“After the Mueller report was released, our president called Vladimir Putin, spent an hour on the phone with him,” Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said on CBS’s Face The Nation yesterday. “Described the report as a hoax, giving Putin a green light to further interfere in our democracy.”
“Russia interfered in the 2016 election,” tweeted presidential candidate Kamala Harris the other day. “If we don’t do anything to upgrade our election infrastructure, we will leave our nation vulnerable to future attacks.”
We’ve been seeing many such hysterical warnings about Russian interference in the upcoming 2020 elections, and as the election gets nearer we are 100 percent guaranteed to see a lot more.
Lawmakers worry that elections will be held on woefully outdated voting machines and that any tampering by adversaries could lead to disputed results https://t.co/dVW2bqxndr
— Roll Call (@rollcall) May 22, 2019
Another concern people have been voicing, which has far more legitimacy, is the fear of election tampering from domestic actors. An article published the other day by Roll Call reports that experts are warning America’s 2020 elections “will be held on voting machines that are woefully outdated and that any tampering by adversaries could lead to disputed results.” An article published last month by the Guardian warns that new voting machines aren’t necessarily an improvement.
“The purchases replace machines from the turn of the century that raise serious security concerns,” the Guardian reports. “But the same companies that made and sold those machines are behind the new generation of technology, and a history of distrust between election security advocates and voting machine vendors has led to a bitter debate over the viability of the new voting equipment – leaving some campaigners wondering if America’s election system in 2020 might still be just as vulnerable to attack.”
Initiatives are sprouting up to bring more election security and reliability to the United States, which is currently ranked dead last in election integrity among all western democracies. Support for paper ballots is picking up steam with support from Senate Democrats and multiple presidential candidates, and rightly so; hand-counted paper ballots is considered the gold standard for election integrity, and every nation should want that for their voting systems.
But neither foreign interference nor domestic vote tampering will be the most egregious form of election meddling that we will see in America’s 2020 presidential elections.
Reminder: In 2016, Washington Post ran 16 negative stories about @SenSanders in 16 hours. Has to be a record of its kind. https://t.co/0RH9pQfRvi@adamjohnsonNYC for @FAIRmediawatch#BernieSanders2020 #BernieSanders
— Raza Ahmad Rumi (@Razarumi) March 4, 2019
In 2016, at the single hottest and most contested moment of the Democratic presidential primaries, the Washington Post published no less than sixteen smear pieces against Bernie Sanders in the span of sixteen hours. This campaign by a newspaper which is solely owned by the richest man in the world (who also happens to be a CIA contractor and Pentagon advisory board member) was plainly geared at manipulating the 2016 presidential primary results. And, along with similar campaigns by the rest of the plutocrat-owned media which ranged from blacking out coverage on Sanders to deliberately manipulating narratives about him to circulating outright lies, it succeeded.
We are already seeing this same pattern repeated today, arguably in an even more egregious way. A recent article by Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone titled “We’ve Hit a New Low in Campaign Hit Pieces” documents some jaw-droppingly obnoxious smears leveled against the two Democratic candidates who are taking the most flack from the mass media, Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard. The Daily Beast added to the growing mountain of MSM Gabbard smears with an article titled “Tulsi Gabbard’s Campaign Is Being Boosted by Putin Apologists”, claiming on essentially zero evidence that the Hawaii congresswoman has a suspicious amount of support from Kremlin loyalists, a smear which was elevated into mainstream consciousness by ABC and CNN. Sanders was smeared by the New York Times for his previous opposition to US interventionism in Nicaragua.
We’re not even halfway through 2019 and there are already far too many of such mass media hit pieces for me to list in this article. These plutocrat-owned outlets are doing everything they can to make sure that Trump will be running against a more polite version of himself come November 2020. Hell, Fortune Magazine just published an article titled “Why Joe Biden Is the Only True Progressive Candidate“, which attempts to argue exactly what the headline promises. Once the primaries are over, this manipulation will shift toward whoever’s the oligarchic favorite for the general election.
Why Joe Biden is the only true progressive candidate https://t.co/9jyEBgmFGf
— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) May 24, 2019
As soon as you see someone become extremely wealthy, you immediately see them start buying up public narrative control. They buy and invest in media outlets, they pour money into influential think tanks, they send lobbyists into government offices to persuade politicians to think a certain way about a given subject. Ordinary people can’t afford to do these things, so they have relatively little control over the dominant narratives about what’s going on in our society and our world.
It is therefore an indisputable fact that the very wealthy therefore have an immensely disproportionate influence over the way that people think and vote, which means the plutocratic class has the fully legal ability to practice election interference. Both the plutocratic media and the US government have already tacitly admitted that this is true in the frantic, hysterical way they’ve been talking about Russian Facebook memes as election interference, despite the fact that those social media posts are a microscopic drop in the barrel of the billions and billions of dollars that goes into mass media election coverage. If the Internet Research Agency of St Petersburg was election meddling, then the plutocratic class which consistently manipulates public narratives to its favor certainly is as well, to an extent that is greater by orders of magnitude.
