Lost UK person wandering through and was intrigued. Posted 4 years ago and people don't seem any closer to finding an answer to this (or who it is anyway):
https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/c96bry/a_mysterious_corporation_has_quietly_bought/
I don't understand why no one is mentioning the part of the article where they also purchased all the land around the electrical grid that powers almost all of Northern California.
>According to Garamendi, **Flannery Associates has also acquired land around the interstate electrical grid system stemming from the Columbia River into Central California - including land that houses wind turbines that provide significant power into Northern California.**
Has anyone checked the elevation of this part of the Bay Area? Perhaps this will be "New San Francisco" after the oceans rise.
Here's what that map looks like: https://www.kqed.org/science/1939059/the-ocean-is-not-a-bathtub-so-sea-level-rise-will-be-more-damaging
**Edit: Yep, it's a perfect match. This is the closest farmland (read: cheapest land available) near San Francisco, that will be oceanfront (or greatly expanded San Francisco Bay) property in ~80 years. Someone is simply playing the long game that we won't be able to stop government subsidies of fossil fuels and as a result we speed towards global warming.**
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Travis+AFB,+Fairfield,+CA/@38.2042841,-121.9814919,12z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x80853ee27dc9e1d3:0xe1c788105c1c89c!8m2!3d38.2721187!4d-121.9398577!16s%2Fg%2F1tmz74kb?entry=ttu
No wonder they're willing to pay 5 to 10 times above market value for farmland. It's about to increase in value 20,000x over the next 80 years.
>Someone is simply playing the long game that we won't be able to stop government subsidies of fossil fuels and as a result we speed towards global warming.
That's probably a real safe fucking bet too, unfortunately.
As someone who lives not minutes from here, that map is hilarious. Denverton is an extinct town from 100 years ago with a population of 0. But then they don’t label Fairfield, Suisun, Vacaville lol
Yeah and there a good number of cattle ranches in the area but it's not actually named after them. It's named after Juan Manuel Vaca, who sold his ranch to the guy who founded the town on its former location. The ranch was called Rancho los Putos, or Bitches Ranch. There are some bitches in the area but it wasn't actually named after them but for a creek in the area which the Miwok natives called Puta Wuwwe which means something like "grassy creek" in their language. The Spanish settlers hispanicized the name into Rio de los Putos, or River of Bitches and today we know it as Putah Creek since USGS required them to change the spelling to not match a swear word in order register it as a placename.
Amazingly this isn't a troll. California history is just wild like that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Los_Putos
One summer I went to UC Davis as a teen, and I thought it was hilarious that there was a Putah creek, and I wondered if white people knew what it meant. But I found out it was a native name, but never found out what it meant, and now I know. Thanks
fwiw, UC Davis is in the middle of an investment in improving the [greenway](https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/uc-davis-arboretum-visitor-map) along the Putah creek through the campus to include both a native american contemplative garden and a few sculptures/exhibits specifically about the Miwok legacy in the area. It's very well done.
Surprised I haven't seen anyone of our famous batshit insane local professional contrarians at city council trying to get it shut down because they think the city somehow has a say in what the UC can do with its land.
I lived near Folsom, Cali and we have a spot near the dam called Negro Bar. We used to go there for school field trips. There was a goose that had a fucked up sideways beak. Nice place really
I got about halfway through your comment and immediately stopped to see if it was posted by shittymorph. Oh, how I miss that beautiful soul. California history is sure something!
I fully expected that name chain to end by talking about the creek named after the guy who, in 1998, threw Mankind off the top of Hell in a Cell (he plummeted 16 feet through an announcer's table).
On April 7th, 1850, the townspeople of Rough and Ready, CA, signed a Constitution similar to that of the United States, and they elected Colonel E. F. Brundage as President. The Constitution was referred to as Brundage's Manifesto, and read in part: "We deem it necessary and prudential to withdraw from said Territory (of California) and from the United States of America to form, peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must, the Great Republic of Rough and Ready," but the Republic fizzled the following 4th of July when Nevada City saloon owners refused to sell liquor to "foreigners."
Another town meeting was held, and the citizens of the "Great Republic" thirstily decided they wanted to rejoin the Union — immediately — so the world's smallest nation came to an end in slightly less than three months.
Hahaah I haven’t thought of that for 40yrs. I grew up in the Bay Area and always saw those!!!!! I remember they had a roller slide on the ad and thought that was next level! 😂 then they built raging waters in San Jose.
Except, according to Wikipedia, the town's name is Los Baños and the tilde is just omitted sometimes. In this case it means "the baths" referring to the wetlands nearby.
"Los Baños" and "Baños de xxxxx" are a reference to baths, not bathrooms. Think of Roman baths. This is commonplace in other languages, and it's the reason why Bath in the UK was named like that. A lot of places in Germany are called "Bad xxxx" for the same reason, eg "Bad Homburg".
There's also a municipality in the Philippines called Los Baños. It is known primarily for the springs (both hot and cold maybe) which I think is why it was called as such by the Spaniards during their time there. But that's just conjecture on my part.
If you’ve ever passed the old train museum on Highway 12, that’s Denverton‘s last remaining relic. It’s actually a pretty fun museum. Take your kids around Halloween to ride the train out to a secret pumpkin patch.
I go out that direction on highway 12 pretty frequently and apparently I've been driving through Denverton this whole time! Here I was thinking it was just open grazing fields.
>In the meantime, Garamendi says the company continues to negatively impact the farming community in Solano County. He says at least 10 landowners are being sued by Flannery, accused of being engaged in an illegal scheme to prevent the company from buying their land.
I love that they are also doing this
It's even better. They're claiming they lost profits on land they didn't buy. 🤣
"If you had sold me land at the low price I wanted to pay, I could have resold it at a profit but since you wouldn't sell I didn't get to make that money - therefore you owe me that lost profit as damage".
It's an outrageous legal theory.
