Yes, the markets will melt up in the early going – maybe 500 points on the Dow – but there’s another story that we are looking at that could have more impact than a “rally with an air foundation” which is how we read the time-out on trade tariffs….
As our Peoplenomics.com subscribers know, we’ve been spending some time with our consigliere sorting out “How the news may fall” in order to pencil up a good estimate of how 2019 might play out in financial markets. It’s not a simple process.
Our current thinking is that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller might place Donald Trump in the cross-hairs of an impeachment drive in the House during the first half of next year. What was significant in the news flow over the weekend, however, is that an intelligent observer could begin to see a direct path for a Trump prosecution to follow.
Let’s begin with the report that when the Trump Organization was considering a major development project in Russia, that there was talk that a $50-million dollar penthouse in such a building might be given to Russian president Vlad Putin.
So far, it sounds OK on the surface, but it runs afoul U.S. law. Specifically, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which – if you’re not aware of it – Wikipedia sums up this way:
“The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (15 U.S.C. § 78dd-1, et seq.) is a United States federal law known primarily for two of its main provisions: one that addresses accounting transparency requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and another concerning bribery of foreign officials.[1] The Act was amended in 1988 and in 1998, and has been subject to continued congressional concerns,[2] namely whether its enforcement discourages U.S. companies from investing abroad.”
In our analysis this weekend, it appeared that Mueller might be able to make a referral to the House, based on information coming out now about the Moscow talks. Such an impeachment drive, we figure, would likely pass in the House. If then passed on to the Senate, the use of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as a basis of impeachment might pass by a handful of votes.
That’s because the difficulty republicans would find themselves in – especially the weaker ones – would be their democrat opponents would cast them as “supporting corrupt practices” and such support would dog them into their political futures. “Foreign Corrupt Practices” is a strong-enough charge that that any defense would be presented as ‘supporting corruption.” That’s “political poison pill” stuff.
The problems for Trump don’t stop there. Because while things looked good over the weekend with a 90-day delay implementing higher trade tariffs against Chinese goods (which should keep after-Christ electronics very inexpensive and result in a screaming short-term rally today) the details of the purported Moscow Penthouse offer remained murky.
The Russians, too, seem intent on keeping it that way. Again, this weekend, the Russian side insisted that discussions about the penthouse had simply “disappeared.” And Russia Today reported “Kremlin admits Cohen emailed them about Trump Tower project! …so what’s the big news again?” *Initial reports of the deal date back many months.
How Might This Lead to Impeachment?
At issue, are two lines of inquiry that might be pursued by Mueller.
Its key to understand the dual thrusts of the FCPA. One deals with “issuers” of debt and this part is enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This isn’t where Trump’s got problems near as we could figure.
Where the hot water and possible Mueller referral to the House might be based is on requirements in 15 U.S. Code § 78dd–2 – Prohibited foreign trade practices by domestic concerns.
“It shall be unlawful for any domestic concern, other than an issuer which is subject to section 78dd–1 of this title, or for any officer, director, employee, or agent of such domestic concern or any stockholder thereof acting on behalf of such domestic concern, to make use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of an offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of any money, or offer, gift, promise to give, or authorization of the giving of anything of value to,,,”
An extensive list of officials and limitations follows.
Importantly for Trump, there are a couple of “carve outs” in the FCPA that might offer a defense.
The first is that while a bribe – to do something unusual – is not permitted under the FCPA, IT IS permissible to offer payments which are “expediting fees.” The idea is it’s OK to pay foreign officials to just speed-up what they would otherwise get-around to doing -eventually –
anyway. Referred to as “grease money” – in non-U.S. bureaucracies, this gets things (like permits) to the top of bureaucratic paperwork. The specific wording is…
“(b) Exception for routine governmental action Subsections (a) and (i) shall not apply to any facilitating or expediting payment to a foreign official, political party, or party official the purpose of which is to expedite or to secure the performance of a routine governmental action by a foreign official, political party, or party official.”
The other carve-out in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is for “promotional purposes.”
“(2) the payment, gift, offer, or promise of anything of value that was made, was a reasonable and bona fide expenditure, such as travel and lodging expenses, incurred by or on behalf of a foreign official, party, party official, or candidate and was directly related to—(A)the promotion, demonstration, or explanation of products or services; or
(B) the execution or performance of a contract with a foreign government or agency thereof.”
