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Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.

One of the women who accused Republican Roy Moore of sexual advances posted a “Doug Jones for U.S. Senate” video on her very liberal Facebook page. On Thursday, The Washington Post ran a story citing on-the-record interviews with four women who claim that when they were teenagers Judge Moore — in his 30s at the time — attempted to court or date them.

Deborah Wesson Gibson is one of the four women. The Washington Post made an obvious effort to purify the political motivations of the accusers, but clearly omitted significant details about at least Ms. Gibson.

Debbie Wesson Gibson says she was 17 when Moore spoke to her high school civics class and asked her out on the first of several dates that did not progress beyond kissing…

According to campaign reports, none of the women has donated to or worked for Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, or his rivals in the Republican primary, including Sen. Luther Strange, whom he defeated this fall in a runoff election.

Corfman, 53, who works as a customer service representative at a payday loan business, says she has voted for Republicans in the past three presidential elections, including for Donald Trump in 2016.

However, a simple review of Ms. Gibson’s social media activity is putting the authenticity of certain details in the report in doubt. The Washington Post, who claimed to have researched campaign reports, somehow overlooked that she was a supporter of Judge Moore’s Democratic opponent, even posting his campaign announcement video to Facebook on September 18.

She also shared a flier to one of his campaign rallies and shared stories about defeating Judge Moore.

Screenshots taken from the Facebook profile of Debbie Wesson Gibson, one of the four women who accused Judge Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, of sexual advances when they were underage.

Screenshots taken from the Facebook profile of Debbie Wesson Gibson, one of the four women who accused Judge Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, of sexual advances when they were underage.

In addition to supporting Mr. Jones, there was one pro-Democrat and anti-Republican post after another, including a “Resistance Report” video by former Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

Screenshots taken from the Facebook profile of Debbie Wesson Gibson, one of the four women who accused Judge Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, of sexual advances when they were underage.

Screenshots taken from the Facebook profile of Debbie Wesson Gibson, one of the four women who accused Judge Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, of sexual advances when they were underage.

Ms. Gibson could not be reached for comment, as her voice mail is full. But she reportedly told AL.com she stood by her comments in The Washington Post interview. AL.com also reported she worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign as a sign language interpreter.

People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) has confirmed the report and also uncovered another event with Vice President Joe Biden.

Ms. Gibson’s company — Signs of Excellence — has offices in Florida and Alabama, providing sign language interpretation to businesses, politicians and government. In other words, she makes money off of government.

While the Facebook page belonging to Ms. Gibson was filled with liberal causes, someone’s political persuasion doesn’t nullify allegations. But it does put them into question when they are intentionally omitted in a report filled with accusations that cannot be proven or disproven.

Facebook Post Below Linked Here:

Dear Everyone:

If you are still wondering about Graham-Cassidy and whether or not you should support it as replacement of the ACA, have a look at who ALL is AGAINST IT and why~

Facebook Post Below Linked Here:

The abomination that is the Graham-Cassidy Bill would disproportionately hurt Americans who are children, veterans, sick, female, and poor.

Today, please call your Senators and then call these Senators and tell them to vote NO on this savage piece of legislation. #SAVEACA

McCain 202-224-2235
Murkowski 202-224-6665
Collins 202-224-2523
Portman 202-224-3353
Capito 202-224-6472

Facebook Post Below Linked Here:

We are witnessing Mother Nature making a bold statement as follows:

“Climate change is real and it’s messing with me, giving me hot flashes! Science is not political, it’s science ~ so you better get it together, Humans!”

While three of the women were above the age of consent, one claims she was 14. The other women did not claim inappropriate sexual conduct and the current age of consent in Alabama is 16.

Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

The Post story continues:

She says on the first visit, he kissed and hugged her. She says on the second visit, he removed his clothing except for his underwear, removed her shirt and pants and touched her through her bra and underwear. She says he guided her hand to touch his penis over his underwear. She says that Moore was aware that she was 14 years old. She says that on one visit, Moore gave her alcohol.

