Donald Trump is right — the U.S. voting system is totally rigged!
It’s not rigged against him, though. It’s rigged against people without much money, and people who are members of any number of minority groups.
Some of the rigging is by design, and dates all the way back to the Founding Fathers. Some of it is simply a byproduct of an economic system where the top 0.1 percent have almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. Some falls somewhere in between.
Add it all up, and it constitutes a gigantic obstacle to regular people using their purported power to run our purported democracy.
Here are some of the ways in which the voting system is rigged, few of which are ever discussed in American elections — which some might say constitutes its own kind of rigging.
Between one-quarter and one-third of American adults, up to 50 million people, are eligible to vote but aren’t registered to vote.
That’s ridiculous. Why do American adults have to take a special, extra step to govern themselves?
Many other countries, including France, Italy, Chile, Israel, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, all register everyone to vote automatically. Not coincidentally, they have much higher voter turnout than we do.
The unregistered are younger, poorer and less white than registered voters. They’re also more likely to support progressive political policies, such as a higher minimum wage and a financial transactions tax.
The good news is that five states — Oregon, California, West Virginia, Vermont and Connecticut — now have near-automatic voter registration, and many other states are considering it. Hillary Clinton has called for the federal government to push all states to make it happen.
The less money and power you have, the harder it is to take time off from work to vote.
Many states now have early voting, but some do not. Even if you can vote early, the rules are different everywhere and often change. We should expand and standardize early voting but also, as Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed, make election day a national holiday.
A man checks in during early voting in Gaithersburg, Md.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
In 2012, a slight majority of Americans voted for a Democrat for their congressional representative. Nevertheless, 54 percent of the elected representatives were Republicans.
This was thanks to both gerrymandering and the tendency of Democratic voters to live in dense cities. Currently Republican state legislatures use computer software to pack Democratic voters into as few districts as possible, creating the characteristically bizarre gerrymandered shape. But computers can also be used to create districts that look “fair” — i.e., compact and contiguous — and these would still put Democrats at a disadvantage because Democrats have by choice packed themselves into a few small places.
This is a problem that may not have an easy answer. Gerrymandering is to some degree in the eye of the beholder. Cities are probably going to remain highly Democratic. Some people believe it would be best to turn states into “multimember districts,” so that if the state sends seven representatives to the House, everyone in the state would get seven votes and would choose their top seven candidates.
6.1 million Americans can’t vote this year because they’ve been convicted of a felony. 2.2 million of them are African American; in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia more than 1 in 5 black adults can’t vote.
No other country works like this. The solution here is simple: As in France, Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Peru, Poland and Romania, everyone should be eligible to vote, including those convicted of felonies and even those currently in prison.
Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of today’s conservative movement, cheerfully explained in 1980 that “I don’t want everybody to vote. … Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Republicans have taken this perspective to heart for decades, and are doing their best again in 2016 to reduce the number of people voting. Popular methods include purging voter rolls of eligible voters, reducing polling times and places, requiring photo ID to vote and voter intimidation.
Instant runoff voting, which was recently used in the London mayoral election, lets third-party supporters vote for their first choice without fear they’ll act as spoilers and help elect their least favorite candidate.
Here’s how it works: Voters rank as many candidates as they like in the order of their preference, from first to last. If a candidate gets a majority of first choice ballots, he or she wins. If not, the last place candidate is eliminated – and his or her votes are distributed to the candidates who were the second choice of the eliminated candidate’s supporters. And so on. (If this sounds confusing, a Minnesota Public Radio video explains it in a clever way using post-its.)
In terms of this election, a Jill Stein voter who loathes Trump and lives in a swing state can’t vote for Stein without helping Trump. With instant runoff voting, such a Stein supporter could rank Stein as his or her first choice, Clinton as his or her second, and Trump last or not at all.
There is a built-in bipartisan consensus against any such move, however, since it would weaken the two-party duopoly that runs U.S. politics.
The Senate hugely magnifies the power of small states. Deep red Wyoming, population 582,000, has two senators. So does deep blue California, with a population of 38.8 million, 66 times greater than Wyoming’s.
That is so rigged!
The Senate’s ability to slow or stop change is why it was created in the first place. As James Madison, the main author of the Constitution, put it in 1787: “Our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation” and “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.” The Senate, Madison said, should be the part of the government designed to do this.
The U.S. economy is like a car with two gas pedals and two brakes. Congress controls one of each, but the Federal Reserve controls the others.
Its seven governors are appointed by presidents to 14-year terms. Even worse, the Federal Open Market Committee, which controls interest rates, is made up of the seven governors plus five members who are presidents of the regional Federal Reserve Banks. The regional presidents are chosen in a process that’s largely controlled by banks.
As John Dewey, one of America’s most important pro-democracy philosophers, wrote in 1931, “politics is the shadow cast on society by big business.”
This could be seen most clearly in the 2008 Wall Street bailout. Not only did the biggest banks have the power to destroy the U.S. economy in a way no politicians ever could, they easily forced the entire political system to stop everything and give them what turned out to be trillions of dollars.
On a smaller scale, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hope to slash the tax rate on multinational corporations even though I’m guessing this is not one of your top priorities.
A poll worker posts receipts from vote counting machines showing they have been properly prepared during early voting in Gaithersburg, Md.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Whew, that’s a long and depressing list. But don’t give up: That list used to be much, much longer, yet regular people have been successfully fighting to shrink it for 240 years. There’s no reason to believe we can’t make it shorter still or eventually eliminate it altogether.
So go vote! There’s a reason this list exists, which is that democracy is powerful and dangerous and lots of people want to limit it. Don’t let them.
Good points. I simply think the public should vote online for every issue that cost us money. Many of the issues of this article would be cured if we voted online. We trust our taxes online, our finances online and legal documents online. There is no reason we cannot all vote safely for issues online and eliminate the lobbyist.
The article shows a lack of knowledge about many things. We have a republic, not a democracy. We function by laws, not majorities. The founders didn’t want power in a few, or a single party, but in the people as a whole. Democrats have tried to increase power through bribing citizens in the form of social programs. Hillery’s corrupt actions are not unique to her. The DNC conspire with her in many ways. Don’t condemn republicans without also looking at how democrates abuse the system.
Good point, and registration to act on ones own civic right belongs at the top. But right below that should be that the caucus, primary elections are a fraud that turns political parties into corporate, private franchises, more discriminatory and with more voter supression by several magnitudes than the general election. And also that the electoral college is a sham that creates half of the problems (gerrymandering, redistricting) you’re discussing.
Since liberals generally benefit from a lack of voter suppression, getting sick of the hundreds of articles that ignore powerful issues.
According to the EIP, U.S. elections scored lower than Argentina, South Africa, Tunisia, and Rwanda — and strikingly lower than even Brazil. Specifically compared to Western democracies, U.S. elections scored the lowest, slightly worse than the U.K., while Denmark and Finland topped the list.
Though reasons why the United States has reached this new low in fair elections are complex, critics often point to the tidal wave of corporate cash after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.
Being the WORST is a consequence of criminal minds, wealthy and powermongers to have their way. Without rigged systems, pouring money into elections is simply a waste and the criminal minds, wealthy and powermongers cannot have that. What good is a democracy if you cannot abuse and rob the population?
Mostly exceptionally well-put, but the Intercept should be smarter than to repeat that debunked lie about spoilers. If you don’t vote Trump, you’re not helping Trump.
If you believe I (or any other non-major party voter) am somehow helping Donald by not voting Hillary, then you also believe I’m helping Hillary by not voting Donald. So it balances out to zero. I refuse to help either; that’s precisely the point.
Go Trump ! ! !
INNOCENCE and FAITH in THE SYSTEM led one to BELIEVE !
Innocence has been lost and Faith betrayed over a period of years.
2015/2016—- Culmination of DISILLUSIONMENT.
FINAL RESULT….
HRC and TRUMP.
Point 7 unfairly characterizes the effects of the senate on politics. The senate is designed to protect areas without requisite population to stand up for themselves in the house. If the senate were composed proportionally to population (as the house is) rural states would have no influence in federal politics. The senate guarantees a voice for every state regardless of population to protect rural interests. This is not an example of rigged politics, but instead a rare example of federal politics affording respect to minority populations (in terms of population).
A voice for every state is an insane way to run a country and in practice what it does is what it was designed to do by the founders, who wanted to protect privilege. It stops change.
A vote for Jill Stein is a victory for your conscience, your ownership of your sole, America, and a message to the govt that people are fed up with the corruption and 2-party system and their criminal wars and misdeeds.
What if I’d rather own my cod or my haddock?
Typos aside, that’s well-put. That’s why I voted Stein (in a swing state – screw you, “spoiler” fearmongers) with a clear conscience.
And I was thinking more along the lines of the bottom of a shoe… silly me.
Left and Ring Wingers generally agree that the electoral college is an outdated farce. You also wouldn’t get much opposition to making election day a national holiday.
the corrupt and criminal minded Dumb&Dumbers elected and appointed to the USG cannot do complicated things like immigration reversal, cannot do good things like guaranteeing full and good employment for human beings, and not even the simplest things like passing a simple law like stop meeing with the clocks twice a year!
WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS!
stop meeing with the clocks twice a year!stop messing with the clocks twice a year!
Ask yourself, what did the Dumb&Dumber morons do prior to getting elected or appointed? NOTHING.
What do they want to do now? ASSIST THEIR PIMPS IN ROBBING THAT PUBLIC AND CREATING WARS AND DEATH.
USA without borders? Strong supporter for Hillary does not like borders:
“George Soros is a firm backer of transnational bodies such as the European Union, and his Open Society Foundation (OSF) provides assistance for pro-migration activists. He is well-known for his support for “progressive” causes such as the Centre for American Progress, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The OSF website explains: “We believe that migration and asylum policy should be grounded in economic and demographic realities, not driven by temporary political considerations or popular misconceptions.”
This headline is not technically correct. When you use the term the voting system, you are talking about how votes are cast and counted. What you are discussing in the article in the electoral system. All states should do like California and anyone can sign up for a mail ballot so that it doesn’t matter that election day is a work day. As for the Senate, that was necessary in the constitutional Convention in order to get the Constitution passed by the small states. No avoiding that as the small states will never give it up and you need a 3/4 approval of state legislatures to amend the Constitution. States can and should set up independent redistricting commissions to reduce gerrymandering, as several states have done. I don’t believe that the Federal Reserve should be elected. Most people have no idea about the issues involved and it should be insulated from politics as much as possible. Instead, it should be changed so that no one employed by a bank or financial institution may serve on the Federal Reserve. Although people like to complain about the two party system, I don’t think we should encourage a move toward a multi-party system that instant run-offs could lead to. If you look at other countries with multi-party systems, most are inherently less stable than the US. Also, that is more suited to a parliamentary system than our type of system.
“You have to register to vote.”
LOL! You are insane.
Jon, your article is hard to improve upon. Thank you.
Now I can just hear Donald go:
” Folks, did you read the article – the best article I have read in a long time by the way – did you read the article by Jon Scwarz of ‘theIntercept’ ?
Jon is very good journalist by the way; a good man. He agrees that the system is rigged folks. Just like I’ve been saying all along while lying Hillary tries to torture the facts.
It’s rigged folks. Jon said it best. And you know what, Jon, a man I respect a lot by the way, agrees with most of what I’ve been saying. So sad. So sad… “
Great article, Mr Schwarz, but you forgot #10: We are an exceptional nation.
Ari Berman has been on this story for a long time also.
Kudos.
Your complaint about the Senate is in error. The Senate was created so that a tyranny of 51% over the other 49% could not be created. States with smaller populations would see their rights and issues ignored. Presidential campaigns would completely bypass small-population states. Democracy isn’t simply imposing the whims of a bare majority on everyone. It’s allowing every voice to be represented. And really, are you saying that it was better that the USA PATRIOT Act or revised NDAA that allows Americans to be held without trial in military prisons should have been able to pass with a simple majority vote, with absolutely no means of slowing down or stopping such undemocratic laws? No, the system of governance was created to check the excesses of lawmakers and law enforcement, so as to protect the rights of everyone who had rights under the Constitution.
Sure, that’s what they tell you in your history class… It was mostly about preventing the abolishment of slavery. Yeah, Madison talked a good game but he was just as full of shit as the rest of those white supremacists. Funny, parliaments of the 20th century weren’t established in the same way, eh?
Excellent summary. Nicely done.
You are wrong sir,convicted felons do not have the right to vote,they gave up that right when they decided to break the law. Why should they be given equal rights and privileges and have the same opportunities of hard working,honest Americans,when they have made their decision to cheat,lie,steal,rape,murder,ect…why don’t we just send every convict a retirement check every month while they are doing their time in jail,hell,they already have somebody paying for their room and board,,,US,THE HARD WORKING,US TAXPAYER.
Is this satire, or are you really a nasty, ignorant, right-wing asshole?
It’s one thing to punish someone for committing a crime. But after they’ve served their time? After they’ve gotten out and proven they deserve a second chance? We still keep them from voting — sometimes for the rest of their lives. We flatter ourselves we are a Christian nation, but some states literally never forgive a criminal for past mistakes, not matter how hard they try or how long they spend in prison to atone.
