There are so many different things that went wrong in Minnesota, but I am inclined to follow lots of stories to the same ending.
Our systems hold liberals and Democrats to more stringent standards than they hold conservatives and Republicans.
They hold the left to stronger anti-corruption standards. And higher benchmarks of public support. And more consistency in appealing to the center rather than the fringes.
The media does this. Pollsters do this. And election officers do it too.
And now, we see, so do the online influencers who drive media attention to the politically disengaged.
Nothing will ever get better for the left until the left begins demanding our political systems to hold the right to more consistent standards of official competence, public support, and service to the entire range of citizens of all political positions.
Exclusive of trump’s theft, here are the pardons from his first term that is even worse than the Somali fraud. It is a shitstorm by itself.
Pardons in 1st trump term.
Here are pardons from the buffoon’s first term:
Trump’s pardons included health care execs behind massive frauds
Health Jan 22, 2021 1:15 PM EDT
At the last minute, President Donald Trump granted pardons to several individuals convicted in huge Medicare swindles that prosecutors alleged often harmed or endangered elderly and infirm patients while fleecing taxpayers.
“These aren’t just technical financial crimes. These were major, major crimes,” said Louis Saccoccio, chief executive officer of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, an advocacy group.
The list of some 200 Trump pardons or commutations, most issued as he vacated the White House this week, included at least seven doctors or health care entrepreneurs who ran discredited health care enterprises, from nursing homes to pain clinics. One is a former doctor and California hospital owner embroiled in a massive workers’ compensation kickback scheme that prosecutors alleged prompted more than 14,000 dubious spinal surgeries. Another was in prison after prosecutors accused him of ripping off more than $1 billion from Medicare and Medicaid through nursing homes and other senior care facilities, among the largest frauds in U.S. history.
“All of us are shaking our heads with these insurance fraud criminals just walking free,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. The White House argued all deserved a second chance. One man was said to have devoted himself to prayer, while another planned to resume charity work or other community service. Others won clemency at the request of prominent Republican ex-attorneys general or others who argued their crimes were victimless or said critical errors by prosecutors had led to improper convictions.
Trump commuted the sentence of former nursing home magnate Philip Esformes in late December. He was serving a 20-year sentence for bilking $1 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. An FBI agent called him “a man driven by almost unbounded greed.” Prosecutors said that Esformes used proceeds from his crimes to make a series of “extravagant purchases, including luxury automobiles and a $360,000 watch.”
Esformes also bribed the basketball coach at the University of Pennsylvania “in exchange for his assistance in gaining admission for his son into the university,” according to prosecutors.
Fraud investigators had cheered the conviction. In 2019, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association gave its annual award to the team responsible for making the case. Saccoccio said that such cases are complex and that investigators sometimes spend years and put their “heart and soul” into them. “They get a conviction and then they see this happen. It has to be somewhat demoralizing.”
Tim McCormack, a Maine lawyer who represented a whistleblower in a 2007 kickback case involving Esformes, said these cases “are not just about stealing money.”
“This is about betraying their duty to their patients. This is about using their vulnerable, sick and trusting patients as an ATM to line their already rich pockets,” he said. He added: “These pardons send the message that if you are rich and connected and powerful enough, then you are above the law.”
The Trump White House saw things much differently.
“While in prison, Mr. Esformes, who is 52, has been devoted to prayer and repentance and is in declining health,” the White House pardon statement said.
The White House said the action was backed by former Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey, while Ken Starr, one of Trump’s lawyers in his first impeachment trial, filed briefs in support of his appeal claiming prosecutorial misconduct related to violating attorney-client privilege.
Trump also commuted the sentence of Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor who had served four years in federal prison for fraud. That case also ensnared U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who was acquitted in the case and helped seek the action for his friend, according to the White House.
Prosecutors had accused Melgen of endangering patients with needless injections to treat macular degeneration and other unnecessary medical care, describing his actions as “truly horrific” and “barbaric and inhumane,” according to a court filing.
