talkpolitics | Entries tagged with fraud

Discussion: In what types of ways can mail in ballots be subject to fraud? How would you make elections more secure?

When someone votes in person, they have to be physically present. Being able to mass mail in ballots takes away leverage from election integrity. The 2020 election was decided by just 40,000 votes across multiple swing states.

"Heartland/Rasmussen Poll: One-in-Five Mail-In Voters Admit to Committing at Least One Kind of Voter Fraud During 2020 Election"

One of the questions the study doesn't appear to ask is how many of the votes that were technically fraudulent actually ended up with the vote supporting the wrong candidate? i.e if you illegally completed a ballot for say your mom who forgot to do it herself in time, but she chose who the supported candidates were, the vote is technically fraudulent, but didn't 'change' the result in the way people talking about voter fraud generally infer.

You could do away with mail in voting outside of a more tightly controlled criteria, but to do that you'd need thousands more polling stations, better access over a longer period and hours etc to make sure that everyone who wants to vote can reasonably do so. Shift the final day of voting to a Sunday where most people don't have competing work requirements etc etc like most other countries do. More ideas of how to make this work?

kiaa

Fake scientific papers are alarmingly common
But new tools show promise in tackling growing symptom of academia’s “publish or perish” culture

Intersting article suggesting scientists aren't the knowledge ubermenschen so many have put their faith in? Do you see this as an issue of concern? Should it color in any way our trust in science in general?

"When neuropsychologist Bernhard Sabel put his new fake-paper detector to work, he was “shocked” by what it found.
After screening some 5000 papers, he estimates up to 34% of neuroscience papers published in 2020 were likely made up or plagiarized; in medicine, the figure was 24%.

“It is just too hard to believe” at first, says Sabel of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and editor-in-chief of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.
It’s as if “somebody tells you 30% of what you eat is toxic.”"

The author notes several issues contributing to this dilemma:

- paper mills—secretive businesses that allow researchers to pad their publication records by paying for fake papers or undeserved authorship.
- The “publish or perish” pressure that institutions put on scientists is also an obstacle

The "publish or perish" issue seems the most compelling to me; one can only imagine the pressure to publish; but it does beg questioning whether such pressure is appropriate for science, the objective seeking of truth by fabricating papers or plagiarizing other authors (a third themselves likely made up, if the findings are accurate) so they can keep their funding.

The paper mill issue seems to be mitigated primarily by the use of "spam filters" - which I thought interesting, this happening in the world of "science" - "scientists" spamming other scientists.

Of course, this is just in neuroscience and medicine; I'm sure there are no other fields of science similarly afflicted.

And it's also just one scientist's opinion, and that using just two indicators, one of which is the employ of "fake paper detectors" (who'da thunk those were needed in science, let alone a plurality of them?);

Nevertheless, we need to wait for his peers to review his work. Let's hope those reviews aren't fabricated or plagiarized too.

luzribeiro

So he's a liar, thief and conman... Sounds like he's got a good chance to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. ;-)

"Mr. Santos, a Republican from New York, says he’s the “embodiment of the American dream.” But he seems to have misrepresented a number of his career highlights."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/nyregion/george-santos-ny-republicans.html

Yes, just a little. Adapted from the article:

( Read more... )

If those lies are true (the guy is indeed a fraud), in the old days (20 years ago), the Republican would run him for congress over this. But, we live in a time where Republicans value those that lie, so this will probably land him a choice committee assignment and fast-track him for party leadership.

I look forward to hearing him lecture us about honesty and transparency.

luzribeiro

Behold the rise and fall - and further fall - of one of the greatest whackadoodles and political tools in recent US history. Make mine a long, tall, cool glass of Schadenfreude, danke!

N.Y. State Court Suspends Giuliani From Practicing Law Over 2020 Vote Fraud Claims

A New York state court has suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law after concluding that he made false statements alleging rampant fraud to try to overturn Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election.

IMO, Giuliani got off easy. He should have been disbarred long ago for repeated falsehoods, for being a clown dressed in an attorney's garb, and simply for being nut-job 'Rudy'.

