It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Global standards body approves new merchant code for gun sellers
FILE PHOTO: A woman shops for a handgun at Frontier Arms & Supply gun shop in Cheyenne
By Ross Kerber
(Reuters) -An international standards body has approved creation of a merchant code for gun retailers, a representative said on Friday, following pressure from activists who say it will help track suspicious weapons purchases.
At a meeting this week, a subcommittee of the International Organization for Standardization approved what is known as a "merchant category code" for firearms stores, a spokeswoman said.
It clears the way for banks that process gun retailers' payments to decide whether to assign the new code to merchants. The code would help monitors track where an individual spends money, but would not show what specific items were purchased.
The codes were requested of the Swiss body known as ISO by Amalgamated Bank of New York, which calls itself a socially responsible lender and investor.
In a statement, Amalgamated Chief Executive Priscilla Sims Brown said the codes will allow financial institutions to use new tools to detect and report suspicious activity associated with gun trafficking and mass shootings, without impeding legal gun sales.
"This action answers the call of millions of Americans who want safety from gun violence," Brown said.
Some gun-rights activists had worried the new codes could lead to unauthorized surveillance.
Mass shootings this year including at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers have added to the long-running U.S. debate over gun control.
Several top U.S. pension funds had submitted shareholder resolutions asking payments companies to weigh in on the issue.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James wrote https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1568338548100587521 on Twitter that "credit card companies must now take the next step and flag suspicious transactions on gun and ammunition sales like they do for fraud and money laundering."
A representative for Mastercard Inc said that following ISO's approval, "We now turn our focus to how it will be implemented by merchants and their banks as we continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders."
American Express Co, in a statement sent by a representative, said when ISO develops a new code the company works with third-party processors and partners on implementation.
"We are focused on ensuring that we have the right controls in place to meet our regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities, as well as prevent illegal activity on our network," the company said.
Representatives for Visa did not respond to questions.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber; Additional reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Berkrot)
A plurality of Americans support President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan, with a majority backing a plan to back more forgiveness for lower income borrowers, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
Nearly half of respondents — 48% — said they backed the White House plan to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for Americans making under $125,000 or households making under $250,000, versus 34% who oppose the plan. Responses regarding the plan to forgive up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, most of whom come from low-income families, was 51% support versus 30% opposed.
Support for the White House’s plan varied among age groups. Respondents ages 65 and over opposed the plan by a 43% to 47% margin. However, a majority of those ages 18-29 (53% support) and 30-44 (52%) backed the plan.
The plan also won the support of 68% of Black Americans, 50% of Hispanics and 70% of those who currently have student loan debt. Among independents, 44% support the plan while 39% are opposed.
When respondents were asked about their support for more aggressive action, results were evenly split: Forgiving $50,000 in student loan debt received 45% support versus 44% opposition, while forgiving all student loan debt received 43% support to 47% opposition.
The survey of 1,634 U.S. adults was conducted from Sept. 2-6.
Biden announced the debt forgiveness plan last month, fulfilling a 2020 campaign promise after pressure from top Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as first-term Sen. Raphael Warnock, who faces a tough reelection race in Georgia.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a news conference on Wednesday. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Republicans have attacked Biden’s plan as a handout to affluent families. Roughly 40% of Americans have a college degree, and those who do tend to make more money than their less-educated peers. The plan would apply to the millions of Americans who accrued student loan debt but did not earn a degree.
Republicans also argue that Biden lacks the authority to pay off student loans with taxpayer money, while some GOP officials suggested that they might challenge the law in court. And Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said that the plan would hurt military recruitment, as many low-income Americans look at service as a way to pay for their education versus wealthier families who can cover the cost of college.
According to an April report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, canceling $10,000 per borrower “would forgive a total of $321 billion of federal student loans, eliminate the entire balance for 11.8 million borrowers (31.1 percent), and cancel 30.5 percent of loans delinquent or in default” as of spring 2020.