Judge Moore is vehemently denying the allegations and the campaign released a separate statement in response.

“The Judge has been a candidate in four hotly-contested statewide political contests, twice as a gubernatorial candidate and twice as a candidate for chief justice,” the statement added. “He has been a three-time candidate for local office, and he has been a national figure in two ground-breaking, judicial fights over religious liberty and traditional marriage.”

“This garbage is the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation.”

The glaring omission by The Washington Post is noteworthy and calls their account of how they came across this story into question. Obviously, without a response, Ms. Gibson’s motives aren’t as pure as the liberal paper tried to convey.

Neither Corfman nor any of the other women sought out The Post. While reporting a story in Alabama about supporters of Moore’s Senate campaign, a Post reporter heard that Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls. Over the ensuing three weeks, two Post reporters contacted and interviewed the four women. All were initially reluctant to speak publicly but chose to do so after multiple interviews, saying they thought it was important for people to know about their interactions with Moore. The women say they don’t know one another.

The Washington Post, which ran numerous similiar stories about President Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, has endorsed Mr. Jones in the race to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the U.S. Senate for Alabama. The Post should be called on and expected to elaborate further on this account, given details in their story are clearly false.

From the Editor

People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) was made aware of similiar (if not the same) allegations by allies of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kty., shortly before and after Judge Roy Moore defeated his preferred candidate Luther Strange in the primary runoff. We were told the allegations were decades old and there would be no evidence to substantiate them.

Being that it was impossible to substantiate the allegations, we decided it would not be responsible to pursue the story.

One of the women who accused Republican

The U.S. flag is displayed at Tesoro's Los Angeles oil refinery in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Reuters)

The U.S. flag is displayed at Tesoro’s Los Angeles oil refinery in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Reuters)

The Baker Hughes North American Rig Count is up 20 to 1,110 for the week ending November 10, as both the U.S. and Canada counts increased for the first time in 6 weeks. Overall, the North American Rig Count is now up 366 on the year, far more than the 744 rigs in commission at this time last year.

The U.S. rig count was up 9 rigs to 907 and up 339 rigs from the 568 last year. The Canadian count was down 11 rigs to 192 and up 27 from 176 last year.

For the U.S., rigs classified as drilling for oil was up 9 to 738, while rigs classified as gas were flat at 169. For Canada, oil rigs are up 8 to 108 and gas rigs are up 4 to 95.

Worth noting, Texas rigs were down 2 to 442 and Louisiana rigs were flat at 58. The Gulf of Mexico, which is a subset of the U.S. in the North American Rig Count, was flat at 18.

The Baker Hughes North American Rig Count

Senator Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, right. (Photos: AP/Reuters)

Senator Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, right. (Photos: AP/Reuters)

Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, is vehemently denying allegations he made sexual advances to underage teenage girls four decades ago. The Washington Post ran a story citing on-the-record interviews with four women who claim that when they were teenagers Judge Moore — in his 30s at the time — attempted to court or date them.

While three of the women were above the age of consent, one claims she was 14. The other women, who the Post added in an attempt to add validity to the more damaging accusation, did not claim inappropriate sexual conduct.

The judge’s supporters called the report a smear, published by a paper who endorsed his opponent and at a time conveniently coinciding with the deadline to replace him on the ballot. They pointed to the complete media blackout on coverage of New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who is awaiting a jury verdict in his corruption trial.

The criticism of the media blackout surrounding Senator Menendez is valid and, in truth, the two examples aren’t comparable. For Senator Menendez, the Justice Department (DOJ) said they have corroborated the “serious and specific allegations involving child prostitution.” That is not even close to being the case for Judge Moore.

Nevertheless, neither should be forced to resign until and unless there is overwhelming evidence and/or a conviction. If DOJ has “corroborated” those “serious and specific allegations,” then why have they only charged him with bribery and corruption? In America, we have legal protections against those who bear false witness and we must never give it up.

Mitt Romney and John McCain, two failed GOP nominees who represent a wing of the party desperately trying to hold power, disagree.

