Back in the summer of 2015, Deutsche Bank mistakenly paid $6 billion to a hedge fund client by mistake in a “fat finger” trade on its foreign exchange desk. The embarrassed bank recovered the money from the US hedge fund the next day, and quickly accused junior member of the bank’s forex sales team of being responsible for the transfer in June while his boss was on holiday. AS the FT then reported, instead of processing a net value, the person processed a gross figure. That meant the trade had “too many zeroes”, said one of the people.

Fast forward two years later when the German banks have done it again.

As Bloomberg reports, state-owned KfW, which gained notoriety for erroneously transferring hundreds of millions of euros to Lehman Brothers on the day the U.S. firm filed for bankruptcy, appears to have done it again when in February it mistakenly transferred more than 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to four banks "because of a technical glitch that repeated single payments multiple times." 

KfW said it discovered the glitch and received the money back without suffering a loss. It was not clear as of this writing if like Deutsche Bank, KfW wold also blame a "junior trader" for the glitch.

“KfW has detected the system’s incorrect behavior very early in the process, immediately mitigated the unwanted action and started the necessary process of analyzing the causes,” the bank said in an emailed statement. “The mistake was rapidly identified and eliminated, and the amounts overpaid were successfully demanded back. We regret that during works on the systems, this incident could happen due to human error owing to a configuration mistake.”

Perhaps, however a "configuration mistake" of that magnitude better be reversible as otherwise transfering the bank's entire equity capital to one or more lucky recipients would prove quite terminal, and may even lead to random prison time.

As Bloomberg adds, the incident serves as a reminder of an ill-timed payment of more than 300 million euros KfW made to Lehman Brothers in September 2008, just as the U.S. investment bank filed for bankruptcy. At the time, the German lender failed to refresh its counterparty check that would have prevented it from processing the regular transaction.

The transfer turned into a political scandal in Germany, with newspaper Bild calling KfW “Germany’s dumbest bank.”

Ironically, on its website KfW says it’s been awarded the title of the world’s safest bank by magazine Global Finance. After news of the dramatic screw up emerged, the bank said that “KfW has immediately started comprehensive internal and external audits, in order to clarify the causes of the incident in detail and to draw the corresponding conclusions."

Long before China Huishan Dairy Holdings, China's largest daily farmer, became known as the latest Chinese corporate fraud whose stock crashed 90% in seconds after a Muddy Waters report brought attention to its questionable shadow banking funding, exposing the company as a hollow sham and leading to the prompt departure of four of its directors who hope (in vain) to escape prison time, the company was best known for being the first ever company to do cow-collateralized stock buybacks.

For readers whose recollection on this particular topic, fascinating as it may be, is vague, this is what we wrote last May:

"China Huishan Dairy is selling about a quarter of its [cow] herd, about 50,000 animals, to Guangdong Yuexin Finance Lease for 1 billion yuan ($152 million) and then renting them back. The reason: to obtain urgently needed cash (let some other sucker CEO worry about paying the coupon on the lease), so it can repurchase glorious amounts of its stock.

 

And yes, cows were used as collateral. "It’s not very common to use cows as collateral," said Robin Yuen, an analyst at RHB OSK Securities Hong Kong Ltd. "The value of a cow would fluctuate depending on milk prices and other factors, so it’s a risky asset for lenders. It would be hard to do forced selling - there’s no liquid market for a large number of cows."

So anyone wondering where Muddy Waters may have gotten the idea that not all is well with the company engaging in the sale-leaseback-of-cows-to-buyback-it-stock, Robin Yuen, an analyst at RHB OSK Securities Hong Kong, who had a Sell rating on the company long before Muddy Waters appeared on the scene, explained: 

"Huishan Dairy seems to be selling cows and leasing them back in order to raise money now, because they’ve been using cash to buy back shares.... "It’s not very common to use cows as collateral. The value of a cow would fluctuate depending on milk prices and other factors, so it’s a risky asset for lenders. It would be hard to do forced selling - there’s no liquid market for a large number of cows. The chairman wants to prop up the share price for reasons that are unclear."

One year later the reasons became clear: the company was a fraud, and only his relentless buybacks provided the levitation needed to offset the pesky sellers and shorts, which incidentally led to our conclusion, which predicted the inevitable failure of this particular Chinese fraudcap: "what's the point to propping up the stock price in an unviable company, and not to sell to the greatest fool? Especially since if there is one thing Chinese capital markets have a lot of, it's the latter."

* * *

The above, very long preamble takes us to the "logical" continuation of the cows-as-collateral story, because less than a year after cow sale-leaseback transactions emerged in the "financial bubble banana" country that is China, they have now moved to the original banana republic: Zimbabwe.

Bloomberg reports that commercial banks in Zimbabwe will soon be forced to accept livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep as collateral for cash loans to informal businesses under a new law presented to Parliament Tuesday. Under the "Movable Property Security Interests Bill" tabled for debate by Finance and Economic Development Minister, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will compile and administer a collateral-security register in which small-business operators and individuals can register their movable assets as security for credit.

Translation: step aside cash-collateral, fractional-reserve banking, here comes cow-collateral reserve banking.

It gets better.

In addition to cows, pretty much anything will soon be bank-eligible collateral as Zimbabwe desperately attempts to restart its monetary system. Vehicles, television sets, refrigerators, computers and other household appliances will become acceptable as collateral once they are evaluated and registered in the central bank’s register, according to Chinamasa.

It probably makes sense: the US has loan sharks; Zimbabwe has a central bank.

“As minister in charge of financial institutions, I feel there is need for a change of attitude by our banks to reflect of our economic realities,” he said. Banks are “stuck in the old ways of doing things and failing to respond to the needs of our highly informalized economy,” he said.

It remains unclear if this latest Zimbabwean monetary experiment will work: the southern African nation has mainly used the dollar since economic mismanagement and runaway inflation rendered its own currency worthless eight years ago, BBG notes. A liquidity squeeze ensued as growth faltered and a strong dollar eroded the competitiveness of Zimbabwe’s exports.

And now, over a decade since its infamous hyperinflationary episode, Zimbabwe finds itself in another cash crunch so severe that banks are limiting customer withdrawals.

That's where the cows come in.

And yet, in all of this one thing remains unclear: once the debtors are unable to repay the central bank, and the lienholder collects on virtually every piece of livestock, as well as every "car, TV, refrigerators, computer and other household appliance" and nationalizes every asset that is and isn't nailed down in Zimbabwe , what happens then?

Update:

It's been a bad day for Anthony Weiner.  After pleading guilty to sexting a minor earlier this morning, a crime that will require him to register as a sex offender, the New York Post is now reporting that Huma Abedin has finally filed for a divorce.

The long suffering wife of Human Abedin has finally filed for divorce against Anthony Weiner, just as her estranged husband pleaded guilty to sexting with a minor.

 

She brought an anonymous versus anonymous action in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday.

 

She’s asking for the court to seal the case.

 

The filing is uncontested meaning she is not expecting a fight over custody or the couple’s assets.

* * *

Disgraced former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner reportedly wept openly in federal court Friday as he pleaded guilty to sexting a 15-year-old girl and admitted to the judge: "I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse."

Per NBC, Weiner took questions from the judge at his hearing before reading a prepared statement which included the following:

"Through approximately March 2016, I engaged in obscene communications with this teenager, including sharing explicit images and encouraging her to engage in sexually explicit conduct, just as I had done and continued to do with adult women.  I knew this was as morally wrong as it was unlawful."

 

He said that last fall he "came to grips for the first time with the depths of my sickness. I had hit bottom," and entered "intensive treatment." He then apologized to the girl.

Here is Weiner's full statement:

What a crying Anthony Weiner's read in federal court, after pleading guilty to sexting with a minor. pic.twitter.com/VUU5N0tBEv

— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) May 19, 2017

As part of his plea deal with the United States attorney’s office, Weiner will have to register as a sex offender.

* * *

From earlier:

After years of sexting scandals that cost him his marriage with Huma Abedin and potentially even cost Hillary the White House, disgraced former Democratic congressman and New York Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner is set to appear in a federal courtroom in Manhattan today to enter a guilty plea for sexting with a minor.

According to the New York Times, Weiner will plead guilty to a single charge of transferring obscene material to a minor, pursuant to a plea agreement he struck with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. Weiner reportedly surrendered to the F.B.I. early Friday morning.

As a result of the guilty plea, Weiner will likely end up as a registered sex offender, although a final determination on that issue has yet to be made.  The charge carries a potential sentence of between 0 - 10 years in prison, meaning Weiner could avoid prison time though the ultimate sentence will be determined by a judge.

As you'll recall, the FBI only discovered those last minute Hillary emails due to their ongoing criminal investigation of Anthony Weiner.  The "tens of thousands of emails", many including exchanges between Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton, discovered on Weiner's computer ultimately prompted James Comey to make his now infamous October 29th announcementthat the Hillary email investigation had been re-opened.  Hillary has since attributed her loss to Comey's decision.

Of course, as you may recall, Weiner's latest sexting scandal came to light back in September 2016, a very critical time for the Hillary campaign, when it was exposed by the Daily Mail.  Unfortunately, this time the scandal involved a girl that Weiner knew to be a 15-year old Sophomore in high school.  But, that didn't seem to stop him from telling the teenager that he would like to"bust that tight pussy so hard." 

Anthony Weiner's latest alleged scandal involves a 15-year-old high school student

The girl first reached out to Weiner in January 2016.  In that initial discussion, the girl openly admitted that she was a high school student. 

But, that didn't seem to stop Weiner from later telling the girl over a sexting app that he "would bust that tight pu**y so hard and so often that you would be limp for a week."

In an interview with the Daily Mail, the high school student said that Weiner pushed her to "dress up in school-girl outfits" and engage in "rape fantasies" over skype.  He also felt the need to inform the young girl that he and his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, hadn't had sex in a year.

"When we would Skype, he would tell me that he was very lonely and that it had been a year since he and his wife [Huma] had sex, and that she really didn't pay him any attention.  We would talk, just chatting for about 30 minutes and it would lead to more sexual things…asking me to undress…he'd comment on my body. He asked me about masturbation, and that kind of thing."

 

"He would pretend like he was a teacher and I was a student. And he'd talk about me sitting in the front of his class, and him taking me after school."

 

"He had some rape fantasies. It would just be him showing up at my house when my dad was out of town.  And just start undressing me, being forceful, asking me if I want to be dominated, strange questions."

 

She said when she told him she was uncomfortable with this, he quickly agreed to change the subject.