Sadly, even a convicted felon MAY NOT have committed felony considering the state of current justice system!
One of the results of successfully gaming the system is the ridiculous and patently illegitimate 99% conviction rate in federal court. The same federal prosecutors who propel their careers by convicting at any cost are loath to admit this unconscionable rate of conviction, more akin to what one would expect to find in a third world nation. You need not be a mathematics major to readily see that even if every defendant in federal court were actually guilty, a normal margin of error would be expected to yield a significantly lower conviction rate. Making conviction a near certitude strongly suggests a result oriented process that woefully lacks justice, due process and respect for the rights of the accused.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Many-Convicted-Felons-by-Barry-Sussman-Crime_Criminal_Disenfranchisement_Felons-140507-368.html
“they gave up that right when they decided to break the law.”
ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
So you model yourself after the israeli genocidal manicacs that murder Palestinians to steal their land?
Tell me – what is the name for the predatory mental disorder that lays traps by making that which humans need unattainable by force of hording thru a fraudulent currency scheme?
UN-1.1
Those who create an environement that precipitates harm to humans by any means is guilty of general crimes against humanity and must be so charged and tried.
I wonder why none of these flaws have changed to democratic favor in the past 8 democratic years.
In 6 of the past 8 years the Republicans have controlled one or both houses of Congress. The first 2 years were devoted to things like rescuing the economy and getting the ACA passed.
Make America Great Again!
The average American voter would never be able to figure out Instant Runoff Voting. The plurality system sucks, but the better fix would be “Approval Voting”. The voter gives a “thumbs up” to as many candidates as they want. Your Jill Stein voter could vote for Stein, Clinton, the USA Communist party candidate, etc. Whoever gets the most “approvals” wins.
The Senate exists specifically to protect the small states from the tyranny of the larger ones. Why should the liberals in California and New York be empowered to force their views and policies onto people in Wyoming, Vermont and North Dakota? Yeah, WY has 1/66(~1.5%) the population of CA. Does that mean you think that 1.6% of Californians should be able to exert total control over 100% of the people in WY? Fuck that! The Constitution never would have been ratified without the small protections offered by the Senate and electoral college. You do realize that we’re a Constitutional Republic and not a “Democracy” correct? The House of Representatives has more than enough delegated powers.
“Democrats have by choice packed themselves into a few small places.”
Right. So they should stay in the packed urban shitholes they have willingly chosen to inhabit, make policies appropriate for themselves and leave the rest of us the hell alone! What works for them isn’t going to work for people in rural Wyoming.
And the reverse is true. What works for a rural cow shit shovelers in Wyoming won’t work for urban professionals in California. So, why in the hell allow those shit shovelers to stone wall legislation that urban people need? But you clearly think they should be able to. Why don’t the shit shovelers leave everyone else alone?
Prexactly why states’ rights is critical. Pass your law in CA and don’t run to mommy in Washington DC.
I was with the author until he went rogue on the EC.
“The Republic for which it stands” <– the Republic is a collection of fifty democratic states. Get over it.
So, why in the hell allow those shit shovelers to stone wall legislation that urban people need?
Foreign policy was a big fat zero in the early days and internal affairs were everything. Consequently, the tyranny of a majority was a concern after just having won a revolution against said majority. The senate thing is more of a veto than tyranny of a minority.
Choose your pain.
IRV is actually quite simple: rank who like in he order you like them, then keep ranking with whom you would settle for. I’ve taught this hundreds of times to elementary school kids and community groups of “average” citizens, both English and Spanish speaking. From ice cream flavors to presidential candidates, they find it overwhelmingly easy and less stressful than having to “pick one.”
The flaw in Instant Runoff voting is this: Suppose there are only three candidates on my ballot: Jill Stein, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump? I do not want my vote going to Clinton or Trump under any circumstances. Under I.R.V., if Stein fails to garner enough votes, then my vote for her goes to a candidate I find absolutely loathsome. What solution is there to that problem?
You can choose to not put Trump or Clinton on your list. Then if Stein doesn’t garner enough votes you simply stop voting and don’t provide a vote to any of the other candidates. It’s simple.
You just leave Trump and Clinton off your list. That way if Stein fails to garner enough votes you simply stop voting in the next rounds. It works well.
What an advantage .when you learn to read.
As the author mentioned about reducing polling times and places..
? There Are 868 Fewer Places to Vote in 2016
https://www.thenation.com/article/there-are-868-fewer-places-to-vote-in-2016-because-the-supreme-court-gutted-the-voting-rights-act/
“the U.S. voting system is totally rigged!”
“So go vote! “
This is worth watching……
Can U.S. Elections Really Be Stolen? Yes.
By Professor Mark Crispin Miller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxXKr2hKCz0
Robbing America using wallstreet bankster currency fraud, robbing the American economy with home load valuation fraud, robbing American youth with overpriced education prices and non-bankruptable loans that make humans as indentured servants, robbing Americans of livelyhoods by shipping jobs out and allowing unemployment and playoff scenarios, and robbing Americans of lives with war fraud using wallstreet perps to push WMD are CRIMES AGAINST AMERICA and the are protected by their F what?
Hellary is the leader in chief of the organised criminal enterprise and she wants more death and destruction for America for more rewards for her pimps.
hey you forgot hackable voting machines, vote flipping
xo
Diebold was found to be “inaccurate”…..
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm
conti….
And was indicted…..
http://columbusfreepress.com/article/diebold-indicted-its-spectre-still-haunts-ohio-elections
what is Mackey going to do now?
Steno Bob was going to be out of work after tomorrow anyway.
I’m not sure if he is still writing, here, though …
The rough-and-tumble atmosphere of reader feedback has his panties in a permanent twist I suspect. As a billed senior writer, Mr Mackey is drawing a six figure salary for doing little more than cut-and-paste cheerleading for Hilary and her NWO crowd; does this make any sense to you? God forbid that Hilary wins… else Bob will think that he should be her next press secretary. I believe that ol Bob is biding his time with the Intercept while the hours tick down on his contract.
“Bob will think that he should be her next press secretary. ”
At least he wants to manage her twit account.
Bob ‘the Hack’ Mackey knows his limit.
Great Piece!
This list just confirms the voter (all of us) has had their head up their ass! If we didn’t this list wouldn’t exist…..
Nobody realizes that this country has become exactly the country it was NEVER supposed to be.
The USA was never designed to be a democracy and it still isn’t so what are you talking about?
Originally slavery existed and slaves were only considered 3/5 of a person, only white males could vote, the Senate was elected by the state legislatures, and the electoral college was set up because the Founders didn’t trust the ordinary citizen. Many of the Founders equated democracy with chaos.
Comey: Three wrongs just make it wronger
“FBI Director James Comey’s last minute “nothing to see here,” doesn’t make up for the bomb he hurled into the election process ten days ago.
All it does is confirm that Comey, far from being a scrupulous guardian of big-J Justice and an exemplar of non-partisan honesty, is an easily-influenced dishrag willing to cause irreparable damage to the nation (and any candidate with a “D”) without a scrap of valid evidence.
For everyone—left or right—who saw in Comey’s unprecedented interference a signal that the FBI must have come across something of extraordinary significance, the final note in this jagged symphony was simply this.
“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July,” Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.
“That may be absolution for Clinton, but it’s a slap in the face for everyone.
It’s an admission that the Director of the FBI acted in the most destructive way possible, with no valid cause.
Comey was not “trapped in a bad spot” or forced to issue his Trump-boosting letter. Far from it.
He acted against department protocol, against the advice of superiors, against all precedent.
That he did so without cause only serves as a reminder that Comey entered this story by going far beyond the confines of his role by issuing his very public July statement in which Comey played detective, prosecutor, and finger-wagging scold. To quote Mr. Fleming …
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”
source: DailyKos, http://www.dailykos.com
“without a scrap of valid evidence.”
Right. Nothing to see here. Nothing.
Hillary is corrupt; but just like HSBC, too crooked to fail. The world is a house of cards; if one goes, they all go.
The graft will continue until tributes increase.
NPR’s Ira Glass, on This American Life yesterday had a series of takes on the Clinton email saga that I highly recommend.
excerpt
Sean Cole talks to reporter Garrett Graff, who read the 247 pages of interview summaries of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Graff concludes that it’s not the scandal most people thought it was. Not a sophisticated, Machiavellian scheme to evade federal rules and record laws.
The interviews “depict less a sinister and carefully calculated effort to avoid transparency than a busy and uninterested executive who shows little comfort with even the basics of technology, working with a small, harried inner circle of aides. Reading the FBI’s interviews, Clinton’s team hardly seems organized enough to mount any sort of sinister cover-up.”
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/601/master-of-her-domain-name
“working with a small, harried inner circle of aides. ”
The poor things.
a suspicion, claim, or opinion does not supersede due process of law, your exasperation notwithstanding.
Why, pray tell, cannot the FBI follow longstanding procedure?
Why can’t they conduct an investigation, assess whether there is wrongdoing…and proceed with charges?
Why do we need to throw out due process when someone is pissed off? or is ‘sure’ that something is amiss?
That all this happened a week before a Presidential election was calculated for maximum effect (to stanch the hemorrhaging of support for down-ballot voting, which would shift the balance of power away from the neofascist alt-right)….and has little to do with investigations into questions about wrongdoing.
“Why can’t they conduct an investigation, assess whether there is wrongdoing…and proceed with charges?”
Because Law Enforcement does not prosecute crime. That is for Justice.
What you are witnessing is a Constitution gone off the rails. That is what corruption breeds; death to the republic.
I think you got my gist; that the mechanism for redress remains… and those who happily chucked overboard the brakes and the clutch seemed indifferent to setting precedent for a host of dangerous outcomes.
“The third time it’s enemy action”
Or maybe a convenient distraction.
Comey, as someone who managed to divert the world’s attention from huge scandals in the email leaks and at the end feeds the headlines ‘She did nothing wrong’, he indeed deserves BIG rewards from the Clinton team.
What are her views on the institutions that turned capitalism into a thieving industrial complex the degraded people’s finances far and beyond?
Her solution? She believes the best action would be for Wall Street to regulate Wall Street.
‘Wall Street Whore!’. A well earned, a well deserved badge.
And this is just for a starter.
I loathe much about HRC, starting with the DNC coordinated opposition to and suppression of Bernie Sanders, an eminently superior candidate.
My posts wrt the FBI have been about the FBI’s intrusion into an election. Period.
Deep concerns persist that down-ballot races were strategically and deliberately influenced, hijacked by Comey’s extra-legal manipulations.
Polling data shows exactly that effect coming on the heels of his actions 11 days prior to the election.
The best place to hide something is out in the open. Take “Where’s Waldo” for example… once one actually finds Waldo in a given picture, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Now apply this principle to Hillary against a backdrop of numerous email dumps (Podesta, Clinton, Powell, and the DNC)… where is the real Hillary? According to Julian Assange, the most damning Emails are those that reveal the Clinton foundation has been receiving millions of dollars of donations from Qatar and Saudi Arabia – two prodigious funders of Salafi and Wahabbi terror organizations. But hey, what is a little terror in comparison to a “spirit dinner” or mishandled classified Emails? When was the last time that you heard talk of the transcripts from Wall Street speeches? Or that Hillary’s campaign teem conspired with the DNC to undermine Sanders campaign? The drama surrounding Comey’s 11th hour handling of the Email scandal has predictably drowned out every other concern – so much so in fact that it begs the question: Was it calculated to do so?
Comey’s actions have also effectively put to rest the perception that Hillary is legally culpable for the mishandling of classified information. Although there are numerous citable exceptions to this finding, the American people are now satisfied that every stone has been overturned. Hillary Clinton is now far better positioned then she was when the story of Wiener’s trove first broke. As president, Hillary will not have to worry about the republicans making political hay out of a lingering controversy; that festering sore has now been publicly cauterized and put to rest. Is there anyone who does not believe that Comey et al knew exactly what was on the Weiner laptop prior to reopening the case? The real intention of Comey’s actions will only become evident in time as we examine the trajectory of his own career. J Edgar Hoover was a master at courting political scandal in a way that best advanced and safeguarded his own ambitions.
You are conveniently forgetting about the FBI NY leaks.
What leaks? The agent accused of those leaks allegedly died in a murder suicide plot with his wife. In turn, Rudy Giuliani denies having taken possession of any leaked Clinton Emails from “active” FBI agents at any time. President Obama is leading the chorus in praising Comey’s handling of the Wiener emails. Again, what leaks?
This is so interesting! I’m a Dutch journalism student and American politics really fascinate me. It’s indeed so different from our system here in The Netherlands. Thank you for this article!
But the writer reviews are very prograssive. He doesn’t believe in State Rights, the right for a States to write their own laws, or fair represention of low population vs large population States. Also he blames Republicans for drawing unfair political districts, when it’s a bipartisanship. Lacks the analysis to realize Democrats only like to focus on high population area, because they believe they can control the government with popular vote. Also like every Socialist, he blames the rich. Which it’s funny because most of them are Socialist, only takes a genius to read real journalist and know how much Corporate America funds Liberal Democratic Party. And let’s not talk about Clinton’s international money laundry.