The tactical problems for Trump – even when honestly defense along these lines – would be the democrat/left-friendly corporate media would label any and all such defenses as “defending corruption.”
Even IF the republican president could defend narrowly on the facts (which will be disputed and “tried in the press”) Mueller will also have solid grounds for a referral based on alleging a conspiracy to violate the FCPA.
You see, the thing with a conspiracy is – as our consigliere points out, Trump or his colleagues don’t actually have to DO anything. Just talking about an idea (like a Putin “gift”) would constitute conspiring. The Wiki entry on conspiracies is key here:
“In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future.[1] Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offense). For the purposes of concurrence, the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability (unless, in some cases, it occurs before the parties have committed overt acts) but may reduce their sentence. “
This is broadly spelled out in “18 U.S. Code § 371 – Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States.” Trump obviously did not attempt to defraud the United States, but under the broader “commit offense0″ portion, even talking about a special gift of a penthouse, could put everyone who touched the idea in legal jeopardy.
While we were kicking this around, we naturally eyed the position of the Clinton Foundation because it, even more clearly than a “let’s given Putin a penthouse” that had the feel of a “pay for play.” However, our view was that the Clinton’s were just doing what lawyers do…finding a way to circumvent some intent without technically breaking the law.
All of this might seem far-fetched speculation, were it not for developments in Chicago last week,. There – last Thursday – the city offices of powerful alderman (and one-time Trump Chicago Tower attorney) Ed Burke were raided. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel telling the Chicago Tribune ‘You don’t need me to guess about what are the implications’.”
There was an earlier Chicago Trib story last week that we notice because – while detailing the Ed Burke office raid and his promises to fully cooperate, this paragraph jumped out:
“The timing of that development and the raid on Burke’s offices led to rampant speculation that the searches were related to work Burke’s law firm did for Trump. The Burke investigation, however, was being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, not Mueller’s office, said Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Lausch.”
And that got us to thinking: “Who got the penthouse at Trumps Chicago Tower?” Wikipedia contained this:
“Two units on the 87th and 88th floors sold for prices in excess of $5 million in 2009 directly from the developer. After a few soft years in the real estate market, it took until August 2014, for units to sell for prices in excess of $1000 per square foot. Two units sold for over $3 million that month including a $3.99 million sale, which was the highest sale price in the building since 2009.[154][155] The penthouse sold for $17 million in late 2014 to Sanjay Shah, the founder and CEO of Vistex.”
For us, the questions came down to 1) Was the Burke raid related to Mueller? And 2) If so, might this be documenting “Here’s what a “normal penthouse” sale looks like?”
By the time we’d digested the possibilities, what came into focus is that by late summer or early fall of 2019, the possible impeachment of Trump might be wending its way through the machinery of Capitol Hill and by the fall of next year, we may be dealing with president Pence. A democrat owned House would love nothing more as a lead-in to 2020 and the FCPA is a possible path…
Familiar names will dominate the 2020 republican side, principally Kasich and Pence, perhaps. While on the democrat side, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke plus a few of the “new leftists” would likely run. Specifically, the Sanders-Ocsavio-Cortez test run comes up shortly to see how it will play to the peeps, though she’s too young for VP – grooming for something else?.
That said, the decline of the US economy after the “Tariff Talk Pop” in the markets this week – perhaps commencing right after a possible Mueller referral – might again swing the political pendulum in America.
That’s the kind of “framing” we work through in order to make an intelligent guess at how the future could roll out. We’re not pleased with the results, but an attack on Trump, via the FPCA as outlined here, is certainly one set of initials to be scanning for,
Because this one might have teeth.
Screaming, Insane Rally
This is how the rally looks to us as we are set to pop up 500 Dow points at the open today.
As you can see, until we better the high set just under the red “2” we are not breaking to the upside. Maybe a matter of time, though.
Is there really a trade deal?
Depends who you ask. The Chinese haven’t said too much about the Trump “trade deal” except we carefully note that it is only a 90-day hold. Over the period we have American Holidays and the Chinese will have their New Year celebrations.
