COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, December 11, 2017

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Bulgaria discovers it has enough bitcoins to pay off fifth of its debt

Bulgaria discovers it has enough bitcoins to pay off fifth of its debt
Dozens of people were arrested in May following an investigation by the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELC) into an alleged customs fraud, according to the article.

Police confiscated 213,519 bitcoins, at the time worth $500 million. The seized amount is now approximately worth a staggering $3.6 billion due to the digital currency’s bull run.

The operation involved a large-scale search of “more than 100 addresses, suspects, and vehicles,” according to SELC. Out of the 23 suspects arrested, five were Bulgarian customs officers. Police seized “equipment, devices for communication, computers, tablets, and bank documents.”
“The organized criminal group consisted of Bulgarian nationals with connections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Romania, and Serbia,” said SELC.

According to police, the group recruited “corrupted customs officers in all involved countries with the purpose to infiltrate a virus in the customs’ computerized systems.”

“Once the virus was installed, the offenders were able to change shipments, so in the customs’ system it appeared the cargo was already checked and passed.”
SELC has suggested, “the offenders choose bitcoin as a way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed.”

The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency bitcoin hit its all-time high of $18,000 last week. Its rise in value this year has been dramatic as the token was worth less than $1,000 on January 1. The combined value of all the bitcoins in circulation has already exceeded the annual output of entire economies such as Portugal and Qatar.

On Monday, bitcoin was trading at $16,669, according to CoinMarketCap.

90 comments:

  1. If Bulgaria tries to cash in their chips, we will shortly find the value of one bitcoin.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is serious. We owe it to all women to hold men, especially those with immense power, accountable for their actions. Yes, this includes the president too.

    In the video, 16 Women and Donald Trump, we put together the stories of women who have reported being sexually harassed or sexually assaulted by Donald Trump. Seeing these women’s stories, one after another, is incredibly powerful – it's time to listen and act accordingly.

    As a society, we need to do a better job of holding men liable for harassment and abusive behavior. And we have a right to hear these women's their stories even as the mainstream news outlets dismiss them and the White House deflects responsibility from the president.

    It's time to disrupt the powers that silence the voices of women in all of our institutions.

    Please share this video to remind the nation that Hollywood isn't the only place abuse happens and that our current president isn’t immune to being held accountable.


    https://www.bravenewfilms.org/16women

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They will have their chance at the next election.

      Delete
    2. Or sooner.

      High crimes and misdemeanors.
      The story has just begun.

      The joke is so funny
      Everyone is laughing

      And we're not even close to the punchline.

      Delete
    3. Trump and his operatives have lied repeatedly, denying that they had any contacts with Russians.

      Now we now know of at least 19 meetings among 31 interactions.



      There are three avenues Mueller is exploring.

      Did the Trump team aid and abet the Russian efforts to hack and steal e-mails with an eye toward influencing with the U.S. presidential election?

      Did the president try to obstruct the investigation into those efforts?

      What was the nature of any financial arrangements Trump may have had with Russians linked to the Kremlin?


      Deutsche Bank operating as a conduit for Russian money to flow to the Trump Organization, starting in 2008.

      Follow the money ...
      all $320 million USD of it.


      Delete
    4. if an investigator is investigating the crime, of say, sexual assault and they come across evidence of murder they won't ignore the murder evidence simply because they started of investigating sexual assault. Same goes for a Trump under investigation.

      Delete

    5. There were crimes committed.

      Now Law Enforcement will ...
      Follow the Money.


      Some folkks think it is all a laughing matter.

      Some kind of a joke.

      Those folk ...
      They be fools.



      Delete
  3. This is kinda cool.
    Football is still America's Game ...

    And it is still a big ticket item.
    Verixon KNOWS why TV ratings for the NFL are down, but overall viewership is up.


    With the first set of TV rights set to expire after the 2021 season, the NFL will be negotiating a lot of new deals over the next few years.

    That process unofficially started this week when the league and Verizon reached a long-term deal that will allow the tech company to livestream games to any mobile device.