An Emerson College poll released shortly after Biden’s announcement last week found that 36% of respondents thought the Biden plan forgave too much, 30% thought it forgave too little and 35% thought it was just right. Analysis from Goldman Sachs found that the forgiveness is likely to have minimal impact on spending and inflation, as student loan payments — paused since March 2020 — are set to resume at the beginning of next year following one last extension of the moratorium from Biden.
President Biden announces his student loan relief plan on Aug. 24. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
“I ran for office to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out because when we do that, everyone does better, everybody does well. The wealthy do very well, the poor have a way up and the middle class can have breathing room,” Biden said during his Aug. 25 remarks discussing the plan, concluding, “That’s what today’s announcement is about. It’s about opportunity. It’s about giving people a fair shot. It’s about the one word America can be defined by: possibilities.”
Thumbnail photo: Craig Hudson for the Washington Post via Getty Images
Trump hits back at Fox and Lincoln Project after brutal ad gets under his skin
Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News Thu, September 8, 2022
Former President Donald Trump hit back at Fox News and the Lincoln Project after the #NeverTrump group got under his skin with an ad that aired at his golf resort in New Jersey.
Deriding the GOP group as “sleaze,” Trump vowed to sue Fox for approving the ads for broadcast.
“The (Lincoln Project) should not be allowed to “false advertise,” and Fox News should not allow it to happen,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “See you all in Court!!!”
Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson wasted little time chortling about Trump’s hissy fit.
“Oh, Donald. I’ve got a 10am ET meeting, but I’ll be back to scourge you in a bit,“ Wilson tweeted.
“Trump’s threat to sue the Lincoln Project today is like Trump himself; impotent, flabby, and pathetic,” Wilson added in an interview with Mediaite.
Trump was apparently rattled by the ad, entitled Sucker. It accuses the former president of fleecing his loyal supporters to line his own pockets.
The hard-hitting piece warns Trump’s MAGA backers that he is less interested in winning back the White House than in “propping up his failing business empire” with hundreds of millions in donations.
“It was a sucker’s game all along,” the ad intones. “And you know who the sucker is? It’s you.”
Trump claimed that Fox has turned against him, citing its decision to run the ad. He blames former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a GOP rival and member of the Fox News board.
“The Paul Ryun run Fox only has high standards for “Trump” ads, but not for anyone else,” Trump wrote, misspelling Ryan’s name.
It’s not the first time the Lincoln Project has succeeded in rattling Trump or his family.
In another recent ad, the group of Republican media gurus warned Trump that someone inside his inner circle, or perhaps even a relative, must’ve tipped off the feds about the top-secret documents he stashed at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“Someone who you trusted betrayed you,” the ad states. “Now you’re the first president to have his home raided by the FBI.”
Lincoln Project doubles down goading
Donald Trump after fiery response to his
lawsuit threat
Io Dodds
The Lincoln Project has doubled down on its fiery response to a lawsuit threat from Donald Trump, mocking the former president as a "cuck".
Mr Trump blasted the Project on his personal social network Truth Social early on Thursday morning, calling them "perverts and lowlifes" and claiming he would sue them for "false advertising".
After no more details were forthcoming, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson said on Friday: "Donald Trump hasn’t 'truthed' for 20 hours. Cuck."
Since then Mr Trump has posted several more "truths", but none concerning the advert.
The Lincoln Project was founded by current and former Republicans who opposed Mr Trump's re-election campaign, and has become well-known for picking personal fights with the mercurial real estate tycoon.
"Cuck", literally short for "cuckold", is a crude sexual insult with origins in far right online communities, which broke into the mainstream in 2015 during Mr Trump's initial campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
The term – and its variant "cuckservative" – was gleefully embraced by Breitbart News under its then executive chairman Steve Bannon, who later joined Mr Trump's team and reportedly applied the word to his White House colleague Jared Kushner.
In his previous message to Mr Trump on Thursday morning, Mr Wilson said: “Go for it, b****! Come at me. I can’t wait. We’re delighted by the thought...
