bostonangler

Yes I know in my area churches are losing members at what they call "an alarming rate" B/A

Yeah tell that to the priests... B/A

Again, I don't see why you are bringing Trump in to this.... It is about the wealthy buying land to control the food supply and gold for when markets crash... Or maybe they are preparing for the pandemic that has begun... You know them damn enlists want to thin out the population. B/A

This thread is to help people be aware of the newest scam to get your info... Please stay on topic... B/A

More like...

the president said entitlement reform could happen at the "right" moment and appeared to credit the strength of the US economy for providing momentum to shrink spending on two of the nation's biggest government programs. What programs do you think he is talking about? That is his actual quote, how can words he speaks directly to a camera be debunked? B/A

Most of us find it nerve-racking enough that we're forced to focus on gathering our piles of paperwork to fill out our tax returns. Now adding to our stress, we must watch out for tax season scam artists, too. The crooks are everywhere from the gym parking lot to the latest emails and text messages. A new trend: Expect an increase in ransomware attacks in 2020 on tax preparers where time-sensitive files may be frozen and only thawed when tax preparers pay a ransom to the hackers, according to Adam Levin, founder of CyberScout, which offers identity theft protection and data security. Levin said sometimes a ransom is paid, the files are released and the hackers still use data that has been stolen to file false tax returns. Fraudsters want your Social Security number and other key personal information in order to file fake tax returns as early as they can in the season to claim inflated tax refunds. So, the con artists will be busy long before the April 15 tax deadline. The crooks want to e-file tax returns before you do because they know that the Internal Revenue Service system will reject a tax return when the IRS has already received another return using the same Social Security number. The IRS will first process e-filed tax returns on Jan. 27. One huge red flag for ID theft: You discover that you can’t e-file your tax return because of an issue relating to a duplicate Social Security number. (The IRS will also reject an e-filed return for basic errors, such as if you misspelled the name the IRS has on file, but you would be able to resubmit an e-file in many cases if the issue is properly corrected.) The 2020 tax season kicks off Jan. 27 when the IRS will first begin processing e-filed tax returns. But tax scams are already up and running. If you discover that a fraudulent tax return has been filed with your Social Security number, you must first file IRS Form 14039 to alert the IRS that you're a victim of ID theft. In 2018, the 649,000 confirmed fraudulent returns attempted to claim $3.1 billion in refunds, according to the IRS. The IRS said it stopped 597,000 tax returns filed by identity thieves claiming $6 billion dollars in tax refunds 2017. As part of a Security Summit Initiative, the IRS is working with representatives of state tax agencies, tax preparation firms, payroll processors and others to combat tax refund fraud that hinges on stolen personal information. The crooks get a leg up by stealing key information to make their fake returns look more legitimate. Much financial information is already out there after major data breaches such as those at Equifax, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and Anthem. But cybercriminals are still actively seeking Social Security numbers and other data, too, with tricks as common as a phishing email that targets tax professionals, retirees or business owners. Here's a rundown on some of the latest scams: They're calling about your Social Security Crooks are claiming that there is a problem with your Social Security account. Some may tell you that your Social Security number has been suspended. It's another attempt to scare you into returning a robocall. Many demand action now. Some want you to "verify" your financial information, such as your Social Security account and banking information. Others might demand money on a gift card or Bitcoin. In January, the Inspector General of Social Security warned that telephone scammers may take the next step by sending phony documents by email to convince potential victims that they must comply with the fraudster's demands. The attachments may involve letters that appear to be from Social Security or the Social Security Office of the Inspector General. But retirees and others shouldn't be fooled by official-looking letterhead and government jargon. A new online system was announced in