The amount of irony here is astounding. Leftist liberal and former attorney general Eric Holder’s firm was enlisted by the leftists over at Facebook to investigate the social media giant’s bias against conservatives. There couldn’t be a more humorously ironic story than this one.
At first, it seemed like Facebook might be trying to do the right thing: investigate the bias against those who aren’t leftists using the social media platform. The tech company enlisted a team from law firm Covington and Burling to advise them on combating perceptions of bias against conservatives. But there’s one minor detail that Breitbarthappened to pick up on: Covington and Burling is the firm of Barack Obama’s left-wing former attorney general, Eric Holder.
In issuing an “apology” to the clients represented by the ACLJ, the IRS admitted that it was wrong to use the United States tax code simply because of an entity’s name. They also admitted the bombshell fact that this discrimination happened specifically because of the applicants’ political viewpoints. Keep in mind the fact that the mainstream media has spent years telling the American people that this didn’t happen.
In other words, outlets such as The Washington Post, CNN, and The New York Times directly lied to their readers and viewers to protect a Democratic president whose administration was openly breaking the law. –SHTFPlan
After the apology from the Department of Justice, Eric Holder flat out said that the DOJ should not have apologized to conservatives for using the IRS as a weapon against their political enemies.
Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder said the Trump administration was wrong to have apologized to tea party groups snared in the IRS’s targeting scandal, saying it was another example of the new team undercutting career people at the Justice Department who’d initially cleared the IRS of wrongdoing.
“That apology was unnecessary, unfounded and inconsistent, it seems to me, with the responsibilities that somebody who would seek to lead the Justice Department should have done,” Mr. Holder said. –The Washington Times
Holder had ordered a criminal probe into the IRS’s handling of tea party applications after the 2013 revelation by an inspector general that the tax agency had subjected conservative groups to intrusive and inappropriate scrutiny when they applied for nonprofit status.
And not surprising in the least, that probe eventually cleared the IRS, saying that while there was bungling, there was no ill intent. The probe specifically cleared former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner, saying rather than a problem, she was actually a hero, reporting bad practices when she spotted them.
The good news is that The Heritage Foundation will also be working with Facebook on the same issue. According to Axios, the conservative think-tank will “will convene meetings on these issues with Facebook executives.” Klon Kitchen, a former adviser to Senator Ben Sasse who now works as a tech policy expert at Heritage, has reportedly hosted an event with Facebook’s head of global policy management.
California Governor Jerry Brown said that the lawsuit filed against California by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over recently passed state laws was an “act of war.” During a press conference with the California attorney general on Wednesday, Brown looked every bit the easily offended liberal.
Upset that he has to follow others’ rules while making California almost unbearable with the number of rules, laws, and regulations he demands the residents of the Golden State adhere to, Brown became the offended hypocrite everyone knew he was.
“You called this an act of war from the federal government,” a reporter began asking Brown. Brown immediately looked confused. “An act of war? That’s pretty strong. But I reincorporate that comment,” Brown responded.
In the video below, you can hear Brown say that California and the federal government are now going to war with each other. With the states attorney general, Xavier Becerra by his side, Brown declares “this is basically going to war against the state of California.”
“No, we are state of laws,” Brown answered. “We want to observe the law now. The [U.S.] attorney general has basically thrown the gauntlet down and done it in a highly politicized way. Yeah, this is a very aggressive act on the part of the Trump administration, and it’s not right, and it won’t stand. And as I say, I’m sure this lawsuit will last has more longevity than the Trump administration itself,” Brown concluded.
Attorney General Becerra the gets a moment to speak as well, and with a straight face, says “here in California, we respect the law and the Constitution. We expect the federal government to do the same.”
US President Donald Trump speaks during his address to the nation from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on August 21, 2017. Trump warned Monday that a hasty exit from Afghanistan would create a “vacuum” that would benefit America’s jihadist foes, in a major policy address on his strategy in the 16-year conflict. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
The Times long ago destroyed its credibility – suppressing hard truths on vital issues, substituting willful disinformation.
The self-styled newspaper of record is part of a cabal trying to oust Trump from office for the wrong reasons – a coup d’etat plot to remove a sitting president for defeating Hillary, a media darling, guilty of wrongdoing throughout her public life.
The Times went all-out to denigrate the Russiagate FISA memo, exposing high-level FBI and DOJ wrongdoing, wanting its contents suppressed.
A previous article explained that the FBI and DOJ sought multiple FISA warrants based on unverified information from former MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dodgy dossier on Trump – his work funded by Hillary and the DNC to denigrate him during the 2016 presidential campaign, continuing once in office.
It attempted to smear him with specious, unproven allegations of improper or illegal connections to Russia – including phony accusations of Russian US election meddling.
Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe admitted in testimony that without the Steele dossier, he couldn’t have gotten FISA court warrants.
America’s DOJ, FBI and intelligence community have a well-documented history of abuse of power – notably against Jack and Bobby Kennedy, along with Martin Luther King, eliminated to silence them and end their influence over US policymaking.
Russiagate investigations are a scam. House and Senate investigations are vitally needed to expose abusive practices by the above agencies.
The NYT lobbied against release of the FISA memo. Following its release, it continued its campaign against important information it revealed, publishing multiple articles and commentaries.
A Sunday one headlined “Trump’s Unparalleled War on a Pillar of Society: Law Enforcement,” saying:
“Under attack by the president, the deputy FBI director, Andrew G. McCabe, was pushed out in recent days. Mr. Trump has hinted that he may fire the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein.”
“And his aides fear that Christopher A. Wray, his FBI director, may resign over the dispute with the bureau, although associates doubt it.”
“The war between the president and the nation’s law enforcement apparatus is unlike anything America has seen in modern times.”
Fact: McCabe, Comey, and Rosenstein sought FISA warrants to investigate Trump’s team based on fabricated allegations.
Fact: Trump sacked Comey earlier. McCabe resigned to avoid sacking for wrongdoing. Rosenstein should be sacked.
Fact: All three and others involved at the FBI and DOJ should be prosecuted for wrongdoing, establishing a precedent to hold high-level US officials accountable for their crimes.