But seriously. He still got a pass. Regular people would have gone to prison, fined, or both.

Poor Rudy. He was once America’s Mayor, but now he’s just another one of Donald Trump’s clown car of crazy crooks.

fridi

A massive controversy has broken out after president Trump appeared to have pressured Georgia's top election official, a fellow Republican, in an extraordinary phone conversation to "find enough votes" to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state.

The call is the latest move in Trump's two-month effort insisting that his loss to Joe Biden was the result of widespread voter fraud, an allegation he has failed to provide any evidence for.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris lashed out at the president calling a brazen abuse of power. ‘Have you all heard about that recorded conversation? Well, it was yes, certainly the voice of desperation. Most certainly that and it was a bald faced, bold abuse of power by the President of the United States,’ Kamala Harris said.

Trump couldn't handle the fact that Biden has won the traditionally conservative state by fewer than 12,000 votes in the recent elections. This, among many other failures and defeats for the president in recent weeks (the latest one being his veto on the defense bill being overcome in the Senate).

Still more grounds for prosecuting the douche in chief?

fridi

Cuomo: Trump would need an army with him if he walked New York City's streets

Let's hope that army won't look like armed militia wearing red caps. But it's true, New Yorkers definitely don't want Trump to set foot back in their city ever again. Most of them hate him in their guts, and believe he's the biggest liar in the world.

Trump Tower at 5th Ave is now basically a no-go zone. But it's unlikely its owner would go back there any time soon. Especially now that he's about to lose his presidential immunity.

( Read more... )

luzribeiro

Trump-donating construction firms have been given massive no-bid increases in their budgets. And the Great Wall of Trump still only covers a tiny portion of the 2000 mile border, despite Trump's campaign bragging that it "is almost complete." Not to mention the fraud that Bannon got arrested for.

Records Show Trump’s Border Wall Is Costing Taxpayers Billions More Than Initial Contracts

"As the presidential election nears, a review of federal spending data found modifications to contracts have increased the price of the border wall by billions, costing about five times more per mile than it did under previous administrations."

Of course we already know Trump's bad at business, bad at governing, bad at money, and bad at making deals. This whole wall business just confirms that.

I hope Biden will be able to cancel all the contracts and stop with that bullshit waste of money.

mahnmut

All the Best People. So much winning. Why are so many people from Trump's White House wracking up criminal records?

Steve Bannon, the mighty Steve, Trump's former chief strategist has been arrested after being charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors through their campaign "We Build the Wall."

Needless to mention, they didn't build the wall. And neither did the Mexicans pay for it.

Instead, Bannon, along with three of his associates have now been indicted by investigators on allegations that they had defrauded donors and that led to raising more than $25 million for a wall they never intended to build.

Oh well. Maybe he'll be pardoned too.

kiaa

Absolutely sickening and appalling, but no surprise in Trump's America. Amazing how he says this shit and half the country just shrugs its shoulders:

“When you do testing to that extent, you are gonna find more people, you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down please. They test and they test. We have tests that people don’t know what's going on,” Trump said in the rally.

This public admission is a confession of malfeasance and clear dereliction of duty. It is a betrayal of the American people and ideally should result in the arrest of Trump. The man is bragging about the blood on his hands. But he's getting applauded by his band of sycophants, instead. Imagine if it were someone of his opponents saying it. He would've yelled "lock'em up" so loud, even his buddies down in Hell would've heard him.

That said, I commend those Trump/Republican voters who stayed away and did their duty of social distancing, I was really fearing 25 to 35 thousand people would show up and make the event to a superspreader event of epic proportions. Now I cannot say it was pleasant to see that many people ignoring safe distancing but it could have been worse.

Just think about the 2 workers of a German meat packing company who went to church a few weeks back, there they came in contact with people who have since been found to be covid positive. The service was held on the 17th of May, the week after that only 5 people had been tested positively, then it went to 19 on the 27th of May and so far of the people who have been tested up to yesterday (3127 had been tested and the results have been reported) 1029 of them have been found to be positive for Covid 19. And for about 2700 the test results are still outstanding. All 7,000 workers and subcontractors of the meat packer have been put into quarantine at home.

