Trump Claims Electoral Fraud in Pennsylvania: The Claim is Fraud

 

Right-Wing Media Are Already Trying To Undermine The Election Results In Pennsylvania With Baseless Claims Of Voter Fraud By Payton Armstrong & Jack Winstanley Media Matters Following baseless claims made by former President Donald Trump that “Really bad ‘stuff’” is happening in Pennsylvania and the state “is cheating,” right-wing and far-right media figures are sowing early doubts about Pennsylvania’s electoral processes.  Right-wing and far-right media figures have claimed without evidence that “Democrat activists” have been “caught posing as election workers in Pennsylvania,” that elections officials are attempting to “push people out of line,” that a postal worker dropping off “an Obscene amount of Ballots” is evidence of suspicious activity, and that Democrats are committing voter fraud. As these baseless claims spiral, county election officials in Pennsylvania are reassuring voters that the election is secure and people have not been denied their right to vote. As early voting ends, Trump and his allies attempt to sow doubts about Pennsylvania’s election process and suggest that “Pennsylvania is cheating” On Truth Social, Trump claimed that “Really bad ‘stuff’” is happening in Pennsylvania, citing batches of voter registration applications received by York County and Lancaster County and declaring “Law Enforcement must do their job.” He posted: “Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group. This is on top of Lancaster County being caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person. Really bad 'stuff.' WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!” [Truth Social, 10/28/24] In another Truth Social post, Trump baselessly claimed that “Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before.” He urged his followers to “REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES” and again declared that “Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” [Truth Social, 10/30/24] The Trump campaign and Republican Sen. candidate Dave McCormick filed a lawsuit against Bucks County after some voters tried to participate in the county's mail ballot voting on demand process allegedly faced long lines and were turned away. On October 30, a judge ruled that the county violated Pennsylvania election code and extended the deadline until the close of business on November 1. [CBS News, 10/30/24] Trump is expected to seize on the length of time it takes Pennsylvania to count ballots in order to cast doubt on the results. Final results in the state are expected to take days because, following the 2020 election, Republicans in the state blocked reforms that would allow elections officials to begin counting mail-in ballots before Election Day. According to Rolling Stone, Trump in “private conversations with close allies and advisers in recent months, has stressed that ‘you gotta call them out very early in the process, like that night, otherwise they can get away with it and cover their tracks.’” [Rolling Stone, 10/15/24] Notably, dozens of elections officials in Pennsylvania have signaled a willingness to help Trump's efforts to sow election chaos. As reported by Rolling Stone, there are “at least 33 county officials throughout Pennsylvania who have expressed belief in Donald Trump’s nonstop election lies or supported policies rooted in election denialism,” and “at least 23 of these officials are county election board members.” The magazine reported that the others “sit on county councils or commissions, which have some authority over election matters.” Rolling Stone noted that “these officials’ duties include certifying results and deciding whether to count mail-in ballots that could contain errors — ballots that are expected to be overwhelmingly submitted by Democratic voters.” [Rolling Stone, 10/29/24] The reality: Some early voters faced long lines, several Pennsylvania counties are investigating deliveries of large batches of registrations, which is “not unusual,” and a woman was arrested at a polling location for being “belligerent.” York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying that the local elections and voter registration office had received a large delivery of election-related materials, which is “not unusual,” and it is “carefully processing them.” Wheeler said that “It’s not unusual to get large stacks of voter registrations or large stacks of requests for mail-in ballots, it’s just this was an overabundance of registrations from one particular organization.” She also said, “We’re in a phase now where we need to do our homework before we go and make accusations when we don’t have the data to back it up.” [Fox 43, 10/28/24; York Daily Record, 10/29/24] Lancaster County officials said that they are investigating a large batch of voter registration forms suspected of being fraudulent, but reiterated that the fact that the forms were flagged indicates that the “systems worked” and that the election is secure. The suspect forms were dropped off at the county's board of elections office on two different occasions. [NPR, 10/25/24] Per CNN’s Zachary Cohen: “Officials from Delaware County, Pennsylvania are pushing back on claims from the Trump campaign & the RNC that ‘voter suppression’ occurred after an incident Monday at a local polling site -- saying a woman was removed because she was ‘disruptive, belligerent, and attempting to influence voters waiting in line.’” “Her behavior prompted several complaints from those in line. Delaware County Park Police—who provide security for the Government Center Building—were on-site and responded promptly to the disturbance,” a statement from the county spokesperson said. [Twitter/X, 10/29/24, 10/29/24] The Pennsylvania Department of State is pushing back against claims that long lines are evidence of voter suppression of early voters in Bucks County. The office said on X (formerly Twitter): “Earlier today, we spoke with Bucks County election officials who assured us that every registered voter who goes to their county election office by 5 p.m. today will be provided an opportunity to apply for their mail ballot.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24; CBS Philadelphia, 10/30/24, 10/30/24] Pennsylvania officials reportedly debunked a viral video from a QAnon social media account that claimed to show illegal ballot harvesting in Northampton County. Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said that the video showed the acting postmaster lawfully bringing ballots into the election office. NBC was able to verify the identity of the man in the video from a photograph posted on a USPS website. [NBC News, 10/30/24] Right-wing media figures are pushing baseless claims about supposed voter fraud, suppression, and intimidation in Pennsylvania Right-wing commentator George Behizy wrote that “it's becoming evident to me that Election Fraudsters wanted to cheat in the 2024 election by bloating the voter rolls with dubious names and requesting mail-in ballots using those names,” citing the batches of voter registration applications in York and Lancaster counties. [Twitter/X, 10/28/24; Wired, 10/3/24] The Gateway Pundit’s report on the potentially fraudulent registration applications in York County included Behizy’s post claiming that “Election Fraudsters wanted to cheat in the 2024 election.” [The Gateway Pundit, 10/29/24] The Federalist reported that “at least four Pennsylvania county election offices — Lancaster, York, Monroe, and Cambria — are setting aside suspicious and possibly fraudulent voter registration and mail-in ballot requests.” The report does also note that York County Chief Clerk Gregory Monskie “cautioned against using the word ‘fraud’ to describe any ballots or voter registration forms, even if some prove to be illegitimate. Sometimes people who are already registered register again, not realizing they don’t need to register yearly, he said.” [The Federalist, 10/29/24] On X, Trump campaign political director James Blair posted a video purportedly shot at a polling location in Bucks County claiming that election officials are coming out to “push people out of line and tell them to come back,” though none of that seems to occur in the video. In the post, Blair also wrote, “Voter suppression!” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24]... ...Read More

