JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  67

  John Lewis: Trump isn't a legitimate president

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-lewis-trump-isnt-a-legitimate-president/ar-aalqsqs?li=bbmkt5r&ocid=spartanntp.

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  JeffT

  Smiddy: Bernie Sanders. It is clear that people wanted something different, Clinton was going to be more of the same. Trump was the outsider Republican, Bernie was the outsider Democrat. I think he would have beaten Trump.
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  67

  John Lewis: Trump isn't a legitimate president

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-lewis-trump-isnt-a-legitimate-president/ar-aalqsqs?li=bbmkt5r&ocid=spartanntp.

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  JeffT

  Funny, four years ago people made fun of Mitt Romney for calling Russia our No. 1 threat.
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  36

  An interesting reasoning for the existence of God (from JW public talk)

  by anointed1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was on an official tour last week to another part of my country.

  on my way to the hotel, i noticed sign-board of jw kingdom hall.

  i thought i would attend sunday meeting as i knew no one would recognize me.. seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, public speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me.

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  JeffT

  He said: ‘Universe is like a diary book with countless blank sheets. Yet only on one page [earth] is written something—something like a beautiful poem [life].’ What does this show? Owner decided to write on one page so that when others see blank sheets they should know that it takes a writer to do the writing. Whether he will do so with rest of the pages or not depends on the owner.

  BS. How does this guy know what's written on all the other "pages"? How many planets as he been to? How did he get there? What proof does he have for this assertion? Just because he can't see something doesn't mean its not there.

  
  
  
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  58

  watchtower lapel pins

  by wannaexit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been noticing lots of these pins on lapels.

  i could almost understand the jwdotorg pin because the new mantra is to go to the website.

  but why on earth are they sporting a building?

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  JeffT

  Free lance writer here. I have done a lot of research on copyright issues. The quote a page or two back covers this clearly in my opinion.

  Copyright covers a specific picture or story. I can't use that picture or story, or part of a story without the permission of the copyright holder. I can use small portions of it under "fair use" which would allow me to say use a screen print or quote some text in a piece of original writing. Let's say I'm writing an article about the Caleb and Sophia videos. I can reprint a picture of them, or quote parts of the dialog to illustrate a point. Satire is allowed broad discretion to use characters or situations. If they do their own art work and write their own dialog, the Watchtower can't stop the producers of the Simpsons from having fun with Caleb and Sophia.

  In the case of the dot org pins, I believe they've trade marked the logo, which is a specific item. But they can't trademark the letters "J" and "W" or ".org" because they are in common use. So anybody can put the letters on anything they want. I've noticed there seems to be a cottage industry advertising such stuff on the internet. From the look of a lot of it, I suspect its small jewelry operations that noticed lots of JW related stuff floating around and jumped on the bandwagon. I don't think they WTBS has any connection to this, and I'm sure they don't have a legal way to stop it. I expect they may get more forceful about telling the sheep not to buy it, unless they set up their own approved source.
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  14

  A most interesting Christmas present

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so our daughter gave my wife and i a very nice family album of photos from the course of the year.

  as we opened it, she said it had a surprise hidden in it, so we're watching for something to fall out.

  about 2/3 or the way through it we hit an ultrasound print of a tiny baby.

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  JeffT

  So our daughter gave my wife and I a very nice family album of photos from the course of the year. As we opened it, she said it had a surprise hidden in it, so we're watching for something to fall out. About 2/3 or the way through it we hit an ultrasound print of a tiny baby.

  Yeah, I'm going to be a grandfather again.
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  15

  Is there any recent information about Watchtower owning 50% of Rand Cam Engine Corp & REGI Technologies?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  please, recent information is needed about this subject discussed some 12-years ago here on jwn?

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  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/85323/watchtower-society-50-share-holder-military-company?page=1&size=10.

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  JeffT

  Google translate is turning out some really funny stuff for me, which unfortunately makes it really hard to tell what they're talking about. They seem to be saying that the WTBS is invested in some business they claim to oppose, notably tobacco and the military. Their proof for this is an old IRS From 990 for the Henrietta Riley Trust For the Benefit of the WTBS.