    The two sides have agreed to a five-year deal that's worth roughly $2.5 billion a year


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete

    2. For $500 million per year, Verizon will be getting a major upgrade over their prior deal, which only allowed them to stream to cell phones or any device that had a screen under seven inches in size.
      With the new deal, Verizon will now be able to stream games to nearly any device


      Well, so much for "starving the beast" with a boycott by the Trumpets.

      The market knows value of NFL Football.

      Delete
  4. FULL DISCLOSURE

    I see too many vulnerabilities in BIT COIN to take a risk at this time, but I did take a flyer on a company called Riot Blockchain by buying some short dated calls.

    RIOT 12/15/2017 17.50 C

    Result: +115.51%

    it more than made up for a disastrous call I placed on BA, Boeing. I sold it way too quickly.

    Oh Well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wife of demoted DOJ official worked for firm behind anti-Trump dossier
    James Rosen By James Rosen, Jake Gibson |

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/11/wife-demoted-doj-official-worked-for-firm-behind-anti-trump-dossier.html


    heh

    ReplyDelete
  6. Of note, listed in the official program for the 2016 November Canadian conference as a participant was Rinat Akhmetshin — the same Russian lobbyist who was at Trump Tower five months earlier in June for a highly scrutinized meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and others.

    The senator’s office noted to Fox News that McCain said in January 2017 he had no contact with Akhmetshin. “Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public.

    Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue.”

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm gonna ask my lawyer and bank tomorrow if I can repay the construction loans and legal fees for next summer in BitCoin.

    My hunch is I'm gonna get two thumps down.

    I'm gonna ask the contractor, and the engineers too, if they will take payment in BitCoin.

    My hunch is I'm gonna get 2 more thumps down.

    That's totals out at 4 thumps down.

    Should I suggest QitCoin ?

    My hunch is no one will have heard of QitCoin.

    Looks like I'm stuck with the good old US Greenbacks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Why you should invest in QitCoin:

    1) Created in the USA
    2) Insured against loss
    3) Daily updates on value
    4) Live local, buy local
    5) Much higher return when compared to competitors
    6) Backed by Qarranty, the best warranty insurance on the market
    7) Low 7.995% trading fee, lowest on the market
    8) Traded in China, Russia, India, Europe, Africa and Idaho

    Recommendations by satisfied customers upon request for slight fee, plus secretarial work.

    QitCoin,LLC

    Invest in your future now !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Trading on your and out of your future from Detroit, Michigan"

      Delete
    2. O I'm here, lurking, Sam.

      Wanna teach me how to do surf board ? I hardly swim, you can teach me that too !!!!

      You can rub sun tan oil ALL OVER me too, EVERYWHERE !!!!!

      You just name the time and place and get me there, sweetie.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. I wanna go toooooooo!

      Delete
    5. I'm comin' too !

      That will make it a foursome !

      Can you handle that, Aussie ?

      ooooooo I be you can......!

      Delete
    6. Felony can't spell good when she's excited. I'll come along too and keep her literate.

      Delete
    7. Me too, as long as Quirk doesn't sneak in on the party.

      I want Bob to come.

      And Doug.

      That way we gals have some variety.

      Quirk gets old after while, after a long while.

      Delete
    8. That Gal Sal Da Da Le Boeuf Felony MeMe Miss Felicity Miss DemeanoirTue Dec 12, 12:10:00 AM EST

      We are all leaving if Jack Hawkins shows up.

      Delete
  9. The Fox poll on Alabama had a sample of nearly equal Democrats and Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The GOP Tax Bill Is Good For Middle-Class Americans

    What’s worse, the high U.S. rate has given American multinational firms an incentive to leave foreign earnings offshore. An American firm that generates profits from a Canadian subsidiary will pay the lower Canadian rate if it reinvests the money in Canada, but if the profits are reinvested in the U.S. they’ll be taxed at the full U.S. rate. So multinationals have an incentive to leave money abroad, and that means fewer jobs for American workers.

    The bill also offers a tax repatriation holiday, under which American firms with money parked abroad could bring it back and pay a tax rate of just 10%. And how much are we talking about? CNBC reports that American firms have left $2.6 trillion in foreign subsidiaries. That amounts to nearly 14% of U.S. GDP. If firms had an incentive to re­invest the money here, think what this would mean for American jobs....