 

The girl said she started feeling guilty about hiding the relationship, and told her father and a teacher about it in late April.

After ruining her shot at the White House, you had to know that Hillary wouldn't let Weiner escape this one.

Live Feed:

Updates:

Meanwhile, for those who continue to consume anonymously-sourced news from CNN, NYT, WAPO, etc, as pure fact, please consider Comey's testimony that the February NY Times story alleging numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russia was "almost entirely wrong"

Comey said a February NY Times story claiming contacts between Trump associates and Russia was "almost entirely wrong"

— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) June 8, 2017

After admitting that he gave his memos to Columbia Professor Dan Richman, one has to wonder why Comey "felt free to share that" given that those memos were the property of the FBI, drafted on a classified FBI computer, while on duty in his capacity as an FBI employee, etc...some might call that a felony.

Blunt:  "You didn't consider your memo on @POTUS mtgs to be a govt document?"

 

Comey:  "As a private citizen I felt free to share that."

.@royblunt: You didn't consider your memo on @POTUS mtgs to be a govt document? #Comey: As a private citizen I felt free to share that. pic.twitter.com/cUw8iJDl2o

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) June 8, 2017

Comey admits that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch attempted to diminish his public conversations about the Hillary Clinton investigation by referring to it as a "matter" rather than an "investigation."  Of course, this was an obvious attempt to protect Hillary Clinton's ongoing 2016 campaign by tainting an investigation...yet, ironically, this never prompted Comey to start "memorializing" his conversations with Lynch. 

"We had an investigation open at the time. So that gave me a queasy feeling."

Comey says former AG Loretta Lynch asked him to call Russia inquiry "a matter," not an investigation. #CheddarLIVE#ComeyDaypic.twitter.com/kPU35srLQp

— Cheddar (@cheddar) June 8, 2017

Comey says he "had a good friend" who is a "professor at Columbia Law School" leak his 'memos' to the press in hopes of getting a Special Prosecutor appointed.

Comey says he wanted his memo leaked, thought it might prompt the appointment of a special council https://t.co/wAOirl6c5p#ComeyTestimonypic.twitter.com/mUx43SOaGH

— Bloomberg (@business) June 8, 2017

And that "good friend" has already been confirmed as Dan Richman:

Dan Richman confirms to @madhumita29: "Yes it's me and I have no further comment."#comeyhearing

— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) June 8, 2017

Comey on Trump's alleged White House recordings: "Lordy, I hope there are tapes."

Former FBI Dir. Comey on convos with Pres. Trump: "I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes."https://t.co/H6ZXNZp6zIpic.twitter.com/tBaLddgFCq

— ABC News (@ABC) June 8, 2017

Comey confirms that Trump never "directed" him to let the Flynn investigation go:

Comey: “I took it as – this is what he wants me to do” when Trump said he hoped he’d lay off the Flynn, but I didn’t do it pic.twitter.com/Uoz4wf2ORg

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 8, 2017

Though you'll never hear this statement on the MSM, here is Comey saying that neither Trump nor anyone else in his administration ever asked him to back down on the Russia investigation:

#gamedev#indiedev Comey on whether Pres. Trump tried to stop Russia investigation: "Not to my understanding, no."https://t.co/RtpPvi8Usr

— ???? (@bestermcbest) June 8, 2017

Comey says Trump's expanation for his firing were "lies, plain and simple."

NBCNews: Comey on Trump's explanation for firing: 'Those were lies plain and simple'https://t.co/ygud5JQ3yN

— Maximiliano Valdes (@maxvaldes) June 8, 2017

* * *

Before the hearing even gets underway, the AP is reporting that Trump "disputes' statements made in Comey's opening comments...will we finally get to hear those White House recordings that Trump tweeted about?

BREAKING: Source: Trump `disputes' Comey's claim that he asked for loyalty and to let go of the Flynn probe.

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 8, 2017

And so it begins...

James Comey now under oath ahead of his testimony.

WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/awrxco46Zwpic.twitter.com/DRzdZ3fmpf

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 8, 2017

* * *

For those who missed it, here is our preview of today's festivities from earlier.

At 10AM EST former FBI Director James Comey will make his first public appearance, since being fired by President Trump, as he provides testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

As we covered in detail last night, Comey provided the best 'preview' of today's hearing when his opening statement was released yesterday afternoon.  Undoubtedly, the focus of today's hearing will come down to Comey's testimony that Trump asked him to "let it go" in regards to the FBI's Flynn investigation and repeatedly asked for Comey's "loyalty."  Here are the key sections (as we noted here):

A few moments later, the President said, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner.

 

The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” I replied only that “he is a good guy.” (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would “let this go.”

Of course, while Democrat Senators will inevitably try to force Comey to admit, at least in his opinion, that Trump "obstructed justice", Charles Krauthammer did a masterful job of explaining exactly why that will never happen...primarily because it would mean that Comey himself would be guilty of a federal crime and subject to prison time.

Speaking with Fox's Brett Baier, Krauthammer pointed out that Comey is masterful at protecting his own ass and would never slip up to the point of alleging outright obstruction because he would be "indicting himself for not resigning, for not making a statement, for not bringing it out in the open."

“Here there is one question — did the president obstruct justice?  That’s what everybody is waiting for. I don’t think there’s anything of great interest other than that.

 

And his answer I think is going to be obvious. He will navigate to a point where he says, ‘Well, there might’ve been some pressure but it’s not obstruction.’ Why? Because if it were obstruction, then he is indicting himself. For not resigning, for not making a statement, for not bringing it out in the open.

 

So he can’t say it’s obstruction which is what everybody who wants to see Trump destroyed is waiting to hear. So what we will hear is something navigating in between and saying ‘Well, it wasn’t really pressure, he was speaking on behalf of an associate, a friend. It could be interpreted in various ways.’ That’s what I think is going to happen and that’s why I think it’s going to be a bust.”

Forward to the 3:10 mark for the relevant Krauthammer commentary:

Of course, all eyes will also be watching how Trump decides to respond to Comey's testimony.  A couple of days ago, Robert Costa reported that the President planned to "live tweet" during the event:

I'm told by two WH sources that Pres. Trump does not plan to put down Twitter on Thursday. May live tweet if he feels the need to respond.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) June 6, 2017

But, we suspect his legal team took some issue with that approach as it's now being reported the Trump will watch the hearing from a White House dining room and will be surrounded by lawyers and advisors.

JUST IN: Senior WH aide tells @PeterAlexander Trump will monitor #Comey in a WH dining room with his legal team & some of closest advisers.

— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) June 8, 2017

Finally, the last thing to watch is how the media responds.  For days now CNN has been hyping today's testimony as the greatest television event since the "Dallas" finale in 1991 and has even referred to it repeatedly as "Washington's Super Bowl."

Moreover, they have been repeatedly updating their audience, for several days we might add, on the 700 different ways they'll be able to tune into the live hearing scheduled for later this week.

Beginning at 9:45 a.m. ET, live coverage of the testimony will be on CNN and streaming on CNN.com, the CNN app on phone and tablet, and on mobile devices.  You can also watch it on your Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV with the CNNgo app, CNN's Facebook Page and via Apple News.

To say that CNN is excited for today's hearing would be a bit of an understatement.  Given that fact, we suspect that no matter what Comey says today the mainstream media has already decided the narrative they will push after today's hearing has concluded...after all, they couldn't possibly let their audience down if the most hyped event in CNN's history turns out to be a "nothing burger."  Of course, one has to look no further than last night's CNN coverage for evidence of how the post-Comey shows will spin the event...as most of the world, including equity markets, figured that Comey's opening statement was a positive for Trump's administration, CNN spent the night with guests talking about when impeachment proceedings should be started and why Trump was so concerned about Russian hookers.

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

This one is almost too ridiculous to believe.

Recently a new bill was introduced on the floor of the US Senate entitled, pleasantly,

“Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.”

You can probably already guess its contents.

Cash is evil.

 

Bitcoin is evil.

 

Now they’ve gone so far to include prepaid mobile phones, retail gift vouchers, or even electronic coupons. Evil, evil, and evil.

These people are certifiably insane.

Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.

Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.

This new bill adds a laundry list of offenses for which they can legally seize your assets… all of which pertain to money laundering and other financial crimes.

Here’s the thing, though: they’ve also vastly expanded on the definition of such ‘financial crimes’, including failure to fill out a form if you happen to be transporting more than $10,000 worth of ‘monetary instruments’.

Have too much cash? You’d better tell the government.

If not, they’re authorizing themselves in this bill to seize not just the money you didn’t report, but ALL of your assets and bank accounts.

They even go so far as to specifically name “safety deposit boxes” among the various assets that they can seize if you don’t fill out the form.

(Yet another reason to consider storing cash, gold, and silver in an overseas safety deposit box.)

This is unbelievable on so many levels.

It’s crazy to begin with that these people are so consumed by the fact that someone has $10,000 in cash.

But it’s even crazier that they’re threatening to take EVERYTHING that you own merely for not filling out a piece of paper, without any due process whatsoever.

Oh, and on top of civil asset forfeiture penalties, there are also criminal penalties.

Right now according to current law they can imprison you for up to FIVE YEARS for not filling out the form. Five years.

But apparently that doesn’t go far enough to protect us against evil men in caves.

So this bill aims to double the criminal penalty to TEN years in prison.

And if that weren’t enough, this bill also gives them with new authority to engage in surveillance and wiretapping (including phone, email, etc.) if they have even a hint of suspicion that you might be transporting excess ‘monetary instruments’.

Usually wiretapping authority is reserved for major crimes like kidnapping, human trafficking, felony fraud, etc.

Now we can add cash to that list.

It’s not just government spy agencies to worry about, either.

Banks in the US are already unpaid government spies, required by law to fill out suspicious activity reports on their customers.

Then Congress started expanding those requirements to include other businesses and industries that might come into contact with cash.

Stock brokers. Casinos. Currency exchanges. Precious metals dealers. Pawnbrokers. The Post Office.

According to the law (section 5312 of US Code Title 31), those industries are also required to spy on their customers for the government.

But under this new bill, they want to forcibly recruit even more unpaid spies, including any business which issues or redeems ANYTHING that’s prepaid.

Prepaid credit cards. Prepaid phones. Prepaid retail gift cards. Prepaid coupons.

So, Amazon.com, which issues and redeems prepaid gift cards, will be required under this bill to file reports to the government.

For that matter, TGI Fridays and Chuckee Cheese will also become unpaid government spies since they both issue and redeem prepaid vouchers.

