The big difference between 2000 and 2020 is that in 2000 Stone’s plan worked: he stopped the vote count and cemented Bush’s ascent to the White House, even though Bush lost the election
Truth, justice, and the American way---it's a choice. Many Republicans have chosen lies, criminality, and authoritarianism. Stone and Bannon help them feed into all three. Look at the damage these two dirt-bags have done!
Once again we see Thom present the facts and history of conservatives without a conscience.
It is always a challenge, and a joy, to follow Mr. Hartman's passionate research, and he most likely is correct with his analysis of the Games Strategies the Republican Party and its backers have used since Mr. Reagan was successfully elected.
The BIG Question is, of course, where have all the voters from the Boomer Generation been for the last 50 years?
They have allowed these events to pass without missing a beat in their daily, comfortable lives. Thus undermining the world's best chance of a bottoms up system of governance, and in the process they have lost the support of the majority of the world's population, with all the attendant good will the US earned with our support during WWII. Unless liberals and independent voters re-emerge and begin fighting for America by demanding a right to Vote-by-Mail from home, an end to voting for endless financial funding by corporations, an end to a perpetual seat in Congress for all members, a stop to low taxes on corporations and a re-commitment to a 2 year national service for all our young people so they can get a debt free education and we can dismantle the professional military - well, the game will not change.
On a to-do list, voters could probably benefit from knowing which states already as passed legislative authority to designate assignment of electors by a majority vote of the state's legislature. And then it would be nice if some enterprising group focused on the nuts and bolts of raising funds to prevent that.
But wait, the Democrats are already looking for 75 votes to scuttle the Electoral College to adopt a pure majority vote for president- so both parties are busy scuttling the US constitution.
No one is willing to work for a consensus anymore. We don't teach civics on polite debate in our high schools, so we probably deserve our bullies if this continues. But is this what responsible people should be doing for the next generation? Larry Winget has something to say on that issue with Your Kids are Your Own Fault: A Guide for Raising Responsible, Productive Adults.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
Given that Republicans have used these “big lie” and intimidation tactics in three presidential elections in this century, Republican criminality should cease to surprise us. And, indeed, there’s a long tradition of criminal GOP presidential tactics.
Nixon blew up LBJ’s Vietnam negotiations (causing another 20,000 American deaths) to win the 1968 election, something LBJ and Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen agreed at the time was treason. Reagan cut a deal with the Iranians in 1980 to sabotage Jimmy Carter, elevating him to the White House.
Bush’s dirty work was done by his brother in Florida and his dad’s friends on the Supreme Court, and in 2016 Trump had a big boost from Vladimir Putin, a boost that Trump tried his best to repay during his presidency by shutting down two of our cybersecurity agencies, withholding military support to Ukraine, and trying to pull the US out of NATO.
And here come the new outrages, just in time for the 2022 and 2024 elections.
At this moment multiple Republican-controlled states are considering laws giving their legislatures the power to override the vote of the people of the state and send the presidential electors of their choice to Washington, DC.
The trend started in Arizona last year, when, as NBC News noted:
“The Republican chair of Arizona's state House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would give the Legislature authority to override the secretary of state’s certification of its electoral votes.”
For those of us who are less than satisfied with the performance of the democratic party in general and Joe Biden in particular, please let me add another simplistic perspective of why they aren’t meeting our expectations and why we have a backsliding democracy. (Because I’m too slothful to cite the actual content, assume that I learned this from Thom who learned it from someone else.) First, we have two generations of citizens who were much more likely to get a bad education from America’s public education system because it has been tenaciously defunded for two generations. The result is we have millions of citizens that are much more likely to make bad decisions, thus making them great targets for the grifting elite, for who we defunded our public education to begin with. Second, the morbidly rich that flimflam and manipulate our poorly educated have acquired the powers of corporate citizenship so not only can they control enough voters’ choices, they can also bribe our elected and appointed public sector decision-makers to serve their needs. Thus they have closed the loop on their corrupt processes and there isn’t anything Biden or anyone else can do right now (at least nothing that will reverse our backsliding ways). Third, with the world’s best propagandists and 21st-century knowledge, the oligarchs will continue to run things by pulling the strings of all three branches. Unfortunately, that will persist until we can get enough of our citizens to choose to turn the tables and use the same technology and knowledge that the propagandists use to make our elected officials serve their Constitutional purpose and not the interests of the oligarchs.
The intent to corrupt the voting process the Weyrich displays is stunning in its boldness. Such a criminal!
