[blind-democracy] Re: Is Hillary Stealing the Nomination? Will Bernie Birth a Long-Term Movement?

  • From: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2016 11:01:40 -0400

Actually, I'm not sure that, that's true. First of all, I've read several
articles which indicate that he still could, mathematically, gain enough
delegates, pledged not super delegates, to best Hillary. The next states all
allow independents to vote in their primaries and he does better with
Independents than with Democrats. And even if that doesn't happen, because
he has had so much support, his ideas, which are the ideas of the political
Left, have become part of the discourse. In the same way that Occupy got
people talking about the 1%, Bernie has them talking about a single payer
health system, free college tuition, a $15 minimum wage, the impact of trade
agreements on employment, fairness toward Palestinians, and the consequences
of regime change. None of these things would have been mentioned on TV in a
debate or talked about during the campaign at all, had he not done it. His
effectiveness was proven to me when my older daughter, the one who, last
year, questioned why we should have a $15 minimum wage, actually voted for
Bernie in the Primary. Debbie, who spends much energy differentiating
herself from me, actually voted for this old Jewish guy spouting socialist
and New Deal rhetoric. 

Miriam    

________________________________

From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alice Dampman
Humel
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2016 10:14 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Is Hillary Stealing the Nomination? Will
Bernie Birth a Long-Term Movement?


it really doesn't matter anymore, because the media, whether in cahoots or
individually, has effectively stonewalled Sanders into
oblivion.unbelievable. 

On Apr 29, 2016, at 3:20 PM, Richard Driscoll <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:


        Carl:
        
        A very interesting analysis.
        
        Richard
        
        
        On 4/29/2016 11:33 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
        

                I think that it is true of many Sander supporters, Richard.
                Right Wing or Left Wing, we are still driven by the same
emotions, and
                we still come from the same gene pool.
                But still, Sander's followers appear to be turned toward
collective
                power, while Trump's followers are simply angry, revengeful
                individuals, thrashing out at anything that moves.
                
                Carl Jarvis
                
                
                On 4/28/16, Richard Driscoll <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
                

                        Carl:
                        
                        I would conjecture that one could say or make the
same comments
                        regarding Bernie Sanders.  Are his followers
'malcontents'?  Do they
                        visualize him as a 'Savior'?  Is he fanning their
anger?
                        
                        Richard
                        
                        
                        On 4/28/2016 11:39 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
                        

                                Exactly so, Miriam.
                                What is unnerving are the numbers of
malcontents who see Donald Trump
                                as their Savior.  Rather than challenging
them to think for
                                themselves, Trump is fanning their anger.
It's interesting, two
                                leaders, one stirring up hatred and
violence, while the other is
                                teaching the value of a cooperative,
involved  society.
                                The lines are very well defined.  I know
which side the Empire is on.
                                
                                Carl Jarvis
                                
                                
                                On 4/28/16, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
                                

                                        I think that Bernie did articulate,
for a lot of people, what their
                                        discontent and anger was about, and
he provided them an opportunity to
                                        show
                                        the establishment, how they were
feeling. Yes, movements come from the
                                        people, but they always have
leaders, and this just has to do with
                                        differences in people's temperaments
and talents. The people had to be
                                        ready, and Bernie had to be there to
say what they were feeling. But he
                                        did
                                        a lot of educating during those
speeches. He taught them socialist
                                        theory.
                                        He talked about class structure and
he talked about how the ruling class
                                        tries to divide people.  It was a
two way interaction.
                                        
                                        Miriam
                                        
                                        -----Original Message-----
                                        From:
blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
                                        Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 11:12
AM
                                        To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                                        Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Is
Hillary Stealing the Nomination? Will
                                        Bernie Birth a Long-Term Movement?
                                        
                                        Did Bernie Sanders "energize"
millions of people?  Or were they already
                                        out
                                        there, just waiting for a Bernie to
rise up and lead them.
                                        Whatever the real answer is, this
upheaval has been a long time in the
                                        making.  If Bernie is not allowed a
fair run at the nomination by the
                                        Democrat Central Bosses, and the
current Movement is moved, by the
                                        Corporate
                                        Media, to nothing more than a back
page story, millions of discontented
                                        Americans will still be there,
waiting for another opening, educating
                                        themselves in the College of Hard
Knocks, to be better prepared to take
                                        on
                                        Goliath.
                                        While I am no fan of Clinton, she is
not the one stealing the election
                                        from
                                        Sanders.  The Party leadership will
not accept Sanders as their
                                        representative, period.
                                        
