With all due respect I think you are not being fair on the question of earning or not a lot of money. First of all there LOTS of people that earn a lot of money with corruption or just because they were lucky or through family links have managed to get in privileged positions.
Secondly, I have a PhD in maths and decided to dedicate my life to both teaching and doing research in academia and 20 years on I am earning less and got nowhere in the academia career from the point where I started: the bottom.
And speaking of truck drivers, they earn more than young physicians and in neighbouring Spain they earn a lot more than I do.
Greetings from Portugal (the miracle of Europe, so they say in Brussels!)
MM
ANSWER: I fully appreciate your perspective. Where you are perhaps too focused is on lumping all people with any wealth into a narrow category. That is like saying everyone who does not have wealth is on welfare. The categories of wealth you have mentioned are corruption and links to family. This typically involves politics. There are people who inherit money from their parents or have inherited a business. Typically, they say the first generation makes it, the second generation diminishes it, and third generation wipes it out.
This is why I believe we need to end career politicians and implement one-term limits to help reduce corruption. But additionally, there should be no income tax and that will go a great way to end bribing politicians for special treatment. At worst, there should be a flat tax which would also tend to end that. The rest of the corruption is centered on lobbying for regulation exceptions.
What you are experiencing is in truth taking place to all wage earners. The rise in taxation has been dramatic postwar and that has reduced the standard of living. On top of that, there is systemic inflation. Whatever they took from you for a pension 20 years ago is by no means the same today. This is how life insurance companies make their money. They sell you a policy today that is one million euros. But in 20 years, one million euros will buy a fraction of what it does today. I bought a Porsche in 1970 for $10,000. You cannot even buy a used one for that today. The purchasing power of the money routinely declines. People from Venezuela are being paid their pensions. They cannot even buy a cup of coffee today. This is the systemic corruption propagated by government overtime even if they never intended it to work out that way.
Believe it or not, those who make the laws have always excluded themselves from them in most cases such as insider trading in stocks to settlements for their personal conduct like sexual harassment.
At last, the House finally passed a bill that requires members of Congress to pay out of their own pockets for any sexual harassment settlements. Can you image that taxpayers have been paying for all the sexual abuse cases of politicians?
Vanity Fair published an essay by Monica Lewinsky in which she wrote that the question of whether her relationship with Clinton was consensual was “very, very complicated.”
“I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent,” she wrote. “The road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”
In the Harvey Weinstein era, there is no question that you cannot have a sexual encounter with someone whose job is on the line. Bill Clinton’s pursuit of Lewinsky was unquestionably sexual misconduct. Paula Jones had said that Clinton sexually harassed her when she also worked for the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission back in 1991. Then there was Kathleen Willey who alleged that Clinton assaulted her when she was a volunteer at the White House in 1993. The third allegation of a person involving employment with Clinton was Juanita Broaddrick who alleged that Clinton raped her in a hotel room when she was volunteering for his Arkansas gubernatorial campaign back in 1978.
True, Clinton has denied all these allegations. However, the pattern of involving some work connection is clear and this is the conduct that is deeply concerning if taxpayers have to pay the bills. If there is no personal responsibility at risk, why not harass people sexually? That is the problem when the government pays for their misconduct, which would not be the case in the private sector. They go to jail (i.e. Weinstein potentially & then there is Epstein) and they pay their own bills.
Unlike the USA, the British courts and legal process are not as in bed with the bankers as they are in New York. They have brought to court todayon criminal charges former brokers charged with conspiracy in the LIBOR interest rate fraud that continues to expand. This stands in stark contrast to the policy in New York City regarding the banks and brokers there as being the notorious UNTOUCHABLES. The US is like to also charge low-level brokers who have been dismissed, but never the major bankers.
In our own case, the SEC appeared before Judge Louis A. Kaplan who pointed out that the document used by the SEC to bring its charges was (1) a translation of a Japanese document that they fashioned as they desired, (2) the omitted the first page stating they were notes, and (3) misrepresented the fact that we stated we were “conservative” and used less than 10% for hedging employing futures. They the SEC argues we were trading yen futures and had their receiver liquidate those positions when they were the hedge since the notes were payable in yen.
