Democrats and Awan Gang, suitable company for each other--now the finger points both ways

I was asking myself: "self, what is a day without sunshine like?" Answer: a day without an Awan story. There's gonna be plenty of sunshine now.

Okay, then I asked myself: "self, what is a day without news?" Answer: a day without a story of political corruption.

So, now this is going to be beautiful day. You want Awans? We got 'em. You want corrupt congress critters? You are in luck, we got a whole lot of them.

People, you just don't know how fortunate we are to live in this wonderful country where we have Awans and corrupt pols aplenty. Now some off those crystallized water vaporites may take umbrage (I have never seen umbrage in my grocery store) when subject matter concerns the subspecies of diabolical rodents, rattus democraticus. If your feelings are about to melt, please do not read further.

As you know gulfgal has written a few fine essays about the Awans. She is very scholarly and much too restrained at times. I admire her restraint but I ain't got none. So here we go with another addition of the Awan Boys' love affair with rattus democraticus.

By now, most of the readers are well aware of that beloved by DWS family of Pakistanis (and a Russian!) who assisted the legislators (which is what they call thieves nowadays) in emoluments not considered halal (or kosher, Debbie, if you prefer).

Self-serving leads to downfall and/or money and fame. Secret servers. It seems that the DNC isn't the only party liking secret servers--or HerM either.

A secret server is behind law enforcement’s decision to ban a former IT aide to Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz from the House network.

Now-indicted former congressional IT aide Imran Awan allegedly routed data from numerous House Democrats to a secret server. Police grew suspicious and requested a copy of the server early this year, but they were provided with an elaborate falsified image designed to hide the massive violations. The falsified image is what ultimately triggered their ban from the House network Feb. 2, according to a senior House official with direct knowledge of the investigation.

The secret server was connected to the House Democratic Caucus, an organization chaired by then-Rep. Xavier Becerra. Police informed Becerra that the server was the subject of an investigation and requested a copy of it. Authorities considered the false image they received to be interference in a criminal investigation, the senior official said.

Data was also backed up to Dropbox in huge quantities, the official said. Congressional offices are prohibited from using Dropbox, so an unofficial account was used, meaning Awan could have still had access to the data even though he was banned from the congressional network.

I, as did Hillary, consider this practice as very convenient. A nice trade-off of money in exchange for information theft. Now, this money is not the loot pilfered by Awan Inc., from congress in the form of ridiculous salaries. It represents a mutual enrichment plan.

This is how it works.

House Democrats ordered the systematic falsification of records showing how they spend their taxpayer-provided office budgets, according to lawyers for two former House information technology (IT) aides...

If members or senior staff instructed IT aides to misrepresent how budgets were spent, that could potentially explain why officials have not charged the Awans with crimes related to procurement, even a full year after House authorities gathered documentation showing invoices that claimed expensive technological items cost $499 instead of their true price: potentially an open-and-shut violation....

House-wide administrators take a periodic inventory of all equipment over $500, but items listed as less than that amount can more easily go missing. The difference in the price was made-up to the vendor, CDW Government, by wrongly inflating the cost of a “service plan.” The cost for the equipment’s service plans did not count toward triggering any internal tracking. Service plans are costs associated with support in case something breaks....

TheDCNF first revealed the details of the long-running procurement issues Aug. 20, including that Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York did not immediately fire Abid after learning that $120,000 of equipment was missing from her office. Her chief of staff instead filed papers to remove the equipment from the inventory, and did not alert authorities or fire Abid until House administrators contacted the office months later to say they would be reviewing that Awans’ actions.

New York State hates being outdone by California, that is why they have so many wonderful congress critters. Let us forget about the now retired hot dog salesman, Anthony Weiner, who however is a shining predecessor of upstanding Representatives, such as Gregory Meeks. Now Yvette Clarke says that her $120,000 reimbursement request for "lost" electronic equipment was simply an oversight on the part of her prior chief of staff. If you believe any of that, I have a prediction for your: Hillary Clinton's long-anticipated third book on "It's All Your Fault, I AM POTUS" will be sold in the fiction section, next to stories about alien abductions.

Plea to any aliens (from outer space, only): please take the EQ away in your spaceship.

Well, it doesn't require a computer program to figure out why rattus democratii have dragged their feet and other anatomical areas in pursuing the investigation of Awan Inc. They would most likely be co-conspirators in financial crimes and abettors in treason. That's pretty strong, eh.
Tell that to the navy man on a submarine who had one photo of the sub's interior and then sent to repent his sins in prison for a few years.

The following song is dedicated to: Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chucky Schumer:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SqpsrU_2AY]

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Whether he walks on a "deal" or gets a dismissal I am nearly certain that he will not see a day in jail, neither will he ever face espionage charges for setting up a secret server siphoning terabytes of Congressional data, to destinations unknown.

