Across the Great Divide

Letters and Petters.

Had a letter in the Strib today responding to this. I'll save you the trip and the pop-up ads.

Rep. Keith Downey's "Jobs task force is stirring the wrong pot" (Opinion Exchange, Nov. 10) asserts that state government "has been growing twice as fast as the economy," but by what measure?

In fact, the portion of personal income we invest in services and infrastructure through state and local governments has fallen -- from around 17.5 percent throughout the 1990s to about 15.5 percent in 2008.

Downey also asks us to consider how much smaller our budget would be if only "spending had grown at the healthy rate of inflation plus population growth." Colorado already tried that. Voters and the Republican governor who'd enacted a constitutional amendment limiting budget growth finally cried for a halt to such "healthy" spending restrictions before the Rocky Mountain state hit rock bottom.

Finally, Downey claims "businesses are voting with their feet" because more businesses moved out of Minnesota than moved in. But studies consistently show business migration is a trivial factor in job loss or creation. Using the database Downey cites, Minnesota's net job loss from relocations was only -0.3 percent of the state's total jobs, compared with -0.1 percent for low-tax Florida.

Downey's suggestions about the discussions Minnesotans ought to be having about outcomes are much better and more constructive than his economic analysis.

I don't know that Downey's solutions would be all that great for Minnesota, but he is at least talking about many of the right things when he says "Minnesota businesses don't need gimmicks, handouts or corporate welfare -- but with a level playing field." 

• Tax reform [I think he means down; I mean different]
• Close the achievement gap [Do I hear vouchers?]
• Control dramatically increasing costs in health and human services [With equal or better outcomes, I hope]
• Renew local institutions by reducing the size and control of state government [Unfortunately, shrinking state government contributes to local institutions' troubles]
• Have a plan that focuses on long-term reforms with lasting benefit [Amen]

*****

In the same edition, from the Petters trial, this implied investment tip: Don't take investment advice from a guy you met who was in prison on money-laundering charges.

A witness testified "she felt reassured by seeing merchandise in one of the [Petters Warehouse Direct] stores in her neighborhood."

I'd like to hear from others who have ever set foot in a Petters store and felt anything except a desire never to return. You'd find better merchandising, product quality and selection in your average Halloween Store on November 1st.

Petters: How to Know When He's Cheating.

Apparently some of Tom Petters' business associates never read those popular features on "How to tell your guy is cheating." Or asked a psychic. Or read a book on how to recognize the signs.

In yesterday's fraud trial testimony, one of Petters' dupes described how he "planned to go to California to inspect the inventory [he was asked to invest in], but Petters said no because it was in a locked facility available only to the insurers of the merchandise."

Right. Available to insurers but not investors.

That excuse sounded to me remarkably like what the married guy says to his girlfriend when she wonders why they never spend any time at his place. 

Some of the other behavior sounded familiar, too. For example:

Tells stories that don't make sense. Paul Feehan, GE Capital's manager of corporate lending at the time, testified that he called Petters directly to discuss his company's mounting financial troubles. "I got a series of promises. There was always a new excuse and the excuses kept piling up," he said.

Accuses you of infidelity. Feehan said he and Marrone wrote Costco to check on the inventory of electronics goods that Petters claimed to have bought with the money he borrowed. Petters immediately called back and "read me the riot act," Feehan said. "He was very adamant that I stay away from Costco."

Takes offense when you make normal and natural inquiries and may demand to know why you are checking up. When Colburn told Petters he intended to call the companies that were supposed to sell the TVs, Petters was adamantly opposed. He said Petters left a voice mail message saying, "You won't get the satisfaction that you're looking for."

Lives a changed or more extravagant life style. The dapper Petters funded his philanthropy, gambling and world travel with money from investors.

Signs of unexplainable exhaustion or restlessness. Petters was notoriously fidgety and had a short attention span, so any change there would be in matter of degree.

Hides or “loses” bills. A classic symptom. Instead of hiding paperwork about his transactions, Petters forged it.

Withholds affection and/or sex. When one lender questioned Petters too closely, he terminated the relationship, saying they were too hard to do business with.