Truly these Senators have figured out how to strike at the heart of ISIS.

Further, their bill wants to pull any business which “issues” cryptocurrency under the anti-money laundering regulatory umbrella.

Here’s where these people demonstrate that they have no idea what they’re talking about.

No one “issues” Bitcoin. There’s no Bitcoin central bank. There’s no Chairman of Bitcoin who decides on a whim to increase the supply.

Bitcoin is created automatically amounts that are pre-determined by its code. It’s software.

So the Senate is essentially trying to force the Bitcoin core software to comply with money laundering regulations.

How pathetically clueless.

The bill also attempts to drop a major bomb on Bitcoin by including it in the list of monetary instruments that must be reported when entering or leaving the US.

So theoretically if you leave the US with more than $10,000 in Bitcoin or Ether, you’d have to confess this fact to the authorities or otherwise face the aforementioned penalties, i.e. prison time, civil asset forfeiture, etc.

As Smaulgold.com's Louis Cammarosano  explains, the bill contains a provision that would require the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to devise a “border protection strategy to interdict and detect prepaid access devices, digital currencies, or other similar instruments, at border crossings and other ports of entry for the United States, including an assessment of infrastructure needed [emphasis added] to carry out the strategy.”

The respective Secretary and Commissioner would present their findings to Congress no later than 18 months after passage of the bill.

 

The obligation to declare amounts in any form over $10,000 exists, irrespective of whether custom officials have a way of detecting such holdings. Since digital currencies technically travel with the holder where ever the holder goes, one would have to declare one’s entire crypto portfolio each time the holder entered the U.S.

 

Such a declaration is not required for travelers who may happen to have bank accounts or precious metals worth more than $10,000 stored outside the United States.

 

The type of infrastructure required to detect foreign holdings may come in the form of (i) expanding Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act to currently unregulated foreign crypto currency exchanges and to non U.S. citizens. FATCA currently only applies to U.S account holders of certain foreign financial and non financial institutions; (ii) some type of global monitoring of blockchain activity; or (iii) extreme vetting at the border and penalties for non disclosure that would encourage full disclosure.

HOORAY FREEDOM!

As you can see, this bill criminalizes or delegitimizes the most mundane and harmless financial activities, all under the guise of keeping us safe.

Of course nothing in this bill is about keeping people safe.

ISIS couldn’t care less about forms and penalties.

This bill is nothing more than another weapon in their ongoing War on Cash… and now cryptocurrency too.

Do you have a Plan B?

Last October, we wrote about "Young Virginia Democrat" Andrew Spieles, a student at James Madison University, and apparently "Lead Organizer" for HarrisonburgVOTES, who got caught registering dead people to vote.  At the time, the founder of the organization, Joseph Fitzgerald, told reporters that he had no knowledge of Spieles’ actions and no idea "what his motivations were".   

“He’s smart, and he understands the [political] process,” Fitzgerald told the Daily News-Record of Spieles. “Who the hell knows what his motivations were?”

And while we agree it's always difficult to be 100% sure about anyone's motivations, we said at the time that we would be willing to put money on it having something to do with registering a bunch of dead people and then having them all vote for Hillary in November....just a hunch.

Now, it appears that the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia has agreed with our initial assessment and has sentenced Spiels to prison time for his efforts.  Per a local CBS affiliate, Spiels will spend 100-120 days behind bars.

James Madison University student Andrew J. Spieles, 21, of Harrisonburg, pled guilty Monday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. As part of the plea agreement, Spieles agreed to a prison sentence of 100 to 120 days.

 

Spieles worked for Harrisonburg Votes when he committed the crime, according to acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle.

 

Harrisonburg Votes is a political organization affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Here is how it all played out according to the U.S. Attorney's office:

“In July 2016 Spieles’ job was to register as many voters as possible and reported to Democratic Campaign headquarters in Harrisonburg,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said. “In August 2016, Spieles was directed to combine his registration numbers with those of another individual because their respective territories overlapped. After filling out a registration form for a voter, Spieles entered the information into a computer system used by the Virginia Democratic Party to track information such as name, age, address and political affiliation. Every Thursday an employee/volunteer hand-delivered the paper copies of the registration forms to the Registrar’s Office in Harrisonburg.”

 

Later that month, someone at the Registrar’s Office called police after another employee saw a name they recognized on a registration form.

 

The name was the deceased father of a Rockingham County Judge.

 

“The Registrar’s Office discovered multiple instances of similarly falsified forms when it reviewed additional registrations. Some were in the names of deceased individuals while others bore incorrect middle names, birth dates, and social security numbers,” the spokesperson continued. “The Registrar’s Office learned that the individuals named in these forms had not in fact submitted the new voter registrations. The assistant registrar’s personal knowledge of the names of some of the individuals named in the falsified documents facilitated the detection of the crime.

 

“Spieles later admitted that he prepared the false voter registration forms by obtaining the name, age, and address of individuals from “walk sheets” provided to him by the Virginia Democratic Party, fabricating a birth date based on the ages listed in the walk sheet, and fabricating the social security numbers. Spieles admitted that he created all 18 fraudulent forms himself and that no one else participated in the crime.”

Silly Spieles, he was just too young to realize that only experienced, professional politicians can get away with crimes like these.

* * *

For those who missed it, here is our original post from last October.

Just yesterday we wrote about an FBI investigation into potential voter fraud in the critical swing state of Virginia after it was revealed that 19 dead people had recently been re-registered to vote (see "FBI Investigating More Dead People Voting In The Key Swing State Of Virginia").  While the Washington Post caught wind of the investigation, it was not known who was behind the operation...until now.  

Meet, Andrew Spieles, a student at James Madison University, and apparently "Lead Organizer" for HarrisonburgVOTES.  According to the Daily News-Record, Spieles confessed to re-registering 19 deceased Virginians to vote in the 2016 election cycle. 

While this should come as a surprise to precisely 0 people, Spieles just happens to be Democratwho, accorded to a deleted FaceBook post, apparently recently ran for Caucus Chair of the Virginia Young Democrats. 

It's too bad really, sounds like Spieles had all the right "special talents" required to be very successful politician...he just forgot the most important first rule: "Don't get caught."  

The 19 applications of deceased citizens were submitted by Spieles through an organization called HarrisonburgVOTES. According to the organization's "About Us" page, HarrisonburgVOTES is a "non-partisan" voter registration organization in Harrisonburg, VA and the surrounding areas.

As the HarrisonburgVOTES webpage points out, the sole goal of the organization is to raise the number of registered voters in Harrisonburg to 25,000...though it's unclear what percentage of that goal was intended to be filled by dead voters.

The sole goal of HarrisonburgVOTES is to increase the number of registered voters in Harrisonburg and the surrounding areas to increase and encourage civic engagement.

 

Harrisonburg has the lowest percentage of voting age population (VAP) registered to vote among Virginia localities. Very roughly, about 17,000 people are registered to vote and about 18,000 are voting age and not registered.  The goal of HarrisonburgVOTES will be to overcome these issues and raise the number of registered voters to 25,000.

HarrisonburgVOTES was founded by Joseph Fitzgerald who, "shockingly", is also a prominent democrat in Harrisonburg.   Fitzgerald is currently Chairman of the Sixth Congressional District Democratic Committee in Virginia and the former Mayor of Harrisonburg. 

Fitzgerald told reporters, of course, that his organization had no knowledge of Spieles’s actions and fired him immediately after his confession.   

“He’s smart, and he understands the [political] process,” Fitzgerald told the Daily News-Record of Spieles. “Who the hell knows what his motivations were?”

While we agree it's difficult to be 100% sure about anyone's motivations, we would be willing to put money on it having something to do with registering a bunch of dead people and then having them all vote for Hillary in November....just a hunch.

Authored by Chris Calton via The Mises Institute,

In a previous article, I wrote about how the war on drugs and the government monopoly on the legal system has created the Tragedy of the Commons in our justice system. Because legislators and police officers have every incentive to appear “tough on crime” but the cost of the sending a criminal to a courtroom is socialized, the courts have become increasingly backlogged. What that article did not cover is the related “commons problem” in the prison system and the consequences that follow.

The Tragedy of the Commons in the Prison System

Where legislators and police officers have in-built incentives to send as many people through the courts as possible, a similar incentive is faced by judges and prosecutors to send defendants through the prison system. Because all judges and prosecutors share common access to prison space with no individual cost for doing so, there is zero incentive for the limitation on the sentence sought by the individual prosecutor or handed down by the individual judge.

There is, however, the incentive for these professions to win cases and appear “tough on crime,” respectively. “The effect,” as Bruce Benson and David Rasmussen tell us, “is that prosecutors and judges as a group crowd the common-access prisons much as cattle owners crowd common access grazing land.”

Legislators, again, also have an incentive to crowd the prison commons. To market themselves as “Drug Warriors,” they are incentivized to pass mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which are often even more severe at the state level than the federal. In this case, the prisons are crowded by a specific type of criminal: drug users. Because resources are scarce, mandatory minimums targeting drug crimes mean that drug users and dealers are increasingly competing for space with murders, rapists, and thieves — criminals for whom mandatory minimum sentences are not imposed.

Nearly 50 percent of all prison inmates are drug offenders, according to the Federal Bureau of Prison. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, it is estimated that the American prison system will be above capacity by 45 percent by 2018, despite opening five new prisons in the past 10 years. Of course, even while recognizing that non-violent offenders are the reason for the overpopulation of the prisons, the go-to solution by these government officials is to keep building more prisons.

The Consequences of Overcrowded Prisons

Because of the mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders, the solutions to the overcrowded prisons tend to favor violent criminals more than non-violent criminals. This comes first in the courtroom, where the judge is no longer able to use discretion in an individual case that may call for it — namely, a drug conviction. When a judge may see fit to offer the drug offender probation, rather than jail time, mandatory legal minimums compel him to give a prison sentence. But because prison space is still limited, the probation alternative to jail is simply passed to violent criminals. 

The results are that the criminals who receive no prison time following a conviction - the probationers - have more prior felony convictions, higher rates of recidivism, are less likely to be employed at the time of arrest, and are more likely to have a history of violent crime than the criminals who are actually serving prison time. In other words, the war on drugs is actually pushing violent criminals back onto the streets in order to devote resources to the non-violent criminals who often held productive employment before being locked-up.

Probation is not the only way that prison overcrowding benefits violent criminals. “Gain time” is the process by which prisoners are released from prison early, and this benefits both violent and non-violent criminals. However, this has a double-dose of consequences.