  Somewhere I put out an analysis of the Trust, but I can't find it just now. The WTBS is may be getting money from the trust that is generated by investments in these industries. Under IRS regs and US banking laws, the beneficiary of a trust can't tell the trust how to do its business. That was decided by whoever set up the trust. We don't know what Ms. Reilly put in the Trust document, it probably contains language ordering the Trustee to safeguard the assets, reinvest some income and distribute the rest.

  Presumably the distributions go to the WTBS, but without the Trust documents we can't know that. The money may go to Ms Reilly until she dies or something. It strikes me as odd that she set up a trust rather than simply donating the money.

  Bottom line, I think this is another "scandal" that may not be a scandal, and may not indicate anything unsavory on the part of the WTBS.
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  15

  Is there any recent information about Watchtower owning 50% of Rand Cam Engine Corp & REGI Technologies?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  please, recent information is needed about this subject discussed some 12-years ago here on jwn?

  .

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/85323/watchtower-society-50-share-holder-military-company?page=1&size=10.

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  JeffT

  I've been rooting around the web trying to dig up some information, here's what I found.

  Rand Cam was formed by some JW's in British Columbia (led by a man named Robertson and/or his family), to develop and market the "Rad Max" Engine. Link with spiffy graphics here Link This engine is not as revolutionary as they make it sound, lots of people have tried (and failed) with similar designs. another link There's a reason you've never heard of these: they don't work very well.

  Rand Cam is now owned by something called REGI Technology, based in Spokane, WA. There website has lots of breathless talk about the technology, but no reported sales. They don't have any contracts with the military, or anybody else that I can find.

  The WTBS claims the SEC filing showing them owning five million shares is a mistake. Here is my speculation about what might have happened:

  I can’t tell from public information if the SEC paperwork listing the WTBS has an owner was 1) a mistake, 2) a purchase, or 3) a gift from the Robertson’s. It is possible they donated the shares to either curry favor with somebody or gain a significant tax write-off (or both).

  In any event, the WTBS probably never made any money off this (the stock is selling for six cents a share, i.e. its worthless) and does not now own the stock. In other words for the XJW community I don’t think there is any story here, beyond the possibility that the Robertson's were either conned into buying a worthless patent, or they were scamming somebody with worthless stock.
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  12

  "Jehovah's Witnesses" : A religion - or a denomination of a religion?

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "a christian denomination is a generic term for a distinct religious body identified by traits such as a common name, structure, leadership and doctrine.

  individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, such as church or fellowship.

  " (wikipedia) .

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  JeffT

  There was a change in 1950 that made unrelated business activity by a non-profit taxable, but it looks like that still exempted churches. That may have altered how they had to present themselves to the public. I'll try to do more research.
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  20

  FYI, Trump's pick for U. S. Army Secretary is Vincent Viola. What's Viola's connection with the Watchtower?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://therealdeal.com/2016/12/19/trump-taps-virtu-ceo-brooklyn-real-estate-investor-vincent-viola-for-army-secretary/.

  the jehovah’s witnesses’ building at 124 columbia heights (credit: getty images) and vincent viola.

  "president-elect donald trump nominated virtu financial ceo — and recent brooklyn real estate investor — vincent viola for secretary of the u.s. army on monday.. "a 1977 west point graduate, viola served with the 101st airborne division at fort campbell, kentucky.

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  JeffT

  Doesn't mean anything. I worked in real estate investments for a long time, part of it for an NYC based international company. Large real estate is an incestuous business, everybody knows everybody else. They pass on tips, bid against each other, form partnerships, and sue each other all the time. They marry each other and their kids marry each other. I'm not surprised you can find connections.
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  15

  Is there any recent information about Watchtower owning 50% of Rand Cam Engine Corp & REGI Technologies?

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  please, recent information is needed about this subject discussed some 12-years ago here on jwn?

  .

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/85323/watchtower-society-50-share-holder-military-company?page=1&size=10.

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  JeffT

  I just did some googling and these reports don't add up. The links say its a privately held company, and then cite SEC reports showing the ownership. But the SEC doesn't report on privately held companies. Some of the information says the company is registered in Oregon, but the secretary of state's website has no information on it. I can't find a website for Rand Cam. REG Technologies seems to be registered in Gig Harbor WA, not far from where I live. I'll see what I can find out when I get back from work.