                                        Carl Jarvis
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        On 4/28/16, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
                                        

                                        Excerpt: "Whatever happens with the
nomination, we respectfully
                                        request that Bernie soon organize a
broad series of grassroots
                                        gatherings where those who have
worked so hard for him will get the
                                        best possible training and
inspiration toward becoming lifelong
                                        activists who'll make a tangible
difference in the day-to-day business
                                        of saving this planet."
                                        
                                        Hillary Clinton. (photo: Justin
Sullivan/Getty)
                                        
                                        
                                        Is Hillary Stealing the Nomination?
Will Bernie Birth a Long-Term
                                        

                                        Movement?
                                        

                                        By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman,
Reader Supported News
                                        27 April 16
                                        
                                        At this delicate moment in the
primary season, we all need to take a
                                        deep breath and evaluate what comes
next.
                                        Bernie Sanders has a mathematical
chance to win. But Hillary seems the
                                        likely Democratic nominee.
                                        Donald Trump has an army of
delegates. But if he doesn't win on the
                                        first ballot, Paul Ryan could be the
Republican nominee.
                                        Oy!
                                        For a wide variety of reasons, we
believe Hillary and Bernie could
                                        beat Trump. But we're not sure about
Ryan, who we find absolutely
                                        

                                        terrifying.
                                        

                                        Key is the stripping of our voter
rolls. Millions of Democrats have
                                        already been disenfranchised. In a
close race, that could make the
                                        

                                        difference.
                                        

                                        Also key is the flipping of the
electronic vote count, which few on
                                        the left seem to be willing to face
in all its depressing finality.
                                        Both are explored in our new Strip &
Flip Selection of 2016: Five Jim
                                        Crows & Electronic Election Theft
(introduced by Mimi Kennedy and Greg
                                        Palast) at www.freepress.org and
www.solartopia.org.
                                        As Greens, we believe this
election's most critical imperative is that
                                        Bernie convert the HUGE upwelling of
mostly young grassroots
                                        discontent he has ignited into a
long-term multi-issue movement. His
                                        success won't be measured by whether
he wins the nomination or
                                        presidency. Miles Mogulescu has
written nicely about this at The
                                        

                                        Huffington Post.
                                        

                                        It matters most that those he's
energized emerge after November full
                                        of commitment and heart. We've seen
too many electoral campaigns feed
                                        into a general "disillusionment"
when they don't win the vote count.
                                        We've seen too many youthful
uprisings too quickly dissipate.
                                        As geezer vets of the civil rights,
anti-war, No Nukes, social
                                        justice, election protection and
other campaigns, we desperately want
                                        all these brilliant folks of all
ages to take on the issues nearest to
                                        their hearts with renewed ferocity
in the coming months, years,
                                        decades.
                                        Having awakened this glorious beast,
we need Professor Sanders to
                                        teach this class of '16 the ultimate
lessons in staying power (of
                                        which he is such a sterling
example).
                                        So whatever happens with the
nomination, we respectfully request that
                                        Bernie soon organize a broad series
of grassroots gatherings where
                                        those who have worked so hard for
him will get the best possible
                                        training and inspiration toward
becoming lifelong activists who'll
                                        make a tangible difference in the
day-to-day business of saving this
                                        planet.
                                        We all know that some meaningful
changes can be made by putting better
                                        people in office. But in in the long
run it's the nitty-gritty grind
                                        of facing down the corporations
issue by issue, place by place, nuke
                                        by nuke, that will save us.
                                        Along the way there's the collapse
of our electoral system. From Jimmy
                                        Carter to Harvard to the UN and so
many others who've studied it, it's
                                        patently obvious the mechanisms by
which we conduct elections in this
                                        country are ridiculously decrepit
and corrupt.
                                        As a partial solution, we've
concocted the "Ohio Plan," which demands:
                                        universal automatic voter
registration at age 18; a four-day national
                                        holiday for voting; voter ID based
on a signature that matches the
                                        registration form with stiff felony
penalties for cheating; universal
                                        hand-counted paper ballots.
                                        We also want money out of politics,
public-funded campaigns, an end to
                                        gerrymandering, and abolition of the
Electoral College.
                                        In 2016, the first thing to face is
the massive disenfranchisement of
                                        millions of voters, mostly citizens
of color and youth. We are
                                        heartened to see Bernie and Hillary
joined together in an Arizona
                                        lawsuit.
                                        But the long lines and urban
registration stripping that we saw in
                                        Phoenix, Madison, and elsewhere this
spring will spell doom for the
                                        Democrats if they cannot guarantee
their constituencies' the right to
                                        vote in November.
                                        At this point, we're not optimistic.
The efforts at re-enfranchisement
                                        are little and late. Among those
doing superb work on this stripping
                                        of our voter rolls are the great
Greg Palast (www.gregpalast.com), Ari
                                        Berman ofThe Nation, and others.
                                        But the electronic flipping of the
alleged vote count remains a demon
                                        black box. The 2000 election was
turned from Gore to Bush by
                                        electronic manipulations in Volusia
County, Florida. The 2004 election
                                        was turned from Kerry to Bush in a
Chattanooga basement which
                                        transformed a 4.2% Democratic lead
into a 2.5% GOP victory in 90 dark
                                        