Senator McCain released a statement saying “the allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.”

By their own logic, both Mr. Romney and Senator McCain should’ve made the decision to “step aside.”

Murder is also an allegation “too serious to ignore.”

Mr. Romney was accused of killing a man’s cancer-diagnosed wife when his “Vampire Capitalist” firm Bain Capital took away her health insurance. According to The Washington Post, the very liberal outfit who ran the sexual allegations against Judge Moore, he was also a gay-basher decades ago and tortured poor, helpless dogs.

Corruption and extramarital affairs are also “deeply disturbing.”

Media reports accused Senator McCain and a lobbyist of cheating on his wife, who reportedly runs a charity “plagued by scandal and corruption.” So, why didn’t he “step aside” and let Dr. Kelli Ward run in 2016?

From Hollywood to the halls of Washington D.C., an avalanche of sex-related allegations have dominated the headlines over the last few weeks. They’re followed by a cascading number of public figures condemning and convicting the accused in the court of public opinion.

Some reactions, like those to the allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, are justified and backed by overwhelmingly evidence. Some reactions, like those in response to the accusations against Judge Moore, are dangerous.

We’ve noticed a disturbing pattern that demonstrates an increasing, blatant disregard for due process. If we allow this dangerous trend to continue, a simple salacious allegation will be enough to destroy anyone, anywhere, at anytime regardless of whether that allegation is true — including public figures.

No matter the target — whether they’re a Democrat or a Republican — we should not and cannot allow political correctness and cowardice to replace the presumption of innocence. Putting aside longstanding U.S. tradition, the consequences to our civil society, the quality of our government and our way of life will be devastating.

The Fifth Amendment demands no State “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Fourteenth Amendment demands “no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases” of military jurisdiction and national security.

While these amendments apply to the State, not Big Media, Cicero said a society’s laws are a reflection of its values. The presumption of innocence is apparently no longer valued by a frightening number of people. It’s easy to dismiss the importance of bedrock principles when you’re not the generation who fought and died to establish and preserve them.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t take accusations seriously, but especially as it relates to criminal allegations, Blackstone’s formulation has always been an American value.

It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. — English jurist William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

It is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer. — Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Benjamin Vaughan

It is more important that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt be punished. — John Adams, Prepared Arguments in the Boston Massacre

Those are the values of those who value freedom and free, self-governing societies. Historically, authoritarians — like our Big Media and political establishments — use emotion and sensation in an effort to trick you into abandoning those values.

Otto Van Bismark, the pre-World War I German leader who believed a nation should be ruled by terror, is widely credited as saying “it is better that ten innocent men suffer than one guilty man escape.” Pol Pot, the murderous leader of the communist Khmer Rouge, said it was better “to arrest ten innocent people by mistake than free a single guilty party.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney — GOP Establishment hero and ally of Mr. Romney and Senator McCain — had more in common with Pol Pot than our founding fathers. When asked about findings suggesting that 25% of those subjected to enhanced interrogation were innocent, he couldn’t have cared less.

“I’m more concerned with bad guys who got out and released than I am with a few that in fact were innocent,” Mr. Cheney responded. “I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.”

“I’d do it again in a minute.”

If we give political establishments and Big Media a permit for character assassination and declare it open season, no decent man or woman will subject themselves or their families to this filthy game called politics. Indeed, there already is a chilling effect that has largely left us with the bought-and-paid-for dirtbags who have a corrupt, incestuous relationship with Big Media.

Unfortunately, our experience has taught us that good, honest people are the more frequent targets of smear and character assassination campaigns. Big Media and political establishments don’t target their friends and allies, they target those who threaten the corrupt status quo.

And it’ll only get worse.

Anyone, at anytime, can and will be destroyed. Is that the path we really want to take, the government we want to leave to our children and grandchildren?

From the Editor

People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) was made aware of similiar (if not the same) allegations by allies of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kty., shortly before and after Judge Roy Moore defeated his preferred candidate Luther Strange in the primary runoff. We were told the allegations were decades old and there would be no evidence to substantiate them.