Importantly, CNBC headlining that “Many Chinese-language state media outlets left out apparent key points the White House said it had secured, including that the U.S.-China agreement to not increase tariffs is conditional on the two sides reaching a resolution on other issues within 90 days” is indicative to us of the two very different management styles between Xi and Trump.
Xi Jinping, is more conservative politically than Trump in that he is more of an “Under-promise and over-deliver” leadership style. Trump, on the other hand, has often promised more than he can deliver (Border Wall, anyone?) but he’s totally unrepentant about it.
Part of today’s market hype also contains a “Lazarus deal:” Qualcomm says NXP deal is dead, even as China seen open to okaying it.
While the tariff delay is a good thing, it hasn’t fundamentally changed anything. We still don’t have a deal, although both Trump and Xi Jinping have tremendous political pressures to come up with some kind of deal that can be “easily sold to the people back home.” Trump is touting it for the masses… No post G20 press conference until after the Bush funeral, either.
So that’s what the market will be doing this morning. Running up on hype.
The problems, however, come later in this week. Despite some reports that the Mueller investigation might pop around December 5 (mid week) we also face a long-ton of economic data including employment data. ADP will be out mid-week, trade deficit data is due Thursday, and non-farm payrolls plus the federal empl9yment data comes out Friday.
This morning’s pop in the market is a “Bull Gift” we’re waiting to see how the wages side of the job report looks… At some point, everyone who can work will be working – and that’s when the music could begin to stop. World outlook darkens as factory activity slips, orders fall.
Qatar to leave OPEC and focus on gas as it takes swipe at Riyadh.
France: Fires of Digital Mob Rule
We have warned you uncountable times about how the internet becomes a two-edged sword.
On the one hand, people can become better informed and more participatory in their governance. Conversely, though, the Internet in general and phone texting in particular provides for flash mobs and more.
The poster-child for coming restrictions on the Internet may be seen, we think, it how France is going through its worst rioting in 50-years in what started as a tax protest, but which is now a kind of Digital Mob looking for things to bitch about – and burn.
People in Europe are relatively new to “freedom of speech” – at least at the device level. The problem is that governments are still “top down” ruling (hate speech laws and such) but they have no idea how to let people be free. And since the French people aren’t highly experienced at wielding freedom, it’s like letting the kids play with matches.
“Anti-Fragile” believers don’t understand how complexity becomes a series of “fire hazards.”
In clean-up and damage control mode, president Macron to call on U.S. funds to build French start-ups, not steal them. But wait, mon frer...isn’t that “free trade?”
A Key “War Alert” Just Went Off
When chief Nostracodeus software programmer Grady and I were working on the “linguistics” that would give an indication how close a shooting war of any kind was, we decided that “calling up reserve” was a very solid one to track.
For your fingernail-biting enjoyment today: “”Ukraine calls up reservists amid tensions with Russia.” No, that problem didn’t go away, either.
Oh, and from the State Department: Iran Test Launches Ballistic Missile Violating UN Security Council Ban.
Old News?
Dutch Court Rejects 69-Year-Old Man’s Request To Be 20 Years Younger.
Gotta love the notion..eventually some US law firm will have to give this a go…
OK, moron the ‘morrow…
Your quote of
“(b) Exception for routine governmental action Subsections (a) and (i) shall not apply to any facilitating or expediting payment to a foreign official, political party, or party official the purpose of which is to expedite or to secure the performance of a routine governmental action by a foreign official, political party, or party official.”
Could that be how Obama facilitated the delivery of $1.7 billion American Dollars to Iran? Could Obama be retroactively impeached? Maybe we could cancel the past 6 years?
Book List or Bookie (running illegal bets) List?
The Untold Story of Trump and the Russian Mafia:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/is-there-a-case-for-trump-putin-collaboration-years-before-the-campaign/2018/08/16/00578f1e-9440-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html?utm_term=.d9d99c4bc64a
Digital Mob in France?? hows Bitcoin/cyrptos play in this ? I thought Digital Mobs = Bitcoin. Being as how Cyrptos are the MOST efficient exchange of value ever created, Ure seemed to have missed an opportunity to buggy whip that “fraud” of a Currency/Commodity. Must be slow on the bean uptake this AM..
Vonn Mueller is going To Pay for all of his Treasonous/Criminal Acts committed during the term of the anti christ..um I mean Obongo’ term.
