Grifters Gonna Grift

As has been pointed out in previous posts, grifters are seizing the opportunity to dupe, uh, low-information voters out of their hard earned cash. These grifters know all they have to do is continue baseless political attacks on perceived ‘liberal’ Democrats, or more often, President Joe Biden, and the money rolls through the door. A perfect example reached my inbox yesterday in a message from The Daily Caller (I don’t provide links to deceitful blogs/websites, so if you’re inclined to seek further information about The Daily Caller, you’re on your own).

The Daily Caller’s email reads as follows:

Urgent Message:If you’re a U.S. Citizen with 25k or more in the Bank, IRA, or 401(k), please read carefully. 

Biden’s history of presidential indecision and failure has prompted him to make aggressive partisan moves to gain favor with America’s left-leaning constituents.


Biden has made it clear that he’s planning on raising income taxesestate taxes (aka, death tax), capital gains taxes, and corporate taxes.

What does this all mean? To put it bluntly…

Taxation is a coercive (yet legal) seizure of private wealth. And Biden is looking to increase the government’s powers to claim more of it!

This will take place in addition to the more subtle and “indirect” seizure of wealth via inflation; a “hidden tax” on your income.

Higher taxation amid rising inflation is a financially dangerous prospect. 

And all Americans can agree on this, as no citizen will be spared the pain of losing income and wealth to inflation or taxation.

Those who are approaching retirement will be the hardest hit.

If you don’t prepare for this now, a sizable chunk of your retirement savings may end up in the government’s coffers.

But there are a few steps you can take to prevent this from happening to you.

Thousands of concerned Americans are learning how to protect their retirement savings from the negative financial impact of Biden’s policies by reading our 2022 Information Kit, 

The steps outlined in the book are simple to understand, easy to implement, and 100% effective.

Is there some proposal President Biden has offered to target retirement savings of American citizens? Is any of this true, and somehow know one knows about it except The Daily Caller? No, and hell no!

A link (removed) from the message takes you to the website of The GSI Exchange of Palm Beach. According to their website, the GSI Exchange “is a private distributor of Gold & Silver coins from the U.S. Mint and is not affiliated with the U.S. Government. ” The website further offers, “GSI Exchange is a BBB, A plus rated, leading national coin and precious metals company that continues to be highly praised for Low Prices on superb quality products via the direct sale of physical Gold and Silver coins or bars.

Does that sound like an organization fighting to protect you from policies of the federal government, or someone else trying to separate you from your money? No! They’re just betting you’ll trust them because they attacked the politicians you personally dislike and hopefully trust them with some of your hard-earned money. They insist they are a Better Business Bureau A-plus rated company, so they must be trustworthy, right?

Uh, not so much!

In 2021, The Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) and the Alabama Securities Commission (ASC) issued cease and desist orders against TRUE BULLION LLC DBA GSI EXCHANGE, directing it to shut down illegal operations in Alabama and Texas. 

The website of the Texas State Securities Board includes the following:

The Texas and Alabama orders accuse GSI Exchange of engaging in an illegal advisory scheme involving over $32 million. The scam involves 450 investors many of whom are senior citizens.  GSI Exchange allegedly told investors the holdings in their retirement portfolios were high risk and they may lose their assets.  GSI Exchange is accused of encouraging these investors to liquidate their securities portfolios and use the proceeds to purchase gold and silver coins to the benefit of GSI through high commissions. 

Texas State Securities Board

So, the Daily Caller, in the interest of raking in money from a dishonest sponsor, sends out a false message to its readers which very likely will lead to some of their subscribers losing money to GSI Exchange, their co-grifters.

I know my conservative friends don’t want to hear it, but it pays (and saves) to be more discerning when it comes to facts and finances. Be careful.

Republicans, What the Actual F?!?!

Bruce Fenton

Four days after joining the New Hampshire Republican primary, U.S. Senate hopeful and bitcoin millionaire, Bruce Fenton, compared the widespread adoration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the reaction to Osama bin Laden, warning that bin Laden was also once seen as a “hero.”

Fenton spun up the cautionary tale last week in his first televised interview as a candidate, telling WMUR’s Adam Sexton that “there’s so many parallels right now between Ukraine and the Taliban.”

“Remember, as Zelensky is a hero now, Osama bin Laden was once considered a hero,” Fenton said.

Fenton previously served as an executive director for the non-profit Bitcoin Foundation, originally founded in 2012. His early bitcoin-roots allowed Fenton to amass a small fortune preparing him for his eventual self-funded campaign driven by his $5 million injection.