A Times commentary headlined “The Memo Doesn’t Vindicate Trump. It’s More Proof of Obstruction,” saying:
Trump “said…the memo’s release…’vindicates’ him in the probe,” including for “obstruction. (I)t does no such thing.”
Fact: Trump is guilty of serious wrongdoing, major war crimes especially. No evidence suggests he obstructed justice. Claims otherwise by the Times, other media scoundrels and undemocratic Dems are phony.
Another Times commentary headlined “The Nunes Memo Is All Smoke, No Fire,” saying the memo “does not establish an ‘abuse of the foreign intelligence laws.”
Probable cause is required to get FISA warrants, wrongdoing committed if the DOJ and FBI “intentionally or willfully omit(ted) important information that could defeat the probable cause finding.”
“(T)he memo doesn’t make its case. It should prompt more confusion than outrage,” the Times falsely claimed.
Fact: Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dodgy dossier was funded by Hillary and the DNC to denigrate Trump and help defeat him in the 2016 election.
Fact: As explained above, McCabe admitted that without Steele’s dossier, he couldn’t have gotten FISA warrants – several because they expire in 90 days.
Fact: Steele failed trying to get his dossier published, getting no takers. Media he approached turned him down because his information was unverified.
Fact: DOJ and FBI applications to the FISA court failed to mention Steele’s dossier was funded by Hillary and the DNC – even though high-level officials in both agencies knew it.
Fact: Privately, Steele told later demoted FBI agent Bruce Ohr he wanted Trump prevented from becoming president.
The FBI, DOJ and intelligence community have well-documented histories of abuse of power, including by targeting political leaders.
Based on unverified information in Steele’s dodgy dossier, no probable cause existed to justify issuance of FISA warrants.
Times reports failed to explain this and other vital information. It remains furious over Trump’s electoral triumph, defeating its campaign to get war criminal, racketeer, perjurer Hillary elected president – still smarting from her defeat.
(ZHE) —The just released FISA memo accuses senior officials at the DOJ of inappropriately using biased opposition research into then-candidate Trump to obtain surveillance warrants on transition team members as part of the federal investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia. According to the document, information from the the so-called Steele dossier was “essential” to the acquisition of surveillance […]
As president Donald Trump left last night’s State of the Union address, he was caught on a hot mic moment that should send shivers down the spines of leftists and the deep state. The president said he would 100% release the FISA memo.
Representative Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) approached Trump as he exited the House chamber following the State the Union address, and asked him to “release the memo.” Trump responded. “Don’t worry, 100 percent,” the president said with a wave of his hand.
The exchange was caught by television cameras filming the president after he delivered the address. The president’s comments also come as Congress awaits his decision on whether he will allow members to release the memo to the public, a question that has sharply divided lawmakers along party lines.
Speculation as to when the White House will release the memo following a vote to make it public by GOP lawmakers on Monday night. Many are suggesting that Trump wants the news cycle to focus on his speech until at least Thursday before there is any movement on the release of the memo.
According to the Washington Post,a White House spokesman confirmed early Wednesday that the administration’s official position is now that Trump will release the memo to the public. The simple fact that the Democrats and the FBI want this memo kept secret certainly makes everyone want to see it more.
The memo is said to suggest that British ex-spy Christopher Steele, the author of a now-famous dossier alleging Trump has ties to Russian officials, provided bad information to the FBI. Steele’s dossier work was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, and Trump has denied the allegations in it.
The very basic fact is that the left desperately wants this memo to remain a secret. That means, it should be released so the people can see for themselves that the mainstream media and Democrats have been lying to them to manipulate public opinion.
A week-ago four-page memo described as explosive and shocking was released to House members – reportedly showing extensive FISA abuses.
A previous article explained it contains information about the Justice Department, the FBI and fake Trump dossier – prepared for Hillary Clinton and the DNC by former UK MI6 intelligence operative Christopher Steele.
It makes spurious accusations without evidence, alleging misconduct and collusion between Trump, his campaign team and Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign – including phony accusations of Russian US election interference.
It reveals alleged abusive tactics by high-level US officials. According to the Daily Beast, it names “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, along with former FBI Director James Comey.”
Many GOP lawmakers are calling for the memo’s release, spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes.
Undemocratic Dems want its contents suppressed. The Daily Beast said it “learned that Hill Republicans are gearing up to use an obscure parliamentary rule to release it.”
So-called Rule X, subsection 11(g) explains a process for releasing classified material even if the president objects.
It’s rarely invoked. Now’s the time to expose Russiagate wrongdoing and hold responsible parties accountable.
According to the Daily Beast, “(u)nder the rule, if a clash occurs between the House intelligence committee and the executive branch over keeping something secret, the president gets five days to deliver objections that cite a danger to national security posed by disclosure.”
“Should the dispute persist, the committee can vote to take the matter to the full House of Representatives to consider. The full House’s debate is to occur in secret, with a public vote determining the outcome.”
“The president, however, can simply decide on his own to declassify anything. And in Trump’s case, his spokesperson is on the record supporting declassification.”
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said “(w)e certainly support full transparency. We believe that’s at the House intel committee to make that decision at this point.”
“It sounds like there are some members in the House that have some real concern about what’s in that memo and feel very strongly that the American public should be privy to see it.”
The Trump Justice Department opposes release, its top congressional liaison Stephen Boyd saying:
“(I)t would be extraordinarily reckless for the Committee to disclose such information publicly without giving the Department and the FBI the opportunity to review the memorandum and to advise the (House intelligence committee) of the risk of harm to national security and to ongoing investigations that could come from public release,” adding:
The DOJ is “unaware of any wrongdoing,” a comment smacking of coverup. It’s unclear how many GOP House members read the memo, maybe all of them by now, several expressing outrage about its contents, calling for its release.
Under the hashtag #releasethememo, GOP House member Mark Meadows tweeted:
“I read the classified memo from House Intel, outlining stunning info on the last administration’s FISA and surveillance abuses that should NEVER happen in America. The public should be able to view the same memo I did.”
Another referred to Obamagate. On Facebook, actor Clint Eastwood remarked that “(o)ne day we will realize that the Barack Obama presidency was the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people.”