Melgen “not only defrauded the Medicare program of tens of millions of dollars, but he abused his patients — who were elderly, infirm, and often disabled — in the process,” prosecutors wrote.
These treatments “involved sticking needles in their eyes, burning their retinas with a laser, and injecting dyes into their bloodstream.”
Prosecutors said the scheme raked in “a staggering amount of money.” Between 2008 and 2013, Medicare paid the solo practitioner about $100 million. He took in an additional $10 million from Medicaid, the government health care program for low-income people, $62 million from private insurance, and approximately $3 million in patients’ payments, prosecutors said.
In commuting Melgen’s sentence, Trump cited support from Menendez and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). “Numerous patients and friends testify to his generosity in treating all patients, especially those unable to pay or unable to afford healthcare insurance,” the statement said.
In a statement, Melgen, 66, thanked Trump and said his decision ended “a serious miscarriage of justice.”
“Throughout this ordeal, I have come to realize the very deep flaws in our justice system and how people are at the complete mercy of prosecutors and judges. As of today, I am committed to fighting for unjustly incarcerated people,” Melgen said. He denied harming any patients.
Faustino Bernadett, a former California anesthesiologist and hospital owner, received a full pardon. He had been sentenced to 15 months in prison in connection with a scheme that paid kickbacks to doctors for admitting patients to Pacific Hospital of Long Beach for spinal surgery and other treatments.
“As a physician himself, defendant knew that exchanging thousands of dollars in kickbacks in return for spinal surgery services was illegal and unethical,” prosecutors wrote.
Many of the spinal surgery patients “were injured workers covered by workers’ compensation insurance. Those patient-victims were often blue-collar workers who were especially vulnerable as a result of their injuries,” according to prosecutors.
The White House said the conviction “was the only major blemish” on the doctor’s record. While Bernadett failed to report the kickback scheme, “he was not part of the underlying scheme itself,” according to the White House.
The White House also said Bernadett was involved in numerous charitable activities, including “helping protect his community from COVID-19.” “President Trump determined that it is in the interests of justice and Dr. Bernadett’s community that he may continue his volunteer and charitable work,” the White House statement read.
Others who received pardons or commutations included Sholam Weiss, who was said to have been issued the longest sentence ever for a white collar crime — 835 years. “Mr. Weiss was convicted of racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, for which he has already served over 18 years and paid substantial restitution. He is 66 years old and suffers from chronic health conditions,” according to the White House.
John Davis, the former CEO of Comprehensive Pain Specialists, the Tennessee-based chain of pain management clinics, had spent four months in prison. Federal prosecutors charged Davis with accepting more than $750,000 in illegal bribes and kickbacks in a scheme that billed Medicare $4.6 million for durable medical equipment.
Trump’s pardon statement cited support from country singer Luke Bryan, said to be a friend of Davis’.
“Notably, no one suffered financially as a result of his crime and he has no other criminal record,” the White House statement reads.
“Prior to his conviction, Mr. Davis was well known in his community as an active supporter of local charities. He is described as hardworking and deeply committed to his family and country. Mr. Davis and his wife have been married for 15 years, and he is the father of three young children.”
CPS was the subject of a November 2017 investigation by KHN that scrutinized its Medicare billings for urine drug testing. Medicare paid the company at least $11 million for urine screenings and related tests in 2014, when five of CPS’ medical professionals stood among the nation’s top such Medicare billers.
This story was published January 22, 2021. You can find the original article here. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser
> Nothing will ever get better for the left until the left begins demanding our political systems to hold the right to more consistent standards of official competence, public support, and service to the entire range of citizens of all political positions.
The left has always demanded this, but the world runs on power, not demands.
-The proven "fraud" is still less than what Philip Esformes ($1.3 billion) or Rick Scott ($1.9 billion) stole. And Trump pardoned Esformes in December 2020.
-The "$9 billion" is pulled out of Press Con Joe Thompson's ass.
-By forcing Walz to drop out, they opened the door to Amy Klobuchar to run. Oops.
