BREAKING: Bernie Sanders suffers heart condition

BREAKING NEWS: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

Bernie Sanders with heart condition...

The man: Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders just underwent a procedure to have two stents inserted to address an arterial blockage after experiencing chest discomfort during a campaign event on Tuesday, according to The Hill. To adviser Jeff weaver said the Bern will spend the next few days getting over the episode and the surgery, and that all campaign events are cancelled until further notice. With the severe pace this man is on, likely double any other candidate, it's not surprising.

Anyway, let's all wish Bernie a full recovery and back to what he loves doing ASAP.

NRA choking...going down

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 NEWS BYTES

The latest attack on gun violence...   

Assault weapons ban did work

Apparently the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) made a trip to Moscow that is a no-no for their non-profit status. If it did break the law governing nonprofit spending, the gang of gun nuts could lose its tax-exempt status. That could put the NRA out of business. And that could spark parades and flag waving throughout the country. David Love on Aljazeera says, "The tide is turning for gun control in the US."...

"In what would have been inconceivable just a few years ago, the ground is shifting in the United States on the issue of gun control and halting the proliferation of firearms. The once omnipotent gun lobby is now weakened, if not dying, and the public support for gun restrictions is increasing beyond party lines."

That combined with the NRA's internal problems from Oliver North to Maria Butina has prompted the investigation in a report...

"compiled by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and released on Friday, investigates the relationship between NRA leadership and Russian nationals with Kremlin ties. Those nationals include Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian who was convicted last year of conspiring to act as a foreign agent."

We can't let this happen...

In a 2015 trip to Russia by NRA officials, Butina promised an introduction to "powerful officials" and "those executives were told they would be given opportunities to advance personal business interests." The catch here is, "aside from the fact that the NRA is accused of willingly establishing relationships with Russian nationals with close ties with the Kremlin — is that tax-exempt nonprofits aren’t allowed to use their funds for personal gain."

There's more...

"New York Attorney General Letitia James also opened an investigation into the organization’s nonprofit status back in April following reports of financial mismanagement. The District of Columbia’s attorney general said his office launched a similar inquiry in July, sending subpoenas to the NRA and its charitable arms to collect 'financial records, payments to vendors, and payments to officers and directors.'”

House Democrats are cowards on assault weapons ban...

Aljazeera comments on American business CEOs concerned over out-of-control gun violence in the U.S....

"Other businesses have followed suit, as the chief executive officers of 145 companies wrote a letter to the US Senate, proclaiming the country is experiencing a public health crisis, and saying it is "simply unacceptable" to take no action on gun violence and mass shootings. The CEOs added that new laws mandating background checks for gun purchases 'are a common-sense solution with overwhelming public support and are a critical step toward stemming the gun violence epidemic in this country.'"

And to support the general consensus that more gun control is needed, a recent study has determined the former assault weapons ban was, in fact, effective. Here are the findings...

"The research from Stanford Law professor John Donohue and student Theodora Boulouta found that from 1994 to 2004, the Clinton-era federal assault weapons ban was associated with a marked decrease in mass shootings and victims of those shootings."

Here are the facts...

"in the decade preceding the assault weapons ban, there were 33 percent additional mass shootings and 65 percent more associated fatalities. Ten years after the ban expired in 2004, the number of mass shootings more than tripled and the number of fatalities spiked more than fourfold."

BINGO! But, then, facts don't seem to affect the votes of a cowardly Congress that has feared the NRA's wrath since head gun nut Wayne Lapierre took over. But that may all be changing as the new wave to curb gun violence begins to take hold. And when Senate challenger Mark Kelly (Gabby Giffords astronaut husband) running against Republican Martha McSally as a gun control advocate wins that seat, we'll have even more support in the Senate.

The course is clear, more reasonable gun control laws in 2020 as we get the guns off the streets.

White house burns during Donald Trump fury

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2019 NEWS BYTES

The White House may burn...again   

White House after Donald Trump implosion

The White House has been set on fire twice before: once when James Madison was president, second during Herbert Hoover's administration. The third burning is due soon but it won't necessarily be intentional like the other two. As Donald Trump begins to implode, which will include an excessive amount of friction with his staff, aides and the Cabinet, a fiery explosion from within is sure to happen. It's only a matter of time and here are the many reasons why...