                                        minutes.
                                        

                                        All that could happen again in 2016.
                                        Over the years we've respected the
work of The Nation's Josh Holland,
                                        who's expressed concern about our
reporting on indications of
                                        irregularities that seem to favor
Hillary over Bernie.
                                        But our stated conclusions on them
remain far from conclusive. If we
                                        thought we had definitive evidence
that the Clinton campaign was
                                        stealing the nomination from the
Sanders campaign, we'd say so in
                                        direct, explicit and unmistakable
phrases.
                                        Simply put: we do NOT at this point
believe they rise to the level of
                                        provable theft, as we are certain
was the case in 2000 and 2004.
                                        We understand concerns and welcome
the dialogue. But we'd like to
                                        avoid the usual circular firing
squad.
                                        Writing in The Nation, Josh has
deemed it important to mention
                                        disagreements with our former
collaborator Steve Rosenfeld, and our
                                        good friend Mark Hertsgaard.
                                        Mark's writing on global warming has
been legend. In 2004 he
                                        criticized some of our reporting on
the Ohio vote count. We disagreed
                                        with him then and still do. Nothing
in the past 12 years of our
                                        research and writing while based in
central Ohio has surfaced that
                                        would make us change our reporting
on how the 2004 election was
                                        stolen. Quite the opposite.
                                        But other comments on the nature of
electronic election theft throw up
                                        a HUGE red flag. And here we worry
about a dangerous gap in the work
                                        from The Nation and the left as a
whole.
                                        If international election standards
were applied to the 2016
                                        primaries, eight states - Georgia,
Massachusetts, Alabama, Texas,
                                        Mississippi, Ohio, New York,
Tennessee - would be investigated for
                                        suspected fraudulent election
results, because the actual vote
                                        deviates so greatly from the exit
polls. Also, the exit polls
                                        indicated that Sanders won in
Illinois, Massachusetts and Missouri.
                                        The bottom line is this: there is no
viable method for monitoring or
                                        verifying the electronic vote count
in 2016. In a close race, which we
                                        expect this fall, the outcome could
be flipped in key swing states
                                        where GOP governors and secretaries
of state are running the
                                        elections. This includes most
notably Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and
                                        Arizona, plus North Carolina and
Florida (where the situations are
                                        slightly different).
                                        Steve has called this "a stretch."
He and Josh seem to dismiss the
                                        assertion that an election can be
electronically stolen as "conspiracy
                                        theory,"
                                        apparently based on the idea that
such thefts would become obvious
                                        fodder for an infuriated media and
public outrage.
                                        This we find this overly trusting
and dangerous. Under our current
                                        system there is no way to
counter-indicate a stolen electronic vote
                                        count except by exit polling, for
which Josh has expressed contempt.
                                        Exit polls in other countries
(especially Germany) are highly
                                        reliable; here the raw data is too,
but can be hard to get. And it's
                                        now standard procedure to have the
public numbers "adjusted" to fit
                                        official vote counts, fraudulent or
otherwise.
                                        And even raw data exit polls have no
legal standing. Nor, apparently,
                                        does the court system itself.
                                        After the 2004 election, we won a
ruling in the King Lincoln
                                        Bronzeville
                                        

