We, the Corporations .. ?

The political network overseen by Charles and David  Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.

Hundreds of conservative donors recruited by the Kochs gathered over the weekend for three days of issue seminars, strategy sessions and mingling with rising elected officials. 

 

The Koch family of industrialists and businesspeople is most notable for its control of Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2013 revenues of $115 billion). The family business was started by Fred C. Koch, who developed a new cracking method for the refinement of heavy oil into gasoline. Fred's four sons litigated against each other over their interests in the business during the 1980s and 1990s. Charles and David still with Koch Industries.  

The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to "buy" Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. 

Under the nearly five-decade reign of CEO Charles Koch, the company has paid out record civil and criminal environmental penalties. And in 1999, a jury handed down to Koch's pipeline company what was then the largest wrongful-death judgment of its type in U.S. history, resulting from the explosion of a defective pipeline that incinerated a pair of Texas teenagers.

Money and more money, to watch for.  Just a thought.

Fast Food

Around 4:30 p.m. Friday, Janelle Jones, of Rochester, had ordered a drink and a sandwich at the drive-through of  North Main St. restaurant. She was driving home when she discovered that the sandwich bag was actually full of cash, and there was no food inside.

At home, the couple inspected the bag and found the cash, most of which was inside two bank deposit bags. There was also a loose $100 bill.

Matthew admitted, “We are not perfect human beings,” and said the couple had considered the possibility of keeping the money, adding they could have certainly used the cash. But he said he and his wife are Jehovah's Witnesses, and that “Jehovah sees everything.”

When they returned the money about an hour later, the employees of the store were extremely thankful, he said. “It felt a lot better than keeping it,” said Matthew Jones.
Store employees at Rochester's Burger King confirmed the incident but chose not to comment on the story.

“One person said 'they were going to get fired' 
“A manager told me they would give me five free meals,” Janelle added. “The manager said he talked to the corporate office and they said to tell me 'thank you.'”

The hesitation to return the money is a concern.
Just a thought.

Silver's Dilemma

Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the New York Assembly, exploited his position as one of the most powerful politicians in the state to obtain millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, federal authorities said.

For years, Mr. Silver has earned a lucrative income outside government, asserting that he was a personal injury lawyer who represented ordinary people. But federal prosecutors said his purported law practice was a fiction, he created to mask about $4 million in payoffs.

He was accused of steering real estate developers to a law firm that paid him kickbacks and funneling state grants to a doctor who referred asbestos claims to a second law firm that employed Mr. Silver and paid him fees for referring clients.

A federal magistrate judge issued seizure warrants to block Mr. Silver from access to $3.8 million that the speaker had spread among eight bank and asset-management accounts.

*Can Mr. Silver be a partner in a Law Firm or .. in addition to his Job?

* Can he get compansated on the partnership?

* Did he force any to go to these firms or to get paid?

Obviously, he got $4 Millions since 1994 [20 years] and still have $3.8 Millions in the bank. So he is not a big spender. Wait for additional info.

Just a thought.

Drones' new use?

 
Police in a Mexican border city said that a drone overloaded with illicit meth-amphetamine crashed into a supermarket parking lot.

Tijuana police spokesman said authorities were alerted after the drone fell near the San Ysidro crossing at Mexico's border with California.
                
Six packets of the drug,  six pounds, were taped to the six-propeller remote-controlled aircraft. Authorities are investigating where the flight originated and who was controlling it. It was not the first time they had seen drones used for smuggling drugs across the border.

Authorities in South Carolina found a drone outside the fence of a prison that had been carrying cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.

Drones are becoming increasingly used in attempt to smuggle drugs into prisons.
An Australia man was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into a prison with a drone, police say.

The 28 year-old man was arrested after the drone was hovering in the vicinity of a prison in Ravenhall. He was charged with possession and attempting to commit an indictable offense and is due to appear in court next week. Drones are really doing a service.

Just a scary thought.

Shocked...

Coach Bill Belichick acknowledged that he was "shocked" this week to learn of the NFL's investigation of overly deflated footballs allegedly used by the Patriots during the AFC title game.

When I came in Monday morning, I was shocked to learn of the news reports about the footballs. I had no knowledge whatsoever of this situation until Monday morning.

I had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process that went through -- that happened between -- when they were prepared and went to the officials and went to the game, so I learned a lot about that.

"I obviously understand that each team has the opportunity to prepare the balls the way they want. Give them to the officials and the game officials either approve or disapprove the balls, and that really was the end of it for me, until I learned a little more about this the last couple days."