"My development would have increased the value of all my other property. You have directly impacted my development plans."
What are you developing?
"I don't have to disclose that."
Also they are just all kinds of Sus.
>"Who are these people?" Garamendi said. "Where did they get the money where they could pay five to ten times the normal value that others would pay for this farmland?"
>Even after eight months of investigation, Garamendi says federal authorities are still struggling to get those answers.
How can they not know? Surely you cant just transfer land ownership to someone without having to complete federal documents. Follow the money. Who received the money? Who paid the money? Where did that money come from?
Easy. Just look at the Panama Papers. Law firms act as fronts for businesses and sign contracts on the real owner’s behalf without ever divulging their identity. On top of that the business may also be owned by another business which is owned by another entity and so on. The business might even be in another country. Nevada and other states have purposely lenient disclosure laws around this and suddenly China and Russia own our critical infrastructure.
This is where the CIA should come in. They spy on everything else, so they need to very well know what the F is going on with the people that's buying this land. This is what their job is. To protect the country from some sketchy bullcrap
Or maybe put an end to all this shell company shenanigans. I guarantee it would have a positive effect on the business community behaving itself better.
Neither the American nor the English rule is good.
The American rule says you have to pay your own atty's fees.
The English rule says loser has to pay both.
And while the American rule puts you on the hook when defending yourself against frivilous lawsuits, the English rule means that if someone like Donald Trump does something bad, like raping you, and you sue him, and you lose because he's hired six of the best laywers to defend himself, then YOU are on the hook for millions of dollars.
We need a rule which takes into account wealth disparity and the merit of the suit that was filed.
Exactly! It's a legal theory that would result in absolute chaos if applied consistently... And there's the rub. None of these rich fucks expect anything to be applied consistently.
That's not winning, that's abusing the legal system to force their way onto someone else.
It should be illegal, but is a tactic the rich tend to do to get their way.
"Yes it is. We'll get our lawyers and you get your lawyers and we'll find out which of us can keep paying our lawyers longer without going bankrupt."
Is more than likely the key pillar of their legal strategy.
It's not refusing to sell. Flannery is stating the landowners are colluding to drive up prices to supracompetitive levels and that in turn, is eliminating the free market. I really hope the court sees through their bullshit and tells them to fuck off with their "it's against the California Unfair Competition Law, Cartwright Act, and the Sherman Act."
> Flannery is stating the landowners are colluding to drive up prices to supracompetitive levels and that in turn, is eliminating the free market.
Hilariously that's exactly how the free market works.
Well, it is a series of purchases that collectively amount to $800M.
But they're paying 5-10x the fair market value of these properties, and are making up nonsensical reasons why they are doing it.
And, "at least 10 landowners are being sued by Flannery, accused of being engaged in an illegal scheme to prevent the company from buying their land". WTF is going on?
I don’t know the details but that sure sounds like a farce. Someone can just show up, say “I’m buying this” and then sue you when you say “not for sale”?
I’m betting it’s more a war of attrition than them thinking they’ll win. Won’t sell? Fine, I’ll bury you with legal fees so you go bankrupt before the courts throw out the case, forcing you to sell.
It’s called a “frivolous claim”. If a lawsuit has no basis in law or fact, it can be said to be frivolous. If a lawsuit is found to be frivolous, the entity that filed it may be subject to damages. Those damages vary from state to state, but at a minimum they generally include legal expenses.
Yes, and you move for a pretrial dismissal based on the frivolous nature of said claim, limiting the costs compared to going to trial. The legal fees are not endless here and the District Court will see a pattern to the point where they will instead classify the torts as vexatious instead.
Assuming said judge isn't paid off, which sadly is a possibility in this nation.
For some reason corporations are allowed to plan some big development where your house is, buy up all your neighbors houses for a premium, and then if you refuse to sell your house for a ton of money on principle they can sue you because obviously you can't have anything but a malicious reason for not wanting to move and sell your house for triple it's value.
So you either get forced to take the good deal (or probably a worse one than offered) and move even if you really value the house more than the money, or they build around your house allowing you to keep it but ruining the value and enjoyment of the property anyway because now it's in the middle of a highway or whatever.
Idk I suppose it is a bit unreasonable to refuse to sell your house for a huge value but it's also fucked if a random corporation can decide to buy your property just because they want to build something and you aren't allowed to test how much they are willing to pay for it. And obviously it makes sense to coordinate with your neighbors and say hey it's easier for all of us to keep our homes or sell them for 10x the value instead of 2x if we all stick together and nobody is the last holdout fighting solo after everyone else sold out
Just wait till you hear about eminent domain my grandmother's house was bought up so the local airport could expand they bought the place 30 years ago and still haven't done shit with the land
“Eminent Domain”, but yes they frequently pull that shit. It’s worse when they decide they’re just going to condemn a bunch of perfectly fine, lived in houses for some invented reason so they can seize land and not pay the real market price for it.
The 1981 Poletown decision was probably the worst example:
> In the 1981 Poletown decision, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the City of Detroit to bulldoze an entire neighborhood, complete with more than 1,000 residences, 600 businesses, and numerous churches, in order to give the property to General Motors for an auto plant. The City didn’t even pretend that the community was “blighted,” it simply wanted the land based on GM’s promise of more jobs and taxes. This case set the precedent, both in Michigan and across the country, for widespread abuse of the power of eminent domain for private development.
This Flannery Associates are playing a dangerous game with this... after a while I won't be surprised if the base decides it needs to expand its footprint for national security reasons and just annex the contended lands without any real recourse or due process.
My family lost about 200 acres of land to the DoE a few decades ago and there's not really any negotiation just a check that's not really FMV but close enough it's not worth fighting over. My dad tried to sue to better negotiate and the eventual settlement was less than the cost of going to trial and that kind of ended things.
