Voter Fraud, and Other Matters of Interest

I. Voter Fraud

President Trump has been promoting mail in voting as having the potential for causing the greatest voting fraud ever. Russia is now being reported as helping Trump to spread his message. The most comprehensive study of fraudulent voting, whether it be by mail in voting or in a voting booth, was done by the Brennan Center for Justice, which found that the rate of voter fraud was .0000 before a digit over 0 appears. I believe the first digit over zero was a 5. Therefore, out of 100,000 ballots cast, 5 may have been cast fraudulently. A former Republican Secretary of State in New Mexico shared Trump's views on voter fraud. Somehow, she managed to get the New Mexico State Police to do a voter fraud study. When the results came in showing 2 "possible" cases of fraud, the secretary said: "Even one case is not acceptable."

Attorney General William Barr claimed that one man in Texas managed to fill out 1,700 ballots and get them into the system; however, Texas authorities say what Barr has claimed didn't happen.

II. Post Office Scandal

The still-developing sandal engulfing Trump is the sabotage of the United States Post Office by Trump's hand-picked postmaster general. Louis DeJoy, a long-time major donor for Trump. DeJoy has eliminated overtime, fired some 23 supervisors or managers, and tore out many of the highly efficient mail-sorting machines around the country -- an Iowa mail manger blew the whistle when DeJoy took out one of the Iowa mail-sorting machines. Some of these mail-sorting machines have been reported as being destroyed. Why destroy these machines if your stated objective is to cut costs?

The extent to which DeJoy is willing to go to screw up the postal service is illustrated by the action of removing the blue mail collection boxes nationwide. A picture showing an open-back truck crammed with these collection boxes exposed the diabolical plot in Oregon. Montana became an infection point when a long list of the locations of these boxes was shown on television. Both Democratic and Republican candidates for high office sent letters of protest to DeJoy.

III. Access to Nutritious Food

45M - Number of people in Southern Africa who lack sufficient access to nutritious food -- up nearly 10% from 2019.

8.4M - Children who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across southern Africa this year; some 2.3 million of them will require lifesaving treatment.

820M - Number of people worldwide who suffered from hunger in 2018 -- up from 784 million in 2015.

60% - Share of food-insecure people who are women or girls.

2B - People  who are unable to access safe, nutritious, and sufficient food year-round.

132M - Additional people who could become chronically hungry this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Source: The Nation, August 24/31, 2020.)

ADDENDUMS:

*The 14th Amendment mandates the representatives to Congress be apportioned "counting the whole number of persons in each State." The Constitution doesn't use the word "citizens" in taking the U.S. Census. President Trump is hellbent in finding ways to count only citizens. 

*Besides the Pentagon figure for FY 2020,one must count the $174 billion which pays for the war on Terror, including military operations in Iraq, Syria, and the War in Afghanistan. There are also six other agencies that support defense: Cybersecurity and the FBI under the Department of Defense; the National Security Administration under the Department of Energy budget; Homeland Security; the Department of Veterans' Affairs; and the Department of State. 

*Trump commuted Roger Stone's sentence. In a rare break with Trump, A.G. William Barr said that Stone should serve his sentence. If Trump had pardoned Stone, it would be a brazen abuse of power that would put both Trump and Barr at risk of further criminal liability that is impossible to wipe away with a subsequent pardon. So if a conspiracy exists to obstruct an investigation, and part of that obstruction involves pardoning someone who hid evidence or lied to investigators, then the pardon itself is a continuation of the conspiracy. That means that when the pardon is issued, there is an ongoing crime that both the giver and the recipient of the pardon are committing at the same time.