DECLAS will lead to Charges against Vonn Mueller, he is working now to save his skin…too bad..NO DEALS.
Age of Deso. George should be relieved regarding the latest Q drops… December 5th supposedly means something else..D5. Lots of Annons thought it meant a famous chess move, others were saying it refereed to highest class of Avalanche. DCLAS comes after scheduled testimony’s this week, catch the treasonous bastards in Perjury as well as all the wickedly treasonous acts perpetrated on the TRUMP presidency.
All DECLAS will come prior to the house members taking their seats, bye bye majority.
East coast,
Q is not real. He is an entertainer/practical joker ala Alex Jones. Q exists to stir up a pot of totally false conspiracy theories and outright silliness and gets his or her jollies and evil belly laughs at all who believe him.
Oh Mark. Go drive your tesla
Dave..when you say…Oh Mark go drive your Tesla…What does that mean? I drive Tesla for all things that America represents. A Tesla is proof that America still is the best place to live, work, innovate and lead. Tesla’s idea was conceived in America, is built 100% in America, employs over 45,000 and as of today is worth more than GM.
I used to drive a Mercedes …George has a Lexus. My friends drive BMW’s and Audi’s. I drive an American car that costs about the same as all of those German and Japanese cars I mentioned. I am proud of that.
From a practicality standpoint, I save $300 a month in gas, get a $7500 tax credit and just got a $300 check from PG&E for driving a frickin electric car. The way I look at it…in year one…adding up the gas savings…Tesla will save me $11,400 this year.
So yes, I will go drive my Tesla…proudly. God Bless America!
If only Putin could be PT’s VP for a year, & bring order “Russian Style” to our government.
ECS,
You didn’t really mean that. You were being facetious right?
No, very serious. Washington needs a good cleansing.
ECS… Ever read the transcripts of Putin’s speeches and responses..
I think if he seriously ran for office he would be voted in..
As far as the penthouse.. DJT is a businessman and just like the foreign entities that spend hundreds of millions on our legislators to get them to pass legislation that’s beneficial to them.. He was working to get a hotel there..
We need a good flushing of D.C. unfortunately they split it..so there’s always half of the legislators that have been influenced previously there to guide the new incoming legislators.
The other thing I think is the vast majority of the population want change but are afraid that if there’s change it will be worse than what they already have. Like a woman living with a woman beater she will always stay and if she does leave will most likely search out the same type of person because she doesn’t think she deserves anyone better.
How many times have you heard people saying.. We sure don’t have much of a choice.. We have bad or worse to choose from.JMHO
Lets face reality the country is controlled by the parasitic oligarchies which of course Trump is one of,and they have controlled the government and country ever since the election of 1980.One only needs to look at the tariff scam and making America great again to read the tea leaves, where all the tariffs were placed on China’s products and NOT the products made by the thousands of American companies and corporations who have their products made in China shipped over here ,and the profits parked in off shore accounts,thus no taxes.
Our GDP is growing at 2.5% the Federal Debt at 105% of GDP,the U.S. Treasury is spending $1.5 billion per day on interest and debt is growing at 5-6% of GDP,meanwhile his tariffs have caused record number of banrupcies of farmers in the Mid-West as China now buys their food products from other countries,Russia has picked up the soybean market that American farmers us to hold.and other countries are more than glad to pick up the slack in other areas of the food chain,meanwhile the youngest son who owns a construction company said Friday his main supplier told him they have been told that lumber prices will see a 100% increase in the spring that’s on top of the 15% increase on steel and lumber in April and May,meanwhile the orange clown tweets and twitters about making America great again while adding to their debt,interesting times are coming and all bad I’m afraid…
How much of that $1.7 billion was Iran’s money that we confiscated after Iran gave us the boot,The Shah (not Iran) had millions in Chase Manhatten which after sending a team of lawyers to Washington became Chases money seeing they were in trouble, you really need to read about the whole affair before jumping to off-times wrong conclusions…
George are you seeing this? The shift is happening. ^^^ which just futher proves my point. Emotionally charged hot words like “woman beater” juxtaposited with Government. Hmmmmmm. It not just a subtle shift anymore, The Language context shift its a blaring one now. The echos are getting louder as we approach the source/event.
Looking – you are right on the Mark ( a pun).
