Mark Twain's 'The Christmas Fireside (For Good Little Boys And Girls)'

The Library of America offers a Mark Twain Christmas story that, as the Library of America notes, only he could write - about the wicked boy who got everything.

When Twain arrived in San Francisco in 1864, he quickly landed a job writing for a newly launched literary weekly called The Californian, which was co-edited by Bret Harte (future author of “The Outcast of Poker Flat”) and Charles Henry Webb. With their encouragement and guidance, he honed his skills as a satirist and within a few months he was paid $50 a month to write one piece per issue—a respectable amount at the time, although never enough for the young Samuel Clemens, whose financial woes were a recurrent theme in his journals and letters. The newspaper was a success, but turnover among owners and editors led to its eventual demise. Before the periodical ceased publication in 1868, it had also introduced Ambrose Bierce to its readers.

Published two days before Christmas in the newspaper’s first year, “The Christmas Fireside” features a character familiar to readers of Mark Twain: the naughty boy. Compared with the affably mischievous Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, however, “Jim” is a downright monster. But Twain’s satire isn’t really about boyhood. If anything, Twain has written what might be called an “anti-story”—less about what does happen to Jim and more about what does not. He has two targets: the laughably implausible Sunday school catechisms of the era and (particularly in the closing paragraphs) the American propensity for rewarding corruption and vice among members of its political and entrepreneurial class. “Bah, humbug!” one might think, but what keeps the young Mark Twain from being the Californian Scrooge is a sense of impishness to mitigate the cynicism.  

You can read the story via the below link:  

https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2010/12/christmas-fireside-for-good-little-boys.html

U.S. Law Enforcement Targets Fraud Facilitators, Doubling Last Year’s Enforcement: Agencies Increase Awareness About How Fraudsters Use and Recruit Money Mules

The Justice Department released the below information:

The Department of Justice, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and five other federal law enforcement agencies announced the completion of the fourth annual Money Mule Initiative, which targeted networks of individuals through which international fraudsters obtain proceeds of fraud schemes. These individuals, sometimes referred to as money mules, receive money from fraud victims and forward the illicit funds, often to overseas perpetrators. 

By receiving and transferring illicit funds, money mules facilitate a wide range of fraud schemes, including those that often predominately impact older Americans — like romance scams and lottery fraud — and those that target companies through business e-mail compromise schemes. Money mules also assist the theft of funds earmarked for pandemic relief, including unemployment insurance and small business loan funds. Some money mules are aware that their actions facilitate international fraud schemes. Others, however, first interact with fraud schemes as victims and may be unaware that their actions are furthering criminal activity.         

U.S. law enforcement took action to address 4,750 money mules over the last 10 weeks; enforcement actions occurred in every state in the country. These actions more than doubled the number of actions taken during last year’s effort. Agencies are also conducting outreach to educate the public about how fraudsters use money mules and how to avoid unknowingly assisting fraud by receiving and transferring money.

“Without money mules, many foreign fraudsters targeting American consumers, businesses and pandemic relief funds could not reap the proceeds of their schemes,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “The department and its partners will use every tool at our disposal — consumer education, disruption and prosecution — to cripple foreign fraudsters’ ability to get money from victims’ pockets to perpetrators’ bank accounts.”

Law Enforcement Actions

The department’s Consumer Protection Branch and the FBI led the initiative with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Other participating agencies were the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The campaign was conducted simultaneously with a Europol initiative, the European Money Mule Action (EMMA). Additionally, in several districts, including the District of Arizona and the Northern District of Georgia, federal law enforcement have been working closely with their state and local law enforcement counterparts.

“This year’s Money Mule Initiative successfully halted the activity of hundreds of money mules worldwide thanks to the persistence and partnership of the FBI and our federal, state, local and international partners,” said Executive Assistant Director Brian Turner of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. “Money mules make it easier for criminals to hide their activity, and harder for law enforcement to follow their tracks. Today’s announcement is an unmistakable warning for those who move money for criminal enterprises: even if you don’t know you’re committing a crime, acting as a money mule is illegal and punishable, and the FBI and our partners will use all available tools to disrupt the flow of funds to criminal networks.”