If Klobuchar runs, she not only wins big, she pulls the rest of the party ballot up with her. The Democrats would lock up both Houses of the state legislature for at least the next two years.
A-Klo has incentives to do it. She's been in the Senate for years but is stalled out careerwise. A move to the Governor's Office gets her the executive experience she needs to pursue a run for the presidency in 2028.
What’s making this story viral is the claimed size of the fraud. It seems to have grown exponentially since the first reporting in the main stream media. Do we know what the actual figure is? It also appears that no main stream media employed the shoe leather approach of actually visiting claimed distribution sites. Was this because of Covid or because of cost cutting? And finally there must have been a huge spike in funding costs for child hunger in Minnesota relative to other states. Seems like this readily apparent leak should have triggered a federal investigation right from the start.
I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg of fraudulent claims on taxpayer dollars. There have been many stories, for example, about massive numbers of fraudulent claims by businesses (or fake businesses) for payroll protection during Covid. This is what makes the American citizens mad, defeated, and cynical. The level of fraud keeps growing and yet Congress keeps shoveling money out the door with ZERO accountability. Maybe during the early days of the first big welfare program (FDR's Great Society) there was enough social trust for the programs to work with minimal waste, but social trust has been declining since, and fraud appears to have grown. As just one example, what happened to the $billions appropriated for rural broadband? I live in a rural area where the connection to broadband should be easy as we're only a couple of miles from a major fiberoptic line, but it hasn't happened, and it appears to not have happened in most rural areas. You could ask the exact same question of all such programs, where Congress seems to trust independent grantors to spend the money as intended. Yet people in power were angry when DOGE started exposing fraud? People in power are angry that this fraud has been revealed? Yeah, because it's cutting off the money spigot for them, a spigot that should never have been opened in the first place.
This has probably been asked, but considering the date of the release of Nick Shirley’s video, was he knocking on doors of Day Care Centers on Christmas Day, when many may have been closed for the holiday just like many public and private primary and secondary schools? Just askin’. Thanks!
Many threads of thought on this article Gabe, so I’ll share what stands out for me. Why an influencer? Why not mainstream media? You mention the under 30 group. As an under 50 year old I never engage with mainstream media anymore. In fact, I rely on independent journalism and influencers to parse out the rage-click bait from the rest and provide me with cogent and deeply written pieces.
And that isn’t changing anytime soon. Recently I read that betting is the future of mainstream media: we will be able to place online bets on the outcome of politics and hot ticket news items. Which will push those stories even further to the top of the headline regardless of facts and importance. This pushes me further away (than I already was) from CNN, ABC, NYT, etc. and right into the open arms of you and other independent journalists and influencers.
Great read, Gabe! Thank you for the analysis on the situation. This has just been so crazy. Emboldened criminals will always take advantage whenever they can. And we are the ones who pay for it.
"... for someone who less than a year ago was being floated as possible presidential timber."
Gabe, I immediately saw the wood (no pun intended)analogy in your description. However my mind went to decaying, rotting and useless wood in our current crop of "timber".
The mainstream media responds to its audience. No one who watched PBS wanted to see migrants stream across the border. So, it wasn’t shown. Anyone with any foot hold in mainstream society pays a steep price for mentioning in polite company fraud by the “poor", people of color or anyone regardless of color or ethnicity whose fraud gives them access to things some consider government should supply freely to all (like health care.) That is the essence of woke and it is alive and well. So, we are left with (1) carefree and often careless influencers and the (2) so’s your old man (Trump) trope to guide our political moral standards.
There are so many different things that went wrong in Minnesota, but I am inclined to follow lots of stories to the same ending.
Our systems hold liberals and Democrats to more stringent standards than they hold conservatives and Republicans.
They hold the left to stronger anti-corruption standards. And higher benchmarks of public support. And more consistency in appealing to the center rather than the fringes.
The media does this. Pollsters do this. And election officers do it too.
And now, we see, so do the online influencers who drive media attention to the politically disengaged.