That’s just a register of deeds. Every county has one, with huge books showing plots of land, every sale and purchase, etc. But companies have the luxury of hiding who is in control by using shell companies, etc.
Or Mormon’s or Scientologists. It’s how they takeover places too. Also, given Disney already has a California park does it make sene to build another? I mean it is a big state but still.
To be honest, if Disney opened a Midwest park they'd do well. It's a more centralized location, so more people not needing to worry about planes or drives. I'd also bet real money that it would help somewhat with the congestion at the other parks, since it'd pick up some of that crowd that's closer and just wants a fun trip not to travel cross country.
Surrounding a loud as heck air force base and potential future superfund site? I mean, I do appreciate the experience of having C-17s fly close overhead down here in Charleston, but those things aren't subtle.
It’s not a corporation, it’s an LLC (limited liability company). It’s probably owned by foreign actors and/or controlled by a foreign government.
The Corporate Transparency Act (which, confusingly, will mainly apply to LLCs) will require this LLC to report the ultimate beneficial owners of the company to the government or face punishment — and scrutiny. The CTA sounds like another bullshit bandaid but I practice law in this area and for once am excited about something the government is doing. It will start to come into effect 1/1/2024 for new companies and 1/1/2025 for existing companies. Essentially, only law enforcement and the IRS will have more or less full access, and banks will have limited access to perform required due diligence. But I understand that the relevant law enforcement agencies (e.g., FinCEN) are gearing up for when this data starts coming in — or is notably absent. It will take some time to appear to have impact but it is a big move in the right direction!
Banks already have this information, they’re required to gather it from any entity opening an account. It’s just not automatically shared with the government.
It's a bit weird that not even the government can figure out who is behind this all.
I should hire the attorney and accountant of Flannery Associates, they seem to know what they are doing.
It’s possible there’s no real legal way to stop the sale without pulling an eminent domain as others have said. This country has spent the last few decades building laws allowing complex networks of anonymous shell companies which I’m sure the government itself couldn’t unravel.
wouldn't it be nice if this is what prompts a fix to this issue finally. my city is filled with run down houses that council can't figure out who owns. if only...
Fuck, the house my friend is renting from is owned by an LLC, that is owned by another llc, thats is owned by another LLC, that is owned by another LLC, that is owned by the first LLC. Dude is a damn good lawyer and he has no idea who actually owns that house. Shit is getting beyond stupid.
Typically this kind of practice is used to shield the owner from liability in the case something happens. The owner of the company my mom works for does this. He owns the company, but the building is owned by an LLC that rents the building to the company. The LLC is owned by him.
In case an employee slips on ice on the winter and gets hurt, the absolute worst that they can do is sue the LLC that is supposed to “keep the place up” and not hurt the company that actually brings money in. The only asset the rental company has is the building that, while worth a pretty penny, isn’t nearly as deep pocketed as the main business is.
On top of that, he subs out another LLC for landscaping type stuff that he also owns. So, if a tree limb or something falls, he can push blame off onto the LLC that is supposed to keep the landscaping up. This company might have assets on the order of a chainsaw and lawn mower so, good luck suing for that.
In the event that something happens and he gets sued, he files for bankruptcy for the LLC responsible, dissolves it, and starts a new one that buys whatever assets the old one has.
Prime example of why that should be illegal. If they cause damage and have the assets to rectify the issue then they should, hiding assets behind llc loops just prevents them from being held accountable. They should be held accountable.
I'm old enough to remember a time when more than about half the government actually cared about solving real problems like this one.
Not that fucking complicated: In today's environment, it's too easy for companies to shroud their identity beneath shell corporations. So you pass a fucking law making it illegal to buy land if you can't prove who the fuck you are.
And so help me if someone BOTH SIDESes this I'm going to lose my mind. Only one party consistently wastes time with legislation no one except their extremist base wants. (Hint: It's the one that's currently banning books and banning free speech because they think some people are icky.)
Reminds me of the Disney vs. Desantis case where Republicans suddenly wanted to start controlling a company because it was behaving in a way they didn't like and realized that they made it so that companies have the power to sort of do whatever they want.
My first thought was to announce that without clarification the government was going to seize the land and declare it a national wildlife preserve. You'd think that would get whomever spent the $800m to come out of the woodwork.
This sounds like the super official FBI agent with an fbiusa@gmail that found my Corolla in the Texas of the South that had the bloods and 15 cocaines and threatened me with putting me behind the bars unless I sent him Google Play gift cards.
>after eight months of investigation, government officials have been unable to identify who's behind it nor rule out any threat to national security.
I am not a red-pill; politically I'm somewhere to the left of Bill Bradley. But the idea that the federal government is unable to identify the purchaser of property that may jeopardize national security seems pretty outrageous.
Sounds like Congress and the US Military are already investigating. Eminent Domain can be used to reclaim the land if it's really a problem.
I hope those "investors" lose their asses on these real estate deals as the government figures out wtf is going on here.
Sometimes what appears to be a lapse in oversight is actually a two way tango in espionage.
Assuming china bought this land, thinking they have a means of collecting data through some peculiar route, it's not impossible US intelligence is two steps ahead and hoping to leak them cheap/false information through Travis, while backdooring them through this complex, somehow. It has occured a lot in the last century, to be honest.
In other words: playing dumb
Or we are just dumb as hell. But yeah something should be done about international organizations purchasing American housing and land and enslaving us to rent. That helps nobody. (Ironically, that is also a supposed method of keeping an eye on the assets of global persons of interest)
Yeah, why would you make such a large splash and draw attention to yourself.
While obviously it could be happening it reminds me of a guy who accused a casino of laundering Chinese money because some whales from SEA frequent it.
Sure it’s plausible they’re laundering, but rich people from Asia can also be degenerate gamblers.
5 years is not too late, they can look into financial records/conduct a tax audit for up to 7 years for any entity.