Of course it’s good that people are pushing for paper ballots, and it’s not a bad idea to take precautions against foreign interference as well, but we must become aware that the greatest share of election interference happens before anyone sets foot in a polling booth. The way the American psyche is pummeled with mass media narratives designed to manufacture consent for war, economic injustice, ecocide, Orwellian government intrusiveness, and the politicians who promote these things will influence far more votes in 2020 than any other election tampering, foreign or domestic.
Mass media propaganda is the single most overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of our society. The ability of an elite class to control the way a supermajority of the population thinks, acts and votes has shaped our entire world in the favor of a few sociopaths driven by an insatiable lust for money and power who got to where they are because they were willing to do anything to get ahead. If we can’t find a way to get a handle on that, then it won’t matter how pristine your elections are, how ethical the DNC primary process becomes, or what the Russians are up to this year.
Do you want to live in a world which is built around the selfish desires of powerful, amoral manipulators and hoarders? No? Then you’re going to have to start doing what you can to oppose such a system, and to convince as many of your brothers and sisters as possible to join you.
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40 responses to “The Worst 2020 Election Interference Will Be Perfectly Legal”
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The Mainstream Media acts as MiniTrue for the progressives. It changes history and fabricates stories and news. It can even report on the wrong person winning to force people to vote for that person. This is legal apparently. But if Russia does it, it is Russian Hacking and interference.
Excellent summary Caitlin Johnstone of our USA fake, broken, rigged elections monopoly monster madness which has been at war on peace and love and everyone’s dreams that we could build and plan a true democracy for peace and truth and love for everyone red and yellow, black, brown and white…I was first able to vote by age 22 in 1964…after JFK was assassinated in 1963 in Texas, then hell what year was it RFK his brother was assassinated in Los Angeles, CA where we lived and were very close by at big sound and stereo show at big hotel there. By the time I could finally vote I voted Peace & Freedom Party here in CA, USA and supported vote to give vote to those 18 years old, as I was way involved in helping those avoiding the draft to Vietnam…in every way possible while not being allowed to vote until 21 or thereafter whenever an election came up. By 1968 we were making front page big gatherings lots of thousands of us of all ages protesting wars and promoting peace and non-violence…before MLK was assassinated in November…by March 1969 went to NYC drove TRIUMPH 4 sports car for deliver to friend in Bronx…spun a little in ice on bridge over Mississippi River, clipped my tail pipe, kept going and experienced visions on my windscreen of disciples of author of “Autobiography of A Yogini by Hindu Yoga master Parahansa Yoganananda who I met up with soon in NYC…the disciples in the vision on my windshield were showing me photos and beads and had traditional Hindu head hat gear…I’ll never forget their light… when I took airplane from NYC to LAX to return home, those 2 same disciples were seated right across the aisle from me… and wow did we ever share a lot about prayers and thoughts and meditations!!! How they had met in meditations and power peace pure and simple and knew The Yogini and had just visited with him too…how my path to Hatha yoga practice got jump started and I planned on going to Bombay where my family Christian jews called home for over 4 generations…I was going to Hindu land and find my way up into the Himalayas mountains where old ancient temples were where nary a negative word could be uttered such profound were the thoughts and prayers and chants and prayer wheels for peace and meditations. By 1972 I had a major NDE due to blow out tire rolled my auto landed on my head and ended up in hospital ICU on morphine and 10 days most of spent in the super heavens at what I call the Intergalactic Divine Comedy Club and Music Performance Center and Library in the Gardens with my spiritual pals, peers of poetry, humor, music and the Divine Goddess holding forth at what I call “The Enough Cafe”… best yoga instruction ever… then 10 days later I had to escape the ICU hospital because the drugs they were giving me were causing me to run a fever that doctors could not figure out so Great Spirit told me to rise up from my hospital bed and take my coins to Pay Phone way down the hall…pulled my catheter out… and walked to phone called my mom and said come get me…I’m getting a wheelchair and call me a cab I’m outta here! The movie HOSPITAL had just been out in all the big theaters…
About 1973 we were visiting the Tibetan Buddhist Center in Berkeley, CA where my best friends mom was staying and helping the bookstore and teaching the Black Hat meditations of Dalai Lamma and deep tone chanting and singing bowls…we got sooo high doing this apart and then together that we could gather for hours together and peace peace peace…not one baby cried, just pure community in peace forever family.