The writers only real valid points are vote registration, vote holiday, felon voting, federal reserve.
Here is my list:
The short list of ways that we do not live in a democracy
Democracy is self determination. Do we all have an equal say here in how we organize our society, and how we are governed? Not at all. There are many ways the average person is disenfranchised. Here are twelve:
1. money in politics
2. redistricting
3. electronic voting machines (see the elections of 2000, and 2004)
4. voter disenfranchisement, including those illegally purged from voter rolls, targeting minorities; and including the permanent disenfranchisement of people with a record.
5. disproportionate representation (see the Senate and State populations)
6. The Party favoring one candidate,
7. superdelegates
8. the electoral college
9. corporate control of the media
10. the two party system and the exclusion of alternative views in the primaries and debates (ranked voting is the way to go)
11. primaries that decide a candidate before millions have a chance to vote; mark that, the primary system in general
12. dirty tricks, and propaganda, a deceived and manipulated public
add to this the lack of an educated population
Corruption of democracy in each case shows a vested interest, and their actions to gain or hold onto power.
In each case, these are the opposite self determination. Fix these and we’ll have a democracy.
Democracy is the polar opposite of “self determination”! It is the subjugation of the few by the will of the many. You have zero self determination in a democracy because you are forced to live at the whim of the majority. Most of The Founders understood this. That’s why they established a Republic where the Rights of the individual are protected regardless of what the majority believes.
Wow. So republicans do gerrymandering? Republicans suppress votes? Good thing the Democrates are around.
Like the Democrats don’t. Hilarious
It’s likely been stated below; but I’ll go ahead…
• #1 and #2: voting isn’t attacking a beach in a higgins boat so,.. give me a fuckin break here
• #4: should they be able to? Perhaps they could buy weapons too legally and other restricted rights..
• #5:
If you don’t like any of the candidates don’t vote; or go write your own name in or someone’s name you like to see in office. Fortunately live in a state that has R,D,L and C on ballot… at least according to google.
• #8: Yes this is a problem and so is the unelected bureaucracy that will remain after every election. Perhaps they should restart all of those agencies every 4 yrs too. Fire everyone at EPA, DHS, DOD, ..etc. and hire fresh never before hired folks.
5 is wrong: should say, sounds like it’s a good reason to be armed.
To Nos 1 and 2: Voting is critically important, even moreso down-ballot than in the POTUS election. It is the critical framework of our society. It therefore makes sense to have everyone already enrolled — additional steps to voting are effectively obstacles. Moreover, not everyone can simply “take the day off” to go stand in line and vote, especially in areas that don’t have early voting. If you’re making a low hourly wage and need that money to support yourself and/or your family, every hour of work lost becomes critical. The fact that Election Day isn’t a holiday but Columbus Day is ludicrous.
To #4: Voting is a right, not a privilege. Consequently, it should not matter if you are a criminal or not, your voice should still be heard. This is the case in most of the Western world. Yet in the US, home of the the world’s largest prison population, the majority cannot vote once they have gone to prison.
I don’t disagree w/ you.
And what if you have unplanned travel and can’t be in the area you live to vote on short notice… no doubt there are problems but.. And I’m sure it’s been said before but what does a person do if they walk in to vote only to find out they already voted?
#4 I like the idea and seriously,.. felons also have a right to own a gun especially the rehabilitated
Jon,
Thanks for the excellent article. It covers a lot of ground and should be read by everyone (and published widely).
As others have said, you did leave some things out, though. Between the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and states shifting responsibility for Presidential Primaries to political parties, as opposed to states, the process for picking a Presidential candidate has been getting more rigged than any time since the convention system. (Two prime examples: Clinton in 2016 and Bush in 2000.)
Thank you Jon, for enlightening me. I knew a couple of the 9 things (1. You have to register, 2. Election day, 3. Gerrymandering…, & 4. Felon suppression)Did not realize #5. Voter Suppression.
Never thought much about #6. Instant runoff. Good idea!
Did not realize #7. The Senate. Although this last 4 years (even though I am a republican) I thought most of the republican senators should have been shot. I don’t know what party they stood for. I don’t know what minority they were protecting from what majority.
Did not know about #8. The Federal Reserve. Had no idea how the Federal Reserve worked, or that bit about the 7 Govs, or the Federal Open Market Committee, or how this “corporation” is controlled by the banks. I did know about the “Quantitative Easing” that basically gave money to banks. NOW IT FINALLY MAKES SENSE!
DID know about #9. Big Corporate America controls America. This is the reason all the readers of TI have to go to TI to find ‘the real story’, rather than waste time on the MainStream Media. This is why the MSM doesn’t carry a majority of the stories published on TI.
But one thing you didn’t mention Jon, was about the electoral college.
A president can be elected without winning the popular vote. This part of the election is a sham. This has happened more than once in American history.
The electoral college is a system based on allowing delegates based on a states’ population. A good intention. The idea was that the designers of the electoral college wanted to prevent any 1 state from tipping the election on their own. If any state (say California or New York -for example), had a higher than normal turnout, and say nearly every eligible voter -voted for a particular candidate, that state still only had the pre-allotted amount of delegates, and their extraordinary voter turnout would have no effect on the total election. However this thinking (as we have found out over the course of 200+ years) is very flawed. If any issue(s) drives voters to vote in extraordinary numbers in 1 state, it usually drives people in to vote in those same extraordinary numbers in other states.
Now consider what happened in the 2000 election. It was such a tight race, it came down to counting hanging chads in Florida. It should not have come down to that bu11sh1t. If Al Gore had more votes overall, then he should have been president (I know that me -being a republican, should cringe at the thought of advocating a democrat). But so be it! It should be so easy! You get the most votes, you should win. What is there not to understand?
Again, thank you Jon.
I Voted with Paper Balot, I don’t Trust the Touch Screens, owned by George Soros.
Jon Schwarz left out the most important one.
All voters should get a receipt for their vote and a letter thanking them for voting.
BlackBox voting.org. Fraction magic video .The Diebold and other machines are rigged. period.
The winner will be called Hillary. Then the impeachment could happen. Then the vice president will get into power. Then the oligarchs will have archived what they have been aiming for! Then- we will see.
Who financed the voting-maschines? George Soros, that is what they say!
He is a puppi of Rotschild.
Whoa!!! The spectre of The International Joooooo puppeteer, masterminding the world and the US elections!
You’re soooo clevaaaahh! (NOT!)
It is pure coincidence that Jews bribe congress to send $38 billion to Israel.
Would be nice to find the ordinary people masterminig the elections. But I am so spoiled to daubt it!
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/secretsoc_20century/secretsoc_20century10.htm
A familiar voice weighs in, confirming an urgent need for strict oversight of electronic voting:
Edward Snowden
” Hiding a secret deviation in votes from after-the-fact statistical analysis: nearly impossible.”
I do not think those words, collectively, mean what you think they mean.
Please explain.
As I read it, the meaning is simple.
If pre-election polls and exit polls show candidate X wins but the official vote shows candidate Y winning, the discrepancy is statistically impossible to hide.
The discrepancy must be explained.
Florida 2000 is an example of this.
Exactly.
” The discrepancy must be explained. ”
If only. This sort of discrepancy has been noted and protests lodged dozens of times over the years , and simply ignored by election officials and the courts. The always-ready excuse is that the polls are not sufficiently reliable as evidence.
Besides , Snowden’s “near impossibility” could become a near regularity if the pre-election and exit polls are eventually rigged to match the predetermined election results. We could be there already , for all we peons know.
I know precisely what the words mean.
Statistical Analysis means the following:
Now if this can be performed by independent and universally trusted agency (tricky in and of itself) after each result, this would fit the strict oversight called for. Simple exit polls taken by untrustworthy agencies are not sufficient in this regard, in my opinion.
Will she press the button?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1642d707512131cba18c77d3789ebfcbf925fdfa1dbf2366f40736c02dd19769.jpg
Never thought I would read the words go vote on the intercept.
The Young Turks:
Poll: Vast Majority Think Media Is Biased Toward One Candidate (approx. 6 mins)
The favored candidate is Clinton, if you want to pretend you didn’t know already.
(Trigger warning for Trump supporters – you won’t find a ‘pro-Trump’ message on the clip, in fact quite the reverse.)
It looks Soros’ rigged voting machines will not be used on 8th November.
Will somebody else’s rigged machines will be used?
Withholding critical information from the public by the press is system rigging as well as perversion of justice.
More often than not, reps and dems agree with each other to bury really big scandals and direct discourse in mainstream media away from big issue.
1. Yes, let’s let the Federal government (AKA the corporatocracy) control all elections. In fact, let’s cut to the chase and let Diebold work its algorithmic magic. Put a spring activated arm on the Diebold machine – like a one-armed bandit – and let that baby rip – everyone is a winner!
2. Election day should be a paid Federal holiday… if the people are going to get fucked then they ought to at least be paid eight hours of minimum wage for the privilege. We could re-brand it as Federal Erection Day and have a huuuge fall maypole party at the base of the Washington monument. Kool-aid should be both free and mandatory.
3. Republicans are way ahead of the curve when it comes to using “computer software to pack Democratic voters into as few districts as possible,” although Agenda 21 promises to be the wave of the future. Space has always been the genuine gold standard of affluence – why waste it on those who need it most?
4. Most felons think of themselves as outlaws; to vote in national elections is to dishonor that time-honored tradition. There is something to be said for running federal prisons democratically however – one felon, one vote. Can you imagine Ted Bundy and John Gotti competing head on? Election day would be a hoot! Arena fighting would be the ideal way to limit the field of candidates as well…
5. Photo IDs are such an imposition – my freakin wallet is full of them. Let’s get real and move on to RFID and global monitoring – the registries are already in place and the technology is proven. I would have preferred that this solution was the sixth however…
6. By their very nature, duopolies are anathema to the natural order. Divine right to rule is the wave of the future. The problems that face society are so global and complex that only men of superior intelligence (the 1 %) can create and manage the machines that are able to parse their depth and affect requisite solutions. Absent sentimentality, the machines will be able fairly determine the ideal number of earth’s future inhabitants by which the Divine natural order can be restored.
7. Yes, let’s abolish the senate altogether. In fact, let’s abolish states altogether. Instead, will should break the country up into regions and have a branch of the Federal Reserve rule each. As the titular heads of the various regional Federal reserve banks are already traditionally representative of America’s corporate elites (moneyed families), the transition will have a natural appeal to traditionalists.
8. Fourteen years? Federal Reserve Presidents should receive lifetime appointments for stability and continuity sake. These exceptional people would not have been born into America’s finest (wealthiest) families unless it was god’s will – With the advent of technological singularity, computers will validate the fact these elite individuals are also singular in nature. However, a little caution might be warranted at this stage because Diebold machines may be subject to robotic sentient bias in their selection of cardboard candidates like Al Gore until they can field their own candidates…
9. Slashing the Corporate Tax Rate is a necessary evil. It takes a lot of money to sustain the illusion of choice. If transnational corporations had more money to work with, then the faux choice between the likes of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could even be more grand! In not too distant a future – when stars are once again visible and twinkling – we will be presented with candidates who are not fatally limited by a myriad of organic impediments. Rather, the most eligible candidates will be exclusively evaluated in terms of their order of magnitude in FLOPS (and how they look in a bathing suit of course).
Or… we could simply limit all campaign spending by means of public finance.
EXTREMELY AWESOME AND IMPORTANT ARTICLE!
Correct….. shows how dystopian the election process works against the middle and lower classes.
Well, the answer to gerrymandering is proportional representation via a Standard Transferable Vote (STV) process. In STV, constituencies are naturally identified during the multi-phase processing of ballots marked with candidates in order of preference, and those constituencies that are too small to elect a given candidate will have their votes combined into their second or later choices, so that no vote is wasted.
If geography/locality is important to a voter, they can vote for a local favorite. But if that favorite does not gain enough support to elect a rep (e.g., a state representative) say, because that voter is identified with too small an area to warrant an entire representative, or because too few voters care about that area as such, then their vote may be transferred to a less-local candidate who nonetheless favors the interests of that locality, or who favors other matters perceived as important by that voter.
Why is electronic voting not listed? Wouldn’t that be the cheapest, easiest way to flip swing states? And, wouldn’t it be much easier still to switch third party votes. The incentive to switch third party votes seems really high. Corporate parties fear a good third party showing (like Ross Perot) more than they fear losing. Another showing like Ross Perot could birth a new party that corporates can’t beat for many election cycles. Who’s to say that third parties didn’t have strong showings rolled back in the last five presidential cycles (all elections really) since Ross Perot? That would probably be easier to hide than flipping D and R votes.