For violent criminals, gain time is similar to probation, in that it pushes them back onto the streets more quickly. Although the average percentage of a sentence served is constantly fluctuating, it tends to hover around the 50 percent mark (though it has been on the rise recently, and solid recent data on this is difficult to find since it is not the type of information governments want to advertise).

Remember Brock Turner? In one of the rare rape cases to actually have multiple eye-witnesses testifying against him, he was offered a pitiful six-month sentence, of which he only served three. We were told that he was benefiting from “white privilege.” Whether or not the courts show racial favoritism, a more evident explanation is that he was simply benefiting from having been convicted as a violent rapist rather than a non-violent marijuana user in an overcrowded prison system that brazenly favors the former. Taking the reverse approach from drug laws, the government has imposed maximum sentences for rapists.

The drug offenders also benefit from gain time. For libertarians, non-violent offenders spending less time in jail is generally seen as a good thing. However, it is worth adopting the Misesian-utilitarian approach to analyze how this affects the actual goal of the drug war. The idea behind targeting drug dealers is that if there are heavier consequences on dealing drugs, then there will be fewer people willing to supply them, thus raising prices and de-incentivizing potential drug users. But when drug dealers go to jail knowing that they will likely only serve 50 percent or less of their sentence because of prison overpopulation, then the cost factor (the risk of serving any given amount of time in jail) is lowered. Because overcrowded prisons lower the risk-premium on drug dealing, the tragedy of the prison-commons actually undermines the goal of waging a drug war even from the statist perspective.4

The issue of overcrowded courts and prisons are growing increasingly apparent. With the problem identified, solutions should be easier to establish.

One potential solution is to build more prisons and open more courthouses. Particularly in the case of the prisons, this has actually been the preferred government option since the days of alcohol prohibition. But this means exponentially higher taxes for the purpose of diverting resources from the productive sector of the economy to produce more judges and prison guards — and this is ignoring the obviously libertarian virtues of liberty and personal autonomy that views the practice of jailing non-violent offenders as unjust in its own right.

The other option — and the only one that actually stands as a pragmatic solution to the problems outlined in this article — is to end the war on drugs and to release all non-violent prisoners. Even with more prison, more police, and more courts, non-violent criminals will continue to crowd out the violent criminals, benefiting the violent at the expense of the non-violent. Even from the perspective of the most slap-happy drug warrior, there is no case to be made in favor of continuing the war on drugs.

Submitted by Sovereign Man

This Week's Intelligence

American Citizen Held by Immigration Enforcement for Over 3 Years Without Lawyer

“I am an American citizen,” Davino Watson pleaded with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, judges, and jailers. But to no avail; he was held in detention for over 3 years as a deportable illegal immigrant.

What did his court appointed lawyer have to say ? Nothing, because he was never assigned one. After all, illegal immigrants are not afforded the same rights of the accused and due process guaranteed to American citizens. The only problem: Davino Watson was in fact an American citizen.

Eventually, Watson was released and managed to get a meager court settlement of $82,500. But he would never see the money. Two weeks ago, an appeals court ruled that Watson is not entitled to the compensation. Turns out the statute of limitations expired--while he was still in ICE custody!

What this means:

What kind of monster working for the U.S. government appealed the decision to compensate this man $82,500 for the nightmare he was put through? Clearly, if the U.S. government falsely imprisons someone, all they need to do is keep them falsely imprisoned until the clock runs out on the two-year statute of limitations. The rights of the accused should apply to anyone on U.S. soil. And there should be no statute of limitations for “petition[ing] the government for a redress of grievances,” as the First Amendment guarantees.

Anyone detained on U.S. soil should be provided a lawyer. This would have prevented Davino from ever being wrongfully imprisoned by immigration officers. Due process should be applied anyway, because it is the right thing to do. But beyond that, as this nightmarish case shows, authorities can be wrong. Why should an agent be able to unilaterally make the call that someone is an illegal immigrant?

The man was basically assumed guilty of being an illegal immigrant without the state having to prove anything.

Let’s hope this goes on to the Supreme Court, so that no other American citizens have to endure such abuse.

* * *

IRS Cashes in on Bitcoin Boom

What happened:

Have you made money on Bitcoin? Did you give the IRS their cut? Here is another reason to hold Bitcoin long term, instead of treating it as a speculation. If you sold your Bitcoin high, and made some cash, the IRS considers that capital gains. And they most likely know who you are.

The IRS is now actively seeking those who made money on Bitcoin and did not report the gains to the IRS. They used a “John Doe summons”  to collect all records from the Bitcoin trading website Coinbase.

In the past, the IRS used the same methods to bully Swiss banks into revealing American account holders.

What this means:

How is this type of summons legal? Isn’t the government supposed to abide by the Fourth Amendment, and describe particular things to be searched and seized? This is broad dragnet investigation into personal documents or “papers.” Since the 16th amendment created the income tax, Americans have put up with yearly investigations into their finances that completely trample the Fourth Amendment.

Just because the government says it is legal to tax income, suddenly the right to be secure in your person, houses, papers, and effects goes out the window.

* * 

Jail Time for Reproduction in Cambodia

What happened:

Her body her choice? Not according to the Cambodian government. A Cambodian court  has sentenced an Australian woman to prison time. No, she wasn’t running an abortion clinic. She was running a surrogacy clinic, for women who need another woman to carry their baby to term.

Cambodia outlawed surrogacy last year. The government claimed Cambodian women were being taken advantage of by foreigners looking for a surrogate.  But two Cambodian women who were paid $12,000 each for their surrogacy testified that they were not coerced into carrying the babies.

What this means:

In Cambodia, abortion is legal for the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. So it is a woman's choice to get rid of her baby, but not to carry another woman’s baby. In trying to protect women from exploitation, Cambodia has destroyed a unique business. The business provided opportunity for the right women to make good money. It also provided a much needed service for women who cannot carry their babies to term.

But the government didn’t care. They simply outlawed the practice. They didn’t bother asking the women who depend on the income from surrogacy. And now a woman will spend a year and a half in prison because she facilitated a beneficial trade between two consenting adults.

* * *

Federal Obamacare Money a State’s Right?

What happened:

Funny how the House voted to repeal Obamacare six times while they knew Obama was there to veto it. There were also about 50 attempts to repeal or defund select pieces of Obamacare. Now that the President would actually sign the repeal, Congress can’t seem to drum up the votes.

In response, Trump could begin dismantling Obamacare by stopping cost sharing reduction payments. These funds go to states to support their health insurance exchanges. Trump has dubbed these payments insurance company bailouts.

But  the courts just made it that much harder to actually dismantle the law.

States will be able to sue the federal government to continue collecting Obamacare funds. The ruling claims cost sharing reduction payments are crucial to the state run insurance exchanges. Because of the court ruling, if Trump cuts the payments, it would open the federal government to lawsuits.

What this means:

Tax dollars have quickly become a right, according to the courts. This shows how once a person--or a state--is on the dole, it isn’t so easy to get them off of it. The original case this ruling was based on actually stemmed from the Obama administration funding state exchanges without Congress approving the funds.  But now, it may be illegal for Trump to remove this illegal funding. Obamacare made the government more powerful. Power is a drug. This is the government on drugs.

At least two times over the past week, Iran's military has seemingly provoked the U.S. Navy by using its Sadegh drones to shadow the USS Nimizt aircraft carrier operating in the Persian Gulf while creating a "dangerous" operating environment for F/A-18 pilots in the area (we noted the encounters here and here).  

But this morning, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided to take a shot at the U.S. via a medium much more familiar to the Trump White House: Twitter.

"If US has any power,they better manage their country,tackle #WhiteSupremacy rather than meddle in nations’ affairs. #Charlottesville"

If US has any power,they better manage their country,tackle #WhiteSupremacy rather than meddle in nations’ affairs. #Charlottesville
13/4/94 pic.twitter.com/x3fE5qMcNj

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) August 16, 2017

Of course, this is rich coming from a guy who referred to Israel as a "cancerous tumor of a state" that should be "annihilated" and constantly subjects female activists to prison time and "lashings" for having the audacity to speak out about gender bias, an action which Khamenei says only serves to "corrupt the role of women in society."

Ayatollah Khamenei: Israel Is A Hideous Entity In the Middle East Which Will Undoubtedly Be Annihilated http://twitpic.com/2kkrj6

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 2, 2010

But, we're sure the irony will be lost on CNN when they inevitably decide to use the Supreme Leader's tweet at some point today to mock Trump.

Over the past couple of days, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's future has shifted from one focused on court appeals and potential prison time to one of book deals and potentially even a Senate run.  According to an interview this morning with the Washington Examiner, Arpaio is considering a variety of future job options including a run for mayor, Arizona's state legislature or maybe even a U.S. Senate run against Jeff Flake.

The former Maricopa County sheriff told the Washington Examiner he's upset at negative reaction to the Friday pardon, and that he feels Republican politicians are insufficiently supportive of the president, who he calls a great man.

 

"I could run for mayor, I could run for legislator, I could run for Senate," Arpaio said Monday. One particular race, however, is likely to gain significant attention: the GOP primary next year facing Flake, R-Ariz., a forceful Trump critic.

 

"I'm sure getting a lot of people around the state asking me" to challenge Flake, said Arpaio, who served 24 years as sheriff before losing reelection in 2016. "All I'm saying is the door is open and we'll see what happens. I've got support. I know what support I have."

 

Arpaio said he swore off another candidacy in January, when he left office, but that "with what I've seen happening in recent months, especially what's happening with our president, I said, 'Hey, why not?'"

Of course, it's hardly a surprise that there is no love lost between the President and Senator Flake after Trump has recently described him as "toxic" and "weak on crime and the border."

Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He's toxic!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017

Phoenix crowd last night was amazing - a packed house. I love the Great State of Arizona. Not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2017

And clearly Flake is likewise not a 'yuge' fan of Trump after suggesting last week that he is "inviting a 2020 primary challenger" (see: Flake Fires Back: Trump Is "Inviting" A 2020 Republican Primary Challenger).

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that President Trump is "inviting" a presidential primary challenge in 2020 because he's paying too much attention to appeasing his base.

 

Flake, whose public attacks on Trump could provoke the president to back a primary
challenger against him, made the comments Tuesday during an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting when asked if Trump will face a primary challenge.

 

"I don't know, I think that certainly depends on him. I think he could govern in a way that he wouldn't," Flake said.

 

"But, I think that the way that, the direction he's headed right now, just kinda drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base, I think he's inviting one."

