pikey_mikey&subject=&message= Please no time wasters. I do not guarantee that I will answer PMs in the order received. I will answer them in whatever order I see fit which may be out of order. If I don’t get timely responses or timely payment, I will sell the coins/notes to the next interested party. I believe my prices to be fair as they are based off of Ebay sold listings and community market trends. Reasonable offers are welcome, but I don’t have much room if any to negotiate on smaller purchases. Offers of spot will not be tolerated. If I want to sell it at spot, it will be listed as such. I still have plenty of old sales that are still active. I can work on the prices and combine shipping if you are so inclined as to look up any old sales. Silver Commems Prices are absolutely firm 11x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 5 Dollar (ASW = 0.7227 ozt ea) - $18.64 ea (5% below spot) ($17.67 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all) 14x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 10 Dollar (ASW = 1.4453 ozt ea) - $37.28 ea (5% below spot) ($35.29 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all) 1991, 1995 Germany 10 Mark - $8.04 ea (5% below spot) 1983 Portugal 500 Escudo - $12 1966 Portugal 20 Escudo - $6.50 1972 Portugal 50 Escudo - $11 1969 Swiss 5 Franc - $14 Bullion Horseshoe Casino Silver Portion of Round (I think it would have had a brass ring around it making up a larger round) just over 18 grams gross weight - $15.72 (spot) Lot of 10x Silver 5 Grain Bars - $10 for the lot World Silver 1891 Tunisia 5 Centime (base) - $8 1813 Swiss Cantons Ticino 3 Soldi - $12 1312AH Sudan 20 Piastre (base) - $30 1889/91 Ethiopia Gersh - $5 1895 (1903-28) Ethiopia Gersch - $10 1929 Egypt 2 Piastre (holed) - $1.75 1917 Egypt 5 Piastre - $7 1937 Egypt 2 Piastre (nice details) - $8 1293 Egypt 1/10 Qirsh (base) - $2 1312 Sudan 20 Piastre (base) - $26 1223AH (1829?) Ottoman Kurus Mahmud II (holed) - $4 1960 Turkey 10 Lira - $10 1935 Turkey 25 Kurus - $2.50 1947 Turkey 50 Kurus - $4 1937 Turkey 50 Kurus - $5 1939 Turkey 1 Lira - $7 1223 AH (1834) Turkey 5 Piastre (base) - $5 1255 AH Turkey 20 Para - $2.50 1293 AH Ottoman 10 Para - $3 1921 Philippines 50 Centavo - $12 1907 Philippines 1 Peso - $22 1876 Bolivia 5 Centavo - $4 ea 1862 Bolivia ½ Sole - $5.50 1895 Bolivia 20 Centavo - $8 1874 Chili ½ Decimo - $4 1910 Chile 5 Centavo - $3 1947 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50 1947 Colombia 20 Centavo - $3.50 1879 Colombia 10 Centavo - $10 1953 Colombia 20 Centavo - $6 1913 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50 1905 Costa Rica 10 Centimo (ex jewelry) - $2.50 1929 Costa Rica 5 Centimo - $6 1924 Costa Rica 25 Centavo - $8
[WTS] World silver coins: Canada, Germany, South and Central America, 5 Grain Bars, etc (some below spot)
Shipping Shipping is $4 tracked for up to 8 oz and at cost for any amount above within lower 48. For shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, APO, or US territories I will have to specifically determine the rate which will be at cost. I can ship anything less than $20 in value, less than 3 oz in weight, and not too bulky in a stamped envelope for $1.10, however there will be no tracking. Please note that anything in a 2x2 may be taped over for risky shipped. I will ship outside the US, but the rate will have to be specifically determined. It looks like world wide shipping would start at $9 for Canada and $11 for all other countries if you want tracking. With USPS experiencing historic delays and a plethora of other issues, I will not ship out of the country without tracking. Once I deposit packages in a USPS receptacle, you are at the mercy of USPS and as they are in responsible charge of the delivery, you should take up any issues with USPS. Payment I accept Google Pay, Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo, and PPGS. I will not take PPFF as I do not wish to get my account suspended. Leave the comments section blank for all payment methods. Not that you should be making any comments anyways, but I cannot stress this enough DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES MENTION CUBA OR IRAN. Buyer pays applicable fees on all payment methods. Note that the fees for Venmo, Google Pay, Zelle, and Cashapp are ZERO. Note that the fee for PPGS is +3% of order total +$0.30. I will no longer accept checks or money orders. Please note the following new stipulation: I will only accept Zelle, Cashapp, or Google Pay for purchases under $50. Purchases of $50 or more may utilize any of the listed payment methods including PPGS and Venmo. Other Notes No trades at this time. I generally only ship on weekdays, so purchases on Friday through Sunday will ship out on Monday at the earliest. Additional pics available upon request for coins over $5. I don’t have the time to mess around taking more pictures of coins less than $5 in value. DO NOT SEND CHATS, I WILL NO LONGER ANSWER THEM. Please use the link below to send me a private message. https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=pikey_mikey&subject=&message= Please no time wasters. I do not guarantee that I will answer PMs in the order received. I will answer them in whatever order I see fit which may be out of order. If I don’t get timely responses or timely payment, I will sell the coins/notes to the next interested party. I believe my prices to be fair as they are based off of Ebay sold listings and community market trends. Reasonable offers are welcome, but I don’t have much room if any to negotiate on smaller purchases. Offers of spot will not be tolerated. If I want to sell it at spot, it will be listed as such. I still have plenty of old sales that are still active. I can work on the prices and combine shipping if you are so inclined as to look up any old sales. Silver Commems Prices are absolutely firm 11x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 5 Dollar (ASW = 0.7227 ozt ea) - $18.64 ea (5% below spot) ($17.67 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all) 14x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 10 Dollar (ASW = 1.4453 ozt ea) - $37.28 ea (5% below spot) ($35.29 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all) 1991, 1995 Germany 10 Mark - $8.04 ea (5% below spot) 1983 Portugal 500 Escudo - $12 1966 Portugal 20 Escudo - $6.50 1972 Portugal 50 Escudo - $11 1969 Swiss 5 Franc - $14 Bullion Horseshoe Casino Silver Portion of Round (I think it would have had a brass ring around it making up a larger round) just over 18 grams gross weight - $15.72 (spot) Lot of 10x Silver 5 Grain Bars - $10 for the lot World Silver 1813 Swiss Cantons Ticino 3 Soldi - $12 1889/91 Ethiopia Gersh - $5 1895 (1903-28) Ethiopia Gersch - $10 1929 Egypt 2 Piastre (holed) - $1.75 1917 Egypt 5 Piastre - $7 1937 Egypt 2 Piastre (nice details) - $8 1223AH (1829?) Ottoman Kurus Mahmud II (holed) - $4 1960 Turkey 10 Lira - $10 1935 Turkey 25 Kurus - $2.50 1947 Turkey 50 Kurus - $4 1937 Turkey 50 Kurus - $5 1939 Turkey 1 Lira - $7 1255 AH Turkey 20 Para - $2.50 1293 AH Ottoman 10 Para - $3 1921 Philippines 50 Centavo - $12 1907 Philippines 1 Peso - $22 1876 Bolivia 5 Centavo - $4 ea 1862 Bolivia ½ Sole - $5.50 1895 Bolivia 20 Centavo - $8 1874 Chili ½ Decimo - $4 1910 Chile 5 Centavo - $3 1947 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50 1947 Colombia 20 Centavo - $3.50 1879 Colombia 10 Centavo - $10 1953 Colombia 20 Centavo - $6 1913 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50 1905 Costa Rica 10 Centimo (ex jewelry) - $2.50 1929 Costa Rica 5 Centimo - $6 1924 Costa Rica 25 Centavo - $8
DFNN soars 41%; will be PH's first online casino operator (Wednesday, Dec 9)
Happy Wednesday, Barkada --
The PSE closed up 69 points to 7204 ▲1%.
Greetings to all of the new subscribers that joined yesterday and this morning! I hope you enjoy what Merkado Barkada has to offer. If you do, please forward out to friends and family who might also enjoy it... and if not, please contact me at [email protected] to let me know why! I'm always interested in constructive feedback on how to make MB a better place for investors and traders alike.
[NEWS] DFNN [DFNN 6.35 ▲41.43%] granted PH’s first online casino license, stock soars 41%... the license allows the PAGCOR-approved company to develop and operate online casino games. DFNN said that the online casino would “only available to VIP players who must meet strict eligibility and registration procedures,” and would help in “regenerating revenues for the government”.
MB:PAGCOR has repeatedly tried to pitch “gaming” generally as the government’s cure to the cash crunch problem caused by its COVID-depressed tax income. I doubt it needed more than three slides in its pitch deck to government to get approval for the new license type. The government aches for income to replace what’s been lost. Investors and traders liked the news, in part because the complete surprise of the announcement allowed there to be a steep gap-up in the price (that’s always fun), but also because the license acts as something of a temporary monopoly for DFNN in terms of online gaming. There’s no word yet whether PAGCOR intends to license other gaming outfits to operate similar online casinos, but I’d bet that Dennis Uy and Enrique Razon are more than a little interested to join in on the fun, considering how poorly their profit puppies have performed through the pandemic. Especially if the license type will expand beyond the initial restriction to domestic bets only.
[NEWS] PH Resorts [PHR 3.00 ▼0.99%] halted for an hour after issuance of shares to Udenna Corp disclosed... the Dennis Uy-owned integrated casino/resort developer disclosed that it sold 1,686,309,523 common shares from its unissued capital stock to Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp for P2.8bn (P1.68/share). The PSE halted the stock for one hour under the “additional listing” rule. That lede was buried in a press release that was supposedly about PHR “topping off” the two towers at its Emerald Bay facility.
MB:The follow-on offering that PHR conducted a month ago sold 450m shares at the same price, but this transaction is significantly larger. When the FOO dropped, Dennis Uy said: “At the offer price, investors will be given a good opportunity to get in early at attractive valuation levels.” He was really talking about himself, and about the private placement sale to Udenna that was to come. This transaction dilutes everyone materially, including the FOO buyers that diluted the previous shareholders.
[NEWS] Mergermarket reporting Indonesian coffee chain looking for JV partner in PH... Kopi Kenangan is Indonesia’s fastest growing coffee chain, and it’s fresh off of a Sequoia Capital India-led Series B investment round that netted it a US$109m warchest for expansion. The coffee chain reportedly prefers a Philippine “family-led conglomerate”, both for the conglomerate’s deep pockets but also its experience in the domestic retail sector. Kopi Kenangan is looking to co-locate its stores in buildings with a strong BPO presence.
MB:Looking for a family-led conglomerate with deep pockets is like shooting fish in a barrel in the Philippines. Kopi Kenangan is going to be able to run a beauty pageant to maximize the value of its potential JV. This store concept is not exactly like a convenience store (more like Luckin Coffee, actually), but it does serve some of the low-cost goodies (coffee, milk tea, snacks) that convenience stores like Seven-11 [SEVN 110.70 ▲4.43%], Ministop [RRHI 68.70 ▲0.51%], and Family Mart [PNX 12.74 ▼0.31%] use to lure customers in for repeated visits. That’s not exactly Kopi’s DNA, though, as it’s building its name and brand off of “coffee on demand” that is ordered by an app and either picked up in a small-footprint shop, or delivered direct to consumer. It’s not clear what Kopi Kenangan’s end-goal strategy is, whether it wants to be a stand-alone brand under the Kopi Kenangan flag here in the PH with its own locations, or whether it’s willing to be a branded component of a conglomerate’s overall offering, like “Ministop, with coffee by Kopi Kenangan”; either way, this is an indication that our convenience and coffee store market is heating up.
[NEWS] Metro Pacific Investments [MPI 4.55 0.00%] buys 20% of Philippine Tank Storage International (PTSI)... the purchase was part of a larger deal that saw Keppel Infrastructure Trust (KIT) and MPI together acquire 100% of PTSI’s stock for US$333.8m. According to Mergermarket, PTSI owns the Philippine Coastal Storage & Pipeline Corporation (PCSPC), which is “the largest petroleum products import storage facility in the Philippines”. KIT and MPI purchased PTSI from the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure (PINAI). PTSI’s storage capacity includes three “tank farms” and one marine terminal area, all within the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
MB:There are no comments from the MPI side of the deal yet, but KIT is on record saying that this is a “strategic” acquisition to strengthen its distributable cash flow (the money that the company uses to declare dividends). KIT says the investment will help it “capture the expected growth in demand for petroleum products in [the Philippines].” I assume MPI’s reasons for entering the deal are substantially similar.
MB is posted to /PHinvest every Monday and Wednesday, but my newsletter goes out daily. To stay in the loop for daily email delivery, please join the barkada by signing up for the newsletter, or follow me on Twitter.
Converge's US investor doing most of the selling at IPO (Monday, Oct 5)
Happy Monday, Barkada --
The PSE closed up 55 points to 5999 ▲0.9%.
Shout-out to André for the Twitter love, and to Robin for his interest in my analysis of the PH logistics industry (with reference to MerryMart's "Dark Grocery" deal with FoodPanda). I hope to have more to say on the topic soon, as it's an industry that I'm looking very closely at considering the changes that we've seen all around the world in the warehousing, cold-storage, and delivery segments. Drop a note if you're involved in the logistics industry, or an analyst covering it; I'd love the chance to swap stories. Interesting times, especially now with this COVID twist.