He’s right. They’re all dirty rotten scoundrels, with attribution to the film by the same name.
Russiagate is a colossal scam. There’s plenty about Trump to criticize. Nothing suggests illegal or improper behavior between him, his campaign team and Russia. No Russian election hacking occurred.
Most #Releasethememo tweets are from ordinary Americans wanting it released, calling for accountability if evidence proves wrongdoing by government officials.
Discrediting it by undemocratic Dems and other Trump opponents by claiming Russian trolls are behind it is part of the coverup effort.
The memo is a potential bombshell. “Hill Democrats and former FBI officials say it’s a ploy to damage public confidence in the FBI and undermine Mueller’s investigation,” the Daily Beast reported, adding:
“Republicans, meanwhile, say the memo contains massively disturbing evidence of FBI wrongdoing.”
Given public disclosure about the memo’s existence and alleged wrongdoing it details, release isn’t certain but seems likely – either in full or redacted form.
Members of Congress are revealing that the day after the election, top FBI officials sent text messages referencing a "secret society" within the intelligence community.
(ZHE)— Exactly two weeks after we reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed DOJ prosecutors to dig into the FBI’s handling of the Uranium One investigation, we learn that the FBI has opened a new investigation of the Clinton Foundation launched by the DOJ – spearheaded by its Little Rock, Arkansas field office, according to John Solomon of The Hill.
The probe will focus on pay-for-play schemes and tax code violations, according to law enforcement officials and a witness who wishes to remain anonymous.
The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.
The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the Foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said. –The Hill
The witness who was interviewed by Little Rock FBI agents said that questions focused on “government decisions and discussions of donations to Clinton entities during the time Hillary Clinton led President Obama’s State Department,” and that the agents were “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough.”
Also of note, as tweeted by WikiLeaks and reported by the Dallas Observer, the Clinton Foundation has been under investigation by the IRS since July, 2016 after 64 GOP members of congress received letters urging them to push for an investigation. The investigation is being handled by their Dallas office – far away from Washington insiders.
The Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas is an all purpose office complex, a bastion of federal bureaucracy located at 1100 Commerce St. Most people come for a passport or to get business done in front of a federal judge. But inside, a quiet review is underway that has direct ties to the raging presidential election: The local branch of the IRS’ Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division is reviewing the tax status of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
A spokesman for both Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation did not return The Hill‘s calls or emails seeking comments, however they have previously maintained that the Clintons never traded government policy decisions for donations – calling recent focus on the issue a “conservative distraction” from President Trump’s Russia probe.
Of primary interest to the FBI is likely the Uranium One deal, which would grant the Kremlin control over 20 percent of America’s uranium supply, as detailed by author Peter Schweitzer’s book Clinton Cash and the New York Times in 2015. The scheme allowed Russia to buy its way into the U.S. atomic energy business using the same Clinton Foundation pay-for-play relationship used by 16 countries, including Saudi Arabia – which received a 143% increase in weapons sales over the previous administration after donating to the foundation.
A brief timeline of the Uranium One deal:
Between 2008 – 2010, parties involved with Uranium One donated $145 Million to the Clinton Foundation. You can read more about the parties here.
June 2009, Russian State Nuclear Agency Rosatom (through a subsidiary) takes a 17% stake in Uranium One.
June 29th, 2010, Bill Clinton meets with Vladimir Putinat his home in Russia. Later that day Clinton earns $500,000 for a Moscow speech to Kremlin-linked investment bank Renaissance Capital, which assigned a “buy” rating to Uranium One stock.
January 2013, Rosatom State Nuclear Agency acquires the remainder of Uranium one and takes it private.
Also of interest in relation to the Uranium One deal is the fact that weeks after the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s email began, the FBI issued notices to every agency in the CFIUS to preserve records, as discovered by Twitter researcher Katica while looking at FOIA-requested documents.
The agencies which received the request included the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Dept. of Treasury, the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI James Clapper), The National Counter Terrorism Center, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Five days after the initial request, the same FBI agent sent another round of notifications to the same agencies, adding the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). The next day, September 3rd, 2015, three more agencies were added to the preservation request: The CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Department of Defense (DOD)
At this point, every single member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which signed off on the Uranium One deal was served with a notice to preserve records.
* * *
Another report by The Hillfrom November reveals that 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 timewas 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.”
Indeed, it appears that the Saudis – the old “pre-crackdown” Saudis of course, who wouldn’t let women drive cars, were hoping for a significant return on their investment under a Hillary Clinton White House with John Podesta ostensibly in the Secretary of State role – similar to the 143% increase in weapons sales granted to the Kingdom and other Clinton-foundation friendly governments while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.
The Clinton-led State Department also authorized $151 billion of separate Pentagon-brokered deals for 16 of the countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation, resulting in a 143 percent increase in completed sales to those nations over the same time frame during the Bush administration.
It’s clear they had a lot riding on Hillary, some say in the hopes of co-opting the US military into an intervention in Syria to topple President Bashar al-Assad. The plan was regime change – with the goal of installing yet another Western friendly puppet government which would rubber-stamp a lucrative Saudi/Qatar pipeline through the country, exiting into the Mediterranean through Turkey – as opposed to a competing Russian / Iranian / Syrian pipeline.
Moreover, WikiLeaks exposed the fact that Saudi Arabia and Qatar funded ISIS – which then invaded Syria in an effort to co-opt the Arab spring and topple Assad. Recall that Hillary’s plan was to join ISIS in this fight, starting with the institution of a “no fly” zone which would have put the United States in direct conflict with Russia.
There was also, of course, the $1 million check Qatar gave to Bill Clinton on his birthday, as disclosed by WikiLeaks, in which Amitabh Desai, the Clinton Foundation’s director of foreign policy, writes to senior Clinton Foundation officials explaining the “summary of key points” from his meetings with the “Ambassadors from Qatar, Brazil, Peru, Malawi, and Rwanda, in Washington, DC.”
Describing his meeting with the ambassador of Qatar, Desai wrote, “Would like to see WJC [William Jefferson Clinton] ‘for five minutes’ in NYC, to present $1 million check that Qatar promised for WJC’s birthday in 2011.”