Not surprisingly, Flake joined Senator McCain over the weekend in describing Trump's pardon of Arpaio as an exercise in lawlessness.

Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course.

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) August 26, 2017

Meanwhile, in anticipation of a future run, Arpaio has already laid the groundwork for a new protest movement: Senior Citizen Discrimination.

"Why do you say ‘wow'?" he admonished, adding:"They just say Sheriff Joe Arpaio comma 85 years old. Why do they always say that?"

 

Arpaio said he believes "there is discrimination against senior citizens, big time" and that "I'm proud to be my age. I work 14 hours a day. If anyone thinks my age is going to hold me back, I've got news for them."

 

"The bottom line is there's no way I'm going to go fishing. I have no hobbies," he said, declining to say how likely he is to seek office.

And, just like that, Jeff Flake's re-election bid looks even more difficult than it was last week.

Via The Daily Bell

In China, Foreigners Can Buy a Marriage

China is a dystopian nightmare for many who live there. Yet even the hardcore communist regime cannot keep a little freedom off the black market.

For many immigrants and foreign workers in China, they are even lower on the social ladder than the peasants. These people cannot own property, and often their children are not allowed to attend school.

But someone found a solution. Fake marriages. Foreigners in China are “marrying” Chinese citizens, even when the foreigner is sometimes already married. This helps foreigners living in Beijing buy property there. It also helps migrant workers send their kids to school and meld into a normal life.

This arrangement has increased since China responded to crowded conditions with more restrictions on foreigners. It sounds a lot like foreigners in America who get married in order to obtain a green card.

Governments just can’t keep creative black market businesses from flourishing when their restrictions leave no other choice.

We’ve even heard of straight men in the military marrying other men to take advantage of the benefits.

Prison Time for Thwarting Emissions Regulations

Volkswagen found that they could not design a diesel engine that would meet federal pollution requirements. So instead, they created software that would cheat the regulations.

Now, a Volkswagon engineer has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for his role in faking the emissions standards.

His crime is basically trying to continue doing business while being obstructed by the government. Is America a free country? They arbitrarily limit the products companies can create. Then they throw a man in prison for breaking their stupid rules.

Courts Actually Holding Police Accountable

Let’s end on a positive note. An appeals court has issued a ruling that protects two important ways of holding police accountable.

First, it should be a little harder for police to charge everything that moves with “obstruction.” The court ruling that says the First Amendment protects speech critical of police officers.

The case stemmed from a man who stepped onto his porch while the police arrested his wife in their driveway. He came outside to yell to them that they were overreacting to her failure to obey orders to walk backwards towards them. She was partially handicapped and could not easily comply.

When the man did not go back into his house he was arrested. He never even moved towards the police. He simply spoke to them while they were trying to arrest his wife. That was enough for them to charge him with obstruction.

Turns out they didn’t even have cause to arrest the wife either. She was the passenger in a car which crossed the center line of the road, and then drove for 40 whole seconds before pulling over, into the woman’s driveway.

So the courts said the lawsuit against the officers on Constitutional rights violations may move forward. The court found no reason for them to be granted sovereign immunity, and be shielded from lawsuits.

Unfortunately, the decision was not unanimous. A dissenting judge said he thinks holding police accountable for their actions will make it harder for them to do their jobs.

More bad news: this judge was considered by Trump for the Supreme Court.

Authored by Guy Milliere via The Gatestone Institute,

• European leaders accepted the transformation of parts of their countries into enemy territories. They see that a demographic disaster is taking place. They know that in two or three decades, Europe will be ruled by Islam.
• Ten years ago, describing what he called "the last days of Europe," the historian Walter Laqueur said that European civilization was dying and that only old monuments and museums would survive. His diagnosis was too optimistic. Old monuments and museums might well be blown up. Look nowhere else than what the black-hooded supporters of "Antifa" -- an "anti-fascist" movement whose actions are totally fascistic -- are doing to statues in the United States.

The terrorist attack in Barcelona received the same reaction as all the large-scale terrorist attacks in Europe: tears, prayers, flowers, candles, teddy bears, and protestations that "Islam means peace ". When people gathered to demand tougher measures against the rising influence of Islamism across the continent, they were confronted by an "anti-fascist" rally. Muslims organized a demonstration to defend Islam; they claimed that Muslims living in Spain are the "main victims" of terrorism. The president of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Societies, Mounir Benjelloun El Andaloussi, spoke of a "conspiracy against Islam" and said that terrorists were "instruments" of Islamophobic hatred. The mayor of Barcelona, ?? Ada Colau, cried in front of the cameras and said that her city would remain an "open city" for all immigrants. The governor of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, used almost the same language. Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative, was the only one who dared to call jihadist terrorism by its name. Almost all European journalists said Rajoy's words were too harsh.

After the attack in Barcelona, Spain, when people gathered at the site to demand tougher measures against the rising influence of Islamism across the continent, they were confronted by an "anti-fascist" rally. Pictured: "Anti-fascists" beat a man who they claimed is a "right-wing sympathizer" at Las Ramblas, Barcelona, on August 18, 2017. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Mainstream European newspapers describing the horror once again sought explanations to what they kept calling "inexplicable". The leading Spanish daily newspaper, El Pais, wrote in an editorial that "radicalization" is the bitter fruit of the "exclusion" of certain "communities," and added that the answer was more "social justice". In France, Le Monde suggested that terrorists want to "incite hatred", and stressed that Europeans must avoid "prejudice". In the UK, The Telegraph explained that "killers attack the West because the West is the West; not because of what it does" -- but it spoke of "killers", not "terrorists" or "Islamists".

Anti-terrorism specialists, interviewed on television, said that the attacks, carried out across the continent at an ever-faster pace, will become deadlier. They noted that the original plan of the Barcelona jihadists had been to destroy the Sagrada Família Cathedral and kill thousands of people. The specialists parroted that Europeans will just have to learn to live with the threat of widespread carnage. They did not offer any solutions. Once again, many said that terrorists are not really Muslims -- and that the attacks "had nothing to do with Islam".

Many leaders of Western European countries treat Islamic terrorism as a fact of life that Europeans must get used to -- as some kind of aberration unrelated to Islam. They often avoid speaking of "terrorism" at all. After the attack in Barcelona,?? German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a brief reproach about a "revolting" event. She expressed "solidarity" with the Spanish people, and then moved on. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted a message of condolence and spoke of a "tragic attack."

Throughout Europe, expressions of anger are conscientiously marginalized. Calls for mobilization, or any serious change in immigration policy, come only from politicians scornfully described as "populist."

Even the slightest criticism of Islam immediately arouses almost unanimous indignation. In Western Europe, books on Islam that are widely available are written by people close to the Muslim Brotherhood, such as Tariq Ramadan. Books that are "politically incorrect" also exist, but are sold under the counter as if they are contraband. Islamic bookstores sell brochures calling for violence without even hiding what they do. Dozens of imams, similar to Abdelbaki Es Satty, the suspected mastermind of the attack in Barcelona, continue to preach with impunity; if they are arrested, they are quickly released.

Submission reigns. The discourse everywhere is that despite increasing threats, Europeans must live their lives as normally as possible. But Europeans see what threats exist. They see that life is not even slightly normal. They see policemen and soldiers in the streets, proliferating security checks, strict controls at the entrance of theaters and shops. They see insecurity everywhere. They are told just to ignore the source of the threats, but they know the source. They claim they are not afraid. Thousands in Barcelona shouted, "No tinc por" ("We are not afraid"). In fact, they are scared to death.

Polls show that Europeans are pessimistic, and think the future will be bleak. Polls also show that Europeans no longer have confidence in those who govern them, but feel they are left with no choice.

This shift in their lives has occurred in such a short time, less than half a century. Before then, in Western Europe, only a few thousand Muslims were present -- mostly immigrant workers from former European colonies. They were supposed to be in Europe temporarily, so were never asked to integrate.

They soon numbered hundreds of thousands, then millions. Their presence turned permanent. Many became citizens. Asking them to integrate grew unthinkable: most seemed to consider themselves Muslim first.

European leaders gave up defending their own civilization. They slipped into saying that all cultures should be viewed the same way. They appear to have given up.

School curricula were altered. Children were taught that Europe and the West had plundered the Muslim world -- not that the Muslims had, in fact, invaded and conquered the Christian Byzantine Empire, North Africa and the Middle East, most of Eastern Europe, Greece, Northern Cyprus, and Spain. Children were taught that Islamic civilization had been splendid and opulent before colonization supposedly came to ravage it.

Welfare states, established in the post-war period, began to create a large underclass of people permanently trapped in dependency, just when the number of Muslims in Europe redoubled.

Social-housing neighborhoods suddenly were Muslim neighborhoods. The rise in mass unemployment -- mainly affecting less qualified workers -- transformed Muslim neighborhoods into mass-unemployment neighborhoods.

Community organizers came to tell unemployed Muslims that after purportedly looting their countries of origin, Europeans had used Muslim workers to rebuild Europe and were now treating them as useless utensils.

Crime took root. Muslim neighborhoods became high-crime neighborhoods.

Extremist Muslim preachers arrived; they reinforced a hatred of Europe. They said that Muslims must remember who they are; that Islam must take its revenge. They explained to young, imprisoned Muslim criminals that violence could be used for a noble cause: jihad.

Police were ordered not to intervene lest they aggravate the tension. High-crime areas became no-go zones, breeding grounds for the recruitment of Islamic terrorists.

European leaders accepted the transformation of parts of their countries into enemy territories.

Riots took place; leaders made even more concessions. They passed laws restricting freedom of speech.

When Islamic terrorism first hit Europe, its leaders did not know what to do. They still do not know what to do. They are prisoners of a situation they created and cannot control anymore. They appear to feel helpless.

They cannot incriminate Islam: the laws they passed make it illegal to do that. In most European countries, even questioning Islam is branded as "Islamophobia". It leads to heavy fines, if not trials or prison time (as with Lars Hedegaard, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, Geert Wilders or George Bensoussan). They cannot re-establish law and order in no-go zones: that would require the intervention of the army and a shift towards martial law. They cannot adopt the solutions proposed by parties they have pushed into opposition at the margins of European political life.

They cannot even close their borders, abolished in 1995 with the Schengen agreement. Re-establishing border controls would be costly and take time.

Europe's leaders seem to have neither the will nor the means to oppose the incoming waves of millions of Muslim migrants from Africa and the Middle East. They know that terrorists are hiding among the migrants, but still do not vet them. Instead, they resort to subterfuges and lies. They create "deradicalization" programs that do not work: the "radicals," it seems, do not want to be "deradicalized."