[NEWS] PH Resorts Group Holdings [PHR 3.04 ▲1.33%] gets FOO approved by PSE... here comes the dilution. PHR is the travel and gaming subsidiary of Dennis “Davao” Uy’s Udenna Corp, and is looking to raise P1.125bn in a follow-on offer (FOO) to build an integrated resort (casino integrated with a hotel with restaurants) in Cebu. PHR is selling 450,000,000 new common shares at an implied price of P2.50/share. COVID has delayed the construction and opening of the resort, which Udenna expects to have fully opened by Q2/22, with a soft opening in late 2021.
MB:The FOO also lifts the public ownership (free float) of PHR above 10%. The PSE has made moves that indicate it will press to raise public ownership levels, so perhaps DAU is getting out in front of the PSE a bit here and killing two birds with one stone (lack of funds + lack of public ownership). The P.2.50/share price that’s implied by the P1.125bn raise through selling 450m shares is about 17% lower than PHR’s Friday close of P3.04/share. The new shares represent a 9.4% increase in the outstanding shares of PHR. This isn’t the only DAU-affiliated company that is in need of capital.
[UPDATE] Converge ICT’s [FIBER 24.00] US investor to unload 1 billion shares at IPO... the US investor is none other than Warburg Pincus LLP (WP), which invested US$225m (P12.4bn) in FIBER in 2019 through its subsidiary company, Coherent Cloud. WP plans to convert its preferred share holdings to common shares on the date that FIBER gets priced, and then to sell 1.011 billion common shares in the IPO (almost half of its 2,045 billion shares in FIBER).
MB:This means that the secondary share sale will almost entirely be to WP’s benefit, meaning that it does not look like The Other Dennis Uy is cashing out his chips in this transaction. WP, for its part, is looking to sell half of its original US$225m investment for P24bn, which is approximately US$495m. That’s a 4x return in just over 1 year of investment. From WP’s point of view, that’s a fantastic deal, but from a prospective FIBER investor’s perspective, I’m left to wonder what this deal has in it for them. FIBER’s expansion program sets a goal to reach 55% of Filipino households by 2025.
NEWS Globe [GLO 2120.00 ▲0.95%] ramps up fiber roll-out... in completely unrelated news, GLO has increased its fiber network roll-out by 50% this year. Cebu and Davao Del Sur have been the recipients of the most aggressive GLO activity, but GLO has been busy to “fill the gap on home broadband access”. BODY
MB:While FIBER has been the fastest growing broadband provider in the Philippines, the incumbents won’t just roll over and die and hand out marketshare left and right. FIBER will either have to take the share from GLO (and the rest of the existing providers), or it will have to make new markets before GLO and the incumbents get there first. Looks like GLO is trying to head FIBER off at the pass by getting its fingers into whatever new markets FIBER might have had its eyes on. I can’t tell from here if these new markets were just the easiest for GLO to tap, or if these were more strategic moves meant to take away FIBER’s easiest low hanging fruit. GLO trying to starve the FIBER fire before it even sparks?
MB is posted to /PHinvest every Monday and Wednesday, but my newsletter goes out daily. To stay in the loop for daily email delivery, please join the barkada by signing up for the newsletter, or follow me on Twitter.
PH Resorts FOO is today... spicy times ahead (no ceiling/floor) (Thursday, Nov 5)
Happy Thursday, Barkada --
The PSE closed up 128 points (!!) to 6464 ▲2%.
I'm blown away by your response to the MB Patreon page. I have a hard time putting into words how it feels to see notifications from Patreon, many featuring familiar names from Reddit, Discord, and email chats, saying that someone has donated some money to the MB effort. During a pandemic, a down market, and a crazy year like this. A huge shout-out and humbled thank-you goes out to our new
"Ministop Coffee Crew" patrons: JRVS, Phantom-Spirit, and Jelo Agnasin
"Starbucks Coffee Crew" patron: Karlos Naidas
"Daily Production Team" patrons, Charles A Yeung, FinanceForever, and Marilin Nery! Thank you all for your support.
You didn't have to, but you did, and I appreciate that. I raise my coffee mug in thanks to the Ministop and Starbucks Coffee Crews, and to the Daily Producers, I say keep an eye on your inbox as I'll be in touch to figure out the specific day you'd like to sponsor! To anyone else who would like to contribute, please use this link. Remember, there's no obligation, no special access, and people who don't have an EF yet shouldn't donate! Focus on yourself first. Thank you, Patreon supporters. And thank you to all the Barkadans for reading!
Fast Food ▲5.78% POGO Gaming ▲5.34% 2019 IPOs ▲4.86%
Bottom 3 MB indices:
Telco ▼0.38% MiddleClass ▼0.34% Power Gen. ▲0.29%
Main stories covered:
[UPDATE] PH Resorts [PHR 3.27 susp] FOO is today, be prepared for wackiness... the follow-on offering for Dennis Uy’s integrated casino/resort developer will hit the market a lot like the weird Altus Property Ventures [APVI 13.08 ▲0.62%] offering “by way of introduction” did: with no ceiling or floor. PHR last closed at P3.27/share before it was suspended pending this offering, which was priced at P1.68/share.
MB:BE CAREFUL. Every single AVPI share purchased on its offering day is still underwater. Have a read of what happened on that day (I sort of live-blogged it), when it finished up 82% on the day, but down 93% from its intra-day peak. If you are trading price action, SET YOUR STOPS. You don’t want to end up joining the sad crew of momentum chasers that turned into “invals” (involuntary value investors).
[Q3] Globe [GLO 2002.00 ▼0.89%] profit ▼22% y/y... Q3/20 profit of P4.4bn, down 22% from Q3/19 profit of P5.6bn. Part of that decline could be attributed to the continuing trend of consumers moving away from “traditional” voice and SMS, where margins for GLO are ridiculously high; revenue from these sectors was down 3% y/y to P36.7bn. GLO did say that the “upturn in prepaid top-ups and subscriber acquisitions” was improved q/q by the less restrictive quarantine measures over Metro Manila allowing more people to transact digitally.
MB:Up until the end of Q3, it had been GLO and TEL just tromping around the country harvesting pesos from a captive audience that had no other choice. In the broadband world, Converge [CNVRG 14.72 ▲1.24%] has loudly splashed into the national spotlight through its “PLAYER 3 HAS ENTERED THE GAME” IPO last month. While the stock hasn’t popped, CNVRG has already banked the cash. CNVRG will hit the market with a long history of experience in providing the service that it offers, with the customer support (I know, I know), back-office team, and network of commercial subscriber funnels to efficiently consume new markets. So, while Dito Telecommunity is that same “PLAYER 3 HAS ENTERED THE GAME” moment on the mobile communications front, it’s starting from way further back. It has no proven processes; it’s never processed a transaction; it’s never dealt with an outage; and it’s never performed a network upgrade with live customers. That’s not to say that Dito couldn’t figure it out (it’s probably dangerous for GLO and TEL to discount Dito outright), but it is to say that public-facing communications infrastructure, at scale, is hard. That’s part of the reason why only GLO and TEL have survived. But from Q4 onward, the gloves are off.
[Q3] Century Foods [CNPF 17.00 ▲0.95%] profit ▲15% y/y... Q3/20 profit of P1.032bn, up 15% from Q3/19 profit of P0.898bn. The profit growth was driven by the company’s “”branded marine, meat and milk products” segment, which accounted for 81% of CNPF’s total revenue. Sales in this segment, which includes brands like Century Tuna, 555, Argentina and Birch Tree, were up 16%.
MB:This result might come as cold comfort to some investors. It’s not like people have all of a sudden grown an outsized appetite for canned goods and non-perishable milk products... it’s the pandemic. At first, in the heat of the ECQ lockdown, Filipinos flocked to the familiar safety of CNPF products when presented with the possibility of the country’s supply chain failing, or other apocalyptic scenarios that had all barangays seriously considering what life would be like to have barangay captains ration food out to residents amid a medical catastrophe of unknown severity. We filled our storage areas with tuna, corned beef, and whatever else might taste ok and not spoil. Then, when our fears of systemic failure did not come to pass, but the ravages of one of the world’s longest lockdowns began to cripple commerce resulting in job losses, under-employment, and vastly reduced household earnings with plummeting consumer confidence, we “downshifted” our eating habits to recognize the need to be conservative. Instead of eating at a restaurant, we went to Jollibee. Instead of eating at Jollibee, we ate street food. Instead of eating street food, we cooked at home. Instead of fresh meat and vegetables, we bought canned goods. This was explicitly mentioned by McDonalds PH in its conference call with Goldman Sachs that I covered in August. Consumers are shifting down, and that is pushing CNPF up. If the economy improves, and things go back to normal, will these customers stay? What is CNPF doing right now to encourage continued loyalty through changing circumstances?
[Q3] International Container Terminal Services [ICT 115.50 ▲0.43%] profit ▲23% y/y... Q3/20 profit US$69m, up 23% from Q3/19 profit of US$56m. The shipping terminal owneoperator’s revenues are a pretty good proxy for global trade, as they have facilities in the Philippines (including the Manila International Container Terminal), across SE Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. ICT has a fairly clear lack of penetration into Russia/China, Europe, India, and North America, but otherwise has a strong presence in developing countries with significant raw material exports and significant finished goods imports. In Q3, ICT made more revenue (6.7% more) with fewer expenses (1.1% less), an outcome that ICT attributes to “stringent cost management”.
MB:ICT should be well-positioned to benefit from any uptick in global trade. The cost management initiative will serve ICT (and its investors) well in the time between now and when COVID fears begin to lift. We aren’t there yet, but ICT will be one of those “recovery stocks” to watch. It’s probably too early now, but keep an eye on it.
MB is posted to /PHinvest every Monday and Wednesday, but my newsletter goes out daily. To stay in the loop for daily email delivery, please join the barkada by signing up for the newsletter, or follow me on Twitter.
For the Chinese nationalists/sympathizers on this sub
Like u/turkeyshooter I’m making this post cuz I’m genuinely pissed. I’ve seen China’s imperialist policies first hand and tankies like turkeyshooter think it’s not happening (much like the Uyghur abuse, I guess). Chinese imperialism is a real thing. I’ve spent a week in a neighborhood where China priced out local Philippinos to make room for Chinese expats, businessmen, and tourists. The philippinos were moved to a literal skid row. No Jeepneys are even permitted into certain areas. Out of sight, out of mind. I still remember seeing people sleeping next to a dump of a river outside a huge Chinese casino. This is literal imperialism at play. It’s not a guess if China will be imperialist. It’s literally happening now. Tankies think China would never do this for some reason. They’re doing similar things in Africa and other South Asian countries, where they’re colonizing via subsidies, infrastructure/energy sales, and things of that nature. My impression of China was definitely formed by my firsthand experiences in 3rd world countries affected by China’s imperialist policies while the tankies that plague this sub are masturbating with what-if’s. U/turkeyshooter wouldn’t believe that China would do this, so here are a few pictures of my trip: https://imgur.com/gallery/SH4TAG7 It was a vacation so it wasn’t supposed to be an exposé on Chinese imperialism, so please don’t expect award winning photos. The giant spiked egg is the Chinese casino and the lavish area with the lights are the valet area. The slums were where the locals were moved to. And they were lucky to have any shelter at all. Many just slept by the riverside and made makeshift shelters, and even makeshift stoves. It was sad to see local people displaced in their own country. Of course not all of the Philippines is like this. But in major cities, it’s somewhat the norm in certain neighborhoods.