Being that it was impossible to substantiate the allegations, we decided it would not be responsible to pursue the story.

Americans cannot allow political correctness and cowardice

A shopper walks down an aisle in a newly opened Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chicago in this September 21, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

A shopper walks down an aisle in a newly opened Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chicago in this September 21, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

The Survey of Consumers, a closely-watched gauge of consumer sentiment, “declined slightly” to 97.8 but remained at its second highest level since January 2017. The survey conducted by the University of Michigan has soared since President Donald J. Trump took office, hitting the highest level in 13 years in October, while the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index hit the highest level in nearly 17 years.

“Consumer sentiment declined slightly in early November due to widespread losses across current and expected economic conditions,” said Richard Curtain, chief economist for the Survey of Consumers. “The losses were quite small as the Sentiment Index remained at its second highest level since January.”

The Current Economic Conditions declined but remained at an elevated 113.6, while the Index of Consumer Expectations declined from 90.5 to 87.6. The data are consistent with a 2.7% rise in personal consumption spending in 2018.

More from Richard Curtain, chief economist for the Survey of Consumers:

Overall, the Sentiment Index has remained trendless since the start of the year, varying by less that 4.0 Index-points around its 2017 average of 96.8. Consumers (and policy makers) have four key concerns: prospective trends in jobs, wages, inflation, and interest rates. An improving labor market was spontaneously mentioned by a record number of consumers in early November, and anticipated wage gains recorded their highest two-month level in a decade.

These favorable trends were countered by a slight rise in year-ahead inflation expectations and a growing consensus that interest rates will increase during the year ahead. Needless to say, the preliminary November data is hardly sufficient to indicate that the persistent strength in the labor market has finally prompted higher inflation. Moreover, consumers anticipated that the size of the changes would be rather small, leaving economic conditions largely unchanged at favorable levels.

The Survey of Consumers, a closely-watched gauge

Tony Podesta, then-the Pennsylvania manager for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, speaks to Associated Press reporters in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004. (Photo: AP)

Tony Podesta, then-the Pennsylvania manager for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, speaks to Associated Press reporters in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004. (Photo: AP)

Kimberley Fritts, a longtime Democratic lobbyist at The Podesta Group, quit the firm roughly one week after replacing Tony Podesta as the chief executive officer. Tony, co-founder and brother to former Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, resigned under investigation from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Fritts was expected to relaunch the Podesta Group under a new name in the days after Podesta stepped down, according to the leftwing D.C. insider website POLITICO.

The resignation by Mr. Podesta came on the same morning Paul Manafort was told to surrender himself to federal authorities on 12 counts of conspiracy, fraud and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The law requires those who lobby on behalf of foreign agents to file disclosures with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Neither Mr. Manafort nor The Podesta Group, who began a relationship at least as early as 2011, appeared to have been in compliance with FARA. By filing a retroactive FARA disclosure this April, the liberal lobbying firm admitted to the violations.

From left to right: Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman; Robert Mueller, the former FBI director and special counsel; and Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and head of the Podesta Group. (Photos: AP)

From left to right: Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman; Robert Mueller, the former FBI director and special counsel; and Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and head of the Podesta Group. (Photos: AP)

More than a dozen of the firm’s clients have cut ties since it became clear Mr. Podesta was a target of the criminal investigation led by the special counsel.

“Tony Podesta’s name had become a scarlet letter,” a staffer told POLITICO on condition of anonymity. “I expect a lot of the top talent will go with her.”

As Peoples’s Pundit Daily (PPD) first reported in a bombshell Saturday, prosecutors for Special Counsel Mueller probed witnesses about the role The Podesta Group played in advancing Russian interests at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. The firm worked at the very least worked on a public relations campaign for the non-profit European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU), which aimed to promote the image of the then-Russian satellite regime.

The campaign, which was mentioned as a reason for the FARA violation in the indictment, was organized by Mr. Manafort. Yet, neither Tony nor anyone else from The Podesta Group have been charged publicly with crimes in the investigation led by Special Counsel Mueller.