Europe's leaders try to define "radicalization" as a symptom of "mental illness"; they consider asking psychiatrists to solve the mess. Then, they talk about creating a "European Islam", totally different from the Islam elsewhere on Earth. They take on haughty postures to create the illusion of moral superiority, as Ada Colau and Carles Puigdemont did in Barcelona: they say they have high principles; that Barcelona will remain "open" to immigrants. Angela Merkel refuses to face the consequences of her policy to import countless migrants. She chastises countries in Central Europe that refuse to adopt her policies.

European leaders can see that a demographic disaster is taking place. They know that in two or three decades, Europe will be ruled by Islam. They try to anesthetize non-Muslim populations with dreams about an idyllic future that will never exist. They say that Europe will have to learn to live with terrorism, that there is nothing anyone can do about it.

But there is a lot they can do; they just do not want to -- it might cost them Muslim votes.

Winston Churchill told Neville Chamberlain,"You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, you will have war." The same is true today.

Ten years ago, describing what he called "the last days of Europe," the historian Walter Laqueur said that European civilization was dying and that only old monuments and museums would survive. His diagnosis was too optimistic. Old monuments and museums might well be blown up. Look nowhere else than what the black-hooded supporters of "Antifa" -- an "anti-fascist" movement that is totally fascistic -- are doing to statues in the United States.

Barcelona's Sagrada Família Cathedral was spared only thanks to the clumsiness of a terrorist who did not know how to handle explosives. Other places may not be so fortunate.

The death of Europe will almost certainly be violent and painful: no one seems willing to stop it. Voters still could, but they will have to do it now, fast, before it is too late.

Update: And... she's gone: EQUIFAX SAYS CIO AND CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER ARE RETIRING

* * *

One week after what may be the biggest security leak in US history, when Equifax belatedly admitted that hackers had made off with over 143 million private data profiles, sending the company's stock 37% lower in the past week...

... leading to a massive scandal which will go through at least one round of Congressional hearings in which company CEO Richard Smith will have to explain why the company waited for weeks before making this unprecedented data breach public (a breach which came due to a vulnerability the company was aware of and should have patched months prior) and will likely culminate with prison time for one or more company executives, questions have emerged if Equifax was involved in another cover up, this time involving the background of its Chief Security Officer.

Meet Susan Mauldin, the Equifax Chief Information Security Officer, and the person who was responsible for keeping the highly confidential and secret information of over 100 million Americans well... highly confidential and secret.

Mauldin has been with Equifax as CSO / CISO since 2013. She was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at First Data Corporation, until July 2013. Mauldin was also SunTrust Banks’ Group Vice President from 2007 to 2009. 

So far so good, but a problem emerges: according to LinkedIn, Mauldin’s stated educational background has no security or technology credentials, and consists of.... a bachelor’s degree in music composition (magna cum laude) and a Master of Fine Arts degree in music composition (summa cum laude), both from the University of Georgia. Once again, this is the person who was in charge of keeping your personal and financial data safe — and whose failure to do that have put 143 million at risk from identity theft and fraud.

Or rather, that's what her LInkedIn profile would have disclosed if in the hours after the scandal broke, "someone" didn't thoroughly scrub and censor it.

As MarketWatch's Brett Arends writes, "there has been very little coverage so far of Susan Mauldin’s background and training. Given the ongoing disaster of the hack and Equifax’s handling of the affair, the media spotlight has so far been elsewhere." It now emerges that someone was very keen on keeping as little information about Mauldin's background in the public domain as possible.

Shortly after the Equifax scandal broke, Maludin's LinkedIn page was made private and her last name replaced with “M.” Below is a screengrab showing Susan Mauldin’s old and current LinkedIn pages in Google search results as of 9/9/2017.

Mauldin’s original LinkedIn page was on this url before it was made completely private: linkedin.com/in/susan-mauldin-93069a (now a 404 page not found)

A few days after the news of the data hacking broke, the following page reappeared a with a different url, with the specific detail that her degrees were in Music Composition removed. Also, her surname Mauldin was replaced with the initial letter M. to complicate profile discovery.

Among the skills touted on her LinkedIn page: Data Center, IT Solutions, PCI DSS, IT Service Management, IT Outsourcing.

Additionally, two videos of interviews with Mauldin have been removed from YouTube. A podcast of an interview has also been taken down. As Hollywoodlanews.com reports, in March 2016, Mauldin was interviewed on camera by the CEO of the big-data company Cazena.

The videos featuring parts of an interview with Susan Mauldin, which were embedded on this page, have been taken down as of the afternoon of September 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O-VB09IdHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_2ABbwSYbs

A partial transcript of her remarks during the interview have been archived for posterity by a third party. http://archive.is/6M8mg

The full interview videos went far in explaining what may have been the eventual cause of the massive leak of information now gravely affecting 143 million Americans.

The audio-only version of the interview that was publicly available on Soundcloud has also been scrubbed from the web.

* * *

Unfortunately for the scrubbers, internet archives preserved her original LinkedIn profile (shown above) which revealed her "music" background, and a transcript of one interview has survived.

So as CEO Richard Smith prepares for the upcoming congressional grilling, here are two more questions he can add to the list: first, how far can a Chief Security Officer go in this business without a formal education in technology. In an interview uncovered by Brett Arends he notes that Mauldin said that in recruiting, “[w]e’re looking for good analysts, whether it’s a data scientist, security analyst, network analyst, IT analyst, or even someone with an auditing degree. ... Security can be learned.”

But she also said she focuses college recruitment, understandably, on “universities that have programs in security, cyber security, or IT programs with security specialties.” She did not mention music composition.

And second, was the company actively involved in what appears to be an active campaign to scrub the potentially embarrassing background of its Chief "Security" Officer?

As Arends concludes, and we agree, "everything about this fiasco just gets more and more surreal." It will be even more surreal however if as a reader points out, a woman diversity hire is the reason behind one of the largest hacks of financially sensitive data ever...

As previewed last week in "Prosecutors Demand 2-Year Prison Sentence For Anthony Weiner", with Weiner having already agreed to serve prison time for sending explicit message to a teenage girl as described in painful detail in "Prosecutors Unveil Full Details Of Anthony Weiner's Pedophilia" today's sentencing was merely a formality.

And, as Reuters reports, moments ago, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his latest, and hopefully final, breakout of pedophilia, which according to Hillary Clinton may have cost her the election (along with everything else).

A Buzzfeed reporter was an eyewitness to sentencing and had the following observations:

• Weiner cries as he is sentenced to 21 months in prison with 3 years supervised release.
• Weiner also must pay $10,000 fine
• Weiner must surrender to prison by Nov 6
• Weiner cries as he delivers statement: "I have a disease but I do not have an excuse"
• "If I had done the right thing I would not be standing before you today" - Weiner
• "The crime I committed was my rock bottom... I was a very sick man for a very long time" - Weiner

Below is a courtroom sketch of Weiner crying as he heard the verdict:

The 53-year-old former Queens representative pled guilty in May to sending lewd messages to a 15-year-old girl between January and March last year, including sexually explicit images and directions to engage in sexual conduct. As we reported last week, as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of between 21 and 27 months, but Weiner’s lawyers had argued he should have received a sentence of probation.

Monday’s decision marks an end to the criminal case that rocked US politics just days away from the 2016 presidential election, when former FBI Director James Comey briefly reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server after agents investigating Weiner found emails from the Democratic candidate on a computer belonging to him and his wife — a top Clinton aide — Huma Abedin. The former secretary of state has blamed that decision, in part, for her stunning defeat to President Donald Trump.

Weiner dropped his head into his hand and wept as the sentence was announced by Judge Denise Cote. He must surrender to prison officials by Nov. 6. He sought to be spared from prison, telling Cote that he was “a very sick man for a very long time.” Weiner, weeping as he read from a written statement on a page he held in front of him, called his crime his “rock bottom.” When he is released, Weiner will be compelled to register as a sex offender.

Prosecutors reminded the judge that Weiner had sent the girl porn and got her to take her clothes off and touch herself on Skype. Assistant US Attorney Amanda Kramer on Monday urged Cote to give Weiner a significant prison sentence to end his “tragic cycle” of sexting. They added that Weiner should be sentenced to up to two years prison for what he did, and his victim’s motives should not influence his punishment ( the girl said she reached out to Weiner to see if he would take the bait). They also reminded the judge that Weiner has made similar claims of rehabilitation before after a series of embarrassing, widely publicized interactions with adult women before encountering the teenager online in January 2016, according to CBS New York.

And, as Buzzfeed adds, the prison sentence also represents yet another humiliating low for Weiner, "a once-popular and charismatic politician whose promising congressional career and 2013 campaign for New York City mayor were undone by his online behavior: accidentally tweeting an image of his bulging crotch, sexting with a woman while using the pseudonym Carlos Danger, the publication of a photo he sent to another woman in which his young son could be seen in bed next to him, and, finally, the revelation he had sexted with an underage girl."

His actions have also cost him his family, with Abedin filing for divorce last year when the picture of their son in bed was splashed across the cover of the New York Post in August 2016.

"I accept full responsibility for my conduct," a tearful Weiner told the court in May as he pled guilty. "I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse."

* * *

As reported last week, according to US prosecutors, the teenage girl first contacted Weiner via Twitter in January 2016, with their conversations becoming increasingly sexual. At one stage, Weiner sent the teen pornography, while he also used Skype and Snapchat to ask the girl touch herself for him, which she did. After their conversations stopped, the girl eventually sold her story to DailyMail.com, which published screenshots of the pair’s conversations.

While careful not to be seen to be blaming the teen for Weiner’s actions, his lawyers argued the girl was motivated by a desire to profit and to influence the election. “That argument should be rejected,” prosecutors urged the court, “and Weiner should be sentenced for what he did – not what motivated the Minor Victim.”

Ultimately the argument was not rejected.

* * *

The disgraced politician has since received treatment at facility for sex addicts after he said he hit “rock bottom.” “I entered intensive treatment, found the courage to take a moral inventory of my defects, and began a program of recovery and mental health treatment that I continue to follow every day,” he said in May.

But prosecutors had warned the judge to be skeptical of Weiner's "claimed enlightenment and post-conduct rehabilitation" given his "widely-reported prior scandals." "Weiner’s demonstrated history of professed, yet failed, reform make it difficult to rely on his present claim of self-awareness and transformation," they wrote.