November to report Social Security scams online at oig.ssa.gov. Never provide sensitive information — or authenticate yourself — to someone who contacts you out of the blue, Levin said. Don't trust caller ID. Does that IRS notice seem weird? ID thieves are increasingly showing sophisticated knowledge of the tax code and even aiming to file fraudulent tax returns relating to a business or partnership, according to the IRS. Business owners are warned that one sign of trouble is that the company may fail to receive routine correspondence from the IRS because the thief has changed the address for the business. Or you might receive an IRS notice that doesn't seem to make sense based on your business or tax situation. Tax preparation software for business-related returns now requests more information to protect the tax filer, including the name and Social Security number of the company executive authorized to sign the corporate tax return. Sophisticated phishing scams are targeting payroll offices, too, and requesting W-2 information. Scammers might pose as the CEO or vice president of the company's payroll organization trick someone with access to data into disclosing sensitive information for the entire workforce. "This scam has emerged as one of the most dangerous phishing emails in the tax community," according to H&R Block's Tax Institute. The W-2 scam has hit all types of organizations — big corporations, small businesses, public schools, universities, hospitals, tribal governments and charities. "Never click on a link or open an attachment without independent confirmation of the sender," Levin warns. Cybercrooks are engaging in social engineering to make some emails seem more legitimate. Some may reach out to you directly by name to sound like your boss, such as: "Dear Chris: You really messed up this time. See attached." Or you might receive a text, robocall or email that's supposedly from the security department of your bank or the board of elections to "confirm your information on file." A text may even say your account has been frozen due to suspicious activity and ask you to click on a link and enter your USER ID in order to resolve the issue. Don't be fooled. Contact your bank directly if you're concerned. Levin warned that some of the malware-laden links may include authentic-looking graphics, excellent grammar and no misspellings. "Often the only way to tell something is amiss is by looking at the URL — but even that can be misleading," Levin said. Is your tax preparer about to get scammed? Fraudsters have really narrowed their focus on tax preparers, not only to steal client data but also to get their hands on information from the professional, such as e-service passwords, said Andy Phillips, director of H&R Block's Tax Institute. "If a fraudster is able to hack into a tax preparer's network, they may be able to steal personal information of all clients that have filed with that preparer," Phillips said. Some fraudsters, he said, have even found ways to change refund account information to ensure that the fraudster gets the tax refund. No, the IRS isn't emailing you a tax transcript ID thieves are crafting phishing emails to trick users into giving up passwords and other information, perhaps by even impersonating your tax provider. And they're sending attachments hoping that you'll be duped into downloading malware. One scam involves emails that pretend to be from the “IRS Online.” The scam email carries an attachment labeled “Tax Account Transcript” or something similar, and the subject line uses some variation of the phrase “tax transcript.” Phillips, of H&R Block, said other examples of imposter IRS emails include phrases such as "Automatic Income Tax Reminder" or "Electronic Tax Return Reminder." The pitch might look more legitimate because of links that show an IRS-like website and details pretending to be about a taxpayer's income tax refund or e-filed return. Some emails contain a "temporary password" to access the files. "But when taxpayers try to access these, it turns out to be a malicious file," Phillips said. You can forward malicious emails to phishing@irs.gov. ID thieves still steal purses and wallets Crooks can go the old-fashioned route by breaking into unlocked cars in a subdivision or lockers at the local gym to steal personal ID information too, such as a Social Security card or an old Medicare card that includes your Social Security number in your wallet. It should go without saying but you need to make sure that you don't leave tax returns on the kitchen table or sitting on the front seat of your car where crooks could access that information too. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/letter-irs-could-fake-watch-050118492.html B/A