A very English problem, a very real conspiracy and a plea for help
I thought I’d bring to your attention the current plight of Wigan Athletic, an English football (soccer) team who play in the Championship (1 league below the Premier League). A brief history below but please bear with me until we get to the recent news featuring the actual conspiracy to defraud by Dr. Choi Chiu Fai (Stanley). Wigan Athletic were elected to the football league in 1978 and after many years gained promotion to the Premier League in 2005 until they were relegated in 2013.Along the way Wigan got to the League Cup Final in 2005 losing to Manchester United and won the FA Cup (the holy grail of English football) by beating Manchester City in 2013. The success of Wigan Athletic is mainly down to a local businessman, Dave Whelan. Whelan took control of the club in 1995. It was Whelan’s passion, financial input and backing of various managers that saw Wigan elevated from a lower division club to a club who competed from 2005–2013 in the Premier alongside the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool Manchester United, Manchester City etc... Wigan also qualified for the Europa Cup (old UEFA cup) for 2014-2014. Whelan sold the club to the Dr. Choi Chiu Fai owned International Entertainment Corporation (IEC ) in 2018 and it was announced that Former Everton boss Joe Royle and his son Darren will now join the board. Darren was to replace David Sharpe (Whelan’s Grandson) as chairman, while Joe was to become a director. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41636508 IEC are a Hong Kong-based, Cayman Islands-registered company which owns a hotel and casino in the Philippines. It is believed that Darren Royle introduced the Whelan family to IEC and has connections to KB88 a betting company based in the Philippines who are Wigan's shirt sponsors, the relevance of this will become apparent later. When Whelan sold the club to IEC, the club was in a very good position financially and at the point of sale was debt free. The conspiracy: As with all UK football the impact of the Covid outbreak saw Wigan and all other top-tier teams without revenue from gates and matchday purchases, however the league was resumed on the 20th June without fans and Wigan just above the relegation zone. Despite their lowly league position Wigan restarted their season with a 2-0 win over Huddersfield. They then went on to beat Blackburn 2-0 (27th June) and Stoke City 3-0 (30th June). These results gave Wigan Athletic a boost up the table and left them eight points clear of the relegation zone with six matches left to play. In the month of June, Wigan Athletic were sold again to Next Leader Fund LP. Their major shareholder is Dr. Choi Chiu Fai the same man who is the majority shareholder and chairman of IEC who sold the club to NLF. Initially NLF was majority owned by the same majority owner of IEC, Dr Choi Chiu Fai, with Au Yeung as a minority shareholder until Au Yeung was announced as the owner of more than 75%. In doing so NFL agreed a loan from IEC for the amount of 24.36 million pound sterling. The loan attracted an interest rate of 8% rising to 20% if the loan wasn’t repaid within a year or if the club defaulted on payments. The English Football League applies a deduction of 12 points for any club going in to administration (this is important). This will be applied at the end of the current season if Wigan Athletic finish above the relegation zone or in the next season if Wigan Athletic get relegated. Currently a 12 points deduction puts Wigan Athletic firmly at the bottom of the league and makes them favourites to be relegated After the takeover had been agreed and ratified by the English Football League (EFL) the club was put in to administration, this was 7 days after the deal was done. The reasons for the club being put in to administration was stated as Covid, Brexit and loss-making finances of the Championship. Wigan Athletic fans rallied around to investigate Choi and Yeung to see what they could dig up and one Wigan fan confronted EFL chairman Rick Parry and secretly filmed him saying that administration was linked with a bet in Philippines on Wigan being relegated. A single bet may be stretching it a bit but playing the exchanges knowing that at least one club is guaranteed to go down is not. As unbelievable as it sounds it does look like the plan was to cash in on Wigan Athletic being relegated but after we restarted the season with 3 straight wins lifting Wigan right out of the relegation zone the only option open to them was to put the club in to administration guaranteeing that Wigan would have 12 points (equal to 4 wins) deducted. We know that Dr. Choi Chiu Fai (Stanley) is a high stakes poker play and a major gambler and that he has been involved in quite a few ‘dodgy dealings’ in the past. He also appears in the Panama Papers ( https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12163042 ) but so far our efforts to track down Au Yeung haven’t been that successful. It should also be noted that for someone to own a football club in England they need to pass a ‘fit and proper' test administered by the EFL. I cannot see a reason that even a cursory glance at the takeover would not have raised multiple red flags. We now have the support from our local MP and the leader of the opposition but I cannot express in words how much this club means to the community, a true family club left devastated by Dr Choi Chiu Fai and Au Yeung. I reach out to the autists, fellow conspiracy people and justice seekers to help us fight this and dig up all you can find. We are all working hard to raise funds to try and get the club through to the end of the season but all I'm asking for is any information you may have on the main protagonists or associates (unless of course you want to donate). We hope that we can survive as a club and plan to use all the relevant evidence we can gather to help us to to appeal the 12 points deduction. I realise that there is a large contingent from across the pond and we play football with different shaped balls but any help at all will be really appreciated. I'd also appreciate any suggestions on how we could get the information of our current plight to more people. Links: Rick Parry video : https://twitter.com/i/status/1278729830645850113 Request for investigation : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53309675 Fan lettesummary : https://twitter.com/JayWhittle6/status/1278616643724328960/photo/1 Crowdfunder : https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/official-wigan-athletic-football-club-fundraiser TLDR: Help wanted in investigating a dodgy loan\betting scam relating to an English football club involving Hong Kong businessmen(?) and a very suspect review of the owner by the English Football League. PN: I had to create a new account as I can't login with my old one (not that I ever had anything worth posting).
List of Las Vegas casinos that never opened Over the years there have been several casinos and resorts planned for the Las Vegas Valley that never opened. The stages of planning may have been just an announcement or groundbreaking.[1][2][3] Asia Resort and Casino Where the Palazzo Casino and Resort currently stands (adjacent to the Venetian Hotel and Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center), an Asian themed casino was proposed but was rejected for the present Palazzo project.[4] Alon Las Vegas A proposed luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip on the former site of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, announced in 2015.[5] The project was put in doubt after Crown Resorts announced in late 2016 it was suspending its involvement in the development.[6] Crown announced in December 2016 that it was halting the project and seeking to sell its investment. The remaining partner Andrew Pascal announced he was seeking other partners to proceed with the project. However in May 2017, the land went up for sale.[7] The land was later purchased by Steve Wynn. Beau Rivage Steve Wynn, who had purchased and demolished the Dunes hotel-casino, had originally planned to build a modern hotel in the middle of a man-made lake. He later built the Bellagio with a man-made lake in the front of the hotel.[citation needed] The name was later used by Wynn for a resort built in Biloxi, Mississippi. Caribbean Casino In 1988, a sign for a proposed casino was erected on a fenced vacant lot on Flamingo Road. Standing near the sign was a scale model galleon. For several years, that was all that stood on the property. The empty lot was the source of many jokes by the locals until the ship, which was later damaged by a fire started by a homeless person, was torn down in the 1990s and the lot became the site of the Tuscany Suites and Casino co-owned by Charles Heers, who has owned the property since the 1960s.[8] Carnival In 1990, the Radisson group proposed a 3,376-room hotel next to the Dunes, with a casino shaped like a Hershey's Kiss.[9] Cascada A proposed resort that was to have been built on the site of El Rancho Vegas. The parcel is now partially taken by the Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Las Vegas Festival Grounds.[4] City by the Bay Resort and Casino A San Francisco-themed resort was proposed for the site of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino. The project was rejected in favor of the Swiss-themed Montreux, which was also eventually cancelled.[4] Countryland USA A country music-themed resort was planned for construction of the site of the former El Rancho Hotel and Casino. For some years, the El Rancho sign stood with the words "Coming Soon - Future Home of Countryland USA."[10][11] Craig Ranch Station Main article: Craig Ranch Station A Mediterranean-themed hotel-casino for North Las Vegas, proposed by Station Casinos in March 2000.[12] The project faced opposition from nearby residents,[13][14][15] which led to the proposed location being changed to a vacant property on the nearby Craig Ranch Golf Course.[16] Residential opposition to the new location led to the project being rejected by the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee in March 2001. Station Casinos still had the option to develop the project on the initial site,[17][18] but the project was cancelled entirely in July 2001, following a weak financial quarter for the company.[19] Crown Las Vegas Main article: Crown Las Vegas Formerly known as Las Vegas Tower, the Crown Las Vegas was to have been a supertall skyscraper built on the former site of a Wet 'n Wild water park. In March 2008, the project was canceled and the property was put up for sale.[20] Desert Kingdom In 1993, ITT Sheraton purchased the Desert Inn casino, and had announced plans to develop the large parking lot into a Balinese themed resort to complement the Desert Inn. The project was never developed and the site is now the location of Wynn Las Vegas.[4] DeVille Casino After building the Landmark Hotel and Casino on Convention Center Drive and selling it to Howard Hughes, developer Frank Carroll built the DeVille Casino across the street from the Landmark at 900 Convention Center Drive in 1969. Chips were made for the casino (and are sought-after collectibles), but the casino never opened.[21] The building was renovated in 1992 as a race book parlor named Sport of Kings which closed after nine months.[22] It became the location of The Beach nightclub, which was demolished in 2007 to make room for a planned 600-unit tower[23] that was never built.[24] The land sits currently empty. Echelon Place Main article: Echelon Place An announced project by Boyd Gaming planned to have a hotel built on the property of the former Stardust Resort & Casino. Construction was suspended on August 1, 2008 due to the Great Recession. In March 2013, Boyd Gaming sold the proposed site for $350 million to the Genting Group, which is redeveloping the project as the Asian-themed Resorts World Las Vegas. Fontainebleau Las Vegas Main article: The Drew Las Vegas Located on the Las Vegas Strip and originally known as Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Construction began in 2007, and the resort was to include a casino, 2,871 hotel rooms, and 1,018 condominium units.[25] Construction on the $2.9 billion project ceased in 2009, the year of its planned opening. Investment firms Witkoff Group and New Valley LLC purchased the unfinished resort in 2017.[26] In 2018, Witkoff and Marriott International announced a partnership to open the renamed project as The Drew Las Vegas in 2020. The resort will include a casino and three hotels totaling nearly 4,000 rooms, with the condominium aspect removed from the project.[27] Harley-Davidson Hotel and Casino A resort themed after the motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson was proposed, complete with hotel towers shaped like gigantic exhaust pipes, but was never built.[4] Jockey Club Casino The Jockey Club is a condominium and timeshare resort at 3700 Las Vegas Boulevard South. It was planned to have a casino, and chips were made for its use, but the casino was never opened.[28] Kactus Kate's By April 1994, Gold Coast Hotel and Casino owner Michael Gaughan was interested in building a hotel-casino in North Las Vegas,[29] at the northeast corner of North Rancho Drive and Carey Avenue. In January 1995, the city planning commission approved the rezoning of the land for use as a hotel-casino. The resort, to be named Kactus Kate's, would be built by Gold Coast Hotel/Casino Limited. The hotel would include 450 rooms, and the casino would be 105,000 sq ft (9,800 m2),[30] later decreased to 102,000 sq ft (9,500 m2).[31] The resort would be located directly north of the nearby Fiesta and Texas Station resorts.[31] In December 1998, Coast Resorts, Inc. received approval from the planning commission for a use-permit relating to the undeveloped property. In November 2000, the planning commission unanimously approved a two-year extension on the permit, giving the company more time to decide whether it would build Kactus Kate's. Because of a 1999 Senate bill that placed restrictions on casinos in neighborhoods, Coast Resorts had a deadline of 2002 to build the casino. The hotel would measure over 100 feet (30 m) high, and Coast Resorts was required to notify the Federal Aviation Administration of its final plans, due to the site being located less than 1,000 feet (300 m) from a runway at the North Las Vegas Airport.[32] In January 2001, Station Casinos purchased the 29-acre (12 ha) site for $9 million. Coast Resorts president Harlan Braaten said, "As we saw the competitive nature of that area intensify, in terms of the size of competing facilities, we just felt we would have to build something much bigger than we had intended to compete with Texas Station and Santa Fe Station. It was just going to be a very expensive project, and we didn't feel the returns would be that good." Station Casinos planned to sell the property as a non-gaming site.[31] Las Vegas Plaza Main article: Las Vegas Plaza Not to be confused with the Plaza Hotel & Casino. This was to have been modeled after the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The project was announced shortly before the demolition of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, where the new hotel would be built. Las Vegas Plaza was cancelled in 2011 due to the Great Recession. London Resort and Casino This announced project was to have been themed around the city of London, and featuring replicas of the city's landmarks. The project was to be built on land across from the Luxor Hotel and Casino. A second London-themed resort was to be built on the former land of the El Rancho Hotel and Casino. Neither project ever began construction.[4] London, Las Vegas This was a proposed three-phase project using London as its design inspiration. When completed, the 38.5-acre (15.5 ha) property would have featured 1,300 hotel rooms, a casino, a 500-foot-tall (152.4 m) observation wheel named Skyvue (partially constructed), and 550,000 square feet (51,097 square meters) of restaurants and shops — all of which would be architectural replicas of various British landmarks and neighborhoods.[33] The project was to be constructed on land across from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, where — as of November 2019 — the partially-constructed Skyvue still stands. The wheel was to be "Phase I of London, Las Vegas". Montreux Resort This Swiss-themed resort was to have been built on the property of the former New Frontier Hotel and Casino, but was ultimately cancelled.[34] Moon Resort and Casino Proposed by Canadian developer Michael Henderson, this is a planned 10,000-room, 250-acre (1.0 km2) lunar-themed casino resort.[35] Gaming experts doubt it will ever be built in Las Vegas, simply because the space planned for it is too large for the Las Vegas Strip.[4] NevStar 2000 Further information: Craig Ranch Station § NevStar 2000 Proposed by NevStar Gaming in 1998, the NevStar 2000 entertainment complex in North Las Vegas would have included a hotel and casino,[36] but the project faced opposition from nearby residents who did not want a casino in the area.[37][38] The project was cancelled when NevStar Gaming filed for bankruptcy in December 1999.[12] North Coast/Boyd Gaming project In May 2003, Coast Casinos had plans for the North Coast hotel-casino, to be built at the southwest corner of Centennial Parkway and Lamb Boulevard in North Las Vegas. The project would be built on approximately 40 acres (16 ha) of vacant land, surrounded by other land that was also undeveloped. At the time, the North Las Vegas Planning Commission was scheduled to review requests for zoning changes and approvals for the project. The project was not scheduled to be built for at least another four years, after completion of a highway interchange at Lamb Boulevard and the nearby Interstate 15, as well as the completion of an overpass over nearby railroad tracks. Bill Curran, an attorney for the land owner, said, "We're going through the zoning changes now so everybody knows what's going to be out there." The North Coast would include a casino, a 10-story hotel with 398 rooms, a bowling alley, movie theaters, and a parking garage.