@WikiLeaks, It is Sunday, looking at my lab-top, my guess is that Hillary will be the next president. I am not a US citizen therefore i will not be voting, doesn’t mean i am not disappointed. I wish Julian Assange had leaked some juicy stuff about Trump as well, perhaps the world would have paid more attention to what he was leaking. Leaking the Podesta emails in such a long series, brought a feeling of blazé. I believe people were paying attention at first but then got tired of not seeing the “big One”, the real criminal one…just a bunch of things we already expect the rich, the government, the lawyers, the bankers to get away with…as long as they do good along the way. Yes this election process was like a soap opera. I can’t believe i’ll have to look at Hillary Clinton’s face for the next 8 years!
The highest ranked poll based on past accuracy is the IBD/TIPP poll and it is posted every morning. Today they have Trump at plus one over Clinton:
http://www.investors.com/politics/donald-trump-leads-hillary-clinton-with-more-states-in-play-ibdtipp-poll/
I think Tuesday night will be a nail-biter and Trump will win.
At least I am HOPING he wins. Not because I support him, more because I want to see the Clinton machine smashed to smithereens.
Hellary spent a bunch, $2:1 over DT, longtime political establishment insider vs an upstart. America is not for sale.
read the book “the age of acquiescence”, the working class in the usa got they’re ass kicked in the 1800’s. now there is surveillance, more advanced weapons, dumbed down education and so-called entertainment. fukushima,climate change which is accelerating a hell of alot faster than you have a clue of, overpopulation of humans and the decline of most other species is going to finish off the humans. if you like meat you might want to start learning how to kill and cook up rats. and keep worshipping and wishing to be rich, that is my only sarcastic comment for now.
FBI Historian: Comey Is ‘Putting Our 240-Year Experiment With American Democracy At Risk’
Tim Weiner says Comey’s actions have taken the bureau back into the extralegal days of J. Edgar Hoover.
“The problem comes when Comey doesn’t recognize that the modern FBI is supposed to operate within constitutional limits, such as on Friday, when revelations surfaced that the FBI director had defied Justice Department protocol as well as guidance from the attorney general in updating Congress on a potential new investigation.
“If you don’t have an FBI that looks to the law and the constitution and the strictures of the Justice Department, then you are going back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover and you are putting our 240-year experiment with American democracy at risk,” he said.
“The law is not what the FBI says it is. The law is what the courts and the constitution says it is.”
source: Ryan Grim, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/james-comey-threaten-democracy_us_581fb8a9e4b0e80b02cac463
Another one gulping down the Koolaid by the pint. Pfft, your ‘democracy’ was being perverted long before Comey’s Fucked Bureau of Imbeciles started messing with it.
But it’s a nice story for the Clinton drones.
“Is Comey the trans love child of Trump and Putin?” That’s the REAL question, Clinton rubes!
glad to see the creative writing classes didn’t go to waste.
sure is a curious thing to see ‘knowledgeable’ TI posters labeling persons they don’t know.
If you’re opposed to FBI manipulations you’re a Clintonista?
So, to borrow your powers of deduction, you must therefore endorse FBI malevolence?…
How’m I doing at this?
Fkwad
Where did I say that?
Ever occurred to you invoke simple incompetence (Occam’s razor), instead of conspiratorial malfeasance?
Dkwad.
well, now that we’re on a personal name basis, sheep-dip, you may recall you wrote “nice story for the Clinton drones”
“simple incompetence”
That’s how you describe it to the rubes getting fucked. They always bite that bait.
You did.
sorry, you never did reference Clintonista… you were the victim of a generalized swipe…. You see, I’ve been a bit testy after being bushwhacked by a few TI thought police dragoons, labelled as a designated HRC and CTR stooge after posting about FBI protologics.
I had come to think that TI and their readers were interested in adherence of due process, legal principle….
Right, and having the presumptive winner of the election openly taking bribes from foreign powers in open defiance of all campaign finance and constitutional law with the heads of the FBI and DOJ as co-conspirators due to their overt message of non-prosecution irrespective of the evidence amassed?
The law is what the court says it is? Not if it never gets there. And in the preposterous instance they would do their jobs for the good of the country, instead of their careers, it would conveniently fall into the hands of a Dem-nominated judge, who would miraculously have a new interpretation of the stare decisis case law and set a new standard for open bribery of public officials that would allow for the patrons of the world to donate to our corrupt duopoly legally.
A bit sarcastic and jaded….but not by much.
“…overt message of non-prosecution irrespective of the evidence amassed?
ah. no.
the process allows for investigation. which, theoretically, yields findings which suggest either wrongdoing… or not.
This process can launched at any point.
Just because you think the election trumps due process…and all should proceed pell mell… regardless of “evidence of criminality” …suggests you aren’t a fan of the Constitution.
The central driver for vote rigging is a political system that governs according to the priorities of the 1%, yet needs the votes of the 99% to achieve office. The result is a pervasive climate of lies, half-lies, and evasions. All the while the middle class slowly bleeds itself away.
It is indeed an awful shame the Intercept has suddenly subdued its output viz. the content of the emails, as the extent of the establishment’s severely compromised nature is revealed quite clearly by the information. Here is Abby Martin’s impressive summary of the situation:
The Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta (approx. 24 mins)
I watched about a quarter of it and Abby’s summary is, indeed, impressive and accurate, at least up to the point where I stopped.
Unfortunately, IMHO, the cheesy visuals and ridiculously annoying background music make it close to unwatchable and, I’m pretty sure, undermine its credibility with most viewers.
Or, maybe it’s a generational thing?
You are probably cognisant of all her salient points (strangely, that sounds sexual, but wasn’t meant to!) already, and yeah the age of overstimulation is at hand – the cacophony seems too much to me, also. Nonetheless as someone who occasionally has trouble watching older TV shows and movies because they’re so pensive and slow, I can relate to the producers’ wish to make it as engaging and disconcerting as possible for mass audiences, particularly at this time.
Well, kid, you know a lot more about what engages mass audiences these days than I do. I hope it works.
Have you watched the TYK segment Chad linked to (below)?
I think Uygur absolutely nails it: of all the messages we’ve seen to date, the Doug Band stuff is the most transparently damning of all. This might well be the stuff that takes them down, unless the fix is permanently in.
Yeah, I was going to link the Abby segment as a supplement to that, but decided to give it its own main post. I don’t think anything will take the Clintons down, to be honest. The nation is kind of fucked, really, and probably the planet is also. There won’t be much we can do after another administration at this level of fossil-fuel extraction and burning, and Clinton seems set on suicidally comparing dicks with Putin. Assange calls Clinton a “central cog” in the corrupted establishment, and those are pretty much untouchable. Already the press is fawningly in her favor, and after she’s elected she will demand fealty from every aspect of the system pretty much like a dictator, abusing surveillance powers to keep in check any activists or reporters or agencies that defy her coherently. Out of sensible caution, I wouldn’t comment articulately from the left in criticism of her after the coronation, and that’s another reason I’m fading from this place. And God help any journalists who go after her beyond January (as can be seen, some are already spooked, even in the alternative media).
If the Band emails don’t result in serious and aggressive action by the Fibbies and DOJ, we’ll know without further doubt that we’ve turned a corner into an even darker place than the one we’ve been in for a long time. It will be a very bad sign.
The PTB are not going to even consider reducing fossil fuel dependence and consumption, because the entire system of finance-industrial capitalism and the foundations of empire are built upon that resource — and you can’t dominate the world on a steady-state renewables-based economy. And the worst of the resulting climate change is probably already baked into the cake, anyway.
Instead, they are going to continue to fight over those energy resources and the likely result will be ugly, and catastrophic, beyond belief.
You are probably correct that keeping the rabble and the scribblers in line will be of increasing interest as things worsen. That’s usually what happens under such conditions. And Americans are disposed to conformity and hostility toward “misfits” in the best of times.
It’s not like that they will shoot you or imprison you for speaking out — they don’t need to do anything so crude. After all, the system can count on employers being reluctant to hire known dissidents for almost any positions.
Wouldn’t want troublemakers as baristas, ya know. It might cause public image problems.
Personally, I’m beyond hope and help, and too thoroughly disgusted to give a shit. But if I were a young person with a lifetime ahead. . .
. . . I’d probably get together with friends and drop out to grow veggies, write and make music.
I’ll just have to develop super-powers and save the world!
No, I’m a 300 year vampire and though the same. Influencing the ‘narrative’ like that is like swallowing Soma. Bweurk!
10. Voting isn’t a right from birth. For 18 years you’re taught you aren’t mature or aware enough to make such a decision, which dampens excitement and involvement. There should be no minimum voting age. No tests. And felons should be able to vote as Schwartz says. But he also ignores tens of millions who aren’t allowed via a purely arbitrary standard, the time a human body has existed after being born.
Total enfranchisement is the only truly democratic option. P.S. I’m way beyond 18.
If voting made any real difference, it would be a terrible idea to add a whole new class of uninformed voters with limited knowledge and incomplete brain development. Since it doesn’t, go for it. ;^(
For anyone who is readying to participate in the Tuesday’s reality show:
First, do we trust the results of elections? Are they credible in itself, are they expression of the will of the majority of the people. The answer is no. there is not independent auditing of the results unless court orders it and not always. Second about 25% of all eligible voters cast a vote and about 43% of registered voters (active and inactive) participates in elections and hence in vast majority counties the results such that would have been rendered invalid, when “winning” candidate gathers about 13% of all eligible voters or 22% of registered voters (mostly non existent category in majority of countries).
The US citizen are allowed, even invited to monitor elections in over thirty countries all over the world with full support and even funding from US Dept of State that defines fair elections on its website. Application of DOS criteria would immediately render US elections unfair.
Why US citizen are not allowed in the US to monitor their own elections making sure that they are free and fair and instead are threatened with lawsuits, as international monitors even from Western Europe/Australia are threatened as well.
What is the election establishment hiding?
If they have nothing to hide and their hands are clean they should not object to independent monitoring of the elections. If they are honest, they have nothing to hide, however, if they are dishonest and they are covering up election fraud they would understandingly oppose to any form of verification of their claims by independent means. There are no two ways about it.
In fact, for those who still do not know it may be shocking but everything is rigged from beginning to the end of this farcical spectacle called election. The crime of fraud is so enormous that most cannot believe it.
In fact US ranks about fifty in elections freedom, access, fairness and transparency. Such a appallingly low ranking makes the outcome of any US elections problematic and lacking of sufficient credibility to rely on, especially in face of over the years/decades reporting of vote rigging in the US.
Elections are regularity defrauded for decades in thousands of well-documented ways confirmed by both major parties, third parties and independent researchers in following ways:
By limiting selection of possible candidates and their access to statewide or national ballot box via rigged undemocratic caucuses and primaries and other unreasonable requirements such as enormous amounts of money need for campaign being most undemocratic and election rigging element and actually sufficient to disqualify the US elections themselves for, being free and fair according to international and standards US is peddling abroad.
But that’s not all, rigging continues by eliminating and/or confusing voters from voting at proper physical location also in early voting, forcing into never counted provisional vote by purposely hiding registered lists, purging made up “felons” from voter lists, requiring expensive or unavailable or costly to obtain due to extensive travel, documents, threatening citizen (of color) with deportation at poling stations, accusing them of voter fraud, offering meaningless provisional ballots instead, eliminating students and military when needed on phony registration issues, signature, pictures, purposefully misspelled names etc., reducing number of polling places where majority votes for “rogue” candidate, forcing people to stand in line for hours or preventing people from voting all together.
Selecting poling remote locations with obstructed public access by car or transit, paid parking, exposed to weather elements in November.
Ridiculous rules for requirement of months prior election registration itself discriminate people with often changing part time jobs in different locations.
Hacking databases before and after vote as proven during many certification tests, switching votes, adding votes for absent voters, and party affiliations at polling places as well up in the data collating chain (proven) , filing in the court frivolous law suits aimed to block unwanted candidates, outrageous voting ON WORKING DAY (everywhere else voting is on Sunday or a day free of work) skewing that way vote toward older retired people.
Lying of whom we vote for, a fraudulent ballot supposedly voting for POTUS “candidates” but in fact voting on unnamed electors, outrageous electorate college rules design to directly suppress democracy.
Judicial interference, and requirement of approval of the electoral vote by lame duck congress is an outrageous thing illegal in quasi-democratic western countries due to division of powers.
Voting day propaganda to discourage voting by phony predictions everywhere else there is campaigning ban, silence for two to three days before Election Day.
No independent verification of the vote or serious reporting by international observers about violations, or independent exit polls, and many, many more ways every election is stolen as anybody who opens eyes can see.
All the above fraud prepared by close group of election criminals on political party payroll in the US.
The Rep/Dem state party controlled, rigged , biased rules set up by partisan election administration, another terminal disqualifier by international standards.
The rigging starts months/years before election date often without any conscientious contribution from ordinary polling workers who believe that nothing is rigged.
If somebody think that they would restrain themselves, think again. The regime, in a form of mostly unsuspecting county registrars are tools of establishment and did and will do everything, everything they can and they can a lot, to defraud those elections and push an establishment candidate, Hillary, with unprecedented bipartisan support , Wall Street support ($650 millions spent) and US oligarchy support and Soviet like 100% media support ,down our throats.