Joe probably is hoarding gold too... After all this thread isn't about Trump it's about what the rich are doing to prepare for the future. B/A

It's plain to see... Party before constitution is the new mantra.... B/A

President Trump appeared open to cutting entitlement spending on Social Security and Medicare in a CNBC interview on Wednesday. He said a reform effort could occur at the "right" moment and appeared to credit the economy for providing momentum. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment. Any attempt to cut spending on either program would be a break from his 2016 campaign pledge to preserve Social Security and Medicare. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. President Donald Trump left the door open to overhauling Social Security and Medicare in a CNBC interview on Wednesday, calling any attempt to rein in entitlement spending "the easiest of all things." Trump is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and he's touted a message of economic resurgence at the elite gathering of wealthy investors, business titans, and academics. In the interview, the president said entitlement reform could happen at the "right" moment and appeared to credit the strength of the US economy for providing momentum to shrink spending on two of the nation's biggest government programs. "At the right time, we will take a look at that. You know, that's actually the easiest of all things, if you look," he told CNBC's Joe Kernen. Trump added: "We also have assets that we've never had. I mean, we've never had growth like this." Trump's CNBC interview, however, provided few details and little clarity on what shape entitlement reforms could take. While it's proved resilient, the US economy is far from the best it's ever been, despite Trump's claims on Wednesday. White House spokesperson Judd Deere defended the administration's position on entitlements, saying, "With no benefit cuts, President Trump is keeping his commitment to the most vulnerable Americans especially those who depend on Medicare and Social Security." He added: "His budgets have proposed more savings to mandatory programs than any president in history, including lowering drug costs, eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, and getting people off welfare and back to work." Trump recently showed disdain for attempts to rein in the swelling federal deficit, telling donors at a Florida fundraiser, in audio leaked to The Washington Post: "Who the hell cares about the budget? We're going to have a country." Any initiative to cut spending on Social Security and Medicare would be a break from his 2016 campaign pledge to protect funding for those programs. In his formal campaign announcement, Trump said: "Save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it." Social Security and Medicare represent a substantial chunk of government spending, and they constituted 40% of the federal budget in 2018. The former program makes up nearly a quarter of all federal expenditures. Both are highly popular among voters. A Pew study in December 2018 found that most Americans believe no cuts should be made to Social Security. Another poll from Public Policy Polling released last March found that 72% of voters opposed reducing Medicare benefits. It's a key reason that lawmakers have largely kicked the can down the road on addressing the rising price tags of Social Security and Medicare, and calls for reform still encounter resistance from both Republicans and Democrats. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that both programs will cost $30 trillion over the next decade, an outlook that some experts say could worsen as a result of the 2017 tax law that means fewer tax dollars are collected from the richest Americans and corporations. Trump's 2019 budget proposal sought to slash spending on safety-net programs by $1.9 trillion. It pushed for spending $26 billion less on programs related to Social Security — which mostly benefits older Americans — and shaving future spending from Medicare and Medicaid. In recent days, the Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden have traded blows over entitlement programs, particularly regarding the latter's comments about cutting Social Security while he was in Congress. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-reforming-social-security-190352318.html Oh no he didn't.... Not the old people! B/A

Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced Wednesday that his office would be suing President Trump’s inaugural committee (PIC) for violating its nonprofit status and abusing funds. In the AG’s complaint, the office alleges the committee violated district law by “abusing nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family, failing to seek out fair market value for event space and services rendered,” and “using nonprofit funds to throw a private party for President Trump’s family.” The AG’s office alleges that the inaugural committee wrongfully spent $1.03 million in funds at the Trump International Hotel, spending “far above even the Hotel’s own internal pricing guidelines.” In its statement, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) says, “as part of its investigation, OAG discovered that one of the PIC’s key event planners, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, raised concerns about the Trump Hotel’s event pricing with President-elect Trump, [Rick] Gates, and Ivanka Trump. This included issuing a written warning to Gates and Ivanka Trump that the Hotel’s final price proposal was at least twice the market rate.” (Rick Gates was a Trump campaign aide who became deputy chairman of the committee, and in December was sentenced to 45 days in jail for lying to law enforcement and charges of financial fraud.) The AG alleges that the PIC paid a day’s full event space rate of $175,000 for the Trump International Hotel’s ballroom, a space they would ultimately be unable to use because it was used by a separate organization: the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast. What’s more, the Prayer Breakfast only paid $5,000 for use of the ballroom. And while the PIC had the ability to use spaces at other venues in the District, for discounted rates, the OAG said, the committee did not consider them, nor did it seek competing offers to the ones received from the Trump Hotel. Ivanka Trump (C) blows a kiss to the crowd as she leaves the stage with her husband Jared Kushner (R) and her brother Donald Trump Jr and his wife Vanessa Trump, after dancing on stage during the Freedom ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images) More The Attorney General’s complaint also states that the PIC paid $300,000 for a private party for President Trump’s children (Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric). “Event staff within the PIC recognized this would not be a proper use of PIC funds and had tried to cancel this event, but Gates and the Trump family went forward with the event anyway,” the OAG said in its statement. “Gates allowed the event to move forward after Trump Hotel staff complained that canceling it would hurt the Hotel’s bottom line.” The Trump International Hotel previously expected to turn a loss, according to reports, but ended up pulling in nearly $2 million in profits. The Trump reelection campaign declined to comment and the White house did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Finance. This isn’t the first time that Trump businesses have profited in some way from his connection to his political office. By the spring of 2019, Trump’s campaign had spent over $1 million at Trump hotels and properties since the beginning of his presidency. And according to the non-partisan non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the president has more than 2,300 conflicts of interest since taking office. "Donald Trump's business has profited off of his presidency since his first day in office, whether or not it was legal to do so,” said CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz in response to the AG’s lawsuit. “It is good to see Attorney General Racine continue to act to ensure that the law is followed." https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/washington-dc-sues-trumps-inaugural-committee-for-abusing-funds-205848052.html It's like the mob has a new don. B/A