Judge Kaplan pointed out that the first page was missing and that we disclosed we would be using futures yet still granted the SEC injunction stripping the company of any right to hire lawyers appointing Alan Cohen of Goldman Sachs as the receiver and O’Melveny & Myersas his counsel. So even when the documents used do not say what the government claims, they still win in New York City. Kaplan even stated in court that if using futures as disclosed was “conservative” as the SEC was pretending, then “the last ant I saw is an elephant.” Nobody seems to have understood what hedge currency even was. Do you think they will EVER admit a mistake – only unbiased people would do such a thing – TYRANTS NEVER DO! So it is just hopeless and they cannot see that this simply warns that you have to be out of your mind to place any money in NYC if you cannot defend yourself when the bankers rip you off. This is why London regained the status of being the Financial Capital of the World. Unless there is REAL prosecution of bankers, there can be no free market and capital will never be safe.
Britain has not yet shown it will prosecute the heads of banks involved – only low level brokers. If Britain wants to retain that crown, it has to set an example for the whole world to regain confidence in its legal system and its integrity that the USA sold to the highest bidder,
Earlier today Bill Barr gave an interview to Fox News on the sidelines of a law enforcement event in Chicago. The U.S. Attorney General discussed the ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham, and gave high praise to FBI Director Christopher Wray for his “outstanding support” therein. [Link to Fox Interview] Excerpt Video:
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(Via Fox) […] The attorney general said that while he’s assisting in connecting Durham with countries that could have valuable information, Durham is running the show.
“He is in charge of the investigation, I’m not doing the investigation,” Barr said, while describing Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, as “thorough and fair” and saying he’s making progress.
Further, Barr took an implicit swipe at Comey as he maintained current FBI Director Christopher Wray is cooperating.
“I do want to say that one of the reasons Mr. Durham is able to make the kind of progress he’s making is because Director Wray and his team at the FBI have just been outstanding in support and responsiveness given to Mr. Durham,” Barr said.
“As you know, I’ve said previously that I felt there was a failure of leadership at the bureau in 2016 and part of 2017, but since Director Wray and his team have taken over there’s been a world of change. I think that he is restoring the steady professionalism that’s been a hallmark of the FBI. I really appreciate his leadership there.” (read more)
This interview, and particularly the Barr perspective on FBI Director Wray, is challenging to reconcile against the historic behavior of the FBI under Wray’s tenure. In order to reconcile Barr’s characterization of Chris Wray, those who follow the issues closely would have to ignore or suspend all disbelief in Director Wray’s conduct.
Here at CTH we accept the behavior, actions and statements by federal officials as they are, and not as we would wish them to be. There is no action in evidence that would support Barr’s characterization of Wray; so it leaves the audience having to take a leap of faith that suddenly, in the past three months, Wray had some ‘come-to-Jesus’ moment.
Given the documented history of the FBI blocking transparency during Wray’s tenure at the helm of the FBI that’s simply a leap of faith we are unwilling to take.
Either Bill Barr is covering for Wray, just like he has done in the past for Rosenstein, with a goal of institutional preservation as his compass heading (Bondo Barr); or Bill Barr has some -as yet- unknown motive for presenting an alternate reality.
It’s up to you to make up your own mind.
June 2018:
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May 2019:
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In 2018 Christopher Wray undermined the Nunes memo and refused to present FBI documents for congressional review. Chairman Nunes, HPSCI; Chairman Goodlatte, House Judiciary; and Chairman Grassley, Senate Judiciary; each had requests for document production blocked by FBI Director Wray.
As a result of those roadblocks a list of declassification requests was presented to President Trump by congress. *AFTER* the 2018 mid-term election the bucket list for those still outstanding classified documents was handed to AG Bill Barr.
Barr was granted unilateral declassification authority in May 2019.
Not a single document has been declassified and released from that original list, by the DOJ or FBI; including the authorizing scope memos that were used in the Mueller investigation which concluded in March 2019 and still remain hidden today. Those scope memos have no investigative value to the IG report on FISA abuse.