[39] In June 2003, the Planning Commission voted 6 to 1 to approve preliminary applications necessary to begin work on the North Coast.[40][41] Boyd Gaming, the owner of Coast Casinos, announced in February 2006 that it would purchase the 40-acre site for $35 million.[42] Jackie Gaughan and Kenny Epstein were the owners at the time.[43] Boyd Gaming had not decided on whether the new project would be a Coast property or if it would be similar to the company's Sam's Town hotel-casino. At the time, no timetable was set for building the project.[42] In March 2007, the project was put on hold. At the time, Boyd Gaming had been securing construction permits for the project but decided to first review growth in the area. Construction had been scheduled to begin in mid-2007.[44] In August 2013, Boyd Gaming sold the undeveloped property for $5.15 million.[43] Palace of the Sea Resort and Casino This was to have been built on the former Wet 'n Wild waterpark site. Conceptual drawings included yacht-shaped towers that housed suites, a casino resembling the Sydney Opera House and a 600-foot (180 m) tall Ferris wheel-type attraction dubbed a "Sky Wheel". It never left the planning stages.[4] Paramount Las Vegas A casino and hotel and condo resort with more than 1,800 units that was planned by Royal Palms Las Vegas, a subsidiary of Royal Palms Communities.[45][46] The project was to replace the Klondike Hotel and Casino at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip,[47][45] beside the Las Vegas welcome sign.[48] The resort was approved in October 2006,[45] but an investor pulled out of the project in August 2007, and the land was put up for sale in May 2008.[46] Pharoah's Kingdom Pharoah's Kingdom was planned as a $1.2 billion gaming, hotel and theme park complex to be built on 710 acres (290 ha) at Pebble Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, five miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.[49][1] Construction was approved in October 1988,[49] with Silano Development Group as the developer.[50] The project would have an Egyptian theme, including two 12-story pyramids made of crystal, with each containing 300 suites. The hotel would have a total of 5,000 rooms,[50] making it the largest in the world.[51] The 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2) casino would include 100 table games and 3,000 slot machines, while an RV park, mini-golf, a bowling alley, and a video game arcade would be located beside the casino area.[52] Three of the project's various pyramid structures would house the 50-acre (20 ha) family theme park. Other features would include sphinxes, man-made beaches, waterways resembling the Nile river, an underwater restaurant, a 24-hour child-care facility, a 100-tenant shopping promenade, and a repertory-style theater that would be overseen by actor Jack Klugman.[52] Additionally, the resort would feature an 18-hole PGA Championship golf course,[52] and a monorail located within the theme park.[50] The project would have one mile of frontage along Las Vegas Boulevard.[52] Frank Gambella, president of the project, stated that financing was in place, with groundbreaking planned for March or April 1989. Gambella said the project would be financed by several entities, with the money coming from a Nevada corporation, suggesting the entities would be grouped together as an umbrella corporation. Gambella stated that the project could be opened by Labor Day 1990. The resort was expected to employ 8,000 people. Following the completion of the resort, Gambella said a complex of 750 condominiums would be built on the land along with 900 retirement-care apartments.[52] The project was cancelled shortly after it was announced, as authorities became suspicious of developer Anthony Silano's fundraising efforts for the project. It was discovered that Silano and his associates hacked into the Switzerland bank accounts of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos following his death in 1989. Silano pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges. Another Egyptian-themed resort, Luxor Las Vegas, would open on the south Las Vegas Strip in 1993.[1] Planet Hollywood Resort (original plans) Not to be confused with the current Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. Originally planned to open in the late 1990s on the site of the Desert Inn, it was to be one of the largest hotels in Las Vegas. Because of the bankruptcy of Planet Hollywood Restaurants, the hotel was never built. However, in the 2000s, a group of investors bought the new Aladdin Hotel and Casino and remodeled it with a modern Hollywood theme.[4] Playboy Hotel and Casino A proposed casino resort themed after Playboy magazine was rejected in favor of a nightclub and suites built at the top two floors of the new Palms tower.[4] The planned location for the Playboy Hotel and Casino, on the Las Vegas Strip, was later used for the Cosmopolitan resort.[53] Santa Fe Valley Main article: Santa Fe Valley Santa Fe Gaming, which owned the Santa Fe hotel-casino in northwest Las Vegas, had plans for a second Santa Fe property in 1996.[54] The Santa Fe Valley would be built on a 40-acre (16 ha) lot[55] in Henderson, Nevada, adjacent to the Galleria at Sunset mall. The start of construction was delayed several times because of poor financial quarters for Santa Fe Gaming,[54] and because of the company not yet receiving financing for the project.[56] Site preparation started in July 1998, with an opening date scheduled for December 1999,[57] but construction never began. In 1999, the property was sold to Station Casinos,[58][59] which sold the land a year later for use as a shopping center.[60] Shenandoah Hotel and Casino A project by Wayne Newton. Although the hotel operated for a short time at 120 E. Flamingo Road, the management was unable to get a gaming license. After years of floundering it was sold to a Canadian company and became Bourbon Street Hotel and Casino. Silver City proposals By January 2000, Luke Brugnara was planning to build a San Francisco-themed resort on the site of the closed Silver City Casino.[61] Brugnara intended to give Silver City a multimillion-dollar renovation, with plans to have a fully operational hotel-casino by 2002.[62] In March 2001, Brugnara's request for a gaming license was rejected.[63] In May 2002, it was announced that Brugnara had sold the casino while retaining six acres located behind the building.[64] In 2003, Brugnara was planning to build a 24-story, 304-room hotel and casino resort on a portion of the Silver City property. The resort, to be named "Tycoon", was to be designed by Lee Linton, with an expected cost of approximately $100 million.[65] Starship Orion International Thoroughbred Breeders (ITB) announced plans to demolish the El Rancho and construct Starship Orion, a $1 billion hotel, casino, entertainment and retail complex with an outer space theme, covering 5.4 million square feet (501,676 square meters). The resort was to include seven separately owned casinos, each approximately 30,000 square feet (2,787 square meters).[66][67] Each potential casino owner was to contribute up to $100 million to own and operate a casino within the complex.[68] The complex would have included 300,000 square feet (27,871 square meters) of retail space, as well as 2,400 hotel rooms and a 65-story hotel tower. ITB hoped to begin construction later in 1996, with a planned opening date of April 1998.[67] Sunrise This was to have been located at 4575 Boulder Highway. Property developer Michael Mona Jr. built the hotel-casino and stated that he was going to break tradition by starting a "casino without a theme". He failed to get an unrestricted gaming license when suspicions arose concerning his associations with alleged organized crime figures. Chips were made for the casino, but were never used.[69] The building was opened as Arizona Charlie's Boulder. Titanic In 1999, Bob Stupak was planning a 400-foot-high (122 m) resort themed after the RMS Titanic, to be built on a 10-acre (4 hectares) property he owned near downtown Las Vegas. The resort would have included 1,200 rooms, 800 of which were to be used for timeshares to help finance the project. That year, planning commissioners rejected Stupak's request to change the zoning to allow for a hotel.[70] The project was later planned for the former site of the El Rancho Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip, but was rejected by the Las Vegas City Council.[4] W Las Vegas Main article: W Las Vegas W Las Vegas was proposed in August 2005, as a $1.7 billion joint project between Starwood and Edge Resorts, with a scheduled opening in 2008. The project would include a 75,000 sq ft (7,000 m2) casino and approximately 3,000 hotel, condo hotel, and residential units.[71][72] The project was cancelled in May 2007, after Starwood pulled out of the deal.[73] Wally's Wagon Wheel Wally's Wagon Wheel was to be developed by Walter Weiss through his company, Magna Leisure Partnership.[74][75] The project was proposed for 2200 South Boulder Highway in Henderson,[76][77] between Wagon Wheel Drive and Roberts Road,[78] near Henderson's Old Vegas western theme park. Manga Leisure Partnership purchased the 15.5-acre property in late February 1988. Weiss, at that time, had tentative plans for a western-themed, 112-room property known then as the Wagon Wheel Hotel and Casino. The Wagon Wheel was expected to cost $15 million, and financing had yet to be obtained for the project, which Weiss expected to open in early 1990.[74] The project, which would include a 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m2) casino, was to be built in two phases.[79] By October 1991, Wally's Wagon Wheel remained unbuilt due to difficulty obtaining financing.[80][76] That month, the Henderson Planning Commission voted to give Weiss more time to make progress on the project. At that time, the project was to include 204 hotel rooms and would be built on 13.30 acres (5.38 ha). Weiss noted that the nearby successful Sam's Town hotel-casino opened with 204 rooms, and he believed his project would be successful if he opened with the same amount of rooms for good luck.[76] By the end of 1992, Weiss had still not acquired financing for Wally's Wagon Wheel. At the time, the project was the largest of five casinos being planned for Henderson. The three-story project was to include 200 rooms, two restaurants, a theater lounge for country and western entertainment, and a large bingo room. Weiss stated that groundbreaking was scheduled for May 1993, with an expected opening in June 1994. The hotel-casino would employ approximately 600 people upon opening.[81] Weiss met with nearby residents to discuss the project, and he had the original design changed to include a larger buffer zone between homes and the hotel-casino. In November 1994, the Henderson Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of Weiss' requested zone change as part of the redesign. The project, at that time, was to include a one-story casino and a four-story hotel with 400 rooms.[82][83] In December 1994, the Henderson City Council rejected Weiss' plans for a 200-foot (61 m) buffer.[84] In July 1997, the unbuilt project received its sixth extension from the Henderson Planning Commission for a use permit and architectural review.[85] In August 1997, the Henderson City Council approved the sixth extension, but denied Weiss' appeal for a one-year extension, instead giving him six months to make progress on the project.[77] Up to that time, $1.7 million had been invested in the project by Magna Leisure Partnership.[86] As of 1998, the project was expected to cost $80 million and employ at least 1,200 people, and the proposed site had increased to 19 acres (7 ha). At that time, Weiss stated that he was close to obtaining financing for the project from a casino operator.[87] The project was never built. Wild Wild West Not to be confused with Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel. As of 1993, Station Casinos owned a 27-acre (11 ha) site on Boulder Highway with the potential to be developed as a casino. The site was located across the street from Sam's Town hotel-casino.[88] In January 1998, Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. announced plans to purchase Station Casinos, which had intended to sell the land prior to the announcement.[89] By March 1998, Station Casinos was planning to develop a hotel-casino complex on the land, which was occupied by a vacant strip mall. The complex would be known as Wild Wild West, with local residents as the target clientele.[90][89] Crescent's purchase of Station Casinos failed in August 1998, and Station Casinos subsequently slowed its plans to build the project.[91] By the end of the year, the project had received approval from the Clark County Planning Commission for a 273,000 sq ft (25,400 m2) casino and a 504-room hotel.[92] No timetable for construction was announced,[92][93] and Station Casinos had already decided by that point not to start any new projects prior to 2000.[92] Station Casinos sold the undeveloped land for $11.2 million to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in April 2004.[94] World Port In 2000, Howard Bulloch, David Gaffin, and their partner Tom Gonzales transferred ownership of the Glass Pool Inn property to their group, known as New World, with plans for a megaresort.[95] New World purchased several other nearby motels to accumulate a 77-acre (31 ha) parcel located on the Las Vegas Strip and east of the Mandalay Bay.[96] In January 2001, plans were announced for World Port Resorts, a megaresort consisting of hotel-casinos, a convention center and a fine arts facility. The project was to be built on the 77-acre (31 ha property, a portion of which was occupied by the Glass Pool Inn.[96] World Trade Center To have been located at 925 East Desert Inn Road. Leonard Shoen, co-founder of U-Haul truck rental, purchased the property of what had been the Chaparral Hotel & Casino in 1996, renovating it into the World Trade Center Hotel. A gaming license was applied for, but when it was discovered that two of Shoen's closest partners were convicted felons, the application was denied in 1998. He withdrew his application, and died in a car crash in 1999 that was ruled a suicide. Cards and gaming chips were produced for the World Trade Center Casino, but were never used.[97] The property has since been demolished and is now a parking lot, part of the Las Vegas Convention Center Annex. World Wrestling Federation A casino resort themed after the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was proposed for a property near the Interstate 15 freeway across from Mandalay Bay. The project never went past the proposal stage.[4] The land where it would have stood is now Allegiant Stadium. WWF also proposed to open the project on the property once used by the Clarion Hotel and Casino, which was demolished in 2015 to become a parking lot. Xanadu In February 1976, the Clark County Commission approved the 23-story Xanadu resort, to be built on the Las Vegas Strip at the corner of South Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. The resort would include approximately 1,700 hotel rooms and a casino, as well as convention facilities, a showroom, dining, and indoor tennis courts. The resort was to be developed by Tandy McGinnis – of Bowling Green, Kentucky – and his Xanadu Corporation, and would be built on 48.6 acres (19.7 ha) owned by Howard Downes, a resident of Coral Gables, Florida.[98][99][100] The Xanadu would feature a pyramid design, and was expected to cost $150 million.[100] It would have been the first themed mega-resort. Much information and many artifacts of the project are housed at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas library. The Excalibur Hotel and Casino ultimately opened on the property in 1990.[101] See also Category:Defunct casinos in the Las Vegas Valley List of Atlantic City casinos that never opened
MCU Movies Behind the Scenes Facts *Wanted to do this for fun* Day 6: The Avengers
So i'm going to go on IMDB and look at each MCU movies behind the scenes facts and POST THE MOST INTERESTING ONES here, I will post each movie a day instead of what I did before where I did 10 posts, I will start with the first Iron Man and each day will be the next MCU movie after it, ending with Guardians 3, I will also do the Netflix Shows, Agents of Shield and Agent Carter
THE AVENGERS
