Crypto: The biggest scam of our time

 

 While the number of reported crypto-related crimes accounts for around 10% of financial fraud complaints received by the FBI last year, the losses from those crimes accounts for nearly 50% of the total amount Americans lost to financial schemes.

More. 

See also the Internet Crime Complaint Center report here.

 

The US debt downgrades of 2011 and 2023 have one thing in common: Nancy Pelosi's record of the four most fiscally irresponsible years in the post-war

Nancy Pelosi owns the record for the four most fiscally irresponsible years in the post-war, spending 316% of tax receipts in 2020, 276% in 2021, 310% in 2009, and 296% in 2010.

Her four years as Speaker 2007-2010 averaged current expenditures as a percent of current tax receipts of 251%, highest for any Speaker ever.

S&P downgraded the debt in August 2011.

The Boehner/Ryan interregnum averaged 219%.

Pelosi's next four years as Speaker 2019-2022 averaged 252% in overspending.

Fitch has now downgraded the debt in August 2023.

Taken all together, Pelosi's Speakership produced the worst overspending in the post-war at 251% of revenues. The excess has to be borrowed, ballooning the debt.

The ratings agencies sound the alarm bells no one else will ring, but they are mocked by all the experts, whose livelihoods depend on the scam continuing. 

 All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.     

-- US Constitution, Article One, Section Seven

 

The Congress' biggest ding-dongs believed the Russian Twitter bots hoax: Rep. Adam Schiff, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Sen. Diane Feinstein

 Over and over, Twitter – which was hardly sympathetic to Trump – told Schiff and his colleagues there was simply no evidence of Russian involvement. As much as some Twitter employees may have liked to report the opposite, to their credit they refused to participate in the scam.

Even after Twitter had informed Schiff and his fellow hoaxers that there was no Russian involvement, Sen. Blumenthal released a statement he knew was not true: “We find it reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans.” Again, this was right after he had been informed by Twitter employees - who were by-and-large strongly opposed to Trump - that there was just no evidence to back up such a statement.

More.

So far in 26% fully-vaccinated South Africa, Omicron is turning out to be a giant nothing burger

 The seven day average of daily new deaths was 20 on Nov 24th when Omicron was first identified.

As of Dec 19th, it's 30.

Big whoop.

Left-wing scam artist set up fake political action committees for Bernie, Beto and kept the dough for himself

California con man set up bogus websites for Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke to defraud donors, prosecutors say:

A notorious California con man has been charged with defrauding donors out of more than $250,000 sent to sham political groups and websites for Beto O'Rourke, Bernie Sanders and other prominent Democrats, prosecutors said Tuesday. ... The court papers say that nearly all of the more than 1,000 donations to the scam PACs and websites were in fact pocketed by Dupont.

 

Alexandria the Great complains of "dark money" in politics but has plenty of her own

AOC’s chief of staff ran $1M slush fund by diverting campaign cash to his own companies:

Tom Anderson, director of the National Legal and Policy Center's Government Integrity Project, said: "It appears Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her associates ran an off-the-books operation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus violating the foundation of all campaign finance laws: transparency." ...

Adav Noti, the senior director of the Campaign Legal Center and a former FEC lawyer, said the arrangement was highly unusual and seemed intended to obscure the destination of the funds. "None of that makes any sense," said Noti. "I can't even begin to disentangle that. They're either confused or they're trying to conceal something." ... "It does seem like there's something amiss. I can only think of really two likely possibilities for this sort of pattern of disbursements," said Noti. "One is the scam PAC possibility — they're really just paying themselves and they’re concealing it by using the LLC. The other is that there’s actually another recipient, that the money is going to the LLC and then being disbursed in some other way that they want to conceal."

Russian non-citizen of the US was registered to vote in San Fran Freako without her knowledge, as a Democrat

Story here.