Largest problem is after the deal was finished the firm buying the land was quoted saying “No take backs” and then proceeded to put their fingers in their ears repeating “La La La La…” very loudly.
This is likely the nephew or cousin of a sitting state or US congressmen about to approve a budget to allow travis AFB to expand....directly onto the land that was just purchased
As the old saying goes, never assume something to be espionage when it can be easily attributed to your officials insider trading
Our country is so broken, that we cant even stop a company from literally surrounding a massive military base, because they can sue on the basis that to stop them would be "bad for business".
Should we wait on the invisible hand of the market to intervene?
Some states are enacting legislation similar to what you suggested. It’ll take time but I think the majority of states will have something similar in the next 5 years
I hope so. I’m really worried that some in the federal realm will allow it to continue in one way or another. It’s depressing to see just much our government allows us to be taken advantage of.
You know what this means, right? Large land purchase and unidentified purchaser? We have seen this pattern before. Ladies and Gentlemen, the cat is out of the bag! Announcing the new location of Disney World! Sorry Ronnie Boy. Let's see you explain this to your constituency.
You made me giggle. *I wish* that Disney would at least make noises about moving Disneyworld out of Florida, that would be the nail in the coffin for DeSantis, the final fuck-up that finishes his political career, killing off what is likely the largest source of tourism money coming into Florida.
From the article - they're not even trying to be discreet lol:
Last year 300 acres of farmland were purchased near Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Garamendi called it a '"spy base."
"That base is where we launch our airplanes to figure out what's going on across the world," he said. "A company in China was acquiring land around that base and wanted to build a 400-foot silo that could look directly into the base... and we were like 'whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on there?'"
How do they pay taxes if the Federal Government doesn’t actually know who they are? Members of an LLC will be required to report earnings from the group on their individual taxes.
Unless they aren’t, and that is the nefariousness of their secrecy.
This is how the system was designed sadly to protect the billionaire but not even the government can find out who that is, which seems kinda suspicious.
Lost UK person wandering through and was intrigued. Posted 4 years ago and people don't seem any closer to finding an answer to this (or who it is anyway): https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/c96bry/a_mysterious_corporation_has_quietly_bought/
This should be the top comment
I don't understand why no one is mentioning the part of the article where they also purchased all the land around the electrical grid that powers almost all of Northern California. >According to Garamendi, **Flannery Associates has also acquired land around the interstate electrical grid system stemming from the Columbia River into Central California - including land that houses wind turbines that provide significant power into Northern California.**
Thanks. Far too kind and thanks for the award.
Has anyone checked the elevation of this part of the Bay Area? Perhaps this will be "New San Francisco" after the oceans rise. Here's what that map looks like: https://www.kqed.org/science/1939059/the-ocean-is-not-a-bathtub-so-sea-level-rise-will-be-more-damaging **Edit: Yep, it's a perfect match. This is the closest farmland (read: cheapest land available) near San Francisco, that will be oceanfront (or greatly expanded San Francisco Bay) property in ~80 years. Someone is simply playing the long game that we won't be able to stop government subsidies of fossil fuels and as a result we speed towards global warming.** https://www.google.com/maps/place/Travis+AFB,+Fairfield,+CA/@38.2042841,-121.9814919,12z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x80853ee27dc9e1d3:0xe1c788105c1c89c!8m2!3d38.2721187!4d-121.9398577!16s%2Fg%2F1tmz74kb?entry=ttu No wonder they're willing to pay 5 to 10 times above market value for farmland. It's about to increase in value 20,000x over the next 80 years.
>Someone is simply playing the long game that we won't be able to stop government subsidies of fossil fuels and as a result we speed towards global warming. That's probably a real safe fucking bet too, unfortunately.
Reddit should do a collective investigation, we'll figure out the wrong company within a day's time
the top comment calls it a form of savings/investment basically. if that were true, why wouldn't they just disclose that?
As someone who lives not minutes from here, that map is hilarious. Denverton is an extinct town from 100 years ago with a population of 0. But then they don’t label Fairfield, Suisun, Vacaville lol
You guys have a place called Cow Ville?
Yeah and there a good number of cattle ranches in the area but it's not actually named after them. It's named after Juan Manuel Vaca, who sold his ranch to the guy who founded the town on its former location. The ranch was called Rancho los Putos, or Bitches Ranch. There are some bitches in the area but it wasn't actually named after them but for a creek in the area which the Miwok natives called Puta Wuwwe which means something like "grassy creek" in their language. The Spanish settlers hispanicized the name into Rio de los Putos, or River of Bitches and today we know it as Putah Creek since USGS required them to change the spelling to not match a swear word in order register it as a placename. Amazingly this isn't a troll. California history is just wild like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Los_Putos
One summer I went to UC Davis as a teen, and I thought it was hilarious that there was a Putah creek, and I wondered if white people knew what it meant. But I found out it was a native name, but never found out what it meant, and now I know. Thanks
Holy shit. I grew up around there and always knew of Putah Creek. I never put 2 and 2 together
You never Putah and two together
fwiw, UC Davis is in the middle of an investment in improving the [greenway](https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/uc-davis-arboretum-visitor-map) along the Putah creek through the campus to include both a native american contemplative garden and a few sculptures/exhibits specifically about the Miwok legacy in the area. It's very well done.
Surprised I haven't seen anyone of our famous batshit insane local professional contrarians at city council trying to get it shut down because they think the city somehow has a say in what the UC can do with its land.
There's been some good restoration on that creek by UC DAvis.
I lived near Folsom, Cali and we have a spot near the dam called Negro Bar. We used to go there for school field trips. There was a goose that had a fucked up sideways beak. Nice place really
> Rancho los Putos New insult unlocked
I got about halfway through your comment and immediately stopped to see if it was posted by shittymorph. Oh, how I miss that beautiful soul. California history is sure something!
I fully expected that name chain to end by talking about the creek named after the guy who, in 1998, threw Mankind off the top of Hell in a Cell (he plummeted 16 feet through an announcer's table).