1. Robert Downey Jr. kept food hidden all over the lab set, and apparently nobody could find where it was, so they just let him continue doing it. In the movie, that's his actual food he's offering, and when he was eating, it wasn't scripted, he was just hungry. 2. Reportedly, Iron Man's "Let's just not come in tomorrow" speech was improvised by Robert Downey, Jr., as was "Doth mother know thou weareth her drapes?" 3. There were very few times that everyone was in town at once, but on one night when they were, Chris Evans sent them all a text message simply saying "Assemble" (the tagline to the movie), prompting a night out on the town. Clark Gregg has stated that this is his favorite text message that he has ever received. 4. Robert Downey, Jr. asked the Marvel production manager permission to take away the letter "A" that was on the Stark Tower with him, but he declined. However, on his next birthday, the manager gave it to him as a gift. 5. Reportedly, a scene was filmed where, during the final battle, Captain America saves an old man trying to protect his grandchildren. He tells him to "Get them to cover", but as he walks away, the old man asks him "Cap, is that really you?" He turns and, noting the man's World War II veteran lapel pin, trades salutes with him. As Captain America sprints away, the children ask their grandfather, "Do you know him?", and he replies "We ALL know him." 6. Gwyneth Paltrow is noticeably barefoot in all of her scenes in Stark Tower, while Robert Downey, Jr. is in three or four-inch platform shoes, so he looks taller than her. 7. (At around two hours) When the missile is released over Manhattan, the pilot calls detonation in two minutes and thirty seconds. The sequence between then, and the detonation, is two minutes and thirty seconds of film time. 8. In the final end credit scene, Captain America is the only one not eating. That is because Chris Evans got a buzz cut, and grew out his beard after this movie was done filming. He was called in later to do this extra scene, and refused to shave off his beard, due to filming Snowpiercer (2013) at the time, so they gave him a prosthetic jaw. He holds his hand over his face because the prosthetic made him look like he'd been attacked by a hive of angry bees. He also is unable to eat or talk with the prosthetic on. The wig he wears is also quite clearly visible in certain shots of this scene. 9. To prepare for the role of Agent Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Jeremy Renner was trained by Olympic archers. 10. Joss Whedon explained that two of the founding Avengers members, Ant-Man and Wasp, were cut from the script because the film had too many characters. Also, the screenwriters didn't want Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until his movie was released. 11. (At around fifty-four minutes) According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the "That man is playing Galaga!" line was ad-libbed by Robert Downey, Jr., and worked so well that Whedon decided to add in an image of Galaga on "that man's" console as the scene's punchline. 12. (At around forty-six minutes) After Thor takes Loki off the Quinjet down on the mountain side, two large ravens fly by them as they are talking. In Norse mythology, Thor's father Odin had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who would bring Odin information from Midgard (Earth). (This film repeats the "family tree" error from the original Marvel comics.) 13. Chris Hemsworth had to increase and expand his food intake in order to maintain the physique he built up for Thor (2011), consisting of chicken breasts, fish, steak, and eggs every day (Hemsworth said he had to consume "his body weight in grams of protein."). 14. (At around two hours) The shocked expression of Loki, after being slammed by The Incredible Hulk, was created by animation director Marc Chu, shaking Tom Hiddleston violently and repeatedly. 15. (At around fifty-five minutes) Chris Evans was unsure about his character's line, "I understood that reference!", because he was worried that it would make audiences think that his character was unintelligent. However, he was quickly comforted after he watched the movie with an audience, and he saw that they found the line humorous, as opposed to stupid. 16. (at around two hours and five minutes) The Hulk bringing Iron Man back to consciousness by roaring at him was improvised by Mark Ruffalo during his motion-capture performance. 17. (At around thirty-nine minutes) The German police car skidding on its front end after Loki blasts it was a complete accident, as it failed to flip over initially. 18. Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury is from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, created in 2000 to re-imagine and update the Marvel heroes for the twenty-first century. Fury's likeness was actually based on Jackson, who gave Marvel permission to do so. Subsequently, based on that likeness and his star power, Jackson was cast as Fury for all Marvel Cinematic Universe films, starting with Iron Man (2008). 19. Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is an ambidextrous archer (although Jeremy Renner is left-handed). He is seen shooting right-handed in Thor (2011) and both left-handed and right-handed in this film. 20. The final end credit scene was added after Robert Downey, Jr. encouraged a scene re-write. After Tony Stark falls back to Earth, he originally awakens and asks, "What's next?" Robert Downey, Jr. thought the line could be more interesting, and the idea of going to a local shawarma restaurant was born. The scene was added one day after the global premiere. Since then, shawarma sales in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston have reportedly skyrocketed. 21. (At around one hour and eleven minutes) The laboratory scene, where Bruce Banner explains how he once attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the mouth is a direct reference to a deleted scene from The Incredible Hulk (2008), where Edward Norton's Bruce Banner tried to commit suicide in this manner out in the middle of Alaska's wilderness, only to be stopped by his transformation into the Hulk. 22. Joss Whedon suggested to Marvel that there should be a bigger villain plotting behind the scenes, which enabled Loki to conquer the Earth, and that someone should be Thanos the Mad Titan. The executives just rolled with it. 23. According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over three hours long. About thirty minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world. 24. There are two spoken references to the early The Incredible Hulk comic books. When Captain America is giving orders, he says "Hulk, smash", a catchphrase uttered by the Hulk in the comics, as well as The Incredible Hulk (2008). After the Hulk thrashes Loki, he says "Puny god", a reference to another oft-repeated Hulk phrase, "Puny humans". 25. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to earn $1 billion. 26. Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film makes him the second actor (after Hugh Jackman, who has appeared in all of the X-Men movies) to play the same comic book character in five different movies. 27. Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men (2000) in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film. He wrote the story "Gifted" for "Astonishing X-Men", which became the basis for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). 28. Sound editor Christopher Boyes has stated that he went through a complicated process to craft the Hulk's voice. The final product "turned out to be (a combination of) Mark Ruffalo, some Lou Ferrigno, and a little bit of me and two people from New Zealand." 29. There was going to be a brief fight scene between Iron Man and the brainwashed Hawkeye as a nod to Hawkeye starting off as an Iron Man villain in the comics. 30. (At around fifty-three minutes) According to Joss Whedon's commentary, Bruce Banner's saying of Loki, "You can smell crazy on him" was a set-up for when the Hulk faces off against Loki in Stark Tower. Originally, Loki was going to make multiple versions of himself and the only way the Hulk was going to discern where Loki was, was to smell them. Only the real Loki would have a scent. 31. Originally, Joss Whedon had not intended the film to include supporting characters from the heroes' individual films, reasoning, "You need to separate the characters from their support systems in order to create the isolation you need for a team." However, he eventually decided to cast Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Bettany, and Gwyneth Paltrow (Paltrow was cast at Robert Downey Jr.'s insistence). 32. Tony Stark casually refers to three of the other main characters, Loki, Thor, and Hawkeye, as either movie characters, or movie titles. He calls Loki "Reindeer Games", Thor "Point Break", and Hawkeye "Legolas". 33. Edward Norton was originally set to reprise his role from The Incredible Hulk (2008), but negotiations between him and Marvel Studios broke down. Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo, who had also been considered for the role in the prior movie. 34. The character to whom the Other is talking in the credits is Thanos the Mad Titan, a major supervillain in the Marvel Universe. He is a cosmic mass murderer, who is literally in love with the personification of Death, which is why he is smiling at the phrase, "To court death". 35. (At around two hours) After Iron Man flies through a Leviathan, he can be seen crashing on the ground in front of a Shawarma Palace, which later appeared in the post-credits scene. 36. (At around one hour and twenty-nine minutes) One of the cards in Agent Coulson's Captain America card set is a reproduction of Captain America's first comic book appearance, where he punched out Adolf Hitler. 37. The crew hired twenty-five members of the Ohio-based 391st Military Police Force Battalion for the attack on New York City, to add realism to the battle. 38. According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the film is strongly influenced by the early 1960s Avengers comics, of which he was a fan while growing up: "In those comics, these people shouldn't be in the same room, let alone on the same team, and that is the definition of family." 39. Disney had the film's title changed in the United Kingdom to "Marvel Avengers Assemble" to avoid confusion with the iconic British espionage franchise The Avengers (1961) and The Avengers (1998). 40. Surpassed The Dark Knight (2008)'s record of $1,001,921,825 to become the highest-grossing comic book film of all time. 41. In the movie, Captain America is a founding member. In the comics, Captain America was unfrozen in Avengers #4, when he was accidentally discovered, when the team was looking for Namor the Sub Mariner. 42. Writer and director Joss Whedon supposedly had a detailed backstory for Hawkeye written up, but was unable to even reference any of it due to time constraints. During the early planning stages, Hawkeye was envisioned to be depicted as a circus performer, trained by supervillains, who manipulate him into fighting the team, essentially a modernized version of his 616 origin story. At another point, he was planned to debut in Iron Man 2 (2010) as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., who works closely with Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow, and Nick Fury. 43. According to Joss Whedon, the arrangement of the monitors on the Helicarrier bridge were arranged to resemble the wings of the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. The eagle head can actually be seen at the foot of the conference round table at the end of the film, when repairs are being made. 44. Lou Ferrigno contributed to the voice of the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in the television series The Incredible Hulk (1978), and its subsequent three television specials. He voiced the Hulk in the big-screen The Incredible Hulk (2008), in which he also played a security guard. He also played a security guard in Hulk (2003). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions. 45. Alyson Hannigan from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996) (and wife of Alexis Denisof, who plays The Other in the film), recommended her How I Met Your Mother (2005) co-star Cobie Smulders, for the part of Agent Maria Hill. 46. The cast became good friends while filming, so if all of the cast members happened to be filming scenes together in the same place, they would go out together afterwards. 47. This was the highest grossing film of all time not directed by James Cameron (it was third under Titanic (1997)'s second place and Avatar (2009)'s first). It has since been replaced by Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). 48. (At around two hours) When filming the scene of Loki yelling at the Hulk, Tom Hiddleston had a rope tied to his leg, and since the Hulk is just CGI, when the rope was pulled, it would appear that the Hulk had grabbed him. Tom knew it was going to be pulled during the speech, but he didn't know when, so that he wouldn't be anticipating it. 49. Mark Ruffalo claims to be the only actor to date (2012) to play both The Hulk and Bruce Banner in the same movie. Technically, Eric Bana and Edward Norton had done motion-capture work for their respective Hulks, but Ruffalo is the first actor to perform the Hulk live on-set via performance capture. What is most certainly a confirmed "first" for Ruffalo's Hulk, however, is clearly defined chest hair (of which Ruffalo has plenty). That has absolutely never been done before in any portrayal of the Hulk, whether it be live, animated, or drawn. 50. (At around twenty-six minutes) Tony says Coulson's name is Agent. This refers to the fact that originally, his character was only going to be called Agent. 51. According to Vulture Magazine, this is the amount of screentime each hero has in the film: -Steve Rogers/Captain America: 37:42. -Tony Stark/Iron Man: 37:01. -Natasha Romanov/Black Widow: 33:35. -Bruce BanneThe Hulk: 28:03. -Thor: 25:52. -Clint Barton/Hawkeye: 12:44. 52. The name "chitauri" originates from Zulu mythology, and is used to describe a "serpent race from the sky". Mark Millar, the creator of "The Ultimates", took the name from the writings of David Icke, who argues that these "chitauri", are in fact aliens, bent on dominating humanity. 53. Tom Hiddleston describes Loki in this film as having evolved since Thor (2011): "How pleasant an experience is it to disappear into a wormhole that was created by some super-nuclear explosion of his own making? I think by the time Loki shows up, he's seen a few things, and has bigger things in mind than just his brother and Asgard." 54. Thor is knocked off screen four times: twice by Iron Man, and twice by The Incredible Hulk. 55. (At around one hour and forty minutes) Tony Stark describes his group as "Earth's mightiest heroes, that kind of thing." This refers to the famous tagline that has been featured on the cover of "The Avengers" comic books since its 1963 debut. The phrase was also used as the subtitle for the animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010). 56. The female superhero The Wasp was included in an early draft of the script. She was, however, replaced with the already-existing Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow. 57. Thor spends most of this movie in his Asgardian armor, but with bare arms, a nod to his early appearances in the comics. During his time on the Helicarrier, he is also seen without his cape, an allusion to his Ultimate Comics appearance. 58. Loki brings the Chitauri alien race to Earth to help him invade it. The Avengers are formed to prevent this from occurring. This is in keeping with the first issue of their self-titled comic book series, in which Loki is responsible for manipulating a chain of disasters that bring The Avengers together in the first place. 59. Dr. Bruce Banner doesn't turn into The Incredible Hulk until one hour and fourteen minutes in. 60. (At around twenty-seven minutes) When Agent Coulson visits Stark Tower, Pepper asks him about the cellist in Portland. Tony is also heard telling Coulson he could fly him to Portland (at around fifty-three minutes). This woman ends up being a plot point for an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). 61. Natalie Portman was going to cameo as Jane Foster, but had to drop out when she became pregnant. 62. An alternate opening and ending frame the movie as a flashbacks from Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), allowing them to simultaneously flesh out her dislike towards Fury's methods and her undying loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. 63. Scarlett Johansson turned down a role in Total Recall (2012) due to her commitment to this movie. 64. Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture. Previous live-action versions have either had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or were key-frame animated. 65. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey described the film's look as visceral and naturalistic: "We wanted this to feel immersive, and did not want a comic book look that might distance an audience. We moved the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes, and on dollies, to create kinetic images, and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles, for heroic imagery." 66. The Chitauri appeared in the first story arc of "The Ultimates", an alternate universe retelling of the origins of the Marvel superheroes. In the comics, their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls. It was originally assumed that the reason for using "The Chitauri", instead of "The Skrulls", was because Twentieth Century Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters. However, Marvel Studios' President of Production Kevin Feige stated in an interview that the film rights to the Skrulls are not owned by either Marvel Studios or Twentieth Century Fox. They were not being used as Joss Whedon did not want to use shape-shifters in the first film. 67. Jon Favreau was at one point attached to direct, and stayed on as executive producer. 68. Thor doesn't appear until almost forty-five minutes in. 69. Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter-ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon. He's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!" 70. (At around fifty-six minutes) In the film, Bruce Banner references the fact that the last time he was in New York City, he "broke Harlem". This is a reference to The Incredible Hulk (2008), when The Hulk fought The Abomination in Harlem, New York. 71. This film holds an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast and crew for a comic book movie: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Joss Whedon, and Seamus McGarvey, possibly many others. This tops Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010) which each had four acting nominees a piece. 