The only documents released to the public have come from a FOIA lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch to attain the Bruce Ohr 302’s, ordered to be released by a DC court, and the Comey memos which were released by the IG as part of the evidence underlying the IG report on James Comey activity.
No documents have been declassified by AG Bill Barr; and to this day the FBI still refuses (Flynn case) to unredact the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages.
It defies credulity for Barr to say Director Wray has been of “outstanding support” while simultaneously the same FBI under Director Wrays’ authority has been the primary blocking mechanism for exculpatory evidence within the Michael Flynn case.
Those who choose to believe in the characterization of AG Bill Barr for Director Wray, have to choose to suspend all prior knowledge of the mountain of evidence that supports an entirely different characterization.
This suspension of disbelief is beyond my personal capability. However, in the strongest of possible terms – I hope I’m wrong. By disposition I accept the statements and actions of government officials as they are, not as I wish them to be.
Perhaps FBI Director Christopher Wray has, in the last 4 months, had a come-to-Jesus moment. However, that outlook would require me to possess a trusty-plan disposition.
Unfortunately, I lost that ability in August 2018 when the DOJ and FBI covered-up the demonstrably proven James Wolfe leak of classified information.
Lastly, to underline the Wray issues, and simultaneously provide evidence that is only tangentially connected to the current matters at hand…. it is worth remembering Christopher Wray in the ridiculous framework of the pre-midterm-election Cesar Sayoc case.
You might remember: FBI Director Christopher Wray outlined during his remarks that the Sayoc devices consisted of PVC pipe, clocks, batteries, wiring and “energetic material that can become combustible when subjected to heat or friction”.
The FBI director went out of his way to state: “these were not hoax devices.” The DOJ then moved to seal all court filings, and the case against the nut continued behind the curtain of ‘national fucking security’.
Representative John Ratcliffe is one of only four House members who have reviewed every known classified document surrounding the 2016 political surveillance, Spygate and the use of the FISA court; including John Brennan’s two-page ‘electronic communication’ that started the FBI investigation. So when John Ratcliffe is discussing what potential criminal activity John Durham is investigating and he says “FISA act and court“, that specific use of wording is subtle like a brick through a window to those who follow closely.
Everyone is aware that IG Michael Horowitz is looking at the Carter Page FISA application and potential misrepresentations to the FISC; that’s the “FISA court” part. However, no-one has even hinted that anyone in government might be looking at the FBI abuse of the NSA database; and/or the outlined surveillance violations by Judge Rosemary Collyer; which would fall under the “FISA act” part. Interesting word choices. WATCH:
…”Many of these non-compliant queries involved use of the same identifiers over different date ranges”…
Or put in common language: “from November 1, 2015 to May 1, 2016,” the same people were being repeatedly and continually searched within the database.
In a lengthy court filing surrounding the issues of Brady discovery material, Mike Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, drops some serious evidentiary bombshells on the court. Ms. Powell brings Lady Justice to the courtroom, and her revelations are stunning. [Full pdf’s below]
We’re going to go through the primary filing and four exhibits to the evidence Attorney Sidney Powell is delivering to Judge Emmet Sullivan which contain some explosive discoveries. Toplines including:
(1) Lisa Page edited the Flynn 302’s, then forgot when questioned by DOJ officials, then re-remembered when shown her texts. (2) The 302’s themselves were written with lies that do not match notes taken during the interview. (3) The felony leaker of the Flynn-Kislyak phone call is named (James Baker). (4) New texts from Page and Strzok that highlight the entrapment plan. (5) ODNI James Clapper telling WaPo reporter Ignatius to “take the kill shot on Flynn“. (6) The purposeful use of Judge Contreras to take the December 1st 2017 plea agreement; and much, much more.
What’s the objective of this filing?
Attorney Sidney Powell outlines:
Lisa Page played a role in editing the Flynn 302:
The relationship between Judge Rudy Contreras and FBI Agent Peter Strzok was never revealed to the court, or to the Flynn defense team prior to a plea agreement that was overseen by Judge Contreras.
The FBI leaked details of their investigation to the media and then strategized over how they could weaponize the media reports to conduct investigations. Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counterintelligence Director Bill Priestap discussed if this approach would work.