As Brad Reed in RawStory puts it, "The dam starts to crack," referring to the Republicans who have been loyal to Donald Trump, but are now turning on him. In particular...

"Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has now told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that he believes Congress ought to investigate the White House’s use of a codeword-protected server to store President Donald Trump’s phone records."

The act of using these private servers to hide Trump material, in one instance, a NSC computer, have been deemed more impeachable than the information concealed. And remember what T-rump once said, he believes the Constitution lets him do “whatever I want as President.” Here's what Ralph Nader said in Common Dreams, published in AlterNet...

"In over two and a half years, Trump has been a serial violator of the Constitution, unmatched by any president in American history. Just about every day he is a constitutional outlaw."

There's more...

"Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein has documented twelve categories of major constitutional transgressions. Some are also statutory crimes. Many of these involve Trump overpowering the critical separation of powers that our founders rigorously established to assure that the president does not become a monarch like King George III."

Trump: The Constitution allows me to do anything I want to...

Among his other costitutional foibles, the Oval office lunatic "totally defies Congressional subpoenas for documents and witnesses. That grave overthrow of constitutional government is alone enough for eviction from office." And he lies, lies even more and then he lies again. If you can't believe anything the "supposed" president of the country you live in says, that alone should be grounds for impeachment.

Rory Cooper says in the Daily Beast, "We’ll Deserve What We Get if Republicans Can’t Say Trump’s Wrong." Some have come across now like Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who wants Congress to investigate Trump's use of a secret database to cover up his corruption. More will no doubt come forward when it becomes even more obvious that T-rump is going down. Here's Cooper's take...

"At best, President Trump used his office to seek personal and political gain and engage in 2016 conspiracy peddling with a strategic ally engaged in a war with Russia. At worse, Trump held back military aid to Ukraine in order to extract this personal and political gain. It’s a difference without a distinction when it comes to his fitness to serve."

And now there's a second whistleblower "who claims to have evidence of misconduct regarding the Internal revenue Service’s auditing of President Trump. According to this federal employee there were “inappropriate efforts to influence” the audit process. Trump has resisted releasing any tax returns since being elected and New York state investigators appear closest to breaking that wall of defense. What does he have to hide and just how bad is it?

David Cay Johnston on Trump perpetual tax corruption...

Here's the status...

"On August 8, Neal [House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA)] sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking for communications between the IRS and Treasury employees who were involved in the agency’s audit of Trump and asked him to reply by August 13. It’s still not known if Mnuchin replied or not."

 And finally, the whistleblower's lawyers are saying that Trump has endangered their client as the president publicly threatens "big consequences." It is a call to action by this moron of his double-digit troops who follow his lead, no matter what he tells them to do. Pure and simple it is more inciting of violence like he has done so many times in the past, like Charlottesville. One death and several injuries.

It may well come down to 'burn, baby, burn.'

LATEST: Trump and Mueller hidden memo

TUESDAY OCTOBER 1, 2019 NEWS BYTES

Has Trump made the ultimate cover up?


Slate is reporting...The Washington Post calls it a "bombshell" memo that was possibly withheld from the Robert Mueller investigation. It's another of those which was supposed to be housed in unclassified White house computer files, but was rather bumped up to top secret status to keep it hidden from congress and the public. Here's the scenario...

"The Post goes on to note that 'it is not clear whether a memo documenting the May 10, 2017, meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak was placed into that system, but the three former officials said it was restricted to a very small number of people.' Here’s the problem: That May 10 White House meeting was the subject of intense scrutiny by the Mueller probe because it went directly to the question of why Comey was fired. Page 71 of the second volume of the Mueller report notes, “In the morning on May 10, 2017, President Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office.”

But here's the kicker...

"The footnote cites to a White House document entitled “Working Visit with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia” which is dated 5/9/17, the day before the meeting, and to an email (5/9/17 White House Document, 'Working Visit with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia'); SCR08_001274 (5/10/17 Email, Ciaramella to Kelly, et al.). That’s the only document that seems to have been produced in reference to the May 10 meeting. There is confirmation of Trump’s remarks about Comey’s firing being a relief from Sean Spicer and Hope Hicks."