Ouch... Those negs hurt almost as bad as having a draft dodger for president! B/A

Trump Shrugs Off U.S. Soldiers' Injuries From Iran Attack: 'They Had Headaches' President Donald Trump on Wednesday downplayed the injuries suffered by U.S. soldiers during Iran’s attack on a military base in Iraq earlier this month, suggesting he doesn’t consider traumatic brain injuries to be “very serious.” Trump has said several times that no Americans were hurt when Iran launched a missile attack against Ain al-Asad air base on Jan. 8 in retaliation for U.S. forces killing Iran military leader Qasem Soleimani. But the Pentagon acknowledged last week that 11 U.S. soldiers required medical attention outside of Iraq as a result. Eight suffered concussion-like symptoms and three sought behavior-health treatment. CBS News reporter Weijia Jang asked Trump Wednesday about the injuries during a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Initially, you said repeatedly to Americans that after Iran retaliated for the Soleimani strike no Americans were injured,” Jang said. “We now know at least 11 U.S. servicemen were airlifted from Iraq. Can you explain the discrepancy?” “No, I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things,” Trump responded. “But I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a concussion as a traumatic brain injury that can occur from a blow to the head. Concussions are not usually considered life-threatening, but their effects can be serious. Asked Wednesday if he considers potential traumatic brain injuries to be “serious,” Trump suggested he did not and urged Jang to follow up with the Defense Department because he was only told about the injuries “numerous days later.” “I don’t consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I’ve seen,” the president said. “I’ve seen what Iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops. I’ve seen people with no legs and no arms. ... I can consider them to be really bad injuries. No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-shrugs-off-soldiers-injuries-iran-attack-142059343.html Headaches??? That's nothing compared to a bone spur! B/A

Awesome... Another diatribe of nothingness... You really ought to get a job. B/A

So what's a human to do? How do we prepare our future generations? I'm old and won't be here in 50 or 100 years, but the future is going to be bleak for those who remain. If there is anything humans can do to help mother earth, there's no time like the present. B/A