The prosecution then intentionally withheld the text messages from Flynn and the public, in their prior releases, showing Peter Strzok and Lisa Page discussing the Strzok & Priestap strategy sessions on using the leaks. Those texts, clear Brady material, were purposefully hidden by the DOJ, until Sidney Powell went to find them on her own:
Holy cats, this next part is incredible. The 302’s were modified to make claims that were never made in the interview. The language was purposefully and willfully made to look like something is wasn’t; and in some cases they made it up completely counter to the actual statement given by Mike Flynn:
[Keep in mind Powell has the interview notes to back up her statement]
Joseph Mifsud phones…. James Baker leaking the Kislyak phone call to David Ignatius and James Clapper saying “take the kill shot on Flynn”. Good grief:
None of this information was provided to the defense. All of the Brady material was withheld by the prosecution prior to the high-pressure plea agreement:
Folks there’s so much more in this filing you really need to look at it from beginning to end. What is screen grabbed above isn’t even half of the devastating and documented evidence Ms. Powell is bringing before the court.
Quite simply the content of this 37-page filing is incredible.
Here’s the new text messages that support Ms. Powell’s primary filing. Including texts outlining how Lisa Page made edits to the FBI interview reports (302’s):
Here’s the documented edits made to the Flynn 302 as it was debated for several weeks by the FBI ‘small group’. This includes the edits made by Lisa Page and others to give the appearance of Flynn lying to investigators when, prior to the editing process, Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka readily admit they did not see Flynn as lying (and they had the call transcripts for comparison):
Here’s the questioning of Lisa Page about her making those changes to the Flynn 302’s. Initially Page can’t remember, then all of a sudden -when confronted with the text messates- she conveniently remembers:
Attorney Sidney Powell has really done an excellent job putting this motion together with a mountain of incontrovertible supportive material to highlight how her client, Michael Flynn, was set-up.
If you take the time to read the primary 37-page motion, and then review the material that supports every assertion within the motion, you will be hard-pressed not to come to the conclusion that Mike Flynn was a victim of seriously unethical, borderline criminal, prosecutorial conduct.
If Judge Sullivan accepts this motion and goes through all of this material I think there’s a pretty good chance he will dismiss this case. The next round of arguments within his courtroom are going to be very, very interesting.
According to the Guardian, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia are looking to pressure Facebook to create a backdoor into its encrypted messaging apps. The governments, as always, want to access everything everyone says under the pretense of terrorism. However, once that is achieved, then it will be used for hunting taxes which they also declare is a criminal activity. Since Facebook bought WhatsApp, which is encrypted, they are looking to undermine the $16 billion they paid for WhatsApp as a secure messaging service.
For this very reason, our development of the Institutional Platform will allow clients to place their portfolios into the system and Socrates will run the analysis on all contents. However, your portfolio contents will remain on your internal system and we will have no access to see its contents to maintain privacy and security.
Boy howdy, this DOJ announcement is alarming on many levels. Imaad Zuberi, a 49-year-old resident of Arcadia, California, has agreed to plead guilty to a variety of illegal activities surrounding campaign contributions, political influence, and unregistered lobbying on behalf of foreign clients. Mr. Zuberi was under DOJ, FBI and IRS investigation since 2015(<= important aspect on the alarming part).
(Via DOJ) Federal prosecutors today filed a criminal case charging Imaad Shah Zuberi, a Southern California campaign fundraiser, with falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level U.S. government officials. The criminal charges allege that Zuberi engaged in lobbying efforts that earned him millions of dollars, most of which was pilfered from his clients, and Zuberi has agreed to plead guilty to those charges at a later date, pursuant to a plea agreement.
[…] In addition to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Zuberi is charged in a criminal information with tax evasion and making almost $1 million in illegal campaign contributions that included funneling money from foreign entities and individuals to influence U.S. elections.
[…] Zuberi, who operated a venture capital firm called Avenue Ventures, solicited foreign nationals and representatives of foreign governments with claims he could use his influence in Washington, D.C. to change United States foreign policy and create business opportunities for his clients and himself.
