We all know it happened in 2000 when George W. Bush's own brother -- Florida Governor Jeb Bush -- "lost" 60,000 democratic voter registrations (later proved totally valid) enabling (with a dozen other cheats) W to win Florida and the White House by 167 votes.
But this article - Was the 2004 Election stolen? - shows in excruciatingly painful detail how that one was, as well. And how the Republican Party retained control of Congress for 20 out of 22 years, despite a majority of citizens always voting against them.
But this article - Was the 2004 Election stolen? - shows in excruciatingly painful detail how that one was, as well. And how the Republican Party retained control of Congress for 20 out of 22 years, despite a majority of citizens always voting against them.
This next year, with the GOP operating the voting systems in 33 out of 50 states, perhaps we’ll see a transparency miracle as some patriot squeals how thoroughly Trump was right about rigging. (Last time I urged some billionaire to offer ‘henchman prizes” to lure truth into the open.)
But this article on 2004 offers a look at the methods. Starting with clear evidence that exit polls were not and are not biased. The polls were correct. It was the voting machines that lied.
But this article on 2004 offers a look at the methods. Starting with clear evidence that exit polls were not and are not biased. The polls were correct. It was the voting machines that lied.
"Republicans had a distinct advantage (in Ohio): The man in charge of the counting was Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of President Bush's re-election committee. As Ohio's secretary of state, Blackwell had broad powers to interpret and implement state and federal election laws -- setting standards for everything from the processing of voter registration to the conduct of official recounts. And as Bush's re-election chair in Ohio, he had a powerful motivation to rig the rules for his candidate. Blackwell, in fact, served as the ''principal electoral system adviser'' for Bush during the 2000 recount in Florida, where he witnessed firsthand the success of his counterpart Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state who co-chaired Bush's campaign there."
Ken Blackwell bought voting machines from Diebold (whose CEO Wally O'Dell had committed in a letter “to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President." Long lines, disenfranchisement, funny exit polling results... all in a state Bush could not be re-elected without. But above all, the voting machines, which in most red-controlled states have no paper audit trail.
Ken Blackwell. Where is he now? Trump taps former Ohio official Ken Blackwell to lead domestic transition team. Seriously. Could John Grisham have written that?
Risking Godwin overload, here's an illustration of another era’s version of rigging, in the German referendum of 1934. The “yes” box (granting the chancellor unlimited power) was a wee bit biased. As, of course was the counting. Though sure, fervid-racist-lying populism also helped you-know-who to carry the day.
“And now it's 2016. Donald Trump wins states that, according to exit polls, he should lose. Yes, there are the embittered blue collar workers; yes, there are arguably errors and weakness in the Clinton campaign. But once again all the lucky breaks go for the GOP candidate.”
Rigged, indeed. Good call, Donald. How'd you know? (And no, we haven't even mentioned, this time, the whole fake news and Russia thing or "weaponized narrative.")
Rigged, indeed. Good call, Donald. How'd you know? (And no, we haven't even mentioned, this time, the whole fake news and Russia thing or "weaponized narrative.")
People, this time the Confederacy knows better than to leave. Their putsch is from within. They are romantics who will take no prisoners. Because they talk themselves into thinking we'd do the same. Hence they shrug off cheating as necessary for their own survival. No matter how many times we prove, again and again, that we are not like them.
The good news? They always get a head start. But of the Union side we are made of no lesser stuff than the Greatest Generation. And our kids are simply fantastic.
== The Billionaires' Government ==
Stick a sterling silver fork in Trump’s ‘populism’. So says Dana Milbank, describing the gourmet meetings, as Trump fills his government with billionaires, Wall Street veterans and guys who tripled their lavish inheritances by dissolving U.S. companies. By far the richest cabinet in history, replete with parasites, top to bottom and nary a working stiff like Joe Biden to be seen.
See also:
Alas, Milbank and others actually believe this hypocrisy might undermine DT’s working class white-boomer-male support. But he is wrong. Because this was never about economic self-interest or working class angst or pain or class resentment.
It all makes sense when viewed as Culture War. A million southern men marched in 1861 and died defending their own oligarch oppressors - plantation lords - because they shared a cultural spite toward snooty, citified northerners.
Today, “facts” and “consistency” are university things, professorial and hence (as taught by Fox) the enemy. If Trump’s appointments gall folks like Dana Milbank, then that is a feature, not a bug. Already, the right-o-sphere is proclaiming DT’s genius at setting foxes to guard the henhouse. “Who better?” they are crowing.
Do not expect this to be won by fact or argument. But take solace as he pushes Fox-ism to the next level, assailing not only scientists, teachers, doctors and every other knowledge caste. He won’t be able to resist making Joe McCarthy’s mistake, attacking the intelligence community and the United States Officer Corps. You can already hear the incantation "deep state!" It is code for waging war upon the last fact-people standing.
And that’s when they will go too far.
Also in the World Post: Matthew Dallek argues that cyber technologies will change warfare as much, if not more so, than the advent of air power, which enabled the “total war” of firebombing or nuking major cities. To prepare for what the future might bring, he advises that “we allow our fears to inspire our thinking, and anticipate new perils and consequences before they show up at all of our doorsteps.” For philosopher Peter Singer, what we are more likely to confront, at least in the near term, “is a competition more akin to the Cold War’s pre-digital battles, where you saw a cross between influence and subversion operations with espionage.” He adds: “That’s particularly true with what Russia has been up to.”
