24 Comments

Thank you and thank Greg Palast and thank Common Cause. https://www.commoncause.org/education-fund/donate/?source=adwords&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoPOwBhAeEiwAJuXRh4abrADqtgK2bylAHmrGB_NLtS243HaE8UCSkZbOmjoDNAyRNg3BRxoC5tcQAvD_BwE

Baghdad By the Sea is one of the places where purges, voter intimidation, and an all out capture of the Republican Party has occurred courtesy of groups like the Proud Boys and like minded MAGATs.

That's one reason I am so active in FT6 -- identifying non registered people, many who had been purged, using data mining techniques -- not voter rolls. Everyone, including my family, that moves from time to time, need to be vigilant to make sure we're eligible to vote. Check this out.

https://www.fieldteam6.org/voterizer

Expand full comment

Best wishes Daniel, there are 700,000 Muslims in Florida, and they are threatening to either vote for Trump , Vote third party or not vote at all. Decisions that they will regret, if Trump is elected. They think that they are flipping the bird to Biden, but are really shoving it up their own rectum.

Expand full comment

You mean the people who would be deported if Project 25 is law?

Expand full comment

Yep, that is who I mean.

Expand full comment

Thom, it seems to me in inescapable reality that all of these voter suppression measures are creating a huge match requiring just one event, or one charismatic person, to touch it off. When you tell enough people, especially in self-identifiable groups, that they atr being frozen out of the system that oppresses them and favors others, you leave them with but one alternative, and we all know what that is. I don’t want that. No decent, rational American would. But if these insupportable tactics continue, we will deserve the whirlwind that will ensue. I say that with some bitterness, because while I am a staunch progressive and supporter of the voting rights of all of us, my family and I are white and on the outside seemingly privileged, and the bullets will only see that, not what is in our hearts. That scenario is what the morbidly rich, their puppet tfg, and his deplorable cultists are creating. May they be appropriately rewarded. Though, if history is any guide, they won’t be.

Expand full comment

In reality a lot of Democrats are frozen out. Register Democrats - save democracy.

https://www.fieldteam6.org/

Expand full comment

Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," the one that begins "What happens to a dream deferred?," might be applied to voter suppression: if legal, nonviolent ways to make change are blocked, what recourse do people have? It's a short poem, easy to remember: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem

Expand full comment

yes, I don't understand why there are not Hispanic and black armed voting observers at the polls. I don't understand why there aren't lawsuits against red states waged by black and hispanic parents who "feel uncomfortable" by the lack of accurate history being taught, and lawsuits by parents of gay students who feel uncomfortable by the existence of heterosexual books and teachings they are subject to. Why aren't we matching their games?

Expand full comment

And this is why we can't have nice things in Texas (and by "nice things", I mean representatives that actually represent us instead of decamping for Cancun when things get tough.)

Expand full comment

Fuckin’ gop maga fascists! Why biden administration does not do more to fight and forbid these devious schemes?

Expand full comment

It looks like all existing and future Voter Protection legislation should require a heavy dose of "Court Stripping", AKA, the Constitution's Article 3.2.2. This prohibits Scotus from meddling with laws under the purview of 3.2.2.

Adding some strong teeth to enforcing Voter Protections is a must. My brainstormed idea this Monday is... Make the penalties severe enough to put a halt to all this suppression, intimidation, purging, fraud, and rejection. One possibility I've yet to see as a penalty or punishment is this:

Linking the measures of any type of suppression to a state's receiving Federal revenue. The goal is that states must ensure all citizens age 18 and over are registered, and then if they vote, ensure their vote is counted - or their "fine" is the forfeiture of Federal revenue.

Meanwhile, look at how easily "CORPORATE AMERICA" elects their Board of Directors, decides on mergers and acquisitions, etc. They have what appears to be pretty clean elections.

In corporate voting, there is no such thing as voter suppression, fraud, purging, etc.

Voting by mail has existed for decades, I'm aware of no reports of suppression or fraud.

Corporate elections by mail and the internet go on every day, and in every county in the country.

Every mailbox in the country is a secure ballot booth. And amazingly, corporations have used Internet Voting for a couple decades. A shareholder's laptop is a secure voting place.

Again, no suppression, fraud, intimidation, purges, stuffing of ballot boxes, etc.

The SEC, a stand alone branch of the Federal Government, is there to enforce shareholder rights to vote, and to punish fraud. If you have shares of a company, you have a federally enforced or protected entitlement in the right to vote! Notice, the right to vote in corporate elections is not enumerated in the Constitution, but I'd bet Scotus would protect such a "right"! Jail, fines, expulsion are included in the SEC's portfolio of enforcement.

The high level take-away from this is that when money and ownership are directly involved, we go to great lengths to guarantee some of the rights of the citizens.

We need to do the same with The Right to Vote in government elections.

Expand full comment
Apr 16·edited Apr 16

I'm so glad you are publishing anywhere you can, Thom. The court order for gun removal comparison to sanctioning Republican vote-stealing is brilliant. It really hit home with me.

These right-wing radicals are the thieves that come in broad daylight for our rights. They are picking off everything we fought so hard for, one thing at a time. Determined to put us in our "place", they will never stop. 