                                        v.
                                        

                                        Blackwell federal lawsuit. Bob was
lead attorney, Harvey a plaintiff.
                                        Judge Algernon Marbley ordered
Ohio's 88 county election boards to
                                        compile their records and bring them
to Columbus for an official
                                        recount. But 56 of those
                                        88 counties failed to produce the
requested records. Some boards of
                                        elections "accidentally" destroyed
all of the requested ballots. No
                                        one was prosecuted. There was never
a recount.
                                        Admitted into evidence in the
lawsuit was the Ohio secretary of
                                        state's architectural map of the
computer network used to count Ohio's
                                        votes. It is included here so
everyone can take a look.
                                        The votes were counted by private
contractors in Chattanooga,
                                        Tennessee.
                                        The
                                        three main companies involved were
all heavily linked to the Right to
                                        Life movement in Ohio. The Free
Press also uncovered the contract
                                        where these companies arranged with
the Secretary of State's office a
                                        year prior to the
                                        2004 election to move the Ohio vote
count to Tennessee should Ohio's
                                        supercomputers fail on Election Day,
which would happen for the first
                                        time in known history.
Cyber-security expert Stephen Spoonamore told
                                        the Free Pressthat the computer
configuration was set up to allow a
                                        "man in the middle attack" to alter
Ohio's votes.
                                        The late night shift in the 2004
electronic vote count in 10 decisive
                                        swing states was by all accounts a
"virtual statistical
                                        impossibility," with the odds
against that happening in the millions.
                                        But now we are being told the idea
that this could indicate a stolen
                                        

                                        election is "conspiracy theory."
                                        

                                        PLEASE!!! If someone - anyone! - can
demonstrate EXACTLY how the
                                        electronic vote count will be
monitored, verified and made clear to
                                        the media in 2016, and then
guarantee that the public and the courts
                                        will react with enforceable fury, we
will be eternally grateful.
                                        We hope in the meantime The
Nationwill add to Ari Berman's fine
                                        reporting on the stripping of voter
eligibilities an in-depth
                                        investigation into the "other shoe"
of election theft - the flipping
                                        of the electronic vote count.
                                        Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) raised the
"Diebold question" at a
                                        Congressional Black Caucus hearing
on April 21, 2016. Johnson noted
                                        how easy it would be to hack the old
voting machines, many that are
                                        over 20 years old, and vowed to
introduce legislation that would make
                                        

                                        voting secure.
                                        

                                        Finally, we are often asked how, if
the 2000 and 2004 elections were
                                        stolen, Obama won in 2008 and 2012.
We did, after all, write in 2004
                                        that the 2008 election was being
rigged.
                                        The answer is simple: it was. But
Obama won by far too many votes to
                                        have that election credibly stolen.
And his campaign was not in denial.
                                        We are happy to hear from Steve that
our reporting on Ohio 2004 might
                                        have enhanced Obama's scrutiny on
the 2008 vote count.
                                        But it should be made clear that
Obama's victory could easily have
                                        been flipped had the vote count been
closer and had fewer states been
                                        so definitively won. We believe he
actually won by more than 10
                                        million votes in both 2008 and 2012,
but was officially credited with
                                        far
                                        

                                        less.
                                        

                                        Where, exactly, is the line beyond
which an election can't be stolen?
                                        Do the Democrats need to win by 5%.
10%. to get an official victory?
                                        And what then happens to the
down-ballot races?
                                        We prefer not to see those limits
tested again.
                                        And we need to have people prepared
to take tangible action. In 2012
                                        Bob Fitrakis filed a successful
Election Day lawsuit preventing
                                        illegal computer patches being
rigged into Ohio's electronic machines.
                                        In a closer race, those patches
might have made the difference. We
                                        believe the expectation that they
would work did cause Karl Rove to do
                                        his legendary flipped-out
double-take on Fox News as he was told Mitt
                                        Romney had lost Ohio.
                                        We also reported (as did The Nation)
that voting machines in key
                                        Cincinnati precincts were
financially linked to the Romney family. We
                                        each wrote separate articles about
that and were each blacklisted by
                                        Daily Kos for doing so, even though
the vast bulk of Harvey's 150+
                                        previous blogs on that site were
about nuclear power and renewable
                                        energy.
                                        Some publications that aren't
progressive understand the problem.
                                        Twenty-three minutes into the 2012
Election Day, Forbes took the Free
                                        Pressreporting seriously, and warned
voters of the dangers of private,
                                        for-profit companies owning and
maintaining voting machines.
                                        Over the years we've been repeatedly
told that we should stop
                                        reporting on electronic election
theft because it might discourage
                                        voter turnout. And that the key to a
Democratic victory in 2016 will
                                        be another massive vote count
victory that will be "too big to steal."
                                        Frankly, we don't see that happening
this year.
                                        And we find such talk deeply
disturbing. We have no doubt that
                                        innumerable US House and Senate
races have been stolen over the years,
                                        along with governorships, control of
state legislatures, referenda and
                                        more, all of it producing a deep
reinforcement of the corporate control
                                        of
                                        