“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service takes great pride in our history of protecting the public from being deceived by scammers,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “We work hard to safeguard vulnerable consumers through aggressive criminal investigations, as well as proactive consumer outreach, as part of our mission to protect those who might fall victim to cleverly designed deceptive offers. The Money Mule Initiative is another example of our law enforcement commitment, and that of our law enforcement partners, to vigorously pursue individuals who knowingly or unknowingly participate in criminal activity of this nature; bring them to justice and stop them in their tracks from victimizing the American public.”

The thousands of actions taken by law enforcement ranged from warning letters to civil and administrative actions, to criminal prosecutions. Law enforcement served approximately 4,670 letters warning individuals that their actions were facilitating fraud schemes. These letters outlined the potential consequences for transferring money acquired illegally. Civil or administrative actions were filed against 11 individuals, and through seizures and voluntary return of funds, law enforcement obtained nearly $3.7 million in fraud proceeds.

Additionally, more than 30 individuals were criminally charged for their roles in receiving and forwarding victim payments or otherwise laundering fraud proceeds. These cases included:

The Consumer Protection Branch and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California charged four individuals who laundered gift cards purchased by fraud victims.

Two U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the District of Rhode Island and the Western District of Pennsylvania, indicted individuals who, among other conduct, personally collected money from grandparent scam victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee charged an individual who facilitated the theft of unemployment insurance funds.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted a ring of individuals who laundered money for romance scams and business email compromise fraud schemes.

The charges also consisted of cases brought against individuals who facilitated business email compromise schemes, including charges brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Virginia, the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Western District of Kentucky. Additional charges were brought against money mules by U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern District of Georgia, the Eastern District of Louisiana, and the District of Nebraska.

Criminal charges are merely allegations. Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Community Outreach and Prevention

Agencies also turned their attention to educating the public about how fraudsters recruit individuals to serve as money mules, signs of money mule activity and steps that should be taken if someone has unknowingly facilitated fraud by moving money.

These efforts included:

U.S. Postal Inspection Service created fliers that were displayed in post offices across the country during the Money Mule Initiative.

FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released a money mule public service announcement.

The Department of Labor Office of Inspector General provided information about money mule activity to state work force agencies.

The Department’s Elder Justice Coordinators educated their communities about money mule’s activity.

Members of the Attorney General’s Coronavirus Fraud Enforcement Task Force used outreach materials created by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) to educate the public about the use of money mules to steal pandemic relief funds.

Other government agencies joining the public awareness effort included the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which created new money mule scam awareness materials, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living and AmeriCorps Seniors. By increasing awareness of money mule activity, these efforts and others sought to prevent individuals from becoming involved in money mule activity.

For more information on money mules, please visit https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch/money-mule-initiative.

Information about the Department of Justice’s Elder Fraud Initiative is available at www.justice.gov/elderjustice. Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its elder fraud enforcement efforts may be found at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is available at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311).    

The Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form. 

A Look Back At Mel Brooks and Buck Henry's Groundbreaking Spy Comedy TV Series, 'Get Smart'

When I was a teenager back in the 1960s, I was a huge fan of the James Bond films, TV’s Secret Agent and other spy thrillers.  

I also loved Get Smart, the Mel Brooks and Buck Henry TV spy comedy series. 

Olivia Rutigliano at Crimereads.com offers a look back at the funny and clever series.       

In the first few moments of the black-and-white pilot episode of Get Smart, the camera hangs over an audience in a concert hall—Symphony Hall, the narrator tells us, in Washington D.C. Somewhere in the city is the headquarters for a secret counter-espionage organization known as “CONTROL.” And as the camera moves around the audience, capturing the group in evening dress watching in rapt silence as the orchestra plays, the narrator informs us, that somewhere in the audience “is one of CONTROL’s top employees, a man who lives a life of danger and intrigue, a man who has been carefully trained never to disclose the fact that he is a secret agent.” 