I will thanks... Check out the book Modern Romans.... It is so spot on. B/A

Barr Once Contradicted Trump's Claim That Abuse of Power Is Not Impeachable WASHINGTON — Scholars have roundly rejected a central argument of President Donald Trump’s lawyers that abuse of power is not by itself an impeachable offense. But it turns out that another important legal figure has contradicted that idea: Trump’s attorney general and close ally, William Barr. In summer 2018, when he was still in private practice, Barr wrote a confidential memo for the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to help the president get out of a problem. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, was pressuring him to answer questions about whether he had illegally impeded the Russia investigation. Trump should not talk to investigators about his actions as president, even under a subpoena, Barr wrote in his 19-page memo, which became public during his confirmation. Barr based his advice on a sweeping theory of executive power under which obstruction of justice laws do not apply to presidents, even if they misuse their authority over the Justice Department to block investigations into themselves or their associates for corrupt reasons. But Barr tempered his theory with a reassurance. Even without the possibility of criminal penalties, he wrote, a check is in place on presidents who abuse their discretionary power to control the executive branch of government — impeachment. The fact that the president “is answerable for any abuses of discretion and is ultimately subject to the judgment of Congress through the impeachment process means that the president is not the judge in his own cause,” he wrote. He added, “The remedy of impeachment demonstrates that the president remains accountable under law for his misdeeds in office,” quoting from a 1982 Supreme Court case. Barr has long embraced a maximalist philosophy of executive power. But in espousing the view that abuse of power can be an impeachable offense, he put himself squarely in the mainstream of legal thinking. Most constitutional scholars broadly agree that the constitutional term “high crimes and misdemeanors” for which an official may be impeached includes abuse of power. But in a 110-page brief Monday, Trump’s impeachment team — led by Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel and a former aide to Barr in the first Bush administration, and Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow — portrayed the article of impeachment claiming that Trump abused his power in the Ukraine affair as unconstitutional because he was not accused of an ordinary crime. “House Democrats’ novel conception of ‘abuse of power’ as a supposedly impeachable offense is constitutionally defective,” they wrote. “It supplants the framers’ standard of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ with a made-up theory that the president can be impeached and removed from office under an amorphous and undefined standard of ‘abuse of power.’ ” Contrary to what Barr wrote 20 months ago, the Trump defense team also insisted that the framers did not want Congress to judge whether presidents abused their discretion and made decisions based on improper motives. “House Democrats’ conception of ‘abuse of power’ is especially dangerous because it rests on the even more radical claim that a president can be impeached and removed from office solely for doing something he is allowed to do, if he did it for the ‘wrong’ subjective reasons,” the Trump team wrote. A spokeswoman for Barr declined to comment. A spokesman for Trump’s impeachment defense team did not respond to a request for comment about the tensions. But Barr’s view was no passing thought. His 2018 memo emphasized that presidents who misuse their authority by acting with an improper motive are politically accountable, not just in elections but also via impeachment. Between elections, “the people’s representatives stand watch and have the tools to oversee, discipline, and, if they deem appropriate, remove the president from office,” he wrote. “Under the framers’ plan, the determination whether the president is making decisions based on ‘improper’ motives or whether he is ‘faithfully’ discharging his responsibilities is left to the people, through the election process, and the Congress, through the impeachment process.” The result of Barr’s main argument in 2018 and the Trump team’s theory in 2020 is identical: Both posited that facts were immaterial, both in a way that was convenient to counter the threat Trump faced at that moment. If Barr’s obstruction of justice theory is correct — and many legal scholars reject it — then Mueller had no basis to scrutinize Trump’s actions that interfered with the Russia investigation. Similarly, if the Trump impeachment team’s theory is correct, the Senate has no basis to subpoena documents or call witnesses. The lawyers are implying that even if Trump did abuse his power to conduct foreign policy by trying to coerce Ukraine into announcing investigations that could help him in the 2020 election, the Senate should acquit Trump anyway. Another member of Trump’s legal team, Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and criminal defense lawyer, is expected to make a presentation to the Senate trial this week laying out in detail the theory that abuses of power are not impeachable without an ordinary criminal violation. Critics of Dershowitz’s arguments have pointed to the seeming tension with comments he made in 1998, when he did not have a client facing impeachment for abuse of power: “If you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don’t need a technical crime.” In an interview this week, Dershowitz argued that his position now was not inconsistent with what he said in 1998, pointing to his use then of the phrase “technical crime” and saying that he is arguing today that impeachment requires “crimelike” conduct. Dershowitz went further Tuesday, saying on Twitter that he had not thoroughly researched the question in 1998 but recently has done so. “To the extent therefore that my 1998 off-the-cuff interview statement suggested the opposite,” he wrote, “I retract it.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/barr-once-contradicted-trumps-claim-130649668.html Maybe we do need a revolution... I can't find one honest person in this entire show. B/A

5,783 people are talking about this Making the footage even more awkward in retrospect, McConnell slammed Democrats by saying they had decided to clear Clinton before the proceedings even began. “There were no open minds on the Democratic side in this trial,” he said. But now, McConnell is guilty of doing just that himself. “I’m not an impartial juror,” he declared last month. McConnell also seemed quite deferential to the wishes of House impeachment managers in 1999, offering to give them what they wanted to put on the trial: 459 people are talking about this https://www.yahoo.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-impeachment-witnesses-clinton-053911184.html GO RV, then BV Sadly, as pitcher has said you can find the other side doing the same flip flop... B/A

This adds nothing and demonstrates blind faith... You sound like a Jim Jones worshipper... No one is perfect, not even your false prophet... B/A

You are correct... 20 years ago on both sides they all said the opposite... They are flip flopping con-men... B/A

Now I didn't say it works every time… I said if you show up you can (sometimes) get out of a ticket... If you don't then you have no chance at proving your innocence... Just like our president, he had a chance but passed... I won't be surprised when this is over, the majority of the public will think he should go... If he had let his people testify and handed over documents, he could have ended it... B/A

Yeah McConnell is real contradiction... https://www.newsweek.com/resurfaced-video-shows-mitch-mcconnell-supporting-witnesses-bill-clinton-impeachment-trial-i-1483335 B/A

You've obviously have never gotten out of a speeding ticket... LOL If you show up, you can get out of a ticket, if you don't you pay... In the real world, that's how it works. B/A