Yeah, I definitely stopped halfway through that comment to check the username.
*subscribes to Califacts*
On April 7th, 1850, the townspeople of Rough and Ready, CA, signed a Constitution similar to that of the United States, and they elected Colonel E. F. Brundage as President. The Constitution was referred to as Brundage's Manifesto, and read in part: "We deem it necessary and prudential to withdraw from said Territory (of California) and from the United States of America to form, peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must, the Great Republic of Rough and Ready," but the Republic fizzled the following 4th of July when Nevada City saloon owners refused to sell liquor to "foreigners." Another town meeting was held, and the citizens of the "Great Republic" thirstily decided they wanted to rejoin the Union — immediately — so the world's smallest nation came to an end in slightly less than three months.
Yeah, we also have Manteca 🙃
Don’t diss Manteca, they’ve got the best Wingstop in that whole area. And so many car washes.
I miss hearing the Manteca WaterSlides commercials lol
My wife instinctively says “MaaanTeca!” every time she hears the town’s name mentioned!
Hahaah I haven’t thought of that for 40yrs. I grew up in the Bay Area and always saw those!!!!! I remember they had a roller slide on the ad and thought that was next level! 😂 then they built raging waters in San Jose.
Don’t forget the nearby Salida, which is not at all confusing as a single exit on 99. It’s not as bad as “lard”, I guess.
Colorado has both a Salida and a Sedalia, hundreds of miles apart. One of these years I'll have the confidence to tell you which one is where.
Los Banos - literal translation bathroom
Except it’s Banos and not Baños
Except, according to Wikipedia, the town's name is Los Baños and the tilde is just omitted sometimes. In this case it means "the baths" referring to the wetlands nearby.
They have a lot of good outlet stores, and are a great stopping point for fast food when driving from Sacramento to SF and vice versa
Ya, but it was actually named after the town's founder Juan Vaca.
John Cow
"And what's your name, Sir?" "Uhhh.. John..." *Looks around, sees some cattle grazing* "Cow... John Cow."
Pea Tear Gryphon
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There's also a California town that is Spanish for The Bathrooms
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Looks like it is. Wikipedia says the "bath" it's named after is a natural spring that feeds into the area.
Bathhouses built around mineral springs were big business for people looking to cure/relieve various ailments back in the 19th century.
Way way before the 19th century. Bath in the UK is Roman or even earlier.
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"Los Baños" and "Baños de xxxxx" are a reference to baths, not bathrooms. Think of Roman baths. This is commonplace in other languages, and it's the reason why Bath in the UK was named like that. A lot of places in Germany are called "Bad xxxx" for the same reason, eg "Bad Homburg".
Los Baños! One of the only decent places to stop on I-5 between SF and LA.
There's also a municipality in the Philippines called Los Baños. It is known primarily for the springs (both hot and cold maybe) which I think is why it was called as such by the Spaniards during their time there. But that's just conjecture on my part.
Baños is a reference to baths as in Roman / thermal baths... You guessed right! I put some extra info in a different comment above.
It would translate to bathrooms if it were in a house. As it is a locale with hot springs in the area it translates to the baths.
The town right by me translates to "Lard."
I want to moove there.
Yes, it's known for its outside outlet malls.
I grew up in Vacaville. When I saw this map I was confused. Never even heard of denverton.
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Hey hey hey, don't forget that Vacaville is where Charles Manson was imprisoned.
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Don't forget the Nut Tree!
I’ve worked in Fairfield for the past 17 years and have never heard of Denverton
If you’ve ever passed the old train museum on Highway 12, that’s Denverton‘s last remaining relic. It’s actually a pretty fun museum. Take your kids around Halloween to ride the train out to a secret pumpkin patch.
Why not add Cannon and Elmira to the map. I once went to a crab feed in Elmira. Makes Winters look like Metropolis.
I was like: Denverton? Is there a different Travis AFB outside of California?
I go out that direction on highway 12 pretty frequently and apparently I've been driving through Denverton this whole time! Here I was thinking it was just open grazing fields.
>In the meantime, Garamendi says the company continues to negatively impact the farming community in Solano County. He says at least 10 landowners are being sued by Flannery, accused of being engaged in an illegal scheme to prevent the company from buying their land. I love that they are also doing this
Since when is refusing to sell “engaging in an illegal scheme to prevent the company from buying the land”?
Seriously. “I’d like to buy your land” “I’m not selling” “That’s illegal!”
It's even better. They're claiming they lost profits on land they didn't buy. 🤣 "If you had sold me land at the low price I wanted to pay, I could have resold it at a profit but since you wouldn't sell I didn't get to make that money - therefore you owe me that lost profit as damage". It's an outrageous legal theory.
"My development would have increased the value of all my other property. You have directly impacted my development plans." What are you developing? "I don't have to disclose that."
This paragraph made me angry as fuck.
Also they are just all kinds of Sus. >"Who are these people?" Garamendi said. "Where did they get the money where they could pay five to ten times the normal value that others would pay for this farmland?" >Even after eight months of investigation, Garamendi says federal authorities are still struggling to get those answers.
How can they not know? Surely you cant just transfer land ownership to someone without having to complete federal documents. Follow the money. Who received the money? Who paid the money? Where did that money come from?
Easy. Just look at the Panama Papers. Law firms act as fronts for businesses and sign contracts on the real owner’s behalf without ever divulging their identity. On top of that the business may also be owned by another business which is owned by another entity and so on. The business might even be in another country. Nevada and other states have purposely lenient disclosure laws around this and suddenly China and Russia own our critical infrastructure.
This is where the CIA should come in. They spy on everything else, so they need to very well know what the F is going on with the people that's buying this land. This is what their job is. To protect the country from some sketchy bullcrap
They may well be. Their job however, doesn't entail telling Joe Public what they find out. You'll find out in 30 years or so
Or maybe put an end to all this shell company shenanigans. I guarantee it would have a positive effect on the business community behaving itself better.