If it looks like, walks like, and sounds like a duck . . . and when the wolf comes and eats said duck . . . and says ‘Mighty fine duck!’, don’t be surprised if people know it was a duck.
Putin said/admitted that he wanted Trump to be president for his own reasons. Donald Trump wanted to be ‘best friends’ with Putin – and never thought he would be elected. And was not bright enough to know the difference. (Or would you prefer, mentally damaged?)
Woe to our country!
silly me..
a penthouse for putin… hmm let me think about this for a second….
http://fortune.com/2018/11/30/trump-putin-penthouse-moscow/
or nuclear deal..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/10/27/claims-of-clinton-russia-uranium-scandal-are-a-real-empty-barrel/#5de37f0d7b55
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Does-Russia-Really-Own-20-Of-The-US-Uranium-Reserves.html
or for our congress as an example..
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/08/foreign-interests-fara-lobby-watch-exclusive/
https://www.opensecrets.org/fara
whats the difference…
the difference I see… is the foreign entities pulling the strings of our congress are after the votes and minds and souls of our legislators are in fact doing it to further the puppeteers agenda’s..
where DJT is trying to turn the tide around to strengthen the dollar bill not destroy it and to bring back industry and american pride to the average wage earner to keep a strong dollar bill..
it is so obvious and yet people just don’t see it.. which surprises me.. if your a wealthy man would you like to stay wealthy or let some joker degrade that money to make is worthless toilet paper.. the poor.. well they will remain poor and do what they have to to survive.. but the wealthy except for the one percent it is everything.. and they could loose it all by making a number just that a mere number…
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_08.html
Best column in a decade…and hopeful your predictions hold true.
Also Add Michael Bloomberg to the list of candidates…not sure what party…Bloomberg has been a Republican from 2001-2007, Independent from 2007 to 2018 and now a Democrat just recently. The only problem is, he will be 78 in 2020…but he is in great health…and 78 is the new 68. I have always liked him…He is a real life billionaire and exemplary businessman, who tells it like it is using Real English words, (unlike Faux Billionaire Dumb Don) without ticking everyone off or providing laughable fodder for late night hosts.
Just be sure to give him YOUR gun..and leave mine alone…as I will never submit…Semper
Fi
Here here
Mark: Your comment
“You are scaring me ECS…I don’t know Whether you are serious or not…Calling Khashoggi a terrorist is horrible beyond words, but a national treasure like Bob Woodward? Tell me you are just joking?”
Serious & correct about the 2 buffoons. Recording a lie doesn’t make the lie true. Supporting buffoons to be politically correct is cool, but not correct.
Screw you Mark. Bloomberg is a commie
Everyone take a chill pill! No personal attacks like this…we have to keep to discourse not ad hominem…Mark IS an expert and whether we agree with his POV, he’s entitled to it. And no, Bloomberg is not a commie…he just uses the system for his own benefit…which is a little different.
There are many over the years who have violated the law, especially when you consider John Kerry, who attempted to negotiate foreign understandings in direct violation of the law. Was he prompted by the “deep state” movers and shakers, or perhaps acting upon the directive of a former US president? We may never know.
I have given up totally on government at the federal level. It is solidly in the hands of the globalist overlords and no internal workings of the system can change that now. I can even see their deformed hands at work at the state and city level but with strong opposition still. So glad I am soon to be 73. Have rounded third and getting closer to home daily.
If anyone is wondering about the Google Dot vs. the Amazon Echo Dot, I own both now, & the Echo is the way to go, especially if you have Amazon Prime, which I do, which could skew the results. I wanted to test both before I went into the upgrade products & security products. I still use toggle switches to control appliances remotely, & would like to replace the toggle switches & mountains of wire with wi fi products.
With companies obsoleting products so quickly, I advise people to avoid a certain level of automation. Companies cannot support these smart IOT things for more then 2 – 3 years, before they no longer upgrade to make compatible or more importantly actually secure. So if a toy, and something to keep you occupied and cheap, go for it. But for expensive connections I am very hesitant. Especially for wireless where security is broken early and often, at least wired you could secure easier in a separate domain.
Thanks for the review.