It gradually becomes clear that Hillary Clinton was set to use United States military assets at the behest of Saudi Arabia – first for regime change in Syria, and then in Saudi Arabia’s confict with Yemen as the next logical target. It also emerged that Hillary’s right hand woman Huma Abedin has had alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood which still haven’t been investigated. John McCain, interestingly enough, chastised Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN) for pointing this out. In addition, a former Muslim Brotherhood member turned peace activist, Walid Shoebat said in an interview with Front Page Magazine:
The Abedins for decades were actually serving a foreign entity, the government of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and not American Democracy as President Obama stated. -FrontPage
With all that said, and there is much more (to scrape the surface read “Clinton Foundation Is Charity Fraud Of Epic Proportions”, Analyst Charges In Stunning Takedown“, it appears that the FBI should have its hands full re-investigating the Clinton Foundation. Perhaps Attorney General Sessions will even ensure that Clinton loyalists within the organization aren’t responsible for things such as; reaching conclusions, recommending charges, closing investigations and changing language which would exonerate otherwise very illegal behavior.
This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.
The folks at Open The Books decided to take a deep dive into the salaries of 1.97 million federal employees, using data collected from the Office Of Personnel Management and the USPS via FOIA requests, and the endless examples of excessive pay and pure waste are sure to make you sick, if not downright suicidal. Here are just some of the key takeaways as summarized by OTB:
1. The federal government pays its disclosed workforce $1 million per minute, $66 million per hour, and $524 million per day. In FY2016, the federal government disclosed 1.97 million employees at a cash compensation cost of $136.3 billion.
2. Over a six-year period (FY2010-2016), the number of federal employees making $200,000 or more has increased by 165 percent; those making $150,000 or more has grown by 60 percent; and those making more than $100,000 has increased by 37 percent.
3. On average, federal employees are given 10 federal holidays, 13 sick days, and 20 vacation days per year. If each employee used 13 sick days and took 20 vacation days in addition to the 10 federal holidays, it would cost taxpayers an estimated $22.6 billion annually.
4. In FY2016, a total 406,960 employees made six-figure incomes – that"s roughly one in five disclosed federal employees. Furthermore, 29,852 federal employees out-earned each of the 50 state governors receiving more than $190,823.
5. At 78 out of the 122 independent agencies and departments we studied, the average employee compensation exceeded $100,000 in FY2016.
6. With 326 employees at a total cash compensation of $28.8 million, we found a federal agency in San Francisco – Presidio Trust – paid out three of the top four federal bonuses including the largest in the federal government in FY2016. The biggest bonus went to an HR Manager in charge of payroll for $141,525.
7. Together, the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employ more than half of the disclosed federal workforce. As the largest civilian employer within the federal government, the USPS employed 32 percent of all disclosed federal employees, totaling 621,523 people on payroll in FY2016. The VA employed the second most employees with 372,614 or 19 percent of the disclosed federal workforce.
8. Only one-third of the 35,000 lawyers in the federal workforce work at the Department of Justice. The entire staff of federal lawyers earned $4.8 billion in FY2016.
9. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employed 3,498 police officers at a total cost of $172 million in FY2016. When asked about corresponding crime statistics, the VA was unable to provide any information on the number of crimes or incidents.
10. There are an additional 2 million undisclosed employees at the Department of Defense and in the active military. Their estimated cash compensation value, combined with $1 billion in undisclosed bonuses and $125 billion in hidden pension data, amounts to roughly $221 billion in undisclosed federal cash compensation per year.
So where is all the money going? As it turns out, federal employees working in "the beltway" and California receive 22% of all federal compensation dollars. Meanwhile, employees located in just the top 10 states received 41% ($55.5 billion). Of course, out of that top 10, only two states, Georgia and Texas, consistently vote "red" in national elections which may help to explain why the Trump administration has struggled with leaks from a variety of agencies since moving into the White House.
The growth in the number of federal employees earning over $150,000 per year is simply mind numbing. Keep in mind, these salaries are doled out regardless of whether or not these employees take advantage of their 8 weeks of paid time off every year.
There are now 29,852 federal employees who out-earn every governor of the 50 states, receiving more than $190,823 each. Over a six-year period (FY2010-2016), the number of federal employees making $200,000 or more has increased by 165 percent, those making $150,000 or more has grown by 60 percent, and those making more than $100,000 has increased by 37 percent.
Of the roughly 2 million disclosed federal employees, 406,960 made six figures in cash compensation in FY2016. Additionally, 24,799 federal employees earned $200,000 or more while 3,154 made $300,000 or more. The top-paid federal employee overall, Dr. David Harpole, made $403,849 as a thoracic and cardiac surgeon for the Department of Veterans Affairs. This department employs more top earners than any other department or independent agency
As if the above isn"t bad enough, things get really disturbing when you learn that various agencies employee an army of "Interior Designers" making up to $150,000 per year...
The Department of State displayed the most egregious trends in regards to interior designers, doling out - on average - $122,093 to each of its 24 interior designers. The highest-paid interior design employees, however, worked for the Department of Treasury, earning $132,438, on average. In all, the federal government paid 40 interior designers more than $100,000 each.
...and an even larger army of "Gardeners" making up to $160,000.
Perhaps it"s time for a career change? Here"s an idea...you could pick up a job mowing the lawn at the State Department for 40 hours a week at a salary of $141,555 and then use the other 128 hours of every week to get an Interior Design gig at Treasury for $152,687...all the while collecting two pensions and making nearly 5x the average American household yet still working less hours despite having two jobs...
The weird thing about trees is that someday, like all of us, they die.
This tree was on its way out. In fact, the tree was removed in order to protect anyone standing under it from danger. Who usually stands under it? The press. Melania was trying to protect the same press that now attempts to skewer her over landscaping.
(Of course, if the tree broke and killed a member of the press, then they could all have a field day reporting that Trump is responsible for killing a journalist.)
I felt very silly writing the past few paragraphs because the issue is so trivial. This is not important news. The media that originally reported this story (starting with CNN) should be laughed out of town. And in one way or another, they will be.
It’s not so much the reporting of this non-news that is a problem. I suppose it may be of some interest to someone somewhere. Perhaps a side link, or maybe a half page in Arborist Monthly. But the headlines! That is what really does it.