As a reminder, just weeks before the election, FBI agents seized Weiner’s laptop after finding emails from Clinton’s private email server on his hard drive, prompting Director James Comey to announce that the investigation had been reopened a week before the election. Clinton has blamed Weiner – along with Comey, Bernie Sanders, misogyny and everything and everyone else - for costing her the election.

While there are still relatively few details about the man responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in US history, or his motive to kill at least 50 people and injure over 400 people, here is what we know so far, courtesy of the Telegraph and other public data sources.

The gunman behind this morning's Las Vegas shooting, is believed to be a grandfather who lived in a remote desert home in Mestique, Nevada, reports Telegraph's Leon Watson. Stephen Paddock, 64, was named by police as the perpetrator who left more than 50 dead. He was killed when officers blasted their way into his hotel room. Las Vegas police said they had located "numerous firearms within the room that he occupied." Las Vegas Sheriff Lombardo said officers had confronted Paddock on the 32nd floor across the street from the concert. "There were at least 8 guns and a number of long rifles in the alleged shooter’s room", per Las Vegas Police Undersheriff Kevin McMahill.

Police believe Paddock, a local resident, was a "lone wolf" attacker. Lombardo did not give further details, however, on Paddock's background or possible motivation. "We have no idea what his belief system was," Lombardo said. "Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor."

Recordings of the attack suggested that Paddock used an automatic weapon. Paddock, who arrived at the hotel on Thursday, was found with more than 10 rifles, Lombardo said. Relatives said they knew Paddock owned guns, but believed they were legal.

* * *

Before he opened fire late Sunday, gunman Stephen Paddock lived a quiet life for years in a small town outside Las Vegas, the WaPo writes.

A retired man, Paddock often visited Las Vegas to gamble and take in concerts, his relatives said. Public records show he was a licensed pilot, who owned two planes. And he had a hunting license from Alaska. For several years, he appeared to live in Mesquite, Tex. But property records show he chose to move to another town named Mesquite in Nevada, where he bought a home in 2013 and has been living there ever since.

Paddock's family said there was nothing in his past that would suggest violence. "We are in complete shock bewilderment and horror. We have absolutely no idea how in the world Steve did this. Absolutely no concept," said one relative, who spoke anonymously to avoid hurting other relatives. "There was nothing secret or strange about him."

Family members said that Paddock spent much of his retirement in recent years staying in hotels in Las Vegas and gambling. They said he listened to country music and went to concerts at Vegas hotels.

Las Vegas police said authorities were in the process of searching Paddock's home in Mesquite, Nev., on Monday morning. Quinn Averett, a spokesman for Mesquite Police in Nevada said Paddock was unknown to local authorities in the city where he owns a home 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Mesquite police have no recorded interactions with Paddock. Las Vegas police said this about Lombardo.

"We have no investigative information or background associated with this individual that is derogatory," Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said. "The only thing we can tell is he received a citation several years ago, that citation was handled as a matter of normal practice in the court system."

* * *

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the brother of the Las Vegas shooter said that he was a normal guy who must have "snapped." Eric Paddock said that 'something happened' to make his brother Stephen kill at least 50 people and injure 200. Eric said that there was 'absolutely no indication he could do something like this' and said that Stephen had no political or religious affiliation.

He said: 'He was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something'. Speaking from his home in Orlando, Florida, Eric said: 'We know absolutely nothing, this is just, we are dumbfounded. We have absolutely no idea. Our condolences go to the victims and all their families'.

Eric said that he and Stephen, 64, lived on different coasts - Stephen's last address was in Mesquite, Nevada - and that they did not speak that often. He said that his mother was 'in shock' and struggling to cope with the news.

He said: "Our family is OK, we're sitting in here in our house hoping that everyone doesn't attack us."

'He's my brother, we don't have a very close relationship but we talk occasionally. There's no rhyme or reason here, it makes no sense'. He said: 'She has nothing to do with this, at least from my perspective. 'He was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something, he was just a guy.

'He has no political affiliation, no religious affiliation, as far as we know. This wasn't a terror attack'.

Separately, Eric Paddock told CBS News his brother was "not an avid gun guy at all". He added: "The fact that he had those kinds of weapons is just... where the hell did he get automatic weapons? He has no military background or anything like that.

"He's a guy who lived in a house in Mesquite and drove down and gambled in Las Vegas."

“Not an avid gun guy at all...where the hell did he get automatic weapons? He has no military background,” gunman’s brother says pic.twitter.com/EMSKLQGYFM

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 2, 2017

* * *

In the latest police update, Las Vegas undersheriff Kevin McMahill confirmed that Stephen Paddock died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police made entry to his Las Vegas hotel room. He also confirmed that Paddock, who is believed to have checked into the hotel on Thursday, had more than 10 guns.

McMahill added that Marilou Danley is overseas and that officers have made contact with her.  She is believed to be Australian and of Indonesian origin.

Where was he from?

Paddock is reported to have lived in a retirement village in Mesquite, Nevada, since June 2016 and was born on April 9, 1953. It is claimed he previously lived in Reno, Nevada, from 2011 to 2016, and also had an address in Melbourne, Florida, from 2013 to 2015. He has also lived in Henderson, Nevada, and several locations in California since 1990, it is reported.

Mesquite is located about 80 miles, or an hour and 16 minutes, away from Las Vegas, along Nevada’s border with Arizona. Mesquite, a city in Clark County, is home to about 17,400 people, including several retirement communities, along with casinos and golf courses.

Did he act alone?

Despite initial reports of multiple gunmen, police do not believe at this time that there were any other attackers. Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, described Paddock as a "lone wolf". Officers were initially seeking his traveling companion - Marilou Danley - who has now been located. She is believed to have been his roommate, however the police have since announced they do not believe she was involved in the shooting.

At this stage, Paddock does not have any known ties to terrorist organization and no motive has been put forward. When asked by a reporter if it was an act of terrorism, Sheriff Lombardo said: “No, not at this point. We believe it was a local individual. He resides here locally.

"I’m not at liberty to give you his place of residence yet, because it’s an ongoing investigation, we don’t know what his belief system was at this time. … Right now we believe he is the sole aggressor at this point and the scene is static."

Was Paddock known to authorities?

NBC reports that he was. But public records do not show any criminal convictions for Paddock in Nevada. Mesquite Police told CBS News that he was not known to them, and that he lived in a retirement community, is a white male and wasn't a military veteran.

What was his motive?

He was not believed to be connected to any militant group, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.

"We have no idea what his belief system was," Lombardo said. "We've located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied."

How did he die?

According to Las Vegas undersheriff Kevin McMahill, Stephen Paddock died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police made entry to his Las Vegas hotel room. He also confirmed that Paddock, who is believed to have checked into the hotel on Thursday, had more than 10 guns.

A chronic gambler?

Paddock had made significant gambling payments in recent weeks.  Officials say that Paddock's payments were in the tens of thousands, but it was not clear whether those were losses or wins. His former neighbours in Florida, Don and Sharon Judy, said that Paddock was a "night owl" who spent his evenings gambling.

"He did video gambling when he was here," Mrs Judy said. "He showed me one time on his iPhone how he had just won $20,000." She added that he said he "gambled for a living".

A history of family crime?

Paddock's father - Benjamin Paddock - was a convicted bank robber and on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list after escpaing from prison in 1968 and on the run for 10 years.

As AP adds, Benjamin Paddock was a notorious bank robber who tried to run down an FBI agent with his car in Las Vegas in 1960 and was on the agency’s most wanted list after escaping from a federal prison in Texas in 1968. Paddock was a teen when an FBI poster issued after the escape said his father Benjamin Hoskins Paddock had been “diagnosed as psychopathic.”

the Elder Paddock was described decades ago by the FBI as a “glib, smooth-talking” con man who enjoyed gambling, umpiring prison sports games and playing bridge. Paddock was 7 and the oldest of four children when his father was arrested for a string of Phoenix bank robberies.

Neighbor Eva Price took the boy swimming while FBI agents searched the family home. She told the Tucson Citizen at the time: “We’re trying to keep Steve from knowing his father is held as a bank robber. I hardly know the family, but Steve is a nice boy. It’s a terrible thing.” Paddock’s father went by the nicknames “Big Daddy,” ″Chromedome” and “Old Baldy.”

Before the robberies, he served prison time in Illinois for stealing a car, engaging in a confidence game and conspiring to pass bad checks. He was in prison for the first three years of his oldest son’s life.

The FBI warning about the elder Paddock said he should be considered “armed and very dangerous.” He had been serving a 20-year sentence for a string of Phoenix bank robberies.

Paddock's dad was on FBI 10 Most Wanted List (convicted bank robber). Escaped prison in 68. Was on lam 10 years. #vegasshootingpic.twitter.com/uxhZ7KBmc3

— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) October 2, 2017

Terrorism?

In a surprising development, the Islamic State's news agency Amaq has claimed responsibility for the concert attack, alleging that Stephen Paddock converted to Islam "months ago". There is no evidence for these claims. This despite police in Las Vegas stating there is no link to international terrorism. Of course, with Paddock dead from an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound, it will be impossible to confirm or deny this allegation.

BREAKING: #ISIS claimed #LasVegas attack, reporting through 'Amaq that executor is one of its "soldiers" & he converted to Islam months ago pic.twitter.com/4E85vEIUzH

— SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) October 2, 2017

According to a new report from The Hill, early drafts of former FBI Director James Comey's statement on Hillary Clinton's email case accused the former Secretary of State of "gross negligence" in her handling of classified information as opposed to the "extremely careless" phrase that made its way into the final statement.

As The Hill further points out, the change in language is significant since federal law states that "gross negligence" in handling the nation’s intelligence can be punished criminally with prison time or fines whereas "extreme carelessness" has no such legal definition and/or ramifications.

An early draft of former FBI Director James Comey’s statement closing out the Hillary Clinton email case accused the former Secretary of State of having been ‘grossly negligent” in handling classified information, new memos to Congress show.

 

The tough language was changed to the much softer accusation that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information when Comey announced in July 2016 there would be no charges against her.

 

The draft, written weeks before the announcement of no charges, was described by multiple sources who saw the document both before and after it was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee this past weekend.

 

“There is evidence to support a conclusion that Secretary Clinton, and others, used the email server in a manner that was grossly negligent with respect to the handling of classified information,” reads the statement, one of Comey’s earliest drafts.

 

Those sources said the draft statement was subsequently changed in red-line edits to conclude that the handling of 110 emails containing classified information that were transmitted by Clinton and her aides over her insecure personal email server was “extremely careless.”