Ever since I was registered P&F Party or Greens, voted 3rd party Sonja Johnston 1984…
Been there with Ralph Nader who took it upon himself to demonstrate how USA 2 headed corporate snake gov did not allow non corporate candidates to make into their phoney fake debates…or even attend. Ronald Reagan got in as governor of CA and then horrors of horrors he was elected president!!!…by 1980…So we founded The Alliance for Survival in Olive, Orange County CA USA – Anti Nuclear Weapons, NUKE Power Plants as in San ONOFRE Nulcear Power plant and we were – Pro Human Needs. 1980-1983 we were super active all over Southern California all the TV networks were eager to follow our actions and rallyies and vigils and marathons and events at Hollywood Bowl and by June 6, 1982 we put on Peace Sunday Blue Dreamers at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles just the day before the Special Sessions on Disarmament was held on east coast… after we had blocked the O.C. Air Force base where weapons dealers were staying to attend big weapons show for days at Disneyland Hotel…
United by 1983 with pals to move to Humboldt County, CA where we united with our community for PEACE… work to save the old growth forests, to save our rivers and unblock the dams, clean up the oldest Nuke Plant in USA here on our Humboldt Bay Peninsula, make lots of music and dance dance dance until the cows come home.
Now we are down home grass roots ARTISTS DISMANTLING CAPITALISM… Standing up to the face of Empire….We are dancing ❗️in the dragons jaws… JUST A WHOLE LOT OF ARTISTS WIGGLING AND GIGGLING AND CELEBRATING WITH DIVINE LOVE AND JOY AND CULTURAL CREATIVES OF ALL KINDS FOR HEALTHY HAPPY HUMBOLDTIANS. This is what we do. We do not do much political on Facebook because that’s all we would be just reporting the horrors of USA fed gov on every aspect of every issue… instead of living the dream of our joyful hearts and letting our soul power love show/shine out with healing, feeling, wheeling and dealing.
I am politically a humanitarian with huge empathy genes for humanity and our planet.
I am a politically local person with a lot of community friends and family who are most closely identified with Greens Party like we voted for Jill Stein in 2016…I have no idea if I will vote again or keep up my useless petitions signing and comments to WA, DC politicos mob monster monopoly madness. It sure would be good to stop me spending so much misspent use of my precious divine energy trying to function within our oh sooo fake democracy. Like other peaceniks here in CALIFORNIA they wanted us to run for governor back in the 1970s but that was a rat’s nest then, just as it is now…they wanted me to run for State Assemblymember years ago when a very real deal member was termed out… I could not take the life style of travel required to campaign…OY VAY!
Wasn’t it Obama who said in late 2016 that our elections were not corrupt and were in the hands of an international corporation that could not be corrupted?
Forgive me of this is tooo long comments, but my life has been a way wild ride of exploring the heights and depths of my spiritual soul calling… and seeking to be politically holistic and relevant… Like the Peace & Freedom Party of CA today says it’s a Feminist Socialist Party… I might just vote for Marianne Williamson in DEM primary yes known her here in CA for 40 years and love her like family. How to well oppose the USA fed gov madness? Our USA gov is fucked!…
The general population of these United States of America are just numb to the fact that our government is inhumane and guilty of many war crimes for years on end!! I found this article that may wake some of them up:
https://www.fff.org/2019/05/28/iraq-war-veterans-waged-an-illegal-war/
When you explain to people that voting will not give them the better society we long for, one of the ways they defend themselves from acknowledging this shocking information is to say, “what solution do you have to all our problems?” As if one should have one simple guaranteed solution to our myriad problems.
But pursuing a method again and again that is guaranteed to fail, wastes time and energy which could be spent on seeking real workable methods. If we already trust in an ineffective approach we will lack the motivation to seek real answers.
I guess I really have no answer for people who insist on playing against a rigged wheel or election in spite of predictably losing again and again, year after year. Unless they wake from their trance, there is no use talking to them about other options.
Again Mike K, what “real workable methods” do you propose? We both know voting for candidates and not voting at all doesn’t work. So what then? Stick our thumb up our ass and wait ’em out?
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I’m simply arguing we should use the ballot and ballot box as protest — a challenge — by simply tendering a blank ballot. Withdraw your consent publicly in the only poll that counts, the election.
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How do you know this is “guaranteed to fail, wastes time and energy”? It might work, or it might not — we’ve not tried so we don’t really know one way or the other. So why not try it? It doesn’t cost anything and it’s easy and safe to do — even if it completely flops it’s better than doing nothing.
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No one here, especially me, is arguing there is any magic bullet or single simple solution to “our myriad problems.” But it not only looks like you “lack the motivation to seek real answers”, but that you’re unwilling to consider *anything* which might directly challenge the status quo. Why not?
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Curious… that you keep mentioning “other options” in the abstract but never actually propose any “real workable methods” that are “guaranteed [not] to fail, waste time and energy”.
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Hell, Ishkabibble wants to design an entirely new economic system before we get off our asses. On the other hand, I just think we ought get off our asses and start trying new and innovative ways to protest / monkey-wrench the empire’s system. And all you do is argue against it…
Hi Spanky. Thanks for your critical comments. I tend to agree with much of what you share here. We disagree about the value of voting in elections structured as they are now in the US. Disagreement is good – it provokes deeper thought and clearer expression of our ideas.