You know, the tree was actually planted by Andrew Jackson. So the media could have said, “Melania Orders Removal of Symbol of Racism,” or “Two-Hundred Year Old Monument to the Trail of Tears to Be Cut Down.”
The substance of the article missed an opportunity too. The White House had to call in tree experts, who made a report which was delivered to Melania, who sat down with the arborists and staff to thoroughly explore every option before making the call to remove the tree.
If that’s not a metaphor for the government, I don’t know what is! A dying tree, being held up by cables to preserve some remnant of a long-gone past. The desperate bid to save a symbol, to hold onto something rotting and dangerous. And then the intricate process, bureaucracy, time, and money that it takes to just cut down the freakin tree!
The media is absolutely desperate to criticize the Trump administration over anything they can get their hands on. Except that this is exactly the type of coverage Trump relishes in. Big nothing-burgers which keep his name in the news, but don’t hurt him in the least. Only anti-Trump zealots will latch on to a story like this. The rest of us, not even just the Trump supporters, will roll our eyes and stop paying attention.
And that is the dangerous part of these types of stories. What are they masking?
Ironically the FBI investigation into the Trump Russian collusion charges has done a 360 and now points to the Democrats and FBI agents as the real criminal manipulators. But they are in too deep and have overplayed their hand.
China is a big red flag to the rest of the world on how not to govern. They intimate journalists and dissidents and monitor every aspect of their citizens’ lives. A “social credit” system has even started to score citizens based on things like patriotism and neighborliness.
But Melania approved a tree getting cut down, and that is just too fun an opportunity for the media to ignore! It fits the scorched-earth-Republican narrative too well.
She also ordered all the tree’s progeny uprooted and burned. As for the tree itself, she plans to fashion a throne, from which she will rule for a thousand years.
The original question the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign was to answer was a simple one: Did he do it?
Did Trump, or officials with his knowledge, collude with Vladimir Putin’s Russia to hack the emails of John Podesta and the DNC, and leak the contents to damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump?
A year and a half into the investigation, and, still, no “collusion” has been found. Yet the investigation goes on, at the demand of the never-Trump media and Beltway establishment.
Hence, and understandably, suspicions have arisen.
Are the investigators after the truth, or are they after Trump?
Set aside the Trump-Putin conspiracy theory momentarily, and consider a rival explanation for what is going down here:
That, from the outset, Director James Comey and an FBI camarilla were determined to stop Trump and elect Hillary Clinton.
Having failed, they conspired to break Trump’s presidency, overturn his mandate and bring him down.
Essential to any such project was first to block any indictment of Hillary for transmitting national security secrets over her private email server. That first objective was achieved 18 months ago.
On July 5, 2016, Comey stepped before a stunned press corps to declare that, given the evidence gathered by the FBI, “no reasonable prosecutor” would indict Clinton. Therefore, that was the course he, Comey, was recommending.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch, compromised by her infamous 35-minute tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton — to discuss golf and grandkids — seconded Comey’s decision.
And so Hillary walked. Why is this suspicious?
First, whether or not to indict was a decision that belonged to the Department of Justice, not Jim Comey or the FBI. His preemption of Justice Department authority was astonishing.
Second, while Comey said in his statement that Hillary had been “extremely careless” with security secrets, in his first draft, Clinton was declared guilty of “gross negligence” — the precise language in the statute to justify indictment.
Who talked Comey into softening the language to look less than criminal? One man was FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whose wife, Jill, a Virginia state senate candidate, received a munificent PAC contribution of $474,000 from Clinton family friend and big bundler Terry McAuliffe.
Also urging Comey to soften the fatal phrase “gross negligence” was key FBI agent Peter Strzok. In text messages to his FBI lover Lisa Page, Strzok repeatedly vented his detestation of the “idiot” Trump.
After one meeting with “Andy” (McCabe), Strzok told Page an “insurance policy” was needed to keep Trump out of the White House.
Also, it appears Comey began drafting his exoneration statement of Hillary before the FBI had even interviewed her. And when the FBI did, Hillary was permitted to have her lawyers present.
One need not be a conspiracy nut to conclude the fix was in, and a pass for Hillary wired from the get-go. Comey, McCabe, Strzok were not going to recommend an indictment that would blow Hillary out of the water and let the Trump Tower crowd waltz into the White House.
Yet, if Special Counsel Robert Mueller cannot find any Trump collusion with the Kremlin to tilt the outcome of the 2016 election, his investigators might have another look at the Clinton campaign.
For there a Russian connection has been established.
Kremlin agents fabricated, faked, forged, or found the dirt on Trump that was passed to ex-British MI6 spy Christopher Steele, and wound up in his “dirty dossier” that was distributed to the mainstream media and the FBI to torpedo Trump.
And who hired Steele to tie Trump to Russia?
Fusion GPS, the oppo research outfit into which the DNC and Clinton campaign pumped millions through law firm Perkins Coie.
Let’s review the bidding.
The “dirty dossier,” a mixture of fabrications, falsehoods and half-truths, created to destroy Trump and make Hillary president, was the product of a British spy’s collusion with Kremlin agents.
In Dec. 26’s Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough writes that the FBI relied on this Kremlin-Steele dossier of allegations and lies to base their decision “to open a counterintelligence investigation (of Trump).” And press reports “cite the document’s disinformation in requests for court-approved wiretaps.”
If this is true, a critical questions arises:
Has the Mueller probe been so contaminated by anti-Trump bias and reliance on Kremlin fabrications that any indictment it brings will be suspect in the eyes of the American people?
Director Comey has been fired. FBI No. 2 McCabe is now being retired under a cloud. Mueller’s top FBI investigator, Peter Strzok, and lover Lisa, have been discharged. And Mueller is left to rely upon a passel of prosecutors whose common denominator appears to be that they loathe Trump and made contributions to Hillary.
Attorney General Bobby Kennedy had his “Get Hoffa Squad” to take down Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. J. Edgar Hoover had his vendetta against Dr. Martin Luther King.
Is history repeating itself — with the designated target of an elite FBI cabal being the President of the United States?
