Tuesday, September 13, 2022

THE STUPIDEST GOTCHA OF THE 2022 CAMPAIGN (SO FAR)

Oh boy, this Daily Mail story is going to blow the Pennsylvania Senate race wide open!


Actually, it's more than $100,000 -- the eight properties are worth $108,800! That averages more than $13,000 per property!

No, they're serious about this:
A watchdog group is filing a complaint asking the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate why Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman did not disclose eight real estate assets on his most recent personal financial disclosure.

The total value of the properties he left off his disclosure form was $108,800. All eight of the properties were in Braddock, Pa.- Fetterman's hometown where he served as mayor. His name is listed as owner on all of them on the Allegheny County website. Many of the properties appeared to be empty lots worth between $10,000 and $20,000 that are surrounding Fetterman's home. One was a building structure worth over $40,000.

Fetterman did not list a single real estate asset on his most recent July 29 disclosure, but his team says he did not have to because they did not produce income and weren't classified as investments.
If his team is wrong, clearly this is a capital crime. Hang him for not reporting vacant lots!
According to FACT, at least seven of the eight properties Fetterman did not disclose were valued over $1,000- though the precise fair market value is not known, their assessed values are $41,500, $22,100, $14,100, $10,500, $9,600, $9,300, $1,000 and $700.
And this is coming up because...
Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor is locked in a highly competitive race with Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey....

Recently Fetterman knocked Oz for saying he owns two houses, despite having investments in 18 properties. The Democrat frequently paints Oz as being disconnected with the state and accuses him of spending more time at his New Jersey residence.

In August Oz was captured on video at a campaign event saying: 'Well I, legitimately, I own two houses. But, uh, one of them we're building on; the other ones I rent.'

The Daily Beast later reported he owns 10 houses, including a 18,559-square-foot estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that has been valued at more than $36 million.
So what's the deal with FACT, the group that discovered this massive scandal?
Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), formerly the Free Market American Educational Foundation, ... is a Washington,DC-based conservative nonprofit organization specializing in advocacy regarding legal and ethical issues related to politics. Until 2017, it was run by the former Acting United States Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.
You remember Matthew Whitaker, right?
... before ascending to his current role, Matthew Whitaker was ... a cartoonish, grifting dope who shilled for a company that hawked time-travel cryptocurrencies, Bigfoot dolls, and toilets specially designed for men with big dicks—and that was shut down for good and paid a $26 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year for its alleged wrongdoing.

In 2014, according to Mother Jones, Whitaker became a board member of an outfit called World Patent Marketing, which cajoled investors into backing an array of patent-pending products that some might charitably describe as "questionable." ...

The WPM press release introducing the novelty bathroom fixture, dubbed the "MASCULINE TOILET"—all caps in original, of course—explains the problem the invention purports to solve in vivid, hilarious fashion:
The narrower curvature at the front of the toilet creates limited space for male genitalia when a man sits on the toilet seat. This limited space can cause contact from male genitalia with portions of the toilet, which is undesirable as those portions may be contaminated from human waste.

The distance between the rim and the water surface needs to be long enough to ensure there is no risk of contact. The average male genitalia is between 5" and 6". However, this invention is designed for those of us who measure longer than that. I estimate that a 12" distance is adequate enough for most well-endowed men, though I would not be surprised if there are cases who need a greater distance. Nevertheless, for the time being, this is a good starting point. An "extra long" [XL] version can always be created if needed.
In 2017, after he'd become acting attorney general, The Washington Post reported on his time with FACT:
In its application to the IRS for status as a tax-exempt organization, the organizers reported that the group would study the impact of environmental regulations on businesses, records show. In that incarnation, the group took no action and “only existed on paper,” one man named in IRS filings as a board member told The Washington Post. Another named in a state filing as a board member said he never agreed to be on the board.

Whitaker’s 2017 pay from the charity [was] more than $500,000 for the first nine months, or half the charity’s receipts for the year, according to tax filings....

In the 2014 filing, FACT reported that it had no employees and that it paid Whitaker $63,000 for three months of work, 30 hours a week, as president and director. It received $600,000 in donations, the document shows.

The Post determined from other tax filings that the money came from DonorsTrust, a large nonprofit organization that wealthy contributors have used to anonymously give millions to conservative nonprofits in recent years.
The group nabbed tax-exempt status, then changed its name (several times), its address, and its management. Then it began targeting Democrats almost exclusively, a focus it has continued under its current head, Kendra Arnold.


By the way, here's one of the properties Fetterman failed to disclose:


Now, here's just one of Dr. Oz's lesser-known properties:


BOTH SIDES!

Posted by Steve M. at 8:50 PM

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