March 12, 2020

Russian election meddling is back -- via Ghana and Nigeria -- and in your feeds

Accra, Ghana (CNN)The Russian trolls are back -- and once again trying to poison the political atmosphere in the United States ahead of this year's elections. But this time they are better disguised and more targeted, harder to identify and track. And they have found an unlikely home, far from Russia itself.

In 2016, much of the trolling aimed at the US election operated from an office block in St. Petersburg, Russia. A months-long CNN investigation has discovered that, in this election cycle, at least part of the campaign has been outsourced -- to trolls in the west African nations of Ghana and Nigeria.

They have focused almost exclusively on racial issues in the US, promoting black empowerment and often displaying anger towards white Americans. The goal, according to experts who follow Russian disinformation campaigns, is to inflame divisions among Americans and provoke social unrest. The language and images used in the posts -- on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram -- are sometimes graphic.

One of the Ghanaian trolls -- @africamustwake -- linked to a story from a left-wing conspiracy website and commented on Facebook: "America's descent into a fascist police state continues."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/world/russia-ghana-troll-farms-2020-ward/index.html

March 12, 2020

I'm not even a cat person but I *must* have one of these:

https://twitter.com/Each1Net/status/950678600705019904

March 12, 2020

Commuting the sentence of a Medicare fraudster? An unwise move by President Trump.

Last week, President Trump saw fit to issue a commutation to prolific Medicare fraudster Judith Negron, who had served only 8 years of an appropriate 35-year sentence, handed down in one of the largest Medicare frauds in history. South Florida, the epicenter of health care fraud, each year, has seen countless health care professionals like Negron willfully engage in elaborate schemes to bilk a system created to provide care to millions of elderly Americans.

So while the president certainly has the constitutional authority to pardon, this particular action sends a disturbing message and serves to demean the extraordinary efforts of prosecutors and agents attempting to rein in pervasive fraud that costs taxpayers billions of dollars annually. The president's decision may well even encourage lawlessness in a federal program that can least afford it.

As a federal prosecutor for more than 25 years, I saw the devastating impact of health care fraud and spent a substantial part of my career prosecuting it and training prosecutors how to recognize and attack it. Negron’s scheme was a troubling but important reminder of how law enforcement and the judicial system work in tandem to root out and deter significant health care frauds.

She took advantage of the vulnerable
Over the years, Negron’s company, American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC) used thousands of elderly Alzheimer’s and dementia patients as pawns to overwhelm the system and defraud Medicare of more than $200 million. These elderly victims were mere props in a sophisticated fraud scheme — unwittingly rented for the day from a nearby assisted living facility for a few pieces of silver, $25 to be exact, simply to be abused under the guise of providing a “service” that Medicare would pay for handsomely.

The scheme’s success spawned many copycats, and before long, South Florida had more adults in community mental health “therapy” than New York City and Los Angeles combined. Reimbursements to South Florida clinics were more than half of what Medicare paid to the entire country.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/03/10/pardon-commuting-sentence-medicare-fraudster-judith-negron-donald-trump-column/4994494002/

So how much of her laundered money did she funnel to Trump's offshore slush fund?

March 10, 2020

Your Daily Greenwald, no introduction needed...

https://twitter.com/DGisSERIOUS/status/1237220029550211079

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1237184438011822085

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1237091158095998976

https://twitter.com/anashwt/status/1236344972602982400

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1236361158959009794

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1236367505943343111

March 6, 2020

Greenwald and Snowden were unavailable for comment:

https://twitter.com/Glitchy_Ashburn/status/1236077064513638402

March 4, 2020

I don't get it -- What does he mean by "permanently unavoidable?"

Ol' Glenn has been reading from his alt-reality dictionary, hasn't he??

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1235228838407397376

March 4, 2020

Intercept writer caught making up shit on the spot, again...

https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1235087826720456704

March 4, 2020

This is the kind of everyday shit America has normalized:

https://twitter.com/Noahbierman/status/1234976588548018176

If Obama ever pulled this shit during the Ebola/SARS scares, most Americans would have been screaming about a "coverup" and there would have been widespread panic...

March 2, 2020

Greenwald and Snowden were unavailable for comment

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1234554064509263873

March 2, 2020

Brexit could cost the UK up to 30 times more than Trump trade deal

Brexit could cost the UK economy up to 30 times as much as the country hopes to gain back from securing a new trade deal with US President Donald Trump, official figures suggest.

The UK's Department for International Trade on Sunday evening published its objectives for talks with the Trump administration ahead of negotiations scheduled for later this month.

The department's analysis estimated that an independent new trade deal with the US — possible only because of Brexit — would boost the UK economy by as much as £3.4 billion, or up to 0.16%, over the next 10 to 15 years.

However, this figure is dwarfed by estimates of the cost of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal.

A UK government analysis published in November 2018 suggested that a modelled average free-trade agreement along the lines of Johnson's planned deal with the European Union would reduce economic growth by about 4.9% and up to 6.7% over 15 years.

https://www.businessinsider.com/brexit-will-cost-uk-more-than-donald-trump-trade-deal-2020-3