I agree with an article Caitlin wrote a little bit ago, where she pointed out that we really don’t know how to effect the truly massive and radical changes in people’s thinking that could lead to solutions to our critical problems as a society, and as a species facing extinction. Many of the changes needed are so obvious and simple, that they are known to any clear headed person – for instance we should stop our constant warring, and share our wealth so that no one needs to live in poverty.
In science, some of the most important discoveries are revelations that what we had believed to be true, turns out to be false. Untrue beliefs (like thinking that voting will give us the radically different world we need) can only continue to take us into dead end mazes of futility like Franz Kafka’s Castle, in which there are only deepening mistakes and repetitions of bankrupt ideas and behaviors. We need to follow new paths with new and real possibilities. Those paths begin with letting go of old ways, and proceed by realizing that demanding immediate pat answers to replace our old mistakes is unrealistic, and can only delay the real creative work of finding effective answers to our situation. This will not be easy, and will require the deep patience of those involved in a scientific inquiry to succeed…..
Caitlin also describes something she calls a “word salad”, which you’re serving up… mmmm, tastes great, less filling. Enjoy.
“Hell, Ishkabibble wants to design an entirely new economic system before we get off our asses.” –Spanky
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Yes, that is exactly what has to happen BEFORE bringing down the present arrangement. Here’s why.
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Engineers are given a task such as “design a new bridge over X to replace the old bridge”. The engineers request the operational requirements of the bridge – number, size and weight of vehicles that will be on the bridge at any moment; the environmental elements the bridge will be subjected to; the design life of the bridge, etc. The engineers have to know exactly what the “result” of their effort is going to be BEFORE they even touch a computer key, let alone “get off their asses” and start building. It is up to those requesting the bridge to provide to the engineers the location of the bridge and how much the politicians intend to allow the traffic volume to grow over the decades of the new bridge’s design lifetime.
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Our first task is to describe in great detail and agree upon the deficiencies of the present arrangement (Matrix). If we cannot do that, we don’t need to do anything further. Just hold on tight and wait for the first nukes to drop.
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Some people notice problems with the present whatever-you-want-to-call-it “arrangement” in which we live. For just one MAJOR example among many, the 3 young human beings who have inherited a factory that has been in our city of 20,000 people for 75 years – a factory that employs 3,000 of those 20,000 people – suddenly decide to close down the factory and move their capital equipment to a place on the planet where there are desperately poor, starving people who are “willing” to work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, for food and a place on the factory floor to sleep. Those three owners are going to make much more profit as a result of that move. They’re ecstatic about their decision.
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The employees of the factory who are about to lose their livelihoods are in panic mode because they know full well that there are no other jobs in their city. The owners of the local businesses that depend upon the employees of the factory spending their money in their establishments are also in panic mode.
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These groups contact their political representatives at the local, state and federal levels, but they are told that because the factory is “privately” owned, the owners are “free” to do with “their property” whatever they “choose” , including moving the factory to a location on the planet where they can “maximize profit”.
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The factory workers and local business owners decide to do something in an attempt to keep the factory in the city. They decide to “protest” the factory closure by “getting off their asses” and surrounding the factory to prevent the equipment from being moved. This action works for the few days that it takes the 3 owners of the factory to go to a court of law. In short, however many government employees carrying firearms it takes to arrest however many protesters it takes to allow the 3 owners’ capital equipment to be removed from the factory is put into action and the equipment is removed. A few local heads had to be busted by a few local cops, but for the 3 owners and the local cops it was “mission accomplished”. The integrity of the arrangement (Matrix) was maintained. End of story.
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So will the vast majority of people living in this present arrangement think that the above situation is unacceptable and must be changed? I think that the answer may very well be “yes”. So then the following question immediately arises. Just exactly WHAT is a better arrangement? We don’t need to “get off our asses” to discuss and, hopefully, decide what that better arrangement should be. I propose the we commenters on this article do that right here, right now.
An insiders revelations to the scam that is being played on the United States public:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-mass-media-is-poisoning-us-with-hate/
–Both the democrats and the republicans know that Donald trump is our president not because of the Russians, but because of the Israelis!!! That is why both parties are bending over backwards to keep the real truth from ever being revealed!!!
I have been believing for a while that the way to go is to do not vote at all because the election process in the West is of course a sham.
But because we are in the days of Noah and so everyone is voting only about his personal interests, a lot of people will vote as told because they still have something to loose (besides of their eternal salvation of course).
I think the times of politics are over. We are living eschatological times. As it was in the days of Noah, people are unable to think about the broader society outside of themselves.
And for the ruling elite, the goal is to delay the Return of Jesus as much as possible because it would mean the end of their very profitable statu quo. For those elites, you have to pray to Saint Jude and in fact for all the others also because they are more and more similar to the ruling elites, strictly protecting their social position and their money and voting the way that will do that for them.