"You won't do it, because you are, in fact, as I said previously, completely impotent. Just ask [Mr Trump's wife] Melania."
Mr Trump's "perverts" accusation may have been a reference to Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver, who was accused of sending unsolicited sexual messages to numerous young men. Mr Weaver apologised for "inappropriate" behaviour and resigned from the Project.
Analysis by USA Today has found that Mr Trump frequently threatens lawsuits but rarely follows through when the threat concerns defamation against him.
Donald Trump Threatens To Sue Fox News Over Ad That Calls His Supporters 'Suckers'
The former president announced on his reportedly financially challengedTruth Social platform that he is considering suing the news network for false advertising after an insulting ad created by The Lincoln Project aired on Fox News in one local market — where Trump owns a golf course. The ad was not bought through Fox News and did not air nationally.
The ad is titled “Sucker,” and it basically explains to MAGA Republicans why they are suckers for believing basically anything Trump tells them:
“Dear MAGA, we have some bad news. No, not that he lost. Not that your little coup attempt failed and its planners and the attackers are going to jail. No. The really bad news is why Trump told you he lost. Why he set it up way before the 2020 election. It wasn’t voter fraud but it was fraud.
“Trump told you the election was stolen ripped you off, to sucker you, to take your hard-earned money and shovel it into his pockets. He spent it on himself not to take back the White House.
“It was the biggest scam in political history. Every dollar you sent him paid to keep his shady business empire and lavish lifestyle going. It was a sucker game all along. And you know who the sucker is? You.”
The ad copy may address “MAGA Republicans,” but The Lincoln Project intentionally targets Trump, purchasing local ad time on Fox News in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the former president spends the warmer winter months, according to Mediaite.
The commercial was designed specifically to piss off Trump, and it apparently succeeded based on the rant he unleashed Wednesday morning on Truth Social:
“The Perverts and Lowlifes of the Lincoln Project are back on, where else, Fox News. I thought they ran away to the asylum after their last catastrophic campaign, with charges made against them that were big time sleaze, and me getting many millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016. The Paul Ryun run Fox only has high standards for “Trump” ads, but not for anyone else. The Perverts should not be allowed to “false advertise,” and Fox News should not allow it to happen. See you all in Court!!!”
Donald Trump threatened to sue Fox News for broadcasting an ad that was critical of him. (Photo: Truth Social)
Donald Trump threatened to sue Fox News for broadcasting an ad that was critical of him. (Photo: Truth Social)
It should be noted that Trump notoriously threatens lawsuits but rarely files them ― probably because the discovery process could force him to answer embarrassing questions under oath.
That and the First Amendment protections of political speech are probably why Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist, didn’t seem too worried about the threat.
“In 2020, The Lincoln Project took up a long-term free lease in Trump’s brain. His threat to sue the Lincoln Project today is like Trump himself; impotent, flabby, and pathetic,” he told Mediaite.
Wilson said he was “delighted” by the chance of a lawsuit and released a Twitter video in which he bluntly told Trump to “go for it.”
“Go for it. Go for it, bitch. Come at me. I can’t wait,” he taunted. “Do it. Do it. I double dog dare you.”
Looks like Twitter users appreciated the ad more than Trump.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Bannon Indictment Reveals Damning Texts on ‘Build the Wall’ Scheme WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THE WALL?
THE SUCKERS BORN EVERY MINUTE
Jose Pagliery Thu, September 8, 2022 CAITLIN OCHS
Manhattan prosecutors got ahold of text messages in which right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon laid out exactly how he and his pals were going to siphon off donor funds to quietly enrich themselves with a GoFundMe that promised to build Trump's Mexico border wall, according to an indictment made public on Thursday.
"[No] deals I don’t approve; and I pay [Brian Kolfage] so what’s to worry,” Bannon texted an associate on Jan. 15, 2019, according to the indictment.
The next week, Bannon texted that associate with concerns about how his anti-immigrant non-profit, Citizens of the American Republic, was going to be repaid. Later that month, he ordered that associate “we need wire of cash to [CAP.]"