They both stink unless you enjoy total invasion of your home. They both record every word said in the home. People will give up their last pinch of freedom to laziness.Too lazy to get a recipe,too lazy to time your meal,too lazy to look something up,too lazy to get your own directions Blah Blah Blah. And what is next……….too lazy to turn a key,too lazy to pay for your purchases,too lazy to go to the bank so of course you must have the chip……..Oh the swipe of that mightly little chip and you never have to carry a mobile and a credit/debit card again,so much of a bother.And cash,forget cash,no one can count anymore,thank to digital crap.
We whisper when talking.
If the dots are listening
Yet again, a Euro court has made an incongruent decision! It’s OK to change sex without changing genitals and it’s OK to declare your race according to your whim, but age remains as a scarlet letter emblazoned on every document.
I’m furious about the insistence on having a DOB on every license, document, and even as a requirement for dating sites! If people can’t be judged on their own actions, pictures, and interactions, but need to be screened out by age, we live in a world where we might as well not even bother. You can improve yourself, but you’re still a slave of documents and chronology. Given that, there’s good reason to lie with impunity.
Even stupid meetup groups are age segregated by decade and some require documented proof. We’re far poorer as individuals and society for failing to learn and interact with those outside our age cohort.
I cannot see how they can rule any other way. So many “benefits” are tied to aging, the government cannot accept people saying they are older on official forms. Retirement, different tax rates, medical benefits, etc. I get it, it sucks to pigeon hole yourself or have others do the same to you, but when you give away goodies, by age, the government needs to have accurate measures. But on personal sites, lie away, assume everyone is lying on any non official forms.
This is same for race, I am not even sure anymore how it is calculated, just my opinion of my own race? If you declare a minority race, where goodies are involved, should a mandatory DNA test follow? Maybe a light reflection measurement?
George, I truly wish you didn’t comment as you did re-Muller. The guy is a psychopath and a cancer in our government. We need to have that creature eliminated from power, and to the best of our ability tone down rhetoric and conflict. President Trump makes some mistakes, but on balance, I’ve yet to see anyone that could have done a better job. If we don’t reinvent ourselves as a can-do country and just get on with doing, we’ll fail in the same sad ways as the Eurozone. China can move quickly because of their internal organization. We need to have that flexibility while maintaining our freedoms. That’s a real challenge for political engineers.
Are we up to it?
Yeah Mike – I did not like writing it. But, there;’s the visiting attorney/cpa and there’s the data.
In order to prepare for what COULD be ahead we need to stare at the data head on and this is one way it stacks…
All Mueller has is hearsay and he himself is complicit in the “Uranium One” scandal. So I think your prognostication is incorrect. And he’s been blind to all the crimes Hitlery committed. Sorry George, I’m with NMMike.
Dems would be crazy to impeach. The longer he stays in, the more controversy and/or miscalculations he makes (while stating they are the ‘best ever’ in the history of the US — tariffs, no wall, more plant closings than openings, so far played by Putin — tho maybe he can resolve the Crimea thing) the more ammo the Dems have in 2020. Also, if the Dems do move against him, it might actually build his base when he says ‘I could have done more wonderful things if the Dems didn’t obstruct my agenda’. So the Dems have two reasons to shut up about it.
Its no secret that Nancy Pelosi net worth is $.185,784,986 And she makes a little more annual salary than i do as a dump truck driver.
The difference is, she is deep on the pockets of lobbyists and I am not. Thats over 100 million dollars with an annual salary of $193,400
And we are concerned about Trump and his hotel????
Ninja please!
Short sited Andy…If you think for a second that Nancy Pelosi made her millions as a Congresswoman with her hand held out, you are wrong. No need…
Her husband is loaded. Paul Pelosi was and is a successful real estate and venture capital investor. Her wealth is really from her husband and his holding of real estate, a winery etc. Pauls company was also an investor in Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Disney etc.
But, when you are from a household that rich…that $193,000 salary of hers is probably direct deposited into her savings account…She has been in office since 1987…You add that salary up over the past 31 years and that equals nearly $6,000,000 she has not had to spend…because Paul is worth 10 times that.
Dude! I am one of probably the only people who actually read the first $700 bullion dollar Bail out Bill in 2008, all of it. I read the whole damn thing.
George will remember I used to be an IT guy and was stuck in a server room 12 hours a day monitoring a new server install for 2 weeks at a casino “in case something happened” So, i had nothing better to do, so i read the bill.