So there is only prayer left. I am keeping my Rosary close. The end must be near no doubt.
I have bad news for you, according to the BIBLE Jesus was to return while the people he WAS SPEAKING TOO WERE STILL ALIVE! THEY WOULD LIVE TO SEE IT ALL!
That was mentioned many times in the new testament, those standing here WILL LIVE TO SEE the son of man RETURN in glory, with the father to judge.
ALL of the people he spoke to are DEAD, Jesus will never return & many biblical scolars think that Jesus never actually existed & all the stories told about him were scavenged from other MYTHS.
Read the myth of Horus, a god of Egypt, his story is very simular to the Jesus myth. There are many “gods” & “sons” of “gods” with a simular story to that of Jesus.
Jesus was not the “son” of the imaginary “god” of Israel!
If only prayer is left, than we have nothing, no hope whatsoever & the “sheeple” are too STUPID & BRAINWASHED to see how they are being USED & DECEIVED!
We never had a “democracy” this mess was suppose to be a SECULAR, REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC, NOT A THEOCRATIC OLIGARCHY.
The “end” is indeed “close” but it will be a COLLAPSE not a “rapture”.
I too would rather we had a “rapture” with the bad guys going to “hell” & the good folks going to “heaven” but that can never happen.
Go ahead & keep your rosery close anyway, can’t do any harm.
The inconvenient truth:
The thing that makes the present whatever-you-want-to-call-it “arrangement” ALMOST impossible to change is the literally hundreds of years of history that has led up to this present moment as I type.
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This would not be so bad if it were not the historical fact of relatively frequent wars that were for some unexplained reason ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY in the present arrangement. Neither Howard Beale nor Arthur Jensen make any mention of the US’s wars and, IMO, that is a grave mistake. It is “grave” because in all previous wars nations employed the most lethal weapons available, INCLUDING nuclear weapons. The next major war will be no different, except that nuclear weapons will be used by several nations instead of just one. That means not just the destruction of probably thouseands of cities, but, this time around the business cycle, human extinction.
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In order to prevent nuclear war, the present centuries-old arrangement in which a microscopic percentage of the population owns or controls LARGE SCALE capital equipment for its own astronomical profit MUST SOMEHOW BE CHANGED, by whatever it takes.
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But, once again with feeling, the “arrangement” that will replace the present one has to be designed before the present one dies. The design of the new arrangement will be far more difficult the killing the present one because the brainwashed members of the bewildered herd are ALMOST incapable of agreeing upon just about anything (even the meanings of words), let alone the design of an alternative.
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The present strategy of humanity is this proving to be same as it was in the past — simply wait around until the nukes start dropping. Too bad, really.
the world sees US self righteously resenting interference in their elections while overthrowing other countries governments
In the old West, a friend approached Jeb, who was gambling on the Wheel of Fortune, and said “Don’t you know that wheel is rigged so that you can never win?” and Jeb said, “Yeah, I know that.” So his friend asks, “Then why do you keep playing it, and losing your money?” And Jeb answers “Because it’s the only wheel in town.”
This is the “logic” of the American voter.
It’s a pretzel logic problem Mike K… Many of us simply find ourselves in a position of choosing the perceived “lesser of two evils” come election time but both choices are still evil.
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Perhaps you’d care to describe some means of changing this situation for the better? If unable to articulate some other course for Americans to pursue, why not consider this…
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One of the more interesting aspects of our little democratic republic is that voting for candidates constitutes implied consent to a government formed by the winners of that election. Not voting, unfortunately, does not imply revocation of one’s consent and, in any case, it’s not possible to determine why someone did not vote on a mass scale.
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This is the Catch-22 of American governance — while consent is implied by voting, there is no way to revoke one’s consent either explicitly or implicitly, Constitutionally or legally. And this seems odd for a nation where all legitimate political power supposedly resides in and flows from the people.
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For consent to have meaning it must not only be freely given but also able to be just as freely revoked, else it has no meaning at all.
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Since legitimate governance derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed” it follows that we, the citizens of the United States of America, must be able to agree, among ourselves, what constitutes revocation of our consent.
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As American citizens, the Constitution is an agreement between ourselves about how we govern ourselves, not a noose around our neck hanging us from the branches of a despotic government.
It’s a pretzel logic problem Mike K… Many of us simply find ourselves in a position of choosing the perceived “lesser of two evils” come election time but both choices are still evil.
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Perhaps you’d care to describe some means of changing this situation for the better? If unable to articulate some other course for Americans to pursue, why not consider…
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One of the more interesting aspects of our little democratic republic is that voting for candidates constitutes implied consent to a government formed by the winners of that election. Not voting, unfortunately, does not imply revocation of one’s consent and, in any case, it’s not possible to determine why someone did not vote on a mass scale.