Seems the scam kicks into motion if you sign a petition on the street. The activists then turn in stacks of registrations with the petitions:

Ms. Shuvalova was signed up — possibly without her knowledge — by an organization circulating a petition for a 2013 ballot initiative to stop a massive condominium development on the San Francisco waterfront. A signed registration card was submitted with the petition to qualify Ms. Shuvalova as a petition signer, said John Arntz, director of the San Francisco Department of Elections. Activists often hand in stacks of registration cards with their petitions, he said. Election officials say they conduct routine cross-references of voter registration information with databases at the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the secretary of state’s office but did not flag Ms. Shuvalova as a noncitizen. The box for “vote by mail” was checked on her registration card, and the county began sending her ballots. County records show she received nine ballots but never voted.

The scam known as Informed Electorate PAC is quite the little money maker for its operators

A commenter has provided the website information from the State of Utah where the Informed Electorate PAC discloses its financials:

https://disclosures.utah.gov/Search/PublicSearch/FolderDetails/1414465

If you are one of the many contributors to this so-called PAC, your full name, address and contribution level are listed there.

And wow, there's an awful lot of gulls out there in America. It's a goldmine of a mailing list, free for the taking.

You'll also be fascinated to learn that for the "privilege" of paying these grifters to take your opinion, for that is what they are in my opinion, shameless grifters, they netted about $1.91 million in contributions in 2017 alone, of which about $1.79 million was expended.

On what? you ask.

Never heard of 'em, right? Most people haven't, which kind of gives the lie to their objective of informing anyone. I search in vain for itemized expenditures under "public relations". Instead I see lots of consulting fees and W-2 payrolls, evidently going to the principals.

Nearly $336,000 in 2017 went straight into the pockets of the President, Brett Payne, a board member Rob Andra, and someone named Joseph Demma, who appears to be related to Stacy Demma the Vice President (who is also the only other listed board member), and presumably the CFO Kenneth Kohfel and other unnamed employees. The reports show that the consulting fees in 2017 stopped being paid in July, and that the W-2 payroll line items start appearing once a month beginning in June.

A company named Fiercecom gets large sums regularly for data management, telephone services and fulfillment. Other regulars include Airespring, Heartland Payment Solutions and Skymail International.

One wonders if any of this PAC's principals have any personal business interests in any of the businesses which provide services back to the PAC.

Someone really ought to look into it, like 60 Minutes, or maybe the FBI.

I wonder what they'd find?

At any rate, for the umpteenth time, no legitimate polling organization asks YOU to pay to give your opinion.

The wonder of it all is that these snakes have found the ones that will pay, and that Utah has listed them all for the whole world to laugh at.

This is just one month from the disclosures, October 2017

Vote the Will's Informed Electorate scam is (now?) owned by a Utah Republican named Brett Payne

A recent commenter noted that there has been a change in the registry information for vote the will dot org, from Arizona to Utah. Whereas previously the Registrant Name was private, now it is Brett Payne of Utah.

There could have been a sale involved, or it could be the same people with a new face and legal identity. The website looks retooled, too. Hard to say which. In any event . . .

A search of public records on Al Gore's amazing internet shows that Brett Payne is indeed a registered Utah Republican, as the commenter stated.

I'm sure this guy is doing nothing illegal.

It's just a slick operation, you know, slick like a snake. Millions of idiots will open their wallets for this guy just for the fleeting experience that someone out there cares about their opinion . . . for twenty bucks.

Do robots have feelings?

This guy must be laughing all the way to the bank!