Truth, justice, and the American way---it's a choice. Many Republicans have chosen lies, criminality, and authoritarianism. Stone and Bannon help them feed into all three. Look at the damage these two dirt-bags have done!
Once again we see Thom present the facts and history of conservatives without a conscience.
It is always a challenge, and a joy, to follow Mr. Hartman's passionate research, and he most likely is correct with his analysis of the Games Strategies the Republican Party and its backers have used since Mr. Reagan was successfully elected.
The BIG Question is, of course, where have all the voters from the Boomer Generation been for the last 50 years?
They have allowed these events to pass without missing a beat in their daily, comfortable lives. Thus undermining the world's best chance of a bottoms up system of governance, and in the process they have lost the support of the majority of the world's population, with all the attendant good will the US earned with our support during WWII. Unless liberals and independent voters re-emerge and begin fighting for America by demanding a right to Vote-by-Mail from home, an end to voting for endless financial funding by corporations, an end to a perpetual seat in Congress for all members, a stop to low taxes on corporations and a re-commitment to a 2 year national service for all our young people so they can get a debt free education and we can dismantle the professional military - well, the game will not change.
The US will look like a Banana Republic before 2030, and the US dollar system will collapse, with an attendant crash of the US living standards. All of this will, most likely, be because 'absolute power' corrupts everyone. Maybe that is why the US has the world's highest rate of incarceration - but very few white collar criminals incarcerated. https://literarydevices.net/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate.
On a to-do list, voters could probably benefit from knowing which states already as passed legislative authority to designate assignment of electors by a majority vote of the state's legislature. And then it would be nice if some enterprising group focused on the nuts and bolts of raising funds to prevent that.
But wait, the Democrats are already looking for 75 votes to scuttle the Electoral College to adopt a pure majority vote for president- so both parties are busy scuttling the US constitution.
No one is willing to work for a consensus anymore. We don't teach civics on polite debate in our high schools, so we probably deserve our bullies if this continues. But is this what responsible people should be doing for the next generation? Larry Winget has something to say on that issue with Your Kids are Your Own Fault: A Guide for Raising Responsible, Productive Adults.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
Given that Republicans have used these “big lie” and intimidation tactics in three presidential elections in this century, Republican criminality should cease to surprise us. And, indeed, there’s a long tradition of criminal GOP presidential tactics.
Nixon blew up LBJ’s Vietnam negotiations (causing another 20,000 American deaths) to win the 1968 election, something LBJ and Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen agreed at the time was treason. Reagan cut a deal with the Iranians in 1980 to sabotage Jimmy Carter, elevating him to the White House.
Bush’s dirty work was done by his brother in Florida and his dad’s friends on the Supreme Court, and in 2016 Trump had a big boost from Vladimir Putin, a boost that Trump tried his best to repay during his presidency by shutting down two of our cybersecurity agencies, withholding military support to Ukraine, and trying to pull the US out of NATO.
And here come the new outrages, just in time for the 2022 and 2024 elections.
At this moment multiple Republican-controlled states are considering laws giving their legislatures the power to override the vote of the people of the state and send the presidential electors of their choice to Washington, DC.
The trend started in Arizona last year, when, as NBC News noted:
“The Republican chair of Arizona's state House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would give the Legislature authority to override the secretary of state’s certification of its electoral votes.”
For those of us who are less than satisfied with the performance of the democratic party in general and Joe Biden in particular, please let me add another simplistic perspective of why they aren’t meeting our expectations and why we have a backsliding democracy. (Because I’m too slothful to cite the actual content, assume that I learned this from Thom who learned it from someone else.) First, we have two generations of citizens who were much more likely to get a bad education from America’s public education system because it has been tenaciously defunded for two generations. The result is we have millions of citizens that are much more likely to make bad decisions, thus making them great targets for the grifting elite, for who we defunded our public education to begin with. Second, the morbidly rich that flimflam and manipulate our poorly educated have acquired the powers of corporate citizenship so not only can they control enough voters’ choices, they can also bribe our elected and appointed public sector decision-makers to serve their needs. Thus they have closed the loop on their corrupt processes and there isn’t anything Biden or anyone else can do right now (at least nothing that will reverse our backsliding ways). Third, with the world’s best propagandists and 21st-century knowledge, the oligarchs will continue to run things by pulling the strings of all three branches. Unfortunately, that will persist until we can get enough of our citizens to choose to turn the tables and use the same technology and knowledge that the propagandists use to make our elected officials serve their Constitutional purpose and not the interests of the oligarchs.