Of course, Comey's final statement, while critical of Hillary's email usage, alleged that no prosecutor would pursue charges against actions which he described only as "extremely careless."

“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

 

“There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about the matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.”

Meanwhile, Section 793 of federal law states that "gross negligence" with respect to the handling of national defense documents is punishable by a fine and up to 10 years in prison...so you can see why that might present a problem for Hillary.

“Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer— shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

Unfortunately, The Hill's sources couldn't confirm the most important detail behind this bombshell new revelation, namely who made the call to the change the language...

The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the memos show that at least three top FBI officials were involved in helping Comey fashion and edit the statement, including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, General Counsel James Baker and Chief of Staff Jim Rybicki.

 

The documents turned over to Congress do not indicate who recommended the key wording changes, the sources said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to demand the FBI identify who made the changes and why, the sources said.

...that said, we're going to go out on a limb and question whether it just might have had something to do with that infamous meeting between Bill Clinton and then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Comey's boss, that happened just 6 days before Comey made his statement? 

Nah, they probably really did just discuss their grandkids...

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

An undercover FBI informant in the Russian nuclear industry who was made to sign an “illegal NDA” by former AG Loretta Lynch, claims to have video evidence showing Russian agents with briefcases full of bribe money related to the controversial Uranium One deal – according to The Hill investigative journalist John Solomon and Circa‘s Sara Carter.

The informant, whose identity was revealed by Reuters as William D. Campbell, will testify before congress next week after the NDA which carried the threat of prison time was lifted. Campbell, originally misidentifed by Reuters as a lobbyist is actually a nuclear industry consultant who is currently battling cancer. 

As previously reported, Campbell was deeply embedded in the Russian nuclear industry where he gathered extensive evidence of a racketeering scheme involving bribes and kickbacks.

“The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions,” a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials. –The Hill

Campbell’s attorney, former Regan Justice Department official Victoria Toensing, previously told Fox Business host Lou Dobbs “He can tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made.”

Sara Carter and John Solomon sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity to discuss:

Sarah Carter: He’s very sick and he’s been battling cancer and going chemo. He is in a battle for not only his life, but in a battle against what he perceives as people within the US government that don’t want this story to come out.

But there’s so much information that he is willing to share with the public to set the record straight, and believe me we’re gonna get it out there. He is going to have his say. His voice will be heard.

Hannity: He knew about the bribery, kickbacks, extortion of Putin’s agents in the US?

Sara Carter: Yes, and he will be able to lay that all out for everyone, and he will do that for Congress. John and I have been working on this for months and months and months. He came to the [Obama] DOJ with this information. 

John Solomon: He is going to be an extraordinary fact witness because he gathered so much information. There are videotapes where the Russians are opening up briefcases full of cash. These are the people we then gave uranium to, that we then gave nuclear fuel contracts to. 

Hannity: This is happening before they sign off on Uranium One? They knew about bribery extortion kickbacks money laundering before? They knew this was Putin and they did it anyway!

John Solomon: Yes. The Russians really thought they had played America on this one. 

Watch: 

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Submitted by iBankCoin.com

An undercover FBI informant in the Russian nuclear industry who was made to sign an “illegal NDA” by former AG Loretta Lynch, claims to have video evidence showing Russian agents with briefcases full of bribe money related to the controversial Uranium One deal – according to The Hill investigative journalist John Solomon and Circa‘s Sara Carter.

The informant, whose identity was revealed by Reuters as William D. Campbell, will testify before congress next week after the NDA which carried the threat of prison time was lifted. Campbell, originally misidentifed by Reuters as a lobbyist is actually a nuclear industry consultant who is currently battling cancer. 

As previously reported, Campbell was deeply embedded in the Russian nuclear industry where he gathered extensive evidence of a racketeering scheme involving bribes and kickbacks.

“The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions,” a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials. –The Hill

Campbell’s attorney, former Regan Justice Department official Victoria Toensing, previously told Fox Business host Lou Dobbs “He can tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made.”

Sara Carter and John Solomon sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity to discuss:

Sarah Carter: He’s very sick and he’s been battling cancer and going chemo. He is in a battle for not only his life, but in a battle against what he perceives as people within the US government that don’t want this story to come out.  But there’s so much information that he is willing to share with the public to set the record straight, and believe me we’re gonna get it out there. He is going to have his say. His voice will be heard.

 

Hannity: He knew about the bribery, kickbacks, extortion of Putin’s agents in the US?  

 

Sara Carter: Yes, and he will be able to lay that all out for everyone, and he will do that for Congress. John and I have been working on this for months and months and months. He came to the [Obama] DOJ with this information. 

 

John Solomon: He is going to be an extraordinary fact witness because he gathered so much information. There are videotapes where the Russians are opening up briefcases full of cash. These are the people we then gave uranium to, that we then gave nuclear fuel contracts to. 

 

Hannity: This is happening before they sign off on Uranium One? They knew about bribery extortion kickbacks money laundering before? They knew this was Putin and they did it anyway!

 

John Solomon: Yes. The Russians really thought they had played America on this one. 

Watch:

Over the weekend we noted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's top FBI investigator into 'Russian meddling', agent Peter Strzok, was removed from the probe due to the discovery of anti-Trump text messages exchanged with a colleague (a colleague whom he also happened to be having an extra-marital affair with).

Not surprisingly, the discovery prompted a visceral response from Trump via Twitter:

Tainted (no, very dishonest?) FBI “agent’s role in Clinton probe under review.” Led Clinton Email probe. @foxandfriends Clinton money going to wife of another FBI agent in charge.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

Report: “ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT LED CLINTON EMAIL PROBE” Now it all starts to make sense!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

Alas, as it turns out, Strzok, who was blatantly exposed as a political hack by his own wreckless text messages, also had a leading role in the Hillary email investigation.  And wouldn't you know it, as CNN has apparently just discovered, Strzok not only held a leading role in that investigation but potentially single-handedly saved Hillary from prosecution by making the now-infamous change in Comey's final statement to describe her email abuses as "extremely careless" rather than the original language of "grossly negligent."

A former top counterintelligence expert at the FBI, now at the center of a political uproar for exchanging private messages that appeared to mock President Donald Trump, changed a key phrase in former FBI Director James Comey's description of how former secretary of state Hillary Clinton handled classified information, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

 

Electronic records show Peter Strzok, who led the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server as the No. 2 official in the counterintelligence division, changed Comey's earlier draft language describing Clinton's actions as "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless," the source said.
The drafting process was a team effort, CNN is told, with a handful of people reviewing the language as edits were made, according to another US official familiar with the matter.

 

But the news of Strzok's direct role in the statement that ultimately cleared the former Democratic presidential candidate of criminal wrongdoing, now combined with the fact that he was dismissed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team after exchanging private messages with an FBI lawyer that could be seen as favoring Clinton politically, may give ammunition to those seeking ways to discredit Mueller's Russia investigation.

 

The FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Of course, as we noted a month ago (see: First Comey Memo Concluded Hillary Was "Grossly Negligent," Punishable By Jail), the change in language was significant since federal law states that "gross negligence" in handling the nation’s intelligence can be punished criminally with prison time or fines whereas "extreme carelessness" has no such legal definition and/or ramifications. 

In fact, Section 793 of federal law states that "gross negligence" with respect to the handling of national defense documents is punishable by a fine and up to 10 years in prison...so you can see why that might present a problem for Hillary.

“Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer— shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

And just like that, the farce that has heretofore been referred to as the "Russian meddling probe" has been exposed for what it really is...an extremely compromised political "witch hunt".

As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2017

A 19 year old Chicago woman who live-streamed the racially charged kidnapping, torture and mutilation of a mentaly disabled teen was given 200 hours of community service and four years of probation on Friday.

Brittany Herring Covington - who went by "Herring" on Social Media before her arreest, and "Covington" in recent reports, avoided a possible 33 years in prison on multiple counts, including a hate crime, aggravated battery and aggravated kidnapping - a charge which was dropped along with several others as part of a plea agreement. 

Brittany Herring (Covington) mugshot

Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks handed down the slap on the wrist to Covington, who pleaded guilty to a hate crime, aggravated battery and intimidation charges - telling the teen that he could have sent her to prison, but told her "I'm not sure if I did that you'd be coming out any better."

Hooks warned Covington that should she violate the terms of her probation - which includes a ban from social media for four years, she would face prison time. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges including kidnapping. 

Judge William Hooks, Cook County IL

"Do not mess this up," Judge Hooks said to Covington, who stood in front of him in a blue jumpsuit. Hooks is notably the first African-American president of Chicago's Federal Bar Association, a past president of the Cook County Bar Association, and a member of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago. 

Tanisha Covington, Tesfaye Cooper, Brittany Herring Covington, Jordan Hill and victim

The brutal attack took place in early January, after four black Chicago teens kidnapped the mentally disabled white teen and held him captive for nearly two days - binding his hands and feet with duct tape and gagging him with a sock, before using a knife to cut and stab the victim while laughing, shouting racial slurs and issuing death threats. In one segment of the livestreamed attack, one of the females can be seen laughing as she punches the victim. At another point, one of the male attackers wraps a cord around the victim's neck while he groaned in pain, and in another a male approaches the victim with a knife and asks the others "Should I shank his ass?" Other notable quotes include: 

“Fuck Donald Trump, Fuck white people”

 

“There’s gonna be a murder. Pop pop pop”

 

“We gonna put this bitch in the trunk, put a brick on the gas, like aaaaaaaaah”

 

“Pistol whip his ass, fool“

After nearly 48 hours, the kidnapped teen escaped after the kidnappers left the apartment to confront a neighbor who had called 911 to complain about the noise coming out of their apartment where the torture was taking place. 

The video, which can be seen here, or here immediately went viral. After the teens were arrested, Chicago PD initially said it was not racially motivated, despite it clearly being a hate crime. Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; and Brittany Herring's sister Tanishia, 24, were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crimes, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. 

After her arrest, Brittany Herring Covington bragged on Facebook from a smart phone she was able to sneak into jail, posting "yall mad?" and "Sittin in dis cell on my celly talking to yall trippin. Erbody got phones in her these day," and typing "Tfse" which stands for "The Funniest Shit Ever." 

And for her participation in the brutal crime, Herring-Covington only received 200 hours of community service and four years of probation. Meanwhile, a Broward County, Florida man who vandalized a Mosque and left bacon inside was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week. 

The three other kidnappers charged along with Herring-Covington are still awaiting trial. Perhaps Judge Hooks will give them the key to the city.