The world laughs...Donald Trump the mosr transparent president ever...

The first question that comes to mind is, if it was a footnote to the Mueller Report, why didn't Robert Mueller pursue the memo? WP agrees...

"It’s awfully hard to believe that Mueller didn’t ask for any readout or memorandum from that meeting; a meeting at which the president explained that he fired Comey in part because he was being pressured by the Russia investigation."

Trump even tried to hide high school transcripts lying about academic background...

Mueller was accused of some ineptness in the production of the Mueller Report, and this would confirm that things were missed, perhaps as important as the above. Could this have resulted from pressure from the White House, considering the Ukrainian telephone call cover up? It is generally agreed that the masking of this phone call is more serious, and impeachable, than the substance of the call. It's hard these days to keep up with the WH cloak and dagger.

On the other hand, the memo's presence could have been there glaring at Robert Mueller, but he decided not to include it in the report. Why? Perhaps Mueller should face another House investigation to answer the question of why he ignored the report. If it is as crucial as it sounds, it would go to the conclusion of the Mueller Report to suggest Trump's definite collusion with Russia to win his 2016 election. Isn't that what we were trying to find out?

Another possibility is the fact that the memo included sensitive information about a confidential Israeli asset with another foreign power, something Trump was giving up in the meeting. But what is really proved, according to the WP, “This emphasizes the point that Mueller’s conclusions were based on imperfect information precisely because of White House and Trump misconduct.” Something we have come to expect, unfortunately.

This Slate article is worth reading.

BREAKING: McConnell has cracked on impeachment

BREAKING NEWS

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Senate would have no choice but to take up impeachment if the House votes to effectively charge President Donald Trump," according to MSNBC. Is the senate lowlife at a point where he believes Donald Trump must go? Because that's all it will take when the House charges him. 

Had trouble with your credit report? The Bern can fix it

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 NEWS BYTES

A good answer to credit report problems... 

I did a privacy blog some 13 years ago, and one of the biggest complaints was from readers who had trouble with their credit reports. If they had a problem with the report, they could not get through to the three credit reporting agencies to talk to a competent individual. The key word here is competent. If you were lucky enough to get a human being, you were bounced around from inept clerks to supervisors, to supervisors of supervisors. The idea was to wear you out.

There are three major companies in the business of collecting your credit data, and they act as if it belongs to them and they don't have to divulge anything to you, even though it is your personal information. I once advocated the concept of giving ownership of personal data to the individual. The public didn't understand the concept and many of the major privacy blogs were supported to some degree by the credit bureaus.

Consumer Reports tells you how to fix credit score problems...

Let's name them: Trans Union, Experian and Equifax. You might remember the recent breach of 140 personal records from Equifax. This was due to "insufficient data security practices," something the database industry has been riddled with over the years. If you are really interested, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has a file that documents data breaches all the way back to 2005. This organization is one of the best at fighting identity theft and has been around for decades.

Bernie Sanders wants to eliminate the private credit reporting companies and substitute them with a government-managed credit registry. Similar to Medicare for All, it would eliminate the private sector in the administration of personal credit. It reeks of socialism, which it is, but you have to consider whether or not the private sector is acting in behalf of the American public. It is not in the case of either health insurance or personal credit information. I'll let Bernie run with Medicare for All, but I have had years of experience with credit unions.

They are not operated in the best interest of the consumer. They are operated to produce a profit and that amounts to billions of dollars a year. I was a data broker consultant for 35 years and witnessed the manipulation of your personal information in ways that would terrify you. From your name and address to your income and hundreds of other private factors about your life are sold daily to junk mail marketers. Even your Social Security number in financial transactions.

The Credit Pros lists the four ways credit bureaus reap huge profits on your private data...

• Selling Your Information to Lenders
• Selling Your Information to Marketers
• Selling You Your Own Information
• Disputes

My theory for owning your personal information included participation in the proceeds of its sale, but in number three, above, you are actually paying for your own private data, as an example, when you order a non-free credit report or your credit score. And, as indicated earlier, the credit bureaus, Trans-Union, Equifax and Experian, protect this information as if it was theirs. It isn't, it is yours and The Bern's concept would eliminate that exclusivity. A must to be successful.