Oh, did you hear, General Kelley believes his personal phone was "compromised" (hacked), as long ago as last December, after being serviced by government IT staff.

Hmmm......

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49

For the time being, Imran Awan is still wearing a tracker bracelet. His "wife" Hina Alvi did also appear, and has given up her US Passport. She is thought to have already made a deal of some sort.

The bigger revelations were about his phones and laptop, which were both wiped shortly before he was taken into custody.

Something may actually come of this as the prosecution began to look like they they intended to actually prosecute, rather than work for the defense. George Webb has been in the courtroom daily, and usually gives a few YouTube reports for those of you who might like to continue checking in on the case. I found this one the most interesting so far today.
(Sorry, I don't know how to do embeds)

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Deja's picture

@ovals49
[video:https://youtu.be/buIEstFmyqQ]

From a YouTube video, click the Share button (right-facing arrow), and copy the code displayed.

Then come here, making sure your curser is where you want the video to appear (not in the middle of a paragraph) & click the 2nd icon from the left, up along the top of the text box (looks like a blue ball w/some type of box overlaying it), and paste the code into the top text box. Then click OK. Don't bother w/the dimensions. Viola!

up
0 users have voted.

@Deja

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

mimi's picture

@Deja
at least for me. Always wondered why.

up
0 users have voted.
Deja's picture

@mimi
Have you tried clearing your browser history?

It might just be your browser storing (caching) your most recent attempts.

If that doesn't work, you can try rebooting your computer.

up
0 users have voted.

I assume it is a portrait of the Daily Kos 'community'.
Now that the corporate Left in this country totally trusts our government and intelligence institutions, the sky is the limit for across the board manipulation of our media by both entities. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?
And wasn't Obama in charge when Angela Merkel's phone was hacked by US?
https://www.thelocal.de/20160223/nsa-eavesdropped-on-merkels-intimate-co...

This ended with a whimper..."German attorney general (Generalbundesanwalt) Harald Range has dropped the investigation into spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel because the allegation could not be proved by “legally watertight means.

Poor General Kelley... is he now learning just who is really in charge?

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

mimi's picture

@Fishtroller 02
the spying folks must really have been bored and disappointed. I advise a career change for those NSA slave workers... it is just too boring to listen in to little women talking to big men. /s

up
0 users have voted.
Alligator Ed's picture

@mimi @mimi @mimi Dear mimi, I want you to know that Angela is held in high respect by at least one little man, who was heard whispering: "Ich liebe dich, Meine Angela".

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed
the chance of making a somewhat unexpected /strange choice is as high as 99 percent.

But you got me laughing.

These two love birds just can't help loving the EU. As it is said:
"L'amour rend aveugle".

But what if the majority of people think the two are right? Saying "we are blind" and they see the light and know the truth? Can we just impose our will on them and say: "Don't be slly THEY are blind and WE know the truth"?

PS And isn't Macron really cute? And Merkel really cool? Just both a little off reality?

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Alligator Ed
than Merkel...
Macron Leans Further Right as His Popularity Tanks - As French President Emmanuel Macron continues his push for a stronger EU, it's becoming 'very clear that his agenda is a traditionally right-wing, pro-business agenda,' says author and journalist Laura Raim
OMG I hate it if I need US news outlets of the gooder kind to explain to me what's going on in Europe. This article does it for me.
[video:https://youtu.be/v9UIDfGq7Yw]

SHARMINI PERIES: Laura, let's start with why the popularity of President Macron is in the decline, and is it related to his policies towards Europe, or is it his domestic policy?
LAURA RAIM: I'd say it's primarily for his domestic policy. Macron campaigned saying he was neither left nor right. He was very vague with his promises. He was just talking about enthusiasm, and being modern, and being progressive, and he was never very clear on his very pro-market policies. Now it's appearing very clearly that his agenda is a traditionally right-wing, pro-business agenda.

SHARMINI PERIES: Now, it appears that there is a lot of labor unrest, and there's been a lot of protest against Macron's policies, particularly towards workers. Give us a sense of what that unrest has been about, and how this has contributed to his decline in popularity.

LAURA RAIM: Well, the first thing people are very angry about is the anti-democratic nature of the way he's doing things. Macron has said that democracy is not in the streets, when in fact, his own legitimacy as a president is very weak. The final draft of the labor laws were passed without any debate in parliament, so the government has introduced them by executive order. We should also be reminded the President himself was elected by only 43% of registered voters, and of those voters, only 43% voted for his program. The main reason they voted for him was as a default, as a barrier against the risk of a Marine Le Pen fascist, far-right government. So, his own legitimacy is, from the beginning, very weak.