Nothing will ever get better for the left until the left begins demanding our political systems to hold the right to more consistent standards of official competence, public support, and service to the entire range of citizens of all political positions.
Exclusive of trump’s theft, here are the pardons from his first term that is even worse than the Somali fraud. It is a shitstorm by itself.
Pardons in 1st trump term.
Here are pardons from the buffoon’s first term:
Trump’s pardons included health care execs behind massive frauds
Health Jan 22, 2021 1:15 PM EDT
At the last minute, President Donald Trump granted pardons to several individuals convicted in huge Medicare swindles that prosecutors alleged often harmed or endangered elderly and infirm patients while fleecing taxpayers.
“These aren’t just technical financial crimes. These were major, major crimes,” said Louis Saccoccio, chief executive officer of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, an advocacy group.
The list of some 200 Trump pardons or commutations, most issued as he vacated the White House this week, included at least seven doctors or health care entrepreneurs who ran discredited health care enterprises, from nursing homes to pain clinics. One is a former doctor and California hospital owner embroiled in a massive workers’ compensation kickback scheme that prosecutors alleged prompted more than 14,000 dubious spinal surgeries. Another was in prison after prosecutors accused him of ripping off more than $1 billion from Medicare and Medicaid through nursing homes and other senior care facilities, among the largest frauds in U.S. history.
“All of us are shaking our heads with these insurance fraud criminals just walking free,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. The White House argued all deserved a second chance. One man was said to have devoted himself to prayer, while another planned to resume charity work or other community service. Others won clemency at the request of prominent Republican ex-attorneys general or others who argued their crimes were victimless or said critical errors by prosecutors had led to improper convictions.
Trump commuted the sentence of former nursing home magnate Philip Esformes in late December. He was serving a 20-year sentence for bilking $1 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. An FBI agent called him “a man driven by almost unbounded greed.” Prosecutors said that Esformes used proceeds from his crimes to make a series of “extravagant purchases, including luxury automobiles and a $360,000 watch.”
Esformes also bribed the basketball coach at the University of Pennsylvania “in exchange for his assistance in gaining admission for his son into the university,” according to prosecutors.
Fraud investigators had cheered the conviction. In 2019, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association gave its annual award to the team responsible for making the case. Saccoccio said that such cases are complex and that investigators sometimes spend years and put their “heart and soul” into them. “They get a conviction and then they see this happen. It has to be somewhat demoralizing.”
Tim McCormack, a Maine lawyer who represented a whistleblower in a 2007 kickback case involving Esformes, said these cases “are not just about stealing money.”
“This is about betraying their duty to their patients. This is about using their vulnerable, sick and trusting patients as an ATM to line their already rich pockets,” he said. He added: “These pardons send the message that if you are rich and connected and powerful enough, then you are above the law.”
The Trump White House saw things much differently.
“While in prison, Mr. Esformes, who is 52, has been devoted to prayer and repentance and is in declining health,” the White House pardon statement said.
The White House said the action was backed by former Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey, while Ken Starr, one of Trump’s lawyers in his first impeachment trial, filed briefs in support of his appeal claiming prosecutorial misconduct related to violating attorney-client privilege.
Trump also commuted the sentence of Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor who had served four years in federal prison for fraud. That case also ensnared U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who was acquitted in the case and helped seek the action for his friend, according to the White House.
Prosecutors had accused Melgen of endangering patients with needless injections to treat macular degeneration and other unnecessary medical care, describing his actions as “truly horrific” and “barbaric and inhumane,” according to a court filing.
Melgen “not only defrauded the Medicare program of tens of millions of dollars, but he abused his patients — who were elderly, infirm, and often disabled — in the process,” prosecutors wrote.
These treatments “involved sticking needles in their eyes, burning their retinas with a laser, and injecting dyes into their bloodstream.”
Prosecutors said the scheme raked in “a staggering amount of money.” Between 2008 and 2013, Medicare paid the solo practitioner about $100 million. He took in an additional $10 million from Medicaid, the government health care program for low-income people, $62 million from private insurance, and approximately $3 million in patients’ payments, prosecutors said.