According to court documents, clients gave Zuberi money for consulting fees, to make investments, or to fund campaign contributions. As part of his efforts to influence public policy, Zuberi hired lobbyists, retained public relations professionals and made campaign contributions – which gave him access to high-level U.S. officials, some of whom took action in support of his clients. As evidence of his access and influence, Zuberi distributed to his clients photographs of himself discussing policy with elected officials.
While some U.S. officials were willing to take action on issues Zuberi put forward, most of Zuberi’s business efforts were unsuccessful and his clients suffered significant losses. Many of the lobbyists, public relations consultants, and other subcontractors also suffered losses when Zuberi refused to pay them, according to the information. Zuberi, on the other hand, became wealthy, primarily as the result of fraudulent representations about his background, influence, and the use of client funds, much of which constituted an “outright conversion of client money for defendant Zuberi’s own personal benefit,” the information states.
The information details dozens of illegal campaign contributions – including those paid by Zuberi using the names of other people, “conduit contributions” made by others that Zuberi reimbursed, and contributions to U.S. political campaigns that were financed by foreign entities and individuals.
The information further states that Zuberi accepted money from two foreign companies with promises that the funds would be used to contribute to political campaigns, but Zuberi took the vast majority of the money – more than $1.1 million – for his own personal use. (read more)
Here’s an additional alarming part. The DOJ and FBI were investigating Mr. Zuberi since 2014 and 2015, but for some reason the Obama administration never brought charges. One could argue Zuberi was just participating in a financial process that was business as usual for politicians in the swamp.
However, while the lack of charges against Zuberi, perhaps related to the contributions the Obama and Clinton teams were gaining, allowed Zuberi to continue his malicious effort; after Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Mr. Zuberi turned his influence efforts toward the incoming Trump administration:
What are the odds the lack of DOJ/FBI prosecution was part of an intentional design to let sketchy characters interact with incoming administration officials?
Zuberi delivered $615,000 to Hillary Clinton’s joint fundraising committee, Hillary Victory Fund and reportedly contributed between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. He gave $102,135 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2008 & bundled $500,000 for Obama in 2012.
The migrants trying to get into Europe for free welfare rioted on Monday in Malta setting cars on fire and attacking staff. Malta had agreed to house them temporarily in a detention center waiting for other EU countries to accept them for settlement. This illustrates the fears of many in Europe about all of these migrants who have been allowed to enter without skills in language or fields that would be suitable for employment. Despite the violence, European politicians simply cannot admit that this has been a huge mistake.
Justin Trudeau celebrated an overwhelming victory following the results of the Canadian election – SEE RESULTS HERE – The Liberal party lost 21 seats but remained the majority parliamentary winner albeit without a majority. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a “solid mandate from the election results.” The Conservative party gained 27 seats and the most national votes, but remain the losing party. The New Democrat Party lost 15 seats and declared the 2019 election a major success for their agenda.
It’s all weird.
During their post election speeches the Liberals (Trudeau), Conservatives (Sheer), New Democrat Party (Singh) and the Green Party (May), all declared victory. It seemed like a hot mess of political messaging; but hey, that’s Canada.
Congratulations, I guess.
Liberals (RED), Conservatives (BLUE), New Democrats (Orange)
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
Congratulations to @JustinTrudeau on a wonderful and hard fought victory. Canada is well served. I look forward to working with you toward the betterment of both of our countries!
Tonight the results of the Canadian election will start to be announced. Canada is a parliamentary system and therefore voters do not vote for a national candidate, instead they vote for a local representative, MP’s, who belong to a national party.
There are 338 separate district races called ‘federal ridings’ from coast to coast. In order for a party to win outright they need to win 170 district seats.
If a party doesn’t win 170 seats they need to form a government in combination with one, or more, of the other parties. Whichever party wins the majority of the seats elects a leader to become Prime Minister.
Currently there are 177 Liberal seats; 95 Conservative seats; 39 New Democratic Party seats; 10 Bloc Quebecois seats; 2 Green seats; 1 People’s Party of Canada seats; and 8 Independent seats. Early results should start coming in around 7:00pm Eastern.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America