                                        our government.
                                        

                                        We're also reasonably certain that
neither Hillary nor Bernie is
                                        likely to amass in November a margin
of victory over either Ryan or
                                        Trump that would be big enough to
negate the possibility of massive
                                        disenfranchisement and electronic
vote flipping in key states like
                                        Ohio, Michigan, Iowa or Arizona.
                                        
                                        And anyway . why the hell are we
even thinking about leaving such a
                                        problem unsolved?
                                        This disease needs a definitive
cure.
                                        We look forward to further reasoned
and reasonable dialogue. We invite
                                        Josh and Ari to join us on our panel
at the upcoming Left Forum in New
                                        York in May. We welcome a public
discussion with Steve and Mark in
                                        

                                        California.
                                        

                                        Above all, we hope to see those
millions of Bernie supporters joining
                                        us at the reactor sites, the banks,
the women's health centers, the
                                        shelters, the schools and so many
other critical hot spots in our
                                        corporate-plagued society, no matter
who wins (or how) in November.
                                        
        
________________________________________
                                        Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
are co-authors of six books on
                                        election integrity, including the
new Strip & Flip Selection of 2016:
                                        Five Jim Crows and Electronic
Election Theft(www.freepress.org and
                                        

                                        www.solartopia.org).
                                        

                                        Bob's Fitrakis Files are at
www.freepress.org. Harvey's Organic Spiral
                                        of US History is coming soon at
www.solartopia.org.
                                        Reader Supported News is the
Publication of Origin for this work.
                                        Permission
                                        to republish is freely granted with
credit and a link back to Reader
                                        Supported News.
                                          Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
                                        valid.
                                        
                                        Hillary Clinton. (photo: Justin
Sullivan/Getty)
        
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
                                        Is Hillary Stealing the Nomination?
Will Bernie Birth a Long-Term
                                        

                                        Movement?
                                        

                                        By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman,
Reader Supported News
                                        27 April 16
                                          t this delicate moment in the
primary season, we all need to take a
                                        deep breath and evaluate what comes
next.
                                        Bernie Sanders has a mathematical
chance to win. But Hillary seems the
                                        likely Democratic nominee.
                                        Donald Trump has an army of
delegates. But if he doesn't win on the
                                        first ballot, Paul Ryan could be the
Republican nominee.
                                        Oy!
                                        For a wide variety of reasons, we
believe Hillary and Bernie could
                                        beat Trump. But we're not sure about
Ryan, who we find absolutely
                                        

                                        terrifying.
                                        

                                        Key is the stripping of our voter
rolls. Millions of Democrats have
                                        already been disenfranchised. In a
close race, that could make the
                                        

                                        difference.
                                        

                                        Also key is the flipping of the
electronic vote count, which few on
                                        the left seem to be willing to face
in all its depressing finality.
                                        Both are explored in our new Strip &
Flip Selection of 2016: Five Jim
                                        Crows & Electronic Election Theft
(introduced by Mimi Kennedy and Greg
                                        Palast) at www.freepress.org and
www.solartopia.org.
                                        As Greens, we believe this
election's most critical imperative is that
                                        Bernie convert the HUGE upwelling of
mostly young grassroots
                                        discontent he has ignited into a
long-term multi-issue movement. His
                                        success won't be measured by whether
he wins the nomination or
                                        presidency. Miles Mogulescu has
written nicely about this at The
                                        

                                        Huffington Post.
                                        