Pentagon Accounting Fraud

Pentagon Accounting Fraud

On november 15, ernst & young and the other private firms hired to audit the pentagon announced that they couldn’t complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest discretionary-cost center—which receives 54 cents out of every dollar in federal appropriations—because the Pentagon had failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DOD’s financial records were so

riddled with bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan tried to put the best face on things, telling reporters, “We

failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it.” Shanahan suggested that the department should get credit for

the effort, saying, “It was an audit on a $2.7 trillion organization, so the fact that we did the audit is substantial.”

The truth, however, is that the DOD was dragged kicking and screaming to this audit by bipartisan frustration in

Congress—and had this been a major corporation, the result likely would have been a crashed stock.

Donald in Wonderland

The Donald in Wonderland
Down the Financial Rabbit Hole With President Trump
By Nomi Prins

Once upon a time, there was a little-known energy company called Enron. In its 16-year life, it went from being dubbed America’s most innovative company by Fortune Magazine to being the poster child of American corporate deceit. Using a classic recipe for book-cooking, Enron ended up in bankruptcy with jail time for those involved. Its shareholders lost $74 billionin the four years leading up to its bankruptcy in 2001.

A decade ago, the flameout of my former employer, Lehman Brothers, the global financial firm, proved far more devastating, contributing as it did to a series of events that ignited a global financial meltdown. Americans lost an estimated $12.8 trillion in the havoc.

Despite the differing scales of those disasters, there was a common thread: both companies used financial tricks to make themselves appear so much healthier than they actually were. They both faked the numbers, thanks to off-the-books or offshore mechanisms and eluded investigations... until they collapsed.

Now, here’s a question for you as we head for the November midterm elections, sure to be seen as a referendum on the president: Could Donald Trump be a one-man version of either Enron or Lehman Brothers, someone who cooked “the books” until, well, he imploded?

Since we’ve never seen his tax returns, right now we really don’t know. What we do know is that he’s been dodging bullets ever since the Justice Department accused him of violating the Fair Housing Act in his operation of 39 buildings in New York City in 1973. Unlike famed 1920s mob boss Al Capone, he may never get done in by something as simple as tax evasion, but time will tell.

Failure to Punish Corporate leaders for Fraud and Abuse

WASHINGTON — WHILE presidential candidates from both parties feverishly pitch their legislative agendas, voters should also consider what presidents can do without Congress. Agency rules, executive actions and decisions about how vigorously to enforce certain laws will have an impact on every American, without a single new bill introduced in Congress.

The Obama administration has a substantial track record on agency rules and executive actions. It has used these tools to protect retirement savings, expand overtime pay, prohibit discrimination against L.G.B.T. employees who work for the government and federal contractors, and rein in carbon pollution. These accomplishments matter.