  

Domain Name: VOTETHEWILL.ORG

Registry Domain ID: D187341325-LROR

Registrar WHOIS Server:

Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com

Updated Date: 2017-03-26T02:55:49Z

Creation Date: 2016-04-04T15:17:46Z

Registry Expiry Date: 2020-04-04T15:17:46Z

Registrar Registration Expiration Date:

Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC

Registrar IANA ID: 146

Registrar Abuse Contact Email:

Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:

Reseller:

Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited

Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited

Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited

Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited

Registry Registrant ID: C190960501-LROR

Registrant Name: Brett Payne

Registrant Organization:

Registrant Street: 871 Milestone Drive

Registrant City: Smithfield

Registrant State/Province: UT

Registrant Postal Code: 84335

Registrant Country: US

Registrant Phone: +1.8019107441

Registrant Phone Ext:

Registrant Fax:

Registrant Fax Ext:

Registrant Email: brettgp@hotmail.com

Registry Admin ID: C190960503-LROR

Admin Name: Brett Payne

Admin Organization:

Admin Street: 871 Milestone Drive

Admin City: Smithfield

Admin State/Province: UT

Admin Postal Code: 84335

Admin Country: US

Admin Phone: +1.8019107441

Admin Phone Ext:

Admin Fax:

Admin Fax Ext:

Admin Email: brettgp@hotmail.com

Registry Tech ID: C190960502-LROR

Tech Name: Brett Payne

Tech Organization:

Tech Street: 871 Milestone Drive

Tech City: Smithfield

Tech State/Province: UT

Tech Postal Code: 84335

Tech Country: US

Tech Phone: +1.8019107441

Tech Phone Ext:

Tech Fax:

Tech Fax Ext:

Tech Email: brettgp@hotmail.com

Name Server: NS71.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Name Server: NS72.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

DNSSEC: unsigned

URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/

>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2017-08-17T12:40:41Z <<<

For more information on Whois status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp

Access to Public Interest Registry WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the Public Interest Registry registry database. The data in this record is provided by Public Interest Registry for informational purposes only, and Public Interest Registry does not guarantee its accuracy. This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of Registry Operator, a Registrar, or Afilias except as reasonably necessary to register domain names or modify existing registrations. All rights reserved. Public Interest Registry reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.

Michigan Doctor Men with funny names charged in $1.3 billion healthcare fraud conspiracy: Mashiyat Rashid, Yasser Mozeb, Abdul Haq, Tariz Omar, Mohammed Zahoor

From the story here:

More than 400 people across the country were charged Thursday for taking part in health care fraud and opioid scams including six Michigan doctors in connection with a raid Wednesday at the Fisher Building in Detroit. ... Rashid and Mozeb are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay and receive health care kickbacks.

Upset about a private Trump vulgarity 470,000 feminists prove they're infinitely worse than him

Informed Electorate PAC is a scam: It polls your opinion on one question per call, until they ask you for money on the third

They are at: www.votethewill.org

ServiceHostNet says there's no SSL certificate on the website, which is bad for your privacy.

First call: Did you vote in the last election?

Second call: Should the federal government decide stuff or the states?

On the third call they tell you it costs money to collect your opinion, so how about coughing up $20 to help.

Looks like a phishing expedition to me.

















ServiceHostNet also has these details:

Domain Name: VOTETHEWILL.ORG
Domain ID: D187341325-LROR
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Updated Date: 2016-04-04T15:17:48Z
Creation Date: 2016-04-04T15:17:46Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2017-04-04T15:17:46Z
Sponsoring Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited  Status: clientRenewProhibited  Status: clientTransferProhibited  Status: clientUpdateProhibited  Status: serverTransferProhibited  ID: CR236525540
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Registrant City: Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province: Arizona
Registrant Postal Code: 85260
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.4806242598
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Admin ID: CR236525542
Admin Name: Registration Private
Admin Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Admin Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Admin Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Admin City: Scottsdale
Admin State/Province: Arizona
Admin Postal Code: 85260
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.4806242599
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +1.4806242598
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:
Tech ID: CR236525541
Tech Name: Registration Private
Tech Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Tech Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Tech Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Tech City: Scottsdale
Tech State/Province: Arizona
Tech Postal Code: 85260
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.4806242599
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: +1.4806242598
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email:
Name Server: NS71.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS72.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

"For more information on Whois status codes, please visit

Access to Public Interest Registry WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the Public Interest Registry registry database. The data in this record is provided by Public Interest Registry for informational purposes only, and Public Interest Registry does not guarantee its accuracy. This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to(a) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of Registry Operator, a Registrar, or Afilias except as reasonably necessary to register domain names or modify existing registrations. All rights reserved. Public Interest Registry reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.