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This is the Catch-22 of American governance — while consent is implied by voting, there is no way to revoke one’s consent either explicitly or implicitly, Constitutionally or legally. And this seems odd for a nation where all legitimate political power supposedly resides in and flows from the people.
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For consent to have meaning it must not only be freely given but also able to be just as freely revoked, else it has no meaning at all.
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Since legitimate governance derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed” it follows that we, the citizens of the United States of America, must be able to agree, among ourselves, what constitutes revocation of our consent.
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As American citizens, the Constitution is an agreement between ourselves about how we govern ourselves, not a noose around our neck hanging us from the branches of a despotic government.
Apologies for the double post — reCAPTCHA strikes again…
When discussing politics we dismiss the possibility that most problems, disasters and wars are simply the predictable outcome of deliberate national policy. Many believe the more heinous and insidious acts of government are merely the incidental consequences of democratic rule (i.e.: persons opposed to the majority view and policy acting unilaterally).
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That point of view allows for a wide range of apparent aberrations in our system including (to name but a very few) the FBI’s COINTELPRO abuses of citizen rights in the 60s and 70s; CIA assassinations and overthrow of democratic governments worldwide; the recent USA Patriot Act; CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” process and torture of suspected “enemy combatants”. All merely misguided attempts, by “good men, patriots all” whose political outlook differs from the majority and are simply trying to secure and extend the benefits of democracy, liberty and freedom to preserve our American Way of Life.
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Immediately preceding the 1992 Presidential election, I wrote an investigative article that asked a simple question: What would be the policy differences between a Bush, Sr. and Clinton White House. One source, Florida State University sociologist Thomas Dye, Ph.D., flatly stated that there would be none of any significance, if elected Clinton would continue pursuing long established US policy goals.
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Professor Dye’s point of view, questionable though it may seem, bears careful consideration. Since the Nixon Administration, his graduate students and he have complied and analyzed reams of data and information about every presidential administration, including appointees and their institutional affiliations, and published their findings in book form, “Who Is Running America”, for each new administration. Dye’s work focuses, in significant part, on “multiple interlockers”, those institutional players with multiple director roles (e.g.: policy formulation roles, such as a board of directors) within corporate, educational, law, banking, foundation, media, and government institutions, as well as the coordinating institutions themselves.
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According to Dr. Dye, progressive, reform minded voters are unable to significantly change U.S. Government policies for several reasons, but mainly because America is not a functional democracy. To illustrate the point, consider this statement by a professor of history at the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University, Dr. Carroll Quigley, Ph.D., from his book, ‘Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time’:
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“The chief problem of American political life for a long time has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. The policies that are vital and necessary for America are no longer subjects of significant disagreement, but are disputable only in details of procedure, priority, or method … [E]ither party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.” (pp. 1247-1248)
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Specifically, Quigley concludes that the wealthy, including individuals, corporations, foundations and other institutions representing great wealth are “really above parties” and “much more concerned with policies than with party victories.” Moreover, the wealthy “have been the dominate element in both parties since 1900 and practiced the political techniques of William C. Whitney and J.P. Morgan.” These political techniques include making generous donations to both parties and rival candidates so that no matter who wins, a desired policy gets primary consideration and implementation. One modern practitioner is Dwayne Andreas, chairman of Archer Daniels Midland Corporation, the self-proclaimed “supermarket to the world” and primary recipient of large federal ethanol subsidies.
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It is worth noting that when Bill Clinton attended Georgetown University, Dr. Quigley was one of his professors. Years later, during his first term, President Clinton gave the inaugural lecture in the Dr. Carroll Quigley Memorial Lecture Series, wherein he thanked his former professor for the depth and breadth of his historical outlook and worldview.
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Why is this important? Simply because, if what Dr. Quigley wrote and Dr. Dye’s analysis are accurate in its depiction of how power is held and wielded, then President Clinton’s statements could be used to make a case that he is a co-conspirator in defrauding American citizens of their right to fair and adequate representation in government.
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Before dismissing this as lunacy, consider the words of an attorney engaged in prosecuting defense contractor fraud cases: “The United States government believes in conspiracies.” Indeed, government officials not only believe in conspiracies, they enacted, continue to expand, and actively prosecute, laws against conspiracy, which Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, defines as:
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“A combination or confederacy between two or more persons formed for the purpose of committing, by their joint efforts, some unlawful or criminal act, or some act which is lawful in itself, but becomes unlawful when done by the concerted action of the conspirators, or for the purpose of using criminal or unlawful means to the commission of an act not in itself unlawful.
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” … A conspiracy may be a continuing one; actors may drop out, and others drop in; the details of operation may change from time to time; the members need not know each other or the part played by others; a member need not know all the details of the plan or the operations; he must, however, know the purpose of the conspiracy and agree to become a party to a plan to effectuate that purpose.”
