Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Pop-up super PACs hide donors as they influence GOP Kansas Senate primary
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Friday, July 24, 2020
‘It’s Past Time’: Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sen. Bernie Sanders Unveil Bill To Strip Fossil Fuel Funding
As fossil fuel emissions cook the planet and wreak a mounting toll of destruction, the federal government gives oil, gas and coal companies nearly $15 billion per year in direct federal subsidies and already directed billions more in support through coronavirus relief programs this year.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Local election boards complain about Hogan's November election plan
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Constitutional amendment proposal would guarantee the right to vote
The constitution has a right to bear arms and even a right to prevent soldiers from living in other people’s homes, but no explicit right to vote.
Marty Wulfe
PPP loan goes to Sekulow family that pulls millions from the non-profit "charity" that it controls
PPP of $1-2 million goes to American Center for Law and Justice. $65 million + multiple house purchases paid over the years to the Sekulow family from ACLJ. In addition, tens of millions more paid to a firm that Jay Sekulow owns half of.
Charlie Cooper
The FDIC-insured part of JPMorgan Chase lost $3.2 billion in Q1 of 2020
Depositors money was used for securities trading. The bank holding company lost still more.
Charlie Cooper
Warnings: Dire consequences of economic downturn
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/07/warnings-grow-we-are-in-a-massive-economic-downturn/
Fed Governor Lael Brainerd warned of corporate debt failure. Long-term unemployment is rising and 4th-quarter unemployment is projected at 10.5%.
“Frederick Douglass, … said: ‘Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.’”
William Spriggs, Chief Economist of AFL-CIO:
“’Rather than push workers into unemployment, other industrialized nations chose to subsidize the wages of workers and keep them connected to their employers…in most other countries, worker dismissals carry costs, and so unlike in the United States, policies to help with retention are received as very cost effective. New Zealand made greatest use of this type of program, covering about two-thirds of their workers, France over half their workforce were eligible, though only about a third actually were paid and Germany and Great Britain both covered about thirty percent of their workers. Through May, France, Italy and Germany remained with their unemployment rates in single digit levels….’”
Charlie Cooper
H: 410-578-8291
M: 410-624-6095
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
Authors allege that Koch Brothers money governs Trump deregulation agenda and response to COVID-19
Trump has followed Koch line on exiting Paris Accords, deregulating EPA, and cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Now he has denigrated mask-wearing to undermine the idea of government regulation.
Charlie Cooper
Mnuchin answers questions at House Small Business Hearing
He supports blanket forgiveness for PPP loans below some unstated amount. [But do we know that loans are being used to pay low- or mid-income employees? – Charlie] He would welcome expanding the PPP program again with a revenue test to make sure recipients have been hurt by pandemic. He wants aid for low- and mid-income households.
Charlie Cooper
Mnuchin claims economy is poised for quick recovery
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1065
Before House Committee on Small Business on June 17. “This brings our two-month total gain to approximately 8 million jobs, meaning that 34 percent of jobs lost due to the pandemic have been recovered.”
Charlie Cooper
Supreme Court deals another major blow to voting rights
“It is the fourth time that the court has refused to intervene to protect voting rights this year.
“The Supreme Court's failure to reinstate the status quo, said Sotomayor, "continues a trend of condoning disenfranchisement."
“‘Ironically,’ she wrote, the court majority has ‘wielded Purcell as a reason to forbid courts to make voting safer during a pandemic, overriding two federal courts because any safety related changes supposedly came too close to election day.’ And now, she concluded, ‘faced with an appellate court stay that disrupts a legal status quo and risks immense disenfranchisement — a situation that Purcell sought to avoid — the court balks.’"
Charlie Cooper
Friday, July 17, 2020
"Outright Lies": Voting Misinformation Flourishes on Facebook
https://www.propublica.org/article/outright-lies-voting-misinformation-flourishes-on-facebook
While the social media giant says it opposes voter suppression, the data shows a stark picture: Nearly half of all top-performing posts that mentioned voting by mail were false or misleading.
Marty Wulfe
Thousands of Small Business Owners Have Not Gotten Disaster Loans the Government Promised Them
A top official said 99% of funds were paid, but only 55% of small business owners reported receiving the money. Borrowers were told there was a technical glitch, but the Small Business Administration would not answer questions about it.
Marty Wulfe
Thursday, July 16, 2020
The court cases that McConnell sites as justifying a liability ban for employers is a mere trickle
Mitch McConnell is holding up legislation to provide aid for the election, for unemployed workers, for public health and public schools, for the Post Office, and for state and local governments. What he wants in exchange for any of this sorely-needed aid is liability for employers for lawsuits claiming that lack of precautions caused workers to contract COVID-19 and become sick or die. But careful study indicates that there are not very many such lawsuits being filed.
Charlie Cooper
Maryland seeks new vendor to print ballots
The request for proposals complies with the Governor’s order for sending every voter an application for a mail-in ballot but also has a contingency to mail every voter a mail-in ballot.
Charlie Cooper
Billionaire Democratic donors give big to anti-Trump Lincoln Project
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Sunday, July 12, 2020
Deadline for electoral college should be moved by Congress
Counting mail-in ballots will take more time. Congress can act now to extend the time states have to report their popular votes and cast electoral college ballots. The latter deadline of December 14 could be set to January 2.
Charlie Cooper
Suit seeks to bar Purdue Pharma from making political contributions
“’The Political Contributions – $185,000 in donations to associations whose members include the very public servants with whom the Debtors are attempting to negotiate a consensual resolution of these cases – are precisely the sort of transaction that demand close scrutiny,’” said lawyers behind the suit.
