Here's a surprise: Steve Bannon is accused of bilking senior watchers of Fox Noise out of millions

[DFW]

You are all shocked, I can imagine (not).

This guy is still flying around the country--not the world any more, unless Trump has given him a diplomatic passport, which I doubt. Normal Americans can't just jump onto a plane and fly anywhere they want to any more unless you have a government-issued legal residence permit issued by another country. We're not welcome any more (present company excepted, of course--I do happen to have a legal EU residence permit).

If the article is to be believed, and it seems well-researched, Bannon has been getting involved in one of many time-tried schemes of convincing people to invest in gold coins--in itself, an investment that actually did well for you over the last 3 years IF you bought from an honest broker. However, Republicans being Republicans, and Fox Noise being Fox Noise, according to the article, the advertisers sold the gold coin "investments" to senior citizens at a 300% mark-up (!!!!! after all, 20% is plenty), so that there was never any way they could do anything but lose heavily unless the price of gold went to about $5000 an ounce (it has never even been as high as $2100, and is now about $1860).

According to the article, when detailing the appeals in the ads, "These efforts often involved overt biblical appeals, or echoed the rhetoric of President Donald Trump and Republican pundits by invoking the threat 'liberals' and the 'Deep State' supposedly posed to the economy and to the victims’ personal finances."

Yep, them pesky libbruls. Better give us your life savings so that the Taliban won't come knocking on your door to sell you Girl Scout Cookies, or something.

So, anyway, the figure being mentioned in the article is $185 million. Figure a few million for legal and advertising, and maybe $50 to $55 million for the coins Bannon sold, and he and his cohorts (gotta figure he didn't think this up all by himself) split $100 million. Pay your taxes like good little Republicans (I have no proof they didn't, after all), and that leaves them with $65 million to split, free and clear, for two years of scamming elderly Foxsuckers who were convinced that God wanted things to go down this way. Sounds likes a pretty good return to me, anyway.

I always did wonder what scam artists like Bannon, James O'Keefe, Roger Stone, or even Tucker Carlson (when he outlives his usefulness) do when they're "in between mischief." They have to pay for their plane fare, hotel rooms, and fancy restaurants SOMEHOW, after all. I guess I need wonder no longer.

Here's a link to the article. If anyone is surprised, I have some oceanfront property in Wyoming to sell you.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannons-dodgy-nonprofit-teamed-up-with-company-linked-to-gold-scammers?via=newsletter&source=Weekend

[NCjack]

1. Bannon is an experienced investment banker. So, I suspect that he alone

could design a simple con, e.g., the Foxsucker gold coin con.

[DFW]

3. This is kindergarten stuff compared to investment banking, and Fox people have done it before

Glenn Beck used to do this with a company called "Goldline." They had high mark-ups, but nothing like 300%, which is criminal. I guess Bannon just decided that if people watched Fox and actually believed what they heard there, then they'd believe anything. It would appear that he was correct in this assumption.

[Midnight Writer]

5. All the Right Wing Hate Radio shills hawk Gold "investments".

I recall gold hit 1800 during Reagan's Presidency, which makes it a pretty poor performer over 40 years.

[DFW]

7. It didn't. Take off the "1"

It went as high as $800, but never crossed $1000 until in March of Cheney/Bush's last year in office.

When Clinton left office, it was hovering around $260. THAT was the time to buy in for the long term, although Apple or Texas Instruments would have been even better, if you are the betting type.

As for what National Hate Radio hawks, I wouldn't know. I live in Germany, and anything like Nazi propaganda never gets a license to broadcast here. Fox Noise put out feelers for a German language cable TV license here something like 20 years ago, and the German government pointed out their anti-Nazi laws, and said no way.

[Midnight Writer]

8. Ooops. Should have double checked before I posted. Thanks.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[David__77]

4. If I had different ethics I might pursue obtaining a fortune from elderly right-wingers.

It really doesn't look hard at all.

[DFW]

6. If we had those ethics

We'd be the Republican Underground