72. (At around one hour and thirty minutes) Harry Dean Stanton, who appears as the janitor who discovers Banner after he fell from the Helicarrier, asks "are you an alien?" Stanton was known for his role as Brett in Alien (1979). 73. The title screen doesn't appear until twelve minutes into the film. 74. Only the paint on Captain America's shield is scratched in the film. In the comics, his shield is made of an adamantium and vibranium alloy, with a third mystery catalyst, and can only be damaged by beings who possess nearly ultimate power, such as Molecule Man, Rune King, Thor, or Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet. The shield is otherwise impervious. 75. (At around one hour and eleven minutes) When Banner talks about having tried to kill himself, by putting a bullet in his mouth, but the Hulk spit it out. In the deleted scene of The Incredible Hulk (2008), where Banner goes to kill himself, he clearly never got the chance to shoot himself, since the Hulk starts to appear to stop him. 76. (At around thirty minutes) In order to create a total extra-terrestrial look for the Chitauri, they have four thumbs, two on each hand. This can be seen, when Loki is talking with The Other. 77. Several members of the cast participated in adaptations of comic book and/or graphic novel adaptations outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Scarlett Johansson appeared in Ghost World (2001), The Spirit (2008), and Ghost in the Shell (2017). Chris Evans appeared in Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), TMNT (2007), The Losers (2010), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and Snowpiercer (2013). Powers Boothe (who provides a cameo in the film) appeared in Sin City (2005). Alexis Denisof appeared in several DC productions beforehand. Samuel L. Jackson appeared in The Spirit (2008). 78. (At around two hours and ten minutes) At the end of the film, when the news clip of Beth the waitress appears on Nick Fury's computer screen, it is listed as S.H.I.E.L.D. File A113. "A113 is the room number of the animation classroom at CalArts. The A113 reference is a running gag in films made by Pixar and Disney, starting with Toy Story (1995), a film partially written by Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed this movie. 79. The outdoor scenes, which were supposed to take place in Germany, but were filmed in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, contained numerous Cleveland Historical landmarks including; Tower City, Higbee Building and Casino, the Renaissance Building, and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. 80. The film's shooting schedule was ninety-three days, but filming was completed one day early. 81. The first film to gross $200 million in its first three days in the U.S. 82. The weapons powered by the Tesseract are all engraved with H.Y.D.R.A.'s emblem. 83. Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans appeared in The Perfect Score (2004) and The Nanny Diaries (2007). Robert Downey, Jr. and Mark Ruffalo appeared in Zodiac (2007). 84. The twelfth film to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide, and the tenth to surpass the $400 million mark in the U.S. It tied with Avatar (2009) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) for surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in the fastest time (nineteen days), and set the record of surpassing the $400 million mark in the U.S. (fourteen days). 85. This is the first Marvel film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. 86. Two founding members of The Avengers from the comics were left out of this movie: Ant-Man and The Wasp. They were replaced by Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, in an attempt to better integrate S.H.I.E.L.D. into the story. 87. Due to UK copyright issues over the name, Marvel had to release the film in the UK under the name "Avengers Assemble", as there had already been an unrelated film with Sir Sean Connery and Ralph Fiennes released by Warner Brothers, The Avengers (1998). That movie was based on The Avengers (1961), which starred Patrick Macnee. As Warner Brothers UK owned the copyrighted name, and objected to Marvel using it, Marvel were forced to change the name to "Avengers Assemble" for its UK theatrical and home video release. As film prints and marketing for the Republic of Ireland were handled by Disney UK. They decided to stick with the name change for that territory too, for cost effectiveness reasons. 88. Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was considered to have a cameo in the post-credits scene, where he is wearing his War Machine armor, only to find out he came too late for the battle, and sits down with The Avengers, but the scene was thrown away to where they just show The Avengers eating. 89. This is only the second time that Bruce Banner, a.k.a. Hulk, and Thor have appeared together in a movie. They previously appeared together in NBC's television film The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), which starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Bruce Banner. 90. Before Mark Ruffalo was cast as The Hulk, Joaquin Phoenix was rumored for the part. Joaquin Phoenix was also rumored for the part of Dr. Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange (2016). 91. Due to this movie's record-breaking success at the box office, it made Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Scarlett Johansson three of the top ten highest grossing actors and actress of all time at second, fifth, and tenth respectively. 92. Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Cobie Smulders screentested for the role of Agent Maria Hill. 93. Powers Boothe, who played a World Security Council member, was also featured in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013) playing the same character, whose name was revealed to be Gideon Malick. 94. (At around seventeen minutes) Mark Ruffalo also ad-libbed touching a baby's cradle in the abandoned house, in which he meets Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow. 95. One draft of the movie had it taking place from Tony's point of view. 96. The Science and Entertainment Exchange provided science consultation for the film. 97. The sixth and final chapter of Phase One in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 98. (At around one hour and forty-five minutes) Enver Gjokaj played the young police officer to whom Captain America gives orders at the beginning of the battle of New York City. He also played Agent Sousa on Agent Carter (2015). 99. The highest grossing film of 2012. 100. When Loki is held prisoner on the helicarrier, the computer screen monitoring him shows an infrared image of the cell. Loki's temperature is shown as blue (cold) due to the fact that he is a frost giant by nature. 101. (At around thirty-two minutes) When Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the Helicarrier showing Captain Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) around, she's wearing a black jacket and pants with a red shirt underneath, signifying the iconic colors of her code name: Black Widow. 102. As of October 2014, this is the highest grossing Marvel movie of all time. 103. The film was originally rated R. It took Marvel three tries with the MPAA to grant the film a PG-13, instead of an R rating, because of Agent Coulson's death scene. Originally, Loki's staff was seen bursting through his chest. Instead, a gruesome sound effect was added after Loki appears behind him, and then a quick-cut to Thor's reaction. 104. This was the highest-grossing film in Malaysia, grossing about $10.96 million. 105. This movie is the second highest-grossing film of all time in the Philippines, with over 601 million PHP (over $13.3 million U.S.) in box office revenue, behind Iron Man 3 (2013). 106. The film was released in theaters on May 2012, one year and four months before the 50th Anniversary of the original "Avengers" comic. 107. Lindsay Lohan reportedly auditioned for a role. 108. Joe Carnahan was considered to direct the film before Joss Whedon was finally chosen. 109. Amanda Peet was considered for the role of Agent Maria Hill. 110. This movie, as well as Avengers: Infinity War (2018) are the only times where two Infinity Stones are in the same movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 111. Loki's name is mentioned or used by other characters thirty-three times. 112. The only film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Thanos is not played by Josh Brolin. 113. As each character is introduced, the previous scene references that character. It begins when Fury says to call in the rest of the team, leading to the next scene of Black Widow being called. In that scene she is told to bring in "the big guy", referencing the Hulk. The next scene has her luring Bruce Banner. In the next scene, Fury is having a video conference with the World Security Council and says a war is won with soldiers, leading to the next scene with Captain America. In that scene, he says the tesseract should've been left in the ocean, leading to the next scene, in which Iron Man is in the water. 114. Since landing on the Helicarrier, Bruce Banner wears a purple shirt. In the comics, The Hulk predominantly wears purple pants. 115. Tony and Steve's constant bickering towards each other and near confrontation on the Helicarrier is a nod to their Civil War story line where they took opposing sides to superhero registration. 116. CAMEO: Stan Lee: (At around two hours and ten minutes) Creator of such Marvel comics as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many others, is the old man being interviewed at the end of the New York battle montage who says: "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break!" and then returns to a game of chess with a fellow senior citizen. He also appeared in a deleted scene: after witnessing a waitress flirt with Steve Rogers, Lee's character says, "Ask for her number, you moron!" 117. According to Joss Whedon, it was his decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene: "He, for me, is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great-granddaddy of the badasses, and he's in love with Death, and I just think that's so cute. Somebody had to be in control, and had to be behind Loki's work, and I was like 'it's got to be Thanos'." 118. (At around one hour and nine minutes) While Fury and the Avengers are arguing with each other on the Helicarrier, characters throw certain remarks that coincidentally foreshadow plot points in subsequent films: Steve asks Tony what he is without his armor, a topic deeply analyzed in Iron Man 3 (2013); Fury aggressively chastised Thor about foreign species going to his planet to "blow stuff up", which comes into play in Thor: The Dark World (2013), with the invasion of Asgard by the Dark Elves. The most unassuming one (which is ironically translated into the biggest plot point in the whole cinematic universe) is when Bruce asks Natasha if Captain America is on threat watch, to which she replies "we all are". In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve (and by extension, Natasha) becomes a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the "murder" of Nick Fury. Natasha also mentions that S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats, which plays heavily into this film as well. 119. (At around one hour and twelve minutes) A few seconds before Hawkeye's attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier, Bruce Banner finds the Tesseract's location on the computer. This explains why he later arrives in New York City during the invasion of the Chitauri, after the Hulk fell to the ground from the Helicarrier, during Hawkeye's attack. 120. Body Count: one hundred fifty-one (including the Chitauri). 121. (At around thirty-seven minutes) Jasper Sitwell, outed as a H.Y.D.R.A. operative in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), makes an appearance in this film. He is the Agent who first finds Loki in Germany, through the facial recognition they were running. 122. It was revealed in an interview that the Galaga playing SHIELD agent was dusted behind the scenes of Avengers Infinity War.
See list of prior RecatsTMhere. Please visit the Hong Kong Protest Live Feed for up-to-the-moment news sourced from Hong Kong. [NEW as of 2/21] Recommended English translation of article entitled, “K Kwong develops 100% locally produced masks with changeable filter as a challenge to N95” (courtesy u/Vectorial1024).
* Razven thread re 9000 HKers queuing for masks, while the HK Commercial & Industry Association donated 150,000 masks to Wuhan via China’s Red Cross. * Richard Pyne thread re poll results on what HKers want. * HK Free Press article on how mainland China increased bus services to the port entries that Carrie Lam left open. * Cezanne video of woman taken by police, kidnap-style. * Real Time News posts first and second re woman from Wuhan.
New Laws, Legal Challenges, and Elections
* (Arrests and Trials) Part-time mall security guard arrested for “sending false messages with mobile phone” when he texted that some staff had fevers and called in sick (see RTHK article). Tuen Mun locals getting arrested for having gloves, umbrellas, and masks (see Bohemian post, Panda post). * (IPCC) Lisa Lau Man-man, IPCC member, urges IPCC to release report.
* (Healthcare Workers Strike—Day 1) First day of a full strike. The striking workers personally sign in to log how many have walked out on strike. Thousands attend and queue to hand deliver their letters to the Hospital Authority. Representatives of other unions attend in support. Over 7,000 (almost 10%) Hospital Authority workers participated in the strike. HAEA union leaders bow and apologize to affected patients. HAEA goes to visit Carrie Lam. See Kong Tsung-gan thread; Chris Lau thread; Damon Pang thread; RTHK article; second RTHK article. * (Lunch With You—Landmark Mall, Central) Crowd gathers in support of the healthcare workers on strike. See Ryan Ho Kilpatrick thread. * (Tuen Mun Temp Check) See Telegram posts here, here. * (District Council) Southern District passed measure to create permanent Lennon Wall. * (Kowloon Bay Health Centre) Locals object to location of a dedicated coronavirus clinic nearby. See Razven thread; * (General Protests) Protests were held in various locations across the city to protest government’s failure to close the borders and its quarantine decisions: Tin Shui Wai (see Panda thread; Daniel Suen post; “I’m from Wuhan!”, “Ten years ago!”; Cezanne thread); Tseung Kwan O (see Panda thread; Real Time News post); Tai Po (see Real Time News post); Mong Kok (Passion Times posts here, here); Lai Chi Kok (toilet bomb; Xinqi Su post).
International and Mainland Reactions / Adjacent Sectors
* (US) Congress nominates HK pro-Democracy movement for Nobel Peace Prize. * (Mainland China) Re Wuhan/Hubei:Pop-up hospital begins admitting patients. Red Cross punished. Re information blackout:China-controlled countries react quietly to coronavirus. * (Macau) All casinos shut down for 2 weeks (see Xinqi Su thread). Will continue to buy masks from other countries (Carrie Lam asking CCP for masks). * (Taiwan) Health Minister corrects WHO’s reporting of 13 cases; Taiwan has only 10 confirmed cases. * (International Border Closings) North Korea; Thailand. * (United Nations) A group hacked the UN website. * (Australia) Mainland Chinese student lies about being from HK to Australia customs, then brags online. See Daily Mail article.
Since the end of the Chinese Civil War, Macau has grown tremendously in regional significance, shifting from a valuable entrepôt to one of the largest hubs in the Far East. The vast majority of refugees who fled to the territory have been allowed to stay, with 150,000 having already secured territorial residency (the closest thing to citizenship for non-ethnic Portuguese in the overseas territories at present), bringing the total resident population up to 350,000 (the remaining 150,000 have ten-year work permits). Of the 300,000 residents who have arrived since 1939, approximately 100,000 have settled on the Macau Peninsula, 50,000 on Colaone Island, and 150,000 on the previously under-populated Taipa Island (see map as attached). This has left much of the territory covered in slums, although a central government-supported programme to provide interest-free mortgages to refugees and new residents has led to the establishment of medium-quality, high-density housing across much of Taipa Island and the Peninsula. Small scale industry and locally-owned businesses have also taken off across the territory, as migrants attempt to start a new life in the bustling city. The Macau of 1957, therefore, finds itself with an affluent centre of business on the Peninsula, flanked by emerging neighbourhoods and slums in the south and east, a highly-populated emerging cityscape on Taipa Island, with a central nucleus of emerging neighbourhoods (predominately featuring high-density, apartment-style housing) surrounded on all sides by slums and small scale factories, and a still under-populated Coloane Island, which presently boasts some slums, farms, factories and traditional villages. The vast majority of small scale industry in Macau consists of textiles manufacturing in factories set up by the migrants. That said, larger-scale industry has also emerged, including a major bicycle factory near the border with China and a rifle manufactory on the southern tip of the Peninsula. This is emblematic of the territory’s economic ascendance, as is the arrival of new waves of ethnic Portuguese, who have brought the European population of the territory up to 13,000 since 1949.