Those not 9 but 99 layers of fraud and rigging make the US ruling establishment in full control of the results.
But there is much more than that and the core of the falsity of those elections reaches into deep of american totalitarian culture and so call Americanism, a US state religion.
And excerpt from:
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/faux-elections-and-american-insanity-of-fear/
“[In the US we have,] .. to use Sheldon Wolin’s terminology, .. a “managed democracy,” a political form in which governments are legitimated by elections that they have learned to control,” a form of government that attempts to keep alive the appearance of democracy while simultaneously defeating democracy’s primary purpose, self-government.”
And nobody will be watching their hands. The credibility of these elections is near zero and there can be only one conclusion:
“The individual loses his substance by voluntarily bowing to an overpowering and distant oligarchy, while simultaneously “participating” in sham democracy.”
C. Wright Mills,”The Power Elite” (1956)
Funny how The Intercept, The Real News & Democracy Now are all quiet on Clintons right now. It seems they’ve all stood down all of a sudden.
I think the regular media have got that angle pretty well covered. How many email npn-scandals do you need in the week before a national election?
Oh, I don’t know. I thought this one was pretty important: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApcqXijVzYU
Another non-scandal. Run with it!
If serious investigators and prosecutors “run with” that scandal, the Clinton Foundation and the upcoming Clinton II presidency are going down.
Only a moron or a partisan in denial so deep that it’s equivalent to a hypnotic trance could read the Doug Band emails and not understand that.
So, youse guyz better fervently hope that the federal law enforcement establishment remains under orders to let the Clintons slide.
Democracy Now doesn’t broadcast on weekends, but if you can muster the patience to wait until the weekend is over, they will very likely report the fact that James Comey’s last-minute political manipulation proved to be substance-free.
Is there something that you think The Intercept, The Real News, and Democracy Now are hiding?
If so, you seem to be hiding it too.
I’ve got much better ones:
1. Private Campaign Financing. This is nothing but legalized bribery, and it totally perverts elections, from one-person-one-vote to one-dollar-one-vote. All campaign financing should be public (government, from taxes) and private donations should be felonies punishable by a minimum sentence of 10 years.
2. Lack of Proportional Representation. Our winner-take-all system is heavily rigged in favor of the two gangs in power and shuts out the majority of us who support neither.
3. The Senate. I agree with Jon on this one.
4. Executive System. A parliamentary system is much more representative. Our executive system gives far too much power to presidents, governors, and mayors.
Americans are puzzled that their only viable choices for president are two 70 year olds with few notable career achievements or a vision for the future. Voters with an optimistic bent hope the candidates are late bloomers.
Fortunately this does not represent a fundamental failure of the American political system. All that is needed is to declare election day a national holiday. This would allow Americans to take Monday off, as well as Tuesday, and spend a long weekend drinking so they can go back to work on Wednesday with no recollection of the previous four days or, if they’re lucky, the previous 12 months. The candidates may be caricatures of the deficiencies of the major parties, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of electoral reform.
I’m afraid we would need several pints for lunch every day for four years. The risk of remembering how we got here is otherwise just too high.
I would still prefer to see range voting over IRV, although it is a step forward. And I can totally agree with the idea of multi-member districts with proportional representation. I would urge people out there to look at FairVote and the National Popular Vote Compact for some solutions to these problems.
And, on top of those nine systemic manipulations, there are individual abuses of power:
White supremacist terrorist sympathizer, James Comey, should not have had a job, after he refused to acknowledge that white supremacist terrorism is “terrorism.”
Instead, there were no consequences at all, which left him able to abuse that position AGAIN.
This time, to engage in last minute political manipulation.
He knew that reopening the email issue would be reported more aggressively than reclosing it would be.
We ALL know that that is how the corporate media works: Accusations are exciting and retractions are boring.
That’s why the DOJ advised him against going public before he knew anything.
As one official put it, “he made an independent decision to go against longstanding Justice Department and FBI practice to not comment publicly about politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election.” (CNN)
He is perfectly aware that quietly taking it back, today, on the weekend, can’t undo his tampering.
“White supremacist terrorist sympathizer, James Comey, should not have had a job”
Luciferian grifter HRC should not have had a job, but she bought it.
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2158.htm
Is that relevant to what I said?
One wonders how these corrupted mouthpieces for the insanely corrupted establishment manage to sleep at night. Having no soul must help under those nighttime circumstances where a person with a conscience would be “soul-searching.” A cretin like this, he would have told you Joseph Stalin’s “programs” were “for the common good” if he were in that place and time. Up is down! Lies are truth!
One wonders how these corrupted mouthpieces for the insanely corrupted establishment manage to sleep at night. Having no soul must help under those circumstances. A creep like this, he’d tell you Joseph Stalin’s “programs” were “for the common good.” Up is down! Lies are truth!
In WW2, the French Partisans used the “V” to tell their brothers that they are still in the fight. Watch for it now!
“V. For Victory. Tell your friends.”
(That series deserves better attention, though the reboot was too propagandistic for my taste.)
If you can get people to ask the wrong questions, you don’t have to worry about the answers.
All systems, in every nation, are rigged against the poor.
But it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to see that every mass media outlet in the US is spending 24/7 going after Trump. If you consider this “objective journalism”, your programming is working.
And oh yes, there was nothing in those 650,000 emails, either, nothing to see, move along. So much for the “rule of law” in the former democratic republic.
Here’s a news flash from the Red center of the US:
We are sick and tired of neolibcon lies, of utterly corrupt leadership and presstitute journalists who cover for them. Don’t expect us to obey your laws when you refuse to obey them. We don’t believe you anymore, we know you don’t give a damn about us, and we are going to make sure you are held accountable for your deeds.
And don’t forget #10: Even if you CAN vote, and you DO vote, and your candidate even wins, you aren’t likely to have any political representation by this candidate you voted for anyway — particularly if they are a Republican or a Democrat.
It isn’t a popular opinion, but the lesser of the two evils is to not vote at all, since the state itself is inherently evil. The necessary change that is needed for the people won’t come through a ballot box. Unlike Bernie Sanders, I am not alluding to a mere figure of speech, but quite literally. Until that happens, the ruling class will continue to rule.
As far as national elections for president are concerned, there is a huge problem (as I see it) with the choices we have. Two main political “parties” control the decision of whom we vote for to become president, and in some states, you must be a member of one of those two parties to be allowed to cast your ballot. In some states, unless you are a declared Democrat or Republican, you are not allowed to vote in the primary election for either candidate. In some states, there IS no election for president, only a caucus, again by the two major parties, to determine the nominee. This system insures that we are left with only the major party candidates to effectively choose from. Sure, we are FREE to vote for anyone in the general election, but anyone besides the top Democrat and top Republican are shut out of the process, and deemed unelectable. Clinton and Trump received 9% of the acutal vote of registered Americans in the primary elections, and we are “forced” to pick between these two awful candidates (as well as repulsive human beings) to be the “leader of the free world.” This system seems anything but democratic.
AND & EVERY VOTE FOR JILL STEIN IS A WIN.
think about it.
More “fearless, adversarial” reporting from the emasculated Intercept!
Not so much speaking Truth to power (Trump and his supporters have no power in this situation, as the system is indeed quite obviously rigged against them) as grovelling before it in studied submissiveness and infantile trust in the elite.
Either don’t vote or vote for Jill Stein wherever you are, knowing your vote will probably be miscounted.
“as the system is indeed quite obviously rigged against them”
Any evidence? Any at all?
You don’t see any evidence that almost the entirety of the establishment has this in the bag for Clinton?
I’m going to hope for your sake that you’re just being sarcastic.
You have made two assertions:
“the system is indeed quite obviously rigged against [Trump]”
“almost the entirety of the establishment has this in the bag for Clinton”
Whatever “in the bag” means, the two statements are either related or not. Either way, you have not even suggested what the evidence might be or where it might be found. Are they going to hack electronic voting machines? Throw out paper ballots? What states will this occur in?
Anything.
The establishment has made sure that anyone who is not Hillary Clinton will not be president. You want specific examples of this, when it is self-evident to any honest person. I’d be here all day linking to things, and I frankly can’t be bothered. Go back through my posts for the past few months, for a start.
You can’t see that this is so: not in the massive media propaganda-blitz on her behalf; nor in the fact that voting machines can be rigged for her win; nor in the fact that the elite, inclusive of neoconservatives and neoliberals and the major movers and shakers of the banking/military-industrial-congressional complex/Big Energy etc., all support her (even though actual progressives and others point out correctly that she has a history of extremely shady dealings and is continuing huge-scale fossil-fuel extraction and even hinting at doomsday Russia-antagonism… Still she is the front-runner somehow, in the diseased culture of the United States of America. Not that Trump is any better, for he isn’t. The manipulation of the actual vote counts will occur wherever necessary. And you don’t know what “in the bag” means! Perhaps one day someone will explain it nicely.
Ah, hell, I can be nice. “In the bag” means “Certain or extremely likely to occur; assured.”
It’s often used for something desirable, but in this instance (Clinton’s coronation) I meant no such thing.
So, your answer is … fracking, Russia, propaganda, and “voting machines can be rigged.”
If you really expect anyone to go back and dig up more of this drivel, you are deluded on more than one level.
At this point I expect you to go fuck yourself, you self-satisfied cretin.
Ah, but I am not satisfied at all. You have not entertained me in the slightest.
“Are they going to hack electronic voting machines? Throw out paper ballots? What states will this occur in?”
It will occur in all states, as it does every election. Al Frankin anyone?
Wow.
What about Guam? The conspirators could not possibly overlook Guam.
Clear statement, all the ways in which US system is “rigged,” brought to you by WikiLeaks, who forgot to include themselves in the list.
Hypocrisy. Thanks for the shopping list, Glenn; couldn’t have done it without you. Now go meditate, and think about your own contribution to this mess.
OH I GET IT!
money = speech
information = unspeech?
Very informative!
Thank you Jon Schwarz.
It needs to be in the Louvre as a picture of american democracy
Perhaps i would be permitted to have it translated in every language and reprinted?
“The less money and power you have, the harder it is to take time off from work to vote.”
True.
What’s also true is that the less money and power you have, the less likely you are to get a day just because some nobs in Washington decided to call that day a “national holiday.”
More ubiquitous early voting and/or having an “election weekend” (48 straight hours of open polling places, midnight Friday night to midnight Sunday night) are ways to make it easier for poor people to vote.
Declaring election day a national holiday is just a dumb measure to make limousine liberals feel all tingly and noble.
I don’t know about limousines, but a federal holiday is at least an easily-understood symbol of how we could prioritize voting.
Unfortunately, no one has noticed that if the schools are closed, working parents won’t be able to vote.
Why exactly – no children in the voting line? Be specific.
Sure, let’s stand in line for three hours with our crying infants and bored pre-adolescents. It’s easy.
I’ve done it. But seriously, 3 hours? Exaggerating a mite?
No, I’m not. Not in a polling station that has been deliberately overcrowded.
Are you completely unaware of how difficult voting already is for working-class people?
You’re right about some voting situations being pretty long.
But you’re complaining about it hypothetically being a holiday.
Depending on how easy it is for people to get to their polling stations in the first place—and ideally everyone should be able to walk or at most take a bus, and not have to hunt for parking—childcare remains an issue for actually getting people out to the polls. If the kids are not at school, then the burden is shifted to their parents. Parent’s ability to handle this burden MAY vary. Especially single parents.
Remember, we’re supposed to be carrying out this huge change to increase access to polls for everyone. The whole problem with the passive acceptance of voter suppression comes from the fact that every white person with a car thinks every other non-institutionalized adult is just like them.
The solution is quite simple, and doesn’t require a national holiday–vote-by-mail. Like we do in Oregon. Cost-time effective, and as far as we know–accurate.
Agreed.
The 2016 IS rigged! The author of this piece wants to divert attention away from the current rigging of electronic votes that reduces votes against Clinton to a fraction.
Yes, there is a larger systemic problem addressed in this article but right now, the electronic voting machines have already been hacked.
plz provide evidence that any particular machine was hacked
or
provide evidence that any machine is hackable
or
provide the existence of actual implementation of machines in use that are connected to special interests, ie soros but “in use”
“the electronic voting machines have already been hacked.”
The electronic voting machines have always already been hacked.
Fortune: Watch This Security Researcher Hack a Voting Machine
It shouldn’t be hard for you to find plenty more similar evidence without help but, if you can’t, let me know. As Jimmy Durante liked to say, “I got a million of ’em.”
There is no such thing as a computing system that can’t be hacked and there is no likelihood that there ever will be.
if that was a microsoft DOS system without encrypted data and with user physical access to the programmable interface then sure – another project from Moronic Inc funded by Dumb&Dumbers USG.
If Dumb&Dumbers are still paying big bucks to Moronic Inc today, they need to be checked out by the f…b…i…
Barabbas – here you go:
Black Box Voting. org
It is silly to reduce it to “Soros controlled voting machines.” 90% of them can be hacked by the establishment to create the Clinton win they obviously want.