It starts with 2 and then BOOM, less than a month later that number has grown by a factor of more than 500.

Anyway, back to what Trump said. The quote needs to be the headline of every major news outlet. Unfortunately, they will probably devote most of their criticisms to his recent racist shenanigans.

luzribeiro

This is why there needs to be witnesses. If Trump is so pure in this, what is he hiding?

"Multiple sources familiar with Bolton's book told The New York Times that he writes that President Trump personally told him that $391 million in aid to Ukraine should be frozen until Ukrainian officials announced the investigations, including one into the Democratic National Committee."

Bolton book alleges Trump tied Ukraine aid freeze to Biden investigations

So here it is, in black and white, John Bolton's book to be precise. This is precisely the testimony that the Republican senate does not want to hear. John Bolton absolutely must be allowed to testify after this news. He's said he would appear.

Not that this would matter to the Reps, right? Just wait and you'll hear whatever new bullshit defenses they'll be able to come up with, this time. Basically, as is typical lately, the rationale is: Because, fudge you.

Cue the Cultist defenders screaming about Bolton being a leftist plant and a liberal, and therefore lying about Trump.

Nope. None of this matters at this point. The GOP will twist this every which way. Day traders don't worry about how history will view them.

mahnmut

You've got a point, whoever you are that is saying the news cycle is obsessed with ratings and doesn't give two fucks about actual important news on events with a great impact on a large number of people.

Take the huge scandal that's rocking the US these days, or at least those circles that actually care about anything beyond Kim Kardashian's fat smelly ass. You see, for about 18 years several US administrations have lied to the public about Afghanistan. 2000 pages of classified documents and 400 interviews with former military personnel have surfaced on WaPo, and the shit has started splashing around the fan pretty bad now.

Let's not fool ourselves.This leak is a serious blow on the very foundations of democracy, because the lies were being done by no less than three consecutive presidential administrations: GWB, Obama, and now Trump.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/14/lying-by-bush-and-obama-over-afghanistan-is-this-eras-pentagon-papers/

( No surprise there? )

luzribeiro

Cambridge Analytica, Trump-Tied Political Firm, Offered to Entrap Politicians

WASHINGTON — Sitting in a hotel bar, Alexander Nix, who runs the political data firm Cambridge Analytica, had a few ideas for a prospective client looking for help in a foreign election. The firm could send an attractive woman to seduce a rival candidate and secretly videotape the encounter, Mr. Nix said, or send someone posing as a wealthy land developer to pass a bribe.

“We have a long history of working behind the scenes,” Mr. Nix said.

The prospective client, though, was actually a reporter from Channel 4 News in Britain, and the encounter was secretly filmed as part of a monthslong investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the data firm with ties to President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The results of Channel 4’s work were broadcast in Britain on Monday, days after reports in The New York Times and The Observer of London that the firm had harvested the data from more than 50 million Facebook profiles in its bid to develop techniques for predicting the behavior of individual American voters.

The weekend’s reports about the data misuse have prompted calls from lawmakers in Britain and the United States for renewed scrutiny of Facebook, and at least two American state prosecutors have said they are looking into the misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica.

Full Story

This is pretty big news. Steve Bannon was a Vice President, Board Member, and alleged co-founder of this company. The company bragged that it altered more than 200 elections globally, using means such as bribery and prostitution to extort politicians. Additionally, this firm met with one of the largest companies in Russia, Lukoil. Lukoil is on the US sanctions list, and has been used "as a vehicle of government influence" which is common for large companies in Russia. A whistleblower for Cambridge Analytica claimed that they started teasing what became Trump's slogans as far back as 2014. The head of the firm admitted he contacted Julian Assange to enlist the help of Wikileaks regarding Hillary Clinton's emails.