Charlie Cooper
Purdue Pharma made political contributions after going bankrupt
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/07/purdue-pharma-bankrupt-donations/
Oxycontin maker “Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy after several cities sued the company for its role in creating the opioid crisis. By going bankrupt, it was able to get all litigation stayed; family members of the over 500,000 victims of the opioid crisis are now just creditors in the bankruptcy. The Sackler family — including Jonathan Sackler, a co-owner of Purdue who died Monday — made off with over $10 billion in company funds.
“Meanwhile, in December, the Democratic Attorneys General Association accepted $25,000 in donations from the company….”
Charlie Cooper
Friday, July 10, 2020
EXPOSED: Reps Pass Bills That Benefit Their Own Private Companies
https://readsludge.com/2020/07/08/exposed-reps-pass-bills-that-benefit-their-own-private-companies/
This article is the first in a series exposing unexplored avenues of systemic corruption in Congress.
Marty Wulfe
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Lax enforcement and tax havens cost U.S. hundreds of billion of dollars annually in federal tax revenue
Two separate studies announced today show the extent of tax cheating and use of tax havens by the 1% and multi-national corporations.
““With the money that these tax cheats owe, this year alone, we could fund tuition-free college for all, eliminate child hunger, ensure clean drinking water for every American household, build half a million affordable housing units, provide masks to all, produce the protective gear and medical supplies our health workers need to combat this pandemic, and fully fund the U.S. Postal Service,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who requested the CBO study."
Charlie Cooper, 410-624-6095, Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
An astonishing list of coronavirus relief money beneficiaries. Devin Nunes' Winery, Kushner Family Business to name just a few
Last month, the Trump administration backtracked on its earlier vow to disclose the recipients of taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program loans meant to help small businesses weather the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin claimed at the time that reporting the names of beneficiaries, and amounts received, would risk revealing “confidential information.” But under pressure from congressional committees, the administration reversed again, releasing its PPP records Monday.
It turns out, the White House may have had good reason to want to keep the data under wraps. While much of the nearly $660 billion went to the small businesses it was designed to help prop up, a sizable slice of the pie went to large corporations, organizations with connections to political elites, and—predictably—companies linked to Donald Trump and his associates and allies.
Marty Wulfe
Televangelists, Dallas megachurch that hosted Pence approved for millions in pandemic aid
Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a rally last month at the First Baptist Church of Dallas, whose pastor, Robert Jeffress, has been on Trump’s evangelical advisory board. It was among the tens of thousands of religious organizations that received a total of $7.3 billion in pandemic aid from the Small Business Administration.
Marty Wulfe
Revelations of undeserving PPP recipients are missing the point
https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-ppp-witch-hunt-misplaced-banks-sba/
The author argues that Paycheck Protection Program is good except that the delivery mechanism through banks was a design flaw. As long as funds are passed through to workers, it is helping avoid unnecessary suffering. $100 billion remains to be claimed before the August 8 application deadline, but many banks have stopped taking applications.
Charlie Cooper
Trump-connected lobbyists reap windfall in COVID-19 boom - CBS News
McConnell's wife's family business appears on Trump admin's list of companies that received most PPP money
insider lobbyists and law firms, anti-government NGOs, and hate groups got PPP loans
The article does not indicate the size of the problem but gives jarring instances.
Charlie Cooper
Over 5,600 fossil fuel companies have taken at least $3bn in US Covid-19 aid
Monday, July 6, 2020
Thanks
Angad, Thanks for offering to brief me on Palast’s plan for the election. I am meeting with a Public Citizen staff person at 10:00 am tomorrow, and, if you could get me the info tonight or early tomorrow, I would very much appreciate that.
Charlie Cooper
H: 410-578-8291
M: 410-624-6095
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
Saturday, July 4, 2020
Fraudulent claims slow unemployment aid to truly needy
Past data breaches have facilitated many fraudulent unemployment claims. This identity theft has halted aid to many truly needy U.S. workers.
Charlie Cooper
Friday, July 3, 2020
credible allegations of banking corruption and the office of the federal prosecutor in Southern NY
Wall Street lawyers on both sides of every case.
Charlie Cooper
Maryland State Board of Elections splits along party lines regarding November election
Democratic Board members want every voter to be mailed a ballot while Republican members want every voter to be mailed a ballot application.
Charlie Cooper
Get Money Out – Maryland (GMOM) 
Thursday, July 2, 2020
How hedge fund billionaires spend dark money in politics and the return they hope for
Betting on corporate Dems to spur education “reforms” that will privatize schools.
Charlie Cooper
In 4 U.S. cities, the "student debt crisis is a civil right crisis," research finds
Student debt crisis creates a 'vicious cycle' of inequality in Black, Latino neighborhoods, report finds. Students of color are more likely to take on student debt and disproportionately struggle to pay it back at higher rates than their white counterparts, perpetuating a "vicious cycle" of economic inequality along racial lines, research released Monday suggests.
Marty Wulfe
"America's student debt crisis is a civil rights crisis," according to a new analysis of student borrower data from New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and San Francisco. "America's student debt crisis is a civil rights crisis," according to a new analysis of student borrower data from New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Corruption in the Judiciary: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws or oaths remained on the bench
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-judges-misconduct/
As in most states, Alabama’s nine-member Judicial Inquiry Commission is a mix of lawyers, judges and laypeople. All are appointed. Their deliberations are secret and they operate under some of the most judge-friendly rules in the nation.
Marty Wulfe