                                        It matters most that those he's
energized emerge after November full
                                        of commitment and heart. We've seen
too many electoral campaigns feed
                                        into a general "disillusionment"
when they don't win the vote count.
                                        We've seen too many youthful
uprisings too quickly dissipate.
                                        As geezer vets of the civil rights,
anti-war, No Nukes, social
                                        justice, election protection and
other campaigns, we desperately want
                                        all these brilliant folks of all
ages to take on the issues nearest to
                                        their hearts with renewed ferocity
in the coming months, years,
                                        decades.
                                        Having awakened this glorious beast,
we need Professor Sanders to
                                        teach this class of '16 the ultimate
lessons in staying power (of
                                        which he is such a sterling
example).
                                        So whatever happens with the
nomination, we respectfully request that
                                        Bernie soon organize a broad series
of grassroots gatherings where
                                        those who have worked so hard for
him will get the best possible
                                        training and inspiration toward
becoming lifelong activists who'll
                                        make a tangible difference in the
day-to-day business of saving this
                                        planet.
                                        We all know that some meaningful
changes can be made by putting better
                                        people in office. But in in the long
run it's the nitty-gritty grind
                                        of facing down the corporations
issue by issue, place by place, nuke
                                        by nuke, that will save us.
                                        Along the way there's the collapse
of our electoral system. From Jimmy
                                        Carter to Harvard to the UN and so
many others who've studied it, it's
                                        patently obvious the mechanisms by
which we conduct elections in this
                                        country are ridiculously decrepit
and corrupt.
                                        As a partial solution, we've
concocted the "Ohio Plan," which demands:
                                        universal automatic voter
registration at age 18; a four-day national
                                        holiday for voting; voter ID based
on a signature that matches the
                                        registration form with stiff felony
penalties for cheating; universal
                                        hand-counted paper ballots.
                                        We also want money out of politics,
public-funded campaigns, an end to
                                        gerrymandering, and abolition of the
Electoral College.
                                        In 2016, the first thing to face is
the massive disenfranchisement of
                                        millions of voters, mostly citizens
of color and youth. We are
                                        heartened to see Bernie and Hillary
joined together in an Arizona
                                        lawsuit.
                                        But the long lines and urban
registration stripping that we saw in
                                        Phoenix, Madison, and elsewhere this
spring will spell doom for the
                                        Democrats if they cannot guarantee
their constituencies' the right to
                                        vote in November.
                                        At this point, we're not optimistic.
The efforts at re-enfranchisement
                                        are little and late. Among those
doing superb work on this stripping
                                        of our voter rolls are the great
Greg Palast (www.gregpalast.com), Ari
                                        Berman ofThe Nation, and others.
                                        But the electronic flipping of the
alleged vote count remains a demon
                                        black box. The 2000 election was
turned from Gore to Bush by
                                        electronic manipulations in Volusia
County, Florida. The 2004 election
                                        was turned from Kerry to Bush in a
Chattanooga basement which
                                        transformed a 4.2% Democratic lead
into a 2.5% GOP victory in 90 dark
                                        

                                        minutes.
                                        