That is, 90% OF ALL machines are subject to establishment control. See link for details.
I don’t know why people who will believe any fucking conspiracy shit show up here, seriously. This is kind of an empirically oriented new/commentary site.
If you actually think the whole thing is rigged then you have to do a bit more work, don’t you? It’s like with the 9/11 truthers who can’t be bothered to provide credible motives for anything.
So why spend so much money getting people to vote a certain way? That would be just for starters….
” It’s like with the 9/11 truthers who can’t be bothered to provide credible motives for anything.”
Absolute hilarity. Motive has nothing to do with whether an event occurred or not.
You couldn’t solve a right triangle to save your life yet you demand motive; despite the math.
Like I said, you are rockin’ that GED …
Not sure what you’re referring to. Bev Harris of the non-partisan Black Box Voting site was featured in the documentary “Hacking Democracy,” and no one has accused her of anything untoward – even if many oddball hopefuls have latched onto her work just as they have with the brilliant WikiLeaks.
As for the constructed theater surrounding the whole thing, the establishment has to make it look good, obviously, and most people even in the system would rather not contemplate the absence of real democracy as it’s too shocking. Not everyone even in the elite has to know about the vote rigging – why should they? The site I linked to shows that the machines can indeed be rigged, easily. And I don’t trust the government not to do it. Do you?
yeah see Occam’s Razor et cetera on that shitl
Look, I don’t know how it works everywhere, but in Iowa there is -gasp-touch screen voting machines set up.
except here’s the thing: they don’t count from the machine tallies — the machines are used to produce a paper slip that is then used as the unit of voting. Any voter can see whether what they have picked fits what has been printed.
They don’t need to rig every result, though they have access to 90% of the totals (as I said – perhaps Iowa is part of the 10%). The political theater is such that the results ideally are close to exit polling, just tweaked for the desired outcome.
You think that with the power to have the result they want, the establishment will not use it if necessary?
Paranoia doesn’t really help, basically. What is your goal in spreading it?
I’m not spreading paranoia. I’m giving my observations.
Which paper ballot is scanned by an optical reader that writes the digitized data to either local storage for subsequent transmission to the computer(s) at county elections headquarters or directly to headquarters in real time. The county-level results are then transmitted, as digital data, to the office of the Iowa Secretary of State in Des Moines, for final tabulation and reporting.
The paper ballots, in the ordinary course of events, are never examined or reviewed once they’ve been scanned (as voters feed them into that slot in the machine at the polling place).
I’ve already voted in Iowa. My paper ballot went into a box, not a “slot in a machine.”
Yes, it could all be rigged. Maybe reality is just a simulation. Everybody is out to get you. Bazork bazork. I’m fukcing paranoid. yowdiddiidnkenrwoqetoiwejtjwenoiqjwoeitrj
Then you are an early voter and someone else has, or will, put it in a slot in a machine. I know this because:
All Iowa counties use optical scan systems and paper ballots with a ballot marking device for persons with disabilities.”
Unless you know something your secretary of state doesn’t, of course.
You nasty, pathetic, vile asshole, you.
LOL this nasty pathetic vile asshole opened your link and……what did you prove with that little graphic of Iowa voting exactly.
Not only nasty pathetic and vile, this asshole didn’t understand how this graphic sealed the argument you were making.
Please condescend to explain it to me.
love,
Vic
Doug talks big but once again he doesn’t back it up after the invective.
That graphic doesn’t mean shit unless he can explain why it matters.
Tell us which county you voted in and I’ll tell you which specific system was used to produce and tally your ballot.
“I’ve already voted in Iowa. My paper ballot went into a box, not a “slot in a machine.””
Corn fer brains, I see. The “box” counted your paper slip?
Also, it’s not as though the system is rigged in only one way, or that each and every rigging scheme and trick must be used every time, in every place, for every election.
The electoral College system substantially rigs the election against popular choice; candidate selection is rigged; the expectations and understanding of the voters is “rigged” by training (aka “education”), acculturation and media overwhelmingly controlled by by the 0.1%; and the socioeconomic circumstances of various population segments effectively disenfranchises significant proportions of them. And on and on.
It may seldom be necessary to alter the tallies of voting machines or central processors. It may only be necessary or worth doing in relatively few districts, precincts, etc., just as is the case with voter intimidation vanishing registrations, inadequate facilities and resources in “certain” polling locations. But it’s nice to have all the tools possible in your toolbox and the Bosses don’t like risk.
Agreed, via the combination of propaganda, the electoral college itself (which is manifestly corruptible and absurd to begin with) and various other means, the powers that be leave nothing to chance whatever.
So why aren’t they under arrest? 90% can be hacked. Therefore they will be hacked. They have already been hacked. Give us the names of the hackers.
The establishment doesn’t prosecute itself! Hadn’t you noticed? Not even Bush, or the bankers who wrecked the economy, or torturers! I don’t know the names of the people who will hack, and I also don’t know why you think I would know them. I just deduce that “the system” would use this power.
Maisie, you do know that partisan actors from the major parties are there at the vote counting together right? Do you actually believe that all these actors around the country have all pre-agreed to election results?
As I said, the results will mostly have to merely tweaked here and there, and observers are not going to catch it as it is largely undetectable without high computer skills, although demonstrably effective. Observers can’t watch the technological subtleties, it is impossible.
Vic is in over his head, but he’s not going to stop, because he’s both stubborn and has a tendency to be pointlessly contrarian.
He also has a tendency to be snide and snarky without cause or provocation and I’m tired of it — so every time he pulls that crap, I up the the ante and unload contemptuous vulgarity on him until he cuts it out.
He may not cut it out, of course, in which case he’s going to be called a motherfucking asshole for a long time.
You guys are peddling an insane conspiracy theory regarding elections, one in which EVERYBODY IS IN ON IT! like a fucking 9/11 Truther conspiracy……………..
but I’m the one “in over my head”?
That’s really funny. Doug, you are seriously delusional about your grasp of reality. Or what people outside of this little world of Intercept commenters think.
Not only an asshole but also deficient in reading comprehension.
You are creating straw men and relying upon the informal fallacy known as the appeal from personal incredulity: you don’t or can’t believe it and therefore it can’t be true.
Silly-ass dull-normal dumbfuck.
P.S. Humans aren’t, on average, very bright and, as Carlin pointed out, “half of them are even stupider than that!” It’s not that I’m delusional about what the masses think, it’s that I have little respect for it. That doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve dignity and respect as living creatures — they do. But what they think, to the limited extent that they do think, is generally neither interesting nor worthwhile. For the most part, they “think” what they’re told to think by those they believe are authorities.
All those words and not one relevant point made.
Vic, we all got our “cheat codes” months ago. If you haven’t, maybe it’s not too late for a donation to the Clinton Foundation.
I can send you Chelsea’s private email address.
Go have a lie down, Vic. and some deep breaths. Maybe a timbleful of whiskey… Don’t overdo it now, ya’hear?
So your theory is that by “tweaking” the returns by an undetectable amount in every precinct, hackers will ensure a Clinton win?
Is that literally what you wrote here?
Go to the link I gave in response to barabbas and see for yourself what can be done, cretin.
Ooh, “cretin.” So nice to be inveighed against in something other than Anglo-Saxon.
I already did. The potential for electronic vote hacking has been an issue for at least a decade. But your precious link says nothing about what HAS been done or WILL be done. So what good is it for supporting your assertions?
You are a paranoid liar.
Not once have I lied, yet you have indeed been behaving like a cretin. I pointed out what can be done, and asserted that the establishment could not be trusted to not use such methods. That’s what good it does.
You’ve told us that crimes are occurring or have occurred … but you clearly don’t know shit.
I know you’re a cretin.
I’ve reduced you to grade-school spluttering just by asking you to define and support your claims. What does that say about you and your claims?
“I’ve reduced you to grade-school spluttering just by asking ”
about hacked voting machines from the early 2000s …
Look at the Ohio vote swing in 2004 to Bush, for an obvious example.
Paper, postage-paid, mail-in ballots solve, many, many issues. Why should anyone stand in a line to vote?
Masochism?
Hey, deduction was always good enough for the judge when Holmes did it, right?
Here’s one that was offed just before he likely would’ve spilled the beans on Karl Rove :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Connell
Ohio in 2000/2004 is a known case. And whatever was achieved, it was noticed.
2016 is 2016.
No.
Done.
(Full Disclosure: I voted for Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the Indiana Democratic Primary & Jill Stein for President in the General Election this year–I voted early by traveling election board. To know how to choose Jill Stein for President where you live, just click here: http://www.jill2016.com/ballot_access )
Here is a lengthy interview with Stephen Spoonamore, describing in precise detail exactly how vulnerable electronic voting machines are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX6vcoIZdA4
You can see a short video of the Princeton University hack of the voting machine mentioned in the prior video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZws98jw67g
(For future reference, Diebold sold off its election systems subsidiary to Election Systems & Software–ES&S–the largest manufacturer of voting machines in the US.)
Here is an article from Politico Magazine entitled, “How Google Could Rig the 2016 Election”: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/how-google-could-rig-the-2016-election-121548
Here is an extended excerpt from Julian Assange’s e-book, “When Google Met WikiLeaks,” that should scare the crap out of anyone about what Google really is: https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/ (There is a link to purchasing the entire book on the page.)
Here is Joe Scarborough on his show, “Morning Joe,” admitting on air that, among other things, it is the belief of himself & apparently other reporters covering the Iowa Caucuses–he doesn’t give a number–that Senator Bernie Sanders “probably” won the Iowa Caucuses, not Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abnkjCZTJDI (Sidenote: I realize this is the infamous Iowa Caucus process, which does not use voting machines, that was apparently defrauded, but I thought it worth adding here because it is an election “process” that is being admitted by a figure of the Establishment to having been defrauded, even if it was ultimately for the use of attacking Clinton; this is not where Establishment figures of the Republican Party typically, or even atypically, go to attack their political opponents)
I must also disclose for the record that I believe this method, along with purges of the voter rolls, & the closing and/or moving of polling precincts in numerous Democratic Party primaries & caucuses led to a fraudulent victory for Secretary Hillary Clinton over Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party nominating contest for President. I realize that The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald has stated that “[. . .] it’s also true that under the long-standing rules of the party, more people who voted preferred Clinton as their nominee over Sanders. Independent of superdelegates, she just got more votes. There’s no denying that.” https://theintercept.com/2016/06/07/perfect-end-to-democratic-primary-anonymous-super-delegates-declare-winner-through-media/
Except the following:
Here is the lawsuit from Election Justice Massachusetts attempting to force an audit of paper ballots for the entire city of Worcester, the entire town of Williamstown, & a randomly selected precinct in Boston, of the Massachusetts Democratic Party Primary: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/101031312/maauditplusexhibits.pdf (Sidenote: Election Justice Massachusetts launched a separate lawsuit months earlier regarding the notorious incident of former President Bill Clinton inside a polling precinct in New Bedford & then later rallying people right outside said polling precinct, both of which are electioneering & illegal)
Here is the so-called “Stanford study” that concluded massive multi-state election fraud in the Demorcratic Party’s nominating contest benefiting Hillary Clinton: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mLpCEIGEYGYl9RZWFRcmpsZk0/view?pref=2&pli=1 and here is the response of the study’s authors to their critics: http://caucus99percent.com/content/election-fraud-study-authors-respond-critics
There is also evidence of election fraud in the June 7th contests this year, but as that had been preempted by the corporate media’s blasting out “Hillary has the delegates to win” the night before, I don’t know how relevant those contests could be given the AP’s announcement. After all, nothing boosts anyone’s poll numbers like winning.
P.S. We could just end all this nonsense by electing someone who isn’t interested in stealing elections nor interested in having anyone connected to her campaign try to do so. You know, Jill Stein. See how you can choose her for President here: http://www.jill2016.com/ballot_access
You nailed it perfectly. Total fix. As Frank Zappa said: “Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.”
Sadly, Dr. Helen Caldicott (the Australian anti-nuclear activist) explained this long, long ago, plus we should add that the majority of voting machines (60%) are owned by Chuck Hegel’s company, with the majority of the remaining 40% owned by George Soros’ company, and the minority of that 40% remainder are owned by the company owned by a son of Mitt Romney AND the majority of software used on all those machines is GEMS, which Bev Harris and Bennie Smith have demonstrated is completely compromised and designed for manipulating election results at the precinct levels:
http://blackboxvoting.org/fraction-magic-video/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fob-AGgZn44
Emails Warrant No New Action Against Clinton, Comey Says
“The F.B.I. informed Congress on Sunday that it has not changed its conclusions about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, removing a dark cloud that has been hanging over her campaign two days before Election Day.
“James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said in a letter to members of Congress that “based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.”
source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/us/politics/hilary-clinton-male-voters-donald-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Hillary Clinton Won’t Face Charges For New Emails, FBI Director Tells Congress
A week after rocking the campaign, Comey cleared the Democratic nominee.
“An FBI investigation into newly discovered emails potentially pertaining to Hillary Clinton’s private email server will not result in any new charges, the bureau announced on Sunday.