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It is fact that Bill Clinton became a President of the United States. The central question then, to what degree his path was guided by his history professor’s revelations, may be inferred from Clinton’s remarks regarding the professor’s influence on his understanding of the world. If this be so, then his personal history lends much credence to Dr. Quigley’s exhaustive and lucid description of how men of great wealth organized, financed and exercised power, especially political power, during the previous century and continue doing so even to this day.
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Facts are always be interpreted according to ideological belief and cultural bias. It is always interesting to read conflicting ideological “explanations” of an event wherein the facts themselves are well documented. Both the right and left interpret actors and events, cause and effect, within the singular scope of their ideological paradigm.
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This essay is not a normative statement on this state of affairs, rather it simply intends to spotlight the fact that national politics are not at all as they appear. That citizens have no control over public policy where it supposedly counts, in the voting booth. And if voters have no control over policy, over the goals and actions of government, over who gets what when, then “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” is nothing more than myth.
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Years ago, I asked Noam Chomsky, Ph.D. why he so exhaustively documented, over and over again, the same issues. He replied that he had to in order not to be dismissed as a crank or as simply misinformed or that the event in question was merely an isolated occurrence and not a deliberate act of policy.
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When the WTO overturns national or state law on the basis that it restricts “free trade”, is it a policy a majority of Americans support? Or, in other words, should a “corporate right” to “free trade” trump any legislative act which protects air and water from pollution, food and drink from contamination, citizens’ and workers’ (human) rights? A bipartisan majority of Congress believes it should. But who decided NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO were “no longer subjects of significant disagreement, but are disputable only in details of procedure, priority, or method”?
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P.S.: Have been researching and writing about these issues for a long time… Nothing changes because, simply put, we refuse to agree among ourselves on the overriding importance of opposing our elites and their empire. Petty differences separate us, setting one against another, to our common enemy’s benefit. And enemy is the only correct term for the global and national elites who today rule, for they wage war against us…
people always know in their guts what you Ph.Ds have studied and researched and proved and concluded over and over again.
BDS!
Spanky, I’ve been in this muck for years. Those who know Quigley, Tragedy & Hope, know! that he was HIRED by (Cecil Rhodes) Round Tablers to write their history, but he figured out how things work. Clinton was a Rhodes scholar, (as is Buttagieg, sp?) and the ’empire’ has nothing to do with ‘Americans’ at all, but with people who believe as Round Tablers Rhodes Scholars, Fabians, free traders, CFR, etc, schools of thought, think tanks, international clubs, etc, do (and their rich friends). Whether it’s the Club of Rome, (modern Malthusians), and it’s anti-third world populations position (quest to reduce the world population to 500,00 to 1 billion), privatize the BEST lands and resources policy, telling the world that natural climate change (no longer global warming, hmm) is going to kill them and we must all change EVERYTHING, even our political systems, from ’empty Earth’ to ‘full Earth’, values, (no sovereign nations, no free will, etc) why, it’s entire proclaimed creation of ‘evironmentalism’ as a means to reduce the population of the world, hoard resources for themselves under ‘environmental protection’, install AI, robots and SAVE THEIR OWN, is suspect, at the least. You bet there are international orders, families, philosophies, old orders, etc. and it isn’t an typical American tradition. It’s an old, old gaggle of ruling class rulers, rising up again and using every trick in the book. Environmentalism. Ha ha! Why does every MSM push this? Why do people think the MSM is crooked, Wrong about EVERYTHING–EXCEPT about global climate crisis? Look into that, while you’re at it.
Unfortunately, Sue, no amount of denialist paranoia and disinformation will make anthropogenic climate destabilisation go away. Silly little semantic arguments over terminology do not refute science or the observations from reality or amount to any sort of intellectual or moral argument.
So we’ve been told.
Yes, but are you listening-or comprehending?
Here’s an idea. Why don’t they asked the citizens from countries they interfered with during elections, or, had instigated the overthrow of their respective government to vote for the next American president. I’m sure this would be a much cheaper option for the American taxpayer. The money they save could be spent on housing for the homeless or for providing clean water for everyone. It does make a lot of sense, seriously!
And to all the journalists who think they are being fair and balanced, and come to their opinions honestly… Of course you do, but if your opinions were a threat to anyone that matters you would be on this list; not doing what you are doing now.
https://www.businessinsider.com/2019-media-layoffs-job-cuts-at-buzzfeed-huffpost-vice-details-2019-2
There is always a focus on voting machines in America, and that focus always ignores a much bigger problem. No matter what method is used to cast the votes, then everyone goes home and waits for a computer to tell them who won. That computer that counts the votes and then prints out results is the obvious place to steal an election. The software being run is all considered proprietary so nobody can see and verify the computer code. Why? No real reason given. It is of course very easy within that code to transfer votes from Candidate A to Candidate B, or to for instance take half the votes the Green Party receives and switch them to Democrat. No body monitors the count like they do in other elections. They just accept what the computer says.