Kimberley Fritts, longtime lobbyist at The Podesta

Vladimir Lenin rallies a huge crowd of supporters before storming the Winter Palace during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Vladimir Lenin rallies a huge crowd of supporters before storming the Winter Palace during the Bolshevik Revolution.

To “commemorate” the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in Russian, I’ve been sharing a series of columns on the evil of communism.

  • On October 30, I looked at the death toll resulting from communist tyranny.
  • On November 5, I discussed the shameful actions of communist apologists.
  • On November 7, I shared some amusing mockery of totalitarian communism.

Today, I’m going to target my profession.

But I’m going to bend over backwards to be fair. I’m not going to condemn the economists back in the 1920s and 1930s who were sympathetic to central planning. They were horribly wrong, but that was before economists from the Austrian School prevailed in the “Socialist Calculation Debate.” So we’ll give them an undeserved pass.

And we’ll even excuse the wrongheaded thinking of economists who sympathized with communism in the first couple of decades after World War II. After all, maybe they were just naive when they blindly accepted and regurgitated statistics from the Soviet Union (just as I think some people today are being somewhat gullible when they accept stats today from Beijing).

But there’s no excuse for any sentient being – especially an economist – to have praised the decrepit communist economic model by the time we got to the 1980s.

Yet some very prominent economists were guilty of whitewashing the sins of communism. I condemned Paul Samuelson two years ago (albeit only in a postscript) for his Pollyannish assessment of the Soviet economy. There was absolutely no excuse for him to write that, “…the Soviet economy is proof that…a socialist command economy can function and even thrive.”

Especially since he made that claim shortly before the Berlin Wall collapsed. That takes a special type of ignorance.

But Samuelson wasn’t the only academic economist to disseminate nonsense. Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution shares some additional examples of mal-education.

…an even more off-course analysis can also be found in another mega-selling textbook, McConnell’s Economics (still a huge seller today).  Like Samuelson, McConnell estimated Soviet GNP as half that of the United States in 1963 but he showed that the Soviets were investing a much larger share of GNP and thus growing at rates “two to three times” higher than the U.S.  Indeed, through at least ten (!) editions, the Soviets continued to grow faster than the U.S. and yet in McConnell’s 1990 edition Soviet GNP was still half that of the United States!

Professor Tabarrok speculates on why some economists were so wrong.

To make their predictions, Samuelson and McConnell relied heavily on the production possibilities frontier (PPF), the idea that the fundamental tradeoff for any society was between “guns and butter.”

To be sure, the production possibilities frontier is a useful analytical tool for economists.

But these economists erred in assuming that central planners could allocate resources efficiently. More specifically, they looked at high levels of supposed investment in communist nations and assumed that would mean faster rates of growth.

That theory is correct, but only if capital is being allocated by the private sector in a system governed by market prices. Government investment, by contrast, is a recipe for pork, inefficiency, corruption, and waste.

If we were constructing an Economist Hall of Shame, we’d also want to include Lester Thurow, who was basically the Paul Krugman of the 1980s. As recounted in this Hoover Institution interview, he also pimped for the Soviet Union right up until the point it collapsed.

ZINSMEISTER But why have persons proven to have been calamitously mistaken been allowed to wriggle away? For instance, here’s a quote from Lester Thurow—dean of MIT’s business school, for heaven’s sake—writing in 1989: “Can economic command significantly accelerate the growth process? The remarkable performance of the Soviet Union suggests it can. Today it is a country whose economic achievements bear comparison with those of the United States.” Why isn’t this fellow laughed out of court?

CONQUEST These people were had for suckers. They believed figures and images and statements about the Soviet Union that did not accord with reality. This was also enforced in the Soviet Union. You had to believe the place was happy, well fed, and so forth. …there were two different Soviet Unions, the real one and the one put forward in the West. Often the unreal one was backed by huge amounts of impressive, phony statistics. It takes two to sell the Brooklyn Bridge; you need both a crook and a sucker. The apologists in this country swallowed the rubbish about communism because they didn’t like the people putting forth the opposite view.