                                        All that could happen again in 2016.
                                        Over the years we've respected the
work of The Nation's Josh Holland,
                                        who's expressed concern about our
reporting on indications of
                                        irregularities that seem to favor
Hillary over Bernie.
                                        But our stated conclusions on them
remain far from conclusive. If we
                                        thought we had definitive evidence
that the Clinton campaign was
                                        stealing the nomination from the
Sanders campaign, we'd say so in
                                        direct, explicit and unmistakable
phrases.
                                        Simply put: we do NOT at this point
believe they rise to the level of
                                        provable theft, as we are certain
was the case in 2000 and 2004.
                                        We understand concerns and welcome
the dialogue. But we'd like to
                                        avoid the usual circular firing
squad.
                                        Writing in The Nation, Josh has
deemed it important to mention
                                        disagreements with our former
collaborator Steve Rosenfeld, and our
                                        good friend Mark Hertsgaard.
                                        Mark's writing on global warming has
been legend. In 2004 he
                                        criticized some of our reporting on
the Ohio vote count. We disagreed
                                        with him then and still do. Nothing
in the past 12 years of our
                                        research and writing while based in
central Ohio has surfaced that
                                        would make us change our reporting
on how the 2004 election was
                                        stolen. Quite the opposite.
                                        But other comments on the nature of
electronic election theft throw up
                                        a HUGE red flag. And here we worry
about a dangerous gap in the work
                                        from The Nation and the left as a
whole.
                                        If international election standards
were applied to the 2016
                                        primaries, eight states - Georgia,
Massachusetts, Alabama, Texas,
                                        Mississippi, Ohio, New York,
Tennessee - would be investigated for
                                        suspected fraudulent election
results, because the actual vote
                                        deviates so greatly from the exit
polls. Also, the exit polls
                                        indicated that Sanders won in
Illinois, Massachusetts and Missouri.
                                        The bottom line is this: there is no
viable method for monitoring or
                                        verifying the electronic vote count
in 2016. In a close race, which we
                                        expect this fall, the outcome could
be flipped in key swing states
                                        where GOP governors and secretaries
of state are running the
                                        elections. This includes most
notably Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and
                                        Arizona, plus North Carolina and
Florida (where the situations are
                                        slightly different).
                                        Steve has called this "a stretch."
He and Josh seem to dismiss the
                                        assertion that an election can be
electronically stolen as "conspiracy
                                        theory,"
                                        apparently based on the idea that
such thefts would become obvious
                                        fodder for an infuriated media and
public outrage.
                                        This we find this overly trusting
and dangerous. Under our current
                                        system there is no way to
counter-indicate a stolen electronic vote
                                        count except by exit polling, for
which Josh has expressed contempt.
                                        Exit polls in other countries
(especially Germany) are highly
                                        reliable; here the raw data is too,
but can be hard to get. And it's
                                        now standard procedure to have the
public numbers "adjusted" to fit
                                        official vote counts, fraudulent or
otherwise.
                                        And even raw data exit polls have no
legal standing. Nor, apparently,
                                        does the court system itself.
                                        After the 2004 election, we won a
ruling in the King Lincoln
                                        Bronzeville
                                        

                                        v.
                                        

                                        Blackwell federal lawsuit. Bob was
lead attorney, Harvey a plaintiff.
                                        Judge Algernon Marbley ordered
Ohio's 88 county election boards to
                                        compile their records and bring them
to Columbus for an official
                                        recount. But 56 of those
                                        88 counties failed to produce the
requested records. Some boards of
                                        elections "accidentally" destroyed
all of the requested ballots. No
                                        one was prosecuted. There was never
a recount.
                                        Admitted into evidence in the
lawsuit was the Ohio secretary of
                                        state's architectural map of the
computer network used to count Ohio's
                                        votes. It is included here so
everyone can take a look.
                                        The votes were counted by private
contractors in Chattanooga,
                                        Tennessee.
                                        The
                                        three main companies involved were
all heavily linked to the Right to
                                        Life movement in Ohio. The Free
Press also uncovered the contract
                                        where these companies arranged with
the Secretary of State's office a
                                        year prior to the
                                        2004 election to move the Ohio vote
count to Tennessee should Ohio's
                                        supercomputers fail on Election Day,
which would happen for the first
                                        time in known history.
Cyber-security expert Stephen Spoonamore told
                                        the Free Pressthat the computer
configuration was set up to allow a
                                        "man in the middle attack" to alter
Ohio's votes.
                                        The late night shift in the 2004
electronic vote count in 10 decisive
                                        swing states was by all accounts a
"virtual statistical
                                        impossibility," with the odds
against that happening in the millions.
                                        But now we are being told the idea
that this could indicate a stolen
                                        

                                        election is "conspiracy theory."
                                        

                                        PLEASE!!! If someone - anyone! - can
demonstrate EXACTLY how the
                                        electronic vote count will be
monitored, verified and made clear to
                                        the media in 2016, and then
guarantee that the public and the courts
                                        will react with enforceable fury, we
will be eternally grateful.
                                        We hope in the meantime The
Nationwill add to Ari Berman's fine
                                        reporting on the stripping of voter
eligibilities an in-depth
                                        investigation into the "other shoe"
of election theft - the flipping
                                        of the electronic vote count.
                                        Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) raised the
"Diebold question" at a
                                        Congressional Black Caucus hearing
on April 21, 2016. Johnson noted
                                        how easy it would be to hack the old
voting machines, many that are
                                        over 20 years old, and vowed to
introduce legislation that would make
                                        