After his tenure with the Bitcoin Foundation, Fenton turned his eyes to New Hampshire and the Free State Project, which is a political pro-freedom movement that calls for smaller government and lax regulatory burdens.

Jay-Z and Friends Party Past Picketers

(Hat-tip to Daily Kos)

The slap got the headlines, occurring as it did on live television, but Oscars night saw another celebrity moment that deserves attention. Jay-Z held his Oscars party at legendary Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont, as he had pre-pandemic. The difference is that this year there was an active boycott of the hotel, and the stars attending Jay-Z’s party did so by crossing a picket line. Now, one star has said she wasn’t aware of the boycott and will honor it from now on.

The union appealed to Jay-Z asking him to find a different location for his party, but the party went on at Chateau Marmont, with heavy security as union members and allies picketed.

Workers have said that in addition to the layoffs with no severance during the pandemic, Chateau Marmont practiced racial discrimination, with Black and Latino workers less likely to be promoted and some managers making racist remarks. Workers also described being expected to tolerate routine unwanted touching by guests. Balazs himself has been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior.

What’s really disappointing is the number of stars who crossed that picket line. Inside the party, fresh off his Oscar win for Summer of Soul, Questlove was DJing. “Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Winnie Harlow, Jon Hamm, French Montana, Zoe Kravitz, P Diddy, DJ Khaled, and Oscar winner Troy Kotsur were all met by protesters before entering the bash,” Page Six reported, and “Chris Pine, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Vin Diesel, Lupita Nyong’o and Rosario Dawson also attended the bash.” Many of these—though definitely not all—are people you’d expect to see supporting workers instead of crossing picket lines.

Dawson, who has served as a campaign surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders in the past, claimed on Twitter that the picketers were gone by the time she arrived and she did not know about the boycott, pledging to respect it in future. The union called on others to join her:

But let it be noted that many celebrities had already publicly supported the boycott, including Jane Fonda, Spike Lee, Issa Rae, Gabrielle Union, Samira Wiley, Robin Thede, Ashley Nicole Black, and Alfonso Cuarón. Being the Ricardos and The Offer pulled out of plans to film at Chateau Marmont due to the boycott. This wasn’t well-hidden information that no one had previously heard about.

It is disappointing and frustrating that Jay-Z, Michael B. Jordan, Rihanna, DJ Khaled, Zoë Kravitz and other Hollywood elites chose to prioritize their party, and their fame, over real people,” said Keisha Banks, a former Chateau Marmont worker. “It might just be one party to them but these are people’s livelihoods. They could be using their celebrity to get someone like Andre Balazs to listen to his workers. Why would they want to be associated with a hotel that discriminates and cheats its employees?”

Koch Industries Moves to Protect [Russian] Workers

Dave Robertson, COO of Koch Industries

Dave Robertson, president and COO of Koch Industries released the following following Russian attacks on the peaceful people of Ukraine:

The horrific and abhorrent aggression against Ukraine is an affront to humanity. It violates our company’s values and principles, which are grounded in the fundamental truth that the system most conducive to human wellbeing, progress, civility and peace is one based on respect for the dignity of the individual, the consistent rule of law and the right to freely exchange goods and services. Principles always matter, and they matter most when they are under pressure.

While Guardian’s business in Russia is a very small part of Koch, we will not walk away from our employees there or hand over these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government…

Dave Robertson statement, March 16, 2022

So, there you have it. Koch Industries, who with the assistance of the Republican Party in the United States has made every attempt to destroy safeguards for American workers will not discontinue business in Russia in the name of supporting Russian workers.

The song by Pete Seeger, “Which Side Are You On” comes to mind, and it’s clear how Koch Industries have responded to the question.

Impeachment Skullduggery (1868 Version)

The following article appeared in the May 26, 1868 issue of the Alexandria Gazette.