    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/12/gop-tax-bill-good-middle-class-americans/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. O'bozo is sooooooo JV -

      December 11, 2017
      Obama tries to claim credit for Trump economic boom, finally gets smacked down
      By Monica Showalter

      One of the more obvious things about the Trump economy is how much better it is than the Obama economy.

      Yet incredibly, President Obama, as if jealously looking on at this night-and-day difference, is trying to claim credit for it.


      From the Washington Times:

      Former President Barack Obama is taking credit for the robust economic growth that is taking place under President Trump.

      At a conference of mayors in Chicago, Mr. Obama congratulated himself Tuesday for strong employment numbers in the U.S. this year, saying his climate-change policies have contributed to growth.

      "As we took these actions, we saw the U.S. economy grow consistently," Mr. Obama said. "We saw the longest streak of job creation in American history by far, a streak that still continues by the way."

      He added wryly, "Thanks, Obama."

      Investor's Business Daily did two fine editorials on what was really going on, how and why the economy was growing, here and here, and American Thinker noted one of these editorials here. Cutting taxes, throwing out regulations, and ending the harassment of Obama-unfavored industries such as oil and coal have done wonders.

      Now White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called Obama out on his bid to claim credit....



      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/obama_tries_to_claim_credit_for_trump_economic_boom_finally_gets_smacked_down.html#ixzz511aoN72Z

      Delete
    2. .

      The GOP Tax Bill Is Good For Middle-Class Americans?

      Really?

      Another view...

      How the Tax Plan Will Send Jobs Overseas

      Companies are going to be able to save a ton of money by locating factories abroad.

      ...As discussed in my previous Atlantic piece, the GOP plan was rumored to use only a 10 percent minimum tax, and to make it worse, would make the minimum tax determination based on the average of a company’s total global profits. What was problematic about this design was that it not only encouraged companies to move profits to tax havens, but it actually encouraged them to simultaneously move jobs and operations such as manufacturing to industrialized countries that had typical tax rates and to shift more profits to tax havens. Why? Because if you had $100 million of profits in Bermuda facing no tax, you might have still had to pay $10 million in U.S. taxes to meet the new global minimum tax. But if you moved a factory to Germany that made $100 million and paid 20 percent in taxes there, you could still pay zero on your profits in Bermuda because the average taxes paid on your global profits (from both Bermuda and Germany) would be the global minimum rate of 10 percent. This perverse design means the more a U.S. multinational shifts jobs and operations to industrialized nations with similar tax rates to the U.S., the more it can get away with shifting more and more profits to tax havens.

      So how did it look in the fine print? As several tax experts including the Tax Policy Center’s Steve Rosenthal, Brooklyn Law School’s Rebecca Kysar, and Reed College’s Kimberly Clausing have written, it is even worse than anticipated on at least two additional grounds. First, it turns out that the Republican idea of a minimum tax is that it only taxes what you make over what they think is a “routine” profit, deemed to be 10 percent in the Senate bill, on “tangible” investments (think factories and equipment, including for manufacturing). As Rosenthal notes, “because ‘routine’ returns are not subject to U.S. tax, this definition of ‘routine’ returns could give U.S. firms a perverse incentive to shift more tangible assets to lower-taxed overseas locations.” That means, under the GOP bills, if you shift less profitable operations to a tax haven you would pay zero taxes on those operations as long as you are only making 10 percent a year—whether that is $10 million or $100 million—while you would pay 20 percent if the operations were located in the United States. So, the “minimum” tax is really a much lower rate than 10 percent, and would essentially be an invisible, non-existent tax except on highly profitable operations and income from intangibles...


      {...}

      Delete

    3. {...}

      Second, this limitation to only excess profits encourages even more shifting of operations and jobs overseas through complex efforts to blend different income streams. How? Profits from “intangibles” like patents do not receive the 10 percent exemption for “routine” returns, so the minimum tax is seemingly designed to at least capture those well-known cases where major technology companies shift intangibles to low-tax nations and book their profits there. If a company does that and earns extraordinary profits, a global minimum tax would capture some piece of that. But again, here is where the GOP bill’s global “averaging” actually creates the incentives to move jobs and operations overseas.