Both political parties in America want a system they can defraud because both parties do it in the places where they control the voting. America has a long history of stolen elections and the Russians have never been involved in one of them.
I step up to the US Political table to roll the dice.
(remember, ‘ ‘all options are on the table’ ‘)
50 others are around the table waiting for their turn.
But we all keep losing.
The craps dealer keeps saying,
‘ ‘if you don’t play you can’t win’ ‘
but we keep losing anyway.
So I’m thinking, – looks like the dice are loaded,
and the dealer knows but doesn’t give a sh*t.
So I say, ‘ ‘F**k this, I’m outta here.’ ‘
But the others tell me:
Come on, keep playing, there’s 50 of us and only one dealer,
we gotta win eventually because we outnumber the dealer 50:1.
So I keep playing
and we keep losing.
So I say, ‘ ‘The dice are loaded, I’m outta here.’ ‘
But now, the others join the dealer – I swear they did
and the chorus sings ‘ ‘if you don’t play, you can’t win.’ ‘
So I say,
‘ ‘holy cow players, we keep losing’ ‘
‘ ‘the dice are loaded, the game is rigged’ ‘
‘ ‘and we keep losing – what’s to play-?’ ‘
But they all just smile at me.
They know I’m crazy.
–
Okay, what’s a bozo like me know anyway-??
So I keep playing – and I keep losing.
What the voting public needs here in the United States of America is the truth about just who is behind the scenes pulling the strings on each candidate. Our Mayor Bill de Blasio has thrown his hat into the presidential ring!! I call him – Bill de Blasio ( Democrat Organized Crime )- because that who has been pulling his strings the entire time he has been in office!! Due to the enormous amount of money needed to run for elective office each candidate is ” owned ” by their large donors who expect their candidates to do whatever they are told once they get into office. If the voting public knew who each candidate is controlled by the phonies would be quickly eliminated!! As it stands now only the ” owned puppets ” will ever get any media coverage and the candidates ” not favored by the big money interests ” will get repeatedly smeared 24/7!!! Perhaps we should just forget about the next election and just let Israel decide who our president will be!!!
ron, we the people don’t have the power to “let” the superior ones do anything. they have been doing so regardless of what we want to let them.
Yes this system and their media will give the US people a top notch drama. It will be an exciting horse race between Trump and Biden/ Harris or some such proffered selection, but which side wins doesn’t matter a whit to the “power elite”.
The American people are simply not capable of understanding this propaganda threat. We can hardly discern obvious fake news how can we handle the stuff that looks “real”. What will happen is that the Dems will put up a weaker candidate and we will have 4 more years of Trump.
you’re one of those who are too arrogant (because you’re too stupid) to know the people.
The US should implement the Venezuelan voting system for registration of voters and actual voting. Fairest in the world, I’ve read, and almost impossible to defraud.
Hadn’t heard that. Will do some research. I ha heard that Maduro won something like 65 percent. One of the biggest MSM cons right now is about Venezuela IMHO. Leading up to the attempted overthrow there was almost nightly coverage of riots. Never a mention of US sanctions that are strangling their economy, and killing people. http://cepr.net/press-center/press-releases/report-finds-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-are-responsible-for-tens-of-thousands-of-deaths
I believe that former US President Jimmy Carter, who was an international election observer in a recent (but not the last?) election, has been quoted as saying it was the fairest in the world.
Tripped over this when looking for something else.
Explained: How Voting Works in Venezuela
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13801
I’d say that the process puts most countries’ election procedures to shame. We have a fairly good one here in Canada but nothing with the number of checks and audits that Venezuela has. It makes the US system(s) look incredibly shoddy.
This does not address Caitlin’s concerns in the USA about media interference but the last information I have seen from two or three sources seems to indicate a free media environment with, in fact, opposition forces actually have the advantage over the Chavez-Maduro forces in that area.
So far, the Venezuelan fiasco stories are unravelling a lot like the “aluminum tubes”, “yellow cake”, and weapons of mass destruction stories before the Iraq invasion. Mainstream US media seems to be either totally unquestioning of dodgy information from the US Govt and Venezuelan opposition sources. Or they are just lying under orders.
In either case their behaviour reinforces Caitlin’s fears going into the 2020 US elections.
It doesn’t matter if the voting system was “fair” as long as the CANDIDATES are GREEDY, LYING, WARMONGERING, CORPORATE OLIGARCHS!
“They” the REAL RULERS make sure we don’t have actual CHOICES, like so many here have so eloquently noted, the “game” is RIGGED, the “vote” is a FRAUD, choosing one evil over another evil is still choosing EVIL!
I won’t even bother to post a protest “vote” any more, to HELL with these FAKE, RIGGED, NO CHOICE, NO OPTIONS “ELECTIONS”!
BOYCOT THE 2020 “ELECTIONS”!
We do NOT CONSENT!