Telephone scam – Man claimed he is from Microsoft and needs to fix my computer

Five minutes ago, I received a phone call from a man who claims to be "David Johnson" who said he's working from Microsoft. He had an accent that I was unable to identify, but I assumed he was from India. His phone number showed up on my cell phone as "212-414-155" (that's right - -- it's missing a digit). He told me that MY computer has been throwing out error messages that are being received by the Microsoft Server, and that we need to fix the problem. I led him on a bit. He said to hit the control key plus r, and that this is the beginning of the fix. I asked for his phone number. He wouldn't give it. He repeatedly said that he's working with Microsoft, not FOR Microsoft. He wouldn't give me his supervisor's name. I repeatedly asked for his PHONE NUMBER so I could call him back (I wanted it to report him to Microsoft). He wouldn't give it. I offered to add Microsoft to the call, and he got evasive. My assumption is that he was trying to have me give him access to my computer by installing monitoring software. I eventually called him a "criminal," and told him he was despicable, then ended the call. I recorded most of the conversation. Beware . . . . I'm including a link from Microsoft regarding phone scams.

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All roads now lead to two Americas

Mike Morris offers us a timely proposal at his website, Funmentionables. The article, complete with Mike's brand of Bible quoting humor, ends ominously with a declaration that there are two Americas. Here's his opening which, in his hallowed tradition, he supports with Bible chapter and verse:

On January 28, 2014, Representative Michael Grimm (R-NY-11) issued a direct verbal threat to a reporter inside the Capitol building by saying “I’ll break you in half” and “throw you off this f---ing balcony,” which was a direct violation of D.C. law (District of Columbia Official Code, Division IV, Title 22, Subtitle I, Chapter 4, § 22-407): "Whoever is convicted in the District of threats to do bodily harm shall be fined not more than $ 500 or imprisoned not more than 6 months . . ." Rep. Grimm was never arrested for his actions, and Congress has taken no punitive action against him. By its inaction, the US Congress is essentially condoning a Congressperson’s right to threaten to kill average Americans, though conversely, when average Americans threaten the life of a public official, they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In keeping with this double standard and to codify for all time this special status, I propose the following: RESOLUTION
Expressing support for designation of January 28, annually, as “Throw a Reporter “Off This F---ing Balcony” Day”.

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Pentagon waste should be a top headline every day

Everyone knows that a lot of money is wasted by the Pentagon, but the amount of this waste is staggering, making most of the fraud reported by the media paltry by comparison. Scot Paltrow puts things in perspective: The DOD has amassed a backlog of more than $500 billion in unaudited contracts with outside vendors. How much of that money paid for actual goods and services delivered isn’t known. Over the past 10 years the DOD has signed contracts for provisions of more than $3 trillion in goods and services. How much of that money is wasted in overpayments to contractors, or was never spent and never remitted to the Treasury is a mystery. The Pentagon uses a standard operating procedure to enter false numbers, or “plugs,” to cover lost or missing information in their accounting in order to submit a balanced budget to the Treasury. In 2012, the Pentagon reported $9.22 billion in these reconciling amounts. That was up from $7.41 billion the year before.

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