“In a letter to Congress, FBI Director James Comey said that he was not going to revisit his prior conclusion that Clinton acted legally ? albeit carelessly ? in using a private account while she was secretary of state.
“Since my letter, the FBI investigative team has been working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation.
“During that process we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State.
“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.
“I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.
source: Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/james-comey-congress emails_us_581f8ff5e4b0aac62485196a
Is that an endorsement or a RE-ENDORSEMENT or a take-back of an un-endorsement?
i have some questions..
1. Who got paid what for what in this arrangement?
( did it happen on a tarmac?)
2. Does this mean that if criminal Hellary is elected, c.o.m.e.y. keeps his job or ets promoted?
3. is this a prelude to an endorse of the criminals who run wallstreet to rob America?
4. Also is this a pattern as to how wallstreet criminal media get to pump fraud to invade countries, murder tens of thousands and make fraud wars?
5. And is this meant to imply that all future activity of Hellary’s criminal enterprise are no longer considered criminal enterprises?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/clinton-family-runs-vast-criminal-enterprise-ex-nyc-fbi-boss-article-1.2851259
Many at TI have impugned my motives, attacked my character, for decrying the FBI’s extra-legal manipulations in favor / or against a selected candidate for president.
I loathe and abhor this development and commend Comey’s earlier pledge to strive for neutrality by FBI in elections.
My postings in no way serve as an endorsement; rather they speak to profound concerns about separation of powers and abuse of power by government institutions to sway an election.
The stunning array of secret resources of various intelligence agencies to collect, compile, profile and, if it suits, assail the person of you, me, or anyone… makes me shudder for representative democracy’s future.
That is the issue.
This is not an endorsement of a candidate, but an urgent call for attention to these deeply troubling developments.
On “VOTE”…..
http://hyperallergic.com/334994/weekend-words-vote/
Tuesday is an important election. Therefore excercise your right carefully vote for the person least likely to go to jail.
Even if Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the least likely to go to jail I would never vote for her for ANYTHING!
Many of the points Mr. Schwarz makes betray ignorance on his part concerning the very structure of the US government. The Senate, for instance, was deliberately apportioned as it was precisely to prevent populous states from riding roughshod over the sparsely inhabited ones, to prevent city dwellers from legislating against farmers. That system is shared by other countries; Germany for instance; and nobody there says it rigs the elections. It also turns out that the current way in which the Senate is elected is less rigged than it once was: originally senators were chosen by the state legislatures; were that the case today the Senate would be overwhelmingly red.
The gerrymandering issue is central to the problem of choice in this country, and the so-called no instant runoff issue is just a band aid unless it is fixed. We should have proportional representation like the parliamentary democracies (such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, . . . ) with perhaps a 5% threshold for determining House elections. That does away with the gerrymandering problem entirely and makes the other proposal unnecessary. If Gary Johnson takes 5% of the vote in Texas, then his party gets 5% of its Congresspeople. Under such a system, third parties flourish and offer people alternatives that strengthen participation and diversity, and lead to less gridlock in most cases. But the US is unlikely to ever see such a system, for the simple reason that the wielders of real power here are not interested in losing their influence.
I might add that if people really wanted the corporations to have less power, and really did not like the way our government functions, they would make different choices on election day. On Tuesday, the opportunity exists to replace every single member of the House of Representatives – something I heartily recommend, but watch and see how few incumbents lose their jobs.
Yes, but that “opportunity” is, effectively, limited to a single alternate choice, who is also a member of the One Party with two right wings.
Replacing them all on Tuesday, or every two years, would make no substantive difference, except that the entrenched lobbyists would likely have more influence in a House populated by neophytes and procedural innocents.
that image is burned in – the presidential seal with the eagle with 2 right wings with the arrows and the eagle looking that way. i am no artist but it would be really swell if someone could.
“I might add that if people really wanted the corporations to have less power, and really did not like the way our government functions, they would make different choices on election day.”
… close but no cigar !
try this …
If people really wanted the corporations to have less power, and really did not like the way our government functions, they would make different choices AT THE CHECKOUT.
We don’t have proportional representation in Ole’Blighty. It’s been discussed for years but nothing is moving. It;s still a ‘first past the post’ wins system.
Ken Burns documentary on Prohibition explained how the mob sorted out their turf disputes (once Capone was gone); they divided the country along the lines of the federal reserve regions. The mobsters had more money than the industrialists at this point. They also owned the banks to launder their profits.
Nothing has changed. Look how much they stole in 2008 and not a single Capone even appeared in a courtroom.
And we have a shit-bag coming with Shillary as president; she’ll make Nixon appear reasonable.
“they divided the country along the lines of the federal reserve regions.”
what a co-incidence.
What a sweet notion. Sadly, that’s all it is: a notion.
American democracy isn’t powerful at all. It’s almost entirely a sham — a theatrical performance to keep the commoners in line.
Don’t vote. Doing so lends the appearance of validity to an utterly invalid (both meanings) system that can’t be tweaked. It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt.
oh Doug…..
” It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt.”
Doug, satisfied at having completed a world-changing post, then adjusted himself in his chair.
Dismantling and rebuilding, yes. This would come. From somewhere. Not from him of course, oh no. Doug had done his part. It was time for others to come forth and do the dismantling and rebuilding.
Actually Vic, it’s very unlikely that it will be rebuilt. OTOH, it is virtually inevitable that it will be dismantled, sooner rather than later, one way or another.
And you bet your sorry semi-smart ass that I’ve done my part.
Fuck you.
For the sake of honesty perhaps you could include with future diatribes against one or another candidate: “by the way I don’t believe you should vote for anybody anyway.”
I mean wow — you won’t even vote for Jill Stein? Why???
But perhaps you could share with us the mechanism by which some highly bitter people not voting are somehow noticed among the multitude of people-who-didn’t-vote-because-whatever.
Even more so, you could explain about how this “not-voting” movement somehow overturns the system.
I mean, you know, for the good of humanity. Share your highly developed righteous non-voting philosophy so that we may consider its merits, Doug. I wish you well.
Because there is no chance that voting for Stein, or any other “fringe” candidate, can have any meaningful effect on this selection, a future selection or the selection process in general. And because, as I said, participation lends validity to a hopelessly invalid process.
I’ve spent a lifetime working to help fix the mess and I’ve come to the conclusion that it can’t and won’t be fixed and that it is unethical to participate once once has reached that conclusion.
And fuck you again, Vic. That’s what you’re going to get from me every time you indulge in gratuitous snarkiness, you smug, half-bright piece of shit.
See you really are deluded when you say that “no chance that voting for Stein, or any other “fringe” candidate, can have any meaningful effect on this selection, a future selection or the selection process in general.”
That’s utter bullshit.
If just 15% of people who would normally vote Democrat would vote for Jill Stein — hardly a huge percentage of the American public, right? — the effects would be FUCKING HUGE.
It would be absolutely impossible at that point for the Democratic Party to ignore the Left. Elections are too close in this country for them to absorb that kind of loss. They would have to pick candidates that appealed to us.
We would effectively wield power far beyond our numbers.
You see Doug, I’m not being snarky. I’m an idealist. I think people haven’t even remotely, not even CLOSE, gotten what is possible out of this voting contraption we got.
Okay? I mind if you say “fuck you” a few more times. I just think your professed electoral cynicism is bullshit and leads absolutely nowhere.
See Doug, I know you saw my post at 5:21 pm, and I know you don’t have a coherent argument against it or you would have made it.
Maybe back down once in a while, it would be good for your mental health.
Not voting has always worked so well before. Why not again?
I know, right? Doug acts like if some people don’t vote, somehow this major stuff is going to happen.
Even though no clear message is sent, somehow the elected government will be SO embarrassed by the small amount of people voting for them that they will just throw up their hands and admit they have no constituency? Yeah, I totally see this happening.
Better than Dan Brown!
… Dan Brown – that’s a joke right ?
just in case you are serious – hard to believe, yet a remotely possibility.
… maybe you should consider setting the bar a little higher.
Maybe you should consider adjusting your settings for optimal human interaction.
I doubt that even rigging the votes would be enough to help Hillary win now.New shocking revelations are coming out daily, and the Clinton camp is so desperate that they are even suggesting emails are false before they come out. The latest :
Clinton directed her maid to print out classified materials
http://nypost.com/2016/11/06/clinton-directed-her-maid-to-print-out-classified-materials/
anon : and, of course, you can prove that if the Post is correct that Hillary’s maid had no security clearance? Right?
I know you arrogant classless POS Republicans have no idea why the FBI didn’t “interview” the maid but to imply, of course, why would a maid have a security clearance? Who would imagine that?
Like the financial system scam; in politics it’s the system stupid! In Canada, most of your complaints are answered. Registration done for you, mandatory time off from work, the ballot boxes go into the prisons, paper ballots, lots of advanced polls open, big money not allowed etc.; it does not help much eve though er have a viable left wing (not as left as before) option. We have the same problem as the USA in an uninformed electorate and cognitive instead of money capture of politicians and it’s getting worse with Millions of Canadians getting their minds involved i American boreball. The Toronto Blue jays are worshiped even by educated Canadians. Think about it; The game is American; The players are Americans; they play in the American League; paid in American dollars and there are line ups for tickets at high prices. We even drink blandwiser, American swill owned by a Belgian outfit. Such is the power of propaganda to dumb down a population. It’s getting worse, not better folks.
“toronto” blue jays? wait a minute, weren’t they a midwest team?
oh well, toronto! world series 2017! yes!
Mr. Schwartz,
It may behoove you to engage in some conversation with the real investigative reporters around the water cooler in the Intercept Newsroom. It may send you down the path of using investigative skills to “investigate”, rather than use your bully pulpit to glaze over the truth by writing an opinion piece like some wanna-be columnist.
To say I am disappointed in the lack of any insightfulness of this article would be the understatement of the year. I am even more disappointed in the Editor of the Intercept for printing your opinion piece as if it represents some type of valid investigative journalism worthy of printing in the Intercept.
Mr. Schwartz Voter Suppression is NOT a partisan issue. You have summarized the massively complex, systemic and systematic processes of eliminating the right to vote for tens of millions of Americans the into just five sentences, contained in in two tiny paragraphs. You falsely imply that election fraud through voter suppression is a “Republican only” effort in order to continue on with the divisive “us” vs “them” false partisan narrative that has divided the country, enabled the conquering of our once proud democracy, and contributed to it’s erosion into the Oligarchy that our democracy has become. (Thanks in large part to irresponsible journalism.)
The facts are, that in the 2016 Primary elections 1.2 million people in Arizona were stripped of the right to vote. 3.2 million voters were suppressed in New York State alone. This is a matter of public record and is only the icing of the cake. There are legal cases filed and pending in courts in numerous states throughout the country.
Reported and recorded cases of massive election fraud through voter suppression took place in at least 13 states or 25% of the United States in the 2016 Primary Elections. The suppression was the result of willful and deliberate acts committed by the Democratic Party against it’s own membership. (see Gucifer 2.0 and Wikileaks, maybe you were on vacation when those hacked emails dropped.)
Mr. Schwartz, you are a grave disappointment to those citizens like Ray Lutz of Citizen’s Oversight, John Brakey of Audit AZ, Richard Charnin of Election Justice, their attorneys, and the thousands of VOLUNTEER citizens that have been bravely taking on election fraud by filing lawsuits at their own expense, as citizens; while journalists like you irresponsibly sit on the sidelines as if you were not a trained investigator.
Do us all a favor and resign from the Intercept so that your position can be filled by a hungry idealist willing to do the investigative research necessary to educate the American people on the absence of any tangible integrity in our election system, through responsible journalism.
The Intercept should be using it’s power to inform by using this catastrophe of an election process to promote top to bottom election reform.
investigators vs case-makers
i would like to see another investigation of building 7.
i would also like to see someone make the case for an investigation of building 7.
i would also like the talent and resources to do both, but i would need a whole lot of help.
ok – investigate this out!
http://theduran.com/rigged-election-george-soros-controls-voting-machines-16-us-states/
On the co website they state that none of these ?? machines are to be used in the 2016 elections.
BUT WHAT IF THE MACHINES ARE USED UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME?
can you investigate that please? a picture comparison is all it would take along with the new name label.
Just in case you missed this…..
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eppy-winners-2016/
Best News or Event Feature on a Website Foreign Influence
The Intercept
By Jon Schwarz, Lee Fang
ps btw, it is “Schwarz”
Mr. Schwarz,
I do apologize for misspelling your name. That being said I am very critical of your article, which you seem to take exception to as an assault on your character, or a critique of your entire body of work.
My comment is a critique of this article which in my opinion is letting Intercept readers down. Glazing over rampant election fraud delays justice and justice delayed is justice denied. Under reporting is nothing to be proud of. In doing so you contribute to kicking the can containing the obvious and glaring election integrity issues down the preverbal road into the next election cycle, and then the next.
If you are going to write about election fraud, go the distance. Your work should contribute to meaningful dialogue in an effort to address election fraud head on. Like it or not the Intercept does have an obligation to it’s readers. Lee Fang’s work consistently shoulders this obligation responsibly. If my critique has offended your delicate sensibilities maybe it is Lee Fang that would be better suited to investigate and write about election fraud.