      Let’s say a U.S. multinational has highly profitable intangibles located in a tax haven that earn $50 million in income without any tangible investment. If the company has no other foreign profits or operations, then that income would face a mere $5 million in U.S. taxes from the 10 percent minimum tax under the GOP plan. But if the company decides to build a new $1 billion factory overseas that earns profits of only 5 percent ($50 million) from the factory, the company will not pay a penny in U.S. taxes on its income from the factory or the intangibles. Why? Because when you add the income together, the $50 million from the intangibles plus the $50 million from the new factory, it equals the “routine” profit of 10 percent on the $1 billion of new tangible investment, which will allow it to completely avoid paying taxes on any of the above mentioned profits.

      This shows how deeply the tax plan fails when it comes to incentives to shift profits and operations overseas and to curtail the obsession of major multinational companies with international tax arbitrage that has nothing to do with innovation, productivity or job creation. Indeed, the ability to blend income from intangibles and routine profits, and from investment in higher tax nations with tax havens with zero taxes, leads to a worst of all worlds scenario: an even greater corporate focus on international tax minimization through a careful mixture of shifting profits and operations overseas...


      .

      Delete
    4. .

      We'll have to wait to see the results from the tax cuts. However, we can be one thing we can be certain of a few things.

      The cut and paste nature of these cuts and how they were thrown together, in secret, in back rooms by lawyers and lobbyist who were still scribbling side deals onto the document up to the final moments before it hit the Senate floor. It was passed on a strictly partisan vote without benefit of any hearings or expert testimony or even time for anyone to read it. The nature of the cuts, $ trillions of permanent cuts for the rich and the corporations and token temporary cuts for the hoi paloi, were designed to guarantee major cuts for the rich while keeping the computed costs at less than $1.5 trillion so that the bills could be passed on a strictly partisan basis.

      We can also be certain that because of the process used to develop the tax plan it will provide a boon to tax lawyers, CPA's, lobbyists, and others whose job it is to develop strategies for skirting the tax laws and sheltering as much money as possible.

      .

      Delete
    5. #MAGA IMPEACH TRUMP

      Delete
  11. Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore recently sat down for an interview with a 12-year-old girl in a meeting arranged by a pro-Trump political action committee.

    ...

    When asked the qualities that make a good Senator, Moore replied "following the Constitution, just adhering to principals and not going to get elected again and not trying to stay in office 30 or 40 years and building an empire. You're there to serve the people."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After the interview Roy Moore told the littke girl that she was "A Hottie".

      Delete
  12. Australia these days has a strictly merit based immigration system.

    When I grew up they would pay your airline fare to get there.

    Things have certainly changed.

    ReplyDelete
  13. O Canada ! You're really really fucked up -

    Canada: School will not allow Jewish decorations for Hannukah, despite numerous BC schools being allowed to have Muslim Prayer rooms
    By Pamela Geller - on December 11, 2017
    CANADA

    Further islamization of the West. Muslims, under Islam, are a superior class given special rights. Why the West is submitting to this supremacist ideology will puzzle future historians for decades to come.

    Canada is on the precipice of ruin.



    Vancouver 6th-graders say school won’t allow Jewish holiday decorations
    bc.ctvnews.ca

    The principal at General Gordon Elementary says celebrations taking place at the school will be non-religious.
    Muslims want their prayers in public schools despite strong opposition

    Muslims quietly pray in B.C. public schools, despite protests in Ontario
    vancouversun.com

    The thorny issue of whether Muslim students should be allowed to pray in Canadian secular schools aroused a storm of protests this year in a large school district in …

    https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/canada-public-school-muslim-prayer-no-chanukah.html/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Freedom of Speech is dead in Canada.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    3. - Sweden: Migrant rapes cancer-surviving mother while her child is sleeping in the
      other room : https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/migrants-rapes-concer-victim.html/

      - Pamela Geller Column, Dangerous: Leaving Bacon at a Mosque Gets You 15 Years for
      ‘Hate Crime.’ This is Sharia in America. :
      https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/geller-bacon-sentence.html/

      - ANOTHER Synagogue Firebombed in Sweden :
      https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/another-synagogue-firebombed-sweden.html/

      Delete
    4. More EuroMuzzie love from Donald Trump. Swedan is not among the Travel Ban nations.