So now the question is who seduced whom, Merkel Macron or Macron Merkel?

Sigh. BTW it's the first time I hear someone saying (Sharmini Peries) that Le Monde Diplomatique is a radical publication. That's a first.

up
0 users have voted.
Alligator Ed's picture

@Fishtroller 02 First, I still have my sources inside the Cossack community. At a secret breakfast meeting, one of my sources was unable to actually photograph the participants but did get a snapshot of the breakfast food

Second, Meinherr Range is a graduate of the Comey Comedy School of predetermined prosecutions.
You may ask our resident German speakers about this.

up
0 users have voted.

@Alligator Ed Oh, I think I know who they were discussing at that morning meeting....
"Despite being given a three-month time out back in May for "your trolling, divisiveness, personal insults and accumulated violations of DBAD," you continue to make trollish, combative comments like this: https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1703580/67943406#comment_67943406. We think you need to take some time away from the site and decide whether Daily Kos is really a good fit for you. Since three months away seems to have had no effect, this time you're getting a one-year time out."

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Alligator Ed's picture

@Fishtroller 02 You have proven yourself incapable of returning to the herd mentality, er, will of the Community. The next offense will be, for your own benefit of course, a three year term of meditation at a government-approved gulag. Do you understand us, Comrade?

up
0 users have voted.

@Alligator Ed Being an atheist, I don't take to silly religious ideas like reincarnation, however, I swear I've seen Joe McCarthy walking among the comments on DKos.

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Fishtroller 02
tub of water with a lit sick of dynamite in one hand and a hair dryer on high in the other. Your chances of coming out of that one 'alive' were pretty well zilch from the start., But seeing that posted in that particular poster's thread is what makes it funny.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews I wasn't the only one holding that stick of dynamite....
https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1703934/67941026#comment_67941026 a Mr. Webster walked in with one too. We'll see how long he lasts....

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Fishtroller 02

The comments after Mr Webster's post, while funny in a sad sort of way, really are an indictment on the school systems in America. Past, present, but hopefully not future. Public, private, and home.
OR...
The lead paint 'epidemic' was more widespread than previously estimated. And it's apparently on-going.

I can't come up with any other reasons for people being that 'obtuse'.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews A poster named Siberian also tried to talk sense about this Facebook ad/Russian thing and failed..
https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1703934/67942429#comment_67942429

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Deja's picture

@Fishtroller 02
Especially for the Berta reference.

Although, how dare you try to spread truth, with links especially, to the ostriches at that place. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Excellent job!

On a side note, I actually miss Catte Napp. Might be my Texas bias, but she always appeared to have a great head on her shoulders, except for staying with the cult, and I always thought she'd be too smart to be brainwashed. Guess that koolaid is like antifreeze - sweet poison.

up
0 users have voted.

@Deja I don't like to think that Catte Nap was the tattletale to administration, but I don't know. I actually think that someone has been following me around since my first 3 month time out and was just waiting for another excuse to drop a bomb. They don't even need flagging to do this anymore, as I have had no flags on comments for a long time. And community moderation is a joke. The last time when I was accused of 'personal insults', I objected on the Help Desk and asked for proof of that. They just let it sit unanswered for weeks.
They have become a joke site... a place of Big Brother tactics and suppression of opinions that don't fit the mold. And now that DKos has hired Chris Reeves to be a liaison to the DNC, the DNC will sink even more (if that is possible). This whole attitude is reflected on a larger scale at liberal universities campuses, like Berkley, where opposite opinions are being suppressed. It's pretty damn scary. It has become clear to me that I am no longer, or can not be any longer, a Democrat. After 40 years of supporting that party, that is quite a revelation.

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Fionnsboy's picture

@Fishtroller 02 Ah yes, telling the truth! That will get you booted every time! Wow, really!!! That place just gets dumberer and dumberer, to say nothing of more fascist, all the time. THAT comment got you booted????? Telling the truth is being trollish? Telling the truth is being dickish? Has it really sunk to that low of a level 'over there?' How can anyone possibly stay there?

up
0 users have voted.

Semper ubi sub ubi

@Fionnsboy

It's been like that since the Dem Selectoral Presidential nomination, when posting a video on a DKos thread of one of Hillary's speeches - even without any text at all - was labeled 'right wing propaganda'.

They tried to jump the shark and fell into Jawsberwocky.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

in posting this item again, as I have in other discussions, is not to derail your point but to expand it a bit. Not only did Rumsfeld and Hakheim announce on 9/10, September 10, 2001, that the Pentagon could not account for over $2 trillion in spending, there was a report in July 2016 that the Pentagon couldn't account for over $6 trillion in spending for the previous accounting year.