Concocts alibis calculated to elicit empathy instead of scrutiny. At one point in August 2008, Petters told one of his investors that he had a family emergency and would repay the investor "within days," the government said, noting that Petters then sent an e-mail to Coleman that said, "Dancing...my sh[o]es have holes i[n] them."

Petters is still dancing. His defense claims he was victimized by others while he was distraught over the death of his son.

Western Union Traveler Scam.

Thank goodness for literate friends. Although we do have this friend away on vacation now, she couldn't possibly have written this message:

Did you get my previous message,I sent you an email some hours ago, I had traveled to Uk for a school seminar,  Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I  lodged, I am so confused right now, I don't know what to do or where to go,I didn't bring my phone  here, I have access to only emails,Please can you  send me $1500 today through western union  so I can return home , As soon as I get  home I would refund it immediately,Here is the information you need to send the  money to me.
 
Receivers Name:[NAME]
Location/Address: 28, Vauxhall Rd , Boston Lincolnshire , PE21 0JB ,UNITED KINGDOM.
 
As soon as you send the money please scan and send me a copy of the western union receipt or you just send me the mtcn number and the senders full information used when sending the money. I would be waiting.
Best regards,

The address is a pub in the UK. The email was sent to a hijacked yahoo address book, and the reply was to go to a lookalike version of the friend's email. (An extra letter was added to her name to make the reply look legit.)

In addition to the poor punctuation and the too-specific school reference, the writing leaves something to be desired. If I were scamming strangers, I'd go more with something like this.

I feel like an idiot! I left all my stuff in the hotel room today and came back to find everything gone — wallet, cell phone, laptop, even my suitcase. Did I tell you I was going to the UK? Can't remember. Anyway, I'm sitting in the hotel lobby sending this out because I don't know what else to do. I can access email and that's it.

I wouldn't ask this except that I am totally at a loss here. Is there any chance you could wire me some money? I still have a few days in the UK, and was supposed to be in London tomorrow, but with no credit cards, there's no chance of getting there or into my hotel. Even tickets are gone and am not sure if I have to rebook. Is $1500 too much to ask? I can pay you back as soon as I get home.

Best thing, they tell me, is to wire via Western Union here: 28, Vauxhall Rd , Boston Lincolnshire , PE21 0JB ,UNITED KINGDOM. Since I've got no ID, I'll need the Money Transfer Control Number to get the funds, so please email it to me here. 

Thanks, I owe you big time.

I'll be very interested to hear from our friend when she gets back in the U.S.

Killing the Albino: Bachmann and Blood Oaths.

What do pagans, witches, heathens, Mafia, unhinged cultists, Klingons, investment fraudsters, death metal bands and evangelical Congresswomen have in common?

If you are considering joining a group, grove, coven, or magical order, which requires a blood oath, do not take this requirement lightly. There is a reason why it is has the history that it does among criminal brotherhoods, secret societies, martial ryu, and ancient religions.

– Blood Oaths: Making and Breaking Them

R. Allen Stanford’s relationship with the chief regulator of his Antigua bank was closer than most.

At a meeting in 2003, they became blood brothers, cutting their wrists and mixing their blood in a “brotherhood ceremony” that Mr. Stanford’s chief financial officer said promoted an elaborate scheme to hide a multibillion-dollar fraud from American and other regulators.

– ‘Blood Oath’ Sealed Stanford Deal, Court Is Told

The group's greatest adversary, a man known as the Albino, has been located, and the foursome can now fulfill the blood oath they made decades ago to kill him. Dax is unsure of whether or not she can go through with the oath that Curzon made. Kang reminds her that as a Trill, she has no obligation to fulfill what her symbiont promised.

– Star Trek Deep Space Nine, "Blood Oath"

What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass.

– Rep. Michelle Bachmann

Hal Davis thought maybe the Heaven's Gate cult — Hale Bopp, here we come — might also qualify as blood covenanters, but despite their creepy oathiness, they don't appear to have gone the blood route (voluntary castration doesn't count).

Actually, they sound more like socialists.