Your rights under Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

 
In my privacy blog, The Dunning Letter, I did a post in 2006, "Experian Denies My Right to Dispute Credit Report Problem," where I had an actual one-on-one experience with what I consider the worst of the credit bureaus. The problem was I was denied my credit report where I had been a member for over twenty-five years, paying $90 annually for the service. Here's the scenario...

After hours on the Internet and telephone with Credit Manager [an Experian service] personnel who turned out to be completely useless—and being regularly “escalated” to the “right” people—I finally reached a supervisor who was known as…the Escalation Manager. Mark sounded competent, acted like he wanted to help, and spent another hour covering the same material as the “useless” bunch. I was wrong. He couldn’t help me, even if he wanted to. Something was also blocking Mark—the Credit Manager Escalation Manager, no less—from accessing my credit report.

Well, Mark couldn't help, or perhaps, just lost interest after a while, and said I should file a dispute. Dispute, that word that signifies more revenue for Experian. To make a long story short, the dispute didn't even work and subsequent phone calls proved completely fruitless. It is almost as if their work ethic is to deny the consumer anything they need or ask for that you don't have to pay for. Bernie Sanders said...

“We must and we will remove the profit motive from assessing the creditworthiness of American consumers."

Although this is socialistic and anti-capitalism, this kind of move has become necessary because private enterprise does not police itself. This is the kind of thing Progressives have vowed to address and make it right for the consumer. Everyone should welcome it, and it can't come soon enough.

Here are more early posts on Experian. 

Ukrainegate will doom Donald Trump's administration

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 NEWS BYTES

Ukrainegate is taking its toll...   

Rudy Giuliani should be concerned

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Paul Waldman said acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire in his opening statement to the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, "perhaps unintentionally," may have dumped on Donald Trump. Waldman felt Maguire's implication was, " just how thoroughly infected with corruption the entire executive branch has become under President Trump." Intentional or not, it is a true statement.

Waldman feels Magure is not an "amoral conspiracy theorist like Michael Flynn," or "not willing to brazenly deceive the public and twist government to the president’s purposes like Attorney General William P. Barr." It's amazing the acting director is still where he is. But, "Maguire’s first stop, upon receiving a breathtaking set of accusations about Trump and his White House, was … Donald Trump’s White House."

And in a refute to Trump's accusations against the Bidens re. son Hunter's Ukrainian dealings with the gas company there...

"A former Ukrainian prosecutor who investigated a gas company tied to Hunter Biden said Thursday that there was no evidence the former vice president's son engaged in illegal activity."

"From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything,” Yuriy Lutsenko said.

Hunter Biden and Ukrainegate...

Lutsenko made this statement way back in May, but T-rump keeps renewing the accusation. And anyway, “Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival,” Lutsenko added. If you are really interested, here are four false claims by the Oval Office lunatic that show his concern with winning in 2020...

False: Biden pushed out a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his son
False: Hunter Biden made a killing on a China deal
False: Biden lied about talking to his son
False: Democratic senators also threatened Ukraine’s aid

Based on Donald Trump's administration, the Republic Party will be known in the future as the party that refined and improved lying in politics. Now, poor baby...Salon portrays T-rump as, "consumed with self-pitying paranoia as the Ukraine scandal spirals out of his control." The scenario...

"The fact that this material was released so quickly indicates that the White House expects to lose the impeachment vote in the House and are counting on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the “gravedigger of democracy” himself, either to refuse to hold a trial at all or to ensure that no such trial produces a two-thirds majority for conviction."

Here's lowlife Mitch McConnell on impeachment...disgusting...

Not sure Trump can be so sure about the senate with public opinion fast turning in favor of impeachment, and members of Congress finally realizing that country is more important than their reelection or the Party. I don't believe anything could raise the opinion of the American public about Congress, but as they say, it's time to do the right thing. Heather Digby Parton of Salon comments...

"Rudy Giuliani is on the verge of some kind of breakdown, acting like a wild man on television on a nightly basis?"

Here's a Giuliani quote...

“It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons — when this is over, I will be the hero. I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government. Anything I did should be praised.”

Well, that pretty much seals the deal. Donald Trump's impeachment is just around the corner.