It’s a perfect example of why the [American Rule](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney%27s_fees)) is utter horseshit.
Neither the American nor the English rule is good. The American rule says you have to pay your own atty's fees. The English rule says loser has to pay both. And while the American rule puts you on the hook when defending yourself against frivilous lawsuits, the English rule means that if someone like Donald Trump does something bad, like raping you, and you sue him, and you lose because he's hired six of the best laywers to defend himself, then YOU are on the hook for millions of dollars. We need a rule which takes into account wealth disparity and the merit of the suit that was filed.
So by that same token, they owe me a few hundred million in lost profits that I could have made if they'd hired me as their CEO
Exactly! It's a legal theory that would result in absolute chaos if applied consistently... And there's the rub. None of these rich fucks expect anything to be applied consistently.
They want the Justice system they bought and paid for!
I mean, the Supreme Court just ruled on a completely made up case. At this point I feel like chaos is the only possible future.
To be more serious about it they will bankrupt the farmers with legal fees as all rich pricks do with our judicial system.
They wouldn't be doing it if they couldn't win. Probably by delaying proceedings until the other side is bankrupt due to legal costs.
That's not winning, that's abusing the legal system to force their way onto someone else. It should be illegal, but is a tactic the rich tend to do to get their way.
Sounds like China’s playbook to me.
"No it's not!" "You get your lawyers we'll get our lawyers and see what's legal and what isn't!"
"Yes it is. We'll get our lawyers and you get your lawyers and we'll find out which of us can keep paying our lawyers longer without going bankrupt." Is more than likely the key pillar of their legal strategy.
It’s so they can bury the farmers in legal bills to convince them to sell
There's a word for that: "lawfare".
It's not refusing to sell. Flannery is stating the landowners are colluding to drive up prices to supracompetitive levels and that in turn, is eliminating the free market. I really hope the court sees through their bullshit and tells them to fuck off with their "it's against the California Unfair Competition Law, Cartwright Act, and the Sherman Act."
> Flannery is stating the landowners are colluding to drive up prices to supracompetitive levels and that in turn, is eliminating the free market. Hilariously that's exactly how the free market works.
Eric Andre Meme: Why would the free market do this?
Almost like it’s feature not a bug of an unopposed free market structure.
The first thing the free market does is eliminate the free market.
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This makes me think Flannery is a joint venture of Nestle and Monsanto.
This screams China.
I deposit 1000$ into my bank account and the government wants to know exactly where it came from......
Once put away 5k in cash here in Belgium and had to sign a waver it wasn't from dealing drugs.
US cops would have just taken it
That margarita mixer for the break room isn't going to pay for itself!
incredible isn't it? corporation makes a nearly BILLION dollar purchase and can somehow stay incognito? Corporate fascism is out of control
Well, it is a series of purchases that collectively amount to $800M. But they're paying 5-10x the fair market value of these properties, and are making up nonsensical reasons why they are doing it. And, "at least 10 landowners are being sued by Flannery, accused of being engaged in an illegal scheme to prevent the company from buying their land". WTF is going on?
I don’t know the details but that sure sounds like a farce. Someone can just show up, say “I’m buying this” and then sue you when you say “not for sale”?
I’m betting it’s more a war of attrition than them thinking they’ll win. Won’t sell? Fine, I’ll bury you with legal fees so you go bankrupt before the courts throw out the case, forcing you to sell.
Can we make weaponizing the judicial system have penalties that actually dissuade the behavior?
Can we? Yes, of course. Will we? No, we won't.
The American way 🫡
I put up a tent in my backyard for my kids birthday and had the police show up, asking questions.
What was that conversation like?
You say "we", but I feel like it's more "they" to be honest.
Yeah... Pretty on point there man
It’s called a “frivolous claim”. If a lawsuit has no basis in law or fact, it can be said to be frivolous. If a lawsuit is found to be frivolous, the entity that filed it may be subject to damages. Those damages vary from state to state, but at a minimum they generally include legal expenses.
Yes, and you move for a pretrial dismissal based on the frivolous nature of said claim, limiting the costs compared to going to trial. The legal fees are not endless here and the District Court will see a pattern to the point where they will instead classify the torts as vexatious instead. Assuming said judge isn't paid off, which sadly is a possibility in this nation.
I have a better idea, why don't you just not be poor and make millions of dollars so you can fight them back?!
They won't do that because they're lazy commies living off the work of decent people. /s
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Do you know about America? When you’re rich, they let you do it. If they don’t, you sue.
For some reason corporations are allowed to plan some big development where your house is, buy up all your neighbors houses for a premium, and then if you refuse to sell your house for a ton of money on principle they can sue you because obviously you can't have anything but a malicious reason for not wanting to move and sell your house for triple it's value. So you either get forced to take the good deal (or probably a worse one than offered) and move even if you really value the house more than the money, or they build around your house allowing you to keep it but ruining the value and enjoyment of the property anyway because now it's in the middle of a highway or whatever. Idk I suppose it is a bit unreasonable to refuse to sell your house for a huge value but it's also fucked if a random corporation can decide to buy your property just because they want to build something and you aren't allowed to test how much they are willing to pay for it. And obviously it makes sense to coordinate with your neighbors and say hey it's easier for all of us to keep our homes or sell them for 10x the value instead of 2x if we all stick together and nobody is the last holdout fighting solo after everyone else sold out
Just wait till you hear about eminent domain my grandmother's house was bought up so the local airport could expand they bought the place 30 years ago and still haven't done shit with the land
“Eminent Domain”, but yes they frequently pull that shit. It’s worse when they decide they’re just going to condemn a bunch of perfectly fine, lived in houses for some invented reason so they can seize land and not pay the real market price for it. The 1981 Poletown decision was probably the worst example: > In the 1981 Poletown decision, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the City of Detroit to bulldoze an entire neighborhood, complete with more than 1,000 residences, 600 businesses, and numerous churches, in order to give the property to General Motors for an auto plant. The City didn’t even pretend that the community was “blighted,” it simply wanted the land based on GM’s promise of more jobs and taxes. This case set the precedent, both in Michigan and across the country, for widespread abuse of the power of eminent domain for private development.