They were found lying neatly in their own bunk beds, with their faces and torsos covered by a square, purple cloth. Each member carried a five dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike Windrunner athletic shoes, and armband patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team."

Bachmann is on track with the fact that blood oaths have arisen as a way of fighting government power. But such pacts have a way of going too far. Sicilian resistance to outside rulers was what led to the Mafia, for example. 

And cultism simply doesn't have a great record when it comes to making life better, plus it can be bad for property values. Hal points to the account of Heaven's Gate again:

While the press never knew it, the cult had sent a suicide letter to [the owner of the 9,000-square-foot mansion the cult rented]. The tone of the letter suggested that they were actually doing the owner a favor by creating a famous event that would make the house an invaluable shrine. In reality, after the house was cleared of the bodies and their belongings, significant physical damage remained, which amounted to well over $200,000. Looking for some kind of break, the home owner tried to appeal his property taxes, only to receive a letter in return from the San Diego Assessor's Office that rejected his appeal on the grounds that a mass suicide in his property did not qualify as a disaster. Eventually, he was forced to give the property back to the bank. The bank sold it at a deep discount to a nearby neighbor who promptly had the house bulldozed.

Who Says the Stimulus isn't Creating Jobs?

Hat-tip to Hal Davis, for sending this job posting by Thomson Reuters seeking a financial crimes correspondent [emphasis Hal's].

The successful candidate will take the lead in writing major aspects of the financial crimes story from Washington. The emphasis will be on building strong sources to break news important to investors about U.S. Justice Department and FBI investigations of white-collar crimes growing out of the financial crisis. You will also help to lead a team of other correspondents in Washington, New York and elsewhere who are covering financial crimes within the companies and with correspondents on political and general news teams. You will also coordinate with correspondents and editors around the world, in particular with financial industry centres such as London, Zurich and Hong Kong, often writing cross-border stories. Some travel will be involved as you chase down leads. The beat will include criminal fraud linked to U.S. mortgage and banking schemes and an expected wave of fraud and corruption cases from the federal government's multitrillion-dollar effort to stimulate the economy and bail out weakened banks.

Fiddling While Goldman Sacks America.

For me, the blot of all blots on Pres. Obama's approach to the economy is using the crooks to fix the mess the crooks helped create while allowing the crooks to keep at it.

James Howard Kunstler calls it "Evil Syndicated":

Readers of this blog know I'm allergic to conspiracy theories. But surveying the scene out there, it is hard to not conclude that Goldman Sachs has become the "front-runner" of a criminal syndicate defrauding US taxpayers.  This isn't the first time in American history that business veered into extremely antisocial behavior on the grand scale.  The last quarter of the 19th century was just as bad, with frauds, swindles, sociopathic trusts, and predatory corporations preying on people trying desperately to make an honest living.

Robocall and Email Phishing Scam?

Just got a very sophisticated phishing call purporting to be from Bank of America. The friendly recorded voice said it was calling from BofA's fraud protection unit. It was driven by an automated response system that sounded extremely professional.

I didn't run through the suggested menu as it presented supposed suspicious activity on my credit card. I chose to look at the site where they said I could track the activity online(www.myfraudprotection.com). The sign-in screen asked for my account number, which I didn't provide any information. Instead, I went to the Bank of America main site and searched for "fraud protection."

BofA uses different terminology and their fraud page was very different from the fake site's,  which still looked official. myfraudprotection.com even had a Verisign popup that seemed in order.

Minutes later, this email arrived. It appears to confirm the automated call I received, and it's better than previous emails that typically contained bad grammar and misspellings.

Here's more about the email scheme. But it's the slick new robocall feature that may make this scam work.

UPDATE: It turns out someone did try to use a card I had left inactive for a long time.

Apparently the bank's fraud protection algorithm works pretty well, since they called me after one charge and a second attempt. Too bad all the phishing emails I'd received in the past had made me suspicious of the BofA brand. (BofA had acquired the bank where the card was initially issued, so I didn't have any "brand loyalty.")

It's possible of the two emails I received was legit, but now that they've been deleted and flushed, I can't go back and check more. Nor do I want to. But this has got to make the bank crazy if I'm at all representative of the people who have stopped trusting them because of scammers.