Let’s close with an amazing – and depressing – observation.

An article by Professor Bryan Caplan for the Foundation for Economic Education looks at Princeton Review‘s AP Economics and notes that there are still some economists suffering from moral blindness.

When I was first learning economics, I was surprised by how pro-communist many economics textbooks were. …textbooks were very positive relative to communism’s historical record. …Many textbook authors were, in a phrase, communist dupes.

Sadly, some communist dupes still exist and they work at Princeton Review. Caplan highlights this excerpt from the book.

Communism is a system designed to minimize imbalance in wealth via the collective ownership of property. Legislators from a single political party – the communist party – divide the available wealth for equal advantage among citizens. The problems with communism include a lack of incentives for extra effort, risk taking, and innovation. The critical role of the central government in allocating resources and setting production levels makes this system particularly vulnerable to corruption.

Bryan then explains why AP Economics is nonsense.

The official communist line was that collective ownership would lead to high economic growth – and ultimately cornucopia. And in practice, communist regimes made collective ownership an end in itself. Just look at their repeated farm collectivizations that caused horrifying famines in the short-run, and low agricultural productivity in the long-run. …Communist regimes began with the mass murder of their political enemies, businessmen, and their families. Next, they seized the peasants’ land, leading to hellish famines. …And no communist regime has ever tried to “divide wealth for equal advantage.” Bloodbaths aside, communist regimes always put Party members’ comfort above the very lives of ordinary citizens.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Good people rejected communism from its inception because it was based on the immoral notion that individuals should be subjugated to the state (the same ideology in fascism and other collectivist movements).

As I noted above, I’m willing to forgive others (at least in the early decades) for thinking that communism might be economically successful.

But I have nothing but scorn for those who were pimping for totalitarianism in the 1980s (or still today). Economists already are the subject of derision and it’s easy to understand why after seeing how some of them excused an evil system.

Some economists turn their morally blind eyes

Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks to supporters, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, in Montgomery, Ala. Moore, who took losing stands for the public display of the Ten Commandments and against gay marriage, forced a Senate primary runoff with Sen. Luther Strange, an appointed incumbent backed by both President Donald Trump and heavy investment from establishment Republican forces. (Photo: AP)

Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks to supporters, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, in Montgomery, Ala. Moore, who took losing stands for the public display of the Ten Commandments and against gay marriage, forced a Senate primary runoff with Sen. Luther Strange, an appointed incumbent backed by both President Donald Trump and heavy investment from establishment Republican forces. (Photo: AP)

Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, is vehemently denying allegations he made sexual advances to underage teenage girls four decades ago. The story published by The Washington Post cites on-the-record interviews with four women who claim that when they were teenagers — putting Judge Moore in his 30s — he attempted to court or date them.

“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” Judge Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court justice said in a statement.

While three of the women were above the age of consent, one claims she was 14. The other women did not claim inappropriate sexual conduct and the current age of consent in Alabama is 16.

Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

The Post story continues:

She says on the first visit, he kissed and hugged her. She says on the second visit, he removed his clothing except for his underwear, removed her shirt and pants and touched her through her bra and underwear. She says he guided her hand to touch his penis over his underwear. She says that Moore was aware that she was 14 years old. She says that on one visit, Moore gave her alcohol.

The campaign released a separate statement in response.

“The Judge has been a candidate in four hotly-contested statewide political contests, twice as a gubernatorial candidate and twice as a candidate for chief justice,” the statement added. “He has been a three-time candidate for local office, and he has been a national figure in two ground-breaking, judicial fights over religious liberty and traditional marriage.”

“This garbage is the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation.”

Republican Senate leadership have predictably called for Judge Moore to step aside (see more below), but the deadline to remove his name from the ballot has come and gone. The one accuser who who claims she was 14 said she is only now coming forward with the allegations because she was concerned about her own behavior.