                                        voting secure.
                                        

                                        Finally, we are often asked how, if
the 2000 and 2004 elections were
                                        stolen, Obama won in 2008 and 2012.
We did, after all, write in 2004
                                        that the 2008 election was being
rigged.
                                        The answer is simple: it was. But
Obama won by far too many votes to
                                        have that election credibly stolen.
And his campaign was not in denial.
                                        We are happy to hear from Steve that
our reporting on Ohio 2004 might
                                        have enhanced Obama's scrutiny on
the 2008 vote count.
                                        But it should be made clear that
Obama's victory could easily have
                                        been flipped had the vote count been
closer and had fewer states been
                                        so definitively won. We believe he
actually won by more than 10
                                        million votes in both 2008 and 2012,
but was officially credited with
                                        far
                                        

                                        less.
                                        

                                        Where, exactly, is the line beyond
which an election can't be stolen?
                                        Do the Democrats need to win by 5%.
10%. to get an official victory?
                                        And what then happens to the
down-ballot races?
                                        We prefer not to see those limits
tested again.
                                        And we need to have people prepared
to take tangible action. In 2012
                                        Bob Fitrakis filed a successful
Election Day lawsuit preventing
                                        illegal computer patches being
rigged into Ohio's electronic machines.
                                        In a closer race, those patches
might have made the difference. We
                                        believe the expectation that they
would work did cause Karl Rove to do
                                        his legendary flipped-out
double-take on Fox News as he was told Mitt
                                        Romney had lost Ohio.
                                        We also reported (as did The Nation)
that voting machines in key
                                        Cincinnati precincts were
financially linked to the Romney family. We
                                        each wrote separate articles about
that and were each blacklisted by
                                        Daily Kos for doing so, even though
the vast bulk of Harvey's 150+
                                        previous blogs on that site were
about nuclear power and renewable
                                        energy.
                                        Some publications that aren't
progressive understand the problem.
                                        Twenty-three minutes into the 2012
Election Day, Forbes took the Free
                                        Pressreporting seriously, and warned
voters of the dangers of private,
                                        for-profit companies owning and
maintaining voting machines.
                                        Over the years we've been repeatedly
told that we should stop
                                        reporting on electronic election
theft because it might discourage
                                        voter turnout. And that the key to a
Democratic victory in 2016 will
                                        be another massive vote count
victory that will be "too big to steal."
                                        Frankly, we don't see that happening
this year.
                                        And we find such talk deeply
disturbing. We have no doubt that
                                        innumerable US House and Senate
races have been stolen over the years,
                                        along with governorships, control of
state legislatures, referenda and
                                        more, all of it producing a deep
reinforcement of the corporate control
                                        of
                                        

                                        our government.
                                        

                                        We're also reasonably certain that
neither Hillary nor Bernie is
                                        likely to amass in November a margin
of victory over either Ryan or
                                        Trump that would be big enough to
negate the possibility of massive
                                        disenfranchisement and electronic
vote flipping in key states like
                                        Ohio, Michigan, Iowa or Arizona.
                                        
                                        And anyway . why the hell are we
even thinking about leaving such a
                                        problem unsolved?
                                        This disease needs a definitive
cure.
                                        We look forward to further reasoned
and reasonable dialogue. We invite
                                        Josh and Ari to join us on our panel
at the upcoming Left Forum in New
                                        York in May. We welcome a public
discussion with Steve and Mark in
                                        

                                        California.
                                        

                                        Above all, we hope to see those
millions of Bernie supporters joining
                                        us at the reactor sites, the banks,
the women's health centers, the
                                        shelters, the schools and so many
other critical hot spots in our
                                        corporate-plagued society, no matter
who wins (or how) in November.
                                        
                                        Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
are co-authors of six books on
                                        election integrity, including the
new Strip & Flip Selection of 2016:
                                        Five Jim Crows and Electronic
Election Theft(www.freepress.org and
                                        

                                        www.solartopia.org).
                                        

                                        Bob's Fitrakis Files are at
www.freepress.org. Harvey's Organic Spiral
                                        of US History is coming soon at
www.solartopia.org.
                                        Reader Supported News is the
Publication of Origin for this work.
                                        Permission
                                        to republish is freely granted with
credit and a link back to Reader
                                        Supported News.
        
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
        
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        



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