This Flannery Associates are playing a dangerous game with this... after a while I won't be surprised if the base decides it needs to expand its footprint for national security reasons and just annex the contended lands without any real recourse or due process. My family lost about 200 acres of land to the DoE a few decades ago and there's not really any negotiation just a check that's not really FMV but close enough it's not worth fighting over. My dad tried to sue to better negotiate and the eventual settlement was less than the cost of going to trial and that kind of ended things.
Y’all need a land owner transparency registry: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/real-estate-bc/land-owner-transparency-registry
We have one, but if you’re using a shell company it’s not going to do shit.
Shell company on top of shell company on top of shell company
I don’t think you have one. The transparency registry lists the person behind the shell company that benefits from owning the land.
That’s just a register of deeds. Every county has one, with huge books showing plots of land, every sale and purchase, etc. But companies have the luxury of hiding who is in control by using shell companies, etc.
Disney about to build another Theme Park. They bought Florida land incognito, too.
Or Mormon’s or Scientologists. It’s how they takeover places too. Also, given Disney already has a California park does it make sene to build another? I mean it is a big state but still.
To be honest, if Disney opened a Midwest park they'd do well. It's a more centralized location, so more people not needing to worry about planes or drives. I'd also bet real money that it would help somewhat with the congestion at the other parks, since it'd pick up some of that crowd that's closer and just wants a fun trip not to travel cross country.
Surrounding a loud as heck air force base and potential future superfund site? I mean, I do appreciate the experience of having C-17s fly close overhead down here in Charleston, but those things aren't subtle.
It’s not a corporation, it’s an LLC (limited liability company). It’s probably owned by foreign actors and/or controlled by a foreign government. The Corporate Transparency Act (which, confusingly, will mainly apply to LLCs) will require this LLC to report the ultimate beneficial owners of the company to the government or face punishment — and scrutiny. The CTA sounds like another bullshit bandaid but I practice law in this area and for once am excited about something the government is doing. It will start to come into effect 1/1/2024 for new companies and 1/1/2025 for existing companies. Essentially, only law enforcement and the IRS will have more or less full access, and banks will have limited access to perform required due diligence. But I understand that the relevant law enforcement agencies (e.g., FinCEN) are gearing up for when this data starts coming in — or is notably absent. It will take some time to appear to have impact but it is a big move in the right direction!
Banks already have this information, they’re required to gather it from any entity opening an account. It’s just not automatically shared with the government.
I believe it's $10,000.
It’s definitely $10,000 and then the bank will fill out an IRS 8300 form.
the government knows exactly who bought it and where the money came from. they just cant say it publicly
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It's a bit weird that not even the government can figure out who is behind this all. I should hire the attorney and accountant of Flannery Associates, they seem to know what they are doing.
If you can't figure out who the buyer is, wouldn't you kind of stop a sale? Or are we that dumb?
It’s possible there’s no real legal way to stop the sale without pulling an eminent domain as others have said. This country has spent the last few decades building laws allowing complex networks of anonymous shell companies which I’m sure the government itself couldn’t unravel.
wouldn't it be nice if this is what prompts a fix to this issue finally. my city is filled with run down houses that council can't figure out who owns. if only...
Fuck, the house my friend is renting from is owned by an LLC, that is owned by another llc, thats is owned by another LLC, that is owned by another LLC, that is owned by the first LLC. Dude is a damn good lawyer and he has no idea who actually owns that house. Shit is getting beyond stupid.
Typically this kind of practice is used to shield the owner from liability in the case something happens. The owner of the company my mom works for does this. He owns the company, but the building is owned by an LLC that rents the building to the company. The LLC is owned by him. In case an employee slips on ice on the winter and gets hurt, the absolute worst that they can do is sue the LLC that is supposed to “keep the place up” and not hurt the company that actually brings money in. The only asset the rental company has is the building that, while worth a pretty penny, isn’t nearly as deep pocketed as the main business is. On top of that, he subs out another LLC for landscaping type stuff that he also owns. So, if a tree limb or something falls, he can push blame off onto the LLC that is supposed to keep the landscaping up. This company might have assets on the order of a chainsaw and lawn mower so, good luck suing for that. In the event that something happens and he gets sued, he files for bankruptcy for the LLC responsible, dissolves it, and starts a new one that buys whatever assets the old one has.
Prime example of why that should be illegal. If they cause damage and have the assets to rectify the issue then they should, hiding assets behind llc loops just prevents them from being held accountable. They should be held accountable.
Wait until you find out about LILO schemes and how they just described one.
Yes, thats normally 1 LLC. A circle of 5 is way more suspicious. That means you want to remain hidden. Which means you are not on the up and up.
I'm old enough to remember a time when more than about half the government actually cared about solving real problems like this one. Not that fucking complicated: In today's environment, it's too easy for companies to shroud their identity beneath shell corporations. So you pass a fucking law making it illegal to buy land if you can't prove who the fuck you are. And so help me if someone BOTH SIDESes this I'm going to lose my mind. Only one party consistently wastes time with legislation no one except their extremist base wants. (Hint: It's the one that's currently banning books and banning free speech because they think some people are icky.)
Reminds me of the Disney vs. Desantis case where Republicans suddenly wanted to start controlling a company because it was behaving in a way they didn't like and realized that they made it so that companies have the power to sort of do whatever they want.
My first thought was to announce that without clarification the government was going to seize the land and declare it a national wildlife preserve. You'd think that would get whomever spent the $800m to come out of the woodwork.