The Investigation

Gen. Butler‘s report of the investigation by the Managers of Impeachment into the influences used upon Senators during the impeachment trial, was presented to the House yesterday. The report was made “for the purpose” of showing the House the necessity of adopting stringent measures to force Woolley, to answer the questions put to him by the committee.” The report takes as its basis the testimony of Thurlow Weed. Mr.Weed states that the first proposition was made to him by a man named Adams, who was introduced to him by Mr. Smythe, the Collector of Customs at New York. Mr. Weed did not like the looks of Adams, and so advised Smythe. About a week subsequent to this, Mr. Wood testifies, a meeting was held at his own room in the Astor House, New York, at which there were present besides Mr. Weed, Mr. Woolley, and “a Kentucky gentleman, with Kentucky habits,” Mr. Smythe, the New York Collector, and Sheridan Shook, an Internal Revenue Collector of New York. At this meeting a project of buying the votes of Senators was discussed, and it was proposed to raise $30,000 for the purpose of purchasing votes for the acquittal of the President, of three Senators. The names of these Senators, whom it was thought might be bought at so low a price, was given by Mr. Weed, but for the present withheld by the committee. [The names of two of” them are said to be Messrs. Pomeroy and Nye.] Mr. Weed does not tell what he thought of this proposal.


Woolley, it is said, was familiar with the President’s counsel, and was in constant.consultation with Cooper, the President’s former Private Secretary, and at present at the Treasury Department; with W. W. Worden, known as ”Data,” of the Baltimore Sun, and during the past month has been constantly in Washington. It is in relation to the disposal of twenty thousand dollars, placed in his’ hands, that Woolley has refused to testify., and for which the committee ask that he shall be arrested and brought before the House for contempt. After his last .examination Woolley sent a certificate of a physician, stating that he was sick and confined to his bed. The same night he took the train to New York, from whence he sent’a telegram to the committee. His friends now say that he is in Washington again.

The telegraphic dispatches form a considerable part of the evidence. The dispatches passed principally between Woolley and his confreres in New York, and relate to the placing of the money at his disposal, to the prospects of acquittal, and are sometimes demands upon Weed or Shook, or an “Albany party” whom Mr. Weed states is one Hastings, employed on Weed’s paper in New York as an editor -to come on to Washington and assist in the negotiations.

In one point only does Mr. Weed appear to have hesitated to tell all he knew. One of the dispatches sent by Woolley nearly all of whose dispatches, by the way, were signed Hooker – to Weed, reads thus; “He will do it. Send on the Albany party if he means business.”

Mr. Weed remembered the dispatch; had ao doubt it referred to the impeachment business; knew who the Albany party was, but was ignorant as to the first part of the dispatch. He professed neither to know who “he” was, nor what “he” was willing to do.

The resolution requiring that Woolley be brought before the bar of tho House for contempt was passed.

After the report, of which the above is a brief abstract, was read, Mr. Brooks energetically denounced the wholesale seizure of private telegrams. He remarked that none of the persons implicated by the report were of the Democratic party, except Woolley. Gen. Adams had never been in the Confederate army, and was, he believed, a Republican.

Mr. Butler made a lame reply, failing to give the names of the Senators inculpated, but not denying that they were Messrs. Pomeroy and Nye ; denying, however, the published account of Col. Cooper’s testimony, but not stating what it was, and complaining that the witnesses had revealed the evidence given by them before the committee.

Mr. Eldridge put several troublesome questions to Butler, which disconcerted him in no light degree; and when the latter was explaining that the committee propose to publish only a part of the private telegrams they had read and inspected, Mr. Brooks asked him if he had copies of the telegrams of Mr. Geo. Wilkes, and the Rev. Theodore Tilton!

Mr. Butler was proceeding to gloss over the fact that this investigation by a secret inquisition was conducted by members of one party altogether, but there was one Republican in the House whose manhood revolted at this infamy. Dr. Baker denounced, as a violation of public justice, that a committee appointed to investigate a matter of great public concern should be composed entirely of the members of one party. If he had to stand alone among the Republicans, he should protest against this injustice. Dr. Baker spoke only two or three minutes, and was interrupted by Butler, who feebly attempted to reply. Mr. Baker declared that he “desired to lift this matter above party.”

Washington, May 25. – In accordance with the resolution adopted by the House this afternoon, a writ was issued by the Speaker for the arrest of C. W. Woolley, for alleged contempt in refusing to answer questions put by the mangers of impeachment. The writ was.placed in the hands of the sergeant-at-arms shortly after the adjournment of the House, and served upon Mr. Woolley tonight.

The attorneys of the respondent are now preparing an answer-to be presented to the House tomorrow, in which Mr. Woolley’s testimony before the managers is recited at length, and charges made against Manager Butler for indecent and indecorous conduct in the course of the examination of the witnesses.

The testimony of the witness, as related in his answer, varies materially from the version given of it in the report by Gen. Butler.