We know that Flynn allegedly attempted to obtain the Clinton emails as well. We also know that Roger Stone was in touch with Wikileaks during the campaign. It'll be interesting to see if/how CA helped in these matters, but they're clearly tied up in this more so than the Trump campaign claimed

Personally, I am not surprised. Both sides seemed off the rails in the last election with their actions during the election. By next election, this should all be commonplace.

luzribeiro

A huge new leak of financial documents has revealed how the powerful and ultra-wealthy, including the Queen's private estate, secretly invest vast amounts of cash in offshore tax havens. Donald Trump's commerce secretary is shown to have a stake in a firm dealing with Russians sanctioned by the US. The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4m documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance.

So the Paradise Papers are millions of hacked documents which include incriminating connections between Putin and Trumpworld.

And Wikileaks wasn't on top of this?

Why, you could knock me over with a feather! ;-)

Isn’t it odd that the only Trump not seriously suspected of treason is the only one who’s an immigrant? ;-)

"Daddy. Can you ask Melania if she'll be able to take the children when we all go to prison?"

kiaa

I think the political opinions of your regular hobo is often times more valid and worth your attention and respect than that of whichever showbiz celebrity you may randomly pick.

Just being a spoiled millionaire doesn't automatically make you politically and socially literate, let alone emotionally intelligent and capable of social empathy. If experience is any guide, it's actually more likely that it's just the opposite.*

All the Clooneys, Dicaprios, Madonnas etc gorgonnas and primadonas would do us all a great service if they acknowledge who they really are: a bunch of dancing monkeys, whose ONLY purpose and function is to entertain us, the common-folk.

Want a few examples? ( Fine, you asked for it )

johnny9fingers

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/21/secret-service-cant-pay-agents-because-trumps-frequent-travel-large-family/529075001/

http://uk.businessinsider.com/secret-service-trump-tower-rent-command-post-2017-8

Now, what makes me think that Trump was trying to gouge another few percent from the Secret Service in order to allow them to do the job they are no longer being payed for, having hit their overtime cap.

All his accusations about Obama taking vacations, costing civil and Secret service money and time, now look rather tame when one considers 45's first seven months of office.

America. This is insane. This is an insane situation. I'm sorry I repeated myself. It is for emphasis. We can read between the lines and draw conclusions ourselves. You have an asset-stripper in charge. Sooner or later it just becomes good business for 45 to sell the family silver alongside the family secrets to the highest bidder. Let's hope the Koch Brothers can outbid Uncle Vlad or Chinacorp ^TM.

The thing is, his supporters will still support him and consider themselves patriots. It's almost like they don't understand what words mean, or live in a Cheshire Cat reality where words mean only what he says they mean.

Maybe official business needs to be carried out at official residences and places of work. This maybe Trump's actual legacy to the White House: after his egregious usage of the office for his own business advantage, it appears that constitutional checks aren't working properly, and need either restating, or reformulating to prevent abuse.

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

Bombshell Secret CIA Report Says Russia Aimed To Steal White House For Trump
"A shocking secret CIA assessment has concluded that Russia interfered with the U.S. presidential election expressly to help Donald Trump win, according to an exclusive report Friday by The Washington Post."

Trump denies CIA report that Russia intervened to help him win election
"President-elect Donald Trump said he does not believe the CIA’s conclusion that Russia intervened in the election to help him win, attributing the assessment to Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton and claiming repeatedly that the U.S. intelligence community has “no idea” what might have happened."

First, how could he know what some hackers from another country did or did not do? Of course he'll say he doesn't believe it. And of course, for his supporters, belief is everything. Fact doesn't matter.

( Read more... )

luvdovz.livejournal.com

A large number of scientists have signed a petition in the French daily Le Monde. They argue that industry proponents are trying to sow the same doubts about endocrine disruptors as they did regarding the causes behind climate change. And it may well be working.