In commuting Melgen’s sentence, Trump cited support from Menendez and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). “Numerous patients and friends testify to his generosity in treating all patients, especially those unable to pay or unable to afford healthcare insurance,” the statement said.
In a statement, Melgen, 66, thanked Trump and said his decision ended “a serious miscarriage of justice.”
“Throughout this ordeal, I have come to realize the very deep flaws in our justice system and how people are at the complete mercy of prosecutors and judges. As of today, I am committed to fighting for unjustly incarcerated people,” Melgen said. He denied harming any patients.
Faustino Bernadett, a former California anesthesiologist and hospital owner, received a full pardon. He had been sentenced to 15 months in prison in connection with a scheme that paid kickbacks to doctors for admitting patients to Pacific Hospital of Long Beach for spinal surgery and other treatments.
“As a physician himself, defendant knew that exchanging thousands of dollars in kickbacks in return for spinal surgery services was illegal and unethical,” prosecutors wrote.
Many of the spinal surgery patients “were injured workers covered by workers’ compensation insurance. Those patient-victims were often blue-collar workers who were especially vulnerable as a result of their injuries,” according to prosecutors.
The White House said the conviction “was the only major blemish” on the doctor’s record. While Bernadett failed to report the kickback scheme, “he was not part of the underlying scheme itself,” according to the White House.
The White House also said Bernadett was involved in numerous charitable activities, including “helping protect his community from COVID-19.” “President Trump determined that it is in the interests of justice and Dr. Bernadett’s community that he may continue his volunteer and charitable work,” the White House statement read.
Others who received pardons or commutations included Sholam Weiss, who was said to have been issued the longest sentence ever for a white collar crime — 835 years. “Mr. Weiss was convicted of racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, for which he has already served over 18 years and paid substantial restitution. He is 66 years old and suffers from chronic health conditions,” according to the White House.
John Davis, the former CEO of Comprehensive Pain Specialists, the Tennessee-based chain of pain management clinics, had spent four months in prison. Federal prosecutors charged Davis with accepting more than $750,000 in illegal bribes and kickbacks in a scheme that billed Medicare $4.6 million for durable medical equipment.
Trump’s pardon statement cited support from country singer Luke Bryan, said to be a friend of Davis’.
“Notably, no one suffered financially as a result of his crime and he has no other criminal record,” the White House statement reads.
“Prior to his conviction, Mr. Davis was well known in his community as an active supporter of local charities. He is described as hardworking and deeply committed to his family and country. Mr. Davis and his wife have been married for 15 years, and he is the father of three young children.”
CPS was the subject of a November 2017 investigation by KHN that scrutinized its Medicare billings for urine drug testing. Medicare paid the company at least $11 million for urine screenings and related tests in 2014, when five of CPS’ medical professionals stood among the nation’s top such Medicare billers.
This story was published January 22, 2021. You can find the original article here. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser
Demuth and Shirley used bigotry, as all Republicans do nowadays. Look up "the Southern Strategy".
But it's backfired. By dropping out now, Walz has set up Amy Klobuchar to have his seat.
> Nothing will ever get better for the left until the left begins demanding our political systems to hold the right to more consistent standards of official competence, public support, and service to the entire range of citizens of all political positions.
The left has always demanded this, but the world runs on power, not demands.
A few comments:
-The proven "fraud" is still less than what Philip Esformes ($1.3 billion) or Rick Scott ($1.9 billion) stole. And Trump pardoned Esformes in December 2020.
-The "$9 billion" is pulled out of Press Con Joe Thompson's ass.
-By forcing Walz to drop out, they opened the door to Amy Klobuchar to run. Oops.
If Klobuchar runs, she not only wins big, she pulls the rest of the party ballot up with her. The Democrats would lock up both Houses of the state legislature for at least the next two years.