From the Slope of Hope: I saw a headline on December 24 which put a damper on my Christmas Eve:
Ummm - - so why on earth would this bug me? I don"t have a dog in this fight. If Theranos goes bankrupt, it doesn"t hurt or help me one bit. If they become the most valuable company in the world (ha!), the situation is the same. Utterly neutral and meaningless. So why should I care?
I"ve been pondering my reaction. Theranos is no stranger to the Slope of Hope, as I"ve written about this train wreck at length on eight separate occasions. For most of 2017, I wondered what had happened to them, because the media went completely silent on them. Ms. Holmes" own Twitter account hasn"t issued a tweet for over two years (!), and every time I drive by the gorgeous Theranos headquarters here in Palo Alto, I see a completely empty parking lot. So I figured she basically got away with raising $900 million and having a ruined company without any consequence. But it seems I was wrong.
With the $100,000,000 that Fortress Investment is inexplicably throwing at Theranos, the company has now raised a billion bucks. I figure Holmes must have some SERIOUS dirt on somebody, because nothing about this makes any sense at all. Yes, yes, I realize her board of directors used to have every deep state slimeball imaginable, so maybe that helps, but let"s face it, the Theranos name is mud. I would wager its brand has NEGATIVE value. If you were starting a brand new medical device company, and you could give it the Theranos name for, say, ten dollars, would you do it? Yeah, I didn"t think so.
So, again, why should I care? Well, I think part of it is this:
Holmes" whole schtick was how she was the reincarnation of Steve Jobs. From the bizarre diet to the black turtlenecks to the secrecy ("Hey! Our stuff doesn"t work at all! Shhhhhh! Don"t say anything!"), she held herself out as a younger Steve Jobs who wore a B-cup. For a while, the media gobbled it up, and they actually put her on the front cover of national magazines, repeating the claim that she was worth $4.5 billion. She - - how shall I put this? - - wasn"t.
Here we see Ms. Holmes describing the $100 million as a great investment on a conference call, whose listeners couldn"t detect the air quotes.
I remain floored anyone would put another dime into this place. As the recent Wall Street Journal article mentioned, "An investigation by the Journal in October 2015 sparked a wave of scrutiny about Theranos" practices, at a time when the company had a valuation of around $10 billion. Holmes has continued to lead Theranos through settling multiple lawsuits. However, investigations opened by both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are ongoing." So they are tits-deep in lawsuits and angry shareholders, both Holmes and Theranos have been banned from running labs, and their name has become synonymous with smoke and mirrors. What"s going on here? Just because you throw on a white lab coat doesn"t make you a genius scientist.
Joking aside, I think for me what bugs the holy hell out of me is simply the disappointment. The past eight years have shown us an environment in which fraud, government bailouts, and crooked executives go unpunished, if not celebrated. Once in a blue moon, there"s a piece of shit company which is finally exposed for what it is (other examples - - Color.com and Clinkle.com) and blow up in front of our eyes. We saw that with Theranos, and even though their success or failure doesn"t affect my life one iota, it gave me some minuscule degree of satisfaction that there was still a little bit of judgment, discernment, and fairness to the world.
So when Theranos had an H-bomb dropped on them, and Holmes disappeared from the press, and their parking lot went empty, and their office space went up for least, I thought to myself: there"s still a little bit of sense left out there. But I was wrong. There isn"t. And if you"re a mildly-attractive slender blonde with some razzle-dazzle and the right connections, you can get away with just about anything.
Having taken a shot at The FBI on Christmas Eve Eve...
How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?
President Trump took to Twitter early on this Boxing Day with a very direct shot across the bow of all his DC-swamp adversaries...
WOW, @foxandfrlends “Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.” And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign!
(1) The Steele dossier was a Clinton campaign product. If it was used by the FBI and the Obama Justice Department to obtain a FISA warrant, that would mean law-enforcement agencies controlled by a Democratic president fed the FISA court political campaign material produced by the Democratic candidate whom the president had endorsed to succeed him. Partisan claims of egregious scheming with an adversarial foreign power would have been presented to the court with the FBI’s imprimatur, as if they were drawn from refined U.S. intelligence reporting. The objective would have been to spy on the opposition Republican campaign.
(2) In June of this year, former FBI director James Comey testified that the dossier was “salacious and unverified.” While still director, Comey had described the dossier the same way when he briefed President-elect Trump on it in January 2017. If the dossier was still unverified as late as mid 2017, its allegations could not possibly have been verified months earlier, in the late summer or early autumn of 2016, when it appears that the FBI and DOJ used them in an application to the FISA court.
(3) The dossier appears to contain misinformation. Knowing he was a spy-for-hire trusted by Americans, Steele’s Russian-regime sources had reason to believe that misinformation could be passed into the stream of U.S. intelligence and that it would be acted on — and leaked — as if it were true, to America’s detriment. This would sow discord in our political system. If the FBI and DOJ relied on the dossier, it likely means they were played by the Putin regime.
Manifestly, the DOJ and FBI were favorably disposed toward Steele and Fusion GPS. I suspect that these good, productive prior relationships with the dossier’s source led the investigators to be less exacting about corroborating the dossier’s claims.
But that is just the beginning of the bias story.
At a high level, the DOJ and FBI were in the tank for Hillary Clinton. In July 2016, shortly before Steele’s reports started floating in, the FBI and DOJ announced that no charges would be brought against Mrs. Clinton despite damning evidence that she mishandled classified information, destroyed government files, obstructed congressional investigations, and lied to investigators. The irregularities in the Clinton-emails investigation are legion: President Obama making it clear in public statements that he did not want Clinton charged; the FBI, shortly afterwards, drafting an exoneration of Clinton months before the investigation ended and central witnesses, including Clinton herself, were interviewed; investigators failing to use the grand jury to compel the production of key evidence; the DOJ restricting FBI agents in their lines of inquiry and examination of evidence; the granting of immunity to suspects who in any other case would be pressured to plead guilty and cooperate against more-culpable suspects; the distorting of criminal statutes to avoid applying them to Clinton; the sulfurous tarmac meeting between Attorney General Lynch and former President Clinton shortly before Mrs. Clinton was given a peremptory interview — right before then–FBI director Comey announced that she would not be charged.