      The US is not safe because Trump owes the EuroMuzzies at Deutsche Bank hundreds of millions of dollars and has been corrupred by the EuroMuzzies.

      #MAGA IMPEACH TRUMP


      Delete
    5. Castrato, the psycho War Criminal, Self Confessed, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed, Jew Hater, and LIAR is back.

      He can't help himself.

      I'm going to bed as I have a big business day tomorrow.

      I do wish Deuce would finally shut Jack up. It always starts with him and everyone is sick of his bullshit.

      Ciao

      And Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Great New Year to all you others !

      Delete
    6. By the way Jack Ass, I had a big medical with my doctor the other day.

      He said I was in Great Shape ! Looked full of energy !

      "You look great, Bob, looks like you've lost some weight too !" - that is what he said.

      Good heart beat, low blood pressure, A-OK !

      It's true, I've lost some meaningful weight, and feel like going out with:

      That Gal Sal Da Da Le Boeuf Felony MeMe Miss Felicity and Miss Demeanoir

      Enjoy what's left of your miserable solitary life in your mom's basement, Psycho rat !

      o u t

      Delete
    7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    9. 14 years old, not 1r
      My thumb is just to damn big

      Delete
  14. .

    Scott Pruitt at the EPA, Another One of the Foxes Trump Has Installed to Guard the Various Hen Houses That Fall Under His Purview


    'No shame': how the Trump administration granted big oil's wishlist


    The EPA has fulfilled almost all major demands made by the American Petroleum Institute within its first year under Trump

    Winners? Big Oil.

    Losers? The American People.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  15. .

    Roy Moore says he will ride a horse to the polls today.

    Why doesn't that surprise?


    .

    ReplyDelete
  16. RIOT 12/15/2017 17.50 C ... +382.52%

    ReplyDelete
  17. Replies
    1. .

      Good luck. Go for it.

      I was looking at taking a small flyer on Bitcoin when it was around $100 and didn't because I was too lazy to investigate how to go about purchasing it. But you can't dwell in the past. Not the first time I've passed on an opportunity.

      .

      Delete
  18. Here is your best bet:

    GBTC
    BITCOIN INVESTMENT ORD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Thanks, Deuce.

      I notice I can buy Bitcoin through Fidelity now so that problem is solved. At this point though the risk reward looks a little too high for me.

      .

      Delete
  19. .

    This Has Been a Bad Week for the Anti-Trump Media

    Fake News

    The most effective way for the media to have refuted Donald Trump’s 24/7 accusations of “fake news” would have been to publish disinterested, factually based accounts of his presidency. The Trump record should have been set straight through logic and evidence.

    So one would think after a year of disseminating fake news aimed at Donald Trump (Melania Trump was leaving the White House; Donald Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the West Wing; Trump planned to send troops into Mexico, etc.) that Washington and New York journalists would be especially scrupulous in their reporting to avoid substantiating one of Trump’s favorite refrains.

    Instead, either blinded by real hatred or hyper-partisanship or both, much of the media has redoubled their reporting of rumor and fictions as facts—at least if they empower preconceived and useful bias against Trump. But after the year-long tit-for-tat with the president, the media has earned less public support in polls than has the president. It is the age-old nature of politicians of every stripe to exaggerate and mislead, but the duty of journalists to keep them honest—not to trump their yarns...


    Good article by Victor Davis Hanson. Well worth the read.

    The anti-Trump media through design, neglect, or incompetence have lived up to the anti-media memes Trump is wont to push. It's been a very bad week. The fact that the response of the people involved, perfunctory apologies followed by nothing else in the way of explanation or action only compounds the problem.

    Good article but it could have been better.

    Hanson describes half the problem but ignores the other half. Well, he does recognize part of the other half but he excuses it.