In it there is a $20,000,000 subsidy to research field mouse extinction in the San Francisco Bay area, noted an amended/added by Nancy Pelosi. That is a twenty million dollar subsidy to study mice! Read the entire bill, if my memory serves me its on page 618.
Who got that $20 million dollars???? The mice? Or the fat cats! And why in the hell is that part of the Bail out bill added and amended by Nancy Pelosi????
Let’s not forget how Nancy PeloSI’s FAT CAT husband is making a BIG commission on selling off all of the extra POST OFFICE properties! I just can’t stand it when someone comes on here bragging about corrupt people and how they made their money, when they only TRASH talk TRUMP. Pelosi, FIEND-stein, Shumer, and the rest of the barrel of PORK monkeys ain’t got no room to talk nor tattle!!!
Amen Andy….
kind of makes a person sick to their stomach..
Again, Andy…you have to understand the context. Yes..a $20 million study was done on mice..This damn rodent likes to Burrow in levies and earthen dams near water….which we have a lot of…It had to be studied correctly to eliminate the mouse without destroying the integrity of the levies. Part of that study was in my neighborhood. Sounds stupid, until you realize that without it…the levy would have fallen into the hands of FEMA and they would have declared my neighborhood a flood zone and increased my insurance $350 a month. Glad the study was done…the mouse eliminated and the Levy saved.
Gicves me a great idea for a novel… the Mouse That Poored….
No, the Mouse that Gored.
I’ve been debating on whether or not to share this story..
Personal freedoms, slavery and women’s rights…
When I was in the military there was a man quiet respectful .. A really nice guy he was like a father to me..he wore slippers to work every day.. Lol anyway we had a rare dress inspection.. All the big brass was going to drive by.. The secretary of defense the CNO everyone.. Out comes my friend all decked out more gold than fort Knox..I was nervous he chuckled and said relax they will just whip by.. Here comes this string of cars.. They screeched to a stop in front of him and everyone piled out of the cars they lined up in formation in front of him came to attention and saluted.. I had never seen anything like it.. Afterwards we were walking back to work and I asked him ..what in the world was that all about.. His response.. A ship was shot out from underneath us and I did what I thought was right.
Anyway I spent weekends with him and family.. He loved to read as much as I do..we did crazy science experiments etc.
His wife was a bit younger than him and one day we were talking about women and how he met his wife..
She was my cleaning lady.. Huh… Well it seemed that he was stationed in the middle east..and with his job couldn’t keep his space cleaned..so he went to hire a cleaning lady..oops .. They weren’t allowed to work ..women had no rights.. They only way.. In checking it out was to buy her at a slave auction.. Which he did..she was his housekeeper..eventually they fell in love..he insisted she get an education and she became one of the two hundred most influential female doctors in who’s who book of the worlds most influential..
Now.. I doubt if she knows I know the story of how they met and fell in love.. I’m not sure if she’s teaching or practicing anymore she still likes to address her envelopes with Dr. .. I still keep in touch with the family..until he left they lived a happy blissful married life and in my opinion he deserved two of those medals.. One for what he did for his fellow men and one for rescuing her..in the rest of the world personal freedoms are a whole lot different than here..we should thank our stars that we live here. As corrupt as its getting its still the best country in the world.
We should abolish voting (by the “geese”) in favour of appointing people with competence (like in China!). Has little to do with communism, but with achievements. ‘-)
Dam… and I was going to try this…OTFLMAO
http://time.com/5469144/dutch-court-age/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29
Wow, the comments section is on fire. Add some “likes” and let’s monetize this baby, lol.
Boo to GM for announcing a shutdown of the Oshawa plant next year considering the generous bailout by the Canadian taxpayer during the last crisis. My first car was a plain jane ’68 Olds granny sedan with a competent 455 4 barrel put together in Kansas City. Tomorrow the 15 year old Asian econobox is getting a new rad. Apparently they don’t weld repair leaky rads now with the frames being plastic and all…
Just putting it out there that if/when the economy tanks, I’d be happy to pick a nicely maintained truck for pennies on the dollar. Nearly a $100K new for a utility vehicle new you say? Holy kryptonite bitcoiners, Superman! Lol, lol,
lol my boat…