The incriminating messages, which show how Bannon played a key role in the scheme to dupe xenophobic donors, were laid out in a grand jury indictment that was unsealed in Manhattan criminal court.
Bannon turned himself in Thursday morning to the Manhattan district attorney's office. He now faces two counts of money laundering, two counts of criminal conspiracy, and one charge for "scheme to defraud."
Local prosecutors are attempting to nail him for crimes that former President Donald Trump had already pardoned. However, that presidential Get Out of Jail card only applied to a previous federal case that had to be dropped. The DA operates at a state level and doesn’t have to abide by that pardon.
Bannon must turn over his passport and is scheduled to be arraigned at 2:30 p.m., according to a source familiar with the case. That person said the DA’s case is being handled by two prosecutors in the office’s economic crimes bureau: assistant district attorneys Daniel Passeser and Michael Frantel.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees that a person cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime, a concept known as “double jeopardy.” However, New Yorkers fed up with rampant corruption during the Trump administration sought to create a loophole of sorts in 2019, allowing the state to pursue criminal charges on a local level that weren’t being addressed at the federal one.
The Manhattan DA’s office has taken the same approach with other Trump World associates. Last year, it brought a criminal cyberstalking case against another person who’d previously received a Trump pardon: Ken Kurson, a former newspaper editor who’s close with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Earlier this year, Kurson took a plea deal for unlawfully spying on his ex-wife.
Bannon's case stems from his role in a sketchy GoFundMe that misused money to construct a privately-funded wall between the United States and Mexico, fulfilling a 2016 Trump campaign promise when the federal government was slow to do so.
He teamed up with a wounded Iraq War veteran, Brian Kolfage, and together they collecting money from what the Department of Justice described as "hundreds of thousands" of donors for a project dubbed "We Build the Wall." While Kolfage promised he would “not take a penny in salary" and Bannon described it as “a volunteer organization,” federal investigators later found that they siphoned off tons of money for personal use.
Kolfage, who is accused in the indictment of paying himself more than $350,000, pleaded guilty in April. But Bannon's case never got that far. He was accused of using a nonprofit to reroute more than $1 million and arrested while hanging out on a Chinese billionaire's yacht off the coast of Connecticut. But then Trump pardoned him during his last weeks in office—a big favor to his former White House chief political strategist.
Former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon was indicted in New York on state charges for his alleged role in a fundraising scheme to build a private border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Bannon, who surrendered to authorities on Thursday morning, pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in Manhattan. He was released without bail.
According to an indictment, which was unsealed ahead of his initial court appearance, Bannon is being charged with multiple crimes, including conspiracy and money laundering, based on his work with We Build the Wall, a nonprofit that raised $25 million dollars through an online crowdfunding campaign to fund construction of a wall along the southern border.
Bannon faces a maximum sentence of between five and 15 years, if convicted on the most serious charge. We Build the Wall was also charged in the indictment.
“The simple truth is that it is a crime to profit off the backs of donors by making false pretenses,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a press conference on Thursday, where he announced the charges alongside New York Attorney General Letitia James. “We are here to say today in once voice, in Manhattan and in New York, you will be held accountable for defrauding donors.”
Steve Bannon arrives for court in New York on Thursday. (Alex Kent/AFP via Getty Images)
Bannon pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges in that earlier case, before receiving a last-minute pardon from Trump on his way out of the White House.
But presidential pardons only apply to federal charges and do not preclude prosecutions at the state level. Shortly after Trump pardoned Bannon, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office began investigating his alleged involvement in the border wall scheme.
“There cannot be one set of rules for everyday Americans and another set of rules for the wealthy and powerful,” James said Thursday.
James said that Bannon “stands out as an example of this blatant inequality,” accusing the former Trump aide of using his “influence and connections to cheat everyday Americans” and then evade accountability by obtaining a presidential pardon.
Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News Thursday, but in a statement published by several news outlets Tuesday night, he accused District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of pursuing “phony charges against me 60 days before the midterm election,” suggesting that he was targeted because his podcast is popular among Trump supporters. The state’s probe into Bannon’s involvement in the crowdfunding scheme initially began under Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr.
“The SDNY did the exact same thing in August 2020 to try to take me out of the election,” Bannon said.
Leaders of We Build the Wall discuss plans for future barrier construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, May 30, 2019, in Sunland Park, N.M. (Cedar Attanasio/AP)
Bannon’s arraignment in Manhattan state court comes just over two years after federal authorities arrested him on a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut. Federal prosecutors in New York’s southern district had charged Bannon — along with We Build the Wall founders Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea — with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In a 24-page federal indictment, prosecutors outlined a cynical scheme in which Bannon and the others allegedly sought to capitalize on Trump supporters’ desire to fund a border wall — a core tenet of Trump’s 2016 campaign — in order to enrich themselves. Despite promising donors that 100 percent of the money raised would go toward building a wall on the southern border, Bannon and the others were accused of siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions to the campaign for their personal use.
While on the campaign trail in 2016, Trump frequently stoked anti-immigrant sentiments with his pledge to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. But once in office, Trump found that neither Mexico nor Congress would agree to foot the bill for his project.
Kolfage, a disabled Air Force veteran who’d previously helmed a collection of now defunct right-wing websites that trafficked in conspiracy theories and fake news, first created the GoFundMe campaign that would become We Build the Wall in the winter of 2018, after a stalemate over Trump’s demands for billions in federal funding for a border wall caused a government shutdown. The goal of the original campaign was to raise $1 billion, which Kolfage promised would be given entirely to the government for the purpose of constructing Trump’s border wall.
Though the campaign quickly went viral, receiving more than $13 million from over 213,000 people within roughly a week of its launch, it eventually became clear that neither the $1 billion goal nor the plan to give the funds directly to the federal government would be feasible.
Bannon allegedly got involved to help create We Build the Wall, Inc. after GoFundMe informed Kolfage that he would need to identify a legitimate nonprofit to which he could transfer the funds he’d raised for the wall campaign, or the money would have to be refunded to the donors.
Kolfage remained the face of the campaign, and messaging and donor outreach efforts centered on the promise — made on the organization’s website, in fundraising emails, and in media appearances —that he would “not take a penny of compensation,” ensuring that all of the money raised would go to funding border wall construction.
“Instead of pennies,” Bragg said, Kolfage “received more than $250,000 in a salary funded by donations, at least $140,000 of which we allege was laundered by Steve Bannon.”
Bragg called Bannon “the architect of a scheme” to secretly divert donated funds to Kolfage through a separate nonprofit, citing text messages referenced in the state indictment as evidence of this fraud.
According to the indictment, We Build the Wall “raised money from donors throughout the United States, including several hundred from New York County, based on the false representation that none of the money donated to WeBuildTheWall,Inc. would be used to pay” Kolfage’s salary.
Kolfage, who was not charged by New York prosecutors, is identified in the indictment as “Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1.” He did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News.
The We Build the Wall campaign ultimately raised $25 million and amassed an advisory board of high-profile Trump supporters and associates, including Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince and Kris Kobach, the aggressively anti-immigrant former Kansas secretary of state. Back in 2019, Yahoo News reported that the group had skirted local and federal regulations, and used intimidation and threats to quickly construct its first section of border wall on private property in Sunland Park, N.M., near El Paso.
Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist during the 2016 campaign and then worked in the White House for several months, was the only one to receive a presidential pardon for the alleged scheme. Earlier this year, Kolfage and Badolato pleaded guilty to fraud charges in federal court. Shea’s case ended in a mistrial in June.
Bannon is separately facing hefty fines and potential jail time for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was indicted by a federal grand jury last fall on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition and provide documents at the committee’s request, and a jury in Washington, D.C., found him guilty of both counts in July. Bannon has said he intends to appeal the conviction.