This article lacks the standard of quality that we have come to expect from the Intercept, in case you missed this.
Mr. Schwarz you can use your press access and influence in a much more conducive manner that American society can benefit from, That point however is completely lost with all of your focus falling on your bruised ego.
Roll up your sleeves and really get dirty! Investigate election fraud, and prove that your work today is worthy of the awards the work in your past have received. Awards mean little. Action however speaks volumes.
Just to let you know… I “rs” am just one of the commenters. I hope, Mr Jon Schwarz reads your comments.
I also hopes he reads them. More importantly I hope he has the balls to take significant action. Court rulings in AZ and CA are enough to raise legitimate need for thoughtful and tangible investigations. I sincerely hope that the Intercept does not disappoint the American people.
“In terms of this election, a Jill Stein voter who loathes Trump and lives in a swing state can’t vote for Stein without helping Trump.”
What about a Jill Stein voter who loathes Hillary? Why doesn’t author consider this? Why does the author attack Trump in the title of the piece?
Because the author is retarded? Because his level of cognition is soooo very low, those emails and leaked speeches had no effect on him???
I mean, HRC vowing before Goldman Sachs’ executives that she will destroy workers’ protections and force down their wages isn’t exactly confidence inspiring to us sane voters!
Because this “philosophy” of “A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump” and “A vote for Johnson is a vote for Hillary” is complete horsecrap. A vote for Stein is a vote for Stein, and a vote for Johnson is a vote for Johnson. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are owed or entitled to your vote. If they want it they have to earn it (or steal it). If they don’t earn it you are free to give it to whomever you want, swing state or not.
Rigged election? George Soros controls voting machines in 16 US states
http://theduran.com/rigged-election-george-soros-controls-voting-machines-16-us-states/
Yes, it’s funny that the Intercept has become so anti-democratic it embraces the banana republic ideal that one dare not even challenge the validity of an election — or even imagine foul play. This is not surprising, since the owner of the Intercept helped finance a coup in the Ukraine two months before an election with the help of Nazi battalions. This online paper is certainly taking on the character of its imperialist running-dog boss.
This whole ‘rigged’ tantrum that liberals are throwing now is so funny because liberals ranted endlessly about the elections of 2000 (Ohio) and the election of 2004 (Florida). It is even more ironic, since their ultimate idol, John F. Kennedy, was only elected because of the rigging in Chicago and Texas.
Here is the message of the Intercept: You only get to challenge election results and complain if you are a ‘liberal’.
“John F. Kennedy, was only elected because of the rigging in Chicago and Texas.”
Debunked repeatedly. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2000/10/was_nixon_robbed.html
Very incomplete list and article. How about the active suppression of third parties who have high hurdles to even get on the ballot? I remember the good “liberals” of Oregon actively trying to stop Nader from getting on the ballot in 2004–and a commercial liberal talk radio encouraging dems to stop Nader from getting on the ballot. I tell people that the US has effectively the Iranian system of voting. Iranians are free to vote for any candidate that the mullahs have officially allowed on the ballot. Nobody else can get on the ballots.
And you know, we have the recent example of the Clinton campaign and establishment democrats cheating Sanders out of the nomination. Say for example the manipulation of voter rolls as happened in CA and NYC. Add in the problems with tallying the votes. There are consistent and credible studies that have shown statistical anomalies in vote tallies that all fell in favor of Clinton.
I doubt there will be much in the way of reform as each major party has a lot of self interest in keeping in tact their own particular and local ways of cheating–you think NY democrats will want any reform and give up the ability to control and manipulate the vote in NYC?
And there are the diversions. This election cycle it is the Russians who with their super duper decoder rings can change voting results. The system is okay all we need to do is stop some fantasy manipulation which won’t happen. Or in 2000. Dems were screaming about voting shenanigans in Florida. The end result? Nader was blamed, and so for nearly a decade the dems did nothing while the gop went hog wild with their shenanigans–they got so good, dems in machine controlled cities could learn a lesson or two. Oh, and Kerry lost Ohio which cost him the election. Stupid ass democrats (by the way, back in the day I worked many a primary in polling places as a democrat).
I wonder why you singled out Iran when you could have just as easily used Israel as your example of control over who is allowed to run. (PS, in the ‘rigged’ Iranian election, the population was surveyed by an American organization, and one of the questions was ‘Is there anyone not on the ballot you’d like to have there?’ and the answer was a pretty resounding no. Think you’d get that sort of reaction if you surveyed Americans today?)
You can use whatever part of the analogy might work in contrasting what Americans brag about an open and transparent and free voting system versus one that I knew was institutionally controlled. America has its own version of the Iranian Guardian Council. Americans call them billionaires and the corporate elite.
From another angle, I have read surveys of Iranians that there is basically a 50/50 split on whether the Guardian Council should vet candidates.
How about the active suppression of third parties who have high hurdles to even get on the ballot?
Exactly. Where has voting for the two major parties got you so far, folks? George Bush? Bill Clinton? George Bush Sr.? Ronald Reagan? Obama? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the same ideology is perpetuated with only minor tweaks. Bullshitting is exhausting however. So.. every now and then.. they need to trade places.
“This election cycle it is the Russians who with their super duper decoder rings can change voting results. The system is okay all we need to do is stop some fantasy manipulation which won’t happen. ”
hellarious.
Hellary must have got the idea from eating a box of flaky wakies.
10 to 1 she is still addicted to flaky wakies.
If elected, everyone in the c…i…a…, f…b…i… and n…s…a… will get a decoder ring.
Franken expects hearings on FBI conduct
Minnesota Sen. Al Franken on Sunday said he expects that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on what he described as “troubling” and “rogue” conduct within the FBI.
Franked told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it was “troubling” that FBI Director James Comey decided to inform congressional leaders that his agency was reviewing new materials related to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server so close to the November election.
Franken argued that it is “more troubling” that there may be “rogue elements within the FBI” leaking information about the case, which has dominated news cycles to the chagrin of Democrats and the Clinton campaign.
The senator didn’t directly connect Comey to these elements but did suggest there might be a failure of leadership on his part.
Franken, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said he is “sure” that Comey will come before the panel. “He should answer questions about this, and he should be able to control the FBI,”
source: Madeline Conway, Politico
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/franken-expects-hearings-on-fbi-conduct-230832#ixzz4PFSICgTa
Some strange back room shit happening with Comey. He totally stops any possible indictment of Clinton with dubious bullshit claims, and now he suddenly finds more to investigate? All the more crazy as he was on the board of directors of HSBC when the Obama DOJ let HSBC off the proverbial hook for laundering money for Mexican drug cartels, and he ends up reporting to the person who lead the investigation–Lynch. Some enterprising maker of Spanish speaking novellas could take off on all of this and produce a hit show.
Speaking of rigged elections, Senator Al Franken won his seat by cheating:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/07/20/al-franken-may-have-won-his-senate-seat-through-voter-fraud
We will never see an article like this in the Intercept, because Al has a ‘D’ by his name.
Are you saying you’ve never seen or read a post on The Intercept ridiculing and critiquing a Democrat? I’ll answer that for you: Yes, that is exactly what you’re saying. Could you be any more of a bozo and make any more of a fool of yourself? The Intercept is too the gills with articles and posts exposing and criticizing Democrats. Only a complete buffoon would attempt to claim and repeat otherwise.
Jamie IS a complete buffoon. Well known, that…
“Could you be any more of a bozo and make any more of a fool of yourself?”
I think I could do that.
That article seems pretty outrageous – I thought US News & World Report had higher standards.
I mean yes, they found somebody who quoted that 341 voters might have been felons who shouldn’t have been allowed to vote. Except… the people finding this are a conservative group, based on their own rap sheet comparisons – since a rap sheet is charges rather than convictions, I’m not even sure what that means.
We know the state has its own way to disqualify felons. Their count was 341 different from “Minnesota Majority”s count. Whose do I trust – the professional election official carrying out court orders, or the political group with some rap sheets???
Even if it were all true, of course, the votes wouldn’t have been all or even mostly all for Al Franken and so the result wasn’t actually changed. And even if it *had* been changed, that would only have been the result of it being such a close election, not of some kind of major voter fraud. Show me an election settled by one vote and I can tell you right now it “might have been decided by fraud”, whoever won!
So let’s be glad The Intercept has higher standards.
The f…b…i… has been and always will be the political machine for the privatised (un)federal (rothschild) reserve (criminal) currency scheme in the US since 24 December 1913 until the system is fired and replaced with one that actually works.
This political alignment is now leaking out and spilling onto the tarmac of America for everyone to slip on.
In other words, your vote means absolutely nothing.
Pay no attention to the oligarchs behind the curtain.
Just watch the screen and choose Cartel A or Cartel B.
A small correction : In France, registration to vote is not automatic. You have to go to your local town hall to register, and later you get a voter’s card in the mail as proof.
Thank you, I was going to make a similar comment. It is sometimes automatic (for people who turn 18), but not always (for new voters). https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/N47
Who counts the votes? We assume it is done properly, but there is not any paper trail to audit the count. Every voting machine needs a punched tape as a hard copy record. We are expected to believe the outcome of elections with no proof.
Why should non-citizens be allowed to vote?
Why should anyone (foreign or domestic) be allowed to contribute campaign cash in districts, national or local elections, where they don’t live?
Instant runoff voting would be good if there was an audit trail.
“Every voting machine needs a punched tape as a hard copy record. ”
Every voting machine needs to go. Paper ballots mailed in, or dropped off, are the only way to have reliable, reproducible results.
Despotism discussed in a 1946 film:
They seem to be pretty intelligent, back in 1946, about this. Despotism comes from breakdowns in respect and power; the elites holding all the power and wealth is a strong sign of a transition to despotism. We can see this today with the Dakota Access Pipeline being rammed through poor communities by militarized police to benefit billionaires, while President Obama sits by and smiles, as do the two leading candidates for his job.
And see this interesting, on elections – rigged electronic voting machines with no paper trail, say?
Other factors: Economic wealth distribution (when concentrated, it leads to despotism); a taxation system that gives breaks to the rich but not to the poor or middle class, and control of information by a handful of wealthy interests. Children taught to accept uncritically whatever they’re told; tight state control of teaching plans; press, radio and television enforcing propaganda lines – all seems very similar to what we see in the U.S. today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH7dD3X4gLA
Respect, power, economic distribution, information scales: the lower you go, the closer you are to despotism.
THEY LIVE
There are no wealthy people in America
There are no wealthy people in America
There are no wealthy people in America
what’s a despot to do?
Making election day a national holiday will not make a difference. Christmas, Memorial Day, Labor Day…these are all national holidays and they are all days where low income and many middle income workers are still on the job because their employers remain open for business. And very few of them are privileged enough to get holiday pay for it.
Good point. As far as I can tell, a “national holiday” means only schools, government, banks, and liquor stores are closed–Walmart, Target, and Kroger certainly aren’t going to close their doors–in fact, they will advertise one day Election Specials. Unless there are easy ways to vote, a national holiday means nothing to many working class people in giving them the time to actually vote.
The whole “Election Process’ is rigged and flawed starting with need to register as mentioned.
Eliminate registration..
NO Primaries…
Voting on a single day throughout the country…..exact uniform timing ( not regional clocks )…..
All candidates can run ( and would be eliminated )….
Not just marking for favoured candidate but also space for Negative vote ( that would eliminate those not really qualified, decided by the voters )……
NO debates…..candidates to state their positions on their own websites with ability of voters to question via interactive programme….
THAT would save millions of dollars, NO waste of anyone’s time, No media bias and stupid specualtion , NO psuedopundit analysis…..
That would lead to elction of a genuinely favoured candidate.
If the people reliably select the right candidates, then restrictions on their voting can be gradually removed. This year the people have done an excellent job, selecting Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump. Both these candidates can be relied on to protect the interests of the ruling class, making many of these voting restrictions obsolete.
Mrs. Clinton has successfully surmounted the traditional weakness of the Democratic Party, which was offering hope to the disenfranchised. Now they are grateful for the opportunity to see their aspirations strangled more slowly. Mr. Trump’s supporters also have no hope for an improvement in their condition, but merely hope that others can be made to suffer more, thus alleviating some of their own misery.
So given the improved temperament of the electorate, I think it is shameful that these vote suppressing mechanisms still exist.
You should be jailed for treason for not voting for Hellary.
And how do we know you didnt vote for Hellary?
Because of the NSA tap that’s how.
Will that be used as evidence to convict you?
Of course not, it’s secret.
Your confession will be extracted after you are renditioned and tortured to tell the truth.
Numbers 1 and 2 clearly have nothing to do with voter suppression.
Also, I saw nothing about unlimited anonymous campaign financing, nor about the media’s role in manipulating outcomes, NOR about the recently reported unprecedented entry of the (unsupervised/unaccountable) DHS, CIA, and the NSA into “securing” US elections.
This article is a joke….or propaganda….one of the two.