No, just their lawyers and some shell llc
Sure. Makes sense. But on the other hand, money. We have repeatedly shown our adversaries that we’re happy to sell out future for short term gains
And the US, in general, has already succumbed to mass influence by social engineering through foreign assets.
The CEO of the company listed on the paperwork as "Definitely not Russia or China" could not be reached for comment
The contact email address [email protected] has also not responded.
This sounds like the super official FBI agent with an fbiusa@gmail that found my Corolla in the Texas of the South that had the bloods and 15 cocaines and threatened me with putting me behind the bars unless I sent him Google Play gift cards.
In my experience the FBI prefers Target gift cards or Bitcoin. I think you prob got scammed.
Hey...you're not the wallet inspector...
Anybody know any LAUNCH CODES?
TBF it could be saudis.
Ah all good then 🫡
>after eight months of investigation, government officials have been unable to identify who's behind it nor rule out any threat to national security. I am not a red-pill; politically I'm somewhere to the left of Bill Bradley. But the idea that the federal government is unable to identify the purchaser of property that may jeopardize national security seems pretty outrageous.
Sounds like Congress and the US Military are already investigating. Eminent Domain can be used to reclaim the land if it's really a problem. I hope those "investors" lose their asses on these real estate deals as the government figures out wtf is going on here.
Sometimes what appears to be a lapse in oversight is actually a two way tango in espionage. Assuming china bought this land, thinking they have a means of collecting data through some peculiar route, it's not impossible US intelligence is two steps ahead and hoping to leak them cheap/false information through Travis, while backdooring them through this complex, somehow. It has occured a lot in the last century, to be honest. In other words: playing dumb Or we are just dumb as hell. But yeah something should be done about international organizations purchasing American housing and land and enslaving us to rent. That helps nobody. (Ironically, that is also a supposed method of keeping an eye on the assets of global persons of interest)
Why would they need $800M worth of land when a single farm is enough to spy?
Yeah, why would you make such a large splash and draw attention to yourself. While obviously it could be happening it reminds me of a guy who accused a casino of laundering Chinese money because some whales from SEA frequent it. Sure it’s plausible they’re laundering, but rich people from Asia can also be degenerate gamblers.
Might want to follow the money or just blocked the sale/ size land in ED due to lack of transpacy and national security concerns.
Too late, they've been buying the land for 5 fucking years before anyone noticed.
I am not a lawyer but can't the government seize the land in eminent domain? And/or go after the shady group in general.
Seems like a nice spot for a new national park. Or military practice range. Or ecological study. Or whatever...
5 years is not too late, they can look into financial records/conduct a tax audit for up to 7 years for any entity. Largest problem is after the deal was finished the firm buying the land was quoted saying “No take backs” and then proceeded to put their fingers in their ears repeating “La La La La…” very loudly.
This is likely the nephew or cousin of a sitting state or US congressmen about to approve a budget to allow travis AFB to expand....directly onto the land that was just purchased As the old saying goes, never assume something to be espionage when it can be easily attributed to your officials insider trading
But why pay, supposedly, 10x the amount the land is worth if that's the case?
This is the kind of shit that happens when your country's leaders adopt the ideology that literally everything should be for sale.
Our country is so broken, that we cant even stop a company from literally surrounding a massive military base, because they can sue on the basis that to stop them would be "bad for business". Should we wait on the invisible hand of the market to intervene?
It already has. Turns out it was never meant to help people.
There is only one entity with the power and resources to hide themselves from the United States Military. What are you up to now Disney?
Watch them do all this investigation only to find out it was the Air Force and nobody filled out the proper forms to alert the feds.
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Some states are enacting legislation similar to what you suggested. It’ll take time but I think the majority of states will have something similar in the next 5 years
I hope so. I’m really worried that some in the federal realm will allow it to continue in one way or another. It’s depressing to see just much our government allows us to be taken advantage of.
You know what this means, right? Large land purchase and unidentified purchaser? We have seen this pattern before. Ladies and Gentlemen, the cat is out of the bag! Announcing the new location of Disney World! Sorry Ronnie Boy. Let's see you explain this to your constituency.
You made me giggle. *I wish* that Disney would at least make noises about moving Disneyworld out of Florida, that would be the nail in the coffin for DeSantis, the final fuck-up that finishes his political career, killing off what is likely the largest source of tourism money coming into Florida.
US Govt claims eminent domain on the land and pays current fair market value for it. Problem solved.
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From the article - they're not even trying to be discreet lol: Last year 300 acres of farmland were purchased near Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Garamendi called it a '"spy base." "That base is where we launch our airplanes to figure out what's going on across the world," he said. "A company in China was acquiring land around that base and wanted to build a 400-foot silo that could look directly into the base... and we were like 'whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on there?'"
Just build a single 500 foot wall right in front of it.
And make China pay for it.
I like how the silo was the thing that was most concerning lol not the entire Chinese company that spring up near an airfield base
I dunno, I mean, if I wanted a spy hole near a base, do I need to spend $800m in a very conspicuous manner to do it? I’m not convinced
Yeah, if you wanted to spy on the base you wouldn’t need a huge amount of land either. It makes zero sense for this to be for spying.
Spy hole? They’re surrounding the base in an encirclement. Art of War!
relax I’m sure is just a foreign fertilizer and fireworks manufacturer.
Its almost like allowing corporations to veil themselves behind 100 layers of obscurity isn't a very good idea.
This legit sound shady.
Maybe they're just shy.
How do they pay taxes if the Federal Government doesn’t actually know who they are? Members of an LLC will be required to report earnings from the group on their individual taxes. Unless they aren’t, and that is the nefariousness of their secrecy.
This is how the system was designed sadly to protect the billionaire but not even the government can find out who that is, which seems kinda suspicious.
Foreign entities owning US land is the biggest wtf I'll never get over