Tag: fraud

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Read Here’s the full transcript and audio of the call between Trump and Raffensperger by Amy Gardner and Paulina Firozi (Washington Post)
Listen to the full Jan. 2 phone call. This audio has been edited to remove the name of an individual about whom the president makes unsubstantiated allegations. (Obtained by The Washington Post) About 3 p.m. Saturday, President Trump held an hour-long call with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which he repeatedly urged him to alter the outcome of the presidential vote in the state. He was joined on the call by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and several lawyers, including longtime conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell and Georgia-based attorney Kurt Hilbert. Raffensperger was joined by his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany, and Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. The Washington Post obtained a copy of a recording of the call. This transcript has been edited to remove the name of an individual about whom Trump makes unsubstantiated claims.

Interesting to note that Trump does 95% of the speaking on this call and most of it both bullying and repeating the same small handful of lies. What an abhorrent loser clown he is.

Watched "Dirty Money" The Wagon Wheel from Netflix
Directed by Dan Krauss. Wells Fargo was long seen as the 'golden child' of banking. But former employees detail the ruthless and fraudulent practices that fueled its growth.
We need better government regulation and oversite to prevent companies from doing exactly this. The fines should have been significantly worse.

👓 Thousands of leaked Facebook documents show Mark Zuckerberg as ‘master of leverage’ in plan to trade user data | NBC News

Read Thousands of leaked Facebook documents show Mark Zuckerberg as ‘master of leverage’ in plan to trade user data (NBC News)
Facebook’s leaders seriously discussed selling access to user data — and privacy was an afterthought.
The story somehow just gets worse and worse and still they just apologize and continue on as usual… It’s shocking to see so many who raised ethical issues along the way are remaining silent now, ostensibly because they are still on the gravy train and are enriching themselves by staying silent.

👓 2 Students Allegedly Cheated Apple Out Of Nearly $900,000 In Fake iPhone Scheme | NPR

Read 2 Students Allegedly Cheated Apple Out Of Nearly $900,000 In Fake iPhone Scheme (NPR.org)
Prosecutors say it was an elaborate deception that involved roping in friends and family, while using nonsensical pseudonyms and a slew of mailing addresses. The plot seems to have come from China.

📺 Fyre Fraud (2019) | Hulu

Watched Fyre Fraud (2019) from Hulu
Directed by Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason. With Bella Hadid, Ja Rule, Billy McFarland, Cameron Davison. Concert promoters and rapper Ja Rule advertise a high-end festival experience that fails spectacularly when they don't plan for the infrastructure to support the venue, artists and guests.
When the two competing documentaries came out, I don’t think I ever really heard a reason why there were two other than the fact that the story was so over-the-top, blatant, and salacious. I’m glad I saw this one first as it indicates that the other documentary was made by Jerry Media, an entity that was involved in promoting and profiting from the Fyre Festival. Of course I want to dig into the background of the producers of this one now too to see what their ties may be. Always vet your sources, even for documentaries that present themselves as detached from the story.

This does a great job of showing cultural excess. At least the founder was put into jail before he had a chance to run for president…

👓 After selling off his father’s properties, Trump embraced unorthodox strategies to expand his empire | Washington Post

Read After selling off his father’s properties, Trump embraced unorthodox strategies to expand his empire by David Fahrenthold, Jonathan O'Connell (Washington Post)
In 2005, Donald Trump kicked off a decade-long buying and spending spree, vastly expanding his hotel and golf-course empire and cementing his image as a brash impresario. The un­or­tho­dox approach Trump took in making those bold bets — racing through hundreds of millions in cash and drawing loans from the private-wealth office of Deutsche Bank — came when he was on new terrain as a developer.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: How the Opioid Crisis Started | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: How the Opioid Crisis Started from New York Times
As prosecutors go after doctors, drug dealers and users, those who made billions of dollars from sales of a painkiller at the center of the epidemic have gone largely unpunished.

This is such a massive public health care issue, I’m shocked we haven’t gone to heavier regulation of the direct source.

👓 11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth | The New York Times

Read 11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth (nytimes.com)
Based on a trove of confidential financial records, the Times report offers the first comprehensive look at the inherited fortune and tax dodges that guaranteed Donald Trump a gilded life.
A quick précis of the whole 13,000+ word story for those without the time.

👓 How Times Journalists Uncovered the Original Source of the President’s Wealth | New York Times

Read How Times Journalists Uncovered the Original Source of the President’s Wealth (New York Times)
Three reporters spent over a year digging through more than 100,000 pages of documents and chasing down key sources familiar with President Trump’s father and his empire.

👓 Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father | New York Times

Read Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father by David Barstow (nytimes.com)
The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s.
I had suspected something like this for a long time and my suspicions were pushed during the election upon reports of Trump cheating sub-contractors and not paying them and again earlier this year when Jonathan Greenberg revised some of his 1980’s reportage for Forbes, but this is simply incredible!

While there are a lot of things one can take away from this stunning, thorough, and long read, the thing that strikes me is what Trump did to attempt to cheat his own father, who had been repeatedly been digging him out of trouble, when he was against the wall. He tried to defraud and steal from his greatest benefactor. How can anyone trust him to fight for America or real Americans when his entire substance as well as facade is a complete sham?

Combined with the millions he’s losing on real estate and other deals over the past decade, one is forced (again) to wonder who exactly is funding him now?

 

 

🎧 The Imaginary Crimes of Margit Hamosh, Season 3 Episode 8 | Revisionist History

Listened to The Imaginary Crimes of Margit Hamosh, Season 3 Episode 8 by Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History

"Epidemics of fear repeat themselves. The first time as tragedy. The second time as farce. Margit Hamosh? Definitely farce."

What was it that Margit Hamosh did? What was her alleged fraud? I have been going on and on about this case for a good 20 minutes now, and I haven’t told you. Do you know why? Because we didn’t know.

It pains me to think of all these wasted hours over minutiae.