So I'm glad you're lighting this up because it may begin to get the American people's attention. But from the 9/10 announcement onward, I still don't think we have a handle on what they mean when they say this. If you Google the 9/10 $2 trillion topic, you now get explanations to the tune that it doesn't mean that much money is missing. It means the Pentagon's computers were out of date. Or it means there are a lot of essentially double entries because there is no such thing as a $2 trillion expenditure within a $200 billion budget.

Well, that assumes the Pentagon stays within its budget. What if it doesn't? Is anyone accounting for anything the federal government does?

http://www.dodig.mil/pubs/documents/DODIG-2016-113.pdf

INSPECTOR GENERAL DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
4800 MARK CENTER DRIVE ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA 22350-1500
July 26, 2016

MEMORANDUM FOR UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (COMPTROLLER)/ CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
DIRECTOR, DEFENSE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING SERVICE AUDITOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
SUBJECT: Army General Fund Adjustments Not Adequately Documented or Supported (Report No. DODIG-2016-113)

We are providing this report for review and comment. Army and Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter adjustments and $6.5 trillion in yearend adjustments made to Army General Fund data during FY 2015 financial statement compilation. We conducted this audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards…

FY 2015 Financial Statement Compilation Adjustments Not Supported or Documented

… Specifically,

• OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in JV adjustments for third quarter and $6.5 trillion in JV adjustments for yearend, and

• DFAS Indianapolis personnel did not document or support why DDRS-B removed at least 16,513 of 1.3 million feeder file records during third quarter FY 2015….

up
0 users have voted.
Alligator Ed's picture

@Linda Wood Where'd all that money go? Hmmm? This just emphasizes that we have the best government money can buy.

up
0 users have voted.

@Alligator Ed
suggestions that the Awans may have been part of an extortion project in the Congress. You posted that,

... Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York did not immediately fire Abid after learning that $120,000 of equipment was missing from her office. Her chief of staff instead filed papers to remove the equipment from the inventory, and did not alert authorities or fire Abid until House administrators contacted the office months later to say they would be reviewing that Awans’ actions.

So it may be that this is what the Awans do for the DNC, for the Party. They create vulnerabilities in each of the Congress critters that they service so that when it comes time to vote on whether or not to support the Saudis this scandal or crime is hanging over their heads. The Congress members fall in line and vote for everything the deep state wants.

I posted the $6 trillion unaccounted for in Defense in order to emphasize how completely unaccountable the federal government is and how your essay suggests it may be standard operating procedure to blackmail government officials with this kind of purposeful malfeasance.

up
0 users have voted.

@Linda Wood @Linda Wood

needs to clean out its entire upper level of the accounting department. Well, I will need a job if Trump cuts the HUD CDBG funds like he says he will.

up
0 users have voted.

dfarrah

footnote: that Weiner's original sin was, as a naive new york congressman, to ask too many questions about the events of a fall day in lower manhatten, after which, Spitzer like, sleaze publically erupted, comedy ensued, and Huma went with Her.

up
0 users have voted.

bygorry

Alligator Ed's picture

@bygorry I had been thinking of adding this book ago the Alligator U. library. Confessions of A Weiner: it's too late when you can't cut the mustard. But your comment, "You can keep the laptop, Huma got Her". This is a mystical story of a menage a trois of love requited by a computer-owning man who couldn't read but liked pictures of his anatomy. Meanwhile in the bedroom...[fill in the rest of the sentence].

up
0 users have voted.

@Alligator Ed

...Meanwhile in the bedroom...[fill in the rest of the sentence].

Sorry, I cannot mustard any relish for such organ meat filler. At least not as far as this Weiner is concerned...

Too much of his exposure makes me wince.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilBjc3wWwDA

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Red Light

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

gulfgal98's picture

I am so glad that you decided to post about some of the Congress critters who have played an integral part in this scandal because this is so important. Becerra along with Andre Carson are probably two of the key people outside DWS.

Today's hearing gave me some hope that Awan may be prosecuted in accordance with the law. Something that has gone through my mind is that perhaps they are figuring if they prosecuted Awan on these charges, then the rest of the scandal might just die.

As for Hina Alvi. I have never seen her and Imran as a real couple. They simply do not look right together. What I do believe is that their marriage was a political or strategic one, not a love based union.

Anyway, today turned out to be better than I expected.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

send some of the rattus democraticus'es to jail.

And send some of the higher ups in the DOD to jail, too.

Would we as citizens have standing to sue the ratti and DODs?

up
0 users have voted.

dfarrah

@dfarrah

You'd think that American citizens would have the right to at least sue for redress over electoral fraud at any stage of the process and that the harm caused them, not only on wasted donations, time and effort but in the results to their 'democracy', lives and the country would be obvious, wouldn't you? So I dunno...

Regime change in America is evidently required to bring democracy to the people there.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.