We have to be "it" as you always tell us. Protecting our own vote and helping others to protect theirs is everyone's job.  My example: I have a nephew that moved recently, and I will remind him he can do an update online or with a registration form. We can all do something.

I'm thankful for you, the Palast Investigative Fund, Black Voters Matter, NAACP, and ACLU. Look at all this amazing hard work done to protect our most basic right!

Expand full comment

Here is how I see it. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the election. Going into it there are 235 electoral votes in red and read leaning states, a The swing states of 2020, like GA, NC and VA are no longer swing states by reasons Thom has pointed out, Republican legislatures have passed voter suppression and negation laws, and in blue states like California, independent and honest county voting officials have been driven out with threats and violence. San Bernardino County is a prime example. The election official of the county resigned because of threats to family and self, and violence. They are being replaced by Trump humpers as they are the only ones to step up now.

Restriction on drop boxes, like in Houston and Austin, armed militia poll watchers.

It takes 270 Electoral votes to win. 235 votes in red states, only 35 votes needed.

There are only five swing states left AZ, NV, MI, PA, WI. MI and possibly WI will go Trump, if the Muslims carry through with their threat to vote third party, not vote or Vote Trump,

Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes; the Religion Census estimates there are 123,000 Muslim adherents in the state. He won by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, where there are an estimated 69,000 Muslim adherents.

Georgia is a read state, and the Republican legislature and governor have passed voter suppression laws since 2020.

300,000 Muslims are estimated to live in Philadelphia alone. By comparison, Joe Biden won the state — and, with it, the 2020 election — by only 80,000 votes

And that doesn't even need the disenchantment of blacks, particularly young black males, who apparently will vote for Cornell West or even Trump, as they have threatened to do.

The first allegiance of a Muslim is to the Ummah, the world wide community of Muslims, quite unlike Jews, a good portion of them who even march with signs Free Palestine from the river to the sea, and the ultra orthodox who are anti Zionists and peaceniks.

There are 61 votes in the swing states, Michigan and Pennsylvania account for 34. 235 red state electoral votes and 34 votes in Michigan and Pennyslvania and Trump has 269 votes, and the vote goes to Congress and therein every state has one vote. There are more red states than blue states.

But it won't go that far, Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes, (see comment above), and if Muslims sit on their hands, the state goes for Trump. Nebraska was a split vote in 2020, but they have enacted legislation that makes it winner take all, and the winner is Trump and the Republicans.

Democracy depends on a nationwide reaction to Dobbs, and common sense among Muslims, who realize that a Trump win, because of their intransigence, will be followed by a massive round up and round up by Trump. And the constitution will not save them, neither will the "deep state" as Trump will have staffed the government with loyal cronies. And Congress, fouling their underwear out of fear, will bend to his will.

.

Expand full comment

Again we find the Dem party flat footed to do anything about Repub planning. It is tiresome to be on the wrong side of the ledger once again. Maybe the citizens need to do something the Repubs do not care for. Do we need some vigilante voters against Repub voters. It takes only a few individuals to take out thousands. We just need some lists of who they are. A much better way is simply overwhelm the polls but that takes a base voter strategy of having 3 or 4 economic issues for them to vote for and daily repeat them so everyone on the planet knows what they are by election day. It works.

Expand full comment

For "Wall Street" it is economic issues, and prior to 2016 it was, but not today. It is cultural issues. The National Socialist German Workers Party did not rise to power on economic issues, It arose because it appealed to the amygdala, the lizard brain, all authoritarian regimes rise that way, hate, fear, resentment and they don't stand a chance against hope, equality, fraternity or DEI.

Expand full comment

It continues to shock and amaze me that the Republicans and the Supreme Court actually work that hard to deprive citizens of their right to vote . Why ? They have proven their despicable bigoted agenda many times over.

I keep thinking that one of them might discover a conscience, but no , no conscience burdens these white supremacist terrorists .

Against all the odds, we must turn out to elect Democrats . We need to get this country back to make it safe for Democracy.

Expand full comment

“Big new unseen threat” Seriously? Voter purges and suppression have been going on decades. It’s obvious that tRump does not plan to “win” this election. He’s not even trying to appeal to anyone who’s not already in the MAGA cult.

As loud and obnoxious as they are, there simply aren’t enough of them to win the popular vote (tfg lost the popular vote in 2016 and 2020) or the electoral college.

Expand full comment

One of my favorites. Superb movie "A Raisin in the Sun" takes its title rom part of a line in that poem.

Expand full comment

OMG! We're going to need a bigger clown car!

Expand full comment

100 million eligible voters did not vote in 2020. Why is that.

Expand full comment

I do believe that the Democratic Party's anointing of Joe Biden (Genocide Joe as progressives call him) will help to hand the 2024 election to Trump. That and the Biden administration's lack of virtually any of the promised action on voting rights.

Expand full comment

Only because of an ethnic group, who has no loyalty to the nation that has nurtured them, and to which they voluntarily migrated.

And progressives don't call him Genocide Joe, only nitwit, self indulgent, herd animal, campus idiots and of course that collective whose loyalty is to the Ummah, and not America.

Expand full comment

Wishing and hoping?

Expand full comment

That is Boris hope Daniel.

His one real motivation is Putin.

Expand full comment