Clinton Foundation scam hauls in $178 million in 2014, gives just $5.2 million to "charities"

The Federalist summarizes the scam here.

The biggest single donation to a non-Clinton entity was $700,000 which helped pay for $126,000 in first-class airfare for the actor communist asshole Sean Penn.

Scammer Alert: Calls from Utica, NY (315)-327-2778 trolling for donations for Trump campaign gotta be a scam

He's got a website folks, if you want to donate or buy a hat. He doesn't need to call you for money.

Sarah Palin Hat Tipped The Internet For "A Couple Of Lines" Of Dr. Seuss Rewrite When 7 Were Verbatim Full Line Steals, The Other 7 Changed But 12 Words From The Original But Retained The Order

Full video here.

Politico here gave her a pass without checking the depth of the theft, which is almost 90% of the text and 100% of the structure:

Palin singled out Cruz for his marathon speech on the Senate floor last year during his push to defund Obamacare, when the freshman senator read Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” to his young daughters watching at home. Palin brought her own version of the rhyme, crediting a couple lines of it to the Internet. “I do not like this Uncle Sam,” it began. “I do not like this health care scam. I do not like these dirty crooks or how they lie and cook the books.” The crowd devoured it.

Martin Luther King Jr. lifts a bunch of material without attribution in his dissertation and gets ripped for it, correctly, but I dare say Sarah Palin won't get any blowback for this from the right, or the left . . . a sign she no longer matters.

Sarah Palin's Claim At CPAC That She Spiced Up Dr. Seuss A Little Bit Ala ObamaCare Is Plagiarism

Sarah Palin's claim at CPAC that she rewrote Dr. Seuss about ObamaCare is a lie. She didn't spice it up. She just lifted someone else's work and edited it a little bit. It's been up on the internet since August 2010, posted by one Sean G. at the toomuchliberty blog. Sarah Palin lifted whole lines, and edited a few others, and never gave the guy attribution. Pretty low.

Here's Palin's stolen version, posted here with video claiming authorship:

"I do not like this Uncle Sam.

I do not like his health care scam.

I do not like -- oh, just you wait --

I do not like these dirty crooks,

or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their crony deals.

I do not like this spying, man,

I do not like, 'Oh, Yes we can.'

I do not like this spending spree,

we're smart, we know there's nothing free.

I do not like reporters' smug replies

when I complain about their lies.

I do not like this kind of hope,

and we won't take it, nope, nope, nope."

Here's Sean G.'s original version, posted here August 3, 2010 as "A New Dr. Seuss":

I do not like this Uncle Sam,

I do not like his health care scam.

I do not like these dirty crooks,

or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their secret deals.

I do not like this speaker, Nan,

I do not like this 'YES WE CAN.'

I do not like this spending spree,

I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.

I do not like your smug replies,

when I complain about your lies.

I do not like this kind of hope.

I do not like it, nope, nope, nope!

I guess that communications degree with an emphasis in journalism wasn't worth much after all, even after six different whacks to finish it. So now Sarah Palin's stooping to stealing from obscure internet personages who were way ahead of her and Ted Cruz in the brains department about ObamaCare. Not only does she talk like she comes from the gutter, she acts like it too.

Ann Coulter Says The Only Way To Get Rid Of ObamaCare Is To Elect The Republicans Who Invented It

And anybody who tells you differently is a con man or scam artist.

Here.

Uh huh.

NSA Poses As Google To Spy

G.NSA.NSA.G.L.E.

'Brazilian site Fantastico obtained and published a document leaked by Edward Snowden, which diagrams how a "man in the middle attack" involving Google was apparently carried out.'

Story here.