    It is the age-old nature of politicians of every stripe to exaggerate and mislead, but the duty of journalists to keep them honest—not to trump their yarns.

    I don't know how else you can read that sentence without understanding it as 'Hey, what's the big deal. Everyone knows politicians lie.'

    He completely ignores things like the right wing claims that Mueller is corrupt and his investigation compromised while offering zero proof in an effort to stop the ongoing investigations. He ignore the fake news president who has stated all he knows is what he sees on the internet or his press secretary who states the fake news stories Trump retweets aren't the important thing, they simply exemplify the problems Trump has complained about.

    On that last point, Hanson states (though about Sarah Sander's statement)...

    In our brave new world, fake news is the truest news. Staged oppressions serve to remind us of the real ones. The higher “good,” not the lower facts, is all that matters.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      ...(though not about Sarah Sander's statement)...


      .

      Delete
  20. Most voters casting ballots in Alabama's special election for U.S. Senate say they decided on their candidate some time ago, according to early exit polling. Six in 10 made up their minds before November – largely prior to when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Republican candidate Roy Moore.

    ...

    President Trump – who is publicly supporting Roy Moore – seems to be a more important factor to Moore's voters than those who are voting for Doug Jones. While nearly six in 10 Moore voters say one reason for their choice is to express support for Mr. Trump, most of Jones' supporters say the president was not a factor in their decision -- either way.

    ...

    Early exit polling shows Jones voters are more strongly behind their candidate than Moore voters. Eight in 10 Jones voters say they strongly favor him, compared to just over half of Moore backers who say that about him.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I spent a bit of my coin today on my lawyer and a contractor/engineer but it was well spent.

    Made some real headway today.

    If we build street this summer, I do realize it's not me that building it, but all of us, just like O'bozo said Deuce didn't built those condos down in Costa Rica, but 'society' did.

    Oddly enough, I don't see a line on the bank forms where 'society' signs for paying for it, though.

    :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All those years of paying agriculture based property taxes on your subdivision ...

      That is "Society's" contribution to your project.

      Delete
  22. Alabama’s Secretary of State John Merrill told CBS 42 News Tuesday afternoon that he predicts 25 percent voter turnout in today’s election.

    Monday, Merrill told us he anticipated that 20 percent of voters would show up at the polls to cast their ballots. The five percent increase still puts the turnout within the range of Merrill’s predictions ahead of the initial GOP runoff election between Senator Luther Strange and Roy Moore.

    ...

    A source who has worked the polls for years at a location in Jefferson County told CBS 42’s James McConatha that turnout before 10 a.m. looked more like a presidential election than a special election. More than one Jefferson County polling location reported more than 600 voters had cast a ballot by 10 a.m.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Can I take back my Moore will win prediction ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can I reinstate my Moore will win prediction ?

      Delete
    2. I've decided to hold my prediction until the election is called.

      Delete
    3. The fate of the tax bill may be riding on this.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. I am now able to predict a Jones win.

      Delete
  24. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he was the victim of a fake news hit on Tuesday, and has turned over to Capitol Police a document that purports to detail lurid sexual harassment accusations by a former staffer.

    Why it matters: This was an apparent effort to dupe reporters and smear a senator — both symptoms of an amped-up news environment where harassment charges are proliferating and reporters have become targets for fraud.

    The former staffer told me in a phone interview that she did not author the document, that none of the charges ring true, and that her signature was forged.

    She said she had never heard of the document before Axios took it to Schumer's office for comment on Tuesday.

    Matt House, Schumer's communications director, told me: "The document is a forged document and every allegation is false. We have turned it over to the Capitol Police and asked them to investigate and pursue criminal charges because it is clear the law has been broken."

    ...

    The backstory:

    A password-protected PDF of the 13-page document was shopped to Axios and other outlets. The document, which is dated 2012 and has the file name "Schumer_Complaint," looks like a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

    One of many red flags: No lawyer for the staffer is named.

    The woman named in the document was a legislative staffer for Schumer from 2009 to 2012, and is now a career employee of the federal government.