Commercial opportunities:
The signing of the Sino-Portuguese Free Trade Agreement (SPFTA) in 1956 has dramatically improved the economic prospects of Macau. Indeed, the near-complete removal of Chinese import tariffs on Portuguese luxury goods has resulted in the establishment of a number of luxury goods production facilities on the Peninsula, as well as the proliferation of dozens of prestigious vendors in the affluent portions of the isthmus. In addition to the basic textile manufactories set up by the migrants, a number of fashion outlets have also been established for upper-class visitors, and for deliveries to customers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia. Jewellers, shoemakers, watchmakers, tailors, cordwainers and bag markers have all set themselves up in the territory, where they create their products, sell them to visitors and also export them abroad. Distilleries have also become popular, with the territory developing a positive reputation for its fine, locally-distilled whiskey, rum, gin and baijiu. An emerging brand of dark rum, known as ”Ventos Orientais”, has grown particularly popular. The rum is recognised for its distinctive flavour, being the only major rum brand to use Timorese sugar. Tobacco companies have also established high-end stores on the Peninsula, where they sell a number of recognisable international cigarette and cigar brands. Otherwise, with the significant reduction of Chinese tariffs on precision-made products, a number of manufactories have popped up on Coloane Island, producing measuring equipment, precision medical supplies and levelling tools. The Banco de Macau, meanwhile, has left a permanent mark on the territory by becoming the first enterprise to construct a ‘skyscraper’ (as they’re being called) in Macau, building its new corporate headquarters on the western side of the Peninsula. It has been joined by the Macau-Beijing Investment Bank and the Banco Afro-Eurásia, which have also begun construction on smaller, albeit impressive skyscrapers. Regrettably for the Banco Português do Continente e Ilhas and Montepio Geral Bank, who do not have enough capital for a skyscraper, three-storey office buildings have had to suffice. In many cases, these banks have been instrumental in financing the recent expansion of the Macanese economy. The Banco de Macau and the Banco Afro-Eurásia, however, have sought to increase their regional presence even further by expanding into Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia. The Banco de Macau, in particular, is expected to make major investments in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia in the coming years.
Tourism and entertainment opportunities:
The recent introduction of Western gambling to Macau, along with the Banco de Macau’s heavy investment in new casinos, has led to a proliferation of the gambling industry across the territory. Dozens of small to medium, high-end, Western casinos now dot the Peninsula, while a number of traditional casinos have emerged on Taipa Island. Along with the emergence of a luxury shopping culture, the new casinos have proven extremely popular with affluent visitors from China, Hong Kong, Japan, the West and Southeast Asia. Many new hotels are being founded on the Peninsula to meet this demand, as well as a new, game-changing casino known as Casino Lisboa, which shall open its doors in 1960. Quite expectedly, the proliferation of gambling across the territory has only poured fuel on the metaphorical fire that is the gambling syndicate rivalry. New syndicates are now competing for an increased market share as outside factions interfere with the rivalry (see: the banks and Triads) and older syndicates desperately battle to preserve their local hegemony. Already, this rivalry has been given a morbid monicker, becoming known as the ”Bloody Game (残忍赛)”. This name is quite deserved, given that syndicates of all sizes have gained a reputation for sabotage, death threats, murder and murky alliances with the Triads as their deadly rivalry spirals out of control. Beyond the casinos, new bars, restaurants and nightclubs have been established across the territory, catering almost exclusively to high-end visitors and the Macanese elite. The combination of modern, dimly-lit bars, domestically-made liquor, prestigious fashion brands, international visitors and high-stakes games of poker have given Macau a distinct flavour, with the city increasingly being known as the ”City of Jazz (爵士城)”. Regular ferry trips between Hong Kong and Macau, coupled with daily/weekly flights to Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, Manila, Shanghai and Bangkok are only improving this reputation.
Future infrastructure:
MAP The huge population increase on the Taipa and Coloane islands have put immense strain on the intra-Macau ferry service. Hoping to alleviate this strain, the Macanese territorial government has announced a new project to connect Taipa Island to the Peninsula with a new bridge. Inspired by the Ponte de Liberdade in Lisbon, and designed by the same engineers, the bridge is expected to be completed by 1965 (marked in red on the map). The bridge is to be named in honour of the territory’s outgoing Governor, Joaquim Marques Esparteiro, being called the Ponte da Esparteiro. Otherwise, recognising the strain which Macau’s rapidly-increasing population has had on the geography of the territory, a major land reclamation project is to be undertaken on both the Peninsula and Taipa Island. Zoning will take place ahead of time for the planned land, allowing preemptive property sales to help fund the project. Dutch engineers will be brought on for the project as a result of their vast land reclamation experience. Additionally, the Portuguese Navy is to assist with the project by providing auxiliary vessels where relevant. The new Peninsula-Taipa bridge will only extend across the stretch of water between the reclaimed land, with the connecting road that passes over the reclaimed land simply being raised several metres above the ground. (Land reclamation areas are marked in blue on the map, along with their planned year of completion). Finally, in order to prevent a potential bottleneck of manufactured goods produced on Taipa Island from blocking Macau harbour and the Ponte da Esparteiro, a new industrial dock is to be constructed on the island, to be completed by 1964 (marked in orange on the map).
Vice and crime:
As previously noted, the expansion of the gambling industry has also spawned an intense rivalry between the syndicates. Indeed, the increased prevalence of vice across Macau has created an opportunity for the Triads, who already enjoyed a strong Macanese presence before the territory’s expansion, particularly on Taipa Island, the Peninsula casinos and in the slums/emerging neighbourhoods in the north. As the "Four Major Gangs (四大黑幫)” of Shui Fong, Wo Shing Yee, 14K and the Big Circle Gang have grown in importance, they have gained large footholds in the new neighbourhoods, where they run extortion rackets and loan shark operations, targetting small businesses, nightclubs and traditional gambling dens. Human trafficking has also emerged as a dangerous front, as the Triads seek to smuggle in illegal workers and, in the case of the nightclub sector, “waitresses”. Finally, the counterfeiting of patacas (Macau’s currency) has increased prolifically, as the Triads seek to use fake currency to make large bets in the casinos. Though Indonesia’s provision of detailed intelligence on Triad drug smuggling operations in Macau has resulted in a massive crackdown on that particular area of organised crime activity, the Triads appear to be gaining ground on almost every other front, creating a complex interplay between Macanese businesses, rival gambling syndicates, law enforcement, local politicians and the Four Major Gangs. Hoping to assist the struggling territorial police in eradicating bribery, human trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, murder and counterfeiting, the SIS (basically the Portuguese FBI/secret police) and the Customs and Finance Intelligence Service (CFIS) have created a joint task force known as Operation Varrer Profundo (Deep Sweep). This operation will see the two agencies create large, permanent offices across the territory, cracking down on the Triads and illegal gambling syndicate activity by sending in hundreds of agents. Thus begins what many expect to be a years-long cat and mouse game between Portuguese authorities, the Triads, the gambling syndicates, corrupt politicians and the business sector
From 1960 to 2011, our country has lost $8.05 BILLION A YEAR due to illicit activities. Totaling $410.5 billion, or P19.34 trillion. Wala pang inflation yan.
How big is that money?
Kung tatanggapin natin ang estimates na $10 billion ang nanakaw ng mga Marcoses. That is the equivalent of 41 Ferdinand Marcoses plundering and raping the Philippines in the more than two decades they were in power.
Ang external debt ng Pilipinas, in 2017 was $72.36 billion. Meaning kahit i-times five mo pa yang utang na yan, kaya sana nating bayaran.
Ang national budget ng Pilipinas for 2018 is P3.8 trillion. That money would have paid for five years of the Philippines' operating budget. Or kahit four years na lang, hayaan na natin silang nakawin yung ika-5th year.
If you spend P1,000 EVERY SECOND, you would need 613 years to spend all of that money. Mamamatay ka na lang di mo pa ubos gastusin ang perang yan, hindi ka pa nga siguro aabot ng one-fourth.
Noong 2016, isa sa sangdamakmak na panggagancho na ginawa ni Duterte eh pangakuan tayo na he will stop corruption daw. In 3 to 6 months daw. Lokohin niya ang lelang niyang panot. Pero even if we do try to be objective, there is no denying that Duterte not only failed to deliver on that promise, the opposite happened.
Corruption under Duterte
According to Transparency International, the Philippines drastically reduced corruption during the Aquino administration. In 2010, it ranked 134 on the Corruption Index. By the time Aquino's reign ended, we were ranked 95 out of 168 (2015). Bongga, tumaas tayo ng 39 notches in just five years. And even if you do not follow Transparency International, kitang kita naman with Napoles, Revilla, Enrile, and yung anak ni Erap? Lahat sila nakulong. Now, with Duterte at the helm, that dropped six notches to 101 in 2016, and then another 13 to 114 in 2017. Wow besh, 19 points agad ang binaba natin in just one and a half years? Would anybody be surprised to see that in 2018 or 2019, Duterte would have erased all the gains of the previous administration in fighting corruption?
So ano nga ba ang nangyari?
Sa 39 na natanggal sa puwesto dahil sa corruption, 6 lang doon ang nakasuhan. Inuulit ko, 39 cabinet members sacked due to corruption. Only 6 were slapped with complaints, including Argosino and Robles ng BOI, kasi if not, si Vitaliano Aguirre ang mananagot. Eto ang masakit. Some of those sacked are now back holding government posts.
Pompee Laviña was fired as Social Security System commissioner, for misusing public funds. Humingi ba naman ng P26 million para sa social media show niya? Tapos gusto pang magpaaccredit ng mga “preferred brokers” niya para sa investments ng SSS. Two months after, he was appointed an undersecretary at the DOT. With Berna Romula Puyat at the DOT putting 6 DOT undersecretaries and assistant secretaries on floating status, even family friend Kat De Castro. Lavina got off scot free, as Dutertetransferred Laviña to the DA days before the announcement.
Commission for the Urban Poor commissioner Melissa Aradanas is now deputy secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. She is a cousin of Honeylet.
Arandanas was fired together with several others, including Joan Lagunda, who is now an ASEC at the DENR.
Martin Diño, who was originally ruling party PDP-Laban’s standard-bearer in the 2016 polls before being substituted by Duterte, quickly got the post of Interior and Local Government undersecretary for barangay affairs in exchange for his SBMA chairmanship. In fairness, hindi naman corruption ang kaso ni Dino. Pero yung ang pattern.
Nicanor Faeldon, nagresign daw from the Bureau of Immigration but was reappointed by Duterte as deputy administrator at the Office of Civil Defense.
May isa pa, Public Works undersecretary Tingagun Ampaso Umpa, was forced to resign in May after an internal investigation revealed that he committed grave abuse of power and may have also committed acts of corruption. Ardent Duterte supporter din siya, pero since last month pa lang siya natanggal, eh yung pinsan niya muna yung inappoint. Abangan natin next month baka nasa DOT na naman itong Umpa na to.
So sino sino ang mga natanggal at hindi kinasuhan? Ang dami nila besh.
Former interior secretary Ismael Sueno. Bumili ng hotel sa South Cotabato, tapos bumili ng trucks para sa family business. He also bought trucks for the DILG that were more expensive. Duterte also reported fired him for accepting bribes from different gambling lords.
Former Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jose Vicente Salazar. Simple and grave misconduct with elements of corruption.
Former budget undersecretary Gertrudo de Leon. Humingi ng cut sa budget allocations of different government agencies.
Terry Ridon, Melissa Aradanas, Manuel Serra Jr, Noel Indonto, and Joan Lagunda. Excessive foreign trips.
Former Development Academy of the Philippines President Elba Cruz. Excessive trips.
Former Maritime Industry Authority administrator Marcial Amaro III. Excessive trips.
Former Commission on Higher Education chairperson Patricia Licuanan. Excessive trips, and allegedly delaying the release of allowances meant for scholars.
Former Social Security System commissioner Jose Gabrial "Pompee" La Viña and chairman Amado Valdez. Abusing public funds.
Former labor undersecretary Dominador Say. Corruption relating to activities of labor recruiters.
Peter Tiu Lavina. Oo Lavina na naman. Sikat sila ha. Lavina was forced to resign, or resigned, depende kung kaninong sinungaling kayong maniniwala kasi kumikickback dawn g 40% on NIA projects.
DOT’s Wanda Teo and Cesar Montano. P320 million para sa Buhay Carinderia project. Labas pa diyan yung kalokohan ni Wanda at ng mga kapatid niya. Wala tuloy akong mapagsumbungan!
PhilHealth’s Celestina dela Serna, na habang ang daming hospitals ang hindi nababayaran and while the agency is bleeding money, has the gall to stay in hotel rooms costing P3,800 a night, which is parang room for rent for a month na for ordinary Filipinos. Labas pa doon yung ginagawang Makati to Quezon City lang ang Manila at Bohol, at ginawang Uber ang Philippine Airlines. Gumastos ng another P627,000 for hotels and travels.
Customs Deputy Commissioner Noel Patrick Sales Prudente for alleged travels abroad.
Transportation Assistant Secretary Mark Tolentino for “dealing with Presidential sister”. Yun yung official line, pero ang totoong rason, eh loose lips sink ships, nagchika daw kasi itong si Tolentino, kaya nabuking tuloy. Pag hindi sana nabuking, tuloy ang ligaya.
Government corporate counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado, for allegedly approving a lease agreement good for 75 years that would allow a foreign company to put up a casino-hotel without public bidding, and of providing the company with a gambling permit.