I can tell you that in my entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up," Belichick said. "To me, the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pregame, and we play with what's out there. And that's the only way that I have ever thought about that."

Blah, Blah, Blah.   Just a thought.

Compassionate?

Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are zeroing in on inequality as America’s fundamental economic problem. Bush’s new Political Action Committee, called “The Right to Rise,” declares “the income gap is real” but that “only conservative principles can solve it.”

Mitt Romney likewise promised that if he runs for president he’ll change the strategy that led to his 2012 loss to President Obama [ the “makers” versus the “takers?”] and focus instead on income inequality, poverty, and “opportunity for all people.”

The Republican establishment’s leading presidential hopefuls know the current upbeat economy isn’t trickling down to most Americans. But they’ve got a whopping credibility problem, starting with trickle-down economics.

Neither party deserves a medal for reversing the trend, but evidence shows that middle-class and poor Americans have faired better under Democratic presidents.

Personal disposable income has grown nearly 6 times more with Democrats in the White House than Republicans.

Under Bill Clinton even the wages of the poorest fifth rose. According to research by economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson, more jobs have been created under Democratic presidents as well.

These broad-based job and wage gains haven’t hampered economic growth. To the contrary, they’ve fueled it by putting more money into the pockets of people who spend it, thereby boosting business profits and hiring.

So let us see the change, that we may believe in.         Just a thought.

No Fly.... list.

CBS Charlie D'Agata reports that Belgian authorities closed in on the leaders of the apparent terror cell busted up last week.

Belgium DPM Didier Reynders told CBS News the hunt for the ringleader in Greece originated from intercepted phone calls. They learned an attack was hours away, prompting the raids across the country last week in which two suspects were killed and a third arrested.

A U.S. official told CBS News that the suspected ringleader, a 33-year-old Algerian man, is believed to have returned from Syria and allegedly ran the operation aimed at attacking police and government officials from Greece.

In the following 24 hours, more than a dozen other people were detained for questioning across Belgium, and there have been dozens more terror arrests across Europe since the attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead.

The Algerian man, detained Sunday on a European arrest warrant in Athens, was to go before Greek judges who were expected to rule on the Belgian extradition request within several days.

Reynders told CBS News that among the measures foreign ministers were to discuss, was the possibility of revoking passports of suspected terrorists; about as close as Europe can come collectively to setting up a no-fly list like the one in the U.S. We are waiting.        Just a thought.

Fox...!

Fox News took time out of four broadcasts on Saturday to apologize for four separate instances of incorrect information that portrayed Muslims in a negative light.

Several of the cases involved incendiary comments about "no-go zones" in Europe, where Islamic law supposedly supersedes local law and where non-Muslims fear to go.

Other media outlets have accused Fox of exaggerations and falsehoods, and even British Prime Minister David Cameron mocked one of the assertions.

On Saturday, Fox apologized morning, noon and night.
Jeanine Pirro issued the final correction of the day, at 9:10 p.m., for something her guest Steve Emerson said a week earlier: that Birmingham, England is a "totally Muslim city where non-Muslims don't go in." Emerson was ridiculed for his comments, and he subsequently apologized.

"Last week on this program, a guest made a serious factual error that we wrongly let stand unchallenged and uncorrected," Pirro said. ................ Also, we could find no credible source that indicates Birmingham is a so-called no-go zone."

Earlier this week, a French comedy television show observed that the map in question was identical to a map, made by the French government in 1996, of poor neighborhoods in need of help.

Just a thought.

Freedom of Speech

 

Chloe-Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby’s Latest Accuser Chloe Goins Was Arrested As A Minor For Prostitution In Las Vegas

Chloe Goins added her name to the chorus of Bill Cosby accusers when she claimed he drugged and sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion six years ago. Now, RadarOnline.com can reveal that the latest alleged victim has some dark secrets of her own.

According to court documents obtained by Radar, Goins was arrested in Las Vegas for soliciting prostitution just three years ago — and posed for an unflattering mug shot in the process.

According to Officer Laura Meltzer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, an underage Goins was booked on misdemeanor charges, including one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of a minor in a gambling establishment on May 1, 2011.

Even though officers had probable cause to arrest Goins, now 24, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office informed Radar that charges were never filed.

Goins – the first accuser to fall within the statute of limitations  told the British newspaper she “was not very sexually experienced” and “didn’t really know what had happened,” when she recounted what she says occurred at the party she attended with a girlfriend.

However, Goins doesn’t believe he raped her.

“Unlike many of those women, I don’t think he raped me,” she said, “so I am one of the lucky ones, but at the same time it was a f-ed up situation.”