At that very moment, in the middle of the concert hall, a phone rings. It’s a loud, jangly telephone ring, the kind from a mid-century rotary phone, and it echoes throughout the venue. 

Watching this scene in the twenty-first century, it might not seem so jarring; how often have we sat inside crowded theaters and had our viewing experiences disturbed by the loud ringing of a phone? But this episode is from 1965, and so when the phone goes off in the middle of the theater, the patrons look around incredulously. A man stands up and hastily exists the theater and when he does, the ringing travels with him, out into the hall. 

Ducking into a supply closet, he takes off his right shoe and removes the bottom, revealing a tiny, compact phone receiver with built-in rotary dial along the sole. “This is Smart,” he says into the shoe (which it is, but then he elaborates): “Maxwell Smart… Agent 86.” He learns from his boss that the evil organization KAOS is up to a nefarious plan, and so promises to get right down to headquarters. 

Of course, this will take a moment, because in the course of answering his shoe-phone, he has unwittingly locked himself in the closet. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Get Wise to Get Smart ‹ CrimeReads

You can also watch a Get Smart clip about “the Cone of silence” from the first episode via the below link:

Get Smart - Cone of Silence (from episode 1) - YouTube

A Look Back At Commander Ian Fleming: My Washington Times On Crime Column On 'Ian Fleming At War: The Inspiration of 007'

The Washington Times published my On Crime column on Ian Fleming’s War: The Inspiration of 007. 

With the 25th James Bond film “No Time To Die” doing well in theaters, fans of the hugely successful film series may be interested in reading about the genesis of the most popular fictional character in cinema. 

 

Ian Fleming, the late, great thriller writer who created Bond, was a British naval intelligence officer in World War II, and much of what he experienced during the war found its way into his James Bond thrillers.

 

Mark Simmons, a former British Marine commando, journalist, and author, explores Commander Fleming’s wartime experiences and points out direct links between reality and the plots and characters in the Bond thrillers in his book, “Ian Fleming’s War: The Inspiration of 007.”           

 

I reached out to Mark Simmons and asked him why he wrote the book.

 

“In 2018, I wrote `Ian Fleming and Operation Golden Eye: Keeping Spain out of World War II.’ In research for that book, I read the two main biographies of Fleming by Andrew Lycett and John Pearson, both of which only devoted a chapter or two to his wartime work. Yet there was a wealth of material on his time at naval intelligence, and I felt it deserved a book,” Mr. Simmons replied.  

 

How would you describe Ian Fleming?  

 

“He was a man embedded in his time the 1930s-1950s, and the highlight of his life was his wartime role in naval intelligence, even more so than becoming a bestselling author.”

 

How did Ian Fleming’s WWII experiences in naval intelligence inspire his James Bond novels?

 

“As I explain in the book, all the Bond stories are rooted in WWII, and 007 often refers to the war,” Mr. Simmons said. 

 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/2/book-review-ian-flemings-war-the-inspiration-of-00/ 

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming's 30 Assault Unit in WWII via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Piece On The 30 Assault Unit, The British WWII Commando Group Created By Ian Fleming, The Creator Of James Bond

Murder City 2021: My Philadelphia Weekly Crime Beat Column On Philadelphia Recording 500 Murders

Philadelphia Weekly published my Crime Beat column on Philadelphia recording 500 murders. 

You can read the column via the below link or the below pages:

Murder City - Philadelphia Weekly

You can click on the above and below to enlarge.  

How To Prevent Winter Holiday Fires

 

Tis The Season For Christmas Songs: Why I Love Christmas Carols

Christmas carols are being aired on a good number of radio stations now, and I hear the usual complaints of it being too early for Christmas carols and how some people truly hate the holiday music. 

A few years back I had tried to answer these seasonal complaints with a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on why I love Christmas carols. 

You can read the piece below:   

You can click on the above and below to expand.

Note: Above is the cover of a CD my daughter Brittany bought me a few years back. The CD offers some great, classic Christmas carols.