The blatant preference for Clinton over Trump smacked of politics and self-interest. Deputy FBI director McCabe’s wife had run for the Virginia state legislature as a Democrat, and her (unsuccessful) campaign was lavishly funded by groups tied to Clinton insider Terry McAuliffe. Agent Strzok told FBI lawyer Page that Trump was an “idiot” and that “Hillary should win 100 million to 0.” Page agreed that Trump was “a loathsome human.” A Clinton win would likely mean Lynch — originally raised to prominence when President Bill Clinton appointed her to a coveted U.S. attorney slot — would remain attorney general. Yates would be waiting in the wings.
The prior relationships of trust with the source; the investment in Clinton; the certitude that Clinton would win and deserved to win, signified by the mulish determination that she not be charged in the emails investigation; the sheer contempt for Trump. This concatenation led the FBI and DOJ to believe Steele — to want to believe his melodramatic account of Trump-Russia corruption. For the faithful, it was a story too good to check.
The DOJ and FBI, having dropped a criminal investigation that undeniably established Hillary Clinton’s national-security recklessness, managed simultaneously to convince themselves that Donald Trump was too much of a national-security risk to be president.
* * *
As we previously concluded,while there is a dearth of evidence to date that the Trump campaign colluded in Russia’s cyberespionage attack on the 2016 election, there is abundant evidence that the Obama administration colluded with the Clinton campaign to use the Steele dossier as a vehicle for court-authorized monitoring of the Trump campaign — and to fuel a pre-election media narrative that U.S. intelligence agencies believed Trump was scheming with Russia to lift sanctions if he were elected president. Congress should continue pressing for answers, and President Trump should order the Justice Department and FBI to cooperate rather than — what’s the word? — resist.
Shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated he fired Michael Flynn.
What’s become the conventional subtext is that the intelligence agencies have launched a “soft coup” against Trump, he has been significantly weakened, and the Deep State has scored a major victory.
Rejecting that subtext, SLL developed in “Plot Holes” and later articles a series of interrelated hypotheses. We posited that Trump was smarter and the Deep State weaker and more incompetent than generally reckoned. Also, that the Deep State’s animus towards Trump was based chiefly on fear of exposure and prosecution for its long history of corruption and criminality, not policy differences, notably concerning Russia. Finally, we suggested Trump is chiefly motivated by a drive for power. These hypotheses yielded testable predictions.
As predicted, the Russiagate investigation, based as it is on nothing, is now recognized as a monumental blunder. It forced the Deep State into the open and revealed its prosecutorial forbearance towards Hillary Clinton, its effort to help her and hinder Trump during the election, and its attempt to depose Trump afterwards. The FBI has been exposed as the antithesis of a concept implied by the word investigation: impartiality. Holdovers from the Obama Justice Department have been compromised.
The tables are turned. As the Russiagate investigation fades, Trump is left with investigatory gold mines: Uranium One, Fusion GPS, FBI and Department of Justice political meddling and obstruction of justice, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and the Clinton foundation. Trump could fire Robert Mueller with only a minor political uproar, but Mueller’s making a fool of himself to Trump’s political benefit. Why stop him?
As for those gold mines, Trump will decide if the threat of an investigation or an actual investigation best satisfies his leverage and power calculations and proceed accordingly. There has been no general swamp draining, nor will there be. Trump uses investigatory threats as a Machiavellian tactic to extract what he wants from compromised political actors in useful positions. The Clintons and James Comey, no longer in power and thus, no longer useful, are the most likely to be investigated and prosecuted.
In foreign policy, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel emphasizes Trump’s pronounced tilt toward Israel. Acquiescing to Saudi Arabia’s hapless war against Yemen and Mohammed Bin Salman’s recent purge confirms his support of that regime. In return, Israel and Saudi Arabia have sat still for Trump’s discontinuance of the US policy of supporting Islamic extremists to further regime changes (see “Powerball, Part Two”). This has meant accepting a de facto victory for the Russian-Shia alliance in Syria. US support for the Middle East’s Sunni bloc and Israel as Russian backs the Shiite bloc may lead to a standoff that brings a reduction in violence in that troubled region. It has already begun to reduce refugee flows from the area to Europe.
This is not to say that Trump’s rhetorical broadsides against Iran will stop, but the claims that the US is on the verge of war are overblown. Such a conflict would lead to a Middle East conflagration and the third officially recognized world war.
Trump’s blasts against North Korea are more problematic. His task there is more difficult than Iran; North Korea has nuclear weaponry purportedly able to strike most of the US. Trump has two options: a military strike designed to wipe out North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and Kim Jong-un’s regime, or negotiations that ratify the status quo, with Russia and China applying continuing pressure to enforce Kim’s compliance. At this point Trump may not know what he’s going to do, other than more verbal shots at North Korea and continuing displays of military strength in the region.
Trump has started no new wars. His administration has rolled back some regulations and he just won a legislative victory on tax reform. That may give him enough of a headwind to readdress Obamacare, which has neither been repealed nor replaced. He has his enemies on their back feet. Only fringe elements are still talking about impeachment. The government’s statistics indicate growth is running at above 3 percent, better than trend Obama growth, and the stock indexes keep making new records.
In 2017 SLL made contrarian, optimistic predictions for the president and pessimistic predictions for the economy and stock market (see “Hard Core Doom Porn”) We’ve been more right on the former than the latter…so far. For 2018, we’re with the minority who see clouds and thunderstorms, not silver linings. This is about as good as it gets for Trump.
Deft—by this analysis—as Trump has been, his biggest challenge lies ahead. The government is bankrupt, and demographics will push it ever-deeper in the hole. The global economy is struggling under monstrous and unsupportable debt. Fiat money something-for-nothing has a sell-by date, sooner or later the stock market and economy will head south. Historically, there’s been a tight correlation between stocks, the economy, and presidential popularity.
Debt has been Trump’s siren song his entire career, and more than once he’s crashed on the rocks. Big triumphs have been followed by big disasters, hubris undoubtedly playing a role.