Now comes word that the folks who got us boxed into this corner of fragility will profit from it: “AT&T has won a lucrative contract to build and manage a nationwide public safety network for America's police, firefighters, and emergency medical services. The First Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, will run in parallel to current networks. "FirstNet will provide 20MHz of high-value, telecommunications spectrum and success-based payments of $6.5 billion over the next five years to support the network buildout."
Oh, in Brinnews: Wisconsin Public Radio aired a 12-minute segment asking me to explain how self-righteous indignation can be an addiction, perhaps as fierce - and potentially devastating to our society - as heroin. Years ago I gave a talk about this at the National Institute on Drugs and Addiction, and the notion has been gaining traction. Alas, too slowly to help ease us out of this (deliberately provoked) era of stunning, indignant fury.
And finally… Pew released a report on social media and negative political trends with quoted bits from (among others) Brad Templeton and me. Pew does the smartest stuff. Almost as if we were members of a species worthy of actual civilization, and not short-tempered twits.
Hell yes it's rigged. And our minds are hacked. Wake up.
And that’s when they will go too far.
== Cool War ==
“There are no front lines in war or peace,” the late Israeli leader Shimon Peres said in an interview way back in 1995 when the influence of the internet was first being felt. “Science knows no borders, technology has no flag, information has no passport. The new challenges transcend the old notion of boundaries.”
Global data transfer of private information, not to mention the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election as well as regular bouts of cybertheft from China and America’s own cyberattacks on Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, have proven Peres prescient. As former four-star general and CIA director David Petraeus wrote in The WorldPost, “Cyber capabilities are further blurring the boundaries between wartime and peacetime, and between civilian and military spaces.” In the military realm, he says, cyber has now become a borderless domain of warfare. Yet, as with nuclear weapons in the past, he concludes, “Security in the century ahead will depend more on our moral imagination — and with it, the ability to develop concepts of restraint — than it will on amazing technological breakthroughs.”
Global data transfer of private information, not to mention the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election as well as regular bouts of cybertheft from China and America’s own cyberattacks on Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, have proven Peres prescient. As former four-star general and CIA director David Petraeus wrote in The WorldPost, “Cyber capabilities are further blurring the boundaries between wartime and peacetime, and between civilian and military spaces.” In the military realm, he says, cyber has now become a borderless domain of warfare. Yet, as with nuclear weapons in the past, he concludes, “Security in the century ahead will depend more on our moral imagination — and with it, the ability to develop concepts of restraint — than it will on amazing technological breakthroughs.”
Also in the World Post: Matthew Dallek argues that cyber technologies will change warfare as much, if not more so, than the advent of air power, which enabled the “total war” of firebombing or nuking major cities. To prepare for what the future might bring, he advises that “we allow our fears to inspire our thinking, and anticipate new perils and consequences before they show up at all of our doorsteps.” For philosopher Peter Singer, what we are more likely to confront, at least in the near term, “is a competition more akin to the Cold War’s pre-digital battles, where you saw a cross between influence and subversion operations with espionage.” He adds: “That’s particularly true with what Russia has been up to.”
We’ve seen what a difference communications can make. After the 9/11 attacks, New Yorkers acted with alacrity and stunning coordination, with average citizens doing much of the emergency work – and rebelling against enemies on Flight 93 – because they were empowered by primitive cell phones. In New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina wrecked the entire cell network and citizens were unable to self-organize. I have often written -- told audiences in places as high as the White House OSTP – that it should be trivial to fix this vulnerability, by simply equipping our mobile devices with a backup, peer-to-peer (p2p) text passing capability. Folks at Qualcomm have told me that their chips can already support this! All it would take is for AT&T and Verizon to “turn it on.”
At which point the U.S. and Canada would need only a few backup repeaters across the Rockies and Plains to have at-minimum a totally-robust telegraphy system – say at the 1940 level – for all citizens, no matter how much damage some enemy inflicts. How long have I been saying this? And offering other ways to boost our resilience? At least 15 years.
(By the way, such a capability needn’t undermine the telcos’ profits one iota, unless they are too inept to program in charges, when texts get passed out of a dark zone into cell tower range. I could do that with my pinkie.)
(By the way, such a capability needn’t undermine the telcos’ profits one iota, unless they are too inept to program in charges, when texts get passed out of a dark zone into cell tower range. I could do that with my pinkie.)
Now comes word that the folks who got us boxed into this corner of fragility will profit from it: “AT&T has won a lucrative contract to build and manage a nationwide public safety network for America's police, firefighters, and emergency medical services. The First Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, will run in parallel to current networks. "FirstNet will provide 20MHz of high-value, telecommunications spectrum and success-based payments of $6.5 billion over the next five years to support the network buildout."
Oh, in Brinnews: Wisconsin Public Radio aired a 12-minute segment asking me to explain how self-righteous indignation can be an addiction, perhaps as fierce - and potentially devastating to our society - as heroin. Years ago I gave a talk about this at the National Institute on Drugs and Addiction, and the notion has been gaining traction. Alas, too slowly to help ease us out of this (deliberately provoked) era of stunning, indignant fury.
Listen in, if you are willing to look at your own angry "high" in a new light!
Hell yes it's rigged. And our minds are hacked. Wake up.