Here's the petition:
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2016/11/29/let-s-stop-the-manipulation-of-science_5039867_3232.html

I think this comes very timely, what with the leading anti-intellectuals and anti-science folks taking positions of significance in the most powerful administration in the world. They'll be largely defining America's policies on education, science, and yes, health-care as well, for the next few years. This is inevitably going to set the tone for other countries as well, which spells trouble, if not disaster.

( Read more... )

abomvubuso.livejournal.com

...When Trump is confronted with a possible conspiracy that presumably worked in his favour, he instantaneously counters with a conspiracy theory of his own. It's like a knee-jerk reflex at this point.

Trump Claims, With No Evidence, That ‘Millions of People’ Voted Illegally

And since we're in the era of post-truth (whatever that's supposed to mean anyway), a lie told ~~a hundred~~ maybe two times, becomes truth. Right?

( Here is the thing )

mahnmut.livejournal.com

Now that Farage has helped ruin one country in the long run, and has instantaneously stepped away from responsibility, sitten on his couch with a bowl of popcorn and started watching the whole thing unravel with delight from a safe distance, turns out he may've misspend... wait for it... EU money to fund his self-destructive Brexit campaign. GASP at the hypocrisy!

And this is the guy whose entire platform rested upon the notion that immigrants cheat large amounts of money out of the UK by making false claims, such as claiming money for a large number of children but refusing to provide the evidence that they're even parents. It's the same guy who makes huge amounts of expenses for homes in Brussels, claims for utilities, in his turn unable to provide evidence - EU taxpayer money to fund his lavish lifestyle while giving heat to the EU for its excessive spending. And in the same breath he goes out and diverts money from the EU to fund his campaign opposing the EU. If this isn't corruption, then I don't know what is.

( But that`s not all! )

johnny9fingers.livejournal.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/nyregion/donald-trump-tax-breaks-real-estate.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

So... After milking NY taxpayer for almost a Billion, when the story gets published, the Donald gets a bit shirty with the NYT.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/18/donald-trump-threatens-to-sue-new-york-times-over-irresponsible-intent

But he doesn't carry through.

Sod the Donald's dog-whistle "Second Amendment" irresponsible lunacy. The Donald needs a First Amendment investigation. Root and branch, much like the forensic scrutiny Hillary's entire existence over the last twenty-five years has been put through. And just to reiterate. Thus far, with all the scrutiny, and all the investigation, and her opposition's palpable and rabid hate of her, nothing has stuck. Which means she is either innocent and being calumnied, or is clever and sneaky enough to be the best POTUS ever. Take your pick.

The GOP really hates the Clintons. Kenneth Starr provided ordinary people with the perfect example of political hatred run amok. In the light of which example, added to the example of Hillary hate, does the panel think the Donald, if elected, will avoid impeachment? And if so, will it be because of "emergency measures"? And the suspension of the First Amendment... You know, the one that's even more important than the Second Amendment, which is why it has precedence.

This gives the rest of us the opportunity to see if the "strict constitutionalists" are exactly that, or are merely covering themselves in the Bill of Rights for their own convenience. Come on ye Oathtakers, show your colours.

Credits & Style Info

Monthly topic:
Post-Truth Politics Revisited

Dailyquote:

"The NATO charter clearly says that any attack on a NATO member shall be treated, by all members, as an attack against all. So that means that, if we attack Greenland, we'll be obligated to go to war against ... ourselves! Gee, that's scary. You really don't want to go to war with the United States. They're insane!"

(edelsont)

May 2026

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with fraud

In-mail voting

Plagiarism in science

Another fraud

Poor Rudy

One more turd from the stinker

Law, meet Don. Don, meet the law.

Where's your wall, Don?

Bannon: we aren't surprised at all, are we?

Does this surprise anyone anymore?

The Bolton bombshell

The 18 year old lie

Cambridge Analytica

Re: Paradise Papers

(Semi)-offtopic. Appeal to celebrity

More on 45

The best president Russia can buy.

On the manipulation of science... But we already knew that.

You've got to give him that...

Fraud Farage's shenanigans

Good ol' The Donald Trump

Credits & Style Info

Links

May 2026

Summary