Memorial Weekend Mashup: Pig Farm Fawning and Other Hogwash.

Yesterday's news had three remarkably detailed descriptions of sex crime suspects. Here's one:

The suspect is described as a man in his 30s with light brown skin, who is possibly Hispanic or American Indian.

He is 5 feet 1 to 5 feet 2 with a muscular, stocky build and a thick neck. He has straight short black hair that is combed back on the sides and sticks up on top. He has medium sideburns with a thin beard along his jaw line and a slight mustache. He has a scar running under his left ear, a burn mark on the top of his left hand, a missing right upper tooth and a gold upper left tooth.

He had a metal cross post earring in his left ear and walks with a slight limp. He was wearing a white T-shirt with curved lettering on the chest and a picture of a black male. He had a red and white bandana around his neck and black or blue pants.

An earlier report also mentioned an "unusual body odor," which could indicate he's living on the street. Somehow, I think they'll find this guy.

*****

Speaking of unusual odors, all week a scandal has been unfolding involving British Parliament member misuse of expense accounts — which have a purpose similar to the per diems paid to Minnesota legislators who incur living expenses away from home during a session. Another purpose, of course, is to pad their salaries.

Among the most notorious, Conservative MP Douglas Hogg charged £2,200 in expenses for cleaning his moat. In the old days, you would never clean the moat because that would reduce its value as a castle defense. Today, it's the opposite. One must keep up one's property values, mustn't one?

Of course, Americans do not have moats because we are less attached to our historic home sewer systems — or if we did build a moat, we'd call it a lake and pretend the property was on an island.  Plus, we have guns for home defense, which are much easier to clean. And if a legislator did have a moat that needed cleaning, it would be done by friendly private contractors who would forget to submit a bill.

*****

Speaking of hogs, a letter writer in today's Strib called out a particularly fawning 600-word editorial that supports the state's pork producers and urges American consumers to keep pork in "its time-honored spot at the family dinner table."

All the arguments would be familiar to anyone who has been following the pork industry's PR campaign to counter unfounded consumer fears about contracting "swine flu" from pork products.

Bill Lehto disputed the editorial's position that "pork continues to be a smart, safe food choice," making counterpoints about health, environment, employment, jobs, economic impact and humane treatment of animals. It would've been a perfect letter [not yet online] had it also mentioned the number of full-page ads that have run this month in the Strib as part of the pork PR campaign.

*****

Speaking of non-transparent agendas and highly identifiable suspects, Steve Perry writes about the Minnesota false claims act passed this year, sponsored by DFL Rep. Steve Simon, signed by GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty and opposed by former Attorney General Mike Hatch, "who first brought the idea to the Legislature and urged its passage, back in 2004." 

The about-face this year was almost universally viewed as a vendetta against Simon, a former staffer in the attorney general's office who incurred the wrath of Hatch and his successor, Lori Swanson, by getting the Office of Legislative Auditor to look into whistleblower claims by AG staffers. 

Ah, yes. Maybe, if Peter Hutchinson hadn't split the vote in the last governor's race, we'd have a different budget and intact health and human services funding. But we'd also have Gov. Pigsticker instead of Gov.  Hogwash.

Her Teeth Were White, But Her Tongue Was Forked.

There's blogging for pay, blogging by a former news reporter who's set up her own local paper, and then there's creating fake blogs to deceptively push products.

Last week, I clicked on this ad that is appearing all over sites that serve up Ads by Google:

Ads by Google

"Her Teeth Were Yellow"

Read the trick, discovered by a mom to turn yellow teeth white.

CathysTeethTrick.com

You can read the story yourself. It's "written" by a "mom" with a one-post blog, telling you about a cool way to exploit two free trials of teeth whitening products to get super results. Of course, one of the products doesn't exist, and the other "free trial" automatically signs you up to a "membership" that requires you to pay for monthly supplies.

But what really caught my eye was that the mom who discovered the amazing results lives right here, in Grand Junction, Colorado! Go ahead, click the ad. I'm sure you'll find there's a Cathy Anselmo in your town, too!