Whether the next president will build on them, or reverse them, is a central issue in the 2016 election. But the administration’s record on enforcement falls short — and federal enforcement of laws that already exist has received far too little attention on the campaign trail.

I just released a report examining 20 of the worst federal enforcement failures in 2015. Its conclusion: “Corporate criminals routinely escape meaningful prosecution for their misconduct.”

Social Security in the Budget Deal

Today, the Republican Leadership agreed to a deal to keep the government operating, raise the debt limit, and ensure that all Social Security benefits continue to be paid in full and on time beyond 2016. When hostage takers release their hostages, we are, of course, relieved that the hostages are no longer in harm’s way, but this is nothing to celebrate. That the ransom isn’t steeper is also not something to celebrate. 

The deal does include some good provisions: Medicare beneficiaries will not experience the drastically large premium increases that were set to take effect next year. It also closes a loophole that was introduced in the law relatively recently that allows wealthier Americans to game the system by claiming extra benefits inconsistent with the goals of the program.

But there is a diversion of Social Security resources towards virtually nonexistent fraud. This focus on fraud is a distraction from Social Security’s one real shortcoming: its benefits are too low, and an overwhelming majority of Americans know it. Congress should follow the will of the people by expanding those modest but vital benefits and restore the program to long range actuarial balance by requiring the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share.

Join us in calling on Congress to follow the American people and expand Social Security benefits!

The $ 9 Billion Fraud of J. P. Morgan Chase

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106

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The People vs.Federal Bank Settlements

The People vs. Federal Bank Settlements and Liquidity Rules

By Nomi Prins

Last week, in an interview with Bloomberg News, former Countrywide CEO, Angelo Mozilo gave the nation the middle finger. He expressed zero remorse or culpability for his very personal (and personally lucrative) role in the subprime crisis that catalyzed a global economic recession. Apparently baffled by a potential lawsuit that could be levied by the Los Angeles US Attorney’s Office, he said, ““Countrywide didn’t change. I didn’t change. The world changed.” After blaming the world, he ended his segment by stating, “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

To him, the culprit was the real estate collapse itself.  The same excuse was used by Big Six bank CEOs before multiple Congressional hearings and business news hosts. “OMG, how could we have known prices could GO DOWN?” By placing the blame on the ‘market’, they spun their actions as reactive or ancillary to its apparently random whims, as opposed to proactive on practices leading to crisis events.

The more temporal distance from those events and airtime given to the bankers that inflated the market before crashing it, and Treasury Secretaries that did ‘what they had to do’ in an emergency, the more the Mozillian narrative is cemented in the main annals of history and the plight of the public is rendered a footnote.  Yet, it was not just the loans themselves, but more so, the immense and profitable re-packaging and global re-distribution of those loans in a pyramid of toxic assets wrapped with credit derivatives that blew up in the face of the nation and the world, The economic implosion that followed ignited by the weight of such epic fraud and CEO directed salesmanship, impacted initial borrowers with conditions beyond their control, on top of initial fraud and voracious pushing of those loans to begin with. Thus, banks concocted $14 trillion worth of assets using $1.5 trillion of high-interest loans, compounding and adding to each bit of fraud, instability and risk along the way.

Forbes ranked Mozillo one of the top ten highest paid CEOs in 2006. By 2009, the SEC charged him with fraud for lying about the quality of the loans he sold to Bank of America and insider trading for pocketing $140 million from selling his stock when he knew those loans, and his company, were crumbling. He wound up paying a $22.5 million fine to settle the charge of misleading investors and $45 million for the insider trading charge – leaving him a cool $72.5 million.

Fraud and criminal

One of our in-class discussions focused on whether J.P. Morgan and others were guilty of fraud, and were their actions criminal ?
Here is an opinion piece on this subject.

JPMorgan Chase: ‘Incredibly Guilty’

By Richard (RJ) Eskow

An outside observer might be forgiven for thinking JPMorgan Chase isn’t so much a bank as it is a criminal enterprise with a bank attached to it. Even before the London Whale scandal, Chase’s documented list of crimes included repeated fraud, perjury, forgery, bribery, and violations of laws against trading with Iran and Syria.

It also shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Okay, that last statement isn’t true. But the rest of the crimes on that list, and a number of others, are well-documented. And yet, remarkably, not a single senior executive at the bank has been indicted – or, to our knowledge, even been the subject of a criminal investigation. The bank just agreed to pay nearly a billion dollars in fines over the “Whale” case. And the SEC finally ending its practice of allowing criminal banks to “neither admit nor deny wrongdoing” when paying for their misdeeds. Chase admitted its guilt as part of the settlement.