Stock market and cryptocurrency pyrotechnics have obscured an incipient bear trend in a much more important market, bonds, which in the US apparently topped out in July 2016. Falling bond prices mean rising interest rates. The world has never been more indebted; a global bear market in bonds would be toxic to equity markets and economies (and perhaps cryptocurrencies). Tellingly, high yield bond prices are diverging from rising stock prices, indicating increasing credit stress. According to David Stockman, tax reform will increase the government’s borrowing to $1.25 trillion in fiscal year 2019. Rising rates would add more to the government’s interest bill, and hit indebted businesses and individuals as well. They would offer relief to savers long abused by the Fed’s interest rate suppression tactics, but savers are a much smaller group than borrowers, and they spend less.
Rising debt and ever-expanding government are in large part responsible for a long-term decline in trend economic growth rates across the developed world. Much of what growth there has been was funded with debt. If you buy $100 dollars worth of good or services on credit you have not increased your income, your personal “gross domestic product.” If the government does the same, it registers as an increase in the gross domestic product. Back out such debt-funded “growth” and it’s unclear if there’s been any growth at all since 2009.
In the US, real incomes have stagnated since the turn of the century. Rising equity markets and falling growth rates mean that corporate valuations are in the stratosphere. Joined with off-the-chart measures of optimism and declining central bank support, equity markets are poised for a fall. That it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t. It’s never “different this time.” Given the leverage and speculation embedded in the market, the fall could be breathtaking, a quick drop of 50 percent or more.
As noted, falling stock markets and economies generally take the popularity of incumbent politicians with them. Trump, the most polarizing political figure since Franklin Roosevelt, is not all that popular to begin with. The Deep State that has ruled this country since World War II is down; it would be unwise to count it out. It will certainly capitalize on financial and economic turmoil to launch a counterattack against Trump.
Next year’s silver lining may be that it marks peak government. Governments have coopted much of the world’s resources and put a gigantic lien on its future production. In a severe economic contraction, the wherewithal from taxes and credit markets that would allow them to grow even bigger—and thus more intrusive and repressive—simply won’t be there.
A financial and political focal point will be pension and medical funds. Many such funds are visibly under stress. Widespread insolvency is inevitable, especially if equity and credit markets head south. The resultant fear and fury will be uncontrollable, obliterating today’s widespread, quasi-religious faith in government and its works. The upheaval would make present discord look like a picnic in the park.
It would be unwise to rely on anything but one’s own resources, family, and friends during the coming turmoil. It would be wise to shore up those defenses, and soon.
Several Seattle employees of both Google and Amazon were busted after using their corporate accounts to send emails to local brothels and pimps looking to purchase services from sex workers trafficked from Asia, according to emails obtained by Newsweek.
"[E]mails obtained by Newsweek reveal another sordid corner of the tech sector’s treatment of women: a horny nest of prostitution “hobbyists” at tech giants Microsoft, Amazon and other firms in Seattle’s high tech alley."
Many of the emails were swept up in a 2015 sting operation which targeted online chat rooms and message boards in which customers rate sex workers - resulting in the arrest of 18 of these "prostitution hobbyists," including several high level Amazon and Microsoft directors - two of which are currently scheduled for trial in March.
Seattle brothels had been catering to Microsoft employees through several "backpage.com" ads located nearby the company"s Redmond, WA headquarters, in what is becoming a booming business.
A study commissioned by the Department of Justice found that Seattle has the fastest-growing sex industry in the United States, more than doubling in size between 2005 and 2012. That boom correlates neatly with the boom of the tech sector there. It also correlates to the surge in high-paying jobs, since this “hobby” (the word johns use online to describe buying sex) can be expensive: some of these men spent $30,000 to $50,000 a year, according to authorities.
The tech sector has not only employed a significant number of men who pay for sex with trafficked women, it has also enabled traffickers to more easily reach customers and to hide their business from cops by taking it off the streets and into computers and ultimately, hotel rooms, motels or apartments. In one 24-hour-period in Seattle, an estimated 6,487 people solicited sex on just one of the more than 100 websites that connect buyers with sellers, according to a 2014 study.
Of note, Backpage.com shut down its adult sections in January, citing government pressure following a 2016 Senate report on commercial sex services fingered the website as a hotbed for criminal activity, and stating that "Backpage officials have publicly acknowledged that criminals use the website for sex trafficking, including trafficking of minors."
Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer (Texas AG)
In October, 2016, Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer was arrested in Houston and the company"s Dallas headquarters searched. NPR reported at the time that Ferrer, 55, was charged with pimping a minor, pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. Two controlling shareholders of Backpage — Michael Lacey and James Larkin — also are charged with conspiracy to commit pimping."
The prostitutes trafficked from Asia typically don"t speak much English, relying on translation apps to offer services such as "girlfriend" experiences and "Nuru" (nude massage). Many of the women are working their way out of debt bondage, and feared for their lives or those of their families - according to one pimp interviewed during the 2015 sting.
A spokesman for Microsoft said of the emails "Microsoft has a long history of cooperating with law enforcement and other agencies on combating sex trafficking and related topics, and we have employees who volunteer their time and money specifically to combat this issue as well. The personal conduct of a tiny fraction of our 125,000 employees does not in any way represent our culture. No organization is immune to the unfortunate situation when employees act unethically or illegally. When that happens, we look into the conduct and take appropriate action. Microsoft makes it clear to our employees they have a responsibility to act with integrity and conduct themselves in a legal and ethical manner at all times. If they don’t, they risk losing their jobs."
Amazon told Newsweek it"s investigating the matter, and that "It is against Amazon"s policy for any employee or Contingent Worker to engage in any sex buying activities of any kind in Amazon"s workplace or in any work-related setting outside of the workplace, such as during business trips, business meetings or business-related social events." When Amazon suspects that an employee has used company funds or resources to engage in criminal conduct, the company will immediately investigate and take appropriate action up to and including termination. The company may also refer the matter to law enforcement."
(ZHE) —The just released FISA memo accuses senior officials at the DOJ of inappropriately using biased opposition research into then-candidate Trump to obtain surveillance warrants on transition team members as part of the federal investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia. According to the document, information from the the so-called Steele dossier was “essential” to the acquisition of surveillance […]