“Whiff of corruption?”
All of these people were fired for corruption, but most of them have gotten off scot free. Corruption, plunder and abuse of public funds all carry a sizable jail term for the convicted. But these are just those na napansin ng media. There are others who until now are in position or resigned before the president could do it for them. Alan Peter Cayetano, ang tsismis eh misusing the P1-billion fund for ATN daw. Tapos si Aguirre, who was fired for clearing the drug lords, eh may bagong appointment in the works, na pihadong tatanggapin daw niya. Makapal eh. Wag nating palampasin yung National Youth Commission. P300,000 na pang snacks? And what about P647 million na nilustay ng PCOO, P14 million na bonus para kay MTRCB chair Rachel Arenas, a position na ang sweldo eh sabi ni Mocha eh kulang pa raw pangtaxi. P5,000 lang daw. And what about Bong Go’s travels. From Davao to Manila, to South Korea. Kung may liga ng basketball, may namatay, may binyag, may kasal, kahit na flyover na walang kamalaymalay at nanahimik lang, andiyan si Bong Go, nangangampanya. Or at least may tarpaulin siya. Kahit hindi pa election season. Kung hindi man ito electioneering, pwede bang malaman kung pera ng bayan ang ginagamit dito? In fact, wag na natin palagpasin lahat ito. It is time to fight back. Let us make our officials accountable for every wrongdoing that they do. Hindi na dapat tawaging act of bravery ang pagsasampa ng kaso laban sa mga tiwaling opisyal. Ang lagay eh, magnanakaw ka pero hindi ka makukulong kung magreresign ka? Yung sales clerk nga na nagnakaw ng isang lata ng corned beef, kulong. Sila pa kaya, na nagiging dahilan kung bakit hindi tayo nakakabayad ng utang natin sa ibang bansa, na kung bakit marami sa atin ang patuloy na naghihirap? Sila na nagnakaw, nagenjoy, tapos hindi makukulong. Ano yun, thank you sa pagnanakaw niyo sa amin? Basta magresign ka lang?
Why I'm Not Afraid to FIRE Abroad in The Philippines and Live Like a King
For many British, Australians and Americans, retirement time is just around the corner. At home, with low interest rates and high cost of living, the prospect of trying to live on a pension, in old age, is a daunting one unless you are prepared to substantially downscale your lifestyle. For some, moving to retire in another country is an option which has been successful in the past with Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Puerto Rico being among some of the more popular destinations. But why not consider retiring in the Philippines?
The Case for Retiring in a Developing Country
Over the past decade, the Philippines has become a retirement haven for thousands of foreigners, particularly the Japanese, Korean, and Northern Europeans. Along with Thailand and Malaysia, the Philippines developed communications, infrastructure, and service delivery systems specifically geared to meet the needs of foreign retirees. Better yet, unlike most European Countries and South America, nearly everyone speaks ENGLISH in the Philippines. The Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living. The Philippine Peso (PhP) exchange rate is approximately PhP 45 to $ 1.00 or PhP 92 to 1 Pound [Sterling (GBP)]. Housing, food, and labor costs are quite reasonable. A One bedroom condominium can be purchased for around $ 72,000 or GBP 37,000 or a Studio for only $ 45,000 or GBP 22,800 and one can dine out on average at a three star restaurant for less than PhP 500. If you hire domestic help, a private driver’s salary is approximately PhP 10,000/month, while trained housekeepers earn approximately -PhP 5,000/month. These salaries are lower if you live in the provinces.
Same Comforts as You’d Find Anywhere
Cable Television, Hi-Speed Internet and Satellite Communications are cheap. One can hire an air-conditioned taxicab for eight hours for less than $25.00. In a country where a provincial Governor’s salary is only PhP 28,000 per month, and a Presidential Cabinet Under-Secretary earns PhP 35,000, retiring abroad makes mathematical sense. So, if you have a retirement income of approximately $1,500 to $2,000 per month ( PhP 80,000 to 100,000) you can live quite well in the Philippines.
Healthcare Expenses
As for health care, most U.S. Health Management Organizations pay for medical expenses incurred in the Philippines. Check with your HMO. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs presently has a task force headed by former Secretary Roberto Romulo working to have the U.S. government accredit a number of first class Philippine hospitals for Medicare reimbursement. The Makati Medical Center, one of the nation’s best already has such accreditation. Unbeknown to many is that for years, citizens of nearby countries such as Thailand, Nauru, Tonga, Indonesia, and Malaysia have flocked to the Philippines for medical care, particularly sensitive surgical procedures. The quality of medical care at the better Manila hospitals such as the Asian, St. Luke’s, Medical city, Cardinal Santos, Philippine Heart Center for Asia, National Kidney Institute, and Makati Medical Center meets international standards. A Japanese company is building a medical facility in Tagaytay city exclusively for Japanese nationals within the year. There are now close to 10,000 Japanese retirees in the country, and the number is growing annually. The British government recently acquired a large tract of land in Fort Bonifacio to build a new Embassy. The British ambassador explained the larger facility is meant to help serve the growing number of British nationals retiring there as well. Japanese and Korean investment groups are buying homes and condominiums in Manila, and tracts of provincial land for retirees. This has caused a mini- Real Estate boom in the country. A retirement village exclusively for Japanese nationals already exists in Tagaytay, and more are planned. These are strong indicators of what is on the horizon
Language
English is the Philippines’ official business language. Most of the people you will meet, from hotel workers, taxi drivers, sales or service people, government employeesa all speak English, or have a working understanding of it. The middle class speak English, without exception. All major newspapers, and major broadcast companies use English. An English speaking visitor will never get lost in the Philippines. It is the universal use of that language that has been a strong incentive to foreigners. As well, communications links within the country and to other countries via the various commercial gateways is up to international standards. For example, the use of cell phones and text messaging is so common that housemaids, street vendors and food hawkers can be seen using their cellphones incessantly.
Adventures
One will never want for adventure and sights to experience in the Philippines. There is always a colorful Fiesta, pageants, street festivals, and open public events going on. Lush with bountiful natural resources, one can enjoy the numerous beaches, resorts, golf courses, and play just about any sport, except skiing. There is an ice skating rink in Manila, though. Scuba diving and fishing are among the sports which draw the most number of foreigners to the rich aquatic offerings. Shopping is the Filipinos’ second most popular activity, the first is eating. Manila is Asia’s undiscovered shopping Mecca. You will love the golden purple sunsets, the fragrance of the flowers at dusk, and the wonderful array of fruit and food. I used to enjoy watching the Sun set from the bar at the Philippine Cultural Center. There, you can listen to the Symphony, check out a play, or enjoy Grand Opera. There is just so much to explore and discover, specially in terms of nature, culture, and history. If you’re a betting man, there’s horse racing, the Jai Alai, numerous first class casinos, and of course, cok-fighting. Manila is well known for its exciting night life. .... To avoid wall of text read more at: https://financeandpurpose.com/living-abroad-condo-hotels-and-retirement-in-the-philippines/
Last Week in Indian Economy - For the Week Ending 20th March, 2016
Last Week in Indian Economy
Headline Stories
The Good News: Inflation Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of retail stores in India reducing their prices to a 3 month low. After rising for five straight months, retail inflation in February came down to 5.18%. This has been attributed largely to a fall in the prices of vegetables, pulses and fruits. While cereal prices remained the same, the dark lining is that prices of eggs shot up significantly. Time to substitute omelets with salads, perhaps? But that’s just the retail end of business. Coming to the wholesale side of business, inflation in wholesale prices fell for the 16th straight month and remained negative at -0.91%. The data comes from the Consumer and Wholesale Price Indices, which track retail and wholesale prices around the country. The Bad News: Foreign Trade Not to harsh your mellow, but stop rejoicing over the good news for a second and hear this. India’s February Exports decreased by 5.66%. If you haven’t been following the export numbers, and no one can blame you for that, this is the 15th consecutive month in which exports have decreased. Petroleum products was the dark swan as exports of gasoline, jet fuel etc. fell by 28%. The golden goose of the bunch was jewellery as exports of shiny rings and necklaces increased by 11%. Just to give you some perspective, our brothers to the north, the Chinese saw their exports fall by 25%. On the flip side, India’s imports also decreased by 5.03%. You win some, you lose some, right? Rajya Sabha Feels Betrayed Giving statutory backing to the unique identity number system, the Lok Sabha this week has passed the Aadhaar Bill. This newly passed bill is a significant instrument for the government’s Direct Transfer Benefits scheme for better targeting of subsidies. The argument against it was that it violated the Supreme Court order that said an Aadhaar Card cannot be mandatory but only voluntary. Now, if you remember your 7th standard civics syllabus, both houses of the parliament, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, have to pass a bill for it to become a law. What your 7th standard civics textbook probably didn’t mention is the Rajya Sabha has no say in the matter if a specific bill is categorized as a “money bill”. Which is exactly what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who piloted the Aadhaar bill through parliament, did so that it can bypass the Rajya Sabha where Jaitley’s BJP does not have a majority. One can only imagine how emotionally hurt the Rajya Sabha was when the Lok Sabha went behind its back to pass the Aadhaar Bill. It’s Raining Black Gold: Sweet, Sweet Oil “Tass-Yurikah” sounds like an Urdu swear word, but it’s actually the name of a Russian oil field. Soon enough, it won’t even be entirely Russian anymore. A group of Indian oil companies signed a deal with Rosneft, the Russian oil company that owns Tass-Yurikah, to buy a 29.9% stake in the oilfield for $1.28 billion (₹8,505 crore). This puts the Indians in partnership with the British oil major BP who owns 20% while the remaining 50.1% is still owned by Rosneft. Deals to explore a possible stake sale in Vankor, another Russian oilfield, were also signed. This comes at a time when global oil prices are falling off a cliff, just like BJP’s poll numbers in that recent Bihar election. This also comes at a time when Russia’s economy is suffering from an acute case of international sanctions that were imposed on Russia after they snatched Crimea from Ukraine, just like the JD(U) snatched seats from BJP in that recent Bihar election. Too political? Thought so. Meanwhile, they just hiked petrol and diesel prices by 3.07/litre and 1.07/litre. Ban on 344 Illegal Drugs The government is playing the game that everyone knows it excels at - banning things. This time around, the health ministry has issued a ban on over 344 drugs. No, not the one’s that make you hallucinate or see sounds and hear colours, but the one’s that are pharmaceutical. Known as “combination drugs”, these drugs combine two or more drugs together so the patient only has to pop one pill instead of three. Technically, they were being sold illegally since none of them had approval from the central government, but had entered markets nevertheless after receiving blessings from only the state governments. At least this time around, the bans make more sense. Cough syrup Corex and the famous Vicks Action 500 were among the 344 substances banned. However, the Delhi High Court reversed the ban on Corex and is set to hear the case on March 21st after Pfizer (PFIZER), the company that makes Corex, sent lawyers marching down to the Court right away. Feeling a bit jealous of Pfizer, 21 other pharmaceutical companies, including P&G India (PGHH), the maker of Vicks, also managed to convince the court to reverse bans placed on their drugs as well. Make Room for One More Tax You know how countries sometimes impose tariffs on foreign goods to make domestic players competitive? Well, states across India such as Uttarakhand, Bihar and Assam seem to have forgotten that they are not independent countries but merely states within one. It’s okay, we all go through an identity crisis at some point. Lawmakers in those states have imposed an “entry tax” on e-commerce websites for selling products that were not made in those states - which sounds eerily similar to tariffs imposed by sovereign nations. What could make this worse? Almost half a dozen other states are also considering imposing a similar tax on e-commerce goods sold inside the state that were manufactured outside the state. If this goes through, you might have to foot the bill for your state’s poor manufacturing as online retailers pass these taxes on to the customer. Also, the grapevine has it that Amazon offered to acquire Flipkart for $8 billion (₹53,160 crore) last year, but the deal fell through. Make of that what you will.
Sidebar Stories
Baba Copycats: After the initial success of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali, other “spiritual gurus” in India are lining up to launch similar companies in the FMCG space, particularly noteworthy is Sri2 Ravi Shankar’s Sri Sri Ayurveda.
Bangladesh’s Central Bank Governor, Atiur Rahman, resigned after hackers stole $81 million (₹538 crore) from the bank’s account at the US Federal Reserve, now touted as one of the world’s biggest bank thefts. Champagnes are possibly being popped by one Chinese casino operator in Philippines to whom the stolen money was reportedly delivered.
Videocon (VIDEOIND) exited the telecom services business after selling its entire allocated spectrum in 5 states to Airtel (BHARTIARTL) for ₹4,428 crore. Spectrum is what telecoms need to increase their connectivity and range.
Republican Frontrunner for the US Presidential Election, Donald Drumpf, has said that he favors Indian students graduating from US Universities being allowed to stay back and work in the US. How is that economic news, you ask? The brain-drain industry is a billion dollar industry.
The yield on 10-year government bonds is down 1.06% from 7.601 to 7.520.
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Important Numbers being released this week: No important numbers are being released this week. Except India Foreign Exchange Reserves which are released every Friday. Instead, let us all enjoy this gif of a lolcat playing a guitar.
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Interest Rates on the Public Provident Fund (PPF) were cut to 8.1% from 8.7%. The popular 5-year National Savings Certificate will also fetch 8.1% interest rate instead of the present 8.5%. This post has mentioned 22 percentages by now. Are you sick of them, yet? A thread posted on the /india subreddit of the popular website reddit.com last week titled “Last Week in Indian Economics” was wildly successful as it recieved 372 upvotes at last count and was even gilded within 24 hours. The writer of the post was quoted as saying, “Yeah, this is going to be in my résumé now.” < For the Week Ending 13th March, 2016
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