“There is no one here that doesn’t know that I’m not an angel,” she said, referring to her home town of Gadsden.

The Washington Post, which ran numerous similiar stories about President Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, has endorsed Democrat Doug Jones in the race to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the U.S. Senate for Alabama.

From the Editor

People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) was made aware of similiar (if not the same) allegations by allies of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kty., shortly before and after Judge Roy Moore defeated his preferred candidate Luther Strange in the primary runoff. We were told the allegations were decades old and there would be no evidence to substantiate them.

Being that it was impossible to substantiate the allegations, we decided it would not be responsible to pursue the story.

Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S.

File: Wholesale trade sales and inventories. (Photo: Bureau of Labor Statistics/ BLS)

File: Wholesale trade sales and inventories. (Photo: Bureau of Labor Statistics/ BLS)

The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday released wholesale trade statistics showing sales and inventories continued to build solidly in September, meeting expectations.

Total wholesale inventories — or, merchant wholesalers excluding manufacturers’ sales branches and offices — came in at $609.5 billion at the end of September, a 0.3% (±0.2%) gain from the revised August level. The median forecast called for a 0.3% gain.

Total inventories rose 4.6% (±0.7%) from the revised August 2016 level. The August 2017 to September 2017 percent change was unrevised down slightly from the advance estimate.

Sales were $480.5 billion, up 1.3% (±0.4%) from the revised August reading and are up 4.6% (±1.1%) from the September 2016 level. The August 2017 to August 2017 percent change was unrevised.

The inventories/sales ratio for September based on seasonally adjusted data was 1.27. The September 2016 ratio was 1.32.

The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday released

Jobless claims, an application for first-time unemployment benefits. (Photo: Reuters)

Jobless claims, an application for first-time unemployment benefits. (Photo: Reuters)

The Labor Department said Thursday first-time jobless claims rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ending November 4.

The 4-week moving average came in at 231,250, a decline of 1,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 232,500. The average–widely seen as a better gauge, as it irons out weekly volatility–is the lowest level for this average since March 31, 1973 when it was 227,750.

(Correction: A previous version of the article state March 31, 2973. Obviously, that was incorrect.)

No state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending October 21.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending October 21 were in Puerto Rico (2.8), Alaska (2.7), the Virgin Islands (2.2), New Jersey (2.1), California (1.8), Connecticut (1.8), Pennsylvania (1.6), the District of Columbia (1.5), Illinois (1.5),Massachusetts (1.5), and Nevada (1.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending October 28 were in Puerto Rico (+2,677), California (+1,412), Ohio (+823), Indiana (+753), and Michigan (+640), while the largest decreases were in Georgia (-1,531), Florida (-1,263), Kentucky (-876), Missouri (-832), and New York (-786).

The Labor Department said Thursday first-time jobless

President Donald J. Trump, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left. (Photo: Reuters)

President Donald J. Trump, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left. (Photo: Reuters)

China Energy Investment Corp (OTCMKTS:CHGY), the world’s largest power company by asset value, will invest $83.7 billion in shale gas, power and chemical projects in West Virginia.

The West Virginia Department of Commerce announced the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Thursday, thanking President Donald Trump for “working tirelessly to broker the largest international investment deal” in the state’s history.

“From driving growth and creating jobs to maximizing America’s energy potential, the benefits for West Virginia and the country from this new investment will be significant,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a statement.

China Energy has an estimated 326,00 staff, a workforce almost four times bigger than the entire U.S. coal-fired power industry in 2016.

The agreement is the also the largest among multiple deals signed during President Trump’s first visit to Beijing since taking office. The total value of the slew of deals done during the trip is more than $250 billion, excluding the shale investment in West Virginia.

The deal comes only one day after the U.S. and China had signed agreements for products that included U.S.-made jet engines, auto parts, liquefied natural gas and beef. That deal alone totaled more than $250 billion and will assuredly help to offset the trade gap favoring Beijing.

China Energy Investment Corp, the world’s largest

People's Pundit Daily
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