Mandatory Arbitration: Big Business' Latest Weapon Against The People

And they don't hoodwink you into it, either. You sign up for it.

Susan Antilla has all the details for Bloomberg, here:

The McMahon decision was damaging enough for the impact it had on individual brokerage customers, who tell their stories about fraud, misrepresentation and churning behind closed doors where the public -- including reporters -- isn’t welcome. ...

“It means that all sorts of scams against individuals, however large, are very unlikely to come to the attention of the media and the public,” says F. Paul Bland Jr., a senior attorney at the public-interest law firm Public Justice in Washington.

Wall Street may have been first to catch on to the benefits of mandatory arbitration, but Bland worries that the closed-door trials are spreading to industries from retailing to homebuilding. “The silence and secrecy that surrounds arbitration is extremely harmful to the country,” he says.

These days, employers -- Manpower Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. among them -- require new hires to give up their rights to court before a fresh-faced recruit can check in for orientation. And consumers can forget about opening a Netflix account, signing a mobile-phone contract, or putting a loved one into most big-name nursing homes unless they are willing to give up their rights to go to court. Buying a Starbucks gift card? You are agreeing to mandatory arbitration of any fraud or misrepresentation by the company. ...

In April 2011, the court dealt a new blow to consumers and employees in a case known as AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. AT&T had pitched a deal to woo new mobile-phone customers by offering free phones, but it turned out the freebie came with a $30.22 bill for “taxes.” Vincent and Liza Concepcion tried to bring a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all the other consumers who took AT&T’s deal. But the court said that when the couple signed the customer agreement, they gave up their right not only to sue, but also to a class action even in arbitration.

In the year since the Concepcion decision, lower courts have trashed dozens of cases in which consumers or employees were trying to sue as a group. The National Labor Relations Board pushed back against the impact the Concepcion decision might have on employment class actions, ruling in January that it’s a violation of federal labor law to make workers give up the right to pursue group claims. That decision probably will be challenged in court.

About 25 percent of U.S. employees are covered by mandatory-arbitration clauses, says Alexander J.S. Colvin, an associate professor of labor relations and conflict resolution at Cornell University. He figures the number will grow as a result of the Concepcion case.

Ann Coulter Claims RomneyCare Everywhere Would Have Solved The Health Insurance Problem

She's doubling-down on her support of Massachusetts-style state compulsion, here:

"Romney pushed the conservative alternative to national health care that, had it been adopted in the 49 other states, would have killed Obamacare in the crib by solving the health insurance problem at the state level."

She's come a long way since March 2010 when Ohio's mandate was in her crosshairs:

"President Obama says we need national health care because Natoma Canfield of Ohio had to drop her insurance when she couldn't afford the $6,700 premiums, and now she's got cancer. 

"Much as I admire Obama's use of terminally ill human beings as political props, let me point out here that perhaps Natoma could have afforded insurance had she not been required by Ohio's state insurance mandates to purchase a plan that covers infertility treatments and unlimited ob/gyn visits, among other things. 

"It sounds like Natoma could have used a plan that covered only the basics -- you know, things like cancer."

Or from December 2009 when Oregon's was the object of her criticism:

"[N]ational health care – it will force states that didn’t adopt these idiotic universal health-care schemes to bail out the ones that did.

"Liberals cite medical horror stories from the very states they once cheered for enacting universal health care in order to argue for a national health-care plan that will wreck the entire nation’s medical care the same way liberal states already wrecked their own medical care.

"Only Democrats could propose fixing one Bernie-Madoff-style scam with an even bigger Bernie-Madoff-style scam.

"Maybe when national universal health care fails, we’ll be able to go international. Then interplanetary – then interstellar! Why should I pay for my gall-bladder surgery when some Venusian could?"

And of course just a few months ago in October 2011 she was still speaking of "the failure of even statewide universal care" in reference to Massachusetts because under Romneycare very few new individuals ended up getting coverage while costs for everyone continue to escalate.