    Scandal Charge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Schumer is obviously guilty and should be kicked out of the Senate forthwith no matter what the woman says or doesn't say.

      Delete
  25. Replies
    1. .

      Hard to believe that Moore could have lost. After all...

      His wife says he can't be a racist, one of his lawyers is a Jew.

      One of the people on his team says that 'he once left a brothel because he thought the girls were too young' (I shit you not, remember this is Alabama).

      And despite all this, the people of Alabama (pending recount) have told him 'screw you and the horse you rode in on'.

      .

      Delete
  26. The Russians and the Chinese influenced the election, that much is obvious.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Will Moore be gracious in defeat, or will he ride in on his horse and have the horse dump a load on the floor ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's too damn bad that somebody had to win.

      They should have had a 'leave the Senate seat vacant' option.

      Delete
  28. Instead of facing questions about his alleged sexual abuse, Mr. Moore not only avoided the news media, he largely vanished from the campaign altogether in the race’s last week.

    Mr. Moore returned to Alabama for a rally in the rural, southeast corner of the state on Monday with Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist.

    But the most memorable comments from the event did not come from Mr. Moore. Rather, they emerged from Mr. Bannon, who mocked NBC’s Joe Scarborough, a University of Alabama graduate, for not attending a more prestigious university; Mr. Moore’s wife, Kayla, who angrily denied charges the couple was anti-Semitic by noting “one of our attorneys is a Jew;” and an Army friend of the candidate, who recalled the two of them being uneasy walking into a Vietnam brothel to find “pretty girls” who Mr. Moore found too young.

    ReplyDelete

  29. The reddest of red states turns blue.

    The Republicans win big, defeating the pedophile that tried to represent.

    Unless one takes the election of Doug Jones in Alabama as a repudiation of Donald Trump and his performance as President.

    Donald Trump, a political paper tiger

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  30. Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political science professor who has written about the Senate, suggested Moore’s loss was a “mixed curse” for Senate Republicans.

    “They don’t get the seat, but they also don’t have to explain him,” Baker said of Moore. “They won’t have to answer ‘Why did you let this guy in?’

    ...

    It’s also not impossible that Jones, who distanced himself from national Democrats as he campaigned, could at times side with Republicans, given that he represents a deeply red state.

    “He’d be an oddity in a liberal caucus,” Baker said of Jones. “Certainly (Senate Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer would do everything he can to protect him, but he can’t steer the entire caucus’ needs around the needs of Doug Jones in Alabama.”

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  31. The Republicans ducked a bullet in Alabama.

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  32. Former vice president Joe Biden made an appearance at a Jones rally in in Birmingham in October and president Barack Obama pitched in with a robo-call for voters.

    "This one's serious. You can't sit it out," Obama said.

    Born in Fairfield, Alabama, the son of a steelworker, Jones attended high school when the state was in the midst of court-ordered desegregation of its high schools.

    ReplyDelete
  33. It ain't over till it's over and Roy says it ain't over.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who said:

      "Only in America can you get rich by being bad at politics ?"

      Delete
  34. This engineer I was talking to today was mentioning a dozer they have attached to a GPS device.

    Once you get the settings clued in you don't really need a driver.

    Perfect road cut excavation every time !

    ReplyDelete
  35. Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year Is…

    “Feminism spiked following news coverage of the Women’s March on Washington, DC in January (and other related marches held around the country and internationally), and follow-up discussions regarding whether the march was feminist, and what kind of feminism was represented by organizers and attendees.”

    “The word spiked again when Kellyanne Conway said during an interview that she didn’t consider herself a feminist. In this case, the definition of feminism was itself the subject of the news story — an invitation for many people to look up the word.”


    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/12/merriam-websters-word-year/

    ReplyDelete
  36. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  37. .

    The Alabama Senate race results haven't been finalized and a new Senator likely won't take office before January according to the Alabama Secretary of State. They are still counting military votes and have to be sure of the final tally to see if it's close enough to require and automatic recount.

    That means Strange will continue until then.

    This means a new urgency for the GOP to try to get their tax cuts through ASAP.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing like a lost Senate seat to concentrate the parliamentary mind.

      Delete