A-Klo has incentives to do it. She's been in the Senate for years but is stalled out careerwise. A move to the Governor's Office gets her the executive experience she needs to pursue a run for the presidency in 2028.
Came for this. The scale of COVID-era fraud (PPP and other avenues) is beyond measure, but we live in different times.
What’s making this story viral is the claimed size of the fraud. It seems to have grown exponentially since the first reporting in the main stream media. Do we know what the actual figure is? It also appears that no main stream media employed the shoe leather approach of actually visiting claimed distribution sites. Was this because of Covid or because of cost cutting? And finally there must have been a huge spike in funding costs for child hunger in Minnesota relative to other states. Seems like this readily apparent leak should have triggered a federal investigation right from the start.
As Public Notice said a few days ago, the Republicans gutted oversight the last time they controlled the state government:
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/shirley-video-somali-daycares-fraud
What a shitstorm this is. Trump is still worse.
For someone making a buck off of misspelled words, this Shirley fellow had incorrect grammar in his 'dis-post'. Just sayin'.
I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg of fraudulent claims on taxpayer dollars. There have been many stories, for example, about massive numbers of fraudulent claims by businesses (or fake businesses) for payroll protection during Covid. This is what makes the American citizens mad, defeated, and cynical. The level of fraud keeps growing and yet Congress keeps shoveling money out the door with ZERO accountability. Maybe during the early days of the first big welfare program (FDR's Great Society) there was enough social trust for the programs to work with minimal waste, but social trust has been declining since, and fraud appears to have grown. As just one example, what happened to the $billions appropriated for rural broadband? I live in a rural area where the connection to broadband should be easy as we're only a couple of miles from a major fiberoptic line, but it hasn't happened, and it appears to not have happened in most rural areas. You could ask the exact same question of all such programs, where Congress seems to trust independent grantors to spend the money as intended. Yet people in power were angry when DOGE started exposing fraud? People in power are angry that this fraud has been revealed? Yeah, because it's cutting off the money spigot for them, a spigot that should never have been opened in the first place.
DOGE didn't expose any fraud other than their own.
This has probably been asked, but considering the date of the release of Nick Shirley’s video, was he knocking on doors of Day Care Centers on Christmas Day, when many may have been closed for the holiday just like many public and private primary and secondary schools? Just askin’. Thanks!
Many threads of thought on this article Gabe, so I’ll share what stands out for me. Why an influencer? Why not mainstream media? You mention the under 30 group. As an under 50 year old I never engage with mainstream media anymore. In fact, I rely on independent journalism and influencers to parse out the rage-click bait from the rest and provide me with cogent and deeply written pieces.
And that isn’t changing anytime soon. Recently I read that betting is the future of mainstream media: we will be able to place online bets on the outcome of politics and hot ticket news items. Which will push those stories even further to the top of the headline regardless of facts and importance. This pushes me further away (than I already was) from CNN, ABC, NYT, etc. and right into the open arms of you and other independent journalists and influencers.
What’s your take on this concept, Gabe?
Nick Shirley isn’t done. He is doing interviews and posting often.
Great read, Gabe! Thank you for the analysis on the situation. This has just been so crazy. Emboldened criminals will always take advantage whenever they can. And we are the ones who pay for it.
"... for someone who less than a year ago was being floated as possible presidential timber."
Gabe, I immediately saw the wood (no pun intended)analogy in your description. However my mind went to decaying, rotting and useless wood in our current crop of "timber".
The mainstream media responds to its audience. No one who watched PBS wanted to see migrants stream across the border. So, it wasn’t shown. Anyone with any foot hold in mainstream society pays a steep price for mentioning in polite company fraud by the “poor", people of color or anyone regardless of color or ethnicity whose fraud gives them access to things some consider government should supply freely to all (like health care.) That is the essence of woke and it is alive and well. So, we are left with (1) carefree and often careless influencers and the (2) so’s your old man (Trump) trope to guide our political moral standards.
Lisa Demuth is your captain, Nick. And she's going down on your ship of bigotry along with David Hoch and Joe Marble.